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queenbirbs · 5 years

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holding on (and letting go) | Ethan Ramsey x MC

WC: 3k+

Rating: T

Warning: major character death

He’s late for work.

That’s all he can think about -- that and his car not starting and the last service check he had and how they surely would’ve noticed something wrong with the starter if this is happening and how it’s a newer model, doesn’t even have five-thousand miles on it because he only drives it to work and back (and that spur-of-the-moment trip to Bar Harbor they took) and it shouldn’t be acting up like this. It gave him a similar problem last week and Sloane told him to get something from the auto shop, that it was an easy fix, but he was reading the latest medical journal and doesn’t remember what she said.

He’s scrolling through his contacts for roadside assistance to see if they can help him at all (he went to medical school, he knows the ins and outs of the human body, but he can’t tell a loose belt from a blown gasket) when his phone brightens to life.

“I know,” he answers with a sigh. “I should’ve been there four minutes ago, but my damn car won’t--”

“Ethan,” Harper says and he stops whatever he’s doing, drops whatever wire he’s been fiddling with. He knows her tone; he’s used it many times over the years. For a brief, frazzled, stupid moment he glances down at himself, sure that she’s going to tell him that his blood result tests came back and that he’s a dead man walking -- but then, he realizes, that he hasn’t gotten his recommended check-up. For another brief moment, even more fleeting than the last, he hopes that she’s calling to reprimand him about that. It’s a hopeless, stupid wish. “Where are you?”

“I’m home -- well, in my parking garage. My car won’t start.” He tries not to ramble, because he needs to prepare for what’s coming. Staring at the components underneath the hood, he focuses on the greasy streaks on the tubes and on Harper’s breathing on the other end of the line; he is a house on the coast, building up its sandbag walls and bolting down its shutters, preparing for disaster.

“There was an accident this morning,” is what she says. It’s too vague, though, because there are thousands of accidents every day, typically eleven within the city limits. “In front of the hospital.”

“Okay,” he tells the coolant reservoir.

“A car ran a redlight as Sloane was crossing the street. She was hit.”

“Okay,” he tells the oil filter. His free hand grips the edge of the hood. There’s the ring of a phone and it takes him a moment to realize it’s on her end and then she’s talking to Kendra, the ER’s charge nurse. If he could hear past the rush of blood in his ears, he might have been able to understand the muffled conversation.

“You need to come,” Harper says and it takes him several seconds to realize she’s talking to him again.

He pictures Sloane rolling over to snooze her alarm that morning and the pillow he put over his head when she started the shower and waking again to her minty kiss on his cheek and her purse poking his side and her promising that there would be coffee waiting for him when he woke up. Slipping between those recent memories are older ones: of her preparing her speech to the committee in his living room; of her pressing close to him on that balcony at the opera; of her pulling the stuffed frog out from that storm drain for baby Hudson; of her shaking like a newborn deer over Mrs. Thompson in the hospital lobby on her first day.

“You need to come,” Harper repeats.

“Okay,” he tells the closed hood of his car.

Everybody knows.

He gets the sad eyes from every colleague as he passes through the atrium and down the hall to emergency, where he’s redirected by Kendra to the ICU on the third floor.

Before he reaches her room, he already knows what everybody else does. The nurses catch him as he comes out of the elevator and herd him into the closest office, where two doctors are waiting for him. Because they knew he would want a second opinion. Which means he isn’t going to like their first one.

They force him to sit and explain the situation to him; the level of trauma and the severity of her injuries. They use the word ‘comfortable’ too many times for Ethan to count. They talk about leaving voicemails with her sister, her only living next of kin.

What they don’t actually talk about is the treatment plan. It pisses him off to no end, listening to them talk around it, as if they’ve already given up on her. He doesn’t understand, not really, until they lead him to her room.

And the bruising and the ventilator and the swelling and the bandages are all he can see at first. For a brief moment, he wonders if it is Sloane -- hopes that maybe they got it wrong and this is just a woman who looks like her and maybe she’s late from getting coffee down the street and she’ll pop in any moment now and clear this mess up.

Then he steps closer to the bed, and it must be the angle change, but he can finally see her. That bright hair poking out through the bandage and the curve of her nose and the sparkle of her nail polish.

“We’ll give you some time,” one of the doctors says and closes the door behind them.

Ethan feels trapped, like the space is too small and he’s going to take all of the oxygen right out of it and there will be none left for her. His hands reach out, but he can only make it to the foot rail, afraid to touch her. He thinks of all those sob stories he’s heard from patients, that their loved ones hung on until their family could be there, that they waited on death’s door until they knew they weren’t alone. If he touches her, she’ll know he’s there.

So, he hovers like a bad omen, lurking just at the edge of her space. Close enough to keep watch, but distant enough to be safe. He thinks superstitions are a crock of shit -- but he doesn’t want to test that theory, not with Sloane’s life in the balance.

Since he’s avoiding the clock on the wall, he doesn’t know how long he’s been there, watching these machines breathe for her, when the door opens.

“What are you doing?” Jackie asks as she steps into the room and pulls Sloane’s chart out.

“I’m not sure,” he says, frowning when he realizes that he’s telling the truth.

This morning he was yelling at his engine and now he’s standing over his girlfriend in a hospital bed, slowly accepting with a sort of teetering certainty that it is likely the last time he will spend with her.

“How long have you been here?”

“I’m not sure,” he repeats.

The thick stack of papers slap against the clipboard; Jackie makes a noise of disgust that trails off into a sigh as she moves to stand next to him.

“She needs you.”

Ethan wishes he could laugh at that.

“What she needs is--”

“You. She loves you, so she’d want you with her,” she corrects, motioning to the empty chair at Sloane’s bedside, “sitting in that, holding her hand.”

He clears his throat twice before he speaks, though his voice still breaks on the words.

“If I do that, then it will -- she’ll… it’ll be real. And then it’ll happen.”

“She’s going to die,” Jackie says, so matter-of-factly that he’s jealous of her, that she’s moved into acceptance while he’s still at stage one. Her statement tears at him, because below all of the naive hope, he knows she’s right. The talk shows and the news articles may talk about miracles, but they are few and far between in the real world.

“I know.”

“Then hold her fucking hand.”

Ethan hovers for another moment, before stepping over and dropping like a stone into the chair. Reaching out, he takes Sloane’s hand in between both of his. Moving to the other side of the bed, Jackie leans down to kiss her forehead and whisper something in her ear. When she pulls back, there are tears in her eyes that she quickly wipes away before leaving the room.

Scooting closer, he turns Sloane’s hand over to press a long kiss against her wrist, trying to stall before he tells her what she needs to hear.

“You’re not going to wake up,” he says, trying to keep his voice level as he curls his body around the bed to get as close as he can to her. “And studies are skewed on exactly what patients can hear, if anything. But maybe you can hear me.” Pausing to clear his throat, he reaches up to trace his thumb along her cheekbone. If she were conscious enough, she would demand that he not pull any punches, so he lists out every fracture and every complication in detail.

The only other noises in the room are the hiss of the ventilator and the ragged breaths that work out of his throat when he runs out of things to say.

People drift in and out, their eyes red and their hands shaking as they say their goodbyes. Ethan glances down at his own hands and watches them tremble as he clings onto Sloane. He talks when the people leave, telling her stories about college and roommates and medical school, things she’s probably already heard when they laid on the couch together, but he can’t think of anything else. He avoids talking about the future; it would be too cruel for the both of them.

Her doctors return sometime after nine, looming at the back like a pair of ravens. Ethan ignores them in favor of resting his head on her hip. His eyes burn from trying not to blink, not wanting to spare a moment of her time by wasting it with his eyes closed.

Naveen arrives shortly after the other doctors, giving Ethan a long look before he crosses the room and puts a hand on his shoulder. The tears he’s been keeping in check spill over and onto his cheeks as Naveen slips his arm around him and hugs him close. Ethan is telling her how beautiful she looked on that pier with him in Maine last month when she goes into cardiac arrest seven minutes later.

“It’s okay, I’m here,” he assures her, forcing the words from his throat and clutching her tightly. “Go on. It’s okay.”

And, as if she can still hear him, she goes.

He’s late for her funeral.

He’s on his bed, in his suit, watching the television cast blue flickers across the ceiling. It’s morning and the sun should be shining in, but the drapes are closed, making the bedroom resemble a tomb. Jenner lays beside him, her breathing a steady, comforting thing.

He can’t get out of bed. He can’t sit up. If he sits up and puts on his shoes and walks out the door, then he’s going to her funeral. Then she’s properly Dead. Then he’s officially entering the next stage of his life that started Tuesday morning, into the After Sloane Died. Statistically, he wasn’t ever supposed to be in this stage of life. He’s a man with a history of alcoholism and a family medical history of heart disease and pancreatic cancer. It should be him, then, turning into tiny bits of ash and getting stuffed into jars and being poured into the bay and all the complicated things Sloane wanted down with her body. Why did she have a will already written?

He’d like to ask her.

“I’ll just ring her up, then,” he mutters, tacking a dry chuckle on at the end that soon turns wet with the tears he won’t let fall.

If her dying was a natural disaster, the after of it is much more labor intensive. His sandbag walls have turned to stone, rising high against the storm of knocks at his door and missed calls on his phone. He doesn’t want their well-wishes and sympathy, their casseroles and their bouquets of flowers. What he wants is impossible and unattainable and her -- he wants her, goddamnit, and no baked spaghetti or peace lily is going to fill that void.

If she knew she would die young, then she should have told him. He wouldn’t have wasted so much time, finding her charming, wanting to befriend her, falling in love with her, letting her carve out a space in his heart. It would have saved him a lot of time and heartache if she had been up front with her impending doom.

“I’m going to die four days before you propose to me,” is what she should have said to him in front of that vending machine outside Barbara’s room. Because then he would have been just a respectful colleague who dropped in during the visitation of friends and who left before the ceremony started. He wouldn’t have bought the ring that’s still sitting in his nightstand.

(He doesn’t want to consider that she might not be dead at all if he’d gotten up with her that morning and made her late, or if they’d never agreed to move in with each other and she was walking from the other direction, or if he’d never laid his heart on the line on that balcony in Miami. Those thoughts are far too painful to contemplate.)

He wants to worry if he kept the receipt or not, wants to practice how he’ll avoid a pity party from the sales associate when he takes the ring back, wants to stress about practical things.

Instead, he can only seem to want to pull the covers over his head and let the earth swallow him whole.

“What are you doing?” comes a voice from the doorway.

Ethan jerks upright, heart racing. Beside him, Jenner lifts her head and wags her tail.

“How did you get in?” he asks, squinting at her as if she’ll go away if he focuses hard enough. “And why are you here?”

Jackie takes another step into the room and props her hands on her hips.

“You gave Doctor Banerji a key, and I came with him to pick you up.” She motions with her shoulder back down the hall, where Naveen is no doubt picking up his debris from the last two days. As if on cue, Ethan hears the kitchen sink turn on. “So, it’s time to go. Get your shoes on.”

“Are you going to play good cop, bad cop with me?” he grumbles, passing a hand over his face in an attempt to collect himself. “If I don’t say yes to you, will Naveen come in and be nice to me?”

When he glances up, he’s surprised at the heat in her glare.

“Did they tell you what happened to her?”

He’s taken aback by the question. “What do you -- of course they did, I--”

“No,” she cuts him off, shaking her head. “They told you the results of it, distracted you with the medical details. But did they tell you what happened?”

“I -- yes, she was crossing the street and was struck by a car--”

“But they didn’t tell you how it hit her; how it ran over her and dragged her until the guy finally came to a stop; how she was still conscious when we were lifting her onto a gurney and how she had a double pneumothorax but was still trying to tell us about one of her patient’s treatment plans needing to be changed.” Sucking in a breath, Jackie pauses for a moment before continuing, her voice steadier, “Because she knew. If she didn’t know by the amount of pain she was in, she could tell by the looks on our faces when we wheeled her into the OR. None of us expected her to live through surgery, let alone hang around for two more hours. But she did. Because she knew that letting her loved ones say goodbye to a corpse in the morgue would be more difficult, so she stuck around. And she waited -- for you, for me, for Elijah and Bryce and Sienna and everybody else she cared about -- so that we could have that closure.”

She stops again, longer this time to catch her breath and to pull a tissue from her purse to dab at her cheeks. Ethan sinks his fingers into Jenner’s fur in an effort to get the shaking to subside as devastation batters his walls, his foundation of stifled grief splintering as this holding pattern of burying his emotions threatens to collapse. “So, if she can go through what she did and still hang on for three hours, you can sure as hell go to her funeral.”

