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lebrookestore · 3 years

Text

four years, one night

Pairing: Ten Lee x female reader

Themes: SLOWBURN, best friends to lovers, player! ten, fuckboy! ten, fluff, humour, angst, sexual tension, college au, some talk about music

Warnings: angst, cursing, mentions of sex (?kinda), ten is kind of an asshole, reader calls herself a dumb bitch, bittersweet ending, three kisses, kissing, gets a little spicy in one scene but that’s about it, PG15

WC: 10.8k

Playlist: Dream Launch by Wayv, Never let you go by AleXa, Illicit Affairs by Taylor Swift, Young again by Morgan Evans, Without You by NCT U, The Tempest by Beethoven (this looks so out of place eye-)

Taglist: @danishmiilk @channoticedmeuwu @1-800-seo @sweetlyjaem @badwithten @blueprint-han @chicksung

Summary: Ten was a fickle person, he jumped from one person to another, breaking hearts, and getting his own heart broken. The one person who had to pick it up every time? You, of course, and it was exhausting, especially when you had to watch.

day break [ extra piece based in this universe ]

A/n: hello! this fic is very much self indulgent, but i love it so much. I spent most of the last week working on it and half of it is me simping, and I hope you enjoy it. Thank you to @chicksung for beta reading and helping me throughout writing this. As always, feedback would be very much appreciated!

‘I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong’- Lemony Snicket

A loud slam of the door made you flinch, shutting your eyes in exasperation as you knew what was to come. The same thing over and over again, you were used to it. Honestly, it was nothing new, but his stupidity, the obvious was in front of him, but did he listen? Of course, he didn’t.

A figure walked into the room, a mop of messy black hair with brown highlights adorning his head. It was pretty long at this point, his bangs reaching his eyes. Those damning eyes, melting pools of chocolate brown that seemed to bore into your soul. Those eyes looked remorsefully at you now, as he plopped down next to you, wrapping his arms around your midriff and burying his face in your back.

You sighed. “Again?”, you asked, running your fingers through his hair as he hummed a response. “Again”, he repeated, confirming your suspicions. He looked up, his eyes meeting yours.

You hated his eyes.

He managed to make you do anything for him with just a look. They were undoubtedly your weakness, when they looked sad, or when they upturned into a smile, that instantly brightened your day.

“I can’t seem to get it right can I?”, he asked, searching your eyes as if you had all the answers to his turbulent love life. You scoffed, “You couldn’t have been serious about that chick, Ten, you met her three weeks ago, and she was simply a rebound for you” “Thanks for the support”

“I’m being real, not supportive”

He rolled his eyes, pouting. “But I liked her”, he whined. You gave him a pointed look, “Please, You just wanted someone to be with, if not to fu-” “Oh my god, shut up”

You smirked, turning your attention back to your laptop, where the essay you had been trying to write glared back at you.

“I just want someone who understands me”, Ten continued, still looking at you. You looked at him.

I understand you, you thought, I’m here

Ten had always been like this, he jumped from girl to girl, getting his heart broken several times because he was too forgiving with it. He wanted to love, he had always romanticized the idea. Honestly, you thought he needed love too, but he was going down all the wrong paths.

And you had to be there every single time to pick up the pieces.

“I know”, you said half-heartedly, biting your lower lip. He propped his chin upon his fist, observing you and your concentrated look. You typed away, desperately wanting to be done with this paper, one you had been working on for about three days.

“Do you think I’ll ever do something right?”, he asked. You froze, pushing down what you wanted to say. It was hard, having to deal with Ten's endeavors of the heart’ as he called them. The right term would be- doing random shit and breaking girls' hearts', but of course, he refused that catchy title. Sighing, you shut your laptop, knowing you wouldn’t get anything done now that he was in a mood.

“You haven’t done anything wrong” “Haven’t done anything right either”

You took his face in your hands, “You haven’t done anything wrong, you’re amazing, now stop moping, I’m ordering pizza”

He pulled away from you, sitting up properly. “Can I stay over?”, he asked hopefully. You clicked your tongue, looking at him with an annoyed expression. “Don’t you have your dorm?” “My roommate said he has a girl over, and I kinda want to sleep, thanks” You rolled your eyes, but nodded, picking up your phone and walking into the other room to order.

You heard laughter and looked back to see the boy laughing at something on his phone. Probably a cat meme, or something of the sort. You admired his side profile for a minute, the slope of his nose, the way his eyes shone. He was okay, you supposed, annoying, but okay. No matter how much he tried to justify it, he didn’t care for the girl who broke up with him. He was just fine right now, and had moved on from the topic pretty quickly, and was already smiling.

You also hated his smile. Infuriatingly adorable, one smile would make you want to smile back. You hated it with every ounce of your being, the effect he had on you.

You hated Ten Lee.

Scratch that, you didn’t hate the poor boy, you just, despised him?

Nope, you were close friends.

Ironic isn’t it? You had met Ten at a party, where the Dance major was having a lot of fun. You hadn’t seen him before but had heard of him. The boy who jumped from girl to girl as easy as one, two, three. You had no intention of even talking to him, you were content in a dark corner, with a drink.

Nothing ever goes your way.

The meeting was by chance, he was dared to ask you to dance, you declined, he persisted giving you those puppy eyes. After glaring at him, he sighed, explaining it was a dare, and that he didn’t want to make a fool of himself, and before you knew what was happening, you were awkwardly swaying along to the music with him.

He, regrettably, stuck with you for the rest of the evening, and you ending up liking his company, to the extent where you invited him over the next day for pizza.

The pizza situation turned out to be a thing between the two of you, a tradition of sorts. He would come over with candy, in an oversized sweatshirt looking illegally adorable, you would supply the blankets, and movie nights would begin.

He had a sweet smile and sparkly eyes, which made you question if this was the guy who broke hearts, who was a player. He was like a puppy, it confused you to no end.

“Miss L/n?”, your professor asked, raising an eyebrow at your spaced out figure. Startling, you blinked rapidly, cringing at the situation you had put yourself in. “Sorry”, you apologized, focusing back on the textbook in front of you. You were majoring in Psychology, and while you love the subject, the teacher didn’t like you very much, probably because you had been so distracted the past few weeks, and you hadn’t done particularly well in the midterms.

Needless to say, you were stressed.

The class got over quickly, and you walked out of the lecture hall, deciding to get some coffee before your next class. The cafe was a well-loved one visited by almost every student, and was famous for its chai-lattes, so much so that others also visited it, and not just the students.

Turning towards the on-campus cafe, you spotted Ten already there. His glasses sat at the edge of his nose, giving him an oddly studious look, which was almost laughable. He stood there, holding two cups of coffee, eyes lighting up as he spotted you.

Ten Lee was going to be the death of you.

You walked up to him, taking the coffee which he handed to you, “What do you want?”, you asked suspiciously, taking a sip of the bittersweet drink. You noted the fact he had gotten your favorite, which only worsened the feeling of butterflies in the pit of your stomach. He looked mock offended, and grinned at you, “Nothing!”, he said, “Just wanted to see you”

You rolled your eyes in an attempt to thwart your initial reaction, beginning to walk back to the main campus, for your psych class. Ten walked beside you, holding his sketchbook in his right hand, and coffee in the left.

“Okay, um actually-”

“You want something don’t you?” “I need a reference model”, he said, “So, Y/n, could you please-”

“Oh my god no”, you said, without even letting the poor boy finish, “Last time this happened it ended up with a pain fight and my sweater destroyed.”

“I said I was sorry!”, he semi shrieked, “And this time I need it for a project worth half my grade.”

Sighing, you but your lower lip, nodded tentatively, to which he let out an almost inhuman sound of appreciation, “When are you free?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Nah, I have a date”

You blinked in surprise, and he smiled sheepishly. “Eun-hae asked me out and I said yes so”

“Of course you did”, you muttered bitterly, “You broke up with that other one yesterday”

He seemingly chose to ignore you, “Sunday?”

You nodded and took another sip of the drink you held. He smiled, his eyes forming those endearing crescents that you loved, or hated, depending on what you were going for.

“Thank you, Love you”, he called out, jogging away to his class. You watched him run-walk away, almost dropping his sketchbook. Shaking your head in amusement, you smiled somewhat sadly.

“No”, you whispered, “You don't”

You didn’t know exactly when you fell for Ten, only that it happened suddenly and you couldn’t deny it. He was idiotic, on many levels, but he was sweet and was there for you when you needed it.

He was a dance major, and an art minor, talented in both these aspects. You had seen him dance, it seemed like his body moved with the music, it told a story every time. He would illustrate emotion with his dancing. He did that with his art too, each stroke equivalent to a sentence from a story.

Anyone could tell he loved both of them.

You let out a frustrated sound, bending down to pick up the pen you had dropped. You were in your apartment, trying to finish an essay that was due the next day. You longingly glanced at your keyboard, the one instrument that you loved.

Well actually, you loved the piano, but you couldn’t haul your piano from back home to your apartment that you had rented out for your college years, and so you settled for a keyboard. You had loved music ever since you were little, instruments making its way in and out of your house. Your jazz phase consisted of saxophones, and you played the guitar for a bit too. You even picked up the drums for a while, insisting that it made you cooler (because every thirteen year old needed that validation), but you settled back to piano eventually.

You took part in competitions and such, sometimes singing along with your playing as well.

But you couldn’t afford to even think about playing, until you finished your assignments, which were all marked. They were extensive projects that made you want to scream at times. You didn’t care what Shakespeare meant, nor did you want to conduct a survey about emotions.

Turning the page of your textbook, you switched tabs to your next resource, ready to jot down more notes for the essay, when you saw a notification at the bottom right of your laptop, which was an email. You clicked on it and let it open.

Your eyes widened, gaping slightly at the screen as you read the email.

To: y/[email protected]

From: [email protected]

Good morning/evening,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into The Royal School Of Music on a scholarship. We have received your application and are impressed by your talent and dedication. Please send us a follow-up email within a month's time to confirm your attendance at our institution.

TRSOM

You grabbed your phone, texting your mother about the scholarship, shaking in happiness. It had been your dream to get into the Royal school, but you had initially applied to it on a whim, not really expecting to get in.

You swiped through your contacts, ready to call Ten, who was regrettably your best friend, to inform him of the good news, until you realized-

The school was in another country altogether.

While you knew Ten would be ecstatic about the fact you got it, you had known each other for four years, the entirety of your college career, and leaving for the school would be a bit of a shock. It was definitely not the fact that telling the boy you loved you were potentially never going to see him again that was deterring you from telling him.

You placed your phone back down, telling yourself you would deal with that later, reminding yourself you had an essay to finish.

Ten tapped his finger impatiently on the table, trying to figure out a way to get out of this date. Initially, the girl he was out with, Eun Hae by name, seemed nice, but as time went on, it was clear she had no personality.

Now, Ten wasn’t one to judge immediately. He tried to give her a chance, smiling and indulging in the bland conversation, he smiled and complimented her, and was sweet. It was going fine for a first date until of course, she suggested they share a fruit salad.

There were about fifteen other salads on the godforsaken menu, but no, she had to choose a fruit salad, above everything else.

Ten was not having it.

He excused himself, muttering something about an assignment, and went to the restroom of the restaurant, pulling out his phone and searching for your contact, clicking on it.

[8:39 pm] 10: y/n

[8:39 pm]10: my precious friend

[8:39 pm] n/n : what now

[8:40 pm]10: I need help

[8:40 pm] n/n: I refuse

[8:40 pm] 10: I am ofFENDED

[8:40 pm]10: please my date is making me eat fruit

[8:40 pm] n/n: sounds like a you problem

[8:40 pm] 10: I am quivering in fear and this is how you react

[8:40 pm] n/n: I have three assignments to finish

[8:41 pm] 10: I’ll take you for ice cream

[8:41 pm] n/n: deal

[8:41 pm] 10: why has our friendship been reduced to bribery

[8:41 pm] n/n stfu or I won't come and save you

[8:41 pm] 10: I LOVE YOU

He quickly sent you his location and put his phone back, getting back to the table and smiling as realistically as he could at the girl opposite him, who was still going on about one of her friends and their doings, while he tried to look as interested as possible.

“So, should we order-”

Right at that moment, you walked in, hair tousled because of the wind and a disgruntled expression on your face. He made an attempt not to smile at your appearance, ignoring the warm feeling he got on seeing you.

You looked around spotting him and storming over, “Ten Lee, what the fuck are you doing here”, you asked, ignoring the girl that sat right opposite him, mock angrily. He caught on, staring at you in bewilderment, noting the hint of amusement in your eyes, “How dare you to do this to me!”

“I-”

“Um, who are you?”, the girl asked, seemingly offended that you had interrupted their date.

You scoffed, displaying all your acting abilities in their full potential, “Who am I? Who are you?”

She blinked in confusion, and Ten used every bit of willpower he had to prevent him from bursting out into laughter. “I’m his date?”

“Un-fucking-believable”, you said, “Ten Lee how could you?”

At this point, Ten was invested in whatever lie you had somehow come up with to get him out of this date. It seemed like you had an entire explanation for it, either that or you were taking the opportunity to scream at him. Both seemed valid.

“How dare you lead this poor girl on!”, you continued, taking a turn, making the girl look scared, “You didn’t tell her did you?” “Tell me what?”, she asked anxiously, leaning forward. You fought to keep your straight face on seeing Ten lean forward too, apparently interested in whatever abomination he committed.

“He’s gay”, you said with as straight a face as possible, which was hard considering the girl looked so embarrassed, you could see her face go red. Your best friend looked at you incredulously, almost as embarrassed as his ‘date’ was, and mildly amused.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us, I’ll be taking him”, you stated, grabbing Ten’s hand and taking him along with you, out of the restaurant and onto the streets.

“You really-” “Ice cream”, you demanded, smirking at his obvious embarrassment. He gaped at your indignance, but nodded, “At least you got me out of there”

“I’m an actress”

“Fuck off”

“Finals are in two weeks, I still come help and this is how to repay me? Ungrateful”

The two of you took Ten’s car to the Ice cream shop, leaning on the hood as you ate your ice cream, with Ten occasionally stealing bites. You smacked his hand away, glaring at his as he tried to take another.

“I’m literally the one paying for it”, he argued.

“This is payment for saving your ass”, you retorted. He slung an arm around you, ignoring you and taking his phone out, scrolling through Instagram. You leaned into him, the scent of your shampoo making its way to him. There was that warm feeling again, and he didn’t like it one bit.

Deep down, he knew what it was, but he was too much of a coward to ever try, or even take a chance with it, because he wasn’t one for commitment, and even though he had thought about it, he was, as much as he hated to admit it, scared.

“So can I get another scoop?”

“You have assignments to finish”

THREE WEEKS TO GRADUATION

The lilting tune played through your apartment, your fingers running across the ivory keys in fervor. They clicked and clacked ever so often, which was the one thing you hated about keyboards. The keys weren’t as firm as an upright piano, giving the music an annoying clickity noise.

Most of the time, you could ignore it, but today you were tired, and this piece was particularly difficult. For some reason, you were having trouble playing the accessories, and keeping the piece in time. You played that part over and over again, but it wouldn’t work.

You switched off the metronome in annoyance, you stared at the music sheet in front of you, trying to figure out how the fuck you should play the piece. Your door clicked, and you did your best to curb your annoyance at the fact someone was interrupting your practise time, no matter how hard the piece was.

Like all keyboards, yours was smaller than an actual piano, and looked very out of place in your apartment, which was warmly decorated with all sorts of trinkets and such. One of Ten’s sweatshirts was thrown on the sofa, and for some unknown reason there were three candles sitting on your table.

It was confusion incarnate, to say the least.

You heard the door click, and a girl walked in, smiling at you. It was the only other person other than Ten who had the key to your apartment, Angie. She was shorter than you, but only by a little bit, had a fringe and brown eyes. She was pretty, and easy to talk to, which was probably what drew you to her in the first place.

“Hey”, she greeted, seeing you on your keyboard, “Whatcha playin?”

“An andante”, you groaned, “Why are you here?”

“I have nowhere else to be”, he said bluntly, “Renjun’s at Doyoung’s place or something”, she pulled out her phone, “I’m just here to chill dude, continue playing, I finished two projects and my brain in dead”

Renjun was her boyfriend, who was on the Dance Team with Ten. The two were ridiculously cute, but due to the fact she now had a boyfriend, the two of you spent less time together. You were okay with it though, you understood.

“Isn’t Doyoung with his girlfriend?”, you asked, and she shook her head, “No, she’s at her Chinese class”

You nodded, going back to your piece, placing your fingers on the correct notes when-

SLAM

Your door opened and closed again, and you closed your eyes, praying to whatever God existed that one day, you would get to practise without interruptions. Ten trudged through throwing himself on the couch, next to Angie, who paid him no attention. “Hi”, he greeted you, and you glared, causing him to give you a look of confusion.

“What did I do now?”

“Not your fault, sorry, I’m not getting this piece”

He perked up, walking over to where you were, “Can I help?”, he asked, gesturing for you to move to the side of the piano stool so he could sit next to you. He studied the notes, as you looked at him, admiring his side profile, wondering how someone could be so pretty. He placed his hand on the keys, playing it. He made a mistake but in the place you had gotten. He got the part you were struggling right.

“Here, do this”, he explained, “The notes are after the third but before the fourth count, so you have to play it quickly”

You nodded, trying to play it, not quite getting it but it was getting there. He smiled, his eyes turning into crescents as he grinned at you.

You hated his smile.

It was infuriating, the fact that he always helped you, he was always there. You kept finding yourself falling for him more and more, and you didn’t want to, because you knew how Ten was, and it was making the whole ‘telling him about the acceptance into the music school’ a lot harder.

You thanked him, pushing him off the stool playfully so you could finish your practice session before going back to studying. He made a mock offended look, retreating to the couch next to Angie, who was engrossed in texting someone, presumably her boyfriend.

His hair was messed up, sticking up in different directions making him look ridiculously adorable. You shut down the keyboard, knowing that you wouldn’t be able to practice anymore with the both of them around. You went to sit next to Angie, but Ten’s entire presence seemed to be in your way.

“Move”

“No, I’m comfortable” “Chittaphon Leechaiya-”

“Yeah I’d like some chai”, Angie said mindlessly, causing the two of you to look at her in mild astonishment. She seemingly didn’t notice your gaping looks, still scrolling through whatever she was looking at.

“Did you just reduce me to tea?”, Ten asked.

Angie looked at him, mystified. “It seems so”, you mused. A slow smirk stretched across his lips. He propped himself up on his elbows, his too-long hair falling over his eyes

“I’m flattered”

“What?”

“Tea is hot. I’m hot”, he drawled, waiting for the two of your reactions to his statement.

You smacked him.

It was your designated pizza day, which meant Ten was at your place. He was currently in the kitchen getting something to drink and ordering the pizza while you sat alone in your living room.

You looked up at your laptop screen, going over the draft of the email you were to send back the The Royal School of Music. Your parents had been extremely proud of you for getting in, and had called you the other night to congratulate you. You heard footsteps, quickly shutting your laptop down, looking up at Ten who walked into your living room from the kitchen.

“Pizza will arrive in a bit”, he said, handing you your drink and plopping down next to you, “Movie?”

“Uh Bridge to Terabithia”, you spouted, taking a sip. You were supposed to be looking for a movie while he was gone, but instead had begun writing the email, so you spouted the name of one of your childhood favorites, that never failed to make you cry. He nodded and you opened Netflix, quickly searching the movie and pressing play.

Ten wrapped his arms around your waist, resting his chin on your shoulder as the two of you sat in silence. The movie played, and even though you had already watched it before, you still found yourself invested in it. Except you weren’t completely focusing. Ten was so close, his fingers brushing against your hips, his breath near your neck. It felt right, like you were supposed to be like this.

That was the thing, it never felt wrong when you were with Ten, it was like you were exactly where you were supposed to be. Except of course for the fact he wasn’t yours. You knew how Ten was, he was the heartbreaker, and you were the one who was always there to pick up the pieces. Still it was nice to pretend that he was yours, because that was all you could do.

Pretend.

He kept talking about how he wanted someone who understood him, who he could be with, not just some stupid fling. He kept repeating the same thing again and again, and it frustrated you to no end, because you understood him and you were right there, but he never saw you. He would flirt with you, he would do everything and yet, he would never even think of you.

You leaned into him subconsciously, biting your lower lip as you stared at the screen in anticipation. He started playing with your hair, twirling it around his fingers, his hot breath on your neck making hard for you to fully concentrate on the movie.

You hated the effect he had on you, he had barely even done anything, but had still managed to make you nervous. He pulled you closer, burying his face in the crook of your neck. “Are you even watching?”, you asked, semi breathlessly, “Yes”, he responded, “But I want to cuddle.” You couldn’t argue with that logic, so you relaxed into his embrace, as much as you could. “You’re warm”, he murmured against your skin, looking back up at the screen and humming a random tune. “I’m hungry”

“I think I have some M&M’s on the counter”, you mused, “I’ll go get them”, you jumped at the chance to get up and get away from Ten, who was positively driving you crazy at this point. However, your grand plan was cut short when he refused, “I can go get it”, he made a move to get up.

“Sit down idiot-”, you said, pushing him off you, but accidentally tripped over yourself, falling back into his embrace. He laughed, hands falling to your waist to make sure you didn’t fall. “Graceful”, he snickered, and you glared at him. “I hate you”, you grumbled, “You love me”, he teased, making you almost fall again.

Except this time, his face was dangerously close to yours, and you just stared at him, your mind going blank. His arms were still around you, preventing you from falling. His eyes fluttered down to your lips for a second before he looked back up. He opened his mouth to say something but-

RING

The doorbell rang, startling the two of you out of your trance. You pulled away from Ten, shakily walking over to the door and opening it.

“Pizza?”, the guys asked, handing you the pizza box, “Yeah thanks”, you paid him and walked straight into your kitchen, not giving Ten another look, because you knew that you wouldn’t be able to.

You sighed, shutting your eyes, and trying to collect yourself, before grabbing the M&M’s and walking back into the living room, where Ten was sitting, eyes trained on the screen.

“You missed an entire scene”

“YOU DIDN’T PAUSE IT FOR ME-?”

The music echoed through the studio, its melody harsh and striking. It was dark, no lights were on, but the mirrors reflected the only person in the room-Ten.

His figure moved with the music, choosing to do whatever it pleased, trying to portray the beautiful piece to its fullest. The higher notes gave it a sort of hopeful effect, a guide. It lead you to believe that it was alright, it was fine.

The lower notes added depth to the melody, giving it a richer feel. The two played together made it a beautiful piece, with a sort of melancholic feel. He danced to it, telling a story with his body. Ten would do this sometimes, instead of choosing an upbeat song to dance to, he’d take a classical piece, something that he could feel.

There was something in this piece, the Tempest, that resounded within him. It reminded him of you, specifically your friendship with him if you could even call it that. He got that warm feeling again that day when you had almost fallen. He would’ve kissed you if not for the doorbell.

Ten wasn’t one for commitment, he wasn’t one for standing up first and telling people about his feelings. He played people, he played them like he painted a picture, or danced.

Speaking of which, the piece had suddenly taken a turn for the turbulent, faster-paced, anxious even. It resembled his feelings perfectly, the random urges to tell you, the anxiety for the outcome. He somehow managed to gracefully enact these feelings, making it look like art instead of the confusion he felt.

Maybe he chose this piece not only for himself but for you too.

It was one of your favorite ones to play, you could and would talk about it for days, especially when you had just mastered playing it. It wasn’t an easy piece, with all the nuances and timing changes, but you pulled it off. He could almost pretend it was you playing.

And then suddenly it mellowed down, the piece sounding hopeful as if there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and you could finally see it. A solution, a happy ending to the harsh waves of the storm, a merry end. His moves became lighter and almost joyful, as he twirled and jumped.

It was all an illusion.

A lie to make you believe the storm was over, there was no hope for this story. The harsh melody returned with vengeance, striking down the sliver of longing, any dream of making it out. Ten did his best to keep up with it, but the sudden change of emotions was startling even to him. It had changed so quickly, he didn’t even have time to comprehend it.

It ended on a triumphant note, like a proud win over an enemy, a victory that shone above everything. Ten ended the dance with a pirouette, panting as he tried calming himself down from the intense session. He couldn’t help feeling triumphant as well, the adrenaline of the piece getting to him, yet, he was skeptical.

Because he had a feeling it was the Tempest that had triumphed, and not him.

You’ll admit: you were not having fun with Psych. You had been studying all day, trying to absorb some of the stuff you had been taught throughout the year. Even though studying human behaviour had always intrigued and interested you, the reason you chose Psych, you couldn’t care less about oxytocin and how attraction worked, nor did you care about how human behaviour was affected by it.

But you had been at it for the past 6 hours, and was tired, so when Angie came along and expressed her disgust and sympathy about your studying endeavors, she hauled you up from the place you had been sitting at for most of the day and instructed you to change and get ready to go or a party.

So you found yourself at a frat party, Angie's arm hooked in yours and music blaring all around you. It was hot and dark, and you could barely see anything with the terrible lighting. You couldn’t tell what song was being played at such high volume, but awkwardly swayed to it anyways, wondering if staying at home at falling down the hole of ice cream and Netflix would have been a better alternative to this.

There were couples making out, and random beer cans everywhere. Everyone was half drunk, and you took this as an excuse to go get a drink. You turned to Angie who was looking the other way.

“Angie”, you whisper-screamed her name into her ear, causing her to jump, “I’m going to get a drink okay?”, you explained, to which she nodded. “I’m going to Renjun”, she said, walking away and leaving you alone.

Friendship.

You pushed through the crowd of sweaty adults, to get to the makeshift bar that was at the other end of the frat. You stopped occasionally to greet friends, or smile at a random cute boy, but finally made it to the kitchen. Johnny, one of your other friends stood there, inclining his head in a greeting. “Hey, what do you want?” “Are you in charge of the drinks or something?”, you asked, leaning on the island of the kitchen. He grinned at you, shaking his head, “No, but I’m so much I might as well be!”

You laughed, requesting for your drink of choice, which he went to fix for you. You licked your lips, scanning the area to find another friend to latch onto, since Angie had so kindly abandoned you.

“Didn’t think I’d see you here”, a very familiar voice said form behind you, and you turned to see none other than your best friend.

But he looked nothing like what you were used to.

Ten’s hair was slicked back instead of splayed out on his forehead like usual, his eyes seemed darker, probably due to the alcohol. He was wearing skinny jeans, and a blazer with most of the buttons undone, his chest in full view.

Ten looked hot.

“Uh-”, you started like the well read person you were, “Angie dragged me”

He smirked, “Of course she did”, he took a seat on one of the stools, legs spreading as he leaned back. You looked away, trying your hardest not to stare at the boy in front of you, who was making that mission increasingly harder with every little thing he did.

Johnny came back out, offering you a smile and your drink, which you took from him, returning his smile. He handed a glass of something you couldn’t make out to Ten, who took a sip, keeping it on the island. “You don’t seem to be having fun”, he observed, hands finding your waist and pulling you closer to him.

This was a normal thing, but this time it felt different. It wasn’t the same innocent gesture. “I just arrived idiot”, you scoffed. He smirked, “You can look at me you know”, he teased, and you could feel the heat rush to your face. You turned your gaze to him. Currently you were in between his legs, and your mind was a mess.

The first thing you noticed was his tattoo on his right arm which you had seen before. The next was one you hadn't seen before, and rightly so, since it was on his chest.

“Done staring at me?”, he said with a smirk, and your eyes snapped up to his, holding his gaze. If you hated the effect his eyes had on you before, you positively despised them now. He was staring at you through a half lidded gaze, licking his lips. Even without any alcohol in your system you felt dizzy, but not a sick way. Ten was driving you crazy, with his hands on your waist, eyes on you and just everything about him in the moment.

“You’re pretty”, he murmured, looking up at you, eyes falling to your lips, “Did you know that?”, his voice was deeper than usual, sending shivers down your spine. “I-”

“Hmm?”, he sounded absent minded, like he wasn’t even listening to you, which was great considering you didn’t even know what to say. He pushed you a little, standing up himself, now looking down.

“If you didn’t know, I think you are”, he said, face closer than any friend’s face should have been. You breath hitched in anticipation. “Ten?”, your voice was small, quivering almost under his gaze.

He was so close, painfully close. If anyone asked you how you got into this position in the first place, you wouldn’t be able to explain, not quite knowing yourself.

“Y/n, I need you for a second”, Angie appeared from nowhere, freezing when she saw the two of you in that position, “Um- I can leave-”

“Hey Ang”, Ten greeted, moving away from you. You missed the proximity, as much as you hated to admit it. You blinked hazily at your friend who had so conveniently interrupted whatever you had going on with Ten. You silently cursed yourself for getting so out of it. “Here, I think Arya is calling me anyways so”, he pushed his hands in his jeans pockets. He glanced at you, before walking away and out of the kitchen.

Would he have kissed you?

You looked over at your friend, who was still staring at you like she had seen a ghost. “Did I interrupt something?”, she asked, eyes wide. You felt embarrassed, taking a step back as if you were trying to walk out of the whole situation. “I’m not sure”, you said, “What do you need me for?”

“I need you to hold my drink, I need to go to the bathroom, Renjun is drunk as fuck and I trust you”, she explained, handing you her glass. You nodded, “And maybe can you watch my dumbass of a boyfriend please?”

You snorted, agreeing and walking to the main area of the party that was unfortunately the most crowded. You spotted Renjun on top of Donghyuck, practically choking the latter boy who was laughing for some reason. You could see why Angie went to you for her drink. Walking over, you tried to help Mark, another one of your friends, in separating Renjun and Donghyuck from initiating the 77th hunger games on a friday night.

After somewhat succeeding in pulling the two away from each other, Angie had arrived, choosing to ignore her wasted boyfriends antics and taking her glass back from you.

You remembered you had left your own drink back in the kitchen, and so you backtracked your steps to said place, when you saw it.

Ten was standing with a girl, her hands around his neck. He was saying something that made her giggle, throwing her head back in laughter as he grinned happily. You froze watching the scene unbeknownst to Ten. You didn’t know what you were feeling for an entire minute until it hit you.

You were hurt.

It was a pricking sort of feeling, like a rod prodding at your heart. It was like a warning, telling you to look away before it pierced your heart, but you couldn’t look away for some reason. It was like your mind was mocking you, telling you keep watching, to realize you never had the slightest chance with Ten.

You weren’t special, whatever flirting he did with you he did to everyone, anything that had remotely happened wasn’t even mentionable, because you were like every other girl in the crowd, and it fucking hurt. It hurt to see the boy you loved not give you a moment's thought, not even give you a chance.

That night you went back to your apartment alone, leaving Angie to deal with her boyfriend. You had never felt this horrible before, it had never escalated to this level of hurt. This type of hurt was different, a dull ache reminding you of what an idiot you were to have ever hoped for more.

You hated Ten for several things, his eyes, his smile, the way he could make you giddy by doing the simplest things. But in the moment, you hated yourself more.

You hated yourself for loving Ten Lee.

‘Don’t call me kid, Don’t call me baby, look at this godforsaken mess that you’ve made me. You showed me colours you know i can’t see with anyone else’

You sat on a colourful rug, holding a book up, and surrounded by several other books. You were in a sort of greenhouse, the walls and roof were made completely off glass, and the light streamed through, giving the scene a sort of whimsical aura.

This was the place ten has chosen to paint you, standing behind his easel and and focusing on the canvas, occasionally looking up at you. There were flecks of white and pale blue paint on his face, and he looked whimsical in a way as well.

You sat there, ignoring the warnings in your mind that told you to stay away from Ten for yourself, but you couldn’t bring yourself to. You showed up to the venue right on time, and did your best to not seem any different. You spaced out, eyes focusing on a random word on a page. Ten had promised he was almost done with it, since the two of you had been at it for quite a while now.

His lower lip was caught between his teeth in concentration, hair messed up from the amount of times he had run his hand through it. He stepped back for a second, inspecting his work, a dorky smile stretching out on his lips.

“It’s done!”, he said, “Some fixing, but I can do that later, get your ass here!”

You get to your feet, placing the book on one of the piles of them around you and walking towards him, biting down your own smile at this enthusiasm. You walked behind the easel, your eyes falling on the painting.

It was gorgeous, the colours complimenting each other. The depiction of the light rays was so soft, yet it was there shining down on the main part of the picture- you. He had painted you so prettily, almost fairy like in the midst of the scene. You stared at the painting in awe, unable to think of words to describe it.

