#using all screens I already had EXCEPT for the first one- made that one specifically for this XD

[abyssalmermaiden]

WoLs + text posts: Aryaille x Yloise

@yloiseconeillants

[ilys00ga]

you are my favorite!!!! super happy to know you are taking requests :D also i hope you are doing well♡♡

could i request a yoongi x f!reader possibly where they have a rlly bad argument and make it up and it ends really fluffy? maybe the argument could be over jealusy or this stuff ofc not in a toxic way. Thank you in advance :)

BLOWING SMOKE.

PAIR: yoongi x f reader

TAGS/WARNINGS: established relationship, producer!yoongi, yoongi fucks up real bad, hes lowk an ass in this one sorry xxx, he fixes things tho, misunderstandings with a great amount of miscommunication, reader thinks hes cheating, jealousy, angst, also fluff, a teenie tiny dusty bit of smut implications at the very end, but no smut I promise. that's it I guess?? lmk if I missed something. oh yeah this is probably full of unedited mistakes, just ignore :)

A/N: omg omg first off, THANK U I love u lots 💗 second, this matches the new fic I was already working on so akdjqjsjjs was in the mood for some good angst hehehe...although, I gotta say, this was pretty rushed cz I had a shit ton of things to do (I still do) but I tried to make it as good as I can, I hope u like it 🥹 also, ik u said 'not in a toxic way' but I think I might have gotten carried away? nothing too extreme I hope, but we all fuck up, and yoongi here is not doing any better.

PS. requests are still open! feel free to drop some in my ask box anytime :)

Loving Yoongi was like a field of cotton grass dancing with the wild wind on a fresh late spring day. But being in a relationship with him, much like any other relationship out there, wasn't always a bed of soft petals and a sky of warm sunshine.

“I'm sorry, darling. I have to stay here for another two hours. You can still come over if you want.” That was what he said over the phone, one day, when you asked whether he was free for a dinner date or not. It's been a hectic week for the both of you, two adults trapped in the hectic mess of what we call life. An unsettling bubble formed in your chest. You missed him, so, terribly much. The days went on, and it became harder for you to sit down with him for a genuine conversation or a wholesome meal. The mere thought that your relationship was heading towards one of those bland and colorless stages was heavy on your heart.

His suggestion sounded apologetic enough for you to swallow the pill entirely, so you immediately declared your agreement, grabbed your purse, then left the apartment.

On your twenty-minutes-long walk there, you made sure to grab a bottle or two of wine and some snacks, because, knowing Yoongi, he would let his body devore itself before he would feed himself a proper meal, once he's inside that studio.

Except that, all of your hopes of a hopelessly romantic night at his studio, and that uncomfortable couch he purchased specifically so he wouldn't doze off when he's supposed to work, vanished as soon as you pushed the door open and walked in.

Yoongi never said or did anything to hurt your trust, neither were you the type of lover to shed tears and break glass when they see their partner with another person. But seeing him sitting so close to the female producer you were already familiar with, their chairs almost touching as they fixed their attention on the large computers on top of his desk, that was a sight you weren't ready for. And it wouldn't have been so much of an issue to you if you weren't sitting in the same room with your boyfriend and the woman he used to hook up with on a regular basis before he got with you.

“It's good to finally see you, __.” She gave you a smile. A little, polite and genuine gesture that, in contrast to the smile you mirrored to her, made your stomach flip.

Another hour passed with you staring mindlessly at your phone screen and them doing their thing. You were on the verge of excusing yourself to leave, to maybe catch some fresh air instead of suffocating to death inside that closed space, when the girl finally stood up to leave.

You watched as she gave him a hug, her hand gently rubbing at his shoulder, before she faced you to bid her goodbye and left.

Throughout the entire thing, Yoongi didn’t spare you a glance. His back was the only thing you could see, along with the back of his head, covered with his favorite dark beanie. You thought her departure would soothe your heart and put your anxious mind to rest. That Yoongi would turn around and explain why the hell he was hanging out with her, and not with his usual team members. Except that neither of the above happened.

“I’m done here too, for the day. We can go now.” He said as he stood up from his own chair, stretching his arms and arching his body with a rough groan. You were left wondering whether you were the insane one there. Or maybe he was that blind to the chaos happening in your head at that very moment.

The words were on the tip of your tongue. You could no longer hold them back. They were too strong to be kept hidden deep inside your throat. And so, you cleared your throat and let them speak for themselves. “You never told me you still work with her.”

You paused, taking a deep breath as you anticipated an answer from him, which came rather more lightheartedly than you fancied.

“Oh, I didn't think it was worth talking about.” He said, hovering over the desk to turn the devices off.

“Really?” You tucked the tip of your finger under another one, his usual nonchalance was supposed to sooth you, reassure your heart that he only belonged to you, but it only served to stir something inside your anxious self. “But it's still something, Yoongi..”

“Darling, you were never bothered with who I work with.” He remarked.

“Because you never had history with your usual team members.” Your blunt argument, with all the bitterness it held, took the both of you off guard.

“Is this about what I think it is?” He glanced up at you again, finally catching up on the situation at hand. “Look at me. Are you upset because she was here?”

“Yes I am.. You never mentioned the fact that you still see her everyday. Were you planning on keeping that from me?”

He let out a heavy sigh. “I told you it was never a big deal, baby. That's why I didn't bring it up.”

“Yoongi, it doesn't matter what you think of it. I deserve to know this type of thing.”

He scoffed at that, his attention turning to his stuff as he started gathering them. “Baby, please. I was working. We had a project to do. It's not like I slept with her or something.”

“Did you?”

At the heavy implication of your short question, Yoongi froze in his place, unmoving. His eyes spoke of surprise and pain as he stared deeply into yours, sending a chill down your spine. You blinked, and the sound of crashing almost made you jump when he threw the headphones he was holding carelessly on the desk.

“You think I did?” He asked. Even as his voice was completely empty of amusement, he didn't raise his voice at you. “You think I slept with her?”

“I don't know.” You shrugged. “That's what I'm trying to know.”

Neither of you spoke after that. He continued staring at you, not providing an answer that could satisfy your clenching heart. Instead, and just like every single time the two of you had an argument before that, he faced his desk again and busied himself with his belongings, his movements harsher and rougher than before.

“It's better if you leave now.” He said, his voice disturbingly cold.

You wished he could say anything. Maybe snap at you for being so harsh with your judgment on him, or lay his heart out and tell you the thing you dreaded the most, that he indeed slept with her. But he didn’t. He just faced the other way and did utter a word. And so, you grabbed your purse, phone in your other hand, and walked out of the studio.

Deep in the darkness of your room, you lay on your bed, deep in thought, staring at the ceiling like it could crack open and show you the secret towards a blissfully happy love story to remedy your soul. Your string of thoughts was cut short when noise broke out in your apartment. The sound of the front door being locked and closed again.

You craned your neck to catch a glimpse of the digital clock on top of your nightstand. It was three am.

Having had this scenario happen multiple times throughout the years of your relationship with him, you left your tear stained pillow and followed the source of the noise, your boyfriend in the kitchen.

You found him bent down in front of the open fridge, his back, once again, facing you. If he didn't hear your footsteps against the floor, he definitely heard the soft sniffle you let out as you leaned against the doorframe, you were certain.

“It's three in the morning.” You stated, like it was the most important news you could give him at that very moment. He didn't spare you a glance, settling for a can of beer and pushing the door of the fridge closed with his leg. “You shouldn’t drink at this hour.”

“Good to know you care about me.” He said, his voice calm but dripping with the usual bitter sarcasm he often exercised when he was tense or angry.

You couldn't help rolling your eyes at that. He was really upset. “Can we just talk?”

He flicked the can open with one hand, taking a long gulp of the liquor that left you with a small frown. “Why? So you get to accuse me of cheating again?”

“Yoongi, please-”

“No, __.” He paused, his gaze felt like a freezing flame to your soul. “You feel the way you feel, yeah I get it. But doubting my loyalty like that? Thinking that I could really go out of my way to cheat like it's nothing? What the fuck are you doing?”

His words, coupled with the way he looked at you, felt like a punch to your guts in that very moment. He was right, you knew that. No matter how insecure and threatened you felt back then, no matter how fucked up the thing he did was, cheating shouldn't have been your first conclusion. Especially when you loved and cherished him so deeply. With a trembling voice, you gathered your words and tried to ignore your stinging eyes as they threatened to spill your hidden emotions out. “I... Our relationship has been so dull lately, I was hoping we could spend some time together and catch up, but then I saw her there and I just..”

“Just what, __?” He cuts your speech. “Do you even trust me?”

“I do, of course I do! But you didn’t even talk to me about it, and when I tried to talk, you were all like ‘Oh, it doesn't matter, you're just being dramatic.’”

“That is not what I said.” He hissed.

“Doesn’t matter!-” A sob interrupted your speech, you ran a hand through your hair in frustration. “Can we just- please-”

Your words were cut short when he started walking towards you. You felt his arms engulfing you in a tight embrace, your face finding its place buried into the crook of his neck, where your warm tears touched his soft, milky skin.

“Shh.. I know.” He whispered into your ear, the strong smell of alcohol, carrying a hint of coffee within, filled your senses. Your arms moved on their own, automatically hugged him back. “You know I would never break your trust, right?”

You nodded your head. Something about the softness of his voice, heavy with vulnerability, made your heart crush into pieces. The way he held you, despite the hurt you knew he felt because of you, had a toll on you.

You pulled away, enough to bring your hands up and cup his face. Your teary eyes staring into his weary ones as you spoke. “That was so stupid of me. I'm sorry.”

“I'm the stupid one here, baby..” He turned his face to nuzzle your palm and press a kiss onto its skin. “I should've thought into it. I was so immersed in work, I didn't see how fucked up the entire situation was. Should've paid more attention.”

He leaned in, pressing a kiss on your forehead and letting his lips linger on your skin there for a few more seconds. “I'm sorry, darling. I'm sorry I made you think that lowly of me.”

The gentleness of his gesture and his words made your tears flow with a mind of their own. There was never a time he made a huge mistake and didn't make you feel like the sky might fall apart at the sight of your tears. It only made the guilt heavier on your heart.

He tightened his hold around you, pulling your body flush against his as he let you cry your hearts content out on his skin. You could feel his hand on the back of your head, a silent encouragement for you to nuzzle his neck again. You obliged.

“I can't believe you made me cry at three a.m like this.” You whined, after a long moment of hushed words of love and quiet sobs, and sniffled.

“I'm sorry, darling..” He cooed at you, wiping the tears off of your cheeks with his gentle fingers. The soft expression he had quickly faded into a slight smirk that appeared on his handsome face. “It wouldn't be the first time I do that, though.”

“Hey!” Your hand landed on his shoulder in a light swat. “We're having a moment here! And I still haven't forgiven you, you know!”

He let out a light chuckle, his smirk deepening when he tilted his head and noticed the faint blush on your face. “Worry not, I'll make it up to you. I'm gonna make you cry in a different way, darling.”

“Go away!” You whined again and shoved him away. His suggestive words made your face feel a lot warmer than necessary, but you tried to sound as stern and unaffected as you possibly could, under his gaze. “I'm going to bed. You better not follow me there, you're sleeping on the couch.”

“Oh, no need for the bed, baby.” He ignored your empty threat and rejection, making a quick job of scooping you up in his arms and heading towards the living room. “We have a foldable couch for a reason.”

“It's an expensive couch, you ass!”

[sevensoulmates]

Buddie Timeline Speculation

To preface, I believe both Buck and Eddie are already feeling "in love" feelings towards each other, but at this moment in time I still don't think either of them recognizes what those feelings actually are. I am not on the team that believes Buck and/or Eddie already know they're in love with the other and just haven't said anything. I think that this is a TV show, and the TV show is going to want to SHOW US those moments on screen so that we (but more specifically, the GA) know without a shadow of a doubt that this is the romantic path they're on. So, no, simple staring or loving gazes is not going to be enough confirmation. Words need to be spoken out loud and made textual. We're far beyond accepting subtextual crumbs now.

Here's what I think could be reasonable in terms of the trajectory of Buck and Eddie's feelings realizations as well as the timeline of Eddie's gay realization arc and potentially when they could tell each other their feelings. Strap in for another long-ass dissertation by me.

Can't they just realize on their own?

First of all, of the two of them I think that BUCK is the closest by far to recognizing what his feelings are. HOWEVER, I think that he will require an external catalyst to actually break the glass and open the Pandora's box and finally put it in front of his face. As we've seen, subtle does not work for Buck or Eddie. Hinting doesn't work, trying to steer them in the right direction doesn't work, and hoping they'll realize on their own doesn't work. NDE realizations don't work either. At this point in time I feel like both need to be told with words by someone. Buck by a third party, and Eddie by Buck.

Who could tell Buck?

I think the most likely option is Maddie or potentially the return of an ex. Some people speculate Taylor, personally, I'm speculating Tommy. He's more recent, and his breakup with Buck was so vague that it definitely left the door open for Tommy to come back in and have to clarify what he really meant. Especially given the vague "Buck is running into people" thing in one of the interviews. I think at this point the big thing Buck learns in 8x11 that shocked Oliver "by how directly it's being addressed" and Buck feels is "Ludicrous" and makes him uncomfortable will be someone pointing out Buck's feelings for Eddie. This all is feeling very reminiscent of the time last season when most of us felt like Bi Buck was on the horizon (and we were right), except 100-fold. In 7x04, Buck had to be told (or shown in this case) that men are an option for him too. That was easier for him to accept. Accepting his feelings for Eddie will not be such a walk in the park.

That then places Buck in a place to have to come to terms with and accept his feelings and also make a decision on how to handle his feelings through the end of 8b. Putting a pin in Buck for now.

Will Eddie realize he's queer in El Paso?

I don't think Eddie is going to have his gay realization in Texas. I think his time in Texas needs to address three things 1.) His relationship with Chris 2.) his unhealthy romanticization of Shannon and 3.) his unhealthy relationship with his parents, his mom in particular. I simply don't think there's enough time for Eddie to realize he's queer while in Texas. There's just too much ground Eddie needs to cover and I fear if we try to shove the queer realization into it as well it will feel rushed.

Here's my El Paso counterproposal

Through addressing Shannon, his parents and healing his relationship with Chris, my hope is that we get Eddie letting go of his compulsive need to find a Wife & A Mother Figure for Chris. He will stop forcing himself into a Heteronormative lifestyle. I want him to rise in his own power and admit to himself, his parents, and Chris that he's no longer going to force himself to do what he doesn't want to do. No longer will he force himself to date (women, but most likely that will be subtextual still at this point) when he doesn't want to, no longer will be trying to replace Shannon (I think this is the core of what hurts Chris the most), and no longer will be letting himself fold to his parent's manipulation. How he gets there is anyone's guess, but I think once he admits to himself that he's happier raising Chris in a non-heteronormative, non-nuclear family, and it's the healthier option for both himself AND Chris, he will finally set himself free from the shackles of living up to Expectations. This, I think, will set up excellent groundwork for what comes next: the return to LA.

Eddie and Christopher come back to LA. My guess is that this will happen somewhere around episodes 16-17. Putting a pin in Eddie for now.

To Reveal or To Not Reveal Feelings

Buck, meanwhile, has come to terms with his feelings but has made the choice to not say anything to Eddie while he's in El Paso because he knows Eddie needs to focus on healing his relationship with Chris in Texas. Once Eddie and Chris are back, Buck will be forced for the first time to be around Eddie while knowing his feelings and actively not saying anything (ie. not making this about him). This will be compounded by forced proximity and the push-pull of whether or not Buck will stay living in the Diaz house.

Here's the crux of where Buck's decision comes in. I think Buck will have made a solid decision before this that he will never tell Eddie his feelings. This is for a myriad of reasons that the show may or may not address, but I feel that bringing up the "you're making it about you again!" line in their big fight in 8x09 and bringing back Buck's severe fear of losing Eddie was purposeful in order to set up Buck's reasoning to keep his feelings to himself until the last minute.

Buck will present Eddie with the options again: water or juice?

Ultimately, something will have to be a catalyst for Buck to reveal his feelings to Eddie. My guess is an NDE disaster of some sort near the end of the season. I think, at this point in time, Buck will not tell Eddie his feelings unless he feels Eddie will be taken from him permanently. He'll have a revelation along the lines of Chim's "time is never guaranteed, so if you love her, tell her". He has an opportunity presented to him, but the consequences could be devastating.

I think Buck will then tell Eddie his feelings near the end of the season, either in the penultimate or finale episode.

