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fizzingwizard · 4 years ago

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I could cry y’all. Episode 37 was SO GOOD. So good!! It truly felt like a Mimi episode, and it truly felt like Digimon Adventure, in multiple ways. It’s seriously fantastic!

I feel at once super duper relieved that this show is, really and truly, capable of this time of episode, and also super duper confused why, if it could do this, it hasn’t been doing it the whole time??

Anyway, we’ve now had four or five solid episodes in a row, so I’m letting myself feel hopeful again!

This episode is called “Mimi Wars,” but I feel it might be more aptly titled “Sailor Mimi”

In the name of employee rights, I will punish you!

More below!

Okay... so as I was watching this episode, I really got the feeling that they were parodying something again. Like last we had a Mimi episode - far far away in the distant past though it was - when they very obviously parodied Castle in the Sky. That’s twice now Mimi’s been compared with a girl with twin tails, Usagi’s pigtails and Sheeta’s braids xD

Although the poses Mimi uses aren’t exact replicas of Usagi’s, though, so maybe I’m wrong. I got the Usagi vibe from her personality even more, so maybe using the poses would have been considered copyright infringement and so they had to change them a little. Or, maybe Mimi is parodying someone else who also uses dramatic hand movements and talks a lot about justice in spite of being generally clueless...

See the resemblance? XD

But what I REALLY think is going on is, they’re spoofing the genre in general, while also taking it seriously. That’s important. It’s not just a joke here. This is the girl power episode, in a way, and in my opinion, it’s a better girl power episode than the fare I got used to growing up, which went more or less like this:

Guy: *does something with good intentions but inept*

Girl: Ugh! Men don’t respect women!

Guy: I’m sorry, what did I do wrong?

Girl: I won’t tell you because feminism! C’mon girlfriends, let’s assert our confidence as women by going on a girls night out shopping spree and making a bunch of random guys stare in awe at us for no clear reason!

Girls: Yes! This is third wave feminism!

... that was more or less the formula. It was... awkward. I’d like to blame on “those episodes were written by men who think all feminists are angry feminists,” but I think if I went and checked who the scriptwriters were, there’d be some women in there for sure.

What we got in THIS episode is something I’d actually want my daughter to see. First off you’ve got Mimi, who loves pink and pretty things and comes across as a real girly girl, not to mention a bit of a ditz. And the show’s straight up, “but just because you have flaws doesn’t mean you can’t grow into a great person. Also, being girly is not incompatible with being a boss.”

Mimi doesn’t need to be a man, nor does she need to be a hard ass, nor does she need to be especially kind and sweet to soften her orders. All she has to do, according to this episode, is care about her craft, care about quality, and care about worker conditions.

I mean... a show where the girl boss wasn’t a Russian spy in a former life?? A show where the girl boss isn’t a Stepford wife who got where she is by marrying rich and funding her perfume company that way? She’s... she’s Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. She gets to be flawed and girly and fun-loving and bossy and ditzy all at the same time. She loves diamonds - but diamonds are no longer a “girl’s best friend.” Rather, Mimi herself is the diamond in the rough!

This actually makes her a really good set with Sora. Sora continues to be both a tomboy and very sisterly. Mimi’s very girly but very bossy. Between the two of them, they can conquer the world. Of course, I don’t know that the show would take it any farther than they already have, but I’m just happy to see this development for Mimi at all. We had it to a degree in 99 Adventure, and Kizuna took it a bit further by making her an entrepreneur. Reboot Mimi is a remix of that for the 21st century.

*deeeeeeeeeep breath*

so... back to our regularly scheduled programming!

As awesome as Mimi is, she’s not the only one who’s great in this episode. The others get to let their real personalities shine, at least. We needed this episode sooooo bad like 20 episodes ago... le sigh.

Anyway, we start off having mad camp, for some reason (why aren’t they just staying on Komondomon?? whatev)

Food! They’re going to get food! They’re splitting up and making a plan in order to get food!!! I still miss the “food desperation” of 99 Adventure but hey, at least they’re acknowledging that they need to eat.

Sora advises Hikari and Takeru not to go too far on their quest and Tailmon swears like a knight of the round table to protect Hikari with her life.

Taichi: Oookay... note to self: don’t piss off little sister’s hotheaded partner...

Taichi adds that they’re also counting on Patamon, who is just thrilled to go off and play with Takeru.

Tailmon: *BIG SIGH*

Lol I really love that they’re bringing back the old Patamon/Tailmon dynamic where she’s all grown up serious and he’s got the priorities of a toddler most of the time... It’s Black Widow and Hawkeye bahahahaha

We even get to see them COLLECT FOOD what did I do to deserve this they are COLLECTING FOOD IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN I REPEAT IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN

Taichi even has to warn Agumon not to eat the food becaues they’re supposed to be gathering it to share ;___; omg... we actually get on screen proof that Agumon is a glutton??

Then Taichi tries to “help” by shaking the tree and the tree falls and they -

BAHAHAHAHAHA

humor!!! Poking fun at Taichi even!! Over food!! Because he has a klutz for a partner!!! And because he himself was overzealous!! ;_; I could die of Cute.

Sora absolutely shocks me this episode too. I expected she’d just watch Taichi and Agumon drift away with their folly while sighing and shrugging her shoulders or something.

NOPE

She jumps DIRECTLY UP and into the water without a moment’s hesitation, like they’re going to die without her - I don’t even know what her plan is here, she seems to want Piyomon to evolve and pull them out, but why does that mean Sora has to be in the water too?

I think her sisterly instincts just freaked out on seeing Taichi looking wet and confused and clinging to a tree trunk so she just did the first thing she could think of which was “Get to him!!”

Piyomon then fails to evolve, reason unclear, I suppose she’s hungry... they never do eat though so I’m not sure why she can evolve later xD (probably they eat off screen)

But I mean I just love that we got this bit with Sora. I call it freaking out but she doesn’t seem freaked out - she stays calm and seems decisive and takes action - all good things. It’s just hard to understand her thought process xD But it’s all good info about Sora. (again stuff we needed more of AGES ago)

Now I had thought this was all just a funny bit that was separate to the main story, but this is how Taichi and Sora end up washed up in the rocky area Mimi is. This does mean Koushirou, Takeru, and Hikari aren’t much in the rest of the episode, sadly. Not sure why but the reboot does seem to struggle with writing episodes for the whole group.

Like last week, I’m somewhat miffed that, in the end, the main group finds the stragglers instead of the other way around. It’s even worse this time because at least last episode Koushirou told them where he was and they had a reason to go there. This time they have no idea Mimi’s gonna be there and it’s all a big coincidence. On the other hand... I do think Mimi was born under a lucky star, so that explains it. :P

Taichi and Sora suddenly find them selves trapped Gulliver’s Travels style and they’re both immediately like, “Hmm... something about this situation seems very familiar...”

Taichi and Sora: Oh that’s RIGHT we totally forgot that the pink cowgirl we hand out with is also TOTALLY BATSHIT

D’awww. Our future overlord is just so adorable, I don’t even mind when she flogs us in the street

TBH, up till now they’ve woefully underestimated just how batshit she is. And it’s wonderful.

So Mimi has happened upon some poor, disenfranchised Digimon who are being forced to work for an evil boss who collects the beautiful gems that grow in this area. Like in 99 Adventure, Mimi will have none of this sort of crap. Her reasons, though, have evolved with the times:

omg... she voted for Bernie Sanders!

This is how Harry and Ron reacted when Hermione said she was starting a house-elf welfare organization called SPEW.

Though I joke - like I said before, even though Taichi and Sora are rather mind-boggled by Mimi’s mood swings and fits of passion, and there’s definitely humor there, Mimi herself is not a joke here. We are shown strongly that, however in the clouds her head might be, her heart is not only in the place, it’s also already internalized the fact that people don’t always get treated well in the real world and it’s up to those with power to ensure that are protected.

I mean. At this point, I’m going, “Sorry but ISN’T MIMI THE REAL LEADER IN THIS SHOW?!?!”

Of course she does have another, less lofty motivation... she really likes pretty stones.

Buhahahaha.

Mimi’s names are as creative as they are incredible, just like her. Taichi and Sora have trouble keying in with Mimi due to how changeable she is, but they never talk badly about her or reject her. They never try to wrest leadership from her either! Taichi might think Mimi’s names for the stones are over the top, but sort of sidesteps it and just goes along with her plan.

Reason #14567876867867 why I love Yagami Taichi: when someone else is the leader, he can be a follower. And he’ll be the BEST follower. Keep reading to see why.

The story of how Mimi befriended the enslaved rock Digimon here is pretty much how Goku became besties with Vegeta.

Men communicate their hearts through their fists! Or swords, depending on the anime. ANOTHER AWESOME SUBVERSIVE MOMENT FOR MIMI - she’s now even got cliche shonen hero tropes assigned to her!

Taichi and Sora, like I said, don’t try to change Mimi’s mind - they’re actually touched by her strong feelings about workers’ rights and her desire to help her new friends -

Taichi: Wait... what?

Sora: Well, she’s still a ten year old girl.

The rock Digimon show their allegiance to Princess CEO Mimi. They don’t even mind having their names and identities stripped away and being reduced to numbers on an Excel spreadsheet...

Taichi: I hate Excel.

Sora: I do too, but I’m more impressed that she remembers the numbers she gave us back in episode 6.

Taichi: Impressed? More like filled with a sense of impending doom

Only Taichi seems to understand Mimi’s unique power bahahaha.

But back to what I said earlier, about Mimi being the real leader: I don’t know if the show’s gonna keep doing anything with this at all, but I really like that they didn’t NOT do this in order to ensure Taichi’s the only leader. (I mean, Yamato’s so far not made much of a bid for leadership so he’s been pretty uncontested thus far. He also hasn’t had to do all that much leading given how often the group is separated... but I digress)

I love the idea that Taichi can step back and let someone else take the reins when they’re best suited. Which Mimi is, due to her easy ability to make friends and gain trust. Mimi had this ability in 99 as well and it was used in the final battle to muster the troops, so to speak. It ought to have been a bigger deal but wasn’t since she missed most of the final battle :/ But I loved that “social, able to make friends” wasn’t some stupid “Girls talk too much” trait, it was actually something that was useful. This is a great place to take that with the reboot.

At the same time, while Mimi and Taichi both have similar leadership traits, there are places they diverge that potentially make them leaders for different situations. Taichi’s pretty cool and strategic even in emergencies. He was more of a hothead in 99, but Mimi’s always been quick to anger. (And quick to cool down.) As we’ll see in this episode, that’s sort of where Taichi’s true ability lies: he’s serious, determined, strategic, and reliable as well as brave. But this is Mimi’s episode, and Taichi isn’t going to get to be the hero anymore than he (almost) was last week with Koushirou. Because more than one character can have positive leadership traits! Hallelujah.

Quick nip over to Komondomon and the others - Koushirou’s group is going to try to find them, but Komondomon falls asleep. Oh noes. I wish someone (Koushirou) would ask, out loud, “Gee, what are these strange symbols that appear when we communicate via digivice? Do they mean something? How were they assigned?” I really thought we’d get a hint what with all the conveniently colorful gemstones this episode, but still nope.

My girl looking like a BAMF!

Mimi explains her plan to her servants employees. She is surprisingly artistic!

Sora plays the role of bait to create a diversion while Greymon digs a tunnel to get to where the gems are stored. Mimi congratulates herself on a job well done.

Taichi: A job well done? Who d’you think has been doing the work here?

Greymon: That would be me.

Taichi: Right, right I was going to say you >.>;

So we do see bits of Mimi’s self-centered side as well - she’s not perfect, but who is? Taichi just lives with it. Mwehehehe.

... will be fired! LMAO

No. 72 is Taichi, btw. Mimi gave up calling people by their names for Lent.

Taichi: Lent’s not for over a month.

Mimi: It’s never too early for religious sacrifice.

Taichi: And you’re not Catholic.

Mimi: I celebrate Mardi Gras.

Taichi: yOU JUST LIKE THE COSTUMES AND KING CAKE

He’s miffed and he.... just lives with it. Again. xD

It’s hilarious. And adorable. I love both that 1) Mimi is an awesome boss while being, in fact, rather bossy, and that 2) in spite of being a boss type himself, Taichi not only listens to Mimi, but he totally indulges her like he’s her older brother or something x’D He wouldn’t be out of line for saying “I have a name you know!” On the other hand, I guess he knows her well enough to understand that she doesn’t mean anything by it, and... there’s no stopping her when she gets like this :P

Feel the wrath of Tachikawa Mimi!!!

So Mimi’s plan has worked so far, and she’s got everyone listening to her despite her questionable business practices, and then she... suddenly rushes off in another direction.

Taichi: That’s it, I am through being her personal assistant if she’s just going to change the plan on a whim!

Taichi: ... I don’t want to see her get hurt or be sad though...

Greymon understands Taichi’s heart ;___; and enables him to go after Mimi. I don’t really get why it’s wise to split up given that Taichi can’t fight big rock Digimon without his partner... x’D So I’m going to chalk this up to, Greymon understands that Taichi is, at his core, the team Dad. He’s got to be allowed to worry and check up on the kids, even when it’s not so advisable. Awwwwwwwww.

Indeed, Taichi doesn’t get to be the hero this ep, but small moments like this give us waaaay more character development than always being the hero!

Fortunately Mimi does have her own partner and she’s not afraid of the enemy’s rock hard abs. :P

They make it into the storage center for all the gems. IT’S SO COLORFUL. Ten year old men is squeeing just like Mimi.

Come on!! She’s holding yellow/orange topaz and purple amethyst! It could be the material for Taichi or Takeru’s and Koushirou’s crests! (I always liked fire opal for Taichi though xD)

Taichi’s been promomted!! To chief pack animal x’D Just because it’s a cool name doesn’t mean that’s what the job is, Meems.

Taichi’s just like, “I think I’m too young for that position.” Bahahaha.

He’s going to be carrying her books to school before long.

Then something big and hard hits Taichi in the head!! He freaking starts to cry, it hurts so bad!!

Taichi: Owww! Omg I think I got a concussion from that! Help someone call an ambulance!

He was hit in the head by a diamond, which Mimi loves. So she goes off on a monologue about how much she likes diamonds. She never asks him if he’s okay x’D

Taichi: Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, not that you asked or anything.

Mimi: Please, everyone knows your head is already harder than diamonds.

Taichi: ...

The pile of gems looks like Fruity Pebbles. Mmmmm

It turns out the mastermind of this whole operation is Gogmamon, who is the bastard child of Gogmagog I assume :P He eats the gemstones as well as Gotsumon for power. He then produces the diamonds?? I didn’t quite understand if he was spitting out the diamonds because he didn’t like them, or he was creating them inside him when eating and then spitting them out like... diamond turds...

...

they’re diamond turds aren’t they >__>

Mimi is not interested in big business bulldozing the mom and pop shops and small upstarts. And she hates sweatshops! She is pro-Fair Trade all the way! And she will yell it in your face!

Taichi: It’s the yelling part that I’m having trouble with.

Mimi: A good speech from the boss is what keeps up employee morale!

Taichi: Yeah, that’s less true when the boss is about to be gobbled up herself...

Golemon and Togemon try to fight Gogmamon and this results in Golemon falling to pieces.

Taichi: Are you okay?

Golemon: My HEAD was knocked off, but sure I’m doing JUST FINE -____- little brat

Taichi stands protectively in front of Golemon’s head. Lol. He’s thinking of strategies... perhaps regretting rushing after Mimi and leaving his own partner behind...

Mimi joins him and Gogmamon finds her a formidable opponent in the war of words. Gogmamon argues that all the rocks, all the Digimon, everything here belongs to him and him alone! And Mimi brilliantly counters with:

“Fuck that! They belong to ME!”

x’D He just like... under his breath... “she admits that’s how she thinks of us...” hahahaha... I laughed out loud...

It might not be 3D but this is an excellent evolution sequence xD I haven’t said so yet but the animation in this episode was good! Good for the show anyway. It was smoother than usual despite some mechanical-like mouth movements and more than that, it had character and expression!

okay important question everyone: Taichi = Kermit, Mimi = Miss Piggy... discuss??

So Gogmamon has a pretty cool-sounding attack, “Curse Reflection.” I have often complained that the villains we fight and get new evolutions with aren’t that scary, but Gogmamon not only seemed pretty formidable (if not the smart, I mean he does have rocks for a brain), he also had a good story build up. My one disappointment in this episode is that the ending is so fast and Gogmamon so easily dealt with. This would have been a good time to introduce Rosemon (like how last week would have been an appropriate time for HerculesKabuterimon). But in both cases, we’re definitely supposed to take away at least that these guys are almost there... Anyway yeah, I would have liked a tiny bit more meant to the resolution but.

So here’s ANOTHER cool thing! Taichi notices that Gogmamon rejects the diamonds, and realizes they’re the key to defeating him. But he doesn’t just tell that to Mimi. He asks her “Did you see that?” And guess what - she did!

