#that's not even including the second one. we're not even close to the climax yet. greg still needs to get punched

[progfessor-dyke]

Working on Prune again for the first time in about six months. Somehow, I forgot that the first document (we had to continue writing on another document because the first one got too laggy) is fucking 250 pages. And fucking NINETY-SIX THOUSAND WORDS. HELP.

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2021: Embarrassment of Riches

So this current anime season absolutely stinks, which just makes the last one look even more impressive. Well, maybe not all of it...

Zombieland Saga Revenge

First off, you don't need to tell me that the following is a severe outlier opinion. We good? Ok. ZLSR is, in a word, subpar. I liked S1 back in the day, but it was already in the process of getting lazy towards the end. S2 continues this trend and is basically just another idol show. And as someone who actually does watch other idol shows I have to say that it's not a particularly good one of those either. The zombie gimmick has mostly stopped mattering and we're just doing what every idol show does, only with the odd occasional sight gag. The alleged subversive qualities mostly amount to a flashback for Yuugiri, which is admittedly the best part of the show but feels like it barely has anything to do with anything. Apart from that, it's a bunch of generic idol plots, rehashed character beats, shoddy attempts at twists (while not connecting to any setups from S1), and the obligatory "idols give us hope" ending, which is terribly hackneyed and flat out bad. Tae gets further memed into the ground, because of course she does. And there's stuff that was simply never good to begin with, like Kotarou and his comedy schtick, which gets truly insufferable now that there's no qualities to distract from it. It really makes me think that S1 wasn't even all that good to begin with and seems like an attempt to turn this surprise success into an easy money longrunner with no edge and no ambitions. "The idol show for people who don't watch idol shows" indeed, but not the way you mean it. 4/10

Bakuten

But not to dwell on the failures, with the second show we're already above the cut — barely. This one got my attention with its really impressive performance scenes early on and it totally sticks to that, which is even more impressive. But besides that? Well, this is by far the most predictable show in a season where I watched an unambitious Kiraralike and put ZLS on blast for having no ideas. The characters are a mixed bag, some are cool (Shida, Asawo), some are very annoying (Mashiro), but those are the supports. The main cast is extremely one-dimensional, which is fine until they try to heap a ton of pathos on their lead, which doesn't go well. But I guess execution matters, and Bakuten is slick enough to get by. Writing this down in stark daylight I feel like I overrated this show somewhat (I actually put it over the next one originally, which definitely doesn't hold up when thinking about it), but I was indeed mostly entertained. 6/10

Yakunara Mug Cup mo

Yeah. Of course Mug Cup definitely doesn't invent or subvert anything either, but it's a pretty good Kiraralike that's always entertaining to watch. Explaining the qualities of such a nothing genre is as difficult as ever, but it mostly comes down to me liking the characters and it having nothing to annoy me. It's shorter than normal, which is a plus for slim shows like this. And yeah, you can make an excessive amount of dick jokes with the clay fondling. That helps too. Looks are just fine, pleasant but nothing out of the ordinary. Comfy low-effort anime. 6/10

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

This one is decent, but sadly still a major letdown. Because the first few episodes of Vivy were excellent and kicked ass, but then it became increasingly clear that the writing can't cash the checks the ideas wrote while the action starts running into severely diminishing returns. Vivy just keeps slowly getting worse and worse as it goes on, not by a huge amount each episode but by the end there's a pretty sizeable gulf between potential and result. Going into detail would probably be a little much for this venue because there's a lot, but from the top level view the issue is that while Vivy has good fundamental ideas and steals at the right places, it just isn't a smart show — it's schlock, and by the end, poorly thought out schlock that tries to smooth out every problem with liberal application of the big feels hammer and le epic twist at that. Yeah, couldn't tell that the Re:Zero dude was aboard here, for sure. That said, it still works pretty well as entertaining schlock that is not to be taken too seriously, and the characters are generally just very fun to watch even when they're doing stupid things. Still, I can't in good conscience rate this higher than Beatless, a show that looks like butt but properly executes on its ideas. 6/10

