#while Bruno is the nerdy one?

[gfawkesphoenixchokingonashes]

Hi!! So... I ended up binge-watching 'smiley' yesterday!!! And oh my god!! I loved it so much!!! I cried, I did (and I also laughed!!)! So, good!! I need a Stucky AU now!!

Sorry, I needed to scream about it to someone, and you and Riri are the one to blame so... 😅😅

Anyway, hope you have a great weekend!! 💚💚💚 Sending you a big hug!!

Yesssss! This was me a few days ago with no one to scream to. Isn’t it just brilliantly perfect? The four couples’ relationship struggles are so real! And I’m a sucker for the red thread of fate reference.

Never apologize for wanting to share your joy. Isn’t that why we consume stories like smiley gave us?

Love love love times a hundred to you. Happy Saturday!

[factorialsotherfandoms]

OSNF Battleships fic for the always wonderful @echotunes ! Spoilers up to and including episode 4 of OSNF. Mild canon divergence. Angst. Much angst. Hurt/No Comfort even.

Nothing In This World

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Ordem Paranormal (Web Series) Rating: Mature Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Cesar Oliveira Cohen & Christopher Cohen, Cesar Oliveira Cohen & Cláudia Oliveira, Christopher Cohen/Cláudia Oliveira, Cesar Oliveira Cohen & Christopher Cohen & Cláudia Oliveira Characters: Cesar Oliveira Cohen, Christopher Cohen, Cláudia Oliveira Additional Tags: Campaign 02: O Segredo na Floresta, Parental Death, Canon Major Character Death, injured child, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Hurt No Comfort, Bullying, Child Abandonment, Terminal Illnesses, Relationship Study, Character Study, Spousal Abandonment, Family, Complicated Relationships, 3+1 Things Summary: 3 times Cesar wanted for his father, and one time he had him.

Unusually, the lovely Peasina (tumblr unknown) also podficed this, which you can find here if you would rather listen to it!

Cesar is twelve when he last sees his father, not that he knows it at the time. It's breakfast time and he, already hated at school for his nerdy ways, eats slowly at the table. His mother is quietly folding laundry while his father sits with him, regaling him with tales aplenty.

"- And then your Uncle Arnaldo raised his sword high, until the sunlight glanced off the blade," his father tells him. "With a great swipe he brought it down, cutting the heads from the hydra and laying the beast low!"

Even at twelve, Cesar knows that the story is simply a recitation of a film; usually Uncle Arnaldo works in action movies, but before he could be fussy he worked on fantasy films too.

His mother says that just like Uncle Arnaldo had to work fantasy films until he was older, so too does Cesar have to attend all of his classes, not just the interesting ones. Calls him a fussy flower - perhaps an orchid.

Today will be a boring day at school - and, worse, one with gym class. Still, he knows better than to be late. He stops listening to the story and starts properly eating his cereal, before abandoning the table to find his bag.

Once he does, at the door, he finds his father, not his mother, waiting there.

"I'm meeting your Uncle Arnaldo this morning," his father tells him. "I thought maybe I'd walk you...?"

Cesar grins and hugs his father. Sticking his head around the door he calls a goodbye to his mother, and earns a blown kiss for his efforts, before hand in hand heading to school.

"Have a good day," his father tells him at the gates. "I'll see you this evening, okay?"

The kiss on his forehead is almost worth the teasing from the other children. Cesar grumbles about it, knowing what will follow, and is too embarrassed to wave as he comes inside.

He regrets it, that night, when his father does not come home.

He regrets it the next week, when he realises he never will.

He stops regretting it after a month, when a shell of bitterness finally constructs itself around the pain.

---

One time when Cesar is around fourteen, he is called to the principal's office. The anxiety attacks are common now, but receiving a black eye and bloody nose for the crime of having one is a rarity. Bruno is sick today, leaving Cesar alone amongst the class. He hopes his friend is okay; even holding the tissue beneath his nose he's glad the other boy isn't getting suspended over him. Again.

"-if you would just consider a divorce and remarrying-" he hears the principal's voice from between the doors.

Whatever the end of the sentence or his mother's reply is, Cesar is not sure. He hears the tone of her trying to placate the man, and the laughter of the other mother in the room. He knows what it is. He has known what it is for two years now. At first people were sympathetic to the plight of a single mother abandoned by her foreign husband, but now... It's not only the other kids at school who hate that his father is missing.

When his mother leaves the principal's office, even Cesar can see how exhausted she is. Still she comes, and kneels before him, brushes his cheek and gently tells him “come now, petal, let's get you some ice for that” even as the other parents laugh through scolding their son.

Cesar's mother hugs him, and he hugs her back, and he sticks himself close to her side - hiding beneath her arm and her coat like a much younger child as they make their way home.

---

Only five years later, Cesar's mother dies. She had been slowly sickening for months, refusing to worry her son - away at university on the last of his father's money - but he could tell all the same. The rearranged phone-calls, the suspicious pauses for her to cough, the way her voice grows fainter and fainter over time.

He is lucky, he supposes, to be there when she dies. He flies back in time to see her again, to hold a frail hand and help her cup his cheek. He cries for her, and begs for her to stay, to not leave him, to not abandon him like everyone else.

She promises not to, but in the end she is not strong enough to stay.

The next day she dies with him at her side, in pain and struggling to breathe. It is a painful, horrific death, the sort that haunts his thoughts for years to come and yet never allows the memory to fully form. The doctors and nurses are gentle with him, in a way nobody but his parents and Bruno have ever been before. They help him through the paperwork, and the anxiety attacks, and the legalities...

But once the body leaves the morgue, any assistance they offered is gone. To the next grieving relative, to the last only son.

And then, everything is on him.

The Churchyard will not bury her under her married name, refusing to believe she is legitimately married to famous stunt actor Christopher Cohen. Desperate Cesar tries to solve it - he finds his father's agent, tells him what has happened, asks for him to come. The funeral, at least - surely he would come for his wife's funeral? At least send a letter confirming that she was his?

He begs for his father in that email pours seven years worth of anguish and hopelessness onto the page, desperate for anyone to cling to as the world falls apart beneath his feet; Bruno is gone, by then - Cesar does not know where, only that his best and only friend has been missing for two years. His mother is gone, having died but a few weeks ago. His father...

There are many people at the service, acquaintances and friends from a life of kindness and charitable work. Only three - Cesar, the priest, and his next door neighbor - stay until the grave is covered.

Only Cesar stays, carefully burying half a packet of violet seeds over his mother's grave and watering them with his tears; his father is a busy man, and it cannot be easy to come from America, but surely he will come for this? Come when his wife is dead and his son begged him so?

And so he waits, and he waits, just like a twelve year old boy waited all night for his father to return. The other half of the seeds he saves for his father, because surely he too will want to plant his mother’s favourite flowers on her grave? The graveyard keeper comes and goes, leaving Cesar be when he sees the dates on the temporary marker and the age of the sobbing boy before him.

Night falls and dawn rises, and still his father does not come.

It's there and then, under the first rays of dawn and at his mother's freshly covered grave, that Cesar decides that he does not have a father any more, and that Christopher Cohen means nothing to him.

---

On the 11th April 2020, the Order assigns Cesar his first mission. At that meeting with his mission briefing, he, now thirty years old, lays eyes on Christopher Cohen once again - older, more scarred, but unmistakably the man who sired him. It goes poorly, the team will think badly of him now, but... There is work to be done and, even as he has to brave an uber, he refuses to be the link that causes them to fail.

Arriving at the airport, Cesar sees nobody. He pays his uber, fights his suitcase from the boot, and starts searching for the correct part of the terminal.

"My boy! Wait!"

Hears Christopher calling, and keeps walking. His boy? His boy? His father abandoned any right to call him that the moment he walked out of their lives eighteen years ago. Did he even know about his mother's death?

Did he even care?

A hand catches on Cesar's shoulder, and he knows that he will never win. He stops, but he refuses to look, staring firmly at a broken brick on the building across the street.

"Cesar, my boy-" Christopher - Chris, his father; who is Cesar kidding, the man will always be his father - says.

"What." Cesar cannot help but snap the word; eighteen years. It has been eighteen years, two months, and seven days. It is the 11th of April 2020; the last time he saw his father was the 4th of February 2002. His mother is dead, died during that time, when Cesar was 19 and alone and desperate - and his father did not even call for him then. What right has he to do so now? Now, when Cesar has finally, finally found his feet, found something that might be worth doing with his life.

"Cesar, please," Christopher tells him. "Just hear me out."

Cesar does not want to hear him out, not when he showed Thiago more affection than he did his own son. Still, he knows well enough that, even in his old age, Christopher Cohen can outrun and outfight most men.

So, he stays still.

"Thank you," Christopher says, as though Cesar had agreed. "Look, my boy- Cesar. Just promise to listen to me, alright? If I tell you to run, you run and you keep running and you never look back. You abandon this - all of this - and it'll be okay."

Cesar remembers his father's fury when he spotted him at the meeting, the way he turned on their brief as soon as he did. Not wanting him there, demanding an authority he forsook, saying he only agreed to join to keep him and his mother safe.

Pity, then, that Cesar is already involved, and his mother is dead.

"No," he tells him, with nearly two decades of grief and bitterness in his tone. "You are eighteen years too late to make demands of me like that. I will not just... abandon the mission, just because you think I should be loyal."

"Please," Christopher's voice cracks. "Arnaldo, everyone- you'll die. Don't ask me to bury you, Cesar, please."

"What, like you buried your wife?"

Cesar turns as he says the words, snarling slightly as he twists. A lonely funeral, a lonelier grave, a basket of violets and one nineteen year old in his long-vanished father's suit. Where was Chris, when it mattered? Where was his father, whenever Cesar needed him?

... In America.

He refuses the instinct to say sorry, brushing the hand from his shoulder as Christopher stares at him.

Now that he can see around his father, it seems that the other three are heading towards their meeting point. They do not notice the pair, busy talking - being happy, smiling and laughing about whatever they are saying. Cesar makes to join them, but is caught by his father's arms instead.

"I'm sorry, my boy," Christopher tells him, the tears apparent in his voice. "It wasn't fair- I just wanted to keep you safe. I just want to keep you safe."

Cesar stands stock still, refusing to cooperate as his father hugs around him.

"Let me keep you safe, boy," Christopher tells him. "That's all I've ever wanted - for you to be safe."

"And you've failed it every day," Cesar still does not acknowledge the hug around him - the first time since he was twelve that his father has touched him. His body wants to sob and scream and melt, but he will not, will not let it. His father is trying, so try back, that one man had said? It will take more than a few hours for Cesar to be willing to overlook what he has done.

Abandoning him, abandoning his mother, leaving a single mother with a teenage son alone on the streets of Brazil. Oh, sure, he paid off the house, and left her some savings, but what of it? All people saw was a woman tricked by a rich foreigner, and ridiculed them both for it.

A few hours of treating his now thirty year old son like a child cannot ever make up for the eighteen years, two months, and seven days of not being there.

It is not something that Cesar can ever forgive him for - not the years of his childhood burnt and broken, nor the gaping void in Cesar's soul, nor the way that, even as she was dying, his mother would look longingly out of the window and await her husband's return.

But, Cesar supposes, his father is correct about one thing - the paranormal is dangerous, and people will die if they are not careful. Perhaps people will die even if they are; they are a team of five, but the one they are searching for had trained and worked together since their teens. This is Cesar's first mission, and his father's too - he does not know about the others, but...

If they do not work together, then it is the other three who will suffer.

"I will listen," Cesar concedes, even if only in the name of the mission. "If I do not agree I will not do it, but I will listen."

His father hugs him tighter, and it is the first time in eleven years that Cesar has been held at all.

