#like i do have a few ideas which could have potential for book scenes

[lamoobsessions]

Ideal Date

Celebrity AU: Hazel Callahan x (fem)Reader

Word Count: 3.7k

Warnings: no use of y/n, very breif mentions of sex, unwanted touch (just wrist grabbing), Hazel is kind of a loser.

A/N: Very loosely inspired by the song 'boyfrined,' by Dove Cameron. I say loosely because the song's essence isn't really there, you know what I mean? It's more of a idiots in love vibe, than anything. Anyway, this is my first Hazel fic, so I hoped I captured her character well 🙏

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The idea of a gala is a lot more exciting than the execution, or at least, that’s what Hazel was beginning to think. There isn’t much to do, aside form eat food, down a few drinks, and participate in some auction; which, come to think of it, she has no idea what this gala is fundraising. Whatever organziation sponsored the event, Hazel didn’t know it. She probably should, but she simply didn’t check the invite. The moment she heard you’d be here, there was no second thought about it, she was going. And at first she was excited. 

It’s an indoor event, held in some big extravagant ballroom with shiny marble floors and dazzling chandeliers. The food is terrific, the drinks are delicious, and the DJ must have rent to pay because they were playing all the right songs. It was all going so well.

 But then you showed up with him, James Watsky, your annoyingly handsom co-star in some new upcoming action movie -She didn’t know the details of it, once there were rumors of a scandalous sex scene in the film, she never botherd looking into it too much. All she knew was that you looked great in the trailers. Your hair pinned up high, your shorts cut low, your tank top dirty with grime, and your plush lips bloodied and busted, how could someone pull off a look like that so well? As many other celebrities have experienced, there was a rumor you sold your soul for the fame, and as much as Hazel believed those rumors were only made to take away the credit from a woman’s success, she was beginning to think maybe you did. But not for the fame, but for beauty. In her eyes, it was unreal, a celestial-like beauty. 

Not only were you beautiful, but you were a joy to be around. 

The first time Hazel had the privilege of working with you was when she helped co-write for an episode of a sitcom series you had a part in. It was during the first uptick of your career, so the producers finally let you direct an episode yourself. Having no experience in screenwriting, you were sent to Hazel for help. Together, the two of you made one of the most beloved episodes of the whole series. 

The second time Hazel had the privilege of working with you was just after the series finale, and the contract tying you down to the series was terminated. To her delight, you called her up that same day and asked if she wanted to produce a movie with you -On the one condition that she starred in it with you. She agreed, though hesitantly at first. Hazel didn’t know if she’d like the spotlight. Sitting behind the scenes, re-writing dialogue, and tweaking a few storylines was more her pace. At least, that’s what she thought at first, til you came along and showed her her full potential. You were one of the few people in Hazel’s life to actually believe in her work. 

And that movie changed everything. 

She started booking more writing gigs, more acting gigs, more interviews. At first it was overwhelming, but it grew on her, and with that grew your friendship. The public loved it, the press loved it, casting crews loved it. It was a win-win all around, but Hazel wanted more. And just as she began to realize that, this whole action movie came up and took away most of your time. 

The two of you have rarely talked since, only on rare occasions like these -immense, pretentious, and excessive events that drained her social battery the second she walked through the door. 

But you were here, and it’s been three years since you’ve started that movie (production was a bitch). Now, it felt as if you were out of reach, like she was back at square one, watching the celebrity she admired most as a mere fan.

Hazel didn’t think it would hurt so much seeing you here. She missed you more than she thought she did. You in your long, satin dress that hugged your waist so well. You wearing that annoyingly infectious smile that never seemed to die down. You with your graciously pinned up hair that she was sure would be the softest thing she could ever touch.  

And still, even with your classic beauty and genial personality, you showed up with him. The douches of all douches. It hurt her to see you with him. It ached her to see you sat with your arm linked with his, as you sipped your cocktail with a smile.

Actually, it was beginning to annoy her. Why him? You could do so much better than him. Why did it have to him, of all people? What did he offer? What did he have that she didn’t? She could be a better gentleman than him, Hazel was sure of that. 

No, she wasn’t sad anymore, she was angry. Whether it be at herself for not making a move sooner, or at him from stealing you from her, or at you for being with someone like him. It didn’t matter who exactly she was mad at, all that mattered was that she was pissed. Even more pissed when she noticed your date grabbing your wrist. 

You and him were at one of the formal tables, your chairs faceing the dance floor, as he desperately tried to pull you off your seat, presumably for a dance. You seemed steadfast in your decision to stay put. But still, he didn’t relent, he tugged and pulled, as his face grew warmer with frustration. You were just as stubborn, shaking your head and trying to keep your cool with an unsteadily calm expression. Finally, the man gave in, throwing his hands up in frustration, he stormed off. 

At first, Hazel thought he was running off to get a drink, but no, he was leaving. Full-on exiting the gala. In a matter of seconds he brushed past Hazel’s shoulder, and walked out the door. All of it because you wouldn’t dance with him.

Averting her attention back to you, you seemed almost unfazed. Your eyes glued to your phone as you pressed rapidly against the screen. Okay, maybe you weren’t unfazed, you looked just as pissed as Hazel felt moments ago. 

She wasn’t sure what to do. Should she approach you? Is it even her place to try to comfort you? The two of you weren’t even that kind of close anymore, would you find it too up-front? 

You were upset, that much was obvious, and Hazel wanted to fix that, fix your friendship. It didn’t matter if it would escalates into more, she just wanted her best friend back. 

It took two shots of tequila to do it, but she finally stepped in your direction and made her way toward your table. You were still typing away at your phone, too much in a world of your own to notice Hazel right in front of you. 

“Rough night?” she asked, immdeianlty pulling in your attention.

“Oh my god, Hazel,” your expression switched, a smile now beaming from your lips. It made her want to melt on the spot. “It’s so good to see you. I was hoping you’d be here.”

“Yeah?”

You hum, nodding happily, as you pat the seat next to you, to which Hazel obliged. “I’m sorry we haven’t talked much. I’ve been meaning to reach out, but you know… work stuff.”

“It’s okay. I mean, I haven’t been reaching out much either, so…”

“Well, let’s not let it happen again, yeah? You’re like… one of the very few people in this industry I actually like.”

Hazel bites back a smile, hoping to prevent it from growing any bigger. It was becoming more and more evident as each moment passed, none of the feelings she felt for you before have diminished. Even after all this time, everything still felt so fresh. She still loved you.

She just had no idea where she wanted this to go. It’s been three years since your friendship changed, yet she still felt the same way. She still felt those same flutters in her stomach. 

“I’m… really glad you’re here.” Your words sound much more soft, much more fervent than your previously chipper tone. “Honeslty, you’re the only reason I came.”

Hazel felt stunned for a moment. She didn’t want to read too much into your implications, it’s been a while since you two have gotten to talk one-on-one. But to hear your soft, sincere tone again was a lost treasure Hazel hadn’t known she lost. 

“I thought your date would be the reason you came.” she teases.

You huff a laugh, leaning into your seat. “No, he’s- uh… definitely not my ideal date.”

“Who’s your ideal date then?” Hazel didn’t know what she wanted in an answer. She didn’t know what to expect either. 

You turn to her with a shy grin plastered on your lips, one that Hazel couldn’t quite read. “It’s a secret.” 

“Really?”

“Mhm,” you hum smugly. 

“If I guess right, will you tell me?”

“You’re not going to guess.”

“What if I do?”

“You’re not going to,”

“But what if?”

You narrow your eyes, brushing them over her expression, as if trying to determine something. You were so close, if Hazel just leaned in just a little, she could close the space between you two. It was tempting, very tempting. 

“Fine,” You resort, leaning back into your chair. “If you guess right, I’ll tell you.”

Hazel’s smile grows steadily, though she couldn’t be more nervous. Truthfully, she didn’t want to know your ideal date, because she knew it wouldn’t be her. But if this little game you two were playing would re-kindle your lost friendship, she’d do it. She’d do it all night if that’s what it took. 

Her eyes dart around the room, glancing over all the potential competitors. With her distraction, she hadn’t noticed your eyes glued to her, watching as she inspects the party.  

“Christopher,” She guesses.

“Which one? There are like fifty of them here.”

“Christopher Chapesky,”

“Nope,”

“Christopher Paulmer,”

“Nope,” 

“Christopher Liam.”

“Nope.”

“Is it any of the Chris's?”

“That’s cheating, you’ll elimanate half the party suggesting that name.”

“So, it isn’t any of them?”

You roll your eyes playfully, “No, you’re way off base.”

“So, you’re not into Chris’s. Got it.”

“I’m just not into egomaniacs.”

Hazel falls into the seat with a flail of her arms. “What? But that’s like, the whole party.”

You shrug, “There are a few gems.”

Finally, Hazel looks to you. Her deadpan expression immediately flips upon finding your gaze already on her. That same gentle, hazy expression, staring back at her, you felt so easy to subdue to. If she stared at you too long, she’d surely get lost. Time would become irrelevant, the world would stop spinning, nothing around her would be able to pull her back out. It’s a dangerous game she has herself in. Afraid to get too drawn in, she seeks refuge looking back to the crowd. 

“Do I at least know them?” She questions. 

A silence fills your end, there is no response.

Hazel, calls your name, to find you staring down at your hands, twisting and turning your rings nervously. Til, you snap out of your daze, meeting her questioning stare. “Sorry?”

“Do I know them?”

“Oh… yeah.” you nod. “You know them, pretty well actually.”

Hazel didn’t know many people at this gala. The people she did know, she only knew in passing. So, who else was here that she knew ‘pretty well’? 

“Okay…” Hazel sighs, wanting to give up. The game was turning into torment, no person she named would make her feel better. She wanted it to be her. 

“I told you, you’re not going to guess.”

“Yeah,” Hazel huffs, crossing her arms. “I’m beginning to think you’re right.”

“Always am,” You joke, nudging her side. 

She puts her tongue to her cheek, shaking her head disapprovingly. 

She didn’t know, but that look on her drove you crazy. Hazel never caught your longing glances, you were strategic with them -well, ususally. There were rare occasion where you were caught, but she never questioned them. 

Though, there’s something about her tonight. Her pristine fitting suit, her perfectly shaped hair, her sly, chasing tone. Mentally, you’ve mapped all her features. You admired them all the way from the moles on the back of her neck, to the small curvature in her nose. She was impossible not to stare at.

Your phone vibrated on the table, pulling you out of your prolonged glance. It was your manager. You exhale your disappointment. Nodding to Hazel to excuse you, as you accept the call. 

“Hey,” You greet with an even tone. 

Hazel saw the contact name, but she didn’t need to know it was your manager to sense your immediate discomfort. 

“He was being an ass and I wouldn’t take it, so he left.” You remark, as your leg began to tap up and down nervously by your chair. “I wasn’t going to tolerate it. He can’t just… I know, I’m sorry… well he shouldn’t have… no, I know… I know…”

She tried to listen to what your manager could be saying, but over all the music and the chattering commotion, it was near impossible. Whatever it was, she knew it had something to do with that James Watsky guy you were seeing. Why your manager cared, she didn’t know. 

“Look, i’m still at the gala, so I can’t really talk about it right now… well, he’s the one that left, I didn’t tell him to leave…I couldn’t have made him stay if I tried. It would’ve only made things worse…fine, that’s fine. Just…call me later, then… Okay, bye.”

You end the call, leaning your head back over the seat with a groan. 

“Everything okay?” Hazel asked. 

“Yeah, sorry about that.” You apologizde, grabbing your drink off the table to take a few swigs. “I hired a new manager recently, and he’s… kind of the worst honestly.”

“Why don’t you drop him?”

“I can’t. Signed a contract, I’m stuck with him til the end of the year.” 

