#(because some of these are really important to the plot. trust me on it pal.)

[intoloopin]

Asides from their self made music and past LOONA connection, an efficient way in which LOOPiN has managed to grab attention from the public and build a fanbase is through their variety content, vastly available on the group’s Youtube channel.

Among the occasional one or two video series that come and go, they currently have 7 fixed variety segments that are vastly popular: LOOPiN Camp Camp, Competitive Karaoke (COMPEKARA), LOOPiN’s Heart To Heart, Minhang’s Hobbie Haunting, Therapy Kitchen, LOOPiN Log and LOOPiN Log: While At The Studio (WATS).

LOOPiN CAMP CAMP (2020 –) has the most improbable origin: born out of a joke scenario where fans asked what camping as a group would look like to Dylan, a former Boy Scout and J.J, self proclaimed ‘nature enjoyer’ – they quickly concluded that most of their bandmates would not survive, which prompted ongoing Vlives where they contested that conclusion and placed their own bets on how it would go. The joke went on for almost two weeks and was all that was talked about in fandom spaces at the time, until it eventually culminated on a viral poster edit made by a korean iNSYNC for the at the time hypothetical ‘LOOPiN Camp Camp’. New Wave Music quickly picked up on the hype and turned the idea into a reality show that ended up surpassing all of their expectations in chaos, entertainment and popularity. With three seasons of 11 episodes each, ‘LOOPiN Camp Camp’ has more than 50 Million views as a whole, always being an event with each new episode release.

COMPETITIVE KARAOKE / COMPEKARA (2023 –) is a brand new series endeavor, Gyujin’s very first concrete creative contribution to the team since joining LOOPiN in early 2023, but it’s proven itself to be an instant hit for the way it makes, as the name suggests, a team competition out of singing karaoke with very tight rules and disadvantages. In the game, the LOOPiN members get divided into 2 teams of 5, and each is given 10 songs with a similar theme (ex: rain, sky, one sided love, etc), but not similar genres; from ballads to trot songs to K-pop hits and flops from all eras, it's a playlist that has it all. The real challenge comes from how CompeKara operates: randomized into a lineup up to sing half a verse without further preparation or knowledge of the song, the team must get through it without messing up the lyrics and their timing. If they do, the song stops and they score nothing. There's two ways to win, 1) by being the team that concludes the most songs in their entirety or 2) by being the team standing after the opposition runs out of songs to sing.

LOOPiN’s HEART TO HEART (2019 –) often runs during the group’s promotion periods, filmed between practice breaks and at the back of music shows. In it the 10 members get randomly sorted into duos and given a prompt topic to discuss on camera by another member, often something they find unique or interesting about their dynamic that fans might not know about. Initially founded at LOOPiN’s official group debut back in 2019 as a way to better showcase their team unity, Heart To Heart can and often will turn into an awkward prank depending on who’s the target and who’s picking their team, which is always interesting to see. Still, the show isn’t far from getting emotional at times and fulfilling its initial premise.

MINHANG HOBBY HAUNTING (2023 –) is the most recent addition to the fixed roster of shows in LOOPiN’s channel, and certainly their most straight up comedic one. Shot as a mockumentary in which hobby specialist Hanjae is called to interfere in the workaholic ways of Minwoo and J.J, the show follows them on a mission to find something productive and unrelated to their careers to do. While the series seems to be coming to an end soon, fans are enthusiastic and certain that Hobby Haunting and its format can branch out to the other members and their lack of non-work related activities in the future, becoming another one of their recurrent projects.

THERAPY KITCHEN (2022 –) is undeniably a fan favorite series for its niche premise and all the surprisingly raw emotional moments it has captured between the LOOPiN members. Led by ‘host chefs’ Taesong and Dylan, each episode starts with them receiving an anonymous letter written by one of their bandmates depicting a current struggle, asking if they can cook something to help – they try, and present the result to whoever asked for it alongside a chat. ‘Episode 3: Lemon Pie Against Homesickness!’ with Haruki, ‘Episode 4: Honey Tea Of Instant Sleep!’ with Minwoo and the finale, in particular, perfectly showcases what makes Therapy Kitchen so special and made it a highly engaged series even after it was over. A second season with Gyujin joining Dylan and Taesong as a ‘host chef’ is already in the works, and it promises to use the input of fans in the making of the upcoming episodes.

LOOPiN LOG (2018 –) is the oldest running variety segment the group has, one that stayed with them since their pre-debut era, similar to LOONA TV, eventually becoming longer in length and adopting the classic Idol vlog format. As an individual series filmed by LOOPiN’s own personal recording cameras, it follows them throughout their day to day life and more recently, their individual schedules. 

LOOPiN LOG: WHILE AT THE STUDIO (2019 –) started a little after the original LOOPiN Log, this time dedicated to their creative process. The videos on the WATS playlist are much shorter, with any barely passing the 9 minutes mark, and it’s part of the reason why it’s easier for the members. Historically, WATS has been at times problematic in the view of iNSYNCs: a lot of episodes have been privatized or deleted for raising concerns of the member’s work conditions and hours, with an assumed censorship being put on the show from 2020 and onwards. Currently, WATS mainly hosts recording behind the scenes, dance practices and the occasional Produce Line rushed update in their artistic breakthroughs.

#&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ extras . #&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ development . #(because some of these are really important to the plot. trust me on it pal.) #fictional idol community #fake kpop group #kpop au #kpop fanfic #kpop oc

[t1meslayer]

Busy with important family events over the next couple of days, and so I thought it would be good to get a day-and-date release for this Debrief on the latest entry in my Sapphic Valley series, "How You Get The Girl." Be sure to read the story before jumping in!

Did you do it? Did you read the story?

Alright, I'm trusting you. Go ahead and hit that 'Keep Reading' button you scamp.

It only seems appropriate to start this Debrief off by addressing the elephant in the room. I haven't posted anything in over a month, and "By Moonlight" came about a month after its predecessor, the conclusion to "Stone-Cold Lovers."

Work, naturally, has been a major factor.

You can see me talk about that almost two weeks ago in this Tumblr post I made about writing in a coffee shop, which came weeks after I actually started writing during a trip to a friend's house.

===

Side note:

Just wanted to take a moment and acknowledge my beautiful Haley and Emily keychains. My friend who's responsible for the affairs of one ghostly farmer named Jizzabelle (Gisabelle to the laymen) got them for me! Only appropriate after I commissioned some art of her and Abigail.

Emily was my first Stardew wife, and Haley currently holds the biggest place in my heart. They make a lovely duo!

And I'll avoid any sister-wife jokes

===

While I've had some other projects like Zine writing to take care of, work and life can't explain the full absence.

The best way I can think to explain things is that:

I had the general writer's block, and

Despite the best intentions and advice of my irl friends and online pals like @alchemicallymoon and @duelbraids, I couldn't force myself to "break" that block by just... Writing something else.

This is entirely the result of my own psychosis. I have a tendency to carefully plot things out and impose a timetable that really doesn't need to exist. When I feel the cause is righteous enough, it's hard to get around that. In this case, I knew I needed to get my poll-winning idea out after dawdling for holidays like Valentine's Day, and then I knew I only wanted to post one more story before jumping on a very special event for my upcoming 30th AO3 post.

Thus, here we are: arbitrarily forcing myself into a spiral of writer's block misery because of a silly promise on Tumblr and my own sense of ordered chaos.

At the very least, this meant it's coming out not long after my AO3 pal InsertACatchyPennameHere also emerged from the woodwork to tell me they're working on something INSPIRED by my four-person friend group farm adaptations.

Much love to them, wherever they may be.

I'll probably start writing more eclectically now that my shoulders are unweighed, but don't expect my next publication to hit until I'm finished working on teasing the big event. All you Pokemon fans better get hype!

And oh how sweet this publication feels. Between my great set of recent ceramics, the figure drawing class I've been attending, and creative writing, I've felt more fulfilled than ever.

You're here to talk about Stardew, though. So let us talk.

This idea began less with any one event as it did a desire to advance the Alexis/Haley relationship, and Haley's characterization in particular. It was always going to end with watercolor painting reference, but 2 Willow Lane was what I really wanted to dig into.

As I see it, a lot of what keeps people invested in Stardew when its comfy vibes becoming routine is the air of mystery in Eric Barone's worldbuilding. Haley and Emily's parents being some world-traveling duo who left their home in the siblings' care for who knows how long (and who knows how many times over their lifetime) really piqued my interest. So much so that the new writing challenge I set for myself in "How You Get The Girl" was crafting a particularly long set of descriptions that emphasize how overwhelming the parents' influence feels — without creating an impenetrable wall of text.

Hopefully I succeeded in that. Let me know!

I tried to include some vaguely real world-adjacent references into that description of the house, as happens with the magical-realism world of Stardew Valley. For example:

The computer sitting next to their bonsai tree is an iMac G3, the kind of old 'futuristic' tech that my dad loves!

A Speedwell refrigerator is based on even more vintage tech, the Mayflower fridge, but named after a different ship ridden by Pilgrims coming to America.

That city that the family visited in an old photograph with a "monument of arching, interlocking steel" is, of course, Paris — with the statue bookends referencing any number of statues in the Louvre.

Haley's FAD magazine could be referencing any number of publications, but Vogue is probably the closest analogue to what I imagine her reading.

Furthermore, I took some notes on describing the home's layout off of my sister's apartment building, and I asked my bestie @trybard for input on what kind of hanging plant should be used in the transitional hallway. Hanging pothos, philodendron, and spider plants were the three options provided, and my response was appropriate:

They know so much about plants.

Go bug them about it.

I drew on other friends' knowledge to help decorate the house. Specifically, I asked one of my witchiest friends what kinds of protective wards someone like Emily would leave around doorways and windows. She had... A lot of reference material.

I picked Hazel given it purportedly "protects against evil; encourages abundance and inspiration." I also picked Amethyst as one of Emily's loved gifts, one that purportedly "absorbs negative energy, promotes harmony."

My witchy friend is the same one who provided the TikTok that I referenced in my advertisement post:

Perhaps the most important thing about 2 Willow Lane was the recurring motif of Barbie's Dream House.

As a surface-level reference, I think the groundwork is clear. Blondie's love of fashion and general queen bee demeanor fits comparisons to Barbie well, and she lives in a big ol' house full of stuff. We all saw Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie last year. It's still in the cultural zeitgeist.

I'm hip with the kids.

Yet, early on I also tried to make it clear that if this is a "dream" house, it's neither Haley's nor Emily's dream. Haley is a Barbie in that stereotypical sense, but also there's much to be mined from the analogy of a sort of powerless doll in an immutable house, constrained by social obligation to her family rather than literal plastic and stickers.

The cold open of Jodi and Sam was meant to stand alone, but in execution I also think drawing Kent's absence into the conversation makes for a more thematically rich comparison to these sisters who appear to have themselves more put together.

My beta reader said this wound up being one of my stronger stories because of how all of that intertwined, which I appreciated given how down on myself I was following the whole writer's block thing.

But also.

Also.

Alexis gets to be horny. She's hitting on lonely MILFs and watching girls shake their asses to the tune of bad reality TV.

We love a buff dommy mommy farm girl in this house.

Haley is probably horny too, she just doesn't realize it yet. For now I think it's fun enough to play into her being coy about building excuses for Alexis to come over, and then getting incensed when Emily barges in on their private time meant to learn more about this farm girl she just can't get out of her head.

===

Fun fact:

Every story in this series is named after a Taylor Swift song, but I know next-to nothing about her discography. All of them are suggestions by my friend whose house I was at when starting this story — the same one who controls Gardenia on the farm.

While I went with "How You Get The Girl," her alternative suggestion was "The Man."

===

All that w|w talk aside, I also want to give Sam the loveable idiot a shoutout. Had to do a fair bit of research into how skateboards are constructed for his failed ollie, and I slipped in a reference to shitty old technology that's exclusively for my beta reader to enjoy.

I also tried doing some agricultural research to figure out how the folks at Kevin Farm could have grown cucumbers so there'd be a jar of legitimate pickles... But that was getting too in the weeds.

Insert laugh track here

Decided to just go with pickled artichoke hearts to save everyone a lot of trouble.

And where does "Kevin Farm" come from, you may be asking yourself. Or the fabulous "Kevin's Special" with its definitely not innuendo tagline.

That story will have to wait for another day, my friends.

#I really went in on this one #Moreso than I was expecting #But I guess that's what happens when you get very anxious about how people on the internet are judging your ability to do things well #And in a timely manner #Not that I think any of you are judging me #My fans are great <3 #Anyway thanks so much for reading! #I promise the Kevin Farm story isn't all that interesting but one day I'll make it relevant to a piece #Fanfiction Debrief #fanfiction #fanfic #companion piece #author's commentary #ao3 #stardew valley #stardew haley #writing #creative writing #struggle #macintosh #vintage technology #paris france #louvre #vogue #plants #tiktok #witchcraft #protection #barbie #metaphors

[dustfiremediafanatic]

Trophy Campaign Update:

Today the Forge had another episode of Trophy, with Danny as GM. Joining us again as players were Steve, Johnny, Justin and Nick! Since this is a Patreon only show when released as podcast, I won't go into specifics but I would like to talk about the experience I have when I join in the Livestream.

First of all, anyone can join the stream chat. Though it's a Patreon only show later, it's free for everybody to drop by on Twitch to take a look! I'll add their usual link to the bottom of the post.

A Dustfire Media Livestream is an absolute riot of a time. Watching people make their jokes live helps add a feeling of realism and inclusivity, like what I'd imagine going to a live comedy show would be like. They're hilarious above table and in character these players know how to be diverse with who they represent, and yet still so very them.

What makes the Patreon episode streams that bit more special is most likely the Devil's Bargain mechanic. Usually, like with the streams for The Professionals (as far as I know, I'm dead to the world when those streams are live because it's 1-3am in my time zone), the GM can present a consequence that must be accepted by the player if a player wants an extra dice. A trade off of sorts to help progress the game with certain actions. If they don't accept, they don't get a bonus dice to the roll.

With the Trophy streams however, a Devil's Bargain is open to ANYONE to suggest - other players, or chat. So we the viewers get to add in our own potential consequences to the plot. This makes for some hilarious twists and turns, trust me.

Another thing in particular I enjoy specifically is talking with chat about the characters and story events themselves. If (SOMEHOW) you're not a Patreon, then there's likely someone in chat more than happy to give you a quick summary of what you've missed so you can join in like the rest of us. Or even if you just have internet connection issues! (Like me! Lagged pretty bad so a pal in chat helpfully posted the important points I'd missed in the 20 seconds of buffering I experienced).

I also find I learn new words, or even new ways to say certain words thanks to differences in upbringing/accent. Like the word Cuirass (Sorry Justin calling you out here for this particular one since it stuck out to me!) Justin was pronouncing it as "Coo-rass", whereas I've always thought it was pronounced "Cure-ass". I've not really heard the word spoken before however so now I'm curious! Is it just a Justin thing, or is that really how you're meant to say it?

I might have digressed a bit there, but the Dustfire never fails to deliver on great cliffhangers and full-depth stories leaving people eager to know what's happening next. Whether it's a one shot base being worked on and brought to life, or a completely new story created with a rulebook of any game, I'm yet to be dissatisfied with any of their content. Not kidding, it's all amazing!! Doesn't matter who is running the game either, all of them tell incredible stories.

Final note, and weirdly enough the reason I started typing this post; one major change between this session of Trophy and the last is that last session the game was Trophy Dark, whilst this one upgraded/morphed into Trophy Gold. The story is still the same (well, as much as we can tell for it!) And the Dustfire guys have assured us everything will make more sense in the end - alas it's only one episode a month!

Maybe if we get more Patreon participants they can stream it more... Come be a White Lotus Agent with me! More agents against the forces of evil is always a wonderful time ♡

I hope you enjoy your time with them as much as I do. Please find a link to both their Twitch page, and their website below (bonus - they've got merch too!)

#ttrpg #ttrpg community #ttrpg podcast #dustfire media #theprofessionals #podcast #twitch #trophy #trophy dark #trophy gold #patreon

[theregoesmylurkerstatus]

SPOILERS AND ASSUMPTIONS FOR CAMPAIGN 1!

OKAY, let me start by categorising what spoilers I know as best I can, going (mostly) in chronological order AFAIK:

Clarota betrays them (VERY sad, when I first watched those first 10-ish episodes I was fully behind Keyleth’s ‘trust him’ train)

Vax loses a foot to lava and also his snake belt rip

Kima and Allura are the cool, trustworthy PCs, as is everyone’s favourite, Gilmore, a shopkeep with a black belt in karate

The dragonborn guy’s homeland gets dunked on and then later he dies offscreen

Percy’s sister is alive and betrays them but only kind of? I think? She was held captive by the Briarwoods for years and Percy thought she was dead, but she was blackmailed/brainwashed/tortured?

Vax gets cornered by the Briarwoods alone by accident (classic)

There’s a chick called Ripley who makes guns A Thing for the wider world

Something about a sun tree? It’s a creepy tree? They hallucinate their own corpses on it? Or something?

They probably kill one of the hottie vampires at the end of Percy’s arc, I think the male one? Because the lady vampire shows up later?