He takes the tissue she offers him and wipes at his eyes. When he opens them, Naveen is standing in the doorway and watching him with worried eyes. Jackie disappears into the en suite and rummages through the mess on his bathroom counter, before returning with a lint roller and a tie and instructing him to stand. Obeying, he moves to the mirror to wipe off Jenner’s fur and put on the tie. When he can’t seem to get the knot centered, Naveen steps over to help him, holding him close when he’s finished.

They both take a long look at the photo on the dresser, of Sloane and him standing on a lighthouse platform, the railing at their backs and the open sea spread out behind them. She’s in that green sundress and those big sunglasses she loves, the wind catching her hair; he’s not even looking at the camera, too busy looking at her to face forward like she instructed him to do.

“I love her,” he says, speaking around the lump in his throat, wanting to say so many other things but being unable to get them out. So, he settles with tacking on a pithy, “A lot.”

Naveen squeezes him tighter.

“We’re going to miss her, too,” Jackie murmurs, stepping up beside him and resting a hand on his arm. “Are you ready to go?”

“No,” he sighs, shaking his head even as he straightens up and sets his shoulders back. “But let’s go.”

He’s late for work.

He’s grumbling about lying mechanics and cheating snakes, fighting with the glovebox for his insurance card to call roadside assistance when he couldn’t find them in his contacts when something falls out onto the floor.

Then he’s cursing and stretching down to pick it up, curiosity outweighing frustration when he sees Prime Auto Parts stamped across the bag. He dumps the contents out onto the passenger seat. It’s a package of spark plugs for his make and model, along with a printout of how to change them.

Scribbled on a note on top of the directions is a message:

Happy early birthday. Please make sure to roll your sleeves up. I don’t want to hear you complaining about grease marks on those fancy shirts of yours.

P.S. the tools you need are in the trunk

P.P.S. if you still can’t figure it out, come get me and I’ll change them for you and only tease you a little bit

P.P.P.S. I love you

Tracing a thumb over her handwriting, Ethan snorts at her postscripts and wipes at his eyes. He wonders when she hid this in his car, if this was the bag in her hands that he faintly remembers poking his side that last morning in May.

It’s July now, only two months since she passed -- so he takes a few minutes to himself, like his therapist is always drilling into his head, and works through the emotions of finding her gift.

And then, listening to her warning, he rolls up his sleeves and pops his hood.

AN: I know the patient they resuscitate is never given a name in chapter one, but since she’s the same FC as the president from Perfect Match 2, I gave her the same surname. Ethan referring to himself being in ‘stage one’ is a ref to the Kübler-Ross model, though it should be known that the model is more for those coping with their own illness and death, and not for those who are grieving. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him have it.

#ethan ramsey x mc #ethan x mc #choices #open heart #open heart fic #f: holding on (and letting go)#stand-alone #Kaila writes things

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firesidefantasy · 5 years

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so last night i realised i had almost hit 500 posts on this account. and then i had the brilliant, genius idea to make a post with 500 facts about monster house for my 500th post.

this was not a genius idea in any way shape or form.

i am not a genius.

but i did it anyway, so now i present to you:

five-hundred-fucking-facts about monster house

enjoy.

KENZI

1) Kenzi was abandoned as a baby 2) She was adopted by Monster House 3) She does not know when her birthday is 4) Her best friend growing up was Toby 5) Kenzi thought she was a vampire when she was a kid 6) She went around biting people’s necks for weeks 7) Kenzi loves photography, Instagram, and modelling 8) She has ran four marathons and six 10ks 9) She has been dying her hair since she was 14 10) Kenzi’s favourite chocolate brand is Cadbury’s 11) She loves cooking and hosting parties 12) She hates being human and wishes she was a monster too 13) She is almost fluent in French 14) Kenzi has no idea what she wants to be when she’s older 15) She never wants to leave Monster House 16) Kenzi is always chewing gum

HARLOW 17) Harlow dyes her hair black 18) She plays drums because her dad told her it was for boys 19) She plays basketball because her dad told her it was for boys 20) Her mum died three years ago and Harlow has never got over it 21) She lives with her dad, their relationship is recovering 22) Harlow won’t leave the house without a beanie 23) She loves video games like overwatch and call of duty 24) She is absolutely shit at video games 25) Doritos are her favourite snack 26) Harlow has lost count of how many cousins she has 27) If she could be any monster, she’d be a vampire 28) She’s in a college band called ‘4am’ 29) They’ve played three actual gigs so far 30) Harlow wants to be in a famous band 31) Harlow does NOT want to ever get a real job 32) She writes a lot of songs 33) Nobody will ever see these songs 34) She hates the beach 35) The only thing she hates more than the beach is spelling errors 36) She also hates vegetables and weather over 20 degrees C 37) She loves the sound of rain and thunder 38) She hoards TV boxsets and prefers them over Netflix 39) She loves antique stores and charity shops 40) She has an impressive vinyl collection

TOBY 41) Toby is bisexual but prefers guy 42) He’s known he was bisexual since discovering Tom Holland 43) His favourite superhero is Iron Man 44) Spider man is a close second 45) Toby wanted to be a superhero when he was a kid 46) Now he wants to be a super villain (#edgyteen) 47) He’s enrolled in school part time 48) Avoiding sunlight makes school difficult 49) The kids at school joke that he’s a vampire because of this 50) They don’t know why that’s so funny 51) He plays bass guitar but never lets anyone else listen 52) Except Matty. Sometimes he joins in with the ‘drums’ 53) Toby loves going to the skate park at night 54) He once wrote a 500 word essay on why the moon is better than the sun 55) He knows every constellation and loves stargazing 56) He loves sitting on his dad’s balcony and watching the stars 57) Toby doesn’t know who his mum is 58) Metal and rock music is his favourite 59) He chews on his finger to satisfy his desire to bite things 60) Sometimes he’s tempted to see if he could bite his finger off 61) He never has 62) Toby loves tomato ketchup 63) Immortality intimidates him 64) He only wears band tee shirts 65) He starts wearing beanies everywhere after meeting Harlow 66) Toby idolises Harlow 67) His favourite food is pancakes with chocolate sauce 68) Kenzi makes him pancakes to apologise after they fight 69) Toby buys her bars of chocolate to apologise 70) Kenzi and Toby bicker a lot 71) They are also best friends 72) Toby’s favourite period of history is the Roman emperors 73) Caligula was his favourite emperor 74) Toby almost turned Kenzi when they were 14 75) He despises pop music 76) Kenzi and Toby fight over nothing more often than pop music 77) Custard makes him want to throw up

KAI 78) Kai has six older sisters 79) He is one of two guys in the witches coven 80) He speaks French and Italian (almost) fluently 81) He volunteers at the local animal shelter 82) He does not get along with his family 83) Kai tries to fit in but he isn’t very good at it 84) He gets very upset if his hair doesn’t look right 85) He struggles with dysphoria but his parents won’t let him get T 86) Kai loves doing jigsaws and watching reality shows 87) He listens to music to drown out his parents arguments 88) His oldest sister Natalia is his favourite 89) She cut his hair and bought him guys clothes after he came out 90) Natalia plays board games with him and helps with homework 91) Kai loves baking - especially banana bread 92) He hates bananas but could eat banana bread all day 93) Being a witch is hard and he’s really really bad at it 94) Kai once turned a dining room chair into a frog 95) He also turned his mother’s earrings into a donkey 96) They never let him keep the animals 97) Pop music and indie rock are his favourites 98) Kai is scared of the dark 99) Science and maths make no sense to him 100) He plans on leaving the witches coven when he’s 18

PHILLIP 101) Philip is a history professor at Seabrooke University 102) He was born in 1893 under the reign of Queen Victoria 103) He campaigned with the suffragettes - and even broke a window once 104) He is a hardcore liberal and despises the conservative party 105) He attended the 1908 summer Olympics held in London 106) He once had a fling with a maid of George V’s 107) Phillip had entered a competition to be on the titanic 108) He was an engineer during world war 2 109) His nose was broken at a protest for women to be given degrees 110) Phillip has been married three times 111) The first died, the second left him for another man 112) The third was a Vegas marriage about 30 years prior 113) Phillip is straight - but he’s experimented extensively in the past 114) He does the newspaper crossword puzzle every morning 115) He bans TV until after 3pm 116) Phillip moved to Monster House in the 70’s 117) He despises the movie ‘Twilight’ above all else 118) He is the one who decided to adopt Kenzi 119) Phillip is essentially in charge of Monster House 120) He adores barbecues with his family 121) He hates Russia, incorrect grammar, and coffee

MATTY 122) Toby brought a stray dog in one day 123) The next morning, a toddler was asleep in their living room 124) Phillip decided to keep him 125) His hobbies include chewing people’s shoes and phone chargers 126) He has broken exactly seven bones 127) There is no soul clumsier than Matty 128) His face is full of freckles and his cheeks are always red 129) He runs everywhere 130) He wants to be a footballer or an astronaut when he’s older 131) Matty breaks Phillip’s morning TV ban so he can watch cartoons 132) His favourite game is fetch 133) Toby created a machine for him that throws a ball over and over 134) Matty hates it - he likes playing with an actual person 135) His wolf form is small, fluffy and a little too blonde 136) Phillip has been assured that he will get less blonde as he grows up 137) Toby once tried to enter him in a dog competition 138) They won £20 and bought the biggest ice creams they could 139) Matty loves porridge almost as much as he loves shoes and Toby 140) He has an imaginary friend called Boris who he blames for everything

CALLIE 141) Callie is half fae and half human 142) Her full name is Calypso, but everybody calls her Callie 143) She cannot tell lies, but is excellent at talking around the truth 144) She’s introverted and shy - but also amazing at public speaking 145) She wants to be a legal aid barrister 146) Her hair is naturally brown but she dyes it red 147) She plays acoustic guitar in 4am - the same band as Harlow 148) Her roommate is a werewolf but she doesn’t know about it yet 149) She has travelled to France and Italy 150) But she wants to travel the world 151) Her bedroom walls are covered in maps 152) She has an emergency supply of snacks in a room at all times 153) Her biggest dream is to have her own library room once day 154) With a secret bookshelf door, of course 155) Her lava lamp and beanbags are her prized possessions 156) She does not have a good relationship with her parents 157) She struggles with insomnia and rarely sleeps 158) Coffee is her one true love 159) She adores long car rides and she adores driving 160) She works part time at a coffee shop 161) Her car is her other prized possession 162) Callie can devour bags of skittles in an instant 163) She forgets everything in her personal life 164) And remembers everything in her academic life 165) She loves fire and will sit and stare at it for hours 166) Sometimes she goes to the local aquarium to study 167) Change is her worst enemy - everything needs to be consistent 168) She has been a straight A student all her life 169) She goes for a long walk every Saturday afternoon 170) Callie writes songs when she’s feeling bad

MILO 171) Hiding antlers in public is the bane of his existence 172) He is part of a group who want to tell humans about monsters 173) Milo does not particularly like humans 174) He has curly blonde hair that is usually a mess 175) One of his eyes is darker blue than the other 176) He loves blanket forts and fairy lights and hot chocolate 177) He has a part time job delivering pizzas 178) This means he gets a discount on pizzas, which he takes advantage of 179) Percy Jackson is the main reason he’s doing a classics degree 180) He enjoys writing fantasy books in his free time 181) He is reasonably fluent in Ancient Greek and Latin 182) ‘Out of Bounds’ signs are a welcoming invitation to Milo 183) He will explore everything and anything 184) Milo wants to travel to South America the most 185) He has two mums 186) They both adore Callie 187) He goes rock climbing in his free time 188) This is so he can climb trees, fences, and monuments better 189) He claims he’s climbed several mountains 190) Callie does not believe this claim 191) He was not raised in Seabrooke and had few monster friends as a kid 192) Milo is a nymph 193) His father is one of his mother’s best friends - also a nymph 194) His ‘father’ taught him to garden and to bake 195) Milo never called him dad - he was always Uncle Barney 196) He loves growing his own flowers 197) Nymph magic allows him to grow the most beautiful plants and flowers 198) It also allows him to bake exceptional cakes and cookies 199) He adores his younger brother and sister 200) He is double jointed and left handed

