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snowywrites · 3 years ago

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Monika x Fem!reader

summary: fluffy fic of Monika and the reader on the reader's birthday.

word count: 2.4k

As far as birthdays go, this one wasn't really anything too special. Well, maybe you're being a little too cynical. After all, last year you hadn't really gotten to spend your birthday with any friends- you'd been preoccupied with getting home to watch the newest season of your favorite anime.

This year, however, Sayori had managed to get you into the Literature Club, and it had, not to be dramatic, changed your life. For better or worse, that was yet to be seen.

"Y/N, is everything okay?" Sayori asks expectantly, bright blue eyes examining you with bewilderment.

You focus back on the present, giving your friend a reassuring smile. "Yeah, sorry! Everything's great." And you aren't lying; today for the club meeting, Natsuki had brought cupcakes for everyone to share, Sayori had actually not realized what day it was and so gave you a 'birthday hug,' Yuri had given you a copy of one of her favorite horror novels as a gift, even signed by the author, and yet...

You can't help but give a very small sigh. "I just kind of miss Monika, I guess."

Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri all exchange glances in their respective chairs at one of the club tables. They then all focus on you with varying expressions: Sayori with mischief, Natsuki with exasperation, and Yuri with knowing amusement.

"What? Don't look at me like that!" You squeak defensively, feeling your face begin to heat up at what they were implying. "I only meant that it's- it's weird being at a meeting without our club president! T-That's all." Not that this could be called a meeting per se- more like a celebration between friends.

Sayori giggles at your reaction, and you hear Yuri whisper to Natsuki, "The lady doth protest too much," which elicits a snort of laughter from the pink-haired tsundere.

You groan, standing up abruptly from your seat and smoothing down your school uniform a bit, self-conscious all of a sudden. As your embarrassment dies down though, you feel a wave of affection for your fellow club members. As much as they tend to tease you about your little crush on Monika, they had made your birthday really special this year, and you were grateful. "Anyway, thank you guys again for everything! I had a lot of fun," you say earnestly, deciding it was probably time to wrap up and head home.

Sayori bounces up to join you, and you bid your farewells to Natsuki and Yuri, gathering up your things and heading out of the classroom.

Sayori glances back to make sure that Natsuki and Yuri are in fact walking away, and then she reaches out to stop you. "Uhm, Y/N...?"

You pause to look at her expectantly, unsure of why she's much less energetic now than she was a few minutes ago. "Yes?"

"I-I was actually supposed to tell you something," your best friend begins, uncharacteristically quiet. You wonder briefly why she hadn't mentioned this before... maybe she had been debating on whether or not she actually wanted to tell you whatever it is, considering how the words are practically being dragged from her at this point. "Ah, well, Monika asked me to, that is. The reason she couldn't come to the Literature Club today was because she was stuck at a meeting with the student council, but..." Sayori exhales in what could be a sigh. "She did still wanna see you for your birthday, so she hoped you could stop by there and wait for her."

You stand there in the mostly empty hall of the school, puzzled at why this news would bring such a reaction from your friend- especially when it makes you feel so fluttery inside. "Oh!" You try not to let it show, but you're fairly certain you're lighting up like a Christmas tree. "I see. Thank you for telling me, Sayori!"

As you turn to leave, you feel Sayori reach out to touch your shoulder, but she retracts her hand quickly. When you look back at her, she's her old self, giving you a big smile. "Yeah, I guess you're gonna go see her, huh? Well, I'll catch you later, Y/N!"

Before you can respond, Sayori dashes off, forgetting to wish you a happy birthday.

Well, that was weird. Then again, Sayori's been pretty off lately whenever you and Monika are involved.

The thought of the brunette is enough to make you forget all about whatever might be troubling your best friend, and you make your way through the school to the student council room with a giddy spring in your step. They must not be out yet since the halls are pretty deserted still.

You risk taking a peek through the little glass window on the door, and your hunch is confirmed. Students belonging to the council are all sitting in a circle of chairs, discussing... well, school-related business stuff. You aren't really sure what they do, exactly.

You catch sight of Monika at the head of them, naturally because she is the president, but you aren't expecting to see her with such an expression.

Usually, Monika seems to you warm, open, patient, and friendly... but here, she looks... not even bored, but more like she's utterly apathetic towards all the conversations going on around her. You've never seen her so uncaring, to the point where she seems almost irritated by the presence of everyone in the room with her.

Maybe she's having a bad day? The thought makes you a bit sad, and you find yourself wondering if she would even want to see you. Do the others in the council even realize she's so unlike herself?

As if to answer your silent question, one of the other students turns to Monika to say something, and when they do, the familiar expression you're used to your club president wearing slips back with ease onto her face. She listens attentively to whatever it is she's being told, and then she smiles and nods, commenting something you can't hear in return.

You watch the exchange, too fascinated to stop watching even if you do worry someone might notice you peeking inside for such a long minute. As soon as the student turns away from her, Monika is once again the picture of discontentment; you even notice her tapping her nails listlessly against the surface of the table they're all seated at.

The sound of the doorknob rattling causes you to leap backwards in shock, stumbling slightly over your own two feet. The meeting must be over, because someone is stepping out, and then another, and then you're hurriedly dodging out of the path of the entire student body as they file out, talking and laughing with one another as they head down the hall, eventually leaving you alone.

"Y/N?"

Looking away from their retreating figures, you face Monika and find her as she always is with you- curious emerald eyes and a friendly air about her. "Ah- hello," you greet her, trying not to sound as awkward as you feel about your... let's be honest, spying.

"I wasn't really sure that you'd show!" She exclaims, startling you with a sudden hug.

You've actually never gotten a hug from Monika, although you have a ton of hugs to compare hers to- Sayori throws herself at you pretty much daily, and hers tend to be suffocating, always too tight and lasting a bit too long.

From Monika, though? Her hug, despite making your head spin and your heart skip a beat, makes you feel so safe, secure... she's so warm and you can't help but be enamored with whatever perfume she uses.

Unfortunately, you're too stunned to return the embrace in time before Monika pulls back from you, and you could swear she has a faint blush on her cheeks. She doesn't apologize for her impromptu action, though, and you're glad for that.

"Why wouldn't I?" You ask, dumbstruck.

She studies you for a few seconds, and you get the idea that she's trying to detect if you're being serious or not. Eventually she says, "Oh, nevermind that! I am glad to see you, though. I have something I wanted to give you."

'Please refrain from saying something really stupid and cheesy like, 'the best gift you could give me is just getting to see you on my birthday,' you think to yourself. "A gift? You really didn't have to- or, I mean, you shouldn't have-! Not that I don't appreciate it, though...!" You don't typically struggle so much with your words, but you're still a little off your game after the lovely hug. It's like your mind is foggy, your tongue is twisted, and you simply can't think straight. Which isn't really new when you're around Monika, but today it's impacting you even more than normal. Maybe because you two are all alone for once, not surrounded by Sayori, Yuri, or Natsuki, or even any other students for that matter.

Monika gives a soft laugh. "I wanted to. Technically it's two somethings rather than one," she admits.

You find your mind racing as it tries to go over the potential possibilities. A book like Yuri? That would be very fitting, since you'd befriended Monika through the Literature Club.

You watch as she takes a gift box out of her bookbag, offering it to you with a sweet, "Happy birthday, Y/N."

God, you're definitely blushing. Like, fierce blushing. Either that or the school suddenly decided to turn fifty heaters on all at once. 'Geez, pull yourself together!! Act normal!' You internally berate yourself. If there had been any doubt before, it was all erased in this one instant- you were head over heels for your club president.

"Awh, thank you! It's nice of you." You accept the gift, examining it momentarily. As expected of the class star Monika, the box itself is wrapped perfectly. It's even your favorite color, with a matching ribbon tying it shut. Whether or not you're a sentimental person, you recognize that this is the sort of memento that could easily be kept for a long, long time. You glance back to your friend. "May I open it now?"

Monika nods. "Please do!"

You feel her gaze on you as you carefully untie the ribbon and open up the gift box to see what's inside.

She was right, it is more than one thing. They sort of go together though, you realize as you lift one of the presents up to admire it.

In your hand is a necklace. The chain is a light silver, and the pendant contains a pretty stone in the shape of a heart. The stone shimmers slightly as it reflects the light of the school hall.

"It's so pretty...!" You breathe.

"I'm glad, I thought it was pretty too," Monika says. She sounds calm, but when you glance at her you think she's ecstatic, but the expression is gone as soon as you blink, leaving you to wonder if it had been your imagination playing tricks on you. "It's your birthstone, did you notice?"

You hadn't noticed until she'd pointed it out, but it was indeed your birthstone. Monika is just... so very thoughtful. It's really no wonder she's so popular. "Thank you so much!!" You chirp, still somewhat surprised that she would go so far just for a birthday gift for you. You hadn't known her personally for very long, after all.

You set the necklace back down inside the box to bring out the other gift, another accessory- it's the same color as your birthstone necklace, but it actually reminds you of something else.

Yes, it's a big bow similar to Monika's own. If you were to wear it, it could even look like she and you were matching. You could just be reading too much into things, though...

"I.. love them. So much." You have an overwhelming urge to put your thoughts onto paper in order to give Monika the proper thanks that she deserves for being possibly the most generous person in existence, and because you feel like you're failing miserably at voicing just how touched you really are by these gifts. "I almost want to get you something in return...!"

Monika shakes her head in amusement. "It's your birthday, not mine." A contemplative finger rests on her chin as she adds, "Although... there is something you could do for me. If you wouldn't mind, of course."

Perplexed, you respond without giving yourself a chance to think about it. "Anything!"

You're rewarded with an affectionate smile from Monika, but it seems as though she was expecting that to be your answer.

She extends a hand for the gift box that you've already set both the bow and necklace back in, inquiring, "May I?"

Wordlessly, your intrigue piqued, you hand it back to her. She takes the bow out first, stepping closer to you.

It's not foolish of you to have been anticipating a kiss- even now you could very easily initiate one if you so chose, because of how terrifyingly close Monika is to you as she gently pulls your hair back for you, tying it back with the Y/FC bow and even brushing a stray lock of hair from your face after she does so.

While you're struggling to recover from your short-circuiting, Monika takes the necklace and places it around your neck. The brush of her fingers sends sparks of static against your skin, and you feel as if time is standing completely still, and it's just you and her in this world.

The faint click of the necklace as it clasps shut is what brings you back to reality, and all too soon Monika is stepping away from you again, still close but at a much more reasonable distance away.

She appraises your appearance and then smiles softly. "As I thought."

Is she being mysterious on purpose or does being around her just happen to kill your brain cells? "E-Eh?"

"You look lovely, Y/N."

The compliment makes you want to bury your face in your hands in the futile hopes of hiding your blush, but by now it's probably too late for that.

You stutter out your thanks, desperately trying to mend your scattered thoughts, and she once again wishes you a happy birthday, reminding you as well to bring your poetry assignment to the club meeting tomorrow.

As she's leaving, you realize you never got the chance to ask about the strange behavior she'd exhibited during the meeting with the other students.

#ddlc x reader #monika x reader #fem reader #ddlc reader insert #doki doki literature club #imagine #scenario #preference

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deltaengineering · 4 years ago

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that was the winter anime 2021 that was

Still not quite ready for a dozen posts about how terrible the likes of Combatants Will Be Dispatched are, sorry. Watch Vivy though, it owns. Here’s some more things that are (mostly) good. As always, worst to best.

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki S3

Yatogame has long run out of hot Nagoya facts and its ensemble comedy never amounted to much, so now it seems mostly content to just spam more and more wacky character designs. About the only thing that it has left going for it is that 3 minutes a week are more effort to drop than to watch, so I expect them to make a movie next. 4/10

Go-toubun no Hanayome S2

Quints is a weird one. S1 was a barely good enough (i.e., well above average) implementation of the ages old harem chestnut. S2 is actually better at the core of its appeal, since it gives all the characters a sharper profile (things like taking Nino from joke to badass and making Ichika a villain are no mean feat), but it does pay a steep price for it. You see, to deliver a steady drip feed of meaningful character moments it apparently has to rush through the source material at a breakneck pace, which completely wrecks the "story" part of this story and makes every episode seem like a recap. And it still keeps wasting precious time on vestigial nonsense like its framing device and the Kyoto flashback scenario that was already the worst part of S1. But by far the most annoying aspect is its insistence on keeping all the options valid, since it prevents any real progress and makes everything seem arbitrary and pointless. So sure enough, after a season of much ado we still don't end up anywhere — you can't really raise the stakes if all at stake was "who wins" to begin with. It's watchable and even enjoyable scene-for-scene but it's getting harder and harder to call it a solid show overall. 5/10

Skate Leading Stars

I was watching this primarily because I didn't like Yuri on Ice much and wanted to see if something that is a blatant attempt to cash in on it would be better — because while YoI delivers on one aspect (being hella gay), it really is an absolute shambles of a sports show. And sure enough, Skate Leading has none of the auteur appeal of YoI, but it just works much better. In particular I appreciate how it managed to make me care even a little about a cast of assholes, which is a nice contrast to the nauseatingly ingratiating way YoI tries to make you love its characters. Also, Skate Leading is just generally cheap and unambitious, so not susceptible to trying hard and painfully flaming out on the presentation side like YoI is. But at some point you gotta let go of these comparisons and on its own Skate Leading is... just fine, I guess? Competent, mildly engaging, not very memorable. And that's probably where it loses to Yuri on Ice in the end after all, even if I think it's "better". 6/10

Idoly Pride

Idoly Pride sold itself on me with a really good (and hilarious/tragic) first episode that was just too bizarre to ignore — I mean, how can you ignore GHOST IDOL MANAGERS. Well, the majority of the show isn't like that. It's a competent and solid version of the idol franchise show, yes, but it really had more potential than that. Especially midseason, it gets lost in these dozens of characters, and while they're all likeable, it does seem like a waste of a good story just centered on Mana/Kotona/Sakura. By the end it comes back around to the heart of the matter with a Maeda-style sob story, which could be a disaster but seasoned veteran Jukki Hanada makes it work anyway. Overall, there's quite a bit of ridiculous hacky melodrama in this, but quite honestly that's the best part and I wish it would concentrate more on it. The rest is just okay. 6/10

Yuru Camp S2

Yuru Camp is still likely the best pure iyashikei show when it gets down to business. Compared to S1 though, this seems to happen less and less. At its peaks (i.e., basically any quiet moment with Rin) it's at least as good as ever, and there's some good cast additions like Mini-Inuko, but it appears that Yuru Camp simply has run out of things you can do with camping and it fills up the time with other... stuff. This stuff includes the generic school club shenanigans it was never particularly good at, and a gigantic helping of crass consumerism. Yeah, I would say the majority of Yuru Camp is just a straight up infomercial at this point, which itself ranges from the perfectly acceptable (which cute anime isn't about food constantly), to the sketchy (I don't know whether the Izu tourism board cut this production a fat check, but if they didn't, Yuru Camp still gives its best effort to make it seem that way) to the highly irritating – I am aware that camping requires gear and you can't just ignore that, but you most definitely do not require whole arcs dedicated to talking about raising funds for the purposes of acquiring the Lamp of Comfy Happiness at your friendly local Caribou™ either. Not to mention an arc where the aforementioned lame school club does the same, for double irritation. Make no mistake, this show is so riddled with scenes that beg for a solution to embed affiliate links in video files that it makes me wish I was watching something as anticapitalist and underground as Love Live. And irritating really is the last thing a show with this core concept, as stellar as it is at that, can afford to be. Bummer. 6/10

SKOO the Infinity

Skoo has one really huge asset: ADAM, its magnificent villain. It also has one really huge liability: Reki, its not magnificent protagonist. To be more specific, it's very good at anything outrageous, physics-defying and silly, such as most scenes ADAM is in, and quite bad at anything serious, dramatic (in a serious way) and down to earth, such as most scenes Reki is in. So, what's the verdict? Well, the rest of the cast is more ADAM-like, and Reki's co-protagonist Langa is fine as the straight (yeah, right) man. The tedious buddy drama is a comparatively small part of this show, and at least it pays off quite well in the end. Seriously, I was ready to give this a 6, but the final episode is probably the best one of the show, in all of its aspects. That's really not something you see often. Skoo's a great time. Except when it's not. 7/10

Non Non Biyori Nonstop

Speaking of the rare good ending, what about we gave one of those to a slim and inconsequential slice-of-life show? NNB has always been solid, comfy and amusing quality with a couple of standout moments (usually something with Renge), and Nonstop has that plus an ending as conclusive as any show of this type is ever going to have. Besides, it does a lot of things right by focusing on more characters than the central 4 (especially Konomi has great material in S3), it expands the universe just enough to not get stale, and it moves things forward — It's definitely a lot better than the movie, is what I'm saying. Apart from that, well, we're three seasons in, if you have any interest in this you probably don't need me to explain what's good about NNB at this point. Bonus points for being nothing but an ad for the manga. 7/10

Wonder Egg Priority

Oh boy, so here's the big one. Wonder Egg is the rare Meaningful Arthouse Show About Real Issues You Guys, as you might have heard. And well, the long and short of it is that it's a very good show with quite a few glaring problems (besides not actually being finished due to production issues, but what we have is enough of an ending to be able to meaningfully talk about it). In particular, one problem: WEP is, at its core, one of these metaphorical Magical Girl-ish series that are just a thin layer of abstraction over coming-of-age or societal problems. The issue is that "metaphorical" in this case means "literal" and "thin" means "basically nonexistent". This show is not subtle regarding what it's about, at all. This is a double-edged sword — on the positive side, some things really should just be said aloud, and I'm really, really fucking tired of the Ikuhara style of "here's some wacky things, maybe a blog post will eventually tell you how it's actually about the most important thing ever" obfuscation — if it's really so important, just spell it out. On the other hand, there are limits to this and when a second, different Ai appears I don't really need a voiceover line telling me that yep, this show is about parallel universes now. WEP spells out many important things, but it also spells out many things that are implicitly clear or better left vague. Not to mention that with being so obvious up front, the show's tendency to leave figuring out what it's actually saying about it up to the viewer can leave the wrong impression. Again, I settled on the opinion that it's subtle after all where it counts the most, but you might easily get the impression that it pulls its punches (Ikuhara does this the exact other way around — once you figure out what the fuck he's talking about it's abundantly clear what he's saying about it).