Percy dies in his arc and it’s the second res ritual they do, after Pike’s one pre-stream

“Take off the mask, darling.” I still don’t care about romance but I feel obligated to mention that I know that famous line

I also know the equally famous “I thought he’d never leave” bubble bath bit, ah Laura

There’s a CHROMA CONCLAVE attack right at the end of Percy’s arc, somewhere

Rashian is a dragon or something, everyone laughs at Liam for not knowing this. I know nothing else about who the Chroma conclave is (3-5 chromatic dragons??? One of each colour????) or what they want, except Vax levels up in the middle of fighting one and Keyleth yells at one

There are communication earrings. There is also a weird black powder man. Victor?

They actually have a permanent home/keep unlike the Mighty Nein?

Vex dies because Percy didn’t check for traps, this is the start of some deal of Vax’s with the Raven Queen which means he multiclasses into paladin?

Vax can fly, he can fly, he can fly!

Uhhhh there’s a couple cursed swords or something in there lol

Percy sells his soul briefly? Genius move Smart Guy lmao

Feywild??? Somehow????? They meet Artagan and make a deal with him for a doorway, and they spend an episode as cows somewhere in here?

Keyleth has Mom Trauma, I don’t know how much this will feature in the campaign

Vax and Vex’s dad suxxx or something, mother is dead

Scanlan hits on his surprise daughter and everyone screams

They have some kind of year long adventuring group break for some reason?

Keyleth makes a storm on an airship (???) and this is cool. Also she turns into a fire elemental a lot and this is also cool.

There’s a kraken fight? It goes really badly, like LEGENDARILY badly, and ngl I’m kind of looking forward to it

Scanlan #LOSESIT and has his legendary ‘what’s my mother’s name?’ rant, after which he leaves for an undetermined number of episodes and is replaced by Tary

This leads to Grog spelling C-A-T for some reason and this???? Makes people cry???????? Truly something you had to be there for

Pike tries to commission drawings of VM for Tary (who calls Vex “little elf girl” and braces for impact when Laura’s nostrils flare) and this goes Very Wrong in a funny way

Tary’s dad sucks

He writes a book

Some NPC reads said book in campaign 2, hence why I know about it

Grog has an arc to do with the other Goliaths who beat him up for defending Pike’s dad?

When Scanlan comes back he tries to sneak in, Vex chases him and he panics and casts modify memory on Vex, it fails several times, an angsty moment becomes comedic very fast

He is received with Mixed Emotions lmao

Keyleth turns into a goldfish and kills herself, this is both apparently extremely painful and extremely funny

Vax gets disintegrated and dies in a beholder fight (rip)

Gilmore is not a dragon but everyone was fully convinced he was. He also gets bodysnatched or something at some point to freak out VM, but they figure out very quickly it’s not him

Scanlan is Ioun’s chosen? Whatever that means, something to help fight Vecna I think

“It was an honour knowing you” sad! Sad! Sad line! Gilmore doesn’t understand, cheekily responds, and leaves!!!! Liam looks on the verge of tears!!!!!! SAD!!!!!

There are so many true love nat 20s. I don’t know what any of them are except that Pike has one and Ashley looks like she’s about to cry

They win the Vecna fight and Keyleth gets the HDYWDT, Scanlan wanted to save a Wish spell for Vax but couldn’t, so he stays dead

Everyone cries here but at least the rest of the party is okay

Keyleth is the last woman standing and everyone cries at this too

And then Grog uses the deck of many things, spawning two oneshots to clean up his mess

Also somewhere in here Vex steals a broom from a guest (lol)

Assumptions!!!!!

More tears than campaign 2 I think, since there are at least two resurrection rituals we see on screen that I know of

The fights might be more stressful since they’re higher level?

Scanlan is going to be the most sexual and lewd character because he is played by Sam

Vex is going to be the second most sexual and lewd character because she is played by Laura

Vax will still instigate most of the one-on-ones so Liam can have as many heavy conversations as his theatre kid’s heart desires

Keyleth will try and fail to make the group more moral

Pike will not try to be moral at all despite being four feet of blessed armour and adorable hair

I think other characters try to make Percy feel remorse for Murder Reasons, but I suspect he’s not going to feel that guilty (I will likely support him in murderous endeavours unless they are FAR more messed up than I currently believe)

From what I understand Grog is Loveable but not hugely layered or complex, and I know Travis was proud he didn’t cry this campaign. I suspect I may be surprised at the character depth Travis gives him, however.

Keyleth also thinks the gods are overrated and I AGREE

Percy is three feral and eldritch raccoons in a trench coat, held together only by sheer force of will and the fragile shell of a posh accent. No one notices because it’s a really cool accent.

There will be a lot more money/shopping/drinking elements than in campaign 2, since I know Vex is a haggler, Percy is a Lord, and Keyleth is a day-drinker? As are Grog and Scanlan

It will be funny for me to see Taliesin play a smart character and Travis a dumb one, though I know that the whiplash went the other way for most people lmao

Vox Machina will be less team-heavy than the Mighty Nein? I gather they’re more of an ‘individual hero’ makeup than an ‘everyone has support abilities’ makeup

It will be more fast-paced than campaign 2? It seems like a lot of the arcs lead directly into each other, with only the occasional shopping episode break

It feels like it might be less friendship heavy than the Mighty Nein? Like they seem more like ‘we’d die for each other’ pals who otherwise spend all their time trying to draw dicks on each other’s faces

They have a more clear “party leader” than the Mighty Nein, who might be Percy and/or Keyleth

I think most PCs and NPCs are more morally clear cut than in campaign 2, like most towns and people in positions of power are either “cool guy who can pitch in” or “get rid of this abomination immediately” territory

I think my favourite character will be Vex, Percy or Keyleth. I just feel it in my bones. 

I think I may also get an extreme soft spot for Grog and Pike, however

My main sources of surprise will be, I think, how things fit together? Like I have no idea WHY they’re in the Feywild, or most other places really, or what any villains’ motivations and backstories and personality traits are, and how they end up fighting any of them in any particular place for any particular reason. I don’t even really know characters’ abilities or literally anything done in any of the fights, aside from “they win/nearly die” and “Scanlan uses Wish and Bigby’s Hand against Vecna”

I assume most plot threads all lead into each other fairly solidly and that they don’t actually seek most of their stuff out?

This assumption will either be fairly right or hilariously wrong, but -- I assume that I already know almost everything important or shocking? I tried really hard to avoid it but being active in campaign 2 meant that over time I got exposed to more and more of campaign 1, and I genuinely believe that I have almost everything down, if not details or order. I don’t think I’ve missed any big moment or impactful arc

Let’s see if I’m right

#critical role #campaign 1 #ramblings #Vox Machina #campaign 1 spoilers #c1e01 #c2e114 #c1e115 #will start rewatch (just first episode) either today or tomorrow

[bigfrozenfan-fanfics]

Chapter 12 - The Escape

Links: Chapter overview, Character list, Map, Glossar Rating: M over all Publishing cycle: each Friday at 6:00 pm CEST dst/UTC +2:00 on (link)

Remarks: all my chapters contain carefully selected music tracks. It’s your own decision if you want to use them or not while reading. The purpose is to musically support the respective mood of the plot. If you can please use a browser for reading (not the Tumblr app) due to the text formatting and music.

Honeymaren had made her decision and she did not care if Yelana or her father would punish her. Elsa had to be warned, at all costs. Even if it meant exposing Northuldra's secrets. She set out on a search and ran all over the camp, and around it. But Elsa was nowhere to be found, and neither was her sister. They had to be together somewhere in the woods. This search could take hours, too long maybe and then it would be too late.

Fortunately, Myrtha ran into her and as luck would have it, the healer knew where Elsa was right now. Honeymaren thanked her briefly and hurried off. Myrtha looked after her, shaking her head.

Some time later she already saw the four large monoliths looming before her when Anna and Elsa turned the corner of one and apparently were about to return to the camp. She saw from a distance how Elsa looked up at the big stones and asked Anna something while gesturing. Anna apparently was about to answer her when she saw Honeymaren running towards them in haste. She paused in mid-word and stared at her in surprise.

Elsa followed her gaze and waved. Honeymaren waved back hesitantly, hoping that she herself was not one of the topics of conversation between the two of them. She shook the imagination off of her mind, for Elsa had promised that her nightly conversation would remain between the two of them. Then she reached the two sisters somewhat breathless.

She bowed briefly to Anna and said, “Queen Anna, Elsa, I ... I have something very important to tell you both and I'm afraid you haven't much time left.”

Both looked at her confused and Elsa asked, “Not much time? Time for what? What happened, Honeymaren?”

“You are all in great danger and must leave immediately.”

“Wait, what? Why in danger?” Anna asked and held on to Elsa's arm, her eyes wide open in concern.

Honeymaren briefly thought about how to explain it to them, but then chose the blunt variant. “There's someone after you. He is chasing everyone from Arendelle.” Honeymaren kneaded her fingers in excitement and took turns looking at them with pleading looks. “He's out for revenge and wants to kill both of you!”

Anna's grip on Elsa's arm grew stronger and she gasped for breath in terror. But Elsa ignored Anna's reaction and made a step towards Honeymaren. She took her hands in hers. “Who, Maren, and why?”  

Anna's head started spinning and she didn't know anymore what she should be more worried about now, the unknown threat or that Elsa was so familiar with Honeymaren and even called her 'Maren'. She closed her mouth and lowered her arm, which now hung strangely uselessly in the air when Elsa had released herself from her grip.

“Revenge for what and why such a hurry? We'll be leaving tomorrow morning anyway,” Anna added. “Can the Northuldra not protect us until then?”

Elsa let go of Honeymaren's hands again and walked back and forth a few steps, brooding.

Seconds later, however, Anna realized it and she slapped a hand in front of her mouth, but immediately lowered it again and said, “He's magically gifted, isn't he?” Elsa's head was spinning at those words.

Honeymaren nodded and then shrugged her shoulders, “Yes, most likely ... I mean, we don't know for sure. All we know is that he's very dangerous and may even have Ahtohallan trapped under a magical fog shell.”

“He did what?” it burst out of Anna a little louder.

“Ahto-who-what?” Elsa added uncomprehendingly and Anna had to grin involuntarily for a moment when she remembered the exact same question she once asked her mother.

Then Elsa suddenly remembered that Honeymaren had mentioned that name once before, when they were both sitting on that beach. She thought about it for a moment. She had to find out what it was all about, because it seemed very important.

Honeymaren's gaze changed from one sister to the other. “I am forbidden to say it, but I have already said too much. Then I might as well tell the rest, right?”

“Go ahead,” Anna and Elsa said almost at the same time.

“He is the son of our former fifth spirit, who was brutally killed during the dam construction. His name is Kolgrimr, and he believes that all your grandfather's descendants must die in retribution for this act. So you must leave here as soon as possible ... please!”

Anna and Elsa looked at each other, then Anna nodded and said, “Then let's go back quickly. I'll tell Kristoff to get the wagon ready for departure immediately. Turning to Honeymaren, she quickly added, “In the meantime, can you please let Yelana know that our plans have changed a bit? We want to thank her for her hospitality before we leave.”

Honeymaren pondered briefly if this might suggest to Yelana that she had revealed secret things, but then nodded to Anna. “Yes, of course.”

Then they walked back to camp together. Elsa put her arm around Honeymaren's shoulder and said, “Thank you for warning us and caring so much about us, Maren. She looked at Elsa smiling and just nodded without saying anything back. She had done what was necessary and right in her eyes. Now all that was left to do was to make the rest work and Elsa would be safe.

~~~

Gyda looked thoughtfully at her son, who was chewing the last piece of smoked meat with relish.

“We should perform the ancient ritual. It will bring you luck and give you the necessary strength and speed,” she finally said. “I still have the old sacred drum and most of the ingredients for it here, I only need a few certain things and they have to be fresh.”

Kolgrimr looked up. “Mother, please ...,” he said with a bored tone and with an incredulously gaze.

“No, my son, there is no excuse this time,” Gyda said, “You know ... I usually did these kind of ritual every time your father ventured on a dangerous mission and he always returned safely. Nevertheless ... the last time we spoke and I begged him to perform the ceremony, he refused. He was so upset and in a hurry. He wanted to warn all our people about the true intentions of that bastard liar Runeard and that was the last time I saw him alive. Kolgrimr, I loved your father so dearly ... if he had accepted my offer ... perhaps everything would be so different now. He only had trusted in his shapeshifter abilities and in the nature spirits when he left. I lost your father, I won't lose you too.” He stared at her and then nodded.

“Good. I'll be back soon,” she said, grabbed an empty basket and left the kota.

In the meantime, Kolgrimr lay down on his fur and crossed his arms behind his head. His thoughts turned only to his plan and he tried to imagine the scenery in the camp and plan each of his steps in advance. He swallowed the last shred of meat, closed his eyes and grinned.

~~~

Meanwhile Kristoff was in the camp with Olaf and kept an eye out for Ryder. He also wanted to check on Sven. His old buddy surely wondered if he had forgotten him; he thought.

He finally found Ryder on the large lichen meadows pasture and watched him feeding a carrot to Sven.

“Hey! Where'd you get that carrot, buddy?”

Kristoff came closer, scratched Sven's head and looked at Ryder questioningly. Ryder just shrugged his shoulders. “From your wagon, of course. Sven sniffed at it and then made me take a look. You must have overlooked the carrot, it was hidden under a blanket.”

“It wasn't hidden, Ryder. I was saving it for Sven on the way home. Now I have nothing left for him until Arendelle,” Kristoff accused him gesticulating.

Ryder made a face. “Oh ... I'm really sorry about that. I didn't know it, and Sven just wouldn't let up.”

Kristoff looked reproachfully at Sven and shook his head. “Buddy, buddy ... that's why I'm the only one who gives you your beloved carrots and no one else. Now you'll have to wait till we get back home.” Sven looked at him sadly and Kristoff made him answer in his unmistakable way, reaching under Sven's chin and miming in a deep voice, “Sorry Kristoff, but the smell of the carrot was just irresistible. Why didn't you bring more of it?”

Ryder laughed out loud and slapped Kristoff on the shoulder. “There you go, pal. Sven doesn't feel well taken care of.”

Kristoff grinned and rubbed the tuft of fur on Sven's head. “Sven, buddy, how could I have known in advance that we were gonna be here so long. Next time I'll plan for such eventualities, of course, I promise.”

Ryder's smile slowly disappeared and was replaced by a thoughtful expression. He sighed. Of course, Kristoff didn't miss that and asked, looking at him, “What's wrong? Was there something else going on with Sven?”

“No, no, that's not it. It ... well ... oh, I don't know if and how to tell you this,” Ryder dithered and Kristoff raised an eyebrow while he kept on stroking Sven.

Ryder looked at him seriously. “If you love your fiancée Anna and really care for her and her sister then you all have to get out of here, if possible today.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Kristoff's attention was now completely focused on Ryder, and he looked at him earnestly and with concern.

“I can't tell you any more, but please trust me, it's in all your best interests ... please.”

Kristoff just stared at him. Ryder looked back with a begging face. So they stood there helpless for seconds and Sven's gaze flitted from one to the other. Olaf, who stood between them at the side, did the same and his head bounced from left to right and back again.

“Alright.” Kristoff put his two big hands on Ryder's narrow shoulders and nodded. “I trust you. We'll leave today.”

~~~

Kolgrimr had already prepared everything in his mind and now it was once again time to let his mind wander and to see and feel what was going on in the camp. He sat up and took up a mediation position. Then he took a deep breath in and out and began to prepare himself mentally. He closed his eyes again and the first images and fragments of thoughts of the Northuldra, just doing their work, slowly took shape in his mind. But before he could really focus, the flap on the kota flew open and Gyda came in, wasn't exactly quiet and immediately started digging around in her things. He angrily pulled a face and opened his eyes again.

“You have disturbed me in my meditation! Couldn't this wait a little longer?” She was stooping down and looking for something underneath one of the furs. “Mother?”

She looked up briefly, but at the same moment found what she was looking for and held up a small wooden pestle. “There it is. It really just rolled under the fur.” Kolgrimr looked at her in annoyance. “What? You can do your meditation later. The ritual is important and I need the pestle to pound the herbs and spices.”

Then she gathered everything else together and put a small pot over the tiny fireplace in the middle of the kota. She sat down on her wooden stool, pulled out her sharp knife from the belt sheath and began to cut some of the herbs, all the mushrooms and other ingredients she had collected into small pieces in the pot with practised handles. She added some water from a leather bottle and then began to crush the rest of the herbs and pieces of dried lichen in her mortar.

“You start the fire,” she said without looking up.

Kolgrimr shook his head, but then did as she asked. The bone-dry wood soon began to crackle loudly and the flames licked around the pot. Gyda added two smaller logs and fetched a bundle of plant stems unknown to him, tied together from a hook on the wall of the hut. She held one end into the fire until it began to smoke, pulled it back and blew on the smouldering spots until more smoke developed.

She finally handed the bundle to her son and said, “Here, take this and wave the smoke in your face. Inhale it deeply.”

While Kolgrimr complied with her request, she poured the contents of the mortar into the pot and began stirring with a wooden spoon. An intense and anaesthetic smell spread through the small room. When the contents began to boil, she took the pot from the fire and poured some of the greenish contents into a small bowl, which she handed to Kolgrimr.

“Drink this,” she said, and at the same time took the smoking bundle out of his hand again.

He drank it and, disgusted, grimaced. Gyda nodded contentedly and fetched her old troll drum from the wall. She looked into her son's eyes and when she saw the first signs that it was working on him, she began to beat the drum softly and rhythmically, murmuring words that sounded so different from the Northuldra language. Meanwhile she slowly circled around him, never letting him out of her sight for a moment. At some point he finally began to sway back and forth, his eyes took on a glassy glow and his breathing went by in fits and starts.

Gyda smiled and her chanting became louder and more haunting.

