#we did flub one run

[glacierruler]

The Bumblebees thought they could make a new record that couldn't be beat, but NOPE! Midnight Wisps broke their record that they had made just a few minutes later!

Also the Bumblebees may have placed first in the event, but only barely! We were right behind them in second!

[plussizeficchick]

Close to You | Denki x Chubby!Reader

Summary; Denki doesn’t play when it comes to threats to your relationship, even at the expense of his friends.

Warnings: smut (p in v, implied cunnilingus, breeding kink (I mean it’s me😂) slight quirkplay) mean!Denki (but really only to his friend, he takes it out on your pussy though😣) dickhead!bakugo.

SN: I will be posting the Jungkook fic soon!!😭but this is just a little snack I had preplanned until then😉😂

You weren’t quite sure how you got here.

As soon as Denki stormed through your door, everything had been a bit of a blur. The only things you were able to make out of the senseless rambling was “fucking dickhead” “can make her come harder than anything” “gonna fuckin’ breed her”.

That, that had your pussy quivering.

While you were busy pondering what brought on this sudden shift in your boyfriend’s mood, Denki was thinking of all the different ways he was going to show everyone just how much you’re his.

— —

“Does he always talk to you like that?” Denki looks up at you from where his head is resting on your lap. “Who?” He asks, brows furrowed in confusion. 

You’d both decided it was time for you to meet his friends and he couldn’t have been more excited about it. You met with the group at a homey sports bar for the more relaxed atmosphere and besides a few minor flubs, he thought you all got along well. You and Mina made plans to get your nails done together, you recommended the rolling papers you use to Sero, and Kirishima hadn’t found someone with his sense of humor in ages. You even managed to bring Bakugo out of his shell, bouncing recipes off of one another seamlessly. So he wondered what went wrong.

“Bakugo, I don’t really like how he talks to you.” You try to convey without looking controlling. “Like when he calls you stupid and things like that. I mean he even had you running around, getting stuff for him today like you’re some “errand boy”.” “That’s just how he is,” Denki waves you off. He was used to Bakugo’s antics after having gone to school with him, so he knows better than to take it to heart. “And he doesn’t genuinely mean it when he calls me dumb.” He chuckles, focusing his attention back to what’s playing on TV. You sigh, a bit unsatisfied with his answer. “You know your friends better than I do,” You start, carding your fingers through his blonde tresses. “I just don’t think it’d kill him to be a bit kinder to you. You’re not in high school anymore, you don’t have to cater to him.” You say, pressing a kiss to his forehead. But what you said got him thinking.

— — 

If Denki was being honest, he was pretty accustomed to the way things were. And if he hadn’t met you, he was sure that this would’ve been his everyday life.

You hadn’t meant to initially, but you made him realize that there was a sort of hierarchy within his friend group with Bakugo at the head and after being with you for so long, he realized he was actually getting fucking sick of it.

Sure, Bakugo’s kind of behavior is expected when you’re a hormonal teen struggling with new emotions, but now it’s time to get a fucking grip.

He hadn’t even meant for everything to go down the way it did, but Katsuki’s nothing if not a shit starter.

— —

“and then Mina’s gonna pick her up so they can get their nails done. I’m pretty sure they’re gonna head back to (Y/N)’s place to get ready and we can pick them up from there.” Kirishima explained to Denki, whilst simultaneously narrowly dodging a blue shell in Mario Kart. Denki grunts in frustration, his character having slipped on a banana peel. “That sounds good, gives us plenty of time-” He’s cut off by Katsuki’s brash voice sounding from the couch. “Hey, Dunceface, go and get me a milk carton from the kitchen.”

Now, normally Denki would’ve made a playful comment about Katsuki being lazy before getting up and doing what he was told, but after being with you, after spending so much time working on bettering himself not just for you, but for himself, he’s not just gonna be walked all over anymore.

“Nah I’m in the middle of something, anyways, Kiri. I was think-” “HAH?! Did ya fuckin’ hear me? I wasn’t asking-” “Is it really that serious, Bakugo? I’m doing something so just get it yourself.” He scoffs, rolling his eyes at Bakugo’s immaturity. Both Kirishima and Sero watch the display with baited breath, unsure why Kaminari suddenly has a death wish. Bakugo’s eyes widen at the blatant disrespect, sparks threatening to shoot from his hands, however, Kaminari doesn’t back down.

Katsuki narrows his eyes before a humorless chuckle escapes him, “Oh, I get it. Ever since Chubs decided to fuck with your dumbass you think you’re a big man. But no matter who you fuck, Dunceface you’ll always be the idiot who can’t function after using their quirk.” Bakugo practically spits. 

If Katsuki had said something like this around a year ago, Denki would’ve probably sulked and went to do what Bakugo had told him to, but now, he felt nothing but pure indifference. “You know something Bakugo, I really used to admire you,” Kaminari starts, a smug smirk making its way to Bakugo’s lips. “I really thought I wanted to be strong like you. But now, now I just feel sorry for you. I mean you spend everyday comparing yourself to Midoriya, you’re shitty to everyone who fucking cares about you and you’re so insufferable to everyone else that no one else genuinely WANTS to get near you.” A humorless chuckle leaves Denki’s own lips, grateful to finally get this off his chest. “You think people want to be around you because you’re cool when the only reason they can even stand to be near you is because of how dangerous your QUIRK is. People wouldn’t give a fuck about you otherwise.” Kaminari stands, collecting his stuff before moving towards the door, “I’ll see you guys later,” He emphasized to Kirishima and Sero. “Maybe you can get him to be an actual decent human being.” He scoffs, walking out of Kirishima’s apartment.

Bakugo’s left stunned, Kirishima’s shocked and Sero’s impressed. Though, it doesn’t take long for Bakugo’s shock to turn to anger, explosions ready to burst from his hands. “He’s. Fucking. DEAD!!” He exclaims, and that’s all it takes to snap Kirishima out of his stupor, trying his best to calm the explosive blonde down.

— —

It’s difficult for you to form a coherent thought with the sound of skin slapping against your ears.

You’re on your knees, arch pressed deep into your back as Denki slams his cock deep inside you. You gasp at the intrusion, but you have no time to recover as he sets an unforgiving pace. “He’s a fucking bitch. Doesn’t know shit.” He growls under his breath, hips canting against the fat of your ass, the sight of the rippling skin making his mouth water. You’re trying to talk, want to ask him what happened at Kirishima’s place, but then he’s slamming against that gummy spot deep inside and you keen. 

You’re limp, practically dead weight as Denki flips you over onto your back. He has your knees pressed against your chest, your pudgy tummy folded over as he slams his hips against yours, the fat jiggling deliciously. 

“Please,” you gasp, trying to catch your breath as he aims directly for your g-spot, your cunt clenching at his unforgiving pace. “Fucker thinks he knows shit about us, I’ll fucking show ‘im.” Denki mutters under his breath, cock throbbing at the warm wetness surrounding it.

He’s ravenous, tongue laving at your neck, sucking the skin harshly. You whine as his hands reach to pinch your nipples, your clit twitching signs of your impending release. “Please, baby. Let me cum, please.” You beg, tears threatening to pool in your eyes. The sight has Denki feeling a bit merciful, after all, you weren’t the one to rile him up. 

So he pulls back a bit, sitting back on his haunches to grind his cock deep inside you, hitting spots you couldn’t dare reach on your own. He guides one of his hands down to your clit, using little shocks from his quirk on the bundle of nerves.

The feeling sends a new wave of arousal gushing from your already sore cunt, but you’re nothing if not greedy for his cum. “Want you to cum in me, baby. Wanna feel you fill me up.” You murmur, cradling his face in your palms. You do your best to keep eye contact, though, with the way his cock is drilling inside you, the action is difficult. You connect your lips together and the act has Denki’s hips stuttering before he thrusts once, twice and he’s filling you up, snatching your nth orgasm unexpectedly from you.

You slowly pull away from each other, though Denki is sure to keep his cock nestled deep inside you, flipping you both over so that you’re on top of him. You trace shapes on his bare chest, slowly coming down from your highs. “You wanna tell me what that was all about?” 

Denki sighs as he thinks back on what led him here. There was no doubt that the dynamic in the friend group has shifted, whether that was in his favor or not remained to be seen but what he could see was right in front of him.

You.

You were his present and his future, and as he slips his cock out of your sore cunt and the rush of his cum gushes from you like a river, his mouth waters at the idea of this being his new everyday. He shakes his head as he pushes you to lay back, situating himself between his new home.

“Just wanted to be close to you.”

— —

Taglist: @xogabbiexo @kinq-sleazee @dabilovesme @blkchxrryblyss @tenyaiidasslut @cherries-c0la @bookwormsenpai @bl--ankhaeji @thicksimpx @namjoonswifeyy @nasty-quillz @musicisme333 @unsatisfiedanddisappointed @celi-xxmoon @c0pkiller

[mmani-e]

And in this week's post for DR: Demix, I'm finally sharing a concept I've had stewing in my head for a while now. A tale of not one, not two, but THREE JUNKOS! Yay!

In DR: Demix, there are 3 Junkos, the reason why is that I wanted Ibuki to have her own little Izuru form, and I thought the perfect equivalent of that was Junko. But to make it work, I needed to retroactively change a lot of stuff, and it was a really fun process ngl. And things got complicated regarding whether or not Junko in DR1 even is Junko at all, so I thought I'd add a little fun tidbit to that too.

"Junko Enoshima" in Demix 1 is Ryoko Otonashi, and the name is just a nickname people gave her in reference to the founder of HP. She takes up the name when Mukuro dies and she goes ballistic, like Kiyotaka becoming Kiyondo.

Junko Enoshima in Demix 2 is the founder of Hope's Peak. An anarchist revolutionary who was granted the opportunity to make a better world and kinda flubbed it because she was a teenager.

The "Junko" Project in Demix 2 is also the hyperactive and insane Mastermind" of the killing game, created in a secret project by disgruntled student geniuses, Ibuki was transformed into a sick reflection of HP's founder and manipulated to becoming a pawn of Taka's... but not really.

Junko 1, the Titleholder - The first Junko is the one we know and love from THH, but that is not her real name. Ryoko Otonashi - the Ultimate Moral Compass - is her real name, and "Junko Enoshima" is just a nickname given to her by the hopeful youth that see her as the successor of the revolutionary woman who founded the school of Hope's Peak itself.

In reality, this "Junko" is no more than an opportunistic teenager, who thinks the name is... weird, at best. Reveling in the popularity and opportunities she's given as the so-called "reborn Junko" to cause chaos, even if beneficial chaos, to every school she is shipped off to after setting the last one ablaze with riots and protest in the name of her vision of a right and just world.

It's not until she experiences an unimaginable loss in the events of Demix 1 that she fully embraces that nickname in a bout of insanity. Swearing to burn the school down to its foundations with everyone inside, promising through running tears that she would accomplish it, any means necessary to avenge her sister.

Junko 2, the Founder - The second Junko is seen in an old busted portrait taken about thirteen years prior to the events of the despair, and she is the revolutionary founder of Hope's Peak. An anarchist leader, she was the first truly identified ultimate. A revolutionary, quite literally, Junko used her incredible talents to bring Imperial Japan to heel in the second world war, starting a prolonged anarchist revolt that would only be quelled when offered to change the system from within, the government granting amnesty, infinite travel funds, and most importantly an institution made in her name where she could support the youth: Hope's Peak Academy.

Ultimately, it was a mistake to take the government's deal, as her efforts to spread revolution worldwide were quashed and Japan restricted her freedoms until she was an old woman who had hardly the energy to walk around the school she founded herself.

Junko 3, the Mastermind - Not forgetting the dream of their founder, many students united clandestinely to discuss the future of their school despite neverending scandals and reports of corruption. With their founder missing, they created a project to rejuvenate the school under a perfect vessel: an ultimate revolutionary of their own. One with every talent under the sun needed to retake the school for themselves.

A council of sixteen students at the head of the project did their best to transform reserve course student "Ibuki Mioda" into their savior... only for her to end up a completely out-of-control maniac.

"Junko" is a hyperactive monster, her only limitation being what her genius mind can come up with. She is constantly in a state of bliss as whatever desire Ibuki once had in that mind of hers was accomplished, even if she doesn't remember who she was anymore. And she lives to revel in that fact, to enjoy her talents now and forevermore, as it is the only thing she has of her old self to cling onto that makes her feel whole.

[breezybeej]

The Verity by Colleen Hoover Post

I want to put some of my highlights and notes here so I can reference them without needing the images on my phone. Warning: this book sucks and you will see some really stupid and weird shit in here.

This is the description of blood splashing on Lowen (the main character) after she witnessed a man get run over. I've seen some car accidents. I don't think it's very common at all for someone's head to pop like a water balloon in these circumstances.

What is cryptic here? He (Jeremy, the romance option) has seen worse than a man getting run over. I think it's pretty straight forward, babe.

This is from Verity (jeremy's wife, a comatose woman). Most of her stuff should be taken with a grain of salt for plot reasons but some of these are so ridiculous on their face that you can't really save them

Unlikely.

Licking someone's thumb like a postage stamp is just so FUCKing SExy

I cared, I heard, and I minded. Please don't talk about getting fingered at steak 'n shake

Meeting Jeremy makes you want to jump off a cliff????? Well, to be fair, me too, girl

Why is this how you describe it, Lowen. You are reading her autobiography but you are thinking about her underwear.

Okay, I love this one because there's a lot happening. 1. He walks backwards A LOT in the first half of this book and I don't know why. 2. He was on his way to the kitchen to heat up leftovers but they were already done when they arrived? 3. He pulls out a plate of pizza. So in one very short paragraph we have pizza said three times. I think this book wasn't carefully edited.

So what does that mean. If someone has a plate of peas and they do this, I imagine them poking and prodding and scooping but pizza? Is he like... picking it up and putting it down? Sliding it around the plate?

It's just SO weird to go with your wife to her first pregnancy appointment for the baby you squirted into her, isn't it.

So this is again Verity writing from opposite land but like. They very much do have sex constantly so does she feel this way or not.

This one really bugs me just because she flubbed the parallel structure on "with a broken wrist" and "covered in blood" like the reason we have mechanics for parallel structure is that the sentences feel clunky without it.

I lost count, I didn't highlight every one, but I think this is in the book at least 10 times. Colleen does NOT trust you to remember this.

Lowen, why is this a dammit. Why is that messed up. What.

Just like Layla in the other book, Layla, Lowen is a girl who knows how to eat and she's quirky for eating tacos

So why didn't she just list the vegetables. It would be faster. "He grabbed cilantro and onions." or "He grabbed onions and peppers." Like... Colleen, you live in texas and you write about tacos in your books more than once.

People hate me for suggesting Lowen is bi but..... i mean.... she was diggin through Verity's drawers too, you remember.

Why did anyone let her say epic burn in a book. Why does she use epic again moments later.

Ope, I got this one though.

Thankfully Verity has two breasts.

That's how I felt reading this book. You DO get a feeling that Colleen partially wrote this to call out her haters.

Don't say that

Here's another line that gets repeated like 6 times. I don't even know why. It doesn't play into the plot or the themes really.

God isn't that insane. Who does that. Also this is Verity Opposite land so... does she wear lingerie often?

Babe. What.

Someone pointed out that license picture are usually the worst pictures of you possible. That makes this so much funnier imo

When you say "He groans" as a single clause, it makes it sound like he's disappointed. "Ugh, babe you forgot your bra AGAIN?"

[guitarhappyman]

A friend shared this with me last year, it’s from Prager U. I love the beach metaphor.

"I never graduated college.

I never even went to college.

I went to the University of Digging Ditches on Construction Sites – go Fighting Shovels!

So, why should you listen to me?

Hmmm, let’s see… Well, I run a business that I built myself. So, let me give you a couple of tips.

I hire and fire people like you all the time. And I’ve seen a pattern with your generation—something I call “The Language of Losers.” Let me give you some examples:

“I did my best.” My assistant told me this once after screwing up royally. And I said, “Matt, if you did your best and you screwed up royally, then I need to fire you right now. The answer is either, ‘I didn’t do my best, I’ll do better next time’ or, ‘I’m drunk right now and need to sit down.’ So the phrase I’ve drilled into my employees is, ‘Don’t do your best; do my best.’”

Another example: I had a young employee once say to me, “I’m sorry. I screwed up. Next time, I’ll triple check.” And I said, “Did you single check? Did you double check? How did you get to triple check?” I know how he got to triple check. Single check is a screw up. Double check is…ehhhh…a flub. And triple check is, “Hey, what do you want from me?” So, he hopped right to triple-check after not single- or double-checking.