“Damn, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” You say, a smile retuning to your lips. “He’ll probably drop me anyways, which isn’t a bad thing, cause that’s the only way I’ll probably get out this mess soon.”

Hazel could didn’t want to pry, knowing you probably didn’t want to talk about it. Not here, not now. You were at a gala after all, weren’t these things supposed to be fun? 

An idea popped into her head, one that could get your manager to drop you in an instant. She told herself it was solely for you, that there were no selfish intentions behind it. Though, she wasn’t fooling herself one bit. 

“Do you wanna dance?”

“What?” you asked with a smile. You heard her perfectly clear, but, admittedly, you wanted to hear her say it again. 

“Do you wanna dance?”

Suppressing an embarrassingly wide grin, you bit down your lips and nod. 

Hazel stands and holds out a hand, her sliver rings gleaming under the chandelier lights. In that moment, you really do wonder if looks can kill. 

Her hand is cold to the touch, as she guides you through the main floor. In your eyes, she couldn’t seem less nonchalant about it, but in reality, Hazel’s heart pounded in her ears. She never danced with anyone before, not in the way everyone else was dancing with their partners. The last time she checked the dance floor, the moves were loose, uncoordinated. No one danced with any sort of plan, they just moved. But now, step after step, they swayed with elegance in their every move. Slow, suave music carrying their motions. 

Hazel placed her hands on your waist, simultaneously steadying her tremble. Your hands met her shoulders, and finally, you could see through her calm facade.  

“You never slow dance before?” You ask with a subtle simper.

“No,” she laughs breathily. 

“that’s okay, I’ll lead.” You gently place your hand on hers, lifting it from your waist and interlocking your fingers. Hazel watches you intently, her eyes trailing from your hands, to your waist, to your lips, til finally, she meets your careful gaze. 

You begin to sway your hips, hoping to initiate some movement. Though, Hazel was enamored, nervous and stiff beyond repair. Her feet felt rooted to the floor, she hesitated before even thinking to move. Yet, with the gentle music and your attentive touch, she began to settle her stiff form, and follow your lead. With each slow step, left to right, front to back, you fall into form. 

Hazel and you have always walked a thin line between intimacy and amity. At times, it felt restraining, like you were stepping on egg shells around each other. But now, it felt like balancing on a tight rope, teetering with hitched breathes, as you sway side to side. 

There were moments you wanted to push her away, as if simply being around her felt like too much. But, in that same sense, you wanted to pull her closer. You wanted to pull her close and never let go. 

And Hazel couldn’t keep her eyes off you. You were intoxicating, especially in that dress. It made her want to inhale your very essence, like it was her oxygen. Bewitched, enthralled, fascinated, charmed, you name it. Hazel was all of the above. 

Moments pass, and not a single word has been uttered. There was a silent understanding that if anything was spoken, it would break the threshold. If this was intimate or platonic, that very concept would be revealed the moment either of you decided to speak. So, neither of you did. Instead, the both of you reveled in this small bubble of time, wishing it would never burst. 

Slowly, as the dance progressed, the two of you drifted closer. You found Hazel’s chest pressed to yours, and your chin tucked under her shoulder. In the back of your mind, you can see the nosey rumors, the catchy headlines, the snarky articles. Surely, your manager would drop you after this. But, in a freeing sort of way, you couldn’t bring yourself to care. None of that mattered, not when Hazel was finally back in your life. 

The past three years have been hell, though nothing in those recent years could top being with her. To be in her arms again felt liberating. Even now, you felt the same giddiness you felt the day you met her. It’s like you jumped right back to where you were before with eachother. Nothing had changed, not even the intense surge of adrenaline you got around her. That never left. 

“You know it was only a PR thing, right?” you say, feeling the sudden urge to inform her.

Hazel pulls back, her eyes looking down at you. “What?”

“James, he wasn’t a real date.”

“Oh,” the weight that had been sitting on Hazel’s shoulders since she saw you with him,  finally lifted.”Right, yeah, I knew that.”

She did not in fact know that.  

“I would never go out with someone like him,” you admit, hopelessly attempting to drop all the hints you could. “I mean, I would prefer not going out with men in the first place, so…”

Very briefly, her eys dart to your lips. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” You breath. Whenever she said stuff like that it made you feel like a giddy schoolgirl with a stupid crush. It was much more than that of course, but she made your stomach flip all the same. 

“So, your ideal date is a woman?”

“Precisely.”

“How long were you going to let me list off half the men in this room?” she laughs. 

“Well, I was pretty amused by it, so… forever maybe?”

She playfully rolls her eyes, “You’re the worst.”

“Aw, you love me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” She dismisses. 

You don’t know when it happened, but Hazel had taken the lead, and suddenly, you were following her steps on the dance floor. 

“You really want to know who my Ideal date is?”

“I don’t know,” Hazel sighs, her demeanor suddenly switching. The idea of you wanting someone else devastated her. She felt nervous all over again. “Do I?”

“I think you do,” your voice is barely over a whisper, but Hazel still heard your words clearly, and that lifted her confidence just a little. “She’s sweet…charming…funny,” You list each factor, hoping your voice didn’t tremble as much as your hands did. “She has short, brown hair, soft blue eyes, a nice smile. She’s an okay dancer, I guess. But you know, she didn’t have the best teacher…”

The rest of the words get caught in the back of your throat, as Hazel’s hand untangles from yours, and meets your jaw instead. She had heard enough by then, and with her enraptured stare boring into yours, the gap between you two closed and your lips locked. A fit of sparks burst in your chest, as Hazel’s one hand on your waist tightens its grip, further deepening the kiss. It’s slow, soft, and gentle with each tug of her lips. 

You’re positive no durg or substance could ever achieve a high equivalent this one. Her mere touch made you feel impossibly lighter. 

“You’re my ideal date too, by the way.” She utters against your lips. 

“Good,” A light laughter escapes you, before you pulled her in once more. 

Her lips curved upward, as both her hands travel from your neck to you hair, tangling her fingers in the loose strands. She wasn’t sure where her body started and where yours ended. It felt as if you had consumed her whole, that the two of you are now of one being. She had been waiting for this moment for so long, never had she thought you would feel so good. 

She couldn’t believe she had at one point regretted coming here. She almost went home. But, god was she glad she didn’t, cause you were here, in her arms, kissing her. Hazel had changed her mind, maybe these gala things weren’t so bad. 

#Hazel Callahan #Hazel Callahan x reader #Hazel Callahan x you #Hazel Callahan x y/n #bottoms 2023 #bottoms fanfic

[sirfrogsworth]

The Curse of Artistic Vision

I think being an artist comes down to developing an image in your head and then feeling compelled to manifest it. Sometimes you are able to improve upon that image in your head. Or you end up with something different that you like better.

But sometimes, for various reasons, you can't quite make that image a reality. And I don't know if other artists feel this way, but it feels like heartbreak every time. Not quite on the level of an incident of human decoupling, but it definitely sticks with you for a long time.

Sometimes I am limited by the current state of my skillset. I just haven't learned enough and gained enough experience to take a photo like the one in my brain.

And sometimes I am limited by my body, which puts huge restrictions on the amount of energy I can dedicate to crafting a photo.

I feel my knowledge and experience has never been at the level I am currently at. I think I have the *potential* to shoot just about anything I can imagine. Which is a cool feeling. I also feel like my image editing and manipulation skills are at the highest they have ever been. Which means anything I can't do in-camera, I can achieve in Lightroom and Photoshop.

But I just don't have a lot of energy to capture photos right now. And I am very limited by how much physical effort I can dedicate to the photographic process. Which is very frustrating. I'm hoping if I build a new studio in the house that will help a lot.

In the meantime, I have this library of images I took before 2017. Many of them I was not able to achieve my artistic vision.

But... I came close.

Which means on many of these old images I can use my editing skills of today to achieve what I could not back then.

And so I have started a huge re-edit project where I go back and realize my images as I wanted them to be.

I had this idea for an image of someone in the middle of a dark forest in an open field reading a book and the only illumination was a lamp that seemed to be plugged into nothing. It popped into my head and it just seemed like a cool photo to create.

In July of 2016, my friend Ryan was visiting and we decided to try it. We even rented a big fancy 50 megapixel camera for a few days. I had never used a professional level camera and it was my birthday and I wanted that experience.

I even had this cool idea to hide a flash in the lamp so it would look like it was illuminated.

The resulting image was not anything like I had in my head. And for some reason, I edited it super bright, and you can barely even notice the cool lampshade flash trick. If you lower the exposure of the RAW file there is a well-defined circle of light in the grass, but it is hard to see in the 2016 edit.

Where is the dark background? Why didn't I underexpose the background to make it look like night or sunset? I knew how to do that back then. I totally could have crafted the photo in my head at that time.

But then I noticed I only took like 8 photos of this scene. And I *always* overshoot. I took 300 photos of a bridge recently.

Then I remembered what happened. We moved a giant rocking chair, a lamp, and lighting equipment to the middle of my neighbor's yard and by the time I was ready to take the photo, I was about to pass out. I believe it was very hot as well.

And so the above was the best I could do under that circumstance. My body limited my artistic vision. And this has been bothering me for years. Sometimes I will think back on this photo and how cool it looked in my head and I will feel that heartbreak again.

When I look at the RAW file... it is actually much better than my edited image.

Which makes me curious why I made it so damn bright. My best theory is I had a monitor that was slowly dying and I didn't realize how dim it got because our eyes are so good at adjusting, and it's possible all of my images from that era were overly bright because I was overcompensating for a dying display.

That fancy camera (Canon 5DS R) was a dream to work with. And having so many extra megapixels to play with is such a joy. People say you don't need more megapixels these days, but when you are doing high level image manipulation, having as much information as possible makes it a lot easier. Especially when making complex selections.

So, I've got a good start. I have a lot of pixels to play with. I was almost certain I could manifest my vision with modern knowledge and tools.

I'll start with the baseline edit in Lightroom. I'm not going to worry about the sky, as that will need to be swapped for my nighttime aesthetic.

The circle of light was there! It was just hiding in my bright exposure. So that's neat. And when you lower the exposure of the background, the lampshade trick presents itself as well.

At this point I was getting excited because I could see the potential. I just had to find the right sky. This one looks perfect.

Okay, it is time for the big reveal.

Did I finally get this image out of my brain and into reality?

I DID!

I don't know if people will like this or find it artistically interesting, but Ryan and I were both very happy with the new version.

Also, I think Ryan's purple shoes really steal the show.

Though I had one idea that was never in my head originally.

Should I try it?

I still haven't decided on the fireflies yet, but Ryan and Katrina like them.

I can't state how nice it was to work on a 50 megapixel photo from a full frame sensor coming from a 10 year old camera with 4 stops less dynamic range and 24 megapixels.

This is zoomed in to 100%!

And the image doesn't even get soft at 300%.

Sorry, I got caught up in the megapixels.

And there is one detail you'll probably never notice unless I point it out, but I completely rebuilt the lampshade because I overexposed it.

I always say small details add up to big results. Plus I had to use some creative problem solving to figure out how to recreate a lampshade and I always enjoy that part of the process—where you don't know how to do something and then you figure it out. Very satisfying.

In any case, my brain feels better now. I feel like I was able to settle something that has been bothering me for ages. And I am grateful I was able to realize my artistic vision—even if it took 8 years.

Here is the before and after. It's fun to switch back and forth.

On to the next photo. And it may involve a furry little orange friend.

#photography

[borathae]

i want to write a third Sanguis book

#not that i have ANY idea of what the story could be #but i want more sanguis story #not just drabbles but story #omfg i wanna expand it more and more and more #and live in this universe longer snd longer #like i do have a few ideas which could have potential for book scenes #but mv ended so perfectly and i feel like a third book could ruin it and just be too much #but besties 😭 i miss sending these characters ok adventures and making them have struggles #like i want them fighting for something again 😭😭😭 #rambling

[sapphicmsmarvel]

Azriel: worlds collide

Like everyone else, I have seen the BikeTok and BookTok simp city and im eating it up. (except some of the comments, some are insane and cringey but!) 

