#why you gotta do me like this cel

[no1ryomafan]

Cel animation is that thing I use to hate as a kid bc my stupid child brain didn’t like the fact all old Animes or cartoons looked the same until I actually bothered to watch so many old shows to really appreciate it. How even if you can tell they’re all painted, that they all can have unique art styles but also the fact “wait someone had to draw this frame by frame on fucking paper?? Holy shit” And it is a absolute shame because of the tediousness and cost this genre gave its now gone completely.

It’s so sad it can’t be a genre like pixel art in games, where it’s considered outdated as no triple A games do it anymore but is still being kept alive through various indie developers. Cel animation simply because it’s on paper we won’t ever see many projects ever do this unless they are overly ambitious or really wanting to capture an old era. The only thing we have is cuphead and I appreciate it without playing it-I should but it looks hard as fuck💀-but I wish at LEAST we’d get more things where people would animate something digitally but use filtering techniques to make it look like Cel. Which is a thing, apparently for whatever reason The Simpsons tried to hide the fact they switched to digital for a bit so they used certain techniques to still come off as if it was Cel, even if certain things in the animation broke the illusion a bit.

And does this method have the same exact effect as Cel? No, you can still tell it’s digital by small details unless it’s pulled off super well. But is it less costly and more of the way the genre of older animation could come back without the project taking fucking years? Absolutely.

[rrenzwrld]

mama’s baby, daddy’s maybe

in which connie is a famous basketball player who has a secret baby with his best friend

final part! :( here’s what i listened to while i wrote and WARNING! it may or may not make you feel emotions idk.. read part 6 here! (the playlist only had like 10 songs but i just kept putting them on repeat so..)

tags: @beautifulalienslimecroissant @iikatsukii @neptunes1nterweb @yourrfavzxri @prettypink-princesss @nvvacanesworld @atinystaypixie @getoscrybaby

After the game last week, Connie didn’t even bother to call or text at any point. Naturally, I didn’t know if I should’ve been worried or angered. Even through the new week and into the start of the weekend, it was as if Connie had fell off the face of the earth.

“I think you should pull up.” Layla suggested. Of course she’d say that because she also found this just as fishy as I did.

“I don’t even know where he lives..”

“Oh we can find out. Call Armin.”

“No! Armin can’t solve all our issues, Lay. What if he’s mad at me?”

Layla raised a brow. “Armin?”

“No, Connie.”

“Oh, girl.. I dunno, I mean you didn’t do anything right?”

“No! I thought we were cool but he’s not answering my calls or texts so I don’t know what I did.” My voice hitched onto the loose tears that tempted to roll down my cheeks. I was starting to think we were building the relationship we once had again but everything was falling back just how I expected. Did he know? Was that why he was ignoring me?

“Bitch..” Layla snatched my phone from my hands. “I’m finna text him myself cause’ this is ridiculous.. got you cryin and shit.”

I reached forward to grab it from her. “Lay—“ The phone vibrated in her hands with a call from Connie.

“Speak of the devil. Saved his own ass..” She gave me the phone so I could answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hey.” His tone was steady and firm, which made me shake with overflowing nerves.

“I been texting and calling you—“

“I know.”

“So you been ignoring me on purpose?” The worry had subsided and anger consumed me. “For a fuckin week Connie?”

“I’m not in the mood for your attitude right now, Chy’anne. I need you to come over so we can talk.”

“You blow me off for a fuckin week and you think imma do what you say like I’m your bitch? What is there to talk about?”

“Celest.” He knew. But how did he know? Who told him?

“Cel..Celest?”

“I’ll text you the address.” He hung up without saying another word. And I couldn’t bring myself to say another word after that.

“He knows.. don’t he?” I just stared at the phone whilst everything inside me crumbled like cement towers.

I bit down on my lips. “He wants… I gotta go to..” I could hardly get my words together. “He wants me to go over there.”

Layla stood up from the chair at the island. “Need me to go with you?” Luckily Celest was at my mom’s house so Layla could’ve went but I spoke against it.

I shook my head. “No, I’ll go by myself.

“Got the address?” I nodded.

“Good. Send it to me so I know if I need to bust a cap inna nigga’s ass.” Her comment made me laugh a little.

“Okay, I’ll be back. If you leave, lock up.”

I put in the address and started on my way. Of course he lived up in the rich people community so it was a while a way from the inner city or any other normal neighborhoods. When I got there, I thought I had to pass by a gate but it opened automatically to my car which was weird. His driveway covered the entire front of his front yard but it was occupied with a bunch of other foreign cars. I didn’t know if they were his or if other people were guests. But it obviously wasn’t the time to examine his house.

Connie let me in without words as we walked over to what looked to be a den or living area and sat down on a soft black velvet sectional. I couldn’t even meet his eyes because I knew they were full of something other than the happiness or joy that they’ve been full of all this time.

“I know the baby’s mine, Chy’anne.” I finally looked up at him now though. “I just wanna know why.”

“..Why—“

“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was calm but he didn’t have to yell or raise it for me to know he was hurt.

I bit on the inside of my cheek as I fiddled with my thumbs.

“You don’t hear me talkin to you?” I stayed quiet but not by choice. I had stuff I wanted to say, I had stuff I wanted to scream, I had stuff I wanted to pour out to him but there was something stuck in my throat that I couldn’t choke up no matter how hard I wanted to.

“Hm?” He used his finger and thumb to raise my head to his. I turned away to look back down. I was afraid that what I might say next would push him away farther than before but maybe he just really wanted to know the truth, nothing more. I did owe that to him. “Chy’anne?”

“I was scared..” I mumbled.

“Fuck, you know I don’t do that mumbling shit—“

“I was scared, okay?” He moved back a bit. “I was..” My voice cracked and I was starting to cry again. “I kept her from you because I was scared. Scared of losing you, scared of ruining your dream, scared of you abandoning her, scared of.. everything.” I knew I had his attention when he didn’t respond immediately after that so I just kept going.

“When we had sex, I thought it’d ruin or friendship forever and when I found out I was pregnant right before you went to the draft, I knew that would be even worse. I knew that if I..” The tears rolled so fast, my hands couldn’t keep up. “I knew that if I told you that I was pregnant, you wouldn’t have got on that plane to California. You would’ve wanted to stay here and you would’ve never did what you wanted to do. I couldn’t let you do that. I couldn’t let you miss out on a dream you’ve had for years because of me.”

“Chy—“ He reached out for my hands.

“And I felt bad because everyone knew but you.” His face was unreadable now.

“What?” He was standing up now and I felt things would go left.

“Connie—“

“Fuck you mean everyone knew but me? I should’ve known—“

“You couldn’t know, Connie! If you knew, you wouldn’t have all this and you’d be sittin right up there with me, stuck. I couldn’t sit and watch that happen to you.”

His chest heaved up and down in heavy breaths of frustration. “Who knew..”

“Your family, my family, everyone. They knew what would happen.” He couldn’t fake the sadness or betrayal that was etched into his face. Nor could he stop the tears that escaped his hazel eyes.

“I could’ve helped you, Chy’anne. I could’ve been there.” He sat back down and threw his head into his open hands as he cried freely. “Feel like a fuckin failure..” I forcefully pulled his hands from his face.

“No no no, don’t say that. You deserve all that you have. You earned it, be proud.” I tried smiling at him through my stained cheeks but he didn’t respond to my words. I brushed a hand under his chin so he faced me. God, was he beautiful.. “I’m proud of you, Connie.”

His eyes wandered mine before he pulled me into his chest, softly cradling my head. “M’sorry.” My heart broke as I heard the tremble in his voice. “Sorry I wasn’t there, sorry I let you go, I—“ I shushed him. My arms wrapped around his back as we sank into each other, molding together like lost puzzle pieces.

“I love you.” He spoke again. “So much..”

“I love you too, Connie.” My eyes closed automatically, his touch feeling familiar to my fingertips. “I’ll never leave you again, promise.” He chuckled against my shoulder before pulling his body from mine but his hand still lingered on my cheek.

“C-Can I do something?” My head tilted.

“Hm?”

“Can I kiss you?.. Please?” My lips upturned into a smile before I nodded, allowing him to pull them into his. Kissing him felt natural and this time, it didn’t feel wrong. Being with him this time felt right, it felt just right.

the end :( anyways! i hope you enjoyed this small rollercoaster with connie and chy’anne and feel free to lmk if you want more of them in lil oneshots or something! i felt like i could’ve added more but for this to be the last part, i really didn’t wanna make it too long for y’all. but thank you for reading this series and the comments, likes, and the reblogs reallyyy mean a lot to me <3 i appreciate the support + luv yall fr🥹

[noa-de-cajou]

Day 22 : Long distance/say goodbye

Celyan belongs to @thal-ent

____

“... What the fuck.”

“Well, hello to you too, Cel.”

“It’s seven in the morning, Cyane. Couldn’t you call me, like, an hour later?”

Aaah, the half-asleep, full-asshole greeting. My favorite. Celyan really hates it when I call them early. Well, it's already evening for me, so, let them suck on it. And I don't mean my dick.

“Well someone needs to get your horrendous sleeping schedule back on track.”

“And it sure as hell ain’t going to be you,” they groan. “Is being on the other side of the globe fucking with your head? It’s empty enough as it is.”

Heh. They know they're the only one who can actually make it empty. I hear shuffling sounds on the other side of the call, they must be getting their glasses. I guess they can’t put the camera on, which sucks ass because I kinda miss their sleepy face.

... I’m never saying that out loud.