And the worst one—the one that’s driving me nuts, the one that’s destroying our society, the one that got hold of the piece of thread of the sweater of society and is just unraveling it: “I feel.” “I feel threatened.” “I feel I’m being treated unfairly.” “I feel you’re a bully.” You’re 23. You live at home. Your bed is shaped like a race car and it’s covered with stuffies and your huggie-bookie. Nobody cares how you feel.

So, no excuses. Please. If you do the job you’re hired to do and you do it well, your employer will never stop thanking you and lavishing you with ponies, and frankincense, and myrrh.

Now, you do your job well and you’re not rewarded? Someone else will find you and reward you. Believe me, that’s how the universe works.

But, let’s face it—the chances of any of you working for me are slim to none. The chances some of you may go out there and set some policy are pretty good. And most of you are going to vote on that policy. So, let me ask you a favor: please, stay away from my freedom.

If you want to know about the loss of freedom, look no further than the beach. I grew up in Southern California. I used to go to the beach all the time. There was one sign, and that sign read, “No lighting vans on fire and throwing the homeless into it.” Now you go to the beach and the sign looks like a menu from Fuddruckers. It never ends! No football. No fires. No smoking. No alcohol. And now, no frisbee. No digging. No sandcastle. No dogs.

The beach is a metaphor for this country. It’s freedom. It means freedom. Everyone who came to this country landed on the beach. They didn’t land in Nebraska. They pulled up to the beach, they cracked a beer, they lit a cigarette, and they threw a frisbee.

And now, you can’t do jack squat on the beach. Look no further than the beach sign from the fifties and the beach sign from 2018. All it gets is longer. And, do the politicians ever show up with their eraser and go, “Hmm…let’s remove a few of these Orwellian ideas that we put on this bonderized steel in front of the beach”? No! More things to assure we have a horrible time at the beach, don’t enjoy ourselves and, more importantly, could get a ticket—just because we’re there, trying to drink a cold one, make a sandcastle, and throw the dog the tennis ball.

Don’t be one of those people who adds to the sign on the beach. You be with me: sittin’ on a folding chair with a cigar between my lips and a beer between my legs.

So, you’re graduating and you’re all idealistic. You want to make the world a better place. Here’s my request: Don’t make it worse.

I’m Adam Carolla for Prager University."

[oneatlatime]

More Zuko Alone Thoughts

Last season our expository Zuko episode was The Storm, an episode which I loved. It was both a well-written and well-animated piece of media, and enthralling to watch. I don't want to say enjoyable because of the subject matter discussed, but it was certainly good.

This season's expository Zuko episode was Zuko Alone, and I didn't like it. Although it was animated fantastically, I found the characterisation of Zuko in the present day sections to be completely off. I found it embarrassing, awkward, and frustrating to watch. Now, I've seen the rating this episode has on IMDb, so I know this is just my opinion, and a fairly unpopular one at that. I'm also aware that I'm biased because Zuko is not my favourite character. But I want to explore why, in my opinion, The Storm stuck the landing while Zuko Alone flubbed it.

Here's what I think is the main reason: The Storm is Aang's story about his past, juxtaposed with Iroh's story about Zuko's past. Aang and Iroh are our storytellers; Aang and Zuko are the stories being told.

Zuko Alone is Zuko's story of the present, being experienced through Zuko's perspective, juxtaposed with Zuko's story in the past, being experienced through Zuko's memories. It's too much Zuko, and unlike the characters in The Storm, Zuko has no idea what's going on.

Despite his flightiness and inability to take things seriously, Aang is perceptive, socially and emotionally intelligent (as much as a 12 year old can be), and able to be subtle when the situation calls for it. Look at The Great Divide: as soon as he had the appropriate backstory info, he saw right to the heart of the conflict, he saw that it was stupid as Hell, and he saw and successfully executed a way to fix it that relied entirely on an accurate assessment of all involved parties' stances. And it worked.

Iroh has easily the highest perception stat in the whole show, when he isn't being deliberately obtuse. His wisdom is off the charts, if his one liners are anything to go by.

So despite some very (very) notable differences, Aang and Iroh have similarities in their personalities and their perspectives, and importantly for this post, in their self-knowledge.

Then we get Zuko, who has the perceptiveness and subtlety of a mud brick to the teeth, all the wisdom of a bandaid wrapper, and the social and emotional intelligence of something that starts to grow in your sink when it's been too long since you did the dishes.

Aand and Iroh can see the themes, lessons, mistakes, and places for improvement in the stories they're telling, about themselves and others. Zuko is stumbling through both his past and his present. The Storm is compelling because the audience gets to simultaneously learn expository detail and watch Aang and Iroh go through a process of self-analysis, recrimination, and commitment to doing better. It's an info dump with a hefty dose of character building on the side.

Zuko in Zuko Alone is a dumbass blindly stumbling into the same mistakes we've already seen him make, learning nothing in the process (that I could detect - maybe he'll run into the family's older brother in a few episodes and work up the courage to save him based on what he learned during his time with that family, who knows). Zuko has been trained to be a fighter, not a person, so of course he's going to fail at the 'soft skills' parts of being human. So Zuko needs someone with him to do/model that soft skills work until he learns how to do it for himself. But Zuko is alone in Zuko Alone, so the character development that could have happened doesn't.

I don't need morals and themes explicitly spelled out in the narrative; I'm fine with subtext. But Zuko in Zuko Alone so thoroughly misses what's going on in the episode that it's annoying to watch. And there's no indication at the end of the episode that he's learned anything from having missed those things. There's no indication that he's aware that there was anything to miss.

In The Storm, Aang has Katara to bounce off of and help talk him through his story. Iroh's wise enough not to need a foil, but he does have the ship's crew, both as a reason to tell the story and as an audience to play off of. Heck, in Bato of the Water Tribe, Sokka has Bato giving the speech about the lonely wolf to help him understand the point Sokka's dad was trying to make in the flashback, and avoid the wrong course of action (leaving Aang behind). Aang moves on from self-recrimination and Iroh has won back Zuko's crew's loyalty at the end of The Storm; Sokka has finally understood 'being a man means being where you're needed the most' by the end of Bato of the Water Tribe. But Zuko is alone by choice in Zuko Alone, so he finishes the episode exactly where he started, his mother's last words entirely misinterpreted. No wiser, probably unable to even articulate where he went wrong beyond fire = bad in this context.

There seems to be a theme in this show of the necessity of friends and family networks and support. Aang (with Katara's help), Iroh (with the crew as audience and motivator), Sokka (with Bato's help), all come to better understandings of their responsibilities and/or their mistakes by working things out with the help of at least one other person. Zuko ditches Iroh to play at being a lone wolf and fails in a way that's frankly embarrassing to watch.

So the reason I don't like Zuko Alone is that he's doomed to fail from the start. Zuko is (trying to) go about his character development in a way this show has already showed us is opposite to how it should be done. I'm not fond of 'doomed from the start' narratives as a general rule, mostly because to me they feel like a bad investment. If you know it's all going to end badly (because it started wrong), then why bother committing the time and effort the narrative asks of you? (She says, having read The Silmarillion twice).

So if I became Queen of the world tomorrow and decreed that Zuko Alone needed to be changed to fit my personal tastes, how would I do it? The obvious answer is to shove Iroh in there, but it probably wouldn't work anyway, because Zuko is not showing any signs of being ready to listen - REALLY LISTEN - to those wiser than him. I'm not sure if he's even ready to admit yet that there are people who ARE wiser than him. He's already admitted that there are people with more martial prowess than him, like his sister, but I don't think Zuko actually values wisdom enough to see its worth. So it's probably not even on his radar. If Iroh's presence wouldn't work, what about having a removed narrator, like Iroh did for Zuko's story in The Storm? A narrator who is not as thoroughly blind to what's going on in the past and the present as Zuko. Maybe a single episode character, who tells the story of that time a stranger came to town? That might work. It would fit with the genre this episode is paying homage to. Or you could have an interesting juxtaposition, where the narrator character is not omniscient, narrating the present only, and Zuko is completely alone during the flashback bits. That would probably lead to Zuko making the same mistakes anyway, since it's really his past that he needs to work through.

Or maybe I'm reading way too much into this and I just don't like Zuko enough as a character to like a Zuko-centric story, no matter how it's told. Or maybe 24 minutes of second-hand embarrassment is 24 too many for me. At least he's keeping Song's horse bird fed.

[mariacallous]

On Sunday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson went on television and mixed up Iran and Israel. “We passed the support for Iran many months ago,” he told Meet the Press, erroneously referring to an aid package for the Jewish state. Last night, the Fox News prime-time host Jesse Watters introduced South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as hailing from South Carolina. I once joined a cable-news panel where one of the participants kept confusing then–Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Representative Pete Sessions of Texas. I don’t hold these errors against anyone, as they are some of the most common miscues made by people who talk for a living—and I’m sure my time will come.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden added another example to this list. In response to a question about Gaza, he referred to the Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as the president of Mexico. The substance of Biden’s answer was perfectly cogent. The off-the-cuff response included geographic and policy details not just about Egypt, but about multiple Middle Eastern players that most Americans probably couldn’t even name. The president clearly knew whom and what he was talking about; he just slipped up the same way Johnson and so many others have. But the flub could not have come at a worse time. Because the press conference had been called to respond to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents, which dubbed the president an “elderly man with a poor memory,” the Mexico gaffe was immediately cast by critics as confirmation of Biden’s cognitive collapse.

But the truth is, mistakes like these are nothing new for Biden, who has been mixing up names and places for his entire political career. Back in 2008, he infamously introduced his running mate as “the next president of the United States, Barack America.” At the time, Biden’s well-known propensity for bizarre tangents, ahistorical riffs, and malapropisms compelled Slate to publish an entire column explaining “why Joe Biden’s gaffes don’t hurt him much.” The article included such gems as the time that then-Senator Biden told the journalist Katie Couric that “when the markets crashed in 1929, ‘Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed. He said, “Look, here’s what happened.”’” The only problem with this story, Slate laconically noted, was that “FDR wasn’t president then, nor did television exist.”

In other words, even a cursory history of Biden’s bungling shows that he is the same person he has always been, just older and slower—a gaffe-prone, middling public speaker with above-average emotional intelligence and an instinct for legislative horse-trading. This is why Biden’s signature moments as a politician have been not set-piece speeches, but off-the-cuff encounters, such as when he knelt to engage elderly Holocaust survivors in Israel so they would not have to stand, and when he befriended a security guard in an elevator at The New York Times on his way to a meeting with the paper’s editorial board, which declined to endorse him. And it’s why Biden’s key accomplishments—such as the landmark climate-change provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, the country’s first gun-control bill in decades, and the expected expansion of the child tax credit—have come through Congress. The president’s strength is not orating, but legislating; not inspiring a crowd, but connecting with individuals.

That said, although Biden’s Mexico mistake might not be a demonstration of dementia, it is a warning sign of a different sort that his campaign would be wise to heed. Recently, the White House declined to have Biden participate in the traditional pre–Super Bowl interview this coming Sunday. The administration framed this decision as part of a broader strategy favoring nontraditional media, but it was reasonably seen as an attempt to shield the candidate from scrutiny. The president’s staff is understandably reluctant to put Biden front and center, knowing that his slower speed and inevitable gaffes—both real and fabricated—will feed the mental-acuity narrative. But in actuality, the bar for Biden has been set so laughably low that he can’t help but vault over it simply by showing up. By contrast, limiting his appearances ensures that the public mostly encounters the president through decontextualized social-media clips of his slipups.

As Slate observed in 2008, the frequency of Biden’s rhetorical miscues helped neutralize them in the eyes of the public. In 2024, Biden will have an assist from another source: Donald Trump. Among other recent lapses, the former president has called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “the leader of Turkey,” confused Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley, and repeatedly expressed the strange belief that he won the 2020 election. With an opponent prone to vastly worse feats of viscous verbosity, Biden can’t help but look better by comparison, especially if he starts playing offense instead of defense.

But none of this will happen by itself. If the president and his campaign want the headlines to be something other than “Yes, Biden Knows Who the President of Egypt Is,” they’ll have to start making news, not reacting to it.

[bengiyo]

23.5 Ep 9 Stray Thoughts

Last week, the gang went to the school to watch a meteor shower together with the understanding of the romance overtones involved. Ongsa spent most of the episode flubbing making a move on Sun, but they ended up getting a decent kiss under the stars. Aylin remains one of the best characters in romance because she didn’t need any cajoling to ask Luna to watch the meteor shower with her nor to confess her feelings. Mawin came so close to properly asking Tinh out, but got too nervous. Ton was rejected by Chaoren, and ended up giving me crumbs with Mawin (Euro can still win, guys). My teacher yuri dreams continued to burn bright.

Laying on the floor like this doesn’t exactly look comfortable, but is the kind of silliness I’ve walked in on lesbians doing before.

NAME OF THE SHOW MENTIONED. FINISH YOUR DRINKS.

Yes, tell the people about Theia. It’s a cool bit of planetary history.

Latte looks so hot in every scene. Please put this dog in the A/C.

Wow we’re getting right to a potential separation, thought a study abroad summer program doesn’t sound like it’s years-long.

Episode 9: When the Earth Tilts

Aylin trying to be more social with her family is actually quite adorable.

Oh good. We’re teaching Ongsa how to ride a bicycle first.

Thank you, Luna, for always keeping things clear with Aylin. These four are really fun together. Sun is so consistent about this not-hiding approach.

Not my favorite big boy feeling like he’s gotta lose a ton of weight to be appealing. Gay body issues start so young.

I feel for Alpha. She’s the oldest and her sister and cousin are going through things without telling her anything.

I hope the teacher hit Alpha with a Mama Sandwich. I haven’t seen one in years since The Fosters ended.

What is up with all these girls just running away from home?

American fried rice? I suddenly feel embarrassed.

I kinda wish we’d spent more time with Alpha before all of this.

I feel positively about Luna helping Aylin have more social connections with the people in her life.

Get his ass, Aylin! Ton should learn to read when people don’t want to be bothered with his shit.

Did they want to do the Alpha plot earlier to make this scene with Sun land?

Okay, the towel drop was a nice touch. As with everything with the mains, I don’t think we got here smoothly, but I enjoyed the moment.

This show is so awkward. I’m not sure what’s going on and why it feels so off every week. I like individual moments but I have a hard time reflecting on this show and remembering things that occurred in the order in which they happened.

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure 01x05 - Lightning! Kabuterimon! / Kabuterimon's Electro Shocker

Previously on Digimon: We found drinking water, ate birdseed, and poured gasoline on a fire until it caused an integer overflow error and rolled over into zero. Also discovered that the true birdseed was the friends we made along the way. It was a good day.

But now it's time to leave the Pyocomon behind and get back on the road to... whatever might help us go home. File Island is no fun.

We join our cast at the end of a long hike. The younger kids are too exhausted to keep going, so we need to stop and take a break. We don't see Koushiro in this shot at all but he's resting with Mimi and Takeru in the next so we can probably assume which side he's on.

The dub adds context that we're going in circles, which is why everyone's so tired. In the original, they've just been walking for a long time.

Koushiro takes this as an opportunity to once again get his laptop up and running, but no dice. None of his electronics work on File Island. Taichi tries to help, but has a particular approach to IT... and about as much respect for other people's things as Haruhi Suzumiya.

Naturally, this gets him yelled at not only by Koushiro, but Sora also joins in to chew him out.

(Not okay, Taichi. What if you broke something? Where are we supposed to get replacement parts out here, the internet!?

...don't answer that.)

Suddenly, Taichi notices smoke on the horizon. Explaining nothing beyond the words "What's that?" Taichi suddenly runs off. The others shrug it off and decide he went to the bathroom or something.

Dub Tai is much more explicit in his communication. He explains that he sees smoke and is going to investigate. They still blow him off, with Joe claiming he has "the attention span of a gnat".

Unexpectedly, Koushiro's computer turns on. This is unexpected for two reasons; First, because there's no clear indication of why it suddenly works now. Second, as Koushiro quickly discovers, the battery is completely drained. There's no power to turn it on, and yet it runs.

The meaning of the blinking dead battery symbol is changed in the dub. The original plays this as eerie; The laptop has no battery so how is it running? The dub plays this as disappointing; The laptop has low battery so Izzy won't be able to use it. This sets Izzy on a quest to power on his laptop.

Before he has time to think about that, Taichi finds what he's looking for and calls them over.

Those smoke pillars meant exactly what he thought they did: A sprawling factory is laid out before them. Naturally, the kids descend into the factory to explore.