So even though the show couldn’t resist telling us that yes, Taichi would have been able to handle this situation - it doesn’t even let him give Mimi a hint towards victory. She figures it out for herself! The most we can say he does is point out the diamond, but she understands the implication and is able to use it against Gogmamon through her own intellect.

TAICHI DOESN’T MANSPLAIN Y’ALL. HE’S NOT A MANSPLAINER. HALLELUJAH AND PAST THE PEAS!!

Mimi is very influenced by her hardworking, CEO grandpa, Tachikawa Genichiro, who’s taught her things about business and things about values, and it really reads as if she’s the one who will inherit the family business - like she’s the family investment. You know, the role that traditionally only falls to sons. That’s changed with the world, and apparently Tachikawa Genichiro-jiisan is totally on board with his granddaughter being more than just a pretty heiress!

... btw what are they making...

“You’re fired!” Mimi yells as Lillymon takes Gogmamon down x’D kill me I love it

Like last time (and it sure was a long time ago that we saw it ;_;), the aftereffects of Lillymon’s powers is plants start growing everywhere. This is such a cool effect, I don’t get why it’s not used more. Right now I feel like Mimi/Palmon are the best set in the show.

(I did think it was funny when Mimi gives the diamond to Lillymon to use against Gogmamon and Lillymon acts like Mimi’s making this huge sacrifice since she loves diamonds so much. But 1) it wasn’t the only one, and 2) they were spat out by Gogmamo! that’s gross! that’s got to cut into the value! hahah)

The others finally catch up and the day is saved. Golemon is an employee for life now. Awww.

AWWWWWW.

I gushed about all this before so I won’t repeat myself, but yeah, I’m so happy with this episode.

Lol Sora and Taichi have accepted their places in Mimi’s world, in the end. They might have numbers instead of names and their boss might change her mind about things every five seconds, but other than that it’s a pretty nice gig overall.

Again the art, so sweet. This reminded me of Miyako yelling to Mimi about how she wants to be like her when she grows up in 02 so I capped it.

And I absolutely love this little play on words since it’s in English! Wow!

SO CUTE. How did a Mimi episode kick every other episode out of the water? Scratch that, we always knew Mimi was fantastic. A shojo hero for the 21st century.

Well I said a ton and this is really long now so I’m gonna assume you all get my thoughts on this episode. 9.5/10, really awesome, totally unexpected but perfectly suted to Mimi. I’m so so happy this show seems to have figured things out and remebered that it’s supposed to be freaking Digimon Adventure, it seemed like it forgot for a while there. I just hope we haven’t wasted too much time on those more lackluster episodes, I want so many more stories like this one.

Next week looks like another winner:

OK, that concept is hilarious x’D I’m so sorry. But also, leave it to Yamato and Gabumon to get the tragedy episode.

The mood maker will be this guy! I’m totally psyched for Yamato and Jou. Taichi’s been important in the past two episodes even though they were centered on Koushirou and Mimi, so I wonder if/when he’ll be involved this time? Or maybe it really will be just Yamato and Jou - my dream combo?? I can’t wait either way.

DID NOT CHECK FOR TYPOS! See y’all next week.

#fizz watches digimon 2020 #digimon adventure 2020 #digimon adventure:#digimon adventure reboot #digimon #digi spoilers #this took forever because i loved it so much #so many caps so many comments hahahahaha

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letsperaltiago · 4 years ago

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ok time to break my silence caused by the fact that i spent all day making this lol too many feels

so.. palm springs thoughts !! and there are manyyyy so buckle up and feeel free to hit me up with either matching or contradicting thoughts or whateveer!! i would LOVE to nerd out about this movie with someone:’)

here comes thoughts and pictures!!

we basically start off with a mr. samberg sex-scene okAYYYYY the mood is set. we love the view

nyles aka. mr. samberg is the most gorgeous man alive and it was a true pleasure to admire him for 90 minutes straight

CURLS!!????! THEY ARE UNREAL. i shall dedicate an entire post to them

Cristin Milioti is perfect for her role. her acting? *chef’s kiss* I love that she’s not the stereotypical female rom-com lead.

Her chemistry with Andy? Gosh.. Can’t believe Nyles x Sarah is my new main movie-ship!! They play off of each other SO. WELL. Their characters are equally stone cold and bitter, but then again not really, and they both portray it so well!!

“You don’t ned a leg up.” *moans* “Hold my leg up!” i SCREAMED

“Don’t you kiss me.” “Don’t you tell me what to do.” hoW DARE THEY!

Ok ur basically on love already stop it

The fact that they were just gonna fuck on a blanket on top OF ROCKS?!

but then again in this movie’s already insane universe it’s prob pretty normal:)

The overall dark, existential humor?? This is what I live and breathe for on a daily basis. Basiaclly both main characters are a BIG MOOD

Nyles not giving a shit vs. Sarah severely freaking out in the beginning is an iconic dynamic

“I am the antichrist” and then the rock falling? For a hot sec I literally thought the movie was gonna take a turn with Nyles being some magical/scientific creature that’d created the timeloop or something idkkk ahhha

Nyles in the suit... ridiculous(ly hot)

The torture methods Roy uses on Nyles and the fact that he’s not mentally scarred?? How??

On that note I love that Nyles and Sarah keep their memories even if the day starts over. Would’ve been a completely different concept if they had to “meet each other for the first time” every day and it wouldn’t’ve allowed their relationship arc to evolve as it did

Darla is the fucking shit

Nyles in the baseball cap, amirite?

THE BARTENDER TALKING ABOUT HITTING A GUY WITH THE CAR SHE’S CURRENTLY GIVING NYLES A HANDJOB IN IS COMEDIC GOLD

“You fucked Jerry Schlieffen?” “Well he fucked me.” Yes SIR. Andy Samberg’s characters are all bottoms and we’re here for it

Sarah’s tongue click and “nice try” when Nyles asks her about her sex life??

IDK WHY BUT SO GOD

Randy is hella annoying. That’s it. That’s the tweet.

THIS ENTIRE SCENE:

the fact that they both start waking up smiling because now at least they have each other 🥺😭🤯

uhm i love a good ship that’s like... best friends to lovers and the montage of them basically becoming besties killed me

this outfit Y E S:

sarah falling off the car and nyles laughing it off is relationship goals

the crashing plane I LOL’ED

okay so... big moment... the DANCING AND MATCHING OUTFITS? THEY ARE MY DREAM TEAM. Also how excited they are running away from the bar 🥺

IM POSITIVE THIS IS THE MOMENT NYLES KNOWS! LIKE HE DOESN’T ADMIT IT TO HIMSELF COMPLETELY BUT HE KNOWS

the bomb in the cake and french pirate-skit? so fucking random but i lovee it because it’s so them

*DRUM ROLL* PERHAPS MY FAVORITE MOMENT IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE:

STORYLINE WISE AND VISUALLY A++++

the deep talks by the fire were SO well written. they were actually deep and genuine, allowing the characters to grow and opening up to us as viewers but also remained fun and witty

sarah trying to get nyles to admit he cares for her and him joking it off??? the flirtinggg

really wish we’d gotten to know more about what nyles meant with “it drifts away: just like they all do.” because it really seemed to trigger something within him. Like WHO “They”???

the dinosaurs lmao no comment but at least they got a cute cuddly moment

from the very first millisecond inside the tent you can CLEARLY tell Sarah is just dying to do something about them!!!

the disbelief on nyles’ face when sarah says “lets just get it over with” because she’d clearly stated he didn’t want to and even though he obviously did he’s respected it and not done anything further about it oh babey

we love some good making out:’)))

NYLES HALTING TO TAKE IN THE MOMENT EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO SCREAM INTO THE VOID

i will die for a post-sexy timez cuddle and how sarah is trying to staying awake to be besides him is just *explosion*

this has to be *the moment* she realises

and they’re both sooooo fucking happy when they wake up after damn love me like that pls

THE GROOM BOOO FUCK OFF CAN’T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO REMEMBER HIS NAME CHEATING SCUM

THIS FACE:

Baby is trying so hard and is so cute and nervous about it. SARAH LISTEN TO HIM HE LOVES YOU.

HE FELT GOOD WAKING UP BECAUSE OF YOUUUU, GIRL. DO NOT CALL IT “FUN”, SARAH

“Going to bed maybe just got a little better” 😭😭😭😭

The entire cop scene is just pure insanity, very Lonely Island and I’m here for it even though I just want Sarah to rEALLY LISTEN TO WHAT NYLES IS TRYING TO SAY

“Pain is real” oh babey that means SO MANY THINGS 🥺💔

“I followed you into that cave because I liked you!” like jake would say: don’t love how we got here but we’re going where i want

“pretentious sad boy” me

not shocked that they’ve hooked up before because c h e m i s t r y but don’t like how it got out :)))

why is nyles’ one sleeve shirt rolled up? im triggered

drinking pure vodka? oh babey its gonna be okay

WE LOVE A SMART BOI WHO RECOGNIZES HIS GIRL’S PERFUME

Sarah’s parents singing:)) i would cry too, nyles

"I love her.” “I see... That’s interesting” lmao savage

I actually really love Roy’s character. It turns out to be very humble actually and he has some insightful and lowkey poetic that lines i love. Besides that he’s hilarious.

SO the whole time i was wondering how they’d get out of the whole “same day forever”-thing, if they were to. and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that they had such a logical way out of it: science. Not anything cheesy like “a true love’s kiss” or “you learned your lesson”. Pure logic and Sarah’s hard work to get there. Huge fan of this.

I will never get over how good Nyles looks waking up and Sarah is xtra pretty in that scene:’)

Nyles just wants to stay in a loop forever because it means for sure that he gets to stay with Sarah forever and I’m lowkey into it but also like lowkey LISTEN TO HER AND GO WITH HER PLAN, NYLES

“I wanna stay with you” *sniffles*

“I love you. How about that?” PRETTY FUCKING GOOD

I love Nyles’ character development. He started off so nonchalant and cold, closed off and by this point he’s the softest, smiliest in love fool I’ve ever seen and Andy does it so good. SAMBERG HEART EYES!!

“Nothing is real in here” YES SARAH UR LOVE IS

I’m taking Sarah’s asking Nyles to believe in her and leave with her as her first “I love you” because it’s very clear that she wants to leave with him rather than without.

just- this entire scene i ugh <3 <3 <3 <3

BREAKING. UP. WITH. MISTY ! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

glass of wine filled to the brim? sarah’s my type of gal

the speech was really beautiful and sweet without being too cheesy and kudos to cristin for really delivering it like a pro! especially her “abe, don’t fuck this up” like yes girl kill him, chop him to pieces with your eyes!!! also camila is such really pretty bride

nyles looks like a cockatoo here :

nyles taking the shot and smashing the glass into the ground got me 🤭😵😏🥵

“I’m your son” I SCREAM

GIVE THE MAN A WHITE HORSE DAMNIT

Gotta admit Sarah looks like a bomb (lol nu pun intended) ass super hero in her bridesmaid dress and C4-gettup

The sentence ending up being total grammatical gibberish but Nyles trying so. damn. hard is the sweetest thing ever and should and will go down in rom-com history. It’s super romantic but also well-balanced by humor and I just.. so good. This is the kind of characters and relationships I love and wanna write myself

“you’re my favorite person that i’ve ever met” 🥺🥺🥺

“i’d rather die with you than live in this world without you” WHY AM I SO SINGLE SOMEONE LOVEE ME LIKE THIS

okay so idk but “what if we get sick of each other?” “we’re already sick of each other. it’s the best.” is so so so soft, the way nyles says it like it doesn’t matter and is honestly another key moment for me: they’ve experienced basically everything imaginable during their time in the box/loop. they’ve liked, disliked, loved, hated each other and still: he loves her. the fact that nyles knows no matter what happens it won’t stop that because it’s them?? ouch my heart.

this chaotic mess of a pairing?MESSY BOMB BRIDESMAID AND CURLY-HAIR HAWAII SHIRT-BOI!! MY OTp

Them dissing Nyles’ mom on their way into potential death? that’s love, baby

the fUCKING KISSSSSSS MANNNNNNNNNN!!!! SO ICONIC AND THE EXPLOSION IN THE BACKGROUND AND JUST WE DESERVE THIS THEY DESERVE THIS EVERYONE DESERVES THISSSS!!!

NEVER OVEER THIS EVER FOREVER NEVER

Ok so I was SURE that when it faded to black that it was done and I grew super ficking frustrated because it would leave us with this “the ending is up to whatever you chose”-kinda thing kinda a la Celeste and Jesse where it just feels unresolved and I WASN’T OKAY WITH THAT. So I’m so happy we got to know that it worked and the bebes will live happuilly ever after with Nyles’ shaggy dog:’)

Their hands on each other’s knee >>>>>

all in all 100000/10

#palm springs #palm springs spoilers #andy samberg #cristin milioti #camila mendes #sarah x nyles #emilie says things #sarah #nyles #the lonely island #nyrah

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in-tua-deep · 4 years ago

Text

tua s1 rewatch with my roommate

episode one (I forgot for the first episode oops):

I have been treated to pictures of a lovely cosplay of Klaus who won a cosplay contest my roommate was in !!

Klaus putting his arm in front of Five during the funeral fight is good shit

“I have heard like nothing about Vanya” “yeah that’s pretty much how she’s treated in show as well”

“I can see why he’s the fandom favorite” - about Klaus

“Istanbul is in the firST EPISODE?”

I forGOT about the “rapists can climb” line when he breaks into Vanya’s apartment omg but also like,, his dumb arm wound

Episode two:

HERR CARLSON

Aww baby fives first time travel his little smile. Baby. Baby boy. And the dawning horror in the apocalypse baby nO

Five: you got anything stronger

Also five: takes one sip and then fills up more, takes another sip, and then immediately puts it down ?????

The motel dude for hazel and cha cha just looks at them like “yeah these are serial killers” and just rolls with it

Also actually why tf doesn’t the commission spring for better stuff?? Why would they cut costs?? They time travel? They could game the stock market so hard ?????? Give the assassins their own rooms omg

Also why didn’t five like. Crush his tracker. Why did he just leave it whole and intact outside of the Griddys.

Forgot how much I love Agnes

(Oh man it is storming bad here it just BOOMED)

Also idk if Diego actually deserved that taser hmmmmm but also like,, communication lads five was literally right there killing people and Diego is like “hmm something is up here” like. Yeah Diego ur big brother “I can get my sibling in trouble for something” senses are tingling

Wow I really did repress all these Allison and Luther scenes huh. Also it’s still super cute that Allison read Claire moon books

Allison: dads heart gave out, which wasn’t how I was expecting to find out dad had a heart but it tracks

“SHUT YOUR PIEHOLE BEN... said with love 😘”

Did five actually sleep at Vanyas?? The sofa looks undisturbed but he had to wait for work hours to interrogate the meritech people,, five,, please sleep. The whole “IF YOU CALL ME YOUNG MAN ONE MORE TIME” interaction makes more sense with five on. Zero sleep.

I didn’t remember that Patch straight up knows about the umbrella academy oops. Like she clocks Diego as overcompensating for his childhood. Queen

Is that an umbrella adademy Diego cross stitch on Diego’s wall?? Did he buy that? Make it?? Did grace make it?

