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marauders-fanfilm · 1 year

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Hi Everyone,

I want to sincerely apologize for both the long delay between updates and the necessity for one at this point in general. When we set out to make this project, none of us ever anticipated we might still be working on it eight years later. And while a lot has happened in that time, I promise you, no one wants it to be completed and released more than we do. 2022 has been a difficult year for the project on a number of fronts, but we’re still standing. This year has seen an essentially unprecedented demand for the VFX industry, while they continue to fight for the sort of protections and working standards that the rest of the film industry and most industries in general have. Last year’s near IATSE strike was a wake up call for many of us that the film industry can very easily become incredibly dangerous and destructive to the lives of the people who work in it, and we’ve all tried to do our best to ensure we and the rest of our crew members take the time they need to take care of themselves and their loved ones. This, while absolutely critical and my top priority for the team I am responsible for, has meant that there have been some delays with our progress due to artists needing to take time to focus on themselves and their families, or simply because they’ve needed to prioritize their non-volunteer work, and haven’t been able to juggle both.

As I’m sure just about all of you know, over the past few years, the original author of the franchise has dedicated her time and legacy to an anti-transgender campaign. I’ve talked about it previously, but it’s been an incredibly difficult situation for all of us. While our film doesn’t benefit her in any way, it’s complicated to dedicate months or years of work to a project that is still playing in her sandbox. For some of our artists, it simply wasn’t something they could come to terms with, and they had to step away from the project for their own well being, which all of us on the TGS Production Team absolutely understand and sympathize with. I’ve struggled with it a lot personally, I know most of us have. Speaking purely for myself, while I think the franchise and world will always be tainted by its author’s bigotry now, I love this film, I am incredibly proud of all of the hard work our cast and crew have poured into it, and I made a commitment to see it through. I intend to do so. But I will never harbor any resentment towards any member of our team who doesn’t feel the same way, and wish them nothing but the best of luck on their future endeavors.

There’s not much we can do from our small platform to challenge her, unfortunately. Our film is long-since written and shot, and a time capsule of where we all were as fans and aspiring creators when that happened. What we can do is support our trans team members and supporters, and reject bigotry like Rowling’s. We will be adding a note on the situation and our rejection of her and her prejudice at the opening of the film, and I have elected to strike her card from the animated credits sequence. She created the world and most of these characters, I can’t change that. She’ll be credited for her part of course, as it would be wrong not to, but we don’t need to plaster her name across the screen either.

All that said, where is the project at? The first two acts are just about picture-locked with finished VFX, barring a handful of shots that are currently in the works. Among the work done on this section:

An incredibly intricate steadicam shot of the Marauders fleeing Filch’s office after releasing a series of fireworks and dung bombs, as seen in our very first piece of concept art. This effect required the work of four separate artists to rotoscope the actors, 3D model and track the set and camera movement, and the actual effect work of the smoke and fireworks. Talented artist Porter Justus is hard at work on the scene between work on his Masters from SCAD and preparing for the birth of his second child. Congrats again, Porter!

Top to bottom creations of numerous Daily Prophet page graphics and layouts for a montage sequence by talented Malaysian 2D artist Kunal Chopra.

A Virtual CG version of the Marauder’s Map for various shots by American artist Alyssa Nicholas, for tight insert shots where tracking a physical prop became too difficult.

Artist Jorge Gúzman, who was only able to join us briefly before having to leave to focus on paid projects came on and helped with a handful of Marauder’s Map shots.

Artist Chris Shivers has been working on a spell effect for a series of shots of Lily Evans between his other paid work.

UK artist Nathan Collins has been hard at work on several potions class scenes, including the infamous Amortentia potion!

Nic Bahn, a German artist known as WizardingsFX online, has been hard at work helping us upgrade the opening scene of the film.

Talented Spanish artist Pablo Nadal, who goes by Pancatum in online fandom circles, has been busy for much of this year, but when he’s had time to join us, he’s worked on a great sequence between Regulus & Marlene.

And lastly, our VFX Supervisor, Martin Bayang, who between his demanding hours at his Los Angeles VFX day job and helping me manage our team, has still managed to carve out time to work on a number of shots from our Valentine’s Day sequence!

The Third Act is where most of the work is still being done, including a large fight sequence and where most of our focus is.

When VFX Artist Emma Matzke has time between professional VFX work and parental responsibilities, she is currently hard at work on Snape’s big final scene, which is looking absolutely amazing!

Our dynamic duo from Spain, Guillermo Valadez and Iván Rubio, both full-time professional VFX artists, are bouncing between a couple of segments, including that large fight scene, and another key moment of the finale I can’t talk about without spoiling the ending!

There is still work to be done on both Sound and Color, but the brunt of the workload has been on the VFX front.

There is still a decent bit left of both final action beats, along with a handful of Marauder’s Map shots, and one complicated VFX shot for the final sequence of the film that has proved more challenging than anticipated. But we’re hard at work trying to progress through them as quickly as possible.

Our composer J. Paul Bourque has had a very busy year with his professional composing work in New York, but we’ve slowly been chipping away at the last of the score for the film. We are currently undergoing some revisions to the final sequence, after which Paul and Writer/Creative Producer Ben Wessels will be going back through all the tracks for final adjustments and filling in some final instrumentation, along with the recording of one track I won’t go into detail about that is being recorded live. We’re all really excited about and proud of how the score is sounding, and can’t wait to share it with all of you. Lastly, while I had hoped to save this announcement until the trailer reveal, I am incredibly excited to announce that over the last couple years we have been working alongside the magically talented Tom Ya, also known as The_H_Project, a french architect who used his lockdown time over the pandemic to create an insanely detailed digital replica of Hogwarts Castle! All of the establishing shots in the film have been replaced with custom shots Tom crafted for the project, and I cannot overstate how much it adds to the final product. Tom is now working, again as he’s able to between his busy day job and time with his new bride (Congratulations again, my friend), on integrating elements of his model into some other shots and sequences, and the results so far have been truly fantastic.

I want to apologize again to our incredibly patient friends, families, and fans that the project has taken so much longer than any of us have anticipated. We all want to see the project finished and released, and we are working as hard and as quickly as we can to make that happen. But I also just want to take a moment to say how proud I am of our team and everything they’ve accomplished, both on the film and in their personal, professional, and creative lives since the project began. We all really appreciate your years of patience, and we will continue to pour our hearts into this project, and try to get this film finally completed and out to you soon. Happy New Years, everyone. Aaron

#MaraudersTGS #Marauders Fanfilm #Marauders Fan Film

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beebooca · 1 year

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I watched HTTYD ThW once again and I want to share my thoughts and critique points

The stuff I liked:

Toothless getting a love interest actually made me very happy!

I can’t even tell you how excited I was that we got the blue eyed white fury, when I was a wee litle kid I wanted that so bad

HICCSTRID WEDDING!!!

HICCSTRID KIDDOS!!

Ruff and Fishlegs getting together is actually so sweet

Eret being a bigger part in this and delivering some important information to our main characters

Tuffnuts beard plot was actually very funny and in character for him

The Night Lights are adorable and I love them dearly

My critique points:

starting at the very beginning, why is Berk so overcrowded? What about the rest of the island? What about surrounding islands? What about dragon island? Are those just... not there? why is every dragon living right in the village?

Why is Snotlout hitting on Valka... please... it made me so uncomfortable the entire movie.

Just... Snotlout... he is so out of character the entire time. The only thing in character he did was cry when the dragons left and cry at the Hiccstrid wedding. The writers just wanted a plotline of Hiccup being bullied, but couldn’t think of another way to do it.

We know that grimmel set up the trap on Berk and left the light fury there to meet Toothless, but... why exactly did she stay? She could have just left? It’s not like she knew there was another fury here, she could have just flown back to the hidden world

I didn’t want to address it but the Light Fury design makes me so mad. Yeah, she’s pretty, but she was modeled after human beauty standards. Soft, glittery, smooth... meanwhile other female dragons, like Meatlug or Stormfly, don’t show a difference between male and female.

The Light Fury design just looks out of place in a world where something like a Singetail or Quaken exists. It’s not the typical HTTYD style that I know and love.

talking about design choices, why is every female character, especially Valka, suddenly wearing make up?? In HTTYD 2 Valka looked amazing, like the feral, middle aged dragon lady she was. In this one she looks like a 20 year old, now signs of aging at all except for the grey strands.

I’m also not sure about Toothless design for this movie, but he at least still looks like a night fury his age

Toothless would never leave Hiccup for a girl? Like?? What??

Why is Toothless behaving so weirdly? the producers said it’s because of domestication but like, Stormfly is also domesticated in that sense and she knows how to do her mating dance, she doesn’t behave like a fool around a potential mate.

Grimmel is made out to be this crazy, dangerous foe, the Night Fury killer. But yet I felt like he wasn’t actually such a threat? Drago for example was intimidating because, not only was he insane, he was responsible for Stoick’s death and had forced a dragon the size of a mountain into submission. Grimmel is just some dude that drugs dragons for obedience.

There is no way that grimmel actually killed all Night Furies, like, come on. What are the odds.

Why is Ruffnut this way in this movie?? The whole plotpoint of her being left behind is just so bizarre.

First off, it has been mentioned and explained multiple times throughout the franchise that a two headed dragon needs two riders.

Second, did Barf just not care?? That his rider was missing?? And how did Tuff not notice either?

Third, I’m sad to say this, but if there is one rider that this could have potentially worked on, it was Snotlout. We’ve seen many times in the franchise that he can fall off of Hookfang without Hooky noticing. It’s still far fetched, but it’s the most likely out of all of them.

Ruffnut would be way too smart to not look back and check if she was followed. We’ve seen her be smart many many times. She refused to tell on her friends at any time. She would have looked back and made sure that she wouldn’t be followed.

I call bs on the dragons having to leave. They always insisted on the fact that they will always protect the dragons and fight for and with them and now they’re just tossing all that out the window?

Sure, Grimmel was a threat. But like... The events of the movie took maybe a week. RTTE in comparison was over the span of a year or two. The war with Viggo, Ryker, Krogan and Johann was so much bigger than what happened here, but yet this is what makes Hiccup decide to send off the dragons?

Hiccup... honey... Toothless is permanently disabled... you can’t set him free just like that, his tail needs maintanence or it will inevitably break and leave him for dead...

In Conclusion:

Standing alone, it’s a great movie! But within the franchise, between other movies, shorts, shows books and comics, it’s just so out of character and incredibly weak compared to the rest.

That was it for now, I might add onto this list in the future

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reginarubie · 1 year

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For the brutally honest ship opinion, what do you think of Viserys/Aemma? Fandom has romanticized them so much (and so has the show), but I just can't get over the fact that Aemma begged him to stop, crying that she doesn't want to die, while Viserys cut her in two for his male heir. She also mentioned that she doesn't want to go through the ordeal of pregnancy again, implying reproductive abuse that Viserys repeated with Allicent. Fandom is determined to make him Ned 2.0, but I don't see it

Ciao nonny,

For my brutally honest opinion about Aemma/Viserys…

… people really romanticise them so much? I mean the scene about her death is on the top three of unwatchable/unreadable scenes of the whole franchise (GoT and HotD). It’s up there with Talisa’s death in GoT and the mention of the way Elia was killed in asoiaf and the grief and vengeance Oberyn and Doran still feel for it.

Or maybe I am just overly sensitive over it because I am a woman and seeing people killing a babe in the womb and the mother or opening a woman to get the child out of her… it was crude and raw and whilst plausible of the time and characters is in my opinion unwatchable and kinds of make unredeemable the men involved.

Aemma begged for her life, and whilst it’s true she might have died anyway and this way the babe would have a chance, for how little… she pleaded, she begged him, told him she wanted to live, and he ignored that to get his son.

He didn’t even comfort her properly. He just ignored her fear, her pain and her terror. The whole exchange they have before the birth also enlightens us to the sheer abuse Aemma suffered and accepted because they taught her it was her duty to give him male heirs (‘the queen was ever mindful of her duty’)

The same abuse, but worsened, that Alicent suffered. Because not only she suffers that very same abuse, but she manages to give him three sons. All healthy and living through infanthood and into adulthood. She does her duty, as a wife and mother and still Viserys overlooks the sons she gave him in favour of Rhaenyra.