“So?”, he asked hopefully, his eyes searching yours for some sort of reaction. You looked at him, then at the painting, then back at him, wondering how he could’ve made it look so fanciful, something out of a disney movie.

“It’s beautiful”, you whispered, your voice not daring to go any louder. He smiled placing his palette down and standing next to you. “It’s not hard when the subject is beautiful”, he said nonchalantly. You froze, silently telling yourself to calm down, to not react to it, that it wasn’t anything to be noted. Yet something in you clicked, shifted into place.

You were angry.

You were furious at Ten, with his pretty smiles and wishful eyes. You hated it when he flirted with you, because he kept leading you on, you hated it when he looked at you like you were the world, because it was a lie, it was all a fucking lie.

“Don’t”, you said, voice shaky. He stared at you in confusion, which only irked you more.

“Don’t”, your voice betrayed you, breaking. He looked alarmed, reaching his hand out, “Hey, Are you okay-”

“No, I’m not okay”, you hissed, slapping his hand away, stepping back. Your mind was clouded with a feeling of helplessness, helplessness at not being able to tell him how you felt, how you hated what he did, how all you wanted was something you definitely couldn’t have. He looked bewildered at your seemingly sudden outburst.

“Stop fucking playing with me”, you said, “I’m not this”, you searched for the words, coming back with nothing, “Stop complimenting me, calling me sweet nothings, making me believe-”, you sucked in a breath, feeling the tears build up in your eyes, years of pent up frustration finally making their way out of you.

You looked up at him, he still seemed to not be following, “Y/n, I don’t-”

“I’m in love with you”, you choked out finally, the words seeming to tie you down, rather than set you free like you had once hoped. “I’m in love with you”, you repeated, Ten could hear the rage in your voice, washing down on him like the waves of the Tempest, harsh and real. “And I hate myself for it”

Your voice was softer, much more mellow now, like it was tired. A single tear trickled down your face, and you looked up to see a stunned Ten, eyes wide at your state. He said nothing, instead just looked at you, as if you were a different person all of a sudden. It wasn’t a pretty sight, you crying and him standing there like a statue, not a word escaping his lips.

The air seemed to be colder all of a sudden, biting into the exposed areas of your skin. There was that aching feeling again, that pricking of your heart, the silent ‘i told you so’, that your mind seemed to be playing on repeat. You brushed the tears away from your face furiously, feeling stupid all of a sudden.

“I’m going to go”, you muttered, grabbing your things and walking out, not caring if you looked idiotic, and not staying to listen to any pathetic response he gave you.

Ten watched you leave, cursing himself for being such an idiot to you. He didn’t mean to hurt you, he was in love with you himself, but he would never admit it. He hated himself for it, because he knew what he had done. He had flirted with you, had played you, but it was only because he thought the two of you never had a chance.

He hated himself because it was him, after all this time, who had destroyed that chance.

You sat in front of your computer, back at your apartment, trying not to cry again as you stared at the screen, fingers hovering over the send button. It hurt much worse than you expected it to, his silence had made everything all the worse. But you were tired of him going back and forth. You were tired of having to pick up the pieces every time when he broke another girls heart, or someone else broke his.

You had nothing to lose this time. So alone, in your room you pressed send, signing of your future, sending the email to The Royal School of Music.

Alone.

Finals week passed in a blur of stress crying, all nighters and excessive reading of things that you had read a million times before, and if they hadn’t already gotten into your head, they would never. Which prompted the stress crying.

It was a vicious cycle.

You barely stepped out of your apartment, other than to actually take the exam. All your time was taken up in studying, occasionally eating, and studying again. You also didn’t see Ten that much, other than a glimpse, but immediately swerved away, not in any mood to deal with that confrontation as of yet.

Somehow, you managed to make it to the end of the week, without completely going mad. You made it out of finals, and was technically done with your college career altogether, which was crazy to even think of. You had spent the last four years of your life in this hellhole to get to where you were, and you had made it.

So seeing yourself in front of the mirror a week later, donning your cape and cap over your clothes, you smiled for the first time in two weeks. It was the day you finally graduated and went out into the world as a person with a degree.

Granted, you were slightly pissed at the fact you had spent four years, and paid an enormous amount of money for a sheet of paper, but at the moment, you couldn’t get the fact that you were finally done with it out of your head. You were happy.

The ceremony started off slowly, the principal calling the names of the students in alphabetical order. You saw Ten walk up and take his degree, a broad smile on his lips. You saw Angie take hers, almost tripping over her cape, earning a laugh from the principal, and fond looks all about. You saw Renjun and Donghyuck hugging instead of at each other's throats for once, and Mark randomly beat boxing for no reason.

You went up on the stage, taking the degree and smiling, realizing that your vision was hazy. Tears of happiness had made their way to your eyes, and you blinked them back, thanking the principal and smiling at the crowd. You walked off, going to stand with your little group of friends.

Later on, Angie went off with her boyfriend for a celebratory date, Renjun and Donghyuck decided to crash at Marks place, and you? You decided to walk through the campus one last time, before you never returned. You were done with college and this place wasn’t yours anymore. It held a sort of nostalgic feel all of a sudden, walking under the arches and admiring the architecture one last time.

You were holding your cap in your hand, after finding it on the ground somewhere after the throwing of them. Your cape was folded and hung from your arm as you walked through, deciding to go get some coffee after you were done.

Lost in your own thoughts, you bumped into someone, dropping the cap., “Sorry-”, you begun you apologize for your absent mindedness, crouching to pick up your cap when you saw the person you had run into.

Ten.

You silently scowled, cursing whatever above that had thrown the two of you together at the very moment, and cleared your throat uncomfortably, looking away. “Hey”, he said breathlessly, looking you up and down. He looked great, he always did, you couldn’t deny the fact no matter how much you were trying to hate him.

“Hi”, you said curtly, “I have to go”

“Wait”, he reached out, grabbing your hand, “Can we talk?”, his voice was tilting towards the hopeful side. It reminded you of your own foolish hope, and you didn’t like it one bit. “No”, you said, “I have to go”, you repeated for words, crushing any hope.

“No- Wait, please, Y/n let me explain”, he pleaded his case, his eyes striking through yours, stirring up some sort of sympathy. Your mind was telling you to go, to get out as fast as possible, but your heart softened, as it always did with him.

“Explain what?”, you chuckled bitterly, “You’ve made it pretty clear how you feel Ten. I was stupid”, your words were hurting yourself, but hurting him too, because he knew it wasn’t your fault.

“No Y/n, you-”

“I what?”, you hissed in question. He spluttered, discouraged by your disinterest in whatever he was trying to tell you. You wanted nothing more to get away from him in that moment, but he seemed to want to stretch out your time together as much as possible. It annoyed you, and made you sad at the same time.

The more time you were with him, the more you could feel your heart break.

“I love you”, he said quietly, “I know I’m a terrible person for leading you on and not realizing earlier, but I love you.” You froze, standing there and staring at him. He looked back, not daring to break your gaze. Instead of joy, which was what you had expected to feel if he ever uttered those words, you felt angrier.

“Please Y/n”, he said, “Just give me a chance?”

You stayed silent, contemplating your choices. “How long have we been friends?”

“What-”

“How long have we known each other Ten?”

“Four years, but I don’t see-”

“We have been friends for four fucking years. I was there for every heartbreak, every date, every girl. I stood on the sidelines, I listened to you, I have you advice when you needed it, I comforted you when you cried. But you? You never gave me a chance!”, you exclaimed, “Not a second glance, not a single chance.”

He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, taking in your words and trying to think of something to justify them, but he couldn’t, he knew you were right.

“So yes”, you voice quivered, “You are an idiot. You’re an idiot for never realizing my feelings when i made it PAINFULLY obvious”, you took steps back, trying to calm yourself.

“I can't believe I”, you scoffed at yourself, your own idiocy, “I can’t believe that three out of four years I was in love with you, but I guess that’s what makes me the dumb bitch.” You looked away, the words you had wanted to say since forever finally out of your system. He stood there, just a few steps away from you. But then, why did it seem like he was miles away?

“I’m sorry”, he said weakly, “I hate myself for what I did, but Y/n I”, he paused, shutting his eyes in frustration, “I’m in love with you dammit, and I don’t expect you to forgive me for what I’ve put you through but, can we-”

“No”, you said, “We can’t”

“Y/n give us a chance, please”

“You don’t understand!”, you said almost feverishly, blinking back tears, “I can’t Ten”

“Why not?”, he asked, walking closer to you. You took a step back from him, looking at the boy you loved with remorseful eyes. “I’m leaving Ten. I’m leaving for a music school in another country.”

He blanched, any hope withering away, like a dead flower, dried with the summer heat, like a lone boat in the midst of a storm. You let out a pathetic sob, realizing that you couldn’t ever have Ten, no matter what.

“I’ll be gone before we could ever be”

The world was never fair. It came at you with things you wished never happened, you wished you could change, or would have handled better. Like a storm on an unsuspecting sailor, it’s waves crashed down on you, and you were unable to breathe.

Life was the tempest, with it’s harsh tremors, it’s sudden soft waves that lead you to believe things were going to be okay. It’s highs and it’s lows, the good times and the bad. You found it ironic, the fact you were playing your favorite piece of all time, and it reminded you of reality.

You had always viewed music as an escape from reality, but now you were starting to connect the two, using music to let both the worlds connect. Your fingers flew across the keys, the climactic melody thundering through your apartment.

Finishing the piece, you let out a sigh, taking the music sheets and placing them back in your folder. Shutting the keyboard down, you cleared up a bit, settling down on your couch. Cracking your knuckles, you pulled out your phone to mindlessly scroll through Instagram as one did to pass time.

You seemed to do that often, now that you were officially done with college and had a bit of time before you left for The Royal School of Music, approximately three weeks, you honestly had nothing else to do with your time.

And so, you indulged in the world of reels and other videos that didn’t necessarily add anything of worth to your being. Time seemed to trickle by slowly, much slower than you would have liked.

Your flight to the country in which the school was in had already been booked, your registration had been completed, and you had even found an apartment to rent over there. Some of your belongings had already been sent for shipping, leaving you with the bare minimum. You had even sold some stuff, because cross country shipping was expensive, and you had gathered quite a few things over your four years staying in your college area that you definitely didn’t need.

It seemed as if everything was set, you were ready to leave everything behind.

Your doorbell rang, it's obnoxious ringing sound making you wince out of annoyance. You got up from your spot on the couch reluctantly, and walked over to the door to open it.

You were met with a slightly disheveled looking Ten on the other side, hair slightly messy. It had been yet another week since you had seen him, not have been in contact since graduation day, and suddenly here he was at your doorstep. Before you could even say anything, he pushed his hand out, thrusting a pizza box in your face.

“I know you don’t want to see me, and I don’t blame you but”, he took a deep breath, “You’re going, and it sucks, but I’m happy for you, so i brought pizza, for old times sake?”

You blinked in surprise, your hands on their own accord and taking the box. As if he could sense you were skeptical, he rambled on, “Just a movie and pizza, then I’ll leave I promise.” Everything inside you screamed at you to say no, but the words left you before you could even comprehend your mind's thoughts.

“Okay”

You opened the door more, walking back into your apartment, opening the box and taking your laptop to search for a movie. He closed the door after himself, taking a seat beside you on the couch, but not touching you. It was like there was a wall in between the two of you, and you couldn’t break it down.

You weren’t sure if you wanted to.

“There’s a new season of His Dark Materials”, you thought aloud, “We could binge that.”

It was so easy, being with Ten. Like falling back into a routine you had missed, a habit that had been cultivated. It was natural, him by your side, eating pizza and searching for a movie or series to binge. It was a tradition for the two of you after all, and even though you had stayed away from Ten for your own heart, it felt so good to do this again. You had missed it.

“Sure”, he agreed, taking a slice of the pizza, the stringy cheese not breaking, “We may need plates.”

You shook your head at his comical state, placing your laptop down and walking into your kitchen, opening the topmost cupboard to get the plates down, when you realized you couldn’t reach it. Now usually, you would just get a stool or something to climb on top off, but that would mean going back out there and admitting to Ten that you were short.

That was not acceptable.

Of course any grand plans of somehow getting the plates down without Ten knowing had been thrown out the window when he himself walked into the kitchen, “Are you making the plates or something? What’s taking so long?”

He spotted you, hands stretching up, leaning over the counter. Ten smirked, walking over and taking the plates down himself, “Someone’s short”, he snickered, to which you glared, “You’re short too dumbass.”

“You’re shorter”, he teased, taking the second plate down. He was standing in front of you, directly facing you as he placed the second plate of the counter top. You stared indignantly at him, and he caught your gaze, holding it. It was the same Ten you had known since you entered your campus, the same Ten you met at that party.

The same Ten you were in love with.

His eyes shifted from yours to your lips, realizing how close the two of you were. His hand raised up to your face cupping it. You subconsciously leaned into his touch, eyes wide, waiting for him to do something, anything.

His eyes searched yours for an answer, some sort of indication that he could go ahead. You knew that nothing good would come from this, but you couldn't help but nod your head a little too fast, and fisting the end of his shirt in anticipation.

He kissed you.

His lips moved against yours softly, hesitantly, like they were scared you would disappear if he went any faster. It was nothing like you had ever imagined (believe me, you had imagined), but it was better. It was like a culmination of wanting had been poured into the kiss, and you didn’t want it to stop.

You could’ve sworn time had stopped when he kissed you, the world around you seeming to fade away. You could feel your knees going weak with the overwhelming feeling, the flutter in your stomach growing. If you hadn’t been holding onto the end of his shirt so hard, you would have collapsed into him.

“I’m sorry”, he whispered against your lips, pulling away, cupping your face, “I know I’m an idiot”, he confessed, and you resist the urge to agree, “I know I’m an idiot but,”, he stopped again, resting his forehead against yours. “One night”, he whispered, voice shaky now, “Will you be mine for just one night?”

There was something fragile in his voice, like he was afraid of your answer. You looked up, looking at those eyes you hated, but loved at the same time. You silently agreed, pressing your lips to his again, kissing him once more. His hands dropped down to your waist, your hands wrapped around his neck as you stole another long awaited kiss from him.

The plates were long forgotten about, instead the two of you stumbled back into the living room, hands not leaving each other. The back of his knees hit the couch, and he sat down, taking you with him. You sat on top of him, breathing heavily.

He pressed his lips to your forehead affectionately as you leaned into Ten, not ever wanting the moment to end. “I’m tired”, you whispered, all the years of pining and wishing he was yours suddenly weighing you down.

“I know”

“This isn’t going to end well is it?”

“I don’t know”, he mused, rubbing your back comfortingly. You looked at him once again, like you had done many times before, except this time he was yours, for how long? You didn’t know. You didn’t want the night to end, the prospect of losing him again already making your stomach pit.

“I love you”, he said, and you didn’t say it back. You didn’t have too, you had said it many times already, you had told him. Instead you kissed him again, getting drunk on him.

The rest of the night was spent this way,lazily kissing, cuddling, and eating pizza straight out of the box since neither of you wanted to get up again. Ten held you like you were the world, and wrapped your arms around him, burying your face into the crook of his neck. The two of you forgot about the serial you were supposed to binge as well, too caught up with each other to even care.

He told you about how he got scouted for dancing by an entertainment company, you filled him in about The Royal School of Music, about how you were so glad College was over even though you would miss it. He made you laugh with his stupid jokes, and it felt like it had always been. Somewhere along the line, the two of you fell asleep in the dead of the night, or almost morning, tangled up in each others arms, happy.

You woke up on your couch alone, your apartment lonely and silent. You looked around sleepily, your eyes catching a glimpse of the clock on your wall, which told you it was already noon. You pulled your knees to your chest, feeling out of place. Something was missing.

Ten.

Ten was gone, nowhere to be seen. You tried thinking back, wondering why he was gone, until you realized - one night was over. Like he had promised, he was gone, not yours anymore, and you weren’t his. You shivered, realizing that there wasn’t any blankets or anything on the couch, yet you couldn't seem to get up.

It hurt. You wanted to cry and scream, the realization that he was gone, before you could even fully have him sinking it. It felt so unfair, the fact that you could never really ever have Ten, someone you had loved for four fucking years, for more than a night.

You took in a shaky breath, looking to the end of the sofa, which is when you saw it. It was Ten’s painting, the one of you in the greenhouse, supposedly reading the books. On the top a sticky note read ‘The Tempest’. You brushed your finger over the painting, taking it in. He had left it here for you, and it was the one thing you had of him. At the bottom, it was signed in his handwriting.

‘10’.

“널 다시 만나면 네 손을 잡고 말해줄 텐데 I will never let you go”

fin.

851 notes · View notes

carmenxjulia · 3 years

Photo

I put together a transcript of the 1 hour Q&A Interview the Carmen Sandiego Discord did with Abby Trott (Ivy) and Rafael Petardi (Chase Devineaux). All of the questions were submitted by server members. You can read everything below the break!

PizzaHorse:

Hello everyone! Please welcome Abby Trott and Rafael Petardi to our Q&A today.

Abby Trott:

Hiiiiiiiiiii!

Rafael Petardi:

Hello Bonjour!

PizzaHorse:

Let's get started. How did you get started as a voice actor? Was there anything that inspired you to pursue it as a career?

Abby Trott:

Oh MAN. Long story.

Rafael Petardi:

Mine is very short. I'm an actor and my agent started sending me on voice auditions and eventually I booked some!

Abby Trott:

This is a novel so I started typing it ahead of time, haha. I was an acting/theater major, and when I graduated from college I moved to Japan on the JET program to teach English because I wanted to travel so freakin' badly. I had never even been on an airplane. I was placed in rural Akita, (inaka), and absolutely LOVED it. The only problem was I wanted to be and actor/singer… womp womp. At that time, I also started to mess around with characters and voices - I would record voice memos and conversations with myself while driving around. One day, a friend was in the car and my phone was on shuffle and one of my "scenes" started playing - I was absolutely MORTIFIED. But that moment solidified for me that I need to move to the big ole city if I wanted to really pursue acting. I ended up heading to Tokyo, where I performed in children's musicals, and did other gigs here and there. That's where I started doing VO professionally! I was able to do some character voices for the shows I was in, and some other side projects. I realized how much I loved VO, and eventually decided to move back to the States to pursue it, since most English VO for games and animation is produced here.

When I moved back, I started searching online for VoiceOver opportunities, and stumbled across a contest hosted by Bang Zoom! Entertainment. I BARELY got my entry in on time. The contest took place over several months, and in the meantime, I moved to NYC and started taking VO classes. For the finale of the contest, they flew me to LA. I ended up winning! Still can't believe it. (O-O) I got to dub my first anime "Miss Monochrome," and realized that if I wanted to work in games and animation, I should probably move to LA… and the I DID.

THE END

PizzaHorse:

What do you think are the best and worst things about being a voice actor?

Abby Trott:

Oooh. The worst things? Job insecurity... constant rejection...

Rafael Petardi:

The incredibly talented and cool people you meet and work with.

What Abby said

Abby Trott:

The best things? Working with amazing people, AND it's so much fun - even auditioning is fun!

PizzaHorse:

How did you land your role on the show?

Rafael Petardi:

I auditioned

Got the job

pretty boring I know

Abby Trott:

I auditioned through my agency, and got a callback. I went to the callback and their note was "more Boston." Then I had a second callback and their note was "even MORE Boston." So I went WICKED BOSTON and got the job

PizzaHorse:

What was your favorite/the most fun thing to record (episode/scene/line)? Any least favorites?

Rafael Petardi:

For me, the funnest scenes to record are the ones I got to play opposte the incredibly talented cast.

The least favorite... did not have enough scenes with the Wonderful Abby Trott

Abby Trott:

Awww Rafe! Singing was the MOST FUN! The Karaoke Ep, and the choose-your-own adventure one, where we got to sing the theme! Mikey (Zack) was cracking me up constantly.

Least favorite was the last ep because I didn't want it to eeeeeend

PizzaHorse:

Were you allowed to suggest lines to be said by your character, or improvise the script at all if you thought something would add to the scene?

Abby Trott:

YUP! And Mikey and I definitely did, hahaa. It was encouraged. Always fun to see what they keep...

Rafael Petardi:

Yes we were. I improvised mostly sounds and noises. Words once in a while but not very often. Thank God for Duane

PizzaHorse:

What was the hardest part of voicing your character on Carmen Sandiego? Was there a particular episode that was difficult to record?

Rafael Petardi:

Keeping the consistency episode to episode of the Chase's accent, pitch and energy

I did not want hime to sound different ever

Abby Trott:

I think the hardest part was keeping up the EXTREME Boston accent. But it was also SUPER fun...

PizzaHorse:

What traits do you share or have in common with the character you play?

Rafael Petardi:

I am like Chase in the sense of a Dog with a Bone. If I get pasionate about something, I go to extremes. Abby Trott has scene this for example in my bread making endeavors

Also, I'm an idiot in life too sometimes

Abby Trott:

Ivy and I are both... from Mass! we both have brothers who we argue with but really do love when it comes down to it. We love chocolate, aaaaand... I think we're both brave. (brag?)

Can confirm Rafe is v. passionate about bread. And and idiot.

Rafael Petardi:

All True

PizzaHorse:

What character on the show would you voice if you had the chance?

Abby Trott:

Chase

Rafael Petardi:

I would love Maelstrom

Abby Trott:

Jk... Coach Brunt seems SUPER fun

PizzaHorse:

If you could meet a character from Carmen Sandiego in real life, who would it be and why?

Abby Trott:

Carmen! she is the coooooleeest. I'd ask her to teach me some tricks

Rafael Petardi:

Julie Argent. She's cute

PizzaHorse:

Which character do you think you are most like or that you most identify with?

Rafael Petardi:

CHASE

I think that's partly why we're doing the roles we do

Abby Trott:

I think Ivy, for real! Casting was ON IT. I can be serious when I need to be, but I'm a giant goofball (if you couldn't tell from my latest tweet/insta post...)

PizzaHorse:

Who is your favorite character, other than your own?

Abby Trott:

Mime. Bomb.

Rafael Petardi:

Other than my own? Hmmm... uuuh... mmmm. tough...

Abby Trott:

Seriously, I think Mime bomb is hilarious.

Rafael Petardi:

Yes Mime Bomb!

PizzaHorse:

Do you wish your character had more interactions with another character in particular?

Rafael Petardi:

Yes, I would love to interact with Ivy and Maelstrom

I think the interaction would be odd and awkward and funny

Abby Trott:

Yes. I would love to see how Ivy handles the specific VILE members... I would love to see IVY try to go to VILE academy...

PizzaHorse:

Are there any themes or lessons from the series that you would want people to remember?

Rafael Petardi:

yes, don't jump to conclusions and be an idiot

Abby Trott:

Yes! That! also, don't be evil. ALSO also, be loyal to your friends.

PizzaHorse:

Do you ever look at fan content?

Rafael Petardi:

yes all the time. It helps when I'm tagged rafaelPetardi on Instagram

Abby Trott:

Yes! I look at fanart sometimes, and see what cosplays are happenin'

Rafael Petardi:

I've posted many as well

Abby Trott:

Haven't read much fanfic... but I know it's out there.

PizzaHorse:

What did you think about your character's development and arc throughout the series?

Rafael Petardi:

I absolutely loooooooved Chase's arc

Love redemption stuff

he was just misguided

just was alway his thing

Abby Trott:

I love Ivy's journey - she really grew up, from a troubled kid to an adult, accepting responsibility and accepting new challenges. Donning the hat, if you will.

Rafael Petardi:

*justice as always his thing

PizzaHorse:

How do you feel now that Carmen Sandiego is at its end?

Rafael Petardi:

sad. miss evrybody so much

we will have to have a cast reunion when this pandemic thing is over

Abby Trott:

SAD! But grateful. It was THE MOST fun to record, and I wish it could continue forever.

Rafael Petardi:

I'm grateful too. yes

Abby Trott:

and YES reunion!

PizzaHorse:

Yesss can't wait for that group photo to pop up on social media!

Were there any moments in the series that had you legitimately emotional?

Rafael Petardi:

yes ofcourse

losing Julia was tough

Abby Trott:

A lot. But one that stands out for me is after Carmen gets stuck out in the snow, and is reunited with her crew. (:_;). Also the stuff with Shadowsan and his brother... and anything with baby Carmen...

Gah. So many...

PizzaHorse:

Did you enjoy how the show ended? Is there anything you would have changed or would have liked to see more of?

Rafael Petardi:

I loved the way the show ended! I think Duane did a fantastic job tying loose ends and bring the story to a satisfactory close for all characters

I do hope for an ACME Ivy, Zak, Julia and Chase spin-off

Abby Trott:

I love how it ends. I think it wrapped so well considering the number of eps - the writers really got it done. I WISH Ivy and Zack could follow Carmen forever, but she has her own story to unravel it would seem.

And Ivy does look good in that suit let me tell ya

PizzaHorse:

Can you share a favorite behind the scenes moment?

Abby Trott:

Mikey. Is. So. Funny. Hard to choose one moment - he would make me laugh harder than anything. Especially when we were singing. Or any time he had to gag...

Rafael Petardi:

OMG!

That singing stuff we had to do together was hilarious

we could not stop laughinh

PizzaHorse:

What, in your opinion, are the best pizza toppings?

Abby Trott:

Cheese. Caramelized onions. Roasted garlic. Spinach. Mushrooms.

Rafael Petardi:

buffala mozzarella and tomatos period

oooooo fancy Abby

Abby Trott:

Rafe why aren't you as obsessed with pizza as you are with bread? And can you be?

Rafael Petardi:

I am

Abby Trott:

Rafael Petardi:

I just don;t like to share pizza

PizzaHorse:

Here's a specific question for Rafael. Did you sometimes get mad at your own character for the way he behaved towards Julia earlier on in the Series?

And one for Abby. As a Massachusetts native, how did you feel about voicing a character from Boston with the iconic accent?

Rafael Petardi:

I did not. I always felt, however misguided Chase was, he was always on the path of turth and justice no matter what was in his way. It's the same principals that led hin to see the truth about Julia

*principles

Abby Trott:

I think it's so cool, and kind of an honor, in a way. I was worried about it being too much, and people saying it's over the top. Turns out comedy wins, haha.

PizzaHorse:

Were you familiar with the older animated series when you started work on the Netflix original?

Rafael Petardi:

I never heard of Carmen Sandiego before I did this series

Abby Trott:

Yes! I had seen a bit. I also remember watching my brother play the game. Someone gifted me a mini arcade version of the game this year, and I'm excited to play :slight_smile:

Rafael Petardi:

Which I think helped when I had to say the iconic line

"Where in th world..." there was no pressure

LoL

Abby Trott:

LOL

PizzaHorse:

Okay, last question. Do you have a favorite quote from the show?

Abby Trott:

"La Femme Rouge!"

or Mime Bomb's classic "..."

Rafael Petardi:

"the game is over!"

PizzaHorse:

Woohoo!

Abby Trott:

Hooray!

PizzaHorse:

Thank you so much Rafael Petardi and Abby Trott for joining us today! I hope everybody had a wicked awesome time.

Abby Trott:

Thanks for having us! What a pleasure.

Rafael Petardi:

It was great! Thank you to all the great questions.

Abby Trott:

Thanks for watching the show! Great questions. I'm sure I'm going to think of more quotes as soon as I log off... haha.

Rafael Petardi:

See you all soon!

Abby Trott:

Stay safe, take care, and see you all on various social media platforms!

#Carmen Sandiego #Ivy #Chase Devineaux #CS Crew #Rafael Petardi #Abby Trott #Carmen Sandiego Discord #Carmen Sandiego Discord Server #Interview #Transcript

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abraxos-is-toothless · 4 years

Text

Surprises (15)

There are a few of you who have changed urls so please do check previous chapters first if you have!! Lucien is back in this, I had thought he had a part like two chapters ago? But going back I might have deleted his scene😬

Warnings: There will be swearing, mature themes, mentions of alcohol at times, and mentions of sex. I will update warnings as I go if needed.

Surprises Masterlist.

Full Masterlist.

Enjoy a Captain Swan gif because it fits I guess?:)

—————

Everything was white, why the fuck was everything so white?

Azriel felt blinded by being in such a bright room and there was an annoying beeping that he wished would just stop. His whole body ached and he groaned in pain trying to lift his body but then there was a hand gently pushing his shoulder down, and a voice that sounded like goddamn heaven.

“I don’t think so, mister, you keep your butt where it is.” Blinking a few times, he turned his head to the sound of that beautiful voice and saw Elain standing next to him with tears in her eyes. Panic set in at the thought of her being upset and he wanted nothing more than to hold her.

“W-why are you crying baby? What’s wrong?” There was deep laughter from somewhere across the room and a sharp pain shot through his neck with how fast his head moved. Cassian was sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, one arm in a sling and he now had on a pair of shorts which exposed a thigh wrapped in bandages. Nesta was on his other side, holding the hand of his good arm, gently rubbing her thumb back and forth.

“You were just in a major car accident, you expect your girl to be all sunshine and roses about it?”

Fuck the car accident. It all rushed back to him at once, the laughing and pestering and then a shout and finally darkness. Cass had shouted about a truck just as Rhys was-“Oh god. Rhys where is Rhys?”

“He’s alright. He was allowed to go home, so we sent him back with Feyre to rest. They’re both on the way back now.”

He finally forced himself to sit up, hating the way Elain’s eyes went wide in fear and so he took her hand and squeezed to let her know it was alright, but as his legs shifted, that’s when he felt it. All of the breaths in his lungs left him in one go, and he knew something bad when all of the eyes in the room watched him, so full of pain. Azriel closed his eyes once more as he gripped hid blankets tightly in a fist before flinging them away from him. All he did was stare and stare at that empty space where his lower left leg should be, before finally reaching for it with a hand, letting out a sound that was foreign to his ears. He vaguely recognised the shuffling of chairs and the click of a door as a small gentle hand covered his own. When he turned back to Elain, her lips were curved in a soft and slightly pained smile, pain for him.

“What happened to my leg Ellie?” He said it as a whisper because that’s all he could manage, scared that if he tried to say it louder, say something more, then he’d break down but he was determined not to look weak in her eyes. Her free hand came up and into his hair, nails scratching at his scalp that felt oh so good and comforting.

“The car overturned from the impact and crushed the front of the car. Rhys and Cass managed to get out and they tried to get to you as well but they couldn’t. Your leg had been crushed for too long, the doctors told your mom that there was nothing they could do, other than remove it.” Her hand in his hair never stopped once and for that he was grateful, because no, matter how hard he tried to stop himself, he broke right then and there in that hospital room.

“How can you still stand there and look at me like that? I’m missing a fucking leg Elain, I’m not me anymore. I won’t be able to do certain things anymore and hell, what the fuck is our little girl going to do when she asks daddy to do something and I can’t do it! I didn’t want this life for us! Now you’re going to be stuck with a cripple and a baby, I won’t put you through that.”

Azriel watched as her face turned from gentle and soothing to angry and hateful in a second, taking her hands off and away from him and stepping back from his bedside.

“Screw you, you fucking asshole. How dare you make up my own mind for me? How dare you think that I wouldn’t love you anymore because of how you look? If you don’t want me anymore then fine, I’ll save you the hassle of trying to end it.” No, no, no. Shit, fuck.

“Ellie...” He tried to say something, anything, but the words got stuck in his throat and so he had to watch as she stormed to the door of his hospital room without even looking back. He’d heard the sound of the door clicking earlier but now, now it was an awful sound and he never wanted to hear it again. It was like a dagger to the heart and he fucking hated himself. The best thing to ever happen to him and he blew it, just like he knew he would. He promised he wouldn’t hurt her again, promised her that he’d try harder, that no matter what he’d stay by her side.

Now all there was to do was sit there and wallow in his own self pity, knowing he’d most likely not be able to win her back this time.

oOoOo

Sitting in that waiting room, Cassian had given his story of the crash to the cops, every last detail that he could think of, everything that might be useful. And then it was Rhys’ turn. Nesta, Feyre and himself sat there and listened, Feyre moving straight to Nesta once he had started. He hadn’t a clue why she looked as worried as she did so until he’d heard Rhys’ story. Even now just as his brother was giving the last few key points, he was still in shock. Weylan Archeron, his girlfriend’s fucking father, was the one that had run them off of the road. Nesta had retreated inside herself when she’d heard it, that blank look taking over her face. It had taken him so long to find her under that prickly exterior and he’d be damned if he let her asshole father destroy how far she had managed to come.