Vanya, walking into the academy: five??? five? pspspspspsps

Also like. Who was Vanyas therapist??? Clearly they did not help her

Aww the tow truck driver :(

I know the show wants me to dislike Patrick I KNOW,, and I think her fathers funeral is extenuating circumstance?? But still Patrick is valid for not giving an inch regarding his ex who mind controlled his child. Vanya didn’t really deserve Allison snapping at her but like. She had some good points. Allison arguably would have had to deal with vanyas book more than anyone else

Five smiling proudly at Klaus’s drama at meritech bless but also KLAUS DONT BREAK GLASS ON YOURSELF

Me, spotting Leonard: BASTARD

Love how everyone greets Diego in the gym and don’t question all his knives or anything like “yeah that’s Diego he lives here and loves knives :)”

Why could Leonard have not been like. A normal ass guy. Vanya needs friends who sympathize with her holy shit get this person some socialization

Pogo really did have to lead these kids by hand to the recording rooms because literally no one was super invested in reginalds ~murder mystery~

ahafahJAGSJWGAI MY ROOMMATE JUST SAID POGO IS THE BEST CHARACTER SO FAR,,,, I will probably never include pogo in my fics because I do Not Care About Him lmaoooo

Aww five does to see Dolores and being like “it’s been a rough couple of days :(“,,,,, baby,,,, but also tag yourself I’m hazel going “elastic wrist splint yesssssss”

Five I am begging you PLEASE get some sleep

OH FIVE SHAKING DIEGO IN THE APOCALYPSE TO TRY AND WAKE HIM UP OHHHHH OH :(

Episode 3:

my roommate is super faceblind which is an issue bc she identifies people mainly by hairstyle so seeing the s2 stuff on tumblr is tripping her over bc she keeps seeing diego and going ??? who is that again? bc she’s seen his longer hair

okay there is no way that the eggs that grace put in that pan are the ones that ended up on the smiley face breakfast plate,,, but also grace that whole scene was a mood honestly i would be like “okay maybe mom killed dad BUT he deserved it sooooo”

“what the FUCK” - my roommate about cha-cha’s shitty wound care where she holds a curling iron against her arm

i didn’t remember that five got shOT AT THE DEPARTMENT STORE did i just erase that from my memory?? i mean yeah it’s a graze but he stitches it up and then slaps a bandaid on it so he has a wound that needed stitches on his shoulder for the entire show ??????? is he okay???? that would make moving your arm,,, painful,,,,,

a bandaid just slapped over it i’m actively yelling

“Sometimes when I see a million gifs of a show before I watch I get really surprised when they talk but he is exactly what I expected” - my roommate, about five

“I noticed they’ve only really showed diego in really badly lit scenes so far” - my roommate defending her lack of ability to recognize diego

i’m still laughing about pogo literally having to point out the murder tapes and now allison and luther are investigating and just. allison is lowkey defending grace and i’m laughing

“why is he saying woodwork is embarrassing that’s like one of the most middle of the wood hobbies to have. you’re respectable to grandpas who used to carve wooden ducks AND twenty-year-olds who can’t make anything to save their lives” - my roommate on leonard peabody

“i think he’s already crossing some lines he’s met this lady ONCE” - roommate on leonard/vanya

five having flashbacks in the car :(

did allison and luther draw straws for who went to fetch which sibling?? allison was like “dibs on vanya” and luther was just like “aww :(”

five luther and klaus in the van - BOYS NIGHT BOYS NIGHT let’s go pick up diego

“the coat he’s wearing does have a nice swish to it” - roommate about klaus’s coat

luther being like “you’re just as messed up as the rest of us and we’re all you have” like luther,,, baby,,,,, you literally ARE all he has,,,,,, his family is the only thing he’s really cared about since he was thirteen and maybe before then :(

“I can’t tell if those are supposed to be cake or yeast donuts... i think extruded donuts are cake donuts but she said she lets them rise so maybe they’re yeast?” - my roommate focusing on all the things that i do not

sometimes i forget that hazel and cha-cha pretended to be private detectives trying to find a lost child in a potentially dangerous situation,,, five would be disgusted

“she shouldn’t get a vote” “i was gonna say i agree with you” “she should get a vote!!” this is peak sibling energy honestly i think i’ve had that exact interaction with my siblings voting for a movie or something

“hashtag android rights”

“I want to be the tailor who gets a call one day that says ‘i want you to make clothes for a chimpanzee”

is it telling that only luther in the flashback didn’t really talk to grace at all,, i mean five didn’t either but i think he was gone by that point in the flashback ????

wait diego tells grace that she worked for him for thirty years,,, the kids are 29 and later it’s implied she was built bc vanya kept killing nannies when they were like four but maybe s2 clarifies that some more?? or diego just is rounding up

“that’s an interesting fabric to her skirt” - my roommate about grace’s outfit

forgot that hazel and cha cha broke the door to the manor busting in,, do they ever fix that?? we’re only at episode three do they spend the rest of the season with their door open to anyone on the streets

okay that bathtub is WAY too small to allow for klaus to be moving his elbows about like that underwater smh

“how is HE useful on mission??” my roommate about klaus

where is the SECURITY SYSTEM??? luther LITERALLY said that reggie was more paranoid and yet some assassin can just bust down the door and have unrestricted access????? he built a whole ROBOT but no security system????????

“maybe it was like,, practice for the kids? someone breaks in and they take care of it? wait no that doesn’t explain the thirteen years they’ve been gone?”

“why WAS he on the moon?” - about luther

“I want to see what she’s embroidering!!” about grace during the gunfight in the living room she’s absolutely ignoring diego getting shot at

what is a rope-a-dope,,,, diego yells “EVER HEARD OF A ROPE-A-DOPE???” at luther but like. no i haven’t. what does that MEAN diego

aww i forgot they played sinnerman, love that song

“what are you doing dude, rumor has it you’re not shooting at me that’s all you need to do” i mean. the roommate is not wrong. allison could just end the fight with a yell. i understand she’s pissed off and has rumor trauma but like cha cha is actively trying to murder them

how is luther not winning he literally has super strength. does hazel have super strength? just punch the man and knock him out jesus y’all suck at this smh

why is there such intense music we all been knew about luther’s strength - oH HIS BODY

forgot about that

is it allison’s fault that klaus got kidnapped because she didn’t literally just rumor them to give up?? like she literally has that power. she could have been like “i heard a rumor you left and forgot about us” it didn’t even need to be violent?? i understand she has rumor trauma but this i feel is allowable circumstances

diego showing his worry about vanya by getting angry which honestly i think all the siblings do that rip none of these idiots have even heard of healthy communication in their LIVES

you know,, i don’t think vanya can drive. she takes the bus. she took a taxi to leonard’s house. we see her walking a lot. does she know how to drive?? i imagine that the umbrella academy were taught bc of mission related stuff but,,, vanya wasn’t?? that’s just depressing tbh

#tua rewatch #i cannot beliEVE she likes pogo so much #pogo was complicit in the hargreeves abuse no i wont change my mind #i would be more likely to forgive him if he didnt keep mentioning how much reginald loved them #pogo fam dont say that #youre just going to feed luthers daddy issues #more to come #i cannot BELIEVE i forgot five got shot/grazed in the arm by a bullet #he slaps a BANDAID OVER IT #right after i said five is better at woundcare than cha cha with the curling iron #he just #slaps a bandaid on it #not even a big bandaid #that motherfucker

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flightfoot · 4 years ago

Text

Let It Be Enough To Reach The Truth That Lies Ch. 3

AO3

Thanks to Miabrown, Marby, and Khanofallorcs for betaing!

-----

“You failed.”

Adrien flinched. “Yes, Father.”

Gabriel didn’t even look up from his screen. “We will train more tonight. For now, go to your room and work on your piano lessons.”

Adrien sighed, a mixture of dread and relief coursing through him. “Yes, Father.”

At least while he was playing piano, Father was unlikely to come through his door.

He’d never imagined he’d dread his presence.

He also never imagined his father would force him to attack someone.

---------

After ‘training’ with Adrien for a couple weeks (read: beating the snot out of him until he got good at dodging), he’d deemed Adrien ready for combat.

Or maybe he’d just gotten sick of his akumas being defeated by a teenage girl and wanted to try something different.

Adrien had been keeping up with the Ladyblog, watching every new video of her exploits he could get his hands on.

His respect for her had only grown.

As had his dread at the prospect of facing her.

None of his research prepared him for actually meeting her.

Watching her through a screen, none of it seemed real.

Actually bumping into her? Being tied up with her? (He flushed at the memory.) That was a different story.

She’d been expecting him, been worried about him — or at least about Plagg.

He’d wanted nothing more than to hand her the ring, get Plagg somewhere safe at least… but that wasn’t an option. Especially with his father watching through one of the drones he’d commissioned.

At least Adrien could always tell when one was nearby. They were quiet, but not quiet enough to conceal from his hearing.

He was pretty sure his father didn’t know about the additional perks his Miraculous granted him, like his improved hearing and night vision. Father didn’t appear to have those.

Did Ladybug?

Digging through his cabinet, he threw a piece of cheese to Plagg. He caught it handily, devouring it in a single bite.

The corners of Adrien’s mouth pulled up.

These might be horrible circumstances and he’d prefer Plagg was somewhere safe, but a small, guilty part of him was glad he wasn’t trapped alone.

“Sooooo what did you think?” Plagg asked, finishing off the camembert.

Adrien blinked. “Of what?”

“Of your Lady! You know, the one you’ve been watching on loop for the past few weeks? The one you’ve been fretting about constantly? ‘Oh no, Plagg, Candy-butt wants me to hurt her, what will I do?’ ‘She’s so amazing, Plagg, did you see how she used that Lucky Charm?’ ‘She’s so kind and brave and is the best thing since stinky cheese!’”

Adrien flushed. “Plaaaaaagg.” He meant for it to be a reproach. It came out as more of a whine.

He let out a sigh. “It’s not like she’s ‘My’ Lady, anyway. I’m her enemy, remember?”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “Suuuuuure you are,” he drawled sarcastically. “And that’s why you just-so-happened to get distracted by a nearby bird when the last dot on her Miraculous started beeping.”

He looked down.

She was fast, but it wasn’t like he was any slouch in the speed department either. They were pretty evenly matched, which didn’t bode well when her transformation was bound to run out first.

So when a pigeon fluttered by, he may have pretended that catching it was a more enticing prospect than it actually was.

He ran around on all fours a lot, it wasn’t crazy to think he’d have a cat’s instinct to hunt as well.

If it happened to give him another weakness to be exploited, that wasn’t something he could help, now could he?

It was just the cat in him.

“I still have to fight her,” he said in a small voice.

He didn’t have much of an option on that. If he outright refused…

Well. Just because his father preferred using the Butterfly Miraculous, that didn’t mean he couldn’t use the Black Cat Miraculous as well.

And as an adult, he could use the special power repeatedly without cooldown.

He waged enough destruction while going through his akumas. Having the actual power of destruction literally at his fingertips? Adrien didn’t want to think of the damage it could cause.

Especially if his father touched Ladybug.

Adrien’d asked Plagg what would happen; if the kwami had Cataclysmed a living being. Once.

Plagg didn’t answer. But his expression? Told him he didn’t want to know.

At least, so long as he was allowed to have Plagg instead of his father, he could make sure Plagg wasn’t used like… like that.

Maybe he could even persuade Father to stop this! Or at least… at least rein him in. Stop him from going too far.

He- he hadn’t specifically tried to kill. Maybe he could reason with him if he started going too far.

Right?

Right. Of course he could. He was his father. He might be a supervillain, he might be awful, but he had limits. He had to.

Something small brushed at his hair.

Mom? Wait, no, she was-

Looking at his computer monitor he saw Plagg sitting on his head, patting his hair.

“You know… you don’t have to fight her,” he said.

Adrien frowned. “If I don’t Father might decide someone else would be a better Black Cat wielder,” he argued. “Or maybe just torture you, me, or both of us until I agree to his wishes.”

Plagg shook his head. “You’re thinking about this all wrong. You already faked some cat tendencies, faking fighting isn’t that big of a stretch.”

“Fake fighting…” Adrien’s eyes lit up. “You mean like acting?!”

Plagg nodded. “I’ve seen those new movies you humans came up with. They’ve got some of the most impressive moves I’ve ever seen, but they still don’t get hurt, right?”

“Some of that’s done with special effects,” Adrien told him, mind whirring. “But not all of it. It helps if you know what angle things are being viewed from, what the audience is able to see-”

“Which you know, right?” Plagg prompted.

Slowly Adrien nodded. “Yeah, since I can always sense the drones. And if I can just get Ladybug to play along…”

This.

This could work.

-------

Marinette chewed on her pencil distractedly.

Why had her partner sided with Hawkmoth? The butterfly man wasn’t exactly subtle about being the bad guy! Granted, it didn’t seem like he was happy about it…

Tikki hadn’t been too interested in looking further into it. Marinette’d gotten the impression that this had happened too often for her to be all that sympathetic to whoever misused Plagg. She just wanted him back, safe and sound.

She couldn’t blame Tikki for that viewpoint. If she’d had a close friend who’d been repeatedly abused, she wouldn’t be too interested in finding out the specifics about the latest person who was holding them captive, either.

But that didn’t mean she, herself hadn’t considered it.

He’d looked to be about her age. Granted, it was hard to tell with the suits having some sort of magical glamour (Tikki had called it “quantum masking”, whatever that meant).

Was he being manipulated into it?

What would his parents think?

Or were his parents…?

She stopped, shuddering. She knew awful parents existed, of course, ones who mistreated and manipulated their kids, ones who did not deserve to be in their children’s lives.

Even seeing movies and TV shows with some awful parents, it was a hard concept to wrap her head around. Her own Maman and Papa were always so kind and caring with her. Maybe stern if she did something wrong, but they always let her know what she’d done, talked it out with her, and let her know how she could do better. They were never unreasonable, and she never felt like they loved her any less, even if they were unhappy with her in the moment.

“Earth to Marinette!”

“WAAAUGGGH!” Marinette startled, flailing around wildly.

Alya ducked, barely avoiding getting hit. “Woooah there, girl! Just wanted to ask what was on your mind. You’ve been staring off into space for the past five minutes.”

Marinette looked away. “It’s nothing. Just personal stuff.”

Alya quirked an eyebrow. “Well if you don’t feel like sharing right now, I had another reason for getting your attention.”

Marinette blinked, straightening up. “What’s that?”

Alya handed her phone over to Marinette, pressing play on a video. “The footage the person sent me was captured from a distance,” she explained. “So the audio quality’s nonexistent. But look! There’s a new supervillain!”

Marinette just stared at the video, watching Catboy collide with her, chase her, only to get distracted a moment later by a bird.

So that was why he hadn’t caught her! She’d been wondering. He’d seemed pretty fast, and unlike her, he hadn’t been exhausted from a fight.

“Do you think he’s a full partner to Hawkmoth or just a villainous sidekick?” Alya asked excitedly.

Marinette hummed. “He seems pretty young… listening to Hawkmoth before, he sounded like an adult. This guy looks like a kid.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s not a full partner,” Alya said.

“True, but…” Marinette hesitated. The video didn’t capture audio, and wasn’t at the right angle to show Chat Noir’s expression before he started chasing her. “I just don’t get that vibe from him,” she said at last. “I get the feeling that he’s not the one pulling the strings.”

Alya looked at her a moment, then shrugged. “Whatever you say. You’re not the only one to think so, anyway. I’ve had a lot of forum activity speculating on whether he’s as evil as Hawkmoth is.”

So she wasn’t the only one?

“Really?” Marinette asked.

“A lot of it’s down to him being cute,” Alya said. “I’ve had to monitor certain threads VERY closely since he came onto the scene yesterday.”

Marinette blushed. “I, uh, hadn’t noticed.”

Alya narrowed her eyes. “Uh huh,” she said, not sounding even the slightest bit convinced.

“It doesn’t matter, anyway, because he’s a villain and he’s only appeared once and Alya stop looking at me like that-”

Alya continued smirking at her.

Burying her head on her desk, Marinette groaned. This was not how she’d been planning to start the day.

*beep beep*

Turning her head to the side, Marinette cracked an eye open. “What’s that?” she asked, her voice still muffled by her arms.

“It’s the new akuma alert app the city just set up,” Alya said distractedly, scrolling through the alert.

Akuma alert-

Marinette bolted upright. “What does it say?!” she asked hastily.

“There’s a new supervillain over near the Eiffel Tower. Calls himself Mr… Pigeon?” Alya frowned. “Wow, Hawkmoth is failing HARD at the intimidation factor. What sort of name is that? Marinette, you’ve gotta look at this outfit, I mean as a designer-”

Alya looked to the side.

And blinked.

“That girl is way too good at disappearing, I gotta get her to teach me how to do that,” she muttered at Marinette’s empty chair.

-----

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

The swarm of ladybugs flew out, repairing what little damage had occurred.

It wasn’t much. Mainly just pigeon poop. A LOT of pigeon poop. Annoying, but a far cry from the collapsed buildings and major injuries from other akumas.

It’d had one other, unexpected benefit as well. The Black Cat wielder had shown up again (her stomach twisted at the thought) but he hadn’t been able to do much. Beyond constantly sneezing and the birds distracting him, he’d barely even been an obstacle.

Hm. She’d have to ask Tikki whether she’d get ladybug instincts. Would she start eating bugs? Emitting noxious odors when scared? Cuddling up with people when she got cold. Okay, granted, she was prone to that last one anyway, but the others would be noticed!

A black blur rocketed towards her.

Oh. Right. With Mr. Pigeon deakumatized, there was nothing stopping the Black Cat wielder from going after her.

Crap.

He collided with her again, sending her skittering across the pavement.

She did a back handspring away from him (thank you, Miraculous reflexes!), landing on her feet just in time to start spinning her yo-yo into a shield. He tried pounding on it a few times with his staff, but it simply bounced off.

Nonetheless, he kept on pressing forwards, closer and closer.

Her earrings beeped four times.

CRAP.

SHE ONLY HAD A MINUTE.

She couldn’t let this turn into a battle of attrition. She had to get out of there NOW.

She turned around, preparing to bolt.

That was a mistake.

He tackled her to the ground, landing squarely on top of her. He reached for the earrings. She tried to punch him, but he just caught her hands.

“Why are you DOING THIS?!” she asked him through gritted teeth.

His ears flicked to the sides. Leaning in close he whispered, “Play along!”

She blinked, going still for a moment.

What?

His grip on one of her fists suddenly loosened.

*CRACK*

She winced as her fist made contact with his chest. The suits were protective, but she’d experienced enough hits to sympathize with the Black Cat’s shock. It still sucked to get punched.

He flew off her, sailing several feet away.

Uh… that… should not have happened. She knew that she was stronger while suited up, but she had a decent idea of how much force she put behind each blow. He should’ve been knocked back a foot at most, it wasn’t like she’d had the ability to gain momentum for the punch!

