#so i had no choice but to include bee movie
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black-and-yellow-bracket · 2 years ago
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Here's the bracket!
Sorry for the delay, everyone! I've been getting all the assets for the tournament ready as fast as I can!
Here's a peek at the bracket for round 1!
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as you can see, we have quite the scathing matchups! i mean...Leorio and Kurapika vs Sasuke and Naruto? i'm gonna lose my mind.
Polls will go live tomorrow, March 10th, at noon EST! i hope to see you there!
i'll also put it in text below the cut because unfortunately, the bracket maker i was using cut off the longer names.
ALSO TO WHOEVER SEEMINGLY MADE UP NEW GONCHAROV LORE JUST FOR THIS I LOVE YOU SO MUCH I AM HONORED. so naturally i had to include it
Kazuki Kurusu + Rei Suwa (Buddy Daddies) VS Bumblebee (Transformers)
Janus (Sanders Sides) VS Nico di Angelo + Will Solace (Percy Jackson)
Tails + Shadow (Sonic) VS Ampharos (pokemon)
Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls) VS Eraserhead + Present Mic (BNHA)
Yellow in the Night (Goncharov) VS The Signal (DC)
Kurapika + Leorio (HxH) VS Naruto + Sasuke
Sunny + Basil (OMORI) VS Blake + Yang (RWBY)
Zagreus + Melinoe (Hades) VS Misa Amane (Death Note)
Antauri + Nova (Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go) VS Cole + Vania (Ninjago)
Mami Tomoe + Homura Akemi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) VS Scorpion (Mortal Kombat)
Sollux Captor (homestuck) VS Cloud Strife + Zack Fair (Final Fantasy)
Yor + Loid Forger (Spy x Family) VS Terry Hintz (LISA)
Gene Khan / Mandarin (Iron Man Armored Adventures) VS Pikachu (pokemon)
Roxas + Xion (Kingdom Hearts) VS Celty (Durarara!!)
Gundham Tanaka + Kazuichi Soda (Danganronpa 2) VS Barry B Benson (Bee Movie)
Goro Majima (Yakuza) VS Roxie Road (Mysims)
Can you believe these matchups?
Also, i tried to do just one entry from each fandom,,,but pokemon made its way onto here twice. this is my bias. <3
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scourgeofmyownbrain · 3 months ago
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My siblings in Primus, holy fucking shit. I made an Optimus Height Chart. This took me.. SO LONG TO DO. Were y'all aware of how many Optimus designs there are?? Because I don't have all of them on this chart, and I still have TWENTY NINE (29, a 2 and a 9) out of the THIRTY SIX (36, a 3 and a 6) that exist. I didn't include the SEVEN (7) because either they were just a temporary upgraded form, or I already had multiple designs from that universe that were the same height and having all of them is redundant and repetitive.
40 fucking years and nearly as many distinct designs, I deserve a medal, honestly. Optimus has been in every single piece of media the Transformers franchise has ever made. Working on this in tandem with the Megatron one was a wild choice of mine, but I did it.
I included Optimus Primal on this chart. Both are named Optimus, I should not have to explain myself. Big Monkey and Big Truck are the same. No, your honour, I do not plead insanity; why do you ask?
Quick Disclaimer, if any of the images look weird, it's because I had to stitch a few separate images together to create a full body shot of the character.
Links to my Bumblebee Chart and my Megatron Chart. !!NEW!! -> Shockwave, Soundwave, Ratchet, and Ironhide. For future reference, all these charts will be filed under my "Transformers Height Charts" tag and my "aka the adventures of a..." tag. Hopefully, my bumblebee post is acting up and idk if the same issue will happen here.
Master Post
Explanations below the cut because I have fucking WORDS to say. This is gonna be a long one... 29 separate designs...
G1 Beast Wars V1 - ~9 Feet (Primal. Straight from TFWiki, converted to feet and rounded, the tiniest baby man gorilla)
G1 Beast Machines - ~8 Feet (Primal. The wiki failed me, but I found a old forum discussion where they made a chart comparing all the BW/M characters. Glorious stuff, I commend their effort.)
G1 Beast Wars V2 - ~10 Feet (Primal. TFWiki with the clutch, I will not always be this lucky.)
Earth Spark - ~15 Feet (Prime. No official numbers have been given, but I have already figured out how tall Bee is, and I was able to compare the two and get a good estimate. This is the shortest non-animal universe to date holy shit. Look at this, I'm showing my work
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I am having a conniption they are so short)
RID 2001 - ~16 Feet (Prime. TFWiki once more, we love one source for everything)
Unicron Trilogy V2&3/ENG&CYB - ~16 Feet (Prime. For the uneducated, the Unicron Trilogy has given each of its 3 seasons separate names and 3 separate art styles. These are the designs used in Energon (S2) and Cybertron (S3). The Wiki had Cybertron's numbers but not Energon's, so for my own sanity, I decided the two were the same height. I could have done something in between Cybertron's and Armada's (S1) numbers, but there was a lot of float between the two)
G1 Beast Wars V3 - ~16 Feet (Primal/Optimal Optimus, this is the result of a fusion between Primal and Prime. The TFWiki says this design is like 40 feet tall, but if that is true, Rattrap, a character stated to be 1.8m or ~6f tall across several sources across several different languages, is actually not that tall. So I call bullshit, this guy is 2.6 Rattraps tall, making him around 16f or 4.9m tall. Checkmate, I win)
Prime Wars V1 - ~17 Feet (Primal. Slight spoilers for further into this chart but I decided that the Prime Wars Trilogy and the Netflix Cybertron Trilogy Optimuses were the same height as the Gen 1 design, because they're nearly identical. So comparing Primal to Prime, Primal comes up to about Prime's tits, bada bing bada boom)
Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~17 Feet (Primal. Identical explanation to above, don't want to repeat myself)
One V1 - ~17 Feet 10 inches (Prime. Okay, the Wiki says 32.534 feet, and I call Bullshit. A: These numbers are sourced from the Walmart Promotional AR Experience that came out before the movie. B: There are three decimal points, and that number does not convert into a whole number in meters (which is originally what I thought was weird about it). C: The director has said that this movie is both canon to the LA movies and its own separate canon. I already stated all of this in my Bumblebee chart post, and I will be dying on this hill. This is as short as we see OP in the movie, him at his tallest should match his KCV height, he's never taller than Megsy, so knock a couple feet off the biggest number and voila, my brain hurts)
One V2 - ~18 Feet 10 Inches (Prime. Same explanation as above, but taller than he was without his cog, because he got bigger)
Gen 1 - ~19 Feet (Prime. TFWiki has saved me the effort of figuring it out myself)
Prime Wars - ~19 Feet (Prime. As I said before, since this design is identical to Gen 1, it is the same height)
Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~19 Feet (Prime. I've said it twice now, identical, therefore same height)
Knight/Capel-Verse - ~19 Feet 4 inches (Primal. No Robot height given, I have his monkey form height from TFWiki, but comparing him to Optimus he's only a few inches shorter)
Prime Wars V2 - ~ 20 Feet (Primal. Compared to Prime, Prime comes up to about Primal's nose area, and we all know how tall I think this Prime is)
Animated - 20 Feet 6 Inches (Prime. This number actually comes from @phoenix-inanis and the glorious calculations they have done on the TFA Characters. Go check it out, because animated has literally no actual numbers -> https://phoenix-inanis.notion.site/TFA-Height-Chart-f6ad2960ca8c4c5b859ee4958723aaa4?pvs=4)
Knight/Capel-Verse - 20 feet 10 Inches (Prime. TFWiki has graced me with a number)
One V3 - ~20 Feet 10 Inches (Prime. If it's canon to KCV, then it's canon here. I've already told you my reasons)
Cyberverse - 21 Feet (Prime. Oh, shitty screenshot from a random Russian YouTube video; you treat me so well. I would adore a better scan of this if anyone has one)
Unicron Trilogy V1/ARM - 22 Feet 11 Inches (Prime. Technically, this number is for the Armada video game, which isn't exactly canon to the show. But I don't have any other numbers and my brain is tired, so CANON IT IS)
Aligned Cont. RID15 V1 - 25 Feet (Prime. I'm really proud of this one: I can already hear some of your questions. "But I thought his second form was as tall as his TFP V2 form, and this one was as tall as TFP V1," "but his V1 forms and V2 forms look like each other," You thought Wrong!! And I can Prove it!! Let's refresh ourselves on the height difference between TFP V1 Prime and Bee.
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As we can see, Bee comes up to the top of Optimus's hips. Lovely. Now, let's look at RID15's height difference when Optimus first returns. Keep in mind that RID15 Bee and TFP Bee are the same height.
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Look, Bee comes up to Optimus's chest in this form, not his hips. He comes up to a similar point on Bulkhead in the previous picture. Let's look at Prime's second form.
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This is from the intro; yes, Bee is crouched, but look, if he stood straight he only comes up to about Prime's hips, JUST LIKE IN TFP!!! With this evidence, we can conclude that Prime's first RID15 form is similar in height to Bulkhead! I was so fucking excited to show y'all this, I was so proud of myself, I still am)
Bayverse V1 - 28 Feet (Prime. From the first 4 movies. Straight from TFWiki, because Mr. Michael Bay loves me)
Bayverse V2 - 29 Feet (Prime. Only in The Last Knight. Mr. Bay has lovingly kissed my forehead because he always gives me numbers for his movies)
Aligned Cont. WF/FOC/TFP V1/RID15 V2 - 30 Feet (Prime. TFWiki/Fandom/Me respectively. I love you, Video Game Info Screens. I am still pretty syced about figuring RID15 out, oh I feel so good. Almost makes me forget about how FREAKISHLY HUGE this universe is. And how the games concretely prove this fact)
Aligned Cont. TFP V2 - 35 Feet (Prime. Yes this number comes from Fandom, but this entire universe is monstrously huge for no reason, I believe it. Go look at my Bee chart for more in-depth and insane rant about how huge this universe is compared to other universes, it's at the end of the post)
Not Pictured: Aligned Cont. Rescue Bots and Rescue Bots Academy Optimus Prime - 30 Feet. (Yes, Optimus in the Aligned Continuity has 7 distinct designs across the whole thing. I am in physical pain. SEVEN?? ONE GUY?? SEVEN??), Bayverse Optimus Prime Power Up - 40 Feet. (It's an upgrade form that does not stick around, why should I include it), RID 2001 Super Mode - ~21 feet (Optimus can turn it on and off at will, it's just an upgrade mode), Unicron Trilogy Energon & Cybertron Optimus Prime Super Mode - ~20 Feet (Once more, upgrade mode, it's like stilts, you don't count something you don't always have on.)
29 pngs, holy shit I've done it. This took so long. If anyone has any suggestions for which transformer I should aggressively analyze next please tell me I don't know which ones to do next.
Here are the different layers separated, just so you can see all the many Optimuses (Optimusi?) clearly. I know my og chart is crowded, there's 29 pngs on there you don't think I noticed?
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tea-mew96 · 2 years ago
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I really need to discuss ROTB Optimus Prime cuz I think he's become one of my favorite versions of the character. Spoilers and analysis below cut
I'm aware that there's many who aren't happy about the way ROTB Optimus was characterized, but I'm not one of them. On the contrary, I think ROTB Optimus is brilliant. I sincerely believe that this movie improved on something that I feel the Bay films missed out and failed on: it blatantly showed this is an Optimus who hurts and does the things he says or does because he's hurting and doesn't want himself or anyone else to needlessly suffer.
There are many, myself included, who view Bayverse Optimus as a guy who has been so drained by being a war leader, who is so tired of being backstabbed, that he is no longer willing to give second chances to the Decepticons, who have made it clear time and time again that they're not going to surrender and won't stop their destructive ways. Because of that, it leaves Bayverse Optimus no choice but to fight back just as dirty as the Cons do.
The problem is that while this is a perspective that can be concluded to, it's not one that the Bay films capitalized on. They had the chance to see between the lines of their own storytelling and emphasis Bayverse Optimus' mental state, but rarely did. You get slivers of it in AOE and TLK, but it gets overshadowed by the all the problems those two movies are riddled with. I believe this issue is primarily due to Bay's often limited line of thinking as a director, but it could be caused by other factors.
ROTB emphsizes Optimus Prime's state of mind frequently throughout its runtime. You see it when Mirage talks to Noah about how Optimus seems to be blaming being stuck on Earth on himself, you see it in Elena's conversation with Noah by the campfire, and you see it when Optimus Primal and Airazor discuss how on-edge Optimus Prime appears to be. But I'd say it's the most obvious after Scourge stabs Bumblebee and Optimus states later that "It should've been me." Holy shit, if that line doesn't raise a thousand red flags I don't know what will.
ROTB Optimus is very much putting all the burden on himself to the detriment on his own mental health. This "put all the burden on me" attitude is not uncommon for an Optimus-you can see this trait in almost every version of the character-but it does paint a worrying picture.
Also like many iterations of Optimi, ROTB Optimus understands when an opponent can be reasoned with and when they need to have their ass kicked. He recognizes, after being mocked by Scourge and getting his ass handed to him at the museum fight, that Scourge, Battletrap, and Nightbird are not interested in peace. The only options they give you are surrender, join them (either willingly or forcibly), or die. They're also not just your average Decepticon: they are powerful minions of Unicron, and Airazor describes Scourge as being all but invincible.
ROTB Optimus rightfully concludes that Unicron must be stopped and that the first step of doing so is to kill off the Terrorcons. While I'm sure some people probably didn't like it, Optimus' blatant declarations on killing Scourge didn't bother me. I did notice how many of his death threats were after Bee was out for the count and most are a banter response to the ones Scourge gives out first. It's also important to note that the only way Optimus Prime was able to get a final blow on Scourge was with the assistance of Noah and Primal.
TL;DR ROTB Optimus is what Bayverse Optimus should've been and still maintains the traits of an Optimus.
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maniculum · 10 months ago
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Bestiaryposting Results: Tatchgob
This is a weird one, I think, because there are a couple aspects of this entry that fully make sense in the context of what this animal actually is, and others that just make you think, "wait, the medievals thought what about [redacted]?" Not a lot else to add here, and I'm already running unusually late with this tonight, so here's the entry in question:
And below the cut is the art people have produced, in rough chronological order:
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@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has decided this is an insect, for entirely sensible reasons. The entry says that it flies, but not that it's a bird. It also says that the female reproduces without copulation with the male, and Silverhart helpfully observes that parthenogenesis is a much more common phenomenon in insects than in birds. Specifically, it's a bee, because the Tatchgob is said to be large and slow-flying, and as we all know, a bee's wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground.* This one is specifically inspired by vulture bees -- bees that do in fact eat carrion as the Tatchgob is implied to do (the entry doesn't actually say it eats the corpses, only that perceives them).** Silverhart further notes that they ended up spending a few hours going down a rabbit hole about vulture bees, a warning from which I failed to learn, as I spent the last half-hour reading arguments about whether "meat honey" is a real thing. Anyway, enough commentary from me, look at the very good drawing of a bee and then read what Silverhart says about it in the linked post.
*Bee Movie reference mine; please don't blame Silverhart for my internet-poisoned sense of humor.
** The Aberdeen Bestiary does actually specify this, but it was buried in the long religious-allegory section after the main description so I missed it when setting this up and didn't include it in the post. Now I wish I had, because it hilariously notes that the [Tatchgob] "is often overtaken by death when it descends to the dead animal from a great height." The drawings we could have had of animals crashing full-force into the ground... actually I'm torn on whether that would be a plus or a minus.
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@strangelyflesh (link to post here) has made the reasonable call that a large flying animal may as well be a dragon-thing, so here's a bird-like dragon for you. Delightful facial expression on this one. Honestly everything about that head is very charming, actually. The linked post mentions that they "reproduce like those fucked up little geckos" and I am struggling against the temptation to fall down another rabbit hole, so I'm just going to move on.
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@cheapsweets (link to post here) drew a bird, but decided to focus in on the fact that it's too large to fly quickly. It's broadly based on a bustard, which is apparently the world's heaviest flying bird (learn something new every day) but is shaped and posed specifically to evoke the silhouette of an aircraft, specifically the infamous Spruce Goose. (Cover the head with your hand, you'll see it.) Extremely clever, in my opinion. For more details on the design decisions, see the linked post. One more thing before we move on, though... check out that thing on the far right of the image, down in the sea. I think that's one of these critters:
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Okay, now we're moving to the next one.
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@coolest-capybara (link to post here) continues to outdo herself with the stylized medieval drawings. This one is definitely a creative choice -- Capybara notes that they would have been inclined to draw a dragon for this one, except we already had the dragon entry a while back. So she decided this was a komodo dragon that can glide on skin flaps like a flying squirrel. Excellent, love it, very interesting coloration also.
Capybara also raises the interesting question of whether the bestiary writer ever considered what male Tatchgobs might be for, if they aren't involved in the reproductive process. I suppose evolution is a fickle mistress, especially when the person describing your animals doesn't know what evolution even is. They don't seem to have an allegorical purpose either (there's like half a page railing against hypothetical people who fully accept that a [Tatchgob] can give virgin birth but deny that Mary could, which I guess is the point of that detail, but the male Tatchgob goes unmentioned). Anyway, the monk would probably just say they exist because God wanted them to or something... actually I'm not sure how aware they were of the possibility of species that didn't come in two sexes. Anyway, moving on.
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@pomrania (link to post here) also thought large flying thing -> dragon, but decided to make theirs more fishlike. See, fish engage in external fertilization, and what are the odds of a pre-modern observer just missing the fact that the male is involved? Assuming they're not on board the "spontaneous generation" wagon. I really like this design, also; gliding on these fin-like structures is especially cool. And yes, according to the linked post, the fact that it shares a color palette with the ace flag is fully intentional. Ace icon Tatchgob.
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@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn a good bird -- serrated beak a solid choice -- but as with many of their posts, the real gold is in the text. See, Strixcattus gave us another carrion-eating bird some months ago, and they've decided this one is a related species. That's right, meet Wutugald tatchgob, the Brown or Lesser Wutugald. Which also explains why this one has that yellow thing above its beak there. Love the connection being drawn to previous entries. (Strixcattus's original Wutugald post can be found here.) As usual, you are strongly, strongly encouraged to go read the descriptions Strixcattus includes with their animals. You should then go check their brief follow-up to the Tatchgob here.
Now, to the Aberdeen Bestiary.
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That's right, it's the eagle again! I wasn't expecting a repeat, but you have to admit it's clearly the same bird. The illustration for "eagle", in case you don't remember, looks like this:
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Virtually identical except for the coloration of the wing feathers.
Okay, yeah, there are no duplicate entries, I just had to point out the fact that they look exactly the same. This one is the vulture, which apparently also doesn't reach far enough north for our illustrator to be familiar with it.
(A quick check through Wikipedia indicates to me that the various vulture species whose ranges include Europe tend to stick to the southern parts. None of them seem to reach the British Isles, which is where this manuscript originates.)
Anyway, something I find interesting about this is that vultures are another animal that modern people often think of as sinister, creepy, or just gross, but the bestiary is actually really positive about them. There's even one part where they get to be a Christ symbol, which honestly I have to share. It starts with that "dying by descending from a great height" bit I quoted earlier:
The fact is, if a vulture, in flight, sees a corpse, it sets itself down to feed on it, and is often overtaken by death when it descends to the dead animal from a great height. It is right, therefore, that Christ, who was God's mediator and our redeemer, should be signified by the name 'vulture'. While remaining in the heights of his divinity, like the vulture flying on high, he saw the corpse of our mortality below and descended from heaven to the earth beneath; he deigned, indeed, to become man for our sake; and when he sought man, the living thing that had no life, he who in himself had eternal life, met his death at our hands.
That's right, the whole Jesus thing was the allegorical equivalent of diving towards a corpse and accidentally smashing into the ground. Really puts the New Testament in a different light.