KENZI AND HARLOW 201) Making out is their favourite pastime 202) Harlow spends most of her free time at Monster House 203) They enjoy joking about how ‘platonic’ their relationship is 204) Kenzi loves cooking for Harlow 205) They spend a lot of time watching TV shows together 206) Stranger Things and Friends were their last binge-watches 207) Harlow is always invited round for Friday Board Game Night 208) Kenzi constantly steals Harlow’s clothes 209) Harlow loves playing with Kenzi’s hair 210) Harlow loves holding Kenzi’s hand 211) Harlow just loves touching Kenzi as much as possible 212) They both have a years pass to the local petting zoo 213) Kenzi goes to all of Harlow’s band gigs and basketball games 214) She wants to set up a cheer leading squad for the basketball team 215) Harlow just wants to see Kenzi in a cheerleader costume 216) Harlow asked Kenzi to be her girlfriend 217) Kenzi said I love you first 218) They’re planning on getting an apartment together after graduating 219) Also a dog 220) Harlow adores getting Kenzi to play (and fail at) video games 221) Kenzi is a massive flirt - Harlow does not appreciate it 222) Harlow once stabbed Kenzi on the hand whilst cooking together 223) Kenzi and Harlow do not cook together 224) They bicker a lot 225) But Harlow adores Kenzi more than anything else, and vice versa

TOBY AND KAI 226) Toby only got the guts to ask Kai out because his dad made him 227) They are polar opposites in just about every way 228) Toby didn’t know what being transgender meant before meeting Kai 229) Toby calls Kai ‘sunshine’ 230) Kai calls Toby ‘grumpy guts’ for the most part 231) They fall asleep on the phone together a lot 232) They also fall asleep in the same bed a lot 232) Kai’s parents do not like vampires so they don’t know about Toby 233) They met through the Monster House toddler group when they were kids 234) They both went to the Monster House study group as kids/teenagers 234) Nowadays, they ‘study’ in Toby’s room instead 235) Kai drove Toby mad up until very recently 236) It wasn’t exactly love at first site 237) Toby threw up on Kai - the hatred only grew from there 238) Over time, Toby developed a soft spot for Kai 239) Nowadays, Kai still drives him crazy, but in a good sorta way 240) They have every intention of moving in together after school ends 241) Kai has a drawer of clothes at Toby’s place 242) Toby has punched six people in defence of Kai 243) One was an eleven year old. He has no regrets 244) Toby frequently takes Kai stargazing 245) Toby also taught him how to skate 246) Kai speaks French to Toby and he loves it 247) Sometimes Kai takes Toby to volunteer at the animal shelter with him 248) Their biggest fights are over pop music and science 249) They plan on getting a turtle when they move in together 250) Kai loves sitting on Toby’s lap 251) He also loves stealing his sweaters 252) He also loves fixing his hair 253) He frequently picks flowers for Toby and spends hours arranging them 254) Kai also loves falling asleep on Toby 255) Toby kisses Kai’s cheek a lot 256) Toby adores Kai, but he rarely admits to it 257) He took Kai to a Troye Sivan concert in February 2019 258) Kai sends Toby selfies a lot throughout the day 259) Toby saves every single one to his phone - but won’t admit to it 260) Toby’s dad r e a l l y wants him to marry Kai

CALLIE AND MILO 261) They met when they were both searching an abandoned church 262) They thought the other was a ghost 263) For the longest time, Callie was ‘ghost girl’ in Milo’s phone 264) Their first date was in Starbucks 265) But they tell people it was back in that abandoned church 266) They are both too terrified to ever go back to that church 267) They have plants to travel the world together 268) Callie’s phone background is Milo and his messy bed head 269) Milo’s background is Callie in one of his sweaters 270) Callie hoards Milo’s sweaters 271) Milo practically lives at Callie’s apartment so he doesn’t mind 272) Callie only really sleeps when she’s with Milo 273) Milo likes playing with her hair while she reads out loud 274) The sound of her voice calms his anxiety 275) Callie frequently plays guitar and sings for Milo 276) He considers himself her number one fan 277) Callie likes listening to him ramble about history and classics 278) She often falls asleep while he talks - he never seems to notice 279) Callie drives Milo everywhere 280) Milo always makes the best road trip playlists and snacks 281) Milo’s mum’s adore Callie 282) They go for family dinner every other Sunday 283) They are going to Greece together over the summer holidays 284) Their opinions on monster politics differ wildly 285) Callie enjoys teaching Milo how to play guitar 286) Milo grows his own flowers to give Callie 287) He also enjoys cooking for her 288) Sometimes he brings her breakfast in bed 289) He usually gets a blowjob in exchange for this 290) They make a game out of fucking in as many places as they can 291) This has included: the grocery store, a church, the forest 292) Milo’s parents frequently bring up marriage 293) They’re both quite content with how things are 294) One day, they’d both like a small wedding in Europe somewhere 295) Zoos, petting farms, and aquariums are their favourite dates 296) Milo is basically Callie’s pillow 297) Callie writes songs for Milo 298) Her parents do not approve of her dating a Nymph 299) Callie’s roommates adore Milo and love that he basically lives there 300) They fight about how much wardrobe space Milo takes up frequently

BACKGROUND CHARACTERS 301) Callie’s roommate is a werewolf 302) She doesn’t know that Callie isn’t human and vice versa 303) Werewolf roommate (Arya)’s family is originally from India 304) Arya loves escape rooms 305) Callie loves petting Arya in wolf form 306) Milo is the only one who questions why there’s a wolf in the kitchen 307) But Milo still feeds Arya-in-wolf-form blueberry muffins 308) Bruce the Minotaur has lived in Monster House forever 309) Nobody really knows where or when Bruce came from 310) He has a very distinctive Greek accent 311) Bruce makes the best waffles 312) And he knits a damn good scarf and woolly socks 313) Which is incidentally what everybody gets for their birthday 314) Sheryl the Siren is like a crazy aunt to the kids in Monster House 315) She auditioned for X Factor once - she didn’t get in 316) Her vocal inspirations are beyonce and mariah carey 317) Sheryl is married to Mary-Anne the Mermaid 318) Mary-Anne lives in the coves behind Monster House 319) Sheryl loves singing for Mary-Anne 320) Maybe it’s the water-clogged ears, but Mary-Anne enjoys the singing 321) They had a beautiful beach wedding twelve years ago 322) Kenzi was a flower girl, Toby was a page boy 323) There is a ghost living in the attic of Monster House 324) It never seems to come out 325) Bruce sits outside the attic door each night to keep it company 326) Sometimes it likes to play drums with pots and pans 327) Nobody really has a name - it’s just ‘the ghost in the attic’ 328) They leave cookies for it at Christmas - they always get eaten 329) Sometimes Matty gets there first 330) Grace the Gorgon is an interior designer 331) She wears a veil-like head cover to hide the snake hair 332) Most humans just assume the head cover/snake hair is a new trend 333) Grace constantly redecorates Monster House 334) The house usually puts everything back overnight 335) Monster House does not like change 336) Grace is a wanted felon for the murder of a man named Perseus 337) Humans seem to be destined to forever walk past Monster House 338) Thus, Grace has never been caught 339) It is rumoured that she was once called Penelope 340) Nobody quite knows what Perseus did to warrant murder 341) Nobody quite trusts Grace with a knife, either

SEABROOKE 342) Seabrooke is a small, sleepy seaside town in southern England 343) It is the suburban hot spot for Monster life 344) Seabrooke has a population of 4,500 345) Around 250 of these are monsters 346) For some reason, Seabrooke has it’s own university 347) Nobody really knows why - it’s possible Phillip had a role in this 348) Seabrooke has two primary schools, a secondary, and a sixth form 349) It gets a lot of tourists during the summer 350) Everybody hates the tourists - especially Monsters

WITCHES COVEN 351) When Bruce the Minotaur gets sick - he can’t be taken to the doctors 352) The Witches Coven is the main place Monsters go when they’re sick 353) Witches are difficult creatures and the Coven are no different 354) If you get on their bad side, they’ll refuse you service 355) The Witches Coven therefore practically run the town 356) There are three families that make up the Coven 357) Admittance is only to witches with the blood of prestigious families 358) Kai is part of the Witches Coven 359) Kai’s family practically runs the Witches Coven 360) There is a lot of tension between the Witches and Phillip 361) Largely because they both have a lot of influence over Seabrooke 362) Regardless, Phillip still genuinely likes Kai 363) The Witches tend to be high maintenance and spoilt 364) The parents are like the worst white suburban soccer mums ever 365) Regardless, they are excellent at healing magic 366) But also excellent at ruining your life 367) They have definitely killed a few monsters - but it cannot be proved

LOCAL NEWSPAPER 368) The Daily Seabrooke is ran by shapeshifters 369) Nobody remembers when the TDS was started 370) Philip adores it for the crosswords 371) Apparently the crosswords are ‘out of this world’ 372) TDS is ran by a group of crazy looking students 373) Of course, they’re shapeshifters, so they’re probably all 1000+ 374) The shapeshifters behind TDS don’t mingle with other monsters 375) At least not as themselves 376) They report on human politics and news as well 377) Only monsters are sold the copies with monster news included 378) Half of TDS is gossip about the people in Seabrooke 379) Nobody is really safe from their snooping 380) Their methods include being a literal fly on the wall 381) Most breakups, Witches Coven drama, and Vamp/Wolf fights are put in 382) TDS is extremely controversial amongst Monsters in Seabrooke 383) Kenzi thinks it’s fucking hilarious

SEABROOKE UNIVERSITY 384) The University is crawling with monster life 385) Several professors are monsters 386) Most notably are Phillip and Steven 387) Phillip teaches Modern History 388) Steven teaches Medieval History 389) Phillip is a Vampire, Steven is a Werewolf 390) They have a competition for who gets History Professor Of The Year 391) This competition frequently gets out of hand 392) Everybody knows about their rivalry, few knows why 393) Nobody knows how long the two have worked there - most say forever 394) That wouldn’t be far from the truth 395) Steven happens to be Arya (Callie’s Roommate)’s father

MONSTER HOUSE 396) Monster House is practically alive 397) It constantly expands and shrinks 398) There are always exactly as many rooms as are necessary 399) Only the first floor can be seen by passersby 400) And they often walk straight past it 401) Ordering pizza is a nightmare 402) It’s like the human brain cannot comprehend where it is 403) Even though it’s in an incredibly obvious location 404) When they do see it, they see only a normal house 405) The construction of the house makes no sense 406) There are rooms hanging over nothing and stairs leading to nowhere 407) Sometimes bedrooms move and finding them is a nightmare 408) The living room and kitchen like to switch places 409) On Monday’s the kitchen is green and nobody knows why 410) It is black and white the rest of the time 411) It is almost impossible to paint or decorate Monster House 412) It prefers to do that itself 413) Somehow the bedrooms always look exactly how they are wanted 414) At least they save on paint - that shit is expensive 415) Unfortunately, Monster House doesn’t clean itself 416) Toby has registered several complaints about this

LULU 417) Lulu’s full name is Lucifer 418) It has been living in the basement since the beginning 419) It has only been seen by four people 420) Phillip and Kenzi are two of those 421) They call it Lulu because Kenzi couldn’t pronounce Lucifer as a kid 422) The nickname kinda stuck 423) Lulu gets fed raw fish every morning 424) They just dump a bucket full down the hatch in the kitchen 425) Sometimes Toby threatens to feed Matty to Lulu 426) This causes Matty to have nightmares and sleep in Toby’s bed 427) So that one kinda backfired on Toby 428) Nobody actually knows what kind of creature Lulu is

