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evansbby · 1 year

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Girl I was literally one of your first likes but I couldn't respond right after I read it because I was running late for my lecture. But this is what I think of the latest POYT chapter

IT WAS AWESOME : 11/10

1) For the first time I did not hate Steve and was actually hurt when he hurt in the very end. It was as if I had the mark and I could literally visualize him being hurt seeing Omega being taken away just after she's aid yes to marrying him, after he told her he loved her and after she told him she was pregnant. That's absolutely devastating.

2) I STAN OMEGA. The way the girl finally let her real emotions out this time. For once her inner Omega was stiffened by her other feelings. Each time she hit him for each of his bs was so so so stress busting. Fr she was under so much pressure. I am so happy she finally put herself first and stood up for herself. The way Steve treated her was absolutely unacceptable.

3) FUCK OFF BUCKY. Tf is wrong with you?! What kind of sick person leaves a girl out in pouring rain and laughs? The audacity he had to think Omega would cheat. It doesn't only show how bad of a friend he is but also how low he thinks of Omega. You really think she would be unfaithful to Steve because he did that to her? And even if she was - trust me lad - not happening with you out of all the people. Fucking knob. I wish Steve threw him out of the house.

4) Even tho Sam was shitty throughout the series seeing him sincerely apologize was kinda nice and sweet. Made me break into a little smile between all the angst.

5) Peter, baby ik you're heart's in the right place, but respectfully ...... piss off. Not happening. Also hilarious that he's the one GRIPPING Omega and dragging her away. WHY CANT THESE BOYS LEARN A BIT ABOUT ✨️CONSENT✨️

6) Jensen getting to play was so sweet, now all he needs is some nice company who actually treats him well.

7) As a reader I want to feel like a part of the story, I DID. IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME. I felt as if I, myself was in that poytverse. I saw Omega cry and imagined Steve sketching her at night in the dim moonlight when her skin glows and she's so peaceful and finally looks like an angel cause she is one. I felt the love, I felt the rage and I felt the hurt. There was so much that I can't even begin to comment on everything. I bet I missed out a lot but I really wish I got to comment on each and every line.

It was everything I imagined and more. It was so well written, love. Honestly, it probably made my entire week and will get me through my hectic schedule. I also recommended it to my best friend and I Def think she'll love this too.

Btw, the I love you and I am pregnant at the football game after they won the game - straight out of a fairytale. It think Steve might truly deserve Omega now. And the one where he exposed his neck for her to mark - MADE ME SO WEAK.

Ok I should stop now or else I'll get carried on-

~A <3

ooof bestie so many opinions!!! firstly thank you so much for reading, ily😩💕 lemme answer them in order!

1. Poor Stevie😩 finally poured his heart out (as much as someone as heartless as him can) and it was all thrown back in his face when his omega left him. His perfect life — future wife, baby, everything — was ripped away from him and I wonder how sadistically he will react to that🤔

2. Yassss omega finally let Steve have it! I wanted to write this for all of us, bc all my readers have hated how she was treated — so i was hoping it would be super satisfying to see her voicing her frustrations!

3. Bucky is kind of delusional… I guess he just can’t seem to grasp that Steve got to omega first. He’s insulted that she’s not interested in him — bc he’s slowly becoming obsessed with her😮‍💨 her rejection insulted him so much that he not only locked her out in the rain, but he also twisted her arm painfully😭😭 the villain of poyt, and we haven’t seen the last of him!

4. Sam showing signs of maturity! But also… omega didn’t forgive him and she doesn’t have to hehe.

5. Unfff exactly!! All these boys need to chill and give omega some space to figure things out for herself!! 😤😤😤

6. Jensen played well!! I didn’t write it in the chapter, but he played well and even Steve was begrudgingly impressed. Not nearly as good as Bucky would’ve been tho.

7. Oh bestie, as a writer this is so lovely to hear!! All I wanna do is make sure my writing invokes some kind of emotion within the reader, so I’m so so so happy that you felt that when reading!! Thank you so much!💕💕😌

#a<3 anon #anon #poyt ask #poyt 4 ask

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antspaul · 1 month

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🥤🌿🔪🧸

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

hmmmmm for this one i'll recommend a relatively recent bookmark!

It's just not what's done by @player1064 ! It's a Carraville fic in which Gary Neville comes out as gay in the late 90s, but no one cares because it's Gary LOL. It's a fun oneshot that captures Gary and Jamie's voices (and humor) quite well, and in my opinion is also sensitive to the undercurrent of homophobia, both internalized and external, that would presumably exist even if others didn't give much thought to a specific player's coming out.

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

depending on how major the block is, here are some things that i do when i'm having trouble putting words on paper:

talk through the scene/story with a friend (BEST advice i could give, more helpful than everything else on this list combined)

take a break from the computer and write it out by hand, or at least sketch out some of the dialogue

do a little research (INCREDIBLY dangerous if you are me, and are susceptible to the Research Vortex and tend to waste entire nights fixating on say, where the england nt was staying during the september 2003 intl break in manchester - but can be useful if you're struggling to visualize a scene's setting or feel otherwise ill prepared to write a scene requiring a degree of specialist knowledge)

if you're really burnt out on writing, revisiting the source material can give you a boost of energy in reminding you why you like the thing you're writing about

take a walk (or do something with your hands). no more staring at the screen for the next hour, and getting out of your house can provide you with inspiration at unexpected times

put the project on hold and use the time to read something of high quality

shower, wash your hair, eat, generally do whatever you need to do to physically reset

this is the lamest answer ever, and believe me i HATE that it works, but sometimes when i'm feeling really uncreative, it's because i need more sleep. horrible, i'm aware. i'll spend a few nights prioritizing sleep (and maybe reading something good right before bed) and then i'll find it's easier to focus (along with all the other benefits of better sleep lol)

write something kind of shitty anyways and then revisit it a bit later with the idea that you can just delete it if you don't like it. but even a small start can usually help give you an idea of where you want to take a scene/project

i know that's a lot of advice hahaha! i used to be a writing tutor & thought a lot about where certain blocks come from and how to address them. the best thing is to have a lot of tools in your writing arsenal that allow you to build a writing process that meets you where you're at!

thank you for your ask, anon <3

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

#my fic #ask game

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meruz · 3 years

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once again i am answering asks in a big compilation post. included is... gotham, patrick stump, tips about drawing backgrounds, tips about drawing in general, links to my faq, and infinity train

like.... the tv series? No... I’ve drawn dc comics fanart before, though. But it’s been years since I’ve been really into it. I like jumped ship like 10 years ago when the New 52 happened LOL.

AFJHDSLKGH I’m sorry I (probably) won’t do it again??

Actually full disclosure I have a truly cringe amount of p stump drawings/photo studies in my sketchbook right now LOL. He’s just fun to draw... hats, glasses, guitar, a good shape... but I don’t think I’ll rly post those until I can hide them in another big sketchbook pdf.. probably Jan 2022. Stay tuned........ (ominous)

(ominous preview)

These are all sort of related to backgrounds/painting so I grouped them together even though they’re pretty much entirely separate questions.... ANYWAYS

a) How is it working as a BG artist? Is it hard? What show are you drawing for?

I think you’re the first person to ever ask me about my job! Being a background artist is great. It’s definitely labor intensive but I think that could describe pretty much any art job (If something were rote or easy to automate, you wouldn’t hire an artist to do it) and I hesitate to say whether its harder or easier than any other role in the animation pipeline. Plus, so much of what truly makes a job difficult varies from one production to the next, schedule, working environment, co-workers etc. But I will say that I think while BGs are generally a lot of work on the upfront, I think they’re subject to less scrutiny/revisions than something like character/props/effects design and you don’t have to pitch them to a room like boards. So I guess it’s good if you don’t like to talk to people? LOL

A lot of my previous projects + the show I’ve worked on the longest aren’t public yet so I can’t talk about em (but I assure you if/when the news does break I won’t shut up about it). But I’m currently working on Archer Season 12 LOL. I’m like 90% sure I’m allowed to say that.

b) ~~~THANK YOU!! ~~~

c) What exactly do you like to draw most [in a background]?

@kaitomiury Lots of stuff! I really like to draw clutter! Because it’s a great opportunity for environmental storytelling and also you can be kind of messy with it because the sheer mass will supersede any details LOL.

I like to draw clouds... I like to draw grass but not trees lol,,, I like to draw anything that sells perspective really easily like tiled floors and ceilings, shelves, lamp posts on a street etc.

d) Do you have any tips on how to paint (observational)?

god there’s so much to say. painting is really a whole ass discipline like someone can paint their whole life and still discover new things about it. I guess if you’re really just starting out my best advice is that habit is more important than product. especially with traditional plein air painting, I find that the procedure of going outside and setting up your paints is almost harder than the actual painting. There’s a lot of artists who say “I want to do plein air sometime!!” and then never actually get around to doing it. A lot of people just end up working from google streetview or photos on their computer.

But going outside to paint is a really good challenge because it forces you to make and commit to lighting and composition decisions really quickly. And to work through your mistakes instead of against them via undo button.

My last tip is to check out James Gurney’s youtube channel because hes probably the best and most consistent resource on observational painting out there rn. There’s lots other artists doing the same thing (off the top of my head I know a lot of the Warrior Painters group has people regularly posting plein air stuff and lightbox expo had a Jesse Schmidt lecture abt it last year) but Gurney’s probably the most prolific poster and one of the best at explaining the more technical stuff - his books are great too.

e) Do you have tips for drawing cleanly on heavypaint?

@marigoldfool UMM LOL I LIKE ONLY USE THE FILL TOOL so maybe use the fill tool? Fill and rectangle are good for edge control as opposed to the rest of the heavy paint tools which can get sort of muddles. And also I use a stylus so maybe if you’re using your finger, find a stylus that works with your device instead. That’s all I’ve got, frankly I don’t think my drawings are particularly clean lol.

f) Tips on improving backgrounds/scenes making them more dynamic practicing etc?

Ive given some tips about backgrounds/scenes before so I’m not gonna re-tread those but here’s another thing that might be helpful...

I think a good way to approach backgrounds is to think of the specific story or even mood you want to convey with the background first. Thinking “I just need to put something behind this character” is going to lead you to drawing like... a green screen tourist photo backdrop. But if you think “I need this bg to make the characters feel small” or “I need this bg to make the world feel colorful” then it gives you requirements and cues to work off of.

If I know a character needs to feel overwhelmed and small, then I know I need to create environment elements that will cage them in and corner them. If a character needs to feel triumphant/on top of the world then I know I need to let the environment open up around them. etc. If I know my focal point/ where I want to draw attention, I can build the background around that.

Also, backgrounds like figure compositions will have focal points of their own and you can draw attention to it/ the relationship the characters have with the bg element via scale or directionality or color, any number of cues. I think of it almost as a second/third character in a scene.

Not every composition is gonna have something so obvious like this but it helps me to think about these because then the characters feel connected and integrated with the environment.

Some more general art questions

a) Do you have any process/tips to start drawing character/bodies/heads?

I tried to kind of draw something to answer this but honestly this is difficult for me to answer because I don’t think I’m that great at drawing characters LOL. Ok, I think I have two tips.

1) flip your canvas often. A lot about what makes human bodies look correct and believable is symmetry and balance. Even if someone has asymmetrical features, the body will often pull and push in a way to counterbalance it. we often have inherent biases to one side or another like dominant hands dominant eyes etc. you know how right-handed artists will often favor drawing characters facing 45 degrees facing (the artist’s) left? that’s part of it. so viewing your drawing flipped even just to evaluate it helps compensate for that bias and makes you more aware of balance.