“Nah, Jakarta’s nice enough. Just… You know, super rainy. It's messing up my hair.”

“Yeah, saw that on TV.”

“... You watched ?”

A silence.

“No. Just happened to see it on screen at the bar yesterday.”

Yeah, right. A texan bar broadcasting an indonesian program about politics. Let's pretend it’s plausible.

“Uhuh. You liked it?”

“Didn’t understand shit, even if the questions were in english.”

“I'll explain it to you later then.”

“Were they difficult? The questions they asked you.”

“Well, kinda? They were a bit wary about having an american politologist talk about their system, which, is, you know, fair. But I handled it fine, I think?”

“Sure hope so. Even if it would be hilarious to watch you mess up in front of the entire indonesian nation.”

“Ha, ha, very funny. I’m telling you, people are good to me here.”

“You going to stay there for a few months more then?”

Urgh. I knew this was gonna come up. This is why I called in the first place.

“No, but… I got an offer to go to New-Zealand after this, and, uh, I couldn't really pass it up. So I… won’t be in the US for Christmas. Or New Year’s.”

There’s a brief silence on the other side of the phone. With Celyan, it feels like hours.

“Your dad isn't going to like that.”

… Yeah. My dad. Of course.

“He already knows. He’s a bit sad but he knows that’s a good opportunity for me.”

“Sure sounds like it.”

Their voice feels really dry for some reason. It’s always dry tho. More or less. Just more than less right now. No use worrying about it, right?

“But I'll be back shortly after. Like… Second week of january. And I'll come by your apartment so we can, you know, catch up.”

“More like you want me to get your balls back to their original color.”

“Ha! And what if I do?”

“I’ll make you beg for it, you know, the usual.”

“Pft, like I'm the one who's going to beg! Anyways, I'll keep in touch about the dates.”

“You have the keys. Why bother telling me when you get there?”

“Wow. And here I thought you’d have enough tact to come pick me up.”

“Strategic error on your part.”

“I admit.”

I look at the time. Almost 8pm already. Shit. I’m supposed to go meet some people for dinner. But I don't wanna leave the call. But I have to. But I don't wanna.

“... I… kinda have to go, Cel.”

“Did the hotel catch fire?”

“No but my stomach is screaming and I have plans. Well. If you're not working when I get back.”

“I’ll make it work. And I'll put the camera on, if you behave well enough.”

“Bastard.”

“You want me so bad.”

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

“I really gotta go now. See you later?”

“Yeah. See you later, sunshine.”

The call hangs up as my heart jumps. Nearly thirteen years and still that damned nickname has the same effect on me than when they used it the first time. I just hide it better.

I should probably get ready.

…

My room feels really empty all of a sudden.

Can’t wait to go back home.

[vidreview]

VIDREV: "Why Did Link's Cel Shading Disappear?" by Jasper

[originally posted december 2nd 2022]

when i was in college, i worked in the oklahoma film industry for a few years as a grip-electric swing. in simplest terms, an electrician sets up the lights and a grip shapes the light. the swing's job is to, naturally, swing between both departments depending on what they need. this gave me an intimate understanding of all the ways a set is fictionalized by skilled workers so that it might appear real on screen. that experience colors much of how i approach creative work both practically and critically, because i very much dislike how the labors of so many talented technicians are conglomerated to one of a handful of names on the poster. there is an art to carving light into a proper shape. you can spend hours lighting a room just to make it look like night. it's not easy and it's not automatic. it is exactingly technical work that requires measurement and precision (if you want to do it right).

i say all this to say that video games are impossible. you can't just write some random symbols and numbers and then seriously expect me to believe that creates an immersive triple-a gaming experience. how do they do that? how does a horizon zero dawn exist? math is the devil's playground. my nvidia gtx 3070ti is the apple of eve, and i partake with reckless abandon on a daily basis (especially now that the associated credit card debt is almost paid off). it's sorcery is what it is, and i will never understand it. those wizards whose tongues have been trained to fork in C++, fingers long and spindly with wretched computational vigor, are sinners in the eyes of god, and i have nothing but respect for the thankless work they do to create the vile abominations we all know and love.

this video, nominally about an obscure graphical glitch in the legend of zelda: breath of the wild, did not convince me that video games are "real" as such. but it did give me a momentary glimpse of what it would be like to be a me who, instead of working in film, had worked in video games. i felt for a second like i had a real appreciation for the kind of labor that goes into making a game, beyond the popular imaginary of "some folks sit at computers and type." i don't think i've ever appreciated just how ruinously complex even the simplest of digital visual expressions can be to produce in real-time, and i appreciate how patiently Jasper lays it all out. i may be a digital native of the world wide web from the age of aol instant messenger, but i'm still a poetry animal who has to do basic math on her cloven hooves. talk slow and i'll get it, but you gotta talk slow.

i understand some things about how various mediums treat the film frame. celluloid is a physical surface with depth, a lumaphilic topography of the universe as visible to a piece of glass. digital sensors, however, capture raw signal data and either store it in RAW files or process it through the manufacturer's proprietary algorithm to create a suitable recreation of the universe as visible to a piece of glass. i just think it's interesting. i like to understand the rote physical processes which produce the raw materials of art, and i find it endlessly fascinating that the constituent parts of a medium are so often the realm of highly skilled technicians, and yet the final product is somehow produced by an artist who is not necessarily expected to know a single solitary thing about those processes. think of taika waititi just sorta casually throwing cgi effects artists under the bus in a press video for the bad thor sequel he didn't want to make. i know he knows a lot about the technical production of cinema because he's been a hands-on guy his whole career, and by all accounts he seems to care a lot about his crew (often making sure maori and indigenous film workers are on set and getting real experience). alas, solidarity is an elusive quality even among the decent ones.

besides having an interesting premise with a surprising amount of depth, this video reminded me that in games as well as movies, nothing you see is an accident. also light is magic no matter what medium it's captured in. anyway it's a good video and you should watch it

[astronomic727]

Ngl I've been feeling a bit burnt out for a while, so I figured this may be a good time for me to start periodically posting old stuff from my Instagram and Twitter accounts that I've moved on from. There will of course be new drawings/posts in between too! Just gotta recharge is all. I guess for a bit of insight, and also story time I suppose, for the past few months I've been having driving lessons and I had my test a few days ago. Thankfully, I managed to pass but I think the stress of the journey coupled with pushing two videos out a week apart, and everything else that had happened in those months took some sort of toll on me overtime. So yeah, not taking a break or anything per say, just will be posting old stuff more often so it's all archived somewhere, and to take pressure off feeling the need to upload something here and there. With these old doodle dumps I'm also probably gonna give some insight into how I feel about them from an artistic standpoint. I may have not much to say, or I may have a lot, who knows lol. Anyway to begin with the stuff in this post, it's all fairly recent. Some were Insta posts, others were Insta stories. We have Via messing with a cranky Kayleigh, the sister's parents when they were young adults (Evelyn is dirty from working on her motorbike, and Vance is working towards his degree in Astronomy), sleepy Via helping Kayleigh get ready for school, young Via and Orion, and the duo again but in 2 memes lol For how I feel about these, it's complicated... this technically goes for like most doodles I've done up to now too, but I'm not fully satisfied. I'm happy with my full illustrations, but I feel as though my doodles miss the mark. It's like a weird perfectionist mental block or something, these are only meant to be sketches but it takes me forever to do them for some reason, and also (what is probably the reason why it takes so long) that along the way my sketch lines somehow turn into lines of line art quality. But I feel this over cleanliness sucks the soul out of my doodles and makes them feel flat. More recently to combat this, I've tried to give slight shading to these doodles whether it be cel or gradient shaded, like the Fortnite or Streetview meme posts I did, but I feel like I need to embrace sketchiness more, for both time saving sake and for appeal. Maybe I also need to do some experimenting with new brushes too, idk. Maybe I'm being overdramatic lol but that's just how I've felt for a long time, and just felt like getting it off my chest. Anyhoo, enough rambling... boy, you thought I had a lot to say here? Just wait till we get to the older stuff lmao, but anyway, I'll ponder on these thoughts, but see you all until then :)

[featureenvyproductions]

FINALLY finished the art for the pages of ch 28 of music of my heart. Now I gotta figure out where my revised script is. So close to having the main shit done for book 4......So this is what's on the horizon

-book 4 of this

-print volume 2 of eyan eternal (obviously all the main stuff exists and has for a while....just working out the bonus content. Which is......not easy when I feel like the emotional equivalent of Plain Toast all day every day.)

