#struggling a bit with that fun emotional authenticity again

[itsahotsecondafter]

thanking and cursing the universe for my accidental acting abilities

[daisys-reality]

── ☔ꜞ˖ ꒰ 𝙿𝙰𝙲: 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚏𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚓𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚢 ꒱

Hello my fellow shifters, here is your ☔ reading which you've voted for!

Do you want to know why all of this is exactly happening? Do you want guidance and answers because you want to know where you’re standing in your shifting journey and how to move forward? What are you heading towards exactly? I’ll try to find answers to such questions for you in this reading. Choose a picture and enjoy your reading!

Also check out my  masterlist if you want! Fyi I don't own any of these beautiful pics, they're all from pinterest. 🤍

──

𝙿𝙸𝙻𝙴 𝙾𝙽𝙴

Why were you meant to find shifting? What is your (higher) reason for finding shifting? (for personal shifting reasons, please check out my other pac reading)

To develop your creative force, to be more daring and to follow your passion and ideas, to make you follow your dreams, to trigger growth, to give you a spark for new beginnings, to recover the joy of life/the magic of life

To give you strength in trying times (mental/health struggles, feeling rejected by this world, feeling lonely and not understood, …), to help you endure those almost impossible trials in your (cr) life, to help you stay resilient, to strengthen your resolve and faith

To evoke a nostalgia for sweeter times, to find your innocence again, to connect with specific people/souls, some people want to connect with you, to strengthen your connection with spirituality/the world of spirits, to go on adventures and partly to re-experience childhood especially if you felt like you missed out a lot in your younger years, to experience love/soul connection in other realities

This message only applies to people with specific spiritual beliefs: if you feel like you have a specific purpose in this life, it might actually be a major purpose for which you need to be strong, that’s why you experienced so many hard lesson in your life until now, shifting is there to make your experience in this reality a little bit easier/enjoyable, to give you strength to keep going because there is something great waiting for you, for some it feels like an exceptionally strong soul connection (!!), for some of you it feels a bit like a so called “twinflame” connection that is finally tuning into the same frequencies in this human life/reality - if you believe in this type of connections

Major theme in your journey: Learning something specific?

To learn to connect with yourself and your emotions on a deeper level, expressing yourself wholly and authentically with youthful purity, to learn to love yourself and other as well as learning to enjoy your experience here and in other places/realities, to make use of your sensitivity and to develop your own spiritual beliefs, to just have fun and to let things happen to you, no one and no thing(reality) is bigger, better or more important than you - there is no hierarchy, there is no specific worth you need to have - you are able and “allowed” to experience anything you desire whether it is true love, freedom, adventure, joy, comfort or just silly romance. No one is deciding above your head on what you may or may not do in this universe. It's important that you understand this. (Connecting, loving and expressing/communicating seem to be very significant here in general)

The difference between you right now and the you in the ‘future’ that finally succeeds (shifting)

Disclaimer: ‘Future’ is a loose word and time is not really real anyways. So, everything that is not the ‘present’ or the ‘past’, represents the future. ‘future you’ can be you in a second, you after reading this or you in a week etc.

‘Future you’ embodies the queen of swords energy. ‘Future you’ is strong and knows it. You will know that you're protected, you will be fearless and fierce, unbiased and independent. You will stay calm and open minded while still being firm (not accepting less than your ‘goal’, firm boundaries + direct communication), not giving in because ‘future you’ knows that it’s only fair that you succeed - you’re meant to succeed, you’re meant to shift. You’ll see your situation with open eyes, mind and heart, remaining positive and not losing hope. Your insights will make your beliefs stronger, therefore your faith will become also strong and unwavering. You. Will. Shift. Periodtt.

Advice for you right now:

Keep looking and acknowledging the signs around you, focus on recovery (your health, your energy etc.), forgive and fully release your past. be in the present moment and be free. 

Timing: “Create space (in your mind, life etc.) for it to happen sooner”, “Release any attachment to timing”, “Time is still unknown” (the energy is mutable)

Thanks for reading!🤍☔

𝙿𝙸𝙻𝙴 𝚃𝚆𝙾

Why were you meant to find shifting? What is your (higher) reason for finding shifting? (for personal shifting reasons, please check out my other pac reading)

To learn/practice long term commitment, to become more determined in life, to learn how to complete a “project”, to be decisive

To awaken the power of self, to build balance, to find your inner beauty and learning to appreciate it, to build your self-esteem, to give you the ability to see a future for yourself

To  understand the spiritual nature of life, to develop your intuitive abilities, and your grace in dealing with others

To increase your knowledge and wisdom, to learn to listen to your subconsciousness, to get encouraged to form your own conclusions, to recognize your vast yet subtle powers, to become a mystery in the eyes of others

Major theme in your journey: Learning something specific?

Learning more about spirituality and other spiritual beliefs and practices, finding your joy in those things, learning about & developing your new spiritual gifts or abilities, getting closer to spirit world

Learning how to make use of your emotions/feelings and your compassion, learning how to be more receptive to creative opportunities and loving connections, and to be more deeply compassionate for other living beings

Creating the start of a new life and a new version of yourself

Learning and practicing self reflection, making important decisions for yourself and about yourself (ex. who do you want to be, etc.)

The difference between you right now and the you in the ‘future’ that finally succeeds (shifting)

Disclaimer: ‘Future’ is a loose word and time is not really real anyways. So, everything that is not the ‘present’ or the ‘past’, represents the future. ‘future you’ can be you in a second, you after reading this or you in a week etc.

‘Future you’ knows that your life will drastically change and there is no going back, the change is necessary. ‘Future you’ went through a metamorphosis and is embodying the ‘king of swords' energy combined with the energy of volcano deity Pele. Your power will be enhanced by your wisdom. ‘Future you’ is wild and free, capable of anything, patient and persevering. ‘Future you’ knows exactly what to do to succeed. ‘Future you's’ approach to shifting will be very structured and disciplined, while your mind force (will power + confidence) will be wild and uncontrollable like an explosion or the eruption of a volcano. ‘Future you’ cannot be held back, shifting is inevitable at that point.

Advice for you right now:

Reconsider your current mindset one more time, spend time reflecting and ask for help from others, perhaps communicate your current ideas/plans with someone close to you to gain another perspective, communicate clearly (specifically with yourself), focusing on romance might have a positive influence!

Timing: “When you’re truly ready for it”, “Don’t lose hope”, “Create space (in your mind) for it to happen sooner” >prepare the metamorphosis<, “Gain more knowledge/wisdom”, “Meditating brings answers” 

Thanks for reading!🤍☔

𝙿𝙸𝙻𝙴 𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙴

Why were you meant to find shifting? What is your (higher) reason for finding shifting? (for personal shifting reasons, please check out my other pac reading)

To have the opportunity to fulfill all your many dreams and aspirations. You might have so many that you wouldn’t be able pursue them in “just one normal life”

To stop procrastination and to choose and go after the things you desire in life

To learn to differentiate between “illusion and reality” especially in regards to what you really want to experience and what you think you want to experience… some opportunities can often lead to a major disaster (if you’re someone who romanticizes dangerous realities… shifting there might not be the best idea, buddy)

to leave seemingly good things behind in the pursuit of higher ideals, to go deeper into introspection and starting to seek the truth and to come to realizations about yourself and about life/universe etc.

Major theme in your journey: Learning something specific?

(This is very specific and only relates to those who have special s/o:) Going through a rocky connection with someone who is probably from another reality and going through all these feelings/moods/longing in this “long distance connection”... I feel like this is about one specific person and you developed feelings for them..? Even though you’re pretty much opposites, you complement each other well and I think you feel this too… Learning how to love healthily is a theme in your journey…even ideal relationships still face difficulties, right? 

Learning how to create a stable lifestyle/mindset and to actively be thankful towards yourself but also for the things you have gained and experienced and to cherish them and the people who support you

Your shifting journey is the built up to your happily-ever-after (your reunion with someone specific and the start of many happy moments) 

The difference between you right now and the you in the ‘future’ that finally succeeds (shifting)

Disclaimer: ‘Future’ is a loose word and time is not really real anyways. So, everything that is not the ‘present’ or the ‘past’, represents the future. ‘future you’ can be you in a second, you after reading this or you in a week etc.

‘Future you’ is grounded, down-to-earth and very practical and organized. They are always on the move, improving, perhaps even teaching others, sharing their experiences and realizations. They are starting to be very secure in their beliefs and they are eager to travel the universe. Also, they feel abundant in energy, they are very self reflected and therefore overall balanced and stable in their home/cr life. ‘Future you’ acts very motherly towards themself - pushing themself when it needs to be and taking care of themself when they need a rest. ‘Future you’ does not lose their temper when things go ‘awry’, they always keep moving steadily towards their plans/goals

‘Future you’ overcomes the procrastination and follows their passion with much force. They are not scared of what is to come because they are so secure within that they feel comfortable enough to be daring in the pursuit of their goals.

Advice for you right now:

You might have to change your focus right now or rethink your current plans - there is another path that leads to more big happy changes. Always remain positive, don’t stop or procrastinate -  take action!

Timing: “Refocus and stop waiting for it”, “Trust that it will happen when the time is right”, “Summer time” (- perhaps in 2 months from now? August could be lowkey an important/happy month for you and your journey…)

Thanks for reading!🤍☔

──

[letters-to-rosie]

Minutes to Midnight is seriously and envy-inducingly good! But I just want to say that, when you said "one shot of all time", my mind immediately went to you've got your demons, and darling, they all look like me. And then I got reminded of why it's my personal favorite (other than it being plain good, ofc): the summary. A well-written fic is a well-written fic, obviously, but the perfect summary really adds to the experience. Like how it catches your eye and makes your heart race because you know that an author who can write such a summary... well. They also can and probably did write a fic that blows your clothes off and turns them inside out before sending them to the hamper. It's about the anticipation.

Ahem, so anyway. I started thinking about how few words one needs to evoke an emotional response, and I wanted to share my excitement about that.

ahhhh thanks for the recommendation!!

I'mma use this as a little bit more time to gush over Minutes to Midnight just because, and then gush over you've got your demons as well because oh man. thank you for sending it my way!!

Ekko is my favorite character, but I am also a big fan of making him Worse, and I love how Minutes to Midnight does it in a way that feels so authentic. like I can extrapolate him right away from what we see in the show. and this is the only fic I can think of that really takes it to such an extreme, but again it's done so compellingly that it really feels like a Jinx version of Ekko, even if Jinx remains similarly filled with rage. there are just so many lines I love and I could list them all day but when it culminates at the end, tying together the time themes and the regret and the betrayal it's just... I love it so much

one line for fun: She’s bleeding, choking, underneath him, and he hits her, and hits her, don’t you get it, I could have done this anytime I wanted but I didn’t, I didn’t, I gave you my life and you threw it back in my face, even as she claws at him alley-cat-desperate.

every time I read it, I'm just in my room, actually screaming lol

and now for you've got your demons!!!!

there were also a ton of lines I could have pulled out but then we'd be here all day but

Dark against light - though the light has always been Ekko. i cry She chose him long before he chose her. i cry endlessly Powder never asks Vi her favorite color, because she doesn’t know what she’d do if she didn’t say the same thing Ekko did. a never-ending stream

but man it's just so stunning. like you said, I love how few words it uses to get its story across. getting to read prose that packs that sort of punch is always so special. Powder/Jinx is just so relatable and you really feel her struggles come through. her tangle of confusion and not getting things like marriage really resonated with my ace self (and I always enjoy an ace-spec Jinx). but her crush was so precious I just wanted to hug her and let her be happy with Ekko and maybe my delusional ass can imagine that they are someday in that fic universe lol

and the way the summary gets entirely recontextualized at the end????? INCREDIBLE truly a one-shot of all time. we have to make it an indefinite article now lmao

I got super lucky because the author of "you've got your demons" wrote my gift for the secret santa we just had!! that fic is called Moonlight Refuge and let me tell you if it didn't convey every emotion I wanted, which is the "I should want nothing to do with you but I can't help myself" part of timebomb, and in this one it's mutual and just fantastic. I spent like half my comment writing AHHH because the emotions were just everywhere it was a good time

also hi @cranechel we're in the corner gushing over your fic... I will leave a comment soon but wanted to answer this lol

[jamiesfootball]

You have multiple trademarks!!

Fix-it™️ you can take canon bits and craft them into something that feels authentic, earned and truer to character than the original pieces had been! You elevate the source material without disregarding it’s flaws

Tangible™️ something about your articulation makes the world you’re writing for feel physically real and touch-ably close

Roy-voice™️ I said this in a comment before but I’ll say it again: I don’t think your expression of Roy and how he speaks/thinks could be better if he was a character you’d created from scratch

Earthquake-emotions™️ because your writing always makes me feel RIDICULOUS levels of various emotions that require something similar to the richter-scale for me to even start to measure

💚💚💚

VERY NICE TO ME. AND DON'T THINK I'M NOT PLANNING TO RESPOND TO YOUR VERY VERY LOVELY COMMENTS

(that I have reread the normal amount of times)

The fixing thing is particularly important to me. I've mentioned before, I honestly have a hard time doing fix-its that are like 'and then I changed this One Thing I didn't like.' It's a challenge to myself that one day I'll do that but it's a struggle. Seismic changes or re-contextualizing the entire story are somehow easier to me.

Tangible and Earthquake-emotions are THE GOAL I love reading those things and so that is always what I am aiming for and I'm so happy you think I do those well enough to be a trademark thank yooooou

Roy-voice™️is honestly such a fun term. Thank you for coining this. I don't know if I necessarily write Roy well on the first drafts, but I certainly think I have an ear for what he sounds like when I read it back! He's just.... very important to me. For a character with so much depth, he's got such an obvious front that I think it's very easy for fandom interpretations to fall back on his surface-level traits (especially his anger and his struggles with expressing himself). Once I started writing him, I couldn't really stop- I'm just constantly tripping over new facets.

[yomiurinikei]

rei mekaru (shocker i know)

we r ginger liker solidarity.... yuuki/yuki likers and rei likers need to come together and be allied...

~*~

My identity hc for them

oh shit tumblr is auto formatting in bullet points thats fun. uhhh w/rei i pretty much like any combination of ace/aro spec + lesbian. 100% lesbian rei? aro lesbian rei? aroace rei? all epic all amazing. i started hc'ing this back in like.. vv early sdra days. and i think its just part of who i am now... i think she doesnt really experience much attraction in general and has a bit of a hard time labeling how she feels because. of her general emotional trauma. so tbh i can see her kinda rotating through labels? i think she keeps it very to her self tho. she doesn't like people assuming she's cishet but she also doesn't want to come out as straightn't, so she just snaps at people who try and drag her into convos about identity.

similarly i think she struggles with really.. going "wow this is so me this is exactly what i am" when it comes to gender identity. i think she's very.. "well im Definitely not a guy, and i dont think im anything else, so..." ie, she's more prone to defining herself by what she isn't than what she is. which is perfectly okay!!! i don't think she'd consider herself trans, but she may occasionally like the label genderqueer. (yes i know that trans people r anyone who's gender deviates from what they were told they should be, but while it is an umbrella term, people can decide if they like it for themselves a lot! and i don't think rei would really like any label other than "idk man its weird", which she likes to use on/off) again tho i dont think she's very into sharing that with people, at least as a teen.

Thoughts on their home life/family

im so curious what her time was like when she was all alone??? i think that's something thats fairly unexplored, is her time between her parents not being able to care for her, and her becoming self-sufficient. ultimately i dont have much to say here, i like how linuj handled her backstory, i just think it wouldve been cool to see more of it, not that there was any good place to write it in, but i love bonus modes and would like to see maybe how the dra survivors coped w/what they learned in the sixth trial in a bonus mode about how the kisa foundation became what it is now.

How i feel about their canonical writing/handling

mmm... tbh. i like rei, i think her growth from dra to sdra2 was handled well- she still feels like rei, while also serving her narrative role- ie. there's not much you can do when shawty gets exploded in the prologue and then has to play second fiddle to tsurugis viola of fucking evil. sadly, we can't do much with the kisa foundation and showing how rei and tsurugi have changed and have the pacing of the chapter still be intact, when we see rei, its mostly just her being voice of reason because someone has to give exposition on what the foundation knows while tsurugi has a meltdown. i think her development feels authentic and natural, if she maybe feels a biiit.. i dont know how to word it, but she almost feels a bit too calm? less snarky at points than i'd think she'd be, and than what i'd like to see. but again, we can explain that as being due to the role she has to play for the story.

ultimately, while not necessarily my cup of tea, i'm just not prone to latching onto characters like rei a whole lot! i def think she's handled well, oddly well for linuj in general, and v oddly well for a female character written by linuj. i like her, im just not brain rotted about her

The one thing i’d want to make canon about them

hmmmmm... im not gonna lie i can't really think of anything? after thinking about it while i typed up. essentially the whole rest of this post, i think it'd be cool if she and kabuya were friends after sdra2. yuuki is... .... ..........lets not talk about what hes up to, syobai and iroha are just a whole fucking mess. theyre a bit busy dealing with heads in boxes. and tsurugi is just sooo normal he's too normal really.

so i think they could meet and chat about how Fucking Insane the games were, in a way that other kg survivors wouldnt get, since they didnt have to deal with divine luck and what it does to people. also seeing as akane saved rei in dra and then. ya know. Soruko. i think that'd be a interesting convo for them to have, both kinda understanding more about akane taira. i think that'd be really neat!