So naturally I thought of Az on a bike then passed out. Then thought of him with a bookish girlfriend, and passed out again. 

Let's go!!

(also this fic exposes how much TikTok I watch and!! I don’t want to hear it!!)

Regular headcanons: 

-You two met because of Feyre and Nesta (and technically Elain since her and Azriel were besties). But Nesta got you to agree to a blind date with Azriel, you didn’t even know what he looked like. Elain and her husband assured you that Azriel was hot. 

-They didn’t let you down. 

-You and Azriel had been texting a bit but agreed to no photos of yourselves so you could get to know each other without the pressure of looks. 

-He was also nervous about his hands, he didn’t want you to think of him as a gross creature. 

-You sent him an array of outfits to pick from. He picked a blue sweater, you picked out a black button up for him. So you two knew what you’d be wearing on the date. 

-When he walked into the restaurant, you thought you’d died and gone to heaven. He was sex on legs. Gorgeous tanned skin, hands that you wanted wrapped around your throat. You knew he would talk someone through an orgasm. 

-When he saw you, he almost fell to the ground and thanked whatever god put you in front of him. You were beautiful. Your eyes were twinkling. He saw your luscious curves, he wanted to sink his teeth into your plump ass. He wanted your thighs wrapped around his neck. 

-Then your smile, your laugh and just you enchanted him. 

-You were no better, you were infatuated with him. 

-After three dates he officially asked to be his girlfriend. 

-You were terrified to ride the bike the first time. He made sure you were safe obviously but you were nervous. And now? You’re obsessed. 

-He always got the door for you, pulled out your chair, he was always bringing you flowers. 

-Obviously he was a god in bed, perfect even. Even when you two weren’t doing intense kinky shit you had a safe word just in case. Even after assuring him that you were fine, he felt better when you had a safe word. He made your first time together special too. 

-You gave him a handjob on the bike in the comfort of your garage. 

-He’s fingered you and eaten you out on the bike. You have no idea how he did so well balancing the bike to ensure you didn’t fall. 

-He held your books for you as you shopped. And at bookish events he always took pictures for you and encouraged your followers to go up and meet you. 

-After a year you two moved in together. A 3 bedroom townhouse. He got an office, you got a library room and then the bedroom for you two. 

-The Archeron Sisters took full credit for you two being together. His brothers adored you even before the relationship and now that you’re “officially” a little sister (because Az isn’t letting you go) they love you even more. 

When your relationship was shown online:

-Azriel was one of the most popular BikeTokers and you were one of the most popular BookTokers 

-You two had been dating for a few years when both your respective areas of the internet merged. 

-He was just like “everyones finally catching up on how hot reading is huh” like it’s been his life. Reenacting famous sex scenes was one of his favorite things. Zade Meadows scenes with consent discussed beforehand??? (cough funhouse scene cough) (However he is not a fan of Zade meadows) 

-You just couldn’t stop laughing at the guys being like “these girls are freaks!” and Azriel always commenting “you guys are just finding this out?” 

-Which then leads to gossip pages talking about him and who his potential partner is. 

-You were used to your man getting steamy comments and DMs, he’s tried to get people to stop but they won’t so he stopped opening them and didn’t respond. 

-Then you started getting comments and DMS from bikers asking for a date. And then Az began pouting, which you ruthlessly teased him about. 

-”Can I post you on my page?” Az asked one night in bed. “Something without your face, but something?”

“Are you gonna send it to these guys and demand they take out their dicks for a measuring contest?” You asked dryly. 

He grumbled, and you turned off your kindle. You were done reading for the night. You had a big baby to comfort. “You do know, I’ve been dealing with his shit on your page since we began dating right?” 

“But…there’s no chance of me leaving you.” Your blood turned to ice. “Do you think so little of me that I’d leave you for some random person on the internet?”

His eyes widened when he saw how pissed off you were. “No I just…” He sighed, “I worry because I don’t see me as anything.”

“Let me put it this way: You are everything to me. No, you’re not anything, because you are everything to me. And I am the only girl that’s gonna ride your dick, and your bike. You a’re the only guy that gets to fuck me.” You said bluntly. “Capiche?” 

He blinked at you, then smiled, “I love you.” “I love you too, you’re on thin ice for even suggesting that bullshit.” You huffed even as your head hit his chest to go to bed. 

He kissed your forehead. And held you even tighter. 

-So he asked if you guys could film a video, just his hands would be in it, so some mystery was still there. 

You had wanted to redecorate your kindle and film it. So just your hands would be in it. You sighed and let the fool join. 

“Hey everyone, so join me today with a very special guest. My boyfriend!” You said happily into the mic but also sounded annoyed, “the fool wanted to join because of all the comments and DMs I get hitting on me.” 

He waved gleefully in the camera. Once again, only his hands were visible against your dining room table. His nails were painted black, and frankly well taken care of (because of you). He had a singular ring on his ring finger, one with your initial. You had one on yours as well, his initial. 

“Alright, baby. What’re we doing today?” You asked. 

“Redecorating your kindle.” It was easy to hear the adoration in his voice. 

“I went to a few local bookstores and picked these up.” You showed them to the camera. Your nails were painted the color of Azriel’s tip, but nobody knew that but you two. You hoped. 

“Alright let’s start.” 

Azriel picked up the biggest sticker and placed it in the middle, “how about here?” It was a sticker that was a tarot card style with a girl reading in it that said “the reader”. 

“Nah my popsocket is gonna block it, and that’s too pretty to be hidden.” You placed it up on the top corner. 

Then he picked up a candy heart style sticker that said “smut slut”. The camera couldn’t see his grin. “Shut up.” You said. “Nah, I love when you’re a smut…” He hesitated and looked sheepish. 

“Can you not say the word?” You laughed. 

“I don’t like the idea of calling you a slut.” “Nothngs wrong with being a slut.” You said. 

“Yeah but, I’m trying to be a gentleman!” 

“Baby, nothing you did last night was-” “Aye!” He laughed lightly. 

Throughout the video, you two teased each other, and all around had a good time. You smacked his hands away when he tried to take your sticker-fictional boyfriend away from you. He smacked your hands away when he tried to put a motorcycle sticker on it. But you let him put it there in the end, and happily kept it there. 

Tons of comments rolled in. All of them were talking about how cute you guys were. 

He posted a video later and he got a comment that talked about how nice his hands were. Naturally, others began agreeing. So he posted a video labeled, “I hope you guys realize that the reason my hands look so nice is because of my girlfriend.” 

And the video involved you being his backpack. And then you were tagged in the video as well. So your followers increased drastically, then when you posted a few pictures of you two from when you went to your cousin's wedding, even more followers and comments rolled in. 

You were wearing a cobalt blue dress that hugged your curves, he was in a black button up with nice dress pants and shoes. You had strappy silver heels on, even with the heels you came up to that mans chin. The first one was you two just looking at each other and smiling, clearly you both were laughing. Then the other one was a smiling one, but he wasn’t looking at the camera, he was looking at you. 

Some other videos he’s in are bookshopping vlogs or random tiktoks he makes appearances in. 

You also got the comments of “does he have siblings” and “are you looking for a sister-in-law” to which you responded, “I already have two <3 but wish you the best!!” 

You didn’t play about your sister-in-laws relationships either. Girl code, man. Also, you genuinely loved Azriels brothers and their girlfriends. 

Even Nesta and Feyre joined in on the BookTok craze. Talking about books the three of you liked. Book recs for Feyre because she was just getting into reading. Feyre’s reaction to Haunting Adeline. 

On the video where your sister-in-laws were in, you got a few comments that were golden.

“Idk who im more in love with azriel or y/n”

“Do any of you need a third in your relationship? I can cook” 

Of course there were still assholes who didn’t respect your relationship. The block button was a blessing. But for the most part, everyone was kind. 

The internet could be a bad place, but sometimes, sometimes it wasn’t so bad.

#acotar x reader #azriel x reader #azriel x reader fluff #azriel x you #azriel spymaster #acotar #acofas #acomaf #acowar

[nipuni]

Some various lighthearted life updates 🏃‍♀️

It's been a very busy last few months! in a good way mostly. We had a friend visiting us from overseas so we showed him around the city and took him to all our favourite places. We also met new people and were invited to a bunch of events so it's been very fun! We are all out of social battery tho so now we are slowing down a bit and getting back to work. Nicolas is on a short work trip to Berlin and I'm back to painting. We also started running! aaand we are also back to watching a bunch of shows and to me talking about it here to like five people 😌

Under the cut cause it's a lot as usual!

We finished watching S13 of Doctor Who! (we still have the specials to go but after that we are all caught up!) I haven't updated in ages so here are lot of opinions!

We really did not enjoy S11 😞 I was aware it wasn't very popular but we were hoping it was for all the wrong reasons, sadly we found many to be valid. Some of the episodes were baffling, Rosa? Kerblam?! the writing of the whole season in general felt like a rushed school assignment. The first part of Spyfall was a strong start for the next season but that ending in the second part was really not it. We did love Sacha Dhawan's Master tho!! and we really love Jodie too, 13th is adorable and reminded us of Ten at times! Jodie is such a fantastic actress that it makes the quality of the writing and everything else around her even more frustrating 😫 S12 was an improvement in general. In the last few episodes It felt like the writing team suddenly remembered the companions could have a personality and agency lmao. Highlights for us were Spyfall one, Fugitive of the Judoon and Haunting of villa Diodati, tho we did also enjoy most other episodes of the season despite their issues.

The timeless child plot reveal felt a bit underwhelming? The idea on itself has potential but it felt mishandled (and it had a bit of a Moffat flavour to it? and not in a good way). I think it was meant to add more depth to the Doctor's lore but in a way it ends up having the opposite effect. Then the flux was just a complete mess. It read like a Marvel sort of plot, very comic book like which is alright I suppose if that is something you enjoy but it felt out of place. But mostly it was just way too much, it got out of hand. Anyway we still have the specials to watch! and I think the Master is in them so we are looking forward to it 🥰

We also watched Broadchurch!! and we LOVED it. We ended up binging all three seasons. Chibnall's writing on this is surprisingly great and Jodie's acting is spectacular she really shines here. Olivia and David are always brilliant!! honestly everyone's acting was amazing. This series had us both tearing up every five scenes. The direction and the music are outstanding. I could watch Hardy and Miller solve crimes forever I really love their chemistry and dynamic. We went into it expecting the usual detective fiction but it ended up being a whole study on grief with such a focus on family and community and trauma and a ton of touching interconnected character arcs, just really really good!!

Then we also watched Taking over the Asylum!! MAN we were not expecting to have our hearts wrung out like laundry by this!! We thought it was a lighthearted show!! GOD we are still not over it, what the fuck!! It was so good we loved it!! but we were not prepared lmao what do you mean 'the end'?? we'll be thinking of this for months, I was expecting an extra scene after the credits or something. Excellent characters, refreshing depictions of mental illness and trauma and so crushingly realistic. Every character is so loveable I really wish this was longer 😭

And our quest to watch everything with David Tennant on it continues. We watched Decoy Bride on Valentines day too and it was terrible but such a hilarious fever dream kind of bad that it was fun, it has David on it and he never disappoints. I feel so lucky that Nicolas and I are both in love with him, get yourself a man who shares your celebrity crushes lmao it's so fun!! We feel like teens again chatting about him and drawing little hearts next to his pictures haha 🥰 We watched the BAFTAs just for him and speaking of the baftas!! I was not expecting that last drawing of his outfits to get that much attention oh my god 😭 thank you!! you are all insane and I appreciate it so much!! and thank you for all the support in general, about my art and photos and just everything. I feel very lucky and grateful 😭 anyway I'll end this before I get sappy, that is all for now! I hope this week is kind to you all, I'll be sharing some more art soon 😊

#personal #DW report #doctor who #broadchurch #taking over the asylum

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles - Update 18/August/2023

My wrists were having a bit of a protest to all my typing lately (really need to get my ergonomic keyboard back out!), so I spent some time reading over what I’ve typed up so far.