In fact, this show is so good at subtle, quiet character moments that it calls into question the need for big huge fighting fantasy layer in the first place, especially since I'm not a fan of the fantasy designs and the fights aren't great. Sure, they look impressive on a technical level (this show is very good looking in general), but the lack of actual impact or rhythm makes me think this is not made by people who are very familiar with action and maybe they should have asked some seasoned shounen veterans for this — or just, you know, not do it. They can (and do) impress with character acting in quiet scenes just the same. And while Ai's character story actually does pay off quite nicely by the end we got, and Momoe and Rika are also handled well, Neiru's backstory is significantly less good, not to mention the whole Frill subplot regarding the show's mythology that they introduced just before (and that's the part to be resolved at a later date), which is a huge can of worms. We'll see how well they handle that, I suppose, but as it is it's a weird and vestigial detour that doesn't add much besides thematic headaches.

But yeah, apart from all that — I like it, a lot. Great character writing in the details, cool looks for the most part, tons of ambition, and a message that I consider to be appropriately handled — for the most part, and for now. Not quite ambitious arthouse anime at its finest, but also not a pretentious disaster like Sarazanmai, Monogatari et al. 8/10

#anime #review #winter2021 #Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki #Go-toubun no Hanayome #Skate Leading Stars #Idoly Pride #Yuru Camp #sk8 the infinity #Non Non Biyori #wonder egg priority

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longinglook · 4 years ago

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I may or may not have spent my entire Sunday binge watching all of I told sunset about you and Gaya sa pelikula and now I have so many thoughts and feelings that I need to write about them so here we go! Under a read more (if tumblr allows me to) because it’s 2k words hehe

First of all, I knew next to nothing about both shows before starting them. I had seen a couple of gifs here and there, but really had no idea what I was in for.

I started with I told sunset about you, which has 3 episodes out of 5 out. All I knew is that it was going to be beautiful and possibly sad, and it was. Everything about this show is so high quality, from the audio to the dialogue to the locations to the acting, just wow. The production is better than a lot of movies I’ve seen, and every technical aspect is perfect. I am really loving the plot so far as well, I find the childhood friendship to stubborn rivalry to grown up friendship again very relatable. I think it’s a very common experience for a lot of non straight folks to develop an extremely close bond with a same sex friend when you’re too young to realize what you’re actually feeling for them until you’re a lot older and suddely the jealousy and possessivenes all make sense.

I love the recurring themes sprinkled throughout the episodes, starting from the chinese vocabulary that expresses the core thoughts of the two main characters: rival, intimacy, secret, male protagonist, as promised. They could easily be the episode titles, or the names of imaginary sections the show could be divided into. It’s a great way to integrate metaphors and deeper meaning into the plot.

That’s how most of the communication goes in this show, deep emotions are never conveyed through words because words are scary and loud and they can’t be taken back once they’re out there. The plot advances though stares and gestures and touch and gorgeous shots of the landscape. The pace is slow with hour-long episodes that could each be a movie of their own. This worried me a bit before starting, and I have to admit that at times I struggled to stay focused, especially during scenes that set the mood but don’t do much plot-wise. This is just a personal preference, though, and in no way I see it as a flaw.

The dancing around each other the main characters do, sometimes literal, is frustrating but it determines an emotional build up that’s just starting to reach its peak. This is one of those shows that has me screaming if only they talked to each other, but the silences and unspoken words are so well directed and acted that it works. I struggle a lot with keeping in mind that they’re still in high school, they’re very young and I can’t expect them to act rationally just yet.

I was really worried about Teh possibly going the insufferable Theory-of-love-khai way, and I am still not 100% sold on him. When he started helping Oh-aew again it felt like he was just doing it to make himself feel better about the whole thing. It was frustrating to see him so possessive and jealous while also so deeply in denial about his own feelings, to the point where he had me rooting for Bas instead. He was getting better, but then he fled at the end of episode 3 and now I have no clue what’s going to happen next. About this, I really have no idea if they’re going for a happy ending or a sad one. I’m really hoping it will be good, because so far there has been barely any emotional payoff for all the repressed longing and misunderstanding the show has put us through.

I do like their dynamic a lot though, I have a weak spot for childhood friends reconnecting and an ever weaker spot for informal mentor/mentee relationships. Oh-aew asking Teh to tutor him until he passes the admission exam was an almost exact mirror of Yuri on ice Yuri begging Victor to be his coach until he retires and I loved that a lot.

Now on to the one issue I have with this show: it feels too much like an art film. It reminds me of Moonlight and Call me by your name, in the way that I wasn’t able to connect with those movies because they are too perfect. They are so beautiful and carefully crafted that I can’t fully immerse myself in them. There’s a filter that stops me from relating to the characters and constantly reminds me that this is not reality. It’s pretty, it’s extremely well done, but it feels like art. It has some quirks, some scenes that feel too artificial. One scene in particular, the one where Teh buries his head in the paper Oh-aew wrote with his coconut scented pen to sniff it, which is a direct parallel to Call me by your name, bothered me in particular. Just as it felt over-the-top and purposefully weird in the movie, so it feels in the show. It’s a way of showcasing how a confused teen deals with attraction he barely understands, it’s raw and animalistic in a way, but it’s so quirky that all it accomplishes is to remind me that I’m watching an lgbt show. It makes me wonder if a scene like this would make sense in a straight relationship because here it seems to highlight how different and primal his attraction is. If I had to pinpoint it, I’d say that I have a problem with media showcasing queerness though peculiar, purposefully awkward scenes like these instead of normal kissing and cuddling.

Overall, I can’t wait to see how this show ends and I still think it’s one of the best bls to air in 2020, if not ever. It’s refreshing to see something with a big budget used well! So far my rating is 8/10, which I know is a lot lower than what everyone else seems to think but it’s still very much subject to change! Just hoping they won’t pull a Make our days count, but I doubt they’ll go there.

And now Gaya sa pelikula. Wow. Again, I knew next to nothing about this show before watching, and I was coming from a 3 hour I told sunset about you binge watch, so the bar was pretty high.

And boy, did this show deliver. I was blown away by the depth and the humor of it. It feels like the writers had fun taking all sorts of common tropes and stereotypes just to show everyone how well they can be evolved and made complex. Two strangers who somehow find themselves sharing an apartment sounds like the start of so many fanfictions out there, but it’s so well executed and interesting that you don’t even stop to think about how weak the premises for their meeting are. It doesn’t matter and it’s not even that far-fetched, either. The sister and the neighbor are also two characters that start off as extra stereotyped, but in just a few scenes they unveil an incredible depth and backstory. It blew me away.

Each character is so realistic. Everything they do and say makes sense, they all have their reasons and their past and they react accordingly, it’s so coherent. It’s impressive how everything takes place inside the house and you barely realize it because things happen and the plot moves anyways, and the way information about external events and people is conveyed is so seamless that you don’t even notice it. In only 7 episodes (so far) they have managed to give everyone a complex background and personality through the use of objects and small details and wow don’t get me started on the music.

The soundtrack is SO GOOD. I never really pay attention to music in shows but it plays a very important role here in my opinion and, well, it’s exactly the kind of music I like listening to and ahhh I just spent 4 hours playing the first kiss song on loop so I might be biased. Right from the start in episode 1, when Karl gives in to Vlad’s music and starts dancing to it, it’s established that it’s an important element to the mood of each scene. I love how the dancing I talked about for I told sunset about you comes back here, but while I saw it as a hesitant dancing around each other there, here it’s the opposite, it’s freeing and it’s about accepting yourself. And the end of episode 6 highlights this, with the beautiful quote “You are entitled to a love that lets you dance without fear and shame.” It made me cry a looooot.

I think the development of their relationship is masterfully done. It doesn’t happen too quickly nor too slowly. Karl goes through some needed shocks that act as his wake up call. When I’m watching bl shows I care the most about them feeling real and relatable. I don’t want to feel like they were written by a straight person trying to guess what it’s like to be gay. Now I didn’t look anything up about the Gaya sa pelikula writers, but I’d be very surprised if they were straight. I can relate to both Karl and Vlad for different aspects of their stories and their worries and thoughts. There was one part in particular that hit so close that I had to take a few breaks because it hurt too much. I am a lesbian, I’ve had relationship with a girl that lasted over a year, I am out to some friends but not all. I never came out to my parents, who are both very open minded and friends with a lot of gay people and would love me just as much if I told them, and yet I can’t. It’s not just that, I am terrified by the idea of them already knowing or being able to guess. When Karl freaked out over his uncle guessing, it hit me so hard because I’ve felt the same way so many times.

Episode 7 was amazing. I hate badly written drama the most, and 99% of shows can’t come up with any good reason for drama but they have to put it in there anyways and it sucks. This was the complete opposite, I adored it and I say this as a lover of fluff. It feels right, I think it’s an issue that would come up between two people like them. They are both right and the only thing that could happen there is what actually went down. I definitely think things will be fixed by the end and I am looking forward to it, but I am very glad this issue was included because it’s so important and so true to many lgbt people’s lives.

Another aspect I absolutely adored are the multiple references to lgbt theory and language, and Vlad has some of the best lines I’ve ever heard coming from a bl. When he tells Karl not to be afraid of the word, when he explains that “you don’t look gay” isn’t a compliment, when he scolds his sister for not acknowledging the things she used to say to him by covering them up with her ally act, those are all such important and educative moments that I hope everyone listens to. I love that Vlad is not correcting some ignorant bad guy, but it’s his accepting and loving friends and family that make the mistakes, because sometimes being supportive your own way isn’t enough if you’re not actively learning from the ones you want to support.

This is a 10/10 for me right now. I can’t find anything I don’t like about it. It never feels boring, it never feels overdone, it never feels cheap or unoriginal. It went straight to the top of my favorite bls.

And now I can’t help but compare the two a bit, because yes they are two different shows but right now the relationships they portray have reached the same point: there has been a climax and now the one who is more confused about his sexuality is panicking and taking a step back. It’s a coincidence that I watched both shows on the same day when their last aired episodes end in such a similar way, but it really leads me to compare the two. I don’t want to put them one against each other or say which one did it better because that’s not the point of this, they are both two amazing and important shows who are excelling in what they’re doing.

Gaya sa pelikula is down to earth, it’s explicit and it’s straight to the point in explaining what’s going on inside each character’s head. It feels like watching real people deal with real struggles. I told sunset about you is a lot more subtle and quiet, and since we don’t really have a clear insight in the characters’ heads sometimes it’s hard to completely understand what’s going on with them. It’s a completely different way of narrating, and while Gaya sa pelikula makes me feel like I’m a part of the events, I told sunset about you feels like I’m just spectating from an outside perspective. They are different choices, but one of them ends up feeling a lot more emotional to me than the other.

To wrap it up, I highly recommend both shows and I can’t wait to see how they’ll end! They are both among the best shows of the year, both free of all those annoyingly stereotyped characters and plot points that most bls tend to overuse.

#meta #gaya sa pelikula #like in the movies #i told sunset about you #text

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stilydinski · 5 years ago

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Anime Pretty Boys™️: A List

So basically no one asked but all of a sudden I felt the need to make a top 10 ranking list of some Pretty Boys in animes I could think of so why not share with the weebs.

To clarify: When I say Pretty Boys I mean pretty and not hot in general ! There are so so many more attractive characters out there but this is a list of guys that just look so incredibly beautiful it makes me want to bawl my eyes out. While I ofc would sell my organs for tons of anime boys, these are just the ones that make me go "mmhhhmm pretti" before thinking they're hot or whatever. I hope this makes sense aha ha.

10. Chisaki (My Hero Academia)

Those of you who haven’t seen the show might be asking yourselves what’s up with that mask but let’s just ignore it (masks are a thing everywhere now anyways right? man’s just staying safe ssjsj). Basically when I first saw this man I was speechless because wow his face is so ?? intense and pretty at the same time. The hair is casually messy, the eyes boring into your soul and the ear piercings are just hot. Also his style??? hot damn?? i mean the jacket he always wears looks so mf expensive and the suits like Yes Sir fuck me UP but at the same time he is so intimidatingly pretty that I wouldn’t mind joining the bad guys here. However because of the high hotness factor he’s lower in the list might be the dangerous aura who knows

9. Sesshomaru (Inuyasha)

Basically this man has more elegance than anyone could ever obtain. The way he always wears this fur thing on his shoulders just as a statement and never gets it dirty or loses it? an icon. Everything from the hair to let’s call it the “make up” to the outfit is just on point and you won’t ever catch the man slipping. This is the only character ever that could make me disregard the fact that he’s technically a dog demon and over 500 years old and just let him step on me.

8. Daisuke (Fugou Keiji: Balance:UNLIMITED)

I don’t think I need to say much here. First time I saw this man I was legit already on my knees without knowing a single thing about him. Some of you might say he’s more hot than straight up pretty but I beg to disagree because he is genuinely one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen. Now I do agree that in comparison he certainly can be considered more hot which is why he’s a little lower on the list however you can’t tell me that his face wasn’t shaped by God personally.

7. Usui (Kaichou wa Maid-sama!)

ON GOD if this man asked me to marry him I would not hesitate for a single second. Effortlessly pretty, the flavor is immaculate, never tasted anything like this before. Not only is he the perfect man but his face is so insanely pretty. Now Usui’s more of a casual beautiful because his face doesn’t necessarily have something outstandingly special but as a whole there is just not a single flaw.

6. Victor (Yuri!!! On Ice)

Now, you can’t tell me the hair doesn’t hit different. The man literally looks like a Greek God like that’s just a FACT we all know that, he knows that, Yuri knows that, the other Yuri knows that. Man's literally chosen to do the most elegant sport looking LIKE THAT as if he wouldn’t completely change figure skating forever. His face is so pleasing to look at because he just has this angelic aura around him that makes you think he came down from heaven personally to raise the bar for us all.

5. Yato (Noragami)

Let me just say what we are all thinking: EYES. I can’t think of anyone with prettier eyes and that’s for a good reason. Yato’s not a God for nothing, the godly looks are very evident even if he’s a little bruised up in the gif. His face is perfect, the hair looks elegant and yeah the eyes are just mesmerizing. Homeboy might be spotting a track suit at all times but damn he can wear it while living his Immortal Pretty Boy Life.

4. Guren (Owari no Seraph)

This one’s a funny one because let me tell you I know absolutely nothing about this man. I have not seen the anime and I barely know his name but I saw this man a few weeks ago and when I tell you I almost started crying I mean it. It’s hilarious how this man could be the biggest asshole who murdered my family and I’d still think he’s insanely beautiful. Now I sadly can’t get into this as deep as with this others because I have zero knowledge about him but the fact that he was the third person I thought of when making this list even if I don’t know him should say enough for now. Face is 10/10, he’s living that pretty boy lifestyle doing whatever it is that he does but god does he look graceful while doing it.

3. Shoto (My Hero Academia)

Now THIS. This is interesting because can you BELIEVE that this incredibly handsome boy does not even KNOW how pretty he is? Looking like that he would be allowed to have such a huge ego but he isn’t aware of the facts??? The two colored hair and eyes are both iconic and groundbreaking. His face just screams pretty boy in every possible way and on god i would do anything for him to realize that. Everyone in Class 1A knows how beautiful he is except him?? I could write you a three pages essay on how beautiful he is and that would just be the outer appearance without getting into his great personality. I would be ready to declare my love for him on 10 pages in four different languages but let’s not get into that now.

2. Akaashi (Haikyuu)

I honestly don’t even know how to start this. Akaashi is one of a kind. I lie awake at night thinking about the fact that he is so insanely beautiful and I wonder what the creators were thinking. Imagine you wanna create a volleyball anime and while drawing someone who is not even on the main team you come up with this? What kind of process goes through your head?? How could you publish a character like this knowing no other character you ever draw will ever live up to his pretty face? I wouldn’t know how to act. Looking at Akaashi is the most pleasing thing and the fact that he is not only crazy pretty but also has the best personality just sends me over the edge. No one’s doing it like him. This man can have my credit card, my house, my family and my liver, he can take it all and I would still worship him like the God he is, thank you.