-unnamed animation project (but ej why did you start another project BECAUSE NO SCHOOL WILL TEACH ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW SO LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE ON THIS INSUFFERABLE EARTH I HAVE TO FIGURE IT OUT MY GODDAMN SELF AND I FULL WELL PLAN TO,,,,,I'm not saying it's going to be GOOD but I'm going to DO IT ANYWAY.....as with all things you have to get all the shit out of your system so the good things can come out of your hands. They're in there somewhere you just have to dump all the garbage first....it's probably like comics right....I didn't make eyan eternal without shitting out 20+ years worth of absolute cringe first). Anyway I bought a giant stack of acetate cels so now I have no excuse

[aroaceofthesea]

Anyways a bit of a recap of my life these last few weeks bc its crazy how much stuff ive done what do you mean its only the 14th of july it feels like summer should be ending soon and ive been very inactive on here:

Starting with sant joan lol (aka 24th of june) some friends came over and we hadnt really seen each other in a couple years (like yes but not really really like it was always super awkward but it was super cool this time😋😋)

Then the next day when they left one of my best friends came home too :) he was at the town next to mine and we spent the afternoon together :)

Then we did diving classes with my mom and also some family friends im now an open water diver that was pretty random ngl

Then after like. 2 days. chilling with just my mom (my sister was like 100% of the day every day with some friends that were around) some friends from a summer camp i did last year came over😋😋

They spent like 4 days i loved every day ngl we played cards a lot we went to the beach we did so many things how did we have time to play mao so much thats crazy lol (also so many crazy rules @ ppl that i know irl i have so many great rules to add when we play again weve gotta do iit)

When they left it was sad :( but i had no time to mope bc i had exactly 15 minutes at home so i kust took a shower and then went with another friend to canet rock (catalan music festival) it was super coool :) had the opportunity to see oques grasses live again♠️🪿 (though they didnt play bancals😭😭 one of my fave songs ever)(they have too many epic songs to play them all they need an extra hour at least ngl) anyways it was crazy loved almost all of it (not miki nuñez why did they put that guy in there) and yeah it was super cool

Then i went home arrived at like 9:15 am and proceeded to sleep almost 25h until 10 am the next day im told i missed a sushi lunch with family friends :(

The next day some friends were like who avalon :) so ofc i was like meee (usually during summer im not in the city but i was that say so ofc i was like i gotta go) (just so you gt an idea i couldnt talk like at all like half my sentences were whispered bc i had lost my voice at the festival and that game is like. you gotta talk or why are you playing lol) anyways luckily they guy i had gone with to the festival was also there and also couldnt talk so at least i wasnt alone😅😅

Then i was going back home and on the way home i met one of my only remaining childhood friends lol she went with me to elementary school (or idk what you call it until 6th grade whatever) and plays the trumpet with me and we spend a lot of the summer together and it was nice to see her she had also gone to that festival (its a very very popular festival and ppl my age could go basically for free so a lot of ppl went) and also had no voice lol but it was nice to see her

Then with my parents we went and had a pizza :)

Then i spent the week in barcelona (were talking about this week already) and tuesday a friend came over bc hes from outside but had a play in barcelona like every night that week (he plays the trombone hes reaaally good) so we spent the mornings together and then the afternoons he went there (i wish i could go they were playing with fucking dagoll dagom (catalan company that made famous musicals in catalan like mar i cel and they are closing the company this year😢😢) like hoow i wanna go😭😭)

Then friday i went to my summer home and there were my mom and also that friends brother and father lol so anyway weve spent the weekend together and it was rlly fun

And also like i was looking for cool concerts around here this summer bc festa major concerts are just 🔝🔝 you get to see your fave groups for free and like even if they are pretty popular when it isnt in a big town or a very well connected one maybe you have 100 or 200 ppl to very known bands like its crazy anyway i was checking (using the very efficient method of looking where each concert of each group was and putting it on google maps) and i was getting kinda depressed bc there werent any of the bands i like most and then i was like ok whatever lets check buhos AND THERE WAS ONE YESTERDAY (THE DAY I WAS LOOKING) AT LIKE 20 MINS so obviously we went and like even though i was basically alone (bc the guy i was with is like 14 and he knew some friends that were also close and went too so he spent most of the time with them and i didnt have any friends close) it was a buhos concert so obviously it was super cool also rlly cool bc they are like one of the only bands i like that didnt play at the festival from last week so rlly cool that ive gone to concerts of all my fave bands in just a week i love this (also i was like. 3 meters away from where the tahirt they threw fell😭😭 i wanted a buhos supporter tshirt thats sad)

OH ALSO yesterday too we went to the beach and we played volleyball with random ppl and it had been a whilr since we did that bc they usually see my sister who is very good and they are intimidated but my sister wasnt there so ppl kept coming and asking us to play (we have a net which is like telling ppl pls comee if youre less than like 7 or 8 ppl) and it was rlly fun (even though that one guy was very very annoying but the rest were rlly nice lol)

So yeah now you know basically everything about my life the last 3 weeks

[hellmasterphibrizo]

Copied/pasted survey thingamibob

weird asks because i’m bored

if you have a lighter, what color is it? You know I think I have one kicking around here somewhere back when my friend wanted to have a bonfire but I have no idea where it went...

pepsi box blue or cheetos bag orange? Blue

do you like pasta? I like pasta *too much*

how often are you on tumblr? Daily

are you only doing this because you’re bored? Of course

what blogs do you mostly interact with? I don't really interact with anyone, just reblog

can you swim? Nope

have you had water today? Yup

which do you prefer, cotton candy or funnel cake? Cake

have you ever [insert question]? n/a

bass or drums? Man, you can't choose between those, you need them both

favorite tv commercial? Uhhh...

can we be friends? No because I stole this off a stranger

do you admire the clouds and color of the sky? Yes but I hate that tumblr post when I'm on mobile because you can't skip it

what’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to you? Can't really think of one specific thing

a netflix series that’s your favorite? I had Netflix waaaaay back when I used my Wii to watch it I mostly watched nature documentaries

an earliest obsession you remember? probably Mario Bros

do you play video games? Yup

zombies or vampires? All undead are amazing

have you listened to [insert musician/band]? N/A

your first celebrity crush? I don't think I ever really had any

do you have a collection of cool rocks? Somewhere

five words that describe you? Meh, pass

what have you learned about yourself? More pass

can you tie a cherry stem with your tongue? I doubt it

do you believe in aliens? Yes, I technically am one

books or films? Books

an unusual song that’s your favorite? if it's catchy I'll like it

the last thing you ate? Ice cream

do you have a favorite [insert question]? n/a

have you gotten bit by a dog? Yes

do you write better with a pen or a pencil? It doesn't matter

a song that gets stuck in your head? ALL OF THEM

when you hear “ peace ” what do you think of? I will get a song with the word "peace" stuck in my head. This time it's "Give Peace A Chance."

a school subject your good with? English, which apparently you were not. (it's "you're"). I also did very well in Biology.

how many alarms do you have set? just the one on my phone on work days

do you shop at thrift stores? not often

what’s the meaning behind your url? It's me

is there wise words you live by? Not really

what’s your favorite [insert question]? N/A

you gotta have a favorite beatles song, what is it? You expect me to pick only one? They have lots of good ones

earphones or a speaker? Earphones (RIP my hearing)

what do you remember from your childhood? Uh, a lot?

do you collect anything? used to collect cels, back to Monster High dolls now

favorite tea? I don't like tea, but I like the spicy that comes with chai in like, the vanilla frappe at McDonald's if that counts

a christmas song you secretly like? I don't like any, nor secretly. If you make me choose a Christmas song I'm going to say either a heavy metal cover like Psychostick's or Trans Siberian Orchestra's

book stores or record stores? Why not both?

how weird were these questions? Eh

what scents do you like? Vanilla, citrus

is there [insert question]? N/A

[theradioghost]

so @vfdbeatrice is inexpressibly talented (at breaking my heart) and came up with the most amazing AU?? part one, probably

It’s not that Nureyev doesn’t understand how he was found. He hasn’t changed his patterns, his habits, because as far as he is concerned, Juno had made it abundantly clear that he would not be looking for him. So why bother? After all, Juno Steel is the only person in the galaxy left alive who had learned enough in those months on Mars to track him down.

Nothing else has changed. It had almost been enough to let him pretend that he hasn’t changed, either. Back to the old ways; skipping from planet to planet, stopping just long enough to rifle through a pocket, to slip into a locked case, to wine and dine, then smash and grab. New names, new minds, and if these ones were plastered over a new kind of tiredness, then only he noticed, and he tried his very hardest not to. And he is very, very good at making himself disappear.

And yet, here is the proof, inescapable as it could possibly be: Juno Steel, standing in the doorway of Nureyev’s hotel room, soaked to the skin, looking about as pleased to be there as Nureyev is to see him. Juno Steel – not, as Nureyev has believed he would always remain, on dry, icy Mars, in that city he belonged to more than he’d ever belonged to Nureyev, but here on stormy, tropical Laocoon, deep within the inner reaches of the Orion Arm. Here, again, within arm’s reach. And that name on his lips (only his; never mine; never mine again. Let him have it, him and Brahma. For one a curse, for the other – well, maybe the same. Maybe a souvenir. It wasn’t Nureyev’s concern).

He doesn’t look good. He looks thin, haggard. He wears a glass eye now, which surprises Nureyev; from Juno, he almost would have expected the drama of an eyepatch, though evidently he’d been ostentatious enough to choose one of a color conspicuously paler than the dark brown, near-black, of his own eye. It doesn’t make him look any less eerie, less half-dead-on-his-feet, less like a ghost.

He breaks the silence. “Nureyev.”

Nureyev is not in the mood. (He is. He wants to be. He doesn’t know what he wants. This is a new experience for him.) “If you like.”

Juno moves a little – impatient? Anxious? Unsure? “Listen, I need to…” He lets out a breath. “There’s something I need to tell you. That’s why I’m here.”

Conflicting emotions, says the part of Nureyev’s mind that takes over when things go wrong, that goes smooth and composed and finds a way out. Fear. Excitement (either could be what is pushing his heart rate through the roof). Anguish (the memory of waking, of the silence in that room). And a cold anger, which, unlike the others, he can use.

“I’m afraid it’s not going to be quite that simple, Steel,” he says, turning away, moving further into the room, away from Juno.

Nureyev can feel Juno hesitating, uncertain, behind him. “Nureyev –”

“No, I still want to hear it,” Nureyev says, cutting him off. “Go on. Grovel. Do your best to explain what you did. I want to hear what you have to say.”

