#so this is my last clip i swear xD

[pissfaggit]

Meeting Rick the Door technician is a harrowing enough experience as it is but this really just elevated it to a whole other level

[itsyourstarboy]

Streamer!Honey Headcanons Pt.3

First Part Next Part

It’s about damn time I made part 3, and this is, once again, less headcanons and more just Guy interrupting Honey’s stream

Okay so, we’ve talked about how Honey’s fan base likes to theorize on their and Guy’s relationship. Some fans think they have mutual crushes on one another, some think they’re secretly dating, some think they’re just roommates.

Chat asks Honey questions about their love life all the time, and Honey has fun by always giving vague answers.

Even Guy has joined in on occasion.

♡♡♡♡♡♡

★someone donated $1★

HoneysHeaven: are you single??

"Guy, what the actual fuck."

Answer the damn question 👁️👁️

Not him flirting in front of 176k people 🤣🤣

HoneysHeaven: are you though??

My man's is just shooting his shot, give him a break

Honey pinches the bridge of their nose and sighs, though the way the corner of their mouth twitches upward is poorly hidden. "No, I'm not single."

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

✍️[Honey]✍️is✍️not✍️single✍️

OH SO NOW WE GET A STRAIGHT ANSWER

OOOOHHHH B))))))

CLIP FOR PROOF CLIP FOR PROOF NO TAKE BACKS

📸📸📸📸📸📸📸

📸📸📸📸📸📸📸📸📸

Wait but is Guy single?

That's the real question ^^^

HoneysHeaven: I'm dating the most loving, caring, sweetest person in the world 🥰🥰

AAWWWWW

IM GONNA BARF

So not [Honey] then?

XD

HES SO WHOLESOME OMFG

AGSKSGSKDGDKF

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA

SOMEONE SAID SO NOT [HONEY] THEN 😂😂😂😂😂😂

LMAOOO

DAMN BRO WHO PISSED IN YOUR CHEERIOS???

—

And even when he's not there, Chat often speaks on his behalf.

♡♡♡♡♡♡

★someone donated $5★

When are you going to ask out your roommate?

"I don't have a roommate."

Machoke? More like choke me-

YES YOU DO??

tf

LIAR LIAR PLANTS FOR HIRE

Who the hell is that dude in your house then 🤨🤨🤨🤨

GUY THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT GUY WHEN ARE YOU GONNA ASK OUT GUY

THIS IS BULLSHIT WE CANT TAKE THEIR WORD FOR IT

Is Guy in the chat rn?? We need to check your sources

"I am not lying, I swear on my goldfish's grave. Guy isn't my roommate, he's just some stray that followed me home one day and now he won't fucking leave."

Ouch

THAT WHY HE LOOK LIKE A WET NOODLE??

Nah nah, we all know you keep him around on purpose 😏😏😏

WE DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE-

A WET NOODLE!? EXCUSE ME!?

★someone donated $20★

Go ask Guy out right now and I'll give you another 80 dollars

Honey scrunches their nose and hums, as if thinking, "I'd love to, but... Guy isn't here right now."

NOOOO WE WERE SO CLOSE

BRIBERY WORKS BUT AT THE WORST OF TIMES

Where is he???? He's not supposed to be outside all alone :(

YOU'D LOVE TO??? 👀👀👀👀

WHAT THEN CALL HIM OR SMTH

YES

CALL HIM

PUT HIM ON SPEAKER SO WE CAN SAY HI

"wha- I can't just call him, he's at work. Do you guys want him to get fired?"

NO

No

Change of plans, we can wait until next stream

We'll get 'em next time boys

It's for the best, no one wants to get asked out over the phone

True true

Teaching [Honey] How to Flirt; Lesson 152: don't ask someone out over the phone

°•°•°•°•°•°

★someone donated $10★

Is Guy there?

"yeah...?"

★someone donated $70★

Cool cool heres the last of that 100 I promised you, now go ASK GUY OUT

OMGOMGOMG

ITS HAPPENING EVERYBODY STAY CALM

AAAAAAHHHHHHH

I SAID STAY FUCKING CALM

AAHLFVAKCBGSNAFAGRCKXN

Sorry

YES YES YES YES YES

👁️👁️🤳 I'm ready and waiting

Honey smirks, and pulls off their headphones. They get out of their chair and open the door to the hallway.

They then sit back down in their chair, yell "GUUYY" (which has him stumbling over himself because they never yell for him like that), and wait.

Guy rushes to Honey, but stops short of entering the room when Honey puts their hand out, "no, no, don't come in, I'm still streaming."

Guy puts a hand over his heart and let's out a breath, "holy shit, Honey, I thought you were being murdered or something." Then he laughs that adorable laugh of his because he's so precious.

Honey can't suppress the chuckle that bubbles up in their throat, "no, I'm fine. Chat just wanted me to ask you something."

Honey spared a quick glance at their monitor, biting their lip to try and hide the devilish smirk that was forming across their features.

ITS HIM ITS HIM

MY BOOOYYYY

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRDDDHDHHDJJ

What the hell is happening to you people y'all need some jesus tf 🛐✝️✝️

THIS IS IT THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR

I DONT NEED JESUS I NEED A FUCKING STRAIGHT JACKET HOOOOOOOWWEEEEEEEEEE

Oh my god 🙊🙊🙊

🎶the best time to wear a striped sweaterrrrr🎶

Guy giggles, "what?"

Honey fails at their weak attempt to hide their smile, biting their tongue as a last ditch effort before giving way, "get out."

Guy laughs through his words, a more confused tone taking place as he repeats his last question, "what?"

Honey stands from their chair again, and leans against the open door. The way it opens inward perfectly covers Guy from view of the camera.

They lean in, a loving smile splaying their lips and lighting up their eyes as they grasp the collar of his shirt to pull him in.

Chat can't see how their faces are only inches apart, they can only hear how Guy let's out a sound of surprise.

Honey plants a chaste kiss on the corner of Guy's mouth and then loosens their grip on his collar in exchange for placing their hand flat on his chest.

Chat can only hear Honey repeat, "get out," when they gently shove Guy backwards so they can close the door again. Their face displays a cheeky grin as they stifle a soft laugh at the sound of a very flustered, and probably offended, Guy.

Then they sit back in their chair and turn their attention back to their stream.

WHAT THE ACTUALLY FRICK WAS THAT??

NOOOOOOOO

DONT GO BACK TO PLAYING UNDERTALE LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED EXPLAIN YOURSELF RIGHT NOW

★someone donated $20★

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO ASK HIM OUT??

Honey feigned confusion as they quirked an eyebrow at the message, "I did ask him out."

NO TF YOU DID NOT

They did not just say that

I

Want

To

Murder

GODDAMNIT

Calm down satan

THIS IS TOO CRUEL EVEN FOR YOU

NOOOO HE SOUNDED SO CONFUSED 😭😭

"I really don't understand what you guys are talking about. I asked him to get out, that's what you all wanted."

MOTHERFU-

THAT IS NOT WHAT ASKING SOMEONE OUT MEANS AND YOU KNOW IT

Teaching [Honey] How to Flirt; Lesson 153: asking someone out means to ask someone on a date

SHUT UP

THEY ALREADY KNOW THAT THEY'RE JUST MEAN

I want my 100 dollars back /hj

[Honey] is deceitful and finds joy in manipulating the emotions of others. I believe they may be some kind of sadist.

Kinky

Y'all need to chill fr

GUYS GUYS LOOK SOMEONE CLIPPED IT HE CALLED THEM HONEY 🥺🥺

"oh, shi-"

—

Honey has adjusted their streaming schedule to line up with Guy's work schedule. This way, he will interrupt them less.

It's a win win for the both of them, because when Guy gets home after a day at work, all he wants is love and affection which he cannot get if his honey is streaming.

But there are times when the stream goes on longer than expected, or Guy gets off early.

♡♡♡♡♡♡

Honey was playing Life is Strange when they heard the front door open. They paused for a moment, expecting to hear Guy's usual "Honey, I'm home" call to announce his presence.

But it didn't come.

They paused the game and lowered their headphones, confusion evident on their face as they turned in their chair slightly, listening to the sounds of Guy putting down his work bag and taking off his shoes.

When the noises stopped, Honey assumed Guy must've just had a long day. They decided they'd check on him after they wrapped up this stream.

A few minutes went by; Honey had nearly forgotten Guy was home, it was so quiet.

★someone donated $1★

HoneysHeaven: Honeeyyy :(

There he is.

The way he typed out their nickname and added a frowny face made them feel soft, and they practically had to physically restrain themself from going, "what, baby?"

Instead they said, "what is it, Guy?"

awwww

He's calling them Honey 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Who made our boy sad??

HoneysHeaven: I'm dyiiing :((

I want to kiss chloe so bad u have no idea

WHAT

OH NO 😰

SOMEONE CALL 911 🚑🚑🚑🚑🚑🚑

NO GOD PLEASE TAKE ME INSTEAD 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Honey left the room without a second thought, their feet leading them straight to where Guy had bundled himself up on the couch. The TV was on, playing the cartoon network channel for some reason, and the lights were off save for a table lamp.

Holding his phone in front of his face while he lay on his side, he turned to look at Honey when he heard their footsteps.

His hair was a mess, he had bags under his eyes, and his cheeks were flushed.

"Honeeyyy," he pouted, his voice coming out strained and scratchy.

Guy had come home sick.

They checked his temperature, got him a cold cloth, brought him medicine, and basically played nurse before finally returning to their stream.

They'd only been gone for 15 minutes.

WHAT DO WE DO WHAT DO WE DO

OH GOD THIS IS TERRIBLE

WE HAVE TO SAVE THEM THATS WHAT WE HAVE TO DO

EVERYONE CALM DOWN

WE GOTTA CALL THE NAVY

What is happening?

I CANT TAKE THIS THE STRESS IS TOO MUCH

I hope Guy is ok 😭

THE ROBOTS ARE RUNNING THE NAVY

NOT THE NAVY 😰😰😰😰😰😰

Guys I'm getting in my helicopter, who wants a ride?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ME

ME

ME TOO

🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁

WAIT EVERYONE THEYRE BACK

Honey gets back to find the chat in utter chaos, but they assure them that everything is fine. Guy is just dramatic.

Things went back to normal for about half an hour.

But then the door opened, and two hands appeared, just in view, flat on the floor.

Honey turns around to see this, "Guy, what are you doing?"

They only get a tired groan, that sounds more like a whine, in response.

Oh nooooo 🥺🥺

Our boy is sicky ☹️☹️☹️

❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

I'll get the rabies shot ready

Honey crouches in front of Guy, who is sprawled out face first on the floor. "Are you wearing my hoodie again?"

Another hum of discomfort. He really isn't feeling well.

They place their hand on his head and pet his hair, tilting their head slightly and speaking in a low voice, "what do you need, baby?"

Guy made "hmph" noise, and tapped his hands which were still stretched out in front of him.

Honey stood, and made their way back over to their computer.

Hope he gets better soon ❤️

Aw my goodness he's wearing their hoodie 😍😍

I'm sick too me and guy are twinsies fr

Are we just gonna ignore that th-

They ended the stream. They don't have time to do their regular sign off, they have a sick Guy to take care of.

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

Abbott Elementary Episode 4: Smoking!! I lowkey forgot Abbott aired last night till I saw a clip of it on YouTube earlier, I believe lol. I watched it earlier today and did not liveblog it, but I'm here to talk about it a bit now!

Not much though, because it's late and I had a show tonight, and more tomorrow and Saturday lol.

The fact that they were discouraging substances while all actively using substances is hilarious xDDD It's not where I was expecting that to go lol! Idk what I was expecting, but not that xD

I'm glad it really talked about how broken the system is. I hope that kid doesn't get suspended <3.

Also the jokes the kids made about their vices were wild 💀. That dust bowl was out of control XDD Iconic all around though lol

I'm glad Jacob decided to give up vaping lol, good for him :') <3. Out of all of them his was honestly the most actually harmful lol.

Even though I don't love the detail that he vapes (mostly because you'd think being against it would be one of his many liberal policies lol), I really love that it brought back that smoking comment from the pilot!! Also I can totally spin this into a vices from deep anxiety thing which is lovely lol. Also the air bit was hilarious xD

Anyway they're all idiots but I do love them all lol <33

Also Janine was wild with that teacher lol 💀. I do think there were some things she was right about (like. the literal education parts lol) but dang girl xD love that the sub did not care at all lol

Unrelated but I love Jacob immediately blaming Morton for the smoking lol xD

Anyway seeing them all being chill at the end was great xD. Like Barbara trying the oil, Jacob quitting, etc lol. Good for them :).

This episode caught me off guard a bit, especially since I don't use substances, but I kinda like that, once again! This season is really throwing me off my game in the best way possible - we all need to be made uncomfortable sometimes to learn stuff :). This episode it wasn't too much, because I don't disrespect anyone who uses drugs (of the safe kind), but since I don't it's still a view into the other side.

Also Gregory's was so him xD. Honestly all of them lol - Janine's makes so much sense in hindsight (also Gregory's comment to her about like "Did you smoke last night" 💀 XDD iconic lol), Melissa's (and her smoking background - which by the way, the comments about that were funny too lol) made sense, Barbara's was- yeah xD, her lol, we basically already knew about Ava xD. And of course Jacob's is a callback lol! And it does kinda make sense for him, even if I thought he would know. I mean hey, we do things we know are bad all the time lol, and nobody can resist everything. Also I think I'm in partial denial because I don't want him to have gone through what it puts you through lol xD. Anyway, they were all super accurate :D.

I loved this episode!! I thought it was really great and I'm so excited for the next one :D. I am also utterly terrified :). Help me please :'). The title and description are scaring me and I swear to goodness they better be a mislead. I think they probably are but still xD.

Don't break them up please I need them lol

Also I'll just pretend it never happened anyway xD

Oh dang I probably won't be able to see that episode live either- eh we'll deal with that later.

So yeah! I loved the episode :D. I thought it was really great and super interesting :). I'm excited for the next one!

This has been my review for. . .

Abbott Elementary, Season 3, Episode 4: Smoking

It was really good :)). I'm really excited to see the next one but y'all I am so scared lol.

I'll be back next week for my review of. . .

Abbott Elementary, Season 3, Episode 5: Breakup

See you guys then!!!

[savebatswingaus]

I mean, even with his throat cut open, he’s kind of cute. - RusAmeChu fic

Fic in the link or under the cut. It's old, and I've posted it before, but I can't find the post. :(

Summary:

Russia gets hurt, but thankfully his teammate is here to help him. Prompt: Fantasy Setting/Magic

Notes:

Rpg setting my beloved. I search for any excuse to write a flying fic I swear.   Frick posting these in order, I finished this one and not the two before it, I’m posting it now. XD (I know that this is like… two weeks late. Ignore it.) Words: 2,859 Tws: Throat injury (Just in the beginning though.), winged characters Prompt: Fantasy Setting/Magic

“Okay,” China panicked, hands shaking as he tried to stop the blood that was currently spilling from his teammate’s throat, “Okay.”

Russia forced a smile up at him, but China could tell that it was a pained smile, and that scared him. He knew the wound was painful, he didn’t need proof of it, right? He also knew that Russia was trying to tell him he was fine, but he clearly wasn’t, so his efforts were fruitless. (But even though it failed to reassure him, he felt a stab of respect for Russia, it couldn’t be easy to smile when your HP was so low.) 

He frantically looked up at his teammates, trying not to let his panic spread to them, “Doesn’t anyone have a healing item?” he pleaded, “Any at all?”

Instantly he could see people shuffling through their inventories, some more frantic than others, but it was America who was able to reach an item first. “Here you go,” he rambled, words clipped as he tossed the item over to China, “It’s not much but it’s all I have.”

Without missing a beat, China applied the item to Russia’s throat, ignoring the shivers of pain as the stinging medicine set in, “Anyone else?” he asked, not looking up from his work for even a second, “I don’t know if this is gonna do it.”

Someone handed him some food, and he hurriedly tore it into pieces to feed to Russia. Yeah, food wasn’t always the easiest thing to heal someone with, but it would have to do. (Italy, their healer, had gone out of a trip to look for herbs that morning, and there wasn’t a lot he could do about an injury if he didn’t know about it.)

China had a few levels in healing, but he was a warrior, and magic didn’t come easy to him. Other people in his crew had magic, America for example, but no one had high enough levels in healing to help with a wound like this. Russia was the closest to being able to help, and with his throat cut, he could hardly use the energy needed to shake his head, let alone heal something this big. (Plus, he was a mage, not a healer.)

Why then, was he the one helping? That he didn’t know. Pretty much anyone else would be more suited to this skillset, but no one else had stepped up to the job. Well, except for America. But he had quickly become too hysterical to be much help. (He had calmed down by now, but China could still see his shoulder’s shaking in fear.)

But slowly the food began to help. China was still panicking (especially when his last good bandage stained red), but he could clearly see the glowing purple fading back into Russia’s eyes. It took a moment, but his teammate was healing. However, it wasn’t until the tell tale ‘ ding!’ of a wound healing that he let himself calm down for sure. (Of course, he knew that even if a wound was technically ‘healed’ it could still cause a person to lose HP, but this wasn’t a poison wound, so that shouldn’t be as huge of a problem as it could be.)

He fell back onto his heels, a relieved sigh escaping him as his heart struggled to return to a normal tempo. ‘Thank god,’ was all he could think, even when he didn’t believe in a god, ‘Thank god.’

Forgetting to be careful around his still injured teammate, China dived forward in a hug. Crushing his ribs and reveling in the very alive, ‘oof’ sound he made.

After a moment of processing the situation, the rest of his team began to cheer. (Out of the corner of his eye, he could see America frantically rubbing tears off his face, but he had another teammate to worry about at the moment.) “Russia,” he asked softly, brushing the white hair out of his eyes, “How do you feel?”

Russia took a deep breath in… and then breathed it out again. “Better,” he answered, his voice cracked and muffled from the pain resting at his throat, “Better.”

China nodded and pulled back from the hug, heart soaring as relief flooded him, “That’s good.” (Internally he told himself that that was probably a low bar to be cleared, but any bar was better than none.) 