I think that Buck's reveal of his feelings to Eddie will be the glass shattering for Eddie. I think this would be the strongest catalyst that could make Eddie have to force himself to sit with himself and think "this is the person I love most in the world aside from my son but is the love I feel for him romantic? Is that why it nearly killed me to be away from him for so long?". Once queerness and a loving relationship with Buck are presented to Eddie as an option, that will be the moment that Eddie goes on his true journey of realizing that not only is he not straight, but he never romantically loved a woman. He's been forcing himself to drink nothing but water his whole life, but here's his chance to choose juice, to choose joy. This won't be an immediate thing though, no.

I think Eddie will be shocked. Because, like Buck felt initially, this is an uncomfortable truth finally brought to light. Eddie will have to sit with his feelings for a minute. He has an opportunity, but the consequences of any choice could potentially be devastating.

Up in the air choice, setting up conflict for s9

We're getting into wish fulfillment territory here, but I would love it if Eddie does NOT reject Buck right away but instead asks "Can I get a bit of time to think about this?" in a direct parallel to when he asked Shannon for time and she instead left him high and dry. But this time, Buck grants Eddie his time, telling Eddie he's not going anywhere. In the meantime, they remain best friends, co-parents, and partners living together in the Diaz house, just with the equal knowledge that they can choose to turn it into more if they want. This will be Buck and Eddie's main conflict of season 9.

What about the summer hiatus?

I could then see the hiatus between s8 and s9 as a stasis period where Eddie does his thinking and the whole time they've been living together, and neither really wants Buck to leave, but they haven't yet addressed the elephant in the room. This way, we won't miss out on big moments, and the writers can continue to show us ON SCREEN development.

Enter season 9

We then have the whole next season for them to finally address everything ON SCREEN. Mainly:

1.) Eddie season 9 conflict: realizing that Buck has already been a part of their family, a father to Chris, and a life partner to Eddie this whole time, and he wants to keep it. But is he physically attracted to Buck? I want to see Eddie grappling with his new-found physical attraction to Buck, and then realizing, holy shit, it's been men this whole time. And now fully processing why he's held onto Shannon for so long. 2.) Buck season 9 conflict: does he push for what he wants, or does he wait for Eddie to come to him? Does Buck make more active choices to help Eddie along or does he "fall into it" like he always does. Is he torturing himself by living with Eddie? By having everything he wants an inch away from him but being unable to grasp it firmly? Who is he to Chris? 3.) Buddie season 9 conflict: Both of them making the choice, will they or won't they? Will they finally actively decide to choose each other? To make the final jump and cross the line into relationship territory?

Of course, the answer to all of this is yes, they most definitely will. Why? Because I firmly believe the second they made Buck bi that they were going down this path, and so far I haven't been proven wrong. And now, I firmly believe the second they have one of them realize their feelings, Buddie is imminent and endgame. There's plenty of time for all of this and more in season 9.

Anyway, this is just speculation and I feel like this timeline would be satisfying for me as a viewer who's been watching and wanting Buddie canon since season 3. Not too fast, not too slow. With adequate time for both Buck and Eddie to address their individual issues as well as their couple issues. What do y'all think?

[chobblesomewrites]

Grumbo Professional Esports AU (abandoned work)

A collection of drabbles/scenes rearranged in chronological order featuring Team Coach Mumbo x Pro Player Grian. Warning; makes use of League of Legends/MOBA Mechanics. Unrealistic depiction of the esports scene.

No, this will not be fully written or edited. Prepare for weird pacing and incoherence. I'M JUST POSTING THIS SO I CAN STOP BEING ASKED ABOUT IT </3

—————

[ READ BELOW ]

Mumbo wasn't one for competitive games, but he had made exceptions from time to time. Those times mostly due to his online best friend wanting to drag him to experience almost anything and everything with him.

He wouldn't have even dreamed of touching MOBA games if it weren't for Grian begging him to, excusing that no one else but Mumbo was actually willing to deal with his competitive nature. He had first refused, firmly wanting to stick to his farming simulator games, but Grian knew too well how to act like a brat to get what he wanted.

So he found himself on [                ]’s tutorial screen, anxiously going through it while Grian remained in the Discord call with him, giggling at every noise he made every time he jumped from the sight of an enemy NPC.

“You lied when you said this game had a farming mechanic,” Mumbo accused his friend with a whine as he spam clicked on a highlighted enemy minion, clicking his tongue when he missed the gold.

Grian cackled, “Well, killing minions for gold is called farming. So technically I wasn't lying?”

Mumbo let out an audible huff of betrayal, which made Grian laugh even more as he tried killing his character to the minions out of spite.

—

Mumbo had thought he wouldn't be playing the game as often, for the main reason he had the game at all was because Grian occasionally didn't have anyone to play with, as he said. But he had plenty of friends so Mumbo didn't feel the need to open the game as he would probably be the last person on Grian's friendlist to be asked.

But dear lord was he wrong.

After getting bullied for his lack of game knowledge for one night, Grian kept inviting him to duo queue every single day. Mumbo would've been led to believe that Grian actually didn't have friends except for him if it weren't for their friends occasionally coming by to 5 man queue with them. But even then, that led Mumbo questioning even more of Grian's motives to specifically invite him of all people, adding to the fact that Grian apparently hated playing ADC but specifically only played it when in duo queue with Mumbo.

It was confusing. So, so confusing. Mumbo was so pants at the game yet Grian just kept inviting him nonetheless!

So, Mumbo thought; if Grian wanted to play with him that badly, he'd have to adjust his mentality to make sure that his best friend was actually having fun. He wasn't just here to keep Grian company anymore, he was here to now help Grian actually enjoy his games.

On weekday nights Grian would be too busy to get online, Mumbo used his free time to get on custom and try out other heroes outside of just support. He specifically tried mid laners in hopes to give Grian more opportunities to play roles outside of ADC, trying to prove that Mumbo was more than capable of handling himself!

He learned the map, how to invade, how to dodge, how to properly farm– everything. He needed to learn everything.

If it was for Grian, he'll take on everything.

–

[ DEFEAT ]

“....”

The call was silent, save for Grian who did horribly to muffle his laughter. Mumbo groaned in embarrassment into his hands, “Midlaning is hard,” he admitted in a mumble, which caused Grian to outright laugh into his mic.

“You didn't have to force yourself to try.”

“But you like playing jungle.” Mumbo pouted.

“Not all the time! Who on earth even says they like playing jungle?”

Mumbo sighed as he clicked off the after-game stats, returning back to their party lobby to see Grian already waiting to start the queue. The man already set himself back to the ADC role and it made Mumbo slump even more in guilt over his desk.

By some magical force, Grian probably felt his bad mood and he reassured with a smile, “I still think it's more fun if we're laning together.”

“You get to spoil me and you'd only have eyes for me!” Grian teased.

Mumbo felt himself flush red at that. Not knowing how to quip back, he simply said, “Shut up.”

–

5 man queues are always fun. It means Mumbo could just turn off his brain and listen to his friends talk and trash talk without having to say much because there's enough of them to hold the conversation together.

Mumbo was about to fully zone out while watching Grian’s character farm freely in their lane when he heard him speak up about something in their team's idle conversation on call.

“You know, I actually plan to be a professional gamer.”

From whatever conversation the call was going through, everyone in their friend group broke into laughter at Grian's admittance. Mumbo could hear Grian's pout as he tried to defend his dream, “I'm serious here!”

Their friends laughed even more, “How plausible would that even be as a job? We're just teenagers, dude. Who would wanna sign kids like us?”

Their words were obviously just trying to tease Grian, but Grian didn't take it lightly. The ADC went quiet as the friends in call continued on about how ridiculous of a scene it would be if anyone of them were to actually turn out to be 

Out of nowhere, Mumbo suddenly spoke up, “I think it's not impossible.”

The conversation paused and Mumbo suddenly felt conscious of the attention on his words. Nonetheless, he continued on, “I believe in you, if you are still going to try.”

“I'll try it with you.”

The call bursted into laughter again, even Grian couldn't help but giggle, which made Mumbo feel hot in the face from embarrassment. He spent the rest of the game making so many mistakes because the entire call kept teasing him for making such bold declarations.

He was able to live through 2 games of that until the other 3 friends in their team decided to log off, leaving him with Grian. Mumbo had thought that he would log off too, but he simply clicked the queue button without saying anything, leaving 

2 minutes into the queue, Grian finally spoke up, “I'm holding you up to that promise, you know.”

“You better go professional with me.”

Mumbo wonders if he's gonna regret promising that, given how ominous Grian makes it sound as if he's sold his soul to the devil. But if the devil were Grian, he finds that he doesn't really mind missing a part of himself.

–

Ever since that promise, Grian had been relentless with playing with Mumbo. Not that he wasn't always relentless before, but Grian was now determined to actually help Mumbo catch up to his level. They've even started custom 1v1s in hopes to improve.

Other people, if they were in Mumbo's position, would've been annoyed. Given how Grian tends to get frustrated eventually, Mumbo just takes it as a sign to be better. He couldn't slack.

He knew that Grian wasn't specifically frustrated at his skills, he was frustrated and anxious of the possibility that Mumbo wouldn't be able to sign with him if he didn't improve. They needed to do it together, Grian was stubborn to make sure of that fact.

So Mumbo didn't fault him for he loved him.

–

“Are you signed to a team?”

An account that was obviously a smurf had privately messaged him one time after a solo queue game Mumbo played while waiting for Grian. He ignored it, assuming that it was a scammer pretending to be a professional. He even went to quickly unfriend the account with this thought in mind and sat in the party lobby for a few minutes before a friend request came in.

“Xvoid,” Mumbo murmured out. He frowned and leaned back on his chair in thought, wondering if he's seen that username before. Probably in his other games, but Mumbo doesn't really actively pay attention to the randoms he and Grian match up with.

It was when he was about to decline the friend request that Grian joined the lobby with a very loud, “Mumbo Dumbo Bumbo Jumbo!”

“Grian,” Mumbo returned the sentiment, sounding more exasperated than excited like Grian. His friend must've realized something from that tone difference as he immediately questioned, “What's up?”

“Someone messaged me about signing to a team and now I'm trying to remember who this XVoid person is.”

Grian made a noise of surprise, “XVoid? Xisuma?”

“Who?”

“The Captain of [            ]! I thought we watched enough live streams together to know this?”

“... Grian, I only know Etho in that team!”

Grian made a noise of offense and went off on a tangent about each and every member of the team that was not Etho, scolding Mumbo for being a ‘solo fan’. Mumbo ignored him, hovering his mouse over Xisuma's friend request.

If it is the captain of that team, Mumbo can only assume that this was probably just a fan account. It didn't hurt to accept it. He's had a lot of friends in his friend list that he decidedly ignored a lot anyway. He just accepts them for the sake of filling that friend list.

With that over with, Mumbo started the queue, still ignoring Grian who was scolding his ear off.

–

Mumbo should've known there was going to be more to the friend request than he realized. What he assumed was a fan account was actually just the professional player's sub account.

Xisuma's team had taken notice of Mumbo, and even personally invited him to be their main team's support rather than simply being a substitute. Mumbo was about to disagree at first, discussing with Grian that he still wanted to play professionally with him, but Grian didn't stall him. He simply said;

"Go," and Mumbo had thought Grian hated him for being noticed by a team until he added, "I'll catch up."

And they left it at that. Mumbo signed with Xisuma's team as their support player but didn't even get to react properly that his online best friend didn't message him at all anymore as he was forced to move to a team provided account, leaving his personal one to the dust.

–

Mumbo's esports career didn't last longer than four years, but it was a good start for a while. He didn't have any experience whatsoever but his team was kind enough to help him throughout. He also found that a lot of people seem to like his awkward attitude so he didn't feel the need to upkeep a certain persona.

But with the constant change of meta to aggressive supports, his steady gameplay had no use in any team comps. It didn't help that, at every tournament, he got sadder and sadder the more he realized he couldn't see a certain username anywhere in both domestic and international teams even after a while. 

Grian wasn't there. The reason he was here at all, wasn't there. 

He had been moved to a substitute player midway through his career, replaced with someone more younger and aggressive in playstyle, his other teammates had also either retired or moved to better teams. The team’s management was still fond of him and he was only really kept for the fans' sentiments, but Xisuma didn't want him to live the rest of his life as a decoration, noticing the way Mumbo didn't enjoy his current status. The team they were in contract with wasn't getting any better either. They weren't going anywhere like this. Their skills could be put to more use somewhere. 

They couldn't accept the current state of things when they hadn't even won a single international championship to their name. Xisuma owed Mumbo at least a trophy for signing him up for the big leagues at such a young age that he could've used the time to explore more of his life.

He had offered Mumbo two things; Xisuma would pay so he could go back to college, or he could sign to Xisuma's budding esports company for a new chance.

As a coach, that is.

Mumbo had almost been tempted to say he would rather go back to studying, but Xisuma added more to his offer that he couldn't refuse; "You can choose the team. You'll be their main coach, after all."

Mumbo remembered that someone still promised to catch up, and he'd be willing to be a coach if it meant dragging him up here.

He promised. They promised they'd go together.

For the first time in a few years, Mumbo logged back in to his old account and clicked on a familiar user on his friend list.

"Grian,"

"You there?"

–

Mumbo wasn't confident for a while that Grian would reply back. It had been a good long while, after all. Would Grian even remember him? Mumbo's sure he himself hasn't forgotten the other, but he doesn't know if the sentiments are the same. 

Mumbo didn't really have the time to be too anxious about it either, busy helping Xisuma with properly setting up the company while also looking for managers and analysts to help him with forming the team.

The next time he finally checked his account again, he was disappointed when there was no message back. But one thing that gave him hope was when Grian’s user was lit up. He was online. And Mumbo could see damn well that his best friend, if he could still call him that, was actually just struggling to come up with a reply, especially when the indication of the other person typing kept popping up and disappearing over and over.

At least, with that, Mumbo knows that he wasn't fully ignored.

After a bit of waiting, he decided to give mercy to whatever message Grian is taking this long to send.

"Queue?"

And then the indication of Grian typing stopped. Then replying,

"You literally returned from war after how many and your first message is to ask to queue?? Not even gonna say hi to the kids?"

Mumbo burst out laughing. Somehow, it feels as if he never left for the professional scene and is back to his teenage self.

"How are you?"

"Got wife and kids."

Mumbo frowned at that, "Seriously?"

"No, you idiot. I'm this young and you think I'd have a kid already?"

"..." Mumbo rolled his eyes

"So what have you been doing this entire time?” I waited for you to catch up. Did you lie to me?

“Well one of us had to go to college, Mumbo.”

“Low Blow.”

“My bad.” Grian then typed, “Queue?”

“So now you’re trying to distract me by asking to play?”

“It's also been a while. I'm itchin’.”

Mumbo checked the time. He's fairly free for the rest of the day. And it's been a while since he's had genuine fun in the game, “Well, we ‘oughta scratch it!”

“Attaboy!”

–

They queue together for a while. Mumbo's old account had considerably ranked down so they were in lower elos. It wasn't that hard to win easily.

Grian was still good at the game, probably even better. He could catch up with Mumbo’s thinking, and Mumbo’s got the professional experience. One thing that bothered him was that Grian didn’t initiate a call like they always did years ago. Comms and all. Mumbo was left with Grian’s spam pinging and visual cues. Mumbo was too shy to ask about it, so he forced himself to be happy enough with Grian playing around with the emotes when they were idle in lane.

But surprisingly, when Mumbo thought they were about to log out, Grian told him to get in-game party call;

“Mumbo.” Oh, Mumbo has not heard that voice in a long time. Grian sounds less like a squeaker now. The long duration of having not spoken to each other was now extremely evident.

Mumbo forgot to greet back, and he didn’t get a chance to, as Grian spoke up again, “Why exactly did you message me again? Surely it's not to play, not when we could've done this for the past years.”

Mumbo didn’t know what to say for a moment. Would it be too rude to ask Grian about his previous interest in esports? Would that seem like he’s trying to flaunt at him or mock him?

His mouth twitched in hesitation, “Are you… still interested in going professional?”

“...” Grian didn’t reply, and Mumbo somehow felt even more desperate.

“You said you’d catch up.”

“I…” Grian sighed into the mic, seeming a little agitated, “Opportunities don't come as easily for me as it did for you, Mumbo.”

Mumbo furrowed his eyebrows, staring at Grian's little cat icon in disbelief, “...And so you gave up, just like that?”