It was actually a really good thing to do, as I noticed there was quite a large narrative element missing: the transition for the MC from detective to Agent!

I don’t want that to really just be a thing that is mentioned and happens off-screen. Some of it will because a few weeks will have passed between Book Three and Four, but I want there to be some story/game scenes to play through for it too. I’m hoping that will make it feel like a progression for the player, as well as the MC, to this new shift in role!

So, I was mind-mapping out some potential ideas. It needed to be something interesting as it’s a story beat that the player will need to go through again if they replay the game.

Didn’t want it to just be a sparring scene like the combat sections, and I didn’t want just paperwork like the research scenes (which actually isn't how the combat/research scenes will be playing out this time in Book Four either!). So, it was just a case of letting my mind think over what could be an active scene that isn’t one of those.

Then, as I was looking over the list of teams for Wayhaven’s facility, I thought of something that would be really interesting for this moment! Something that these agents would have gone through themselves!

And it will even have a variation to it for multiple replays, giving a slightly different take on the task depending on who you end up choosing to have the scene with…which won’t be Unit Bravo! :D

I’m now starting to get towards fleshing out the lead up to the endings, which for some reason I’m a bit nervous about. Each book in Wayhaven has a rhythm to it that I want to be the same for each book to give that ‘comforting’ feel when you play through the series. But I also don’t want it to get samey!

So yeah, really want the endings to have a difference to them this time, and I know one of them certainly is an eye-opener with the love interest, hehe! :D

As you might be able to tell, it was a lot of back and forth this week on thinking over things, but it was good to take that time to stand back and look at the big picture! Still, hoping my wrists will oblige me next week and let me get back to the excitement of actually writing out the plan of the story to come, lol!

Hope you all have a magical weekend! We'll be offline as usual, so I'll update you all again next week!

#the wayhaven chronicles #interactive fiction #update #twc book 4

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi I recently put an ask but I forgot to add a few things sorry 😭

In book 4, when Jamil overblot, I remeber this scene where he whooped Yuu and the gang to the end of the desert and Jade said something like "I believe we're at the edge of the dimension that contains Scarabia Dorm." I don't really know much about this but does that mean the dorms are all just pocket dimensions they shove in the dark mirror? Idk if this has any significance but I'm just shocked considering how op it is. Also, idk how big Scarabia's "dimension" is but I also remember Kalim somehow managing to make a flood with his UM that went from the edge of the dimension up to the dorm where they live and stuff. And that really made me think how powerful his UM actually is considering the fact that he only needed little magic to make an actual flood. It also made me think how much stamina Floyd and Jade has since they swam through all that.

Yes, each of the seven dorms are contained in their own pocket dimension. Considering all the crazy things magic can do, it’s not that far out of the realm of possibility if done by a particularly powerful mage. (We’ve seen Malleus pull off time stopping, right? 😂)

Just a quick correction, the dorms are not traveled to via the Mirror of Darkness. Each dorm has its separate mirror as pictured below in the Hall of Mirrors. Heartslabyul’s portal is shown here as an example:

The Mirror of Darkness is kept in its own location (the Mirror Chamber, which is NOT the same as the Hall of Mirrors despite the similar name). It is NOT used for travel to the dorm dimensions, but rather for travel to different locations across Twisted Wonderland. For example, the Mirror of Darkness is used for traveling to various hometown locations in those events.

To give you a rough idea of the distance between the Hall of Mirrors (dorm travel) and the Mirror Chamber (world travel), here is where both are situated on a map of Night Raven College.

In green is the Mirror Chamber (world travel) and in red is the Hall of Mirrors (dorm travel):

Regarding Kalim! Yes, his UM, Oasis Maker, allows him to produce a large amount of water for a smidgen of magical power. He didn’t flood the desert though, he just produced enough water to form a river the twins could swim all the way back to the Scarabia dorm building. It seems that Kalim doesn’t recognize the true potential of his UM; he says it’s pretty useless since his home country, the Scalding Sands, already has the infrastructure for potable water and waterways.

The twins having a lot of stamina doesn’t surprise me at all. They’re part moray eel, which is a predator animal. Their merforms are also very long and lithe, which is ideal for darting around in open waters.

#twst #twisted wonderland #Jade Leech #Floyd Leech #Tweels #Kalim Al-Asim #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #notes from the writing raven #spoilers #question #twst resource #twisted wonderland resource #Malleus Draconia

[pendragonsclotpole]

i’ve been keeping up with dominic noble’s lost in adaptation series for pjo, and i just finished watching his review of episode 8. he made a point of saying that he didn’t consider the tv series an offense to the book, and i’m glad he did because i think a lot of show fans hear the criticism that some books fans have of the show and misunderstand why we’re so upset.

i think the tv series is a good, decent adaptation that attempts to appeal to a younger audience/an audience as young as the book series first readers when it was published. it modernizes a few things (shoutout to that completely unnecessary scene of sally listening to olivia rodrigo), expands on a bit of the central characters, updates the relationships the gods have with their children, and keeps the spirit of the original series, if not always the execution.

i think if the tv show had come out in 50+ years, long after a book accurate and beloved adaptation had come out, the show would be a fresh take on a classic children’s story a la lotr. but the issue is that the last adaptation came out close to 15 years ago and while it was good and entertaining for a blockbuster movie, it wasn’t percy jackson.

it wasn’t the story we got to see and get to know: a complex tale of parental neglect, greek gods and mythology, and most importantly—a young, misunderstood boy trying to navigate the complexities that arose from the circumstances and consequences of multiple sets of beings, far more powerful and older than him, trying to control him and take away his agency, all because of the circumstances of his birth, which were not his fault and which he didn’t ask for. sure there was magic, sure there a suspension of disbelief, but at the heart of the story there was enough darkness and realness for the story of the book to mean something.

we spent years listening to rick riordan promise us that he would find a place to create a faithful adaptation of the book. but he didn’t. and that’s okay, because at the heart of it all, he wrote pjo to appeal to a set of kids younger than i am now and closer to the age i was when i first met percy jackson. i understand the dozens of fans that love the show, even the book fans that enjoy it as an adaptation, but to me, the girl who admired the brutality of sally jackson turning the man who abused her to stone, who loved the emotional complexity of a dad who could never quite say the right thing to his own child and always left them feeling so disappointed and like a mistake and alone, who never quite fit in with the other kids and felt unwanted, who wished she had some sort of powers and the capacity to rebel against the forces older and more powerful that controlled her, i just can’t love the show as much as i love the books.

i know what i just wrote sounds weird. no, i don’t want to essentially kill and turn any men that may harm or abuse me to stone (tho people if you get the chance, godspeed). but i do love the idea that sally when given the choice, had the power to petrify a man who likely petrified her. she made her choice to get rid of him. she made a choice many women or victims of abuse in general don’t often get a chance to make, and it was presented in such an unrealistic way, in the guise of a medusa’s head, that it felt even more real. i love that a man that is meant to be from an idolized and integral part of your mother’s past, who in many ways is a god, can be a horrible father and partner, and say the wrong things and never be enough. i love the idea that we can all be tempted by the wrong things but eventually make the right choice and be the hero we needed all along.

i think i’ve rambled long enough, and i hope you all can understand what i mean. obviously some of the points i mentioned have yet to be adapted. i hope the show gets to bring to life all 5 books and potentially even beyond. i think the tv show is good, funny, entertaining, a little slow at times, and not enough action or tension. i love leah, walker, and aryan as annabeth, percy, and grover. i think the designs are beautiful. i think it is a good adaptation and i think with a rewatch it’ll grow on me, but it just isn’t the percy jackson i grew up with. maybe that’s on me. maybe i’ve grown up idolizing a book series and appreciating what it meant to me, instead of reading it and appreciating it for what it is: a children’s series. maybe the tv show and book series are mediums meant for other kids and new audiences to enjoy. in which case, enjoy them. i’ll still watch along to see some iteration of the books i love be brought to life, and to appreciate a good show but a part of my heart will always yearn for a faithful book adaptation.

#percy pjo #percy series #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #pjo show #pjo tv show #pjo spoilers #pjo series #pjo season 1 #pjo stuff #pjo disney+ #pjo fandom #pjo #pjoverse #rick riordan #riordanverse #riordan universe #riordan books #pjo season finale #the lightning thief #percy jackson and the lightning thief #i think at the end of it all #im still yearning for my percy jackson #and that’s okay

[markantonys]

episode 5 thoughts!

heartbroken by no mat, but i was expecting it since min wasn't credited for this episode on imdb, and there was so much other amazing stuff going on, so i can cope. i do think they must be gearing up for a mat-heavy episode soon because his content has been so sparse thus far! we also didn't have lan this episode, which i'm good with since he got so much last week.

(minor imdb casting spoiler: ayoola isn't listed for ep6, so i'm guessing we may have no perrin next week. they definitely do have a lot of different groups to juggle! but IF mat & lan soon join the cairhien crew, we could condense things)

also sad at not much elayne, but again, the remaining episodes will probably be pretty big for her! same with egwene, that storyline didn't progress as fast as i'd thought it would in this episode, but OOF the preview for next week looks like A Lot!!

back to the beginning! falme looks SO COOL!!! and the opening scene with the seanchan was fantastic, it showed off so many different aspects of their culture in just a few minutes (namely their various Ceremonial Things and ideas of who's allowed to speak to whom)

lanfear just whispering "bitch" the second she revives killed me djkfjg what an icon. and we get confirmation that it is indeed the True Power that she used to revive herself.

Lanfear Unleashed is SO much fun oh my god, i love seeing her in full forsaken mode

moiraine telling rand that he can't sleep because lanfear will get him, girl don't tell him that he's going to internalize it and not sleep for the next 6 seasons. this season is really Wheel Of Time Origins: Rand's Various Emotional, Mental, and Physical Health Problems

elyas saying the ef5 aren't perrin's pack HOW DARE!!! i feel like they're making elyas even more standoffish/human-averse than he was in the books, which makes for an interesting dynamic and contributes to perrin's sense that his human & wolf sides can't coexist.

but hopper follows perrin!!!! the goodest boy!!!!!