“He’s okay guys!” He called, giving the last few worriers their cue to celebrate. 

He heard Russia laughing lightly from under him, and even though it was a scratchy laugh, China took it as more proof that he was okay. “Let’s get you back to the base,” he whispered, turning back to his teammate and getting an arm ready to pull him to his feet, “We can try this mission again later.”

Russia nodded and took his hand, cold fingers itching with the shock of magic that filled them. China was right, it was probably a good idea to go home. 

The walk wasn’t far, and both teammates were thankful for that. (China’s knee had gotten injured in a boss fight earlier that week, and Russia was still recovering his HP from his recent throat injury.) Most of their team had stayed out on the mission, completing a small one like this wasn’t normally difficult even with less people than usual (Russia had just been unlucky), but one other person had come with them.

America.

He was an unlikely candidate to follow them back, but China didn’t tell him that. A half warrior half wizard (well, more like three fourths warrior, one fourth wizard), who barely spoke to either of them. He might have been spooked by the blood, but they were all accustomed to it, so China wasn’t exactly sure if that lined up.

“So,” he prompted, their camp in sight but still far enough away to have a short conversation, “How’s it going?”

America shook his head (since China wasn’t facing him, the only reason he knew that was because of the rapid increase of armor noises), and said, “The same as usual.”

Now, China wasn’t an expert on reading people, especially people who were wearing full suits of armor (America had put his helmet back on), but he could still tell that was a lie. But instead of pushing the subject, he casually continued, “Did you forget something back at camp? I could get it if you want to go back to the mission.” 

Russia nodded, and even though he was obviously still hurting, he added, “I could also get something for you if you wanted me too.”

There was a pause where China could tell that America was blushing, but he quickly covered for himself. “No I didn’t forget anything, I just wanted to go back to camp to… um, to-”

China cut in, not wanting him to get too flustered about this, “It’s alright, you don’t have to explain.”

“Everyone needs a break sometimes,” Russia added, “You don’t need to explain why you need one.” If China hadn’t known him as well as he did, he would’ve thought that the purple eyed mage had missed how much America had been dancing the subject, but the slightest twinge of interest ticking at his teammate's voice told him the truth.

“I guess,” America muttered, clearly slightly embarrassed by the acceptance that his teammates were giving him. “Thank you.” He added suddenly, as if remembering rather quickly that ‘thank you’s where a thing.

China smiled and glanced back at him, “You’re welcome,” he looked back forward, and was pleased to see that the camp was pretty much right in front of them, “Now, it’s time to rest up a bit.”

Once they were in his tent and the bandages were swapped out for more efficient items, Russia spoke up. “What do you think he’s really doing here?” he whispered, face weirdly close to China’s, “He’s not in his tent, so he’s not resting.”

“He could be in another tent,” China said, not backing up even though their noses were nearly touching, “Or he could be by the fire.”

“He’s not.” 

China didn’t ask how Russia knew that, but he believed it anyway, “Well, what do you think he’s doing?”

“I think he’s here to ask us out,”

China blinked, suddenly short circuiting from the level of truth that stained Russia’s voice, “What?”

“Well, did you see the way he was looking at you on the way back here?” Russia asked, now actually pushing his nose against China’s and making his eyes blur and duplicate in China’s vision, “Or when you were fighting that dragon?”

China blushed and backed up, suddenly flustered. “No, I didn’t notice,” admiting that made him feel sort of stupid, because thinking back on it now, it was quite obvious, “Why’d you say ‘us’ then? If he was just looking at me?”

Russia giggled and leaned back a little, “The team’s been making bets on when we’d get together,” China felt his mouth fall open as he continued, “You probably didn’t notice because of that new magic skill you’ve been picking up.”

“But why- why would-?” He felt his face redden, “I didn’t- I don’t-”

“Don’t what?” Russia asked innocently, “Think I’m cute?”

China’s thoughts flashed back on memories of Russia defeating monsters, or reading through spell bocks, or teaching him little bits of magic. “No I think-,” he blushed harder, “Well I mean I don’t-'' His mind slid into the way he had felt in any of those instances, a light warmth of love in his chest, a blurring confusion in his brain telling him it was just friendship.

Russia smiled, but managed not to laugh, “That’s alright, I’ll let you figure it out.”

Trying not to think about the realization he’d just had about himself, China spluttered, “Does that mean you think I’m cute?” He asked without thinking, “Or are you just saying this because it’s funny?”

Now Russia actually did laugh, and China felt his HP flicker in embarrassment as his teammate saw right through him. “I guess I do,” he said, touching his throat awkwardly as a second ‘ding’ resonated from it, “You are pretty smart after all.”

“Apparently not smart enough to realize you like men,” China gawked, not admitting to himself that he had also not realized that he liked men, “Specifically me ,”

Russia grinned and clambered to his feet, “What do you say about America then? Since you don’t want to talk about how you feel about me?”

China forced himself not to blush anymore and stood up after him, “Well, I’d have to know him better first, wouldn’t I?”

Russia nodded and smiled, “Of course you would, people need time to figure stuff out,” he jabbed him in the side friendly, “And you seem to have a lot of stuff to figure out right now.”

China yelped indignantly and jabbed him back, but he couldn’t find the words to retort with, so he settled with just that. Russia laughed and lightly slapped away his hand, sending an accidental shock of magic through his teammate, “Come on, let’s go talk to him.”

As they emerged from the tent, China let the sunlight blind him as he tried to cool the heat from his ears. (Any distraction was a good distraction, as far as he was concerned.) 

“America!” Called Russia, voice still scratchy from his injury, “America?”

China blinked a few times and looked around, but their teammate wasn’t in the camp. “I wonder where he’s gone,” he mused, “Is he in his tent?”

“No,” Russia told him, and he sounded worried enough that China didn’t even think to ask how he knew, “No he’s not.”

“Don’t worry,” he reassured him, “He’s probably around camp somewhere,”

Russia nodded, but he didn’t look so sure.

They spent a few minutes searching, but it quickly became clear that the warrior wizard wasn’t anywhere in the camp. (Even so, they searched for a bit longer, but with each second they didn’t find America, Russia got more and more worried.) “We’ll find him,” China said carefully, “He might have gone out for items, right?”

Again, Russia nodded, but also again, he didn’t sound like he believed him entirely.

“We can fly there,” China added, “You’re healed enough to do the spell, right?”

Russia cheered up then, he loved flying, and neither of them could deny that it was an effective way to get around, “Of course,” he said, metaly flicking through spells and letting his eyes flick between colors for them, “Of course I am.”

China smiled and nodded, his new attachment to his teammate glowing in his chest with the magic now spilling from his hands. It was time to fly.

“Let’s go!” Russia grinned, solidifying his ghostly wings behind him, their feathery surfaces fading into something fluffy and real and his spell was completed. (And with the regular shock, China felt wings of his own begin to form.) 

Taking off was a pain, like it always was, but it only took him three tries this time, and that had to count for something. (Russia was more practiced, so it only took him one, but he encouraged him the whole way. Even landing again to show him how high he had to jump a second time.) China felt a blush spread across his face then, and maybe that feeling of caring was what got him into the air for sure.

“Okay,” China yelled over the wind, still fumbling with the rhythm of his wings on the air, “Which way do you want to go first?”

By some miracle, Russia heard him, “I was thinking towards the forest,” he yelled back, “If he’s looking for items, that’s the best place to get a variety.”

China nodded and tried not to drop too far inbetween wingbeats, “Lead the way!”

Russia smiled and China felt the warmth in him grow as he swooped off to the west. He was so graceful, so confident in the air, and China had to respect him for it. (Even when following him was a little bit difficult.)

Screaming across the sky, the two looked towards the ground for their teammate. Wind cut right through their hair and feathers, but China’s cloak was surprisingly resistant to the cold, and for that he was thankful. He beat his wings and soared a bit higher. Even though flying was hard work, and he was cold and already tiring, he had to admit that he felt free. (Free enough to almost forget their lost teammate, or how beautiful Russia looked flying below him. …but that was seriously an almost.) 

He stretched his arms out like his wings, even though the push of the wind fought to keep them at his sides. There was something nice about it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Russia folding his wings into a dive, heading for the forest that they suspected America to be walking through. China gave a final half hearted flap of his wings, and followed. Wings were generated the first time the spell was set on a person, and they could be different for everyone, so all he could say was that he was thankful he was a bird meant to dive. 

It just felt right . 

He sped towards the trees, cutting past Russia with a ‘whoop!’ of pure joy. He was going so fast, and the wind rushed past him even faster. It filled his ears and mouth, tearing his joyful screams from his mouth and tearing them apart like a blender. Gradually he put out his wings, using them in an unnaturally practiced way as he swooped up again, moving in a wave over the rushing trees.

Happily, he glanced behind himself, and quickly spotted Russia following him, a look of impressed shock on his face. China didn’t blame him, he hadn’t known he could do that either. 

But after a few more minutes, the rush of joy wore off, and he could feel his aching muscles all over again. (Thankfully for him though, not a minute after he noticed the tiredness, Russia let out a shout of recognition and circled in for a landing.) 

The landing was appropriately difficult, but watching his more practiced teammate do it first helped. And plus, they were landing in a clearing, so it wasn’t nearly as difficult as it could have been. Still though, he managed to scrape his knee the second he made contact with the grassy ground. It didn’t matter though, because on the other end of the clearing, America was picking flowers.

He had his helmet off, so China could clearly see the shock on his face as he shook out his wings. “America!” he yelled, throwing his arms up into the air, “We’ve been looking for you!”

“You- You have?” he stuttered, a blue blush spreading over his face, “Really?”

“Yeah!” Russia called, voice finally back to normal (it had been a good healing item in the end), “And we’ve got something to tell you!”

China snickered as America’s mouth fell open, and in that moment, they all knew that they were all just a bit more than teammates now.

Notes:

Yep.

[yuujispinkhair]

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh Winter!! I just watching clips of TR and I saw another video of Taiju throwing another church pew and I'm still like how is he able to lift that?!?! My mind is still blown away by it XD I swear that man has super strength - ☀️💖👑

HE IS SO BIG AND STRONG AAAHHHHHHH!! HE DRIVES ME INSANE :(( That reminds me btw that I didn't have time to watch the ep last week, and then I forgot about it aaahh. So I guess tonight I will watch two episodes :)

[castle-dominion]

6x18 the way of the ninja

the ninja episode liveblog

my intention is not to be racist by lumping in asian martial arts together but this kind of reminds me of Kung Fu Crabtree from murdoch mysteries.

Ooh she pretty oof thought that flapping was a gunshot. Oh it's a knife. WAIT IS THIS THE EP WITH THE KARAOKE THAT GAVE ME ANOTHER SONG TO PUT ON MY RYSPOSITO PLAYLIST? (dang there rly was subtext there huh.)

Ooh jazz Ooh friend from high school! Carly. Interesting. Like the other high school friend who owned a restaurant. Love the castle theme in the music here. KB: Definitely not. You are exactly her type. And the last thing I need is to watch someone from my past trying to seduce my fiancé while talking about the goddess that lives in her hoo-ha. RC & me: !?

KB: Please, Castle. You have to promise me. If you don’t hear from me by 10 o’clock you will call me and get me out of there. RC: I am setting an alarm right now. See, this is what having a partner in life is all about. Me: so true bestie.

they LIKE the strange ones Passport? why does she have it here & now? SP: To the untrained eye, perhaps. But what you don’t know about postmortem analysis could fill a book, Mr. Castle. In fact, it has. Numerous times. (Lanie first met him & praised him for his writing of death) & maybe castle should read those books to please permutter. RC: (dryly) Fine. So it was not a knife. SP: Ah, wrong again. It was a knife. But "stabbed" implies the blade was thrust into the victim, whereas this wound was produced by it being hurled into her chest. tbh could clip but won't

KB: Ryan, do we have any witnesses that saw the Great Throwdini or anyone else in the area? KR: Uh … no??? Not so far... (looking between them)

Ryan backstory moments: It’s a drop key. Yeah, I used to scavenge stuff like this from old buildings when I was a kid. I LOVE KEYS I HAVE AN ELEVATOR KEY MYSELF WHICH I HAVE USED TO PLAY WITH MY SCHOOL ELEVATOR BEFORE, I LOVE EXPLORING OLD ABANDONED BUILDINGS RYAN & I SHOULD HAVE BEEN KIDS TOGETHER.)

rehearsals fo rwhat? Oh dancing. Oh that's beautiful actually. Poor Dean he's so broken up over this & still young enough to be living with his parents.

Ryan comes in looking so excited (Ooh ryan totally was in ballet as a kid or smth lmao. except who can afford that? it was either piano or ballet, not both. Only one extra curricular.)

Ooh a good old yucky chair. Also grabbed a pic of caspockett but not ryan bc he was on the other side. tho had a great look.

point, why an elevator if no elevator? Ooh hanging sheets, can't see anything?

Ooh tatami mats & a shrine!

Castle no touchy! love a good silhouette

love slow motion & a puff of smoke...

... a ninja... stole the murder weapon... ... ho ho ho yeah!!! a cough diversion!

caskett: *married couple bickering* Gates: MURDER INVESTIGATION HERE

KR: Detective Beckett, this is consulate officer Amaya Tagamai calls her detective <3 Amaya Tagamai

Good old accents. Shinto my beloved. I really wish I learned more when I was in Japan & in World Religions class

Actually I heard that ninjas don't exist... in the plural form. But there is one last ninja & he is going to pass away before he can teach anyone else ninjutsu because the era & need for ninjas has passed & assassination is not a pretty thing to be proud of. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong. idk. But yeah as soon as he dies there will be no more ninja! ninja 3 the domination XD

KB & me: I swear she just said that it wasn’t that mysterious.

Actually yeah! bruce lee was a great dancer!

Oof ex(ish)-lovers playing lovers.

esposito said karate nicely <3

Castle mixing up two different east asian ppl, I'm glad that it was a funny bit of "don't be racist" without being to heavy

Lee: Look, if she fumbles a lift I’m the one that blows a knee. That's true He did almost catch the cup bc he does have good reflexes from being physically trained, but yo're right he did fumble. But the cup srs broke? kinda shocked but becks reacted nicely & calmly even tho castle broke the blue mug that she likes. Imagine her getting mad. Then castle tries it again with ANOTHER person he thinks is a ninja & this time breaks Ryan's signature mug. then he's mad too. Then ryckett gang up on him mad for breaking their cups.

WHY was she giving it up? She IS mad abt the cup! He slept thru it!? lol

*castle raises his hand* KR: yes castle! Carly & the goddess lol

bro it DEF looks like a tea import company a warehouse. A limo in the warehouse district.

"& two of us are cops" I was just thinking "only two really count" but he was thinking "there are three of us, plus two more bc we're double-powered bc we're cops" but I was thinking "three plus sokka"

*camera lets them in for some reason*

Ooh music. Ooh glass beaded curtains. Bro: they're shooting a porn? No wait it's an asians themed single club. I mean an asian themed singles club Nice place!

I've worked at a place like this. or it looked like this & I worked serving food. Castle buying these two their fun. Love it. Wow she is faking that accent. Wowie esposito with the girls & poor ryan my married man. "yes" "no" love it when they do the rysposito opposite directions thing *pushes her off*

ryan & esposito making each other all. I love. "private time" RC: I'm fine right here *watching rysposito fight* "what we came here for" good line

I love japanese karaoke. Play the part or they get in trouble? do they... do they have cameras? or ppl watching? Also Castle could ask for a massage where they don't need to play the part so much. oH WAIT THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS I was just remembering it by accident lol. CASTLE SNOOZE THE ALARM

je: Do you think maybe we could get another bottle? Something better? More expensive? they didn't put their badges in their pockets? JE: I’ll stay here and... entertain the ladies. Ryan has two paths: "fine by me I was getting uncomfy since I have a wife" or "why can't I be the sexy one?"

YES NO YES KARAOKE. I hate it I love it I'm excited it's a new song on my playlist kill me kill me kll me second hand embarassment but he's actually good skjfdskdlfjsdklfjlksjd didn't kate have a karaoke stakeout with mike Aww mama-san, like what I call my mom.

*getting thrown out* just like that time in vegas. This is not the first time these three have been thrown out. Best table, second bottle of more expenseive sake, three people, private time,,, still tho that's pricey (it is not lawful to remove alcohol from their premisis" KR: you're rich it's fine (tho that's a term or even two of college)

JE: It cost you six k and we’ve got nothing to show for it. RC: Ah, I wouldn’t say that. KR: You mean besides lipstick marks on your shirt? RC: I actually got a lead in there that’s going to blow this case wide– oh, whoa. Wait. Lipstick marks on my shirt? Where? Beckett’ll kill m– (he stops and covers his mouth) Oh my God! I didn’t call. (he scrambles for his phone) You guys. Beckett is going to kill me. He pulls out his phone, but before he can dial there’s a ninja throwing star embedded in the screen. KR and JE gape. RC: Ninja attack. (not clipping but I could have)

(or maybe I will & I'll grab this fight scene too.) Yeah clipping. I love how castle slowly backs away. rly edited voice. Look up idiot look up!

Sounds crazy AND you were drunk (possibly) If I was Gates I'd say they're trying to cover for something. mister saito not saito-san? He threw a party. The girls must have been brought by car... Ohhhh catering! Genius! Castle & gates I love them Castle in trouble with gates ryan oh no castle in trouble with his gal. Clipped that genuinely.

Ok but the excuse its valid!

Oh no beckett is afraid that marriage will be boring! Romance my beloved <3 *the music holds for a sec* How bout now?

I have never heard of cronuts until this show. croissant donusts. Ryan with the cronuts "Hey!" Becks, who took one & then stole the box with a second: they're not both for me! What are they already doing here? they already went down to soho & bought cronuts & talked to caterers?

Hoho, the consulate gal

NOT just like! Those ones are decorative, yours were made of steel! (& tbh it looked to me less on the japanese side of the spectrum, but def not as far on the german side of the spectrum. Just judging by the use. I mean, obviously it is far away from the maleable german side, but I wouldn't say it is quite fully there on the brittle japanese side. Tho ofc again if you consider the use, japanese steel would make more sense. & ofc you can't forget that they are literally japanese. but they are a more malleable japanese.)

