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deborahdeshoftim5779 · 3 years

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Merlin & Arthur’s friendship: clichés versus reality (Part II)

Following on from Merlin & Arthur’s friendship: clichés versus reality Part I, here is part II.

CLAIM #3: Arthur *constantly* denied that Merlin was his friend

This claim assumes that Arthur was 1)- serious when he did deny being friends with Merlin and 2)- unwilling to change that viewpoint.

Arthur had no need to either deny or admit to being friends with Merlin. Even when he said in episode 2x13 that, “I know I’m a Prince, so we can’t be friends,” the implication is that he does want to be friends. After all, he was insisting that Merlin confide in him. This pattern would repeat in many episodes to come.

Bear in mind that Arthur has described other people as friends, too. This includes people we never saw onscreen. A clear example comes from episode 5x05, when Arthur was so moved with grief by Sir Ranulf’s death that he personally led a collection of knights to bring the sorcerer Osgar to justice. He explained to Gwen that “...he was a friend. We knew each other as boys.”

So why would Arthur have trouble admitting that Merlin was his friend? The viewpoint that being more arrogant and prejudiced in the earlier seasons, Arthur would not admit to friendship with a servant, does not hold as much water as some think. As early as episode 2x05, Arthur called Merlin a “true friend”, because he (mistakenly) thought that Merlin was criticising Lady Catrina on his behalf.

Admittedly, the best examples of Arthur accepting Merlin as a friend come from Seasons 4 and 5.

In episode 4x01, Merlin said, “I always thought that if things hadn’t been different, we’d have been good friends.” Arthur’s response? “Yeah.” During the crucial episode 4x03, Merlin sat outside the throne room all right, facing a crossroads between the end of his dreams and remaining loyal to the king. Of course, Arthur had no idea about this, but he appreciated the gesture. “You are a loyal friend, Merlin.” In episode 4x05, Arthur called Merlin “old friend”, which is self-explanatory.

It’s also worth noting that even after claiming in episode 4x05 that he didn’t need friends, when Merlin later said, “I’m your friend!”, Arthur did not disagree.

Now, I could cite the example of episode 4x07, where Arthur said to Merlin, “I’ve had my heart broken once today. I don’t want to lose another friend.” Self-explanatory. But was this proof of their friendship? No. Arthur was essentially threatening to end his friendship with Merlin if the latter continued criticising Agravaine. Later, in episode 4x11, Arthur again threatened to banish Merlin for the second time (thus ending their friendship) if he accused Agravaine of treason again. This once again shows how Arthur associated loyalty with family first.

One of the best examples comes from episode 4x13: “I came back because you’re the only friend I have, and I couldn’t bear to lose you.” Is Merlin Arthur’s only friend? No. However, out of all Arthur’s friends, Merlin was his best friend, and losing almost everyone and everything else made him realise that yet again.

Then we have all the actions which prove Arthur considered Merlin as a friend.

For example relied on Merlin’s opinion, as Princess Mithian rightly observed in episode 4x11. “One thing I’ve learned since being here is that Arthur values your opinion above almost all others.”

He complained about Merlin’s periods of silence and broodiness, like in episode 3x05: “Come on: I’m missing your usual prattle!” In episode 3x09, after noting that Merlin was upset, he said, “For goodness’ sake, what is your problem?”

Another example comes from episode 5x01, where Arthur noted Merlin sitting outside the camp and took the time to find out why he was “so upset”.

The example from episode 5x05 is self-explanatory: “Seriously, I haven’t seen you smile these past three days.” Arthur relies on Merlin’s cheerfulness to remain optimistic, because he faces the constant threat of death. Notice that shortly after Merlin’s sombre mood, Arthur stopped dismissing Osgar’s warnings about The Disir.

As if this were not enough, look at Arthur spending downtime with Merlin. A great example comes from episode 3x04, where Arthur decides on “a nice, cold tankard of mead” after hunting. In episode 3x13, both were sitting on the courtyard steps discussing the future of the kingdom. Even despite his strenuous denials and ingratitude in episode 4x05, you can see Arthur gesture for Merlin to sit down the morning after they captured Caerleon.

What about all the hunting trips? Arthur knows that Merlin hates hunting (in fact, he takes pleasure in this fact), yet still brought him along, as episodes 1x13, 3x04, 4x11, 5x03, and 5x11 show.

By far my favourite example comes from episode 5x12, when Arthur and Merlin were playing dice at the tavern. (I don’t know iwhat this game was called.) In my view, this happened regularly. Why else would the common people watch and laugh while Merlin poked fun at their king? (Percival’s face was classic.) And why was Arthur playing against Merlin? When did Merlin learn how to play dice? Who taught him? When?

Obviously, I do not know, but it’s worth asking.

Despite being speechless after Merlin “won” the game, Arthur let Merlin “win” all of his money. (Clearly, Arthur was the better player: “Feel free to retire at any time.” The king only used theatrics to get the right dice roll, while Merlin cheated with magic each time. If Merlin hadn’t “coughed”, then Arthur would have rolled correctly a second time. Hence why Arthur said beforehand, “Enjoy this moment, Merlin… while it lasts.”)

Look at Arthur, who was dressed in a plain shirt, rather than his armour and cloak. When we put this scene in conjunction with episode 3x04, where Arthur again wore plain clothes, we can see that he enjoyed these moments of normality. “There’s no better place to measure the mood of your people than the local tavern… I’m just a simple peasant like everybody else.”

So where is this strenuous denial? Nowhere. Arthur never constantly denied that Merlin was his friend. Nor did he only admit this in secret, otherwise the great dice scene in episode 5x12 would never have happened. Sure, the people might have been astonished to see their great king playing against a servant, but they must also have known that if Arthur allowed himself to be “beaten” at a game by his servant, the latter must be his friend.

CLAIM #4: Merlin was usually/always (in the) right

Wrong. Being right most of the time does not mean being right all of the time. Merlin failed to realise this, and consequently made grievous errors throughout the series. The most grievous errors came when he tried to fight against death. Episode 3x05 shows this; all of the grief and pain suffered by Arthur, Gwen, and Uther stemmed from Merlin mortally injuring Morgana in a bid to prevent her from killing the king.

He effectively ignored the warning to “use what you see for good.”

Then we have the example to end all examples; Merlin’s recklessness, presumptuousness, bold-faced hypocrisy, coldness, prejudice, and most of all, jealousy towards Sir Mordred.

Even as early as episode 1x08, Merlin almost let the boy Mordred die on account of a prophecy. At least back then he questioned it before hiding in bed like a coward. Mordred also blamed Merlin for Uther’s carnage in episode 2x11, though in the case of that episode and episode 2x03, I think Merlin’s actions were no worse than presumptuous.

It gets far worse in episode 5x02, when Merlin yelled, “You should have killed him!”, to which Arthur rightly said, “What is wrong with you?” Mordred saw that he could not jump across the gorge, so he surrendered and walked away. (He probably knew that Arthur would arrive in Ismere soon, as his later conversation with Morgana demonstrates.)

Later on, Arthur gave Merlin another strange look after Merlin said, “I told you, you should have killed him when you had the chance.” How could someone usually so compassionate insist on executing a man who stopped threatening them?

Remember how Merlin reacted to Arthur killing Caerleon in episode 4x05, despite having plenty of evidence that Caerleon was a threat to Arthur’s life?

By the way, episodes 5x01 and 5x02 are my favourite examples of Merlin being horrendously wrong. Other episodes include 5x05, and the crucial errors he made in episode 5x11. (I watched most of episode 5x11 last Sunday, and I was floored. It shook me more than 5x12 and 5x13, which I had also been avoiding for years.)

Going back to episodes 5x01 and 5x02 (because episode 5x11 is too depressing): if Arthur had listened to Merlin’s “advice”, he would have abandoned his knights to a slow death in slavery. He would also have committed murder, simply on Merlin’s say-so. If you kill someone who is defenceless and has surrendered, that is murder-- regardless of whether, like Merlin, you are desperately scared of a prophecy and speaking without thinking.

Also, if Arthur had rushed back to Camelot on Merlin’s say-so, he might well have been assassinated by Ruadan.

Most of all, almost everything that Merlin “advised” violated Arthur’s core beliefs-- the very beliefs that made Merlin respect Arthur in the first place. It’s astonishing that Arthur had to explain no less than five times that he would never abandon any of his men, otherwise he would be abandoning his own values and the values that built Camelot.

So desperate is Merlin to fight against death that he either quietly ignores this advice, or claims he agrees, only to try dissuading Arthur later on.

Just to be clear: I perfectly understand that beneath all Merlin’s horrible advice and prevarication, he does not want to lose his friend.

However, just watch Merlin’s marvellous inconsistency throughout episode 5x01. First, he plays Devil’s Advocate by asking Arthur, “Do you really think Gwaine and Percival could still be alive?” Arthur says he has to find out, because they are knights of Camelot. Merlin says, “I understand.” Of course he did.

Bear in mind that this happened before Merlin learned of the prophecy. Some have therefore asked what made Merlin unwilling to look for the missing knights, who were his friends.

In Annis’ castle, Merlin said, “I’m not sure we should go to Ismere.” On the other hand, Arthur, acting on reliable information that Morgana had rounded up slaves, took this as a sign that his mission was right. Merlin tried arguing, then gave up. One might assume that after two rational explanations, Merlin would see reason, particularly since even Kilgharrah could not confirm that the fated battle would take place.

But no. After the knights left Annis’ lands, Merlin complained again that Morgana was “powerful… dangerous.” So, Arthur explained yet again that “no matter what lies ahead of me, I won’t abandon them.” Merlin respected this answer, because he said, “I understand. I wish I didn’t-- but I do.” (Why does he wish he did not understand why Arthur would risk his life for all of his soldiers?)

But the very next day, after the ambush, Merlin turned to rage: “The two of us against Morgana, are you mad?” He tried stopping Arthur from going any further. So Arthur explained himself again. Consequently, Merlin continued following Arthur.

The very same night, he once again insisted that, “We have to turn back.” Arthur explained himself yet again, and Merlin promised to “protect you or die at your side.”

Which one is it? Not to mention that in episode 5x02, instead of apologising for his carelessness, Merlin said, “And I told you to go back to Camelot.” This is silly, given that Arthur had already refused to return on numerous occasions until he had rescued his men, assuming they were still alive.

The most hilarious example comes later, when Merlin says, “We can’t let them hand us over to Morgana: we need to get out of here, we need a plan.” But when Arthur comes up with that plan, what does Merlin say? “You’ve got to be joking!”, “You should have killed him!”, “Next time, we might not be so lucky.”, “We’ll never make it in there.”, and “How did you talk me into this?”

Again, which one is it?

I know why Merlin behaved this way, of course. However, there’s a difference between the noble goal of protecting your friend, and ignoring everything and everyone else in order to reach that goal-- particularly through controlling means. Throughout the series, Merlin’s biggest fault comes from his controlling tendencies, which always backfire. And he never learns.

In this way, Merlin shackled Arthur with unrealistic expectations about a Golden Age based on prophecies that he could not verify. Somehow, this Golden Age had now become evading Arthur’s death. He wanted Arthur to share that belief. Worse, even while his motives came from a noble goal, he treated other people as expendable.

Another example of Merlin’s absurd reasoning comes from the fateful episode 5x05. Putting aside the fact that Merlin tried claming that sentencing Mordred to die was an acceptable price to pay “for Camelot”, he also previously claimed that, “I do care. About who you are, Arthur. Who you are destined to become.”

This makes zero sense, given that Arthur had already taken the throne and “brought peace to the kingdom” (episode 5x03). What more did he have to achieve? It depends on who you ask: bringing back magic, uniting the five kingdoms, eternal peace, avoiding the prophecy about Mordred, bowing to the Triple Goddess, being the greatest king this land has ever known…

Can you see how unrealistic this is? Moreover, can you see how Merlin used Arthur as a vehicle of his own unrealistic ambitions? This is why the Golden Age never happened: it was a myth. It allowed the Druids, Gaius, Kilgharrah, etc. to live vicariously through the new king.

Bringing back magic was impossible while Morgana continued using it for great evil. (And the Triple Goddess, who complained about Arthur persecuting sorcery, allowed Morgana to continue that evil conduct.)

Arthur did take considerable steps to uniting the kingdoms, particularly when he signed a treaty with King Odin in episode 5x04. But eternal peace? Impossible, otherwise episodes 5x01 and 5x02 would not have happened.

The unbiquitous prophecy about Mordred was never backed by evidence, leaving Merlin in a state of constant paranoia, and causing him to make horrible errors. This despite the fact that, by his own admission, “I like him [Mordred] myself.” [1]

Bowing to the Triple Goddess was nothing but blackmail using Mordred’s life as a bargaining chip. This once again shows how many sorcerers had caused chaos and misery. Remember, this same Triple Goddess used torture techniques such as controlling people’s minds using the Fomorroh, as Morgana explained in episode 4x06.

While I believe that the persecution of peaceful sorcerers was wrong, Arthur had no quarrel with the Druids (episode 5x11), and he still had good reason for banning sorcery (also explained in episode 5x11). Nobody, not even Merlin, gave him a reason to change his mind. Kara definitely did not, for she wasn’t executed for being a Druid: she was executed for murder and attempted murder.

As for being the greatest king this land had ever known… Well, Arthur appreciated that statement in episode 4x12. However, when Merlin spoke of the greatest kingdom in the world in episode 4x13, Arthur said, “You’re making this up.”

In episode 5x01, Merlin claimed that, “Arthur, without you, Camelot is nothing.” Arthur disagreed, saying that abandoning his men was worse than surviving Morgana. Even in episode 5x04, Arthur accepted his death. “So be it. But understand this, Odin: you kill me, and you’ll have all of Camelot to answer to.” Odin was astonished that a king could have such confidence in the face of death.

The most important example comes from episode 5x13. Merlin said the same thing about Camelot being nothing without Arthur, to which the dying king said, “There was a time when that was true. Not now. There are many who can fill the crown.” And of course, he gave the royal seal to Gwen. Can anyone argue with this?

I guess you could say that Arthur didn’t believe his own hype.

Indeed, Arthur felt satisfied about what he had achieved in his life. “Everything you’ve done, I know now. For me, for Camelot. For the kingdom you helped me build.” (Episode 5x13). That was it. Arthur knew that he had changed Camelot for the better, that Merlin killing his half-sister had brought “peace at last”, and that he owed Merlin an unpayable debt for helping him to achieve all of these goals.

Why did Arthur accept the certainty of his death for so long? Because he believed his cause was right, and his death would help save the lives of thousands in Camelot. Dying in service to Camelot was his real destiny. It was inevitable, and to him, it was the most honourable act he would ever undertake.

You cannot know how great you will be until you die. “That’s the way things work, I’m afraid. You get the glory when you’re not around to appreciate it.” (Episode 4x06). At that point, you will never see your legacy. Merlin either did not know that, or he did not want to know it.

Arthur’s death ultimately serves as the greatest evidence that Merlin was wrong the whole time.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART III

FOOTNOTES

[1] I don’t doubt that Merlin liked Mordred. In fact, the scene in episode 5x05, where Merlin buried Osgar, shows how difficult it was for him to maintain his mistrust when the druid was so polite and perceptive. So why the contradiction? Why claim you like someone, yet insist that they would commit regicide? The answer is that Merlin used the prophecy as an excuse. In fact, his prejudice against Mordred had more to do with jealousy than the prophecy. After being involved in an attempt to trade Arthur and Merlin as slaves to Morgana, Arthur knighted the druid for one noble act. Did Merlin aspire to be a knight? I don’t know. He definitely wanted that same level of trust and respect given to Mordred, though, and knighthood created a bond that a servant could not have.

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cookiedoughmeagain · 4 years

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Haven DVD Commentaries - 5.07: Nowhere Man

Commentary with Brian Millikin (writer for the episode) and Nick Parker (writer of the companion episode 5.08).

I love these two and their commentaries so much because they talk a LOT and they have many things to say. Which is awesome, if sometimes hard to capture in text, so this is a mixture of direct quotes and paraphrasing.[My comments in square brackets]

BM: It’s kind of a two-parter, these two episodes, maybe a little bit less than some of our other two-parters of the season. That was something we set out to do.

NP: Yeah, not to the same extent as 5.05 and 5.06, but there is a lot - the Trouble carries on through both episodes, and that was an edict we had going into the season.

BM: We really wanted there to be a hard ending to a couple stories in this episode, and in the next one. So, Audrey gets to a place at the end of this one, and so do Mara and Duke, and everyone else. And this is the first episode of the season where we have Audrey Parker back. I was excited to do this because last season I wrote the episode just like it - ‘The New Girl’ - it was one of my favourite ones I did. And it seemed like all episode long it was Lexie who had come out of the Barn, but in reality it was actually Audrey. But it was fun because it was kind of like a new pilot. And then this one is not like a pilot, it was much different because Audrey had been around - even though she wasn’t in control of her body she was there to witness what Mara was doing. Which was something I think we were really attracted to …

NP: I agree

BM: … the idea that she feels a certain culpability or responsibility because she was in the back seat watching what Mara was doing.

NP: She was there, inside.

BM: Yeah and it’s a stark contrast to what we’ve done before.

BM: So this scene [the opening scene with Audrey Nathan and Duke on the Rouge] we talked about all these different versions of starting right on the heels of the previous episode. As it is I think it’s maybe an hour later, two hours later. Which is a little bit weird if you think about it. It means that episode 7 and 8 really take place within …

NP: 5, 6, 7 and 8 all take place within about 12 hours.

BM: This entire season takes place over the course of about 3 days.

NP: Yep. And there were also several different versions of this opening scene where they’re discussing the split and what to do with Mara, and I remember one which was pretty interesting where we talked about it just being Nathan and Audrey having this conversation on their own, and Duke being separate from it.

BM: Yeah, but we kind of wanted it to be the three amigos here. And Emily did a great job of playing the, almost PTSD that she has a little bit; she’s been through hell. And we had a version of this too where a lot of the scene was about them testing to make sure that she was really Audrey. But that just felt kind of unnecessary; first of all we knew that she was really Audrey, and we felt like the audience would too. So we just flew past it and assumed that she is. And the most important thing for us was that they don’t know what happened at the end of the last episode, they’re just winging it.

[As Duke goes to see Mara in the hold] NP: I love that Duke just has basically a prison cell in his boat, like always ready to go.

BM: It’s the biggest hold of a boat I’ve ever seen. I think it’s wider than the boat itself, the actual boat, but it looks great.

NP: The hold of his boat is bigger than his bedroom.

BM: But I love the set, and more than that, I love the two of them in here. Remember from the very first day of the season we always knew we were going to get to this point right here; episode 7, half way through with Audrey and Mara split. And we kept it to something of a surprise, and I think a lot of people thought it was just going to be Mara all season long and then maybe in the season finale it would be Audrey, or that at some point maybe Audrey would claim her body back. But we had always wanted to have both; to have our cake and eat it too. And we just thought it was more interesting for the story that way.

NP: And I think we decided to develop it even more and push it even further because Emily is so, so good as Mara.

BM: Absolutely.

NP: We were like; we’re going to give her as much screen time as we can.

BM: I know we all expected her to be good as Mara - I mean she’s always great as Audrey, and she really brings something to Sarah and Lexie. So we expected her to be good - but I think she was even better than we had anticipated. We love her as Mara.

NP: Yeah, you can just see her having fun in the role. She’s enjoying getting to stretch her legs a little bit, and it shows.

BM: I think the other actors had fun with it too; enjoying playing off of her as Mara. I mean, how many times have Eric Balfour and Emily Rose been in the same room together, and now they’re in the same room together, but it’s not Audrey. It’s someone else entirely. In fact she’s closer to Hannibal Lecter than anything else. That was sort of the impetus for all this stuff with her in the hold of the boat; yes it’s easier to shoot [all in the one set], but alse we thought it was dramatically interesting to see what they would do with it. It makes sense to keep Mara prisoner, at least for now just to figure out what to do next, and then it’s like well; this is great, we’ve got Mara being held in prison on Duke’s boat and Duke has now become her jailer. And that interaction between the two of them gave us so much.

NP: Yeah and particularly with what they’re discussing in this scene with the unknowing of what the split means and how it works, whether Audrey is connected to Mara. Because it’s all uncharted territory.

BM: She said it right there [as Duke’s leaving]. That was the thing that was most interesting to me about it, was the idea that she’s a prisoner, but she is actually in control. Or at least that’s what she says; she claims to be holding all the cards and to know what’s going on. And whether she does or not doesn’t really matter, because they definitely don’t. And she might. So that power interplay was something that we haven’t been able to do in the show before, and when you get to the fifth season of a show I think you’re just looking for these interesting new things you can try.

NP: And because we’re in the fifth season now I think we get to live with the characters a lot more.

BM: Sure.

[As we see Audrey and Nathan in bed together] NP: This is probably a lot of fans favourite scene. We don’t get to see these two actually be together that much. Stuff’s always so crazy in Haven that they never really get to just be together in bed and be together as a couple.

BM: No, and it’s sad because here we’ve got an actual tender scene between Nathan and Audrey and guess what - work calls. Because it just does.

NP: Every time.

BM: They don’t get a lot of time to just hang out and be with each other.

NP: I like that line; “Case Face”.