She suffers that abuse, she overcomes it, she does her duty and manages to give him what he wanted and still her children are almost nothing to him.

Even on his bed, during his illness he calls Rhaenyra “my only child” as if he doesn’t consider Alicent’s children as his, the sons he so much wanted and that she gave him. He forces himself to hold court to defend Rhaenyra, he would not have done the same for any of Alicent’s children.

He ignores his own son’s cut/off eye because Rhaenyra’s honour was put in discussion for the truth.

And whilst Viserys might have done well by Rhaenyra (defending her beyond defence, and loving her and making up for the years he overlooked her) he does not do the same for his other children.

And whilst in Fire and Blood it’s said that before dying he spent an evening with Helaena and his grandchildren, telling them stories that was cut off from the show and for good reason since he’s barely seen interacting with any of his children by Alicent if not to defend Rhaenyra.

Also, people like to think him of the new Ned because of the way they framed his interactions with Rhaenyra (which reminds them of Ned/Arya)… and it was intentional, and in some ways it was similar (Viserys laughing with her about her quirks and being indulgent with her, his rage but love even though Rhaenyra is being difficult for the standards of the time and context, his unwavering support of her claim despite her dishonourable for the context and time actions).

Though if they are paralleling him and Aemma with Ned “my lady you’re holding your hands strangely, who harmed you?” Stark and Catelyn “Ned loves my hair” Stark I’m gonna throw a right fit.

Anyone who knows me a little bit knows I adore Ned and Cat, despite their fragilities and faults… and to even anyone is imagining Viserys could be paralleled with Ned outside of the Ned/Arya parallel they are severely mistaken.

Even worse if they want to parallel Viserys “I want so badly a son that I'm going to have it at any cost (my wife's life cost), then when I have him I'm gone ignore him” with Ned fucking Stark who raised and loved the son of a man he most probably hated who might have or not abducted his sister, and has for sure secluded her away from her family against which he was fighting because of the love he bore his sister, protecting him even against his own best friend... I don't think they have been paying attention.

Since this can become pretty difficult and also triggering I'm putting the rest under the cut.

I give you the antithesis. Ned Stark with Lyanna Stark and Viserys Targaryen with Aemma Arryn and if any of you wants to argue that that doesn't count because it should be between Ned and Cat and Viserys and Aemma just remember that:

Lyanna had only been sixteen, a child-woman of surpassing loveliness. Ned had loved her with all his heart. — Eddard I, AGOT

Whoever Jon's mother had been, Ned must have loved her fiercely, for nothing Catelyn said would persuade him to send the boy away. — Catelyn II, AGOT

So, just shut the hell up if you're gonna argue Ned&Lyanna are not good term of paragon, also because we don't know what exactly caused Lyanna to bleed to death, she could've had a difficult birth same as Aemma did, she could have had a premature birth (like it happened with Visenya daughter of Rhaenyra), so many things could've gone wrong, still it is about a woman laying on her deathbed, during the birth of her son and the man who loves her standing beside her as she dies.

Ned and Lyanna So, the scenes begins with Ned running up the stairs of the Tower of Joy to reach a screaming Lyanna. When he barges through the door Lyanna is shown in a bed of blood, her whole middle covered in vivid blood, sweaty and pale, scared, delirious. Yet she recognizes her brother, whom she loves and missed even though delirious, and she's so much out of it that in a first moment she is afraid he might be a dream.

What does Ned does? He abandons his sword at the feet of the bed and runs to his sister's bedside, kneeling at her side and when Lyanna asks him if he's a dream, Ned assures her that no, he's not a dream and he's really there and to drive the point through he grabs her hand.

Then, as he caresses her forehead and holds her hand, she tells him she missed him and Ned, who has fought a bloody war, has lost his father and brother both because of Aerys, tenderly tells her he missed her too.

He does all he can to comfort her.

And when Lyanna tells him she wants to brave, even though he is holding back his tears he tells her she is.

Lyanna is clearly terrorized, not only has she just given birth mostly alone after months of seclusion and possibly abuse; not only with the grief of her father and brother dying because of Aerys madness and her situation with the fear for the man she loved (? maybe) and the other people she loved for sure (her brothers and her mother); she knows she's about to die so we can only imagine how difficult and traumatic the birth might have been for her; she's scared for herself and she's terrorized for her son who faces a terrible death if word ever got out of who he is.

What does Ned does? He tells her she's not going to die (comforts himself as much as he is comforting her) and goes out of his way to try and save her (demands water for her, which is a kindness and a help for women who have just went through childbirth; and demands she's seen by a maester, asking for his presence and apparently Rhaegar left his pregnant lover/wife without Maester? Anyway digressing). Lyanna on the other hand knows what it is that truly scares her, Jon's fate.

So she begs him to listen to her and he does. She begs him to protect her boy, to promise to protect him. She entrusts her son in his arms, and by Ned's words themselves:

He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes. Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. Ned could recall none of it. — Eddard I, AGOT

Another proof of how much Ned loved her is that he remembers perfectly Lyanna's last words, the way she died comforted by the truth her brother would protect her son, and thus her son was safe from any harm, but from that moment on (until presumably he was given Jon) he had held onto Lyanna, and he was so grief-stricken he could not recall what happened until Howland Reed had disentangled him from his sister.

Arguably Ned in the end did everything and more to ensure Lyanna died peacefully. Aemma would've probably died anyway (and both Lyanna and Aemma were put in a situation in which childbirth was even more dangerous than normal by their Targaryen husbands/lovers abusers for some damn prophecy, the same one mind you) yet Viserys failed not only for the sheer abuse he put her through (which I have already said) but for the way he handled the moment of her death. Viserys failed miserably where Ned managed the only possible success that day, ensuring his sister had peace as she died and ensuring her last wish was honored by keeping her child safe.

Again, Aemma might have died anyway, but first of all Viserys put her in that condition, despite being aware that their pregnancy had been always difficult and took a toll on her health, despite know how much it hurt and weighted on her. Still, Viserys didn't even manage to comfort his own wife, I'm pretty sure they could've given her milk of the poppy to ensure that she did not feel as much the pain and also making sure she staid still, something that did not happen. Aemma fought as Viserys and the midwives kept her still and down. She fought to survive, she fought because she didn't want to die and no one comforted her.

And I've cut out the worst of Aemma's death scene, the part in which she struggled and fought, and pleaded and begged to be listened to, to be comforted, to be helped, to be saved. Because as I've said it's pretty hard for me to see, and I think it might be pretty hard for anyone with a bit of sensibility.

Tbh, both men were put in a terrible situation, the difference?

Ned was not the one to put Lyanna in that situation to begin with, and especially from what we know of his character he would not have put his wife in that situation either. The Stark motto ‘Winter is coming’ is as much as a prophecy as ‘the dragon dream’, still Ned did not live his whole life with the only intention to father children that would defend the North. His children defended the North because Ned taught them their duty. Males and females.

Ned managed to comfort his dying sister, Viserys did not comfort his dying wife. Or did not find the right key to comfort her. Aemma died afraid and struggling to save herself. Lyanna died peacefully knowing her family still loved her, that they loved her enough to look beyond the parentage of her son to keep him safe because of the love they had for her. That Ned bore her.

Put into an impossible situation, Ned managed to do the only thing he could do. He made sure his sister died peacefully and feeling loved, knowing her son safe.

Aemma died struggling for her life, her child being torn from her womb at her husband's choice, fearful for the fate of the child she was carrying and grief stricken for all the grief the pregnancies duty and Viserys imposed on her caused.

So yeah, we respect no man who would put his wife/lover/woman through all of that for any reason, even less for a damn prophecy (you'll find no apologist's behavior toward Rhaegar and Viserys here) in this household.

Tbh considering him the new Ned means people have not really paid attention to the whole matter. Viserys is the new Rhaegar and the abuse Aemma and Alicent suffered is the same abuse Elia and Lyanna suffered at Rhaegar's hands.

So, yeah, this turned pretty long...but I really, really hate this paragon and I really don't think people should overlook the abuse Viserys put Aemma and Alicent through only because his love stories (especially the one with Aemma) are shown only by his eyes. It's a POV trap which makes you believe that the love he bore Aemma is enough to overlook the abuse he doesn't see as such. But it is there.

And if people wanna parallel Viserys (aka Rhaegar 2.0) to Ned… I just have to say

As always, thank you for your ask! And sending all my love ~G.

#ask the hag #anon asks #viserys and aemma #viserys and ned are not parallels #viserys I is the new rhaegar pass it on #viserys/aemma is not a good pair #brutally honest opinion #brutally honest opinion ship edition #brutally honest opinion asoiaf edition #the hag's brutally honest opinions

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medea10 · 5 months

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So This is 2023 and What Have I Watched (& Played)

Hello Internet, it’s Medea once again doing her usual schtick. 2023 was definitely a…year! Yeah, I don’t see 2023 as anything worth while as 2024 is the year that’s going to cause a lot of havoc in my book. I’m hitting another old bitch milestone and I’m not digging it if you get my drift. But in terms of anime, there was no shortage of exciting moments. We’ve been introduced to new gems like Frieren, Skip & Loafer, and Oshi no Ko. Saw the satisfying conclusions to Attack on Titan. Surprise returns like Rurouni Kenshin! And of course, the best thing to happen in anime. Tracey Sketchit spoke for the first time in 16 ½ years.

YES, THAT’S VERY IMPORTANT TO ME!

Okay, let’s talk about the other crap that wasn’t as important as Tracey Sketchit. Per usual, I will give special acknowledgement for certain anime and games with these special categories. And I don’t discriminate in the year these animes and games were released, just as long as I watched or played it this year. So, if something was released in 2021, it totally counts here. Let’s hit it!

First Fandom of 2023: Oshi no Ko

Yeah, I’ve given this a lot of thought. I realize that this anime didn’t release until April 2023. Nothing against the animes I watched in the winter months, but the second I watched Oshi no Ko, I literally forgot what I watched in an instant. I think there was a Tokyo Revengers sequel and an anime about a tomboy girl. Like most of the internet, I was hooked because of the 82-minute premier. I was so enamored that I wanted to recommend this anime even though just one episode had just aired. It even got me to start reading manga again to see what happens next. I’m just glad Kinokuniya had several volumes. Oshi no Ko shows us the dark side to the entertainment industry in Japan. If you’re an idol and get married and have babies, it’s all over for your career. If you’re a child actor, things might not go well for you once you grow up. Social media can kill! This series seems to open up the conversation of how fans hold their favorite personalities to different standards and it can get all kinds of toxic from that.

Favorite Main Character of 2023: Liko from Pokemon Horizons

Look at that, a Pokemon main character I really like. Yeah, I’ve more often than not have given my blah feelings for Ash Ketchum and Red throughout the years. Despite my thoughts on those two, I was very conflicted when it came to Pokemon ending Ash and Pikachu’s adventure. But when they introduced Liko and Roy in that same breath, it gave me a little bit of optimism for the franchise. How often do we ever get an actual female lead in Pokemon? But does she live up to the hype? That’s for you to decide. My opinion is always janky at best. Liko was barely a day in a new school with her first pokemon before her world is turned upside-down with a shady group after her, a mysterious pokemon appearing to her inside of her pendant, and joining an explorer group where Crispin Freeman plays the leader. Liko, seems to handle herself really well considering all that just went down. Every week, I feel as though she’s improving, gaining more confidence, and ready to take on this lore that we’re learning more and more as the story progresses.

Favorite Villain of 2023: Kanoko, Kaya, and Shinichi Saimori from My Happy Marriage

I’ve made myself perfectly clear that when it comes to this category, I may hate the particular villain but will put them on this category if they’re truly evil enough. These three family members are that special category of rotten. Imagine you’re the main character and you have your father, step-mother, and step-sister treating you like a slave. That’s just layer one to the Saimori family. Miyo Saimori has lived this hell for nearly her whole life due to the fact that she doesn’t have supernatural powers like the rest of the family. Her actual father shunned her because of that fact. Her step-mother, Kanoko destroyed everything that belonged to Miyo’s birth mother and that brought Miyo comfort. And Kaya made it her mission to just destroy any shred of happiness Miyo comes across.