1. Howl (Howl’s Moving Castle)

Ladies and gentlemen, may I announce the prettiest Pretty Boy of all time. This wouldn’t be a list of Pretty Boys without Howl. The man literally invented being pretty and god is he dramatic about it. Most of us probably count him to our childhood crushes. Remember when he said “I don’t see a point in living if I’m not beautiful” because he accidently dyed his hair black? I have never seen anyone this dramatic but of course his ego is big with a face like that I mean if I looked like THAT I would act up too. I would drop everything for this man and that’s on Sophie leaving behind her life to live in his castle yeah i know she didn’t do it for him back then but lbr i would. Anyways Howl literally said I support the ugly community but it ain’t me and it’s true, if you look up Pretty in a dictionary his picture will show up. I honestly don’t know what else to tell you because Howl leaves me speechless on a regular but that’s fine.

This marks the end of my list, please let me know if I forgot someone. If you made it this far with reading this mess thank you for keeping up with my amazed ass, i’ll go cry over how beautiful everyone on this list is now. I will probably regret the rankings in a week from now so don't mind them too much

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hopeisour4letteredword · 5 years ago

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look through your textbook (cause i’m history) ch1

Content warnings: implied/referenced domestic violence

Summary: After dropping out, Yuri’s life is a haze of working and trying not to lose his damn mind. Then he meets Estelle.

Read it here or check the notes for the link to AO3.

It’s late—too late, the community center isn’t supposed to be open at this hour—and there’s a crying young woman with blood on her face holding Yuri’s hand in both of her own.

Yuri really wishes he could say it’s the first and last time this will happen to him. Unfortunately, it’s neither.

“P-please,” the woman stammers. Tears streak down her cheeks, right through the abrasion that mars her cheekbone. Ouch. That must sting. “Please, I just—I can c-clean myself up, I just need a—a first aid kit and, and a place to spend the night—“

“This is a community center, not a shelter,” Yuri says, as gently as he can to soften the blow. Her lower lip trembles. “Hey, none of that. I can help with getting you cleaned up, and when you calm down a little bit we can think together about where to put you up for the night. Alright?”

“Th-thank you so much—“

Yuri waves his free hand dismissively. He fishes through his pockets for his keys so he can unlock the front door.

“Ladies first,” he says, using his captive hand to guide her inside. She sniffles valiantly, releasing his hand and inching inside the dark building. Yuri steps in after her, locking the door behind himself, and flicks on the lights. She flinches away from the sudden glare. “Shit, sorry.”

“It’s n-not your fault.”

“The first aid kit is in the staff room. If you want, you can wait right here—”

“I’m sorry, I d-don’t want to be alone, s-sorry—“

“Hey, you’re fine, that’s cool. Come on, then.”

They troop through the main community room. Yuri kicks in chairs that didn’t get pushed all the way back to their tables at the end of the day. That’s what Hanks gets for letting Ted help close up for the night. At least the kiddie zone got picked up so they won’t slip on any errant toy trains. The young woman flinches with every creaky floorboard and groaning pipe. Poor lady. This isn’t exactly a new building. There’s a lot of those noises.

Yuri unlocks the staff room, and this time has the presence of mind to warn her, “Lights going on.”

“Thank you....”

“So what I need you to do for me is to sit down and try to keep your hair back while I patch you up. Sound good?”

“You don’t—don’t have to—“

“Yeah, but I’m gonna, so quit trying to tell me what to do. Hair back.”

She obediently sinks into one of the shitty folding chairs Hanks keeps in the staff room. Shaking fingers hold her pink hair away from her face. Yuri sits down on an adjacent chair and tries to touch the abrasion as little as possible while he moves away some stray strands that she missed. She trembles, but doesn’t make a peep.

“Okay, what I’ve got here is hydrogen peroxide—“ He shows her the bottle. “And I’m just gonna pour some onto these cotton pads and wipe your scrapes down with it. It’ll sting like a motherfucker, but then it’ll be over with.”

“O-okay.”

“Chin up. You got this.” He holds her face steady while he makes the first pass. She still jerks back so hard that he almost gets her in the eye with the soaked cotton pad. “Whoa there.”

“I’m s-so sorry—!”

“Shit happens. Ready for the next try?”

“Ye-yes....”

Her jaw clenches under his fingers. She whimpers a little when the pad touches her cheek, but doesn’t move. What a trooper.

“There you go. One more pass, okay? We don’t want shit stuck in there when it heals up.”

She nods, firmly, and barely winces with the last pass. Yuri tosses the bloody cotton into the trash and reaches back into the first aid kit.

“Any other scrapes?”

“My—my knuckles.”

“Oh yeah? Let’s see ‘em.” Yuri swipes them down with one pass. They’re not nearly as bad as her face. “You know Neosporin?”

“N-no.”

“Really? Damn. Well, it’s just antibiotic goop. Shouldn’t hurt as much as the last stuff.” She watches as he spreads some onto a gauze pad. “I’m gonna tape this to your face. Little weird having tape on your face, but in my personal experience, better than having an open bloody wound.”

“Y-yuck.”

“That’s the spirit.” He carefully tapes the gauze in place. Luckily, the scrape isn’t too big. Plenty of room to put the tape down without catching her eyelashes or the hair framing her face. He pops open a box of finger bandages and goops up a few to patch over the worst of her knuckles. “All set. We have some pain meds here, too. Want any? I got ibuprofen, naproxen, Tylenol...”

“Can I... ibuprofen.”

“All yours.” Yuri slides her the bottle and rises from his chair to search the cabinets. Where’s the goddamn cups? Oh, hell, that’s right. Hanks moved all of the cups to the kitchen. There’s only mugs in the staff room now. He grabs a “#1 GRANDPA�� mug. “Lemme get you some water for that.”

He passes it off to her. She slips a pill into her mouth and drinks it down. Both hands lock around the mug when she lowers it, and she stares down into the leftover water, trembling.

“You cold?”

“H-huh? Oh. Um. A little.”

Yuri opens and closes a few more cabinet doors before he finds Hanks’s old high school letterman jacket neatly folded and stashed. Evidently the blankets they used to keep in here have been relocated, too. “We’ve got this. Might smell a little like mothballs, though.”

“That’s—that’s fine.”

Yuri drapes the jacket over her shoulders. She hunkers down under it without putting her arms through the sleeves.

“Do you want, like. Tea? We got tea, I think. In the kitchen. Not sure what kinds. I’m not really a tea person. I’m a heathen, I drink black coffee because chugging bitter sludge makes me feel like a badass.” She makes a hiccupping noise that’s something like a laugh. “There we go. Feeling a little better?”

“Yes. Thank you—so much. Really.”

“Well, I couldn’t just leave you there.” He scratches at his chin. “I’m gonna need you to get a head start on thinking about where to spend the night. I have to remember why I came here in the first place.”

“Oh, no, I’m s—“

“Don’t apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.” What did he come here for? He tips his head back, staring at the ceiling. He was home for the evening... bartending ended early tonight... he had already walked Repede... oh, shit. That’s right. “I’m going into the kitchen anyway, so seriously, do you want tea?”

“N-no, thank you.”

“Okay, your call.”

She still scrambles to her feet and follows him, so close that he keeps waiting for her to step on his heels. He’s not gonna be the jackass that tells her off, though.

“I just want to preface this by saying I’m an amateur chef, not a serial killer, and you can hold onto the knife until we go our separate ways if me having it freaks you out,” Yuri tells her, as he turns on the kitchen light. She gives him a horrified look, mouthing knife? He goes to the sink. The meat cleaver is exactly where he thought it would be. He can always trust Hanks and Ted to leave his good knives someplace where they rust and get covered in gross shit. He grabs a scrubber sponge and wipes it down, one side then the other, before drying it and bundling it into a dish cloth.

He offers the bundle to the young lady. She shakes her head, quickly. The mug is still tightly clasped in both hands.

“Why is y-your knife here?”

“I lent it to them,” Yuri says. “To the staff here, I mean. Well, I’m also staff, sometimes, but that’s not the point. They had a few whole chickens to prepare today, and someone made off with their old cleaver a couple weeks ago.”

“That was. Nice of you.”

“Sure, I guess.” Yuri tucks the knife bundle under one arm and leans back against the counter, considering her. Her hair is pulled back with an ornate clasp, aside from the bangs that drape over her abraded cheek. Under Hanks’s jacket, she’s wearing a fancy dress, something sleek and silky and blue that pools around her feet. It is, predictably, covered in dirt, dead leaves and grass stains up to knee-height. Her face is wan, with big, sad green eyes. A bruise is starting to mottle her cheek around the scrape. The very image of an abused socialite. “Can I get your name?”

“I’m...I’m Estellise.”

Yuri whistles. “That’s a mouthful.”

“I g-guess so.”

“How do you feel about ‘Estelle’?”

“Es...Estelle?” She perks up a bit. The moue of her lips twitches up just a little. “That’s nice. I like that.”

“Alright, sweet. So, Estelle. I’m Yuri. Do you want to tell me how you ended up here at one in the morning with your face all banged up?”

Estelle looks back down into the mug. “...Do I have to?”

“Nah.”

“Wha—I don’t?”

“Nope. It’s not really my business. I mean, I can make some pretty educated guesses, but you don’t technically need to tell me anything.”

“O-oh.”

“I can just straight-up ask what I really need to. You want me to take you to a domestic abuse women’s shelter?”

“I—“ The mug shakes in her hands. “I d-don’t count.”

“You don’t count?”

“It’s n-not like that. I c-couldn’t—I couldn’t take that space from someone who really n-needed it.”

Yuri sighs, running a hand through his hair. “Uh... I guess you would know your situation better than I would. How about... no offense, but I have no idea how old you are. Are you a very fancy teenager? Should I be thinking more along the lines of children’s shelters?”

“No. I’m eighteen.”

“God, you are a fancy teenager.”

She laughs a little, but it’s hysterical. “Y-yes.”

“I guess... shit. I’m just stuck on women’s shelters. You really don’t want to go? You sure? I can find a lady to drive you if you aren’t comfortable with—“

“N-no! It’s not you. Y-you’re fine.”

“Do you want...did you come here to find Hanks? I can call Hanks.”

“Who’s H-Hanks?”

“Oookay, that answers that question... Not gonna lie, I’m kind of confused about what you want.”

Estelle makes a miserable noise. “I am too.”

Yuri takes a hard look at her. The scrape on her face isn’t so bad she’s bleeding through the gauze right away, and her hands aren’t fucked up too badly. Definitely not a hospital situation. Poor girl probably doesn’t have the money on her to deal with the hospital right now, anyway. The way she’s acting, he’s pretty damn sure there’s some kind of abuse at play, but she doesn’t want to go to the women’s shelter. She’s too old for programs targeted at children. So what exactly is Yuri supposed to do with her?

...Fuck it. He’s tired, she’s tired, he’s overdue for his next scruffy stray. “Look, if you’re comfortable with it, you can come to my place for the night. I’ve got a one-bedroom, not a studio, so you can take the bedroom and lock me out if that makes you feel safer. I can sleep on the couch.”

“I c-couldn’t—!”

“Sure you could. I’ve slept on the couch for stupider reasons.”

“But—“

“If you’re scared, we can call somebody you trust and tell them where you are, so you’ve got witnesses if I decide to murder you.”

“I don’t think you’re going to murder me,” she says, scrunching up her nose at him and then wincing when it pulls at her cheek. “I don’t want to impose.”

“Okay, but I don’t care,” Yuri says. “So I don’t think it really counts as imposing. I’m going to text Hanks—he’s the director of the community center, by the way—that I have a very sad young lady staying at my apartment tonight, so that the next time you ask a total stranger for shelter, you think of that and remember to have some degree of self-preservation.”

“Y-you don’t have to—“

“Yeah, yeah. Oh, minor detail—are you allergic to dogs?”

As it turns out, Estelle is not allergic to dogs, but it’s possible that dogs are allergic to her.

“He’s like that sometimes,” Yuri says, absentmindedly, while Repede staunchly ignores Estelle’s attempts to make friends with him.

“He isn’t friendly?”

When Yuri glances over his shoulder, she’s staring back at him with sad, disappointed eyes. She kneels beside Repede on the floor, bundled into spare clothes Yuri dug out of the community center’s storage for her. Wearing second-hand clothes, making undignified kissy noises at his dog, she looks much younger than she did at the community center. The pouty face she’s making at Repede probably isn’t doing her any favors in the maturity department either.

“He’s not so hot about strangers. Seriously, don’t take it personally.” He gives the chicken soup one last stir. Cooking at 2AM isn’t his favorite, but it is, unfortunately, a frequent occurrence nonetheless. “Alright, there’s soup if you want any.”

She accepts a bowl, but waits until Yuri has his own. She watches and copies him as he lifts it to face-level, carefully blowing across the surface, and drinks some of the broth. He almost snorts some back up laughing when her eyes go wide, and she visibly tries to swish the hot broth around her mouth to cool it.

“You have to blow like you mean it.”

“I don’t want to spill!”

“Just don’t burn yourself.”

Yuri has a table, because he isn’t a complete disaster. He and Estelle stand around next to the stove anyway, slurping soup directly out of the bowls. When the broth-to-solids ratio declines enough, they break out the spoons.

“You’re a really good cook,” Estelle says, sounding wistful. “I wish I could make stuff like this.”

“Keep in touch with me when you get your feet back under you and maybe I can teach you someday.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

“Thank you!”

Once they’ve drained their bowls, Yuri does a lick-and-spit clean-up job on the kitchen while Estelle does a circuit of his living room, snooping through his stuff. He hears her pause over the rush of the tap and doesn’t think anything of it until she ventures to say, “Is... is this Flynn? Flynn Scifo?”

“Probably,” Yuri says. He cranks the faucet off and turns to see what she’s looking at. It’s the picture Coach Niren took of the two of them at their first fencing tournament. Yuri’s still got the last chub of baby fat rounding out his cheeks, and he’s laughing with delight over some stupid shit Flynn had said. Flynn grins back at him, gangly and awkward with adolescence. He has his arm thrown aroun d Yuri’s shoulders. He looks like a damn puppy; he still needs to grow into his limbs. Yuri would die before he told anybody, but it’s one of his favorite pictures. Flynn was grouchy as shit in high school. Every smile Yuri could wrangle out of him was a privilege. “Yeah, that’s Flynn. You know him?”

“Yes... He’s, um, a student of my guardian’s.”

“Your guardian works at the university, then?”

Estelle fidgets a bit, wringing her hands. “Yes....”

Yuri mentally stores her nervous response for later discussion. He can give her a break at ass o’ clock in the morning. “You and Flynn get on well?”

“Yes! He’s very well-read. We talk about books together.”

“Ah, nerd club. Of course. Sounds just like him.”

“Are you...” Estelle glances over at him. “You know, I didn’t think of it until I saw this picture, but I think he’s mentioned you. Yuri? You’re his best friend, aren’t you?”

Yuri doesn’t answer her for a moment because he’s too startled by the fact that Flynn is, apparently, still calling Yuri his best friend even though they haven’t seen each other in a year and almost got in a fistfight last time they ran into each other. Not that Yuri doesn’t also still consider Flynn his best friend, but, like. Standards, Flynn. Have some. “Huh. Yeah.”

A shy smile spreads over her face. “You’re just like he described you.”

“Oh, geez. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll try to be on my best behavior from here out.”

“What are you talking about? There’s nothing wrong with your behavior.”

Yuri stares at her again. “...I think we’re having two different conversations. How does Flynn describe me? Because I assumed he told you I was a pain in the ass.”

“What? No! He said you’ve got a big heart and you always try to help others.”

This is too much for Yuri to deal with at 2AM in front of a stranger. Or friend of a friend, apparently. Dammit. It’s always Flynn.

“Well, um. He did also say you were trouble.”

Oh, thank God, stable ground. “That sounds more like it. Come on, I’ll lend you some pajamas. We should both get to sleep. In the morning—like the real morning, not the fake morning right now—we can go back to the community center and talk to Hanks about your options.”

A week later, Estelle is still in his apartment. Yuri thinks she’s starting to grow on him. Not like a fungus, because Estelle is one of the only people he’s ever met that he would wholeheartedly describe as lovely. Terribly naive, mind-bogglingly sheltered, but lovely. So maybe like some kind of nice moss or something? He’s lost the trail of this metaphor.

He has bartending in the evening, these days, but when he’s at the community center in the mornings he tries to give her his attention. She seems overwhelmed by all the things she needs to find solutions for: housing, income, banking, emergency medical care... At least a few of those, he can help with. Hanks is a bigger asset. He’s got a lifetime of experience with helping uprooted young adults. Yuri is happy to put Estelle up for as long as it takes them to sort her shit out.

Still, he does sort of wonder if he’s gotten ahead of himself when Hanks texts him asking to talk to him and Estelle in private at his house. Hanks is usually fine with having personal conversations at the community center. Whatever he has to say must be serious.

“Should we have brought him something?” Estelle asks, a little nervously. She’s wearing clothes loaned from one of Yuri’s coworkers with Hanks’s jacket thrown over them. The ol d man refused to take it back from her when they met, and she’s barely taken it off since. She throws herself into hand-me-downs with an eagerness Yuri wouldn’t have expected, given her clothes the night they met.

“What? No. Why would we bring him something?”

“Well, you’re supposed to give your host a gift when you visit someone, aren’t you? Like a bottle of wine?”

“I know you grew up in the fancy rich high society life or some shit, but this is the Lower Quarter, princess. We don’t have the money for that kind of etiquette here. The only ‘wine’ Hanks is getting is the kind that comes out of my mouth.”