My number one favorite ship for them

hm.... reikako by default of i dont think much about rei ships, and they have a significant amount of canon material. i do wonder though what their relationship was like pre-despair, it feels like a lot of the school life info we have is on utsuro or tsurugi? buuut yeah. also as kinda established i think rei is uncertain where she stands on attraction/her thoughts change a lot and. yeah. so this is less a romantic thing and moreso i want inside linujs brain so i can know what he thinks except he like. officially has stated he doesnt know shit abt sdra anymore which is SO UPSETTING

…Now everyone else i ship with them

i think rei/kizuna/kiyoka could be cute!!! also i kinda just like giving akane gfs, and i don't really think they'd be that compatible, but i think if they had a weird little queercoded friendship for like. the duration of one year during their stay at hpa, and it leaves akane feeling more confident and comfortable with herself as her own person, and leaves rei with a LOT of questions, while they also never really cross the line between friends and something more, that'd be cool and fun. just normal gals being pals things.

The thing i will NEVER ship

im so sorry. 2020 sdrainsta has made me incapable of terurei propaganda. i support people who ship it as a matter of fact im so glad we r now in a place where people can ship it or not ship it and everyone can just be fine and happy. but i dont think ill ever be able to see the vision.

a dynamic/relationship i wish was explored more (in canon, or in fandom)

i wish in sdra2 we saw more on the dynamic that grew between rei and mikako in dra. i think it'd be cool to see that discussed a bit more seeing how it was. mikakos in game memories that formed the basis for sora iirc.

thoughts on their design (appearance-wise)

mmm...... why the fuck did linuj use so much blue in the dra cast color palettes... i remember i had this dentist appointment that was really evil and like. literal hours longer than it was supposed to be, and to try and distract myself i went through the cast and counted who had blue in their design and who didnt. it took a long time because i was in so so so much pain but like. iirc its just mikako akane and yuki. and also mikako wears blue in ch4. so. THATS NOT RELEVANT THOUGH.

uhhhh. im not a huge fan of her outfit just because i dont like the skirt. her og design was a school uniform and i think it kinda shows and im not a huge fan of it? my brain keeps getting mixed up on the length of her skirt but yeah. its just so vibrant and pigmented and so is her hair and its like. the lower half of her fit just feels so high school uniform and i dont really like it. i think her hair is super cute in the bonus sketch (the just-woke-up one) on her character sheet tho.

i also don't really like her fit in sdra2. i think the labcoat is super nice (i like the ombre effect it looks good) and while its not too practical i dont hate the vest short skirt tights combo. but im not a fan of the color palette, its just so dark, so u have her bright hair and the bright coat, but the dark grey and black, in vertical stripes just kinda dominates it in my brain. and i don't really like it? i really dont like the grey with her hair.

she is very pretty. but im not a fan of the fits linuj puts her into

A music-related thought- a song that reminds me of them, or what their music taste is, etc

hmmm.. this is a very foreign concept to me but i dont think reis huge on music. i think for the most part she listens to songs she has memories associated with- she doesn't seem huge on the arts or. ya know. emotional connection? so i think while she wouldn't really vibe with anything particular of her own accord, listening to music which was playing when something emotional happened to her both improves the music, and also. helps her with being in touch with her emotions and letting herself feel. if that makes sense?

[acourtofthought]

Queen I’ve seen you obliterate the “true mates” nonsense from antis time and again, but I genuinely cannot phantom why they believe Lyria/Rowan/Aelin will parallel to Lucien/Elain/Azriel as if Jesminda/Lucien/Elain isn’t already right there.

And maybe this is redundant to ponder over, because I’ve seen a ton of Lucien slander from E/riels and antis. But the forces at play when it comes to Rowan and Lucien’s parallel pasts —Maeve/Beron, the drive to keep Rowan/Lucien under their influence, the guilt and responsibility each feels for Lyria/Jesminda’s death…

I mean, can people just truly not read? Has comprehension been left so far behind? Or are people so dedicated to a fictional ship, that they refuse to acknowledge those facts which debunk their theories? Are we seeing “alternative facts” tarnishing fantasy worlds now? 🤦🏾‍♀️

💖🧼

👑 - 😁😁😁. That made me smile.

But I agree, trying to twist these storylines into matching ones in order to disprove Eluciens bond has never made sense to me.

Maeve tricked Rowan into believing he had a Mate so upon the loss of her and their child he would be so distraught, he would swear loyalty to Maeve eventually leaving her with a leg up on manipulating Aelin.

Someone is tricking Lucien into believing Elain is his Mate so that....... What? They will fall in love in order to keep them away from their True Mates? Their True Mates being Az and Vassa?

Boy did that plan ever backfire 😂

Because Elain is having an emotional rebound of sorts with Az and Lucien is living with another female who he now considers a friend. Keeping them from their "True Mates" has turned into them spending an awful lot of time with them while avoiding each other because Elain hasn't been ready to deal with the bond (and really, Lucien hasn't either).

And Lucien was already fooled into thinking Jesminda was his Mate. Not because anyone manipulated him but because he truly loved her so much that it hadn't crossed his mind that they could be anything other than Mates. Which is why finding out she wasn't his Mate and Elain was, was such a complete shock to him.

Adding on to that and making the story go "Jesminda is my Mate! Oh wait..... Elain is my Mate!...... Oh wait...... Vassa is ACTUALLY my Mate!" becomes a bit ridiculous.

And getting back to canon and facts as you mentioned above:

Elain and Lucien felt the bond come into existence at nearly the same moment.

Mor used her gift of Truth on Lucien and found him worthy.

Feyre slipped into Luciens head and saw how he was physically and emotionally struggling with the bond.

Lucien and Elain both felt the thread of their bond and Lucien was able to enter into part of her mind.

Az can scent the bond.

There are too many characters involved in authenticating their bond to have it be fake.

Theories are fun but they fall apart under closer inspection, it's time to let them go.

[memurfevur-archive]

sits here thinking about Matild

rambling about her under the cut

sits here thinking about that a lot of her expectations of socialization just comes from memorization, because she just lives alone in a giant run-down castle and she has gotten to the point in her parasitic mutation that much of her emotions are muted. it makes writing her fun because in her interactions things will _remind her_ of an emotion that shes not sure she can feel as strongly anymore, and so her responses, while seeming passionate at moments, is fused with a long-lived understanding of that culture's logic for decency, rather than an actual authentic emotional reaction to the conversation at hand.

but then there are moments where niche conversations or interactions actually heightens an emotion for her, and she LOVES it when that happens because it reminds her that she's still alive. that she has not yet succumbed to the parasite in her bones, that she still has her consciousness.

but in her eagerness to feel this bubble of frustration she has for Zomson, she is also reminded of her fears. not just in that, if left alive long enough she would become a skeletal monster going around infecting other Troll eggs to mother, but she has memories of being hurt. while she may not FEEL the pain of these memories of abandonment, she REMEMBERS the feeling of pain during a time when she was less emotionally muted. and so this also lends to her being a bit more logical in her approach to people, but not in the sense that it's mind over heart, but in the sense that there is a memory map of bad experiences and she wishes to avoid that whenever possible

Matild is deeply jealous of Athena, or rather she was, but it's a negative memory that she can recall with great detail because it had been so vital in her understanding of herself. She is jealous of Athena because Athena is so pretty, and that there are people who love her and grieve for her absence. There had been a time already where Matild had been betrayed for Athena's sake as her love interest aimed to find her and had lied to Matild in order to do so, effectively taking advantage of Matild's then-kindness and power. Zomson has grown to be someone that Matild likes having around, but because his goal is to find Athena, Matild is once again stuck being reminded of the pain of past betrayals.

and i think its really cute that in this rp she is attempting to share the same space as Zomson, because she is expecting to be betrayed and left alone again. she wont do anything to stop the betrayal, she knows people had painted her reputation enough that there's really no fixing it. she is willing to sacrifice what little joys she has left, because she also knows its only a matter of time before the parasite forces her to betray everyone else, too.

Matild is someone who struggles with the back and forth of accepting whats coming to her, and also tries to cling to bits of humanity while pushing away the painful parts that defines it. ,When you are stripped of a crucial part of human/Troll existence, what sort of meaningful experiences can you have? in what way will you see the world, while knowing that your own perception of it is increasingly futile?

In reality she is just guessing on what to say and how to react, but even the smallest guesses creates a war in her head that no one else can see.

[tianasdominicanlitblog]

10 Fiction Titles

In The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

This Julia Alvarez classic is a must-read for anyone of Latinx descent. If you haven't yet read In The Time of the Butterflies ($16), it's Alvarez's interpretation of the story of the four Dominican sisters known as the "mariposas," three of whom were killed presumably because they were opponents of real-life dictator Raphael Trujillo. Although this one is classified as historical fiction, it quite accurately clues readers in on what it was like for people living in the Dominican Republic during Trujillo's reign, and the sheer determination it took to overcome him.

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez

Released more than a decade after In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez's How the García Girls Lost Their Accents ($17), introduced an entirely new generation to her powerful writing style. Julia again writes about four sisters from the Dominican Republic, but this set of sisters flees Trujillo and lands in New York City, where they must figure out how to become American and learn to fit in, while their parents desperately fight for them to hold onto their traditional ways.

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez

Julia Alvarez's latest, Afterlife ($24), departs quite a bit from the other two novels mentioned here. It's about a woman whose life turns tumultuous when her husband suddenly dies right after she retires from the college where she taught English for years. Her sister disappears and one day, a pregnant undocumented teenager shows up at her home. She finds there are no answers to the chaos she's in the midst of and instead she must embrace each challenge as it arises, with an open heart and an open mind. It's a quick read, but a poignant one.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Dominican poet Elizabeth Acevedo skyrocketed to literary fame after her novel-in-verse The Poet X ($12) was released. It's the recipient of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award, and is a New York Times bestseller. It's written from the perspective of a Dominican teenager growing up in Harlem, and struggling against her environment and her old-school and often abusive mother, to come into her own and figure out how to pursue her passion for poetry.

With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo

In her second novel, With The Fire on High ($13), Elizabeth Acevedo taps into the passion many Latinx people have for food. It's a fun novel about a teen mom, who turns to the kitchen to escape the stresses of her young life. She's gifted in the kitchen but doesn't think she'll ever be able to have a career as a chef. She chooses what she thinks is the responsible path, but her talent refuses to take the back burner.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Elizabeth Acevedo's latest novel, Clap When You Land ($19), is the emotional tale of a young girl living in the Dominican Republic who looks forward to her father's visits from New York every year. She's devastated when she finds out he's died in a plane crash. But she soon learns that he left her with something to fill the void: an American sister she never knew about.

Dominicana by Angie Cruz

Dominicana ($16) by Angie Cruz is a beautiful novel that illustrates the difficult immigration story of many Latinx people quite authentically. It's about a 15-year-old Dominican girl who receives a marriage proposal from a much older man, that she has no choice but to accept because her family believes the union will open up a world of opportunities for them. Despite being content where she is in the Dominican Republic, she has to move to New York City's Washington Heights with her new husband, where she'll have to let go of all she's known her entire life. She dreams of escaping, but when her husband returns to DR temporarily, she begins to feel hopeful.

A Taste of Sage by Yaffa Santos

Born and raised in New Jersey, Dominican author Yaffa S. Santos developed a love for cooking that was inspired and ignited by her heritage, and that ultimately ended up turning into her first novel, A Taste of Sage ($16). The book is a romance about a chef who has the uncanny ability to be able to read people's emotions simply by tasting the food they cook, which leads to some unexpected feelings when she indulges in her boss' cuisine.

Halsey Street by Naima Coster

Halsey Street ($15) by Naima Coster is a deeply emotional novel about a young woman who sacrifices her art career to move back to the Brooklyn neighborhood she grew up in to care for her father. She's confronted with the unsettling implications of gentrification in the place that once belonged to her, and must also grapple with feelings and emotions about her family that she buried long ago.

What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster

Naima Coster's second novel, What's Mine and Yours ($26), is one of the newest books on this list. This time, Naima shifts her focus to the American south, in a story that spans twenty years, about two kids whose lives and families end up forever connected despite their vastly different upbringings. The book takes a deep dive into the loaded topics of race, politics, love, and family, and offers an interesting look at the complexities of modern relationships.

[ofhouseadama]

Do you Julian is capable of casual sex? Or does he accidentally fall in love with anyone who tops him

So I think Sid said this, or it was attributed to him, that Julian is someone who struggles to differentiate between platonic friendship feelings and romantic or sexual feelings and I've always integrated that into my understanding of Julian as a character because it feels authentic and true to how we see him on screen.

I think Julian is someone who very easily falls into and out of infatuation and doesn't have a great personal understanding of what love looks like once the infatuation dies. Which like. I know you're gonna be like, but Emily, he was engaged to Palis! That shows commitment! He was with her for a long time!

And like, sure.

But he also cut and run the first chance he got because he couldn't let her actually get close to him. He couldn't actually marry her. Because it would be dangerous to allow that kind of intimacy and day-in/day-out access to his life while trying to keep his augmentations a secret. Julian is someone who struggles to make and keep relationships because of the masks he is required to wear to keep himself (and his parents, by association) safe. The price of his augmented "greatness" is easy authenticity. It's the presumption that at the slightest mistake, he could lose it all. It's the presumption that his true self is undesirable and sinful. That his true self besmirches the ideals of the Federation and Starfleet.

When attachment and emotional intimacy is not inherently safe, it's easy to idealize the idea of the rush of infatuation and the suddenness of falling in love. (Ask me how I know.) When you're not practiced at relationship building, every person you meet who is nice to you can become The One. And you do it again and again and again and again because you don't know the first thing about nurturing a relationship or how to make the effort in a relationship let alone how to have a relationship with boundaries, without enmeshment, without codependency. You might not even know what you want, you just know it's not what you came from.

Julian just... kind of gets adopted by the rest of the DS9 senior staff and community. He's taught how to have these relationships and how to build friendships that aren't based on proximity and societal pressure cookers and trauma bonds. And we see him come into himself throughout the show! One of the positive character developments for Julian is that he is able to form these relationship bonds and feel secure in his friendships even as the war destroys him emotionally on a fundamental level.

Anyway circling back to your actual question, lmao.

I think Julian is perfectly capable of having casual sex with his friends because he doesn't necessarily disassociate friendship from sex. I think he becomes immediately infatuated with anyone who tries to top him and regularly tries to dive headfirst into being codependent with anyone who shows him even the smallest amount of kindness which. *Gestures vaguely at his family of origin.*

But yeah. I think it's entirely possible for someone to be able to have casual sex with their friends because sex is just something you do with your body to have fun, but also be susceptible to tripping and falling into that pool of endorphins with a fun interesting stranger and be like.

Is this my future spouse?

Which is why I personally think any scenario where Julian becomes even the slightest bit aware of his feelings for Garak and then shoves that shit right back down is very fun for me. Because when you have very few healthy committed romantic relationships modeled for you you tend to either miss the forest for the trees or figure out you've essentially been in a relationship for years and are so scared of messing it up or reading the situation wrong that you just refuse to read it at all. Because you have Julian and Garak just taking turns having moments of realization and just going, nope. No. No no, not gonna dig that up today. No thank you. While getting even further into the... whatever the fuck you call that.

Until you finally name it and then get married five months later.

(Ask me how I know.)

[myulmangg]

Author Recs

I read a lot, so this post will change and evolve as I do. A good rule of thumb is to assume that pretty much everything I recommend contains explicit sexual content and adult themes not suitable for those under the age of 18 years old.  So minors, please see yourselves out.

@smileysuh - pretty much everything by Smileysuh is amazing, and I actively look forward to reading anything and everything by Nova.

Expect: Amazing smut that will ruin you for everything and anything but you won’t even mind because it’s that good, poly x fem!reader content, NCT / Ateez / Seventeen / Got7 / BTS / MonstaX / Stray Kids + more! I am a huge fan of the Cam Baby, Frat Universe, and CEO au series.

Favourites: Anteric (Wonwoo & Mingyu x fem!reader), 8th Grade (Yunho & Mingi x fem!reader), and Panini (Yunho & Mingi x fem!reader). Honestly though, this list will probably always be changing because everything is just that good.

@domjaehyun - Jewel has also completely taken over my life. Those Friday night plans I was too busy for? I was staying at home reading her fics. 

Expect: Some of the hottest NCT fics I have ever read, periodt. Her characters are fleshed out and her fics maintain a simultaneous sense of realism and fun. It’s masterful, and post-fic depression is pretty much guaranteed. 

