#movies really just made me realise how fucking attached i had become to the characters which sounds silly but its like such a well

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 10 – FOUND FAMILY

The (Not Really) Secret Origins of Movie Night by nightwalker

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 11,287 Tags: Team Bonding, Cuddling & Snuggling, First Kiss

Summary: Somewhere along the line the Avengers have become a pretty good team. But Tony's still the odd man out, and Steve's determined to change that.

Reasons why I love it: This fic gives me all the warm fuzzies. It's fluffy and sweet, and the team slowly but surely growing closer is lovely to see. Plus, Steve expressing his feelings through his art always gives me a special thrill. I love this fic so much, and I bet you will too, so please go and check it out!

subject to change by eleadore

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 3,287 Tags: Artist Steve, Team Bonding, Character Study

Summary: Steve draws everyone but Tony. It’s nothing personal, really.

Reasons why I love it: The team feels are strong with this one. I love how everyone is so down to model for Steve, and Clint especially always puts a smile on my face. Plus, the whole subplot with Tony is adorable, and their first kiss makes me swoon. This fic is wonderful, and I hope you read it for yourself!

Lesson Two: Penalties of Cheating by 27dragons, sara_holmes

Pairing: Steve/Tony, hints of Sam/Natasha and Bucky/Clint Rating: T Words: 6,198 Tags: Poker Night, Bucky Feels, Avengers Family

Summary: The first rule of Avengers Poker Night is: don’t talk about poker night. (Actually, it’s not. The first rule of poker night is to never let Natasha play.) Bucky thinks he might regret accepting Clint's invitation to join the game, because he's pretty sure there aren’t any other rules. He thought things couldn’t get much crazier than mealtimes with the Avengers. He was wrong.

Reasons why I love it: This fic is equal parts hilarious and sweet. The surprise addition of Johnny Storm made me unreasonably happy, and Bucky's inner monologue is incredible. Also love how his friendship with Steve is portrayed here, and the outside PoV of Stony action is both funny and cute. Also-also, Thor being the one to deliver a zinging one-liner made me laugh out loud, and the WinterHawk action fills my heart with joy. I love this fic, and I bet you will too, so I hope you give it a shot!

Never Be Alone by thepartyresponsible

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: M Words: 6,701 Tags: Idiots in Love, Protective Avengers, Getting Together

Summary: Steve comes jogging up the path in a pair of offensively small bright blue jogging shorts. He’s shirtless and windswept and glistening – actually glistening – in the warm sunset glow. “Sweet abs of liberty,” Tony says, hooking his sunglasses down his nose to get a better look. “Of thee I sing,” Clint intones, reverently.

Reasons why I love it: There are so many things to love about this fic. Steve being a worry-wart, Clint and Tony salivating over Steve while Bruce despairs at them, Tony finally catching a clue at the end and immediately moving in for the kill. The bit about the assassination attempt that led to all this is just beautiful - seeing how much the team cares for Tony just warms my heart. This fic is incredible, and I bet you'll love it just as much as I did!

The Reasons That Lie Beneath by itsallAvengers

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 10,424 Tags: Cuddle Curse, Suicidal Thoughts, Depression

Summary: When Loki decides to be a little shit and curse Steve Rogers with a cuddling spell- the Avengers are suddenly the victims of crushing hugs and constant hand-holdings. And weirdly- Steve has a strange attachment to Tony in particular. But Loki's trick reveals more to Tony than he had ever expected, and now it's time to face some terrifying realisations that come with the curse. Tony needs more fucking coffee to deal with all this.

Reasons why I love it: You'd think a fic about a cuddling-curse would be fluffy as hell, but this one digs deep into the weeds of angst. And the way it does is fantastic. Steve's pain really tugged at my heartstrings in this one, and I love seeing how the team – especially Tony – reacts once they figure out what's wrong. This fic is amazing, and I hope you give it a shot!

#marvel #stony #fanfic #ficrec #fic rec #fanfic rec #a year in fanfic recs #found family #avengers family

[gayspock]

top 5 trek moments

ok i have to be so honest with you bc i DID start writing it but also this is literally so, so freaking difficult- bc theres so MUCH and i did try to limit it to TOS but even then its so hard and also its been a while since ive watched itand i feel like things areslipping from my grasp and im like OMG overwhelemed so i might have to throw in the towel, give up the ghost, like w-

JUST KIDDING.

AMOK TIME TIT SLASH

AMOK TIME TIT SLASH

when spock installed a boob window in kirk's shirt

AMOK TIME TIT SLASH

AMOK TIME TIT SLASH

#egg yells back #Anonymous #and those were: #1. requiem for methuselah's ending scene bc it sent me insane for a full calendar day and in all honesty it really IS a demonstration of #why spock as a character means so much to me #2. the scene in star trek: search for spock where they bust mccoy out of jail and steal the enterprise bc i think thats the moment when the #movies really just made me realise how fucking attached i had become to the characters which sounds silly but its like such a well #orchestrated scene and then also god you just see them all sacrifice themselves like that for their bestie and its like. sniff sniff. yeah #despite the fact that movie also has its. omg. issues. #i wanted to say other scenes though tht are just . like god #devil in the dark.... #i think theres some amazing scenes in the corbomite manuever #THE EMPATH. GOD. ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ALL KEEP SACRIFICING THEMSELVES- #like spock in the immunity syndrome for example #andspace seed of course and - #WHICH EPISODE WAS IT WHERE THEY THOUGHT THEY'D LOST JIM AND MCCOY AND SPOCK HAD TO WORK TOGETHER? #OR GOD- GOD- ALSO THAT SCENE UHM IN BALANCE OF THE MIND WHERE THEY DEFEND BESTIE SPOCK #or god the conscience of the kign..... #or god when they think mccoy is dying- FUCK ME LITELRALLY #IM NOT KIDDING #I FORGET HOW FUCKING GOOD TOS IS SOMETIMES LIKEK THERES SO MANY CLUNKERS IN THERE #BUT THERES SO MANY FUCKING EPISODES WHERE ITS LIKE YES. THIS IS IT. THIS IS SOME GOOD. GOOD. FUCKING SCI FI. MY GOD.

[d-criss-news]

Nine Songs: Darren Criss

When Disney, Phantom Planet and Mr Hudson collide: Glee star, Emmy and Golden Globe winner and musician Darren Criss talks Andrew Wright through the pivotal songs in his life and the unexpected ways they found him.

“When we are younger, our gateway drugs to a lot of popular things don’t come from the sexiest of places. It’s up to you how proactive you want to be with your curiosity from there, and how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, if you go down at all.”

Choosing the songs that define you is a tricky business to say the least, especially when the power of song has provided an ongoing soundtrack to your life. “When you’re as avid a music consumer as musical artists are, trying to pin down Nine Songs is difficult,” Darren Criss laughs. So much so, his final choices only really crystallise as our conversation draws to its close. “It’s hard for me not to see the value and joy in literally everything,” he explains. “The curse of the creative person is that your ideas and your interests always move way faster than your body can execute.”

Criss is a creative par excellence. As well as his Emmy and Golden Globe winning performance in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, where he played serial killer Andrew Cunanan, to his upcoming role in Muppets Haunted Mansion Halloween special as The Caretaker, he’s also a prolific musician. Criss enjoyed a decadent musical consumption since childhood, so “this was a bit of an archaeological dig,” he admits. As such, everything from jazz standards, to 808s, punk rock, ‘90s teen pop, and musical numbers are excavated in the course of our extemporaneous journey through the music he loves.

Equally on his mind is how to go about approaching the task of creating his Nine Songs, full stop. “The interesting social experiment is: Are my answers going to be songs that actually shaped my life and were formative to me as an artist? Are they songs that were formative to me as a human being? Or am I picking songs that I think represent who I am to people that do not know me? All three of those things aren’t necessarily the same thing.”

He reaches a conclusion of sorts. “For the purposes of making some kind of decision, I’m gonna lean less into trying to look cool to your very cool readership, and more into the literal, ‘What made me think about music in a different way? And hit me in a very emotional way?’ I think that’s probably the healthiest route.”

Embracing the accessibility that characterises Criss’ picks - or at times the initial touchpoints that led him to them - are something he vacillates over during our chat. “I’ve seen a lot of other people’s Nine Songs and they’re super cool. It’s like Leonard Cohen B-sides and old opera records and stuff. I’m gonna be pretty honest with the pop culture zeitgeist of how I grew up but explain why there is so much value in those moments.” His contemplation continues into the next day, Criss’s publicist passes on his regrets at being tentative to admit how he encountered one of his song choices via the Shrek soundtrack.

A yearning to reinterpret accessibility and the value attached to it drives Criss, however. He tells me that a festival performance that applied the anarchic verve of punk rock to a more refined Great American Songbook number remoulded his perception of music entirely. His love of the fusion of these two genres in particular symbolises the salient musical backdrops of his childhood - the guitar bands he played in with friends, and his musical theatre endeavours that led him to Broadway and multiple Ryan Murphy juggernauts, including his breakthrough playing Blaine Anderson in Glee.

Criss employs these contrasting musical lexicons, and other areas in between, on Masquerade, his new EP. Comprising five stand-alone “character-driven” singles, it sees Criss donning different musical personas. “I’m leaning into people that might know me as an actor,” he explains. “Because if actors can do Shakespeare, romantic comedy, and then do a horror movie and wear a prosthetic nose and a wig, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just do that with music.” The song “walk of shame” draws on jazz-standard chords interlaced with hip-hop production, “i can’t dance” looks to new-wave, and “for a night like this” is the product of Criss’ goal to create the ultimate end-of-the-night crowd-pleaser for a new-year bash, wedding or bar mitzvah. “This is all of the parts of me as a lifelong fan of these genres, trying my hand at servicing the pieces of them that I love.”

“I really love all styles of music and understanding what makes them unique and special and what makes them really pop. There are so many things that really make things sing - for lack of a better verb - and I like acknowledging those things and celebrating those things.”

“So, let’s begin. I have runners up and shit, and I have artists, I don’t just have the songs, so we might have to pick them as we go.”

“Part of Your World” by Jodi Benson

“When people read this, they’ll go ‘That’s cute, he likes Disney songs’, but it’s more profound than that. Some of the most formative pieces of music to hit me at a very early age would have been any of the songs that were coming from ‘The Disney renaissance.’ The early-mid ‘90s explosion of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast.

"One of the through lines between the three of those musicals was Howard Ashman, who is one of my all-time heroes. Dramaturg, songwriter - he really was the voice behind what made those songs great. I have always loved Howard’s lyrical sensibility and also Alan Menken, his partner who wrote these songs with him. There was a musical structure to a lot of the songs which I would unconsciously pick up in my own songwriting, not just musically, but the idea that not only did somebody make these songs, but they wrote them for a story.

“There’s a clip of Howard Ashman vocal directing Jodi Benson, who was the original voice of Ariel. It’s a wonderful example of his genius, where not only was he songwriting but he was storytelling in the way he would tell her how to perform it, and you can really see the song coming to life in that clip. That’s when you cross the street from ‘It’s a song’ to ‘This is an experience.’

"There are certain ingredients that are required to elevate music that goes beyond just a nice melody, a beautiful orchestration and a good voice. There are things that are required to really give a performance a characterisation, context and a vulnerability, that he architects in real-time with Jodi Benson. You see that what he’s doing is what makes the record so special, and that’s something that’s always been inspiring to me.”

“MMMBop” by Hanson

“I think my love of Hanson was because some people didn’t like it, so I was like ‘Fuck you, I like this, how do you feel about it?’ But this is difficult for me, because you know, I’m speaking to The Line of Best Fit and we’re trying to be cool! Although, do you know what’s cool? Being accessible! Writing a pop hit when you are 10 years old. Being in a band with your brothers and you’re all below the age of 15, you have a record contract where you are writing, producing and performing songs that are doing well.

“I was 10 years old when their first album Middle of Nowhere came out, and I remember reading somewhere that there were these kids that had a record. At the time, I was playing guitar and I was writing songs, but in my mind I was a kid, and that was it. I couldn’t be on the radio; you had to be a grown up to do this.

"This was the first time where I realised ‘Holy shit, kids can do stuff!’ It’s the value of seeing yourself in the media - that’s a whole other conversation to talk about - but there’s an immense value in feeling like there’s a piece of you out in the zeitgeist and doing well because it’s encouraging. You go, ‘Holy shit, maybe I can do this as well.'

“When you see children doing things, you’re ‘Wow, this is so cute and fabulous’, but then when you actually look at it you go, ‘This is miles above what most people in this age group are capable of,’ and that’s all I saw, because I was in the same age group and I was so inspired by that. This whole album was really a turning point for me, where I was like, ‘I can do this, I can do music too, because these guys can.'

“Ooh La La” by Faces

“This song really blew my mind. It became my own theme. It’s that ‘Make your heart sing’, nostalgic moment when you’re a teenager, driving in the car listening to it, playing guitar with your friends and you’re singing “I wish that I knew what I know now / When I was younger.” You’re like, ‘because I’m an adult now, I’m 15-years-old. If I only knew what I know now.’

“I was doing theatre from a young age and I was part of a young conservatory called A.C.T. in San Francisco. By way of somebody who knew somebody, I had an audition for a movie. As a kid not being near New York or Los Angeles it was really exciting, and this audition was for a film called ‘Max Fischer’, which would become the movie Rushmore, which would become one of my favourite movies of all time by the now very distinguished Wes Anderson.

“Separate from my own objective love of Wes Anderson, when this movie came out I was just around the age of getting into my own sort of identity with music, but also movies - indie movies - and trying to assert who I was. So, I see this movie Rushmore and I love it. I love the soundtrack, I love it so much, it’s one of my favourite albums ever. This song is the end sequence, and the way it made me feel - the vocals on it, I could play it on guitar and it was part of a cool movie - it really represented a lot in my life.

“And because of the acting thing, and Rushmore being great - it’s about this kid in high-school who's misunderstood but has his own agenda - everything about it was just so fucking cool to me. To this day, I cite that song as one of my favourite records of all time.”

“Recently Distressed” by Phantom Planet

“A guy that really formed the way I would sing and write songs is Alex Greenwald, the frontman of Phantom Planet. I went to see Phantom Planet because I loved Rushmore and I found out that Jason Schwartzman [who had been cast as Max Fischer] was also the drummer for a band called Phantom Planet.

"So, when I saw their name on the bill I went, but I didn't know their music. I was barely 14, but their set blew my mind. It was Rock and Roll, but I loved Alex Greenwald’s voice. I loved everything, and I would follow their career from there. I always tell people that my voice is a combination of me trying to be Alex Greenwald, Paul McCartney and Rufus Wainwright, but failing. Alex was incredibly formative for me.

“One of their biggest records was a little while after I first saw them, which was the song for The O.C., "California." That was more of an Elvis Costello thing, and they employed a lot of stuff that sounded to me like The Beatles and a lot of ‘60s mod/pop-rock. But later they would employ things from Fugazi, Radiohead and harder shit, and that eclecticism, again, only accelerated my love for Phantom Planet.

“Recently Distressed” is from their 1998 album Phantom Planet Is Missing. This was a cool rock song that employed these George [Harrison] and Paul [McCartney] background vocals and included all of the things that I loved. It was harder but melodic and employed minor 4th chords and more complicated chords than I was used to. I had grown up with power chords - which are very Gregorian - on a lot of alt. punk rock, like Green Day or Nirvana, and if Kurt Cobain was using power chords then that’s how I was playing guitar. Hearing this music was like ‘Oh, I’m using full chords, not sevenths, minor 4th chords, diminished chords’, shit that I would learn to use more and more.

“When you haven’t experienced much, anything that gives a hint towards possibility, even though it’s probably always been there, you’re like, ‘I like this, I’ve always kind of liked this, but it’s very encouraging to hear somebody else do it and it’s gonna make me reconsider my possibilities.’ That was literally the moment that my power chords turned into full barre chords.”

“Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” by Rufus Wainwright

“I forgot the other day how I got into Rufus Wainwright, because all of this stuff I was getting into quite young. It’s like when I talk to 11-13 year olds, it’s funny to think that this was when I was really starting to build my musical identity. But then I remembered, and I didn’t want to say because I didn’t want to sound uncool, because he is such a revered artist who exists in a much cooler place than what I’m about to say.

“I loved soundtracks and I would always buy soundtracks for movies that had cool playlists. I had the Shrek soundtrack, and there’s a cover of Leonard Cohen’s seminal “Hallelujah” that Rufus does and he smashes it, and I’m like, ‘Who the fuck is Rufus Wainwright? What a beautiful voice.’ Then I saw that he was going to be at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco one week, so I go and he’s there promoting his new album Poses. I remember I didn’t have enough money to buy the album that day, so I had him sign my sneaker and I saved that shoe.

“The first song on Poses was “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, which is a very dark and reflective song about his own battles with addiction, but he’s singing it over this really beautiful, whimsical song that has a lot of really great wordplay. I always love when artists, especially lyricists, can encapsulate an idea with not exactly what they’re talking about. The song’s called “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, it’s not called “Addiction”. Its talking about things that he craved and how that’s representative of other things that he’s gone through. There was a sophistication and elegance to that that I really gravitated towards, that I didn’t possess but wanted to shoot for. So when I saw him, that was a big one for me and he would also continue to influence me later in my life.

“I’ve become friends with Rufus since. I’ve performed with him and we’ve made records together, which is crazy. His songwriting was very complex and punk-rock, but he had this classic cabaret voice, the kind of voice that I don’t have. I was fascinated that there was somebody that could write this really dark material but have such elegance on top of it. He was virtuosic on the piano, which I thought was very cool because musicianship is always the thing that gets me going the most about artists.

“You know what? People say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes.' I completely disagree. Chase the living fuck out of your heroes. I’ve spent a lifetime doing so, it’s made me a better artist, and I’ve sometimes got to meet them and work with them. I’ve worked on music with Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet. I’ve performed with Hanson. I’ve performed those Disney songs with Alan Menken at The Hollywood Bowl.

"This is all because there are people that I love who I have put on my vision board, and the things that they have done are the things that are bringing me to them. So it is nuts, but at the same time you’re like, ‘Well, what else did you think would happen?’ They did stuff that some part of me connected with, so obviously there’s a magnetic pull towards that person.

“Rufus Wainwright is one of my absolute favourite artists of all time and like I said, me trying to sing like him and failing is a big part of my own journey as an artist.”

“3x5” by John Mayer

“John Mayer’s another guy that came around when I was 15. I heard a song of his on a middle-of-the-night, singer/songwriter college radio show. This is where I used to get music. You would listen to these carefully curated playlists that you wouldn’t be able to hear anywhere else, and the host played “No Such Thing”, a new song by this young kid who had just dropped out of Berklee College of Music - John Mayer.

“I’m listening to this song and I’m like, ‘Not only is this guitar playing really interesting, but the lyrical value and everything that is going on here ticks all the boxes.' It was jazz, but it was pop. And he did something that all these other guys and girls I’ve mentioned did. They made something very unique and very accessible.

“I immediately went out to buy this album, Room For Squares, and I listened to it over and over again. It was an album that was really formative for me. "3x5” is a really beautiful song that employs a lot of chord structures and melodies that blew my fucking mind at the time, and it made me wish that I could write songs like that.

“That album was a huge turning point in the way I played the guitar, because it was the first time in my life where I would look up tabs. Up until this point in my life, if I heard a song I could play it instantly. It was like a party trick, I would get how it worked if I heard it, because most of the songs I would hear on the radio - especially those that involved a guitar - were [centred around] power chords. And now I’m hearing all of these ninth chords and thirteenths, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ So I’d have to look up tabs.

“I think any young artist can attest to this - when you try and learn other people’s shit, it’s the best tool for educating yourself. Playing other people’s music really helps you lock in what your own style is. Trying to learn these songs - and sometimes pulling it off and sometimes not - really changed the way that my hands moved around the guitar and considered chords and voicings that I’d never really thought of.

“There’s another tie to musical theatre here, where I remember seeing Audra McDonald, who is a very venerated theatre actor, and she did a cabaret. If you’re familiar with cabaret culture, it’s more about performing the story of the songs – ‘Life is a cabaret’. She did a John Mayer song because she thought it was from a musical theatre show, and I was so tickled by this, because I was like ‘Yeah, if you really think about it, I don’t think he knows this and I don’t think his fan base even thinks about this, but there’s a number of his songs that feel very theatrical in the way that the lyrics play with each other and the way the chords move’.

"When I saw this I thought, ‘That is why I like John Mayer’, because yes, he’s an amazing guitar player, but he’s also a really strong songwriter.”

“Cabaret” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

“Also, around this time growing up in San Francisco, as a guitar player playing music with your buddies, the number one thing that you play is punk rock. There are different parts of the spectrum of punk rock, there's the NOFX, Swingin’ Utters, like real punk, punk. And then there’s the pop-punk thing that was happening at the same time, which was also equally influential - blink-182 and Green Day.

“Fat Mike was the frontman of NOFX. I loved NOFX, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were a supergroup of different members from different punk bands, of which Fat Mike was one of the main architects. They would cover songs and turn them into punk rock songs. They have an album of hits from the ‘60s, and they also have an album called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Are a Drag, and that record is just a tonne of musical theatre covers that are done through punk rock.

“That was completely in line with everything I loved at this time of my life but didn’t really know how to articulate. I loved punk rock but I also really loved musical theatre. Not only the performative element of it, but there was a real musicality to musical theatre that wasn’t as present in some of the other shit that was popular at the time, just harmonically, or where chords would go. There was a sophistication I loved that seemed to not exist in punk rock.

“Then hearing Fat Mike at The Warped Tour going ‘Alright, which one of you Motherfuckers loves Julie Andrews?’ and hearing a mixed bag of reactions, because people were ‘What? I was not expecting that from you, sir?’ And then they start playing “My Favourite Things”, a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein song which is very accessible, but sophisticated nonetheless. And I am just living. I’m like, ‘This has got the attitude and simplicity of punk rock, but the sophistication of a beautiful song.’

“That was the first time in my life where I went, ‘It’s just all music. All these categories and boxes are completely arbitrary.’ So I thought, ‘I can do that.' I was playing power chords in punk bands but I realised that you can take chords and make them into other rhythms and voicings and have the same song. I could take a punk song and make it jazz. I could take a jazz song and make it country. So, quite providentially, I would end up on Glee, where they took popular songs and would sometimes do their own versions.

“By that point, I had been doing this my whole life. The first time this ever became a possibility for me was seeing Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and that way of thinking about music and genre. I’ve put that into Masquerade, and it’s all born from that moment of ‘Oh my God, nothing has to be one thing. It’s just about how you look at it.'

“Cabaret” is from a pretty famous musical that I would’ve probably heard about later in life, but I first heard that song as a punk song and then I went back and heard the original. It doesn’t matter how these things happen, the inspiration happens and then you can go from there. But Me First and The Gimme Gimmes were a huge gateway drug and I play “Cabaret” now every year at my festival. That’s why the festival is called Elsie Fest, because it covers the song.”

“Modern Nature” by Sondre Lerche

“One of the great joys of being a younger brother is that you get to inherit the music of your elders. My brother and I were both really proactive consumers of music, so we would share stuff with each other all the time. But then he would come home from college, which is like coming home from a music festival essentially, right? He was in a new time zone with new people, so he’d bring home these mix CDs that he’d made from people that he’d heard about, and he brings home this guy named Sondre Lerche.

“Hearing this guy blew my mind, because he also was using jazz chords and drawing on musical theatre. Musical theatre’s a massive category, so I can’t just say that musical theatre sounds like one thing, but when I say this, I’m referring to The American Songbook, the jazz standard songbook. “Modern Nature” was a duet that I would go on to play many times with one of my oldest musical collaborators, Charlene Kaye. When we got to college and we both found out that we loved this guy.

“There was a much more whimsical way to how he wrote these songs. And what’s crazy is that loving this guy meant that we also loved Rufus Wainwright, that we also loved these other artists. But Sondre was the first time I considered that I loved that type of music, but I didn’t know that you could be a singer/songwriter and put out music that sounded like it.

“I don’t know if ‘twee’ is the right word to use, but with “Modern Nature” there was a playfulness about it, and again, a musicality that I really gravitated towards. There is a through line - there was a sophistication that was accessible, and me trying to learn those songs did make me rethink the way that I was writing music. The structures were weird and different and I liked that.