There’s a long silence. Too long. And then he says, “Nureyev, I –”

His voice chokes, and he stops for a moment. Nureyev waits. And then Juno says something that really, truly does surprise him.

“That’s not why I came.”

The cold feeling washes over him.

“Of course.” Nureyev’s voice comes out sharp, tight, with knives in it. He can make himself turn around now, look at Juno impassively, coolly. If this isn’t an affair of love, then it’s work. And Nureyev is nothing if not good at compartmentalizing. “Well, then, I think you’d better get down to business, and tell me why. It must be quite something, to have brought you all the way out here.”

Juno takes a deep breath, and his whole body shakes. (That body, pressed against mine in Miasma’s cells, in the Triad’s back rooms, in his apartment, in that hotel, shaking underneath me–)

“Someone recognized you,” he says.

Bad news. The worst news, Nureyev once would have thought. “How?”

“The Kanagawa streams.” Juno, too, is brisk now, speaking in clipped tones. “Some doc that made its way to the Outer Rim, months late, about Cassie’s arrest. They saw you, and they knew who you were. Your name, your real name.”

The Outer Rim. “Brahma?”

“No.” His voice falters again, and something flickers over his face that is too quick for Nureyev to place – anger? Pain? He never did quite puzzle out the mystery of Juno Steel, and he can’t decipher him now. “No, it’s – surprisingly, no. No. Nova Alexandria.”

“That’s a trading hub. Anyone there could be from anywhere. It doesn’t tell me who’s looking for me.” Nureyev pauses. “How do you know about this? If they were putting it about that an AWOL Dark Matters agent was Brahma’s most wanted, I’d have heard.”

“No,” Juno repeats (I wish, just once, he would give me a yes, and mean it). His voice drops, and finally, he takes another shaky step into the room. The door shuts on the outside world, and it’s just the two of them, alone. “They came to me to ask who you were. Since I was with you in the video. It’s a lot easier to track me down, I guess.”

The pieces begin to fall into place, though they’re hardly landing in a pattern that quiets the maelstrom inside of Nureyev. Of course. How very like Juno. Whatever his feelings about Nureyev, when he became involved, he felt compelled to come and tell the thief that his anonymity was threatened.

At least that means he doesn’t hate me.

But why leave, then? The response to himself, acidic. If his feelings amount to concern, but not love, why not say something?

“I hope you were careful,” Nureyev says, affecting nonchalance, pretending not to be thrown by him. “Your coming to warn me doesn’t do me much good if you were followed here.”

“They didn’t follow me,” Juno says.

“You sound very certain.”

“She didn’t just ask questions,” Juno says, and Nureyev noted the change in pronouns – they could have been an individual, but also could have been a group, a corporation, a government, a deliberately distancing choice. But she had to be a someone. “She hired me to find you.”

“Of course. You’re the only person in the galaxy who could. You took the job to distract her?”

Silence again. An eternity of silence.

“Nureyev,” Juno says, “I felt I owed it to you. After what –”

“After what you did, you made it perfectly clear that there are no debts between us, Juno.” He can’t deal with it anymore, not with this. “I gave you the offer, didn’t I? If you wanted, we parted ways. No questions asked, no return policy, no looking back. And you made it eminently clear what you wanted, in the most – well, the most you possible fashion, didn’t you?”

Juno flinches at these words, putting a blaze of sick satisfaction in Nureyev’s heart, as well as a knife of regret.

Then something snaps.

Steel crosses the room in a heartbeat, ending only inches away from Nureyev, anger burning in his remaining true eye. “Damn it, Nureyev, do you think I want this? Do you think I – ” His voice breaks, and he swallows. “I can’t do that right now, Nureyev. Maybe that’s a conversation we’re gonna have to have now. Maybe it was always gonna happen. Maybe we’re just meant to keep circling this stupid event horizon until one or both of us falls in. Maybe it’s fate. Maybe it’s karma, making me pay up for what I did to you, because I’m not going to pretend that that was – that I don’t – shit, I don’t care what it is anymore. But yeah, I felt like I owed this to you, because whether either of us likes it or not, this got dumped into my hands, and I’m the only person who can do anything about it. I’m the only person who can give you this chance.”

He swallows, and Nureyev can almost feel the air move around his throat. They are close, too close, and Juno must know it, but he doesn’t move away.

“For anyone else,” he says, “I would have done what you said. Taken the job, spun some lies.”

“Good to know I mean so much to you.”

“Not anyone but you,” he says. “Anyone but her.”

“Who is she, then? This mysterious client for whom you’ll go so above and beyond?” The words are bitter, maybe even jealous, but it isn’t as though Nureyev cares at this point. He doesn’t care if he hurts Juno, if Juno has betrayed him, if it ends here.

Juno goes still, and then, finally, he pulls away, just a few inches. “Nureyev,” he says, “I think she’s your sister.”

[earthstellar]

In the G1 episode “Trans-Europe Express”, we are given this incredible map of the Europa 2000 race.

Now, I don’t often call out animation fuck-ups, especially not relatively minor ones or one-off errors; Especially in the 80s, it’s just a fact of the way these shows got made that you’re going to have errors at a much higher incidence rate than any modern animation, for a lot of different reasons.

But I love this map. LMAO 

Spelling Words Good, or Not: Language is, in fact, difficult

I don’t know which element of it is my favourite; I like how the slight shadow on the misspelled “I” in “Ciech” seems to suggest that it was spelled another way before they rubbed it out on the cel and then wrote over it with another letter.

Which means that there is a non-zero chance that at some point, it may have been spelled at least somewhat more correctly, but then made incorrect in someone’s self-doubt around their spelling skills.

Special shout out to “Rumania”, which historically was actually a correct spelling of Romania in English for quite a while-- Just not in the 80s when they were making the show! :’)

I can understand having a hard time trying to draw an outline of Europe if you have about 15 seconds to get a cel done and just have to put it through to get the show made, but the spelling is something that could have likely been checked in a dictionary or encyclopaedia (this was the 80s, so no Wikipedia yet) fairly easily-- But that’s assuming they had one nearby, and had the time to mess with it if they did. 

(I’m aware that some studios/individuals did have a stray dictionary floating around in order to help check English words that needed to be added to background elements like store signs etc., but not all studios did this, and who knows what the situation was when this map had to be made.)

To be fair, it is worth noting that the letters themselves are legible, and although I can’t remember which animation studio handled this episode specifically, they are absolutely writing letters that they may not be super familiar with writing out, so I definitely give this some points for being fairly easy to read, errors and spacing issues aside. (It’s hard to write in a language you may not be all that familiar with, using a writing system that is very different from your native language!) 

The rubbed out “I” shadow in “Ciech” also tells me that someone was at least trying and considered it long enough to try to fix it/doubt their spelling, so there was effort here. It’s just unfortunate that the end result is somewhat chaotic, but I do respect that someone at least sort of tried! 

Time Constraints: Much like the race itself, they gotta goooo

I think the biggest issue here was most likely some kind of extreme time constraint in getting this done, because this feels more rushed than actually half-assed to me (the shadow on that “I” tells me there was at least an attempt made, lmao, I have to believe that someone was genuinely trying to get this right), but the end result inevitably gives the same feeling as someone drawing a map on a napkin for a tourist quickly while standing on the curb outside a café.

That having been said, this map is a shit show, and I love it.

I like to think that this map was made by a spectator of the race for a non-local friend of theirs so that they could have a general idea of what the race route is, which would explain why it looks like a napkin map and why the country names are all in English. 

I have to say, I also loved the mixed capital cases on “BuLGAliA”.

The “Switz” crammed into the tiny space but then “Albania” being fully spelled out and just written across borders is also extremely funny to me, for some reason.

Regardless of anything, this had to get made at lightning speed and it was only intended to be on screen for a few seconds, so that’s worth keeping in mind; At a very brief glance, a kid who has never been to Europe and has no understanding of geography would probably take this at face value without any issues at all, and G1 was a toy advertisement for children, after all. Kids in Europe may have very well gotten a good laugh at this, so it might be one of those errors that ends up being win/win. 

But I love this map so much. Just look at it. Hell yeah. 

Geography is Probably Important to Note Here: History Matters 

Also, for those less familiar with European geography, it’s worth noting that this episode went into production in 1984/85, so maps of this region might look a liiiiiittle bit different nowadays compared to the mid-80s, lmao. 

For comparison, here is a map of Europe circa the 1960s, which still isn’t the mid-80s, but for some reason this is the best map I could find that isn’t hyperfocused around one sub-region or the other and it’s generally more accurate to the mid-80s compared to a map from today: 

So they had the general idea more or less right, it’s just that the Europa 2000 map is what happens when you don’t give animators enough time to fully reference stuff! (Or even enough time to trace an actual map outline.) 