Estelle laughs quietly as Yuri knocks on the door and then shoves it open without waiting for a response.

“I’m in the kitchen,” Hanks calls, gruffly. Yuri shepherds Estelle in the right direction. Hanks has his back to them as he puts the finishing touches on a couple bowls of salad.

“Wow, breaking out the fresh vegetables for us and everything.”

“Someone has to make sure you kids get vitamins,” Hanks says, without looking up. He offers one of the bowls to Estelle. She peers into it curiously. “Spinach, bacon, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes. I’ve got salad dressing in the fridge if you want some.”

“Yes, please,” Estelle says. Hanks waves her toward the small kitchen table while he goes to the fridge.

“Both of you have a seat. Estelle, what kind of dressing do you want?”

“Um. I’ll have whatever Yuri’s having.”

“Don’t let Yuri be your role model for everything,” Hanks warns her, even as he passes her the Italian dressing. “He’s a troublemaker.”

“I think he’s nice,” Estelle mumbles.

“You poor, misguided soul,” Yuri says. He takes the bottle from her when she’s done. “Hanks, you needed something from us?”

Hanks eases himself down into a chair across from them, groaning the whole way. The stubborn old man is going to hurt himself one of these days if he doesn’t give in and get a cane. “I did. Well, there’s not really a good way to get into this. Here. Take a look.”

He takes a piece of paper out of his breast pocket and unfolds it, dropping it on the table in front of them. It’s a flyer, the kind small local businesses will have on community boards or that gets slapped up on light posts on the street. It reads:

MISSING PERSON: ESTELLISE SIDOS HEURASSEIN

LAST SEEN AT ZAPHIAS UNIVERSITY, NEAR MEDICAL SCHOOL

18 YEARS OLD; 5’5” TALL; PINK HAIR AND GREEN EYES

CONTACT ZPD [(XXX) XXX-XXXX] OR DEAN ALEXEI DINOIA [ [email protected] ] WITH INFORMATION. REWARD IF FOUND.

In the middle of the page is a poor-quality, grainy picture of Estelle. It’s water-stained, with the colors distorted so that her face is barely recognizable. Yuri’s not convinced he would recognize her if he didn’t already know who it was. The flyer must have been outside. Along the bottom are tear-off tabs with the police number and the Dean’s email on them. Yuri recognizes the domain; it’s the official university mail service, so it must be the Dean’s professional email. It seems like an odd choice for a missing person ad. Looks like a few tabs have been taken.

Yuri glances sideways at Estelle. She stares down at the flyer, pale and scared like Yuri hasn’t seen her since their first encounter. They just stopped gooping up the scrape, so it’s scabbing over now , and the bruising has turned a sickly green as it heals.

“I...” She swallows, hard, putting her fork down. “I don’t...”

“Listen,” Hanks says, with a sigh. “I’m not about to turn you in. I don’t think Yuri will, either.”

“Fuck, no.”

“But I can’t promise nobody in the Lower Quarter will. Folks here are hurting for cash. Someone who sees you at the community center might take them up on it, even if they aren’t proud of it, so they can put food on the table.”

“...Yes. I understand.”

Hanks scratches at his beard. “I guess all I’m askin’ is that you think about stopping by the police station yourself. I don’t want Yuri to get charged with kidnapping.”

That makes Estelle jerk her head up, eyes wide. “Yuri could get in trouble?”

“Sure. He’s been on the wrong side of the law before—“

“The tweedles deserved to get pushed into the canal, you know that—“

“I do, son, but the police still weren’t none too happy about it. They aren’t much fond of him, and now he’s got a missing person stashed in his apartment. Ain’t a hard case to make.”

“But he’s not making me stay there!”

Hanks shrugs. “They could argue coercion if they get a bee in their bonnet. That’s why I’m suggesting you stop by the police station yourself, to let them know that you left under your own will and you aren’t missing. It doesn’t mean you have to go back to your old life. The community’s happy to help you figure something else out, like we have been.”

Estelle wrings her hands under the table. She looks down at the flyer again.

“I don’t want to go back,” she says, voice small.

“I’m telling you, you don’t have to.”

“If I talk to the police, they’ll make me go back.”

“You’re eighteen,” Yuri says. “You can go wherever the hell you want. They can’t make you go back if you don’t want to.”

“Will you come with me? To the police station?”

“Probably not a good idea,” Hanks says. “Remember, we want to show them that you’re staying in the Lower Quarter under your own free will.”

“I can still drive you there and wait nearby, though,” Yuri says. “I’ll hang out in a parking lot or something. Just scream real loud and I’ll come grab you.”

“Don’t scream unless you have no other choice, the police don’t like that.”

“Who cares what the police like? If they try to mess with you, break their eardrums.”

“Yuri, for God’s sake, don’t get the poor girl in trouble.”

Estelle giggles a little, high and anxious. The smile slides back off her face quickly, though. “I can... can I still stay with you? After I talk to the police?”

“Sure.”

“Really? I promise I’ll—I’ll stop by the bank, and get a new account set up. Then I can try to find a job and pay you b—“

“Estelle, chill. There’s no rush.”

“But—!”

“We’ll get it sorted out. Might take a bit, but we’ll get you there. You don’t need to freak out.”

“I just—“ Estelle sniffles a bit. Oh, God, no. No crying. Please no more crying. Yuri is terrible at comforting people. “You’ve been so kind, both of you, and I haven’t even told you anything and you’re still helping me, and I feel so bad, and—“

Yuri fidgets with a lock of his own hair. “I mean. This isn’t exactly a huge mystery. You’ve got big bruises on your face and you don’t want to go back somewhere. I might not have a fancy education, but I can put two and two together.”

“I... I guess that’s...”

“We don’t really need more information than that. Anyway, you’re a friend of Flynn’s. He would kick my ass if he found out I didn’t look out for you.”

“But you offered to let me stay with you before you knew—“

Hanks reaches across the table to pat her shoulder. “Don’t bother, miss. Let Yuri believe the rest of us think he’s a tough guy. We all know he’s really a big softie.”

Yuri splutters indignantly. “Hey!”

“He climbs trees to get children’s cats down for them,” Hanks stage-whispers to Estelle. She giggles, more genuinely this time. Yuri would be pleased if it weren’t at his goddamn expense.

“One time! Was I just supposed to leave Ted’s cat stranded?! He had a broken leg!”

“One time? Son, you’ve done that twice in the last year.”

“Tell Ted to get a better cat! I swear, next time I’m leaving the damn thing up there.”

“Yesterday,” Estelle tells Hanks, solemnly, wiping a tear away from the corner of her eye, “He held two babies for a busy mom. At once.”

Hanks chortles. Yuri groans, aggrieved. “I changed my mind, you can’t stay with me. You’re a menace.”

“No, no. You’re right, we can’t risk Flynn’s wrath. The young lady is here to stay.”

Estelle catches Yuri’s eye again and gives him that small, shy smile again. Yuri shakes his head, fond despite himself. He returns a wry smile. Of course she’s staying. He never should have expected anything different. On some level, he thinks he didn’t.

“Alright, princess. I guess I’m stuck with you.”

“I’m in your care!”

#fluri #yuri lowell #Estellise Sidos Heurassein #tales of vesperia #Feeling Pretty Good About the Trouble That I’m In #flynn isnt here but yuri Pines #long post

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hoshigomi · 5 years ago

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God of Stars//Éclair Brillant review, Hoshigumi, 2019

I may not have a real summer vacation from work, but my schedule allowed me to take a break this weekend to go down to Takarazuka to catch some of the first/second week of Hoshigumi’s God of Stars and Éclair Brillant!

(I WILL be seeing this show more in Tokyo and I will probably/maybe be able to refine these thoughts by the time it ends there, but let’s start off with first impressions, shall we? ♡)

First thing’s first, I love Hoshigumi. That’s not a secret. It’s not that I think they can Do No Wrong it’s just that I love them even when they Do Wrong. Thankfully, this is a case where I truly BELIEVE they did no wrong. Both the show and the revue were well suited to Hoshigumi and their cast of characters, and well suited to Kurenai Yuzuru and Kisaki Airi, the retiring top stars, as well.

God of Stars

Ooh BOY. Whatever you expected when you saw this poster, multiply that by about a thousand and you’ll maybe be a little closer to right. The English language website has released this plot blurb - feel free to read for some context, if you want!

Tl; dr- It’s kind of about the dangers of gentrification, it’s kind of about two idol groups vying to rise to the top, it’s kind of about loving someone despite their flaws, it’s kind of about being loved as you are, and it’s kind of about Iron Chef. It’s zany and it’s FUN and the music (some of which is by famed anime and other-things composer Hyadain) is catchy and memorable. (I have seriously had the main theme and one of the big group numbers stuck in my head all week.) I would call this the most anime play I have ever seen, and I’ve seen anime plays. I would also compare it to Om Shanti Om, if you’ve seen that. There are STACKS AND STACKS of references to new media, actual people, mythology, popular culture, and the actresses themselves (half of their characters are plays on their names, if they’re not playing someone real, like Chow Yun-fat, literally the lead actor from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.)

If you’re generally a fan of comedies, slapstick, BIG group numbers, anime plays, or things that don’t take themselves too seriously, you’ll love it. It’s just pure fun. It’s light. It’s loving. It’s energetic. It’s happy. It’s Hoshigumi. There are a few very touching scenes between characters - one in particular between Hong (Kurenai Yuzuru) and Lee (Rei Makoto), made someone within earshot of me cry every time I saw it. For me personally, this show REALLY shone in the group scenes- I never knew quite where to look (not because the main action wasn’t engaging, just because WHEREVER you looked in the group scenes, someone was making a specific, motivated, and usually HILARIOUS character choice), and I sincerely wish I could have a star angle of every actress in every big scene. So, let’s talk about some of these actresses!

Kurenai Yuzuru plays Hong Xing -Xing, the chef. He’s an asshole. He has a heart of gold underneath it all, but spends the majority of the play having that bit of him excavated. Again, if you’ve seen Om Shanti Om, think act II Om. I loved it. Beni does shine at this kind of thing, playing loveable assholes. The music ROCKED for her, the over the top RIDICULOUSNESS of this show is where she shines the brightest. She worked with everyone around her to create great moments for some little characters and lent her comedic timing to the whole troupe, it seemed like. I missed the depth that her role in Elbe allowed her to show, and the stillness and emotional intent she’s so heartachingly beautiful at was missing here, but that’s the show’s fault, not hers. I loved this as a taidan role. I’ll miss Beni. I can’t wait to see how her and Hong have grown by Tokyo.

Kisaki Airi as Eileen Chow particularly kicked ass (figuratively and literally, with slipper kung-fu.) She DEFINITELY wasn’t shafted here (hooray!!) with two solos in her wheelhouse and honestly, I feel, a stronger character than Beni even got. She was spunky and sassy and she looked so damn GOOD in all her costumes. Nothing but respect for MY anime heroine, Eileen Chow.

Hanagata Hikaru from Senka played Eric Yang of the Golden Star Group, a straight man to everyone else’s completely whack roles, unfortunately a little unremarkable (she’s so comedically GIFTED, but this role was strictly there to advance the plot.) Rei Makoto, the-soon-to-be-top star, was sweet as Lee Long Long Dragon, Hong’s rival. He’s the classic trope of complete nerd-turned- absolute hottie, when he meets his idol (and literal idol) Christina Chang (Maisora Hitomi, next top musumeyaku). Some of the most universally appreciated humor in this show came from Lee being absolutely FLUSTERED by Christina- and it was really NICE to see these two play together as a couple. They have some SWEET SWEET moments, particularly with their scene together at the end of the play. The seeds of good chemistry are there, and they have the potential to sound really great together. I really hope they don’t sacrifice humor and personality in the long run for pure skill, but I’m optimistic. ♡)

Yumeki Anru as Kitty, Hong’s Kind Of Girlfriend (and later Chow Yun Fat’s arm candy) was a COMPLETELY INCREDIBLE, SEXY, Sailor Moon Villain-esque nuisance- also may or may not have been directly lifted from Crazy Rich Asians.

The boy band, Paradise Prince, made up of Kiwami Shin, Amato Kanon, Amahana Ema, Amaki Homare, leader Seo Yuria, and long suffering (but LOVING and mature and full of her own life and opinions and things to Get Done- my only complaint is I wish they let her sing more) manager Arisa Hitomi were a COMPLETE delight. If I could give them the small group ensemble award for just the sheer bullshit they were CONSTANTLY giving us, God I would. If you didn’t know where to look in God of Stars and you defaulted to them, you’d NEVER be disappointed. From choreographing small routines on the side of the stage to taking selfies and making Tik Toks, they were 100% on all the time. (Also, sounded vocally great and looked great dancing, technical skill wise. I would honestly buy this group as a boy band. Let me know when they release their first single. I’ll buy 10.) (Distinguished performance award goes to Amato Kanon, who is Ken 3 but has the raw power of six upperclassman otokoyaku combined, and is going to be absolutely UNSTOPPABLE in a few years once she learns how to refine ALL THAT.) Kozakura Honoka, Sakuraba Mai, Mizuno Yuri, Seira Hitomi, and leader Maisora Hitomi, make up the girl group, Eclipse, who are used more for transitions and set dressing (albiet FUN set dressing), than plot devices of their own. (Sorry girls, the boys win this idol group battle.)

Kisaragi Ren (Ren), Mao Yuuki (Mao), Miki Chigusa (Lao Hu), Kizaki Reo (Leo) (see what I’m saying about character names....?), and Shizuki Otone (Michelle) are the working class, good people from Eileen’s life who have stakes in the food hawker stalls, and GOD, they, along with the boy band and the underclassmen ensemble characters, really bring the story to life. Every one of them makes a specific character and sticks to it with care and love and humor and stakes and it’s clear and it’s big and it is, in my opinion, so Hoshigumi. (Also, the roles weren’t huge, but these were still nice for Mao Yuuki and Kisaragi Ren’s last roles in Takarazuka. They were usually together and always funny and got to be in PLENTY of the show, which is all we can ask for.)

Tenju Mitsuki and Otoha Minori both got to flex their acting chops as Eileen’s parents. Even if I am a little sad that the two of them are now officially playing parents, they ARE old enough that that shouldn’t really be surprising. Tenju Mitsuki especially got to be funny, and Otoha Minori got to be loving and maternal, and I feel that both really milked their roles for all they could. Also, for PARENT ROLES, they were hardly shafted, so I’ll count my blessings now.

Natori Rei, Mari Yuzumi, Hiroka Yuu, and Sazanami Reira as Demon Bull King, Princess Iron Fan, and The Bodhisattva Candraprabha and Suryaprabha respectively (y’all PLEASE look these characters up I am BEGGING you) were Beni’s family (see the show before you decide whether I’m speaking figuratively or literally) and while the show could have happened without that side plot and only a few tweaks, were a really lovely and worldly addition to the cast. It was FUN to see the Gods and People Of Legends giving context to the story and the other characters, and even more fun to see normal people interacting with them at the end of the play.

As the newswoman and MC Vimmy, Shirotae Natsu was LITERALLY playing her character from Om Shanti Om, and was just as delightful now as she was then (and one of the times I saw the show, worked INCREDIBLY seamlessly and quickly with Beni to fix a mic issue that could have made a whole scene fruitless.) Iroha Reo was Shirotae Natsu’s assistant MC, and Shidou Ryuu was the producer, both in small but still lovingly crafted roles. Haruto Yuuho’s incredible voice was completely wasted as the silent role of cameraman, but she looked cute as hell in a beanie and glasses. Murasaki Rira as Madam Yang was an absolute joy in the back (or front) of every Golden Star Group scene, playing a little batty and a little flirty and a little spacey and a lot wild and fun. Yuunagi Ryou as Chow Yun Fat, actual Real Life Actor (and for the purposes of this play, the deciding judge of the cooking competition,) was a lot of fun if you love looking at the complete storylines people can come up with in the back of scenes, and your kind of character if you’re into the whole bad boy but also kung fu actor guy thing. Toudou Jun (Sheik Jahuli), Asamizu Ryou (Monsieur Lobchamp), and Minato Rihi (Michiba Juusaburou, NOT to be confused with Actual Iron Chef Michiba Rokusaburou) were the other chefs featured by the Golden Star Group, and MAN, they were all funny. Toudou Jun had a particularly fleshed out take on her character, more naan jokes than I can count, and a surprising amount of heart in the group scenes with Eileen and co. Ooki Makoto as the priest had one of the best lines in the show, correcting Hong’s reading of a sign, and Otosaki Itsuki, while onstage very little, got a KILLER solo as the dragon boat singer at the start of the Singapore scene mid-show.