MISC. FACTS 429) Harlow’s favourite song is ‘Lights Down Low’ by Max 430) Seabrooke is not on any map - nobody knows why 431) I really regret this 432) Never ever try to write 500 facts it will not be fun 433) Callie’s favourite kind of law is criminal law 434) Particularly fatal offences 435) She also likes land law because she’s fucking weird 436) Kai got into reality TV because of his sisters 437) One of the arcades in Seabrooke is monster themed 438) Toby works there on Saturdays - always taking the night shifts 439) Kai really wants to own his own bakery one day 440) He tried to get the local bakery to hire him but he’s too young 441) Kai also wants to live in France or Italy 442) He also wants to be on reality shows and get a fake tan 443) (Okay. Toby is pretty sure he was joking about that) 444) Kai always has to wish on a lucky star 445) Milo wants to be a published author one day 446) Kai has tried to run away from home twice 447) His parents put a tracking spell on him and found him too fast 448) Toby wishes he could skate at the park with the other kids 449) But he also secretly likes that everyone finds him mysterious 450) Toby used to have a (massive) crush on Kenzi 451) Now they’re both pretty gay 452) Everyone is gay tbh 453) Monsters have no concept of heteronormativity 454) Kenzi’s favourite colour is pink 455) Callie’s favourite animal is an octopus 456) Kai has a picture of him and Toby stuck on his bedroom wall 457) Kai has had a crush on Toby since they were kids 458) Coming out as trans wrecked Kai’s relationship with his parents 459) It is seen as a disgrace for witches to have male sons 460) Men are submissive in witch culture 461) Kai’s parents frequently misname and misgender him 462) The kids at school are much more accepting 463) Kai came out when he was 14 464) Toby has actually been one of his biggest supporters 465) Natalia has been his main supporter as well 466) Toby likes Kai a lot more since he came out 467) Kai feels more real to him now - and irritates him less 468) Toby doesn’t know how long Kai has liked him for 469) Kai is pretty open about being trans 470) Seabrooke is quite accepting, even if his parents aren’t 471) Kenzi is terrified of being rejected by the monster community 472) She really wants Toby to turn her so she can be an actual monster 473) She wears contact lenses so her eyes look purple 474) She doesn’t really like school and puts the bare minimum effort in 475) Harlow is taking four a levels - a difficult thing to do 476) Fuck this was the worst idea 478) Harlow channels her anger out through drumming 479) It’s therapist mandated so her dad cannot stop her 480) Even though he very very much wants to 481) Harlow’s favourite video game is overwatch 482) Her mains are lucio, junk rat, bastion and rein 483) Harlow despises spelling and grammar errors 484) Matty likes stealing Toby’s tee shirts 485) Between Matty & Kai, Toby barely has any clothes left 486) Which is fine as far as Kai’s concerned 487) Matty is like a little brother to Kai 488) Originally, Callie & Arya were part of a polygamous relationship 489) I cut that out, though, because I couldn’t think of a third girl 490) Seabrooke tends to have mild weather 491) During the summer, the heat can spike to 25-30 C max 492) It rarely snows, but it does rain a lot, and there’s a lot of wind 493) Most of the houses in Seabrooke were built 100ish years ago 494) It has a train station - nobody knows why - it’s the last stop 495) There is a Seabrooke museum ran by a vampire and a Fae 496) There is a secret monster section in the back 497) Idle Town by Conan Gray reminds me of Seabrooke 498) As does This Town by Neil Horan (I think that’s the name idk) 499) Fuck you to @livvywrites for not stopping me 500) I am never doing this again

tag list: @livingthelovelylife, @commasinsidequotes, @4kidsopfan, @thatworldinverted, @livvywrites @ravenpuffwriter @the-writer-turned-procrastinor @livingthelovelylife (ask to be added or removed more likely after this shit)

#writeblr #writeblr community #monsterhouse #this was the worst idea of my life #never again #do not do this #b a d i d e a

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lightsandlostbells · 6 years

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Skam Italia season 2, episode 1 reaction

Hello, how’s everybody doing? We survived the first week of a S3 remake. I wrote a little (a lot) about it.

Just to be clear: I completely understand if people just want to hang on and enjoy the ride because it’s S3 again, we love it, it’s an important story for many people! But so far there are aspects of Skam Italia S2 that I am positive about, and there are areas where I have criticisms. Don’t read if you don’t want to hear some comments that are not 100% enthusiasm. For real, I’m not trying to be a buzz kill, like I’m fine with posting these to crickets, lmao, because it’s a fun exercise for me to analyze the remakes even if I’m essentially talking to myself.

Thank you so much to everyone translating this show! Imagine if no one was translating this season. The fandom would lose its goddamn mind. You are literally saving the planet from destruction, thank you for your service.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I’m going to put additional disclaimers here, because people have strong feelings about Skam S3, and people also have strong feelings about Skam Italia, and there is already drama when those feelings bump up against each other:

The reason why I started doing reactions to the remakes was to compare the versions of Skam and analyze what worked and what didn’t in the adaptation process. This was a clever change to fit this culture, this was awkward and didn’t work, etc. While I do want to judge S2 of Skam Italia on its own merits, I’m not going to leave the original series out of it and look at this season as something that exists in a Skamless void, because that’s not my aim with these recaps. So if you are really not interested in comparisons to the original show (positive, negative, or neutral) then perhaps don’t read further.

I’m also taking into account this is a different culture than the original show and noting how that might affect this story, and that it’s a big deal to have an LGBT Italian lead in a series and Italian fans are very excited. So I’m keeping that in mind! But I also think that, should Skam Italia bungle something, it’s okay to call it out, it doesn’t get a free pass. We criticized parts of the original series while praising it where it succeeded. Sana’s season, for example, is extremely progressive as a concept (a Muslim girl lead is extremely rare) but had numerous aspects where it stumbled, and as a fandom there was no shortage of criticism. This goes for both the social justice and educational aspects of Skam as well as writing, directing, acting, and other basic storytelling stuff.

Okay? Okay.

Episode 1

Clip 1 - GET OUT OF THE FUCKING TUB, LOSERS

Right away, I loved the voicemails. They sound like real accounts of homophobia, and I don’t know if these are actors recreating them or real people sharing their own experiences, but it was a powerful intro to the season.

I also like zooming in over the city while these voicemails played, over all these dark apartment buildings, because it felt like those voices could be coming from anywhere. They were anonymous. Your neighbor could be gay, the woman who lives downstairs could be a lesbian, and you might never know because they’re in the closet. You might never know how much they’d suffered due to homophobia. But they’re also everywhere. Despite their treatment in society, LGBT people aren’t “the other” but can be anyone you know. That’s why it zooms into the party, to link these anonymous voices to a face that we we do know.

I saw some people suggesting that maybe these have to do with Martino’s involvement in the radio station, and that this will be some part of a project that he does, and while I think it’d be awesome if the radio station came into play with his personal development, I’m ehhhhh about these turning out to be part of Martino’s project all along because it doesn’t seem like it goes with the real time format, and IDK, it seems too literal. But I’d be OK with it these were more of a thematic device and Martino has a literal confession along these lines later on.

Rainbow logo 🌈🌈🌈

...who’s that blue-haired girl?

I feel like Edoardo being immediately on screen was to reassure any OG Skam viewers and Incantava fans who hadn’t yet gotten the message that EDOARDO IS DEFINITELY NOT GOING ANYWHERE THIS SEASON DO NOT PANIC.

Silvia is watching some girls dance and for a hot second I hoped they were finally hinting at the lesbian Vilde story we deserve, but it seems like she is watching them because of their slim figures, because she reconsiders the piece of cake she was going to eat. Silvia, no.

Silvia is very upset about the hotties at the party and Sana says there only would have been four people there and reassures her that she’s beautiful, awwww. But Silvia is upset about some Argentinean girl, who I assume is an apex hottie that she fears will outshine her, perhaps?

Silvia waves at Edoardo, who ignores her. You know, Edoardo’s apology to Silvia would feel more genuine if he acted like a baseline decent human being toward her instead of refraining from basic politeness because OH NO he has to shake her off his back (except when he can exploit her interest for his own gain).

It’s Italian Eskild! He says that Edoardo’s hair is indeed shit, suggesting Eleonora has told him all about it (something for the Incantava shippers) and I mean, I support him giving Silvia a boost, and I support any dragging of Edoardo, except Edoardo’s hair is like the one thing about him that is not shit.

He takes Silvia to dance and comments about checking her boobs to see if she is a virgin, so this is filling in for S2’s “It’s Britney bitch” moment. I guess they’re going to incorporate some Skam S2 material into this season in order to accommodate for the switch in storylines.

Hey, you know what I could have strongly done without? Filippo grabbing Silvia’s tit out of nowhere. There’s sometimes a tendency for gay men to grope women and get away with it because it’s obviously not sexual, so what’s the problem? Except the problem is that men, no matter what their sexuality, feel like they have unfettered access to women’s bodies. I’m not saying HE’S CANCELED or anything, but it irritated me that they threw in such a small moment that wasn’t needed, especially because this is our introduction to this character. Thanks, I want casual groping to be my initial impression of this guy. (Just to be clear, this dialogue happens in the original, but there is no unauthorized tit-grabbing from Eskild.)

And the fact that this moment went so unremarked upon is a sign of how normalized this behavior is, frankly. But they played it off as a funny moment so it’s okay!! Lol Filippo, you’re supposed to be gay!!!

Incantava shippers get a morsel before Eleonora leaves for London as she and Edoardo share a ~glance.

So Filo is Eleonora’s brother, which is a good way to incorporate his character considering it’s unlikely for Martino or Eleonora to live with a random roommate instead of their families, and they hadn’t set up the Filo character in S2 so his appearance in Martino’s life is going to need to be established quickly. So that makes both the Eleonora-Filo and Martino-Filo relationships more plausible in this culture.

Although lmao, imagine some of Eskild’s S2 scenes now that he and the Noora character are related. I’m sure Eleonora will need to bleach her eyeballs if she walks in on her brother getting his dick sucked to Circle of Life.

Eva catches up to Martino in the kitchen, and the flirtatious vibes are there right away, you know this isn’t going anywhere good. She tries to kiss him, so this is basically that scene from S2 where Eva tries to make out with Isak at a party, except way more awkward because this Eva actually manages to get a few kisses on Martino. Yikes.

Of course he’s not into it, and she’s just like yeah, go to your friends. Go find Gio. She knows where his real interests like.

Martino answering some random landline is pretty endearing, especially when he has cans of beer he needs to balance to do so.

Him being like “I am not the owner.” Lmao, he’s a sweetie. I suppose this was maybe a neighbor or someone wondering about the noise level and activity at the party, and that was why the police show up later? But I like to imagine that they were filming in this building, the phone rang randomly, and they were like, eh, throw it in.

So now we’re moving into the OG S3 content, with Martino entering the bathroom and sitting in the tub with his friends drinking and getting high.

Elia is the second person to mention the Argentinean girl, so I guess she must be a stone cold babe. Are we ever going to see her? Or will her hotness exist only in legends?

They do the whole song and dance where Martino pretends like these girls aren’t hot enough for him, while the other dudes are not having it. Well, to be fair, he really isn’t into them. I’m not sure what to make of his reactions, because Isak was very performative, and Martino just seems indifferent.

The boys claim to have gotten Fede a present, I wonder what it was? Probably just booze or something?

Lmao I was wondering why this girl would use this random out-of-the-way bathroom, but apparently two dudes are fucking in the other one (what are the odds it’s Filo).

What assholes, get out of the fucking tub for two minutes and let the girl pee in peace! I guess they’re just lazy and stoned, but JFC.

Instead of saying the girl looks like Eleven from Stranger Things, Martino tells her she looks like a frog… I kind of see it? But she’s also a babe, soooo.

Not gonna lie, I really did not like how they adapted this scene. “We’ll leave you alone to pee but you have to hook up with one of us” is not … cute … like it takes it out of negging teenage asshole territory and gets creepy. Maybe because of the hellscape that has been RL politics for the past few weeks, but I’m not in the mood for any of this boys-will-be-boys shit.

We know that one new dude must be Magnus because he is instantly rejected.

Martino gives the boys the thumbs up once Italian Emma starts making out with him and they’re leaving.

Martino didn’t actually do anything to win over this girl, really? With Isak it was a performance: Emma came in and he made a determined effort to flirt with her, he negged her, he complimented her, he got out of the tub and was more active in his pursuit. All of that was because he was trying to seem straight in front of his friends. Martino, on the other hand, was far more passive. He made the frog comment but that seems less like negging when all four of them are sitting there being dicks to this girl, rather than him alone, and she just happened to choose him out of the four. Isak was putting some effort into it and pretending to be interested until the boys left and things got steamier, but Martino just plain is not trying. He ain’t feeling it.

This is one of the disadvantages of writing recaps episode by episode as they air and not when you can look at the full season, though. Because on the one hand, making Martino more of a passive participant in his fake heterosexuality is fine, but on the other hand, if that’s not their intent - if they’re more or less going to follow Isak’s character arc for him - then I think they missed a big point of this scene in not making Martino pursue this girl more actively. But we don’t know exactly if this is a thoughtful, deliberate choice or an oversight. (For example, in S1 of Skam Italia, several of Eva’s key moments of “who are you?” were eliminated, Gio’s skate park speech was rewritten with a different focus, etc. which made me wonder about her character arc. It could have worked if they had intentionally made these changes to arrive at a different conclusion, but in the end Eva’s final speech to Gio is the same, the arc is supposed to be the same even though crucial points have been left out, and it didn’t feel as strong. So it’s hard to say whether Martino’s character is supposed to be written with subtle differences that change his characterization, or if they don’t realize how small edits can affect the perception of this character.)