Love the way beckett said esposito's name to mr saito. Love how he is so... good at talking. No technically her job is to solve what happens AFTER ppl are on the street. (& remove "dangerous people" from society so that yeah no murders happen on the street.)

If it were me I'd say "Of course, I'll have it right over. Can I read through the warrant? Oh, you don't have one? don't you need one? Oh not if I give it willingly? Well I'm not sure how that works so I'd like to read the warrant first, sorry. i just don't want to get in trouble with the law for sharing private information without a warrant or not reading the warrant, because you're legally supposed to read the warrant right? You're saying it is my RIGHT to read the warrant but not my JOB? Hm sounds sus. I'd rather not. I want to be a good citizen of the law."

Wasn't esposito in organized crime for a sec? (btw love the ryan outfit. stripes are smth he has. tho tbh I dislike it.)

tagami was on mat leave for 2 months! imposter! Crazy! Love it! except the orphpangage will be japanese

Aid you in your quest? she's only like 20 years old? I mean yeah she was dating a guy who was still young enough to live with his parents. To me that looks like a burn more than a scar. Then again, my stars aren't that shape even tho they are nearly the size.

Okinawa!

the green dragon wow cool name lol you had jade's bday? she didn't change it along with her name?

But the body type. Was the body type of the ninja close to saito? (also were they feminine? then again, skinny asian ballerinas don't have boobs)

Not wearing their vests? She said behind your head-- you come up with them down & then throw them up rly fast?

The sister survived too? Good on the uncle. Did the brother die?

I REMEMBER THE BUSINESSMAN NOW Ph I remember the green dragon arc now!

Randall: We were property developers. Jade’s father? He was an architect. I was a builder and Saito was the money guy.

He didn't do nothing! He called asked not to hurt her!

*killed just before he shared the name* ah the ninja was waiting to kill him later or see if he got arrested, but he was forced to kill him to protect his secret.

Wow love a good fight scene & also love the score Maybe don't shoot either maybe she told u to get the gun so THEY wouldn't shoot! (looks like a white guy babes) & it's bedford. & IT'S SAYA!

will she get charged with attempted myrder?

Oh no I remember Castle taking out the star. (he's so going to cut himself on that) But remember how in future episodes he has it.. framed almost? In a jar or smth? Ah the theme

Loved that ep! Absolutely loved it!

[slashingdisneypasta]

Scott x Reader || Oneshot

Title: Total DRAMA; All Stars

Notes:

I had a blast with the few parts 'Mike' was in, haha (;

FINALLY, this is done. Oh my god. I hope there are some Scott fans here other than me XD

Plot: In true McLean style, Chris decides to release some NEVER BEFORE SEEN CLIPS! from Revenge of the Island, of the absolute WORST moment between you and Scott, alone.

Warnings: Courtney being a bitch and calling you a whore. Yeah I may have taken her antagonistic nature too far... but the writers started it.

As soon as the scene ends - a very incriminating scene between you and Scott last season. Set in the dark, in a secluded part of the woods, stars over head... and no vicious creatures around to ruin it, - and Chef turns off the TV, you start praying for the ground to open up underneath you at once. And you desperately begin to wish that a blind gopher will turn up, decide that you're its new child, and carry you off to the safety of a cave. Or even better- Ezekiel!

You don't even hear all the oooooh's and evil laughter from other campers.

Instead, all you can do is turn to Zoey and just try, to explain yourself. Her arms are crossed over her chest and that glare that's focused on you... jesus christ. She's so mad. It hurts to look at. "Zoey- please- listen to me. That was before we knew what he was doing! I swear, if I could do it now- I'd take it back!"

"Then why didn't you tell me??" A glint of heartache, rather then anger, flashes in her eyes and your stomach rolls. The last thing you ever want to do is hurt Zoey. She's your best friend! You only met last year, during Revenge of the Island, but you cant even imagine a life without her in it, now.

"I... I don't know."

She immediately looks away, making your heart fall.

No-

"- And you! Boyfriend kisser." As soon as Courtney's voice registers in your brain, your feelings turn a little bit more into anger. But, still- you're not concerned with her. You just ignore her. "Look at me."

"Zoey, please talk to me."

"Y/N! I want to talk to you." Courtney screeches, still trying to get your attention. And you're still ignoring her.

"Its Scott! I cant... even... - You kissed Scott!"

The words themselves cause a twinge of guilt and disgust to twist in your gut, and you fight not to glance over at the boy. At the time... it was a nice kiss. And even at the start of this season, once you already knew what an ass Scott truly is, you were content in just keeping it to yourself as a pleasant little memory, to open every once and a while and relive- but otherwise never to be mentioned. It wasn't something you regretted. Not for a moment.

.... But, hell. The way Zoey said it...

Now you sure regret it. You don't know if you can enjoy it ever, again.

"He played us all for fools Zo, it wasn't just me! Please, believe me- if I had known he was manipulating us- I would never, ever, have- "

Courtney taps your shoulder now, forcing a deep eye roll from you and even deeper shoulder roll. Don't touch me.

Zoey looks down at her feet, then at you for a moment and you watch her lips tremble and her eyes give away the fight going on inside her - between forgiving you, and how betrayed she must feel, - before she looks away and your heart just sinks. "I... don't know, Y/N. I just... cant believe you did that... "

As you're wondering helplessly of what you can possibly say to make it up to her, to clear this whole thing up, Mike comes up to Zoey and touches her shoulder in comfort. "Y/N maybe you should go... "

"Mike- " You start, when Courtney grabs your arm and you finally give in to her nagging. Growling, you whip around and come face to face with her, shaking her hand off your arm viscously. Scott is standing nervously behind her, but you don't dare pay him any mind.

"Oh my god, Courtney, what!?" You snap, entirely frustrated with this girl. "I'm a little busy, in case you couldn't tell."

"You were ignoring me!" She whines, offended, making you roll your eyes and sigh, deeply.

"Yeah-take a hint maybe??"

"I wanted to talk to you!"

"Ugh- Yeah! I got that. But as far as I see it- my trying to apologise and get my friends back is a whooooole lot more important, then you picking a fight with me over a kiss that happened before you even met the guy." Narrowing your eyes, you make like you're going to turn on her, which you have 100 percent intentions to do- twisting your body a bit back towards your friend. "Bugger off."

Courtney scowls, that perfect little nose scrunched up in fury as one of her hands rests on her hip. "You cant talk to me like that! I'll get you voted off."

"Oh go ahead!- " Jesus christ- she can do whatever she wants. As long as you can get back to Zoey. God, Courtney's like an annoying fly- why Gwen puts so much effort into being her friend you will never get. "Just let me talk to Zoey first yeah?"

The wicked witch of the west crosses her arms, this time. Rolling her eyes, she titters. "Whores last wishes... "

Immediately, you stop. You hear a gasp from behind you but apart from that, everything seems to come to a crashing halt around you. Everything seems to stop. The people around you, the wind, the sound in your ears- as all you can think is that phrase over and over.

Whores last wishes

Whores...

Whore.

She called you a whore.

She dared to call you, a whore. How many boys has she kissed on this show?? And you kiss one boy, who she just happens to be dating now, and somehow you're the slutty one?

Your blood boils under you skin, but you're caught so off guard that she would dare to say something like that to you - and on TV, to boot, - that no words come out of your mouth. You just stand there, wide eyed.

Scott steps up and puts a hand on Courtney's arm. "Hey, that one mighta been going a bit far... "

"What?? Its true. Any girl who kisses another girls boyfriend is a whore. Whore, whore, slut, whore. And to boot, she ignored me. What kind of selfish bitchery, is that!?"

"I mean... " Scott rubs the back of his neck, awkwardly. "... you did kiss Cameron... while we were dating... " Courtney rounds on him, hands on her hips, and the weasel holds his hands up immediately, a traitorous smile on his face. "I mean you're so pretty!!"

Scoffing, you roll your eyes and cross your arms over your chest, protectively. Figures. Greasy little weasel. And you even got your hopes up then, that he just might stand up for you.

You wont make that mistake again... for the third, time...

"He wasn't. Even. 'Your boyfriend'. When it happened!!" You exclaim, 120 percent frustrated at her. "Are you fucking delusional??"

Yeah, if she's going to use grown up words- you can too.

"Hm." Her high fricken voice sounds smug, and she smirks as she turns away from you. "You're right. But better delusional, then sad, bitter and lonely. You're a perfect match for Chester. Or Chef! I'm no novice where boyfriend kissers are concerned- " At that little comment you catch the sight of Gwen wincing, as she stands over by Alejandro and the other gawkers. "But at least I ended up with the guy, this time."

Your fists clench at your sides, shaking.

... Sad... bitter... and lonely.

Worrying your bottom lip, you actually start to feel like crying. She hit the nail right on the head, there. Before Revenge of The Island... you didn't have a lot of friends... so when you met Zoey, and Mike, and Cameron,... and they seemed to see something in you, that no one ever had previously, something that made you worthy of friendship... you vowed to keep them safe. Never hurt them. Because without them you would be alone again.

And... bitter.

And sad.

But now you've gone and hurt them, and you're about to lose them.

And Courtney's just rubbing it in.

God, everyone can see it, cant they? How pathetic I am...

You don't know what to say in response. Your mouth is dry. You feel like running away. You desperately want to disappear, right now.

Courtney, Gwen and Scott walk off before everyone else seems to get bored and disperse as well, and you're sure that you are what she said - alone, - when suddenly a hand slips into yours from behind and you turn around, nervously, to see Zoey, Mike and Cam behind you.

She's looking sympathetically at you, squeezing your hand. "... Come on." She speaks softly, and tears fill your eyes. Tears of relief or sadness, you don't quite know. Probably, both. "Its okay. It'll be okay."

Relieved that she's not gone, you wrap your arms around her and start sobbing, as she holds onto you.

___TIME SKIP___

A couple hours later, you're taking some peace and quiet, on your own. By choice. Sitting cross legged by a stream, you take in a deep, breath. "... hell."

Well, today was awful. A huge mess, actually. Fucking Chris, showing you all that stupid video. You wish you never even gave him the fodder.

But how could you have known... God, it was just a kiss. It was just a kiss! You're a teenager... and it was just a little kiss... how could it have caused that all that!?

When the sound of a twig snapping catches your attention, you practically snap your neck turning around to see what's in the clearing with you- and feel anger and something hot, but different, flare up in you at the sight of Scott. Your eyes immediately narrow.

"What do you want?"

"I, uh... " Your gaze flickers up and down his form, trying to figure him out. What is he doing here? Rubbing his neck nervously and avoiding your gaze like a coward? "I... wanted to see, how you were going? After all that mess with the video? Courtney was a little outta line... "

Scoffing, you turn away. "Yeah, she was. Its not like you really cared, though."

His brows suddenly furrow and a deep frown crinkles his face; Defensive. "Wait a minute there, I cared."

You roll your eyes, crossing your arms and absolutely refusing to look at him. Excess sarcasm drips off your tongue. "Oh yeah, that really translated- what with you standing behind her and shutting down the moment she snaps at you, and all. Everyone knows you're not a wimp like that, so you staying quiet like you did really sent a message. Don't worry, I got it."

Scott is literally starting to fume, now, fists clenched at his sides and frown so deep in his face it looks like its digging to China. "Look Y/N, I was only backing off cuz it was clear you didn't give a damn about me. With all that 'I swear, Zoey, if I could take it back- I would!!' crap and the 'I would never ever have' kissed me bullshit." As you peak back at him, realising you did say that... and only realising now that he had heard it, even though he was there the whole time and only its natural that he would have, you see him cross his own arms as you let yours relax at your sides. Oh, jeez. How crazy that was hits you like a ton of bricks. "You got the message? Psh. Well hell, so did I. Loud and clear."

Suddenly you're on the defensive, turning fully to look up at him with wide, sorry eyes. "Look, Scott, I didn't mean to be hurtful, I just... "

"You just what? Thought that stuff wouldn't bother me? Y/N I never used that kiss to manipulate you or put Zoey off her game, so I thought you got what I meant, by it." His shoulders sag suddenly and you feel your heart immediately sink along with them; He resembles a kicked puppy in this moment way too much, considering the jerk he really is. Or tends to act like. "It had nothing to do with the freaken show- " As your heart is swimming around sadly at your feet, the scowl reappears on his face - a face that you, admittedly, are pretty fond of, - again, spite burning in blue. "So yeah, you throwing it back in my face like that does bother me."

Leaning back, you cant help but look unconvinced Scott's way. After a moment, you get up from the ground and, after wiping the dirt off your butt, you stand up to him; Hands on hips. "What exactly are you saying Scott?"

"Look, I'm not good with... romance... " The way he says the word conveys a deep aversion to the whole thing, due to awkwardness. His pale face has become red, even though its clear he's still not pleased with you. The scowl is still present and he refuses to look at you in the face; Preferring to avert his gaze to the grass. "I don't know how to do it. Which should be glaringly obvious, by now."

You huff, snapping. "For goodness sakes, then just say it simple!"

He immediately blurts it out, struck by your tone like a spooked broodmare. "I like you!" ... Okay, now you're bright red. And silent. Scott winces. "... Okay?"

After a moment of just looking shocked and embarrassed at him, heart hammering in your chest, you cross your arms over it and focus on digging the tip of your boot into the dirt. "We- um... Well... uh... I did not know that... "

Scott's accent, as always, comes out thicker in his annoyance. He rolls his eyes- still pink, but not letting that get in the way of being irritated by you and this whole damn situation. "Yeah, no kidding."

Taking a deep breath and glancing nervously, for just a moment, up at him you try to apologise. Not that he has, or anything, for the betrayals last season. "I wouldn't have said what I said, If I'd known... "

"Yeah, well, I don't need your pity Y/N so don't bother." He growls, making your stomach roll - which weirdly enough isn't super unpleasant... or even unpleasant at all... -, but surprisingly he doesn't leave. He stays here, arms crossed half a foot away from you. Probably too close, actually.

But you don't dare step away.

... that is, until you suddenly remember Zoey again, and how she feels about Scott and how there's no way you're making another mistake like this again, and a clipped gasp slips from you as you do indeed step back. "Um, well, I don't pity you. Because you're still a jerk. And also- I'm leaving. So- "

Turning around, you try to make your escape when Scott seems to have conniption behind you and jolts forward, grabbing your shoulder first way too tightly, then forcing it to become far too gentle, before letting go entirely. It's clear he didn't know what was acceptable, but he still sure captures your attention, though. "W-wait! I... broke up with Courtney."

You sigh, hesitantly turning back around. He's doing that thing where he looks innocent, but this time you believe it. "Ugh- Scott, that... I don't even... that doesn't change anything!- "

"And I... talked, to Zoey."

That catches your attention, and your gaze snaps up to his. "You what?"

You can only imagine how something like that went. Those two hate each other, maybe even more then Gwen and Heather hate each other, and that's saying something.

"Yeah, yeah, trust me when I say that it wasn't easy." He rolls his eyes, deeply, and huffs. "The nitwit just cant make anything easy, for me." At that, you set him with a glare and he waives you off, aloof. Then he flashes a smirk at you, a mischievous twinkle in his beady blue eyes. "Whatever. Aren't you interested in what we talked, about?"

Narrowing your eyes and pressing your lips into a thin, disapproving line... you hesitantly, give in. "... Well, yes- "

That mischievous smirk only broadens, and he seems to get closer suddenly - or maybe you're only just now realising it, as he looks down at you like that, - , and you realise how your hearts beating so erratically in your chest- Scott always did have that effect on you... when he wasn't being an idiot. Eyes widening, you wait patiently for him to say something. "... I told her how I liked you." You can hear your heart beating in your ears, as Scott struggles with his words; Rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding your big round eyes. "How... I'm not so good with the... romance... but it felt more natural, when it was just you and me. Like- with Courtney, it's hard. Really, really hard! I end up looking like a real dumbass when I try with her. But then when we're alone, I can... I- I don't know, breath. And that's how the kiss happened. I told her, I'm sorry it upset her... which may or may not be true, or any of her business in the first place... but- the point is, she also said it was kind- kinda, sweet."

All through this little speech, Scott was becoming more and more focused, and with every surprising word that came out of his mouth you became more and more hooked. You would never have thought that hearing Scott of all people tell you things like this would effect you at all but your words are caught in your throat- even though all you want to do is tell him something back. But- "Uhm... " Managing to tear your gaze away from his, cheeks heated up like Chris's tanning bed, you cross your arms and force different words then you want to form, from you lips. "That... that doesn't really change what you did, does it? Or the fact that my friends hate you."

Suddenly Scott's hands found your waist and gasp tears out of you, gaze snapping up to his face as your hand automatically catch his shoulders. What the hell!? You haven't really touched each other since the kiss, and its like electricity courses through your veins now that you do. Its a shock, and pleasant, and it makes you confused as you stand there, Scott under your hands. "She also said, that if you wanted to do this," Was it you or him that moved you in closer against him? All you know is your feet drag across the ground almost on their own accord, and your hands find their way to his shoulders. Scott's shoulders. "She wouldn't get in the way. Which isn't a surprise, I mean- she's way too nice. Its annoying, usually, but- I think I can make this one work."

Your eyes slip heavily from his strong hands on your waist, to yours on his freckled shoulders, to his eyes- this all just seeming too good to be real. You've liked Scott - of course you have. You wouldn't have kissed him if you hadn't, and you certainly wouldn't have hated him so much after the betrayals if you didn't really care about him, - secretly, basically since that first time the country boy smiled at you- but it just hasn't been a real option very many times on this show. "Zoey said that?"

"Yeah. I mean, she also punched me in the face for not standing up for you when Courtney called you sad, but- "

"Scott."

He stops talking, and though his eyes were already on you- they soften, now. Blue hues looking the least evil as you had seen them... in a while. Since last season... in the dark... stars over head... and no vicious creatures around to ruin it. Chewing your bottom lip, you think this over. He's getting slowly closer, a kiss that you don't think you could push away if it actually connected, rearing nearer. Your gaze falls on his mouth, and your cheeks heat up.

He says Zoey said it would be fine... and god you want to... But...