2) draw the whole figure often. I feel like a lot of beginner artists (myself included for a long time) defer to just drawing headshots or busts because it’s easier, you dont have to think about posing limbs etc. But drawing a full body allows you to better gauge proportion, perspective, body language, everything that makes a character look believable and grounded.

Like if you (me) have that issue where you draw the head too big and then have to resize it to fit the proportions of the rest of the body, it’s probably because you (I) drew the head first and are treating the body as an afterthought/attachment. Sketching out the whole figure first or even just quick drawing guides for it will help you think of it more holistically. I learned this figure drawing in charcoal at art school LOL.

oh. third mini tip - try to draw people from life often! its the best study. if you can get into a figure drawing/nude drawing class EVEN BETTER and if you have a local college/art space/museum that hosts those for free TREASURE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, that’s a huge boon that a lot of artists (me again) wish they had. though if youre not so lucky and youre sitting in a park trying to creeper draw people and they keep moving.. don’t let that stop you! that’s good practice because it’s forcing you to work fast to get the important stuff down LOL. its a challenge!

b) I’ve been pretty out of energy and have had no inspiration to draw but I have the desire to. Any advice?

Dude, take a walk or something.... Or a nap? Low energy is going to effect everything else so you gotta hit that problem at its source.

If you’re looking for inspiration though, I’d recommend stuff like watching a movie, reading a book, playing video games etc. Fill up your idea bank with content and then give yourself time/space to gestate it into new concepts. Sometimes looking at other art works but sometimes it can work against you because it’s too close.

Also something that helps me is remembering that art doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking... like it’s okay to make something shitty and stupid that you don��t post online and only show to your friend. That’s all part of the process imo. If you want to hit a home run you gotta warm up first, right? Sports.

I should probably compile everytime i give tips on stuff like this but that’s getting dangerously close to being a social media artist who makes stupid boiled down art tutorials for clout which is the last thing i want to be... the thing I want to stress is that art is a whole visual language and there are widely agreed upon rules and customs but they exist in large part to be broken. Like there's an infinite number of ways to reach an infinite number of solutions and that’s actually what makes it really cool and personal for both the artist and the viewer. So when you make work you like or you find someone else’s work you like, take a step back and ask yourself what about it speaks for you, what about it works for you, what makes it effective, how to recreate that effect and how to break that effect completely, etc. And have a good time with it or else what’s the point.

for the first 2, I direct you to my FAQ

For the last one, I don’t actually believe I’ve ever addressed artwork as insp for stories/rp but I’ll say here and now yeah go ahead! As long as you’re not making profit or taking credit for my work then I’m normally ok with it. Especially anything thats private and purely recreational, that’s generally 100% green light go. I only ask that if you post it anywhere public that you please credit me.

(and I reserve the right to ask you to take it down if I see it and don’t approve of it’s use but I think that case is pretty rare.)

a) @lemuelzero101 Thank you!!! I haven’t played Life is Strange but actually that series’ vis dev artist Edouard Caplain is one of my bigger art inspirations lately so that’s a really high compliment lol. And yeah I hope we get 5-8 too...!

b) Thank you for sticking around! I’ve been thinking about Digimon and Infinity Train in tandem lately, actually. They’re a little similar? Enter a dangerous alternate world and have wacky adventures with monsters/inanimate objects that have weird powers... there’s like weird engineers and mechanisms behind the scenes... also frontier literally starts with them getting on a train. Anyways if anyone else followed me for digimon... maybe you’d like Infinity Train? LOL

c) @king-wens-king I’M GLAD MY ART JUST HAS PINOY VIBES LOL I hope you are having a good day too :^)

a, b, c, d) yessss my Watch Infinity Train agenda is working....

e) aw thank you!! i think you should watch infinity train :)

#ask #trying this new thing where i tag people in the body of the post instead

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mxrstar · 3 years

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[ID: the images are two collages/concept art pieces.

the first one has a composite picture of a solar eclipse in the background. you can see the darkened sun, and then the light coming out behind it. the sun is framed by a winding black column that moves snake-like from one side of the frame to the other. the top of the page is painted in blue, grey and black, and the strokes are meant to represent the sea. a stylised lighthouse comes out from the sea upside-down and its light physically floods one side of the painting with a blue-grey ray. the bottom of the piece is also painted in blue, grey and black, but the strokes look more like clouds. in the middle of the sun, a piece of paper says: "callum". above of the collage, on the white corners of the paper, it says: "I think the lighthouse misses you, too", and below the collage: "there are plenty of ghosts who love you".

the second collage has a series of old television on the top half. the televisions are carved out so that through them you can see a hot air balloon shaped like an eye, a blue spiral, the background of a sketched prison, and the name "tim". the bottom part, on a purple-blue-brown background, has a series of darkened pieces of paper glued onto it and is covered in white dots that look like spilt ink. one of them say "shall I be gone for long?" and then right below it "shall I be gone?" "for long", one other goes: "remembrance will be always" but the "always" is almost unreadable and covered by paint. there is a big one that is messily covered in "brother friend son" over and over again. one other says: "death is only by a horizon". at the centre of the piece, there is a written line that says: "you know why you did what you did. you know you would it again." /end ID]

@titanfalling2 wrote a long, beautiful fic whose main character is a kid I've never thought twice about in canon and now I would die for him. they also wrote an interlude about Tim that is set in the same AU, and I've been quite literally thinking about it non-stop for two days. so, this is what I've done about it. those words really do deserve the time spent making art off of them

under the cut, explanation for Artistic Choices:tm: and some close ups

Callum first:

i'm a big fan of the fact that the background is an actual sun eclipse cause yeah! that's exactly it! just, the idea of darkness literally getting in the way and obscuring a source of light. it's very much part of what callum's story line is about. that realisation that he has So Much potential because (1) he is a kid, and (2) he is a good, caring kid, and he deserves to be put in a situation where he can finally shine and be free

the semi-recognizable lighthouse is there to represent his grandma, sure, but it's also just. the idea of someone guiding you being inaccessible to you sometimes. of having to look up to see it, and figure out where it's pointing. because you aren't used to it, and because there are things that physically get in the way. it stands to reason that the lighthouse and the sea should fall, but they don't, because they exist in a careful balance that by the end isn't yet broken. they are capable of showing callum the light, eventually, because the light has always been there, yes, but also because callum is given enough tools to move freely through his own space

the quote pretty much exemplifies that concept, i think. i also do like the "there's plenty of ghosts who love you" cause the painting kinda looks haunted, but it's okay because there are ghosts who love you

Tim, including close-ups:

the tvs are a way of representing just the concept of Witnessing and they all show something horrific, in one way or another. there's the prison background (i think that's taken from one of piranesi's prisons illustrations- i say i think because i cut the picture from an old school book and lost the inscriptions but i am about 95% sure), then the spiral, which actually had the face of a man lost in it but I went over it with paint because the loss of identity made it more literally spiral to me. there's also the hot air balloon, which is just perfect, because it's basically a skull carried by an eye. talk about witnessing. and then simply "Tim", the signature

i chose "you know why you did what you did. you know why you would do it again" as a quote to put there cause the whole thing is about acceptance. so, it's a reclamation of the mess and the hurt, because you know you would it again. it's the focus through which i was trying to visually depict the fic. it is what it is and it is pretty shitty, but it's mine and i chose it cause it was worth it

this is pretty much a mess but i wanted to sort of just. represent the chaos of it, even in the finality? on a personal level for Tim, all of this means many things. and the white spilled ink is a way to. i don't know, signify that lack of agency in trying to make sense of what's been written, but also total control over the choices he did make (though that's more about the quote above i already talked about)

the "remembrance will be always" is surrounded by that Cloud, sort of, cause Sasha is a dark big spot in Tim's life. her death defined a lot of things and almost burned some bridges. it also has the most white on it cause like, it's one of those places he will want to come back to without ever achieving much because he simply does not remember her

the jon quote is kinder, i think. still complex, but kinder

then there's "brother friend son" which hurts still because of the history there, but it's open

the last "death is only a horizon" is clearer if darker cause it's- a choice but also a part of Tim that is partially defined by his powers

so yeah. that's most of it! i love doing this stuff! too tired to write a conclusion hope the explanation was nice to read <3 i love these fics and ren if you are reading this I'm bowing and throwing you flowers

#sometimes i talk #tma #tma fic #my collages #anyway read the fics #art tag

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katzkinder · 3 years

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Honestly proto Eve of Gluttony's design is why I gotta kinda roll my eyes at people who insist Iduna was included because Strike's editors pressured them to include more female characters, like

We have proof of concept that Ildio was going to have the cutest little girl as his Eve, so if lack of female characters was the problem, why change her?

Why risk angering fans by making Iduna into an Eve when Tsurugi is such a popular character? Maybe because... She was intended to be one from the beginning? HMMM

No but seriously, it doesn't make any sense to change the Eve of Gluttony SO DRASTICALLY if pressure from editors was the problem

I really dislike entitled fans who think that just because things didn't go the way they wanted them to, there's some conspiracy from Strike's higher ups forcing them to go against the vision they have for their creation... I mean, Servamp is Strike's baby. They give us SO MUCH extra, free content, even going so far as to make visual novel style events, mini games, an entire website, a fake gacha with character dialogue, and even post sketches of characters receiving gifts fans sent in, all because they love their work so much, and love the fans who love their work

To act as if Strike is some pitiable waif, at the mercy of their big bad evil editors, is not only insulting, it's honestly kinda... Shitty? Like they don't have power over their own creation, and these fans wanna white knight on their behalf

Or, worse, and I unfortunately have seen this, insulting Strike's capability as a writer bc your faves aren't getting enough screen time for your taste, going so far as to say "don't think so much, just make my otp kiss and all will be well." Like, holy shit man, that is a VILE way to talk about the creator of a series you claim to like? Telling a woman not to think, especially when both members of Strike's team put so much thought into their work, and instead they should just do what you want... Like wtf is wrong with you. Pick a struggle.

And now that we have the interview Strike did where they answered fan’s questions, we have solid proof that these people really just... Don’t understand Servamp at all LOL

Below is a translation of a portion of the interview where a fan asked about C3 arc, and Strike’s answer makes me thank my lucky stars that they don’t pay attention to the Western fandom and don’t answer fans who make rude questions.

Q: What's your preferred moment in C3 arc A: Well, the entire arc is about anger, and feelings of anger. While she's not actively present until the end of the arc itself, it serves as an announcer to Freya's character, and how several characters deal with wrath - the sin that she represents. But to answer the question, it's Shuuhei and Shamrock's confrontation. I've been wanting to draw them together since they first appeared in vol 2 and 3, and I regret that it took so much time because when I finally got to it, the reaction of the public was kinda dull... I think people didn’t grasp the depth and beauty of those characters and what they represent, to themselves but also each other. And since it dealt with big changes in Shuuhei and Tsurugi, I got worried of the fan's reaction, and especially about the unexpected reveal (of Iduna being Freya's eve). I still don't know if it's more surprise or disappointment"

Like Strike has been planning so much of Servamp for YEARS upon YEARS, but because it didn’t go the way these people wanted it to, they wanna insult sensei’s hard work while claiming to love the characters? They don’t even love the part that sensei is the most proud of!

Thank christ mangaka don’t listen to all the whining that goes on over here lel

#whiskers in a twist #this is literally just salt #i've been stewing on for almost a year now #purely because of how baffling it is #and the interview gave me the push to talk about it #literally just salt so not subjecting the main tag to that lol

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curiosity-killed · 3 years

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bitter fruit & thorns

Attempting to restart my daily writing habit by doing lil angsty warmups

Words: 1102 Warnings: Violence, implied torture Fun fact of the fic: The branches are Chinese quince (which is kind of a stupid name given multiple varieties of quince grow in China but w/e) which have v pretty flowers

If he squinted or leaned his head back a little, it almost looked like flowers beneath his feet. Ragged-edged and clumped together, they patterned the wood in flecks of red like wildflowers bursting into life from the splintering old floorboards, and Xie Lian couldn’t help a small smile at the thought. It had been months since he last saw flowers, winter frost creeping over all the fragile stems and snapping them off at the head. Really, this little hut was the warmest he’s been in weeks.