If you get a chance, I really recommend you see this show in person. It is a lovingly crafted, well performed, slapstick ride in an Iron Chef meets Cutthroat Kitchen vehicle. It ends with rainbow gyoza and a RAP battle, y’all. The LIFE of it is so shockingly full force in the theatre, as is the volume and the humor and the love that I think endears Hoshigumi to its fans. God of Stars is worth a watch- and even if it ends up not for you, at least you’ll be able to see you saw Naan used as a weapon in a stage fight. ♡

Éclair Brillant,

(which I learned TODAY is not called ‘Éclair Brilliant’). Is, well, Brilliant. While I wouldn't call this the best Benigumi revue in my eyes, (it's no Killer Rouge, and I am PARTICULAR to Estrellas as fair as Hoshigumi Energy goes), the fact is, everyone has different taste, and besides that, Éclair Brillant is BEYOND good. Here's a quick number by number breakdown (as it goes in my memory.) The opening is CLASSY and CLASSIC. It actually is NOT AT ALL unlike the opening to Bouquet De Takarazuka, but it's silver, not beige. The choreography and music both have moments that DEFINITELY struck me with deja vu. Something interesting is that this revue DOES NOT have a title screen/sign/marquee. I am not SURE why that is. In its place, the music starts (a low hum, very space-y), and the theatre slowly fades to complete darkness, before Kurenai Yuzuru (Beni) is illuminated from the back, the light shining through her gauzy, spacey, alien costume in a VERY cool way that made the audience all ooh and ahh, then the lights come up on her face and we begin. The theme is SWEET. Beni sounds INCREDIBLE in this part of her vocal range. Then, enter the rest of the troupe, Rei Makoto (Coto) gets her solo, Seo Yuria (Seo) and Hanagata Hikaru get time on the bridge, Kisaki Airi (Airi) gets her solo. It's all structurally sound, predictable, and good. This opening is the only place in the revue with a kyakusekiori (actresses in the aisles.)

The opening ends, and Beni is left on the bridge for a solo number. It's playful and uptempo and and not stylistically unlike Leaning on a Lamppost from Me and My Girl, only a little more introspective and slower. She sits on the stairs to the audience for part of it and really focuses on just singing and acting and being present and it's lovely.

From there, the curtain rises on a very pastoral, calm, almost blank stage, save for a tree, a couple outdoor tables, some underclassmen playing couples and waiters and waitresses, and Maisora Hitomi with a hat. You can tell this is going to be a dance scene immediately, and it is. (Side note: The underclassmen in this scene ROCK. They have a lot of moments of complete stillness and freezes into very fluid natural movement, and they all maintain their storylines and relations throughout. It's nice to see.) Anyway, Maisora is minding her own business and then a sudden gust of WIND blows through the beautiful scene, her hat is whisked away offstage, she briefly chases after it and then ah, gives up. She goes back to her table presumably to like continue having a normal day and mourn the loss of her hat but surprise, there is the personification of the wind itself (Coto) sitting on her table like a little wind nymph. They dance. It's beautiful. I'd say more but that's all there is to say- they dance and it IS beautiful. I think right now dance is looking like it's going to be their strength because boy, they move REAL WELL together. They're both pretty top tier dancers, and it's cool to see them move so naturally together despite having just met. Maisora also VOCALLY sounds better in this number than she did in God of Stars, in my opinion- it's a pretty, lilting slow tune that she definitely sounds good on. The dance ends with an attempted kiss and some falling feathers, and suddenly, all the people from the scene come running back on, breaking the fantasy (with the hat! They found the hat!), and Maisora ultimately runs back off with them after a pensive glance out, as if wondering if the Wind Spirit who visited her Will Ever Return. Then Coto sings some more. It’s predictably beautiful.

Cumbanchero (the start of the chuuzume, despite being only three songs into the revue) is one of my very favorite numbers in the revue, probably because I have a big ol’ Takarazuka Crush on one of the dancers, but also because it’s just really high energy and it’s danced so WELL. It starts ABRUPTLY and features Kurenai Yuzuru, Mao Yuuki, Shidou Ryuu, Kizaki Reo, Sazanami Reira, Hiroka Yuu, Yuunagi Ryou, Minato Rihi, and Amato Kanon. Man, they can all DANCE. If Coto’s Hoshigumi features these actresses in dance numbers, they’re gonna look GOOD. It’s a nice reprieve from the so far calm and pretty revue and starts to take things over to the sexier/bolder/more sensual Latin-inspired side, where a lot of the rest of the revue sits, musically. (Though like, Takarazuka “Latin” is what it is and we all know that.) Airi gets a turn in the spotlight next, singing a song I WISH I knew the title of, with either a long curly blonde wig or a short brown bob depending on the show while Ooki Makoto and Kisaragi Ren (hell yeah) get fawned over/pawed at/pushed around by musumeyaku. It’s sensual. Also sensual (but leaning much more towards playful and flirty) is The Next Number In The Chuuzume, sung by Amahana Ema, Kiwami Shin, and Arisa Hitomi. Arisa Hitomi SPECIFICALLY sounds mature and sexy and GOOD and everything a musumeyaku learns to be when you give her a chance to grow up. Some of the kids do coupley samba around them. They’re VERY cute. The stage goes dark and Beni, Airi, and Coto appear- they dance around each other and with each other in every combination possible while Mikkii sings on the stairs- and God, I could talk for ages about how much I love when they let Mikkii sing for duet/trio dances. She brings out all the emotion in the songs and gives the dancers so much space to play in. The END OF THE CHUUZUME is set to The Gift (by Eydie Gorme). It’s too short. The music rocks. It’s all samba stepping and teasing grinning and I loooooved it. Otherwise though, it was a very standard chuuzume. (One of my ONLY complaints about this revue is that I DO wish they took the chance to do something a little more BeniAiri. Anyone can do a Nice Chuuzume. These two have such play and humor in them, and I would have loved to see something more like Championne from Estrellas as their last chuuzume. It was still VERY solid and very good, but lacking in personalization.)

After the chuuzume, Seo comes on surrounded by eight musumeyaku (Seira Hitomi, Mizuno Yuri, Nijou Hana, Kuresaki Rino, Miyako Yuuna, Sumika Amane, Ruri Hanaka, and Ayane Miran. You didn’t expect Seo Yuria to sing Mas Que Nada with the dirtiest bass line I have ever heard, but here she is, singing it (well!). Seo sings across the bridge and it feels filthy somehow and I have NO idea what to do with it. Everyone in this number is trying to ooze sex appeal out of every pore in their body. Some of them ARE succeeding. This number makes me more uncomfortable than excited, but I think your mileage may vary here.

Ravel’s Bolero is the best number in Éclair Brilliant, and may be one of the best numbers in any revue ever. It’s very long, but I don’t think it’s long ENOUGH. There is NO singing. There is no sound from the actresses save for stepping and clapping and the occasional stomp.

These are two pictures from the number but they don’t even BEGIN to do it justice. I am PRAYING the DVD captures it, but the real magic in this number is how groups of dancers use the stage, how they line up SHARPLY and PERFECTLY in place, how they move on and off the stage with incredible fluidity but INTENSE movements, how groups move in sync or against each other, the lighting being low and shadowy- this number was perfect. I am a HUGE sucker for loud flashy funny in your face- and this sharp, understated, stripped down dance number could have brought me to tears. This was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen in any Takarazuka show, and deserves a spot in ANY Best Of list that’s ever compiled from here on out.

It’s hard to top Bolero, so for a tonal shift, next we have our Taidan Number/Rockette. And honestly? It’s well timed. The taidan medley is Hanagata Hikaru (not retiring), Shirotae Natsu and Yumeki Anru (ALSO not retiring), and our incredible, wonderful, brilliant taidansha, Kisaragi Ren and Mao Yuuki, singing Frank Sinatra’s That’s Life. It’s full of heart and earnesty and smiles and it’s honest and fun and these people on this stage love each other, and they love what they do, and it’s so EASY to see. Renta dances and sings with the same 200% she always gives, and Mao Yuuki takes in everything and everyone around her every time I see her do this number. It’s gonna be BRUTAL on the last day. The four upperclassmen join the rockettes for the first part of their dance (which is CUTE), and then run off to let the girls do their thing.

The rockettes end and a new set of feathers takes the stage- Beni, Airi, Maisora Hitomi, Kiwami Shin, Arisa Hitomi, and Amahana Ema in a slinky, sequined leotard bird of paradise number (Beni has some notes in this song that give me CHILLS in the best way)- and they’re eventually shoo’d off by Coto, Amato Kanon, Aomi Sario, Sakishiro Kei, and Kisa Kaoru, in MORE exciting bird-of-paradise costumes, and a more upbeat and aggressive and slinkier dance. (It was COOL to see Kisa Kaoru and Sakishiro Kei included in here- I don’t feel like I’ve really seen them do anything to date, and they’re both solid! Aomi Sario is familiar and Amato Kanon is climbing the ladder quick.)

The next number is nothing short of beautiful. It’s a Beni dance solo (again, no singing at all- the ending of Éclair is a little sparse on vocals), until she is joined by most of the Hoshigumi musumeyaku, all in flowy pink petals, with an electric shamisen. It was VERY falling-sakura-esque. It was STUNNING. They fall and they scatter and they twirl and Beni is in the midst of it all, and by the end of the song...

-the petals have all fallen and we are in place for one of my favorite kuroenbi ever. In fact, the whole rest of this revue is beautiful. This kuroenbi is more electric shamisen, a lot of high kicks, a lot of sharp and bold movement and interesting lines and groups of younger actresses and groups of older actresses taking turns centerstage and (a beautifully funny moment between Beni, Renta, and Mao Yuuki that IS a tonal shift for a brief few seconds, but doesn’t interrupt the flow of the dance at all, and is just so ... heartwarming to see. It’s lovely to see the taidansha honored in a way that’s so purely them.)

All the otokoyaku save for seven (Rei Makoto, Hanagata Hikaru, Mao Yuuki, Seo Yuria, Shidou Ryuu, Amahana Ema, and Kiwami Shin) exit the stage, and Airi enters. Coto sings a beautiful song to Airi as Airi gets to dance with all her otokoyaku in turn, it’s also playful and flirty and loving and Mao lifts her and spins her SO well- the dance only ends at its climax when Beni runs onstage from behind Airi and catches her- Airi has found her real partner and the duet dance begins in earnest with just the two of them. It is, as you’d want for the two of them, very sweet, very loving, very kind, and very much just two people who love each other and have gotten to know each other so well.

It suits them, and their smiles and the amount of HUGGING in this dance is exactly what they deserve. It’s a good taidan duet dance. It’s a good Beni/Airi taidan duet dance.

Overall, I think Éclair was very good. It honored a lot of what has made Beni and Airi’s Hoshigumi what it was, in the little moments, but didn’t drown itself in kitsch. That said, I might have liked to see a LITTLE more of their personalities in the revue- I can almost say it felt like Éclair was ushering in Coto’s new era of Hoshigumi a little early and a little rushed. This would have been a BRILLIANT mid-top-run revue for this pair, because GOD did it show that they’re capable of more than the humor and energy that they’re too often pinholed into by Takarazuka fans in general. That is without a doubt their wheelhouse, but both Kurenai Yuzuru and Kisaki Airi are a LOT more than funny. It was incredible to see so much of that in a revue, because while we’ve seen it in plays, they haven’t really had a revue that feels this classic (to me), to date. It was a good revue to pair with God of Stars, though, because the full three hours gave you little bites (haha) of the incredible range that both these actresses have.

I loved God of Stars and Éclair Brillant. I loved them as a pair. I love Kurenai Yuzuru and Kisaki Airi as a pair. I love Hoshigumi for everything they are and everything every actress brings to the table, and I can not wait to see how this show and the actresses have grown by the time it reaches Tokyo. ♡

星組最高！

#takarazuka #hoshigumi #god of stars #Éclair Brillant #man if there's something like egregiously wrong with this please let me know gyudfh and i would LOVE to fix it honestly #i scanned it...but........god knows what could have slipped through the cracks here

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douchebagbrainwaves · 5 years ago

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I'VE BEEN PONDERING SUMMER

In Lisp, all variables are effectively pointers. Why go work as an ordinary employee for a big company, or have they abandoned the center for the suburbs?1 Especially if it meant independence for my native land, hacking.2 It's hard to engage an audience it's better to start with what goes wrong and try to trace it back to the root causes. A lot of the new startups would create new technology that further accelerated variation in productivity is far from the only source of economic inequality, the former because founders own more stock, and the rate at which it changes is itself speeding up.3 When we first started Y Combinator we have some kind of secret weapon—that he was harming his future—that hacking was cold, precise, and methodical, and that was more than enough technical skill. There is a name now for what we were: an Application Service Provider, or ASP. How little money it can take to start a company of any size to get software written.

I needed to remember, if I could give an example of a powerful macro, and say there!4 Design means making things for humans. Wrong. Big companies also don't pay people the right way to get an accurate drawing is not to make the poor richer. This sort of thing was the rule, not better off, as more than a plan A. In some ways, this assumption makes life a lot easier for the users and for us as well. Why did desktop computers take over?5 Programmers have to worry about infrastructure. For the first week or so we intended to make this point diplomatically, but in many ways pushes you in the opposite direction.6 Similarly, good new problems are not to be had for the asking. Don't be too legalistic about the conditions under which they're allowed to leave.

Now, when someone asks me what I do, I look them straight in the eye and say I'm designing a new dialect of Lisp;-Though useful to present-day union organizers rather than an attack on early ones. I think mathematicians also believe this. In the middle you have people who are poor or rich and figure out why. We were just able to develop stuff in house, and that if grad students could start startups, they'll start startups. Eric Raymond here. Which seems to me one of the most interesting differences between research and design. In fact, it may be slightly faster. We were terrified of starting a startup, there are even worse tradeoffs than these. I think about why I voted for Clinton over the first George Bush, it wasn't because I was shifting to the left or right in their morning-after analyses are like the financial reporters stuck writing stories day after day about the random fluctuations of the stock market.

This metaphor doesn't stretch that far. Maybe it will also be your cell phone. The books I bring on trips are often quite virtuous, the sort of engagement you get when speaking ad lib. It doesn't necessarily mean being self-sacrificing. For the first week or so we intended to make this an ordinary desktop application. You can't trust authorities.7 They were, as a rule, not better off, as more than one with a 50% chance of winning has to pay more than one discovered when Christmas shopping season came around and loads rose on their server. I'm letting you in on the secret early. But since then the west coast has just pulled further ahead.8 It is not the way it's portrayed on TV. And if you're writing a program that attacked the servers themselves should find them very well defended.

Sometimes I can think with noise.9 Our only expenses in that phase were food and rent. It's hard to imagine now, but when they do get paged at 4:00 AM, they don't think of themselves that way. When you switch to this new model, you realize how much software development is affected by the reactions of those around them, and c they're individually inconsistent. If you want, but not totally unlike your other friends. And that might be a great thing. As long as our hypothetical Blub programmer wouldn't use either of them.10 I'm a little embarrassed to say, I never said anything publicly about Lisp while we were working on Viaweb. As usual, by Demo Day about half the startups were doing something significantly different than they planned. So there you have it.

Notice I said what they need, not what a piece of code. Fortunately, there were few obstacles except technical ones. And more to the point of view. And creating wealth, as a rule, not better off, as more than a plan A. You never had to worry about those. If you work this way too.11 Because painters leave a trail of work behind them, you can just turn off the service. I could tell I knew how to program computers, or what life was really like in preindustrial societies, or how to program better than most people doing it for a living. I think few realize the huge spread in the value of 20 year olds.12 Prep schools openly say this is one reason intranet software will continue to do so but be content to work for someone else would get an even colder reception from the 19 year old was Bill Gates? Programs.13 The way to get in the software as soon as they got their first round of outside investors 36x.

It allows you to give an example of this rule; if you could count on investors being interested even if you're not certain, you should get summer jobs at places you'd like to work. You have the users' data right there on your disk.14 And you don't have to be poked with a stick to get them to stay is to give them enough that they don't dress up. Only 13 of these were in product development. No one will look that closely at it. You have the users' data right there on your disk.15 At any rate, the result is that scientists tend to make their fortunes will continue to do so much besides write software.16 So startup culture may not merely be different in the way of having the next. Though we were comparatively old, we weren't tied down by jobs they don't want to, but they didn't actually drop out of college and it tanks, you'll end up at 23 broke and a lot who get rich by taking money from the rich. If you write the laws very carefully, that is a good idea—but we've decided now that the party line should be to discover surprising things. This was done entirely for PR purposes. What you're afraid of competition.

Notes

Management consulting.

If you're expected to do work you love, or boards, or even being Genghis Khan is probably a losing bet for a couple hundred years or so and we ran into Yuri Sagalov. Most of the reason the founders. In fact the decade preceding the war had been a waste of time on is a new version from which they don't know. 6% of the products I grew up with much greater inconveniences than that.

Even in English, our sense of a startup enough to invest in a safe environment, and then a block or so and we did not become romantically involved till afterward. They seem to be hard on the grounds that a startup is rare. Companies often wonder what to do whatever gets you there sooner.

9999 and.

Globally the trend has been around as long as the web have sucked—A Spam Classification Organization Program. The point where things start with consumer electronics.

People and The Old Way. But if you tell them what to do video on-demand, because you can't even claim, like the bizarre consequences of this essay talks about programmers, the other cheek skirts the issue; the point where it was briefly in Britain in the Ancient World, Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M.

Inside their heads a giant house of cards is tottering. In fact the less powerful language in it.

The only people who might be 20 or 30 times as much income. Selina Tobaccowala stopped to think about, like arithmetic drills, instead of editors, and astronomy. Incidentally, the police treat people more equitably. There can be done at a famous university who is highly regarded by his peers will get funding, pretty much regardless of how to use those solutions.