“It wasn't just like that!” Grian defended. He sounded a little pissed off that Mumbo couldn't help but go quiet. At the silence, Pesky muttered an apology and calmed his tone, “Look, I- I really tried, alright? It was pressuring.”

Mumbo opened his mouth to ask what exactly pressured him but Grian beat him to it as he rambled on, “I lost my everyday duo to some team I couldn't even enter myself. Mum kept urging me to give up and go to college, but–” the voice on the other end cracked slightly but he took a long enough pause to steady himself, “I didn't want to- You, you were waiting, up on those big stages, looking around those stadiums like some lost little dog abandoned by their owner–”

“I was not some lost little dog!” Mumbo squeaked out in embarrassment, wondering if he really looked like that in the game livestreams, “How would you even know I was looking for you?!”

Grian’s smug smile could be heard in his tone, “I didn't say you were looking for me.”

Mumbo went quiet and murmured whinily, “You implied….”

The call was filled with Grian's giggling and Mumbo let himself enjoy the embarrassment for a brief moment before moving the topic along, “Anyway, I did say I was going to disagree to join them, but you urged me to accept it. I said I could've waited until we could sign together–”

“But you like the game, don't you, Mumbo?”

Caught quite off-guard, Mumbo gave his question a thought. He did like the game. Understanding the mechanics and strategy of it is fun. Winning a game was actually exciting since the winning conditions needed good skill and awareness to achieve, but�� 

He only ever truly loved playing it because Grian was there. His best friend was a part of everything he loved about the game.

Mumbo was quiet and he couldn't find it in himself to actually admit his true opinions. Grian assumed that he was just embarrassed to admit that he liked the game and decided to move on, “So it was unfair to you. I couldn't drag you down. I know we promised to do it together, but that doesn't have to cost your possible futures.”

Mumbo chewed on his lip and once again quietly asked, “But are you still interested in playing?”

“Mumbo, I never stopped playing despite,” Grian said. An indirect message admitting that; he wants to play. He's always wanted to play. He never once gave up on the dream to. He's just a little late. “I wouldn't have queued with you today if I wasn't.”

Mumbo was hopeful at that admittance and he was quick to say, “Then play for me.”

“What?”

It was Grian's turn to be caught off-guard this time, sputtering in confusion and in disbelief. Mumbo could hear him sit straight on his chair, judging by the squeaking picked up by his mic, “No, that's- You shouldn't be practicing nepotism, Mumbo-”

Mumbo made a noise caught between a whine and a groan, “It's not nepotism if it's the coach's job to assemble a team of good players,” he defended. Grian was in even more disbelief this time as he caught on as to what Mumbo was getting at.

“Coach? What happened to your original team–? They still had you as a substitute…”

“Capt– X paid for the separation fee.”

Grian’s voice raised a little, “Then who and what the hell are you coaching for?”

Mumbo took a deep breath, needing to steady himself to be able to explain to Grian the situation without making it worse, “Look, I know you said you specifically wanted to play for a well-known team and, currently, X's company is just fairly knew–”

“Oh my god…” Grian muttered, his voice was muffled like he was burying his face in his hands. Mumbo ignored him as he continued to explain.

“He invited me to be the main coach, to set up the team to how I see fit since he had trust in the way I was at least aware of what was right, who was capable– Well, not to be blunt, but I have the skills to be able to strategize for an entire time and–”

Grian cut his ramble off, “You… you didn't do all this just for me, did you?”

Yes, I did. 

But, “No,” was what Mumbo said instead. “I still like the game, but I'm still not overly aggressive and competitive enough to be successful as a player, as you know.”

Silence that befell the call after that and it worried Mumbo as he didn't know if Grian could trust that reason. He was just about to continue his little persuasion when he was cut off again.

“I'm joining.”

“Before you– Wait, you are?!”

“Well, someone's gotta make sure you're not making wrong decisions! Who do you think taught you the game?! And you're planning to be the coach!?”

Mumbo couldn't even be sheepish at the underlying tone of being scolded. He was happy enough to hear Grian agree to joining even when doubt was evident in the other’s tone.

He’ll just have to show he’s capable of being Grian’s support, like always.

–

“Grian!” Mumbo had called out excitedly, approaching the man who held such a name. Maybe he was jogging more than politely approaching. Who was to blame him for being excited by the idea of finally meeting his long time online best friend face to face?

Grian’s shoulders jumped in surprise and he couldn't help but turn to look, looking even more stunned as he wasn't given time to react to the sudden hug Mumbo forced him into. His arms couldn’t find where to place itself, eventually relaxing on Mumbo’s back as he hugged back with equal eagerness.

The shorter man couldn’t help but laugh, “You’re surprisingly taller in real life, coach!”

Mumbo froze and pulled away to look at him weirdly, “Already calling me coach?”

“What? Were you actually not planning to sign me?”

Coach Mumbo winced and shook his head panickedly, “Goodness, of course we’re still planning to sign you, it’s just–” he hunched over and pouted a bit, “Isn’t coach a little too formal for us?”

Grian nudged Mumbo playfully, “Get used to it. You wanted this job. Didn’t you, coach?”

Mumbo pouted even more, slightly red in the face, “You don’t find me calling you jungler, do you?”

“I’m not signed yet so you can’t officially call me that yet,” the dirty blonde man then grinned wide, “For now, you can refer to me as darling.”

“Oh, stop it.”

–

Officially signing Grian up as the company’s first player was like a fever dream, even Grian himself would agree, and he’s had plenty of disbelieving things happening to himself. Even now when he was fully acquainted and settled into the residence provided by the team, he couldn’t believe that he was actually… what he dreamed of.

Grian glanced to his side, watching his coach scroll through some gameplay videos for possible teammates. Somehow, it felt right that the online best friend who nerds out about strategies that he can’t apply himself, was the tall man beside him.

Though honestly, Grian still expected Mumbo to be some hunched over nerd like he was. Who knew the man had not only looks and height, he had better posture than Grian.

The dirty blonde slumped in his chair and zoned out as Mumbo started introducing possible teammates, offering him options to form whatever team he wanted.

Grian didn’t listen much, still a little out of it. It is fairly weird that the coach of all people was asking the player who he wanted as teammates when it was supposed to be mainly the coach’s and the management’s job.

“Can I really pick the rest of my teammates?” He cut off Mumbo’s muttering in a familiar manner. Mumbo, as always, didn’t take offense and answered him.

“Of course.”

“And you’d support me?”

They held each other's stare longer than they should've. Mumbo broke into a smile.

“As I always have.”

–

“You’re stressing out Pearl again.”

Grian was half laying on his chair and lazily scrolling through the Grumbo tag on social media when Mumbo had come up to him with an unamused frown. Grian had half the respect for his coach to fix his seating arrangement and sat up properly to flash an innocent smile at Mumbo.

“I don’t seem to follow.”

Mumbo tugged at his hair in distress, familiar with Grian’s pretend dumb strategy. As a coach, you’d think that understanding strategies would be kept to the game, not applied even to his troublesome players.

“Sorry, let me rephrase then. You’re giving both Pearl and the PR team an extremely hard time to defend your honor.”

Grian sighs wistfully, “But you are my honor.”

Mumbo groaned and flushed red at that, “You’ve made that extremely clear with your interview!”

The dirty blonde shrugged and didn’t seem at all unapologetic. Seeing that he was once again going nowhere with attempting to horribly scold Grian, he leaned down and apologetically pecked the man on the forehead. Grian visibly perked up at that and blinked at Mumbo like he was expecting more.

Mumbo didn’t give him more, simply rolled his eyes and turned to leave, “Redo the interview tomorrow and you can negotiate for more.”

“MUUUUUUUUUUMBOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Grian’s complaints fell to no one’s ears as Mumbo left the training room.

[cineminecraft]

Alright! Let's get into it shall we, beginning right where we left off about a decade ago! But first some backstory. I had left this map on my hard drive after deciding it was too late to even bother working on it. Yoglabs had already died off and so did it's fandom, looking at the Yogscast channel recently and I see they barely even do Minecraft anymore. I realize at most 100 people will see this but that doesn't matter to me. I feel like I owe it to myself, specifically my childhood self to see this map through to the end, it is and will probably always be my largest and most time consuming personal project, so I will make one last push, one last big effort to finish it or atleast make it as good as I can possibly make it. That being said one of the last things I shared about the map was the sheer scale of the island I had made, it was very world-edit-y looking and I had to smooth it out largely by hand and with the smooth tool. As you can see above I have made some insane progress over the last couple of weeks and the island is starting to look nearly finished. Currently what I still have to do is the following: -Smooth out the terrain even further -Finish any exits that are shown in the series and then extend the terrain from there to connect to the rest of the mountain (largely the front of the mountain) -Finish the resourcepack (4-5 textures left) -Finish all the areas from episodes (several left) -re-do the entrance

REDO THE ENTRANCE? WHY? It looks done Well you see when I started this project I had built off of a map someone else had already made. It's probably lost to time right now but this person had the hill pretty well to scale, only the door was way too small so I enlarged it but didn't touch most of the cliffside. While you wouldn't say it at first it is in fact way too small. The pipe extends way further left before hitting the cliff and the hill on the right extends further too, I already started correcting it a bit with worldedit as you can see but continuing that is for later though.

What's with that massive hole in the side of the mountain? Well I'm glad you asked, this was at first a finished hill but I had severely miscalculated where the Batcave™ would be. Having largely built it now I had to know the side of the cliff down. What you see now is one of those exits like in the show where I now have to carefully build it and then connect it to the rest of the terrain so it looks natural. Now here's an import part of info. I had previously held myself to making this map 100% accurate which includes any and all blocks seen on-screen, I regret to say now however that I will need to walk back on this rule as there is simply not enough footage to get the terrain correct, so the walls you can see here are all placed from the episode block per block but I will build the rest without referencing the episode since stuff is either out of view or way too dark, it's simply not possible. This will be applied to other areas as well where I have struggled in the past to make it 100% accurate.

Next up is this little build Haha little who am I kidding. This took a week to build! But yes I had no place to put this thing before but seeing as I'm now on a more recent version of Minecraft the build limit got magically increased which allowed me to now plonk this pyramid down. Just like before the cave this pyramid resides in is way too dark on their videos to build block per block so I will make a rough interpretation and it won't be 100% accurate.

Next up some textures!

I have been spending some time learning how on earth minecraft works right now, the last time I touched textures was in 1.12.2 and A LOT has changed since then including what blocks and items Sphax uses custom models for as well as what names are used for textures. I'm happy to report the whole pack has been updated to work with Sphax on 1.20 with the exception of redstone not behaving as intended with the custom textures. As some of you may have known as well, the official pack has been leaked a few years ago and is available on the yogscast wiki. So naturally you probably wonder why I don't just use that one since it's the real textures right? Well I had already largely made the pack years before it got leaked so I'm sadly not going to let all that hard work go to waste. It was actually really cool to see how accurate I got some textures just from looking at the videos back in the day. In any case I have the pack saved on my pc and can pull references from it to make mine more accurate. As you can see I have updated the above textures and they look more accurate now than before. I will do this for a lot of the textures down the road but right now the following are updated: Blocks:

-smooth stone (added subtle circles and fixed the color) -tiles (they were slightly off-colour) -Melon (added a subtle gradient to the blue) -oak trapdoor (grate in the middle was incorrect as were the borders) -furnace (added a furnace_on version) -Piston (completely re-drew piston_inner and piston_bottom) -Netherrack (added subtle cracks to the texture)

Paintings:

-added sharper version of the periodic table texture (I found the source image) -added unused texture that was in the official yoglabs textures. Kinda cool and sad it's never seen in their series...

Wow that was surely an update! The scale is unlike anything I could have ever imagined myself building, I'm so incredibly blow away anytime I travel underneath the mountain seeing the insane scale of it all. I wanna leave this new update off on a small compilation of screenshots showing off the insane scale of the project and some areas that back then never saw the public eye. It gives you some idea of where I was going and still am going with this map. I hope to get some people maybe back into this blog and we can make this map finally done for all to see. Thank you for taking your time to read this. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them. My DM's are open as well if you have some cool ideas! In any case here are the patch notes and enjoy the images!

-Updated the map and resource pack to 1.20.1 (will try to make it available when done for both 1.20 up until 1.21 or whatever the latest version is by then) -Updated textures by referencing the leaked resource pack and added 1 new painting -Fixed and finished various areas around Yoglabs that were still left unfinished -Added Pyramid section (WIP) -Added Batcave™ (WIP) -Added new area to one of the Holohall rooms (WIP) -Added library at the end of the main hall -continued working on deep search III area (cave and storage room WIP) -started building exit from the Bigger Boat episode (WIP) -Continued working on expansion areas to Yoglabs that aim to connect it to Shadow of Israphel (WIP headcanon) -expanded the ocean area with A LOT, it should now make sure far off chunks are not visible up to 16 render distance! -added beach all around the island (WIP) -brainstormed about how to fill the rest of the mountain -moved stuff around so I can build a better connected network between places through the pipes that you see all around yoglabs

[lucero-is-here]

The axe, the gun and the knife.

Another ramble. I’m so so late. But in mouthwashing, there are three key items that are used as weapons. The axe, the gun and the knife.

I wanna talk about them.

Trigger warnings for mentions of sexual assault, murder, suicide, bodily harm, cannibalism and also Jimmy.

The axe:

The axe is the emergency weapon (same for the gun).

It is used to resolve the situations and emergencies as much as possible.

However, in all the situations it is used, it’s already too late, or something horrible has already happened. Curly using the axe to break Daisuke free from the foam, the issue has already happened, it simply removes it (and it’s minor enough to remove at the moment too). The axe being used to hack away more insulation foam by Jimmy to access more medical supplies because they ran out. The axe being used to mercy kill Daisuke to put him out his suffering, and finally, the axe being used to destroy the screen.

The screen itself feels like a highly major moment, the breaking of it as well. It is where the dead pixel is. The axe being used to break it, specifically by Swansea, makes me feel that Swansea in particular has come to the realisation of the true gravity and the true full picture at the moment. But by then, it’s already too late.

The axe is what’s used to return things back to normal, or what’s used to uncover and remove things. Be it insulation foam, or the big picture. Except it’s all too late, and everything is just an attempt.

The gun

We know Anya wanted the gun to protect herself, and we could say it is a symbol of protection.

But we also know Jimmy got the gun, and ultimately uses it to kill Swansea, the only other authority figure on the Tulpar, and then himself, evading the consequences of his actions.

When protection is given to the aggressor, they are allowed to evade consequences, all at the expense of others.

The protection not being given to Anya made her more vulnerable, likely gave her a harder time reaching out for help. If even the captain of the ship doesn’t seem willing to help her protect herself, who will? The sarcastic mechanic on the ship who tends to get passive aggressive every now and then, or the young intern who shouldn’t even be here? She’s alone here.

Jimmy grabbing hold of the gun to defend himself from Swansea, someone who he believes he angered because he literally caused Daisuke’s demise, is him avoiding the consequences of his actions. The protection allowed him to evade the consequences he would have faced for causing Daisuke’s injuries and then death. When he uses it to kill himself, leaving an injured Curly trapped and to be frozen in the cryopod, he escapes the consequences of assaulting Anya and crashing the ship.

The knife

When we see and use the knife, it is used to cut the cake as celebration for Curly’s birthday, but is also the mark for the time the crew learns of the horrible news that they are all getting fired.

In the end, Jimmy uses the knife to cut off part of Curly’s leg to eat it. It is also after all other members have died.

The knife is the marking of the end of something. It marks the end of the hope and their job at first, as well as the growth of tensions in the tulpar, and marks the beginning of the end, the eventual fall of Curly.

It then marks the deaths of everyone in the Tulpar, the fact Jimmy got his way in his end, and marks the beginning of one of the many selfish acts Jimmy has carried out.

Eating Curly’s leg, PUTTING MORE MEAT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER TULPAR MEMBERS WHO ARE ALREADY DEAD, and force feeding Curly; all to maintain a delusion and see himself as a hero.