AVIENDHA IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHE'S EVERYTHING!!!!! although ngl her fake accent does sound a bit Fake to me lmao but i'm sure i'll get used to it after a few more scenes

hot dain bornhald is also here! he kinda compels me and i'm furious about it. if whitecloak why hot? in all seriousness, i can see already from his intro episode + the basics of his book story that he has the potential to be quite an interesting character if fleshed out more and given more screentime compared to what he had in the books, sort of a liandrin-and-alanna-like Main Secondary Whitecloak for us to follow

also he totally wants to fuck perrin you can't change my mind. buying him drinks and giving him a Cute Nickname, boy you ain't subtle! and then aviendha briefly hits on perrin later and also perrin stops her from killing dain. wake up babe, insane new WOT polycule just dropped djkfjfg

OB!!!! FREAKING!!!! SESSED!!!!!!!! with verin's detective subplot!!!! it is SO much fun, it delivers a ton of great exposition (namely about the black ajah), and it gives us a bigger peek into the brown ajah than the books ever did. i love this squad!! also katie leung was probably my first Girl Crush (not that i was aware of it) when i was like 8 so i was thrilled to see her show up here, god bless

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, IT GAVE US CONFIRMATION THAT GAWYN EXISTS IN SHOWVERSE!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH when i tell you i came extremely close both to screaming and to falling off my bed!!!! i'd been hoping for a gawyn namedrop all season but having it here was SO unexpected! my current theory is that he'll be introduced in caemlyn next season along with elaida and galad, and all 3 of them will head to tar valon to look for elayne because they're worried after not hearing from her for a long time.

also now i want a fic where the wondergirls actually do get special permission from mommy morgase to leave the tower just so that they can attend gawyn's birthday party

anyway, someday gawyn and egwene are going to kiss with tongue onscreen and haters can die mad about it <3 oooh now i have a brand-new meetcute for them to look forward to since they didn't meet at the tower!

liandrin & nynaeve's convo in the ways was so good! they continue to do amazing work with that relationship and liandrin's character. AND WHEN SHE SUBTLY FREED THE GIRLS RIGHT BEFORE LEAVING HOLY SHIT i gasped!!!!! the LAYERS they have given this character!!! because yes she serves the dark BUT she still feels loyalty to her sisters (as seen in s1 too when she appeared genuinely upset over kerene's death) and can't stomach the thought of any of them, even the light-serving ones, being collared!

suroth saying with her whole chest "oh sure you're a forsaken but you're not even of the blood soooooo" god grant me her confidence. also another great illustration of the insane heights to which seanchan high blood take their superiority complexes. good god, what's tuon gonna be like?!

avi's fight scene was just as amazing as i'd been hoping and expecting!! 10/10 no notes. can't wait to see what she can do when she has weapons at her disposal!

and later avi tells us that she is out in the wetlands Looking For Her Man (that she doesn't yet know is Her Man) <33

moiraine saying "get rand some nice new clothes" and barthanes immediately offering to dress him, Sugar Baby Rand lives on! also, anvaere and barthanes definitely thought rand was moiraine's sugar baby after they cleared the warder possibility, you can't change my mind

also also, barthanes is so surprisingly sweet! i wonder if he'll still be a darkfriend, or if anvaere will be instead

lanfear making ishy dream about caressing rand's face in bed is something i will go insane thinking about every day until i die. like oh my god i don't even know where to START with unpacking that, so i won't even try djfkjg

like for real, they ALL BUT made it explicitly canon that ishy had/has a crush on LTT/rand LMAO it's what we deserve

and we get forsaken namedrops! moghedien, graendal, and "the boys." it could be that semirhage did still make it and lanfear just chose not to go on and on listing every single one (slash the writers wanted to give themselves some leeway in specifically naming forsaken in case they don't get enough seasons to deal with all of them), or it could be that one of the statues from last season was actually a man and/or stepin's statues aren't accurate, and we've got 5 men instead of 4 (in which case i'd imagine ishy, asmodean, sammael, demandred, and rahvin)

i'm gonna have to watch this ishy & lanfear scene again to pick up more because i was FAR too distracted by the initial homoeroticism to keep focusing lmao

aww i'm kinda sad not to get elayne & nynaeve hiding out in falme completely on their own, but for their sakes it's nice they've found (been found by) some Real Adults to help!

LANFEAR'S OUTFIT IN THE END SCENE LMAO this season really just went off the WALLS with horniness and kinkiness, and i am here for it. it's what rj would've wanted

now that moiraine and rand are indeed staying in cairhien after all, i really think we might get a cauthor reunion next episode!!!! fingers crossed!!!!

#wot #wot on prime #wot show spoilers #wot book spoilers #the wheel of time

[jostyriggslover96]

Unexpected Connections Pt.1

Summary: Y/N has a complicated history with Navy men and has sworn off dating them completely. When she finds herself working at the Hard Deck to earn some extra money, Navy men are hard to avoid. Catching the eye of Rooster, Y/N is determined to avoid any potential feelings she may have for him, despite his persistence. Will Y/N be able to avoid her feelings for Rooster and avoid the Navy man that made her resent the profession? Or will she make some unexpected connections that she can’t shake off?

AN: Sooo, this is my first Top Gun: Maverick fic! I haven’t written anything about something that wasn’t hockey players in forever, so be gentle with me while I get into the groove with this story. It’s going to be a bit of a slow burn, but trust me, Rooster will get some love in this fic. Thanks to @bradshawsbaby​ and @callsign-milano​ for helping me iron out my ideas. Huge thanks to @hockeyboysimagines​ for always encouraging me to continue writing. Enjoy and if you want to be tagged, let me know!

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of alcohol and drinking, complicated history with a parent, Jake being Jake.

Word Count: 2.9k

Pt. 2

Unexpected Connections Pt.1

The sun was beaming over the Hard Deck as you tossed your aviators in your cup holder. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, you let out a shaky breath. Were you really doing this? You hadn’t set foot in the popular bar since your 21st birthday, which was anything but the night of your life. You had vowed you would never step foot in the Hard Deck again, not risking seeing Him again. Things changed when Penny took ownership of the bar and your teacher’s salary wasn’t quite cutting it anymore. Summers were long for teachers and you needed a new car. Plus, what are the odds that you would run into Him? He was getting a little old for the bar scene, he’d probably be spending his Friday night playing ball with his kids or having a family movie night. With Penny running things, you were certain he wouldn’t risk showing his face around the Hard Deck again, not after what he did to your family.

Jumping in your seat as you heard a nearby car door slam, you took a few deep breaths. Inhale and exhale, you thought as you attempted to push the thoughts of your father out of your mind. Stepping out of the car you smoothed your black t-shirt out and hesitantly walked towards the doors to the Hard Deck. Pausing with your fingers on the handle, you bit the bullet and yanked the wooden door open. It was like stepping back in time, the bar looking exactly the same as it did 7 years ago. You were pretty sure some of the same regulars were still there. Feelings of dread started to set in as you took in your surroundings, noticing all the young Naval officers occupying the tables and pool area. Just as you were debating if you should turn back around you caught Penny’s gaze from the bar. Her small smile melted your fears away, with Penny by your side you could handle anything that came your way. Penny was helping you out with this job and you refused to let her down; the woman was practically your second mother.

 Quickly making your way to the bar, you brushed past two young aviators at the dart board. You guessed they were aviators based on their uniforms. Growing up in the small Naval town, you learned a thing or two about uniforms. Coming from the family you came from, there was no way you wouldn’t recognize the pilot’s uniforms. You noticed the blonde pilot watching you stroll behind the bar and greet Penny with a tight hug. Shaking off the aviators gaze you focused on Penny as she finished pouring a pint for a gentleman at the bar.

“How are you honey?” she asked while taking the cash from the man and dropping it in the register.

 “I’m alright Pen,” nervously tucking your hair behind your ear as you met the bar owners gaze. She could read you like a book and you could tell she sensed your anxiety.

 “I know it’s different being here, but he never comes in so don’t worry,” her hand brushing your arm reassuringly. “Now, I know you bartended in college. Any questions or are you ready to jump in?”

 “I’m good to get going, thanks Pen,” shooting her a smile before throwing your hair up with an elastic. You turned to the few folks sitting at the bar, checking that they had everything they needed. One of them asked for a pint of Coors Light, as you turned to the beers on tap you were startled to see the blonde aviator that was watching you earlier leaning against the bar top. He smirked at your flustered demeanor while you tried to focus on pulling the beer.

 “You must be new around here, I know I would never forget such a pretty face,” his lips twisting into a smile. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes as you passed the beer to the customer, taking the cash he passed to you.

 “Not new, just not a regular here,” attempting to flash a sweet smile to earn yourself better tips.

 “Jake Seresin, but you can call me Hangman,” he extended a hand for you to shake.

 “Your callsign is Hangman?” you took his hand in yours, raising an eyebrow as he pulled away. “Where’d you come up with that one?”

 “Why don’t you find out for yourself?” his gaze intense as you dropped his hand. Chuckling to yourself, you shook your head. Aviators sure were cocky. “Does the pretty new bartender have a name?”

 “Stop calling me pretty and I might tell you,” turning and walking across the bar before he could respond to you, stopping to help some new customers who approached the bar. Out of the corner of your eye you saw the aviator, Jake, walk back to his friends who were now at the pool table laughing. Sighing, you rolled back your shoulders and focused on the task at hand. You were here to bartend, not appease the cocky customers.

 As your first hour on the job passed, you found it easier to not focus on the aviators in the corner as the bar filled with more and more people. It was packed in the Hard Deck, even by typical Friday night standards Penny pointed out as she passed you with a tray of drinks. It was hard not to notice that the group of aviators in the corner grew in size as time passed. Each new arrival was cockier than the next. Most were in uniform, you weren’t sure if it was because they were used to the structured Navy lifestyle or if they knew more civilians would hit on them if they wore them.

 As you were loading beer bottles onto a tray you noticed a tall tan man with sandy brown hair and a tacky Hawaiian shirt enter the bar. You couldn’t help but bite your lip as you saw his muscles ripple while he took off his aviator sunglasses and searched the bar for whoever he was meeting. No uniform was a good sign for you because there was no way in hell you would ever go home with a Navy man. Not after how your father treated your mother. The attractive brunette met your gaze for a moment before he flashed you a smirk that melted you to the core and pushed through the crowd to the pool tables. You attempted to focus on your tray of full drinks but couldn’t help getting distracted as the handsome mystery man started greeting the aviators in the corner. They greeted each other like old friends, making your stomach drop as you realized he must be a pilot too. Groaning in disappointment, you lifted your tray and made your way to the table of college aged guys who barely glanced up from their phones and conversations about some kind of sports to thank you for the drinks. Turning to head back to the bar, you noticed the route you took before was crowded with people meaning you had to go around the pool table to get back to the bar.

 Shit, here we go. Dropping your tray to your side you stood tall and started walking towards the group of aviators. Keeping your gaze forward you tried not to acknowledge any of them in hopes of avoiding any attempts at conversation. Just as you were weaving your way through the crowd of pilots you felt a gentle hand on your arm. Spinning slightly, you heard a familiar voice.

 “I didn’t know you were working here Y/N!” Natasha ‘Phoenix’ Trace exclaimed as she dragged you into a hug before you could protest.

 Smiling brightly at the only pilot you actually liked, “Well I needed something to keep me busy in the summer.”

 “I could keep you busy!” you heard over your shoulder. Glancing around you saw one of the pilots who was in with Jake earlier.

 “In your dreams hot shot,” rolling your eyes before turning back to Natasha who looked unimpressed by her fellow aviators.

 “Coyote don’t be such a creep. That goes for all of you animals, treat this lady with respect,” her warning tone intense as she lectured the others. “Boys, this here is Y/N, one of the best high school teachers in the district,” Natasha commented before introducing the crew of aviators to you. You learned the gorgeous brunette from earlier went by Rooster.

 Shooting her a grateful look, you waved to the others as they muttered their greetings. You noticed Rooster was staring you down with the sexiest expression that could defeat your willpower within a second. Breaking away from his gaze you turned back to Natasha, “you’re still at Top Gun?” She nodded with a smile, just as she was opening her mouth to respond, she was interrupted by the cocky blonde from before.

 “Wait how do you know each other?” Jake rudely inserted.

 “Well Bagman, some of us at Top Gun take public education seriously and actually go out to the schools for presentations,” Natasha fired back.

 “Natasha came to my grade 11 class in the fall to talk to my students,” you offered before quickly bidding farewell and promising Natasha you would catch up soon. As you finally broke away from the group to return to the bar you heard your mystery man speak for the first time.

 “Phoenix, you’ve gotta set me up with her,” his voice as smooth as velvet. You wanted to get lost in him, but you knew you couldn’t. All Navy men were the same and you weren’t going to let yourself get hurt.

