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generallypo · 4 years

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in all sincerity, kim dokja makes me happy and he deserves to be so too :^(

incoherent yelling and sobbing under the cut. these fEELINGS will not be contained aaauuunnghhh.

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anyway i binge-read all 500+ chapters of ORV this week and i honest to god feel bad for this -- completely! fictional! aghhhh -- guy. in case you haven’t figured it out, the following is some spoilerly shit

i went in expecting a fun, brainless power trip fantasy for dudes with an isekai addiction. instead, it turns out ORV is actually a gigantic, self-deprecating prank on the entire genre itself. kdj plays more into the sad -- if high-functioning-- clown trope than the sexy, edgy, chuuni bastard type i was prepared to laugh at. there were -- gasp! -- female characters with personalities! parents (aka ADULTS who act like ADULTS) who actually survive and feature prominently! adorable children! a real sexy, edgy bastard! a power trio with amazing fashion! sexual tension and bickering! friendship! life and death bonding!

*breathes in deeply* fouND FAMILYYYYYYY.

like, yeah, the plot around the first few arcs seems a little aimless, but the buildup is worth. the world-building is pretty decent. there’s discernible effort put into the fight scenes, and i can appreciate that. but -- but! what i stayed for were the characters -- namely, the fantastic OT3 of KDJ, HSY, and YJH -- who come together despite their initial rivalries and end up saving each other’s asses, like, every other day. granted, the other characters don’t get as much focus, and they do fall into certain character tropes..

but a trope done well is nothing i would gripe about. every significant character in ORV has a coherent, and more importantly, respectful take on their respective trope. maybe it’s because sing-shong is actually a married couple, but all the interactions between even minor characters are a convincing blend of awkward rambling, suggestive humor, sharp remarks, and casual banter. in other words, this cast of mostly working adults (plus a teen and two kids) talks like working adults. the relationships built throughout the story are, frankly, some of most realistic of its genre. sing-shong has managed to craft a dynamic that undoubtedly brims with fluffy fondness all around, but also drips with sarcastic tension, with unspoken urgency, with a wariness that softens into sincerity over the course of many, many chapters. it’s the kind of progression that makes even stock characters read like more than just the 2-bit villain or comrade or love interest. here, we have relationships both straightforward and not, strained or otherwise, romantically-oriented as well as decidedly the opposite -- and then numerous others scattered along the spectrum with the freedom to shift either way.

it’s also an interesting point of note that our MC kdj actually does not end up with a stated romantic partner, much less a conventional heteroromantic harem. he gets teased about that fact from time to time, but it’s with less of the sleazy shonen locker room humor one would expect and more of the good-natured ribbing you’d find among friends or that one especially nosy auntie at the yearly family reunion. kdj is a grown ass man. in the background, i applaud his maturity, and he handles all the prodding like a champ.

so instead of finding and fulfilling his horny, he builds himself a wealth of loving family. yeah, there are beautiful men and women around him. yeah, they unequivocally adore him. but they’re also adults, and they have priorities, too -- which are not so much finding a way to bang kdj’s brains out and more so simply keeping the damn guy alive. this is truly not ‘oblivious mc with his thirsty, sex kitten harem’. it just so happens that a guy proves himself to be unflinchingly gentle and capable in an apocalyptic setting despite his broken self-esteem, and lots of people find that attractive, romantically and platonically.

it.. kinda makes sense? he’s a hard worker, thoughtful, and good with kids. kdj is the kind of guy you know would make a reliable partner, and anybody with eyes can plainly see and appreciate that.

and it’s not that our MC’s a total brick wall. in fact, it’s likely the opposite, and he’s just too darned repressed to admit it. from what has been implied, kdj does indeed recognize and accept love, or at least a primitive concept of it. i like to imagine that the kind of love that he ends up seeking out simply manifests itself more easily as acceptance and safety, as warmth and a home of people to return to every day. even better, the people who surround him know this, and they give him exactly that. it’s refreshing, and honestly, really sweet.

(as a side note, i really, really do appreciate the cosmic bi energy radiating off of kdj, who canonically earns the title of being loved by all and is all but in name married to yjh and hsy. he also respects women and small children and honestly anyone who isn’t total scum to him or his family. i respect that.)

but the happy stuff aside, you know it it just ain’t ORV without the generous screaming dollop of angst. admittedly, there’s self-sacrifice, injury, lonesome wandering, more sacrifice, some epic fighting, reunion and confrontation. all of it is a lot to digest, sure, but never does it feel entirely hopeless, or truly, truly heart-clenching. ORV, up until the final act, is a mostly light read. you relax in your chair, thinking that nothing beyond this point can disturb you.

yeah fucking right.

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and then the beginning of the end arrives. when the squad finally break through to their ‘ending’, the scene that kind of breaks me is the reveal of the Most Ancient Dream. it ties so much thematically into the little tidbits that we get of kdj’s past, and it though it feels like almost a joke that the source of the goddamn apocalypse is a kid with bruises smeared across his skinny ass body -- it’s such a pathetic picture that it’s kinda poetic, actually. you’re left mystified but somewhat convinced, like a math problem explained halfway through. this.. child.. is a villain somehow, isn’t he?

and then 999th turn uriel speaks up, and she. just. hugs him.

[[You are this universe’s most powerless existence, aren’t you.]]

that. that gets me. kdj’s reaction immediately upon this revelation? absolute murder. seeing him essentially self-destruct upon realizing that all these people he’s surrounded himself with -- some who continuously proclaim their loyalty and affection for him throughout their journey, some who suffered eons of war and loss and trauma because of his existence -- not only forgive his younger self but smother him with unconditional acceptance and love is stifling, is too vulnerable and exposed and he simply can’t cope -- it’s so telling of his true mentality, of his crippling insecurity and crumpled sense of self-worth. kim dokja is a liar, through and through, so much that he fails, or perhaps refuses, to comprehend the veracity of others’ kindness and love towards himself.

by some miracle, the events at the end of the world somehow resolve.. or so it seems. there is a departing train, a liberated team of ex-gods, and a child rousing from his slumber. in the aftermath, i am left shaking. somehow, despite the ending having been (happily?) reached, there’s still another chapter ahead. what is this witchcraft?

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and then ah, yes -- the epilogue arc. i teetered on the edge of being critical for a little bit there -- is that display of deus ex machina, of sad, self-sacrificing nobility a bit too egregious to be acceptable? is this some wild last let-me-yank-this-outta-my-ass plot twist to drag out the chapter count? i sincerely thought that the arc before it would have been the finale. i was wrong. thank god.

anyways, as an answer to the above: no, and no. i stake my firm claim on the belief that the epilogue arc was meticulously planned out well in advance of its release, confusing and time-warpy as it is. i liked it. tremendously. even if it entirely invalidates all of kdj’s supposed development (”haha lol yeah sure i won’t sacrifice myself or anything anymore guys don’t worry about me” -- KDJ, at some point because he’s a lying rat bastard). actually, our beloved MC disappears for a large chunk of this arc, and i think it’s great. in his absence, the other characters not only go absolutely fucking nuts, but they have to figure out this new problem on their own, even if the lure of peaceful complacency in the newly saved Korea might convince them otherwise.

and then the whole time paradox thing comes around. yjh goes to space, hsy saves the only life she can, and kdj grows up. the crew waits, holding onto their hope even if it bleeds them dry. sing-shong does a damn good job of illustrating their fraying calm, their lurking madness, the unseen but pervasive depression that seeps in from kdj’s absence. the kids lose their father, lhs and jhw lose their reliable leader figure, ysa loses a best friend and confidant, lsk -- as distant as she pretends to be from her son -- loses her only child. and then there’s hsy and yjh , who are essentially bereft of the other half of their existences. their pain is palpable, is grounded in the hopeless, gnawing frustration of an utterly meaningless victory. emotionally, ORV hits all the right -- if agonizing -- beats.

however, a story can’t sustain itself just through its pathos. i’m happy to say that ORV doesn’t drop the ball after the first milestone, and after all the hurt, the characters do leap straight back into action. even better, the plot holes actually do get patches, and the poetic cycle of writer, protagonist, and reader comes full circle by making use of all those supposedly throwaway characters from the myriad world lines.

at the end of the road, there is a distinct sense of unity, of a delicate but undeniable cohesion to the world lines and their origins. sing-shong lets us guess a little here at the finish, but there’s just enough information to feel hopeful. maybe there never had been a definite start -- or finish -- to the story of kdj company, and... that’s okay. everybody ends up where they were meant to be, where they fought and struggled to reach. it’s.. almost like a happily ever after, if we’re allowed to dream of that.

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now, i realize, this was all an orchestrated maneuver.

i’ll take it.

to me, all of this work sounds like someone put some serious thought into this behemoth of a plot. it cements the entire original premise of the story. it suggests -- but never explicitly confirms! -- the possibility that breaking free of the cycle is possible through the exact same system that sustains it. it’s terribly interesting -- and inspirational! with all the dramatic revelations and life-threatening scenarios and the cast’s resigned acceptance of them that essentially make up ORV’s entire mood, there’s still that last hint of rebellious and righteous anger that lights up the whole damn nebula. it’s like the kdj company blasting away at the heavens just to yell into the nether: we’re not looking for the happy end, but the free one. stay alive.

it’s subtle, and yet it’s such an emotional gut punch. i came away with the most ruinous, frustrating, bittersweet sense of longing in ages. i pined. for these fictional darlings. god, i am weak.

so. yeah. ORV is pretty good. flawed, but ambitious and impressively thought out. i’m stoked that the webtoon is making pretty good progress, even if it’ll take an eternity and a half to meet that monstrous chapter count. i’m still gonna follow it. hell yeah.

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(by the way the idea that secretive plotter and co are literally gonna take care of and raise baby kdj and spoil him and be the best friggin family a kid could ever want does things to me. protect him. he’s suffered too much. let at least one worldline’s version of him know happiness. and actually, aLL OF THEM DESERVE DOMESTIC BLISS TOGETHER IN A BIG OL MANSION WITH SUN AND FRESH AIR AND TENDER FAMILY MOMENTS UGH)

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and there you have it, folks. you made it to the end. in the far, far distance, i’m cheering you on and crying my eyes out in gratitude. thanks for tuning in!

#omniscient reader #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #kim dokja #fanart #kdj happiness rights!#protect him!#let! him! have his big house! with everyone! he loves!#please!#long ass emotional screeching #look i can't do him justice with drawing but hell can i yell out my love for him :'^DD

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liketheinferno2 · 3 years

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hii !! if u dont mind me asking, ive FINALLY gotten to a point where i've gotten a hang of like posing again after def losing it for a while but i'm fr the worst with anything post line art, if u have any tips on how to choose colours or anything in that vein i'd literally kill for it 💖💖 tysm regardless, i hope u have a fantastic day/night!

Hi! Thanks for the ask! I'm not an expert but most general thing is that you pick a base colour or even just "warm" or "cold' and for every other colour you choose, inch it a little bit closer to the base on the wheel. I'll use the most basic pic I have. The base here is red/pink which are the same colour:

In game that harness of his is more brown-grey but it's purple maroon here because that's closer to pink. I also use different hues for shading, and my personal preference for shading skin light-to-mid-toned skin is to use brighter oranges or reds when possible, but that's because I'm pulling colour influences from old anime. For darker skin I usually not make the shadow the most saturated part because then I would choose to make their base tone the strong one, but that's just me and I don't know if there's any colour theory behind it.

At that -- good idea to study from the colour usage you enjoy, pick colours if you want to! Putting them against a plain background can show you what they actually are because in full compositions it can be hard to tell what an inspiration is actually using.

If I just chose literal colours, that pic might look like this:

The pink is pink, the browns are browns are brown, the green is green. But I like it better if the pink and browns are redder and orange and the green is a little yellow. So a lot of it ends up being about when to turn colours into other colours. If you struggle with this, check if your program of choice has a gradient map function. I know CSP does. I'll use those on overlay to bring out colours stronger.

Uhhh other examples

This one pic, the shadows ended up yellow instead, because there was a ton of red all over it and I didn't want the skin shadows to blend into it. It's also another old anime styling though. Colour's as much style as anything else so part of it is just trying things until you find a way that you like.

This one was fun because the whites are pink, kinda late night love hotel lighting, but I was struggling for those shadow colours. Ended up on green because it just looks kind of sickly, but that was the point for this piece. Also sometimes outlining shadows in a more saturated, darker colour is a good way to get more variation out of it but as you can see I'm very haphazard with that.

To be transparent though, sometimes I don't go in with that in mind and I put down all my general colours first and then re-do them into fun colours. Largely through paint bucket and tone curves because I am a lazy lazy man. Here was the original:

The other thing is there's colour combinations that generally just sit together nicer, primary secondary tertiary but also a thing I like to do is one colour, its neighbours, and then a complement. Say, red and purple and pink are neighbours, green is the opposite which I'd use sparingly. The complement can have a few neighbours too.

It's hard to explain any of this because I just fiddle around until I think things look right, more instinctually than on purpose. I'd be down to offer colour suggestions personally if you really wanted to dm me though.

#asks #anonymous #advice tag

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wienerbarnes · 4 years

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The Escape

Pairing: Bucky x Reader (Cheek to Cheek)

Word Count: 2,717

Warnings: mind control ooooo, general violence, description of stealing a car that is wildly inaccurate bc ive.... never stolen a car, dues ex machina

A/N: some background about the reader! this one takes place before the last chapter of the original series, way before anything with bucky. this oneshot kinda recounts her prison escape 👀 not a lot of bucky in this one, but kind how the reader got to where she is and stufffff i love a good origin story

MAIN MASTERLIST | CHEEK TO CHEEK MASTERLIST

You didn’t sleep the entire night. How could you? How were you supposed to sleep when you know you’re waking up to your inevitable death?

You refused a last meal a few hours ago. What was the point? You didn’t have an appetite anyway.

All you could do was count the hours, the minutes, the seconds, until the footsteps would sound down the hall, arriving at your cell, the guards would stare at you through the bullet-proof glass wall, the only wall of four that wasn’t made of thick concrete.

They’d take you down to the observation room, they’d strap you down in the chair before asking for your final words. You’d stare out into the window of the observation room, unable to see through to the otherside, but knowing there’d be witnesses there. Maybe the families of people you killed. Maybe government officials, the ones who worked as hard as possible to get you this ending.

First, the sodium thiopental would be injected into your veins to sedate you. Then, the vecuronium bromide will be given that will send your body into paralysis. Finally, the potassium chloride will stop your heart. And your life will be over.

What a shame.

Too soon, your life was wasted. And too soon did the guards feet sound down the hall. And too soon did he arrive in front of your cell, ordering you to get up from your bed to shackle you.

He’s alone, you notice. Perhaps they don’t expect you to put up much of a fight.

Something snaps in your brain and before you realize you’re even doing it, you’re tapping into the young guard’s poor brain. He was a cop. A cop turned prison guard to spend more time at home, less time out in the world trying to catch bad guys. Never really bad guys, though, always just some unlucky soul caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Open the cell.” You tell him, finally through to his head. The keys jingle as he unlocks the three complicated locks attached to the side of the door.