He is not actually sure if he would remember how to hug back.

"Alright, son," Christopher whispers. "Alright. Just be safe."

"I did not come here to die, if that is what you're worried about."

It seems to do the trick; Christopher lets go.

Immediately Cesar misses his arms, but he will not give in to that.

"Thank you," Christopher says, one last quiet phrase before he slaps Cesar on the back and his voice returns to its normal, booming din. "Now get yourself in there and talk to the youngsters, I'll just get my bag!"

Cesar considers waiting, and he certainly is not going to socialise, but... Well, he walks on ahead anyway. He can at least follow that much of the instruction.

---

On the 13th of April, just two days later, Cesar kneels in the mud outside of a biker bar. Before him lies a grave, marked with a wooden cross, a photo of Liz's mother, and the pocket watch of Thiago's father. Nothing marks who the grave truly belongs to, not as Cesar kneels in the rain, and cries, and listens to the screamed words "Son, I love you" echoing again and again in his ears.

A coat is wrapped around his shoulders. Cesar clings to it, not hearing the words that anyone says.

"Son, I love you" "Son, I love you" "Son, I love you"

Cesar was angry, and hurting, and wounded; he wanted the man to suffer, but he never wanted his father to die.

He presses his forehead to the soil, the sobs overwhelming his body. He cannot hold himself up, he cares not for keeping himself dry, he can only cry.

Why, why did his father have to be so stupid? Why did he have to sacrifice himself? Why did his father choose to die?

All Cesar ever wanted was for his dad to come home, surely, surely he knew that?

"Dad," he sobs, barely audible between the rain and his tears. "Dad, I love you. I love you. Please... just come home."

[heliphantie]

“Bubo Marquez, what it is, dark magic?”

Local fauna enthusiast has discovered an exceptional specimen.

Local goddess of flora has inherited gene that makes one falling for nerds.

A lot to say about Bubo under ‘read more’…

Bubo! The man who was cut from the story and replaced by cactus:D

I believe real reasons for it is that his storyline would’ve been excessive for already crumped timing of the movie. Sure, in concept art his and Isabela’s couple looks like comedic stereotype, but then, underlying theme of the story is how deceptive surface picture in human relationships (and humans in general) can be. Aren’t Pepa and Félix embodying a cartoon duo cliché (a stocky man and tall, often spindly woman: Boris and Natasha, Popeye and Olive Oyl, Gomez and Morticia, you name it) as well, yet they have enough personality and chemistry to feel like full-fledged people in genuine relationship. And it’s not like Disney had problem with pairing statuesque confident woman with dorky/nerdy man just not so long ago: Captain Amelia and Dr. Doppler, Kida and Milo, Sgt. Calhoun and Felix Jr. … I’ve had written here my thoughts on this plot point as it appears in revealed animatic of scene: there is no much further context to it, but from what the scene discloses, it may create unfortunate impression of Isa’s character, as she seemingly tries to ditch her family and elope with somebody who can promise her future and allows her to indulge in her interests rather than maintain a respectable image she doesn’t want. Compared to her eventual storyline she appears more egoistical, and her feelings for Bubo seem self-centered too, as she only talks about loving what he loves in her. So, based just on that scene only, it could give Isa rather unsympathetic air and hurt her character arc (as it doesn’t reflect faithfully on cultural values it’s intended to portray). But her arc, I suppose, was intended to evoke sympathy after all, as, amidst all the comedy bits, the scene implies genuine and deep affinity between two (and, as another storyboard for epilogue shows, Isa’s happy ending did involve getting married to him). I guess it was decided that focus on sibling and intergenerational bonds was more pivotal for the message, thus any romance got sidelined as it was (even though different romance plot was squeezed in, it’s got even less room for development). /And, after all, love story is in the heart of the plot, it just deals with its consequences rather than blooming stage of it./

Back on the subject of stereotypes: well, yes, scrawny nerd type and model beauty together is an odd pair that may rise brows and ill suspicions in real life (presumably) and taken as joke in fiction, not particularly fresh too. But the catch in this particular case is, in all production materials and in the movie itself, it’s implied to various degree, Isa is a nerd too, by her nature. in concept art, she’s shown with books in hands (only her of all characters), and her song shows she’s knowledgeable of botany far beyond her typical repertoire, and it’s strongly implied the magical gifts stem from one’s deep inclinations. /It also stealthily upturns the presumed dynamics of three sisters: gorgeous one is really a Brain, while Luisa, a sensitive one, is Beauty, and finally, strongheaded and determined Mira (presupposed “Brain” of trio) is a figurative Brawn./ The scene from the animatic, in its turn, implies Bubo may be just as much into zoology (fearless in the woods and, that, I guess, why he has these animal urinе samples). So, romance or not, they apparently have something to see eye-to-eye and grow mutual affection over it. And the scene is quite essential in showing a gist of his personality: smart, brave, bit of eccentric, - enough to see him as likeable charismatic figure without needs to question what may be so charming about him. /Quite obviously, after he was cut, a lot of him went into final character of Bruno; he is basically just younger (well, not *smaller*) bespectacled Bruno sans all the gloom and drama./ Inner kinship under contrasting façades makes effectual portrait of a functional couple, I think.

Also, his name, which is likely a nickname, referring to his oversized glasses (Bubo is Latin and Spanish for “horned owl”.) Emphasis on eyeglasses again, like in case of Mirabel, a metaphor of “seeing beyond the obvious” through the movie. And owl is a symbol of wisdom, of course.

TL;DR: In this house we respect Bubo Marquez. I’ve finally come to giving tribute to him, at last. (This is not the last you’ve got to see of him, I gotta warn you.)

All the butterflies are based on actual species that can be found in Columbia, even though I didn’t check on correct sizes and a habitat of each, sorry for that. Hey, it’s all magic after all.

The last, related to this piece of fanart of mine: Bubo is said to be an outsider from the big city who had arrived one day in Encanto, in my version he is, perhaps, born inside the village (like Agustín, who has ancestry from big city) and was a friend of Isa in their adolescence, but eventually left Encanto to see the world. Maybe he even suggested Isa to consider joining him, but she was adamant to stay… They said goodbye, their feelings for each other left unexpressed.

[rebouks]

Having read/reread Somnium this past week/two-ish... I have some theories about Wyatt.

Every character we create has a bit of us, our experiences, and our biases. On that same note, I think every persona Wyatt has projected contained a bit of truth, but also a fair bit of fabrication. Of all the characters in Somnium, I think he had the worst childhood. It's really a miracle he's alive and not completely batshit crazy. And it's understandable why he learned to shut down emotions from a tiny age.

But Wyatt is AND isn't who we've seen. That nerdy, awkward doofus Courtney got to know, there a bit of truth there. But he exaggerated it for her. The absolute psycho that everyone shied away from... There's a bit of truth there, but I think also a fair amount of embellishment. If you're gonna be surrounded by homicidal thugs, then by all means, be the craziest one in the room. The one person that everyone is wary of. When he had his years alone in Mt. Komo (aka his purgatory), it was the first time his survival didn't depend on acting FOR someone else. He could just BE.

Wyatt says he isn't wired right and that he's emotionally faulty. But is he really as bad off as he thinks or is that what he's always been told? Obviously empathy is not his strong suit, but we've seen him: jealous/envious (others' relationships), selfless (letting Darien & Brynn go), appreciative (Oscar's help), petrified (to the point of throwing up), kind (to Ichiro, Mayo, and Brynn), and managed to (while sweating) mumble an ILY. All of which are normal emotions. He tried to make amends where he could. He adopted a cat ffs. A street cat that now has the poshest looking cat bed I've seen lol And the last time he choked someone was out of passion and (somewhat righteous) anger, not emotionless calculation.

I think who Wyatt was (and thought he was) is fading away, however damaged his past left him. I don't think he'll ever be a soft guy/touch to the world at large. Only a select few will be privy to that side if him. But I think his true nature is finally being revealed. Or am I reading him wrong? Enlighten me, Becca!

Ohhh you've read him remarkably well indeed! I truly love Wyatt's character, he's so complex and he really did have a nasty childhood.. on the surface I'm sure it looked like he had everything he ever wanted, but that's faaar from the truth.

I think he's only just realised that he's not actually a psychopath at all, he just kinda learnt how to be one as a coping mechanism when he was very young, so young that it almost seemed like reality in the end, even to other people! (There's a reason it seemed so genuine ⚆_⚆) I suppose in a way he lied to himself for so long it became reality. Ask Bruno.. he's still convinced he's a psycho! 😅

I rlly think smth shifted the moment he became suspicious of Oscar tho, and whilst at first he was intent on protecting the "family" and doing the "right" thing, the more he thought about it, the more he realised how done he was. No one listened to him, no one respected him, but he knew he was right! It was like he realised he'd never progressed from being a small child, pushed out of the way and ignored, even when they're begging to tell you something important! Arturo wasn't interested, so instead.. he had to pay. Wyatt didn't want to be loyal to him anymore! At the time, he didn't help Oscar n' co. just to do the right thing, he wanted to fuck his father over more than anything, so.. still pretty self-serving in a way but he's had a loooot of time to think since then and it's been so intriguing watching the slow shift in his mindset.

He's everything he's ever been, pretended to be and everything he never was, all bundled up into a ball that he buried deep inside; only when he was free did it all start to unravel.

I adore the examples of humanity you've picked up on tho, all those tiny hints we got that maybe he's not completely devoid of emotion after all... He's still Wyatt, but he's also Kaito too.. he's intelligent, he CAN be kind - to the right people, tho he definitely struggles with empathy - he's jealous, possessive, ambitious, confident, not confident at all 😆 he doesn't know, actually.. maybe we should check back in on him in a little while lmao

Hurray for the truly grey man!

Also.. I kinda started putting together a lil timeline of posts/moments that I thought were pivotal to his slow lil journey but this is long af as is so I'll work on that and post it separately 👀

[melsie-sims]

how do you get the inspo for all the different aesthetics of your disney sims?

I don't have a specific answer to that. I just... do whatever I feel like in the moment, if that makes sense?

For Disney Sims I try to stay true to their personality/vibe the best I can while also giving them a more "modern" look that would fit into the Sims world. Belle for example is very classy and a bit nerdy. She likes skirts, blouses and sweater vests.

Robin I went with a more grunge/lumberjack look to represent a rebel/outlaw living primarily in the woods, but my men tend to all dress similarly after a while... mostly because of lack of CC.

Then you've got Bruno. I actually put a lot of thought into his look. I wanted him to be very quirky, but with a bit of an edgy/punk side to represent some of the darker themes in his movie.

Charlotte was another one I definitely enjoyed doing. At first I wanted her to have a 1920s flapper vibe, but I think only her formal outfit really gave that impression (and we haven't actually seen it in-game yet LOL). I still love her look though, it's very girly and very her.

Sometimes I'll see a piece of CC here on Tumblr and know exactly what Sim I want to use it for, but usually I decide what I want my Sims to wear once I'm in CAS and can browse through everything.

Thanks for your question! Hope this helps! Happy Simming! 💚

[waitingonavision]

Hello~

Can we have a little summary of how you think each of the Madrigals celebrate Tu BiShvat? What would each of their favorite activities/parts of the holiday be?

🌳 ❤️ 🌲

Some of these aren't the "prescribed" traditional activities, but they capture the spirit of the holiday (which, for those who don't know, is also called the "new year of the trees" AKA tree birfday).

Thank you for the ask, @empty-cryptid!! 🥰🌳🌴🥭💐

Alma likes taking a nice, slow walk with her children. Usually in the morning. It's a time for them to just enjoy Colombia's natural beauty and each other's company.