They find no people, but an assembly line of machines constructing... something. Jou, however, insists there must be people here somewhere; A factory like this can't be completely unmanned so we need to keep looking.

Like usual, Jou's determination to find other humans on File Island doesn't make it into the dub. Instead, Joe wants to find a cafeteria in the factory to get food from.

The kids split up; Taichi, Sora, and Jou head off one way while Yamato stays with Takeru, Koushiro, and Mimi and go another. As Taichi's group searches for human presence, they suddenly hear something.

They aren't sure where it's coming from but somebody's here. They can hear some kind of mechanical whirr and some sort of deep, echoing vocal noise. Taichi wonders aloud if that might be a person!

The dub flubs this just a bit; To fill dialogue space used for Jou insisting there must be people here, Biyomon instead calls out to the others, "Don't go any further in this direction!" That indicates that she knows the presence is over that way, making it odd when they all start looking around for it - and Biyomon specifically checks back the way they came.

We also don't hear the echoing voice in the dub; Instead, we hear metal clattering against metal. Tai announces with alarm, "Doesn't sound good!" Once again the dub team are quicker on the uptake and recognize the peril they're in, while the original kids are still holding out hope.

Meanwhile, Yamato's group finds the power supply room and discovers what's running this factory.

It's a super-sized battery plugged into the factory as if it were a TV remote or video game controller.

(It would be hell to change those out. Can you even imagine?)

While Koushiro's surprised to see that the factory runs on this weird system, Dub Izzy is more interested in using it for himself. He wonders aloud if there's a way he can hook it up to his laptop.

Still investigating, Tai's group comes upon this 'mon caught up in the gears of the factory. Gomamon ID's him as Andromon, and informs the others that he's highly evolved. Taichi asks if he's more evolved than Greymon, to which Gomamon answers yes, without a doubt.

(He's right, too. Andromon is a Perfect-stage Digimon, the stage beyond Adult. The kids aren't anywhere near that yet.)

Jou's disappointed that Andromon isn't human, but the kids still agree to help him anyway.

The dub cuts the discussion around Andromon being evolved beyond Adult-stage, though Agumon does say he's "very much advanced" which is open to interpretation. The rest of the conversation is spent agreeing that they should pull Andromon out of the gears.

They also, of course, cut Jou's disappointment about this being another Digimon; Joe complains, "My mom really doesn't want me moving any heavy objects; I've got bad knees," so Sora volunteers herself and Tai to do it without him.

Brief cut to Koushiro, who tells Yamato, Mimi, and Takeru to go on without him; He wants to stay here and investigate the battery further.

Meanwhile, Dub Izzy is still thinking about plugging his computer into the battery; He explains that if he can get it up and running, they can use his computer to call for help.

Meanwhile, Taichi's group begins pulling Andromon out.

(What happened to those bad knees, Dub Joe?)

Taichi loses his grip and falls back against that lever behind him, activating the machines he's stuck in. Unbeknownst to anyone, the machines insert one of those Black Gears from last episode into Andromon's fleshy cyborg leg, just before he comes loose.

Taichi attempts to apply some percussive maintenance, like he did for Koushiro's laptop, but Jou and Sora grab and restrain him. Taking cues from Taichi, Agumon smacks Andromon's head to bring him online.

It does not go well.

The narrator cuts in here to formally introduce Andromon. He's a Perfect-stage Data-type Cyborg Digimon, said to be the strongest among Digimon.

(I assume "on File Island" is a qualifier there because there are absolutely Digimon way more powerful than Andromon.)

Piyomon hits Andromon with Magical Fire to make him release Sora. He shrugs off her attack, then he lobs Sora into Taichi and Agumon, who catch her.

Taichi notices a bunch of metal beams being stored on the ceiling for some reason and has Agumon cut them down with a Baby Flame.

(I want to feel bad for him but he brought this OSHA violation on himself. If he stored his beams properly, this wouldn't have happened to him. Slacking off on safety protocols is how you end up caught in gears.)

Taichi's group takes this opportunity to run for it.

Back with Yamato's group, they've left Koushiro to investigate the power supply room and gone on without him, as requested. Mimi offers some wild speculation as to what the devices being assembled actually do.

Dub Mimi's similarly confused, but offers no speculation. Instead, she complains that there should be a tour guide to explain this stuff. "Ooh, maybe in a plaid outfit with a bullhorn!"

Meanwhile, Koushiro continues investigating the battery. He finds something most unexpected: A door? Why would a battery have a door? Dub Izzy is less confused by this, assertively calling it an "access panel to the interior operations!"

Opening it up, he enters and... it's wild.

Koushiro identifies the writing on these walls as computer code. He doesn't offer any particular programming language, just that it is one he recognizes. He runs his hand along one of the symbols, wiping away part of a letter as if it were fresh paint.

Instantly, the machines throughout the factory shut down in response to Koushiro disrupting their code.

Unfortunately, Taichi's group is still fleeing from Andromon when the lights suddenly go out. Taichi speculates that Andromon might not be able to find them in the dark if they creep away quietly. He's wrong; Andromon finds them immediately and we see from his perspective that he can see fine.

Andromon's signature move, Spiral Sword, spins his hand so fast it turns into a drill before slashing suddenly and creating a blade of pressured air. The dub calls this Lightning Blade.

While the kids narrowly avoid being cut apart by Andromon's Spiral Sword, we cut back to Koushiro and Tentomon. Koushiro laments that he broke the wrong part of the code. At Tentomon's suggestion, he takes out a sharpie and repairs the code, bringing the power back online.

As the machines come back online, Dub Mimi speculates that the factory didn't pay its power bill. XD Valid theory from her perspective.

Koushiro lays out for Tentomon why this is so bothersome. This is not how batteries work. The programming inside the battery is itself what's supplying power to the factory. Koushiro breaks out his laptop to further analyze the program.

(It's like a Sim City power plant. It looks like a power plant. It satisfies the electricity needs of the other programmed structures you lay down. But it's not a real power plant. It's just coded to look like one and to satisfy the coded electricity needs of the coded world. Koushiro and Tentomon are inside the code of this "battery" right now and seeing the true nature of its artifice.)

Meanwhile, dub Izzy is looking for a way out of the factory. "If I can decode this particular program, then I can trace its base functions and figure a way out of here!" This is peculiar because they aren't trapped here to begin with, but it's the beginning of what will be a plot point throughout this episode.

We cut briefly back to Taichi's group still dodging Spiral Swords from Andromon, and then return to Koushiro. Tentomon asks him about how happy he looks doing this; He's more motivated than he's been since Tentomon met him, in fact. Koushiro confirms that he's having a blast.

Tentomon doesn't get it. He asks what Koushiro gets out of this, and Koushiro explains that he gets knowledge. He wants to understand the secrets of this place and what the Digimon are. Tentomon isn't swayed by that; He doesn't really care about who or what he is, and he turns it around on Koushiro: Is he trying to solve the mystery of who he is?

Tentomon doesn't realize it, but that question triggers Koushiro. He flashes back on something he doesn't want to remember.

Though it's not explicitly stated, the subtext of this conversation he overhears from his parents is fairly obvious. Koushiro is adopted, and his parents haven't found the courage to break it to him yet. His parents agree to put it off a little longer; It'd be too much of a shock for him now. They don't know that they've already revealed it. And it is.

Dub Tentomon captures the spirit of the conversation, but with a lot more passive-aggression. He peppers Izzy in sassy backhanded remarks like "I admire the way you keep working while your friends are out having fun!" and "So you would rather spend your time with puzzles than with people?"

He also suggests that they're "trapped in a small room with no exit". I don't know where he got that idea from; There's a door. They came through the door. We occasionally see the door and it's still open like they left it. We're in here by choice 'cause Koushiro/Izzy wants to learn. But aside from that one line, this all works really well. Even the adoption conversation is adapted perfectly.

Back in the present, Tentomon snaps Koushiro out of his disassociation to let him know that some weird shit is happening to his computer screen.

The lines of code he'd been analyzed begin freely floating around the screen, and the light on his Digivice begins to blink.

Here, Dub Tentomon goes off-script to start ranting at Izzy that he's being irresponsible, playing around on his computer while his friends are in danger. This is not a thing they know, but Tentomon insists he can "feel it in [my] bones".

While Koushiro is learning, Mimi lets out an angry shriek from another part of the factory as she finally discovers what the place does with those machines it's assembling.

It sends them to conveyor belt which disassembles them for parts. Nobody offers any commentary beyond Mimi's angry shriek but honestly that's valid commentary in and of itself.

(The assembly and disassembly lines are my favorite part of this episode. It was not meant to be but it's such a scathing metaphor for the military-industrial complex when you think about it. We give hundreds of billions of dollars to defense contractors each year to do exactly this, and that makes me want to angry shriek when I think about it too.)

Back inside the battery's source code, the data moving around on Koushiro's screen begins to form into what appears to be a map of File Island. Dub Izzy's so excited, he officially abandons his alien theory.

However, before it can fully process, Tentomon begins overheating, crying out in pain. Koushiro checks his Digivice and sees that the little bar that rises and falls on it is filled to capacity and blinking.

He's forced to shut down the laptop for the sake of Tentomon's wellbeing. Once the laptop turns off, Tentomon stops glowing and burning, and his Digivice's meter returns to empty.

Meanwhile, Taichi's group escapes Andromon once again after Taichi makes an unbelievably brave leap from a scaffolding suspended dozens of feet in the air to a crane, and hooks Andromon with it.

Of note, Dub Andromon keeps demanding vengeance, presumably for Agumon banging on his head. This is not in the original, where he's a mostly-silent stalker except when he's firing his Spiral Sword or analyzing the kids. His Gear-corrupted systems label them intruders when we see things from his perspective, so he's trying to kill them based on that.

Dubs back in the day would often add dialogue just to fill space, on the assumption that kids would get bored if they go too long without hearing spoken words. So instead of a silent Terminator type marching through halls, we get cries of "ANDROMON WILL HAVE HIS VENGEANCE" whenever the camera's not on his face so you don't notice his lips aren't moving.

Up on the roof, Yamato, Mimi, and Takeru discuss what they've learned. Yamato lays it all out: The factory is a perpetual machine, disassembling the thing whatever it is for parts it can use to assemble the thing which it then disassembles for parts. Nothing is actually produced. This entire complex exists to make nothing.

The dub kids get the gist of this, though Matt's less confident than Yamato in his assessment. They also again suggest that they're trapped here which... is based on nothing? T.K. nervously says, "I hope there's a door," but Matt firmly states that there's no door because nothing ever leaves this place.

(Matt. My guy. There's a door. It's the one you came in through. We are not trapped in the factory; We're voluntarily poking around at stuff to learn what's what. Nobody is in any peril that they know of except Taichi's group.)

While Koushiro rejoins Yamato's group, we get a brief cut of Andromon cutting himself loose with a Spiral Sword air blade, curved around to hit the crane wire holding him.

Koushiro explains his findings: The factory is powered by a computer program; It's coded to have energy so it does. Extrapolating outwards, this means we presently exist in a world where data and programs become real, tangible things.

In the dub, we've already been calling this Digi-World since episode 1 so Izzy ratchets up the revelation: "In Digi-World, basic data and simple information are a living, viable substance; IT'S ALIVE!!!"

Before Koushiro can explain what he means, Taichi's group arrives and screams warnings to everyone. They're too late, though; Andromon erupts through the floor, turning on Yamato's group.

He wastes absolutely no time firing up his other signature attack to kill them with: Gatling Missiles. Yeah, Perfect-stage Digimon get two. That's not fair. This is Baby-stage Bubbles at Kuwagamon all over again.

As the group scatters, Yamato miserably fails his Big Brother check and leaves Takeru behind, frozen in terror. He realizes his mistake too late, but Gabumon evolves to Garurumon to shield Takeru from the blast. As he's evolving, the camera calls special attention to Koushiro noticing the data being output by Yamato's Digivice.

Garurumon swipes the Missiles away, destroying one of them. But the other recovers in the air and comes back for Taichi's group, revealing what exactly makes these Gatling Missiles.

With another shot of Koushiro noticing Taichi's Digivice glowing, Agumon evolves to Greymon to defend them from the gatling bullets. He smashes the missile with his tail. Their victory is short-lived, however, as Andromon proceeds to demonstrate the difference between Adult- and Perfect-stage Digimon.

This is not a winnable fight. They are all fucked beyond measure.

(Even if the whole team could evolve, this would still be a very hard fight. Remember that time the entire team of Child-stage Digimon tried to fight Kuwagamon and lost? Yeah. You really gotta party up if you want to take on a higher-stage Digimon.)

The kids watch in horror as Andromon easily takes Greymon and Garurumon apart. Yamato and Sora both chime in, acknowledging that they get what the whole "evolved at a stage beyond Greymon" thing from earlier means. He's so much stronger and faster than their guys; This fight is hopeless.

The dub didn't have that conversation earlier, so Sora has to offer this up as speculation. Dub Sora pegs his strength to being all-machine but adds, "It's almost like he's Digivolved far beyond the other Digimon!" Yeah. Almost like.

Out of desperation, Tentomon asks Koushiro to fire up that program he was looking at earlier. Koushiro acquiesces, firing it up and filling Tentomon with a surge of energy just like last time. But this time they let it go and don't resist it.

Tentomon SHINKAAAAAA!!!

Tentomon evolves into Kabuterimon, named for kabutomushi, the rhinoceros beetle. His arrival does little to change the tide of battle. Perfect-stage gonna Perfect, y'all.

Jou frantically wonders aloud if Andromon has any weaknesses, which gets Koushiro thinking. Scrutinizing Andromon carefully, he notices energy sparking out of his organic right leg and yells at Kabuterimon to focus fire on that.

The dub seems a little confused on this note; Izzy yells at Kabuterimon to "Cut his power! Demobilize his right leg and we'll interrupt his energy source!" which is making a lot of (wrong) assumptions about why we're shooting at his leg. Koushiro just says to shoot the leg and doesn't explain why.

Kabuterimon opens fire with his signature move, Mega Blaster. The dub calls this Electro Shocker.

Kabuterimon's shot hits home. It does jack shit to Andromon but it obliterates the Black Gear inside his leg, which forcibly emerges and flies into the air to explode like with Meramon. Instead of bursting into a cloud of smoke, however, we get to watch it disintegrate like a Final Fantasy monster.

With Andromon now liberated from the Black Gear, he unpacks what happened. He found the Gear stuck in the machinery of the factory and was trying to get it out when he got trapped like that. He doesn't actually know what it is or what happened any more than the kids do.

He's apologetic for what he did under its corruption and wishes he had more information for them, but he doesn't. He does, however, have a suggestion for how they should leave the factory, which may be where the dub got the idea that they're trapped here. He advises them to go through the sewers.

Dub Andromon skips the explanation and goes straight to apologizing. Though he still says he has little information for them and suggests using the "underground waterway" to "escape" from here. He also calls it a "labyrinth", which the original does not.

Andromon wishes them luck in returning to their world, which is now officially what we're calling it. Dub Tai promises to never forget Andromon. Then the kids make their way into the sewers.

As they're walking, Takeru strikes up conversation with Koushiro. He wants to know if the program Koushiro used to evolve Tentomon would work for Patamon as well. Dub T.K. has the same question but refers to evolving as "becoming a superhero".

Koushiro agrees to give it a try, but as he's typing, his laptop suddenly loses power. Taichi and Agumon both want to hit it, forcing Koushiro to comically protect his laptop from these two lunkheads.

As Taichi and Agumon comically hit each other, we close the episode on the group laughing at them. The narrator chimes in to foreshadow that Koushiro's laptop will be the key to solving the secrets of the world.

The dub's been having the characters narrate instead, but they don't even bother with this line. They just cut it outright. That's fair; It's kind of unnecessary.

Assessment: As a character-focus episode, this one works really well for Koushiro. The emphasis of the episode is on learning and information-gathering. We found something interesting so we start poking around to figure out what we can about File Island.

So far, each episode has focused on a particular trait of a character that's going to become important later down the road. For Koushiro, it's his intelligence and curiosity that not only drives his discoveries but fuels his Digimon's evolution.

This is a big episode for discovering the lore and understanding the mechanics of the Digital World, as befits a Koushiro episode. I particularly like the choice of a Perfect-stage Digimon for their adversary, forcing them into a situation where Koushiro has to solve the puzzle rather than defeat the bad guy.

The dub quality here is... serviceable. There's some lateral changes that just come across as different presentation choices, such as having Tai announce himself to the others more directly when he leaves the group. Also, some of the tension-relieving jokes they added got me, especially Mimi's "didn't pay the power bill" crack.