The cops were just shaking hands and thanking them for their help when the door to Azriel’s room opened and Elain came storming out, tears streaming down her cheeks and her hand cradling that wonderful little baby bump. Cassian watched as Nesta’s face went from blank to furious and she made to go either after her sister or into his brother’s room to unleash hell, but he put his hand on her arm to stop her. “Easy sweetheart, I’ve got this one.”

He stood on shaky legs and limped down the hall that Elain had run down, asking a few nurses if they had seen where she went and ended up outside where the girl was sitting on a wall with her hands covering her face. Her body shook with barely restrained sobs and she jumped when he sat beside her, bringing his hand over to rub her back. “Hey, what are all these tears for Lainy? Az is alright, you saw him.” She scoffed at that and gave a humourless laugh. Looks like his brother might have been an utter fucking idiot.

“He may be alright but according to him, he’s not good enough now. According to him, I couldn’t possibly want him anymore now that he’s like that. He assumed Cass, that I’m that much of a bitch, that I only like him for his looks. He doesn’t want me because ‘I’m stuck with a cripple and a baby. He won’t put me through that.’ What gives him the right to decide my feelings for me?” She was crying again now, hands shaking and he didn’t know what to do or how to help and so he pulled her into a hug. Her head was smushed into his shoulder and he would no doubt be left with tears and snot, but he didn’t care. Elain could do what she liked as long as it made her happy.

“I’ve got you, Lainy. I’m sure he didn’t mean it; he’s probably just in shock is all. And if he did mean it, then I’ll kick his ass, no one hurts my Lainy or my niece. Uncle Cass has got her, both of you.”

After a while the shaking stopped and her tears turned into sniffles and she tilted her head back to look at him. “Thank you.” It was gentle but broken whisper and Cassian hoped to whatever gods that were listening to make his brother see sense.

“How about I phone Lucien for you? You haven’t really been able to see him for a few days and I’m sure he’d like to see you. I’ll ask him to come get you and take you back to the house and the two of you can hang out there. Besides they want Az to stay overnight just to be sure and keep an eye on his leg.” Elain nodded before burying her head back into his shoulder and before he phoned Vanserra, he sent a quick text off to Nesta.

She’s all good, just a bit overwhelmed. I’m going to get Lucien to come get her and take her to the house. Love you.

-Cass

He and Azriel had been handed bad cards in life, ever since they were born but now, now was when everything was good for them. They both had amazing girlfriends who loved them unconditionally, there was a little one about to be added to the family and they were finally, finally happy. Of course one drunken asshole had to come along and possibly ruin everything his brother had ever hoped to have.

oOoOo

Elain was so tired, so goddamn tired that she felt as though she could sleep for a week. She felt utterly drained as she stepped through the door to Lys’ house. The woman had come out to give her one of the spare keys when she’d heard that Elain was leaving, telling her to eat, drink and do whatever she wanted and that if Lucien wanted to stay overnight to keep her company then he was more than welcome to. Lucien was behind her and she just knew his hands were braced in front of him as if he expected her to crash and drop from exhaustion. She had missed her best friend, truly, but with everything that was going on they just hadn’t had the time to hang out.

“Okay Lainy bear, Cassian said that his mother would like for me to cook you dinner. What do you feel like, and before you say ‘I’m not hungry’, you’re eating for two so this is me putting my foot down.” She rolled her eyes knowing that yes, she would have predictably said that in the past, but she wouldn’t do that to her little girl. That was the first thing he’d actually said other than the few greetings since he’d picked her up, and that didn’t sit too well with her.

“I’m not going to break you know, we can talk, you don’t have to be silent because you’re scared of saying the wrong thing.” He pushed a hand through those beautiful, long red locks- seriously, why does he get such nice hair and she gets a birds nest? –and gave a very loud sigh.

“I was just waiting for you to decide when you actually wanted to talk that’s all. And you’re also making that face, the one where you are so done with everyone’s shit, so how about we have some dinner and then you can sleep. I’ll stay up and get things ready for when the others come back. Yeah?”

Elain nodded and went into the kitchen with him to search for what to cook. They ended up choosing to do a chicken pasta bake with vegetables, something that would be easy to heat up later. It was effortless to move around each other after a few minutes, having done this a ridiculous amount of times before when they spent whole weekends together. Lucien sat there and watched her when they were done, making sure she finished her plate and then glared at her when she tried to clean up. Her best friend then even went as far as trailing her up the stairs, the overbearing mother hen. “I can walk up the stairs by myself.”

“I know you can.” She rolled her eyes but then froze in her place when they got to the top of the stairs. Lucien bumped into her back at the sudden halt in movement. “Ellie? Why have we stopped?”

“Um, I have to sleep in his room.”

“So? He’s your boyfriend and you’ve slept in the same bed before.”

Her eyes closed at the onslaught of words from their argument earlier hit her. “W-we had a bit of a fight at the hospital and now I don’t know what we are. I said I would save him the hassle of breaking up with me and stormed out, basically.” She tipped her head up to the ceiling, holding the tears at bay; she didn’t want to cry anymore, she was so tired of crying.

“Oh Elain, I’m sure it’ll be alright and he definitely wouldn’t want you to make yourself uncomfortable on the couch. You and the baby need sleep in a proper bed.” He was right, of course he was. She nodded and moved towards his room, she hadn’t actually been here since that party, the night that had changed everything. Images flashed through her mind as she opened the door, them laughing at a movie, her head on his shoulder, soft and warm lips, a painful pinching sensation and then pure bliss. Lucien told her he’d be right downstairs if she needed something and kissed her cheek before leaving again. She stripped out of her clothes, smelling of that too clean hospital smell. She debated what to wear to bed before giving in and pulling on one of Azriel’s t-shirts. Her body sank into that wonderfully soft bed, pulling the covers up and over her shoulders before closing her eyes. Everything smelt of him, comforting and just so fucking good, and her breaths turned ragged thinking about how worried she was that the worst had happened to him.

She loved him for the person he was, his caring and happy personality. Yes, he was beautiful and she’d be blind if she couldn’t see it but he was more than just his looks. If he could love her changing body, the stretch marks that were beginning to appear, the stomach that was no longer flat, then why did he think she wouldn’t love him all the same as he was now?

Eventually her exhaustion was too much, her eyes too heavy and she succumbed to sleep, a hand curved around her stomach. She hoped that Cassian’s was right, that Az was just in shock and that come morning, she wouldn’t have lost the person who meant the world to her and had given her something she hadn’t even known she’d wanted.

—————

Oh the pain, the angst how I love hate to give it to you😏 Want to be added/removed from the tags then just let me know:))

Tags: @bryaxisthefaceofnightmares @starlitfangirl @starsauroras @drunken-starz @myfriendscallmeraba @thesirenwashere @empress-sei @elrielllll @stars-falling @elain-shadowsinger @verifiefangirl @theshadowsinger-and-thefawn @fancyclodpaintercookie @acourtofterrasenandvelaris @silver-flames @queen-of-glass @bamchickawowow @empress-ofbloodshed @sleeping-and-books @kvi-arts @tswaney17 @awkward-avocado-s @courtofjurdan @junkiejosten10 @mu-si-ca-l @agem10 @harmonyindark245 @slightly-sane-fangirl @tanaquilpriscilla @starrynightsbooks @maastrash @kendarbahr @elriel4life @illyriangarbage @b00kworm @thewayshedreamed

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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years

Text

mtmte liveblog issue 28

catch me completely ignoring dark cybertron lmao

yeahhhh so I'm just gonna skip dark cybertron bc no thanks. I did read the tf wiki articles for the issues tho, which is more than I did in the past, so at least now I kinda know what happened, though I had to suffer thru reading about dark cybertron to learn stuff about it. yikes. reading ABOUT dark cybertron further enforced my decision to not actually read thru it

anyways. the best part of dark cybertron was when chromedome threw prowl off that cliff. that was baller lmfao

a 1 page recap of dark cybertron is about all I can handle. thank you

ooh, the 6 months later smash-cut, I fucking love itttt

nautica’s here!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy I love her. also brainstorm, and I love their friendship sm

hvbjdkhfbshdfj god I love them. they have such a fun dynamic

everyone eavesdropping on a therapy session vhbhdjkhafbhkjsdf. hipaa laws mean nothing as usual

the casual reveal of captain megatron, oh god

the title fucking slaps, as usual. this is one of my favorites - ‘world, shut your mouth.’ great stuff, and a song title/reference to boot! and this being part 1: towards peace...chefs kiss

and then we flash back to 6 months earlier...yknow now that I'm rereading this, mtmte has a LOT of framing devices used - there's story-within-a-story, flashback/flash-forwards, storytelling with narration, etc...I love it

god hbvhjakdfbshjkdf rodimus saying ‘magic’ and then the little *magic = science rodimus doesn't understand HBGKJHSDBFKHJSDF my idiot boy ily

rodimus roasting prowl is my fav hbfjdkafshsbjkf ‘maybe the knights can help us find a cure for your personality’ ily sm

and then prowl agreeing w/rodimus a few panels later about megatron’s guilt...

optimus...don't you think that making yourself chief of justice is...maybe a bad idea...like, maybe there's a conflict of interests here...just a little bit of bias...a bit too much history, perhaps...

the fact that all the big roles in the trial were given to high-ranking autobots who were heavily involved in the war...I see that cybertrons justice system is as much of a farce as their medical ethics and patient confidentiality laws

the ‘you BROKE the MATRIX’ panel is so good bjhkdhfbajskhdf

rodimus: LISTEN dad I just wanna resume my space cruise with my frat bro ship I have no interest in politics

psychiatrists HATE him! local former warlord refuses to recognize the validity of psychological analyzation of people’s actions

ravage casually breaking hipaa laws and chilling in megatron’s therapy session like >:3

I love rung...he’s so good at like, passive-aggressively cutting right to the heart of someone’s issues, and he’s so generally mild that you can’t even really get mad at him

the sudden inclusion of megatron as a major character in mtmte is kinda jarring at first - mostly, for me at least, due in part because I didn't read dark cybertron so this is like, megatron’s introduction as a relevant character in general - but I feel like jro does a great job laying a lot of intrigue down from the very beginning w/his character - like, I already want to know more about what his whole deal is, even though we have, ostensibly, seen pretty much all of his story play out already

rung name-dropping froid...i remember that made me lose my shit bc cmon. FROID....jesus christ

rung and megatron: holy shit! we’re suddenly being drawn in a 90s-esque sci-fi tron-looking retro-futuristic style!

interesting that megatron sought rung out, and not the other way around

RIPTIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my favorite sharkboy is HERE

CREWDITIONS...YES....

‘we’re not allowed to take anyone who might remind rodimus of prowl’ vhbhjdkshfbhaskfd brutal

I love nautica so so much. a perfect autistic scientist after my own heart

I adore that nautica brought chromia along for moral support

hgvbjdakhfbhsj and then swerve saying that rodimus hates ‘trisyllabic names’ and nautica is like....but....‘rodimus’.....

and then nightbeat busts in to get all bbc sherlock on they asses hgbfhjadkfbjaskdf

WHY was perceptor at the crewditions if he was already part of the crew lmao

ooof, and then we have megatron flipping out when chromedome, a mnemosurgeon, shows up

also damn the autobots were rlly like okay so we wanna speed this trial up so lets just like, probe megatrons brain, that seems completely ethical, especially when you consider the history of shadowplay and stuff that our previous government had

I know important stuff is happening but megatron is holding a CUBE and I love CUBES so I'm distracted by that. C U B E

and then right after a scene where we see chromedome willing to perform mnemosurgery again - despite rewind’s like, dying wish for him not to - we hear that he’s been locked up in his room rewatching rewinds goodbye message over and over again :( I'm fucking depressed

I love nightbeat, he’s so funny and kind of an asshole

and then you see more missing letters behind them next panel...clearly nightbeat is right and there’s a mystery afoot...OR somebody is fucking with the ship’s lettering as a prank, which is a plot point I would absolutely buy

yeahhhh skids is right, chromedome is clearly Not dealing

the dramatic graffiti on megatrons door...I wanna know who spray-painted ‘die’ everywhere like they're reaper overwatch

oh god. whirl vs megatron

really cool red lighting tho

GOD its so brutal, all the stuff megatron said about how he told the cons not to kill whirl...and doesn't that end up being false anyways? so he was just saying it to dig at whirl, which is awful

also I'm never over the fact that literally everyone - including megatron and whirl - blames whirl for ‘turning megatron violent,’ as if the entire Point isn't that whirl was a tool for a corrupt system, and if it wasn't whirl it would've just been someone else, and megatron turning away from pacifism was inevitable given the circumstances, AND also a choice on his part, so he really only has himself to blame for his OWN ACTIONS

bye bye whirls right arm, see you in lost light

‘people never stop changing’ that IS something I say all the time...damn you warlord grandpa! how can you steal my philosophies?!

ohhh man and then rewind’s goodbye message being different....oooh

AUGH the fact that whirl was basically trying to goad megatron into killing him, just like he did in issue 1 w/cyclonus...It Hurts Man

also I do love the hint at who he’s talking to w/whirl shooting megatron with the bow and arrow earlier, and we know that atomizer is a fan of those

ok, but here’s where my philosophy diverges - megatron talks about throwing away his past and starting new, but I think that you have to learn from and build on your past...either way, megatron’s arc is one that I enjoy greatly from a character writing standpoint, and I'm excited to get it underway, especially w/how controversial it is lmao

big ole double-page spread...I like how you can pick out individual characters in the background crowd, which is crazy cause that's a LOT of people. also how come cosmos is so HUGE

phewwww 4.6 billion cybertronians died in the war, that’s INSANE. that's like, an incomprehensibly huge number. is there an estimate for their current population? I bet its not a lot. no wonder jro leaned into reproductive themes so much in mtmte/ll - of course the continuation of your species would be a concern for many if your numbers have been that greatly reduced

optimus w/his fancy tyrest-lookin crown

oughdajbfsbdf and the fact that megatron ALSO murdered 100 BILLION non-cybertronians...bruh. I feel like they maybe should've dialed those numbers back a little to allow his ‘redemption arc’ to run a little smoother lmao. but also I admire the commitment either way

and then we end w/megatron doing captain stuff, and seeing The Coffin...and we never did see rodimus in any of the flash-forward parts of this issue, did we???? I love how concerning that is. where's my BOY

also of course we gotta remember the warning from way back at the beginning of mtmte: ‘don't open the coffin’....

and so begins mtmte s2! man I love s2. I love mtmte in general lmao. s2 takes on the impossible w/the whole ‘megatron redemption arc’ thing, and I know that’s like, a divisive plot point and stuff, but from a writing standpoint I enjoyed it a lot...I think it was pretty much as well done as it could've been given the enormity of the task, and I thought it was a really interesting direction for the story to go in

also espec if it’s true that hasbro was like ‘hey jro put megatron in your story and give him a redemption arc’ rather than jro like, planning/asking to do it

anyways. I doubt ill talk much abt the disc horse(tm) here bc this is just for fun and also my own personal opinions and whatever, but I for one am excited to reexperience this stuff

so yeah s2 off to a strong start with some wild shit already happening! cant wait to read more!

#lj rereads mtmte

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theleagueof13 · 4 years

Text

Rewriting the Entirety of SGE: The School Years

All of this is solely up to my own preference. Yes, some parts may be messy because I am inexperienced. I don’t even know what a plot is. Here we go.

I didn’t have any major problem with Book 1 until Agatha’s Glow Up, so we’re starting there.

Canon: Agatha realizes she was beautiful all along and literally two minutes later Tedros falls in love with her.

However, I think it would’ve been so much more impactful if she simply changed her perspective on her “ugliness” from a negative light to an objective standpoint.

We already know that Agatha is badass, so I think she should view herself that way. Insecurity is nothing if she amounts her features to the raw human ability that they possess. Her frame is tall and skinny because she’s athletic, her big eyes serve her the purpose of seeing. Agatha may not be pretty, but every bone in her body was made so that she could eat, breathe, laugh, fight, do parkour around School for Evil.

It’s obvious that Ever Girls only care about their appearance because they want to impress boys (in School for Girls, they are shown as letting themselves go). Agatha is characterized as having no interest in boys, and therefore she doesn’t need to be pretty in the first place. Now, I know that princesses need a prince in order to have their fairytale, but Agatha already thinks that’s bullshit -- why not go against it?

Also, this is extremely minor, but I'd rather have Agatha have some kind of deformity, like a cleft lip or crooked spine. It would really sell the idea that she was different. As a kid, even if Soman screamed in my face that Agatha was canonically ugly, I couldn’t imagine how she could be if the features she was described with were SO normal. Of course, her deformity remains throughout the book, because that is Not Cool if it’s magically removed.

I’ve said this before in my I Don’t Really Like Agatha post, and I’ll say it again. She is ungrateful for the opportunity she could have at School for Good. I’d literally kill to be there, I’d sit through every mind-numbing, subtly sexist class about smiling and posture just so I could practice magic, and I’m sure a lot of people think the same.

[edited: didn’t mean to sound so callous, it’s only an opinion]

Agatha isn’t even using this to expand her power. She uses her wish a total of 2 times in this book, and it’s not like she didn’t have time to use it. It’s disappointing.

So, imagine that Agatha just GRINDS in her school-work. Sure, she fails the challenges related to Strategic Blushing and Matching Outfits, but everything else she excels. At first she just didn’t want to be turned into a plant, she was only studying to survive. Now, it’s more than that.

Agatha is introduced as having a fondness for villains, and it’s apparent that beauty is irrelevant in their success stories. Although she is hurt when Sophie alludes to how she’d “fit in” with the immature, trigger-happy Nevers, she can apply those values of dismissing outer appearances while still being Good. It’s not as if Agatha is greedy or deceitful. She saves the Wish Fish, forgives Sophie countless times, and doesn’t do anything outright vicious. There’s no reason to question that she’s NOT a Never. She can be ugly and an Ever at the same time, wasn’t that the original message?

Hypothetically, she gains more knowledge and strength in spells and potions and such, and just like Sophie, even if everyone doubted her, she could rise through the ranks. There’s no point in worrying about your looks when you’re the most powerful girl in school. (Did I make Agatha too close to Evil? Maybe. But she doesn’t need to push people down to bring herself up, she’s just a natural like that.)

Also, if she needs a boy to ask her out to the Snow Ball, she 100% hates that. She could just talk to Dovey, are they really gonna fail the baddest bitch there?

No. They’re not.

Okay, here’s the biggest part that everyone will hate me for. No Tagatha. At least, not until TLEA.

When Agatha comes out of the Groom Room having just kickstarted her self-esteem and everyone’s drooling, Tedros is attracted to her instantly. I guess that’s fine. Reasonable. But consider this:

Agatha doesn’t love Tedros back.

When Tedros asks her out at the Circus of Talents, she declines. Because if she really knew her own worth, she wouldn’t say yes before making friends with him first. That’s only fair. Actually, I’d say a part of insecurity is settling for any guy who gives you attention (aka Tedros). Y'all are gonna hit me with the damning “We accept the love we think we deserve”.

EVEN IF SHE BELIEVES SHE DESERVES HIM NOW, IT DOESN’T MEAN SHE’LL JUMP AT THE CHANCE TO DATE HIM. THAT’S MESSED UP.

Okay, I know Sophie threw her bitch fit because Agatha was being a hypocrite and dating Tedros. So, tweak that and have Sophie throw a bitch fit simply because Tedros asked Agatha out in the first place. That still makes sense with her entitled selfish personality.

In the stupid war of Evers and Nevers, (which was like, strange considering they’re kids but they’ll have a similar conflict for the next two years), Tedros and Agatha are not together. You could throw in a bit of “Tedros wants to prove to Agatha he’s a hero” but for god’s sakes we are NOT putting in that little chauvinistic “how dare a princess question me”. That one line gave me a bad feeling about Tedros — foreshadowing for AWWP? And it’s crazy that Soman wrote that, along with his lack of brain cells. Are you trying to make readers bully him in memes and instagram group chats? Not from personal experience.

Oh, and this is more of a complaint. But, why did Soman make Sophie bald, pockmarked, and toothless in her transformation of embracing Evil? I thought this was about breaking stereotypes.

The Evil stigma that’s drilled in their heads about being pretty and in general taking care of yourself, is completely inane to me. I can’t believe that Sophie’s “trickery” of Tedros was so revolutionary. None of the Nevers, in 200 years, thought of that?

Instead of her beauty regressing, I’d actually want it to be heightened. It’s what set her apart from the Nevers the moment she walked in. It should be the icing on top of the cake. When Sophie is at her peak of power, she’s a princess. Who could kill you.

If you’re worried about reducing women to be pretty objects or seductresses, stop. It’s okay. Sophie has other powers like summoning ravens, wasps, locusts, bats, using her singing voice for torture, and she is skilled in curses and death traps. In short, the Hot Evil Lady trope works for her. (I think. Someone correct me.)

At the end of SGE, Agatha chooses Sophie over Tedros. Needless to say, Tedros feels betrayed. If you wanted to make him an idiot, with anger issues, daddy issues, and an inferiority complex, this is the easiest way out. He’s under the misguided impression that Agatha belongs with him simply because 1. He loves her. 2. He’s the prince of Camelot, damnit. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?

Not to mention that his father pressured him not to make the same mistake. And Tedros thinks that School for Good is his pool of suitors since Arthur married his classmate Guinevere? There is no line of logic in this man at all, did you miss the part where Guinevere cheats and runs away? Maybe Ever Girls isn’t the only place you should look! There are thousands of other girls in the Woods and you intend to find your soulmate at 14?? Goddamn.

In conclusion, Tedros’ hurt feelings continue to AWWP. Easy.

And if y’all gonna come for me about how Tedros is easily swayed by looks (he’s convinced that Sophie and Agatha are in the wrong schools for half the book) I’d want to make him a bit smarter. I know that’s impossible.

In canon, Tedros turns on Sophie because her true colors showed, and her witchy phase gives him that confirmation bias. He goes feral with testosterone and heroism, as we know.

I’d like him to understand that just because his solely physical attraction to Sophie grew when she’s evil and pretty, it doesn’t mean that she’s not any less dangerous. If Tedros, of all people, learns the difference between appearances vs reality, it would really drive the point home.

All right. You’re still here?

Here’s some extra headcanons you could add in here and here.

In the meantime I’ll think of more.

If there were any hard-hitting themes I was supposed to include, please tell me, I usually gloss over them while reading.

But anyway, thanks for reading this far.

#The School for Good and Evil #School for Good #School for Evil

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mirkwoodshewolf · 5 years

Text

Summer horror; Roger Taylor x reader

*Author’s note*

Hey all for my fellow American followers I hope you all are having a happy and safe 4th of July. Having lots of food and watching the fireworks and spending time with your families. Now in honor of what Starz has done by giving us a full 24hr marathon of all the JAWS movies, I have been working on this little fic thinking that since Queen were working on ‘A Night at the Opera’ at the same time this movie premiered so I figured why the hell not? So warnings consist of swearing, mentions of the movie and in case any of you haven’t seen the movie then there are spoilers of JAWS in this story. Hope you all enjoy it :)

Queen/Permanent taglist:

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@geek-and-proud

@queendeakyy

@coolcxt

__________________________________________________________

I don’t know how my cousin managed to convince me to watch this movie. He had said that this was probably the most horrifying movie he had ever seen and since he and I always love to compare and talk about all things horror, he told me I needed to see this movie.

Steven Spielberg’s biggest summer hit that’s hit the box office in America, a film known as JAWS.

Since Roger and the boys were away recording their album “A Night at the Opera” I needed something to watch so I had managed to buy me a ticket to the next evening showing of the movie. Little did I know just what I was getting myself into.

The ominous theme song of the shark potentially coming out, the gruesome detail of the killings, and of course that shocking jump scare with that head in the boat. Literally I had never heard an entire audience scream all at once than at that moment of the picture. Of course when Brody shot the shark, the audience was in a roar of applause and I’ve never seen a theater audience act like that before.

Let’s just say that…..after seeing that movie I will never think of the beach no scratch that any large body of water that isn’t a bathtub the same way again. Because unlike movies like “The Exorcist” or “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, this is something that is based on fact.

With a degree in marine biology I knew that sharks have been known to attack people and there have been such famed attacks in America, Australia and in the bottom coast of Africa, and of course there the true story of the USS Indianapolis during WW2. So to see a movie be made to this degree, it was just—horrifying to see.

As I went home I didn’t think I could go to sleep. The phone rang which made me jump in my seat.

“Bloody hell.” I picked up the phone and said, “Hello?”

‘So how’d you like it?’ My cousin’s voice spoke up.

“Elliot I swear to god next time I see you, I’m going to fucking kill you!” I hissed. He laughed and I said, “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself right now.”

‘Geez (n/n) and I thought a Marine biologist like yourself would love a movie like that?’

“Well…..not anymore. In fact I think I may just change my major now because of you arsehole.”

‘Hey don’t blame me. I didn’t make the movie, nor did I write the book.’ I groaned and he continued, ‘and besides aunt (m/n) would throw a fit if you were to change your major now. Don’t you only have one more semester to go before your graduate. Changing now would be pointless.’

“You’re an idiot.” I muttered and of course he just laughed.

‘You know you love me, and when I come back into town we’re both going to see it together this time.’

“Fuck no! I am never watching that film again!!”

‘Says the girl who watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre three times when it came out.’

“Whatever you saw it five times you psychopath.”

‘Sociopath actually. Alright you nerd we’ll talk later, I need to head to bed. Got an early conference tomorrow. Talk to you later kiddo.’

“Sleep tight El.”

‘Will do, you sleep tight and don’t let the sharks bite.’

“Fuck you.” He laughed once more before I hung up the phone and just cuddled on the couch clinging onto the blankets. God I really wish Roger was here right now, his hugs always made me feel better and boy did I need them right now. Since it was so late and I began to grow tired no matter how much I tried to fight it, soon I found myself asleep.

There was nothing but murky blue right before my eyes. I was trapped in what looked like a shark cage, the metal bars being my only source of protection. Then suddenly out of nowhere, I saw it coming.

A giant great white shark probably the same size as the one from the movie. It swam right past me, allowing me to see it’s large size, the lifeless black eye just staring straight ahead as it swam by, then as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared into the ocean.

I didn’t know what to do. I had nothing on me to protect me, no knife, gun, or even spear. All I had was this cage that seemed to have no way out. I kept my eyes forward and was frantically looking around hoping to find it. Suddenly I was jerked forward as I felt something bump the cage from behind.

I began to panic as I saw right behind me swimming away was the tail of the great white. It circled below the cage before coming right back for me. It’s large mouth gaped open exposing the rows upon rows of teeth. It banged against the cage creating an even bigger dent than it first left.

Oh my god this shark was actually trying to eat me. I tried to find a way out of the cage but there was no way out, the top was bolted shut and I couldn’t curl up because the cage wasn’t big enough for me to try and escape without risking getting caught by the shark’s mouth. My heart felt like it was going to explode as it relentlessly rammed the cage until it was just big enough for it to finally swallow me whole.

I shot up panting, sweat dripping down my face. It was then I began to hear the sound of my phone ringing once again. I looked at my overhead clock to see that it was 2:30am. I picked it up and tried to say with a steady tone.

“Hello?”

‘Hey love.’ Oh thank god! It was Roger.

“Roger!”

‘Hello my love, are you okay you sound a bit frantic?’ I placed my hand over my heart and wiped away my tears and choked out.

“I’m fine Roggie.”

‘You sure? You sound like you’ve been crying. Don’t tell me you’re missing me already?’ to get my mind off of my nightmare I went ahead and lied.

“Yes, that’s exactly it.”

‘Aww love we already talked about this. The only person who should be missing the other more is me. You broke your promise, now you’ll have to pay the toll.’

“Okay. I’ll take some time off of work to come with you guys on your next tour.”

‘Yes!’ he cheered and I swore I could hear him fist pump the air. ‘So sorry to be calling you so late, hope I didn’t wake you.’

“You’re fine I was—talking with Elliot anyways.”

‘Ahh so what’s that old bastard been up to lately huh?’ I shook my head. See Roger and my cousin had been friends for years ever since grade school, in fact that’s how we met and eventually Elliot played matchmaker/tormentor toward us by the time we were all in high school.

“He’s currently away on business for his company in Athens. But hopefully he’ll be back in a week or so.”

‘Ohh fancy, lucky bitch gets to go everywhere.’

“Well he is the CEO of his company. But what about you? How’s the album coming along? You and the guys playing nice?”

‘Yes we are.’ But the way his tone was, it sounded like it wasn’t.

“What happened?”

‘Damn your keen senses.’ He teased and I chuckled softly. ‘I’ll tell you later, I only called to tell you that since the album is coming along so well, we’re relocating to another place just for some downtime and I want to invite you there.’

“And just where is this place at?”

‘Ridge farm studios. A nice family owns the place, it’s supposed to be a lot more open and more things to do than here at Rockfield. Think you can make it?’

“I think I might just be able to do that.” I heard Roger cheer and he told me of the address of the farm and we ended our conversation. As I hung up the phone my mind went back to my nightmare so I kept the lamp on just so that I knew I was on dry land and not surrounded by water with a man eating shark about to eat me.

The next morning I began packing my things for the trip. I was hoping on staying maybe a couple weeks but knowing Roger he’d try to convince me to stay the whole time they were there so I packed about five weeks’ worth of clothes. Once I had everything packed, I took out my map and began to trace the route I would need to take to get to the farm.

Once that was done, I loaded my car and got on the road. It took pretty much all day to get out of London and out into the country field of Capel. It was probably 4 maybe 5 o’clock by the time I reached the farm and there waiting outside on the porch was none other than Roger.

As soon as he saw my car pull up, he stood up from the front steps and waved at me. I parked my car along the driveway and turned the engine off. I got out of my car and sighed exasperatedly.

“If I didn’t love you so much, I never would drive out this far, or for this long.”

“Ahh but you do love me.” He said as he came up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He leaned his forehead against mine as he swayed me from side to side.

“That I do.”

“And I’m grateful for that,” he cupped the side of my face and stroked my cheekbone with his thumb as he continued, “I’m so happy you came. I’ve missed holding you in my arms, I’ve missed seeing you first thing in the morning, missed these eyes, those lips.” I chuckled softly and said.

“Who would’ve thought Roger Taylor was such a softy.” I teased.

“You made me this way. You’re such a bad influence on me love.” He moaned as he soon captured my lips with his.

“Look who’s talking? Mr. ‘I want to have sex almost everywhere in the house’.” I spoke out between kisses.

“Shhh, don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy it.” He whispered seductively as he began kissing down my neck. I breathed out a soft moan as I treaded my fingers through my boyfriend’s silk smooth blonde hair.

“If you’re going to be doing any of that Roger, I would suggest getting a room first.” We looked up and there were the rest of the Queen boys.

“Screw the lot of yah. I hadn’t seen my girl in months. SO if you don’t want to watch, then look away.” I hit Roger on the chest which made him both laugh and cry out in mock pain. “Ow love that hurt!”

“Then don’t say stuff like that around me.” Freddie chuckled and was the first to come up and greet me with a hug and peck on both cheeks.

“Welcome darling, oh it’s been too long. Why don’t you visit us anymore?”

“Sorry Fred, been trying to finish up my degree before I finally graduate.”

“Oh wow you’re nearly done. Congratulations (y/n).” Brian spoke up next.

“Thanks Bri, and it was about damn time too. Six years of school is too damn long.”

“I’ll bet.” Deacy soon spoke up. I walked over to him and we both hugged each other. Since Deacy and I were the same age with me being a few months older than him, we grew close to each other. He was my confidant, my partner in crime, my sidekick especially when it came to messing with the others.

We were like the troublemakers of the group behind the scenes, both quiet and reserved until we decide to strike. And when you get both of us putting our devious brains together, watch out.

“Well now that you’re here, Roger will actually begin to behave for once.” Freddie proclaimed.

“What did he do? He mentioned something briefly over the phone last night and now I’d like to know what it was?”

“Back at Rockfield he decided it was best to lock himself up in a cupboard in protest.” Deacy explained. I turned to Roger and he only replied.

“They wouldn’t do my song.”

“And what song would that be?” I asked.

“‘I’m in love with my car’.” Brian answered. I then looked at Roger offended and I said.

“So, which car do I have to smash?”

“The song’s about you!” he exclaimed.

“Oh so that’s all I am to you? A machine? That’s it from now on I’m Brian’s girl. Brian c’mere please.” He gladly came over and swept me off me feet as Roger just gawked at us.