BM: I think I took that from the fact that we always talk, here and on other shows too, about having Writer Face. When you’re off on script or an outline or working on an episode. You know, you still come in to have lunch with the other writers, or you’re still in the hallways and at the coffee machine, but you’re not really there.

NP: You’re basically a phantom.

BM: With this distant look in your eyes as you try to figure out … how are they going to get out of it in act four if they don’t have a gun … or whatever. We always call it Writer Face, so Case Face was from that. I think I ripped off, everybody.

NP: Yeah. And that’s fine. That’s what good writers do, right?

BM: But the other important thing in this scene - there were some versions where we had it in that first scene but that just felt like too much - is Nathan revealing that he can’t feel her any more. Which leads him to believe (correctly) that she is no longer the same; she’s not immune to the Troubles any more. Something is different about her. And it’s such a big deal that we decided, I think correctly, to put it in this scene between the two of them. Because it’s big deal obviously, for the two of them. At the same time, he says it doesn’t matter to him and I think we all believed that. You know, what would it be like if when he realised he couldn’t feel her he wasn’t in love with her any more?

NP: Yeah, that was something we talked about a lot.

BM: As someone who can’t feel anyone- yes he could feel her and that might have been one of the things that maybe got him started

NP: Yeah.

BM: But it’s certainly not where he is now. Not any more.

NP: Yeah.

BM: And I think maybe it spoke highly of their relationship that he believes it doesn’t really matter. Although I do think that it matters to her.

NP: Of coure.

BM: But maybe less to him. And he’s also just got her back. I don’t think there’s any version where he wouldn’t have wanted to be with her anymore just because he couldn’t feel her.

NP: No, I agree. But this lack of immunity after living with it for so long, now finding out that she isn’t, it throws her off her game which I think is an interesting dynamic in this episode. She has to live in that reality. And he’s telling her it’s all fine, that they’re going to make it. But you can see her having some self doubt.

BM: Absolutely. And we liked the emotion of that and having to grapple with that because it was a way for them to express some of the … I guess the best word for it is still PTSD of what they’ve gone through with the Mara situation. What they’re still going through. Without it being all about that. It was a microcosm of the fact that they’re sort of pawns in a larger game that they’re not in control of necessarily.

NP: Yep. Oh there’s Kirsty.

BM: Yes, Kirsty Hinchcliffe, Lucas Bryant’s wife.

NP: Officer Rebecca Rafferty.

BM: Yeah. We wanted to put her in this scene because we very much wanted her to be in the next scene she shows up in. And she’s also super-useful here, along with this townperson they meet, in establishing that people aren’t necessarily warm to the idea of Audrey being back. After what they’ve been through with Mara. Mara killed a bunch of people, she was running around causing all kinds of problems, and for the people who are in the know (like Rafferty) even they are probably a little reluctant to necessarily throw their arms around Audrey and trust her again.

NP: Yeah and I think that’s something we’ve got to explore in the second half of season five, is that, so much crazy stuff happens in Haven, all the time. So what do people know and who knows what? We talk about it in the room all the time but it’s not fully explored, because we do so much with our characters. And it is something we got to do a little bit more [5b] because things got so crazy, is how people actually react to it and how do they talk to our characters about it.

BM: Yeah, it was kind of a point of emphasis coming into the season for Matt McGuinness and Gabrielle Stanton, our show runners, was to live in the reality just a little bit more and show how people would really react to some of this stuff. And having a lot of these two-parter episodes where the case of the week extends into the next episode, which allows us just a little bit more real estate to do that kind of thing.

NP: Yeah, just to live in it. This is the most lively farmers’ market.

BM: Absolutely. Not the first time we’ve seen this farmers’ market. We were here in episode, er, four of the first season; Consumed.

NP: Oh yeah. It is so crowded there.

[As Nathan talks to Reggies] BM: Ah, this is Dylan Taylor as Reggie. And we totally stole the name from True Detective which had aired a few months before we shot this episode.

NP: We are huge fans of True Detective.

BM: And we just needed to give some flavour, and a voice to the character, and so we thought, let’s write him a bit like Reggie Ledoux.

[Having never watched True Detective, I looked Reggie Ledoux up; the fandom.com wiki describes him as a “brutal and vile drug dealer” that manufactures meth for a violent criminal biker gang, and an “accomplice and right-hand man” of a serial-killer. Yikes.]

BM: So we called him Reggie and had always intended on changing it but the name had this kind of blue-collar gritty quality and that’s who the character was. Enough that we wrote in that he has a bit of a Southern drawl, or this back-water drawl.

NP: I think back water. He brought the Southern to it, it was nice.

BM: And he really went for it and it totally worked. But we got a call from set on the first day he was there - he’s a great actor, he’s done a load of stuff, he didn’t audition, he didn’t have to, we were lucky to get him - so he shows up and he’s doing this accent and we get a call from the Producer on set. And she’s saying; I don’t know if we have a problem, but Dylan is doing an accent. And we said; Well check the script, it’s in there, it’s going to be great. And we wound up really enjoying his performance, he’s fantastic. Our showrunner Matt, was upset that he meets an untimely end in the next episode because he wanted us to bring Reggie back. He told us not to kill him but we’d already shot that scene where he dies.

NP: Matt wanted Reggie to be the new Guard back guy. Which is a role we’ve kind of rolled from character to character for production reasons in a lot of ways. But Reggie was so good that we were wondering how we could have him come back and be the Guard bad guy.

[The scene where Nathan gets hit by the Trouble] BM: So something bad is about to happen to Nathan. Which was always the plan for the episode; this has actually been in the works for a long time. We referred to this story as Ghost Nathan. Going back to the first season we had a bank of episodes [that we’d like to do]. And a lot of them were ones that we could never produce, but one of them was a ghost one where we figured we could have someone walking through walls and stuff. And I - maybe it’s because of my unabashed love for the movie Ghost - but I always thought we could do a Ghost Nathan episode. And we never had anything we could do with it. It was one of those things you’d pull it out if it worked for the episode. And it did work for this one. Because we needed the Trouble in this episode to do a few things for us. First of all it works because Lucas Bryant is great at selling the ghost of it all. He’s standing in this room with Kirsty, his wife, and she has to ignore him and he has to sell it - they both do. The best special effect in the episode is not people walking through walls or him sticking his hand through the phone, the best effect is the performance. And it’s not an easy thing; everyone ignoring him and him acting like they can’t see him.

NP: Well yeah and in that scene it was just him there and her ignoring him the entire time, but there’s several scenes where we had to shoot two versions; one with Lucas and one without, and then patch them together.

BM: Yeah even this scene [Duke and Audrey looking at Nathan’s shadow on the floor] there are a couple of wide shots where Nathan’s not in it. WhichI think our producers were not super-happy about because it definitely added to the load that we had to shoot. But Audrey and Nathan have been separated for, what six episodes this season, and they’ve just got back together again. And there was a version where we could have gone with a story where they were the power team back together again. But we liked the idea of a bit of a role reversal. That she would be thrust into this position of trying to get him back. And he’s trying to get back to her. And what that did for their characters and for so many other story lines, particularly the other big thing that we had to deal with in this episode that she’s not immune to the Troubles. So we wanted to go with a Trouble that really played to that. So the idea that she can’t see him now, when any other episode before this one she would have been able to. She would have been able to see him if she was immune and it would have blown up the episode. So this was the perfect time to do it, in an episode where, for the first time ever, Audrey is not immune to the Troubles.

NP: And an important detail is that right now, they don’t know what this Trouble is, so she doesn’t know where he is. The supposition is that he’s dead, and we’ve had dead Nathan before but always found ways to bring him back. But because of the way this Trouble works there’s no body, no nothing, so they have no way to bring him back.

BM: And that scene we just saw [Duke and Audrey finding Nathan’s shadow on the floor] there were versions of it that went a lot further in that direction. Where Duke was basically talking about the idea that it looks like Nathan is dead.

NP: Yeah, he’s gone.

BM: And Audrey was fighting back against him. And it was really, really heavy. And we eventually pulled back on it, I think correctly, because Matt and Gab felt that it was just too sad. We did still play with it a little with Duke, he’s still much closer than Audrey is to believing that the worst has happened. And that makes sense because Duke is not quite as romantic, he’s a little bit more of a realist.

NP: Yep.

BM: And he’s already been through a bunch of bad shit already. And he’s beginning to come around to the idea that he’s just lost Nathan; another punch in the series of punches he’s been taking. But Audrey clings a little bit longer. We wanted her to escalate her anger over the course of the episode as she’s starting to consider that it could be maybe legit. But we definitely pulled back on the two of them holding each other and mourning his loss. Just yet.

NP: Yeah, it will grow.

BM: So the other thing we needed to do in this episode, again talking about the realism of it all, is that we felt like it couldn’t be easy for Audrey to be Audrey again, not with everything that Mara had done. And the best way for us to show that was to have actually the Guard be the main threat in this episode. The case of the week is sort of an issue, but the real threat in this episode ends up being, what is the Guard going to do not understanding the Mara/Audrey situation of it all.

NP: Yeah and just having the Guard as the threat is something we talked about for so long at different times. And this was a good way of escalating it at the right time, with Mara having been the threat that she was for so long, and Dwight being out of town. We did not have the wonderful Adam Copeland for these two episodes, so he’s gone and the Guard is doing their own thing in his absence.

BM: Yeah it wasn’t our choice, really, to have no Adam Copeland in this episode. It was just by his schedule, due to his contract, we were just not going to have him for this episode or the next one. So we kind of got stuck with no Adam, but it wound up really working for the story because I don’t think that the Guard threat could have played as well, with them going off the handle, with him around. So it actually wound up being a story that works because Adam’s gone. It’s almost about the fact that he is gone.

NP: This actor is great, who plays Glen.

BM: Yes, his name is Dylan Trowbridge.

NP: Glen named after Glen Holler/Holland [not sure of the spelling]

BM: Our friend Glen. His last name, Andros, is a Stephen King reference. Nick Andros was the deaf character from The Stand.

NP: Perfect. Got to work in those Stephen King references.

[As Audrey arrives at the farmers’ market] BM: Now, Amy the photographer who Audrey is about to talk to is, the Troubled person of the episode. So we had to plant her in the background when we were here a while ago, and now she’s here too. Because we needed the logic to work in the background. And that’s why there’s also some dialogue here about how she had gone home because the Trouble works when she prints out the photo, when she makes the photo final, the way a painter would finish a painting or whatever. So we had established that she had not been here all day but had gone home and printed some of the photos. She must have liked the looks of Nathan. And then here we have Audrey tell her to send her some pictures and she’s got the hard copies in the next episode. So we imagine that right now, Amy is going home, printing out all the photos she has of Reggie. But maybe her printer is out of ink,

NP: Or it takes her a while to get home.

BM: And then she prints it out of course, the second that Audrey has Reggie at gunpoint and so he disappears.

[As Nathan walks up to the crying woman in the graveyard] NP: Oh remember the fun we had coming up with what this woman is going to say?

BM: Oh my gosh yes. We had always intended there to be a bit of a horror movie scare there. Totally helped by the fact that Rob Lieberman, our director for this episode and the next (as well as other Haven episodes) has a ton of experience in that department. He did Fire In The Sky, super-scary movie. And he’s great. So he totally leaned into it. You can even see here [where Nathan’s talking to the ‘ghosts’] all these interesting canted angles and stuff it just feels a little bit moodier and scarier than it otherwise could. Because if you really look at it, it’s a beautiful day. It would have been great if this was nighttime but we couldn’t shoot any of these scenes at night.

NP: And Chris Masterson does a great job here as Morgan, does an incredible job as the ghost guide, the greeting committe, giving Nathan the rundown on how everything operates. And functionally for the logic of the story it’s really important because of what he’s saying about crossing over as your residual self image. Which is stuff that plays to important plot points later in this episode and the next one.

BM: Especially in your episode. This scene was exposition heavy, it was kind of a bear trying to make it as conversational as possible.

NP: But Chris sells it.

BM: He totally does. But yeah a lot of the stuff that Morgan talks about here about the theories of how it works is his understanding, but his understanding is not correct. But it’s what we have to go with for the time being.

NP: Yeah everything he says is true from his point of view, but his understanding is not correct.

BM: Yeah we were lucky to get Chris for this episode. We had his brother, Danny Masterson, last season in your episode 411. He was one of the two Darkside Seekers. The other Darkside Seeker, Kris Lemche, is about to appear in the next episode.

[As we flash back to Nathan talking to Garland’s ghost] BM: Ooh the flashback. In the exact same cemetery. I always wonder why that says Rufus P. Parker there [on the gravestone between Nathan and Garland]. The Parker kind of threw me off.

[Personally I think it says Barker, but it’s an interesting comment anyway:)]

BM: But we’ve got a bunch of flashbacks, little quick ones like that over the course of the season. And it was sort of by design, not knowing, and still not knowing frankly, whether this would be the last season of the show or not. So just in case it was, we sort of wanted to hearken back to previous seasons before and try to connect things a little bit better. And even just seeing what our characters looked like a couple of years ago has a little bit of an emotional whallop to it.

[As Nathan watches Duke frustratedly flicking through the Crocker journal] BM: So we’re coming up on the twist here at the end of this third act that I used to sell the episode. Because the way that it works on our show, and most shows, is that you’ve got the roadmap of the season (the big things that need to happen), this one we knew this was the first one with Audrey and Mara split, and Mara in the hold of the boat. And we didn’t know a ton else about what it was going to be. We knew that we were going to start pushing Mara and Duke’s relationship as they get to know each other and see eye to eye a little bit more, and then in episode 8 a little bit more, and in episode 9 a little bit more. But that was kind of it.

NP: Episodes 7 and 8 to a large extent were about finishing up the story lines from the first half of the season, and this was platforming for everything that was going to happen in the back end.

BM: So we knew that we needed a big Trouble that would take up these two episodes, and we needed it to help us tell some stories about our characters. But the way that we sold this one with the ghost of it all was basically that - from the get-go from pitching it to our show runners and everybody - was that at the half way point of the episode, ghost!Nathan and Duke are in here and they’re talking to Mara, and Duke leaves, and then she reveals that she can see Nathan. And that was the turning point of the episode. If we’ve done our jobs well enough maybe not everyone saw it coming, I think that a good amount of people probably did see it coming. But it helped us in a lot of ways, it really turned the screws on the Mara story really quickly.

NP: Yep.

BM: Now she’s even more in control because she’s the only person who can see Nathan. And that tells us that Nathan’s not really dead of course. And it tells Nathan that he’s the victim of a Trouble. But it also helped us tell a story about the fact that Mara’s immune to the Troubles and Audrey is not. Which was the big thing that we needed to tackle. And what better way to do it than the fact that Audrey can’t see Nathan and the only person who can, is Mara.

NP: That’s it.

BM: So once we had that as the middle twist of the episode, everyone was on board. There was no going back then.

NP: And the back half of that is something maybe we’ll talk about more in 508 but, because Mara is immune and can see him, how does Audrey use her lack of immunity to her benefit.

BM: Absolutely. The end point of this episode is really about Audrey bottoming out a little bit. We wanted to get her to a place where she kind of has to confess that she is not who she once was, and she maybe can’t do this anymore because she’s lost her, superpower (for lack of a better term). And then the next episode is where she gets her groove back to some extent, and realises that it’s not about her immunity, it’s about whatever she does with whatever she has at her disposal. And she ends up using her lack of immunity to her advantage. So this episode was sort of the Empire Strikes Back, then you’ve got the Return of the Jedi.

NP *sounding doubtful* Well…

BM: Don’t think about it.

NP: Oh there’s Reggie . And I love the other backup Guard member who looks very much like Jordan McKee from previous seasons.

BM: She looks just like her.

[Me: *squints doubtfully at the screen*]

BM: Her name is Justine [I can’t catch the surname]. She has worked on the show in the past and she’s great. She had some lines at some point in time. And a name, I feel like her characters’ name was Riley. And then it ended getting cut because there was just too much going on in the episode and too many people. I should also say while we’re talking about the Guard, that Mitchell, who is coming back to our show, was in episodes three and four. He was a bit of a late addition to those; we were trying to bring back as a returning Guardsman, the guy from episode 403, Bad Blood, but he wasn’t available. So we created a new Guardsman, as Mitchell. And then we brought him back for this episode which was great.

NP: We just needed to have someone with some animosity towards Nathan and the police department who was a more militant member of the Guard.

BM: Absolutely. And we actually tried to bring Mitchell back a couple episodes from now and then he wasn’t available. So we had to go with another person, so it was a bit of a case of musical chairs of Guard members.

[Nathan talking to the two ‘ghosts’ in the graveyard] NP: And Nathan here is revealing the truth.

BM: Yeah. It’s kind of classic. We had been a little bit worried that in the previous acts there was really just that one stretch of 10 minutes where Nathan thinks he’s dead. And no one wanted him to lose his drive, because he should always be trying to figure out what’s going on. But now that he knows that he’s the victim of a Trouble, he’s in Nathan mode. And is going to do whatever he can.

NP: He’s got Case Face now.

BM: Absolutely. But again a lot of this and Morgan’s attitude on hearing what Nathan has to say, pays off more in the next episode. It’s laying the groundwork for the fact that maybe not everyone wants to go back. It’s a little of the insitutionalised thing; a bit of a Shawshank Redemtion thing here that if you get used to living this way maybe you don’t want to go back. Although as we’ll discover in 508, Morgan has a pretty good reason for not wanting to go back.

NP: A very good, if selfish, reason.

BM: Yeah, but you can’t blame him. And that’s what you’re looking for in your motivation for a bad guy. Where when you find out why they’re doing what they’re doing you feel like you’d probably do the same thing.

[As Audrey is pointing her gun at Reggie] BM: Reggie here is a bit lighter on motivation. He’s just a bad guy. But you don’t really stop to think about it because Dylan is so good.

NP: He just sells it.

BM: But even here, his little speech here was important to me to get his POV across a little bit. Which, from his stand point, Audrey has caused all of this to happen, which she did. And then she was Mara, and now she says she’s Audrey but she can’t be trusted; bad things are happening. So why should he listen to her? I put myself in Reggie’s shoes and realised that if the show was about the Guard, Audrey and Nathan would be the bad guys.

NP: Yeah. I also love the aspect of that scene there where Reggie is down on his knees at the mercy of Audrey, much like in his final scene in True Detective, on his knees at the mercy of someone there.

BM: Yeah, totally ripped that off too.

NP: I think there was an earlier version of the script where Nathan runs out of the van there and it drives through him.

*Both being amused at the intense level of concentration on Nathan’s face as he watches Bishop tap the security code into the door*

BM: What you don’t see, is that you have to imagine that in his head for the rest of this scene Nathan is just thinking to himself like; 1283. 1283. Gotta remember the code. 1283. That is why we had it be a four-digit code because if it was six it would be harder to remember. But I love the look of Guard HQ here. Remember Rob Lieberman was totally responsible for it. He mentioned to us when we were on the phone to us, he said; I’m going out on a limb here but I’m thinking like the movie Children of Men. And we were both like; Could not love Children of Men more, please do it.

NP: Such a moody and gritty feel.

BM: But if you recognise a bit of the layout and architecture of the hallway we just saw and the long room here [where Mitchell has Audrey tied to a chair in front of the desk that Bishop’s Trouble disintergrates], this is actually the same building that we used the interior of for the Barn at the end of season three and briefly in season four. I think this is the second floor of that building. The first floor is painted all white, every inch of it, because it was the Barn. And up here it’s the exact same layout but now it’s Guard HQ.

BM: Now poor Bishop.

NP: He has got a rough, rough Trouble

BM: So we imagined that he would have to be one of these people wearing gloves, and that they would have to be these chemical resistant ones because he’s got this acid touch. So then it’s like well he’s going to look silly wearing these giant gloves. Because those gloves are real, they can actually protect against any sort of corrosive acid. So we figured he should be wearing coveralls as well so it kind of matches, so it seems like he’s an industrial type guy. But the actor must have been burning alive because this was the middle of summer in Nova Scotia which means that it was about 90 degrees.

[Nathan talking to Mara again in the hold] BM: So this scene here, in a way is the climax of the episode. At least it was for me. This is where the shit hits the fan. Nathan comes to her with his plan for her to tell Duke what’s happening to Audrey. She says no, and then it’s about getting her to help. And then it all just fell into place; it seemed like the right story to tell about Audrey and Mara. And to be evolving what is Mara’s relationship to them now that she is her own person. Because she’s only going to do what’s in her best interest. And she keeps holding this card over their heads as to whether she’s connected or not. And we went into this season knowing that they weren’t connected, knowing that hurting Mara wasn’t going to hurt Audrey (unlike the thing with William) but that question comprises the entirety of this episode. Because we realised the characters don’t know that. So a lot of this is Duke trying to figure out whether she is or not. And Mara withholding her knowledge. So then we knew that the last beat in this episode would be Mara revealing the truth. Because at that point she doesn’t need them to wonder whether she’s connected or not because she’s got something better, which is that now she knows they need her to help Nathan.

NP: Well and that’s always what her bargaining chip is, that she can’t threaten them with anything, it’s all about the knowledge she possesses.

BM: And the actors all did a great job with this scene. There are takes where Nathan’s there, and when he’s not. But it all really worked. And she is just the right amount of funny in this scene.

NP: And cruel.