~~~

They met almost simultaneously in the camp and each of them had a serious expression on their faces. They looked at each other and in the first few moments nobody spoke a word. Each of them had the vague feeling that his counterpart already knew about everything. Eyebrows furrowed in surprise and Honeymaren sighed, “Ryder ...” He was probably absent for a good reason. She shook her head, put her hand on Elsa's shoulder for a moment and said, “I'll go and tell Yelana.” Elsa just nodded.

“Well ...,” Kristoff said, “It all seems to be a done deal, but in case you two know more ...,” and he looked alternately from Anna to Elsa and back again, “... then I'd love to know what the reason for all this is.”

Anna nodded and repeated in short words what they had learned from Honeymaren. She asked Kristoff at the end that he should prepare the departure right now.

Kristoff's eyes had become wider and wider as he listened to her and his hands clenched into fists, but then he just nodded and answered, “Already done, the wagon and Sven are ready at the edge of the forest. What now?”

“We'll wait for Yelana, to say goodbye and then we'll leave,” Anna replied quietly, looked over at Elsa and put her hand on her shoulder for a moment. “Home at last.”

It was only a few minutes later, and Yelana, Myrtha, and Honeymaren turned around the next kota and came towards them. After a short greeting, the healer walked up to Elsa and took her aside for a short talk.

“So you decided to leave us earlier,” Yelana noted, leaning casually on her staff with both hands and looking around. “I hope you were happy with everything and nothing upset you?”

“Yes and no ... I mean, everything was fine and there was no cause for trouble,” Anna said, smiling somewhat crookedly at her bumpy wording. “We all just wanted to thank you for your hospitality and for all you've done for Elsa. Thanks also for putting up with us for so long. I hope we haven't disturbed you all too much.”

“It was our pleasure and you could have stayed as long as you wanted,” Yelana lied, waved away and put on her rare smile.

“Thank you very much, but I have urgent royal duties waiting for me, which unfortunately I only remembered this morning,” lied Anna back. “After all, we have been here a little longer than planned.”

“Then I wish you all a safe journey home. Now I have to get back to my duties. For anything else you may need, Honeymaren is at your disposal.” Yelana just bowed to Anna and nodded goodbye. Then she turned around and left.

Myrtha's conversation with Elsa was also over and she said a heartfelt goodbye to each of them. As she left she waved to everyone again.

“She's really very nice,” Elsa said, waving back.

“What did she want from you?” Anna asked curiously.

“She questioned me about my condition and seemed satisfied with everything. She wished me luck.”

Anna nodded. “The Northuldra really have a good healer in her. She has taken good care of you.”

Elsa smiled as she looked after Myrtha. “Yes, that's true.”

They stood like this for a little while longer, until finally Kristoff clapped his hands and said somewhat sarcastically, “Ladies, the wagon is ready. Shall we?”

Anna and Elsa nodded and Olaf ran ahead.

At the edge of the forest Anna and Elsa got into the back of the wagon and Olaf sat before them on the wagon floor. Kristoff sat in front and took the reins in his hand, even though he didn't really need them for Sven.

Honeymaren, who had come along, now stood there a little bit lonely and looked at Elsa one last time. She suddenly became very sad and pulled a face. What if Elsa never got her magic back and therefore stayed in Arendelle for good? It would be goodbye forever; she thought. A tear came out of her eye and ran down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly so that no one would notice it.

“Ready?” Kristoff asked and looked behind him.

“Yes, we can drive off, Kristoff,” Anna said.

“Everybody take care of yourselves, okay?” shouted Honeymaren and raised her hand to say goodbye when Kristoff let the wagon start to roll.

“You too, Maren!” called Elsa back and waved to her.

“So, Sven, take us all home,” Kristoff called to Sven and he joyfully made a leap forward, which carried Olaf with verve between the surprised sisters and made him laugh out loud.

“I love such carriage rides,” Olaf raved and grinned at them.