Now, you would think leaving the Saimori property at the end of episode 1 and getting engaged to someone would have ended the Saimori hell. No, it didn’t. Papa Saimori is still doing some shady dealings behind the scenes. And when Kanoko and Kaya learned that Miyo was happy living with Lord Kudou, they took it upon themselves to kidnap Miyo off the street, hold her captive in a shack, and beat her until she gives up her happiness with Kiyoka. I know at this point it felt like it was adding more fuel to the shock-value fire and in many ways, it was overkill. I’ll admit, it was. And I still hate these people. I know I should hate Eren Yeager more or Tetta Kisaki or even that guy who harmed Ai Hoshino. But this is my 2023 choice and I can’t see anyone else top…

YOU! Okay, hold my wig! Imma smack this bitch down!

Favorite Video Game Character of 2023: Bowser

From what? Nearly anything this year. And any other year for that matter! Every now and then, I will enjoy the shenanigans from that giant green lizard. Take your pick. Super Mario Wonder and RPG came out this year giving us some fun moments. Particularly with RPG where he kisses Mario, has nearly the best expressions of the game, and just proves to be the best bad-ass. Hell, even replaying some of my older titles from SNES and some Switch titles like Golf and Mario Party, he’s still the life of the party. And let’s not forget his big screen debut where Jack Black does the role justice. I knew he was going to be the best part of that film. Was I right? Fuck to the yeah, I was.

Jack Black is that awesome!

Favorite Game of 2023: …

I’ve had an interesting year when it comes to playing games. Earlier this year, I hit the nostalgia button by going backwards in game consoles. For several months, I found myself playing the following Pokemon games; Emerald, Platinum, HeartGold, and Black. Don’t judge, every now and then I will want this nostalgia where I play old Pokemon games while blasting some jazz music that used to play on the Weather Channel. Don’t we all? I know what you must be thinking.

But Medea, why those games? The window for getting event pokemon has closed eons ago. And unless you’re a genius with tools, you can’t change the clock battery on those GBA games.

Yeah, I know and don’t care. Emerald has the best pokemon and OST. Platinum and Black were guilty pleasures. And HeartGold, nay EVERY gen 2 game is my favorite!

It wasn’t until the middle of the year where I ventured onto a franchise I never played before and had fun with two of their games. One of them was released this year and the other was released in 2021. My favorite is the latter.

Story of Seasons – Pioneers of Olive Town

Yes, I love A Wonderful Life. I just happened to really like the other one just a smidge better. I think it’s because I feel like I have more time in Olive Town than Forgotten Valley. AWL has only 10 days a month while POOT has 28. Imagine what I learned after 40 days and you’re in the new year. That’s a death I’m still not over. I think it’s also because of some of the game mechanics and things you can do and get that kinda won me over. There’s a little more freedom when it comes to planting and animal care in Olive Town that I think I’ve come to appreciate a little more.

So…yeah. That’s my one not 2023 mention in this entry.

Final note for this entry: Iori is best boy of POOT and Nami is best everything in AWL.

Favorite Het Couple of 2023: Sylphiette x Rudeus Greyrat from Mushoku Tensei

Spoiler warning for this entry. Skip ahead if you’re not currently caught up with Mushoku Tensei. This is your only warning.

Never mind the spoilers of Rudeus’s love life and all of the drama that went down last season between him and Eris. This here was my OTP. I was a supporter of this from the get-go and in a preliminary move, called Eris a bitchy she-beast that Rudeus would never have interest in. Ha! Silly 2021 Medea and her silly thoughts. Well, time makes fools of us all and we wound up watching Rudeus get ditched. After that, he makes a detour at Lake Flaccid. A wonderful limbo where all you can do is play with two deflated blue balls. I am making absolutely no sense here, am I?

During the limp dick arc, Rudeus enters a magic academy where he meets a certain student that ended up reigniting that fire in his pants he sorely needed. Confusingly, though. Yeah, Rudy-boy thought for a second that he fell for another boy. But what Rudeus doesn’t know is that this is a girl and not just any girl, IT’S SYLPH! I and I’m pretty sure a multitude of fans were screaming at the top of their lungs every time these two were together during an episode. Yes, I just love seeing these two together after so many years away from each other. But Rudeus doesn’t know that’s her and Sylph is staying quiet. Eventually, these two officially reunite and Sylph even goes the extra mile to cure Rudeus’s erectile dysfunction. And after a night of passion and dick-curing, they’re engaged. I don’t care how disgustingly fucked it was to get to this point, a win is a win.

Favorite Yuri Couple of 2023: Hime Shiraki x Mitsuki Yano from Yuri is my Job!

It’s in the title. Was it my favorite ship of the year? Far from it. It’s just that this was the only Yuri couple I saw this year and, well, if the category fits. Plus, I’m not supporting the other ship that came from this title. Mitsuki and Yano were good friends years ago. But there was a falling out from them due to a misunderstanding. Now they’re in high school and they end up meeting each other again under strange circumstances. They are both employed at a café that’s heavy into acting like a Yuri-based, high school manga. Seriously, this is literally lesbian Ouran here. I’m glad these two are becoming friends again. Will it evolve into something more? Mitsuki’s blushing is a good indicator.

Favorite Yaoi Couple of 2023: Shuumei Sasaki x Yoshikazu Miyano from Sasaki to Miyano

Hey, two years in a row! Yeah, Sasaki to Miyano returned again this year with a movie. And just like last time, I was filled with the bubblies watching them again. Everyone was excited for the return of this wholesome couple, especially Crunchyroll and Kinokuniya. Probably to market the anime and manga, I guess! I have to give this story a lot of credit here as there’s talk of others accepting Sasaki and Miyano’s relationship for what it is including their friends, classmates, and even family members. Let’s not forget that while there are anime out there with gay couples, Japan (the country these stories come out of) are not too liberal about that. While not as extreme as places like Russia or Saudi Arabia, they’re also not cool with it like the U.S.

Fandom That You Didn’t Expect to Get Into: Pokemon Horizons

Yes, like everyone else who was attached to the original Pokemon anime, I was skeptical about this direction we were taking. The story of Ash and Pikachu was being retired and all of the characters and their pokemon we’ve all grown to love over the past 25 years were no longer going to be featured week to week. At least I got to see my baby Tracey one more time.

Moving onto Horizons, it was a nice change of pace to see new characters, a different kind of adventure that doesn’t revolve around winning gym badges, following not just Liko and Roy but older characters like Mollie and Friede, new villains not affiliated with Team Rocket, and a female heroine. Yes, I know Roy is there but…come on, she’s the first person we meet. We meet like six other main characters before Roy! There is so much mystery and intrigue when it comes to nearly every character on this show that I really wish Ash and his companions got more fleshed out during their time. Well, that’s why we have fanfics.

Fandom That Made An Unexpected Comeback: Rurouni Kenshin

Oro?

Did I expect a return of this 1990s classic? No, but I will happily take it. ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM ASIDE! Yes, I’m not going to sit here and deny what the creator of Rurouni Kenshin did. I really thought he deserved a harsher punishment than what he got, but that’s life unfortunately. And don’t cast stones that I’m watching something made by a convicted cum-bucket. Most of you will still sit there and watch the old episodes of Rick and Morty or Ren and Stimpy and those creators did horrendous things too. You ain’t squeaky clean!

Moving on! When executed correctly, a reboot can capture the audience of old and new fans. First of all, the animation is stupendous. They’re done by the same studio that did Tokyo Revengers and Cells at Work: Code Black. The music is wonderful, especially the opening and ending themes. And best of all, they’re sticking to the manga adaptation compared to the original series. No disrespect to the original, but you all have to admit that after the Kyoto arc, it all went straight to Hell. Especially after Studio Deen took over! As of this date, I’m hoping for a second season, for people to not cast judgement on the people who work on this (creator excluded), and that the series continues to go in this positive direction.

Fandom That Inspired the Most Crack: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

Every week watching this anime, I am mouth-on-the-floor. Is this another one of those borderline-hentai series that I’ve been throwing on this list every other year. No, it’s a harem. But not just any other harem anime. In the same year as Rent-A-Girlfriend’s 3rd season and in the same fucking anime season as the second season to Girlfriend, Girlfriend, we get an anime of a boy who is pre-destined to have 100 girlfriends. No fucking shit, 100 girlfriends! Rentaro has blown both Kazuya and Naoya out of the water and onto some jagged rocks.

Obviously, we’re not going to get the full 100 girlfriends any time soon. Hell, the season will probably end at 13 episodes with the same number we’re at as I’m writing this (which is 5). Still more than Naoya and Kazuya. Rentaro’s girlfriends consist of a curvaceous pink-haired girl with vivid sexual fantasies, a blonde tsundere with a flat-chest, a petite girl who communicates through a book on her phone, a girl we’re pretty sure she’s not a robot despite her name being Nano Eiai, and a confusing cluster-fuck that loves drugs and can change from a loli to a Tits-Mcgee in seconds. And all 5 end up doing more than just kissing and holding hands. ARE WE REALLY SURE THIS ISN’T A HENTAI?!

There’s also a vice principal that French kisses any student that runs down the halls and is voiced by Orochimaru.

ARE WE REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY SURE THIS ISN’T A HENTAI?!

Last Fandom of 2023: Tokyo Revengers – Tenjiku Arc

I know I started Tokyo Revengers at the beginning of the year. But I kept going back and forth with liking it and thinking it’s okay. Probably because of Hakkai’s family drama that did it. Or maybe the disappointment I felt when the Christmas Massacre felt like a fizzle once Mikey came in and ended Taiju’s career with one kick to the head. But then I was told to wait until this arc when shit does indeed go down.

Yeah, they’re right. I’ve been at the edge of my seat for a lot of this season. Yes, it is very clear that Takemichi is the underdog, the crybaby, the physically weakest member of the Tokyo Manji gang. His record shows that in nearly every fight up to this point. But he stands his ground against all odds and over 300 grunts Izana and Kisaki can throw at him. I’ve often referred to Takemichi as Homer Simpson in the episode “The Homer They Fall”. You can punch him, kick him, and even shoot him in the foot. He’s still standing. And it’s not easy when the top men of Toman are out of commission due to death in the family or got severely injured. It’s a shame every week I’m enjoying myself so much that as soon as I start hearing, “SAY MY NAME” I get pissed. And then I jam out because once again, the ED theme is a banger.

#anime #tracey #oshi no ko #pokemon horizons #liko #my happy marriage #kaya saimori #super mario bros #bowser #story of seasons #rudeus greyrat #mushoku tensei #sylphiette #yuri is my job #sasaki to miyano #sasaki shuumei #rurouni kenshin #the 100 girlfriends who really love you #tokyo revengers

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bluedalahorse · 1 year

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Rambling? Venting? Idk. Vulnerability. Let’s call it vulnerability.

I don’t know if I want to even tag this because I’m trying to protect my verbal processing abilities right now and my eternal comfort movie Luca is playing in the background, so this isn’t going to be formal or polished the way I usually like to be when I’m posting, but… anyway, it totally kinda knocks me over that there are people out there who insist YR S2 wasn’t well written or Lisa is a bad writer or something because… something something our-oversimplified-version-of-wilmon-is-better-than-canon-nuanced-wilmon or some reason or other.

And I mean, when I say it knocks me over, I don’t mean it surprises me. That feels fairly standard for the internet and fandoms. I’ve been in fandoms long enough to know there’d be people with those takes. But I guess it knocks me over in… a Tired kinda way? A Deflated way? Something like that.

YR is special to me because of when I watched it the first time in summer 2021, and the things that were going on with me at the time. First, I saw it when I was completely burned out on Franchise Media (TM) and like, so incredibly exhausted from the MCU and how much everyone was still talking about it. It was refreshing to watch a show, not based on any existing IP, that delved into characters’ flaws and vulnerabilities, and that didn’t apologize for making you feel emotion and didn’t rely on quips or winking really obviously at the camera or whatever.