“To this day, I find myself writing songs that I think might be difficult for people to ingest, because they’re a little too left of centre, and I realise that I’m trying to write like Sondre Lerche, or I’m unconsciously just copying him.”

“Everything Happens to Me” by Mr Hudson & The Library

“I was in an H&M in Stockholm when I was 21, and I heard this really cool groove and the lyric was “Why must I always play the clown?” It was sung with a really thick British accent, had an 808 feel on it, and lyrically it had an attitude. Who would say something that sounds so like you’re in a Gilbert & Sullivan musical, but it feels hard? It was cool.

“I went home and looked this up and it was off the record A Tale of Two Cities by Mr Hudson and the Library, which would really, really fuck me up. I bought the album immediately because I loved this song. I had to order it on the internet because I couldn’t find it. It was doing well in England and he was on the festival circuit in the early-mid 2000s, but the first song on the album was a musical theatre cover with 808s.

“It was a pared-down, sort of a hip-hop version of “On The Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady, and I’m like ‘No fucking way, this guy gets where my head is.’ I’d thought about punk rock musical theatre, but I never thought about 808s and 909s scoring these beautiful songs. I go down the track list and he has “Everything Happens to Me”, which is another very famous standard, and he had this really cool, what we would now call chill-hop, ‘study beats’ version of this song. I was like, ‘This is it. This guy gets that good music is good music and you can reinterpret it to offer it as a new song.’

“I would later become great friends with Mr Hudson. I got to meet him years later when I was with Columbia Records, and they said to me ‘Who do you want to meet?’ He was at the top of my list. I went to London and we’ve been friends ever since and have created all kinds of music together.

“He told me a story where Tyler the Creator went up to him once at Coachella and said, ‘Oh man, “Everything Happens To Me”, that’s like my song.’ We both wondered if Tyler the Creator knew that it was a Chet Baker cover. And we were thinking how cool it is that you can offer these songs to a new audience through a different lens. Tyler’s a smart guy, he’s very cultured, and I’m sure he did know. But it’s more the idea that if someone experienced this song and didn’t know that it was a cover, and this is like the first time they ever get to experience it.

“Mr Hudson would go on to do his own thing with Kanye and was on 808s & Heartbreak and has had his own career. I think “Supernova” was a hit in the UK, it didn’t really cross over here to The States, but before that moment for him, that Mr Hudson and The Library album changed my life. People use that phrase willy-nilly, but this literally was a turning point in my life. It all had to do with the same thing that happened with these other songs, where I saw someone do what I always wanted to do but didn’t really know how to pull off. Where he had this fusing of old songs delivered through a contemporary lens, but also laced it with his own original material that also employed the things that made that old songwriting interesting.

“It’s like changing the font of a great essay but finding the font and figuring out that that font is its own art form. He really displayed that marvellously on this.”

The Masquerade EP is out now

#darren criss #the line of best fit #press #sept 2021

[ohthatsviolet]

Liar, Liar - Cryptane

(1,721 words. Ao3 link will be in the RBs as usual). 

Octavio knew him as Hyeon Kim, and he was fine with that...until he wasn’t. 

He wasn't expecting to get attached. He wasn't attached. Not really. It was just a way to pass the time. Octane liked to talk a lot, and Tae Joon tended to like that in people, because it meant he didn't have to. He introduced himself as Octavio Silva, but he was positive that he "would have already known that," because he "was probably the most famous person here." The hacker did already know who he was, but not for the reasons Octavio thought. It wasn't difficult to do a little snooping on the Legends, to see who might be the best asset to him if he was forced to align himself with some of them, to keep up the facade that he was just a regular competitor like the rest of them. Octavio made it almost too easy, seeming to enjoy posting most of his life on social media. 

"You shouldn't post so many personal details about yourself online," Tae Joon had told him, only to receive an obnoxious snort in response. 

The speedster's attention was focused on the Rubik's cube in his hands, while he lay back in his beanbag chair. 

"Whatever, amigo. No one has tried to kidnap me yet." 

Conversation with Octavio seemed to always come easily. He liked to talk about himself. 

"Do you like puzzles?" he asked, listening to the quiet clicking of the plastic as the runner rotated it in his hands, failing to get the coloured squares into a desirable pattern. 

The younger legend signed somewhat dramatically, and tossed the cube over his shoulder, hitting it against the wall with a dull thud. 

"No. I fucking hate them." 

The corner of Tae Joon's lip curled into a small smile, at the remark. It seemed to happen a lot around Octavio. It was difficult to not find him amusing. 

He wasn't expecting for them to continue spending time together like this. The only reason they'd gotten talking in the first place was because Octavio was having issues with his computer and the hacker had simply gotten tired of listening to him complain about it, so he decided to help him out. The speedster's desk was a mess; covered in candy wrappers, empty energy drink cans and crumbs. It was pretty gross if he was honest, but as his eyes traveled over the small piles of trash he spotted a figurine of a character he instantly recognised from one of his childhood favourite video games. He couldn't resist the urge to reach out and touch it. It wasn't possible that Octavio was a fan of this franchise. It would be far too obscure for someone like him. Right? 

"Careful, compadre," the runner warned, glancing up from his phone. "That's signed by the developers. You break that, I break you." 

Tae Joon turned the statue over in his hands, checking the underside of the base. A cocktail of childlike excitement and jealousy pooled in his stomach. He wasn't lying, it was definitely signed. Holy shit. 

"You're a fan?" the hacker asked, feigning nonchalance. 

"Yeah, dude. That's like...only the best RPG I've ever played." 

"My sister used to make fun of me for liking it," Tae Joon continued, with a small laugh. "She used to say it was only for 'mega nerds'."

"I could never keep up with all the lore," Octavio admitted, shoving his phone into his pocket, fully engaged in the conversation now. "But I heard there was a really cool story part that was only available in the co-op mode. I never got to play it myself, so I had to watch videos on it." 

"Really?! I...never knew that. Now I wish I convinced her to play it." 

The space between them fell silent, but Tae Joon noticed the way Octavio looked him up and down as if he was doing some sort of appraisal. He shouldn't have mentioned his family. That look made him feel paranoid, and that maybe he should consider leaving soon, until the runner spoke up. 

"I...probably still have my copy lying around somewhere," he began, fidgeting with a loose thread on his shorts. "If you wanna try it sometime. None of my friends liked it either." 

Despite his better judgement telling him not to, he agreed to play through the co-op campaign with him, and it ended up being more pleasant than he thought it would be. Octavio was actually pretty good at the game, and seemed to appreciate him pausing at certain points to explain the plot points he found confusing. They would meet up most nights to play, and these hangouts continued even after they'd completed the game a few times on different difficulties. It turned out Octavio had lied about his friends not liking the game, and the truth was he barely had any friends growing up; something he'd confided in him after their first few sessions. It was something Tae Joon could relate to, especially around here. He wouldn't consider any of the Legends his friends. Except Octavio of course. Were they...friends? Octavio had begun to confide in him, but due to the position he was in, he couldn't really do the same. The speedster told him short stories from his childhood and teenage years which, if Tae Joon was honest, sounded very sad and lonely. Part of him wanted to share similar stories to perhaps comfort the speedster a bit, but as soon as he opened his mouth to begin, he stopped. It was too dangerous to share too much, especially with someone who shared so much of themselves with the entire Outlands. He felt conflicted, though he knew he shouldn't. 

"Hyeon, man! Come on!" 

The call of that name snapped him from his thoughts, and he realised he was still lingering near the entrance to Octavio's room. Sometimes he still managed to forget this was his name now, or at least what some of the people around here knew him as. He didn't mind normally, but hearing that name come from Octavio's mouth made something in his chest shift uncomfortably. Tae Joon tried to shake it off, quickly finding his way to the small sofa that the runner was already making himself comfortable on. 

"Did you finally manage to pick a movie?" 

"Yup!" Octavio replied, taking the opportunity to remove his prosthetics, allowing them to collapse to the floor with a clatter. 

Tae Joon looked him up and down, observing how he rubbed his hands up and down his thighs. 

"Pain?" 

The speedster seemed to think about his answer before responding. 

"Nah. It's not too bad today." 

"Good." 

"Thanks for...not telling Ajay about it," Octavio continued, turning to face him more directly. "She'd just...overreact. And it's not a big deal."

The hacker merely nodded casually in response, but as Octavio began to play the movie, he couldn't quite focus on the plot. He was suddenly overwhelmed by an intense feeling of guilt. How could he continue living like this? They'd been spending time together for a while now, and Octavio knew almost nothing about him; anything he did know was a fake or vague answer he'd given him to get him off his back. He wanted to tell him things. He wanted to tell Octavio how he grew up, his favourite food, and take him to his favourite hangout spots before his life got turned upside down. He wanted to tell him how he couldn't sleep at night, how he missed his family dearly and how he always wanted a pet cat. He wanted to tell him that the time he spent with him was the only time he'd felt the slightest bit happy or normal in years. Fuck, he just wanted to tell him his real name. But he couldn't. He couldn't risk everything he'd worked for. He couldn't risk losing whatever this relationship with Octavio was becoming. 

Why was he thinking so much about all this? He kept trying to tell himself, the moments he spent with Octavio was just a way to pass the time. He kept trying to tell himself that he didn't care about him. But he did. And it hurt. Tae Joon stared at his bedroom ceiling that night, thinking back on the evening they shared. Octavio made things feel easy, even if it was just for a few hours. Would everything become easier if he just told him the truth? He shut his eyes tightly, trying to force the intrusive thoughts from his mind. He felt like he was going crazy. How could he ever consider telling Octavio who he really was and what he was really trying to achieve by being in the games? He remembers watching the footage of the Repulsor tower collapsing and how Octane had almost been crushed to death in the chaos. It didn't matter much to him back then; one less Legend was one less person to stand in his way. He felt sick to his stomach, thinking back on it now. How could he ever have felt that way about Octane - about Octavio? He wasn't disposable, though part of the hacker was beginning to wish he was, because it would make it easier to get him out of his head. How was it becoming possible, that he cared more about being rejected by him, than he did about being exposed, if he came clean? He could be thrown in jail, framed for more crimes he didn't commit, or worse. And somehow that didn't compare to the possibility of never seeing Octavio's scarred lips smile again, or the apples his freckled cheeks when he laughed. Tae Joon hated feeling this way, he was usually so focused but now his attention was being directed elsewhere. He wanted to hate Octavio for this, but he couldn't help but smile, his stomach fluttering, when he received a text from the runner, sending him a screenshot of a movie synopsis asking him if he'd be interested in watching that one next. Tae Joon fell back against his pillow, with a sigh, rubbing his tired eyes with the balls of his hands. He could keep lying if it meant they could spend time together. 

It didn't matter who he was; Tae Joon Park, Hyeon Kim or Crypto. When it came to Octavio Silva, all three of them were thoroughly, thoroughly fucked. 

#apex legends #apex legends fanfic #apex legends octane #apex legends crypto #cryptane

[futurewriter2000]

My Dear Audience

I know you are usually the victims of my emotional outbursts I post on my blog, probably didn't read the fine print when you pressed the follow button. You can always skip these posts/rants I make that's why I always put the "keep reading" function so that yall don't have to scroll for 10 minutes straight. But sometimes I write things down to get clearer in certain situations I'm in. It helps me figure it out. It's like my subconscious speaking to my conscious dumbass. Idk, maybe it will help you too or not. You can always write me your opinions because I love to see other opinions and perspective on certain themes I put in here. So let's get into it!

The reason I'm writing this is because it's faster to write in my journal and I don't trust my journal at all. Like I don't know why I'm hiding certain things from my journal. Maybe because my sister and mother used to read them when I was a kid. But yeah, sometimes I can be a little pathetic. But bear with me. We are all different and how we process emotions is different to all of us.

My sister told me something about me missing somebody, who I had dealt with in the recent past. And I told her that I don't and that I moved on from him already.

I firmly do believe I had moved on from him but something made me wonder if I really did when I was trying so hard to explain to her how I did move on.

You see, I did have a lot of friend break ups last year and from seven of them, I think that two hurt me the most. One was a guy (shocker) that I used to be so close with for 3 years but had known him for about 5 years. And the other was my best friend of 3 years or something as well. She was literally amazing to the point when she started to... get a bit wild, which I don't mind but she started to become more wild and more rude, arrogant and ignorant as well.

I was literally so attached to both but there came a moment, a click all of a sudden where I just knew that I don't want to be their friend anymore because they constantly hurt me. The worst part was that I didn't understand the why, I just knew that they were both toxic for me and that I didn't like what said or did to me. It took me long, sobbing and self-blaming nights to move on from both of them. It took me about 8 months to get over the guy and almost a year (around 11 months) to get over her. It's not that I was in love with them- I just love people way too much. I would give the world for my friends.

When I moved on from the guy (1), I met another guy (2) which reminded so much of guy 1. Literally, they were both tall, light eyes, dirty blonde/brown hair, both Aries (like a day apart)... but their character was different. Nevertheless, the similarities were wow but it was their character that made them so different. I admired guy 2 character more than anybody's character (lies... there are a few people) in my life. There is just something so interesting in people who think so differently or are different in general. He just had this magnetic pull. When we met, there was something so similar in him that I couldn't put my finger on and we just clicked in one day. The first day we met, we clicked. First 10 minutes we met, click. There was not even the introduction of our names, we just vibed so much that we let go of the unimportant details.

You can expect I fell in love with the guy. He bought me choclates and energies and opened the doors for me, and he always came to get me for lunch... the guy was literally treating me so good and my hopeless romantic self fell in love. He was the first ever guy that I considered to date. There were previous crushes, yes but he was just "the one". Don't judge. I am way too romantic.

He was the one until he started to give me hot and cold game. But we still vibed. Then he turned out to be gay, which to my surprise I was so relieved. I don't know why I was so relieved but I just was. It made me realise that I really didn't want to be with him in a romantic way, because that was so much pressure and work and I can finally relax. Bc when I can flirt with everything and everybody until I start to catch feelings. Then I turn into a tree. Makes no sense but you know what I mean. I just didn't know how to act.

He left. No goodbye, no nothing. I cried like a baby but it was easy for me to move on because we knew each other for a month and he seemed to be that person, who enters your life for a certain reason. I thought it was to show me that guy 1 was literally an ass and that I can be treated better by friends than I believed.

Okay, I moved on.

Until that bitch returned one day and made me forget to walk. I don't know what he did to me. I knew he was gay, I knew that there will nothing become of us ever. I was okay with that but he still made me feel butterflies. But so did the guy 1 but the guy 1 made me feel more of a sad anxiety butterflies and the guy 2 was happy anxiety butterflies.

We vibed like nothing ever happened. We went out on drinks, walks, I even went to his house, he met one of my friends, we made plans... until a day came where all of a sudden he started to act distant.

I was like, okay... maybe he just needs a time alone. If anything guy 1 has thought me was that I should never drill into people or pressure them to open up to me.

God, I knew something was wrong. I could see it in his eyes and on his face and I just knew it. But you know when people say hurt people hurt people.... oh did he just say the right words to prove that.

We had a conversation and I said something among the lines: "Yeah but at least we're such good friends now."

"Are we?" he said and when I tell you I felt my heart sink into the depth of whatever pit there is. It got cut into pieces and stomped over and shit like that but my defense mechanism is laughter and smiling.

"You're telling me we're not friends?" I asked him, my dumbass laughing.

"Then I must be a really bad friend."

AND MY DUMBASS WENT. "Noooo! You have your good qualities."

And so on and so on.

I'm not playing the victim in this situation. I was not the victim here. He was just... hurting.... he just.... really didn't have to hurt me too and sometimes I wished I went away and didn't start any conversation.

But he was so new and so interesting and I had never clicked so well with anybody.

Don't roll your eyes when I tell you that I believe in soulmates. I do. I believe I had 4 soulmates in my life and it's odd to describe it but there is this... feeling you have when you're with them that just make sense.

My soulmate definitely was not guy 1. But there was this crush I had in middle school that I had never exchanged words with but like I said... there's a feeling and fleeting moments where you just know.

So him... and my best friend of 2 years before the other best friend of 3 years.

And him. The guy 2.

There's a certain click you have with your soulmate. And I had many friends, many people and crushes and loves but none of them are those four soulmates.

I believe guy 2 is... but I also believe that he is that exact karma of what I did with guy 1. I was just not in love with guy 1. I think he was in love with me but I just wasn't in love with him. Yes, we are friends and good but I am not in love with you. (he wrote me a song that I was so oblivious that it was meant for me. I realised that a year later and yes I am face-palming myself right now). I just left him like that.

Just like guy 2 left me like that. I was in love with him but he couldn't be in love with me. And he left me... just like that.... just like I left guy 1. The fucking irony in that.

Months past, guy 2 disappoints me constantly until the point where he disappointed me so hard that I just couldn't go back to him. I never hated him... I never hate anybody but I do learn and I let go.

It was hard for me to let go because the pain felt just as horrible as it did with guy 1... just worse... so much worse. The memories me and guy 2 have are the memories that can be labeled as unforgettable ones. When I tell you that it was like a movie when we were hanging out together. Like a bloody movie... the way we met, the way we clicked, the love/rejection scene, him leaving, him coming back, us not having normal conversations (I had never had conversations as I did with him with anybody in this entire world. The conversations with him were... the ones that you don't forget easily.), the roadtrips we took, the awkward moments, the sharing deepest darkest secrets moments, the fun moments, the way we were so comfortable with each other that it felt like I had known him for years, not months.

Like a movie. A real, indie like movie. Him in bright/white clothes, me in dark/black clothes. Him the logical, me the dreamy. Me the romantic and innocent, him the not so romantic and definitely not so innocent.... like ying and yang... up until the ying didn't want the yang anymore.

I don't know what happened, really... he just didn't want to hang out with me anymore. His whole behaviour towards me changed.

Hurt people hurt people.

I cried... for months... shocker... but then there came a day when I just woke up and I was just ok.

You know there were times I would cry because of the memories. Because I never felt like this with anybody. Oh no... you know when you meet someone who is special in your life. You know you're in it deep from the moment you meet them. Tik Tok tarot readings really did not help. He just randomly popped in my mind. I couldn't look at pistachios... I couldn't drive by the gas station anymore, I even quit my job (but that was mostly for me), I couldn't go to the store without thinking of the time we went to the store. Still, every bus I see I wish I could see him in it.

But then I asked myself. What would I do if I did see him? I mean, the last time he disappointed me so hard that I don't think I could even look at him. I wouldn't want to give him his birthday gift because this shit is long passed. Once exciting to give it, now dreading it. Once I wanted to tell him everything... now I don't want a single thing to share with him because that creates another memory I would only cry over. The fact was.... so much time had passed that all the nostalgia, the energy, the excitement... it all just disappeared because I stopped giving it. I promised myself no more. And yes I wanted to just text him and call him to give him a peace of my mind but no. I held myself back and I rather cried and felt sorry for myself that ever giving my time and energy to someone who just... isn't worth it....

He disappointed me so much to the point I had to realise that when I think of him as someone who has broadened my perspective on the world, taught me certain things and gave me such great memories to look back on... for me he was a soulmate but for him I was just that one person, he worked with. Like he said... I wasn't a friend... though I don't know why he made plans with me... maybe to fill me with empty promises like most people do but I accept that.

I was done wasting time on mourning.

One thing I didn't realise about moving on from people was that you can still wish for them to come back or wish for things to be different and miss the hell out of them. Don't you think that just because I moved on from guy 1 and that best friend that I didn't think of reaching out to them. I did... to every last one of them but that will bring me nowhere. I just don't know where they would lead me... because I changed, yes but that doesn't mean they did.

I still wish them the best... I do look back on them with fond memories. Of course, I don't think the two can even come close to the guy 2. He is one of a kind but there are such wonderful people out in the world and guy 2 has thought me that I can be treated better than some people treated me.

Plus he was a good muse for the emotional works I had written and drew.

So I really did move on... by finally accepting the fact that it won't be like a movie and that not all people are here to change your life and stay in it. Maybe they just change it and leave you to grow further on.

All of them thought me so much but I do swear that the last one had really put an impact in my life. Made it better, no matter the hurt he caused. Most of it was because I let it happen. I let him take the wheel for a while but now I'm driving again and he's left the bus.

#this was so long #you probably didn't stick to the end #but if you did #wow

[laulink]

@thekeenbouquetcrown

Excuse me … is that I am really so angry about the state of Whiterose … they literally have not had 2 minutes of interaction and the whole development is in the Bumbleby (I do not hate the ship … but fuck are already always in screen) it is as if the development of Weiss and Ruby in Vol 5 and 6 did not exist (which in Vol 6 they both developed more) to see that now they want to pair her with Jaune gave me a terrible disgust … honestly Miles and Kerry always hated the WR and it shows 

(For context, this is because of a response to a post I made about Weiss going to the movies with Jaune and Oscar, OP was upset she didn’t spend time with Ruby instead and that the Weiss and Jaune ship seemed to be pushed, though the post itself was not shippy)

Okay, so. I understand your frustration as a Whiterose shipper. I am a Monochrome shipper and am also disappointed that Weiss and Blake haven’t gotten any real talk yet this volume (the one in the mines was one-sided so it doesn’t count) even though the one thing the SDC and Atlas in general have been known for since the early volumes of the series was their racism toward Faunus. It’s been 6 eps spent in Atlas and, apart from the drunk guy in episode 1, we haven’t gotten anything about said racism, despite knowing already two Faunus who suffered because of it, namely Adam and Ilia, who Blake know very well and should therefore probably be more concerned about this issue. Anyway.

Your message made me want to go a bit into why I think Whiterose hasn’t gotten development this volume and very little in the past two as well (they had some cute interactions, but you can’t call that development as it is more of a “their interactions are cute” and less of a “they’re learning new things about each other, see each other in a new light” like it was in volumes 1 to 3). But I first want to point out that I don’t think the writers intend to pair Weiss with Jaune, at least in a romantic way. I also don’t think they hate Whiterose and see no reason to believe otherwise. The pair had great development in volumes 1 to 3, when the girls had to get to know each other, and they are comfortable with each other since their reunion. This pair not being portrayed as romantic does not mean that the writers hate it, just that they want to go other ways with the characters or to develop them through other means than romance. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

First off... I think the way characters and their relationships are handled and decided is all a matter of character arcs and stories. To summarise, I think that specific characters in RWBY were made to show specific development and do not get other forms of development. Yang’s development over the volumes is all about what doesn’t kill her makes her stronger and how she evolves after facing a hardship. Linked to that is her abandonment by her mother and her fight against Adam. She overcame both traumas by letting go of her mother, getting attached to other people who will not leave her like Raven did, and by learning from her mistakes to outsmart Adam and beat him. Jaune’s development is about how he starts as an incompetent and filled with doubt noodle and becomes a reliable warrior and leader. His relationships with Weiss and Pyrrha are linked to this as well : he didn’t know any better than heavily flirting with Weiss when he came to Beacon and did not notice Pyrrha’s feelings. Then he started to grow up, be more serious about his studies, gave up on Weiss, realised Pyrrha’s feelings... and lost her, which forced him to mature faster, but did not change the course of his character arc. Blake’s development is about her escaping an abusive and toxic relationship, then reclaiming her life, will, bravery and organisation -basically taking back everything that was stolen from her by her ex- and finding true love in someone who will not abuse her like Adam did. The White Fang part of this development is sorta halted at the moment, but hopefully it won’t be for much longer.

Weiss’ story line is very similar to Blake’s in how it is about escaping abuse, overcoming the impacts it had on her life and the way she manages it and creating relationships to replace the toxic ones. But, in her case, her toxic relationships are the ones she has with some members of her family. Therefore, the relationships she has to create to replace them, and, as a consequence, the relationships she focuses on, are familial ones. Weiss needs to create her own supportive and loving family to help her heal from her father’s abuse and make peace with what she went through before she can focus on something else. Because her character is about family and how her father’s abuse shaped her life for so long that she, sometimes, barely remember who she is, like the Mirror set of songs show, so for now there is no place for romance. Maybe that will change after the Atlas arc is over and they move to Vacuo, but by the time that happens and Weiss can start thinking of romance, something else can come in the way of Whiterose :

Penny Polendina. She has been considered dead for 3 volumes, but now she is back and Ruby has already made it clear that she cares a great deal about Penny and goes out of her way to spend time with her (see, episode 6, going to Robyn’s rally mainly because Penny will be there on a security job). I think the next couple of episodes are going to define the way the potential “triangle” with Ruby, Weiss and Penny might go. After the trauma Penny suffered, the way she will face it and Ruby’s role in it might be indicators as to how their relationship will grow. If it takes a turn to go down the romantic road, Whiterose will be dead. Even if Penny doesn’t follow Ruby in Vacuo or is torn to shreds again, she will be Ruby’s love interest and no one is going to take that spot, not so far into the series, not with everything else going on. If such a turn doesn’t happen though, Whiterose will still stand a chance, but will need to wait for Weiss to be in a better place mentally speaking to really get the needed development.