Later that day after getting settled into our rooms, of course I shared a room with Roger (who else would I do share one with?) we were all gathered around the kitchen eating our late lunch/supper with Deacy cooking.

“Mm Deacy I swear Veronica is one lucky lady.” I praised.

“Thank you love.”

“You on the other hand need to learn how to cook.” I said to Roger.

“I tried to. But you shouldn’t be so cute then I wouldn’t be distracted.”

“Roger who burns a boiled egg?” he playfully shoved my shoulder and said.

“Alright then you don’t get any snuggles and kisses tonight.” I gaped at him but just before I could retort back, Freddie’s spoke up.

“My darlings they’ve got a pool here, let’s all eat by the poolside and then go swimming.”

“Fred you know you’re supposed to wait an hour before swimming right?”

“Oh poppycock my darlings, let’s go!” As we were now by the poolside, I stared down at the water and couldn’t help but freeze. My nightmare soon came flashing before my eyes, as well as the opening scene of JAWS.

“(Y/n). (Y/n)!” I snapped out of my daze and turned to see Roger standing beside me. “You okay love?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”

“You sure? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“No Rog, I promise I’m fine.” I said as I cupped the side of his face. He held my hand in his and kissed my palm.

“If you’re sure. But you know you can tell me anything yeah?” I nodded and kissed his cheek before sitting myself at the table to finish eating my potato salad. After we ate, the boys all began swimming.

Roger and Fred were mostly roughhousing around in the pool, while Deacy and Brian were on inner tubes. I on the other hand was lying along one of the pool chairs and chose to get some sun rather than going in the water. The guys seemed okay with it for awhile but soon Roger got too impatient.

“C’mon (n/n) just come in already!”

“No I already told you Rog I don’t want to go in!”

“Why not?”

“Cause I just put some suntan lotion on, you know I’ve got to wait at least 30 minutes before I go in.”

“Now that I know is a lie.” He proclaimed. I flipped him off and put my sunglasses back over my eyes and just lay back down against the chair. A few minutes later something was blocking my sun. I looked up and the next thing I knew I was being picked up.

“Roger! What the hell Rog!? Let go of me!”

“Nope not till you get your pretty little butt into the water.” Oh shit no.

“Roger I swear to god if you throw me in I’ll—” I began kicking and punching him trying to get out of his arms but he kept a strong grip on me and soon I was submerged into the deep end of the pool.

I opened my eyes and I swore I saw a shark-shape like figure in the water and I began panicking. Frantically splashing around trying to get back up to the surface but I was only drowning myself further. I soon felt something grab onto me and I let out a scream allowing water into my lungs before I was pulled back up to the surface. I let out a cough and horrifying scream as I lashed out at whatever was grabbing onto me.

“(Y/n)! (Y/n)! (Y/n)! (Y/n)! It’s okay, it’s okay it’s me love, it’s me.” But I couldn’t hear the voice as I was now being pulled out of the water and back onto solid ground. I felt a towel being wrapped around me as Roger’s voice spoke up.

“Love are you okay I am so sorry I—I didn’t mean to…..”

“JUST STAY AWAY FROM ME!! ALL OF YOU!! Please I—I…..” I soon began weeping hysterically on the ground.

Later that night I didn’t even come out of my room. I kept it locked and refused to come out and confront the boys, hell I didn’t allow Roger to even come in and change, he could just sit there dripping wet for all I care and think about what he’s done.

I soon heard a soft knock at the door and Roger’s voice soon said.

“(Y/n)? Love?” I didn’t answer him, “Look I—I’m so sorry for what happened back at the pool. I know you’re probably still angry, you have every right to be.” He paused midsentence I guess waiting for me to answer but he continued, “You don’t have to answer. What I did was a—dick move and I shouldn’t have done it. Brian, Deacy and Fred threatened me with murder if I didn’t come up and fix this.” Thanks guys. “I uhh—I bought you your favorite chocolates. There was a candy store nearby, quaint little place and I feared they wouldn’t have it but they did.”

Oh Roger. He willingly went out and bought my favorite chocolates. But it wasn’t his fault. I’ve been thinking about it and I shouldn’t be putting the blame on him. After all he didn’t know about the movie, he didn’t know that I was still scared about the movie so how could he have known that water suddenly became my number 1 fear now.

“I know it probably isn’t much right now but I hope it at least shows you how much I love you. I just—wanted to spend time with my mermaid. But I went about it the wrong way.” Mermaid. Huh? Hadn’t heard him call me that in a long time, not since our first date when we snuck into the community pool. “Can you—please just open the door? I want to see you, I want to hold you and comfort you.” I silently walked towards the door but I didn’t open it as I heard Roger’s solemn voice say, “Nothing?” he sighed, “Okay love. I won’t bug you anymore. I’ll just—leave these here for you. Bye.”

I opened the door.

I saw that he was just a few feet away from the door and he turned around to see me.

“Hi.” He said nervously.

“Hi.” I whimpered.

“Oh lovely come here.” We walked up toward each other and he embraced me. Rubbing my back in soothing circles with my head resting against his chest listening to his heartbeat. “You’re really starting to scare me (y/n), what happened back there?”

“Shark.” I muttered.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Shark.” I said a little bit louder.

“A shark?” I nodded confirming what I had said. “Did you—see a shark?”

“I thought I did I—this is stupid forget I said anything.”

“No, no, no, no. It’s not stupid. Anything that scares my girl is serious. Why did you think you saw a shark in the pool?”

“Because—because of a movie I watched while you were away.”

“And what movie was that?”

“It was a new movie. American director Steven Spielberg, he made a movie called…..JAWS.”

“Wait I think I remember that title? Yeah the theater near here was promoting it while we were filling up the car with gas.” I looked down shamefully. “But I thought you and Elliot always liked talking about those horror films?”

“But this one was different. It—it showed me just how dangerous the ocean can be.”

“But that’s just it. The ocean. Sharks can’t get into a pool, I doubt they’d find chlorine pleasant.”

“Roger this is serious!” He grinned and said.

“I know, I’m sorry. Here hug me tighter love.” I squeezed him as tight as I could and he did the same thing. “You know that I would never let anything harm you, right?” I nodded in his chest.

“I know, but the nightmare I has last night was—”

“Hold up, you had a nightmare last night? That’s why you sounded out of sorts?” I shamefully nodded. “Oh love why didn’t you just tell me over the phone?”

“Because I didn’t want to worry or bother you—”

“You are never a bother to me. There’s nothing in this whole world that matters to me more than you. Even the band.”

“Wow I feel special.”

“And you should.” He pecked the top of my head as he rubbed my back once more. We stayed in each other’s arms for a bit longer and he proceeded, “You know that I would never let anything harm my baby girl right? I’m much scarier than anything that could do you harm.” I giggled and said.

“No you’re not.”

“What? Baby I totally am. Haven’t you seen me when I go into my rage modes? Remember the Rainbow back in November?” I did actually remember that but of course I wasn’t gonna let him win.

“Don’t recall that.”

“Okay then, maybe this will refresh your mind.” Much like he did back at the pool, he tossed me over his shoulder and walked us into our bedroom shutting the door. He flopped me down on the bed, I tried to get away but he captured me by imprisoning my legs with his, tangling our limbs together and wrapped his arms around my waist trapping my arms.

I couldn’t stop giggling as I soon felt Roger nuzzle into my neck, moaning softly occasionally kissing along my neck but not in the pleasurable kind of way, more of the tickly way.

“Roger….stop it.”

“Oh does it tickle?” smug little shit he knew it did. “How about if I do this?” I then felt him tickle my ribs which elicited shrieks out of me. “Oh don’t you squirm away from me little missy. Come back here you.” He pulled me back as I had tried to squirm out of his embrace and he proceeded to now tickle my stomach as well as raspberry my neck.

“Ahh Rog! Okay! Okay! I yield I yield!”

“You gonna say it now?” he mocked as he now hovered over me.

“Roger Taylor is the scariest and toughest being in the whole world.”

“And don’t you forget it lovie.” He gingerly pecked my nose and said, “In all seriousness love. I won’t let anything real or supernatural hurt you. No ghosts, vampires, werewolves, aliens, serial killers, kidnappers, nothing.”

“And sharks?” I asked worriedly.

“Especially not sharks. I’ll beat them all to a bloody pulp if they even think about eating my girl. I’m the only one who can do that.” He winked at me and grinned cheekily at me. I slapped his chest as he laughed and held me close. “Try to get some sleep love, I’ll protect you. And if you have another nightmare, just wake me up, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you Roger, for everything.”

“Anytime my love.” He kissed my lips gingerly and whispered, “I love you.”

“I love you too.” We cuddled close together and soon we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

#bohemian rhapsody #bohemian rhapsody imagines #bohemian rhapsody movie #bohemian rhapsody imagine #bohemian rhapsody x reader #roger taylor #roger taylor imagine #roger taylor imagines #roger taylor x reader #queen #queen fanfic #queen imagine #queen imagines #ben hardy!roger taylor imagine #ben hardy!roger taylor x reader #ben hardy!roger taylor #ben hardy!roger taylor imagines #ben hardy!roger x reader

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redpaperowl · 4 years

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10/10

Tagged by @sunshineomeara :)

1. What’s your favorite season to write? I like writing scenes set in the autumn or the winter, the colour changes and the cold and bits... URGH. Love it. Get me those dark nights and candles.

2. How do you feel about fanfiction of your work? fan art? Hahaha, love it. One of my friends has already done fan art of my writing which means everything (I have a mug with two of my babies and wall art she’s made - using the mug as I type) and I’ve written fanfic on her books (smutty ship fic for a ship that she swears will never be cannon. One can dream. Once she gets published I’m totally posting the fic, actually pretty proud of it).

3. What’s your biggest writing pet peeve? Be it your writing or things you’ve read Errrrr, not going into enough detail I guess? Like if something jumps around a lot without following some sort of flow I’m not going to be able to follow it.

4. All-time favourite troupe(s) to read/writer I mean I guess a major theme in my writing is pining... This guy is immortal and misses his wife. This moron is in love with his childhood best friend who he betrayed. This gal and guy are in love but they never admitted it and now its gone on for years and they’ve both changed so much and they’re too proud to say anything. This guy left his girl to save her life and now she’s in a quandary because he never actually explained himself so she’s angry and missing him but he can’t go back and explain that he’s aligned himself with people she hates in case she hates him. These two idiots nearly died from a bear attack years ago, got married and STILL pine for each other even in the same room together. So yeah, I guess pining.

5. Biggest recommendation to any writer Let people read it. Its scary. But if you find someone who likes your stuff its like an addiction. The motivation is unreal.

6. Writing font? Whatever word opens in.

7. If you could crossover with any show/movie/book with any wip what would it be? Ummmm... I don’t even know. I have two friends who also write and we joke around a lot about if our characters met - Would create some interesting dynamics to say the least.

8. Least favorite thing you’ve been forced to read Oh god I can’t even think of titles but some of the stuff I read in undergrad was DRY. Like not all of it I love my boy Cicero for example, but some of it OH MY GAWD.

9. Would you prefer live-action or animated adaptations of your wips? Live-action.

10. When did you last hydrate? Drinking tea right now.

My questions: 1. What’s your favourite line you’ve written so far? 2. Which character came the fuck out of no where and has completely taken over your writing and forced themselves into a main character role? 3. Which of your characters do you channel the most in real life and which particular traits of yours do they have? 4. Which of your characters do you like the least (or straight up don’t like... I have one I don’t like)? Why? 5. Do you have celebrities in mind for a film adaption? Who do you wanna cast? 6. What music do you listen to (if any) when you write? 7. What was the last line you wrote? 8. Are your stories one-off books or do you have sequels planned? How many? 9. Who would you trust to direct a film version of your WIP? 10. Who would you want creating the soundtrack for your WIP?

Tagging the lovely @athena1138 @writeouswriter and also knocking the ball back to your court @sunshineomeara

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Top 8 Worst Christmas Episodes

Happy Holidays everybody! If your wondering where i’ve been.. i’ve been a combination of swamped with holiday activity, and just plain activity, and procastinating on getting content out for this blog.. but i’m kicking myself to actually get in gear. And I can’t think of a better reason than the holidays. I love this time of year, while it can be physically and financially exhausting, people can act like rabid wildebeasts in stores, and there’s no end of jackasses who refuse to accept that Christmas isn’t the only holiday in town and that it’s perfectly fine if people want to you know, celebrate something else. But beneath it all is heart: giving gifts to people you love out of the kindness of your heart, beautiful decorations put up with care and holiday warmth, people freezing their asses off for charity everywhere.. there’s a lot of good done and a lot of good underneath. And part of that good is Christmas Episodes. I do love me a good holiday episode and there’s been plenty of great Christmas epsidoes with a few Hannkuah and Kwanza ones thrown in. But for the mountain of presents of episodes, that we will get to, there’s also a small pile of cole that’s become sentient and stalks me every holiday season.. my meataphor may of gotten off track but the point is out of the VAST majority of good to decent holiday episdoeds there’s a handful I just.. flat out hate. ones that either miss the point, are unecessarily cruel and not nearly funny enough about it, or ones that are simply bad episodes of their show that happen to be christmasy. SO let us unwrap the pauly shore of christmas gifts, these are my 8 most hated christmas episodes.. and this is just episodes of ongoing shows, not specials (Though the episode being longer than usual is fine). Otherwise number one would be that time Chewy’s family killed time while his wife’s dad masturbated. As for why 8, my lists on this blog will vary based on need and I could only find 8 I TRULY loathed.. I didn’t want to pad the bottom of the list with mediocre episodes... only the cream of the crap and my christmas fury here. Now that’s out of the way, let’s ho ho go. P.S. No the brooklyn nine nine episode is not on the list, I just love tha timage and felt it fit.

8. The Finster Who Stole Christmas (All Grown Up) This is by far the tamest on the list. I don’t hate All Grown Up. It is a confused shows (with early middle schoolers acting like high schoolers and what not), but it’s just medicore at worst outside of a few episodes. This one though.. is just bleh. Chucky\ finds a tree on the street that’s perfect, wanting to have a memorable christmas for once. HE takes it home, thinking it’s abandoned, and it’s instead thought to be stolen and we spend a whole epsidoe watching a fucking 12 year old slowly be consumed by guilt.. I hate these kinds of plots. it’s one thing if the character genuinely fucked up or you mine some humor out of it, but it’s a nother when a character genuinely made a mistake and is instead internally tourtured. All the kid wanted was a tree.. he was kind of an idiot but the amount of vitrol over someone TAKING A TREE OFF THE STREET THA TWAS UNMARKED AND YOU DIDN’T TAKE INSIDE. is baffling.

7. Merry Christmas Mordecai (Regular Show) I do like Regular Show. While i’ve latched on to other shows far more, I still enjoyed the show and was a huge fan of it for some time.. this is the episode that killed that. The reason it’s lower is as an episode, it’s only the last two minutes or so that’s truly terrible, but GOD I hate this episode with every fiber of my being.. .the arc would get MUCH worse, but this did kick it off and turn me off the show for some time, though I did come back by the final season so there’s that. The plot is simple: Mordecai is nervous because his ex Margret will be at the same party he’ll be with his new girlfriend CJ. Things go fine, it’s awkard but whatever.. and then he has a flashback.. and KISSES HIS EX , PASSOINATLEY AS SEEN ABOVE, in FRONT of his new girlfriend. The hero of our show, who was kinda shitty early on but that was ironed out by this point, cheated... and ruined a relationship I happened to really like. The problems of this arc are deep, vast and will require their own article some day, but yeah.. this one scene ruins the episode and set off one of the worst romantic plot tumors i’ve seen in a show and is so nonesnical , yes I get getting swept up in old emotions but you still cheated dum dum, I can’t help but put the whole episode here. It’s like a tootsie pop but the center is somehow full of bees: sure you enjoyed it but the amount of beestings in your mouth will make you hate the experince anyway. That said I will leave this clusterfuck on this blessed image because fuck if it can take it away from me.

Thank god they didn’t ruin these two for me.

6. Doug’s Christmas Story (Doug (Nickleodeon Run)

Only 90′s kids will rue the day this episode was born. Doug was mostly a bland and forgetable show.. but this episode is just unspeakably depressing. The premise is Doug’s dog, porkchop, saves local rich kid Bebe from thin ice, she thought he bit him.. and doug’s dog gets put on trial and SENTENCED TO DEATH AT THE POUND. Despite the fact the thin ice sign is clearly there, and this is a GROSS over reaction to a leg injury that wasn’t even caused by the biting. Porkchop knocked her down he didn’t tear off her leg or something.. the ep is lower because it IS well voice acted, but good acting only makes it that much more heartwrenching and makes me question WHY THIS for the christmas story. It’s not a TERRIBLE idea for a story, but for an episode your going to play every year ,epseically for a young network such as nick who only had three shows to start and thus would need this in rotation for some time, WHY would anyone think “Dog gets sentenced to murder for doing something good” , even if it turns around in the ending, is something people would want to SEE every year. Just a poorly written tear jerker that , while thankfully far away from my own nieces where it can’t scar them for life, will likely never leave my memory.

5. Stump Day (Star vs the Forces of Evil) Oh god this one.. while the top 4 are far worse, this one is still ungodly aggravating. It DOES have a good joke at the begining. Kid: Uncle River can you tell us the story of stump day? River: (Jovially) Ha ha ha, you don’t tell me what to do! (Tells story anyway) But after that... ti’s the story of Marco throwing Star a birthday party on Stump Day, Mewni’s christmas. As someone who has a birthday near a holiday, if not on one, I do sympathize. All your present days and celebration are crammed into one tight period. Marco means well and gathers all her friends, and her boyfriend tom.. and star flips out not wanting to piss off the stump. So far no bad... Marco meant well but didn’t know how much she cared, Even though Tom warned him I do get star being unpredictable and thus taking the shot anyway.. then he INSISITS on having the party anyway, and has the fucking BALLS to call tom a bad boyfriend when tom eventually calls him out on wanting to keep it going. Especially since Marco COULD’VE just made it into a holiday party to make her happy without sending everyone home. But no he had to be a selfish, entitled dick weed. While tom DOES lunge at marco after Marco calls him a bad boyfriend, Marco again went FAR out of linea nd insulted his own friend because he’s jealous Tom’s with star, and he’s not. ANd then a stump attacks... and then TOM’S forced to apologize. For attacking marco, yeaht hat’s fair but for being a bad boyfriend? No... Marco was the dick and he basically wins anyway despite agian, a simple solution being right there. Let’s move on.

4. Road to the North Pole (Family Guy) Oh boy this one.. this was at the tale end of my watching Family Guy, before “Quagmire’s Dad” out and out pissed me off enough to finally leave, being you know a transphobic mess i’ll defintley talk about in the future, but this was close: An uncomfortable, unfunny christmas special that starts with Quagmire being overly hostile to Brian for a mistake he couldn’t have possibly known about and continues into a trip to the North Pole where the elves have become deformed due to industralization and Santa is deathly ill and Stewie and Brian have to convince people to ask for less to save him. The IDEA here is not bad, and after this and the doug entries I want to make something clear: dark, twisted, messed up... these are not bad things for a christmas special to be. Futrama’s two christmas episodes , and to a lesser extent it’s one holdiay episode, are really funny and this trinity’s going to war from the movie is a holiday staple to me.

youtube

See that’s some good all inclusive holiday hilarity that’s patently messed up.. and a emotinal holiday story with some dark themes? also works... King of the HIll had a whole episode where bill was sucidial before taking on the persona of his ex wife that was damn good, having some humor while still having a fairly depressing story with a solid emotional core. You CAN be dark , subversive.. but you have to have a point. Doug was bad because it leaned too far into the misery and that’s what ultimatley hobbles this episode too. You have to have SOMETHING to make people invested besides holding a gun to their dog’s head or KILLING SANTA. This ep has a godo concept, santa having to industralize to keep up and slowly growing exausted or sick from it.. it’s not bad at all.. but the ep takes it too far and dosen’t have enough emotion to it to brign us back from the brink. It’s especially galling since family guy had DONE a christmas episode in it’s earlier, better seasons, that was far better than this, so while I don’t fault them for wanting to do a second one I DO fault them for doing it so poorly and wasting a potetinally tearjerking and well done concept on a crappy meanspirited wasted hour of my life.. because oh yes, this was an hourlong special. Ho ho hum.

3. Miracle on Evergreen Terrace (The Simpsons) This one MEANS well but just ends up misrable. The premise isnt’ TERRIBLE: Bart burns down the christmas decorations, fakes a robbery and then feels really guilty as the family is helped by those around them. The issue is when Bart is found out, while his family is furious the town ALL shuns the simpsons with pure hatred, and later robs their house and leaves them with nothing. It’s not an episode i have TONS to say on like those above and bellow, it’s just miserable... and like I ranted about before black comedy can work but this took it too far: most of the simpsons did nothing wrong and bart was throughly punished with his heavy amount of guilt. The show already did “Bart feel sbad after doing something awful at christmas time” FAR BETTER in “Marge not be proud” which, while one I don’t really watch because it is hard to watch at times, is still excellent and Is hard to watch for the RIGHT reasons instead of just being mean spirited. Now from mean spirited to .. I dont’ even know with this one.

2.. Mrs. Wakefield (King of the HIll) What a shock, ANOTHER show I really like that had a terrible episode. No really most of these shows I liked at some point. That includes the top 2, King of the Hill, especially towards the end, had some really bad ones, and a really REALLY weird one that played out like a psyological horror film and ended with a mentally damaged man turned into sausage, yes really, and this one is no exception. Mrs. Wakefield is the story of an old woman who grew up in the hills house.. and wants to die there... just stay until she dies. I get being lonely during the holidays, which is the given reason why she’s really doing this she’s cripplilngly alone: being alone sucks. I know this, I understand this.. but it still dosen’t mean you can die in someone’s house. That’s a traumatlizing pile of stuff your foisting on people you barely know and Hank keeps getting vialnized for throwing her out by the neighbors.. for NOT WANTING SOMEONE TO DIE IN HIS HOUSE. And later it gets to the point where she’s playing hider in the house and hiding in there trying to die.. what COULD be kinda funny in a twisted way just ends up being creepy. And again this episode had what was essentially a horror story about Luann marrying an older man who slowly moldeed her into the mascot for his company, chased her and peggy around in a pig mask, then got cured of his psychosis just in time to end up as sausage. And yes that was a real thing that happened. They probably shouldn’t do horror but they can do it but here it’s just dumb. Also for those curious while I haven’t seen it hider in the house is a film i’ve heard of about a man who lives in the walls of a house and stalks the suburban family that moves in to no one’s shock, it stars gary busey. I would also not be suprised if that was his life right now. But busey aside, this episode is terrible and like family guy after it and simpsons before it, King of The Hil lhad several stellar holiday episodes and as I mentioned made suicide and devloping a split personality into comedy while still keeping the drama so this.. this is inexcusable. Speaking of inexusable

1. A Robot for All Seasons (My Life as a Teenage Robot) Oh my aching head this one.... yeah this one somehow COMBINES problems from above with it’s own bundle. It has the tonal issues most of these have, being far too bleak without any real effort to back it up.. but it also makes the ENTIRE CAST into dickheads Minus our hero and her semi-stalker Sheldon. The basic premise is Jenny, our teenage robot, gets kidnapped and taken over by a miserable boy who has her ruin christmas and every other holiday and then wake up with no memory of her being BRAINSWAHSED into it. The IDEA isn’t bad... it’s a dark cirumstnace but it’s a good premise for a half hour special and would have her on the run with her friends trying to help her after beliving she couldn’t do it right? Well... as I said, ENTIRE CAST: Brad, Tuck, HER OWN FUCKING MOTHER all apparently belivie jenny just snapped and did this all on her own, despite you know mountains of super villians. No one came looking for her, no one thought she was acting weird, no one cared. her mother is outright working on the next model.. it’d be okay if they were supsicious or if they wondered why or if ANY OF THEM besides sheldon had looked for her or done anything or if the bad guy had had her act like this was her idea.. but no she just acts massively out of character by ruining lives for a full year, and no one is suspcious and by the end all is forgiven for both the antagnoist and the assholes, even though the assholes all abandoned their best friend/daughter instead of trying to figure out what’s wrong and the angagonist, kid or no kid STOLE A YEAR OF JENNY’S LIFE AND NEARLY RUINED THE REST OF IT. And I know she’s a robot, she is immortal etc.. but she wants to be normal. she lost a year of high school, a year of friends and nearly lost everything.. and yet is just supposed to FORGET that? or that again everyone around her minus her stalker gave up on her? Fuck that, fuck this and... have a happy holidays. The holidays are more than this pile of garbage and I will be back sometime before the 25th to celebrate the best rather than the worst, to spread joy rather than headaches.. but I do hope if you had to endure any of these that this helped you like it helped me. Have a wonderful holiday time and i’ll see you soon.

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slifers-executive-writer · 5 years

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A Overall Discussion About Godzilla: King of the Monsters 2019.

It has been awhile since I wrote an original piece on my blog, and while I’ve stated this is mostly for my writing and anime fandom, I cannot help but include one of my other passions. That is of course the movies. One topic that has been going around the internet lately is the potential flop that is Godzilla:KOTM 2019. I will put it out there right now, that while this movie isn’t doing as good as I would like, I’m sure it will make its money back and I certainly don’t think it is a flop. But my main reason for writing this particular discussion is to clear the air about where this film stands. I’ve been hearing a lot of reviews both top critical and various Youtubers complain about this thing and my overall observation is a lot of them claim to ‘like’ Godzilla and yet clearly don’t understand a goddamn thing.

A very similar thing happened with Detective Pikachu. Both movies not scoring that great on Rotten Tomatoes and overall critic/Youtuber reception being very mixed, yet the general audience seemed to enjoy both summer blockbusters. Both films suffered from a lot of ‘reviewers’ not doing even the smallest amount of research on source material before opening their big angry mouths and complaining why certain characters or concepts weren’t included.

And example complaint on these films were:

Detective Pikachu: wHeRe Is TeAm RoCkeT?

Godzilla KOTM: wHy ArEn’T tHeRe OtHeR tOhO mOnStErS?

Yes these were real complaints.

Now in all honesty, I know neither of these movies are masterpieces as in terms of depth of plot or character arcs. If I had to choose one, I would definitely say it terms of the human elements, Detective Pikachu was a much better film. So I am fully aware that these flicks are complete nostalgia pandering hunks of cheese.

And yet I still found myself enjoying both films to the point where I clapped at the end. The same way almost everyone and their grandmother did for the Avengers. So what is it about this hot garbage making so many people flock to the theaters multiple times to see them?

It’s the simple fact that we have had these Japanese properties in our lives for several decades. Pokemon (1998) & Godzilla (1954). If anyone grew up on either of these or both (such as myself) then we know that as long as these Americanized films are a loads of fun, we can forgive the lazy messy plots. But perhaps that is why these movies aren’t what we all wish they could be...because they are created on American soil.

You see unfortunately, Hollywood has been in one of the most non-creative/reboot mayhem crisis I’ve ever witnessed. Big corporate studios have to pump out as many safe reboot/non original IPs as possible and it seems to have lost most it’s writing talent as well. If certain directors and producers aren’t behind a project, then the adapted movie (such those inspired by anime and other foreign film franchises) probably won’t have much substance. Not to mention Western filmmakers and our critics don’t seem to fully understand the culture shock of the growing popularity in these Japanese properties. Nor do they understand the appeal of these features, hence all the negative/angry reviews. We have seen this time and time again. And it is nothing new.

Now let’s get back to Godzilla: KOTM. It was a fun ride no doubt. The CGI was incredible, and with certain recent Marvel and DC films, this is a mark a lot of those films miss. So thank Godzilla that our beloved kaijus and other effects looked gorgeous. The cinematography for the monsters was also done very well. There are plenty of moments where we truly understand the grand size of these creatures. Overall the fights were awesome and mind numbing. And the music, oh my god the scoring was incredible. Done by Bear McCreary, who did the recent God of War installation did our Kaiju King a great service. Paying homage to classic Godzilla themes was the perfect icing on the cake. So what was the big complaint?

Lol These dumbasses. The people in any robot/kaiju/creature feature seem to be the hardest thing directors cannot figure out no matter how hard they try. But let us admit that we as viewers are pretty hypocritical in this argument. On one hand we ask for a shit ton of monster brawls and on the other hand, we complain their are too many explosions and that the effect wears off after a while. We want human stories and then we complain that they are in the movie at all. Godzilla KOTM by no means has a good human story. Some moments with the military and Ken Watanabe were fine, but the idiots in the images above this movie did not need...like at all. I especially hated the father and mother figures. Like yeah Eleven (Milly Bobby Brown), I would run the fuck away too. I’m not excusing the writers for the shitty human plot, I’m just explaining as to why we still suffer from this problem. However, if you are a fan of the Godzilla franchise, you know for a majority of the films, the human plot is not much better than what we see here. Maybe that was Michael Dougherty’s point. He claimed that this was the ultimate film for Godzilla fans and quite frankly, maybe he is right.

Aside from the very first film (Gojira 1954), the human elements of these films were always lack luster, silly, and even forced. Yet so many people are quick to judge our American filmmakers for ruining what ‘only the Japanese can do right’ and in all honesty I’ve never heard such a false statement. The image above is from one of my favorites, Godzilla 2000. Japan’s fuck you to the terrible 1998 film. But when watching this, did you really care about this guy, his daughter, and his dumbass girlfriend. Or the scientists and their anime-esque villain. The answer is probably no. In any of these kaiju films, very rarely do we ‘really’ care about the people. We just want to see the action. The plots are always, cliche, predictable, and stuffing in some bullshit environmental awareness message. Nukes are bad and people suck. But we love Godzilla (practically a walking nuke) anyway.

Godzilla KOTM, is the same shit we’ve seen before only with American styled editing and tropes. So lots of quick cuts and a focus on the family unit. But hey the special effects are so much better than anything we have seen previously. I don’t have to laugh when I see wires and crappy green screen, or using the same footage from a previous movie. Nope. All our favorite kaijus are in beautiful IMAX quality and are ready to wreck cities worldwide. This is the film fans asked for and we got it. Oh and before the next person complains that the Japanese can only do it better, here is what was done before this.

We got Evangelion Goji with AIDs and CG Tree Goji with Ramen Noddles Ghidorah. While Shin Godzilla was a masterpiece over seas, if you didn’t understand the political subtext, then this film was an angsty destructive ride by a guy who can’t even finish his own art thesis of an anime. (I totally don’t have mixed feelings over Evangelion lol). I didn’t hate Shin Godzilla. It had its moments, but I didn’t think it held the same power of the film it was trying to emulate. Not to mention the CGI and sound design at points were just dreadful. As for the Netflix anime Godzilla trilogy...just wow. Aside from loving the physical design of this new Goji and his new powers, this story was worse than awful, it was downright boring. Even hardcore Godzilla fans had a hard time defending this mess of bad CG. With a promise of multiple featured kaiju and Mecha Godzilla, we get a hunk of nano metal and the only other kaiju actually featured looking like a pack of Maruchan coming down to like ...basically have a staring contest with Godzilla and then evaporate. What a fight for the ages...

In conclusion, I’m not sure if and when either Japan or American will ever truly get it right. We may like certain aspects of one film but hate the rest of it and the cycle will continue on and on. But as far as KOTM goes, I’m happy it exists and hope it does well enough for Legendary to renew its licenses with Toho. I and many others just want Godzilla in the roster and to continue the legacy. Something for future generations of children and adults to enjoy the romping monsters and hear their iconic roars. We can’t let this current toxic and hating Internet culture bitch and complain about concepts and niche cultures it doesn’t fully understand. Like the anime community, the Godzilla fandom is a unique one and has a niche audience. But perhaps like what the Marvel movies have done for comic book fans, the exclusion will lessen over time and become more mainstream. But for now, Godzilla KOTM is meant for a particular group of people and it seems for that bunch, it has made them plenty happy. Myself included.

So what are your thoughts on this movie and others like?

Feel free to share your comments, reblogs, and however else you would like to respond down below.

#godzilla #godzilla king of the monsters #godzilla kotm 2019 #legendary pictures #detective pikachu #rant #discussion #movies #american film #japanese film #gojira #kaiju #kaiju flicks #fuck the critics

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bluerosesburnblue · 5 years

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Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Chapter 6, Part 1/2

Well, I said I’d shoot for Halloween, not that I’d make it. I legitimately wasn’t expecting the Yōkai sidequest to be so... dense. So, because of that, we’re splitting this chapter into two parts, too. I think the finale deserves an entry all on its own

We’re in the home stretch, folks. Get ready for Bravely Second Chapter 6, Bravely Second

Hey, welcome to my liveblog of Bravely Default. So Tiz, after the destruction of Norende wakes up... wait. Hmmm. Wrong brunet boy. How did we get to the Caldisla Inn?