In the end, I feel all these items had a lot going for them, and I’d love to talk more about my theories, might be updated

[johannesviii]

Parallels, foreshadowing and narrative echoes in Infinity Train Book 3 episode 1 "The Musical Car" [1/2]

I can pinpoint the moment I rewatched that episode as the one when my obsession with this show went completely off the rails pun intended in early March 2024. I haven't been normal about it since then even though we're currently in November. Of course almost every series ever made uses parallels and foreshadowing in some capacity, it's just that Infinity Train episodes are about ten minutes long and there's an amazing amount of foreshadowing, parallels and other narrative echoes packed in those first ten minutes and it drives me nuts

I'm not going to explain most of these things. Some of them are incredibly obvious, some aren't. I'm just listing them so we can scream about them together and hopefully I'll feel less insane afterwards

Also I had to make two posts cause I hit the new image limit. Kill me

Let's go

A familiar place becoming hostile and unfamiliar

The first time we see Grace in this Book, she's basically reenacting something she wanted to do as a kid, except now she's the one in control

I also can't help but notice there's three different versions of Hazel from three different angles when Grace is questioning her own decisions in her tape and her mind is basically using Hazel as a mouthpiece for that. When I look at you I see me

Dance lessons foreshadowing

The first time we see Simon in this Book, he's painting a miniature, and it's part of a series of parallels which makes me ESPECIALLY insane. Something about him seeing himself as a little soldier, then treating Grace as if she was one of his miniatures later on. Bear with me for SIX FUCKING GIFS here cause it's a whole extended metaphor which keeps reappearing through the entirety of Book 3 and I've never seen anyone talk about that specific one. Maybe it deserved its own post. Too late now

He clearly loves to collect stuff. I wonder who he got that from, uh

Cool radar design. I wonder where we saw that kind of round, clockpunk-adjacent type of tech before

So there's two halves of one mask, one half is golden and represents comedy and it's on the right, one is the mask of tragedy and it's on the left. Cool, cool, nothing to see here

Grace learned from the best

Not bad, Simon. YEAH UH, SO, ABOUT THAT-

"I was ten"

"never trust an adult!" being weaponised later on

Only one half of the mask survived - the right side, now a tragedy mask and placed on the left side of the screen. Wow I wonder if this foreshadows anything about how this story will end, uh

All of this happens before the title card even appears on screen and I already hit image limit. I'm fine! I'm fine

Here's part 2

[borrowingtheborrower]

Blue spirit productions: The Borrowers (Info we have so far 2018-2024)

Many of you may remember this video from a couple years back...

2018

This is a pitch from "Blue Spirit Productions" a french animation studio, you may know their works such as "The Blue Samurai" or "My Life As A Courgette."

The pitch is for a potential animated TV show for "The Borrowers", made for companies and audiences to watch and get an impression on what they're gonna make and if anyone would be interested.

This was shown at the Cartoon Fourm 2018 as a project pitch and uploaded by CartoonBrew online, which is where the video comes from.

CartoonBrew's review here:

We know very little about the pitch for this other than it was shown off a few times at international animation conventions. Due to that we have very little concept art other than a few online.

From what little info we had the plot was simple and already created the groundwork for things such as characters and story.

The official Blue Spirit productions website wrote:

"Whilst out on a foraging mission, Arrietty, a Borrower no taller than an apple, is spotted by Tom, a human! But what should have been a disaster turns out to be the start of a wonderful friendship"

Although there's still a few reviews where a other plot points get mentioned, such as Tom's grandma running a Hotel where the Borrowers currently reside, but this is likely many ideas from the concepts they had.

More about the creation and throught process about this pitch project can be found here in this interview:

2019 - 2021

Little was heard about the project for years despite a positive response online from borrower fans, specifically on Tumblr.

(Fun fact I was originally the first person to post it on Tumblr lol)

The only thing new info we got was in a few new images, Tom's appearance had change except his outfit, while Arrietty remained the same.

Until about 2022 - 2024 where we've gotten more news.

The series was now in development, with a new director David Lopez.

Credit: Offical art from David Lopez' Instagram account (@/el_senior_lopez)

Job listings were put up for new animators, the page about it on Blue Spirit's official website had updated and most importantly we got new images.

For a short while this was the only new official image online, with Tom and arrietty sporting new looks.

Although slowly, Arrietty specifically would be used in advertising for the company for things like new animation positions and for more international conventions.

Speaking of the conventions, a few of them had special talks at booths or even screenings of the show such as at Cartoon Fourm 2023, Annecy 2023 - 2024, Mipsjunior 2023 - 2024 ect ect.

Soon after this it was announced the team up of Blue Spirit Productions and Newen Connect, a french distribution company.

The series as of now is currently in production, on Newen connect's website we even have a new description:

(Translated from french and slighty fixed words.)

"The Borrowers are tiny people who live, unbeknownst to us, inside the walls of our homes. Their number one rule in life is simple: a peaceful existence means never being seen by Humans. Arrietty, 11 years old and 2 inches high, lives with her parents in a small community of Borrowers inside the house of a Human named Marie. Fearless and very curious, one day, Arrietty meets Tom, Marie’s grandson, and against all odds, befriends him. But shhh, its’ a secret... From this day forward, Arrietty divides her time between her daily life as a Borrower and her dream of exploring the world of Humans which takes on a whole new dimension, with her new friend, Tom. Together, Arrietty and Tom will embark on a gigantic adventure!"

Newens official website:

While it's been a long journey I genuinely cannot wait for this show, it's always exciting to see new animated projects especially a new Borrowers animated project as well. Despite The Borrowers having such an interesting idea it's only been animated once, which was about a decade ago with "The Secret World Of Arrietty" created by Studio Ghibli.

With the end of the year coming soon, let's hope to see this in 2025!

If you have more info feel free to add commentary, or if I got any details wrong feel free to message me. Thank you and have a wonderful day! <3

[the-great-fusilli]

I’m pro-delulu and I too believe in shipping characters that don’t canonically end up together BUT… I will never get behind Zutara (my mind changes often, but rn no🙅🏽‍♀️.)

Maybe it’s because I don’t take colonization and eithnic clensing lightly, or maybe it’s because I disagree with the “Katara is like Aang’s mom” statement. Either way they should not be end game. People often bring up how Zuko helped Katara release a lot of pent up emotions concerning her mother’s death and who killed her, but the Fire Nation (his people) were responsible for that death. And up until that specific arc Zuko was upholding the beliefs of those people.

“Zuko doesn’t need Katara to be his mother like Aang and the rest of the group do, they’re on equal footing.” Except Aang and the rest of the group don’t need Katara to be mother either. People just view Katara as a maternal character because of her personality and that’s the only role they’ll acknowledge her having in the group. Katara’s mother showed her a love so deep and protective that she died so Katara could live. Of course the trauma of losing her mother in that way at such a young age would cause her to take on the role her mother had. Whether it be because of obligation, or simply because that’s all she knew.

Aang and all the other characters have experienced a lot of trauma, but Aang was raised by monks. He doesn’t need a mother figure because he’s never experienced gender roles in the way the other characters have. His idea of a family is being shaped as the show progresses because aside form Monk Gyatso, they are the first real family he’s had. He’s curious, fun-loving and light hearted because that’s how Monk Gyatso raised him to be, not because he’s an irresponsible little 12 yr old without a mother. His people were eradicated, so Katara doesn’t raise Aang she guides him through grieving the loss of his people. A loss she knows all too well.

Toph is blind and her family is overly protective. They don’t give her the space or freedom to be her own person or earth bend. Another experience that Katara knows all too well. Her grandmother never let her leave the southern water tribe or water bend so she gives Toph the same thing she gives Aang. Sokka is Katara’s brother… he also experienced the loss of their mother except Sokka is a boy. He’s been made painfully aware of gender roles because he watched their father leave to fight in the war instead of staying to help him and Katara. He wanted to be more like his Father because be believed that was his role in the family (to fight). So the responsibility of taking care of the both of them fell on Katara.

Katara and Zuko are not on “equal footing” especially not before he leaves the Fire Nation. He’s a prince from the Nation that has been opressing her family, her people and the world for 100 years…(he literally calls my good sis “water tribe peasant” meaning at some point he believed she was inferior because he had royal blood.) He has changed now of course and I love both Zuko and Katara, but them being end game makes no sense to me. Even in terms of chemistry… I don’t think they have any at all. Majority of their screen time together is just them fighting with each other (verbally and physically.)

People also like to use the episode where Zuko takes Katara to find the man who killed her mother as proof that Zuko was the only one who truly helped her grieve and get closure. Which honestly I don’t understand. I think he definitely aided in helping her move past what happened, but it could’ve went painfully wrong & I think it was a bit misplaced. For one, Zuko’s whole reason for doing that was to get on Katara’s good side. He said himself that everyone else had forgiven him already except Katara. He understood that his role in the group was teaching Aang to fire bend, and helping the gaang defeat his father. Which is why he couldn’t grasp why she wouldn’t put her personal feelings aside for the sake of the team. He needed to gain Katara’s trust for the sake of better team work when they fight. Katara was also extremely hypocritical that episode, and spoke from a place of anger and hurt. Aang wasn’t invalidating her feelings, he only did for her what she’d done for him. He reminded Katara that her rage and anger needed to be fueled into defeating the Fire Nation, NOT revenge. Because revenge doesn’t help you grieve & it wouldn’t help them achieve the REAL goal. {Not to mention she was so disappointed and upset with Jet for wanting revenge (a character who truly reflects her), but because the man she was going to kill wasn’t innocent somehow her revenge was different and therefore justified?…No.}

Katara would tell Aang all the time how much seeing him so enraged in the Avatar state genuinely hurt her. Yet for some reason she couldn’t fathom that he’d feel the same way seeing her blood bend in the same emotional state? No…I think in that moment she just didn’t care & wasn’t thinking about it. Zuko was counting on that, and he used Katara’s pain to get her to trust him (it was smart and it worked but still not cool.) Zuko understands Katara’s pain to an extent, but it’s not the same at all. Zuko’s mother was banished, but Katara’s mother was killed… and by Zuko’s nation at that. The only people in the group who TRULY understand Katara and that pain… are Sokka and Aang.

Aang and Katara to me are like 2 halves that make a whole. Their characters are tailor made for each other and I love it. I’ve believed they were soulmates since the moment she broke him out of that Iceberg. Katara felt a higher calling, not only to be a water bender fighting for her people, but also to be apart of something bigger than herself, fighting for everyone. Her first time experiencing freedom is when she was took on a mission to give that same freedom to others around the world as well. Its not a coincidence that in the first episode where she feels her biggest emotions, she showcase her strongest bending yet at that time in her life, AND she broke THE Avatar out of an iceberg he had been in for 100 years. It was FATE. Katara helps Aang grieve, gives him a family after losing the one he had, teaches him water bending, teaches him that the world may be counting on him, but the amount of death and pain he sees is not his fault and most importantly teaches him how to use his power to stand up for and fight for the people who can’t fight for themselves. She shows up when he needs her the most. Aang also helps Katara finally step into her own power. His arrival gives her the things necessary for her development… freedom, fun, opportunity to master water bending, a new addition to the family after the loss of her mother, and a partner in justice. The way Katara is capable of truly seeing and understanding Aang, speaking to his soul when they had just met… reflects how meeting him helped her heal. They connect so much because despite their differences they understand each other. Some of Aang’s own words were “Why would i choose cosmic energy over Katara?” He had an opportunity to master the avatar state land directly in his lap, but instead he chose her.

IM TEAM KAANG TIL I DIE

Also I think personality wise Zuko and Katara are too much alike for it to work romantically imo. They’re both sassy as hell, sarcastic, stubborn momma’s babies, who resent their fathers a lil and went through hell for a couple years because of their siblings (+ losing their moms.) In some ways they ARE opposites (especially their bending & colors,) and i agree they have character development arcs that fit together like puzzle pieces…BUT they are more alike than they are opposite. I absolutely LOVE both characters, but I fear people look at Zuko with rose colored glasses on alot of the time. Especially when it comes to Katara. Zuko did what needed to be done for the world’s sake, but he’s no super hero when it cones to Katara and she has a deep wound related to getting revenge on people people who harm her family. The main reason Zuko broke her trust in the first place was because he helped Azula kill Aang after letting Katara believe he was on their side… Aang is her family It was never about her mother when it came to Zuko’s forgiveness. She even said she would kill him if he even thought about hurting Aang when he first joined the gaang.

With that being said… I don’t have a problem with people who just like to see them together, but pls stop with the justifications because… It genuinely makes no sense to me at all.

[poraphia]

"Cooking Stream!"

➵ PAIRING! cc!wilbur x chef!streamer!reader

➵ CREATING! 12.22.23 | 3167 words

➵ CONTAINING! wholesome cooking, reader is a chef streamer, wil is on tour, wil and reader are longterm friends

➵ SAYING! i thought this would be super cute to write. a little friends to lovers never hurt anyone hehe. also hope you like the little banner! i dont really do those so this is a first. also not proofread aaa sorry

My masterlist :)

»»———-　　———-««

"How long have you been waiting to do that?" "Since we met up at the airport.."

“Hey, Wil, I’m about to start the stream. Are you ready?” I asked Wil. From my stream viewer, I could see Wil’s lengthy figure making the barest silhouette from the dark doorframe he was standing at. He insisted on making “an entrance” for my stream, even if it meant standing ominously in the background of my kitchen.

“Maybe.” Wil replied blankly. I rolled my eyes, seeing that he was already in ‘bit’ mode.

I’ve been a cooking streamer for quite some time now. I share and teach people on Twitch my recipes live and created this community where everyone can feel safe and happy to learn. Occasionally, I even invite some of my friends to cook with me, Wilbur being no exception. This was our first time seeing each other in person, and Wilbur suggested that before his concert (which would be tomorrow) he wanted to do a cooking stream with me. It was like the stars aligned because after such a busy day, Wil specifically had a couple hours of free time to hang out with my community and me.

I stopped my intro music and took down my startup stream screen to reveal my camera, which showcased me, my kitchen, and Wilbur who was just barely visible on camera.

“Hi, friends! Welcome to the stream! Sorry for the delay, our special guest sadly couldn’t make it.” I said faking a distraught frown. I tried my best to avoid looking at chat, but just from a quick glance I could see spams of terror as they pointed out the figure behind me. I picked up a bowl and began my usual intro. “So, my lovelies, grab your bowls!” I reached over and grabbed my spatula. “Grab your utensils! and—” I looked around, acting confused. “Huh, I wonder where my chef hat is..”

Wil arose from the shadows, stomping toward me with his limbs stiff and a blank expression on his face.

“Oh, there’s my chef hat!” I exclaimed, smiling while looking at Wil. In a swift, goofy motion, Wil ducked his head down, making the hat land straight into the bowl I was holding. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing as Wil tried a desperate attempt to put the hat on my head. Once the hat laid lopsided on me, he turned around with his hands on his hips.

“Hi guys,” he smiled. “As you can see, I will not be the one leading this operation.”

“Yeah, they know.” I mocked jokingly. I placed the bowl and spatula onto the table to fix the hat. “If you guys don’t know, this is Wilbur Soot, but he doesn’t stream much anymore. So frankly, I don’t even know why I invited him.” That snarky comment made Wil nudge me on the shoulder.

“Hey! I’m still relevant on the world web!” Wil exclaimed.

“You know I’m kidding!” I laughed. “But Wil and I met like a loooong way back. Like you were doing your little livestream concerts?” I turned to look at him as he nodded to confirm my words. “And now look at you! In the middle of a whole worldwide tour!” Though he rolled his eyes in response he still had that familiar, dimple smitten smirk on his face.

I was proud to see Wilbur at his position now. I remember all those late-night calls when we would talk about what we wanted to be in few years' time. We were only small baby streamers when we first met. I did cooking streams in my parents’ kitchen and the townhouse he used to stream in was sold off long ago. Now we were in my own kitchen with tens and thousands of people watching us live, and tomorrow, thousands of more were going to watch Wil perform with his guitar and his voice.

It was time to start cooking. Today we were making strawberry cookies with white chocolate chips. I started off by giving directions as to what measurements you would need. Before I do my cooking streams, I like to post what ingredients would be needed the day because sometimes my fans would post selfies of them following my streams live while also cooking.

“So first, lets stir in our dry ingredients, yes?” I looked at Wil, who only eagerly nodded in silence. “So, of course, like all streams, I like to do my measurements while live just in case anyone needs time to catch up. So I hope everyone has their measuring utensils, because I’m about to give the measurements! And of course, I will be providing them on the screen as well.” I stated, looking at my OBS display.

Wil and I began to prep the ingredients. Each time I stated a measurement, Wil would scramble around the kitchen for the key components before emptying the powder into the bowl. I let out a small chuckle. “Wilbur, take your time, seriously! We’re supposed to be enjoying the moment.” I exclaimed.

“But but—!” Wil protested.

“Wil!”