I think the romantic road for Nuts and Dolts is very likely. So far in volume 7, we’ve had two songs mentioning love : the opening, literally named “Trust in Love”, and the Renora song from episode 6. Penny is shown over romantic lines of both of these songs, in the opening in a typical “anime love interest” shot and in episode 6 Ruby and her are looking at each other, smiling. Subtle hints, but there have been some of these for Bumblebee and none for Whiterose, so I think there’s a good chance this will be relevant.

Sooo... yeah, Whiterose might not become canon, but that doesn’t mean that the writers hate the ship, just that they want to develop Ruby and Weiss in different ways and through different means. And Weiss wanting to get away from her teammates’ flirting by latching onto the first activity offer that is not “go to the victory rally of your father’s opponent where everyone will hate you for your name” does not mean that she’s suddenly going to fall in love with Jaune, especially since it won’t be a one on one date but a three people outing with Oscar in the middle.

#rwby #rwby7 #rwby volume 7 #rwby spoilers #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #jaune arc #nora valkyrie #lie ren #oscar pine #whiterose #bumblebee #bumbleby #renora #arkos

[pass-the-bechdel]

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, once.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Nine (25.71% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-six.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

For a movie which is pretty much wall-to-wall fight scenes...I love it. I always start out going ‘maybe I overrate this movie, maybe it’s not as good as I remember’, but by the end, I’m right back in there.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Wanda apologises to Natasha for lying. It’s a close call.

Female characters:

Pepper Potts.

F.R.I.D.A.Y

Gamora.

Mantis.

Wanda Maximoff.

Natasha Romanoff.

Okoye.

Nebula.

Shuri.

Male characters:

Ebony Maw.

Thanos.

Thor.

Loki.

Heimdall.

Bruce Banner.

Stephen Strange.

Wong.

Tony Stark.

Peter Parker.

Ned.

Peter Quill.

Rocket.

Drax.

Groot.

Vision.

Steve Rogers.

Sam Wilson.

The Collector.

Thaddeus Ross.

James Rhodes.

T’Challa.

Bucky Barnes.

Eitri.

Red Skull.

M’Baku.

OTHER NOTES:

Heimdall had proven himself too much of an MVP in previous films to be allowed to live in this one. Bastards.

Heimdall and Loki, both dead before the opening titles. That’s how you know this movie means business, it’s not faking at high stakes.

I also am from space and have come here to steal a necklace from a wizard.

“Mr Stark, it smells like a new car in here!”

“All words are made up.”

Not gonna lie, when I saw this at the cinema and I realised that Captain America had arrived? My heart LEAPT. It was intense.

Depressed Thor is a great touch - after all previous films with Thor had him so bland, and then Ragnarok made him funny but essentially glossed over any of the difficult emotions it was dredging up, I’m glad to finally get something real and meaty from the character. If characters go through all manner of Hell and don’t show any signs of labouring under that weight, you’re doing character development wrong.

Nice callback with Red Skull.

The sacrifice of Gamora on Vormir is a really well-balanced piece; it was asking a lot, to make the emotion of it land despite how little of Thanos we’ve seen before, and without genuine emotion at it’s core it’s just the killing off of a female character for shock value. I feel like they got the pitch just right (most thanks to the music).

As much as I enjoy Thor and Rocket’s bantering, the side-quest for Stormbreaker feels like an unnecessary and over-the-top distraction in an already stuffed-full film. Easily the weakest part of the plot.

The fact that Quill fucks everything up with defeating Thanos on Titan because he can’t keep himself under control for two seconds certainly does not endear him to me in the slightest. Like ok, you’re upset, but if you can’t stop yourself from getting violent that’s on you, that makes you a dangerous person with serious issues, that’s not normal and it’s not ok. Also, literally half of all life in the universe was at stake. So there’s that.

Listen, I’m very susceptible to heroism (and that’s why superhero movies work for me), so every time someone comes to someone else’s rescue, I have feelings. 

I had convinced myself that somehow, Thanos wouldn’t succeed with his whole plan in this movie, that he would get all the stones but that he would like, go to a special place or something before enacting his plan, so that the good guys would have a chance to regroup and race to stop him before it was too late, all that jazz. So (even though Thanos had already snapped at that point), when Bucky Barnes disintegrated before our very eyes, I was SHOCKED. That got me like a smack in the face.

Considering I’ve never really been a fan of Tom Holland’s Spider-man, it’s a credit to his work that Peter’s death scene is so effective. That’s acting.

So, what makes this movie work despite being so heavy with bombastic action? The short answer is: it’s because the good guys lose. I’ve made no secret of being a fan of the ‘hour darkest before the dawn’ in storytelling, so this is playing to the sweet spot for me there, but it’s not as simple as just making everything miserable and hopeless. In this case, specifically, the lead-up to that ultimate failure is key; it’s gotta still feel like a superhero extravaganza, even as it takes an increasingly dark turn. The action works because it’s part of what we signed up for (the best camouflage for subversions of the traditional model), and it works because it’s all carrying the story forward - the Infinity War is comprised of multiple battles, and because of the way the pieces of the narrative are separated, the characters don’t know how any of the other battles are turning out; everyone is just trying to fight what’s in front of them and defend the stone in their midst, they don’t have the option to sit around doom-and-glooming and restrategising as news of each defeat comes in. Rather than dragging us wholesale from Point A to B to C in ever-escalating stakes and complications, the writers have had the good sense to spread things out and let things fall apart for our heroes (and the universe) in multiple smaller pieces until they reach a cumulative critical mass. Consequently, instead of feeling as though we’re sitting there watching things go from bad to worse, the audience forms this false sense of security in the action; it’s a superhero movie, after all. We expect them to work it all out in the end, to build toward a moment of apparent hopelessness (a darkest hour before the dawn), and then to rally triumphantly for the big win. As such, we perceive small victories (i.e. the defeat of Thanos’ various ‘children’, the creation of Stormbreaker, the way things draw out in the battle on Titan) as if they are more significant, as if they are signs leading us to that big win; without those small, expected victories, the ultimate failure would not hit as hard, because after two and a half hours of watching the good guys get wrecked without a chance, what surprise would there be in the snap?

Of course, plenty of viewers knew about the snap already or expected an ultimate failure of some sort based on the fact that we pretty much all knew that this was the first half of our grand Avengers finale (my mother, who is not a superhero movie fan, did not know what she was getting into and was...very shocked), so it’s important that the film still works to engage us on a character level so that the good guys losing in the end can hit like a ton of bricks even if you knew it was coming (and even though you no doubt expected to get the big win eventually, once Endgame came out). After all the fighting and the bantering, all the usual stuff we expect to see our heroes go through in the course of an average adventure, having them then watch their beloved friends/allies/whatever literally disintegrate before their eyes in a quiet, drawn out scene of devastation is a magnificent piece of cinema, communicating the shock not only of the event itself, but of the complete disruption to the superhero status quo. It’s not just that good guys don’t lose like this, it’s that they don’t lose with a whimper instead of a a bang. It’s not only that the cost of failure has never been this high; it’s also that they have never been forced to watch it play out with such inevitability; they have never before been rendered so powerless. If the entire film had the tone of the last ten minutes, it wouldn’t work so well, it’d just be a drudge and the audience would be desensitised by the end. By the same token, if the rest of the film had not planted the seeds of the finale so thoroughly in all its smaller losses and smokescreen victories, the ending would not be so horrifically fitting.

Neither, of course, would the ending be so affecting, if we were not as attached to the characters as we are. We have many, many films worth of history with most of them, or at least one solid encounter in which to become attached, and even in a movie chock-full of more characters than any other before, everyone gets a chance to show their personality and remind us why we care if they live or die. I’m not going to argue for this being an incredible character piece (nor is it pretending to be one), but it plays its very large hand very well, putting emphasis where it needs to be without overloading or unbalancing the story. As I noted above, I was particularly impressed with the way Thanos was handled, considering our exposure to him previously was very minimal and it was left up the this film to build his ethos as well as his relationships with his ‘children’ almost from scratch, creating complexity and simplicity without falling into the trap of trying to make the villain sympathetic; Thanos isn’t necessarily relatable (nor does he need to be), but he is understandable in that we’ve all probably encountered at least one person who holds the same limited worldview and is somehow convinced that they could ‘fix’ everything, given the power. Thanos isn’t actually aiming for universal domination in the traditional sense, and it makes him more disturbing and more realistic as a villain, because his evil is not nebulous or purely self-serving; he is a true believer, and his delusions have an all-too-familiar ring about them, so as we watch him lumber and pontificate around the story, we get a clearly-drawn image of someone possessed of such basic and humble flaws that he is - again, without being treated as sympathetic - quite significantly humanised, despite all of the non-human elements that make up both his character, and his situation. Even as it planet-hops and draws upon cosmic magic, the narrative is grounded by a centrepiece of plain, ungodly fallibility. 

Now, I recognise that in all of this praise for the way this film was executed, there isn't really anything to be said for it regarding the purpose of this blog; on the female representation front, it's not really doing anything (the fact that it juuust manages to pass the Bechdel and juuust over a quarter of its cast is female does not win it brownie points; its better than not having either of those things, but that's not a genuine achievement). The two female characters who were more prominently positioned in this movie are Gamora and Wanda; Gamora largely in context of her relationship with Thanos, and Wanda as Vision’s significant other and the means of his destruction. Notably, both women’s arcs are accessories to the arcs of male characters, which is not what we’re aiming for in good representation, though it does not exclude the possibility of quality content; Gamora’s role may have a lot to do with Thanos (not least, after he kills her), but it is still distinctly her own story, rich with emotion and coming to a surprising and depressing end which I felt struck the right chords to be compelling rather than an enraging disposal of one of the few female characters around (more on this after Endgame). Wanda’s presence leaves less of an impression, in terms of screen time, plot complication, and audience engagement, but all things considered I don’t think that was a terrible choice; Wanda and Vision’s relationship had been a somewhat sparse subplot in previous films and the chemistry was not strong, so I don’t think it would have been to the film’s benefit to try and expand on that relationship further than they did. As it was, there was enough there to sell the emotion, and nothing extraneous, and as much as I enjoy this movie, I wish I could say better things for its female representation than that. It is stuffed-full, and definitely not perfect, and space could have been made to pump up some of the other female characters’ roles more (the Earthbound characters get the least attention in the movie, and since basically all my faves are there it is a testament to how well this movie works for me that I enjoy it so much anyway, but a little more attention there would not have gone astray, especially since that’s where most of the female cast is). That said...I still really enjoy it, man. As far as popcorn action goes, this is top shelf.

#Marvel Cinematic Universe #Avengers: Infinity War #female representation #Bechdel Test #MCU

[langernameohnebedeutung]

Marvel ruined MCU with that pisspoor of a movie called Endgame. No quicksilver. At least Ronin was okay could have been better. But all of it was so lame and expected throughout the film.

(warning for those who want to avoid that: this rant includes a lot of negativity and you might want to skip it if that’s not how you want to start your day! Love y’all!)

I didn’t expect them to bring back Quicksilver because I’m pretty sure that he was only in AoU to be sacrificed on the altar of their copyright stand-off with Fox - so maybe they bring him back in the future or maybe introduce Speed, but Endgame is a mess, imo. 

Basically, I think it’s the lack of a complex plot that’s also choking the life out of the characters.

(Bear with me for a moment) The thing is, I come from a family that loves crime shows. My parents basically watch nothing else, maybe the occasional French comedy, but they wouldn’t be caught dead watching a superhero film. As a result, I’ve grown pretty weary of crime-shows at some point in my teenage years (because once you watched Monk, Castle, Mentalist, Lie to Me and all the others, you’ve pretty much seen every plot, every solution etc. at least twice.)

But lately, I’ve gotten back into it. I watched for example some Adler-Olsen films and went to see Knives Out with a friend, and that’s when I realised something about films like Endgame and why they don’t work:

A good police procedural is always plot-driven. You have a crime, you need to have witnesses who are connected by the plot, you have characters who solve it in a way that makes sense and that you can follow. In a good story, a plot-twist is actually that - a plot-twist. It has to be a moment where you say: "Ooooh yeaaah fuck that makes sense! God I love/hate it!” it’s not just someone dying or someone betraying someone out of nowhere. It needs a whole lot of fucking plot to make a good plot-twist. 

There are logical cornerstones in these stories and if any of them are missing, you end up with something season 4 of Sherlock. Now, a good crime show also has interesting characters that you can get invested in and whose motives affect the plot. A strong plot doesn’t mean you have no space for good characters. In fact, one thing I realised I enjoy about these stories is that because a lot of time is invested into the actual crime-story, you need more time to find out things about the characters and find answers to your questions.

And that’s basically the opposite of what films like Endgame did. Now, I don’t expect some Noir-film about the Avengers finding out who made half the universe disappear and interrogating witnesses who saw Thanos in the ballroom with the glove. My point is, that the challenge of making a film with such high stakes and so many characters is that it needs to have a plot at its core (one that can fill three fucking hours, no less), not jokes and probably an exact number of minutes of screen time every actor gets to say their line. This film is basically the cast holding their faces into the camera in a specific order.

Of course, the superhero genre has conventions on screen, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be a plot. The MCU-Netflix all implement many elements from crime-shows and that’s exactly why we get to know the characters so well. Because we can follow them and see them react to many unique situations. There are also MCU films who did pretty good jobs focusing on their plots: Winter Soldier is basically a spy thriller and we still learnt a lot about the way Steve lives - and it’s incorporated into the plot. We find out what’s going on, how it happend and why and the characters solve the problem. Another example is Black Panther, which is in many ways really set up like a crime or spy thriller: We have a flashback to the crime that caused it all first, we get to know our characters, the main-characters (and the audience) learn why and how Killmonger does it and we understand how he’s stopped. That’s the core of the story and anything else happens around it and is attached to the plot. T’Challa opening his country based on what he learnt in this film is a direct reaction to what he learnt about his his father and uncle and cousin. Captain America going back to live with Peggy after Infinity War/Endgame...does not. We knew he loves Peggy since the first Captain America and if he has the same goal, the same motivation and the same solution to his problem after all these years...that actually shows that you either don’t understand the characters (my explanation) or that you didn’t do anything with him. Except the two films since DID things with the character which Endgame ignored.

It’s something that I noticed happens a lot with sequels, in my opinion (Pirates of the Carribean comes to mind or, again, Sherlock season 4), and I can imagine people arguing: “We watch it for the characters, no one watches it for the plot.” And that’s fair and that can work but that brings me back to my dramatic opening statement: A smaller, contained plot actually says more about the characters. If your plot becomes nothing but a generic string of dramatic moments, your characters’ reactions become generic too. 

Your loved one dies: SCREAAAAMING! (or quiet sadness :/ ). 

Some big heroic moment? - everyone else stares open-mouthed :o  . 

The villain does a big bad thing: >:( 

DRAMAAATIC SPEECH!

Someone sacrifices themselves :(

- It’s boring. 

And the motivations also become boring. If the entire fucking universe is at stake, any differences or problems the characters have with each other begin to fade into the background (or become forced and awkward, like you know, humans arguing about climate-change). So either, you embrace the characters being comically chill about everything (like Thor: Ragnarök did and Guardians of the Galaxy, by making their characters hilariously relaxed about the end of the world) or all you end up doing is stringing bland dramatic moments together. You also have no space for interesting plot-twists anymore, because you can’t build up to them.

Either it’s: something very horrible happens (everyone is shocked) or someone betrays someone (everyone is shocked). My point is, the lack of a complex plot leads to a lack of interesting characters in plot-driven fiction and that’s what Endgame ran into like it’s the end of a marathon.

There is this one really cringe-worthy scene (that they had the sense to cut) where everyone (no matter if it makes sense for the character’s story or backstory or is in keeping with their personality) kneels for Tony’s dead body. Now, this isn’t also awkward, but it also waters down any meaning it has for the characters for whom it makes sense to kneel in that moment. It really goes to show how empty this bitch of a film is.

And that really drives the point home for me (but they kept it up by giving him a huge funeral and adding just a few lines about Natascha’s death). Now, this is not to say that Tony doesn’t deserve having his sacrifice or his actions appreciated on-screen or anything, but it shows that this film is basically a zoo where you get to gawk at the characters, not a story in which they appear. The kneeling-scene is not about Tony’s sacrifice or about who he was. It’s about The DRama! of these scenes. It says nothing about the characters. It says nothing about Tony. It says nothing about Thanos’ crimes. It says nothing about the plot. It’s lazy, but they couldn’t do much else because they didn’t build up to anything more meaningful than kneeling or a funeral to showcase the other character’s sadness and admiration. They can’t focus on any meaningful elements from the plot, on developments in personal relationships - because they didn’t do any of that and ignore any that happened. Everyone is just a sad backstory and 3 jokes in a trench-coat and there is no room for them to grow or develop or form or change opinions in a meaningful capacity. Because a plot won’t allow it.

And here’s the thing: I would have preferred to wait two or three more years for this resolution and get a good answer to the open questions. But it’s all about money, contracts and copyright and not storytelling and that makes it bland.

end of rant :)))

#endgame #fandom #marvel #mcu #negativity #critical #Anonymous

[plow-and-propose]

Some After The Revolution thoughts, because i want to sleep but need to ramble first (huge spoiler warning)

Yet again i am left wandering around asking the universe ‘where the fuck is the rest of it’

Sooo many unanswered questions still, in fact probably more questions now

But this is what keeps us coming back so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ well played

I really enjoyed it though. As much as I’ve been left frustrated at least the stories ended positively for the most part. there are some things I don’t really get tho

Like, Touga’s whole 'separating the art from the artist’ thing when effectively supporting a known child abuser. which is a post in of itself that I will not make, but what really struck me is that I would’ve thought Touga would be the last person to do something like that? He was abused in both versions of Adolescence Apocalypse. He was abused by Akio in Chiho Saito’s original manga. Was this supposed to show that he’s distanced himself from his past so much that he no longer cares? Is this dramatic irony? Is he in denial? is he just fucked up?

“wow Saionji you’ve actually scored one point on Touga” i said out loud as he tried to call Touga out on his bullshit.

Anyway that sword fight accomplished NOTHING in that regard. Unless i missed the significance? I’ll give it a reread at some point

also Touga in there stepping on Saionji’s toes again. I get that he’s Saito’s fave but he’s had like, three backstories. I want to know what made SAIONJI such a raging dumpster fire

also I guess they’re friends again now? that’s good?

the first one probably made the least sense

the whole thing with paintings was a nice movie tie-in tho

that fucking car appeared so i guess it’s a ghost too now huh

I like how that story effectively freed Anthy for good tho. I think that in finding the painting, Utena was able to banish what was effectively the last bit of control Akio had over Anthy. She also stabbed him again, which was great.

moving on

JURY IS GAY AGAIN PRAISE FUCKING BE

I guess shiori and ruka have completely different stories tho?? there’s no way these scan with. basically any canon so. eh?

anyway I liked it. and I like that Juri enjoys fencing just in of itself. the idea that she was doing it to impress someone or prove something always rubbed me the wrong way.

I also like Miki’s and Kozue’s story! I feel like the lack of resolution really works for this one - their feelings cannot be sorted out in a single story, but it ends on a positive 'note’ (HAHAHA) so to speak. I feel that finally, finally, they can get their shit together. it’ll take a long time, but maybe they can work something out - i feel like they’ve always been the least resolved in every ‘verse

moving on

Wtf the fuck was the disaster that hurt all these children at once?

if you ask me, that’s actually Utena’s backstory. She awoke in the hospital all alone, wandered around and realised her parents were dead, then found the coffin, etc in the attached church. The others had all been in hospital at some point as children, but their memories merged with their 'dreams’ in order to lead them to Utena.

I suppose they could have all experienced the same tragic event, but honestly I prefer the idea that they’re all completely unrelated to each other, that they’ve been flung together by coincidence rather than destiny

Anyway on to Utena herself

I LIKE that she’s effectively become Dios now. It feels like the best outcome tbh, after being impaled by swords in one timeline and vanishing in another. I imagine she lives in the castle with Anthy now. I am satisfied. Partly.

i do feel as if it goes against the whole ‘leaving for the real world’ aspect, tho?

but hey they’ve escaped Ohtori, so that’s something

I like the blend of visual metaphors and legit fantasy in this incarnation

I guess this series could also support the theory that every story in the 'Utena Verse’ is a sort of reincarnation? of the characters and plot? since this ties together so many. essentially the theory is that a 'revolution’ in this case means 'a full cycle’. When one story ends, another begins, slightly different but along the same lines.

anyway, the cycles have finally ended. the 'revolutions’ have stopped. now they characters can finally move on with their lives

imo Utena didn’t meet Anthy and free her 3 times in succession, i think she probably went straight from one dream to another until she got to Miki’s. I think she couldn’t find Anthy without also helping out the others (she is a Prince, after all). Or maybe she just didn’t want to leave them. either way, she used her princely magic.

also holy fuck. the final scene. Utena saving Anthy at last. Them being children symbolising a fresh start and all that good shit. The hand reaching. the roses. at last, they shine together. i want that last page enshrined

where the fuck is wakaba?