The door creaked, scraping across the floor where it sagged on its hinges, and footsteps thudded against the floor. Blinking a little to clear his vision, Xie Lian pulled his gaze from the flowers blooming in his own blood and fixed a polite smile on his lips. “Hello,” he said. The three men huddled close together as they approached, two of them lagging a step behind the first. If Xie Lian put his mind to it, he could probably break the ropes tying him in place and only have to take out the leader before the other two crumpled. They kept looking to the first man with wary little looks, as if afraid to even take a step with the wrong foot. The leader, on the other hand, paused directly before Xie Lian. His expression was completely blank as he tilted his head, gaze dropping slowly down Xie Lian’s face as if to catalogue the bruises and cuts across his face. “I’m sorry, I don’t have much to offer you,” Xie Lian started. A hand snapped out, knuckles colliding with the open cut across his cheek. Blood sprayed from his lips, joining the other red petals painting the floor. “I know who you are, Taizi Dianxia,” the man sneered. His apathy pulled back to reveal a cruel snarl, and Xie Lian swallowed before recomposing himself. Behind them, one of the men rubbed his fingers against his palm as if to chafe away the cold, and the other hunkered a little more into his cloak. It was chilly in here, if Xie Lian thought about it. Warmer than any snowbank or frozen alley, but their breath condensed into white fog when they exhaled. “Did you think we picked up some beggar just for fun?” the leader asked. Drawing in a careful breath, Xie Lian tried to keep his voice even and soothing. “This one apologizes,” he said. “I am no longer a prince or god. There are some buns in my bag and a—” “Shut up about your fucking buns,” one of the men behind the leader snapped. “We don’t want your shitty old food.” Xie Lian closed his mouth slowly, gaze flickering between the three of them. Although their clothes were worn and clearly a bit old, they didn’t seem so down on their luck as some. Certainly not so much so that they’d try to steal from a trash collector, a banished god with nothing to offer. Behind his back, his hands tightened and shifted in the rope tying them. They’d been cleverer than some, tying his hands separately and winding the rope around his waist so he could hardly move them. “You know, my mother said that our family was one of the wealthiest in Xianle before it fell,” the leader said, lifting his chin. “She was one of the greatest beauties, had a chance at being a concubine to the crown prince.” Even when he was only a spoiled child, Xie Lian didn’t have much of a memory for all the women paraded before him as potential concubines. His mother had handled most of it while he daydreamed of sword fights and grand adventures. Now, those faces were a blur, ground under the heel of the decades as they passed. “But you didn’t think she was good enough,” the leader said, leaning close to Xie Lian’s face. “Not for the Prince Who Pleased the Gods. So my mother was forced to take her chances in the war and plague, and she had to settle for a man who was willing to marry her with no dowry or family or anything to her name.” Xie Lian’s stomach twisted like he’d eaten poison, clenching up and making his throat grow tight. He swallowed, but it didn’t ease the knot working its way up his throat. “My mother died before she had a chance to grow old,” the man hissed, low, “and then today, what do I see? The same little prince who thought himself so much better than her, just as fresh-faced as any white lotus. Aren’t you just so lucky, Dianxia?” Over the years, Xie Lian had grown to hate that title, but a particularly bitter breed of shame crawled out of his stomach and burrowed into his chest now. How many times over the years had he pitied himself, wept or railed against his own misfortune? Always so selfish, so pathetic. He didn’t carry the scars of the human face disease because he was already a murderer, a killer not just of enemy soldiers on the battlefield but of every single citizen of Xianle, of every believer he’d ever had up to the very last one. “You,” the leader said, turning back over his shoulder toward the men behind him. It wouldn’t have been so hard to use the temporary distraction as an opportunity. The ropes were taut, but Xie Lian could still move enough to crack their skulls together and disorient the leader. He held still and waited. “Come here, hold his mouth open.” Xie Lian blinked, frowning slightly at the instruction. Poison was an arduous experience, but it didn’t provide much visual interest. At most, he’d writhe and throw up on himself. Perhaps that would be enough to satisfy them...? It seemed unlikely. One of the men moved around the leader to stand behind Xie Lian. He dug his hand into Xie Lian’s cheeks, prying open his jaw, and used the other to hold his head still. The third man stepped forward, and in his hands was not a vial or a blade but a bundle of branches. Snow still dusted their small leaves, frost curling delicately over scarlet blooms and slender thorns. “For the Flower-Crowned Martial God,” the one holding the branches said, sketching a mocking bow. The man behind Xie Lian held his jaw still, fingertips biting into the meat of the joint, as Xie Lian tried to pull away. At his feeble struggle, the leader smiled coolly and reached for the first of the thorny branches. “You understand,” he said, “it’s only my duty as a filial son.”

#my writing #tgcf #xie lian #angst #whump #i guess #i may someday be persuaded to like #put these on ao3 #but that's a lot of effort to tag for a y'know #1k fic i wrote in one shot and don't have strong feelings abt #curio minitober prompts

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whumpingcrow · 3 years

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Ink Poisoning - Chapter 1

Introduction

Surprise! A new story, new characters, inspired by all the lovely authors of tumblr who do BBU or WRU writing :) enjoy!!

CW: BBU and everything in relation to that, drugs/alcohol, party themes/setting, plane mention, college setting, breakup mention, tattooing/tattoo shop mentions (let me know if I missed anything!)

Nicko and Salem had never really been too close. They lived a few houses away from each other in high school, had some of the same classes, and were tied in with the same friend groups. They were friends, as much as you could be friends with someone you only hang out with cause they’re close by, but not close by any means. Salem felt a certain way about Nicko, he always had, a way that told him to keep himself a safe distance from him. Maybe it was his recklessness, the way he did awful, often mean, things seemingly on impulse, just because it popped into his head and he wanted to follow through. He was unreasonably harsh and manipulative and just attractive and charismatic enough to not suffer the repercussions.

Because of this, Salem wasn’t really entirely sure how he had ended up living with the kid in his last two years of college. Both him and Nicko had gotten into the state college and were both art majors (Nicko was in visual arts and Salem in music), so they had been around each other since they both moved into the dorms as smooth faced freshmen. Nicko was on the football team for the first year and a half, then he got kicked from the team. At that point he hadn’t spoken to Salem for a while, so he never figured out the real reason why. He heard gossip, that Nicko was caught doing drugs, that he had slept with the coach’s daughter, that he’d been fighting, but it was impossible to know if it was the truth. On one hand, Salem wouldn’t exactly be surprised if it was something like that, but on the other hand he didn’t want to believe that he was that bad. After that, he focused on his studies. Salem saw him around campus working in sketch books or on a canvas, sometimes he would show up to a class covered in paint and tired, like he’d been working on something all night. He was also doing an internship at a tattoo shop, he got paid a lot to stab people with needles, and he genuinely enjoyed it. Plus, Salem had seen some of the stuff he’d made, and he certainly had talent, even though he was sort of a dick.

During that time, freshman and sophomore year, Salem was pretty preoccupied in his own respects, so these were the only things he really knew about Nicko. Those two years had been difficult, looking back on it he was surprised he was able to pass all of his classes with what he had going on. There was a messy relationship, horrible breakup, and he used it mostly to put into his music. He wrote some of his best pieces about it, so in a way he was thankful. He was better off now, anyway.

Now, he and Nicko lived together off-campus, along with three other art majors who neither of them knew too well, but rent was cheaper with more people and they were easy enough to get along with. School was almost over, it was their last stretch of their senior year, and things were good. Salem’s future was looking promising, he’d already been speaking to different producers and composers who he’d been set up with by his teachers, as soon as he graduated he would have enough saved up to buy his own place, closer to where he would work, on his own. Life was so simple, Salem was happy and hopeful and for once, things made sense. He just had to get through winter break, then the last few grueling months would crawl by, and then he would be free.

But then winter break came and went, Salem went back north to visit his parents, and when he got back things suddenly got...complicated.

Nicko would insist over and over again to Salem that they had “talked about this!” and he tried to persuade him by saying “you said it could be cool!” every time they talked about it afterwards. Salem told him that bringing it up as a concept while they were getting drunk after midterms was not talking about it.

What happened was someone had read an article somewhere, maybe it was from a click bait thing on Instagram or a frightening news article on facebook, and had brought it up while they were all throwing back beers before they went out to their own respective parties. It was about something Salem had only heard hushed whispers about online, he wasn’t even sure how legit it was because of how rarely he heard about it: boxies. The word made him cringe every time one of them threw it out drunkenly, like it was something cute. If what Salem had heard about it was true, they were essentially criminals who were brainwashed (or trained, as they liked to call it to sound more appealing) instead of taking another sentence. Box Boys, Box Babes, they had more gross marketing names, all involving a box. Supposedly it was because they were notoriously shipped to you conveniently in a box right to your front porch, as if they were an Amazon package. Yes, living human beings stuffed inside of a box and left on your porch, just waiting to be let out so they can start doing whatever it is they’ve been retrained to do. And somehow it was all completely legal, if you did it through certain companies.

So, that’s what they’d been talking about, when Salem looked back on it, all he remembered from the conversation was something like:

“Dude, how the fuck is owning a boxie legal at all? I was just reading this article and-”

"Those are like, those servant things you order online or whatever? I've heard about those, I think."

“That’s not the point, Nicko. I’m talking about how it’s fucking crazy this is allowed.”

“I think it’s cool. I mean if it were me I’d rather get to live in a house as like...a maid or whatever than go to jail. Jail sucks. I dunno, I think it’s cool. What about you, Cobain?”

Salem hated when Nicko called him that, he’d been doing it since freshman year, when one of Salem’s songs was suddenly being passed around the school in a youtube video he’d forgotten he’d posted. Nicko told him that it was edgy, that he sounded like Kurt Cobain. That would have been fine, Salem really wouldn’t have cared, if Nicko hadn’t personally told him before how much he hated Nirvana, how the music sucked. So every time he used the nickname it was patronizing, a little stab at him.

Still, Salem merely looked up from his laptop, he was probably checking back on his flight information for going back home, maybe checking to see if his test scores were posted yet, and scowled at him. “Yeah, Picasso, I think that owning a person is super cool.” He’d been sarcastic, obviously so, and Nicko knew that.

And still, here he was, telling Salem that he’d “agreed” to getting this boxie. Salem would disagree every time, and Nicko would just roll his eyes and shrug his shoulders and he would get away with it. He was always getting away with shit, it was really starting to piss Salem off.

The day Salem got back from break it had been snowing. The drive back from the airport was stressful, it was late, Salem just wanted to go home and sleep. Going back to the town he grew up in was draining, sometimes. It reminded him of complicated times and hopelessness. He wanted to forget all about those feelings, things were going good, he could be hopeful now, and going back home made those feelings a little...muted, for a while. So he figured he’d go home, get into bed, sleep it off, and get back to being hopeful in the morning.

Only he couldn’t do that, because of course Nicko was having a party. He usually called it “having people over”, because he was trying to be an adult now and that’s what adults usually said, but when it consisted of beer pong and body shots that didn’t seem like the right term. The lawn was covered in cars, so was the driveway, so were both sides of the street directly outside. Salem had to park halfway down the block, get his suitcase and guitar, and walk down the street. To his own house. He wanted to break Nicko’s face.