Julieta and Pepa organize the seder together (but everyone pitches in). The triplets like to sit on Casita's roof and share some sort of fruit smoothie after the holiday ends.

Bruno creates a little Tu B'Shvat seder (meal that follows a particular order/sequence—like the Passover seder) for his rats and eats with them. Lots of food for Bruno during this holiday, hehe. He also collects random objects to give as gifts during the walks with his sisters and mamá 🥰

Isabela spends time studying new plants or plant care. She also decorates the entire Encanto and makes flower crowns for each family member. Tu B'Shvat is her favorite holiday, so she'll happily do anything.

Dolores at some point starts a private garden, which she likes to plant with something new on Tu B'Shvat. It's not that she's trying to emulate Isabela; she likes plants and wants something of her own. Plants and flowers are romantic, quiet, and good at listening.

Luisa gets into bee-keeping (for some reason, I can see this happening). This isn't an explicitly Tu B'Shvat activity, but I think it fits since bees are so important to flowers and fruit.

Camilo likes the food at the seder, of course! I can imagine Camilo volunteering to arrange the seasonal fruit and nuts on the plates for the seder (because he gets to snack while he works).

Mirabel leads the seder. She gets kinda nerdy about the symbolism behind it: Kabbalah and all that. She's also the one who suggests the family write their own haggadah (the book that guides the seder).

Antonio helps his Tío Bruno with the seder for the rats. They plan another seder for Antonio's animal friends. He also goes tree-climbing and shares with Isabela the information about flowers and trees that he learns from the animals.

[matcha-narancia]

Thank you for answering so soon!

May I request some headcanons for Trish, Narancia, Bruno and Giorno with a S/O who's very shy, nerdy, and sweet at first, but that starts acting way more bubbly and sarcastic (still keeping her kind behavior!) once she feels comfortable around someone?

Bruno, Narancia, Giorno and Trish with a S/O who’s Shy and Sweet but becomes Sarcastic and Bubbly HCs

𝐀/𝐍: Hi there love, it’s no problem lol! My apologies for taking a while to get this request out, and I do hope you still enjoy it! This was actually one of my first Bucci Gag requests to include Trish, and I’m grateful I got to write for her! :)

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠(𝐬): Some spoilers for Part 5!

Bruno Bucciarati

- Bucciarati adored you so much when you were initially shy and sweet, but when you began to show your more lively side, he adored you even more!

- He’s really glad you opened up and showed more of yourself to him once you felt more comfortable with him. To him, it shows a healthy progression of trust between you too!

- Is a bit taken aback when you first begin to act differently, but adapts very quickly to the new sides of you he gets to see. Though a bit sappy and poetic, you remind him of a flower blooming in the beginning of springtime!

- Finds your sarcastic side very amusing, especially when you interact with the other gang members. Many times has he had to stifle a laugh when you throw out a comment that leaves Narancia or even Abbacchio silent. 

- Generally, a very great partner when it comes to your shift in personality! He really loved and loved to see you coming out of your shell and embracing more of yourself to him.

Narancia Ghirga

- Oh boy. You both started as a very opposites attract sort of couple, but as you began to become more energetic and bubbly, then you two began to act sort of the same! Not that Narancia’s complaining though, he loved you then and loves you now still!

- I feel like he wouldn’t be so surprised by you shifting how you act since you’re still just as lovable to him either way! He wasn’t concerned as much with your personality, more so on the moments you shared together thanks to how you acted! 

- Glad you opened up and became more comfortable around him because he takes it as a sign that he’s doing a good job with the whole relationship thing! You’re more likely than not his first love, and knowing that he makes you happy and lets you be yourself makes his day!

- More inclined to find your energy more amusing. You two can do a bunch of reckless fun stuff together! 

- In the end, somebody very excited by your personality shift! Will definitely let you know just how happy he is that you’re comfy around him!

Giorno Giovanna

- Alright, now you and Giorno are an example of an opposites attract couple! Though initially the same due to your shyness, Giorno was very surprised to see you become more energetic, though he of course welcomes the change!

- He finds the fact that you two initially started the same and became different to be funny. He remembers when you’d get shy to hold his hand or give him hugs, and now you throw your arms around him with the biggest grin. He can’t but feel his heart melt at your affection!

- That being said, he’s also so proud to see you coming out of your shell with him! He truly does believe that its a sign of strength within your relationship, and encourages you to show more of your true colors with him (given you’re comfortable with that, of course)!

- Also also! Given his role in Passione its likely you two have had a bit of a strange start to your relationship. Initially, he was a bit worried that your silence was a sign of discomfort or fear for the group, but when you began to grow more lively and sarcastic, Giorno was very much relieved!

- All in all, you two sort of resemble the opposites attract dynamic, though its a resemblance Giorno doesn’t mind in the slightest, and he hopes you don’t mind, too!

Trish Una

- Okay now you and Trish are an interesting case in that you both sort of became who you are now together!

- We all know Trish wasn’t too outspoken in the beginning. In fact, she rarely spoke much at all to anyone! You were in the same boat, and you two were able to relate because of this.

- However, as time went on and you two began to trust each other more, Trish began to see more of you, and you began to see more of her! By the time you’re currently together now you’re both super joyous and have that same hint of sarcasm, you make a great pair!

- Trish is also incredibly thankful because she believes you both have changed each other for the better. After her mother passed she found herself having to face a lot of the world alone, but when you came into her life she felt a lot less scared. You’ve made her grow as a person and she will let you know this time and time again!

- Extremely dedicated to you and just loves you so much. You bring her happiness and she hopes she brings you some too! 

↳ 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬/𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝! ♡

[sp1deys]

in which he is the poetry and you’re the prose

⤷ peter parker x gn!reader

warnings: so fluffy you end up in tears

a/n: bruno major on repeat so i wrote this (def did not cry while writing this)

peter parker. most people see him as some nerdy teen, most known by his peers as ‘penis parker’, and yet, you could think of a million words that could describe him. if you were given a journal to describe peter parker, you were so sure each page would be filled with multitudes of song lyrics, poems, and letters.

to you, he was the poetry, while you were the prose. he was the caffeine in your daily order at the cafe at the edge of the block. he reminded you of a bruno major song, or a comforting verse in a cigarettes after sex song. maybe it was the ringing after the strum of a note on a guitar that you saw in him, maybe its the lingering of the last note played on a grand piano.

maybe it was how he held everyone he loved so close to him. each of which had a special place in his heart- one of them being you; and how he had never failed to show that you had the biggest place. maybe it was how his laugh felt like you were bathing in sunlight, or how a glance at him felt like the bridge of the song.

in which he put his absolute everything into anything he does, and when he feels like he cant put anymore, he isn’t afraid to let you in. how he was willing to do nothing with you, just as long as he was able to bask in your presence. maybe it was his philosophy, how he wanted to help everyone; and you knew it was because he hadn’t had that help when he was little.

how it was that he found you beautiful even in your lowest moments, everything he saw in you was never a flaw. maybe he loved you because you spoke in poetry, how everything you said sounded like you were a sophisticated love poem. maybe he fell in love with you because you picked him. perhaps it was that you saw everything in him the same way he saw everything in you; perfect. how the two of you went together like the last two puzzle pieces in a puzzle.

maybe it was because to the two of you; it felt like god had created you for him, and him for you.

peter masterlist. | main masterlist. | navi.

[vibinorion]

I can write too! Watch this!

The Fugio Valentine's Day Idea Dump TM

I feel like Gio is not much of a celebratory person, Because y'know- His parents kinda sucked- And Fugo over here isn't as extreme as most s/o's would be, but does like the whole aesthetic and history if Valentine's Day. He is still excited because he FINALLY has a boyfriend to give things to on Valentine's Day! But how? He is only an awkward guy...

So Mista just nudges Gio to ask Fugo out or do something special because "the love is in the air! You must get out there for your strawberry lover! He is waiting~"

And during that period Fugo is just

Gone. Disappeared. Poof.

Since he is actually a big brain and planning big brain things because he wants to make Gio happy and give him the best first Valentine's Day experience in history.

And shows he loves him

We all know Fugo shows he loves Gio everyday with the rocks and pebbles he hands him (and Gio handing him a flower everyday as well), but why not also show a huge majority of love for at least one day?

Both Gio n Fugo aren't always love declarers and stuff so they at least need one day to show for it, it's the day of Love itself after all!

At least Fugo thinks so, Rip his wallet and allowance though.. Fugo has many secret side jobs, he needs to help pay the bills somehow! Even tho Bruno never really lets him pay-

Meanwhile, Fugo decorates an entire area in him and Gio's secret place! It's your typical deep in the forest area with a gorgeous lake clearing straight out if a fairy tale~ After a couple hours of decorating it and having the most romantic picnic setting ever, it rained

IT RAINED

ON VALENTINES DAY-

and it was ugly and horrible

All of Fugo's hard work was soggy and ugly and he just stayed outside in the storm crying out of frustration.

Because there needs to be angst somewhere

So Giorno in the meantime bought the basic things to make the boyfriend feel appreciated tm without Mista's help because he wanted to be a good boyfriend! He sat in the living room, waiting for him. After about an hour he asked around to see where Fugo was because he searched everywhere for him and he was worried because it was raining heavily outside- like thunderstorm bad- And so he finally remembered the secret outdoor place and ran there with an umbrella in hand, panting and running like their lives depended on it.

He saw Fugo on the ground, cold, wet, crying, just a sad boyfriend tm moment

Giorno hugged him and covered them both with an umbrella- not caring Fugo was freezing cold. He takes off his sweater and gives it to Fugo so he can have some warmth.

So Fugo is here sniffling and wiping his tears away, not wanting to look at Gio because he thinks that he'll hate him for not being a good boyfriend. Then Gio finally realizes all the pretty Valentine's decorations, which were scattered everywhere and gasps gently. He was touched..

"Was it for me?"

"Naturally, yes- I know I'm not really the romantic type like Bucciarati or Mista... but I thought even if I could show you how much you meant to me for one day...you'll be happy-"

"Oh Panna, I already do know you love me very much, and I am touched by all this. It's better than what I got you, that's for sure"

"I sincerely doubt that, oh and I also got you this.."

Fugo gives gio a strawberry locket- containing a picture of them on their first date because he was a romantic all along!

The locket is rose gold, and the seeds and leaves are golden! The chain is rose gold as well. He has a matching ladybug one, it's also rose gold and gold respectively. If Gio wasn't crying before he surely was now.

So he goes around touching all the decorations and turning them into butterflies, so they just kinda vibe on him as the two head back inside. Everyone just peeks from the corner and Bruno freaks out because it's been raining for a good hour and a half and Fugo is dripping wet and probably going to get sick.

So he makes Fugo take a hot shower to warm himself up as Gio is still crying over the locket and showing everyone how sweet Fugo is for being such a romantic and being so considerate. The butterflies go to his room so they can dry and become the decorations again, while Gio goes to get the items he got for Fugo.

Fugo then emerges with comfy nerdy clothing, and his hair tied up because he's tired and wants to be comfy, fashionable, and show that he reads books in his free time.

Gio just bursts in and excitedly gives Fugo some bouquet of flowers because yes, a box of dark chocolate, PLUS dark chocolate covered strawberries because it's Fugo and he is sophisticated homosexual.

Best part was that also gives him a strawberry plushie with a cute owo face, because it's Fugo and he deserves the best things.

"I also had a jewelry idea, though it's not as good as yours I think it works for us. We are polar opposites and that brings us together, we match so well and I find that the most beautiful love. You're the moon to my sun and the stars in my sky. I love you so very much and I hope this reminds you of that.."

