#there’s so much footage I’ve seen now that literally sometimes haunts me in my dreams

[disco-cola]

omg have y’all seen the video of the us air force serviceman aaron bushnell setting himself on fire in front of the israeli embassy in washington dc and what he said before like that he no longer can be complicit in genocide and that his pain will be nothing compared to what palestinians suffer at the hand of their colonizers and that our ruling class has decided this is what will be normal and then he set himself on fire and screamed free palestine while he was literally burning alive dude that was so disturbing he died from the burns the police described him as being in mental distress but one of his closest friends came forward and described him as a gentle and silly human who genuinely cared for ways to achieve liberation for all idk i guess the guy did it to garner attention to the cause but the western media coverage is of course suspiciously rather silent about this even though the air force has confirmed he was an active member until the incident

[amouthfulofforevers]

For the shyan week’s free day, I decided to make a rec list with my favorite shyan fics I’ve read so far. All these writers are fantastic and deserve all the kudos and comments, I love all these stories!

Fics with a star on the side are big favorites of mine.

if you go down to the woods by Siria | T |  1,752 Words | ☆

The footage shows Ryan Bergara walking into the woods.

The footage shows Ryan Bergara walking out of the woods.

Like You Want To Be Loved by poetdameron | T |  16,535 Words | ☆

"Settle down with me", Shane says without thinking and as Ryan looks at him with wide open eyes, all he can think of it's how many of Ryan's secrets he knows, how Ryan likes his coffee, and the fact that he has loved him since the moment Ryan first looked up at him and smiled.

Early Morning Conversations by idonthavelungs | G |  594 Words

Sleeping in a dead person’s bed in a house that’s probably haunted doesn’t exactly make sleep come easy.

Horror and Chill, Baby by Squeakyshroom | E |  6,206 Words 

Ryan won't chill, so Shane gives him a helping hand.

Or: Ryan's straight but not when Shane touches him like that.

Let the Sunshine Burn Your Eyes by YogurtTime | E |  6,577 Words | ☆

An innocent man of taste and leisure, Ricky Goldsworth, just wants to check into his hotel room, but gets into an altercation with the concierge while a mysterious gentleman in expensive-looking clothes watches nearby.

Kismet. by poetdameron | E | 18,625 Words | ☆

Everyone is born with Gifts. It doesn’t matter if they didn’t ask for it.

Shane never thought he would meet the only person in the world he can touch without killing them, let alone fall for him.

un poco loco by sanjariti | T |  2,468 Words

(told in a linear date timeline)

In which Ryan Steven Bergara loves Shane Alexander Madej so much, he plans their one-year anniversary gift 6 months in advance. But what sort of gift requires so much planning?

And they were roommates (oh my god they were roommates) by Squeakyshroom | E | Chapter 5/5 | Complete |  25,690 Words

Shane and Ryan are roommates who fuck, but with rules.

(Now if only they'd stop breaking all the damn rules)

Por Favor, Sweetheart by carrieonfighting | T |  7,859 Words | ☆

Two dorks raise a baby and don't even realise they're doing it together until it's too late

Alternatively, Ryan Bergara is Trying His Best Thanks

Thursday: Turquoise Taupe by shaniacbergara | G | 3,142 Words

Shane Madej’s hometown is…well, a little bit different than most. He and Ryan take a trip there.

When It Happens by Anotherlostblogger | E |  8,790 Words |☆

At some point Ryan and Shane stopped being just friends. That tension has been there just thrumming under the surface, waiting for the right moment to be released but it’s like a valve, slowly turned so it starts out trickling until they’re caught in the overflow.

in the drift by lorena_estrella | G |  624 Words |☆

After losing his brother in a Kaiju battle, Shane never thought he'll trust anyone again. Then Ryan happened.

Pacific Rim AU

ready if it happens with you by sarcasticfishes | E |  4,319 Words |☆

It’s not a thing. Ryan’s just a little… touch-starved. Intimacy-starved.

Shane passes behind him when he’s sitting at his desk, idly touches Ryan’s shoulder, thumb brushing the curve of his neck — and goosebumps erupt down the length of Ryan’s arms.

In His Brown Eyes by poetdameron | E | 9,866 Words

As a kid, a shadow lived in Shane's room that became his friend. All he can remember of it, it's its beautiful brown eyes.

As an adult, Shane meets Ryan and his beautiful brown eyes that are familiar.

Collide by needywitch | E | Chapters 2/2 | Complete |  35,310 Words |☆

Ryan is desperately in love with his best friend.

I Don't Want to Sleep Alone by Anotherlostblogger | E | Series | 3 Works

After Ryan gets really shaken that night at Yuma, Shane is left to deal with the aftermath.

Rough water by heyghouls | Not Rated |  9,092 Words

Ryan's apartment gets flooded. He doesn't have anywhere to live in the meantime but it's a good thing his good friend Shane lives close to the office. Shane happily offers him a home and the boys are forced to face their unresolved sexual tension.

One apartment, two boys with raging attractions towards the other and one undeterminated stay. What could go wrong?

Playing It Cool by poetdameron | E |  27,494 Words | ☆

Ryan needs a new roommate, Shane needs a new place. They both work in the film industry, like the same weird crap, love the same movies, and would die for pop corn. It's a blessed match!

There's only one tiny detail Kelsey may have forgotten to tell Ryan about Shane's acting job.

universal truth by lorena_estrella | G | 276 Words

Shane has no idea how he got so lucky but he isn't complainig either. For the next thousand years, all he wants is to love Ryan

Old Sins Cast Long Shadows by MercurySkies | E |  15,442 Words

Sin /sɪn/ noun 1. an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. 2. any thought or action that endangers the ideal relationship between an individual and God. 3. any diversion from the perceived ideal of human living.

And Longer If I Can by poetdameron | T | 6,315 Words

After Shane makes an "odd" question, Ryan can't stop thinking about the possible implications of it, obsession over the one conclusion most likely to (not) be: Shane is breaking up with him sometime soon.

Thank you, Satan by Squeakyshroom | E |  7,426 Words

Ryan breaks his arm and Shane takes care of him. It’s not weird...until it is.

Or: Ryan wants Shane. Shane wants more.

won't you ride on my fast machine? by ElasticElla | M | 1,678 Words

“So? Lovers’ quarrel? Work gone wrong? Bad family barbecue that ended abruptly when you accidentally came out by making a pun about your poor math skills?”

“That’s way too specific to not be real,” Ryan accuses.

A Ghoul's Guide to Life, Death & Afterliving by MercurySkies | E | Chapters 21/21 | Complete |  57,013 Words |  ☆

'Shane was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that, to quote ‘the’ Charles Dickens with an emphasis on the 'dick'. They didn’t tell you the great Victorian novelist was also a grade A asshole in high school but then again what do they tell you in high school? Shane Madej was dead, as dead as one disembodied soul standing seemingly above his own corpse probably can be.'

(a moment) by thisissirius | M |  1,437 Words

ryan is shivering when they get back to the motel

contrapposto by spoopyy | T |  7,301 Words |  ☆

Ryan works in a museum. Shane doesn't understand art. They fall in love.

meet me halfway by poetdameron | T | 12,346 Words |  ☆

In a world where everything changed over the night, Ryan and Shane's minds connect miles away, making Shane the man of Ryan's dreams. Literally.

the summer is ended and we are not saved by anarchetypal | E |  1,733 Words |  ☆

Ryan drops the holy water gun with a shout and stumbles back, fueled by blind panic as he turns and sprints past their sleeping bags for the attic door.

Behind him, he hears Shane sigh almost calmly despite his flesh still burning. “Don't— C’mon, seriously, do we really have to make this a whole thing— You've seen horror movies, you know how this is gonna—” Apparently still annoyed, he breaks off, and the door in front of Ryan slams shut on its own.

Ryan skids to a stop and reaches for the knob, rattling it ineffectively. “Shit, shit, shit—”

“So many horror movies,” Shane says, voice much closer now, and Ryan spins around. “I’m just saying, can we not make this a thing right out of TV Tropes, you know, that’s just boring for both of us.”