You’re suddenly grateful for the hundreds of times they called you crazy, they called you a psycho, they told you you didn’t have powers, that that was your sad and sorry excuse of the reason for your crimes.

“Take off your clothes.” You order next. The young man begins to strip, taking off his clothes until he’s down to his underwear. White briefs with a blue waistband.

Once his uniform is on your body, you take everything he has, leaving his pistol with him.

“Shoot at everybody that comes in here.” You tell him, and he stares at you blankly, no longer in control of his actions as you take over.

You take a moment, closing your eyes and trying to concentrate on what the prison looks like, where the exits are, and where the guards are. You peek an eye open to glance at the man’s watch that now sits on your wrist, eight minutes until the shift changes.

Eight minutes for you to not fuck this up.

You close the cell door behind you, locking it, and making your way down the hall. You need to time this perfectly so that you’re slipping out as the other guards are leaving.

Just keep your head down, and get out as quickly as possible. Don’t talk to anyone. Just get out and start walking. You’ll get to the city eventually and you’ll hide out until you can keep making your way through New York. Maybe you’ll go to Jersey. Or up to New Hampshire.

Yeah, you’re just going to walk to New Hampshire, aren’t you?

Not a priority right now. Focus on getting out. A deep breath until you unlock the gate at the end of the hall, making your way out into another hallway. You visualize the map in your head once more and keep making your way down. You walk with confidence, head still slightly tilted down, but steps quick and light. Another guard turns the corner at the end of the hall and you make sure your steps don’t falter, and he walks right by you without a second thought.

You’re still unsure about the whole mind control thing. You don’t want to question it, because it seems to be pretty useful right now, but you don’t want to abuse it either, knowing your luck will eventually fail you.

It’s not long before you hear a gunshot ring out in the distance and you glance at a clock on the wall to see the shift change happening now.

You need to get out of here, now. Soon the guards will realize it’s you who’s missing from your cell and the search will begin. They’ll start with the entire grounds of the prison, which will hopefully buy you some time to make it to the city, if you sprint.

You finally make it to a more open area, exit signs now posted at the tops of doorways. You finally find a group of other men, some with bags or coats and you slip into the crowd, hoping that these are the guys leaving from their shift.

“Hey, have a good one, man. Tell the family I said hello.” A rough hand pats your shoulder before brushing past you.

Your stomach drops at the fact that these men are so unaware. So unaware that their real friend is in your cell, probably having a shootout with the new guards who just began their shift. The fact that these guards showed up to work today and the first thing they encounter is another guard in his underwear shooting at them.

Push it back. Push it back. Push it back.

As you’re huddled in between bodies, a bright light suddenly washes over your face. Sunlight. Your eyes burn at the feeling, a feeling so foreign having not felt it in months. You force them open though. You need to separate quickly, because not only do you not know where the parking lot is, you don't know which car is yours, you don’t have keys, and even if you did, you don’t know how to fucking drive.

Why did you never learn this! You never thought you’d need to since you decided you were going to join the military at sixteen, but you still should’ve fucking looked into it!

You don’t think you’ll make it walking. It’ll draw too much attention. The prison is in the middle of fucking nowhere and you’re just going to walk home? What would be worse is if someone offers you a ride.

New plan: find your car and hope it’s unlocked so you can sit inside until everyone leaves.

You know Hydra made you break into things before; houses, cars, etc. But you’ve tried to repress so much of that time that you can’t remember if you ever hot wired a car before.

You hope your luck doesn’t run out anytime soon.

Men arrive at their cars and the options quickly narrow down between an orange SUV and a black, fancy-looking car. You take your chances on the SUV.

It’s unlocked. It’s fucking unlocked. You shut the door and heave, feeling so hard to breath in the small space, but feeling relieved at the chance to finally make some noise and express your stress outside of that group of people you were stuck around.

“C’mon. C’mon! Fight or flight, c’mon, just make me know how to hot wire this.” You close your eyes, as though that will suddenly make the knowledge appear in your head. It doesn’t, surprisingly.

Until you look in the cupholder to see a dozen bobby pins. He probably has a daughter. “It’s going to have to do.” You mumble to yourself.

You quickly straighten them out and shove them into the small spot where the key goes. You twist and turn, holding a bunch of pins together to simulate an odd shape of the key, until finally you hear a click.

That’s gotta be good! Right? You go with it, continuing to twist until you hear a sputtering and crunchy sound of the engine starting.

This guy drives a piece of shit car. But it’s fucking on! You waste no time in putting the car into the drive before pulling out the lot. You make yourself extremely nauseous at your own driving, or rather, attempt at driving. You see in the rearview mirror the lights on the prison flashing, the bright red signaling that they’ve realized you escaped. You give yourself twenty minutes before they ditch the search of the prison grounds and look for you in the city.

Down the road you alternate between driving fifteen miles an hour to sixty, finding it so difficult to get a steady control of the car. But you’re doing it! You only need to make it to the city. That’s it.

“How the fuck do they make sixteen-year-olds do this shit?”

Eventually you get the hang of it. Still a terrible driver, but you at least don’t feel as scared driving among other cars.

The longer you drive, the more it catches up to you what you’ve done. Soon enough, the tears come and so do the sobs. Until you stop a red light and let out a yell of agony, the stress and sadness washing through your body.

It’s hard, wanting to break down completely but having to keep your eyes open for the light to change, and having to pay attention to your surroundings. You find a small alleyway to pull into and you put the car in park before ditching it.

No time to cry, you can cry later. You peek around at the name of restaurants and stores around you, not recognizing any of them. You look at the street signs not recognizing those, either. You haven’t been around society in almost ten years, and you feel hopelessly and utterly lost.

You look around the alleyway and see a big dumpster. Just for a little while, you think. You lift the lid and climb inside, shutting the lid above you.

It’s dark, greasy, and the worst thing you’ve ever smelled, but it’s somehow better than where you were. You don’t know how much time has passed, but the noise outside the dumpster grows, and you make a guess that it’s around six or seven in the morning.

If you want to blend in with the crowd, you need to change your clothes. A prison guard outfit will most definitely make you stand out to people, especially when news breaks that there's a prison escapee on the loose.

When you finally lift the lid to stand up, you look to your left to see a teenager, probably not older than seventeen, staring at you, frozen, key in hand, seemingly to open up some store that you’re in back of.

He’s tall and lanky, and what makes him stand out to you the most is the spiky black hair he sports on his head and the thick black eyeliner around the rims of his eyes.

“You… okay?” He asks, clearly confused as to why a random woman in a prison guard outfit is hanging out in the dumpster behind her place of work. But you’re frozen. You don’t know what to say. You can’t imagine the last twelve hours I’ve been through, it won’t make much sense.

“Are you… hungry?” He asks when you don’t answer. “I’m, uh, opening now, but no one will be here for another hour or two when we actually open. I can make you something if you like?” He offers.

He thinks you’re homeless. Which, you are, technically. But he doesn’t recognize you. Perhaps you haven’t made the news yet, but it’ll only be a matter of time.

You finally nod, climbing out of the dumpster bin and walking over to where he holds the door open for you.

You devour the sandwich he makes you, a simple ham and cheese on white bread, but it’s the best thing you’ve eaten in, well, a decade.

“How long have you been homeless for?”

“Are you from New York?”

“What’s your zodiac sign?”

“What’s your favorite band?”

So many questions come from the curious kid, kindness radiating from him. Casual conversation ensues, and you’re careful not to give too much away.

“Can I ask you something?” You ask, wiping your mouth with a napkin as you swallow the last bit of sandwich.

“How do I get to Brooklyn from here?”

“You’re in Brooklyn, silly.” He responds and your eyes widen a bit, not thinking you’d get this lucky.

“Sorry, that came out kinda insensitive,” He apologizes, picking up your plate, “It’s not like you have a GPS or anything. Anywhere you’re trying to go in particular?”

You have a flash of a vision, Bucky sleeping soundly in his apartment, as the sun shines through in orange cracks in his blinds. Your mind envisions the building, where it is, what it looks like, and how you can get there. Why is your mind and body wanting to lead you to where Bucky is? If you’re trying to lay low, why does your vision want you to go to what’s the third most recognizable government figure in the country, after the President and Captain America?

“Uhm… to see a friend. I guess I wasn’t trying to go, but I have a lot of… free time now, so. Just don’t know what I’d say to him.” You tell the boy, rubbing your eyes in exhaustion. You’re not looking forward to the rest of the day, or week, or month, or life.

“Why don’t you write a note? That’s what I do; when I don’t think I can say the right thing, I write it instead. I can give you some paper and an envelope.” He offers.

This kid has got to be my guardian angel personified, you think. What are the fucking odds?

“You should take it with you, though. I gotta open up soon, and I’m sure you don’t want to experience the morning rush of this place.” You read my mind.

“I’ll give you a change of clothes, too. Where’d you get that, anyway? Do you hang around dumpsters often? Is that one from a Halloween store?”

“Okay, that’s too much. You’ve already been so kind.” You refuse, ignoring the curious questions that shoot out of his mouth.

“Then don’t take it as me being kind, take it as me being mean. You smell like shit from that dumpster.”

You can’t help but laugh, and oh how good it feels. You never thought you’d laugh again, and here you are, giggling at being told you smell bad by some goth teenager.

Soon enough, you’re walking through the backways of buildings, in a crisp white t-shirt that smells of the cologne of a teenage boy, and note and envelope in hand. It takes you about forty five minutes to make it to Bucky’s apartment building, and it was only slightly less stressful that your walk out of that prison.

Through the glass door, you don’t see anyone at the front desk, so you open the door and step inside.

To your left you see a wall of mailboxes, and one large one at the bottom overflowing with letters and gifts. You take a wild guess and say that that one belongs to Bucky. You’ve heard he’s a pretty popular guy, along with the company he keeps.

You take the stairs to the eighth floor and the fourteenth room, hoping the 814 on that mailbox wasn’t random. You scribble out on your piece of paper, tearing it off and keeping the rest in case you need for another note in the future, or a snack. You bite at the blue bracelet on your wrist before it breaks and stick it in the envelope, tucking in the flap to close it.

You place it on the ground and silently press your ear to the door. You don’t hear him, but you hear the sound of the television, announcing your missing presence and the manhunt around the city. You take that as a cue to leave quickly.

Why you feel such a draw towards Bucky, you’re not sure, but for some reason, you have a feeling that leaving him this gift of sorts won’t come back to haunt you.

Perhaps it’ll even lead to the opposite.

#bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky barnes oneshot #bucky barnes fanfiction #marvel #badass queen who can't drive

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zenithpng · 3 years

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TOUCH AND GO bruised | touch-starved | hungered

[“Every child is a treasure,” the chief says quietly, one hand pressing Zuko’s forehead into his own shoulder as if Zuko is a lot younger than he really is. “I’m so sorry no one has ever told you that before.”

And with that Zuko is crying into the shoulder of a man he hardly knows. A man that has shown him more kindness in the few days they’ve known each other than his own father has in sixteen years.]

Read more under the cut, AO3 link -> HERE <-

Having adults at the temple is weird, Zuko decides.

It’s not that he doesn’t trust them. Well, maybe he doesn’t quite trust Chit Sang, but Hakoda is a good man. He’s Sokka’s dad. He’s a perfectly kind person. He’s nothing like Ozai.

But for some reason, Zuko’s mind can’t seem to separate the two people.

Every time Hakoda’s deep voice echoes through the temple, he’s back in the throne room, if only for an instant. It’s stupid, and he doesn’t know why it happens, but it does. And so of course, the solution is to stay nice and far away from the whole group.

It’s not that bad really. Zuko’s used to keeping his distance from people. He tries to tell himself that it isn’t so bad. After all, it’s nice and quiet when he wanders off alone, there are no grating sounds, no yelling.

(No liveliness. No hugs from Aang or shoulder-pats from Sokka. No smiles surrounding him.)

He’s in the middle of some solitary firebending practice late in the evening when Aang runs into the room, hands grasping Zuko’s tunic. The elder stammers, thinking there’s some kind of emergency based off the way Aang is all but dragging him out of the room, but the kid just grins at him, bouncing with energy.

“C’mon, c’mon, come on!” he urges. “Get your stuff, we’re having a sleepover!”

“We literally live together, Aang!”

“Not important!” the airbender grins. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go-”

And that’s how Zuko finds himself around the campfire, Aang and Toph on either side of him, both having curled up with the excuse of “You’re the warmest one here.” Well, Zuko isn’t about to argue with the Avatar or the greatest earthbender of their generation, so he resigns himself to his fate.

Aang was somehow right in his excitement. The sleepover is wonderful.

It’s lively and warm and Zuko can almost forget Hakoda’s presence in the group as he laughs at Sokka’s jokes and listens to Aang’s stories. Hours later, long after the sun has set, Hakoda speaks up.

“All right, it’s getting late,” he says through a smile. “Bedtime, everyone.” His tone is warm, not the slightest bit commanding even as he gives an order. The younger kids scramble off to their bedrolls immediately, followed closely by the rest of the group. Zuko remains seated where he is, as does Hakoda.

“Are you going to sleep, Dad?” Sokka inquiries from where he’s spreading out his blanket. Hakoda nods.

“In a bit.” Sokka seems satisfied with this and rolls onto his stomach, falling asleep within minutes.

Just after everyone falls asleep, Zuko and Hakoda stand almost in tandem. Hakoda holds a knife and a half-started carving, while Zuko is empty-handed. They both begin to walk off, Hakoda acknowledging him with a nod.

Zuko takes off at a brisk pace, making the short climb from one of the windows to a particularly scenic cliff face. It’s his favourite he’s found so far, providing him with the loveliest view of the night sky. It’s not uncommon for him to need to step away after being around the group for hours on end, and this is the perfect spot to do just that.

He sits, tracing constellations in his mind, when there’s a rustling from the forest. It’s probably just one of the myriad creatures that roams the woods here, but Zuko’s nothing if not wary. He lights a fire in one of his hands, tensing instinctively for the possible scuffle.

But instead of an animal, Hakoda emerges from the brush.

Zuko immediately drops his defensive stance, his flame growing smaller and softer.

“Sorry, sir,” he apologizes. “I thought there was something out there. Well, there was, but it was just you, and you wouldn’t hurt me, but still-”

“Zuko,” Hakoda interrupts, halting the nervous rambling. There’s a fond smile playing across his lips, almost like Uncle used to get when he saw Zuko actually smile. “It’s all right. I’m just surprised you got up here so fast.” Zuko shrugs, careful not to jostle his flame too much.

“It’s a short climb,” he mutters, rubbing the back of his neck with the hand that isn’t holding fire. “I can find somewhere else, if you want.” Hakoda just sits down, prompting Zuko to do the same.