Favourites: Quarantine Chronicles pt. 1 + pt. 2 (Jaehyun, Johnny, Jungwoo, Jaemin, Mark x fem!reader)

@yutaholic I wish I could go back and re-read all of Yutaholic’s fics again for the first time. Each one reads like a novel, with clearly discernible character arcs/development, nuanced emotion, and extremely hot smut. Each fic is lovely to the point that they all continue to live rent free in my brain, months after reading them.

Expect: NCT & WayV fics, long fics that are consistent in tone and emotion, highly developed female!reader characters, porn + feelings, angst, stories that feel like beautiful memories captured on rolls of film, nostalgic and authentic.

Favourites: Winter Bird (Jaehyun x female!reader), Keep it to myself, Small Doses (Taeyong x female!reader)

@hongism - I am not exaggerating when I say that I read 39 chapters of hongism’s Mists of Celeste Ateez space pirate series in pretty much 1 sitting. I took breaks to grab food from the kitchen, shower, and take care of the essentials ( and I passed out for a little bit somewhere along the way) BUT!!! It’s good, y’all. 

The worldbuilding is excellent, the playlist is fire, and as an individual who struggles with PTSD myself, I can say with confidence that an astounding amount of thought was put into presenting the plot points, characters, and their struggles in a nuanced, and detailed manner. 

Expect: good writing, badass space pirates, a super badass female protagonist, intricate magic/class systems, detailed worldbuilding, potentially triggering content such as PTSD, violence, panic attacks, etc. If you like games like Borderlands and Apex Legends you’ll probably like this.

[jazy3]

Free Guy Review

!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

If you haven’t seen the movie Free Guy (2021) stop reading right now! Drop what you’re doing and go get yourself a ticket! You’ll thank me later!

I loved this movie! I saw it this weekend for the second time because it’s that good! I first saw the trailer on YouTube a while back and then when theatres reopened a few weeks ago I saw the trailer again and my interest was piqued. I had high hopes for this movie based on the fun looking trailer, the premise, the cast, and the sense of fun and escapism that the movie seemed to embody and it did not disappoint. It’s always nice when you have high hopes for something and it meets or exceeds your expectations.

Free Guy is just such a fun and joyous movie. Never taking itself too seriously, packed with lots of heart, cool cameos, full of gaming and pop culture references, and it’s fueled by a unique concept that is well executed. There are just so many things I loved about this movie! It was a ton of fun to watch and the actors clearly had a blast making it. During the movie I kept trying to figure out where I knew most of the actors from but couldn’t place them. When I got home, I googled it and I instantly realized why. The roles are just so different and the actors embody their characters so completely you lose yourself in the film and get completely sucked in. I was honestly so surprised when I figured out what I knew most of the actors from because the roles that they’re known for are so different from their characters in the movie. Their appearances, established ages, and even the accents are so different that I literally did a double take, but that’s what makes the movie so good! Because the main actors obviously didn’t need the paycheque they were just there to have fun and it shows. I think if the situation had been different and the actors involved had been desperate for money or took the role for some other reason it wouldn’t have worked. The film would have come off as cheesy, forced, cringeworthy, or just plain bad. Free Guy is none of those things. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as ‘Guy’ a bank teller in a video game called Free City, Jodie Comer whose best known for playing Villanelle in Killing Eve as programmer Millie Rusk and her avatar Molotov Girl, Joe Keery whose best known for playing Steve Harrington in Stranger Things as programmer Walter ‘Keys’ McKey, and Taika Waititi whose best known for playing Viago in What We Do in the Shadows as the Head of Soonami Studios and the film’s main antagonist and villain Antwan. Rounding out the cast are Utkarsh Ambudka as programmer Mouser and Lil Rel Howery as Guy’s best friend and bank security guard Buddy. In a nutshell, Free Guy is about a bank teller named Guy who finds out he’s a non-playable background character (NPC) in an open-world Grand Theft Auto style video game called Free City. Guy becomes the hero of his own story after meeting Millie, the girl of his dreams, and winning fans all over the world by racking up points by being the good guy and helping others. After leveling up and helping Millie escape a dangerous situation in the game, Guy wins her over and she falls for him thinking that he’s another player. But when the world that Guy knows and all of the people in it are threatened, he teams up with Millie to save his friends before it’s too late. In the real world, Millie enlists the help of her former programming partner and best friend Keys in a race against time to stop their code and all of the sentient characters from Free City from being deleted by Antwan the developer who stole their code when the game’s sequel launches. I love that the movie had a unique premise and didn’t overcomplicate things. There are so many movies that I’ve gone to see over the last few years with such excitement only to be disappointed. For example, I loved Wreck It Ralph, but was so disappointed by its sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet. The trailers made it seem like it would take the premise of the first movie and move things into the online gaming world, and I was excited for that. Instead, the sequel left the premise of the first movie behind entirely and way over complicated the plot and the end result was extremely cheesy and disappointing. Free Guy’s strength is that it’s a self-aware movie made by self-aware people who are excellent at what they do. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously, nor should it, and that allows the story to flow and the characters to feel real and genuine. The movie achieves that perfect balance between being entertaining and telling a cohesive and important story because while the movie never takes itself too seriously the people behind it are serious about what they do. This was very clearly a passion project for all involved, especially Ryan Reynolds, and it shows! As he’s spoken about in interviews and on Twitter, Reynolds called on a lot of his friends to be in Free Guy and help him out and the end result was fantastic! I loved all of the cameos! The Chris Evans cameo was by far the funniest and the Alex Trebek cameo got me right in the feels. When I saw the movie in theatres me and everyone else in the theatre gave a collective “awww” when he appeared on screen. Enlisting real YouTubers to show up as fictional versions of themselves to talk about Blue Shirt Guy’s popularity was a nice touch and you’ve also got blink and you miss it voice cameos by John Krasinski, Dwyane The Rock Johnson, Hugh Jackman, and Tina Fey. Channing Tatum appears as the avatar of player Revenjamin Buttons which for the most part was hilarious. One of my few criticisms of the film is that they went a bit overboard the avatar’s antics as Guy and Buddy are attempting to leave and it got bit a cringeworthy. But I know other people found it hilarious so to each their own. I love all of the little details and references in the movie. Just listing them all would be a post in itself. If you’re someone that loves pop culture references and Easter Eggs this is the movie for you. The characters are fun and believable, and you get attached to them quickly. The actors commit completely to their roles which is makes the humour, romance, and heartfelt emotion of the film work. You buy it. 100%. Something that I absolutely loved was that the characters felt realistic and that the dialogue, attire, and settings for each character really felt authentic. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a movie or TV show and walked away thinking, “The person who wrote that clearly never meet a kid, teenager, or twenty something in their life! That was so unrealistic.” The slang’s all wrong. The dialogue is so eloquent everyone sounds like they did Shakespeare in the Park last summer. You walk away thinking, “What the hell was that? No one talks that way!” What I loved about the characters in Free Guy is that they felt like real people you could actually run into or walk past on the street. I’ve read in interviews that in addition to the written dialogue the cast did a lot of ad-libbing and improvisation and the end result is both hilarious and relatable. The dialogue feels real because it is. The big exception to this of course is Antwan who is altogether off the wall and ridiculous. Antwan is such an outrageous, absurd, vulgar, and cartoonish character. He’s so fun to watch and the actors clearly had a lot of fun with his scenes! I’ve read that a lot of his lines with Keys and Mouser were improvised and I believe it. When he goes all Jack Nicholson on the servers? Lord. He’s such a great villain to watch. The characters that are established to be in their twenties like Millie, Keys, Mouser, and the other employees at Soonami Studios talk, act, and dress like they’re in their twenties. The actors that are in their forties are styled to look like they’re in their thirties and honestly, they’re in such great shape it works! I mean I was honestly shocked to find out Taika Waititi’s real age. I love how the costuming really fits each character and allows you to learn more about them. Keys’ clothing is your typical gamer chic which makes because as we learn from his interview with Millie coding is his life and what gets him up in the morning. From Mouser’s clothing we learn that he’s a sports fan, but also isn’t afraid to take risks like with that blazer ensemble he wears in his final scene at Millie’s apartment.

Millie’s clothing shows the contrast between her and her avatar Molotov Girl, and Antwan’s ridiculous coat enhances the overall wackiness of his character. Guy’s clothing tells us something too. He wears the same thing every day until he meets Millie in the game at which point, he starts deviated from his Free City programming and chooses a different blue shirt. I also really love that they put thought into why Keys needs to wear glasses. Something I noticed on rewatch is that Keys is far sighted which is why he has his glasses on when he’s looking at his laptop or computer and sometimes when’s talking to other people, but not when he goes to see Millie at her apartment or when he goes to get them coffee at the end of the movie. Another interesting aspect of Keys’ character that I noticed on rewatch is self-confidence is really something he struggles with in contrast to Millie and Mouser who are very confident. Millie is a genius programmer and Mouser is excellent at what he does, and they are both very confident in their coding abilities, but Keys isn’t despite being every bit the genius that Millie is. At the beginning of the movie when they first notice the issue with Guy Mouser jokes that Keys needs to be better at his job. In response Keys meekly says he thinks he’s pretty good at his job and trails off at the end. Mouser is just joking around, but because Keys lacks self-confidence comments like that hit him hard. Mouser is moving towards his own desk as he talks so he doesn’t notice how self-deprecating and uneasy Keys’ response is. In the interview from the indie games conference that Millie plays for Keys at his apartment, he brushes off the interviewers comment that he’s a genius and says Millie is the real genius because she created the AI engine and he just wrote the code to make it work. Later on, when Keys helps Millie get into the stash house, she calls him a genius and he tells her that as he’s currently sitting on a toilet stealing user code he doesn’t exactly feel like one. Millie responds offhandedly that he never does, but luckily, she knows better. When Keys realizes that Millie was right, and that Antwan did steal their code and their game worked he tells Millie they need to celebrate because once everyone sees their build she’ll be celebrated and she could win a noble prize. Both Millie and Keys are geniuses in their own right. The game wouldn’t have worked without both of their skills and Guy wouldn’t have come to life without both of them working together. Millie’s AI engine made his sentience possible, but Keys is the one who gave him hopes and dreams so that when he met Millie in the game, he came alive. When done right the settings we see tell the story just as much as the characters do and I love how realistic the settings in Free Guy look. The floor at Soonami Studios where Keys and Mouser work looks like a real office and I love that the desks have clutter and personal effects on them like real cubicles do and that they show Keys taking a box of his stuff with him as he leaves. The lobby with the moving water videos and Antwan’s massive but largely empty office fits perfectly with the obnoxious, zany, and over the top character that he is. I also love the contrast between Keys and Millie’s apartments and how those settings tell us a lot about each character and where they are in their lives when the film starts. When Keys comes home from work to find that Millie has broken in, we see that he lives in a stylish one bedroom apartment with an open concept kitchen full of stainless steel appliances, a large living room centred around an expensive wall mounted TV and entertainment system, with his computer and gaming station set up in the corner. On the walls we see artful clusters of black picture frames, through a partially open door we see a bedroom off to the side, the apartment is full of black and white furniture including a plush couch and nice lamps, and features a textured silver accent wall. All of which makes the fact that Millie managed to break in even more impressive because it is clearly an expensive apartment in a nice building. Keys’ style is minimalist and upper scale and based on what we learn about the events that took place before the start of the movie this indicates that Keys got the apartment and all of the nice stuff in it using the money he received when Antwan bought his and Millie’s game. In contrast, Millie lives in a bachelor apartment and spends her time in coffee shops ordering one single black coffee over four hours. This tells us that she kept her original apartment that she had from before the game was sold and is living off the money she got from the sale while she spends all of her time trying to find the proof she needs to win her lawsuit. When we see Millie’s place, we find that it’s cozy, full of plants, throw rugs, quilts, and comfy furniture. She’s got a bike in the corner, you can see her bed from the centre of the room where she’s got her computer and gaming station set up adjacent to the coffee table and the rest of the living room furniture. Her kitchen is smaller and full of wooden cabinets and her bathroom door has DIY multicoloured square panels on it. Keys and Millie’s apartments are very different and through these settings we see the contrast between where these characters are in their lives, their wealth, and their personal style. The song ‘Fantasy’ by Mariah Carey is featured heavily in the film and is guaranteed to get stuck in your head in the best way! Jodie Comer’s cover of it is amazing! It fits the moment where Guy makes it to the island that is Millie and Keys’ original build and shows it to the world perfectly. This movie made me appreciate Mariah Carey’s music in a whole new way and I can’t be the only way. After watching the movie, I went looking for the song on Apple Music, wound up listening to the Mariah Carey Essentials Playlist, and I’ve become obsessed. I knew some of her hits, but after listening to her music more I get why people love her so much. Her five octave vocal range is amazing, and her music is just so fun to listen to. The film has a really great soundtrack overall and I’ve had many of its song on repeat since I saw it. Something I really loved about this movie and the reveal at the end that Keys is in love with Millie and is desperate for her to notice, but she’s been oblivious the whole time is that they don’t do the supposedly nice nerdy guy whose really a jerk trope. So many movies do this where you have a nerdy male character whose unluckily love, looked over, or his love is unrequited, and we’re supposed to root for him because he’s a quote “nice guy”. But really, he’s not. He’s a jerk who feels slighted because a woman in his life doesn’t love him back or notice him and he feels as if she owes him something. The scene at Millie’s place where Millie tells Keys he looks cute when he brags, and Mouser encourages him to tell Millie how he feels is super frustrating to watch but it’s so important to Keys’ character. He asks Millie out for coffee and when she turns him down to jump back into the game, he doesn’t make a big deal about it even though Mouser wants him to. Instead he gets up and goes and gets her a coffee anyway. She goes to tell him her order, oblivious to the fact that he’s memorized it, he tells her he remembers, and goes to get the coffee anyway much to Mouser’s and the audience’s dismay. This is big because Keys clearly doesn’t want to be walking down the street by himself to get coffee. He wants to be getting coffee with Millie so that he can tell her how he feels to see if she might feel the same way, but when she turns him down he goes and gets the coffee anyway because he truly loves and cares about her and he values their friendship enough to put his own feelings aside and suffer in silence rather than lose her and what they’ve built. So, he takes the opportunity to get some air rather than continue to sit there in disappointment. Which is why he’s so confused when Millie runs after him and calls out to him from across the street. He doesn’t understand what she’s doing there. She turned down his offer to get a coffee and he already knows her order so why is she there? I love that they chose to make that scene non-verbal. I think if Millie had come out and made some big declaration of love it would have felt cheesy and overdone. But her running after him and silently communicating through her smile and body language that she understood and that she felt the same way was perfect. It was subtle and beautiful and perfectly acted. It also felt realistic to the characters because in real life when you’ve known someone a really long time and you’ve spent a lot of time with them you don’t always need words to convey what you mean. What Millie wanted to express in that scene was so big and so all-encompassing she couldn’t find the words to say everything that she wanted to say so she didn’t. She just stood there and smiled knowing that being the genius that he is he would understand. It’s like Keys says in their interview, words will fail you, but code never does. His coding worked and now she understands so rather than try and say it all and fail she just looks at him and smiles to show him that she finally gets it. She finally understands what he’s been trying to say to her all this time. And you can see the exact moment Keys realizes why she’s there. The moment where he goes from being confused as to what she wants to realizing that she saw the video and she knows how he feels and that she wouldn’t be standing there smiling at him like that if she didn’t feel the same way. When I watched the scene the first time around, I was anxiously clutching my nachos the entire time because when Keys ran towards her my immediate thought was, “Oh my god he’s gonna get hit by a car and they’re never gonna get to be together! Oh my god!” But then he didn’t get hit by a car and Millie ran out to meet him and for the first time in their relationship she met him halfway and they kissed and it was beautiful! I think because Free City had so much violence in it that’s where my mind went and I’m very glad they didn’t go that route. One of my only criticisms about the movie is that I wish they had stayed on Millie and Keys just a little bit longer. They kiss and embrace and then very quickly they cut to black. I wish they’d linger on that moment just a little bit longer because I love those characters so much and in the scene that follows where Guy and Buddy are reunited we see them hug and then walk away together to start their new lives and I wish we’d gotten just a bit more time with Millie and Keys. I also really loved the parallel between the different kinds of relationships within the movie and how platonic relationships are just as important as romantic ones. The reveal at the end about Guy being Keys’ creation and a love letter to Millie and her realizing she’s been loving Keys vicariously through Guy and them finally coming together and being on the same page is beautiful because from the very beginning the movie is full of clues, hints, and foreshadowing that all comes together at the end. Meanwhile, we see the friendship between Guy and Buddy and how important that friendship is to him because it’s something that he created on his own. His love for Millie is born out of the programming that Keys gave him, but his friendship with Buddy is something that Guy created all on his own of his own volition. Which is part of what makes Buddy’s death on the bridge so tragic. I cried when Buddy disappeared. Reynolds and Howery play their characters with such sincerity that his death pacts an emotional punch you don’t expect. I love that the security guards at Soonami are so moved by Buddy’s heroism and are so captivated by what’s happening with the live stream that Millie is able to sneak past them into the server room and stop Antwan from destroying what’s left of the game. Something else I noticed on rewatch is that during the final battle after Millie gets booted from the game and Guy has to fight Dude on his own the glasses he’s wearing are very similar to the ones Keys wears in the movie which I thought was a cool nod to Guy being Keys’ creation. This really is a movie in which you find something new every time you watch it. For instance, the second time around I noticed that the foreshadowing that Keys is in love with Millie, but she’s oblivious to it because she’s so focused on the game was really well done. In the video from the indie game conference that Millie plays for Keys at his apartment when asked by the interviewer about their chemistry Millie responds first and says that their friends, their relationship is completely platonic, and laughs off the idea that they have chemistry. In contrast Keys falters and is silent and then eventually says meekly that they’re just friends. Millie is looking ahead at the interviewer and to the side away from Keys as she’s laughing and so she doesn’t see Keys’ reaction. At the end of the apartment scene after Millie breaks in to ask Keys for his help, he tells Millie he cares about her and he almost says something else. It feels like he’s about to say, ‘I love you’ but then he catches himself and instead tells her that she needs to leave. When Keys visits Millie’s apartment to tell her that she was right and they’re sitting on the couch he reaches out and puts his hand on her knee and then snatches it back when he realizes he’s gotten too close. He wants so desperately to be closer to her and in his excitement, he gets closer than he normally would before realizing that putting his hand on her knee in that close proximity is not a platonic gesture. Millie is so caught up in the realization that Guy, the person she’s fallen in love with, is an AI and not a real person that she doesn’t notice. My heart broke for Keys in that scene as he realized that Millie had fallen for Guy and kissed him and was so upset about it and meanwhile, he was right in front of her desperate for her to see how much he cares. It must have just wrecked him to go home that night and realize that Guy was based on the lovelorn character he created and that Millie had fallen in love with his creation while at the same time being so oblivious to his real world affection for her. In the scene at Millie’s apartment after they’ve gotten the server from Antwan and Mouser encourages Keys to say something, I noticed on rewatch just how weak and meager Keys’ attempt to ask Millie out is. He stumbles his way through asking her to get a coffee and trails off at the end so it’s no wonder Millie doesn’t clue in that he’s trying to ask her out. And in Keys’ defence he sent her a whole video confessing his feelings for her and all of the little things he loves about her and then told her to watch it and he has no idea if she did or not. We the audience know that Millie only saw half of it, but Keys has no idea if she saw none of it, part of it, or all of it. He knows she got Guy to remember, but she’s also sending him mixed messages. One minute she’s saying he’s cute when he brags and the next, she’s turning him down for coffee to talk to Guy. From the outside it’s so obvious that Keys is in love with Millie, but she doesn’t see it because she’s always looking the other way, not paying attention, so caught up in the game, and too focused on their work to see what’s right in front of her. On rewatch one of the big things I noticed is that Keys is always on the edge of telling Millie how he really feels but he always stops himself because she brushes him or the idea off and because he’s scared of what will become of their work and their friendship if she doesn’t feel the same way. It’s a huge leap. If Millie doesn’t feel the same way it’s going to make their relationship incredibly awkward and could potentially destroy their partnership so Keys decides it’s better not to say anything or only hint at how he feels rather than run the risk of ruining everything. Something else I noticed on rewatch is that in the interview they give Keys says he thinks of himself as an author and that code is what gets him up in the morning and that he loves the ones and zeros of binary because words can fail you and let you down but code never does. At the end of the movie when Millie goes to talk to Guy in Free Life he tells her that he loves her and while he knows that’s his programming he’s realized that he’s a love letter to her and that somewhere out there in the real world is the author. Such a great callback. All in all, I can definitely say that Free Guy has been my favourite movie so far this year! Definitely my favourite movie of the summer. I went to see it twice in theatres and I’ve never done that for any other movie before. I’ll rewatch them at home sure, but I’ve never actually paid money to see something twice on my own. I’m very excited to see the sequel and my hope is that it will be just as good as the first.  Until next time.