But there's definitely some changes I wouldn't have made. Cutting out the explanation that Andromon's evolved beyond the levels of Greymon and Garurumon confuses the matter of why they can't beat him. As a kid, I remember legitimately thinking that metal Digimon are just automatically the strongest because of this episode.

Also, they're still erasing Jou's character direction: To find humans so they can take us in and get us home. This leaves him with little to do but provide comic relief.

Nonetheless, the main character arc between Izzy and Tentomon mostly lands, even if they go a little too hard on Tentomon's disagreement with Izzy's way of life.

The dub version is a little lesser for the choices that they made, but not by too much, I think. It still hits most of the important beats and delivers the story it needed to tell, and that's what matters most.

[klbwriting]

Not Romeo, Not Juliet

Chapter 3: This Fierce Vein

Fandom: Red Hood

Pairing: Jason Todd x f!Reader

Warnings: none

Summary: Jason is Hamlet...and he's terrible. Extra practice leads to new discoveries

There is no following her in this fierce vein

— A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, ACT 3 SCENE 2

Things Jason had expected when he auditioned for Bludhaven Prep’s theater production of Hamlet: 1. A sophomore would be Hamlet, his audition was amazing even if he had tripped getting onto the stage, 2. Chelsea would be Ophelia and that poor sophomore would have to pretend to love her, and 3. He would coast by in the background without anyone noticing him. What he did not expect was to roll up to rehearsal Monday morning only for the cast list to say Jason Todd…Hamlet. Apparently, he had been good and now everyone in the group wanted to know who he was. He groaned, already feeling the eyes of the freshmen on him, trying to calculate what they could say to him to make him think they were cool enough to be friends. Theater wasn’t a huge deal at this school, but it was big enough that the leads were popular, and Jason had no interest. He went to the director, trying to talk them out of casting him but they held firm.

“Mr. Todd, you were a natural, excellent. I really think you could do this professionally and I don’t say that to many people,” the director said, setting a mark on the floor before looking at him. “I know it feels like a lot of pressure, but you were made to be Hamlet.” O great, he was meant to play a madman who dies, well guess he did die once, at least that he knew he was actually good at. He sighed and just nodded, going and waiting for rehearsal to start.

By the time practice was over he was pretty sure they were reconsidering his casting. He had been terrible, missing cues, flubbing lines that he knew by heart, not focusing. He felt the restlessness he had felt ever since the pit flowing through him. He didn’t want to be there, he wanted to be out, hitting something, getting this energy out in the most violent way possible. The other seniors were packing up, asking him if he wanted to go out, maybe run lines with them.

“No, after Friday I honestly don’t want to hang out with you guys ever again,” he said honestly, voice having an edge that clearly frightened them.

“Don’t have to be such a dick. We were just getting payback,” Jackson said. Jason looked over at him, eyes blazing green, and growled at him. The three of them scampered off and Jason collapsed into one of the theater seats, frustrated. He needed to rant about this. Maybe Dick could get him out of being Hamlet, use his money to drop Jason down to something else.

“Nope, sorry kid, I think you should do this play and be Hamlet,” Dick said over dinner that night. Jason sighed.

“Why? I was terrible today, I don’t think I’m cut out for being an actor,” he mumbled, pushing a meatball around his plate. He had been so annoyed about play practice that he had overdone the meatballs, they were dry, just another fuck up on this perfectly fucked up day.

“O come off it Jason, you spent six years acting,” Dick said. Jason looked at him confused. “You were Robin from ages 10-16, so in that time you were either pretending to be Robin or pretending to be Jason Todd, you’re an actor.” Jason frowned.

“Who was I pretending to be?” he whispered. Dick looked at him, eyes softening. That was the question anyone associated with Batman would ask, what was real? The person or the mask? “Who are you pretending to be? Dick or Nightwing?”

“I’m not always sure,” Dick admitted, clearing his plate. “Maybe being in this play, trying to act, will help you see who you were before you died.”

Rehearsal was pushed from Tuesday to Wednesday that week but it didn’t help. Jason was still a mess, trying so hard to get it right. He kept hearing Bruce’s voice in the back of his head. ‘You’re not listening Jason’, ‘Dick could have done this on the first try’, ‘You can do better’. When rehearsal was over the director pulled him aside.

“I can see that you’re distracted,” she said. Jason wanted to lie but he just nodded. “Is there something going on at home? I know that you live with your older brother.” Jason didn’t know why but this woman reminded him of his mother. He barely remembered her, but he did remember that when she wasn’t strung out her eyes were soft, care would radiate from her when she was sober. This teacher had the same kind eyes, the same warmth her. It made him loosen his normally tight lips.

“No, nothing like that, he’s great. Just ya know, wasn’t always a good family life. I let down my dad a lot before I…moved,” he said, stopping himself before saying ‘died’. The director nodded, understanding.

“My mother was overbearing when I was young, always thought I was a disappointment,” she said, leaning on the stage next to where he sat. “I would hear her voice in my head, just disparaging me every time I did anything. A big test, performance, dance recital, always her telling me I would screw up.”

“Does it ever stop?” he asked. She looked at him, eyes full of sympathy and he nodded. “Does it get quieter?” She nodded.

“Once you really give yourself over to what you’re doing the volume goes down. Instead of thinking about your father when you’re acting, try thinking about Hamlet, what he is feeling. He didn’t have your father, imagine what his father was like. Use that to fuel your performance,” she said. Jason nodded. “I will see you Friday at rehearsal.” She packed up and left him alone. Jason looked at the stage.

“Might as well run through it myself,” he mumbled, standing and going to his first mark. He was midway through the first act when he heard something towards stage right. He walked over, feet making no noise, as he moved through the sets stored in the wings. He came up the prop room and saw YN. She was grabbing the swords they were using and took them out of the room. He stayed behind set pieces watching as she hid the swords, one behind an old radiator, one in a light rigging that had been lowered for repair, just random places. It was the kind of prank that was actually funny. He let out a chuckle, coming out from behind the bridge piece. She froze at the noise, turning and facing him.

“Hello, didn’t know anyone was still here,” she said, setting down the last sword, setting a prop blanket on top of it on the floor. “Well, going to turn me in? I’m sure some teacher is still around. You could really fuck with my chances in the Shakespeare competition.” She crossed her arms, staring him down. A lot of bad people had tried to stare Jason down before, Bane, Poinson Ivy, Two Face….Joker. He hadn’t looked away from any of them, he wasn’t the guilty one, they were, and he would win, but he looked away from YN. This time he did feel guilty. He hadn’t been the perpetrator of that horrid prank at the open mic night, but she didn’t know that. He was there with the people who did it and Jason understand the term ‘guilty by association’.

“I’m not going to tell on you, I’m not a snitch, and I can’t wait to see Jackson whine about his missing sword on Friday,” he said. “But you should probably be more careful, sneaking around here is reckless.” He almost gagged on the word. Since when did he sound like Bruce?

“Me? Reckless? I’m sorry little rich boy, you were just slumming it in Crime Alley, who is reckless?” she demanded. Jason stared at her. “And what were you doing there anyway? Come to laugh at us poor kids? Did those asshole friends of yours send you to find something on me? The new guy gets to do the dirty work and ruin my life?”

“Woah, listen, I don’t give a shit about your life, I was there for….reasons,” he said, not sure how to say ‘I needed to hit people because coming back from the dead had side effects’ without sounding insane.

“Either way, you can’t tell anyone where I’m from, if word got around that I was just some degenerate from Crime Alley…people are mean,” she said, feeling so lame for that. Jason nodded. He understood. If you were from Crime Alley you were a delinquent, you were scum and you could never fix that. It was a label that was hard to wash off. Jason only got out because Bruce made sure of it, money was the only thing to really mover you out of that slum.

“I won’t tell anyone,” he said. “I grew up there too.” He knew that was a bridge too far by the look on her face.

“Ya sure, you don’t need to try to relate to me rich boy,” she said. “Now I’m getting out of here, hopefully I never see you again.” She gave him the middle finger and left through the side stage door. Jason smiled after her, feeling his heart flutter a little. O shit.

Curiosity was driving Jason as he slid down the alley behind Big Belly Burger, red mask on his face. He had seen her working already, walking by the front window casually, hood up, mask on, so she wouldn’t know it was him. He could be anybody, there were plenty of vigilante pretenders in the area, he blended in. He waited until she was finished and followed her down the street. She didn’t live far from her work and Jason snuck into a familiar alley when she went into the apartment building. The same building, he grew up in. He looked around the alley, remembering finding the Batmobile right where he was standing. He still didn’t know how he went from seeing the infamous vehicle to thinking ‘I should get those rims’, but stealing those tires had changed his life and those memories were bittersweet now. He shook them away as he jumped, grabbing the fire escape ladder and hulled himself up.

She lived on the fourth floor he found. He could see through the thin curtains into her living room. She went in, taking off the apron she wore for work and hung it by the door. There was a frozen dinner on the counter, so she grabbed it and threw it in the microwave before approaching the couch where he noticed a thin woman was laying on it.

“Hey mom, how are you?” she asked, kneeling by the woman and gently touching her head. Her mother took her hand and kissed it.

“I’m feeling fine Lady Macbeth,” she said. YN smiled at her. “How was play practice?”

“I didn’t have practice tonight, I went to mess with the Bludhaven Prep stuff,” she said. The woman coughed a little and he could see concern cross YN’s face. Her mother was sick, very sick from the sound of that cough. His heart ached. He could remember that sound, his mother had coughed like that the night she OD’d. It was fused into his brain.

“You didn’t get in trouble, did you? Is that why you’re late?” her mom asked.

“No, one of the guys, that guy from the open mic? He was there, but I don’t think he’s going to say anything. They’re all jerks, but he’s the least jerky I think,” she said. Well, at least she didn’t completely hate him. “And then I had work tonight remember? Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday I work, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning I have practice?”

“O, right of course,” her mother answered. YN turned off the TV. “I was watching that…”

“You need to be in bed now, come on,” she said. She slid an arm under her mother and helped her stand before leaving the room. Jason sat on the fire escape for another minute before deciding he had invaded her privacy enough. He needed to get home anyway, Dick would be pissed if he came back and Jason was gone. He trudged home, now even angrier at the other seniors for their pranks. He was going to make it up to YN, he promised that.

[cha-melodius]

Oh my goodness, I've just seen your fic festival request post and am excited to sneak in to participate before it closes. I love your writing and your stories so very much!

My prompt suggestion is... firstprince in Edinburgh, Scotland... in particular, the Edinburgh pride parade (if I may be so oddly specific). AU welcome, canon welcome, makeouts welcome, ahem.

Thank you and good luck wrangling everyone's prompts!

(Firstly, I have to say I love your url and your profile pic! Secondly, this is heavier on the Pride and lighter on the Edinburgh as far as the details go, but I hope it delights. Inspired in part by a tweet shared on tumblr; rated M for dick jokes. Happy Bisexual Awareness Week!)

Something To Be Proud Of

(firstprince, 3.3k, M; read it below or on AO3) read all the fandom fest fics

Henry stares at the carbon copy of the email in his inbox and wills time to go backwards. Just a few minutes, that’s all he needs. Enough time to go back and keep autocorrect from transforming whatever he’d typed after ‘he’ in his pronouns after his name into… that.

Thank you so much for all your help. Together we can make this a truly exceptional Edinburgh Pride. Regards, Henry Fox (he/hung Sent from Outlook for iOS.

How had he not seen it before he hit send on an email going out to every volunteer on their mailing list? How had he not noticed?

Maybe no one else would notice either. No one looks at email signatures that closely, right?

~~~~~

Ok, he’s not delusional enough to think that no one noticed. He had, however, naively believed that everyone would recognise it for what it was and politely ignore his gaff. He gets away scot free for a few days, and then, at the end of an email sent by a volunteer that is mostly as expected, he sees:

Best, Alex (he/him) PS: not sure I did the pronouns right. Does ‘Pride’ over here include being proud of your big dick?

It’s a damned good thing that he wasn’t taking a sip of his tea at the time, or he might be wearing it instead. Once he’s finished choking on nothing and perhaps isn’t quite the colour of a tomato (oh, who is he kidding, of course he still is), Henry professionally answers Alex’s questions about the schedule for the day of the march. He pauses before the sign off, wondering if he should acknowledge the flub or pretend it never happened. In the end, he writes:

Regards, Henry (he/him) PS: Your pronouns look correct to me, but they are, of course, your choice.

He only checks the email about ten times before he sends it. Hopefully, that should be the end of it.

~~~~~

It’s not.

Apparently, Alex has more questions. Apparently the law firm he works for is one of this year’s sponsors and is interested in potentially running a free legal clinic associated with the festival. A noble endeavour, which Henry is only too happy to assist with. He makes a mental note to look into logistics with Kate, the event’s chair, and continues reading. Finding out that Alex is apparently mature enough to be a lawyer lulls him into a false sense of security, though. At the tail of the email, he finds:

PS: regardless of the size of your dick, I’m impressed by the balls it takes to not acknowledge the typo. Then again, maybe it wasn’t? PPS: I’m trying out new pronouns. How do you think (daddy/sir) would go over?

Henry does spit his tea all over his phone this time.

He doesn’t email Alex back right away, but that’s because he has to wait to hear back from Kate. It has nothing to do with the fact that the prospect of dragging this interaction out longer is both horrifying and vaguely thrilling. Henry has noticed that he uses Americanised spellings in his text, which seems to fit with his general demeanour. It piques Henry’s curiosity, even though the thought of actually having to face Alex in person still makes him flush automatically. Eventually he gets an email from Kate that includes additional questions for the firm, as well as telling him that he can pass it off to someone in sponsor coordination. He is, after all, just the volunteer coordinator for the march. This need not involve him.

He still emails Alex back with the questions. And:

PS: Although I support your creativity, I am concerned those pronouns may not be appreciated in a professional setting such as, for instance, a court of law. Just a thought. However, I do suspect they might be rather popular at Pride.

~~~~~

They keep on exchanging emails, even though Henry should have sent Alex’s contact info to sponsor coordination ages ago, even though it becomes clear that Alex is not the one who will be ultimately responsible for the clinic either. On every one, there is a postscript in which Alex makes some kind of joke about the size of Henry’s dick.

do you have to get all your pants specially made with extra room in the crotch

do you have to check your dick as luggage when you fly

have you ever used it as a tripod

is your dick in another time zone

do you call your dick Sir Richard because it’s that prominent

In turn, Henry responds as dryly as possible, which only seems to encourage him. Oddly for someone who is volunteering at the event, Alex seems to have a lot of questions about Pride itself, as though this is the first one he’s attending on any continent. They exchange emails almost right up to the day of the march itself, but if they do taper off, Henry is too busy to notice. Coordinating volunteers for something as big as Edinburgh Pride is intense, and the days tick by before he even knows it.

He’s standing off to the side at the volunteer check-in tent on the morning of the march, going over some last minute logistics with one of his staff, when a voice carries over the hubbub, deep and rich with an out-of-place American accent.

“Sorry, but I was hoping… is Henry here?”

Henry straightens up and turns toward the voice only to find perhaps the most stunning man he’s ever seen standing at the front table. Dark, curly hair, a sharp jaw, big brown eyes with the longest eyelashes Henry has ever seen— he’s actually impossibly beautiful. Unbelievable, really. As is the fact that he’s asking for Henry.

“Hello,” Henry says as he walks over to the front. “How can I help you?”

The man’s eyes snap over to him, and he very clearly looks Henry up and down and swears, “Jesus fuck,” under his breath. Then his eyes come back up to Henry’s face, and he swallows. “You’re not Scottish.”

Henry cocks an eyebrow at him. “Neither are you.”

“Yeah, sorry. I just— need to adjust what you sound like in my head,” he says nonsensically. “I’m Alex?”

Oh.

Oh, Christ.

Henry should have known, because how many other Americans could there be volunteering at Edinburgh Pride? That reality does nothing to help him cope with the situation presented before him, though, in which this is the man who’s been teasing him about the size of his dick for the last month.

“I, uh,” he says eloquently as he tries to pull himself together. There are far too many people standing around watching this exchange. “Hello. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Did your firm get everything sorted with the clinic?”

“Oh,” Alex says, blinking. “Yeah, thanks. Look, I’m sure you’re busy, but I have something for you?”

It kind of comes out as a question, and he’s scratching the back of his head uncertainly, so even though Henry has no idea what’s coming, he nods. Then Alex reaches into his pocket, fishes out something small and round, and places it on the table between them.

It’s a button. A pronoun button, not unlike the one Henry’s already wearing, but instead it reads: he/hung.

Henry’s eyes snap up to find Alex grinning at him with the kind of mischief that Henry honestly should have expected from him sparkling in his eye. “Wanted to make sure you were prepared,” he says with a little one-shouldered shrug. “I’ll see you around, I guess.”

Then he takes his volunteer t-shirt and saunters off—and Christ those jeans are ridiculously tight and doing everything for his arse—leaving Henry gawping after him. A moment later, one of his regular volunteers, Robin, bustles by, catches sight of the button, and lets out a sound that can only be described as a cackle.

“My god, it’s perfect,” they say. “Did he really make this for you?”

Henry can only sigh, dragging a hand over his face. “It appears so. Robin, can you do me a favour?”

“Make sure you’re working the same stations all day?” they surmise. Henry doesn’t need to look to imagine the knowing grin on their face.

Henry wants to say no. Just because Henry’s already managed to combine the affection engendered by their previous email conversations with Alex’s stunning good looks into a powerfully intoxicating cocktail of a crush—well, that’s on Henry and his poor decision-making.

Instead, he says: “Yes, exactly that.”