“I think I’d like some company actually, if you don’t mind,” he said, taking out his carving. Zuko nods, pulling one knee up to his chest and resting his chin there.

The quiet isn’t awkward in the slightest, which surprises Zuko. The forest sounds and the quiet scrape of Hakoda’s knife blend easily into background noise and Zuko just watches the stars, lost in thought.

“So,” Hakoda begins, breaking the silence after a long while, “what’s the Fire Nation like?” Zuko ducks his head, momentarily caught off guard at the unexpected question.

“It’s, ah, nice.” He twists a flower stem between his fingers. “Warm all the time. The food is good.” Zuko curses himself for his awkwardness, but really, what is he supposed to say? Hakoda just nods though, cutting a little notch into his carving.

“And your family?”

Zuko tenses there, not having expected the conversation to go this way. Any military secrets he would readily spill but this? This is weird.

“It’s… all right,” is what he finally settles on. “My, um, sister is not the greatest as far as sisters go, and well, my father is Fire Lord Ozai, so no favours there. My mom is… gone. My Uncle is alive though! But his son is dead, so. Yeah.”

“That doesn’t sound like ‘all right,’ son,” Hakoda says, brows furrowed with a tinge of - is that concern? Zuko shrugs, going back to picking apart the flower in his fingers. Yeah, when he says it like that, his family kind of sucks. He draws in a shaky breath, thinking of the Water Tribe siblings. They didn’t exactly have the greatest family experience either, what with their mother being killed and their father leaving to fight in the war.

Still, that was somehow better than his. Kinda put things into perspective.

“Is it okay if I touch you, Zuko?”

The firebender raises his head, surprised by the question.

“Uh, yeah? Sure.” Why would Hakoda want to touch him? Subconsciously, he tenses, prepared for any harm that may be about to come to him.

But Hakoda just places a hand on his shoulder, the lightest bit of pressure on Zuko’s skin.

Before he can really stop himself, Zuko leans into the touch. It’s… nice. To have someone touch him so casually, with an undercurrent of care in the contact. Hakoda seems to realize this, and he moves slightly closer, looping his arm around Zuko’s shoulders.

And Zuko suddenly feels very, very small.

It’s been so long since he’s been touched other than Aang’s swift, squeezing hugs or Sokka’s friendly taps. It feels so wrong and unfamiliar but so right and safe at the same time. He’s not sure how to feel or what to do so he just stays there under Hakoda’s arm, trying not to lean in any closer lest he make the situation awkward.

“It’s been a while since you had something like this, hasn’t it?” Hakoda asks. Zuko’s hardly able to meet his eyes after that question, and not able to answer at all. Luckily, Hakoda speaks for the both of them.

“I’m a father, Zuko,” he says. “I can see when a child hasn’t been treated like the treasure they are.” Zuko swallows hard.

“With all due respect, sir,” he mutters, “I’m hardly a treasure.”

Hakoda meets his eyes sadly, takes a deep breath, and pulls him into a full embrace.

“Every child is a treasure,” the chief says quietly, one hand pressing Zuko’s forehead into his own shoulder as if Zuko is a lot younger than he really is. “I’m so sorry no one has ever told you that before.”

And with that Zuko is crying into the shoulder of a man he hardly knows. A man that has shown him more kindness in the few days they’ve known each other than his own father has in sixteen years.

That hurts. That hurts so bad, and Zuko only cries harder.

Hakoda only holds him tighter.

#no6 #whumptober #whumptober 2021 #touch and go #touch starved #atla #zuko #hakoda #hakuddles #avatar the last airbender #fanfic #ao3 #luca's corner

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Ducktales Reviews: The Town Where Everyone Was Nice! or Scrooge Is the Lindburgh Baby

Saludos Amigos! The Ride of the Three Cablleros has at long last come to the last stop before it’s final phase. It’s been a hell of a ride so far: Our boys have tried to woo some ladies, performed some black magic, had some sort of drug trip, dealt with Donald’s ego, helped goofy ungoofy himself...

“SEASONS CHANGE, TIMES CHANGE BUT UNGOOFY IS FOREVER AND ALWAYS HE IS ALWAYS THERE” ... I created this magificent stalion.. kinda I think he came out of a styigan hole in the universe from the darkest dark in the dark of the dark... I can’t be sure. Our heroes fought an arrogant prince, found a lost city and helped donald get his smile back. All culminating in our heroes going to Spain for some reason, soundtracking Goofy’s win against Horace in Flamico Dancing, somehow that wasn’t a Covid induced fever dream I had but the actual premise of the episode, and then played some soccer with Daisy’s cousin and Pancho Pete. All in all we’ve had some good times getting here and I feel acomplished having made it this far. While I’ve still got quite a ways to go, getting this far means I really made something.. and not just the 80 something dollars it took to comission all of this. And I genuinely just want to thank all of you for reading these as these have easily been some of my most popular reviews and @weirdkev27 for comissioning all of this. It’s been easily one of my faviorite projects so far and I look forward to the final leg of it soon. For now though we have one last adventure before the biggest one starts. But before we can dive into it you probably have a few questions, and since I don’t really need to give Ducktales 2017 a lavish introduction as unlike most stuff so far this show is well and familiar: it’s what got me started reviewing animation on this blog, it’s what got me into the duck community as a full member, and it’s what caught Kev’s attention leading to this entire series. So I have time to answer the questions your probably asking and if your not.. well here’s the answers anyway Wait aren’t you going to cover Louie’s Eleven?: Nope. While I love that episode, I already did a full review of it earlier this year. I saw no reason to completely and utterly redo the entire thing when my opinions toward the episode haven’t really changed. That being said since I didn’t touch on the boys characterizations in that one too much and since I do want this retrospective to be comprehensive, I will talk about Panchito And Jose’s characterization there briefly during this review at the right time as a compromise.

Wait why isn’t THIS the last stop since it came out AFTER Legend of the Three Cablleros: Simple.. it felt unsatsfying to both me and kev to end on this one. While their apperance here IS a good one and a big deal... it’s also ANOTHER guest apperance. It’s something I didn’t quite realize for now but outside of the movie.. every apperance after is them guest starring in another series. Their aperances in Don Rosa’s Duck Comics, while awesome and treating them with proper respect, were still them showing up to shake up Donald’s stories and formulas. They were LITERAL guest stars in House of Mouse, and Roadster Racers was entirely just “let’s shove them in there because we can”. Legend.. is their story. Their moment in the sun after too damn long with all three as main characters and while being a lead is normal for donald, Jose and Panchito really HAVEN’T had that shot outside of their home countries. To be the hero of their own fully realized epic adventure. So it just fits best to have the road lead there instead of have all that happen.. then go back to yet another guest appearance. The other major factor.. is that while Legend came out around the same time as ducktales, to the point many compared and contrast both shows treatment of Donald, this episode is what most non-latin american audiences saw first as it took Disney WAY too damn long to air the series over here.. i.e. until Disney Plus launched, finding it somewhere online was the only option despite the series being produced in america with some really big american names voice acting wise. Point is this came first to some people, so i’m using that as a flimsy excuse to put it ahead so we get a better finale.

Now all that’s settled, let’s dive into “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!” and see what one of the best duck propeties period makes of our boys.

We open in a remote town in Brazil. It’s the Festival of the Flower.. which is a bit off to me. While it DOES kind of make plot sense.. the problem is the lure was written to Panchito and Jose.. Jose whose a brazil native and could’ve possibly been supscious that a tourist invintation wasn’t in Brazilian Portugese, the countries national language and something I specifically researched just to see what it’d be called. For the record it’d be O Festival da Flor acording to google translate, which still sounds neat, Webby could’ve still said it means festival of the flower. It just feels like a missed opportunity from a creative team that’s taken such pains to make the series feel as authentic as possible and clearly put a lot of hard work and research into making each location feel like it’s real world counterpart. But it’s a minor thing and we soon get our two plots for the episode: Our B Plot.. is that Dewey can’t stay the fuck off his phone and is taking pictures rather than actually getting experiences with Louie enabling him, while Webby gets increasingly frustrated at Dewey not actually botherting to experince this unique and obscure culture. We’ll get back to this in a bit.

Our main plot naturally concerns the reason our heroes are here: Donald is reuniting with The Cabs, who in this continuity are his old College friends who Scrooge hates due to having to listen to them practice constnatly and tells the kids they’d hate it worse than his playing the bagpipes.

Bagpipes are objectively the worst insterument on earth. They are loud, unharmonic and generally just obnoxious. I do respect how important they are to Scotland, home of David Tennant, Grant Morrision and .. Alan Cumming and James Macavoy? Wait what? that’s awesome! Point is Scotland is great but I do not like the bagpipes except when Bugs Bunnny is murdering them. Honestly Donald’s college band was probably more like this. Nothing bad at all just mildly pathetic and mildly pathetic is what got Donald a girlfriend, so it’s not a bad look

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That brings me to another point: Scrooge is pretty obnoxious in this episode. It seems like his sole reason for coming was to bitch about Donald’s old college band. He could’ve just sent them a stern letter like the pros at being a cranky old geezer do.

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I do GET why he’s here as there are some REALLY damn funny bits with him in the a-plot, it just feels like they could’ve justified it better. But on to better things as Jose and Panchito enter the scene after Scrooge claims they “weren’t so cool”.. with Panchito diving from a plane and drifting down on his umbrella

And Panchito shows up dramatically playing the guitar. A truly awesome and worthy intro to our boys. So let’s talk about them in this series. Honestly the two really aren’t that diffrent from usual, though Jose’s lady chasing is given to Panchito, his footloose world traveling lifestyle remains in tact as does his genuine charm while Panchito remains the peppy one, just with his outbursts gone as his guns are replaced with cell phones..

Yeah while I do get replacing the pistols because let’s face it the mexican of the group being a gun nut was pretty damn unfortunate, though Don Rosa toned it down and justifed it well, and frankly guns are a hard no for family shows these days unless their laser guns so replacing them I get. But instead of I dunno giving him knives or turning his holsters into pouches carrying his stuff.. he just has two Cell Phones. It’s weird. It dosen’t really make sense other than for him putting on a big shot act and even big stars probably don’t have two phones on them at all times. It’s just a VERY weird update that makes not a whole lot of logical sense and I belivie is thankfully gone by the next ep. The only real issue I have is the two just sorta blend together personality wise instead of being distinct like usual, but that’s also happened in other apperances, so it’s not exactly a new or unique problem, and the two’s voice actors do a great job making both feel like they should.

Speaking of which let’s just go ahead and discuss that elephant in the room: The Cabs were recast for the first time in ages, which didn’t sit well with friends of legend as Eric Bauza, who’d replaced rob Paulsen, was himself replaced by Arturo Del Puerto and Bernado Del Paulo replaced Jamie Camil and Carlos Aquazi as Panchito. And I have mixed opinons on this one: Replacing Eric was a no brainer: while he’s a terrific voice actor.. he’s not brazilian and the crew of Ducktales 2017 perfer to cast actors who match their characters backgrounds, which again adds to the authenicty of it’s globetrotting and scope. They don’t ALWAYS, Cree Summer isn’t, as far as I know, Egyptian and Catherine Tate, while wonderful, isn’t italian. But for the most part it adds a nice flavor to things and frankly I personally prefer it when Jose is voiced by an actual brazilian man. So that change i’m fine with. Not using Camil though... I do not get. Jamie Camil is a throughly talented voice actor, having done TONS of great work lately , vocing Globgor for star vs and not getting nearly enough screen time as the loveable demon dad, and stealing the show as Don Carnage earlier in the series. While that episode is one of the series weakest, he’s still easily the best part of it and I hope Carnage shows up one last time before the finale.

So it really makes.. no sense to me to replace him. Not only is camil a bigger named actor, but he was already on the show and even the defense of “well they don’t want actors playing multiple rolls” ended up utterly destroyed by the end of the season, as Christ Dimatopolus not only reprised Storkules, but went on to play Drake and Melon, and picked up a FOURTH role in season 3 as Hades. My point is the show has no real issue with doubling up on voice rolls, so I scratch my head as to why Camil wasn’t given this part too despite being the obvious choice. Del Paulo isn’t a bad actor and is great in the role.. I just scratch my head why he was needed when a perfect actor for the part was right there and already had experince with the character.

I do think Puerto and Paulo are terrific and do the characters justice, issues with Paulo being there at all aside, and they do a great job and more than earned the roles and I don’t think the mass critcisim of this version of the characters is entirely warranted.. for this episode. This episode while they can meld into each other... that happens in most of their apperances anyway, so it’s not unusual or unique to this series. I will say however that the way their written in their next apperance is utter garbage: they aren’t really given any chances to be distinct, are basically written as one person even worse .. and that one person is a greedy asshole who takes advantage of their friend and never apologizes. I do get why people did not like them in that episode. I do think it has no baring on this one and people should stop bashing these versions as a whole for one terrible episode, especially when Louie has been written pretty badly for the bulk of season 3, yet is still not a bad character. It’s unfair to paint the series as painting them soley as selfish jackasses when it didn’t at first and hopefully wont’ again when they presumibly show up for the finale’s big avengers endgame sequence I hope is coming. For now they aren’t bad and the colors are crisp and the animation nice and bouncy on our boys.

Since we have two plots here, I’m just going to go ahead and split em since honestly, the b plot dosen’t really impact the a-plot until really the last minute and is basically happening right along side it and in concert with it. Sooooo...

The Trite B-Plot: As you can probably gather I didn’t really like this one. It’s basically 5-7 minutes of me wanting to punch a child in the face. Or rather Webby wanting to have fun experinces and actually take in the culture while in town, while Dewey just wants to take pictures of everything, make it seem like he did stuff, and generally is obnoxious to webby while Louie supports him wholeheartdly. That last part is really one of the few good parts of the plot as it’s nice for one of the brothers plots to NOT be about them being in conflict or squabbling but just hanging out and having some fun, doubly so since i’ve had to spend a season watching Louie , outside of a few good exceptions be an absolute dick to Huey and also Dewey once. It’s nice to just see him and Dewey bond over a shared intrest: posting shit online and getting good photos.

And it’s not without GOOD gags: Dewey’s obnoxious captions at one point while Webby continually looses her shit, Louie continually saying “that’s so wise” at Dewey’s bullshit philosphies, Webby’s continued annoyance is delivered great by Kate as always, and the best bit is Webby, utterly pissed at Dewey for refusing to eat Local Cuisine, wolfing down the entire fucking plate, all the dumplings in her mouth at once while Dewey, naturally, takes a picture. Otherwise this is just.. grating. It’s utterly grating to watch Webby GENUINELY try hard to absorb the local culture and really enjoy a once in a life time experince.. while Dewey jackasses about and basically acts like she’s wrong for it and treats his best friend like garbage. Just because i’ts nice it’s not Louie this time doesen’t make one of the kids being a dick without any nuance or character stuff suddenly great. It’s just tiresome.