Taking a deep breath through your nose and closing your eyes, you take a step back; Hands falling down his arms to his hands. He looks confused at you, before you hold up one finger at him, opening your eyes and looking earnest. "Give me one one minute."

A smirk flickers on across his face. "Okay, but what- " You whip around, and start bolting off towards the cabins. "Where are you going!!!?"

"Be back in a minute!!" Jeez!

But... you need to check with your friend.

It takes you less then a minute to reach the losers cabin, in which the hero's would be staying the night, throw open the door and collapse beside Zoey on her bed; Huffing and puffing. She raises her brows at the entrance, a tiny smile quirking at the corners of her lips that she tries valiantly to push away. "... Hi?"

"Zoey- Did Scott- Huff- Did he talk to you??"

"Oh- yeah, just after you left us actually. I have to admit, he said some pretty sweet things about you... Didn't he, Mike??" Zoey turns her head to her crush - or, whatever they are to eachother. You can never tell. Mike's been acting very weird, lately, - sitting on a top bunk on the other side of the room. For a split second he looks disgusted, and rolls his eyes, before giving a thumbs up and a big goofy grin.

"Oh, yeah!! It was nauseating! Villainous Vulture?? More like Sympathetic Squirrel!" He announces in agreement using a very cheerful voice, to which Cameron - on the bottom bunk, - raises a brow, weirded out by the juxtaposition between tone and wording. Zoey just giggles, though, and turns back to you.

She takes a deep breath, and reaches over to hold your hand. "Look, Y/N. I don't... totally get it? Haha." She giggles again, but this time nervously. You take a deep breath, holding her hand back with both of yours and searching her face for... anything. Anything she might be holding back. Because she's your best friend, and if she's going to have a problem with Scott in the future, you are not going to risk it. Risk her. Not again. "... But I believed him. And, so, if you... ugh, want to date him?? I wont get in your way."

Squeezing her hand, you let out the deep breath that you were holding- not wanting to jump the gun. "Zo, I wont do it, if it makes you uncomfortable."

For a moment, then, she says nothing. And you think you've blown it, that she' going to take her blessing back and you're going to have to move on, which would suck... but you would do it, in a heartbeat. For her. Even if it was hard. But then you see how she's searching your face, face pinched in focus.

... Before she lets out a breath, of her own. "You really like, him don't you... " She says, almost to herself. Eyes on the wall. "Honestly I don't know how I didn't see it before!" She turns to you, scootching closer on the bed and taking both your hands in hers, now. "Look, I get that you're worried about me... but I think we can do this! You're my best friend, too, and I... I want you to be happy!" She smiles, now, and its such a true and warm smile that your heart aches. In your peripheral, you catch sight of someone on a top bunk shaking his head and sticking out his tongue at the affectionate scene. Probably fucking Duncan. "So yes, I'm sure!"

With that, Zoey pulls you into a hug and you bury your face in her shoulder, before pulling back and getting up to leave- but, you stop at the door, and turn back. "And- Zo? I heard about the punch." Looking down at her, she looks guilty for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip and averting her eyes. "I cant comment now because I'm his girlfriend- but- " You give her a wink and a smile, trying not to laugh when she rolls her eyes and chuckles, before you let the door shut behind you and rush off again at top speed.

When Scott enters your vision again he's kicking at some dirt on the ground, looking bored and worried until he sees you and his eyes widen. "Woah- hey! Welcome back, what happen- "

When you reach him, you throw your arms around him and press your lips to his, nearly pushing you both over the force of your connection but he immediately catches you both, twirling you around before you both steady yourselves on the ground, deepening the kiss this time.

[redorich]

A favorite trope of mine has always been- getting to see another person’s past. Is it some kind of judgment thing by a higher power? Something like Freeze Day from SCTFOE? Person trapped in a nightmare and their nightmare is being projected? Who knows. All that’s important is after months of healing, some of the Hermits get to see exactly what Tommy went through. It shows short clips of him before being happy, the rise and fall of Manburg, Wilbur going insane, the festival, the withers, all of it. Just short clips of these things though. The last clip of the SMP is just Dream’s mask outlined by his green hood saying, “you’ll stay here alone with just me until you learn to be quite and respectful and not fight those who are in power over you. Even if you have to stay out here *forever*.”

This turned into a whole drabble smh xD

((btw @give-grian-rights helped me so thank you))

-------

The remaining hermits aren’t sure what happened. They have no way of knowing. There was a witch involved, Cub thinks, but what their fallen friends must have done to piss her off to the point of getting cursed is beyond their ken. Among those laid out are Cleo, Grian, Xisuma, Zedaph, and Tommy.

Scar and Cub work their Vex magic together to figure out that their friends are trapped in their worst memories. (Etho calls it a Demonic Hell Viewing Illusion, and False smacks him upside the head for the Naruto reference.) Holding hands with a victim pulls you in, but that’s what they’re counting on. Joe’s already wading through Cleo’s nightmare before anyone gets the chance to ask, and Impulse and Tango aren’t far behind doing the same for Zedaph. However, it doesn’t work for Grian, Xisuma, and Tommy; they were found already holding hands. They must have figured something out about the curse before they succumbed to it. All the hermits can do for them, for the time being, is hope.

Tommy, Grian, and Xisuma wake to the smell of sulphur and smoke. The ground is orange and littered with bullets. Grian grabs Tommy’s hand, and Xisuma grabs a discarded rifle. Tommy points his finger up at the top of a mound of scrap metal and dead bodies. There’s a nether portal, except the obsidian is whiter than quartz. That's where they have to go to get out of here.

All around them, demons lurch and shriek and hiss and all sorts of unholy behavior, bodily flinging themselves at the trio as though they know none of them can take the men on their own, and that just by dogpiling them all one of them will get lucky. Xisuma instantly snaps into a professional mode, the way he sometimes does when he's killing zombies but they keep social spawning. He takes up the lead with machine gun fire and grenades, carving a path through the crowd. Grian takes up the rear with a handgun. Neither Xisuma nor Tommy ask why Grian is so comfortable with a gun. They've got more pressing issues.

An imp gets lucky. It's just enough to crack the visor of Xisuma's helmet, and the imp instantly gets mowed down.

"I can't see," Xisuma rasps through gritted teeth.

"Then take the helmet off," Tommy says, cleaving through an enemy with a sharp piece of scrap metal. Grian breathes in sharply. As far as Grian's aware, Xisuma always wears his helmet.

Xisuma goes quiet for a second. "I suppose you've got a point."

The helmet gets dropped to the ground and demon limbs shuffle it away. They don't have time to look at Xisuma's wild brown hair, his purple eyes, the burn scars on his jaw.

They make it to the portal all in one piece. Xisuma takes one last wistful look at the Martian hellscape, then takes his friends' hands. They step through the portal together.

----

They step out of the portal into the foyer of a high school. Grian's eyes shutter.

"We'll be headed toward the roof, I believe," he says, staring dully through the spectre of a broken, bloody man holding a rope.

Tommy latches onto Grian's clammy hand to ground him as the three ascend stairs and traverse the dark, winding hallways. The ghost follows them. It isn't like Ghostbur-- it's, well, not vengeful, but it's not kind. The man named Gareth keens about Grian's sins, about a boy named Taurtis who Gareth hates, about mafia and yakuza, about his poor wife Jane.

On the last set of stairs, Gareth makes a wailing remark that causes Grian to bodily flinch. Tommy doesn't even know what the ghost said (he wasn't listening).

"Fuck off," Tommy says, "you're the shittest ghost I've ever met. Even my brother could..."

He trails off. This is not the way to fix things for Grian. On a hunch, he reaches into his pocket. Of course the object he's looking for is in there; it's his brother's coat.

He holds the object out to the ghost. "Have some blue."

Gareth warily takes it, dropping his rope. It floods periwinkle, then cyan, then dark royal blue. A weight seems lifted from the ghost's shoulders as he clutches the blue, mutters something about Jane, and leaves.

Tommy takes Grian's hand, then Xisuma's, and they go through the door to the school's rooftop together. They halt as one. The portal is there. Standing between them is a boy maybe Tommy's age, with a corpse at his feet.

"Sam," Grian whispers. "Taurtis."

The standing boy smiles, eyes obscured by a purple mask with a rectangular symbol on it, and flexes bloody wings. The corpse on the ground has blood all over its back, where wings once were, and broken headphones around his neck.

"Man, Grian, you really held out on me," Sam says. "This Watcher power really is something else--"

Sam topples over backward. His body hits the ground in front of the portal. Xisuma lowers his gun.

"He looked like bad news," Xisuma says.

Grian grimaces. "He was. Come on, let's go."

They once again step into the portal.

----

“Do you want to be a hero, Tommy?” Technoblade roars, “Then die like one!”

Their paltry little group of three gets no chance to take in their surroundings, to see what’s going on and where they need to go. All they can process is the legendary PvP champion, acolyte of the Blood God, Technoblade, unleashing Withers upon what once might have been a town.

Tommy yanks them into cover. “I don’t know where the portal is,” he hisses.

Grian squeezes his shoulder. “We’ll find it.”

Explosions rain hellfire down upon them from all angles-- not just the Withers, but TNT buried in the ground. They’re so close, they can see the man who set it off. And he must have, because he’s yelling about it, yelling about his L’Manberg and his unfinished symphony and begging his father to kill him. He’s wearing Tommy’s coat--

Bile rises in the back of Grian’s throat. Tommy wears his brother’s coat.

Tommy’s eyes are glued to the gleaming diamond sword that Wilbur gives to his father. He watches his brother die all over again, and he knows where he must go. He turns his back on his broken family and breathes.

“We need to go to the Nether,” he says. They nod.

The black portal is across the battlefield. They come across corpses more than once on their way, but ignore them. They can’t afford not to.

In the Nether, there is a rickety, dangerous pathway with no rails, made of cobblestone and obsidian and oak logs. Manic-depressive ravings on signs proclaim the path as the road to Logstedshire. Piglins try to knock them off to no avail, and ghasts blow up the bridge behind them as they run. On the other side of the Logstedshire portal is... actually not a hellscape, as Grian and Xisuma have come to expect, but a little village encampment. Nothing is blown up, nothing is amiss, except Tommy himself. And, of course, the figure they spot after they catch Tommy staring at it.

It’s Dream. The up-and-coming famous speedrunner who Grian faintly recalls killing once in MCC, which was apparently a big deal. The man approaches, and Grian realizes where he recognizes the mask from. It’s the same one that Tommy wears.

“Tommy,” Dream says conversationally, “items in the pit.”

Tommy’s hand wavers, reaches up to unclasp his chestplate, but Xisuma’s hand on his shoulder stops him.

“No,” Tommy says.

“No?” Dream parrots incredulously. “You know the rules. It’s for your own good. Armor in the pit. Tools in the pit. Friends in the pit.”

They all gasp, though for different reasons. Tommy’s eyes narrow. “Friends in the pit? You’ve never said that one before.”

Dream’s head twitches. “Friends in the pit. Friends. In the pit.”

The man’s voice is deeper than Tommy remembers. Something seems to resolve within Dream’s behavior, yet he keeps twitching. “You’re in exile, Tommy, you don’t need. Friends. I’m all you need. You were doing so good. I thought you learned to behave. I’m all you need. You don’t need friends.”

What happened to the eloquent poison that used to drip from Dream’s tongue like honey? He sounds like a broken record. All at once, Tommy staggers under the weight of the realization that this isn’t Dream. Somewhere underneath that horrible man that abused him is the real Dream, trapped in his own body and watching the dreamon that possessed him hurt his friends.

Xisuma’s gun makes an appearance again, but Tommy holds up a hand in a silent request for the admin to hold his fire. Tommy grabs Dream by the shoulders, removes Dream’s mask and then his own so that he can look the man in the eyes. “I know you’re in there, Dream. When I get out of this nightmare, I’ll save you. I swear it on my discs.”

Dream’s face twitches erratically. The movement spreads to his whole head, neck jerking. He raises straight up into the air, higher and higher, then explodes into a shower of items and no body. A white portal shimmers into existence.

“What the hell was that?!” Grian demands.

Tommy grins, taking the man’s hand and leading him to the portal. “I’ve got a friend to save.”

Grian snarls. “Tommy, he abused you. He’s not your friend.”

“That wasn’t Dream. It was a--”

“Dreamon,” Xisuma breathes.

Tommy nods. They walk through the portal together, and when they wake, holding each other close, they know they’ve got a mission. They can do it.

[talimlbcnart]

So I just finished watching World Heroes Mission and the OVA. Here are some of my thoughts:

⚠️Spoilers⚠️

You've been warned

Movie:

We're were baited. The outfits lasted for like... the first 5 seconds of the movie and then never showed up again.

Bakugo "we aren't friends but I'll follow you to another city to save this other not friend of mine" Katsuki.

Endeavor's only concern is Shoto and Shoto alone

"Midoriya and Todoroki's random messenges with secret meanings" the sequel

Horikoshi has a thing for impaled Bakugo.

Rody Soul was able to befriend, hold hands and hug Midoriya Izuku in what- a week? Wth did YOU accomplished Ochako? (Just kidding, you're doing great, love you Sweetie).

Bakugo and Midoriya's final fights were really cool specially because it lasted for 1/3 of the movie and their main goal was to go f*cking Plus Ultra.

Meanwhile Shoto's " fight" lasted TWO MINUTES and in his very short screentime he woundn't shut up about Midoriya. He also lost consciousness really quick, I think is because they had already wasted half of the money on his ice in the rescue scene so the animators figure they needed an excuse to stop drawing him or else the money wouldn't be able to pay for his cool powers (pun not intended). But oh well...

And the fight scenes. Oh the FIGHT SCENES. I bet Hori just told the animation team: "You know what? Do whatever you guys want, just make sure the main characters are alive by the end of this".

Thanks to that Midoriya and Bakugo are f*cking Immortal.

Also Why did they wait until now to show Shouto's new quirk tricks? I swear he does NOT know how to do any of this things in the manga.

The villains were nice, I guess. I liked Arrow Girl, her quirk was really cool, kinda reminded me of Lady Nagant.

Izuku was very cute on this movie, but then again when isn't he?

They also 100% plagiarized Zootopia for Rody and Deku's relationship.

OVA:

Shoto has the weirdest advices for calming people down but it worked so Hey, good for him.

Also the way he straight up told Enji "buy me a new ticket so I can sit with my friends" was the best way to show how he's the youngest of four children, such a spoiled brat. I love him XD.

Bakugo "we aren't friends that's why I'm sitting on the other side of the waiting hall" Katsuki.

I swear there was only 1 brain cell in that whole episode and they had to share it between Hawks, Tokoyami and Izuku.

The little drawings to show their seats was everything. Especially Shoto's face going from " >:( " when he's sitting next to his father to " :) " when he's next to Midoriya.

All and all it was a good movie. A massive cash grab filler with no relevance to the main plot just like the previous two? YES.

Is the animation any good? Oh Boy, let me tell you. It's so good that it's bad. You'll understand once you watch it.

Would I watch it again? Meh.

I would re-watch Izuku's fight against Overhall since there's a lot of emotional built up to it and Eri's also there, but this... eeeehhh I may click in some clips of it if YouTube decides to recommend it to me someday.

(And sorry for any grammar mistakes, English isn't my first language)

[savebatsfromscratch]

I mean, even with his throat cut open, he’s kind of cute.

-

Russia gets hurt, but thankfully his teammate is here to help him.

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/37281124

-

Rpg setting my beloved.

I search for any excuse to write a flying fic I swear.

Frick posting these in order, I finished this one and not the two before it, I’m posting it now. XD (I know that this is like… two weeks late. Ignore it.)

-

Words: 2,859

Tws: Throat injury (Just in the beginning though.), winged characters

Prompt: Fantasy Setting/Magic

-

“Okay,” China panicked, hands shaking as he tried to stop the blood that was currently spilling from his teammate’s throat, “Okay.”

Russia forced a smile up at him, but China could tell that it was a pained smile, and that scared him. He knew the wound was painful, he didn’t need proof of it, right? He also knew that Russia was trying to tell him he was fine, but he clearly wasn’t, so his efforts were fruitless. (But even though it failed to reassure him, he felt a stab of respect for Russia, it couldn’t be easy to smile when your HP was so low.)

He frantically looked up at his teammates, trying not to let his panic spread to them, “Doesn’t anyone have a healing item?” he pleaded, “Any at all?”

Instantly he could see people shuffling through their inventories, some more frantic than others, but it was America who was able to reach an item first. “Here you go,” he rambled, words clipped as he tossed the item over to China, “It’s not much but it’s all I have.”

Without missing a beat, China applied the item to Russia’s throat, ignoring the shivers of pain as the stinging medicine set in, “Anyone else?” he asked, not looking up from his work for even a second, “I don’t know if this is gonna do it.”

Someone handed him some food, and he hurriedly tore it into pieces to feed to Russia. Yeah, food wasn’t always the easiest thing to heal someone with, but it would have to do. (Italy, their healer, had gone out of a trip to look for herbs that morning, and there wasn’t a lot he could do about an injury if he didn’t know about it.)

China had a few levels in healing, but he was a warrior, and magic didn’t come easy to him. Other people in his crew had magic, America for example, but no one had high enough levels in healing to help with a wound like this. Russia was the closest to being able to help, and with his throat cut, he could hardly use the energy needed to shake his head, let alone heal something this big. (Plus, he was a mage, not a healer.)

Why then, was he the one helping? That he didn’t know. Pretty much anyone else would be more suited to this skillset, but no one else had stepped up to the job. Well, except for America. But he had quickly become too hysterical to be much help. (He had calmed down by now, but China could still see his shoulder’s shaking in fear.)

But slowly the food began to help. China was still panicking (especially when his last good bandage stained red), but he could clearly see the glowing purple fading back into Russia’s eyes. It took a moment, but his teammate was healing. However, it wasn’t until the tell tale ‘ding!’ of a wound healing that he let himself calm down for sure. (Of course, he knew that even if a wound was technically ‘healed’ it could still cause a person to lose HP, but this wasn’t a poison wound, so that shouldn’t be as huge of a problem as it could be.)

He fell back onto his heels, a relieved sigh escaping him as his heart struggled to return to a normal tempo. ‘Thank god,’ was all he could think, even when he didn’t believe in a god, ‘Thank god.’