He takes out two jewelry boxes, inside was a golden charm bracelet with a sun, ladybug, and heart charms, and the other was a silver bracelet with a crescent moon, strawberry, and diamond charms.

"I have this one for myself, so I always have a part of you with me. I know I'm new to these celebrations, but I wanted to show that I loved you so much, and that I always will. My love for you will last for eternity and longer."

"Gio.."

Now it was Fugo's turn to cry, not out of sadness, but of joy and love. And there was no where else he would rather be.

The two sat their, hands intertwined as they share a heartwarming kiss.

🐞The End🍓

[honeytea8]

@redbeanb0i, @fyre23, and @pun-in-ten-ded asked for Morioh next, so you know I had to deliver the goods! Stardust Crusaders HC’s here, in case you missed it.

✨The Morioh Crew and Their Song Picks✨

(based off SOME of my playlists/tastes)

Yukako Yamagishi

Honestly, her music reflects her pretty well for the most part. She’s got unapologetic bad bitch vibes (and I highkey stan)—she’s also a girl in high school with big simp energy (for Koichi lmao) and it can make her a little crazy. Yukako is like a sour piece of candy with a sweet center—she a little feral, kinda chaotic but also has a cute side you can’t help but like.

Maneater — Nelly Furtado

Freak — Doja Cat

Sorry — Beyoncé 

Moonlight — Ariana Grande

ocean eyes — Billie Eilish

Smack a Bitch — Rico Nasty

Okuyasu Nijimura

Ca$h Money Okuya$u gives me cool hip-hop vibes with a bit of alternative and pop on the side; he’s surprisingly cultured. I can totally see him as one of those people constantly wishing for the “old Kanye”. He has pretty diverse music taste, but don’t bother asking him for recommendations. His shit is so disorganized, because he likes everything so his music is literally all on one giant playlist and it’s hella chaotic (like 300+ songs and over 1000 hours of music on one playlist, sickening!!! 😭)

G.O.M.D — J. Cole

Kill Your Heroes — AWOLNATION

Hey Ya — Outkast

Through the Wire — Kanye West

I’m Not Famous — AJR

Ride — twenty one pilots

Koichi Hirose

I feel like his taste can go several different ways. Koichi is that timid guy steadily growing into a more confident person, but then his stand is all “let’s kill dat hoe beeeetch” like literally that’s his soul talking. For him, I’m just going to go with chill rap/nerdy rap, and then some alternative. Koichi and Okuyasu could probably rock the same playlist, but Koichi’s music would be more lowkey where as Okuyasu’s is more mainstream.

Rigamortus — Kendrick Lamar

Stressed out — twenty one pilots

Check the Rhime — A Tribe Called Quest

Hurt Feelings — Mac Miller

EARFQUAKE — Tyler, the Creator

Soul Food — Logic

Josuke Higashikata

Josuke is a sap if I ever saw one! Besides groovy pop music (or Prince’s whole discography), his playlist is mostly RnB love songs lmao (I fully believe Josuke has all of Usher’s music on CD and I take no criticism!!) He’s a romantic at heart so I think some of the music he listens to reflects that quite a bit.

Let Me Love You — Mario

We Belong Together — Mariah Carey

Take Care — Drake

That’s What I Like — Bruno Mars

U Got it Bad — Usher

You & I (Nobody in the World) — John Legend

Bonus: If I Ain’t Got You — Alicia Keys (Josuke would cry like a baby to this song and then vow to play it at his wedding, no, I’m not joking)

Rohan Kishibe

His nutty ass probably doesn’t even listen to music while working. It’s just silence. Rohan is attracted to powerful voices that evoke a lot of feeling, poignant lyrics are his weakness, they hit different and he loves it. He’d probably stan tf outta Adele or Lady Gaga. Essentially, when he listens to music, he wants to be impressed.

Skyfall — Adele

Young & Beautiful — Lana Del Rey

Hearts A Mess — Gotye

Movement — Hozier

Shallow — Lady Gaga

Midnight Mischief — Jordan Rakei

Chandelier (piano ver.) — SIA

✨Extras✨

Yuya Fungami

Hella rap, hella turn up. Master of the aux when it’s time to get hype! Dude has a chin tat, yakwtfgo 😂 Yuya’s like that one guy in the neighborhood with cleanest fits/sneakers, has hella hoes, does forex, drives a hellcat and wakes everybody up with his car and loud music whenever he leaves for work at 6am 💀💀 (some of y’all know what I’m talking about)

Flex — Polo G

High Fashion — Roddy Ricch

Topanga — Trippie Redd

Suge — DaBaby

Bank Account — 21 Savage

Walk It Talk It — Migos

Dior — Pop Smoke

Reimi Sugimoto

Easy! Reimi’s a sweet, friendly, cheerful, young sixteen year old girl. So I’d say her playlist is mostly pop music; bubbly, upbeat dance music. Lots of boy bands, girl bands. I can see her probably being a really big kpop and jpop stan too.

One Thing — One Direction

Sugar — Maroon 5

Work from Home — Fifth Harmony

Black Swan — BTS

Boy Meets Girl — Rude-a

Only One — BoA

Sunny Girl — Awesome City Club

Toshikazu Hazamada

Hazamada’s lowkey (highkey) a troll! The type to boldly say 6ix9ine is the best rapper in the game with a straight face and it gets everybody upset (especially Yuya and Koichi), wears all black air forces, rages while playing 2K. Probably wants a girlfriend so bad, but they always go for guys like Josuke and it makes him upset.

All Girls Are the Same — Juice WRLD

SAD — XXXTentacion

XO Tour Llif3 — Lil Uzi Vert

Falling Down — Lil Peep

Messages — The Hxliday

I Fall Apart — Post Malone

Y’all want Bucci gang next or nah? 👀

[c-c-cherry]

In an "Everyone Lives/Nobody dies" AU when do you think would be the time that Abbacchio realized he *doesn't* hate Giorno? How do you think he'd react to that startling realization? 😅

Hello, anon!!

I think Abba is a cold person when it comes to meeting new people in general and it takes a while for him to warm up to people, so when a fifteen-year-old skeets into their team and starts telling them what to do, he’s like *cracks knuckles* “ haha no.”

In the heat of battle and all the stressful shit that happens in VA, the two never really had the time to actually talk and shit. Even in an everyone lives AU I think he’d tolerate the kid but still be a bit cold to him even months after everything that happened...

...until there’s some big moment that triggers a chain reaction that makes him think “oh shit he’s just a fucking kid I should probably stop being an asshole” and starts feeling really guilty about it and they start to build their friendship soon after that. *Soft Dadbacchio moments ensue.*

Some possible moments that I may or may not write out eventually now that I’m thinking about it:

-The two of them are alone in the house when something happens rather abruptly—he has to talk him out of a flashback (albeit a bit awkwardly), a nightmare, or our blonde boy just isn’t having a good time

-Maybe Gio is finally fed up with Abba’s cold angry bullshit and just completely snaps and starts yelling at him until he realizes what he’s doing to his superior and starts thinking that they’re going to kick him out and Dad Abba is like “shit maybe I shouldn’t have been so mean ;-; and has to reassure him that they aren’t going to make him leave

-Late night tea talks??? They’re both night people and tea people and quickly realize this post-canon as they’re both always awake after everyone’s asleep. Maybe they start talking more and he realizes that this kid is literally just an awkward nerdy 15-year-old and he should stop being such a bitch already

-Bruno forces them on a mission together...I don’t know what happens but something happens and by the time they come back from it, they’re somehow on better terms...though they both refuse to tell the rest of the team what the hell happened out there (it was probably something embarrassing hehe)

-Giorno needs Abbacchio to do something for him without anyone else knowing...this could be anything but I’ve had a little something in mind for awhile:

our golden boy starts talking to someone about everything he’s gone through but doesn’t tell the rest of the team that he does, but it quickly bites him in the ass when they prescribe him some meds to take for whatever’s going on and he needs the signature of a guardian to get them...he’s too afraid to tell Bruno because he knows Bruno’s opinion on drugs and wouldn’t know how he would react to prescribed stuff (Bruno would be very supportive if he knew, of course, and is in fact heavily in charge with picking up Fugo’s meds all the time) so he asks Abbacchio to sign some forms for him and doesn’t specify. Abba quickly learns a lot of things about Giorno that he didn’t know

-Abbacchio catches Giorno doing something he probably shouldn’t be doing, like secretly eating the ENTIRE new tub of ice cream at 3:00am *See Bucci Gang Head canons hehe* Soon Giorno catches Abba doing something too (I literally cannot think of anything lol). They bond over embarrassing secrets.

-Giorno needs GUIDANCE!!! Maybe he got into a fight with one of them or thinks he did something to upset one of them or accidentally fucked up BIG TIME on his paperwork or broke Bruno’s favourite mug or threw away Mista’s precious pizza table tower (the possibilities are endless)  and is too scared to confront them about it...Abba catches him alone and asks him why he looks so fucking frazzled and he SPILLS THE TEA word vomit style. Abbacchio soon realizes that this child is literally constantly a fucking mess and just needs a constant authority figure to help him figure a LOT of basic stuff out. (skills and advice that his stupid parents never taught him)

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇

OH MY GOD I JUST REALIZED I WENT ABSOLUTELY FERAL THIS POST IS WAY TOO LONG ASJHSDGJHFDJKH 

Thank you for the lovely ask!! If anyone wants to use any of these prompts, feel free...just TELL ME CAUSE I WANNA READ YOUR FICS AAAUUUUAUUU

[esepoimipullula]

Alright, so... this is the utterly self-indulgent essay. XD

For any non-Italian readers: remember the introductory note on my translation of Goofy and The Perfect New Year’s Eve Handbook? About Italian Goofy (Pippo) having a huuuuuuuuuge family? Well, everyone in this family is, ofc, either just as quirky or nearly as quriky as Goofy himself... which makes for a lot of interesting personalities. Like Goofy's cousin, Indiana Pipps. Or Arizona Goof, in English. Presumably to make the joke at least a little bit subtler.

... yes, "the joke" is that he's literally an Indiana Jones parody. Who happens to be related to Goofy and look almost exactly (or exactly, depending on the story) like him. He's an "adventure archaeologist" who spends most of his time scouring South American jungles for lost pre-Colombian temples full of traps and treasure, travelling through scorching deserts to find legendary Egyptian ruins, and stumbling into fantarchaeology/Ancient Aliens/magical/mystical relics. He's brave, smart, passionate, confident to the point of being actually a bit arrogant, kind of reckless and hotheaded, a little rough, rather snarky, and has a strong sense of justice... and a bunch of strange habits and quirks. Like his penchant from entering buildings from the window rather than from the door (because that would be too easy), his preference for sleeping bags over beds and tents over houses (though he does have a house just out of Mouseton... in a dangerous swamp complete with crocodiles), his dislike and distrust for city life in general, and his love for a particular brand of strong-flavored liquorice candies called "Negritas" that almost everyone else finds adsolutely disgusting. Through the years, he's fallen in love with a bunch of female characters (starting with Clarabelle Cow, or so the internet tells me... Goof guys trying to steal her away from Horace must be a bizarre family tradition) and he's had a bunch of female characters fall in love with him, as you can expect considering he's the Dr. Jones of the Mouseverse and everything. But none of these crushes has ever really gone anywhere... whether because of a bout of obliviousness preventing him from realizing his temporary sidekick had been head over heels for him the whole time (sorry, Martina), a misguided attempt to present as a more traditional academic for a nerdy professor who unexpectedly turned out to be really into the adventurer type, or fairy law forbidding him to marry his French fairy sweetheart (yup, that happened).