Anyway, Tumblr crashed on me twice while I was trying to make this post, so I’m leaving it here-- But shout out to those of you who live on or near the Europa 2000 race route! :) <3 

[happy-peppermint]

ok so i do commercial salmon fishing, right? and i was thinking during this fishing season about what positions rqg characters would have as part of a set-net gill net salmon-fishing crew so i present

RQG Player Characters’ Positions in an Alaskan Salmon Fishing Crew

First a few definitions:

Lead line = picks most of the fish (picking fish = getting fish out of the net by detangling them, pulling out of net, etc.) doesn’t require a lot of physical strength, but requires good problem-solving skills and dexterity

Cork line = keeps the boat going straight and pulls the boat along the net using the help of hydraulic rollers (or without the help of hydraulic rollers if you don’t have ‘em, but is a Lot more physically taxing without) still picks a few fish but not Nearly as many

Picking from shore: wait until the net goes dry (the tide goes out so that the net can be waded to) and picks fish then. harder than picking on a boat, but more relaxing/ less intense usually though it does take longer since you’ve gotta wait for the tide to go out

Zolf: Captain. Owns the set-net operation and it was passed down to him from his dad (this is a pretty common thing that happens). Been picking fish most of his life, therefore really good at it. Usually on the lead line. Prefers picking on the boat bc he’s a bit short, so has to wait longer to wade out and pick fish than someone taller. Main cook and makes a Damn good goulash

Sasha: Lead line. She’s an absolute natural at picking fish, despite not doing it growing up. Tbh, I think she’d use a fish pick (a metal hook sorta thing) instead of her hands bc it would remind her of thieves’ tools

Bertie: Cork line. Strong and I don’t think he could pick a fish to save his life. Also he’d fucking Hate fishing. Minimal access to non-canned food, living in a lil cabin without running water and electricity? Lil shit would die upon entering an outhouse I think, and it would be funny.

Hamid: Would also have a hard time adjusting, similar to Bertie, but I think he’d be Slightly less insufferable about it. Would try to argue to sleep more and not go out on tides at 2am. Regarding boat placement, the middle guy on the leads or floater watch I think, mostly bc I feel like he’d be sorta useless on corks. Middle guy on leads picks the least fish on the leads bc standing between 2 other people. Floater watch = watching for rotting fish that have been caught in the net so you can avoid them getting on the boat and stinking it up.

Cel: Interchangeable between leads and corks. They have the dexterity and smarts to be able to pick fish alright, and also are physically strong enough to be able to do corks so long as they aren’t the only one there or it’s a nice day. Also would spend most of their free time working on projects around camp, and would probably be the main person driving the atv on-shore to deliver fish. Oooo bc they’re tall, also would be Great picking from shore. I think Cel would have an absolute Blast

Azu: Corkline, but prefers picking from shore. Idk why she gives me that vibe. Would have named the ATV and be, along with Cel, one of the main people to go to the cannery to refill the water

Grizzop: Terrifies everyone while picking from shore because he somehow goes almost to the top of his waders but has yet to get wet (waders are like waterproof overalls with boots attached to them. the kind we use go up to mid way up your torso). That being said, he strikes me as corkline leadlike neutral (works ok with both, but not superb with either), but prefers lead line. Just going off of vibes tbh

if people want, I can make a part 2 with NPCs

[camodielsart]

Hi Cam, been a while; hope you're doing ok.

Anyways, have you gotten around to watching the Cuphead Show? The art style needs some getting used to (if you haven't watched it yet) but the comedic timing is amazing. If you have, though, who's your favorite character and why?

( fhaeoiaehsf sorry for taking so long)

i love the cuphead show!! the little details like the shadows behind every character to simulate them being on cels is a very nice touch. the style reminds me of ren and stimpy, which I wish more cartoons did that kind of bright and colorful style. it's very eye catching and expressive. and I also agree with the comedic timing. my friend and I quote the baby bottle too often than we should haha

and for my fave character, it's gotta be the devil, cuz he's so extra XD and also a dumbass pfff

[mypoisonedvine]

Love, Theoretically | Sebastian Stan x reader (Chapter 7)

(chapter 1) (chapter 2) (chapter 3) (chapter 4) (chapter 5) (chapter 6)

series summary: having lost your husband, sister, and best friend all to the same extramarital affair, you ran away to a secluded villa in the Hungarian countryside to write and get a little time away from the life you’d left behind.  you were only looking for peace and perhaps some inspiration for your novel, but instead you found an unlikely connection with the immigrant repairman-- even though the two of you don’t speak the same language.

word count: almost 3k?

warnings: slight breeding kink (but only if you speak romanian aksjghakgjhg), angst, violence (in the form of a fistfight, which the reader isn’t involved in)

Just as you always did, you woke up to sunlight streaming in through the lace curtains, and a cool breeze blowing by.  What was peculiar was Sebastian next to you, sleeping peacefully as his chest rose and fell with relaxed breaths.  You let yourself watch him for a moment before you decided to try to sneak out for a cup of coffee.  Problem was, the bed was sort of creaky and it was very difficult to move without making sound.  Your plan was to move as slowly as possible, keeping your weight evenly distributed over the mattress, and it worked rather well— right until the last second, of course, when a loud shift of the boxsprings beneath you made Sebastian stir and blink open his eyes.

You were about to apologize for waking him, but he grinned and slipped his arms around you, bringing you back to where you started and surrounding your body with his warm, muscular form.

“Bună dimineata,” he hummed as he pulled you closer, his voice even deeper and more gravelly than normal.

“Bună dimineata,” you did your best to repeat it back, making him smile even though your pronunciation wasn’t great.  “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” he replied softly, heavily accented and clearly more a recreation of the sounds you’d made than real English, but still intelligible and so painfully adorable as well.  “A fost uimitor aseară.”

“Last night…” you began, but you didn’t even know where to begin.  What could you possibly say about that?  Would it even matter, if he can’t understand it.  “God, you’re fucking amazing,” you blurted out with a soft laugh.

“Sa o facem din nou,” he growled as he pulled you closer and kissed you, slipping his tongue into your mouth instantly.  A more self-conscious you— as in, you yesterday— would’ve worried about morning breath, but you now couldn’t taste anything but him and couldn’t feel anything but his lips on yours and couldn’t do anything but weave your fingers into his hair.

You moaned when his kisses trailed down your neck, and you wanted nothing more than to melt into his body one more time, but you had other things to attend to.

“I need to get up,” you announced as you tried to escape from his grasp, but he held you tighter and brushed his lips over your shoulder.

“Nu, nu, nu te dice,” he cooed, making you laugh and squirm.  “Stai in pat, fă dragoste cu mine toata ziuă.”

“I have to get up, I’ll be right back,” you tried to explain but he stayed ever vigilant as he held you tight and licked over the shell of your ear.  Finally you managed to get him to stop, as much as you didn’t really want him to, allowing you to slip out from under the covers and find your robe where it had been discarded on the floor.  

He watched you as you crossed the room and popped into the bathroom for your bag, pulling your birth control pack out of it and using a handful of tap water to wash down your morning pill.  “Ah,” Sebastian seemed to have a realization from the bed, and you giggled.

“Told you it was important,” you grinned.

“Probabil cel mai bine să nu ai un copil cu un străin,” he nodded, “dar nu sunt sigur că m-ar fi deranjat atât de mult dacă te-aș fi însărcinat.”

Following suit, he stretched briefly before getting out of bed and searching for his discarded jeans and boxers.  You made no effort to hide your ogling as you watched his cock swing between his legs.  Even soft it was thick enough that you couldn’t figure how it ever fit inside you (the delightful soreness between your legs reminded you that it was no easy feat).  He took note of your staring and grinned devilishly, leaning against the wall to give you a better look.  “Îți place ce vezi?” he purred.

“Should’ve known this would all go straight to your ego,” you chuckled.  “I’m gonna go downstairs for some coffee.  Do you want some?  Cafea?”

“Da,” he nodded, as he slipped his clothes back on, “mulțumesc.”  Funny how his idea of getting dressed still left him half-naked.

Foolishly, you expected him to let you pass, since you were both going to benefit from your trip to the kitchen; but of course he had to slip his arms around you from behind and give you just one more embrace, making you sigh and relax your head back against his shoulder.  He kissed the top of your head and you hummed happily, letting your eyes open to look up at him before taking a moment to look out the window you happened to be standing right beside.

You were just hoping to appreciate the countryside scenery, meaning that you were rather shocked and confused to see a car pulling up.  When it stopped and the driver stepped out, your eyes went wide and your back suddenly straightened itself.

“...Michael?” you gasped.  You wrenched yourself out of Sebastian’s grasp and started to run down the stairs.  He called after you but you ignored it.

Barreling down the stairs and out the door, you found your husband walking up the driveway.

“Honey,” he frowned when he saw you, “I’ve been trying to find you since you left— what the hell is going on?  Why are you wearing a robe?”

“It’s hardly nine in the morning,” you defended before you realized there were much bigger topics at hand: “Michael, what are you doing here?” you asked, after a few seconds of confused stuttering.

“I’m taking you home!” he replied, as if it were obvious.

“Oh my god,” you groaned, “don’t play stupid.  Do you think I’ve been here against my will, or by accident or something?”

“No, I saw your letter,” he sighed.

“And you saw the part where I said not to look for me, and that all future communication would come through my lawyer?”

“You’re my wife,” he replied coldly, “I think I’m within my rights to talk to you directly.”

“You shouldn’t have come here.  I was actually happy before you showed up.”

With perfect timing, Sebastian stepped out the door behind you, looking to you and to Michael, and back.  “Ce se întâmplă?” he asked you.

“Who the fuck is this?!” Michael asked accusingly.

“I’m gonna give you a chance to ask me that again, in a way that doesn’t make it seem like you have any place to judge what I might be doing alone with a man,” you hissed.  “He’s just the groundskeeper, Mike.”

“Then why is he shirtless?” he exclaimed.

“I don’t know!  He… does that a lot!” you exasperatedly shouted back.

“Look, I’m not angry,” Michael sighed.  You laughed bitterly.

“Good, cause you have no right to be.”

“But I think it’s fair if I’m worried about you spending months alone with strange men.”

“Oh, strange, is that the problem?  Strangeness?  Would some more familiarity— perhaps a familial relationship— between you and these men make it easier on you, Mike?”