Forgetting to be careful around his still injured teammate, China dived forward in a hug. Crushing his ribs and reveling in the very alive, ‘oof’ sound he made.

After a moment of processing the situation, the rest of his team began to cheer. (Out of the corner of his eye, he could see America frantically rubbing tears off his face, but he had another teammate to worry about at the moment.) “Russia,” he asked softly, brushing the white hair out of his eyes, “How do you feel?”

Russia took a deep breath in… and then breathed it out again. “Better,” he answered, his voice cracked and muffled from the pain resting at his throat, “Better.”

China nodded and pulled back from the hug, heart soaring as relief flooded him, “That’s good.” (Internally he told himself that that was probably a low bar to be cleared, but any bar was better than none.)

“He’s okay guys!” He called, giving the last few worriers their cue to celebrate.

He heard Russia laughing lightly from under him, and even though it was a scratchy laugh, China took it as more proof that he was okay. “Let’s get you back to the base,” he whispered, turning back to his teammate and getting an arm ready to pull him to his feet, “We can try this mission again later.”

Russia nodded and took his hand, cold fingers itching with the shock of magic that filled them. China was right, it was probably a good idea to go home.

The walk wasn’t far, and both teammates were thankful for that. (China’s knee had gotten injured in a boss fight earlier that week, and Russia was still recovering his HP from his recent throat injury.) Most of their team had stayed out on the mission, completing a small one like this wasn’t normally difficult even with less people than usual (Russia had just been unlucky), but one other person had come with them.

America.

He was an unlikely candidate to follow them back, but China didn’t tell him that. A half warrior half wizard (well, more like three fourths warrior, one fourth wizard), who barely spoke to either of them. He might have been spooked by the blood, but they were all accustomed to it, so China wasn’t exactly sure if that lined up.

“So,” he prompted, their camp in sight but still far enough away to have a short conversation, “How’s it going?”

America shook his head (since China wasn’t facing him, the only reason he knew that was because of the rapid increase of armor noises), and said, “The same as usual.”

Now, China wasn’t an expert on reading people, especially people who were wearing full suits of armor (America had put his helmet back on), but he could still tell that was a lie. But instead of pushing the subject, he casually continued, “Did you forget something back at camp? I could get it if you want to go back to the mission.”

Russia nodded, and even though he was obviously still hurting, he added, “I could also get something for you if you wanted me too.”

There was a pause where China could tell that America was blushing, but he quickly covered for himself. “No I didn’t forget anything, I just wanted to go back to camp to… um, to-”

China cut in, not wanting him to get too flustered about this, “It’s alright, you don’t have to explain.”

“Everyone needs a break sometimes,” Russia added, “You don’t need to explain why you need one.” If China hadn’t known him as well as he did, he would’ve thought that the purple eyed mage had missed how much America had been dancing the subject, but the slightest twinge of interest ticking at his teammate's voice told him the truth.

“I guess,” America muttered, clearly slightly embarrassed by the acceptance that his teammates were giving him. “Thank you.” He added suddenly, as if remembering rather quickly that ‘thank you’s where a thing.

China smiled and glanced back at him, “You’re welcome,” he looked back forward, and was pleased to see that the camp was pretty much right in front of them, “Now, it’s time to rest up a bit.”

Once they were in his tent and the bandages were swapped out for more efficient items, Russia spoke up. “What do you think he’s really doing here?” he whispered, face weirdly close to China’s, “He’s not in his tent, so he’s not resting.”

“He could be in another tent,” China said, not backing up even though their noses were nearly touching, “Or he could be by the fire.”

“He’s not.”

China didn’t ask how Russia knew that, but he believed it anyway, “Well, what do you think he’s doing?”

“I think he’s here to ask us out,”

China blinked, suddenly short circuiting from the level of truth that stained Russia’s voice, “What?”

“Well, did you see the way he was looking at you on the way back here?” Russia asked, now actually pushing his nose against China’s and making his eyes blur and duplicate in China’s vision, “Or when you were fighting that dragon?”

China blushed and backed up, suddenly flustered. “No, I didn’t notice,” admiting that made him feel sort of stupid, because thinking back on it now, it was quite obvious, “Why’d you say ‘us’ then? If he was just looking at me?”

Russia giggled and leaned back a little, “The team’s been making bets on when we’d get together,” China felt his mouth fall open as he continued, “You probably didn’t notice because of that new magic skill you’ve been picking up.”

“But why- why would-?” He felt his face redden, “I didn’t- I don’t-”

“Don’t what?” Russia asked innocently, “Think I’m cute?”

China’s thoughts flashed back on memories of Russia defeating monsters, or reading through spell bocks, or teaching him little bits of magic. “No I think-,” he blushed harder, “Well I mean I don’t-'' His mind slid into the way he had felt in any of those instances, a light warmth of love in his chest, a blurring confusion in his brain telling him it was just friendship.

Russia smiled, but managed not to laugh, “That’s alright, I’ll let you figure it out.”

Trying not to think about the realization he’d just had about himself, China spluttered, “Does that mean you think I’m cute?” He asked without thinking, “Or are you just saying this because it’s funny?”

Now Russia actually did laugh, and China felt his HP flicker in embarrassment as his teammate saw right through him. “I guess I do,” he said, touching his throat awkwardly as a second ‘ding’ resonated from it, “You are pretty smart after all.”

“Apparently not smart enough to realize you like men,” China gawked, not admitting to himself that he had also not realized that he liked men, “Specifically me,”

Russia grinned and clambered to his feet, “What do you say about America then? Since you don’t want to talk about how you feel about me?”

China forced himself not to blush anymore and stood up after him, “Well, I’d have to know him better first, wouldn’t I?”

Russia nodded and smiled, “Of course you would, people need time to figure stuff out,” he jabbed him in the side friendly, “And you seem to have a lot of stuff to figure out right now.”

China yelped indignantly and jabbed him back, but he couldn’t find the words to retort with, so he settled with just that. Russia laughed and lightly slapped away his hand, sending an accidental shock of magic through his teammate, “Come on, let’s go talk to him.”

As they emerged from the tent, China let the sunlight blind him as he tried to cool the heat from his ears. (Any distraction was a good distraction, as far as he was concerned.)

“America!” Called Russia, voice still scratchy from his injury, “America?”

China blinked a few times and looked around, but their teammate wasn’t in the camp. “I wonder where he’s gone,” he mused, “Is he in his tent?”

“No,” Russia told him, and he sounded worried enough that China didn’t even think to ask how he knew, “No he’s not.”

“Don’t worry,” he reassured him, “He’s probably around camp somewhere,”

Russia nodded, but he didn’t look so sure.

They spent a few minutes searching, but it quickly became clear that the warrior wizard wasn’t anywhere in the camp. (Even so, they searched for a bit longer, but with each second they didn’t find America, Russia got more and more worried.) “We’ll find him,” China said carefully, “He might have gone out for items, right?”

Again, Russia nodded, but also again, he didn’t sound like he believed him entirely.

“We can fly there,” China added, “You’re healed enough to do the spell, right?”

Russia cheered up then, he loved flying, and neither of them could deny that it was an effective way to get around, “Of course,” he said, metaly flicking through spells and letting his eyes flick between colors for them, “Of course I am.”

China smiled and nodded, his new attachment to his teammate glowing in his chest with the magic now spilling from his hands. It was time to fly.

“Let’s go!” Russia grinned, solidifying his ghostly wings behind him, their feathery surfaces fading into something fluffy and real and his spell was completed. (And with the regular shock, China felt wings of his own begin to form.)

Taking off was a pain, like it always was, but it only took him three tries this time, and that had to count for something. (Russia was more practiced, so it only took him one, but he encouraged him the whole way. Even landing again to show him how high he had to jump a second time.) China felt a blush spread across his face then, and maybe that feeling of caring was what got him into the air for sure.

“Okay,” China yelled over the wind, still fumbling with the rhythm of his wings on the air, “Which way do you want to go first?”

By some miracle, Russia heard him, “I was thinking towards the forest,” he yelled back, “If he’s looking for items, that’s the best place to get a variety.”

China nodded and tried not to drop too far inbetween wingbeats, “Lead the way!”

Russia smiled and China felt the warmth in him grow as he swooped off to the west. He was so graceful, so confident in the air, and China had to respect him for it. (Even when following him was a little bit difficult.)

Screaming across the sky, the two looked towards the ground for their teammate. Wind cut right through their hair and feathers, but China’s cloak was surprisingly resistant to the cold, and for that he was thankful. He beat his wings and soared a bit higher. Even though flying was hard work, and he was cold and already tiring, he had to admit that he felt free. (Free enough to almost forget their lost teammate, or how beautiful Russia looked flying below him. …but that was seriously an almost.)

He stretched his arms out like his wings, even though the push of the wind fought to keep them at his sides. There was something nice about it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Russia folding his wings into a dive, heading for the forest that they suspected America to be walking through. China gave a final half hearted flap of his wings, and followed. Wings were generated the first time the spell was set on a person, and they could be different for everyone, so all he could say was that he was thankful he was a bird meant to dive.

It just felt right.

He sped towards the trees, cutting past Russia with a ‘whoop!’ of pure joy. He was going so fast, and the wind rushed past him even faster. It filled his ears and mouth, tearing his joyful screams from his mouth and tearing them apart like a blender. Gradually he put out his wings, using them in an unnaturally practiced way as he swooped up again, moving in a wave over the rushing trees.

Happily, he glanced behind himself, and quickly spotted Russia following him, a look of impressed shock on his face. China didn’t blame him, he hadn’t known he could do that either.

But after a few more minutes, the rush of joy wore off, and he could feel his aching muscles all over again. (Thankfully for him though, not a minute after he noticed the tiredness, Russia let out a shout of recognition and circled in for a landing.)

The landing was appropriately difficult, but watching his more practiced teammate do it first helped. And plus, they were landing in a clearing, so it wasn’t nearly as difficult as it could have been. Still though, he managed to scrape his knee the second he made contact with the grassy ground. It didn’t matter though, because on the other end of the clearing, America was picking flowers.

He had his helmet off, so China could clearly see the shock on his face as he shook out his wings. “America!” he yelled, throwing his arms up into the air, “We’ve been looking for you!”

“You- You have?” he stuttered, a blue blush spreading over his face, “Really?”

“Yeah!” Russia called, voice finally back to normal (it had been a good healing item in the end), “And we’ve got something to tell you!”

China snickered as America’s mouth fell open, and in that moment, they all knew that they were all just a bit more than teammates now.

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

His Dark Materials - Season 2 Episode 7 *FINALE* (Thoughts and Rambles)

We have a LOT to unpack here oh my god oh my god

When I say I was screaming and yelling during the episode, I mean I was LITERALLY screaming and yelling

This post is mostly screeching and capital letters, you’ve been warned

“So cold” “life or death meant nothing” - well shit. Accurate description of a Spectre attack damn

I didn’t know what those creepy noises were at first and I was sat here absolutely TERRIFIED because it was creepy as fuck. Then I realized it was cliff ghasts because they said something that I recognized from the book and I was like “oh shit”

Pan and Will talking is the sweetest omg

The fact that Pan told him that Lyra thinks he’s as brave as King Iorek Byrnison :’)

“She’s the best friend I’ve ever had” “You’re her best friend too” - STOP, MY HEART

Lyra was awake and heard the whole conversation :3

“I’m no longer an aeronaut” :( “I’m an insect” - LMAO

Hester and Lee’s banter remains my favourite thing and now it’s bittersweet tbh...

“You could never be an insect, Lee” “Okay, hare” - bless them

Marisa finding where Lyra was staying and then finding Lyra’s coat?? And crying with it pressed to her face?? :’(

In case I haven’t mentioned it already, I am incredibly gay for the witches/their aesthetic/costume. Absolutely beautiful queens, all of them

Oh hi, it’s Mary and the two kids!

The fact that Mary helped them find their adults :’)

Also, “We like you miss” - BLESS

I’m kind of confused as to whether the blue flower petals are important or if it’s just her smelling them? IDK

“I’m close to my father, it’s time I found him” - OOF OKAY UMM ARE YOU SURE

“I let my best friend down” - Noooo Lyra, no you didn’t! :( Your dad is a terrible parent and killed him, that’s not your fault!

“Maybe this is how I let you down” - Well done, Asriel and Marisa, you’ve fucked up a perfectly fine child is what you’ve done

Will telling Lyra that she hasn’t let him down :3

That witch turning up because she was trying to warn Marisa about the spectres, only for Marisa to torture and kill her... oof

FUCKING MONKEY I CAN’T DECIDE HOW I FEEL ABOUT HIM

“She’s MY daughter” - Okay, damn, lady...

“EVE. She’s the mother of all” - OH FUCK YOU TOLD HER. OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK

THE SPECTRE ATE HER DÆMON OMG NO THIS IS HORRIFYING WTAF

Seriously, the way the witch went so grey and lifeless and just fell to her knees and down... Urgh, my stomach is turning

Just when I thought I hated the monkey again, he starts whimpering because he’s afraid of the Spectres :(

“Stop whimpering” - DAMN MARISA YOU ARE A STONE COLD BITCH HUH

Pan being the damn voice of reason and telling Lyra they should stay with the witches like yes, Lyra, listen to him for once!!!

Okay but why are the Magisterium soldiers lowkey dressed like German soldiers from one of the World Wars???

I’m not really surprised that BBC left out the detail of Ruta and Asriel fucking when she found him to be honest XD

So the witches think that the Æsahættr is a person but it’s actually the KNIFE. AND THEY DON’T REALIZE. RUTA YOU DON’T NEED TO GO ANYWHERE, IT’S LITERALLY RIGHT THERE

“...That’s not my dæmon.” “Run.” - OH SHIT OKAY MY WHOLE BODY JUST TENSED UP

So umm Lee got shot and FUCK NO FUCK NO I’M NOT READY FOR THIS EMOTIONALLY THANKS

I LITERALLY DO NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN OKAY

“You’re either with me or against me” Umm he’s your dæmon?!?!

THE WAY SHE SCREAMED AT HIM OH MY GOD SHE’S FUCKING TERRIFYING HOLY CRAP

“What are you frightened of?” - oh, I don’t know, Marisa, maybe because YOU FUCKING SCREECHED AT HIM. MAYBE HE’S FRIGHTENED OF YOU

Also I love the detail of Marisa getting onto her hands and knees, sort of crouching and mirroring the monkey’s body language. I just love the parallel

The way the monkey flinched from her when she went to touch him omg :( No dæmon should be THIS afraid of their person (or at all?!?!)

Honestly, I find this series’ portrayal of Marisa fascinating tbh

“We have to do whatever it takes to keep her safe” - Umm, like maybe drugging her and hiding her in a cave for months? 🤔

Also in case I didn’t say this before, the fact she has complete control of the Spectres is fucking scary and always has been from the very first time I read the books

Okay so Lee is fully aware that he’s going to die if he stays behind but he does it because he knows that it’s the best chance of making sure that Lyra ends up under the knife’s protection (because Jopari will find her). All Lee wants is for Lyra to be safe and that hurts my heart so much, he loves this child so much :’(

“I love that little girl like a daughter” - LEE STOP MY HEART IS ALREADY BREAKING AS IT IS

NO NO NO NO I AM NOT AND NEVER WILL BE READY

Oh hey Red PAN-da (sorry I know I keep repeating that joke but honestly LOOK AT HIM)

“Once I change, you’ll stop changing” - OH SHIT. So we’re having THAT conversation then

“What do you think you’ll be?” “A flea I hope” - LMFAO I LOVE IT

“Is it Will that’s changing you?” “I think” - FORESHADOWING FOR AMBER SPYGLASS ANYONE?!

All the meanwhile, while Lee is dying and shit is going down, Ms Mary Malone is just chilling in a cave on a mountain by a waterfall, just reading

I literally struggled to watch Lee’s final scenes. I literally didn’t want to watch it because I cried reading it in the book, and I knew I’d be the same here

The fact that Lee HATES taking away people’s lives but he says “it’s theirs or Lyra’s”... I love him. He loves her so much.

“Think about anything, think about bacon!” - LMFAO I LOVE YOU HESTER YOU ABSOLUTE GEM

THE BULLET CLIPPED HIS SCALP AND I HAD A HEART ATTACK 

“This is my fault, isn’t it?” - NO HESTER NO DON’T YOU DARE BLAME YOURSELF DARLIN’, YOU ARE THE BEST AND WE LOVE YOU AND LEE LOVES YOU

I do this everytime I read the book and I did here even though I know what happens, but I was praying mentally that maybe Serafina would reach Lee in time... just maybe...

I’m really sitting here crying over Hester and Lee on a Sunday night, love that for me

Hester limping :(

“Don’t you go before I do” - FUCK YOU BBC AND PHILIP I’M SOBBING MY EYES OUT

“Oh how far we flew” - STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT FUCKING NOW I SWEAR-

I literally yelled and cried out “NOOO” when Hester faded away and Lee died. I am so upset even though I KNEW it was coming. I am literally not okay.

Oh god no Will, now is not the time to be walking away from Lyra and that witch 

Also why is that witch asleep on guard?? Come on, love, do better, it’s not like these are the two most important children in all the universes.... 

To be fair to Marisa, I’d feel pretty invincible if I were climbing up a mountain while the Spectres were guarding me/on my side

WILL AND JOHN FINALLY MET AHHHH

“I was told I’d find my father here”  - YEAH AND THAT’S HIM WILL ASDFGHJKL;

I’m low-key disappointed that there’s no brawl between Will and Jopari here. Like they instantly recognize each other and... hmm. I know there has to be changes but still.