Second, I watched YR when I started my MFA in writing for children and young adults. The further I’ve gotten along in my program, the more I’ve felt that young people and adults alike deserve stories with moral complexity. And when we write young people as characters, the more we need morally complex stories for those characters. Teenagers live in a world that isn’t easy to navigate, and we do them a disservice when a story’s moral questions are too swiftly answered. As part of my program, I probably would have thought about issues of justice and human rights in YA lit regardless, but YR really pushed me to think of these issues in writing beyond just “good representation/bad representation.” (Which is important, but not the sum total of what authors should be focused on, and sometimes I feel like members of all fandoms overuse the word “representation” to justify their preferences. Sigh.) ANYWAY I love the way YR consistently resists easy answers and leans into its tensions. I love the way it’s always asking us, do you really want to find catharsis there? Certainly it doesn’t resolve issues by having superheroes shoot lasers at sky beams. I imagine season 3 will attempt to find some resolution for certain long running plotlines, but I also imagine what it doesn’t resolve will have the potential to open up some really interesting conversations, if we let it. Ugh, I just. Love dissecting the craft in this story! I love taking YR apart and seeing how it works.

Third, I discovered YR around the time I started to seriously think about ways in which I might be neurodivergent. (I’m doing my first intake call with a local neuropsych group in a few weeks.) While I have related to various ND or ND-coded characters before, Sara is pretty important to me because she was the first of these characters I connected to while exploring that aspect of my identity. I can see a lot of my child and teenage self in Sara’s arc; I wasn’t a horse girl but I did once beg my parents to send me to private school because I thought I’d be bullied less than in public school (they didn’t send me, because we couldn’t afford it.) I read novels set at boarding schools with a certain fascination because I imagined it as a place I could reinvent myself and be the best version of myself. I now know that I was romanticizing a pretty classist and elitist experience, but as a young person I didn’t really have the perspective to see and understand that. So I feel like I get where Sara is coming from, and I feel like her arc is such an important addition to the themes of the series. Like, we’re pulling the gilded veneer off of a really messed up system! Someone has to be drawn in by all that gold. When criticisms of season 2 boil down to “Sara had too much screen time” I like, can’t even be rational about it ahaha. (I hope people can forgive me this. I’m not saying Sara did nothing wrong, but I’m saying she has an important place in the story.)

Fourth, @heliza24 and I were friends before YR, but we were able to take our friendship to a newer and more exciting level while collaborating on our fanfic. And now we have ideas for original pieces we can write, too!

Idk like. I’m not saying YR or Lisa are perfect. I’ve got my quibbles with like the occasional thing here or there. Season 3 could still let me down. But I love it because it’s a well-crafted story with dynamic characters and resonant themes. I love it like I love Tana French and Elena Ferrante’s novels. I love it like I love Revolutionary Girl Utena and the history of the French Revolution and Socrates’s Antigone and Oedipus. I love it like I love Adib Khorram’s Darius the Great is Not Okay. I love it like I love so many of the songs in Ragtime and Les Misérables. All of which have their own flaws, but really make something in my brain light up and be happy.

I’m not really sure what my overall point here is. I think I just wanted to express this because I am currently having A Lot Of Feelings about other things in my life, and this feels like a place to rechannel them. And maybe if you read this far you got a chance to know me a little better, too.

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praphit · 1 year

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Scream 6: Happy Women’s History Month!

Let me start off by saying that I am not a fan of this franchise. I like the first one, the second one is ok, but the rest?? - meh. I just can't go with it, you know?? I tried. There are always too many times when I say "Wait, what?" And yet, the "Fast & Furious" franchise; I'm 100% bought.

I know that makes no sense.

Maybe it's because I'm a child of Jason Voorhees.

I hold all slashers to his standards of art, comedy, and excellence:)

Meanwhile,

Ghostface is clumsy, kinda stupid, chatty, sloppy, reckless, and always has a partner. Teamwork is for heroes, villains are supposed to be able to do it all by themselves.

So, why did I watch this? - Women's History Month. Yep. A friend of mine (a woman) asked me to go with her to see it. Normally, I would have told this friend to kick rocks, but I figured since we're honoring women this month... that it's the least I can do :) Just trying to do my part.

If you're not caught up with this franchise, it doesn't matter. We all know the basics, and the basics still apply. It's a rated R Scooby Doo (Who dun done it?! Let’s take off their mask and see). Kinda like the show "Velma",

but with better writing.

Idk how many ghostface's we're up too now (that's another thing about him - he/she always dies, but somehow the masks are still getting manufactured and some new psychopath picks up where the last one left off), but he's back, and this time he's in NY. And this time, he's not chasing Sidney.

Sorry, Sid, but apparently he got bored with you, and is now chasing after someone younger. Happy Women's History Month!

The youth I speak of are the same yoots from the last movie:

THE CORE FOUR (they call themselves):

We've got the trauma sisters (what I’m calling them).

They've been through a lot. People keep getting murdered around them. They're trying to move on, but it's hard when Ghostface keeps tracking them down. Some of you kids out there might think you've got it bad, but at least there's no murderer hunting you down. Imagine your life like this: You try to go to college and get your education on, but here comes Ghostface to your classroom. You try to have a party and get into some sexy-time action with some drunken, shady, stranger, and here comes Ghostface. (side note: Jenna Ortega’s character does this - idk how old she is... 20ish maybe, but she looks like a teenager, so when some guy who looks like he’s in his 30′s tries to take her upstairs, it comes across to me like we have an R.Kelly situation on our hands)

You try to make a TikTok video alone in your room, and here comes Ghostface. You try to get a Big Mac with cheese from Mickey D’s, and you guessed it - Ghostface is there, ready to take your order.

Damn, dude! Either kill them or let them live! You gotta admire these young ladies. Despite the crud that this world keeps throwing their way, they find the strength to keep on keeping on. Happy Women's History Month :)

We also have... I forgot his name... we’ll call him Macho Man. He's the protector of the group, so he thinks. He's a level 10 bro. And no guy is good enough to be around the ladies in his life except for him. Isn't that sweet?? What would we do without our "protectors"?

And then there's the movie nerd.

She's the one who explains all of the movie meta stuff that's going on. One thing I can appreciate about her is that she leans into her nerdiness. But, that appreciation did not stop me from wanting to choke her out every time she talked. It's not completely her fault, cuz this franchise's schtick got old for me in the 3rd installment, but I'm placing all of the blame on her. Seriously, she could not have been more annoying. It was painful for me. I couldn't stop squirming through her monologues. I was gnashing my teeth. I thought I was turning into Ghostface. This movie almost became the crux of my villain origin story.

Look, the kills in this movie were multiplied, as they should be, but honesly, I think Ghostface could have killed MORE... OR this movie needed to be shorter, and cut out all of the emotional gush-gush from The Core Four. I have never rooted so hard for the "heroes" of a story to be killed. I wanted them all to go, including Ghostface. Perhaps I’m remembering it wrong, but weren’t the OG characters of “Scream” likeable? Not all of them, but enough, right?? (or maybe it was just Dewey - idk)

Everybody here is so ughckq... not one likeable character in this movie. I was rooting for something biblical to happen:

God interrupts Movie Nerd's monologue and says "ENOUGH! THIS IS HORRIBLE!" Then, he sends an angel to blow up the town. Everybody is dead. God says "Amen" and they roll the credits, but that's not what happens.

Everyone is so whiny! Not just the kids, but the adults too. Is that just what we are now? Maybe it's true to reality. Are we all whiny? Have my eyes just been opened?

Trauma sisters, I respect your strength, but don't TRY to move on with your lives, DO IT. There are ways! Adele uses grammy award winning music. Batman uses revenge, Chris Rock uses Netflix specials. Do something! Who's that lady? um... The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She's been through worst shit than y'all, and look at her! She ain't bitchin about it! She’s bout it bout it! She got tough! and carved out a new life for herself. Look at her -

she’s living the dream!

Macho Man! AM I supposed to like you? All men know his game! He points out to the lady that he wants (he’s trying to score with Ortega), that the men she's been seeking are toxic (and well over 30). What she really needs is a guy like him. We all know that game! I think... do women know that game? I think they do... idk Happy Women's History Month! While Macho Man is not quite the picture of "toxic masculinity" he's close enough. He's like diet TM.

And don't get me started on Movie Nerd. She sparked this rant in me!

Ghostface! Kill! Kill them all! But, you won't will you?? You'll kill (awesomely) through NY. Bursting on the scene whenever The Core Four try to get some down time, but like every other part of this franchise, you'll never kill the main person/people whom you actually set out to kill.

These four are lucky that I didn't become Ghostface, cuz this movie would have only been about 30mins long, if that! I'd break in to their home, and call them to play a game alerting them to what I'm up to? NO! I'd kill them! I'm not going to let the trauma sisters take up valuable screen time to whine about their problems. I'm not going to allow Macho Man to... well, maybe a lil sexy-time action with the ladies before I kill him... bros before hoes, am I right?? (Happy Women's History Month). And I would definitely end Movie Nerd's reign of Annoyance.

*WHEW* sorry... that's been building up for a while. It kept me up. Seriously... I'm up early, typing right now, cuz I had this rant in me, and it was keeping me from rest. Now, I can move on. See, trauma sisters, that's how you do it! You move on! You don't take a break while running from the killer to have an emotional pow wow. Now, is NOT the time! You're being hunted! DAG GON YOU! Ghostface, kill them! *WHEW* *clearing throat* sorry again. That's... the last drop, I think.

It wasn't all bad. Like I said, the kills are awesome. More blood in this one than the others, I think. You’ve gotta hand it to Ghostface, the man loves his work. I like his gusto. If he does catch you in this movie, he’s going to stab you like 35 times - that’s solid work ethic. The camera work for these kills is on point. Ghostface ain't playing around with all of the stabbing. You'll feel that shit, and that's why most people are there. I also LOVED the first scene. LOVED! I didn't see that coming at all. But, then... same ol bullshit. And that's the thing, I'm not about this brand of bullshit, but if you are, then it'll be just as enjoyable for you as the others. But, for a casual ( I use that word lightly) fan ------ Grade: D

I wondered to my friend (who's lucky that I love her) if the message over these types of movies are positive for women. I don't have the answer to that question. I mean, these "final girls (women)" are strong, but they've been through a whole lot, and don't seem all that healthy. They're bitter, angry, depressed, tired, lonely in some cases... that's a lot of pain/death they've been around.

Can we do better? Again, I don't know.

What if the woman is the lead antagonist? She hunts down the men for a change... although unless the writers let her win (which would be letting the murderer win) she'll end up being beaten up by a bunch of men... that doesn't look good.

But, what if...

Ok, what if there's some sort of alien entity that takes over the woman, and she becomes empowered. During the day she becomes powerful, independent, successful, glorious, and at night this entity leads her to kill... a lot. No, like A LOT - she's a beast. (look, we've gotta make money off this thing:). She'll only kill men... white men... Republican white men (kidding:)... but definitely white men who love Tucker Carlson. This way when she inevitably is defeated, they won't be killing the woman per se, but the empowered, successful monster that she has beco.... hmmm... Shoot... Maybe this is the best that we can do.

Happy Women's History Month!

#Scream6 #johnpraphit #praphitproductions.com #Scream #HorrorMovies #MovieReviews #Praphit #JennaOrtega #SidneyPrescott #ScaryMovies #GhostFace #Slashers #womenshistorymonth

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horror-duchess · 2 years

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Killjoys: Blood and Lust

Photo by: Melissa Cabigao

Disclaimer: I do not own the franchise of True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys or any of the characters. I created my own OC’s as a fun project.

Warning: These records of accounts were long ago sealed away by the state of California following the destruction of Better Living Industries or BL/ind. These chapters contain many aspects that cannot be explained. These records were unearthed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation allegedly linking Damon Volkov (Alias: Wolfsbane) to the disappearance of his former fiancée Selene Jackson-Bradshaw (Alias: Scarlet Siren). Although the original file name has been unknown as are the whereabouts of these anarchists. These records will forever be known as..

Project: Blood and Lust

Damon Volkov (Wolfsbane):

First of all, I’m innocent. I’m no killer! I loved her. All I did was love her, yes that made me hate her later, but it’s not my fault. Here’s how this story started…

Drive. Pick up the body. Get back to the City.