[macrocosmic-star]

What attracted u to meteor in the first place? Is there anything about the trailers that endeared u, for example? Smth else?

Questions to Kuro about Meteor!

Definitely the first trailer! Once it dropped, I was floored, completely in love with the Hyuran boy. I had never played an MMORPG before but I was willing to try it solely for him. I remember fawning over the box art at the stores. Somehow, I was intrigued. His design was simple but beautiful to me and I quickly developed a story for him (the father and clan thing). Once I could finally play the game, I was completely invested in him and I wished we'd have cinematics inside that included his design (but that would be unfair for the other players I suppose lmao). I guess I don't really have an answer? It feels like he'd be an underdog if he wasn't the WoL and that almost always attracts me. He's not this force, even though he has the power to be. He is imperfect, he is not always right, he's not always going to win. I like the simple characters or the side characters usually, AND the way he seemed so determined and slightly disturbed, like there's something pulling him into the story even though he's so simple made him so intriguing and mysterious, even though he didn't seem to purposefully hide. I don't know I guess he was the perfect recipe for me and then they kept using him (I'm so glad for that) and upgrading him and he just keeps getting better and better. Plus, you can see a lot of his attitude and way of life with just the trailers. It's like you can make his whole story, but at the same time, your perspective might not be the same as the next person. He has a lot of potential, he can be molded to so many routes and still feel authentic.

I also really like what they did with all the trailers, he has so much development and maybe I can summarize what I love from them:

1.0 showed you who he was, an adventurer in search for coin, pulled in by a higher power, by fate maybe. (They showed you he had visions too I guess?) Also how proficient he was, a team player. The scene with him drenched.... chef's kiss, it's my favorite there. 2.0 showed you what would come to disturb him, the struggle, an impasse and how he got saved to then move to a new adventure. His memories fuzzy and gone, again, he was an adventurer in search for coin. I love him battling and then disappearing and the chocobo scene at the end. 3.0 his frustration and eventual determination as he saw how Dragoons fought against dragons. He could restart and become better. THAT SCENE WHEN HE WALKS PUTTING HIS ARMOR ON ALWAYS GETS ME AAAH IT'S SO GOOD! 4.0 a little bit of his fun side training with Lyse and I the strength and grounded attitude he's gained with the Samurai scene, pretty nice. I like the monk parts the most because I'm biased and I adore monk and he looks like he's having the time of his life up there. 5.0 SUCH IRRITATION, SUCH FRUSTRATION! They show him having these strong emotions, this fatigue, the echo disturbance, the trauma, the ANGER and how everything else is failing... The fact that he has to look to the dark to prevail, it's SO GOOD, ALL OF THIS IS AMAZING! OH AND THE SAMURAI SCENE WITH ZENOS WITH THE ZOOM TO HIS EYE AAAAAAH SO GOOD. AND HIS CHANGE TO WARRIOR OF DARKNESS, THE LOOK UAAAAAAH 6.0 SO HEROIC, YET SO VILLAINY, SO... SO CALM AND COLLECTED, SO STRONG. I love all of it... He's tired, but he's determined. He's not fucking around at all, his eyes are on the prize and that's the peace and safety of the star. The walk at the start, defending the twins and the end with him turning heroically, it's like he made it... he turned into the heroic warrior he's dreamed of... but at what cost?

I went on a tangent there, but... TL:DR I just think he's neat lmao! He's not OP, he always seems down-to-earth, that's the type of protagonist I want. I don't want the always strong, always right character, it's not attractive to me at all. I love the concept of him, he's perfectly imperfect.

[gale-gentlepenguin]

ML Fic: Soulmate Survey Part 31

(Master Post)

Thank you everyone that took part in the contest. The entries and voting participation were amazing!

I can't thank you guys enough for making this such a fun time.

And congratulations to @bevvydraws for winning.

and the other wonderful finalists: @emdoddles, @heizerux, @dhdrawings and @spaghetti-l0rd

I hope you all enjoy this next part. I would love to hear your comments, and please share if you think it is worth being seen by others.

_______________________________________________________________________

“Lila!” Mrs. Rossi cried out after her daughter left the room in a hurry. The diplomat was ready to run after her only daughter.

“Mrs. Rossi, a moment please.” Principal Damocles asked with a demeanor that was stern yet not too harsh.

The mother turned to the elderly principal and the young concerned teacher standing next to him.

“Miss Bustier, please go locate Lila for us. I will handle everything from here. Afterwards, head back to the classroom.”

The red-haired teacher snapped to normal.

“Oh, of course. If you need any additional information, please reach out to me.”

The young teacher left the room to go find the young exchange student. Leaving the Principal and Lila’s mother alone.

“What is all of this about Mr.Damocles? Why was my daughter so distraught?”

The owl hero enthusiast took a moment to contemplate how he was going to word his discoveries to Lila’s caring mother.

“Mrs. Rossi, are you aware of Lila’s actions and behavior at her previous school?”

“Of course, My daughter was an excellent student. Top of her class, perfect attendance she was the perfect role model from the report cards I received.”

The principal took a breath which seemed to take the wind out of Mrs.Rossi’s statement.

“I was afraid you would say that.”

The principal turned his computer screen to Mrs. Rossi.

The older gentleman sat by patiently as he watched the mother frantically go through each document.

“There must be some mistake. I haven’t seen any of this! My daughter is a good girl!”

“I am afraid those are the records I had attained this morning. I made sure to check that these were authentic before calling you, and I have yet to find a single reason to believe that they have been altered.”

The horror that the Italian diplomat was experiencing was clear. She did not want to believe that her daughter had been lying to her.

She had gotten to the last document, an audio file.

“What’s this one?” She asked nervously, unsure if she even wanted to know the truth behind it.

“It is an audio recording of your daughter. She seems to have been bullying one of the students at our school. I would normally like to get both students’ side of the story before making any rash judgements, but the evidence in the file is rather concise.”

Mrs.Rossi could feel the tension in the air, this was likely going to be something that would change how she viewed her daughter, but she needed to be sure that these accusations against her were true. The diplomat knew that if there was even the slightest hint of doubt, she would use it to fight for her daughter with every fiber of her being.

“Let me… Let me hear the file.”

The principal took note of the woman’s conviction. She was willing to see this through to the end.

“Very well.”

He presses play.

__________________________________________________________________________

“Lila!” The young red head teacher called out in concern as she exited the school. She had been searching the entire building for the young transfer student.

She blamed herself for how everything turned out. How could she not have noticed the way Lila was acting? How could she not be aware that one of her own students was lying to her? Why was she so blind to the malicious actions of her own student? Was there a way to bring her back to being a good person?

Caline kept looking as these questions kept swarming her brain. She had to find Lila, she needed to talk with her firmly. She needed to see if there was still some good in her. Maybe she could help Lila turn over a new leaf, she was still just a young teen, she had time to turn things around. Chloé had started improving a bit since the start of the school year, so maybe Lila could as well.

A flash of light from a nearby alleyway caught the attention of the frantic teacher.

“Oh no…” She ran towards flash, hoping that the sudden light was not her student getting akumatized. She hoped she wasn’t too late.

“Lila?” She called out as she entered the small entryway. Her worried expression shifted to horror when she had found herself face to face with an akuma.

“So Sorry Miss Bustier, you just missed her.” The voice taunted with cynical glee.

The akumatized individual that stood in front of her had a crown like mask that transitioned from white to black as it covered the top of her face. Her brown hair slowly shifted whit as it reached the ends of her hair. Her eyes glowing with an ethereal white light, showing her fury. Her outfit was reminiscent of a costume in a high-end stage production, adorned with various masks, each showing different emotions and alternating in black and white color scheme. Her right hand was wearing a snow-white glove with her charm bracelet over it. Her legs had long white stockings which she wore long gray boots that reached up past her knees. Each boot had a small mask expressing a different emotion and covered her knees as if they were knee pads. The last and most mesmerizing detail was the gaseous monstrosity that stood behind her, it having a glowing mask with a mouth that moved.

(AN: Congrats again to @Bevvydraws for this amazing design and winning the contest)

“Lila… don’t move. We can fix this. We will get Ladybug and Chat noir here, then we can start to work with the school and…”

“Not this time. I have tried to handle things the civil way.” The akumatized Lila chuckled. “That was how Lila would handle things, with pretty words and half-baked apologies. You always assumed the best in people Miss Bustier, and that is why your students always got akumatized, because you couldn’t see how awful they all are, how awful everyone is!”

Lila had noticed her charm bracelet was glowing. It was telling her that Miss Bustier has been turned into an akuma. But that wasn’t all, it was if she could even read their darkest thoughts as it did. She was looking under the mask that was Caline Bustier.

‘Interesting’ Lila mused to herself.

“You don’t truly believe that. The akuma is warping your perception. I know you are hurting, but you can fight it Lila. You are….”

“I can see it now. You do actually care for your students, but you hate how despite your best efforts, you can’t control them to be the vision of them you see. Chloé is the biggest failure to you.”

“What?! No! Chloé has been a bit slow in progressing but she is becoming a better person.”

“You hate how much influence she has in the school thanks to her father being the mayor. The staff has to remind you how carefully you have to tread when dealing with her. When she was going to leave for New York some time ago, you were as happy as everyone else and you hated yourself over it.”

Caline could feel her spirit breaking as she said that. She was right, she did hate that she felt happy about Chloé leaving, she did despise the amount of influence that student had. Sure she understood that she couldn’t control everything, but it felt so much worse when she felt she couldn’t do anything to help her students excel and be the best they can be.

A mask launched from Lila’s dress and hit Miss Bustier dead center. The teacher fell to the floor as her screams were muffled, trying to fight the mask that had launched itself onto her face. She tried to pull the mask off with her hands but it only seemed more stubborn to stay put.

“I am Masquerade, the one who will reveal the farce that is Paris, just like how I removed your mask.”

The teacher’s struggles began to lessen as the mask began taking control.

“This world is a stage where everyone acts to please others, to get what they want, to pretend to be happy. I am going to destroy all of that nonsense. You wore your mask so well that you forgot you even had one on. You were so easily fooled, but now your true self will come to the surface. The evil that lies in your heart has a new face. Now let’s see how this new mask fits you and how well it will serve me.”

The mask began to glow and in an instant, Miss Bustier had reverted into the paler, akumatized version of herself, Zombiezou. The only difference being the white mask that covered her face as opposed to the eye mask  she wore in the past.

“Isn’t that Right Zombizou?”

“What is your bidding?” Zombizou inquired with an emotionless tone.

Masquerade smiled as she snapped her fingers. The masked monster behind her moved in front of her.

“Simulare!  Shift and transform into Volpina!”

The gaseous masked creature began morphing into Lila’s first Akuma transformation, the faux Fox heroine, Volpina. The Sentimonster perfectly replicated the form.

A purple butterfly outline appeared over Masquerade’s face.

“Looks like you have quite the handle on your new powers” a sinister voice said with glee. “Now what do you have planned to deal with Ladybug and Chat noir.”

Masquerade smiled.

“Just you watch Hawkmoth, this will be one show you won’t want to miss.”

“I am looking forward to it.”

She cracked her knuckles and prepared her order.

“Now, Have Zombizou reprise her role as Miss Bustier, and help me look like my former self.

Simulare nodded and activated her powers, transforming the two to look like their former selves.

“Excellent work Simulare, now stay close by and maintain the illusion until we get back into the school”

“Come, we must return to the Principal.” a sinister smile on Lila’s face.

_______________________________________________________________________

There was a lot to talk about in Miss Bustier’s class. They had a lot of revelations thrown their way in a matter of minutes. Rose was Gushing to Mylene and Juleka about Marinette and Adrien dating, Max was busy helping Kim and Ivan process what happened with Lila. Alix and Nathaniel were discussing if Lila was the one trying to frame Marinette for that whole chair debacle with Chloé.

Marinette decided this was all too much and just moved to her seat to sit down. This was a lot to process. Lila had finally been exposed. Everyone knew the truth! She was also dating Adrien, and the class found out about that, it all felt so overwhelming.

She noticed someone sit beside her, her blond model boy who also had a similar expression on his face.

“I am guessing we are both feeling the same thing.” Marinette commented.

“A mixture of shock, relief, nervous and excited?” Adrien responded.

“That pretty much sums it up.”

The two sat in silence for a moment. Marinette subconsciously touched his hand. They both interlocked their fingers as they let the events wash over them.

But the moment they were sharing was ended when Nino and Alya sat in the desks in front of them and turned around to face them

“I guess the date went well.” Alya rhetorically asked with a knowing smirk.

The two new love birds felt their faces heat up.

“No need to answer dude. We can read it from your faces.” Nino chimed in.

“We weren’t this bad when you two got together.” Adrien fired back.

“True, but we weren’t as bubbly and blushy as you two are right now.” Nino countered.

“Daww Mari, you look like a cherry.” Alya teased.

“Alright enough. We get it, we are adorable.” Marinette gestured to herself and Adrien. “I am curious on how you exposed Lila.”

Alya’s cutesy teasing smile shifted to her knowing smirk.

“Well if you must know, it all started with that recording you asked me to hold on to.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alya began to paint the scene with her take on everything that happened.

(Cue chalkboard illustration explaining Alya’s elaborate plan with her standing in front of it)

“After Curiosity got the better of me while I was home. I played the recording.”