“Your mother, Will, where is she?” - Awww. John really didn’t stop loving her :’)

���My son... is the Knife Bearer” - oooooohhhhhhh

“You have a dæmon” - that’s right, Will. Don’t worry, you’ll get one next season

The way I audible went “oh shIT” when Mrs Coulter found Lyra fast asleep. Like I said, I knew what was going to happen but STILL

I’m not really surprised that those Spectres killed the witch who was supposed to be guarding Lyra and Will tbh like that’s what happens when only ONE witch guards two teenagers and that witch falls asleep

The way that Lyra panicked when she woke up and saw her mother stroking her cheek omg 

Off topic but I’ve only just realized that Jopari has a fucking man-bun LMFAO OKAY

The fact that Jopari tried to get back to Will and Elaine but couldn’t will always hurt me

“And you chose these people over your family?” - I MEAN-

“I’ve thought about you every day.” - Awww

So John tells Will that he has to go to Asriel and bring him the knife, and he tells him all about the war that’s coming and I have LITERAL chills because I’m so ready

“And then we go home?” “... And then we go home.” - RIP MY HEART OUT, IT WOULD HURT LESS

“I’m not strong enough” - yes you are, Will! I promise you, you are! And Jopari says, “Both of us were brought here” - exactly! You were brought there for a reason by fate or whatever you want to call it!

“Your duty was to be my father” - WILL REALLY CAME FOR HIS DAD LIKE THAT I GUESS

“Look what you’ve become without me” - Oh my god, just when I thought I wasn’t going to cry again

JOPARI HUGGING WILL, SEEING THE SOLDIER AIMING, AND THEN PUTTING HIMSELF BETWEEN THEM SO HE TOOK THE BULLET INSTEAD OF WILL ASDFGHJKL;

So in the book, Jopari is killed by a scorned witch who had once asked him to be her lover, but he had turned her down (because of Elaine and Will obviously), and she kills Jopari in front of Will and then he kills her (I think?). But here it’s just a soldier leftover from the Lee vs Magisterium fight, so... yeah. Kind of a little peeved about the change personally but whatever I guess.

“The night is full of angels, they will guide you now” - AHHHHH

Also, might just be me, but maybe that line would have been slightly more impactful if the scene had taken place at night

This show really said “fuck healthy parental figures” I guess

Except Will’s mum, she’s the best and if anything were to happen to her we’d all riot

SAYAN KÖTÖR FADING AWAY NOOOO I HATE SEEING DÆMONS DIE

Okay, last little gripe, but I just wanted to say that in the book, Will doesn’t realize it’s his dad until literally the last second before his dad dies - like they both realize and then BAM, Jopari is killed. And while I do love the father-son reunion, I am kind of annoyed by the change because it was such a huge punch in the gut in the book that Will searches for so long for his dad, only to lose him the second he finds him.

Serafina finding Lee’s body and kissing his forehead was yet another punch in the gut, thanks Pullman/BBC/BadWolf

The fact that Will had to bury his dad :(

Also, WILL WEARING JOPARI’S JACKET OH MY GOD MY HEART

Oof that shot of his amputated fingers...

So the narration, when it started I thought it was Jopari at first, like from one of his letters... but then as it continued, I went “hang on”, and then I said outloud “wait, is that ASRIEL?!”

DID MARISA REALLY PUT LYRA IN A FUCKING TRUNK?!? BITCH ARE YOU OKAY?!?

Will putting his hood up like his dad did just hits differently

Okay so um ASRIEL HI I WASN’T EXPECTING TO SEE YOU THIS SEASON OH MY GOD THE SCREAM I LET OUT

HIS MONOLOGUE BY THE WAY IS FUCKING ART AND A MASTERPIECE BUT I WAS TOO BUSY CRYING OVER JAMES MCAVOY TO WRITE THE WHOLE MONOLOGUE DOWN

Oh, hi Stelmaria!

It always makes me scream that this man is not only Lord Asriel now but he’s also fucking Mr Tumnus and MOTHERFUCKING BILL DENBROUGH LIKE HOW IS THIS MAN INVOLVED IN SO MANY OF MY FANDOMS?!?

ANGELS ANGELS OH MY FUCKING GOD-

“We stand with you, Asriel Belacqua” - AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

“Let us prepare for war” - FUUUUUUUUCK

(I was deadly serious when I said this was just me screaming and crying by the way)

I’m still reeling over the fact that Marisa put her daughter in a fucking trunk. Like I get you can’t exactly carry a drugged child about in the open but Jesus Christ, love, really?!?

Also Ruth Wilson / Marisa Coulter in a headscarf? *chef kiss*

The way that the screen went to black as she put the lid on the trunk down - SHIT OH SHIT GOOSEBUMPS

THE CREDIT SONG IS SO BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE IT HAS FUCKING ANGELS NOW I’M-

I WASN’T EXPECTING THE POST CREDITS SCENE OH MY GOD

ROGER?! ROGER! IT’S ROGER I’M NOT OKAY-

BBC YOU CANNOT JUST DROP THAT ON US LIKE THAT FUCK-

“What is this place?” - I’M SCREAMING SO LOUD I CAN’T HOLD IT IN

For anyone unaware, the reason I’m screaming so loud over the post-credits scene is because in TAS, while Lyra is drugged and in a groggy sleep, she has these visions of Roger talking to her from the Land of the Dead, which then later leads to her and Will actually GOING to the Land of the Dead and... well, the rest is even HUGER spoilers but YEAH I’M NOT OKAY.

Honestly, I’m just so happy and emotional because I’ve been waiting over a decade for a decent adaptation of not only NL but for TSK and TAS too, and we’re 2/3 there now. Just one more book/series to go... I wish we could have it now. I really hope that filming for the final one starts ASAP because if we have to wait two years just to see the conclusion to this series, I might cry.

This series is so amazing, and this season especially has been so incredible to watch. It’s been the highlight of my week for seven weeks, and I have no idea what I’ll do with my Sundays now that it’s over. I’ve asked for the DVD for S2 for my birthday already (since it comes out 29th December and my birthday is 13th January... just saying), and words can’t describe how much I do love this series. I know it sounds hollow since I say it about so many things I’m into, but this was such a huge part of my childhood and it’s one of my favourite fantasy series of all time. It’s truly one of the most incredible pieces of literature and now it’s making for incredible television... I love it so much.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

The Mask 1994

*I finally wrote the whole thing. I finally watched the movie that involved something I’ve been talking about A LOT. I think this took about an hour since I finished the movie. Forgot to mention Charlie.*

I wanna make this clear, even before I watched movie or ever writing this. I am legitimately a stupid and lazy person. Because my mom told me about this, and last week, my dad rented A Quiet Place Part 2. When I was trying to go to sleep but was looking up movies...I literally forgot my tv can do that too...and that I can rent or buy a movie...I rented the movie this morning, and deleted it afterwards...after all that talk...I could’ve done that...wow. I should do that more considering some movies I wanna see or like. Not too much though. My tv has DirecTV. Just a heads up.

But a few or couple of minutes ago, I finally watched The Mask film from 1994. This post is gonna be filled with spoilers and it’s gonna get long. Gonna be kind of a review. My overall thoughts on it. This was my first reaction to the whole movie.

I’d just wanna talk about this too. I like comic books, I like comic book movies. Mainly my favorites are ones like all of Zack Snyder’s DCEU movies, Spider-Man 1 & 2, The Suicide Squad 2021, Wonder Woman 2017, The Dark Knight(Despite whatever issues I have with it), and Joker 2019. Yeah, those are mainly DC films and two Marvel related ones. I don’t even mind Spider-Man 3 as well. I also forgot Dredd 2012 is another one of my favorites. Along with Batman 1989.

I was hoping The Mask could make that list of favorites. Because I read the comics first. I don’t think I ever watch the movie fully as a kid MAYBE. I’m a fan of the comics, I know this movie was gonna be a lighter take on the series. 

In a nutshell...I liked it. It’s possible it will be on that list of favorite CBM’s...but I want to talk about it. I’ll also admit I think what got me interested in seeing this film and this series was me liking Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura...now, let’s get to the point.

Yeah, I liked it. I thought the movie was genuinely entertaining. Despite seeing some clips before. But also Ryan Hollinger’s video about it. Revealing the ending, the twist, and other stuff. But I didn’t wanna watch more more that I haven’t seen yet.

I will be honest, it still made me laugh. Even some scenes I already have seen. I will admit, the Cuban Pete scene is actually one of my favorites. XD But what also surprised me is that at times, despite being a funny film. It can genuinely be touching in a way. And I am mainly talking about the developing relationship between Stanley and Tina.

I just wanna talk about the characters right now. I’ll just admit unless I haven’t already. I’m a Jim Carrey fan. Mainly because of his more goofier roles. Particularly his roles from the Ace Ventura movies, Liar Liar, and especially Sonic The Hedgehog. I also will admit this, Jim Carry nails playing Big Head or who they call...The Mask in this movie...I’ll nitpick about that later.

But yeah, Jim’s entertaining as Big Head in this film. He does make me laugh. But I think another role he does well despite there are some sillier moments, which is fine. I feel like in a way, Stanley Ipkiss in this version, is maybe one of his more normal roles. But I know I’m wrong considering whatever other roles he’s in. He portrays a likable good guy who’s sadly mainly pushed around. Which is quite the difference from the comics, except being pushed around. But that’s another topic. Yet for this story, even if maybe Stanley’s name could be changed. But him being a genuinely kind guy works for this story.

Even before I saw the movie, learning more about this version about the character. I can relate to Stanley in some ways honestly. Which is something that I like. He basically shines as a protagonist. 

He portrays both sides well. Despite at times...honestly, this Stanley is wacky. I shouldn’t be judging. Jim does a good stuff with what he played, and he’s the highlight of this movie. He also delivers possibly my favorite Jim Carrey line of all time now. Sorry if I get this wrong. I was looking for a clip of it to help me.

“Daddy’s gonna go kick some ass”. A literal line from Jim Carrey in this movie and I love it. He even brings a pistol with him.

I also wanna admit Peter Greene as Dorian is pretty good as a villain. The dude can be threatening and he works with what he is given. And he’s effective as an antagonist. I just wanna admit that I swear, one of these guys. One of them could’ve Walter in a way and I just think that could’ve been possible. But I’m not sure. Just one of Dorian’s henchmen looked like a huge guy. It just got me thinking about Walter from the comics.

Will admit, I think Kellaway is fine. And I just found out Christopher Reeve was one of the actors considered for the role...damn. But again, Kellaway was fine. He’s more like a supporting character and again, this is like an origin story. I do feel bothered Lionel Ray wasn’t added but replaced with this Doyle character. I will admit that Doyle is silly, which is the point of his character. I guess the writers and director didn’t want two sensible cops or something. I like Kellaway alright, but I’ll always dig Lionel too.

I really wanted to get this point. I thought Cameron Diaz was good as Tina Carlyle and Amy Yasbeck as Peggy Brandt. I will admit, I do strangely like the subversion with Peggy in a way with it’s twist. I get the idea if that it was going for that theme of, “We all wear mask” and Peggy turning Stanley into the mob said a lot about her character. While Tina was genuinely the one that truly supported Stanley.

I think was surprised me more was the fact despite Peggy turned in Stanley for selfish purposes such as paying for her condo. Yet what surprised me more was she was actually concerned for Stanley being killed, and didn’t want him hurt...which explains even more why she stuck around in the cartoon. And honestly, it makes me glad the director took out that deleted scene of her getting killed. So she wasn’t that heartless.

Also...it made me think that...my ideas and changes towards her character...maybe hold some weight.

I’ll just put this out there too. Milo is great, one of my favorite fictional dogs maybe. Good dog.

Trying to think what else, the score was fine. But the licensed music was good or something. Overall, I think my negatives could be just...nitpicks. Such as the Big Head part I wanted to talk about. Listen, I understand this is a different version. I just feel it’s weird to call him, “The Mask” instead of Big Head. I know other characters mask in their name or something. But...some reasons, the name Big Head is there. I guess it’s because of the title or something.

Honestly, I think my negatives are more that it feels short. And maybe Stanley becoming Big Head a bit too early. I sound kind of stupid, I know. But this was the 90′s and whatever else. This was a different take on the comics. But I did genuinely like it. Maybe I’m just a bit attached to those comics. Despite knowing the changes they did.

But I will admit, considering the development for this film. And learning that it was meant to be a horror film. But the director Charles Russell found the violence in the source material to be off putting. So he made it less grim, and more fun. I’ve also read somewhere that trying to make comedy with that violence was difficult.

Back to the point, to be honest. I feel like for that time and age. A more light Mask film was maybe the best choice to go. And we wouldn’t have Jim Carrey in it. I do also wanna say, I feel like The Mask series, you can do a lot of it. You can have something dark with it, or maybe more lighter.

There are still some of those darker elements. Mainly considering the moments with the gangsters and all that. But I will admit, learning that Charles mostly directed horror films. I think it’s impressive he made a more family friendly film and it worked. 

I liked it, despite my love for the comics. I thought when writing this, maybe some folks reading this may think I sound like fans who read the comics who first experienced this movie. But the film isn’t bad, it’s just a different take and a pretty nice one at that.

And to be honest, as much as I would of loved to see an actual sequel. And not that bad film known as Son Of The Mask. I understand why Jim Carrey dropped out, and I would’ve loved to see Peggy back because the director planned to bring her back reformed. But I feel like this film works as a one off in a way. And there’s also the cartoon, which works fine as a sequel despite some differences. Yet...I’ll admit, I would’ve loved The Mask 2 if we got Jim Carrey as Stanley again fighting against maybe someone like Walter.

The Mask 1994 is a good film. Despite changes from the source material, but the changes for this vision work. It’s cool this film has a cult following, and the fact I have used elements and story beats from it for The Mask Rebirth stuff I’ve been talking about. Even before watched this whole movie.

It’s a genuine fun flick. But I’m hoping down the line, if Warner Bros stops being fucking stupid with how they run things. Maybe we’ll get a reboot or how about an animated film that seems more true to the source material. 

I know The Mask/Big Head doesn’t have a big legacy such as the likes of Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. But I do think this series could be reimagined and expanded upon. Using elements not only from the original comics, but even the movie and cartoon. 

And...despite it was because of Ace Ventura...I would like to thank @kaijuguy19 for being such a supportive dude, and talking about this franchise with me. Including wanting to talk about this movie long ago when I haven’t seen it. But I want to say...no...he’s one of the big reasons why I’m a fan. Because he’s one of the only guys I know who’s a fan. It started with Ace Ventura, but it was because of talking with Kaijuguy that I guess things started to escalate. So thanks man for talking about this stuff with me.

Also, Charlie was silly and he was fine as a character. I forgot about that dude despite wanting to talk about him. Gonna tag him too in case. Charlie schumaker

[captainsspnanon]

C2E39 - Temple of the False Serpent - rewatch

As of me starting this, it has been 20 days since my last C2 reaction.  I have no excuses.  (that is a lie, I have all the excuses, with most of them being I’m burned out as fuck and the world is on fire and I just can’t handle anything anymore including entertainment)  (22 days as of date of posting)

BUT I’M BACK, BAYBEE.  (and holy shit this got long as fuck)

I’ve had this tab sitting open for 20 days, looking at me all accusatory.  And the worst part is that I KNOW I will enjoy watching this (even though I know it’s gonna open with combat), but I just haven’t been able to start.  I’ll only be able to watch an hour or two tonight, but AT LEAST I WILL START.

Matt looks adorable AF this episode, and I feel like it’s 50% the hair

OH GOD THIS IS THE FACEPAINTING SAM BIT

Oh man, this actually was a good idea for him to do I think, I forgot this ad read had a lot of info to get through, so him just reading it while the others goofed off probably made it much more easy for him to get through, rather than to try one of his more complicated bits.

Lol at Matt announcing the wrong AWNP by announcing the one that’s a week ahead XD  They very rarely goof of the actual announcements themselves, it’s fun when they do!

Oh hey, it’s Laura’s one shot ‘next week’!  I’ve seen….half of it?  The first time I tried I stopped while they were still in the classroom, the second time I think I made it to around the chess game….  I can’t say why or why not I can and can’t get through certain one shots.  *shrugs*  I’m not going to try to look for a deeper meaning, they either hold my attention or they don’t.  And honestly?  It’s RARE for me to rewatch a one shot.  I might watch clips from one, but even for ones like Critmas which I really enjoyed, I can’t sit through it a second time, and I’ve tried.   Couldn’t say why.

The 80s intro is fine, but I am looking forwards to the animated intro.  When I first saw it, I told myself I’d never skip it, and then I ended up skipping it most times XD  Haven’t skipped the C3 one because I watch them on twitch on Fridays typically, so it’s not worthwhile to try.  We’ll see if I actually don’t skip the C2 one this time around, or if I will.

Aw, Caleb didn’t get his Slow spell off.  Also, hello wooden mug again!  Is it just for the pirate arc?  Is it a standard Caleb mug?  I swear I don’t remember this!  ...I’m going to have to go back to pre-pirate episodes and see what mug he was using.  (also Liam spit something back into his mug?  Gross)

Okay, spot checking episodes – he was using a darker and smaller mug in the early episodes (3, 11, 22).  In 32, he’s using a tea mug it looks like. 33 is the first episode with the wooden mug, which was also when they were in Nicodranas!  As of 45, he’s back to the mug he was using at the beginning.  Can’t really get a sense for when the switch back happens as I’m not easily seeing the mugs at a glance.  I will honestly be fucking impressed if Liam is using a MUG as part of his RP what the fuck.  (I mean, more likely than not it’s just switching out a mug, but you never know!)

You know, as much as I’m enjoying the C3 PCs (still won’t spoil it here!), I do miss Marisha playing a monk.  In her PC classes, I think this is the one that I enjoy seeing her to the most, even though she clearly enjoyed being a druid and enjoys being a [redacted], which she’s being doing quite well might I add.  Something about monk just seems to fit MARISHA so well.  Eh, it’s probably just C2 bias.

Ah, “Yasha” flirting with Beau through Travis.  Delightful, but completely non-canon, imo.  It’s a bit of in game fanfic.

Travis is FLUSTERED after the nasty attack that took Beau from full to 12.  

Also, whether or not it’s true, I feel like Matt usually doesn’t target Ashley’s PCs as much when she’s not there.  To be fair, Pike was rarely jaegered, but I feel like he’s a bit more reluctant to target them when the player can’t be there for it, which I actually appreciate.

As someone with casual knowledge about the balance of dnd, I feel like hold person and hold monster should be the same.  There are few spells split in that category, if I recall.