There's also a part where vultures foretell death. But not foretell for our benefit, mind: the example given is that vultures have learned to recognize what an army is and follow it because they know there will be food. So they're foretelling for their own purposes, and if we happen to notice and draw any conclusions, that's just a side effect.
One more quote from the Aberdeen Bestiary, and then we're done.
For who looks at the eyes of the vulture, that is, at what lies behind men's thoughts?
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... that's a reference people get, right? anyway, it's late, good night.
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miniherodesktales · 1 day ago
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Advent 20: Peace
'Good morning, sirs, break -'
'Shhh,' said Lister, not from his bunk, but from the sofa. 'Don't wake him.'
Kryten left the breakfast by the bunks and shuffled over to the sofa. Rimmer was fast out and bundled up under a heavy woollen blanket. He lay on cushion, which was resting on Lister's lap.
'Oh,' said Kryten, leaning in for a closer look.
There were visible grey rings under Rimmer's eyes and his hair was sticking up at odd angles. Every few seconds a purple warning light would flash through his closed eyelids.
'Have you been there all night, sir?' Kryten whispered.
Lister winced in discomfort as he adjusted his position. The TV was on but with the sound turned down low. It's A Wonderful Life was playing and had been all night on a loop - Rimmer's comfort choice. He still didn't know if he liked the film or not but it was familiar.
'It's fine, Kryts,' Lister rasped. 'He passed out about 3 AM. I got some sleep myself...I think.'
'Don't you want to get up?'
'Do I want to risk waking him up? There's an ion storm happening, isn't there?'
'Yes, sir, readings indicate it's only going to get stronger.'
Lister nodded. 'OK, that's not going to help his mood. Help me out, Kryten. My leg's gone to sleep and I've been desperate for a pee since five am.'
Kryten awkwardly slid an arm under Rimmer's back and head, holding him up as Lister clumsily got to his feet. It worried Kryten that Rimmer didn't even stir.
'His eyes indicate he's suffering from a glitch, sir. We should run a diagnostic on his Light Bee.'
***
Outside the bunk room, Kryten opened up the Light Bee programme on the Psy-Scanner. Lister accessed Rimmer's file using his password.
Lister shrugged. 'I can't read this. It's all numbers.'
Kryten peered at the screen and whistled.
'Not good?'
'Well, these readings here indicate how much capacity Mr Rimmer has left for Yuletide activities, decorating the tree and watching Christmas movies, that kind of thing. It's measured in a unit called Ho Ho Hos. But as you can see here, he's almost in single digits, down to his last Ho Ho Hos.
'And look here! Here's his SparkleSpoon rating - that's how we measure one's capacity for socialising over the festive period. Inevitably introverts have a lower baseline rating - we can take that into account - but it includes the instinct to wear stupid jumpers, overdosing on hot chocolate, making light chit chat about never having enough time to wrap presents, and sighing whimsically in front of an open log fire with old friends - essentially behaving like the romantic lead in a Hallmark movie and - Good grief! Minus 50 sparklespoons?! He's completed sparklespoonless, sir! What in Scrooge's name are we going to do?'
'Because we want Rimmer - our Rimmer - to behave like the romantic lead in a Hallmark movie?'
'No, of course not, sir. But we also don't want him to make himself ill by pushing himself so hard to meet societal expectations. These negative numbers show that he's heading for burnout. And as we know Mr Rimmer has a long history of pushing himself too hard to do things he doesn't really want to do in order to meet father's approval - joining the Space Corp, studying astro-navigation, learning to how word a formal letter of complaint about the Ioian public transport system aged two - the list goes on!'
'OK, but what do we do?'
'We can try to encourage him to put time aside each day to spend on his own interests. Prioritise getting enough sleep and having more down time. Muting his senses if he needs to. And not studying over the festive season.'
Lister nodded. 'I think I can help with that. We'll soon get his Smarkle...get his Sprinkle.....OK, that was a stupid word to make up when you're dyslexic. Whatever. Anyway, l have a plan.'
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primal-con · 2 years ago
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Mkay my brain is working a bit better today so thoughts on Mirage! Namely his inclusion in the movie instead of Jazz and his change in personality
Rise of the Beasts spoilers below the cut✌️
Now like a lot of folks, when I first saw the trailer I was insanely pumped because I thought Mirage was Jazz. I think we all kinda saw the silver Porsche and lost our minds, and of course, I'm still bummed that we didn't get Jazz because I love him dearly and miss him more than words can express. But! Having seen the movie and had time to chew it over, here're my thoughts on Mirage's character in RotB.
So a lot of initial thoughts regarding the choice to include Mirage, and a very different Mirage at that, rather than Jazz, were of course very valid. But I think ultimately while I would've loved for Jazz to have been there, I understand why they didn't go with him. Cause tbh if everything about the movie had been the same except they called Mirage Jazz, I wouldn't have been happy.
While yes, on the surface RotB Mirage seems really similar to G1 Jazz, they're actually really different in the ways that count. Jazz is bright, sociable, charismatic, and more in tune with Earth culture than most bots. RotB Mirage is also a lot of those things! But the key difference is that for Jazz, that personality is a facade. He's an incredibly grim, ruthless person who's seen a lot and is capable of a lot of terrible things, and he uses that trustworthy persona to mask that and make people more comfortable around him.
Mirage comes off as much more genuine in his naivete. He seems legitimately young, impulsive, and vying for adventure. He does things cause they sound fun, not because he thinks it's a smart idea in the long run. The sad things hiding underneath his bright personality don't come from brutal experience and calculated manipulation, they come from a genuine loneliness and desire to explore the world around him. In a lot of ways he plays a similar role to Bumblebee in most other TF media, the naive young optimist who wants to see the best in people and be a hero. Which narratively makes sense considering Bee was out of commission for most of the movie. He's not necessarily stupid, he's just not wise, and that comes from a lack of experience compared to his so-called "hardass" peers. He sees the other bots as boring and overly serious which contributes to his desire to keep Noah on the team. He wants Someone who he can relate to, someone who's a little closer to him personality-wise, and he doesn't feel like his older and more grim teammates can fill that role.
Which I think also contributes to his likability! Because like I said, Mirage is so genuine. He doesn't usually think things through so everything he says is so honest and unfiltered. I love Jazz because of his complexity and how compelling that facade is to his character, but I ended up loving Mirage because he doesn't feel the need for a mask at all.
I think generally the choice to change Mirage's personality from his G1 characterization was because the writers didn't want too many serious characters? At least that's how it felt watching the movie. I mean even Bumblebee comes off as older and more mature than Mirage. And Transformers is very fond of its goofy, unserious kid-appeal characters who are closest to the token humans. I'm cool with it mainly because big changes between generations are pretty common and this wouldn't be the first or even the wildest change of pace from one appearance to the next. As for why Mirage and not another character, who really knows. Probably the fact that he hasn't had much of an established personality in any of his rare TV appearances. And using a known name is usually easier than making a whole new character, just fan-attachment-wise.
Anyways, sum total thoughts: I liked him! And the movie's enjoyable if you don't go taking it too seriously, though that could be said about most things. It's also better with a friend! It's no ground-breaking cinema, it's an action franchise movie and exactly what you'd expect from one. But the characters have chemistry and personality and that's usually what matters to me. So yeah, all nitpicks aside it's a net positive from me!
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fanfic-inator795 · 11 months ago
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Ranking my favorite animated dad characters because I can’t sleep
I realized that a lot of my favorite animated characters are dads, so fuck it. Let’s rank them both on their dad-ness and on their character overall.
7. Ansel Beauregard (Arlo the Alligator Boy/I heart Arlo): okay so, as much as I’m kinda hyperfocusing on this guy rn, he kinda HAS to get the lowest rank ‘cause like… he literally abandoned his gator baby in the sewer. Honestly the fact that he’s able to be likable at all is a damn miracle, but the movie and show pull it off surprisingly well.
Basically from the moment he finally accepts Arlo into his life, he’s trying his best to make amends - though admittedly he still doesn’t always go about it the best way, lol. Growing up bullied then isolated and then becoming crazy rich at a young age has definitely made him more than a little oblivious, out of touch and self-centered (though these parts of his personality are still funny/endearing instead of being annoying imo) but he still genuinely cares (even when he was unwilling to face his truth, he still gave Arlo advice that he at least thought was in Arlo’s best interest based on what worked for him) and I really do love the interactions he has with Arlo. I also love the whole bird-man aspect of him both as a character design and fun quirk, and his VA work and singing is also phenomenal. (Seriously, I’ve been listening to “Better Life” multiple times per day, someone pls I need help asdfghjkl)
6. Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz (Phineas & Ferb): So, back when I was a kid, Doof was definitely my favorite character, and while I’ve kiiiiiinda grown out of him in some aspects (his over-exposure in things like MML didn’t exactly help), I can still enjoy him for being a really funny and really enjoyable character.
Can he sometimes be annoying, slightly obnoxious and take up too much screentime in the latter seasons? Sure, totally. But like- I’m never gonna NOT love the ‘evil villain who has a huge soft spot for their child’ trope, it’s a classic for a reason. Doof is a dork and can be overbearing, but he’s also really sweet and will do anything for his daughter, including get himself stung by dozens of bees. It also can’t be denied just how many of his lines and moments can still get laughs out of me even after all these years. We Stan a petty ADHD-king and (not-so-)evil scientist dad.
5. Hamato Yoshi/Lou Jitsu/Splinter (ROTTMNT): oh hey, another dad with trauma - only instead of being bullied and forced to hide himself or having a nonsensical tragic backstory, he had to deal with generational trauma, being forced into fighting/killing for sport, and finally getting mutated which led to years of on/off depression. …yeahhhhh.
This is another character I really admire for just how well they’re written, even if he wasn’t always the best dad (though for the record, he wasn’t nearly as neglectful as some fans want to claim…) I think most Rise fans would agree that Splinter absolutely has the best arc in the series, going from a strictly comedy relief couch potato to a loving father/tragic figure who manages to rise above everything for the sake of his kids. He’s willing to let the world burn for the sake of his sons and I respect the hell out of him for it regardless of whether or not it’s the ‘moral’ choice. But he’s also still really funny and really cool when he wants to be, and for as much as I’ve drifted away from Rise, Splinter and his story is still one of the few aspects I adore and appreciate about this show.
4. Pete McGee (The Ghost and Molly McGee): Pete is just a super endearing character to me even if he arguably has the least going on of all the TGAMM characters. He’s a very typical goofy sitcom dad both in terms of design (which, ngl… Pete is kinda really cute? Am I the only one who sees it?) and attitude, usually only being used for comedy while Sharon is the one who gets to be the slightly more serious one and have the heart-to-hearts with/give advice to Molly.
But that’s fine because even if he’s not the deepest dad on this list, he’s still incredibly endearing imo. He’s a 100% Wife Guy, he struggles to stand up for himself but still always tries to stand up for his family, he inspired Molly to be heavily interested in community service, and he’s a dancer! Which is just a really fun quirk, hence why I really love both the Ice Princess episode and the Dance Dad episode (asdfghjkl I remember when Tess and I were watching the latter, she was cringing at all the TikTok dances while I was sitting next to her enjoying the song and just being like yeahhhhh get it Pete! Lol). While I do wish we could have gotten a bit of deeper character stuff with Pete, he’s still pretty solid and very enjoyable to watch.
3. Bob Belcher (Bob’s Burgers): we love our autistic Burger King babeyyyyy! Seriously though, while I’ve grown to love all the Belchers, there’s definitely a reason why I gravitated towards Bob first. He’s a mess of a guy who’s just trying his best to deal with all the chaos that life and his family throw at him, and we love him for it.
I love that even while being the most grounded character in the show, he’s not afraid of being a little unhinged and just fucking going off on someone or something. He’s also often the one who’s always trying to help others, even when it’s usually by accident given how much of an introvert he is. He loves his wife, his kids and his burgers with all his heart, and even when he’s at his worst (which is a rarity), you still are rooting for the best for him and want everything to work out. His heart-to-hearts with his kids (and with other characters) really are some of my favorite moments from the show. Furthermore, much like literally all the other characters on this list, his VA’s delivery just adds SO much to his character as well. I really do just love H. Jon Benjamin, he’s so hilarious and needs to voice more characters.
2. Rodolfo Rivera/White Pantera (El Tigre): Ah yes, my first favorite animated dad character, even before Doof. As such, I’m always gonna have a soft spot for this guy. Like I’ve said before, I love how he’s able to be both a goofy and super soft-hearted character but can also be a total badass at times, sometimes without even trying.
He just wants to protect his city and help his son grow up right, and I love him for it! He’s easily one of the funniest characters in the show, but I appreciate that he’s allowed to still be cool and still have a win occasionally. He also manages to be stern without ever becoming unlikable or unreasonable, given that he’ll still always be there for his son and father even when they’re doing things he doesn’t approve of, and I think it’s that overall balance that really endeared me to him, plus his great design+voice (if I had a nickel for every time I gravitated to an Eric Bauza-voiced dad, I’d have two-). His little catchphrase quirks like “okay be good!” and saying Manny’s full name live in my head rent-free, ngl.
1. Bill Green (Big City Greens) let me make this clear… I! LOVE! BILL! GREEN! He’s just… SO great. He’s wholesome, he’s funny and goofy, he’s sweet, he’s a loving father, he’s stern but still reasonable, he’s a hard worker, he’s super relatable, he’s a secret badass, he’s a huge dork, he sings about his truck and is super attached to his wood carvings - he really is just everything and I mean that in the best possible way.
While Cricket and Tilly are obviously the stars of the show, I really do love how much energy the show puts into making Bill this incredibly well-rounded and likable character who you just can’t help but sympathize with and root for when it comes to his farm stuff. I can’t say that he’s perfect, he’s definitely made a couple pretty poor decisions here and there, but overall I think he’s everything I want out of a great animated dad character (probably because he honestly reminds me a lot of my own dad - or at least, the positive parts of my dad). He’s not the only thing I love about BCG, far from it, but he’s definitely one of my biggest favorite things about it.
BONUS HONORABLE MENTION DADS:
- Vasquez (BCG): bodyguards/surrogate dads absolutely count. So happy that Vasquez has become much more prominent and fleshed-out as the show’s gone on, he’s just so great. Thank you Danny Trejo for voicing him, can’t wait for that s4 ep where Vasquez apparently goes to therapy
- Lego Batman (Lego Batman Movie): ah yes, the kick-starter to the Batman/Bat-fam phase I had in college. Fits right alongside characters like Ansel and Splinter for being obviously flawed dads (bro literally called his new son ‘expendable’ wtf Bruce) who still care a lot/grow to become better people over time through the influence of their kid. Will Arnett is still absolutely hilarious as this character, I love how he immediately goes into dad-mode when Robin gets slammed into the windshield, and that bit at the end where he finally tells Robin the truth about his ‘dads’ still gets me a bit teary-eyed
- Wild Knuckles (The Rise of Gru): technically a grand-dad but whatever. Like I said, I love my villains with a soft-side for their kid, and it makes me sad that the Rise of Gru fandom essentially ignored this guy in favor of hot young Dr. Nefario. Like- I don’t care if the arc between him and baby Gru was somewhat rushed, dude literally got himself burned alive by a huge dragon for his surrogate grandkid, he deserves better
If you’ve made it this far, let me know if you like any of these dad characters + what your favorites are ^v^
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caswellseyes · 2 years ago
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AU headcanons: I ordered a fancy custom cake with something really weird on it and you're the baker AU for the rarepair of your choice?
woke up this morning to this little headcanon list in the notes app on my phone and i only vaguely remember writing it lmao. i took out the typos but other than that, here's 1am-me's thoughts on this au:
alex and willie run a bakery together and they do a ton of custom cake designs. reggie is their taste tester and he also designed a handy little form for on their website that customers can fill out with custom cake info
bobby lives relatively nearby with luke, his infuriating best friend who is obsessed with alex and willie’s cakes. whenever bobby has a message he really wants to get across, he’ll have them put it on a cake. also, he likes the cakes too
sometimes the messages are serious (if you don't stop leaving dirty socks on the floor i'm kicking you out) and sometimes they're just as much of the bee movie script as can fit in the box on the form
alex and willie haven’t met bobby beyond when he’s picking up the cakes and because it’s usually so crowded in the bakery, they haven’t had the opportunity to ask about any of them. they’re both fascinated by bobby’s random messages, a little scared of the aggressiveness in some, and also find the whole cake messages as a way of communication to be kind of very adorable
they also just find bobby cute
they put notes on the cake box to thank bobby for his orders and stuff. bobby replies to them in his reviews of their bakery. there's an entire thread of theories about the good place scattered between cakes, cake boxes, and the reviews
one day, bobby orders a cake that requests them to put the lyrics to rick astley’s never gonna give you up on it. it’ll be a cake-shaped rickroll
but he forgot to fill in what flavour the cake should be, which gives willie and alex the opportunity to call him (the phone number is included on the form but they’ve never had a proper reason to call and they’re Professionals who wouldn’t abuse such knowledge), and of course, before they say anything, willie plays the song over speaker to rickroll bobby
the cake will be chocolate chip. alex and willie will deliver it right before they pick up bobby for their first date
send me an au and i’ll give you 5+ headcanons about it!
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niccymo · 4 years ago
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The ‘Spice of Life’✨ Legacy Challenge
Sometimes playing the sims can get a little stale, and somewhat repetitive, especially The Sims 4. I know I can get stuck playing the same stories over and over again, so I decided to create this challenge to add a little excitement and variety to my, and hopefully your, game-play!
After all, variety is the spice of life!
Gen 1: The Wild Child
You’re a sim who loves to get down, go on adventures and spend time with other sims! You can be a bit of a handful for some sims, but that’s okay! You’ve been wild since the day you were born and you wouldn’t want to be any other way. You have about a million things you want to do in your life time and you’re gonna do them all!
Aspiration: Friend of the Animals
Traits: Dance Machine, Adventurous, Outgoing
Generation rules / goals:
Join the secret agent career and get to the top of it before your sim becomes an elder
Once your sim is an elder have them start a new job, keep them on their toes!
Complete the Friend of the Animals aspiration
Master the Dance & Pet training skills throughout your sims lifetime
Have five animals in your sims house-hold at one time (these should be cats, dogs, raccoon, foxes, etc.) - you don’t always have to have five but you should at some point
Have you sim have at least 10 friends and having a falling out with one of them and become enemies
Have a best-friend that is NOT your partner / spouse
Have your sim go out at least once every weekend to either the club, the bar or somewhere else they can dance! They’re a dance machine remember!
Your sim can have as many children as you like, but keep in mind that they have a lot of animals in the house
You must have at least one child in order for them to become heir, they can be adopted or biological, it doesn’t matter!
Go on at least two family vacations, one of these must be to Mt. Komorebi
Have your sim be a very relaxed parent, no rules, no pressure to get good grades, etc. (Parenthood is needed for this but if you don’t have it that’s okay just do your best without it!) 
Gen 2: The Money Maker
Your parent was the coolest! but you always wished there was more structure in your life. You’re a perfectionist, and truth be told a little materialistic, but that doesn’t make you a bad person! You love to hangout with friends, playing video games and chatting about the latest Sci-Fi movies. From the time you were a child you knew you wanted the best things in life and were determined to work your butt off to get them! 
Aspiration: Mansion Baron
Traits: Perfectionist, Geek, Materialistic
Generation rules / goals:
Have your sim start working as a teenager to save up for their future house
Complete the Mansion Baron inspiration
Reach the max level of the Business Career in either the Investor or Management branch (although the Investor branch makes a bit more money!)
Master the video gaming skill throughout your sims lifetime
Have your sim start their own club once in their teens with ‘Play video games’ as the main activity. Keep this club going throughout your sims life and try to have a club meeting once a week 
Make your sim go to GeekCon whenever they can, once they have kids bring them along as well!
Have a hobby that can make you money - kind of like a side job. Whatever skill you choose (painting, flower arranging, etc.) master it
Once your sim completes their Mansion Baron aspiration have dinner parties once a week - Your sim is materialistic and they want to show off the nice house they’ve worked so hard for!