Ironically, his most constant and long-lasting is with his nemesis, Dr. Kranz. (Nope, no name given.) (Yes, this is going to be an "enemies to lovers" kinda thing... except with, like, A Twist. So if you don't like that kind of dynamic or think people shouldn’t like messed-up ships or anything like that, you'd probably better stop reading.)

Kranz and Indiana appeared together in Indiana's first story, Mickey and Goofy in: Raiders of the Lost Temple by Bruno Sarda, and have been chasing each other for one reason or another ever since. Kranz is an adventure archaeologist, too, but despite being (almost) as skilled and succesful at his job as Indiana, he spends an awful lot of time following him around and trying to steal his discoveries... most often by putting on some disguise, stalking him from a distance, and popping out of nowhere with a gun and a mocking smirk as soon as Indiana finds the hidden lost idol/treasure/artifact/city.

Despite some weird occasional foray into the world of attempted world domination, Kranz is (mostly) into the whole villain business for the money and the fame. The money because he loves luxury (especially fast cars and five-star hotels) and sells a good chunk of what he finds or steals to unscrupulous clients or outright villainous organizations to afford to live the good life, and the fame because he has a big ego and (somehow, still) a reputation as a respectable archaeologist that feeds into it... and he's always trying to overshadow Indiana, because he hates being always second best to him. Which is just as well, because Indiana hates his attempts to steal his own discoveries, his criminal activities, his utter lack of ethics, and his greed. Whenever they see each other without either of them ending up on the wrong end of a gun or tied up for the local authorities to find, they usually still end up at each other's throat anyway. Or at least, insulting and teasing each other the whole time.

Except... it wasn't always like that. Back in the day, Indiana and Kranz were actually students in the same college. And roommates (YES, "and they were roommates!"). And "inseparable" best friends who got along very well despite their differences and genuinely cared for each other. And after graduating, even adventuring partners, at least occasionally. Kranz already loved money and luxury, and Indiana had already started to develop his simpler yet more bizarre tastes, but they were good together.

There's actually a recent mini-series about their college years written by Bruno Sarda himself, Young Indiana. It's pretty much a shipper's delight, as it contains high amounts of fluff, overdramatic (and suspiciously coupley imho) friendship drama with a happy ending, hugs, kisses, straight love drama taking a backseat as the focus stays firmly on the friendship drama, and a certain amount of foreshadowing of (angsty) things to come. But their old friendship was already an established fact before that...

Like in the story Indiana Pipps and the Return of Doctor Kranz, where Indiana ends up telling Mickey the story of how they parted ways and became enemies. Which was apparently inspired by something that happened in the Martin Mystère comics, but I've never read them so I wouldn't know. Long story short, Indiana and Kranz where on an expedition together when they unexpectedly found an absurdly powerful ray gun left behind by Ancient Aliens. As it turned out, by that point Kranz had already been in contact with a shady organization that would have paid good money for something like that, so he proposed they should sell the gun to them and share the profits of the sale. Indiana immediately opposed the idea, of course, being all like, "wtf dude idk about YOU apparently but I have morals and also a sense of professional ethics"... so Kranz knocked him out, took the gun, wrote him a note about how you shouldn't slap good luck away, and fled to the other side of the world, where a man from the organization would await him. But when Indiana woke up, he immediately started trying to track him, eventually ruining the sale right before it could go through and throwing the gun into the sea, where it would never be found again. At that point, Kranz swore he'd have his revenge on him by basically costantly tailing him and ruining his life and career, never leaving him a moment of peace.

Which he's sometimes been pretty succesful at, considering there's been a whole story about Indiana being so stressed due to Kranz appearing out of the blue to ruin his day, it turns into some sort of bizarre mania where he believes everyone and anyone is secretly Kranz in disguise. However, the same story also has Kranz being so stressed due to Indiana constantly foiling his schemes that he goes on a cruise to just forget about him and relax for a while... and ends up jumping off the ship when he mistakenly believes Indiana might be on it, too. So, that's a two-way street, I guess.

So, basically... friends to enemies, genuine affection being ruined by greed and ambition and turning into resentment and spite and straight-up hatred, a degree of mutual obsession and general unhealthiness. But that's not really all there is to their relationship.

There's also stories where they're forced to collaborate to reach the same goal and have to behave more or less civilly, or even where they choose to do so willingly and end up actually still being a good team. There's stories where getting good results while working together makes them behave almost amicably, as much as they're able or willing to. Stories where they acknowledge their past together, if not their old friendship, and even the similarities between them. Stories where they find themselves with someone they both look down down or hate even more than each other, and find some common ground insulting and snarking at them in-between doing the same to each other. Where they grudgingly help each other out.

And then, there's Indiana Pipps e il soccorso obbligato. The story I blame for getting me into this ship in the frist place, when I could be here reading and writing Scroldie or Dimeshipping or Donsy or Mickey/Minnie or literally any other of my Disney comics ships that people other than me actually ship.

In Il soccorso obbligato, Kranz gets kidnapped by some shady guys while he's working on a revolutionary archaeological discovery, except he's not been kidnapped and he's not actually close to finding anything that awesome, and it's all just a convoluted trap to get back at Indiana for laughing at him one time because he's terrible. But Indiana doesn't know that, and so he and Mickey rush to the rescue and fly to a whole other continent to find him...

That story really has everything. From Kranz coming up with a ridiculous and ridiculously cruel plan because he might be used to Indiana insulting him and mocking him but sometimes his former friend laughing at him and acting all superior and better than him still hurts, to Indiana actually falling for it and trying to justify to himself why he does, telling himself that after so many years spent (fighting) together there's a bond between them and he owes it to Kranz... and admitting he’s worried about him. From Indiana still remembering little details about Kranz and their past together and looking almost fond as he talks about them, to Kranz being both petty and obsessed enough to leave a journal full of insults to Indiana for him to find as a clue and setting his password to a mocking phrase about him (and Indiana, who should expect some stuff like that or at least be used to it, still getting riled up and planning on giving Kranz an earful when he finds him). From Kranz assuming Indiana would only come save him if he threw an imaginary fantarchaeological discovery into the mix because then Indiana wouldn't be able to resist his "archaeological curiosity", to Indiana considering said discovery more of a secondary concern and actually regretting and feeling almost guilty for mocking Kranz the last time they saw each other before the supposed kidnapping... and recklessly, unthinkingly running over a thin ice bridge over a gaping chasm just to get to him, throwing all caution to the wind even as he tells himself he doesn't even know why he's doing it. And the way they still KNOW each other despite everything that happened, maybe even because of everything that happened! The angst! The complicated, unspoken, repressed things! Being a softie and a sap, I'm always a sucker for "the hero and the villain actually have a bond and care for each other on some level even if it's not the healthiest or most normal thing"... but considering the history between these two? Though the story in itself is very fun and entertaining, it never fails to break my heart a little.

And in all honesty, I might end up writing fanfictions about them. Fanfictions full of angst and pining and conflicted feelings and "we were never lovers but oh god we could have been --- if you hadn't screwed up everything in the end, at least" college stuff with a mess of obliviousness and repressed feelings, most likely.

[honeyopinion]

20/20 Albums of the Year

Circles by Mac Miller  |  Hip-Hop, Soul, Funk Released: January 17, 2020

Best Album For... Pouring One Out for Mac

I wrote a few different drafts of this album summary, and none of them felt like they really fit the impossibly large bill of accurately describing the posthumous importance or brilliance of this album. If you are a fan of hip-hop or soul music of any kind, try to give this piece of work a chance. I for one, used to judge Mac based on his early frat rap days in the late 2000s. But a decade later he came to leave the world with one of the most surprising and frankly impressive artistic evolutions that I’ve been able to witness in real time. RIP Mac. 

Spotify      Apple Music      YouTube      Pandora 

Start With: “Circles” or “Everybody”

Marigold by Pinegrove  |  Alternative Country and Folk Rock Released: January 17, 2020

Best Album For… Passing Through a Small Town on a Cloudy Winter Day 

Pinegrove was one of the last great concerts I got to experience before the pandemic. And it was my favorite performance of theirs from the last 6 years of seeing them play live. Is this my favorite album of theirs? Honestly, it’s not. But I still find it extremely enjoyable, and the memory of seeing these songs performed live, along with some of their classics, was enough for me to include it on this list. This is an album that marks Pinegrove’s exit from their pop punk roots. It’s still sentimental, but much more country and folk rock focused vs. anything trying to be associated with emo or punk. 

Spotify      Apple Music      YouTube      Pandora   Start With: “The Alarmist” or “No Drugs”

Watch This Liquid Pour Itself by Okay Kaya  |  Synth Pop, Art Rock, Folk Released: January 24, 2020

Best Album For… Crywanking at 3am, Bathed in The Dull Light of Your Overheating Laptop

What if Feist and Father John Misty had a secret love child? They might sound something like Okay Kaya. Self proclaimed “Singer ~ Crywanker,” Okay Kaya brings serious BDE to weirdo art pop that she seems like she could be a plant  from the mind of Nathan Fielder. Kaya delivers with such deadpan precision as she rolls out line after line of sarcastic joy, staring blankly at our dystopian reality. “Here I am, the whole world is my daddy,” “Netflix and yeast infection,” “Sex with me is mediocre,” “I just want us to do well like Jon Bon Jovi’s Rosê,” and, “My parasite and I are blushing / In the zero interaction ramen bar,” are just a few examples of some of her memorable and biting lyrics. The entire album is both a critique and nihilistic fondness for the absurdity of our lonely technological society, not quite sure how to deal with taboos like repressed female sexuality, depression, and codependency. 

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Start With: “Baby Little Tween” or “Asexual Wellbeing”

UNLOCKED by Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats  |  Hip-Hop Released: February 7, 2020

Best Album For... Nodding Your Damn Head To, Feeling Cooler Than You Actually Are

I had to double check that this was an album. Clocking in under 20 minutes, this collection of songs feels more like an EP, especially with the track titles that purposefully look like file names and placeholders. But for a short album, Denzel wastes no time, furiously zigging and zagging effortlessly over Kenny Beats’ 90s New York-indebted production (ad libs and all). Kenny pulls out samples of an array of pop culture references made by Denzel (like quotes from movies and weapon sound effects like a lightsaber) — as he rotates his flow between admirable impressions of DMX, Nas, and Joey Bada$$.

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Start With: “So.Incredible.pkg” or “DIET_”

Cardboard City by Zack Villere  |  Pop, Electronic, R&B Released: February 14, 2020

Best Album For… Pal-ing Around With Your Friends From High School, Maybe Quoting Superbad At The Same Time

The first time I watched a music video from Zack Villere, I noticed the top comment said: “how did frank ocean get trapped in mark zuckerberg.” And while that definitely gets at the heart of how Zack Villere presents himself, he is not a phenomenal singer like Frank Ocean is, nor does he come off as an asshole like Mark Zuckerberg does. I would say that he is just a slightly awkward nerdy white guy who loves hip-hop production and R&B melodies. So the better question is really, “how did drake get trapped in michael cera?” This premise should not work at all, but somehow it does. This is only Villere’s second album, but he shows some serious production and songwriting chops, plus a commitment to his delivery that comes across as genuine, charming, and unique. 

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Start With: “Grateful” or “Superhero Strength”

The Slow Rush by Tame Impala  |  Psych Rock, Synth Pop, Disco Released: February 14, 2020

Best Album For... Throwing a Silent Disco For One 

Tame Impala continues on their now 10 year streak of psych rock dominance. Along the way we’ve seen Kevin Parker master and stretch the boundaries of psychedelic production. This has resulted in his music coming as close to sounding like the best aspects of The Beatles, while also expanding into hip hop drums, R&B hooks, plus more and more electronic elements. This is an album that I was not super impressed with when it initially came out, but as we entered the pandemic and were tasked with finding small joys in staying at home all the time, I found myself going back to this album and appreciating the themes of solitude and self reflection that Parker has drawn from throughout his career.