~~~~~ ~~~~~

Alex had only signed up to volunteer at Pride on a whim. He’s always complaining that he doesn’t know anyone in Edinburgh outside of his coworkers, and one such coworker—someone that he could safely call a friend—suggested that getting involved in the festival would be a good way to meet people. Alex had tried to explain that he wasn’t actually queer, but she’d just given him an odd look and told him that allies were welcome at Pride too. It had felt a little weird signing up despite her assurances, but also kind of good. He was finally going get out there and have a life beyond his job.

He certainly hadn’t expected to strike up a prolonged email exchange with the volunteer coordinator, Henry. He also doesn’t really know why he kept finding excuses to send him new messages, except for Henry’s responses to Alex’s stupid jokes made Alex imagine him rolling his eyes and trying not to laugh, which only egged Alex on further. It was fun. That’s all.

Nothing about any of this made him prepared to show up to the volunteer check-in tent  today and be plunged directly into a sexuality crisis. But that seems to be exactly what’s currently happening now that he’s been confronted by quite possibly the hottest man he’s ever seen. Alex doesn’t even get it because it’s not like he hasn’t been able to objectively appreciate attractive men before, and blond hair and blue eyes have historically never really done it for him. Even if they are combined with swooping cheekbones, and broad shoulders, and obscenely full, pink lips.

All he knows is that as much as this doesn’t make sense, it also suddenly does. Why he’d felt drawn to sign up in the first place. Why he spent the last month reading about the history of Pride in Edinburgh and around the world. Why he’d gone on a deep dive doing research about different sexualities, brushing it off as wanting to be informed before meeting new people.

Why he was so obsessed with Henry’s dick.

Jesus fuck.

He thinks he manages to hold a short conversation. Somehow he even gives Henry the custom button he brought as a joke, smiling the whole time like he’s not moment’s away from dropping to his knees. He flees the table safe in the knowledge that Henry will likely be too busy coordinating stuff all day and Alex probably won’t see him again. That confidence is shattered when, not even an hour later, Henry shows up at the station Alex is supposed to be working. He’s even wearing the joke button, under his regular pronoun button and next to a little rainbow flag pin. Alex is going to die.

“Oh hey,” Alex says in a reasonable facsimile of nonchalance. “Did you need me for something?”

“Not exactly,” Henry replies. “I’ll be working this station too.”