BM: Because she’s still enjoying messing with them, and it worked out really well. It really worked out really well. And here, what Eric had to play is realising that Nathan is alive again, but also realising that Audrey’s in Trouble. It’s not as easy as the three of them make it look. But it’s amazing because we have our three leads, they’re back in the same room together, they do this every day for years. But now, she’s the bad guy, Nathan’s a ghost, and Eric has no idea what’s going on. So I was really excited about being able to write a scene - and this is a three or four page scene - with all them in the room together but everything is different from how it usually is.

NP: Yeah, and this was one of the ones that had to be shot twice.

BM: And the other story that we’re telling in this episode is Audrey’s relationship to the town, and them not trusting her, is she lying about who she is, and all this doubt that everyone would have about her, after having lived through the tyranny of Mara for a while. And so the thing that we wanted to do in this scene [as Bishop is dissolving the desk] is kind of to some extent close that story off. It still comes up a bunch of times throughout the season, but she does something here, or could do something here, that proves to them that she is Audrey. She has a kind of I Am Sparticus Moment; I am Audrey Parker. It seemed a little cheesy in the script but Emily totally sells it. And that I Am Audrey Parker moment was an important one for us.

NP: Absolutely.

BM: We started this episode with her kind of in this fetal position trying to grapple with what she is now, finding she’s not immune, what is her identity now. So it felt important to us that she get to a different place by the next episode.

NP: Well yeah because there’s a sense in which her superpower is immunity to the Troubles, but really, on an emotional level, her superpower is her empathy for everybody and understanding what they’re going through. So she’s like; I totally get why you did what you did, so you’re going to be OK. Forgiveness is her thing.

BM: I never noticed that Duke brings Mara a can of food there. That wasn’t in the script. I’ve seen this episode a bunch of times and I never noticed that before, but it makes sense.

[As Mara is cutting her wrist with the chains] BM: We had a bit of an issue here because we knew that we wanted her to cut herself to prove that her and Audrey aren’t connected, but it was only when we were about to start shooting we realised; how is she going to cut herself when she’s chained up? So we had her use one of the chains, and it might be impossible to do in real life, but Emily totally sold it.

NP: Yep, she gets it.

BM: And I love this. We basically get three episodes of Mara in the hold of Duke’s boat. And I love them all. We always thought of it as the Hannibal Lecter scenes and the power play of it between her and Duke, and it really starts to work very well I think in these last two scenes. And super well in episode 8.

NP: It was fun. And I think one of the challenges of this is that we knew she was going to be chained up in the hold, and so the challenge is how do you differentiate each scene, and each episode, and what is the arc for each one? And so we really had to bear down on what they were going to be about.

BM: Well it was kind of a story unto itself, and here she tells us just a little bit that she’s actually affected by it, when she admits that she liked it when they said they needed her. Is she telling the truth, is she not - Duke doesn’t pay her any mind at all and walks out, but what is she thinking, what is she doing? Is she warming to Duke a little bit or does she have some angle that she’s playing - that’s the question we wanted everyone to be asking.

NP: And that’s the question we live in a lot in 508.

[Audrey talking to a ghost!Nathan (kind of) in her apartment] BM: So this scene also just fell into place really naturally. We knew that Nathan’s ghost situation was not going to be resolved at the end of this episode. And we knew that our first Audrey/Nathan scene in that bed over there was this tender scene, and I wanted to get them back in that same room and have them be in the room together but as far apart as possible. And all of the circumstances they have to deal with have kept them apart - again. And so she thinks that he’s there, but doesn’t know for sure that he is. And they’re both great in this scene.

NP: Again credit to both of the actors for selling this, that she’s talking to him but not looking at him.

BM: Yeah I talked to them about it, they really enjoyed doing it because it’s a really heartfelt scene between the two of them and she’s confessing this doubt that she has (and she’s a very confident person) and they’re both there together but she has no idea whether she’s even there or not. And he knows that she can’t hear him. So he’s watching her go through this. And it’s a scene between the two of them that is unlike anything else, in its DNA that we had been able to do before now. So it felt like an opportunity and I think they both felt that way too.

NP: Yep, love this scene.

BM: But we also just wanted them to bottom out a little bit here because then episode 8 is kind of the come back

NP: The Return of the Jedi as you so nicely put it.

BM: Exactly. We unfreeze him from carbonite. We go fight in the forest.

NP: There’s some Ewoks. It’s great.

[Nathan back in the graveyard for the final scene] BM: So this was always the end of the episode, picking up the ghost case of it all. And we always wanted, right on the back of Nathan being confident that he’s safe and he’s going to take care of it, to then come over here and see that his Deputy Glen has been killed. And we always wanted to have this message left for him [“Even ghosts can die”] scrawled on the grave. And we landed on that one pretty quickly because it couldn’t be too long.

NP: And it sets us up nicely for 508.

BM: Thanks for listening everybody, we will see you again for 508.

#haven 5 #haven dvd commentaries #5.07 - Nowhere Man #havensyfy #i always start out intending to summarise more #but it's actually eaiser a lot of the time to just type out what they say rather than stopping to think about how best to describe it #so i don't often manage to condense much #and these guys talk QUICKLY #so there is a lot of stuff here #long post

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anotheronechicagobog · 5 years

Note

Can you do one with Severide where he cheats and then tries to win the reader back? Lots of angst

Kelly Severide x Reader Liar Liar Pants on Fire

written by @anotheronechicagobog

warnings: cheating, swearing, mature themes, angst

A/N I hope that you like it! Sorry it took me so long, I’m just always nervous about the stuff I write not being long and/or good enough.

You were finally arriving home after a long, and fucking hard, day. You’d known when you chose to enter STEM in college that you’d be dealing with a ton of sexism, but right now you were exhausted. After graduating with a double major in computer programming and biochemistry, you accepted a job at Chicago PD in the crime lab. And today was awful because your lovely co-worker Manon was on vacation for the week and substitute, Jimmy, was incredibly sexist. He couldn’t go thirty seconds without making a remark, mansplaining, undressing you with his eyes, and belittling you. It took all your strength to not cave in his skull. You just wanted to eat something to fill the hole in your stomach, and curl up in bed with your boyfriend Kelly. When you entered the apartment you shared with him and Shay something felt off. You heard loud moans of pleasure coming from upstairs, you assumed they were coming from Shay and her new lover Andrea. Even though you were slightly annoyed at the fact that you’d have a harder time falling asleep with those sounds surrounding the apartment. Your feeling of apprehension remained but you had no idea why. You decided to reheat some leftovers, once you finished the front door opened to reveal one Leslie Shay. You looked at her in shock as that feeling in your gut hardened. “Les? I thought that you were upstairs, with Andrea...”

“... No, I just came back from a movie night with Gabby and Casey, Kelly was supposed to come too, but he bailed at the last minute. I thought he was with you. Who’s upstairs? They’re really going at it.”

“I don’t know. As I said, I thought it was you and Andrea...”

“Did you just get back?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think someone broke in just to have sex?”

“Honestly, I’ve seen crazier things come through my lab. Let’s go deal with this.” You and Leslie marched up the spiral staircase and burst through the door to your and Kelly’s room armed with a rolling pin and frying pan. What you were met with was not two strangers taking advantage of someone else’s bed, but Kelly naked on top and inside of a brunette you didn’t recognize. They were too... wrapped up in each other to notice you two at first. You and Leslie were too much in shock to react either once the both of you realized who was doing who. It was after they both came that they noticed you. Kelly rolled off of her and noticed you and Leslie standing armed at the door. “Ah! Shit! Fuck! Y/N, I can explain!” He was hurrying to separate himself and making sure he was covered up. You lowered your rolling pin and placed it on the dresser. YOUR dresser. That you shared with Kelly. “Alright,” you said slowly and restrained, letting a quiet and calculated anger flow through you “explain.” Kelly sat there blinking, opening and closing his mouth. “Well, you said you can explain so explain.”

“I uh... Don’t really... I didn’t think you’d actually let me- I didn’t think I’d get this far...”

“UNBELIEVABLE YOU MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! HOW DARE YOU TREAT Y/N THIS WAY!” Then Leslie turned to the girl still lying on your bed’ wrapped in your sheets, making eyes at your boyfriend. “WHAT IN THE EVER-LOVING FUCK ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?! DO YOU NOT REALIZE YOU SLEPT WITH SOMEONE’S BOYFRIEND?! GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!” Leslie screaming with steam coming out of her ears made the woman jump in gear, forgoing her bra and underwear and just grabbing her dress from the floor, throwing it on, and trying to grab her stuff and catch her things that Leslie was throwing at her. When Leslie and the severely underdressed woman were out of the room you turned to Kelly with tears streaming down your face. “It’s over, Kelly. I’m going to go stay at my mom’s, I’ll come to get my stuff tomorrow, please don’t be here.”

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Your mom had been sympathetic, she welcomed you with open arms and tubs of your favourite ice cream. She’d wrapped her arms around you and cooed promises to string Kelly up by his toes.

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FOUR AND A HALF YEARS LATER

“Honey, I’m home.” Your boyfriend sang out in a joking manner, you two had an Iron Man marathon last night since Tony Stark is Connor’s favourite Marvel character. “Haha, how was dinner with your sister?”

“Good. It went really well, I don’t think I can thank you enough Y/N, for convincing me to try to work on my relationship with her, I didn’t realize how much I missed her. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“How was your day?” Connor poured two glasses of wine knowing full well that you would be ranting and raving about being ignored, underappreciated, and underpaid. You loved your job, you really did, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t have its cons. Once you finished your long rant and took the last sip of wine, you noticed Connor looking at you with a gentle intensity. “Connor?”

“Y/N, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you... I have tried writing a speech so many times and... I just haven’t been able to capture all of the right words. I’ve been wanting to ask you for months and I don’t think I can bear to put it off any longer. Y/N I love you so much and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, have kids, cats, grandkids and grow old together. So Y/N will you marry me?” Connor had moved off the couch and was kneeling in front of you, a modest ring being held in between his nervous fingers. You looked him deep in the eyes and set your glass down, you put your hands on both sides of his face. “Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes! I love you so much and I can’t with to grow old with you too.” While both of you were smiling like fools he gently slid the ring onto your finger before leaning in to kiss you and you could feel the love and joy beaming out of your hearts.

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It took less than ten minutes for the entire station to find out you got engaged. You didn’t mind, really, you just didn’t want anyone upset that all the work wasn’t done because people kept coming by to congratulate you. Hailey walked into your office for the second time that day, the first time being to see if Platt was right and that you had a ring on your finger, this time however you could tell something was wrong. She had a dark look on her face and didn’t have any evidence with her for you to test. “Hailey? What’s up?” She sighed and gave you an annoyed smile. “There was a fire at the scene, so Truck 81 and Squad 3 were there, while waiting on the sidelines Adam and Jay were gossiping about your engagement pretty loudly, Severide overheard. He didn’t react well. Sorry.”

“Don’t be, Hailey, we all work and hang out in pretty close circles, he was bound to find out.” You shrugged and continued typing up your report for the evidence from a case Intelligence solved the other day. “He still loves you Y/N, I think you should be prepared for him to-”

“Profess his love, tell me I’m making a mistake, beg me to take me back? Yeah, he’s done all that already. He cheated on me, I left him, but he couldn’t let me go.” You sighed and stopped typing on your computer for a moment and saw Hailey smile sympathetically at you. She reached for your hands and squeezed.”Want to go get lunch?”

“Sorry, Hailey, I’m getting lunch with Claire and Connor. We want to be the ones to tell her rather than her finding out from someone else. After I’m meeting with Leslie quickly to ask her to be my maid of honour.”

“Good idea.”

“I was wondering, though, Hailey, if would you be a bridesmaid?”

“Yes! Y/N you are going to have the best bachelorette party ever!” The mood in the room suddenly became joyful, filled with sounds of excitement and happiness.

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THREE MONTHS LATER

You were buried up to your shoulders in wedding plans. Neither you nor Connor realized how much planning had to go into a wedding. Currently, you, Connor, Leslie, Hailey, Will, Claire, and Ethan were sitting in your living room with wedding plans strewn around the room. Connor and Claire were working on the guest list. “Do we really have to invite Aunt Tiffany? We haven’t seen her since before mom died and if I remember correctly, she’s a horrible person and we both hate her.”

“I know Connor, but she’s our aunt, and ALL relatives must be invited to your wedding. You will never hear the end of it if some fifth cousin three times removed is not invited.”

“C’mon, Claire, Y/N and I aren’t going to know who most of these people are!”

“Alright then, let’s take a break from our family and work on Y/N’s.”

“You aren’t going to invite all of my relatives, are you? I’m not speaking to half of them because they’re selfish and rude. I really don’t want my dad’s side at my wedding.”

“Sorry Y/N, but we have to invite everyone, but don’t worry, if they’re selfish and rude they’ll fit in well with our family.” Claire smiled at you as you groaned in frustration. You threw the papers from the catering companies on the coffee table and collapsed on the couch. You could feel a headache coming on and just wanted to close your eyes for a minute. A kiss was dropped to your forehead, you knew the feeling of those lips well and didn’t have to open your eyes. “Thanks, Connor.”

“You know I was thinking, what if we had two weddings? One small one that’s just us and the people we love, and a second one that’s large and thrown for the benefit of people we don’t like.” You opened your eyes and sat up. “That’s a good idea.”

“Y/N, Connor, you’re really considering having two weddings? That’s... Actually, yeah that sounds like a good idea. I mean it’s more work, but dad left us a ton of money.”

“How would you handle planning two weddings if you can’t handle planning one?”

“Well, Ethan, since we don’t really care about the second one we could just hire a wedding planner for that one.”

“Well since that’s settled, I’ll order dinner for all of us. Is Lebanese okay?” With a chorus of ‘yes’ from everyone, Connor went to order dinner while everyone shoved the papers into a pile in the middle of the table. When Connor returned Claire sighed. “We still have to plan one wedding, though.”

“Don’t worry about it, Claire. Connor and I can handle it. We just had trouble dealing with how big the wedding had to be, we were changing all of our plans because of it. Now that we’ve decided to have one where we actually get to make the choices we want, it’ll be a lot easier.” You felt Connor hmm an agreement from his spot curled around you. You spent the rest of the evening with your friends who you considered family, talking and laughing, eating good food and feeling loved. Without the stress of a ‘rich people wedding’, as Will had dubbed it, you and Connor felt much more relaxed and happy.

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EIGHT MONTHS LATER

You were tired but happy. The wedding planner you and Connor hired did her job well. She understood completely when you explained that you were going to have two weddings and why. She arranged everything for the big posh events that were expected from Connor and managed to keep your first wedding a secret from those you didn’t want to know. The small wedding that you planned with your fiance was going exactly as you wanted, so far at least. You were finishing getting ready to walk down the aisle. Leslie, Hailey, Claire, along with your mom and grandmother were tearing up. Claire wrapped her arms around you. “You look so beautiful, Y/N, my brother is so lucky.”

“Don’t let Leslie hear you say that, I’ve seen what Les does when she’s jealous.” Claire laughed and took deep breaths to try and stop the happy tears. As you and Claire untangled yourselves and Hailey checked your make-up to make sure it hadn’t been ruined there was a knock at the door. Leslie answered it and let out what could only be described as a feral hiss. Everyone whipped their heads to the doorway to see one Kelly Severide. “I just want to talk to Y/N.”

“How dare you, if you think-”

“Don’t bite his head off Les. Connor invited him. Let him say what he came to, it’s probably just well wishes, right Kelly?” His breathing was rapid, his eyes looked panicked, and you felt every woman in the room including yourself sigh in annoyance. “Y/N I love you, please just-”

“No. Kelly stop. It’s been years since we were together, let me go. I am happy with and I love Connor. Please don’t interfere with my happiness.” Kelly nodded with tears running down his face. “I’ll always love you, and I know that you’ll always love me too.” Kelly stumbled away, causing you to sigh. “Hey, Les? Would you mind telling Will to keep an eye on Kelly? I mean, we told the minister to not do the whole ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ bit, so we don’t have to worry about that, I just don’t want him to disturb anything.”

“Got it.”

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Hailey had just walked down the aisle, which meant that in a moment, it would be your turn. You took a deep breath and let your excitement explode on your face. You saw the heavenly way Connor was looking at you and felt the aisle was too long, keeping you from him. When you finally got to the end you handed off your bouquet to Leslie and stood facing Connor. “Hi.”

“Hey.” There was a small round of chuckles from the bridesmaids and groomsmen. “Friends, family we have all come together today to watch Connor Rhodes and Y/N Y/L/N in marriage.” You focused on Connor’s face, the minister’s words became a blur, only bringing you back to reality when they said “The bride and groom have written their own vows, so let us hear their words of love” They gestured for Connor to go first, he smiled softly and began to speak. “Y/N, when we first met, you knocked me on my ass. Literally. You were rushing to get out of our favourite cafe and while trying to dodge other people, barrelled straight into me. You ended up spilling your coffee all over the floor, right next to where I was sitting on the ground. I remember looking at you and just being in awe of you. Of the way you carried yourself, how you handled the situation, and how you knocked me down without a fight, which is something that I like to think is particularly hard to do. When I asked for your number and you actually gave it to me, I felt like I’d been handed a meddle, and while it was a bit confusing at the time, it makes so much sense now. You are the most intelligent, kind, loving, strong, terrifying person I know. You fit with me in a way no one ever has and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Suddenly you both saw commotion coming from the groom’s side, everyone turned to see Jay and Voight subtly restraining and silencing Kelly Severide. He struggled against them and looked at you with desperate, pleading eyes. You repressed the urge to march over there and slap him. You and Connor turned back to each other, your observations having taken place in three seconds. “And now for Y/N’s vows.”

“Connor, you make me so happy. I don’t want to consider a life that doesn’t have you by my side. I remember our first date, and I am so grateful that Leslie was able to talk to you at the hospital and intercept your original plans. I don’t think we would have gotten where we are now if you had actually taken me to the frufru restaurant in a limo and then renting out an art gallery. And so instead you took me to a family-owned Lebanese place and then to a board game bar. We started with Operation, because it’s one of my favourites, and you were terrible at it which is ironic because you’re, you know, a surgeon.” everyone in the room laughed. “That night was the best I’d had in a while. You made me smile and laugh and you’ve kept doing that since. I love you with every fibre of my being and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“Beautiful, without further ado, I with the power vested in me by the state of Illinois, pronounce you husband and wife, you may now kiss!” A loud cheer came from all your friends and family as Connor swept you into a grand, loving kiss.

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At the reception, you felt like you were walking on clouds. Your first dance with Connor had been slow and warm with the sound of John Legend mixed with Connor’s heartbeat encompassing you. It had been three hours and you still couldn’t stop smiling. Connor was dancing with your mom while you chatted with Claire. “Y/N you and my brother look so happy. It’s just so heartwarming to see.”

“That means so much Claire. I know-”

“Atnmentition evey- everyone! I ha- have somating to sa- aaaay” A completely wasted Kelly Severide was standing on stage with the DJ drunkenly slurring into the mic. “Oh hell.” Everyone had stopped what they were doing and turned to watch the spectacle he was making. “I lo- lobe lobe-” He turned and threw up on the stage just as you made your way over to Connor. Antonio and Voight made their way over to Kelly and started to carry him off the stage and out of the reception hall, Kelly was crying and making reaching motions for you. You just shook your head and sighed. “Well, at least that happened at the end and not the beginning of the night.” Connor was trying to cheer you up and it worked. “You’re right, besides I think it’s time for us to leave for our honeymoon anyway.”

“Definitely.” After thanking everyone for coming you got changed into a more comfortable and travel-friendly dress you met with a beaming Connor in the middle of the dance floor. You were both smiling like fools as you made the way through the crowd of people you loved most in the world and into the car that was going to take you to the airport. As you were driving away you caught sight of Kelly lying on the curb while some of the guys were trying to coax him into the back of a car. You just turned away and kissed Connor, smiling into him. Even when you heard Kelly screaming your name, you didn’t look back. Just continued to cuddle gaze into the eyes of the love of your life.

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ld200 · 5 years

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I love this blog of yours and I'm really happy there's people out there who are still into DBH! I've been browsing thru fanfics lately and I'm looking forward to reading your fic 'eternal winter' (I'm waiting until it's complete incase you don't end up finishing it) but I'm curious as to what your favourite scene/s in the game are. I have multiple but I'd probably say (one of my 'high on the list' faves) would be after Connor saves Hank and awnsers his questions correctly in CL tower. Thanks!