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Start With: “Posthumous Forgiveness” or “One More Hour”

1988 by Knxwledge  |  Hip-Hop Released: March 27, 2020

Best Album For... Pumping Your Brakes and Driving Slow, Uh *Homie* Although this album is named after a year in the 80s, the sound here is a perfect portal back to 90s golden era hip-hop, with all the gospel, soul samples, and the kind of deep bass you want to feel in your chest. This is the rare, largely instrumental hip-hop album that I find myself going back to, other than works from the legendary J Dilla and MF Doom. Knxwledge is good friends and a frequent collaborator with Anderson .Paak (in the form of NxWorries). Here we get Anderson to grace us with his presence on the track “itkanbe[sonice]”, and of course it sounds just like an authentic vintage soul sample. When I hear this collection of songs it makes me wish I still had a car, so I could inevitably damage my speakers listening to this.

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Start With: “dont be afraid” or “thats allwekando.”

Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa  |  Pop, R&B, Funk, Disco Released: March 27, 2020 Best Album For... Alarming Your Pet With Your Enthusiastic Lip Syncing

This album is a pure sugar rush. Like Bruno Mars with the help of Mark Ronson, or Calvin Harris a few years ago, Dua has harnessed a nostalgia (it’s even in the title, wink) for disco, funk and R&B, and is instantly a sexy, catchy, not-so-guilty pleasure. It’s sad that the majority of these songs are all bonafide club hits that didn’t have a proper home this year … except for my living room. And hopefully yours.

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Start With: “Pretty Please” or “Future Nostalgia”

Hold Space For Me by Orion Sun  |  Alternative R&B and Hip-Hop Released: March 27, 2020

Best Album For... Wishing Frank Ocean Was Your Dad

“Alternative R&B” is a contentious term, but what else would you call one of a few R&B singers cool enough to make it onto (NYC indie darlings) Mom+Pop Records?? On one hand, she brings the vulnerable and introverted lyrics of an indie singer songwriter like Tracey Chapman, crossed with the raw presence and sweet melodic delivery of a true R&B star like Aaliyah. I’d even go far enough to refer to her as the musical stepchild of Frank Ocean and SZA.

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Start With: “Ne Me Quitte Pass (Don’t Leave Me)” or “Lightning”

You and Your Friends by Peach Pit  |  Indie Rock and Dream Pop Released: April 3, 2020

Best Album For... Going Back To Your College Town To Crash A Party

Peach Pit seem like they would be cool dudes to hang out with. You have no problem picturing them as the band playing a house show in an indie movie about college kids. And that’s because there’s a familiarity to the scenes that their songs portray, of stumbling through your 20s, either being too dumb or having too much fun to notice. It’s funny to refer to this as “Indie” rock since this is Peach Pit’s major label debut with Columbia Records. But It has all the trappings of Indie; sticky melodies, gentle reverb, an “I’m not trying that hard” vibe, and lyrics that are oddly specific enough to be interesting, but still vague enough to be relatable.

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Start With: “Feelin’ Low (Fuckboy Blues)” or “Shampoo Bottles”

Heaven To a Tortured Mind by Yves Tumor  |  Psych Rock, Indie Pop, Post-Punk, Alternative R&B, Experimental Electronic Released: April 3, 2020

Best Album For... Tearing Up The Fucking Dance Floor With Your Hot Robot Girlfriend

If Tyler the Creator, Alex G, King Krule, and Blood Orange all got into the studio together and dropped a shit ton of acid on Halloween, their recording session might sound something like Heaven To a Tortured Mind… And even then, you still might have trouble putting your finger on exactly what you’re hearing. “Dream Palette” is a good reference track for Tumor’s most wild and mesmerizing qualities. The biggest styles of the past half century of music have been loaded into this gleefully effective genre blender, with blades of dissonance slicing everything up, creating a surrealist sonic smoothie.

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Start With: “Super Stars” or “Dream Palette”

The New Abnormal by The Strokes  |  Indie Rock, Dirtbag Disco, Synth Pop Released: April 10, 2020

Best Album For... Mixing Yourself Another Drink This Saturday Night

Back from the dead, The Strokes return with their first album in 7 years to turn some heads and settle back into some old habits. The charming messy haired garage rock of the early 2000s still pops up here and there, but this is really a record where the group is mature enough to show you that they actually are trying, and are unafraid to take joyous swings for the fences. Julian Casablancas pushes his scratchy alley cat yelp of a voice into something more vulnerable, sunny, and sweet, like he asked for a piña colada (you know, with one of those little umbrellas) instead of a double shot of scotch before hopping up on stage… Or maybe he did both. But these days, everyone is looking for some sort of break from our groundhog day lives any way that we can. Sometimes that sounds like selling out, or depending on how you look at it, stepping up. This album is the result of a group of old friends who got together to make music they simply want to make for themselves. Now far removed from the 2000s New York scene where their younger selves were acting too cool and disaffected to care about having fun.

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Start With: “Eternal Summer” or “The Adults Are Talking”

The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser  |  Indie Rock and Alternative Country Released: April 10, 2020

Best Album For... Drinking Down At The Docks, Watching The Sun Set

While I am a fan of The Walkmen, I have no idea what their frontman Hamilton Leithauser looks like or how he dresses. But hearing these songs off of his latest solo, I imagine the following: a member of Mumford and Sons if they were edgy and cooler, giving off a “cowboy rocker meets depression-era dock worker” aesthetic. That’s exactly how his music comes off to me. It’s a convincing blend of blues rock, Americana, and old timey country music. All expertly narrated by dusty country guitars and standup bass, tarnished horns and flutes, and what I imagine to be a restored saloon piano. The Loves of Your Life originally started as a collection of short stories, each about characters based on both people he knew and strangers. Leithauser then wrote the music separately, and finally came to mix and match their parts together in a surprisingly convincing fashion to create the album.

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Start With: “Wack Jack” or “Cross-Sound Ferry (Walk-On Ticket)”

What Kinda Music by Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes  |  Neo-Soul, Electronic, Hip-Hop

Released: April 24, 2020

Best Album For... Cooking For Someone You’re In Love With

Exactly what kind of music do Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes make? It’s orchestral, it’s jazz-infused, it’s hip-hop beats joined with gentle soul. It’s a little sexy, it’s a little mysterious, and you’re going to want to listen to it a whole lot. That’s it. That’s what kind of music it is! Send tweet. 

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Start With: “What Kinda Music” or “Storm Before The Calm”

Petals For Armor by Hayley Williams  |  Electronic Pop and Art Rock Released: May 8, 2020

Best Album For... Browsing Depop for Your Next 80s Normcore ‘Fit

Hayley, Hayley, Hayley. You are too good for this wretched world!! After exploring more adventurous sounds and genre hopping over the last few Paramore records, Hayley decided to go out on her own. This really frees herself from the expectations that come along with being the face and heart of a wildly popular band for the last 15+ years. Thom Yorke fans rejoice, because Hayley Williams has a clear admiration for Radiohead’s haunting indie electronic vibe, while emoting some pain and darkness atop her love for 80s pop and art rock (think Genesis, Devo, The Talking Heads). This is a promising new avenue for Hayley to explore herself and process her pain and desire completely on her own. I see this new project of hers only blooming further from here.

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Start With: “Simmer” or “Sudden Desire” 

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately by Perfume Genius  |  Indie Pop and Art Rock Released: May 15, 2020

Best Album For... Daydreaming That You Were Somewhere Else

For his 5th studio album, Perfume Genius enlists production wizard and guitar god Blake Mills, along with Grammy Award-winning arranger and multi-instrumentalist Rob Moose to create a beautiful swirling mosaic of 80s pastel pop that also packs serious classic rock grandeur. Bass guitar dances between satin smooth lines on one song to churning distorted currents on the next. Sparkling string arrangements and organs bleed together to expose a fading sunset that you’ll want to try and hold in your hands to keep it in sight. Perfume Genius is unafraid to challenge traditional masculinity, packing a 21st century queer machismo into both the quiet moments and jubilant explosions.

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Start With: “Without You” or “Describe”

græ by Moses Sumney  |  Indie Pop, Art Rock, Neo-Soul, Psychic Folk Released: May 15, 2020

Best Album For... Astral Projection 101 

I mean this in the best way possible, but I think that Moses Sumney is a witch. Or maybe a wizard? There’s no other reasonable explanation for the level of creativity and wonder that he summons. This album feels like a private concert by a waterfall (similar to one on the cover), with ethereal pleas, and heavy ideas—like meditating on what lies beyond the constraints of the physical self and reconsidering how well we can actually trust memory and the mind. Sumney layers his voice to create the effect of a ghostly choir, accented by a stark intimidating falsetto that reverberates through the ruins of an abandoned temple where Sumney is the only one in attendance.

Spotify      Apple Music      YouTube      Pandora  

Start With: “Cut Me” or “Polly”

WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD by Nick Hakim  |  Psychedelic Neo-Soul Released: May 15, 2020

Best Album For... Playing Pool in a Hazy Dive Bar

Nick Hakim is a silky smooth smokey crooner who paints with warbly piano loops, dreamy reverb-heavy guitar, boom bap beats—not to mention a falsetto that would make Smokey Robinson jealous. Clearly a fan of Motown and 60s jazz, Hakim could be considered a peer of Thunder Cat and Anderson .Paak’s to a degree. I remember seeing him perform at Music Hall of Williamsburg a few years ago. The performance ended with him falling down on stage (presumably from being under the influence of multiple substances). But while the song continued he popped back up and belted an impressive high note like it was nothing, drink in hand. And it’s that kind of messy beauty that also makes this album so engrossing. Like watching the eye of the storm get closer and closer, but unable to look away from the sheer magnetism that nature can wield.

Spotify      Apple Music      YouTube      Pandora  Start With: “All THESE CHANGES” or “ALL THESE INSTRUMENTS”

RTJ4 by Run The Jewels  |  Hip-Hop Released: June 3, 2020

Best Album For... Making Your Next Protest Sign

Run The Jewels’ fourth outing might be the most unapologetically angry rap album in the “fuck this” year of 2020. And it reminded me that I should absolutely still be furious about everything that happened during this groundbreaking yet terrifyingly familiar year: country wide protests over the continued murder of innocent black people at the hands of the police, government drone strikes and detaining kids in cages, the state of our environment worsening—and that’s not even addressing the pandemic or election. Killer Mike and El-P are here to scream from the rooftops that our current system of cutthroat capitalism and white supremacy is killing the planet and its inhabitants, and I’m glad that they’re using their platform to continue to sound the alarm.

Spotify      Apple Music      YouTube      Pandora  

Start With: “out of sight” or “ooh la la”

Your Hero Is Not Dead by Westerman  |  New Wave Revival and Indie Pop Released: June 5, 2020 Best Album For... Wanting Your Old School MTV

The cover of Westerman’s first proper album is mostly black and white, except for the title, which is scrawled out in lettering which spans the Crayola color spectrum. It’s an album that on the surface is cold and buttoned up, but when these choruses open up, the maximalist 80s power pop bursts like the bulbs of a neon sign. There’s a level of even-keeled cool and confidence in small moments on display here that makes this relatively new artist seem well beyond his years. Having seen him play at Rough Trade a few years ago (opening up for the stellar Puma Blue), the songwriting growth on display on this record is impressive. I’m only sad that there wasn’t an opportunity to have seen him play these new songs live.