When he walked into the house, the air was thick with smoke and reeked of pot and sweat and booze. The living room was mostly empty, Salem could see from the front door that almost everyone was in the kitchen playing some sort of drinking game or outside. The house was a mess, almost all the lights were off so Salem couldn’t see the full damage yet, but he could tell that he wasn’t going to like it when he did. He shuffled into the house, kicking away cups and bottles as he walked past them. Part of him wanted to just turn around and get back in his car and drive far away, never come back and never see Nicko or this shitty house again. But he had to stick to his plan, he had to play it safe here.

“Salem!” He snapped his head up, in the direction of the voice, sighing when he saw it was Nicko’s girlfriend, Aurora. Or Rory, as most people called her. She had dyed her hair a bright, shocking blue since Salem had last seen her, if he remembered correctly she had it a pale pink before. Her makeup was dark and heavy, like it usually was, making her eyes look all that more intense and striking. Except for right then, because she was very obviously high, her eyes hooded and lazy. She was sitting on the couch, a boy who looked a lot younger than her on his knees right in between her legs. He looked even more fucked up than she did, glaring hard at the floor and swaying slightly as she raked her fingers through his messy, dark hair. As Salem approached them, the kid flinched away from him and snapped his eyes up to look at him. He didn’t pay too much attention to him, too distracted by his anger. Rory had to shout over the music just a little when she started talking again. “I was wondering when you were gonna be back! How was your tri-”

“Where the fuck is Nicko?” He interrupted. His hand was tight around the handle to his guitar case, he could feel his heartbeat in his closed fist.

Rory gawked at him, then her crimson painted lips turned up into a lazy smile and she laughed. “Wow, someone’s in a mood,” she teased, “why don’t you have a drink? Calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Rory. Tell me where he fucking is!”

Rory turned her attention downwards, toward the rough looking boy on the floor in front of her. Salem followed her gaze, realizing that he was now shaking, pressing his thin frame against Rory’s leg like he couldn’t get close enough. He was looking at Salem’s shoes, his face twisted up in a nervous frown. Rory instantly leaned close to him, hands on his cheeks and lips against his jaw, saying something in a real low, soft voice. She was calming him down, soothing him, Salem noticed, because he had frightened him.

Salem realized, then, how angry he sounded, shouting and cursing, and he sighed to himself. He decided he’d be better off just going to bed, putting in earplugs and waiting until the morning to deal with the problem. It’s not like he’d really be able to fight Nicko anyway, he was so much taller and he’d been on the football team and honestly Salem just wasn’t equipped for fighting. So he turned away from both of them and made his way down the hallway, to his room. He locked his door and set his things down, then he promptly stripped down to his boxers and got into bed.

The next morning, Salem was surprised to wake up to a clean, quiet house. He walked down the hallway, expecting at any second to see all of the trash pushed into a corner somewhere, he didn’t think Nicko would have cleaned up himself, unprompted. But it was clean all the way through, and he was impressed when he walked into the living room and saw Nicko, decked out in all black clothes and black boots, relaxing on the couch with his keys clutched readily in his hands, like he was leaving. He was speechless, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he approached him.

“Morning, sleepy head,” Nicko teased, tilting his head back and looking him up and down, “how was your trip?”

“Uh...good.” Salem answered, voice still gruff from sleep.

“Morning, Salem!”

He turned to see Rory standing there in fishnets and an oversized hoodie, dramatically tall heels wrapped around her ankles, making Salem wonder how she was standing straight. One time, when Nicko was busy doing an art piece or working on school work, he couldn’t remember now, she and Salem had been in the kitchen alone and Rory told him that she liked to wear tall heels because Nicko likes when she’s short and it entertains her to bother him. She said the best part of her day sometimes is irritating Nicko.

Behind Rory, standing with his head dipped downwards and his shoulders slightly hunched, was the same scared looking kid from the night before. He was allowing Rory to pull him along by his wrist, focusing on his shiny black boots, ones that he looked rather unsteady in, like he wasn’t used to tall shoes. His thin, oversized black tee shirt hung off of one boney shoulder, showcasing a few tattoos up on his collar bone and neck. They looked fresh, like they were healing. After Salem scanned the rest of his body (why was he wearing shorts and a tee shirt!? It was snowing outside!), he had healing tattoos all over, scattered every few inches. Were they all new? Salem didn’t know much about tattooing, but he didn’t think that was safe.

Salem didn’t realize he’d been staring at him, silent, until Rory cleared her throat, redirecting his attention to her. “He’s cute, huh?” She smiled, smacking her gum at him. “Nicko picked out a good one.”

“I...What?” Salem muttered.

“Our boxie,” she explained, holding his limp arm up in the air and waving it a little, making the kid flinch hard, “You were looking at him. Isn’t he precious?”

Now, he was shrinking in on himself more, looking rather embarrassed and ashamed, his face hidden mostly by his floppy hair. Salem frowned at him, then at Rory, then at Nicko, who was smiling smugly.

“You didn’t.”

Nicko laughed at him, and thus began the famous “You said it would be cool” argument. Salem was so shocked in the moment he wasn’t able to form a proper argument, so Nicko took both Rory and the boxie out the door and into the snow with him.

So that’s when things got complicated. Well, not necessarily right away, but that was the thing that kickstarted it all. It was a total snowball effect, where one bad thing happens and it just gets worse and collects more velocity and severity the longer it goes on, until it’s huge and it can’t be stopped and it flattens a poor snowboarder or a small city. Salem had to finish school, he had to start living his life and building his career, he didn’t have time to worry about huge snowball problems. That could ruin everything, all of his hard work and pain would have been pointless. All because Nicko decided to get a fucking boxie.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Bo Burnham: Inside Songs Ranked from Worst to Best

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The musical of the summer was supposed to be a life-affirming celebration of one of New York’s most vibrant neighborhoods, full of color, romance, and big group dance numbers. Instead for many viewers, the musical of the moment was filmed and performed by one man, alone in isolation from the comfort (or discomfort, really) of his own home, with songs centered on techno paranoia, mental health, and the fear of aging. Maybe after a year stuck in their homes, audiences could relate to the existential dread and general anxiety on display in Bo Burnham: Inside more than a conventional movie musical.

Billed as a stand-up special, Burnham’s latest musical comedy endeavor finds the former wunderkind holed up and feeling more uncomfortable than ever. Writing, editing, directing, and performing from a claustrophobic studio, Burnham’s stand-up special skews more toward being a straight-up musical, and not because the special is light on jokes and missing an audience. Rather this has all the hallmarks of a musical narrative and plays closer to experimental cinema than sketch comedy.

Burnham expresses his characters’ inner-thoughts, fears, and desires via song throughout a contained narrative, in this case the narrative being one man trying to occupy himself during a pandemic. It has ballads, charm songs, comedy numbers, “I Am” and “I Want” songs, and a big reprise. By capturing his personal pandemic experience and putting the whole affair to song, Burnham has created one of the most compelling (and catchy!) accounts of life during 2020.

To celebrate the musical that we all needed after a year in our homes, we’ve decided to rank every song from Bo Burnham: Inside. You can stream along via the Inside (The Songs) album on the streaming platform of your choice.

20. I Don’t Wanna Know

Merely an interlude, “I Don’t Wanna Know” doesn’t quite work outside of watching the special itself. However, it is a clever way to address the fact that modern audiences do not have the attention span to sit through a film at home without checking their phone or complaining about a runtime.

19. Bezos II

While certainly meant to poke fun at the real-life Lex Luthor, it’s not that fun to listen to Bezos’ name repeated. Stil, Burnham does elicit a few laughs with his over-the-top mock congratulations. “You did it!”

18. Any Day Now

A Sesame Street-like mantra that plays over the credits, “Any Day Now” suggests this could all end either hopefully soon or on a depressingly vague far-off date that will never come. We’d like to think it’s the former, but it’s safe to assume what Bo thinks.

17. All Time Low

While this number gets docked points for its short runtime, it absolutely packs a punch with its four-line, single verse. After Bo admits that his mental health is rapidly deteriorating, he describes what it’s like to have a panic attack set to a chipper ‘80s dance backbeat. Unfortunately, we don’t get to ride the wave long enough, and judging lyrics, that’s probably a good thing for Bo.

16. Content

This strong opening number musically sets the vibe for Inside, letting us know that we’re in for some synth-heavy throwback beats that would be best listened to underneath a disco ball. Also incorporating silly backing vocals, a hallmark of many of Inside’s best tracks, Burnham declares he’s back with some sweet, sweet content. “Daddy made you your favorite,” he sings, and he ain’t wrong.

15. Bezos I

Unlike the reprise in “Bezos II,” ��Bezos I” gets by off its increasingly deranged energy, with Burnham roasting fellow tech billionaires and working himself up into a manic frenzy by song’s end. Musically, it sounds like the soundtrack to an intense boss battle on a Sega Genesis game before ending with a sick little synth solo and Burnham hilarious squawking. It’s arguably the only acceptable thing that Bezos has ever been associated with.

14. Unpaid Intern

While “Unpaid Intern” is one of Inside’s shortest tracks, it absolutely makes the most of its time. The jazzy tune scorches the exploitative nature of unpaid internships before Burnham breaks out into a laugh-out-loud worthy scat routine. It unfortunately ends too soon.

13. Shit

Inside’s funkiest jam sounds like Burnham wrote the lyrics for a new Janelle Moane album cut. Bo show’s off his vocal dexterity and plumbs the depths of his depression in a surprisingly danceable fashion. Throwing in a little faux crowd interaction helps bring home the fact that we have all felt like this at one point or another during the pandemic.

12. Sexting

This slow-jam details the complications of sexting, throwing out hilariously too-true punchlines like “the flash makes my dick look frightened.” “Sexting” feels like one of a few songs that could most easily appear on previous Burnham specials. Proving that Inside’s musical textures do not come exclusively from ’80s synth pop, the outro of the song expertly mirrors modern pop trends by throwing in some trap-influenced “yahs” at the end of Bo’s lines.

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11. How the World Works

Influenced by comedian Hans Teeuwen and children’s entertainment in general, “How the World Works” finds Burnham going back to the well by playing the ignorant, smarmy white guy who is oblivious of the real issues plaguing nonwhite Americans. What’s even better though is Socko calling Burnham out on forcing others to educate him for his own self-actualization instead of doing the work on his own for the betterment of others.

Socko pointedly asks “Why do you rich f—— white people insist on seeing every socio-political conflict through the myopic lens of your own self-actualization?” Not to keep things too heavy, the song ends with an absurdist bit where Burnham returns Socko to the nether place that he goes when he’s not attached to Burnham’s hand. Scathing and bizarre, it’s a great piece of social commentary.

10. FaceTime With My Mom

While most of the music of Inside feels directly transported from the 1980s, “FaceTime With My Mom” seems only inspired by the past decade’s musical trends, updating the sounds in much of the same way that the Weeknd and Dua Lipa have. This is Bo Burnham as a hitmaker, and his attempt is convincing. “FaceTime With My Mom” earns easy laughs by getting to the seemingly specific, yet universal things that all our moms do over video chat.

9. Goodbye

Every good musical needs a good closing track, and Burnham nails it with “Goodbye,” pulling off a reprise that weaves in many of the special’s signature musical moments and touches on the special’s core themes. A forlorn piano ballad before it soars through Inside’s best motifs, “Goodbye” caps a triumphant musical achievement, coming back to “Look Who’s Inside Again” just to punch you in the gut one last time.

8. Problematic

Addressing his past work and some aspects that have not aged well, while also skewering celebrity apologies, “Problematic” is self-aware critique by way of an ‘80s workout bop. From the specific Aladdin confession to the overall apology for being “vaguely shitty,” Bo has never made accountability sound so good.