When they were almost out of sight, Honeymaren was still standing there motionless, her gaze directed into the distance. Then she sank to her knees and started sobbing unrestrainedly.

~~~

---

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment if you liked the story, I would be pleased to read your opinions, even criticisms. If you want to be tagged as soon I publish the next chapter please let me know, except you are already tagged :-)

Credits : Many thanks to HARU (@ xlayers) for the commissioned fantastic fanart! There will be some more from this outstanding artist in the coming chapters! 

Remarks: Don't be confused that Anna still wears her Frozen II outfit in this fanart. HARU haven’t created the outfit with her new jacket yet and i hope we'll see this one day. But Anna’s wearing it in my story.

Tagging: @karma26 @whether-near-to-me-or-far @annaofthenorthernlights @igotelsapregnanthelp

#frozen #frozen2 #frozen3 #fanfic #epic novel #the broken bridge #part two #chapter 12 #bigfrozenfan

[shinidamachu]

What are some of your favorite InuYasha fanfiction stories? 😙

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE THE VERY FIRST PERSON TO ASK ME THIS QUESTION! PLEASE, CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINKS TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE:

Light Me a Lantern by @inuyashasforest: a lot of feelings for this one. It was the first Inukag multichapter fanfic I have ever read and boy am I glad I did. It’s a must read. I don’t know how Hanyo no Yashahime will fall into the Inuyasha universe, but if it turns out to be garbage, I’m more than happy to accept Light Me a Lantern as canon instead. Send tweet.

Little by Little by @little-known-artist: cutest post-canon fanfic in all land! It will make you smile. It will make you laugh. It will make you a little horny. That being said, it will also make you cry, but trust me: you’re gonna be grateful for it.

You Rescued Me by @keichanz: this fic it’s a party and I’m the piñata, there’s no other way to put it. Heather is a storytelling master, like... she could post her grocery shopping list and I’d be reading the hell out of it!

The Captain and the Hanyo by @goshinote: I love the whole premise of this fic and how much effort Jane puts in every detail. It’s like I’m living in it and I wish I was. It’s the story I’m currently reading and it’s so, so sweet and exciting!

Cruel Summer by @akitokihojo: you know shit is about to go down when Angie drops a Taylor Swift song titled fic. Now that Folklore is out I’m honestly scared for my life.

Pennies and Dimes by @witchygirl99:  SOMEONE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TURN THIS INTO A MOVIE PLEASE AND THANK YOU! (part one)

Delicate by @akitokihojo: SOMEONE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TURN THIS INTO A MOVIE PLEASE AND THANK YOU! (part two)

A Night to Remember by @angelhartsblog: I want you to close your eyes. Now I want you to think about the perfect Inukag first time. Open your eyes. Did you think about A Night To Remember? No? That’s because you haven’t read it yet, pal. What are you waiting for?

The Gorgon and the Dog Demon by @cstormsinukagblog​: I’m in too deep HELP!

Mating Fever by @clearwillow: let’s face it, this one is a classic already! The concept of this story was executed so well. Nothing was held back. You can tell Carra had as much fun writing it as we had reading it.

Pretending To Pretend by splendentgoddess: IF BOTH THE LAST HARD COPY OF THIS FIC AND MY COUSIN WERE ON FIRE... I’d still save my cousin but only because I reread Pretending to Pretend so many times I could probably write it down again myself, word for word. Also, my mom would never let me hear the end of it. But, like... it’s still a close one.

Bakin’ Cakes/Patty-Cake by @artistefish​: if I had two lives to give to Bloodhound and Kitten then two lives I’d give them.

Risks by @stoatsandweasels: THE CHARACTERIZATION, THE DIALOGUES, THE SMUT... Definition of *chef’s kiss*. The stars really aligned for this one, let me tell ya. Good. Fucking. Food.

Cam You See Me? by @keichanz​: Smut Queen at her best. LONG LIVE!

Inuyasha: Prince of Thieves by @starlingchildgazingatthestars: I feel like this fic should be written on a very big, very old, hard covered book. And someone should read it to me every night before I go to sleep. Every new chapter deepens the plot and the character so much. I’m hooked.

Belief/Resist by @dangerouspompadour​: my first thought on it was “man, I wish I could leave a thousand kudos” because it’s one of my favorite tropes ever and the story was told with such delicacy and honesty. Nailed their personalities to their cores.

Freak Attraction/Freak Attraction: Seven-Man Circus by @artistefish: this fic is the epitome of galaxy brain. How do someone eve come up with something so incredible? The world building is so fucking good, are you kidding me?

Oblivion by @meggz0rz: this one needs no comments... But I’m gonna comment anyway: talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spetacular, never-the-same, totally unique.

Beautiful Stranger by splendentgoddess: WHAT A RIDE, MY FRIENDS! BUCKLE THE FUCK UP!

Missing by @ajoy3fanfics: it’s called ‘missing’ because after you finish the whole thing you just miss it so fucking much! I remember how obsessed with it I became, refreshing the page for updates. I was a woman possessed. I spent about 80% of my time talking about this fic, and the other 20% of the time, I was praying for someone else to bring it up so I could talk about it more.

The Delinquent Boyfriend by @artistefish: book one of Inukag Holy Bible.

Out Of The Woods by @dyaz-stories: okay so there are only two chapters so far but the plot it’s captivating as hell! And the writing it’s flawless. If you haven’t read it yet, please do and tell Dya I sent you and I miss her ass.

Guardian by @ruddcatha​: my nerdy ass feels seen and represented.

Knit and Lace by @doginabirdcage: if you’re part of the Inukag fandom you’re legally obligated to read this fanfic. This is not even a joke. Do you know someone who hasn’t read it? No! And you shouldn’t because it’s fucking awesome.

Call You Mine by @lavendertwilight89​: every word on this is a drop of dopamine I swear.

Enchanted by @akitokihojo: I was in the middle of studying for one of the most important tests of my life when Enchanted came around. Was it insane of me to drop everything to read it? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes.

The Half Breed’s Wife by @gypsin: I’m gonna be honest here, this better update before I die otherwise I’m simply not going. RIP to everyone who will pass away without knowing how The Half Breed’s Wife ends but I’m different.

The It Couple by @meggz0rz: OH, YEAH,THE COOL KID OF FANFICS! *Vogue by Madonna starts playing*

It's About Time by @akitokihojo: first fic by Angie I have ever read! Flashback to two-years-ago me picking her chin off the floor. I still can believe I could read this for free? It feels wrong that I could, but also, like: thank God!

The Maid and the Bodyguard by @dyaz-stories: this is the fic you want to take home to your mama. You’d get on one knee for this fic. You’d buy it a diamond ring. You’d profess my undying love for it and you’d spend the rest of your life trying to prove to this fic I’m worthy of it.

Something Real by Angelica Pierce: so this is one of the best oneshots I have ever read in my entire life. It is also the one and only work signed by this author known to mankind. Which I take as a personal offense. To me. Personally.

Mars and Venus by @doginabirdcage: have you ever read something so clever you’re mad about it? Like HOW DARE YOU BE SO SMART? Genius, really. I read it so long ago and it blows me away to this day.

I Knew You Before I Met You by @keichanz: book two of Inukag Holy Bible.

House Mates by honeybee31: “and they were roommates.” “OH MY GOD, THEY WERE ROOMMATES!” Domestic Inukag? In my fic rec? It’s more likely than you think.

The Language He Speaks by @akitokihojo​: if I was half as beautiful as this fic... I’d be kissing so many mouths... The possibilities...

Fingertips by @shinjiteflorana: this is the level of writing I aspire to achieve someday.

PS: I could never, in a billion years, rank these fanfiction, so please keep in mind they are in no way ordered by personal preference. I just love them all. Also, I’m messy.

PS²: believe it or not, I really tried to narrow this down. If I were to tag every Inuyasha fanfiction I love ever, it would get insane huge. This is a not exhaustive, very humble list of my favorites as requested above and I had to draw the line somewhere, otherwise I’d just keep going forever.

PS³: I’ll never get tired of saying that this fandom is crazy talented! Making this fic rec was so hard because there are so many awesome creators out there putting out new content for us every single day. I would like you to know that, even if I had to leave some works out, I appreciate and support each one of them. Thank you so much for keeping the Inuyasha fandom alive!

PS⁴: if you’re reading this, feel free to recommend or tag me in Inuyasha fanfics. Add some of your favorites to this post. Give the authors some love!

#There are SO MANY fanfics I want to start reading but didn’t have the time yet #That’s a topic for another ask tho so if any of you are interested in finding out which ones I have on my to-read list come to my inbox #I’ll be happy to tell you #Anyway I hope I have satisfied your curiosity anon #Thank you for asking now come fangirl about these absolute jams with me #Gosh this took a while #Fic rec

[camxnoel-updates]

[PREVIEW OF CAMERON’S INTERVIEW FOR GRUMPY MAGAZINE]

Cameron Monaghan reflects on his rise to stardom with Liana Liberato

  Cameron Monaghan is the type of actor who has proved throughout his many years working in the industry that he can do it all. As he just turned 27, Monaghan has claimed his own space at the forefront of a generation of actors committed to telling stories that are relevant to today’s society. Growing up in Florida, Cameron has been climbing the steady road to success for over 20 years, diving into television, film, and now video games. He was that deeply disturbed kid in cult sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, and had screen time with Hollywood royal Meryl Streep in The Giver. But his major break came when he was cast as Ian Gallagher in Showtime’s Shameless and became a fan favorite. Since, his outstanding performances have been critically acclaimed, including his interpretation of “the Joker” in FOX’s Gotham.

At the beginning of the lockdown, Cameron connected over the phone with his longtime friend Liana Liberato — who he came up in the business with — to recall their first audition together and reflect on his eclectic career — discussing his most iconic roles in TV shows Shameless and Gotham, as well as his recent acting experience on video game Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. It was 2PM in Los Angeles — on the other end of the line, Cameron cheerfully greeted his pal with a mischievous ‘‘Liana, it’s 2:03PM. This is unacceptable and so unprofessional.’’ The actress apologized before adding, ‘‘Do you regret asking me to do this?’’ This was a clue about their great complicity, and Cameron’s warm and jovial personality — to the point he started flipping the interview to question Liana as well.

On growing up in Florida, influences, and first approach to acting…

“I was very young when I started. My mom was a single parent who worked two jobs, so she did her best for me. But that meant that I spent a long time by myself, entertaining myself with movies and TV. I was a hyper kid and I didn’t really focus well, so my mom got me involved with local community theater and commercials. She needed something to put my energy to and I actually really enjoyed doing it. […] I grew up in the 90s and one of the movies that blew my mind as a kid was The Matrix. I would play on the playground, pretending to be the characters from it. We would fight each other — which we probably shouldn’t have done. As for actors, I was very strange. I really liked Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Gary Oldman, William H. Macy — who I actually ended up working with for many years on Shameless.”

On his evolution as an actor…

“When I was younger, I was so much more interested in how the plot functions, and some of the mechanisms of that. As I get older, what interests me more is humanity, how characters interact, what it’s trying to say about how we relate to each other, how characters change over the course of the story. I think that a really well-written relationship, saying something interesting about a person’s morality, or what they do in a time of struggle, is so much more interesting to me now than any amount of tools or special effects. […] I love when you’re able to have a story where the characters are so well-defined. There’s something really enjoyable about that, and some sort of emotional catharsis in that. I feel like the reason why we do our job, why we become activists or artists, is to express the stuff that is somewhat broken or challenging.”

On signing onto Shameless at 15 and evolving with a character for a decade…

“I had a pretty even ranking of success. I wasn’t one of those kids who became really successful at a super young age and get all of this responsibility, money, and fame thrust on them at one time. I was lucky that I spent enough time around people who made smart decisions. Also, all the people who I worked with on the show were really supportive and interesting. I learned a lot from them too. We formed a little family who we’re all still tight with. We all support each other and call each other out when they’re making bad decisions. […] I still feel like I’m learning so much and growing as a person. Some of the times, the character was going through specific struggles and those struggles happened prior to me in my own life, or sometimes some of my own personal things were then reflected back within the character. Being able to put that and have a symbiotic relationship with your character over the course of the decade, it’s a really interesting exercise, and something that I’m lucky to be able to have done.”

On why Shameless is so important to today’s society…

“It’s interesting because when the show came on air 11 years ago, the landscape of American television was a little bit different. Now with all the streaming platforms, there’s so much more about family dynamics that are more uncensored, and speak more frankly about sexuality, poverty… When you’re 15-16 years old, talking really openly about things like sexuality, and maturing through adolescence, is an interesting thing. It was a little bit scary at first, but it was also something that I’m really happy to have been able to do. It allowed me to reflect on myself, learn, and become comfortable with who I am. […] I’ve heard from a number of teenagers who were gay, in the closet, or struggling to come to terms with certain things that my character or other characters in the show really reflected what they were going through. That’s always amazing to be able to hear about that.”

On taking on the role of the Joker in Gotham…

“A lot of times, I would finish up on the set of Shameless, get on the plane, land in New York, and literally go straight from the plane to work on Gotham. While I loved the Shameless set, crew, and the cast, it is nice to be able to always experience other things outside of it. You learn so much each time you step foot on a different set. […] When I filmed my first episode of Gotham, it was just a few years after Heath Ledger played the role in The Dark Knight and won the Oscar. He became the most iconic person to touch that role. That’s saying something considering he was following Jack Nicholson. No one else had played that role since then up to that point. That was intimidating, but it was also really exciting and a huge honor. I liked what they were trying to do with the character. It was something very different, and distinct from the movies and the media that had come before. It was a really unique opportunity.”

On diving into the world of video games with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order…

“I had never done a video game before. I’ve played games for most of my life, and I’ve really appreciated how they’ve matured and grown over the last decade. Right now is an interesting time as an actor, because so much is based off of media that people are familiar with, and there’s a challenge. You have to take that, and make stuff that still feels human and still says something about you as a person. That’s my interest with it — trying to see if there’s something about the character in a story that raises interesting questions, because otherwise what’s the point of doing it? […] We had a lot of really great and wonderful conversations with the creative team, our writers, Lucasfilm story group, and all of the actors about what we wanted to say. So much of that story is about dealing with trauma, guilt, and things that were out of your control when you were younger or in your life. Pretty much every character in the story has experienced loss — how they grieve, or how they come to cope with the loss defines them as a character. Being able to access the story from that angle was what made me want to do the job.”

On dealing with the level of heartbreak and rejection inside the industry…

“There is a certain level of […] all of these things that you do have to learn how to deal with. Ultimately, it takes a certain level of acceptance and trust in yourself. I want to represent the things that I value, and the things that I find interesting and important. Right now too, with all the quarantine and the fact that we, as actors, don’t have the ability to work, it is very frustrating. It’s difficult, but I think all you can really do is try to either make opportunities for yourself, or work on yourself. I know for me, I’m writing and talking to friends who are trying to do stuff. […] I think that I’ll probably be an actor for the majority of my life, unless I get to the point where I either fall out of love with it, or if I feel like I can’t perform to the best of my abilities.”

FULL CONVERSATION AND STORY WILL APPEAR IN GRUMPY MAGAZINE’S ISSUE NO.16.

#i adore him!! #i'm excited to read the whole interview! #hope it comes out soon!!! #cameron monaghan #shameless #shameless us #ian gallagher #star wars #jedi fallen order #star wars jedi fallen order #cal kestis #gotham #jerome valeska #jeremiah valeska #mr j #the joker

[stoppingby]

okayyyy we know what time it is pals!! here are my comments on episode 4 of the bad batch!! (sorry if i’m annoying w this i just find it fun to share my thoughts as the weeks go along, if only for me to look back on later)

this episode was definitely somewhat of filler and didn’t lead to as much theorizing or new plot points as episode 3, but it was a great opportunity for the other members of the bad batch besides hunter to show off some of their personality and for the bad batch to work as a team! i’m getting the sense that the episodes are sort of going in a plot development/character or world development pattern like every other episode. echos sass stole the show for me in this episode and i love how he can sort of disguise himself as a droid!

omega being so trusting and starting to learn more about how the world around her actually works is always fascinating because it’s like seeing the whole star wars universe from an outside perspective. i think fennecs lesson to omega that it’s okay to break the rules sometimes is going to come back to either bite her in the ass or help the whole bad batch sometime soon!

speaking of fennec- the more of her i see the more i love her! i think she has a moral code and way of going about her missions that really sets her apart from other bounty hunters we know in a very good way somewhat similar to din so i’m thrilled to see how they continue to interact in mando! also- fennec just looks hot as fuck and awesome she’s such a baddie. she knocked out wrecker w one move which was wild!! (wrecker and omegas moment right before that has me emotional)

on a wrecker note - i can’t tell if this repeated head trauma is going to add to the possibility that his chip will activate or not. there was really no talk of chips this episode at all so we can stick a pin in that for now.

my favorite part of this episode was seeing the pantorans cheering for the empire and starting to see how the end of the war is being perceived and the way that imperial policies and propaganda are being implemented in the aftermath of the clone wars. i really hope this concept continues to be the focus of the show - i think it’s a much more important and interesting thing to explore than concepts we’ve seen before a million times (ehem please don’t make omega force sensitive i don’t feel like we need any jedi in this show and it would distract from what’s new about the series)

okay these are getting long af jeez! i’ll see you all next week :)

#ali talks #ali watches the bad batch #the bad batch #the bad batch spoilers #star wars

[blurhawaii]

yuletide 2021

dear yuletide writer,

hello and happy yuletide! my letters get longer and longer every year as i’m still terrible at putting what i like into words. just know that the prompts are just suggestions–if you’ve got something else in mind, go for it.

likes:

dysfunctional relationships eg. codependency, messed up father/son dynamics, enemies to lovers, power imbalances.

vulnerability in men, uncertain intimacy.

UST, slow burn, first times.

magical realism/cosmic horror. weird hints of it in an otherwise normal universe.

redemption arcs.

found family.

big loyalty kink. love it when trust is earned and kept.

praise kink.

open and honest communication between partners.

polyamory. it’s the journey of them getting together and making it work that interests me the most. or how a couple goes about bringing in a third person.

stories set in canon. or a divergence of canon. fix-it fics.

dark/bleak fics. don’t be afraid to drag characters through the mud. happy endings are welcome but i like the struggle.

i’m fine with anything from gen to porn but would be happiest with something in the middle.

canon typical violence is fine and to be expected from some of my choices.

characters and their relationships are more important than plot for me.

dislikes:

AUs that are completely disconnected from canon e.g. high school, coffee shop AUs.

established relationships

crossovers

genderbending

feminisation of male characters

fics that are entirely fluff

A/B/O fics

PWP

mpreg

first person fics (i have no problem with second person fics tho if you think that could work.)

The Departed (2006)

*Billy Costigan               *Sean Dignam

one of my favourite films ever. i request it every year so you can't really go wrong with this as i'm just thirsty for anything.