It was just like any other job I’ve had. Bodies in the zones are as common as they come. Killjoys, Dracs, S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W agents, everyone that goes beyond the city limits that gets their string cut by Atropos gets picked up by someone like me.

Tonight my job was the same as always.

I was given a location of the body in the desert beyond the city limits. It was a Killjoy’s body that I had to the city for identification. I arrived at the location and the sky was already dark. The landscape was barren and quiet with the occasional plant visible.

When I had arrived at the location the body was next to a mailbox covered in graffiti. Why was it moved there, I thought to myself. I was a short distance away from the standard and stark white BL/ind body bag. I stepped out of my vehicle to go get my stretcher from the back. I walked to the back of my vehicle and opened the double doors and retrieved my stretcher. As I began walking back towards the front of the car I saw something standing next to the body. It was someone facing away from me. They were wearing a long black trench coat that reached the ground and a hood covering their head. They were Killjoy, there was no question about it.

I walked up as quietly as possible. When I was about 10 feet away I decided to speak up “Hey, I’m sorry. Can you please step away from the body?” I said as politely as possible. There was a moment of silence before they said a very clear “No.'' Still facing away from me it sounded like a woman’s voice. “Ma’am please, step away from the body.” I responded. She turned around to face me, her face was covered from her eyes down and her eyes were heavily lined with black makeup. She said “No.” This time it was colder. I responded again, “I’m sorry, but I have to take that body.” I said as calm as possible and then she started laughing this unbridled laugh and said “That body doesn’t belong to you or the city.” she quipped. “I’m sorry. I warned you.” I grabbed my ray gun that was set to stun. I pulled the trigger and fired toward her, she didn’t even flinch or try to move. The closer the beam got to her, she stuck her hand out and stopped the beam in its tracks before defecting it away from her. Was I seeing what I thought I was seeing? I set the ray gun to kill and fired another round and she stopped it again and laughed “Do you think the third time will be the charm?” she said even though I couldn’t see most of her face I knew she was smirking. She charged at me and the next thing I knew I was on the ground, she was extremely strong but I was able to pin her. I looked down a second later to see who attacked me.

Then the next second she was gone. She was just there… I look up and there she is standing a few feet away from me “Just walk away or I won't be able to stop it.” she said, “Trust me.” she said firm but kindly. “I’m sorry, but step away.” I said and she simply shrugged and said “I’m so sorry.” she said in almost a whisper.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground again. Flat on my back. Full moon and a sky full of stars are my only reassurances that I didn’t black out.

I sat up.

Both her and the body were gone.

Shit.

“Crazy bitch.” I said to myself as I stood back up. I looked around and there was no sign of them. I walked back over to where the body once was. I couldn't believe what I saw. It was looking back at me. It was a wolf. Its fur was jet black, however its eyes were the most striking feature… glowing yellow eyes. It seemed to be watching me. It’s no ordinary wolf. I slowly decided to walk back to my car and then I heard the woman’s voice again “I warned you.” being carried quietly through the desert. I felt my heart and breathing get faster. I looked up and the moon had turned bright red… “She warned you.” an unseen male voice said. Was I losing my mind, a piercing howl erupted from the wolf and broke me from my thoughts. I tried running back to my vehicle but it felt as if someone grabbed my leg and pulled me to the ground. It felt as if someone was holding me down, but no one was there. The wolf ran towards my helpless self. I couldn’t tell if it was this unseen force or the feeling of sheer terror that kept me from moving. I wanted to fight like hell, but I couldn’t.

The wolf was looming over me. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate.

Then a feeling of the most intense pain I have ever felt. The wolf’s hot jaw and sharp teeth dug into my flesh with no resistance. I screamed out, but I knew it was pointless.

Then everything went black.

When I came to My arm was covered in blood. Then I realized the moon was no longer red and I could move again. I glanced around and the wolf was nowhere to be found. I shot up from the ground and got into my car and got back to the city as fast as I could. I don’t remember what happened but the next thing I knew I was home. I bandaged my arm and threw myself into bed.

The next morning I woke up. I didn’t feel any different, I mean my arm was still sore, but was fine.

Went to work. I was fine.

Went home. I was fine.

I went to bed. I was feeling fine.

And then all hell broke loose.

I couldn’t really see anything; it was just brief and blurry flashes of my surroundings and everything I heard sounded muffled as if I was underwater, but I could make out screams and gunshots. I had no idea, I just started, I just thought about running… What was going on? What were they screaming and shooting at? Was it me?

Selene Jackson-Bradshaw (Siren):

2:16 AM

I wake up to someone shaking my shoulder “Siren. Siren.” Saint said as I opened my eyes to see his disheveled long blonde hair and blue eyes blown wide in shock. “What’s going on?” I asked my voice gravelly. “Dr. D said there's a monster outside of the city gates.” he said urgently “Assassin?” I asked tiredly “No we are talking hair, fangs and claws here…” he said with an unwavering expression “Ok let’s go. You go wake the others up.” I said as I shot out of bed and reached for a pair of jeans from the floor as well as my boots. I grabbed a flannel, checked the pistol under my bed for silver bullets, armed with that and my ray gun. I slung my hip and thigh holsters as well as my med bag over my shoulder as I ran out the front door into the garage. Unicorn and Night Venom followed behind me, seeing Unicorn’s hot pink and Night Venom’s maroon hair gave me some semblance of comfort as the sound of our boots hitting the tiles drowned out the sound of my heart beating in my ears. As the garage door opened “Which one are we taking?” Unicorn asked “ ‘58. The Ambulance. We don’t know what to expect here.” I said as the three of us got into the car with Saint driving, me in the passenger seat and Unicorn behind me. “Do you think this has to do with the… death?” Saint said “From what you told me, yes. They were allegedly involved with some dark shit, if you know what I mean.” I said “ I tried to warn him. I did.” I said, “No one is blaming you.” Saint said “We’ll see about that.” I said to myself.

When we finally got there. Shit was well… shit. It looked like a tall, dark hairy shadow, but the most eerie part. The eyes. They were blood red and appeared to glow. I turned to everyone in the car. “You hold off the Dracs and Crows… The big one is mine.” I said “Are you insane?” Unicorn said “As if we would let you do that by yourself!” Night Venom said her dark eyebrows creasing together. “I’m a big bad bloodsucking sorceress.” I said cockily, smirking “If I need your help, I’ll scream.” I said reassuringly. I opened the car door and sprinted to avoid the shower of beam blasts that came my way.

I began to slow down when I approached the wolf-like creature. It turned around with lightning speed, I felt their hot breath on my face. It growled at me. I whistled and it met my eyes, our faces mere inches apart. I stuck my hand up slowly. As soon as my hand made contact it yelped and scratched my forearm. It stung, groaned and I realized. I still had my rings on… silver rings. It clicked. Werewolf. There’s someone in there. Which means I can control them. I sang for a second just long enough for them to hear me. I had to make my thoughts precise. I focused. Let the human out and sleep. I repeated those thoughts. I stretched and concentrated on them. Slowly the beastly features faded until it was just a man. He wasn’t cured, but for the moment he was down. He was naked, burned by beams, and passed out, but a man nonetheless. I came closer. Shit. He was the same man from hours ago. I had no time to act. “Saint! Let’s get outta here!” I shouted over to my group. I looked back down at the man “Sorry Damon.” I said as I picked him up, ran to the car, jumped in the back and Saint finally sped off. My arm is still slightly bleeding. I laid the man down and covered him with a blanket.

“Siren are you hurt?” Saint said, “He grazed me, but I’m fine.” I said securing gauze and an ACE bandage around my forearm to keep it in place. “Who’s your friend?” Night Venom said curiously “We ain’t friends, but his name is Damon Volkov. He was a mortician at least when I was still in the city.” I said “Sore subject?” Unicorn asked “You could say that.” I said digging around for my penlight, I pressed the button and lightly lifted his eyelid to individually reveal deep brown eyes, both pupils shrunk in response to the light.``What’s the word, Doc?” Unicorn asked, “Well he’s not brain dead.” I said humorously exhaling “I’m gonna have him sleep it off.” I said “Then we’ll go from there.” I added. “I’ll keep watch.” Saint said “No, I will.” I said “Siren, after everything these past few hours you are gonna drain yourself, you need to sleep.” he said “Don’t fight me on this.” I said and he didn’t. I admit I was beyond exhausted, but when he comes to, I’m the one who needs to give him the explanation.

Damon Volkov (Wolfsbane):

The next thing I knew was what I like to call a headache from hell. Have you ever had a hangover? Well, take that and multiply it by… fuck, I don’t know… six? My eyes felt welded shut, not like I wanted to open them anyway. My body was sore and stung from the burns. The only comforting thing was the feeling of fingers running through my hair. It was soft and as I continued to focus on that I began to feel safe. As stupid as it sounds I could be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse as long as they don’t stop. Then they did. Why could they hear my thoughts? Did they know I was awake? Did they want to kill me? If so, why did they do that? How long were they there?

I heard footsteps walk out the door. I forced my eyes open and dragged myself out of bed, there was a small mirror on the adjacent wall and I looked like I had been dragged through hell. I was covered in small scrapes, cuts, bruises and gauze bandages covering what I assumed from burns. My hair was disheveled and my eyes were almost bright red. It starkly contrasted the white t-shirt and black sweatpants that I was dressed in. I followed where I heard the footsteps, they weren’t super close but I could still hear them. When I got closer I could hear their heartbeat and even smell there was something about it that was so familiar. I began to walk faster. This place was huge. I walked into the kitchen and there they were. It was a woman whose hair was bright red and went just past her shoulder blades, she was in a red flannel and jeans that were worn out but still appeared form fitting. “Who are you?” I asked, she exhaled and set her coffee mug on the counter in front of her, she turned around. I couldn’t believe it, “Selene?” I said and she nodded silently. She looked exhausted and her open flannel shirt revealed a bra and surrounding that had been recently stained with blood that had become a translucent red and sticky. I was stunned, I didn’t know if I was dumb or just need familiarity but I ran to her and hugged her. I almost wanted to cry… “I thought you were dead.” I said quietly and she was silent “Is this where you have been the past five years?” I asked and she said “Yes” and then pulled away from me. “Do you want some coffee?” she asked plainly as i sat down “Sure.” I said as she went to get a mug and the coffee pot “That’s it? After five years?” I said in disbelief “I don’t know what else to say.” she said, setting the mugs on the table and sat across from me “What happened to you, what happened to me.” I said she closed her eyes and exhaled deeply “When you went to go collect that body from out here. I tried to stop you.” She said with a long sip of her coffee “That was you? Why were” I said “I was trying to protect you. The person who died was into some deep shit, they self-exiled themselves only I knew why.” she paused “When they died I had to work quickly, but I guess you had a job to do too. By the time I was able to move them it was too late.” she added huffing humorously “You were the woman in black? How did you do all that… stuff… stopping the blasts, the pushing and disappearing?” I asked in disbelief “Depends are you gonna stay or walk away.” she asked “It seems I’m not welcome back in the city.” I said looking down at a bandage covering her forearm a few tattoos littered the area. “Did I do that?” I asked “Yes, but don’t worry I scared you. It’s my fault.” she said like a mother consoling a child. Her left hand tried to hold mine but it burned and I jerked away. “Oh I’m sorry.” she said slipping off her rings and placing them on the table. I let her grab my hand again “Listen it’s not your fault. Although I did warn you. You probably wouldn’t have believed me even if I told you.” she said softly. “Maybe if you weren’t so damn scary, Siren.” a male voice said I looked toward it “Dom?” I asked in disbelief. There were two women behind him. “Who are you guys and what is this place?” I asked, “Sit down, we have work to do.” Siren said and they all took a seat… Siren began “My mother is…”

Thank you for everyone for reading this. I have rewritten this story so many times. Sorry if this sounds rough I haven’t had much time to write. Thank you so much Kass my fake wife and Bex my fake mom. I hope you enjoyed it!

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asharkapologist · 2 years

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May the 4th (Star Wars Day) Special Post

Happy May the 4th, everyone! Although I don’t post too much about Star Wars, believe me when I say that Star Wars is one of my favorite movie franchises out there, and The Clone Wars is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. So, in order to celebrate Star Wars Day, I decided to be positive and say at least three nice things about every live-action, theatrically released Star Wars movie, including Solo and Rogue One. So, let’s begin.