With a defeated sigh, he slowed his movements as he scurried around the kitchen for the rest of the materials. As I stirred the flour and sugar together, I waited for Wil to come with the baking powder and salt. In the meantime, I started to look at chat.

“(y/n) is smiling a bit too much yall”

“YES WILBUR TREAT OUR CHEF RIGHT!!”

“is this (y/n)’s bf?”

Though it’s safe to say Wilbur and I had never had feelings for each other, the comments still flustered me. To prevent myself from getting more flushed, I pointed my attention back to my mixing bowl. Suddenly, Wilbur came behind me, holding the measuring cups.

“Ah, Wil—”

“This would be more an efficient way of getting our ingredients mixed in, no?” Wilbur suggested. His arms were on either side of my body, sprinkling in both the salt and baking powder carefully as his chest pressed against my back. I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks from such an intimate position but tried my best not to ignore it. After he was done, he set the utensils aside and placed his hands on either side of my wrists, stirring with my movements.

Despite us both knowing that the chat was going crazy at this point, we both enjoyed the moment. Ever since Wil and I met each other in person for the first time, we had this habit of messing around with each other in physical ways. Within the first hour of us being together, we were running around the city, climbing over each other while sitting down, and Wilbur at one point threw me over his shoulder because I was “walking too slow.” It all felt completely natural to us. However, hat made me most flustered about it now in this very moment was the fact that thousands of people were watching us live!

We proceeded with mixing in the ingredients. Wilbur helped combined the wet ingredients as he gradually poured them into the mixing bowl I was stirring (of course, he again insisted that he stood over me as he poured for “maximum efficiency”). After some time with the spatula, took it out and turned towards the camera.

“Alright, so at this point of the process, it’s going to get a little hard to stir the dough, so—” I glanced to my laptop’s stream viewer and saw that Wil was doing silly faces and gestures, completely taking the attention away from me. I watched as he opened his mouth wide and inched closer to me, almost trying to bite me. Without thinking, I took my finger to get a scoop of the batter before turning around and smudging it into Wil’s face.

Wilbur stared at me in shock as a smug grin rested on my face. Swiftly, he took the spatula from my hands, gathered a large glob with his fingers, and smeared it all over my face. My cheek was now lathered with the think substance as I stared at him, bewildered. It was now Wil’s turn to start smiling with his dimples prominent as they could be. “What, you started it!” Wil argued, putting his hands up. My eyes slowly trailed to the open flour bag he had left on the counter. It was as if Wil followed my gaze, because as soon as I reached over to that bag, Wil was on the run.

“What the— Come back here, you prick!” I cried. I grabbed a fistful of flour before aimlessly chasing him around the island counter. His legs were far too long to outrun me, but that also meant he was rather clumsy with his movement as well. We returned in front of the camera when Wil began to lose balance after turning a sharp corner. I took my chance and ran in front of him before dusting him with a fistful of flour all over his apron and face.

I fell into a fit of laughter, clutching my stomach. “Holy shit, Wil! You look ridiculous!” I said in between gasps. Wil stared in utter horror, but soon enough, he started laughing as well when he saw his reflection from the stream viewer.

“This is going to be a nightmare to get out of my hair, (y/n), what have you done?!” He cried. It sent me more into hysterics, laughing as I held onto the counter for dear life. “I’m going to try and wash this out now. You better hope and pray for your restroom.” Wil said, waving me off as he made his way to my bathroom.

“In the top left drawer in my room are my baggy clothes you could wear!” I called out. I carried on with the stream, leaving where I left off. I got my stand mixer and turned on the machine so that it could start stirring on its own. I also cleaned up around the area and washed the batter off my face before reading the chat.

“Alright, chat, how we feeling about this stream, huh? Everyone doing good following along? Do you guys like Wil?” I asked. I scanned the chat, smiling at some of the comments.

“Wil and (y/n) are an iconic duo bruh”

“YES CHEF WE LOVE THE STREAM CHEF”

“I’m doing good following along :D”

“WILBUR IS SO FUNNY”

By the time the dough was done mixing, so was Wilbur, who had just finished washing up and changing his clothes. He wore a baggy Artic-Monkeys tee with gray sweatpants that suited him perfectly. “Is the dough done?” Wil said. His hair was a curly mess most likely from wetting it then drying it with a towel. His glasses rested on the bridge of his nose with his eyes just barely visible. Something about this look, whether it be his disheveled hair or the fact that he was wearing my clothes, made me blush a little.

“—Oh,” I muttered, barely realizing that he asked me a question. “Yeah, it’s done, we could start placing them on the tray now.” He nodded before coming behind me, placing hands on my waist. “Ah—! Wilbur!” he buried his face into the crook of my neck. With a defeated sigh, I turned off the machine and removed the bowl from the stand mixer. “Come on,” I said. “Help me shape the cookies.”

“Yes, chef!” he enthusiastically remarked. He stood back up, and we were back on business. We proceeded to work together to shape the cookies, making light conversation while also taking some questions from the chat. Wilbur talked about some stories he had on tour. He compared his experiences from when he used to do little stream performances to the big stage in front of thousands of people live.

Once we were done shaping the cookies, we placed the two trays into a preheated oven. I did the dishes while Wilbur offered to tend to my chat. There something so.. Domestic about Wil and I cooking. It came naturally, as if this isn’t the first time we cooked together, and it certainly this wouldn’t be the last. I scrubbed the bowl clean as I thought about the warmth of Wilbur wrapping around my body. How he nuzzled his nose into my scent, then pulling away reluctantly. A small smile formed on my lips. Though I knew deep down that I’ve never felt that way about Wilbur, and I doubt that he felt that way with me, it was still such an ideal way of moving on with life.

“Hey, (y/n)?” Wilbur called out. I shook my head and turned around to face Wilbur.

“Yes?” I asked. I wiped my hands with a dry towel before taking my place next to Wilbur, who had his waist against the counter and his hands holding himself up.

“Chat wants to do a Q&A session with the both of us. I think they’re tired of hearing about my tour stories.” He chuckled.

“Hm, I don’t think they’re tired of you, rockstar,” I smiled. “but sure, let’s do a Q&A with the two of us.”

The chat proceeded casually, and we had a fun time answering some questions. We talked about how we first met, how we grew up together as streamers, and how life has been for us more. However, there was one reoccurring question that we tried to ignore for some time, but at this point, it was rapidly coming up.

“Do you have feelings for each other?” I read out loud.

Wil and I looked at each other. Maybe it was the delusions I had, but there was something so sincere in Wil’s eyes. His eyes almost sparkled under the kitchen warm light, and his brown eyes could easily be confused for a fresh cocoa harvested from the jungle. His eyes squinted like he wanted to tell me something, but before I could ask, he turned away.

“No.” He stated but rather reluctantly. “We’ve just been really good friends for these past years, right?” He turned to me again.

“Mhm,” I hummed. My gaze then drifted to the camera. “Chat, stop shipping us together, seriously! You guys are acting like this is the first time I’ve done a cooking stream with a guy! Shame on you, chat!” I playfully lectured. But in my mind sat some heavy thoughts. I wondered if the reason why Wil was so hesitant was because he felt uncomfortable with the topic. Worry flooded my head, hoping that I didn’t ruin his time on stream.

Ding!

The oven went off, meaning that the cookies were ready. “Ah, cookies are ready!” I beamed, lightning the mood. I looked through the drawers, looking for the oven mitts. However, none were to be found. Wil noticed my confusion and came up behind me, a bit more careful on distance this time.

“Is something wrong?” He asked. His hands were behind his back as he leaned down to talk to me.

“Yeah.. I can’t find the oven mitts. Hold on, I probably left them in the washing machine room.” I turned around to face him.

“Alright, I’ll be here.” He smiled. I smiled back before moving past him, leaving the kitchen and headed down the hall to the spare storage room I had. I opened the door and looked around, finding those beige oven mitts I would frequently use while baking something. Without realizing, Wilbur was treading down the hallway.

“Ugh, where are they..” I thought out loud. I dug through the dryer, seeing if they were hiding under the freshly warm clothes. Finally, I was able to achieve the oven mitts. I stood up properly and held the oven mitts as I kicked the dryer closed. I turned around to finally get back to the stream and Wilbur. I wonder if—

Before I could finish thinking, a hand was on a hip and another hand was under my chin. Those familiar brunette curls brushed against my forehead, as I looked up to see Wilbur. His glasses were pushed up so that his face could be close to mine without any trouble. His eyes were half-lidded, almost looked like they were longing. Sparks tingled in my chest as I stared at him. A gulp running through my throat.

“May I kiss you..?” He gently asked. His voice was so low, so sensual, it was like waking up next to him after a long night of cuddling. My face burned, but not a single nerve in my body told me that I should deny his request.

I placed the oven mitts onto the nearest surface, not daring to look away from him. I could feel him getting nervous because even through the dark lighting, I could see his face turning red as the corners of his mouth twitched. Before I could even register my movements, I cupped either side of his face, and pulled him into a kiss I didn’t even know how much I longed.

His body sunk into my touch as he held me close with weak warms. His lips, soft and pink, danced with mine with a hunger I never realized he had. They were desperate, yearning for my warmth. Little did I know my movements mimicked his with just as much desperation.

Reluctantly, we pulled away as we held each other tight and close to each other’s bodies. His eyes were clouded underneath his mess of hair and glasses, but a wide smile rested on his face.

“How.. How long were you waiting to do that..?” I asked, breathless.

“The moment we met up at the airport, honestly..” He chuckled. “Come on.. You have a stream to wrap up.” Wilbur walked out of the room. His hand held mine until he was enough distance away, even clutching to my middle finger before departing. I stared as he turned the corner, joyfully greeting the chat as if nothing happened.

I realized that my cheeks were aching from smiling too much. As I listened to Wil ramble some excuse to chat as to why it’s taking me forever to return, I grabbed the oven mitts and slid down the hallway.

Maybe there was a reason why all of this felt so right. How being with Wilbur just felt so natural. I was out of frame, but I couldn’t help but stare at him.

Yeah.. I could get used to this.

»»———-　　———-««

a / n ~ aaahhh hope yall enjoyed! notes of all kind are appreciated :D and like always, thank you so much for the support.

basically tagging anyone that interacted with my previous posts whoopsies @listenheresweaty @buns-and-butter @mysticalsoot @tiredandbisexual @phxntomsdusk @themonsterunderurmom

[echowithpain]

Alright I'm actually doing an essay for this one so that's a good sign!

THIS EPISODE WAS COMFY!!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

It had just the right amount of light angst, things were going at good pace, it was funny, there was heart, and I was ENJOYING myself!!!!

The only negatives I had were Eddie's parents (specifically his mom cause holy fuck I hate that woman, the actress does an amazing job playing her) and the first call when Maddie lost her voice.

I get that Maddie told Bobby to look for a blanket and Bobby needs that confirmation, but I went back and looked, LITERALLY ALL OF THE WINDOWS WERE CLOSED EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE!!!! AND IT WAS PREVIOUSLY CLOSED AND HAD BEEN OPENED!!!! AND YOU COULD SEE THE SMOKE!!!! I know with words on a screen it probably sounds like I'm angry but I'm not. I'm actually laughing my ass off at how stupid it was 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Also you're telling me that the kid was in a room filling with smoke, standing next to a big ass window, and didn't bother opening it???? I know some windows in places like that don't open, but when it was revealed the kid just didn't even try, I did the biggest "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK" face 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

And the bad thing is, they could've fixed that so easily!!!! You wanna know how they could've fixed that? You really wanna know????

Have the window in the room already be open, and have multiple windows on the building be open too! 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

That way the kid doesn't look like a complete dumbass for not opening the window, and it makes sense for Bobby to need the blanket confirmation since there'd already be multiple windows open and spewing smoke!!!!

It's literally that easy and it's so stupid and I'm laughing so hard!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 They really couldn't open multiple windows in that building??? Did they not have the budget for more windows to open???? 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Because I'm laughing at that I'm not gonna take a point off for it. Yes it was frustrating seeing people acting stupid, but it's so funny that I can't get mad at it 😂

You know what I can get mad at though?

Eddie's parents 🥰

I hate them so much. Especially his mom. That moment they had when Eddie got Chris the PS5 and asked if he should set it up at their place or his, and then his mom went out of her way to list the bad things about Eddie's place and being passive aggressive until Christopher said it'd probably be better there and have her go: "Whatever you want 🥰"

She's such a bitch I hate her so much.

And then for his dad to compare what Eddie and Chris were going through with what he and Eddie went through was awful. They are not the same. Eddie's parents were horrible to him throughout his life and putting too much pressure on him to grow up too fast, Eddie has been nothing but loving and caring towards Christopher and made a dumbass mistake (that technically wasn't his fault, Kim showed up looking like Shannon on purpose out of the blue, it wasn't like he asked for that to happen) that made him want to move away from him.

Unless Eddie's dad was framing it as "We were horrible to you your entire life and you made one mistake in his. If you can forgive us for that, then he can forgive you for this." Which if he is, fuck right off. If he's not, still fuck off.

-1 point for Eddie's parents

Other than that I loved this episode!!!

Maddie having serious trauma from having her throat slit, Chimney being a loving, supporting husband, Princess Jee-Yun 🥰🥰🥰, Eddie trying to get a job as a firefighter and the other captain telling him that Bobby said he'd have a job if he ever went back, when that job doesn't work out Eddie facetimed Buck- FACETIME NOT CALL, FACETIME!!!! Buck being his supportive self and reminding Eddie that he didn't go out there for a job he went there for Chris, Eddie being an Uber driver who talks about his life too much 😂 and getting tips from that one passenger on how to do the job properly, seeing Eddie working hard over time at the store until he's finally financially able to donate money to that kids thing I didn't get a good look at, the zoom court hearing where the Ozzy guy was trying to get out of driving with a suspended license, and he's driving with a suspended license while on zoom court with the judge 😂😂😂, Bobby not calling Ravi "Eddie" anymore and switching up the pairings, the Ozzy guy doing the right thing and turning himself in to Athena after getting saved 🥰🥰🥰, and his car landing on the cruiser 😂😂😂, Buck and Eddie facetiming so much this episode!!!! Athena stopping by Maddie's to hang out and give her a pep talk and saying she can always text her 💖💖💖, and then Maddie taking Jee to the park and when she loses sight of her, THAT BEING WHAT MAKES HER GET HER VOICE BACK!!!! 😭💖😭💖😭💖😭💖😭💖💖😭💖😭💖💖😭💖😭💖😭💖😭💖😭 Thank fuck Jee was okay too, cause if something actually happened that would've lead into the next episode, I would've screamed. EDDIE AND CHRISTOPHER FINALLY STARTED TALKING AND CHRIS TOLD EDDIE HES PROUD OF HIM AND WANTS HIM TO STICK AROUND!!!! AND THEY HUGGED!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 AND THEN MADDIE'S BACK AT WORK STILL A BIT NERVOUS BUT NOT LETTING THE MONSTER TAKE HER VOICE ANYMORE!!!!!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Fucking beautiful.

This was exactly the kind of episode I needed after not even finishing last week's episode cause I was so pissed and stopped enjoying myself. More episodes like this please. I get it's a high stakes drama show, but someone said, "Your readers will adjust to the darkness" and while they were specifically talking about writing angst for books/fanfics, it also works for tv. If everything was high stakes all the time, we'd become accustomed to it and they need to let us breathe

It's been a while since we've had low stakes in 911. I know we've had episodes with low stakes moments, but this was a low stakes EPISODE and I can't even remember if we've ever had one. And I'm not talking about a "fun" episode like the bank vault, or treasure hunt, or the one with the "jinx", or the other one with the "cursed" bracelet, cause this episode wasn't fun in that sense. It was just a nice, calm, comfy episode with a few funny moments sprinkled in for fun 🥰

Minus Eddie's parents cause fuck those guys🖕

Episode Rating: 🗣️ 9/10 🗣️

I'm not saying I want every episode to be like this one, because of course not. But what I am saying is, with how much stuff goes on in the 911 show, not only do they need to give their audience a break every now and then, but they need to give their characters a break too. They should have an episode like this maybe twice a season, one for each half they air.

Also I'm not counting season finales because those are supposed to wrap everything up in a nice little bow (most of the time lmao) and it shouldn't take an entire season for their characters to be able to breathe for a bit.

Fucking loved this episode! Can't wait to see what happens with Hen on the bus next week!