And SOMEHOW , despite already not liking it the first time watching the episode.. it’s even WORSE now afterlast years. No not because I watched it while having to put up with Coronoavirus induced Chills, but because another show did this plot 100 times better: Close Enough. One of the best new shows of the year, Close Enough had a plot where exes Bridget and Alex, aka yet aother great set of Kimiko Glenn and Jason Mantzokus characters, went on vacation together, but their attempts to have some ex sex fell flat due to longstanding issues we found about through this plot: Bridget has a bad habit of doing what Dewey did, focusing way more on her social than actually enjoying her vacatoin while Alex has a bad habit of befreinding random weirdos who agree with his worldview. Keep in mind this is the same worldview that spent an afternoon connecting garfield to jesus while pissing in a jug for some reason. Point instead of a character just being a smug dick, it ties into actual character flaws that helped us not only learn more about them but lead to a really heartwarming scene where the two admit they jsut can’t sleep together casually with allt heir baggage, and that they still have a lot to sort out. Before given the show their on having their friends show up from the a plot and all of them getting kidnapped by a robot because Josh skipped a bunch of ads and a 5 year old has to solve some issues and prove she’s not dumb to blow up said robot. What i’m saying is it’s even more insufferable watching this after seeing it done a thousand times better, and fucking watch Close Enough. Thankfully unlike Inifnity Train it’s not reliant on you to get a second season as it’s been renewed proving that even in a cluster fuck like 2020 miracles can happen, but it’d still be nice for it to get more fans during the presumably long wait for Season 2. Let’s move past this, i’ll get to the plot relevant bit for the climax when we get to the climax, and onto the reason your all here.

The Main Event: A Life Not Wasted

Okay onto the actual plot. Rewinding quite a bit, the boys meet our boys, and we get some good bits. The boys cool new handshake leaves Huey wanting one only for Louie to simply lick his hand. See this is Louie dickery I can get behind because what did Huey expect? I do take comfort in the fact he has actual friends now who will likely do a handshake, fenton very much included. I’m sure Gyro didn’t want one either so he’s had plenty of time to workshop. We also find out one of the boys was dropped as an egg and well.. given Dewey opens and closes his eyes one at a time for this one moment, the ohter triplets just sorta.. silently agre it’s Dewey. IT does explain why he thought Champ Popular would get over..that and Santa Claus is Going to Highschool being his favorite movie.

So both Jose and Panchito claim to be sucessful: Jose being a sucessful jetsetter and trendsetter, and Panchito being a world famous pop star, never stop stopping. So Donald being donald panics and runs into a alley where Scrooge and Huey join him. Donald is fully convinced he’s wasted his life and has nothing to show for it. Huey rightfully points out he raised three wonderful children and isn’t that enough? Naturally given Donald clearly has some issues related to this subject and Scrooge has develoved into old man yells at cloud, he agrees it’s not important as money. So Huey decides to help his uncle because he’s the good son.. and because the two are easily the most alike out of Donald and his Kids. It’s something I haven’t really been able to bring up before so I was delighted to realize i could now: Besides the obvious people bring up constnatly, I.e. Huey having inhereted the most of the family rage out of his brothers, there’s the fact both are kind of obessive, both tend ot spiral into panic when a situation goes wrong, both are awkward with women, both are frequently ignored or taken for granted by those around them, and both are awkward adorable dorks who I will give my life to protect. It’s why I think Huey has the best relationship with his uncle of the bunch: He’s the only one who at least TRIES to empahtize with him and support him. While the other two do love him, and Webby of course likely has an insanne and horrifying shrine of him, and scrooge and probably della now in her closet.. and of course lena but that’s less out of hero worship and more out of her insane, over the top, very webby version of love. Point is, he’s the one who genuinely sees his uncle as a person who needs help and love. This was best demonstrated in the scene at the bank back in “Who Is Gizmoduck” as Huey tries to get his uncle a loan using the guidebook and is there soley to help the guy and taking time out of his day to visit the bank. Let’s face it though this is huey: he probably loves visiting the bank. They just got new pens! So Huey decides to put his improv badge to good use... so far the only use he’s gotten is Louie laughing at the fact he actually earned an improv badge and urges donald to simply ACT like he’s sucessful. Scrooge balks at this, because as Wonder Woman 1984 taught us nothing good comes from lies.. or from banging your ghost boyfriend while he’s possessing someone’s body without said body’s consent and plan to fully live out the rest of your lives togehter without ever considering how fucked up this is. I will..deal with that movie ... soon. But he soon changes his turn and agrees to go along with it to avoid Jose getting upset and them having to pay for everything.

So Huey suggest Donald keep the lie small, but belivable. Given the law of sitcoms when it comes to anyone saying that and the fact this is Donald, he instead panics and lies that he’s taken over McDuck industries and scrooge has gone full abe simpson in the other direction.

Which is why i’m not enitrely annoyed by Scrooge’s presence: while they don’t even handwave him being here, Scrooge putting on an old man act, and sometimes getting back at donald for it is solid gold the whole damn time and some of David Tennat’s best comedic acting on the show, so it makes up for him being a grumpus. And while i’m not usually not a fan of liar revealed plots, this one works for me.. mostly because it’s rooted in character. Here Donald is lying.. but because of deep seated neurosis he’s yet to fully tackle. While he loves his boys and is proud of htem every day... it’s very clear Donald hates his life and how it turned out. We got bits of this back in House of the Lucky Gander, with Donald’s first thought upon thinking he’s about to die is “I wasted my life” and feeling entirely like a looser. This episode brillinatly builds on that: it shows a Donald who simply feels.. he acomplished nothing. It’s easy to see why as his parents were happy and sucessful at whatever they did from the looks of it and how well taken care of the kids were, his uncle is the richest duck in the world and it’s greatest hero and explorer, his sister is the only one who could rival that record, and his cousin constnatly gets riches and fame handed to him. Donald.. by comparison.. is just a normal guy whose house is in his rich uncle’s pool, who has no job, no partner, and only really the love of his family. He spent his life on adventures he didn’t want to have living int he shadow of someone he grew to resent before the Spear of Selene incident blew things up for a decade. And then when he was free instead of becoming a big sucess... he blew the rest of it being overprotective of his boys and bouncing from dead end job to dead end job. It’s easy to see why he sees himself as a failure despite having lived a good life: compared to everyone else, even his sister who mooned herself, in his life.. he feelsd far behind. And as someone whose felt they were far behind countless times and only now is realizing they haven’t and it’s a marathoon ot a sprint I naturally relate. So his wanting to play big shot for just ONE day, to be the big hero like scrooge, teo be a sucess for five minutes with his best friends.. it’s understandable and relatable.

So Donald continues the ruse, leading to a great bit where the cabs all try to avoid picking up the check “WE can’t all keep whistling nonchalantly” before Scrooge is forced to give Donald the money to in the best joke of the episode.. and I mean FORCED. He and donald get into a fight with their hands under the table and Huey eventually gets fed up with that and has to BITE his uncle’s hand just to get him to do what he shoudl’ve done ruse or no given he’s the richest person there. The reason I take special offense to this.. is that my fairly wealthy grandpa and grandma, my mom’s dad and his wife for the record, would buy us dinner EVERY TIME they were near town, a nice steak dinner with whatever we wanted to most of the time. They knew we couldn’t afford such luxury half the time and wanted to treat us and spend time with us. Since my grandpa’s passing, my Grandma and her New Husband have continued the tradition since then, if obviously not this year for damn obvious reasons, thought hey sent us a really nice dinner to cook for christmas in the same spirit. What i’m saying is when you know your relatives arne’t as stacked as you , you pay for the fucking meal especially since i’ts a special occasion, and even for someone as stingy as scrooge, it comes off as a dick move.

We then get the best scene with the episode, just inching out the climax as the three simply talk, remince on old times, have a good rib like old friends would. It feels natural and wonderful to watch and gets even better when the three hear the radio and end up having an impromptu dance and musical number. Also Jose’s umbrella is also a flute somehow.

Point is the boys have a good time and Donald gets carried away, with the boys planning a world tour. Huey, while happy to endulge his uncle in a badly needded ego boost, isn’t happy to endulge this and scrooge is unwilling ot pay, more resonably this time. Huey eventually talks him out of being a moron and tells him he has to tell the honest truth and while that dosen’t work this does.

So as Donald goes to face the music, we have come to our climax. Phrasing.

The Finale: Ay Carumba

So we come to our finale. Backing up a scene or too to the B-Plot, webby is interviewing a local about the festival when she gets stuck in a loop. So far in the episode we’ve had hints something is up with the people as they go all yellow eyed.. and webby finds out why as she notices the “person” she was interviewing is, in a hilarious and disturbing review.. a horrignly realistic hand puppet.. and upon stealing Louie’s phone, she points out there’s no shots of anyone’s feet.. and the reason why is that the giant flower the feast is about is a mean green mother from outer space and he’s bad. And Webby finding that out’s got him fighting mad. Webby and the boys naturally run to warn the remaning boy and scrooge and they all run out only to get blocked out of town and captured. Dewey looses his phone inside the plant monster.

In a great joke, Scrooge ended up actually throwing his back out with the old man act, so our heroes are all captured and it’s up to our stars to save the day. So while his family is in peril, Donald finally comes clean with Jose and Panchito naturally being upset.. for a second before Jose admits he lied to and an irate panchito.. is forced to admit he also lied. Jose is a flight attendant, hopefully he’ll get his own mini series where he accidently murders a dude on disney plus, which is a nice update of his globe trotting ways, as it’s a resonable way for someone with no money to get around the world these days and Panchito is a birthday party muscian. They all however chuckle over this realizing they haven’t come as far as they thought.. and they still have each other. It’s a nice way of modernizing Rosa’s jobs for them and their hard luck lives he set up and I love this. IJt’s just a sweet emotoinal scene that makes donald, and his friends, realize they aren’t faliures and life isn’t just about reaching some arbitrarity goal.. just like Soul taught me aka the actually great movie I watched on Christmas Day. But since Donald’s family is in peril Jose suggests theys till play the gig.. just like they did ion acapulco thus we get the second best scene of the episode and another worthy rendition of The Three Caballeros as our heroes beat the shit out of the plant, free the kids and the plant straighens out scrooges back.

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It’s beautiful, psycadelic, and utterly awesome. Seroiusly the bright boldend colors are awesome and so’s this sequence. Easily one of the show’s best.. and it’s a show that contiains the greatest scene in television history

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So that masterclass concludes with Donald signing.. badly.. and blowing the plant hte fuck up. Our heroes win and head off in the sunchaser. No idea what Launchpad is up to, probably has another ex in the area. Point is our heroes win, Dewey deletes his photos because “If there was no pics it didn’t happen” (So wise) and Donald decides to get the band back together, prompting scrooge to do an animal house on Panchito’s guitar... you.. you know you have to pay for that right? you aren’t a loveable frat man and he wasn’t ‘singing and I gave my love a cherry. Your obligated to get him a new guitar. You know that right?

So with that the episode wraps. This is a pretty good episode. While the subplot is bad and it should feel bad the main plot is emotional, well done and really adds more depth to Donald’s character while giving us a hell of a show with the cabs. The College Band background gives the boys a unique flavor this time around, not musically but in how they know each other and helps set it apart from the countless other reunions. It’s a truly bright, colorful and fun episode with some great gags and great performances. As I said Puerto and Paulo really knock it out of the park as the boys and while I would’ve preferred Jamie Camil, Paulo was still utterly excellent, though Puerto was the clear standout of the two. While their second apparence would be disapointing characterization wise, overall this was a fun introduction to two of disney’s best into it’s best universe and one of Season 2′s Standouts.

Next Time on the Ride of the Three Cablleros: we begin our massive finale look at The Legend of the Three Cablleros. Donald gets dumped by a nightmare of a person and finds an inhertance, new friends, and some sort of hot adventure god in his new cabana. Good times. Until then goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

#ducktales #donald duck #panchito romero miguel junipero francisco quintero gonzalez #panchito pistoles #Jose Carioca #webby vanderquack #scrooge mcduck #dewey duck #huey duck #louie duck #Abe Simpson #the town where everyone was nice #The Three Caballeros

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theelliottsmiths · 4 years

Note

Could you please liveblog The Making of Rosenrot and Mein Herz Brennt.

Okay I'm gonna do Rosenrot here and then make a separate one for MHB, scheduled so nobody gets a massive wall of text I uh. Assume you pop around to check if I've answered stuff occasionally and this isn't a two ships passing in the night deal. I might schedule this one for like midday tomorrow to increase specifically your chance of seeing it as it's 00:27 BST here currently.

I have probably already done one but here's the thing, it's my favourite making of and it's been a while.

Right at the beginning chess piece Richard lurking in the sunrise smoking. Very cute, still despise the hat. Nodding roughly in time? Fun, though I'm curious as to what he was actually nodding for. To look cool? It didn't work

Oli suits the lurking in a habit thing

Paul looks so so sleepy and it's kind of adorable.

I lose it a little every time he says 'shave off my sideburns I don't know if monks have sideburns' as if he doesn't have earrings. I think he just likes it, it seems like it was the fashion to shave the sideburns and a little extra in the DDR alt scene?

Hnnnn the little noises he makes when he's getting the hood put on my HEART

On the hill just before they're shooting it sounds like Zoran is backwards somehow

Like usual, only some of the boys are allowed to look good. Schneider and Till? Beautiful. Flake and Richard. Very silly. Oli and Paul are fine.

Flakes little beanie. Tills little grin. Richard looking deeply uncomfortable. Suspicious, even. Oli masterfully blending into the background

Schneider is somehow actually more suspicious even than Richard. He has a very suspicious face in general when he's Present.

Nobody can resist fuzzy Till when he says But I wanna make friends too :( Even melted Zorans heart

I want. To rub his soft and fuzzy little head. It's so spherical.

There's something about them seating Till and Paul so they look the same size that I just really enjoy

Richard: shouldnt we have knives??

Zoran: no, you're monks! He does.

Richard: we don't kill him? :/

Paul: we burn him...

Richard, in an intrigued and distinctly positive voice: we burn him?

Flake is smiling at him it's so sweet I love to be reminded that they all love each other

I like the way Richard says 'like the inquisition?'. No real reason, just sounds nice.

Is 'in prinzip'(?) A common phrase in general or is it a Zoran thing? He says it a lot.

I'm only five minutes in this is going to be so long mobile tumblr doesn't let me add an under the cut I'm so sorry

When he talks to other Germans Paul's accent is so detectable. I adore it, it's like the bubble writing teenaged girls use on posters.

The chainsaw. I always forget the chainsaw. Paul being Paul, it's the most fitting choice. Chaos gremlin.

SCHNEIDER AND THE PUPPY

Richard looming over the children in the seesaw like the grim reaper waiting for one to fall off and crack their head on something hard

Olis sleeve wine is genuinely the funniest thing any of them have ever done. He has a penchant for doing robot movements and it's gotten to a point where I wonder if he's an android. A factory runaway because he was slightly faulty and about to be switched off. He ended up staying with Richard and Schneider because Richard understood and schneider didn't notice.