Karl’s soothing voice is a welcome reprieve from... that scene

“Wait! Where’s Denys?” *noises of discomfort from Tiz, Edea, Magnolia, and me*

“We defeated Diamante...” No. We were denied the ability to defeat Diamante. Now it’s Denys’s burden, assuming someone can even survive at the end of time. The self-sacrificing idiot...

Magnolia is being called to return home, as the hero of her people... and the light of her communicator is clipping through her Black Mage hat. Whoops

Weird that Karl didn’t recognize Tiz until right now. What, was Yew the only one asleep? Was his hair so bad you couldn’t be sure until you heard his voice?

Even more insane that he recognizes Edea since I have her in her Ranger getup with a full face mask

“Me and Agnes and Edea and...?” “We always counted on him when we.. When we...” Tiz. Edea. Do you not remember Ringabel or the first game? I thought we just weren’t talking about him because it was a sore subject, but...

Tiz doesn’t even remember the king of his home nation. What happened to you kids?

Diamante’s bestiary states that when it fell, it destroyed a part of the Miasma Woods and split the continent in two. I assume that refers to the separation of landmasses between the Harena and Yulyana regions, since there’s... like... a crater there where I’m pretty sure there wasn’t last game. I never mentioned it, it’s just the spot where we keep boarding the Skyhold because Denys really liked parking over it?

Karl who are these two white-haired kids? Are they yours? They can’t be grandkids since Owen is...

Caldisla’s theme is still amazing. Feels like being home after a long journey. Love it when a game can do that to me.

Tiz really had forgotten his entire home and the start of last game. Edea couldn’t remember it either

Yew says he’s read about Caldisla, but he couldn’t remember what he’d read either

I am reminded of a plot point in the Korean webtoon Kubera: One Last God. In that, a person who uses time magic too much will “forfeit their existence” for a time. They disappear and don’t age, but as long as they’re vanished from existence, nobody can remember them. If someone tries to remember events surrounding them, they freeze up and then immediately think of something else, forgetting their original train of thought. I’m getting the same vibes here

I know that tinny tone, Alternis!

“I am the one who carried you out of the Skyhold and to safety.” But how did you get to the Skyhold in the first place? I can’t imagine it was still flying after we “defeated” its power source, so it must have crashed somewhere around the Yulyana/Florem area, in which case the party should be very, very dead. Dead beyond my ability to fix

“I would go to the very ends of the earth for you if you needed me, Edea.” Okay, Clearly-Ringabel, turn the charm down a notch and exposit for us

“That bloody witch... Yōko will pay!” So Yōko sealed everyone’s memories of Caldisla? How do you figure, Dim?

Ah, she gave him the cryptic message of “Go to Caldisla, the land of endings” and he had no idea what she was talking about but went anyway and his brain freaked out

He’s still wearing Edea’s bow! So at the very least it’s the same Alternis from the Geyser Grotto

You know, I’m just now realizing that it’s been two games and we still haven’t had party members from either the Yulyana region or the Eisen region. You know, one of the four main continents? Has a major magical artifact in the form of a capital-”C”-Crystal?

I mean, Tiz is from Caldis, Agnès from Harena, Ringabel from Florem, Edea and Yew from Eternia, and Magnolia from the Moon, which somehow got representation before Eisen did

...how dare they put a hidden item next to a child you can talk to. Do you know how difficult it was to get Yew to focus on the object and not the kid!? Yeesh

Hitboxes on hidden items are so finicky in this game I swear

And there was a Phoenix Down behind Owen’s grave. Thanks

Oh... oh no. Oh no I looked at Til’s grave. Oh god Tiz I’m so sorry

God he sounds like he’s gonna cry. “Til was a lot younger than me... Even younger than you.” I don’t think it ever occurred to Yew that while he was using Tiz to replace Denys... Tiz was doing the same thing back

And the Caldisla amnesia makes it worse oh no. Could you imagine? Walking through a town and slowly realizing that it’s your hometown. And then stopping in front of a grave and it’s your brother’s grave. And it only hits you while you’re looking at it that you even have a brother... had a brother

Til doesn’t get a big grave like Owen. His is one of the small, unassuming ones. The only person he meant anything to was Tiz

And Tiz is being lauded as the hero he deserves after his untimely coma after the defeat of Ouroboros. Can’t help but notice they aren’t celebrating Edea, who was also there, but eh. She’s got the entirety of Eternia to throw her a party. Let Tiz have his exotic cheeses

Heyyyyy, Egil! How’s my favorite kid who didn’t die in a mine!? Nice armor, buddy! Looking good!

Oooooooh a Junior Captain? Nice work!

A great beast at Lontano? It couldn’t be a Ba’al, could it? The only story-based one we’ve had so far is Urchin

That’s actually the one thing I think I prefer in Default over Second. The Norende Nemesis fights weren’t necessary for completion, which was good since I mostly played that game at college where my 3DS couldn’t connect to the internet thanks to how poorly set up the login information was. My 3DS just couldn’t handle it. I barely did them, and I really didn’t miss much because of it. Here, though, if I want to 100% complete the game I have to do the Fort-Lune Ba’al fights, and which ones I get are entirely up to chance. I have been doing them, though. Get a lot of Apparati (probably people sharing it because it’s the only one with a Catmancy skill), followed by Snowcap in terms of quantity. Heck, I only got my first Redshirt the night before writing this and the only Urchin I’ve seen has been the story one. Completing those Bestiary entries is probably the last thing I’ll be able to do just out of luck

“The Youth Brigade”? What, we doing child soldiers now or is this the Caldisla version of Boy Scouts?

“Tiz, would you care to introduce us?” “Of course! This is Egil. He’s like... um... a little brother to me.” Hey, Yew, meet your new favorite little brother. Egil’s family. Mostly because Tiz has chronic Big-Bro-itis, but still. He’s a good kid

Can Egil be a party member in Bravely Third, finally giving us our Eisen representation?

Tiz no. Don’t mention the Three Cavaliers. That’s still a sore subject!

Oh damn. “You must be, like, the best of the best! So why are you hanging out with someone like Tiz here?” Egil! Harsh! Tiz killed a World-Consuming snake demon, you know!

“Yew’s a good friend of ours. I guess you could say he’s like a slightly older younger brother.” These boys cannot stop taking in new brothers! It’s adorable! I love it! (See, Denys? This is what you miss when you needlessly throw yourself into a time vortex. You miss getting adopted by Tiz and having, like, 60 younger brothers.)

An earthquake? First reaction says it’s the “beast” but we are right near the Great Chasm. I hope it was just a rock slide, but it’s never that easy

It’s the Rubadub? Why the fuck did the Rubadub cause an earthquake!?

Damn, according to Sakura we’ve been out for over a week

Sakura is best team mom! She did the laundry while we were gone, fixed the damages from the Skyhold collapse, caught a ton of fish, and is already making dinner with it!

Oh... wait what? Wait. ...is that where Caldisla is? I... hrm.

So my poor geography sense ended up making the “Caldisla disappeared” plot point work because I misremembered where the whole continent was. I thought it was in the middle of the ocean between Eternia and Florem and just wasn’t on the map because the section it would be in would be cut-off and it wasn’t going to be relevant! I thought it was farther to the right! God, see, this is what happens when you change the orientation of the map on me. I can’t navigate for shit

So, hey, I read through my old Liveblogs to catch myself up for the finale just in case, and you know what I called out and had conveniently forgotten by the time I played the last chapter? Minette Napkatti is seventeen FUCKING years old. She’s OLDER than both Yew and Janne. I wrote everything last chapter under the assumption she was, like, 10! God, her being 17 is so much worse. Now it makes people treating her like a pet even creepier! How is Minette even worse than I gave her credit for! Stop enabling this girl and get her some serious mental rehabilitation!

Now, I should really look at that urgent Beast situation... buuuuuuuuut there’s a sidequest in Gathelatio!

Actually, Yew just brought up the Crypts in a Party Chat and now I’m curious. Where did the stairwell Denys was standing near... go? Does it just exit into the city somewhere?

Party Chat says Alfred said there was a secret passage between the Crypts and the Sanctum. I’m gonna go see if that’s what’s up with those stairs

“I’d rather we didn’t go blundering around the family crypts if we don’t have to” Sorry, Yew, I’m with Edea. It’ll be five minutes, max. Besides, it looks like the sidequest is in the Sanctum. I wanna sneak up on ‘em if I can

Uhhhhh... wh...

Denys? Denys did you leave this shadow-man ghost thing here? What the fuck is that?

Why is there a nondistinct shadow man near Foundar’s grave?

All it says is “Fear the Eye of Foundar... But I suppose it’s still too early for you to understand what that means. Heh.” Hey, don’t laugh! You aren’t the first person to give me awful, vague prophecies! Sylvie beat you to it by a whole timeline!

There are some bits of... probably hair dangling at the sides of Shadowman’s face. It looks kinda like Yew’s concept art hairstyle, honestly. Huh.

That’s it that’s unsettling I’m out

And hey, that was the secret passage into the Sanctum! I hadn’t even noticed a door there in my past visits. Let’s... uh... let’s just talk to Braev and forget that unnerving shadow boy

What’s the matter, narrator? “By what strange trick of fate do your paths cross anew?” getting too much for you? Braev’s been in the story for a while, I don’t think he needed an introduction

Ah. Well, the sidequest is still Edea-focused like all the others, but at least this one I can get behind. It’s Braev testing whether Edea’s ready to succeed him

And there’s still a choice, hm? Should you desire the power to cut down all foes, the Grand Marshal’s sword is in Everlast Tower. Should you desire the power to protect your subjects, the Grand Marshal’s shield is in the Central Command basement

I don’t suppose we could do both? They say the two are opposites, but I hardly see why. A true ruler knows how to balance the two. Knows how to change their persona to match the situation. To cut down your foes is to protect your citizens. To protect your citizens is to spite your foes. There’s no reason to limit your capabilities

Regardless, if they do make us pick one, I find the sword is the better option. A shield can only hold out so long without the opposing forces thinning out

“It’s a travesty! Ketchup is for burgers and fries!” God, Yew is a boy after my own heart. I’ll try any food or food combo once, but putting ketchup on a good steak seems like sacrilege

And Tiz is also a boy after my own heart. Keep it simple with your eggs. Salt and pepper is all you really need. Though I’ve never had hollandaise, so I can’t really comment on Yew’s choice

Aw, Tiz puts soy sauce on his oysters because that’s how Agnès did it when he first had them. Cute!

And it was all a ruse to distract them from the fact that she botched dinner! Oh, Magnolia, sweetheart. I appreciate the creativity but I think bringing up favorite foods was the worst thing to do

Edea thinks getting the sword was too easy... so she wants to talk to Elder Sirius? If I go, is he just gonna tell me to grab the shield as was my plan to attempt from the start?

Braev’s location is marked... but so is the shield still. I want both

“It’s what Heinkel would’ve done.” I have no problems believing that Heinkel would use an heirloom shield to grill food. That checks out

Aaaaand that’s why you ask Yew before you use his stuff to cook with. Leave my nerd son and his collections alone!

A true leader directly defies orders and grabs both heirlooms regardless! We make our own win states in the House of Liz!

And seek shield counsel with Goodman. ...screw it, let’s talk to Sirius and Goodman. I’m curious if either of them have new dialogue

Seems like they do! Unmarked cutscenes. Sirius warns Edea to be careful of all power, as any could be used for evil. But it can also be used for good. The power is not the issue, but the intent of its wielder. To cast aside any means of defeating all who would endanger those you seek to protect is foolish

And Goodman espouses the benefits of a shield. Separate the soldiers from the civilians, and have the soldiers become an unbreakable wall to repel all threats. The shield has no chance of endangering others (KH Goofy would like to have a word, sir)

Edea mentioned Dominus Harena, so I thought I’d check him out and lo and behold! He also has a scene. Ancheim makes weapons, but uses none. They fight instead with their knowledge, using the scholars of Al-Khampis to outbuild and outsmart their foes. And they can absolutely use those weapons if they want. “Don’t brandish a big sword - but be sure to have one ready when you need it” is pretty close to my life motto

Meeting Braev at Vestment Cave is the first relevant event in the Yulyana region, huh?

Vestment Cave is the place you were blessed with a daughter? Edea was born in this cave when Sage took you in? Did I know that or is that just some trivia you felt like sharing, Braev? Because if so uhhhh...? I don’t think I can get that out of my head

Oh? “I see you have the grand marshal’s sword AND shield. ...And yet you have equipped neither.” I... have Edea as a Ranger? Equipping either of those would do nothing for her. I was not aware you wanted those equipped

...you know what? Yeah! Have the big sword (and shield) but don’t brandish it! That is our answer!

“Justice must be supported by might and authority - but when it is delivered at the point of a sword it is naught but coercion. [...] A stout shield is needed to protect the people in times of war. Yet the true goal should be a world with no need for shields. The noble course is to believe in the ideal.” This sidequest is awesome

“But you have one more trial to face - together with the friends who stand beside you!” And you know what? Those friends are the only weapon a good leader needs! They keep you from swinging the sword with abandon or allowing harm to come passively! They balance you, keep you in check! Edea Lee, go and claim the position you have earned!

(I just wish that Edea was in a different outfit in that scene. Loses a bit of impact when her face is covered with an animal mask)

Damn! He revives more times than Diamante! You fucking hear that, Denys!? Edea’s dad is a harder fight than DIAMANTE

And now Edea receives the Stave of the Grand Marshall. She is, unquestionably, the Grand Marshall of Eternia. I’m so proud of my girl!

Ah! And we’re visiting her parents at Sage Yulyana’s old place! Seems Braev and Mahzer are moving out here to retire. Good for them

‘sup Alternis? ...still mad about the Grandship escapade?

Braev is taking up needlework, huh?

Okay, I love the way John Eric Bentley said “a new tea cozy!” He’s a good replacement voice for Braev in my book

That sidequest was EXACTLY what I had hoped the others would be! It was such a good character focus to showcase Edea’s growth from the beginning of the first game, and the actual elements of it were so nuanced! There were so many permutations of events. Did you obtain the sword, shield, or both? Did you talk to Sirius, Dominus, Goodman? All of them? None? Some combination of two of them? Were the items equipped when you talked to Braev? Ultimately, the structure was simple, but the narrative you got out of it was all up to you. I’d be interested to see every permutation of the talk with Braev, but I am so happy with what I got. And I’m so proud of Edea. She’s come a long way from the self-righteous, black-and-white girl of Default’s events. Eternia is in good hands

I love that Tiz being the king of cooking with leftovers is canon

...so I can’t help but notice that there’s a Fort-Lune Ba’al icon just sort of... floating there above Lontano. That’s weird.

What on Earth was that noise it made?

“I-it’s exuding a level of power on par with... No, even exceeding Diamante’s!” YOU HEAR THAT, DENYS? You didn’t even take out the strongest Ba’al!

“We can’t let Denys’s sacrifice be in vain!” Yew, honey. You’re sweet, but it was in vain the second he made it. We’re about to prove how useless it really was

Oh, it’s just a Turtle Dove? Not even, like, a special one? Alright

Not too bad. Only got close at the end there because Yew went down and I had trouble getting him back up

Certainly harder than Diamante, at any rate

So it seems the only two mandatory Ba’al fights in the game are an Urchin and a Turtle Dove, and I’m certain those were the only two that made appearances in Default as Norende Nemesis fights. So that’s why those two were added to the BD international release

Aw, Egil doesn’t understand how pendant-call works either and thinks we shoved Agnès in the jewel

Where is she? I can’t say I recognize that room. Wooden doors with a crystal-thing in the back?

And yet another person who just couldn’t remember Caldisla

I guess she was on an Airship?

And on the Magnolia Cooks sideplot: She’s really good! Her quest for recipes has led to her becoming a master of Luxendarc cuisine

“A bath has to be sot hot you can barely stand it!” I know Edea’s opinion is meant to be an extreme... but that’s how I take my showers so...

I will say I don’t jump out and douse myself in cold water, though. That’s a little much

I guess hot-bath-cold-bath followed by freezing iced lattes is an Eternian thing? Yew’s into it, too

Alternis and Agnès are already here talking to the king? We’ve almost got the whole family in one spot! (This Alternis doesn’t have a bow, though. Guess we’ve still gotta hunt down Ringabel and Denys if we want that family meetup. Why is it always the blond ones who are a problem?)

According to the king, the people of Caldisla forgot the rest of the world in turn. That’s some nonsense that’s going on

Bow-Alternis is absolutely Ringabel. Alternis doesn’t know anything about his arm being hurt or Yōko

It’s an interesting way of doing the Alternis-Ringabel thing. Last game they made them seem like the same person, too, up until the reveal by having them get injured in similar places and never on-screen at the same time. This game we’re able to tell them apart despite Ringabel actually trying to impersonate Alternis because of their differing injuries

Where do Ba’als come from and what are they? It’s a question that’s been forced to the background thanks to the immediacy of the Kaiser’s plot, but now with that settled it and Anne’s plan are all we have left to solve

I like how Yew and Magnolia got cut off in that shot, leaving only Agnès, Alternis, Tiz, and Edea. A version of the first party

Oh, Magnolia. She’s beating herself up because she never thought to ask what the Ba’als were, but still dedicated her life to stopping them. But no one knows what they are. She would’ve been asking a question no one could answer

I appreciate Yew trying to commiserate by telling her he didn’t know anything about the Crystalguard or Denys but I don’t think those situations are really... comparable? Magnolia is talking about unknowable eldritch horrors. That’s a little bit bigger than the Crystalguard stuff

“There must be someone out there who can give us a clue!” “Do not judge a carrot by its leaves, nor a man by his words alone...” Leave it to Altair to announce his timely appearance in the most dramatically dorky way possible

“It’s a ghost!” ...I mean, yeah? Technically? But we know Altair. Edea, chill. Team dad tire-man of the vegetable proverbs is here to enlighten us

So the Ba’als are Vega’s emotions given life. Born of her memories with Altair, and I imagine the fight with Geist back in Sagitta is what tipped him off. Diamante probably only confirmed it. I can’t imagine anyone else whose memories Diamante’s background could have belonged to

Altair theorizes that something found Vega’s regrets upon being left behind and gave them form to be used as weapons

And that just leaves one place the Ba’als could be from. The last place anyone saw Vega alive: the Celestial Realm

“Let’s go to the Celestial Realm!” Yew, if travel between Luxendarc and the Celestial Realm were so easy Vega wouldn’t be trapped there, Ouroboros wouldn’t have had to create a chain of worlds just to break through, and I would travel to Luxendarc just to hug you. It’s just not that easy

And Altair agrees. It’s just not... simple. Maybe not possible

“Never say never until you’re dead!” Okay, but Altair is super dead, though? He has every right to say “never” at this point

At least he’s got a good sense of humor about it

...3DS did the going black thing again

“Of course I do not... accept it...” This game does some interesting things with the concepts of acceptance and denial. To not accept something is similar to, but not the same as, denying it. I like that they brought it up like that

He’s getting desperate. Begging the party to help Vega. Altair...

“You’re our friend, Altair.” “Your... friend? Oh, thank you, my dear children!” Altair, I nominated you for team dad. You’re not a friend now, you’re family. We live to make the impossible possible. We have (or most of us have) defeated Ouroboros. Let’s go get Vega.

So who could help? As Altair said, Anne. A fairy who can control the Ba’al and who spoke of a Master. She clearly knows something about them the rest of us don’t, and I’ve still got a bone to pick with her

I’d know that place anywhere. She’s at Norende’s Great Chasm

Norende has a path between the Celestial Realm and Luxendarc... right where the Dark Aurora was... I should’ve known Ouroboros would use the weakest point in the barrier to get through

So that’s your plan, you little shit? Use this path as an express lane to get Ba’als to Luxendarc without interference from the Moon people? And then maybe get your boss in? Not happening. Nope. I refuse. Yew, Tiz, and everyone else deserve better

Funny you’re monologuing, Anne, since I know you know I exist and can, presumably, hear you. What’s their secret if it’s not the hourglass that let them keep their memories? I think you already know

They are directly using the fact that we, the player, saw that scene and now know where to go next and the party doesn’t. Party’s got no idea. That scene was for our eyes only

And the last sidequest has opened up. Yōko Yōko Yōko Yōko Yōkaiiiiiiiii

Oh thank god the Vampire Castle’s unlocked. I would’ve cried if they made me do the dragon fights again

Why should only Magnolia dress warm, Edea? You’re wearing about as much as her!

I don’t like Alternis’s helmet sitting at the door like that. Ringabel, you’d better be okay! You were my favorite last game, don’t you die on me!

Oh! My encounter rate is locked at standard. Guess I have to fight, huh? That’s... it’s never done that before

There’s a painting no one ever noticed before. Yōko in both human and Yōkai form, with a blonde child

And there’s the girl of the hour! You gonna pull a DeRosso and give us your backstory while we climb the tower?

I have never heard Vampire Castle called the Hall of Truth? Did I forget? It’s been a while. Hall of Exposition, more like

“Tiz! Do not think you can avoid the dangers that you encounter in this place.” AKA: no. You have to fight the encounters. Also, I forgot setting the encounters was a Tiz thing

“The powers of Luxendarc’s gods will not avail you.” So it’s a Celestial power Tiz was using. Assumed as much. And according to Yōko, this is Luxendarc. We play by Luxendarc rules this time (unfortunately)

So either Ringabel or Alternis can work the pendant call. He didn’t have the bow, but he talked like he knew what we were on about. Suspicious

So Yōko slept. And slept for quite a while. Twenty years ago an ambitious man came to wake her up, and with him came a girl with the Plague. The man in the painting is wearing Crystalguard clothes, and came to plunder the offerings at Yōko‘s shrine. The man was so determined to take those treasures home that he ignored the girl’s grandfather, who asked for her to be quarantined due to her sickness and pleaded with the church to let them sail. The church sent Geist. Once she was exorcised, the fleet could move. His ritual didn’t cure her at all, though. She doesn’t need to say it. I can already tell that the man was Yew’s father, Greide

Greide Geneolgia, whose greed sparked the Great Plague

She gave us his journals.

Foundar left behind texts for his descendants, texts that Greide managed to decode and use to locate Yōko’s shrine. The girl was the granddaughter of their patron from the church, sent to help them find the shrine that the Orthodoxy wanted so badly to find.

Greide used the girl to house Yōko’s soul, so she couldn’t stop them from raiding her shrine. It was there that they found the statue of Cú Chulainn that Bella would one day animate. The girl only fell sick with the Plague after the raid on the shrine. Griede’s writing comes across as paranoid. He thinks they’re being manipulated, and that his “enemies” are behind it

Judging by his outfit, the figure in this painting seems to be Geist

Hey uhhhh. Yōko? How long have you been staying here that you managed to replace a ton of DeRosso paintings?

Geist’s report went through, despite Greide’s attempts to stop it. The girl was put under quarantine and banned from travel. But another man and Greide decided to change tactics to get their plundered loot back. They asked to bring the girl to Eternia so that she could get the best medical treatment available to her. So they let her travel. And at every port they stopped at on the way back, they spread the Plague. To many continents. When the sailors began to freak out, Greide poisoned everyone aboard, including the girl. He was the only survivor, returning home with perhaps not all of the loot he wanted, but certainly enough. And one year later, Denys was born. Right on the heels of his dad murdering a whole crew of people for some sick loot

(I wonder if the timeline actually works out)

So Norzen and Braev were the ones opposing Greide the most, besides the elders. Greide looked into their pasts to see what he could use to... convince them to come over to his side

So if this happened in 2379... Denys was probably born in 2380-ish. Which seems about right? Definitely not 2384 like the Final Fantasy Wikia says. That would make him younger than Agnès and I’m very sure she isn’t over 23, which is Denys’s canon age as confirmed in the Bestiary (What are you guys doing, FFWikia?)

And this is just a painting of a huge area of gravestones with ravens.

The first deaths were in Eternia. “A sleepy border village.” And now we hear what we know from Default. Braev begged the church to help his home, and in return they sealed off all roads. Quarantined the smaller villages and left them to die. The incident that sparked Braev and the Anticrystalists’ revolt against the Orthodoxy. Braev gave Norzen full authority to investigate the Plague, where Minette’s mother would eventually discover a cure, but not before the first wave had killed more than could ever be counted

On the timeline: Greide’s 4/11, 2379 journal entry mentions a woman bringing her son and claiming he was Greide’s. Since he recognized her, he figured yeah, sure. Kid’s probably his and he can’t prove otherwise. So he took her and their son Denys in. So at the very least we can confirm that Denys was born before April 11, 2379. Unfortunately, I have no idea what year this game takes place in and can’t do math, so... I still have no idea if that date checks out?

And Denys’s mother... “left them” by 5/25 2380, and Greide became engaged to who I assume is Yew’s mother just over a year after that. And, like, jeez, Denys’s mom died when he was 1 or 2 years old? The way people talk about her it sounded like she was around for longer than that

Greide pretended to be loyal to Braev’s Duchy, but was appalled by how... businesslike they treated him. Like the idea of people not groveling at his feet because of his family name was repulsive

“There has been no warning from the Eye of Foundar...” God, is the Eye a prophecy machine? Why did a shadow man have to tell me about it in the Geneolgia corpse basement?

Hah. When Greide met with DeRosso and Sage Yulyana they called his ancestor a “sickly man” and a “monster,” respectively. And for the first time in his life, Greide felt true fear, but only at the potential loss of his status

Bestiary Tiz described DeRosso as “the pretend vampire with the baritone voice” which is really all you’d ever need to know about DeRosso

And here’s a painting of a burning Crystalguard banner. Greide disbanded the Crystalguard after Braev’s successful uprising, since the church was no longer in power and Greide wanted to keep himself and his allies out of the way of the rebellion. Houses Geneolgia and Camlann destroyed any who wanted to keep the Crystalguard together. Their biggest opponent: Janne’s father. His dying words were giving custody of his son to his squire, Angard. And Nikolai watched it all. After that, he tried to reinstate the Crystalguard and get himself and Janne a place in it. And just as Nikolai explained, the now unemployed soldiers went and looted the few villages left with survivors. And the Geneolgia and Camlann families formed private armies to save their own asses by taking down the bandits that they caused

Yew’s so shaken he collapsed. Hey, someone help my boy up? He’s having a rough day and I only see it getting worse

According to the Journals, Yew cried the whole night the attack on Jerome Balestra happened. Empathetic beyond belief, even as a baby

Seems Greide at least entertained the notion of choosing Denys as his heir. He says it himself: Denys had all the courage and skills he could want in an heir, but Yew had the superior bloodline despite his seemingly lesser talent as a kid

And he dies with some unspecified “promise” left unfulfilled

...I don’t even need to examine that painting to know who that is on the left. That’s Denys. I’d recognize him anywhere

Ah, a symbolic painting. On one side we have a young Yew grasping the Sword of the Brave, with Denys behind him. On the other side is Yōko and Danzaburō mirroring the Geneolgia brothers. It’s so obvious now that Danzaburō was just Denys in a hat and with two real arms. And I think with a different voice actor, maybe?

Yōko is a different kind of being. They called her a Yōkai, but that confuses her as she is the only one of her kind she knows. Her goal is simply to achieve true growth and lift the world into a higher plane of existence. True growth? It’s looking at yourself in the most open sense and accepting all that you are. By doing so, you become truly and fully realized, able to be the person fate wanted you to be

Girl, you didn’t have to switch forms on me

“Brave the dark depths within their heart”? Is that what you tried to do at the Geyser Grotto? Show everyone the parts of themselves that they deny to try and get them to accept those flaws and grow?

Yeah, I think that’s it. And she remembered that she never looked at Edea’s heart. Yōko... is absolutely right. Edea says she defected in the last game because she was appalled by their actions, and to an extent I’m sure it’s true, but it was also a ploy to get her dad’s attention. Selfless and selfish in equal measures. So often are actions both, and all it takes is a different angle to see it

And her other secret is exactly what I called out last liveblog: she misses Ringabel more than anything, and it kills her to see all of her friends and family and even enemies pair off while her love is probably in an alternate reality, loving an alternate her. Her love is a version of a man she should never have had the ability to meet if the worlds had stayed intact. The version of a man who wouldn’t have existed without that universal fabric being breached

“And what hurts most of all, is that he chose to leave you.” He did. He left the Edea he’d journeyed with to go try and save the Edea he’d failed. Just like Alternis is probably dismayed that she loves an alternate him, Edea probably can’t help but fear that Ringabel only saw her as a temporary replacement for her alternate self

Yoko’s being so mean since I am fairly certain she knows Ringabel is here. She called him interesting at Geyser Grotto. I know she knows who he is

OHHHHHH FUCK YEAH THAT’S LOVE’S VAGRANT

EDEA QUICK CHANGE OUT OF THE RANGER OUTFIT. GET SOME GOOD CLOTHES. UNLESS HE’S INTO RABBIT GIRLS? HE PROBABLY IS, ACTUALLY

That’s my last game fav! How’s it going, ‘Bel? Good to see I correctly identified his appearances, too. Geyser Grotto, then Florem, then Caldisla

Cute hug. CUTE HUG.

I don’t know why the revelation that it’s Ringabel means anything to Yew and Magnolia. I mean, it’s basically “You thought I was Alternis, but it’s actually me, his twin who you’ve never met!” but with the added bonus of “how did you dimension hop?”

A painting of Yōko fighting unidentified warriors. Ringabel calls them the Planeswardens, the group he’s taken up working for. They... warden planes. Which is to say they defend alternate realities. According to him, Yōko only wishes to create chaos, nothing more

“Growing as a human being is about more than drudging up old fears and traumas...” God, I missed ya, Bel

And the Planeswardens have classified Yōko as an S-rank Malevolent Spirit of Concern. So she’s dangerous, though I’m willing to listen to her spiel, at least. The most she’s done so far is emotionally traumatize us, right?

She’s over 4.6 billion years old? Because that’s just how long she’s been on Luxendarc, she’s actually older than that. Do... do you people know how time works??? (Evidently not because no one in the Glanz Empire did, but still) That’s a LONG TIME, GUYS!

No. NO. Do NOT cut to Ringabel, standing alone, going “No matter what the cost, I must defeat her!” I already had one unexpected favorite dumb blond boy sacrifice himself this game, I’m not letting you do it to the other one, too!

So Ringabel and Denys for Bravely Third party when?

And according to Greide’s journals, Foundar’s dying message was basically “If you have more than one son, have them duke it out. Winner gets his inheritance, loser is either his brother’s servant or dead. That applies to every generation after me. Have fun, losers!”

“Fear the Eye of Foundar.” What IS IT. What can it DO. Do I have to worry for my boys because I’m already worrying you don’t need to make it worse

To enter Yōko’s shrine, you have to decipher Foundar’s code using the symbols carved into the walls of the crypt. And you have to do it on your own. You cannot tell anyone how. Only then can you hope to know if you are even qualified

...Greide didn’t write “Fear the Eye of Foundar.” It simply appeared in his locked journal after he deciphered Foundar’s texts

YEEEEEEEEEW I think your family’s cursed. There’s some fucked up demon magic going on here and I DON’T LIKE IT. We gotta go get Denys. Like, now. I think you’re both doomed but he’s doomed and without Celestial guidance. And also trapped with a horse

Year AO 3. I think this is from Foundar. Proposed to by the pope’s daughter, then he spoke to Yōko at her shrine, describing her as “pitiful”

The “promise” was Foundar’s to Yōko. A task he needed someone with “the vast wealth needed to support a million souls, great military strength enough to strike down a thousand political foes, and technology advanced enough to grant a hundred men hundred-year lives” for. Greide suspects that those who failed Foundar’s request for his descendants gave up on the last part, with the Eye warning them of failure

Yōko was put to sleep to contain the first Plague. If you seal her inside the girl... the Plague returns because now the girl has it

Greide what... “Well, I didn’t get an ominous demonic message on the last page, so I should be good to go on the fulfilling Foundar’s promise thing!” N... no???