The Black Cat wielder backflipped several times, eventually landing on his feet. With a yell he ran towards her once again.

He’d told her to “play along”. What had he meant?

She couldn’t stay here and fight him. He KNEW that.

And he’d let her punch him off.

So… so, maybe…

He moved his fist forward to punch her.

Her eyes narrowed. Was it just her, or was his fist slightly off-center?

Just as his fist was reaching to the side of where her face would be, she flung herself back, forcing a wince.

He kept on coming, not showing the slightest bit of surprise at her sudden movement.

Because he’d WANTED her to do that. Had planned for it.

He didn’t want to hurt her. He just needed to put on a show.

“Come here, kitty kitty!” she smirked. There were some alleys off to the side. If she could just get them in there…

She was trusting this stranger a lot, she knew that. Especially since he was apparently working with Hawkmoth.

But some part of her DID trust him. Maybe it wasn’t totally rational. He’d only given a few hints that he wasn’t on Hawkmoth’s side, and for all she knew he could be luring her into a trap, waiting for her to lower her guard.

It was a risk she would just have to take.

He screamed, running at her with his staff held aloft. Immediately she started doubting her plan.

Still, she darted to the side, slipping into the dark, narrow alleyway.

He followed her, smashing up some trash cans, making a lot of banging noise and yelling - but not trying to get any closer.

Quickly she ducked behind a nearby dumpster, knowing full well that the Miraculous wielder’s eyes were on her. If he wanted to discover her identity, all he needed to do was round the corner.

He came no closer, instead cursing loudly. “I don’t know how you escaped, Ladybug, but beware! CHAT NOIR is coming for you!”

Chat Noir, huh? Not the most creative name, but she was hardly one to talk.

A moment later she heard his pole extend. She peeked around the corner just in time to see him pole-vaulting off away from the alley.

She sighed in relief, sinking down against the dumpster. Tikki flew over to her, putting her hand on her chin like she was “The Thinker”.

“You might’ve been right, Marinette,” she admitted after a moment. “I don’t think I gave Chat Noir enough credit.”

Marinette smiled, scratching Tikki’s head. The little kwami giggled, flying up to her for a cheek cuddle. “Maybe Plagg’s in a better situation, too?” Marinette suggested.

Tikki hummed. “I hope so. I’m beginning to think his kitten this time isn’t a bad kid.”

Her expression darkened. “But even if HE’S not, the person he’s working for — or pretending to work for — is. And he seems to have some sort of hold over Chat Noir — and subsequently, over Plagg.”

Marinette grimaced. Tikki was right. Chat Noir’s reluctance to oppose them might be a bright spot, but their situation was still pretty bad.

Holding her hands out for her kwami, she scooped the little bug up, safely stowing her in her purse.

“We’ll just have to encounter him again,” she said, looking towards the light of the open street. “And maybe get some more answers.”

And turn him fully to their side, her heart whispered.

#let it be enough to reach the truth that lies #ml fanfic #Miraculous ladybug #ml enemies au #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng

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mystickitten42 · 4 years ago

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Wizard Hearts 2020 Survey

Between September 1 and December 31 I took part in the @gameofdrarry Wizard Hearts fic reading fest playing for Team Vanaheim. The four suits of cards (and an optional Smut suit) had a trope assigned to each card and the goal was to read and comment on fics we haven’t read before. We also had monthly team assignments (I’ve linked the Vanaheim team assignments here).

For this survey, we had the option to answer 13 of 18 questions. As this will be long, I’ll continue under the cut.

But, before I get to the survey, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the mods for all their hard work checking our comments and spreadsheets, keeping track of points, creating and checking our assignments, and answering all the questions asked on the Discord Server ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

1.What was the first fic you read for the game/fest? Why did you choose it?

The Four Doors by fluxweed. This was a story I had planned to read for a while and was actually mid-story when I realised, ‘hey, this works for 5♦️ Memory Loss.’ This was such an interesting story (I highly recommend!) and I loved the Legilimency aspects of it as well as how the relationship between Harry and Draco developed. After the fact, I was kicking myself that I didn’t use this for Smut Suit Jack ‘Power Dynamics’ because this would have been perfect for that trope and I struggled to find another suitable fic for that trope.

2. What was the last fic you read for the game/fest? How did it feel reading 52+ fics?

Tell me the end at the beginning by harryromper. I’m a big fan of harryromper’s stories and am still making my way through their posted works, so of course I was thrilled to read this for A❤️ Healer!Draco. This story has an amazing Draco. He’s hot AF in his three-piece suits, swears in French, and the staff at St Mungo’s call him McFrosty. This was written for 25 Days of Draco and Harry 2018 and harryromper has just finished a new story for this year’s fest which I can’t wait to go and read.

I read the 52 card regular deck, the smut suit, as well as 16 Go Squid fics, so I read 81 fics in total for this fest. But I also read a lot more than that during the fest including fics that didn’t qualify for the cards or were non-Drarry (I went on a Jeddy, Scorbus and Charlie Weasley bender mid-fest).

I’d say this fest made me seek out fics that I otherwise wouldn’t have found, and it’s definitely made me a better commenter. I wouldn’t say that I read any more than usual, but I did take notes while reading so I could leave a detailed comment at the end. One side-effect of this fest is that my MFL list has grown exponentially because I added everything from the Thrice Fic List, the remaining fics from the Go Squid List and anything interesting that I found while searching for fics to fit the tropes.

3. What's a fic you think is a hidden gem and deserves more hype?

Stand Back: I’m About to Perform Archaeology by Blowfish_Diaries I can’t say enough good things about this fic. I couldn’t read it for the cards because I’d already read it and flailed in the comments so I rec’d it for Go Squid. It’s set during Eighth Year and has the perfect combination of humour, snark, banter, Harry and Draco bonding over Harry’s shitty childhood, drinking and party games, pining, and Hung!Harry. I read this more than six months ago and I still can’t stop thinking about it. Go and read it!

Passion Cake by ICMezzo This fic was both hilarious and beautifully written. I loved it so much I immediately wrote a rec for it. I adored Baker!Draco and his process for baking. I’m still cracking up at Harry almost serving a passion-inducing cake at Teddy’s birthday.

Haunt the corner of my eye by harryromper. This was such a gorgeous read. I’ve read several other pieces by haryromper and just knew this would be amazing (and it was). I loved the way the story unraveled and I adore fics set inside Grimmauld Place.

4. What was your strategy for choosing fic/tropes for your reading list? Was there a fic/trope you found you simply couldn’t resist?

With a few exceptions, I started with the major cards so I’d always be able to contribute towards my team’s Royal Flush hand each week. Initially I tried to pick fics that were 50k+ and that qualified for the bonus box (Fest fic for ♣️, Multi-chap for ❤️, Before 2014 for ♦️). Eventually I had to lower the word count so I could finish the deck, but most fics I read were at least 10k+. I also tried to read something each of my teammates had written.

I’d be hard-pressed to pick just one trope I couldn’t resist, but some of my faves included: Eighth Year, Bed Sharing, Roommates, Mutual Pining, Auror Partners.

5. Was there a trope that you’ve read a lot of previously that you found uniquely presented?

Three Boxes and a Scrapbook by dracogotgame. I’ve read a fair number of bonding fics and the usual format is: Draco & Harry fighting, bonding incident, getting used to the bond, and resolution (whether that be severing the bond or living with it). I loved how dracogotgame mixed it up. We started with Harry and Draco getting divorced and Draco heading off to France. Then we see the after-effects of a year together and learn about the bond through flashbacks (many as part of the scrapbook photos). The story is so beautifully presented and I loved Bill’s presence in Harry’s life.

6. What's a line from a fic that you can't stop thinking about?

There’s a passage from Writcraft’s Slice of Life that I can’t stop thinking about:

“Harry sometimes feels like those discarded jam tarts. The ones that nobody else wanted, not perfect enough to bring out in front of guests.”

This gets me every time. It’s such a perfect metaphor to describe Harry’s life at that time and it makes me tear up every time I think about it. Then the jam tarts are woven throughout the entire fic and it’s just perfect and gorgeous. I made a rec for this fic.

Also, Harry’s love confession during Names and Dreams of Futures Past by KittyAug has stayed with me since I read the fic. I can’t stop thinking about it. The whole scene was so perfect and emotional. I don’t want to spoil it so I won’t carry on, but I do recommend it.

8. Was there a trope you’ve never read or heard of before? What did you think?

OMG yes. Magic Healing Cock was a trope I’d never heard of and yet I could immediately think of the perfect fic for it, which unfortunately I had already read, To Be Out of Your Own (and consumed by another) by Cassiara. I ended up reading The Conquering of Harry Potter’s Virginity by FantasyFiend09 which was a fun story. Surprisingly, while reading for the other tropes, I encountered several more fics that could fill the Magic Healing Cock trope. I dunno, maybe I should make a rec list or something 🤣

9. Which trope did you read that pleasantly surprised you?

I was pleasantly surprised by Vampire!fic. I love vampire stories. I love Drarry (obviously). But I haven’t read much vampire Drarry. I read Midnight in the City of a Hundred Spires by Shiftylinguini and it was sooooo good. The way they characterised vampire!Draco felt so authentic and I loved the magical theory surrounding Harry and the consequences of him being a Horcrux for so many years.

10. Is there a fic that made you laugh out loud?

Ad Pavonem by Lomonaaeren, which fittingly I read for Crack!fic. Harry as a peacock is hilarious and the whole story is so well written. I love it when an author treats crack seriously and really goes for it. I appreciated the way the story was told through both peacock-Harry’s POV (a perfect blend of animal instinct yet distinctly Harry) and Draco’s POV (I adored his observations of the peculiar peacock and later his unique understanding of peacock-Harry). I made a rec for this here.

11. What is your favourite trope and why?

It’s really hard for me to pick just one, but if I had to choose I’d go with Hogwarts Eighth Year. I love it when barriers are broken down through party games and inter-house unity, and of course I adore roommates and bedsharing. Insert humour, snark and banter, plus magical theory and I’m all in. I think at least 11 of the fics I read for the fest were set in Eighth Year.

12. Which tropes did you skip? Would you be willing to share why? If you didn’t skip a trope, was there one that gave you pause?

I considered using a wildcard in place of Smut Suit Jack: Power Dynamics. One of the things I really love about Drarry is how evenly matched they are, like the opposite sides of a coin: light and dark, magically powerful and wild vs controlled and precise. They’ve both caused each other pain and both have things to apologise for. So a power imbalance takes away what I love about Drarry and it sort of rubs me the wrong way. Balance, Imperfect by bixgirl1 would have been a perfect fit for this trope and explores the power imbalance within a Healer/Patient relationship beautifully and with sensitivity, but I’d already read it and commented. I ended up reading Rebuilding Draco Malfoy by khasael, which I found through sitp’s awesome rec lists, and I did enjoy reading it.

15. Which suit did you have the most fun reading? Why?

I enjoyed all the suits. But, if I had to pick one, I’d have to go with hearts. There are so many tropes I love in that suit including Room of Requirement, Grimmauld Place, Powerful!Harry, Crack!fic, Established Relationship, Veela, and Dragons. There were so many fics I wanted to read (and added many to my MFL list) but I tried to choose those which were multi-chaptered for the bonus point.

18. Do you have any feedback for the mods of the game/fest? Would you be interested in playing again if the opportunity arose? Share more info about your experience.

Overall I really enjoyed the fest. One complaint would be that the bonus box for Spades was “not on AO3” and I refuse to read stuff not on AO3 because: 1) I don’t want to have to create an account anywhere else, and 2) I really like the formatting (especially for mobile viewing) and tagging way better on AO3. So I would prefer if there was a different bonus option next time, but of course that’s up to you.

I really enjoyed the team activities, but it was a struggle to fit them in with all the reading, commenting and getting my own writing done. Maybe we could do with one or two less next time?

I would definitely play again, but not necessarily next year. This was a big game to play and I didn’t sign up for Fan Fair commenting because it would have felt like too much (of course I realise now I could have possibly double-dipped and used my comment for both fests). So I may play again if it’s offered next year, but I also may sit a year out. I’ll have to see where I’m at closer to September. But I would be intrigued if the tropes were mixed up a bit. I don’t mind repeats but maybe swap some out. It seemed a bit repetitive to have both Soulmates and Soulmarks, and there’s already an element of Power Dynamics with BDSM and A/B/O. I’d love to see Polyamorous Sex, Legilimency, Wandlore, Sentient Houses, Curse-Breakers (or Unspeakables).

#wizard hearts #game of drarry #drarry #drarry fic fest #team Vanaheim #wizard hearts survey #drarry fic rec

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radioromantic-moved · 4 years ago

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AND WE'RE BACK, BABY (figured out how to get names not to show up in the tags. you can put invisible letters that look like spaces in between words and it messes up the algorithms. ha ha time to talk about my beloveds)

-space pinball <3

-"all of the enjoyment of cheating, without any of the risk--or reward--of cheating!"

-if you make a button labeled‏‏‎ ‎"trexel"‏‏‎ ‎that makes a hole for‏‏‎ ‎trexel‏‏‎ ‎to fall through, making it come out at the central distillery seems like an incredibly poor design choice.

-"y'what now?"

-trex's little identity crisis realizing that being an executive hasn't changed anything...him asking about how to feel less empty "for a friend"...the friend's name being hopwell heistham...the name hopwell heistham INSTANTLY freudian slipping into hopwell heistman...TREXEL‏‏‎ ‎HOPGEIST

-"...to me, david, you're like a pretty good scarf." again. not as sweet in context but i'll take it.

-trexel‏‏‎ ‎has someone he doesn't want to kill :) david trying to explain that maybe nobody deserves to get killed.........

-there's literally a song in‏‏‎ ‎crazy‏‏‎ ‎ex‏‏‎ ‎girlfriend about doing one decent thing and deciding you're a good person now. it's called "i'm a good person." one of my friends put it in his‏‏‎ ‎trexel‏‏‎ ‎playlist

-oh NOW we're bringing back the moral ranking scale of episode 38??? my dear departed episode 38 that has never been relevant since because this show likes to hurt me???? you know what???? i'll take it. better late than never.

-yeah okay. emotions about trexel's‏‏‎ ‎parental neglect and the one group of people he's attached to being called the grand mum guild and the fact that that group's main goal is just to lovingly knit warm clothes. the emotions are here.

-TREXEL‏‏‎ ‎WANTING A REVOLUTION!!!‏‏‎ ‎TREXEL REVOLTING AGAINST STELLAR FIRMA!!! immediately going down the "kill everyone" route BUT IT'S OKAY, THEY'RE GONNA WORK TOGETHER, THEY'RE GONNA WORK TOGETHER

-imogen's been listening to them the whole time and is putting Actual Effort into not getting them killed. she acts like she hates them sooooo much but we all know the truth babe (says me, the hypocrite)

-amazing how‏‏‎ ‎trexel‏‏‎‏‏‎ ‎is capable of understanding complex marxist concepts on every level except a realistic one where they could be applied to his actual life. he loves his fake little theories.

-trexel‏‏‎ ‎gamer geistman and his brief speedrun

-"trains are like planes, but on the ground. planes are like trains, except they've got wings."

-t. hold on

-trexel‏‏‎ ‎forgoing being dropped into the alcohol distillery pit...because he'd rather discuss. david's plan. for revolution.

-he forgoes DRINKING to let HIS FRIEND DISCUSS A SHARED PASSION.

-"because the unchecked power that the board has over you is in the same vein...that the board has over everyone...and i'm one of those people...and so maybe i should care about it DAVID, DAVID I THINK IT HAPPENED"

-"i think i've got perspeeect-- *gags* --i think i've got perspeeeective on the situation which has allowed me to garner some s...symp....ath...y??"

-HOLY SHIT

-HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT‏‏‎

-on every level except physical i have a tail and it is wagging so hard right now. his redemption arc is happening his redemption arc is HAPPENING please don't let this get fucked up next week please. please. please. if i thought i had a dumb little crush on this moron before i've just been clocked over the head with a twenty ton bag of feelings.

-according to‏‏‎ ‎atla fans apparently‏‏‎ ‎there was some episode where‏‏‎ ‎zuko did a good thing and immediately got ill with a fever afterwards. that's this. this is that.‏‏‎ ‎trexel has to leave as soon as he finishes talking because he and david are both panicking and he feels sick.

-david refusing to even think about what just happened and instead just playing more pinball. king.

-deep breath. in conclusion. 🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💞💓💗❤️ starts crying

#time to think about kissing him for a week and feel way less bad about it than normal.#you GO david!!! it only took you 73 episodes but you radicalized him!!#definitely in my top 3 episodes. it's something like 38 55 and this one.#nyx's sf spam #scheduled this to post at the same time as all of those ask games accidentally so i'm moving it.

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totallypathet · 5 years ago

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Episode Six

Okay first of all, massive spoiler warning!!

Snaaaaaaatch gaaaaaaame!!! I love snatch game. It's such a good opportunity to shine, and be hilarious, and show us what you can do! It's also the challenge queens have the most time to prepare for, so it's always interesting to see who actually comes prepared...