most of my love is for dignam and his tough love attitude towards his job and the undercovers he's responsible for. i am endlessly endeared by his wild card quality, expletive fueled speech and hair trigger temperament. the father/son relationship with queenan contrasted against billy’s father/son relationship with queenan. his complete disregard for everyone else in that office, especially sullivan. and despite all of that, it's obvious that he cares. i don't think you could do a job like that and not care in some way, and it’s those few and rare moments where we see him soften around billy --we need you, pal-- that's what i would like to see more of. that juxtaposition of good cop/bad cop all coming from the same guy. shipping fic is preferred but whatever you are comfortable with is fine. due to the nature of the film i am perfectly comfortable with violence and the screwed up relationship they are bound to have. the friction born of the situation vs the fact that they need each other to get through this is what i am all about.

things that really get me with these two: codependency, power imbalances, the enemies to lovers trope, vulnerability, loyalty.

prompts:

fics where billy survives are my usual go-to. i'd love something that explores the angst of billy's ‘where the hell were you when i needed you’ reaction towards dignam following that ending.

i’ve wasted a lot of time thinking about the line --why don’t we meet up, sweetheart, let me buy you an ice cream. the jokey seriousness of it just kills me. if you can somehow write that happening in a believable, in character fic you would earn my eternal respect. whether that’s a clandestine meeting during billy’s undercover period or some kind of post-film scenario where dignam makes good on his promises, i have no idea.

daemon au - very curious how this would impact going undercover. daemons expressing feelings that the characters otherwise can’t. and the intimacy of touching/comforting each other’s daemons is an absolute favourite trope of mine.

soulmate au - either having their names on each other or their first words, this interests me particularly here for the same reason the daemon au does because i’d love to see how this would work in a universe where you’re going undercover.

time loop/groundhog day fic - there’s a lot things i think both of them would love to change about how everything plays out during the film, and it kind of makes a lot of sense to have billy’s survival be the pivotal thing triggering the loop.

Locke (2013) *Ivan Locke                    *Donal

i think this film is an underappreciated masterpiece. a hour and a half long car ride that's completely compelling, to the point of being mesmerising, and it's all down to tom hardy and his welsh accent that's not even welsh. of all the relationships torn down, strengthened, and tentatively started, it's the one between ivan and donal that interests me the most. we’re given just enough background information to know there is a history between the two.

i love the way donal effectively gets promoted to right hand man simply because he's the only one still there willing to take ivan's call. it creates an immediate us vs them vibe that i really enjoy. we’re shown that there's a level of trust there, on top of the more intimate knowledge of donal's capacity to get drunk on the job--this has clearly been a problem before--but ivan still trusts him enough to get his baby of a building built when he can't be there personally, and that fascinates me. as ivan says, donal's a good man and everything is going to turn out okay in the end.

but we don’t actually get a lot of closure since the film ends very much in a lurch. and i can't bring myself to see the ending in a positive light. a baby with a woman he doesn't particular like is not a recipe for a fresh start and i simply cannot see ivan not following up on the progress of his building.

i do ship it and if you feel like taking it in that direction i would be totally into that. i guess i'm just looking for something post-film with these two, dealing with all the fallout the film sets up.

prompts:

i love the way ivan is always struggling to do what is right, while acknowledging he’s majorly fucked everything up. all the times he talks to his dad’s overbearing shadow shows how much weight he puts in legacies and being a better generation than the last. if the baby doesn’t work out donal often strikes me as someone who needs--not fixing per say--but needing help to keep him on a straight line. he’s one bad day away from a driving ban, as it is, and i’d love to see how ivan might view him as something he can pour his misplaced focus into, having lost his grasp on everything else.

i have this image of ivan sleeping on donal's couch because his wife won't take him back, bethan realises she just wants the baby and not him, he's lost his job and he has nowhere else to go and so he's just backseat driving the construction of his building through donal’s vague connection to it. you've got this man who's lost everything and a pseudo-alcoholic just wallowing together, maybe clinging to the idea that with the success of this building maybe they can fix themselves too.

The Alienist (TV) *Laszlo Kreizler                  *Sara Howard

i’m a big fan of the overall darkness of this show. the seedy underbelly of crime and violence, the murder mystery and the coming together of these mismatched people to hunt down a killer.

it excels at relationships between broken and traumatized characters and i love how readily it dives into the psychological aspects of them, often leading to glimpses of vulnerability which is the main goldmine for me here, especially concerning laszlo. he has such a dog-with-a-bone way of psychoanalysing everyone else but turns vicious when anyone tries to turn it back around on him, and i love how sara is usually the one pushing back.

watching the first season i was very much obsessed with the relationship between all three of the main characters, john included. i think i actually have the first ot3 fic for them on ao3 because my brain took one look at them and just clicked. and while i still love this dynamic, the second season took the time to really highlight the relationship between laszlo and sara, separate from john, and shows just how much growth they had between seasons.

i love how they went from lashing out at each other constantly on both personal and professional fronts, to seemingly having a standing appointment where they drink scotch in sara’s office and enjoy intelligent, somewhat bitchy conversations, while also offering each other the clumsiest, sweetest comforts. they’re just so supportive of each other throughout the second season, such as laszlo telling sara that her father would be proud of her and the multiple occasions that sara defends laszlo and his work at the institute. i would love to just see more of that.

prompts:

if you’re also interested in the ot3, feel free to throw hints of john into the mix. but i’d prefer it to be in the background for this. maybe lazslo and sara commiserate over john pulling away from them both with his relationship with violet. be that with open communication over drinks in sara’s office. i can definitely see them trying to one up each other by prodding where the other hurts over it, as they both still have the tendency to be bastards to each other when they’re hurting.

i love them being platonic friends but i’m also fascinated by how awkward they both are when confronted with anything sexually intimate or slightly kinky. both of them can talk the talk but not walk the walk and i’d kind of love to see them hesitantly coming together to have some of the most awkward but tender sex imaginable.

maybe a case requires sara to fake a relationship and laszlo is the only choice available. having to put their building trust and new emotional understanding up against this fake version of themselves. and maybe they end up blurring the lines along the way.

i am a sucker for magic tricks and laszlo allowing that kid to put a rope around his neck did a lot for me in a number of not so innocent ways. sara clearly found the other tricks endearing and so maybe just a quiet piece where laszlo practices a trick on sara and charming her. maybe it’s another trick that puts him in a vulnerable position and sara acknowledges how far they have come.

a little odd and very specific but HANDS. so many of my favourite moments involve their hands and, along with the added victorian stuffiness, it comes across as strikingly intimate every time they touch hands. from the not so good moment of laszlo slapping sara, to them pouring each other drinks, to him gently lifting her wrist while she’s deep under hypnosis, to them walking into john’s engagement party arm in arm, to laszlo gripping sara’s arm in terror as they race to the hospital. and my absolute favourite time being laszlo drunkenly beckoning sara down from her window. maybe a kind of 5+1 fic about other the times they’ve touched hands and then more.

The North Water (TV)

*Patrick Sumner                   *Henry Drax

admittedly i watched this looking for another ‘the terror’ which was unfair for a start but still couldn’t help colouring my opinion. and unfortunately my love for weird supernatural elements turning up in otherwise normal situations meant i was always going to find something lacking in this show, when compared to ‘the terror.’ nevertheless, i did enjoy it. and this was mostly because of the fucked up relationship between sumner and drax.

every time they were on screen together i was enthralled. the size difference, the height difference, sumner’s prissy attitude against drax’s complete and utter disregard for everyone else. we get mutual dick touching, face cupping, stabbing, tending of wounds, murder threats, drax watching sumner sleep, sumner dreaming about drax stroking his hair, and weirdly civil conversations about morality and the nature of man both before and after said murder attempts.

so basically what i want is just more of them being creepily into each other.

with this one I'm definitely interested in the more darker parts of their relationship, both sexual and not, as i do ship it. if we got matched on this fandom then i would hope that means you’re at least somewhat comfortable delving into that dark aspect, if not the sexual part of it. i’m fine with anything happening between them straying into dubcon territory, i just ask that it not fully cross over into noncon.

prompts: 

there’s an inherent intimacy in tending to someone’s wounds and drax certainly goes out of his way to make every interaction as sexually charged as possible while also just oozing menace. i honestly screamed when he smelled the clean bandage while towering over sumner. so maybe drax hurts himself a lot working as a harpooner and goes to sumner every time and get increasingly creepier about it.

sumner continues to try and prove himself to the crew with some of the more hands-on jobs on the ship. maybe he thinks his surgeon skills mean he’ll be good at skinning seals but he’s wrong. cue drax putting a knife in sumner’s hand and then using his own meaty hand to guide his cuts in the proper way. bonus points for this being after sumner already suspects him, and they both know it. just drax teaching sumner things while being his horrible, intimidating self.

anything after the ship goes down and they’re stranded on the ice. drax being manacled throughout and sumner taking it upon himself to be drax’s keeper in the hopes that he can still see him be served justice in the end. even if that means keeping close, sharing their warmth and sleeping side by side. each one thinking the power balance has shifted in their favour and the different times where they are wrong about that.

maybe instead of the ending, they both learn the whole truth about the plan to sink the ship and also about later being manipulated into killing each other. instead they team up and go after baxter together. i was very much fascinated by sumner’s will graham-esque decent into darkness by the end, even showing up at baxter’s door all prettied up and well dressed for murder. would love something about drax also enjoying this turn, maybe he stands to the side and lets sumner do all the work, content to watch.

The Hangover (Movies)

*Phil Wenneck                     *Stu Price

this is somewhat of a bonus request for me. i wasn’t planning on it but i noticed someone else had nominated it and thought what the hell. they’re comfort films for me, something i put on in the background while i do other things.

at some point i stumbled on a fic for these two and it stuck in my brain until i started shipping them too. now whenever i watch these films i can’t help but notice how much they touch each other, and how phil’s dislike for stu’s girlfriends can easily be read as jealousy. plus i am completely enamoured by the proud look phil gives stu when he finally stands up for himself at the end of the first film, it reads very much as love.

dysfunctional and codependent pretty much covers all the relationships in these films. feel free to lean into that. they’re both kind of assholes but i think that only makes them more compatible to be honest.

prompts:

because of the nature of these films they usually only have each other to rely on and obviously have a long history we’re not ever really shown but understand immediately. the friends to lovers trope could work here. maybe something started when they were younger but now things have changed, they’re older, they have girlfriends, etc. life got in the way but maybe getting black out drunk is the only way they feel like they can still fool around with the guilt.

i also love the trope where the conventionally attractive one is in love with the less conventionally attractive one--it probably doesn’t take a genius to figure out why that is--but it fits perfectly here. as well as jerk characters that are soft for someone in particular. maybe a 5+1 fic for all the times phil tried to make a move but stu didn’t believe him.

#yuletide #yuletide 2021

[edorazzi]

It’s the post everyone’s been waiting for! 

It’s taken a little while for me to get around to this, but it’s worth it for being able to make a full reaction post. This is really long so I’ll put it under a cut, but check it out for my complete scene-by-scene reaction of Miraculous’ “Felix” episode! (´∀｀)♡

Okay, I’ve been putting this off for days now so it’s time to finally get to it. I’m comfy and undisturbed and have my supplies ready to go.

I know next to nothing about what I’m going into. I’ve seen a little bit here and there because some people haven’t tagged their content properly, but I haven’t watched either of the trailers. I haven’t even looked directly at the images of Felix which have been going around. I’ve tried to stay as blind as possible, so as a result I’m pretty excited but also very anxious. I’ve taken two beta blockers today and I’m considering taking a third.

I usually liveblog episodes on our Ladybug PV Discord server (message me for an invite!) but this time I’m making a proper post out of it. I’ll be typing up my reactions as I go then cleaning everything up a little bit afterwards. I think it’s the first time I’ve done something like this on my blog so here goes!

- “Script: Thomas Astruc” NO. HE REALLY COULDN’T JUST STEP AWAY FROM THIS EPISODE GRACEFULLY, COULD HE. HE HAD TO GET HIS HANDS DIRTY. I’m not going to say “fuck this man” but, you know, identical sentiments. I’m opening my chocolate bar.

- God, Emilie looks more like ET every time I see her. Such an awkward model.

- Oh but wait, Sébastien Thibaudeau was on the script? That does actually give me some hope! Next to Zag himself he’s the only writer on this mess of a show I trust. HE FIXED WAYHEM, CAN HE DO FELIX A SOLID TOO? PLEASE. PLEASE SÉBASTIEN OL BUDDY OL PAL OL FRIENDA MINE

- Does Gabe have anything else to say to his wife other than monologuing his Miraculous plan over and over? They say people in comas can still hear things but Emilie’s probably double unconscious from how boring her husband is.

- DON’T LIKE THAT KNIFE SOUND EFFECT FROM THOSE RINGS. Am I supposed to find it sweet that Gabe’s taking such good care of their wedding bands or is he about to use them for evil? Also where’s Felix.

- ADRIEN SWEETHEART. I maintain that it’s weird to have a statue of your wife/mother/self in your own garden but it kills me that he’s just sitting there in front of it like a lost kitten.

- “Of course, someone will get you right away.” IS THAT FELIX. WAS SHE ON THE PHONE TO FELIX. WHERE’S MY SON, NATHALIE HAVE YOU SEEN MY SON

- That wide-eyed look Adrien turns up towards the window is killing me even more. I’M SO SAD. I see he also hasn’t noticed he’s sitting in the middle of a giant butterfly circle, unless he’s so used to it being Gabe’s logo that he’s just not paying it any mind. When was this all built? Has Gabe always used a butterfly motif even before he got his Miraculous and it was just a great coincidence, or did he commission this whole garden area after Emilie went missing? I guess you could pass it off as eccentricity but in the real world that would be a HUGE red flag that Gabe murdered her. I dunno man.

- DON’T WAVE AT HIM LIKE THAT, NATHALIE. YOU RATTED HIM OUT IN 5 SECONDS IN THAT THEORETICAL FUTURE WHERE YOU DISCOVERED HE WAS CHAT NOIR. YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS BOY. >:V

- “It’s been one year.” HAS IT? Hasn’t Adrien been at school for at least a year now? Didn’t his mom vanish two years prior to that?! Maybe she’s talking about how long Gabe has been fighting Ladybug and Chat Noir but knowing this show’s messy timeline it could be anything. WHERE’S FELIX.

- That’s the song from Chat Blanc! Was that something his mom taught him? OH NO, I’M EVEN SADDER NOW. This is what I mean about Sébastien’s writing, we’d never get this kind of focus on Adrien from Garbage Man Astruc. This kind of character exploration does wonders for ML whenever it’s brought up so I hope this is consistent.

- SHIT, GABRIEL’S OUT OF THE HOUSE. SOMETHING’S WRONG. THOSE EXPENSIVE LEATHER SHOES HAVEN’T TOUCHED ACTUAL GROUND IN YEARS. ADRIEN GET OUT OF THERE.

- I do like that Adrien doesn’t get up when his dad comes to stand right next to him like that. It’s just informal enough. He’s waiting for Gabe to make the first move this time and that’s nice development considering how stiff and cold their relationship was in S1.

- OOOOH GABE THAT’S AN AWKWARD CROUCH. Any lower down and his back is going to go. He’ll be stuck there. I do LOVE that he’s trying though, I don’t even know what he’s going to say to Adrien but this is already SO good.

- “There’s something important I have to talk to you about.” Finally time for The Talk, huh.

- GABE PLEASE. ADRIEN’S WAY TOO CHIRPY TO HAVE ACTUALLY CAUGHT ON TO WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO SAY. HE THINKS YOU’RE TRYING TO SAY YOU LOVE HIM OR SOMETHING ELSE RIDICULOUS

- “I’ve noticed how close you and Nathalie have become!” CLOSE ENOUGH. Still in the ballpark of Adrien thinking his dad has real human feelings! 

- “HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK SUCH A THING??” I GENUINELY LAUGHED OUT LOUD AT HOW ANGRY GABE WAS ABOUT THAT. I’m not sure what to think of the “Nathalie replacing Emilie when Emilie’s technically still alive” plot either but GABE’S DECIDED FOR ME. Also good job yelling in your son’s face when you were JUST having a moment, good luck getting back up off your knees in order to storm away, old man.

- Oh alright, he did get up, but it was with a strange angry bow-legged prance. I think he still had trouble.

- I love the way Adrien just kinda wide-eye-blinks at him, like Gabe’s emotional outburst is going totally over his head. He’s been dealing with akuma FAR too long to be bothered by this.

- Guests, plural? I’m guessing Felix is one of them but is he with someone else? That makes sense given he’s (as far as I’ve gathered) the same age as Adrien so he wouldn’t be running around far from home unchaperoned, but OHHH this is so interesting.

- So they ARE claiming it’s been one year since Emilie vanished! This just doesn’t work as a Season 3 episode, especially with Nathalie and Gabe’s romantic development being as far along as it is. Emilie’s been gone for at LEAST three years by this point! Read your show bible once in a while you horrible garbage man!!! Also ADRIEN SWEETHEART THAT’S A LITTLE PREMATURE. You can say “went away forever” when you’re three years into her disappearance, the anniversary of one year really isn’t long enough to claim she’s never coming back!

- OH NO, IT’S THE GIRLS. I’m already bored. Unless Luka is here I really just do not care what they’re all up to. I haven’t missed Marinette at ALL in the first two-and-a-half minutes and I don’t want to see her now. WHERE’S FELIX.

- I’m sorry, how are Lila, Chloé AND Kagami all on a video call together without any blood being drawn? Also for god’s sake PLEASE leave Adrien alone, you want to ask first if he’d LIKE some company or if he’d prefer a quiet personal day to think about his mom? OF COURSE NOT MARINETTE, YOU WOULDN’T WOULD YOU. 

- Okay, a video message is definitely a better idea than trying to break into his house AGAIN. At least then he can watch it whenever he feels up to it. The first good, safe, noninvasive idea Mari’s had for SEVERAL episodes when it comes to Adrien.

- I’M REALLY TORN WHEN IT COMES TO THE ENGLISH DUB. On one hand I hate how little screentime Nino has when he’s not just being Alya’s fashion accessory, but on the other hand I’m so glad they switched scenes the moment Nino started his video because I CANNOT handle his dub voice. Nino just deserves better in general really.

- HE WAS CRYING. MY BOY WAS CRYING AGAIN. I’M NOT COOL WITH THIS. IT’S NOT ABOVE YOUR PAYGRADE TO GIVE HIM A HUG, NATHALIE.

- ALRIGHT HI ELSA. IS THIS HIS AUNT? THAT’S SPOOKY. 

- Her name is Amelie? So their parents had twins and named them Amelie and Emilie, and they turned out the same right down to the over-the-shoulder Dead Anime Mom hairstyles? That’s lazy parenting down to a tee, can’t mix your twins up if you never have to learn the difference between them in the first place! But that’s INTERESTING that Felix is (I assume, still haven’t seen him yet) from Emilie’s side of the family, I’ve always had the impression he was a petit Gabriel.

- OHHH THAT’S MY BOY! I CAN SEE MY BOY IN THE DOORWAY!!! OH MY GOD GIVE HIM TO ME. GIVE ME FELIX. GIVE ME MY SON.

- ADRIEN IMMEDIATELY JUMPING ON HIM IN A HUG IS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. WHILE FELIX’S HAND IS STILL OUTSTRETCHED FOR A HANDSHAKE. I know this episode is going to go downhill because there’s no way it won’t, but this one single moment is EVERYTHING I WANTED. I should just close the tab now and leave it at this, I really should.

- “Do you remember when they used to have so much fun pretending to be each other? Once they had you and Emilie fooled for a whole weekend!” WHERE HAS THIS BEEN FOR MY ENTIRE ORDEAL GETTING THROUGH THIS SERIES. I don’t even care if this Felix is a stone cold bitch, it’s enough to know he and Adrien were besties when they were kids and Adrien still wanted to hug him the second he walked through the door. AMAZING.

- “I WON’T BE FOOLED A SECOND TIME.” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, GABE. THEY WERE PROBABLY TODDLERS. ARE YOU JUST SO USED TO GETTING YOUR ASS HANDED TO YOU BY CHILDREN THAT YOU’RE SUSPICIOUS OF EVERY SINGLE ONE NOW