Oh hey thanks! :D Definitely still into DBH. Fixations tend to hold onto me for at least a couple years lol

Hah, I’m absolutely finishing Eternal Winter (on ao3 anyway; kinda abandoned ffn altogether) but I know I’m not the first one to say that about a story, and I won’t be the last, lmao. Honestly, it’s a huge fic so waiting until it’s done makes sense anyway bc it’s probably easy to forget about the details otherwise

Ooooh favorite scenes HMMMMM this might get long, bear with me

Well, let me at least mention Connor’s end-of-game scenes, for starters. Walking toward Hart Plaza with an army of androids behind him is so damn epic. Doesn’t mean anything on its own, but with everything Connor’s learned and done to get this far, it’s just so fucking satisfying

And then standing up there while Markus speaks, the blizzard in the garden & wondering What Would Have Happened post-game in either scenario (doesn’t escape & Amanda takes over = is he a machine again? reaches the stone & escapes = will it keep happening? is he truly free? etc. this was a good half of why I wanted to write that story to begin with)

BUT I think my actual favorite scenes have to be any and all of those developmental moments that really capture Connor’s character

Connor saving Hank on the roof. The stunned look he turns on Hank when Hank says “You’d have caught him if it wasn’t for me,” as if he’s never considered that anyone other than him can take the blame for something going wrong

On the flipside, the scene you get if you fail that sequence entirely and run out of time... I don’t remember the dialogue EXACTLY but god I loved it when I first discovered it. Something to the effect of:“That shouldn’t have happened. I wasn’t programmed to fail.”“Yeah, well, you fucked up, Connor. Welcome to the club.”I like that Hank doesn’t say it with anger, maybe a little annoyance, but overall it seems like he just thinks it’s ridiculous that Connor’s so upset with himself. Connor’s SO AFRAID OF FAILURE, like. It just permeates the whole game, and I really like that in this version of the scene Hank says something that’s just so humanizing and validating about it

The one scene in the zen garden when it’s pretty late in the game and Connor tries to ask Amanda SO MANY GOOD QUESTIONS that I had been wondering as the player as well, about who made the zen garden, what Cyberlife really wants, Elijah Kamski, whether Connor’s a unique model. etc. Depending on your choices in the story, I thiiiink (but am not sure) that it’s the same scene where he slowly admits to Amanda that he thinks he may be compromised, his LED going from blue to yellow to red as he says it, and then Amanda basically tells him “You’ve been in some difficult situations. It’s okay that you’re troubled. That doesn’t make you a deviant.” (again that’s probably not the exact line) I really like the visible conflict Connor has about coming to terms with it, and the way Amanda seems like she’s in denial of it just like he is

Absolutely fucking everything about the Meet Kamski chapter. I love some of his dialogue choices with Kamski too, he can really bite back. (Come to think of it I like any scene where you can choose options that have Connor in conflict with someone, whether it’s Kamski, Amanda, Gavin, or even Hank.) I prefer the version where he doesn’t shoot Chloe - his worry Hank is going to be upset with him for failing (there’s that again), the defensiveness about why he couldn’t shoot her, Hank’s lil smile and assurance that Connor did the right thing

THAT SAID there is one thing I also really like about the scene after he shoots Chloe: when Hank is all pissed off and having a Hank moment (rightfully so, this time, I mean Connor just killed someone, but anyway) and he moves in like he’s gonna grab Connor or shove him or something, and Connor pushes him back before he can. Again, Hank’s right to be pissed, BUT considering Connor gets literally and figuratively pushed around by almost everyone he encounters in the game (up to and including Hank), it’s nice to see that even a mission-focused Connor is deviant in his own way and will eventually push back.

The Hug (tm)

“Statistically speaking, there is always a chance for unlikely events to take place” + “Don’t worry. I always accomplish my mission” + the whole marching downtown with an army of androids thing = CONNOR POST-DEVIANCY EXUDES SO MUCH CONFIDENCE and I live for it. You asked about scenes and this isn’t a scene, just a combination of things I like, but now u got me talking about Connor and I can’t stop ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I like the scene you mentioned as well! It’s the culmination of everything Hank sees in Connor, everything he hoped Connor was and could be. And I like it just as much for Hank’s sake as I do for Connor’s - it’s good to see him come to terms with his own shit about androids. And “maybe you’ll be the ones to make the world a better place” is just such a hopeful, charitable thing for him to say given the darker edges of his personality and I’m glad that he maybe sees things a little brighter than they were before. I don’t talk about Hank nearly enough but I really do love him as a character as well and I believe he’s an idealist at heart, even if it’s buried under a lot of grief and outward cynicism

I knew this would get long lol, thanks for asking, there’s so much fan content out there that I haven’t actually thought about the specifics of the game in a while and it’s nice to reconnect with it a bit

#dbh connor #dbh hank #detroit become human #Anonymous

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borisbubbles · 5 years

Text

Eurovision 2010s: 140 - 136

140. Greta Salóme & Jónsi - Never forget” Iceland 2012

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Oh man, this is just tragic. Like, “l’amore è femmina”, “Never forget” could’ve been near the top of the ranking, but the stakes were even higher. A good performance of “Never forget” WINS this ranking easily. "Never forget” is not only one of my favourite ESC songs ever, it’s also the song that ignited my interest in becoming an freelance Eurovsion analyst, following the backstage, rehearsals and preselections, teaching myself how to gif, etc. It was a key entry in establishing my fandom.

My feelings on “Never forget” are as such, all over the goddamn’ place, so I will attempt to remain succinct: I was a HUGE fanboy in the day and to some degree I still am. Jónsi is probably still my single favourite Eurovision human. Effortlessly funny, disarmingly self-deprecating, overwhelmingly charismatic, constantly spewing off dorky dad humour everywhere. The only other person who can hold a candle to that is (the sadly LESS dorky) Måns Zelmerlöw. He is, simply put, perfect. Here’s a gif of him getting lost backstage.

(caption: “How unprofessional of me🤭🤔😬” 😻)

Greta is pretty amazing in her own right, as well. In addition to being a very talented songwriter who makes consistently magical music, I relate a lot to her permanently anxious, overambitious, perfectionistic self, her crippling fear of “not being good enough” permeating throughout every line she says. I mean, same girl, same. WLU *GREAT*A.

As for the song,man, how much praise can I cram into this? “Never forget” is a brilliant composition: It transcends the boundaries of music by unfolding like an animated chapter from the Edda. The Icelandic version may very well be the single best song in all of Eurovision, and is on my non-ESC playlist.

Sadly, Greta & Jónsi were ALSO struck by the Crystal Acoustics Curse. Not as badly as Compact Disco and Nina were but still, the end result was pretty disappointing. Jónsi was especially terrible which hurts my iceberg of a heart. However, I prefer to not dwell on what could’ve been. The final positioning at #140 is fair based on what “Never forget” eventually became: a solidly good entry, just not a great one.

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139. Emmelie de Forest - “Only teardrops” Denmark 2013

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On the other end of the spectrum, we now encounter another song in the “OUTSOLD!!!” category. Emmelie’s rank is limited by the quality of her song: "Only teardrops” is a boatload of nonsense, pre-packaged as pseudo-ethnic schlager <3 To put it plainly: It is a simple song for simple souls. 🤗 Fortunately, I too am a simple soul and was instantly drawn by this charming blend of floral melodies and underlying moody percussion. “Only teardrops” is, by the strict definition of the term, a basic bitch song, but it actually manages to convincingly disguise itself as quality. The presentation is elegant and even lowkey epic and Emmelie absolutely makes the most out of it. It’s not my 2013 winner, not even by a longshot, but I am nevertheless satisfied.

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138. Buryanoskiye Babushki - “Party for everybody” Russia 2012

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PARTIY VAR EVRIBADIY DENZ.

ANOTHER VICTIM OF CRYSTAL ARENA ACOU- lmfao just kidding.🤭 We knew well ahead in time the Babushki couldn’t hold a tune and if you care about *that* aspect, you’re just not watching Eurovision right. The only complaints I could’ve had would be if they won and well, look at the year.

Also, in a year featuring Jónsi (perfect human) and Kaliopi (”I LOVE THE GREECE. I LOVE GREECE MUSIC” + off-screen showmance with Can Bonomo <3), Natalia, a living breathing inner matrjoska manages to capture my heart as one of Eurovision’s best ancillary characters. SO ADORABLE, WHERE CAN I ORDER ONE ONLINE???

All yours, Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka, ya ya~

I also really cherish the Babushki because their participation feels like the FINAL time Russia was genuinely without a hidden motive. They were the last Russian entry to win an NF, and they did it with antiquated shit schlager about dogs crawling on cats <3 (Like, seriously. I’m sure there is some obscure uralic legend at the base of these acidtrippy lyrics, which <3). This of course they expanded by baking cookies on the stage while cawing on in offkey Udmurt and broken English. They are genuinely disarming and I question the morality and life choices of anyone who thinks otherwise. ^_^

Oh btw, all of Russia has now been eliminated, except for Polina. What a Good Eurovision Country.

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137. Sunstroke Project ft. Olia Tira - “Runaway” Moldova 2010

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In a bizarre fluke, “Run away” is one of the most famous Eurovision songs of all time.😂 I will not insult your intelligence by pointing out how, and I’ll instead remark that I find it lowkey hilarious. Hilarious, because at the time, the general opinion of “Run away” was a negative one: “a vocal disaster, an undeserving fringe qualifier, the epitome of bad taste & bad music, evocative of eastern-European countries voting only for each other”. Man, do those haters look silly now.

As for my personal opinion, well, yes, I live for the mess, obviously? Always have, long before it was cool! Pseudo-orchestral trashpop beat laced with incomprehensible coalminer’s English <3 correctly-rated-as-epic sax playback <3 <3 The terrible outfits <3 the world’s least convincing violin <3 Sergei RIPPING OPEN HIS SHIRT AT THE END lmfao <3 Keep on causing rage-induced embolysms with those juror fiends, sweet trash angels. So camp, so lowbudget, so shameless, SO MOLDOVAN <3

and now for the final boot of the ~Like Zone~

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136. Uzari & Maimuna - “Time” Belarus 2015

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“Time” is like Thunder Oh OH.

‘Time” is such a weird entry and I am barely able to make sense of it all.

First of all, it’s a physical health awareness anthem aimed at the terminally ill??? Telling them to live their life to the fullest because they have such little time left (which is both endearing and hilariously inappropriate).

Second of all, both Uzari (pronounced *YOU*zari, no really, he insists) and Maimuna are such intense weirdo’s. I wouldn’t describe their deadlocked gazes as chemistry per se, it’s more like a nonstop spaghetti western staredown. <3 How did these two people end up working together?

Thirdly this is a pairing between a singer and a musician but it is UZARI who composed the music while MAIMUNA wrote the lyrics <3 "Time” is such a quaint, but entertaining little song, how come everyone overlooks it ::looks at the flag::... oh.

And that concludes all the songs I ~like~. Now we move on to the second highest tier, to the [chiara] Songs That I ~LOOOOOVE~ 😻 [/chiara]

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sasuhinasno1fan · 5 years

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Time to heal- Shiro Ship Week Day 1

Time to give love to our favourite space dad! I still haven’t seen s8 because I wasn’t ready to sit and go through all the emotions but I’m sure once my job is over I can easily set my self on fire watching this. One of the things I did wish was that Adam wasn’t killed because, god, those two just needed a chance to talk. Even if they didn’t get back together, just talk. So here’s my fic where they got to do just that, enjoy! Wounds

“You know, I don’t think you’ve ever spent so much time on a ship.” Keith said, watching Shiro type away at a computer on the Atlas.

“I do have work I need to do before we leave.”

“And that work doesn’t include maybe, oh I don’t know, maybe visiting Adam? You know, your fiancé who managed to actually survive that ship explosion that Commander Sanda sent him to.”

“Ex-fiancé. He broke it off because I choose to do the Kerberos mission rather than stay here.” Shiro reminded, his voice sounding hard.

“To be fair, your disease was getting worse. The Galra did you a favour of cutting that arm off for you.” Keith pointed out, ignoring the glare Shiro gave him. “You thought you wouldn’t get the chance to talk to him after all of this, then we found out that he was taken by a Galra group, patched together and then forced to work on whatever camp he was in. You should be talking to him.”

“Don’t you have a Blue Paladin second in command to go and comfort?” Shiro asked, hoping to get Keith to leave him alone and go and see Lance, who was still trying to get over Allura telling him she didn’t have romantic feelings for him, let alone ready for a relationship after the whole Lotor issue.

“Fine, I’m going. Just didn’t think the one guy I always respected would be running away from a guy, especially one he’s still heads over heels for. Black told me you always thought about him.” With that, Keith left, leaving Shiro to his thoughts.

He wasn’t surprised Black told Keith about Adam. She was such a mother. Even though he wasn’t technically a Paladin anymore, he’d still feel her rooting around in his mind at times. When they finally arrived on earth and got to the Garrison, he thought Adam was gone, killed when his ship was shot down. To find out that he was actually alive – hurt, blinded in one eye and missing a leg, but alive – he knew he should have gone and seen him. But, the wounds from when Adam left him were still there. He was never mad at him for leaving. He was being selfish, wanting to prove to everyone he could still be a pilot. Adam was scared he was going to lose him and didn’t want to have to face that. Course, Adam was right in the end, he did get hurt, just not in a way any of them expected. He had sworn to himself that when they finally returned to earth, he’d sit down and talk to him but now that he had the opportunity, he was hiding himself in the Atlas. It was one of the few times he was happy he wasn’t a Paladin anymore. Black would just take him to Adam without his consent and drop him on his doorstep. Though, he had somehow managed to turn the Atlas into a mecha, so he shouldn’t be too surprised if it gained a mind of its own.

He had been so focused on working on whatever paperwork and mapping out the places they had to travel to, he almost didn’t see the message Sam had sent him.

Matt has finally finished your new prosthetic, you can come and see it. We can discuss your operation to change it.

Some people, i.e., him and his whole team, pointed out that his new arm wasn’t the best thing. It was a lot to have to remember to keep his floating arm near. If he let his thoughts drift, his arm went with it. Plus, Shiro was getting a bit tired of being used to hack into computers. Enough people had rattled around his head, thank you very much. Matt and Pidge had worked on making him an arm similar to his old one, but with the looks of his new one. He just hoped his body didn’t reject this one. He wanted to actually return Allura’s crystal from her crown. No need to give up the piece that showed her as a queen when there where was still Alteans who needed a leader.

He stretched, already ready to get rid of the floating arm as it started pulling his flesh arm a bit to hard.

Leaving the Atlas now. I’ll be there soon.

______

“Was the floating arm, that bad?” Matt asked, as he pulled his hair into a high bun. His mother kept insisting he cut it, but he was having fun putting it into different hairstyles.

Pidge looked up from where she was doing last minute checks. She been at her house but got bored looking at the TV show for Voltron and decided to help on Shiro’s arm.

“I’m gonna pretend you didn’t ask that.”

“I liked it.”

Pidge rolled her eyes at her brother. He was such a nerd.

“Excuse me,” a voice called from the door. Pidge looked over her shoulder to see a guy in a Garrison uniform. He wore glasses despite the large scar on his face that obviously left him blind in his left eye. She saw that one of his pant legs was pulled up, showing off a familiar silver leg prosthetic. The metal looked like what had been used on Shiro’s old prosthetic. “I was told to come here if I had any issues with my prosthetic.”

“Adam?”

“Matt?”

Pidge looked at both her brother and the guy. “Do you two know each other?”

“Uh, yeah.” Matt said, seeming to be unsure of what to say when Adam interrupted.

“Through a mutual friend.”

Somehow, Pidge could tell this mutual friend was important but also not to be talked about.

“So your prosthetic?”

“Yeah, got it when I got captured by the Galra after my ship crashed.”

“Wait a second. Weren’t you one of the pilots who was sent out by Commander Sanda?”

“Yeah. Managed to survive somehow but was captured by the Galra. After I was considered recovered enough, I was sent to work in their camp. My leg’s been giving me trouble since I got rescued. It actually collapsed under me today.”

“Alright come here.” Matt said.

Pidge got up to help when she heard a very familiar voice.

“Matt, your dad said you finished my arm. When can we get this annoying thing-” she turned to see Shiro in the doorway staring at Adam. “Adam.” The disbelief in his voice made it obvious to Pidge, this was how Adam and Matt knew each other.

“Takashi.” Well there was another. As far as Shiro told them, everyone called him Shiro because no one correctly pronounced Takashi.

“I…” Shiro trailed off. “I’ll come back later.” And with that, Shiro turned tail and left, though it looked more like running away.

“Damn, I didn’t think he’d get here so quickly.” Matt said, Adam pulling his arm away to get on to the table himself, staring at the door where Shiro disappeared from.

“Um, probably none of my business but I’m gonna ask anyway. How do you two know each other?”

“Pidge.” Matt scolded.

“It’s fine. I guess he never said anything. We were engaged.”

“What?”

_______

Shiro, that guy who came in, you were engaged to him? (Pidge)

Wait, Shiro was engaged to a guy? How did I not know this? (Hunk)

It’s Adam isn’t it? Hunk, come on, you know Shiro never hid his orientation. How do you think I was able to figure out my own? I always thought they looked good together. (Lance)

Wait, Adam, the guy who taught Aerodynamics? The one who offered to tutor you before they kicked Keith out? (Hunk)

How the heck did you catch Adam’s attention? (Keith)

What can I say Keith? He obviously saw greatness. (Lance)

Shiro’s eye twitched as he watched his team talk about his relationship with Adam. Like it wasn’t enough that he bumped into him earlier without being ready. He ran off without even talking him.

He still called him Takashi. Other than his late parents, he was the only one to call him by his name. most didn’t bother to try, taking the nickname he offered instead. He always felt bad that he couldn’t stop the Galra earlier, before they could have attacked Earth. Seeing Adam, who despite his not perfect eyesight was a promising pilot, blind in one eye because Commander Sanda thought he was a better fit to go up against the Galra, it hurt. He also had a prosthetic leg. Adam was an avid volleyball player. He didn’t doubt that it would stop him, but it would be harder for him.

“Shiro? Can I come in?” Matt called from outside Shiro’s room.

“Yes.” Matt came in, sitting at the desk. “Your sister is outing me to the team.”

“I thought you never hid it? Just never denied it.” Matt pointed out, which Shiro rolled his eyes at. That might have been true but still. “In case you were wondering, Adam is ok. His leg wasn’t as good as your arm so it’s starting to breakdown. We’ve got him scheduled to get a replacement tomorrow to make sure he doesn’t risk gaining an infection. He asked how you were. I told him we were giving you a new arm because you didn’t like your current one.”

“It makes no sense. I didn’t complain before because we were in the middle of a war. Plus, I could do without it being used to help you and your dad hack into Galra ships with my brain being used as the computer.”

“Fair enough. So…I take you never went to see Adam when he was rescued.”

Shiro shook his head. “what was I supposed to say? Last time I saw him, he pretty much told me our engagement was over because I was being selfish, which I was. Then I disappear for what, 3 years and then because we couldn’t end this fight, he got hurt.”

“Ok come on. Shiro, that wasn’t your fault. The Galra would have come eventually and you can’t dismantle a 10,000 year old empire in 3 years. Besides, Adam knew what being a fighter pilot meant. He can be mad at you for wanting to prove something over your own health, but he’s not mad at you for what happened. I mean, hello, you made the Atlas into a mecha to save your team. Can’t be mad at someone like that.”

“To be fair, including the time my clone was a Paladin, I was fighting in a mecha for 2 years.” Shiro sighed. “I wasn’t ready to see him though. We both left wounds on each other and I wasn’t ready to try and heal the ones I left on him, especially the physical ones.”

Matt looked sad, like he was upset he couldn’t help Shiro. “Do you think you can do me a favour? Adam’s parent’s died last year, before the Galra attacks so no one will be there when he’s recovering. You still have time to get your transplant done and you can recover on the Atlas and honestly, you need to talk to him, even if it’s just a ‘I’m glad you’re alive’.”

He knew he was right. He couldn’t just continue running off whenever he got scared. He fought the Galra for god’s sake. Being in the same room as he ex-fiancé shouldn’t scare him, though it did. God, he rather go fight Galra again.

__________

Tempting as it was to just hide and leave someone else to deal with it, he stayed. Plus, Allura heard what was going on (Thanks Keith) and insisted he at least stay and talk to him.

“There are things I regret never saying to my father before I was sealed away. I don’t have that chance anymore but you do. At least tell him the things you wanted to tell him if you weren’t taken.”

Seeing Adam unconscious without his glasses sent Shiro back to when he’d find Adam asleep on the couch in the teacher’s lounge after grading all evening. Even with the scar on his face, he still looked the same. He had to stop himself from pressing a kiss to his cheek like he used to, though, he missed seeing the sleepy smile that would come to Adam’s face as he woke up.

When the anaesthesia wore off, Adam groaned a little, looking like he had crashed hard the day before. He had a habit of doing that. God, Shiro could lecture him about that for days, but the minute he became a Paladin, he started exhibiting the bad habit. He opened his eyes, his fully green eye slowly focusing on the ceiling. He blinked a bit before turning his head, stilling when he saw Shiro sitting next to his bed. Shiro didn’t say anything, still too nervous to speak.

“Your hair is white.”

Ok, not what he was expecting, but Shiro could work with that.

“My hair used to look like yours.” He said, nodding to the white streak in Adam’s hair. It wasn’t as big as Shiro’s had been.

“You look like Allen Walker but with shorter hair.”

Shiro let out a little laugh. Adam’s favourite anime was D.Gray Man. Relaxation for him meant sitting in front of the tv watching episodes or reading the manga over and over again.

“When I heard about the Kerberos mission, I was pissed off, but not at you. They said you were responsible but I knew that couldn’t be true. I know I said you shouldn’t have gone, but I also knew that you would have done everything to bring everyone back. You’ve always been that stubborn. One of things I can’t stand about you sometimes but also one of the things I admire.”

“I…didn’t know that. I thought you would have hated me.”

“I never hated you Takashi. I was just mad that you seemed to care more about proving a point than your life.”