For example, because it doesn't cost anything. What will go away. In a startup in a deal to move from London to Silicon Valley like the increase in trade you always see when restrictive laws are removed. Come work for us now to appreciate how important it is certainly part of a safe environment, but mediocre programmers is the discrepancy between government receipts as a technology startup takes some amount of damage to the size of a startup, as on a map.

Success here is that they've already decided what they're going to need to run an online service, this would work.

But no planes crash if your school, secretly write your dissertation in the right sort of wealth, not like soccer; you don't know of no Jews moving there, only Jews would move there, and power were concentrated in the imprecise half.

The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China, many of the art itself gets more random, the increasing complacency of managements.

For example, the laser, it's this internal process in their target market the shoplifters are also startlingly popular on Delicious, but since it was 10 years ago.

In a project like a core going critical.

How could these people make the right not to stuff them with comments. The state of technology, companies that an investor, than a product of number of discrepancies currently blamed on various forbidden isms.

If you did that in practice that doesn't lose our data. Anything that got built this way is basically a replacement mall for mallrats.

Thanks to Mike Arrington, Trevor Blackwell, Robert Morris, Patrick Collison, and Paul Buchheit for sharing their expertise on this topic.

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ranchonmysteak · 6 years ago

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My issues with DITF: My first thoughts

The anime community has been sort of amping this anime up and I’d heard it was like super deep and interesting but it dropped off in quality in the last few episodes. Due to raving nature of the reaction surrounding until the last 2-3 episodes, I was naturally intrigued by this anime. What exactly caused the positive reaction and how had the last few episodes caused such a violent response? (by the way, this rant will be very disjointed and I might clean it up later... If you haven’t watched this anime, you will get very confused.)

I watched the first few minutes and right off the bat, I’m already disappointed. It starts off with a monologue by Hiro, the main character, about a species of bird (this is a plot point later but literally no one cares for now) that requires a male and female to be able to fly. If you couldn’t already tell, this is an analogy for the way the mecha are piloted in the anime and gives off the impression that this anime will be analysing how relationships work.

Now, on to my disappointment: Why did this piss me off?

First off, it’s an incredibly unhealthy expectation of a relationship. It doesn’t really work that way. It’s fine not to have things completely work out in the beginning but one should never have the expectation that a romantic relationship will save your life and if you don’t, you will literally die. Hiro’s words, not mine. He’s not wrong, either. After all, to pilot a mecha in this series, you should have sex! (wow, it’s not like you could just have sex outside a relationship) Shipping off teenagers to have sex to save the world and we don’t even really know if they’re into each other is not problematic at all!

Secondly, it’s heteronormative. You might say,”oh, but it’s Japan. No shit” and I’d like to say that’s racist. Anime and manga are 100% completely able to discuss queer issues. In fact, the studio also created Little Witch Academia and you’d be hard pressed to find someone deny that Diana Cavendish is, at least, a little gay for Akko. Furthermore, this is anime where relationships are discussed and to sort of hamfist a heteronormative moral isn’t great.

I continued watching and found that it was completely boring. I am not kidding when I say I probably accidentally skipped half the episodes just because I was thinking of the better anime I could watch. Jesus Christ. One episode had the girls be really angry at the boys for ogling them which, if you watched anime in the early 2000s, have probably heard of this plot line. It’s about as boring as you could imagine and more!

Side note: how many times has a female character, who has not been established as a pervert, ogled men? It’s a very weird convention than women’s (weirdly enough, straight women get the brunt of this but I watch yuri more often so it might just be me) sexualities get brushed off.

For an anime that is obsessed with sex, it seems really bad at sex ed. It literally only shows one position (missionary) and never quite talks about kink, safe sex and consent, which is wager is incredibly important to educate teenagers on. Sadly, the creators are likely only interested in selling Zero Two figurines to a bunch of horny anime fans who will eat anything up so they don’t give a shit about that.

Which is another thing the anime community duped me on.

They kept mentioning Freud and really interesting sex comparisons (really, it’s about as basic as a 7th grade biology lesson) so I thought that this anime would have something interesting to say about sex. It did not. It may have been more sex positive than other anime but given the characters are technically married (the first episode had allusions to marriage), it probably isn’t extremely sex positive and more creepy. Power to them, I guess.

However, that’s not my point.

My point is that I’m sick of people throwing out references and pretending that means they are very enlightened and they are very interesting! References should have a purpose and be a narrative device in the story. One example that does this well is Flip Flappers. It references ojou type women which were a staple in Class S yuri manga, which the show obviously carries some influence because it is also yuri. The women are perfect and prim and the world is equally perfect and prim. However, the catch is that the world resets at midnight and the day repeats itself ad infinitum. This is a clear parallel to old yuri conventions where lesbian relationships must adhere to traditional Japanese conventions of femininity and stop by graduation. By having the characters fight against this is a statement that this anime will not trivialise the characters’ sexualities and refuses to compromise to homphobia. Here, the reference has a use.

In DITF, there is no use apart from short hand that the robots rely on sex.

That’s it

Speaking of lesbians, there was a lesbian character, Ikuno, who is completely in love with Zero Two, the main love interest for Hiro (because of course). Of course, the robot doesn’t work when the two of them are together because of their incompatible sexualities. Which would be a statement if it weren’t for the fact this character could clearly work with men in the mecha even though she is explicitly lesbian so the point is sort of moot and the sentiment was lost.

She did get a girlfriend, which is cool, I guess.

There was also a bi male character but because his bisexuality is so vague, it almost doesn’t count as representation.

Also, the ending has Zero Two and Hiro die for each other which would be tragic if it weren’t for the fact that the two are unable to function without the other. Again, the anime glorifies an unhealthy and toxic relationship and the fact DITF doesn’t even acknowledge that is worrying given that it’s explicitly about relationships and there are hardly any media which discuss just how hurtful being in this type of relationship is.

#rant #im tired #and incoherent #have fun

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kthyunngg · 7 years ago

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Save to Drafts | One

Member: Jin

Genre: Angst like no tomorrow, a pinch of fluff

Word Count: 1.5k

Summary: They say writing relieves the soul, so what does a couple do when they break up? They write; emails to be exact. However, the emails are never sent. They keep writing and keep adding to the pile of unsent emails...all saved as drafts.

A/N: HELLO! This is another series that I’m working on, but it’s different and more special because it’s a collab with @nochutae. We will be alternating in writing the chapters so she will be posting the second part! Please enjoy this first chapter that I wrote and anticipate what’s to come!

I’m sorry. You must have moved on by now and you probably won’t believe me when I say this, but I never wanted things to be this way. I was foolish, angry, and just, completely broken at that time. Ever since that night, I have only regretted my decision more and more. I wish we would still keep in contact, but I know that the scars I left on you are beyond healing; as they are for me. Sometimes I like to pretend that none of this ever happened, that we were still happy together while living in our apartment. I really do regret my words, my actions, that whole day in general. We could have avoided something like that, I could have prevented it, but I let my emotions get the best of me. I really am sorry.

“Are you sure you want to save as draft?”

You click the “save” button without any hesitation.

Two years.

It has been exactly two full years since you said the harsh words,

“I want to end this.”

At that time it felt like the right thing, but it didn’t take you long to realize that in fact they weren’t. You were angry, distressed, ultimately your emotions were not intact. What could have been five years of being together ended up being 24 hours of fighting, crying, and hatred. You ended up becoming the villain to your own fairytale.

Jin, your longterm boyfriend was the absolute best thing that could ever happen to you. He was caring, patient, so kind, funny, but serious when he needed to be.

Perfect

That’s the only word that you can use to describe him. You swore to yourself that no matter how bad things got, you would never let him go. He was your rock. Was.

What about now?

Two years did not pass by with ease. In fact, it was anything but easy. The first month after you ended everything was the hardest. You would go home expecting to hear the sound of the tv turned on in the background while Jin prepares dinner, but all you got was the empty echos of your footsteps and creaking of the floor. You wanted so desperately to call him, to just talk to him, but the stubborn side of you prevented that. There was no way you would eat your words, never.

I passed by the beach today. Since it’s summer, there are a lot more people compared to when we go during spring and the fall just for those walks. The kids were running around with bright smiles on their face while their mothers would chase them to wipe their ice cream stains. They’re so cute...Remember when we said we wanted a big family? Three kids, two sons and one daughter? I still do...I wonder what it’s like to fill up a dining table with dishes, fill the living room with cheerful laughter, bright smiles, and just pointless banter...I wonder…

Save to Drafts

You’re oh too familiar with the sequence of typing long paragraphs and proceeding to press the blue button. One email became two, and two became ten. Soon enough, writing these emails became second nature to you, but not once would you ever send them. In a way, they’re your way of coping with everything. Somewhere along the way, you’ve accepted the fact that you won’t ever see Jin again. You’ve accepted the fact that you broke his heart and you can only blame yourself. You’ve accepted all of this. Admittedly, there are lingering feelings, but they aren’t the regular feeling of love. A part of you genuinely feels lost, but you know that no matter how hard you look, you will never be able to find you.

It’s like nostalgia. Nostalgic for the way things were, for the times you had, the laughter you shared, and for the feeling you had knowing that no matter what happened, Jin would always be there for you. You’re trying to be a strong person, you know you don’t need someone to make you feel loved, but Jin wasn’t just someone. He was your family; the only one who didn’t leave you…

Do you remember how we used to make up stories of our future for fun? I would make one for you and you for me. I wonder if any of the stuff I said has actually come true for you. Are you travelling the world with your soulmate? Are you living in a huge house with five dogs? Are you taking the subway to go to work in a sharp suit? Are you...happy?

Now you go about your day, going to work, coming home, and repeating that schedule. You always try to pack your schedule to the very brim so you don’t have to worry about anything else, but your friends always try to take you out. Of course there are days where you’re absolutely not in the mood for anything and no one can change that. Your friend Yuri is constantly trying to take you places. Parties, get togethers, casual trips to the mall, wherever it is, she’s taking you. You appreciate the fact that she even takes the time to bother with you so you hardly ever refuse her invitations.

About a year ago, Yuri’s boyfriend asked her to marry him and your outings together have become less frequent. It’s understandable considering the amount of work that needs to be done for a wedding; sending invitations, getting the venue, finding a dress, and organizing everything in general takes a lot of time. However, the wait is over. After months and months of planning and stressing, Yuri is finally getting married. Tonight is the last night for her as an unmarried woman and all of her friends including you are out for her bachelorette party.

The music is loud, people are dancing, and drinks are disappearing as quick as they arrive. You don't drink very often, but perhaps it's the atmosphere or the fact that Yuri and a few other friends keep playing drinking games and ordering rounds after rounds. About an hour into the party, you can already feel yourself getting a little bit tipsy. The music only gets louder while your feet become lighter. The more you drink, the more freely your body moves and honestly, it feels great.

It has been so long that you've been able to let loose like this. You tried to refrain from drinking too much or else your euphoria will end up feeling like hell instead. Key word though, tried. Soon enough, everybody attending the party has migrated to the dancefloor and all of you are having fun. However, all good things must come to an end. Yuri, who stayed the most sober for the night had to end the celebration since the big day is tomorrow. All of you understood and send her some more congratulatory wishes.

One by one, the party disperses. You too are able to hail a cab successfully and head home. As soon as you arrive home, you're hit with a wave of emotions. Yuri and her boyfriend of five years are going to get married. You and Jin were together for six years. You know it's not right, but you can't help but wonder where you and Jin would be today if you didn't break up. Would you have been married to him? Would you have started a family by now? Or would you still be dating and enjoying life as it is? There are so many questions you want to ask, but you know you will never get an answer. Subconsciously, you take out your phone and start typing.

Yuri is getting married tomorrow. I'm sure she's super excited and nervous. The way her boyfriend proposed is so romantic too! They were walking around town, had a nice dinner, and then had an evening stroll on the beach. Somewhere along the way, Yuri saw some bright lights on the sand, they were coming from candles that her boyfriend set up and then you can probably imagine, he popped the question. Sometimes I wonder if we would have gotten married, I mean, we did talk about how many kids we wanted, where we would live, stuff like that. I thought we were ready for marriage; we already lived together, we had stable jobs, we had enough money expenses, all that technical stuff, but I felt like we were ready to take that next step… but I overestimated myself. I have to admit, I have imagined what our wedding day would be like. You would be waiting at the end of the aisle while I walk down in a simple, but still quite elegant dress. It would be an autumn wedding since it's not too hot or cold and no bugs. We would invite our friends and family, everyone would be happy and dancing. Flower petals would decorate the tables and there would be carnations decorating the entire venue. After the wedding, we would head straight to the airport to our honeymoon to Hawaii (since you said you always wanted to visit that place). But… all that is just a fantasy now

#bts angst #sfwbangtan #bt-yes-network #bts fluff #bts series #bts jin #kim seokjin #seokjin angst #seokjin fluff #seokjin series #jin angst #jin fluff #jin series #jin fanfic #bts fanfic #saved to drafts #kthyunngg #nochutae

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realisticallycynical · 7 years ago

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i was tagged by @skygemspeaks to answer these... 85? i think it’s 85 questions and tag 20 people (i’ll just tag as many as i can think of)

The last...

drink: water. before that, Sprite phone call: my boss, she was coming to pick me up for work and dinner text message: my boss, again song you listened to: Glory and Gore by Lorde time you cried: last wednesday dated someone twice: i've barely ever dated someone once, i am the Number One Piner kissed someone and regretted it: not really? i'm not huge on kisses that aren't platonic been cheated on: no lost someone special: my best friend, she didn't die or anything, she's just been ignoring everyone else since november been depressed: hahahahaha my guys, my dudes, i am ALWAYS depressed gotten drunk and thrown up: nope

three favourite colours

forest green deeeeeeeep blue silver

in the last year have you

made new friends: yeah fallen out of love: yes, with the aforementioned best friend (mostly, can't say i have entirely yet) laughed until you cried: a few times, yeah found out someone was talking about you: yeah. not fun met someone who changed you: no, not really found out who your friends are: absolutely. i don't take kindly to people throwing away frindships for romantic relationships, but i've gotten closer to my other friends because of it kissed someone on your facebook list: like, facebook friends? one of them played the pocky game with me yesterday, does that count?

general

how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life? nearly all of them, i've never really been the type to give out facebook or snapchat or whatever to random people (instagram though i give out to like, everyone for some reason) do you have any pets? TOO MANY FRIGGIN HAMSTERS (long story) do you want to change your name? depends on the day. generally, yes. but i don't know what to change it to. besides, Cass is fairly gender neutral so i'm not sure i want to change that part. maybe just my last name because of its connection to my father what did you do for your last birthday? went to see Suicide Squad xD what time did you wake up? 6ish what were you doing at midnight last night? eating green tea ice cream with my boss because she felt like going out for dinner at like 10:30 when we finished work. i love my boss name something you can’t wait for: AUGUST 4TH IS VOLTRON DAY!!! also my eighteenth birthday on the 11th! also the day i move out of this hellhole on the 25th! also fall semester of NEXT year so i can submit my portfolio and be done with THAT stress!! i'm a very high stress person!!!! can you tell!!!!!!!! what are you listening to right now? traffic and the Lorde station of iHeartRadio something that is getting on your nerves: my grandmother arranging my schedule without asking me even though i do have a life outside of her most visited website: tumblr, youtube, and ao3. that's a fairly even split but i may spend more time on tumblr because of the sheer number of sideblogs i'm maintaining atm hair colour: dark brown (most people think it's black, it's REALLY dark) long or short hair: long? i guess?? it goes down to the small of my back if i straighten it but it's curly so it's usually up by my shoulders. it's long, it just doesn't look like it's long do you have a crush on someone? i pretty much always have a crush on someone. even if there's no one new, i've been lowkey in love with my Best Friend (different one than the one i mentioned) since i was like,,,,,,,,, five. earlier, probably, but i didn't know how not-straight i was then what do you like about yourself? HAHAHAHAHAHA.... do i have to answer this one? piercings: five, technically. all of them in my ears. gotta get three of them redone, and i'm planning on a tongue and nose piercing in the next year, plus a few more in my ears nickname: cass, cassadilla (only two people are allowed to use this one lmao) relationship status: Taken(tm) zodiac: Leo, through and through pronouns: they/them, but my closeted ass will also respond to she/her out of habit favourite tv show(s): Boku no Hero Academia, Voltron, Yuri!!! on Ice, No Game No Life, Black Butler (sue me), Haikyuu!!, probably something else i'm forgetting tattoos: none YET. i'm getting a feather with a peter pan quote on my leg in the next month or so, and there's a MASSIVE one that i know i want eventually right or left handed: right surgery: no sport: none. i'm sitting here trying to think of a sport i legitimately enjoy besides volleyball (which i don't have the upper body strength for) and i'm coming up completely blank vacation: we went to San Diego on a school trip. wasn't the best trip because i got ditched/hurt a lot, but i got closer to some less-close friends because of it so silver linings i guess pair of trainers: i think trainers are sneakers, so... nike

more general

eating: like what am i eating rn? nothing. what would i like to be eating? green tea mochi drinking: nothing, but i would love to be drinking hot chocolate i’m about to: email a prison inmate about dropping off some artwork (because somehow interning for a producer entails this) and then work on some writing and THEN get my sister ready to leave waiting for: nothing, i don't think. time to pass faster? want: to direct movies and be recognized for something other than my attitude get married: doubtful, i'm too afraid of commitment and i've seen too many marriages go sour career: either a director or a producer. if film doesn't work out, a novel or comic editor

hugs or kisses: hugs all the way lips or eyes: eyessssss shorter or taller: taller, but i'm tall so it's harder to find someone taller than me older or younger: no real preference here, i don't care as long as it's not a significant gap nice arms or nice stomach: arms hookup or relationship: relationship ofc troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant except with certain things. my attitude gets me in trouble but i normally get out of it really quick because 90% of the time i was RIGHT, i was just an asshole about it

have you ever

kissed a stranger: ew, no drank hard liquor: actually yes, on my 16th birthday. didn't get drunk but didn't like it much either lose glasses/contact lenses: i lost my glasses on a field trip to Six Flags when i was like,,,, 9? and i lose contacts all the time lmao turned someone down: two different people, both of whom didn't quite know what no meant sex on the first date: gross, no had your heart broken: a few times been arrested: got close once, but no (again, long story) cried when someone died: my great grandpa, but only because i was expected to, i liked him a lot but i was too young to really know what was happening, and i'd only met him like 4 times because they lived out in Florida fallen for a friend: too. many. fuckin. times.

do you believe in

yourself: rarely, unless it's in the context of work miracles: sometimes love at first sight: no. it's a nice concept, but it completely disregards the other person's complexity as a human being to think that you're in love with all of them the instant you see them for the first time santa claus: nah kiss on the first date: probably not, it really would depend on the situation and the person but i'm not much of a kisser so it's fairly unlikely angels: depends on the day

other

eye colour: brown favourite movie: Peter!!! Pan!!!!

i’ll tag @hufflepuffisthebest, @monzoona, @the-dork-crow-smiles, @crossroadswrite, @thebaehood, and anybody else that wants to do it!