'dont bother asking me any questions, enough questions have already been asked' he says in his little beanie. Owns my heart. If the film thing is remotely true I want to know what Richard thinks, being so into films himself. He's smirking a tiny bit

God, he looks uncomfortable about the kiss.

Hey so anyway what is that guy doing behind him? Cleaning? Because he's using a paintbrush to do it and now I'm questioning whether most of the whipping was real...

I mean, later on you can physically see a welt forming in Paul's shoulder and they're all clearly in a bit of pain but that doesn't mean it's all real... Unless he's, like, painting on some ointment?

I adore this whole chunk of till practicing the murder scene, he's so... Disarming. Like hi yes I'm large and have a knife but you see, I'm actually small and silly look at my fuzzy head I'm v v approachable see my goofy pointy tooth smile? And my high voice and nice accent

Why is Zoran dressed as a monk too

You go here, and i—oop—make like this and then I get the knife and *stab sound*. I hit two, three times

Have you ever really payed attention to the way he makes his T sounds? It makes sense that it's different to the standard because teeth but this

Schneider looks so much like a plague doctor... Kinda into that.

I don't like that Zoran doesn't use Cătălinas name

Richards hair refuses to lie flat. The smoke floating up and then clicking into a straight line always catches my attention

Flake avoiding eye contact is, as the kids say, a major mood. Did he not understand Zoran or was he ignoring him til Oli got his attention? Was he already going deaf in one ear by that point? He looks like, and I mean this in the most loving way, a Muppet when he's looking directly at her. I think it was purposeful

Till giggling when Zoran tickles him with the rose. I do not understand why he says their relationship is ambiguous when they're... in bed together.

Hhhhhh god till looks so good in the flagellation lesson though. Soft sweet chumby boy. I like how visible his scar is.

Paul is always so into the violence and chaos isn't he? I like that he's singing the song but specifically it's the guitars, not the melody. And then theres Flake, the amateur masochist. The sudden camera eye contact always gets me.

A thing I really love about the whole self flagellation thing is that Paul is right there with till the entire time. He hurts himself almost as much as till does, he's there assisting when till is experimenting (sidenote...he does look good though huh), he's across the way where they can see each other in the circle (Richard is directly across which, I don't know, I feel like it's intentional). It seems like he's supporting him. Also that he's just a chaos gremlin and likes to be where the action is.

I've gone into so much detail about their whipping styles in the past

Schneider must be really relieved they didn't really use any of the clips during the whipping where he looks like a sock. He does not look mean he looks like a sock puppet with no hand I'm sorry but it's true

I do like the way Schneider and Paul talk about it though. They got a lot from the experience, it seems. I'd like to hear their thoughts on it now.

'Till, don't defend yourself!' ...the wriggling is cute

Flake and Richard having a little smile :) but Oli and Schneider, deadly serious.

Richard and Till... Should wrestle. Between this and Haifisch it's clear it'd be beneficial. Mein Teil does not count, it should be one on one.

I wish I knew what Till says as he gets up, I'm assuming hes joking about Richard beating him up?

Richard and paul are so careful beating him up. Paul especially is very careful to just softly jostle him. Also, the softest ear pinch

Oli: grinning, happy with their work

Paul: looking serious, not enjoying it at all

Richard: 😬, not remotely a fan, experiencing physical pain just seeing it

Oli heads off Paul's complaints perfectly, it's so practiced. He must have to do it regularly, Paul complains just for the fun of it.

-17° and he has Till topless on his back. Unnecessary. Its so cold the screen doesn't work.

I like to think they tried to drag him not-on his back

I just... I really Like Rosenrot and the making of.

#me rambling #rosenrot #rammstein #when soft fuzzy rosenrot till comes on screen i can feel my pupils dilating

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vcg73 · 4 years

Text

Glee Memories

Someone reblogged an old post to which I had contributed this run-down of my entire Glee fan experience. It made me laugh to read it, because I cannot deny ANY of the reactions even now. This is truly what it was like to watch the show in original air date Fox TV real time - endless mid-season hiatuses and all. Reposting just my own section:

Season 1 - SO good and fun! I want to see more of this! Kurt, I love you. You’re so funny and I especially loved the second half of the season when you started singing solos and being a Cheerio! Even the characters I didn’t really embrace I still want to learn more about. And the songs, and the hope for next year’s competitions… Damn you, summer hiatus!

Season 2 - OMG, not as fresh as last year but still some amazing stuff! Burt and Carole are cute together, though a little oblivious. Why didn’t we ever get any blended Hudmel family scenes? Especially at Christmas. *pout* Didn’t care for Kurt being basically sidelined at Dalton Academy for half the season, and his crush is kind of an oblivious jerk, but I have hope. Things much better by the end with Kurt back at McK and no joy to the bullies. Can’t quite make up my mind if I want to forgive Karofsky. He was awful, but also terrified. I’ll make up my mind next year. Aw, Jean Sylvester has died, I liked her. Finn, a funeral should not inspire you to dump one girl and chase another. You big drip. Too bad about Nationals, but it’s okay that they didn’t go straight to the top. More reason to put out all the stops next year! I liked this season a lot overall. Damn you, summer hiatus!

Season 3 - What the fuck has happened to this show? Blaine transfers in, acts like a dick, steals opportunities and insults people, but by the end every single character is completely up his ass. Wha-? Wait, are Finchel a couple again for the 4,869th time, or are they broken up again? I can’t keep up. Am I really supposed to care about the suddenly evil Warblers and their smirking meerkat boss? Cause I don’t. Warbler Council I miss you. Shue, you’re horrible, get off my screen. Sue, go with him, you’re not funny anymore. Kurt ends up stuck in Lima with no prospects, while Rachel of the world’s worst audition gets his spot at the fancy performing arts school? What the hell! And what do you mean, he only applied to ONE school, that makes no sense given his historic ambition to escape Lima, and determination to help Finn get out too. Someone at NYADA is a lazy bastard who couldn’t be bothered to send out the acceptance letters until JUNE, so most of their prospectives have probably accepted other offers by now. This entire season made no sense and left a bad taste in my mouth. Thank God for summer hiatus!

Season 4 - Better in some respects. Really stupid in others. Kurt does an amazing audition and gets a second chance (that he should have had the first time) to get into his school. I’ll take it. Blaine, you’re a lying, cheating, selfish sack of shit and I’ve given up hoping you’ll ever improve. Just go away and stop horning in where you don’t belong. Adam Crawford, you’re a cinnamon roll too good for this world, but no way too good for Kurt. :) I’m not usually a shipper, but you’re forcing me to ship hard. New Glee Club, your boring clone selves need to step it up and show some originality if you want anyone to like you. Uh, wow, did that nasty Cheerio girl really try to kill the other girl by making her anorexic and totally get away with that with no consequences? Epic fail. Shue, you’re revolting. Oh, Unique. I like you, but why did you leave a star position at Carmel only to be meek about being shoved into the background at McKinley? Really thought Blaine might get offed in that stink-bomb of a school shooting episode. It would have had emotional resonance for others and retired that character with a shred of dignity. Wasn’t that the point of having people declare Blaine teen angel/Jesus-standin for half the season? But no. Nothing happens and they chuck Becky-used to be cool but now is just super annoying-Jackson under the bus instead. (Also, why did nobody on the New York side even seem to know this headline-making event even happened?) Rachel, taking insensitivity and selfishness to new heights in New York. Why is Kurt suddenly your care-taker and general servant? Blech. Sarah Jessica Parker, completely wasted from great starting potential. Did Sam’s brain fall out in the deep end of the swimming pool and float away? Cause, whoa. Finn? Finn! Pay attention, dude. Cut your losses and go to your classes at Ohio state (or wherever). Burt, thank you for squashing that stupid proposal idea. But where is Adam? Come back, adorable little cupcake! Summer hiatus, thank you, I need a break but kinda like where everyone finally ended at the last of this year. This has definite potential.

Season 5 - Dead Finn = sadness. I kind of wish they had just retired him to off screen college somewhere. Wait, what? God Damn It Writers! You can’t just transplant Finchel’s planned storyline to a totally different couple and expect it to make perfect sense, especially with no work or real character improvement to the horrible hair-gelled menace! Copy glee club remains boring, and I don’t give a rat’s ass about their wash-rinse-repeat romances or lifeless competition performances. What the heck has happened to the timeline of this show? Where did Adam go? Oh hey, it’s Demi Lovato and Adam Lambert! Aww, I really like Elliott. It’s about time Kurt got a genuine friend. Rachel, just go away. I can’t deal with you anymore. Burt has been replaced by a pod-person. Creepy puppets more lifelike than most of their human counterparts by now. One Three Hill, I love you! But I can already see that this is another great start with soon to be wasted potential when the contracts run out. Damn it, writers! Don’t put Blaine in NYADA, that makes no sense at all. If this school was as particular as you claimed, he wouldn’t have even made it to the audition round. Combat Jocks are all hot for Kurt, YESSSS! Santana, I’ve never liked you because you’re horrid to everyone but you’re finally starting to grow on me a little. Aw, Chris Colfer’s episode plays like old time Glee! Fun. More, please. Shirley MacLaine gives me the creeps as the old cougar lady. And we’re taking an early hiatus after shedding viewers like snake-skin all season. Can’t say I’m not relieved. I’m determined to see this show through, but my god…

Season 6 - Only a dozen episodes this year? I can make it. Ooo, Kurt dumped the albatross and sent him packing. That’s promising. Rachel’s ego blew up in her face and she’s back in Ohio. Even more promising. New New Directions, I surprisingly actually like you guys a little, though I liked One Three Hill much better. (And the Apples, whatever happened to those folks?) This could actually end with a bang instead of a whimper! Aaand, I spoke too soon. Kurt get your cute butt out of Ohio, you can do so much better in New York, preferably single and dating new appreciative men! Whoa, Sue is full on demented and dangerous this year. Why is she still in a teaching position again? Shue, you’re useless. Get off my screen. Santana previous potential goes right to hell in one fell swoop. Nice briefly knowing you, emotional development. Kurt, I’m serious, go back to NYADA and find whatever locker you left your spine in please. DO NOT take that asshat back for the 8,937th time, please! He’s not worth it. You … what …? Oh my God, he did it, and fucking Dave Karofsky actually helped them along. *beats head on wall* No, please tell me everyone isn’t about to bend over backwards to put Rachel back on top of the heap again! *sigh* That’s it. I’m done. 7 episodes left of this series and I just can’t take it anymore. The writers-room monkeys have mixed pieces from 10 different puzzles, mashed them into a frame with a mallet, eaten the finished product, shit it into their hands, and tossed it at the few remaining fans still watching through the bars.

And that’s what you (lucky souls) missed on Glee!

#lol glee #but no I still haven't seen those last 7 episodes tho I've seen a few random clips #the hindenburg of television programs #glee scarred me #pissing away that much potential that badly just had to be deliberate but I still don't understand why

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the-bromance-rec-blog · 5 years

Text

Not that I know much about K-Drama, but 2019 sure has been a fun one for a bromance lover like me.

This one gives a slightly similar vibe to Strangers From Hell, albeit it’s a comedy. The ‘bromance’ is hilariously portrayed too.

Presenting you a very recent show with a pretty unique premise and a highly refreshing plot. An outstanding blend of fun and thrill!

Psychopath Diary (K-Drama)

Genre: Comedy, Detective, Thriller, Drama

Synopsis (taken & modified from MyDramaList):

Yook Dong Sik is a 34-year-old office worker who is so weak and timid that he is used by everybody around him. After a corporate incident, he becomes the scapegoat of his company. Facing the prospect of losing the job and his family turning their back on him, he decides to commit suicide. While doing so, he unexpectedly stumbles across a murder scene, but gets into an accident while running from the murderer. He wakes up with amnesia with the psychopath’s diary in his possession. With no other clues to his true nature than the diary and his fragmented memory lining up with the diary entry, he begins to believe that he is in fact a psychopath serial killer.

Follow Yook Dong Sik on a hilarious, full-of-mishap journey to get back his memory while helping the police to track down the actual killer!

Length: Completed - 16 episodes, 70 minutes each

Personal review:

+ The bromance.

A great thing about this show: You get two bromances in 1 package.

The CEO and Male Lead

A wise one once said, “A picture speaks a thousand words”. So, yeah, you get the idea (￣▽￣).

Also another precious scene:

Don’t you hear the wedding bell already ringing in the background?

The Gangster Sidekick and Male Lead

This one is super adorable. The sidekick is also a major element of humour in the show. He supports the Male Lead wholeheartedly and is always there for him. Truly the kind of friend that we all secretly wish for.

Bonus (subject to personal preference): Female Lead and Male Lead

Well, this isn’t bromance per se. Also, you could tell that this pairing is meant to be non-platonic (very subtle though). Not that I mind them developing a romantic relationship post-finale, but as far as the show progresses, I’d like to think of them as my BrOTP. Both of them are so cuteeeeee, and they work amazingly well together. Also, the fact that a full-blown romance between these two isn’t awkwardly shoehorned into the ending is great, because don’t we all have enough of under-developed, forceful relationship that pops out of nowhere? ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯

+ The plot. As said above: Very unique, very refreshing. Our Male Lead witnesses a murder, happens to pick up the murderer’s diary, gets hit by a car and thus loses his memory, ends up thinking up that the diary was his, resulting in him getting convinced that he IS the murderer. Like, what again?

The first 4-5 episodes are real fun, with lots of ridiculous situations taking place and the CEO trying desperately to win over Male Lead’s heart. Toward the second half, the tone shifts slightly as the show starts diving deeper into the actual drama/murder mystery. That being said, it maintains a light-hearted, comedic feel throughout. Even the final showdown between Male Lead & the Villain is hilarious AF.

+ The acting. I think I’ve been abusing the word “cute”, but honestly most characters in this show are so cute, including the murderer (I know that sounds kinda wrong, but don’t forget that this is a comedy, so they make fun of everything). Also the Male Lead is impossibly likable. And full of nonsense.

Look at him eating A BLOCK OF TOFU. You can’t get cuter than this.

In general, once again, (I seem to say this for all the Korean shows I review) you can’t spot a single actor/actress that is doing a bad job. Granted, this is a comedy - but no character is annoyingly over-the-top, obviously trying-too-hard or downright cringy. I’m so thankful.

- Sure, the show isn’t perfect. Say, I’m not particularly impressed by Female Lead’s “deduction” ability - it’s too far-fetched to be believable. Certain elements are illogical considering the plot revolves around crime and solving crime. But then again, it’s a K-Drama, and a comedy at that. I think if you watch enough K-Drama (that isn’t a full blown thriller/investigation/mystery) you will soon learn that they sometimes brush off logic to move the plot forward.