Yeah, Alex is definitely not going to make it through the day.

~~~~~

It actually turns out to be not as bad as he feared, despite how Henry’s volunteer t-shirt is probably a size too small (never mind that in the context of everyone else at Pride he looks downright conservative) and Alex keeps getting caught staring at his shoulders or his back or his waist. Henry keeps on giving him weird looks at the beginning, probably because he’s expecting Alex to be cracking crude jokes. Too bad Alex is way too wound up in his own head to think of anything at all.

They’re pretty busy all day, but they do get a chance to chat occasionally, mostly small talk stuff about jobs and how they both ended up in Edinburgh. Henry is there for grad school, apparently, and has been volunteering for Pride since he moved out from under his grandmother’s restrictive shadow. In turn, Alex tells him about applying for the law job on a whim, desperate to set himself apart from his parents, and how much he likes Edinburgh (despite the weather). As the day stretches on and the streets fill up, Alex feels himself relaxing into his skin again, undeniably enjoying the festivities as well as Henry’s company.

See, the other thing he never, ever expected is how good it feels to be here. All the people around him loudly comfortable in themselves, and the color and glitter and celebration— it’s amazing, but it’s not just that he’s watching other people be happy. There’s a kind of ecstatic joy that bubbles up inside him at the fact that he’s part of it, one that he feels down to his bones. A sense of belonging that he’s never really experienced before, and that, more than anything else, makes him more certain of his newfound revelation.

Straight people probably don’t feel like this at Pride.

At the end of the day, he’s helping pack up the main volunteer tent when he comes across a table full of pins depicting different pride flags. He dimly remembers seeing them when he’d checked in and thinking that none of them applied to him. Now, he stares down at them and bites his lower lip uncertainly.

“There’s a box for those under the table,” Henry tells him from across the tent, misinterpreting his hesitation.

“Oh, yeah, thanks,” Alex says, and Henry’s already turning back to whatever he’s doing when he manages to continue, “Hey, can I— um, can I take one of these?”

Henry stops, his brow creasing as he tips his head slightly. “Of course. That’s what they’re there for.”

“Right, thanks,” Alex says with a tight smile.

He puts his hand out, hesitates, then picks up one with pink, purple, and blue stripes. Stares down at it for another moment before he realizes he’s probably being weird and he’s pretty sure Henry is still watching him. He swallows hard, then pins it to his shirt next to his pronoun button.

No one jumps out to call him out for being an impostor. Henry offers him a careful smile, then turns back to his work like he knows Alex needs a moment to himself. He lets his fingers rub over the surface of the pin, feeling the little enamel ridges, and something settles under his skin, like an itch he hadn’t even been aware of until it was gone.

He feels almost normal by the time Henry walks up to him once they’re finished and everything is packed away in someone’s car.

“Thanks so much for your help today,” Henry says. 

“It was my pleasure,” Alex replies, and means it more than he can say. “I’m really glad I decided to sign up.”

“I realize you may very well be tired of my face at this point, but if you don’t already have plans, I was wondering if you’d like to go get a drink?”

Alex would like to make a joke about how it might be literally impossible to get tired of Henry’s face, but at this point he’d probably fuck up and confess his undying love for a guy he just met. “Sounds great,” he says instead, looking around at where a few of the other volunteers are lingering nearby. “Do y’all usually all go out together afterward?”

Henry coughs slightly and glances down at the ground for a few seconds as his cheeks turn faintly pink. “Well yes, a group of them usually do. But I was actually asking if you wanted to go out with me,” he says. “Just the two of us.”

“Oh,” Alex breathes as his stomach decides to do a backflip. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Spending all day volunteering with Henry was fun. Going on a date with Henry, being the sole focus of his attention, is intoxicating. Alex feels like he could sit here all night listening to Henry talk about his research on queer history, although that’s far from the only thing they talk about. As the night wears on and the pub slowly empties, Alex is buzzing with a few drinks and the euphoria of really clicking with someone, already wondering when would be too soon to ask Henry out again.

Henry shifts slightly so his legs press against Alex’s where they’re tangled together under the table—have been for several hours, actually. He’s playing with the stirrer in his empty glass, and a little teasing smirk sneaks onto his lips as he looks up at Alex.

“So you made me a custom pronoun button but forgot your own?”

“Ah, you know,” Alex replies with a shit-eating grin and a one-shouldered shrug, “thought it would be too distracting, what with how everyone would be hitting on me all day.”

Henry hums thoughtfully, biting back a wider smile. “If you wanted to avoid that, you probably should have chosen some looser trousers.”

“That’s fair. I suppose you had to go for the room in yours.” Alex pauses a beat. “You know, on account of the size of your dick.”

That makes Henry actually laugh and shake his head fondly. “I was waiting all day for that.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Alex says, chuckling along with him. It does feel like he owes Henry something of an explanation of why he was so weird all day. He looks down and licks his lips. “Can I confess something?”

“Of course,” Henry answers with a small, encouraging smile.

“A friend of mine suggested I volunteer for this because I wanted to meet people. Make new friends. But until today I actually thought I was… mostly straight?” Alex admits, trying not to wince as he stares fixedly into his empty glass. “Being part of this made me realize why I always felt a little like I wasn’t my whole self. So I was… kind of going through it a bit today.” He pauses, then adds, “Also you’re so ridiculously fucking hot that you kind of melted my brain.”

Henry laughs again, but it’s softer this time. Gentle. Alex kind of wants to sink into the sound. Henry’s cheeks are slightly pink as he extends a hand across the table, and Alex doesn’t hesitate before he slides his hand into Henry’s and links their fingers together.

“I’m glad to hear that, Alex,” Henry says. “I mean, the feeling like your whole self part. Not the brain melting part,” he adds, and Alex can’t help but laugh with him.

Henry doesn’t let go of his hand as they walk outside, and once they’re alone on the sidewalk he uses it to pull Alex close. He puts a hand on Alex’s hip and Alex has to tip his head up to look at him, and it’s a lot but he’s also pretty sure he’s never wanted anything more than to feel Henry’s lips pressed against his.

“I have a confession too,” Henry murmurs as he stares down into Alex’s eyes.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been dreaming of kissing you since the very first moment I saw you.”

Alex lets one corner of his mouth tug upwards. “What’s stopping you, baby?”

“Christ, Alex,” Henry breathes, looking momentarily overwhelmed, but then he’s pressing his lips to Alex’s, and Alex feels his blood sing. It’s brief and chaste and leaves him aching for more, but then Henry looks down at him with heavy lidded eyes and asks, “Given your recent personal revelations, would it be terribly forward of me to ask you back to my place?”

“Ask away, sweetheart,” Alex replies, then he reaches up to touch the side of the ridiculous he/hung button that Henry is still wearing for some reason. “I wanna find out how accurate this button is.”

(It doesn’t take long for him to find out that the answer is: extremely.)

[eternal-armin]

ii. SO, HOW SHOULD i begin this?

part two woo. hopefully i'll be able to catch up on this and maybe publish some other stuff now that i'm home a lot more often (yay pain and mobility issues), maybe some arcane stuff since that would be fun, branching out into my last hyperfixation again lol. i've proofread so it should be good :>

pairing : five hargreeves x male/transmasc reader [he/him pronouns]

─────

where : after trying and sort of succeeding to get on the hargreeves' good side, five and [y/n] try rationalizing the situation and figuring out something, anything, to do about it.

─────

warnings : mentions of trauma, threats [of physical violence and murder], reader is still totally exhausted because how could he not be, depression, dissociation, pain, bits of shouting, not necessarily a warning but viktor is always viktor in the multiverse because the boy deserves it okay, existentialism, philosophical nihilism, family issues.

five adjusted his clothes in the mirror. although he wouldn't be able to have a proper retirement, he could look like a retired old man, couldn't he? who would've thought that someone could get so excited for beiges and tans. he got an amused look of subtle approval from you. beyond that, it wasn't very hard to look past your façade if he was being honest, you looked hesitant; though could he blame you? there were probably millions of worlds where his family fucked you over or just straight-up killed you. and yet, you also looked too tired to care. he couldn't blame you for that, either.

he touched your shoulder again. in a flit of light, which once again made you feel horribly nauseated and woozy, you were downstairs. surprised exclamations roused from his family.

"anyone know where vanya and allison are?" five asked, glancing with narrowed eyes across the lacking table.

"nope." and after that short reply diego went back to finishing off his meal—for someone who often scarfed his meals down, he seemed to be taking his sweet time. either that or your fun conversation with five had not taken as long as you'd thought; either possibility was equally likely at this point, really.

"nuh-uh... sorry."

"not a clue, unfortunately. something wrong, tiny dancer?" klaus asked.

"well, we have a new problem."

"who's this guy?" luther pointed at you wish his thumb, not caring to cover his mouth; your nausea was worsened to see someone talking whilst eating. diego looked at you then, and you hated how his glare bore straight through your soul. he really, really didn't seem to appreciate your presence. how both of them could so willingly ignore the phrase 'we have a problem,' especially from five, was unknown to you.

"this is [y/n]. he's one of the sparrows."

you waved once to everyone. whether the sluggishness of the motion, and the weak smile which accompanied it, was due to shyness or exhaustion was incredibly murky and unclear.

"so now we're getting all buddy-buddy with the enemy? do you know how stupid that is?"

"i'm sorry, diego, did you not hear me say that we have a problem?"

"well, you say that a lot, little brother!" klaus leaned forward to see you clearer, giving you a smile. it didn't really placate your anxieties or your strong desire to run, however it was appreciated. he waved, and you again waved back politely, still feeling very... guilty for your earlier flub. it wasn't a new thing, either, and that made you feel even worse. "hello, little enemy! how do you look so young? do you use those, like, '10 years younger' face creams? i didn't know they worked that well—"

"that is not a relevant question, klaus, now can someone please tell me where allison and vanya are?"

you cleared your throat slightly. "vanya is most likely getting a haircut. allison is trying to get to claire, but she's... not going to find her." it left a bitter taste in your mouth to refer to viktor in such a disrespectful way, but you couldn't take that from him. upon receiving suspicious stares from the younger hargreeves brothers, you mumbled a quiet "maybe."

"mind telling us what the hell is going on before i deck this mini-muffin across the lobby?"

"hey, hey, do not use mini-muffin as an insult! those are beautiful things, there's nothing better than mini-muffins when you're on a bender at, like, three in the morning!" klaus got a confused and heavily judgmental look in return for that... beautiful insight.

"[y/n] has the ability to see all other timelines, so he can usually find out the most probable events. okay? good. now i need to find allison, so can one of you fetch vanya, please?"

"no, not good, and no thanks! after all we've gone through, we deserve a proper explanation!" klaus objected. after a second or two of awkward silence, and a scowling glare from five, he gave in with a curt sigh. it sounded more like a groan. the brothers looked at you; klaus was the only one to seem patient, showing the approval of a parent understanding a kid's fear of giving a speech; luther stared at you with a puzzling mix of intrigue and subtle impatience; and diego stared at you with a raised eyebrow, leaning his head in slightly as if to say 'i'm waiting.' five's glare, although still quite characteristic, was a bit softer when aimed at you. you could never feel more put on the spot.

"you've gotta say something, little man, we can't read your mind," klaus encouraged.

"well, uh... i don't know exactly what it is yet, but something is wrong."

"aren't you omniscient or some shit? you can see literally every reality!"

the shouting scared you quite a bit and certainly made your headache worse. you put one of your hands to your head, mumbling, wishing you could just get some painkillers. if only five had given them back.

"don't shout, for fuck's sake," five grumbled, annoyed in his own right.

"i'm not omniscient. if no other worlds know something, then i can't, and... no other world knows yet. but something is wrong." your quiet voice was juxtaposed to diego's, still loud and stubborn like back in the academy. around 79.4 percent of every single alternate world which had diego in it found him like this, angry and short-tempered; it was very interesting. "you aren't supposed to be here. you guys, as you are, don't exist here. i don't think reality appreciates you showing up all of a sudden. and if versions of yourselves already exist in this world, then something will need to... iron out the wrinkles, i guess." you pursed your lips for a second. "not to be too brash or anything, but, to really, really dumb it down, you're a mis—you're mistakes."

"seriously? five, i thought you said that this timeline would be safe to stay in." luther looked like a scolded puppy. you felt bad. he was far too sweet—naive? yes, naive—for this kind of life.

"yes, that's what i thought, but second opinions are pretty valuable in my line of expertise. turns out it was sorely needed." his brows pricked up a few times while he spoke. "but, like you said before, it may be a problem we can solve."

diego remained, unsurprisingly, unswayed. "you better not be including this wad of chewed gum in that 'we,' five."

"what is with you and insulting him? he wants to help. jesus christ."

"last time i checked, his entire family just kicked our asses out of our own house, i have a right to be pissed, and he's lucky i'm in no killing mood."

"i don't agree that he should be killed," luther began in solidarity, "but we have a reason not to trust him, right?"

you took a little breath and exhaled it in a quiet sigh. "i know my family can be... extreme. and bad sometimes. trust me. and i totally understand how you can be angry with them and with me and think that i'm not honest. but i never hurt anyone, and i want to help you guys. you're eccentric yourselves, but usually you're good people. you're, like, an actual family," you added, trailing off, "not a group forced to stay together for monetary gain."

five squinted at you slightly. was that one of the reasons you chose not to grow up? you couldn't be associated with the sparrows if you were half their age. throw on a pair of sunglasses and nobody could recognize you.

jeez. didn't that sound nice.

"you guys really deserve a place to rest. a stable place to live, even. and if we can figure this out, then maybe you won't have to live in constant fear of coming into contact with your doppelganger or something. live, like, normal lives. as normal as they can be, anyway."

diego, much to your surprise, seemed to listen to what you were saying. sure, he still looked quite ticked-off and impatient, but you couldn't really ask for too much from him, could you?

"and you're sure that this is a problem we can actually solve? for good?"

"i'm not exactly sure what the problem even is yet. all i know is that something is wrong. but every problem has a solution, even if it seems impossible sometimes." there was a twinge of sage, melancholic hopelessness somewhere in there, some subtle disbelief. "five is quite the expert in timelines and time travel-related problems and paradoxes, and i'm an expert in alternate realities and manipulating reality itself. if anyone can figure it out, i'm sure we can. and i have no doubt that all of you will also play large parts."

luther's face was screwed into an expression of brazen confusion. "so... we're, like, completely blind, and need to fight an enemy we know absolutely nothing about."

"pretty much," you mumbled.

"surprisingly poetic way to put that, luther, i'm impressed," five mused rather sarcastically. "unfortunately, however, it seems we're gonna have to do something terrible and unprecedented." perhaps for dramatic effect, perhaps to quell his own annoyances, he paused and sighed out a breath. "we're going to have to work together." he did not need to specify the parties specified in 'together.'

"well, personally, i think this is a splendid idea. perfect opportunity for family bonding, i'd say! we're surrounded by decent chinese food and competent beds and cable television. decent music, too! and diego can finally figure out some self-discipline by not constantly threatening to kill [y/n]! marvelous idea little ones." admittedly, klaus's unique way of talking and gesturing was quite calming to you. you were very grateful for him. oddly enough—maybe you should've stopped saying that when it came to the umbrellas—klaus seemed to be that pillar of tranquility for you. viktor as well.

"calm down, calm down. you know that he won't turn against us or whatever? you're sure?"

the question was directed at five but you answered for him. "i'm not strong and i've never been in good health. even christopher, without his powers, would be better at fighting you than i would."

"the fucking cube?" you nodded. he plastered a grin over a pouting scowl. he sighed, giving into the plan. perhaps some remaining distrust still lingered, however, he could deal with it. "we've gotta clue allison and vanya in now. i'll go get vanya."

"finally," five huffed, shaking his head. "i'm going to find allison. you said she's going to try and find claire? i'll go to her old house." and then, the next second, he was gone. a few seconds of... incredibly awkward silence passed, where luther was staring at you whole-heartedly.

"go on and take a seat, young whipper-snapper. do you have any dietary restrictions? or allergies? we've probably got something here you can eat, if you want."

you had asked to walk back home with five.

"why with me?" "it's a little bit selfish, but i really don't want to be alone right now, and you're the number one person i trust right now." "flattering," he muttered. "then why walk?" "i think better when i walk."

admittedly, walking was taxing for you right now, so it may not have been your brightest idea, but after this entire day you needed a nice break; the picturesque city sunset was nice, the breeze was subtle and sweet, and it smelled like food out there on the streets. viktor had offered to talk with marcus and try to make a deal; you'd asked him to be very, very careful. "i don't know if purposely seeking out the anomaly would be more effective, or if allowing it to reveal itself would be better. maybe we should seek it out."

five nodded slightly. "allowing it to reveal itself could mean that it becomes too powerful to stop."

"that's kind of what i was thinking. we don't know how it would reveal itself. what if it destroys something, or changes something? what if it hurts people?" your voice was quieter with that last proposition. it was the worst possible option in your mind; buildings could be rebuilt. changes could be undone, with enough time and patience. but people could not be undamaged, and they could not be brought back to life.

well, not permanently, anyway.

five's pace slowed a bit and he peered at you, strangely, for a moment. you avoided his eyes.

"surprisingly enough, i don't think this is the... worst outcome." "forgive me but i don't really believe you. we've got jack all on either side. essentially, we're alone." "you're used to it, five." "hmph. and you aren't?" "not in this way, i guess." there was more he wanted to say but you would not give him the opportunity to dig too deep. "there are worlds where your family is on board. trusts me, even, after some convincing. and there are also some where we narrow the options down. i'd love to be in one of those. but at least we aren't at each other's throats again, or diego's choking me to death." your voice soured. if you got too close, you could feel that pain. there your mind went then, trying to save your other selves out of some ethereal desperation you could never claw yourself away from.

"ow!" you hissed, clapping a hand to your neck where it had stung, sharp and sudden. "what was that?"

"you were seriously so spaced out you didn't see me?" five asked, though it barely sounded like a question. he sounded just barely concerned. you had looked like a glove without a hand. "jeez," he scoffed, shaking his head. "did you see anything helpful, at least? anything at all?"

your mind was still seared and shattered across uncountable realities and he could see that struggle to ground in your eyes. hear it in your breath. you had little mental fortitude left to respond. "sorry? can you repeat that?"

five didn't roll his eyes. unfortunately, he knew dissociation. he carefully took your hands in his, rubbing your knuckles like he'd seen you do before, and that seemed to give you... some amount of usable energy. it was also sort of difficult not to notice him, of all people, doing it, even while he sported an expression of general distaste for the situation; you couldn't tell if it was falsified or not. slowly, you were returning to your body, and it felt heavier than ever before. "what did you see?" he repeated, just as you asked, meticulously annunciating each word and using a decent pace.

you nodded slightly. "i saw a few other timelines. less fortunate ones." you didn't need to elaborate for five to understand what you were referring to. the broad strokes, anyway. "nothing really useful, though," you added after a second in total defeat.

"shit. well, that's alright." and though it clearly wasn't, you didn't say anything.

"how long have we been standing here?"

"... a minute or two."

"oh, great," you mumbled, shaking your head to yourself. your record was around two hours, sure, but it still sucked. "the... we should seek it out."

"wow. you remembered."

"we were having the same conversation a whole lot. given i was still alive and actually grew to trust you." it was a half-joke but it succeeded in getting a bare grin out of five. "we can't risk hurting other people."

"or destroying something," five added.

"or destroying something," you agreed, then furrowing your brow slightly. a cafe nearby was playing pleasant music; that was something keeping you tethered to this world in particular, as if five wasn't enough, but even he was quiet sometimes. "the only problem is we don't know where it is."

"or what it looks like. if it even looks like something at all. it could very well be invisible or incomprehensible." he scowled for a second, though not out of irritation, thinking rather loudly to himself. "we should start where we appeared, i think." you nodded in agreement. "if your... 'family' decides to work with us, all of us, then we can search a whole lot more. but we should get the basics out of the way."

"the beginning is always the most logical place to start."

"quaint way to put it, did you write the sound of music in another universe?"

"what part about 'literally any possible, feasible universe' do you not understand?" you joked, managing a small smile of your own, and five would be lying if he said he didn't feel a little bit relieved to see you humoring yourself again.

"i deserve that." he paused for a second. "i know you said that walking helps you think, and you definitely need to do that more, but you look like a dead man standing right now. i'd rather just drop you off at the academy and get back to my own family. are you okay to teleport?" you did not respond at first, taking careful account of how you felt and how you may feel after. eventually, and rather subtly, you nodded.

"my room is klaus's old room back in your universe."