Super Cub

So this is 100% a Honda commercial, and I got really mad a Yuru Camp last season for being a blatant shill. Yet I'm feeling this, what gives? I think the main difference is that Super Cub is specifically a commercial for one product (and a very iconic product at that), while Yuru Camp is so all over the place that it ends up mostly a commercial for consumerism in general. And when Super Cub goes too hard on the product (which it does), it's at least pretty entertaining. That's something about Super Cub in general: It goes hard. Your regular Kiraralike this is not, because it's uncommonly slow, focused and moody - yes, it almost measures up to Yuru Camp at its best and demolishes it at its worst. Also, it's just extremely amusing to see sadblob Koguma grow a huge grizzly biker beard and become a badass outlaw dad to her goofy wife and cute daughter, all thanks to the power of afforable personal transportation. Needless to say, that can get unintentionally silly, but Super Cub has so much charm that it doesn't matter — it's great when it's good and still funny when it's not. 7/10

Shadows House

Shadows House turned up with a lot of potential, and I have to say it at least delivered on most of it. It has some problems; notably I'm not a fan of how the entire middle turned out to be a tournament arc of sorts that seems curiously inspired by Resident Evil memes, crest-shaped intentations and boulder punching included. I also think that this is a show that would be perfectly fine without explaining much, but I guess it is a shounen manga after all so we got dumped on eventually anyway. At least that came late - close relative Promised Neverland didn't show that much restraint. Shadows House is generally well written though, with great characters, interesting interactions and a great hook. But what really makes it memorable is that it's exceptionally good at the cute/creepy contrast, something that is often tried but rarely works as well as here, with great character designs and very appropriate production. I hope this gets a sequel, because it seems like it's just getting started. 7/10

SSSS.Dynazenon

Coming in with a fondness for Gridman, Dynazenon didn't have to do much to convince me. The surprise though is that it's not a rehash even if it's basically the same show, a character drama where occasionally huge and goofy fights break out. Dynazenon is Gridman done better, and the interesting part is how it accomplishes this - mainly by being far more conventional. I do appreciate that Gridman went for something weird and almost experimental, but that only really paid off towards the end while most of the show was a distraction/holding pattern. It just didn't feel like there was enough material for a full series there, more like a movie maybe, if even that. Dynazenon fixes this by just being a TV show, with an actual cast of characters that each have their own arc. And by spreading the material this way, Dynazenon ends up having a lot more nuance than its intensely focused predecessor, while having the same themes and not actually being any deeper. In a way, Gridman ends up looking like the spinoff in retrospect, while Dynazenon is the full package. 8/10

Thunderbolt Fantasy S3

So how good was this season? So good that Thunderbolt Fantasy doesn't end up at the top, that's how. And all the elements that made Tbolt such a sure thing are still there, big hammy puppets doing stunts and scheming never gets old. However, I do have to note that at this point, the writing appears to have gotten too comfortable. I don't expect it to ever top the amazing S1 ending, but at this point it's like Tbolt has stopped trying to deliver on endings at all and seems in the process of retooling itself into a longrunner instead. Barely anything gets resolved in S3 (the climax is that the climax of S2 is resolved again, for good this time... maybe), and everything else is just setting up plotpoints for the next season. Tbolt is truly lucky that it doesn't actually need to resolve anything to be a great time, but at this point I have to say that I'd appreciate it if they wrapped it up with S4. 8/10