Once your sim becomes an elder have them retire and focus only on hobbies and relaxation (only once they’re reached the max level in their career though)
Gen 3: The Tree Hugger
You grew up in a wealthy household with pretty much everything you could have wanted. You had a great childhood and your admired your parents work ethic, although you knew that when you grew up you wanted to do something more meaningful for the world than investing. So you packed up your bags as soon as you hit young adulthood and moved to Evergreen Harbour
Aspiration: Eco Innovator
Traits: Green Fiend, Vegetarian, Good
Generation rules / goals:
Your sim should be a vegetarian as soon as they hit their teenage years
As a teen your sims should also start their own garden and begin working on their gardening skill
Your sim should complete the Eco Innovator aspiration within their lifetime
Master the Gardening skill throughout your sims lifetime
Master the Juice Fizzing skill throughout your sims lifetime
Join and reach the max level of the Civil Designer career
Your sim should live as sustainably as possible for this generation, this includes owning a bee box, having a dew collector and recycling with the home recycling machine
Have your sim marry someone as Eco-friendly as you bonus points if it’s Knox lol
Have an at home, eco friendly wedding in your sims backyard / yard. Having the wedding cake be a honey cake, get creative with it!
Adopt an animal that’s not a typical pet (raccoon, fox, etc.) your sim found this little buddy while dumpster diving and bonded instantly
Gen 4: The Undecided
You grew up with a parent and grandparent who accomplished great things; they were sims who worked hard and stuck to their guns. You have always been..well a bit different. You can’t even decide what you want for breakfast, let alone pick a career or spouse. This makes you jealous of others like your parent and grandparent who you believe have their life together.
Aspiration: You must change your sims aspiration 3 times during their life but never complete one, not even their childhood one.
Traits: Non-committal, Jealous, Erratic
Generation rules / goals: 
Join and quit scouts as a kid; get about halfway through before you quit
Have your sim join at least two jobs as a teenager. They can join and quit more if you like
Get your sim to level 5 of at least three skill during their lifetime before they quit those as well
Change your sims career multiple times, making sure they never reach the top of any career
Get your sim married, and divorced...twice. It’s up to you whether you sim ends up finding someone to stay with. However, your sim must have only have one child from all of their relationships.
Have your sim have an affair during one of their relationships. It’s up to you whether the partner finds out about this or not
Your sim must lose their relationship with the Gen 3 sim (their parent) after a big fight over Gen 4′s jealousy issue. Your sim should never speak to that parent again
Your sim must never be best friends or true lovers with anyone; they are non-committal and that means no matter how much they care for another sim they feel somewhat unsure about every relationship
Gen 5: The Vampire Groupie
Your childhood was less than ideal, although your parent loved you they had a lot of their own problems and that left you pretty lonely at times. Your solace was a particular vampire movie about a sim who falls in love with a vampire. “That could be me,” you though, “That WILL be me.” So when you become a young adult you take everything you have and leave in search of your dream life in Forgotten Hollow, the only problem with your plan is that you’re just a bit squeamish... okay a lot
Aspiration: Master Vampire
Traits: Romantic, Family Oriented, Squeamish 
Generation rules / goals: 
Your sim should watch a lot of movies as a child and teen. Of course your sim loves that particular vampire movie that definitely doesn’t rhyme with Highlight, but really they love all movies
As soon as your sim becomes a young adult move them into Forgotten Hollow
Meet and start a relationship with a vampire of your choice; you can put a sim from the gallery in your game or date Caleb Vatore, Lilith Vatore, or even Vlad Straud if you want!
I think this goes without saying but your sim should be turned into a vampire for this generation lol
Complete the Master Vampire Aspiration
You can have any career for this generation, it doesn’t matter!
Master the Vampire Lore skill throughout your sims lifetime
Master the Pipe Organ skill throughout your sims lifetime
Start a ‘Vampire Club’ with only other vampires present, you can use this club to do any kind of vampire activity - however, since you left your old life behind, these sims are your only friends
Your sim is squeamish so they personally choose not to drink other sims blood unless absolutely necessary, this means your sim must grow and sustain a garden full of plasma plants
Once your sim obtains a plasma fruit (and two garlic) they can prepare a Sunlight Reversal Cocktail if they like, that way they can go into the sun during the day; this isn’t required though
Your sim must have at least three kids. One of these children should NOT be a vampire. This will be the heir. If all of your children are born vampires you can use a mods to make them human. I recommend MC Command Center, which you can find here: https://deaderpool-mccc.com/#/releases
I also recommend this mod: https://modthesims.info/d/589300/child-vampire-manifestation-v1-9.html which basically makes it so that child vampires can perform any vampire actions, just like teens, young adults, etc.
Gen 6: The Beach Bum
Your parents are absolutely wonderful, but are weird. In fact, you’re convinced that you’re the only sane one out of your whole family. You love them but who in the right mind would want to live the life of a vampire? You knew early on that the vampire life was not for you, and thank goodness you just so happened to be the only sibling born human! I guess you can thank those recessive genes. You want to live the Beach Life, spending your days out in the sun and working to conserve the beautiful island of Sulani!
Aspiration: Beach Life
Traits: Child of the Ocean, Loves the Outdoors, Free Trait / You can pick your sims third trait!
Generation rules / goals:
Your sim must move to Sulani as a young adult and spend their whole life there
Reach the max level of the Conservationist Career
Complete the Beach Life aspiration
Befriend as least one mermaid - your sim can become a mermaid to if they want but it’s not necessary
Marry someone who already lives on Sulani as well
Have your sim live in a house on the beach at least once during your their life
Complete the sea shell collection
Spend ALOT of time outside; fish, ski-do, tan on the beach - your sim loves the outdoors and the Sulani sun, anything they can do outside they will
Keep a close relationship between your sim and their parents & siblings - even though they don’t love the vampire life they love their family
Gen 7: The Tinkerer
You’ve always been a homebody, hanging out in your house on the computer and tinkering with things in the home. Your parent was always nagging you to go outside and play as a kid. As soon as you were old enough to hold a wrench you were fixing things. You knew when you became a young adult you wanted to go to Foxbury Institute and learn to program and create robots!
Aspiration: Computer Whiz
Traits: Genius, The other two traits can be anything you choose!
Generation rules / goals:
* For this generation I ABSOLUTELY recommend this mod which shortens university. It just makes it sooo much easier to complete a degree: https://modthesims.info/d/646803/shorter-university-degrees.html *
Your sim should spend a lot of time inside as a kid, using the computer, reading books, playing video games
Have your sim complete the Whiz Kid aspiration as a child
Master the Logic skill throughout your sims lifetime
Master the Robotics skill throughout your sims lifetime
Master the Handiness skill throughout your sims lifetime
Once your sim becomes a teenager they should be the one who fixes ANYTHING broken within the household
In order for your sim to attend Foxbury Institute for a Computer Science degree your sim must have certain skills (such as computer programming, robotics, etc.) since it is a distinguished degree. You’ll need to work on these skills as a teen to have a chance to be excepted there. If you don’t feel like having your sim work on those skills as a teen your sim can attend Britechester University but they should still work on the robotics skill!
Complete the Computer Whiz aspiration
Graduate university with a degree in Computer Science
Live in a modern style house in any world
Gen 8: The Believer
Your parent has always been a technological genius, creating artificial intelligence. But you’ve always known that science wasn’t needed for there to be fantastical things in this world. No one else in your family believes your crazy ideas about alien but hey, you once heard that your great grandparents were vampires, so it could be possible! Sure you’re a little erratic but you’re determined to prove the existence of aliens, and befriend them. How will you do this? Well by becoming an iron pumping, rocket building astronaut of course!
Aspiration: Bodybuilder
Traits: Athletic, Self-Assured, You can pick your sims third trait!
Generation rules / goals:
You sim must join and reach the top of the Astronaut career
Your sim must live in Oasis Springs
Have your sim complete the Body Builder aspiration - astronauts have to be strong after all!
Master the Rocket Science skill
Your sim will unlock a rocket when they reach level 10 of their career (the rocket can either be the Apollo Rocket - unlocked though the Space Ranger branch of the astronaut career, or the Retro Rocket - unlocked through the Interstellar Smuggler branch. You can choose which rocket you want)  but honestly who wants to wait for that, so as soon as your sim gets to level 5 of their career use cheats to unlock the rocket and start building!
Once your sim has completed their rocket you must level up their Rocket Science skill to level 10 and then install the Wormhole Generator upgrade. This will allow you to travel to Sixam and meet aliens!
Your sim must befriend and marry an alien they meet on Sixam. If you don’t like that particular alien you can either come back to Sixam or open CAS and edit them, either is fine.
Have your sim have a baby with their new alien spouse. Only have ONE baby.
If your sims baby is born NOT an alien you can use cheats to make them one. MC Command Center can be used for this and is linked above for Generation 5
Gen 9: The Star of Sixam
You’re an alien and you’ve proud of it! You loved listening to your alien parent tell stories of your home world and knew that when you grew up you wanted to make your relatives on Sixam proud. The best way to do this is of course to become the most famous alien musician the Sim world has ever seen!
Aspiration: Musical Genius
Traits: Self-Assured, Perfectionist, Music Lover
Generation rules / goals: 
Your sim must NEVER wear their disguise unless absolutely necessary - they are very proud to be an alien and they don’t see any reason to hide that
As a child your sim should complete the Artistic Prodigy aspiration
Master the Violin skill throughout your sims lifetime
Master the Piano skill throughout your sims lifetime
Your can have your sim master the Singing skill throughout their lifetime if you want, but it isn’t necessary
When your sim becomes a young adult move them to San Myshuno, where their musical dreams can really take off!
Have your sim busk for money in San Myshuno at least 5 times
Have your sim reach the max level in the Musician branch of the Entertainer career
Your sim should marry or be with someone who is also musically interested - you can enter CAS and cheat this or create your sims partner
It doesn't matter how many children your sim has for this generation, but the heir should NOT be an alien - you can use MC Command Center to make them human if you need to
Gen 10: The Apprehensive Actress / Actor  AKA the Final Generation!
You grew up in a VERY artistic household, with parents who were both interested in music and one parent who made a huge career of it. You love acting and knew your parent was ecstatic when you started showing interest in acting as a teen. Unfortunately you don’t really like the idea of being famous...
Aspiration: Master Actress / Actor
Traits: Loner, Good, Creative
Generation rules / goals:
Your sim is an artistic child, however we aren’t gonna worry about completing the Artistic Prodigy aspiration as a child because we did that last generation - you can do it if you want though!
When your sim becomes a teen they should begin working on their acting skills
Your sim should reach the max level of the Acting career
Have your sim master the Acting skill
Your sim should marry someone non-famous in a private ceremony with only those sims (or family and close friends if you like) present
Your sim should maintain as good a reputation as possible - they are still a good sim, they are just a bit anti-social
Once your sim finished the acting career and has achieved the Global Superstar rank they should retire
Your sim, now retired from acting moves to one of two lots in Brindleton Bay that have NO neighbours
They should spend the rest of their life making money off of artistic projects such as knitting, painting, etc.
Have your sim leave the house only when necessary to avoid the paparazzi, and if they do go out they must wear a disguise
Your sims spouse can have any career, but they should NOT be famous in anyway
It is up to you whether you decide to have your sim have children and continue the family :)
Well we’ve come to the end of the challenge!! I just wanted to say if you decide to play this challenge or even have taken the time to read it, THANK YOU SO MUCH! It means the world to me to be apart of this sims community ❤️
If you decide to play this challenge on your tumblr pleaseee use the tags #spicechallenge or #spice of life challenge. That way I can see what you do with this challenge, that would be amazing 😊❤️
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swtki · 4 years ago
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HP Boys: Surprise Pregnancy Head Cannons
Summary: The HP boys and their reaction to their s/o (afab) being pregnant when its not planned.
A/N: This takes place post Hogwarts so all characters are 18+, though no real smut happens in this so its not an 18+ fic.
WARNINGS: UNPLANNED PREGNANCY, MENTIONS OF PRO CHOICE OPINIONS, MENTIONS OF SEX IN LITE TERMS, SWEARING, FLUFF, MENTIONS OF ALCOHOL, ALSO THIS IS SUPER LONG SORRY LOL
Draco
So everything is going great for the happy couple, you two just moved into a flat together and are working normal jobs, drinking wine like adults.
And sure, Draco knows he wants to marry you, but he knows you’re not ready to settle down like that so he just plans and dreams.
Due to poor choices, when you’re late by two weeks, you know what it probably is.
Draco doesn’t even notice that you ran out to the store and came back and hid in the bathroom for 10 minutes. CEO of minding his own business ig
You just kinda...walk up to him and hand him all 3 tests while your eyes fill with tears because what if he demands you get an abortion?
Or what if he fucks off to god knows where?
But instead he just looks at you with the most un-draco like smile. Like his face was soft and it looked like he could cry any moment.
“Oh my god,” He says, putting his hand on your belly, “I can be ready for this, but if you aren’t then we can you know...”
“No, I want it” then both of you rejoice bc yay baby!
Cut to 6 months later when your feet hurt so bad you have to lay down and watch while Draco fails to put a crib together.
He eventually gets it done tho.
And when the time comes, he’s built and arranged everything for your bundle of joy.
Harry
So you guys are probably already married, but with everything at the ministry going on, it makes Harry less than a family man.
You both agree that it’s probably better to wait so you can be home and yk...raise it.
Well smart man Harry forgets that to not have a kid you need to use protection.
So of course when your period is late you don’t think about it, until its four weeks late.
That night, you and Harry are laying in bed, and thats when you tell him.
“Harry..I’m late.”
“Late for what?” headass.
You: 😳😐
Him: 👁👁😲😲
He’s hesitant to say anything, because he knows its ultimitley up to you what happens with it until its out.
“I think I want to keep it...you know it wont remember much for the first year and a half so if things are stressful it will be okay and-“
“Love...Its going to be perfect”
Mf built the crib in like 45 minutes I swear.
And of course he forced you to keep up with your vitamins, pre natal care, and appointments.
Swear tho you’re about to kill him because cofFeE
But the way he holds your baby 🥺 its his most valued thing ever now.
Ron
Ron is iffy on the kid thing sometimes.
He does want them, but only later when you guys have lived and travled.
So no, you two haven’t planned nor is it even in the picture when your wedding roles around.
It’s in the early days of the marriage when you see his family at the burrow on the way back from the honeymoon.
And of course Molly knows
Because Weasleys are hyperfertile I swear.
She takes you into the kitchen and puts her hands on your arms, shes got that big Mrs.Weasley smile on too.
“I knew it!” She says and pulls you in for a hug, “How far dear??”
You’re just standing there like🧍🏻
“I can see it by the way you glow! Oh my you and my Ron must be so happy!” This woman doesn’t notice that you’re confused.
“Wait what? Mrs. Weasley what are you-?” Then you count the days, “Oh. Well I guess I just found out for myself”
Her face falls slightly, but then she tells you can make you a potion that will tell you if you are or not, stan.
The stupid potion turns green when you spit into it, so everything is confirmed.
That night, you and Ron are getting ready for bed in the guest room and you decide to tell him.
“Ron, sweetie. We need to talk.” He looks like he’s gonna start crying but sits next to you on the bed.
“Y/N...I know its scary but please, we just got married I don’t want to divorce quite just yet 🥺🥺”
“Ron I-“ you start smiling, “I’m pregnant you dufus.”
He just freezes, for a while. Not saying anything, he just looks at the wall with his mouth ajar.
So you get up and go to Ginny.
“Gin, I broke him.”
“Ew, I don’t want to know about how you and him”
“No, I told him that I’m pregnant.”
“Oh, yeah that would do it. Just I don’t know... Give him a minute?”
You give him several, getting a glass of water then heading back up to the room.
Ginny was right, he needed a minute.
“I don’t...I wasn’t...you were.?”
“You don’t have to stay, but I think we can do it. Plus, you would disapoint your mom if you left so...”
“Okay...we’ll do it. I’ll be the best damn Father you have ever seen.” He says, talking to your womb.
Well...he’s a father I’ll give him that.
Pro of having a Weasley baby: free crib thats already put together.
Even if it looks like a death trap.
“We’ll put some blankets over it don’t worry”
You know how some Dads hold their parters hand during the delivery? Yeah he got sick and was moral support from the outside.
To be fair, you weren’t screaming in pleasure by any means.
Scary. But beautiful.
He shows the kid to everyone, he might be more in love with the baby than he is with you.
Ron see’s the appeal of having kids now.
Neville
Moving in with your boyfriend is always fun, right up until you guys go at it so much you forget protection more than once.
You think about it, then move on with your day.
Until the doctor calls, then “oh fuck”
Romance Neville bf
“Why aren’t you having any wine? I thought it was your favorite?”
“I don’t think fetal alcohol syndrome is my favorite.” BRO HE SPAT
But he looks up with tears in his eyes, and runs over to you to grasp you in a hug.
“Oh my god! You’re pregnant! Oh my - We’re gonna be parents!! Oh my god we’re gonna be parents oh-“ Que you petting his hair till he’s calm again.
Lets be honest, this man probably swapped the herbology books for the parenting guides.
“Well I mean I’m just wondering if we should go with this color or this one”
“Nev, it doesn’t matter. Our baby will not care.”
“I read in my book that Infants actually can recognize mood in-“
He won’t let you do anything during your pregnancy.
Gotta love a man who cries because he loves you so much and you’re having his kid.
“I never had a father, what if I do it wrong? What if the baby hates me and runs away at seven?”
“We’ve got quite a lot of time before then.”
He was there during delivery, letting you crush his hand like a champ.
You can’t help but cry when you see him sleeping on the floor next to the crib, its so sweet.
Fred
You two most likely already had two kids, so you decided to wait a bit so your hands weren’t quite full.
Well...your body decided not to wait.
A test provides the two lines, another wild child.
The two toddlers already run around like thing one and thing two, only with red hair.
I think Fred would gladly make the family dinner, and wear an apron. He’d own it, as he should.
But mf gotta not drop the salad bowl when you tell him of the fetus inside you.
“Fred we are going to have a bee-ay-bee-why.”
Your five year old has just begun to spell 😐
He’s happy tho.
Like over the fuckin moon.
He buys the two kids big brother/sister shirts too 🥺🥺
He knows the drill pretty well, so he isn’t too worried about the future.
But its funny that he still freaks out about the crib and feeding chair since he gave it away, you know because you guys werent having another kid.
He packed a hospital bag and kept it in the trunk, counting down the days.
Hours of delivery (He just sat back and held your hand) only to end up with a room full of 7 Weasley family members.
Fred always said that 3 was his lucky number :)
George
You guys were taking it slow, no marriage until you both felt it was time. And certainly no children before that.
Well you know...things changed when the test was positive.
You slid it over on the table, tears pooling in your eyes. He was stunned and quiet, which made you burst out sobbing because you knew that neither of you planned on having a baby.
But to your surprise he starts to smile.
“I want whatever you want, I’m staying by your side no matter what.”
“I mean...would it really be so bad? A house, a kid, a dog?” He holds your hand as you think aloud.
You both give it a week to think it over and the virdict is to keep it.
Thats when he decides he has to marry you, asap because he loves you and will never let you go especially now.
He loves to gush about the carrier of his child, to him you are a godess.
He’s the Dad with a predestination complex.
“Y/N, I just see him being a star quiditch player”
“George, we don’t know if it’s a him.”
He rolls his eyes “Okay then I can see her being a star-“
He made Hermione take you out for a movie date so he could rearrange your bedroom, since you only had a single bedroom flat.
You come back to a new set up including a cot.
Damn pregnancy hormones make brain go 🥺😭😭
He freaks when your water breaks lol
ceo of driving like a maniac to the hospital.
He can’t hold your hand, he’s pacing back and forth, sweating and maybe crying though he’ll never admit to it.