 “Sorry Rooster, she’s not into Navy men,” you heard Natasha respond, smiling as your friend had your back, you rushed back to the bar and got back to work. The night went by quickly as you and Penny were swamped with drink orders. Thankfully last call came and went while the bar started to clear out. The group of Navy pilots headed out as Natasha sent you a wave before exiting out the door with her friends. You returned the wave, slightly disappointed that her friend Rooster didn’t come chat with you. It was for the best though, you could already tell he was trouble that you couldn’t afford to get wrapped up in. You were wiping up the countertop when your hand collided with someone else’s. Clutching your chest as you jumped, glancing up at your brunette mystery man.

 “Shit warn a girl next time,” you chuckled as the aviator held your gaze. He let out a low rumbling laugh that made your heart sing as you went back to work.

 “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

 The silence was deafening, “Umm, nice performance earlier,” you mentioned, referring to his rendition of Great Balls of Fire that he graced the patrons of the bar with. The man truly had a gift with the piano.

 “Thanks,” his smirk returning to his face. “I’m curious about something though,” he trailed off.

 “Oh?” raising an eyebrow at his elusive questioning before moving on to polishing the pint glasses.

 “I heard you aren’t interested in Navy men,” his eyes piercing yours as the glass almost slipped out of your hand.

 “Shit!” you exclaimed as you fumbled to catch the glass, Rooster smiling at your clumsiness. “Uh, yeah, I’m not. Not my type,” you stammered as your cheeks grew warmer by the second.

 “Hmm, not sure I buy that,” his eyebrow raised as he tucked his sunglasses into his white undershirt. You smiled as you noticed that you had the same sunglasses in your car outside.

 “Rooster is it?”

 “You ma’am can call me Bradley,” he said with a smile that was sure to drop your panties. You practically gulped at the show he was putting on, he sure was persistent.

 “Rooster—”

 “Bradley,” he quipped. Fuck him and his quick wit or whatever.

 “Bradley,” you said with a sweet smile. “It’s complicated. Before you ask why, last call was 30 minutes ago, and I want to go home, so it’s time for you to go big guy,” gesturing to the door so he would take the hint. Rooster stepped back from the bar, head dropping in defeat.

 “Alright, well I guess I’ll see you around Y/N,” your name dripping off his lips like honey. You desperately wanted to run around the bar, throw your arms around the tall handsome stranger and ask him to take you home, but thought better of it. You couldn’t and wouldn’t go there.

 “Goodnight Bradley,” you called as he left the bar without a second glance. You spent the rest of the time closing up with Penny and wondering if this is how your mom felt when she met your dad. I mean, it had been this very town they met in so many years ago. Both were too young to be in the bar on a Friday night, but struck up conversation on the beach. Your mom always told you after one conversation, she was smitten with your father and that’s how she got on that rollercoaster ride that led to you a year later.

 You felt like you were floating as you wished Penny goodnight and she gave you that knowing look, she had clearly seen the whole exchange. Making your way out to your car, ignoring the patrons lingering on the beach you swung your car door open and got inside. Inserting your key and turning it, you heard your engine make the revving sound, but it didn’t start. Twisting your key again, your engine revved but again wouldn’t start. “No, come on girl,” you muttered to yourself.

 You were starting to feel desperate as you continued to try your key and your car continued to be difficult. Shit, what now? Resting your head on the steering wheel, you were thoroughly done with this whole evening. Suddenly a knock on your window snapped you out of your thoughts. Glancing up, you noticed Rooster or Bradley was standing outside your car. Opening your car door and stepping out, you started at him expectedly. “Probably not a good idea to approach women in a parking lot at night,” you teased as you leaned against your silver Jetta.

 “I just heard your car struggling and thought I would help,” he offered, his hands up in defense.

 “Ugh, my battery is probably toast. This car is not long for this world.”

 “Well, let me give you a ride home. It’s late,” he gestured to the blue Bronco behind him for, clearly hoping you would take him up on his offer.

 “No, that’s okay. I’ll just walk,” hesitant to get into a car at night with a man you’d just met.

 “You can’t walk alone this late.”

 “It’s not far, I’m just fine.”

 “C’mon, Phoenix would kill me if something happened to you. I swear I will be total gentleman.”

 It was late, and you were so tired. Normally you would say no, but the only thing you wanted to do was to climb under the sheets in your bed and fall into a coma. “Fine, thanks for the offer,” grabbing your purse from your car and making sure it was locked.

 Bradley opened the door and helped you inside his vehicle. He quickly ran around to the driver’s side and before you knew it you were pulling out of the parking lot. The ride was silent as you stared out the window enjoying the breeze on this warm summer night. Bradley seemed to know the area where you lived once you told him, so you didn’t need to help him navigate. He kept his eyes forward the whole 5 minute drive, true to his word he was a gentleman. As he pulled up in front of your house you felt compelled to ask him something, the words blurting out before you could stop yourself.

 “Were you waiting for me tonight?” It was a valid question, you had sent him home at least 20 minutes before you came outside.

 He let out a rumbling chuckle as he shook his head, “Just enjoying the evening, the beach is always my favorite at night.”

 “Yeah, me too,” you mumbled to yourself. “Well thank you for the ride, you were the perfect gentleman as promised,” you offered a smile as you turned to the door, pulling the handle to welcome in the night breeze.

 “No problem. I’ll win you over, you’ll see,” he smirked as you stepped out of the vehicle.

 “Not likely,” you scoffed.

 “I know, it’s complicated,” he commented before you could. “Have a good sleep Y/N.” You waved goodnight to the handsome aviator before making your way inside.

 As you drifted off to sleep that night you couldn’t help but feel sick to your stomach. You could tell you were attracted to this man, but he was the exact type you swore you would never end up with. Trying to shake it off, you snuggled further into your pillow. Little did you know, that aviator would spend the next day harassing Phoenix for any information she had on you, which was very minimal much to his chagrin. Penny would also spend the next day commenting on the instant connection she noticed between the two of you. You were in trouble for sure.

#bradley bradshaw #bradley rooster bradshaw #bradley bradshaw imagines #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw imagine #bradley bradshaw smut #bradley bradshaw fic #rooster imagine #rooster bradshaw #top gun imagines #top gun maverick #top gun 2 #natasha phoenix trace #jake hangman seresin

[lazytitans-world]

My research findings on the production of Wish

Never have I seen a fan community do so much with so little than I have with Wish. And to start off, I want to say that you should watch the movie first before going into this and the Starboy fandom as I believe it to be important on forming your own opinion before moving on as I find most of the fandom to have a negative view of the movie, one I do not really share. I found Wish to be fine. I did not hate it, but I did not love it like I do other Disney animated films. But the many rewrites, drawings and animatics featuring character designs that did not make it far in production have become icons in this community inspired me to do a deep dive to see if I could find where in production these concepts died and why.

To save you a read, this production was a victim of simplicity. I feel that many concepts and story ideas were tossed away due to complicating the story, which was always going to focus on Asha trying to save the wishes of her fellow kingdom citizens with the help of a wishing star. I have read many articles and watched a few deleted scenes from the home release and here are my findings.

Starboy never got far in development as the book states that the team went down "a few blind alleys" that lead them to star having a human design for a period. This is probably the period in time where all the Starboy concept art came from and where a potential romantic subplot with Asha was kicked around. It was.

What did Starboy in was the team's choice to make them a shapeshifter as the team thought the character was way overpowered and thus the story lost a lot of dramatic tension (a choice I kind of agree with). It was here where the design team decided that Star needed an overhaul and brought the Story Development artists in and this is where Starboy died and plush Star was finalized.

There are no official storyboards that feature the Starboy designs.

At the start of Wish's production, Frozen 2 was entering it's final stage of production (this would be either late 2018 or early 2019) and was obviously the main focus for Disney animation not to mention projects like Raya and the Last Dragon, Strange World and Encanto were entering their mid development stages before the shutdown.

The effects of the global shutdown were not mentioned in the book, but I would not be shocked if production was affected by it.

Ariana DeBose has said that Wish did not need a love story as she said that,

“I think we live in a time where things are cyclical, right? And so, it’s good for variance and perspective. Not every female Disney character needs to have a go and ambition of simply finding a man to love her. There are more stories to tell.

"And especially in the world we live in today I think something like Wish, that has a broader outlook that talks about community, is just as important as talking about love. And there are so many different ways to love."

"You do see familiar love, love of friendship" in the movie, including the relationship between Asha and Star. Star and Asha have this beautiful connection with each other and so I think it’s good reminding people that not only we can tell different stories, we can also talk about love in different ways.”(source: Exclusive: Wish’s Ariana DeBose defends lack of romance in recent Disney movies (yahoo.com)) whether Ariana had any say on story or character development is unknown.

7. From what I read from the Art of Wish book, the story was always meant to be about Asha defying Magnifico to fight for the people of Rosas and their wishes.

8. As it pertains to "At All Costs", a song that many are saying was meant to be a love song between Asha and Star, in an article by Variety(Julia Michaels Wrote 'Wish' Theme Before the Script Even Existed (variety.com), it states that a love song was not in the film at the time of production and songwriter Julia Michaels "wanted to write a song that as a standalone sounded like a love song that could be played at weddings."

Michaels would go on to say, "How cool would it be if we wrote a song that if you listened to on its own, it sounds like a love song, it could be something you could play at your wedding, or be a lullaby to your kids, just something really beautiful, but when you watch the film, it’s the heroine and it’s the villain.” She continues, “You realize they’re coming about this both from various points, one from a very selfless standpoint and one from a selfish standpoint.”

9. In the same Variety article, it was revealed that for some time in 2020, no script existed for the movie, but Julia Michaels was asked to be the songwriter for the movie and that is where she pitched "This Wish" which would go on to be one of the first songs revealed for the movie.

10. the Variety article also had Jennifer Lee, head of Disney Animation and one of the writers on Wish, say that she wanted a song that showed "it felt like to hold someone’s wish in your hand. How do we viscerally understand that when you’re with them, you feel like you’re holding someone’s raison d’être?” that song would end it being "At All Costs"

11. September 9, 2022, D23 Expo in Anaheim California. This is where certain members of the public got a glimpse of the production of Wish. Jennifer Lee, writer and director Chris Buck, and co-director Fawn Veerasunthorn spoke about the movie and showed the first look of the finalized design of Star which ended up being the mute plush model that ended up in the movie. This means there was a 3-year gap where Starboy and the romance side plot were discussed then shelved.

It was also during this show where the public would learn that Ariana DeBuse would voice Asha and that Alan Tudyk, a staple of past Disney animated films, would have a featured role in the movie as Asha's pet goat Valentino, who would be able to talk thanks to Star's magic. It was also at that show where DuBose came out to sing "This Wish" but at the time the song was called "More for Us".

Magnifico was not revealed at the event but was teased as "one of the most formidable foes in Disney history" which is debatable to say the least.

12. 5 deleted scenes in total appear on the Wish digital and disc copies each introduced by head of story Mark Kennedy where he would describe why the scene got cut. One scene shows Amaya assisting Magnifico in his plan, tying into an early concept where she was a villain alongside him.

Another scene had Asha, Star (who in this scene could shape shift and talk) and Valentino try to sneak into Rosas before being spotted and chased by Amaya, once again acting antagonistic to Asha.

A scene had Magnifco gather the people of Rosas to demand Star be given to him, as he had never seen Star in this version, and Asha her friends try to distract him by having Valentino, who in this version had a more Steve Carell like voice, pretend to be Star while the real Star, who was voiced in this version and was designed as ball of light with eyes and mouth, was trying to free the captured wishes. This scene was changed because they wanted Magnifco to be more threatening and instead of asking the people for Star, he would capture Star. Kennedy would go on to say that they wanted Asha and Magnifico to be smart and that Asha would not do a plan that silly, and they wanted the climax to be Magnifico and Asha alone, so they set it on a platform high above Rosas.