I am a little alarmed that the girl goes for the blowjob like immediately after choosing Martino? Isak was hardcore flirting with Emma so it made more sense she was trying to do that with him. With this girl, she’s just trying to pee and some random guy’s like “Hook up with one of us and we’ll leave you be” and she’s like, “Sounds like a plan!” Damn girl, didn’t you need to really use the toilet? But you’re going to stop to blow him? Okay.

Eva is stumped by seeing that Martino was in the bathroom with a girl, probably moreso because he just rejected her upstairs. Well, this girl isn’t his best friend’s ex, sooooo it makes a smidge more sense, Martino’s sexuality aside.

Incantava moment: Edoardo brings up the deal with the apology to Silvia, so that made it into this remake. Part of the deal was to erase the wall of conquests - smart of Eleonora - and I guess Edo did that, hopefully, but he also reminds her that she agreed to a date.

What a power move of Eleonora to go to England to avoid this date.

At least Edo was not pursuing her prior to this, apparently. It would be a shame if they suddenly had him pressure her into a date in Eleonora’s season.

Okay, I realize that Martino didn’t appear to have the best options to hide his weed, but he’s really just gonna put it in a box on the railing where it could easily get knocked over the balcony or blown away or something? Lmao.

The scene of the boys running away from the cops was cute and had that “reckless youth enjoying the night” vibe.

So Martino clearly still has Giovanni feelings, and Giovanni is going to be crashing at his place tonight. Look at that hand on Martino’s shoulder, probably burning through his shirt. I like perhaps acknowledging the idea that all this casual affection between guys in this culture can take on a hidden toll for a closeted gay kid.

Martino mentions that his mom is freaking out, so they’re openly acknowledging Martino’s mom situation in front of the other guys (when Isak was less open about it) and Giovanni gives him a hug that fucks Martino up. It seemed like Martino didn’t want Giovanni to come over, probably both because of his crush and because of his mom situation.

Clip 2 - Sad boy slumber party

Martino wakes up and stares at Giovanni, who’s still sleeping. Martino is not on the bed, but on the floor, ostensibly because Giovanni threw him off the bed but really because he doesn’t want to be so close to Giovanni. He pointedly turns down Giovanni’s invitation to get back in the bed. This is a really delicate situation; this is such a casual thing for Giovanni that he doesn’t even think about it, but for Martino it’s this extremely loaded scenario that comes with dangers, so better not risk it.

Eva calls and wants to talk to Martino, but he can’t since he’s with Giovanni. Giovanni says that he’s been trying to get back together with Eva, and making a fool out of himself, so Martino is certainly not enjoying about this reminder that Giovanni likes girls, Giovanni loved (loves?) Eva, it will never be Giovanni and Martino in the way he wants. Also, awkward of course because Eva tried to kiss Martino, which says a lot about how she thinks of Giovanni - probably not keen to get back with him if she can make a move on his best friend, even when drunk.

Okay, I have a deeply unpopular opinion and that is: while Skam Italia’s cinematography is often visually impressive, at times it does not work with the material it’s supposed to be conveying. It’s not style over substance, but style against substance. There are several examples, but to go into one now: why the fuck is the lighting so dark in certain moments. Whyyyyyy.

And before you tell me, I do know why the director is perhaps doing this. It’s supposed to reflect Martino’s state of mind, it’s supposed to make things seem bleak, it’s supposed to contrast with the sunnier scenes such as later in the episode with Niccolò, etc. etc. The problem is that I do not think it is effective for the format of this show. Here’s the thing: we are supposed to be in Martino’s POV for a reason. His reactions should not be hidden from us, this audience, and to me the lighting is a barrier from getting closer to him and getting fully into his mindset. Like, the camera should be eating this shit up! Give me all the microexpressions! Federico Cesari is doing a nice job of acting so far and it bugs me that the lighting is obscuring some of his facial expressions. Now it makes sense for ambiguity on the part of say, Niccolò, who will be keeping secrets for most of the season (based on Even’s role) but this is Martino’s season, and we as the audience should be deep into his head every step of the way. This is supposed to be an immersive experience. There is zero reason to obscure Martino’s reactions from the audience. Martino may have a barrier between him and his friends, his family, his schoolmates, society at large - but not us, the viewers. (And not just the lighting, but for example, that his face is shot in profile for part of this scene, which again doesn’t give us a full range of Martino’s reactions, or the amount of distance between the camera and Martino at times. Even if you can assume what Martino is thinking and feeling enough that you don’t need really clear reaction shots, it’s like there’s a gap and we’re not supposed to get too close.)

Like obviously this cinematography is working for people, and if it is for you, great! If this were a different show, I could be fine with it. But not with a series that is supposed to put me fully into this character’s head, not keep me at a distance.

Covitti is the girl from the bathroom? She’s followed Martino on IG. I feel like, if they’re doing a repeat of Emma’s involvement, then it doesn’t work as well as to why she’d suddenly be interested in Martino. With Isak, there was something karmic about it, because he blatantly pursued when he met her, and it’s like he reaped what he sowed, you know? Don’t get me wrong, he absolutely did not deserve the much later repercussions with Emma outing him, but the immediate aftermath of him flirting with Emma showed that his actions had consequences. He couldn’t just make out with this girl for the benefit of an audience and then drop her. With Martino, he was so much more passive with Covitti, that it feels less earned. I mean he’s very cute, but him being doggedly pursued by her doesn’t have as much to do with his characterization, unless the point is that he refuses to put his foot down and reject her. (A valid characterization choice! But hopefully an intentional one.)

We get to see Martino’s mom and on the one hand, it’s pretty cool that she’s around in this version, but on the other hand, goddamn am I apprehensive about how they will depict her.

Martino really does not want to eat lunch with her. Apparently they have chicken and potatoes four times a week. Credit to Giovanni, he acts normal and is polite to Martino’s mom and is eager to eat with her.

Eva apologizes for trying to kiss Martino. So Giovanni is trying to get back with Eva and Eva made a move on Martino. Awkward! Eva is also probably dying to bring up the topic of that girl in the bathroom with Martino, let’s be real.

Giovanni chides Martino for being an asshole and says if he didn’t treat his mom like shit, maybe he would help her! Hey, no offense, Giovanni, but fuck off. I agree that Martino was not nice to his mom, I agree that he should treat her better. But Giovanni is a visitor. He is a guest in this household. He doesn’t know shit about what it’s like to live there or what’s the best course of action. No, actually it’s not as easy being kind to someone and it’ll fix their mental illness.

If I sound weirdly pissed about this, it’s because I am speaking as someone who has been a caretaker to a mentally ill parent. One of the most frustrating things was when people who were completely outside of my situation told me how to deal with it. It’s fucking easy to think you have the answers when you don’t live in this situation, when you have the freedom to go back to your own home when shit gets really rough. When you likely haven’t seen a loved one at their worst.

To clarify, this isn’t necessarily a flaw of the show, just an area where I think a character is flawed. But I would hate for Giovanni’s POV to be validated. Of course Martino should not treat his mother poorly, but he needs to do that on his own, not because some outsider who has no idea what is going on in this house thinks so.

Anyway. Shut the fuck up, Gio.

Eva also doesn’t want Martino to tell Gio, so you know Gio is going to find out at some point. Here’s the thing: if this drama is more along the lines of ~ooo Eva kissed Martino and he didn’t tell Gio and Gio feels BETRAYED when he finds out~ then it sounds tedious and exactly the kind of drama I don’t want. It’s not necessary, it’s honestly a very low-stakes situation. However, if it’s more of a lead-in to S1’s drama being revealed, and Gio learns about what happened with Martino ratting out Eva, that would be interesting. I’d be very interested in seeing where it goes. I think the writers have to know that this would be the most compelling aspect, so here’s hoping.

Not gonna lie, one thing I liked about S3 was the lack of heterosexual relationship drama (other than what directly serviced Isak and Even’s relationship), and I don’t want this season to stray too far into Eva/Gio stuff. Though I realize that by switching S2 and S3, they probably feel like they have to account for their relationship.

In S2 of the original, we saw the remnants of Eva/Jonas more on Eva’s side, through Noora’s eyes. Eva told herself she was over Jonas and they were just friends, but we could see that wasn’t totally true. With this season, though, we’ll probably see Eva/Giovanni more through Giovanni’s eyes, because even if Martino is Eva’s friend, he’s Giovanni’s best friend.

Clip 3 - The Phantom Clitoris

Lmao, Luca being like “Guess what happened to me” and Gio being like “Did you put an egg in the microwave again?” (I mean, you can cook eggs in a microwave even if it’s not the best way!)

Luca hooked up with a girl! If we believe him. She didn’t have a clitoris! Except he didn’t know what it was called. I don’t know whether to think that if it he didn’t know what it was called, he probably didn’t know how to look for one, or that he’s straight up lying. But this is interesting because Jonas was the one who went down on girls in the original and had this dialogue, and then Magnus was the virgin seeking wisdom from Isak, and here apparently Luca is already banging girls? Or he’s pretending to.

Martino sees Niccolò for the first time! Niccolò is adorable. He’s got the Even denim jacket and a nice smile. Sana and Silvia are shown going up to him while he’s talking to another dude.

Luca is like, I watched a 20-minute porn tutorial of how to eat a girl out. No offense bro, but I doubt you were in a very studious mindset during that. Or maybe he was! Maybe he made flashcards.

Martino gets a text from his dad about having dinner “with us” and I’m guessing that his dad has a new girlfriend or something, because it’s kinda weird to text your kid “have dinner with us?” about both his parents when his dad left his mom.

Silvia and Sana come up, Elia brings up the girl with no clitoris to them (why was that the first thing out of your mouth, dude), and Silvia mentions that she and Sana are now in charge of the radio. So this is our kosegruppa! I wonder if the radio itself will have more plot relevance for the season.

The guys are conveniently too busy to help on Thursday! But Sana thinks they’ll be helping soon enough.

For a moment I thought Luca was frightened by Silvia and saw that as a point toward Luca/Silvia happening, since it would be in line with Magnus’ sado-Vilde dreams, but then I was like, oh right, he probably means Sana, lol. (Silvia is way less intimidating than Vilde. Silvia is cheerful, Vilde was sugar layered over a core of menace when she pitched kosegruppa to the guys.)

Martino checks out Niccolò again, because who wouldn’t, and Niccolò is talking to the other guy … maybe Niccolò is flirting with that guy?

The boys suggest smoking a joint but Martino didn’t get the weed back yet, so the boys are bummed, but Gio keeps his disappointment restrained to a few jovial throttles of Martino’s neck. Martino dies inside and tries not to develop a choking kink.

Niccolò did not look at Martino in this clip, there’s no evidence he saw him in this scene, and he was in fact preoccupied with conversation with another dude. So ... has Niccolo seen Martino yet? In an “I saw you the first day of school” way? Because with that knowledge in mind, in the original we could look back at Even’s first appearance in the cafeteria and see that he had obviously grabbed a seat with a good view of Isak and was sitting there alone, possibly sketching him. I guess you could say that Niccolò was standing there to get Martino’s attention, maybe even trying to make him jealous by talking to another guy, but that seems .... really convoluted. If they do include the “I saw you the first day of school” line, they should have had Niccolò look at Martino for even a brief moment. It didn’t even need to be eye contact! Like you could show Niccolò looking toward Martino when he’s out of focus, as a background event, a little Easter egg for the eagle-eyed viewer.

This is one of those original clip comparisons, so hold on to your butts. In the original clip, the way the scene is shot and acted combines multiple details to demonstrate Isak’s alienation from the other boys. Tarjei’s acting shows that he is disconnected from this conversation - he’s picking at his sandwich, checking his phone, he’s not really engaged with the cat tongue/clitoris talk. He has a few mild smiles but his facial expressions and body language show he’s checked out. He doesn't participate in that conversation at all, actually, other than a look or two. There’s no dialogue from him. And the camera contributes to this impression that he’s withdrawn: it’s often just on Isak with the conversation coming from off screen, rather than showing him in the shots with the guys. It shows him alone instead of showing him connected to the group. When it does show him with the group, he’s not reacting to them much. So when he hears a boy's laugh, it seems plausible that it would get attention as the boys’ conversation is not holding his interest.

With this clip, Martino might make a comment like "Oh no, don't tell us your dirty story" but he is otherwise very engaged in this conversation. He leans into it, he's listening, his face makes him seem eager. He's frequently shown in the shot with the other guys, part of the group rather than isolated. Gio repeatedly looks back at him and shares looks with him so there’s something reciprocal happening. Martino speaks to Luca and he high fives him. He's just a definite participant in this conversation, so there isn't much of a feel of alienation here. I mean, we know he's gay, and maybe we can assume that his participation in this conversation is forced or half-hearted, but that's not coming through in how it's portrayed. And I like Federico, I think he's one of the better actors on the show, but I also think he's playing it too comfortably, though I blame Bessegatto more for that since his direction is what guides the performance. It seems like Martino's a nice guy with some friends, who doesn't seem too detached this conversation and who seems totally fine with looking at a cute guy over there. Not much of an internal struggle. Not much of an external struggle either, really.