You get the joy of watching him cuddle the baby while refusing to give your child to you.
“George I’d like to hold-“
“No, you need your sleep honey, don’t worry”
Hogging the child.
Cedric
Its no secret that Cedric wants a baby someday.
And he makes it clear your wedding will be spectacular too.
However, finding out you’re pregnant the week of your dream wedding was a shock.
A shock that made you bang your head into the wall because how could you be so stupid?? We had a plan??
So you decide to wait until after the wedding, that way it wont add onto the stress (happy stress) of the wedding.
Cedric keeps trying to fill your glass at the reception, to which you kindly refuse saying you want to remember the night entirely.
Yeah he’s like 🤨 mhm okay.
You can only pick at the dinner because ew salmon doesn’t sound like an option if you want to keep the contents of your stomach.
As everyone waves goodbye to the car, and you both set off into married life, he leans over.
“I may be out of my mind, but are you...?”
“Pregnant.” His face lights up, pulling you into a hug.
Finally, your car pulls up to a small cottage with lush garden scapes all around, putting a hand out, he walks you both from the car to the door.
“Ced, where are we?”
“Home.”
Somehow it was perfect with Cedric, even when it was rushed.
He loved talking to your womb, even if it was weird that he was talking about the babies future brothers and sisters.
“Cedric, slow down. We haven’t even had this one yet”
Basically he is father of the year before he’s a full father.
He’s there while you deliver, holding your hand and telling you how great you’re doing.
He doesn’t even complain when you insult him <3.
He updates you on everything.
If his eyes aren’t on that child, he’s either asleep or dead.
I think Cedric was meant to be a family man, because he loves everything about being one.
Taglist: @truly-insatiable @amourtentiaa @imdoingathingmom @annasdani @anchoeritic @mullthingsoverinthehotwater @cedricsyellowscarf @faeinorbit
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redfoxdude07 · 3 months ago
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Okay, to be honest, my original plan was to be short and sweet in the tags, but it sorta grew out of control as the idea went on.
The killing of fascist is perfectly fine actually, and I fully endorse it. The problem is the way the movie portrays the execution of the execution. He's ripped in half in front of a crowd who just moments ago saw Sentinel as their savior.
The crowd is scared and confused because their entire world just changed permanently, and D-16, who's known about this for a day longer than everyone else, immediately declares himself leader. He declared that there would be no more false prophets and then began shooting haphazardly because his blood started flowing when he killed Sentinel.
The movie criticizes the way D-16 killed Sentinel instead of declaring that killing is bad.
(I'm not sure where I heard this, so take this next part with a grain of salt)
Optimus is literally America. He was supposed to represent America since G1 and meant to parallel the Cold War. The fight over energy and the embracement of freedom is blatant American coding.
Logically, freedom in America includes the right to a fair trial. The police are not SUPPOSED to be the judge, jury, and executioner (even though they are most of the time unfortunately).
Optimus is willing to kill if necessary. He's done it so many times that it's ridiculous, but if death can be avoided, he will avoid it.
Taking that into account, Optimus more than likely meant "wait to kill him until we all agree to kill him."
D-16, in his rage, didn't catch the hint that Orion was giving. "Can't build the future on blood" (or something like that) is what he says to D-16 to convince him not to kill Sentinel.
Why would this convince him? Because he's meant to interpret that as "don't have the first truly free thing we do be killing someone," but he took that as "don't kill ever," instead.
Bee isn't wrong for killing because the movie portrays him as a comic relief, and also, he's crazy from isolation, so any morals he has aren't exactly perfect pillars of superiority. Elita killed people, Orion killed people, and Alpha Trion killed people, but they are allowed to go on because it's self-defense. Bee is different because he's not meant to be serious. He's meant to get you to laugh first, ask questions never because he's fucking Bumblebee Transformers voiced by Toad from Super Mario Bros. (Bad excuse, I know, I just think Bee is just here so the toys sell good).
To put it in one continuous explanation:
Orion thinks about the long-term consequences of killing Sentinel, knowing that more than likely doing so will only lead to more distrust in leaders to the average individual. If D-16 became leader, he wouldn't be peaceful because the truth about Sentinel snapped something in his brain that made him go murder crazy instead of sleeping and planning his next course of action like Orion wanted to do. Killing Sentinel is good when everyone is on the same page, randomly walking up to the leader of a country, and kicking in his teeth is going to cause controversy, and depending on the type of indoctrination the people were given, they'll get violent or something. While that might be the only option in some scenarios, it wasn't here. They had a choice to spare Sentinel and explain everything to the people with him behind bars and prepared to go to the electric chair. Orion jumped in the way because he didn't think D-16 would actually go through with it. He still trusted his friend to do what he viewed as the right thing, and in the end, that only makes D-16 go over the point of no return, seeing Orion as a sympathizer instead of a person worried for the stability of the future government they'll build.
The movie is about how people become so stuck in their hatred of politics that they push everyone that could help them reach their goals away because they don't 100% agree with everything they do. Megatron is someone who fell down the alt-right pipeline because he got so disassociated with the government that he looped around and joined the murder cult that did the same shit as the last guy. They say they're different from the last guy, but in the end, they'll both fucking kill you when they don't like you anymore. Starscream and Sentinel are basically the same person when you boil them down, it's just Sentinel was successful. Orion is someone who stuck to their morals first. He planned his goals out before going into it. He's meant to show how to properly overthrow fascist. You do so by planning and thinking about the publics opinions. If you want to sway the public to your side, you don't just kill someone and then explain yourself, no, you explain, then you kill if everyone thinks that's the best course of action. If they all agree it's the best course, then you know you actually did your job right, because if you failed to properly convince the common person, someone like the old guy will swoop in and take over and set everything back to the way it was before your revolution, the polar opposite of what you want to happen in a formerly fascist society.
This isn't a fascist sympathy movie. It's a tutorial on how to not fuck up your revolution against a fascist and send yourself back to ground zero.
Transformers One said nooo don't fight for your freedom!!! That's only something bad mean people do!!!! Real heroes jump in front of fascists to take a bullet for them!!!
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[Image description start. The meme comic of people in a meeting, with the boss sliding his hands onto the table and demanding of three employees, "Quick! We have to update Megatron and Optimus Prime's shared backstory for 2024! But the original conceit is... Problematic, how should we fix it?"
The first employee suggests, " make Megatron rich too! "
The second suggests, "make Optimus Prime a slave too! "
The third employee, leaning on an elbow with a sardonic expression, says, "Don't condemn slave rebellions maybe."
The boss glares at this employee with an exaggerated expression of rage. The employee stares back in silence with the same expression as before.
The last panel shows this employee being thrown out the window of the office building.
Image description end.]
And then the slavery apologism propaganda worked.
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book-o-scams · 4 years ago
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Ed, Edd n Eddy Series Bible (1996) -Analysis-
You can all finally read/download Ed, Edd n Eddy's official Series Bible right here! Thanks again to Chuckletons for sharing this with me and to Joey/Kongiscool0518 for sharing it in the first place, the Holy Grail of lost Ed, Edd n Eddy trivia!
One of the first posts I made for this blog was the Series Bible page. It was a composite of every source we had ever seen reference the series bible so far-- storyboarders in interviews, CN's old character guides, and the biggest source, an old CN UK posting about the show. Well, I figure now that we have the official source, I better update the old page (so everyone knows it's out of date), and make this new Series Bible post using the official source! Not much new information, but I was intrigued to finally learn the true phrasings of some things we had only heard paraphrased, as well as at least one detail from the movie that I couldn't believe came up this early in conception...
Unfortunately, Tumblr has apparently updated its post system to only let me add 10 images? Gonna try and only use images for what I need since you can read the actual document above, I guess I'll transcribe it too for easier reference and so we don't ever lose some archive of this.
Quickly, let's review what a series bible is:
A series bible is how creators pitch shows to networks. They can be called “pitch bibles” as well. Bibles do not usually get posted publicly, because they are initially under a strict Non-Disclosure Agreement by the network; also the creator may simply not wish to share it because it reflects the earliest stages of development.
The pitch materials typically include early concepts for characters, locations and episodes. Sometimes it exposes secrets, in this case, Ed and Eddy’s home lives, and sometimes the stuff in it is completely abandoned because it’s so early in production, in this case, casual references to school and adults.
Alright, everybody, it's time to gather 'round and read the Ed, Edd n Eddy Bible!
THE YEAR IS 1996.
YOUR NAME IS LINDA SIMENSKY. YOU WORK AT CARTOON NETWORK. A FRIEND OF YOURS, DANNY ANTONUCCI, IS WRAPPING UP A SHOW ON MTV. YOU GET THIS FAX.
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Linda Simensky immediately fell in love with this concept because as a child, she was best friends with 2 other Lindas for seemingly no reason other than the shared name.
I love how Danny decided last second to pencil in the correct names over each Ed, since they're arranged out of title-order.
"They're friends because they have the same name."
-the Logline for the series.
Fun fact: one storyboard artist for the movie observed that the movie is essentially all about challenging the series' original notion that the Eds are friends ONLY because of their name.
"A Danny Antonucci Cartuna"
-the label Danny used to use under announcements of new productions.
PAGE 1:
Ed, Edd n Eddy
They're best friends because they have the same name.
A gag laden, beat generated CARTOON bumper car ride of 3 misfit youths on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs of America.
Through summer vacation, part-time jobs, or just hang'n out at the corner mail box, they want to belong....but CAN'T.
From home chores, helping neighbors or eating jaw breakers, they want to fit in...but CAN'T.
Ed is into "B" monster movies, model kits and is quick to break out into rashes.
Lots of luck...
Edd is into chemistry, biology and prone to crushes.
Later...
Eddy is into pranks, is stylish and flaunts himself to the world.
Ya Right...
Ed, Edd n Eddy is a show about confusion and contradiction, that awkward part of youth, pimples, big feet, oily hair and... girls???.
Puberty is unforgiving.
I was fascinated by the lack of art on this page, it makes the pitch feel very focused. AKA logo in the corner, the title logo again up top, then the logline appears again below.
I really love the breakdown of Danny's vision of the show. "Gag-laden, beat-generated, CARTOON bumper ride." Very accurate, and I think "beat-generated" is the phrase that interests me the most. I typically think of "animation beats" as sort of a give-in-- technically all things fit a rhythm, so all stories are essentially just a montage of beats. But this does make me realize how important the strength of the beats and their rhythm are to the pacing of a cartoon and making you feel like "that was a good one." I feel like the "seasonal rot" viewers feel over the course of a show, and the way that perception differs from person to person, depends on the type of beats you want. Even though I am very into the experimental beats of a show in its later seasons, I can definitely see how season 1's beats are more typically appealing to a wide-audience, and how important a focus on that is to the longevity of a show.
I found it really interesting how the scams are initially conceived of here as "summer jobs." It adds to the sense that adults were originally meant to be present. Honestly a little surprised nobody with access to this bible had ever thought to mention that-- scams are not referenced ANYWHERE. Their image in the Series Bible is that they have summer jobs and help neighbors, which is certainly a much cleaner reputation than the Eds ended up with in the show. Makes me realize though, were some of the early scams, like Ed's Hive Bee Gone and their newspaper routes, supposed to be leaning into this early idea of them with almost legit jobs for unseen adults?
I was very amused by the repeated phrase that the Eds simply CAN'T fit in.
Loved to finally see the official phrasing for the confirmation that Peach Creek is in America. Not much different than I was led to believe, but still nice to have the true quote.
Also love Eddy being described as "stylish and flaunting himself to the world." The bold-print reactions to each micro-description is a cute idea too, I truly wonder who we were meant to picture saying those things in reaction. Each Ed? Kevin?
The "corner mail box" is an oddly specific phrase-- the Eds do hang around mailboxes throughout the series, especially seasons 1-3, and I believe the canon map does have a corner mailbox, but the idea that the Eds hang out at one specific mailbox went the way of Bro's supposed secret treehouses.
PAGE 2:
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Show Description
Gag laden. True cartoon style, inventive, non parody, fast paced, stretch and squash
Beat driven. (even when characters stop they hold with a bounce cycle. Adults never bounce. Music can play important part, not just fill.) But not a musical.
Cartoon surrealism. (viewers see the show as Ed, Edd n Eddy would, less important things tend to blend into the background, while objects of Ed, Edd n Eddy's desires are focused. Premise driven.)
The school year's over, (yeah!!!!) and the long HOT summer vacation begins (gulp). What to do?
Stuck on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs of America is the last place you want to spend summer break, especially when you find life confusing and contradicting.
Ed, Edd n Eddy is about friendship, and serves to remind us that they're no "good ole days," just smelly runners.
You can tackle anything, when your with your pals.
Their days are spent, for knowledge, acceptance and some cash for jaw breakers. Armed with pimples, big feet and oily hair the three amigos trek into the unknown.
Ed, Edd n Eddy are dying to be grown-ups, but they're kids, and attack adulthood as only kids would. Simple situations turn into a manic rollercoaster ride. (Don't forget your barf bag).
They just want to belong, and they're willing to pull off any insane stunt to prove it. First they need to figure out what it is they want to belong to.
Found it interesting that on this page, the show's logo is replaced with the title written in a jumbled font. Seems like the font from the show's end credits.
Hehe, the continued reactions to the descriptions. Allow me to be Double D for a moment and point out the increased use of parentheticals on this page, as well as one wrong "your".
I love Danny's insight that season 1 is framed by the context of how hyped everyone still is just to be out of school, but also the sense of pressure to make use of their break.
I really appreciate Danny getting further into the details of his summary of the show's style on the previous page. It only makes sense that he had this much of a vision that early.
A second confirmation of the cul-de-sac being in America! I'm also really into the repeated focus on the Eds finding the world "contradicting." I always loved how EEnE's inexplicable cartoon antics supported that sense that the Eds are highly aware of contradictions in both societal things and the actual characters.
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WOW, so I'm fascinated by this dual reveal. Before the wiggling outlines, which Danny usually calls a "boiling line" and describes as a tribute to wiggling inking in early animation, the series bible instead refers to him wanting the characters to do the iconic Fleischer "bounce," which is a much more commonly recognized rubberhose animation technique. Very interesting that Danny decided not to stick to that. Did it feel too out of place? Or was the overseas team not willing to animate a weight-shifting for every single held pose? Haha, guess I can see why boiling was an easier compromise. I wonder if he had any other ideas for how to make it more of a 1930s cartoon.
The other reveal to me here is that the movie's choice, that adults don't always wiggle in the show, was an idea from the very beginning! I guess I can better understand now why it's just too difficult to communicate a stylistic choice like that overseas-- no point making Bro not wiggle, that'd just create confusion.
Also, really disappointed that my wish for a musical is officially squashed in the series bible itself. That's a tragedy. The show's over, ya couldn't let me dream, Danny!? Conversely, I love Danny's forethought to say "non parody," I definitely noticed and appreciated EEnE's avoidance of derivative parody humor.
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My spouse had to point out to me that Danny probably means sneakers here, lol. Canadianisms!
The comments about the Eds wanting to grow up but needing to figure out what they want to belong to are so great and relate to the movie so well. I've heard those comments before, but the correct phrasing was cool to see.
PAGE 3:
Ed, Edd n Eddy (image of Ed in right corner)
Character Description
Ed
Attention deficiency syndrome.
He has trouble...
He can't....um...
OK, he draws all day in class.
When Eddy gets a bright idea...Ed's in.
Ed is easily talked into doing Eddy's "hard work". He has great physical strength.
Ed's happiest with his Model kits and B-monster movies. He draws his knowledge from his movies.
Ed smells. Flies are attracted to him.
Ed has sayings for all situations
ED: "you can change your shirt, and Bingo was his name..."
Ed's perpetually a slave to his younger sister's whims and whines.
Ed may have to baby-sit his sister, or let her watch whatever she wants on TV, or let her dress him up in mom's clothes.
Ed breaks out in Rashes. He's allergic to practically everything, especially Guinea Pigs.
Ed's Mom xerox's his sketches and doodles for her therapist.
Ed's Dad hopes to pass on to his son, his knowledge on "pre-owned" auto sales.
Very cute bit wasting the space at the top of the page. Danny seems very invested in Ed's personality already. The old sources we used to have definitely tried to condense these down to simpler blurbs.
Weird how Danny wants to essentially diagnose Ed with ADHD here (phrasing it very poorly, but it was the 90s and... Canada?). I don't know enough on the subject to debate it, but I still gotta point out Ed's canonical cracked skull!
Interested in the comment about Ed being most allergic to Guinea Pigs. I don't think that animal was ever even mentioned in the show. Eddy mentioned an old gerbil once....
Neat to finally have the real phrasing of the official word on Ed's parents! I saw someone comment earlier that this seems to be hinting Ed's Dad is selling stolen cars. I've never thought to question the legality of his apparent second-hand-car dealership (I imagined he works with Eddy's dad, who has received a legitimate award for his salesmanship), but those quotation marks are certainly making Mr. Ed's practices questionable! Best case scenario, Danny meant that more like italics or something, but maybe Ed's dad IS up to no good...
PAGES 4 & 5 (Ed's turn sheet and expression sheet)
PAGE 6:
Ed, Edd n Eddy (image of Edd in right corner)
Character Description
Edd
is really smart.
is really quiet.
Edd is unnaturally-- polite.
Edd hasn't been allowed to take gym ever since the Dodge ball incident. He's been excused to free study time in the library.
Edd doesn't like it when people touch his things.
EDD: "You may enter in my room, but don't touch my Lego robot. Thank you."
Edd's learning to play Peddle steel guitar. (his Mom makes him)
Edd's prone to "crushes". Girls in School, in his neighborhood, TV, anatomy books. He mails "true loves" his socks.
Edd is always ready for action, even though he can calculate the implications.
Edd constantly mumbles.
No one ever sees Edd's parents. They both work nights. They communicate to their son solely through Post-it notes. Edd's not allowed to touch anything in the house while they're gone. Anything.
Interesting how Danny slightly differentiates the barely-used space at the top here from Ed's description, to characterize Edd as more quiet and mumbly, adding an awkward "--" mid-sentence, perhaps to create the impression that Edd halts to choose words carefully.
Everything on this page feels familiar, from the character guides and other old sources. The most interesting thing to me here is that Edd's Mom forcing him to practice Pedal Steel Guitar is established this early, don't think I knew that, but I had noticed that it existed in his room from ep 1.
I love how the explanation in the beginning for why Edd goes along with their dumb schemes even though he's smart is basically just "he's always ready for action." ?!? I guess in a way???
That weirdly phrased Edd quote amuses me because it references Lego, just like the original concept background for his room before somebody nixed the copyright-namedrop.
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Edd's prone to crushes thing has been reaffirmed over and over in character bios even though it really doesn't come up outside of the cupid magic in HPH and the pilot-episode heart eyes at Sarah that are barely canon. Still, I've always loved the truly disturbing statement that he mails "his true loves his socks" and how that managed to make it into canon with a comic book example, a cel animation example and a digital era example.
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PAGES 7 & 8 (Edd's turn sheet and expression sheet)
PAGE 9:
Ed, Edd n Eddy (image of Eddy in right corner)
Character Description
Eddy
Exhibitionist.
Megalomaniac. (quote from his report card)
Eddy is the unofficial leader of the trio.
He's always got a plan, a stunt or a weird noise.
Eddy's the "class clown". He loves showing off. He loves being the centre of attention-- no matter how stupid the reason is.
Eddy is the only kid in his grade to have been expelled for aw hole week from school. It was his turn to set up the video for science class. He switched "Our Friend Yeast", for a video he "borrowed" from his parent's room.
Before Eddy's brother went....away, he enlightened Eddy with the "legends" of the neighbourhood. Eddy knows where all the abandoned tree houses are, which sewer pipers are safe to spelunk, and the secret recipe for the "El Mongo Stink Bomb" (it's been in the family for years).
He is the one who is most able to pretend that he knows it all... and doesn't care what anyone else thinks about him.