Spotify      Apple Music      YouTube      Pandora 

Start With: “Easy Money” or “Confirmation (SSBD)” 

Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers  |  Indie Rock and Alternative Country Released: June 18, 2020

Best Album For... Burning Incense and Breaking Out a Ouija Board to Talk to The Ghost of Your Former Self

This is without a doubt, a career defining release for Phoebe. Taking everything she’s learned from writing, performing, and touring with the likes of Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker (in boygenius), and Conor Oberst (in Better Oblivion Community Center), Bridgers levels up to become the truly prolific singer-songwriter she’s been telling us she would always be. Bridgers has explained her personal definition of “a punisher” as a well meaning person who’s, “just talking to you and they don’t realize that your eyes are glazed over and you’re trying to escape.” Vital to understanding this album and its central message is that Phoebe finds herself caught between the contradiction of falling victim to this phenomenon while also doing it herself, especially if she ever met her musical idol, Elliott Smith. Punisher serves as a warning to her audience that if you focus too much on trying to find yourself through other people (via escaping through fandom, drugs, toxic relationships), you’ll always feel lost and dissatisfied, without the proper self awareness to ever quite know why. 

Spotify      Apple Music      YouTube      Pandora  

Start With: “Garden Song” or “ICU”

Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM  |  Rock, Pop, Folk, R&B Released: June 26, 2020

Best Album For... Preparing For A Better 2021, lol 

With this album, HAIM skyrocketed to the #1 position of family bands that start with an “H.” Sorry, Hanson! But seriously, HAIM has outdone themselves on this one. If there was one album from this list that I would dub my personal AOTY, this would be it. You might wince at any tracklist longer than 10-12 songs these days (I know I usually do), but almost every song proves itself worthy, pulling at a different thread of my heart until there’s nothing left. Sunshine State Beach Pop? Check. Blues Tinged Dad Rock? Yup! Dive Bar Country? Mmhmm! No, wait, what’s that you say, Glitched-Out R&B? Yes, yes, and yes. You can have it all, sister! ‘Cause when you’re Haim, you’re family! ;) And these three “women in music” continue to prove that they are just about the best Assorted Pop Rocks(™) act in the world right now.

Spotify      Apple Music      YouTube      Pandora  

Start With: “I’ve Been Down” or “Don’t Wanna”

Lianne La Havas by Lianne La Havas  |  Neo-Soul and Indie Pop Released: July 17, 2020

Best Album For... Sipping Coffee and Journaling on a Weekend Morning

This album exudes a warm vulnerability, like a comforting hug we all needed this year. On her third album, Lianne La Havas makes the risky decision to self title it, a move that artists make when they believe that it is the piece of work that they most want most directly associated with their name. It’s one thing to name your first album after yourself if you can’t think of anything else at the time, but to make a self titled album in the middle of your career, it means that you are sure about having captured who you really are and who you want people to remember you as. “If I love myself, I know I can't be no one else,” La Havas admits on the standout track, “Paper Thin.” She knows that she will meet her destiny and reach self actualization, but only through self love. And finally, I cannot overstate how breathtaking La Havas’s voice comes across on this album. The strength and control on display in her vocal tone and vibrato is quite a spectacle. 

Spotify      Apple Music     YouTube      Pandora  

Start With: “Paper Thin” or “Sour Flower”

Limbo by Aminé  |  Hip-Hop and R&B Released: August 7, 2020

Best Album For... Trying and Get Over Kanye With

On Limbo, Aminé establishes himself as one of the torchbearers of soul-sampling, lyrics-driven hip-hop that still cares about storytelling, skits, and presenting vocals clearly. Kanye West, Drake, and J. Cole all paved the way for someone from the next generation like Aminé to keep the dream alive and avoid succumbing to the “feel good, don’t think” form of passive listening that mumble rap has made the standard for mainstream hip-hop.

Spotify      Apple Music     YouTube      Pandora  

Start With: “Pressure In My Palms” or “My Reality”

Shore by Fleet Foxes  |  Folk and Indie Rock Released: September 22, 2020

Best Album For... Running Along The Beach With Your Arms Stretched Out

It was really kind of Robin Pecknold and co. to have released an album this triumphant, calming, and awe-inspiring during the year of our Lorde 2020. On behalf of myself and anyone else who suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder, the SAD people of the world really needed this, man. And to anyone who is quick to judge these beard-o’s of being boring, you’re simply not using your ears properly. Yeah, you know those two things on either side of your head? Get the gunk out of them! That way you’ll hear the choir of angels with acoustic guitars who are here to guide us through quarantine and beyond. 

Spotify      Apple Music      YouTube      Pandora 

Start With: “Can I Believe You” or “A Long Way Past The Past” 

Listen to all of these albums together in our playlist.

[queerchoicesblog]

Family, Somehow (RoD, Mona & Ximena, Friendship)

This is my entry for the amazing #RODAW hosted by my wonderful friends @brightpinkpeppercorn @choicesarehard (among many others!). I decided to write a fanfic about an aspect of the story that is not really shown in the original book.

You know me, I'm all in for female solidarity/sisterhood stories so here you go: a work dedicated to Mona and Ximena friendship! Hope you like it!

Day 7 RoD Appreciation Week

Song Inspiration: Count On Me - Bruno Mars

Word Count: 2300

Perma Tag: @brightpinkpeppercorn @melodyofgraves @bhavf @abunchofbadchoices @silverhawkenzie @begging-for-kamilah @kennaxval @strangerofbraidwood @crazypeanat @desiree-0816 @universallypizzataco

Ximena Tag: @boneandfur @bobasheebaby @psychopathdreamer21

_________________________

Mona didn't join the Mercy Park Crew to make friends. It was just a temporary thing and she didn't need anyone, she thought: she wasn't a sentimental weakling, she was strong enough on her own. And she had learned better than to trust people, especially so-called friends and girlfriends.

Ximena never expected to see Kaneko recruit another girl in the gang. He did in the past and it didn't go well so she ended up being the only female member of the crew for years. It was fine, she was used to be around boys: most of her siblings were brothers. Yet sometimes she missed the female comradery she couldn't have with Logan or the nerdy goofball Toby.

That's why she rejoiced seeing Kaneko walking into the garage one day with a mysterious girl in a leather jacket in tow.

A mysterious new girl who tensed up in a defensive stance when X. towered over her from her height. Mona rolled her eyes ready for a petty catfight to show the "rival" that she wasn't interested in putting on a fight for bullshit like that when...her feet left the floor.

"What the fuck is-"

The giant had lifted her from the ground in a bone-crushing hug. Mona tried to free herself but the other girl was strong, she gave her that.

"Hey you, put me down now!" she protested, hating to feel at disadvantage.

"Hulk", as she identified her at a first glance, laughed and did her she said. Back to the ground, Mona resisted the urge to rub her own elbows and crossed her arms.

"What the fuck was that?"

A genuine smile appeared on X.'s lips as she shrugged and mimed her stance.

"Just giving you a proper welcome in our humble abode, sis. That's how I do it. Oh, I'm Ximena, by the way, what's your name, tough girl?"

Mona gave her a perplexed look and told her name before walking past her groaning. What's next? We braid each other hair and made friendship bracelets? Wonderful.

Later she missed those hugs. Or X. saving the last breakfast burrito for her no matter how cold she was because "sisters before misters", she would say winking before going back to her previous chore. Or bantering with the guys. Against all odds, Mona had to admit to herself that...it was fun to see. That X. was hilarious and definitely knew how to pull the best pranks.

And how to play pool, even if the Lebanese girl played in another league. They won all the matches and rematches when Toby and Logan challenged them one night when work was lazy. Later when the boys were drunkenly arguing with each other trying to prove who was the weak link, the girls chatted and Mona found out that X. had been a tattoo-artist and still tattooed every now and then.

"See Toby? Those tats are my doing" she explained pointing at Toby, who was now gesticulating and shouting buzzed nonsenses to an equally buzzed Logan.

What Ximena didn't expect was to hear the new icy girl asking her to tat her too.

"I have a couple of ideas for new tats and you seem pretty badass at it. I pay, obviously. How much?" she said, drowning her glass of vodka.

Ximena blinked.

"Nothing? We're pals?"

"Pals?" the Lebanese girl repeated, furrowing her brows as if X. suddenly switched to a foreign language she had never heard of.

"Well, crewmates? On the same side?"

"So what?"

Two black eyes met hers. The new girl was pretty tough to crack and slow to get it so X. chuckled and circled her arm around Mona's shoulder.

"So you buy breakfast, I tat you and that's all. Huh huh, don't make me give you my infamous side looks, honey. You don't wanna mess with me"

And so she did. Mona bought donuts and milkshakes and X. tattooed her left arm. Then her hip and her back. As the Lebanese girl was forced not to move and sit there with her for a while, Ximena learned that she was secretive about her past, but also rather talkative at times and observant as well. She knew a lot of things about cars and seemed genuinely curious to know why X. chose to go hybrid with her SUV. And listened carefully when she explained that you can hit the road and respect environment at the same time. Her younger sister talked her into watching that program by a girl called Emerald or something like that and it was eye-opening. So she decided to buy a green car, even if it earned her a few skeptical looks from the boss at first.

She had stopped to check the result of her work when Mona turned her head slightly and commented:

"You know, I was surprised too, not gonna lie...but it shows you care. You care for something more than this underground life. It's refreshing to see and I respect you for that"

Mona slowly started to be less grumpy with Ximena, provoking a new wave of teasing from the guys. But there were no romantic feelings involved, luckily: Mona wasn't looking for that and X. too probably. They were too busy or hurt, they just surprisingly enjoyed each other company. And they had each other back. It took a lot to Mona to allow anyone else helping her patching her wounds after a fight. She hated the whole getting medications and feeling like crap for days when some rival scumbag sent you flying or was quicker than you and gave you a harsher taste of your own medicine. She hated feeling the helpless girl she once was -or so she thought- but X. wouldn't accept no as an answer. And there was no judgment or disappointment in her tired eyes when she stood beside the couch where Mona crawled to with bandages and painkillers.

So, after protesting in vain, Mona let the kind female "Hulk" taking care of her. She secretly envied and admired at the same time Ximena: she looked invincible. Balanced, the "momma of the gang" checking on everyone and brightening the mood whenever things got rough. She worked hard and was one of the most skilled drivers the Lebanese girl had ever met. She looked like nothing could grind her down: always a smile for everyone, even if just a tired one or a kind word as if the criminal world she lived in hadn't hardened her as it usually happens. What was her secret?, she wondered.

She was lost in such thoughts as one day she walked to the garage with a stack of beers under her arm. She noticed Ximena's silhouette from afar and waved at her with her free hand but she didn't see her. The young woman was sitting on the sidewalk's edge and was talking to the phone or so it seemed. Mona made a mental note to tease her about that later but as soon as she moved closer she realized that...X. was crying? She froze for a moment, unsure of what to do then unceremoniously rushing to the kitchen and placing the beer right into a half-asleep Logan's arms and speeding back to sit beside Ximena.

Recalling what her friend would do if she was in her place, she tentatively snaked an arm around X.' broad muscled and now unexpectedly shivering shoulder and stayed there in silence. After a moment, X. told her that one of her little brothers didn't come back to school that day, it had been hours and he was still nowhere to be found. The other siblings went searching for him but couldn't find him and it was getting dark...what if someone kidnapped him?

"What if a creep found him? Or if someone found out I work for Kaneko, someone who holds a grudge to him or him and they...they-"

Before she knew it, she helped X. to her feet and lead her to her car, not giving a damn to the boss protests because they were gonna sit down and discuss their next mission. She started the engine and drove the two of them past the gang and the MPC hideout to hit the road at full speed: they had to find that little guy, it was all that mattered now.