Chalk Alya showing a shocked expression

“I was absolutely shocked to hear everything on there. If I didn’t hear it myself and it didn’t come from such a reliable source, I would swear it was a fake. But it was right here.”

Chalk Alya’s expression turned to rage as the recording kept going. The chalk caricature stomping on the ground and steam coming out of her ears

“I was furious! I had been blatantly lied to and the worst thing was that this Liar was hurting my best friend. I could not let it slide.”

“So, I ran to Nino’s place and showed him what was up”

Chalk Alya clearly steamed and now starting to explain to chalk Nino who is also mad. Chalk Nino listening with shock at this.

“We knew we couldn’t let that stand. But we did get briefly distracted with that whole crazy Knights thing. So that delayed us for a bit.”

Cue comedic bits of Nino and Alya hiding in a dumpster while knights walked past.

“After that whole situation had cleared up, we started doing some serious digging on Lila back at my place.”

“We talked with some of Lila’s old classmates, friends, school teachers, anyone we could find from the places and people she mentioned. We needed to make sure we got as much information about this girl as possible.”

illustration of Chalk Alya emailing different people of varying looks. All sending responses back.

“And we found out some more shady stuff about her, it was crazy. It was like we didn’t even scratch the surface of how bad this was.”

“But to really confirm some of the more outlandish stuff, we needed to reach out for help. So, we brought in Max.”

Chalk Alya and Nino heading to Max’s place where it shows him talking with Chalk Markov.

“We asked him to check a few things which he was a bit nervous about doing but we managed to convince him. The stuff we did find was a massive leap forward in our little investigation of Lila.”

Show Chalk max hacking and reveal shocking info.  And then waking up sleeping Alya and Nino.

“After that, Nino and I decided to do a last bit of information gathering at school, just to make sure we had a strong enough case to ensure she could weasel her way around it.”

Chalk Alya and Nino tiptoeing through the halls trying to be stealthy. With little flashlights

“That was where we found the security camera footage.”

“And after all that was gathered, it was all about making sure everyone got the truth.

Show the class, the teachers, and all of the school getting the information about Lila.

(The chalk illustration ends and goes back to reality)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And then you pretty much saw everything else that happened.” Alya finished

Adrien and Marinette processed the explanation.

“Wow, that is something. You guys really pulled out all the stops for it.” Adrien commented.

“Well my dudes, she was messing with our friends, we couldn’t just let her do that. You two both knew that she was sketchy. Now the school knows, and possibly all of Paris because of the Ladyblog.”

A chill goes down Marinette’s spine. The baker’s daughter had a disturbing realization. What if Lila did get akumatized?

__________________________________________________________________________

Mrs. Rossi sat down.

The principal did his best to try and ease the disheartened parent.

“There is more to that recording than what we listened to?” The mother of Lila questioned, her voice trying to stay steady.

“Another 40 minutes yes.”

“And it is just as bad as what we have just heard?”

“I haven’t listened to the entire recording, but based on everything I would say that it is a high possibility.”

“I… I can’t believe my daughter is the girl on this recording. There must be some sort of mistake.”

Mr. Damocles could see that the poor woman was on the brink of tears. She was doing her best to stay strong. She wanted to believe her daughter was not capable of the horrible things the documents and the recording were saying. He couldn’t imagine the amount of torment she was going through.

The older gentleman was no stranger to dealing out discipline to bad students, but this was the first time he had seen such a distraught mother over finding out the actions of her child. He couldn’t blame the woman for her feelings, Lila was indeed quite the charismatic actor. He and her teachers were easily charmed by her demeanor. One would not suspect any malicious intent from her in the slightest. It made the discovery all the more shocking and now, all the more heartbreaking.

“I need to talk with my daughter about all of this.”

“As would I Miss Rossi, we do try to give all our students a chance to explain themselves.”

Mostly because too many parents complain when we don’t do that and that is its own PR nightmare that Dupont does not need to deal with.

“I know that my daughter is a good girl. There must be a reasonable explanation.”

The door to the office opens.

The two adults turn to watch a much calmer Lila walk in with the red head teacher.

Miss bustier remains quiet and stands by the door. Her face was unreadable.

“Lila! There you are.” Miss Rossi got up from her chair, her worry apparent in her voice.  

“There are a lot of accusations being thrown at you and I have no idea why. You need to tell them it isn’t true. Please tell them that this is all a huge mistake”

“It’s alright mamma.” Lila assures her mother. “I will take care of everything.”

Mrs. Rossi felt herself calm at her daughter’s assurance. She should have known not to get so worked up. She sat back down and watched as her daughter sauntered to the desk of the principal

“Everything that you have read and heard from those documents is accurate. I did do all of those terrible things. I am 100% at fault.”

Principal Damocles blinked at the statement.

“I’m sorry Lila, are you… confirming everything in here?”

“That’s right.”

“Mia stellina, please tell me this is a bad joke. A silly prank of sorts?”

“Nope, it’s all factual. I did do those things, I did threaten Marinette, I did fake those illnesses, I did skip school for a few weeks because I didn’t want to go. But you know what else is true, Mr.Damocles?”

The bracelet on Lila began to glow.

“What else is there?”

“You have been lying to yourself. Trying to act like an arbiter of right. You act like you are this no-nonsense principal that cares for the school and its students. But that isn’t true at all.”

“I beg your pardon! I do care about this school. That is why I have no choice but to…”

“I wasn’t done speaking.” Lila’s comment sent a shiver down the principal’s spine. Something was very wrong with Lila, and he couldn’t tell what.

“Now, where was I? Oh yes. The truth. The truth is that you dream of being a hero like the ones in your precious comic book. But you know you’re too old and pathetic to do any real hero work. You loved the idea of Ladybug and Chat noir, bringing those fantasies you had to reality only to slowly loathe them because they are young and can make the difference that you never could.”

Her words cut sharply into the bald principal. It was as if she knew the exact words to cut him down.

“But now that I broke through your pathetic façade, I have a new mask for you.”

Out of nowhere a mask seems to appear on Lila’s hand and she sent it flying onto the older man’s face, causing him to fall over. He struggles to try and get the mask off but the mask only seems to fighting harder to stay on.

The diplomat found herself paralyzed with shock at the situation. She was trying to process what was happening, but she couldn’t. Did her daughter just attack the principal?

Lila turned her attention to her mother. The mirage that was keeping her looking like her civilian self, faded away revealing her akumatized form.

“Now Mamma, you don’t need to worry. I have everything under control.”

“You… you aren’t my daughter.”

Masquerade took a moment before laughing darkly.

Suddenly from behind the desk stood the fallen Principal but his outfit had changed. His portly stature was now toned and muscular. His clothes were replaced with that of hero spandex. He had transformed into his former akumatized persona, Dark Owl.

“You act like you actually knew me. You know how much I love masks, yet you failed to realize I was always wearing one around you.”

Dark Owl went into his Utility belt and handed Masquerade a spray.

“Don’t worry Mamma, I won’t hurt you.”

Mrs.Rossi wanted to protest but her akumatized daughter used the spray she was given on her and felt everything fade to black.

“Put her somewhere safe. We move to the next phase.”

Dark Owl Nodded as he picked up the unconscious woman.

Masquerade’s expression softened as she looked at her mother.

“Trust me Mamma, once this is over, you will see how amazing your daughter truly is.”

The akumatized Villain cupped her earring.

“Simulare. Keep the mirage on Bustier, and have her move to the classroom once our two guests arrive.”

She smiled again as she noticed Dark Owl had finished putting her mother somewhere.

“Alright Dark Owl, I need you to make an announcement.”

__________________________________________________________________________

“Do you think Lila might get akumatized from this?” Marinette spoke aloud.

The three-other teens understood why Marinette was suddenly stiff.

“I am just going to put on the Ladyblog to be wary of a potential Akuma attack. Just to be safe. Maybe Ladybug and Chat noir will see it and take out the akuma before it gets to Lila”  Alya started frantically typing.

Marinette stood up from her desk.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom. I need to…”

“Attention students!”

The voice from the loudspeaker caught everyone’s attention.

“Alya Cesaire and Marinette Dupain Cheng. Both of you will need to come to my office immediately.”

Alya and Marinette look at each other, something seemed very off about this announcement. Normally the loud speaker wasn’t used for such direct announcements. Normally just to announce the school lunches or events. Most of the time Principal Damocles would just go classroom to classroom to do it. It seemed odd that he would use it now.

Alya stood up.

“This probably has to do with Lila. I did use your recording. I guess they want to get both sides of the story.” Alya commented.

“Do you need me to tag along? I did help you with some of the evidence gathering.” Nino inquired, sort of worried for his girlfriend.

“No worries. I think I can handle it. Besides, he only called Mari and I down.”

Alya started moving to the classroom door.

“Come on girl, we have one last thing to take care of.”

Marinette got up from her desk nervously.

“Don’t worry Marinette, whatever happens, I have your back.” Adrien assured.

Marinette gives the boy a soft smile.

She gives him a super quick peck on the cheek before running to Alya at the door.

Adrien cups his cheek and smiles.

“Dude, you are so love sick.” Nino commented.

“You are even worse than me, so don’t even.” Adrien fired back.

“I ain't dissing, I am just saying welcome to the club.” Nino laughed.

Adrien chuckled a bit. He did like this feeling. But he still couldn’t help but worry, Lila was crafty. What if she was up to something?

“Hey, I am just gonna go check my locker, I think I left my science homework in there.” Adrien explained as he got up from the desk. He moved slightly and noticed his shoe hit something.

“What are these screws doing here?”

Adrien checked to make sure Marinette’s seat wasn’t loose and was relieved when it was sturdy.

“Oh that probably has to do with Chloé’s seat breaking. I’ll take em” Nino commented.

Adrien decided he would deal with that later. He figured it would likely be best to confirm that gut feeling he had.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Things are going better than I anticipated.” The silver masked villain exclaimed with glee.

“Masquerade has infiltrated that school which houses several of my previously made akuma. Ladybug and Chat noir will have to face an army by the time they realize what is happening.”

“Sir, you do remember your son is in that building. Is it wise for us to leave him in there?” The blue clad villainess commented.

“My son has never been akumatized, besides. Lila has no interest in hurting Adrien. Unlike the last akuma, there will be no personal stakes.” Hawkmoth assured.

“You do remember that she mentioned wanting revenge against Marinette and that Ladyblogger.”

“That is of little concern.”

“The first one being the girl that your son is in love with.”

Hawkmoth paused for a moment.

“That shouldn’t matter. Adrien will get over it once we have the miraculous and bring back …”

“So, you believe Adrien wont risk fighting the akuma to protect her.”

Hawkmoth’s assurance began to melt at the realization that his son did share a rather glaring flaw. The will to jump into danger without a single thought of self-preservation in order to save the one they love. That could be trouble.

“Nathalie, we may need to get involved.”

Nathalie had dropped her transformation.

“I will head to the school and get Adrien out of there.”

“Take his bodyguard and be quick about it. Masquerade will have that building overrun with akumatized servants shortly.”

Nathalie nodded, she did feel faint for a moment but fought through it. Now was not the time to get weak. Adrien needed to be taken to safety.

______________________________________________________________________

Marinette and Alya made it to the office where Miss Bustier was outside.

“Hey Miss Bustier, is everything alright?” Alya questioned, noticing the expressionless face of their usually peppier teacher.

The red headed teacher said nothing as she gestured to the door.

“Umm… okay.” Alya took the door knob in her hand and opened the door.

Marinette took a moment to study the teacher. Something was very wrong here. She watched as the teacher began to walk towards the classroom they had just come from. She could swear she saw something flicker.

“Come on Marinette.” Alya insisted. The French-Chinese teen decided it must have been her eyes playing tricks on her and went into the office.

They entered the office and noticed that Mr.Damocles’s chair was turned away from them.

“You wanted to see us Principal Damocles?” Alya spoke up.

“No, he didn’t.” A familiar voice from behind the chair spoke.

“Lila!” Marinette exclaimed.

“Well aren’t you a detective, though you are sadly incorrect. I was Lila.”

“Was? Wait… don’t tell me…” Alya began to figure it out.

The office chair turned to reveal the akumatized Lila smiling.

“It’s Masquerade now. I really must say Alya I am quite amazed by all the work you did.”

The two teens glared at the villainess as she stood from the chair.

“This was the first time in my life that I had been so thoroughly backed into a corner. I had no way of dismissing the evidence, I was at your mercy. Truly, I am impressed.”

Alya did not know how to react to Masquerade’s rather out of nowhere praise for busting her.

“You’re praising me?”

“The old me would have had a breakdown, probably end up on the ground crying in frustration, unable to get my way. I was without a doubt destroyed.”

Marinette and Alya looked at each other in confusion.

“Why are you telling us this?” Alya questioned.

“Because anywhere else, I would have just given in. I would have resigned myself to my despair. But we are in Paris, a place with an emotion manipulating super terrorist with the power to weaponize my negative emotions.”

Marinette’s eyes went wide. She understood what Lila was saying.

“You weaponized your emotions.”

The akumatized villain started to laugh.

“I am glad you understand the situation.” Masquerade snapped her fingers.

From the shadows emerged a familiar owl themed akuma, Dark Owl. The only new addition to his ensemble was the white mask that covered his face, making his emotions unreadable.

“Dark Owl, Restrain Marinette!”

Dark Owl went to grab Marinette, but the teen quickly jumped to avoid the akuma’s grasp.

“Don’t worry girl I got you!”

Alya went to grab the nearby chair to throw it at the akuma, but Masquerade quickly moved across the desk and grabbed Alya’s shoulders as the charm bracelet began to glow.

“Oh Alya, you value truth among everything else, yet you are so dishonest with yourself. You always love to throw yourself into your passions, not giving a damn on who gets involved or who gets hurt. You put your theories and ideas above everyone else’s because you are so sure that you are right even when you aren’t. You hate how vulnerable you are when you are wrong.”

“Let go! You don’t know me!” Alya shouted as she tried to escape Masquerade’s grip on her shoulder.

Marinette had avoided a tackle made by the owl themed akuma and left him head first into an office plant.

“Don’t listen to her Alya! She is trying to turn you into an akuma like what she did to Mr.Damocles!”

“You know I am speaking the truth, your little mask of confidence is meant to hide the insecurity of a middle child that wants validation and acceptance because they never truly felt like they had their own identity. You fight so hard for everything and fear that it will be for nothing. You hate being left out of the loop and have trouble accepting when things happen that you aren’t a part of.”

“Stop it!” Alya pleaded. She could feel this akuma Lila’s words cutting her deep. This couldn’t be the truth, right?

“I can see the secrets you try and hide. I am bringing it all to the surface. You also secretly feel that Nino going after you when he was originally after your best friend makes you feel like a rebound and you hate that you feel this way.”

That was the last cut Masquerade needed, the look of hurt in Alya’s eyes was the proof.

Masquerade took a mask from her dress and placed it on Alya. The Ladyblogger dropped to the floor and tried to fight the mask that covered her face.

“Alya!” Marinette cried out in horror.

Masquerade turned to Marinette with a devilish grin.

“I warned you Marinette. I would turn everyone against you if you messed with me. And I intend to keep that promise.”

_______________________________________________________________________

So Ends part 31.

Will Masquerade’s revenge go unabated?

Will Nathalie make it in time to get to Adrien?

Will Marinette be able to escape and bring an end to Lila’s Masquerade ball?

Will I stop asking questions?

Find out all of these things and more next part.

Please comment your thoughts on the chapter and reblog.

Its tough writing on Tumblr and seeing the support really does motivate me to keep going.

Also, as for the mass amounts of tagging. I honestly won't be doing it anymore due to the f*** ton of effort it takes only for some to not work. 

[whatifxwereyou]

The Oncoming Storm Part 30: Waiting

Liu Kang x Reader and Kung Lao x Reader (gonna do both, two paths!)

Some comic relief. Kung Lao and Liu Kang have an adult-ish conversation before it turns into a much less mature conversation. Mostly about you. About some other stuff too. Sure hope that no one overheard it or anything.

A/N: Some humor to break up those last few chapters. Saturday is the chapter with the choice at the end then my posting schedule has to swap around a bit, will probably be Monday and Friday? One for Liu one for Lao? That cool?

Part 29 Part 31 Chapter Index

Liu Kang changed his bandages while seated on the floor of his room with his door open. Kung Lao leaned against the frame of the door with his arms folded across his chest. Liu turned his attention to his brother and offered a weary smile. Kung Lao had been checking on you for them both since Chen had sent them away. Liu had suggested that they wait patiently but even he’d had a difficult time not worrying about you. When Kung Lao had told him where to shove that idea, he’d relented. Liu had been the one to care for you when you’d first arrived. He wanted to be the one to care for you now.

Raiden had said something about them both becoming too attached.

Liu hadn’t argued even if he thought that was a ridiculous reason to keep their distance.

“Have you heard anything yet?”

“That woman taking care of Y/N turned me away again and this time she was mean.” The annoyance in Kung Lao’s voice was completely unjustified. His vendetta against the people working in the infirmary was extremely silly. But Kung Lao wouldn’t talk about it and Liu Kang couldn’t make him.

“She needs taking care of, Lao.”