“Honey, please—”

“Don’t call me that,” you grimaced.

Michael stormed towards you, and you felt Sebastian step closer to you as well, wrapping an arm around you.  Having him by your side made this significantly more awkward, but it made you feel safer, too.

“Hey man, get your hands off my wife,” Michael growled, pointing a finger at Seb.

“He doesn’t speak English,” you rolled your eyes.  

“Well, I’m not sure you do either— otherwise you would realize that we’re still married, and you need to come home.”

“Just because you won’t sign the papers doesn’t mean we’re still together,” you reminded him sternly as shook your head.

“I’ll end it with your sister, is that what you want?”

You laughed, because you were afraid if you didn’t that you would cry.  “Jesus, Michael!  Are you hearing yourself?  This sounds like a greek tragedy, or fucking EastEnders!  Next I’ll be discovering I have an evil twin, and you’ll bang her too!”

He was a lot more offended by that than you expected.  “It was never just sex.  I love her.  But I love you more,” he clarified, suddenly getting serious.

You chuckled weakly, hardly believing what you were hearing.  It’s not that he was ever particularly nice, or romantic or anything, but at some point in his life he had been incredibly intelligent… and now he barely made sense at all.  “Wow, you sure do know how to make a girl feel special.”

He frowned, clearly losing what little cool he’d had at first.  He had always had a bit of a temper.  “For better or for worse, we’re still legally married— damn it, we’ve been together for how long now?  And you’re ready to throw that all away?”

“No, but you were,” you spat back.

“But I wasn’t, and I’m still not.  You’ve gotta hear me out—”

“I don’t have to do anything—”

“No, you’re not listening to me—” he talked over you, again.

“I don’t owe you any more of my time—”

“Damn it, why won’t you just listen!” he growled, grabbing you by the arm suddenly.  Instantly, Sebastian stepped forward and pushed him back.

“Sebastian, it’s okay,” you tried to soothe him.  

“Hey, could you maybe tell your boytoy to keep his filthy hands off me?” Michael demanded at the same time.

“Mai bine ai grijă,” Sebastian hissed, also at the same time.

“I literally can’t,” you answered Michael.  “I told you he doesn’t speak English.”

“Yeah, well, I think some things transcend language,” Michael bit back.  “Tell me something, pal,” he addressed Sebastian, “did you fuck my wife?”

“Sper că nu spui ce cred că ești,” Sebastian shook his head, clearly on the end of his rope.

“Mike, leave him alone,” you demanded, but it came out sounding so much weaker than you meant it to.

“Did you,” Michael pointed to Sebastian, going so far as to poke him in the chest condescendingly, “fuck—” he mimed thrusting his hips, and you grimaced— “my wife?”— finally, he pointed to you.

Sebastian certainly understood that; and, in lieu of an answer, he socked Michael right in the jaw and sent him straight to the ground.

“Oh my god!” you yelped, dashing over to where your husband was crumpled into a ball on the gravel and kneeling beside him.

“What the fuck?!” Michael gurgled, holding his face in shock and pain.

“Are you okay?” you asked anxiously, spinning to look at where Sebastian was standing and looking much too proud of himself, shaking out the hand he’d just hit Michael with.  “Sebastian!” you scolded, making him give you a defensive look.

“Ce?” he shrugged flippantly, though he clearly felt a little guilty when it became obvious that you were irritated with him.

And that was how you ended up here, standing in the living room and tapping your foot quickly, staring at the couch where Michael sat with a bag of ice held to his jaw, Sebastian beside him (though as far away as possible) resting with another on his hand.

“You had no business coming here,” you informed your husband coldly.

“You wouldn’t know about this place if it weren’t for me,” he reminded you.  “Did you think I wouldn’t find you?”

“I thought you wouldn’t care,” you corrected.

His silence was stern, and he gave you one of those looks that used to scare you but now just made loathing and pity sink down in your chest.  It was ambiguous if he was too angry to reply or if he really had no defense.  After all, what reason did you have to believe that he would care about your leaving?

"If you're here to make me rescind the divorce order, it's not going to happen.  I'm not leaving with you.  I'm not forgiving you.  Please just go," you sighed.

"That's not why I came.  None of that is why I'm here," he mumbled.  "I came here…" he straightened up slightly, raising his voice confidently.  "I came here to tell you that I love you.  I need you.  And I want you back."

Now that he was looking right back at you, suddenly you couldn't take it anymore and turned your gaze away again.  

"Whatever you need me to do to fix this, I'll do it.  We'll get through this.  Isn't that what marriage is?  Fighting for each other, struggling together?"  He stood up and approached you, reaching out to rest his hands on your shoulders; you almost flinched when you felt his touch, but resisted the urge, glancing up at his face before looking over at Sebastian whose injured hand was twitching as he looked away with a tight jaw.  "Tell me how to make this right, please."

You tried not to look as Sebastian as you processed Michael's request; similarly, it seemed he was trying not to look at you.  But even if you ignored this new, peculiar romance in your life, your marriage was still broken beyond repair and you couldn't imagine anything that could change that.  "I'm sorry," you finally whispered, watching Michael's face fall, "I don't think there's anything you can do." 

He released you from his grip, less angry than you expected; more somber.  "I want to stay and work this out," he explained.  "Better yet, I want you to come back to London— come back home— so we can be together and discuss everything there.  But I'm only going to ask you one more time before I leave: stay with me.  You don't need to forgive me, or even love me again, at least not yet… just give me a chance to try to earn everything I took for granted."

You'd imagined this moment so many times: cursing him out, making him grovel, kicking him to the curb.  To be completely honest, you'd even imagined potentially taking him back.  But now that you were here and it was, somehow, real, your desire for vengeance was fading along with your desire for reconciliation.  

"I have something I need to give you," you whispered, walking upstairs and going back into your room, getting on your hands and knees to search the floor.  Finally, discarded in a dusty corner with slightly uneven floorboards, you found the ring you'd tossed aside the night before.  Fighting back against the tears welling in your eyes, you picked it up and came downstairs, holding it outward for Michael to take.  

"I'm not taking that back," he refused, shaking his head.  "You keep it for a while longer, until you're sure this is really what you want."

"I'm sure.  I'm moving on.  Take it back," you demanded.  He sighed but reached out and plucked it from between your fingers, pocketing it though still wearing his own golden band.  "Besides, my sister might want it."

He scoffed, turning as he began to walk away.  "You're cold."

"Frozen solid," you agreed.  "Goodbye, Michael… drive safe."

He shook his head and made a sharp exhale as he walked away, nearly slamming the door behind him.  You stared off into space as Sebastian silently watched you; you didn’t want him to see you cry, but it was starting to seem unavoidable as your lip quivered and your eyes grew wide with tears.

“Shhh,” he soothed gently, standing up and stepping forward to pull you into his arms.  “Nu plânge, e în regulă.”

"God, I'm so stupid," you whispered between sobs muffled against his chest.  "I'm so fucking stupid…"

He whispered to you and kissed the top of your head, repeating one thing over and over that you couldn't make out well against the sound of your own crying filling your ears.

But even without knowing what he was saying or what it meant, it made you feel better.

As evening approached, you realized a new predicament had arisen: would Sebastian stay in your room again?  Would you go to his?  Or would you sleep separately, maybe even drift back to just being essentially housemates after a unique one-night stand?

Your questions were answered suddenly when Sebastian suddenly came to the couch and scooped you up into his arms, making you squeal a little before you relaxed and let him carry you to his room.  He all but threw you onto the bed, climbing on top of you and kissing you deeply as you reached up to wrap your arms around his neck.

Already you felt more comfortable with him than you sometimes felt with people you'd known most of your life; you didn't feel self-conscious when he ran his hands over your body, you didn't try to suppress your moans when he kissed your neck for fear of sounding ridiculous— and maybe that was just because it was such a fantastical situation, so unlike yourself and so far from home, that it was easy to feel like a different person with him.

Or maybe it was that you'd spent so long trying to be somebody that people liked, and now you were being yourself for the first time in decades.

You couldn't really be sure.  And since your brain short-circuited every time Sebastian whispered something in your ear that just sounded filthy regardless of what it actually meant, you didn't have the time to think about it.

[sleepymorningmumbles]

Collection of some character quotes that I love very much.