His genes are working the fastest.
Eddy's Dad is constantly concerned that Eddy may grow up to be a ...figure skater.
Eddy's Mom never believes his little darling was involved in such a heinous act.
Funny choice that Eddy's wasted-top-space is just two one-word descriptions, and allegedly lazily swiped from his negative report card.
Wow, we knew the report card quote and the "Our Friend Yeast" story from the UK show guide, but now we also know Ed's page says that Ed draws in class, and now I realize that Ed and Eddy have series bible school blurbs to match Edd's classic dodgeball incident blurb. Anyway, it's great that Eddy's showed his entire school some sort of sex video his parents have.
Very interested that the phrasing for the Bro/El Mongo Stink Bomb blurb even seems to suggest it's a family recipe. Eddy's Dad did have prankster stuff in his closet in JJJ... did Bro learn his prankster ways from Dad?? The neighborhood's secret tree houses have come up in other descriptions (at best, I'd say this could be related to that creepy shack the Eds found in the woods), but I think it's new info that Eddy personally learned the sewer routes from Bro. Interesting...
Thankfully, I had already heard about the Bible's awkward reference to Eddy being the most pubescent as "his genes are working the fastest," lmao.
Once again the Double D in me comes out to point out that the description of Eddy's Mom seems to switch to the Dad's pronouns.
PAGES 10 & 11 (Eddy's turn sheet and expression sheet)
PAGES 12-14 (Sarah, Jimmy, Rolf, Jonny, Nazz, and Kevin lineup of all 6, then 2 zoomed in lineups of the first 3 kids and last 3 kids)
(Funfact: the kids' designs were allegedly freelanced to an outside studio, hence why their refined later-season designs are so different from these lizardy starting places, lmao)
PAGE 15: (images of Sarah and Jimmy next to their blurbs)
SARAH
Ed's baby Sister.
It's her way or the Highway.
She has everything done for her, if NOT she'll "make" them do it.
She can be quick to judge.
Whinney.
A tatrum for every occasion.
More than a handful for Ed...or Edd and Eddy.
Thinks Edd is kinda cute.
Wants Eddy to MOVE...to another planet.
JIMMY
Sarah's best friend
He is always playing with girls, boys are just too tough.
He is accident prone, when ever we see him he has a different affliction, ie: band-aids, patches, casts, lumps...etc.
He is very clean.
The Ed's frighten him, "They're such brutes".
I'm surprised how much of the UK guide was accurate to what was really in the bible for them! Also surprised Danny misspelled "whiney" and "tantrum," one right after the other. Is this how Sarah spells them? ...Sorry, Danny, I yam what I yam.
PAGE 16: (images of Rolf and Jonny next to their blurbs)
ROLF
First generation of a landed immigrant family.
Nationality not important.
He's proud of his heritage.
He has peculiar traditions and/or customs.
He eats "weird" things.
He has hair on his back..... "yuck".
He confuses the Ed's to no end.
He confuses the other kids to no end.
JONNY 2x4
He is a wanderer and very inquisitive
From early morning to supper time, he is always outside playing, with his buddy, "Plank".
"Plank" is a wooden board that Jonny drew a face on with a crayon.
Jonny has wonderful conversations with Plank. ...Plank is a piece of wood.
Jonny makes himself very "accessible" to the Ed's.
Found it interesting that Rolf's bio is less clearly phrased than the UK bio set it up to be-- there they made it sound more like he mixes up who the Eds/kids are, here it's unclear whether it means that or (more likely) just means the obvious statement that everyone finds him confusing. If it's that, what a lame hollow bio Rolf got. This kid's based on you Danny, show some of that personal side!
Always loved Jonny's description, his life sounds so cute. Playing outside literally all day. Interesting to have it confirmed that Jonny drew Plank's face, I preferred to think the Eds drew him and sold him to Jonny, but whatever.
"Accessible" has always been an important vague description of Jonny to me. It really only applies to how chummy they could be with him in season 1, but it still sorta applies to his personality throughout the series as well.
PAGE 17: (images of Nazz and Kevin next to their blurbs)
NAZZ
She's cool, calm and assertive.
She is the most matured of the kids, or so she thinks.
She's into make-up and fashion magazines and Boys.
Sarah thinks she's awesome, wants to be just like her when she grows up.
When she enters a scene, all activity stops... boys freeze, they sweat, their hearts beat faster and faster. They lose their ability to talk. When she leaves, they recover and conclude it was something They ate.
She thinks the Ed's are funny.
KEVIN
He is cynical and sarcastic.
He thinks he knows the "routine". That's because he watches "60 Minutes".
It got a big laugh out of me that Kevin's description is only 2 sentences long. Nazz even has a more detailed character description from inception than Kevin. Love this for them.
Who's the Eds' rival? Well, he's cynical, sarcastic and he watches 60 Minutes, doesn't that tell you enough!?
I love the "mature... or so she thinks" remark about Nazz, a grounded flaw for her to have, being a little overcommitted to being mature like Eddy. It also perhaps suggests naiveté that makes it a little more reasonable that they didn't notice they were dumbing her down at the end of the series, but I do think the movie version of her better reflects the Bible's concept.
PAGE 18:
The Other Neighborhood Kids
Lineup of May, Lee and Marie.
The Kanker Sisters
These gals are tough. They bother, bully, provoke and bewilder everyone.
They live in a motor home park on the other side of the Cul-de-sac. The other kids have never been there.
They are proud of their Tammy Faye Baker memorabilia.
Their project "Cooking with Ketchup" closed down their school for a whole week.
No one likes them, especially the Eds.
They are determined to marry the Eds. They want them to do their dishes.
Amused that the Kankers are essentially being labeled backgrounds characters here, the role they mostly fell into in season 5. "Other" neighborhood kids...
I love that the Kankers have a school blurb to match each of the Eds', and that theirs has similar destructive-intentions to Eddy's video premiere story.
I believe all of this was all known from the UK guide as well, but still, neat stuff!
PAGES 19 & 20 (zoomed in Kanker lineup and their height chart with the Eds)
PAGES 21 & 22 (early promo art that used to be on CN's old Eds webpage, the art of the Eds eating jawbreakers at the end of ep 1 with the overhead text "Ed, Edd n Eddy love JAWBREAKERS!!!", and the art of the Eds all running with overhead text "Ed, Edd n Eddy see something shiny...."Jiggers." That weird "jiggers" statement at the end was normally edited out and I don't know what it means. Looked it up and it seems to be Chinook jargon (like when Ed said he was "skookum at X's and O's") usually said in the same sense as "CHEESE IT!")
PAGES 23+:
The rest of the pages in that bible download are from a 2004 storyboard test. The storyboard sample "It's Raining Eds," which we've seen some submitted samples of before, interpretations with Ed attempting to fly or chew gum and Edd making radioactive gum, I was surprised to find out the outline is just the original outline for the opening sequence to season 3's 'For Your Eds Only', seemingly Jonny was not written into the original outline (or was excised for easier testing purposes) but Kevin's brief cameo was. Now I wonder if they knew this would be used for a test when they wrote it, and if they would've come up with a less random way to include him if weren't forced to be a concise bit for testing's sake. (Your limit is typically 40 storyboard pages in my experience.)
I also noticed that in the included background references, the anonymous adult neighbor house next door to Ed's is officially just referred to as a "generic house."
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My analysis ends here, but be sure to download that sometime and enjoy all the raw storyboard sketches at the end of the document!
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peskygirl13 · 5 years ago
Text
Pics or It Didn’t Happen
Mild salt and slight hints of Maribat, but mostly crack. 
I did get some ideas from @unmaskedagain‘s blog. 
Their ml salt and/or crack fics sustain me. 
~~~
Marinette learned pretty quickly that even if you had proof, not everyone will listen. It’s always better to have pictures than words, because more people will believe you that way. 
It was a slow burn, but Lila Rossi had successfully turned Miss Bustier’s class against the girl. It hurt when her once friends called her jealous and a bully. 
Her! Marinette! 
Did they forget that she had been bullied by Chloe for years? Why would she become a bully after being bullied herself?
And jealous? Jealous of what? Marinette’s crush on Adrien had long simmered out into nothing but cinders. The boy was a spineless coward who would rather pretend everything was ok rather than stand up and face the truth.
It hurt that this had happened, but, oddly enough, Marinette got some of her greatest allies through this. 
It started with Chloe. 
One particularly gloomy day, Marinette saw the blonde sitting alone while eating her lunch. Sabrina had long abandoned the blonde for Lila’s fool’s gold and, not for the first time in her life, Chloe felt alone.
Now, despite their long hated history, Marinette wasn’t heartless. The Ladybug in her compelled her to sit next to the blonde and eat. Chloe stared at her, surprised, but said nothing as she continued to eat herself.
That lunch started a truce and led to a friendship. 
Next was Moriah. 
Moriah was an exchange student from America. Marinette was surprised the day she walked into the bakery and saw her parents talking with a shy looking brunette girl with glasses. 
Her parents told her that Moriah was a transfer student from America  that they would be hosting for the next few years if all went well. 
Moriah was very shy around new people, so when they arrived at school the next day, she stayed close to Marinette. Lila saw this and tried to tempt her into her web of lies. 
Moriah was interested in Lila’s tales, but cautious. She looked up any proof of Lila’s stories and found no evidence. She looked up Lila’s name. Nothing. 
When she tried pointing this out to the class, she was shunned. Chloe and Marinette welcomed her with open arms. 
After a month or so, Moriah became much more comfortable. She was witty and funny, and she had no qualms about defending her friends and she always tried to remain to the side of justice. 
This was one of the reasons Marinette decided to give her a miraculous. 
After a week of living together, Moriah found out Marinette was Ladybug. The girls had to share a room and Marinette came back late in the night, still dressed as Ladybug, assuming Moriah was asleep and detransformed in her room. 
Moriah dropped the book she was reading and squeaked behind the Asian girl.
The next few days included Moriah beating herself up about not noticing that her roommate was a superhero.
About a month or two later, was when Marinette began debating whether or not she should give Chloe and Moriah a miraculous. 
Chloe, Marinette knew she wanted to give a miraculous too. The blonde had long ago proved that she was trustworthy and ready to re-wield a miraculous, but she didn’t want to risk anyone knowing that it was Chloe like with Queen Bee.
Moriah was a different story. Marinette was scared about risking something and making a mistake like she did trusting Alya. And the risk was much higher with Moriah since the brunette girl knew Marinette was Ladybug and the Guardian. 
It wasn’t until when Ondine was akumatized again that Marinette made her choice. 
Lila had manipulated Kim and convinced him to dump Ondine, to which she was akumatized into Syren again. 
Ladybug had to fight this one almost alone because recently, Chat Noir had been showing less and less. He blamed it on his other life, but Ladybug couldn’t help but get the feeling that it was because she kept rejecting him. 
It was a long hard battle and by the time it was through, Ladybug knew she needed help. If Chat Noir was going to be a little bitch, fine. But this wasn’t going to happen again. 
That day, Marinette decided to give Chloe the Fox Miraculous and Moriah the Bee Miraculous. They became the heroes; Vixen and Yellow Jacket.
(“This is why I’m a dog person.” Yellow Jacket commented, pointing at Chat Noir as he arrived late to their first fight with disdain.)
Miss Bustier’s class were both excited and confused about the new heroes. What happened to Rena Rouge? 
Alya threw her phone when she saw Ladybug announce that Vixen and Yellow Jacket would be the new, permanent holders of the miraculouses. 
Many mocked Chloe for being replaced, assuming that the girl would throw a tantrum, but she ignored them. 
What Moriah couldn’t understand is how nobody noticed how similar Vixen and Queen Bee looked. 
The next ally was Luka, who turned out to be the most helpful. 
He never knew about the tall-tales that the class had been told until one day when the girls came by to his house boat and was met with a disgruntled Moriah whose hair was cut.
Moriah had pretty magenta peek-a-boo highlights that were hardly noticeable, but Lila decided to complain that Moriah’s colored hair was distracting her. Mr Damocles ordered her to get rid of the colors from her hair or she’d be expelled. 
Moriah, while normally always respectful, especially to adults, looked stunned. She pointed to Alix and Juleka, yelling; “What about Alix and Juleka?! Their hair is more obvious than mine! Why shouldn’t they change their hair?”
She was not allowed back on campus until the color had been removed from her hair. Moriah was furious and called her parents, telling them what had happened, and told Tom and Sabine the same thing with Chloe and Marinette.
Both parties were furious, but there was nothing Moriah’s parents could do since they were in America and Tom and Sabine tried talking to Mr Damocles about the issue, stating that there was nothing in the school rules against dyed hair and why it shouldn’t be more important than the education, but the man refused to budge. 
Eventually, after three days of failing to get Mr Damocles to see reason and missed school, Tom and Sabine emailed the school board about the issue and, with no choice until they responded, Moriah was forced to get rid of her highlights.
She flat out refused to dye her hair because to get all the highlights out, they’d have to dye her whole head, so Moriah was forced to cut her locks short to remove the color. 
Needless to say, she was pissed. 
As was Luka.
The boy had grown to be good friends with the girl and liked her highlights. Seeing the rockin’ pink cut out sucked. When he asked what had happened, the girls told him everything, including Lila’s tabloid tales.
Luka was quick to pull Juleka aside and open her eyes to reason. When the girl found out the truth, the first thing she did was tell Rose. 
The blonde girl’s eyes were opened too, and were quick to fill with tears. Everything was a lie. How could they have been so stupid? Then they remembered that Marinette had tried to warn them and were overcome with guilt. How could they make it up to her?
Marinette, Chloe, and Moriah were watching Heathers (Moriah’s suggestion) in Marinette’s room with their kwamis when Rose and Juleka entered. (Tikki, Pollen, and Trixx hid before the girls could see them)
The movie was paused and the girls stared at each other, waiting for something to happen. There was a beat of silence before Rose burst into tears.
“Marinette, we’re so sorry! We should’ve listened to you!” 
Rose and Juleka told them that Luka had opened their eyes and that they never should have believed Lila’s stories and how they had tried to prove it to Ivan and Mylene too, but they wouldn’t listen. 
They ended their apology by saying; “We know we don’t deserve your forgiveness, but we are sorry and we want to make it up to you. Starting with this.”
Both girls handed Marinette two hundred dollars each. Marinette looked between the girls and the money in shock. 
“It’s payment for everything you’ve done for us. Every dress, outfit, accessory, baked good, everything. We know it isn’t enough, but it’s all we can afford right now. We promise to give you more once we have it.”
There were a few minutes of silence after that. Marinette blinked at the girls before tearing up and smiling.
“No. You don’t have to give me anymore. This will do.” She reassured. 
Rose and Juleka awkwardly nodded, but Marinette could tell they were somewhat relieved. There was an awkward silence before Moriah spoke up. 
“I know you’re lesbians, but do you want to drool over JD with us?”
Rose and Juleka blushed, but nodded their heads happily, rushing over to join the group.
It wasn’t just the girls though. Nathaniel never believed the stories, but was scared about what would happen if he spoke up. Seeing Rose and Juleka of all people step up made him join too. Marinette also had allies in students in other classes too, like Marc, Calude, and Aurore as well as in other schools, like Kagami and Felix. For the first time in a long time, Marinette felt much better. 
She should have known it wouldn’t last. 
That night she and Moriah returned to their room after patrol, she should have noticed that her sketchbook wasn’t where she left it on her desk. 
She should have noticed when she and Moriah got up in the morning, but they were so exhausted from the night before to think of anything more than food and getting ready. 
The girls met up with Chloe at the school gates and they had just walked into the classroom when they saw Alya talking with Miss Bustier, Lila and her sheep herded on one side of the room and the rest on the other side, looking murderous. Marinette almost instantly got a gut feeling that something was wrong.
Boy was she right.
When the girls were noticed, Lila’s sheep gave them smug looks while the girl herself gave them a faux innocent look. 
She did something.
Miss Bustier cleared her throat before turning to face the girls. 
“Girls, because of your behavioral issues, the class decided that it would be best if you three didn’t go on the class trip.”
Oh yeah, the class trip. 
During the third and final year, the seniors of the school were allowed a class trip. It was to be organized by the class, mostly the president, and the entire class had to do fundraisers to pay for it. 
To be completely honest, the last thing the three girls wanted to do was go on a trip with their class. Nathaniel and Marc had gotten an internship at DC Comics (courtesy of MDC) and that was taking place exactly during the class trip and Luka and Juleka’s mom decided that they were going to sail around the world this summer and Rose got permission to tag along. 
It would only be the three girls together with a class who hated them, but Marinette was the class president and had to organize it, and if she had to organize the whole thing then she was going to enjoy the fruits of her labor. And Chole and Moriah weren’t going to let her suffer alone. 
The bluenette had already begun planning the trip. Places to go and fundraising to do. She even decided to go ahead and book reservations. It was unfair!
Marinette opened her mouth to argue when her eye caught something in the trash that made her heart stop. 
Praying she was wrong, she slowly walked to the trash can and pulled out it’s contents. 
There was her sketchbook, tattered and torn.
She couldn’t believe it. Marinette started hyperventilating, looking at the scraps of her work.
Marinette had several sketchbooks, she filled them out rather fast, but that specific sketchbook was one filled with the design ideas she had for Jagged Stone’s tour that was happening this summer. 
Marinette felt the world around her spiralling. She felt dizzy. Distantly she could hear people calling her name, but couldn’t comprehend it. 
She felt sick. 
She was going to be sick! 
That was the last thing she remembered before running home, people calling her name as she left the school.
~~~
Always make friends with people who are loyal. 
A good friend will make you feel better after someone hurt you. 
But a best friend will skip beside you with an old, rusty bat singing “Someone’s gonna get it~”
After Marinette ran out, Chloe, Moriah, Juleka, Rose, and Nathaniel all screamed at their classmates and teacher, telling them how incompetent they were. Moriah, too angry to remember how to speak french, called them scum sucking creeps of the earth that Satan wouldn’t even want in hell. 
It probably would’ve gone farther, but the three competent classmates gave Chloe and Moriah a look and told them to go after Marinette. 
The girls listened with no hesitation. 
They ran all the way to the Dupan-Cheng bakery. They walked in and Tom and Sabine looked at them before glancing upstairs with sad looks. Both girls knew immediately what they meant. They went upstairs to see Marinette doing breathing exercises, trying to keep from crying or even being sad at all. Tikki was patting her wielder's leg. 
Moriah instantly ran over to Marinette while Chloe was quick to close any windows, doors, and cover any cracks and creases that an akuma could get through before joining them
Fuck Hawkmoth! There was no way the girls were going to let Marinette try and keep this bottled up so that she wouldn’t get akumatized. 
Chloe decided that the best thing for them to do was go to her father’s hotel and have a girls night, which is precisely what they did. What Marinette didn’t know was that there was a double meaning behind it.
The girls and their kwamis spent the night eating junk food and watching chick-flicks like Legally Blonde and Mean Girls. Rose, Juleka, and Nathaniel told the others what had happened, and Chloe and Moriah were met with numerous texts, asking if they needed to come over, but the girls reassured everyone that they had it covered.
Finally, Marinette had passed out. It was after midnight and Chloe and Moriah exchanged looks before getting to work. 
Tip-toeing out of the room, closing the door behind them, Moriah unlocked Marinette’s phone and opened her contacts. 
Scrolling down the list, taking note of a few names she wanted to ask the bluenette about later, she found the contact they were looking for. 
Jagged Stone. 
Hitting the face-time button, the girls waited for Jagged to answer. The rock star was currently in America, and should only be mid afternoon over there. Even if it wasn’t, he’d stop in the middle of a live concert if Marinette was calling him.
Sure enough, after two beeps, the screen changed to Jagged’s face.
“Marinette, love! So good to hear from you-” He stopped short when he saw the two girls, neither of which being his honorary niece.
“Moriah? Chloe? What’re you doing calling me on Marinette’s phone?”