“Yeah, which I am perfectly capable of doing.”

“You are not qualified.” Liu chuckled as he finished wrapping up his arm. It had healed as well as could be expected over the last few days. It would take a few weeks to be back to normal, but he was prepared for the climb. “You don’t even take of yourself when you need it.

“Only because they make me go to the infirmary every time. They don’t trust me to do it alone.”

“Because you don’t do it.” Liu stood and dusted himself off. “When was the last time that you checked your bandages or your wounds? Are you even bothering with them anymore?”

“No, because they’re fine.”

“I think I just made my point. Everyone’s point.”

“You get to take care of your wounds. Why do I have to go to the infirmary to do it?”

“Because I’m qualified. And I actually do it.” He threw away the old bandages.

Kung Lao grumbled and then tilted the door closed behind him before leaning against the nearby wall. Liu sat on the edge of his bed with a heavy sigh. He was listless. Doing nothing and waiting patiently was part of what they did in Raiden’s Temple, but it didn’t mean that he was content to do it. While he composed himself better than Kung Lao, he was just as worried and frustrated by the lack of control he had.

“I’m going to sneak in through her window. She can’t stop me from there. I’ll fall to my death. She doesn’t want to be responsible for that.”

“That’s a terrible idea. One of your worst.” Liu laughed in disbelief at his brother. “Sure, you’ll get in, but she’ll kick you right out after. Not to mention that you’re going to terrify the poor woman. And Y/N’s bed is right beneath the window. You could hurt her.”

“I could just use my hat.” He tapped the brim.

“Same results, Lao.” Liu rested his elbow on his knee and ran his fingers through his hair. “Chen is good at what she does. Y/N is in capable hands.”

Kung Lao took a seat next to him with a frustrated huff. They sat in tense silence.

“How is your arm doing, anyway?”

“It’s healing fine. Stitches will be coming out soon.” Liu patted the bandage on his left arm. He had a relatively high pain tolerance, and he wasn’t the type to complain. It’d hurt like a son of a bitch when the ink had sliced through his flesh, but he’d been more worried about you in the moment. “No more fever which has helped tremendously.”

“I hear that.” Kung Lao was staring wide-eyed in front of him. He had so little patience, which was something Liu usually gave him hell for, but in this situation, he was right there alongside him. They sat in silence again, a frequent occurrence over the past few days. So much had happened since they had last had a chance to speak and neither one of them seemed willing to talk about it. They’d spent plenty of time together waiting for you to wake up, but it had mostly been in frustrated silence.

“Did she tell you?” Lao didn’t turn his wide-eyed gaze away from the floor.

“Tell me what?

“That we kissed.” Kung Lao clasped his hands together in front of him and tapped his fingers nervously against his other hand. Liu Kang heaved a sigh and tried not to let it bother him, but he was sure that his silence said more than enough. He shouldn’t have been surprised.

“No, she didn’t. But I suspected as much after how she behaved in Huangshan. You had her all mixed up.” Liu tapped his foot and then let go of his frustration with a breath. He had gotten into his head that you were his Y/N. This wasn’t easy to talk about for either of them. “I think she was afraid to tell me. Afraid of how I’d react.” Rationalizing it had been enough to wipe the remaining frustration completely away. “She carries more guilt than she lets on, I think.”

“Funny that you put it that way because she didn’t seem to have a problem telling me that she’d kissed you.”

Was Kung Lao trying to get on his nerves? He did that sometimes, but Liu had gotten good at navigating his way around it. He laughed under his breath and Kung Lao seemed genuinely surprised not to have annoyed him.

“You have known her since you were nine, Kung Lao. You have a connection that is deeply rooted in your childhood. It’s nothing like the one I have with her. It is worlds apart.”

“Wow, I don’t think that I’ve heard that kind of jealousy from you since we were teenagers.” Kung Lao smirked. Liu tapped his foot and heaved another sigh. It wasn’t the connection that had caused his renewed frustration. This had gone on for too long.

“I don’t want to play this game anymore.” Liu frowned. “I can’t get it out of my head. I want out of the bet. I never felt good about it to begin with, Kung Lao. It’s making me act differently. I don’t want any part of it.”

“So, you’re chickening out, huh?”

Liu rolled his eyes.

“Why are you doing this, Lao?”

“What kind of question is that? Did I not explain the bet to you?”

“Are you sabotaging any chance you might actually have with someone you care about?” Liu watched Kung Lao instantly stiffen up and knew he’d hit the nail right on the head. “When I was brought to the temple and we became family, you spoke of Y/N so fondly. Now she’s here and you’re willing to risk any relationship that you have rebuilt with her so that you don’t have to do a few chores? It’s absurd, Lao. You don’t think she’s going to be upset? Feel gross about it? Because I feel gross about it.”

Kung Lao clenched his jaw and stopped tapping his foot and fingers and stared at the floor again instead. Liu waited patiently and rotated his left shoulder, feeling the stinging in his arm and the pain that radiated down to his fingertips. He would focus on stretching his muscles until Kung Lao was done arguing in his head. He did that sometimes, especially when he was arguing with Liu. This wasn’t the first time that he’d told Kung Lao a harsh truth and it wouldn’t be the last. Kung Lao had done the same for him, but it had been less necessary over the years. Liu Kang was the type who saw his shortcomings before others did.

“I really hate when you call me out on my bullshit.” Kung Lao finally chuckled.

“Call it what you will, Lao. If you won’t let me back out of the bet, then I forfeit. I’ll do your chores. I don’t care. I stand by what I said when you first suggested it. I don’t want to bet on someone else’s feelings. Let her feel what she feels authentically so that I can feel what I feel authentically.” He mussed up his hair in annoyance.

“It’s fine.” Kung Lao deflated next to him. It was comical. His posture had completely changed. “Honestly, I felt pretty terrible about it by the end of our trip to Japan. Like I was… manipulating her. I didn’t mean for it to be like that. I thought it was a harmless and fun thing but you’re probably right. I’m purposely… screwing it up.” Kung Lao unclasped his hands and stood then dragged the chair from Liu’s desk and sat on it backwards. He couldn’t seem to sit still since you had fallen unconscious. Liu had struggled with that too, but he’d always had an easier time focusing than Kung Lao had. “The bet’s off. I’ll tell her about it, I guess. I don’t want to feel like I’m hiding anything anymore.”

“Is that so?” Liu smiled, feeling a little relief. “Not going to make me do your chores?”

“Not over this at least. I’ll weasel out of them some other way, I’m sure.” Kung Lao grinned. He seemed like himself for the first time in days. Maybe it really had been weighing on him as heavily as it had been weighing on Liu.

“Does that mean I was right? Self-sabotage?”

“Ugh, can you not rub it in? Just for once?”

“Not a chance.” Liu Kang laughed, and Kung Lao leaned his arms on the back of the chair then rested his chin on them with a heavy sigh. Whatever happened, he knew that they would be okay. They’d broken the dam when it came to talking about it, which felt nice if not a little daunting. At some point, he had gotten nervous to bring it up again. He didn’t want to hurt Kung Lao, but he couldn’t give up on you either even if he couldn’t get it out of his head that it was selfish for him not to.

“So, she kissed you again, huh?” Kung Lao diverted attention away from his emotions, something he did very frequently. Funny enough, Liu thought that you did the same thing. You were similar in many ways. “…wait, you didn’t want to end the bet because you uh…” Kung Lao sat upright, and alert suddenly then made a motion with his hands that was rather crude. Liu Kang hesitated but then shook his head no. “You didn’t win and not tell me, did you?”

“Those weren’t the terms of the bet, remember? I would have never agreed if it had been.”

“That’s evasive, Liu.”

“I’m just saying that the conditions had to do with her choice and not any physical achievement, Kung Lao. We’re not stupid kids.”

“Wow, this is so incredibly defensive.” Kung Lao whispered in wonder.

“I dislike talking about this with you.” Liu Kang frowned. “Talking about her like this with you. It’s uncomfortable.”

“I hate it too!” Kung Lao laughed and threw his arms up in frustration then let them fall back over the chair dramatically. “Just… look, tell me if I lost. Tell me if I don’t stand a chance. I just want her to be happy.” He said this all with a grumble, as if it were like pulling teeth to say it. It was funny how uncomfortable he was with his emotions.

“That’s what I want too.” Liu Kang nodded to agree. “And I’m not the one to decide who wins or loses. And this isn’t a bet anymore.”

“No more bet.”

“The bet is off.” Liu Kang sighed with a relief. He wasn’t sure that Kung Lao was going to actually let it go. He was difficult to read. “That’s a huge relief.”

“Yeah, I mean… yes and no for me. You called me out and now I have to think about that.”

“Poor, poor Kung Lao. Having to think his own thoughts.”

“It’s a burden, really.”

“We have to tell her, Lao.”

“Yeah, I know. Can’t fix the self-sabotage thing if I don’t. And if you tell her and I don’t then that makes me look bad and we… we all know you and honesty, for the most part.”

“I can lie when I need to but I’m not going to lie about this.” Liu folded his arms over his chest. They sat in awkward silence again. There were plenty of things that they should have talked about, but it still felt weird to. Usually, they would have joked about this kind of thing and had the other to confide in, but they were both worried about hurting the other’s feelings and dashing their hopes.

“You didn’t answer me.”

“Hmm?” Hadn’t he? He didn’t remember not answering Kung Lao.

“I asked if you two… you know.”

“Can you not say the words, Kung Lao? Are you not an adult?”

“I don’t want to. I don’t want to picture you two doing that.” Kung Lao stuck his tongue out and then shook his head as if to dismiss the mental image. “But did you?”

“No. I thought I told you no.” Liu had hesitated again. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to on your trip. No, he had wanted to, but he had thought about that stupid bet and how much it could potentially hurt you to have done that and then found out there had been stakes attached to your emotions. He’d pulled himself back because of it more than once while you were in Huangshan.

“How am I supposed to interpret that, Liu?” Kung Lao was laughing, at least. Liu Kang hung his head and Kung Lao only laughed harder.

“Look, she had a nightmare, so I let her sleep in my bed.”

“I’m sort of disappointed that you didn’t get laid at the end of this story.”

“It was your stupid bet that ruined it.” Liu chuckled but he could feel his face turning red.

“What, did you wake up with a half chub or something?” Kung Lao was teasing him, but he’d gotten to the end of the story before Liu had found a less crude way to tell it and Liu covered his face in embarrassment. Kung Lao was wheezing with laughter. “Liu! You didn’t!”

“In my defense, I was having a nice dream and she was right there in my arms and…”

“Wow, Liu. That’s more me than you.”

“I’m only human, Kung Lao.”

“Just, wow.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Liu pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. His face was still burning but it felt nice to laugh about it with Kung Lao. He hadn’t talked to you about it because that felt like opening a floodgate and he’d needed to end this stupid bet first. Plus, it was kind of a difficult conversation to start. It was easier just to make a move.

“Did she… notice… or?”

“…I hate that you guessed so accurately. I never would have told you outright.”

“It’s amazing.” Kung Lao smacked the back of the chair in glee. “So?”

“Yeah. Yeah, she noticed, Kung Lao.” Liu Kang hung his head again, hands on his knees. Kung Lao was practically choking to death with how hard he was laughing at him. “You could try to enjoy my misfortune a little less.”

“This is the funniest thing that has happened in weeks, Liu Kang.” He wiped a tear away and tried to regain his breath. “Why didn’t you just go for it? I would have gone for it. Wouldn’t have given it a second thought.”

“Well, I’m not you. All I could think about was how hurt she would be if we did that and then found out about the stupid bet. And she had been so frightened after her nightmare. I played it off the best that I could given the circumstances.” Liu was laughing now too. He couldn’t help it. It was funny. And it felt good to laugh after having done nothing but worry and stress for three days.

“You know what, Liu? You are a much better man than I am sometimes.” Kung Lao wiped his eyes and regained his composure. “I never would have let that opportunity pass.”

“I know. I had no intention of telling you the truth either.”

“I’m glad you did. I needed a good laugh.”

“At my expense, of course.”

“Of course.”

Silence fell again, but it was at least less awkward. Liu supposed if that came at his expense than he was okay with it.

“What do we do now?” Liu sighed. Kung Lao was avoiding his eyes again.

“I don’t think it’s really up to us what happens next with that.”

“Yeah.” Liu nodded to agree. “…no hard feelings no matter what happens, right?”

“Not going to be that simple, I think.”

“Of course not, Kung Lao. But above all things, you are my brother.”

“Yes. Nothing will change that. It might just be weird while we figure it out.”

“Yeah, probably.” Liu didn’t have much else to say on the matter. Silence again. While he felt relieved that they’d cleared the air and sorted things out, it still weighed heavily on them both.

“…I’m going to check on her again.” Kung Lao stood and stretched his arms before nodding toward the door. “Want to come with me? Might overwhelm her.”

“No, I don’t need to see you harassing that poor woman again. She said that she’d tell us when Y/N wakes up.”

“I don’t believe her, Liu.”

“You have made that abundantly clear.” Liu Kang smiled, and Kung Lao bowed his head to say goodbye. “If I hear any jokes at my expense throughout the rest of the temple, Kung Lao, you will be sorry.”

“My lips are sealed, Liu.” Kung Lao chuckled again under his breath and then left Liu Kang alone with his thoughts.

[love-takes-work]

Steven Universe: End of an Era: Outline & Review

I wrote this review in October but never got around to posting it here

Steven Universe: End of an Era is far more than an art book–it’s also a collection of behind-the-scenes material, stories about the experience of working on the show, planning documents and associated background info, and both older versions of developed concepts AND concepts that never made it into the show. It's a huge fusion of all those elements, and it's definitely an experience!

Some low-quality images are included with my review just to give you an idea of what’s there--it’s not a good substitute for getting your own copy, but here’s a tour!

Like the previous concept art book, Art and Origins, I'll be giving you a description of the structure and overview, while also collecting notable information for fans. Obviously just about everything is "notable" once again, but I'll aim for unique insight or perspective on the main source material, keeping the screaming about everything new to a minimum so you can also enjoy something for yourself if you pick it up. My low-quality photos should prevent people from feeling like I'm reproducing the book in any capacity. Please grab one while you can and have your own experience!

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

OVERVIEW

The book is titled "End of an Era" for a couple reasons--obviously because it is released after the show has wrapped, but also because Gem history recently ended its "Era 2" and began Era 3--an age of prosperity and peace. The author--the person in charge of adapting all of this information into this slick, readable package--is Chris McDonnell, whose work was previously applied on the Art and Origins book.

The foreword is by N.K. Jemisin, a well-known science fiction author who's a huge fan of the show (and wrote a really excellent series that also has a weird geological connection, by the way).

And the cover, like its predecessor, is shiny and decorated with a beach scene featuring minimalistic characters--this time it's the Gems at night in front of the Temple, and on the back cover is a big pink leg ship in a cross-legged pose.

The interior covers are decorated with tons of amazing sketches of Steven and Connie on the front, and a bunch of Gem sketches on the back. Every interior page that most would leave blank is highlighted with some kind of sketch art or character exercise--it's so much to look at, so much to absorb.

The book is dedicated "For Eddie."

Its organization is different from the previous book in that it shares applicable work in chunks associated with groups of episodes rather than pertaining to different aspects of building the show.

FOREWORD

N.K. Jemisin gives us such a great introduction to the book--apparently understanding very well that the audience of this book is full of animation enthusiasts and adult fans more than it is full of kids, and explaining that bewildering journey some adults had from blowing this show off as a silly kid thing to falling in love with it hard and fast.

The important thing, Jemisin says, is being able to trust a storyteller with your heart. And it was clear to her that Rebecca Sugar knew what she was talking about and was saying important things about identity and the radical power that comes with accepting it and demanding respect.

Important also is how we handle heroes and who gets to be one in fantasy. That's part of the reason Steven Universe speaks to so many--because we see ourselves here, and know stories can be about us. Acknowledging the power we all have to MAKE THINGS BETTER with what we fight for is so important--especially if we're going to speaking to the next generation about it.

Highlighting Rose Quartz as a "born leader" who failed and Steven as a relatable scamp who did what she couldn't, Jemisin asserts that we can save the world.

1. END OF AN ERA

We start with an appeal to the audience to think about identity and the formative parts of our childhood--and how different it is if who you are and who you become is restricted, mocked, erased, or Not Allowed. Most people, if not ALL people, can relate to this, but for those of us with a special relationship with Steven Universe because of queer identity, this hits hard.

But it doesn't have to be anything grand to be something we respect--this show's authenticity comes largely from how personal everything is, drawn from real-life experiences and incidental truths from each artist's perspective, leaning hard on childhood and formative experiences.

Rebecca Sugar offers some interview bits to discuss writing philosophy and why "writing female characters" was difficult for a nonbinary person who'd been socialized as a girl and a woman. Rebecca has spoken before about how frustrating it is that marketing for cartoons was SO gendered when she was growing up (and to some extent still is).

The Gems in the story are all "she/her," but on their planet they're defined by their work, not by emotion or relationships (unlike women in our society), so having them be socialized opposite to how she was and be able to claim those emotions through choice and NOT as just an expectation "as women" was revolutionary. Rebecca wants her show to tell all marginalized people that they don't deserve to be in the margins.