See you then babes 😘💖✨

[magentagalaxies]

Kids in the Archive: Episode 10

welcome back to kids in the archive! to celebrate my college graduation + KITA's 10th installment + finally honor the request i received from @oliviaskithworld multiple months ago (thank you for your patience!) today i'm going to be showcasing the classic s1e3 sketch "Citizen Kane"

even if there are other sketches that i would choose as my personal favorite, i respect "citizen kane" so much as a feat of comedic timing. the premise and dialogue are funny enough, but what puts them over the top is the perfect rhythm kevin and dave establish - fast-paced dialogue that's occasionally repetitive in its text but each repetition leads to escalation in the performance.

Citizen Kane: June 3rd 1989

I actually have two copies of the script for Citizen Kane: both dated 06/03/89, and nearly identical, to each other and to the version of the sketch that aired. There really aren't many differences to point out: some sentences are shorter or longer for the purpose of timing, and there is one specific line missing from the "white" pages that's present in the "pink" pages

i assume the version i have may not be a first draft - this was likely a scene performed at the rivoli for years before making it to the screen. or perhaps this scene was mostly created via improv, so the first time on paper was less an act of creation and more documenting what already existed. the only "big" changes are removing a section of brief physical comedy before picking up the newspaper (which was not being held by another customer).

honestly, as much as i wish i could've honored this request in a timely manner, the wait has allowed this episode to be so much better. this could have been it. i would have had to stretch these tiny differences into 3 bullet points because i just couldn't show you how the sketch evolved. except, as i write this on december 21st 2024, now i can. but we have to push a bit further...

Citizen Kane: ~2002

the kids in the hall tour-film "tour of duty" was unavailable to stream for most of this year before finally being reuploaded by a fan in november. i've previously put out a full essay with general thoughts on tour of duty, but let's examine the show's version of citizen kane.

tour of duty's "citizen kane" barely changes, especially compared to some of the other sketches in this show. sure, the words don't always line up exactly and the rhythm is a bit slower (a product of enunciating for a large theater vs recording a sketch for television), but most changes are physical. in the original sketch, a fake-arm was made for dave foley for the purposes of stabbing his hand. in this one, a prop-knife was used for the effect, freeing up both hands for motioning. most notably, this version ends with dave falling out of his chair and flipping 360 degrees before landing on the floor.

immediately following the sketch is a transitional scene with bruce and mark, where they essentially replicate the "citizen kane" bit of forgetting a name and refusing to admit you're wrong, only this time they're trying to remember the name of the sketch they just watched. it's cute.

Citizen Kane: November 25th 2024

so that's all well and good, but still not a lot of differences to parse through. what would it take for them to take citizen kane in a completely different direction?

well, what if 22 years later the kids in the hall reunited to put on a show in support of paul bellini's medical expenses, but dave foley wasn't able to attend due to pneumonia and the other kids barely had time to rehearse?

a high-quality version of the full show will be available in the new year, but recently i found a fan's uploads of a few iconic sketches from the november 2024 show, including the perfect finale to my citizen kane post, because oh boy did they go off-script. for starters, the original "citizen kane" as uploaded onto youtube is 4 minutes and 16 seconds. the "tour of duty" version (not counting bruce and mark's tag) is just under 6 minutes long. the november 2024 version is NEARLY TEN MINUTES LONG

and uniquely i am actually in a position to explain how these changes happened: scott was chosen to take over dave's part in the sketch the day of the show. they added mark walking on as "constable bobby" as a way to acknowledge dave's absence (and i was actually riffing with mark, kevin, and scott when they decided the character's name. in rehearsal, mark improvised a bit about his character going undercover as a teenager). but scott responding to kevin's "was it citizen kane?" with "yes"? bruce walking on as another officer? kevin kissing scott's forehead when scott apologized for forgetting his line? that was all truly improvised, and i was standing backstage watching it happen.

prior to the show, citizen kane was one of the sketches scott was the most nervous about since it's actually quite difficult to memorize: so much of the comedy relies on repetition and timing. i've probably watched the sketch more times in the past year than he has and even i wouldn't get it word-for-word. but once you're out there onstage, you can't beat yourself up over forgetting a line. you make that part of the gag, and suddenly the sketch becomes citizen kane on top of citizen kane: a sketch about someone forgetting something and ignoring their friend's corrections becomes about scott forgetting his lines and ignoring kevin's corrections.

there's no way the kids in the hall could've replicated everything about citizen kane on the evening of november 25th 2024: the sketch was at least 35 years old, it was being performed with minimal sets and costumes in a 1500-seat theater, and the person whose comedic voice it most represented wasn't around. but in my opinion, citizen kane 2.0 reflects exactly what a live version of a pre-existing kids in the hall sketch should be: using the well-known framework as a basis for improv while still being grounded to the important beats. this attitude carried over into the night's other sketches, even ones which didn't feature dave at all like "salty ham." it gives fans new and old something new to appreciate, and allows the KITH to focus on making each other laugh. after scott got off the stage, he wasn't upset for flubbing citizen kane. he was smiling ear-to-ear, whispering to me "i forgot how fun this was". i would take this over "tour of duty" any day

or maybe i'm just saying that because i now own 2024 citizen kane's prop-knife

oh, and don't think i've forgotten the one line that changed between my two scripts, both dated 06/03/89.

"that's a hayley mills vehicle, that's not even close"

and because of scott's role in the 2024 show, i now know that's the one line HE contributed, leading me to believe the "white" pages were just kevin and dave's writing, and the "pink" pages were after the input of the other KITH on the same day.

god, i love how things become full-circle.

...

PREVIOUS KIDS IN THE ARCHIVE EPISODES:

Episode 1 - armada finale ("do we make it?") Episode 2 - fran & gordon: the vacation Episode 3 - comfortable Episode 4 - cathy & kathi: is he? Episode 5 - danny husk: kidnapped! Episode 6 - trappers Episode 7 - sizzlers & the bank Episode 8 - darcy & francesca Episode 9 - show within a show

thanks for reading!

[arc852]

Shattered Reflections Ch. 1

Summary: Joel and Skizz wake up in the middle of a field, confused and sore. With no memories except for their names and the fact that they are borrowers, they decide to take things one step at a time. Starting with making a shelter for themselves.

Meanwhile, when Joel and Skizz never show up for the beginning of the season and messaging them yields no results, panic ensues and it's now the hermits' mission to try and find their missing friends.

Word Count: 3776

AO3 Link

I hope you guys enjoy!

______________________________________________________________

 “Um, hello, welcome to Hermitcraft season 10!” Mumbo greeted everyone despite being put on the spot. “Um, it’s really good to have you all here and uh, we have some new people on the server. Should I announce those? Should I-should I point in their general direction? Is that a good idea?” Mumbo stuttered out, looking around for said new hermits within the circle to do just that. But after a quick glance around, Mumbo realized he didn’t see them at all. “Wait, where are they?” 

 The other hermits blinked and all at once, they looked around the circle as well, slowly realizing that yeah, their two newest members were nowhere to be seen. “Did they run off already?” Iskall asked, looking behind him and out into the plains.

 Xisuma, eyebrows knit, brought up the log on his comm, looking through it. “They haven’t logged in yet.” Xisuma did a few other things on his comm, the rest of the hermits watching with different levels of patience. Their admin then looked up, catching eyes with Grian and then Impulse. “They did message you guys saying they were coming, right?”

 Grian and Impulse were the ones in charge of messaging Joel and Skizz specifically. Impulse and Skizz were obvious, but Grian and Joel also had quite the history with each other. Grian even went so far to say that Joel was one of his best friends. So it made sense to have those two not only be the ones to keep in contact with them leading up to the season, but also be the ones to invite them in the first place.

 Xisuma watched them both nod. “Yeah, I literally got a message from Skizz right before this that he was hopping on.” Impulse said, getting out his comm and showing the screen to Xisuma. “He should be here.” Impulse’s voice was laced with concern, knowing that this was very unlike his best friend.

 “Same with Joel.” Grian piped in and Xisuma looked back over to him to see he was typing something on his comm with a furrowed brow. “And I just messaged Lizzie. She said he left a while ago.”

 “Strange…” Xisuma couldn’t help but mutter out loud.

 “It’s not like Joel to get cold feet like this.” Gem said and those that knew Joel from various life games and other SMPs nodded in agreement.

 “It’s not like Skizz either. He was so excited, even if he was nervous about it, no way he would skip out on all of us like this.” Tango also chimed in.

 “So…what? We think something happened to them?” Doc said with his arms crossed. But despite his demeanor, the hermits knew he was also concerned about their new members.

 “I’m sure they’re fine.” Xisuma said, trying to calm his hermits. “Perhaps they just got lost in the Hub.”

 “Uh, guys? I think this may be more serious than we think.” All the hermits turned back toward Grian at his words, noticing how Grian was looking over at Impulse’s comm as the taller man typed away at it. Grian’s gaze seemed to shift between Impulse’s comm and his own, both hermits having the beginnings of panic on their features.

 “What is it?” Xisuma asked and Grian met his eyes. 

 “We just tried messaging both Skizz and Joel and…” Grian trailed off, lifting his comm up for Xisuma to see properly. On the screen were several messages sent by Grian to Joel within the last few minutes. Unfortunately, each one came with a little red ‘Not Delivered’ line underneath. Xisuma didn’t need to see Impulse’s comm to know the same thing was happening to his messages with Skizz.

 “Well…” Xisuma said, and even through his helmet you could see his brows furrowed in concern. “There are many reasons why a message wouldn’t go through. However… given the circumstances and our knowledge of Skizz and Joel…” 

 Xisuma straightened up, suddenly going from fellow hermit to admin. At the change, everyone was at attention. The beginnings of conversation at the revelation that no messages were getting through were cut off as they watched Xisuma bring up the code. “Hermits! We have two members who, as we know it, are missing. So here is the plan. I’m going to get into contact with some other SMP admins, SMPs where Joel and Skizz could be. I’ll send some of you there and others will go into the hub to-to…” Xisuma stuttered and trailed off, freezing like a deer in headlights as he saw something within the code.

 Zedpah, who was next to Xisuma, tried to look over at the screen of code but couldn’t read it for the life of him. He shrugged in the other hermits' directions.

 “Shashwamy? What is it?” Keralis asked gently, breaking Xisuma out of his stupor. 

 “Sorry, sorry, I…there’s something here in the code. I don’t…I don’t recognize it but it’s-that is to say I think-”

 “Spit it out already!” Bdubs exclaimed, getting antsy.

 Xisuma shook his head and finally looked away from the code and toward all the hermits. “I think Skizz and Joel are on the server after all.”

***

 Joel groaned as he came to, feeling like he had just run full force into a mountain. His whole body, some way or another, felt incredibly sore and achy, and it was just all around painful. He was lying down, that much he could tell, face down in what was probably dirt. The same mountain he had run into might as well be placed on top of him too, because it felt impossible to lift himself up.

 Joel let out a slow breath and opened his eyes. Or tried to anyway. He only managed to open one of them. His other eye was currently smushed against the ground. Which did happen to be dirt. Wonderful.

 He pulled his fingers together, getting a handful of dirt in the process. He grunted at the pain of even doing just that but at least he was able to move. He opened his fist, releasing the dirt.

 Eventually, after more tiny movements, he was able to use his sore arms to sit up. He brushed the dirt off his face and tried his best to get it out of his hair. Once he was fairly cleaned off he was able to open his other eye up and finally take a look at his surroundings.

 Things seemed normal, though he didn’t recognize the area at all. It seemed as though he had ended up in a grassy field, nestled by the roots of a tree. In the distance he noticed a river, which would be a good source of clean water but it was also quite the trek away. He would have to think more about that later. He did his best to turn his head around to try and look past the tree without moving so much, still in quite a bit of pain, and he could see the edges of a mountain in the distance.

 Despite the familiarity of the giant world he lived in, he also couldn’t help but feel a bit…off.

 His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a noise coming from beside him. He looked to his left to see another person laying in the dirt. Lucky for the guy, he was laying on his back, in that position the most dirt he would get on him was in his hair. Unluckily though, he seemed to be in the same amount of pain Joel had been in. Joel couldn’t help but wince in sympathy. “Hey, are you alright?” Joel asked, reaching down and gently nudging the guy’s shoulder.

 The guy was broad shouldered with multiple scars running up and down his arms. He even had some on his face. He seemed…strangely familiar somehow. But Joel couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

 “Hey, come on, get up.” Joel said, nudging him again. If Joel could get up then this guy could. Probably. Hopefully.

 “Nnngh…Don’t wanna,” Came a mumbled reply. At least that was a good sign, meant the guy was alive at least. 

 “Let me guess, arms are sore? Achy? Feel like you’ve hit a mountain?” Joel listed off and took notice that the guy’s eyes opened to look at him in surprise. Joel smiled a bit at that. “Well, same here.” He answered his own questions. “But I seemed to get up just fine so I guess I’m just stronger and bigger and more handsome than you.” Joel rattled off, the words slipping off his tongue easily despite the fact he had no idea where that had come from. 

 The familiar stranger groaned again but slowly moved his arms to bring himself up onto the same level as Joel. Well, mostly. Joel was annoyed to note the man was taller than him, which he could tell even with the both of them sitting.

 “What happened?” The guy asked, rubbing the back of his head with a wince. Joel shrugged, rubbing his arms to try and lessen his own ache.

 “Not sure, I’m in the same hole as you are.” Joel answered. He tried to think back on what could have made either of them end up here but he was drawing a blank.

 In fact, as Joel tried to think about other things and dig deeper into his own memory, he realized he was drawing a blank in a lot of other categories as well. No matter how hard he tried to think back to something, to some memory, to people, he came up blank.

 It was a bit terrifying.

 “Hey, uh, do you happen to remember…anything? Just curious.” Joel asked the guy, his voice going up an octave at the fear he felt. He then watched as his companion’s face went through the expressions of someone realizing that no, they did not. Joel could only assume he had had the same expressions on his face just a moment ago.

 The other guy ran a hand through his hair after a few moments. “No. I can’t remember…I can’t remember anything.”

 “Awesome, that’s…that’s great.” Joel said with a wince. “Same here, by the way.” Joel thought to say, just in case it hadn’t been clear by the fear in his voice.

 The other guy was quiet for a moment and Joel noticed he looked like he was in deep thought, with his eyebrows furrowed and staring off at nothing. Again, Joel figured he had looked much the same a second ago as he himself tried to sift through any memories he might have had. Surprisingly though, as the stranger’s eyes lit up briefly, he seemed to have found something. “Actually, I know that my name is Skizz.” The now named stranger said.

 Now that Joel was thinking about it, he also, at the very least, remembered his own name. “My name is Joel.” He said back and then continued when something else came to mind. “And I know we’re borrowers.”

 Skizz chuckled. “Well, yeah. Would be kind of weird if we didn’t at least know that.” He said, gesturing to their giant surroundings. He then frowned. “Although something about it does seem off…”

 So Skizz was experiencing the same feeling as Joel. He wasn’t sure what to make of that. “It does for me too.” Joel admitted, rolling a pebble the size of his hand along the ground absentmindedly. “It’s probably just an effect of the amnesia though.” 

 “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Skizz agreed, still staring off into the surrounding distance. As Skizz did this, Joel tried again to think of anything else he could remember. Almost desperately trying to come up with anything else. It was when Joel looked over at Skizz again and suddenly remembered his first impression of the guy that he realized he may know something else after all. 

 “Hey, it’s nothing concrete or anything but you seem really familiar. Like we know each other or something.” Joel said, gaining Skizz’s attention back. Joel watched as Skizz’s eyes looked him up and down, seeing the spark of recognition in them after a moment. Skizz’s eyes widened.

 “Yeah, yeah! I see what you mean. I think you might be right!” Skizz said with a smile. Joel returned it, thankful they had the same feelings there. If that was the case, it really did seem like the two of them were probably friends. Maybe even roommates if they had ended up here together.

 “Great!” Skizz said, genuinely enthused. He tried to make a big motion with his arms in excitement but quickly stopped with a wince at the pain. “Now that we have that little piece of the puzzle, all that's left to figure out is why we have no memories and what the heck happened to make us so sore all over.”

“You make it sound a lot more simple than it’s actually going to be.” Joel quipped with a small snort. “Besides, I think the soreness is starting to let up a little.” Joel noticed as he stretched out his shoulder. There were still little pangs but definitely nothing like when he first woke up. Joel took this opportunity to finally stand up. He was a bit wobbly on his feet but he managed to catch himself.

 The same could not be said for Skizz however and Joel rushed over to stop Skizz from falling back over. The other borrower was a bit heavy but thankfully it didn’t take much for him to finally balance out. “Geez, that was a close one. Thanks Joel!”