Also, the runway this week was incredible! I think it's been the best week so far for runway looks, so many of them were sooooo stunning! Who knew that a Frozen theme would bring out the best of the season so far??

Okay, let's get into the breakdown.

1. Aiden Zhane

Oh my god. I am so so so so so so so so glad to see Aiden finally fucking LEEEEEEAVE. It's been a journey guys, but we got here. I am so excited not to have to see that little black wig anymore. Honestly, there was nothing good about her performance this week. I was actually really excited to see someone do Patricia Quinn, it's cool seeing people do references that I hadn't even thought of and salute older parts of LGBTQ history. The reality, though, made me want to jump off a building. It was sooo cringy and sad. There was nothing Patricia about it, she didn't even bother doing the accent. How are you gonna stand in the work room and say "oh I know her, I had lunch with her" and deliver a performance like that?? And also, every question she was just like "I don't even know where I am am!" And it's like... dementia isn't funny. It was just hard to watch.

Her runway was, I think, the best she's ever looked. The wig was still shaky af, but her makeup was really pretty, and her padding was really good. The dress was lovely, but it wasn't very...creative. It was just a blue dress, and the yeti concept was only done from the neck up. It kind of felt like she went to the competition with just the dress, then she saw what everyone else was putting on and was like "oh damn I've got to make a concept out of this somehow!"

Also that lipsync though... it was like watching Vivienne Pinay and Honey Mahogany again, let's just say that.

Tl;dr: she deserved to go, and I'm glad to see her go.

2. Brita

Brita, Brita, Brita. Still bitter af. All she does is talk shit on other people and like...maybe if you stayed in your lane and focused on what you were doing, you wouldn't be in the bottom all the time? Just a thought. Shes another one where it felt like she just didn't do enough research on her character. It's so disappointing, and kinda inexcusable - you know what's coming, you have so much time to prepare and you still don't bother? I don't care for that kind of attitude. Also if she mentions that she won Entertainer of the Year one more time I'm gonna lose my mind. I don't care that you won it! Show me why you won it! Show me why you deserve to win this! I just haven't seen anything from Brita that I've enjoyed. I'm disappointed and underwhelmed.

Her look on the runway was also a bit underwhelming, it was a pretty gown, but it was almost and exact copy of Eureka's glitter look. That comparison has been made already, but it's true. We've seen it, why would you bring a copy of a gown from just 2 seasons ago? Underwhelming.

Her lipsync was also not that good, but she was against Aiden, so of course she won. Excited to see her go next week though!

3. Crystal Methyd

Whew, Crystal was a rollercoaster this week! Poppy was a really tough choice. I didn't know who she was at all, but I looked up a few videos of her after the episode and now I get what Crystal was going for. She actually did a fairly good job of what she was going for, but it just wasn't the right character for snatch game. We all know RuPaul has very simple humour, anything big, slapstick, edgy, all that stuff. The humour Crystal was going for could have been really funny (if I knew more about Poppy, that's on me), but RuPaul was never going to get it. And also, she was trying to do a robotic character like 2 seats down from Gigi, who was also doing a robotic character and killing it, so that's an extra level of difficulty.

Having said all of that. Crystal. Was the best. On. The. Runway. That outfit was incredible! And her makeup was so stunning! And the hair was perfect with it! She absolutely killed that runway, and I was gagged by it. Crystal has turned out so many looks, and I Love It. That runway 100% saved her from the bottom 2 and I could not be happier about it. So proud of her.

One other thing though, I am so bored of the El DeBarge thing. Move on, Ru. Crystal is far far more than a mullet.

4. Gigi Goode

Gigi is an absolute powerhouse this season. Her choice to play a robot was bold, but I live a queen with confidence. And she was confident, she knew what she was doing, she did her research, and she killed the snatch game. I'm so proud of her. One thing I will say, I swear they called the robot Maria, but I thought that human looking AI robot was called Sophia? Maybe there was a copyright issue. Anyway, her performance was so hilarious! The struggling with the cards, the calling everyone a bitch, the mispronouniation of vagina, I loved it all. She came with references, she came prepared, and I stan.

Her look was really great, but I almost feel like it was a little repetitive? I don't know, I just feel like I wasn't surprised by it. It was cute, it was perfectly fitted, there were really gorgeous little details about it, but it was the shape and style I expected from her. Maybe it's because she's set the bar so high leading up to this point, I was just a bit "meh" with her look this week.

She still fully deserved to win, and she did a fantastic job this week.

4. Heidi N Closet

Heidi also did a good job this week. Her Leslie Jones was a safe performance, she made me laugh, she had the look down, I was not at all mad at it. Was it perfect? No. Was it good? Absolutely. I enjoyed it. I'm glad she didn't do Phaedra Parkes. I really don't enjoy when Ru tries to change their characters in the walk through. They've brought information, and references, and preparation (most of them); and you want them to throw all that away and do someone else just because you think so? No. I will grant that sometimes Ru points them in the right direction when they're choosing between 2 characters - but I don't like when he just pulls a character out of nowhere for them.

Heidi's look was also really great; she was giving me 2018 Met Gala Rihanna but in Winter. Her makeup was stunning, she looked so pretty. The only thing I didn't love was the shoes. I kind of wish she'd just gone for a white or silver pump. The fur was too much for me.

Good week for Heidi, definitely a safe performance, I'm glad for her.

5. Jacki Cox

Jackie 👏 came 👏 prepared 👏 I have never watched Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, I was only vaguely aware of Lisa Rinna nefore the snatch game, but I still found her performance so funny! She looked just like her, she sold me who Lisa Rinna was really quickly, so I was able to laugh at the rest of her jokes. I didn't specifically know Lisa Rinna, but we all know a woman like that, so I could still get the humour. I might not have caught all the references, but it was still funny. That's how you play snatch game. You need to be able to make people laugh even if they don't know who you're actually portraying. I absolutely loved Jackie this week.

Her runway look was also stunning! I loved the snowflake, I loved her makeup, and I adored her hair. Jackie is so good at serving something so different every week but still sticking to her brand and her signature. I love Jackie.

6. Jaida Essence Hall

Jaida's Cardi B was really good! She looked just like her, sounded just like her, had her humour down... absolutely solid performance from Jaida.

Her look this week was also soooo beautiful! She's such am absolutely stunning queen, her makeup skills are incredible, she knows her body, she knows what suits her, and she rocks it every week.

The only thing for me with Jaida is I feel almost a little...disconnected from her. I just don't feel like I've seen the vulnerability from her like we've seen from Heidi, or Jackie. And that doesn't mean I want her to tell some horrific story from childhood, I just mean that when we see her she's always on, yknow? And I get that it's a tv show, and a competition show at that; I just wish we could see her humanity a little bit. Having said that, I totally get that queens of colour (and particularly black queens) get so much hatred from the drag race fandom, and I completely understand that it would be difficult to open up and be vulnerable after seeing what other black queens have been through during and after the show.

Nevertheless, she is utterly incredible and so deserving of a top spot. She's a real contender for winner of season 12.

7. Jan

I love Jan. I love her so much. Shes so excited to be there, she's working so hard, and I appreciate it so much. Her Bernadette Peters was not great. Or maybe it was, I have no idea who she is. And she didn't sell me, like Jackie did. It was kind of a shame. I feel like Jan has the talent to have done almost anyone, and she just picked someone that I feel like took too much explaining. Still a solid performance - for me she was on a level with Heidi. Solid performance, solid runway, good week.

I did like Jan's runway look more than Heidi's though, I loved the concept. Jan is another one who has pulled out something very different every week, but still stays distinctly Jan. I love her makeup as well! Jan doesn't get enough recognition for her makeup skills, she's really talented, she paints beautiful faces, and is not afraid to get artistic and high fashion.

8. Widow Von Du

I love Widow so much, but everything she did this week was just slightly off. I thought her Ike & Tina performance was actually a bit of a shame, I think she focused too much on having a gimmick that her performance suffered. The thing about switching characters in snatch game is that both characters have to be really good (and equally good), otherwise it just feels a little messy. Her performances just weren't quite there this week. I wish she'd just picked one and spent a little more time perfecting it.

Her runway also wasn't quite there. I loved the concept, she did something so different from everyone else, and I love when queens pull off a standout look. Her makeup and the ice on her face was also incredible, she honestly has the most beautiful face. I just wish that dress had hit the floor. I wish the skirt had been a little more full (maybe more petticoats?), and it had hit the floor. Widow does have this awful habit of wearing ugly shoes - and if the gowns hit the floor it just wouldn't matter. It was a shame.

Still a solid week and a decent performance, don't get me wrong; I just keep wishing for her to really pull it out and succeed, and she's just slightly missing the mark for me at the moment.

Okay, now I'm gonna say something kind of controversial about this season; I wish Jan, Jackie, and Widow weren't on it. I wish they were on next season. I'm saying that because I think they're all so incredible, and I think they all could potentially win a season - if they weren't on with Gigi Goode and Sh***y P**. Gigi has been so unstoppable, and I love her, but she's kind of overpowering, and I really want to see someone other than her (or Sh***y P**) win a challenge. I mean, it's no secret that Sh***y P** was pre selected to be top 4, and this season has been geared towards her, so of course she's been winning challenges. It just has almost become like a 2 person competition, and it's a shame! Because there's so many other queens who deserve wins, and deserve recognition, and they're not getting it because the top 2 is like always those 2. I'm not mad at Gigi, bc she's slaying the competition and she's working really hard; I just feel like there's been seasons where Jackie, Jan, or Widow would have absolutely killed it and won, but this season they're just not getting the recognition they deserve. Just my opinion!

#drag race #drag race spoilers #rpdr12 #rpdr spoilers #aiden zhane #brita #crystal methyd #gigi goode #jackie cox #jaida essence hall #Jan #jan sport #widow von du

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arlingtonpark · 5 years ago

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SNK 127 Review

0/10 This chapter sucks. Continuity is dead.

In my last post I said if we got flashbacks, it’d be damage control for the last chapter. I was right.

The first couple of scenes in this chapter are clear attempts to clean up the last one’s mess. We never saw Jean and Mikasa make contact with Hange, and here, we do.

Honestly, I think this could’ve been handled better.

Jean had something of an arc in chapter 126, where it seemed like he genuinely had chosen to follow Floch, only it turns out he was working with Hange all along. So I get why these scenes are presented out of order. It’s an attempt at dramatic tension.

It fails, though, because not enough time was devoted to showing Jean working with Floch. Jean stood next to Floch in some scenes. That’s it.

Let this be a lesson to aspiring writers everywhere. If you want to do a story arc, or even just a mini-arc, make sure you have the time for it. If you can’t spare the time to do it justice, it’s better to just cut it completely.

Hange’s character is much better served this chapter. I forgot to mention this last time, but Hange’s character was screwed over pretty hard last time.

Her arc has been about growing into her new role as commander. She failed to constrain Eren, and Floch, and everything’s gone to shit in general, and she doubts her own leadership.

Then, after escaping the Yeagerists with Levi, Hange considers just walking away and living out in the woods.

They chose not to.

This is a major turning point for her character. She’s beaten down and has a chance to walk away, but she gets back up.

This major plot beat has maybe a few panels devoted to it. At most.

We don’t see the choice get made. In fact, it’s kind of implied that Hange didn’t consciously make that choice at all. Hange is building a cart to lug Levi around, and he notes that Hange’s doing that because they can’t stay on the sidelines.

Was Hange building the cart because they’d already decided they weren’t quitting?

Or were they going to use that cart to carry Levi to the eventual site of their woodland hut?

Was Levi just pointing out that Hange is doing what they’ve always done?

Or did what he say convince them in some way?

Who knows, because chapter 126 is still a rushed mess on every level.

Whatever Hange’s motivations or line of thinking, it should have been shown during the scene in the woods, when it happened, not in this flashback to a completely different scene.

Character development happens when characters make revealing choices. Showing the character’s motivation separately from the resultant action dilutes the poignancy of that character development.

It’s actually worse than that because not only was Hange’s thought process shown after the fact for no reason, the moment the choice itself was made is not shown at all.

The moment where Hange is surrounded by the ghosts of her fallen comrades would’ve been sooooo much better if it had been in the forest with Levi. It should have been in the forest with Levi.

Hange already chose what they were going to do, so there is no gravitas to this moment. It’s just exposition. This could have been a powerful moment. Instead, it’s just Hange monologuing about their motivation.

When the same happened with Erwin, we saw his struggle as it was happening. We were in the moment, so we felt the weight of Erwin’s struggle. He was bearing out his feelings, agonizing over having to throw his life away unfulfilled.

In 127, Hange is sitting in a chair, explaining her thinking, agonizing over nothing because she’s already decided to throw her life away, and is apparently already at peace with it.

This is what damage control looks like. Isayama fucked up and he’s trying to make up for it.

And even then, we still don’t have the explanations we badly need.

Why did Annie choose to help? She’s not doing this because it’s the right thing to do, she just wants to see her father again.

How did they convince her that they could deliver on that?

It’s the same with Pieck and Magath. They didn’t want to just do nothing, but what convinced them that this was better than doing nothing?

Mikasa asked Hange what the plan was, and their response was basically, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

So in other words, they have no plan!

Jean raises a good point about stopping Eren: it’s a death sentence for them. Hange’s only retort is that it’s the right thing to do, so they have to do it. This is great.

Genocide is inherently wrong, thus the answer to genocide is not more genocide. With this many lives involved, tit-for-tat is not acceptable.

In some cases, there may have to be retaliation, but there are always limits. These moral limits have a general applicability to them. Of course there are exceptions, but they apply in almost all cases.

I love how Hange explicitly rejects Eren’s dumbass egoist worldview.

“‘Just bringing freedom to this island is enough for me’ Do you think a single one of them would be so narrow-minded as to say that?”

Eren doesn’t just care about Paradis. He doesn’t care about the outside world.

He seemed torn about whether to rumble the world. And he did cry over having to potentially rumble the refuge camp.

Gather around, children, because I have some very mean things to say about Eren here: let me tell you something about crocodile tears.

Crocodile tears are when you feel sad for something, except it’s fake, because deep down, you don’t care. The expression comes from an ancient legend that crocodiles cry for their prey while eating them.

Eren agonized a lot in the lead up to making his decision.

-rolls eyes-

What a drama queen!

Rumble the world, or not? If you have to take time to decide which is right, you’ve already failed.

Eren never truly cared about the outside world. He’s just doing this to bring freedom to Paradis; the lives of everyone else is a nonfactor.

It’s great to see Eren finally getting the dragging he deserves. He is, in fact, a narrow-minded ass.

Jean’s point still stands, though. And even though Eren is obviously indefensible, people still keep making excuses for him.

Hange says their “cowardly idealism” is what pushed Eren to do this. Note that this is the second time they’ve said this.

Uh, what?

Was making reasonable overtures of peace to the outside world cowardly?

Obviously not.

Establishing relations with other countries? That sounds reasonable.

Making contact with pro-Eldian advocacy groups? That sounds reasonable.

What about this is cowardly?

And what’s so idealistic about hoping for peace when there are possible paths to it?

Hange did nothing wrong. Eren is the one who did everything wrong.

Eren’s friends were actually working on a solution. They were trying to make a lasting peace between the Eldians and the world.

Meanwhile Eren was just bumming around not doing anything!

Could there have been a peaceful solution?

Beats me, but I’m not going to spend any thought on coming up with one.

By now, I think it’s clear that the point is that there is no peaceful solution. We saw Paradis try and fail repeatedly. The story in general has not even entertained a possible, peaceful solution.

Creating a Wall Titan “nuclear umbrella” over Paradis won’t work. Eren will be dead in a few years, and they don’t want to continue the Reiss’s gruesome traditions.

Armin’s idea of a targeted rumbling won’t work either because it’ll only increase the world’s resentment towards Paradis.

The point is that sometimes peace isn’t possible, but also that excessive violence isn’t justified. I don’t know how the story will end, but I don’t think it’ll be a happy one.

It’s always uncomfortable whenever the series talks about history and playing the victim. It’s such an obvious commentary on Japanese politics, I cringe every time.

Past Japanese war crimes are a very big factor in Japan’s relations with its neighbors. China and the Koreas are still indignant over the crimes Japan committed, and they feel the Japanese haven’t been apologetic enough.

Paradis is obviously a mirror of Japan.

Island nation with a sordid past that leads to rocky international relations even today. That’s Paradis and Japan.

The series’ stance is that these past events should not be such an issue anymore.

That’s not wrong…but I have a reservation.

The biggest flaw with the Paradis-Japan connection is that the Eldian Empire ended thousands of years ago.

The Japanese Empire ended 75 years ago. That’s not much.

China does overplay the war crimes issue, but there are still real issues with how the Japanese have responded. Many Japanese people are still taught a cleaned up version of what happened.

If anything, China should be called out on abusing the issue of war crimes for political reasons. Their government uses it as propaganda to rally popular support and distract from domestic issues.

In Attack on Titan, the Marleyans are not called out for that. They’re called out for playing victim over something that happened 2000 years ago.