So first he wanted fame. Then he wanted the “power” Yōko bestowed on Foundar that caused his meteoric good fortune and rise through the ranks. Not a single shred of selflessness, as befitting a man named “greed”

Confirmation that Yōko had the Plague sealed within her and was put to rest in the shrine to keep it from infecting Luxendarc. I see we’ve got a morally grey fox demon here. For all she tries to help, it may do more harm than good sometimes

Greide was legitimately shocked that the Origin Plague spread as the Great Plague. His decision to poison those on their ships was due to a message from the Pope claiming he wouldn’t let any potential carriers dock

The Plague had one clear physical identifier on the effected: a star-shaped pattern on the pupil. He killed anyone he saw with that mark, and apologized to both the girl and Yōko sealed within her, who Foundar had wished to save and who he had failed

God, that star mark is just... ripe for a scene of someone turning around and having it in their eye as a dramatic reveal. If it doesn’t happen in this game I feel it’ll probably happen in a potential Bravely Third

“To my sons, and my son’s sons... I leave you this message: Blame me. Hate me. And then lead the church and this world on to a path which will ultimately eradicate the Plague that the fox girl so desperately wished to contain. To my sons... To all who come after me... Fear the Eye of Foundar. But do not fear failure.” And in the end... a moment of clarity. Who is right? Yōko or Greide, two tellers with biases that are different but no less strong?

I have never felt the pull of a sequel hook so strong in my life

Oooooh hello! Tent event with Ringabel!

And after giving him coffee, Yew and Magnolia make a hasty retreat so the Default crew can get some reminiscing done

Yes. Call Agnès. Get the quartet together again

Oh fuck Alternis picked up ABORT. ABORT.

So Agnès had him take her calls while she was in the bath, and now The Dim Twins are arguing

So Ringabel saved Braev and Alternis after the Kaiser’s attack during the first timeline. Alternis, did you not recognize your own damn voice when he saved you?

“Did you say Agnès was in... the bath?” *Edea whips her head to look at Ringabel faster than I can blink* Boooooooy you’re in... hot water now

...never change, Bel. Never change.

Did Yōko eat the team’s breakfast? The monster. Now she’s done it!

I’m gonna kick her ass and become a fox demon myself!

Yōko, that’s an amazing sword. I super love it. God, the pale pink fire theme? So rad

OH HOLY SHIT. Ringabel jumps in at random points in the fight to do his special attack!? THAT’S AMAAAAAAAZING. Love’s Vagrant may as well just be the battle theme at this point and I looooooooove iiiiiiiiiit

So, hey. Game. I see you can do this? Have a guest party member during a fight? Why couldn’t you do this with Denys!? Especially during the Diamante fight! It’s like literally every boss in Chapter 6 is designed to remind you how stupid Denys’s sacrifice was!

And Yew and Yōko‘s conversation is really something. She accuses him of bearing the sins of his forefathers, and when he tries to assert that he is himself, not Foundar OR Greide, and therefore shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions, she accuses him of denying his family. And that he sounds just like all the rest of them. Full of sentiment and idealism... and ultimately just as flawed and helpless and self-serving

So, hey, first of all leave my boy alone? Yew’s doing his best and has been this whole game. He’s the sweetest kid. You are not allowed to speak to him like that. I’ll kick your ass

Second, it just really goes to show how both Yew and Denys have spent their whole lives trying to fix a problem that shouldn’t have been theirs to fix. And it goes to show what great foils they are to each other. Denys instantly took the weight of their sins on himself, accepted them as a problem he had to fix, and dedicated his life to doing so by actively denying any good that came out of their actions and trying to undo it all. Yew is the one denying that it should be his problem to fix, yet he’s the one who accepts that what happened happened and is trying to fix the problem by looking at what went wrong and what went right and trying to smooth out the rough edges. It’s an interesting dichotomy of the acceptance-denial theme present in the narrative, where you could say that Yew’s denial led to a form of acceptance, and that Denys’s initial acceptance led to a form of denial that later had to be worked back into acceptance, but a less extreme kind

I LOVE YOU RINGABEL

God, he’s going, like, every turn! He’s using every weapon in the book! THIS MAN IS UNSTOPPABLE

Man, and a boss that doesn’t revive? I love this quest

And changing jobs back, I see we’ve unlocked something I’ve known about for a while: Job Level 11, the hidden level. 9999 JP? That’s actually not an awful requirement

The final truth. The song of Altair is playing (and his bestiary entry has him mention that Yōko is familiar). One day, two people appeared on a glimmering ship, travelers from another world. Yōko aided them, as they looked for a way back to their own world. But a disease from their world that they had been studying in their ship’s lab escaped, and mixed with a disease from Luxendarc to create the Plague. Yōko feared for the people of this world that she loved, so she sealed the Plague inside herself and then sealed herself away, so that none could get sick again. People began to worship her as a god and built her a shrine, until eventually they, too, fell (I imagine this is Wa, the nation that sank beneath the sea eons ago, mentioned in various weapon notes, most notably katanas and other Japanese weaponry. It would explain the Japanese aesthetic of Yōko). 2400 years ago, the subject of our final painting (maybe? Nice mustache either way), Foundar, found her (..heh) and promised that while he didn’t have the means to help her, one day he would have one of his descendants free her from the Plague and her self-imposed imprisonment. Greide sealed her inside the girl to transport her to Gathelatio so that they could use their medical equipment to cure her... and we all know how that ended. It all destroyed any sense of goodness and love left within Greide, the would-be savior of a doomed spirit whose overconfidence led to a Plague that destroyed half of his world’s people

Hey, somebody hug my crying boy? Somebody hug Yew for me? Please? ...please?

Yōko is grateful to both Foundar and Greide. Foundar couldn’t save her, but could inform her that an old friend of hers was safe. Greide freed her, and even though he killed her host and left them beneath the sea, he did help end the Plague as she always wanted

Yew doesn’t even have anything to say. It’s his turn to shape the future? It is. But I know he’s gonna make it a better place

And Ringabel has to go. He wasn’t even supposed to let us know it was him; his superiors forbid it. But Yōko essentially turned this castle into a pocket-dimension that she regulates, so he figured he could reveal himself without his bosses knowing

“Edea, I never left you and I never will. Wherever... whenever you are in peril, there I will be!” ...Edea has died more than anyone else in my party, to the point where she’s a full half a level down from everyone else, even in the mid-70s. You’re sweet, but you’re doing a terrible job, pal

And to Magnolia, a job: with Yōko gone, there isn’t anyone to hold her Sins back, and they have been unleashed. (Dark summons!) No one knows fighting unearthly demons like Magnolia!

And his request to Tiz: tell Agnès he says hi. She’s the only friend he never got to see again (thanks, Alternis)

Wow, way to just warp out in a flash of light. Later, ass! You couldn’t just escort us to the door? (Trash fav)

WOW that was a dense quest. Goodness. And it’s still technically not done! I’ve got Sins to snag! But holy shit, why couldn’t the other sidequests in the game be like this? I mean, there was plot relevance! Character focus! Backstory! I’m so glad the Chapter 6 quests managed to be so good, it’s just a shame there weren’t more of them!

So the Adventurer’s fox opened a high level magic shop and... taaaaalks? This isn’t Persona 4, why is there an entrepreneurial fox here?

Hey, you shadowy DICK. What’s the Eye of Foundar!? I read the notes, fess up! Do I have to start worrying for my two favorite boys or what!?

And now he says nothing. Cool. Thanks. If anything happens to Yew or Denys I’m coming after you first

(So I think the reason my 3DS screen goes black when I put it down sometimes is because I’m putting it down on on my computer, where there’s magnets to keep it closed when I fold the screen down)

Ooooooooh looking for the Sins I found the hidden village of Chompshire in the Yulyana region. That’s what that owl guy meant during the Grandship quest

I mean it’s really pretty. Seems like an easily missable area unless you’re going for completion. Not bad, just not super important

So let’s get this show on the road and see what these sins are all about, huh?

The first sin is Asmodeus, the embodiment of lust. I mean it’s freaking sick looking? Like a floating cloak with a bunch of snake heads? There’s a blood moon rising in the background. And the battle theme rocks. I mean that literally, we have wailing guitars and some riff that sound like old-school Final Fantasy songs. Which, I mean, I guess that makes sense, since I think these guys are supposed to be cameos from Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (I have a friend who played that game a lot). The Adventurer’s a cameo, too, since Bravely was originally envisioned as a spiritual sequel to that game. Neat trivia

Okay??? It can imprison people in the Infernal Realm??? Not my boy! Bring Yew back!

Hey, he did. Thanks, you demonic monstrosity!

Guys, you look winded. That fight wasn’t that bad. Bit worrying, I guess, what with the Infernal Realm nonsense, but not awful

Sin 2 is Beelzebub, the manifestation of gluttony. I honestly have no idea how Magnolia knows what these guys are and their names, but whatever. It’s a head wearing a crown with some squid tentacles. The sky is red. He’s classified as a bug? Do enough damage while it’s in Gluttony mode (all attacks heal instead of hurt) and it dies instantly. Which is what I did. Later, doofus!

Next up is Mammon, the being of avarice (aka greed for non-pretentious folks). It’s a chick with wings, fox-like ears, and four, clawed arms coming out of her back. Her Avarice attack lets her steal the whole party’s BP, so it’s a bit of a waiting game at times.

Died the first time after getting very close and then getting wiped, level grinded everything to max in between then and the second time. I don’t forsee any more combat deaths, I’ll tell you that much

Oh, it’s a “he” according to the Bestiary? Alright.

And now we have Belphegor, a creature of sloth. And... hey, I thought I recognized this guy when fighting Yōko! It’s a weird furry guy sitting in a wheelchair. I fought this guy as a Norende Nemesis last game! He was one of the few I did. How do you like us now, man?

Okay, scratch that “no combat problems” thing this asshole absorbs anything that isn’t magic of the specific element he’s weak to. Yew? Darling boy of mine? Think you can Spellcraft Summon him into oblivion?

Atta boy

Well kids, let’s go kill Satan, the manifestation of wrath. With all the ranting I do sometimes, you guys sure I’m not the manifestation of wrath? I will say, this is probably the coolest depiction of a wrath-based foe I’ve ever seen? I mean, it’s a buff guy with four arms each holding swords, a torn black cloak, and his head doubles as a helmet and a full blown furnace! No wonder we’re fighting him near the Eisen volcano, he fits right in!

I looooooooooove Meteor Raiiiiiiiiiiin

And on to Leviathan, the manifestation of envy. AKA a bunch of wiggly serpents that go offscreen. Joke’s on you, jackass. I have Yew Geneolgia, destroyer of all on my side. Boy’s a terrifying spellcaster now

See, this is what happens when you let Yew do what comes easily to him instead of trying to make him be a swordsman like his brother. He becomes THE MOST POWERFUL BOY

Guess he had a turtle shell head? I dunno, he died too fast

And for the last one, no one’s surprised by their appearances anymore. Heck, the team’s enjoying it! It’s Lucifer, the manifestation of pride. Guy took the “fallen angel” thing and ran with it. It’s a suit of armor with a double angel wing on one side and a feathery sword-wielding arm on the other. And a dog head on its belly that bites? A’ight, man, you do you

I love my powerful magic son

And it seems Yōko’s left Yew a note thanking him. Good! You’d better thank Yew, specifically, because he did all the work!

That was an interesting sidequest... related thing? I will say, the most interesting part of it is the Bestiary entries, which take the real-world stories of these demons and comes up with Luxendarc analogues for the stories. It paints a really interesting picture of their world, but other than the references to real-world religious figures I don’t have much to say about it

Okay, I know Agnès’s hint line of “Yew... where are you going!?” is supposed to be referencing the fact that he shouldn’t know where Anne is and the player does, but considering that since we left Caldisla we’ve:

Trekked down to Vampire Castle and hung out there for a long while for seemingly no reason to an outsider

Flown across the world, stopping at various points to fight high-ranking demons in no particular order

Walked around in circles in Florem Gardens for, like, 10 or 15 hours to level grind (and bounced around to various shops to blow off the excess cash)

And gone in for a few last-minute Bestiary entries that I knew the locations of

I mean... it’s a valid question. Like, from her perspective we probably look completely insane. Or, since it’s Agnès, like we’re just as directionally challenged as she is. I didn’t do anything here I didn’t do with you last game, Agnès, but I promise. Next time...

We’re gonna go save Vega.

#bravely default #bravely second #liz liveblogs bravely second #denys may be gone from the narrative but he lives on in a dozen admonishments in the liveblog

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knightofbalance-13 · 6 years

Note

what are your thoughts www(.)fanfiction(.)net/s/12667631/2/30-Ways-to-kill-Ragna-The-Bloodedge ,www(.)fanfiction(.)net/s/12667631/3/30-Ways-to-kill-Ragna-The-Bloodedge , www(.)fanfiction(.)net/s/12667631/4/30-Ways-to-kill-Ragna-The-Bloodedge

Oh jesus this is uh- something...

You guys just see me as a cleaner for the haters I fanbases don’t you?Well, this is a really fucking ridiculous thing so guess I’ll do it.

Let’s separate this into parts so the arguments are cohesive:

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REBEL 1:

“Do you seriously want an exaggerated anti-hero with little justification, people around him going against his theme and faced with the most evil villains while tearing away the madness he faces?”Yes. Because the world of Blazblue along with all those people around Ragna help support him and make him stand out. Also how is Ragna exaggerated? If he’s exaggerated then what is Guts from Berserk?!

“Then I pretty much made a good argument about why Ragna as a protagonist shouldn’t have his existence acknowledged and be renamed ‘Retard the Dumbedge’“

...Yeah, you’re an obnoxious little shit aren’t you? I don’t see any argument good enough to justify THAT childish behavior. Even Kirito isn't that bad.

“Ragna is said to act like your average Shounen protagonist but he doesn’t even after his character development.”Um...No, Ragna acts like the dull edgy anti-heroes we got in the 90′s. He only LOOKS like a Shounen Protag. And after his character development he kind of does act like a Shounen Protag but in a good way, doing his best to help people and do what is best for them. He pretty killed himself for that goal. What is this guy smoking?

“The characters don't work with Ragna OR with the story that blazblue is trying to tell.”Uh...How? Because all I see is what RWBY originally was: a Rule Of Cool story with an emphasis on good eventually triumphing over evil.

“Ragna is an insult to the “Traditional Hero” for being called a “Chosen One”“

Hey Dumbass, the chosen one trope is used in ALL KINDS of stories, not just traditional hero ones. And Ragna ISN’T suppose to be a traditional hero, he’s suppose to GROW UP into one.

Now onto the next argument-and it’s a copy paste from a previous ask. Okay, the Blazblue ask I had before this one? go read that one for this argument.

“Blazblue’s exaggerated characterization, unnecessary protagonist, characters that focus on one major role, characters that could have been toned down and UNNECESSARY SEXUALIZATION (comparing it to RWBY) don’t work with Blazblue’s flawed story.”You have not proven any of this, many people like it SPECIFICALLY for this reason, it was the goal of the creators and they succeeded so in every regard you fail.(P.S. Monty Oum was a fan of blazblue dumbass. If RWBY has oversexualization [An idiotic statement by itself] it was probably FROM Blazblue.)

“After the backlash on my rant on Blazblue’s writing and how I will never...NEVER acknowledge Ragna’s existence to this day, even after four failed games.”A. Your rant is barely coherent, nevermind actually GOOD.B. You just acknowledged Ragna’s existence.

And C. Blazblue is almost as famous as fucking Guilty Gear. It’s not failure.

”I do believe Arcsys has left itself in the slammer for letting itself down with this crap.”Take your medication, you’re having delusions again.

“They could’ve seen previous media and make the story light hearted and not rip off guilty gear and make it worse.”*throws a copy of End Of Evangelion at his face* Like that story?

“And fire Mori from the reboot of Blazblue THAT I WANT! NOT THIS!”

Yeah- good luck with that.

“if you’re ‘pissed off’ while reading this, then accept it as fact. I will be on your good side, nothing will grind your gears. Now, that something we all want in this fandom with me around. Nuff said.”

*glares* Oh fuck off you facist.

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REBEL 2:

“*shotguns Ragna in the head and burst out in blood and bones*”Hey RWDE, you forgot one of your Jaune haters!

“AN: Oh, so is this the case then? How disappointing. I was expecting much of a reasoning from all of you, but all get is cynical backlash over how much of a dumbass I am.“Hey if the glove fits man.

“Now, I'm really not into Anime & Manga where a lot of tropes I see are very exaggerating, but come on already. You know how much hate darker, edgier, and brutal characters that believe they are badass, yet their misunderstood that term a lot. And I mean, A LOT.“Yeah and guess what? Ragna gets mocked for that and has to change against that to get respect.“Think about Kirby from Hoshi No Kaabi. He is a badass that can copy/paste other dudes into his will by swallowing them. After viewing the whole series as a kid, it's got wondering about what other sources of fiction I would see. I watched DragonBall Z, I watched Naruto, and I watched Ace Attorney. But then came BlazBlue, and my god. I bet I know what you're thinking. "If BlazBlue ain't for you, buddy. Then take a step back from the red line or you're toast."“

Well yeah, that’s how fandoms work dumbass. also I don’t care about your experiences.

“The mind is a very interesting concept I'm learning here. Not only do many people in this series is very individualistic, but cynical and self-biased as well. And you wanna know the reason? Is it Ragna? Is the exaggerated tropes in the series? Is it the convoluted nature of the series? Is it my overwhelming backlash towards the series? Or is it my fanfiction story that received so much backlash all because I wanted to replace a character that had the same "backstory"? Because I'm talking about the one asshole who was in charge of the whole series, the one who clearly wasted his own potential for nothing. It is going to be Japanese writer Toshimichi Mori.“

Oh gee, individualism. How terrible for a fascist like you.Also I highly doubt people are THAT cynical given the popularity of the Gag Reels and Bang Shishigami.

Also the backlash has everything to do with you jack ass. But sure, try blaming the creator for your own baggage. THAT hasn’t backfired before right?

“Now let's take a step back for a moment, shall we? Doesn't Mori ever love to take things down the roof? Does he love to put things into perspective like a Vase, then overwhelmingly shove Vases down our throats to show how amazingly complex they really are?”

The first thing Mori talked about with Bullet was her boobs. ... I’m pretty sure he just likes blowing shit up and making stuff that looks entertaining, especially considering the Astral Finishes, the basic character tropes written in their purest forms and characters like Bang.

It ain’t that deep, douchebag.

“You see, Daisuke was a very successful man in Arc Sys. He's written quite literally the best story out of all time, Guilty Gear. But then, one day, he decided to put his story on hiatus. Then asshole Mori shows up to take the advantage on him, and literally took his concept to the next level.”Isn’t Sol Badguy literally a self insert for the creator? Yeah I think Guilty Gear is just the same as Blazblue but with a different way going about things.So basically you’re a pissy Guilty Gear fanboy? Good to know.

“But goddamn, did that fail. A lot of people were brainwashed into thinking his work is awesome and full of depth, and sadly. It doesn't. Mori character concepts are great, but that doesn't exclude his idea of a "protagonist".“

Yeah because people like you think that it has to be brainwashing and not that your egos are disproportionately big and fragile.

“

Now, a protagonist is the lead character, not a hero. That's true. However, they are many flaws to this concept. One is, the protagonist has to fit the tone of the story being presented here. However, what doesn't make logical sense, is that BlazBlue is supposed to represent a cynical crapsack world that's revived by someone who throws his life like a badass and the day is saved. But unfortunately, the other characters who manage to take the spotlight act differently. That's right. They don't CARE about what the tone is from BlazBlue, they just act all non-nonchalant from the so-called "gag reels" and they are barely mentioned ever in the series fandom. Then we randomly shift from one setting to the next, when all of this couldn't have been solved by just staying the one final spot where they were.“

... Okay so he completely missed the point of a protagonist.Also: no fucking duh. The characters are different because they are different PEOPLE dumbass. PEOPLE aren’t a fucking hivemind.Also I find it hard to say Blazblue is THAT cynical given how the final game is one big triumph for idealism.Also not only are the gag reels SUPPOSE to have a different tone but the fanbase LOVES them.

Also that setting one is just-wrong.

“But uhen we have the main villain, who is said by legends to be the most barbaric and most vile creature ever to be exaggerated off the face of fiction. His archenemy is not the knight, but sour ass protagonist we see in this series. Isn't it ashamed that this battle couldn't have been awesome if a protagonist with a kind-hearted soul were to step up and stop this beast? Nope. We never get. Probably, not in a long shot we ain't.”

A. Yeah and Terumi OWNS that concept. Hence why people love him.B. Ragna stopped being an asshole a game and a half ago. There’s a reason why Tao’s nickname for him is “Nice Guy.”

C. The guy literally erased himself from reality so things could be better. Ragna the Bloodedge is everything characters like Ruby Rose aspire to be.

“And do the games improve dramatically from game play perspective? Nope, each and every game is the same. There are no group battles, it's always 2D, and new characters don't make it different. It's a lazy way of getting the game to be new, but it doesn't feel different from me by any means necessary.“Group battles? That;s a spectacle fighter dumbass!And yeah, new characters DO matter. As in, that’s what Fighting Games are based off you idiot.

“o hate how most of the fighting game concepts were ripped solely off from Guilty Gear. It's like if Mori looked at Daisuke's work by demand and copied off everything that didn't add up from before. That's just not right. It certainly makes more angrier and upset to see Mori put his series like that. What a joke.

Somebody whose played Guilty Gear deal with this.

“Then we have BlazBlue Radio, featuring the ugly protagonist sitting next to two beautiful girls. Now may I remind you, I'm not against every single character in the series, except the protagonist and the evil monster. The protagonist gets the biggest spotlight cause I have quite literally, have the biggest boner to pick with him.“

So basically you’re jealous that Ragna gets the girls? Makes sense.

“ I never recognize his existence. Never have. The series has been a colossal heap of mish-mash concepts mixed in with anime drama tropes. Yet, a lot of people in the series don't recognize that. All of which ruined by poor planning and an occupied existence. This has been no exception because I talk to about being against the series as a fact, was a backlash of them showing me how great and awesome it truly is. And that's like talking to a brick here. I'm not braindead guy who suffers from mental retardation who has to live in an asylum for petes sake.”

A. You just did idiot.B. That;s not a bad thingC. people LOVE IT for being a mix mash.D. That argument makes no sense.E. So the complainer is wrong? Good to know I can just ignore you then.And F. That’s an oddly specific example...

“If you want to keep this up with me, then fine. Go right ahead. Build up as much anger as you can until my head ESPLODE. You stick your asses on this franchise, believe it to be some kind god for the whole Arc Sys works, and never again mention a protagonist replacement or a reboot. Cause I'm being clear, this series will never EVER improve. It's all the same shit, different story. And that different story is barely any better from all the crap I've seen from the characters. Nuff said. Peace out.”

Yeah yeah, the usual egotistical hater shtick. You ain’t special.

“P.S. If you're going to say that my stupid ass that brought me here ruined everything or is making you more frustrated. Then believe me, it's pointless to post a review or PM to say that I suck or my logic is ass. And I won't jolt. Ever.”

You say that but I know from experience you people break easily...

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REBEL 3:

“*Places Ragna in a blender and he gets shredded bit by bit, piece by piece until his ass was nothing*“Because this screams “SANITY!”

“AN: Time to get this crap out of the roll... Okay, so there's a lot of media I'm craving to look for. Of course, sometimes, media doesn't just cut for many audiences, via demographics. And I've seen video games and anime do this a lot, especially seinen. Then I played anime video games/visual novels... Ace Attorney, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Guilty Gear, Trails/Kieseki, and last but most hated of all time. BlazBlue.“So you know why you’re full of shit but you ignore it and keep going? Okay.

“I know what you're thinking, people. Like I really would love to admit, but people have been pulverizing me over my head saying how shit I was to an argument over a franchise that just screams out "FICTION". But no... People point out my hatred for Ragna The Bloodedge. A character that's unique to me in one way of the direction. In BlazBlue, a post-apocalyptic world that's nothing but trouble and people being dicks for crap reasons. Has anyone ever noticed that there is no "real" hero to the story? It's easy. BECAUSE PEOPLE WORSHIP RAGNA THE BLOODEDGE LIKE HE'S SOME SORT OF "ANTI-SUE". A flawed character that gets way too much attention! And Ragna gets all that crap like he's some kind of gold-digger.“

Ragna killed Blazblue’s Satan. ... He’s uh, kind of a hero no matter what you say.Also Noel, Makoto, Jin, Jubei, Hakuman, Tsubaki, Kagura, Celica-We have plenty heroes.

“As much as I really loved the characterization and all that, Ragna ruins the experience for me. I'm not kidding, he really freaking does! He's not even a character, in my book. Let alone a dumbass that can't do anything right because he was trained by someone strong, has a vampire ally/rival and beats out on other things like an impatient chimpanzee. Because hey! That's his character, folks! Ragna isn't Ragna without his edgy, dark past despite it having no emotional value what-so-ever. GODDAMMIT.“A. Rachel isn’t a rival dumbass.And B. He LITERALLY got called out on that shit with Kagura in Chronophantasma and had to become more heroic in order to become a stronger fighter and a better person.

Oh, C. He STILL sacrificed himself for all his friends and family. I do not joke when I saw he’d be Ruby Rose’s idol.

“AND DON'T YOU BRING BANG SHISHIGAMI TO THIS RANT. Bang doesn't count as a hero in my book, he's better off as a supporting character. ALL I WANT FOR THE SERIES TO HAVE IS A REAL HERO. Not this Redcoat wearing jackass that always gets his way done no matter how much he pulls. The story is supposed to be "Black and White". NOT "BLACK AND GRAY"! Sure, there can be some vital exceptions. BUT I DON'T SEE A SINGLE, UTMOST THING, THAT HAS EVER CAME OUT OF BLAZBLUE THAT NEVER CHANGED MY MIND. EVER.”

A. Bang still counts motherfucker, you said ‘hero’ not ;major character’.

B. Hakuman’s right there trying to stab Ragna. C. No it’s suppose to be grey and gray. Mori built it that way. This is his story, not yours.

And D. So you know you’re wrong.

“Keep coming back to me! I don't effing care where it is. You rant, you whine, you even tell me to leave, but no... That all that isn't going to happen. I will be back and in one story... You'll that it is me that's returning. I won't bother arguing about this again. Sure, I've could've talked this through by PM'ing, but "Black and White" morality is always going to my thing. But hey, Fanfiction is all about tryharding! You use canonically made characters to achieve a thing that's worth a damn! Anyways, I got back from my awesome trip to California. Nuff said.”

And guess what motherfucker? I’ll be right here, challenging and fighting you every step of the way! Each time you scream about Canon, I’ll be there to tear it down. Each time you rant about canon, I’ll be there to cut it pieces. This is gonna be a battle of wills between you and I. And guess what? My will is damn near indomitable. Good luck jackass.

But let me send you off, Blazblue style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDFR4DoOQQ

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coldcomputersoul · 3 years

Text

Star and Marco’s Bogus Journey Episode 3: Waking Eclipsa

Summary: It’s a hoot and a holler when Ludo causes a major political crisis on Mewni. Meanwhile, Star is convinced that Marco is still alive and tries to convince everyone else.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil belongs to:

Sealab 2021 belongs to:

[theme song]

ACT I

[The episode starts with Ludo sitting on the royal throne all alone in the darkness. Meanwhile, a massive crowd of people bang their pots and pans in front of the castle as a form of protest. The noise is so loud that Ludo can hear it from inside the castle, causing him anxiety. Cut to three months earlier. Ludo is about to give a special announcement to the citizens of Mewni from the royal balcony, but he’s too short to reach the microphone]

Ludo:

[to the guards] Ehem... [the guards remain still] I said: EHEM!!!

Guard:

Oh, right...

[The guards bring Ludo a couple of boxes so he can reach the microphone. They also lift him up and set him in place]

Ludo:

[standing on the boxes] That’s better… [holds the microphone] Is this thing on?, okay… Citizens of Mewni: As many of you already know, today I’m speaking to you in my role as acting king due the detention and subsequent arrest of Moon Butterfly and River Johannsen, who were caught conspiring against me during a police operation. Now, although a trial date has not yet been scheduled, it is expected to take place within... two weeks at most.

[The audience starts talking among themselves]

Ludo:

However, that’s not the only reason I’ve summoned you today, you see: There have been some... rumors circulating lately regarding princess Star Butterfly that I would like to clarify… first of all: I want to confirm that princess Butterfly is indeed missing, she ran away three days ago and we still don’t know her whereabouts, however… any rumors about princess Butterfly joining a resistance group are 100% false, so I would like to ask you to stop spreading misinformation, please.

[The journalists talk among themselves]

Ludo:

Finally, I would like to announce that despite the current political crisis we’re going through right now, I have no plans to resign and cede my power to the parliament, so I’ll continue in my role as acting king until further notice...

[Ludo’s announcement causes mixed reactions among the audience]

Manfred:

[to the audience] Your majesty will answer all your questions now...

Journalist #1:

Mr. Avarius, does this means that your wedding with Star Butterfly is officially cancelled?

Ludo:

Well, me and my cabinet still didn’t discuss that possibility yet, as right now we’re too busy with some other issues that are far more important, so... I can’t give you a proper answer to that question.

Journalist #2:

Mr. Avarius, as the acting king of Mewni, what are your powers?

Ludo:

According to the law, I’m allowed to take major decisions regarding taxation, foreign policy, police reforms, and so on and so forth… however, I can’t pass new bills all by myself, nor change the constitution. Those are powers that only the parliament has.

Journalist #3:

Mr. Avarius, what will be your plan of action to solve the current unemployment crisis?

Ludo:

We’re gonna create hundreds of thousands of new jobs by spending over $9000 billion in business spending to boost our economic growth by repealing several policies of my predecessor.

Journalist #4:

Mr. Avarius, what policies of the Butterfly administration are you planning to repeal?

Ludo:

Well, for example, I’ll replace the social pensions in favor of an individual capitalization system to allow all the workers to administrate their own pension funds.

Journalist #5:

Mr. Avarius, what are your thoughts on the MPPA*? (*Mewni-Pixtopia Partnership Agreement)

Ludo:

It’s a terrible deal, just as terrible as the person who signed it AKA Moon Butterfly. I’ll renegotiate a better one and we’ll be 10 times richer, you’ll see… okay, I’m tired, no more questions...

[Ludo gets back inside the castle]

Manfred:

Your majesty, there are still some journalists outside the castle, what do you…?

Ludo:

Send in the guard dogs to get rid of them...

Manfred:

Sir, the dogs are feeling sick right now.

Ludo:

Then, just send in the guards for crying out loud!!! and tell them to use pepper spray if it’s necessary… God, I’m surrounded by idiots… I’ll be in my room.

[Ludo retires to his room to have some privacy. Cut to Janna walking to school while chewing bubble gum. Suddenly, she hears a noise coming from a bush in front of the school]

Janna:

What the…?

Star:

[from inside the bush] Psst… Janna, it’s me Star...

Janna:

Star? What are you doing here? I thought you went back to Mewni for good...

Star:

Look, it’s a long story and right now, I don’t have time to explain. I need you to tell me where’s Jackie.

Janna:

Jackie no longer study here, she is moving out...

Star:

Really? Where?

Janna:

To France...

Star:

[panicking] No, no, no ,no, no!!! this can’t be… and just when I had something SO important to tell her… Is she gone?

Janna:

Not yet, she moves out next week. so, you can visit her at her house if you like...

Star:

Great idea!

Janna:

Now, would you please tell me what are you up to? not that I care, I’m just curious...

Star:

There’s no time for that, look… [gives Janna a hand-drawn map] meet me at this place at 6pm… I have very important news to tell you, but I also need Jackie to be present, do you understand?

Janna:

Uhm, Star… [shows the crudely drawn map] this map is garbage...

Star:

[sigh] The meeting is at the junkyard outside town, okay? there’s an abandoned 60’s van next to a pile of old tires… it’s unmistakable, trust me.

Janna:

Got it. I’ll there at 6pm then...

Star:

Good, now if you excuse me, I have to go. Don’t tell anyone that you saw me, okay?

Janna:

Sure...

[Star uses her dimensional scissors to leave. In that moment, Hope and Leah show up]

Hope:

Hey Janna, who were you talking to?

Janna:

Uhm, I was… talking to this magical talking bush? [beat]

Leah:

Really?

Janna:

Yeah...

Hope:

Ooh, that sounds like fun, I want to talk to him too… [talks to the bush] hey there fella… [beat] oh, I think he doesn’t like me.

Janna:

Don’t be silly Hope... he’s just being shy...

Hope:

Oh, that’s so cute.

Janna:

Whatever...

[Cut to Hekapoo (still frozen in a crystal) inside the dungeon. In that moment, a mysterious shadow wanders around the hallways and unfreezes Hekapoo]

Hekapoo:

WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I’LL…!!! Huh? Where am I?