- Aww, Felix is American (dubbed, anyway). I was really hoping he’d be British with all the references to London over the last season. He does have a nice voice though! I can tell he shares Adrien’s actor but he’s got the softness I’d have expected from his character. There’s kind of an interesting look about his face though, I wish they’d tweaked it a bit to give him a sharper look but I guess he IS like 14, he can afford to still have a bit of baby-cheeked roundness. I’m going to find the positives in every part of this because I will NOT give Garbage Man Astruc the satisfaction of being disappointed like I know he wants me to be. It’s been a fucking war from the moment I saw his name in the writing credits and my best weapon is being pleased about everything in this episode.

- Okay, he looks a little better in the following closeup where his eyes are slightly narrowed. I think it’s the slightly-below-the-chin angle which doesn’t really work for his character model with his soft cheeks and high collar. FELIX IS A BABY.

- WHY WILL NOBODY SHAKE HIS HAND. Adrien hugged him instead and Gabe is ignoring him completely, Felix is clearly so perplexed and I love it. He’s fourteen! He’s fourteen and doing his best with social graces but NOBODY WILL HELP HIM.

- “Felix, you know your uncle’s never been the physical sort!” HE KICKED HIS OWN SON RIGHT ACROSS PARIS IN THE LAST EPISODE BUT SURE, IF YOU SAY SO.

- “Oh, how sweet! You’re still wearing your wedding band!” YEAH? IT’S BEEN LIKE A YEAR?? Again this would make more sense if it had been around three years like we KNOW Emilie’s been gone for, but picking someone out for still wearing their ring after 12 months?! And why isn’t Amelie more emotional about this anyway, isn’t it her sister who’s missing? I wouldn’t be poking fun at MY sister’s husband for keeping his ring if SHE went missing. No wonder Felix seems like he turned out weird.

- I CAN’T MAKE OUT THE NAME OF HER BRANCH OF THE FAMILY AND IT’S KILLING ME. SOMEONE LET ME KNOW WHAT THAT WAS. Graham de Vanily? I can’t place the words. I mean I’m going to keep calling Felix “Agreste” no matter what but I’d like to know what canon is trying to get at.

- “It’s been a long journey from London” I KNEW IT, I FFFFFFFFFUCKING KNEW IT. SO THEY ARE BRITISH?! BUT THEY HAVE AMERICAN ACCENTS?! I mean I guess they’re French first and foremost, but what the fuck is with the American accents if you’re making a POINT about them being from London?! I can’t wait for the French audio to be released, I really want to know what Felix sounds like there. Regardless AAAH MY SON IS FROM MY CITY, I’M SO PLEASED.

- “TakeFelixtoyourbedroom.” EASY GABE THEY JUST MET, ALSO THEY’RE COUSINS

- Poor Felix looks so depressed being saddled with Adrien. Sweetie it’s okay, think positive! You could be stuck with Marinette and THAT would be a true nightmare.

- Now why does Felix keep glancing at Gabe? Is there something going on there? Is he suspicious about what happened to his aunt? I can’t imagine he knows anything about the Miraculous so what’s the deal here?

- UuuuuUUUUGH we’re back with the rest of the gang. I’M NOT INTERESTED, SHOW ME MORE FELIX.

- “Help me Tikki! What would you tell a Kwami friend who’s lost their mom?!” You’re talking to a 5000-year-old demigoddess, Mari, I don’t think she’s gonna relate.

- MARI YOU CAN’T CONFESS TO ADRIEN. NOT AFTER CHAT BLANC. GABE WILL LOSE ALL HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TO WRECK THE LOVE SQUARE AND ALSO THE MOON’S GOING TO EXPLODE. WHY ISN’T BUNNIX HERE TO SLAP THE TABLET OUT OF YOUR HANDS

- Should Tikki really be encouraging this?! I have no idea where in the timeline this is supposed to be. Maybe this is at a stage where she doesn’t know Adrien is Plagg’s chosen so there’s no reason to steer Marinette away from bonding with him. Or maybe every episode just plays by its own rules and there’s really no such thing as continuity in this series. I want to see Felix again.

- YANKING AT AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE ON THE OUTER EDGE OF A BOAT ISN’T GOING TO END WELL. DON’T. I do love how :D Alya is about it though, if nothing else I love what a supportive friend she is.

- Oh, the tablet didn’t go into the water! I’m genuinely surprised by that. Though I imagine Felix is going to fuck things up in some way so he’ll probably be the one to destroy the video somehow. We all know the relationship development isn’t allowed to move forward so SOMETHING’S going to happen to it.

- Thank god we’re back to the mansion. I’m surprised and pleased that (for now at least) we’re only getting the girls in small doses and the plot is mainly focused around the Agrestes. Gorizilla is my favourite episode to date and it did a similar thing with allowing Marinette to be a side character for once along an Adrien-centric plotline, so hopefully this episode will be similar. I’m liking its odds so far but who knows what Horrible Garbage Man Astruc has up his sleeve.

- “I’m really sorry I didn’t come to your dad’s funeral.” I’M SORRY WHAT? PARDON ME? THAT’S AN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM I DIDN’T EXPECT. As a side note I love Felix being killer at basketball for some reason, he doesn’t look like the athletic type at ALL but he still made that net over his shoulder without even LOOKING. Goddamn. Can everyone please appreciate how cool my son is!!!

- “My father thought it would be too hard on me, considering everything that’s happened this year.” So Felix lost his dad VERY RECENTLY. OUCH. DON’T LIKE THAT. Or I DO like that because it’s already giving his character some extra depth when we’re still only just getting to know him, but on an emotional level I don’t like that. 

- “He’s very... protective of me.” CHAT BLANC REALLY WAS A HOT MESS OF AN EPISODE WASN’T IT. 

- Now Felix is giving Adrien a hug?! I didn’t see that one coming. My canon Felix would mean it but I don’t quite trust this new Felix yet, he’s probably up to something.

- WHAT A JARRING PIANO TRANSITION. Also why?! What does he have to gain from swiping Adrien’s phone? He’s probably got a terrible roaming plan on his own mobile, that’s always my problem when I go to France. If you truly loved your cousin you’d let him browse Reddit on your phone, Adrien. This is worse than not coming to his dad’s funeral.

- PLAGG KNOWS SOMETHING’S UP. He ought to, in another life he and Felix are STILL dealing with each other.

- Okay I take back what I said about Felix’s voice. Bryce Whatshisface isn’t doing a very good job separating the tones. I can buy that Adrien and Felix sound very similar but their delivery should be completely different! I really do want to watch this in French, I get the feeling it’ll sound much better.

- AH YES, HERE WE GO. I’m getting the feeling this is Garbage Man’s part of the episode. Squished cheese aside, I do like the implication Felix does (or did) card magic and karate. I’m thinking of that Mickey Mouse episode where he vanishes Donald’s car keys with a hand trick except it’s Felix vanishing Marinette’s phone when she’s about to text Adrien or something. I’ve got to draw that.

- “Mind if I take a shower?” WHY, FELIX. I mean I’d probably want to shower too after the London-Paris commute (and I’m sure he’s only going in there to wreak havoc, put food colouring in Adrien’s shampoo bottles or something) but what a weird time to ask!

- I mean Plagg has a point about difficult home situations not justifying bad behaviour (and I feel like that’s not what’s going on, with how he was glaring at Gabe I think he’s behaving like this for some other reason), but Felix’s dad LITERALLY DIED. Like they had a funeral and everything. Emilie is just “missing”. They’re SIMILAR but that’s still a false equivalence because Adrien’s got hope to hold on to and Felix doesn’t.

- So we’re not going to talk about how Felix got into Adrien’s passcode-protected phone? I guess he could have done the fogging-up-the-screen trick from Oblivio. Standing around in a steamy bathroom in three layers of clothing is a great way to sweat yourself out and ruin your hair though, way to get even more gross than a five-hour commute between countries.

- “Of course that idiot has a crush on a superhero!” EASY THERE, MR HOWLING-ON-A-ROOFTOP-BECAUSE-HE-SAW-THE-GIRL-HE-LIKED. WE’VE ALL SEEN THE PV.

- I’ve just noticed Felix has a ring too! I don’t know how I missed that before this scene! That’s NICE. He’s still not allowed to have it on his middle finger (LET HIM SWEAR) but that’s a nod back to Chat Noir which I really appreciate!

- ROSE HAS BEEN ON THE HELIUM. SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT THERE.

- FELIX KNOWS CHLOÉ! THAT’S NICE, THAT’S GOOD. I LIKE THAT. That’s also a really nice little video from her, I love the few small moments we’ve had that affirm she and Adrien really ARE friends, whether she wants to date him or not. 

- OOOH HE DELETED THE VIDEOS. I’m curious about him borrowing Adrien’s clothes too, are they going to dress the same? You’d think Adrien wouldn’t give someone an exact copy of the outfit he’s currently wearing but I genuinely don’t know if he owns anything different. I hope they don’t just use two Adrien models for the rest of the episode, please let me see Felix properly :/

- WHY. HONESTLY, WHY. CAN I PLEASE GET AN EXPLANATION FOR WHY FELIX IS DOING THIS.

- OOOH MARI YOU’RE NOT GONNA LIKE THIS. I can imagine Felix is going to say something nasty and that’ll set the girls off and bring about the akuma of the week. I’m mildly entertained but I’m still not engaged with this idea without any proper explanation. We’d better get something by the end of the episode which justifies what’s made Felix do this, because “he’s just evil lol” would be a reeeeally low move from Garbage Man Astruc. 

- MARI SWEETIE. YOU’VE GOTTA LEARN TO CHECK A ROOM IS EMPTY BEFORE YOU RUN INSIDE AND START FREAKING OUT VERY LOUDLY. LUKA’S HEARD ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. 

- Luka is such a nice character. Why does he get to be so high quality when Felix has been turned into a cheese-smashing phone-stealing gremlin? I mean I KNOW why, but I’d like to think the showwriters are better than this. They’re not, but I’d like to think they are.

- WHAT A VIDEO MESSAGE. I love how Luka’s just sitting there grimacing while Mari speeds off into battle, he doesn’t know what she’s about to do but he knows better than to try stopping her.

- Back with Gabe and Nathalie. Is this what was being foreshadowed when Gabe claimed he wouldn’t be fooled by the boys’ identity switch twice? Is he GOING to be fooled again or will he be the one person who can tell immediately that this isn’t his son? 

- “FELIX.” WOW, HE REALLY WASN’T FOOLED TWICE. RESPECT. He may have trouble getting up off the ground if he sits down too low but he can at least identify his child in a difficult situation like this, props to Gabe this week.

- “All this disappointment might just help us get rid of our unwanted guests!” SHUT YOUR MOUTH, FELIX IS A DELIGHT. The only unwanted guest here is Astruc on the writing team.

- “Felix... I told you that you couldn’t fool me twice.” Way to blow your identity in five seconds Gabe. I guess he hasn’t sent out the akuma yet so this might just be a personal monologue, but he starts addressing his victims directly so often at this stage that I’m really not sure what they can or can’t hear. SHIT’S RISKY.

- OH OKAY, SO HE’S SENDING THIS TRIPLE AKUMA AFTER FELIX? AND/OR ADRIEN, DEPENDING ON HOW HARD IT IS TO TELL THEM APART? I guess that’s what he means by getting rid of their guests, if the house is attacked by a monster (or monsters?) they aren’t going to want to stick around, but I REALLY HOPE YOU’RE TAKING ADRIEN’S WELLBEING INTO ACCOUNT HERE GABE OL BUDDY :/

- “TIKKI, SPOTS ON! MNUURGH” ME TOO MARINETTE. I’M REALLY ONLY 12 MINUTES INTO THIS.

- I’m gonna be honest, I’m not really interested in the girls. I was hoping for a real triple akuma (like Oblivio was apparently Alya and Nino together) but they’re all just villains we’ve seen before. There’s stuff I could comment on here but I just want to see more of Felix, that’s what I’m here for.

- “Nathalie, get Adrien to a safe place far from his cousin!” YOU’RE REALLY JUST GONNA SACRIFICE FELIX LIKE THIS. I guess that makes sense, I WAS complaining during Chat Blanc that Adrien is Gabriel’s weak point, so all things considered I’m not surprised that he’ll protect Adrien but just flat-out wants Felix dead. Fair enough.

- WOW. I THOUGHT ADRIEN WAS GOING TO BE HEROIC AND DEFEND FELIX BUT HE WANTS HIM DEAD TOO. Or was that a double bluff to make the akuma think he MUST be Felix so he can lead them away and keep his cousin safe? He’s just run off with a wild cackle so I’m thinking it’s the latter. HE’S A GOOD BOY AND A TRUE HERO.

- I also find it kind of funny how Nathalie will jump in harm’s way to defend him when there have been INNUMERABLE other episodes of Gabe just setting an akuma directly on Adrien for the hell of it. Maybe because there isn’t really any ‘harm’ here to start with; the three girls’ powers are probably the least violent of all the akuma we’ve seen so far.

- AM I REALLY ABOUT TO SEE FELIX DRESSED AS ADRIEN DOING KARATE. I HOPE HE’S GOOD AT IT.

- OH MY GOD HE IS GOOD AT IT. That’s cool! I was expecting him to totally flop considering how badly his imposter trick went down a few minutes ago, but it’s nice to see he’s as capable at fighting as he is at basketball. When do I get to see his magic card tricks?

- YEAH I FEEL THE SAME PLAGG. WHAT’S EVEN HAPPENING. Not that I think Adrien shouldn’t save Felix, I just want to know WHY Felix felt like he had to do this in the first place! I feel like “can I PLEASE get a waffle” except instead of watching the employees fight I’m watching this episode careening away with no pauses to explain what’s going on.

- FELIX C’MON. STOP CAUSING PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE. I can tell Garbage Man Astruc still has the reins here because causing even MORE trouble even AFTER Adrien saved his ass is a completely illogical course of action. PUT SÉBASTIEN BACK IN THE WRITERS CHAIR.

- “WHICH PART OF THE WORD ‘NO’ DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!” Oh perfect, great, can’t let this episode end without accusing Felix of not respecting consent! That’s a hot button issue and if Garbage Man Astruc can get him on that bandwagon then fans HAVE to hate this character! Great move! Fucking pillock!

- WOW CHAT THAT’S MEAN. I guess accusing Felix of having no friends is justified in the context of the episode but yikes :(

- Was that a flash of humiliation from Felix there? God will one of the writers PLEASE save this character, PLEASE don’t let this episode end without someone getting him out of the Garbage Man’s big meaty claws.

- Excuse me WHAT? Felix is talking directly to Papillon?! So he knows about all the Miraculous stuff?! Oh NO, is this about getting his dad back? I don’t know whether the One Wish is common knowledge (I don’t think it is?) but maybe Felix put the pieces together on his own back home, so all his behaviour here has been trying to incite an akuma that he can take advantage of to appeal to Papillon?! Or he could just be a bitch all on his own, which is probably what the Garbage Man would prefer, but this makes a lot of sense all of a sudden.

- BRO HE NEARLY DIED. BRO. BROOO.

- “I hope you’ve learned your lesson!” YOU’RE NOT EVEN GONNA ASK ABOUT THE PAPILLON THING? YOU CAN’T JUST TREAT THIS AS A REGULAR DISTURBANCE, FELIX KNOWS SHIT ABOUT THE MIRACULOUS YOU GUYS--

- FELIX’S MOM IS REALLY GOING TO BLAME HIS DEAD DAD FOR THIS? HARD YIKES. NO WONDER FELIX IS WEIRD.

- I’m expecting this isn’t over, because Felix still clearly wants something specific that he didn’t get, but I’ll take this cute hug for what it is. He didn’t have an evil expression behind Adrien’s back this time either and the music is all soft and nice, plus he FINALLY got a handshake from Gabe, but I absolutely do NOT imagine this episode will end without getting an extra shot in at the PV fans somehow. We’re not getting off this easy.

- Why doesn’t Gabriel want Adrien to go after Felix? Is he scared he’ll try to run off, or ask them to stay longer when he really wants to get rid of them?

- AHAHA FELIX STOLE GABE’S RING. WHAT A BRAT. Was that the “jewelry” he mentioned wanting in return for helping Papillon? I figured it was a Miraculous thing but maybe not.

- OHHH, look how much Felix loves his mom! This is such a sweet scene. I particularly like the idea that Amelie was trying to get the rings back to give one to Felix because the way she was speaking to Gabe made it sound like she wanted them Just Because. But you can’t mention some wild story connected to the rings and then not explain it! I want to know what that is, I want to know why Felix is so fascinated with it!!!

- ALSO, FELIX GETTING A BIG KISS RIGHT ON THE FOREHEAD. EXCELLENT. I’ll fucking BET this is another scene Sébastien sneaked in because it’s such an emotional quality shift from the whole clone mess. Like what the fuck even WAS that.

- Yep, Felix is still evil! WHY THOUGH. WHAT’S GOING ON. CAN I PLEASE GET A WAFFLE

- I was expecting a worse ending, but “Felix can’t ever come back to Paris because Gabriel will kill him with his bare hands if he does” is decent enough. If there’s no further confirmation (and NO, anything Garbage Man Astruc tweets later on does NOT fucking count so don’t try me) I’m going to take it that he WAS actually sorry for what he did to Adrien. That’s better than nothing.

.

.

WELL THAT WAS AN EPISODE. That actually wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be - it could have been a lot better but it could have been a lot worse too. The beginning and end were nice enough even if the middle part was Garbage Man Astruc’s usual atrocious mess of self-service, though I do particularly despise the hamfisted consent issue shoved in there just to generate extra reasons to hate the character. WE GET IT, YOU DON’T LIKE FELIX. OFF YOU FUCK. 

I’ve slept on this next paragraph to give myself time to formulate some concrete thoughts about the plot, so... Well, it was a mess, that’s for sure. They spent way too much time establishing how oH sO eViL Felix was and not nearly enough time actually explaining his character. 

Why is he acting out like this? What has he got against Adrien in particular? Is he really sore about Adrien not supporting him at his dad’s funeral or is that just what Adrien thinks is his problem? What was his relationship with his dad before he died? Was his troublemaking all about trying to provoke an akuma and ask Papillon to help him get his family rings back (which he was clearly trying to steal from the moment he walked through the door, only Gabe wouldn’t shake his hand the first time), or was that just a side effect of causing shit for no reason? Did he mean his apology to Adrien at the end? WHAT was the deal with the rings and the story attached to them? There’s a whole interesting story buried in here which just got completely overlooked by the emphasis on how terrible he was and that’s really disappointing. 

I did like his damaged-but-still-good relationship with Adrien though, there’s still hope there and maybe Felix (if he ever shows up again, which I only hope he does if it’s NOT another excuse for Garbage Man Astruc to shit on the PV fandom again, for the love of FUCK don’t give this guy multiple opportunities) will start coming around and making the effort to be a better cousin since Adrien’s given him a second chance. I don’t know. What I liked just as much was Marinette actually barely being in this episode at all, for the first time since Gorizilla she’s ALLOWED to be the supporting character again and that’s GREAT.

I don’t really know what else to say. I’m exhausted. Adrien’s a darling and I think I prefer my Twin AU, though canon Felix being a delightful little gremlin who causes problems-on-purpose is something I can work with in the future too. 

Thanks for coming on this... interesting journey with me! I posted a set of tweets last night which I’ll leave here to finish up:

#josie's art #josie talks about things #miraculous ladybug #felix agreste #this can go in my felix tag for organisation's sake #and NO i'm not going to start calling him felix vanillagrahams or whatever his canon name is; leave me alone #anyway here's the post everyone wanted; it got VERY LONG but i ain't even sorry #i usually liveblog on the PV discord server but i felt this deserved its own post of basically-the-same-thing-but-neater

[bigskydreaming]

So @co-superman just had the galaxy brain realization that what the Batfam is really missing is like, an age-appropriate light-hearted friend for his BRUCIE persona, since Clark may be his best friend but is usually only relevant to his Batman side. At least as far as canon goes, I know fics usually accommodate Clark having a greater presence and role in Bruce’s life and impact upon him and his family.....buuuuuuut, that’s probably one of the very things that ALLOWS for Bruce to be so much more well-adjusted in many fics than in canon, where he has no true sounding board.

What Bruce needs is a kind of Jimmy Olsen ‘pal’ for when he’s just Bruce Wayne. Alfred, Leslie, Gordon and Lucius Fox all have tremendous influence in Bruce’s life at various times and in various ways....but they’re all older figures. There’s a deference built into Bruce’s interactions with them, even when he disagrees with them, that doesn’t usually bleed over into how he interacts with people his age and younger.

Which, IMO, results in a marked demarcation between Bruce with older figures in his life, whose opinion he does respect and value but ultimately slots in the same category as that of most grown adults who might acknowledge parental advice but take it for granted that its still understood they’re going to make their own decisions regardless.....

And then on the complete opposite side of the spectrum is how he interacts with those he knows HE is an authority or parental figure to, basically anyone younger or his age.....which in his Bruce Wayne persona, tends to be JUST his kids and proteges, and then in his Batman persona includes heroes and allies of all ages.

But again, as Batman, he has Clark, and Selina and close confidantes he does value and trust as his actual peers....and thus who can exert a....”pull back” influence on him, like, he knows when they’re expressing concern for how he’s coming across with other heroes who don’t know him as well, that like, maybe he needs to take a beat and think about that. Because he does trust their opinion and unlike older figures in his life who he trusts but who also have an inherent or pre-existing loyalty or devotion to him based on simply who he is, who his parents were....people like Clark, who are his age, peers rather than on a different platuea in his mind....Bruce knows that they value him, that their relationship with him is based on who he is as a person, how he interacts with them.....thus, he’s not filtering what they say through the lens of “is this person biased or not because they’ve known me since I was a child” and is just regarding it as “this person is only my friend because we each value each other’s impact on each other’s lives, plain and simple.”

But....he doesn’t have that as Bruce Wayne. Yeah, you could point to some fanfic portrayals of Harvey Dent, I know people have done stuff with that, but what I’m talking about isn’t really a role that can be filled by Harvey unless he’s actually still part of or again part of Gotham society, rather than existing outside of it as a Rogue. 