The Phantom Menace

Call me crazy, but I actually like the political stuff. Maybe that’s because I like political science and history, but I honestly don’t mind the Senate scenes at all. I think that, for a film trilogy that takes place when the Jedi were still around and working in tandem with the soon-to-fall Republic, political scenes were needed to worldbuild and set the setting.

Duel of the Fates. Need I say more? One of the best musical scores and duels in all of Star Wars--maybe even movies in general.

The podracing was very well done, in my opinion. If you ask me, it still looks convincing by today’s standards, and is suitably thrilling, and Jake Lloyd’s acting was pretty decent in the podracing sequence.

Attack of the Clones

The scene where Anakin’s mom dies and he slaughters the Tusken Raiders is very well done. And it’s excellent (and more violent and chilling) in the novelization. (In fact, I would fully recommend reading the prequel novelizations, they are excellent).

Across the Stars is a beautiful love score that communicates the love that Anakin and Padme have for each other, as well as their very tragic fate.

There’s a really good deleted scene where Anakin and Padme visit Padme’s family that I wish they had kept in the movie. It’s very cute, fleshes out the relationship between Anakin and Padme, and I really like how Padme’s family interacts with Anakin.

Revenge of the Sith

Palpatine is incredibly entertaining in this movie. You can tell Ian had a blast playing him.

The scene where Padme tells Anakin that she’s pregnant and his reaction to the news is perfectly written and acted. Hayden does such a good job with his line delivery and facial expressions--you can tell the emotions he’s going through as he’s reacting to the news that he’s going to be a father so, so well.

This movie does not hold back on the emotional trauma. When I first saw RotS, I cried incredibly hard, and I think the scene that really started the waterworks was the scene where the score “Padme’s Ruminations” play, where she and Anakin are looking out their respective windows during sunset, right before Anakin makes the choice that will change the course of galactic history forever: going to interfere with Palpatine’s arrest. There’s no dialogue in the scene, save a brief voice-over of Palpatine, and when Anakin starts to cry in that scene, so do I. The music is chilling, and, once again, Hayden’s acting is excellent. He doesn’t have to say anything for you to know what emotions he’s feeling.

Solo

Donald Glover KILLS it as Lando. Stole the show.

It’s a small background detail, but I really like the Imperial propaganda posters/videos/holograms you can see in public transit places. It definitely adds to the overall immersion and worldbuilding of this point in the galaxy’s history.

Okay I kind of liked the way that Han got his last name. Unpopular opinions, but I think it was funny. Love how some random guy created the last name of one of the most influential people/heroes in the galaxy.

Rogue One

The music? Super underrated. The score “Your Father Would Be Proud” makes me very emotional and suits the scene very well.

K-2SO is the best droid in the franchise. Yes, he is better than C-3PO and R2. You cannot convince me otherwise.

Like, Revenge of the Sith, this movie does NOT hold back. It straight up kills all of the main characters, and shows that just because you do something heroic doesn’t mean that you’re going to get a happy ending. And it shows that you don’t have to be a space wizard, politician, or part of some important lineage in order to make a difference within the universe.

Bonus one because this is one of my favorites: The hallway scene with Darth Vader. Enough said.

A New Hope

I mean…this is literally the movie that started it all? Without this movie, we would have no Star Wars.

Han, Luke, and Leia play off each other better than any other main characters in the franchise. I love their back and forth as they’re escaping the Death Star.

I really love the meeting scene with all of the commanders, moffs, important people, etc. are talking about the rebels, the Force, etc. I think that scene perfectly establishes the character and organization of the Empire, and it’s interesting, since it shows that Vader respects Tarkin, even though he could easily kill him. (I really love how The Clone Wars built on this.)

The Empire Strikes Back

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s hard to pinpoint specific things that I like, because, like, everything is borderline perfect.

It has one of the greatest plot twists in all of cinema history. Like, sure, Vader being Luke’s father is common knowledge now, but when it first came out? Nope. I would have loved to be in the cinema, watching that scene for the first time, and getting my mind blown.

The duel between Luke and Vader is so underrated, in my opinion. Like, sure, it’s not as flashy as some of the duels in the prequels, but the stakes are high, and I love how Luke and Vader utilize their surroundings to fight. (Doesn’t beat Darth Maul using a hallway to fight in TCW, though). It’s probably my third favorite duel in the franchise.

Bonus because I love this move: it shows that Leia is Force Sensitive. Her using the Force in the sequels did not come out of nowhere.

Return of the Jedi

The celebration music is SO GOOD. One of my favorite Star Wars tracks of all time. It’s one of the few times a Star Wars movie has a definitive happy ending, and it’s so satisfying seeing the characters celebrate and have fun together, having won a war that was going on for over two decades.

Again, call me crazy, but I love seeing Hayden’s Anakin as a force ghost. That tied the prequels and original trilogy together wonderfully.

The scenes in the throne room of the second Death Star is some of the best scenes in Star Wars. There’s real drama, danger, and other powerful emotions. The Emperor really shows how evil he is here.

The Force Awakens

Finn is such an interesting character, and is perfectly used in this movie. Humanizing a stormtrooper, who, previous to this movie, had been nothing but blaster fodder that the heroes easily and effortlessly gun down was a cool concept.

Hux is at his best here. That speech? Perfectly acted by Domhall Gleeson.

Honestly, I’m glad that they made the main character female. Like, say what you want about the sequels or Rey’s abilities, but, even if her character wasn’t written perfectly (well--it was written perfectly, which is a bit of an issue lol), it was good to have a female Jedi in a live-action movie. Some people say “well, the prequels had female Jedi.” Yes, but those Jedi were on screen for such a short amount of time that you could literally blink and miss them. “Clone Wars had female Jedi.” Yes, they did, and Ahsoka is one of my favorite Star Wars characters of all time. However, a lot of people who go and watch Star Wars in the movies don’t go out and watch side TV shows or read the comics/books. And if you ask me, you shouldn’t have to search side material if you’re just a casual Star Wars fan to find female representation. I am genuinely glad for all of the women who are Star Wars fans who only choose to see the movies (and that doesn’t make them any less fans than people who watch the shows and read the books/comics) who felt empowered seeing a main character who was a female Jedi.

The Last Jedi

Kylo Ren is written excellently here. His inner conflict is SO. WELL. ACTED. By Adam Driver. That man carried the sequels.

Rey, too, is at her best. In this movie, she fails. She struggles to get through to Luke, and she fails to turn Kylo to the light, and she loses the fight against Snoke. But she grows, and in this movie, she’s very compelling.

I love Luke and Kylo’s fight. Not only is it well choreographed, but the dialogue between the two of them is top-notch, too.

Rise of Skywalker

Honestly? I really like the back and forth dialogue between Poe, Finn, and Rey. Those actors have really good chemistry.

I do appreciate Palpatine quoting Revenge of the Sith, since Disney likes to pretend the prequels don’t exist.

The movie is very fast-paced and makes for a very energetic viewing experience

Well. That’s it. Happy May the 4th once more!

#star wars #may the 4th be with you #star wars movies #star wars prequels #star wars original trilogy #star wars sequels #star wars prequel trilogy #star wars sequel trilogy #the phantom menace #attack of the clones #revenge of the sith #solo #rogue one #a new hope #the empire strikes back #return of the jedi #the force awakens #the last jedi #the rise of skywalker

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ryqoshay · 2 years

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Tri-Arame: DS9 Game

Primary Pairing Trio: YuuAyuSetsu Mentioned Pairings: AiRina, ShizuKasu Words: ~1.1k Rating: G Fandoms: Love Live Nijigasaki, Star Trek Deep Space Nine Parent Fic: Tri-Arame Time Frame: Sometime after college Event: Wake Up Challenger 2022 Source: Idol Fanfic Heaven Discord Challenges: 1, 2

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Author’s Note: For the first week of this event, four challenges have been posed, and we are allowed to use up to two per entry. Challenge 1 is to write a fic using only dialogue, no narration. Challenge 2 is to do a crossover with another franchise. Neither need be Love Live, at least I do not believe that to be the case, but it doesn’t matter, as LL has enjoyed more than the lion’s share of my attention for the last decade, so of course it will be one of the franchises for my entry.

Summary: Setsuna wants to DM a new TTRPG she found

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“<Space: The final frontier.>”

“Yuu-chan…”

“<These are the voyages of the starship Dreamverse.>”

“<Dreamverse?>”

“<It’s continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds,>”

“Yuu-chan, we haven’t even started playing and you’re already naming the ship?”

“<to seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.>”

“That was wonderful, Yuu-san! I love it!”

“But, why did you say that all in English?”

“Aren’t the original lines in English?”

“Yuu-san is correct. And the version I watched was also in English, just subbed in Japanese.”

“I suppose… wait… Dreamverse… Yuu-chan, did you name the ship after Setsuna-chan and I?”

“Ah ha ha. Looks like you figured it out.”

“But… what if Ai-chan and Rina-chan want to play?”

“I doubt they’d mind.”

“… That may be true, but what about Shizuku-chan and Kasumi-chan?”

“Yeah, Shizuku-chan definitely won’t mind, but… maybe I suppose Kasumi-chan might get jealous and want the ship to be named after them instead.”

“Well with the game I have in mind, I can give Shizuku-san and Kasumi-san their own ships, if they want. Ai-san and Rina-san as well, if they want.”

“So, we’d all get our own starships to command?”

“Not starships, per se, rather battleships. Escorts, actually, as the Federation doesn’t, or didn’t, believe in creating warships. You see…”

“Hee hee. Setsuna-chan’s already getting excited about diving into lore.”

“I… but…”

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just can’t help thinking about how cute you are when you’re like this.”

“Uuuu….”

“Yuu-chan…”

“What? I know you agree with me, Ayumu.”

“That’s not what I… never mind. Setsuna-chan, please continue.”

“… R-right… Anyway… Uhm… The ships I have in mind are Defiant class, which are significantly smaller than the average starship, and require much smaller crews as well. They’re not loaded up with science or exploration equipment and have the bare minimum in crew amenities. The bulk of the craft is dedicated to fighting, which pretty much makes them warships, even if the Federation doesn’t want to call them as such.

“Also, just because they are smaller, doesn’t mean they are less powerful offensively. Or defensively, for that matter, as not only do they have the standard energy shields, they also have ablative armor that can continue to protect the ship even after shield generators fail.”

“I’m not sure I know what ablative means.”

“Uhm… It’s kind of like sacrificial material that can be destroyed without risk to vital components or structural integrity or the like. The rulebook has tables that go into specific detail about what types and how much damage can be dissipated by the armor. And the shields of course.”

“I see.”

“Oh, and also, the Defiant class ships are far more maneuverable than bigger starships. As such, they can more easily perform effective evasive maneuvers.”

“So, not only are they meat shield tanks, but also evasion tanks. Double tanks!”

“You’re not wrong, Yuu-san, but the ships are made of metal, not meat.”

“You know what I mean. Oh, and with heavy offense, they’re also DPS. Triple threat!”

“Yes. That is why the Federation made so many for the Dominion War.”

“Dominion War? We’re going to fight against a group called the Dominion?”

“Yes.”

“And all this talk about space craft means we’re going to be role playing a giant space battle?”

“Yes, that is what I had in mind.”

“That sounds thrilling!”

“I am happy you are looking forward to it.”

“Ooo, Changelings. I wanna play one of them!”

“Eh? But… Yuu-san, the Changelings are the enemy. They’re the leaders of the Dominion. You’ll be playing on the Federation side.”

“But, uhm… where was it… ah here he is. Isn’t Odo a Changeling who is on the Federation side?”

“True, but he is a unique case.”

“Hrm… what else we got in here… Oh, she’s cute. Jadzia Dax. Trill. Hey, Ayumu, you should totally play someone like her.”

“A joined Trill with a symbiont? What’s that, Setsuna-chan?”

“The Trill is the humanoid host for a longer-lived symbiont that retains memories of the lives it lived with prior hosts.”

“So, like a multiple personality thing, like the character Shizuku-chan played in one of our earlier games?”