I’m very sad that I read a fanfic a few months ago (or at least some of it, I ended up not finishing it ‘cause I wasn’t feeling it) that ended up going through what we’ll be seeing for the next few episodes.  I probably would have remembered next to none of this, but now I know/remember about the fountain and blood trees and the drug fruit and the puzzle and the eggs and the whole hydra bit.  :(  It’s weird, it feels like I got spoiled for something that I already knew?  So hard to explain.

Oh FUCK Caduceus going for a Cure Wounds when the priestess slit her own throat!  Also being intimidating with the Decompose… it’s odd, I don’t remember him being a super intimidating PC?  A lot of his ‘intimidation’ seemed to come from his perception, rather than these subtle threats (‘respectfully, I hope someone will mourn you’ comes to mind).  Either I’m forgetting and I’m going to get to relearn a bunch of bad ass Caduceus, or Taliesin still hadn’t fully sorted his character out yet and softened the intimidation going forwards.  Like, this from Cad seems more like it could come from Caleb, you know?  Just the …. the scary quiet intimidation without really saying anything?  (Fjord’s intimidation is both awesome and hysterical at the same time, he doesn’t go for the quiet level so much).  I wonder if maybe this IS Cad, and I just forgot it because of the fact that basically all the PCs hit intimidation quite a bit, so he got overshadowed?  LEARNING POSSIBLY NEW THINGS ON A REWATCH, YAY!

Ugh I miss this top table SO BAD.  The C3 seating combinations are good, don’t get me wrong!  But I just MISS this top table with all my heart.  And I hate that the pandemic took away a good 40ish episodes of top table. :(

Caleb poking Beau with his foot!  MY HEAAAART

Cad coming up with the idea to shove the arms of the bodies in the holes to plug them feels much more like Cad.  A quite reasonable but also somewhat morbid way of solving things!

Huh, Beau still has the disease.  I thought this was the episode where it got corrected, maybe that’s next episode?

I FORGOT AVANTIKA WASN’T HAVING CURRENT VISIONS!!!  ‘a few years, about’ HOLY FUCK

I’m a little sad we ended up not getting a huge amount of Marisha/Taliesin interaction in C2, especially once Molly kicked it.  They were great in C1, I’m looking forwards to seeing how C3 turns out, and C2 WAS going to have them with a pretty strong relationship clearly, but then it ended up veering away.  But Beau leaning into the horror movie tropes with temples and graves, Cad immediately shutting it down by talking about how grave stacking is in fact common and practical, and Beau just bitterly saying “my parents fucking lied to me” is pure gold.

I’m entertained with how frequently Matt is bringing up Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent in this episode, considering it’s a god from the pantheon that is just so little utilized during the campaigns that I always forget it. What are the gods that are actually in my head?  Sarenrae – the Everlight, Pelor – the Dawnfather, Erathis, which I think is the Changebringer?, Tharizdun – the Chained Oblivion, the Raven Queen (seriously do not like “Matron of Ravens”), Melora – the Wildmother, Kord – the Stormlord, Lolth – the Spider Queen, Ioun – the Knowing Mistress, Bahamut – the Platinum Dragon, whatever Tiamat is called (the Scaled Tyrant, I think?), the Moonweaver, Corellon – the Archeart, I don’t think I can think of any others. That’s 13!  I’m actually impressed with how many I know!  But I think it’s mostly the ‘good’ ones.   But like, Zehir is not on that list at ALL.  Outside of this episode, I don’t think I think of him at all.

Yup, searching the transcripts, he’s only mentioned in 37 BRIEFLY, 38 during Matt’s ‘last time’ summary, and then 39 and briefly in 40 and then NEVER AGAIN.

Ooo, searching the transcripts, AVANDRA is the Changebringer, Erathis is the Lawbearer. There’s the Allhammer as well!  Allhammer is in transcripts 52 times, you’d think I’d have remembered that one! XD

Ah, here is Matt correcting his Lessor Restoration mistake!  I thought this was a chat/social media correction, but it looks like it’s an in game correction.  :)  I do like moments where it’s clear that Matt isn’t infallible.  I feel like part of the internet seems to think he can do no wrong ever (while the other part hates him without or with minimal reason).

Jamedi is way more awesome than I remember him being.  I wonder if he’s a ranger, maybe?

Lolling at Fjord snapping at Nott to not eat the fruit.  We’re just about hitting the turning point of their relationship soon, which I’m looking forwards to.  From the start through now, Fjord’s treated Nott as someone younger, that he almost has responsibility towards.  VERY SOON, in a few episodes I think, the relationship changes to this ball busting mutual bickering.  Honestly, I enjoy both flavors of the relationship, especially because it’s another one where the GROWTH of the relationship is very important to how it ends up.  I feel like the biggest change is around the ‘buttonbeard’ conversation, maybe because that’s when Nott starts lashing back a bit, and that has the dynamic shift.  They walk a fun fine line of actually fighting versus playful bickering in a very different way than the Beau/Caleb relationship.  I think because the affectionate aspect is much more buried and couched in the bickering, whereas Beau and Caleb frequently have sincere moments in addition to their own type of bickering.

Man, seeing the Fjord/Caleb relationship with the knowledge of how the campaign goes actually makes me a little sad?  Because WOW their dynamic is good! Not even the Widofjord aspect of it, but just the mutual respect, combined with the small amount of still not fully trusting but moving into trust (*Caleb pushes Fjord off* “I should have known!” *Caleb casts Feather Fall* “...that you had everything under control”) is so fascinating!  To be fair, they don’t lose the relationship entirely, but it ends up getting overshadowed by the other relationships taking more screen time.  Man, every time I watch C2 it just reminds me why I love C2 so much.  (I cannot WAIT until three years from now when I start doing a C3 rewatch and see all of THAT with hindsight!)  (Honestly?  After I finished C1, I said I’d never really watch it again, but with this, it’s making me wonder if I’d appreciate it more during a rewatch.  I’d already known a ton of spoilers for it, but maybe it’d give me more appreciation?   ...We’ll see how it goes once I finish this rewatch.  I’ve got a LONG ways to go)

Ah, the revelation that Nott is now tripping balls.

Didn’t mention it before, but the lighting is much better this episode.  I no longer feel like Taliesin is less lit than everyone else.

Beau/Marisha being VERY smart and testing if Nott being high would let her see anything special on the walls.  100% not something I would have thought of!

I love that they force Caleb to eat the fruit and Matt confirms immediately after that Nott’s drawings were good enough to read XD

Oh hey!  Blueberry! The literally only time he calls her this!  Oh, actually I think the only time he uses a nickname for Jester ever.  Just checked the transcripts for “Jessie”, and he only calls her that out of character three times, never in character.  (It sucks trying to check nicknames for him, because he calls Beau “Beau” out of character a lot, and I’m not individually checking all 117 times to see if/how many are actually in character.  He says Mr. Clay or equivalent 7 times total, mostly upon first meeting him, “Cad” looks to be always out of character.)  I do love that Vax was nicknaming EVERYONE to the point where at times I was annoyed because it felt forced, and then Caleb nicknames NO ONE AT ALL EVER.  (*waves a sad goodbye to all the schatz and leibling in fanfic*)

Full kudos to Sam “I am trying to cast Teleport.  I do not have Teleport.  I’m trying to cast it anyway”

LOL firebolt or fireball???  I think this is the only time that there’s the confusion, but it’s fun seeing the horror on Matt’s face

THE CAPTIONS SAY (panicky drug trip groan) I LOVE IT

(I was planning on finishing this and posting it today, but my internet started being a butt an hour and a half ago, just around the start of the vine fight. Seriously, it is SO fucking slow right now)

I was going to make a comment about how Cad not immediately healing Nott after combat ended felt REALLY out of character, and then I remembered that he already stabilized Nott and then it made sense.

Oh ffs.  I’ve been reading through the articles on critrolestats in line with the episodes (which I am enjoying a lot!) and can see that the hydra fight is this episode.  1) that means I need to deal with some Liam bullshit this episode (I had issues with the argument with Matt, but at least he acknowledged after the episode that he was in the wrong), and 2) that means there is THREE combats this episode!  Almost the entire episode!  Blaaaagh.   I thought this was spaced over two. Then again, the pirate arc has a lot of combat in it.  ...well, the campaign has a lot of combat it in.  Just sometimes it feels like it flows more smoothly and other times it feels like it overloads.

Hmmm, I wonder if the Fjord/Nott dynamic actually does change this episode, it feels like it’s shifting a little bit.  It’s the snarkiness.

Not particularly a fan of Caduceus taking fruit, mainly because it just seems like all of Taliesin’s PCs want to do drugs.  Percy, Molly, and Cad have all been for altering substances, even if Cad doesn’t drink, and his C3 PC I feel would go for it as well.   And really, if anything, I’d feel like he could have gone to make Cad a fully sober PC.  (to be fair, I don’t think Cad ever actually eats the fruit, but him still taking it feels off.  It fully feels like a taking-drugs-for-later situation, rather than any sort of curiosity about the fruit itself)

I genuinely don’t get how Marisha and Laura (mostly Laura) have dice that go on crazy dice roll journeys.  Maybe it’s just how I roll my dice, but they land on the number really quickly, whereas it seems like Laura’s dice will roll for like 5-10 seconds before landing.  I’d think even if her tray was full of dice, that would make the rolled die stop even sooner!

I don’t mind Avantika, but she certainly doesn’t feel as strong of an antagonist to me as she is plot-wise.  I’m not sure why.  She’s certainly intimidating, but I feel like sometimes it and her bad ass coolness end up feeling … staged, almost?  Presentory, rather than natural? It’s absolutely my own interpretation, and I’m sure I’m MISinterpreting it at times!  I can’t remember how I viewed her during my first watch through.  I know undead!Avantika was awesome. I’m not saying she feels bad by any means!  But instead of rating her like a 9 out of 10, I think I’m rating her more like a 6.5 out of 10.  Maybe it just feels slightly too cliché?  *shrugs*  ...also wtf LibreOffice Writer.  You added the thingy over the ‘e’ in cliché, but you’re also giving the squiggly line that it’s spelled wrong, and suggesting it without the thingy.  Go home, you’re drunk.

“It’s almost like he’s meditating, like I did that ONE time” ILU Beau

FLUFFERNUTTER

FLUFFERNUTTER

FLUFFERNUTTER

Okay, Fjord and Nott arguing over fluffernutter 100% feels like their snarky bickering relationship, so I guess this is the shift. I LOVE IT.  Also, Travis calling Tal “Molly”.  It’s episode 39.  It’s been...10ish weeks since you’ve been playing with Cad.  I feel like that should have been long enough to prevent flubs.  XD

Jester succeeded in Inflict Wounds!!!!  That almost never happens XD  Also I love that she’s thinking of Vex being able to use the assassinate ability. You are not a Rogue/Ranger anymore, my dear.

I still feel like the shuriken should be allowed to be flavored daggers rather than flavored darts.  Matt could have increased the cost for them accordingly.

Hydra comes out and Sam shouts “that’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen!”  Just like my first watch through where I took his comment about not knowing how to use spells seriously and then found out he was full of it after watching C1, I took this seriously during my first watch through, and now I KNOW he’s full of it.  The kracken?  Fucking THORDAK?  Get outta here

...screw it.  I’m not feeling like more combat today.  WILL WATCH THE LAST HOUR AND HALF TOMORROW.

Sometimes I appreciate Tal’s rules lawyering and other times I don’t. They’re debating whether or not Jester would have cast her 3rd level if she couldn’t have moved her duplicate, but it’s a situation where it’s already been a full round of actions and it’s back to her turn, and they wouldn’t be debating it if she had succeeded in the Inflict Wounds.  I like it when Matt likes them fix mistakes within a round, but after the round, let it lie no matter what.  Matt does it all the time for the enemies, or lets a moment go through that technically shouldn’t have from the PCs.

They do actually have fluffernutter work at some point, don’t they?  Ugh, search the transcripts doesn’t show at a glance which ones (if any) actually worked.  Looking at damage or rolls on critrolestats doesn’t seem to show.  The wiki says it succeeds once (probably next episode) when they’re running away, shows the creation of more, but doesn’t say if they’re actually used.  Transcripts says one is used against Trent, I feel like that one worked?  Hard to tell looking at the wiki.

Speaking of rules lawyering, I noticed no one remembered that Beau should have been stunned for a round because Caleb dropped Haste.  (not really bothered by this – stuff like this happens all the time,  but considering the multiple arguments/debates that happen during this combat, just a note that they don’t worry about the one that would impact them negatively)

Ah, the Slow debacle.  Aka – Liam  99.9% in the wrong.

1- Caleb casts Slow, does not specify targets.  So far so good, though specification would have solved the whole issue.  However, by saying that he does the ‘same thing again’, it’s implied to target both.  2- Matt rolls for the abomination.  The 0.1% that I can say is Matt in the wrong is that Matt rolls the d20 and then says “for the abomination”, then adds Bane, remembers it doesn’t have Bane.  Now, Matt rolled for the abomination first the first time as well, so I do believe that he always intended it.  But one could maybe argue that he rolled low and therefore called it for the abomination rather than the hydra.  3- Liam does not say anything, meaning he is fine with the abomination getting Slowed.  4- Matt succeeds with the hydra.  5- Liam now argues that he only targeted the hydra because the abomination was already Slowed.

No Liam.  No.  If you only would have targeted the hydra, you should have spoken up AS SOON as Matt said he was rolling for the abomination.  It wasn’t super quick either!  He rolls, says it’s for the abomination, rolls Bane, says ‘no the abomination isn’t Baned’, and then says 12. Then he rolls for the hydra, laughs, and says the hydra got a nat 20. THAT’S when you started fighting.  This was very much an argument where Liam just wanted to succeed, and was stretching/bending/breaking rules to try to get it.  I was not happy with him first time around, and am still not happy with him now.  To be fair, I don’t think he’s necessarily lying about his intentions, but I think he just needed to accept that he failed.   And he did at first!  He brought up the comment, got shut down, and agreed.  Had it ended there, I would have been fine.  It would have been a normal level of back and forth which they always do.  But then he just goes back INTO it.  Especially because he even brings up the fact that it would go with Matt’s initial dice roll of 12!  Which I STILL disagree with, because that was the roll for the abomination! (A little nasty part of me wishes that Matt said “Sure.  The hydra rolled a nat 20, and now the abomination isn’t Slowed either because you didn’t target it”.)

Luckily, after the episode aired, Liam did either tweet or post on reddit (I forget which, I only saw it way later), that he was completely in the wrong but was caught up in the heat of the moment.  Doesn’t make this easier to watch, but at least he fully acknowledges it.

...huh.  Actually, you know what does make this easier to watch?  The fact that it’s actually way shorter than I remember it being.  Maybe the first time I saw it I was so uncomfortable with it that it felt like it lasted forever, but it’s over and done now.  With only a bit of back and forth.   Like, Liam was still in the wrong, but it’s definitely not as bullshitty long ‘fighting with the DM’ as I remember. Sometimes trainwrecks are only fender benders.

I forgot how many of their attacks missed!!  AAAAGH!!!  They are lucky that no one died, omg!

(also Liam’s back in good mood, joking about getting his own hydra mini and throwing it in the neighbors yard.  Memory really did make the argument worse than it actually was)

I do love that the hydra fight ends up making it into the animated intro.  It’s just so fucking badass.

Have I mentioned how much I miss them pulling out the camera and us seeing the table back overview at the end of the episodes?  Only like 100 times. But I will keep mentioning it, I miss it so much.

I WILL TRY NOT TO LET ANOTHER 20 DAYS PASS BEFORE MY NEXT EPISODE!

@suicidallyreckless

[akookminsupporter]

you know rosie we're always talking about our dear friends the tkkers and how... unique their pov is. but we never really talked about the people that imo are way more delusional than any other shippers. and that's the girlgroup members x our boys shippers. doesn't really matter which one.

i couldn't sleep last night and i remembered a discussion on kanmom's blog about seulgi and jimin so i decided to see what the fuss is about and looked up some of these 'evidence' videos. and let me tell you they're hilarious. people who believe the things that are said there are either 12 or have a very distorted view on relationships. xD

the 'evidence' is one of our boys looking at girlgroup member x, having maybe similar clothes, posting on the same day on social media or a day apart, the boy in question reacting to a word that sounds similar to the girlgroup member's name, oh and in jimin's case one part of the evidence was seulgi standing in front of a brick wall. because jimin also stood in front of a brick wall during the season's greetings photoshoot so that's them obviously hinting at their relationship.

and you should see the comments on these videos. 'yes jimin clearly looked at her, they're dating' guess my neighbour and i are dating now too he looked at me yesterday and even said hi. are we married now? xD or comments like 'they're not even trying to hide they're in love, look jimin likes the colour x and here is seulgi wearing colour x', that's love. i'm not even joking. xD

we have to give our tkker friends that at least tae and jungkook actually interact, know and like each other. xD

Ohhh it's definitely amazing how those... ships have followers. I'm going to tell my story with lizkook. When I first started looking for info about BTS, I also decided to look up if they had girlfriends, boyfriends, were married etc., this was before I knew anything about ships etc., and on YouTube, I came across a video about lizkook that proved that this ship was real. The video started with the video that Jimin posted on Twitter after Jin ended their Vlive in New Jersey when Jungkook knocked on the door and asked if they ended the Vlive and jin and Jimin lied to him and said they didn't. If you remember in that clip there is a moment where Jungkook looked next to him, asking if the Vlive was over, whoever edited the video said that you could see a shadow of someone who ran away because she didn't want to be recorded and that was Lisa. Then they showed a video of her leaving a hotel and claimed that it was the same one where BTS was staying so the ship was definitely real. After that video, I was.... intrigued and started looking for info, videos, pictures something! And I didn't find anything ahahahaha obviously I was super confused, then I learned about ships, I learned more about BTS and I couldn't stop laughing about how that ship exists. How there are people who today swear it's real... its just 🤯🤯🤯

Those people didn't put on a tinhat, they glued it to their heads.

[prurientpuddlejumper]

Out Tonight (Part 5)

<- Part 4 | Part 6 ->

Summary: It’s been 24 hours since you woke up next to a panicked Rafael Barba who turned out to have been much drunker than you thought. Despite the blame and confusion, there remained a primal attraction that led you to decide to try a (sober) date. Was this a terrible idea? Do you have anything in common besides drunk karaoke?