It felt like there were missed opportunities. For example, when Martino says he doesn’t want Luca’s TMI, and Gio is like, “Yes we do, don’t listen to him,” we don’t even get a reaction shot from Martino to see how that affects him? We could have seen him annoyed, or exasperated, or uninterested in this conversation. We could have seen him drifting and doing something with his body language to indicate he’s not comfortable, and then THAT is when he sees Niccolò, because his mind is already wandering. Not when he’s engaged in this conversation. Or keep in Luca asking Martino about going girls and wanting to know how Martino finds the clitoris, and Martino having to struggle to answer that when the boys are all looking at him.

I mean, again, it makes me wonder what they’re going to do with Martino’s characterization because they’re playing up his struggles with his attraction to Gio, but he does not seem to be struggling as much with the public performance of liking girls. Or even perhaps the internal conflict of liking boys. And that would be fine except it seems like it should be. Martino was the one who introduced the idea of liking Eva back in S1, before Eva had even suggested it herself. He was definitely on the defense then, so what’s going on now?

Also, Isak glanced at Even and Even looked back, which made Isak look away. Julie pointedly did not show Even again in that clip because Isak was clamping down on his attraction and forcing himself not to look. Martino allows himself a second glance. It frames the scene way more comfortably.

Clip 4 - Fede almost had it all

12:12 ...it begins...

Martino sees Fede and Sana, so he approaches them. He calls them “rays of sunshine,” which is cute! Though he’s totally doing it to butter them up so he gets his stash back.

LMAO I love the part where Federica is like, I found a drill, who brings a drill to a party? (Someone you pray to God remains sober.)

He asks if he can come over and Federica chokes on her drink. She’s really cute in this scene. Honestly, she didn’t make a ton of impression on me in S1 compared to other girl Chrises from the remakes, but I enjoyed her here a lot, she’s sweet.

They can “study” together in the living room because Fede’s parents are gone. Oh babe, I think you’ll be disappointed at the amount of actual learnin’ that would take place were such a study session to take place.

Sana sits there texting Martino that she has his weed while he’s right there next to her. I guess Fede was just really excited by the prospect of having Martino in her house, but did she really not notice that Sana was texting and Martino just so happened to receive a text at the same time?

Sana saying that it’s “a friend of her brother’s” who has Martino’s “necklace.” Is that an actual nod toward Niccolò or just a coincidence? If she means Niccolò, then why is she bringing him up?

Like I know people like this theory, but I don’t think it makes sense that Sana was trying to hook up Isak and Even all along (or Martino and Niccolò if the circumstances are the same), because how does that explain her reactions to being asked about Islam’s view of homosexuality, or to Isak being outed? Of course they could be going for a diferent approach in this remake.

Federica is really adorable freaking out over how she ALMOST had Martino within her grasp. Poor girl, I’m sorry to tell you that your day is never coming. (Lmao, I guess one day a remake could swap out Emma for Isak hooking up with the Chris character? I mean Chris >>>>> Emma, but then I’d feel so bad for her.)

Clip 5 - Here we gooooooooo

So the carrot cake (made by Silvia) suuuuucks. Martino’s disgusted face is pretty good.

The girl squad is trying to Skype with Eleonora. Meanwhile Martino sits there by himself, not having a great time. As a contrast to the girl squad who are laughing and having fun, Martino is on his own because his dumbass friends ditched him.

Sana wants Martino to let them use his Internet connection to continue the Skype call, he’s like lmao, she’s ditching you guys on purpose. Gonna go out on a limb and say that he’s projecting.

Tbh I do think it’s odd that they wrote out Eleonora so much if they didn’t need to. Like I know people think they switched S2 and S3 for dramatic, important reasons, but I get the feeling it was just a matter of actor availability. I could be wrong!

That random curly-haired dude at the meeting is the true star of this clip. He was INTO everything that was happening.

SIlvia says it took forever to make her cake. And it still sucks, apparently. Good thing that the girls never seemed to get her pineapple cake from S1? Was Silvia behind the Jell-O disaster, too?

She doesn’t want another piece, which might be another hint at her ED, but the cake is garbage soooo maybe she just has taste buds and a self-preservation instinct, IDK.

It’s actually intriguing that Silvia seems to be baking cakes for people and yet she monitors her own eating so closely.

Lmao at there being dead noise when Martino sees Niccolò enter the room. Everything fades except this smiley hottie. (For a second I was like “is he flat-lining?”)

Niccolò walked in with some other people, including Covetti. He sits on the table beside Martino. Martino keeps glancing at him but Niccolò will NOT glance at Martino. Again, if they’re going to go with “I saw you the first day of school,” I don’t think they set it up that well. It’s fine if they don’t, but there are really no fun “extras” you get from these scenes with that reveal. In both of his scenes Niccolò has been hanging out with other people, he’s not glancing at Martino. There’s no foreshadowing. You can be like oh, Niccolò positioned himself outside the school for Martino to see, he DELIBERATELY didn’t look at Martino for reasons! But that’s not very enjoyable on a rewatch.

The way Martino begrudgingly greets that Uglydoll or whatever is the best part of the episode.

Covitti notices Martino looking over at Niccolo, by the way.

Okay, WHO IS THAT BLUE-HAIRED GIRL. Like it seems as if she would make a good Sonja, she reminds me a little of Theresa.

Covitti whispers something to Martino but we don’t know what.

“Bad story about Chicco Rodi” Who was that? I vaguely remember the name from S1? Oh wait, was he the guy who got the award for worst attendance? I hope that “tutorial” is foreshadowing for Martino and Niccolò breaking into the school at some point.

Silvia comes across as positively chill compared to Vilde. It must be Osvaldo’s influence.

Why is Covitti even there, since she’s not interested in what Silvia’s saying? To stalk Martino? How did she know he would be there? Emma knew Isak was going to be there because of signups, were there signups for this? (This is nitpicky and I’m sure that’s what they meant, it’s just that they’re skipping over some parts where her motivations become clear.)

Martino: Sorry I have to take this totally real and not at all imaginary call!!!!!

Wow, no finesse, just like our man Isak.

Martino’s fake phone call is pretty funny, like he lets it go on way longer than necessary.

He plops down in a chair in the radio room and then he starts talking to himself and pretending to be on the radio. I really do like the idea of Martino finding his voice through the radio, literally and metaphorically. And actually, when he starts speaking by himself, he sounds pretty good to me! Confident, composed, his voice sounds good, the words come easy. So maybe this is a move from him being passive to speaking up for himself.

That shot of Martino, fractured in the glass, when Niccolò turns on the light is fabulous. Showing how Niccolò’s introduction is going to break apart Martino’s sense of self. And Niccolò‘s image is clear and whole so Martino perhaps sees him as this cool, confident dude who’s got his shit together. So he thinks. (Plus Niccolò literally turns on the light on and all.)

Niccolò says it’s a shame Martino stopped talking, basically, and they laugh about Silvia’s dry-ass cake.

Niccolò has a shitty ancient phone? Would that play into his avoidance of social media because of his manic episode? Since you can’t post to IG/FB/any apps from one of those. Or is he just a hipster who hates technology? Or something else?

Lol, I didn’t have to wait long before the “breaking into the school” prophecy was fulfilled. They end up climbing into a part of the school that’s closed.

Beautiful view on the roof, obviously. I guess for O Helga Natt, Martino is going to run and find Niccolò here, maybe? And then he’ll be in the radio room instead? Will they stare at each other from behind the glass?

Niccolò asks if Martino knows Silvia, and he says no, she’s a friend of a friend. Niccolò asks which one, so he’s probably wondering if Martino is good pals with Sana.

Niccolò notes that Martino doesn’t seem happy to be there, and neither does Niccolò. Taking him at his word, he’s doing this as part of school-work interchange. So I guess he didn’t show up just to meet Martino? Again, I have no problem with that changing that (I loved it with Evak but I’m fine with them not repeating it), I just want them to do a good job of foreshadowing if they do go with that.

We get the conversation about Niccolò being from a different school, but there’s no line (as in the original) where Isak notes with some incredulity that he transferred during his last year, so there isn’t as much of a hint that something happened to Niccolò, provided they are still keeping in his backstory. (I think he’s still in his final year?)

The camera gets very close up in the boys’ faces as they talk about more personal topics, THANK GOD. Like I do think the coldness and distance in other clips is intentional, I just don’t think it works with this show, but at least we can get warmer, closer scenes when necessary.

Covitti (whose first name is Emma, by the way) shows up and literally comes between them. They do the whole thing where Martino “introduces” Niccolò to Emma, except they’re not trying to pretend they’re already partners to avoid her.

“Fares” means horseman or knight in Arabic, so I guess Niccolò is going to be Martino’s knight in shining armor? Or fight for him? That would explain his flipbook in the trailer with stick figure Niccotino on a horse.

Covitti isn’t very awkward as a person. She and Niccolò have a polite, maybe even flirty conversation when filtered through certain jealous ears; it’s Martino who suddenly feels like a third wheel. Covitti is still making eyes at Martino, though. Niccolò says he and Martino will stay back and smoke, which pleases Martino, but she invites herself to smoke with them. It’s awkward but way less so that with Isak, Even, and Emma, in my opinion, maybe because Covitti seems like she’s enjoying herself even if the boys aren’t.

The poppy indie song at the end of the clip feels out of place. Like if they wanted to emphasize the awkwardness, they should have just ended in a stranger song or complete silence to drive home how Martino did not want her there. If they wanted to use this song to emphasize Martino’s crush, show closeups of Martino glancing at Niccolò with the sunlight bouncing off his face without including Covitti in there.

Oh god. Don’t kill me for this. Okay. So we have Niccolò’s introduction in this clip, obviously, and I like him in the sense that he's a friendly guy with an utterly beautiful smile. But I felt like they made him just like ... a really nice, smiley guy, in a way that was one-note. And I’m NOT criticizing the actor’s abilities, because I’ve seen his acting clips from other projects and I think he could do justice to the character. This is more about directorial decisions.

Part of the reason I love Even is because he’s fucking strange. Sure, he’s Isak’s dream boy with his denim jacket and styled hair, and he’s got a smile like the sun, and he just feels cool, but he’s also a bouncy, twitchy weirdo coursing with energy. In his first clip he makes a HELL of an impression and it’s by pulling a bizarre stunt in the bathroom with paper towels and then by making a blowjob joke as one of his first lines to Isak. Now I don’t think every Even of the remakes need to do that, not at all, but Even felt like a really specific character to me, someone who was weird and strongly himself and presented in a way that made us fall for him piece by piece. And one fear I have about the remakes is that they’ll remove some of his weirdness to make him more of a general artsy hipster type who gets along with the Isak. (Or maybe him an artsy hipster asshole, but that’s another story.)

I feel bad because I do actually want to love Niccolò I think the actor is tremendously adorable and enthusiastic about is role, and I think he can make Niccolò into someone specific and memorable. But the way this scene was directed and performed, it felt like Bessegatto told Rocco to be charming by smiling a lot. And I mean, he DOES have a great smile, but Niccolò has the same amused, benign friendliness the whooooole clip, and my gut feeling was that they were trying too hard to make us like him and eliminating anything that might make the character off-putting, which is unfortunately some of what makes the character compelling, especially this early on as he should be something of a mystery both for Martino and the audience.

Where this approach would have worked more for me is if Niccolò was this unstoppable force of sunshine against Martino’s constant grumpy iciness, and he couldn’t help but melt in the face of it. But the thing is, Martino isn’t a constant grump who’s freezing people out. He’s actually pretty friendly to people. So it was like radiant sunshine against slightly less radiant sunshine, and there wasn’t a lot like I felt I could mull over, IDK.

And yes yes I know this is only the first clip. Niccolò has tons of time to make himself into a distinctive, memorable character. I’m aware of that. But I don’t want to lie about my reaction.

General Comments/Social Media:

Continuing with Martino’s crush on Giovanni makes sense considering only a few months have passed. Though it should be said that I never thought Isak getting over Jonas from S1 to S3 without any elaboration was like .. a flaw of the show? It depends on how deep you think Isak’s feelings were. Personally I never saw him as in love with Jonas, I saw it as an intense crush, compounded by Isak’s bad home life so that Jonas, his best friend who was always there for him, was someone who really made his life better at the time, and whose attention he craved.