(Mostly consists of season 4 because that’s when I started actively taking notes)

“Sometimes you have to try.” - Brock 50

“I don’t think I’m powerful I think I’m powerless!” - Zolf 54

“If you expect me to fear death you’re going to be sorely disappointed.” - Zolf 61

“I’m not undead. I’m just, vitally challenged.” - Sasha 73

“... this is not a great time for vague threats, how about you make an explicit one.” - Hamid 86

“You can’t clean something up in the darkness, you have to bring it into the light, you have to face it. You have to tell someone, you have to let people help you.” - Hamid 90

“You are more important than a thing!” - Grizzop 112

“I think I broke Apollo.” - Edd 120

(season 4 under the cut because it ended up being very very long)

“I don’t want to get used to losing people.” - Hamid 129

“There are very few problems that explosions cannot sort.” - Cel 131

“I’m very good at building one-use machines. Two-use machines, much harder.” - Cel 131

“I’m saving my panic for later” - Azu 145

“PRONOUNS ARE THEY THEM!” - Cel 151

“I’ll always have faith, I just don’t always know what to do with it.” - Zolf 152

“If you're mates with mercenaries, you go to alo- well, you don't go to a lot of funerals, usually, cause there isn't much to bury, but you got to a lot of memorial services..." - Cel 152

"Y'know, I just want you to know that whenever I refer to you as "Little Buddy" I'm not referring to the size of your heart" - Cel 152

"It wasn't a good choice but I  think it was the right one"  - Zolf 153

"Sometimes you can't save the world, but you can save a person."  - Sasha 156

"I did not try to kill you... I, enabled the means for you to die."  - Shoin 156

"Being in charge doesn't mean that life gets easier cause you have more people to help you, it means that life gets harder because you've got more people to help" - Skraak 157

"Just um, when I open this door, I might be shot. Don't worry about it." - Zolf 159

"I'm not going to tell you that grief gets better but, like Zolf said, it gets different." - Azu 160

"We all make mistakes, and choices that don't go very well. But there's always the opportunity to make better ones,..." - Azu 160

"This isn't about getting back what's lost, it's about defending what's here… We're not getting back what we've lost, but there is still a world to save, Oscar" - Hamid 164

"Some of those losses you live with, and you grieve, and some of them are just happy lessons, and like, it's up to you to decide what kind of relationships you are open to" - Cel 165

"I'm not trying to die Zolf I'm trying to live" - Wilde 166

"By kobold standards you're a terrible tailor… A pocket without a button is a broken shelf" - Skraak 170

"It's okay to not be okay right now" - Azu 174

"I know I'm not always gonna be the strong one, but right now I can be" - Azu 174

"Healing and patience are often as one." - Aphrodite 175

"I'm saying, that right now, you can depend on me to protect you, and I'd quite like to see you stand up." - Azu 177

"Sometimes things don't get finished, and that's okay." - Cel 177

"I don't remember our conversation, but I remember what it meant." - Wilde 179

"Do not seek lessons where there are none." - Sumutnyerl 182

"Yeah we live or die together we ain't leaving anyone behind." - Zolf 185

"My turn." - Hamid 187

"If you're trying to guilt trip me you gotta up your game." - Zolf 188

"Because you gotta try." "Why?" ['Feryn'] "I mean, I don't think you actually need a reason. Because you do. Because that's what people do. Because if you don't try, things can't get better. For you, or for the people that come after." - Zolf 189

"You're not so much a "man on the floor" as a petty little dictator with a, sort of,  kink for obfuscation." - Wilde 193

"Well, if I had to pick a group of people who I'd end up, y'know, facing the end of the world with, you are who I would choose." - Wilde 194

Why would I kill him. He wouldn't know how angry I am if he was dead." - Sumutneryl 195

"Solitude is not always punishment" - Sumutneryl 205

"I think a lot of people do very terrible things thinking that they're doing good... - people think that they're doing the right thing, that can do the most harm, driven by riotous zeal" - Cel 205

"Not leaving you!" - Cel 207

"Get the others out of here and stay safe… right it's your turn now" - Zolf 207

"You don't belong in the next world" - Zolf 210

"To absent friends. To the best people I have ever known. To a world that doesn't yet deserve, the caliber of heroism we're about to bring it." - Wilde 212

"To what comes next." - Hamid 212

[evelynhug0]

my reaction to this TSHOEH fic 

here we go

ok i am not ready. definitely not. my heart is beating very fast and i am so nervous.

I FEEL AS IF IT WAS ME WHO IS GONNA HAVE SEX!!!!!!!!!! AND NOT THEM!!!!!!!! gosh why am i so nervous this is not normal

suddenly i feel very sober so i might need more vodka again

HOLY SHIT WHY DO I FEEL LIKE THIS

SO SO SO SO SO NERVOUS

okay here we go, i can do it, i’m a big girl

already the gif with the hands is chef’s kiss and makes my heart beat way too fast dear lord send help

i talk about god and lord too much for someone who never goes to church

not my laptop making noises like a F1 car right now

hello sir this is not the moment

i gotta put on my music to get in the mood

ok music on, ignoring the hellhole laptop

here we go

the anxiety kills me but i can do it

aww celia, i am happy that you are successful aaaah

quiet evelyn makes me wanna hug her 

poor baby

Harry!!!! aaaah!!!!

“they could be a celia” dear lord

“there’s no one like celia in this world” DEAR LORD

OH GOD

HOLY SHIT

oh no not me getting wet eyes

“be patient with her if you can” i am gonna throw up i swear

“You and I know what it’s like but it’s all new to her” i am throwing up i swear

my knees are weak

i was not prepared for… THIS!!!!

for this!!! i love this!!! this is so pure and cute and loving and everything aaaaaaaaaaah

i love this so much!!!! 

I love Ev and Cel and Harry!!! They’re the best! 

I love how they all love and help each other! 

i love it when Ev is vulnerable and they take care of her and worry about her and aaaaah 

this is the kind of stuff i need

if this happens on the same day they make love, i will cry for sure

“my secret was safe with both of them” oh gosh, i’m so here for this

and with my music in the background

i am gonna cry

i am gonna vomit because i am full of emotions

“if she had a choice, why would she choose the tough path?” ohhhhhhhhh

my heart

i cannot take this

ah lol no this can obviously not happen on the same day i am dumb hahaha

“Evelyn would read my books during the day and attempt to cook dinner” i love it that evelyn reads! that’s so cool! and i bet the dinner tasted gross as heck sorry not sorry Ev

them watching TV together like a couple that has been married for 60 years oh… oh oh oh oh

i dn’t know what to say

“I didn't want to break the spell of that blessed moment.” okay, now i got goosebumps

them sleeping super close together makes me wanna scream internally

my knees are super weak

and i have not even reached THAT Part yet

IT’S HAPPENING OH GOD HERE WE GO I AM NOT READY I AM NOT READY

OH GOD

THIS IS A WILD RIDE FOR ME I CAN TELL YOU

goosebumps, shaky legs, nausea

playing my song on repeat but not even this one will help me now

i am not ready oh god i can’t do this

“I woke up to Evelyn comfortably pressed against me and lingered there long enough to feel a known warmth spread inside me.” don’t do that to me!!! now i have to open my windows

“I allowed myself to wake her up with a kiss on the forehead only to pretend I gently shook her arm when her eyes fell on me.” oh Celia, I love you! I cannot stop smiling!!! this is so cute! 

also evelyn waking up is really adorable! like a baby aaaah

“she was in every love song I heard.” am i shaking now because the window is open or because i just read this? my eyes are getting wet again oh no

i can’t breathe

i am shaking, my heart is beating so fast and i’m almost crying

i cannot handle this

i’m all dizzy

this is not normal!!!!!!

how can i survive this? oh god i am so nervous, my legs feel like jelly

holy fuck i am almost there

i can feel the anxiety in every part of my body

i feel as if i was about to give a public speech

i am almost throwing up

i know what’s coming and this is not making it any better for my anxiety

it makes it even worse

can i handle this?

or will i puke?

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH GOD

NOT ME COVERING MY FACE IN MY HANDS BECAUSE I CANNOT HANDLE IT

AAH AAAAAAAAAAAAAH IT’S HAPPENIN IT’S HAPPENING I REPEAT IT’S HAPPENING

just one gesture could set me on fire” the goosebumps i get this ain’t normal anymore

where is my vodka

“INVITING” OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT

i need church

oh god

the goosebumps get even more intense all over my body

cannot remember the last time i felt like this

well i can… surprise surprise it was a similar situation

anyway back to the story

“She sat down on my lap” oh okay… okay… okay…. i need help

oh god

i was deffo not ready for this

go away goosebumps

the squeeze oh god help me

“Evelyn was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen and I liked her even more like that: disheveled, flushed, her breasts exposed.” okay i am officially dead

my legs are shaking 

i cannot handle this

i swear

how will i continue living my life after this

aww evelyn, you are so adorable i swear

“Her vulnerability was so raw it was almost painful to see.” this is painful to read too you know, i need therapy after this

OH GOSH

so, i read all of it. and now i don’t know what to say. this was so beautiful and soft. i was really drowning in that scene and in that feeling and there are so many things i could say now but i cannot properly explain anything anymore ugh this was so wonderful. how am i supposed to go to sleep tonight? i will probably stay awake all night long. oh god… how can i continue living my life after THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!¨THIS WAS SO BEAUTIFUL AND PURE AND LOVING AND NOW I WANT TO JUMP IN FRONT OF A CAR BECAUSE I CAN NEVER HAVE THAT TOO!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaah

i did not know what to expect from the fic… but this way so way more than i imagined

evelyn really wanting celia and then being all shy and aaaah… and them kissing and the hair thing and the scrunchie thing and it’s all so soft and loving and i cannot handle this. I NEED THERAPY NOW. 

I SWEAR

THIS FUCKED WITH ME MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL STORY

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

WHAT CAN I DO NOW TO CALM DOWN? HOW CAN I GO ON WITH MY LIFE AFTER READING SOMETING LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????’’

i adore that i’m all in the very strong “i love evelyn and celia” feelings again… in my evelyn universe. and i am screaming internally forever i swear

[alahmnat]

Some thoughts about the Rescue Rangers movie

Spoilers below the fold, you’ve been warned.

In preparation for the movie, I did the utterly-unnecessary thing of (re-)watching the entire TV show first. It was "only" 65 episodes, so I figured why not? Besides, I was looking for something else to idly binge anyway. But I think it did do a good job of helping to ground my expectations and put me in the right mindset for the film.