The Marleyans, used by the story as a clear parallel to Japan’s neighbors, are portrayed as in the wrong because “it was a long time ago.”

Let me tell ya, that’s not a good look. What we see in the story is just close enough to reality to draw comparisons, but just different enough to be arguably offensive.

I will say it’s nice to know what Isayama thinks on a given issue. Annie calls out Mikasa and Armin on not being prepared to kill Eren if they have to. She aks how they know he’ll even listen to them.

Armin: we won’t know until we try.

Brilliant.

You can tell who’s side Isayama is on whenever the characters argue because the side he’s against will be the one with the dumb platitudes.

Mikasa: How are you going to stop Eren?

Hange: We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Annie: How do you know talking will work?

Armin: We won’t know until we try.

Then…stuff happens.

Annie claims Mikasa will fight her if Annie tries to kill Eren, even if Annie’s just trying to defend her homeland.

Then Mikasa draws her swords for no reason, and Annie looks like she’s about to titan shift for no reason, then…Annie backs off for no reason.

There were definitely some plot beats missing here. Annie instantly goes from getting ready to shift to backing off. What happened?

And why did she back off? Her point still stands. She said Mikasa would fight her if she tried to kill Eren and Mikasa did not deny it.

The only plans of attack discussed have been (1) talking Eren down, and (2) killing him. It looks like they’re going with plan (1) now, but Mikasa is clearly not going to let Annie go through with plan (2) if (1) fails.

That’s a pretty important issue. And Annie raised it herself, only to just drop it for no reason.

Why does Annie think her time is better spent here than on a boat heading to the mainland?

Getting to her father in time to die with him sounds a lot likelier than stopping Eren, especially when killing him isn’t an option.

And then we come to Yelena.

You know, actually, this chapter has a lot of the same problems the last one did. Lots and lots of rushed plot beats that should have been fleshed out more.

One of the dumbest tropes in fiction is when a character looks into another character’s past off screen, learns sordid things about them, then exposition dumps about it.

Oh, look, this chapter exists.

This is lazy, lazy writing. Instead of a flashback montage with narration, we get some word balloons.

Why is this happening? Anything would have been better than this. There could have been a few more pages devoted to this. He at least could have come up with a better way to deliver this information.

Is Isayama just that dead set on finishing this manga before 2021?

Then Yelena delivers a monologue of her own. I can only assume that it is stupid on purpose.

Speeches like this have been given before in Attack on Titan. Annie gave one in her arc.

“You think you’re better than me?! Well you’re not! You’re a shithead just like me!”

-Annie, basically.

Kenny gave a similar one too. He said that everyone is a slave to something, even mother’s to their children. Then he asked Levi if he really thinks he’s so virtuous and then he died.

I mean, I don’t know what you’d call someone who, all else being equal, fought for the sake of their children if not a “hero”.

Yelena’s speech is dumb and that’s the point. It’s drivel that sounds smart, but is really just edgelord crap.

“You give yourselves to the sublime excitement that is the idea of saving hundreds of millions of lives.”

Christ, not this again!

Claiming good deeds aren’t really good because people do them to feel better about themselves is very common on the internet. You see it all the time on Reddit.

In fact, Yelena even says it like she’s trying to sound smart.

“The sublime excitement.”

-SIGH-

The problem with this reasoning is that it’s moving the goalposts. Yelena is redefining altruism and selfishness to get the result she wants.

You could think of many examples of people doing things that are obviously selfless.

Take a soldier. Let’s say their platoon is on patrol, and then the enemy tosses a grenade at them. The soldier dives on top of the grenade and shields his platoon from the explosion. But obviously, he dies.

That was selfless.

-puts on crazy, blonde, mop-top-

HOWEVER!

WHAT IF SHE SACRIFICED HERSELF BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO BE REMEMBERED AS A HERO?

DID YOU EVER THINK OF THAT!?

Shut up I know this actually did happen in this manga that’s not the point.

Yelena has redefined selfishness to cover everything people do, and at that point, the word becomes useless. She’s wrong because when you think about it, “selfish” is a meaningless word in her worldview.

Yelena then proceeds to list off all the bad things everyone’s done, as if they’re all to blame for it.

Annie did awful things, I won’t argue against that. And she doesn’t seem very apologetic about it, so Yelena actually has a point there.

She also has a good point with Armin. Destroying the port was excessive, especially since it never ended up helping in the end. The port was destroyed to delay a Marleyan attack. Too bad the Marleyans just attacked via airship instead.

Reiner broke the wall, but despite what the man himself says, he was still just a brainwashed kid at the time. I don’t think it’s entirely right to blame him. He’s very apologetic about it, either way.

The Battle of Liberio never should have happened, but the Survey Corps was forced into it by Eren and they did what they could to limit civilian casualties.

It’s the same with Jean and Falco. Jean almost killed Falco, but only because Falco got in the way. That’s on him. Not. Jean.

Gabi killed Sasha, but it was a battle! Wars are ultimately fought to the death. If you go into the military and don’t expect to die, you’re clueless. There was no foul play with how Gabi killed Sasha. She boarded their airship, and shot her. That’s war.

She wants to believe that these people are just as bad as she is. Because if everyone is a piece of shit, then she isn’t so bad in comparison. It’s a common tactic people use to rationalize their own shitty behavior.

But she’s wrong, and they all prove her wrong. Jean can’t forgive Reiner, but he doesn’t let that get in the way of stopping Eren.

And no matter what Yelena says, it’s selfless what the 104th and Hange are doing. Long term, stopping Eren is a death sentence for them. They don’t care.

Leave it to Reiner to give the most Reiner response to Jean possible.

“I felt really bad about it afterwards.”

“Don’t forgive me. I don’t deserve it.”

“I’m sorry.”

That was the cringiest thing in the whole chapter. Good on you, Jean, for beating him for it.

(Not really)

This chapter was about everyone coming to terms with working together, but I feel it was half-baked.

Magath and Jean’s fight wasn’t really resolved, just dropped.

Annie and Mikasa’s fight was also just dropped.

None of the bad things Yelena brought up was commented on or dealt with. They weren’t dropped; they weren’t even taken up!

Reiner and Jean’s fight was properly dealt with, but that was it.

Now we’re heading into a fight with Floch and……I guess the emotional processing is over?

You know, I take it back, this chapter was better than the last one, but it still had a lot of the same blatant issues.

Rushed plot beats, unwieldy dialogue, and undercooked plot developments.

So.

On to the next chapter?

#shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk 127 #snk chapter 127 #spoilers

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ellsey · 5 years ago

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Agents of Shield Rewatch 2x03 Making Friends and Influencing People

I’m sad Whitehall lost his cool accent. I think bi/multilingual people should always have an accent as an unconscious way of bragging about how awesome they are.

Noooo Kara :( I’m so sad about what happened to here. She deserved better.

Real Simmons! This montage is so Jemma. Honestly if they had birds come out and help her dress I would have believed it.

“A breath of sunshine in an otherwise dreary morning.” Look, Theo gets it. He’s one of us. And he’d for sure ship Fitzsimmons...if he knew Fitz and didn’t actually work for Hydra...

Is Jemma Simmons the cutest Hydra agent ever?

I mean obviously.

May is a much better SO than Ward ever was.

Donnie! I didn’t miss you much actually cause you were kind of jerky to Fitz, but eh.

COULSON IS SUCH A DAD TAKING CARE OF HIS DAUGHTER WHILE SHE”S UNDERCOVER

This may be my favorite Jemma hair of all the seasons.

I appreciate that Coulson knows Jemma is asking about Fitz really, but Jemma’s sad face is the worst.

Honestly forcing Daisy to keep dealing with Ward is not nice. I know, it’s part of the job but still, Daisy has been through a lot with him bleh.

You can tell Jemma is using every bit of whatever training she got to keep her emotions in check.

“My loyalties are with science.” You’re the beeeeeeeeest.

Fitz knows something is up and the poor guy is correct.

This is very momentous to me when Fitz tells Imaginary Jemma that she is not there. Up until now he’s been using this illusion of her as a crutch to help him, but it hasn’t helped him heal. He hasn’t been able to move past what has happened. Allowing himself to say, “You’re not really here” is the first step in moving on and healing.

Fitz’s face when he sees Ward is the asset they’ve been hiding though...yikes.

Ward has ZERO RIGHT TO SAY ANYTHING TO FITZ.

Hunter talks about his ex a loooooooooooot for someone who’s supposed to be over her winky winky

“I’m damaged!” This is sooooo important for Fitz to say out loud because acknowledging this is also a way of moving forward. This is how he feels now, but he doesn’t have to always feel this way.

Also Ward completely deserves what FItz is doing to him and more.

Omg the look Daisy gives with Hunter says he’s not Scottish...hahaahaha

“Fitz is very hard to impress” I know what impresses him most though

It’s you Jemma

Man it would be super awkward if Hunter had managed to kill Fitz’s future wife without knowing it

You can tell Jemma feels super weird about contributing to Donnie’s brainwashing

Daisy and Jemma did some really good eye and brain communication there

LOOK AT MY CUTIES BEING ALL FRIENDLY I LOVE MY SHIELD FAM

May is such a proud mom right now

Well Fitz knows that Simmons is on assignment now, but he doesn’t seem that pleased about it

Ughhhhhhhhh Kara deserved better :(

Ward is being so gross with Daisy

This episode is definitely better than the last one. They racketed up the tension a great deal. Plus I love seeing the real Jemma again. This episode gets a 10 Undercover Jemmas out of 10 on the Undercover Jemmas Scale. I’ll also give it an 8 Brainwashed People out of 10 on the Brainwashed by Hydra scale.

The song for this episode is “Keep It Undercover” by Zendaya because I am clearly not above choosing Disney Channel show theme songs for these episodes. I’ve got a lot of episodes to get through y’all. But also I dare you to listen to this and tell me it’s not a bop.

youtube

#aosrewatch #aosrewatchs2 #earth vs space #team earth aos #jemma simmons #leo fitz #fitzsimmons #daisy johnson #melinda may #phil coulson #lance hunter #antoine triplett #alphonso mackenzie #grant ward #donnie gill #agent 33 #kara palamas #simon whitehall #other Hydra randos

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braincoins · 5 years ago

Note

For the prompt post: sunglasses, time, and path. Dunno about pairing, maybe from the last game you've played?

(( I mean... the last game I played was “Coloring Pixels” which is exactly what it sounds like, sooooo... how about some Dragon Age Warden stuffs instead? ))

“Ugh.” She looked over at the grunt and saw Alistair raising his hand to shield his eyes. “Why are we working on the west wall in the afternoon?”

“We’ve been working on the west wall all day,” she reminded him. It might seem strange to consider “helping with the reconstruction of Vigil’s Keep” a vacation, but compared to wrangling the backstabbing nobles, it definitely was. (Alistair working without a shirt was definitely a plus.)

“We should change walls,” he said. “The sun’s in my eyes.”

“So goes the passage of time,” she intoned. “Back to work.”

He pouted at her, she held firm despite how ridiculously cute he looked, and he finally got back to it. “You know, there should be a way to block the sun from reaching your eyes,” he said as he hefted stone about as if it were nothing more than a fat puppy (Note: put Sekh on diet). “Something you could put on like a blindfold, only you can still see.”

“If you want me to blindfold you, all you have to do is ask, ma vhenan,” she said cheerily.

“N-not that way!” But she noticed he paused to consider it for a moment, before shaking his head. “A-anyway, it has to prevent the bad light from reaching your eyes, but not the good light.”

“Bad light? Good light? Are you sure you didn’t hit your head?”

“Not today anyway,” he confirmed. “I really think I’m onto something here. OH! Like the eyeglasses that old scholars wear! You know those?”

“No.” She’d never heard of such a thing. At first, it had sometimes galled her to admit that she didn’t know something all the humans around her did; it made her feel as inferior as the bigots said she was. But, eventually, she’d realized that the Dalish weren’t ignorant so much as they possessed different knowledge. Her people were ahead of the shemlen in some ways, behind them in others, and vice versa. Shemlen and Dalish had walked different paths for a while now; it was no surprise that they effectively inhabited different lands of knowledge. And anyway, this was Alistair, who was sometimes as ignorant of human knowledge as she was. She had no qualms admitting she didn’t know these ‘eyeglasses’ of which he spoke.

“They’re like little circles of glass, with wire wrapped around them, and you can hook the wires over your ears so they stay on. And the glass is... well, I don’t know how they do it, but they help you see better when your eyesight’s failing.”

“Intriguing. Keep working,” because he’d stopped again in his enthusiasm over this strange idea of his.

He went back to his labor, but was still talking. “So if we could get eyeglasses but instead of fixing your eyesight they just block the bad sunlight, so you can work or fight or do whatever without being blinded... what an invention that would be! We’d call them... um.... ‘Bad Sunlight Blockers’!”

She chuckled. “If ‘eyeglasses’ fix eyesight, and these would fix the sunlight, shouldn’t they properly be ‘sunglasses’?”

“Ooooh, I like your name better.”

She set down the tools she was working with and stretched. “Well, I’ll tell you what. We have been out here all day, and it’s getting on in the day, as evidenced by the sun being in your eyes in the first place. Let’s just call it off for the rest of the day, hm?”

“Really? You’re going to let everyone off the hook this early?”

She shrugged. “They’ve worked hard; they deserve a break.” She whistled sharply and yelled out her command. “GOOD ENOUGH FOR TODAY, EVERYONE! BACK TO WORK TOMORROW!”

Amid the clatter and chatter of everyone heading back inside, she walked up to Alistair and leaned up to kiss him quickly. “Come on. Bath first,” she said, because he stunk (worse than usual) and she was sure she wasn’t much better. “And then we’ll see how inventive you are.”

He grinned and followed her.

#3 word prompt #Alistair/Warden #this is set in my Schism-verse post-Awakening #sometimes hard physical labor is better than dealing with whiny nobles #grunfunyarinpa

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fourteenacross · 6 years ago

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hadestown - 5/26/19, 3pm

We also saw Hadestown while we were in the city for Octet!

Sooooo, as I mentioned before, I saw Hadestown off-broadway at the NYTW in the spring of 2016. I had previously been familiar with the album, as Orpheus and Eurydice is a particular favorite myth of mine. I can't 100% remember, but I think that someone told me to listen to it when I was writing my X-Men Orpheus&Eurydice story? Either way, when we found out it was going to be playing while @pearlo was in town, we got tickets, along with @littledust and @anachronistique. And it was great!! I truly enjoyed it! I've been listening to bits of it regularly ever since! (Ish. There was like, a good eight months where all I listened to was podcasts, books, and Ghost Quartet.)

I'm saying all of this because this review is...pretty critical? And I want to make it clear that I do love this music and enjoy this show and I had a good time and I would recommend it, probably! But I wasn't as in love with the production as I was with the NYTW production for a few reasons that I'll get into below the cut.

So, usually I go song by song, but I feel like the things I have to say are largely broader than that, so I guess I'm just going to jump right in.

The cast is largely excellent. Patrick Page and Amber Gray could murder me and I'd be okay with it, tee bee aitch. Patrick Page does a thing with his face that just makes me cry, I don't know how he does it. Sorcery, probably. And Amber Gray is an actual goddess, for reals, how is she even real?

I loved Eva Noblezada's take on Eurydice! She had this sharp, broken energy to her that was truly incredible. She was like...spunky. And it was excellent.

I loved Andre De Shields' energy. His movement was unreal. His voice didn't work for me in places, but that could have just been the sound design of the show--there were bits where it was really hard for me to make out what he was singing.

Jewelle Blackman is AMAZING, as are Yvette Gonzales-Nacer and Kay Trinidad. They've really turned the Fates into a more menacing presence, and while I ADORE Lulu Fall and Shaina Taub and missed seeing them, I didn't MISS them, if that makes sense.

Reeve Carney. Oh. My dude. You are certainly a white boy with a guitar.

And here's where it really starts to break down for me. I have two major issues with the show, and the first one is that I find absolutely nothing exceptional in Reeve Carney. I cannot understand why this cagey, feisty girl who's been hurt before would throw everything in with this weirdo, IMMEDIATELY POSSESSIVE kid who's singing her a song? Lisa framed it as, "She's nineteen and she's literally never met a nice man before," and I can kind of see it through that lens, but I also don't think that's the lens that the show wants me to see it through. It wants me to frame this as a beautiful, epic love story, but I don't buy that she's in love with him. Maybe I'm too gay for it or maybe it's the writing or maybe it's the acting, but it doesn't connect for me, and once that connection is broken, the whole show sort of falls apart.

I don't recall having this problem with the NYTW version. It could be that since that version started with the two of them already in love, it was easier to wave it off as some off-stage wooing that already happened and accept that there were reasons they were together. It could have been that Nabiyah Be's Eurydice was a little softer and more naive. It could have been that I empathized more with Damon Daunno's Orpheus. Whatever it was, I found it much easier to accept that they were in love, which made Orpheus' neglect feel so much more painful and Eurydice's choice so much more desperate and all that followed so much more heartbreaking.

Basically, most of the stakes stop being so high if you don't buy into their love, which I just...did not.