This was supposed to have smut but it’s just a date XD Smut next time! Soon!

3,431 words

Drunk. He must have still been drunk that morning. There was no other explanation for his wildly impulsive, juvenile decision to accept a date with you after that fiasco of a morning, waking up in your hotel with zero memory of what was almost certainly an even bigger fiasco of a night.

But he had agreed to it. Given you the address of his favorite coffee spot that didn’t have wheels. Set a time. It seemed childish to back out on you at the last minute just because he’d had twenty-four hours to sober up and think about his life choices. And so, Rafael Barba stood outside, leaning near the door out of the way of foot traffic, impatiently glaring at the minute hand of his watch.

At least it was only breakfast. Nothing exciting in the history of the universe had ever happened this early in the morning. Everyone in the relatively small Sunday crowd seemed too tired to be here. He would show up for one bleary-eyed date like an adult, make sure you were still alright, and, assuming your story hadn’t changed—that you hadn’t remembered something traumatic he’d forgotten he’d done—you could both part ways with a clear conscience.

***

The GPS on your phone indicated you were at the corner of the street you needed to turn down. There would be no going back if you turned that corner—the cafe was just a few doors down. You almost turned around and walked back to your hotel, but before you could leave, you saw him. Across the street, under the awning of the cafe, a short, well-dressed man radiating authority stood checking his watch with the words “Why the hell did I agree to this?” creased into his brow. You recognized that expression from your own face and almost laughed, only holding it in because you didn’t want to be that crazy person laughing to herself in the middle of a crowd.

His handsomeness had not been an illusion of the drink and low lights of the bar, you realized as you crossed the street. He was really fucking handsome. He wore another stylish and expensive suit, a colorful blue-striped tie, and you assumed suspenders under the jacket, and his dark hair was groomed with precision to the side.

By the time you were close enough to hear his voice calling out to greet you, you remembered kissing him, and how solid his chest felt when your arms were wrapped around him. A flush of heat warmed the base of your spine, and suddenly you were glad you had made this date after all.

Barba was not so sure. Not at first.

He wasn’t certain he would even recognize you in a crowd, but the moment you turned the corner, he spotted you. Your face was permanently stamped into his memory, right along with the time he wet the bed at a sleepover in second grade and the waitress to whom he’d replied “you too” after she told him to enjoy his meal.

The first thing he noticed was that your clothes were not as nice as he perceived when he was drunk. What little memory he had of karaoke painted you as a perfect goddess of seduction, with legs that went on for miles, wearing couture woven by angels out of dewdrops. Even in your disheveled state the morning he could remember, he had maintained a lofty impression of your image, or what he imagined it would be when you cleaned up. But the cute little sundress swishing around your knees as you crossed the street was not designer. It looked nice on you, but was more comfortable, practical, and a bit hippie-chic. You were even wearing a backpack instead of a purse. Your whole aesthetic was woefully down-to-earth. Like a Subaru. You were the Subaru of people.

Yet, even his unfortunate habit of judging people based on their clothing couldn’t dull the spark he felt when you drew close enough to smell your shampoo and look into your bright eyes. He couldn’t help feeling irrationally protective when those bright eyes froze as you stood in front of him, almost spreading your arms for a hug, then almost extending a hand, and then staring like a panicked deer that wandered into Times Square.

“Good to see you,” he smiled, pressing your shoulder amicably, sparing you from the decision.

***

After a short wait in line to order your latte and croissant sandwich, Barba squeezed into one of the tiny seats at one of the tiny tables in front of the window, and you squeezed in next to him. It was such a tight fit, your shoulders almost touched every time you lifted the mug to your lips, and your legs bumped accidentally amid stammered, awkward apologies.

“So...” you began, and your voice sounded far away, like you were trapped deep inside your own skull operating levers to make yourself speak. And you had nothing planned after “so,” and nothing came to you organically, so even though it was a trite, over-used question, you sputtered out, “How have you been?”

“Not bad,” he replied, just as stiffly rote. “You?” The boilerplate question sparked a deeper concern, and he twisted in his seat to grab your eye contact under a furrowed brow, and asked more seriously, “Are you OK?”

Your cheeks burned. He must have noticed how weird and nervous you were and thought there was something wrong with you. “I-I’m fine!” you squeaked.

His brows stayed wrinkled with worry. He lowered his voice. “If you… remembered anything. Anything painful. Something you need to work out, to process… report? I want you to know I will support anything you need to do. If I hurt you, I will do whatever it takes to make it right.”

“Oh!” You nearly spilled your drink. “No, no! God. Nothing like that. Just… embarrassment. Shame. I mean, if anyone should be angry or need to process stuff, it’s you. That was all my fault.”

He breathed a little sigh and his shoulders relaxed. He nodded to himself and turned back to his coffee. With a sideways glance and a sly smirk, he added, “You know, you shouldn’t incriminate yourself in front of a prosecutor.”

You were pretty sure he was joking, but your laugh was tight and high in your throat, and your palms began to sweat.

“Actually—” you reached into a pocket and pulled out your phone, “Tengo unos fotos… if it will help you remember?”

He stopped mid-sip, set the mug back down on the narrow shelf of a table, then coughed into his fist. A near spit-take. “What do you mean, you have photos? Qué tipo de fotos? Muéstramelas.”

Barba had forgotten, or didn’t care, that your Spanish wasn’t terrifically fluent and made his demand at a rapid, clipped pace. Fortunately, your first instinct was to show him.

It was a good thing he had already set down his coffee, because his eyes went wide, and he choked on the air. Picture after picture of him red-faced and disheveled, most of them with a wolfish grin and his hands all over you. He still had on his tie and the grey peppering his temples was evident, and you looked so young and innocent you could almost be mistaken for underage in the soft lighting. The angle of the selfie drew attention to your cleavage. You flipped back once more, and a crackle of tinny audio burst from the phone speakers as a shaky video of Barba singing the tail end of One Song Glory began to play. “Shit,” you cursed, and muted it.

“Delete that,” he croaked, raking his fingers down his face. “God, this is a scandal. Those look—I look—” His eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head with a brash, hostile grin. “Is this blackmail? Is this blackmail amateur hour?”

“What? No! Why would this be… Oh my god, are you cheating on someone?!”

He scowled with indignation at the very suggestion. “I would never cheat on someone. Those make me look like a… a boozy lecher. It could damage my reputation if they got out. Why do you have those?” he hissed, feigning a pleasant smile over gritted teeth. It looked like it hurt his face.

“You told me to take pictures and send them to a friend! You kept going on about ‘gathering evidence’ in case things went sideways.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he scoffed. “It is sound advice,” he considered. “That sounds like me,” he concluded, pinching his brow.

“I’ll delete them all, OK? See? I’m deleting them.” You clicked the trash button and watched them disappear one by one as Barba’s blood pressure went down. “Ooh, I’m keeping this one, though,” you said, fawning.

You flipped the screen to show him a selfie of him smiling wide and carefree, cheeks flushed, his arms wrapped around your shoulders, and you kissing his cheek. It was sweet, almost chaste. The karaoke stage was in the background, and you both looked like you were having a great night.

Present-Barba’s horrified expression didn’t soften. Your face fell. “Alright, I’m deleting this one too,” you soothed.

Your wistfulness must have tugged at his heart as you gave the picture one last look, trying to memorize the happiness you’d felt when you took it. With your finger poised over the delete button, he caught your wrist. “No… If you really like it, that one isn’t horrible. Just don’t send it to anyone in the DA’s office. Por favor.”

“I won’t,” you promised. His eyes were an overpoweringly lush green as they fixated on yours so close up, and you could swear there was a spark of the connection you’d felt that night. Then he blinked, and it was gone, self-consciously letting go of your wrist.

With that matter resolved, Barba became cold and distant, as if all he’d come to do was settle things from that night once and for all, and now he was done with you. You tried to carry the conversation forward, but he met your efforts to bond with the sober version of him with minimal, dismissive responses, leaving you in uncomfortable silence. He would barely even look at you anymore. It made you feel small.

Barba was right—you didn’t know him.

The mood was tense as you quietly chewed your croissant, and it would have been tenser if not for the cramped tables. Had you a spacious seating arrangement, you might have felt the distance between your two obviously different lives stretch out between you like a vast, insurmountable chasm.

Had you met the real Barba first, you would have known this guarded, cynical, tightly-wound ball of nerves and assholery would never sing karaoke without being three sheets to the wind.

The effortlessly charming open-book of a man you’d been wooed by two nights ago was a fiction crafted by alcohol. Without his flirtatious nature to offset the severity of his bespoke suits and high-profile job, you were weighted down with the thought that this man had his shit together more than you ever would. He was too good for you. He thought so, too. You saw that look in his eyes, the sarcastic quirk of his mouth as he glanced over you outside the cafe, though he’d tried to hide it. Your entire outfit cost about a tenth of his jacket alone, and his rich-jerk radar honed right in on it. Barba said you might not like him sober, and he seemed keen to prove himself right. When he finally did ask you questions, it felt like you were failing a test—his brow going up because you had never heard of some famous restaurant or popular composer, proving yourself a cultural dilettante in spite of your mutual love of RENT. When you asked about his job, he was all but sneering at your lack of legal acumen on what he considered very basic things.

You would have downed your latte in under fifteen minutes, shaken his hand, and never seen him again if not for one seemingly unimportant fact.

The table was cramped.

Forced to sit so close together, waves of his scent kept washing over you like an aphrodisiac. He smelled radically different than last time. Then, he was steeped in the stinging smokiness of scotch whisky and the heady musk of sweat from a long day on his feet in the courtroom and the claustrophobic press of bodies at the bar. Today he smelled clean, like fresh soap and a woody, spicy, citrusy cologne as old-fashioned and classy as his suspenders. There was something profoundly soothing in the way he smelled. Soothing enough to push back your anxiety about being unworthy of his attention, and enough to enjoy the sparks of heat spreading under your skin every time your elbows or legs bumped.

The smell of him and the press of his body was enough to make you horny, angry, and bold enough to take him by the hand once the date was done, and drag him somewhere you could teach him a lesson about underestimating you.

***

“You think you’re so much better than me, don’t you?” you growled over your shoulder, as if that was meant to be an answer to his question of “Where are we going?” He fell a step behind your determined pace as you literally pulled him down the sidewalk with a scary, but—he had to admit—sexy fire burning in your eyes.

“I never said that,” he cried unconvincingly, and felt he rather deserved it when you scoffed in response. He could be hard on people who couldn’t keep up with his standards, unless they were the victim of a horrifying enough crime to stir his compassion. And now that he was sure he hadn’t hurt you, well… you were just some woman from a bar who didn’t know the difference between civil litigation and criminal trials.

The fact that the neckline of your dress was so dangerously low, he caught a peek of something he shouldn’t when you leaned over your latte was just another reason to distance himself from you. He cursed his weakness for the tightening in his pants.

But that picture stuck in Barba’s mind. He was ashamed of his behavior, but at the same time, he was fascinated by this other Barba. The smiling Barba who didn’t make a million anxious excuses for why he couldn’t or shouldn’t be with someone he desired, who didn’t tell himself to wait, and wait, and wait until they were gone. He looked so comfortable with the woman on his lap in that picture. He wondered what exactly happened to make you grow so close?

After marching for several blocks, you finally slowed down where the geometric grey concrete of the city broke upon an oasis of wild green. Barba hunched forward, catching his breath in front of the entrance to Central Park closest to the pond. “Alright,” you challenged him with your hands on your hips, “Name one of these trees. Just one.”

“Shirley.”

You narrowed your eyes until he dropped his clever little grin.

“Worth a try,” he shrugged, straightening up. He unbuttoned his jacket to let some of the heat out. He pointed to a large tree near the path with three-pointed leaves and smooth, camouflage-patterned bark. “That’s a maple,” he said with confidence.

You raised your eyebrows at his breathtaking ignorance and tutted. “Oh, Rafael, that’s such an easy one. This is an American Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis. The bark is a dead giveaway, and maples have opposite leaf arrangement, while sycamore is alternate. But I’ll let it slide since the leaves are similar.” Your voice was dripping with intellectual condescension, and he immediately understood that you had brought him here to humiliate him. A familiar roar burned inside him that he felt any time someone thought they could get the better of him. His sharp eyes bore into yours, the slightest hint of a smile at the corner of his lips. Rafael Barba did not back down from a challenge.

He walked farther into the park, past sweeping rock formations covered with climbing children, and you followed behind, watching him as he swiveled his head in search. It was almost magical how the park felt like a trail in the countryside until you looked up to see the gleaming peaks of skyscrapers and 5th Avenue. Barba stopped next to a green park bench in front of a tall conifer with drooping branches. “Pine,” he said matter-of-factly. “I know what you’re trying to do, but even a city boy knows what a pine tree looks like.”

Except from the way your cheeks puffed out as you tried to contain your laughter, he apparently should not have sounded so sure of himself. Or you were just being vindictive, pretending he was wrong because you assumed he wouldn’t know the difference.

“That is a pine,” he insisted. “That’s basic middle school science class.”

“That is a conifer,” you corrected, still giggling at his expense, and his cheeks darkened with realization. Conifer. Pine. They were different things. He braced himself as you lectured him like a school teacher about how the Norway Spruce is in the genus Picea, while pine trees—and there was a White Pine right over there, too!—are in a totally separate genus, Pinus. When he tried to call it hair-splitting and trivia, you exploded. “You realize we live on a planet, right? All of human life on Earth couldn’t exist without forests—you literally need trees to breathe—yet you can’t identify a single one. Your furniture is made of maple, beech, oak,” you gestured to a few specimens, “but you don’t know what they look like growing in front of you. It is crazy to me how people lack even a basic understanding of the environment we can’t survive without. If we didn’t have laws, life would go on. If the whole world was paved like New York City, humanity would go extinct. So go ahead and judge me for not knowing who Puccini is when you know fuck-all about the planet.”

You had worked yourself into a lather, and all he could think was how much he wanted to kiss you. Your face was flushed, and you were so animated with passion for the subject as you laid into him—even though he knew nothing about it or even found it particularly interesting, he oddly enjoyed being torn apart by your arguments. You might make a great lawyer, if your clients were green.

“Are we even?” he smiled. “Now that you’ve judged me?”

You took a half step back and covered your mouth. “I… got a little defensive, didn’t I?” you cringed.

“Just a little,” he pinched his fingers together so they were almost touching. He stepped toward you.

“Sorry about that,” you laughed nervously. “Yeah. We’re even.”

He took another step closer, and you didn’t back away as he entered your personal space. He could feel his heart hammering behind his rib cage. Behind his over-dressed tie. His tongue darted unconsciously across his lower lip as he glanced down at that temptingly low neckline before snapping his eyes away to meet yours. He wondered if you’d noticed his glance. If you had, your reaction was not to slap him. There was a tentative hope shining in your eyes, breath catching as he stood too close to be platonic.

“So, you’re the Lorax,” he smirked.

“I do speak for the trees,” you said, glad to finally understand one of his references. “I work in conservation. Mostly management plans to control invasive species.”

He tipped his head back with a knowing “Ah,” that you were in some outdoorsy field. That explained your crunchy-granola vibe and the fact that you weren’t at all winded by speed-walking six blocks to get here. You fit in better here, surrounded by greenery, than in the city. You were some sort of forest nymph, a fae creature who had come out of the woods to seduce and enchant him, and spirit him away into the ether.

Your lips were close enough that he could capture them in one fluid motion of his neck, but he hadn’t yet, and now you were simply talking too awkwardly close together while a million excuses not to chanted in the back of his sober mind. So he reached for your hand instead.

“You know, there’s a whole field of environmental law that I am woefully rusty on…” he began. Linking arms, you chatted about your interests as you strolled through the park in the cool morning air of what would be a humid summer day.

• ● • ━━━━━─ ••●•• ─━━━━━ • ● •

@beccabarba​ / @caked-crusader / @itsjustmyfantasyroom / @thatesqcrush​ / @dianilaws / @permanentlydizzy​ / @mrsrafaelbarba​ / @da-po / @madamsnape921 / @charlottegrice / @onerestein​

[verfound]

FIC: Dingo Files: I Hate My Best Friend (MLB/Lukanette)

Rating: M / PG-16 / Older Teen

Characters/Pairings: Luka Couffaine, Marinette Dupain-Cheng; Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Luka Couffaine & Dingo King (off-screen)

Summary: Luka shows up on Marinette’s balcony a little drunk at three AM with some Choice Things to say about his best friend.

Author’s Notes/Warnings: Let’s say this is set during Mari’s last year at Sant-Saëns/between lycée and uni, so ages are 19/21.  Quick was secretly breeding plunnies in an underground lair somewhere and just chucked ‘em at me this week I swear.  xD  She linked me to this standup clip, and I was ONE LINE in when brain went: “…this is a drunken 2 AM rant from Luka about Dingus.”  And really all the LBSCers are just a giant group of enablers (I love you all~), and one thing led to another, and…yeah I’m just gonna dump this here and get back to that Loop that got sidetracked by all this.  xD  (It’s still a Dingo File even if Dingo’s only there in spirit.)

Cam Bertrand – “Don’t Take a Bullet for Your Dumb Friend” (yes some dialogue was lovingly stolen er reappropriated)

“I Hate My Best Friend”

Marinette woke up at three AM to the sound of a flower pot falling over.  The crash came from above her head, followed by muffled grumbles, a quieter thud, and a few more muted crashes.  She groaned and blindly groped for her phone, not fully registering the disturbance at first, but seeing the time glaring back at her from the screen kick-started her brain.  She looked at Tikki, suddenly wide-awake and acutely aware of the fact that somebody was on her balcony at three o’clock in the morning, but before either could do anything other than stare in bewildered horror at the other there was a quiet knock. 

There was only one person Marinette knew who would – could – reach her balcony at three o’clock in the morning.  Or at any time, really, without accessing it from her bedroom.

She was going to fucking kill Chat.

“Mari?” Luka’s voice called in a wavery, whispered shout.

…ok. Make that two people.

She was going to fucking kill her boyfriend.