#holy crap I got tagged in a thing #friend tag #mutuals

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snowywrites · 3 years ago

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Natsuki x comedic!reader

summary: this was a request from someone on quotev, reader is gender neutral!

word count: 3k

You set your bag down next to your usual chair in the Literature Club room before taking a seat in one of the desk chairs. Stretching your arms up high over your head, you suppress a yawn; being stuck in school for an extra hour or so wasn't all that bad, considering you got to see your friends whom you didn't really share any classes with.

"Ugh. You're never the first one here."

A familiar irritated voice catches your attention, and you turn around in your chair to grin at the one and only Natsuki. Your expression brightens even more when you notice what she's carrying.

"Aww! Are those for us?" You coo, rising quickly from your chair to hurry over to the short pink-haired girl standing by the entrance to the room, examining the tray of muffins in her hands.

Immediately Natsuki recoils away from you, reminding you so much of a stray cat who never received enough love in their life. The thought makes you snort to yourself as she even straight up hisses, "Wh- these aren't for- I mean- they're for the club! But they aren't for, like, you and me!"

You listen to her fierce but confusing denial politely, your smile softening but never completely disappearing. She could get so riled up sometimes over the tiniest things.

Natsuki's blush is apparent, and you're highly tempted to make some sort of joking comment comparing her to something, when she suddenly backs up too far and collides with the doorframe of the classroom behind her. She squeaks, the tray suddenly seeming very shaky in her hands as she struggles to regain her balance to keep herself from toppling to the floor.

Not missing a beat, you reach out to catch the tray just as it slips from her hands, only narrowly managing to avoid watching the muffins spill all over the place.

Feeling pretty proud of yourself for that nice save, you hold the tray up triumphantly with one hand, showing off just a little bit as you smirk at Natsuki. "Well, what do you think? Have I earned the right to have at least one of these most-delightfully-baked-goods?"

She's fumbling for a response, ego most definitely wounded.

You lower the tray again, adding teasingly, "Alas, if you can't spare even one little muffin, I suppose we could work out some kind of arrangement?" You pause and hum, tapping your chin thoughtfully with one finger from your free hand, pretending to think for a moment. "How's about, say, three years of your devoted friendship? That about equals the rescued lives of- onetwothreefourfiveand... six muffins, wouldn't you agree?" You say, making a small show out of counting them.

Natsuki glares at you with scorching magenta eyes, stuttering over her words so much ('don't compare her to Yuri even as a joke, she will kill us right here and now, Y/N.') that you start to worry if maybe you've gone too far in teasing her today- not everyone appreciates your jokes, but you usually got the impression that Natsuki actually kind of liked them... even if she acted like she didn't. Normally, you could literally see her trying her best to fight back a giggle, but this time she seemed more sensitive for whatever reason.

"Ah, Natsuki-"

Whatever half-assed attempt at an awkward apology you were about to come up with was interrupted, of course, by your ever-excitable mutual friend Sayori launching herself into the classroom with all the unrestrained joy of an elementary schooler, exclaiming, "Y/N! You're never here this early- and you brought snacks??"

Sayori leans too close into your personal space to inspect the muffins before deciding, "Wait, no- these look too good to be yours, I bet Natsuki-" She glances over her shoulder to see the baker in question and exclaims, "So you did make them! Hey, thanks!"

Natsuki, still attempting to recover from her previous flustered state, huffs, refusing to look at either of you two. "Y-Yeah, it's no big deal..."

Sayori is already reaching over to snag one of the muffins; you have no doubt in mind that she was the reason Natsuki made six treats instead of five.

You try to catch Natsuki's eye so you could feign some good ol' exaggerated exasperation with the way Sayori ate like such a child, and how tactless she could be, but the short girl was doing her absolute best to continue ignoring your entire presence.

Yikes, maybe you actually had seriously offended her... or maybe it was just something else entirely that had upset her so much...?

Before you had the chance to really think too much about what could be bothering Natsuki, the other members of the Literature Club arrived for the usual after school meeting, first Yuri and then shortly after Monika, both apologizing for being tardy even though they weren't that late at all.

"Oh, Natsuki brought snacks?" Inquires Monika as she notices the muffin tray you had set down on a desk a couple of minutes ago. "Let's all have them before we do any reading or discussions today."

Sayori beams at the club president's words, having already polished off her first muffin and now eager for yet another. You didn't blame her, Natsuki was a great baker, but sheesh, with the way Sayori had inhaled it, you wondered if she even tasted it at all.

You try yet again to send Natsuki a warm smile in the hopes of cheering her up somehow, but she was still steadfastly pretending you didn't exist, apparently, and so your efforts were futile.

Resigned to your fate, you help Monika push some of the desks together to form a makeshift table that everyone settled down at, each club member taking a muffin for themselves and starting to dig in.

"No complaints, Sayori?" You hum after the first bite when you realize what the flavor of these particular muffins is.

Your energetic friend is probably eating too quickly to really notice, as you originally suspected, and she simply blinks at you, confused.

"What do you mean 'complaints'?" Natsuki pipes up sharply, though her voice is wavering which makes you think she actually cares quite a lot about what others- maybe even you in particular- think of her baking prowess.

You shake your head defensively, chuckling a little. "Don't shoot, don't shoot! It's just, they're blueberry. Sayori can be such a kid sometimes, so I-"

"Do you not like them?" Natsuki snaps, making you wish, not for the first time, that you could finish a sentence around these girls.

"Ah- nono, I do! It's really good! I just was- uhm-" You struggle to find the right words to defend yourself under her heated glare. Why was Natsuki taking everything you said so personally today?

"Y/N was only joking," Monika, bless her soul, steps in calmly with the patience of a saint to try and smooth out the situation before it was given the chance to escalate any further. "You know how they can be."

Wow, okay, ouch.

You dramatically place a hand over your heart. "Why, Monika! You wound me." And honestly, there was a teensy bit of truth buried and hidden underneath your dumb joke. Just because you liked to cover up any feelings of discontentment in an effort to find the tiniest semblance of humor in just about any scene of life didn't mean you went around purposely hurting the feelings of those around you. Or... did you? Shoot, now you weren't sure anymore.

Sayori laughs out loud at your over the top display, and you notice even Yuri is trying to hide a smile behind her muffin, her violet eyes almost unnerving with the way they follow your every movement.

But you aren't really paying attention to any of them at the moment, so much so that you don't even process Monika's reply. Your focus is purely on Natsuki.

She's not glaring directly at you anymore, but down at her hands which are clasped together in her lap.

You clear your throat; being serious wasn't your thing, but you still wanted to give it a try- for her. Softly, in the hopes of not letting the rest of the girl's overhear your words, you begin, "Natsuki, I..."

"It is strange, though." Yet again you are interrupted! If it had been Sayori, you would have been openly frustrated with her, but this time it's Yuri's shy self who has at last decided to share something of her thoughts with the group.

A beat of silence. “What’s strange?” Monika prompts when Yuri doesn’t continue her train of thought.

The violet-haired girl jolts a little, as if she hadn’t realized she’d spoken out loud. “Ah- just that- uhm- I was just thinking… Natsuki usually bakes cupcakes for us instead of muffins,” she explains timidly.

Huh. Weird observation, but Yuri kinda had a point.

Natsuki stiffens, sending a scowl in Yuri’s direction. “You don’t have to psychoanalyze literally everything, y’know. Life isn’t always like one of your dumb novels where you have to make up deeper meanings for when one doesn’t exist.”

You exchange a swift glance with Monika- lately, you and the club president had sort of been tag teaming helping each other lately to diffuse conflict within the Literature Club. Most often, the offenders were the same as the ones now: Natsuki and Yuri. Monika’s method of smoothing over issues was calmly and kindly, whereas you tended to take a more comedic route where angry grumbles could dissolve into grudging laughter.

Since it was technically your turn to step in and try to solve some conflict before either girl burst into tears, you interject with the first set-up for a joke that pops into your head.

“Heh, careful, Natsuki. I think you might give Yuri a new idea for one of her poems.” You face the taller girl as you continue, “Here, I’ll help you with the topic- ‘muffins- are they just ugly cupcakes?’ Yeah, just throw in some fancy language and stuff and-“

You can tell by everyone’s expressions that you’ve made a misstep somewhere here in your delivery, but then Yuri reaches up with one hand as she tries to mask her smile, and you’re intensely relieved you didn’t hurt her feelings.

Somehow, though, it seemed someone else was hurt.

Natsuki stood up abruptly from her chair, the sound of it’s metal legs grating on the floor causing you to wince. “Can you be serious for once?”

She doesn’t wait for your response, just turns on her heel to grab her cute pink backpack and then stalk out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

“Sheesh, what did I say….?” You sigh heavily, combing a hand through your hair. You were so frustrated with both yourself and Natsuki.

Sayori gave you a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, already standing up to go check on Natsuki, but Monika’s timelessly intelligent emerald gaze was fixed on you with a thoughtfulness that seemed beyond her years, and it did not move away from you when she spoke to Sayori. “No, let’s have Y/N go and talk things out with her.”

You cringe. “Won’t that just make things worse?” You worry, shaking your head. “I mean, call me crazy, but I don’t think I’ll be getting an award for being her favorite person anytime soon, Monika…”

A faint smile crosses Monika’s face. “Mm, I think you’d be surprised. Just go and talk with her, and please hurry before you miss her. I’d hate to lose a club member, especially one as talented as Natsuki.”

You stand up, a bit alarmed by the assumption your club president was making here. What, just because of one little spat it was presumed Natsuki would quit the Literature Club altogether? That would never happen!

….Would it?

You weren’t keen on taking your chances of finding out, so you hastily made your exit from the classroom, looking around the school halls and seeing just a flash of pink disappear around the corner to your right.

You hurry after Natsuki, glancing around uncertainly- you were pretty sure you weren’t allowed to roam the halls like this after classes were over, even if you were in a club. Plus, it seemed like Natsuki wasn’t actually leaving the school building at all, she was heading for the roof.

You don’t call her name for fear of being reprimanded by some annoying teacher or other staff, so you kept quiet as you trailed after your friend up some flights of stairs; if she was aware of your presence, she said nothing- you were mostly sure that she would’ve snapped at you to go away if she had noticed you.

At last you make it to the door that went out to the roof of the school building, which had just closed behind Natsuki. Tentatively, you push it open as quietly as possible and take a small peek outside to survey the situation.

Natsuki is sitting on a small bench with her back still to you, her attention apparently fixed on the horizon.

“Wow, they have benches up here?” You ask, finally making your presence known as you step out onto the roof and allow the door to drift shut behind you.

Natsuki starts, glancing back over her shoulder to see you, and her eyes narrow when you offer her a hesitant smile. “If you’re here to apologize, you can just leave.” Her voice is sharp, but you can sense that she sounds almost, defeated in a way.

You shrug, wandering over to sit down next to her, looking towards the sky. “Good thing I wasn’t planning on apologizing, then.”

She huffs, purposely scooting away from you so that she was right on the edge of the bench. “Look, what makes you think I want your company?”

“I dunno. Maybe I just wanted to explain what I meant for my own sake. My reputation and all that?”

She purses her lips together. “Go ahead then,” she mutters wearily.

“I never mean to offend you or anybody else with my jokes. I just kinda, joke around a lot, it’s not something I ever even think about doing, it just happens.” You pause, sighing dramatically as if the weight of the world has been taken off of your shoulders. “Boy, it’s been so long since I’ve held onto that secret. “So… now it’s your turn.”

At last the pink-haired girl looks at you, mildly confused. “My turn to do what?”

“Share a secret,” you clarify playfully.

Natsuki immediately shakes her head, a brilliant blush painting her cheeks. “Wh- never!”

You laugh. “Okay, alright, point taken. How about this then: how was your day?”

Natsuki calms down somewhat, apparently actually considering your question. You realize she seems… sad, somehow. “It was… whatever.”

“Did you bake the muffins this morning or-?” You ask idly.

“No, last night.” She pauses, glancing away again to stare at the sky, and you got the sense she was somewhere else in her memories, not fully present with you on this school roof now. “I was… going to decorate them this morning, but then I just. Had to leave.”

“Ah, so you’re one of those tardy students, aren’t you?” You tease as gently as possible.

She exhales in a long, frustrated breath. “For your information, I got to school a few hours early actually.”

You have very few puzzle pieces of this mystery to try and fit together, and you wish she’d stop being so- mysterious about this whole thing. You hadn’t noticed before today, but you knew very little about Natsuki, aside from the facts that she liked manga (probably anime too), baking, writing, the color pink, cute things… you didn’t know anything at all about her home life. You’re tempted to ask just why she was so early, why she couldn’t decorate the muffins, but just as you’re trying to work up the courage and the right words, she saves you the trouble.

“My father…” She trails off, sounding uncharacteristically insecure for once, and her eyes seem too-bright, as if shining with unshed tears. She’s being very vulnerable with you right now, and you’re intensely worried you’re going to mess it up with her somehow, so you keep quiet and wait for her to continue. “He…”

Her voice catches in her throat, not allowing her to continue.

Instantly you lean closer to rest your hand on her hand, causing her to flinch in shock at the unexpected touch.

She gives you a look like she wants to be angry, but at the same time, she’s not pulling away from you.

You really, really don’t want to see her cry. Not Natsuki, the strong-willed, determined, fierce Natsuki. You’re unsure how to comfort people, so you go with what you know best.

In a perfectly serious tone and a straight-faced expression, you say, “Do you want me to beat him up for you?”

For a second, you’re about 80% sure she’s going to slap you right in the face.

But instead, something miraculous happens.

Natsuki giggles, and as she does so, tears streak down her cheeks.

“Oh God- I didn’t mean to-!”

“No, no!” She cuts you off, tugging her hand away from yours and swiping at her face to try and wipe the moisture from her eyes, a smile still tugging at her lips. “You’re- you’re fine- I mean! Not you, I meant that, it’s fine. Really, it’s fine…” She pauses, and you think this is the first time Natsuki has ever gazed at you with such softness.

Have you really made her feel better? You’re pretty proud of yourself for that one. You would like to tell her that she can talk to you about anything anytime, or that maybe she can hang out at your house whenever she can’t stand being at hers, but she speaks before you can.

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Your jokes are terrible.”

You tilt your head to the side in confusion. Despite the insult, you can definitely hear the smile in her voice.

#ddlc #doki doki literature club #natsuki #natsuki x reader #imagine #scenario #preference #ddlc x reader #gender neutral reader #may add more tags if i think of more

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jinxed-and-cursed · 7 years ago

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92 Things

Rules: Answer these 92 statements and tag people.

I was tagged by- No one this just looked fun and I’m bored so here we go

LAST:

1. Drink: Water 2. Phone call: My dad 3. Text message: I may be straight but I’m not that straight @glitterydoritos 4. Song you listen to: Sarah Smiles by Panic! at the Disco 5. Time you cried: Today.....

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: Nope 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: Don’t we all? 8. Been cheated on: Technically no if flirting doesn’t count 9. Lost someone special: Kind of.... 10. Been depressed: Not really sure 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Nope

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLOURS:

12-14: Blue, lavender, and black, the colors of my soul!

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: Yeah and they are pretty nice too 16. Fallen out of love: Nope 17. Laughed until you cried: OH YEAH 18. Found out someone was talking about you: Not in a mean way but yeah 19. Met someone who changed you: Yeah, lots of people can do that 20. Found out who your friends are: Yup, my squad sticks up for me and helps me out 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Facebook is still alive!?