7. That Funny Feeling

This is Bo Burnham’s version of Father John Misty’s “Holy Shit,” a laundry list of all the stupid things that are signaling the fall of culture and civilization as we know it. If Misty hadn’t gotten there first, we may have had this one ranked higher. Still, Burnham manages to come up with a sticky chorus that you’ll be humming the next time something makes you feel like you’re living in the uncanny valley.

6. White Woman’s Instagram

Perhaps the special’s most playful moment, “White Woman’s Instagram” uses the musical cues of an inspiring empowerment anthem to poke fun at the predictably, perfectly curated feed of a “girl boss” Instagram. The song is greatly enhanced by the accompanying visuals, which find Bo recreating the meticulously staged and glamorous portraits that women pass off as their everyday lives.

However, Bo always likes to sneak in some sentimentality, and imagines a genuinely heartfelt post to his white woman character’s deceased mother. Don’t worry, the emotional moment doesn’t overstay its welcome, and we’re soon back to laughing at horribly derivative political street art.

5. All Eyes on Me

The droning synth and pitch-down vocals make “All Eyes On Me” oddly hypnotic and beautiful. The song seems to be addressing Bo’s depression along with his need for validation and attention, a juxtaposition that many performers deal with. It becomes clear that Burnham isn’t addressing an invisible audience, but himself, trying to will himself up and out of his dreary mental state.

4. Look Who’s Inside Again

A classic “I Am” musical song, “Look Who’s Inside Again” just may be Inside’s most emotionally resonant track that seems to hit closest to who Bo Burnham was and who he is today. This is the song that I will most likely regret the most for ranking so low.

“Well, well, look who’s inside again. Went out to look for a reason to hide again,” perfectly describes the cycle of depression and will, for me, be the special’s most lasting moment. The downbeat ending “come out with your hands up, we’ve got you surrounded” is heartbreaking enough to send a shudder down your spine.

3. Comedy

The special’s real first number is absolutely packed with hooks, from the “Call me and I’ll tell you a joke” bridge to the “Should I be joking at a time like this?” change-up. This is Bo really flexing how far he’s come as a musician, expertly utilizing autotune and a key change (us “stupid motherf***ers” can’t resist them).

“Comedy” also finds Bo comfortably in the lane that we’re most used to seeing him in, playing the egomaniacal white messiah with a wink. “Comedy” is the tone-setter and it’s so good that it lets you know that you’re in good hands for the next hour plus.

2. 30

Either I’m ranking this song too highly due to its personally relatable nature or the fact that I haven’t been able to get “All my stupid friends are having stupid children” out of my head, but I really don’t care. “30” is Inside’s biggest earworm and addresses the existential terror that comes with no longer getting pats on the back for being a young wunderkind.

“30” also examines generational differences, showing how 30 year-old people are more infantile than ever. However, at the end of the day it all comes back to those shimmering keys and that irresistible refrain. Apologies to my friends with children.

1. Welcome to the Internet

No matter how deep and emotionally rich some of Inside’s other tracks may be, “Welcome to the Internet” is the one that will live on the longest. If this were a traditional musical, this would the antagonists’ showstopper; a vaudevillian romp through the alluring chaos that is the internet. Speeding up and slowing down the pace to mirror the manic, addictive nature of surfing the net, Burnham pitches the negative aspects of online culture as they are: a feature, not a bug. Promising “a little bit of everything all of the time,” “Welcome to the Internet” is almost as enticing as the dark tool itself.

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subzerobts · 4 years

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Thoughts on the Eighth Member of BTS

A/N: No pairings or warnings for this, except that it may throw you into a sudden 8th member fanfic spiral. When I tell you I was reading 8th member fanfic for the majority of my day, I mean like a good six hours. It wasn’t good.

Okay, so I feel like a lot of people have talked about an eighth member and it being a girl and stuff so I figure I should add some stuff to the ever growing cache of things about the eighth member.

This was like 2300 words and I have no regrets.

~So if there was I feel like she would be slightly younger than most of them and would have come in after their first few albums

~Maybe she was raised in New York with her immediate family being mostly Korean and hella feminist and she’d have older brothers and be super chill

~So like maybe the company would be worried about the lack of fast growing traction with the group and have a girl added in

~First things first: it would be awkward as heck for the guys to suddenly have a girl there and would make living situations even more difficult, with having to share rooms and such. So, they’d probs alternate who rooms with who and who gets the couch, especially for her rooming with a guy

~Not to mention if she catches them talking about some sort of issue with the sleeping situation and then being nervous about it

~Eventually, I feel like she’d kind of get tired of all of the tiptoeing around her and be like

~‘Guys! I don’t even care! Unless you guys have some sort of creepy thing you’re trying to avoid, just treat me like one of you guys’

~Things would chill out basically immediately. Like the next few days, the boys were super relaxed and that was a problem because they just started walking around in just underwear and she would be like:

👀😒 um ew?? Put a shirt on?

~They’d clean it up a lil bit and walk around in like boxers and t shirts, which was fine she had older brothers, she could deal with that

~She’d respectfully bow out of the choreographed hip thrusts and things of that nature at first, like maybe they’d thrust and she’d like make a gagging motion or something(only rarely because the company would be like no) at some point she’d get extremely comfortable with just doing the hip thrusts herself

~The company even found that during interactions with fans she got just as much, sometimes more, attention and screaming as the boys

~Eventually she’d get used to dressing androgynous, like the stylist unnies would put her in skirts and she’d get kinda pissed and the guys would all agree that she’d be better in just what they’re wearing(i.e. pants)

~(Also, just a quick side note, before they even realized what was happening, they’d be super protective. Like unwarranted protection.

~Especially during interviews and talk shows any heavily toxic feminine questions related to her would be met with complete headassery(is that a word?) Just any kind of bullshit the guys could come up with.

~Like it wouldn’t happen immediately, but like after a few interviews and them seeing how uncomfortable it made her to answer the weird questions(coming from female OR male interviewers) they’d kind of come up with an unspoken agreement to answer any and every sexist comment or question with an answer just as shitty)

~ Into specific dynamics now:

~I feel like she’d be evenly split to each other member’s interests because in the first few months, that’s how she bonded with them, busy finding somethings she had in common with each of them and building on it

[we’ll go youngest to oldest]

~She is close with all of the boys, but each get her undivided attention when the moment serves.

~ With Jungkook she’d notice his quiet side during the beginning and willingness to please. So she’d always assure him, in a not so obvious way, that he was accepted. Just quiet validation from her court to his.

~So she’d set up gaming nights with Jungkook when they didn’t have strict schedules or just sit around on their phones

~ The fandom would eventually come to know them as the meme lords of the group.

~Their inside jokes are way too many to count and don’t even come close to being forgotten.

~Can’t forget GCF cause she would be in every single one of them that she could. She’s endlessly supportive of the videos and wants to be in all of them, she even suggests music and things(sometimes before he’s even thinking of doing another one)

~She disapproves when he pushes himself too hard. When she knows it’s happening, she’ll involve on of the hyungs( probably Jin) or they’ll talk to a manager if things get super serious.

~That being said, if he doesn’t have the dance down, or they’re both struggling, she’s the first to volunteer to run the dance with him multiple times and is always the voice of reason.

~When he says ‘one more time’ she says ‘food first’ or like ‘how about a water chugging contest really quick?!’ (bc we all know his competitive nature) ‘Jin probably has some left overs in the fridge that we can reheat, late night snack time!’

~They definitely argue a bit about being the “Golden Maknae.” She’s a bit competitive in that aspect. Because they’re both so talented and she’s just a half of a year older than he is.

~For Taehyung, I feel like she’d grow to love art with him. His quiet adoration for things of beauty, conventional or not.

~(They have a joke,mostly his own that he refuses to let die, that she’s his favorite piece of artwork, eventually she retaliates with him being her favorite piece of artwork and it just sticks.)

~They’d be the classy duo, but with matching boxy smiles. Elegant and poised, their visuals are basically unmatched and during photo shoots, they’re always the ones finished way before the others.

~There are no bad sides for the classy duo. (I’m basically imagining model material for both of them, like just ethereal. Visual god and goddessssssss)

~Also his need to fall asleep holding something, I feel like she’d match that with just being okay with anything when she’s asleep or almost asleep(like she’d fall asleep in the car with the boys or something and be difficult to wake up, so they’d just carry her and she wouldn’t even stir)

~So Tae would lay beside her and they’d be chilling and eventually fall asleep and then later wake up holding onto each other.

~Both of them are shameless damn flirts. They’re attractive and they know it and they will absolutely use it to (not literally) kill ARMY

~Jimin is a bit harder to think about(idek why) but I feel like she’d be his buddy in quiet studying. Like he’d come find her if he wanted to do some reading, but not be alone and she’d be totally down( same with Joon but hold on)

~and either she’d read her own book or she’d do some sketching(mostly because she’d want to have her own unique thing that the others weren’t too interested in)

~Jimin would be her ideal model in these moments. She never gets tired of sketching any of the boys, but in those moments, Jimin is the least likely to change face or position and thus be the perfect study.

~she’d also ask him for homework help in the earlier days with like mathematics and he’d always be more than happy to help

~Jimin is a brat and I feel like when the two of them spend a bit too much time together, the rest of the group can only expect the worst.

~(Low key the Lil-Shit Duo™️)

~Joon is next and here’s where her position in the group comes in. Since she was raised in New York, she’d be fluent in both Korean and English and, as such, would help with the interviews and translating.

~It’s a huge load for Namjoon to carry and with her, being by his side and helping with rephrasing things to the boys during interviews really eases him.

~Along with that, he always makes sure that she knows how much he appreciates her after difficult interviews or just every good while he’s just endlessly doting and complimenting her and things. She always tells him that it’s unnecessary, but he never stops thanking her.

~So they’re like the Leader Duo™️ and are consistently doing damage control between the boys(almost like group therapy) or rephrasing the boys’ answers(in those moments where the boys give weird answers to questions in interviews)

~When not in the public eye, they are coming up with ways to better interact with ARMY or they’re expanding their horizons by reading and stuff.

~Her favorite thing with Joon is working on learning a new language or just English with Joon and making up little tongue twisters and sayings and debating proper ways to phrase things. Which brings us to:

~Being a part of the rapline. So Joon, Hobi, and Yoongi are her peeps. When she’s not entertaining the maknae line, she’s with the Hyung line.

~Hobi and her have a cute dynamic. He babies her a little bit and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t love it at least a little.

~they like coming up with dances together, even when they are supposed to be taking the day off, just goofing around and coming up with dances for little snippets of songs is fun

~they’re like the sunshines of the group. So he’s J-hope and she’s his ‘little hope’. How cute.

~She’s constantly encouraging his little quirks and things that he does(the sound effects and just being him) and being right there with him in being the lights of the group.

~I feel like her and Jungkook get the same bit of his attention. Like the cuddly bits of it

(and my heart skips for cuddly JungHope so like imagining the three of them being cozy and mellow together and just watching the rest of the group do whatever. Agh my heart)

~My boy Yoongles is next and let me tell you I’ve been excited as hell for this one.(trying real hard not to let bias love seep through)

~When moving to a more spacious apartment, they decided to give her her own room. (She’s grateful.)

~And so when she wants to tamp down the wildness in the apartment, get a moment's peace, she retreats to her room.

~While she’s endlessly supportive of all six of the others, encouraging their wild quirks, her room is the quietest. Her room has a ‘no noise’ rule.

~Yoongi shares a room with Jin still at this point and not that Jin is a bad roommate, or particularly noisy, it’s just that the maknae line patronizes him a lot. And Yoongi has very little patience for that.

~So her room is where they’ll often find him. She has a comfy couch that she took Yoongi with to pick it out(because it was basically for him.)