[that-winged-rat]

Platonic Soulmates

*not my gif*

Summary: After a demon hunt gone wrong, you are victim to a sick game which might just cost you your life.

Pairing: Charlie Bradbury x reader!platonic

Characters: Y/N Y/L/N, Charlie Bradbury, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester.

Warnings: Angst, language, mentions/descriptions of torture, mentions/descriptions of blood, thought of death.

Word Count: 2.5k

A/N: Holy shit I literally wrote this whole fucking thing in one sitting. I legit just sat down and did not get distracted once, which is like a once in a blue moon thing so I hope it was worth it haha. Also I've been reading a bunch of whump tropes recently and this is the result. Anyhoo, feedback is always welcomed and encouraged. Enjoy :)

Your eyes shot open when the rattling of chains pulled you from your unconscious state. It took a good few minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, and even when they did, you still couldn’t see much of your surroundings. But you didn’t need to see to know that you were on your knees and your hands were tied to the walls at either side of you. You tried to pull your hands close to your body but winced when something sharp dug into your wrist, blood dripped down your arm and splashed on the concrete ground.

“I was starting to think you weren’t going to wake up,” a voice called out from a corner in the room. You squinted your eyes, trying to see who it was, and could just about make out a figure, hunched over something on the floor. How you didn’t notice him before now, was beyond you. It wasn’t like he was trying to be quiet with whatever he was doing.

“Who are you?” You asked with a hoarse voice. He stopped what he was doing then, and turned to face you. He walked over to you and knelt down so he was eye-level with you.

“I’m the guy who’s gonna haunt your dreams, doll,” he said lowly.

“Doll? What is this, the 40′s?” You scoffed. He ignored your comment, got up and walked away. He walked to the other side of the room and flipped on the lights. Your eyes instinctively closed at the sudden brightness. When they opened, they immediately fell on what the man was standing over earlier.

“Charlie?” You asked, hoping that she would wake up. She was sitting up against the wall, her hands tied above her head with chain, which must have been what woke you up. She was sporting a couple of injuries on her face; a nasty looking bruise by her hairline, and a split lip. No doubt why she was out cold.

“Oh, she won’t be waking up anytime soon,” he said and walked back over to Charlie, tilting his head as he looked down upon her sleeping form as if he were admiring her. 

“What did you do to her?” You demanded, your voice laced with venom and disgust. You pulled against your restraints again and looked over when it cut into you for the second time. You furrowed your brows when you saw you weren’t being held by chains like Charlie, but barbed wire, hence the pain.

He spun around with what you would call urgency. “Oh, no, no, no, she’ll–she’ll be fine. I just gave her an extra little konk on the head; she might be out a little longer than you,” he explained. 

“What are you?” You asked as he turned back to Charlie. “Demon? Shifter? Demigod?”

He chuckled a bit. “No, I’m all human, baby.” You groaned at the nickname. “But... there is a demon who has a lot of beef with you.” He pulled out a knife from the back of his jeans and pointed it at you as he started pacing in front of you.

You rolled your eyes. “Oh, great,” you muttered. “And let me guess, he said he'd give you anything you could ever wish for?”

“Bingo.” He walked back over to you and crouched down again, this time slightly to the side of you. His arms were resting on his knees and his head turned to look at Charlie. “She looks so... delicate when she’s asleep,” he whispered with a chuckle. Although he wasn’t facing you, you could tell he was smirking as his eyes gazed over your best friend.

You leaned towards him, ignoring the metal spikes digging into your skin. “Fuck you,” you spat.

“Shhh.” The man put a finger up to his lips. “You wouldn’t want to wake her up, now would you? Not when she’s so peaceful.” A grin broke out on his face. A grin that filled your stomach with dread. You had seen it enough times to know that nothing good ever followed.

He took in a sharp intake of breath and you could practically see the lightbulb above his head. You warily watched his hands as he played with his knife, flipping it over in his palm. “I have a little game for us to play,” he whispered and brought the knife up to your cheek, caressing it with the cold metal without doing any damage. You pulled your head back, but he just followed.

“You wake her up–” he jerked his head back towards Charlie who was still unconscious– “and she’s dead.” You clenched your jaw and clamped your eyes shut when he put pressure on the knife and it sliced through your cheek with ease. “Actually...let me change that. You speak words, she gets a slice. You scream, and cupcake over there gets something more permanent.”

You closed your eyes and accepted your fate. Sure you had been kidnapped and tortured before, but you were allowed to express your pain through screams. Now, you weren’t only not allowed to scream, but Charlie’s life was on the line here. You slip up and that’s it for her. 

You sighed, knowing that only one of you was going to make it out alive. And you were going to do everything in your power to make sure that person was Charlie. She has so much more to live for; friends, passions, hobbies. All you had was Charlie.

The torture continued for days; punching, slicing, kicking, slapping, hell, sometimes even whipping. You were actually proud that you hadn’t screamed yet; not that you didn’t want to. The insides of your lips had been destroyed by how hard you had been biting down on them in successful attempts to silence yourself.

Throughout your stay, Charlie had stirred awake a couple of times. But each time, the man would come through and knock her out again before she could reach full consciousness. You figured he probably had a camera somewhere in the room, where the sick fucker could watch your every move.

You were in pain 24/7. You could feel yourself slipping from the land of the living. If you weren’t going to die from the injuries, it would be blood loss; there was a steady flow of blood dripping from your wrists because of your captors choice of restraint, and of course, the other wounds that covered your body.

You were going to die here.

---

Dean stepped out of the Impala and stared up at the building that towered before him. A few seconds later, Sam joined his brother, stopping next to Dean with a duffel bag, slung over his shoulder. They went over the plan they had both agreed on and marched inside, guns at the ready.

They scoured the building, looking for their nerdy friend, eventually coming across a room with a wall of monitors, showing surveillance footage from all over the old factory. If the whole building was rigged up, the son of a bitch that did this, was probably long gone. They observed each screen before finding what they were looking for.

After a few minutes of looking, the brothers found Charlie, tied up in a corner, her face littered with bruises. Sam was the first one to run to her, then Dean a few seconds later, neither noticing you, strung up in the middle of the room. 

“Charlie?” Sam called out, shaking her shoulders gently. Dean pulled out his lock-picking kit and worked on the chains. “C’mon, you gotta wake up. Charlie.” He shook her again, this time getting a response. She groaned and rolled her head to the side, gradually coming to her senses before opening her eyes. Dean muttered a celebratory ‘yes’ when he managed to get her hands free.

She groaned again, rubbing her wrists before her hands went to her forehead to feel her wounds. A few tears made their way down her face.

“Hey, hey, you’re okay. You’re alright,” Dean assured her, helping her to her feet. She froze when she looked past the brothers, her eyes catching your mutilated form. Upon noticing her distress, Dean turned around, having the same reaction as Charlie. “Holy crap.”

He passed Charlie over to Sam before running to you. His eyes and hands hovered over you, not sure where to start or what to do. Charlie convinced Sam that she was okay and begged him to go check on you.

“Sam, help me get her down,” Dean urged. The two brothers took out a knife and cut the barbed wire, causing you to instantly fall to the ground and cry out in pain.

“Dean... we need to get her to a hospital. Like now.” Sam looked over your wounds, putting pressure on the major ones to stop the bleeding. Charlie pulled herself up off the ground, using the wall for assistance. She stumbled over to you, gasping when she saw the state you were in.

Sam and Dean were careful as they tried to lift you up off of the ground; both of them acting as crutches under your arms. They got you a couple of inches up before you cried out in pain.

“Stop,” you choked out. They delicately placed you back down on the ground. Charlie ran to your side and fell to her knees, grabbing your face in her hands. You winced at the contact but she didn’t pull back.

“Hey, it’s just me,” she said, a reassuring smile on her face, keeping up a strong façade for you. “Listen, I know this is going to hurt like a bitch but we need to get you help–we need to get you to a hospital.”