“I get that.” Shiro said, “but you have to understand. Since I was a kid, I let this disease control my life. When I told my family I wanted to go to space, they didn’t think I could do it and I decided to stop letting it control me. Every step I took had someone thinking I couldn’t achieve this. Yes, I know it was getting worse, and yes, I know I was being so selfish, but I had to prove that I could do it. When you broke it off, I thought I didn’t have anything to lose.”

Adam stared at him before he moved his hand, like he was reaching for Shiro. Hesitantly, Shiro gave him his hand, which was squeezed with as much strength as Adam could give.

“If I begged you, you would have stayed?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“But you would have wished you went in the back of your mind.”

Shiro couldn’t deny it. “Yeah.”

“Well, I’m glad you did. Could have done without the getting captured by aliens though. It broke my heart thinking that you thought I hated you when you left, except you did.”

“I hurt you. I wouldn’t have been mad if you did.” Shiro said, wanting to put his other hand on top of their clasped hands, but he didn’t trust the floating arm to actually work when his emotions were running high. “I am sorry I hurt you. I should have talked to you and explained everything, but I bottled it up. Kinda like I’ve been doing since I heard you were alive. I was scared about what would be said, so I just stay clamed up.”

Adam moved his free hand to Shiro’s face, the Atlas captain moving closer to allow Adam to touch his face. “You always did have a habit of keeping things to yourself. God, no wonder Keith is a ticking time bomb.” He teased.

“Yeah, guess he didn’t get your calm demeanour.”

“By the way, that floating arm looks really stupid.”

Shiro couldn’t help but laugh. There was the no filter bluntness that drew Shiro to Adam in the first place. “I know. I’m getting it changed. Do you know Sam used it like a bug of sorts to hack into a Galra ship? My brain was the computer.”

“I respect that man, especially after what he accomplished after he returned to Earth, but he is weird as hell.”

“I’ll let him know. Before I forget, I’m heading back out to space soon, after my arm is changed. I don’t want to make the same mistake again and lose you.”

“Well, we’ll figure it out. Don’t worry. I think we’ve been through enough already.”

It didn’t mean things were automatically fixed, but wounds were starting to heal and that meant something.

#shiroshipweek2019 #adashi #adam lives

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crazyrandomfucker · 5 years

Text

Fated twins

Chapter 3: And may the problems begin

Summary:

Even if the bug heroes managed to free Ivan and Ioan from the akumas influence, they forgot to purify it and now they'll have to face the cosequences. Doubts, fear, anger, love and lots of support, our beloved heroes will have to face all that. But ain't life supposed to be like that?

____________________

-At Adrienne's bedroom-

Adrienne is at her room, staring at her computer screen. Someone named Alen and someone named Alya had created each a blog for the superheroes. Alen had made a blog for her and Lordbug, called the Lordblog, while Alya had created the Ladyblog for her brother and Ladybug. If she recalled correctly, those were the reporter twins they had saved at the stadium, so she guessed they made those blogs based on the battle formation they had had during the fight with the Stonehearted brothers, so it was normal that she shared the protagonism with that buggy guy she had worked with. Her opinion of him wasn't that much for now, they had met just once and fought together against evil. Sure, he had proven to have the wits to win the battle and had fought along her quite good for a beginner, even if he had seemed a bit worried before he entered the battle. But that was all, she knew nothing else and she wasn't sure if she was supposed to know more either. Suddenly, the news emergency broadcast pops up at her computer's screen. Apparently, even after they had defeated the monsters, people were transforming into stone monsters that looked exactly as the ones they had defeated earlier.

She rushes stairs down to see her brother and to check if he has already seen the news. And he did. They stare at each other very confused about what was happening, but the kwamis come out of their hiding places demanding for food before they have time to talk about it.

"Okay, we'll feed you. But what do you eat exactly? I mean, I doubt we can just give you anything" says Adrienne.

"Camembert!" shouts Plagg.

"Brie!" shouts Plague.

"So you're telling me that the gods of destruction eat cheese? Or do you eat anything else?" asks Adrien.

"You want to have powers? If you do, just give us lots of cheese and everything will go smoothly" replies Plagg.

"Okay, I'll make sure you both get your favourite cheese. One question why are random people turning into those stone monsters?"

"Did the bugs catch the akumas?" ask the kwamis at the same time.

-At Dupain-Cheng's bakery-

"Did you catch the akumas?" said at unison the ladybug kwamis.

"What does capturing the akuma has to do with the other stone beings?" asks Marin.

"The akumas can multiply, that's why it must be captured" explains Tekke.

"If Ivan and Ioan's emotions become negative, they'll turn to Stonehearts again, but this time they'll have an army to back them" says Tikki.

"So that means... This is all our fault" regrets Marinette. "I knew it. I'm not cut out to be a hero Tikki. I'm only going to keep messing up".

"Be calm, it was your first time. You're going to go back and capture Stoneheart's akuma, and do it successfully" says Tikki, trying to cheer her holder up.

"I can't I told you, I'm clumsy, I create disaster where I go. I will only make thing worse for you, for my partners and for everyone in Paris. Chat, Kitty and my brother will be better without me. I'm quitting"

"Hold a minute. You're quitting? Did I hear that right?" says Marin, beginning to head towards his sister direction. "You sister are not quitting. Not on my watch. Nuh-huh".

"But Ma-" tries to reply Mari.

"No, listen to me sis. Yes, you have messed up" says Marin holding her. "But so did I. It's our fault, we made the mistake, so we'll be the ones clearing that mistake. Got it?"

"Marin I-"

"Got it or not Mari? If you don't get it I'm going to hang you to Eiffel tower till you get it. Okey?"

The heroine sighs. "Yes brother, I'll do it".

-At Adrien's room-

"So we can't do anything without them?" ask Adrien as his sister returns with cheese for the kwamis.

"Only the holders of Ladybug's miraculous can purify the akumas and repair the damaged caused by the powers of other kwamis" explains Plagg.

"What are we there for then?" asks the model girl.

"You think they could handle the fights by themselves? Yeh, they could handle a few of them maybe, but trust me, you both represent destruction as the holders of the black cat ring. They represent creation. If there was only creation, the world would collapse in little time and there would be creations that would be harmful. That's why there must be destruction "says Plague. "You're here to help them by destroying anything is harmful, no matter if it's harmful objects, persons or even feelings. You're more than partners, you're their opposite and that's why you make a good team".

"Wow Plague... That was truly beautiful..." says Adrien.

"Yeah well, don't get used to it, it's just some info you needed so you won't run over Paris destroying everything" replies the kwami.

-At Marinette's room-

"I'm sorry Tikki, my brother may be right, but he's cut out to be Lordbug and I'm not. My brother and the cats may just find another Ladybug" says Mari. "I'm sorry Tikki".

"Wait, no! Don't take the-" tries to say Tikki, but she disappears when Marinette takes the earrings out.

"Tikki?" ask Mari. Hearing no response, she puts the earrings on the black box and puts it on her bag. "I'm sorry Tikki".

-At Dupain-Cheng's bakery-

Mari is eating breakfast with a very long face and while her brother and father are trying to cheer her up a bit, the girl just revolves inside herself because of the guilt she's feeling. She hasn't said it to her brother, but she was going to give her miraculous to Alya, he'll find out later and get mad for sure, but what else could she do? She simply wasn't made for being Ladybug. Or at least, she thought so. She tries to get those thoughts out of her head and finishes her breakfast as quickly as she can, daring her brother to race to school. But she lost. While Marin certainly had bad luck and that caused him to have lots of accidents, she was even clumsier, making it impossible for her to win. They finally arrive to school and they meet the reporter twins at the front gate.

"Hey girl, check this out. This is the Ladyblog, a blog made for our best superheroine and her cat companion" says Alya while showing Mari her new blog.

"Dude, check this better. Here I present you, the Lordblog. You know, a blog made for our awesome hero Lordbug and his incredible partner Kitty Noire" shows off Alen.

"Geez guys, you're truly looking up to them, don't you?" says Marin.

"Dude, they were simply amazing, you should have seen them fight" says Alen.

"But why do you trust them so much? Look at so many people turned into stone beings. What if they simply aren't cut out for being superheroes?" says Mari.

"Girl, I know what this is about" declares Alya. "You're scared, I get it. But they'll take care of the stone beings in no time. I've seen them fight with my own two eyes and let me tell you that they're absolutely great heroes".

"Yeah sis, you should have a little bit more of faith" agrees Marin.

Suddenly, they see lots of people around Ioan and Ivan, asking them questions about the akumatization and some even criticising him. But the Burgeoise twins come in calling them monsters and harassing them. The brothers get angry and leave. Alen and Alya face the blonds twins and Marin and Marinette go to try to comfort the Bruel brothers.

-At the Agreste’s manor-

"You didn't even saw them leave?" says Gabriel with anger and incredulity on his voice.

"No sir, we're sorry about it, we'll try to catch them before they reach that school" apologises Nathalie.

"I'll take your word on that. If something happens to them, you'll be held responsible! Now leave and get them" says angrily Gabriel before he turns his back to the bodyguards and Nathalie and walks away.

-At school's door-

"We made it! We're here Adrien!" says excited Adrienne.

"I know right!" answers her rother excited as well.

"I just don't get it, you have freedom to go anywhere and you go to school?" says Plagg lazily from inside the pocket of Adrien's jacket.

"You don't get it Plagg, we're done with being shut up in home by dad" replies Adrien.

"Yeah, we want to meet people and make friends" agrees Adrienne.

"Adrien and Adrienne! Don't do this, your father will be furious." says Nathalie, coming out of a limousine.

"Tell him you were too late. Please" prays Adrienne before going inside the building with her brother.

-Inside the building-

"Why did you have to do that Chloe and Cleón? You two are the real Stonehearts" says Alya.

"So we're the ones who broke Sebastian and Sabrina's dad arm, are we?" says Chloe.

"Just because your lame footage of those filthy heroes got to TV doesn't mean you have to get so high and mighty" says Cleón.

"You sonsuva-" says Alen.

"Ah! They're both angry! They're going to turn into naked bulked ugly monsters!" says Chloe.

The reporter twins go away before they jump at the blondes and get their shit together by fists and go to seek the designers. Meanwhile, two green-eyed blond models enter the school.

"Hey Chloe, Cleón" says Adrien.

"Hey guys" says his sister.

"Adrikins and Adrienne! You came!" says Chloe while hugging the models more that they were comfortable with.

"So you made it at last! I hope you didn't get caught" says Cleón.

"We did get caught yesterday, but we made it on time today".

-At the boys' lockers-

Mari and her brother smile as they find the brothers sitting down listening to some music. They get close to them and sit next of each other on the floor. They gently tap their arms while smiling and the brothers take off their headphones.

"You know, you both should tell Mylenne and Mylo how you feel" says Mari with a gentle smile.

"I- I don't know what you're talking about" say the brothers at unison and avoid looking to Marinette.

"Come on, we saw the way you look at them" says Marin.

The brothers shake their head and look down "No, no negative emotions please" says Mari, but the twins look at her a bit pissed. "I mean that you must be positive!" claims Mari.

"Yeah, we're sure that they had feelings for you too" says Marin

"Go talk to her" whispers Mari to Ivan.

"Go talk to him" whispers Marin to Ioan.

"Ugh. we're not good with words anyway" confesses Ivan.

"But, who needs words?" says Marin.

"You can always show your feelings painting something or writing a poem" continues Mari.

"Would a song be alright?" asks Ivan.

"Yes! That would be so romantic! Who wouldn't like to listen to a song of love made for them! Go for that guys and be positive!" says Mari excited.

"Thanks guys, you two are angels, you know it?" says Ioan before his brother and he leave to write the songs.

-Adrien side-

He says goodbye to his sister and Cleón and Chloe leads the way to their classroom, signing autographs for his fans while they walk.

"This is your seat Adrikins. I've save it for you Adrikins, right in front of me" says Chloe as she enters the classroom, pointing to the seat next to Nino's.

"Thanks Chloe" says the model as he enters the classroom and sits next to Nino. "Hey, I'm Adrien" says as he offers Nino a handshake.

"You're friends with Chloe then huh?" says Nino without bothering to accept the handshake, pointing with his head behind the model.

Adrien truns and sees Chloe taking the chewing gum and giving it to Sabrina, who puts it on Marinette's seat.

"Hey, what's that all about?" says Adrien perturbed.

"The brat that sits here yesterday needed a little attitude adjustment" says Chloe. "I'm just commanding a bit of respect, that's all".

"You think that's really necessary?" says Adrien, while he gets down to try to pull the gum off the seat.

"You've got a lot to learn about school culture Adrikins. Watch the master" says Chloe going back to her seat.

_Marinette side-

"Alya wouldn't you like to be a superheroes and go out and fight monsters and villains?" asks Mari.

"Totally, I'm not scared of anyone. Why?" answers the reporter.

"Oh, no, no reason" responds quickly Mari and puts the box inside Alya's bag without her noticing.

As they enter at the classroom, they see a blond guy they had never seen before with a gum in Marinette's seat.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" asks Mari pissed.

"Oh- I-" tries to say Adrien searching for an explanation that wouldn't reveal his only friend prank, just as Chloe and Sabrina begin to laugh.

"Okay, I get it. good job you three! Very funny" says Mari.

"No, no. I was just trying to take this off" tries to say Adrien.

"Oh really?" asks Marinette with sarcasm. She tries to pull the gum off but notices it still has saliva. While Chloe and her minion laugh, Mari picks a handkerchief and pulls the gum out. "You're friends with Choe, right?"

"Why you people keep saying that?" whispers the blond model. Mari turns her head and sits down without sparing Adrien a look.

"Now you see what I mean about respect?" ask Chloe in a very petty way.

"I know I've seen him before" whispers Mari as Alya gives Mari her phone. "Of course! He's the son of my favourite fashion designer Gabriel Agreste!"

"Daddy's boy, teen supermodel and Chloe's buddy. Huh, forget it" says Alya.

"Why didn't you tell her it was Chloe's idea?" asks Nino curiously.

"I've known Chloe since I was a little kid, and even if she's not the best person, she and her brother are my only friends. I couldn't simply turn her in" says the model.

Nino smiles and offers the boy a handshake. "I'm Nino Lahiffe and it's time for you to make some new friends dude".

-Adrienne side-

She said goodbye to Chloe and her brother and was shown around by Cleón and his lackey Sebastian, who made sure no one dared to approach Adrienne. As they arrive to their classroom, Cleón enters the classroom and points to one seat next to a girl that has her headphones on.

"From now on, this is going to be your seat! I just reserved for you!" says Cleón.

"Thanks Cle" says the model as she sits down. "Hey, I'm new here, I'm Adrienne" says with a big smile as she offers her a handshake.

The girl doesn't even bother to look at her. "So you're the friend of a guy like him" says pointing towards Cleón, who is putting oil on Marin's seat.

"Hey! What do you two think you're doing?" says Adrienne clearly annoyed.

"The guy here needed a little lesson of respect, that's all. No need to get on your nerves about this" responds the blond jerk.

"A little lesson of respect? What are you talking about? This is no way to treat other people Cleón!" replies the blonde model as she pulls a handkerchief and tries to rub the oil off.

"You really have to learn a lot about school culture Adrienne" says Cleón, shrugging it off.

-Marin side-

"Hey Alen, you think my sis would make a good hero?" asks Marin.

"Dude, you're both sons of bakers and don't even think I haven't seen the muscles you two have. She would totally kick my ass. No doubts" says the reporter.

"I know man, but she doesn't have enough confidence on herself. Not that she's a hero, but I think she could face Chloe at least" says the designer.

"I totally agree with you on that man".

As they enter the room, the boys see a blonde girl they had never seen with a handkerchief rubbing oil from Marin's seat.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" asks Alen

"Oh- I was-" tries to say the girl as the jerks behind Nina begin to laugh.

"Oh I get it, very funny you three. You're just the friend of that jerk, aren't you?" asks Alen.

"Why do you all say that? I- My sandwich fell and the oil dripped, so I was trying to rub it out! I swear" says Adrienne.

"Oh yeah sure" says Alen and Adrienne's eyes begin to leak some tears.

"You understand now what I said about respect Adrienne?" says Cleón, still laughing.

"Stop it! All of you just stop it!" yells Marin. Then he pulls out his handkerchief and gives it to Adrienne. "I get it wasn't your fault and you were trying to fix it up. Don't worry about it. Also take this before your make up gets ruined like your handky".

"I- I-" tries Adrienne.

"Don't sweat it, just take it. You can give it back to me after I clean yours, keep it until then" says Marin.

"But bro, she's-" tries to warn him Alen.

"I don't care who she is Alen, she's new here and she was crying on her first day. Would you like that?" says Marin, as the boys take a seat.

"Dude, you truly have a heart of gold" says Alen.

"Thanks man. Also, thanks for jumping there for me bro, you're the best of bro someone could have" says the designer.

As the boys enter the bro mode, Adrienne takes a seat and Nina looks at her curiously.

"Why didn't you tell him the truth? That it was that jerk fault?" ask inquiringly Nina.

"Look, I know he's a total jerk and an idiot. But I've known him and her sister forever and they're my only friends. Even if he's stupid I just couldn't throw him under the bus, you know?"

Nina smiles and offers a handshake. "The name's Nina Lahiffe and girl, you're so going to get new friends. You have already made a first step with Marin. He's an angel. If he had trusted you enough, that means you have good chances of becoming his friend. And if you do that, most of the class will follow for sure".

"About that... What did you say his name was? He was so gentle and polite with me, even if he didn't know who I was and had enough reasons to be mad at me. I'd love to repay him with anything I can do" says Adrienne gawking.

"Oh girl, I think you just fell for the angel's charms. You've got it rough if so" declares Nina.

"What are you talking about?" replies the blonde while blushing. "And why would I have it rough?"

Nina gives her the look™ "You can't fool me girl. I've seen so many fall for him, but no one has ever stand a chance with him. He rejects as gently as he can all the girls who had confessed to him. I think it's because he's scared to care about someone, because Cl... some people have made sure to break everything he cares about".

"That's so cruel... How could they do that? Why do they even do it?" says Adrienne.

"If I had to bet, it'd be jealousy" says Nina.

"Hey bro, " says Alen showing his phone to Marin "look who is she".

"Adrienne Agreste? The daughter of my favourite designer ever?" says Marin a bit too loud.

"Yeah, I'm sorry for saying nothing" says Adrienne.

"Don't be, it's understandable. I'm sorry if I've offended you in anyway before" says Marin.

"No. Please don't do that. I've had enough with people who treat me like that just for my father. And here I thought you were someone nice" says the blonde holding her face and pouting.

"I'm sorry. I won't give you a special treatment. I swear on my parent's bakery" says Marin desperately.

"Bakery? Will they be good?" thinks Adrienne. "Well, I could forgive you if you showed me the town around when I get time" says the girl.

"It'll be my pleasure, shall I give you my number then? So you can phone me when you're free" says Marin offering her a paper with his phone.

"I'll take it glad" says the girl and winks at him, without noticing how mad Cleón was getting and how smug Nina's grin was turning.

---------------

First - Previous -Next

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfic #miraculous au #twins!au

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smilingformoney · 5 years

Text

America’s Most Eligible 3 Diamond Scene: Make Love in this Club [Derek]

Kaitlyn: In any other case that’d be TMI… but I’ll always make an exception for an ‘Usher’ lyric. You: I knew I liked you. Kaitlyn: What are you waiting for? Go get him! You rush over and find Derek mingling with the rest of your wedding party. A wide grin spreads over his face when he sees you. Derek: You look like you’re up to something. You: It just so happens that we’ve been invited to the club’s secret lounge. Derek: Lead the way.

You close and lock the door behind you as fast as you can, then turn to Derek… he captures your lips in a tender kiss as he presses you against the door. You: I’ve been waiting all day for this. Derek: Is it as good as you hoped? You: Even better… thought I can’t help but wonder something. Derek: What?

You: Why haven’t you… -Taken my clothes off yet?

Derek flashes you a wide grin, and eagerly undoes your clothes. He tosses them onto the couches. Derek: Anything else on your mind? You: See if you can guess. Derek: I think I’m onto you. Derek strips his own clothes off of him, tosses them far away. You marvel at his toned chest. Derek: Did I guess correctly? You: You’re totally onto me.

-Stripped down for me yet?

Derek: Only because you hadn’t asked. But now… Derek quickly strips off all his clothing, throwing it across the room. Derek: I think we’re missing one little thing… He pulls you in close, and makes fast work of all your buttons and zippers. Your clothes quickly pile around your feet. Derek: That’s more like it. You: I couldn’t agree more.

Derek: What do you need from me now? You: Well, now that our clothes are finally out of the way…

You: I need you to…

-Touch me.

Derek: Jamie… I always want to touch you. You have no idea. You: I think I have some idea. Derek smooths a stray hair behind your ear, then starts to caress the curves of your body… He trails kisses down your neck as he maps all of you with his strong hands. You: Mmmm, Derek.

-Kiss me.

Derek: Jamie… I always want to kiss you. You have no idea. You: Derek, I’m pretty confident I can relate. Derek slips his hands around the small of your back bringing you closer to him. He kisses you softly at first, but the kiss quickly grows more and more fiery… He parts your lips with his tongue, exploring all of you. You can feel your heart pounding into his muscled chest. You: Oh, Derek.

Derek kisses you deeply, and leads you over to the couch. He pulls you on top of him, and you moan in delight. Derek: Jamie, tell me what you want.

You: Derek, I need… -To be in your arms.