"wow, that... makes it easier. safer, probably." that was the closest you were going to get to 'thank you' so you took it. you shut your eyes tight and breathed deep through that half-second nausea-bomb. you were happy to see your room when you opened your eyes; smelling like home, looking like home, feeling like pure comfort. five glanced about your room. somehow it looked exactly like what he expected from you, which was a compliment. it was cozy. well-lived—especially the bed. there were many blankets and pillows and a few stuffed animals, unmade, probably because you barely left it. he couldn't blame you, either.

looking at you, you seemed totally relieved and excited to be back home.

"are you going to let go of my hands now?"

five stiffened for a second, mumbling a hushed apology before letting go, shoving his hands in his pockets. you couldn't help but grin a little, tiredly, and he scoffed when he saw it. "don't look at me like that. i was helping you ground, since you evidently can't do it yourself sometimes." not that he could blame you, really. he couldn't imagine what it would be like to be... you.

you ignored the jab. "i'm surprised you're willing to wait to take care of this," you mumbled, hanging up your scarf and sweater, lazily rifling through your dresser to find something decently comfortable to pass out in. "you always insisted on getting things done quick. if not immediately."

"i'm desperate for one damn moment of peace. the world isn't being decimated just yet. i just want to sleep decently for once."

you smiled slightly. no one could work while exhausted, especially not when it came to your quandary. "go on and sleep then. i'll meet you at the obsidian again tomorrow."

"yeah. oh, uh, just remembered something. close your eyes for a few seconds."

"why?"

"just do it."

you scoffed, though without any sort of animosity or annoyance, shutting your eyes tight like he told you to. you heard the familiar sound of his blinking once, twice. "alright. you can look. here." he held out to you your bottle of painkillers. "nearly forgot to give them back."

"oh, sh—thank you." the relief on your face was quite plain and sort of comforting as well. he mustered a slight hum in response.

"good night."

"night, five. sleep well."

"hmph. we'll see."

[wingsoverlagos]

Lewisohn vs. Paul McCartney's Routes of Rock

Paul McCartney's Routes of Rock is a BBC radio series that ran in late 1999 as part of promo for Paul's mostly-covers album, Run Devil Run. It was one of the first sources I tried to find when I started this project, but no dice. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to find it again, and it practically fell into my lap! It's a cute series - Paul talks about his early rock 'n' roll influences and gives some cute early-Beatles anecdotes. You can download the entire series here.

The series totals five parts and runs for ~2.5hrs. The download link has those five parts in three tracks - Track 1 is Parts 1 and 2, Track 2 is Parts 3 and 4, and Track 3 is Part 5. The timestamps I give in this post are for the tracks, not the individual parts/episodes.

Lewisohn cites Routes of Rock ten times in in the standard edition of Tune In. Eight of these citations contain errors; in fact, a ninth might as well, but I can't say for sure - I've included discussion of that citation (Tune In P-3) at the end of the post.

We've got a few classic Lewisohnisms to dig into here: a Frankenquote, details pulled in from an uncited source or from thin air, and Lewisohn playing it fast and loose with Paul McCartney's influences. We'll start with that last one.

Tune In 10-23 vs. Routes of Rock Pt. 3 (Track 2, 26:05)

This isn't the first example I've come across where Lewisohn decides that a close approximation of Paul McCartney's influences is good enough for him - I'm reminded of Paul's troubador impression inspiration, discussed here.

Lewisohn uses this quote to support his assertion that Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie" b/w "Almost Grown" was "unfluential to budding songwriters" -- those budding songwriters being John and Paul. But when we check the source, Paul clearly discusses Jerry Lee Lewis's version of the song. Here's my transcript:

We’re gonna finish off with another great favorite that we used to do with the Beatles. To us, this was the beginning of rap, the first time we’d heard anyone talk in a record “Meanwhile [I'm waiting?]” Okay, it’s Jerry Lee Lewis, “Little Queenie”

"I'm waiting" in brackets because I'm not quite sure what Paul's saying there. I think he flubs the lyrics a bit: the spoken lyric in both the Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis versions is "Meanwhile, I was thinkin'." Lewisohn...uh, corrrects??? Paul's mistake here, but instead of writing the actual lyric, he writes "meanwhile I's thinking" which seems a bit fucked, tbh. Lewisohn changes the version of the song Paul was discussing to one by a black artist, and then alters the lyrics to a heavily dialectical "I's" rather than the "I was" that Chuck Berry actually used?? I'm struggling to articulate myself here, but it strikes me in the wrong way.

But back to the issue of Lewisohn changing the artist. Lewisohn goes so far as to mention the b-side for Berry's "Little Queenie" - but since Paul was discussing Lewis's version, the b-side was a different song entirely ("I Could Never Be Ashamed.") Maybe the Lewis-for-Berry switcheroo doesn't seem like a big deal to you--Chuck Berry did write the song, and he was undeniably an influence on the Beatles--but let's take a look at a hypothetical scenario. If an artist said they were influenced by one of the Beatles' covers--let's say "Twist and Shout"--and an author then wrote that said artist was influenced by the Isley Brothers' "Twist and Shout" b/w "Spanish Twist", that would be...well, a big lie, wouldn't it?

Tune In 4-23 vs. Routes of Rock Pt. 1 (Track 1, ~12:12)

This is a Frankenquote, and the most infuriating type of all -- it's a combination of a quote from Routes of Rock with an ~author interview~. Very irritating! Worse yet, while Lewisohn generally tells the reader which part of a FrankenQuote comes from which source (e.g. First sentence from Source A, second sentence from Source B, etc.), there's no indication which bits of this quote come from which source. Mark!!!

My transcript:

Actually, the first record I ever bought though was one- when I was in school, a mate of mine was talking to me about Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps. I mean, if we’d’ve spent as much time on our studies as we did talking about these rock ‘n’ roll acts I think I’d be nuclear physicist by now. It’s a good thing, I think, that I’m not. Anyway, so, he was telling me about Gene Vincent, he said, “Oh, they’ve got this great record out called ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ which I think was their first single. So I went down to our local record shop which was called Curry’s in the city center after school, and I went down and I said, “You got this song called ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’?” He said, “Yeah” So you went into one of these little listening booths and put it on. [Brief singing] The echo, and the whole atmosphere of it was so fantastic I had to have it there and then. So I got my hard earned cash out, slipped it over the counter. I was the proud owner of “Be-Bop-A-Lula”

This ambiguous FrankenQuote required advanced colorcoding. In yellow, I've highlighted any phrases that almost certainly come from Routes of Rock -- they are exact quotes, or contain only minor changes. In pink are phrases that probably come from Routes of Rock -- the phrasing and information is similar, but I can't say for certain that Paul didn't say something very similar on a separate date. The man does like to repeat himself. In blue are bits that probably originate from Lewisohn's author interview -- there's nothing like it in Routes.

Tune In 5-34 vs. Routes of Rock Pt. 3 (Track 2, 15:36)

Okay, I’m gonna move along now to a very early memory of mine. I can remember being in Sefton Park when the fair came to town, and standing beside the waltzers and playing there at full volume with the waltzers spinning around was a track by Charlie Gracie. And it was a great track for me because of all these memories and the smell of chips and the whole atmosphere of the fairground. This is a track that I was about to do—I  never actually ever got round to it. I did it for my new album, but it didn’t make the final cut. I think it’ll appear as one of my b-sides in time to come. But this track was by Charlie Gracie. Here it is now, it’s called “Fabulous.”

Lewisohn rearranges the first sentence here (the phrase "playing there at full volume" in particular is moved later in the sentence), and there's an unmarked omission of several sentences before "called Fabulous."

Tune In 7-7 vs. Routes of Rock Pt. 1 (Track 1, 23:17)

I used to get up on the desk at the end of term in school when they finally gave you a day where you could freak out, and I remember the whole class gathering round, and I stood on the desk and did “Tutti Frutti”, I think it was. Thank you, Richard. That’s my man.

The quote here has one minor issue -- "gathering" is changed to "gathered", but Lewisohn adds in some details, namely that Paul brought his guitar to school for this impromptu performance, and that this was the "first time" he'd do such a thing. The guitar isn't mentioned in the source; unless Lewisohn has an additional, uncited source for this anecdote, I don't know why he would assume this was a planned vocal-and-instrumental performance rather than an impromptu vocal solo.

Tune In 8-26 vs. Routes of Rock Pt. 3 (Track 2, 19:08)

I think the people- mates of mine and all of us, when we first heard “Dream”, it just blew us away.

Minor changes: "'Dream'" changed to "it", "just" dropped before "blew"

Tune In 11-4 vs. Routes of Rock Pt. 2 (Track 1, 54:21)

Now one of our favorites who wasn’t so much in the rock and roll world, but we weren’t really snobbish about that, was more from the jazz world, more from the R and B world was Ray Charles. And this was a record that just blew our socks off when we first heard it. My first time I ever actually heard it was on the BBC with DJ David Jacobs. Quite an unlikely guy, really, with his posh voice, to be playing a record like that. But not only did he play the record, he turned it over and he played the b-side which is more of the same. A really cool move, I always had a lot of time for David after that. This is a fantastic record that just, as I say, blew everyone away: Ray Charles "What'd I Say."

Emphasis added to bits quoted by Lewisohn.

There are issues with the quote itself, along with the issue of added details that aren't in the source. First, the quote: as you can see from the transcript, the "quote" as presented by Lewisohn is cobbled together from three phrases in a much larger quote, rearranged and stitched together without so much as an ellipsis.

As for the added detail, this is the only citation Lewisohn gives in this section, but the detail about "Paul lean[ing] out of bed" to jot down the song name to "[buy] it on release date" is not in the source.

Tune In 13-24 vs. Routes of Rock Pt. 5 (Track 3, 3:12)

That was a song called "Honey Hush," and as I say, my favorite version of it was by Johnny Burnette. That track takes me right back to a flat that John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe used to have when they were going to art school. It was in a place called Gambier Terrace. Big, high-ceilinged student flat. It was the first time George and I, I think, had ever stayed out for a night. And we stayed there, we chewed the fat all night. I don’t think we got an awful lot of sleep. I remember waking up in the morning, freezing cold in a chair somewhere with the eyes burning – you know that one? And, I think John just leaning out of his bed—of course, he had the bed, being their flat—to his Dansette record player, putting this one on--boy, that was it for me. “Honey Hush.” Never forget that.

Emphasis added to bits quoted by Lewisohn.

This is another FrankenQuote. In Tune In, the part of this quote that comes before the ellipsis is from an author interview, while the latter part is from Routes. There are two phrases omitted from this quote (unmarked, naturally), and Paul doesn't actually say "putting on Johnny Burnette."

Tune In 13-27 vs. Routes of Rock Pt. 1 (Track 1, 6:56)

One of the people I loved in the early days out of the many was Eddie Cochran. I think why we loved him was because he was a good guitar player. Lot of the guys would just stand up and swing their guitar around, but we’d look to see if they could actually play and when you looked at Eddie, he could really play, he played the solos, and he did the stuff, and you knew he was writing this stuff. And finally a film came around called The Girl Can’t Help It which was really the first film to really pay tribute to rock ‘n’ roll, ‘cause the others had been black and white, small screen things, terrible stories, and no major stars in them, really. Suddenly you had Jayne Mansfield and a bunch of really good actors out of Hollywood. And a fantastic cast of all our favorites. And I think one of my favorite moments in that whole film was when we finally got to see Eddie Cochrane doing “Twenty Flight Rock.”

Emphasis added to bits quoted by Lewisohn.

The phrase "and he did the stuff" is omitted from Tune In without use of an ellipsis.

Finally, the possible error I mentioned at the start of the post:

Tune In P-3 is a single word quote from Paul, "worshipping", but the only form of that word I heard in Routes of Rock was "worship." If that's the only form of worship used in the series, Lewisohn's single word quote should really read "worship[ping]" to indicate the tense change, but I'd have to listen to the whole series again to say with certainty that the other form of worship isn't there.

Sources:

Lewisohn M. 2013. The Beatles: All These Years Vol. 1: Tune In. New York (NY): Crown Archetype. [ebook]

McCartney P. 1999 c.Oct-Nov. Paul McCartney's Routes of Rock. BBC World Service. Accessed online 2024 May 28. Available from: https://mega.nz/folder/MbFzXJoD#G-AsaKKzPUDj9rfC6ate0A

[annaskellington]

A Recounting of Phantom of the Opera: Middle East/European Tour

Hello everyone!

I had the opportunity to see Phantom of the Opera: Middle East Tour/European Tour 3 different times during its run in Lisbon and I’m here to do a review/recounting of everything I saw on the show that was different from normal and worth noting. This is a mixture of what I saw on stage and my opinions on it. You are valid to have your own opinions and if the show is coming to a city near you, I definitely recommend to check it out!

Keep in mind, this is a non-replica. Stephen Barlow is the director and Andrew Riley did the costumes and set design. I have only seen one other production of Phantom and it was the Italy run they did with Ramin Karimloo, also a non-replica, therefore I use it quite a bit in my comparisons (as well as the original) simply because it’s the only one I’ve seen live other than this one.

Extra details: The chandelier is in the audience instead of on stage. There are screens on the sides of the stage with the subtitles. On the first night, it only had the subtitles, but on the following nights, it also had a house-cam being livestream into those screens. There are two Portuguese members on the cast: Francisca Mendo – a ballerina and Lara Martins – Prima Donna. I mention them quite a lot since they were the main attraction of the performances.

The Phantom - Nadim Naaman

Christine - Georgia Wilkinson

Raoul - Dougie Carter

Prima Donna - Lara Martins

Auction House

There is only old man Raoul, the auctioneer and an ensemble member on stage - the one holding the items. The auctioneer is pointing at the audience when the items are being bided which makes it slightly awkward when you look at where he’s pointing and it is just random audience members. Seeing old man Raoul by himself is also weird for some reason. Overall, the lack of people is really odd during this scene.  

Overtude

“A little illumination! Gentlemen!” and then the chandelier just lights its light bulbs and just stays like that for a long while. Nothing is happening. Then finally the curtains open and you see the Hannibal cast getting ready and into positions and then finally, Lara Martins starts singing.

Hannibal

On opening night there was a flub: Christine isn’t on the stage at all for most of Hannibal. When the managers start saying their lines of “Meg Giry, Madame Giry’s daughter, promising young dancer”, Meg starts dancing closer to Madame Giry and she hits the staff on the ground and asks “Christine Daae, where is she?” and Meg replies “I don’t know mama!” which leads to the “Daae? Curious name…”, but Christine only enters the stage much after.

However, on the following nights, it proceeded as normal with “Christine Daae, concentrate girl” to which Meg says “Christine, what’s the matter” and leads to “Daae? Curious name…”.

Think of Me (Carlotta)

When Carlotta is talking to the maestro, Madame Giry goes to talk with someone down from the orchestra which I found really fun. Then the thing that interrupts Carlotta is actually a bucket that falls on the left side. Carlotta throws herself on the ground and just lays face flat on the ground which made me laugh so much, everyone is fanning her and worrying about her. Then, when the ex-owner is leaving and usually would say “If you need me, I shall be in Frankfurt” instead he says “If you need me, I shall be in Alentejo” which got a huge laugh from everyone. Alentejo is an area of Portugal, very beautiful but not touristic at all, probably one of the two Portuguese cast members might be from that area. On opening night, the subtitles had the original line but on the following nights, it had been changed to the Alentejo version. Another big change is Madame Giry is acting much more caring of Phantom and his plans. That woman was giving a performance of a lifetime. When the managers are saying “A full house and we have to cancel”, Madame Giry says “Ler her sing for you” but no one listens to her and everyone is starting to leave as well as the managers, but she hits her staff on the ground and says “Monsieur!” and after a few moments of silence “She has been well taught”.

Think of Me

When Christine starts singing, she’s super shy and everyone starts leaving. All of the cast members start exiting the stage whilst complaining and being angry. When she gains courage, they all start coming back like holy shit, she can sing. They close the curtains behind her as she gets to the Raoul part and when Raoul says his lines, there’s a faint applause being heard and she starts bowing which caused the audience to applaud as well muffling Raoul’s part. This happened only on opening night, other nights the audience was quiet as you heard the fake clapping from the stage. But Raoul says his part like usual, the box he’s in is on ground level so you just see his little head peak out.

Angel of Music

“Rehearsals, always rehearsals” – I love that line from Meg Giry, on one of the nights Madame Giry rolled her eyes at Meg. Fast forward to when the phantom tells Christine to look at the mirror. It looked so spooky. Nadim had his hands on the glass and was really creepily moving his hands and face around. When Christine sings the part where she turns her back to the phantom and turns to the audience, Nadim flinched as well. He opens the mirror like a door and she steps inside.

Title song

It starts spinning and shows the other side of the circle is some stairs going down. When it starts, the phantom is at the bottom of the stairs and she’s at the top. He never really allures her or drags her, he just slowly convinces her to go down the stairs. At one point he’s in the bottom with a blue light and she’s at the top with a yellowish light to show their contrast. When it gets to the ensemble singing “He’s there, the Phantom of the Opera”, the stage rotates once more and turns fully blue. They enter the boat and the turn the smoke machines all the way up. Christine does her high notes sitting on the boat, which is definitely a choice, and goes to show it is prerecorded cause there is no way she would’ve been able to do the high notes sitting down. The Phantom also doesn’t really react to the high notes, he’s focused on rowing the damn boat. So, it comes across as the high notes are simply part of the song and not that he was able to almost wrench the high notes from her voice. He says half heartily “sing, my angel of music” because, again, he's not paying that much attention to her.

Music of the Night

Christine spends the beginning still sitting in the boat. At one point, the phantom grabs his music sheet book and hands it to her and convinces her to open it. She does and is like damn, this is actually kinda good. So, he grabs his cloak and lays it on the ground where she goes and sits whilst reading the book. At the end of the song, they just stare at each other and she leans in for a kiss, but he backs away and sings the last note of the song.

STYDI

He didn’t get that angry, at the beginning he does “throw” her to the other side of the lair where she hands up holding the wall for emotional support. He didn’t crawl around since there’s barely any space, he sings those lines just standing up and covering his face. At the end, he sits back at the piano bench and she hands him the mask and he quietly take it.

Bouquet Magical Lasso

The ballerinas are walking from stage left to stage right where the box 5 sits and they’re being really sneaky and scared going towards it. The first girl gets closer when, FNAF style, Bouquet jumps out and snatches her arm and holds it whilst singing the first few lines. He then steps out, after which Madame Giry arrives and as she says her lines she puts her cane in between them and they start wrestling it for some reason. I too would like to get my ass kicked by Madame Giry but it was weirdly violent for her character. You never see the Phantom and Christine returning.

Notes I/Prima Donna

As the song starts, one of the ensemble members comes on stage and starts sweeping the floor, I love it. When the managers are reading the notes, there are two ensemble members on stage, one of them is trying to take a peek at the newspaper and one of the managers gives it to him so he reads it with other cast member. Not sure why, but cute addition. Whilst the Phantom reads the note, the light inside Box 5 lights up and Madame Giry is always looking at it. When the note reads “leave Box 5 empty” the lights flicker causing Raoul to get closer to inspect. After they read the note, the managers start singing Prima Donna. When Carlotta says “Precious little ingenue”, Raoul goes in her direction to I don’t know, defend Christine or smack Carlotta. Raoul gets close to Box 5 and starts inspecting it whilst Madame Giry is trying to protect Raoul (and the Phantom I guess) and pay attention to the managers at the same time. Raoul eventually looks back and starts singing his lines alongside Madame Giry and Meg Giry, they are forming a little circle on the left. Eventually the rotating stage starts spinning and Carlotta starts walking on it whilst cast members are walking around. They then place some spiral stairs on stage that Carlotta climbs. Then randomly, as we near the end of the song, a pink background drops and petals start falling from the sky. It’s cute, but random, especially cause the ballerinas show up and start dancing but Prima Donna isn’t a diegetic song, the other characters aren’t meant to be hearing it, but maybe in this production Prima Donna is an actual song that they perform? I have no idea and if I think too hard, I’ll get a headache. I just know that when the Phantom says his last threat “So it is to be war between us” – both Madame Giry and Raoul look super spooked out and worries as they run off stage leaving Carlotta alone on stage. The curtains fall behind her and on opening night Lara got a standing ovation.

Poor fool

Carlotta doesn’t “pretend kiss” her husband. She’s doing her “Adieu” note when the husband shuts her up by banging his walking stick on the ground. Instead of kissing, they just snarl at each other. Later on, during “a toad, madame?”, one of the cast members brings the throat perfume/spray for Carlotta, like in the Italy Tour production which serves as an explanation to her sudden toad voice. “She’s singing to bring down the chandelier!” but the chandelier just flashes its lights, doesn’t shake around at all. When the managers are bringing the ballet, one of the cast members is getting a chair to take offstage but ends up in the middle of the ballerinas, so he does ballet with them and the chair is still in his arms, it was actually peak comedy. Also, Bouquet is the actual actor and he’s hanging there and you can see all the wires holding him up, you never see Phantom attacking him so when one of the managers turns to Madame Giry after she gives him the “I told you” eyes, whilst everyone is running and screaming, and says “It’s an accident, simply an accident!”, it actually could be.

All I Ask of You