~Point is, she’s mellow when she wants and needs to be and Yoongi is drawn to that chill side of her.

~When the rest are wild and he wants mellowness, he seeks her out and when she wants to be a bit rowdy, she leaves and closes the door.

~He has a gigantic soft spot for her. Not even kidding.

~The boys will always pull her into the situation if they think Yoongi might get too angry or a prank goes south and does more harm than fun amusement.

~They mention that she was involved and she goes with it because she doesn’t want the boys in too much trouble and Yoongi won’t hurt her like he would the boys(not actually hurt but you know like “beat them up”) or scold her too harshly.

~As soon as he finds out she’s involved the anger either dissipates or he removes himself from the situation so as not to hurt anything(but you bet your ass she scolds the maknaes from time to time on Yoongi’s behalf)

~And he definitely helps with her mixtape which the fandom is waiting for. Basically, chomping at the bit. She gives Yoongi and Joon so much credit tbh

~They definitely nap together. Mostly because they’re up at ungodly hours during the night, either working on songs or just talking because that’s definitely a thing that happens.

~They have similar views of the world(I’m mostly thinking of Interlude: Shadow here) but being lonely while being famous is definitely a view they share and are drawn together from that. Despite all of their wants to be on the top of the world, they want to not be lonely.

~Along with her keeping up well with the rowdy bits of the group, she’s definitely introverted like Yoongi. She does what she has to to further the group, but she does get drained and just kind of shuts everyone out some times.

~This is where Jin comes in. (Not to be that cliché bitch who’s always like Jin’s the mom of the group omg) but in this case, he makes sure she’s eating and taking care of herself when she does this.

~They all have locks on their doors and she keeps hers locked a majority of the time, but Jin and Yoongi are the only people she absolutely trusts with coming in unannounced.

~Despite always laughing at his dad jokes and being totally supportive of that, he knows when to turn on being serious and not taking her bullshit about “being fine” if she’s not.

~He forces(more like needles annoyingly) her to eat even when she says she’s not hungry during those times

~Makes sure she’s taking care of herself like showering and brushing her teeth and things.

~During the earlier years when she mostly stayed with the boys, very little contact to her mother in New York, Jin absolutely made sure he had cramp medication on hand and feminine products stashed in spots around the house. Well hidden obvi so the boys wouldn’t just stumble across them, but still there. (She does these things on her own now, but she’ll never forget the thought he put into making sure she was cared for)

~She’s definitely requested a majority of the time on EatJin. ARMY just likes to make sure that she’s eating(just like all of them) and they want to see the two of them talk.

~All in all, the boys are her family and she wouldn’t trade them for the world.

#i didnt want something so informal to be my first fic related post #but i got inspired so....#bts #8th member au #8th member of bts #bangtan #bts mots 7 #bts fanfic #jungkook #taehyung #jimin #namjoon #hoseok #yoongi #seokjin

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prorevenge · 6 years

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The wrath of the stoner art student.

So I think this would count as pro revenge because I planned it kinda. A bit long, sorry bout that first time really posting this anywhere. TL:DR at the end.

Things to note:

As the title says I'm an art student, I live with my parents while I'm on college to cut living expenses.

Couple of years ago my dad had a security system installed that came with two camera to set up. One pointed at the side door and drive way. One pointed at the street by the front door. So you can see the cars. It has an app we all installed on our phones that gives us alerts.

I also have this shed I asked my parents if I could use for most of my art as it gets messy. I would always clean up after myself but paint still stains the carpet and if I had to smell that tangerine floor cleaner one more time I was gonna barf. I fixed it up a bit, still looks crappy but it's mine. took about two weeks to set up.

We also have a problem of people going through cars....a lot...like ridiculously so. I have a crap ford tempo that I never kept anything important in so I didn't care.

The incident:

As I said I have an art shed and I'm a student of the visual communication program in my local college. My professor had given us our term assignment which was basic but fun. Pick a piece that was in the text book and either write a 10 page essay on it or do a recreation with a two page blurb of how you copied the techniques yada yada.

I was stoked because van Gogh was covered in there and I wanted to do a piece called "cafe terrace" it's a gorgeous piece. And I put a lot of time and effort into this thing...and smoked a lot of weed while doing it haha.

But one night my phone gives me am alert from the security system while I'm at a small party (get together? ) and I see a blurry image of the three teens running past my side door. I thinks odd but I wasn't home to check it out immediately.

When I get home from being driven by a friend from a party I get back to see my car door ajar and i roll my eyes because it's annoying but not new. But then I remember the alert on my phone and went to check around the house. Check the shed last because there's a lock on it, it'll be fine right? I live in canada who is gonna break into my shed ha..hahaha

When I get to my shed it's trashed. Lock on the ground. The material I hung up to over the ceiling was ripped and burned. All works of art I put on the walls were ripped down. My paint was everywhere and my pastels were stomped on. They even broke my fucking little shitty stool I nicknamed hermet.

But the worse was my term project was destroyed, cut apart and then repeatedly smashed.....with my mother fucking bong. My 9mm glass beaker bong that I got as a present. Two weeks before I had turn that fucking project in.

I was livid.

The revenge:

I was able to get a weeks extension as I emailed my professor and sent him photos including the security alert and contacted the police about the destruction of property (still can't get over them looking at my shattered bong and me just whipping out my green card to be safe)

Clean up was a couple days and I did manage to turn my project in on time without the extension by just not going to sleep. First one was better but hey.

I was still pissed tho. I kept thinking of ways on how to catch them or lure them in and scare the crap out of them. So...I left change (loonies and twoonies stuff they would go for) and fives in my cars console. Left my doors unlocked and at the front of the house. I turned on that camera (as it had been off for a while because it would go off a lot) And I kept a bat in the shed and the side door. No guarantee that's it'll be the same idiots but I keep hoping. A few people picked my car but it wasn't those turds so I waved it off.

A month later and a Few days after my finale exams I'm in the shed at 2am smoking, and sketching something when the alert goes off. It's the front camera and I see three familiar looking blurs ransacking my car. I grab the bat and before I set out I hear them coming towards my shed. I flick the string of lights off and I let them get closer before I jump out with a bat in hand.

One of them screams so loud before they book it and I run after them to scare them away. I'm bad a running and fully expect them to outpace me

But one of them cut across my front lawn and slipped on wet grass. He bifs it and I catch up to him and grab him by the back of his hoodie with the bat threatening him

"WERE YOU THE ONES WHO TRASHED MY SHED?!"

"I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I WON'T DO IT AGAIN"

"THE FUCKS YOUR NAME?"

"MATTHEW" his name was not Matthew

"GIMME YOUR FUCKING WALLET"

The dude throws it's and I let go of him to retrieve it and he runs off. whatever.

I pocketed my five plus what I'm assuming was another 40 bucks of stolen money. Took a look at his wallet and his high school id with his real name was there. Fbed his mom and told him what happened and emailed the school as well, mentioning I was a previous student there and that I was "devastated" that this how the school teaches children.

haha

The mom turned up at my door with another mom and a older dude and the three turdlings. They had to apologize to me in person.

Isn't that nice?

(also think my prof gave me a few more points than I deserved on the piece I submitted just because of what happened. Bless you soul Clint. That painting was shit but you gave me 82/100 anyway)

again sorry this was long

TL;DR: Punk kids go through my shed and trash it. Lure them back in a month later and chase them a baseball bat.

(source) (story by PretentiousBanana)

#prorevenge #by PretentiousBanana #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #revenge story #last10

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vaultsexteen · 6 years

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The Vault Sexteen End of Year Fic Rec List 2017

because i read a lot of fallout fanfiction in the last five months and i want to justify it

i get into the nitty gritty of Why I Like These Fics So Much because i love explaining things, so i’m shoving this under a cut!

Honesty, Industry, Prudence by meanoldauthor

Slaves of Caesar's Legion are all but invisible. Most use it to avoid punishment, but the clever might turn it to their own gain. A rare few, through a roll of fate, might gain unexpected influence on the Legion itself.

Caesar's Priestesses are the only women held in any regard among the Legion, and even then only as caretakers and nurses to children. A mysterious and select group, their influence seems to go no further than the Temple doors. However, one lucky slave sees beyond the safety and softness of their work--and into a far deeper potential.

a wholly self-contained, character-driven story that takes us through life in the Legion through a woman’s eyes, and also one of the first FNV fics i ever read that captured my interest. i love worldbuilding and i super love when fics explore and build upon established canon and give these worlds their own space to breathe, to take a peek behind the curtain. this fic builds upon the Legion’s lore excellently, weaving a rich tapestry that makes the setting come alive. Aquilina is also a very compelling character with strong motivations, and keeping up with her life was always super interesting.

Qui Sumus by ghostofshe

A deceiver, two frumentarii, and a Courier, betting on the future of the Legion with a stack of mismatched cards and stolen caps.

4 chapters and yet to be finished but i love love love it. the Courier gets replaced by his twin sister and it’s already an intriguing premise but the writing for the characters really sold this fic for me. if you can’t tell, i am a sucker for character-driven stories, but that’s really because the characters are the backbone of a good story, for me - and the ones here are super strong and distinct and are really fun to watch. Cato and Nox and Canus are great, but i also love the depiction of Vulpes Inculta here - here’s a version of him that’s around someone familiar, which is super jarring usually, but what we’ve seen of him so far works for the character in my opinion.

dear hearts and gentle people by cheloniidae

The Courier survives the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. Her mother loses her all the same.

the Courier’s exploits told from her family’s point of view - a concept that’s been done before, but this one pulls it off the best, in my opinion. short but bittersweet! all the details about Johanna’s life and her relationship with her family come forward, and her motivations for the events of FNV, which take place off-screen, are at the forefront.

oasis of light by cheloniidae

A late night's work before the war.

(Instead of a family, Robert House has a city.)

if i am a sucker for anything, it’s character studies, and this was an excellent character study for House. it’s under 700 words but it perfectly encapsulates House’s motivations and feelings so well that it made a huge impression on me, and made me think about how i frame the motivations of my own characters.

G, You Look Good To Me by moon_crater & SynthApostate

Razz has a problem. O’Hanrahan is more than happy to help! Cheerfully, annoyingly happy to help. Whether Razz wants him to or not.

this fic is SO CUTE. it’s SO GOOD. minor FNV characters really got to shine in this fic, it has 6 chapters so far and i love every single one of them. it does a fantastic job of setting up the budding relationship between its main pair, their chemistry is so great. they’re finding that they have more in common with each other than they thought - but they also start to appreciate their differences, too. and it’s not just about o’hanrahan & razz, but poindexter and mags have integral roles, too, and their relationship as a whole unit is explored as well. i love how their friendships are slowly but surely developing together.

Here’s to the Losers by moon_crater

Fate decides Benny needs to acquire four-feet-ten inches of mouthy sidekick. Benny disagrees. Too bad he's got no say in the matter.

don’t you love it when characters are kicked down a peg or two or ten? ‘cause i sure do, and this fic hits Benny hard. Benny Gecko, shitty garbage man, has to take care of a smart-mouthed little kid, and it’s beautiful and also amazing. he’s still so obviously Benny, he can smooth-talk his way out of getting killed by raiders but he’s also always looking around every corner for anything that might kick him in the gut or stab him in the neck, and it’s just amplified when he’s in a situation where he has to look out for something other than himself. they got his character down cold and the situation they put him in is a great test of that character. plus, the kid is super funny and a great character in their own right, and i love their interactions! they play off each other super well!