Derek wraps his strong arms around you, holding you securely against him. Derek: Like this? You: I could stay like this forever. You wrap your arms around his neck, and nuzzle your face against his chest. You count each of Derek’s heartbeats as you fade away into the all-consuming moment together…

-All of you. All the way.

Derek: I was hoping you’d say that. You: Are you gonna do anything about it? Derek smirks at you, then pushes you down against the cool leather of the couch. He kisses and nibbles at your beck, then slowly bucks his hips against yours… You: Ooooh, Derek! Derek: Jamie, you’re stunning. The two of you quickly find a rhythm together… and as your pace quickens, a harmony deep within you swells… Your movements together steadies, and notes of pleasure swirl throughout you. You pull Derek in for a deep kiss, feeling his skin hot against your own. You: Derek, you feel-- Derek: Jamie! Your bodies tense as one, and you feel the sweet tones of euphoria reach their crescendo. You close your eyes as you and Derek collapse against one another, basking in the moment…

After a while you stir back to reality as Derek massages smooth circles into your shoulders. Derek: I can’t believe it… I don’t think I’ve asked you how you’re feeling about our wedding. You: You mean, how I’m feeling about marrying America’s favourite Artist slash Superfan? Derek: No seriously, it’s a big step. Do you feel ready?

You: I… -Have my doubts, but… +50

You: I’d be worried if I didn’t have any. You: At the end of the day, I know that we’re good together and I want to marry you. Derek: That’s all that matters to me, Jamie.

-Don’t have any doubts at all. +50

You: I’ve never felt this sure about anything in my life. Derek: Neither have I, Jamie.

Derek: Knowing that the person I love most in the world loves me back… that has to be the best feeling ever. You hear the muffled sound of drums and applause coming from beyond the closed door. You: I think Kaitlyn’s about to start her set! Derek: Then we better get out there. You and Derek quickly dress yourselves, then make your way to the door. You: Ready? Derek: Almost. Derek pulls you in for one last, lingering kiss before you head back out into the crowd.

You and Derek weave your way into the crowd just as Kaitlyn steps up to the mic. Derek turns to you with a smile on his face. Derek: Do you trust me? You: I wouldn’t marry you if I didn’t. Derek laughs. He crouches down then points to his shoulders for you to get on. You quickly find yourself sitting atop Derek’s shoulders, able to see every inch of the stage. Kiana: Aww, look how cute Jamie and Derek are! Bianca: That’s actually, like, way adorable. Maid of Honour: Get a room! Best Man: I think they already did… You: Shh! They’re starting!

#playchoices #choices stories you play #choices ame #choices america's most eligible #america's most eligible

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littlemisssquiggles · 6 years

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RWBY Musings #23: How Squiggles Thinks Volume 5 will end.

..Or rather how I would like for it to end. With the Volume 5 finale in just 2 days and the excitement for it building by the hour, I wanted to make this brief post sharing my thoughts on not what I’d like to see from the finale but also how I think it should end. I’ll start with the endings first before moving into stuff I’d love to see in last episode.

The way how I see it, RWBY Volume 5 can end either one of two ways for me:

The Happy Go-Lucky, Sunshine and Rainbows Ending

The Battle For Haven is won in favour of the heroes. Triumph is theirs! The villains are all captured (with the exception of perhaps Hazel, Emerald and Mercury who managed to escape) and taken to prison where they’d be held accountable for their crimes, possibly putting an end to Adam and the White Fang for good (or at least put them in the Void of Obscurity until their evilness is needed again in a later season)

The Relic of Knowledge is acquired safely. Our heroes survive and the volume ends with everyone making plans to head towards their next designated kingdom but not before a brief period of celebration first.

I can see the team returning to Vale next, to reclaim Beacon Academy and secure the Relic of Choice. Or if the CRWBY writers’ game plan is to save returning to Beacon as the final battleground when RWBY is nearing its series finale (or at least the end of the ‘Salem Arc’ in case RWBY is planned to go on even after Salem is supposedly defeated), then I guess the next best place to go is probably the Deserts of Vacuo to meet the Headmaster of Shade Academy to secure the Relic of Destruction and meet the next seasonal Maiden: the Summer Maiden (granted that she is in Vacuo).

And I’m excited for the gang to go to Vacuo since it would finally mean some well-deserved development for Sun Wukong since it is his home turf if I recall. It’d be nice to have a season where Sun can take centre stage despite being a supporting character for the past five seasons.

I know most fans are waiting for the team to head to Atlas but...so far the Maidens have been going more or less in order of the seasons. We had Fall first, then Spring. So naturally, shouldn’t Summer come next with Winter following after?

Then again, when I checked the RWBY Wikipedia page, I noticed they have Winter listed before Summer since the Winter Maiden is connected to the Relic of Creation which consecutively comes before the Relic of Destruction which is tied to the Summer Maiden. So...I’m guessing if the story is going in order of the Relics rather than the Maidens themselves, then the next destination for the story to go to would be Atlas and Signal Academy for V6.

It’d be remarkable to see just how everyone makes it into Atlas considering that Ironwood locked it off. Not to mention that returning to Atlas would spark another character arc for Weiss or at least bring some closure to her side of the story moving forward since it would mean reuniting with her strained family again. Maybe this time we can actually meet her mother.

Then there’s also the irony of Weiss escaping Atlas to go to Haven only to go right back to Atlas in the end. But, at least this time it would be of her own will rather than being held hostage by her own father.

As much as I would love for the gang to head to Vacuo (so that best monkey boy Sun can get some development for once), I’ll admit that I’d be excited for them to go to Atlas too.

Focusing a season on Atlas would mean giving us fans more opportunities to explore more of the kingdom and its inner citadels. The thing that disappointed me about the Mistral arc is that we never got to actually walk about the city and see it through the characters’ eyes. The most we got were 2D still images of the kingdom in the first episode and Qrow walking around part of it in Chapter 6 when he was gathering his huntsman team. But beyond that, that was all folks! I hope things are different in Atlas. For me, I imagined Atlas with its technologically advanced culture and rich elites would be like the Capitol from the Hunger Games series. It just gave me that kind of vibe y’know what I mean.

Even Jacques Schnee can be almost interpreted as a RWBY version of Hunger Games’ President Snow (minus the homicidal tendencies and proficiency to both physically and emotionally torture and scar those he sees as a threat, all with a smile on his face).

They’re both moronic tyrants in their respective shows, but I digress.

Going to Atlas would also mean reuniting with fan favourite characters from Weiss’ arc from Volume 4 like Klein, Whitley (yes, believe it or not, I actually would like to learn more about Whitley and understand why he’s the way he is) and even Henry Marigold.

That’s right, you heard me correctly. I think Mr. Pretty Boi is gonna make a comeback. It’ll be even funnier if he ends up being the one to assist Weiss and everyone when Ironwood in his paranoia, refuses to permit them into Atlas or something like that.

You don’t just give a character a full name in RWBY without them making a return to the show unless it’s the special case where said character got unexpectedly killed off of screen. Like poor Fennix Altair. I’m still salty about how he just dies at the start of V5 though the show never actually takes the time to confirm this. Then to make it worse, Weiss straight up forgets about him once she’s taken prisoner by the Branwen Tribe.

Doesn’t even ask if he made it out alive after meeting the bandits and Vernal for the first time. Seriously CRWBY writers! Weiss didn’t just arrive in Mistral on her own so where’s that continuity? I understand that he was more or less an expendable character for Volume 5 but jeez, why even bother to give him a name if he was going to be killed off. Heck they didn’t even confirm his death.

It was just left up for assumption and the debate is still out on whether he’s actually dead or stuck in the forests of Mistral somewhere or maybe he was taken in by the Mistral Police who made sure he was hospitalized for his plane crash injuries. That could be it but I guess we’ll never know that for sure, will we?

Not to mention, an Atlas arc would mean meeting Penny’s creator-father. It could even mean Ruby reuniting with Penny or...at least another version of her. What did happen to Penny’s robotic remains after the Fall of Beacon?

Surely they were returned to Penny’s creator-father who should be able to make Penny a new body and revive her personality based on Penny’s memory unit since she was a robot---a human super computer and computers have memory especially backup memory. Penny Pollendina could be brought back for V6!

I can also see Penny’s creator sharing a connection to Dr. Arthur Watts. Like maybe they used to work together in the past. Didn’t Raven say he was originally from Atlas when they met this season so we can all assume that Watts is going to be the primary antagonist from Team WTCH (along with probably Tyrian too) if the gang head to his old home turf.

Not to mention...that being in Atlas...meeting a man who makes robot humanoids could also give our farm child Oscar (who recently got a taste of Ozpin forcibly taking control of him and might not be too happy about that) the crazy idea of...maybe trying to transfer Ozpin’s aura from his body into another artificial one.

After all, I’m sure the machine that Ozpin planned on using to transfer Amber’s soul and Maiden power in Pyrhha’s body must’ve been Atlesian in origin.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here and theorizing too much on this.

So like I said, the good ending is everything is all good for everyone or mostly good.

And before the departure is made for their next adventure, let everyone return back to Menagerie to celebrate their victory over Haven as well as get some well needed downtime.

Because let’s be fair, given all that’s happened between Volumes 3 to 5 and seeing that Menagerie, though mostly Faunus territory is technically a lovely tropical island paradise, don’t you think the gang could use a little vacation before beginning their next big adventure.

Not saying that they should make next season about the whole gang in Menagerie but it would be nice if Volume 5 concludes with a big celebration in Menagerie (with evil looming on the horizon naturally) and then begins Volume 6 with a little beach downtime in Menagerie where everyone catches up.

We can get some nice one on one character interactions and conversations including a proper Team RWBY reunion, maybe some tension and slight resolution between Blake and Yang granted we don’t get it in the V5 finale which I doubt.

All this before Ozpin-Oscar pulls them in to discuss moving onto the next location towards the next Relic and Maiden.

The Not So Good But Still Such a Nice Twist That It’s Good Kinda Ending

Everything is the same as the good ending. The Battle of Haven is a victory but at a price.

Ruby and Oscar both become prisoners of Salem and though they manage to escape their hijackers’ grasps, that doesn’t change the fact that they’re not quite in Remnant anymore as they find themselves face to face with the Grimm within the walls of a mysterious dark world.

This then sets the stage for our two young simple souls having their own adventure next season as they make the perilous trek across the dark world of Salem’s Domain together; surviving only on their skills and each other with Ozpin as their spirit guide.

The series had hinted more than once between volumes 4 and 5 about BOTH Ruby and Oscar being captured for Salem. In Volume 4, Tyrian was sent to Mistral to kidnap Ruby for Salem and this volume, Lionheart straight up proclaimed abducting Oscar to take to Salem.

Fans are saying either or but I’m mostly gunning that they both get taken prisoner and have to depend mostly on each other to escape and stay alive.

I don’t just strongly desire this kind of story arc for the obvious amount of RoseGarden bonding moments it will bring but mostly due to my curiosity about learning more about Salem, hers and Ozpin’s relationship and history together as well as the World Salem resides in as I believe it used to be Ozpin’s home too before the Wicked Witch took over with her monstrous Grimm pets. I voiced most of my reasons for wanting a story arc like this in this ♦ musing right here.

I’m still gunning for this kind of arc but even if we don’t get it for Volume 6, I still do hope we get an arc like this eventually, perhaps after a period of Ruby and Oscar becoming better acquainted to each other and having a decent comradry. Because not only will it be great for Ruby and Oscar’s character growth but, I honestly believe an arc like this is coming.

They wouldn’t hint at Ruby and Oscar being taken to Salem if it wasn’t gonna come to fruition at some point in the story. So when it does, I hope that it’s an actual arc that takes place over the span of either a whole season or at least half of it and not be some short subplot in a season that winds up being irrelevant. That’d be lame in my opinion.

Now that I’ve covered how I thing V5 would end, let’s get into the next segment.

Things I Want To See In The Finale:

No Reconciliation for Bumblebee this Season: Let Yang remain uncomfortable to talk to Blake and part of Season 6 is the two working through their tension and issues with each other; among other things like Yang’s true feelings toward Blake. It’d be interesting if Illia is the character to mostly help Yang through this because at some point, she was the same as her (not to mention that, like Sun, Illia is going to be an affirmed member of the hero party, I hope).

If they make Bumblebee suddenly hug and be all buddy bud at the end of V5, it’d be a total cop out in my opinion. They made such a big deal about Yang’s anger towards Blake this season (which they didn’t have to since Blake’s reasons for running way were justifiable in my opinion). To tell the truth, I never quite understood Yang’s reckoning behind her blatant anger towards Blake.

Even when she said that she’s angry that Blake left because it reminded her of her mother leaving, while I gave it a pass, I still never bought that excuse in the sense that I don’t think that’s the only reason. It can’t be if that’s what you’re trying to sell me. If her leaving was the main issue then why wasn’t Yang pissed at Weiss or Ruby.

Blake wasn’t the only one that left Yang behind when she could’ve used the help getting through her depression over the loss of her arm and her PTSD. While Weiss’ motive for departure was mostly due to her father, Ruby left Yang of her own accord. So how is it that Yang can easily forgive Ruby for leaving but not Blake? And don’t even use the pretext that she’s her beloved little sister.

Ruby left Yang too and so did Weiss (technically). Her entire team left her behind, albeit for different logical reasons, so why is Blake the only one being thrown under the bus.

Personally I’m not that big on the Bumblebee ship. Don’t get me wrong, I do think it’s a lovely pairing with lots of potential for canonicity however I’m more of a Black Sun kind of fangirl which falls in the same category. But despite being a Black Sun shipper, even I can notice that there is definitely more to Yang’s anger at Blake and I strongly believe it’s due to her apparent feelings for her; whether she acknowledges it or not. This isn’t about friendship with a friend leaving a friend. This is about love with someone dealing with the sting of watching their love interest leave them behind. I have a better time believing that Yang is mostly upset with Blake’s departure because the girl she was secretly in love with abandoned her just like her mother did over the excuse of ‘Blake is just a friend and she left me’.

All of Yang’s friends left her, not just Blake, and she forgave them easily! That being said, I’m hoping the Bumblebee dispute is savoured to be resolved next season because it deserves its own focus.

Save it for next season where it can be allowed more time to simmer and then be resolved properly at the perfect moment as opposed to during a big battle where emotions are already high. For what it’s worth, I figure that the season 5 finale will leave Yang and Blake’s relationship still on the edge.

While most of Yang’s displeasure probably died down during her talk with Weiss during Chapter 7, I don’t believe it’s enough to just make Yang straight up forget her anger and forgive Blake.

I don’t even want them to hug it out. Is it weird that I want Blake to reach out to Yang as an attempt to make peace but Yang refuses it, not out of the disappointment she felt before but more so of her not entirely being over what Blake did and her not ready to deal with it yet.

So she just ends up walking past Blake, not even bothering to make eye contact with her again, while Ruby and Weiss stay by Blake’s side overlooking the tension between them in worried silence.

So even though the team is reunited, things aren’t the same as before and...probably may never be again; at least till next volume.

Oscar’s semblance: I’ve already talked; practically preached about how much I want the finale to reveal or at least give us a taste of Oscar’s semblance. Still itching for that to happen along with it being a mind-based semblance. I really hope Oscar’s semblance is clairvoyance—the kind that can connect him to someone’s mind so that he can read their thoughts, access their memories as well as project his own thoughts and memories inclusive of the ones belonging to Ozpin onto others if ever necessary.

Could even have an extension where it can allow Oscar to communicate with and even control less intelligent creatures like...animals or even the creatures of Grimm perhaps (like imagine our precious farm boy unexpectedly pulling a S2 Eren Jaeger and controlling the Grimm with his mind). Okay that one’s a crack theory tossed out for funzies but really gunning for Oscar having mind powers.

Oz-cane true form reveal: I’ve preached about this too. If we don’t get a teaser of Oscar’s semblance this season then we gotta get an Oz-cane trick. Seriously, they hinted at this in an earlier chapter of V5 so...it’s gotta be coming for the finale. C’mon Oz-cane secret time scythe/sickle mode!

RoseGarden Trigger for Oscar Defeating Hazel: We know that Ozpin’s control over Oscar’s body is temporary and once it wears off, not only will this leave Oscar probably weak and extremely fatigued but also puts him in the line of fire for Hazel to attack unexpectedly.

If Oscar is down and Hazel attacks then I can see Ruby jumping in at the last minute to take the hit for Oscar. We all saw how ‘aggressive’ Oscar became after finding Ruby unconscious.

Maybe seeing her hurt especially by Hazel trying to protect him is enough to trigger his semblance awakening. I’m still standing by my hunch that Oscar using his semblance for the first time could be what finally puts a stop to Hazel’s rampage. Since Hazel’s semblance makes him immune to physical pain then brute force is not going to be enough to stop him. So, maybe the power of the mind can quell the beast from within. I’m hoping that an Oz-cane trick can lead into this so that we can get both Ozpin unleashing the true power of his weapon finally as well as Oscar revealing his own hidden power.

It’s the finale so why not go out on a bang and give us both of these things one after the other.

Yang and Raven talking; not fighting, in the Vault of the Spring Maiden: That way we can finally get some answers about Raven with maybe a flashback.

Fallen Maiden Cinder: I already talked about Cinder possibly coming back as some kind of corrupted half Grimm, half Maiden monstrosity possessed completely by her Geist Grimm arm but with her Fall Maiden powers still in her arsenal in ♦ this musing. While I’m not sure how this will fit into the finale episode with all that is going on already.

However we know Cinder is coming back. We know she’s probably going to get the jump on Raven and Yang.

So maybe she is going to come back as a monster that Yang and Raven will have to fight together (mother-daughter tag team battle anyone?)

Maybe it’ll conclude with Raven using all that she has to restrain Cinder while Yang escapes (possibly with the Relic of Knowledge in hand) as the Maiden Vault crumbles around them.

Even if the Vault falls, I don’t think Raven will die or even trapped inside cause she has her sweet teleportation powers and her connection to Yang to portal her to her at any time.

They can even tease Raven still being alive by having Yang spot a familiar raven outside as always. We can even get one last mother-daughter conversation before Raven departs and falls into obscurity until her character is needed again for whatever reason (like helping Yang or cause further distrust in Ozpin) for another season.

New Threads for Oscar: If he doesn’t get napped by the V5 finale’s end then give the precious farm boy some new clothes that fit his new huntsman title and role. In the event that the CRWBY decide to save Oscar’s new look til V6 (buying them enough time to pay @xen-vita for her amazing design for him), then at least give him a cool new character theme.

Seriously, if we don’t get a new character theme for Ozpin-Oscar during his showdown with Hazel and the reveal of his Oz-cane trick then at least let the end credit song for Volume 5 be about Oscar; addressing his growth following the events of last volume and highlighting how much further his character development is going to progress; even subtly foreshadowing his inevitable conflict with Ozpin over who’s in control. Can we at least get that please?!

Would love a duet between Jeff Williams and Vic Mignogna cause as most of us in the anime community know, Vic has a lovely singing voice (see Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, One Piece and D.N.Angel).

I know Vic is Qrow’s VA but...admittedly when I first heard Oscar speak back in Volume 4, I actually thought it was Vic doing a double role and using his ole Edward Elric voice to voice him, not knowing it was actually Aaron (a.k.a Alphonse Elric) (due to the uncanny similarity in their voices at times).

I’m just saying it would be cool for RT to utilize Vic’s amazing singing vocals and have him sing for a character in RWBY even if that character isn’t the one he plays in the show.

Like imagine how awesome it would be for Jeff and Vic to sing a new song together that is supposed to represent Oscar and Ozpin singing to each other about their bond; again foreshadowing many things to come for their side of the story.

Eyy? Hey CRWBY, c’mon! Hire me for my ingenious ideas RoosterTeeth!

Last RoseGarden Moment or Moments out of Volume 5: Something for us shippers to savour til next volume (or at least till RWBY Chibi Volume 3 arrived next weekend because they gotta be getting an Oscar for the third season, right?)

It doesn’t matter if they fight side by side together, protect each other, save each other, hug, kiss each other on the cheek (mostly Ruby to Oscar cause I want her to lay a big one on them flushed, cute, freckly cheeks of his), hold hands or even check up on each other in recovery. I’ll even accept them blushing at each other for whatever reason. Don’t matter. I’ll take it still. I’ll take it ALL!

I want a real nice tender RoseGarden moment or moments (more than one will not be refused) for the V5 finale for me to enjoy, pterodactyl screech over, die of feels over, resurrect myself and come back to hype up, over-analyze and over-emphasize and of course, download and watch multiple times till Volume 6 or again, at least till RWBY Chibi Season 3. They gotta be getting Oscar for S3. His adorable freckly chibi presence needs to be added to the chibi pot too.

So to finish...

I think that’s it for what I want mostly from the finale. I’ve made my list, checked it thrice and now all that’s left is to jubilantly look forward to possibly checking off all; if not most of the stuff on this list.

What about you fellow RWBY fans? What are you looking forward to seeing in the finale on Saturday?

On that final note, I’ll see ya’ll for the epic RWBY Volume 5: Chapter 14!