“Not really, no. Each joined Trill becomes their own individual being, just with memories of prior hosts.”

“Hrm… I still think that sounds more like a character more appropriate for Shizuku-chan to play.”

“Alright then, how about this one, Ayumu? She’s also cute. Kira Nerys. Bajoran.”

“Are you just trying to get me to play a cute character, Yuu-chan?”

“Of course! Someone as cute as Ayumu should play a cute character.”

“… … Fine. But I get to pick the type of character you play then.”

“Works for me.”

“So, I take it you two want to play.”

“Very much so. This game is already getting my heart racing and we haven’t even started playing.”

“I’ll reach out to Ai-chan and the others to see if they want to play and when they might be available.”

“Thank you, Ayumu-san.”

“Woo! I can’t wait to start playing! Hey, we should totally watch the show before we play.”

“Uhm… that might take a while, Yuu-san. It’s 176 episodes. And not twenty minutes anime episodes, full length forty-five-minute episodes.”

“But you already watched it all, right?”

“…”

“Setsuna-chan, did you sacrifice sleep to binge it all on your last tour?”

“…”

“Setsuna-chan. No wonder you looked so tired when Yuu-chan and I visited you over the weekend. I thought maybe you were spending too much time practicing again.”

“I’m sorry… I was just so excited about the rulebook I found and wanted to know more about the world in which the game took place.”

“What are we going to do with you…”

“I’m sorry…”

“Well, what’s done is done. We shouldn’t harp on her too much, Ayumu.”

“I suppose… But you still need to take better care of yourself, Setsuna-chan. Especially when you’re on tour.”

“Hee hee…”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“…”

“Hee… I’m just imagining Ayumu tagging along just to keep an eye on Setsuna-chan.”

“You make it sound like I can’t leave her alone.”

“You say that, but you’ve been watching over me for years. Also, your expression tells me you’re considering it anyway.”

“Moh!”

“Ha ha. And it looks like Setsuna-chan isn’t opposed. Well, if Ayumu can’t get that much time off, maybe I can go along instead.”

“Then I’d definitely have to join, to keep an eye on both of you.”

“Is that the only reason? Or would it be because Ayu-pyon would get lonely without us?”

“Mmph…”

“I, uhm… wouldn’t mind if you two came along with me. In fact, I would like it. A lot, actually.”

“Then that settles it, Setsuna-chan. Ayumu and me will join you on your next tour. But in the meantime, let’s watch some DS9 so we can get a feel for the world we’re going to be playing in.”

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Author’s Note Continued: So there we have it. My first entry for this new event. I hope it wasn’t too hard to keep track of who was talking at any given point. And I’ve already outlined a good portion of my next entry, so hopefully I can get that written an posted by this coming weekend, when the next set of challenges will be revealed.

#YuuAyuSetsu #Takasaki Yuu #Yuki Setsuna #Uehara Ayumu #Tri-Arame #Wake Up Challenger 2022 #Love Live Nijigasaki #fanfic

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fantastica-daily · 10 months

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Movie Review

The new Indiana Jones movie—the only one (so far) not directed by Steven Spielberg—hits the ground running, punching, and shooting as a deep-faked younger Indy (Harrison Ford) and his nerdy pal Basil (Toby Jones) fight Nazi bad guy Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) for control of a magical artifact created by Archimedes and known as the Dial of Destiny. After an exciting opening, we fast-forward in time twenty years to 1969, where an older and grouchier Dr. Jones is about to retire from his teaching career. He’s feeling more obsolete than his battered old fedora but when Basil’s grownup daughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) shows up out of the blue, she brings Nazi trouble with her, and the swashbuckling derring-do resumes.

While Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny doesn’t have a dull moment and there’s a lot to like about it, it does markedly lack the charm and wit of the first three classic films (I barely remember his forgettable fourth, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which came out in 2008). James Mangold is a good director (I loved 2017’s Logan) but through no fault of his own, he lacks that special Spielberg sparkle of yore. Speaking of sparkle, there's also a dark-looking grittiness to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny that doesn't feel quite right; this franchise has always looked like a 1940s comic strip come to life. At least the trademark John Williams score is still in full force.

The film does imbue the main character with some gravitas—he’s lived a full life but one not without its losses and lingering pain. Ford conveys all of his complexities with aplomb. Voller is a pretty standard-issue villain, thankfully elevated by Mikkelsen’s mere presence. Helena is a fun character who, it’s been guessed, might be the one to carry the franchise forward. She’s a strong, sassy wildcard but she feels more modern than she should (if we’re to believe that she was born in the 1940s).

The set pieces and action sequences are well-conceived, but what should have been the biggest adventure of them all in the film’s third act feels rushed.

youtube

Overall, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny provides a decent send-off for a beloved pop culture icon and should please audiences, both old and new.

= = =

S.L. Wilson

#indiana jones and the dial of destiny #Youtube

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tailsrevane · 2 years

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[book review] star trek: discovery: the way to the stars by una mccormack (2019)

in a lot of ways, tilly is the beating heart of star trek: discovery. you don’t notice it at first but by the end of season 1 it’s just super obvious, and it just gets more and more obvious as time goes on. what you do notice right away is that she is such a mood. like, she’s got to be one of the most immediately relatable characters on the show to the average star trek fan.

one of my favorite things about discovery, and i think one of a lot of people’s favorite things about discovery, is that the crew isn’t nearly as… stuffy as in the next generation?[1] everyone doesn’t always have to say the exact right thing at the exact right time, and we see that this isn’t incompatible with the “elevated” humanity that is so central to the franchise’s appeal. it’s okay to get excited about things in messy, awkward ways! and tilly is basically a human-shaped avatar of this approach. on top of that, she’s a genuinely great portrayal of someone who is clearly neurodiverse.[2] she’s just so damn refreshing in a world where a lot of popular entertainment uses “brilliant but rude, not empathetic, and has trouble talking to people” as shorthand for anyone who isn’t neurotypical. tilly is amazing at connecting with people, and i don’t think anyone is going to accuse her of an underabundance of empathy.

… so, uh, yeah! all of that is to say that i was, you know, maybe slightly excited to read a book that’s primarily about her! this book expands on a lot of what we already got from snippets about her–overbearing mother who sounds like a huge asshole (she is), brilliant, had a “rebellious phase.” i also really appreciate the continuity between this and the 2019 annual with her father’s ship!

the book is split into three parts which are extremely unequal in terms of length but nevertheless pretty equally important. part 1 covers tilly’s transition from living on earth to living at boarding school, and takes up almost half of the book, dwarfing the other two parts. part 2 follows tilly’s brief exploits as a teenage runaway, and part 3 finds her aboard her father’s ship and is the beginning of her path to starfleet. although the other two parts are equally important and are maybe slightly more effective as page turners, part 1 is the part that i found myself relating to the hardest.

one of the big obstacles tilly faces is her inability to stand up to her mother, and how she keeps getting bullied into going along with whatever her mother wants. this is what led her to boarding school, and while she’s there despite her teacher feeling she’s excelling, her mother just refuses to be satisfied.

tilly ends up internalizing her mother’s expectations and dropping things that are genuinely fun and important to her to try to do the best she can to meet her mother’s impossible standards. she ends up obsessing over a major project and overworking herself to the point of exhaustion, and when the time comes despite all her hard work she ends up bombing the presentation because of all the pressure she’s put on herself. worse, she realizes she’s alienated all her friends and is left all alone by the end of the term.

i… found this aspect way more relatable than i wanted to. i find that i often get so focused on what i’m working on or making progress with something… chasing the next dopamine release, as it were. and as a result i end up not doing enough to maintain the relationships in my life which are actually drastically more important to me than whatever i’m working on. and that’s without the pressure of a parent or other authority figure! just the ghost of one, in the form of lingering trauma from childhood. so it’s just extremely easy to empathize with tilly here.

i knew i would probably enjoy this book, i really love me some tilly, but i didn’t expect it to be so personally meaningful and genuinely useful. yeah, there’s a lot about tilly’s life that i can’t relate to, and a lot that i’m frankly pretty jealous of! but there are equally important parts that i very much can relate to, and that made this an incredibly satisfying read.

a-rank

notes

1. i hope it’s pretty obvious from my reviews of the series that i do love the next generation. this isn’t a dig against it.

2. i’m not going to put a specific diagnosis in the show’s mouth, but as someone who is autistic and has adhd, i frequently feel very seen by how her character is presented.

#star trek #star trek discovery #star trek books #star trek: discovery: the way to the stars #una mccormack #books #book review #reviews

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perezrobertson8 · 2 years

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shihalyfie · 3 years

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With Digimon Ghost Game starting, I thought about how different it is from previous Digimon series, though it's still undoubtedly Digimon... and then I realized all Digimon series are like that. So I wonder, what do you think sets each Digimon series apart from the rest?

I think both Ghost Game but also the reboot have been a wake-up call for people in terms of realizing that likes, dislikes, and tastes are subjective, and I think it's especially important in terms of this fanbase that is so obsessed with this idea you can objectively rank things by quality -- especially when each series is often deliberately trying to have its own identity, so it's arguably apples and oranges -- and forcing this idea of what's Good and Not Good on everyone else (especially when there's a nasty double standard phenomenon where Adventure and often Tamers get to be so impervious to criticism that people conveniently forget they're perfectly capable of being scrutinized for a lot of things they're weaker in). Very frustrating to see everyone who likes less popular series treated as if they have to accept that they like a "badly written series" for some things and everything else is a guilty pleasure, which I find to be incredibly dumb.

The most important take-home here is that the fact each series has its own identity is always going to be the main factor in what makes it "good" or not to you, not some arbitrary bar of comparison that's based on some narrow-minded view of "good writing" (which is usually unreasonably based on Adventure). For instance, the reason why 02 is so important to me is because (see below), to me, it has the highest amount of meaningful, important life lessons and themes that it wanted its audience to remember, to the point that I frankly do not care about where the plot goes in comparison. That may not be the case for everyone else, and that's fine, but should my tastes be called unreasonable for that? I think we're also coming to realize that because of Adventure (and kind of 02)'s precedent, so many people have been judging series purely by how intimate their individual character development style is, but this is unfair because Adventure and 02's ridiculous level of character depth to psychological detail is extremely unusual and unrealistic to expect of others; Adventure and 02 only achieved this by practically considering the plot utterly subservient to its character arcs, and it's arguably why they have some of the weakest "plots" in this franchise. It's so bizarre that I can see character development in other Digimon series that outstrips even most kids' anime on the market, but it's not as much as Adventure's so apparently it's bad. And, moreover, as it turns out, some people have priorities other than characterization; just because Adventure had that as its strength doesn't mean that's the only thing anyone should care about. Is the plot fun? Is there a meaningful message besides characters (also important to me)? Do you vibe with the tone being dark, or being silly? How much do you care about resourceful usage of Digimon lore? That kind of thing. Everyone is different, so that's why everyone has their own priorities. If you’re someone who prefers darker content, you may not realize that writing good and well-timed comedy is actually a very, very difficult task, especially when said comedy simultaneously has meaning (in comparison, it’s surprisingly easy to write “dark” but shallow content).

I think it's fair to like every Digimon series for its own thing, depending on your personal tastes. I can't speak for everyone, but my impressions are that it has to do with the following:

Adventure: Significantly easier to understand than 02 due to its more straightforward plot, and focus on individual character development ("individualism" being a strong point here). In terms of characters, it goes a lot into some very real social problems (the divorce around the Ishida and Takaishi families and the pressures surrounding Jou, for instance) in a very realistic manner. Also, it has that sense of mystique and absurdism to the Digital World that's both whimsical but also mysterious, and while 02 has it too, Adventure's the isekai story that has it the most.

02: The first is its focus on the importance of human relationships and the compelling group dynamic unparalleled in this franchise, and the second is its important themes and life lessons that I think are some of the strongest in said franchise. I have a whole tag for the ridiculous amount of nuance packed into every detail and dialogue line for this series, and I think every time I've rewatched an episode I've learned something new about it because there are so many things that clearly wanted to be said in each line. The entire series is basically an unpacking of the feelings of insidious self-hatred and the crushing feeling of being subject to society's expectations, and ones that are so deep-seated that you often don’t even have a single answer to how to unpack it (for instance, Miyako hardly has a tragic single event in her backstory, but she says and does a lot of things that'll be painfully familiar to those who have experienced chronic anxiety). Almost every plot point can be said to connect to each character arc in some way, and the mantras for appreciating and treasuring your own life and living life the way you will make this, in my opinion, the strongest series in terms of speaking to those who struggle with this kind of existential crisis for reasons of depression or otherwise. (Oops, I think I went too passionate about this; my biases are obvious...)