Someone around Bruce’s own age, that he acknowledges and respects as a peer and confidante based purely on their interpersonal interactions, and can reflect upon and inform upon how he’s coming across to others or how a decision he made is impacting others, including his kids.....THAT could be and do for Bruce Wayne what Superman can really only effectively do or be for Batman, and even then, pretty much just when outside of Gotham.

And think of the impact just on his children, just from such a character even EXISTING.....like, because just consider how Dick is often used or made into a kind of pseudo-peer for Bruce at times in order to essentially FILL this role, in stories where its unavoidable, and someone is absolutely needed to perform this role....and I say pseudo-peer, because just like no matter how much he respects and values them, Bruce’s dynamic with Alfred or Leslie or Gordon or Lucius is never going to be that of a full peer, simply because like....they knew him as a child, he knew THEM as a child, and that awareness doesn’t fully ever go away.....its the same thing on the other side. No matter how much Bruce values and respects Dick’s input and competence, at the end of the day, he’s not his peer, his colleague, he’s his SON, and that’s just an innately different dynamic.....

And even more importantly, its a dynamic that Dick (and any of Bruce’s other kids at any times when they’re forced to step into even a semblance of this role)....that parent/child dynamic should be one that Dick and the others should be ALLOWED to....rely on. To know that it exists IN THAT FORM....and not constantly be wondering if they’re supposed to be reading into their father’s current situation the cues that say, okay, here and now they can’t JUST be his kid, they have to step up and act as his peer, his advisor, engage him on a fully equivalent footing....while always knowing that at the end of the day, its never ACTUALLY going to be an equivalent footing, and no matter how strong their advice, they know there’s never any actual doubt that in the end they’ll revert back to their usual parent/child dynamic, and like....how do you balance that, if you’re in Dick’s position? 

How do you successfully navigate something that inherently HAS no set in stone rules or cartography....and how do you NOT resent that you even have to at all, that you can’t ever just be your father’s son, be the one who knows you can ALWAYS go to HIM for help or advice at any time without worrying that instead you might be expected to step up as a sounding board because what your father needs from you at this moment is more important than what you as his child need from him......but while still only ever being that sounding board until such a time as your father reasserts that that’s over now and he no longer needs you in that role so you’re going back to the way things are, where he knows best because he’s the father and you’re the child and that’s just how that works.

And I’d argue, we also see this reflected in the canon and even just how the canon is REFERENCED....with the constant juggling wherein people refer to Dick as Bruce’s son at sometimes...but then other times he’s his partner, his trusted friend, his confidante, all these things which are roles someone SHOULD have in their life, that Bruce SHOULD have and be able to utilize as a sounding board or call upon for help, and not just when its Batman calling on Superman....but like.....those things aren’t roles that should be filled by a parent’s child, because it necessitates that when the parent NEEDS one of these roles filled, and thus needs their child to step up and interact on their level....for as long as that persists, as often as it happens....that child is effectively asked or even expected to be parentless, for as long as again...the PARENT needs, regardless of what the child needs. When Dick is asked or expected by Bruce or even just the plot to be interacting with Bruce for a time in as close an advisory capacity or right hand as anyone ever does.....for that time, he kinda CAN’T be Bruce’s child at the same time, because the whole point is Bruce right now needs a PEER, not a DEPENDENT.

And its not healthy or fair, no matter how grown a child becomes, to be taken in at a young age by someone who says I will be your guardian now and later on says I will be your parent now, and steps INTO the role that says here I am, someone you are supposed to always be able to rely on and count on and expect to have in your corner......

And then include the implicit caveat that’s “except for in times when I need YOU to be temporarily absent someone to fill that role, because you’ve been briefly and artificially elevated to operating on my level, engaging with me face to face.....at least for as long as I allow it.”

That’s just....a recipe for disaster and a confused and resentful kid embittered because he shouldn’t HAVE to be his dad’s peer, he was supposed to have been taken in by his dad for HIS sake, not so that he could later on eventually be to his dad’s betterment.....like, its great if that happens organically in ways....but this way, it ends up feeling more like....an investment. Like, “character x invested all this time and effort into raising character y, and now its time for that investment to yield fruit and prove worthwhile by being what character x needs and expects them to be at times.”

That’s confusing and unreliable and a mess, and so when that becomes a pattern that repeats, in large part because there’s really no one else BESIDES Dick in Bruce Wayne’s day to day life to fill that role as a PEER.....then of course that’s exactly what we see happen time and time again. For Bruce and Dick’s dynamic to end up tangled up and turned around and confusing and unreliable for both of them....because its not ever allowed to just BE, and CONSISTENTLY be....that of a parent and a child, no matter what age they are currently.

[archer973]

Finished Warrior Nun last night and have some Thoughts (beware spoilers under the cut)

Characters:

Shotgun Mary is the best. She has a motorcycle and shotguns and swears in church, I would die for her

Also, she and Shannon were girlfriends. You literally have to be the most oblivious straight to try to gal pal them, they were in LOVE and I will fight you on that

Sister Beatrice is precious and important and I will protect her with my life. When she stood up to the Cardinal... I would marry that girl if she and Ava weren’t so cute

Which, yes, I am shipping Beatrice and Ava hardcore. Who isn’t?

Did not expect to like Lilith as much as I ended up doing (which, also, wtf kinda nun is named Lilith? Like seriously?), but she really did grow on me. The scene with her and Mary in the catacombs... fucking Hell, just stab me in the heart, it would hurt less.

Camila is an angel and needs to be protected at all costs, even though she could clearly whoop my ass with one hand tied behind her back

I liked Mother Superior even when she was being a bitch, and I was literally whooping when she was smacking the shit outta psycho Crimson. I also have a great desire to see her beat the fuck outta the Cardinal, cuz fuck that guy

Not gonna lie, Ava annoyed me for most of the show. Which I know is part of her character arc and I am glad that we are getting to see female Chosen Ones acting as badly and self-centeredly as male ones get to, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t rolling my eyes at her the whole time. But, then again, most of the characters were too, so at least I’m in good company

Plot:

I never trusted Father Vincent and I felt so vindicated when I turned out to be right. Though the whole ‘bad guy turned priest but can still throw down if the need arises’ is a story line/character trope I love, so I kinda hope he circles back around to being a kinda ally, even though if he really did kill Shannon I am down for Mary to eviscerate him

Incidentally, Mary on the cliff with that merc guy and him being all ‘you’re a nun, you can’t kill people’ and then her blowing him away? Fucking beautiful

I’m putting my money on dimension-hopping thief for Adriel, or he’s some kind of banished royalty or something. But good money is on thief/con man

Hypothesis for the other dimension is that the “demons” and the “angels” have been waging war on each other for control over their dimension/land for centuries and that the Halo is some kind of tech weapon that Adriel stole from the “demons”, which is why they come after it.

The kid with the divinium in his blood is definitely getting some kind of “angel radio” and I don’t think we’ve met the character that is his “angel” i.e. the one talking to him and telling him how to build the machine. Or it’s Father Vincent and old padre has even more to him than we know right now

Honestly, in general, the show kinda reminds me of the Vampire Academy movie. Kinda campy, not afraid to poke a little fun at itself because it knows that it is kinda ridiculous (’slender member of the clergy’ anyone?), but a lot of fun to watch!

All in all, I really enjoyed this show and can’t wait for season two! (Incidentally, they were a little bitch to end it the way they did and if anything happens to Mary, I will fucking riot)

#warrior nun #ruby has opinions

[freykitten]

Frey’s fic recs list!

I realised there’s a dry spell happening in my fic reccommendations tag (”can i interest you in this masterpiece”, perhaps with a question mark at the end idk anymore), and we’re off season, so appreciating the writers creating content now is very important, so here’s a very incomplete list of season 12 (with a smidge of CDR) fics I’m obsessed with. 

It’s absolutely not all the fics I would happily rant about to everyone who listened - it’s very on top of my head - but almost all authors I mentioned have more RPDR works, so check that out and browse the tags of ships you’re interested in (that’s how I found a big part of those gems). Oh, and comment, even if it’s just keysmash or screaming. It means the world, trust me on that.

“we didn’t start the fire” by @pink-grapefruit-cafe - lesbian AU, multichap, in progress (Jankie, Ninex, Trixya + I’m hoping for Kamasia)

When I think of this story, I start smiling and bounce with excitement, because it’s just that freaking fantastic. I’m still in awe with how well Charl is executing this concept, and I stopped expecting anything less than splendind from her even before I got to know her. How does she know so much about firefighters? I’m guessing a lot of detailed research came into outlining this story and I have the most respect for that. But the plot! Okay, so it’s a firefighter AU. I can’t tell you too much not to spoil anything important, but it starts with a bang to your own head, and then it doesn’t slow down. We get to explore characters one by one, but through the lense of relationships and dynamic, and it’s done in such a smart way. I promise you’ll be hooked one paragraph in, and by the end of the first chapter- you’ll be addicted.

“A Goode Idea“ by @goodemornting​ - lesbian AU, one shot (Crygi)

I had and incredible pleasure of betaing it, but I’m not biased at all what I say this fic is hilarious. It’s fantastically written and had me surprised at every turn. I had the most fun reading it each time. The idea is, well, absurd. Like, literally. Crystal gets her hand stuck in a vending machine on her way to a blind date. But our girl is not a quitter, oh no, but the machine is runway commentary on Drag Race and Crystal’s hand is jokes about Michelle’s breasts. Just... can’t let it go. Thankfully, there comes salvation in a form of Gigi Goode, who’s been stood up on a blind date. Are you, like, connecting the dots here? Because they’re not. At all. This fic is prime entertainment, give it a read.

“I Remember“ by @imposterzoe - one shot (Jiji)

MY HEART WAS RIPPED OUT, SET ON FIRE, AND STEPPED ON, BUT NOT IN ATTEMPT TO PUT OUT THE FLAME. I thought about this fic and, jesus, it still hurts. It’s a great angst, truly a great one. It’s all loneliness and heartbreak and yearning that makes the lungs burn. “dear god he needed a hug. But the one person he would accept it from was in another man's arms, on the other side of the country.” - I can’t get this line out of my head and I don’t regret it - it’s a very good one, but it just hurts a lot. Incredible, incredible work. 

One Direction (to your heart) by @opalescent-cheetah​ - lesbian AU, multichap, in progress (Jaida/Crystal)

Back to the fun stuff! IT’S A SOULMATES AU. I’M WEAK FOR SOULMATES AUs. And you might not understand my love for that trope (it’s legit my favourite one ever), but you will understand my love for that story as soon as you start it. It’s a fun spin on the soulmate tottoos trope - you’re not born with it, but once you get your first tattoo, it’s mirrored on your soulmate’s skin. And Jaida really doesn’t get the appeal of having the universe decide for you about who you’re going to love - she prefers to make that decision for herself, so when arabic letters spelling “One Direction” appear on her chest, it’s less than ideal. But she doesn’t think too much about it. That, or the fact her new coworker insists of blasting 1D songs all day long. She might not enjoy Crystal’s taste in music, but she sure enjoys her company. A lot. A whole lot.

I almost forgot to mention it, but the fact each chapter has a seperate illustration drawn for it? And they’re all so pretty? Wonderful.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered by @missjanjie - lesbian AU, multichap, in progress (Sportsdoll, Crygi)

I promised myself one rec for one author and with Joley it was the most difficult to stick to that rule (and we’ve had Charlotte on this list, and I’m whipped with everything she writes, so visualise the struggle here). But I chose this one, because it’s just!!! so good!!! Jan is a simple collage student with typical collage student problems. You know, exams, boring readings, pining for your French pen pal, morning lectures, handing in assignments on time. Crystal is her roommate, and has typical roommate problems: sharing chores, remembering which sweets are whose, and telling your secret crush you have to pretend to be in love, because your roommate decided to invite her French pen pal to your wedding, so now you have to stage everything. That’s a normal Tuesday evening for them. And an awesome story for you to follow.

“small wonder“ by wildewoman_22 - lesbian AU, one shot (Jankie)

This list is supposed to be fics that live rent-free in my head, so this one should have been put as the first one. It made me sob. It’s so unimaginably beautiful (I’m already getting tears in my eyes and I’m not even talking about the plot, oh my god). Jackie and Jan decide to have a baby, and it’s the most raw, magnificent, but also heartwarming portrayal of pregnancy and different ways to understand motherhood I’ve read. So absolutely beautiful and filled with love. Just, a masterpiece. So mindblowing.

“Some Things Are Bound To Be” by @dollalpaca​ - lesbian AU, multichap, in progress (Kyara)

In Polish we have that saying, “to approach something like dog would a hedgehog”, and to say that was me with that fic is like not saying anything. I love Zyanny and I’m always going to be proud of the things she creates - be it a fic, a moodboard, or a bullet journal - but I didn’t really watch CDR, and the bit I have seen didn’t convince me. So it took me a while to get to that fic. But when I did. Jesus, the only advantage of catching up on it late was the fact I didn’t have to wait for updates, because it’s so good I’d go crazy, like I am now. Kyne is an accountant in a big company, all she wants is to do her job and mind her own business. Really. Give her her papers and peace. That’s all she’s asking for. So of course she’ll get something else - a rumour she’s dating the daughter of the company’s boss. But Kiara is hot and nice and seeing her laugh makes Kyne’s heart do stupid things, so what the hell. One thing she doesn’t know is Kiara’s past, and that might complicate a few things. I don’t know Kiara’s past either and Zyan won’t tell me and I’m going crazy here. Come join me in my misery - the way her characters are written makes it all worth it.

“countless chances” by @essenceofhall - lesbian AU, one shot (Crygi)

IT’S A HARLEY QUINN/POISON IVY AU, PEOPLE. And it’s blowing my mind. The characterisation in that fic is immaculate - it’s like original personalities of Ivy and Harley were mixed with something very, very original, and it’s owned - done so surely and with so much craftmanship - they feel organic as Crystal and Gigi. This fic is the best way of creating an AU based on existing characters I’ve read, and with a lot of certainty I can say that it will remain as the best one. It’s pure brilliance. I am blown away. Impressed beyond the point of expression. 

“Blue Neighborhood” by @imalwaysaslutfordrag - lesbian AU, a series of astounding one shots, in progress

I won’t write too much about this, because I probably could whip out a separate post about BN and it would be just as long. It’s one of the best stories I’ve read in my entire life, and I don’t mean just fics, I mean all literature. Every aspect I could talk about is entrancing. Phenomenal work that deserves all the praise.

#that got... long #whoops #don't regret a thing #besides not addin 50000 works more into that #can i interest you in this masterpiece? #so there is a question mark after all #support your writers please <3 #frey rambles

[popculturebuffet]

Toons for Our Times: Star Vs: Demoncism

Halloween Havoc BEGINS! And with Tomtober this same month, i’m taking another of my on and off looks at Tom! Tom tries to tackle his literla nd figurative  personal demons the natural way: by having a creepy anti-demon cult that’s never explained suck them out of his body. For some reason Star has a problem with this. We also get Ponyhead in a robe, the wonders of reflectcor and free toys from the toychest for being such a good boy. Face your demons under the cut. 

Welcome boys, ghouls and that bootiful technicolor rainbow inbetween, to halloween havoc! MUAHAHHAHA.  You might be wondering a few things. What the hell that is, isn’t that also the title of a bunch of old wcw pay per views, and have I gone insane. In order it’s usually my catchy term the past two years and this current one for my binging of halloween films and logging and reviewing them on my leterboxd account, but I decided to expand it to here since while it’s not my first halloween on here it’s the first both reviewing animation and planning ahead, I decided why not reuse a good title here.  As for the wcw thing.. well yeah. It’s a great title, neither WWE, who I think still owns the copyright, nor WCW”s Heir Apparent AEW are using it right now despite being one of the best recurring Pay-Per-View titles either promotions had. Maybe not in actualy MATCH QUALITy but that name.. it just sings to me so i’m using it for my weird blog. I’m not making any money of this so why not. And as for my sanity that left a long time ago. So prepare for a month of ghouls, ghosts, goblins, lichs, scooby doo parodies, long forgotten characters, and some suprises and pies of all sizes. THIS... IS....

So to start us off, every year my pal @jess-the-vampire​ does a monthly event known as tomtober, a celebration of all things tom lucitor. And since I started hte tomtropsective for that and still am behind, I figured why not celebrate that, and the fact I can’t draw so I can’t do day 1 as a chat or anything, by continuing the tale of everyone’s faviorite teen demon.  Thankfully unlike last time, or next time wink wonk, there’s not a TON of other plot stuff to fill in. There is one important bit not to this episode but to the series as a whole: Eclipsa is here, since Moon trying to screw her out of the deal she made backried once toffee actually died... as did you know keepiung him alive instead of dealing with eclipsa being free and having the comissoin to back her on it. Nice job moon. Real nice. So yeah Eclipsa’s around.. dosen’t effect this episode but given tom’s involved in two of the biggest plot important episodes in the show, AND one deals with the direct fallout of one of those episodes i’m probably going to have to cover her soon to get to more tom anyway so might as well prepare for that now. 

So yeah this episode’s entreily a straight line from last time and opens picking up on the end of that episode: Star is calling tom wondering when their gonna get that Cornshake. Thankfully she gets an answer. Unthankfully.. it’s from a VERY sweaty ponyhead. 

So that was my own personal hell. Anyways she’s so.. sweaty.. GAHHHHHHH, because she’s keeping a secret and much like me she can’t keep her mouth shut about something she wants to talk about for very long, so we find out what she knows: SHe ran into tom who swore her not to tell Star he was getting a Demoncisim. Which suprises me.. not the demoncism thing the fact Pony would actually listen to anyone else.. Star included. LIke it’s the one thing about this episode that dosen’t quite fit: She’s such a selfish, toxic asshole, though Jenny Slate bless her makes her at least entertaining at times but even she has limits, it just dosen’t track she’d care what Tom thought unless we saw it for ourselves. Pony is ONLY capable of carring about star so while I could see tom framing it as for her own good, it’d be nice if the episode just came out and said that. It’d also be nice if we didn’t get sweaty ponyhead because that’s probably someone’s fetish and I.. OH GOD. 

Okay now i’ve mentally snapped from that revelation, Star lasso’s pony when she tries to escape, and we find out the demoncism is pretty self explanatory: A cermony that removes demons from one’s body.. and given tom is you know, a demon, this could end bad. So with no idea where it’s being held and it going on now, giving them little if any time to figure it out, Star suggests going to pony’s ex.. she dosen’t remember which one and apologizes for how bitchy that sounded, but we find out it’s Seahorse, Pony’s love intrest for the rest of the series and a hardcore emo rocker who even made her a song.. which is just him destroying everything and screaming. Eh i’ve seen people in emowear do far dumber. 

If those are m and m’s their pretzel. Trust me I’m a professional lardass, I know my delcious candy coated choclates. Anyways our dynamic-ish duo head to Seahorse at his job at a relfectcor store, basically a phone store, and is basically a hollowed out shell of a human being with no real personality or free will of his own.. so THAT’S how we got Ted Cruz. Ponyhead natrually breaks down when he dosen’t recognize her at all, which is one of the few time’s i’ve actually cared about her feelings: I mean having your ex just.. forget you exist.. tha’ts rough buddy. I feel bad for her.. I didn’t know she had emotions. I thought her heart and brain were both a black hole.. mostly becasue I thought ponyhead’s hearts and brains were the same organ. Star does however manage to get the map they need to Tom. 

Our heroines find the Demonicsim site and a bunch of creepy guys in robes iwth red glowing eyes.. who are never explained honestly. More on that in a minute. So ponyhead distracts them with one of the greatest  gags in the series history