#revolutionary girl utena #after the revolution #rgu #rgu spoilers #long post #spoilers #this has been sitting in my drafts for a while actually lol #might as well post it

[gayfraphne]

scooby-doo and the curse of the 13th ghost review

WARNING: contains spoilers, as well as my unsolicited opinion. read at you own risk folks.

i’ll start off by saying, i really liked curse of the 13th ghost. it certainly wasn’t groundbreaking, but i had a great time watching it and i’m happy it exists. that being said, there were a few things that made me scratch my head a little bit.

the movie starts with a sepia filtered flashback of vincent van ghoul and his lover mortifer (not really but,,,,, we know how to read between the lines WB) capturing ghosts in the chest of demons. the scene ends with mortifer having his fucking soul devoured by ghosts and dying right there in front of my seven year old eyes. i literally screamed.

the title sequence absolutely sent me. it was really good on its own, but i love how it actually explains the whole plot of 13 ghosts, because i never actually saw it.

next we get a classic mall chase scene. there’s a hilarious moment when they’re chasing the suspect up an escalator, and fred tells the gang that they can’t run because it’s too dangerous, so they all have to stand on this escalator while tacky elevator music plays before continuing the chase. fred’s being an asshole to daphne in this scene to emphasise how attached he is to his leadership position, and daphne (like the bad bitch she is) ignores him and catches the guy they’re chasing herself, to emphasise that she’s much smarter than fred. not that much smarter, however, because it turns out they caught the wrong guy. they interact with the sheriff, who tells them that they’re too sloppy, and that once they turn eighteen (which is coming up quickly) they might end up serving jail time for harassment charges. with their best interests in mind, he tells them they have to quit solving mysteries. the scene worked, but it wasn’t very realistic. legally speaking, you can’t arrest someone for driving in their van (as this guy threatened to do).

next we see the three minute long scene that was released as a promotional clip on youtube of the garage sale at what i assume was daphne’s house, despite being tiny. a man named bernie alan tries to buy some stuff off them, but his check bounces (a reoccurring joke throughout the rest of the movie). vincent calls, tells them he needs help- blah blah blah.

daphne introduces the gang to her own van- which nearly sends fred over the fucking moon. especially when he can’t drive it because it’s a stick shift and, as we all know, FRED JONES CAN’T DRIVE STICK. honestly, that boy is adorable.

so daphne drives as fred sleeps on her shoulder like the angel he is- but things go awry when a car surrounded by green smoke tries to run them off the road. we find out why this is later, but it doesn’t.... really make much sense.

they get to vincent’s house, daphne and fred bicker some more, and shaggy decides to head off with scooby in search of snack-shaped clues. daphne asks velma to keep an eye on “lewis and bark” leaving her alone with fred. her crystal ball starts glowing, and they follow it throughout the mansion. velma, shaggy, and scooby have some classic mishaps, while fred and daphne do some classic fraphne things, such as forgetting that two people can walk next to eachother, and entrapment, and undermining each other’s intelligence. they all meet back up when velma and the boys fall through the ceiling and land on top of them. (shaggy jokes, “mind if we drop in?”) they find vincent, as well as the demon asmodeus, and this is where things start to kick off. vincent tells shaggy and daphne to trap asmodeus in the chest of demons, but shaggy says that he mailed it to vincent’s place in the himalayas when school started. vincent explains that it wasn’t his home, but rather an air b&b he’d rented at the time, and that he never got it- so they have to fly to the himalayas to track down the chest in the mail.

you know how movies and tv shows  that can’t afford the rights to certain brands will use cute little puns- to tell the audience what they’re talking about without saying the real trademark? it’s done multiple times in the movie, but in a way that’s very self aware. vincent refers to his air b&b as an “air boo & boo,” his iphone as a “die phone,” and countless others that i forget. but everyone around him is like “oh my fucking god can you talk normally please-” telling the audience that they were staying at an actual air b&b without having to use the name- but still being normal about it. it was a nice touch. as was “captain rogers, not for vanity reasons, but because when you have the lives of so many people in your hands, it’s better to think of yourself as the office and not the man- and also a little bit for vanity.” that’s right, folks, shaggy flies the plain. and it’s golden.

when they land in the himalayas, the first thing they notice is bernie alan, the check bouncing fiend. they decide to split up- shaggy, scooby, daphne and vincent follow him to the temple, while fred and velma go searching for the lost package. the next bit of the movie cuts between the two storylines, but i’ll just tell them separatley.

fred and velma show up at a deserted post office, and naturally go rummaging through the back to find shaggy’s lost package. instead, flim flam catches fred in a net. i don’t think we ever learn why he was in the post office. flim flam takes them to the novelty store he works at and shows them his various chest of demons memorabilia (mostly coolers, which he’s only ever sold one of) but when fred says they’re looking for the real thing, he brings them to his ghost-hunting store instead. fred finds a cool scooter and asks to drive it-  to which flim flam replies “sure! you can drive stick shift, right?” luckily he’s only kidding and fred get’s to destroy the scooter in the background while velma and flim flam argue over the existence of ghosts. fred and velma leave, and fred admits to velma that he feels useless now that daphne’s stolen his job as the leader. he even laments that he “can’t even do background shenanigans right!!!!!” before the scene has the oppurtunity to become cute and uplifting, the two of them get snatched into the air by an unknown force.

daphne’s crew are following bernie alan, but he manages to lose them. before they know it, they’re being stalked by the same car that tried to run them off the road earlier. the car’s loud engine starts an avalanche, resulting in the world’s longest “oh no!! we’re falling down a mountain!!” bit- which is then followed by a second identical bit as the car causes another avalanche immediately after the first. they wind up trapped in the temple with asmodeus and the chest of demons. there’s a cute little musical chase scene to a super catchy disco song, and a slightly uncomfortable bit where shaggy and scooby dress as monks. asmodeus tries to kill them, but vincent uses his magic to beam daphne, shaggy and scooby out.

daphne is about to break down sobbing because she thinks vincent is dead- when suddenly velma and fred fall from the sky. fred, being the little fucking legend he is, says “mind if we drop in?” they’re all down in the dumps for various reasons, and daphne says that it’s time to go home, and that there’s nothing more they can do. seeing his gang about top give up, fred reveals his darkest secret: while daphne and shaggy were catching the ghosts, he wasn’t just at any camp- he was at CHEER CAMP. THE ONLY KIND OF LEADER FRED IS IS A CHEERLEADER. it’s funny at first- hysterical in fact- but he does a cheer that lasts just long enough for everyone (characters and audience alike) to start feeling sad for him. but freddy jones is flippin away, doing back tucks over daphne’s head and throwing her in the air, and his enthusiasm encourages daphne to make a plan to catch asmodeus.

fred and velma head back to flim flam’s shop to ask for his help (but mostly his gear) and fred realises that the reason he can’t drive stick is because he’s been trying to use the parking break instead of the clutch. now he’s hell on wheels, and manages to run the random car that’s been following them off the road and into the abyss below. 

meanwhile, daphne, shaggy and scooby skydive down into the temple from above (”i can’t jump out of a plane!” “that’s okay, i’m going to push you!”) and find vincent. they link up with fred, velma and flim flam, and the latter jokes that all they need now is scrappy, to which velma asks “what’s a scrappy???” and there’s nothing better than the idea of a timeline in which daphne and shaggy just kept scrappy’s existence a secret all these years.

vincent reveals that asmodeus is actually his dead relative, which is cool, but everything goes downhill when they realise that asmodeus is a fake, and that he’s actually mortifer, vincent’s supposed dead lover, wearing a suit. then bernie alan the check bouncer is actually an interpol officer slash figure skater, and the swat team shows up.... they really lost me there. it was a disappointing resolution to say the least.

the final scene was probably my favorite. the gang are loading up the plane, and fred and daphne stare off into the sunset, and fred tells daphne that he’s been wrong about her all along, and that she’s such a capable leader, and that she’s the engine that makes the gang run. daphne replies “i might be the engine, but you’ll always be the driver” which is equally as adorable as it is true. they give eachother MAJOR HEART EYES, but fred- physically unable to let a heartfelt moment last more than three seconds- pulls away and asks if captain rogers will let him try flying the plain. daphne says sure, but only if he promises to stay away from the parking break. fred shakes his fist at god and curses velma’s name.

velma explains to everyone that ghosts aren’t real and that the 13 ghosts were all a hallucination, which..... fuck everyone involved in that decision. we realise that the chest shaggy mailed was actually the one cooler sold by flim flam (a nice touch). to prove her point, velma almost opens the actual chest of demons for funsies but thinks better of it, and then the gang hits the skies, where they’re all flabbergasted to find that scooby doo is the one flying the plane. the end.

it’s a good movie, no doubt- and was almost a perfect one. everything seemed to crash and burn as the demon turned out to be fake, and then everything else was fake, and then bernie alan was a figure skater in a fat suit... for some reason. had they gone with literally any other ending, it would have been great. 

the fraphne subpot felt a little underwhelming... maybe it’s just that i’m a hardcore shipper, but i felt like the resolution to their plot wasn’t big enough. they spent the whole movie building tension- i was sort of picturing that they’d have a big fight. but... nope. he just did a few backflips and everything was peachy.

again, i loved the movie. i don’t know if i’d put it in the top five, but definitely in the top ten. it had a lot of fun aspects and great character building. i’m really excited for return to zombie island, but also kind of scared. first of all, how do you make a sequel to something that happens when they’re 30 when they’re only 17?? also... pls don’t make the cat creatures fake. also... *slides writers a 20*.... fraphne kiss. just sayin.

#scooby doo #curse of the 13th ghost #fred jones #shaggy rogers #daphne blake #velma dinkley #fraphne #vincent van ghoul #flim flam #not an incorrect quote

[the-desolated-quill]

The Quill Seal Of Approval Awards - The Best of 2018

Hello and welcome, dear reader, to the greatest, most important awards ceremony in the history of entertainment. The Quill Seal Of Approval Awards. The award of recognition that everyone on Earth covets even though they don’t know it. For the Quill Seal Of Approval is a most esteemed prize for hard work and artistry. Better than the Golden Globes, more prestigious than the BAFTAs and guaranteed to be more diverse than the Academy Awards. You know your film, novel, TV show or video game has achieved legendary status when some random nobody on the internet says it’s the best in some obscure top 10 list that’s read by only a couple of people. That’s the true sign of success.

First, a few parish notices. Obviously this is my subjective opinion, so if you disagree with my choices, that’s fine. Go make your own list. (also remember that my opinion is 100% objective, scientific, factual and literal truth and anyone who disagrees is clearly a philistine and a dummy and a poopy-head whose mum smells of elderberries). Also please bear in mind that I haven’t been able to experience everything 2018 has to offer for one reason or another. In other words, please don’t be upset that A Star Is Born isn’t on this list. I’m sure it’s as amazing as everyone says it is. I just never got around to watching it.

Okay. Let us begin.

Inside No. 9 - Series 4

BBC2′s Inside No. 9, written by the League of Gentlemen’s Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, is an anthology series that’s often sadly overlooked, but it’s really worth a watch if you’re into shows like Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone, and this series in particular has been fantastic. We’ve had an episode written entirely in iambic pentameter, an episode whose chronology runs backwards, a live episode that really plays around with the format, episodes containing tragic and biting satire, and one especially twisted episode that brings out a side of Steve Pemberton we’ve never seen before. Series 4 has been a real treat from start to finish, with each episode beautifully written and expertly performed. Inside No. 9 deserves to share the same pedestal as Black Mirror, no question.

Black Panther

I’m sure everyone knows about my less than flattering views on the Marvel Cinematic Universe by now, which is what made Black Panther such a breath of fresh air for me. Stripping away all the convoluted crap, Black Panther has often been compared to The Dark Knight, and for good reason. Like The Dark Knight, this movie uses the superhero genre to tackle real social and political issues. In Black Panther’s case, exploring just what it means to be black in the modern world. Boasting an impressive cast of black actors, strong female characters, an engaging and complex antagonist, fantastic special effects and truly excellent direction from Ryan Coogler, Black Panther represents a new benchmark for Marvel, the superhero genre and the film industry in general. It proves how important and how lucrative diversity and representation in media can be, and it unintentionally shows how flawed the Marvel business model has become. The reason behind Black Panther’s success is simple. It’s because it’s bloody brilliant. And the reason it’s bloody brilliant is because Coogler was allowed to realise his own creative vision without Kevin Feige and Mickey Mouse breathing down his neck. Perhaps they should take note of that in future.

Deadpool 2

Of course Deadpool 2 is going to be on this list. Are you really surprised?

The Merc with the Mouth goes from strength to strength in the rare instance where the sequel is actually as good as, if not better than, the original. The first Deadpool was a great origin story for the character, but Deadpool 2 felt like an adventure ripped straight from the comics themselves. Crass, ultra violent and hysterically funny, Deadpool 2 is the crowning jewel of the X-Men franchise. Fan favourites such as Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Colossus return as well as new characters such as Domino, played by the exceptional Zazie Beetz, Cable, played by the astounding Josh Brolin, and Firefist, played by Julian Dennison who deserves all the success in the world because good God this kid can act!

But of course the star of the film is Deadpool himself with Ryan Reynolds once again proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he understands this character back to front. Not only is he hysterically funny, capturing the character’s irreverent tone perfectly, he also absolutely nails the tragic underpinnings of Deadpool that make him such a wonderful character. In between the f-bombs and gore are moments of real drama and emotional pathos as the film tackles themes such as loss, discrimination, abuse and suicidal depression. All this whilst taking the piss out of 2017′s Logan. 

Oh yeah, and it also features the first openly LGBT superheroes in cinematic history. Fuck you Disney! NegaYukio and Poololosus for the win! LOL! No, but seriously, now that you have the rights to X-Men back, if you try and censor Deadpool in any way, shape or form, I will kick your arse.

God Of War (2018)

“BOY!”

Yes Kratos is back, having successfully destroyed the world of Greek mythology and now has his eyes on the Norse Gods. And he has a son now. What could possibly go wrong?

Seriously though, this new God Of War is simply exquisite. While I have long admired the God Of War franchise for its interpretation and adaptation of Greek mythology, the previous games in the series have never exactly been the most sophisticated when it comes to storytelling (and the less said about the casual sexism, the better. Yes Sony, I promise I understand the thematic reasons behind playing a minigame that allows you to have sex with Aphrodite in God Of War 3, but it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s sexist as shit). God Of War 2018 changes all that with an intelligent and engaging story that allows us understand and connect with Kratos at a more personal level than we’ve ever done before. Taking place years after God Of War 3, Kratos is older, wiser and trying to raise his son Atreus in the hopes that he won’t make the same mistakes Kratos did in his past. Not only is the story amazing, continuing the franchise’s themes of vengeance and the strained relationships between parents and their children, the gameplay is also a ton of fun with many memorable moments and boss fights.

And as an added bonus, we get two strong female characters that aren’t treated like discardable sex objects. That was nice of them.

Incredibles 2

The long awaited sequel to The Incredibles finally arrived in 2018 and it did not disappoint. Incredibles 2 was everything I could have wanted and more. Continuing on from the events of the first movie, we see Elastigirl take the spotlight as she fights the Screenslaver whilst trying to persuade the worlds’ governments to lift the ban on superheroes. Meanwhile Mr. Incredible takes a back seat as he tries to reconnect with his kids Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack and prove he can be a good, supportive dad. 

Continuing to draw inspiration from Fantastic Four, X-Men and Watchmen, Incredibles 2 is... well... incredible. Expanding the world he created, Brad Bird tells a smart, funny and compelling story that stands head and shoulders above the majority of superhero movie fodder we get nowadays. Elastigirl flourishes in the lead role this time around and the kids get a lot more development, the Screenslaver is a great villain that compliments the themes of the franchise wonderfully, and we get to see a whole bunch of new characters such as Voyd and the Deavor siblings as well as the return of old favourites like Frozone and Edna Mode. 

Honestly, the baby alone is worth the price of admission. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another fourteen years for Incredibles 3.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Marvel’s Spider-Man is an amazing game. But of course you knew that already. It’s made by Insomniac Games, the same guys behind Ratchet & Clank. Of course it was going to be brilliant.

Simply put, this game does for Spider-Man what the Arkham games did for Batman. Not only is it a great game with brilliant combat and fun web swinging mechanics, it also has a great story worthy of the wall crawler. Unlike the movies, which seem to continuously yank Peter Parker back into high school with each new reboot as those the poor bastard were attached to the fucker on a bungee rope, this Spidey has been fighting crime for eight years. With great power comes many responsibilities as we see him struggle to juggle crime fighting, his new job as a scientist, his commitments to helping Aunt May at the F.E.A.S.T shelter and trying to win his ex Mary Jane Watson back after a six month split. It’s a brilliant story featuring many classic villains such as Shocker and Electro as well as lesser known villains like Screwball and the criminally underrated Mister Negative who finally gets to be the central antagonist in a Spider-Man adaptation. It’s fun to play, engaging, dramatic and really emotional at points. I cried real tears at the end. What a punch to the gut that was.

OOOOOH! And we might be getting to play as Miles Morales in the sequel! I sure hope so! :D

The Grinch

At this point I imagine many of you are scratching your heads. 

“Really Quill? The Grinch? Illumination’s The Grinch? This deserves the Quill Seal Of Approval? Are you sure?” Yes dear reader, I’m absolutely sure. Just hear me out.

It’s true that the majority of Dr Seuss adaptations are shit. While the live action version of the Grinch starring Jim Carrey has a cult following and is fondly remembered by some, it’s still pretty crap, and even Illumination themselves screwed up royally with their adaptation of The Lorax. But this new Grinch is truly excellent. For starters, the animation is gorgeous. This is clearly the format that works best for Seuss movies. Benedict Cumberbatch does a really good job voicing the character, giving him depth and complexity beyond just being a big old meanie. The film also has something no other Seuss film has ever had before. Subtlety. Illumination have clearly learned their lesson after The Lorax. They’re no longer bashing you over the head with a moral message. They’re not trying to over-complicate a simple story by adding pointless sub-plot after pointless sub-plot. In fact the bits they do add actually feed into the main core of the narrative, as opposed to The Lorax, which just confused things. And while there are cute Minion-esque sidekicks like there are in a lot of Illumination films, The Grinch limits it to two (Max the dog and a reindeer named Fred), they’re both legitimately funny, serve an important narrative purpose and don’t distract from the more serious and emotional moments.

In all honesty, I was debating between giving the Quill Seal of Approval to The Grinch or to Bumblebee (the first legitimately good Transformers movie), but I decided to go with The Grinch because of how it handles the character and the story’s message. A lot of people scoffed at the idea of giving the Grinch a back story (and to the film’s credit they don’t force the issue or over-explain where the Grinch came from) but it’s honestly what makes this new adaptation of The Grinch so special to me. He’s gone from being a Scrooge-like monster to an anxiety filled misanthrope who associates Christmas with being alone. It may sound like a jarring change on paper, but in practice it honestly works so well and adds a whole new dimension to the Grinch. It’s treated with absolute care and sincerity and the film really earns its emotional moments, particularly at the end when we see the Grinch sit down to have Christmas dinner with the Whos.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you give this new Grinch a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised :)

Doctor Who - Series 11

A woman?! In the TARDIS?! How absurd!

Jodie Whittaker made history as the first woman to play the Doctor and the new series doesn’t disappoint. Whittaker is predictably brilliant in the role, giving the character compassion, charm and wit. We also get a new bunch of companions (including the always brilliant Bradley Walsh as Graham) who all have some great moments in Series 11 and the relationships they form with each other is incredibly touching and fun to watch. But the writing, my God, the writing. Admittedly not every episode has been perfect, but it’s leagues above anything Moffat has given us during his disastrous reign. The majority of Series 11 has been well written and intelligent, tackling important and relevant social issues (something Doctor Who has always been doing and anyone who says otherwise is an idiot) and focusing on likeable and relatable characters rather than convoluted series arcs. We got to meet Rosa Parks, witness the partition of India, and ponder on the dangers of automation whilst the Doctor tries to save the world from bubble wrap. Oh, and the Daleks are scary again! I know! I couldn’t believe it either!

What makes this all the more remarkable is who the showrunner is. Chris Chibnall. A writer I’ve often criticised in the past for being derivative and shit, and yet somehow he’s managed to create some of the best Doctor Who I’ve seen in a long time. Not only has his writing improved dramatically since his Torchwood days, he’s also demonstrated a commitment to having diverse representation both in front of and behind the camera as well as in the scripts themselves. For the first time in what feels like an age, Doctor Who feels like Doctor Who again, and I’m ecstatically happy.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

How come we don’t see many animated superhero movies in the cinema? Considering the medium from which superheroes came from, you’d think it would be a no-brainer. Presumably it’s because Disney have got such a strangle hold on the animation market, but that’s hopefully going to change thanks to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (or, Sony’s Repentance for The Emoji Movie).

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. The animation is gorgeous. It’s pretty much an animated comic book and it stands out as one of the most unique looking animated films in recent memory. Spider-Verse is essentially a love letter to the legacy of Spider-Man as we see multiple different versions of Spidey, including Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham and Nicholas Cage as Ghost Rider cosplaying as Spider-Man Noir, demonstrating not only the sheer variety of Spider-Men we’ve had over the years, but also exploring what connects them together. With all these different interpretations across many different universes, the idea of Spider-Man comes to the same thing. An ordinary person who experiences tragedy and becomes something greater. It’s hopeful and inspirational in a way Spider-Man films hasn’t been for a while now (Spider-Man: Homecoming sucked donkey balls. Period).

But let’s not forget that while the film explores the Spider-Verse, the main focus is Miles Morales who finally makes his cinematic debut. Not only is it a very faithful adaptation of Ultimate Spider-Man’s origin story, Miles himself is such a great central character for the modern age and arguably has more relevance to today than Peter Parker does. The characters are funny and relatable and the story is expertly crafted and impactful. But then what do you expect from the writers and directors of The Lego Movie? (if only Disney hadn’t interfered with Solo: A Star Wars Story. We could have had it all).

Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle

This one kind of snuck up on me toward the end of December, but I knew the moment I saw it I had to include it on this list.

Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle is an adaptation of The Jungle Book with Andy Serkis making his directorial debut. Yes the same guy who did the motion capture for Gollum in Lord Of The Rings and Caesar in the rebooted Planet Of The Apes movies and who totes deserves an Oscar for Best Actor (fuck you Academy Awards!), and he brings this same motion capture technology to this film. Unlike Disney’s Jungle Book, which merely rehashes the original animated film whilst somehow stripping all the charm from it, Mowgli sticks closer to the original Rudyard Kipling book. This isn’t a cheery musical. This film is often dark and intense as we see Mowgli (played wonderfully by Rohan Chand) struggle to find his place in the world. He knows he doesn’t belong with the animals in the jungle, but he doesn’t really fit in with the world of man neither. It’s an emotional and dramatic character piece brought to life by great writing, great acting and stunning special effects. 

Andy Serkis has expressed a desire to do an adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and after watching this movie, I would love to see that. If you haven’t already, go watch Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle. It’s available to stream on Netflix and it’s truly amazing.

And that’s it for 2018. Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Quill Seal Of Approval Awards. Unfortunately we’re on a limited budget here on The Desolated Quill, so I can’t offer any sort of trophy or medal or anything. What I can do though is write the words ‘I’m an awesome cookie’ on a post-it note and stick it on your forehead. Will that do?

#quill seal of approval awards 2018 #quill seal of approval awards #best of the year #review #opinion

[sambart93]

2019.01.14 GARO Stage Vol 3: Kami no Kiba - JINGA - Reincarnation [Review]

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Videos 1

CAST and CHARACTERS

Inoue Masahiro as Jinga Yamamoto Ikkei as Sasha Inami Anju* and Oda Erina as Tomoha Masaki Kaoru as Ruka Matsunoi Miyabi as Amelie Fukuen Misato* and Nazuka Kaori as Shera Shimizu Saki as Ontake and Yuzuki Miyagi Koudai as Ushio Sengoku Minami and Isohara Kyouka* as Saeka Yumoto Misaki as Kerusu doNcHY as Tomino Sato Daisuke as Ramedo and Pakutora Sato Kazuma as Kaise Namiki Shusuke as Ikari Noda Hiroshi as Kido Iwata Arihiro as Lumido and Midouji Nakamura Seijiro as Fugi Horrors: Ega, Ryo, Hiro-C, Taka-ki, Kraus, Shimoo Hiroaki, Kudo Shoma, Katakabe Hiromasa, Sakai Hayato, Noda Ryunosuke, Yoshiba Yuki, Tezuka Sae, Ito Reina, Taguchi Fumiya

*There were some double casts so the * signifies the ones I saw.

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: This was very good. This was a solid stage. I thoroughly enjoyed the action, I enjoyed so many of the new actors, seeing the horrors IN PERSON and so up close was amazing! The use of the projection mappings and how they used the front screen for the effects was really cool! The combination of heavy rock and action scenes was a perfect combination and I absolutely adored the two - three big action scenes that used heavy rock music to their advantage to intensify the action. One of the fighting scenes actually really impressed me with HOW they did it! Also the fact that we had a LIVE band performing is awesome! The adlibbing was gold. I can see a lot of potential in some of the characters and their future storylines. I hope we get more development and more appearances from certain characters in the future! I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this stage, even with the earthquake about 30 minutes into it which FREAKED me off. However, I had a few technical issues. This play could’ve been amazing with about 2 - 3 more days rehearsing. Let me clarify; the actors are not the issue at all! But, the sound staff and the scene transitions were very questionable at times. Sometimes the sound effects for punches and such were either played too early or too late, and it was glaringly, obviously off beat. There were a lot of moments where the orchestra would go from one song to the next as a scene ended and started, but there’d be like 10 seconds during that transition where none of the actors could more or say their lines, and it felt very unnatural and roboticly timed. If they had had just a few more days of rehearsals I really think they could’ve fixed and perfected the sound and music timing. The other issue I had was the story. The main story and the main points of the story were absolutely fine, but I felt like one character and their story line (which is attached to the main plot) was totally unnecessary. At first I thought maybe only I have these issues, but upon talking to other friends, our negatives about the play matched completely. They also had problems with the timeline in the story too, they said it was confusing to figure out when all these events are supposed to take place. But luckily, I was able to understand the timeline without any problems. But besides me, my friends found that a problem. Rating: 6/10 - I enjoyed myself, but with a few more days of rehearsing and script revising, this stage could have been amazing.

*

SPOILER REVIEW

PreShow

I was very confused when I got to the cinema and got in line for the goods. My goodness Goods was confusing!! You had to pick up your goods from the tables first THEN line up to pay?! No wonder the line was going so fast!! XD It took me a minute or two to figure out what the hell was going on. I kind of wish all shows did this. Would be so much faster in the goods line!! Rather than waiting for Miss-Take-A-Lot who is always in front of me buying about 40 sets of different bromides when all I want is a pamphlet but I have to stand behind her for 10 fucking minutes, also because the effing staff are taking their god damn time too trying to get everything and counting everything out for then about three times. <<< A common occurrence I experience unfortunately.