Tamers: I think it forms an interesting study and unpacking of the kinds of things you take for granted in Digimon or the monster-collecting genre in general, and an examination of how they'd work in a real-world context (although 02 had a focus on daily life, it didn't quite merge the Digimon and the real world factors until very late in the series). Also, probably the second highest on "hard sci-fi" (the only one that outstrips it is probably Appmon, but Appmon has a very different, more simplified take on it).

Frontier: A series that lies somewhere between Adventure's scale of individualism and 02's scale of group dynamic, and one more discussing the feeling of having your heart hardened from being an outcast, and what it takes to accept the idea of opening yourself up to others again. Recommended for those who like transforming hero and magical girl stories, too. From the Digimon perspective, also the one with the most detailed and consistent Digital World mythos.

Savers: I think this is the series that most drives home "life is complicated" (i.e. there isn't a single mastermind behind everything) in the most tasteful manner, because while it drives home the point that you can't just simplify everything into a good side and a bad side, some bad things really are evil (hi, Kurata), and it doesn't change the fact that everyone's responsible for cleaning up the fallout. The portrayal of the evils of government bureaucracy is probably the most realistic out of any of these series.

Xros Wars: For those who like fun, most of all! For those who like seeing Digimon finally get more of the spotlight and individuality since so much of it had been geared and biased towards the humans prior to this. For those who really like worldbuilding, and, after all, this is called Xros Wars, so it's interesting to see shakeups on the usual formulas in the form of the different factions and their priorities. Hunters is very different in tone, but I do think they have some of these aspects in common; that said, it being closer to having single partnerships brings it a bit closer in line to conventional Digimon partnerships, and it also has more of a picture of daily life. Also, as much as Tagiru is probably your-mileage-may-vary since he's not exactly a very nice kid (I get it if you don't vibe with that), which may also rub those hoping for not nice kids to become nice the wrong way, I do have to say I find him to be one of the funniest characters in this entire franchise, and you'd be surprised how hard good comedy is to write.

Appmon: Probably one of the strongest theme narratives besides 02, since it has a very clear and obvious theme about the importance of kindness in a world where technology is dominating and we're almost encouraged to strip the feelings out of everything. (Bonus for more straightforward plot than Adventure or 02 while still retaining a lot of its elements in terms of how to characterize them.) Also the first series to be speculative about the near future instead of taking place around the time it airs, and it's very obvious it wants to provide important and necessary commentary about what we need to do in the incoming era, especially as a lot of what it has to say becomes increasingly relevant.

Reboot: For those who like Digimon mythos and null canon -- this is probably the only series to show it off in this level of detail -- and the kind of cool action fights that would usually be saved for the climax in prior series (and animated in much more intimate detail with battle choreography than prior series would have). There are a lot of people into this franchise who felt like it genuinely was not making enough use of its Digimon roster and its potential because it kept going back to the old standbys (especially Adventure-based ones), so it was a huge relief for that crowd to see attention finally being paid.

#digimon #shiha's ask box #demonoflight #digimon multi series talk

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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Re; Ahsoka and Quinlan being the same age, now I'm picturing Ahsoka, Quinlan, and Rex eventually ending up in a weird sorta thruple where Quinlan comes in and out of the relationship but the door is kinda always open for him? And Rex spends a lot of mornings eyeing the tangle of orange and brown skin on the other side of the bed like he has no idea how he ended up here but he's (mostly) okay with that tbh

Context: Commander Buir in chronological order

YES okay so this is wild to me that people are invested in this but like half the time-travel fics with Ahsoka in the same age-group as Quinlan have me wondering if I should ship them. Let me just. Ho shit.

So, okay, I've explored a lot of possible dynamics but there's something really engaging about how Quinlan, trained as a Shadow before the Sith came back, could react to a War Padawan. Ahsoka isn't really infiltration material yet, she's very much a frontline fighter, but she's got a lot more experience with a kind of consistent dark atmosphere that most Jedi don't. They get exposed to plenty of dark stuff, sure, but not the kind of all-encompassing "this is my life for the last two years" thing that is usually reserved for the long-term field agents like Shadows and Watchmen.

The War Padawans, for all that they were supposed to be just normal Jedi Padawans, were living in the kind of consistently negative environment that's normally experienced by those Knighted Sentinels.

So Ahsoka, while still generally pretty young in these AUs, is a very odd kind of person to be around, because she's spunky and vivacious and snippy and affectionate and snarky and knows how to break every bone in your body from harrowing experience as the only thing standing between death and thousands of brothers.

And Quinlan, I imagine, really likes that about her. She gets it, and she's still an energetic and loving and trying to do her best to be a good person despite everything. He gravitates towards her and she... well, she's not blind. She can tell he's interested. And she's not upset about that.

ANYWAY, ONTO REX

So, Rex is... technically twelve. He hasn't exactly got a whole lot of experience with romance. He is also, up until the point of time-travel, legal property of the Senate and the Jedi Order, which means that Ahsoka, or at least her community, owns him. He was indoctrinated to serve her and that community. She also outranks him, for all that she usually lets him take the lead in the field due to experience. He's older than her physically and maturity-wise, but she's also had a grow-up-faster-than-you-should adolescence, and she has superpowers.

What I'm saying is, the power dynamic is fucked up.

(Unironically I spent hours last night realizing that it balances out a lot more than C*dywan does, which I'm censoring because by god do I not want discourse on this post. I like both ships, and don't want to argue about what's the most problematic. It's Star Wars. The only unproblematic ships are Bail/Breha and Owen/Beru.)

Here's the thing, though, because the main thing people seem to argue here is the age/maturity difference as a problem area:

The age difference in actual time is four years, which is smaller than the two main ships of the franchise (Han/Leia and Padme/Anakin, to be clear). The age difference in maturity is ??? We'll say that the clones started aging normally after they hit twenty, so the age difference in maturity is six years... which is still normal for SW ships.

(This is why I don't have any issues with the ship in a post-O66 context, once they've had a few years to move past the traumas and whatnot. The age stuff all evens out with time, they're a good team, and neither was grooming the other. It's not objectively any more problematic than most SW ships at that point, and I'm okay with that. They deserve to be happy if they want.)

But they get yanked away from all that structure of who owns what, who reports where, who has which rank, who's legally a person in the eyes of the Republic when they end up on Dagobah. Once they've registered when they are, the only remaining complications are:

He grew up in a cultlike environment and was indoctrinated to serve her (but has been replacing that indoctrination with genuine respect and affection for her as a person because they've worked together for two years).

She has superpowers (contextually not a big problem: we see several Force-Sensitive/Non-Sensitive ships that don't consider those powers a complicating element)

He's several years younger than her (canonically less of an issue than it could be: Cut got married and has kids) and has next to no experience with what a normal romance looks like except for hanging out on the edges of whatever the fuck his General has going on with the Senator

She's several years less mature than he is (...something of an issue)

So a lot of this is mostly okay. She feels weird about the fact that she's got more knowledge of romance and all that it entails. He feels weird about the fact that, despite her being older, he looks at her and sees someone that's still a little young, not quite a shiny. Except she is older than him, and he's seen her behead four people in a single move, and they've saved each other's lives more times than either of them can count anymore. He respects her, and the fact that she's babyfaced doesn't change the fact that, in terms of who they are as people and warriors, they're on a level playing field.

She still looks at him and mourns his lost childhood, and he still looks at her and takes a moment to see past the too-big eyes and adolescent proportions.

But they really, really care about each other, and maybe part of them is starting to recognize that there's a bit of a crush before they time-travel, but neither one wants to make a move. There's a lot of baggage on both sides, a lot of "but they're a child" and "but they're (literally vs functionally) below me in the chain of command, I can't take advantage of that" and all that fun stuff. It's the kind of situation where two people circle each other for ages without making a move, because actually making that move is terrifying on account of not knowing whether the other party knows they can say no, on top of the usual "what if it ruins our friendship?" thing.

What happens on Dagobah, though... is very tropey. They're sort of stranded until Ahsoka can fix the ship, and that takes time. The area is also very heavy with the Force, dense and heady with the energy it carries, and it's... actually really not great for Ahsoka. She keeps feeling like she's back on Mortis, and has nightmares from the trigger there, but also keeps hallucinating because she wasn't ready for the thickness of the energy (like Yoda) or still new enough to the Force that she couldn't feel how dense it all was (like Luke). She can't work on the engines as constantly as she'd like to get them out of there, and while Rex is a competent mechanic, he's not as skilled with it as the girl who jumped headfirst into lessons with Anakin.

Rex spends a lot of time holding Ahsoka and wiping her brow with a wet cloth while she's feverish and out of it. Yes we're going full Florence Nightingale romance here, let me have my fun.

They get the communications relay working earlier than the engine, find out the year is wrong, panic a bit. All is well. (It's not, but they're holding it together for now.)

Ahsoka keeps working on the engine when she's lucid. Rex keeps hunting up game and edible plants for them while she does. They cuddle at night, because it's not cold but it is empty of the people they care about, and they kind of want that reassurance of someone they trust and love at their back.

(Morai visits.)

(Daughter shows up in the nightmares, tells Ahsoka that age will not come for her beloved until the time is natural for it. The phrasing is dumb but she does manage to convey that the accelerated aging is no longer an issue, if it even was after they hit adulthood. Ahsoka is relieved.)

And, you know, emotions happen. She takes his hand while they're leaning up against each other. He kisses her forehead while she's having a bad spell. They cook together and tell jokes to keep sane and spar. They hug each other through nightmares and panic attacks. There is much blushing. There is much cuddling.

Once, they kiss.

They break apart, flushing and stammering and being very awkward about the whole thing, and make excuses to leave and panic about the fact that they!! Kissed!!!!!

A couple hours later they find each other again, and have a long and complicated discussion about why they like each other (war makes bedfellows, there's trust and affection and all that fun stuff) and why they're hesitant (age stuff, maturity stuff, prior indoctrination), and make the decision to take it slow. They cuddle, and kiss, and blush a lot because both of them are basically just dumb teens having their first real relationship.

They eventually leave the planet, make it to Coruscant, etc. It takes a bit for anyone except Obi-Wan to realize that something's changed between them. Most people didn't know them before, and Anakin's observation skills are currently at a very low ebb. But they sit together and hold hands, and flirt when they spar, and once or twice people find them kissing (both standard and Keldabe) in a corner while holding hands and then just smiling at each other like loons.

They end up rooming together because nobody has the heart to separate them after hearing about all the war stuff. Like yes attachment's bad, but these two do seem to understand loss of loved ones and recognize that they could lose each other at any time and death is natural and they won't lose their entire shit about it, and if even General Kenobi is anxious as hell about being separated from the people he fought side-by-side with for two years, then maybe it's just... really normal for those two to want each other's company, and everyone can just turn a blind eye to the romance happening.

They share a bed, but they only ever sleep in it. Like, there's some goodnight kisses and cuddles, but everything is very G-rated until they've had time to settle into being true equals instead of just the "well, I guess the power dynamics balance out? Maybe?" of before.

And just... yeah. Rex does not believe that he's in this good of a position whenever he has the time to think about it. He's got a girlfriend! A really pretty, smart, strong, skilled one! Who thinks he's a cool dude! How the fuck did a clone like him manage that? He wasn't even legally a person a year ago, how did he end up in bed with one of the most amazing people he's ever met? He spends multiple nights just staring at her while he tries to fall asleep, asking himself how he got here and just like... marveling at her. She's worth marveling at. He's in love and she's amazing and he has no idea how to handle it at all.

...yeah no I have a lot of feelings now.

#Rexsoka #Ahsoka Tano #Captain Rex #Quinlan Vos #time travel #Commander Buir #Phoenix Posts

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