 “Yeah, of course.” He said, only stepping away once he was sure Skizz was balanced. Skizz stood on his own, flexing his muscles and moving his body in order to get rid of any more aches. Joel couldn’t help but let that familiar feeling take hold of him for a moment. The only thing Joel could be sure of, right now, was his name and that Skizz was his friend. And right now his only friend and companion in this weird amnesiac state they had found themselves in. The last thing he wanted was for something to happen to him and lose that one connection. “The two of us gotta stick together, ya know?” He said, voicing those thoughts in a single sentence, with little care in his voice and a shrug of his shoulders.

 Suddenly he felt an arm wrap around his shoulders, jolting Joel out of his thoughts and almost causing Joel to fall over again. He didn’t though, thanks to that same arm holding him steady. He looked and followed the arm up to see Skizz grinning down at him. Once again, Joel frowned, realizing Skizz was at least a full head taller than him.

 “That’s the spirit! The two of us against the world!” Skizz exclaimed and Joel’s frown at their height difference quickly turned into a grin to match Skizz’s. His enthusiasm sure was infectious. He briefly wondered if this is how it always was between the two of them.

 Joel playfully pushed him away, Skizz’s smile still present when his arm left his shoulder and he moved to stand in front of him instead. Joel rolled his eyes. Skizz seemed to be good at making Joel feel better. Despite the worry for their lack of memories still, Joel was finding himself smiling.

 But it was time to get back on track.

 “I think our actual first order of business should be finding shelter.” Joel said after a moment of thought, his tone turning serious. He crossed his arms and looked out into the distance, eyes focusing on the river. “We might have a home already but wherever it is, it’s not going to do us any good right now.” It would be nice if they could stumble upon it, or even better yet remember where it was. But Joel had a feeling they were very far away from home.

 Skizz nodded in agreement, his smile now a little less. “Yeah, that makes sense.” Skizz also looked around. There wasn’t a lot close by to them. Other than the tree, it was an open field for a long stretch which ended at a river one way and a mountain the other. “We probably should stick close, right?”

 Joel nodded, finally turning his attention away from the river. “It would be nice if we could be a bit closer to the river but I don’t really see anywhere over there we can make a shelter.” Maybe if they burrowed underground nearby, maybe at the base of a rock. But they didn’t really have the time to do something like that. They’d also have to really stock up on water if they weren’t going to be close to it, maybe put it in a reserve. And making something to catch rainwater would be helpful too. Could save them some trips in the future.

 Joel looked back toward the tree. Yeah, it was probably better to stick close to where they woke up. The shade of the tree would also give them some protection. “I think we should get some wood and carve ourselves up some tools. That’ll make gathering supplies and materials a lot easier and it’ll help us put together that shelter we need.” Joel suggested, already thinking up some ideas on what their shelter could look like. Maybe they could make it so it was covered by the roots sticking out of the ground? That way it was at least hidden. Joel looked toward Skizz to see what he thought.

 Skizz nodded with his smile back at full force. “Sounds like a plan!” Skizz exclaimed, ready to get going. Joel nodded back with a smile, glad Skizz was easy to talk to. It wouldn’t do them any good to argue about something like this, especially at a time like this. Joel looked toward the tree, sizing it up, before bending down and picking up the pebble he had been messing with earlier. He weighed it in his hand, throwing it up a few inches and catching it again. It wasn’t too hefty or sharp but it would do the job until they could make some actual tools. 

 He went closer to the tree, his new temporary tool in hand, meeting up with Skizz who had already walked over. He noticed Skizz also sizing the tree up before letting out a low whistle.

 “Man, this thing is huge.” Skizz observed the obvious. Joel gave him a flat look.

 “Everything’s huge, Skizz. We’re borrowers.” At the face Skizz gave him, he couldn’t help but laugh.

 “I know that! It’s just…you know! It’s probably the amnesia…it’s like I’m not used to it or something.” Skizz tried to explain himself. Joel hummed in thought at that and looked directly up at the tree. From this angle, he couldn’t even see where the tree ended. He felt way smaller than what should be normal but that didn’t make any sense. He was the same size he had always been. It was one of the only things his amnesiac mind could remember.

 It was that off sort of feeling all over again.

 “...I mean, I get it. It’s the same for me too.” He revealed tentatively with his arms crossed. There had to be an explanation though. A reason why the size of this tree felt unfamiliar. “Maybe…maybe we’re not actually outdoor borrowers to begin with.” Joel suddenly came up with and couldn’t help but agree with his own statement. Yeah, that had to be it. “That could be why we aren’t used to trees like this.”

 Skizz blinked, eyes going wide for a second. Joel could tell he was thinking it over. “...That does actually make a lot of sense.” Skizz said before looking down at Joel. “If we’re indoor borrowers though, well, what happened? How did we end up outside with no house in sight?”

 Joel bit his lip. That was a very good question. “Just like with everything else, I’m not sure.” It was very weird though.

 Joel shook his head. They would have plenty of time to come up with theories or look around more later. Right now, the most important thing was to make a shelter before it got dark. “Anyway, tools.”

 “...Right. Right! Tools. Not a problem.” Skizz said after coming out of his own thoughts. He looked at the tree for a brief moment before bending down and picking up a pebble just like Joel had. 

 Now with a pebble in hand, Joel watched as Skizz took the first swing at the tree. It didn’t do much at first but has Skizz kept hitting it, some of the bark started to come off. The thing they would be using to build their first tools out of. Joel watched for just a moment longer before realizing he should probably join in.

 After some time stripping down the tree, and getting quite the collection of bark, Joel went big with one of his hits. It was to make a stubborn piece of bark finally come loose. But instead of that happening, the pebble, and his hand, went right through the bark. Joel blinked in surprise, taking his hand out of the hole he had just created. “Uh, Skizz?” Joel called out as he tried to get a better look inside the hole.

 Skizz quickly joined his side. “What’s up?”

 “I don’t know but I managed to put a hole into the tree.” Joel said, squinting into the hole’s darkness. “...I think this tree might be hollow inside.” Joel realized and decided to see for sure by swinging the pebble back toward the hole. Skizz flinched back at the power of the hit but Joel just cleared away some of the dust at the now bigger hole and glanced inside. 

 Now with some light able to hit the inside, Joel could tell for sure that the base of this tree was hollow. Joel grinned and stepped away to make room for Skizz. “Take a look for yourself.”

 Skizz bent down a little to see through the hole. While the hole may have been eye level with Joel, it certainly wasn’t with Skizz. The reminder of how much shorter Joel was put a brief scowl on his face. “Hey! You’re right! It’s like a cozy little grove in there.” Skizz exclaimed with a grin.

 Joel’s mind raced with ideas with this discovery. “If we can make ourselves an entrance and clean the inside up a bit…” Joel mumbled out loud, mostly to himself but Skizz turned to listen as well, understanding crossing his features. 

 Joel looked up to meet Skizz’s eyes and grinned. “I think we just found our shelter.”

[billpottsismygf]

Doctor Who: The Story and the Engine

Wow! What an amazing episode that was, definitely the best of the series by quite a wide margin, and this has been a great series. I didn't write as many notes as I usually do because I was so engrossed, so I don't even know what to say, but it made me cry several times and was very well written and very creatively brought to life. In terms of the visuals, I particularly love the use of animation to bring these stories to life, and the opening credits starting on that same screen adds to the very meta feeling of this whole era.

I love stories about stories, and this was no exception. I love the idea of stories that can power an engine, that power humanity. I love the idea of the Doctor as a 'neverending story', again tying into the meta-ness of it all. I had just been thinking about the second Doctor story The Mind Robber (which is set in the land of story), then lo and behold there was Patrick Troughton! I know it's hardly rare to see a little montage or compilation of previous Doctors - it was even in Rogue just last year - but it just worked so well here. The Doctor is a storyteller and he is a story, the one he tells himself within the universe and the one we are telling outside of it.

The Doctor talks at the end about how humans need stories to live and that destroying the gods of story (and thus destroying story itself) would destroy humanity, and that is very reminiscent of one of the most beloved Terry Pratchett books, Hogfather. As Death says in that book, 'HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN', and I completely agree. I'm not sure I entirely understood the sci-fi magic behind how this once human man created the gods, and thus how the gods' deaths could result in the end of humans, nor did I understand everything about the nexus and how the gods took control of something he'd created when he apparently still has it, but I don't even mind, to be quite honest. Hopefully this will become clearer on repeat viewings, but it was such a beautifully told story that it being a bit confusing is sort of fine.

One thing I think it could have used a lot more clarity on, however, is who the gods are, given that the pantheon has been a big deal ever since The Giggle. These gods of story don't seem to have anything to do with the pantheon, given that the Doctor is much more nonchalant about them, even watching Marvel movies with them and such. They are seemingly powered by belief and by stories being told about them, which is very reminiscent both of Discworld (as alluded to above) and (unfortunately) Neil Gaiman's American Gods (and the sort of sequel Anansi Boys, funnily enough). I don't mind this being the case in Doctor Who as well, but it's a little bit messy and confusing given that we already have a set of gods that the series keeps building up as incredibly powerful and frightening. The way the barber describes himself as being all of these different gods is a lot more in line with how the pantheon has been shown to work (eg. all of Sutekh's different names in his reveal last series), but this was dismissed for the gods of story, who apparently all exist in their own right and totally separately to the pantheon. Regardless, that's a minor gripe in what was a stunning episode all round.

I loved the discussion of the Doctor's newfound blackness and how he has found fellowship and belonging by befriending other black men. This is a really good example of stories that Doctor Who could never have told before and I love that it now gets to tell them. Stories are important, as this episode tells us, and here we get to explore Anansi and hair maps and black culture in a way that any previous Doctor couldn't have done.

Okay, I can't go any further without talking about Jo Martin!!! Firstly, I love that she gets to be in this episode specifically, given that she is in fact the actual first black incarnation of the Doctor (not counting some of the timeless children), but more than anything I'm just so happy to see her! I've been saying for years that it's not fair how little she got to do, given how clearly brilliant she is in the role. Who knows where this will lead, but there's more than a hint there that we might get more of her. I dearly hope this will be a spin off or an episode that has her as the lead (like that one during Flux, except this time I want it to be her we see playing the part), but maybe it will be more of a multi-Doctor thing. Regardless, I want to see more of her and I'm so happy it seems that we will!

I also want to know more about this bet with Anansi. Abby's character was another really touching element of the episode, with her having counted on the Doctor, and the Doctor having let her down. Belinda's 'hurt people hurt people' line is maybe a little trite, but I did really appreciate her talking about how what matters is how you choose to use that hurt.

I should really talk about our villain as well, the mysterious barber! Although I'm still confused by the mechanics of who and what he is, I loved everything else about him, and his emotional arc was especially well done. I spent the whole episode knowing I knew the actor, but it wasn't until I looked him up afterwards that I realised he was Ligur in Good Omens (and Lord Boreal from the His Dark Materials adaptation). He's such a good actor and he absolutely sold the menace and the mystery of this unnamed barber, and then he absolutely sold his devastation at the end. I was brought to tears by that six word story scene with the Doctor and his second chance to be a human and to share stories the human way.

Sorry, this reaction is all over the place because I have so much to say and very little idea of how to say it, but in short: I adored that episode.

Small things:

This isn't that small, but I don't know where else to put it: that story about Belinda's nursing really got me. Another time I cried during this episode!

That being said, how does the Doctor know this story? Did she tell him about it? Or is it him overstepping boundaries once more and either stalking her or getting it from her psychically or something?

What's the deal with the creepy child Belinda saw but the Doctor didn't? Is this going to be like the ghosts Graham sees at Villa Diodati or will it be relevant again? I wouldn't have thought twice about it if it hadn't been brought up again at the end, so now I'm thinking it's going to be important somehow.

Apparently the TARDIS cuts the Doctor's hair, which is wonderful detail but also quite funny. It explains how this Doctor in particular seems able to have so many different hairstyles from week to week, especially if the TARDIS is able to do what those special clippers can and grow his hair as well as cut it.

[hellobitchlet]

Thoughts on Natlan act 3 and 4:

Act 3-

- there is seriously no point to giving Traveler an ancient name. They're very obviously just being given one bc the writers want to show off how amazing they are at everything again. If the whole point of ancient names is that it's solely a Natlan thing, then there's no point in Traveler getting one. Why were they and Paimon scrambling to get one? You're already being praised and given new abilities constantly, you don't fucking need it.

- that aside, Xilonen gave a decent explanation of how ancient names and the night kingdom work. I didn't feel like act 1 or 2 explained anything properly beyond "it sure exists and is important to the super special archon's plans", but Xilonen explaining that deeds have to happen inside of Natlan and be recorded and acknowledged by the Wayob (who will only acknowledge ppl from Natlan) was easy to understand and made perfect sense. My only problem here is that it should've been explained this cleanly back in act 1, before we started using ancient names for drama. Because, you know, maybe I would've cared more about it then?

- the Ororon stuff would've been much more interesting and tense if it wasn't introduced by... being randomly told to you. In the middle of an unrelated plotline. And then spending the whole fucking time assuring you that he's a great person while you follow a trail. And doing nothing else except experience Citlali's inner thoughts. That was literally the entire build up to meeting him.

- despite it being handled in the most boring way possible (and god, do I want to emphasize that they handled it in a boring way), I do like the plotline between Citlali, Ororon, and Capitano. It's a lot more interesting than the basic ass saving Natlan plot, which is about as much of a stereotypical hero plot as they could've made it. I honestly adore Citlali and Ororon now, they're definitely my favorites of the Natlan cast. Like, they had actual on screen conflict with one another for a few minutes! They care sooo much about each other and it was shown through their actions and interactions with each other instead of just monologuing it to Traveler. The bar is below the fucking ground...

- I especially enjoyed seeing Citlali getting drunk and accidentally spilling about her problems. However... it's funny (read: annoying) to think about how long it's taken for this to actually fucking happen when Kaeya and Venti have been here since the beginning, and about how much Kaeya and Venti have been shit on for being alcoholics. It was probably one of the best character building moments I have ever seen from Genshin, but man, a newly introduced Natlan character should not have been the first one to do this.

- "we've only known each other for a few days, right? What would you think of me if I were to start dumping all my complaints on you after we've only just met?" Oh thank god she has some actual self awareness. I wish other characters (playable and npc) would stop infodumping their entire backstories the moment they're introduced. Ultimately, the awkward telepathy moment that they're probably never going to explain served the same purpose. But that wasn't something she was doing on purpose, so I'm willing to forgive her for it and pin it on the writers instead.

-it really sucks that they're being so confusing about Citlali's age. You know it's because of Hoyo's refusal to make playable characters that aren't 1000% conventionally attractive. They're seriously trying to give us a teacher/student relationship in which the teacher is supposed to be significantly older than the student and NOT give her a single wrinkle. She also kept saying stuff that implied she would age to be hundreds of years old, so I want to be interested in that, but it just got caught up in the confusion of "wtf is her age?!"

- I got increasingly annoyed every time Traveler shared the Capitano stuff with others. You fucking idiot!!! He specifically told you not to do that!!! You barely even doubted Mavuika even though you barely know her and she's mostly just been standing around going "trust me on this bc I know what I'm doing" this whole time!!! Are you sure you even care about what he had to say?! Because he specifically said he would tell you if you actually fucking listened to him, which you are going out of your way to NOT do!!! Just a few real life months ago you were acting all buddy-buddy with Arlecchino!!! Can you be consistent about your opinions on the Fatui for one second!!!

- they were really trying super hard to make Capitano wanting to save Natlan mysterious, and make him have ulterior motives (like literally every other harbinger since Scara), but like... First off, this is the last gnosis the Fatui doesn't have, and second, he directly said that Mavuika failing would be bad for the rest of Teyvat as well. He already had perfectly good reasons. You don't need to make yet another harbinger have ulterior motives.

- I almost liked the Chasca and Chuychu moment. But I say almost because... there was no fucking point to it except to tell you that the Fatui found an ancient relic. You were just stuck in dialogue box hell that made a weak attempt at pretending there was gameplay by putting a timer on single dialogue options (not even being given multiple options? really?). That whole thing should've been a sneaking sequence with Traveler. There's literally no reason why it wasn't one. It wouldn't even require good writing to add that. Just have Mavuika say that someone found a large Fatui camp, and have Traveler volunteer to sneak in to check it out. Then, you could've had Traveler finding the relic, and maybe finding Capitano and Ororon and follow them to the domain while they discuss their plan. There you go. That would've saved you a lot of time stuck in dialogue boxes, by removing this sequence and the Ororon memory sequence and replacing it with an extended period of gameplay.