That was all it took before the girls told him everything. Lila’s stories, all worthy of a lawsuit, what happened to Marinette’s sketchbook, they even emailed him pictures of the texts that the class had sent to Marinette, most of which encuriged the girl to comitte suicide, and a link to the LadyBlog to prove that everything was true.
About midway during their confession, Penny had appeared on the screen, reading the emails that the girls had sent her. By the time Chloe and Moriah were finished, the pair looked like they wanted to commit murder.
Jagged yelled in fury, wanted to take legal action immediately, but Moriah cut in before he could.
“I agree with you Jagged, but what Marinette needs is a break. She needs a vacation from her class and Paris in general.” 
Chloe nodded in agreement.
Jagged brought a hand to his chin in thought. The girls had a point, but what to do? 
~~~
It was Penny’s idea. 
The first thing the girls did in the morning was burn all the plans that Marinette had made for the trip. They cancelled the reservations and when they got to school, Marinette walked up to Miss Buster’s desk and said; “I’m resigning as class president. If the class doesn’t want Chloe, Moriah, and I to join them on the class trip, then I won’t plan it.”
And that was it. 
Lila had been chosen as the new class president.
To her credit, she did do a decent job. She had decent fundraising ideas, but she started late in the school year, so the class only raised enough money to go to Disneyland Paris.
Chloe snorted.
The class attended the trip in June. Their social media and camera rolls filled with pictures. Most of the captions read that they were glad to get away from the bullies at school.
It wasn’t till after the trip that they found out what happened with the girls. 
It was Alix who found out first. In the class group chat, save the three ‘bullies,’ Alix texted: “OMG, look at this!”
Underneath was a picture of the three girls at the airport with Jagged Stone, Penny, and Fang. The three were posing like Charlie’s Angels, wearing huge grins, with the caption: “Touring with Jagged Stone All Summer!!”
Penny was a genius. 
Lila looked at her phone in horror. This couldn’t be happening.
Oh, my dear liar, but it is!
The first stop was Gotham. Jagged was performing at a Gala hosted by Bruce Wayne, which the girls would be attending. But first, they got a tour of Wayne industries. 
The first picture in Gotham was taken by Moriah at Wayne industries. She was looking at the phone camera like she was on the Office while very clearly behind her you could see Marinette talking with Damian Wayne, the youngest Wayne son, and Chloe talking with a boy named Jonathan ‘Jon’ Kent, son of famous reporters Lois Lane-Kent and Clark Kent. Alya nearly snapped her phone in half when she recognized the boy. The pairs were obviously flirting. The picture’s captain read: ”First Day in Gotham and I’m already a fifth wheel.”
The next two pictures taken were a surprise to everyone. 
They were taken by Chloe in the late night streets of Gotham. The first one was a picture of Marinette sitting on the driver's seat of the batmobile looking like all her dreams had come true while Batman stood beside her, arms crossed, looking rather stern.
The second picture was Moriah holding two pistols with starry eyes with Red Hood standing beside her, explaining to her how to shoot them, with an alarmed Marinette and Nightwing running towards them in the background. 
The girls did take a selfie with the entire Batfam, but they decided not to post that one.
The next few days were mainly pictures of the girls sightseeing (with the occasional sneaky picture Moriah took of her friends with Damian and Jon). However, at one point the girls were adopted (kidnapped) by Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Chloe and Marinette both agree that the weirdest thing that happened in Gotham was Moriah bonding with a talking plant named Frank.
Eventually, it was the night of the Wayne Gala. None of the girls took pictures of the gala, but the entrance was on tv, which Miss Bustier’s class made a movie night out of. 
Sure enough, walking down the red carpet were the girls. Marinette had made new outfits for all of them, just for the gala, and they were stunning.
Marinette wore a long scarlet dress. It was fashioned like a traditional chinese dress, but more Marinette-y. There were intricate designs stitched in black around the bottom of the dress with a silk sash tied around her waist. Her hair was pulled up into a bun with a fancy stain glass rose pin in it. 
Chloe wore a glamorous gold mermaid dress. It shimmered with every step she took with glittering blue details on the top that matched her makeup. And if you looked down, you could see her wearing gold, literal gold, heels. Her hair was down in beach wave curls with blue strands woven into it.
Lila and Alya screamed when they saw both girls being escorted in by Damian Wayne and Jon Kent respectively. 
Jagged and Penny were linked together. Penny wore a v-neck, sleeveless shimmering silver dress, also made by Marinette, while Jagged wore a dark purple suit. It looked pretty monotone for the man at first, but when lights hit the suit, you could see that there had been music notes embroidered into the suit that turned it into a rainbow of color.
Moriah’s dress came as a bit of a surprise. Marinette knew Moriah was more comfortable in pants than a dress, but she still wanted the girl to wear a dress, so they compromised. Moriah wore a dress that was also crossed with a suit. Kind of like Garnet’s wedding dress from Steven Universe.
She wore a tuxedo jacket over a white, sleeveless dress that draped down longer in the back, shorter in the front. She had a red sash wrapped around her waist and black tights with red shoes to match. Around her neck was a shirt collar and bow-tie that she wore like a choker. Her hair was half up and half down in curls. Moriah wasn’t one to wear make up, but since it was a special occasion, she wore some mascara and a little lipstick.
The biggest surprise was her escort. 
Walking beside her was Fang, dressed in his own original Marinette tux that matched Jagged’s.
For the rest of the night, nobody knew what happened to the girls at the gala. It wasn't until the next morning that they found out.
Chloe and Marinette spent most of the night hanging out with Jon and Damian, but whenever they weren’t doing that, they talked with the other guests, most of whom asked for the designer of their outfits, which really boosted traffic on Marinette’s website. 
Moriah hung out around the dessert table most of the night, snacking on a bit of everything, while talking with the other Wayne sons. At some point, totally unclear on the how and why, Moriah and the oldest Wayne son, Dick Grayson, got into a dance fight. The gala ended before the fight did, so they had to call a draw.
Their next destination was New York, but they made a slight detour to Metropolis per Jon and Chloe’s request. They got a VIP tour of the Daily Planet and met Jon’s parents: Lois Lane-Kent and Clark Kent. 
Moriah recorded Lois tearing into the LadyBlog with a grin on her face, having no remorse in posting it online.
Alya couldn’t understand it as she watched her idol tearing into her life’s work.
Then the girls’ mentioned BugOut, the blog Aurore ran, and Lois was a lot more pleasant. 
Alya threw her phone when she got a text from Nino that Marinette got Aurore an internship at the Daily Planet for winter and spring break, and possibly summer if she did well.
The next picture posted was the first one Marinette took. It was of her two friends hanging off Superman’s massive muscles as he flexed. Chloe denies ever drooling.
After that, they left for New York. Specifically, the Avengers’ Tower. It was the anniversary of when the Avengers first became a team, and Tony Stark, an old friend of Jagged’s, highered the man to play at the party. 
Before then, they toured the Avengers tower. At one point, they walked in to see Captain America, Bucky Barns, and Thor working out. Shirtless. Moriah let out a quiet but passionate “Hell yes” when they saw them. 
After the three men, regretfully, put on their shirts, they showed off their equipment. Chloe couldn’t help but squeal when Captain America handed her his shield. Marinette grinned as she hung off Bucky’s metal arm as he flexed it. Moriah was once again handed guns, this time by Black Widow, which were once again promptly taken from her.
After all that excitement came the big guns. Per the girls’ request, Penny recorded them trying to lift Thor’s hammer. It was all fun and games until Marinette easily picked it up. It was dead quiet before Thor’s voice thundered across the room.
“She is worthy! I must take her to Asgard with me!” 
Tony took a step forward. “Thor, you can’t take a child.” He stressed.
Thor tilted his head at the millionaire like a puppy. Moriah winced, grabbing her heart. That face was too cute for a grown-ass space god.
“Then what is the spider-kid?”
Tony faceplamed. “He’s my intern and protege. I’m his mentor!”
“Then I shall be this child’s mentor!”
“No!”
“Miss Potts can be Chloe’s mentor, for they are both fit to rule!” Chloe preened at this. 
“Thor, no!”
Moriah raised her hand. “Can the kick-ass, Russian spy be my mentor?”
Natasha raised an eyebrow at the girl before smirking.
“Yes! Black Widow will become Moriah’s mentor! It all works out! Now, I must take my new protege to Asgard to meet the All-Father.”
“Thor, no!” 
“Don’t you take my niece!” Jagged ran into the phone’s picture, looking ready to fuck-up a god. 
The video ended with Penny dropping the phone and running towards Jagged who was now riding on Thor’s back, pulling his hair.
The video went viral in an hour. 
Lila’s hands trembled as she watched the video, feeling herself paleing. She had become enemies with someone who could lift Thor’s hammer.
This wasn’t posted, but shortly after Penny got Jagged off Thor, Loki appeared. He tried explaining that he felt powerful magic coming from the tower, but was cut short when Moriah tackled him to the ground in an aggressive hug.
While we’re on the subject of proteges, at some point, Peter came over. He heard that Jagged Stone was at the tower and wanted to meet him. He, Ned, and MJ were huge fans and he really needed an autograph. 
Friday told him that Jagged was with the other Avengers in the training room. Promptly saying thanks to the A.I, the spider boy practically ran to the room. What he didn’t expect was to open the door to see a short, brunette girl German suplex the Winter Soldier while wearing heels. (A trick Natasha had taught her. The Black Widow took being a mentor very seriously.)
Tony turned to see who was at the door and was met with a red faced, dazed Peter Parker who was clutching the area over his heart like it was about to beat out of his chest.
“Natasha, your kid broke my minion!”
(Now Marinette and Chloe got their fill of taking sneaky pictures of Moriah and Peter.)
The girls did normal sightseeing stuff around New York. They went to a town called Riverdale and Moriah met a guy named Jughead. They bonded over having friends with love issues that attracted endless people while they just wanted to eat burgers.
At some point they were in another dangerous situation, but this time they met some guy named Deadpool who would make this One-Shot Rated-R if I actually put anything he said in it.
While in New York, they went to two Broadway Musicals. The first one was Phantom of the Opera. (Jagged didn’t really want to see this one, but he was outnumbered one to four. (Five including Fang. The crocodile had a weird love for Opera music.)) They also had a backstage pass where pictures of Marinette conversing with the person in charge of costumes, Chloe complementing the actress who played Christine, and Moriah hugging the actor who played the Phantom were taken.
After that, Jagged took them to see Hamilton. What the girls’ didn’t know, however, was that this was a special show with the original cast. Moriah screamed when she saw Lin Manuel-Miranda on the stage as Alexander Hamilton and when they went backstage, Moriah started crying when the cast greeted her.
Mylene, who admired the man herself, felt her heart break when she saw the picture of a joy-crying Moriah hugging Lin.
After that, they went to Florida for Jagged’s next concert at Universal Studios. They didn’t meet anyone famous there, but the class were still envious of the pictures. 
Moriah was a huge Potter Head, so this was a dream come true. She hissed at Marinette and Chloe when they playfully mocked her Hufflepuff shirt while they sported matching Slytherin shirts. 
They also went to Disney World, which was also a dream come true. The funniest thing that happened there was while Jagged and Moriah were off trying to waste hundreds of dollars on ice cream and other junk food with Penny trying to stop them, one of the park’s managers thought that Chloe and Marinette were supposed to fill-in for two of the disney princesses. Jagged, Penny, and Moriah came back to find Chloe dressed like Elsa and Marinette dressed like Mulan. Moriah laughed hysterically at the two girls until the same park manager pulled her away and she came out dressed like Belle.
Originally, Florida was supposed to be the final place, but there was a last minute change. Turns out that Jagged Stone has a sister who lives in Japan with a daughter named Kyoko Jirou.
While they were on tour, Jirou and her classmates had done a performance for their school’s festival.
Jagged, of course, was inspired and requested Penny to schedule one last performance in Japan where he’d have Jirou and her band open for him. It would be a nonprofit concert since Jagged wanted it within the next two weeks, but that didn’t bother him. 
The girls had to check in with their parents, but they were allowed to go with Jagged to Japan. 
Since it would take every waking moment to plan the concert and write a new song for it, Jagged had the girls join Jirou’s class for the time being despite being a little older.
The first picture taken was Moriah performing the German suplex Natasha taught her on a hot, ash-blonde guy named Katsuki Bakugou who said that the girls looked weak. 
The next thing that was posted was a selfie of the three girls wearing the UA gym uniforms with the caption: “Training at the USJ.” With them in the picture were Momo and Hagakure, both of which were adorning new hero costumes.
Marinette took one look at their old costumes and went on a rampage. In the time span of two days, she managed to make both girls new suits (with the help of the support course). 
Momo kept her red and white color scheme, but it became a two piece outfit that was pretty similar to a female wrestler’s costume, but with knee and elbow pads. To avoid showing too much skin, they used strands of Momos hair as a way to let her creations move past the more intimate areas of her body. Momo kept her heeled boots because if Black Widow and Wonder Woman can kick ass in heels then so could she, but Moriah gave the suggestion of being able to snap the heels off and use them like throwing darts.
Hagakure’s suit was made out of reflective lenses that could turn her completely invisible without having to be naked, but also amplify any light she admitted. She got a chest plate tank top and pants with built in kneepads. Her boots were sound absorbent for stealth and she also got a pair of rocking goggles to keep her from blinding herself.
Needless to say, both girls were satisfied with their new looks.
For the next couple of days, they took pictures of Class 1-A. Marinette was the only one who could get a picture with the Class 1-A homeroom teacher, Mr. Aizawa. Probably because she made him a new sleeping bag as an apology for their intrusion.
Funny story: When he saw Jagged Stone, he paled, before muttering “Oh dear god, there’s two of them” under his breath repeatedly. The girls didn’t understand this until they met Present Mic.
Moriah and Katsuki somewhat got along after the german suplex incident and she hung out with the Baku-Squad. Chloe took a bit of an interest in a duel-haired boy named Todoroki who hung out with a boy named Izuku Midoryia and the Deku-Squad. Izuku and Marinette got along swimmingly, just don’t look directly at them. It’s harmful to look at the sun, let alone two.
At one point, they met Endeavor. All three girls called him out and chastised him for being a horrible father and human being. Chloe took the lead on this. (Todoroki started looking at her in a new light.)
The next big news that Miss Buister’s class got wasn’t from stalking the girls’ social media. It was the Japanese news. The class couldn’t believe it when they saw that Ladybug, Vixen, and Yellow Jacket were in Japan. 
Originally the girls were only planning on going shopping, but when they saw the villain attack, their hero instincts took over and they transformed and apprehended the perp. To avoid suspicion, Vixen cast an illusion to make it look like Marinette, Chloe, and Moriah were in the background in the crowd.
The girls were interviewed by the press. Well… Ladybug and Vixen conversed with the press while Yellow Jacket was giddily talking in the background with the pro hero Hawks, who the girls had aided, with a vibrant blush on her face.
Non Surprisingly, Izuku was there. Ladybug gave him the most attention out of all the interviewer's. (Block your eyes from the sunshine rays!)
The next day, things got even crazier. All three girls were kidnapped by the League of Villains. U.A, Jagged, and Penny were in a panic until Moriah posted a selfie, looking so done with the world, with a black haired, scared man with piercings beside her staring at the phone camera like he was on the Office. 
\In the background, Marinette was chastising the villains about how rude it was to kidnap people while Chloe insulted their base’s decor. The caption read: “These idiots didn’t even take our phones.”
They were found two days later by a group of pro-heroes, led by current No. 1 hero, Endeavor, but when the heroes burst in, they stopped short at the sight in front of them.
The heroes found a very smug Marinette demolishing a very pissed Shigaraki at a video game while Chloe, Toga, Magne, and Twice were doing each other’s nails in the corner while gossiping. In another corner of the room, Dabi had decided to give Moriah new, vibrant blue highlights that matched his eyes. 
The entire base was refurbished.
The heroes were stunned long enough for the LoV to escape.
The girls had to use the horse miraculous to return to Paris several times to deal with akumas, but it was worth it. 
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Jagged’s trip was soon over and the girls returned to Paris. 
The moment they walked into the classroom they were met with glares ranging from weak to pure shade. 
While they were on the trip, Jagged had told every important person they came across every tabloid lie Lila had spun and she was met with a tsunami of lawsuits. As was the LadyBlog. Alya’s eyes were red and puffy, but she still gave a heated glare towards Marinette. 
The rest of the class wasn’t off the hook, either. With all the evidence Moriah and Chloe had shown Jagged, the entire class were sued for harassment. 
After finally getting to the email Tom and Sabine sent, the school board had found out about everything. Mr Damocles and Miss Bustier had been told to hit the road, and were promptly replaced with new, competent teachers. 
The girls gave a bright smile before sitting in the back of the class, high-fiving Nathaniel, Rose, and Juleka on the way.
Best. Vacation. Ever.
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gamma-gal-24 · 4 years ago
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MORE "AN EXTREMELY GOOFY MOVIE" CHARACTER HEADCANONS!!
🍃CAMPING EDITION🍃
Max -
Lowkey, he and P.j are both pretty decent at camping, Max being slightly better.
Goofy taught him everything he knows, and for once, he's more than happy to show off what his father has shown him.
He somehow manages to make the most ✨PERFECT✨ s'mores EVRY. SINGLE. TIME.
He's also the only one that almost NEVER burns a hotdog on the fire. Goofy taught him well.
Oh, there's a lizard on that rock over there? He's already caught it.
Neither him OR his father are any good at putting up tents, though...😅
P.j -
Actually somewhat decent at the whole camping thing!
He's the one carrying a book around telling everyone what plants are safe to eat, a d which aren't. Bobby never listens, though.
He isn't a horrible fisher either! His dad was huge on it, and he actually picked up a trick or two from Pete and Goofy both!
He always looses something though. Be it his shoe or an entire box of granola bars, he's lost something.
He's not the best swimmer, so Max and Bobby have to keep and eye on him when they all hit the river/lake.
Constantly thinks he's being followed by bears.
Bobby -
UNPREPARED.
He never brings what he's supposed to, extra clothes included.
He only really remembers food, to be honest... But, if he's willing to share, he makes up for his incompetence with his fine snack choices.
Scary story MASTER.
He once made P.j and Max BOTH break out into fits of fear-induced hiccups.
He's a danger magnet, and yes, he HAS eaten a poisonous mushroom before ... He ended up sleeping outsode the tent that night.
Bradley -
If you value your sanity and/or his, do NOT take him camping.
The poor boy is (in my mind,at least)allergic to bees, so he spends half the time either spraying every insect he sees, or freaking out over them.
He also has an uncanny ability to injure himself while in the wild...
He REALLY likes water though! So if you have to occupy him, that's how you do it. Take the boy swimming while the bugspray fumes blow away.
He's also actually pretty decent with the grill, second best only to Tank. Even HE won't agrue about Tank being better.
Yes, he does birdwatch while he's there, fight me.
He also brings all the expensive camping stuff, just saying.
Tank -
As I said before, Tank is the 🍔GRILL MASTER!!🍔
He actually really like hiking, too! All the pretty trees, flowers and sounds calm him...😌
Self-appointed medic, and no one is complaining about that.
I can also picture him being the one fixing everyone's tents when they screw up.
He HAS thrown the others into the river, AND he has canonballed off of a waterfall with Bobby.
Mosquitoes love this poor boy, please help him.
And simply because I can...
Powerline -
Bless his heart, he TRIES.
He's just inexperienced, is all!!😢
Despite not knowing what he's doing, he genuinely likes being outside! It gives him a break from being a rockstar for a while.
That being said, he had a sing-off with a bird... And won. The bird flew away in shame.
He does NOT mess with snakes though, and if he sees one, he will RUN. He doesn't know if that's the SAFEST reaction... But it's all he's got.
Yes, he brings his hair products with him. Just because he's sleeping outside doesn't mean he can't look fly, right? Right.