The next scene featured an ally of Asha's named Flazino that was cut out in order to shrink her friend group and tied the group back to the seven dwarfs from Snow White.

Finally, there was a scene where Asha and her grandfather scaled a wishing tree with her grandfather Sabino that showcased their bond but also Sabino's insistence that Asha take down Magnifico.

Each of these scenes felt completely different to the movie that ended up being released.

13. It should be noted that Wish released only a short while after the 2023 Writers and Actors strikes, which meant that for most of the summer and fall of that year, the actors could not do any press for the movie and all marketing was done through ads, trailers and merchandise.

14. As revealed in an article for Disney twenty-three, a magazine for gold members of the Disney D23 Fanclub, in the early visual development stage, there was a test scene that Asha was briefly transported to the village from Pinocchio. This was done to see how the 3D character designs would match with the hand drawn, watercolor backgrounds of classic Disney movies.

15. In that same article, Chris Buck said that in regard to Magnifico's character development that they wanted the audience "to see the evolution of a villain, so he's not a monster from frame one". From what becomes of Magnifico I get what they tried to do, they wanted to show how a character falls into villainy even if they're intentions are good. It also stands with the modern writing style of Disney animation films trying to update classics, this time by having audiences start off by kind of liking the villain through their personality alone.

18. The article also briefly mentions that Star "went through many iterations" another hint of Starboy being considered as a final design.

19. In the Art of Wish book, there is a page that shows the script where Asha meets Star and Star is described as a "cuddly, 3D, five-pointed star." This would indicate that the Starboy concept never got to the scripting stages.

20. In Art of Wish, the reason why Star does not speak is because the film makers wanted to stick to a tenet of film making, show don't tell.

21. Star's face was inspired by the mask like face of early Mickey Mouse cartoons.

22. From all readings, it is safe to say that Asha was NEVER considered to be a princess in any of the iterations of the story as some writers felt it to be too safe of a choice and liked the idea of an ordinary citizen going against the established power of the king.

23. During production, the Disney CEO position changed twice as Bob Iger left the company in early 2020 and named Bob Chapek as his replacement before returning to the company in mid 2023. It is unknown if these changes had any effects of Wish's production as it was it stated development as Iger's first tenure was ending but took place during a majority of Chapek's time.

24. When Angelique Cabal, who voiced Amaya in Wish, first auditioned for the role the character in 2022 Amaya was written as a villain while Magnifico was supposed to be the good king. It was when she returned for the callback that Amaya was changed to what she ended up being in the movie. Source https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/how-one-character-disney-wish-completely-changed-during-production

In closing, for fans of the Starboy concept, it saddens me to say that it looks the idea only made it as far as concept art as at the time of writing this, no animated sequences, scripts or storyboards have been released that had Star in a human design or discussed a romantic relationship with Asha. I believe the writing team found a romantic relationship between Star and Asha too complicated for the story and decided to simplify the relationship and design of Star to better suit the plot of Asha going against Magnifico. I am disappointed Wish did not go with the more interesting concepts but maybe down the line we'll get that cosmic Disney romance and a villain couple, it just has to work with the story.

I want to say thank you for those that made it to the end, this movie has been on my mind for quite a while and seeing all the re-writes, drawings and animations people have done for Starboy and Asha has been amazing to see. These works have inspired me to rewatch Wish at some point to see if Starboy could have worked in the movie with the story as is, and even share how I would have changed a few things in the story to fit the character and a romantic subplot with Asha plus an idea on how to bring in Starboy while still staying true to the established cannon.

I do hope others watch and enjoy Wish as from what I have read the team did put a lot of effort to makes this movie worthy of not only the high standards Disney animation has set, but as a piece of the 100-year story telling of the Walt Disney company. Film making is already hard enough as it is, especially in animation, but having to make a movie with an original concept and characters that still pays tribute to 100 years of storytelling is a daunting task and I understand and respect the choices they made when making the film and you should as well.

#disney #disney wish #asha x star #starboy #wish reimagined #wish rewrite #wish 2023 #wish #disney star

[tio-trile]

Obligatory sorry if you're fed up with GO2 asks!

I'm a new fan of the show (like, a few weeks after season 2 came out a friend lent me their Prime acc to binge watch everything) and haven't read the book at all but!

It's like in S1 Crowley and Aziraphale exist in the world and in S2 the world exists for them kind of,, in S1 the point of view shifted almost constantly and at the end the plotlines converged together in a cathartic moment for all of our beloved characters, but in S2 it's just,, present Aziracrow and past Aziracrow,, which is fine, I liked that they showcased the way they were and are with each other but it would've been better if there were less of these moments.

Talking about these, I saw that a lot of people on Tumblr were excited to see Crowley as an angel and it could've been good but. I don't get why Aziraphale HAD to be here, or more like HAD to interact with him and remember/recognize him later, and I'm not really thrilled about the fact that Crowley is implied to be someone important! It just feels like Crowley and Aziraphale aren't equals anymore ; Crowley Always Knows Best he admittedly was someone pretty important in heaven before and he feels more Holier Than Thou than the literal angel he's with?? I get that he Fell so he already knows for sure that Heaven is corrupt but,, I don't know, I feel like Aziraphale lost agency and just Can't Do Anything Right anymore! (And Crowley Can't Do Anything Wrong anymore either??)

I found the flashbacks for ineffable bureaucracy quite adorable but it was all too sudden! It feels the Gabriel mystery just wasn't progressing at all during the season and at the last minute, ta-dahh here's an exposition dumb on what happened, no build-up for the now canon pairing. Not a big fan of amnesia in general but even less when the amnesic character just gets everything back for a dramatic reveal scene, maybe I would have felt like things actually happened in this season if Gabriel was slowly able to access some memories. We could have had the build-up of him and Beelzebub planning on escaping together in the flashbacks! (And I mean, I get that there was the fly and the song but,, It didn't really affect Gabriel/Jim so it doesn't feel,,, enough?)

I was completely indifferent to Maggie and Nina. Also could've worked better as a separate POV from Aziracrow. I just didn't get enough scenes to care for them or feel any chemistry. Nina was already in a relationship, and Maggie was just crushing on her. They didn't really get together at the end but they're involved enough in the idea of them getting together in the future to give Crowley love advice and for Maggie to wait for Nina. I just don't really get it? If the goal was Maggie and Nina getting together, then they needed more time and scenes. If the goal was that they would not get together because Aziraphale and Crowley were trying to force them to be, then why saying that they "only needed a little push," that Maggie is "willing to wait for Nina," why both give love advice to a guy they barely know when they barely know each other too?

Anyways, I really liked the show (and am still eager for a potential S3)! But I feel like Neil Gaiman's writing is missing a similar style to Terry's (though obviously I wouldn't know what his writing is like since I. Haven't read the book nor other books from this/both of these actually authors), and important reoccurring characters besides Aziraphale and Crowley.

Yes, I agree with a lot of your points! And it's very interesting for me to hear that we share a lot of the same opinions although coming from different places -- being an older book fan and being a newer show-only fan. "S1 Crowley and Aziraphale exist in the world and in S2 the world exists for them" is exactly right, and similar to what I complained about not liking them "being the main characters". And I completely agree with that even if we see Angel!Crowley, Aziraphale doesn't have to be there, and also not liking that Crowley was somebody important before. And yeah, I've said it before but the Gabriel mystery and even the Nina/Maggie romance have potential, but ends up falling flat. Thank you for the ask! Apology accepted.

#apology accepted because HO BOY THIS WAS A LONG ASK haha #How could you make me READ /jk jk #ask #long post #good omens season 2 #gos2 spoilers #good omens critical #anonymous

[aureli-us]

some Thoughts on the halo tv show🧐

idk whether or not ppl are still avoiding s1 spoilers but either way this will be Long so, below the cut✌

(@helix-studios117 you'll enjoy this probably)

INITIAL REACTION. like 5/10.

- it is funny to me the amount of latin and classical shit in this show, as a classics student "new carthage" and the big slogan on the wall (i could only see "per mare, per (?), per (?)" and all that other shit is SO funny. and cool

- i saw a lot of bad things abt this so my opinion is a bit pre-jaded BUT i see know i think a lot of those bad reactions are well-founded. the writing is decent, tbh, not awful, but too fast. exposition is sloppy, which is expected bc they are trying to aim for both audiences who have been exposed to halo and audiences who have not. but STILL. better to over expose a bit than to leave me with questions (though i also recognize i have barely scratched the surface of halo myself)

- that said, QUESTIONABLE decisions made: no reason for pablo schreiber to be totally naked in that scene. sorry but no. for me it not only felt unnecessary but weird for them to want to get master chief naked - the camera doesn't sexualize him i don't think, but still it was strange. also why did that other doctor dude go in to kiss halsey's double? also in general some dialogue felt kinda forced and boring.

- cinematographically, it looks good. it's pretty normal but looks nice, and there were a few shots or scenes that seemed particularly well framed or shot. the mjolnir armor looks good imo! not AS production value porn as rings of power, which is fun. i especially enjoyed the aesthetic of the scene of john walking around his old house and the shot of him kneeling behind his younger self.

- i don't really mind maskless chief, but i think they're overdoing it with him keeping the helmet off 90% of the time. i think it was inevitable we'd see his face at some point but it's being done very lazily and in a way that destroys part of chief as a character. i think taking it off in ep1 was ridiculous (i also think chief defecting 25 mins into ep1 was ridiculous) and i believe a much more powerful moment to remove the helmet was ep4 after you get all the close up internal shots in the helmet as he's viewing cortana's remaking of his old home. would've been way more powerful to have perhaps snippets of john's face, too close or distant to make anything really connect, before a big reveal.

- i also dislike that the reasoning to keep his mask off so much is that pablo schreiber said you can't form an emotional connection to a masked character if you dont see their face. like it's okay to think that.....but you're just insanely wrong. do you know what show you're in???? do you know the character you have been hired to portray? have you ever seen star wars or played video games? have you ever read a book? when we watched the mandalorian we were all so insanely hyped about what mando looked like DESPITE THE FACT WE ALL KNOW WHAT PEDRO PASCAL LOOKS LIKE. LIKE PLEASE ((also i've written 500k words of fic based around an elder scrolls DLC character whose entire persona is wearing a mask, has no actual canon face, and whom you kill at the end of his DLC. sorry pablo you are just wrong))

- i've seen some ppl complain abt chief having a "real boy" plotline and how stupid that is, which i partially disagree with. i think it's REALLY interesting to suggest and explore the possibility of him and other spartans being able to lift themselves out of being killing machines and glimpse how estranged they are from their humanity, and what exactly has been done to them to estrange them, but i do think the show is laying it on WAY TOO MUCH, WAY TOO FAST. again w strange writing, lacking exposition, and poor pacing. we never really know or see chief to establish him as a Character before he goes rogue.

overall, interesting, but has SO much potential to be way better in a thousand different ways. i have no idea how this was marketed, if they said it would be a good adaptation, but ANY adaptation of a game or book nowadays seems to fall into the trap of "we made a thing! oh no one who likes the source material likes our thing and also we changed the plotlines irrevocably so now we have to say that we're using an "alternate timeline" or our own made up version. but somehow we still get funding" (((cough fucking cough the shitass wheel of time amazon show))) not godawful so i'll probs finish s1 and see how it ends, at the very least it's kinda interesting and i don't know enough about halo to hate it completely. however i know chief smashes a covenant leader which is just 😭 like COME ON PEOPLE. rly?

- that being said i don't HATE the idea of the pellet but there is also something to be said for the immense strength of a lifetime of augmentation, being spoonfed propaganda, institutional lies, and being manipulated both physically and mentally - all of that seems to carry a heavy weight compared to the pellet, which seems almost trivial and a lazy explanation as to "why Spartans are as they are". if they had tried to actually dive into the literal ways the UNSC alters and controls the minds of these people rather than here's a thing that's mostly responsible for keeping you in check, now dig it out with a knife, it could have been SO much more interesting.