Weighing in on other aspects of the show were Ian Jones-Quartey, Joe Johnston, and Miki Brewster. Ian describes feeling like at first doing SU was a thrill ride that meant they'd finally get to do all the cool stuff, but it quickly became a responsibility that he took very seriously--the need to tell a good story now that he'd been given a megaphone.

Promotional art, planning documents, character sketches, and concept art from the lighthearted to the stone serious is included, along with some very cool (sort of famous) timeline charts that track major characters' developments. It's emphasized by Rebecca that the developmental materials ARE NOT CANON (and especially are not MORE canon) compared the final show.

There are concept sketches alongside final art for Aquamarine and Topaz in "Wanted" (with Topaz labeled "Imperial Topaz"), the Zircons in "The Trial," Blue and Yellow Diamond, and the Off Colors (including Pink Lars).

And there's also a spread of "the two sides of Steven's life: Gem Magic and Rock N Roll" featuring Sadie Killer and the Suspects (referred to as "Buck's band")--as well as a cool "Crew Cameos" key and some concepts for short-haired Connie.

And then there's some more "finished" art with stills alongside concepts, including some background art, revision, and really cool "fairytale" art from some of the shadowplay storytelling bits. We get "Lars of the Stars," "Jungle Moon," and "Can't Go Back."

2. THE BEGINNING OF THE END: A SINGLE PALE ROSE

In discussing the huge reveals and Gem mysteries in the show, the pacing is examined, and emphasis is put on the intended "slow burn." One of the most difficult things in the show was to strategize so that every piece that was needed to support another piece in the future was placed properly to seed what it was supposed to.

Some of the ideas they developed were more of a group effort and were fit together collaboratively (like Amethyst's being younger than the other Gems and Jasper being from Earth), while others were intended from the beginning based on Rebecca's vision (the fundamental idea of Pink Diamond's true identity, for instance, as well as Obsidian's design and sword and our Pearl not being Pink's first).

The writing process gets a great deep dive here, including fun tidbits like how the orb in the moon base was inserted by Joe Johnston and they literally had no idea what it was for when they wrote the episode. They repurposed it when they figured out what they needed.

Rebecca credits her detailed timelines for helping keep the order straight, and discusses how other artists are sometimes flabbergasted that a storyboard-driven show can have this much detail and continuity and yet not get wrecked by the free non-scripted boarding process. But Rebecca and the Crew valued that approach and loved the way fresh eyes would handle an idea, making it come back alive, entertaining, vivid.

Several Crew members weigh in on the writing process. Lauren Hecht refers to making lots of incorrect guesses despite being on the inside. Joe Johnston recalled getting briefed on his first day and getting so excited to start working on this massive project.

Miki Brewster remembered being told Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond and being shocked--and also confused about why Ruby and Sapphire would need to be married if they're already basically married. Drew Green talks about being brought in late and getting to watch unaired episodes and a rough of the movie while eating cereal.

Ian Jones-Quartey complains about Pink Diamond's real jester-like form being leaked to the internet through a Hot Topic shirt. Rebecca piggybacks on that and says it was upsetting that the wedding was leaked because of toy fair keychains featuring Ruby and Sapphire in wedding attire. They'd always be worried about leaks, and sometimes Rebecca struggled not to talk about the reality of Pink Diamond before the reveal because she knew it would make so much more sense once the truth was out. And everything associated with Rose makes more sense once you know she's Pink--especially what happened with Bismuth, considering what we know about how Pink Diamond has a habit of treating anyone who no longer serves her interests.

When it comes to visual cues, Rebecca also talks about intentional designs to create a feeling of unity between concepts, like the flower shapes on Pink Diamond's palanquin lining up with the poofs of Steven's hair and the star imagery of the series. Steven Sugar and Mary Nash discuss how the Human Zoo incorporated this imagery, trying to look like Homeworld with a Pink Diamond touch.

Steven Sugar, as a game nerd, liked to throw in video game references from old and modern stuff to feel like he's inserting what he's enjoying and who he is from moment to moment, while Mary Nash, who related to Sadie as a basement-dwelling young person with cult interests, liked to include stuff from MST3K and cult movies. Pearl's hand gestures get a spotlight too--her reflex to cover her mouth when Pink Diamond was being discussed was analyzed here.

A "Top Secret Visual Timeline" from 2016 is included which tells us some Diamond history. It has an earlier version of Pink Pearl's fate and does not include Spinel since the movie hadn't been greenlit. The timeline includes the birth of the Diamonds, the emergence and major story beats for each major character, and some philosophy of the driving force behind each.

We're told that Pink Diamond straightened up, behavior-wise, after she lost her first Pearl, and that Yellow and Blue wanted to give her a planet but White only agreed to it to prove she would fail at managing a colony. Pearl, meanwhile, is so confused to have a Diamond who keeps asking her what she thinks when she doesn't believe she should have opinions.

And when Pink moonlighted as Rose to start conflict, she found herself leading an army to fight Pink's troops--then Yellow's, and eventually Blue's too. Lapis is said to be waiting for the conflict to end on Earth so she can terraform, but she gets trapped instead.

Pearl's love story with Rose is described as "an endless honeymoon" where she's free to love her, while Rose's is more like "I'm now the head of the family and I'm going to give everyone what they never had, so everyone is super special!"

Jasper is described as "adopted" into Yellow's army as the only successful Beta Quartz. And White Diamond knew that Pink Diamond was not dead--she thought she was just running away from home like a brat and would eventually be back.

3. THE HEART OF THE CRYSTAL GEMS

Now we discuss Rose Quartz--the original Pink Diamond. How she was selfish and selfless, never enough and always too much, and how Greg was her first partner who "challenged her" to be an equal. Rebecca describes Rose as being delighted by the idea that both she and Greg reinvented themselves, but when that leads her to want to share her past, Greg isn't interested--he only wants to know who she is now, and doesn't consider the old her to be her.

Rebecca likes Carl Jung's concept of "enantiodromia," which is the idea that extremes lead to their extreme opposite. This is demonstrated in all of the Diamonds. This narrative is interspersed with drawings of Greg and Rose being cute.

But another "heart" of the Crystal Gems is its relationships--particularly, Garnet, the fairy tale romance embodied. More psychological theories are discussed with regard to differentiation in a relationship making the relationship stronger, and how they made sure that happened for Garnet during the appropriate arc. Rebecca has struggled with the idea that she, like Ruby, went straight from a "family" group to a living-with-others situation and never lived by herself. But she also learned that you can in fact develop as a person in the context of a relationship--you don't have to be alone to do it. Ruby learned that too, and chose on her own terms to be with Sapphire.

The wedding made so much sense to Rebecca and the crew that they couldn't imagine a wholesome couple like Ruby and Sapphire not having a wedding episode. They wanted it for years: The wedding concepts always included the tuxedo for Sapphire and the wedding dress for Ruby.

But pushback (often blamed on the conservative standards of the international market) led to negotiations trying to keep Ruby and Sapphire's relationship from being explicit. Rebecca and the Crew were very tired of this double standard, and they were especially irritated by attempts to claim a wedding wouldn't be well received by a core demographic or wouldn't make sense for Steven's character. But other shows had done weddings and Steven had been established to love weddings already.

Rebecca kept adding more elements to the wedding episode to answer all the concerns, but she didn't want to back down from explicit marriage between these characters. They deserved it. And the audience deserved to see this as wholesome, like any other cartoon wedding. Eventually they got their way and were allowed to have the wedding. But the ordered episodes were also coming to a close without promise of more, so Rebecca had to request more episodes to be able to wrap up the storyline!

And of course, there is Steven, the true heart of the team. A very interesting aside discusses Garnet's leadership and how the network pushed the Crewniverse to acknowledge Steven as the leader. This was successfully resisted throughout as well--because Garnet is the leader (unless she's incapacitated, of course). It's fantastic that this concept was preserved because too often a young male chosen one is elevated above people with more experience and knowledge because of that chosen one tradition, so it's really nice to have a show acknowledge that team leadership is more appropriate for an adult.

4. ERA 3

Beginning with a discussion of the Diamonds, this chapter deconstructs the dysfunctional "family" of the Diamonds (who are said to be based on tropes about evil stepmothers and stepsisters), with the thread of dysfunction originating with White Diamond.

Yellow is physical, Blue is emotional, White is judgmental, and Pink is impulsive. Some philosophy on why Pink is naturally manipulative and why she clashes so much with White is offered.

White believes her identity is to be imposed on all because she is the pinnacle of what should be--and therefore, she has the right to make decisions and statements about and on behalf of everyone. But her secret is that she can't do what the others do--act or feel or want. In trying to be everyone, she is no one.

And this becomes very important when she confronts Steven about his identity and turns out to be wrong. The triumph of Steven being totally, fully himself is a beautiful, simple revelation that's described as far more satisfying than the theories about Pink living inside him or Rose returning from his Gem.

Also discussed is Gem architecture. A lot went into this idea, and Steven Sugar weighs in to say he had to think of what it would mean for a world to have buildings but serve no human needs. That's why it's mostly focused on transport and storage. Even the broken planet is meant to indicate a place stripped for its resources, and everything serves a function that is meant to avoid looking like the human equivalents.

And there's another layer, too: a difference between Era 1 and Era 2. Era 2 became more functional to hide Era 1's broken bits, and older Homeworld buildings still have some "ornate and ancient" feel to them. And the fact that props, tools, and even walls and doors could be living was taken from a concept Rebecca thought was horrible from old Busby Berkeley movies, where people were inanimate objects and it was portrayed as lovely. Tom Herpich helped conceptualize these living objects.

Steven dealing with "princess tropes" is discussed here too. The Pebbles (worked on with Pendleton Ward) were sort of his Cinderella's mice, and all the locked-in-a-tower, having supportive tiny friends help you, getting princess clothes made, attending a ball, having to mind your manners stuff was intentionally related to fairy tales.

The point of doing that (besides fun) was to easily invoke the feeling that Steven was being made to be someone he's not, and that he was being treated like THIS is who he really is when it isn't. White Diamond as the "evil stepmother" is discussed with regard to her detailed features and massive scale. They generally didn't put fingernails and eyelashes on characters (especially not to indicate that they were women or girls!), but they decided White would get all of these feminine markers for tradition's sake.

Rebecca also invokes several other references that were included and describes the princess tropes as "chipping away at his integrity" setting him up for the final challenge with White.

There is again tons of concept art: Homeworld architecture, Pebbles, Diamond diagrams, background Jades and Lemon Jade Fusion, Comby, Diamond extraction chambers, and White Diamond.

5. CHANGE YOUR MIND

Now we finally begin to discuss Steven's identity. The "Perfect Steven," discussed in several interviews before this book's release, was an idea back in 2013; the "ultimate Steven," beefed up and shonen-looking, was far from perfect because OUR Steven is perfect, while this alpha hero Steven idea (used in Steven Universe Future) didn't belong being idolized in such a show.

They thought about having Steven fall apart into organic half and Gem half early in the show (during "Giant Woman" after a successful fusion and unfusion, even!), but they didn't try the concept until the last episode. They didn't want the "Pink" Steven to be portrayed as "better" even though he would be more powerful, so they decided he isn't whole without his organic self and he's just as much of a shell as the organic half. They absolutely did not want any ending that required Rose to be inside him or waiting to come back. But the debates were fierce--what DOES it mean to have Rose's Gem?

Ian Jones-Quartey brings in an anecdote about his own family to emphasize some of the immigrant themes that inspired aspects of the show. He had a brother who reinvented himself elsewhere away from family without resolving issues, and all the ramifications of that were explored in the show through Rose Quartz. (He is careful to say he doesn't think his immigrant experience is like being from another planet!) But he did say you can hurt your old family even if they were toxic or didn't know the real you, and you can hurt your new family by hiding your past. The Pizza family of course was also a more direct reference to Ian's Ghanaian family.

In talking about the new Fusions from this episode, Sunstone is largely described by Miki, who also got to board the Sunstone section. Sunstone was described as a cool 1990s character and the evolution just continued into making them a fourth-wall-breaking PSA dispenser. Obsidian is also discussed, with their sword being an early concept. Steven Sugar said they totally knew it would be forged in action. Obsidian being similar to the Temple design is of course another very early detail.

The story of how James Baxter got involved with one of the final scenes (Organic Steven and Pink Steven fusing in front of White Diamond) was shared. His family was fans of the show and Rebecca Sugar took the time to drive to a birthday party for his daughter and give her a drawing. He then owed her a favor, and this was it.

Concept art is again included, this time with sample boards, promo images, a Diamond fight concept, costume design changes for the Gems, new Fusions, the so-called "Mega Diamond" ship conglomerate, some scenes from the White Diamond confrontation, Pink Steven, multiple pages of James Baxter animation, corrupted Gems and their healed selves, and photos from the "Change Your Mind" premiere and some awards. The show has won one design-related Emmy, a Peabody Award, and a GLAAD award.

6. STEVEN UNIVERSE FUTURE

The book doesn't cover the movie because it got its own book, but dives right into Future. Ian Jones-Quartey emphasizes that the movie and Future are separate and different from the original show, which ENDED. After all, after that, Steven has a neck!

Some new names are invoked now: new writers Kate Tsang, Jack Pendarvis, and Taneka Stotts. They were excited to have Steven make HIS OWN mistakes instead of trying to clean up someone else's! Now, instead of doing the usual shonen anime thing and having the final battle be a big physical rumble, Steven has to make peace with himself and take an active role in coping with what all the fighting has done to him and what effect it's had on who he is (and who he wants to be). There is no sudden "I love myself!" answer, either. It's always a process.

Drew Green and Maya Petersen, who came on board as storyboarders officially in Future, also weighed in on writing for a "mature" show, how to deal with Steven being a "moral compass" while being sort of unreliable, and what they learned as Crew that they didn't know as fans. Drew didn't know Garnet never asks questions. Jack didn't realize the show never deviated from Steven's point of view. Taneka was nervous but excited to collaborate. Kate was worried about how established the show was and what to do as a new writer to contribute appropriately.

Maya was on the old Crew but not as a storyboarder, so felt like some of the "old" ideas ended up not being appropriate for the "new" Future in an embarrassing way--and dreaded the idea of dealing with Steven's emotional problems when they were similar to stuff she'd been through. She also was personally behind the idea of Steven wanting to dump his problems by becoming Stevonnie, and got to work with Etienne Guignard on inventing the Pearl creation backstory with Volleyball.

There's some discussion of "depression hobbies," stress, and the show's pacing. And they say Etienne was entertaining at pitches. There's even some discussion of how Greg is taken off a bit of a pedestal because his terrible restrictive life in the suburbs sounded wholesome to Steven and Greg presented it negatively.

And then there is some information about how the Crew felt behind the scenes due to fan reactions and negative press. Ian discusses feeling offended when the Black characters are described as bad examples, as if their cartoonized but realistic-in-context features are automatically caricatures.

Rebecca Sugar felt beaten down by some of these narratives and began to access mental health services, inspiring some of the content of "Mindful Education." A long reflection from Rebecca discusses people's infighting about her show and what she had a responsibility to show or not show in the story. She learned a lot about bullying from Cartoon Network's anti-bullying program and learned that bullies thrive on whatever attention you give them--unless it is made clear to them by a peer group that no one is impressed by their cruel actions. Also, not all negative feedback is bullying. Constructive criticism is different. Self-awareness can help you avoid internalizing what bullies might do or say to you.

Segueing from the discussion of how people are affected by and connect with the show, we then discuss how they chose as a team what should be covered as the show came to a close. They didn't have time to do quite a few stories they wanted time for, like a Rhodonite story, a Lars side story, and Diamond "prehistory" and religion; all of it was put aside for the main arc with Steven.

They thought people would find those stories about Homeworld and Off Color history very interesting, but so much of the show had been about Steven's Gem adventures, so keeping him mostly on Earth seemed appropriate. The acknowledgment of his battle damage, of his trauma, was necessary and real, and helpful in an important way to the core audience.

Oh, and there was some stuff about a cheeseburger tree. Don't ask.

In discussing the "reverse escapism" of the original show (Gem aliens are intrigued by everyday human culture, and realism is necessary), Rebecca says her views have changed on escapism and gets why some people want a soothing feel-better show. She acknowledged also that her own escapist dreams-come-true fulfilled in the show didn't feel like escapism because they were givens to the majority of mainstream culture, but were never guaranteed to marginalized people.

Rebecca ties in her several-times-told story about "Love Like You" and how the middle bit was when she didn't feel she was worth looking up to, and the realizations she had to tie the beginning to the end. Feeling like someone will like you less if they know you more is terrible. So sometimes a show like this can be helpful in telling people that they belong when their fantasies are things like "I want to be loved" and "I want to know I exist."

In Future, Steven has to connect to who he is and love that person--and understand that person enough to finally feel that even if he's not fixing their problems or saving their world right this second, Steven deserves his family's love and support, and they WANT to give it to him.