To briefly sum up my take on the show first: I grew up with this cartoon, and it was one of my favorite parts of the Disney Afternoon as a kid. The characters are all still so great, and they play off of each other really well. It’s still a lot of fun to watch as an adult, but it definitely has “90′s cartoon” problems. Most glaringly, of course, is the weird compulsion to use other cultures as the butt of pretty much every racist trope or stereotype you can come up with (Asian and Pacific Islander cultures got it especially bad, and I’m kiiiiiind of glad that the only Black character in the show is one of the patrol cops because yikes that could have been really oof-worthy). Y’all didn’t need to do that. It also goes a lot harder on calling Dale a lot of ableist terms than I ever noticed as a kid (”Dale is 'challenged’” is easily more than half of the show’s Dale-related humor). If I were to show this to my own theoretical someday-kids, I’d probably curate it to side-step about 15 episodes or so until they were old enough to learn the right things from them.

The show’s other faults are really just down to the use of bizarro-land kid logic, which has fallen more out of favor in contemporary shows (compare DuckTales to its reboot; the reboot is still madcap, but less... “out there” I guess?), and the animators not really putting their best effort into maintaining consistency of scale between scenes (or even throughout single shots). As a final aside, I also never really noticed how often Chip is given the "Dana Sculley” ball throughout the show. Ghosts, aliens (more than once), werewolves, fortune telling, and magic all make appearances despite Chip's declarations that they don't exist.

tl;dr: it’s still a good cartoon, but you’ve gotta engage with it critically sometimes, because... 😬

Anyway, on to the movie.

I liked it! A lot, even!

It wasn’t a cinematic masterpiece or anything, but we’re talking about a movie based on a combination of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and a 90′s afternoon cartoon show. It doesn’t need to be Everything Everywhere All At Once-tier incredible. What it was is a lot of fun. It pushed all the right buttons for me, especially having just come off of binging the TV show. The show itself had a lot of self-referential, meta, and self-deprecating humor to it in the first place, so making a “meta” movie about how bad and unwanted reboots of old properties tend to be sort of fits right into its narrative wheelhouse.

It’s also extremely obvious that the writers came at this with a huge amount of love for the show, and for Roger Rabbit before it. I was honestly impressed by the amount of show-related references and humor, most of which I would almost certainly not caught onto if I hadn’t just binged the show. It’s definitely a cameo-fest, and one can certainly take the cynical stance that the depth of the movie’s cameo catalogue is down to Disney owning about 3/4ths of Hollywood with enough money to push around the other 1/4th. However, the cameos never seem forced or out of place. There’s just a lot of them, and while none are perhaps as landmark as Mickey and Bugs on screen together in Roger Rabbit, some of them do punch pretty high. Keep an eye on the background, you’ll almost always find someone lurking there you weren’t expecting.

My biggest complaint is honestly that the decision to make Chip (and a number of other “traditional” toons) a cel-shaded 3D model holds his character back in terms of expressive range, and undercuts the one big gag of Dale having undergone “CGI surgery” (I feel like that’s not a spoiler, it’s literally on the poster). I can understand the reasoning behind the decision — it’s already complicated enough to make a movie where half the cast is invisible to the on-set camera and also 6 inches tall; needing to do two separate animation passes for the two main characters, plus all of the extra CG and edit work that would then need to be done on top of that to re-integrate Chip into the scene given all of the stuff he “physically” interacts with... it’s a lot. And considering that the resulting choices were probably “make Chip pseudo-2D” or “then don’t make the movie”, I can see why they went the way they did. It’s just an odd visual quirk that stands out even more against the background characters who are traditionally animated (but who also interact with the scene way less complexly).

If you’re just looking for a spoiler-free take, here it is: it’s a fun romp, punches you directly in the nostalgia bone for a solid 90 minutes, and preserves the best of what made Rescue Rangers great while divorcing it from its more problematic moments.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

To get into more of the nitty gritty, I think the decision to take a step back and reveal the world behind the camera was an important one, and why I think the film earns its tagline of “it’s not a reboot, it’s a comeback”. These aren’t fresh new versions of the characters we knew as kids. They’re still the same people, whose “real life” personalities are just well-aligned to their roles in the show, and they’re as far removed from the show as we are as adults. Characters like Chip and Dale also don’t really rise to the standard of requiring “strict adherence to canon”, so putting them in LA as kids and just making them a part of the Roger Rabbit universe worked fine for me. Giving the two a childhood connection really helped cement the brotherly relationship they always had in the show (side note: Chip’s mom is a sweetheart. More good animal moms, Disney).

(Oh, and speaking of the Roger Rabbit universe, this movie is definitely set in that world, because Sweet Pete has a bottle of DIP in his bootlegging kit. Yipe!)

The movie does a good job of projecting the characters out into the "real" world with their same personalities intact. Especially for the main duo: Chip, the no-nonsense take-charge leader who ends up as an insurance salesman, and Dale, the wackier goofball who acts without thinking things through and gets a perhaps ill-advised CGI makeover surgery to revitalize his image while slumming it on the fan convention circuit like a less douchebag-y Tim Allen from GalaxyQuest. I also got a particular kick out of the fact that despite basically every guy in the show having a go at her at one time or another, Gadget ended up with Zipper.

I also think using the character of Double-0-Dale as the inciting incident that broke up the team and got the Rescue Rangers canceled was a great choice. It was one of the few times Dale got a chance to really outshine the rest of the gang in the show, so it seems only reasonable that he’d want to pursue that over getting hit in the head every week. It’s also such a deeply nerdy choice that illustrates the writers’ knowledge of the show.

Monterey Jack being the thing that brings them back together, over his unending cheese addiction no less, gives the characters the push they need to pick up their roles from the show in a new context: doing what the LAPD is clearly incapable of accomplishing by finding their friend. Now that the meta-textual "we're doing the thing we're making fun of" stuff is out of the way, Chip and Dale could easily get the band back together and start the Rangers for real this time. I think there's plenty of space to make that work, honestly. The world of the movie is perhaps even more conducive to the Rangers being able to solve crimes and tackle goofball cartoon-tier villains than the show was, since they don't have to deal with the constraint that the Rangers are constantly having to concoct ways of getting humans involved without being seen or understood. Ellie can even come along too (but please, don’t make it a police procedural. Just... don’t). Heck, despite the theme song's proclamations, people rarely ever called the Rescue Rangers, the Rangers just kept stumbling across nefarious schemes by the show's main bad guys, or occasionally bumbling into a one-off scheme by some random incidental baddie. I could probably count on one hand the number of times the Rangers were actually sought out for their help. Maybe doing it “for real” could change that.

At this point I do want to talk about what might be the elephant in the room: Sweet Pete. It’s becoming more common knowledge that the Disney Corporation treated Bobby Driscoll, the kid who voiced Peter Pan, like absolute garbage after the movie came out, which contributed to his early death from drug addiction as a young adult. As a result, making Peter Pan the movie’s Big Bad has struck a bunch of folks as being in extremely poor taste. However, the movie does go out of its way to actually make something of the same point. Pete ultimately turned to a life of crime because Disney dumped him for the exact same reason they dumped Driscoll: he grew up. I’m not sure to what degree a big-budget production from a massive multimedia conglomerate openly pointing out the shitty behavior of said multimedia conglomerate counts for anything when it’s ultimately all still just money in said multimedia conglomerate’s pocket, but it feels like this is maybe the first time Disney has done literally anything to acknowledge that what it did was kind of really shitty? I dunno, It’s Complicated. The movie certainly paints a slightly more sympathetic picture of Pete than the trailer suggests.

I do want to circle back to the whole “cel-shaded 3D” thing again now that we’re down here in the spoiler zone, because Pete and Gadget feel like they definitely could have used another few (dozen) hours in the shader oven. Chip functions well for most of the film despite what I mentioned earlier, but Pete and Gadget definitely cross the line into “weird” and “awkwardly stiff” a bit too often. Pete just gets a bunch of angles where a 3D model just doesn’t flatten as cleanly as an animator could illustrate it in actual 2D. Gadget has “weird wobble-head syndrome”, and for as much as they poke fun at “Polar Express eyes”, Gadget's got more than a little bit of it going on herself.

Ugly Sonic, while hilarious in the current cultural context, is probably going to end up being the gag that ages the worst, just because it'll require a huge amount of pre-explanation for people who didn't live through it on Twitter at the time. I'm also a little sad that they didn't just have Jim Cummings reprise his role as Monterey, since they already had him in the booth doing basically every other role he had in the Disney Afternoon. I was happy that Tress MacNeille got to reprise her role as Gadget, though. She has such a distinctive voice it would have been especially rough hearing anyone else try and fill her shoes.

As far as the general review consensus, it seems like you either loved this movie or hated it with a burning passion. I'm not going to try and yum anyone's yuck, but for me, this fell right in the sweet spot of "goofy cartoon Hollywood", "Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the screen.gif", and "weapons-grade nostalgia". It fit with the tone of the show itself, which was also self-deprecating at times, and certainly full of (frequently off-the-wall and groan-inducing) inside-Hollywood gags, like the two cats in one episode named "Jack" and "Nichols" who talked in an extremely mid-tier Jack Nicholson impersonation. This movie felt like it took what worked from the TV show (specifically, the character dynamics), dumped the distressingly-frequent and extremely cringe-y "other cultures are punchlines" humor, and built a universe where these characters could live and even reclaim their former glory. It may not be able to bear the weight of a full-on cartoon supervillain mad scientist like Nimnul, but a Fat Cat analogue could easily slip into Sweet Pete's shoes (I say analogue 'cause it'd be nice not to have a character who's just called "Fat Cat" even if it is slang for “rich asshole”, and also they sort of already blew the Fat Cat load with the post-meltdown Sweet Pete amalgam).