Charlie was safe. That’s all that mattered to you. You wouldn’t mind dying right there, because you knew that she would be safe. But if you did die, she wouldn’t be okay. Safe, sure. But not okay. 

You nodded and scrunched up your face, bracing yourself for the coming pain. And it did come. The second Sam scooped you up, it washed over your entire being. You gritted your teeth and groaned in pain for the first time in nearly a week.

There was a shooting pain constantly travelling up both of your knees, presumably from the position you were held in, throbbing even more whenever Sam took a long stride. Not to mention the searing pain surrounding each and every one of your injuries.

Dean helped his brother lower you into the backseat when they reached the black muscle car. Charlie climbed into the back next to you, and the brothers into their designated seats in the front.

The half-an-hour drive to the hospital consisted of you slipping in and out of consciousness and Charlie reassuring you that everything was going to be okay and begging you to keep your eyes open. It got kind of annoying after the first five minutes, but she was just being there for you, she was being the good friend she’s always been.

You passed out again, just before Dean pulled into the hospital.

---

“Charlie, what exactly happened?” Sam asked when they were sat in the waiting room an hour later. Once they had brought you in, you had been taken into surgery to fix you as best as they could.

“I don’t–I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “She called for my help on a demon hunt. We, uh, we tracked it down to the warehouse you found us in and then... lights out.”

“When did this happen?”

“Uh, we went to the warehouse on the 9th, so, six days ago,” Charlie said. Just then, a doctor walked down the hallway, stopping before the three of them. 

They confirmed that they were the people who were with you and listened to the doctor as she went over your injuries; broken ribs, dislocated knees, lacerations, internal bleeding, blood loss, a slight concussion, and a bunch of other shit.

“When can we see her?” Charlie asked.

“She’s just getting settled into a room upstairs so sometime within the next half hour,” the doctor said with a polite smile. “I’ll let you know when you can see her.”

Sam nodded. “Thank you.” The doctor smiled again and left. Sam, Dean and Charlie sat back in their seats.

“This reminds me of my parents,” Charlie started, prompting Sam and Dean to look up at her. “You know, the waiting, the awkward doctor smile, the fancy words. Except this time, I actually know what some of the words mean.”

Dean threw an arm over Charlie’s shoulder and gently coaxed her into a hug. “She’ll be okay, Charlie. I’ve never met her before, but from what I’ve heard from her best friend, she’s strong and stubborn. She’s gonna pull through.”

She looked up at him and smiled before leaning back into his hold.

---

“Y/N/N, what actually happened?” Charlie asked a while after you woke up, deciding to give you time before you relived whatever you went through. “I mean, I get knocked out and wake up six days later and you’re half dead.”

You cleared your throat. “Um, yeah, so you probably remember going into the warehouse, right?” You looked up and Charlie nodded. “He, uh, got me too. I woke up in that room; on my knees, and my hands were tied to the walls with barbed wire. He said...” you trailed off, wondering if you should tell Charlie what actually happened. You knew that she would blame herself, and you didn’t want that.

“He said what?” Charlie pushed. 

“He said... that there was a demon that wanted to see me suffer,” you lied. “He was just a man. A man who was too greedy for his own good.”

Charlie narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to look at you. “Friends shouldn’t lie to each other.” You opened your mouth to speak but Charlie beat you to it. “You have a tell.” She shrugged.

You dropped your head in defeat. “He said that if I spoke, he’d cut you and if I screamed...”

“...He’d kill me,” Charlie completed when you, yet again trailed off. You nodded your head slowly as you numbly stared at the bottom of your bed. Your gaze was brought up to hers as she grabbed your hand. “You are frickin’ amazing, you know that?”

“What?”

“I mean it. Most people wouldn’t go through all of that pain just so their friend would be okay. And for six days!”

“Because we’re not just friends, Charlie... we’re platonic soulmates,” you said. The two of you laughing before your laugh turned into a pained grunt.

When the two of you met a few years back, you clicked instantly. It was like something you only see in movies. Within the first day of knowing each other, you already had a bunch of inside jokes. One of them being that the two of you got along so well because you were platonic soulmates.

“How could I forget? Platonic soulmates,” she repeated, a wide and genuine smile reaching her eyes.

You gladly returned the smile. “You are frickin’ amazing too, nerd,” you smiled. She playfully shoved you, being careful of your injuries.

Sure you were in agonising pain, but now you knew that Charlie was safe and okay. And you would take sore and happy over dead and... well, dead, any day. You had your platonic soulmate and you knew that she would be there every step of the way on your who-know-how-long road to recovery.

[kevintor]

I Watch a Movie I Should Have Seen: Teen Witch

I had not heard of this movie until friends suggested it for my list of movies to watch. They especially pointed out the amazing rap moment and that’s really all I knew that I could not infer from the title.

This movie doesn’t waste time getting to the saxophone-heavy music. This is how it should be. I can’t tell you how many movies I watch that make me wait for the sax solo. And sometimes it doesn’t even come! Looking at you, The Godfather.

We’ve all had that dream where a mystery hunk in a dress shirt with rolled up, short sleeves and Cavariccis slinks towards you in the dark. Why do we have to wake up???

No matter how good you look and feel, never stand on a ledge in heels. Maybe block heels but not the ones she has on.

Louise’s little brother eats sheet cake under her bed and reads her diary, actually ripping pages out. He’s clearly a psychopath that deserves whatever magic comes his way.

Her dad is not creepy. He’s just someone who likes his daughter to wear his favorite color.

Hot guy from the dream (Brad) rocks a 5.0 Mustang and is dating the popular girl (Randa) living right across the street from Louise. Why do the important people in these movies always live so close to each other? I bet Brad went 300 feet before he had to honk that horn (not a euphemism) for Randa.

Louise’s best friend (Polly) is excessively frumpy. She has on so many layers, I don’t know how the bike could support the weight. She’s dressed like she’s arriving at Ellis Island from the old country.

Louise and Polly wear disrespectfully large trench coats most of the time. The kind I would only wear if I was trying to cut weight for a fight. I know Louise will eventually be made over into a hottie but she doesn’t really need to start in a cocoon. In She’s All That, they simply used glasses.

There’s a trio of rappers that serenade the school. I will call them The Leastie Boys.

Louise has skipped grades because she’s so smart. I get it now. If I was a younger kid amongst seniors, I’d want to hide myself under as much wool and tweed as possible.

There’s a particularly horrific scene where the diary page that her brother ripped out is accidentally handed in with her homework and the teacher reads the whole thing to the class. Between the brother, the dad, and this awful teacher, I’m not going to be surprised if there’s a clown in the sewers.

The girls’ gym uniform is.a purple leotard and that’s it. No shorts. No trench coat.

The popular girls spontaneously break into a song called “I Like Boys.” Is this a musical? She’s introducing them all to this song and they are choreographing it on the spot beautifully. I guess if you feel confident enough in that leotard, you can do anything.

It appears that the leotards are stuck to their bodies. They don’t ever take them off. They have clearly showered because they are drying their hair while still in the gym leotards.

Brad works out shirtless on the football field. He throws a football twice at a tire and never misses. They cut from the throw to the same shot of the ball traveling through the tire. “There’s no time to throw two balls through a tire! Use the same clip! We have six more hours of leotard footage to shoot!”

Quick question: If you were doing an audition for a play and your scene was a kissing one with the girl whose diary about being into you was read out loud in front of you, would you have any awkwardness in the audition? Brad doesn’t. Nothing weird about this. Does he have the memory of a goldfish?

Brad, too aroused by teenage hanky panky, almost runs over Louise on her bike. He stops the car and tries to help her by offering a ride home. Is Brad a misunderstood jock hunk? Randa makes him leave but he was really concerned. What a sweet goldfish man.

With a broken bike and no cell phones, Louise is forced to seek the help of the nearby fortune teller. The fortune teller (Madame Serena) doesn’t let her use the phone and basically robs her of the last cash she has on her.