My other major issue, to get that out of the way up front, is the pacing is still not great. Although I didn't write up notes after Hadestown in 2016 (I saw it literally hours before I saw Hamilton for the first time), I remember talking with my friends about how the beginning is very tight and the middle-to-end are kind of a mess and bloated. I didn't follow the show closely while it was out of town and I guess I kind of hoped that it would have been tightened up more, but no. It was not. It still feels very over-full and there's now this number where Orpheus gets beat up by the Hadestown workers that's like...comically over the top. In my heart, I really feel like this could be a one act show, or at least a two act show with much shorter acts. "Wait for Me" is SUCH a good act one finale, but you lose some of that energy moving to "Why We Build the Wall," which I think would work just as well as an opening to act two, as much as I love the way "Our Lady of the Underground" is staged.

Anyway, all that being said, I still enjoyed it and still cried, so what do I know, right?

Road to Hell: I liked this as an introduction overall, and loved the little intros for all of the characters. It really sold me on Andre De Shields, too, esp because I loved Chris Sullivan so much.

Any Way the Wind Blows: This is such a great song and god, I loved the way Eva played Eurydice. The candle thing was a nice touch.

Come Home With Me: I can't believe I'm supposed to care about this kid.

Wedding Song: I liked the new twist on this, although I think I like it better a more earnest song. Still, Eurydice using this to sort of mock Orpheus about being a broke artist was a cool twist and Eva sold it.

Epic I: This was fine. It's explained either here or earlier that spring and fall have more-or-less disappeared because Persephone is being forced to spend more time in the Underworld and is being brought back down sooner. The implication, as we get further along in the story, is that Hades doesn't know how to connect to Persephone any longer and is keeping her around more both a) as a show of power and b) because he doesn't know how else to express himself to her.

Livin’ It Up On Top: I would absolutely kill for Amber Gray. This version of Persephone is drinking to cope. A LOT. It paints this sad, lovely picture of what she's been feeling.

All I've Ever Known: I just do not buy that they're in love, sorry.

Way Down Hadestown: The staging and set of the show are fantastic. There's a panel at the center of the stage that rises and lowers as needed and the visual of Persephone and Hades, stony faced both, sinking back into the underworld is perfect.

A Gathering Storm: The through line about the weather mostly works for me, but honestly, I was so distracted by how annoyed I was at Orpheus during this number that I was pulled out of the moment.

Hey, Little Songbird: Skipping ahead a little, Patrick Page is perfect, in case you were wondering. I tweeted something like that after NYTW and he clearly found it in a vanity search and replied very humbly, which I find quite charming. But yes, I adore him.

When the Chips are Down: This is one of my favorite songs in this show and the Fates kill it here. Their slightly more sinister characterization makes it more haunting than taunting and I'm into it.

Wait For Me: The lighting in this number deserves a Tony all on its own. Jesus Christ, that's art. The set is also incredible. As Orpheus moves down into Hadestown, the stage splits apart from an intimate cafe into a larger, more industrial space. Very cool.

Why We Build the Wall: Again, Patrick Page is excellent. This works really well to pull Eurydice in, as well. We see her slowly starting to accept this way of thinking as she listens to Hades. And, of course, Persephone's act-ending line is perfect.

Our Lady of the Underground: Amber! Gray! Is! Wonderful!

Flowers: My actual favorite song in this show. Eva nails it, it was beautiful and poignant, on the heels of her slow realization that this isn't what Hades said it would be at all, that she's forgetting her name and who she is as she slowly is sucked into the capitalist machine.

Then in here is some more Orpheus stuff, including the ridiculous fight scene where he’s beat up by the workers?

There’s also this subplot that the workers think that if Orpheus can get out, they can get out too, so he’s leading like, a whole little revolution? Except that isn’t really expanded on at all and kind of falls away. It also, imo, takes these weird steps towards turning it into a different story than it is. If you’re pushing that it’s a love story, a love song, so much and then at the last minute paste on this “also a revolution is happening????” and then drop it for the emotional climax like...what are you doing, why is this here?

But also, there's this bit where Hades says "Have a drink!" to Persephone and she says something like "I'm done with that" and it is a real (pun not intended) sobering moment for the two of them. Ugh, I just really love them and the complexities of their relationship.

Epic: Patrick Page's face is very good at acting. The rest of him, too, I guess, but even from the cheap seats, I got SO worked up over Hades' quiet slip into acknowledging the despair that he feels over his inability to connect with Persephone. The guy on Naomi's other side was full on crying, even more than me. It was honestly glorious.

(I have a lot of thoughts about Hades and Persephone, and, to be honest, they’re my main draw to this show. I’m fascinated by their relationship here and the way it’s broken in a way they’re not quite sure how to fix. Against all odds, I’m rooting for them, I want it to work for them, if only because they both seem to remember this time when they were in love and nothing else mattered. I think that’s part of why the parts of this incarnation that don’t work for me...don’t work for me. I’m already more invested in Hades and Persephone than Orpheus and Eurydice, so when I have to work ten times harder to feel for their relationship, it just doesn’t seem worth it, especially next to one that I’m sucked into almost against my will.)

Doubt Comes In: I will give Reeve Carney this--despite knowing how this story was going to end, I still felt the creeping tension and dread in those moments leading up to him turning around. A woman behind Lisa said, "Oh no!" out loud, even.

Road to Hell (Reprise): And this is the other place where I cried, of all things! This number ends up being about how we know that this is a sad story and we know how it ends, but we keep telling it anyway, because that's what stories are there to do. I got weepy, who knows!

I Raise My Cup: So they moved this to after the curtain call??? I....don't know if it works like that, tee bee aitch.

ANYWAY, those are my thoughts, mostly I'm tired of typing this and the deadlines that I started writing it to avoid are looming, SO. I enjoyed it a lot, despite the things that bothered me, but I would probably not spend $150 to see it again. Rush tickets, maybe.

#show notes #tag two #tag three #tag four #tag five #hadestown

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zhouszishu · 6 years ago

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can you please explain how ningsang is ride or die?

honestly i feel like it’s obvious that they are ride or die if you watch the drama/read the book but i’ll indulge you since you’re giving me an excuse to write out all my feels and i just came back from watching into the spider-verse so i’m in a really happy mood lol (btw spider-verse was really very good i cried my little heart out like 4 different times but it was sooooooo good and miles morales is my son now and deserves a live action already @ marvel do better!!)

don’t expect this to be very coherent or organized lol i’m literally gonna word vomit all my feels so here goes; it’s under a cut because this got really ridiculously long. also beware of spoilers.

honestly i think from the very beginning when ning que finds sang sang in the pile of dead bodies is when the whole ride or die dynamic starts?? like he was only maybe 4-years-old if i remember correctly when he found her and he didn’t have to take her with him. he was only a child and already barely surviving but he did it anyway and basically took care of her from then on until she was old enough to help out and they started surviving together. (ugh i cry every time i think about their found family dynamic and how from the beginning it’s been them against the world and it’s still them against the world and it’ll always be them against the world because no on else could possibly understand what they’ve had to do in order to survive for as long as they did ughhhh my heart!!!!!!!!!)

when they were in the mountains, they were found by a hunter and taken in but the hunter didn’t treat them very well. the hunter abused them all the time and barely gave them enough to eat and was always threatening to sell sang sang off as a prostitute (sang sang was maybe about 4 or 5 at this point i think so you can imagine just how horrible this old man was). ning que by himself probably could have gotten away from the hunter and survived on his own but he wouldn’t leave sang sang behind so the two of them endured all the abuse until they couldn’t anymore. they killed the hunter together and ran away. they continue to survive in the wilderness after that until coming to wei city and live there until what we meet them at the start of the drama when the princess comes and they make their way to chang’an.

and idk in general there’s just been so many moments where you can see how protective they are of each other. sang sang gets so very defensive of ning que and ning que really would murder anyone who tries to hurt sang sang. like we can see from that scene with long qing at the banquet, ning que got really fired up once long qing suggested that ning que give him sang sang. before any attention was put on sang sang, ning que was just annoyed at long qing by how arrogant he was (and probably because sang sang said long qing was handsome before that lmaoooo but that’s just ning que being a dumb teenage boi who hasn’t yet realized his changing feelings for sang sang) but as soon as they came for sang sang, hoooooooo boy, ning que really came for long qing’s life and humiliated him in front of everyone at the banquet.

and then we have ning que basically asking every single person he knew to look after sang sang for him before he left to the wilderness. he couldn’t bear to leave her behind but he had to so this was the only way he knew how to protect and look after her from afar. ALSO THAT SCENE IN THE DRAMA WHERE THE PRINCE WAS HARASSING SANG SANG?? AND NING QUE HAD HIM IN A CHOKE HOLD?? AND ONLY DIDN’T MURDER THAT IDIOT RIGHT THEN AND THERE WAS BECAUSE HE KNEW IT WOULD BRING THEM A LOT OF TROUBLE IF HE MURDERED ROYALTY??? BUT HONESTLY IF NING QUE DIDN’T HAVE TO HOLD BACK THAT PRINCE WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD IN A SECOND. LIKE HOW DARE YOU COME AFTER MY SANG SANG?? GOD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

and like the entire time ning que was in the wilderness, despite his budding feelings towards mo shan shan, he still spent so much time thinking about sang sang and just missing her and home. like hello, SANG SANG WASN’T NING QUE’S LIFELINE. SANG SANG WAS NING QUE’S LIFE. which are his thoughts immediately after another confrontation with long qing. at this point, ning que the shameless boy that he is, was hiding behind mo shan shan and not willing to fight long qing because his first instinct is survival. he knew he wasn’t as powerful as long qing and if they fought, he probably would die. long qing obvi wasn’t gonna let ning que get away that easily so he brought up the only thing, only PERSON, that he knew would get to ning que and provoke him into taking basically a life or death bet with long qing about cultivating or whatever (i forget the details i was too caught up in all my ningsang feels during this part lol) was sang sang. and guess what?? IT WORKED NING QUE WAS READY TO FIGHT LONG QING AND MURDER HIM FOR THREATENING SANG SANG AGAIN

also when ning que finally comes back from the wilderness, he was sooooo eager to finally be home again, soooooo eager to finally see sang sang again because he doesn’t eat or sleep well when he’s away from her LIKE WOW WHAT A DORK HOW DO YOU NOT REALIZE YOU’RE IN LOVE YET. AND THAT MOMENT WHEN NING QUE REALIZES THAT SANG SANG RAN AWAY?? YOU KNOW WHAT HIS THOUGHT WAS?? THAT IF HE COULDN’T FIND SANG SANG AND BRING HER BACK, THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF LIVING??? HE LITERALLY CANNOT LIVE WITH OUT HER BECAUSE SHE’S HIS LIFE AHAHAHAH MY HEART!!!!!!!!

as for sang sang, in the drama we have a moment where she explicitly says that she wouldn’t know what to do if ning que died when she was taking care of him when he got really sick from reading all those books in the academy. also in the book, the main reason why sang sang decides to become wei guang ming’s disciple is because she realizes that if she were to practice the divine light of haotian or whatever, she could then protect ning que in the same way he’s been protecting her all their lives. i think her thoughts were something along the lines of being able to kill people as well lmaooo we all stan such a ruthless power couple I LOVE IT.

and then there’s the part where fu zi confines ning que to the back of the mountain for very important cultivating reasons or whatever (lmao sorry i really don’t remember specifics because highkey my brain only remembers parts of the novel to do with ningsang) because ning que joined the devil. sang sang didn’t have to stay with ning que, but girl was not about to let her boyfriend/fiance/life-partner/honestly at this point who knows anymore all we know is that they’re gonna be together forever, go through this hardship alone so she goes back there with him as well.

AND LET’S TALK ABOUT HOW SANG SANG DOESN’T EVEN BLINK AT THE FACT THAT NING QUE JOINED THE DEVIL??? SHE DOESN’T CARE BECAUSE NO MATTER WHAT HE’S STILL THE NING QUE SHE KNOWS AND LOVE AND HE WOULD NEVER HURT HER??? OH MY GOD MY FEELS I LOVE THEM SOSOSOSO MUCH. and by this point in the novel, soooooo many people have been suspecting that ning que is the son of yama but sang sang doesn’t care!! she’ll stick by him no matter what!!

OKAY FINALLY LASTLY when it’s revealed that actually sang sang is the child of hades, daughter of yama, whatever other way this gets translated as, ning que fights the whole world for her, pretty much almost literally. and now where the novel is translated up to, the two of them are still on the run and doing their best to survive while literally almost everyone (with very few exceptions) are out to kill them because ning que refuses to give sang sang up. WOW CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY INVENTED TRUE LOVE???

EDIT: I FORGOT THAT THE BOOK AND DRAMA HAS STATED AND SHOWN THAT SANG SANG IS NING QUE’S LIFE OBJECT LIKE WHAT MORE PROOF IS THERE THAT THEY’RE RIDE OR DIE MORE THAN THAT HAHAHAHA

LMAO OKAY I’M DONE CAN YOU BELIEVE THESE TWO OWN MY ASS SO HARD I WROTE A WHOLE ESSAY ABOUT THEM. anyways if you’ve made it this far, congrats and thanks for reading all my ramblings. feel free to come into my inbox to scream about them anytime!

#ever night #this answer got out of hand...#i'm sorry #can i show my prof this and get credit or something #this is a whole ass essay #anon #vivs answers

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borisbubbles · 6 years ago

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EUROVISION 2018 #5 & #4

05. SWITZERLAND ZiBBZ - “Stones” 32nd place

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~*Wild Jokah On A Gole Froam*~

Yanking away the top NQ slot in this year’s ranking is, of course, everybody’s favourite Sibling alliance, ZiBZZ!!

As you know, I looooooooove mental health awareness songs, and I particularly love those with approaches that work (*cough* NOT “Goodbye” *cough*). While most of these songs are doused in motherly, cloddlesome tones, “Stones” doesn’t beat around the bush and argues that one must confront their fears HEAD-ON.

To transliterate the (ridic, amusing) lyrics into Common English:

“People have always been shitbags and have treated others like crap for aeons and there’s nothing I can do about it because people won’t fucking change.. SO fucking WHAT? Why would let those assholes affect my present and future the same way they’ve influenced my past? Fuck that noise. It’s time to let the inner demons rest, grow as a person AND help others get out of the deep end while doing so.”.

Holy fuck what an epic Truth BOMB, I can relate to all of that scalding hot tea. The best way to get around depression, anger and frustration *is* to 1) remove you from the toxic environment 2) find kindred spirits and support each other 3) find the courage to leave your past behind and build a future for yourself. Mental health is a BATTLEFIELD that HITS YOU with its best shots (did I just ref Pat Benatar twice? 🤭) while you’re struggling and “Stones” acklowedges this reality so hard. About fucking time someone lit the flares of ferocity to stand up against BULLYING and HATE. ALL HAIL COCO the ZiBB, FIRST OF HER NAME, THE UNDUN, MOTHER OF FLARES, KHALEESI OF THE DOWNTRODDEN, NON-THROWER OF STONES, BREAKER OF TABOOS, QUEEN OF THE HURT, TORMENTED AND BROWBEATEN.

Ain’t the only one who don’t wanna throw stooooooooooones

But of course, message alone isn’t enough to get such a high ranking, but fortunately ZiBBZ delivered musically as well. “Stones” has the perfect type of melody for Eurovision: catchy, repetitive and accessible, but never boring or tiresome because the arrangement was spot.fucking.on. The horns and tuba’s give the music so much gravitas, the backing AHEMs are excellent and CoCo’s five-packs-a-day type of gravelly voice adds so much realness to the song. "Stones” as a whole is jarring and complex and succeeds at elliciting the emotional response it aims for. This is my favourite song of the 42, by no small margin.

And then there’s the staging, which... I have mixed feelings about, not gonnal ie. It saddens me that even at this high a rank I must again resort to critique. I mean, the ACT was great. That motherfuckin’ flare is one of the few goosebump moments I got from this year, Coco is Minerva in a hipster body, Stee is a lovable goof, but... you have this amazing, dynamic song that is capable BLOWING EVERYONE AWAY and it kinda... doesn’t?

I would say that “Stones” was mostly hampered by its camerawork, which was mostly AWFUL. Which idiot [Hans Pancake 🙄] is responsible for framing such a powerful, uptempo song with slow, drawn-out shots?

I mean, shots such as this one:

(why didn’t they just focus on Stee??? or the audience?)

and that one:

(You can clearly see Coco throwing away a drumstick at the start of the preformance... Why the faraway shots?? Why no close-ups when she’s drumming happening???? NO ONE CARED ABOUT SANNA’S LIGHT CAGE SO WHY WOULD THEY START CARING NOW??? (seriously, fuck you Hans Culpepper))

This is the reason why “Stones” failed to ensnare the audience’s attention. Wrong people with the right to stage and ZiBBZ can’t do anything about it. I chose to not take it into account when I decided on their final ranking, but it’s sooooo frustrating to see Switzerland FINALLY strike the motherload and fall flat because of some moronic cinematographic decisions. Now watch Switz pick something mediocre and be overrated by the Basics/NQ once again (lol I say this without having listened to the Swiss songs, but can you blame me?). Oh well, ZiBBZ have since moved on to better things -

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- and so should we :). Still praying they pull a Poli in five years or so. THE WORLD NEEDS IT

04. SLOVENIA Lea Sirk - “Hvala, ne!” 22nd place

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Damn’ this is such a tough decision. Cutting entries loose at this point really hurts y’all.