Nomad: Megalobox 2

Speaking of sequels to shows I liked, Nomad doesn't so much improve upon its predecessor but steamrolls right over it. This is a tall order, since Megalobox was surprisingly good for a sports shounen and had a real nice, heartwarming ending that Nomad instantly negates for purposes of drama and everyone being extremely miserable. That sounds like a pretty terrible idea - and it would be, if Nomad wasn't as excellent as it is. To call it not the same show would be an understatement, because it's a true sequel, not just the same characters doing their thing some more, or new characters doing the same thing as the old ones did. Indeed my biggest problem with Megalobox was that it still closely adhered to its genre template and was very predictable; Nomad fixes this issue thoroughly. Nomad is about questioning what being a hotblooded shounen protagonist eventually leads you to, and how to fix everything you screwed up by being one. You could call it a deconstruction, but that term has been so abused for cynical, edgy "thing you like actually sucks" takes that I feel like it doesn't really fit here. Nomad isn't cynical at all, it's just a character drama about some boxers past their prime, and it being a sequel to a show that is indeed rather formulaic just enhances the experience. My biggest issue with it was that I really like what they did with Joe in this story, so the big focus on Mac's backstory felt like a distraction for a long time. But in the end that turned out to be absolutely necessary to make the ending work. The ending's just great, by the way, and I shall say not more about it. 9/10

Odd Taxi

Yeah boy, here's the show that has apparently become somewhat of a "greatest show you didn't watch" meme, which I can feel smug about because I don't need YouTubers to tell me what's good and followed this from day one. Anyway, Odd Taxi is indeed great, the greatest show in a few years even. What starts out as seemingly a relaxed hangout show in the vein of Midnight Diners quickly turns into a psychological murder mystery while never losing its quirky humor. The character writing is outstanding, with even small bit players being on a level that the average anime wishes it could have for leads. And the rollout of the mystery is exemplary, with answers given and new questions raised every episode with a satisfying and logical payoff in the end. This is also the rare anime that has rock solid production from the first to the last second; it's never really flashy but excellently done and highly consistent nonetheless. And the music just owns. I have a few complaints, mainly that there's a few logical weaknesses in the story (which wouldn't even register in a lesser show, but sticks out here since the rest is so immaculately constructed) and that the ending overextends on the emotions when the rest of the show is so reserved and dry in comparison. But those are only the reasons why I didn't give it perfect marks, and I almost did that anyway. 9/10

[bizarrewritings-blog]

Woke up in Japan - S.S.

Youngblood Series

Sebastian Stan x Reader

'It's enough to let the night let go of me. A few steps into the open doorway. Heart pounding, there's a noise complaint from room 304.'

Word Count: 2,008

Warnings: Mentions of smut (nothing too descriptive), swearing

Sebastian shifted on the soft sheets, groaning as the sun was shining directly onto his face. He rubbed his eyes and sat up slowly. His head was pounding, pain shooting across his spine. "What the f-" His own groan of pain interrupted him. Did he really had that much last night?

Leaning his back against the headboard of the hotel bed, he took a deep breath. As he shifted slightly, he only realized that he wasn't, in fact, wearing any clothes. That was new. When he was drunk, he either still managed to at least get rid of his pants and jacket, or he would just pass out in his suit. He never had the energy to get completely naked. Grabbing the water bottle from his bedside table, he tried to remember the events of last night.

~

"This is amazing!" A bright smile was on your face as your eyes flew over the tons of neon lights and colorful shops. Sebastian grinned at you, amused by your excitement. "Never been to Japan?" You shook your head, your eyes barely blinking out of fear to miss something. "Never had the time or possibilities to." "I offered you a thousand times to join me on a trip!" Chris Evans, your older brother, came up beside you to throw his arm over your shoulder. "I have a job as well. Be happy that i could convince my boss to give me a week off. They're going down without me, I'm holding the whole company up." You retorted with fake arrogance, making both men laugh.

Chris had introduced you to basically everyone of his marvel coworkers. They were all very sweet to you, but since the beginning you've been closest with Sebastian. He was a real gentleman, always making sure you were okay when Chris wasn't there to do the job. What you didn't know was that he did it because he had a tiny crush on you.