The “Moron” in “Moroni” by TerribleAndSadThings

“Men like Graham do not change, Courier. His loyalty was never to Caesar, but to the war Caesar provided him. His religion is not that of New Canaanites, but that of battle. His god is not of kindness or mercy, but of slaughter.”

first off, THIS COURIER. WHAT A CHARACTER. seeing this Courier that is just a force of nature is so great, and my favorite kind of Courier if i’m being completely honest. just reading the other NPCs try to figure out how this Courier even works is always entertaining. and then there’s his relationship with Joshua Graham, which feels like such a cataclysmic disaster yet feels very very right. this fic has maybe one of my most favorite depictions of Joshua Graham ever.

and that’s not even getting into the SMUT PART

Case File: Vulpes Inculta by RandamHajile & turianosauruswrex

In the year 2299, over a decade and a half since the death of Caesar and the fall of the Legion, we’ve followed two reporters, Delilah Wells of Radio New Vegas and Carlos Rendón of the New Vegas Times, as they’ve come together in the capital city of the Mormon nation of New Deseret to uncover the mystery behind a grave anonymous tip they’ve been given–is Vulpes Inculta, the infamous war criminal said to have been slain in 2282, still alive and free in the Holy City of New Zion? And if so, what sort of danger could he pose, and can he be brought to justice for his heinous crimes? Join us now as the trail goes hot, and the mystery deepens…

now this list is NOT in any particular order BUT... this is the Best fanfic i have ever read this year, bar none. it’s at 2 chapters so far, but don’t be fooled: it’s an epistolary whodunit with loads of journal entries, audio recordings, letters, transcripts, and more to pore through and discover. what i can say here, i already said in the comments for chapter 2:

Words cannot grasp how much I love this fic, but by Jove, I'll try. It's SO GOOD. And wonderfully written and presented, holy crap. It's plain to see how much effort went into making everything look, and it adds so much to the characters and setting: examples that stick out to me are the pristine, color-printed recruitment pamphlets of Brotherhood of Steel; Delilah's photographs; Arthur Young's ADORABLE stationary; the sketches in Carlos' notepad; the New Vegas telegraphs... I'll be here all day if I list 'em all. And those are just the VISUAL element...

The audio recordings have mismatched volume levels for each actor and are at times hard to make out, which is explained in-verse by having the recordings be from a wire - not saying it's bad, in fact I think it gives the recordings lots of personality. And the voice talents themselves do a great job! Delilah has a nice, clear voice for radio and Carlos is mumbly with a sort of flat voice, which I think suits him perfectly.

The writing and worldbuilding is just stellar, too. Delilah and Carlos KNOW what they're doing, and I love learning more about them as more and more details begin to show themselves, and it's all very seamlessly integrated with the main story. Trying to figure out the mystery of Vulpes Inculta along with them never feels boring and I am on the edge of my seat wondering how things are going to develop aaaaahhhhh oh my GOD.

In short, I love this fic and I think anyone who loves Fallout should read it. Thanks!

THOSE HAVE BEEN MY TOP PICKS FOR THIS YEAR! YOWZA!!!

#fallout new vegas #fan fic #The Vault Sexteen End Of Year Fic Rec List #fan fiction #fic recs

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mizunocaitlin · 7 years

Text

A Synopsis of Le Mouvment Final, the Sailor Stars musical

Here is my mostly comprehensive synopsis of Le Mouvement Final, the final Sailor Moon revival musical that opened in Tokyo on September 8th, 2017. This synopsis is full of spoilers. And pictures. You have been warned.

Also, I apologize for errors and omissions. I took notes for this one, but it’s a tad hard to take comprehensive notes in the dark.

The musical opens at the airport where Usagi is seeing off Mamoru. He's gotten into Harvard and they're both quite sad about being separated, but Usagi wants him to see his dream through. Mamoru presents Usagi with a ring, but holds back actually proposing marriage. [Overture ~Prologue~]

Around the same time, the Three Lights arrive at the airport from presumably an overseas concert. Lots of fans to dodge! Usagi has no idea who they are and what all the hoopla is about. Walking by, Seiya and the gang sense the “Star Light” coming off of Usagi and Mamoru, but Yaten doesn't want to get involved. They are on a mission. Suddenly, the baddies show and Mamoru is taken/killed right in front of Usagi, who doesn't have time to transform or anything. He never even gets on the plane. No ambiguity. He's dead. She's frozen in terror. The Three Lights come to her aid and she collapses in their arms.

Usagi recovers physically, but she’s not all there mentally. Chibi Chibi makes her first appearance and serves as a distraction! Usagi pretends nothing happened and sees this stray child and decides to help her. Brings her to the authorities, I think.

...and cut to the Music Festival. I missed some dialogue so I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a student/school music festival or a general music festival, but the first act we see is the Sailor Band. Just like in the previous musicals, the inner senshi are a band. Usagi is late so they go on without her. They sing [Otome no Michi] and their performance clothes are so manga-like! Jeans jackets! Lace shawls! Minako's keytar made me laugh.

The act that follows the Sailor Band is a duet: Haruka on paino, Michiru on violin. Though we don't get to see the duet, one of the other senshi comments that the piece they perform is written by Haruka for Michiru. Haruka and Michiru are really THE couple of this musical. Japanese Twitter identified the dress on Michiru, btw. It’s available online.

Instead of seeing the Haruka/Michiru performance, we watch back stage as the inners chastise Usagi for being late. She says she'd gone to the airport to see Mamoru off. She's already PTSD forgot about his death. It was that traumatic. The girls gush about how the Thee Lights are performing at the same music festival they are. Amazing! And here they are now! The girls spend some stage time fawning over how perfect the boys of Three Lights are. The inners all in the fan club, too! Each of the inner senshi proudly recites her fan club membership number. Naturally, the punchline of this joke is Ami. Everyone else's fan club number is in the hundreds or thousands. Ami's is #7.

Usagi still has no idea who this boy band is, and begins listing off good qualities in a man, but comments at each one that Mamoru is better than these cheesy boy band guys. Seiya, who remembers that Mamoru was killed in the airport, instantly feels terrible for Usagi. He wants to correct her and comfort her, but when he tries everyone accuses him of being sweet on Usagi.

We see the Three Lights perform next. They're so cool! But, their song [Wandering Stars] is full of novelty English. A little too much for me, personally. We see Haruka and Michiru come off stage after their performance and meet the Lights. I believe at this point is when Haruka shakes hands very pissing contest style with Seiya and everybody sense everybody else's magic powers.

At the end of the Three Lights song, the power cuts out and Iron Mouse appears. Before she can really get an attack in on the Thee Lights, Sailor Moon is on the scene. She whips out a powerful attack that knocks down Iron Mouse. I believe this battle song is [Sky of Jewels]. Quickly pretty much all the senshi show up to join Sailor Moon in the fight with Iron Mouse and she's forced to retreat. The youma costumes in this musical aren't nearly as cool as before. All black and gold. Meh. In the battle, the Three Lights are outed as senshi to pretty much everyone. The outers are concerned. The inners are super stoked their favorite boyband is just like them.

Then, we see Galaxia and get her intro song, [Dictator of Densetsu/Dictator of Legend]. Very rock opera. There's a ton of English in it. She sings her motivations and plans for taking over world domination. Pretty badass, really. Her costume glitters beautifully on stage. Galaxia is pissed that Iron Mouse took the initiative to attack, but didn't get any Star Seeds/Sailor Crystals. Iron Mouse pleads that there were more senshi than she expected. She gets punished by Galaxia for her failure.

After Galaxia's intro, we see the Animates talking among themselves. Tin Nyanko defends Iron Mouse and says they should stick together because they're friends. They should support poor chastised Iron Mouse! But Lead Crow and Aluminum Siren say, fuck no. We are not friends. We're henchmen in Galaxia's army. Fuck off. Iron Mouse leans on Tin Nyanko for comfort and says she's hungry, let's go get something to eat. So, two couples in the Animates and they want nothing to do with each other.

We cut to the Three Lights in school uniforms on the roof of Azabu Jyuban High School, where they've just enrolled. They lament to each other how they've been on this planet a whole month-ish and they still haven't found Kakyuu. They wonder aloud if it's because their singing isn't good enough. They accuse each other of being off key and then sort of test their pitch against each other, mocking each other's failures. Singing is very much the sign of power on Kinmoku.

Usagi ends up on the roof, too, writing a letter to Mamoru – Even though she's had no contact from him since she thinks he left for Harvard. Even though the Three Lights are aliens, they still dis her shitty grammar and kanji. Seiya tries again to spill the beans, but Setsuna, who appears to be the school nurse, finds Usagi with the Lights and intervenes. When she touches Seiya, she feels his power first hand and tells him to stay away from Usagi. Then, Setsuna freaks out because OMG she touched the hot lead singer of the coolest boyband ever. Kya!

That afternoon, they hold a meeting at I believe Rei's place, to discuss these Three Lights and the new threat. Chibi Chibi just shows up to the meeting like it ain't no thing. She sings an adorable song [CHIBI CHIBI] that reminds me of the Kewpie dance and everyone guesses she must be a new, mysterious relative of Usagi's. Another child or a grand child or something, maybe? And they just let her stay.

The meeting commenses. Setsuna has drawn up chibi faces of the Three Lights on a white board as a visual aid for the meeting. They talk about what the Lights have been up to since transfering to the senshis' school. Seiya is on the baskeball team and is naturally the best player. We see Seiya in a ridiculously poorly fitting basketball jersey playing around with a ball. Taiki has scored better than even Ami on that one test. Yaten is such a sassy gay that he called out Michiru on her make-up choices, which pissed off both her and Haruka. Like, literally. He called her out on her makeup. What the hell, Yaten?

The senshi speculate that they must have arrived in the meteor shower that happened last month. And, Setsuna further speculates that since she and Haruka both felt spiritual energy from them, that all three must be senshi.... Which means they can transform... Which means that they must put on sailor collars and short skirts and Setsuna starts to draw sailor fuku on the chibis she's sketched of the Three Lights on her white board and EVERYBODY FREAKS THE FUCK OUT. Partly at the idea of boy band guys in short skirts. Partly, seemly, at the idea that they might not be boys at all. Which, that part is a tad disappointing.

After the meeting, Chibi Chibi wanders off and Usagi bumps into Seiya looking for her in a nearby park. Since they both already know each other are senshi, Seiya takes this opportunity to sing [Wandering Stars Ballad Version] about what the Starlights are doing on earth. He gets just emo enough to release some of his spiritual power, which lures the baddies to the scene. Senshi and baddies convene on the spot and transform/arrive to the song [Sailor Make Up!].

In the battle, Siren an Crow sing about their back story in [Crow to Siren]. They kinda sorta were senshi, you see, but their worlds were not well off and relatively peaceful like Earth. Shit was bad, and they're with Galaxia now. Sailor Moon manages to get Iron Mouse and Tin Nyanko in a Gorgeous Mediation attack, healing them from the brainwashing and breaking their power bracelets. Mouse and Nyanko say even more about Galaxia and her insane slaughter across the galaxy. Before they get too far, however, Siren and Crow kill them for betraying Galaxia and reclaim their Sailor Crystals/Star Seeds.

This freaks Sailor Moon right the fuck out. Seing senshi-on-senshi violence and watching two people die in front of her, triggers her PTSD and she's basically frozen in trauma until we hear the snap snap snap. The Sailor Starlights appear! By now we've got basically all the senshi and all the baddies on stage, Galaxia included. Galaxia kinda mocks Sailor Moon and the senshi for being overly attached to their mortal, human bodies. We are so much more than that! I believe she then kills Mercury and Jupiter.

A sweet aside, Neptune laments that they're at war again and she's so tired of war. But Uranus says it doesn't matter, because they can face anything if they're together. Aw.

After the battle, we see Chibi Chibi walk on stage in the darkness. She starts to speak about Galaxia and the battle, then her speech is taken over by Sailor Cosmos who appears behind her.