I mean just.. look at it. The way the robe drapes, the way her nose sticks out much like a certain penguins, the way she decides to distract everyone with petty minute like voting on robes.. it’s fucking great. I may not like pony a LOT but she can be really damn funny> The issues that she often isn’t funny enough to ofset her jackassery. Here though even with my jabs at her.. she works and I like it.  So Star confronts Tom, wondering AGAIN if this is another half assed tactic to win her back.. and her flip flop attitude with tom is starting to annoy me. It fits her personality, and don’t get me wrong as i’ve made abudnatnly clear in past reviews his actions in blood moon ball and ESPECIALLY mr.candle cares were super not okay, so i’ts okay NOT to forget how badly things went last time when your considering getting back together with someone. It’s NOT okay however to hold it over someone’s head forever like any moment their going to snap back into being a manipulative doucheweasel when they’ve left you alone for around 8 months.. and Id id my calcualtion. The timeline of the show is pretty solid up to season 4: Season 1 was star’s 1st semister at echo creek academy, season 2 was her second and as it turned out final one, and season 3 covers Summer , fall and part of next spring. Though again how another summer dosen’t happen until towards the end of season 4 is dumb and I’ll probably rant about that at a later point. Point is since MCC was at the start of season 2, that means it happened around say january or feburary, with Demonicsim probably happening around say march. So he’s left you alone for around 8 months, silver bell ball included. It’s unfair to assume he’s still schemeing when he let you go months ago. H’es made it obvious via his .. everything he’d take you back in an instant, he’s just being patient and not pushing it because he’s no longer as big an asshole, and trying to be respectful. Cut him a break.  Thankfully this gets put down quick with Tom explaning he wants to be better for himself: Like last time he was inspired by her trying to be better herself, and wants to.. but as we’ve established.. he dosen’t know HOW to be nice or a better person. He wasn’t raised in an enviroment that was really condusive to that as nice as his own parents are. Their the exception to the underworld being mostly dicks not the rule, as we’ll see next time. I.. can relate with my own issues with anxiety , depression and, yes, anger. I too have trouble keeping it in and hate feeling bitchy all the time or depressed and just want it to stop. I think anyone with a mental ilness just wants it to STOP to be gone and to be able to live a happy life. But there’s no magic button that fixes your issues, your traumas or your mental health like that. No pill that can fix it just ones that help ease it down to managable. And as i’ve learned the hard way YOU have to work at it, YOU have to make the effort. There’s no easy way out. And while Tom thinks htere is here, it’s very clear it’s a huge risk, and Star’s right that he shoudlnt’ go thorugh with it and that he could seriously hurt himself. But Tom’s in pain and just wants to be happy, to be normal, to be not angry anymore and I gotta tell you if , even if it was risky, there was a way to cure my depression or anger issues or anxiety, not my atuisim tha’ts part of me and not something that needs a fucking cure just more understanding and awarness, but if I could cure those other three things? I would. It’s paart of me sure but it’s a part of me I HATE. So I understand why tom’s doing this even despite the danger: because he’s at his wits end, desperate and this will help he hopes.. it can’t get WORSE, so why not? Evne if he’s wrong here i’ts hard not to understand why he’s so stubborn about it , for me at least.  Star leaves, and takes Ponycloak with her and they go to punch trees: Both to relive and because Pony hates tree. Probably because she went to tree court once and they tried to send her to tree jail. 

I mean she’ll probably get thrown back in there for this but still. Anyways the exerocisim comes. And NOW we can talk about this cult and.. while I understand why they never came back, they were really only necessary for this, I wish they had. I mean a mysterious cult with the power to restrain someone as strong as tom, acess to anti-magic chains the ONLY time we see something like this outside of the comission, and a hatred of demons includign referring to Tom as “Son of the blight” meaning they clearly hate and would destroy Wrathmelor if they could, yet also function as a perfectly legal orginzation the comission or the lucitors themselves haven’t swatted yet. There’s a LOT to unpack here they never did. The leader is also hliarious alteranting between creepy overlord and your dentist after a long apointment as a kid. But the ritual begins and it .. dosen’t go well with tom getting glowy blue lines and thrashing about.. just like me when i watched Ridciulous 6. I also felt my soul was leaving my body but that was just wishful thinking. The cultists run and star runs back to Tom and we get a truly powerful and romantic scene. Unable to free him, Star just.. holds him and is there for him as he goes through this. If she can’t help him she’ll be there for him. And it’s really touching.  We then cut to the hosptial tent at the cult, where the leader goes back to dad mode. Tom feels .. well worse, he just had surgery, as someone who had a tooth yanked out last month I can relate, and is suprised to see only one tiny soul demon as the sum of his anger. But it turns out, NOPE, being you know, the son of a rather powerful demon with a rather pwoerful b loodline, he’s FULL of them, and it woudl take 13 years to do this.. and tom’s naturally bummed because no one wants the equipvlent of having a wisdom tooth pulled a week for over a decade. Also because he now can’t get better.. but Star gently reassures him he’s already on the right track just by wanting to. As I said with most mental issues.. there’s no easy way out but it can get better if you put the work in and tom realizes.. there’s no quick way out after all. Just a long road.. but h’es not alone on it anyomore. But he at least gets a tiny demon in a jar and a toy out of the toychest for being a good boy.. and that’s nto me making shit up that’s the actual episode with him and star taking pinwheels and holding hands to Ponyhead’s annoyance. Which okay yeah they had a bad time last time I get tat Pony.. but your the last person to question ANYONE’S life decisions. Still I wish we’d had ane pisode of pony growing to accept them so we at least know WHY she’s so against it but oh well. 

Final Thoughts: This was a good one. Is it hte best the show’s put out? Probably not as the first part drags slightly but the second half at the demoncisim is just good character stuff, good comedy, and has a good payoff. I honestly like this way more on the second watch.  Though part of that is the context of the time: I admitted to being a starco shipper and having her get back with tom just felt like your standard “put a character in a relationship to complicate the main pairing” bullshit I always hate at this stage. Before anyone relaizes they like each other? Sure but at this point it was clearly just to drag things out. However with Marco getting progressivley worse and the two having good chemsitry.. I grew to like em.. and by the season finale, I just shipped all three together, before pivoting to marco and kelly. This couple grew on me for reasons w’ell geti nto as we go, even if it ended bad for reasons we’ll again get into. Oh we’ll get into them. With a knife. But yeah overall a great episode with a great concept, good character stuff, and some REALLY fucking funny gags. The show is damn good at comedy and I forget it sometimes. Next time we look at Tom, he’ll be in the background as Marco tries to help Kelly with a breakup. And sometime this month we’ll be looking at the halloween special which i’ll be watching for the very first time! So stay tuned, stay safe and Happy Halloween. 

#halloween #tomtober #tomtober 2020 #tom lucitor #star vs the forces of evil #demoncism #star butterfly #startom #lilica ponyhead #seahorse #wrathmelor lucitor #reviews

[raferuiz]

Howdy cowpals I’m Missy, I’m 27, and I promise I am super hip just like all the other youths out there. So hip. So in. So fashion forward. 

Under the cut is a bit of information on Raphael and some plot ideas! I’m excited to be here and can’t wait to meet all these fantastic characters.

( manny montana, 35, cis man, he/him ) Was that RAFAEL RUIZ ? I heard a rumor they work for the WALSH family, but who knows for sure ? They can be a bit UNPREDICTABLE & BACKHANDED, but I also heard they can be INSPIRING & MAGNETIC. You’ll usually find them at BLUE ORCHID in their spare time, when they’re not being an BONEBREAKER/CHEF @ NORTH COAST HOTEL. You may want to keep an eye on that one ! 

alright folks, let’s get going:

rafael, or raf, will start telling you about his past by beginning with the military. he joined the marines when he was 18, and the details of when he left are very unclear. previous to that? it’s a bit like he popped out of thin air. He has a past just like everyone else, but he never talks about his childhood.

that’s not because it was bad. He actually had a pretty good childhood. he had a big family with three brothers and two sisters and a ton of cousins and his reluctance to talk about that comes more from the fact that he misses them. 

he was discharged from the military after an incident of refusal to act. war is messy and he made a call that he thought was the right now, the good one, and he ended up being wrong. he doesn’t talk about that a lot, but it was definitely a turning point for him. 

after he was discharged, where the hell did raf go? no one knows! he went a little bit of everywhere, in the grand scheme of things. y’all watch schitt’s creek? you know when alexis throws out random wild tidbits of her adventures around the world? That’s sort of his vibe. for the most part, it’s pretty well known that raf spent most of his time between 25-30 just traveling around as a gun for hire. 

is that all true? who knows! he’s a liar! raf is a crazy good liar when he wants to be, he can lie like no other, it’s second nature to him—but he’s also just a dang liar. he lies about things all the time (he calls it messing around). it’s about little things too, like…hey, raf, do you want a cupcake? and he says no, i’m allergic to dairy. and then like a minute later he’ll pick up the cupcake and eat it because he was fucking around he is not allergic to dairy.

this can make him a nightmare for people who don’t know him, or people who are really gullible. the good thing is most of the time it’s harmless fucking around, he just gets a kick out of it. he says it so very casually that it’s hard to tell when he’s playing and when he’s not. this is mostly because everything about him seems almost hyper-casual. the dude is excessively chill. don’t believe it, it’s a trap. he’s always got this cocky crooked grin on his face, and is a master of the ‘oh word? that’s wild’ phrase. he’s the type to kick back with his feet up and slow nod along to your story, like he’s totally calm and cool and collected. for the most part, he is. he’s laid-back and relaxed.

 but where chill ends, wild begins. raf has two speeds—totally fine, dude, no drama & i’m gonna throw you off this cliff and then i’m gonna find your houseplant and throw it off the cliff too for good measure. when he snaps, he snaps pretty hard.

for the MOST PART though? he’s really not what you would expect. he’s got a bit of a reputation that precedes him, but he’s...not that scary when you meet him. Raf smiles a lot, he seems to enjoy life, he likes passing off little tidbits of wisdom that don’t pertain to the situation at hard. 

his body is a TEMPLE. he’s very into organic food and meditation exercises and purifying the soul of world decay and that’s...a lot. he can be a lot. if your energy is out of whack, he might suggest you go pick up some crystals or some bath salts to clear that shit up. 

he works, when he’s not crushing bones, as one of the head chefs for the north coast hotel. he cares a lot about his food. don’t insult his food who knows what he’ll do. 

he has a lot of strong opinions on things. like names. mmm, never trust a veronica. he also has a habit of giving little backhanded compliments that leave the recipient confused and caught between insulted and ego-boosted. a little bit of oh, nice hair cut, yeah. real slick. loved that look when it was cool in the 90

he tends to adopt wandering youths that look like they haven’t been ruined by the world yet. who knows why. maybe he wants a kid. maybe he wants to preserve the part of him that used to exist before everything got so damn murky. who knows! just know that if you have been selected by raf as a Good Kid he will probably kill for you, regardless of who your allegiances belong to. 

other than that little part, he’s VERY loyal to the o’sheas, and by extension now the walshs. raf may speak his mind and argue a point, but at the end of the day he’ll carry out what he’s been told to carry out. 

there’s probably tons more but i want to wait a little so I understand the dynamics bette <3 i can say, that if you’re ever looking for him, you can find him at the blue orchid because a good skin care routine and upkeep is VERY IMPORTANT. he also lives for that deep tissue massage. 

POSSIBLE PLOTS

hook-ups: because who doesn’t love that. open to male and female and non-binary. pretty much anyone as long as they’re not too young! his cut off for this is probably 25. he’s 35. he’s tired. 

the person who brought him into the oshea fam: this is open to anyone who has been with that family for longer than he has (so longer than five years). we can plot of the how of it all, i’m open to any ideas. 

a respected enemy: someone from a different side who is also very good at what they do. they respect each other! they probably even try to avoid each other because they know they’re good. the kind of people who can share a drink at a neutral territory bar and then tip hats and go their separate ways—a real ‘just business’ admiration. 

exes: always down for exes! man, woman, nb, anyone as long as they’re within a reasonable age! 

his adopted youths: these are just people that he thinks are good and deserve protection and good things in life. they don’t have to be ‘youths’ its more of like a vibe thing. could be a 40 year old man and raf is like i will protect u little pal

friends: SO IMPORTANT just that crew, the ride or dies, the PALZONES. give them to me!!!

if you like this, i’ll pop over to plot some stuff. it might take me time to find a read all the intros but i’m 100% here and ready to meet these characters. 

#crimson.intro #this was a mess like most of the things i do #but we love mess don't we

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Approximately how close is Luca to the rest of the hphm gang? Like... A number out of 10 ? He seems like a cool character and i kinda wanna know more about his relationships with the lot... Sorry for bothering

You certainly aren’t a bother! I welcome questions like these and find them flattering! If anything, this will help me define Luca and their relationships because I’ve been wishy-washy about that, for sure. (Oh, just so you, Luca uses they/them.) 

Rowan - 11/10. This is Luca’s best friend, no question about it. The closest and most important bond in their life, second only to Jacob. At this stage I very well might just ignore the whole concept of MC and Rowan becoming distant because even though Luca does have a twin, they tend to see Rowan as having that level of importance and trust. Needless to say, Y6CH18 completely shatters Luca’s world and leaves them spiraling, and they still are. 

Ben - 6/10. It was stronger in the early days, when Ben was still timid. Luca never wanted to believe Rowan’s theory about him, they always trusted Ben. But when he abandons caution for recklessness, Luca is about driven mad trying to keep him safe. It’s stressful, it’s not fun, and admittedly Luca’s opinion of Ben sinks at this point. 

Penny - 8/10. These two have always been close, the dearest of friends, and Luca will defend Penny to anyone who talks trash about her behind her back, which is definitely possible for people who get as popular as her. Going off of canon, MC and Penny tend to hang out a lot, and that works fine because they’re Housemates and best buds. Penny’s parents adore Luca too, so that’s nice. 

Merula - 9/10. One of the major contenders for a potential end-game. I pretty much wrote Luca around their interactions with Merula. From first, they never hated her. Simply found her perplexing and mildly annoying. They didn’t blame her for the Bulbadox powder incident. Even then, they were showing her mercy. This inkling of mercy eventually evolved into genuine care and protective instincts toward the Slytherin witch who reminds them so much of their brother.

Bill - 6/10. A solid pal, like a big brother. He doesn’t fill the hole that Jacob left behind, but I chose my URL for a reason, and Bill would be there for Luca and they’d get along quite well. Sharing solidarity in how they both trust Rakepick, and heartbreak when that comes back to bite them. 

Skye - 8/10. This is just the story of Merula and Luca, but translated to Quidditch and without the phase of being opponents. Luca was very wary around Skye and not impressed by her at first. But by the end of Season 1, they had grown fond of her, felt loyal to her, and despite being keenly aware of her flaws, they stuck up for her and tried to gently guide her toward making smarter choices. 

Murphy - 5/10. They aren’t that close. Not that they aren’t friends, because they totally care, and Luca appreciates his company. But compared to the other folks on the team, Luca and Murphy are friendly with each other, but haven’t really opened up or connected on an especially deep level. 

Orion - 8/10. This right here, is the guy who fills the hole that Jacob left. I can’t quite explain it but there’s something about his wisdom and serenity that Luca just latches onto. They seriously admire him, enjoy his company, and want to make h him proud. They’re basically in awe of Orion, and he seems to see a lot of potential in Luca as well. 

Rath - 5/10. A relationship that was initially built upon uncertainty and fear gradually evolved into being an unconventional friendship through the events we see in the Rath TLSQ. Luca never wanted to be at odds with Rath, but admittedly it does feel a little awkward to trade friendly and affectionate banter. 

Tonks - 9/10. A complete disaster, an absolute nightmare that is constantly spawning chaos...but she’s just so damn lovable, and it’s not like Luca doesn’t have a history of surrounding them-self with people who are equally dodgy. Tonks is one of their closest friends, though she also felt slightly awkward around them for a while, as Luca’s aunt is Alice Longbottom, who was victimized by Tonks’ own aunt, though obviously Luca never holds this against her.

Tulip - 9/10.  Another contender for end-game, and could even share them. Tulip swept Luca off their feet almost immediately. Whatever winds up happening, it’s safe to say she was their first crush, and they always found her amazing. Growing very close to her in Year Three, especially thanks to their mutual connection to Merula. I like to think that Tulip knows she needs someone to reel her in now and then, even if she won’t admit it. Luca does that for her. 

Barnaby - 6/10. Similar to Murphy, it’s not that there’s any issue in this relationship, because there absolutely isn’t. Luca simply didn’t grow as close to Barnaby as to some other people, but they always thought very highly of him and similar to Ben, they were protective of him and wanted to keep him safe from harm. Also, his hugs were always amazing. 

Ismelda - 5/10. Luca had ambivalent feelings toward her for a while, after Year 3. They’re not really a hateful person, but they weren’t very fond of her. Made a couple of attempts to make peace, but they didn’t really go anywhere. After “Crushed” they came to understand her more and begin to develop pity, which only evolved further by Year 6, at which point they would unironically hang out with her. She begrudgingly appreciates the company.

Charlie - 6/10. Like Bill, he has a warm and cordial friendship with Luca that is able to flourish more regularly as they share classes, and Luca could honestly listen to Charlie talk about dragons all day. They don’t always understand, but Charlie’s presence is calming, and that’s why they like it.

Andre - 4/10. Luca and Andre get off on the right foot, but they barely talk. To Luca, Andre is that one friend that they wish they could get to know better, and feel bad because they never have time for them. Andre is so disconnected from the plot, but he does nice things for MC like making them outfits, Luca would appreciate it.

Jae - 7/10. In my headcanons, Jacob and Jae knew each other before Jae was at Hogwarts. So Luca and Jae were friends when they were young, but fell out when Jacob disappeared. Avoiding each other until Year 5, whereupon they reconciled and reconnected, becoming better friends again. 

Badeea - 5/10. Obligatory clarification that this is due to them simply not being very close, not because there’s any bad blood, there isn’t. Luca thinks highly of Badeea and admires her abilities and she admires their heart and kindness. There isn’t much more to say about the friendship than that. 

Liz - 6/10. Luca seriously respects her and always has. Sure, she’s a bit odd, but they more than agree with her about a lot of things that most people wouldn’t. They care about the well-being of creatures too, and Liz is always fun to be around, even if her personality is a bit prickly. She gets along well with the likes of Penny and Barnaby, no way she wasn’t going to like Luca.

Diego - 3/10. Okay, this one is actually due to some friction between the two characters. Diego just entirely rubs Luca the wrong way, and he eventually catches on to that. They’re never enemies or anything, but they’re also not really friends either. I just feel like Diego would be the most sexual person in general, and Luca’s very ace, so it’s a struggle for them to coexist. 

Talbott - 6/10. Luca’s very fond of him, and grows to sympathize with him during his quests. Talbott is just such a relatable guy, and while Luca isn’t the most anti-social, they understand the instinct. I also like to imagine that they’re less pushy than MC is in-canon, and that Talbott appreciates this. Luca is the one cat that Talbott can tolerate.

Chiara - 8/10. She’s closer to Luca, because they do share a House, so how could they not be? She was part of their friend group since Year 1, alongside Tonks, Penny, and Rowan. These two have a lot in common. They’re both socially awkward, but caring Healers who are on the quieter side but carry dark secrets they aren’t responsible for. Of course they connect. 

Beatrice - 9/10. These two would become the most unlikely friendship, but would quickly become close. Beatrice is the chaotic type Luca gravitates toward, and Luca has the gentle energy of someone like Penny without the appearance of being pretentious or trying to control Beatrice. I think she’d very much appreciate that and latch onto Luca the way she did Ismelda. I see these two understanding each other quite well as time goes on.

This was fun! Thank you for sending it my way!

#Luca Fawley #HPHM Headcanons #Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery