#cordial's bc: episode one

[fandoms-and-salt]

My thoughts on Hazbin Hotel's villains, because I think they have a problem

Valentino

Val is just. where do i even start.

His introductory scene is largely comedic and makes his freak-out over Angel just living somewhere else the butt of the joke. The same scene conveys that he is already losing control over Angel and can’t do anything about it, since Angel is ignoring his calls, and Vox convinces him that ignoring this blatant misstep is the better option. This is an okay scene (i even found it funny), but it’s a bad villain introduction. Especially a villain that we are meant to take seriously and, from the perspective of the main characters, fear.

(There’s also an inconsistency with Angel in ep1-2 feeling free to ignore Val’s calls and messages, but in ep4 he is stumbling all over himself to please Val)

His introduction had to be made from the point of view of one of his victims to set up a proper tone of menace to him, instead of making it from the point of view of his fellow overlords, who view him as a whiny dumb piss baby. This scene would be okay a lot later down the line, in my opinion, when we are already familiar with what a despicable dangerous asshole he is, and the characters (Angel Dust) begin to step up to him more. We see his facade crumble alongside the main characters to reveal who he truly is without all his power and control - a whiny sex-obsessed loser.

There's also an issue of us not really getting a scale of his power. This guy is portrayed as an extremely forward hot-tempered dumbass, who has to be verbally guided to make a better strategic move than a “just kill and rape everybody”. He freaking licks the princess of Hell, talks down to her like she is one of his porn actresses, and physically assaults a person under her care right in front of her, and she is supposed to be someone more powerful than him, and he should know that.

This guy can’t manipulate and strategize for his life, so to compensate for this (and make his rise to power more believable), he needs to have some truly impressive physical power. And tearing apart some character offscreen and wielding some guns doesn’t cut, bc basically everyone can do that in hell, what makes him special? Show off how his vaping powers can really fuck people up, poison dozens, hypnotize them, make them addicted to him! Make him so uniquely dangerous that he doesn’t even need to be smart and cordial to rise to power!! Otherwise, how the hell we should believe that he owns the whole porn industry of the Pride Ring, including legally owning his workers, if the show puts more focus on his stupidity and lack of tact than on whatever power he has?

Like he is meant to be our main antagonist and threat, alongside with his TV boyfriend, until the angels come back in the finale, don’t just waste them away on lame jokes.

Speaking of which.

Vox

I like Vox. I like his voice actor’s performance and the voice effects and filters that they give him to reflect his mood. I feel like he had a better introduction than Val (which is not a high bar to clear): it showed that he is pretty smart, strategic, and image-conscious. With this and his heavily implied power to hypnotize and stalk people through his tech, the fact that he is in power and the threat that he poses are much more believable.

Anyway, this gets completely wasted 10 minutes into the first episode he appears in, when he gets verbally floored by Alastor. And he cried about it right after. And later in the same episode we see him fail again at another one of his schemes, bc he chose the most incompetent spy ever. Once again, silly comedy shatters any kind of illusion of threat that the villains might pose. Which also leads me to..

Alastor

Who is not really a villain, and this is kind of a problem. He really could have been a great threat and an antagonist, but i really don’t believe they are going to go in that direction.

Alastor is a very OP character and is the one holding power and control in basically any interaction he is in, including the villains. And since he is an ally of Hazbin Hotel, whose goals (the details of which we are not aware of) partially align with theirs, he completely fucks over any kind of tension regarding anything that might threaten the Hotel or it’s residents. Because you can just throw Alastor at it and make it go away. Because the writers just can’t have him lose.

And we don’t have any reason to believe that he would just refuse to help, because so far? He does whatever Charlie or Vaggie ask him to do. He might be a smug dick about it, but he still does that. He even agrees to film a TV commercial (twice!) despite his vocal hate of such technology. Furthermore, he has to make a deal with Vaggie so they don’t have him do something like this again (granted, this scene might hold some additional implications in the future, but so far this is all the context we got). Why can’t he just refuse to do things that he doesn’t want to do?

Which they could have fixed if they made his power more limited. Either by reducing the scale of his power so he is at most on the same level as the villains,

OR have his presence and help be limited. Make that the characters often can’t access him for help or he just. refuses to help them. He even says that he is here to have fun and watch them suffer, so wouldn’t them struggling to, idk, get rid of Sir Pentious, for example, be entertaining for him? Or balance out his help with instances where he causes conflicts and problems on purpose. Beyond just him annoying Vaggie for comedy’s sake.

And if any of this is what they are actually going for, then you need to make it a point to the audience that yes, this guy is powerful, but don’t expect him to productively help with any of the narrative threats and problems.

And lastly,

Adam and the angels

I don’t like Adam. He is annoying as hell and his jokes are drawn out and not funny at all. The logistics of him being an angel when he is Adam and when he acts like this, give me a massive headache that is related to a whole other topic i’ll need to make a separate post about.

Despite all this, Alex Brightman is doing a great job selling how utterly insufferable he is. His song is also pretty good, one of the more memorable ones in the show. And he (and the angels by extension) is also the most menacing and competent villain on the show so far. ...Do you see my predicament here?

Granted, this is not a very high bar to clear, as established with. the other ones. For example, in contrast to the pilot, we are only told about how dangerous and deadly the exterminator-angels are. “[Sinners] never managed to kill one of us [angels]” “In the latest extermination, [angels] killed the highest 18% percent of our [sinner] population” etc etc. We don’t see the angels killing anybody on screen, we barely see the aftermath of the extermination.

What we do see is the panic and helplessness with which most of the hell population treat the exterminations, including Charlie. We see Charlie struggling to convince Adam of her plan, barely able to talk back to him, which sells Adam as the more powerful in the interaction. We see Adam not showing all his cards to Charlie, like the fact they are planning to completely wipe out the whole Hell/Pride Ring, showing that he is not completely stupid despite his whole deal (well, there’s implied to be some kind of plan here, but i’ll talk about my problem with the logic in another post).

Otherwise, we don’t have anyone else to compare with him, since Charlie is the only one who interacts with angels on-screen. But all of this so far gives a suitable illusion of how dangerous and powerful the angels are. But what will happen if angels are faced with our all powerful Tumblr Sexyman Mary Sue? Will the universe let Alastor lose and then collapse in on itself? Or the other obvious option?

Anyway, in conclusion, Hazbin’s villains are not very good so far. Their main problems are the fact that the writers can't properly establish their threat and lever of power, or they undercut this with unsuitable comedy. Also, they don't know how to use their OP main character, so they won't ruin the stakes of the story.

#lovin rambles #hazbin critical #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel critique #hazbin hotel criticism #hh valentino #hh vox #alastor #hh adam #damn that's a long one #im tired #next post will be a lot later cuz i have more to say obv

[devilsrecreation]

Thoughts on episodes 3 and 4: SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THEM

(Note that these are not in order)

I think we all knew something was up with Roger Rogers. I still like him well enough but he HAS to be a spy. You remember what he said in that canister room? That’s the kinda thing that undercover spies say. Whether or not he’s truly a good dude is beyond me. And how else could the key have gone missing?

I gotta agree with Johnny that the I Scream, You Scream interview was TOTALLY 100% biased and bullshit. Yeah Sully worked with Waternoose, but that was before ANYONE knew he was a criminal! And who do you think was the reason Waternoose is in prison? SULLY AND MIKE, THAT’S WHAT. SO TAKE THAT, JILL

Lmao poor Duncan he was so ready to take the job

I completely get Sully’s opinion of Johnny, tbh. College WAS a long time ago and people change since then. It’s kinda nice that they’re cordial

Having said that, I’m more on Mike’s side. Johnny pulled a Carrie, that’s not exactly something you can forget. Forgive, maybe. But forget? Hell no

“Probably bc nobody likes you”-TELL HIM, MIKE. TELL HIM

I hope Roze and her new love interest make their relationship work

Are Declan and Duncan related? It may be speciesest, but I think they are. They’re either brothers or cousins and I’m convinced Duncan hates him hfhfgrgd

Okay but Val bonding with the kid she was assigned to was so sweet 😭. I think that’s what Tylor has trouble with cuz he’s so awkward. I actually had something like that in mind beforeheand but that’s another story

I knew I’d like Joy the minute I saw her. I don’t know what the writers are gonna do with her yet but she seems like a sweetheart! I wonder if she’ll be the opposite of Randall? 🤔

Rose moved to Fear Co which is a shame cuz I wanted to see her become a jokester but all power to her. Also I love her voice :)

I see Crab Cakes is back and still kissing Johnny’s butt. The fact he was listening through the door proves he hasn’t changed a bit lmaooooo

Claire and her kids are back. I still wanna know the love story between them tbh. Like HOW?

Actually, maybe she was the one to humble Johnny after college and make him grow into a better monster. It’s happened before

“That almost made me feel something”-LORALIE I SWEAR YOU ARE YOUR MOM’S MINI ME. YOU ARE SO HER CHILD

JJ’s an innocent ball of sunshine and I hope to god he doesn’t end up like MU!Johnny

The song parodies in the Scareoke bit were hilarious

Not the Western vibe hdgdhdgd

SO CAN WE AGREE THAT CUTTER AND SUNNY ARE EXES? THEY’RE GIVING EXES VIBES

Oooooooh Duncan found the cup in the trash. He’s TOTALLY gonna use that against Tylor. Personally, I predict that it’s gonna be the cause of that one peek of everyone in Sully and Mike’s office looking all mad at Tylor

These are making me develop my oc, Atlas, more. Like I’m already picturing how their and Johnny’s interactions would go if they become unbanished

#just me rambling #cant wait to see where it goes #monsters at work season 2 #monsters at work

[jemmo]

utsukushii kare really said we’re going to take two of the most fascinating, interesting, well-characterised characters to have ever been written and not just stick them in the same show, but put them in one of the most incredible relationships to be seen on screen and i cannot thank them enough for it. seriously, if you consider the fact that at this point we’re at ep 8 of a 30 minute runtime show; that’s 4 hours. i’ve watched other bls, heck even other ordinary shows, that can’t even cram enough characterisation into a character that hira or kiyoi have in their little fingernail. im not joking. and nothing shows that better than kiyoi in this ep.

i love that we’re already getting an episode from his perspective. we had to wait all the way until ep 4 of season 1 to see things from his side, and that was such an amazing twist and reveal and still to this day that ep makes me cry. but im so glad we get to see his perspective sooner. bc we don’t need that shock twist anymore, instead it serves as a good balance to see where both our characters are at in the first 2 eps. and yet again, seeing things from kiyoi’s pov just opens up the absolute treasure trove that is his character. there are so many stand out points from this ep that i wanna mention but I’ll wait until my big ‘favourite parts of utsukushii kare s2 ep2’ post to list them all. what i wanna say here is that every bit of his character we get to see in this ep comes together so well to create such an interesting, multi-faceted and well-rounded character that it’s kind of astounding. we start off with his softness and vulnerability that’s countered perfectly against hira’s timid reaction, and then we jump back to high school to see this full on longing and the frustration that comes with that, waiting to be confessed to. i wanted to say this about the first season but this serves a good opportunity too; I find it so interesting how they portray hira and kiyoi’s ‘seme and uke’ dynamic (im gonna use those terms bc i can’t think of any better way to describe it, just know im referring more to a more dominant vs more submissive personality, like the confesser vs the confesse, and not anything sexual). You could so easily watch this show, hear the premise, even see the characters, hira and his chronic shyness, kiyoi and his undeniable popularity, and easily place those labels; hira the uke, kiyoi the seme. but in reality, kiyoi so clearly wants to be the uke, and very much is the uke. he begs in his head for hira to confess his feelings fo him, half bc maybe he needs hira to be brave where he can’t be, but I think also half bc he just wants to be confessed to. He wants the boy he likes to tell him he likes him, just like he wants to cuddle in his lap and be looked after. it probably stems from this want to be loved, chosen to be loved, and be cared for where he felt he wasn’t before, but it’s just so refreshing and such an interesting subversion of expectations, to see inside cool, popular kiyoi’s head and it’s just him begging for this shy, nobody kid to like him, and say it out loud.

and then I’ve touched on this before, but you get to see his earnest drive and passion to do what he loves. the cool kid that should fit the stereotype of never caring about anything, pushing to do the thing he loves, putting himself out there. I just can’t describe how excellent of a subversion that is. and the way he is with people at work, with Anna, polite and cordial and sweet, it’s such a reverse of kiyoi’s tsundere shortness and bluntness with hira that it not only shows us that yes, we weren’t hallucinating, there really is an infinite pool of softness within kiyoi that pours out more and more every time we see him, but also shows us that kiyoi is maybe only his true self with Hira. he’s not this polite, nice boy, nor is he this cool, cold popular guy, he’s somewhere in the middle, a fascinating mix of both, that only hira gets to see the full extent of, and I think that says a lot about how comfortable he is with Hira, and how much he trusts him. as much as it may be bad that hira will never find fault with kiyoi, it also makes him his sanctity, his true safe place, where he can breathe and grow and truly be whatever he wants, soft, angry, cute, cool, vulnerable, hira will take it all and adore it no matter what.

and then we get his jealousy of koyama, his protectiveness and possessiveness of hira. it’s kind of endearing how he still feels these things when hira shows him such endless devotion, it’s a testament to how normal he sees their relationship compared to hira, and how he therefore allows himself to feel normal relationship things, including possessiveness. but also in this scene i really love how kiyoi is let’s himself doubt himself, and only when it comes to hira. i feel like we’ve only ever seen him been unsure of himself when it comes to the things he loves, namely his dream of being a performer, and hira. he only looses confidence when he doesn’t do well in the competition in high school, and is only ever doubtful when it comes to hira’s feelings about him, and how he is with hira, maybe bc they’re the only things he truly wants to last forever. so what does he do, just like he does with his acting career? he puts in sincere effort. he humbles himself taking that recipe from koyama, and despite his cluelessness and clear lack of skills, he still tries his absolute hardest to do something for hira. he cooks him a meal, one of the most ordinary and sincere expressions of love. and his shy smile the whole time, him waiting excitedly for hira to come home, it’s such a fantastically endearing contrast from the cold, removed kiyoi we know early in s1 that you almost can’t reconcile them as the same character, and yet the steps that got us here make it clear that they are in fact the same person, that both those people live inside kiyoi and that’s amazing. and of course something as ordinary as cooking a meal for your boyfriend can never be normal for hira and kiyoi but the chaos unfolds is what makes them absolutely them. it mirrors what kiyoi says at the start of the ep about Hira, ‘if it wasn’t disgusting, it wouldn’t be hira’. It’s the same for kiyoi, and the same for their relationship. they don’t want to change it fundamentally, don’t want to take away the things that make it them, they just want to find a way to take this thing they both want and love and build it, strengthen it, so it can last. and i’ll say it until I’m blue in the face, but that’s why kiyoi’s personality, his bluntness, works so well for hira. it provides this iron wall of reassurance based in truth that he needs. I think ‘im not dating a pebble’ might be my stand out line from a bl in 2023 already but it’s also so ridiculously laced in meaning. Kiyoi doesn’t see hira as just some rock, some insignificant thing on the side of the road, that’s not what he’s dating. He’s dating hira, the person. And I think this push for hira to see himself as a person is only something that kiyoi can do because, in a way, hira was the one to see Kiyoi first. I’m a different way, because of the complex hira still has around kiyoi, he may not be a person yet, but hira still saw him in a way no one else did because he cared enough to look and keep looking. He stared and stared at every bit of kiyoi, including the uncool parts, the embarrassing parts, the sweet parts, the upset and angry parts, he’s the one that saw it all and never once looked away. The invisible kid made him feel seen. And I think for someone that’s always looked at but never seen, that’s what you really want.

So yes, this may have collapsed into another ramble, but I hope I can just convey some of the sense of how whole of a character kiyoi feels, even just by the points in this ep. And I just love that he’s allowed to be it all, be chaotic and messy and imperfect and a work in progress while still helping hira along too. I’ve never seen a bl couple that feel so much like they’re growing together, figuring themselves out as people and as a couple and it’s just so fucking refreshing and interesting and beautiful to watch and i will never ever shut up about it

#here’s your weekly ‘im so in love with utsukushii kare it’s unreal’ rant #and I call this the kiyoi edition #seriously he’s my favourite character in anything ever #and I would do anything literally anything to see him happy #oh god im down so bad #utsukushii kare #utsukushii kare 2 #my beautiful man #my beautiful man 2

[skeilig]

i am on my knees begging for more info about the kieran-jeremy beef...

oh boy, i used to dream of asks like these.

so a lot of it just me reading into things (bc i think a basically harmless beef btwn 2 costars who did good work together is fun and spicy lol) but most of it stems from the original, infamous new yorker profile of jeremy. of the cast's remarks, most people read kieran and brian's as being the harshest. brian ofc had doubled-down on his issues with jeremy's method since then (see the "method acting masterclass" bit from fallon), in a way that is kinda extra and cringe imo. the kieran-jeremy beef is more subtle and unspoken and therefore classier (and kieran is sexy and funny so he can do whatever he wants).

some of kieran's remarks in the new yorker profile i think have been a bit misinterpreted. for instance, he was quoted saying that jeremy's method "doesn't work" for him, which is kinda ambiguous. is he saying that jeremy's approach to acting inhibits his own ability to work OR is he saying that jeremy's method wouldn't work for him personally if he were to try it. i lean toward the latter. the worse parts of the article imo were just cringe-fodder, such as kieran and jeremy's disagreement about whether the show is a comedy, and kieran speculating that jeremy prepares improvisations for set, and he repeated one such "improvisation" ("rooting-tooting good time for all the family!" which made it into the climactic scene in austerlitz) in so many takes in a row that it began to grate on other cast members, until sarah snook snapped at him in character and said "SHUT. UP. KENDALL." kieran sharing this anecdote definitely is NOT flattering to jeremy. i can see how from another actor's pov, when you're encouraged to improv on set, and how vulnerable and intimidating that can be (kieran struggled with improv at first but grew to excel at it!), it could break the trust on set to have one actor not playing by the same rules.

in a later profile of kieran (i wanna say GQ but i'm not gonna cite sources sowwee), he was asked to reflect on the jeremy profile and his remarks that caused a lot of buzz. his response was cordial but he basically just quickly shut it down and the journalist editorialized that "maybe he's learned to keep things to himself." which i think may be the case!

ever since then, i've just noticed the many times when kieran has conspicuously failed to mention jeremy. in a pre-s4 profile, there was an account of their last day of filming, which was the scene between the 3 siblings in the kitchen in barbados. after they wrapped, kieran made a speech and apparently profusely thanked and poured love onto sarah snook (as he should!). it was not stated whether or not he addressed jeremy, his other scene partner for this last scene. he might have, but it was not confirmed one way or another. and then there's just his many acceptance speeches (the emmys being the most recent) where he names other lead cast members but does not mention jeremy at all, even when they have been nominated in the same category (a bit strange, i'll admit!).

so in conclusion this is just me speculating for fun. it's not a big deal, i don't think either is in the wrong or a bad person or anything. it's a personality mismatch but they were still able to do amazing work together (kendall/roman scene in the finale is sooo cwazy). it's just kinda funny when a lot of popular tv shows are very invested in the "we're all a family and love each other" image for their cast/crew, to see a show that's very well made but has some obvious interpersonal tension. reminds you that interpersonal conflict is not bad and evil which is something i think a lot of people forget, lol.

EDIT BC I FORGOT: sometime during s4 there was an interview where it came out that roman's rant at the end of s3's episode "too much birthday" was at one point cut from an early draft of the script and kieran fought to have it added back in, and he stated that it was his favorite roman scene. he also stated that jeremy disagreed with the scene being in the episode. which is just a funny thing for him to add. like, yeah jeremy didn't want the scene in the show.. but daddy jesse agreed with me 😁

#asks #anon #ty for letting me go off about this lmao #it's been a minute and i was surprised how much i could remember

[lysteriaposts]

COBRA KAI S5 REVIEW (unhinged vers.)

SPOILER WARNING AS IF IT ISN'T CLEAR.

I actually wrote a list of my thoughts post episode 8, and oh it was not positive. Luckily enough a few of the things I was annoyed about were addressed the last two episodes where a lot happened. I've now slept on it and am ready to give a less rantsy review lol.... if you like to hype everything CK and only wanna hear positive things then I suggest you don't read further.

+ indicates positives (duh) and - negatives.

Let's rip the band aid off first.

- Mike Barnes being a wasted character and only there to subvert expectations (SAD!!!) - As a consequence, too many new characters brought in making the plot messier, crowded, contrived - Chozen being forced to like the girl he almost killed bc everyone needs to have a significant other / love interest of the opposite sex on this show - Kreese prison break is the dumbest shit I've ever seen - Kreese dying tragically in prison as he's trying to better himself would've been such a good writing choice, but they wanted to subvert that too - Kreese's plan he had with Tory never being explained - Johnny/Carmen baby drama making me want to barf all over my computer - Carmen being a baby carrier instead of an actual person - New gen kids serving no purpose in the overall story (except Kenny a little) - Rehashed plot of Sam/Miguel breakup taking up too much screentime and serving no purpose for the characters - Cheesy octopus < 🙄 - Half assed attempt at giving Sam introspection which gets dropped an episode after it was introduced - Sam being self absorbed (what's new) and deflecting blame - Demetri & Hawk could've been absent and there would not be any difference - Forced attempts at giving Hawk any relevance - Hawk being hypocritical and full of himself - Miguel's Mexico journey not changing anything for the character or his relationship with Johnny (or anyone for that matter) - Too little focus on Robby/Tory as a unit and their conflict - Too little focus on Robby/Kenny as a unit and their conflict - Robby redeeming and propping Johnny is not the same as developing and repairing their relationship, writers - Johnny kidnapping Robby to Mexico for absolutely no reason when he was gone tops 2 days - Carmen kind of forcing (and wanting!?!?) Johnny to have a baby with her - Johnny using new baby as an excuse for Miguel/Robby to have to get along - Robby breaking up with Tory after one disagreement - Robby going to see them at the Cobra Kai dojo way too late - Tory not confiding in Robby at all - Robby's character suffering from having to unnecessarily bond with every other character except the ones he truly cared about - Robby being forcefully sidelined in the story because he has to be attached at the hip with his new "family" - Tory ending up the show's punching bag, blamed and excluded for the 50th time - Devon Lee being... there, kind of annoying and one dimensional - Too much Kreese with no pay off - Too many flashbacks - No explanation to why Sam/Robby are cordial (I shouldn't be surprised they didn't explain Sam/Hawk either) - Stingray crying crocodile tears... actually just Stingray. - Sam being the one to wave her finger at Stingray wanting to keep his benefits (couldn't ANYONE ELSE have said that) - Silver not being the mastermind everybody expected him to be and mainly waving around his money - Amanda siding with Silver over her husband... dumb but ok - Jessica Andrews, just way too convenient - Kyler still being "one of the best" in Cobra Kai is laughable - Them trying to kill off Chozen, the only POC sensei - Them not having any balls to kill off any characters, but like to dangle it in front of us - Practically no Mike Barnes/Silver interactions

+ Very good fighting choreography + Cool shots and scenes i.e. Sam's dream, Miguel/Robby balcony fight 2.0 + Miguel/Robby relationship + Robby/Tory relationship (what we got) + Robby/Kenny relationship (what we got) + Kreese's therapy sessions (before it got subverted) + Miguel's scenes with his real dad + Johnny Lawrence comedy + Chozen... just, Chozen... seriously he might've carried the whole season for me + Chozen/Daniel relationship + Chozen/Johnny comparing notes lol + Daniel's arc and seeing him at his lowest + Anthony/Sam sibling bond + Little we got of Anthony/Chozen + Inverting Daniel and Johnny's "roles" + Daniel/Silver fights + Tory working as "undercover" instead of continuing to be "brainwashed" + Sam helping Tory although them coming together felt rushed + "I broke up with him for the dojo, you BITCH!" + Peyton List's acting + The new gen kids' acting + The Quicksilver method ! + Kenny/Silver scenes + Tory/Kreese scenes + More about Silver's background and ambitions + I don't blame Amanda for being done with Daniel's skeletons in his closet even though I called her dumb + Miguel speaking Spanish hehe + Chozen infiltrating CK was cool but should've been a full season thing- + Mike Barnes being the only og character not holding onto an old karate tournament, lol

#cobra kai #cobra kai spoilers #ck negativity #ck 5 #ck spoilers #ck review #cobra kai s5 #cobra kai season 5 #tory nichols #robby keene #samantha larusso #miguel diaz #hawk moskowitz #demetri alexopoulos #johnny lawrence #karate kid #daniel larusso #chozen toguchi #mike barnes #terry silver #keenry #tory x robby #sam x miguel #samiguel

[rbr4c1ng]

Hii! I was wondering if you could maybe explain the bus bros fallout or p2p gate or pretty much all of the McLaughlin-Newgarden lore to me since I'm only getting in to IndyCar now and I want to be caught up before the 500. I understand this is a big ask but I've seen that youve posted about it and I just NEED to know. Any links to other pieces of lore would also be much apreciated. Completely understand if you don't want to write anything though so thank you so much I advance!! <3

YES ABSOLUTELY I WILL EXPLAIN! this is my special interest dw i could write an 18 page essay about their lore.

SO basically scott came into indycar from supercars in 2020-2021 ish and him a josef started getting along like super well, which is honestly a bit odd bc josef is known to not really let people get so close to him, so scotty is a bit of an outlier in that respect.

eventually! they make bus bros!!! wooooo everyone loves it etc etc they have fun making it…. until they don’t! leading up to their breakup there were QUITE a few clues that they knew it was gonna end in flames like scott talked about it on off track (see audio excerpt below) and on hot seats with hinch if i remember correctly?

there’s also a fair share of articles that mention it. they basically knew it was inevitable but i don’t think anyone thought it was gonna happen so quickly??

so then the winter break leading into the 2024 szn happened! this is about when i started getting really into bus bros and was honestly pretty present for some of this shit (i was at the daytona 24 and st pete so i’ve got some first hand evidence but we will get to that later)… anyways so the rumors start going around that bus bros is over around?? st pete time i think??? a little bit earlier. which is odd given that they seemed okay with each other at the daytona 24, even though i thought it was strange that they weren’t both on tower motorsports anymore cause josef switched to penske porsche but GENERALLY it seemed okay (although based on this pic idk their relationship seems a little charged atp but it’s all speculation really)

then after the rumors come out i think it was jenna fryer’s article that did it in? (idk it has a paywall on it for me right now and i don’t care enough to find it here but there’s definitely excerpts floating around) now i do recommend to take anything jenna fryer says with a grain of salt bc she is essentially a gossip columnist for all intents and purposes. but the article basically said that josef and scotty were done and scott wouldn’t answer any questions about it and was only saying that they’re fine or to ask josef about it (tea from todays 100 days to indy episode actually…). they promptly took down the bus bros merch site and have been relatively quiet since then. at st pete they talked on the podium and didn’t seem too bad but i’ve seen other clips where they won’t even sit next to each other or speak to each other so take that as you will. podiums are pretty much just publicity, cameras everywhere, you’d probably want to seem at least cordial with your teammate.

(pic 1 is mine, pic 2 is a pic of my tv from todays episode LMFAO)

so heres where most of the speculative stuff comes in. Josef dissolved his media company, unfollowed everyone, and cancelled bus bros leading into the 2024 season because he wanted to “get rid of distractions”, and really we could leave it at that, but i find it hard to believe that that’s the only thing that happened.

Josef is the dictionary definition of Penske Perfect, you won’t get any closer to it than him. he’s fucking OBSESSED with this idea of being perfect. perfect season, perfect body, perfect car, perfect team. obviously this isn’t feasible, but scotty seemed to have broken through that block in his little Penske Perfect brain and got him to LIGHTEN UP A BIT. and then the 2023 season happened. sure, josef won the indy 500 but it was one of his worst season finishes in a while and, to make matters worse, scott BEAT him. little scotty mac, supercars champion transplant from 2021 beat josef newgarden at his own fucking game after breaking down his walls and making him soft. i can see how that scared josef honestly. so he ended it. Scott doesn’t see things on a plane of winning/losing imo, everything is just experience for him. hell, he didn’t even know if he would end up in indycar and he sure as hell didn’t think he’d win races so soon AND beat his teammate. to josef, it’s JUST winning/losing. if he’s losing, he needs to be better. and he lost sight of that for the 2023 season. that’s why he had to come back and put an end to the shenanigans bc he knows scott makes him soft.

but that’s just my speculation!!!!! literally could just be nothing. maybe it is to josef, but i know for a FACT it isn’t to scott.

OH and with the p2pgate stuff! basically they had a component in their car that. was not supposed to be there! that prevented race control from turning off their push to pass like normal. (marshall pruitt has a rlly good article explaining it all here) and they were caught in long beach when race control forgot to turn on the push to pass during the sunday warm up and HMMMMM why do the penske cars still have it???? when has this happened before??? oh ok st pete! now they’re disqualified. josef used 9 seconds of p2p when it was not enabled and scotty only used 1.9 and will used none. so i’m led to believe that it was a josef-centered choice IF it was intentional to use the p2p when it was supposed to be inactive.

now josef really laid down the water works for that press conference at barber to the point that i was having a VERY hard time watching it. i felt bad for the guy. he seemed really fucking upset and i almost believe that it WASNT on purpose but. it’s just too good to be true right?

honestly i think this all could tie back to the downfall of bus bros in that scott maybe didn’t want to do the p2p thing but josef was willing to? and maybe that caused some sort of divide between them bc then again for josef it’s about Winning No Matter What, and yes scott wants to win but cheating isn’t the way for him. idk.

for more of their lore when they WERE friends, watch bus bros (duh), admit one, 100 days to indy, scott learns america: nashville, hot seats with hinch, and listen to scott’s episode on off track with hinch and rossi! also there are some very brief interactions between them on some older penske games videos before bus bros was even a thing but it’s not much. there are more but i can’t think of them rn…

sorry for rambling, if you have any more qs feel free to ask!!! i’m always available for brain picking :)

#anyways. #this is how my brain works #this is all i think about all the time 24/7/365 #psychoanalyzing race car drivers… #indycar #bus bros #josef newgarden #scott mclaughlin #p2pgate #correct me if any of this is wrong bc sometimes i just say shit

[sapphicscholar]

Hacks 2.7 and 2.8 Thoughts

For the last time, live from my office, it’s my disjointed, rambling thoughts! Maybe at some other point I’ll think more in-depth about the season as a whole, but this is primarily about these last two episodes

1. The big overarching thing: for all the critiques we can and have made about some of the uneven writing or lack of narrative consequences this season, JPL sure know how to write a season finale. Damn. In many ways these episodes were so powerful because they hit a lot of the same beats as season 1′s final episodes (which isn’t a bad thing imo! more on that below), but it’s a great way to wrap things up in a way that’s satisfying without closing down space for the characters and the show to grow, especially given that JPL have said they want more of the show (I’m conveniently ignoring some of the other things they said in the post-2.8 commentary)

2. Repetition with a difference is the name of the game! It’s all about the rebirth and renewal here. I’ve been a little disappointed by how much this season told us instead of showing us (again, I know they were working with just 8, half-hour episodes, which would be a tall order even for a more narrowly focused show), but these final episodes managed to show how much so many of these characters have grown by making visible the distance between how they handled these exact moments in S1 and how they handled them here at the end of S2. A non-comprehensive list below:

Ava’s interactions with her former colleagues and friends - she’s not asking anything of them (they’re offering!); she’s cordial and relatively sober and thinks to ask after them without cutting off their answers. She shows up to the party instead of bailing bc she doesn’t know if there’s anything in it for her. She has her shit together and is able to offer a genuine apology that has nothing to do with advancing her career. Baby has grown the fuck up in the best of ways! 

Ava tells Deborah about the gig! She even does the professional adult thing and asks for time to consider the offer first. And then she tells Deborah about the opportunity, makes clear that it isn’t an abandonment but is a temporary gig, and gets rewarded by the kind of support that I suspect Deborah would have been far too wary to give to Ava in S1, even if she’d been upfront about the interview. They just weren’t there yet, and even though I would have liked to have seen more of how their relationship progressed to this point (we get glimpses, but I want more), it’s lovely to witness 

Ava shows up for Deborah’s show, becoming the one to make the Grand Gesture! For the 2,500th, Deborah was left reeling right before she went on stage, and it was only this remnant of Ava’s time with her (the gift) that nudged her into doing the new material. This time, Deborah can do it alone (and both she and Ava know that), but they also both know it would be a lot more fun together. And our giffers have already done the work of putting together those stunning gif sets of the various mirror scenes <3 so much love to you all! 

Whereas Marcus skips Deborah’s big night! He trusts that she has it and is able to recognize that this isn’t a situation that demands his presence, so he can make a choice to prioritize accordingly without assuming it’ll all fall apart without him. And he tells Ava that being 10 minutes closer to Deborah isn’t necessary! He’s not only learning; he’s trying to keep others from making his mistakes - cool stuff, Marcus!

Also the moment with Jimmy was sweet - the way it’s not Jimmy making his father a liar (or having his moment of thanks interrupted), but is instead a poignant moment where Deborah can offer him something to cling to--that he’s making his father proud--right after he’s taken a huge risk to support her 

3. Speaking of weirdly resonant, repetitive moments...Ava’s morning after! Not only does it feel a hell of a lot like Deborah’s morning-after with Marty in S1 (the abrupt shift from pleasure to business, the lack of anything like warm sentiment in the afterglow, the way both Deborah and Ava end up on the back foot, scrambling to figure out what exactly is going on), but it also re-stages the morning in the hotel room with Nina in episode 2.6, right down to the line about Ava looking tired while she was sleeping. And both times, we see Ava left reeling by this choice not to include her in the morning routine; it seems to tap into a lot of the loneliness she’s talked about feeling throughout the series--she wants someone to have those quiet moments of intimacy with, whether it’s familial or romantic. AND WHAT MAKES THIS EXTRA FUN is that the one single person we have seen waking Ava up is Deborah! Who doesn’t give a single shit if Ava is tired or looks tired. She wants Ava with her and now. And Ava, confused and bleary-eyed as she is, hops right the fuck to! She’s being included and wanted, and that’s fucking huge! Deborah is the one person in her life who consistently seems to get (intuitively, sometimes inadvertently) what Ava is looking for!

4. Random but I love that QVC becomes this good thing. It’s such an integral part of how Deborah is dismissed (including by Ava early in S1 as the “crazy QVC muumuu lady”), and here it becomes the vehicle for her to launch herself on her own terms (even when those are terms so many other people have scoffed at over the years) 

5. The staff all together! So good! Some of the ensemble moments this season have felt a little gimmicky or weaker, but this felt true to the characters and was a sweet moment away from the chaos at an overly dim dinner table tucked away in the kitchen, and I loved every fucking second of it. Also Josefina is a gem. And her letting Ava in because she’s decided that she’s sticking around?? MY HEART 

6. Oh my god the party...PHEW! Deborah giving Ava the writing credit she wouldn’t take on her own! The wink! The moment of Deborah’s realization that Ava’s gonna keep downplaying her own integral contributions if she doesn’t step in and do something! That rooftop conversation! I have never thought we were getting canon Ava/Deborah, but I spent a long moment thinking they were gonna kiss right then and there. It was devastatingly, heartbreakingly intimate, and I wanna bottle that and use it to sprinkle over the parts of the season I’m more meh about

7. The lawsuit: so I was right in my predictions that Deborah would drop it by the end of the season, but oh my heart broke at Ava’s little face when Jimmy tells her (and she has fucking QVC on in the background??!?) - ANYWAY I need there to be a fic where the courthouse becomes their Empire State Building, their Brooklyn Bridge, their romcom moment of “I’ll be there on our arraignment hearing date - if you’re not there, I’ll know...” (and I know I’ll probably end up writing one myself, hush now, I hate feeling so known!)

I’m sure there’s other stuff bopping around in my head, but I’ll leave it here. Thanks to anyone still reading along with my rambling thoughts at this point in the season <3 you’re all gems! See ya in the tags 

#hacks hbo #hacks spoilers #my meta #ava daniels #deborah vance #ava x deborah

[furby-organist]

spoiler!

// ok so I heard WAY BACK IN THE DAY that apparently Viv said that Lucifer & Alastor mutually respect each other, and Alexa has established (to at least one muse, like, in conversation) that he and Lucifer are on cordial terms and that Lucifer met him decades ago bc he wanted to know who tf spent like 20-30 years collapsing the entire Pride political system

so, canon divergence here. don't feel like retconning it. that's the story here but damn that episode was iconic

[greenorangevioletgrass]

OKAY SO when i said my thoughts around carmy and bradley werent coherent at all I meant that quite literally 😭 i havent thought about it in detail aside from the rough idea BUT if i have to expand on it i’d say it could be something along the lines of denim through the decades? or taking into account what you said about james dean/marlo brando i think it would be fun to see a campaign centered around iconic moments of denim in pop culture too. Maybe recreating some movie sets and outfits and such. 

BUT im also thinking something a lot more chill bc ik recreating movie sets n stuff can be 1) a hassle and 2) a lil cheesy, so considering that the people involved in the campaign would be people with an interest in vintage denim n such i was thinking about  levis incorporating some vintage pieces from personal collections. Picture one of the countless denims carmy stores inside his oven (sob) or one of bradley’s staples too. Mix that with a limited edition line of ‘brought from the past’ jeans, jackets, etc. and i think itd be golden. 

By no means am I a denim expert, I’m talking out of my ass here after a few minutes of research LMFAO but its fun to think about it.

I’m sure carmy would be WAYYY more hesitant to participate than bradley. The latter is probably ecstatic and doesnt let his manager (im guessing levis would be in contact with his manager) finish. As soon as the words levis and collab leave his mouth, Bradley's sold. 

I think carmy would be interested in working with levis, a little flattered that they considered him. Maybe taken aback too bc im guessing he’s a very private person and doesnt talk much about his denim collection and such so levi’s def did their research lol. Still, i think he was going to turn them down and then Sugar and Syd found out and tried to convince him bc ‘its levis, u gotta say yes’ but it didnt exactly work and in the end it was Richie who replied to the email with something along the lines ‘id be honoured to be a part of the campaign’ or smth weird in his attempt to impersonate carmen.

With the two of them on set, i quite frankly don’t know if they would interact or how that interaction would go. Think carmy might be too nervous to properly interact bc its a hectic environment. Maybe bradley saw him all closed up and semi alone and decided to strike a conversation with him, talking about denim and such. What do you think?

BTW im so sorry about the typos i keep making, i only notice after you respond LMFAO i swear my english is good, promise.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!! thank you so much for indulging me 😭😭 and no worries, i feel like we’re speaking in a language beyond english where we’re just throwing concepts at each other and we actually understand it. it’s beautiful.

i totally get it that recreating movie sets is a lot. what they can do is recreate looks inspired by these iconic movies (like james dean in rebel without a cause—carmy would look great in that!) they can do a studio shoot or an outdoor city shoot like JAW’s CK campaign (still not over that btw skshsjdhsj)

ok hear me out: carmy is reserved in his private life but i feel like deep down he likes being the golden boy. remember his monologue abt smoking ppl out wherever he works? and just the way he steps up to lead and plays up to people who wanna hear what he wants to say. i feel like with the restaurant on the rise, he’s bound to have done some interviews, and on one of them he went on a hyperfixation-fueled tangent abt vintage denim like the first episode.

and you’re so right, it still would take him a lot of nudging and jostling to say yes. i loooove the idea of richie very eloquently replying to the email and making carmy sound very eager and cordial 🤭 (i imagine he would be a very short emailer/texter if he ever does reply)

with carmy, i feel like it’s not so much that he dislikes hectic environments (how much more hectic can his kitchen get, right?) but it’s the kind of hectic that he can’t control. and it drives him nuts, and he’d take smoke breaks often and eventually, bradley goes with him although he doesn’t smoke. he’d say that he has been to noma a few times and he enjoyed it and they bonded over restaurants and food and all. he’d love to visit the bear some time, to which carmy is like “of course let me know anytime you’re in town”

(Bradley thinks carmy is one of the coolest people he’s ever met. Carmy thinks for someone who’s that famous, Bradley is super chill.)

#this is an unlikely duo that i am INTO #bradley bradshaw #carmy berzatto #carmy & bradley crossover #fx the bear #top gun maverick #footballer!bradley #ask ava

[cheese-induced-madness]

Alright gamers I offically am obsessed with Steven Boxleitner bc i just rewatched the only 2 shorts he's in for the sake of picking apart every single canon piece of information i could possibly parse from them. Here's my findings:

-does not eat the crusts on sandwiches.

-huge dorky grin when he gets caught doing something he shouldn't. bordering on creepy.

-loves grilled cheese, pork chops, bbq ribs, coffee cake and pastrami sandwiches.

-the mere mention of food will get him to go on a tangent describing the perfect meal in his mind.

-has a recipe for ribs in the book he penned, and knows exactly what he'd want on a pork chop at the exact moment he thinks of it, you can't tell me he doesn't cook on the reg.

-will get sad if people eat food that was his but not outright hostile (ergo defensive, protective, or aggressive tendencies around food are primarily squeaky's direct control and/or steven suffering from squeaky's conditioning)

-will talk to animals even if he can't really understand what they're saying back, specifically talks to squeaky in the creepy sinister voice even though he wasn't really doing anything wrong. my personal interpretation is that he only slunk away with the creepy grin on because that's the voice he uses to talk to all animals ever in much the same way one would use a baby voice on a very friendly dog, and he was simply embarassed anyone caught him talking like that.

-uses the same sinister voice in the very beginning making the grilled cheese with wordgirl and huggy so perhaps he just slips into that persona when around kids or animals because he likes to be dramatic and it makes him fun to interact with. i mean, he was a theater kid canonically so it checks out.

-can interact with the narrator. unfortunately the narrator cannot fully interact back. calls the narrator buddy. also friendly with him in later episodes as dtb so likely does not hold what happened against him.

-acknowledges Squeaky is a little rat bastard who will bite everyone he possibly can, still holds him completely unrestrained and talks him through the experiment in a fairly cordial manner. interestingly, squeaky doesn't try anything to hurt him til the button.

-surprised twice by being informed the audience is watching him (initial "oh! hi." and the creepy grin when he gets caught talking to squeaky) and unaware that the narrator cannot physically interact with the world (at least not on screen). whenever he breaks the fourth wall it's kind of clumsy compared to how the other characters do it with full awareness of the rules of this world.

-i cannot get over the tone of his voice when he tells exposition guy he's in the science lab and not the police station. like what was that. like slightly annoyed that he got interrupted? irked that someone mistook his lab for something else because he takes that much pride in science? genuinely can't figure it out but i kind of hope it's the pride thing because that would explain some of twobrains' tendencies if steven had a bit of an arrogant streak.

-given he made the helmets out of a colander and thimble he is not exactly running on a high budget. broke bitch rights.

-owns a baby elephant specifically for the purpose of training superheroes and i think we all forget this too often. there's an elephant scared of a mouse joke in here and i'm like 80% sure in another timeline squeaky scaring said elephant into crashing into the machine would have been the original cause of the fusion but that likely 1. would've taken a lot more work to animate than just pressing a button and 2. these are just quick 2 minute shorts so i doubt they had time to work that in. and possibly 3. would've been a little too violent?

-amazo guy is the only hero ever present in his book.

-Huggy likes him because of their shared love of food. kinda sad that they do even less with this than his past friendship with wg because they both acted as her mentor and they seemed to get along pretty well. i know we're never gonna get a prequel series but if we could then i would kill to see them being friends and bonding over being slightly jaded and underpowered adults in a world of child superheros.

#some of these are obvious but you know #i wanted to keep everything we know for sure in one place #honestly am i the only one who thinks its kind of a tragedy that twobrains barely gives huggy a second thought after the accident #like they used to be so chill and now he just calls him 'the monkey' and acts like he's a minor nuisance at most #they deserve to be friends dammit #wordgirl #steven boxleitner #i just want good things for my boy steven #and also to know how much of him is in twobrains

[transvampireboyfriend]

@lovewaterforthesoul replied to your post “look, i love to see him kill but I also love...”:

this is such a good point. also when hughie reads him to filth “at least I have a fucking life” butcher just takes it. that whole scene was incredible and revealed so many layers in their relationship “can we just stop dancing around this” yes plz more

​i have MANY thoughts

oh THAT moment!!! so much to unpack! the way Hughie starts the conversation is both so familiar but also so defeated and ...i wanna say contrite? like he can see he hurt Butcher and is tired of pretending he can't. And Butcher’s response is so telling, like u said, he just takes it, but when he's listening to what Hughie has to say he's obviously distressed.

The fact that he doesn't shut the conversation off until it can be in private and not in front of Frenchie and Kimiko and the way by the end of it he's bouncing his leg like crazy, tells me he's in such a confusing state of mind.

And the conversation Hughie had with Annie last season, clearly as a couple but also being like "I'm thinking i should stop seeing him" so then how did they get back here? Did the colonel get them all together?

AND the conversation between Butcher and Homelander at the end!!!!! Homelander is so obviously in for the attention and love of the masses and Butcher understands him perfectly, except he's thinking of the people he cares about. He’s thinking MM gave up on him, he's thinking Hughie discarded him on a shelf like he's obsolete. And now that he’s back Hughie’s constantly reminding him to not do things like he usually would, like if he could chose someone else for the job, someone more cordial, more opposed to violence, he would. Hughie would choose a newer model if he was offered one, at least that’s the way Butcher is seeing it right now.

So of course! this is why it's important for him to obey Hughie’s orders he's saying ‘look! you can need me still and I'll be good, I can still take care of you’. Not to mention this is exactly what he wants to be for Ryan too, dependable. They’re his family.

Of course he will allow Frenchie and Kimiko to be there for that conversation because they stayed! They didn't give up on him, even if he snaps at them, even with all the shit he put them through, they believe in him, they mostly trust his methods, they stayed.

And the episode ending with Hughie covered in guts again, probably feeling foolish bc the person he trusted turned out to be that. I can't wait to see who he turns to after that.

#lovewaterforthesoul #i sound ridiculous #i'm just obsessed with them #the boys spoilers #the boys #liveblogging s3 tb #i'll probably watch the next ep tomorrow #i wanna stay in this blissful place for a bit #blorbo #hughie #billy butcher #hughie x butcher #. #-

[dragonplumbobs]

Cordial: My mom is a zombie researcher, and temporarily turned some people, as part of her research. She found out zombies are not the horrible creatures we think of them as. They mostly just go about life normally.

BB: That is interesting to learn. It still must be horrible to be one though.

BB chose to Talk About Magic.

Attraction Score: 10/10

Starting Relationship: 6.26

#the sims 3 #ts3 #berry sweet sims #cordial's bachelorette challenge #cordial's bc: episode one #Baby Blue Indigo #poisonfireleafs #Cordial Rouge Cupcake

[starfirette]

Marks, from one lover to another

17+

⭐️ sub Steven Grant x dom Fem Reader, additional dom Marc Spectre x Reader

⭐️ You're jealous and over protective when it comes to your subby boyfriend ; some spicy scenes, specifically dry humping and marking. Layla bashing. I HATE when fics bash the s/o of the character you're reading for but for the sake of the story, Layla must endure some hate; I don't know shit about Moonknight so I'm going in totally blind and completely off of what I've seen on the show! I HAVE NO ISSUES WITH LAYLA BC ITS BEEN ONE EPISODE AND I DONT KNOW HER!

⭐️ masterlist | I wanna write more Moonknight so bad :(((

You didn't have any explicit problems with Layla. The fact that she had been the 'other woman', though, was enough of a problem. Enough of a reason for you to not like her.

Aside from the fact that she had popped into your lives without notice and took both your boyfriend and yourself (by association) to Cairo, she hadn't done much of anything else. Well...she had made it clear that she was 'Marc's wife' and nothing more. She tried to avoid Steven when he was fronting, and she often times was frustrated by the fact that Steven didn't respond to the name Marc.

You watched on, silently sneering each time Layla butted heads with Steven. You didn't like how cold Layla acted towards him; even sometimes demanding that Marc "come out" like he's the neighboring child that she wants to play with.

And though you're not a psychologist, you've at least made an effort to do the research on dissociative identity disorder. You wanted to know everything about it so you could be there for Steven, and for Marc.

But Layla didn't ever bother to understand. Her lack of patience and empathy for Steven and Marc rubbed you the wrong way. It was enough to make your blood boil.

And as if that wasn't enough Layla just didn't like you.

She had looked you up and down during the first meeting, her lip curling back as she sneered; "This the one you fuck now?" She asked, flipping her gorgeous, voluminous hair towards you.

To your delight, both Steven and Marc had angrily chastised her for saying such things. Steven informed Layla that you're special; you're important to him and he cares for you. Marc told Layla that she had no business in his relationship, considering he had apparently served her with a hefty divorce order. Not to mention that Marc had added "Y/n helps me. She knows what she's doing."

Damn right you know what you're doing. You fumed over Layla in private. To her face you tried to remain cordial. There was no point in fighting her. The efforts to get to Egypt were hard enough, so her skills did come in handy when it came to the search for the tomb.

Even to Steven's face you attempted to feign neutrality, knowing full well that if he saw how you despised Layla it would only stress him out.

She especially was annoyed by the fact you and Steven and Marc all agreed to share a hotel room, leaving Layla to bunk by herself.

The resort had a beautiful view of the pyramids in the distance, and the heavy tourist spot made for a good hiding place. In plain sight, among other people mingling under the Cairo sun.

You silently fumed as Steven faded out, Marc fronting, and helping you carry the little luggage you had to the room. He kept quiet with his head down until you two were alone as to not let Layla know that anything had changed. If Layla knew Marc was fronting, she'd hound him for answers to her demanding questions.

The moment the door clicked shut, Marc looked at you with quiet examination. "You okay?" He asked.

Despite his lack of audible empathy, he did care. He took the time to care for you, tend to you, while you cared for and tended to Steven. It was an easy circle that footed onward without trouble. Or at least it had until Layla came into the picture.

"I'm fine," you insisted as you tossed your duffel bag onto the single mattress.

Marc raised a brow as he watched you strip out of your button up blouse, left only in the camisole slip you bore beneath it.

The fabric stuck to your skin with sweat patches as the heat of the outside seeped through the cracks of the walls and windows.

Marc cast a glance towards the mirror and he knew that the look of concern his reflection bore wasn't his; it was Steven's. Even so, Marc still agreed with Steven that this was somewhat concerning. The hardness of your voice was an immediate set off for Steven to notice and alert Marc that you weren't actually fine.

The stark difference between Steven and Marc was pretty simple. Steven understood what 'I'm fine' truly meant, while Marc was more likely to take it at face value and assume you were actually fine.

Steven didn't ask for full control but Marc relinquished it anyways, knowing that you would be more willing to open up to Steven.

"What's wrong?" Steven now asked, and you turned to look at him, your eyebrows furrowed with frustration.

"I'm honestly fine. You both need to stop worrying so much," you added as you took a hard seat on the bed. You hiked your feet up to remove your lavender All Stars.

"Well, there's something wrong," Steven mumbled as he brushed his hair from his eyes, noting that Marc hadn't really styled it today.

You sighed. You pressed your face into your palms. "I don't want to upset Marc," you forced yourself to say as you lowered your hands, forming a base for your chin to rest on. "But... I really, really, really can't stand her."

Marc's reflection howled with laughter upon the two men hearing your confession. Steven tried not to roll his eyes, thinking that this wasn't something he should be laughing about.

Steven knelt in front of you as you stared with hard eyes. You tried your best to contain the emotions as Steven took his calloused hands to cup the underside of your jaw. You shimmied away from him. Steven's dark eyes caught sight of the tears that stuck in your thick eyelashes as you kicked off your boyfriend cut jeans.

Both he and Marc watched with anguish as you struggled to choke back the sobs. "Stop looking at me that way," you told them both, well aware they were having a back-and-forth session over how to best make you feel better.

You wiped your eyes on the inside of your elbow. You jutted your foot and the denim pants flung a few inches away, thumping pathetically with a little pfffgh.

"I don't like being the other woman," you whispered, addressing both Steven and Marc.

Steven held your face gently as Marc sighed in thought. "You're not the other woman," Steven assured you in a gentle voice. "I chose you, before I knew about anything else. And even then, Marc chose you, too."

"Marc's not even divorced yet," you said sadly, a grimaced hybrid of a smile taking your mouth as you leaned into their warm and calloused hand. "And you, Steven? You're technically her's, too. I'm the only one in this entire equation that lifts out without any consequence."

"That's not true," Steven said at the same time Marc agreed, looking upset in the reflection of the glass.

"We both want you. Neither of us will let you go without a fight. And if Layla wants to pitch a fit then we'll let her. Marc says that he's seen both you of in a fight and he believes you could, quote, throw her on her ass."

You stifled a laugh in your hand. "I appreciate that. But still, I just wish there was something I could do to make her...man, I don't know, make her just...keep her mouth shut?" That sounded like a question out of your mouth. You weren't sure that's what you wanted at all.

Steven pulled you into his lap, sinking to the floor so that he leaned against the bed. Your undies pressed against their stomach, the shirt Marc had chosen riding up on Steven's hard abdomen.

You pulled at the collar of Steven's shirt as you shivered in his arms in spite of the heat.

Steven's plump lips pressed into a thin line as wary flickered his eyes.

"Marc doesn't like my idea," Steven said with a low chuckle. His thumbs rubbed circles into your pelvis. "You could really get her mad by just showin her that I'm yours. That we're both yours."

You pushed a hand beneath his shirt, your finger tips tickling his chest. "Marc doesn't like that idea? Why not?"

Steven chuckled, the sound skittish and airy as your fingers tweaked his nipples. "Because Marc says that we should pin you on the bed and fuck you until you forget your name, let alone her's."

Arching a brow you sent Steven a look filled with frothy mirth. "If that's Marc's ideanthen what the hell is yours?"

"We both know you like being in charge sometimes," Steven chuckled again. His throat bobbed with anticipation as you pulled his shirt off. You grabbed each of his broad shoulders, watching with a watering mouth as Steven let you push him against the bed's end. He leaned his head back, the soft curls of his hair bobbing on his forehead.

His collarbones peaked out into a point that you could trace with your fingers. His throat was bobbing, his pulse looking so vulnerable as your eyes watched it thump again and again.

"Is Marc objecting?" You asked in a soft voice as you ran the back of your hand across the hollow of his throat.

"I think he secretly likes it just as much as I do," Steven said with a quiet voice as his eyelashes stuttered, sweeping across the tops of his cheeks.

You pulled Steven closer for a kiss, pressing your mouth into his hot lips, his mouth prying open so you could sweep your tongue in and tickle the roof of his mouth.

Steven's whole body went lax as he allowed you to harness total control over him; his hands stayed on your hips, stroking delicately over your sweet ass. His thick fingers hooked into the band of your panties.

"Ahh," Steven whined.

You had pushed your face into the crook of his neck, but rather than pressing soft kisses to the tender skin, you took your teeth together to bite just hard enough that Steven felt shivers move up his back.

On a good portion of his skin, you sucked dark spots while Steven tried to press his hips up into yours.

You pulled back. Your hair was a mess around your face but Steven and Marc saw the expression of a sultry deity, perhaps meant to counter and stave their own. Marc was obsessed with the idea that you were the other half; the one that could ease the darkness which was cast through the moonlight that streamed through his soul. Marc had a fantasy that often bled into Steven's own array of dark thoughts. The fantasy where Marc had you laid out, naked, on an altar underneath the full moon. But Steven quickly pushed that fantasy away when your fingers knotched the zipper of Stqeven's jeans. You helped him shimmy out of them, letting them sit beside your own.

Your mouth watered to see Steven's thick cock hard in his white boxer briefs.

"So big," you muttered as you restraddled your lover. "I wanna grind on it," you bemoaned as you sank your teeth into Steven's shoulder.

Let's fuck her, Marc's impulsive voice growled. He begged Steven to flip the roles and fuck you until your sweet cunt was overflowing with seed.

Let's enjoy this, Steven argued back.

Your clothed pussy brushed his bulge. Your clit had become a thick bump protruding your sweet lips, aching and pumping with blood as you pushed it against Steven's groin.

"Mine," you whispered as you brushed a finger across the forming kiss-bruise on Steven and Marc's shoulder. Your glassy [hue] eyes flickered up to lock against your lovers'. The dark brown and it's edges that were lit up golden and ever slightly green were also glassy, filtered with arousal and excitement as Steven nodded and agreed, "Yours."

You rolled your hips forward as you continued to litter marks along the underside of Steven's jaw.

Steven's low voice was ringing out musical little sighs and moans as you pried your legs apart to expose more of your clitoris. You rubbed the aching nub into the tip of Steven's cock. It lit a fire in your belly as Steven gripped your hips tighter.

You two were humping like teenagers, undergarments becoming wet with precum and sweat.

"Mine, mine, mine," you whispered over and over.

For a brief second, Marc's voice muttered in your ear. "Ours," he said before licking his tongue up the base of your throat.

With both hands, you pushed him back against the bed. "Marc," you warned. "Don't deprive me of my fun."

Steven nodded in tandem. "He's throwing a massive fit," Steven muttered as his voice hitched. His muscles became his once more.

"He'll get his turn," you promised as you enveloped him into a hug. "But right now I just have to feel you. I have to remind myself that you're mine."

The small tap of emotion in your voice was enough to make Marc back down. But he was growing more and more into a feral mess as you slid your clothed cunt back and forth across Steven's cock. "You're cock is so big and thick," you whispered into Steven's ear, addressing both of them but neither in particular. "Makes me feel so good. It's mine."

"Yours," Steven agreed, his voice shaking as his limb twitched in agreement.

Where Steven was content to let you use him this way, Marc rather preferred to use you. Steven's submissive tendencies were admittedly understandable; Marc could see why Steven enjoyed to be the submissive. But still, Marc would much rather be the one inflicting the pain and pleasure, smiling like the devil as you were writhing and crying, your clit pulsing and red from the overstimulation.

The images Marc was imagining fueled Steven's pleasure as you sat on his lap, humping against his cock with your precious pussy. Steven groaned loudly, making you grin like the devil.

Layla had never been like this. She wasn't able to switch it up and keep things exciting. Intimacy with her was a simple drop of old tap water in cloudy glass. Intimacy with you was more like a crisp wave of water plunging into the depths of the ocean while the moon and stars shone over it.

Steven's breath hitched as you pulled his cock out. His long limb lined against his stomach, the tip red and crying with pearls of arousal. You pushed your hot cunt into Steven's muscular thigh as your hand wrapped around his cock. His skin was warm and soft in your small hand. You delicacy brushed the tip with your thumb, making Steven whimper in desire. Marc could see the Devil in your eyes as you humped their thigh; you derived the pleasure from watching Steven come gradually more and more undone as you let him fuck your hand like it was a flesh light. Steven's his buckled as he thrust them up in an offbeat tempo. He gnawed his lip at the feeling of your gentle skin rubbing the underside of his cock, making his whole limb leak with a strong spurt of semen.

"Oh, God," Steven whined as you continued to pump his cock, even as he was already cumming onto you.

You were milking him for as much as he could give. The light sounds of pleasure Steven made in his deep, deep voice was enough to help you finally cum, too, the sticky wetness soaking into the fabric of your panties.

Steven laid his head back. His throat bobbed as he struggled to catch his breath. His cock was twitching in your hand as it laid against his chiseled stomach.

"I love you, Steven," you said softly as you sprinkled his throat with gentle kisses. You admired your handiwork. No shirt and jacket combination could hide the marks you'd left along his jaw and upper neck. You imagined the way Layla would stare at them in shock, piecing everything together.

Steven's body slacked for a second before you envelopes you in his arms, quickly pushing you to the hotel floor.

You were surprised, your eyes wide, as you looked up at him.

"Oh, hi Marc," you said. Your voice was cautious. You squirmed in his hold. "Don't lie and tell me you didn't enjoy that."

Marc shook his head as he let out a wry laugh. "I did enjoy it," he said as he tugged your panties down to your knees with a fluid motion. "I enjoyed it a little too much. You've gotten me excited. Even Steven wants to help me fuck your pretty brains out," he cooed as he played with your lower lip. "Look at that. Your cocky little attitude disappeared." Marc smirked down at you as your face burned with anticipation and embarrassment. How quickly had you been stripped of your as dominator.

Marc pressed the tip of his thick member into your clit, the sensation making you buckle in discomfort. "I'm sensitive," you warned him, trying to assert the dominance you'd once held over Steven.

"And I don't care," Marc said. "You marked us. Now we get to mark you."

#marc spector x reader #marc spector imagine #steven grant x reader #steven grant imagine #moonknight x reader #moonknight imagine #starfirette writes #marc spectre x reader #marc spectre imagine #mcu imagine #mcu x reader #marvel imagine #marvel x reader #18+ #smutty #smut

[johannestevans]

(disclaimer: if you're someone who likes to whine about how the real edward teach was white so we can do raceblind readings of our flag means death and pretend ed OFMD isn't Māori bc people not being white makes you uncomfortable you suuuuck and everyone hates you, DNI with this post lmao)

screaming and wailing over the dynamic between izzy and ed in our flag means death and the way that it's racialised because like. okay.

so plenty of people have pointed out the way that izzy abuses ed in the latter half of the season is specifically racialised, like... the way that he berates ed for being weak and sensitive, the way that he tells ed that it's like, his true nature to be a savage, violent beast, shit like that? so rooted in this idea of the violent savage, it's dehumanising, it's callous, it's cruel!

and like, yeah, sure, izzy is doing it because he's scared and because he wants Ed to maintain this violent persona because he thinks that if Ed doesn't do it they'll all die, sure, yeah, but that's not the point, he's still effectively proving that Ed shouldn't have trusted Izzy in the first place because of course he'd say that, he has no idea that Ed's life is like

but the thing is, right

Ed would have known that from the beginning. it's not as if Ed could have mistaken Izzy for a brown man who knows his position - so why did he trust Izzy with something so intimate as his vulnerability and his care in the first place?

like a 30-40% of pirates in the Golden Age of Piracy were Black ex-slaves or otherwise escapees of indentured service, and that's not thinking of other pirates of colour (esp if we think also of like, North African pirates, indigenous ones, etc) and while white pirates would no doubt still have been racist, like... pirate ships were broadly democracies, because the men crewing them had to be willing, and had to be motivated. from a purely pragmatic standpoint, pirate ships needed able-bodied sailors, and trying to reliably enforce giving Black and brown pirates a lesser share for their skin colour outside of the the imperial structure just wouldn't have been possible to still get those people to sail with them

and apart from Izzy like, Ed's crew that we see? Fang and Ivan! a Samoan man and a Punjabi man

and so it's like. why the fuck would Ed trust Izzy in the first place?

because the thing is, right, from what we see of Izzy and Ed's relationship in the first four or something episodes of OFMD, like, let's examine their relationship

the Blackbeard persona is a constructed artifice - a fuckery

Edward performs the role, but it's Izzy that maintains it when Ed is in one of his depressions or in a mood - it's Izzy that's out on deck or representing Blackbeard when Ed himself isn't available

Izzy knows Ed doesn't kill. not only does he know that Ed doesn't kill, but he doesn't seem to have a problem with it - and he never even asks why or implies he knows why. he just offers to kill people for Ed to make things easier on him

Izzy mentions Ed's increasingly "erratic moods" when he resigns, but initially he's really gentle and cordial with Ed in private, nudging him toward what he thinks Ed should do (and lying to try to avoid Stede), but never like, giving orders or trying to argue with him

it's undeniable that Izzy sees Ed as the commander between them, and while Izzy has a toxic caretaker thing going on where he thinks he knows best, he also considers himself the facilitator of Ed's will and does as he says even when he hates it

Ed does lie and say he's going to get rid of Stede to keep Izzy with him, but he also says shit like "need you here." when he taps Izzy's hip and shows other like, variations of vulnerability and trust and expresses his reliance on Izzy

which all raises the question like.

why? why Izzy?

part of how painful it is when Izzy goes for Ed and waves that page around and says how Ed needs to embrace his savagery and whatever like... it is that Izzy's not brown. Izzy has no idea what it's like to be Ed, he has no idea what it is to be Māori, what it is to be brown amongst racist white people

so why do they have such an intimacy in the first place? of all the people on Ed's ship (of all the people in the world), why is it Izzy to whom he extends this trust of his false identity, and also the vulnerability behind it? because it's not just that he's trusting Izzy with the vulnerability behind his mask, like

he's trusting Izzy to serve him, which Izzy does. he's trusting Izzy to be loyal to him, and to care for him, which in his pathetic mildly rabid way, he very much does - yes, he's possessive and he's jealous and he's violent and he's cruel, but before we see more of that, like, they're very intimate friends

the stupid (and fucking racist) reading of this is the assumption that like... ed's chosen izzy because his ~whiteness~ makes him special and magic and more respectable or whatever, or that because izzy's white, that means he's more likely to read and write or whatever, but like... obviously that's bullshit. izzy's not magically more likely to be able to read and write because he's white - literacy rates were all over the place, but were chaotic among the lower classes, and it's just racist af to be like "Ohhh izzy and lucius can read bc they're white!" when like

lucius can read bc he's not a fucking sailor, he can read because stede looked for a guy who can read. as for why izzy can read (but finds the actual space given to the books perverse), it's probably bc he does the books as first mate - most sailors wouldn't need to be able to read bc they've kind of got other shit to be getting on with

and while there's an argument to be made for like... izzy can "legitimise" ed while acting as his agent, and associate with racist white people on ed's behalf or whatever bc he's white, like. not to bully izzy again but i feel like literally any other white guy in existence might be better for that given his whole, you know. personality

and if ed needs a pet white guy to offer legitimacy to other people or whatever (which frankly i think is lowkey bullshit in the first place, bc Ed's got a reputation and a skillset and infamy, Izzy is just a no-name weirdo, white or not), he doesn't actually have to trust him with the mental illness he's struggling with behind closed doors, his suicidal ideation, his whimsy, any of it, but he does

he's a Māori man in an unbelievably racist world, struggling not just with the way other people attack and undercut him because of his class and because of his race, but also with the huge vulnerability of his own mental illness and suicidal ideation, and yet the man with whom he is closest, the man with whom he is most vulnerable before stede, is izzy hands.

our idea of whiteness in the modern era has been constructed to uphold the racial supremacy of our whiteness, just used as a violent cudgel to uphold anti-Blackness and anti-indigneous sentiments, as well as other forms of violent racism, within the imperial structure, and the line of whiteness and what it extends to has changed many times

if you look at writings from the 1700s on Jews, on Irish and Scots, on various other ethinic groups, you'll see lots of hugely abusive racial shit that nowadays is brushed aside or is less significant because like... Italians, Jews, Greeks, Irish, those are all mostly accepted as white now, right?

at the time, not so much

so yes, like... i think for a lot of people who read Izzy as Irish or as Jewish like, that definitely adds to his potential for racial awareness and the interplay of racial dynamics? but it's not just about the racialism as it is also about class, and the way that like

whiteness as a construct today is a weapon used to defend white imperviousness to criticism and white powers over those of anybody else, to create subclasses within classes - upholding whiteness is generally more important to white people as a whole than any kind of genuine allyship with BIPOC simply bc like. we often claim ignorance of our whiteness or the impact of it bc it makes us feel sad :( aw poor baby us so sad about like, the structures that are literally built to keep us in power, often while maintaining the illusion of our ignorance

like, one of the things that makes intimate friendship with us so difficult is that we have to unlearn a lot of the behaviours that we're taught from childhood to rank our whiteness over anything else, including the pretence that we don't know we're white, and that includes taking like, other people's race personally, forcing anyone with an examined racial identity (which includes the experience of racism) to be silent in case it makes us ~uncomfortable~ etc

and even across intersections of other identity, like, we as white people are notorious for pretending we understand but being violent and super reactive as soon as anyone else points out racist shit - queer and trans people know that cishets are Uncomfortable and Weird in unspoken ways, but we'll still pretend we don't see the same thing with racism, for example

and like. have you seen izzy. i love him he's my chewtoy and he's literally kind of the worst guy in the world, but ed trusts him??? which is so loaded?

and i'm so so curious and so interested about the things that could prompt Ed to trust Izzy, and what this implies about their history together and their relationship bc like

in order for Ed to trust Izzy so much, surely they must have talked about it? or surely like, for whatever reason, Ed must have some reason to think that Izzy is more aware of the (racist) facts of life than someone else? or less caring of them, less invested in them? or like... Izzy is his only option, in which case, why was he the only option?

because it's like. it's not just that Izzy and Ed are friends, it's that Izzy is in Ed's service, unassailably (even after getting defeated in a duel and kicked out and he betrays them to the navy, he does so out of his misplaced, obsessive, weird loyalty to Ed and desire to protect him). izzy's devoted to ed, and more specifically, he's like... fixated on ed's survival, even over his own

so if Izzy is Irish or Jewish or otherwise outside of like, the accepted position of White Man in the period, for whatever reason lacks the relative invulnerability of whiteness or lacks the ability to wield it in polite society or whatever, that adds to it

i think that either way there's obviously some level of class informing it just in that like... when izzy says they have to be violent and terrible and blah blah, he believes that because he does think it's their only option, and he's disgusted with stede because like

i think that just as ed has been taunted with ideas of luxury and the idea that they're not for him, he's been told they're not for him again and again and again in a thousand different ways, because he's Māori, because he's mixed race, because he grew up poor, because because because, like

izzy?? for whatever reason also has this kind of idea in his head? but for him it's that luxury and softness will make him weak (and therefore destroy his survival), and i think that there's a lot you can play with there, whether it's growing up poor and in poverty, in the navy where that class interplay was pushed so much between commissioned and noncom officers etc, whether it's because he's Jewish or Irish or whatever

LIKE THERE'S

a lot of potential there, and i'm just fascinated by it, bc Ed is such a vulnerable man and he struggles so much, he's in so much pain - all this trauma and all this agony and all this grief, but it's Izzy that he picks to soothe him? what about Izzy is soothing except for his ferocious loyalty, and like... why is he that loyal in the first place?

i just! i lose my mind

#izzy hands #edward teach #our flag means death

[ellavaday]

sparksnotes version of this hugaceo interview

instead of 36 this time it's 40 min and in a true show of mentally ill behavior i translated it (and then proceeded to not want to even look at the thing for a solid week because it's really hard to translate someone that doesn't like to talk in complete sentences and have it make sense, I'm still not sure I managed). Anyway. Here's the summary:

Instead of being sequestered in hotel rooms they had all of the dres1 girls in a giant house, each of them had their own rooms but they'd spend time together in the common areas which was kind of a godsent because they could vent and support each other on the most stressful times. They'd talk all their conspiracy theories about why production did what and not feel so alone.