Honestly, I’d like to believe that everyone (including the creators/actors of the show) has lots of fun with this. I read somewhere that “this show has one brain cell” - and I agree completely. Just sit back, grab a drink, laugh out loud a have a hella good time. After all, an evil serial murderer writes diary and a soft-and-pure dimwit deludes that he is a murderer - how serious do you think it will get? (｡-ᴗ-)✧

——

With this, I’d also like to officially declare The Guest, Strangers From Hell and Psychopath Diary as my Holy Trinity of Korean ‘Bromantic’ Thriller Series (as if there exists such a genre, but oh well). Thank you for being such amazing dramas, for crossing my path, and for satisfying this thriller fanatic’s never-ending thirst for some good ol’ bromance.

Thank you for a great 2019. Here’s to the hope that more series of similar nature continue to be produced. ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶

#psychopath diary #bromance recommendation blog #bromance drama #seo in woo #yook dong shik #yoon shi yoon #park sung hoon

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mandobls · 5 years

Text

don’t.

pairs: obi-wan kenobi x mandalorian!reader

genre: fluff, angst, action

warnings: a lot of inaccurate travel times and locations lol, reader’s kinda goofy, but it’s cute. is reader a bouncer for a planet?? idk?? i say “vibe” in here so i guess that’s how low i’ve stooped. some violence? swearing?

word count: 2.1k

description: in which everything about this is forbidden

a/n: idek the demand for this lmao but we’re here anyway right? it’s been such a long time since i’ve rewatched the movies, so this is gonna be,,,, :)

masterlist

it’s hard. giving away padme’s children. obi-wan can tell they will be strong, but it’ll be a matter of time until they’re ready.

he’s decided to stay on tatooine, to watch over the boy. the girl will have the life of a princess. he has confidence in organa’s protection.

but there’s something he has to do first.

a funeral. for anakin and padme. he knows anakin is alive. he can feel it. but what anakin will become is alive. the little boy he met on tatooine is not.

he returns to naboo, kneels when prompted, speaks when looked to. it’s all just numb. he is unfeeling, too broken and... angry. in himself, for losing his brother to the dark side’s pull. he pushes it down, though. it is done, he needs to move on, for the anger is consuming.

condolences are barely heard as he storms back to his ship. he has to get away. it’s suffocating there.

his hyperdrive is damaged, so it’ll take him at least two standard months to get back to tatooine, but maybe it’s better this way. he needs some silence.

but of course. of course. he is nearly out of fuel within two days. he groans, quickly searching for a close planet. this is why he hates flying.

the nearest is only a couple hours’ trip away, and he hurriedly sets his course.

he lands without trouble. the mechanic in the shop grunts after inspecting his ship.

“it’ll be a while before i can finish fixing everything. i don’t even know how you flew with this thing.” obi-wan nods with a sigh.

“how long?”

“think a week, if not two.”

“that’s alright. thank you.” the mechanic grunts again.

“yeah, yeah.” he’s stranded here for a bit.

he walks into town, spotting a bar. he can sit for a while before he finds a place to stay.

the bar is packed, music booming and people brushing against each other. obi-wan takes a seat at the bar, pointing a finger at a bottle of orange liquid in the background and holding up a finger, the bartender nods and-

“make that two.” he spins in his seat, placing a hand on his blaster on instinct, locking eyes with a t-visored helmet. it turns back towards the bartender. “oh! and-” the ugnaught behind the bar turns, holding two glasses. “could i get a straw with that?” obi-wan cocks an eyebrow, and the mandalorian beside him just shrugs.

“modern solutions, dear jedi.” the glasses clink as they’re set on the bar, straw lolling around one’s rim.

“of course,” he replies, watching the straw disappear under the mandalorian’s helmet.

“so, what business does an ugly planet like this have with a jedi like you?” she asks, modulated voice betraying a smile.

“getting fuel and repairs. going to head back to tatooine and retire.” the mandalorian tilts her head in recognition.

“so soon?” he shrugs. “that’s alright. life is hard here.”

“i’ve experienced much more in the past years than i should have liked to.”

“understandable.”

“what’s your business with this ‘ugly planet’?” obi-wan asks, mimicking her words. she laughs, leaning an elbow on the table and gesturing to the green paint on her armor.

“duty. i keep peace on this planet as best i can.” he tilts his head.

“and you can’t leave?”

“i was stationed here. this is the way.” she drains the alcohol from her cup, straw sucking nothing but air. he finishes soon after.

“do you know any place i could stay?” he asks, standing and straightening.

“people are hostile here. there’s a reason i’m here. no hostels or anything. stay with me,” she offers, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world.

“oh no, i couldn’t intru-”

“you’re not intruding, jedi. i get lonely anyway.” she stands. “what’s your name?”

he hesitates for a second, but there’s something that tells him she is trustworthy.

“obi-wan. and yours?” the mandalorian sweeps past him towards the door, cape flowing.

“follow me.”

her home is small, but big enough for the two of them to weave around each other comfortably in the space.

“i have an extra cot in that-” she points- “room over there. this is the kitchen, there’s a ‘fresher over here, and that’s my room.”

“i can’t thank you enough.”

“that thank you is enough. do you need anything? clothes, tools?” the realization hits him, and he nods.

“a spare change would be nice, but i don’t need much.”

“alright. we can head down to the village tomorrow.”

the mandalorian provides food and bed, not even asking how long he’ll be staying.

he watches her put together dinner, helmet still firm over her tunic and loose pants.

“i can wait in my room if you’d prefer,” he offers. “i’m sure you’re tired of wearing your helmet.” a hand waves in his general direction.

“i spend most of my life in this helmet, obi-wan.” electricity shocks his spine. “i wouldn’t if it was uncomfortable.” she brings the food over, two dishes of something. “okay, i don’t cook. i’ve never cooked for somebody else. i tried to make something and i don’t really know what became of it.” she pauses. “jedi.” her mock-serious tone makes him look up, staring into her stoic visor with a smile. “this is going to taste horrible.” he laughs as she places the plate in front of him gingerly.

“i’m sure it’ll be fine. anything you’ll give me is good enough.”

“you say that now, but...” she shrugs, clutching the other plate as she walks over to her room. “i promise i’ll eat breakfast with you! i’ll be back, and we can see how it tastes.”

“i look forward to it,” he calls as she shuts the door.

it’s not a second later when there’s noise again.

“have you eaten it yet?” she asks, voice unmodulated and bright.

“not yet,” he replies, fond smile stuck on his face as he prods the food in front of him with a fork.

“don’t!” the mandalorian says, playfully warning tone shining through so clearly without her modulator.

“i won’t.” obi-wan puts his fork down, inspecting the plate again.

she returns, helmet on once more, holding her barely-touched food.

“that was not worth the trouble i went to,” she announces. he laughs, shifting to lean back in his chair.

“i can hold out till breakfast.”

“you sure?” she asks, hand inches from his plate.

“of course. you’ve been so hospitable, and i think i can wait a few hours.” she nods, picking up his plate and happily slinging the food into the trash.

“alright. you wanna take the ‘fresher first?”

“no, it’s fine.”

breakfast is blended, strange, spiky fruit blitzed into submission so that they can eat together.

“i’ve got straws for this exact purpose!” she’d exclaimed.

they go down to the village straight after, just a ten-minute walk that’s easily filled by idle conversation. she’s nothing short of hilarious.

“i’ve heard things about mandalore and its inhabitants,” he says.

“are you surprised with what you found?” she asks, gesturing to herself vaguely.

“mandalorians are fierce warriors. i’ve always been under the impression that-”

“we’re all hardasses?” he blinks, opening his mouth to deny- “nah. i’m the only one that’s not.” he laughs. “but you’re right. not many of us have a sense of humor,” she grunts. “you got lucky with me!”

“i can tell,” he replies, attention focusing on the village that’s just meters away.

“okay, robes should be over there. i’ve got credits, so you can just choose whatever.” obi-wan almost refuses, before realizing that his are on his ship, which is still in repair.

“can... can i ask you something?” her head turns towards him, listening. “why have you been so kind to me?” she nods, facing forward again.

“fair question.” she pauses. “i owe my life to the jedi.” his head bobs as he listens. “i admire your way of life, you know. so selfless and kind. i could never be like that.”

“you are selfless.” he says automatically. why else would she be housing him?

she remains silent, helmet facing stagnant forward as they approach a booth.

he keeps it quick, picking something that’ll hold him over. the robes he wears has been through many a-

“fight! over there!” the mandalorian groans, glancing back at him.

“i’ve got to go break it up. follow if you’d like.”

he does, leaving the robe and keeping a hand on the weapon at his hip.

it’s only a fist fight, but the surrounding villagers swarm the area, egging them on.

the mandalorian shoves her way through the crowd, pulling one away from the other with a firm hand on each villagers’ chest. he follows, staying at the inner edge of the crowd.

one of them swings at her, and he’s about to step in-

but her fist strikes true first, knocking out the villager with one strike. she turns to the other.

“i hope that you can sort this out when he wakes up. civilly.” he nods, head bowed, and the mandalorian walks back to obi-wan.

“let’s go get your robes. and maybe some food for later.” he nods, still shocked as he trails behind her.

it’s only been a week and they’ve fallen into a bit of a routine.

he helps her around the house, walks with her as she makes her rounds. and in turn, she provides him with a home and butterflies for his stomach. lots of butterflies. birds in there.

it’s bad.

and it gets even worse when she almost kicks down the door of her house, brandishing a bottle of mystery liquor like a trophy.

“you don’t need to work tomorrow?” he asks, amused. she just laughs triumphantly, gathering two clean glasses and a straw.

“they can take care of themselves. the way only says i need to stay on this planet. i need a break.” he takes a seat in the chair across from her, holding a glass as she fills it with amber. “and besides, you’re leaving tomorrow. we should celebrate!” right... he’s leaving.

it’s strong. he’s nearly delirious within a few hours.

but not as delirious as her.

the mandalorian periodically bangs her head on the table, laughing at everything and anything.

“...no, but you know! you’ve got a thing going on.”

“a thing?” he asks, almost crying in his laughter.

“like... like...” she whines, head lolling. “i dunno the word in basic,” she slurs, hand gesticulating wildly. “copyc.”

“give me- give me the general gist of it.” she nods, index finger raised as she thinks.

“attractive.” she exclaims, and he almost sobers up.

“you think i’m attractive?” he asks incredulously, scooting closer.

“don’t tease. not like... the face.” she pauses in consideration. “but also the face, i guess. but the word means... your aura.”

“my aura?”

“yeah, obi, your vibe. it's personality. your personality is attractive.”

“wh-” her helmet makes a loud clunk as it drops onto the table, and he can tell she's unconscious.

hopefully, neither remember that conversation the next day.

he remembers everything.

his head pounds and the light shining through the window is too bright. his neck is craned at an awkward angle. he must have fallen asleep after her last night.

he hopes that at least she doesn’t remember anything.

a bottle is placed in front of him. “for- for your hangover,” she says awkwardly, turning back around.

she remembers everything.

breakfast is quiet and tense, the sound of the mandalorian sucking her straw the only sound.

she sighs, looking up.

“look, you’re leaving soon. i don’t want this to be the last thing you remember about me.” he nods in agreement. “we can just forget about it.”

she finishes her drink, standing and taking his empty glass.

he stands with her. “wait.”

she turns, placing the glasses down and looking up at him.

“you called me copyc.” he can see her getting ready to respond and quickly speaks before she can. “and i think you are too.”

she steps closer hesitantly, and he places his hands on her waist lightly. one of her hands comes up to rest on his cheek, other over his shoulder.

obi-wan’s hands rest on her helmet, almost-

“don’t.” her hands are suddenly on his, a practiced instinct. “it’s forbidden.” he nods, hand on her hips again, hers still on top of his.

“what will you have me do?” it’s a pained whisper.

the mandalorian’s hands raise to his face again, slowly pulling his head closer so his forehead rests against the cool metal of her helmet.

he doesn’t know the significance, but he can feel it, closing his eyes and pulling her ever-close.

“come with me.” it’s useless.

“i can’t.” he understands.

“i know.”

“obi.” he opens his eyes. “my name... it’s-”

“you don’t have to,” he says.

she hesitates. “but i want to.”

so she tells him, he nods, then they’re silent. it is forbidden.

obi-wan taglist: @panda-luminary, @kat-soudone, @sacredmirrxrs, @spooky-childd, @chandler-woods, @procrastination-nations

complete taglist: @ispilledmyink, @justlovetoreadfics

#obi-wan kenobi x reader #obi-wan kenobi #obi-wan x reader #obi-wan x you #obi wan x reader

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wondersbeyondcompare · 4 years

Text

Finally finished up Kodi’s profile and a simple character sheet! ( ´ ▽ ` ) Berenice might take a bit longer... most of her first profile was filled with ??? after all...

Full Profile+Additional Sketches are below!

(Before I get into anything, just wanna say that the main inspiration behind this boi was this one Twitter post about cuttlefish that I found really cute back then (altho he’s not venomous lol). Plus (・_・;) Youtube recommended me an hour long documentary on the animal, and I ended up watching all of it, so then I became even more attached...)

Full Name: Kodi Sepiama

Name Meaning: Tbh, I just read this sentence from the Wikipedia article on cuttlefish: “The "cuttle" in cuttlefish comes from the Old English name for the species, cudele, which may be cognate with the Old Norse koddi (cushion) and the Middle Low German Kudel (rag)”,and the rest was history; His last name is a combination of the scientific name for the giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama)

Dorm: Octivanelle

Twisted Off Of: Nothing (He’s based off of a cuttlefish though)

Year: 2nd Year

Birthday: April 07 (Aries)

Age: 17 years old

Height: 1.77m/5’10”

Place of Origin: Village of Harvest

Voice Headcanon: Miwa Takahiro

Personality:

Tends to have delusions of the grandeur when it comes to imagining his ideal school life. A very expressive boy who wears his heart on his sleeve. As a result, he has significant trouble hiding how he feels, both on his face and through his actions. Due to his unique magic Kodi has a very weak presence compared to most people, and, although he’s eager to make friends with everybody, he mostly goes unnoticed by his peers. As with most Octivanelle students, he’s often tasked by Azul with one errand or another, but he manages to keep up a (mostly) optimistic attitude in spite of all his work.

Will carry out any of Azul’s orders no matter how questionable they may seem, acting as a pawn to the dorm leader’s chess board by gathering info on other students around the school undetected. He’s a smart guy when it comes to academics, but since people like Azul and Riddle are in his grade, his ranking isn’t as high as he would want it to be. His common sense, however, is a different story.

Likes: Akashiyaki, tending to both animals and plants, anything that keeps him busy, basketball, art, buying new watercolor sets, aquariums, his friends, crossing things off his to-do list

Dislikes: The cowardly part of himself, his unique magic, oranges, disappointing others, when people forget about him

Background:

Despite being an Octavinelle student, Kodi grew up in an environment where most spent their days tending to the land: The Village of Harvest. The boy was a result of his mother having a romantic summer encounter with a cuttlefish merman on one of her rare trips to the beach, therefore his father wasn’t really in the picture when he was growing up. However, his mother didn’t hold any resentment towards his father, often speaking fondly of the man and the memories she held of him.