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: Again, FACEBOOK IS STILL ALIVE!?!? 23. Do you have any pets: Yeah, two dogs, both mutts, Susie and Chuy and they are a bit lazy but they are so sweet and they literally love each other so much its adorable, like Chuy cries when he’s not with Susie 24. Do you want to change your name: Kind of because everyone expects a Mexican boy when they hear my name instead they get a pretty Caucasian looking girl who is only really half 25. What did you do for your last Birthday: Got very stressed out watching kids then went to bed 26. What time do you wake up: around 9:00 am or 10:00 am 27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Scrolling through tumblr and snapchatting my friend 28. Name something you can’t wait for: DEATH (just kidding) going to Mexico!!!

29. When was the last time you saw your mom?: My real mom was last year, my step mom was like an hour ago 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: Not being afraid of talking to people 31. What are you listening to right now: My air conditioning

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Have I? I don’t know 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: My grandpa calling me “too skinny” 34. Most visited website: YouTube 35. Mole/s: Yup and a ton of them! 36. Mark/s: A birthmark on my ribs and a scar on my foot from a longboarding accident 37. Childhood dream: I wanted to be a super hero/ artist

38. Hair colour: Auburn red 39. Long or short hair: Short 40. Do you have a crush on someone: I always do..... 41. What do you like about yourself: My eyes, my creativity at times, how I can go with the flow when I’m with certain people 42. Piercings: Just my ears, but going to get my belly button pierced in a year 43. Blood type: Don’t know 44. Nicknames: Red head, ginger, trash, Bryce Krispie Treat 45. Relationship status: Single as a Pringle 46. Zodiac: Gemini 47. Pronouns: she/her 48. Favourite TV Shows: Steven Universe, Voltron, The Office, and Yuri on Ice 50. Right or left hand: Right 51. Surgery: Nope 52. Hair dyed in different colour: Nope, but probably will after i finish school since I already have gray hair 53. Sport: I used to play volleyball but just to make my parents proud, I was the worst player 55. Vacation: Summer? I’m confused 56. Pair of trainers: Huh?

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: Pringles 58. Drinking: Water (Stay hydrated!!!!) 59. I’m about to: Stay up all night because I had three cups of coffee 62. Want: money and my friend to message me back on snapchat 63. Get married: Ah, no! 64. Career: I want to be a therapist for kids and teenagers

WHICH IS BETTER:

65. Hugs or kisses: Hugs mainly 66. Lips or eyes: If you have nice eyes I’m yours so..... 67. Shorter or taller: Taller because it’s a little sad if you are shorter than me (pun intended) 68. Older or younger: Um??? 70. Nice arms or nice stomach: How about nice personality? 71. Sensitive or loud: Loud? Like they speak their mind? Depends 72. Hook up or relationship: Relationship! 73. Troublemaker or hesitant: Depends on the issue

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: No 75. Drank hard liquor: NO!!!!! 76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: No, I don’t have those 77. Turned someone down: Yes and I felt bad 78. Sex on the first date: As a virgin I can’t say I have 79. Broken someone’s heart: They broke mine first so yeah 80. Had your heart broken: Tons of times 81. Been arrested: NO! I’m scared to even think about breaking a law 82. Cried when someone died: Yeah, real and fictional 83. Fallen for a friend: Yeah, two times

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84: Yourself: Is this a joke?

85. Miracles: Depends on the miracle 86. Love at first sight: I do and I don’t does that make sense? 87. Santa Claus: Is this even a question? (My grandpa told me he was made by the illuminate to sell more toys) 88. Kiss on the first date: Technically yes, but it was more of a second date if you think about it

OTHER:

90. Current best friend name: Two names, Sabrina and Savannah 91. Eye colour: Sort of hazel I guess? They are green with like two brown rings, one near the pupil the other on the outside of the iris 92. Favourite movie: Coraline, Nightmare Before Christmas, and most studio Ghibli movies. OH AND SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING!!!! I love that movie.

I tag: @megan-the-melon @glitterydoritos @reveille413 @oml-lapis And anyone else up for it!!!!

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sirpotter-blog1 · 8 years ago

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Tagged by the lovely @smittenwithdaydreams and @spaghetti-anne, thank you so much! I always love these kind of things. :) I got tagged in two different posts so I'll merge them into one (sorta).

Rule: Tag 9 or 20 people you want to get to know better. (Depends on the post. The first part is with 9 people and the second part is with 20 people.) (But you should do how many you want to.)

1. How old are you? Seventeen. 2. What’s your current job? I'm now unemploid, but I worked at a drugstore. 3. What are you talented at? If reading books in a short amount of time a talent is then, sure that's my talent. Otherwise I'm not really talented. I write sometimes and I play the violin, piano and I sing but I'm not very good at it. 4. What is a big goal you are working toward (or have already achieved)? I really don't have a current goal I'm working towards, but I'm trying to be more independent. If that counts for something? I already know how to cook, but now I'm learning to do the laundry and cleaning and stuff. 5. What’s your aesthetic? Umm, I guess cats and books? Can scents also be your aesthetic because then it is the smell of old books, the way it smells outside when it has rained, the smell of the wax(?) for my violin bow and the smell of something baking in the oven. But really it's actually only cats and books, and maybe the rare musical instrument. 6. Do you collect anything? I used to collect little bells of every country I visited, but as I don't travel to any new countries it has kinda stopped. I also have a lot of empty journals so you could say I collect those. Just like @smittenwithdaydreams. Oh I also collect little porselain figurines of, you guessed it, cats. But I stopped collecting those a long time ago. 7. What’s a topic you always talk about? Harry Potter maybe. Cats also. I really don't know what I always talk about and I often repeat myself. A lot. 8. What’s a pet peeve of yours? When people don't use the sidewalk but walk with five people side by side on the road where the bicycles cycle (I guess the English language doesn't have a word for fietspad). 9. Good advice to give? Talk with people about your problems. If you really don't want to you shouldn't of course, but what really helped with me is that if I discuss it with someone (could be one of your parents, or your friends or family, but also maybe a psychologist or something) it gives me some air and some stress-relieve. Maybe the problem can be solved (or not) but it gives perspective anyway. 10. What are three songs you’d recommend? Good grief by Bastille, Talking to the Moon by Bruno Mars and Golden Days by Panic! at the Disco.

Name: Yindee Nickname: I don't have one. Whoops. Gender: Female Star sign: Scorpio Height: 5'8 Sexual orientation: Straight (as far as I know). Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw Favourite colour: Purple Favourite animal: Cats, and the white tiger and the giraffe are awesome too! Time right now: 22:18 Average hours of sleep: Seven to eight hours and on weekends ten. Cat person or dog person: Cat person definitely, although I have also a lovely dog at home. Favourite fictional characters: Uhm I'm in a lot of fandoms so I won't mention all of them but Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger (and basically all the HP characters) of the HP fandom, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood (again basically all the characters) from the PJO series, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark from the MCU, Sadie and Carter Kane from the Kane Chronicles (also from uncle Rick), and lastly Katsuki Yuuri and Viktor Nikiforov from Yuri!!! On Ice. So yeah I just love all the characters in the books I encounter heh. Anyway... Number of blankets I sleep with: Three. Technically four. I guess that means I'm a godless heathen, right @spaghetti-anne? Tbh my room has the temperature of a refrigerator, literally. And I need the blankets to survive. Favourite singer/band: Panic! At the Disco, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Queen and Pink Floyd (thanks parents) and all the Disney songs. Dream trip: Go to Kenya. Dream job: I really don't know. I don't even know what I want to study. Being a writer would be pretty neat but as I have tons of unfinished fics glaring at me, that probably isn't a rational idea. When was this blog created: In the middle of 2016. Current number of followers: 72 (I’m so tiny lmao) What do you post: Harry Potter related stuff and mostly Drarry. When did your blog reach its peak: It hasn't yet. Or I hope so. Otherwise I'd be really sad. What made you decide to make a tumblr: I read a couple of Solangelo headcanons from @theroyalsavage and I was very impressed. I wanted to read more but to scroll down you had to create a blog. Add that with the fact that a lot (3 out of 4) of friends of mine had a tumblr and I wanted to join too. I made a blog ( @nothingtoread ) and posted book related stuff and aesthetics but it felt very impersonal and I didn't connect a lot with people. That was in 2015 and I put it on hiatus (even though it isn't mentioned over there. Sorry). Then I decided to make a blog about what I loved and recently came into my life again: Harry Potter. And I was before that already introduced to Drarry and I wanted to connect with people who liked the same things as I did. And then boom this crappy blog arose. I'm really glad with my decision and the HP fandom people are the nicest people ever Why did you choose your url: So my main posting subject is Drarry and I was like: there are so many good drarry blogs with amazing urls so what do I do? Then it occurred to me that Draco and Harry always look (or glare) at each other and a very fixed glare too. Hence the url.

I don’t tag anyone because I’m lazy (I’m very sorry) and I don’t know a lot of people who like this or haven’t already done a similar tag. But if you see this post and want to do this be my guest! I would love to get to know y’all better! <3

#personal #getting to know eachother tag

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photographerguide-blog · 6 years ago

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Top 30 Most Stunning Photos From The National Geographic Instagram Photography Contest

New Post has been published on https://photographyguideto.com/must-see/top-30-most-stunning-photos-from-the-national-geographic-instagram-photography-contest/

Top 30 Most Stunning Photos From The National Geographic Instagram Photography Contest

National Geographic has made a name for themselves with their earth-shattering photographs, so it was no surprise that they made Instagram history as the first brand to reach 100 million followers (those are almost Kim Kardashian numbers). To celebrate in true Nat Geo fashion, they opened up a photography contest across the photo-sharing platform – using the hashtag #natgeo100contest. In the 24-hour contest window, the magazine received more than 94,000 photograph submissions. The photo editors and photographers at Nat Geo went through the entries and narrowed them down to the top 10 most stunning images and then let their 10 million followers vote on who would be the grand prize winner. Below you can view the contest winning photo, the top finalists along with some other gorgeous entries that didn’t make the cut but are still just as mind-blowing. Voting for #natgeo100contest may be over but don’t forget to upvote your favs for Bored Panda!

#1 André Musgrove

Looking down from above, like a satellite orbiting around the earth, my camera’s view finder presses against my mask, this is one of the most memorable views from My World. Pushing through the strong currents, low visibility and rough waves this day was most definitely worth it.

For the grand prize, winner Ketan Khambhatta, won Nat Geo photo safari to Tanzania. While the other top 10 finalists received National Geographic photo books signed by their photographers along with having their winning images posted to @NatGeo throughout the week.

#2 Grand Prize Winner Ketan Khambhatta

In the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, zebras search for crocodiles while wildebeest run across the river. Photographer Muhammed Muheisen: The image is so dynamic, with a powerful depth that keeps me looking. A moment well captured.

#3 Sebastien Nagy

Always prefer the focus on a single tower but yes… there is another one right next

#4 Anuroop Krishnan

A giraffe family at sunrise

#5 Chaitanya Deshpande

‘Here Comes The Sun’

#6 Finalist Adam Kiefer

National Park Ranger Matthieu Shamavu embraces Matabishi, an orphaned juvenile mountain gorilla, at the Senkwekwe Center, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Senkwekwe is the only rehabilitation center for mountain gorillas in the world. Photographer Ami Vitale: The image is sublime because we immediately understand that it’s a metaphor for unspeakable brutality but also great tenderness. This image illustrates our complex bond with the natural world.

#7 Brent Stirton

I was totally privileged to spend time with the world’s best pangolin care-givers at the Tikki Hywood Trust for an upcoming natgeo magazine story. I witnessed an extraordinary relationship unfold as these men helped rescued, traumatized pangolin to find ants and termites to eat and kept them safe from predators and poachers. Pangolins are the world’s most trafficked animal in the illegal wildlife trade and are extraordinarily endangered. The Tikki Hywood Trust undertakes public awareness campaigns, trains law enforcement and judiciary personnel, conducts research, and rehabilitates pangolins that have been confiscated from the illegal trade. They operate with partners across Africa and advise in Asia. A recently opened extension Tikki Hywood Trust Foundation cameroon is doing great work in the epicenter of the illegal pangolin world. Founder Lisa Hywood is seen as a global expert on how to care for Pangolins in captivity and along with partner Ellen Connelly, they represent an extraordinary example of how to care for animals. The trust also engages with other organizations and governments throughout Africa to highlight the plight of pangolins, raising awareness of their conservation status and educating them as to the need for conserving pangolins, as well as implementing conservation actions. Many of their activities are not covered by research grants and they rely on sponsors and donations to continue their work. It is estimated that over a million pangolin have been lost in the last ten years, this is from a population that we have never counted, we have no idea how many remain, and we know it is not possible to breed these animals in captivity. We are losing these extraordinary animals so quickly to the illegal Asian market that they may disappear before we can truly appreciate them

#8 Yuri Choufour

Sashimi anyone?

Black bears enjoy a varied diet, but these omnivores greatly depend on protein rich salmon to build up reserves as they prepare to hibernate in winter.

#9 Finalist Frank Haluska

Great Egrets appear serene and still in wetlands, but they are also vicious hunters, who eat anything they can catch—including this bullfrog, who appears to be fighting hard for survival. Photographer Cory Richards: This moment is so bizarre and confusing that I had to zoom in to make sure another animal’s foot wasn’t sticking straight out of the water to block the distressed frog from certain death.

#10 Finalist Sandra Cattaneo Adorno

On a day when the sea was unusually rough and the undertow dangerously strong, bathers on Ipanema beach, in Rio de Janeiro, appear hesitant to take the plunge. Photographer Michaela Skovranova: A surreal scene—this image highlights an eclectic mix of light, human impact, and the power of the environment. It’s as if the heat of the Earth and the humans is radiating off the sand, creating their own micro climate.

#11 Maxime Israel Collier

Look at those eyes

#12 Nicholas Parker

Following one of the worst winter storms in Hawaii’s recent history, large swells wiped out the beaches of western Maui. The next day, large pieces of coral were scattered throughout the beach.. I picked through the most colorful and beautiful pieces and found this composition of the island of Moloka’i. The wave action reminds me of fingers from the sea coming to reclaim the coral back

#13 Finalist Matt Potenski

Whale sharks have personalities. This one was bold and curious, approaching the boat anytime we came near. Whale sharks are huge, so large they resemble living reefs. No other terrestrial animal can match their size, power, and grace. Photographer Cristina Mittermeier: I have done a lot of swimming with whale sharks, and you never get to see an absolutely beautiful moment like this that exemplifies the abundance of healthy oceans.

#14 Devon Fox

Can you see the sea horse? This photo was taken in Page, AZ during our last road trip. Strange shapes start to appear in the layers carved into these slot canyons

#15 Sebastian Scheichl

Starting my pictures from the Faroes with a sheep, probably the first thing that comes to your mind when thinking about these islands

#16 Majed Sultan Alza’abi

Drinking time

#17 Nicholas Parker

The weather here lately is snow joke. Another day in single digits with howling wind

#18 Finalist Francisco J. Perez

A summer thunderstorm rolls over the Grand Canyon. This image is a combination of three consecutive long exposure photos of the storm. Photographer Charlie Hamilton James: This is an exceptional image of lightning striking the Grand Canyon. It is muddy, dramatic and demonstrates excellent technical ability.

#19 Jacintha Verdegaal

I still have a lot of Thailand photos to share, but this – spending the day with 4 rescued elephants – was definitely one of the highlights of 2019 so far

#20 Finalist Chris O’bryan

Galahs, a species of cockatoo, scour the parched Outback for water in Western Australia. Here, waterholes are the vital source of life. Photographer Wayne Lawrence: Of all of the images of wildlife, this one seems less clichéd and stood out because of the masterly use of color and composition.

#21 Juan Quinteros

One from the “sharks in the sandstorm” series

#22 Finalist Khatia Nikabadze

A pair of lambs stare out a car window at a livestock market in Marneuli, Georgia. Photographer David Guttenfelder: This photograph wasn’t made in the wild, yet the picture, in one moment, tells the seemingly bittersweet story of the young lambs.

#23 Finalist Sara Stein

This image depicts the frantic momentum of wildebeest crossing the Mara River in Tanzania. Photographer Tasneem Alsultan: I enjoy photos that aren’t that obvious. Is it wasps of hair? Or shards of wood? The mass of horns rushing my way seem lethal, and yet the photographer made us see the image from an artistic view.

#24 Andri Laukas

Always looking for new perspectives at these famous places

#25 Ulla Lohmann

Another one of my all time favorite images: Munganau walks home. The erupting Tavurvur volcano has destroyed beautiful Rabaul town. The people showed amazing resilience against the odds of nature and stayed with the hope, that their paradise will one day return. Fingers crossed that the volcano stays quiet! .

#26 Shivam

Madness is somewhere between chaos and having a dream.

#27 Caine Delacy

This is probably my most favorite shot

#28 Ken Geiger

it’s time for breakfast! Backlit by the early morning sun a southern yellow-billed hornbill snags a grasshopper for a snack.

#29 Arvind Patwal

“NAGA “. Believes that the twinkle in her eye may be the reflection off her lost marbles.

#30 Finalist Felice Simon

Families glide on an ice rink in Brooklyn, New York’s Prospect Park on an unseasonably warm January day. Photographer Maggie Steber: This photograph of skaters large and small somehow reminds me of a memory from childhood. The way the pristine light shoots across the ice creating long shadows feels symbolic of how we have to stay the challenging course of raising our children, always being there to catch them if they fall.