And they did it luckily. They found his bike scattered at the side of a street near a park out his usual itinerary. The boy was covered with scratches because he had a pretty bad fall when a car hit him pushing him off the road as he was just following the ice cream truck. "I only wanted ice cream, X., I swear, I didn't mean to be bad" he said between tears. As soon as they spotted him, Ximena jumped off the car and ran to him to pull him into her strong arms, sobbing and peppering his head with kisses. Mona's heart tightened a little as she watched the scene from her car: X. checking any sign of bad wounds and then cradling Xavier into one of her hugs as she whispered Spanish words into his ear. Her Spanish was bad but she made out something that sounded like "I'll get you the biggest ice cream, sweetheart, I promise". So, barely recognizing herself, she cleared her voice and said:

"Hey, I...I think I saw the truck on our way here. Like one block away. We can still get one if you're okay...kiddo?"

The little guy looked at her and flashed a shy smile before cautiously freeing from X.'s arms to show that he could stand despite the scratches. He turned to X. silently asking for permission then when she nodded he smiled a bit brighter and went gathering his backpack. Mona moved to collect the broken bike, considering they could fix it at the garage...and when her eyes finally met her friend's again, there were still tears in her eyes as she mouthed "thank you".

As the three of them were sitting on another sidewalk edge later, X. called her siblings to reassure them as she made funny faces to Xavier who was covering his nose with the extra whipped cream he excitedly asked for. The Lebanese girl found herself thinking that the little guy was lucky to have a sister like Ximena. All of her siblings were and she hoped they knew it. A melancholic smile crossed her face as she added: wish I had a sister like her too. God knows, maybe my life would have been completely different.

Mona never expected to care so much. Ximena didn't think she would find a good friend in the Lebanese girl.

Years later, when the man who made them meet was dead and the crew they both worked in dismantled, the two young women sat side by side in the front seats of Ximena's SUV outside the penitentiary where Mona was sent after The Brotherhood arrests. When she got the news of her former colleague's release, X. knew what to do: she took a day off her new tattoo-artist job and called Toby, Logan and Colt to set a surprise welcome home party. Then, when the time came, she hopped on her car and drove all the way to the jail building. By the look on her face when she spotted her, her friend was relieved to see her but also shocked, suspicious maybe. As if the time spent in jail made her go back to her hardened tough self she met once.

Before she started the engine to drive the two of them back home, Mona stopped her and asked, her voice unusually tense, uncertain:

"We clearly said no contact, no meetings after the gang dissolved. Yet you came visiting, you're here picking me up today...why are you doing this, X.?"

Ximena sighed and shrugged.

"Because you're...family, somehow, M.. And that's what a family does, I guess"

Mona was taken aback by that answer, even though deep down she knew X. was saying the truth. It was just...oddly sentimental to hear it out loud. From X., who always did everything she could to make her own troubled family stick together against all odds. From anyone to her, Mona. A girl who made a stubborn oath to herself not to rely on anyone else but herself because people, ties...they always find a way to hurt you. A girl who left her family behind to start a new dangerous life in underground crime. A girl who...was no longer an orphan on the run?

That last thought spread a familiar yet almost forgotten warmth inside Mona's chest as if someone rescued in the middle of a storm and laid down a cover over the shivering shoulders. She would probably have to keep running again -it was in her own blood, maybe- but right now, she could stop and cuddle up in that cover that had the shape of X's ever reassuring smile.

Mona mirrored it and nodded.

"Somehow" she repeated, slowly as if to make the feeling linger and adjust to it.

Then she grinned widely and changed the topic: the heart-to-heart moment lasted lone enough for her taste and started making her uncomfortable. Better to go back to good old comradery.

"You know what, X.? I would kill for a bowl of those greasy chicken wings we used to get. With extra BBQ sauce-"

"...and chili and that middle eastern sauce with an impossible name because 'why settle with just one when you can get the full package'."

Mona gaped at her friend who interrupted her quoting her own words. X. was pretty amused by that reaction because she laughed and winked at her, finally starting the engine.

"Fasten your seatbelt, girl. You're lucky good ol' X. got your back"

[gldngrl7]

Binge Rewatch: Numb3rs

Part of the reason I decided to binge rewatch Numb3ers is because I mentally checked out during its final, shortened season. Probably because I was watching something new and shinier.

Bingeing sometimes helps me see things I didn’t recognize on original week-by-week viewing. Here’s some thoughts:

Charlie & Amita: are probably one of the best portrayed romances I’ve seen on television . They give you just enough flirty-flirt, with a smidge of will-they-won’t-they and then put them together. Then they’re just together and the whole show doesn’t fall apart. Also she’s never just the love interest. Oftentimes she’s the lynchpin to solving the case, her own computer and combinatorics skills not just adding to Charlie’s skills but complementing them. Relationship drama comes from within not without. Will her Indian parents accept him? Should his father move out of Charlie’s house once she moves in? They NEVER broke up and there was NEVER a (serious) love triangle. Refreshing.

Larry Fleinhart: far and away my favorite character and the show was slightly lesser during those periods when Larry would get his wanderlust on. Larry was always so philosophical and conveniently insightful that I often wondered he wasn’t meant to be a deity-type character. God living life among mere mortals for the sheer fun of it all, occasionally throughout the generations needing reminding that’s there’s still some good down here — even amongst all the bad. He always had the right thing to say at the right time in a way that, on binge-watch, seems supernatural. And Peter MacNicol portrayed him with delightful nerd charm that made me want to protect him all costs. The ending of the romance between Larry and Meghan when actress Dianne Farr left the show broke my heart because it was beautiful.

I loved that they consistently showed that Agent Liz Warner recalled Charlie’s mathematical applications over time — even going so far as to suggest using a previous application to solve the current problem. She was his best student.

Fun fact: Dylan Bruno, who played math challenged Agent Colby Granger, graduated with a degree in engineering from MIT. David Krumholz, who played Charlie Eppes (boy genius) was notoriously bad at math in real life.

Some of Don Eppes’ character arcs felt a little flat because they hyper-focused on his career while simultaneously trying to make him seem like he was more than just his career. In the finale he asks his girlfriend robin to marry him. But they worked so hard to make sure his own romance take over the whole that it seemed downright deprioritized. Sonin the end it felt like two people getting engaged not because of any great passion , or even because they have so much in common (he’s religious, she’s not) but simply because they are always in each other’s circle. So...they’ll probably be together until death do them part. But meh.

The true love story in this show is obviously the relationship between Don and Charlie. Though five years apart in age, they graduated high school the same year. Don was an athletic baseball player somehow living in the shadow of his genius younger brother. Charlie hero-worshipped his brother who always seemed to be trying to get as far away from him as possible. Don purposely asked the girl Charlie had a crush on to prom. When we meet them years later, their mother had fairly recently passed away and they are barely on speaking terms and have a non-existent relationship. Charlie becomes a consultant to Don’s FBI team and over the years often sacrifices opportunities to continue working with Don. In one beautiful scene where they’re in a joint therapy session Charlie admits, “I love working with my brother”, which allows Don to admit the same. By the end, you know that these two are bonded for life by more than just blood.

I love that this show presents a genius who is emotionally and socially functional without sacrificing his nerdiness.

Hey! women can be smart too!

I love that they recognize Charlie’s limits by utilizing others when needed; like Charlie’s rival who specializes in deep set theory (Colin Hanks), a genetics specialist, Larry’s physics and cosmology knowledge and others

As expected with most shows set in LA, they play fast and loose with the nature of time versus traffic.

This is a show I would love to see revived for a season - just to see them all come together again and see where they all are now. Charlie & Amita and their four kids (one set of twins, obvi). Don and Robin with their one, carefully planned, totally adored child who is now exhibiting signs of mathematical genius (like her uncle Charlie). Allen happily living in the renovated garage and loving being a grandpa. Or maybe he remarried. Don is now the SAC and Liz is running his old unit with Nikki as her 2IC.

[mybiasisexo]

Ohh I love Drabbles!! How about 61 & 63 with junmyeon?

DRABBLE GAME 🎤

MASTERLIST

It was odd.

Seeing Kim Junmyeon, the quiet nerdy boy from your senior economics class sat between your friends, Chanyeol and Xiumin.

You and your friends were the rougher bunch at school. Some would even go as far as to label your group a gang.

You weren’t. But appreciated the reputation nonetheless.

It made Junmyeon’s presence all the more peculiar.

He was definitely the outcast. Dressed in a while turtleneck sweater and iron pressed khakis, his clunky glasses sitting low on his nose.

Despite his appearance, there was something about him that garnered your attention. Something about him that made you feel safe for once in your life.

You had no idea what you guys were. You just knew that lately you’ve gotten quite used to his presence. It was unmistakable how close you two had grown ever since he was forced to tutor you in economics, one of the many classes you were currently failing.

He caught your eye and smiled comfortingly.

You couldn’t help but smile back, being affected by the small gesture. He was aware of your current nerves, aware of your hesitance at introducing him to your friends, and that was his way of letting you know he was okay.

He had insisted on tagging along, wanting to spend more time with you. You immediately turned him down, knowing your friends weren’t the most welcoming, especially of someone of Junmyeon’s class, but he was persistent. You humored him, humored his confidence and brought him out to the karaoke bar you spent most of your free time in. For some odd reason, your friends loved to sing and were all very good at it, which was how the bar ended up being the main hangout spot.

Your phone buzzed. Checking it, you saw a text from Jongdae, asking for a ride. You glanced at Junmyeon, who was chatting up Baekhyun, before replying a quick ‘on my way’.

“Hey,” you said, gaining Junmyeon’s attention. “I have to go pick someone up. Do you want to come with?”

He shook his head immediately. “I think I’ll stay here. I’m up next.”

“Are you sure?” You asked, your nerves coming back.

He nodded in affirmation. “Be safe.”

With that you left. Leaving Junmyeon unsupervised worried you, but you trusted your friends enough not to give him too much of a hard time.

Twenty minutes later, you arrived with Jongdae in tow and was surprised to say the least at what you walked into.

Junmyeon was singing with Baekhyun, the two giving their all as they belted out an old ballad. Their voices suited each other nicely and they fed off the other well.

The rest of the guys were cheering them on, some even lost in the beauty of their performance. You caught sight of the pile of Soju bottles in the corner of the room, a few of them open, and could only guess what went down in your absence.

Once the song ended, everyone cheered—yourself included.

Junmyeon bowed graciously and as he stood straight he found you. He greeted you with a warm hug that left you blushing as the rest of the boys teased you in the background.

“You’re back!” He cheered, face red as he beamed down at you. He was beautiful, that was something you couldn’t deny. You could get lost in his beauty for hours if he allowed, but right now you were too preoccupied on the slurring of his words.

“Kim Junmyeon, are you drunk?” You asked teasingly.

He giggled in reply, nodding childishly as another song began to play.

It was Treasure by Bruno Mars, one of Jongdae’s go to’s.

Junmyeon gasped excitedly. “It’s our song!”

It was most definitely not your song. Never had you listened to it in Junmyeon’s presence, but that didn’t stop him from snatching your hand, dragging you over to a patch of floor that was secluded. He pulled you close, sliding one of his arms around your waist as he lead you into a slow dance that clashed heavily with the uptempo track. You laughed at how ridiculous the whole situation was, yet you were enjoying yourself. Being in his arms was calming. A wave of content settled over you as you finally lost yourself in his stare, which he returned steadily.

“Your friends like me,” he revealed with a pleased smile.

“That’s good, right?” You asked.

His arm tightened around you, holding you flush against himself. He dipped his head down, resting it against the crook of your neck. “I think so.”

You both kept dancing in a slow circle as Jongdae kept singing, serenading your blooming love, and you thought that maybe this would be your song after all.