Rhombulus:

[o.s] Inside the dungeon, I just unfroze you...

Hekapoo:

That voice...

[The mysterious shadow reveals itself as Rhombulus]

Hekapoo:

Rhombulus?! What the hell is going on?! Why am I in the dungeon?! What happened to Ludo?!

Rhombulus:

Take it easy Hekapoo, I’ll explain you everything, but first to need to calm down...

[Hekapoo takes a deep breath and calms down]

Hekapoo:

Okay, I’m cool now… would you please explain to me what in heaven’s name is going on?

Rhombulus:

Right… so after I froze you...

Hekapoo:

Wait… you were the one who froze me?!!! you damn traitor...!!!

Rhombulus:

[covering himself] Hekapoo please, let me explain to you, I swear it’s not what you think...

Hekapoo:

[sigh] Fine, I’ll listen to you… [crosses her arms] proceed.

Rhombulus:

Right… so after I froze you, Ludo promoted me to do your job, but that’s not the important part… like… Queen Moon and King River were caught trying to hire a hitman to kill Ludo, so they’re no longer in charge… and...

Hekapoo:

What?! When did that happen?!

Rhombulus:

Five days ago, but wait: I’m not done yet.

Hekapoo:

Wait, there’s more?!

Rhombulus:

Yes, because two days after the king and queen’s arrest, princess Butterfly ran away from the castle and no one knows where she is...

Hekapoo:

My God, you know what this means? Ludo has unlimited power now...

Rhombulus:

Not exactly, he’s still being limited by the parliament, but it’s only a matter of time before he finds out that he can remove people if he wants to.

Hekapoo:

You’re right, we gotta act quick if we want to stop him… I’ll just open a portal and...

Rhombulus:

Don’t do that!!! after princess Butterfly escaped from the castle, every dimensional portal is being guarded by the secret police… that’s one of the faculties Ludo gave them in order to maintain order.

Hekapoo:

So, what’s the big idea then?

Rhombulus:

Listen, at the end of this hallway, there’s a secret exit on the bottom right side of the wall, just push the big blue stone and you’ll enter into an abandoned corridor that will lead you outside the castle… once you’re outside, you head right into... [censor beep sound] that’s where the resistance is forming...

Hekapoo:

Wait, are you talking about... [censor beep sound] like, the… [censor beep sound]

Rhombulus:

Exactly, now hurry up, there’s no time to lose… [starts punching himself]

Hekapoo:

[raising an eyebrow] What are you doing?

Rhombulus:

I’m hurting myself in order to make it look like I put up a fight to stop you… [keeps punching himself]

Hekapoo:

Oh, you don’t have to do that… here, let me do it for you...

[Hekapoo starts beating Rhombulus]

Rhombulus:

[lying on the floor] Ouch! ouch! okay… I think that’s enough Hekapoo.. ouch! ouch! wait… please… that really hurts… Aaargh! have mercy… oh God… Aaaaah! [Hekapoo stops]

Hekapoo:

There you go, now it really looks like you put up a fight.

Rhombulus:

[writing in pain] Thank you Hekapoo… aargh!... you’re the best...

[Hekapoo runs away from the dungeon, but suddenly, she hears a familiar voice coming from one of the doors]

Queen Moon:

Hekapoo, is that you?

Hekapoo:

Your majesty, it’s me Hekapoo… are you okay?

Queen Moon:

Yeah, so far River and I are just being locked up, but how about you? do you have a plan?

Hekapoo:

Rhombulus told me the exact place where the resistance is forming, I’m planning to join them. Do you want me to get you out?

Queen Moon:

No, that won’t be necessary, we’ll be okay, however… I want you to do me a favor.

Hekapoo:

What do you want from me?

Queen Moon:

If you find Star… [takes a deep breath] I want you to promise me that no matter what, you will protect her from anyone who tries to hurt her… I know I’m asking you too much and you have to look out for for yourself too, but… Star is my only daughter and I don’t know what would I do if something happens to her, so please… take care of Star...

[Hekapoo simply smiles at her]

Hekapoo:

Don’t worry, your majesty, I won’t let you down...

Queen Moon:

Please, just call me Moon, at this point I’m not a queen anymore.

Hekapoo:

Whatever you say… Moon...

[Both women smile at each other. In that moment, Hekapoo hears some steps coming her way]

Hekapoo:

Oh crap, here comes one of the guards… [runs away] wish me luck Moon...

Queen Moon:

I’ll do it...

[Cut to Jackie carrying a box that says: “memories” and putting it in the trunk of a car. She notices that next to the box is a red belt that makes her think of Marco for a moment, then she takes a deep breath and keeps her way, but suddenly...]

Star:

[right behind Jackie] Jackie...

[Jackie gets startled and falls to the ground]

Jackie:

Star? what are you doing here?

Star:

There’s no time to explain, I need you to… [notices the red belt] Oh my… [takes the red belt] this used to belong to Marco, isn’t it? I remember he worked so hard to earn it... [her eyes get teary]

Jackie:

[standing up] Star, what’s going on?

Star:

[wiping her tears] Right... I want to tell you something very important...

Jackie:

What is it? I’m all ears...

Star:

But not here, I want you to meet me at the junkyard outside town at 6pm. Janna will be there too...

Jackie:

Wait… 6pm? but Star, right now I’m a little busy, you see… my mother took a new job and...

Star:

...and you’ll move out to France. Yeah I know, Janna told me about it, but please Jackie: This is very, VERY important and I need to know that I count on you to be there... [gets on her knees] pleeease...

[Jackie watches Star getting on her knees and thinks about it]

Jackie:

Okay Star, I’ll be there...

Star:

[hugging Jackie] Oh, thank you so much Jackie, it means so much to me to know that I can always count on you.

Jackie:

[hugging her back] That’s what friends are for...

Star:

Okay, I gotta go now… see you at the junkyard...

Jackie:

But Star, before you go, don’t you wanna talk about…?

[In that moment, Jackie’s mom shows up (her face is still unseen)]

Jackie’s Mom:

Jackie...

Jackie:

Yes mom?

Jackie’s Mom:

It’s getting late, did you pack your things in the car?

Jackie:

Oh yeah, I did it, I was just talking with my friend right… [she turns her head but Star is now gone] here...

Jackie’s Mom:

Jackie, is something wrong?

Jackie:

Nevermind. I’ll just go upstairs for my skateboard.

[Jackie gets inside the house. Cut to Ludo practicing magic spells in his room]

Ludo:

[holding the wand] [taking a deep breath] Okay, one more time: Mega Narwhal Blast!!!

[A couple of sick narwhals come out of the wand and fall on the floor]

Ludo:

[throwing the wand] YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! F***ING WAND!!! I just don’t understand what am I doing wrong… God, this pisses me off!!!

[In that moment, Manfred shows up]

Manfred:

[opening the door] Your majesty...

Ludo:

What are you doing? I thought I told you to never interrupt me while I’m alone in my room, you sicko.

Manfred:

But your majesty, this is an urgent matter...

Ludo:

And so is my privacy, have you ever stopped to think about that?

Manfred:

But, your majesty...

Ludo:

[mocking him] But your majesty… shut the f*** up you irritating idiot, don’t you see I’m…?

[One of the guards show up in the room]

Guard:

Your majesty, there are riots in the street right now...

Ludo:

What? Why didn’t you tell me before?!!! ugh, you people are so incompetent.

[Ludo runs to the meeting room along with the guard. Manfred just watches him leave with utter disgust]

Ludo:

[talking to the guards] Okay, I want you to tell me what the hell is going on right now.

Guard #1:

Well, you see… it all started with an old man arguing with a police officer, but then...

Guard #2:

Then the officer did something that… well, see it for yourself:

[A couple of guards bring a TV screen to the meeting room, then one of them uses a remote control to turn it on]

News Anchor:

...after being shot in a drive by shooting, Mewni’s state hospital finally confirmed the death of Blinky the clown at 4pm eastern time… in other news: Mewni lived a massive riot at Polybius Square after an elder man was brutally beaten by a police officer. Our field reporter, Tyrone Maggotbone is on the scene: How is everything over there Tyrone?

Tyrone:

[in front of a riot] Jeff, this is without a doubt one of the most unprecedented riots I’ve ever seen in my life. Hundreds of thousands of Mewmans are fighting against the police without an inch of fear… it’s like, these are levels of violence that we’ve never seen among mewmans before, I mean, look at this… [the camera shows a group of policemen kicking an old lady on the floor] are you getting this? Jesus Christ, that’s violent.

News Anchor:

Any idea of how this conflict escalated so quickly?

Tyrone:

Well, luckily for us, someone recorded the entire conflict that started this protest on his phone, I’ll send it to you so… there you go.

[The video shows an old man holding a sign that says “bring back social pensions” and a police officer approaches him asking him to leave, but they start a heated discussion which ends with the police officer banging the old man’s head with his stick, causing the outrage of everyone among the crowd]

Tyrone:

Now, I don’t know how this is going to end for the citizens of Mewni, but one thing’s for sure: This is an incident that people will never forget...

[The TV turns off]

Guard #1:

So, what are you gonna do about…?

Ludo:

Tear gas.

Guard #1:

Wait, what?

Ludo:

I want you to stop the riots using tear gas.

Guard #2:

But your majesty, don’t you think you should…

[Ludo pulls out a gun and shoots him in the leg]

Ludo:

What was that? Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were questioning my authority for a moment. Anyway, use tear gas on every person who dares to even hold a sign, no exceptions. Do I make myself clear?

Guards #1 & #3:

Yes sir...

[The guards take their injured co-worker to the hospital]

Ludo:

[thinking to himself] The people of this country think they can make fun of me, huh? well, the joke’s on them because this is just getting started.

ACT II

[Cut to Jackie heading towards the junkyard on her skateboard. Once she gets there, she sees Janna along with Marco’s parents, Sensei Brantley, Gustav, the Morrisons, Alfonzo and Ferguson]

Jackie:

[fist bumping with Janna] Hey Janna...

Janna:

[chewing bubblegum] Hey Jackie...

Jackie:

Could you please tell me what’s going on?

Janna:

Well, you’re asking the wrong person, because I’m just as clueless you right now...

Sensei Brantley:

Hey, I was told that we would get free candy. I want my free candy.

Gustav:

This better be good. I missed my cooking class for coming here.

Alfonzo:

Hey look, it’s Star...

[Star suddenly appears from behind the van]

Mr. Diaz:

Star, what’s the meaning of this?

Ferguson:

Yeah, why did you call us?

Star:

I’m so glad you asked that question, because the answer will certainly blow your minds… now, we all remember our dear friend Marco, right? a regular teenage boy with a lot hobbies including videogames, cooking, karate and even ballet… yes, he was great dude with a lot of potential, but sadly on a dark turn of events he sacrificed himself in the name of the greater good. But… what if he didn’t really die and he’s more alive than ever before?

Janna:

[raising her hand] Uhm, excuse me, but… what the hell are you talking about?

Star:

That’s a very good question Janna Banana… and in order to answer it, first I want to show you something in my phone that will give you a clue of what I mean… take a look:

[Star shows them a clip from Sealab 2021 (from the episode “Der Dieb”)]

Star’s Phone:

Murphy: Now who's ready to beat some ass?

Marco: [steps forward and kneels] I'm in.

Murphy: I dub thee... [knights Marco with the bat] Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass. Be a hitter, babe.

Stormy: Hey! I wanna be a Martian Knight...

[Marco steps over to Stormy, now brandishing a bat]

Stormy: ...with... you guys? Maybe... get... one of them bats?

[Marco hauls off and knocks Stormy in the crotch with the bat; Stormy falls to the floor]

Debbie: Oh my God!

Quinn: What are you doing?

Murphy: Silence! I am enforcing the sacred law of the Red Planet.

Sparks: It's not 'Martian' law. It's-

Murphy: [to Marco] Sir Phobos?

[Marco walks over to Sparks, offscreen. We see the bat flying around and hear lots of thumps and Sparks' cries]

Sparks: [off-screen] Oww!!! My hand!!! You crushed my hand!!!

Mrs. Morrison:

Is this a joke?!

Mr. Diaz:

Star, you better have a good explanation for this!

Star:

Don’t you get it?! [points at her phone] This right here is Marco, OUR Marco. He’s trapped on another dimension and we gotta get him back.

Janna:

[giving her a pat on the back] Okay Star, with all due respect, I think you need some help, because you’re clearly out of your mind...

Star:

I’M NOT CRAZY!!! Marco is still alive and this is the proof...

Jackie:

But Star, that’s just a TV show. Just because there’s a character that shares the same name as Marco doesn’t mean they’re the same person.

Star:

But it’s not just the name. They have the same hobbies, the same personality traits, the same haircut... how can you not see it?

Gustav:

[standing up] Alright, I have enough of this… I’m leaving now...

Mr. Morrison:

Yeah, we’re leaving too...

[Everyone starts leaving]

Star:

Hey, where are you going? don’t leave me here all alone. We gotta get Marco back!!!

Janna:

Listen Star, if you want my advice: Get a good psychologist. For your own good.

Star:

But I know I’m telling the truth. Jackie, please: Tell everyone that I’m not crazy.

Jackie:

[scratching her head] Eh… well… maybe this time you should listen to Janna...

Star:

[shocked] But jackie… I thought you were my friend...

Jackie:

I am your friend Star, that’s why I think you should get some help. You can’t live the rest of your life in denial. Marco is gone, and he will never come back, and if you keep lying to yourself like this… well, let’s just say you’ll end up hurting everyone else around you… please Star… Star?

[Star stares at the floor in complete silence]

Star:

[whispering] Get out...

Janna:

What did you just say?

Star:

[screaming] Get out!!! All of you!!! Now!!!

Jackie:

But Star, we’re your friends...

Star:

I don’t have any friends here… leave me alone!!!

[Star turns away and hides inside the van. Jackie tries to follow her, but Janna stops her]

Janna:

Jackie don’t… that’s not a good idea.

Jackie:

but, I can’t help myself Janna. She looks so vulnerable.

Janna:

Yeah, but I know she’ll get over it one day. She just needs some time alone to mourn Marco, that’s all.

Jackie:

[sigh] You’re right. it’s not up to us.

Janna:

Come on, let’s go. We’ll be back tomorrow...

[Jackie and Janna leave the junkyard. Cut to Ludo having a meeting with the parliament and the Magic High Commision. He just walks around in circles over the table while rubbing his chin]

Ludo:

So, let me get this straight: You were at the dungeon looking out the prisoners, right?

Rhombulus:

[looking down] Right...

Ludo:

...and just when you went to check Hekapoo’s cell, you noticed she was gone, right?

Rhombulus:

Yes.

Ludo:

So, the attack was before of after you noticed she was gone, or...?

Guy #1:

Your majesty please, with all due respect: Don’t you think we should be discussing about more important issues? [covering himself] please don’t shoot me...

Ludo:

This is important you nincompoop, a highly dangerous prisoner escaped from the dungeon and I need to know every detail about it to evaluate what kind of security measures should I implement in the future. Stupid bureaucrat.

Guy #2:

Excuse me your majesty, but… what my colleague over here meant by “more important issues” was to talk about the overall discontent of our citizens.

Ludo:

What’s the big deal? I thought you already took care of them. Did you use tear gas to disperse the protesters like I told you to do?

Guy #3:

That’s not the point your majesty. The people reject the entire new system. According to our last poll, your approval rating is only 3%. Queen Moon’s approval was 30% at worst.

Ludo:

Meh, who cares about that? polls are misleading anyway… the people need some time to get used to the new system, that’s all… besides, I’m sure the economy is doing just fine.

Guy #4:

Eh, not exactly...

Ludo:

What? But how can this be? my economic plan was flawless. Explain yourself...

Guy #4:

Well, aside from the fact that nobody has been able to adapt to the new pension system, or the spending cuts you did on education that left several teachers unemployed, the unions are calling for massive strikes due the low wages and unfair contract terms.

Ludo:

Those filthy smurfs!!! [snaps his fingers] Okay, I got it: From now on, unions are forbidden and every person who joins or tries to create one will be punished by DEATH!!!

Guy #3:

But your majesty, that’s against the constitution.

Ludo:

Well, change the damn thing for f***’s sake!!! I’m just trying to solve the problem.

Guy #1:

Your majesty, don’t you think it would be easier if you just apply more sanctions to big companies so they are forced to provide better work conditions to their employees?

Ludo:

Are you nuts?! That will make me look weak and pathetic. We’ll boost the economy by raising tariffs on imported goods instead.

Guy #5:

Uhm, yeah… [scratches his head] speaking of which: The Pixie Empress called this morning to complain about the the changes you made at the MPPA, and...

Guy #2:

We told her it was non-negotiable, so she withdrew from it, and now we lost our main phone service provider.

Ludo:

Ugh, that tinkerslut!!! that’s it, we’re going to war!!!

Guy #4:

Are you insane? that will cost us trillions!!!

Guy #3:

Not to mention their army is like: TEN times bigger than ours. They will pulverize our soldiers.

Ludo:

Look, I’m perfectly aware how hard must be for you that some of our good men will probably die during this bloody conflict… but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make for this country.

Guy #1:

We won’t let you!!!

Ludo:

[getting angry] Are you questioning my authority as king?!!! I can get you killed for your lack of respect, you know...

Guy #4:

[standing up] Your majesty, please try to be more reasonable. We’re doing our best to come up with a solution to all these problems and you just keep treating us like garbage.

Ludo:

Well, maybe it’s because you’re garbage. I mean, look at this mess. This country is falling apart and I can’t do anything about it because my hands are tied by YOU!!!

Guy #4:

You can’t blame us for your failed policies!!!

Ludo:

Why not? You’re the ones who are keeping me from making the changes this country needs.

Guy #4:

[groaning loudly] Jesus F***ing Christ!!! this is SO pointless, it’s like talking to a child!!! [stands up] that’s it: I’m out of here… [walks away]

Ludo:

HEY!!! GET BACK HERE!!! WE’RE NOT DONE YET!!!

[Everyone else starts leaving as well, including the Magic High Commission]

Ludo:

Oh yeah?!!! fine… I don’t need you to run this country!!! I can do it on my own!!! [he is now all alone at the meeting room] God, being king is frustrating!!! I wish I could have someone to teach me...

[In that moment, Miss Heinous quietly sticks her head in the door]

Miss Heinous:

Uhm, excuse me… Is this the meeting room?

Ludo:

Who the hell are you?! How did you get here?!

Miss Heinous:

Well, I told the guards that I had an appointment and he just let me in...

Ludo:

Ugh, note-to-self: Fire all the guards and replace them with robots.

Miss Heinous:

Look, I understand that you’re busy guy and don’t like to be interrupted, but… if you just give us a minute to talk with you, we would like to make you an offer you might find interesting.

Ludo:

Wait… us? I thought you were alone.

Miss Heinous:

Oh, right… silly me...

[Miss Heinous opens the door and reveals she’s with her minions Gemini and Rasticore]

Miss Heinous:

Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Olga Heinous and these are my personal assistants Gemini and Rasticore. say hello boys. [they make a reverence] I’m the former headmistress of St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses. I have my CV right here if you wanna verify for yourself...

Ludo:

School? Oh, I get it. You’re here to complain about the education cuts, [sigh] listen lady: I don’t know who do you think you are, but let me be clear on this: I’m not gonna change my policies. End of story.

Miss Heinous:

No, wait… I’m not here to complain at all, on the contrary: I would personally like to thank you for your excellent job regarding domestic policy.

Ludo:

Domestic policy? What are you talking about? there are still riots on the streets.

Miss Heinous:

Yeah, I know, however: If it weren’t for your police reforms, the situation would be ten times worse.

Ludo:

Finally someone who gets it.

Miss Heinous:

However, while I do think your policies are good, they’re far from being perfect, and that’s why I’m here, your majesty… [makes a reverence] to work with you.

Ludo:

[raising an eyebrow] You are?

Miss Heinous:

Of course, you see: Before I got kicked out from my own school, my crew and I created a new kind of educational system that not only was capable to break our students on the outside, but on the inside too. A prison for the mind if you will. However, one day a princess called Turdina came out of the blue and destroyed my entire job… [has flashbacks of Princess Turdina] All of a sudden, my students became free-thinking rebels: Wild, unpredictable, incapable of being disciplined. Somehow, their minds were no longer mine to control them. All thanks to that one princess...

Ludo:

That’s terrible.

Miss Heinous:

After I lost my school, my job, my reputation, there was nowhere for me to go, in fact: To this day I still live in my car and the only company I have are my dear Rasticore... [gives him a pat on the head] and this deformed freak over here… [points at Gemini]

Gemini:

Hello...

Ludo:

Well, that’s a cute little story and all, but I still don’t understand why should I let you help me.

Miss Heinous:

Wait, I’m not done yet, you see... [has flashbacks of her reading several books] once I lost everything, I spent several weeks analyzing my failure. Day after day I read every book about mind control and discipline to figure out what I did wrong, but after months of pointless research I came to a realization: Maybe, it’s not about take away their freedom, but rather make them believe they have freedom...

Ludo:

Wow, I… never thought about that...

Miss Heinous:

So, what do you say? Let me be your political adviser, and I promise you’ll become the most popular ruler on Mewni since Queen Festivia.

Ludo:

Do I have to become a nice person?

Miss Heinous:

Nope, you can still be as much of a douche as you please.

Ludo:

Well, in that case welcome aboard Miss Heinous. [shakes her hand] I’m sure it will be a pleasure to work with you.

Miss Heinous:

On the contrary your majesty: The pleasure is all mine.

[Cut to Hekapoo arriving at some unknown location (that looks like hell) where a crowd of mewmans and monsters gather around. In that moment, she finds Kelly and Pony Head among the crowd]

Hekapoo:

Kelly? Pony Head? Is that you?

Kelly:

Hekapoo? Oh, thank goodness you’re okay. We thought you were dead.

Hekapoo:

Where’s princess Butterfly?

Pony Head:

[to Kelly] Don’t tell her anything!!! remember that she works for the government and will probably rat us out if we speak.

[Hekapoo and Kelly just look at her with an scornful facial expression]

Pony Head:

[feeling awkward] Eh… I mean… just kidding… come on, can’t you take little joke? he-he...

Hekapoo:

As I was saying: Do you know where she is?

Kelly:

I have no idea, but one thing’s for sure: You won’t find her in this dimension.

Hekapoo:

Wait, how do you know that?

Kelly:

Because we are the ones who helped her in her escape.

Hekapoo:

Really? wow, it must have been difficult for you, I mean with all the guards around watching the place and stuff...

Kelly:

Oh, you have no idea, like… first we had to sneak into the castle while avoiding the watchdogs, at first we tried to climb our way in, but fortunately Tad found a loose stone in the wall and...

Pony Head:

After we got in, I had to take everyone to the top room where Star was with a rope tied to my neck and then Tad said something about a loose bar and blah blah blah, long story short we escaped from the castle and gave Star a pair of dimensional scissors, but that’s all we know so far, I swear...

Hekapoo:

And you don’t have any idea of where she could be, do you?

Kelly:

Unfortunately, Star didn’t tell us where she was planning to go, but I’m sure she went somewhere safe and will be okay.

Pony Head:

Yeah, I mean, it’s not like she’s hiding on Earth or something like that, because that would be really stupid and Star knows better, right? RIGHT?

[Hekapoo and Kelly look at each other very concerned]

Pony Head:

Oh my God, she’s hiding on Earth, isn’t it?

Hekapoo:

I have to go there and find her.

Kelly:

But how? All dimensional portals are being watched by him, you could reveal her location to Ludo if you do that.

Hekapoo:

But she needs someone to protect her, don’t you get it? It’s only a matter of time before he finds out and send their thugs to get her back. If only there was a way to get there without using portals, I...

Random Guy:

Shhhhh… the rally is about to start...

Hekapoo:

Rally? What rally?

[In front of the crowd there’s a stage with a demon servant ready to make an announcement]

Demon Servant:

[holding a paper] And now, your demonic majesty prince Thomas Draconius Lucitor will address you to discuss the current crisis our country is facing.

[Tom gets on stage while holding a microphone. The servant makes a final reverence and leaves]

Tom:

Thank you Frank… Now, we all know why we’re here, right? These hard times we’re living today, this whole crisis that it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before, we must put a stop to it, but in order to do that we need organization. So, the first thing I would like to propose to all mewmans, demons and monsters is to set aside our differences and come together to face this powerful enemy that doesn’t respect anything, or anyone for that matter, I’m talking of course about Ludo Avarius.

[Everyone starts booing at the mention of Ludo’s name while holding Anti-Ludo signs]

Tom:

Yeah, yeah, I know, I hate Ludo too, but listen: If we REALLY want to take him down, we have to do the smart thing and join our forces to achieve this common goal we all have. Look, I know it hasn’t been easy for any of us, we have our differences and we all know it, but is in times like these where the will of the people is put to the test, and who knows, maybe… JUST maybe, if we’re successful, we’ll realize we have more in common than we thought. So, what do you say? Are you with me?!!!

[The crowd starts cheering at him]

Tom:

Now, that’s what I’m talking about, and with all said and done, I have great news for you: As you may know, Pixtopia just withdrew from the MPPA and shut down all their services on Mewni, however… as we’re speaking right now, a group of my best lawyers and negotiators are reuniting with the Pixie Empress to bring their magic dust to us without any interference from Ludo’s government.

[The crowd starts cheering once again]

Hekapoo:

Wait, did he just say “magic dust”? [walks among the crowd] Hey, I have a question!!!

Tom:

And last, but certainly not least: I recently spent a good amount of my fortune, two hundred four million dollars to be exact, to buy you helmets, pads and gas masks so you can get all the protection you need on the upcoming protests. Bring it on boys!!!

[Tom’s minions fly around the crowd giving helmets, pads and gas masks while the crowd cheers even louder and start singing a song with the same melody of “The Star-Spangled Banner”]

The Crowd:

♫ Ludo go f*** yourself… You are worse than the plague… We will seeeever you head and… Serve it up on a plate… ♫

Tom:

Well, that’s all for today people, and don’t forget to assist to next week’s rally at Polybius Square at 4pm. Don’t forget I count on you, so don’t let me down [winks at the crowd] See you later...

[Tom gets off the stage while the crowd keeps cheering at him. Meanwhile, Hekapoo tries to make her way to the stage. Cut to Tom at the backstage celebrating along with his life coach Brian]

Tom:

That. Was. Incredible!!! I mean, did you see the way they all cheer up for me? Ah man, this is the best day ever!!! High five!!! [he gives a high five to Brian] And all thanks to you Brian...

Brian:

Don’t mention it master Tom, after all, it’s part of my job. [opens a bottle of soda and drinks it]

Tom:

Oh, don’t be so modest, you know I couldn’t have done this without you, so… you want me to take you to a Big Boy, or something? [gives him a pat on the back] come on, flapjacks are on me...

Brian:

Well, that sounds nice and all, but...

[In that moment, one of Tom’s minions enters the room]

Tom’s Minion:

Master Tom: You have a visit from someone who says she needs to talk with you immediately. She says it’s something important.

Tom:

Wait, did you just say “she”? let her in...

[Hekapoo enters the room escorted by Tom’s minions]

Tom:

Hey, wait a minute… you are that fire chick from the Magic High Commission… Hek-a-something…?

Hekapoo:

Hekapoo... now listen to me: You said you can get pixie dust, right? cause I need a huge favor...

ACT III

[Cut to Ludo and Miss Heinous having a private meeting at Ludo’s room. Heinous walks around in circles rubbing her chin while Ludo just watches her in silence while sitting on chair]

Ludo:

So, what do you think we should…?

Miss Heinous:

[interrupting him] Shhh… I’m thinking...

[Miss Heinous keeps walking around in circles for a while. Ludo gets tired and falls asleep]

Miss Heinous:

[shouting] I GOT IT!!!

[Ludo wakes up startled and falls off the chair]

Ludo:

[standing up] What? What? What? Where am I?

Miss Heinous:

I just came up with the perfect plan to make you popular among young people.

Ludo:

Really? And why took you so long?

Miss Heinous:

I’m sorry your majesty, but it was too much information to process in order to get it done. No offense, but you’re not exactly the nicest guy in the world.

Ludo:

[sigh] I know that, why do you think I hired you? Jeez… So, what’s the big idea?

Miss Heinous:

Okay, here’s the plan: Everyone loves a hero, right?

Ludo:

Right...

Miss Heinous:

This notion of a brave, fearless warrior facing the adversity, overcoming the obstacles that come his way in order to achieve his goals, or save the people the loves. That’s where the appeal is.

Ludo:

Okay, I think I know what you mean, but how exactly will I become a hero? I mean, just the idea of having a hand-to hand combat nice makes me wanna piss my pants.

Miss Heinous:

Oh, but that’s the whole trick your majesty: It’s not about make you look like a hero, but instead make your opponents look so bad, that people perceive you as a hero.

Ludo:

I’m not following you...

Miss Heinous:

It’s quite simple really. Just like the story of David and Goliath, people always tend to look out for the underdog, so in order to make you a hero, we’ll turn your enemies into the huge, evil monsters you should fight to save Mewni. In other words: You’ll become king David and they will be your Goliath.

Ludo:

Oh, now I get it. I must say, I’m starting to like this idea and all, but... how are gonna change people’s perception of me? I mean, I only have a 3% approval rating.

Miss Heinous:

Just leave everything to me your majesty, after all: If we want to achieve our goal we have to go one step at a time.

Ludo:

Well, if you say so...

[In that moment, one of the guards opens the door to make an announcement]

Guard:

Your majesty, the rioters came back. They’re making some kind of rally at Polybius Square.

Ludo:

What?!!! Send the military and them to shoot those terrorists right in the...

Miss Heinous:

[interrupting Ludo] Wait, don’t do that!!!

Ludo:

Huh? Why not?

Miss Heinous:

Look, just let them have their rally, trust me.

Ludo:

Aw, but I hate rallies...

Miss Heinous:

Listen to me: If you decide to respond with violence, not only will you legitimize their movement, but you’ll also lose the few approval you already have. Be smart and play safe, please...

[Ludo takes a moment to think about it]

Ludo:

[sigh] Okay, I’ll do as you say… [talks to the guard] Cancel the attack, but send a brigade of police officers to watch the surrounding areas.

Guard:

Yes sir… [leaves the room]

Ludo:

Are you sure this will boost my popularity?

Miss Heinous:

Of course it will, this is all part of the plan. Just let them have their puny little rally for now, because soon enough you’ll have them eating out of your hand.

Ludo:

Excellent...

[Ludo and Miss Heinous start laughing evilly. Cut to Star crying inside the van at the junkyard. She looks a picture of her, Marco and the girls, but decides to delete it]

Star:

[thinking to herself] Oh Marco, even though it’s only been a few of weeks since you’re gone, somehow I can still feel your presence all around. Now, I don’t know if it’s because I’m going crazy, or I just can’t accept the reality and move on like everyone else, but one thing’s for sure: Things will never be same again now that I’ve lost you...

[Star closes her eyes and keeps crying in silence surrounded by darkness, when suddenly she hears a whispering, echoey voice that says: “Go further down”]

Star:

[opening her eyes] What?! Who said that?!

[The voice now says: “Down the spiral”]

Star:

Who are you?! What’s going on?!

[Star gets out the van in the middle of the night and follows the mysterious voice that keeps repeating “Go further down” and “Down the spiral” over and over]

Star:

[running across the junkyard] Wait… Where are you? What do you mean by “Down the Spiral”?

[She keeps running around searching for the voice, but suddenly: The voice stops]

Star:

[breathing heavily] Hey… don’t go… don’t… [gets on her knees] oh, who am I kidding? maybe I’m really going crazy and I’m just starting to hear voices… I mean… is there a way this could possibly get any worse?

Hekapoo:

[o.s] Princess Butterfly?

[Star gets startled for a second, but then she turns her head and sees Hekapoo right behind her]

Star:

Hekapoo? What are you doing here? Were you doing those voices I’ve just heard?

Hekapoo:

[raising an eyebrow] Voices? I don’t know what you’re talking about, anyway… thank goodness I found you. I’ve been looking for you for hours, but Janna wasn’t very specific when I asked her where...

Star:

Wait, did Janna tell you I was here?

Hekapoo:

Well, yes.

Star:

Ugh, what a friend… and just when I thought this situation couldn’t possibly get any worse, now it turns out she spilled the beans on me, so you can take me back to marry that knucklehead Ludo.

Hekapoo:

I’m not here to take you back to Mewni.