But anyway....

Then I got into the theatre and right away the very front screen is down and the projection mapping for the Garo opening sequence/advertisement on the screen looks so damn cool! And the GARO music to go along with it!! It was very Messiah-esque in that it had random patterns and shapes floating about but you knew they signified something or someone. Just like in Messiah’s movie openings. It was so cool to watching while counting down to show time.

I was to the right of the stage fourth row, but just not far enough to have any of the stage cut off - PHEW!!

Finally, about 20 minutes in, I ‪FINALLY experienced an earthquake during a show! It was bound to happen soon xD‬ although it went on for much longer than I was comfortable with so I momentarily didn’t focus on the play, so I have no idea what happened during those few minutes.

The Story

I want to talk about the story first:

So the story actually jumps around; it occurs before, during and after the Jinga tv show. Some people (as mentioned above) found it really difficult to figure out when it was set but I took little hints to figure out when it was. The first 40 minutes or so are set before Jinga is reborn as a human; he’s still hanging around Amelie and the Horror are bowing down before him. Then the middle section is set during the Jinga tv show; we see where he went those few episodes where he came back bloody or he doesn’t remember what happened. And the final part is setting during after the events of Jinga when he gets his Horror posse to turn and such.

The main running thread throughout all this is a girl called Tomoha. Tomoha is a Makai Priest in training, and she has a group who she trains with, she has a sister, and has some normal friends. One of her normal friends unfortunately succumbs and becomes a horror, but Jinga gets involved and reverts her back to a human being. Tomoha learns that the person who saved her friend is called Jinga and that he can turn horrors back to humans. After this she decides to find him, but when she does Jinga doesn’t recognise nor remember her. She realises there are two Jingas. Later she wants to introduce him to her training clan but while there Jinga’s Horror henchmen, and a group wanting to destroy Jinga turn up and the entire clan is doomed.

That the basicness of the entire story. Now to get into details.

The Show

Maybe I’ll just get the negatives out first and then I can flail to the end.

☆ As mentioned above I had some technical issues with the play. First was the timing between action/movements and the sound effects. The timing of some action hits were either too fast or too slow. And the off beat of the sounds were glaringly obvious unfortunately. Also, the transitions between songs, the actors would stay frozen until the right note in the music and then the scene or line would start, which made it look and feel very robotic.

☆ I really do think just a little more (a few days of) rehearsing would’ve really perfected this stage! There were technically things like timing that could’ve been spot on if they had had just a little more time. I heard from a friend that:  they didn’t have a GenePro for the press because it wasn't good enough yet, and that they kept pushing things back until eventually just cancelled the GenePro and only gave interviews instead. So clearly, I’m right in thinking (even at Senshuuraku) that they needed a few more days. During the curtain call, Masahiro even commented that he only had one day to rehearse. But I’m not even calling out on the acting! I thought everyone did well. I only had issue with technically stuff.

☆ Call me bias but the first 30 mins or so were so unnecessary and were pretty boring. They use Tomoha as the central character for the plot but in all honesty, Tomoha’s entire storyline and participation was unneeded and unnecessary.  I liked the main storyline for Jinga, and the storyline of Jinga being tracked down by the Ikkei crew, but Tomoha was completely pointless. We didn’t need her in order to know about a training group of priests and knights, we didn’t need to know she had a sister, we didn’t need one of her friends to turn horror, we didn’t need her begging for Jinga to save her. This all could’ve been just a random human or a random training crew and nothing in the main storyline would have changed. Jinga could’ve just found and gotten to that training crew on his own, Jinga could’ve ‘saved’ this human-turn-horror without introduction. We didn’t need to know about her or her sister or any one specifically at all. You could’ve switched ANYONE in where she was and it wouldn’t have made any difference to the story at all. Having her as the ‘main character’ just made the first half full of unnecessary introductions, absolutely pointless, and SO BORING.

☆ And because the story was somewhat lacking, they really missed a great opportunity to have Jinga get really evil. We have Tomoha who has clearly fallen for Jinga and completely trusts him, and you’re telling me Jinga didn’t even TRY to manipulate and use her?! I really wanted Jinga to USE her! Manipulate her! USE HER!!! That’s what the real Jinga would do! He’d be like ‘oh this idiot LIKES me. Well I’ll trick her into falling in love with me and then she’ll do anything for me mwahaha’ but nooooooooooo the story makes a romantic bullshit subplot out of it where it’s hinted that Jinga also likes her. Oh FUCK OFF! The real Jinga would have used and abused her, and he would have laughed in her face the moment her world came crashing down! That’s the Jinga we know! But alas the story did not go there. Seriously, a few more days of script writing and rehearsing would’ve made this amazing!! 

☆ Another thing I wish that changed in the script was during a few battle scenes, the entire cast are dancing to the battle music rather than actually fighting... wtf?Again, another missed opportunity! Even as the music and the dancing started, I immediately thought: TARANTINO!  I really wish they had done a Tarantino-style thing: Jinga orchestrating and dancing to music while everyone else is actually fighting and screaming. That would’ve been much better. I was completely fine with Jinga being all orchestry and dancing but I think going Tarantino style would’ve been better: only he can hear the music and is dancing, while everyone else is actually screaming and fighting. Instead of this bullshit of everyone, including Horrors, dancing to the entire song.

☆ Lastly, I didn’t have a problem, but a lot of people were confused as what the the timeline of this story was. I’ve already explained above, but I can see how others might been confused. It wasn’t exactly stated so you just had to pick up on what people were saying and who was where in order to understand what point in the timeline we were in.

Now to the fangirling!!

☆  Sticking to the fighting and music topic: The actual fighting scenes with the very heavy rock music were AMAZING! You could feel the music through the floor and the fighting was very well choreographed! It was so god damn fun!!

☆ I’m jumping ahead but the best fight scene was definitely the climax fight between Jinga and Sasha. It was absolutely amazing how they did it!!! Ikkei (Sasha) had a body double so it looked like Sasha could move super fast from one end of the stage to the other! It was so fast paced, and so well executed, that even from the 4th row, I couldn’t tell where the real Ikkei was during the fight! Also the use of the lighting during this scene, and having their weapons light up. We had some points that were in complete darkness and all you could see were Jinga’s sword and Sasha’s weapons that were lit up and fighing. It was SUCH A GOOD SCENE. It was best scene in the entire play. Absolute kudos to the choreographer and to Masahiro, Ikkei, his body double and everyone involved in that scene because holy hell it was amazing!

☆ We had a LIVE orchestra the entire time which was absolutely amazing! The music itself is just a masterpiece! It’s so good! I guess that’s why they called it Garo the ‘Live Entertainment’.

☆ There was a higawari/daily change guest every day and the show I went to had Kashiwagi Yusuke as the guest. If you don’t know, I love Kashiwagi so I was super excited for this! And he did not disappoint. He was GOLD.

Yuusuke did fucking Osomatsu!!! Everyone was DYING of laughter! Even Amelie and the other cast couldn’t keep it together! SO MANY OSOMATSU JOKES!! So his story is that Amelie and co. can’t eat him because he already made a promise with Jinga that Jinga would devour him. So he explains that he wanted to save his brothers (and that there are six of them), but they accidentally got mixed up in his scheme of trying to rob a bank, and they all ended up getting shot at. In exchange for stopping those bullets from hitting his brother, he agrees to make a deal with Jinga. During his storytelling four of the ensemble came on stage in the other Oso-coloured jumpsuits and Yusuke’s like ‘WHERE’S PURPLE?!?! You couldn’t even get me five people?!’ He was absolutely amazing! So many round of applauses during his higawari. And he did some backflips too. At the Amilie ran after him with her knife like ‘KKAAARRAAAMMAATTSUU!!!’.

During the curtain call, he said he wants to come back as a Horror if they ever let him come back. He also apologised to the vast colour difference between everyone’s outfit and his; he was ain a bright blue jumpsuit with a kimono styles scarf over his shoulders xD Absolutely GOLD.

☆ I absolutely loved being able to see Jinga’s costume so up close! I absolutely adore his grey coat from the TV show and being able to see the detail of that coat so close in person was amazing!

☆ Also the full body Horror and Makai Knight suits that we got to see on stage were phenomenal! They looked AMAZING! They were pretty terrifying as they went past me in the theatre! xD And huge kudos to the people wearing those suits. They must be absolutely dying in sweat in those suits!!

☆ There is a scene where we get to see the switch between Human Jinga and Horror Jinga. Seeing that transition right in front of my eyes was amazing! I love how different his body language and posture is between the two Jingas. I also adore how different his fighting style is too between the two versions of him.

☆ Ikkei/Sasha was so good too! I absolutely adored his look. I love how he always called himself ‘Sasha’ and referred to himself in the third person, and I love how over the top he can be. And I already said but that final fighting scene with him was phenomenal!

☆ Nakamura/Fugi’s fighting style and weapon is so cool! I really loved how much control he had with his weapon. He had some moves where the weapon could’ve easily fallen out of his hand and gone flying but he had such control and so flawlessly used it. I was so impressed.

☆ Koudai as Ushio was GREAT! He was playing a young, cheerful, sorted stupid Knight in training and he just lit up the stage with his happiness and silly moments xD I wanted so much for him to survive and get all revenge-y on Jinga’s ass! I was so sad when he died. I wanted so much more from him!

☆ A quick note on the Sasha/Fugi/Ruka/Ontake group: They are neither Makai nor Horror. From what I understood, they’re from their own world and Ontake is actually like....a god? or at least an overseeyer of the human world. Because she has a forest of candles, and the candles are everyone’s life/souls. Some candles have black flames which shows who’s become a horror, and the rest are normal flames. So essentially they’re from another... dimension/world? And they hear about Jinga’s plan to steal their goddess/spirit called Tomino so they want to kill him before he can get to Tomino.

☆ There is a twist at the end where Tomoha is possessed by Tomino (we assume she’s a goddess/spirit from the world that Ikkei is from) which means ‘Tomoha’ might have a bigger role in the future.

☆ A comment from curtain called that I enjoyed: Nakamura mentioned that he’d like a spin off dorama just about his character Fugi, and then Ruka’s actor was like “I hope Ruka gets a spin off dorama too!”. Inoue immediately after said ‘not like Sasha’s gonna get one cos he’s dead’ and Ikkei was absolutely distraught looking, it was hilarious. He was like ‘hey!!!!!!!!! I can come back! I can just pop out of nowhere!’

☆ After the show: Miyabi/Amilie was at the dvd corner and Inoue/Jinga was at the buppan corner!

*

And that’s all! I hope you enjoyed this short review!

#garo #jinga #kami no kiba #inoue masahiro #miyagi koudai #miyagi kodai #review #stage #stage play #2.5D #2.5次元 #yamamoto ikkei #nakamura seijiro #inami anju #masaki kaoru #miyavi matsunoi

[leta-the-strange]

Spoiler-free COG feelings/essay/thoughts before I see the movie. Spoiler-free because the movie isn’t out here til the end of the week but obviously, I’ve picked up info from trailers and interviews and things like that so sort of common knowledge stuff but I guess if you’ve avoided all the promos for the year I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you now so don’t read until after you’ve seen it if that’s the case (again, I only know basic info).

I have a lot of feelings that I’ve been sitting on for a while because frankly, large parts of the Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter fandom terrify me. It’s why in my nineteen years (okay, thirteen years – I had to learn how to read) I’ve distanced myself from engaging in the fandom too much and when I do, I try and stick to as safe, neutral content as possible.

But I’m going to write a little bit a lot (my anxiety’s poppin off the charts right now) not to antagonise anyone or personally offend people just to get this pent up crap off my chest before I see the movie. 

I have Māori and Pākehā parentage. Although I am proud to be a Māori girl and I’m definitely not white-passing, I do acknowledge that out of my family, I was born with the lightest skin and being a lighter-skinned/mixed poc among my family and friends has made me recognise my privilege. That isn’t to say I haven’t experienced lifelong struggles with racism, bullying and discrimination but I will never experience the same micro-aggressions and experiences that they have. Although, I do have light-skinned privileges and I don’t ever want to take away the struggles of my family that I won’t experience on the same level, growing up looking a little different opened me up a lot of feelings of invalidation within my own culture. When I experienced racism as a child, I was also met with disdain for being upset about it when I wanted to talk about it. This was when I was a child and I didn’t understand lighter skinned privilege or the animosity from some of my own people. I am far more educated now, but during that confusing time I, like most children, turned to literature (which in turn is what helped me make sense of the world).

I’ve gotten a little off track – this isn’t overly important to what I’m writing about, but it is introducing my opinion as coming from a woman of colour who has experienced racism and horrible bullying, but I always feel the need to clarify my position as a lighter skinned poc before giving my opinion based on those experiences.

Obviously from my content, I love Leta Lestrange. Perhaps it started out as a matter of representation, but I feel like over the past year, I have become intrigued with her for a number of reasons. She’s striking me as a Sirius, Regulus and Andromeda Black type character. Different to her family and caught in a struggle of light and dark (magic, not skin colour). Loves magical creatures. I haven’t seen it yet but it seems like she is one of the centre point characters of the film. She seems to be connected to many of the main characters in one way or another and has always striked me as the most intriguing.

I really do hope I am wrong but the ‘other’ love interest’s in the Harry Potter universe are usually treated terribly. They experience character assassination to further the development of the canon/new interest.

I really hope this film doesn’t do the whole blow out a woc character to make the white, self-insert, classically beautiful, ‘im not like other girls’ character shine brighter.

Before everyone comes for me, I wouldn’t say I’m a Tina ‘anti’ whatever that is. There’s no like extreme hatred at all! I would say I don’t like Tina as a character, or Queenie for that matter. Not yet anyway. The new trailer gives me hope that this movie might win me over finally. It doesn’t need to be upsetting or offensive to anyone. There are lots of people out there with favourite and not-so-favourite characters. A lot of people dislike Ron, Dumbledore, Snape, even Harry…and there are people who have those characters as their favourite.  

There are a lot of reasons I don’t like Tina and Queenie. I may address them in a different post if being vague upsets people more than going in-depth but at this point, I am trying to stay as unconfrontational as possible but I have seen people get extremely furious when they don’t deem your reason for disliking them to be ‘good enough’ so if not saying exactly what I find uncomfortable about them is not as preferable as telling people then I can write it up as respectfully as possible if I’m treated the same way. All I’ll say is that I think Tina is a good person, but, in my opinion, not a great character. Queenie is the opposite. I would not like Queenie as a person but I have to admit, she’s a good character. But I’ll hold the rest of my opinions until after the second film. 

Honestly, the film adaptions leave some of my favourite book characters to be desired. Maybe if FB was a novel, I’d like Tina but I really dislike her in the movies. I have seen people blow up when this is said. I try to understand the outrage. I think one of the reasons I dislike Tina is one of the reasons why people love her. She is, at this point and in my opinion (which is ONLY an opinion), a self-insert character. Any Newt x Reader fanfiction can easily read as a Newtina fanfiction and vice versa. I know. Because I’m a FB fanfiction writer myself and tried to write her. Sometimes when you attach yourself to a character so much, it can feel personally offensive when someone says something as harmless such as they don’t like then. I don’t experience this as often. Every Reader/OC fanfiction is, perhaps unintentionally, but nearly always aimed at a white person in description. In actuality, nearly every character in literature is, intentionally or not, described with textbook white features or assumed white by the fandom/readers/watchers.

I know people are going to hate this opinion because I’ve seen people jump down other people’s throats when this gets brought up. I do believe, whether it is conscious or not, Leta not being white COULD, subconsciously, be a factor as to why she is so inherently hated. I’ve seen more hate for Leta than any other character – even the antagonist! I hate what they did to Lavender Brown, book and movie wise, but even she, being as over exaggeratedly unlikable as a romantic plot device, received and still receives far less fandom hate than Cho Chang (who was also eventually written to be ‘jealous, hysterical, unlikeable’, etc, etc – I don’t agree btw I love, understand and appreciate Cho and Lavender)  who was smart, talented, kind, traumatised, and until it was no longer convenient to the main characters romance for her to be ‘likeable’ anymore.

I wish I could enjoy going through the Leta tag but often, her and Newt can’t even be in a scene or photo together and people lose their minds with anger and hate. Literally, the comments on any scene/photo they are in are all along the lines of ‘stay away from newt!/poor tina/urgh, don’t flirt leta/leta WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’. Sorry, to break it to you guys but it isn’t a love triangle. It’s a love conga line. The only person getting in the way of ‘Newtina’ is Newt. Instagram is even worse. By worse, I mean horrible beyond belief. The better comments are the ones are the ones merely (though still grossly) comparing her to Tina and how much they dislike her, the other ones are wishes that she’ll get killed or join Grindelwald. It’s literally not even hidden the fact they wish either of these things happen so Newtina can happen faster. I’m not a Newtina shipper at all (Yet. Again, this might change if the films improve) but this would be one of the worst ways to further your ship. That is literally not going to change the fact that Newt’s still in love with her (you can have feelings for two people at the same time. The filmmakers confirmed - in fact, one of the first things about the new movie that they confirmed - that Newt is ‘absolutely still in love with her’), it just makes her conveniently unattainable. I do have a feeling that Leta might die and if it happens, it better not be because she’s unwillingly in the way of a ‘love triangle’ that people have forced these three characters into. If Newtina is going to happen in a way that isn’t awful, rushed and horrible, it will be slow-burn and it’s in own time AFTER Newt has healed and properly fixed things with Leta. You can’t be best friends and in love with someone for 15+ years and fall out of love with them immediately after they die, turn bad and settle for a woman you met for like two days and collectively spent maybe ten hours with. It might be a Ron/Hermione situation where it’s slow and eventual. That’s the only way I could possibly get on board and I think it could be done tastefully if they don’t resort to lazy writing. I do have my fingers crossed I’ll start to like the Goldsteins before this happens and I can enjoy it as much as everyone else does.

To be honest, after seeing the trailers, I see only two endings for Leta (and I hate them BOTH):

She joins Grindelwald: If this is the plot twist, it’s the shittiest plot twist ever. Pretty much 90% of the fans since seeing the first film have assumed/liked to believe she’s pure evil. Probably the characters themselves all assume she’s evil from her last name. I was worried the whole ‘haha, I was on Grindelwald’s side all along!’ situation was going to happen. We know JK hates Slytherins. My ‘Leta joins Grindelwald’ theory would be that she has always been on the good side – or trying to be – and after YEARS of oppression and discrimination and being distrusted by maybe the central characters in this film no matter how hard she tries AND maybe finally realising that Newt isn’t going to ever forgive her she just snaps and goes all ‘f*ck you guys then’ (I wouldn’t blame her tbh). HOWEVER, I doubt this. In a trailer, you literally see Leta THROW a fucking spell STANDING BY HERSELF (what u doin bby?) at Grindelwald. Trust me, if this was Tina it would have been all everyone was talking about but of course the fandom was all ‘yeah, see, she’s in the same frame as Grindelwald SHE’S EVIL’. One of the trailers is literally titled Leta vs. Grindelwald. Everything in the trailers/promos points to Queenie joining Grindelwald but *shrugs, I guess*.

Leta dies: I get this may seem the preferable way to appease the Leta haters and the Leta lovers especially if she dies after redeeming herself or heroically or whatever but urgh, no. I know everyone’s like ‘DoNt MAKe ThIS AbOUT RaCe’ when the woc character inevitably is killed but I’m sorry. To have been able to sit in a theatre as a little girl and see Leta Lestrange in the wizarding world would have blown my tiny mind. Honestly, as an older teen seeing Zoe Kravitz in that little photo frame in Newt’s case in the first film was iconic enough for me. After growing up being made to believe I was ‘unattractive’ because of how I looked, seeing total dreamboats like Callum Turner and Eddie Redmayne’s characters being all heart-eyes over Leta is, like...wow!  And I do have an uncomfortable truth for people who want Leta to die. That would possibly be the WORST thing to happen for the Newtina thing (would pretty much be the last nail in the coffin for me ever coming around to it). I’ve seen it happen in my family when someone you love dies. Your feelings for them essentially FREEZE. You can’t fall out of love with someone who is dead. That’s of course not to say that you don’t love again and just as much as the first time. But it takes time (LOTS of it) and there’s a little part of your heart that’s like…permanently sealed off. I don’t even like Newtina yet and I’m hoping for the sake of the Newtina fans that Leta doesn’t die because freakin’ yikes. Just let them heal and connect and be besties again goddammit, its POSSIBLE (and bet your ass I’ll write it my god damn self to prove it if they don’t). 

I know these are highly unpopular opinions and I HOPE that I am wrong, and they do her character justice and don’t discard her via death or the dark side.

In summary, I suppose my biggest struggle with Leta’s character is definitely the overwhelming fandom hate which I still can’t quite comprehend. I really want to believe it isn’t a race thing. Though, I have seen horrible posts about Leta, mean comments on nearly every Leta promo, Zoe Kravitz literally being called a c*nt in the comments of a Leta post on tumblr, a lot of fanfictions having her be primarily evil, selfish, manipulative, in some a rapist even, ugly, cruel, etc. But honestly, she’s literally not interfering in Newt having a relationship with anyone at all??? She’s literally been villainised because her friend can’t get over her (getting Snily nostalgia). But buggered if I’ve been able to find next to anything of that calibre about Jacob’s fiancée (literally a Queenie doppelganger) who left him, like, the day he met Queenie. I get that it was a deleted scene for those non-hardcore fans, but Leta-hate was literally kicked off by a picture in a photo frame and a comment made by a, in my opinion, kind of not-nearly-as-infallible-as-people-think character that barely knows Newt breaking into his head non-consensually (after being repeatedly told not to) who had an agenda to hook him up with her sister. Sooo…*shrugs*.

Even I personally have tried to keep out of the fandom debates, but I wrote a Leta and Newt story (still ongoing) that I stopped for a while because the kind of disgusting comments I was receiving about people hating the pairing. Which, I get. You don’t like a pairing, that’s cool? Why are you going and seeking out a piece about them and then taking the time to leave a comment? Whenever I start to read a story about Leta being this horrific monster of a person and being torn apart and compared and occasionally borderline racist, I just…click out? I know it’s only a small patch of weeds in what is likely a garden of roses, but I have never come across such an insecure fandom for a literal canon ship. If the relationship was that pure and strong, you wouldn’t feel the need to kill or villainise the (non-existent) ‘threat’. I just hope the writers feel the same way. You can write healthy closures and strong women of colour characters without casting them aside for plot development/man pain/stereotypical Caucasian romance/plot device, etc... I’m going to go into the theatre at the end of the week slightly optimistic to be fair but I’m also fully expecting to be disappointed but honestly, Leta could avada kedavra every character and she’s still going to be my favourite, I don’t make the rules. 

#fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts #fantastic beasts the crimes of grindelwald #leta lestrange #not going to put this in any other character tags bc my anxiety is poppin #ive also been avoiding the leta tags because im trying to keep focused on not spoiling anything but its hard as hell #pls dont spoil it for me in the comments if you decide to comment

[the-everlasting-dream]

The Revelation AU - Drake x MC, Part 5

Summary: As Elizabeth’s life hangs in the balance, her friends are faced with the harshness of reality while they wake for her to wake up. 

A/N: Y’ALL ASKED FOR IT! Here is the beginning of the angstiest possible route to a happy ending (that will come eventually). This was the hardest one to write because of all the different perspectives but I hope I did them justice? After this cliff hanger you may experience extreme shock, disbelief and denial so please have mercy on this writer when you grab your pitchforks. 

Also special thanks to @chantelle-x0x for making the character aesthetics for this chapter! She is amazing at this as I have told her so many times before! 

Word count:  5400  This is the longest one in the series, I apologise but I couldn’t have split it any other way. 

Warnings: Brief mentions of blood, injury, death, grief.  

CATCH UP HERE

Two days after the accident...

HANA

BREAKING NEWS: CORDONIA’S NEWEST DUCHESS, ELIZABETH RICHMOND HAS HAD A TRAGIC ACCIDENT AT THE CORMERY ISLE. EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS STATE THAT THE CAUSE WAS AN UNSTABLE BALCONY IN THE VANCOUER MANSION. 