And there you have it! I hope this at least made you smile!😁 Hope you have a lovely day!
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betterbooksandthings · 2 years ago
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A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
Bust out your figgy pudding and get ready to live laugh love your way through A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone. An adult film actress is cast in a Hope channel holiday romance movie alongside an ex-bad-boy boyband member looking to relaunch his career with a clean image. Both co-stars have come to this small Christmas-themed town in Vermont with the intention to maintain a clean image while on set. Bee Hobbes the Hope Channel ingenue has had a long, successful career as Bianca von Honey, a fat adult film star.  Her favorite producer, Teddy wants to diversify his income with Holiday movies, but to do so, he needs to keep his adult film company a secret. When his leading lady and a portion of his crew get sick at the last minute, he must bring his old collogues with him to Vermont, on the condition they deny any connection to adult filmmaking. Just one problem, she has always had a major crush on Noah Shaw, her new co-star, and he is a loyal fan of her ClosedDoors account. The magic of Christmas romance is hard enough to replicate on the set of a movie with a time-traveling duke, but now, Bee and Noah also have to pretend their relationship is not warming up off-screen. It just goes to show you, that sometimes what happens in Vermont doesn’t always stay in Vermont. A Merry Little Meet Cute delivers on high spice, big laughs, and a bisexual couple who is absolutely too cute for this world.
This might be bold of me to say, but if you are going to pick up any new Christmas romance this holiday season, this is the one to buy. The setting is absolutely perfect. Every aspect of Christmas Notch, Vermont is designed around Christmas and Christmas movies, including the hotel. The cast of characters does not disappoint either. I love and want books for everyone on set. Each side plot is so specific, it builds the characters of anyone involved. Bee’s supportive moms and friends are so warm and funny. Noah’s family and ex-boyband members are just as great. I imagine the two other members of INK will be given a romance of their own, but that is entirely speculative on my part. I am a big, big fan to say the least.
Noah and Bee are great together. Because they both start out with their own prosocial fan relationships with one another, I never felt like there was a power imbalance. They often had frank conversations with one another that allowed them to develop their relationship over the course of the book. However, the dual POV helps the reader understand the moment a character makes the wrong choice when they translate what they think to what they say. I do like their little moments with each other. The high spice content is uniquely tailored to these specific characters. The celebrity aspects of the celebrity romance were handled with care. Not to mention the next-level banter. Overall, this Christmas romcom is wonderful, and I cannot recommend it more.
If you are looking for a little holiday love and cheer, you should defiantly preorder A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone set to release on September 20, 2022. I would like to thank Avon for providing my reviewers copy of A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone in exchange for my honest review.
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kissinginkitchens · 3 years ago
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You Bring Me Home—Chapter Ten: When it Rains
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a/n: hi besties!! This one is... tough I’m ngl to y’all. It is the second to the last chapter which is so wild to think about, but alas all good things must come to an end. Hopefully you don’t hate me too much by the end of it but feel free to vent in my inbox :))) much love, Mel <3
Pairing: Hawai’i!Harry x Original Character (Halani <3)
Warnings: swearing, some suggestive humor, ANGST (!!)
Word Count: 7.4 k
catch up on parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine
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“Is that my shirt?”
“No,”
Alani squints at the cartoon bee printed on Harry’s white t-shirt and crosses her arms in disbelief. 
“Yes it is! I’ve been looking for it everywhere,”
“Don’t worry, you can have it back soon,” he admits, crawling back into his bed with an apologetic kiss to her pouting lips. “Doesn’t smell like you anymore,”
“Thief,”
Harry scoffs and props himself up on an elbow. “Don’t act like my Spice World jumper isn’t hanging at the foot of your bed right now,”
“You left it there,” Alani defends. “I was merely being kind and looking after said hoodie because it was abandoned by its owner,”
“Oh yeah and you’ve fought real hard to reunite us,”
“Can we get back to the main issue at hand? Which is that I’m kinda pissed off that you look better in that shirt than I do.”
Harry chuckles to himself and presses an affectionate kiss to her temple. “You’re too kind.”
Alani rests her cheek against his chest and listens to the rain pattering harshly against the window, admiring the flashes of lightning that illuminate the dimly lit room. Harry had convinced her to stay the night, worried about her driving home alone in the storm, and he was met with very little resistance. Secretly, he thanks the rain gods for allowing him another night to hold her close. 
********
“H, you gotta tell her,” Jeff had warned the previous night. “I already pushed the flight back a week—”
“I know,” Harry huffed. “I just need a little more time.”
Jeff sighed, rubbing his tired eyes with the heels of his hands. “You have until this weekend when we go away with the girls. One week in Maui, and then it’s back home. I’m sorry.”
********
Harry’s stomach turns remembering the conversation, but he decides to push all the nagging thoughts to the back of his mind and focus on the present. 
“You all packed?” he asks, trailing his fingers up and down her arm. 
Alani drapes her leg over his hip and nods. “Been packed since last week.”
She had been ecstatic the day after Mila and Chad’s wedding when Harry invited her to tag along on the couple’s trip with Jeff, Tom, and their significant others. His eagerness to include her in his friend group was not only reassuring, but exciting. It felt like their lives were coming together, even more so after she had introduced him to her parents. They, of course, had adored him and quickly given their seal of approval. While Alani knew that it was ultimately her choice, it still felt good to have support from the most important people in her life, and she hoped to win his friends over just as easily. Harry, on the other hand, had no doubts that she would fit right into his chosen family. Her name had been cautiously dropped during a weekly FaceTime call with his mother and sister, and he was overjoyed when they enthusiastically grilled him for details. 
What Harry was less sure of, however, was how Alani would react upon hearing that his vacation was up and that he would be headed back to L.A. in a week’s time. It was still early in their relationship and an indeterminate break seemed less than ideal. He had tried to convince both Jeff and the label that he could finish the album in Hawaii, but the same couldn’t be said for Jeff Bhasker, Mitch, Tom, and his new bassist, Adam, who all had families waiting for them back on the mainland. It was too risky personally and financially, so Harry reluctantly negotiated one last week to persuade Alani that a long-distance relationship wouldn’t be a death sentence. 
“What d’you wanna watch?” he asks, sitting up against the headboard to turn on the T.V. 
Alani sighs and settles deeper into his side. “When Harry Met Sally,”
“But it’s not Christmas or New Year’s,”
“So?”
“So,” Harry explains. “We have to wait ‘til the holidays, wouldn’t be right otherwise,”
Alani scoffs and peers up at him with a judgemental look. “So I guess Serendipity is also out of the question?”
“We’ll have all Christmas to get through that list, darlin’,”
Her stomach flips at his suggestion of their future holiday plans. Privately, she had wondered about such things, as well, including what gifts she might get him or where they would spend the holidays. Though still months away, it suddenly felt within reach. 
“Fine,” Alani softens. “The Notebook,”
“And let you drool over what’s-his-face?” Harry pokes. “No fuckin’ way,”
Alani pinches his side and sits up. “Would you stop being insecure about that? I’ve already told you I was just kidding that time,”
“Yeah well, it still stings,”
“Why don’t you tell me your celebrity crush? You know, so I can be totally fine about it because it doesn’t mean anything,”
Harry shrugs, the corners of his lips turning into a playful smirk. “Don’t have one,”
“Liar,”
“M’serious,”
“Why, because you’ve already dated them?”
“Hey,” Harry pouts. “That was a bit snippy,”
Alani’s muscles tighten. She hadn’t realized that his dating history was a sore spot, but she takes a deep breath and plants a sweet kiss to his jaw as an offering of peace. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,”
“S’alright. Truce?”
“Deal,”
“Jennifer Aniston,”
“Huh?”
“My celebrity crush,” Harry explains shyly. “When I was younger,”
Alani giggles lightly. “I see. Good taste, she’s hot,”
“Don’t tell me you’re gonna leave me for her too,”
“I just might,”
“Can’t say that I blame you,”
“Look I know this is a cute little bit we do,” Alani sits up, her gaze dead-set on Harry’s to communicate the seriousness behind her words. “But I just want you to know that I feel so lucky to be with you. I’m not going anywhere any time soon,”
Harry swallows harshly. It was everything he’d ever wanted to hear and it kills him that he can’t return the sentiment with full honesty. A little less than a week is all he has to prove that even though he physically has to go, his heart will remain wherever Alani is. “Me either,”
Another round of thunder booms outside and the lights fizzle out, leaving the room completely dark save for the intermittent flashes of lightning that gently illuminate the room. 
“So much for watching a movie, huh?” Alani sighs. 
“I think I know some other ways we can keep ourselves entertained.”
********
Harry sets a steaming cup of tea down onto the table in front of Alani and she looks up from her tube of nail polish curiously. Harry flashes a dimpled grin in her direction and whistles a familiar tune, one that she had heard in the studio when he was busy doing his Bob Dylan impression. 
“What’re you singing?”
“Hm?”
“The song,” she clarifies. “You were singing it the other day, what is it?”
Harry serves her plate of hash browns and shrugs. “Dunno, just a little tune ‘ve been workin’ on,”
“It’s nice,”
“Thanks, sweets,” he offers, setting her food down and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. 
“Hey Alani,” Jeff interrupts, stepping into the kitchen with his cellphone pressed to his shoulder.
“Glenne wants to know if you’re okay with her setting up a spa thing for you guys,”
"Yeah, definitely,” Alani perks up. 
“Cool, thanks.”
“Look at you,” Harry teases, taking a bite of his toast coated in strawberry jam. “Minglin’ with the girls,”
“They’re not even here yet,” 
He scans over her appearance and his brows furrow, hit with the sudden realization that she’s dressed in formal attire. 
“What’s with the fancy outfit”
“I have a meeting, remember?”
“With?”
Alani blows on her freshly painted nails and holds up her other hand for Harry to do the same. 
“My senior advisor. We’re going over my research project,”
Harry’s brows raise. “Smarty-pants,”
Alani had scheduled her meeting with Dr. Hudson months ago and had, truthfully, forgotten all about it until she had received a courtesy email the day prior. She had been working on her proposal in the spare minutes she had away from Harry, which were few and far between, but she knew the initial meeting would be much more casual. Alani checks the time on her phone and stands quickly when she realizes that she is supposed to meet Dr. Hudson in  less than thirty-minutes. 
“Gotta go,” she offers, shoveling potatoes into her mouth and grabbing her bag. 
Harry ceases blowing on her nails and kisses the back of her hand before sticking out his lips for a kiss of his own. “Good luck, darlin’. Meet me at the studio after?”
“Sure thing, sunshine. See you later.”
********
“How did the Joni Mitchell piece go? You never told me,” Dr. Hudson questions, taking a sip of her coffee. 
Alani offers a shy smile and toys with the hem of her skirt. “A flop,”
“Just one more closer to the winner,”
“Yeah,” Alani sighs, stirring her smoothie. “Maybe it’s time to move on from that,”
The professor shoots her a disapproving look and sets her drink down. “Alani—”
“I just think maybe there’s more realistic—”
“You are not giving up,” Dr. Hudson reassures her. “You’ve come too far and you’re a terrific writer. One of the best I’ve ever had the pleasure of teaching. These things take time,”
Alani nods gently, her lips pursed in a tight smile. “Thank you, that really means a lot,”
“What are you working on right now?”
Absolutely nothing, Alani thinks, but then she remembers the half-written article about Harry sitting in her files. 
“A short piece about… a local musician,”
Dr. Hudson’s brows raise, intrigued, and she nods. “That sounds interesting. Definitely more personal,”
You have no idea. “Thanks. I mean, it’s not really anything—”
“I’d love to read it when you’re finished,” the professor continues. “What’s the scope?”
Alani thinks, trying not to give too much incriminating detail about her subject or their relationship. 
“Well,” she starts, hesitant. “He’s writing new music and working on his first album. I guess I kind of want to follow his journey and redefinition of success in the music industry,”
Dr. Hudson hums. “I love it. Send me a draft.”
Alani swallows and takes a minute to consider the offer. Surely there couldn’t be anything wrong about sharing her work privately with her advisor. She had been so excited about the potential of the article when it was first started, but it had since been neglected like so many of her other rejected pieces. Starting again seemed exciting, and she knew that Harry would be pleased to play such an important role in making her dreams come true. That had, after all, been the initial terms of their agreement. 
“Okay,” Alani accepts. “I will.”
********
Harry draws out the last note and Mitch lets the chord ring between them for a moment. 
“I think that’s the one,”
“Yeah, I liked that progression better,”
“Hope you got that, Bhasker,” Mitch calls to Jeff in the sound booth, who gives a thumbs up in response. 
Harry continues humming, his head still bobbing to the tune, when he hears the studio door creak unpleasantly. His eyes shoot up to find Alani wincing and timidly stepping into the room. 
“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt,”
He softens and beckons her over. “Never an interruption, sweets,”
Alani slots herself between his legs and wraps her arms around his neck, giving a gentle peck to the tip of his nose before pressing their lips together.
“How’s the weather?”
“Just got a lot sunnier,”
“Meeting go well?”
She nods and twists a lock of his chestnut hair between her fingers. “Yeah, actually,”
“Then we should celebrate!” Harry perks up, peppering a kiss to her cheek. “Dinner, wine, movie, the whole shebang,”
Alani frowns, thinking back to the article she promised Dr. Hudson. “Hmmm, raincheck?”
Her boyfriend deflates. “You’re ditching me?”
“Just for one night,” she explains, pulling him closer. “I wanna finish up some school stuff before our trip. Otherwise I won’t be able to give you my full attention,”
Harry pouts, but he nods understandingly. “‘Kay,”
“I’m sorry, sunshine. I’ll miss you tons,”
“Ditto, sweets,”
Alani presses her forehead against his and her fingertips wander through the growing curls at the nape of his neck. “Please don’t be upset,”
Harry smiles warmly and smoothes his hands up and down her back. “Never, m’love. Could never be upset with you,”
“Promise?”
“Promise,” he nods, planting a sweet kiss to her lips. “Hey, I wanna play you somethin’,” 
Alani grins and pulls back a bit to read his expression. “Let’s hear it,”
Harry grabs the guitar next to him and slings it over his shoulder before adjusting the capo. The song starts sweet and gentle, his voice light to match the tune. 
And oh we started 
Two hearts in one home 
It’s hard when we argue 
We’re both stubborn I know, but oh
Sweet creature, sweet creature
Wherever I go, you bring me home 
Sweet creature, sweet creature
When I run out of road, you bring me home 
Alani watches in awe as he pours so much emotion behind every word, his vocals effortlessly powerful and rich. She claps when the song finishes and leans in for a kiss. 
“I love it,”
“S’not finished yet,” Harry shrugs, still fiddling with the strings. “Just the chorus right now,”
“Will you teach it to me?”
His brows raise in surprise. “You play?”
“No,” Alani admits. “But I have a feeling you’re a good teacher,”
“Well, let’s see what you got,”
Alani turns and Harry props the guitar in her lap, his arms wrapping around her as he guides her into the right position. His left hand demonstrates the beginning chord and she replaces his fingers on the fretboard to try for herself. She strums and the beginning note resonates in near-perfect pitch. 
“Hey,” Harry beams. “You’re a regular Hendrix,”
He continues positioning her fingers over the right spaces and letting her strum, humming the lyrics softly into the shell of her ear. 
“We don’t argue that much,” Alani defends playfully. 
Harry chuckles and kisses her temple. “Maybe not, but we’re really good at makin’ up.”
“Easy, Styles.”
********
Harry: Hungry?
Alani peels her eyes away from the computer screen and reads the message lighting up her phone. 
Alani: Not really
Harry: …
Harry: oh 
She laughs and pads over to the window. Sure enough, Harry holds up two bags and flashes a cheesy grin down below. 
“Need a study break?”
“I’ll meet you at the door.”
Harry makes himself comfortable in the middle of her bed and unpacks the bags. 
“I’ve got a California and a spicy tuna for my favorite girl,” he announces. “With a side of eel sauce,”
“And the world's best boyfriend goes to Mr. Harry Styles,” Alani grins, taking a seat next to him. 
He smirks and pulls out his own order of miso soup and sushi. “How’s the homework comin’ along?”
“Not too shabby,”
“Glad to hear it,”
“Hey, what time do I meet you at the airport tomorrow?” she asks, dipping her roll in the sauce. 
Harry freezes and turns to her with confusion written all over his face. “I’m sorry, did my girlfriend just insinuate that we’re not leaving for the airport together?”
“I really need to finish this,” Alani explains. “It’s almost there,” 
“Two nights?” he complains. 
Alani nudges him with her shoulder and shakes her head. “We’re gonna be spending an entire week together, non-stop. You’re gonna get sick of me,”
“Never,” Harry rebuts. “Not possible,”
“Just one more night,” Alani bargains. “Then I’m all yours, no interruptions.”
He nods and takes a sip of his soup. “Alright, deal.”
You have to tell her, Jeff’s voice rings in his mind. 
********
The airline stewardess ushers Harry and Alani to their seats while Scott and Miles settle down a few rows behind. She didn’t know exactly what to expect from first-class, but suddenly the perks of having a famous boyfriend increased tenfold by the sight of their luxurious accommodations.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Alani asks while Harry hovers over his chair. 
“Sitting, or I was about to,”
“And you’re not even gonna offer rock-paper-scissors for the window seat?”
Harry shakes his head with an amused chuckle. “No because I already know that you’re gonna get up to pee every five minutes,”
“Not true,”
“It is too true and it’s exactly why we can’t cuddle while we fall asleep,”
“Or maybe the reason is because I’m claustrophobic and I just don’t wanna hurt your feelings,”
Harry frowns. “Really?”
“No,” Alani admits, taking the aisle seat. “I just said that so you’d give me the window,”
“Get up, we’re switching,”
“Thank you, sunshine! You’re the best,”
Harry slumps into his new chair and crosses his arms. “Forty-five minutes and we’re already fighting like an old married couple,”
“Oh really?” Alani smirks. “Is that what old married couples argue about? Who gets the window seat?”
“And leaving the toilet seat up, going antique shopping—” 
“—What old married couples have you been hanging out with—?”
“—Picking up the kids from school,”
Alani presses a kiss to his shoulder and rests her head in the crook of his neck. Her eyelids are still heavy from staying up the night before, but her article was completely finished and sent off to Dr. Hudson just like she’d promised. Now, she could enjoy her vacation free of any worry or obligation, completely focused on the perfect boy still rambling next to her. 
“But, obviously I mean that doesn’t count, right?” Harry asks, craning his neck and smiling softly when he sees that his girlfriend has already dozed off. He kisses the top of her head gently and lets his own eyes flutter close with a deep, contented breath. 
********
“And then I’ll have to repaint it, but I haven’t decided on a color yet,” Glenne explains to Alani as they stroll through the airport. 
Alani hums. “It was your grandmother’s?” 
“Well, it was somebody’s grandmother’s. We picked it up at this little antique shop in Santa Monica.”
Jeff escorts Glenne into the shuttle car while Harry and Alani share a knowing look and stifle their laughter. They shuffle into the back seats as Tom and his wife, Jenny, claim the middle row. 
“So you’re a journalist?” Jenny asks, turning in her seat eagerly to face Alani. 
“Not quite,” she explains with a polite smile. “Still a student, but hopefully someday,”
Jenny nods and twirls the ring around her finger. “Sounds exciting. Maybe you can hitch a ride on tour with this one and do some writing there.”
“Yeah,” Alani smiles, settling further into Harry’s side. “Maybe.”
The idea of traveling the world with Harry and being a part of the excitement of touring the album was something she had considered briefly, but hadn’t allowed herself to fully indulge until this moment. It was already thrilling to see him polish the songs he had begun during his trip, but she could only imagine how much more special it would be to see him perform them for the rest of the world. A twinge of jealousy sparks at the thought of having to share any part of him with the public, but Alani knows that his gifts are much too special to keep all for herself. Harry was golden and he deserved to shine in all of his radiant glory. That was exactly what she had penned in her article, and she said it not because he was her boyfriend and there were clear personal investments, but because she knew it was true even before he had shown any romantic interest in her. 