There's a huge amount of supplemental material in this section so there's no way I could name it all. The charts for Future's timeline are pretty straightforward, though a few episodes like "A Very Special Episode," "Why So Blue," "In Dreams," and "Bismuth Casual" aren't specifically represented and a couple are in a different order ("Prickly Pair" was conceived as happening after "Fragments" and "Homeworld Bound").

Steven feeling like a monster, having intrusive thoughts, having not forgiven the Diamonds, and getting help/moving on--it's all there.

We have keys, color scripts, and boards for the new opening and some various backgrounds and storyboard art from episodes. Model sheets for Shep, Nice Lapis and Mean Lapis, Jasper, Steven Tag Gems, Pink Steven Powers, Monster Steven. New house concepts, Era 3 Homeworld concept art for the Diamond environments, and background art for the Reef.

New Connie and Greg designs. Concepts for Mega Pearl, the Rose Quartzes, Bluebird, and Morganite (who didn't get used). And there are some photos from recording and the conference room. There are even some extras from "Crossover Nexus," the crossover with OK K.O.!--including an unused cut scene that included Ruby and Sapphire fighting. The rest of the book is a bunch of adorable Crewniverse art--extras, blog drawings, promos, and gifts to each other.

NOTABLE

1.

The first timeline chart in the book features a cool sketch of the original Off Colors, which at the time this planning document was drafted included unused Off Colors Flint and Chert.

We knew of their existence already because of an episode of the podcast, but these two unexpectedly appeared as incidental characters in the Steven Universe Future episode "Homeworld Bound," identified only in the credits. Sad to think that instead of banding with the Off Colors, these two were probably shattered for their crime (being Quartzes who don't want to fight) and that's why we see them being repaired in this episode. Later, there's some brainstorming for types of Off Colors and "a Ruby that wants to wear limb enhancers" is mentioned as well.

2. 

It looks like there was also originally more juice to the story of tracking down the events of the war culminating in Pink Diamond's assassination.

One of the timelines talks about Steven thinking it makes sense that Pearl can't talk about her involvement because she might have been a double agent, explaining why Rose Quartz always knew what Pink Diamond was doing. It seems like that bit was supposed to be included in Garnet's version of the story she believed in "Your Mother and Mine." Seems like they originally conceived Garnet's story to inspire the Off Colors to become pirates and freedom fighters, though in the show's canon this storytelling happened after Lars had already reinvented himself the way he did.

Sadie was also supposed to be sending letters to Lars via Steven, which is funny since the "Letters to Lars" episode is just a montage Steven letter. And of course it's specified that Steven was supposed to get Pink Diamond flashbacks by going to the Palace on Homeworld.

3. 

The second chart in the book makes references to Sadie's reinvention of herself as a parallel to Lars, Greg, and Pink Diamond all doing the same thing, and how positive it is to embrace such a thing--a version of yourself that YOU create.

I love that Yellow Diamond's arm ship arm-wrestling the Cluster was always part of the plan.

There's some more explicit direction to have Connie help Steven understand the Diamonds as "strict parents," and a lot more emphasis on everyone realizing Rose had been inspired by THEM rather than them all following her.

White Diamond is presented here as if she thinks of Pink Diamond as a "daughter" (whom she now understands she has "lost"). There are notes on how the Diamonds have a responsibility to their children and should attend to it before just continuing to make more.

4.

One of the concept art images for the Off Colors features Rhodonite crouching by Padparadscha saying "Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you." It's very interesting because she DOES seem to protect Padparadscha in the show, but doesn't seem confident about it in her final version, even though it does seem like she'd be "programmed" to guard aristocratic Gems because of her Ruby and Pearl makeup. Cool.

5.

A "Crew Cameos" spread was included, which is of great interest to some of us who loved seeing the Crew insert themselves into the show. Not every SU Crew person who's been represented in a crowd was there, but this crowd included Amish Kumar, Kat Morris, Amanda Winterstein, Angie Wang, Lamar Abrams, Emily Walus, Mary Nash, Joe Johnston, Christy Cohen, Danny Cragg, Hilary Florido, Danny Hynes, Matt Burnett, Ben Levin, Elle Michalka.

6.

The official national flower of South Korea, Hibiscus syriacus, is the name of Pink Diamond's flower.

7.

One of Steven Sugar's comments about the silhouette difference between humans and Gems points out that humans have ears. This seems to be pretty good confirmation that they are not supposed to have ears, despite that sometimes we'll see ears drawn on them in some frames.

8.

Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond is characterized in this book as "self-hating" in a really interesting way, saying that because she believed she was not capable of compassion, she practically worshiped those who demonstrated that ability and thought they were so much better than her--which is described as "intoxicating" and resulted in others being drawn to her. How interesting is that!

9.

Timelines reveal that early plans for Pink Diamond's first Pearl originally had her getting destroyed by Pink during  a game, and then her destruction was rewritten as a punishment from the Diamonds after Pink Pearl defended Pink Diamond to the other Diamonds. They went back to the idea of her getting hurt by Pink for the final version, though the cracked face and control by White Diamond was not on the agenda until they started writing "Change Your Mind."

10.

The approximate ages of the major characters, based on emergence, are revealed on these timelines. It begins with a cracked-planet-looking graphic depicting four tiny Diamonds emerging at 20,000 years ago. Some suspicious "blacked out" redacting surrounds a long timeline tail that goes back before that, which may mean there are secrets they still don't want to reveal. But the dates go like this:

20,000 years ago: The Diamonds emerge.

11,000 years ago: Pearl is custom-made for Pink Diamond.

8,000 years ago: Sapphire emerges (on Homeworld).

6,000 years ago: Ruby emerges (on a colony).

5,750 years ago: Garnet is formed.

5,600 years ago: Lapis is poofed and put in the mirror.

5,200 years ago: Jasper emerges (on Earth).

5,050 years ago: The Cluster is planted.

5,000 years ago: Amethyst emerges (on Earth).

4,500 years ago: The Crystal Gems found Amethyst.

3,000 years ago: Peridot emerges (on Homeworld).

40 years ago: Pearl found Lapis's mirror at the Galaxy Warp.

And of course we know 14 years ago Steven is born!

11.

Originally the Diamonds were based on a quartet of themes: Love, Fear, Pride, and Sorrow. It got too complicated to keep and it was abandoned, with Pink's identification of "love" being described as "particularly outdated."

12.

Notes on a sketch say that Pearl was inspired to become bold and unashamed because Pink's questions drove her to have opinions, and it's said that Rose "fell in love" with her boldness.

13.

Rebecca tells the story of driving off a ridge and getting stuck in the desert, comparing this to Ruby's tumble during her Wild West adventure and using it as inspiration. She's told this story before but here it is in print. She also included the story about using the flowers from a friend's wedding to put in Ruby's hair.

14.

Rebecca describes having to "fight" notes she was given when it had to do with Ruby and Sapphire's relationship. One she describes as NOT fighting was for a signing card depicting Ruby and Sapphire dancing. It was called "too romantic" and she decided not to worry about it since it wasn't the actual show content.

She was also scolded over her book The Answer because the powers that be expected her to downplay that relationship. She always argued that queer youth deserved these things.

15.

Tom Herpich describes being inspired to name Blue Diamond's comb "Comby" because he was watching the news about Comey getting fired from the FBI. It's also a mineral-related term and I always assumed that reference was intentional, but maybe it's not and this is the only intended significance to Comby's name?

16.

Rainbow Quartz 2.0's design is not discussed, though the other two new Fusions from "Change Your Mind" (Sunstone and Obsidian) were. RQ2 has some sketches included, but no accompanying narrative in the text.

17.

A sheet of corrupted Gems and their healed selves is offered, though it doesn't appear to be final. The obelisk in "Serious Steven" is labeled Albite. The unnamed Worm Monster, Desert Glass, and Watermelon Tourmaline are included. An unnamed birdlike Gem represents the Big Bird monster from "Giant Woman." The crab monster from "Arcade Mania" is labeled Blue Chalcedony. The Tongue Monster is drawn uncorrupted but not named. The Flower Monster from "Back to the Kindergarten" is labeled Grossular Diopside or Titanite. The invisible monster from "Island Adventure" is labeled Moonstone. The Lighthouse Gem is labeled White Topaz. A form for Larimar that was used in "Change Your Mind" but changed in Future is there. The Slinker is listed as Chrysocolla. And the Crab Monster is listed as Aventurine.

On the next page, this is changed to Bixbite (as it was in Steven Universe Future), and we then also have Lace Amethyst, Blue Lace Agate, Crazy Lace Agate (Fusion), Ocean Jasper, the Mother Centipeetle Nephrite (Facet 413 Cabochon 12) and three other Nephrites, Angel Aura Quartz, a hooded Jasper, Zebra Jasper, Biggs Jasper, Watermelon Tourmaline (labeled as Fusion of Gem * Onion--huh?), Snowflake Obsidian, "Little" Larimar, and Orange Spodumene (who was the Worm).

18.

The Rhodonite side story would have been about the love story of a Ruby and a Pearl working for Morganite. Images of Morganite and her servants, unfused, are in the book. We do not get this additional information, but Rebecca said in a panel shortly before the book's release that Rhodonite's story would have been about finding out that she had been Rejuvenated 17 times because her components kept falling in love and needing to be reset.

19.

Referring to the Diamonds on one of the charts, Steven's perspective is "I can't believe I helped these" and then there's a censor bar. Welp.

20.

Some included art by Hilary Florido features Kevin with a souped-up Koala Princess car and another where Kevin is staring at himself in the mirror in front of an altar to himself.

21.

Rebecca's sweater collection is included in the Crew art.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

[slythraco]

I love tour work sm! Please could you do a sfw alphabet for Tom?

Author’s note: yeees omg !!! I’ve been waiting for this one ! Turn in up ! 😂 (thank you for your compliment btw, means the world to me ❤️)

Masterlist 

_____________

A = Attraction (how do they show their attracted to you?)

Compliments, a lot of them, all the time. He wants you to feel like the most beautiful thing in the world and it started before you even started dating. He was just so pleased by your smile when he was complimenting you so he never stopped since then.

He also tease you a lot, but it’s never in a rude way, as a genuine funny men it’s really just in his nature to annoy the persons he likes so he always make a little fun of you before making himself apologise to you by complimenting you. It’s his way of having your intention.

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/why not?)

It’s a big YES ! You actually talked about it really seriously and considered having a family in a close future. Partly because Tom is already 33 years old so he don’t want to wait to much but also just because he knows you would do an amazing mother at his side.

Not that he wants to put pressure on you but he does talks about it a lot and likes to give slight clues that he wants to make a baby with you really soon. It’s actually a matter of time before you start expanding the family.

C = Cuddle (How do they cuddle?)

Tom’s favorite activity with you is probably it, he could spend his life cuddling with you. Something he loves to do is laying on the couch, his head on your lap as you play with his hair while you’re watching tv. He easily fall asleep in this position which can’t help but making your heart melt every time.

He also loves to lay in bed with you while you read your favorite book. You’ll have you head on his chest and it will be his turn to play with your hair or caress your skin, never failing to give you goosebumps.

D = Dates (What are dates like with them?)

Really cheesy and romantic, one thing he loves to do is prepare surprise meal so you’ll get back from work and discover the whole house decorated in a romantic ambiance. Candles, roses, warm light and Tom in his best costume. Than you’ll share the meal he either spent the whole day making and almost burn the house at least 3 times or pay someone to do it, but it’s always delicious anyway.

One day he brought you to a fairground and you both went back in childhood for a night it was magical ! One of your best date with Tom.

E = Emotions (Do they express their emotions? If so, how?)

Yes ! Tom is a very emotional person and you’re the only one that even if he wanted to, couldn’t hide they’re feeling. He’s also a really authentic person so if he’s happy he will smile and laugh with you but if he’s sad he won’t be scared to cry if front of you because he feels safe enough around you.

F = Feelings (When did they know they were in love)

One day he was just looking at you while you were telling him about your day while cuddling on the couch like you both love to do, and it just hit him, he realised how he loves to just sit and look at your beautiful face. He could listen to your voice for the rest of his life.

G = Gentle (Are they gentle? If so, how?)

Yes, he’s the most gentle person in the world. Every time he touches you it’s always super soft and loving. He loves to caress your skin and never falling to give you chills down your spine.

He’s also super gentle in his words, he always careful of what he says to not hurt you or say something you could take wrongly.

H = Hands (Do they hold hands? If so, how?)

Yes, all the time, but literally ALL THE TIME. He just need to feel you hand in yours, so outside when you’re walking together he takes you hand, when you’re sitting on the couch, he takes your hand, even in public when there’s paparazzi following you around he takes your hand to make sure everyone knows you’re his.

Btw, Interlacing your fingers together is a must for him.

I = Impression (What was their first impression of you?)

The first thing he noticed about you is your smile, you directly seems like a sympathetic person which he loved. So he had a really good impression of you.

J = Jealousy (Do they get jealous?)

A little bit, like every relationship there’s always a bit of jealous when a guy compliment you a little too much but he genuinely trust you so you are not the person to make him jealous.

K = Kiss (How do they kiss? Who intiated the first kiss?)

Kissing Tom is always soft, passionate and just full of love. Also, you do it all the time, it’s like he can’t get enough of your lips, he could kiss them for hours if he didn’t need to breath to survive.

He’s the one who kissed you first, he just couldn’t control himself anymore that night so he kissed you in a passionate and hungry kiss and let me tell you, it was the best kiss of your two lives.

L = Love language (What are their love languages?)

Affection, Tom gives you a lot of affection, he wants you to feel loved and appreciated. He likes to cover you with kisses all over your skin, or hug you for hours. He’ll never get enough of feel your body against his.

M = Mornings (Are they a morning person? What are they like in the morning?)

Definitely not a morning person, it takes him ages to wake up, you usually have to return in your room a few times for him to actually wake up. And when he’s up, he’s really grumpy and slow in his movement, it’s funny and cute to see and you love to annoy him in the mornings.

N = Nickel (Do they spoil you? Do they buy the person they love everything?)

Yes ! Your smile, is the most precious thing to him and he just love to see it when he buys you something. But, Tom offer gifts pretty rarely, one occasion like your birthday, Valentine’s Day, any important day in your couple and maybe a few times between them. But when he offers something it’s always full of meaning !

Like, one time he bought you a shelf necklace because one day, when you were at the beach without him, you took a shelf and brought it back to offer it to him.

O = Open (Do they say everything about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or overtime?)

Tom is a really open person, very talkative so even before you two were dating he already like to talk about his life considering the fact that he had a pretty crazy one. But it’s was mostly about his work and anecdotes on set etc. When he started catching feeling for you he felt comfortable enough to talk to you about more personal things like his past relationships or the problems he struggled with in the past and he just got you two even more close.

P = Patience (Do they have patience? Are they angered easily?)

Tom is the most patient guy on earth, You often wonder how he puts up with you. He needs a lot to get angry at you or anyone else, this is something you’re really wanting to learn from him.

Q = Quaint (What’s their favorite non modern thing to do?)

Take Polaroid pictures, he has that old camera that he carries everywhere and he takes photos of every moment he feels like to picture. He stock his photos in a little hidden box, sometimes you two like to open it again and just remember memories you made together. The pictures are mostly you and willow or him with you.

Your favorite picture is one you took the first night you slept at his house, you can see the naked man being the goofy Tom he is by walking out of the shower with a “hat” made of bubble from the bath you took together. It was hilarious and you two always laugh when you see the images.

R = Remember (What’s their favorite moment in the relationship?)

The first time you told him: “I love you” ! You said it without even realising it, it truly came from your heart and it surprised the both of us but it was such a important moment for Tom that he will never forget it.

S = Security (How protective are they?)

Tom is really protective, he cares about your security a lot and always gets worried when you’re about to do something dangerous and he only calms down when you’re safe again.

T = Talking (what do they like to talk about?)

Everything and anything as long as it means talking to you but the two subject he could talk for hours are dogs and music. You can sit in front of him and just nod a couple time without even responding and he would go on a full conversation about the different breeds of dogs and how they are amazing. And honestly it’s super cute to look at him all excited and passionate about these two subjects.

U = Ugly (Whats a bad habit of theirs?)

Does Tom even have defaults ? Oh yeah, He loves to devalue himself, for absolutely no reason. This breaks your heart every time and always comfort him so that he can love himself more. He’s so perfect to you that sometimes you don’t understand why he’s so hard on himself.

V = Vaunt (Do they like to show you off?

Yes...all the time, the little smile on his face every time he present you as his girlfriend is just too adorable. Then he would talk to everyone about amazing you are and how lucky he is to have you in his life. He’s just proud of himself and proud of your union.

W = Whole (Do they feel incomplete without you?)

Tom is a different person without you. When he has to leave to a set for a movie he looks a little sad. He misses you every time you’re not together and always count the days before retrieving you.

X = Xylophone (What’s a song that reminds of your guy’s relationship?)

It will rain - Bruno Mars

Z = Zzz (Are they a heavy or a light sleeper ?)

Heavy sleeper for sure, like said before you have to shake him up a few times before he actually make up so yeah. He loud snores can testify it !