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

#rwby #rwby volume 5 #oscar pine #ruby rose #rwby rosegarden #rwby volume 5 predicitions #rwby theories #rwby volume 5 finale #rwby musings #yang xiao long #raven and yang #raven branwen #hazel and oscar #rwby oscar vs hazel #hazel rainart

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passionate-baker · 6 years

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Four Days in Amsterdam, Holland

There’s something magical about Amsterdam. This was my second visit to the Dutch capital, and still I have trouble explaining to people what is so captivating about the place. For example, I can never quite get across how genuinely crooked all of the buildings are - crooked doors/windows/walls/steps all going in a different direction to each other, but yet all fitting together so perfectly. It genuinely boggles my mind, & no picture on earth can accurately capture the imperfect perfectness of it all. I love the attitude of the city, it’s relaxed and easy going, but everything still runs smoothly & efficiently. I love the wonky gingerbread houses lining the canals, a classic car or two parked nonchalantly outside. Wandering along the canals almost transports you to another time; it feels otherworldly and special. Somehow, I even grew to enjoy the thrill of nearly being mowed down by any number of the bloodthirsty cyclists at every corner.

I visited the city with one of my best friends & we dedicated our time to walking along the canals and eating as much as humanly possible. Below is a lengthy list of recommendations and a whole bundle of photographs from our time in the city. Enjoy!

Stay

Hotel Mozart // our cute hotel was so perfect for us. We opted for the “romantic canal view room”, which was a weensy bit more expensive than the other rooms, but totally worth it. At night we could look out our window to see the glistening canal & a super cute classic car parked across the way that we affectionately named Louis. The hotel is literally a five minute walk away from the Rijksmuseum - aka, within walking distance of almost everywhere you’ll want to go - so we were pretty dang happy with the location. Added bonus: it’s nestled in along Prinsengracht, which is one of the prettiest canal/streets in the whole city.

Eat - Brunch / Lunch / Sancks

Gartine // let’s just take a step back for a second while I admit two things: eggs benedict is my weakness & french toast is my friend’s weakness. We are powerless creatures of menu habit & that didn’t change while we were in Amsterdam. Gartine was my first eggs benedict of the trip, & it was also the worst. That said, my friend had one of the best french toast experiences of her whole life - if I remember correctly, it was a little blueberry number that stole her heart - so I guess I ordered wrong. The whole cafe has just a handful of tables & is effortlessly gorgeous, so be prepared to wait a little. Think mismatching cups & saucers, hipster-chic waiters, cups of mint tea filled with real life stalks of mint, & an extremely lovely barista. Added bonus: there was the most beautiful flower installation draped across a stormy grey statement wall.

Bakers & Roasters // B&R was my most favourite brunching experience of our whole trip. We loved it so much we actually went back to squeeze in a quick meal before catching our flight home. No surprises about what we ordered: classic eggs benny for me, banana nut bread french toast for her. Friends, we died & went to brunch heaven. The portions are massive, and thank goodness for that because the food is amazing. The bacon was crispy & delicious, the hot buttered sourdough was so thick & fluffy I nearly cried, the poached eggs were perfect, & the coffee was so good I had two before my food even arrived. We were lucky when we visited in that we didn’t have to queue, but by the time we were leaving there was a long line snaking down the street. Pro tip: if eggs benny ain’t your thing, I can also vouch for the ‘Navajo eggs’ - a pulled pork, poached eggs, avo, salsa + toast number - that I opted for on our return & literally filled me to the brim until we touched down in Dublin nearly 10 hours later.

Dignita // we decided to hit up the Dignita at Hoftuin (they also have a location at Vondelpark) which is inside the garden of the Hermitage Museum & is absolutely stunning - head-to-toe windows, crawler plants hanging from the ceiling, glorious sunshine filling the whole room. We loved it immediately. I have to say, the eggs benedict I had at Dignita might just about steal the crown for The Best Eggs Benedict in Amsterdam. Not only were the eggs & bacon perfect, but they were served on the most crispy - yet tender & luscious - generous pillows of hash browns. I ate every single morsel of food on my plate, not a crumb survived. It was perfection. After the success of our meal we opted for some extra coffees & a brownie between us - cream cheese & raspberry, no less - and we nearly ended up in a food coma. A happy, happy food coma. Added bonus: their profits go towards helping victims of human trafficking. How awesome is that?

Foodhallen // as the map told us we were getting closer to Foodhallen, it appeared as though we were walking out of the city & into a more residential area. Then, suddenly, we turned a corner & there it was: a massive indoor market, one section of which is dedicated to food + drink. We walked there shortly after brunch one morning & had chatted about just getting a snack or two, but after a quick walk around the stalls that idea went hurtling out the window. We secured ourselves a table at the communal seating area, picked up two glasses of cheap wine from the bar, & ordered a sharing board from a Spanish stall called Jabugo. We sat there for the guts of an hour, relaxing, drinking, eating meat & cheese, people watching, living our best lives. Pro tip: I’ve also heard wondrous things about the burgers at The Butcher, but I’ll have to save that for my next trip. Added bonus: there’s a fabulous atmosphere in the market (it reminded me of the Time Out Market in Lisbon), that feels so good you could sit there for hours snacking and watching the world go by.

Eat - Dinner

Hap-Hmm // walking to Hap-Hmm along a pitch black street with no lights was more than a little terrifying, but thankfully entirely worth it. A traditional Dutch restaurant serving the kinds of food I imagine Dutch grandmothers make, Hap-Hmm has been open for over 60 years. We queued for 40 minutes to get a nice little table right in the centre of everything, & the smells wafting past us as we waited had our tummies seriously grumbling. The menu was small but good - I opted for the wiener schnitzel & my pal went for the house specialty: a beef stew. Both mains were melt-in-the-mouth good (especially the stew) & came with large sides of potatoes + miscellaneous veggies. A couple of beers later, we were totally satisfied & much less terrified walking home along the pitch black street.

Los Feliz // owned by the crowd behind Bakers & Roasters, this is the Mexican restaurant of my dreams. As we perused the menu, I treated myself to a good old fashioned margarita & we let our inner beasts run wild when ordering. Friends, we feasted. We can, without any reservations at all, vouch for most of the menu: guac + chips, a whole host of different tostadas + carnitas, & the chipotle aioli fries. We couldn’t decide which tostada stole the show (a tie between the tinga de pollo & the carne asada), but really everything was so goddamn delicious & flavoursome that it was much of a muchness. After the roaring success of our meal, we simply couldn’t leave without trying a dessert (& another margarita, just in case). We went for the tres leches cake, which neither of us had ever tried before, but which we devoured within seconds. From beginning to end, it was glorious.

Thrill Grill // TG is a burger place. At the time I rather enjoyed my burger - & my pal really enjoyed her hot dog - but thinking back on the experience as a whole, there wasn’t really anything fantastic about the place. Not necessarily a bad restaurant, there was just nothing about the place that would make me go back.

Drink - Alcohol

Cafe George // we stumbled across Cafe George completely by accident one day & it ended up being one of our favourite stops. It’s a kind of hipster-chic place with an American/French bistro vibe going on. There are marble tabletops, mirrors lining the wall, cute candles lit regardless of the time, & a solid snack list (definitely try the traditional ‘bitterballen’). We stopped by more than once to enjoy a couple glasses of wine in the shade.

Wijnbar Boelen // we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy glass of wine before dinner one night & this was the perfect spot. I opted for a big glass of Valpolicella, which was so delicious that I treated myself to a second.

Drink - Coffee

Scandinavian Embassy // I somehow discovered online that Scandinavian Embassy have the best cinnamon rolls in the city (obviously something I investigate before going anywhere). It’s a very cool, very chic place, with the very alluring smell of cinnamon wafting out the front door. SE are also real deal kind of serious about their coffee. We sat right at the bar so we could watch the barista work his magic & we pretty much sat there openly gawping at him the whole time we were there. The cinnamon roll was amazing, but it was the coffee that stole the show. A lot of care & attention went into making every single cup, & you could definitely taste it in the end result.

Lott Sixty One Coffee // we actually have an Instagram pal to thank for leading us here - @sandy.somewhere, thank you for your tip about the attractive Thor-type baristas, we are eternally grateful. Attractiveness aside, the baristas seemed to be really know what they were doing - the coffee was amazingly smooth. Cute boys + delicious coffee = match made in heaven.

Canal Cruise // I feel like this is a must in Amsterdam, you just gotta do one. We went with a company called Lovers, but I think they’re all basically the same. The tour lasts an hour & brings you down all the main canal routes, with an informative little electric tour guide narrating your trip. Our boat driver threw out a few tid-bits of information every so often: did you know that the canals in Amsterdam are 3-metres deep? He reckons they’re actually only 2-metres of water & 1-metre of ill fated bicycles, of which they pull over 12,000 from the canals every year. Mad.

Rijksmuseum // another Amsterdam must. I headed straight for the Van Gogh self-portrait & stood there taking in every single brushstroke for a good 20-minutes while waiting for my pal to catch up. It is exquisite. The museum also holds an extensive Rembrandt collection on the top floor, including his massive painting “The Night Watch”, which is definitely worth a visit. Pro tip: don’t miss a trip to the library inside the museum - it's a three storey room filled entirely with books about art history & is extremely pleasing to behold.

Moco Museum // skeptical as I was about visiting Moco, I thoroughly enjoyed our time in the museum. Perhaps that’s because it’s much less museum-ey than the Rijksmuseum etc, it is more just a collection of art. The museum houses contemporary works of art - we saw a Banksy & a Roy Lichtenstein exhibition - in a seemingly random layout. Added bonus: in the basement of the museum there was a 3D interior room installation of Lichtenstein’s painting “Bedroom at Arles” - it was literally like we stepped into the artwork; we were amazed.

I Amsterdam Sign // just one of those stupid/half fun things that you have to do when you’re in Amsterdam. If you’re one of the unlucky few whose name begins with any of the ‘iamsterdam’ letters, then you get to try climb up on top of said letter for that cliche tourist shot. Let’s just hope that you don’t slip or embarrass yourself on the way up, because there are a heck of a lot of people waiting for their chance to climb aboard. Thankfully, there’s no hidden ‘V’ in ‘iamsterdam’, so I’ve been spared the public humiliation thus far.

Vondelpark // I imagine Vondelpark would be a lovely place for a summer picnic or a stroll, but you must remember that we were there during the winter/spring. If I’m being completely honest with you, it was so bloody freezing when we got there that we briskly walked 10 paces in, glanced around, & briskly walked right back out again. Only when we were safely inside a warm coffee shop 10-minutes later did we decide that yes, it was indeed a pretty park.

Classic car hunting // Amsterdam is full of quirky old cars - they’re impossible not to come across. Go for a wander along the canals & see if you can stumble across that insta-perfect shot. I dragged my poor friend halfway across the city to go back & take a picture of a classic car I’d spotted while we were on our canal tour. The things you do for Instagram!

#amsterdam #travel #holland #the netherlands

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theblobmaster · 6 years

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17 songs of 2017

tagged by lovely @marinacourage, thank you <3

so this slightly killed me, i started with 29 songs and 3 full albums. i got it down to 14 songs and 3 full albums. i don’t care, the albums need to be on there in full because i’ve listened to them from start to finish so often.

i decided to only do kpop/kpop related and limit myself to songs released in 2017 otherwise roy kims whole discography would be on and i would have to cut down from over a 100 songs probably. all titles will be links if you’re curious :D

the first six are in order afterwards not.

1. Verse 2 - JJ Project.

this album okay. this fucking album. i fell in love with jjp in 2012 and during the five years it took them to comeback i’ve probably listened to the bounce single over a thousand times. this album is a 180 in music style but goddammit it hit me. this mellow RnB sound just relaxes me so much. the thing is that this is full of emotions that is conveyed through their voices and their voices compliment each other so much. and i think it has a lot to do with the fact that they were so involved with the making of the album. their solo songs fit them perfectly and i get feels every time i listen to it. i have listened to this album minimum once a day since it’s been released and i’m still not over it. will probably never be over it.

2. Stone Heart - Taemin

okay first of all the whole move album is amazing but stone heart captured me. his album came out while i was in korea or just before i left. for around four days during that trip i basically only had this song on repeat. the beat, the atmosphere, his fucking voice okay it’s just. so. good. it’s sultry in the best way. and now every time i hear it i can smell korea which is nice as well. i’m so proud of him and this album really cermented that, seeing him grow so much just warms my heart. but can he please just start wearing clothes that’s not see through or just put on a fucking shirt pls.

3. 7 for 7 - GOT7

another full album i know but i would make it into one song if i could alright? so good. first of all this feels like an /album/, this songs are consistent and have a red thread in their atmosphere. i don’t feel like i’m being jerked around in different directions when i listen to it which is a big plus for me. again the boys being so involved with the producing does a lot, it makes it more personal and i feel like it shines through. (jaebum miming along to the chorus of teenager fx.) also i get caught up in feels when i listen to it, it makes me want to belt out the songs with them and i have had too many loudly singalongs to this album. at work, at home, in my head walking the streets.

4. Cave Me In - Gallant, Tablo & Eric Nam

this song is just. wow. just fucking wow. listen to it, feel it in your body and then scream at how good it is okay. their voices blend so well and the flow of the song is so nice. it kind of invites you along. i also really like the lyrics. it’s a song where when it comes on i just kind of stop what i’m doing and listen to it, taking it in. it’s just amazing.

5. Hush - Primary feat. JB of GOT7

so this is probably also the year i fell in love with jaebum’s voice... i actually really liked the whole album. it was filled with some of my favourite kpop vocals of all time and i would’ve put the whole album on here but i had to limit myself. this song though made me realise how good jaebum could sound if his voice is utilized correctly. sometimes in got7 songs his voice can end up rather shrill which hurts my ears. but in this one it’s again kinda mellow and soft even when he goes into the higher notes. it makes it extremely pleasant to listen to. really well produced.

6. Circles - G.Soul

another full album, but the last one. i’ve always enjoyed g.soul’s voice. and i absolutely adored his dirty album. i have at some point since the release of this album had all of the songs on repeat. again it’s such a well produced album that even if goes from a party song like tequila to the more slow and relaxing beat of can’t it doesn’t feel out of place. you get to appreciate his vocals in a completely new way that you didn’t when he was under jype. it’s sultry and inviting in all the right ways and so relaxing. if you haven’t heard it pls listen to it.

7. Plz Don’t Be Sad - Highlight

their first comeback after leaving cube and it was perfect. beast were always consistent with their comebacks and it seems like highlight will be too. this is such a fun and happy song and it makes me smile when i listen to it. the music video made me chuckle. this is all in all just a song that makes me so happy and smiley. and they all looked so good, so so good.

8. Swimming Fool - Seventeen Performance Unit.

another happy song. this song is perfect for this unit because it’s a song that makes you wanna dance. it’s a song that has a vibe of being carefree and loving life. i just can’t help but smile when it comes on, and wriggle in my seat if i’m sitting down. i see swimming pools and the ocean in my mind when i listen to this song.

9. Artist - Zico

fun song, fun mv, fun everything. i want to sing along to this song when it comes on. i want to groove with the music and i let myself drift along to the playful beat. it so light and kind of airy?? i like the small sounds laying over the beat. the sax that comes in shortly and as always the way zico plays with the flow is incredible.

10. Really Really - Winner

i adored their last comeback with taehyun and i was worried how they would do without his vocals because their music before has relied alot on it. especially jinwoo since i figured there would be an increase in lines for him. he’s not the strongest vocal but wow i was impressed. the flow of the song, the blend of voices and the use of jinwoo’s soft warm voice really really (kekeke) got me. it’s a song that makes you want to dance, it’s a song that you can’t help but fall for.

11. Egoist - Roy Kim

this is probably my least favourite album from roy. which is evident in the way that i haven’t listened it to death. the title song though, so light and fun. it’s a song that kind of gives me the feeling of being full of happiness. his voice is soft and soothing and the melody and beat is playful. it makes me think of summer and that’s really what he does so well. making albums fitting each season that you can’t help but mentally teleporting to that season.

12. Not Today - BTS

i love this song. the beat that’s heavy but kinda funky? like it seems more based on a bass than a drum which yesh please. it flows so well and the chorus. again it’s a song that sweeps me along for the ride and i can’t help but sing along or mime and have fun with them. also i like making weird faces to this song which i have no idea why.

13. Ko Ko Bop - EXO

ko ko bop is a bop. so summer chill and relaxing. their vocals shine through. in the beginning i had a hard time with the breakdown because i enjoy the chillness of the verses. every time i hear it i sees light clouds on a blue sky. the styling tho why oh god why.

14. Oh Hey Yeah - Gikwang

this song again is so chill. i just want to lay down and listen to his voice. i was really excited for his solo comeback and i love the whole album. another example of a voice used right. he’s not the strongest vocal and his low tones a so much more comfortable to listen to and this is a song full of them. i kinda just melt listening to his voice in this song. it’s almost as if he’s whispering the song into your ear while you’re cuddling.

15. Honeymoon - B.A.P

first of i love this mv. the colours blew me away. what really got me with this song is their vocals. there’s not as many high notes in this song compared to their other titles songs. and while i love the high notes of daehyun, he’s deeper tones takes me to fucking paradise. also what’s up jongup when did your voice becomes so fucking amazing? it’s a song that makes me happy and think of the ocean (which is apparently happiness for me??) the rap blends in well and yeah. i’m in love with how all of their voices sounds in the song. gives me the feels.

16. Empty Road - Taeyang

i haven’t really been as excited over the different releases from bb this year as i usually am. i think the whole thing with tabi really threw me out of it. it’s really evident since this list is missing gd songs and only has a single yb song. i like the softness of this song and it kind of reminds me of my childhood. the guitar and melody feels familiar to me and it’s super relaxing. his voice doesn’t go shrill and he’s using a lot of his lower tones which is when i love his voice the most.

17. Here Comes the Regrets - Epik High feat. Lee Hi

i haven’t heard this song as much and mostly it because it hits so hard. the emotions in their voices kills me. first of all lee hi and her gorgeous voice. the chorus gives me goosebumps. tablo and his voice, first of fuck you how are you so good at heartbreak, second so good i love you. mithra rapping in english?? omfg wow okay i’m so impressed by everything. then that beat tukutz why. so many fucking feels. so good. i just can’t fucking handle it. also can we just talk about the brigde? the deepness of her voice unf.

honorable mentions because i need to: lip & hip - hyunah, ganisha - sunmi, red flavour & peek-a-boo - red velvet, crazy sexy cool - astro, lalala - babylon feat. chungha, bling bling - ikon, 365 fresh - triple h, rumor & oh nana - kard, i’m good - henry feat. nafla, sleepover - hayley kiyoko, milion eyes - loïs nottet (he’s a dancer and it’s a beautiful dance music video. watch it).

i want to tag: @thechoi-choi, @divaaboo :D

#i've realised some things from this #i don't like shrill voices and happiness = ocean #wut #btw i just rediscovered stromae another belgian you need to check out if you don't know him. his mvs are fucking amazing #quand c'est fucking hurts so beautifully

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awesome-the-c-s-portfolio · 4 years

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Figure Drawing Workshop Part 3

For the third part of the figure drawing workshop we moved on from looking at bone structure and began to work from a live figure. The person we were drawing from was Paul Alexander who we were informed collaborates with queer life drawing classes in Birmingham the second Sunday of every month, Pauls style and dress sense provided us with a variety of shapes, textures and tones to work with while observing his anatomy, paying attention to his muscle groups and bone structure while in stood and seated positions.

For the session I worked seated from a board base drawing on cartridge paper, Japanese rice paper and newsprint, and was provided with graphite and coloured pencils while being tasked consider specific features with each drawing. We also set different time frames to get us to consider what the important features were, which helped me to prioritise my time. This was my first time drawing from a male model which was a little unnerving to begin with but as the workshop progressed I felt more at ease and appreciative for what Paul was doing.

Warm-up exercise

My first attempts were treated as a warmup exercise to help get me in to the right mind frame and to also better understand Paul’s body shape and posture. We began by marking down as much as we could with restricted time frame beginning with the top left with only one minute, then with the second drawing on the top right we had been given two minutes but were instructed to work with continuous line which due to the shapes and folds on his clothing was quite difficult to do.

Finally, for the last drawing we had been provided with two contrasting colours (in my case green and purple) and by holding them together we were encouraged to capture the whole figure taking note of the textures displayed which was a new experience for me. I found the experience of this warm up task a little stressful and unsettling however it was still good to try working at a rapid pace, it helped me to break out of the idea that every line has to be right, which benefited me with the rest of my drawings.

Drawing 1

For my first complete drawing I have continued to work with the contrasting green and purple pencils on cartridge paper with a time limit of five minutes, for this pose Paul was stood holding an extending pole which gave an almost warrior/Shepard look which gave off a sense of power and wisdom. Working with two pencils side by side was quite fiddly and annoying however I like the separated misplaced look it has given off, it reminds me of a double exposed print that hasn’t been lined up correctly which I think had added an element of depth.

Furthermore, the lack of time forced me to be quicker with my marks which resulted in a looser looking outcome which I like, I think it adds a subtleness to the work which makes it easier on the eyes. This is something I’d be interested to experiment with further however I think this would work better using coloured pens instead.

Drawing’s 2 and 3

My second and third drawings have been produced on newsprint using a graphite stick, they both feature a very similar pose and have taken the same approach, the only difference between the two is that they have each been completed under different time frames. The first drawing was completed in five minutes and the second in ten and due to this you can clearly see which is the more developed, the first drawing I have managed to get the complete outline but the proportions and sizing are wrong, whereas within the second drawing I have captured his physique more accurately and I was able to make a start on adding on the shapes, tones and textures of his clothing.