There was almost a year between the end of S1 and the start of S3, and during that time, Isak had seen Jonas go from Eva to other girls, so I’m sure it sunk in that Jonas wasn’t suddenly going to go for him just because Eva was out of the picture. And Isak had moved out of his parents’ home so there was less of an immediately chaotic situation where he was more dependent on Jonas for support. I mean he’s clearly not in a great place at the start of S3, but he was able to get some independence and distance from his parents. I think his life was more stable on a day-to-day basis. So it’s not hard to see how Isak’s crush would have faded with those factors in mind. Martino, on the other hand, has had less time to get over Giovanni, Giovanni perhaps has not moved on to other girls since he’s still trying to get with Eva, and Martino is still probably depending on him for more emotional support since he has to deal with a more directly stressful environment at home.

In the texts, Giovanni refers to Sana as “Sana Escobar” in reference to her taking the weed. Pablo Escobar is obviously extremely well-known on his own, but I do think it’s a nod to all the Narcos/Escobar mentions in Isak’s season. Or at least they took inspiration there.

Elia is apparently one hell of a dumbass according to an essay he wrote that showed up on IG.

I wonder if they’re going to swap out the Grindr clip with Eskild for the first meeting with Filippo. I really do wonder how that relationship will come across, because I know people are excited about seeing them meet (and I am too) but the thing is, a big part of what made Isak and Eskild’s relationship in S3 meaningful was that they had months of trust to be established between them. Eskild saw Isak repressing his sexuality for months, and when Isak finally came out to him, there was pride in seeing this kid’s long journey to acceptance. We also got plenty of little scenes between them so the dynamic wasn’t just a big dramatic thing, we saw the casual side of their relationship. So I’m not sure how they can replicate that with a relationship that cannot help but have less buildup.

Niccolò is a pianist and there’s a video of him playing on YouTube! I’m really glad they incorporated the actor’s talents into the character and gave him his own artistic skill to make him a little different from Even. I assume that Martino will find the piano video and watch that endlessly. And it’ll be fun if Martino is all convinced Niccolò is a serious classical music snob but then Niccolò is like, “YES, this is my JAM” over a cheesy pop song.

One big problem I have is that it feels like a lot of potential for conflict or tension (both internal and external) is being minimized across various relationships, in multiple situations. It just feels safer for Martino despite him still going through some major problems that Isak was not at this point, and so it really shouldn’t. And that makes it harder to get involved in his POV or to immerse ourselves in his struggles. For example:

The boy squad isn't angry or annoyed with Martino for losing the weed, they're just kind of like lol, get it back.

Sana and Martino don't clash with as much tension, and does Sana even explain why she’s holding onto Martino’s weed instead of giving it back? Sana B. was disgusted that Isak left the weed in Eva’s house where Eva could get in trouble if it was found; Sana A. is just doing it to be sassy, so far? Knowing that she found Isak’s actions distasteful upped the animosity of the Sana-Isak relationship, whereas Sana-Martino doesn’t have that element. I mean it’s certainly a reasonable inference that Sana is mad at him for potentially getting Fede in trouble, but it’s not a clear motivation. Martino doesn’t know why she’s randomly holding on to his weed. Does he think she’s doing it because she’s Muslim and disapproves? Because she wants it for herself? Just to torment him?

Italian Emma comes across way more of a chill, tolerable girl than Nowegian Emma and less of a persistent nuisance causing him stress just by existing.

Martino is less alienated and uncomfortable and more like a chill dude who likes to look at guys. The boys talking about going down on girls doesn’t make him uninterested and detached from the situation, he just mildly protests about TMI but continues to engage. He can look at Niccolò without having to make himself look away. He puts up less of a show to perform heterosexuality than Isak.

Martino doesn’t want to get involved in the radio show, except when he’s left alone he starts talking into a mic and pretending he’s on the radio, suggesting that it is of interest to him even if he’s not into Silvia’s leadership or whatever (as opposed to Isak who just didn’t want to deal with kosegruppa).

Even the Martino and Niccolò meeting had them bantering right away, practically as soon as they spoke, rather than encountering any moments of uncertainty or confusion, no time where they had to find their groove. And people are going to be like “They got along right away when Isak and Even didn’t!” when the reason Isak and Even were a little awkward at first was not because they clashed but because they were attracted to each other. Isak was shy about talking to a cute boy and taken aback by Even’s approach; Even was overwhelmed about talking to the boy he’d liked for weeks. It’s also a mark of how genuine Isak’s interest was: with Emma he was all slick and insincere, with Even he was real and tongue-tied. I mean, think about episode 2 and what a great moment it is when Isak runs into Even on the tram and they fumble for words at first. It’s so good! It’s human and real. It’s vulnerable, especially from Isak’s POV since we know how hard he has been pining over the last week, but also from Even’s POV especially when you know he’s liked Isak for a long time. The thing with Martino and Niccolò is that they settle into conversation so instantly, without any bumps, that I don’t think I would buy a moment like that happening. It’s not like I expect them to immediately become best friends but it would feel strange after this scene. And personally, it’s not like this relationship needs to develop the same as Isak/Even, but it’s good to leave some room for build-up from a narrative perspective. That’s why it’s so satisfying when Isak goes from barely being able to speak to Even to getting so comfortable with him that he can joke around and laugh with him. Like, let Martino say the wrong thing, or not know what to say, or make a mistake, so he can earn that more comfortable place with Niccolò, or so we can savor the moments that show him as vulnerable. (I mean, did people not enjoy Isak and Even being shy around each other? Because the awkwardness, the long silent pauses, the fumbling for what to say ... I ate that shit up. I loved it.)

Now on their own, it’s not wrong for any of these plot threads or scenes to go more smoothly. But do you see how cumulatively, they don’t contribute that much to creating a stressful internal and external climate for Martino? He’s just so much milder about everything, and the people around him are milder to him, and from a dramatic perspective it’s not as engaging.

I mean fandom does this thing where it’s like “These characters get along better! Things are Softer! Cinnamon rolls!! It’s an improvement!!!” but that’s not ... actually great from a narrative standpoint. We’re at the beginning of Martino’s story and it makes more sense to emphasize what a shit place he’s in so we can build him up over the season.

The conflict that IS there, and felt like it had more of a presence on screen when it was addressed, is Martino still having feelings for Giovanni and Martino’s issues with his parents. I’m not sure how much farther they’ll take Martino’s crush on Gio, since now Niccolò is in the picture, but they’ll likely have Martino keeping secrets from Giovanni that are Eva-related. And we have Martino living with his mother and dealing with her problems, but I felt like that should have been more emphasized in this premiere episode and not just one clip, since it’s really fucking huge. It’s not a problem he can kind of repress like Isak because Isak can just ignore his mom’s texts. Martino has to go home and deal with it every day. (Like I would have put the radio/weed stuff for episode 1 and kick off with Martino’s parental problems and meeting Filippo, since that should set sooo much of the stage for this season, emotionally.)

I’ve also seen the idea that this season will focus more on Martino dealing with external homophobia than internalized homophobia, and that’s certainly a good idea, but then they really should have hit the ground running with that theme. Show the boy squad making casually homophobic comments, show him fearing what his mom will say. Show some random assholes making gay jokes about Filippo at the party and Martino overhears.

I think they’re doing the meeting with Filippo in episode 2, so hopefully we get more meat to Martino’s conflicts.

I sound like I’m being negative, probably, but I’m aware this is only episode 1, and there’s plenty more to come. There are things that I do like, such as Filippo being Eleonora’s brother and the introduction of the radio. I think those could be really cool for the season. And I’m still intrigued by everything else, because this is S3 and of course I’m wondering how they’ll adapt it!

Please feel free to correct me if I missed or misinterpreted anything!

If you got this far, thank you for reading! Especially if you disagreed with me, lol.

#skamit reactions #skam italia reactions

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thekimmiandjackieshow · 6 years

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Those DCP Party Buses

A College Internship.. It sounds professional. It sounds like a resume booster. It sounds like your door to bigger and better things within the company.

Living in an old apartment complex with a bunch of other (mostly) 20-something year olds who are working crazy hours, sometimes well past midnight, and who are in desperate need of some stress relief. It sounds less professional and more like the perfect recipe for a late-night party scene.

The Disney College Program is both of these things. On paper, it is a “living, learning, earning” experience, allowing students and recent graduates to professionally build their resumes by working for The Mouse. They live just outside of Walt Disney World, in apartments solely meant to house the Cast Members who are temporarily in Florida to make the magic. It allows younger people the opportunity to travel and gain experience with the company without having to commit to a permanent move to Florida. The added advertised benefit is that students learn responsibility by paying their own rent with the money they earn from the internship, taking care of an apartment and passing monthly inspections, living on their own. All of these things are true.

However, all of these things create a party vibe that rivals some of the most popular party colleges in the country.

It’s no secret that college lends itself to parties. A bunch of people exploring their newfound freedom away from parents, some of them just turning 21 and finally being able to drink freely, and hoping to live a legendary college life like the generations before them, all create a desire to stay up late with friends, drinking, dancing, and forgetting all about the pending adult responsibilities. This is especially true on the Disney College Program. Some didn’t have the money or desire to move away for college, so used the DCP as a way to have that roommate experience outside of college. Others took a well-deserved break from the stress of college to gain some work experience and get a breather away from classes and exams. Some participants were just celebrating the end of their college career. For some, all of that is just an added bonus but their real focus was working for Disney. But, truth be told, the Disney life is stressful. Late hours, long hours, little pay, homesickness, the crushing realization that life outside of Disney can still cause stress no matter how magical your life is, roommate squabbles, high expectations at work, a potentially stressful position, all create a need to find ways to relax and reduce stress. This, coupled with the fact that the DCP is a once-in-a-lifetime experience with people from around the world, makes people want to get out, dance a little, drink a lot, and have fun.

While people party in their own apartments, the popular party destinations are usually near Downtown Orlando. But, a lot of people on the DCP don’t have cars. They rely on the transportation Disney provides. So, the solution was clear: Party Buses.

The party buses aren’t affiliated with Disney in any way. In fact, in the first housing meeting, they advise against using these services and warn that if you do, you should be very cautious. But, every night of the week, a party bus swings by the apartment complex and waits for DCP’ers to board. They typically run on a schedule so that it varies by day but is consistent weekly. So, for example, every Tuesday, the party buses would pick up participants and head to Señor Frogs.

I was never all that interested in going on the party buses. I was never much of a drinker, didn’t find loud music all that appealing, and wasn’t a fan of crowds. The whole idea of going to a club was actually kind of repulsive to me. On my first program, I never even thought about going. My roommates and I were similar in that we didn’t love partying all the time (and some of us didn’t like it at all). We also lived in Patterson, and party buses don’t usually stop there, so we weren’t even always aware of it happening. I’m kind of glad that my first program wasn’t all about the clubs and parties though, because it meant that all of our nights off were spent at the parks instead. I honestly think I explored the parks more during my fall program than during my spring program.

During my extension though, things changed. The roommates I was really close to were really into the clubs and party buses and all that. Their friends would come over and pregame beforehand, and then they’d go out and drink and come home super late. Every single time they talked about how it was such an awesome night. We had all had drinks in the apartment together before, so I had already gotten a little more used to drinking alcohol and the feeling of being tipsy, so all that was really missing was my desire to do that outside of the apartment. I was always worried that my anxiety would be overwhelming while I was drunk because I’d be less in control, and so I never wanted to drink outside of the apartment because I never wanted to experience that level of anxiety in public. My job was getting increasingly stressful though, and I was getting to the point where I wanted to let loose and have fun because after work I’d be grumpy and uptight. Also, my program was coming to a close and everybody said that the party buses were something CP’s had to experience. I knew plenty of people who never took part in that scene and still loved their college program, but I was curious about it and I didn’t want to leave my program regretting anything. Plus, the party bus parked right outside the front of Commons every night and because I lived in the front of the complex, I was always hearing the music.