Star:

Really?

Hekapoo:

On the contrary: I’m here to take you to a safer dimension so Ludo can’t find you. Mewni has become a living hell since you left, so trust me: It’s better for you to stay away.

Star:

What the hell happened on Mewni?

Hekapoo:

Well, after you disappeared Ludo assumed the position of acting king and ever since then he turned Mewni into a neo-fascist dystopia. He doubled down police enforcement, banned every form of protest and suspended several civil liberties.

Star:

Oh my God, that’s terrible.

Hekapoo:

And the worst part is that since your parents were arrested for attempting to hire a hitman to kill Ludo, they’re being kept in prison and no one is able to get them out.

Star:

Jesus Christ, we gotta do something.

Hekapoo:

Forget it princess, it’s too dangerous. Just so you know: I had to get here using pixie dust instead of a dimensional portal because even those are being guarded by royal soldiers.

Star:

But we can’t just sit back here and wait for something to happen, the lives of our friends and families are in grave danger and you know it.

Hekapoo:

I’m sorry your majesty, but I promised to your mother that I would protect you, so my answer is no.

Star:

[groaning] You’re unbelievable. It’s like the only thing you know how to do is follow orders, I mean, where’s your sense of individuality? Do you even have any dream? A personal goal in life, of something like that? Or maybe you’re just a selfish, cold hearted bitch, just like my mother...

[Hekapoo gets angry at Star, so she slaps her in the face]

Hekapoo:

Now listen to me, you ungrateful little brat, because I’m only gonna say this once: You have no idea how much your mother has sacrificed for you to be safe, even at the expense of her own life, so the least you can do is treat her with the respect she deserves.

Star:

[rubbing her cheek] F*** you!!!

Hekapoo:

Besides: You wanna talk about selfishness? What about you princess? after all, you’re pregnant with Marco’s child, aren’t you? Are you telling me you’re willing to put that baby’s life in danger along with your own just to prove a point? I’m pregnant with Marco’s child too, and I don’t wanna risk myself or my upcoming baby just to save you. Have you ever thought about that?

Star:

[turning her back on Hekapoo] Leave me alone...

Hekapoo:

So... no snarky remarks on that one? Huh, why am I not surprised? Well, maybe it’s time for you to just grow up and cooperate with me for a change.

Star:

I didn’t ask for your help...

Hekapoo:

Well, tough luck sweetheart! because you have no choice.

Star:

I’m not going anywhere… [sits on the floor with her arms crossed] you understand?

Hekapoo:

Princess, please… you’re only making my job harder than it should be.

Star:

Well I’m sorry, but your job is not my problem.

[Hekapoo takes a moment to figure out a way to convince her]

Hekapoo:

You know, Janna also told me that you’re convinced that Marco is somehow still alive, is that true?

Star:

And what do you care about that?

Hekapoo:

Because just like you princess, I still remember Marco and would give anything to see him again, but I guess you don’t care about that either.

Star:

You’ll just think I’m crazy like everyone else did.

Hekapoo:

I give you my word that I won’t think you’re crazy, so please: Show me what you know about Marco.

[Star thinks about it for a few seconds. Cut to Star showing Hekapoo the inside of the van. She uses the flashlight of her phone to search for something across the floor]

Hekapoo:

What is this place?

Star:

It’s the inside of a van. It’s a human vehicle that I’ve been using as a house the last few days.

Hekapoo:

Why have you been using a vehicle as a house?

Star:

It’s a human thing, you wouldn’t understand.

Hekapoo:

So… you’re telling me that humans use their own houses as vehicles?

Star:

Not at all of them, just the ones that don’t have a roof over their heads.

Hekapoo:

So, there are humans that live under roofs they call houses, and the ones that don’t have roofs live inside vehicles they call houses, even though they’re not roofs? God, humans are weird...

Star:

I’ve found it!!!

[Star shows her a notebook with all the information she’s been collecting]

Hekapoo:

What is this? wait, let me just… [uses her powers to create a flame to light up the place] there you go.

[The notebook contains images of several Sealab 2021 episodes along with their respective airdates, production codes, summaries and footnotes. The pictures with Marco have a red circle drawn around his face]

Star:

Okay, these images are from a TV show called Sealab 2021. It’s about a group of scientists living in an underwater research station for research purposes, but because of their sheer incompetence and unprofessional behavior they blow up their lab in almost every episode.

Hekapoo:

[rubbing her chin] Okay...

Star:

Now, after watching the complete series three times in a row and doing some research, I’ve found out that this show… is actually a parody of another show called Sealab 2020.

Hekapoo:

Eh, I don’t understand what does this have to do with…?

Star:

Wait, I’m not done yet… The original show aired in 1972 and the parody aired in 2001, almost 30 years of difference, after doing more research I discovered that between 1970 and 2000 the United States spent around 13.5 million dollars in underwater research stations alone... that’s like 88.6 millions if you adjust it to today’s standards.

Hekapoo:

Wow, I didn’t know you were so good at math.

Star:

Well, to tell you the truth, I asked some help from Alfonzo for that one, but anyway: The reason I’m telling you this is because of this character over here… [points at Marco]

Hekapoo:

Well, he kinda looks like Marco.

Star:

That’s the whole point: The full name of this character is Marco something something Diaz something something something Marquez, he works as the station’s engineer, and not only shares the same name as OUR Marco, but he is also a bit stubborn, has large muscles, knows karate, how to cook, has large muscles, doesn’t speak spanish very well, is a bit corky, has large muscles, he’s even a bit of a ladies’ man… did I mention he has large muscles?

Hekapoo:

Okay, I admit those are a lot of coincidences, but how are you so sure that THIS is OUR Marco?

Star:

Well, remember when Marco attempted to destroy the Espercrystal while it was embedded in Toffee’s body? you know, when Toffee turned into that gigantic mass of flesh and stuff...

Hekapoo:

Yeah, I remember that...

Star:

The last thing we could see before they disappeared was that giant upward spiral of magic energy that quickly vanished into thin air, so… my theory is that maybe, just MAYBE, Marco wasn’t actually disintegrated, but teleported into a different spacetime, something that goes beyond any dimension we have knowledge of. Something like...

Hekapoo:

A different realm.

Star:

What’s a realm?

Hekapoo:

In the Magic High Commision that’s how we call those places that are beyond any dimension we have registered in our archives, it’s like when you have a map and you reach the edges into unexplored territory.

Star:

Wait, so... do you actually believe me? You don’t think I’m crazy, or something like that?

Hekapoo:

No, not at all, in fact: I think your theory makes a lot of sense considering that realm travelling can actually bend some of the rules of spacetime.

Star:

[getting excited] Oh my God, you know what this means? We can get Marco back!!! [starts jumping for joy] Hooray! this is the best day ever. Using your knowledge and my bravery and determination we’ll be able to find him on wherever dimension he’s in...

Hekapoo:

Wow, wow, wow… now hold your horses for one second princess: realm travelling is nothing like the dimensional travelling you’re used to. We’re talking about a whole new level in spacetime journey that goes beyond my understanding, so… No, we’re not going anywhere.

Star:

But we gotta get Marco back!!! I thought you loved him...

Hekapoo:

Look, I love Marco as much as you do princess, but it’s too dangerous and I promised to your mother that I would keep you safe, so this conversation is over.

Star:

[making a puppy face] Pleeeease...

Hekapoo:

No.

Star:

Oh, come on...

Hekapoo:

I said no, and even if I agreed to do it, I still don’t know how to travel. The only person I know that knows about realm travelling is...

Star:

Who? Who knows about realm travelling?

Hekapoo:

I’m not gonna tell you.

Star:

Come on, just tell me… I promise I won’t do anything. Scout’s honor!

Hekapoo:

Don’t try to fool me, you’re not even a scout.

Star:

[taking a deep breath] Okay, you asked for it: tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me...

Hekapoo:

OKAY, OKAY, I’LL TELL YOU!!! BUT FOR GOD’S SAKE: CUT IT OUT!!!

Star:

It always works...

Hekapoo:

As I was saying: The only person I know that knows about realm travelling is Queen Eclipsa, but she’s still frozen in the crystal dimension so we can’t go there. End of story.

Star:

Sure we can, we just have to use some of that pixie dust of yours and that’s it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy...

Hekapoo:

Okay, first of all: Rhombulus is the only one who has the ability to unfreeze people, and he no longer works on the crystal dimension, and second of all: We’re not going.

Star:

[groaning loudly] You’re just like my mother, you… wait a second: You said that my mother sent you to protect me... which it means you still work for my family... therefore, I’m actually your boss...

[Star looks at Hekapoo with a grin on her face. Hekapoo gulps out of fear]

Hekapoo:

Princess please, just take a moment to consider it...

Star:

Too late, I’ve already made up my mind, so… [puts her arm around Hekapoo’s shoulders] Beam me up Scotty!

Hekapoo:

Me and my big mouth...

[Cut to a group of protesters having a celebration in Polybius Square. There’s people dancing in the streets, people putting up anti-government posters and even people burning an effigy of Ludo. Tyrone, the news reporter is on the scene]

Tyrone:

[holding a microphone] I’m here at Polybius Square where a massive event is taking place right now. Thousands of people gather around for the third consecutive week on what is seems to be the biggest march in Mewni’s history. To give us more details, we have an exclusive interview with none other than the organizer of this entire movement: Tom Lucitor. [the camera shows Tom next to Tyrone] How are you today Tom?

Tom:

Very excited Tyrone, you know, I never thought this movement me and crew started three weeks ago could become so massive, I mean, look at all these people right here. This certainly goes beyond all our projections.

Tyrone:

Right... Moving to another topic, there have been some reports of lootings taking place around the square, as well as some acts of vandalism that some people attribute to the protests, what do you have to say about that?

Tom:

Nothing but isolated incidents Tyrone. I’ve been organizing this movement from day 1 and I’ve spoken with a lot of people, and let let me tell you: The vast majority you’re watching right here are pacific and have nothing to do with the looters. Besides, I can guarantee you that 2 out of 3 looting incidents are hoaxes made by the police in order to discredit our movement.

Tyrone:

Really? How does that work?

Tom:

Well, first they pay a group of people to put on some masks and attack a bunch of previously selected stores and small business they capture on video, and then they post it on the internet to...

[Cut to Ludo and Miss Heinous watching the news at the meeting room]

Ludo:

[panicking] Oh my god, they found out about the hoaxes. The plan is ruined!!!

Miss Heinous:

Relax your majesty, this is exactly what we wanted.

Ludo:

[raising an eyebrow] It is?

Miss Heinous:

Of course!!! In fact: The rise of that demon boy is the best thing that could have happened to us.

Ludo:

Really? But how? I don’t get it.

Miss Heinous:

Elementary, my dear Ludo: The best way to make you popular is to find someone that people can hate more than they hate you, don’t you understand? By dragging Tom down, we’ll discredit your entire opposition making them look dishonest. In that way we can shift the narrative to turn you into the lesser of two evils. It’s politics 101 basically...

Ludo:

My God… That’s brilliant!

Miss Heinous:

Now, the only thing we have to do is find some dirt on him, but how are we gonna do it?

Ludo:

You leave that to me, I know the perfect guy...

[Cut to Rhombulus trying to create dimensional scissors at Hekapoo’s fortress. However, all his attempts so far have failed miserably, resulting in a pile of deformed scissors]

Rhombulus:

[putting his hands around the fire] Almost there… [the scissors turn out okay] Yes!!! [but then they stretch and deform] Oh, F***!!! [throws the scissors into the pile] Who am I kidding? I don’t know how to make dimensional scissors, Ludo will blow me into smithereens for this. [sigh] If only Hekapoo was here to teach me how to do it, I mean, she makes it look so easy...

[In that moment, Hekapoo appears out of nowhere, pounces over Rhombulus and puts a magical knife around his neck]

Hekapoo:

Well, maybe you should lower the fire’s temperature for next time, you knucklehead.

Rhombulus:

Hekapoo? What are you doing here?!

Hekapoo:

Oh you know, just paying a visit to an old friend to ask him a small favor.

Rhombulus:

Do I know him?

Hekapoo:

Ha-ha, very funny, now go grab your stuff cause you’ll take us to see Queen Eclipsa.

Rhombulus:

Us? What do you mean by “us”?

[Star appears from behind one of the fortress’ pillars]

Star:

Is he ready Hekapoo?

Rhombulus:

Princess Butterfly?! What’s the meaning of this?!

Hekapoo:

The less you know the better, trust me. Now do as we say and everything will be just fine, okay? OKAY?!

Rhombulus:

[sweating] Okay, okay, I’ll do as you say...

[Cut to Rhombulus taking Star and Hekapoo to see Queen Eclipsa at the Crystal Dimension]

Star:

[sigh] How long till we get there?

Rhombulus:

We’re here.

[Rhombulus shows Star and Hekapoo the giant crystal block where Eclipsa is frozen]

Rhombulus:

Okay, this is Queen Eclipsa. Can I go now?

Star:

Wake her up...

Rhombulus:

What?! Are you serious?! Do you have any idea who Queen Eclipsa is?!

Hekapoo:

Do as she says, now! [points the knife at him]

Rhombulus:

Okay, okay, I’ll do it. Heaven forgive me...

[Rhombulus uses his powers to unfreeze Queen Eclipsa, but only from the shoulders up]

Queen Eclipsa:

[waking up] Huh? What happened? Why am I awake again?

Star:

[making a reverence] Queen Eclipsa, I came a long way to ask you very important favor...

Queen Eclipsa:

Wait a minute: Moon, is that you? What happened? I thought that spell I gave you to defeat Toffee was enough to take him down, maybe you just mixed up the words...

Star:

[standing up] I’m not Moon Butterfly your highness. I’m her daughter Star Butterfly, and right now I need your help.

Queen Eclipsa:

Let me guess: You’re here because you need to know a particular spell that only I know, don’t you?

Star:

How did you guess?

Queen Eclipsa:

It’s the only reason people have woke up lately, believe it or not.

Star:

So, can you help me?

Queen Eclipsa:

Mmmm… Can you bring me a chocolate bar from that vending machine over there?

Star:

What?!

Queen Eclipsa:

I’m sorry, but I make my decisions better on a full stomach, I hope you don’t mind.

[Star looks at Hekapoo for a moment]

Hekapoo:

[sigh] Don’t worry, I’ll get the bar...

[Hekapoo goes to the vending machine and gets a chocolate bar, then she gives it to Eclipsa]

Queen Eclipsa:

[tasting the bar] Oh, but is is a lemon bar. I wanted the cherry flavoured one.

[Hekapoo starts grinding her teeth as she goes once again to the vending machine to get a cherry flavoured bar, but this time the bar gets stuck inside]

Hekapoo:

[getting angry] SON OF A… [punches the machine, breaks it and gets the bar, then she gives it to Eclipsa] Here’s your stupid bar.

Queen Eclipsa:

[tasting the bar] Ah, that’s better… [eats the whole bar]

Star:

So, can you help me now?

Queen Eclipsa:

Okay, tell me what you want to know.

Star:

Phew! finally… I need you to tell me how to travel through dimensional realms.

Queen Eclipsa & Rhombulus:

DIMENSIONAL REALMS?!

Rhombulus:

[to Hekapoo] Hekapoo, did you tell her about the realms?! that’s against the royal code.

Hekapoo:

Shut up...

Queen Eclipsa:

[to Star] Listen kid, I don’t think you understand the sheer magnitude of your request. Realm travelling is a life-changing experience that can really mess up your mind, and honestly: I don’t wanna take the blame for contribute on your own self-destruction. Please try to understand me.

Star:

But, you’re the only one who knows the spell to do it. Look: this is not about me being morbidly curious or anything like that, I need to know because the love of my life was absorbed by a giant spiral of magic that took him away to another realm and I want to get him back, please...

Queen Eclipsa:

And how did you know he was absorbed into another realm?

Hekapoo:

Because it was absorbed along with the Espercrystal.

Queen Eclipsa:

The Espercrystal?! Oh God, not again...

Star:

Did you know about the Espercrystal?

Queen Eclipsa:

Yes I do, and let me give you some advice: If you do this, I swear to God you’ll regret every single second of your entire existence, so be smart and stay out of the realms.

Star:

But you don’t understand… [gets on her knees] the thing is: I’m pregnant with this boy’s child, I found it out just a few weeks before he disappeared, but I couldn’t tell him in time… and who knows? maybe if I had told him about my baby, he wouldn’t sacrifice himself to save us from that evil crystal and its evil powers, so every time I think about him, I see myself carrying the weight of his loss for the rest of my life, so please… just give me this opportunity, that’s all I ask for.

Queen Eclipsa:

[sniffing] Oh, that is just so sad… but life’s a bitch kid, you’ll just have to learn to live with it.

Star:

Oh, come on!!! I’ll do anything you want me to do… [makes a puppy face] Pleeease...

Queen Eclipsa:

[moved] Aw, I hate when they make that face. Okay, I’ll tell you what you want to know.

Star:

[standing up] Hooray!

Queen Eclipsa:

However… I want something in return.

Star:

Oh, you want more chocolate bars? No problem, I’ll just take these bars left over here and...

Queen Eclipsa:

I’m not talking about chocolate bars. What I want in return… is to be free.

Hekapoo & Rhombulus:

WHAT?!!!

Queen Eclipsa:

That’s right: no freedom, no secret. Simple as that.

Rhombulus:

Forget about it Eclipsa, princess Butterfly will never agree to set free someone as dangerous as…

[Star grabs Rhombulus arm and uses it to unfreeze Eclipsa’s entire body]

Rhombulus:

Hey, that’s my arm!

Queen Eclipsa:

[giving Star a pat on the head] Now, that’s a good girl, and because I’m a woman of my word, I’ll tell you the secret you want to know...

[Eclipsa whispers the secret on Star’s ear. Star simply gasps as she hears it]

Queen Eclipsa:

And that’s basically all you need to know. Now, If you excuse me: I have some unfinished business I have to attend, so… arrivederci… [flies away]

Rhombulus:

[following her] Hey, get back here… [leaves the scene]

Hekapoo:

So... what did she tell you? Star?

[Star stares into space for a few seconds, then she looks at Hekapoo]

Star:

The wand. We gotta get it back.

MARCO VS. THE FORCES OF LOVE - EPISODE 18: WAKING ECLIPSA

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anxiety-trademark · 3 years

Text

The week in review:

Raw 11/30 NXT 12/02 NXT UK 12/03 Smackdown 12/04 Takeover War Games 12/06 + Main Event 12/03

Raw:

...Yeah hi, what the fuck is with the doll trapped inside of the table? Is that a metaphor for Alexa??

I’m so happy for her being able to have segments with Orton. Good for her.

Alexa’s like a mere inch taller than me so she’s a nice gauge as to to how tall the men’s roster is in comparison, and Randy? Fucking tall.

So the writing was on the wall; Fiend cares about Alexa (whether the nature is abusive is irrelevant to this point) and Randy has figured out how to use Alexa as a pawn to manipulate Fiend. I was kind of hoping Fiend/Alexa were in control of the gameboard, but it seems I’ve been duped.

The only complaint I have about this is how... compliant and helpless Alexa was in this segment. She’s not only been possessed/traumatized into caring about Fiend, but furthermore she does care about him, so why wouldn’t she be fighting against Randy when she was in his arms? The writing of her character in this particular segment seemed shallow. I know she can play whatever emotion they want from her, so to not ask for any emotions at all is curious.

Also the only person who isn’t a heel here is Alexa, and I won’t really hear any argument on the manner. Fiend is a predator at best. Orton is a psychotic douchebag.

My head hurts. Imagine Becky being stuck in a tag team with Lana rather than throwing a huge fit about not being able to defend her title for fucking months.

“Sarah you wouldn’t understand, but Shayna and I are about to-- *starts smiling like a fucking idiot*” Wow I want to defend wwe’s incessant need for giving Lana a storyline but I’m so fucking tired of abysmal promos. God. I. Miss. Becky. WHY is the Raw women’s champion wrapped up in this??

“First of all... ew.” lolololol

Shayna’s hatred for Lana is fucking hilarious.

Why is it, whenever Nia and Shayna do their dual barricade ragdoll move, Nia always gets the lighter one?

Nia fucking pummeled Lana lmao.

I kind of wish this story had a live crowd, I’d like to see if all of this was actually buying Lana some goodwill from the audience.

Hilarious watching Lana sit on the bottom rope for a few seconds before climbing through onto the apron, before slinking down to a sitting position, before finally collapsing onto the floor barely peering into the ring. Tf is she doing rofl.

Now she jumped up onto the apron lacking any enthusiasm, tagged herself in, and is climbing onto the turnbuckle while seemingly sobbing. What in the fuck lmao.

God Asuka is working overtime here.

*Bonus* online exclusive: how fun, Lana and Asuka are singing and dancing together. This division is turning into a garbage fire rq.

Oh is Mandy still out with an injury in kf?

Love it when new debuts get no fucking entrance. Yikes.

Mia Yim had such a dope theme song and entrance, I can’t believe it’s been scrapped so that she can call herself “Reckoning” and hang out in some dead-end group. Shame.

Oh my god. Mia loses to Dana via rollup after taking virtually no offense. What a waste of everyone’s time. I see this going nowhere, absolutely nowhere.

*Bonus* online exclusive: lmfao the Nikki Cross interview was worth a mention. First off, Nikki looks gorgeous. Second, I feel like this is the beginning of her run of not appearing on Raw because she isn’t deemed developed enough outside of a tag team, which is sad. Third, rofl @ her giving Sarah sheep’s stomach chicken to eat, I have no words. Anyway, she should be a solid midcarder. Get it together wwe.

Highlight: Probably the Nikki Cross online exclusive

---

NXT:

They got Shotzi something that glows. Wow.

Why is there a silhouette as if Io isn’t already added to the team? Why wouldn’t she be? Shayna was in last year’s, why wouldn’t Io be in this year’s? Is this supposed to be suspenseful?? lmao plz.

Indi did not take a bullet for you, she was just an idiot. Also why does this bitch still have a neck brace on? It was an Eclipse, let’s get real for a second.

Why you acting like your team is cohesive anyway? Doesn’t Dakota hate you? Didn’t Toni just turn heel for virtually no fucking reason, after defending/consoling Shotzi and attacking Candice like a sore loser? *sigh*

I know fans are really into WarGames but I find the alliances really fucking weak every year. It’s as bad as Survivor Series, just with more weapons and brutality.

So Xia Li lost some matches and now she’s being tortured... okay. I’m gonna keep my comments on this to a minimum cuz I can tell this will be some long-term story.

Oh I really like how their respective team members are standing up in the back on balconies. I really fucking like the layout of this arena. Huge fan.

Why Shotzi vs Raquel though? Why is the team captain fighting? That’s not typical for these, is it?

Ugh failure to throw Shotzi through the ropes. There’s just... a skill gap in the division, you know? And Shotzi and Raquel are on the lower end of that gap. I don’t care if people love Shotzi, she’s MILES away from being a champion. What saves her is her risk-taking, but it’s just a matter of time before that bites her in the ass.

Shotzi’s offense is doing a minimal amount of potential damage to her opponent while taking herself out in the most convoluted way possible. She’s Sasha Banks on steroids.

You call it innovative, I call it foolish.

Raquel just standing there waiting with stairs in her hands. Beast.

Shotzi can’t have a kf leg injury, that negates 95% of her offense!

Limpy vs Gimpy

Setting up that ladder in the corner was clunky as shit.

A pure ladder stip is hard to have in a women’s singles match, but this match is a big pile of meh.

Honestly I’m not about to complain about all of these women getting involved because this is borderline boring.

AYYYEEE it’s Io! Io saved this match tbh. Love her, THAT’S my champion.

Give Shotzi’s team the advantage, I doubt they win anyway.

To be honest; you have former nxt champion Ember Moon, inaugural UK champion and former nxt champion who fought against Charlotte fucking Flair at WrestleMania Rhea Ripley, and current champion that beat Charlotte fucking Flair for the title Io Shirai. The idea of that team losing is laughable at best in kf. But they will, cuz fuck babyfaces.

*Bonus* online exclusive: What surprises could you possibly have in store aside from some random weapons? Also fuck your howl. Edit: she was talking about her stupid new tank, wasn’t she...

Highlight: Io showing up at the end of the ladder match

---

NXT UK:

Who’s this green-shirt bro and why did he run over there to break up the brawl as if there aren’t 2 dozen officials already? Men needlessly getting involved in women’s fights irritates the shit out of me.

He also got in the way of the shot for the majority of this clip. I hate him.

I hope Jinny wins this future match.

This Aleah girl is like a cross between Kacy and Alexa, and honestly I hate it. Which is odd cuz I love them. She pisses me off though. Not sure what to make of it.

So supposedly Valkyrie is undefeated? That’s good. Let’s keep that going.

Valkyrie has nice counters and is super athletic. I say this every time I watch one of her matches but she deserves more praise.

I hate that women on UK get so little time. Send Valkyrie and KLR to nxt and send Dakota and Rhea to the MR, thanks.

I’d pay to see Valkyrie vs KLR too!

Still not a fan of Valkyrie’s finisher. Love her gear though, it looks different.

Highlight: Always a pleasure watching Valkyrie

---

Smackdown:

Lmfao Bayley “fails” to break the count before rolling back outside, so she rolls back in and fucking stomps her feet while yelling at the ref. She’s good. She’s good at the basics, good at paying attention to her surroundings, and good at improvising.

Bayley and Nattie are smooth together. They’ve never had a match, right? Other than this?

Love how Bianca has all of Bayley’s attention.

Bayley just used Nattie’s discus clothesline against her lmao. What a troll.

I remember when Bayley tapped, her entire fanbase was crying claiming she was buried. Watching it myself, she is so obviously entering into a program with Bianca. Christ 90% of her attention was on Bianca throughout the match.

*Bonus* online exclusive: Bianca just told Bayley her hair ain’t even and she looks dusty, good fucking bye.

mmmm not sure if Sasha has the admiration of the wwe universe. Look she’s a remarkable talent in the ring, but she is insanely annoying outside of it. She’s changed nothing from the time she was heel, other than no longer cheating to win. She obnoxiously cackles, she’s egotistical, she gets along with legit nobody. I’m not convinced the crowd would even cheer her, even if she’s one of the best bell to bell. Her fans can call her the number 1 babyface, but that’s a stretch if I’ve ever heard one.

“I won the first 2 women’s mitb” aaggghhhhh I hate that Carmella still claims that. Debatable. De-ba-ta-ble.

Lol “I can’t help if men are obsessed with me,” alright sure. That’s good tbh. Carmella is a notorious cheat but regardless, that’s good.

Well the reason y’all never faced one on one is because Carmella’s a Smackdown veteran and you just got here, but I digress.

So where’s the army that still runs around crying that Becky buried her when she called her the greatest woman to never be great (facts)? Where’s the outrage for Sasha demeaning Carmella and claiming she’s not in her league? Sasha fans are wild.

“With half the work I’m better than you. I held onto that Smackdown woman’s title longer than all of your title reigns combined.” omg she’s dead. Shots fired, target hit. Someone call Sasha a hearse.

Instead of sitting there making ugly faces, Sasha really should’ve gotten up and left. Lick her wounds or something kekek.

Highlight: I’m into this Bayley/Bianca thing they’re building

---

Takeover WarGames:

I just think it’s so cool that wwe shelled out the money for a Black Sabbath song. Of course they can afford it, but for a Takeover? Points.

Nobody wants to come take out Candice rq? No? Nobody at all???

Oh hell yeah Dakota gets to start? Good for her, since she skipped out on it last year.

I don’t fucking get Ember Moon’s persona, but I like her lit gear tonight.

“Aiming it square at Team LeRae” sometimes I wonder if Vic is simply blind.

The concept of this match is fun, but it always feels a little hollow until the match actually starts.

So cool that they got Wade Barrett on commentary in nxt.

Sloppy headscissors by Ember, but Dakota sold well per usual. Not sure why they’d have Ember run the marathon.

I’d pay so much money to see the 4hw in a WarGames match.

Oh that’s cool, Raquel put her hand up to protect Ember’s face from Dakota’s kick. We appreciate a performer that protects her coworkers.

That sunset flip powerbomb by Shotzi onto Raquel off the ropes was neat.

Toni up in here just removing all the turnbuckles. I wonder if running into exposed turnbuckles actually hurts that much.

Toni barely taps Ember with a kendo stick and she acting like she’s dying.

Man that 6 woman thing was so choreographed. Even did a countdown.

Io ma’am we don’t-- we don’t need ladders... okay. Okay.

Io scaling the cage and Raquel knocking her off like in Super Mario Brothers.

I feel like WarGames is convoluted enough, but sure, let’s get into the winter of overbooked women’s matches. New season, same bullshit.

AHAHAHAHAH IO’S FUCKING SMILE. She is standing on top of the cage putting a garbage can over her head, and has the audacity to wear a shit eating grin. I cannot, this girl is crazy and I love her.

Stupid spot? Maybe. Is Io batshit insane for jumping like 10 feet down completely blind? Absolutely. Points.

CLEAN ddt by Io onto Raquel. Spiked.

Candice is dumb. Got a trash can lid standing opposite Shotzi who’s wielding a chair. Candice throws the lid, says ‘hold on’, then climbs through the ropes to grab a kendo stick while crying ‘help’. Grabs her kendo stick, goes to bat against Shotzi, gets her hand smashed lmao. Idiot.

Oh that was perfectly timed. Dakota busts Shotzi with a chair strike and barely even begins to turn around before Io missile dropkicks the chair into her from out of nowhere.

Dakota stuck a trash can over Io and then did a double stomp that impacted the trash can so badly she couldn’t slide it off lol. eesh.

Is Ember gonna attempt to Eclipse someone onto a set of upright chairs... Omg no. You’re gonna take the brunt of this, jfc don’t.

Oh good god what a fucking beautifully bad idea. I hope you’re okay bro. Man Dakota FLIPPED over. Nasty, nasty move.

That Storm Zero through a trash can was ace. Honestly I see a lot more potential for Toni here in nxt than over on UK.

This is a really good match.

It’s not that I hate the coffin drop off the ladder onto Candice, but Candice really ruined it by preemptively grabbing a chair and holding it on top of herself. Kind of spelled out exactly how that was gonna go.

Io and Rhea make an amazing team.

Rhea and being thrown into the cage on the outside of the ropes, name a more iconic duo. I’ve heard that’s the worst part about cage matches cuz your skin legit gets dragged against the links as you slide down.

Holy shit Io just got powerbombed through a ladder. OOF.

That’s the ending?? Raquel pinned Io for the ending??? Holllllyyyy shit.

Interestingly enough, I’d have to say the 2 team captains did the least amount of notable work.

What took out Shotzi: On screen the last bump she took was her coffin drop onto Candice, which kept her from saving Io. Mess.

Some great spots for sure. Recency bias might be a thing, but I feel like I enjoyed this one more than last year’s.

Highlight: That Eclipse onto the chairs to Dakota was WICKED

---

*BONUS*

Main Event:

Main event giving people promo time? Is this typical??

Okay look. You acknowledged Alexa is brainwashed. You acknowledged that she chose him (even though she’s brainwashed so you really shouldn’t be upset). Now you’re claiming SHE came out and slapped you, as if you haven’t been relentlessly bothering her about her boyfriend that she chose because she’s brainwashed, and as if you weren’t the one who came out and confronted her. Is this not super problematic to anyone else??? Nikki this doesn’t make you a victim or even a decent person/friend lmao.

It’s a good promo though. Good delivery, very buyable.

WHY DO I GOTTA HEAR THE CAW MUSIC???

I know Lacey’s being a bitch, but it’s an awful hair style, Sarah. I’m sorry.

Lmao Lacey is so god damn funny when she has someone to play off of. I can see the appeal in her and Peyton, I can see it. I can see it. The pairing should absolutely not last long because Lord they’re abysmal in the ring together, but outside? Swell, just swell.

Lacey will always have a job solely for her character work if nothing else.

Haha Lacey running from Nikki. She’s a treat.

Really thought that spinning heel kick was gonna be the end of it.

This match is definitely Main Event(tm) worthy, but I’m glad it has some semblance of a story going into it.

Peyton’s jump kick looks dumb.

Probably for the best that Nikki loses this, even if Peyton is awful.

---

*WarGames was definitely the highlight in an otherwise really lame week of wrestling. I don’t even have a runner-up, I’m just thankful for WarGames.

#wwe #issa review #feel free to ignore these #cuz who tf cares lesbihonest #today's props goes to:#dakota kai

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