In her assigned room in the Vanceour estate, Lady Hana Lee sat in darkness, listening to the Cordonian radio host break the news to the country. She felt a sudden chill at his words and pulled the wooden blanket draped over her shoulders tighter around her body. The events of the last twenty-four hours had been a blur to her in the moment and now a tear slipped down her face as the truth of what had taken place started to really hit home. 

Elizabeth had fallen off a balcony. Elizabeth.

The thought seemed so misplaced. This was the kind of thing that happenned in books or movies, not real life.. And definitely not to someone she knew, her friend.. 

Hana had arrived back from Cordonia’s general hospital barely an hour ago where the doctors worked around the clock to save Elizabeth’s life. Her friend had still been in surgery when Liam finally convinced the rest of them to get some sleep. 

Drake, however, would not be moved. 

 He had remained stubbornly glued to chair in the waiting room, seated closest to the door that the medical professionals came through to report on the outcomes to the various surgeries that were taking place. His messy brown hair was clutched tightly between his fingers, he had only moved to lift his head each time he heard the door open. Despite his heavy eyes and exhausted body, he'd roughly declined any offer for rest or sustenance, ignoring Hana's pleas and Maxwell’s cajoling until Liam had put his hands on their shoulders, shaking his head and their efforts ceased. 

 After hearing about the commotion at the end of the press conference, she along with Maxwell and Liam had all come running to the press room but upon hearing a rough scream, they diverted their path to the heritage room. There they were shocked to have found Drake lying on the edge of the dilapidated balcony screaming Elizabeth’s name until his voice raw. Liam’s shaking fingers had the emergency services in the scene in record time but the wreckage was so severe that they had to radio in for a helicopter to rescue Elizabeth. Hana remembered Drake’s eyes wild and desperate, ready to throw himself off the cliff’s edge when he’d heard this. 

 ‘Fuck them, I’ll climb down and get her myself!’ 

 He would have nearly succeeded if Liam and Bastien had not held him back. When they’d finally reached the hospital after following in a car, Elizabeth had immediately been taken to the emergency room and they’d had little more than a small glimpse of her bloodied figure before she was wheeled into the surgery. A clipboard had been thrust into Hana’s hands and she was instructed to fill out Elizabeth’s personal details. She paused, pen hovering over the space labelled ‘Patient Full Name.’ It was only then that the group realised how little they knew about their friend... 

 ‘I know that one,’ Maxwell chimed in unexpectedly. ‘Elizabeth Aishwarya Richmond.’ 

Three heads whipped around to stare at him. ‘How do you know that?’ Drake asked almost menacingly, eyes narrowed. 

 Maxwell visibly panicked at the question. ‘Uhm.. I just asked her one day?’ 

Hana watched as Drake hung his head. ‘She never mentioned that to me. And I-I never thought to ask,’ he remarked hollowly, shuffling his feet a little. ‘Some fiance I’d have been, I didn’t even know her full name…’ 

‘Don’t worry about it man,’ Liam replied, patting his arm gently. ‘It's not a big deal anyway. None of the rest of us knew...’ 

Drake nodded vaguely despite the tears shining in his eyes and between the four of them, they managed to complete the form.   

It was 2.30am now. 

Something inside Hana gave way and she fell to her knees, seeming to lose the ability to hold herself up as sobs wracked her body. The adrenaline of the last few days had finally worn off giving way to a profound sense of exhaustion in more than just the physical sense of the word. 

This was Elizabeth, her best friend, her first real friend. The first person to see past the facade she’d been trained all her life to put forward to the woman she was underneath. Where she had been scolded for voicing her opinion and punished for the slightest mistake, her friend had instead offered encouraged and advice and Hana had found herself growing bolder and bolder, taking control of her own life for the first time in her twenty-six years. 

Elizabeth had believed in her even before Hana did herself and if she was gone, who would believe in her now? 

 The weight of this hit Hana hard as infinite possibilities and scenarios swirled in her mind. If Elizabeth died what would happen to her? Where would she live? Who would she go to for advice? Her parents wouldn’t take her back now that she’d scorned them so where else could she go? 

Depressed at her meagre prospects, Hana sunk into the mattress before shooting back up and grabbing her phone, double checking that the ringer was on full volume. Liam had promised to let them know the moment that there was any word about Elizabeth and as her friend’s life hung in the balance, Hana would have never forgiven herself if she missed the chance to say goodbye.  

Nine days after the accident...

MAXWELL

DUCHESS ELIZABETH RICHMOND REMAINS IN HOSPITAL IN A COMA FROM HER INJURIES. THERE HAS BEEN NO MENTION OF WHEN THE DUCHESS WILL RETURN TO HER DUTIES AND EARLIER THIS WEEK KING LIAM OFFICIALLY CALLED OFF THE UNITY TOUR IN LIGHT OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES.   

Maxwell Beaumont almost dropped his phone on the brick path as something tugged abruptly on his arm, jerking his eyes away from the news article he was reading. He looked down at the corgi attached to the leash in his hand, its brown eyes and wagging tail made it hard not to smile. He crouched down to rub Cooper’s ears. The dog cocked its head slightly, letting out a small whine and Maxwell thought he saw a glint of sadness in its usually playful gaze. 

'I know boy,' he said wistfully, scratching the corgi's head. 'I miss her too.’ 

 Ever since he and Bertrand had returned home to Beaumont estate, taking Elizabeth’s corgi on walks had become a daily ritual for him, something to get his mind off everything that was happening. Most days it worked as it gave Maxwell something to do while the whole country stood at a standstill, hold their breath as they waited for news about the condition of their favourite duchess. That was easier said than done however and now he couldn’t help as his mind slipped back into the events of the past week. 

*Flashback*

The doctors and surgeons had worked around the clock, racing against time and after almost 40 hours in surgery, Elizabeth had eventually pulled through narrowly avoiding the worst. When they had finally been able to see her, Elizabeth had been wrapped in so many bandages and wound dressings that he had barely recognised the woman he had come to call his best friend. Deep purple circles splayed out under her eyes and her mocha skin looked pale under the harsh fluorescent lights. Her mouth and nose were covered by a large oxygen mask, in fact her face was hardly visible under the bandages around her head. A nurse was adjusting the various tubes connecting her to various machines, the ventilator, drip, heart rate monitor. More bandages covered her limbs and unmissable, the ones spanning dangerously across her stomach tinged slightly red. 

 Maxwell gulped at the sight.  ‘W-what happened to her?’ His voice came out in a hoarse croak, shattering the thick silence that had developed as they crowded together in the small room. 

‘She fell off the balcony Maxwell,’ Bertrand’s dry tone held irritation. 

 The younger Beaumont felt the unfamiliar rush of red hot anger course through him as he turned on his brother. ‘You know that's not what I meant. Tell me exactly what happened.’ 

‘Maxwell you wouldn’t-’ 

He didn’t let him finish. 'Wouldn’t what Bertrand? Wouldn’t be able to cope with the truth? Wouldn’t be able to understand all the technical terms? Because I’m too dumb? Or maybe you think I’ll make a joke about it? You think I can’t take this seriously?! She’s my best friend and I demand to know what’s wrong with her!!’ 

‘Maxwell stop!’ Hana’s panicked tone pierced through the fog of rage and emotion. 

Collecting himself, Maxwell realised that he had been gripping the lapels of Bertrand’s blazer so tightly they’d begun to tear. Releasing his brother, he dusted off his hands taking a moment to organise his thoughts before he regarded his friends expectantly. 

 ‘Well?' 

Liam answered this time, struggling to keep his voice steady. 'She’s sustained a serious head injury and a few broken ribs, fractured pelvis, broken shoulder as well as a collection of cuts and bruises from the debris of the balcony. There was a lot of internal bleeding thats why the surgery took so long. The doctors said it would have been worse. She was really lucky that she’d only fallen about 25 feet and not the entire length of the cliff. Her broken bones will heal but at this point its the head injury they’re more worried about.’ 

The gravity of his words plunged the room into silence, yet again save for the beeping of the various machines around Elizabeth’s bed. Maxwell inched forward reaching forward hesitantly to touch her hand. Just as his fingers made contact however, a frenzied beeping sounded out and Elizabeth’s body started to spasms and shudder violently. 

'What’s happening? Why is she doing that?’ Maxwell screeched, panic flowing through him. 'Nurse, nurse, someone help!' 

In the blink of an eye, three nurses entered the room, one turning to the group. ‘Your Majesty, Your Graces I have to ask you to leave the room please. We need to stabilise her now.’ 

Before he knew what was happening, Maxwell had been pulled into the hallway and the door was shut in his face. He whirled on Drake, shoving two hands against his friend’s chest roughly. 

'You were supposed to look after her man! You were supposed to protect her!' 

'You think I don’t know that? You think this is easy for me? To see her like that?’ Drake’s entire body was taut as he pulled himself to full height a few inches taller than Maxwell. ‘You were just her friend I was the one meant to be marrying her!’ 

Both of them were locked in a tense standoff, hands balled into fists, neither wanting to back down. Around them, other hospital patrons watched in surprise. 

‘Maybe its a good thing you didn’t then because look where she ended up!’ He spat in reply. 

‘Say that again I dare you.’ His friend's voice was dangerously low but Maxwell didn’t care. 

‘Come on Maxwell. You’re making a scene,’ Bertrand swooped in, gripping his arm as he yanked him away from the other man. 'We’re going home.’ 

*End of flashback* 

‘Maxwell!’ His brother’s voice cut through the memory as he approached. ‘Hurry up! We’re late to fetch Elizabeth’s parents from the airport!’ 

 Maxwell shot to his feet. ‘Chanaya and Danvir? I totally forgot they were arriving today.’ 

‘Thats Mr and Mrs Richmond to you,’ Bertrand reminded him. 'Yes well they have had quite a few complications with their travel arrangements but they will be arriving soon.’ 

 Maxwell had coaxed the corgi back to the house following his brother when something occurred to him.   

 ‘What about the Marquess and Neville?’ 

Bertrand’s face darkened frighteningly. ‘They’ll be paying for that if King Liam or I have anything to say about it,’ he replied in his signature Duke of Ramsford tone that Maxwell had heard many times but he noted that this time it was different. 

The threat held in the words was very real and the younger Beaumont almost shuddered, glad that he wasn’t on the receiving end this time.

Fifteen days after the accident...

KIARA

AND NOW FOR OUR DAILY CHECK-IN ON DUCHESS ELIZABETH: THERE HAS BEEN NO OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE ROYAL PRESS SECRETARY BUT AN INSIDE SOURCE HAS CONFIRMED THAT THE DUCHESS’ CONDITION HAS STABILISED HOWEVER THE FULL EXTENT OF HER INJURIES WILL ONLY BE KNOWN WHEN SHE COMES OUT OF A COMA.

‘Off to the hospital mon chere?’ Joelle asked her only daughter as she watched her head for the door. 

 ’Non Maman. King Liam has moved her to a secure ward not too far from the palace,’ Kiara answered, ducking into the lounge room of their manor where her mother sat watching the news. Her eyes flitted to the shot of the wreckage on screen and she instinctively clutched the bunch of flowers in her hands tighter. 

‘Bien sur. Please send her my best and to Drake too. Those poor things…’ Joelle sighed turning back to the screen. ’Such a terrible tragedy to happen to such a lovely pair. You’re sweet to go and visit her.’ 

The knot in her chest only tightened when Kiara heard her mother’s words. After the accident, she had feigned sickness and returned home where she had buried herself in her diplomatic duties instead, determined to shut everything out as the country was shocked by the news. Her parents were happy to have her home but they were too busy to notice the change in their daughter. Her brother Ezekiel had approached her attempting to extract the truth but she had pushed him away. 

All the guilt and regret she had been trying to shove down over the past two weeks now bubbled up dangerously. It had kept her up late, preventing her from sleep as she tossed and turned thinking of what she could have done. It had kept her from going to see Elizabeth even though she knew she should have and after two weeks of talking herself up to it, she had finally mustered up enough courage to go. Her mother’s tone was gentle and admiring but instead, Kiara eyes filled with tears and her lower lips began to wobble. She couldn’t keep what had happened to herself   

 ‘Maman..’ Her voice was small, squashed by the guilt again now as she toed her way around the couch. 

 ‘Oui?’ Joelle answered vaguely, her attention still on the TV. 

‘Maman,’ she began again unable to stop her voice from cracking. ‘It's all my fault.’ 

‘What do you mean cherie?’ Her mother turned to her confused. ‘Mon chere you can hardly blame yourself for what happened.' 

The dam of feelings that had built up over the past fortnight finally burst and Kiara sunk down beside her mother switching completely to French now. 

’No Mother, you don’t understand… This wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for me.’ 

-  

Two hours later, Kiara found herself outside the door to Elizabeth’s ward. She had confessed everything to her mother who had held her as she sobbed, gently stroking her hair listening while she admitted her part in the lead up to Elizabeth’s unfortunate accident. Though Joelle reassured her repeatedly that it hadn’t been her fault, Kiara just couldn’t bring herself to believe it. Mere words wouldn’t be enough to take away the guilt she felt. She’d almost abandoned the idea of visiting altogether but something tugged at her conscience telling her no, it was time to stop running. She needed to face this. Now mustering up her courage, she knocked once to announce herself before twisting the handle wincing as the door creaked loudly. Kiara’s eyes flew immediately to the figure on the bed. 

 Lying unmoving on her back, Elizabeth’s eyes were clamped shut while a collection of machines and devices surrounded the bed. The duchess' dark hair peaked out from under a thick wide bandage wrapped around her head. If it wasn’t for the gentle rise and fall of her chest, Kiara could have sworn she was looking at a statue and her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the numerous cuts and bruises that littered the other woman’s arms. 

Gulping deeply, she felt her confidence filtered away but before it could, she inched toward the side table to set her bouquet down with the others placed there. The crinkle of the wrapper making contact with the table was louder than she had meant for it to be and Kiara was barely able to keep her wits when dark head suddenly jerked up from the farther side of the bed. 

 Drake. 

 'I-I’m sorry,’ Kiara faltered, almost ashamed to be caught. 'I just came to drop these off. I didn’t mean to wake you.' 

 Seated in a chair beside the bed, he took a moment to adjust to wakefulness and in that time, it occurred to her that this was the first time they had been in the same room since the night at her estate. 

'No its fine really,’ he reassured her, exhaustion heavy in his voice. 'Just dozed off I guess.' 

Fighting waves of regret, she kept her eyes trained steadily on the girl on the bed, determined not to let her emotions get the better of her. 

'How is she?' 

Drake sighed wearily, running a hand over his haggard face. ‘She’s started breathing on her own yesterday which is a massive improvement. The doctors say its a miracle that she landed on her side rather than her back because her shoulder took most of the impact. They managed to stabilise her and stop the internal bleeding but on top of that she broke a few bones too so its gonna take some time before she’ll back to normal.' 

 Kiara nodded carefully, digesting this information. 'Did they say when she’ll wake up? 

He shook his head gravely. ‘Its all up to her I guess,’ he answered gesturing at Elizabeth. 'She’s recovering well from the massive head injury but they won’t know the full extent of the damage until then.’ 

 Kiara’s stomach dropped. She'd had minor differences with Elizabeth in the past, formed first throughout the social season and extending a hand of friendship was difficult due to the nature of competition. Contenders like Olivia and Madeline made it hard to believe that anyone would genuinely be interested in forming friendships without ulterior motives. Kiara was an ambitious woman and took pride in her abilities to get her what she wanted but it had always seemed too easy for Elizabeth. The American had been difficult to stomach at first, as she, despite having no courtly training or special skills, seemed to succeed almost blindly at winning the heart of the prince. To add to their bitterness, she’d indirectly humiliated all the suitors by turning him down. 

It had only grown deeper when Elizabeth started to pursue Drake Walker, another competition she had lost and the diplomat had been left with cold anger as she was rejected yet again. While Penelope had easily taken to the new duchess, Kiara found it harder to let go of the resentment. 

Despite all this, however, she realised that she’d never hated Elizabeth. The duchess didn’t deserve for something like this to happen to her. She had proved herself to be a kind and caring leader, something Kiara valued highly. If Kiara could take it all back, she would in a heart beat. 

 She swallowed hard before responding. ‘I’m sure she will be back to normal in no time.' 

‘Let’s hope,’ he nodded before addressing her again. 'I’m surprised you came to visit. Elizabeth would have liked that..’ 

Kiara paused. Would she? Would she have liked me if she knew all the bad things I had wished on her? 

‘She was my friend after all. I’d better go,’ she suggested, mumbling a weak excuse as she headed for the door. 

‘Kiara.’ At the sound of her name coming from his mouth, she froze, back still to him. 

 ‘Yes?’ 

 ‘Its not your fault you know?’ Drake told her. 'What happened to her...' 

Why was everyone telling her that? She knew he meant it from a place of thoughtfulness but it didn’t make her guilt any less. It wouldn’t take back what she had done or change what had happened. 

 All this and more swirling in her mind but she just nodded. 

-  

As she stepped over the threshold, Kiara was so immersed in thought, she almost bumped into someone coming in. 

 ‘Oh pardon!' 

‘Its alright dear,’ the woman reassured, her American accent complimented perfectly by her kind tone. Her dark skin and lively eyes struck a chord of familiarity and something occurred to the diplomat. 

 ‘You’re Elizabeth’s mother.' 

‘I am. And you must be Kiara?’ Mrs Richmond beamed, looking even more like her daughter. 'She often talked about you and Penelope among her other friends. Thank you for being such a good friend to our Aishwarya, dear.’ 

Kiara nodded again, this time unable to keep the tears from falling as she rushed away leaving her companion bewildered. 

Twenty-four days after the accident..

OLIVIA

BREAKING NEWS: THE GROUP BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON THE ROYAL PALACE 3 MONTHS AGO HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY IDENTIFIED. AS WE SPEAK, MEMBERS OF THE TERRORIST GROUP ARE BEEN ARRESTED BY THE ROYAL GUARD.  

Olivia Nevrakis smiled as she scanned images of the resisting criminals splashed across the front page of the morning’s newspaper on the breakfast table before her. There was no better way to start your day than with an arrest of an entire terrorist group she mused, delicately sipping her tea. She went on to imagine all the ways they would be punished if only she was in charge of dealing them out, wondering if her methods would have differed greatly to that of her ancestors. Before she could dwell on it, her phone chimed reminding her she had to be at the palace in half an hour.   

When she arrived, Liam was already seated in one of the meeting rooms with Hana and Maxwell. The latter gave her tentative smiles while the king nodded in greeting. 

 ‘Thank you all for coming. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the good news but we have other matters to discuss. Naturally, the court wants to have a ball in celebration and it would be a strong front to put forward if all of us attended.' 

‘Are parties all those  can think about at a time like this?’ Drake’s rough voice cut through the room as he stepped through the door. 

’So nice of you to join us Drake,’ Olivia scoffed as he took a seat next to Hana. ‘I’m was beginning to think you’d superglued yourself to Elizabeth's bedside.’ 

‘Ignore Olivia,’ Liam placated shooting her a cautionary look. ‘We’re glad to have you with us man. How is she?’ 

Drake sighed, seemed to age 10 years. ’She’s… stable. Not much has changed. Her parents are with her now.' 

 ‘Will Mr and Mrs Richmond be joining the festivities?’ Hana inquired trying to break the tension. 

Liam shook his head. ‘They will be departing back to the States later this week for their other daughter’s graduation. They wanted to stay on longer but there was no avoiding it. They actually wanted to take Elizabeth back with the-‘ 

‘Take her back?!’ Maxwell interrupted. ‘But- They can’t! She needs to stay here with us. She hasn’t even woken up yet!’ 

The king held up a hand for silence. ’The doctors have informed them of that it is very important that she be kept stable in this sensitive time. I have assured them that she would continue getting the best care Cordonia has to offer.' 

Maxwell nodded sombrely, plunging the room into a melancholy silence. 

 Like everyone else, Olivia’s mind shifted to Elizabeth. In her first few encounters with the American, she’d readily dismissed her as the clueless foreigner who was sure to crack after one week. To her initial surprise and chagrin however, Elizabeth had proved her otherwise, surpassing all the trials of the court with as much grace as a noble born lady. Back then, Olivia held no love for her but she could appreciate strength when she saw it and surprised herself by agreeing to work with the foreigner to restore her name. Elizabeth had been like the glue that held their little group together for without her their friendships would not have developed as well as they did. Although she had harboured feelings of resentment towards her for turning Liam down even those had been fading lately. 

If Elizabeth did die, she had no idea what the future would look like for them and there was little Olivia hated more than uncertainty. It made her impatient and more prone to outbursts and for a moment she bitterly resented the duchess for compromising it, when she was only just getting the hang of the whole friendship thing. 

‘She’d save us all some trouble if she hurried up and kicked the bucket already.'  

There was a sharp intake of breath from the room and the redhead's eyes widened she realised that she had voiced her comment out loud. 

 ‘Olivia!’ Hana chastised.   

Her eyes landed on Drake who was glaring at her, jaw clenched in anger as the veins in his neck throbbed dangerously.  

’Nevrakis I know being empathetic isn’t really in your capacity but just this once could you cut it out with the sarcasm?’ 

 Olivia’s usual flawless exterior faltered slightly as she realised her last comment may have gone a step too far. Her mouth dropped open to apologise but one glare from Drake silence all response she would have formulated. She remained quiet for the rest of the meeting as the rest of them discussed the plans for the ball. Even though the assassins had been apprehended they still needed to persuade the court that Liam was the best option for Cordonia. After almost two hours of tactics and strategy, Liam released them and she approached Drake carefully. 

‘Drake I-‘ He brushed her away with a dismissive wave. 

‘Forget it Olivia. I wouldn’t expect you of all people to understand.’ 

 Now that stung. 

 Olivia knew she put forward the emotionless, cold-hearted persona very well but now it was coming back to bite her. Underneath the facade, though she would never admit it out loud, these people has wormed their way into her heart and she really did care for them. She just wished she could find it in her to voice it out loud. 

The Duchess of Lythikos mentally shook herself at the thought. Her feelings would have to wait. There was work to be done now and if she was going to help Liam rally the support he needed, internal monologuing wouldn’t do anyone any good.

Thirty-one days after the accident... 

LIAM

AFTER THE ARREST OF ALL MEMBERS OF THE TERRORIST GROUP THAT THREATENED THE ROYAL FAMILY AND MANY OF THE NOBILITY, CORDONIA IS RECOVERING WELL AND IS ON ITS WAY TO PROSPERING. THE SHARES ON THE CORDONIAN RUBY ARE AT AN ALL TIME HIGH UNDER KING LIAM’S STRONG GOVERNANCE.

‘Gracias Your Majesty. I look forward to our next meeting where we can iron out those last few details.’ 

‘De nada, Signor Gutierrez. I believe this trade deal will greatly benefit both our countries. I look forward to a long and fruitful relationship between our countries.’ 

‘As do I King Liam. I must mention I have never seen a monarch who prioritises the safety of his people as well as you. Other countries could learn much from your method of governance.’ 

 Thanking him, Liam hung up the Skype call with the Spanish embassador, gently massaging his temples as he scanned the headlines on iPad in front of him. 

 The politician's words had come from a place of kindness but all they seemed to inspire was a sense of deep guilt within him. A quote from his childhood studies on Cicero returned to his mind. 

 The safety of the people shall be the highest law. 

 He’d watch Constantine rule with this principle and though his father had many faults, he always had his priorities right. As a monarch it was his cardinal duty to keep his people safe and after the assassination attempt the weight of the crown had pressed heavily on Liam's shoulders. It has eased slightly now the assassins had been captured and apprehended. The economy was finally stabilising and thanks to the ball a few days ago, he had secured more than a few important deals with the help of his friends. 

Cordonia was finally prospering, getting back to her feet so why did he feel so terrible? 

 The answer lay a few miles away in a hospital bed. 