Seiya is back in human form again, and shooting hoops to let off some steam. Haruka shows up to basically beat him up just because. Stay the fuck away from Usagi, bitch! She's ours! And Seiya once again has to be all, there's just something she needs to know. Something I have to tell her. Seiya relly gives off the vibe that he relates to Usagi's loss on a deep, traumatic level. He seems to correlate the trauma of him losing Kakyuu to the trauma of Usagi loosing Mamoru. Haruka's like ok fine you can talk to Usagi about whatever... BUT ONLY FOR 5 MINUTES I'M WATCHING YOU PUNK.

At some point here they sing [Scent of War].

The outers have a moment where they lament maybe putting up a shield around the solar system. Fucking, outers, man. WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT BEFORE ASSHOLES????

Everyone is freaking out about the new enemy. Usagi has a PTSD flashback about Mamoru's death but still can't quite accept it. Mars reads the Tarot and turns up a Death card, says this fight is different from all the rest. Minako complains that she just wants to be a normal teen for once and get a boyfriend. Yaten comment that this is foolish. They've all pledged their lives and their very souls to their princess. Romantic entanglements are for people without a mission. Minako quickly agrees.

Usagi sings [My Only Love], lamenting how much she treasures Mamoru and misses him and needs him. Seiya joins in her song, sort of realizing that his sympathy for Usagi is sort of turning into a crush on Usagi. Oops. Chibi Chibi sort of pushes the two together and Usagi finally fully remembers Mamoru's death. Seiya explains to Usagi more about Galaxia and this massive, universe wide war they're in.

But Usagi gets no rest. Galaxia ambushes them and kills Mars and Venus, again right in front of her. Galaxia says she's doing this whole murdering your loved ones in front of you thing on purpose, too. She says the anger and fear will rev up Sailor Moon's power and make her more ripe for the picking. Ugh. Asshole.

The Lights show up and Seiya wants to intervene, but Yaten pulls a Switzerland and rants that this is not their fight. The outers show up, though, and yell at them for this bullshit. They school the Lights all about how awesome Usagi is. She's so kind and gently and compassionate and everyone who meets her loves her and didn't you just sense her virtue standing next to her??? Aw, outers, I didn't know you cared so much!

This battle features Neptune and Siren so we get to see two water users battle it out. They “flood” the battle area. Pretty awesome, really. Siren is not nearly the ditz she was in the anime. They really go at it. When Usagi joins the battle, Galaxia unleashes the pain. Her massive attack hits the outers. Pluto uses herself as a human shield to protect Saturn (and secretly sends Saturn to the Time Gate) and Uranus and Neptune are fatally wounded. They reach out for each other as they die.

Sailor Moon is now alone, and Galaxia sets about the destruction of planet Earth. Chibi Chibi suddenly shows and stops it, however. And, Kakyuu comes out of hiding to join the fight. Holy shit, you guys. Kakyuu's voice? Basically opera. She's an opera singer. She sings [Saigo no Kibou/Last Hope]. On Kinmoku, singing ability = power for sure!

Intermission

Back from Intermission, Chaos is having words with Galaxia about The Plan. Blah, blah. Who cares.

Cut to Usagi. She's in her school uniform, just standing there. Alone. Grieveing. Then, suddenly, Ami, Makoto, and Minako appear! They form a playful ring around her Dogeball style saying they need to protect her. Tee-hee! Then they bring up this, basically, rape whistle that Rei apparently gave Usagi if she was ever in trouble. She blows the whistle and Rei comes running. Everybody laughs, and laughs. Usagi is tearful. Why is everyone so loyal to her? Why do they care so much? But the emotional manipulation is not over! The girls say that a special chef has prepared a meal for Usagi. It's Mamoru! He's made a special pun laden dish he calls “Tuxedo La Smoking Hamburg” and why hasn't THAT been on any of the cafe menus, huh?

The peace is broken by Galaxia, and the apparent dream becomes a nightmare. Chibi Chibi then wakes Usagi, who finds herself on the couch in the living room of the house the Three Lights all share. Kakyuu explains that she was always searching for Usagi, because Usagi is pretty much the most powerful being in the universe. She says her own lover was killed, and that's what set her off. Usagi laments that the Silver Crystal always starts conflicts.

Seiya is now in full angst mode. His princess is here, but Usagi is suffering. He wants to comfort Usagi, but feels he can't. He gets down on one knee before Usagi and vows not to leave her side. Meanwhile, Yaten is a catty bitch. Yaten wants nothing to do with these Earth people. Kinmoku First! Kakyuu shuts that down fast. No, we help.

They decide to seek out Galaxia where she lives. They band together and, in a great light show and bit of projection mapping, end up at the River of Memories that acts as a moat to Galaxia's Palace. It's a river of sand. Everyone is separated. We don't see Lethe and Mnemosyne, but the back up dancers that hassle Sailor Moon as tries to remember who she was and why she's here are dressed just like the pair are in the manga before they reveal themselves.

Usagi comes to herself and... poof! Heeeerrrrreee's Chibi Moon! Turns out when Pluto used herself as a human shield to protect Saturn, Saturn went to the future to fetch Chibi Usa. Genius! Nice shipper moment for Hotaru and Chibi Usa there. A battle occurs between Saturn, Sailor Moon, Chibi Moon, Siren and Crow.

Usagi manages to break the hold of the brainwashing bracelets, but Crow and Siren have much more complicated loyalties. Siren says she's sick of fighting. Crow talks about their home worlds. Kinda deep. They guilt Sailor Moon about her super powerful crystal being too strong a lure for bad people and things. They urge her to basically commit suicide for the good of the universe. Sailor Moon... considers it.

Naturally, Galaxia kills Siren and Crow for their betrayal. So, Kakyuu attacks! She's no real match for Galaxia, though, so she takes a fatal hit and dies in Star Fighter's arms. Seiya just can not win. All the Starlights get an attack in. Then, the inevitable. Galaxia revives Tuxedo Kamen and the solar system senshi as baddies complete with super charged abilities thanks to their power bracelets. They have special, Galaxia version of all their attacks and Tuxedo Kamen is the leader instead of Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon can't bring herself to attack her brainwashed friends. Naturally, Galaxia has also brainwashed Tuxedo Kamen to be in love with her and they kiss just to fuck with Sailor Moon some more. Mamoru is really sexually abused throughout the series, isn't he? Chibi Moon wants to intervene, but Chibi Chibi stops her. When Tuxedo Kamen comes at Sailor Moon, apparently as an attack, the touch forms a telepathic connection. Mamoru assures Usagi that all of them are still alive and intact on the inside and it's just the push she needs!

Sailor Moon upgrades to her ultimate form and we get to see the wings again. Yay! She sets in on Galaxia. Galaxia mocks the fragility of life and human connection. Usagi sings the virtues of love and comradiere and compassion. The battle shifts to the Galaxy Cauldron.

Galaxia wants to make this shit final. She takes all the Sailor Crystals/Star Seeds she's collected and throws them in the Galaxy Cauldron to melt them and destroy them forever. She calls Sailor Moon the ultimate senshi. Galaxia makes a move to kill Sailor Moon, but it stopped by Chaos. Meanwhile, Chibi Chibi and Chibi Moon stand off to the side of the stage, seemingly helpless, watching.

Chaos reframes the argument. Chaos calls back to all the evil Sailor Moon has faced, and calls them the siblings of Sailor Moon. Everything powerful ever was formed in the same Galaxy Cauldron as Sailor Moon's Sailor Crystal/soul was. They are all one in the same.

Galaxia is injured, dying. Sailor Moon says she is lonely. Deserves compassion herself. Needs to be saved.

Chibi Chibi now speaks up. She builds on what the Animates and Chaos have said in the second act: If power exists, it will be used for evil eventually. The only way to achieve peace is to destroy the power that made the Silver Crystal and Usagi in the first place: The Galaxy Cauldron itself. Usagi objects. Wouldn't that mean no more souls would be created? Wouldn't the universe slowly whither and die? Yes, says Chibi Chibi. But there would be no more evil. There would be peace.

Sailor Moon doesn't really hesitate. Life is better. Deeply flawed life is better than peaceful nothing. She pledges to endlessly fight the battle against evil no matter what it takes, because life is worth it. She takes on the responsibility.

The injured Galaxia dies. Chibi Chibi disappears and is replaced by Sailor Cosmos. It's a dramatic moment. Everything is silent. Seeing the Cosmos and Sailor Moon on stage together is freaking amazing you guys.

They manage to revive the solar system senshi and Sailor Moon asks for their help to defeat Chaos. Cosmos and Chibi Moon both sit out the fight together, on the same part of the stage as before. This is the point where I started to suspect Cosmos and Chibi Moon were the same person.

The melted Sailor Crystals are pulled from the Galaxy Cauldron and reformed. Cosmos talks to Chibi Moon. She calls herself the future Sailor Moon. She says that she fled here from a distant future because the battle was too hard. She basically presented Sailor Moon with the moral choice she couldn't make. She says at one point “I have returned here many times”. Very cryptic. I plan to analyze the fuck out of this dialog when the DVD comes out. Usagi barely interacts with Cosmos. It's all Chibi Moon here. I really thing she's talking to her past self. Cosmos calls this Sailor Moon the best Sailor Moon. Read into that what you will. Cosmos promises she won't run away anymore.

Now with the battle over, everyone de-transforms and is reunited. The girls are all in white dresses and pose on the stage after hugging each other, happy to be alive, recreating an artbook scene. Mamoru is so happy to be alive and see Usagi that he wastes no time. Proposes marriage on the spot.

The last scene in the musical is the wedding of Usagi and Mamoru. Mamory is in the green embroidered tuxedo jacket from the artbooks and Usagi has on her pretty white wedding dress. They embrace and are so happy. SO HAPPY! Usagi tells Mamoru that she thinks she's already pregnany with ChibiUsa. I can't remember the exact phrasing but it's something along the lines of “I can already feel the light of a new star growing within me.” Mamoru is ELATED! I cried, you guys.

All of the other senshi flood into the stage, also in white. I believe it's Minako who says that Usagi it's not fair that Usagi be only one to wear a pretty dress. They pose on the stairs in a facimile of the artbook wedding dress image used in the musical promos. Usagi tosses the bouquet and Rei catches it. Whatever, we know Haruka and Michiru are getting married next.

They fade to black and a highlight montage of past musicals is projected on the stage. I cried again. At the end of the montage it says “The end.”. Noo!!! Do Sailor V or the side stories or ANYTHING! More! More!

There were 5 encore songs. Tuxedo Kamen, all senshi, Uranus/Neptune, Endymion, everyone doing Ai no Starshine, and then everyone doing Moonlight Densetsu. I didn't just cry, I bawled like a baby.

The musical was amazing. The story was much faster paced than, say, the Sailor Moon S musical. The way several characters framed the final battle as a moral choice was really masterful storytelling for one of these things. With the exception of the backup dancers, every costume was awesome. Super 90's civilian clothes! Super shiny senshi ensembles! Wedding dresses! The best! I can't wait to see it on DVD. Wish I could have gone again. And again.

Thematically, this musical really puts Usagi to the test. It presents her with the ultimate moral choice surrounding her power. She actively chooses to fight evil forever. She chooses to preserve life. She never wavers in her love for Mamoru. Seiya might start to fall for her, but she doesn’t seem to even notice. I feel like the writers really listened to criticism of previous shows here. So much worked so well!

#sailor moon #bishoujo senshi sailor moon #seramyu #sailor moon musical #le mouvement final #synopsis #sailor cosmos #sailor starlights #tsukino usagi #spoilers #セラミュ #セラミュー #セーラームーン

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