Madame Serena notices something odd during her palm reading and asks her name again. When Louise says “Miller,” Madame Serena realizes she is a witch with powers that will come to fruition on her 16th birthday. We later learn that Madame Serena and Louise go back 100s of years with witch souls (or whatever). If you had a spiritual connection with someone named “Miller,” I think you wouldn’t miss it the first time. Maybe she should look into getting a third ear instead of a third eye.

We learn that Goldfish Brad can Fonzie a Coke out of a machine. The impressive part about this is that Cokes were only 60 cents. I want to go to there.

Louise turns 16 while her brother dry humps the table in excitement for birthday cake. Feel free to watch it. There’s other way to describe it.

Randa asks Louise if she’d like to go on a date with her cousin from out of town. This is definitely going to work out.

The cousin is an insane nerd who is acting as if he only has one night to live. He asks her if she wants to smoke weed at one point. Then once he’s all drugged up, he tries to get some loving in the car on the way home. It’s cringe-y. Thankfully Louise is gaining powers and makes him literally disappear.

Louise turns her brother into a dog. As if I didn’t hate him enough already, now he’s a talking animal. (See Hocus Pocus)

Madame Serena gives Louise a book of spells. She uses a spell to make the popular girls tell each other the truth. It starts off with calm “you’re not a good singer” insults but gets real, super fast. One points out the other’s “alkie mother.”

Louise wants to make Brad love her and it appears that the secret to casting a good spell is cayenne pepper or maybe paprika.

Brad comes over Louise’s house to work on his English paper. Louise apparently removes the hundreds of chairs from her room so they’d have to sit on the bed. How many chairs does a teenage girl typically have in her room? It’s certainly enough for each family member to barge in and immediately notice them all missing.

Louise thinks better of forcing Brad to like her and gets all the chairs out of her closet. She’s a good person deep down.

The awful teacher is back and this time, goes through Louise’s bag and shows her birth control pills to the class. How does this teacher, even in the 80s, have a job?

Louise rightfully gets revenge. She makes a voodoo doll of the teacher and makes him undress in front of the class. The principal catches him right as Louise pulls the dolls underwear down. Somehow he still has a job. Tenure is amazing.

We finally get to the Rap Off I’ve been hearing so much about. Leader of the Leasties and Polly battle it out for one verse each. Honestly, this could have gone on longer. I know there was magic behind it but Polly’s verse was fire.

Brad tells Louise that someone like him has to go out with the most popular girl in school no matter how terrible she is. Social expectations are the worst. Instead of convincing Brad that he doesn’t have to be with Randa, it would be easier to cast a spell to make yourself popular. Maybe even insanely popular.

The chunky knit sweater budget was out of control for this movie

We have a montage showing us the extent of her popularity. She gets applause when she arrives places. People follow her around. The Leastie Boys rap for her. And her wardrobe consists of so much more denim.

Brad takes her to a lookout point that they have to climb up to and she’s unfortunately too popular for sensible footwear. It’s hard to climb up a sunflower hill in heels. But you do what you have to do to wear the crown!

In this abandoned house, they take off some of their six layers of clothing. Then they make out in the dirty house like only the most popular kids in school could.

Everyone starts dressing and wearing their hair like Louise. Polly gets left out of everything. I don’t know if scenes were cut out (What could possibly be considered “not good enough” for this film?) but we never have the scene where the newly popular girl treats her best friend like garbage and has to apologize. I know Polly misses her but I bet she could just ask Louise to hang out. Anyway, Louise tries to talk to Polly and Polly makes her feel bad.

Because she is so popular, Louise has to sneak out the back of her house to avoid her adoring classmates. Brad picks her up on a side street and takes her for a drive. They go out on the river to talk as teenagers do. He asks her to the dance. She turns him down because she thinks he’s been tricked him into liking her. She wants it real.

Louise wants to undo the popularity spell and she talks Madame Serena into coming to the dance with her to help her do it. No one questions bringing a tiny, old woman as your date to the dance. Not even the teachers.

She wishes the popularity away in the middle of the dance floor. People stop looking at her but Goldfish Brad still feels the pull for regular Louise. He walks slowly towards her. They touch fingertips and roll them up so the palms touch. This happens in a lot of romantic movies. I don’t get it. It’s a good way to train yourself to high five. You learn proper hand alignment. What you want the finish to be. But it’s not romantic. Either way, they kiss and all is good.

This is a fine, late 80s teen movie. It’s essentially a knock-off Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The brother, the nerd date, and the awful teacher were unnecessary. Now that I think about it, the nerd date never reappeared. In most movies you’d have him reappear somewhere embarrassing like under a manure truck that’s about to be dumped. In this movie, he vanishes into nothingness. It’s haunting.

Also, they show that water undoes her spells in the beginning and never return to that either. I was expecting the boat to tip over when she had that moment with Brad on the river. That never happened.

And, finally, she never made up with Polly. Where’s the learned-her-lesson reunion with the best friend, awkwardly hugging through all the layers?

Minus all these loose threads, I enjoyed it. I’d even watch it again if it was on.

[riotatthemovies]

Riot talks with Chris LaMartina

Chris LaMartina is most known for the Vhs freak and Halloween geeks dream flick WNUF Halloween Special.  He is truly a super fan of low budget American backyard horror movies as can easily be seen in all his projects via style and humor. Such films as Call Girl of Cthulhu and his imdb unlisted shot on video slasher he mad as a kid Amerikill. Chris took some time out of editing and crafting new projects and answering questions on the now online conventions to talk to us.

1. Sov horror is REreleasing some of your older works. Amerikill and Dead Teenagers. Now I have seen and own Amerikill and the slasher of that movie is basically killing kids many of which are less than teenagers. So tell me what Dead Taanagers is about, more than just the same thing but killing older kids?

Chris:  "Dead Teenagers" was first, VERY DIY, attempt at making a feature. At 18, I knew I didn't have the attention span or stamina to make a full fledged feature so I tried my hand at an anthology. "Dead Teenagers" is basically a micro-budget ($300 actually) version of "Creepshow"... so goofy little cheap segments about vampires, werewolves, and things that go bump in the night with bare bones resources that would make the Pope weep. 

Riot: 2. What's your all time favorite no budget possibly Shot on video horror movie and what makes it stand out to you?

Chris: I love the JR Bookwalter stuff and I kinda adore "Polymorph" the most. Outside of that, I really think "Redneck Zombies" is fun start-to-finish plus Perciles Lewnes is the NICEST dude. Eric Stanze's "Savage Harvest" was probably one of the ones that inspired me most to start getting serious about making stuff on my own.

RIOT:3. You are arguably most noted for the WNUF Halloween special. Obviously a love note to 70s and 80s American local television from the drugstore era of halloween as I like to call it, (The time when all your Halloween supplies could be bought just from your local drugstore, taffy candy and Ben cooper costumes) but I've always been curious how much the British tv special GhostWatch inspired you if at all? I love double billing both movies back to back before Halloween. 

Chris: . Dude. I get this a BUNCH and I didn't see Ghostwatch til years after WNUF was released and people KEPT comparing us to it. But... to be honest, I watched about 20 minutes before I got bored. It's not a bad movie, it's just not what I was expecting. Very serious, and as you can tell by WNUF, that's not really my bag. I can see why people compare us, though... but to be honest, there's a LOT of horror movies/novels/comics about a reporter doing a report from inside a haunted house. One of the genius stories for WNUF was hearing an old Baltimore story about how an oldies station did a live radio show/seance from the Edgar Allen Poe house and picked up some strange recordings. 

Riot: I totally get it , I just grew up in England when GhostWatch aired first unknowing of the gimmick, so imagining that experience though. Also once the gimmick is done yeah it is kinda dry so I agree, if you cant scare em completely, make em smile 4. Before the world went all topsy turvy this year you were crowdfunding for a sequel. How did that go and where does the project stand? Sov Horror is promoting a project where they are asking filmmakers to send in fake commercials for their film, I smell a mini cross over connection that is begging to happen there.