 After the accident, as soon as Elizabeth was stable, he’d immediately placed her in a secure ward with state-of-the-art facilities and the best medical professionals. He’d given her the best possible care but still the guilt persisted. To say Elizabeth was a very special person to him would be a huge understatement. She had no idea but she represented the beginning of  a new life for him, one where he would take matters into his own hands to make his own decisions. If possibility had a colour, he was sure it would be the green of her dress from the night they’d met in New York city what seemed like a lifetime ago. He loved her and though she hadn’t reciprocated in the way he once wanted her to, Liam knew she would always hold a unique place in his heart. Any ill feeling of resentment when she chose Drake over him had faded away now and in its place a strong friendship was blossoming. When he promoted her to duchess, Liam had looked forward to seeking her counsel during his rule. Unlike him, Elizabeth hadn’t been born into nobility, she knew the struggles of the common man and was more in tune with their needs as he never would be. 

She would have been an amazing duchess. 

No, he corrected himself. She is going to be an amazing duchess. 

Now that her life hung in the balance, it was all too easy to succumb to the temptation of pessimism and he found himself constantly fighting against it now, knowing that his friend wouldn’t have approved of his despondency. He would do it. He would continue to fight the good fight, with or without her, Liam promised himself that. 

 A frantic buzzing of his phone broke him out of his thoughts. He’d been in that position for so long that his arms twinged slightly as he reached for the device beside him, glancing at the screen to reveal a text message from Drake.

Hospital. Now. 

Twenty minutes later, Liam strode purposefully down the ward hallway, staff parting in front of him like the Red Sea. Before he could reach the door to her room, a gasping Drake stumbled out, barely able to stand as heavy uneven breaths wracked his figure. Fear rose up in Liam as his mind automatically assumed the worst but before he could say a word, Drake’s body began to pitch forward and he caught him just before he could hit the floor. 

 ‘Drake what happened? Is she okay?' 

‘Liam… Liam she…She doesn’t..’ He choked out, clutching onto the sleeves of Liam’s blazer as the king helped him to stand. Drake gulped deeply, desperately fighting for air as he attempted to articulate his thoughts. 

 ‘She doesn’t what?! Is Elizabeth okay?' Liam could not help the notes of alarm and impatience that laced his tone as he questioned the other man. ‘Dammit Walker what happened?’ 

 He watched his best friend’s brown eyes well up with tears, his face contorting with anguish. ’S-She doesn’t remember Liam!’ 

 The king's face screwed up in confusion at the words. ‘You’re not making any sense. What do you mean she doesn’t remember? What doesn’t she remember Drake?’ 

Liam would never forget the look of complete and total despair in his friend’s eyes as he finally gasped out his response. 

‘She doesn’t remember falling in love with me.’

-

A/N: YOU ASKED FOR ANGST AND I OBEYED! Leave me some reaction gifs to giggle at. 

Tags: @chantelle-x0x @choicessa @mariamatsuo @pbchoicesobsessed @xxrainbowprincessxx @boneandfur @lizeboredom @topsyturvy-dream @lovemyrestingplacethings @american-duchess @withice @limenagirl @sir-wigglesworth @ayo-minty-jess @ninamckenzie22 @drakelover78 @h3llostrang3r @cocomaxley @zarina-x-zig @nicestrokepam @bizzyschoices @decisso @kellyale1804 @mrswalkerreynolds @kamybelen-blog @hhiggs @jenjosh5 @bruhvs @natalievgoodehenry @choiceswreckedme @laniquelove @theroyalweisme @jamielea81 @penguininapinktuxedo @tmarie82@crookedslimecreatorpasta @asprankle @drakewanker @mrs-walker-nazario-levine @graceisgone56 @josieschoices @smritysriv @drakewalkerfantasy @bobasheebaby 

Sorry if I missed anyone! And idk why some tags aren’t working. If you want to be tagged click HERE because I might forget if you just comment. 

#drake walker #drake x mc #trr drake #trr au #the revelation au #the royal romance #the royal romance book 3 #hana lee #maxwell beaumont #bertrand beaumont #king liam #trr liam #olivia nevrakis #trr kiara #trr penelope #choices #playchoices #choices fanfiction #choices fandom #I KNOW OK #I AM EVIL #BUT YOU ASKED FOR IT #i gave the people what they wanted and now they are mad #now would be a good time to admit that my name is btobape and i live in the sahara desert #because im fully expecting death threats and screaming #pls have mercy on me #there will be a happy ending #its only 12 chapters away #sorry not sorry #long post

[rohobi]

Serendipity 04 | (M)

pairing— jeon jungkook x reader, friendwithbenefitsAU  genre/warnings— smut, fluff, slight angst, swearing NSFW AT ALL  words—7, 012 ↳ CHAPTERS → CHAPTER 5

chapter 4 summary: ❝O is for Oral❞ A/N: I’m sorry. Also, this is the last part of Serendipity and the following chapters will be called Reciprocity with a more detailed background of both reader and Jungkook. I was originally going to split this into two but thought against it because all of you are hell-dwellers anyway. In any case, happy reading/nutting. 

You haven’t seen Jungkook in two weeks. Which isn’t awfully different from your usual, being two working adults with parents who have exceptionally high expectations for your futures.

But this time, it was different.

You actually kind of miss him.

Jungkook, being the in demand academic, had been pulled into a rip tide of study, pulled under the murky waters of social isolation and into the perils of his education; a last minute assignment and a forgotten seminar on health and architecture that he had to attend. 

And you were left astray, turning to more immaculate reads through pages composed by Malorie Blackman instead of some 34 year old divorced woman discussing a dick drought during golden showers. 

Urban dictionary has this flip a coin feature of being on one side, completely comedic and on the other, bloody disturbing as it’s explanation of that saying has you immediately deleting your search history and leaving the fucking planet.  Humans are disgusting yet, creative and outlandish creatures. 

So in saying that, you hadn’t received any word from Jungkook until this very beautiful Friday evening, 6 hours post-hand in doomsday and 2 hours post-seminar where Jungkook had inhaled their hot horderves to the point of notice and had been kicked out in front of his superiors for excessive eating. 

And who did he call? Ghostbust-

-you. 

In pulling up to the side walk in your BMW, he hadn’t ushered another word about his shovelling adventures but you did ask him how many plates he had eaten when you arrived outside his apartment. 

“How many plates?” He had turned to you, a smirk accentuated by the orange hues of the streetlight. “All of them.”

And you were pleasantly not surprised this time.  

“You should’ve seen my professors face when I was dragged outside the seminar hall. He looked like he regretted ever forcing me to go,” Jungkook says, laying on his back, computer sitting hazardously on his stomach. “Seriously though. The system is fucking bullshit. Fuck them all. I just want to watch mindless movies and feel my brain leak out of my ears. If that’s okay with you.”

“People are dying around the world Jungkook, complain about things that matter,” You stammer. Laying next to Jungkook with a pillow under your knees, and his socks on your feet. You turn up your spotify playlist. “And, excuse you, what brain?”

“Ha ha, you’re so funny.”

“Just watch a korean drama. You’ll waste 2 days of your life binging it and you would’ve lost some brain cells in the process too. I recommend any drama Suzy is in.”

“What have you got against her? She’s so hot,” He snorts, scrolling through his netflix account. “And this is coming from your experience?”

You kick his leg. “She’s the same character in all of her dramas and it’s getting pretty boring. And, do you want to die?”

Grinning sheepishly at you in response, he continues searching through his recommended tv shows, cursor falling short of season 9 Rupaul’s Drag Race.

“Have you seen season 9 of Rupaul’s?” he asks, and you shake your head. “No, not yet.”

Scrolling past it, he says. “I’m not impartial to watching it if you want….”

“Nah not in the mood today.”

“That’s fine. If you don’t love yourself, hell the hell you gon love somebody else.”

He rolls his eyes. 

“Um, hey Jungkook, can I ask you something?” you ask, scooting closer to his side. “Please?”

He nods without looking away from his computer screen. “You just did.”

“Beside that?”

“You just did again.”

You slap his chest. “Can I ask you lots of questions?”

He snickers. “Sure, shoot.”

“Don’t laugh at me but what is fellatio and why do guys beg for it? Is it good?” you ask him and you hate how serious you sound when the next thing that you hear is a condescending rupture of cackles.

“What?” You watch Jungkook choke on his spit before jerking up and coughing. “What did you just fucking ask me?”

Your cheeks heat up. “I was just reading and they were talking about their partners begging for fellatio …it’s gelato right? Unless of course it isn’t …then just ignore me and let’s pretend I never said anything.”

“What makes you think it’s gelato Y/N?”

“Remember when we went to that new gelato place in town and we got their new flavours, you got their staccio and I got their fellatio with crunchy nuts on top?”

Jungkook laughs so loudly, you aren’t sure how to react. “Omg, I can’t believe you,” Ripping off the covers, Jungkook falls onto the floor laughing. You watch him roll around with tears in his eyes. “Fucking fellatio, omg.”

“What?” you ask, “Did I say something dumb again?”

Wiping the tears from his cheeks, he looks up at you on the bed. “Did you mean fragola?”

You shake your head. “No, of course not. I’ve had fellatio before! It was the one with the nuts”

“Are you kidding?” He laughs again. “I mean, you’re right about the nuts part but are you sure you aren’t thinking of pistachio? I don’t know if you’re joking.”

The realisation feels like you’ve been doused in warm water. “…pistachio?”

Jungkook cackles so loudly, he starts coughing again. “I can’t believe you thought fellatio was a type of gelato, you moron! You’re supposed to be a law student???????? How are you this dumb?”  

Sitting up in his bed, you lean against the headboard. “Well, are you going to tell me what it is or not you wanker?”

He wipes the tears away from his eyes. “Fellatio is oral sex Y/N, blow jobs you idiot.”

You make a silent ‘O’ shape with your mouth. “Oh, that makes so much sense. I was wondering why they were talking about techniques with your tongue. They even made a guideline. I didn’t even read it.”

“A guideline? I already sent you a load of information about oral sex?”

You nod. “Yes, but it all makes sense now.”

“For a smart person, you can be really dumb sometimes. And what were your other questions?” Jungkook asks, putting his phone on his side table to give you all of his attention.

“So if it’s not gelato and you haven’t found a movie and you probably won’t …can I do it on you?” You ask it so nonchalantly that Jungkook chokes on his saliva. Coughing into his pillows again, you pat his back. “Jungkook, you okay?”

He nods. “Yeaah, I am ffiinne,” he stutters, clearing his throat. “Just was not expecting that so soon. You want to give me a blow job?”

Hesitantly, you nod. “Right now?”  

“Hell fucking yeah, are you agreeing to have sex with me?”

You hold your hands up in surrender. “I said I’d give you a blow job and you go ahead and speed down the highway of jumping ahead. No Jungkook, just a blow job.”

Jungkook sits up, turning to face you. Grabbing your hands, he looks you straight in the eyes. “Y/N, you realise that if we’re going to do this every now and then, we need to make some rules okay. I don’t want it to feel like I am taking advantage of you.”

“Oh so, you’re in control of this?” Smiling, you say. “I don’t think so. You want to make rules? New Rules? Like… one, don’t pick up the phone …you know he’s only calling because he’s drunk and alone….”

Sitting up, he frowns at you. “Don’t you dare sing that song. Can you please take this seriously for once in your life?”  

Raising your fingers in a peace sign, you serenade him with the song of your people. “Two, don’t let him in you have to kick him out again.”

“Stop singing you butt.”

Pulling his arms with yours, you sing louder. “Three, don’t be his friend you know you’re gonna wake up in his bed in the morning and if you’re under him, you ain’t get-ting over him. I got new rule-

Slapping a hand over your mouth, Jungkook pushes his tongue against the inside of his cheek. “You’re a fucking cliche Y/N Y/L/N.”

“Is it a cliche because it works or because you feel threatened by my amazing talent?”

“I would hardly call that amazing,” he objects. “By rules, I mean, to keep you safe and to keep me safe. If we were to do this, it could become unhealthy. Almost all friends with benefits relationships don’t end well.”

You slap his hands away from yours. “Someone gets attached and if you think that is going to be me, I’m sorry to tell you first that I have a deep and intricate relationship with your netflix account only, not you. I’ve seen all the movies Jungkook I know all the possible endings, like-

“You’re going on a tangent Y/N, just sto-

“-you could get me pregnant or I drown you in the bathtub.”

Staring at you in horror, he sighs. “Rightio …which part of your small brain did that come out of.”

You smirk. “The same part that remembers when you used to like wearing my makeup and being called princess.”

“Okay,” clearing his throat, he holds his chin in a vice grip. “Let’s make some rules. First rule: Good communication. We tell each other what we’re feeling even if we think it’s stupid. Sound good?”

You hold your hand up to high five him. “Yasss boi, communication is the key to all good and healthy relationships.” He high fives you back. “Rule 2: Purpose. Sex is only happening if it’s for an educational purpose, for example, you think fellatio is a type of gelato and I want to show you why it definitely is not.”

You pout. “Fuck you, it sounds like a type of gelato though.” “It does but only you would think it actually is. Rule 3: No sleepovers after sex. I love having you stay over but it would make me confused if I were to wake up and you had your arms and legs all over me indisposed. So only sleep over if we’re watching Stranger Things or something.

You blush at the thought. “Rule 4: Reciprocity. You do for me what I’ll do for you. If you want to stick a plug in my ass, I’m sticking one in yours. And, we only sleep with each other. We want to keep this both emotionally and physically safe, I don’t want to use condoms if I know you’re on the pill and that we’re both free from sexually transmitted infections. Again, this is a recipe for an emotional disaster.”

You hold your finger up in the air. “And we both know that you’re a horrible cook.”

Frowning he shakes your comment away. “Those rules sound good?”

“Aren’t you going to say, Rule 5: No one falls in love with each other or this thing is over?”

“I’m not going to police your emotions and I hope you don’t police mine either. We are two consenting adults and we communicate together, if that’s something that ends up happening, we’ll deal with it then. Sound good?”

Sitting in front of him with your legs crossed, you push out your hand to shake. “Sounds exceptionally mature of you Jeon Jungkook.”

He puts his hand into yours. “So, to summarise this relationship. You can do whatever you want with me so long as I can do it back to you. You’re uncomfortable with something? Me too. I am uncomfortable with something, so are you.”

Tightening your grip on his hand, you grin. “It’s a deal. Want to start tonight?”

The smile that crawls across his face, is a one you haven’t seen before. It’s a mix between being given an early christmas present and wanting to steal your neighbor’s gopro when they’re on vacation. “Sure,” says, laying back down. “Ladies first.”  

“First to what?”

He laughs softly. “I’m going to eat you out first, ladies first.”

“Ew. Can you not say it like that you ugly mole rat?”

Jumping out of bed, he rips off his shirt before jumping on you. He falls on your knees, trying to wiggle himself between you legs.

“Um, Jungkook?”

“What?”

You push him away from you. “Ya girl is having a shower first. There’s things a lady needs to prepare okay?”

Jungkook groans before rolling back onto his side of the bed. “Well, will you hurry up then. It’s past midnight and I want to sneak an episode of something in.”

“Oh shut up, I need to prepare myself physically and mentally. I’ll be right back.” you snap. Jungkook doesn’t say anything as he watches you storm off towards the bathroom.

And he doesn’t say anything for the half an hour you take in the shower. He all but strips naked and starts watching the pilot episode of Dark while you do acrobats in the shower trying to get a perfect landing strip with his razor.

He doesn’t even notice you come back into the room until a slippers been thrown at his face when he feels the bed dip.

“Don’t fucking look! I’m moisturising my legs!” you shout, throwing your other slipper at his face. “Give me some privacy.”

“I wasn’t even looking at you and you’ve taken so long that I’m nearly finished this episode.” He grits his teeth, closing his computer and putting it on his bed side table.

“I won’t be long, I just want to make sure everything is right.” you whisper, moisturizing your neck.

Groaning behind you, he falls back into the bed sheets. “Stop being high maintenance, you always smell nice to me.”

“Who the hell said I was doing this for you?”

Turning to face you, he watches you dry the ends of your hair with the corners of his towel before letting the strands dangle down your back. You were wrapped in one of his old white towels sitting at the end of the bed.

“I’m just waiting for my legs to be dry now okay? I don’t understand why you’re in a hurry. Good things take time.” you mutter, feeling nervous. You had shaved your pubic area in the shower and had shaven a nice landing strip before your neck got cramped and then you sat on the shower box asking yourself why you even bothered with your pubes.

You’re a woman. Women have hair.

“Okay, I’m ready. How do you want me?” you say, turning to look at him over your shoulder.

“In the bed beside me please.”

“Your manners are sure nice, why can’t you be like this all the time?” Standing up, you slowly drop your towel down your body. You can tell Jungkook watched every inch of that towel disappear from your body, how could you not, you could feel his eyes scour down your body like two probes.

“Damn,” he whistles.

Ugh. You weren’t even trying to be sexy, just efficient.  

Slowly turning around, Jungkook stares wide eyed at your body. You cover your breasts, insecure of what he might think of them. “Can I wear a shirt?”

Jungkook stutters. “N-no, ggeett in. It’ll be too hot for a shirt.” Jungkook doesn’t know where to look. He hadn’t expected your body to be so feminine.

Walking to your side of his bed, you slip under the sheets, one hand still covering your boobs. “Would you stop staring at me? You’re making me feel insecure.”

Laying on his side, he smiles softly. “You really shouldn’t be because damn girl, you have a nice ass.”

“And it’s off limits Jungkook. Thanks though.”

“For now,” he laughs. “And, you’re welcome.”

An awkward silence hangs between you before you lean over to the bedside table and press play on the playlist you had been listening to in the shower. It hums softly on Jungkook’s speaker, filling the silence between you. Jungkook leans onto his side to turn off the lamp and turn on the fairy lights wrapped around his curtains.

The silence hovers uncomfortably as you grip the sheets up to your chin. You hadn’t thought of this part. Who makes the first move here? Do I? Should I just lean over and tickle his chin or something.

“Y/N,” he whispers, leaning his head on his arm beside you, face hovering above your. “You okay?”

You nod. Please make the first move, I don’t know what I’m doing.

Jungkook closes his eyes, feeling suddenly intoxicated by the smell of your passion fruit shampoo. It was his favourite, something he wouldn’t tell you on a normal basis but one he remembered to buy every time he shopped just in case you stayed over. He had used it before but it had only ever smelt good when it was on you.

Collapsing on top of you, he digs his face into your neck. “God, you smell so good, what the hell.”

You laugh as your rub his bare back. “Didn’t know this was apart of our agreement.”  

Pulling away from your neck, he stares down at you. There are no words for the feeling he suddenly has but other than the feeling of electricity tingling beneath his skin, he feels comfortable.

And all he knows is that he wants to kiss you.

“Didn’t know you being a smart ass was apart of the agreement either, but here we are?” he whispers, brushing his nose against yours. Filling the small space between you, he slides his soft lips over your warm ones without warning. You relax underneath him when he cups your cheek tenderly.

Separated by the thin layer of folded sheet, you can feel his cock begin to harden against your pubic bone.

Running your hands down his bare back, you imagine what Jungkook would look like with back tattoos. You didn’t want to tell him but ever since you saw him shirtless 4 months ago, you wanted to pin him down and tattoo a dragon on his back and across his shoulder blades. Nothing says sex appeal like muscles and tattoos. At the time, the morally good part of your brain shook that one right out of the nest and you decided that maybe just manipulating him at a later date would be more conventional. Jungkook remains on the fence with that idea.

Brushing his nose against yours, he tilts his head to deepen the kiss and if there is one thing you like about Jungkook, it’s the way his mouth is shaped and how you think his lips fit into yours like two puzzle pieces that fit perfectly together. It’s a lame piece of poetry but when something feels right, it might just be right.

Jungkook begins to kiss the hell out of you. You aren’t sure what he’s thinking about or what’s gotten into him but you refuse to french kiss him when you know he hasn’t brushed his teeth. You can already smell his morning breath and it’s enough to make you reconsider this whole thing.

So when Jungkook tries to stick his tongue into your mouth, the most you do is suck on his tongue and then push it back into his mouth while clamping your lips shut. Shops closed Jungkook, I’m not taking any customers at this present time. Please come again at a later date when you learn what a toothbrush is.

“Jeon,” Angling his face, he kisses across your cheek, latching his mouth onto the skin behind your ear. “Why do neck kisses feel so good? It makes my fanny feel like a fire hydrant.”

He laughs against your neck. “What? I’m serious, you just kiss my neck and pow, I’m ready to do the boom boom.”

“I’ve only kissed your neck like once, who else has kissed you here enough for you to think that?”

You shrug. “Irene Bae in 7 minutes of Heaven at Taehyung’s party last year.”

“Wait,” He hovers above your head for a second. “You and Irene? Did you guys do anything else…”

You look at him in thought. “We just kissed, she tried to do things but yeah …I’m not interested in women.”

Jungkook looks at you in new found interest. “Did you guys use tongue? Was it super hot?”

“Not really, I had too much too drink and vomited all over her.”

“Are you serious?”

You stare in disbelief at him. “Of course not. We made out like normal people, admittedly, there was a lot of tongue I think but yeah, you’re still the best kisser I’ve ever had, now keep kissing my neck.”

You turn your head away, allowing him to work his magic against your neck. You don’t give two shits if he gives you hickies, you wore turtlenecks on the regular anyway.

Jungkook returns his lips to your neck, slowly dragging them across your sensitive skin. “Hey,” you moan, feeling it ripple desperately from the bottom of your throat when he rolls his tongue over your pulse points. “That feels so good.”

You can feel his growing erection against you as he grinds softly into you. Rubbing your feet together at the feeling of electricity, you’re embarrassingly wet already and you hate it.

Jungkook presses kisses down your neck, to over your collarbone before grabbing one of your breasts and lightly squeezing. Kissing around your areolar, he flicks his tongue over your nipple.

You slap his hand away. “Hey, what are you doing with my boobs.”

He looks up at you, tongue still touching your nipple before he quips “Relax hagrid, it will feel good.”

Latching his mouth over your nipple, he rolls his tongue and boy be damned. It actually feels good. Weaving your fingers through his hair, you hold him close to your chest.

When you were 14 years old, you had watched this film called Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging and you and your friends had sat on your hands for 10 minutes before fondling your own boobs. Jungkook had been on the end of the couch, completely confused as he tried to fondle the skin of his own chest.  Sure, it felt like someone else but when someone else actually touched you, nothing else compared.

And the feeling flowed straight down to your groin.

Lowering himself, Jungkook grinds his cock through your folds and the feeling is like electricity striking you down and melting you against the bedsheets. That’s a pretty shitty metaphor but there’s no other way to describe it for you, it just feels so good.

Scratching down his back, you open your legs wider for him. “Jungkook, I’m so wet, I’m sorry.”

He ignores you, as he grinds into you harder.

You wrap your feet around his waist, moving your hips against his. “Oh shit, not this again,” He bites into your shoulder, sensually rolling his hips against yours. “Jungkook, we need to reconvene, I’m too hot and you’re not eating me out and at this rate, we’ll have sex because your dingaling feels so good rubbing against me like that, that I’m very close to saying fuck this all and sitting on it. I want you but not like this.”

Jungkook moans loudly at your words, gradually halting his hips. “You make me feel like a 16 year old boy, I’m so close to coming already.”

“God, ew.”

Pushing him off of you, he falls into the sheets beside you. Perspiration drips down his forehead as he pants.  His erection stands at attention, pre-cum already leaking out of his slit. “You have a filthy mouth Y/N, a filthy goddamn mouth.”

Ignoring him, you gasp. “Christ, what is wrong with my vagina.” Looking under the sheet, you frown at just how wet you had become. “Hey, how about I get you off first?”

Putting his hands underneath his head, he whispers. “I’m not against that. Do as you please boss.”

Sitting up, you rustle beneath the sheets, sitting between Jungkook’s thighs. “You aren’t going to like that I’m going to take it slow so remember to take some deep breaths okay?”

With his eyes closed, he nods. “Did you want me to talk you through it?”

“Only if you think I’m doing a shit job.”

He whispers. “You won’t, but I can make you the queen of blow jobs if you want?”

“Fuck off Jungkook, i’m only doing this once.” Rolling your eyes, you lay down between his legs. You’ve always imagined being that person who takes it slow but considering how quickly you get turned on, you don’t think you’d ever have the patience.

Taking a deep breath, you start slow. “I’m just gonna get to know your body okay?”

He hums his response. “As you wish.”

Kissing the area above his knee, you press soft kisses up to his inner thigh. Jungkook hums with approval already feeling skittish when your hot breath hits his balls.

Caressing his thighs, you ask. “Can I suck on your balls? You can say no.”