The approach to these two was new to me, instead of holding the graphite stick straight we were asked to tilt it during application with the intention to block in the tones and shapes of his clothing which wasn’t as easy, for me but I liked the sketchiness of them. I was a bit disappointed with the graphite because it didn’t mark the way I thought it would, I was expecting it to give me a range of dark, bold, heavy lines but it just wasn’t happening, and as a result I think they both look quite dull.

Drawing 4

Drawings four has been produced on cartridge paper using a graphite stick with a time frame of five minutes, at this point Paul had changed his presentation to something more revealing which gave me a new selection lines and tones to work with. I chose to work in landscape for this one due to the positioning of the pole Paul was holding, I wanted to get the whole setup in my drawing and thought this would work well for his pose. However, as I progressed I noticed that my drawing wouldn’t fill the page and that there was a likely chance of my drawing not fitting which was a little frustrating, however at least going forward I will know to consider what angle would work best for the subject matter.

Drawing 5

Produced on newsprint this was an attempt to create an angular drawing where for twenty minutes I was instructed to guide all my lines using a ruler, I then followed this by spending ten minutes applying shade. This is probably my least favourite drawing of the session, I got two caught up trying to get the angles right and I’m not happy with my tones, I feel like I needed a lot more time to get my tonal work up to scratch and in regards to my line work it just looks stark. For future reference when working in this way I’d like to try something bolder and more minimal as I think it would be more eye catching and intriguing, another thought would be to add colour to create something a little more abstract which would add whole new tone to the work.

Drawing 6

With this piece I was given twenty minutes and the freedom to work in any style I wished, with this I kept things simple by working with pencil on cartridge to see if mark making with something more familiar would give me better results. Paul took a laying down pose leaning against a box in the centre of the room, I didn’t have the best angle to work from with this piece since he was facing away from me however I was quite happy about this because it got me to consider the outline and depth of Paul’s body without getting caught up in the details. Furthermore, I think the progression I was making was going well and that I had captured his form well, with a little more time I think the outcome could have looked good, though I’m still happy with how it is.

Drawing 7

For this piece we were asked to pay attention to the top half of Paul’s body by drawing his portrait, we had ten to twenty minutes to complete this with the option to work in any style and medium we wished. Since my previous drawings had been produced in graphite on either cartridge paper or newsprint I decided to try something different and went back to the Japanese rice paper I was introduced to during the previous workshop which I had difficulty with prior, but I was keen to try something different with it. Following the previous workshop, I was informed by my tutor that this material may be more suited to ink work, so going off that advice I decided to try out some graphic pens which contained alcohol-based dyestuff inks which I figured would give me some interesting effects. This is by far my favourite piece to come from the session, I was able to achieve accurate proportions and I think the graphic pens have added a rough looking aesthetic which I think looks great, especially with the use of red which has become the standout point of the drawing. I’m really happy I returned to this material and I’m keen to experiment with my graphic pens further, I think it could look cool to produce standalone promotional art of my characters in this style which I may try depending on the timing.

I thought this part of the workshop was interesting but also harder than I expected as I haven’t drawn from a live model for some time, but with that being said I think the practice was beneficial. The experience got me to consider proportion and the structuring of a figure drawing however due to the time frames I struggled to capture Pauls anatomy correctly and most of my work remained unfinished due to this, therefore I think in future it would be beneficial for me to try and simplify my approach by not getting into the details right away. Perhaps I should begin figure drawings by marking out key points such as position and angle of shoulders, arms and legs in stick form and then build the body around them which could work depending on the timing. I thought Paul Alexander was great and I had admiration towards him for doing what he did.

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headstrongblake-a · 7 years

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Babes! what even is this!? how are there 450 of you following me? first off, THANK YOU. when i created octavia back in july of the last year i never imagined i would ever make it to almost a year of writing her. i was just having fun for the time being, writing a character i had fallen in love with. it never even crossed my mind that so many of you would enjoy my take on her. now, i can’t imagine not being on this blog. i’ve made so many memories & strong friendships that i’ll carry with me always. i just really wanted to thank you all for being so amazing and kind & it’s a pleasure seeing you all on the dash. each day your guy’s writing inspires me in so many ways. my octavia would be nothing without you guys!

Alright, so here’s some love for the ones who’ve stuck by me for almost a full year, for the people i admire every single day, for the ones i love & the friendships i’ve made, and for all the lovelies i watch from afar. i’ll try to not keep repeating myself but basically loves, you’re all amazing and i love every single one of you.

MY LOVES;

@foxofthe100 // @louisofthe100 // @ginaofthe100 - brittany my dear, i honestly do not know where octavia and i would be without you and your babes. writing with you and creating different worlds is always one of my favourites. we can literally talk for hours building new threads and head canons together. i think you along with heather, are one of the people who has at least 10 threads going with my little o. not only has writing with you strengthened my own writing, you’ve become truly one of my best friends. skyping with you and sending letters, and just getting to have you in my life is something i’ll always be grateful for. i love you britt.

@faultedleader // @unordiinary - oh no, heather it’s you. and i’m about to get pretty mushy here. i will forever be thankful that you sent in that ‘you’re not a monster/you’re a monster’ meme over nine months ago because from there we’ve only grown. i can’t even control octavia, whenever she sees a new idea her immediate thought is to message you so we can do the thing. i love sending you heartbreaking gif sets & that fact that most of this season we both spoiled each other before the episode so that we could handle getting through it! i love all the threads we come up with and the many different ways we’ve managed to break the blake siblings. i love the friendship we’ve developed & i never want to fall out of touch with you! you’re so incredible heather & i’m not sure what i would do without you. thank you heather!

@soldiiermade - karli, i don’t know where to begin. since day one i’ve been mesmerized with your writing. be it your threads, ask meme responses or your metas i always have to read every last word. i love the two worlds we’ve created for the blake siblings because they always feel like they have this beautifully realistic way about them. they’re complex & i feel like we can never run out of headcanons for these two. your friendship is one i will always treasure with me & i appreciate you so much. anytime i’m writing with you i can feel my writing constantly being challenged & strengthened and it’s such a great pleasure to be able to do it. i love how much you care about bellamy and that you refused to sugarcoat all the traits that people sometimes seem to villainize him for. your portrayal of bellamy is so raw and true & i still can’t believe i get to write alongside with you. ps - when we’re both not so busy with rl, we need to create more worlds!

@trikrulinkon - k, by now i’m sure i don't even have to tell you how attached i am to your writing. i mean just today you were telling me to stop giving you special treatment. ;) i think it’s pretty obvious that i enjoy having you around!! i don’t know how it is, but the second you reply to something all of a sudden my muse for that particular verse always skyrockets! octavia is always demanding i reply to yours right away. but one of the things i also love about writing with you, is that even if it takes me a million years to reply to something, i never feel guilty or bad because we’ve literally been writing within the two same verses since the summer! neither of them have died & they’ve only grown larger and more complicated. i mean, i guess you’re pretty awesome to, always giving me real advice, not sugarcoating things & it’s a bonus that you always give me laughing fits. you’re pretty fucking special & you’re not allowed to go anywhere. :)

@crimiinalchemiist // @valleyborn - danny my love, everything we write together is pure gold. i just love everything we do together and i enjoy all we’ve put our babes through!!! you’re a great friend, one of the kindest i’ve ever met and my life would be a little more dull without you in it. talking with you & writing with you is always a great time and you are truly the jasper to my octavia. no one else could compare to the bond we’ve built between them. i love you with all my heart danny and i appreciate everything you’ve ever done for me & appreciate your beautiful soul in my life.

@shxcklash // @nctyourplaything - emily you are the light of my life. gosh, i don’t know where octavia would be without you and harper. the bond we’ve created between our two babes is one i will never forget and one i hope we will always continue to write. your harper is so important to me and octavia!! mandy, oh goodness, this chick is insane! and i love her to pieces. you couldn’t pay me enough money to believe that you’re not actually channeling mandy while writing her character because i have NEVER seen someone so SPOT on with their portrayal before. it’s incredible. emily your friendship means the world to me & you’re one of my best friends! i love you dear!

@brckenmartyr //@echokcmazgeda // @auroraxblake - mama katie, goodness we don’t write together all the time anymore, probably my fault and we should change that, but there’s never a day where i don’t think of you or smile as I scroll through your tumblr, twitter, or instagram. there’s a reason you’re called mama katie, and i just have so much love for you. sending letters & cards back and forth with you will always be something i treasure ( really i do, they’re all in a special box ) and you’ve been there for me more times than i can count. i love you with all my heart and i’m so glad that writing octavia brought me to you. i don’t know what i would do without you.

@madegrounder // @mademurderer - kate my love, my babe, my original twin. ugh what can i even say except that i just love you so much!! you were the first octavia i ever wrote with & if i remember correctly the first bellamy i ever wrote a modern with and boy oh boy have we come a ways since then. we don’t write together as much as i’d like, my fault again because life is insanely hectic, but when we do write together i’m constantly left in tears & awe of how incredible you are. you’re always breaking my heart & putting it back together within minutes and i appreciate you so much. timezones are stupid so also tend to miss each other but you’ll always be insanely important to me. i want a thousand things with you <3

@hoperisen // @stupiidsheep // @hisprometheus // @mythosraised - tot, my hubbie, if you had asked me 10 months ago if i would be talking to you/writing with you or friends with you, i would have probably laughed in your face. because the second i saw your blogs i turned into a pile of mush just mesmerized by your writing. i was crazy intimidated by you but look at us now! i absolutely adore writing with you & still can’t believe you ever got me to write with ilian ( it was a semi hard sell at first to be honest ). your ilian is the only one i can write with because you just capture all your characters so beautifully. not only is your writing amazing, YOU are one hell of a person. your attitude and outlook on life has me constantly wishing i was just like you! i admire you so much.

@amongthcwreck - liz, i admire you so much! like insane amounts to be honest. every morning ( because you seem to be on when i’m sleeping/just waking up ) i always scroll through all your threads because i’m in love with the many different worlds you throw bellamy into! you always ring true to his character no matter where he is, and i just respect the hell outta you! i want a million things with you & definitely would love to get to know you more ooc!!! please keep rocking bellamy because you’re such a light on my dash every day!!

@portectorisms - below you is the reason i started indie, but you my friend, are the reason i chose octavia. i must have spent a good six months sending you ask memes and just sitting there in awe of how brilliant your writing is, i knew you were a person i had to write with. i’ve always had a love for the 100 but reading your blog constantly is what really pulled me into want to write octavia blake and for that, i will forever be thankful and love you for. even tho i’m slower than slow, writing you is one of the greatest highlights. i always feel my writing challenged with you.

@spctlessminds // @packgenius - emily, you’re the only reason i have the chance to do this. without you, i probably would NEVER have joined indie. i would still be spiraling in circles trying to find a creative outlet after the group had died down. all the things i’ve learned in indie, all the bonds i’ve forged, and the friendships & memories i’ve made, are all because of you my dear. i love you & i appreciate your friendship so much. i know since being on octavia, my muse for anything else has fallen to the side a little but lately i’m trying to find a balance. so soon i’ll get it right! emily, thank you so much for being by my side the last.. goodness, 3.5 - 4 years?? you mean the world to me.

@shestried - J, babe i love you so much. every time i chat with you, snap with you, or write with you i’m having the time of my life. yes, even in those times where you’re literally ripping my heart out of my chest and stomping on it. i love writing with you and the different scenarios we constantly come up with. i love that like you said, we can go days or weeks without talking but when we do it feels like no time has passed at all. i think that’s a sign of a really good friendship? or something like that. i love you darling & i appreciate having you in my life!

THOSE I LOVE & WISH TO WRITE MORE WITH;

@anditsxsorrows / @accidentprcne / @imnobodysson / @onyafevayuj / @lcvedher / @weaknessisdeath / @wanderdestined // @basiicphysics / @everyturnanycost / @redempticnarc / @robinhoodmaia / @idsurvive / @earthkeepcr / @darkestbeforedxwn / @floathim / @gatekeepcr / @kalipsou / @bxmbsxaway / @bornbutterfly / @indiebryan / @linkkon / @commandsdeath / @hxdaleksakomtrigedakru / @childcharlotte / @othcrsidex

THOSE I ADMIRE/STALK FROM AFAR aka we should do things;

@toysoldicr / @leyosgona / @kingroun / @madefighter / @ncncriminalway / @shewhofights / @icymenace / @haihefaroun / @eldcstson / @iintcntiions / @hedaiisms

#guys i'm speechless #i just have so much love for you guys #and look i made a graphic #( mun things | ashley talks )#( i'll always have these memories | save )#follower forever tw #if that's a thing?#i think i've seen it before #i didnt proofread this because work but here #and thank you

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comicteaparty · 5 years

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March 18th-March 24th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from March 18th, 2019 to March 24th, 2019. The chat focused on My Hero! by Alli & Jim Perry.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on My Hero! by Alli & Jim Perry~! (http://www.myherocomic.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until March 24th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. Do you believe that Lark and Hasera will eventually solve their differences and learn to work together? If so, what will it take to do it? Alternatively, what might be the last straw that drives them apart?

Natara (My Hero!)

Hi I'm Alli the artist for My Hero! I'm excited to see what people think :)

Evil_Chippy (My Hero!)

1: My favourite scene was where Hasera meets The Lark for the first time. I really liked this because everyone thought he was going to be some kind of creep ( he still is in his own way) and it turns out he's trying to steer her off a course that has killed so many others

2. I certainly hope so, but that would require both of them to change. In order for them to work together, they would have to let go if their preconceptions of each other. The last straw would probably have to be Lark doing something overtly bad, like throwing an old man down the stairs or something moustache twirling evil style(edited)

snuffysam

Oh man the introduction of The Lark was so good. He's a creep, but he's been through a lot, and his experience shows immediately. One thing I wonder... were the other guardians assigned to him by the council's decision, or because they too believed the stories?(edited)

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. What do you think is the full story with Hasera’s ice powers (besides the shape)? Additionally, why does Lark seemingly get saved even when Hasera knows no healing like spells? Lastly, what might this have to do with her father Keenar?

Evil_Chippy (My Hero!)

I cannot answer #4. So much delicious spoilers contained within!

snuffysam

I think Lark getting saved is as simple as "the best defense is a good offense". Especially since Lark seems to be naturally way tougher than you'd expect.

My favorite character is probably Hasera. I just love how she tries so hard, only to get her hopes shattered over and over.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. How might Hasera’s journeys with Lark further disillusion her from all the things she believed in and was taught at the academy? How might this affect how she conducts herself as a guardian or her choice to be one in the first place?

RebelVampire

1) my favorite scene is probably when we get to meet some of the other heros and guardians. That's a moment where i really felt Lark's attitude was vindicated since it wasnt really just him who was disillusioned with everything. all of them were. so it was a great piece of world building with just having the characters exist. i also like it in the retrospect contrast between when all the guardians get offed cause i also morbidly enjoy that their attitudes about things might have played a bit of a role in them getting killed. 2) I think eventually they'll work things out between them, but not in the near future. In the near future I expect something more along the lines of tolerance. Hasera tolerates Lark cause she has a job to do and maybe his experience does mean something. Meanwhile, Lark tolerates her cause shes persistent and if he doesn't, theyll just send him a new guardian to get killed in a never ending cycle of death.

3) Ok. I really can't pick between Hasera and Lark. I love how innocent and inexperienced Hasera is. It's an endearing trait, but one that also bits her in the butt sometimes. And I think it's a really good mix in how it's handled. But I also really love Lark. He really walks that fine line between being vulgar just cause and being vulgar cause he's seen some shit. And that to me makes him very interesting. I really want to know all of his life experiences becaause of how he portrays himself. 4) I have no evidence for this theory, but I'm just gonna go with this headcanon for now anyway. While Hasera's father has been mentioned, we never hear much about her mother. And we know there are different planes. So maybe Hasera's mother was from some other plane and not someone Keenar was supposed to get with. But Keenar was like "I do what I want" and thus a magic baby named Hasera was born.

RebelVampire

5) my fave illustration is probably this one http://www.myherocomic.com/comic/ch3-15 where Hasera summons the ice weapon. I love the shot choices for this, because it allows us to see all the little effect details that went into the summon. It truely captures that magical and mystical feel while also having a sort of bad ass gonna beat you over with the ice feels. 6) I actually think her journey with Lark will strengthen her desire to be a guardian in the long. At first, probably because stubborness and its what she worked towards for so long. But down the line, I think she'll just try to become the guardian she thinks the world needs when the system has degraded to such an extent. However, I definitely think she's going to play less by the book as time goes on. I really think she's going to mature and come into her own as she realizes that books and classrooms can't cover all the scenarios that are possible in life. At the very least, books and classrooms dont teach you how to deal with people, which seems essential for the job. I also think through Lark shes going to rethink how she views the current system and see its not the glitz and glamour she made it out to be. Also, she'll learn trash romance novels are called trash romance novels for a reason.

Natara (My Hero!)

This is one of my favorite scenes because it shows Hass letting her fangirling of Lark get the better of her.(edited)

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. How and/or why is Lark cursed to live a dangerous life? Do you believe it really is a curse, or is Hasera right that he’s faking it? What might it have to do with Lark supposedly having died according to Sasskra?

RebelVampire

7) Lark and Hasera, which makes me feel predictable to say. Their just such opposites it leads to some really great banter. Equally so, though, I like seeing the world built up through them because they both have such different ideas on how the world functions in a way. and i like how they both challenge how each other lives. 8) I feel pretty confident the curse is real. There seems to be plenty of evidence for that. And I 100% feel like him having died had to do with it, though not necessarily in a direct sense. More like Lark died but someone was super pissed at him and made him a cursed zombie. Or more I guess I kind of feel like the world is trying to correct the mistake. Like it knows hes supposed to be dead so it keeps throwing danger his way trying ardently to rekill him and return balance. Thus why hes always in a poor spot as the world tries to correct this clerical death error. As for the why though, I'm a 50/50. Either he pissed someone off like a god or something, or someone powerful thought the world still needed him.

Evil_Chippy (My Hero!)

the real answer to number 7 is pretty close and it has to do with everything going on in the background of the comic.(edited)

There's actually a point in the future where 7 is addressed indirectly. A lot of My Hero!'s background lore is done through hints, asides or Delvers (specifically our favourite Delver couple, Morridan and Gurtie)

One of the biggest things for the background of the world are the short side comics that are going to be made. They are not integral to the plot of the main story, but they are super important at revealing what is going on in the world of Alteria(edited)

The titles are as follows: Hasera's garden Melinda x Magnus The Death of Lark Rise (the story of Sasskra) The tomb of Quel'Lan

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. How might the other guardians like Calen or Lu play into the story in the future? Do you believe their experiences are similar to Hasera? Is there some way they might help Hasera?

RebelVampire

9) I want to say I really love the accents on some of the characters. So few people are willing to risk accents but i think when done correctly they can add a lot of personality to the character. And I think the ones in the comic strike a good balance between being readable while having that flavor in their manner of speech. <3 10) I feel like if Hasera talks to Lu again she'll gain some new perspective on her situation with Lark. Like I could see Lu kind of opening the metaphorical door and pointing out ways Hasera could gain a new partner or something. which in turn will make Hasera stick to her guns and be like, "no i have a job to do gotta uphold the guardians." as for calen, idk what role but i hope he appears again. especially if in the practical application of the academy hes doing a lot worse than Hasera but has to try and maintain that pompous nah im great attitude.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. What do you think the Abyssals are up to given they’re going around killing champions and guardians? What do you think they did in the past that got them kicked out of the High Council? How are Lark and Hasera going to be affected?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. In what ways do you think the world will have changed for champions and guardians by the end of the story? How will the role and the methods of the Order of the Nine have changed as well?

RebelVampire

11) I think the comic's strength is having a great balance between stuff happening in the foreground and the background. Like there's definitely this deep world behind the scenes that you see presented to you into small, manageable sizes. However, it's never presented in a way that's distracting to the characters or immediate things going on in the foreground. Rather, it enhances it and leaves lots of little lingering questions that slowly build up and keep you hooked in. 12) I assume its something to do with the gods. Cause reading about the world theres a lot of shenanigans with the gods and the current state of the planes. and generally people always want more than they have so in the vacuum of power, now would be prime time to start setting up situations to get some of that more. alternatively, they could just also want to restore their plane more and damned be all the others. 13) right now im most looking forward to just seeing more of lark and hasera interact. cause it has now been the 2nd time lark has been saved despite hasera not helping and hasera's ice powers seem to be getting more in your face. plus a bunch of guardians just died so that has to have an affect on hasera to some extent. so im interested to see more of what they make of the situation and how they can get through it together.

14) I feel like things may go back a bit more to the old ways. In the sense that the world needs heros to actually fight monsters again. However, I think guardians will be desired for more than just healing abilities. as they always say, the best defense is a good offense.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about My Hero! this week! Please also give a special thank you to Alli & Jim Perry for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked My Hero!, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://www.myherocomic.com/

Alli & Jim Perry’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/alliperry

Alli Perry’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/alli_perry

Jim Perry’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jimininstrovich

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #book club #bookclub #webcomic book club #webcomic bookclub #comic tea party #ctp #my hero!#my hero #alli perry #jim perry #alli & jim perry

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