Christine goes to the stairs and starts using them to go up which is super odd. I guess they’re meant to be a different staircase in the Opera but it’s definitely weird seeing her using the stairs that we just saw the Phantom using to go from the mirror to the lair and now she’s using to go from the theatre to the halfway point which is the rooftop. Which means if she went even higher on the stairs, she would end up…higher than the roof? They sing the first part of the prelude on the stairs. When Raoul says her name the first two times, Christine starts going down the stairs while holding Raoul’s hand, but then the Phantom says her name the third time and she gets really scared and runs through the door that is in the middle of the stairs. She’s gone and the stage starts spinning slowly and you see Raoul take out the box with the ring from his pocket and look at it, then you see him run through the door as well to join Christine. They sing their song on the very tight space that is the top of the dome and instead of kissing, during the instrumental part, Raoul goes on one knee and takes out the ring to propose. She’s super happy and jumping around whilst smiling and then they sing the final bit of the song and finally, at the end, they kiss.

All I Ask of You Reprise

The Phantom shows up and he’s on the lower half of the dome, sort of hard to explain but basically on the ledge of the dome. He sings the song and when Christine and Raoul are singing, Nadim says “No... Please Stop...” in a very painful way, I liked it. He was begging them to stop hurting him. Then he runs away and the curtain falls and the cast members are doing their bows when the chandelier starts flickering its lights and falls in a vertical line. I might be remembering this wrong, but it wasn’t that it was super fast, it was more the fact that it wasn’t slowing down that made me think like wow. But it falls and I would say that ends up maybe 3 meters of the ground, not low enough for people to stand up and touch it, but much lower than I was expecting.

Masquerade + Notes II

It’s set in this hall of mirrors which is quite cute. When Christine and Raoul are singing their part of “secret engagement”, there is a dancer in the middle doing a solo performance and everyone is looking. When she finishes dancing, they all start clapping and scare Christine. Immediately after, it is revealed that there were two ballerinas painted in gold hiding in plain sight holding the candles and they basically jump out of the wall spooking everyone and start dancing. The Red Death costume looks a lot more like the 2004 movie, he shows up on the mirror of the back wall and the wall moves towards the front of the stage before he starts singing. He just goes back through the mirror whilst there is smoke, no special effects really. They remain in the hall of mirror until the end of Twisted Every Way. Funny enough, when Christine sings “Stop it, I’ll drive myself mad!”, Raoul is the only one that gets her a chair and stays, the rest of them just leave. Also, before that, during Notes II, Madame Giry enters the scene with her back turned on the group and looking off stage really disquieted, we can assume the Phantom has just given her the note and when the Phantom is talking about Christine in the note “No doubt she’ll do her best…”, she tries to go to Raoul who has his back turned on her but all of the cast on stage block her path and form a circle around her, really menacing.

Don Juan rehearsal

On opening night there was a bit of a failure on the production team as you could hear in the background them moving the set around. Usually you hear it only faintly, but in this scene, they were switching the hall of mirrors for the stairs with the rooftop and you could hear the sets being moved around. One of the cast members even looks off stage when it gets very loud. On other nights it is not as noticeable. For some reason, when Madame Giry enters the stage alongside the chorus, she brings this stick with a lamp (sidenote: on the second viewing, it was someone else that brough the stick with the lamp, unsure of what happened there). It adds to the ambience. When she says “Can you be certain of that?”, the light starts flickering and they all look scared at it. Also, it takes a lot longer for the piano to start playing by itself. After Piangi fails “those who tangle with Don Juan” for the last time, it takes half a minute for the piano to start playing. During this period, you hear Piangi say “I’m doing my best, but I don’t understand” to which Carlotta replies “Don’t listen to them, Carlo”, right after you hear Madame Giry say “You sang it quite beautifully mademoiselle, I’m sure it will do more than justice to the role” and Piangi says “it is no beauty! No music!” and finally the candles on the piano burst creating smoke and the chorus all raise their music sheets absolutely shaking in their boots and sing the lines correctly. It ended up being more funny than spooky, but the Madame Giry light flickering did add an extra flair.

Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again

Yet again, on her way to the rooftop, Christine uses the same stairs of the title track. She uses the door in the middle to access the rooftop but instead of being at the top of the dome where she and Raoul sang All I Ask of You, she is on the ledge where the Phantom sang the reprise. It’s definitely weird that she sings this song on the rooftop and not on the cemetery, doesn’t look like she’s singing about her father at all. But there is some fake snow falling so I’ll take my wins where I can. Trigger warning: suicide. However, when she gets to the ledge, she goes to the very edge and starts looking down almost like she wanted to throw herself off it? In the Italy Tour, they also had Christine doing this but right before All I Ask of You. What is their obsession with having Christine wanting to end her life? It’s a tad weird. Georgia sang it beautifully though.

Wandering Child

The Phantom shows up on the top of the dome, so their positions are switched from what they were in All I Ask of You. Raoul shows up as well on the opposite side of Christine on the ledge. Nadim only says “Come to me, angel of music” once and then it’s just like a full minute of Raoul being like “Leave her! Can’t you see she’ll never be yours!” and Christine looking at the phantom in silence. A tad awkward. Then Christine starts backing away into the ledge and when she’s about to fall, Raoul runs towards her and even the Phantom starts sliding down the dome to get to her. That was cool, ngl. Then when the Phantom is taunting Raoul, Dougie actually starts climbing the dome? Which makes sense why the Phantom then replies “That’s right, that’s right, keep walking this way”, I just found it odd that he was actually going to the phantom. For a moment I thought we would get a fight like in the restaged version, but we don’t. Christine jumps up and grabs Raoul’s pants to pull him down making him almost fall and they run away together whilst the Phantom screams “don’t go, don’t go!”.

Point of No Return

There is a table, everyone. The Phantom starts singing behind the curtain still and Christine figures out it’s him immediately. Which I think makes sense, she’s been hearing his voice for ages. In the Italy Tour production, Ramin was imitating Piangi’s accent and voice so it’s understandable if she didn’t figure it out, but the OG production always had that small issue. However, with her figuring it out super early, she immediately backs away and is super scared of him. They go around the table, Christine always making sure she is far away from him. At one point she turns to Raoul and the managers, but I guess they don’t see her or don’t figure out why she’s scared because they’re just there enjoying the show. They look like that Pikachu :0 image when she removed his hood. The problem with her figuring it out means that the song is no longer sexy nor alluring. The phantom is just singing and she’s scared. After she sings her part of “I’ve decided”, she gets on top of the table and starts crawling all sexy towards him. When she gets to him, she starts rubbing her hands all over his chest and homeboy is stressed. She calmly removed his hood and two police with guns immediately get on stage. On Box 5, Madame Giry and her daughter peak out and are looking really scared for Phantom, they enter Box 5 expecting him to be there and are confused for a moment when they don’t see him which then leads them to look super stressed out at the Phantom (my personal headcannon is that Madame Giry went there to warn the Phantom to run away before the guards could shoot him whence why she looked so scared when it was too late and he was already on stage, she’s also holding Meg to her chest super tightly). Phantom then sings his part and when he reaches the “Anywhere you go”, he removes his own mask very calmly. The only person that reacts to his face is Raoul who is taken aback by it, Christine doesn’t flinch nor move. They don’t have him putting a ring on Christine, but he does go down on one knee. Side note: on the last night I saw it, which is the night I’m unsure if it was Georgia Wilkinson or Bridget Costello singing the role, Christine was fully nodding her head at the Phantom as he sang the All I Ask of You lines, she was fully ready to be with the Phantom and stay with him, she was nodding and smiling which made the Phantom smile as well, I don’t remember at all Christine doing this on the other nights (the nights where I’m certain it was Georgia playing the role). The curtains, however, open to reveal a very dead Piangi with a sword sticking off his chest and everyone starts screaming, Erik looked absolutely devastated at the interruption. The Phantom snatches Christine’s hand and starts running away from everyone just as Raoul jumps from his box to the stage and starts running towards them. They are able to flee, so Raoul picks up the mask and rushes towards Madame Giry who is now one of the few people on stage looking very sad at dead Piangi. Carlotta at the same time comes screaming onto the stage saying to the managers “How could you let this happen” and rushes towards Piangi to cradle his body.

Final lair

Down once more they go down the stairs. As the Phantom finishes his “Why?”, the door in the middle of the stairs (that they used to get to the rooftop) opens and Raoul and Madame Giry step out. At this point I have no ideia how this is possible, I’m going to assume that the Phantom ran with Christine to the mirror and somehow Madame Giry knew about something on the lower floor that had access to the door at the stairs. Much like the Italian production, Christine is wearing the PONR dress during the final lair, unlike in Italy, she doesn’t even grab any sort of wedding dress, it is never explicitly said that the Phantom wants her to marry him (remember, he never gave her a ring during PONR). Christine sings her lines sitting on the boat, much like the first lair she refuses to exit the boat and this is not a Phantom that will drag her or be violent so he just lets her make a fuss inside the boat. During the line “Joys of the flesh” Christine shakes her head and turns her back to the Phantom disgusted.

Raoul randomly shows up on these stairs that we have never seen before that are behind the lair set, I was only able to see these stairs on the opening night when I sat on the left side of the audience, on the other nights those stairs were completely obstructed. Raoul is singing his “Free her!” lines whilst on the stairs still, which is odd like nothing is stopping you from getting down and seeing her. At this point as well, Nadim got absolutely mad man and he was laughing nonstop, at one point he randomly pulls out a knife from his pants. It did not look like a knife at all, I thought it looked like a light bulb and my brother thought it looked like a wand, so do with this information whatever you will. Eventually the Phantom says “Be my guest sir” and Raoul finally descends the stairs and goes to the set. I half expected him to pretend to be swimming before he stepped into the set, since he has to walk on the “water” for a bit, but he doesn’t. He has to pass in front of the Phantom before getting to the boat and he’s so scared and nervous. He hugs Christine and she starts getting the paddles to get the fuck out, but oh no, the Phantom knows his way around a rope, so Raoul gets choked by the rope that the Phantom used to dock his boat. Finally, Christine exists the boat and goes to Raoul and I guess realized that the Phantom has impeccable rope tying skills because she just stares at Raoul completely dumbfounded instead of undoing the rope. Finally, Nadim gets violent. He snatches Christine and pushes her away towards the right side of the stage (Raoul is on the left) so he positions himself in the middle. Fun detail, when the Phantom sings “This is the point of no retuuuurn”, he puts one foot on top of the piano stool and ends up looking like a model taking a very awkward picture. She screams “tears of HATE” on his face so he ends up sitting on the stool and at this point, Nadim is shaking so much. The Phantom is just in absolute shambles.

When Christine sings “You deceived me”, she sits on the stool and picks up the music book, sort of offering it up to him. When he finishes saying “You try my patience”, he snatches one of the music sheets from the book and cripples it in his hand, something he immediately regrets and tries to straighten the music sheet again (fun side note: on the second viewing, Nadim ripped the page out but it fell on the ground so he couldn’t catch it, it ends up looking more violent than it did the other times since it just looks like the Phantom is super pissed). As Christine sings “Pitiful creature of darkness”, the Phantom is trying to fix the sheet and straighten it out again. She puts her hand on his shoulder quite soon and he’s looking at her as she finishes the “You are not alone” part. Christine then gives him a very brief kiss and, after pulling away, starts putting her hand on his scars and trying to look into his eyes – their foreheads almost touching. The Phantom straightens himself before going for a huge hug. She hesitates for a bit, but then hugs him back until the end of the instrumental part. The Phantom uses the discarded knife that was on the stool to cut Raoul’s ropes and, whist screaming for them to go, pushes the boat away. Not before Raoul, who I’m guessing had the mask in his pocket (men’s pockets am I right?) tries to return the mask to which the phantom pushes it away. He then falls on the ground whilst screaming and sees the monkey music box so he crawls towards it and sits crossed-legged on the ground cradling the music box whilst winding it up, he looked so much like a little traumatized kid, like hugging the monkey was a coping mechanism.

The joke, however, was on me because I ended up the one being traumatized since there was no ring return at all. He’s crying and hugging the box and I’m looking around wondering if I’ll see Christine mimicking swimming on her way to the Phantom or showing up on the stairs to drop the ring from above, but no. In fact, there was no ring to be returned since he never gave it to her during PONR. The Phantom just cries for longer whilst the instrumental of the ring return plays out and randomly says the “Christine, I love you” which came absolutely out of nowhere, nothing triggered him to say that. They start singing All I Ask of You and it causes the Phantom to stand up and place the monkey on the stool. When he first heard Christine, he smiled, I think he thought she was coming back for him, but then he heard Raoul and looked really sad. He sings his final line and, where in the instrumental he would usually hide, the Phantom just picks up the music book and looks to the audience while the set slowly slides away from the audience into darkness. We see old man Raoul on the left holding the Phantom mask, we see Christine in the Masquerade outfit on the right holding a ballet pose and, for last, we see the monkey music box on top of the stool. And that’s it.

Opinions

It’s a totally different production and obviously, comparing it to the original will lead to overall disappointment. This Phantom isn’t so much intoxicating and alluring as usual, instead he has a rather more human approach to the matter. It seems like he truly just wants someone to sing his music, he’s in love with Christine, yes, but it isn’t that he’s infatuated – he’s simply in love with the idea that someone so beautiful and talented would care about his art. That’s all very well, but, unfortunately, it’s where the book and lyrics really come to ruin the experience. Some lines that he sings are really out of context in this Phantom – “touch me, trust me” and “joys of the flesh” are some of the examples where they don’t really work anymore. Christine also ends up losing some of her agency when it’s not her removing the mask from him during Point of No Return, but in my opinion, I like that he removes his own mask since this Christine is not really dragged around the way other Christines are. Raoul also played a much more naïve part in this story. It’s not a matter of being mean to Christine or gaslighting her, this Raoul just truly is blind. More often than not when it comes to the Phantom, he’s trying his best to protect Christine but ends up ignoring her in the process, which leaves Christine alone in the matter, needing to fend for herself – which in my opinion is why they had Christine doing what she did before Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.

In regards to the actors, Nadim is really good but in the Final Lair, he switched too much. He started straight up laughing in Raoul’s face and waving a knife around when, at no point, was he shown to be that sort of angry Phantom. Nadim also has a very sweet voice, he played Raoul for many years and, it’s not that his voice isn’t fit for the Phantom, it’s just hard to explain. His Phantom feels, at times, imitations of other Phantoms without being able to shine on his own. He had really amazing moments, the standout for me being Wondering Child where he truly let his voice shine through and my god, I felt it in my bones. He was screaming out his care for Christine and explaining to her how much she hurt him and meant to him, it was truly amazing. I was able to wait for him at the stage door on my last time seeing it and he was super kind, he thanked us for waiting and apologized for having taken so long (he took about 20 minutes, we waited almost an hour for Ramin in Milan), so I really want to recommend everyone to check his Phantom out and form opinions by yourselves because I think he truly has the potential.

[losfacedevil]

The way I went flying to your inbox when I saw you reblog that list! Can I get:

“breaking down mid-hug because they just needed this so much”

With Josh please? ❤️

Hillary my sweet love! I hope I’ve done this justice 💖

Something was off about him.

Josh was never one to be silent. His mouth always chattering with whatever story, joke or thought process bounced about his overactive brain. He was always full of giggles, the smile never dropping off of his face even in the most serious of situations.

So when he backed himself into a corner in the studio everyone knew something wasn’t right. The boys exchanging worried looks as you stared at Josh and raised your shoulders with a soft shake of your head. Even you weren’t sure what was going on.

Jakes eyes were trained on his older brothers face, top teeth coming down to worry on his bottom lip. His eyes widened slightly as realization washed over him and he quickly cleared his throat, grabbing everyone’s attention.

“I’m gonna go grab a bite to eat, anyone up for a field trip?” He chuckled, setting his guitar down before he brought his hands down against his knees with a loud smack. The younger boys nodded their heads in agreement as they stood quickly and followed Jake out of the studio room.

Josh didn’t acknowledge Jakes offer of lunch, instead he rested his elbows against his knees and cupped his face in his hands; hiding his expression from the world. Pushing yourself into a standing position you slowly made your way across the room, your mind reeling.

“Your hair looks great today, big guy.” You cooed, reaching over to brush your hands against the sides of his hair. A soft sigh escaped his nose as he shrugged his shoulders. You rested your hands on his shoulders, digging the pads of your fingers into the taut muscles.

“No cocky remark? What’s gotten into you today?” You questioned, grasping his wrists to pull his hands away from his face. His expression was sullen, his bottom lip poking out in the slightest of pouts as he stood to his full height and wrapped his arms around your waist, burying his face in the crook of your neck. Your arms found their place around his neck, your fingers threading easily through the fluffy hair at the nape of his neck. A shaky breath escaped him as he swallowed hard and tightened his grip on you.

“That last take sounded horrible, they’re frustrated with me, I’m frustrated with them and this has become such a shit fest. It’s just all too much right now.” His words were muffled against your neck, the unmistakable feel of hot tears seeping into the shoulder of your shirt.

“They’re not frustrated with you, I promise. They left so you could get some air, some quiet time, not because they’re mad at you.” You kept your voice soft as you began to sway both of your bodies. The soft sobs that wracked his body breaking your heart as you began to run your hand along the expanse of his back.

“I know they are, did you see how Jake looked at me when I flubbed that last take?It’s been such a long week, it was bound to happen.” He sniffled, drawing in shaky breaths as he tried to calm his nerves. You hummed lightly, turning your head to press soft kisses into the skin of his neck.

“He didn’t look at you in any way, he cringed because your voice cracked. We all did. They’re not frustrated with you, sweet boy. I think you’re more frustrated with yourself than anything. You just need to relax.” You mumbled, letting your hand glide along the shaved side of his head before plunging your fingers into his hair and scratching lightly at his scalp.

Soft hiccups emanated from him as he pulled back slightly, pressing a soft kiss to your forehead before letting his lips rest there, his eyes remaining shut as he took a few steadying breaths. You let your hands slide down over his shoulders, coming to rest on his chest. Tilting your head you pressed a soft kiss to the underside of his chin.

“No one’s mad, no one’s frustrated. You’re just overstimulated. I bet they’ll be perfectly fine once they get back. But maybe it’s a good day to call it quits early.” Josh nodded softly, his gaze finally finding yours.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled, resting his forehead against yours.

“Nothing to be sorry for, we all need a little extra support some days.”

[vincentcipherstrange]

As an XY enjoyer, I was holding out hope for new Kalos games rather than Unova remakes. And Apparently I was right to do so! Now with the new game announcement, it means some things to me and I have predictions/thoughts.

(more under the cut in case.... future spoilers)

1. It seems like it's set in the modern day, potentially not long before or after the originals. So We probably get to see more Sycamore. Which. Yes please. Gimme. I would like to see my boy.

2. If it's set not long after the originals, Potentially a Lysandre return. Or mention. There's no way he's DEAD dead. So they better do him justice. He got flubbed in the original games.

3. MORE KALOS LORE! FINALLY! 11/12 YEARS (when Legends ZA releases) AFTER XY PROPER!

4. The cancelled event Pokémon, AZ's Floette, might ACTUALLY be obtainable this time around! (Which also means the return of event mythicals like Volcanion, Hoopa, and Diancie)

4.5 which also means if you have Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde from either the original games or the shinies from Go, USUM Ultra Wormholes, or SWSH Dynamax Adventures, they can probably be brought over!

5. Zygarde might be the big bad you have to defeat this time around, using Xerneas and Yveltal to stop them. Probably controlled by someone like Xerosic. (think like Ultra Necrozma in USUM, or Eternatus in SW/SH)

5.5 that being said, Xerneas and Yveltal may get new powered up forms (potentially Megas) as a boost to calm the rampaging Zygarde

6. Sycamore actually participates in Story Events with the player. Because he might feel bad for asking so much of them the first time. (It's a stretch but a Sycamore lover can dream. I want to see him be a badass like in the anime. Give him his Garchomp)

7. Team Flare might still be kicking around, though subdued a bit depending on how long after the originals it's been. Maybe some new faces in there. Malva is probably the one running things with Lysandre being MIA.

8. It might be revealed that Kalos and Paldea did have beef in the past, which is where Paldea's crater came from. Bringing Paldean pokemon into Kalos may strike up new dialogue. (If paldean 'mons can be transferred over, that is. If that's the case though Terapagos, Ogerpon, and the Sandwich Dragons are going to be nerfed. HARD. Especially the small Terastal Turtle.) (i wanna see Sycamore's reaction to a Clodsire or Terapagos. He'd love the little guys.)

9. New megas, but that's kinda obvious. I'm thinking some i want to see are going to be Rapidash, Talonflame, and the original Box Art Legends.

10. It may be revealed that Sycamore and Lysandre did have a little fling, if not a full on relationship before the weapon incident. They gave us Brassius and Hassel in SV. And implied one with ORAS Maxie and Archie. You know what we want, Gamefreak.

(bonus) 11. A Paldean character might appear for a side quest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm holding out hope. But just the fact we're getting more Kalos stuff at all is enough to make me happy. It gets glossed over far too much.