Chris: So, because of Covid, we lost about 15 days at the most CRUCIAL time of production... all the days with extras and big set-pieces were basically thrown out the window. We've still been doing a bunch of post on footage we have shot and are managing to do some "social distancing" shoots where I set-up lights, mic, and actors arrive in costume, hit their marks, and say their dialogue. It's weird, man... but it's how we have to do it. It's definitely not how imagined making this movie, but such is life. As for SOV Horror connection, nah. I love Tony and what he's doing is really cool... but I'm way too busy with WNUF, work, and other creative projects to toss anything their way right now. Riot :5. Keeping busy is key right now. How's the pandemic world treating you in general, if it caused you to stall on projects and life in general slow down. Luckily I find for no budget backyard film makers it's been seeing some real inspiration and online sales lately so I hope something good is coming for you. Anything to report on "What Happens Next will Scare you?"

Chris: The best part of the pandemic for me is finishing "What Happens Next Will Scare You" which will be totally COMPLETE by end of August (literally just doing the title sequence now). It took forever, but finally the guy who was doing all our screen composites had no excuse not to finish when he was trapped inside his house for months. ;p So yeah... that'll be available somehow in the next few months.

Riot: Thats great news

6.Whats your favorite things about low budget filmmaking and what are the things that get under your skin so much that makes you doubt yourself sometimes? I'm sure any of the self produced folks can relate.

Chris:  I love how accessible it is (cameras and software are CHEAP now). I also love how much imagination you can inject into a project with the right levels of ambition and enthusiasm. When you're too afraid to fail, that's the best. As I got older and made more movies, you have the pressure of expectations... which actually ruins a lot of the fun, but I'm still trying to best to make cool, weird shit that *I* would love and hope there's legions of creeps like me that will welcome these bizarre pieces of storytelling into their homes. As for what gets under my skin... hmmm... I've always distrusted folks who care more about gear and budgets than story. That's way bogus. Furthermore, I think fan culture has gotten a little toxic over the best decade and tape trading has gotten stupid expensive / unfunny. But fuck those dudes. They won't stop me from having a good time and making weird shit. ;p Riot: I love my cheesy vhs tapes but you are so right the tape trader community takes things way too seriously , I just cant anymore myself. 

Thanks for joining us for 6 silly questions with Riot (that's me) and may this Halloween be epic and future projects be awesome.

Chris:  Thank YOU, dude! It was great talking with ya and hit me up anytime. xoxo

Behind the Scenes of Call Girl of Cthulhu

[btsybrkr]

What A Time To Be At Home!: The Best And Worst Coronacontent The Internet Has To Offer

Remember that joke that’s been around for ages, but was being told literally everywhere back in 2019? The one that went something like, “I hate it when people ask me where I’ll be in a year’s time - I don’t have 2020 vision!”?

Well, I bloody wish someone did.

In fact, in early January, I wrote out my own predictions for the decade ahead right here on my blog. They were obviously entirely hypothetical and - I thought - ridiculous. They were just a series of daft ideas that I thought I could take the piss out of, in the hope that people might read it and take a second out of their day to do an amused little nose exhale for me. But now, even the post-apocalyptic TV show ideas I pitched in that piece seem less ‘far-off dystopian chaos’, and more like they could be pleasant additions to the BBC Summer schedule.

The world is in the throes of a global pandemic, the likes of which haven’t been seen since… I don’t know, The Black Plague, maybe? As a result of that, the instructions have been clear: stay home, save lives. 

At first, the thought of being given a period of Government-sanctioned laziness seemed like a dream to many. We could write our autobiographies! Learn Klingon! Build ourselves a whole new house! But six weeks in, it appears to have started messing with the collective consciousness of the human race. Brains are fried, your Weekly Screen Time is up 103%, stomachs are full to the brim with banana bread and dalgona coffee, and certain celebrities’ egos are in a fight to the death with their common sense. In a time when we’re all supposedly doing nothing, there’s still so much going on. 

With that in mind, I thought we could recognise some of the things we’ve seen online that have kept us talking in lockdown, not just because of Coronavirus, but in spite of it. 

Welcome to the first (but hopefully not annual) What A Time To Be At Home! awards. The WATTBAH!’s, if you like.

The ‘Why On Earth Did You Think This Was A Good Idea?’ Award

Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a sizable handful of blunders by the rich and famous that have, at worst, knocked them down a fair few places in our estimations and, at best, have left us scratching our heads, wondering what response they were expecting in the first place. 

With that in mind, it’s only right that this title goes to the original celebrity lockdown mistake: Gal Gadot’s ill-advised acapella cover of Imagine, featuring a variety of different Hollywood stars - not one of whom had the foresight to ask “are you sure this doesn’t make us look like complete arseholes?”, which, unfortunately, it absolutely does. 

Between the bizarre and insincere ‘I have a dream’-style speech at the beginning, the boldness of some of those featured to be quite clearly just taking the piss, and the fact everyone appears to be singing ever-so-slightly below the note without ever actually hitting it for the entirety of the song, this was tone-deaf in more ways than one. It’s even worse when you realise that this was posted less than one week into the lockdown, but then what would I know? Maybe madness sets in faster in multi-million dollar mansions. Probably because it echoes louder and bounces off the walls of your massive living room.

The ‘I Had To Suffer Through This, So You Do, Too’ Award

This award recognises content we’ve been witness to over the last few weeks that was so awful, so completely uncomfortable to watch, that after you’d gotten over the initial disbelief at what you’d just seen, you immediately had to send it to somebody you know, so that you can suffer through it together.

Despite how many celebrity lockdown moments have left me with my head in my hands over the last few weeks, this award could only go to a very recent contender - one which isn’t simply an embarrassing piece of celebrity lockdown content, but will likely haunt the inner corners of my brain long after this virus is simply a topic taught about in GCSE History lessons of the future. 

I am, of course, talking about Olly Murs. I’m talking about Pringlegate. I’m talking about Olly Murs removing the bottom of a can of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles to trick his own girlfriend into touching his penis. On video, on TikTok.

Twitter: @buckyw1ng

There’s something inherently quite chilling about Pringlegate. It might be something to do with the 10,000 watt grin on Olly’s face as we watch him carefully maneuver a tin opener around the bottom of the can, or perhaps it’s just the question of how long he’d been sat there holding it around his naked penis as he and his girlfriend watched a film, patiently waiting for the moment to strike. Perhaps it’s the way the video freezes as she reaches over for a Pringle, allowing time for Olly Murs’ to add in an audio clip of himself, shouting “SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND”. 

Maybe it’s the uncontrollable show of amusement he launches into as she snatches her hand back in shock, laughing away, heartily, as if to say “Ha! You thought it was a normal can of Pringles, but it was actually my PENIS covered in Pringles crumbs! You just got PUNKED!”, like it was all simply a clever ruse. 

Above all else, I think the most uncomfortable thing about it is that I can’t help but feel like all bets are off in 2020, and that this is a fairly tame warm-up for things to come.

So, Olly Murs, you are inarguably the rightful winner of the ‘I Had To Suffer Through This, So You Do, Too’ award. Congratulations! Don’t do it again, yeah?

The ‘Are You Actually Aware Of These Words Coming Out Of Your Mouth?’ Award

I’ve said some stupid things since this lockdown started. Personally, I put it down to the lack of social interaction, which I think might be frying my brain a little bit, or at least that’s what the ornament of a turkey that sits on my kitchen windowsill told me the other day. However, I don’t think I or anybody I know has said anything even one fraction-of-an-iota as void of intelligent thought as Vanessa Hudgens’ terrible opinions on social distancing, shared in a now-infamous Instagram live last month. 

“It’s a virus,” she clarified, helpfully, before going on to explain, “I get it. I respect it.” 

I’m sure your respect means the world to it, Vanessa, but do you ‘get’ it?

“But even if everybody gets it, like… yeah… people are gonna die,” she explains, in a tone so chirpy that the word ‘die’ might as well be replaced by the phrase ‘have such a bloody lovely old time’, “which is terrible, but, like… inevitable?” 

In all fairness, death is inevitable, but I don’t know if suggesting speeding up that process for thousands of people because you were disappointed that Coachella was cancelled is an equally logical take.