He was raised by his mother and her family on a small farm in the area. Because of this, Kodi never really felt lonely when he was younger, having been surrounded by his many relatives most of his life. It is from them did he learn practical skills when it came to both farming and everyday life, such as how to take care of plants and animals, how to cook healthy meals, etc. The village in general was a tight knit and welcoming community, so it also wasn’t uncommon for Kodi and his cousins to play with the children of other families and even stay over for dinner at different houses once they ran out of steam. One of his best friends was Epel, whom Kodi happily regarded as a little brother figure since most of his cousins were older than him.

As a child, Kodi was much more stoic than his current self, taking after his mother. It wasn’t as if he were shy or traumatized into being emotionally guarded, but rather it was physically difficult for him to show emotions. His face nor his voice would hardly change regardless of how strong of an emotion he was feeling. It was because of this did some of his peers think he was cold, especially when it came to situations that involved sympathy, but his personality didn’t hurt his reputation that much.

It is only when his magical abilities began to kick in did Kodi notice a drop in attention being paid to him. Since his unique magic involved blending in with his surroundings, this caused his overall presence to become weaker as well. Sometimes his friends would forget about him during their games (especially if they were playing hide and seek), other times his relatives would forget to set a plate for him at the dinner table; it wasn’t as if he was forgotten about completely, but these little hiccups really hurt his self esteem. It was because of this did Kodi begin to act out to get a little more attention, but he still went unnoticed. Eventually Kodi gave up and resorted to learning different ways to improve himself. He thought if he worked hard enough in a variety of areas, then surely he will get the recognition he deserves. Maybe he might even get lucky and get to go study at Night Raven College, becoming a famous magician after completing his studies at the magic school. He upped his athleticness by playing basketball with his cousins, created arts and crafts with Epel, and studied hard in school to pass his classes.

When the carriage came to take him away to NRC, Kodi was overjoyed. Well, it didn’t really show on his face because, :/ y’know, but he was shaking a lot from excitement when they placed him inside his coffin.

He didn’t really think much of which dorm he wanted to be placed in. Despite having little to no expectations, Kodi couldn’t help but be a little surprised when he got sorted into Octavinelle. He was aware of his mother’s encounter with the merman, but he thought she was telling him some sugar coated story to explain the absence of his dad. In fact, he was still skeptical of his mother’s tale until he accidentally fell into the large tank just outside the dorm’s lounge after he was done feeding the fish. Having grown up in a place not near any large bodies of water, Kodi didn’t think he needed to know how to swim, and, boy, did he regret it as he sunk deeper and deeper into the water. He blacked out once he ran out of oxygen, but when he came to, Kodi found himself as a cuttlefish laying on the tank’s floor. It took him an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to turn back into human afterwards.

Kodi came in contact with Azul early in his first year since they had a lot of the same classes, as well as the same dorm, together. However, it wasn’t until the start of his second year did Kodi decide he'd had enough of being ignored and that he wanted to sign a contract with Azul to fix his circumstances. His exact wish involved being able to express his emotions more freely as he believed that was the root of his problem. Azul agreed to help him out so long as Kodi did him a little favor that would “better acquaint him with the students on campus”. Thinking nothing of Azul’s vague wording, Kodi accepted his offer and became the overly expressive boi he is today. In exchange, he was to gather information on all the students on campus and create a basic profile on each person that was to be put into a catalogue held by Azul, just so this octopus man knew the type of clients he was going to be dealing with. For the first time, Kodi felt what it was like for fear to contort his face.

As of now, Kodi wears two mood bracelets around his wrists as physical proof of his contract. The bracelets change colors depending on what mood he’s in, but he tries to hide them under his sleeves out of embarrassment (you could still see how he feels on his face tho… (￣^￣) ). In addition to bending to Azul and the Leech brothers’ whims, he found himself helping out in a little smuggling business within the school, sneaking in certain outside goods that are hard to get on campus through a network of students. Kodi was assigned to deliver the packages in a secretive way, usually using his unique magic to his advantage. At first he was skeptical to join, but after being convinced that it wasn’t technically against school rules and that it wouldn’t take up much of his time, Kodi was on board with the idea.

Kodi also tried to keep in touch with Epel once the latter joined NRC, but the first year often regards him with disdain, thinking he’s become less cool when he entered his second year. But they’re still decent friends and sometimes have lunch together when their schedules match up. Kodi has attempted to befriend Majid due to him being a first year like Epel, visiting Scarabia to have a chat with him every once and awhile. Majid initially tried to reject him, but eventually became placated when Kodi began to bring snacks he made whenever he came to visit. Kodi doesn’t know how to act around Berenice and is lowkey kind of scared of her since she’s part ghost. He still acts friendly enough towards her though.

(Side Note: I kinda came up with his story before playing Chapter 3, and I’m not entirely sure what would happen to Kodi after all of (･_･;) that happened with all of the other students’ contracts. If Kodi’s contract had the same fate, his mood bracelets would probably become inactivated and go back to those cheap ones you get at souvenir shops. Kodi would still be expressive as always, yet would go back to having his old RBF when he’s not thinking about anything in particular. Or we could pretend that his contract was forgotten about in the chaos (￣∇￣) continuing with the running theme of him being forgotten…).

Powers:

Unique Magic (Hide-Away): This ability enables Kodi to seamlessly take upon the appearance of his surroundings, whether it involves becoming a part of the wall or a large potted plant. His generally weak presence enhances this ability as well. He has tried to imitate the appearances of other people, however, his unique magic doesn’t seem to accomodate for that type of mimicry. :’) Back to being a part of the wall he goes.

Cuttlefish Transformation: Due to being a quarter cuttlefish, he can only become fully human or fully cuttlefish. There is no in between. Gets kind of jealous whenever he sees Jade and Floyd switch into their merman forms during their visits to The Sea of Corals. Sometimes customers can catch a glimpse of cuttlefish Kodi swimming around the huge tank in Mostro Lounge, testing out his recently discovered form.

Stunning Hypnosis: Doesn’t really use this ability until he’s forced to. Whenever Kodi finds he’s in a tough situation, he can make his eyes mimic the hypnotic light show cuttlefish would normally display on their skin, his irises quickly shifting between different colors as he does so. This ability temporarily stuns his victim for about one to five minutes, giving him enough time to do whatever he needs to do.

Trivia:

He had curled all his hair for his high school debut, but somehow half of it got flattened during his time in the coffin on his way to NRC. Kodi tried to frantically fix it before the entrance ceremony in the bathroom until a random upperclassman complimented his “daring” hairstyle. He was so flattered that he kept doing his hair like that for the rest of the year.

Both Jade and Floyd tend to tease him about him not being able to turn into a merman. It didn’t bother him that much until they started tossing him around in his cuttlefish form like some terrified beach ball on one of their ocean visits.

Was tempted to join the Magishift club at first but decided otherwise when he fell off his broom in the first meeting. No one noticed, but he was embarrassed all the same. Switched over to the basketball club because he was more familiar with the sport. (*wheeze* kodi no basuke)

The shirt he wears with his Octavinelle uniform was given to him by his grandmother, saying that he would look so nice and sophisticated wearing it at school; he was personally reluctant to take it at first, but you can’t say no to grandmama

He so desperately wants to be relied upon that he’s willing to do almost anything to gain others’ respect; this often leads him to being a huge pushover tho

Can be scarily protective over the people he cares about; works from the background to make sure offenders get some kind of karma for what they’ve done

A good majority of his peers and upperclassmen who he knew in his first year became genuinely concerned when Kodi did a complete 180 in his second year; some worried he hit his head the wrong way and offered to take him to the hospital; others just gradually accepted this new Kodi; besides, it’s nice to see a huge smile finally cross his face when he gets excited about something for once

#twisted wonderland oc #art #my post #my art #twst oc #ocs #oc #my ocs #Kodi #i purposely made him 1cm taller than azul just to have one more octavinelle member that was taller than him #also to spite him a little on how slight the difference was owo #i really like azul and his amazing work ethic but i couldn't pass up this opportunity #his backstory isn't as complicated as Majids but i really just wanted a smiley idiot oc for once...so...#had to lighten up a bit!!

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risottostitties · 5 years

Note

Hi! First time here to ask haha! Any HCs for La squadra with an Otaku s/o? Like she watches anime and even buys merch in secret cuz she's scared they might find her hobby lame and immature? (Also,what will be their fave anime? And genre?)

Oh boy let me tell you I have some THOUGHTS about these boys and their taste in anime

La Squadra with an Otaku s/o

Risotto

at first he’s gonna be kinda confused, not gonna lie. Growing up the only ‘anime’ he knew was like, Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z but at that point he was too old to really get into Pokemon, and he never considered DBZ anime because it aired next to cartoons and stuff.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t appreciate s/o and their good taste. He’s the kind of guy who wants to learn about what interests the people he loves, and he loves you. So he’d honestly enjoy late nights spent binge watching your favorites.

Comes to realize that DBZ was low key his gym goals for the early years of him working out. If you bought him a ‘Swole like Goku’ tank he’d probably wear it to lift in, ngl.

Knowing your favorites he’d probably look to merch for his go to birthday or Christmas gifts. Considering the hobbies and interests of some of his co-workers, a scantily clad waifu figure is honestly a welcome change of pace.

Depending on the style or aesthetic of the anime (ie, is it goth) he would be down to couples cosplay, although he wouldn’t be comfortable with you posting pictures of his face or any identifiable features of him online

His fave is probably the original Dragon Ball Run, followed very closely by DBZ for the nostalgia bit. Something deep like Full Metal Alchemist (Brotherhood and the original) would also appeal to him

Is also a big fan of Beserk, disappointed by the anime. And Vinland Saga, not disappointed by the anime.

Partial to Princess Mononoke as well. He likes some Ghibli films, isn’t afraid to admit it. Thinks the score for Spirited Away is bomb af.

Prosciutto

Prosciutto doesn’t really get it at first either. Honestly? He probably didn’t know the difference between cartoon and anime until you explained it to him.

Unlike Risotto he might be a bit more judgey if you try to get him to watch some with you. So you gotta hit him with the real classics.

But similarly to Risotto, he at least makes an effort to try and indulge in the things you like. He might not be as patient, but he tries.

Probably wouldn’t do cosplay himself, but would hunt down exclusive seasonal merch to gift you. He’d take careful stock of your collections and do some research to pick out only the finest figurines and posters for you.

Would buy that hella expensive premium bandai apparel for you too, might even pick something subtle up for himself if he really liked the show it came from.

Also back on the cosplay note, if you agreed he’d find the highest quality cosplay possible and have you model some of his favorites for him.

(In particular if you were comfortable in fem clothing, Faye Valentine gets him going)

He loves Cowboy Beebop. 100%, wants to watch it again as soon as it ends. Everything from the characters to the story to the music and the fliud animation that has aged like fine wine appeals to him. Prosciutto is a man who likes the finer things in life. He oozes class. Cowboy Beebop oozes class and prestige.

Also likes Maasaki Yuasa. It was his idea to go see The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl in theaters.

In general his tastes tend to lean towards arthouse type anime or bona fide classics.

Pesci

Pesci knows anime and has been doing his absolute best to keep it a secret from the rest of the gang because they already tease him enough.

He’s one of those secret weebs, you gotta know where to look. Your best bet is to look at his accessories. Is there a watch with a certain symbol from an anime you recognize? A lanyard with a familiar print? Something subtle that isn’t immediately noticed by people not looking for it.

He has a secret box in his room full of blue rays from his faves. He watches them sometimes when he’s home alone. There’s nothing X rated in there obviously, he just doesn’t want people to know.

Thank god he has you.

The two of you probably bonded pretty fast over your mutual love of anime. Hell, you being such an open and proud Otaku probably gave him a bit of confidence in expressing his interests too.

Yall are the weeb couple. Yall definitely go to conventions together. Couples Cosplays, the whole thing.

He’s a sucker for Shonen just as much as he is for the really good heart wrenching painful ones.

He watches Boruto because he loves Naruto so much.

He would also tear up at Clannad.

Dango Daikazoku triggers almost a pavlovian response of heart ache.

So does Secret Base.

Ano Hana is probably his favorite, although even you’d need to pry it out of him. Its one thing that Prosciutto gives him shit for liking anime, its a whole different ball game if he found out Pesci liked girly anime

Fromaggio

He knows what hentai is. That’s about as far as his knowledge went before yall got together.

He thinks its pretty interesting though, so he’d be down to watch some with you.

Turns out he really likes action shonen. He got really, really into One Piece. Like, instantly. He likes the fact there’s so much to watch/read before he’s caught up too.

Another boy that would couples cosplay and be really into it. Especially if it continued into the bedroom.

He’s pretty go with the flow, so he isn’t picky about what y’all watch. Even if it isn’t his cup of tea he’ll sit through a few episodes on a night with you.

Fromaggio can’t tell the difference between a high quality figure and a shitty one. Its a crap shoot what he buys for you. Its more a process of ‘oh, so likes this character’ rather than checking the seams and paint quality and how dynamic the pose is/interchangeable parts.

Definitely buys way too much in the dealers room because of this.

He tries his best.

His fave is probably One Piece, liked bleach a lot but never read the manga, Yu Yu Hakusho is another one he really enjoyed. The Dark Tournament arc had him at the edge of his seat and hype as shit.

Illuso

Had a passing knowledge of anime before dating you. Knew what it was, saw a few of the mainstream ones, thought they were enjoyable, moved on with his life.

Your dedicated interest in anime would surprise him at first, because he always figured it was kind of a niche thing.

Would snoop around your collection of manga/figures/plushes in the mirror world while you sleep.

Winds up reading a lot of your manga like that (he’s good at reading in reverse because of his stand)

He finds he appreciates the art style of 80s-90s manga a lot more than he does the modern stuff. He really got into Ranma 1/2 and thinks Rumiko Takahashi’s artstyle is excellent.

If you asked him to watch Inuyasha with you he wouldn’t say no.

Probably wouldn’t want to do couples cosplay, but he definitely has an appreciation for you in cosplay.

You could talk him into going to a con if you caught him in the right mood. It’d be a hard sell though.

Has a surprising enjoyment for J-Rock.

Inuyasha is high on his favorites list, as is Ranma 1/2. Also a fan of Ghibli movies although its pulling teeth to get him to admit it.

Melone

This man has watched so much hentai in his life.

He probably actually knows them by title honestly.

He enjoys anime too, and is not ashamed unlike Pesci. Everyone already knows he has unconventional tastes there is nothing to hide here.

Melone enjoys traditionally feminine anime, especially Sailor Moon. That one has a special place in his heart as he has memories of his sister watching it with him when he was much younger.

Its more of a decompress thing than anything else, so he doesn't tend to favor heavy anime with dense plot and more mature subject matter.

He likes Maid Costumes. On you, on him, it doesn’t matter.

Doesn’t know a whole lot about merch and what makes something higher quality but he learns fast. Between you and him the Dealers Room at cons won’t know what hit them.