There wasn't a lot of interaction with the judges away from the runway because production wanted the reactions to be genuine on camera when they saw them walk with their looks but it was cordial and they'd nod or say hello whenever possible.

all of the cast insisted on production not to do like they usually do in all the other versions in which the eliminated queens come for a second to the front and wave, they were like please let us walk on the runway because they all looked beautiful and wanted to show off

Hugaceo's family is from a town in Madrid and they and their boyfriend just recently moved back to the city but ofc won't stop visiting Valencia. They in fact visited it little ago because a casal faller made a ninot inspired by hugaceo's hometown look. More on that here and here bc i don't feel like writing about it again

To prepare for the show they started designing looks and sketch ideas hoping that they'd work for whenever they got the list of looks and they're friends with Choriza who gave them the same advice Blu Hydrangea gave her which was to start with the looks they knew they'd need for sure: An entrance look because they can wear whatever they want, the finale look because all of the contestants are supposed to be in the final episode, 2 or 3 snatch game, the makeover and a couple of dance looks because there's always more than one dancing challenge ((speaking of Choriza, the same interviewer has another interview with her and apparently she was talking with both the production of DRES and UK3 to be cast but UK3 started filming first which is why she is on that season))

The first season of the Spanish version of the show was a bit chaotic to make because they had no presedent on how things had to be done but they think it gave the show certain freshness that is probably not as apparent in other versions and it was done ridiculously fast. The show was announced in November, casting closed by December and in February it was announced to have finished production (i am sorry there's not enough i could say about how truly insane that production schedule is, the MtQ were already out by March, that's literally nuts)

They can't confirm nor deny about the dres2 girls having more time to prepare this time around but they think that production has got to have fixed things that ofc couldn't have been issues they could prevent since nobody on production had worked with drag queens before. Dumb things like "hey you need to wear something you are capable to sit in for this challenge".

They talk about that moment on dres where they realize there's a few NBs in the cast and how cool it was. They mention that apparently people from the cast of UK1 wanted to talk about it too but it didn't get aired and about RuPaul not being immune to the passage of time and that maybe it's gotten him a while to open the show for people of other gender identities (trans women, a cis woman and a straight man) but he's getting there slowly but at least he did start. They hope we get to see drag kings sometime soon.

They're not looking down on people that join the show and can't sew because they can't either but they do think that there's a pattern in the last few years in which you kind of feel like the show is now really a competition on who spends the most money and works with the best designers and that you can tell which designers work with who and that everyone has started to look the same because they don't participate much in the design process of the clothes they wear for the show.

They also don't love that it's been normalized to spend a small fortune to go on the show. They're never going to get rid of the falla look because it's like a museum piece for them but what in the world would they do with it after the show? It's bulky and heavy and they love it but they also know they're never going to wear it again. This is in relation to Arantxa getting a lot (a lot) of online hate for her runways and drag aesthetic being called cheap ((guys i could go on and on about this, it was fucking intense, for a moment i did think Arantxa was going to go suicidal over how bad the hate was)).

They also talk about how a lot of people have a perception of drag solely informed by drag race and that it shows because as soon as you leave the beauty canons of the show, you're suddenly the absolute worst which is what happened to Arantxa and how unfair it was.

There's a bit of a controversy about why the production company that has the rights for dres didn't put the show on open broadcast but behind a subscription based streaming platform (since the production company owns two flagship open broadcast channels on tv here) and if Spain is actually ready for a drag show on open broadcast. Hugaceo thinks it might start controversy but that maybe it would have been worth it and both they and the interviewer hypothesize that maybe the freedom of not being in an open broadcast channel is what allowed the cast to talk so freely about the non binary identity experience unlike the UK1 gals on the BBC

During filming the cast would daydream about going on tour together when they were at the shared house, assuming the show did good enough and the fact that it happened? Amazing. They say they've been a bit overwhelmed by all the love they've gotten from the public and the tour doing so well they sold out the biggest concert venue of Madrid for their closing show still sounds made-up and that all the stress and lack of sleep were worth it.

Hugaceo usually describes their drag as being art and uses the expression "vaya cuadro" (lit. what a painting) as a slogan. In spanish from spain it's an expression that is usually used to express shock at someone looking slovenly or very out of the norm, but ofc they mean it more in the literal sense of being literally like a painting because for Hugaceo, drag is art first and foremost.

Hugaceo was the subject of a painting for the 2021 edition of the Madrid Contemporary Art Fair. The name of the painting is Echinosis by Jean Carlos Puerto and it was supposed to be exhibited before the plague but it got postponed because. You know. Plague. They talk about how they met the artist in Miami and became friends because Hugaceo and him were both exhibiting art pieces and Hugaceo decided to go one day in full drag just because.

Their dad's from Argentina so they get specially happy when the Argentinian fans talk to them. Gigi wrote to them and a few other dres1 girls to say "welcome to the drag race family" and raja has told them to come visit them in LA.

Hugaceo says that apparently they're a bit too intimidating so they've not been bothered by fans flirting with them (or by fans in general actually). They say the fandom in general has been very decent to them. They did think it was hilarious that there's aranceo fanfiction but it's like amusing more than anything else because it reminds them of 1D fanfiction they saw on tumblr.

They absolutely singled out a HS AU fanfiction, which, whoever wrote it, please don't fret lol, they thought it was all rather sweet.

Hugaceo doesn't know why they're only taking Carmen to DragCon from the entire cast and they're not a fan lmao. They feel like their season is treated a bit like the ugly stepchild because it's the only one in which RuPaul hasn't even showed up on video despite being one of the best rated seasons by the fans.

Now that Hugaceo's moved back to Madrid, they're planning on retaking plastic arts and they're working on more than a couple of projects with Arantxa and says that they love working together and that the public and employers love them working together as well. The interviewer calls them the team rocket and Hugaceo agrees lmao.

They'd rather die than release music and for a good reason i love hugaceo's but their singing is terrible but they might if only bc they would love to direct their own music video so never say never. They've been in music videos of various other people's but not their own. They've been in one of Lola Indigo's, one of Choriza's and one of Monica Naranjo's. The interviewer asks them about the experience of working with Monica Naranjo bc she is a spanish gay icon and she talks about it being great (and a bit of luck, because they're friends with javier visori, the fashion designer that was the stylist of that music video and the S1 cast tour was in town at the same time the music video was shooting, the same fashion designer was the main designer they worked with to make looks for the show).

#rpdr spain #drag race espana #drag race españa #hugaceo crujiente

[frukmerunning]

So you have any angst Itapan HCS ?

not really, i think they would be genuinely happy together. i have done some pretty sad au’s tho.

like we all know my cardverse au where they both end up dying and they’re pretty awful people solely for the sake of being together

me and a friend did a harry potter au where italy was basically like the voldemort character. what ended up happening was that italy knew he was developing feelings for japan and he didn’t want that to get in the way of his plans so he kills him. and then the characters that were the golden trio end up using that against him. it wasn’t really a 1-1 harry potter au, more so just the universe. but man that au was fucked up.

and of course there’s the obligatory “ludwig is madly in love with feliciano who is oblivious because he’s so into kiku”. i think my favorite one ive done with that is this horror au i have. it’s set in the 80s as all good horror movies are.

kiku and feliciano are long-time friends, kiku is a writer who is having a hard time finding inspiration. feli has just inherited his grandfathers estate in the country, so he invites kiku to spend the summer with him. kiku agrees since he thinks the country will help his imagination (and he’s also never one to miss out on spending time with his dear friend). ludwig is the handyman who lives on the estate. he’s new so he hasn’t met feliciano yet. once feli and kiku arrive they all become fast friends, but ludwig is drawn to feliciano.

unbeknownst to kiku, for the last few months feliciano has been having very disturbing dreams and experiencing what he thinks are wild hallucinations. he keeps seeing his childhood friend, Franz, in his dreams and behind him in windows and mirrors (classic horror movie things). He and Franz played together near his grandfathers estate when they were children, until one day feli went to their meeting place, a small pond, and found franz dead in the water. he was rightfully traumatized but he thinks the hallucinations are just that. feli hopes that some time in the country with his best friend will clear his head and get rid of his weird dreams. however, once he arrives, his situation only gets worse.

firstly, ludwig bears a striking resemblance to franz, and it freaks feliciano out. he tries to be cordial and friendly, but he can’t get the resemblance out of his mind. what makes it worse is that ludwig is captivated by him, and makes excuses to be near feliciano or follow him around. kiku doesn’t really notice ludwigs behavior, but he does recognize that there’s something wrong with his friend. there are several instances where feliciano gets startled and drops plates or cups. he’ll stand there shaking for a moment, before laughing off kiku’s concerns and cleaning up his mess.

one night feliciano awakens from a terrible dream, screaming. kiku is by his bedside because the screaming has been going on for a while, and when feliciano wakes up he practically collapses into his arms and starts crying. ludwig shows up because he heard commotion and feliciano screams at him to leave. he does, but kiku is concerned about this. feliciano won’t tell him why he yelled at ludwig, but he asks kiku to stay the night with him. of course kiku does, and the next day is awkward for everyone. feliciano feels bad for how he acted and so he takes initiative to be kinder to ludwig. this only makes ludwig fall more in love with him though and NOW feliciano starts to notice it. he plays oblivious though and hopes that he’ll get over it eventually.

later in the summer, after a particularly bad episode at night, feliciano wanders outside to get some fresh air. his grandfathers estate has a lake, so he goes to sit on the dock. ludwig appears (which is sus cause it’s like 4 am) and feliciano tries his best not to freak out on him, and remain calm. it’s hard to talk to someone who looks like your dead best friend that’s haunting your every waking moment, though. ludwig ends up confessing his feelings for feliciano and feli absolutely loses it. like “why do you think that i would ever love someone like you”. feliciano storms into the woods to get away from ludwig and he sits alone in a clearing. he starts to hallucinate, but is suddenly snapped out of it by kiku. kiku had dreamed that feliciano was in that spot calling for him, and when he woke up he followed his gut and walked into the woods to find him. feliciano is shaken but relieved, and he kisses kiku. ludwig sees this and is very upset…

and that’s all i wrote on that! i never figured out the ending and it all kinda ends there. if anyone has any ideas you’re free to hit me up. i know kiku is going to help feliciano figure out that he’s not hallucinating and his dreams and stuff are real, but idk after that. and idk how ludwig is gonna handle this rejection. probably well bc he’s a champ, but that’s also kinda boring

#hetalia #itapan #hws #aph #aph headcanons #gerita