“Fuck yeah, do whatever you want. Why would I say no to that.”

“I don’t fucking know. You were the one that emphasised asking because consent is important.” Kissing around his penis, you press open mouth kisses on his balls, taking each one into your mouth and sucking. You’re cringing as you do it because not only does he smell bad but because you’re so goddamn close to his butthole and you aren’t ready for that yet.

The reaction from Jungkook is explosive as he jerks against your face. “YoU’VE DONE THIS BEFORE WHAT THE FUCK.”

You cower at his expression. “Username Davidismydick94 told me to never neglect the huevos.”

Falling back onto his pillow, he says. “Well thank you Davidismydick94.”

“Can I continue…?”

“All night long.” he whispers and you lean back in. Pressing your fingertips on the underside of his cock, you lightly run your finger tips over the veins of his penis. It’s the first time you’ve been able to look at his penis in the eye but it’s enough to notice the slight curvature of it and the protruding ridges you think might feel good inside of you.

“What are you doing?” Jungkook asks, leaning up on his elbows to watch you. “Are you teasing me?”

“Are veins good or bad on a penis?”

He looks at you with an alarmed expression. “Why? are they ugly?”

You look up at him before wrapping your fingers around the base of his cock and using the tip of your tongue to lick his up his veins. “Not at all. I like it, very sexy like your arms.”

Flattening your tongue, you don’t stray from his eye contact when you lick from the underside of his balls to the tip of his leaking head. His eyes are hazy from the feeling of your wet hot tongue and his heart is pounding at the innocent doe of your eyes.

“Jesus.” he moans.

“Why are you thinking of a man when I’m licking your balls?” you ask, blowing hot air on his balls. “Got something to tell me?”

“Says the one on her knees.”

“Touche and hell no am I trying to make you soft, getting you hard again would give me neck strain.” Swiping your tongue across the tip of his cock, Jungkook hisses at the feeling.

You focus your mouth on the tip as you hold the shaft with both hands. You’re confused but you don’t want to admit it. “How the fuck do I …do I just shove it in my mouth and suck on it?”

“Basically.” he replies.

“Well okay,” you reluctantly, open your mouth taking him in until your nose hits your fingers. Sucking, you hollow your cheeks before bravely moving your head down on him like how the movies do it. You massage his shaft with your tongue as you do it and Jungkook hums as you do it.  

“Oh fuck.” he whimpers.

Taking your mouth off of him with a pop, you begin pumping his shaft as you lick down to his balls again, sucking on them gently. “Y/N, seriously fucking hell. You’re doing so well baby, so well.”

Licking back up to his head, you suck on him again, bobbing up and down to a nice rhythm. You’re thinking about what food to eat after this and why blow jobs are called blow jobs if you’re sucking on and it not blowing, when Jungkook moans your name loudly, pushing on your head to take more of him in. Sinking down to the base of his cock so your nose hits his pubic bone, his dick painfully hits the back of your throat.

“Oh fuck, your mouth feels so fucking insane, so good, so fucking good.” Tangling his fingers in your hair, he fucks into your mouth.

You continue to bob up and down his shaft and for a terrifying second, you think you might vomit on his dick.

Abort. Abort. Abort.  

Quickly returning your hand to the base of his cock, you continue to safely massage your tongue around his head. Keeping a nice rhythm, you pump his shaft while sucking on the tip.

“Use your tongue. Like you’re sucking on your thumb, try that.” He suggests and you do exactly that.

He quivers against you, feeling a desperate need to fuck your mouth again. “I want to fuck your mouth so badly. Can I?”

Pumping him harder and faster, you stammer. “No way on this planet will you be fucking into my mouth again Jeon. I will vomit on your dick.”

“I don’t care what you do baby, you’re so damn beautiful when you do anything.”

You cringe at that. “So bloody entitled.”

Rolling your eyes, you lower your mouth to swallow him down to your fist. You feel comfortable with this as you let him thrust into your mouth. You never signed up for this amount of exercise and your body was beginning to ache at the effort but if you just lay like this and let him do all the work, it still counts right? Pulling a leg over Jungkook’s leg, you grind against his leg, desperate for some form of friction as you suck on his dick.

“Fuck, Y/N. I want to cum.” he chokes. He sounds like he’s tethering across a threshold and everything inside of you just wants to push him off already, no matter how insanely fucking sexy he sounds moaning your name.

Jungkook looks like a mess. You’ve never seen him so desperate to cum in his life. Then again, you haven’t seen him desperate to cum before.

He whines, stuttering his hips.

“I think I’m going to cum.” he says, wrapping your hair up into a ponytail and pulling tightly on it. You hum around his cock and Jungkook moans loudly, making you grind harder against him.

Removing your hand, you take him in as he thrusts down your throat. In a perfect world that wouldn’t be painful but as tears fall down your face, you can’t wait for this to be over.

“I’m going to cum. I’m coming.”  

He tries to take his cock out of your mouth, but you slap him away, letting him finish in your mouth. He doesn’t deserve it but you know for a fact Jungkook would cum on your face if you didn’t.

He’s moaning recklessly before he cums down your throat and you’re goddamn thankful you didn’t eat before this because the taste of Jungkook’s abandoned children is not one compatible with the residual afternoon food in your stomach.

Falling into the sheets, he twitches in oversensitivity when you pull your mouth off with a pop. Patting his shaft goodbye, you roll over Jungkook’s leg to climb into the sheets beside him. Your heart’s pounding and you think you can hear Jungkook’s heart pounding too as he lifelessly lays beside you.

“You okay?” you ask.

Jungkook turns to you. “You’ve got cum on your face.” Wiping your face with the back of your thumb, you suck the residue off your finger. All Jungkook can do is stare at you as you do it.

“Why did you let me cum in your mouth? Not many girls like doing that?”

You roll your eyes, didn’t he want a compliment or something? “I can see why they wouldn’t. Did you know that you’re cum tastes fucking awful. I can already feel my blood pressure rising from how salty it was.”

“Really?”

You watch insecurity wash over his face. “Why are you looking at me like I kicked your dog?” 

“Does it really taste bad…”  “It just tastes …different from the inside of a kinder surprise is all,” you smile, trying to reassure him. “I swallowed because I read in this random academic text that semen was full of protein and I think I’m deficient because I keep saying really dumb things so I thought, why not two birds with one stone.”  

He laughs before turning on his back. “Man, I’m pooped. I’m glad you got off too though, I nearly blew my load when I felt you grind your clit against my leg.”

“Who said I got off? You moved your leg when I was about to. Don’t judge me, I just like it when you moan and I needed some good o’l friction on me private parts, your leg was all I could reach. You sound so hot right before you cum by the way. I feel good about myself when you’re vocal when it feels good.” you admit, smiling at the ceiling.

“Speaking of,” Jungkook grins, before jumping between your legs. Grabbing his duvet, he pulls it over his back, before settling on his stomach between your thighs. “Rule 4: Reciprocacy. My turn.”

“You don’t have to Jungkook, seriously,” you push his sweaty head away from you. “It’s okay.”

He shakes his head. “No, I want to. I want you to feel just as good as you made me.”

“Fine,” you sigh, grabbing his pillow, you put it under your knees for him. There’s a moment of pure silence as Jungkook stares at your lady flower.

“What are you doing?” you ask, unable to decipher the look on his face. “Jungkook, why do I feel like I’m getting my pap smear?”

“Please don’t take offence to what I am about to say,” Jungkook looks up, staring at you. “But did you shave your vagina for me?”

Your cheeks glow red. “What? The vagina is the entrance, you know, the inside of the pink part.”

“You know what I mean,” he says, running a finger through your labia and over your clit. It makes you jolt. “But you did right?”

“I tried my best. I didn’t know if you liked pubes or not and frankly, I don’t give a fuck if you do or not. I wanted to be neat and fresh for myself and if you don’t want to eat me out because of my hair than you’re already missing out because she’s-”

“-shut up, will you. It’s your pussy, your rules. Just, be you and that is all I can ask for.” he smiles up at you and you cower away from his expression.

It was too intimate.

His hands were hot. Two furnaces as he pressed his palms on knees, slowly caressing up the soft skin of your thighs. Leaning his chin on the pillow half way under your ass, he presses soft kisses on your pubic area -much like how you did to him.

Pulling your legs wider, he plants your feet outside of his shoulders. Making himself more comfortable. “Yeah go on, make yourself at home down there.”

“I plan to,” he admits. “You smell good.”

“Those comments make me feel awkward.” 

Shoving a fist in your mouth, you whimper against your knuckles as he tenderly kisses just above your slit. “Don’t be.” 

Dipping his tongue between your folds, he cups his mouth around the top of your slit, pushing his tongue against the hood of your clit.

“Oh good lord,” you whisper. He repeats the movements of his tongue in figure 8s when your hands fly to his hair as you quiver beneath him. You like this image, his head between your thighs, his large hands around your thighs. “Right there, keeping doing that thing. Spell out Micky Mouse or something.” 

Rolling his tongue up and down, you buck your hips against his mouth in a loud half whimper half meow. Obviously, you hadn’t expected to make such a noise and when Jungkook looks up at you with your juices glistening on his chin, you get embarrassed immediately at that stupid look on his face. 

He grins. “What was that?”

“No idea,” Biting your lip, you shake your head as you look left and right. “Wasn’t me.”

Smiling in amusement, he adjusts your legs, so each one sits on his shoulders now. With both hands gripping your thighs, he dives back in. It’s more passionate now, he wants you to finish just as good as you did to him. 

You stare at the ceiling, never wanting this feeling to stop. It feels like you’re breaking and you don’t ever want to get fixed if this is how good it feels being broken. 

He licks every part of you in every pattern and motion your brain can be bothered to form in your mind. If you focus hard enough, you think he might be spelling out his name but who knows, who cares anyway.

“Jungkook.” you moan, closing your eyes. Sucking your labia into his mouth, he twirls his tongue all over it, trying to find the spots that make you moan the loudest.

He growls when you whimper his name again.

Arching your back off the bed at a particular spot, he tilts his head to the side, bringing your lips into his. Gently sliding his tongue all over it. He looks up at you, eyes clenched closed, hands grippin the sheets for dear life. It was the hottest thing he had ever seen and his heart fucking implodes at the sight. 

Flattening his tongue again, he dips his tongue between your folds. Incoherent high pitched moans flutter aimlessly from your lips, slipping past the fist you shoved into you mouth trying to make yourself shut up.

“Does this feel good?” he asks, and you shove his head back as a response. 

“Of course it does.” you whimper, biting down hard on your bottom lip.  Using his other hand, he trails his finger down your clit. “Can I finger you?”

“Like, put your fingers in my vagina?”

“Yes.”  

“Be my guest homeboy.”

Slowly pushing in his index finger into your entrance, you quiver at the weird feeling as he pumps into you. Keeping a rhythm with his tongue, he suddenly flattens it, you grind your hips against his wide flat tongue as he inserts another finger into you.

“Shit, that’s a weird feeling.”

“Is it bad?” he asks.

You shake your head. “Nope, it’s a good kind of weird.”

Hooking his fingers up inside you, he slowly pumps into you with a smile on his face. It’s messy and it’s loud and you’re thankful that you put on music because you’re so wet and the sound is gross and you don’t want to remember it when you wake up from this stupor.   Leaning forward, he moans as he covers your clit with his mouth, sucking on it gently. Massaging your g spot, he pumps his fingers into you faster and harder as he licks, feeling your walls clamp down on his finger. God, you’re so tight. He can only imagine how you might feel when he pounds you into his sheets and even that thought is enough to make him hard again.

“I think I’m going to cum. I think.” you choke, becoming restless beneath him.

Jungkook groans against you as you whine, bucking your hips against his face. Using his thumb to massage your clit, he thanks the heavens for his gamer fingers as he pulls his fingers into a “come here” expression inside of you. He puts all of his energy into doing that quick and hard inside of you as he watches your hands grabs out to your breasts, squeezing them for dear life.

“You close? God, you look amazing.” he says, rubbing the pad of his thumb over your clit. You pant, feeling your orgasm sneak up behind you. You’re so close you can feel it breathe down your neck.

“If this is what you’re like with my fingers, oh man, I want to fuck you so hard, you’ll see stars.”

“Jungkook you fuck.” you scream, arching your back as high as you can, reaching a blinding white peak of your high. You quiver underneath him as he removes his fingers, gently suckling on your clit. 

You whimper his name again, writhing beneath him as you cum on his face.

Falling back to the bed, your thighs shake as Jungkook laps at your juices. Feeling oversensitive and gross, you languidly push him away. 

You’re still on that high when he pushes himself off the bed, standing up to grab one of his clean basketball shirts.

Wiping your thighs, he licks his lips as you watch him through tired eyes. You’re still panting. Your heart is still racing. And your groin is still recovering.

Falling onto his side of the bed, he says. “I’ll let you stay over just because I know how wrecked you are but if you fuck me up tomorrow morning, just know that it was because you stayed and broke the rule.”

Punching his arm, you frown heavily at the brown haired boy. “Shut the fuck up Jungkook, don’t ruin this for me.”

“Did it feel goood?”

You nod. “More than good. I think I just had my first orgasm. I mean, I don’t know if I did but yes, it felt really really good.”

“You had an orgasm?” Raising his eyebrows, he pushes his tongue against the inside of his cheek. “Well, I am that good.”

“Fuck, you can’t be humble for even a second of your life,” you twist yourself out of his bedsheets, sitting up on the side of the bed. “I’m getting an uber.”

“Hey,” he asks, sitting up behind you. Placing little kisses over your shoulder blade, he whispers into your skin. “It’s late, just stay here. We can have cold pizza in the morning and we can make out in the shower.”

“As much as I like the sound of that idea …I’m going to pass on that,” grabbing your phone, you open up the uber app. “I like kissing you and if you keep doing it, I’m going to want to do it all the time.”

“Really?” he asks, leaning his chin on the junction between your head and your neck.

You nod.

“I’m fine with that.” Jungkook slaps your phone out of your hand and you watch it fall to the floor before you could even confirm your pick up destination. Pulling you back to the mattress and against his chest, he quickly grabs the blanket and throws it over you both.

“You’re staying,” he whispers, rubbing his nose against your cheek. You turn to him, rubbing your nose against his. “Oh my god Jungkook, you were the one who made the rules. What are you doing?”

You can feel him smile before he closes the space to kiss you. “Rules were meant to be broken anyway.”

“Oh for fuck sake Jeon. Get your shit together.”

#bts fanfic #bts fanfiction #bts scenarios #bts imagines #bts #bts jungkook #jungkook #bts angst #bts smut #bts fluff #bangtan imagines #bangtan smut #fuck #nsfw-bts

[magic-magpie]

Forever Yours, Prompto

Sheesh, I haven’t been on in a while. I just haven’t had the motivation to write or anything, and so I kinda stopped going on Tumblr ‘cause then I’d feel bad for not writing. Not that I need to write, but I want to. But I’ve finally written something! I’ve gotten hella into FFXV, and Promptis has become my favourite ship of the series (I guess that was to be expected... the character dynamics are strikingly similar to my OTP of all time). I just love they way they interact and the brilliant, wholesome friendship they share! And yes, I do wish they’d be more than friends. Idk, I just feel like they’d be a really awesome couple. I’m not past Chapter Eight yet, though. But anyway, have this little Promptis fanfic I wrote! It’s an idea I’ve wanted to do for so long, but I’ve only just now been able to execute it. First time writing for FFXV, so my characterisation’s probably not perfect. Prompto’s incredibly similar to America from Hetalia though, and I write America frequently enough, so hopefully the characterisation works! Words - 1,883 Also, imagine the strikethrough stuff to be like actual scribble-outs.

Dear Noctis To Noctis Hey Noctis Hey Noct,

Okay, so, um, I’m writing this in the dead of the night outside of the tent using my torch ‘cause why not, eh? I mean, I don’t WANT to write out here (it’s cold and dark and SHIT I THINK A SPIDER CRAWLED ONTO MY ROCK FUCKING SHIT I JUST MOVED TO A TREE STUMP HOLY SHIT IF I WOKE ANY OF YOU GUYS UP I’M SORRY OKAY NOW WHERE WAS I) but writing out here where none of you know I’m writing is kinda safer, don’t ya think? (haha that transition tho) If I was writing some poetry or story or whatever I wouldn’t have to hide it so much, but it’s... not that. D’ya remember when we DID do that kinda stuff, back in high school? We’d make up lame-ass stories on the rooftop at lunchtime, trying to make weirder and weirder ones. I remember, my favourite was the one about the boy named Alaric Wrye who was actually a wolf in disguise and would sneak out every full moon to howl at the night but then his parents found out and so he was sent to the Wolf Institution to become a fully-fledged wolf and had to take a whole load of wolf tests and shit and then when he finally became a wolf he was crowned King of the Wolves and everyone had to bow down to him and – 

I kinda just realised how WEIRD that story is.

I think your favourite was the one about the small ant who wanted to be a super-duper famous singer so he made a rock band and started playing in gardens and stuff but then he grew enough of a following to start doing world tours and basically this small ant band was like hella famous in the human world but because none of the humans could see him properly ‘cause he’s tiny he took drugs to make himself massive but the drugs kinda killed him so he died as a massive-ass ant.

Yeah, that’s pretty weird too.

...Why am I talking about stories again? I’m not even WRITING a story. I’m writing a letter. To you. You’re not ever going to see it, but it’s for you.

Man, this is weird.

Well, I guess you’re wondering why I’m writing this, huh? Well, you WOULD be, if I gave it to you. But I’m not going to. I guess Ignis would call this a waste of his paper, but it’s only one sheet!

Okay, maybe it’s a little more. But STILL.

...Am I EVER going to start on why I’m writing this? I SHOULD, but, like... even the thought of WRITING it makes me nervous. Writing it would be like... making it definite. Absolute. Certain. That kind of thing. Currently, I can still pretend it’s not happening. I can still pretend I’m not thinking these thoughts, I’m not feeling these feelings. The thought of putting it down, of writing it in stone (or, well, paper) makes my stomach go all weird. Y’know how people talk about getting butterflies in your stomach? Yeah, I’ve got a whole KALEIDOSCOPE (yup, the word for a group of butterflies actually is ‘kaleidoscope’! I found that out, uh... two minutes ago).  

Having a kaleidoscope of butterflies inside your stomach is a WEIRD sensation, lemme tell ya. Like, imagine if EVERY time I hugged you the kaleidoscope started fluttering wildly and made you feel the things those protagonists of bad dating sims feel (although it’s impossible to be as cheesy and awful as that ‘Namco High’ dating sim. God, that was HILARIOUS. And terrible. But funny. I can’t believe we stayed up all night playing that shitty-ass game. We could’ve played King’s Knight or Mario Kart, but nope, we play shitty dating sims.).

...I just gave it away, didn’t I.

Anyway, as I guess you’ve guessed (or WOULD guess if you were actually gonna read this), I... love you like you think you’re hot want to date you want to kiss you want to just do stupid romantic stuff with you

Ah, fuck.

Okay, now I’m ACTUALLY going to say it. Just... gimme a minute.

Well, I just walked around the haven about twelve times and scrunched up the paper and threw it and then ran to get it back and almost got into a fight with some daemons but here we are.

I’m gonna say it. I’m gonna say it. I’m gonna say it.

Look, Noct. You’re my best friend, and the best person I know (don’t tell Ignis and Gladio). You’re funny (sometimes unintentionally), nice, fun to be with, and have really great hair. I guess it was only natural that I... started to like you.

Not like as in friend-like (although I still like you like a friend too), but like as in... like-like. As in, I want to go on stupid dates and randomly kiss you and cuddle when we have to share a bed and stroke your hair and give you flowers and wear each other’s clothes and touch our foreheads together and do those nose bump things and just do everything I’ve wanted to do for years now.

There. I said it.

...Why don’t I feel better? Why do I just feel WORSE? That wasn’t supposed to happen! I was supposed to confess everything into this letter and then I’d feel unburdened and I’d be able to finally let go of these goddamn feelings for you!

Oh. Right. It’s because I’ve liked you for years and my stupid heart’s become too attached to you.

I looked up stuff on how to get over your best friend, but it was all pretty unhelpful. They were all telling me to distance myself for a while! Um, no thanks. First of all, I don’t WANT to distance myself. Like I said, you’re the best person I know. Why would I want to spend any less time with my favourite person?! That would just be... boring. And second of all, I can’t distance myself, even if I wanted to. We share a TENT.

So... yeah. I like you. I like you too much, and I KNOW I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it! I’m really sorry, but I... just can’t.

I want to tell you upfront, I really do. But I don’t know whether you like me back. Sometimes I get these little feelings that you do. I dunno, sometimes I just catch you looking at me with this odd little smile on your face and then you’ll suddenly look away... or sometimes you’ll be a bit more touchy-feely than you need to be... and you tend to gravitate towards me whilst we’re walking... and you always seem to be closer to me than friends should be in a tent. But then, well, I’m probably misinterpreting all that because I so desperately want you to like me too. It’s confusing, isn’t it?

And then, well, if you don’t like me back, confessing to you would just be a dick move.

YOU wouldn’t class it as a dick move. Hell, you’d be pretty chill about it. But... I would. You’ve got so much on your shoulders right now. King Regis was murdered, Insomnia fell, Jared was killed, you’re going to get married, we’ve got to take back Insomnia, you’re pretty much the King... the list goes on. I know you, Noct. You’d feel guilty over rejecting me, and it’d weigh on your mind more than you care to admit.

Especially because, well... ‘cause you’re getting married.

I don’t know if you love Lady Luna, I don’t know if you love me, I don’t know if you love anyone at all. But I do know that you’re getting married to Lady Luna, not me. And if I ruined your special day with a stupid confession, I’d hate myself for it. It’s your special day where people are celebrating your marriage. That’s a day that’s supposed to make you happy, and it will, even if you’re not in love with Lady Luna (and if you are, then you’ll be on Cloud Nine!). She’s your friend, and you’ll be happy with her. I don’t want you to look at me on your wedding day with pity, I don’t want you to look at me and remember that I’m not enjoying the day as much as I should be.

So I’m not going to tell you how I feel. I’m just going to... just going to bottle it up and act like I always do!

Although, I get the feeling that my normal actions don’t cover it up well. I mean, I don’t think YOU’VE guessed (you’re kinda as emotionally-perceptive as a rock), but I feel like Ignis has, and maybe even Gladio. They haven’t said anything, but, like, I dunno, they just give me these... looks, sometimes. Like, I’ll just be leaning on you whilst playing King’s Knight and Ignis will just kind of... smile? It’s a small, tiny thing, but he still does it, I swear on the Six. And then I’m SURE that both of them just sorta... glance at me whenever we start talking about your wedding. I might be imagining things, but... I swear I’m not. So, like, I try to remove suspicion. Whaddaya think all that stuff with Cindy is? Yeah, she’s cool and nice and pretty hot and would probably be fun to date, but it wouldn’t be half as awesome as dating you would be. I just gush over her so that you’ll actually believe I’m head over heels for her instead of, well, you.

Come ON, we’d be so awesome together! We could go on dates to the arcade and order pizza at three in the morning and stay up watching shitty movies and I know we already do that but we could do it as boyfriends instead of best friends and I just 

...Sorry. Haha, I’ve gotta work on keeping my fantasies in check, huh?

...I wish I was the one getting married to you.

Okay, right! I guess that’s, er, my confession done then! I’ve written my feelings in a letter addressed to you which you’re never ever going to read, and so I should stop wanting you so badly!

...I’m never going to stop, am I?

But... even if I’m never going to stop liking you, I’m still going to be your best friend. I’m still going to do stupid stuff with you and take funny pictures and loudly sing terrible songs at one in the morning. I’m never going to be the one who you kiss, but dammit, I’m going to be the greatest best friend ever! And on your wedding, I’ll be the best best man Eos has ever seen.

Because loving you means accepting that I’ll never be anything more than a best friend. But it also means finding happiness and enjoying the special bond we do have.

Well, that’s that. I was going to throw this away into the lake, but... I think I’ll keep it. Just, don’t wear my jacket, yeah? And ESPECIALLY don’t check my front pocket. I’m warning you, Noct!

Love From Yours sincerely Best wishes Forever yours,

Prompto ✌ 

P.S. Sorry about the wet patches. They’re... not rain.

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