Is the type to preorder a figure he knows you’d like. And maybe one for him.

Buy him this and he’s putty in your hands for a month straight (SFW don’t worry) https://www.amazon.com/Bandai-Sailor-Moonlight-Memory-Locket/dp/B00UA9XB48

Sailor Moon is his favorite as I’ve said before, his favorite sailor scout is Rei. Is also a fan of Ano Hana, Violet Evergarden, and Toradora although he needs to be in the right mood to watch them.

Ghiaccio

He went down the Fate rabbit hole and we haven’t seen him since.

The gender bending grates as his soul but he is addicted regardless. There’s just so much dense lore that he can’t seem to stop going.

But also seeing how much care and attention is paid to the historical background of a lot of the servants is intriguing to him. Its the perfect blend of accurate and harem trash that infuriates him but also leaves him needing to know more.

He hasn’t played every game but he has Grand Order on his phone and has sunk an ungodly amount of money into the gacha trying to get his favorite (Its Jeanne Alter, in case anyone was wondering) and has seen all the anime (His favorite is the cooking spin off because its surprisingly calming to watch)

Fate Zero is probably his favorite ‘serious’ Fate adaptation. He enjoys the gravitas of the Holy Grail Wars (and hates how it was tossed out the fucking window in UBW/Stay Night/Heavens Feel) and the ritual aspect to the summoning and foreshadowing of future events as well as hints at a deeper magical lore in the universe hit all the right spots in his lizard brain.

The fact every fate anime has a different version of Saber (or a Saber Clone) pisses him off too.

He really loves Fate. And will scream about it for hours at you.

Getting him to watch or talk about anything else is like pulling teeth but he eventually relents because he loves you.

Its difficult to get through a single episode without him grumbling about something or another, but he tries once he sees its important to you. He does his best not to outright insult your favorite anime.

Can appreciate high quality merch as well, probably collects Jalter Figures himself.

If you’re comfortable in fem clothing, Cosplay Jalter for him and he will literally ascend then and there. Keeps pics on his phone. Would probably make it his background. He’s weak

Outside of Fate he finds he enjoys high fantasy shows. Historical fantasy pisses him off too much, and straight up historical drama would also have him grasping for inaccuracies.

Full Metal Alchemist is a non-fate series that he really loves because of the world building. The movie Maquia was one he enjoyed as well. Likes every Miyazaki film, don’t tell anyone. Cried (and raged) when Ushio died in Clannad.

In general he just likes really good world building. It has to be good otherwise he’s going to spend the whole time picking it apart.

#risotto nero #melone #prosciutto #pesci #ghiaccio #illuso #fromaggio #jjba #jjba headcanons #la squadra #not sfw #just in case #la sqaudra #la squadra x reader #x reader #jjba writing blog

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mysticsparklewings · 5 years

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Draw This In Your Style!

Draw/Recreate This In Your Style, post the original art alongside it (on platforms that support it, elsewhere you can just link back to the original instead), and either tag it with #dtiySparkle or tag me, MysticSparkleWings (xxMysticWingsxx on Twitter) directly and I'll retweet/share/etc. it! No deadline, just create at your own pace!

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You know, I constantly go back and forth on "celebrate milestones!" vs. "don't be that person that won't shut up about how many followers they have and the numbers and etc." Mostly because I usually find it annoying from other artists, even if I don't find the artist themselves annoying. It's complicated. I know it's important and in many cases helps grow a following further, but it also just gets exhausting, you know? Both to see it and to try to do it.

Still, I've been wanting to make a "Draw This In Your Style" (DTIYS) for a while now, but it didn't seem like the kind of thing to just do on a whim. It felt like there should be a reason for at least the first one, provided it went well enough to make me want to do more. I noticed a few weeks ago that I was approaching 1,000 followers on Twitter* and I saw an opportunity, knowing that 1. It would take me a while to finish the artwork (go big or go home, yes?) and 2. It would take a few days for the numbers to stabilize so that I would actually hold steady at 1,000+ and not be 1,000 one minute and 998 the next. (Followers go up and down like a see-saw over there)

*Thanks exclusively to Art Shares. I'm very sure I'd still have less than 100 if it weren't for those--and please don't be fooled by that number. 1,000 isn't teeny tiny, but in-depth interaction from a handful of people will always mean more to me than zero or minimal-at-best interaction from thousands/millions/etc, and frankly, my interaction over on Twitter is basically non-existent compared to the interaction I get here on dA, which precisely is why I prioritize dA over all other social media. It means more to me; it feels infinitely less passive.

But...I kinda didn't want that to be the only reason for the DTIYS. It just seemed...I don't know, cliche? Not right, somehow. Fortunately, the Twitter milestone happens to coincidence with I think I've finally stabilized around 300 followers on Instagram (after being stuck between 250 and 290 for months, consistently going up and down 2-3 people at a time), and I've also garnered over 400 watchers right here on dA.

The Twitter milestone is technically the biggest, but honestly, the dA one means a lot more to me. I thank each and everyone one of you, my fellow deviants, for thinking my art is worth the watch.

And I especially thank those of you--I'm sure you know who you are, I won't name names just in case anyone's not comfortable with that--that consistently fav and/or comment on my work. Your support and encouragement are why I keep doing this, despite the frustrations I may have along the way and aside from an innate need to create.

Speaking of which, if you're a loyal Sparkler I think now I'll get to the part you might know me best for; the long description of the artistic process!

Like I mentioned before, I noticed the milestone stuff a few weeks ago and thought now would be as good a time as any to get started on a DTIYS, so I started trying to brainstorm something that would be both fun for me to make and fun for others to recreate. I was having a little trouble on this front, so I took a trip to Pinterest and re-visited some boards I use to save potential draw ideas/inspiration on.

I was thinking I wanted to include a fairy since I've been wanting to get back into drawing them more regularly and fairies-via-Winx-Club is where I got my start here on dA and indirectly into getting more serious about my art in general. I was also thinking something with galaxies since those are usually fun to make and are a good way to make an otherwise plain or simple piece more interesting. I didn't want this to be too terribly complicated if I expected other people to draw it, but I also didn't want it to be too boring. And, of course, I was hoping for something I could lean into my mixed-media prowess with.

All that turned out to be quite the balancing act, but after some scrolling, I had some ideas and ended up with a sketch of a fairy in a teacup, with place-holder wings and a place-holder rose on the cup. The wings I knew would be easier to do the lines digitally (even if the final art was traditional, which I was planning on), and the rose I wanted to be slightly more sophisticated than my typical stencil-made roses, which I thought would also be easier to experiment with digitally. I was right on that front, thanks to some of the public domain images on PixaBay.

Beyond that, my original idea was fairly different from what you see here; I was thinking black hair, a fairly vampiric look, for the fairy, more typical butterfly wings, a red rose on the cup, and then an abstract galaxy wash, more watercolor-y and less saturated, for the background. And to be fair, that's still an interesting idea that I might return to at some point, but even as I worked on and finished the digital linework (fully planning to print them and then do what I wished with them traditionally, as has become a norm for me) something in the back of my mind told me that vision wasn't the right one; Not for this project, anyway.

Fortunately, I was a busy enough bee in between working on the lines for this that I partially had to step away from it to meet other time constraints and I could afford to step away from it and have some time to ponder what I wanted to do.

In my pondering, I kept coming back to the galaxy/constellation thing I've been experimenting with lately (Exhibits A, B, and C ). I hesitated at first since I knew for sure I didn't want to do the whole drawing that way and I wasn't entirely sure how to decided what to do with what.

Of course, after thinking about it a bit more, I decided I'd take a risk in doing the background and wings in the constellation style, and then somehow do the rest in a more traditional way. I'd have some more time to think about that while I was re-tooling the wings digitally for said constellation style, after having discovered that made life so much easier during my previous experiments with it.

I'd know from the beginning that I wanted to do metallic accents (most likely silver) on the cup and saucer, which in this case meant I'd need to use either watercolor or heavy-duty mixed media paper for them, and I definitely had to use watercolor paper for the wings/background. The mixed media will work for the galaxy technique, but the colors don't blend quite as nicely and I was concerned about how that might affect the overall look here.

Still, I didn't want to watercolor the fairy herself at least, which left me with a choice of alcohol markers or colored pencils. I was thinking pencils for the hair for texture, markers for the skin for the lack thereof. But I typically don't like using alcohol markers on watercolor paper. The additional texture feels too rough on the nib and it's almost like I can feel the paper soaking up extra ink.

I also thought that doing the background and the fairy on the same piece of paper was asking for a very big watercolor-y mess, so between that and the paper concerns, that led me eventually to deciding to split them up.

And somehow in there, the idea occurred to me that I could get a bit adventurous (read: crafty) and actually separate the various parts of the fairy and cup out a bit and not only solve my paper problem, but also makes things a little more interesting.

After yet more pondering (if you can say nothing else about my art, you cannot say it isn't well-pondered by the time it's finished!) I settled on having the layers as follows:

background/wings (watercolor paper)

back part of the saucer (mixed media paper)

the fairy (with her arm and bit of hair carefully plopped over the next layer; mixed media)

the cup (mixed media)

the front of the saucer (mixed media)

Or at least that was the plan, and if I discovered problems in this plan then I could adjust as necessary.

So I got to work on the background, which was fairly straight-forward. I layered on paint and blended to essentially my heart's content, and then let it dry overnight since it was getting late by the time I finished it, or rather the first layer. I came back to it the next day and layered on some more paint to fix some blending issues and darken the whole thing up some more.

While that second layer dried, I got to making the lines for the additional layers and cutting them out--uncolored for the time being, as I figured the layering would need to factor into that a bit--and setting how exactly they'd fit together. The only modifications to my plans I had to make, which I, fortunately, had the foresight to do while I was cutting, was to leave two little bumps at the "bottom" of the fairy (where her body meets the cup) so that she could sit probably as both in the cup but also with her hair and arm hanging over it. The little bumps were a sort of "grounding" behind the cup to hold the rest of her in place while the other pieces were wedged on top.

I hope that makes sense, it's a little hard to explain without seeing it for yourself.

Anyway. I'd also had the foresight to transfer an outline of the fairy and cup lines onto the background before I started painting, which helped with making sure everything was placed...semi-correctly...on the final piece.

I say semi correctly because despite my best efforts when I went to glue everything together it looked right in-person, but the digital scan would later reveal to me that in fact, the layered bits had all shifted slightly to the left and curved inward a bit more, like a right parathesis: ) But I'll come back to that in a minute.

Once I was convinced my layering gambit was going to work out, then I started toying with colors and ideas for the layers themselves. The clearest idea I had out of the gate was to do the rose in a galaxy style too, rather than just plain watercolor like I'd originally planned (teal for the leaf though because green wouldn't have fit with the rest of the palette and blue would've blended too well); either way, I figured it wouldn't pose much of a problem on the mixed media paper since it's such a small area. The biggest challenge would be the stars, but even then you could say the same thing: It's such a small area that star dispersion with a pen really wasn't that big of a challenge to make look convincingly like random star placement.

I went back and forth a bit on the other colors, but I ultimately decided that I liked the idea of soft purple skin and dark(ish) blue hair, maybe soft pink lips and a little blush, for the fairy herself. And I also decided to do a little warm-gray shading on the cup with markers, as opposed to just leaving it white.

The lips turned out so nicely I was tempted to try doing the blush with the same markers, but I have very mixed luck with marker blush (sometimes it blends nicely, other times I get a nice line despite my efforts), and so I decided to play it safe and do it later with pencils instead. Fortunately, the rest of the skin and the cup (both done with Copics specifically as that's where I most easily found the colors I needed) went nice and smoothly, as is the nature of markers on this mixed media paper. (Seriously; Strathmore 400 series Mixed Media works wonders with alcohol markers for layering and blending!!)

The hair was a little more complicated because of the color I was hoping for, but that didn't matter too much because half-way through I decided to change things up a bit and I added little bits of pink and purple into the mix, intentionally following the rest of the galaxy-ness of what I was doing. It's not much, but I think it was the right choice.

While I waited to make sure the cup was good and dry, I went to splatter town on the now-dry background, as was necessary for the galaxy look, and then used my phone to shine some extra light on the paper so I could see my lines and dots for the wings. And after giving the white gel pen a moment to dry, I then went back in with my PanPastel, as is custom, to make the wings glow. I have also now learned that a blending stump/tortillon is good for blending out the pastel in a tight space, while a dry paper towel or tissue works to semi-remove it if it goes on a bit too thick.

Everything, after drying, was then assembled and attached to the background with some handy-dandy tacky glue which was fortunately fairly quick-drying for liquid glue, stuck fairly well without me having to add a whole lot of it, and also not a sloppy glue mess everywhere.

I did have to carefully go back over some of my lines for the cup and hair after everything was assembled because I forgot to do so over the metallic paint and pencil wax before assembly, but it also worked out okay since a couple of corners for the hair got snipped a little short, so I could sort-of fix it by extended the corner on the paper underneath. (In hindsight this works a lot better in-person; on the undoctored scan the placement looks pretty off or incomplete)

And of course, with everything assembled, that brings me back to what I was saying about the scan earlier.

Like mentioned, everything had shifted a bit during placement and gluing, and I could more clearly see the lines I had missed in that process on the scan. Unfortunately for me, while in-person everything looks relativity fine, on the (undoctored) scan this shifting made the balance feel way off, at least to me. The fairy and cup were too far to the left, meanwhile, the ring wing stuck out too far on the bottom.

I fiddled and fiddled and fiddled with the scan, using the content-aware move tool half a dozen different ways before I conceded it just wasn't going to do what I wanted, and then my next-best idea was the extend the background to the left a bit. In doing that, I discovered the warp tool worked to my advantage for that, and so I decided I'd trying fiddling with it and see where it got me.

It's still not perfect, but it's better than it was. In the end, I used the warp tool to tweak the angle of each part of the wings and that made up for some of the balance problems without also compromising any of the lines (which was the biggest reason why the content-aware tool wasn't working; it kept messing up the lines or other parts of the drawing in the process). At the very least, I was able to do enough that it only really bothers me now when I start looking for the off-balance-ness.

I also ended up doing some minor touches, mostly just smoothing out certain lines and small tweaks, but once the balance problem was finally somewhat solved it was pretty much done. (Aside from, of course, me then also adding the words on top so people know what this is at only a moment's glance.)

The end result, both scan and traditional. I'm really happy with. The piece is plenty interesting to look at, but it's also not too complicated, especially when you break down the individual parts that make it up. (Literally and more figuratively.)

Thus, I can only hope others find it interesting-but-not-too-complicated enough to try their hand at recreating it. Even if no one takes me up on my "Draw This In Your Sparkle Style Challenge though, I enjoyed making this all the same and I'm really proud to share the art itself with you guys.

Hopefully though at least a few people will take a stab at it and I can focus on that and not explode from impatience in regards to various not-really-art-related things I'm currently waiting on.

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#drawthisinyourstyle #dtiysparkle

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