“What’s tour like?” Alani pipes up as Harry watches the landscape out his window. 
He considers it for a moment and clears his throat. “Fun, mostly. Can be tiring,”
“Lots of partying and adoring fans?”
“No,” he chuckles to himself. “Not so much the partying. Enthusiastic fans, sure,”
Alani narrows her eyes. “No partying?”
“Nope,” Harry reiterates. “Don’t really like to do all that stuff when I’m working. Also just didn’t wanna…”
He trails off and Alani waits a beat to see if he’ll continue. “Didn’t wanna?”
“Fuck it up,” he finishes. “You know, like, be the one who ruined a good thing for a little bit of fun.”
She lets his words settle in, rubbing a reassuring circle on the back of his hand. “Makes sense. Sounds really responsible of you to do that.”
Harry presses a soft kiss to her temple and resumes his study of the scenery. They chat amongst their friends for the remainder of the drive and Alani immediately presses Glenne and Jenny for information about her boyfriend in his younger years. They indulge her inquiries and ask their own questions, deciding privately after a few minutes that her and Harry are a good fit. 
When the group arrives at the resort, Glenne takes charge and instructs them all to meet at the lobby for lunch in twenty minutes. They collect their keys and head up to their respective rooms, which are all located on the very top floor. 
“What a view,” Alani muses as she takes in the sight from their private balcony. 
Harry admires the wonder on her face and nods, his eyes not leaving her side profile. “You’re tellin’ me,”
“Let’s never go home,” she poses, arms snaking around his torso. “Let’s stay here forever, just me and you,”
His throat tightens as he thinks back to the inevitable conversation waiting for them. Harry didn’t know why it was so hard to think about leaving because he had every intention of keeping touch and making their relationship work at all costs. But there was a part of him, a very tiny recess in the back of his mind, that feared the possibility of Alani not feeling the same. 
“Yeah,” he agrees with a gentle kiss to the tip of her nose. “Whatever you want, sweets,”
Alani senses a shift in his demeanor, but she can’t read it. “You okay?”
“Never better,” Harry swallows, mustering up a small smile. “But I am hungry,”
She isn’t entirely convinced that there isn’t something bothering him, but she decides not to push it and tightens her grip around his waist, instead. 
“Race you to the lobby.”
“You’re on.”
********
“You’ve never seen Finding Nemo?”
“Was I s’posed to?”
“My god,” Alani marvels. “You know, I’m starting to believe those rumors that you were grown in a lab,”
Harry’s brow raises and he blinks. “That I was what?”
The restaurant that Glenne and Jeff chose features an aquarium tunnel at the entrance, much to both Harry and Alani’s excitement. Fish, large and small, swim around them and the pair take turns pointing out their favorite colorful species. The Hull’s snap photos for their four year-old daughter, but Jenny also secretly captures one of Harry and Alani with their hands clasped under the mesmerizing blue lighting as a keepsake for her friend. 
“Add Finding Nemo to our movie list,” Alani says, admiring a clownfish that swims close to the glass. 
“S’it  gonna make me cry?”
“Probably,”
“Goddamnit,” 
Alani giggles softly and turns her head away from the glass to silently observe Harry under the lighting of the rippling water. The combination of his serene features and the sound of Billie Holiday’s I’ll Be Seeing You over the sound system creates a perfect image in her mind, one that makes her afraid to blink, lest it be gone forever. Harry glances over at her through the corner of his eye and his lips curl. 
“Checkin’ me out?”
“Always,”
“Like whatcha see?”
“Love it.”
His heart nearly stops at her words, but before he has a chance to process their implication, the hostess calls on their group. 
“And I’ll have the piña colada,” Harry orders once they're seated. 
“Oh my god, H,” Glenne laughs from across the table. “That reminds me, remember your birthday last year when James got trashed and hoarded the karaoke machine for, like, two hours?”
“Ruined that song forever,” Jeff quips, reliving the memory of the Late-Late host drunkenly serenading the entire party with the same song on repeat. 
Harry cringes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I try not to,”
Alani watches as they reminisce on the event, adding their own details and pieces to the puzzle. It’s amusing to watch, but a small part of her also has to fight the pang of exclusion settling into the pit of her stomach. She feels guilty for being affected by it knowing, logically, that it isn’t intentional or malicious in any way. Still, Alani is painfully reminded of the vast differences between their worlds. Harry had gotten to know practically every part of her life, including her family, but there was still so much that she didn’t know about his. It was something she worked hard not to dwell on, given the novelty of their relationship, but she also worried that fear and insecurity would prevent her from investing what little of her heart Harry hadn’t claimed yet. 
“Who was it that started dancing on a table and almost broke a chandelier?” Tom asks, wracking his brain. 
“I think it was Ken—” Jeff hesitates, clearing his throat. “Actually, I don’t remember,”
Harry shifts in his seat beside Alani and reads over the menu, quickly changing the subject. “What’re you gonna get?”
“I don’t know,” Alani admits. “Everything looks so good,”
“Oh look,” Jenny pipes up across from Harry. “They’ve got your fav, the mango sorbet. I wonder if it’s as good as the one in Italy,”
Harry beams and reads over the item. “Oh yeah, that was amazin’,” 
Alani files the detail to the back of her mind. She hadn’t known mango was his favorite flavor of anything, and while it was a trivial detail, she realized that there were so still many little details about him that she wanted to know. Harry had made such an effort to remember everything about her, like her go-to sushi order and the fact that she always saved the kiwis for last in her fruit salad, so it made her feel a touch guilty that she hadn’t made the same effort. 
“Wanna share the coconut shrimp?” Alani asks with a gentle nudge to his shoulder. 
“Oh, uh—”
“He’s allergic,” Glenne says offhandedly, not cold or condescending, but more in the same way that an older sister would. 
“Oh my god,” Alani’s eyes widen. “I’m so sorry,”
Harry laughs lightly and shrugs. “S’okay, I’d let you poison me,”
“I didn’t mean to be rude,” Glenne apologizes, reaching her hand out to Alani. “I thought you knew.”
Alani accepts the hand and waves away her concern. “No, don’t worry about it. I didn’t know, actually.”
“We can stop talking about my defects now,” Harry teases. “‘M not dyin’,”
He leans in closer to Alani and presses a kiss to her temple. “But if I was, it’d be an honor to have my last meal with you.”
She responds with a soft smile before returning her attention back to the menu. His sentiments, however sweet, unfortunately did very little to soothe the embarrassment of her mini faux pas. It was irrational, Alani knew this, but it made her wonder what else she didn’t know and what bigger secrets he was potentially keeping. Whose name had Jeff meant to say earlier to identify the mystery dancer at Harry’s party, and why had it created an awkward shift in the air? She decides not to let the spiraling questions spoil her fun and takes a generous sip of her cocktail to avoid them for the time being. 
********
Harry sets the room key on the nightstand next to their king sized bed and lets himself sink down into the soft mattress. The group had spent the entire day sightseeing, from botanical gardens to scenic beaches, but he was really itching for some quality time alone with Alani. Lately, their time together had been cut frustratingly short by work, school, and life in general. Even when they were seated right next to each other with arms linked or fingers interlocked, she felt far away and he didn’t know why. He hoped that this trip would allow them time to reconnect and solidify their relationship before he had to return to California. 
“Mini bar,” Alani comments, kicking her shoes off and wandering over to the small refrigerator in their suite. “Who’s paying again?”
“The label,”
“Thank you Columbia Records,”
She swipes a few bottles of tequila before climbing into the bed next to Harry. 
“Wanna play a game?”
Harry props himself up on his elbow and nods. “What kinda game?”
“Never have I ever,” Alani explains. “But instead of putting your finger down, you take a shot,”
“Sounds dangerous,”
“It’ll be fun. You can go first if you want,”
He hums and nods in agreement before sitting up to face her. “‘Kay. Never have I ever...named my car after a musician,”
“Cheap shot,” Alani narrows her eyes, taking a sip from the bottle of Jose Cuervo. 
“Your turn,”
She fiddles with the bottle cap, a question already in mind, though she isn’t sure if she should ask it. 
“Never have I ever… dated a model,”
Harry’s brow furrows, but he opens his own bottle slowly and takes a sip. “So it’s that kind of never have I ever,”
“Just trying to keep it interesting,” Alani shrugs innocently. 
“Right. Never have I ever slept with a guy named David,”
Her eyes widen, but she laughs half-heartedly and takes a sip. “Jeez, okay. Never have I ever—”
“Wait, so you two actually…” Harry interrupts, trailing off at the end. 
“I mean,” Alani starts, her eyes wandering to the ceiling. “Yeah, a long time ago,”
“How long ago?”
“Okay, maybe this was a mistake—”
Harry shakes his head. “No, I’m sorry. I’ll play nice,”
“Alright,” Alani accepts. She knows that she should probably steer the game back onto safer territory, but the wound has been re-opened and she can’t resist the urge to keep picking at it. “Never have I ever slept with a fan,”
Harry takes a slow sip. “Never have I ever cheated on my partner,”
The bottle stays put in Alani’s hand. “Never had I ever gone on a vacation with my partner before this trip,”
The tequila washes over his tongue bitterly like the faint memories that it symbolizes. “Never have I ever dated someone just for the publicity,”
The bottle in Alani’s hand doesn’t move, much to Harry’s relief, but her mind is not as tranquil. 
“Never have I ever told someone I loved them when I didn’t,” she says slowly.  
Harry takes another shot and it burns all the way down. “Why are we doin’ this?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t wanna play anymore,”
“Alani,” he starts, springing to his feet when she leaves the bed. “Hey, look at me, please,”
She blinks back the tears that threaten to spill over her lower lashes before turning to him. “I’m sorry, that was a stupid game,”
“S’just all out of context,” Harry offers, reaching for her hands. “Wasn’t the right way to have all of those conversations,”
Alani takes a deep breath and nods. “Yeah, you’re right,”
“What’s really botherin’ you, hm sweets?” He coos, bringing her cold knuckles to his warm lips. “Tell me, please?”
She releases a shaky breath and tries to sift through the fog in her brain for the right answer.
 “I don’t know, really, I just,” Alani hesitates. “Am I a bad girlfriend?”
“No,” Harry says quickly, his hands lifting to cup her face. “God no, you’re the best,”
“Then why didn’t I know that your favorite ice cream flavor was mango? And why didn’t I know that you were allergic to coconut, and why—”
“Hang on, is that what this is all about?” he questions. “Cause I’ll go eat an entire coconut right now,”
Alani laughs lightly and pinches her eyes shut. “No, it’s not about that. I just feel like you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met and you make me feel so fucking special and, God, I just wanna be good enough for you because—”
Harry holds his breath and watches as her eyes gloss over. 
“Because I love you,” she finishes, voice small. “More than I ever thought possible,”
His own eyes sting, but he doesn’t fight the tears that fall as he presses his lips to hers firmly. 
“I love you, too,” Harry murmurs. “I love you so fuckin’ much it drives me crazy,”
Alani chuckles softly. “Ditto,”
“I’ve been wanting to say it for ages, can’t believe you beat me to it.”
“Guess you’re not the only one full of surprises.”
********
The early morning sunlight creeps gently into Harry and Alani’s room, casting a soft, golden glow onto the bare skin that peeks through the white duvet. Harry stirs first, a strand of Alani’s hair tickling his nose and making him smile. He prys his heavy eyelids open and winces at the dull aching of his head aggravated by the light. Alani hears his muffled groan and sighs, willing the sun to go back down and let her sleep a few more hours. 
“Mornin’ sweets,” he rasps with a warm kiss to her bare shoulder. 
She peels her own tired eyes open and flashes a sleepy grin. “Good morning, sunshine,”
“How’d you sleep?”
“Super. You?”
Harry props himself up on his elbow and rests his chin in his palm as he admires the traces of sleep still on her face.
“Just swell.”
Alani chuckles lightly and reaches a hand up to comb through his unruly bedhead. His skin is warm to the touch, and the light from the window casts a heavenly glow around his visage. She pokes her finger into his dimple, which elicits a soft laugh and makes his smile grow wider. They stay intertwined under the sheets as the sun fully rises and soak up their own details to keep as souvenirs from this moment. Alani takes in the scent of vanilla and the juxtaposition of Harry’s inked bicep against the plain, white sheets. He stores away the image of her sleepy, mocha eyes and the pink, manicured fingernails that trail up and down his arm. Neither of them are sure exactly how long they remain in this moment, for all they know it could be hours or days. But whatever the duration, it doesn’t seem to be enough. I need more time, Harry had told Jeff, but there was no more left to give. He had to tell her, and it was now or never. 
“Hey,” he begins carefully. “I need to tell you something,”
Alani sits up to be eye level with him and nods. “Anything,”
Harry waits a beat, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear and pressing his lips to her bare shoulder before letting the confession spill out. 
“I have to go back to L.A.,”
 “I kinda figured,”
He draws in a deep sigh of relief. “You did?”
“Yeah,” Alani shrugs. “Hilo isn’t exactly Hollywood,”
“I asked for more time, but the label—”
“No, I get it. So… when? Next month?”
“Friday,”
Alani’s brows furrow. “This Friday?”
“Yeah,” Harry admits with a gulp. 
“The last day of our trip?”
“Yes,”
Her heart drops into her stomach and she feels sick. It all made sense now why Harry’s mood had shifted when she jokingly asked him not to leave, and why he had been so insistent on spending as much time together as possible this week. Their game of never have I ever turned instantly defensive when asked about his dating history. Never had I ever gone on vacation with my partner before this trip. Never have I ever told someone I loved them when I didn’t. He had whisked her away on a farewell trip and God knows who else had been in her place before, or worse, who would be in it next. Harry was saying good-bye. 
“Wait,” Alani says finally, mind still racing too fast to process. “How long have you known?”
“Alani—”
“How long?”
Harry swallows. “Couple of weeks,”
“You knew for weeks and you didn’t tell me?” she questions incredulously.
“I tried—”
“You know that I hate surprises, you know how I feel about plans—”
“I’m sorry,” Harry insists, sitting up straighter. “I wanted to tell you so many times, but it just never felt right,”
Alani rolls her eyes. “So what, you were just gonna leave a fucking sticky note on my pillow and hope for the best?”
“Don’t say that—”
“Is that why you brought me here?” she asks, voice hoarse. “Is that why you gave me this necklace? A souvenir of our little summer fling so you could leave with a clear conscience?”
Harry’s jaw tightens. “How could you even think that?”
“Because maybe it’s true. Why else would you wait until the very last minute to tell me about this?”
“Maybe we should take a minute,” he suggests, the whites of his eyes now bloodshot. “Before we say something we’ll regret,”
“I think I already did.” Alani admits. Never have I ever told someone I loved them when I didn’t. 
Harry’s head pounds and he feels like he’s drowning, treading water in every direction only to be dragged further into the current. He quickly pulls on his clothes from the night before and tries to steady his breathing. 
“M’gonna go wait in the hall,” he offers. “Give you some space to think and then we’ll talk, yeah?”
Alani doesn’t respond or even meet his pleading eyes. She simply tightens the duvet around her body and turns her head to the window, letting a single, bitter tear roll down her cheek. The door closes softly and she is immediately filled with regret and guilt. Had she truly meant all of the things she said? Or was it fear and the instinct to flee taking over her mouth? Alani wanted to believe that she was wrong and that Harry hadn’t intentionally kept her in the dark, but from where she stood, the sun had long disappeared behind the clouds and all that was left was the storm. 
Harry trudges down the hallway and the walls spin, closing in on him slowly. If he had just told Alani sooner, everything would be different. He had avoided doing so for this exact reason and out of fear that their relationship wouldn’t be worth the risk in her mind. It was selfish—he was selfish—to try to make the decision for her, and now the woman he loved was getting ready to walk away because he had broken her trust. What else was there to do? His back meets the wall and he sinks to the floor. 
“Hey H,” Jeff clears his throat from above. “We should talk,”
“She knows. Didn’t go well,”
“So she did approve the article?” 
Harry lifts his head and his brows furrow. “What?”
There’s a harsh knock at the door and Alani jumps. In Harry’s absence, she had managed to cool off and sift through her frantic thoughts. She had been wrong to think that he used her, all it took was a quick stroll down memory lane to prove otherwise. He had never given her any true reason not to trust him, so there had to be some other reason why he hadn’t told her about his plans to leave so soon. Alani pads over to the door and unlocks it gently. 
“Harry, I’m sor—”
“Wanna talk about surprises?” he seethes. “What the fuck is this?”
She squints at the phone screen that he holds up to her face and the title of her unpublished article stares back at her. 
“I don’t know—”
“Well it has your goddamn name on it,” Harry shoots back. 
Alani steps aside and lets him into the room before she closes the door behind her. “I can explain—”
“Did you write it or not?”
“Yes, but—”
He shuts the phone off and slams it face down onto the night stand. “How fucking dare you call me a liar and then pull this shit behind my back,”
“I didn’t lie,” Alani defends, voice weak. “I had no idea it was going to be published, please just listen—”
“A class project,” he interrupts with his back still turned. “That’s what you said,”
“It was never meant to be released,”
“How do I know that? How do I know you’re not just trying to cover your ass?”
“Please,” Alani begs as her vision begins to blur. “I was wrong, I shouldn’t have said all those things,”
Harry runs a hand through his hair and casts his eyes to the ceiling in an attempt to quell the emotion that pools behind his eyes. 
“So why did you?”
“I was scared,”
“Of?”
Alani takes a deep breath. “Of losing you for good. Of falling in l—”
“Don’t,” he interrupts. “Don’t finish that sentence,”
“I don’t know how,” she tries again. “And I don’t know who released it, but I swear—”
“You really expect me to trust a word you say after you accused me of lying about this whole thing, about us?”
Harry’s  gaze lowers back to hers and the bright, green eyes that she has come to love are replaced with a blood-shot, stormy sea that makes her stomach drop. The words get caught in her throat. 
“I fucked up,” he continues. “I know that I should’ve told you. But I’m having a hard time believing that this wasn’t planned, that this random website would just accidentally publish your work without your consent,”
Alani can’t explain it either, she truly had no idea how her writing had ended up in the wrong hands. There was only one other person she had entrusted it with, but surely Dr. Hudson hadn’t betrayed her, had she? Alani didn’t know who to believe anymore. 
“Harry, I’m so sorry,” she tries. “I didn’t mean what I said, and I know I can’t take it back, but you have to at least believe that I never wanted to hurt you,”
Harry is silent for a moment, and Alani decides that it’s her turn to tell the truth. There was nothing left to lose. 
“At first, I did want to publish it,” she explains. “But I changed my mind and I scrapped the whole thing. In the end, the only person I intended to show it to was you,”
“So how did it get onto the internet for the whole fucking world to see?” he presses. 
Alani sighs. “My advisor wanted to know what I was working on, so I sent it to her, but she never had my permission to publish it. Now I realize how stupid it sounds, but it’s the truth,”
“If you had come to me, I would have given you permission,”
“I’m so sorry,”
Harry’s shoulders tense. Every fiber of his being  wants to believe her, but how could he? She had told him herself that things would be messy and warned him that he didn’t know what he was asking by pursuing a relationship with her. Maybe it really was all his fault for not seeing the signs, but that still didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t trust her anymore. And based on her reaction to the news of his departure, it seemed as though Alani didn’t trust him either. 
“Even if you’re telling the truth,” Harry begins, slow and deliberate. “You still thought, after everything, that I would abandon you. And if that’s the kind of person you think I am, if that’s the person you wrote about—”
“Harry—”
“Then I hope you got all the material you wanted.”
“Please, don’t go.” Alani cries but it’s too late. The door slams and her heart falls. 
After a beat, she races to the door and into the hallway but there’s no sign of Harry. As quickly as he had appeared into her life, he had vanished. Gone without a trace.
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