So as you know, I really, REALLY fucking love Lea Sirk and even said that, in the unlikely event that she qualified, she’d WIN the ranking. However, while I am probably obliged by contract to grant her the first place, I can honestly say that... I like my top three more? Lea could have easily won this ranking, had my opinions on Elina, DoReDos and Ieva stayed the same; but they didn’t (they went up obvi), so here we are. The above paragraph is just a disclaimer to explain why Slovenia don’t rank higher than they do, because holy fuck this "Hvala, ne!” was awesoooooooooome. Anti-establishmentarian trap-pop that was a shock qualifier and made a flashy gimmick work TWICE <3 There’s a reason why the Good Gays Fanbase (do I include myself in that? hmmm 🤔) have nicknamed it “Hvala Slay!”.

But first, (-- Julie Chen-Moonves) let’s discuss the PHENOMENON that is Lea Sirk. My love for her predates this contest by several years, from the time when I only knew her as the botty cyborg sidekick to the heiress of the Ravenclaw Empire herself, Tinkara Kovac.

“KEN U BEE-LIEF ET???”

who happens to be *my* fave of Outstanding Eurovision Year 2014 (Yes, over Conchita, go cry) and is a contender for fave entry of the decade. The Summer of 2014 was a fantastic experience, partly thanks to Lea and I will forever cherish her for that reason. So when this beautiful dubstep fae was selected to rep Slovenia, now sporting a lilac killer braid, a trashbag jumpsuit and a cabal of slut-dropping dance devas of destruction... like *instantly* fanning my proverbial clit right there. It only got better during Lea’s pre-show content, proving her not only cool chick onstage, but off the stage as well. Having a teenage girl crush on Waylon <3 (Confessing this IN FRONT OF A LIVE AUDIENCE WHICH INCLUDED BOTH WAYLON AND HER HUSBAND lmao bless <3). Impersonating Salvador on some Slovene version of the Soundmix Show <3 There’s no way Lea couldn’t deliver in Lisbon.

And “deliver” is underselling what Lea did, holy fucking hell that live was EVERYTHING. It’s hard to even name what the brightest shining star of their performance was, since Slovenia brought an entire fucking galaxy of them. I’d say the best thing was probably the choreography, which managed to be spellbinding, professional and hilarious all at once. Lea and her dancers-in-crime put on an amazing, electrifying show, aided by dynamic camerawork and lighting (Take note, Hans Pancake 🙄).

My personal fave thing about “Hvala ne!” however was that it QUALIFIED BY A COMFORTABLE MARGIN AND WOULD HAVE UNDER ANY POINTS SYSTEM <345871 I love a deserving shock qualifier (see: Albania), but when it happens to a preshow fave of mine that I considered all but doomed (and a contender for last in the semi). . . There are no superlatives in my glossary that can describe the state of elation I felt when Lea was announced as a finalist. Netta might as well cede her trophy because the Eurogaes were the actual winners of this year 💗🧡💛💚💙💜 “Hvala, ne!” more like “HVALA motherfucking SLAYS HATERS” amirite???

Granted “Hvala, ne!” was the same in Lisbon as during the preshow, with only two marked exceptions. One was Lea had added a chorus in shabby Portuguese (”OBRIGADA NAO NAO!!!” <3) which was hilar, and the other was... the break!

Granted the semi break was kinda *blah* to me. “Zomg the music dies riiiiiiight before the bridge how coincidental”. Sure, Jan. Either way, I found it moderately funny, mostly because of the random extras that were clearly being paid by production to oversell it <3

But the best thing was that it WORKED and brought Lea to the finale where she performed a SECOND break and this one was downright epic. The audience actually sang along with her <3 <3 <3 <3 Two different instances of the same gimmick and making it work BOTH times <3 When will YOUR faves???

I suppose that, at the end of the day, “Hvala, ne!” was an experimental song that you either love or hate. Why anyone would ever hate this radiant nymph is beyond me, but whatever. My ranking, my rules, ya shallow fools. I *loved* this bizarre mix of K-Pop and Hip-Hop, sung in Slovene and Portuguese, (which is the most unique combination of languages ever featured in a Eurovision entry, I’m sure <3), with badass self-referential lyrics that SLAM DOWN musical conformity in a year that was all about rewarding it. In other words PRECISELY WHAT THIS CONTEST NEEDED. You know, there are plenty of countries out there that have never scored a top five in Eurovision and probably never will until they find their monster runaway winner (Lordi, Salvador). I *hope* the next one is from Slovenia. Raiven performing a song by Maraaya, with Lea and BQL as the back-up singers. Come on y’all, let’s make Eurovision Great Again. Hvala, slay, slay, slay, slay

RANKING SO FAR

04. Slovenia (Lea Sirk - “Hvala, ne!”)

05. Switzerland (ZiBBZ - “Stones”)

06. Germany (Michael Schulte - “You let me walk alone”)

07. Albania (Eugent Bushpepa - “Mall”)

08. France (Madame Monsieur - “Mercy”)

09. Hungary (AWS - “Viszlát nyár”)

10. Finland (Saara Aalto - “Monsters”)

11. Bulgaria (EQUINOX - “Bones”)

12. Denmark (Rasmussen - “Higher ground”)

13. Malta (Christabelle - “Taboo”)

14. Cyprus (Eleni Foureira - “Fuego”)

15. United Kingdom (SuRie - “Storm”)

16. Serbia (Balkanika - “Nova Deca”)

17. Portugal (Cláudia Pascoal - “O jardim”)

18. The Netherlands (Waylon - “Outlaw in ‘em”)

19. Ukraine (MÉLOVIN - “Under the ladder”)

20. Macedonia (Eye Cue - “Lost and Found”)

21. San Marino (Jessika ft. Jenifer Brening - “Who We Are”)

22. Sweden (Benjamin Ingrosso - “Dance You Off”)

23. Austria (Cesár Sampson - “Nobody but you”)

24. Latvia (Laura Rizzotto - “Funny girl”)

25. Azerbaijan (AISEL - “X my heart”)

26. Israel (Netta - “Toy”)

27. Norway (Alexander Rybak - “That’s how you write a song”)

28. Montenegro (Vanja Radovanovic - “Inje”)

29. Armenia (Sevak Khanagyan - “Qami”)

30. Poland (Gromee ft. Lukas Meijer - “Light me up”)

31. Greece (Yianna Terzi - “Oniro mou”)

32. Georgia (Iriao - “For you”)

33. Belgium (Sennek - “A matter of time”)

34. Italy (Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro - “Non mi avete fatto niente”)

35. Romania (The Humans - “Goodbye”)

36. Ireland (Ryan O'Shaughnessy - “Together”)

37. Croatia (Franka - “Crazy”)

38. Belarus (ALEKSEEV - “Forever”)

39. Russia (Julia Samoylova - “I Won’t Break”)

40. Spain (Amaia & Alfred - “Tu canción”)

41. Iceland (Ari Ólafsson - “Our choice”)

42. Australia (Jessica Mauboy - “We got love”)

43. Czech Republic (Mikolas Jozef - “Lie to me”)

#eurovision #Eurovision Song Contest #Eurovision 2018 #Switzerland #ZiBBZ #Stones #Slovenia #Lea Sirk #Hvala Ne!

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mosylufanfic · 7 years ago

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Goodbye to You: Jay

Here’s the next one-shot in this loosely connected series.

Goodbye to You: Jay

She'd driven to Joe's for their post Big-Bad celebratory dinner. On the way back to Cisco's apartment, she saw a grocery store coming up on their right. "Hey," she said. "Do you mind if we stop? I need some things."

"No problem," he said, and she turned in. "What do you need?"

"Lighter fluid and matches."

"Planning a barbecue?"

She pulled her keys out of the ignition. "Jay left some things at my place," she said slowly and carefully. "They've been in a box in my hall closet. But I want them out. Gone."

"So," he said. "Barbecue."

"Yes," she said.

"Okay," he said. "Lighter fluid and matches it is. May I also suggest vodka and ice cream?"

"Yes," she said. "You may."

Cisco refused to be left out of the Jay Roast, as he called it, so they went to her place instead. They stopped briefly in her apartment to retrieve the items for immolation before heading down to the pool area, with its communal grills. The box held some clothes, a pair of shoes, a toothbrush, a hairbrush, and a paperback book he'd picked out when she’d taken him to her favorite bookstore.

“Ayn Rand,” Cisco said, holding it up for her to take. “Oh my god. How did this not clue us in he was evil?”

“I thought he was so intellectual and open-minded, reading Earth-1 authors,” she said grimly, and threw it into the barbecue pit so hard that charcoal scattered like grapeshot.

"Dickhead." Cisco started to put the shoes in the pit.

She put out her hand to block that. "Ugh, no, please let's not die of plastic fumes," and tossed it in the big metal garbage can. The toothbrush and the hairbrush followed - they were also plastic - but she piled all his clothes on top of the book.

Cisco held up the lighter fluid. “You wanna do the honors?”

“Go ahead. I’ll light the match.”

“Damn straight you will."

When everything was well-soaked in lighter fluid, she struck a match and held it over the remains of Jay Garrick. Jay, who’d never been what he said he was. Jay, who was supposed to be part of her healing. Jay, who'd sucked her so completely into his concerns and his needs that she lost sight of her own.

Jay, who'd kidnapped her, who'd hurt her, who'd used her, who'd had the gall - the fucking gall - to say that he loved her and expect her to still love him back. After all that.

She dropped the match.

It didn't quite go up in a fireball, but the clothes caught quickly and the flames bloomed, spilling out heat that washed over them. She soaked in the destruction, remembering the way that Jay/Hunter/Zoom had screamed as he was dragged into the speedforce.

It was almost enough to satisfy her.

Cisco bumped shoulders with her. "Feel better now?"

"I just feel so stupid," she whispered.

He hugged her from behind, hooking his chin on her shoulder. "Don't. He fooled all of us."

“I thought I entered the relationship with my eyes open,” she said. “I thought I knew how it would go. We would enjoy each other while he was here, and then we’d defeat Zoom and he’d go back to Earth-2, and that would be that.”

Cisco was quiet, and she turned to look at him.

"You," he said. "You really - I mean, that was your thought process?"

"What did you think? I was planning to go back to Earth-2 with him? Leave all of you behind forever for a man I barely knew?"

"I don't know," he said. "I thought maybe you just went - phoomp. Head over heels for his hot bod." At her expression, he said, "Come on, he was objectively smokin' even if he was pure evil. Like a shiny red apple that's all rotted out on the inside."

"I did fall head over heels, sort of. But I allowed myself to. It was like a summer-camp romance. It came with an expiration date." She sniffed and leaned over to dig a tissue pack out of her purse. "Really, sometimes I think it wasn't even about him. I'd spent the months since the singularity putting myself back together, and a nice, simple romance was the last piece. Just a little bit of exercise for my heart. To reassure myself it still worked.” She shut her eyes. “I should have left it in its box.”

“I’m going to sound like a bad greeting card for a minute here, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Your heart works,” he said. “I know that because you came back to Star Labs. Even before that, when you sent me a cupcake on my birthday even though we hadn’t talked for three months.”

“That was supposed to be anonymous.”

“Red velvet from Cameron’s? Like you'd gotten me the year before and you got me this year? Girl, you ain’t subtle."

She elbowed him.

"But my point is, I always knew your heart worked, even before you opened it up to Jay. Just because he was a rat-faced lying liar, it doesn’t mean anything's wrong with you. Don’t let this stop you, okay? Date if you wanna. Fall in love if you wanna. If you don’t because of him, he wins.”

“What if I pick the wrong man again?”

“It’s a risk,” he acknowledged. “But love always is.”

She knew he was thinking of Kendra, and reached down to take his hand.

He held hers for a moment, squeezed once, and let it go. "And now, let us ingest way more calories and alcohol than is good for us."

"Yes, please," she said, and dragged a couple of patio chairs over so they could watch the flames.

But when he pulled the vodka out of the bag, she recoiled. They'd split up at the grocery store and she hadn't seen what he'd bought. It was whipped-cream vodka in a blue bottle.

Cisco looked discomfited. "I thought you liked this stuff."

"I did," she said. "So did Jay."

They'd gotten giggly-drunk on it one night, here, at her apartment. She'd kissed him, and he'd kissed her back, but when she'd gone to pull off her shirt, he’d pulled it back down again and told her that it wouldn't be fair to go further because they weren't sober.

She'd woken up the next morning, gone to the guest room, dropped her robe, and said to his smiling face, "What do you think, are we sober enough now?"

He'd done things like that, was the thing. He'd ticked all her boxes - kind, thoughtful, intelligent, scientific, and very handsome. If she'd sat down and drawn a picture of her ideal man, it would have come out looking like Jay.

And it had all been an act. As if Hunter had found that mental picture somehow and tailored his Jay-mask to be exactly what she wanted.

Why had it never occurred to her that a speedster wouldn't need to stay in her guest room because he wouldn't be drunk in the first place?

"I can run down to the place on the corner," Cisco said, still looking at the vodka bottle in consternation. "Go get something different."

"No, you drink it. I'm more in an ice cream mood anyway."

He passed the tub over. "All yours."

"Oh, Moose Tracks!"

"Good pick?"

"Excellent pick." She took the top off and scraped her spoon across the softening top, sticking it in her mouth. "Mmm."

He opened the vodka and held up the bottle. "To HunterJay - JayHunter - hey, Cait, what are we calling him?"

"Nothing," she said grimly, watching a page from the book flutter in a brief updraft. It settled back onto the coals and blackened into ash. "After these burn, I'm never saying his name again. Any of them."

"Word," Cisco said. "He wanted to be the greatest? Let his name be as dust. It's all he deserves."

"Hear, hear," she said.

He held out the bottle and she clinked it with her ice cream spoon.

She ate, and he drank, and they talked shit about Jay - "those jokes," Cisco said. "Oh, we don't have shoelaces on my earth, tell me about them, haha, gotchu again! Soooooo funny."

"Sooooo funny," she growled. "And he never seemed to be around unless he needed something, did you ever notice that?"

"Fuck yeah, I did. What the hell? Where did we think he was going all that time?"

"He said he was exploring this Earth." Caitlin felt herself boiling over and stabbed the ice cream. "I pictured him going to museums and libraries and - ugh. Ugh. So stupid."

"Fuck him right in his stupid face," Cisco said.

By the time the fire had burned low, she felt queasy from sugar and fat, and he was sprawled back against the lawn chair, a little giggly. "Cai'lin," he said. "I'm not turnt, 'zackly, but I think I'mma need your guest room."

"It's all yours," she said. "Make yourself at home. Are you going to want any of this?" She held out the half-eaten ice cream.

"Mmm, nah, you finish it."

She couldn't, so she took it to the trash bin. Then, because she was up, she said, "Maybe I'd better clean out that trash so the next person grilling doesn't get dirty-clothes flavor on their steaks."

"Smart," Cisco said. "Don't let him ruin anybody else's day." He was screwing the cap back on the vodka, brow furrowed in concentration.

"Not one more person," she said, getting water from the pool to splash onto the smoldering coals. The last of the fire expired with a hiss and a gush of steam. When it was wet and dead, she used the barbecue tongs to pull out the charred book, the scraps of t-shirt, the scorched shreds of pants, and tossed them into the garbage.

Cisco turned his head at the buzz of his phone, amplified by the metal patio table it sat on. "That better not be mayhem," he said. "I'm a little too drunk for that." But he reached for it anyway.

She poked around for anything she'd missed, then swept her hands over the coals themselves to test their temperature.

Abruptly, something twisted in her stomach. Something hungry. Her fingers burned with cold, as if she'd forgotten her gloves in January or stuck her hand in a freezer. Then heat rushed through her fingertips, up her arm, and she jerked it back, gasping.

The coals were all coated with ash.

No - not ash.

"Caitlin," Cisco croaked, and she spun, the guilty hand clutched to her stomach. Had he seen that? What had happened for him to see?

But he was looking at his phone, not her hand, and he looked twenty years older than he had just a minute before.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Dante," he said. "Accident. He was - accident."

She grabbed her purse and dug out her keys. "Which hospital?"

"Mercy General."

She hooked her purse over her shoulder and took his hand, pulling him out of the courtyard. "We'll be there in fifteen minutes," she said, and then considered traffic at this time of night. "Ten."

As she screeched out of the underground parking garage and revved through a yellow light, with Cisco on the phone in the passenger seat, she told herself, That was ash on the coals.

Not frost.

Of course not.

FINIS

#Caitlin Snow #fanfiction #mosylufanfic lives up to her damn name #past SnowJay #that asshole #Goodbye to You series #the flash

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