After a brief - and probably quite profound - moment of self-reflection, she laughs “I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t be doing this right now”. Oh, you think? Which bit? Just holding these insane ideas, or actually broadcasting them to your 39.1 million Instagram followers? 

She did post a video the day after, clarifying that - despite what she said - she is staying at home, and is urging others to do the same. I guess she does respect the virus after all. Now, if everyone could hurry up, catch it and die from it, so that she can go to Coachella 2021, Vanessa Hudgens might respect you, too. 

I guess We’re All In This Together, after all.

The Show Of Support Award

I’ve already talked a lot about the rich and famous here, so maybe it’s time to take a break from that madness - although, I get it, I respect it - and have a look at how the rest of our lives look at the moment.

One weekly occurrence that seems to be set to stick around is the weekly round of applause for the NHS. Whilst it’s nothing short of blood-boilingly annoying seeing Boris Johnson absent-mindedly clapping in celebration of a service that he recently admitted he hadn’t even noticed the strain on until he, himself, nearly died of the virus, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the rest of us getting involved. If anything, it’s heart-warming to see the videos of NHS staff being applauded by neighbours as they leave for work, and to hear the cheers echoing through the streets at 8pm every Thursday. There’s a lot of people being quite cynical about it. We obviously know it’s not going to stop Coronavirus in its tracks, but sometimes it’s just nice to be nice, alright?

One thing I’ve noticed recently is how many people have adopted different noise-making strategies, possibly in an effort to effectively boost their support by a factor of 300%. Banging pots and pans together appears to be the most popular, but the winner of this award saw your pots and pans and said “how sweet”, before showing us how it’s really done.

I present to you, a genius. The ultimate hype-man.

Twitter: “a deeply disturbed national psyche” - @willuminare

There’s something so chaotic and angry about the energy in this video, just one man, a cricket bat, and a wheelie bin, banging away to show his gratitude. Just living in the moment. I wish the neighbour who’d captured it on camera had caught more of it, or at least just enough to edit the footage with Electric Youth’s soaring synth anthem  ‘A Real Hero’ from the soundtrack of the movie Drive against it.

I’ve been trying to learn to play the keytar in lockdown, to near enough no avail. Maybe at 8pm next Thursday, I’ll just take it outside and smash it against the pavement. You know, for the NHS.

Honourable Mentions: The Very Best In Coronacontent

It’s not all been so questionable - there’s been a lot of uplifting, funny, positive and thoughtful things shared online over the past few weeks. John Krasinski’s YouTube series Some Good News has provided a much-appreciated contrast from the bleakness of traditional current affairs programmes. There’s five weeks worth of episodes on his YouTube channel at the moment, so I would definitely recommend checking it out, especially if you feel like you need a lift! 

Over on Twitter, there’s been a lot to laugh about, as ‘front camera comedians’ are well and truly in their element (my personal favourite recently has been Alistair Green), as well as plenty of other users who are utilising their free time to create some brilliant stuff - this six-part opera based on a 2007 Facebook argument by Archie Henderson is genuinely one of the funniest things I’ve seen in weeks.

Twitter: “I made a six-act opera out of a conversation between some 14 year olds on my Facebook from 2007″ - @jazzemu_

All in all, these are obviously bizarre times that we’re living in. We don’t know how many more weeks of lockdown we’re going to have, when we’ll get back to normal, or even if ‘normal’ will mean something completely different from now on. 

What we do know is that the internet, and everyone on it - whoever they are or whatever they’re saying - will continue to surprise us, inform us, entertain us, provide a place for our quizzes and conversations, and keep us together in some sense, when we have no choice but to be apart. 

Thanks to anyone who’s read this far. I hope that you and your friends and families are keeping well, and that you took even a slight shred of lockdown enjoyment from even one thing I’ve said over the past couple thousand words! 

Finally, before I go, I thought we might share a little song. It goes like this:

Imagine there’s no heaven....

if you like, can follow me on twitter here or instagram here :-)

[nexttrickanvils]

Written for Day 3 of @shuharuweek

Characters: Haru Okumura, Akira Kurusu, others mentioned

Prompt: Movies/Dreams

Notes: October Spoilers, some use of in-game dialogue from both P5 and P5: Dancing in Starlight

---------

For as long as she can remember, Haru dreamt of a handsome prince.

The dream itself initially played out the same. She’d find herself amongst a crowd in a large ornate ballroom. But instead of dancing on the floor, couples danced on a beautiful stage.

That is when a handsome young man approaches her and offers his hand.

“Shall we dance?”

He guides her to the stage and the two begin to dance as everyone watches.

Even after that dream starts to fade with her interest in ballet, Haru continued to see the dashing prince.

Sometimes he looked like the love interest from her favorite show, sometimes he appeared as a handsome actor that Haru saw in a movie, and once the prince was a princess who took on the appearance of a girl that Haru had a brief crush on.

She knew it was silly but the dreams gave her hope of one day meeting her real Prince or Princess Charming…

Then she turned seventeen.

Her father held a dinner party a week after her birthday. He assured her that the celebration was just simply late but Haru couldn’t help but feel that this event had long been planned while he had truly forgotten her birthday until she brought it up.

That was when her father introduced her to him .

Sugimura Takamasa.

Haru hated him immediately but according to a deal between their fathers, she was to marry him after her graduation.

She practically could see her hopes and dreams crumble before her. Instead of a Prince Charming she instead was getting a boorish man who obviously saw her more as a trophy or a plaything than a person.

Her literal dreams were also ruined. Instead of her charming handsome prince coming to sweep her off her feet it was Sugimura. Instead of offering his hand and smiling at her, he would shoot her a wicked smirk and seize her wrists in a firm grip.

The nightmare haunted her for months until eventually she simply accepted her role of the dutiful daughter. What else could she do?

That was what she thought until one day in April, when Haru arrived at Shujin and saw everyone gathered around the bulletin boards. Almost every inch was covered in a black and red card.

“Did Mr. Kamoshida do something wrong?”

“Does this mean the rumors are true?”

This was about Kamoshida-sensei?

Haru walked closer to one of the boards and pulled one of the cards off.

Sir Suguru Kamoshida, the utter bastard of lust. We know how shitty you are, and that you put your twisted desires on students that can’t fight back. That’s why we have decided to steal those desires and make you confess your sins. This will be done tomorrow so we hope you will be ready. From, The Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

Twisted desires? Phantom Thieves? What did this all mean?

Further down the hall, she could hear Kamoshida shouting and demanding who was responsible. Haru quickly put the card into her bag and made her way to class.

The next day, Kamoshida didn’t come to school.

Rumors about this and those mysterious calling cards flooded the school for days.

Until finally on the second of May, he returned to school and as the cards predicted, confessed his sins.

For the next week or so, Kamoshida’s confession was all anyone could talk about along with theories about the “Phantom Thieves” and even a website that was made so that others could ask for their help.

While Haru didn’t follow the gossip, she was still quite interested to see if they would make another move.

Just a few weeks later, news came out about suspicious calling cards scattered near the exhibit hosting the paintings of the famous artist, Madarame. A week after that, Madarame confessed to stealing the art of his pupils and claiming them as his own.

As she watches the footage of Madarame’s tearful confession, Haru feels a spark of hope.

---------

Time went on and Haru found herself becoming more enamoured with the Phantom Thieves. They reminded her a little of the noble heroes she admired as a girl. The ones who would always protect others no matter what.

Then one evening, Haru once again dreamt of Sugimura smirking and attempting to take her for himself. But before he could grab her wrist as before, a new voice rang out.

“Let her go right now!”

Sugimura turned around and was immediately greeted with the point of a knife directed at his throat.

The man before Sugimura was shrouded in shadow along with his companions behind him.

“W-who are you?”

“We are the Phantom Thieves of Heart, defenders of the weak and enemies of those who’d abuse their strength! Do you surrender or shall we steal your twisted desires?”

Without saying another word, Sugimura whimpered and ran off. The leader, while still hidden by the shadows, turned to Haru and smiled.

“Are you alright Haru?”