Finally, one week I decided to just go for it. It was a Tuesday night, so we went to Señor Frogs, and honestly it was so much fun. My friends and I had a few drinks beforehand just to get in the mood. I honestly knew that I wouldn’t be able to get on that loud bus without a little bit in my system to start. I do think the party buses are cool though because it’s an automatic DD. Everybody gets to drink and have fun because the bus will take everybody back. Plus, nobody has to worry about getting there, finding parking, or any of that nonsense. Anyway, the club was loud and fun. We paid a really small cover charge and walked on in. The floors were covered in melted ice and splashes of mixed drinks from people dropping their mostly empty cups to the floor when they were done. The bar was crowded with people ordering $2 margaritas. The bathrooms were filled with drunk girls trying to fix their hair and makeup in the giant mirrors. The dance floor was loud with people shouting over the music to be heard, and others singing every lyric they possibly could. Everybody was jumping, dancing, taking selfies, and letting go. Despite the place being filled to the brim with CP’s, nobody talked about work. Nobody talked about the difficulties of housing. The only gossip in the air was gossip from that night, and even that wasn’t real. None of it felt real. It was all just pure fun. The part I loved the most was feeling like I knew everybody. Every time I turned around I was running into somebody I worked with or a friend of a friend that I had met a few times. We always ended up dancing together in a large group. The group got bigger and bigger as the night went on, and it never mattered how large our circle got.

I only went to Señor Frogs twice on my program. The first time I had gone was so close to the end of my program that the second time I went was the very last time I could possibly go. I don’t regret that though. I'm glad I got to go. I have some very fond memories of that place now. I was never interested in going to parties or drinking before the program, but really the program helped me let go in a lot of ways. I was constantly trying new things and pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and in turn I was finding things I really enjoyed doing. In fact, several people I knew who had joined the party scene at Disney were never really interested in that before their program. I always joke that the Disney life pushed me to drink, but I honestly think it was just that the college program made me realize that fearing things was keeping me from trying new things that I could have been enjoying for a long time. I’m thankful to have had friends on my program who were different from me and could push me to go for it. I never would have had the stories I have now if it weren’t for that. Señor Frogs will always have a special place in my heart.

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thekimmiandjackieshow · 7 years

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Mounties, Magic, and Spider-Man

My older sister is one of the biggest Harry Potter nerds I know. As far as I’m aware, she went to every book release and stayed awake finishing the book in one night. While my love for Harry Potter was more of a steady growth, hers was pretty instant. I view her as a bigger fan than I am, and it didn’t seem fair that I had spent the last several months making magic down Diagon Alley while she had never even seen it. When she did her college program in 2011, Hogsmeade was the only thing open so Diagon Alley would have been completely new to her.

So I had this idea for what to get her for Christmas that year. My family does a bit of a sibling santa thing since there are so many of us. Rather than all of us giving everybody budget gifts, we each get assigned one sibling to go all out on. I knew Megan was coming back in the spring for a conference and a small visit to Walt Disney World. Originally, she was going to go to Walt Disney World with her husband Jason when she got her phD, but they decided to plan it around the conference since they’d already be there and I could get them into the parks. As far as they were planning, Walt Disney World would be the only visit. But I texted my brother in law around Christmas time to ask if it would be okay if we made a stop at Universal one day. I didn’t want to hijack their vacation, but Jason said she’d love it. So on Christmas, when my family came to Walt Disney World, Megan opened her ticket to Platform 9 3/4 and a chocolate frog. Then I told her to hang on to that ticket because she really was going to Platform 9 3/4 and I’d be taking her to Diagon Alley when she came back in the spring. She was thrilled. I was even more excited to see her reactions to everything.

On a bright spring morning in Florida, we headed down to Universal. I had asked if they wanted me to come along or just buy her the ticket and send them on their way, but they were nice enough to let me third wheel. It was one of the best trips to Universal I ever had, in part because we explored almost everything.

I had never been to Universal early in the morning. Usually friends and I strolled in right around the afternoon hours, using our days off to catch up on sleep. Showing up early gave us enough time to see all that they wanted to see and meant shorter lines for us for a few hours.

One thing that Jason was really excited to see was all the Simpson’s stuff. It hadn’t occurred to me that he’d love that area, in part because I never really watched the Simpson’s. Jason’s enough of a fan to appreciate the detailing of the land though, and got a kick out of it all. We stopped to get donuts for breakfast and enjoy the brightly colored buildings of Springfield.

That was actually the first time I rode the Simpson’s ride. The bigger fan you are of the Simpson’s, the more enjoyable the ride is. It’s another simulator attraction that I probably wouldn’t do again, but I could see how fans of the show would LOVE it.

Shortly after, we headed over the bridge and on to London! This was obviously the part I was most excited for. I couldn’t wait to show Megan everything I had explored. As much as I enjoyed showing them Walt Disney World, Universal had become such a meaningful place to me, especially over the last few weeks when it was the only place I went besides work and the grocery store. I wanted to show them my second home, the place I would miss almost as much as Walt Disney World when I packed up my bags and left Orlando. I had spent most of my time in Diagon Alley, so I was excited to share stories with them and show them around.

We stopped by the Knight bus for a little chat before heading through the brick wall to Diagon Alley. The sound of bricks shuffling and separating played right as we walked through the path, and we were met with the view of Diagon Alley. The music from the movies filled the street, making it feel like you really were part of all the magic. I didn’t know what to show her first so I let her take the lead. Of course one of our stops was Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Gringotts has one of the most impressive queues of any theme park attraction ever. It honestly IS Gringotts Bank and nobody can convince me otherwise. We walked around performing magic and exploring all the shops. I let her use my wand even though we all know she would’ve had better results had she used her own.

After she felt like she had seen enough, we hopped on the Hogwarts Express and headed to Islands of Adventure. Of course we wandered through Hogsmeade but it was also important to get over to Marvel Super Hero Island and Toon Lagoon for Jason. We did make a stop at Flight of the Hippogriff though.

With all the time I had spent in Hogsmeade, I had never ridden Flight of the Hippogriff. It looked like a smaller kid coaster, but we went ahead and went for it anyway. Megan and I crammed into a seat and were completely tossed around. It’s a fast sucker for being a small kid coaster. I’ve learned that I have a history of underestimating rollercoasters meant for kids and always being surprised at how fast they actually are. It made for lots of laughs and a few extra bruises.

Marvel Super Hero Island was our next major stop. We wandered through Seuss Landing of course, and I talked about how fun it would be to take my niece there some day. Marvel Super Hero Island was another land filled with attractions I had never been on. Hulk wasn’t open at the time, in fact the loop was just being constructed and it was kind of eerily looming over the rest of the park.

In the back corner of Marvel Super Hero Island was a small ride by the name of Storm Force Acceleration. I was asked what it was, but I had no idea. So we headed over for a ride. It turned out to be your classic tea cup spinner ride, but themed around X-Men. For some reason, we let Jason take the wheel and spin as much as his heart desired. I regretted that. Luckily the sick feeling didn’t last too long but I was definitely concerned I was going to lose my lunch if the ride wasn’t over soon.

We also headed over to The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. Like most Marvel characters, I have no idea what Spider-Man’s story is. I’ve never read the comics, I haven’t seen the movies, and therefore just haven’t grown to love Spider-Man like others do. The attraction was all indoors so I didn’t know what to expect. I texted Jackie asking what it was like because I didn’t want to board an attraction that was going to be too much for me. She had trouble describing it and after riding it, I could totally see why. It’s another 3D attraction (something Universal really excels at) but the coaster actually moves with the pictures. Sort of like Gringotts but to me, much more disorienting. With Gringotts I could always tell where I was about to go and what we were actually doing when it felt like we were falling. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man had me totally baffled. It felt like we went upside down, free falling, and all over the place. I screamed the entire time which amused Megan and Jason. I genuinely enjoyed it though and despite not really understanding the storyline of the attraction or all the detailing, it still wound up being one of my favorite rides.

The next stop was Toon Lagoon. This was an area I had only recently discovered with my roommates on a rainy evening at Islands of Adventure, and I thought Jason would really appreciate it. The area was mostly shops and restaurants, but the larger than life decor was really fun. Plus, the comic-strip speech bubbles hanging from the trees were entertaining.

As we walked towards the back of Islands of Adventure, we decided that we should try one of the three water rides. There was a raft ride, Ripsaw Falls, and Jurassic Park. We narrowed it down to Jurassic Park and Ripsaw Falls, finally deciding on Jurassic Park.

Now I had never been on Jurassic Park in Florida. I had gone once as a kid at Universal Hollywood, but I just remember a giant raft, a loud noise, and a super fast drop as buckets of water landed on me. I don’t even know if I remember it CORRECTLY, but that’s my only memory. So when I got in line, I was nervous.

The line wasn’t very long and our raft wasn’t even completely full. We boarded and sat towards the middle of the raft, personally hoping that we wouldn’t get too wet. The raft proceeded forward into very calm waters, as a voice overhead informed us of the amazing dinosaurs we were passing. The calm waters only made me more nervous and I wasn’t ready for the largest drop in my childhood memory. Then we turned a corner and wound up going through a gate that of course says “Keep Out”. Of course sirens went off and I instantly thought that we were going to be suddenly dropped. I had no idea how the ride played out. I hadn’t even seen the movie “Jurassic Park” before. Then we approached a giant ramp and I knew what was coming. The tunnel was dark and metal, which only freaked me out more. If there’s one thing I hate more than the general unknown, it’s things popping out at me. I just knew that a giant dinosaur was going to pop out of nowhere in my face and while I was distracted by that, we’d be flying down a massive drop. All of a sudden this ride made it on my “never ride again” list. The path evened out and the only things visible were lit up by red siren-like lights that were showing dinosaurs escaping and getting in to trouble. Sure enough, out of the steam popped a giant T-Rex head and just beyond it was a circle of light to the outside. The T-Rex lunged for the raft and then down we went, evening out as water exploded from either end. I survived.

All in all, it wasn’t that bad. I’m sure it’s far less scary when you know what to expect. When it was all said and done, it was removed from my “never again” list.

With us already being wet and having a bit more time to spare, we decided to go on Ripsaw Falls. It was just a log flume ride, but I was attracted to it because of the extremely bright colors. (That’s how they get you friends. Don’t fall for it.)

Having watched the major drop from the bridge, it looked like it was impossible to come off the ride dry. I wasn’t looking to be completely soaked, and I was wearing a white shirt, so Jason let me borrow his poncho. From looking at it, riders went down the major drop and under the small building, then back up through more water before gliding under the bridge and around to the unload. It looked fast, wet, and fun. We walked through the fairly empty queue, avoiding water dripping from the attraction overhead. As we got to the loading dock, a small log appeared in front of us. We crammed ourselves in and I remember thinking it was one of the most uncomfortable rides in existence. Suddenly I missed Disneyland’s Splash Mountain, where there wasn’t a lap bar or seat belt of any kind.

The whole thing was themed after Dudley Do-Right, which is something I’ve heard of but never personally been into. I struggled to follow the storyline all the way through. The major problem I had with this ride though, was how cheap the tracks look. I imagine all major theme parks use similar flume construction techniques to make these rides, but the fact that I could see the ends of the flume on either side made me nervous. We even went under the major drop at one point, and honestly that drop looked like it didn’t have nearly enough support beams.

Now I’m not quite sure why I thought this, but I kind of believed that there would only be one drop. Splash Mountain has drops hidden inside the mountain, so I really don’t understand why I was so surprised Ripsaw Falls did as well. But all of a sudden, a train sound and a bright light were directly in front of us, and we were going down a dark drop. I’m still not sure how the train fit into the whole thing, but I was too busy being surprised by the drop to give it another thought. Another drop and some more gimmicks later, I was ready for the big final drop. Sure enough, we rounded a corner to the large uphill ramp. Partway up the ramp, there was this sheet of water. Unless that water was magically going to turn off, we were all screwed. It’s one of those, “Oh shit that BETTER turn off” moments that I think everybody has at least once on a water ride. Luckily, the water split and we passed through just fine. We went around a bend, stopped momentarily for traffic ahead to completely clear, and proceeded down a very steep drop. The poncho worked, but my legs were very VERY soaked.

We waited for forever to be unloaded, hearing the phrase “And so, our hero proves, a Mountie always gets his man but not always his girl” over and over again. I still didn’t understand. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one. Megan was equally confused and we got off the ride laughing at how ridiculous it all was.

And so our amazing day at Universal ended with confused laughter and soaked jeans. I was so glad I got to go and experience it with Megan and Jason. While there was so much I got to show them, there was also a lot that they showed me just by being curious and having me come along. I rode so many new things that day and had a blast doing it. I’m so glad they let me hijack their day together to be out at Universal. It was such a perfect day.

#universalorlando #universalstudios #islandsofadventure #hogwartsexpress #diagonalley #gringotts #themazingadventuresofspiderman #spiderman #ripsawfalls #jurassicpark #springfield #simpsons #dcpalumni #hogsmeade #disneycollegeprogram #disneyprograms #universalannualpassholder

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