You had spend the first days exploring the city while your brother and friends were busy with their press tour. You tried to spend as much time as possible with them though. "How does a bar sound?" Robert suggested one evening, earning agreement from everyone. "Is Holland even old enough to drink?" You asked grinning, earning an angry glance from Tom while everyone else laughed. Even though you were only a couple years older as him, you liked to treat him like a 16 year old, just like everyone else.

The bar you decided on wasn't too crowded. You all sat down in two booth, you in the middle of one between Sebastian and Chris. "Shots for everyone!" Jeremy cheered. "I'm taking yours, you're definitely not getting wasted here." Chris said to you as the drinks arrived. You shot him a glare before taking his shot as well as yours, downing them at the same time. You coughed a little as your throat burned, but the look on Chris' face was worth it. "I like her." Sebastian grinned as he downed his shot as well, making you laugh.

This was just the beginning.

~

The memory of Chris' face made Sebastian chuckle. He's never seen the guy so shocked. Sebastian never imagined you to be a girl who could take a lot of Alcohol, but you proved him. wrong last night. He shook his head, grinning. He quickly regained himself, trying to remember what happened later.

~

"You don't think you've had enough?" Sebastian chuckled beside you as you tried to find the straw of your cocktail with your lips. You just scoffed at him. "I'm fine."

The group of people has already gotten smaller. Most of them, including your brother, already left. But not before telling Sebastian to look after you. Which was a dumb idea since Sebastian was just as drunk as you.

"Y'know, this was a great evening, but we should call it a night." Robert suggested, downing the rest of his beer. You all nodded in agreement, downing the rest of your drinks as well before making your way back to the hotel which, luckily, wasn't too far away. But the way was harder than you thought. Sebastian and you constantly clung onto each other, trying to keep on walking while giggling. The rest of the group was busy keeping themselves to walk straight.

"I can bring you to your room." Sebastian suggested as you arrived at the hotel, grinning down at you. You broke down in giggles. "We're on the same floor. On the same hallway" "Ohh yeah I forgot." Sebastian replied, laughing as well.

As you reached the third floor, you stopped at his door. "Here we are." He simply said, not making a move to open the door. "Here we are." You repeated, nodding. "The night was fun." Sebastian went on, clearly not wanting to leave. "Yeah it was." You smiled.

Then you stood there, just looking into each other's eyes. Sebastian lips parted slightly, his eyes falling to your mouth. It took you a second before you pulled him towards you, pressing your lips against his. Sebastian almost fell in the process, returning the kiss. It was messy, all tongue and teeth, and he groaned against you as you lightly tugged on his hair. "Your room, now." You muttered against his lips. Sebastian just nodded weakly, opening the door before leading you inside. He closed the door behind him, only to press you against it, your mouths still moving hungrily against each other.

~

This time Sebastian groaned out of pure embarrassment. You were Chris' sister for God's sake. He wasn't allowed to kiss you. Not like he did last night. "He's going to kill me." Sebastian muttered to himself, lifting himself off the bed to take a shower while the remaining memories of last night played in his mind.

~

"Jesus Christ." You whimpered, your head thrown back as Sebastians hips moved against you. You could feel his heart pounding against you, racing just as much as your own. He moaned above you, his eyes shut tightly as his hands gripped the sheets on both sides of your body. "You feel so good, fuck." He muttered breathless, his lips falling to your neck to suck on the sensetive skin. "So damn tight."

"Shit, Sebastian!" You moaned, gripping his hair and tugging. He growled against your neck, the pace of thrusts picking up as he searched his release. "Oh my-fuck!" You almost screamed as he grazed the right spot. He chuckled, his mouth finding yours. "You gotta keep quiet, baby." He muttered against your lips, smiling as you groaned. He leaned his forehead against yours, his bottom lip between his teeth as he neared his climax. "I'm so damn close, shit." He warned, his jaw clenched. "Me too, come on." You whimpered in response. It only took a couple more thrust for you to fall over the edge, his hand covering your mouth as you screamed his name. Your release triggered his. He buried himself as deep as possible, a deep groan leaving his lips as he came.