- some positives: i like that they are getting the weirdness of halsey and john's relationship. it's meant to feel uncomfortable to us viewers i think, since they have a strange relationship based on manipulation and lies and secrets and etc etc. i also love silver team ofc

also pablo schreiber while i have never seen him in anything else is trying too hard for the chief voice and sounds bad. except at one point in ep1 he raised his voice and it actually sounded so much better lmfao🤪 in general he does an okay job as chief, but again, this chief is pretty un-chieflike. i'm open to other people's thoughts and opinions, good or bad! this is just my take so far on the first 4 eps and my very limited knowledge of halo :3

#halo #halo 2 anniversary #master chief #master chief face #pablo schreiber #halo season 1 #paramount+ #just rambling #aurelius and halo #fuck the wheel of time tv show

[arthurtaylorlester]

you may have seen my previous theory on wtf is going on with john doe malevolent, but i have more proof this time to show for my hypothesis!

in episode one, we first hear someone turning on a radio, presumably in a car, listening to “You call it madness (but I call it love)” by Russ Columbo (not the 1946 version by nat king cole trio we all put in playlists lol), then arthur gain consciousness

afterwards, they are in bookstore when a radio starts playing the song again, the entity doesn’t see the radio, but he does recognise the song

both arthur and the entity recognise this is odd, since atp the entity had only been in arthur’s body for 20 odd minutes

but, if you’re caught up, you’ll recognise that this is moment directly parallels a scene in part 33

this, however is not the only time something like this happens. in part 5, john uses a turn of phrase

this moment is soon after arthur’s month-long coma, so unless lily had been reading robert frost to arthur (which john would’ve most certainly mentioned when arthur brought it up), he shouldnt have any way of knowing this sentence. 

the first time we hear the poem in full is in part 26

but even still, in the context of the moment, why does john know this poem? he’s had no moment since he came back to learn anything of the sort, even ignoring the time it’d take to memorise something like this.

before this, there are only two instances of 'miles to go before i sleep' appearing, once at the end of part 17 and just before arthur leaps of the edge in part 23

so now, my answer to all these questions is a bit weird.

in part 1, the entity says as follows regarding time in other worlds and the dark world as being timeless

which initially led me to reach the idea that john's forgetfulness in part 33 has to do with the time he spent away from arthur in s3, which he claims he does not remember.

i think he was actually sent back to the dark world and spent an indefinite time there, since there is none, causing him to forget finer details. but that raises leaves many questions unanswered, like why did the entity know the song before ever being with arthur?

i think it's time fuckery. the entity we see in part one could be some sort of future!john, at some point he could be sent back to the dark world indefinitely once more, than brought back via the book at a different moment in time that from which he left, the past.

this theory makes a lot of leaps, but it also gives reason to why john already knows call it madness and miles to go, i believe he might use both of these as some sort of anchor to not go mad himself in the dark world, thought he does end up losing parts of himself and of arthur. still, he isnt completely gone, which is why he's eventually capable of becoming john again

it also kind of explains the first sentence the entity ever says in the show

of course, on your first listen you assume he means what happened to arthur a few moments prior, but with the context of a timeloop, he could be referring to the whole shows events, even what we havent seen

later, when john says he doesn't remember who he is either, and arthur says

i understand that the entity knowing what he is might help them both, but it's still a weird thing to say. arthur has just woken up with a corpse and voice in his head, and acts like it's not his first time doing this? i'm not saying he'd remember, but it would make more sense if he was partially amnesiac to the future/past loops like the entity/john

also, i think it's important to distinguish the entity and john, the former being an amnesiac john who has only the potential to become john, but could just as easily become yellow.

last point is, obviously, also a massive stretch.

in part 9, after their first consequential argument (as in it nearly gets them imprisoned), arthur tells this fable to john

which yeah, could be foreshadowing john being the king in yellow in the s1 finale, but. it wouldn't make much sense since john doesn't permanently get him and arthur killed?

i think it goes like this, if it lines up with my theory.

john starts forgetting about the dark world, starts getting dicier and riskier with his and arthur's choices, whether it be about his deal with kayne or other future lies, but he pushes and he keeps pushing until both he and arthur meet their end. at some point, he gets himself sent back to the dark world and arthur killed/otherwise indefinitely unavailable, and as he does, he says "it is in my nature", so the last thing he tell arthur isnt sorry, but an excuse. perhaps they end on bad terms, after all he's promised to not let him drown.

he is left there to rot in his misery with only faint memories of his new self (significant moments, like him telling arthur the poem) and after he starts forgetting, a long time for a place with no time, he is pulled into the book in the past, eventually reaching arthur again. he might recognise arthur's voice, but he might not remember enough at this point, having turned back into the entity, no longer being john.

but hey. this is based on my relisten of s1 and little else. i love stretching the canon to make it make sense lmao

edit 05/12/23 — further proof i only now noticed in episode 30 “The Tenant”

#this could very well be the consequences of listening to woe.begone obsessively #i've started seeing timetravel everywhere. #malevolent #malevolent spoilers #malevolent theory #the dark world #john doe #arthur lester #john doe malevolent #arthur lester malevolent #john malevolent #arthur malevolent #malevolent john #malevolent arthur #unhinged aromantics #you call it madness but i call it love #miles to go before i sleep #robert frost #cant believe no one pointed the scorpion and frog thing out #like that's gonna be in every fanart i make of them from now on #the scorpion and the frog

[em-dash-press]

Are Prologues Worth Your Time?

It felt like every book I picked up when I was a kid and a teenager had a prologue. I thought they were super deep and essential foreshadowing, but then I went to college for creative writing.

You know what every professor taught?

Prologues are outdated and unnecessary.

I was shocked. Not that I’d ever say that I had only read the greatest books (many were trash—and some, beloved trash), but how could so many published books have outdated and unnecessary prologues where they’re supposed to hook a reader?

Here are a few thoughts you can consider when unwrapping this problem for yourself.

Give Your Prologue a Purpose

There are two primary purposes for prologues:

They give the reader a glimpse of a future event in the plot (like a movie trailer).

They give the reader a glimpse into the fictional world’s past to set the scene for the current world (like a flashback).

You don’t necessarily need to put a prologue in your manuscript. Your reader will likely get hooked from the first chapter you’ve worked so hard on. However, if your character/world/conflict will drastically change later, you can make the reader wonder, “How does it get from here to there?” after the first chapter with a prologue.

Flashback prologues are also helpful. A handful of pages could introduce the reader to a conflict (a deity getting betrayed by other gods and cursing all humans to forget they exist) that sets the tone/explains why your universe exists the way it does (every single character and person in the novel doesn’t know about gods because their history has been wiped from their minds, but the protagonist meets one of the gods who betrayed the antagonist deity and wants others to see/hear them too).

How to End a Prologue

Your prologue should end with the reader fully engaged, but wondering—WHAT?!

This might mean that you write your prologue (after deciding on one of the purposes mentioned above) when you’ve finished your manuscript. You’ll know exactly which historical or future point in your world will be most relative to your plot and the most captivating for your reader.

If George R.R. Martin had become inspired to write Game of Thrones based on an idea like this—historically powerful households go to war with each other to regain the most powerful throne in the realm, based on their various birthrights—and written the prologue immediately, we never would have been introduced to the potential-dead-brought-back-to-life in the actual prologue. 

You gotta admit, zombies are a much more gripping hook than political rivalries. Especially when there are so many rivalries and so much history to learn before the tension builds!

When a Prologue May Be Necessary

Sometimes writers feel that their first few chapters are basically info dumps. You may have created a complex world with lots of history, lore, and ongoing conflict. The reader has to understand it all in the first five chapters, but it makes your story read like a textbook.

Prologues can help by summarizing the most important information the reader has to grasp to enjoy your manuscript. Challenge yourself to write some flash fiction (in this case, ~1-3 pages) about your novel’s world to see if you can create a prologue that condenses the most essential info for the reader. You can edit the next few chapters to see if they have better flow/pacing.

Reasons to Avoid Writing a Prologue

You may need to remove your prologue or pass on writing one if you agree with any of these factors:

The info explained in the prologue (history, initial conflict) reappears later in the plot.

You’re including the prologue because your first chapter is boring (just rewrite the first chapter—it will likely still feel boring even with an amazing prologue).

You feel like you have to have one. (This is common in fantasy/sci-fi.)

You want a prologue to set the mood for your story. (That’s the job of your first chapter.)

You need a prologue to do all of your world-building. (Introducing the reader gradually to your world through action-based events the first few chapters is much more engaging than an info-dump prologue.)

Make Your Decision After Getting to Know Your WIP

I tend to think of prologues as something you consider and potentially write well after developing your WIP. Get to know your characters, your plot, the stakes, and the world’s history/conflict before deciding if a prologue would hook your readers. You can always write it in a separate document/page and play around with removing/adding it with beta readers.

#writeblr #prologues #writing a prologue #writing tips #writing advice #creative writing #writers of tumblr

[nalyra-dreaming]

I'm surprised so many people are resistant to the idea certain events happened very differently or potentially not at all. Daniel explicitly said Louis' story had multiple discrepancies in '73 in the first episode. The show has been actively encouraging the audience to question things from the beginning. At this point if it turns out everything happened exactly as shown THAT would be a cop out.

I agree!

We have gotten a lot of clues, actually, especially in episode 5. The mirrors, the clothing.

I.e.: From the beginning of the series Lestat is a bit disheveled (hair-wise), with those strands down the sides of his face in Louis' recollection (when they're not tied), and full on perfect-hair in Claudia's (for example, even the parting is slightly different). I could go on, but others have written much more about it, and personally I keep coming back to the thing they haven't used yet in this show:

Evil is a point of view.

I've actually been waiting for that quote. Because they used so many of the other quotes we remember from the books an the movie. And, so far, the only things we CAN believe are the Dubai parts. Maybe :)

I think one of the few things I do believe is Louis saying he is no victim. Because... he lashes out at Lestat, too, for example. He throws him across the room, he is the one to escalate their fight. Don't get me wrong here, Lestat holding Claudia like that in episode 5 was not ok. But it was a hold. And... they showed the same hold in the movie. And Claudia recounts Louis as threatening Grace. I don't intend to take anything from the shown abuse/DV/SA here. I'm just saying that the whole truth may be quite a different thing, and that.. what we were shown and our reaction to it... is imho part of the narrative of this show. I also remember Jacob Anderson complaining about Sam Reid going "nope, that didn't happen" and being a bit miffed about that because HE had to believe in it to bring it across (obviously), and when I read it I was like "yeah, yeah, unreliable narrator, we know" (I reblogged a post with a quote from the Tale of the Body Thief earlier, where Lestat calls out Louis for lying in his interview - and Louis doesn't object, which is hugely interesting), but with the twist they put at the end of this season... you literally cannot believe anything anymore.

Apart from the few events they all agree on. And those events... had to have their reasons, too. Which

a) makes me extremely excited for the second season (and hopefully beyond)

and (as a mini complaint)

b) Makes it almost impossible to write canon compliant fics for it. DAMMIT :))) (but, I guess, that's a small personal price to pay *laughs*)

Personally, I hope they do not visually backtrack, invalidate some scenes by showing them differently.

Because ... I would rather have Daniel go and tear that elaborate... play Louis and Armand are doing there apart at the seams.

Shred it to strips, to paraphrase Lestat.

That is what Daniel is there for after all.

#asks #thank you nonny #iwtv #interview with the vampire #the vampire chronicles #amc's interview with the vampire #amc's iwtv #lestat de lioncourt #the tale of the body thief #louis de pointe du lac #claudia de lioncourt #armand #daniel molloy #meta #just some thoughts #ask nalyra