-However, the role reversal and the actually showing how good the sisters are at working together improved their characters a lot for me. Chasca doesn't feel as much like a Shenhe copycat when fighting with Chuychu. But even then, it was very annoying when it turned into "don't worry, we don't actually mean what we say! We're just stubborn!" immediately after their sequence. I could fucking tell, Genshin. I'm not a child.

Act 4-

- ...in theory, initially fighting with Capitano and eventually convincing him to help us is an okay storyline. But none of this felt like fighting him! We literally spent the whole fucking time following him and his troops around and debating what his intentions are! And no, a single fancy cutscene unrelated to Traveler doesn't count! We never got to hear his side of the story until after he failed, and he just had a 10 second spat with Mavuika, revealed that he's from Khaenri'ah, and reluctantly agreed to Mavuika's plan within 5 minutes.

- also, after Fontaine offloaded the majority of Furina's backstory onto an inner monologue in act 5 that just reiterated what we already knew about her, I am not a fan of poor Ororon getting a similar treatment in the end. It's not as bad bc it served a purpose in the story besides "look at how sad he is!", but suddenly becoming one of the special heroes his super special archon wanted and having no objections was a really boring ending to what started off as the first on screen playable ch vs playable ch conflict we've had since like... Childe in Liyue I think? Hoyo is lucky that it has cultivated fandoms that see monologues and sudden info dumps as good writing.

-I'm glad that seelies are finally confirmed to be angels, and that we're getting more proper Celestia lore, but once again, Hoyo is lucky that it has cultivated fandoms that see monologues and sudden info dumps as good writing.

- I have mixed feelings about Capitano's backstory and intentions. On one hand, I like that he's from Khaenri'ah, and I'm very glad that he knows the abyss sibling and Dain. I really like the Khaenri'ah related parts. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the Natlan parts of his backstory. As I've said before, I'm really fed up with Genshin tailoring harbinger backstories so that they're part of the lore of the nation they show up in, instead of Snezhnaya. And I'm even more fed up with them making every harbinger have different goals that are unrelated to the Fatui. I've talked about this before in this post.

-going back to the point about his goals, his backstory can still perfectly serve as an explanation for why he's helping the Tsaritsa, with or without the Natlan part. You still didn't need to pull any of the special motives stuff. It would've made perfect sense to say that Capitano (+ Tsaritsa as well maybe) was afraid that the destruction of Natlan could interfere with their plan, so Tsaritsa has been sending him and some troops to deal with the situation and try to get the gnosis in the process. But, of course, Mavuika would fight back and be a powerful opponent, so this mini war between them has been going on for a while, which would tie back to Varka's letter from Weinleslfest first mentioning him going to Natlan 2 years ago.

-...oh, wait. That Weinleslfest moment and Mika's backstory was probably just to remind you that he and Varka existed and foreshadow him being in Natlan and didn't actually mean anything. I know this isn't related to Natlan at all, I just felt like saying it. We don't talk about Mika enough, okay?

- with all that being said, after how much I hated Arlecchino, and Dottore being used as a scapegoat to make playable harbingers look better, I had little interest in Capitano initially. But I do actually like him now. Maybe even just as much as I like Citlali and Ororon?

- speaking of the Fatui, I have to mention how weird it is that the pyro gnosis being the last gnosis the Fatui doesn't have isn't treated like a big deal at all. The idea of Capitano even bringing the gnosis to the Tsaritsa is barely even mentioned. We're literally going to Snezhnaya next, and the Fatui screen time is STILL not focused on the Tsaritsa's plans?! There is no worry about what will happen if he succeeds in getting the gnosis? No talk about what the Tsaritsa's plans could be? No talk about what it could mean for Natlan or the rest of Teyvat? No connecting this story to the overarching plot beyond a few lore reveals? Nothing??

- Genshin is seriously bad at stakes. THAT WASN'T A FUCKING WAR, THAT WAS A SINGLE BATTLE! It just... suddenly sprung up, and it took about 10 minutes, but I almost started feeling tense. There were actual corpses all over the place, and I was fighting non stop instead of being stuck in a dialogue box, even if the mobs themselves were fairly boring, and then... Chasca suddenly became one of the special heroes and everything was over. All of that was like... half an act of fighting? Literally any other game would have at least finished the 'war' at... the end of the story? Obviously? We couldn't have at least waited to finish this in act 5?? Seriously?? This whole thing was just a vehicle to quickly make Chasca one of the heroes, finish the 6 heroes plot point, and then show a hint of the false sky??

- gameplay wise, why did the handle the 'war' like that? What was with the slow ass hot air balloon I was forced to use 3 times- but was allowed to teleport to places the rest of the time? Why was I forced into a situation where I couldn't leave, when I was literally just in Natlan and not a domain? Why did we suddenly switch to a different dialogue box just for a few minutes?? Someone PLEASE explain to Hoyo that adding new stuff doesn't automatically make it good. Or, I guess 'novel', as their surveys put it.

- Chuychu was the closest I've ever come to actually being sad for an npc's death. Probably because I actually saw someone react to it, instead of Genshin just expecting you to care because Paimon is telling you to. Because of the Chuychu stuff, I'm actually starting to like Chasca, and I'm glad for it. Liking a character in theory despite canon is much better for rewriting stories than disliking them entirely and not knowing what to do with them (*glances at Fontaine*).

- I'm starting to see that the 6 heroes plot is probably just their current ploy to place the focus on the characters who have come out this update, or are coming out next update. Act 2 has Mualani becoming a Special Hero, because her first banner was up at the time. Then act 3 and 4 had Ororon and Chasca becoming Special Heroes, because Xilonen already is one and they're coming out next update.

- that being said- I feel bad for Kachina and Mualani. Kachina was the obvious 'main character' of act 1, with Mualani and Kinich as supporting characters. But then in act 2, the focus was shifted over to Mualani, because she's a 5 star and her first banner is happening, so they need to convince people to like her. And in the process, Kachina was screwed over in what should've been her plotline, becoming a supporting character whose role is to prove how good at The Power of Friendship Mualani is and introduce us to the 6 heroes stuff. ...and then both are screwed over in the very next update because they're already out and don't have anything else to do.

- I know that she'll presumably get more screen time when she comes out, but it's greatly worrying me (for reasons that should be obvious) that Iansan is barely being given any screen time. I am so worried that they're trying to pull a Xinyan or a Candace with her, because of course they would.

- literally what response are you expecting me to have to Xilonen slowly dying for Traveler to get an ancient name when it's revealed in the randomist and calmest way possible?? It's obviously supposed to be cheap emotional fuel, but both Xilonen and Citlali are being so calm about this random reveal that I didn't end up caring either. I don't care so much that I almost forgot to mention it in this post.

Overall, not impressed at all, but there are a few tiny gems in here that will be good for when I eventually have to get to it in my rewrite lol.

[torturedblue]

It’s the middle of the week, have some dancing turtles

Spoilers below as I gush about my Mutant Mayhem Monday experience 🤗 please feel free to gush with me I wanna hear other people’s thoughts too!

First off… When Seth wanted to put the teenager in TMNT he meant it. Like, all the versions act like teenagers, but like Nickelodeon PG stereotypical teens. MM turtles were the realest PG-13 outta pocket 21st century teenagers I’ve ever seen and I love that shit because it’s the first time I actually felt like I was around the kids in middle school and high school again with the way they talk. Kinda appreciate Superfly cussing too? Like idk it’s Ice Cube and this villain goes hard tryna kill some teenage turtles he formally saw as his lil cousins, let the grown mutant cuss

Also uh, was not expecting to be sad so early in the movie? Like I could tell from the trailers it was gon be an emotional rollercoaster but shit like ten minutes in and these turtles are fuckin depressed. And to see it really hit me because in every other version (except for Bayverse) the turtles literally never let not being part of the human world get to them. In the shows especially they’re so well adjusted and never bothered by sticking to the shadows. Then there’s Rise where they pretty much go out whenever they want and indulge in most of the human world stuff they want to. For these guys to be so stunted and desperate to have more freedom was so heart wrenching. Especially when Splinter grounds them for a whole month and the reality sinks in of how much they know the life they want isn’t an option for them

Wasn’t expecting any kind of ship or romance but that crush Leo has on April hit me like truck because…… holy crap the Leo-April pair has never been a thing? On top of that this is only the second on screen black April we’ve seen and I’ve been a Leo kinnie across the board since day one so to see this combo of my favorite character liking a black girl is making me lose my mind 🥲 and like it got me thinking of several of my favorite shows and the single characters I kin in those and if they’ve ever had black love interests and it’s just still not a common normalized thing honestly.

I’m sure a lot of people aren’t excited for the prospect of ships coming back (especially after 2012 scarred us) but as a Leo lover and black girl it got me so excited to see something like this. I’m just hopeful and optimistic they won’t mess it up like a lot of shows do. The “this is just as friends line” already makes me a little worried bc that trope never has a good history but I have faith they’ll handle things tastefully and not make it toxic or messy

MURDER THE SHREKS!

“I assume you’d wanna be on camera. ‘Cause you have, like a very camera ready look…” OKAY SMOOOOOTH LEONARDOOOOOO 👏🏽

Could not stop laughing while he was shooting his shot my face was literally donnie’s restraining myself from bursting out laughing

Just a couple of my favorite questions that April wrote down for them:

“Do you carry salmonella?” Look I still don’t know wtf salmonella is but it’s the second time a TMNT iteration has joked about it so I’m starting to think it has something specifically to do with turtles 👀

“Have you caught covid?” Oml covid exists in this world

“Are you the source of covid?” OUT OF LINE 💀

“How many people has the red bandana turtle stabbed? Does he need therapy?” Yes.

“Does sunlight cause you to burst into flames?” They’re- they’re not vampires? 😂

Leon Ardo deserves the world and whatever he wants in it give him everything 😭

I will never understand what made Donnie laugh so hard at the name Nardo other than it being because it’s his sibling and that it bothers Leo lmao

All imma say about the puke scene is that I’m glad I heard an “out of context” spoiler about it bc I knew exactly when to look away and I’m glad I did bc the scene lasted for so long??? 😀❓But hey at least I had Unwritten to listen too while I was sparing my eyes 😂

The sequence of them going around and shaking down those gangs and Superfly’s connections. BAD. ASS. And each of them got their own moments to shine? Loved it. Like they each even got to take point and have their moments where they got to kick in the door lol. And the fight scenes were just, muah. Chef’s kiss, they all looked amazing taking grown ass adults down together

Okay Splinter definitely gets the best dad award for putting together that little surprise party, with all the celebrity Chris’s and pretending to wait on them 🥺 so pure. It did make me sad the guys immediately left and you can just see such a sad dejected look on Splinter’s face, knowing he can’t provide what his kids really want or make them happy enough without it 🥲 At the very least they say thanks and that they appreciate but I would’ve at least stayed for a lil bit and gone along with it, Splinter just looked so excited about it and it was so sweet 😭

And he doesn’t even get upset though he knows they’re hiding something, he just says he’ll help them if they’ve gotten into trouble, which is something I’m sure almost every kid has wanted instead of having the kind of relationship where they’re more scared of telling their parents they messed up instead of handling it on their own

I love how musical Superfly’s family is 😂 Ray Filet just starts sing-introducing his name and Mondo and the other couple mutants when they drive with in the car trying to find music they could all sing to together 🥹 not to mention the musical references Superfly makes later that I’ll get to. “Kinda don’t wanna murder everyone on Earth, I just kinda wanna sing” Me too bruh.

Raph immediately going “goochi goochi goo” and playing peekaboo with Genghis frog is so underrated that boy has such a soft side he’s not even that afraid of showing at times, and maybe it’s continuing the trope of Raph having a soft spot for pets/animals? Who knows 😌

Yo I was kinda shook when that government guy knocked Leo out and he just fell unconscious on the ground 😶 Like we’re used to seeing the authorities be brutal especially in movies like this but that’s a whole teenager? You just assaulted a minor? 🙂 Crazy

Also I know it’s sad they got captured and drained painfully but Mikey in that scene was hilarious 😂 like even the way he was dramatically crying and Leo was just started to cry with him like “iM sO sOrRy mIkEeEeEy! 😭” gold. When one of his children is hurting Leo hurts too. One of my favorite moments 🤣

They literally started singing BTS while being tortured they’re so unserious but like in a serious way to them and I love it. Also the fact that they did it just to make Donnie feel better? So pure. Like Raph of all turtles offered to sing while being drained of blood (bc I refuse to use the m word 💀)

The way Splinter snuck in and soloed literal government soldiers single handedly? Badass. Never loved seeing a Splinter save his sons so much 🥹

“But it’s the only way we’ll be accepted.”

“No! We accept you!”

“You can come live with us! We accept you!”

“WE VIBE!”

Oml they’re so puuuuure 😭 I really thought this was gonna be a moment where the guys invite them all to come live with them and Splinter was gonna be like ‘aha 😬 whoa slow down there’ but damn nah he was just as enthusiastic as them inviting all those mutants to come live in their home forever “The more the merrier!” Like ugh he just loves finding family like Baxter Stockman and we see where the guys got their loving nature from 🥹

The amount of his soul Mikey put into that BROSEEEPH was so real like I’ve never heard the name broseph be said in any other way, I’m so glad they put that moment in there

“New York, New York!” “I’m the king of New York!”

Oml superfly’s a Broadway baby 🤗 he’s a big bad villain marching through time square and talking about King Kong but he’s fill gonna nerd out and make his musical theatre references 😂

“For once in your life you didn’t sound lame. You actually started to sound like a leader”

“That was really heartfelt Raph”

I love the Leo Raph dynamic in this movie. Like they don’t always agree or understand each other but they will show love towards one another and show mutual appreciation

Something about any of the turtles shells cracking always gets to me for some reason like those are some serious permanent injuries so I want to see if they do anything special with that in the sequel or show maybe 🤔 And I couldn’t tell if all of theirs cracked or just one, and if so which turtle it was. I think Leo or Raph. I feel like it was Leo but Raph’s are also starting to have a trend of getting cracks in their shells so 🤷🏽‍♀️

Also I do not want to judge what other people like to wear but why are Raph and Donnie the only normal dressed ones 😭 like Mikey looks like he’s going on vacation and Leo looks like he’s going to clock in at Best Buy 😂 tell me it’s because they have limited resources for clothes lmao. HE’S LITERALLY WEARING A LANYARD

Them taking off the masks was crazy honestly… like them deciding not to wear them made my brain pause until I realize they’re kids going to school now and not being ninjas all the time… they don’t need them anymore. I’m just so pleased with the fact that this movie was willing to do what all other iterations weren’t. I see why they’re getting a sequel and show already, these guys and the plot development deserve so much more exploration

Maybe I missed something in the beginning but I’m wondering where Stockman went. Like is he still in custody? Did he die? Because not seeing him again that’s what I assumed but we only saw him get arrested or whatever, so if anything I don’t get why Superfly and the others wouldn’t try to break him out 🤔 I was surprised they didn’t make him a villain though, but I’m pretty happy about him getting to be a more optimistic kind character tho

SHREDDER HAD ME SHOOK LIKE THE ARMOR ALREADY LOOKED SO COOL AND I WAS NOT EXPECTING THEM TO GET THE BIG BAD INVOLVED AHHHH I’M SO READY TO SEE THEM REACT TO THIS ANGRY GIANT TIN CAN

Although I do wonder if Shredder’s gonna have some personal gripe with them since they have a different backstory he doesn’t seem to be a part of. And shit now that they’re public and in school it’s gonna be so much easier for him to go after them 😅 pluses and minuses…

The soundtrack: golden. Cultured. Nothing but range. Goes from a 90’s rap song to Natasha Bedingfield’s soulful 2000’s song. Most movies only ever have all pop mainstream songs or only rap songs because they think they can’t mix but MM does it effortlessly. The turtles are so versatile not just with music genres but they make old and new references ‘cause they’re well rounded kings 💪🏽 Between rizz, Adele, broski, Hey Arnold, K-Pop, Ferris Bueller, etc… I mean Donnie’s literally doing the sprinkler and the funky chicken in that gif up top 😂 they’re born in 2008 I doubt any kids today know about those dances anymore

Clearly I have all the thoughts and feelings about these boys and the movie, but I think this is probably my favorite TMNT movie? I’ve loved all of them but I think this one definitely brings me the most comfort fr