~

Sebastian face was in his hands as the water hit his back. He felt disgusting. On one side, last night was everything he had wished for since he had met you. But he had clearly taken advantage of you. But then, you had kissed him first. Yet, you were still Chris' sister.

He then realized that you wasn't in his bed as he had woken up. Did you regret what happened last night? What if this would be it, your friendship ruined just because he couldn't say no to you? He groaned in frustration, stepping out of the shower to dry himself off. He slipped into some sweatpants when it suddenly knocked on his door. He just sighed; he didn't want to see anyone right now.

As the knocking didn't stop, Sebastian forced himself to open the door. His breathing stopped for a second as he looked right into Chris' face; and he clearly wasn't happy. "Dude, are you fucking serious?" He snapped, pushing Sebastian back to enter the room as well. "What do y-" "Don't play dumb on me, Stan!" Sebastian gulped at his angry tone. "Y/N is my sister! In what way did you think that it would be okay to sleep with my sister?! You can be happy she's on birth control, what if you would've gottten her pregnant?!" Sebastians gaze was fixated on the carpet, not daring to look at Chris. His stare was intense, making Sebastian feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Look, I'm sorry. We were both drunk, we didn't know what we were doing." "Bullshit excuse." Chris scoffed, causing Sebastian to look at him. "You think I didn't notice the way you look at her all the time?" Sebastian gulped. He didn't know anyone had noticed. He ran a hand through his hair, sighing. "I don't know what you want to hear from me apart from that I'm sorry." Chris just rolled his eyes at his friends statement. "Go talk to her." Sebastian stared at him, blinking in confusion. "Seriously?" "I'm not the one who had sex with you and left. So yeah, go on." Sebastian just nodded, leaving the room without another word to walk up to yours.

He knocked, his nerves high as his heart raced. "Chris, I already told you, Im f-" You stopped as you opened the door. Sebastian had a nervous smile on his face as a dark blush covered your cheeks. He chose to ignore the red and purple bruises covering your neck, taking a breath instead. "Can we talk?" You nodded, motioning him to get inside. He stopped in the middle of the room as you closed the door, his hands in the pockets of his pants. He only then noticed that he forgot to put on a shirt, making the whole thing even more awkward.

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened." He started as you sat down on the bed. "We were both drunk and you clearly regret it. I took advantage of you and I know that was selfish. I'm-" "Wait what?" You interrupted him, looking up into his eyes as his brows furrowed. "What?" "You think you took advantage of me?" He just nodded, still confused. "Yeah, I mean- You left this morning without a word and I-I thought you regretted last night. That you didn't really want to have Sex with me." You just chuckled, shaking your head. "I was the one who kissed you first, dumbass." You smiled up at him. "I wanted what happened last night. I just panicked this morning because, you know, you're still one of Chris' best friends. I didn't want it to be awkward." Sebastian just stared at you in disbelief. "You wanted to?" He asked, causing you to chuckle. "Of course i did." Your face fell as he didn't seem happy. "Do you regret it?"

He immediately gathered himself, shaking his head no. "Not a second of it." You smiled in relief, standing up to walk towards him. "Soo, do you like me?" You bit your lip, smiling as you waited for his answer. He nodded. "Since the day I met you." You smiled brightly. "Same here." His hands settled on your hips as you smiled at each other. "Please let it be less messy this time." You added, making him grin. "I promise." Then his lips found yours in a slow, loving kiss. You pulled him closer to you, on of your hands caressing his stubble as you sighed into the kiss.

A knock at your door made you both jump, breaking the kiss. "I don't mean to interrupt." Chris called from the other side of the door. "But the room next to Sebastian complained about loud noises last night. If I'll ever have to hear anything from you two, I'm kicking Sebastians ass." You covered your face while giggling, embarrassed as strangers heard your moaning. Sebastian just laughed. "I'll find a way to keep you quiet." He suggested, winking as your face went red.