“H-how do you know my name?”

“Call it a secret of the trade. Shall we head out?” he says as he offers his hand

Haru hesitantly reaches her hand out and the thieves’ leader gently takes it. She walks closer to him and as she reaches him, he lifts her up in a bridal carry. Instead of struggling, she clings closer to the leader as he runs and leaps out a large window with her in his arms.

...Haru’s more than disappointed when she wakes up and realizes it’s a dream.

Months pass and it seems every time the Phantom Thieves make the news, the dream returns. It gets to the point where Sugimura isn’t there anymore and Haru is just swept off her feet by a mysterious dashing rogue. Maybe it was a little childish to dream of someone she’s never met or seen like this. But given the cruelty and coldness she’s seen from the men in her life, Haru wants to believe that her Prince of Thieves is just as she imagined him.

She wonders if she’ll see him again in her dreams tonight when Haru spots a small black and white cat wandering the street.

Wait… wasn’t there a student at Shujin who was said to carry a cat with him? He must be worried sick about his little friend. Haru immediately turned around and started following the cat.

---------

Haru leaned against the wall as she tried to catch her breath.

That was not how she pictured her first meeting with the Phantom Thieves even after tempering her expectations.

“Haru, *pant* you *pant* are you okay?”

That was when Haru noticed that her heart wasn’t just quickly beating from the running…

“You! What do you think it means?”

“One who helps the weak.”

“...I’m fine Mona-chan. Thank you.”

Later that night, Haru once again dreamt of the Phantom Thieves but things were different now. They were no longer covered in shadows, she finally knew what they looked like and she was no longer a princess but a rival thief.

She led Joker on a rooftop chase, the two bantering and flirting along the way. However it wasn’t long before he caught her.

“I must say I’ve underestimated you Beauty Thief.”

“I could say the same to you Joker.”

In that instant, the two pull each other into a passionate kiss.

Haru woke up that morning with her face red and feeling hot.

That… that didn’t mean anything… right?

---------

When she officially became a part of the group it felt like a dream come true for Haru…

And then a nightmare with the death of her father and the public’s turn against the Thieves.

In the days following father’s mental shutdown, gardening once again served as her solace. But even concentrating on the vegetables and flowers on the school rooftop couldn’t keep her mind off her current situation.

“How troubling...”

“Do you want some help?”

She looks up and sees Akira standing next to her with a concerned expression on his face.

“Oh, Akira-kun… have you come up here to assist me? You um… heard that, didn’t you?”

Haru sighs as Akira nods his head.

“I’m not worried about the garden, in case you were wondering. It’s just… so much has happened to me lately.”

Akira places a hand on her shoulder, it’s gentle and warm unlike Sugimura’s possessive grip.

“It’s alright Haru, you can tell me.”

Haru feels her cheeks heating up before telling Akira about her current struggles with Okumura Foods. The pressures of being the company’s largest shareholder, all the meetings with lawyers and officers, and the uncertainty of who to trust.

“I… I never realized I could be so distrustful of other people… ah, I’m sorry for ranting on about this matter.”

“You don’t need to apologize. It sounds like you’ve been holding this in for a while. Do you feel a little better?”

She gives Akira a small sad smile, “Actually… I think I do. I feel like talking about this has calmed me down a bit. The only people I’ve consulted up to this point have been employees. But I think what I really needed was someone closer to my own age… closer to my own viewpoint… Um… if it isn’t too much trouble, could we speak about this again some other time?”

Akira nods, “Of course. Any time you want to talk, I’ll try to be there.”

“Thank you. In return I’ll… hm… what can I do to help you? I don’t have any unique talents...”

“Haru, you don’t need to do anything for me I just want to...”

But before he could refuse, Haru recalled the vegetables she kept in the Home Economics Room. She told Akira to stay there while she rushed downstairs.

As she placed the vegetables in a bag, she thought to herself: It’s funny, usually a girl gives the boy chocolates instead of healthy foods…

...Wait… why did she…

...Oh…

---------

She did it.

She finally gathered the courage to speak with Takakura about her concerns, what she wants to do in the future, and giving her honest thoughts (if not the polite version of them) about Sugimura and the engagement.

Takakura asked her to come to the next staff meeting and promised that he would handle the marriage cancellation. For the first time in a long time Haru felt a weight off her shoulders.

“I was so afraid… but now that it’s over, I think it was honestly pretty simple. I only made it to this point because you were with me though… Th-thank you Akira-kun.”

He gives her that smile that makes her heartbeat so much faster as he replies, “You did amazing.”

She blushes and giggles, “You did too you know?”

Haru tells him that it was thanks to him that she could trust again, that she found her own strength, and that if he ever needed to confide in her; she’ll be there.

...She really fell head over heels for him hadn’t she? Well… if she could be brave enough for this meeting…

“That reminds me… Takakura said something… a little strange, didn’t he? Th-th-that I... like you… Goodness, why would he say that...?”

Akira looked surprised and Haru knew how this dream would end.

“Why do you think…?”

She looked away, bracing herself for his rejection…

But he placed his hands on hers and she turned back to him, there was that same smile.

“I like you too, Haru.”

---------

Haru giggled as she and Akira watched Morgana roll around in her room (well the twins’ recreation of her room but nonetheless.)

“I love how fluffy this carpet is! It’s almost as soft as my fur! A nice sunbath on the balcony would be great too! I’d really be living in the lap of luxury here!”

Akira smirked, “Spoken like a true cat.”

Even if it was unexpected, Haru was happy to have this extra time to spend with her friends and her boyfriend.

The three talked about their time as Phantom Thieves with Akira and Morgana both telling her how much she had grown since they had all first met.

It’s then that a thought occurs to her. A memory of an old dream.

“There’s something else I’m happy about, too.”

“Oh?” Asked Akira

She tells him about her dreams of the dashing prince escorting her to the stage.

“That dream fell by the wayside when I quit ballet, but now, it’s actually come true. But… I know that the moment I awaken, I’ll forget all about it. Almost like a spell being broken. I wish it didn’t have to end. I’d love to have more time to spend with my Prince of Thieves.”

“Well then I guess we’ll just have make our next dance unforgettable.”

Akira chuckles as he pulls her closer for a kiss. Haru smiles as she returns it. It reminds her that even when this dream ends, another still came true.

[engekihaikyuu]

My thoughts on the new Engeki Haikyuu, Winners and Losers!!! Details under the Read More to avoid spoiling anyone who would rather wait until the DVD release.

With a 3+ hour play, it’s hard to do a detailed summary that goes scene by scene because I know I’ll forget about something or mix up order of events, so I mostly want to go over the major themes and particular scenes and characters that stuck out to me. If you have questions for any other character or how a specific scene played out, please feel free to ask! One of the main bits of thematic imagery used this time around was wind as well as the obvious one of music, which we’ve seen in dress rehearsal footage. They went with something of a wind theme for Aoba Johsai, with projections that show gusts of wind flowing across the stage with leaves flying on it, sometimes the breeze animation will shift into twisting, curling vines. Hinata has a couple of dream sequences in the play where he’s buffeted by those winds, and he repeats: “There’s a wind blowing. Sometimes it’s with you, sometimes it’s against you.” Kenma is in the dreams as well (sometimes with a cat head), warning Hinata to not get caught up in that wind, but also implicitly reminding him that he needs that wind to fly.  No seriously, the dream sequences were meant to be surreal and weird. This results in a line that Hinata says to Kageyama that is unique to the stage play. “Kageyama, let’s ride the wind!” And to go along with that theme and those images, there are several moments throughout the play where Kenta is strapped into a bungee that hangs down from the ceiling (once, Kageyama is strapped into a bungee of his own) and them he will literally go flying around the stage, taking massive leaps as they run around. Sometimes he’s hooked into a lifting harness and it’ll pull him just straight up into the air where he’ll even just flip around on them like an aerial acrobat to show how high he can “fly.” I personally really enjoyed this added thematic element to this match. I always enjoy when a new version of an existing work interprets the source material in creative ways to work specifically with the new medium, and Engeki Haikyuu is always excellent about fully utilizing THEATER-SPECIFIC effects and humor. It does things with the story you’ll never see in the anime, things that don’t read right in illustrations, and I’ve always held a deep appreciation for the creative collaboration this show has been. When it comes to the music theme, it’s there for both teams, but much less so for Karasuno, since Aoba Johsai is meant to be the image of a smooth orchestra, and Karasuno is still a little haphazard as a team. Every single piece of Seijoh’s choreography and music reflects the orchestra theme. Their movements are always elegant and smooth, and now they feature a lot of ballet movements. Aoba Johsai is meant to be classical music, Karasuno is a rock band trying to figure itself out lol. And of course that ties into the setters because Oikawa is that model orchestra conductor. When Suga is on the court, it’s like he’s directing a jazz band. Fun and upbeat, mostly in sync, but not Seijoh’s elegance. For Kageyama, it’s difficult to get the hang of the conducting, he doesn’t quite know how to lead the team in a distinct choreography line Suga can, but that also highlights how hard the team is working around Kageyama to try to follow the pace he’s setting. So following that I want to talk about Kageyama because I must have cried for about three of his scenes at least. They feature a lot of flashbacks for him, including the middle school mid-match rejection we’ve seen before, as well as the scene from middle school where he asks Oikawa to teach him and nearly got punched instead. These flashback scenes are done a few times each, with the narration and POV switching between characters, and when it’s Kageyama’s POV, he is unbelievably hurt when Oikawa rejects him the way he did. He gets so caught up in that memory, remembering that he then decided he would simply have to become better than Oikawa, and this is when his conducting gets super erratic and his plays start getting sloppy. Sometimes the King of the Court will appear on stage (a secondary actor wearing the crown and the cloak) and Kageyama will see him and turn away in fear. Just before he’s benched and Suga takes the court, he grabs the King by the shoulders screaming at him, “NOT YOU! NO! GO AWAY!” They show him physically rejecting this haunting memory of the setter he used to be, and honestly, it’s super heartbreakinggggg. Heart-wrenching moments also go to Suga of course, but I always found them most GUHHH when his own insecurities are directly tied to still being a good senpai to Kageyama. And I feel like the stage play acknowledges this much more than the manga and the anime, because they give Suga and Kageyama so many moments together. The stage play better shows Kageyama’s admiration of Suga and also his appreciation of him, as the setter senpai who doesn’t reject him the way Oikawa did. Over and over the two of them share this one line of dialogue where Suga gently reminds Kageyama that their team is strong and he’s not alone. He can depend on them. Suga: What do we say about our team? Kageyama: Everyone is very strong. Whenever Suga is on the court they give a LOT of attention to third years and how overjoyed the three of them are to play together. Daichi and Asahi are extra animated and take center stage with Suga as they play, and it’s sooooo sweeeet!!! They do also include flashbacks to the third years when they first joined Karasuno, and this is done by the three seconds years wearing face masks of the older three. Kazuma/Ennoshita plays younger Suga, Kouhei/Tanaka plays younger Asahi, and Shouhei/Noya plays younger Daichi. Hilariously, Shouhei has like a cushion or something stuffed up his shirt to give him Daichi’s broad chest and then he also just sticks that chest out constantly and I could not stop laughing. THE TOBIUO. A scene where I laughed WAY longer than I should have was when Tsukishima and Tanaka make the flying fish joke with Kageyama’s name. What you don’t see is everyone else covering Kageyama from view as he puts on AN ACTUAL RIDICULOUS BLUE FISH OUTFIT and then he awkwardly hops forward screaming that he’s not a fish. And just when I thought to myself, wow, I can’t believe they made him a fish outfit for this 2 second joke, HE THEN KEPT IT ON FOR THE ENTIRE NEXT BIT OF CONDUCTING CHOREOGRAPHY, FLAPPING HIS FINS TO LEAD THE TEAM IN A ROUTINE FOR A SOLID 3 MINUTES??? BEFORE HE WADDLED OFF-STAGE TO CHANGE. I cried at that. Another sequence of scenes that I found super emotional was everything leading up to Yamaguchi’s failed serve. They show him asking Shimada, training with him, etc… but they also tied in Tsukishima more closely. They show Yamaguchi telling Tsukki he has something else to do and running off, and Tsukishima acting very rejected. During the Seijoh match, during a timeout, he and Tsukki share this dialogue. Yamaguchi: It looks rough out there. Tsukishima: Well obviously. Standing on the court for a while is tiring. Yamaguchi: But… I’m still envious. Of everyone. I want to stand on the court too! And as Yamaguchi stands there, his back to Tsukki as he admires the team, Tsukishima reaches out and says Yamaguchi’s name to tell him something BUT THEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS and they have to resume play. I have never been more frustrated omg because that extra “Yamaguchi!” is not in the manga or anime and my heart was just screaming WHAT WERE YOU GOING TO SAY?!?!?? As for adorable cute, time to talk about Kuroo and Kenma. Because oh my god. I know a lot of you know by now that Takato and Shouri cross dress to play Oikawa fangirls during the match, but they have about FIVE MILLION costume changes???? They’re CONSTANTLY running off the stage to change into Kuroo and Kenma and coming out on stage for flashbacks or Hinata dream sequences or to serve as visual reminders for Kageyama and Hinata as they remember playing with them. They’re constantly implying that the setters always have that one spiker that they trust and always toss to. For Kenma, that’s Kuroo. For Kageyama, it’s Hinata. For Oikawa, it’s Iwaizumi. For Suga, it’s Asahi. Kuroo frequently circles Hinata as Kenma circles Kageyama to play up that parallel. And then they run off stage to put the skirts and the extra hair pieces back on… I mean, I lost count of the costume changes after ten. As girls, they did a personality switch so Takato is the friendly, outgoing girl who is always pulling Shouri along and engages in conversation with Shimada about the game and the plays they make. Shouri is the shy one who trails behind or is scared of talking to Shimada and the one who gets super flustered and squealy. These two are the source of the humor most of the time because the players have a lot of drama going on obviously. When they first get on stage as girls, Takato asks, “Did you get taller again?” Shouri, super chipper, and with his voice pitched up, goes, “Now I’m 187cm tall!” They also show up at the end of the first intermission to open the second Act as Kuroo and Kenma. Kuroo STRUTS onto the stage and dramatically gestures for everyone to clap, and then he SNAPS to make everyone stop and just goes, “That’s goood~” Then he tries to do the Nekoma chant but gets to the brain line and goes, “Wait! The brain isn’t here! Kenma!!!” Then Kenma walks onto the stage playing a game and Kuroo tells him to switch it off, so Kenma turns to the audience. “Since I have to turn off my game, if everyone else in the audience could also please turn off your cell phones and refrain from—“ Kuroo: “Who are you talking to?” And Kenma keeps giving general viewing instructions and Kuroo keeps being weirded out because obviously “There’s nobody there.” But then Kenma keeps trying to break the fourth wall and keeps asking Kuroo taboo questions. Kenma: Say, Kuroo… why are we the only Nekoma members— Kuroo: That’s taboo!!! Kenma: What about those girls— Kuroo: ALSO TABOO; DON’T SAY IT!!!! Obviously these are supposed to be the girls that originally came to cheer on Oikawa but as they continued to watch the match, they started rooting for Karasuno too. Towards the end of the third set, Takato shouts, “Aoba Johsai, Karasuno… Both of you do your best!!!” And then Shouri starts PULLING UP HIS SKIRT to show his Nekoma uniform underneath and shrieks, “NEKOMA, DO YOUR BEST TOO!” and Takato has to pull his skirt back down while screaming that that was especially taboo!!! Shouri spends the rest of their scene there with his pink skirt pulled up awkwardly around his chest because of the way he pulled on it, and it was SUPER DISTRACTING. And um… uhhh…. I’m leaving out so much, there was so much going on, but this is so long and… I woke up at 4am because of jetlag and instead of going back to sleep I started writing this so... I’ll make other posts as I remember more and feel free to ask!!!