#the middle scene is truly one of my favourites when she's showing him that she knows all his mannerisms

[youremykindagirl]

"Became a habit?"

#erkenci kuş #early bird #can divit #sanem aydin #can x sanem #the middle scene is truly one of my favourites when she's showing him that she knows all his mannerisms #so sweet #i watched two different subtitled parts and for the translation #if i'm way off please let me know #erkenci kus

[shubblelive]

— BOTTOM DRAWER

summary : wilbur needs a haircut. you're more than happy to oblige, even if he does take some convincing.

genre : fluff

warnings : wilbur makes a joke about reader stabbing him with scissors

pairing : cc!wilbur soot x reader

pronouns : none (you/yours)

featuring : cc!wilbur soot

requested : in your fic source material it was mentioned that y/n had given wilbur a haircut before, and then at the end she says that he needs to get a haircut (im telling you these things as if you didn’t write it lmao). anyways, i think a little fic where y/n gives wilbur a haircut would be really cute :)

word count : 952

note : hi angel!! i tried to make this as different as i could from the scene in the fic you mentioned and i hope you like it!! thank you for requesting!!

inspiration struck at odd times. you’d become well accustomed to that in the time you’d been dating wilbur, sometimes waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of a muffled guitar coming from the living room. 

you knew that music consumed wilbur’s thoughts daily. his routine consisted of wake up, think about music, think about you, write music, think about you, think about music and, if you were especially lucky, he’d think about you once more before bed. 

music was wilbur’s first love, you were more than aware. but he’d made sure you knew that you were his greatest, and that was all that mattered. 

the last few months of his life had been dedicated to that first love of music, and, unfortunately for his ‘greatest’ that meant wilbur had been forgoing certain self-care activities.

he was pressing gentle kisses on your cheeks, skirting around your lips as you giggled, trying to chase him. it had been a long week, and even getting to kiss you once had been a luxury with how busy you both had been, let alone getting to sit with you. your back pressed against the side of the couch, the rest of you a tangled mess with the rest of him as he relaxed into your hold for the first time in what felt like ages.

your palms were flush against his cheeks, feeling the warmth radiating out of his skin. wilbur went to press his forehead to yours but was interrupted by your spluttering coughs. 

he pulled away, concern pulling at his mouth. “you alright?”

you coughed, turning your face away from his, bringing your hand up to cover your mouth. “this has gone too far,”

“what’s wrong?” wilbur sat back on his heels, taking your hands in his. “are you okay?”

“your hair is too long,” you said decidedly, standing up and pulling him along with you. “this is getting out of hand.”

wilbur laughed as you dragged him towards the kitchen. “what are you doing?”

you turned, running your thumbs over his knuckles. you let his fingers go just long enough to brush the excess hair out of his eyes. he softened under your touch and squeezed your hand, his free one coming up to rub the spot right beneath your ear. “i thought you liked my hair?”

you let him go, pulling a stool from the other side of the counter and dragging it beside the refrigerator. “i do,” you assured him, throwing him a look over your shoulder as you wandered down the hallway. wilbur waited dutifully in his assigned seat while you were out of the room, running a hand through his curls. they were truly getting unruly, he could understand why you wanted him to get a haircut. he shuffled, grabbing his phone out to book an appointment when you returned, his least favourite towel in your hand. “but, i like your face more.”

he nodded towards the towel. “finally getting rid of that thing?”

you hugged it close to your chest. “never. i’ll never understand your resentment towards it.”

“it scratches!”

“you just don’t understand it like i do.” you huffed, laughing gently. you noticed the phone in his hand, giving him a quizzical look. “what’s that for?”

“i was gonna call in, book myself a haircut,” he said, turning the phone around to show you.

you took it out of his hand, putting it face down on the bench. “no need!” you beamed at him, draping the towel over his shoulder and pulling the kitchen scissors out, giving them a snip for emphasis. “that’s what i’m here for.”

he gave you a nervous glance, squinting slightly. “are you a licensed professional?” he asked seriously, trying to ward off the smile breaking out over his face. 

“of course,” you said, offence laced in your tone. “i’ve got four year’s experience looking at your face. i know what it’s meant to look like.”

“so you know that it’s meant to be wound-free?” he clarified. you gave him a look and he conceded. “it’s not that i don’t trust you, darling, i just…” he sighed, finally letting the smile take over his face, swinging your connected hands back and forth. “this haircut is gonna be all over the internet for like, four to six months, so i just worry.”

“i cut my own hair all the time, wilbur.” you raised your eyebrows. if it really made him uncomfortable, then of course you’d let him go to a professional, but you couldn’t lie and say the idea of delving your hands into his hair wasn’t appealing. 

that seemed to convince him. “you do have lovely hair.”

you beamed down at him and suddenly it was a done deal, if it made you smile like that. 

the feeling of your hands in his hair made him close his eyes, his head resting on your leg as you, perched on the bench, worked on the other side of his head. it took nearly an hour - the guy had a lot of hair - but when you were done he smiled up at you. “how do i look?”

you considered him. “you’re okay with the camera only facing this side of you right?” you poked his cheek. he laughed loudly, taking the scissors out of your hand and dumping them in the kitchen sink. you hopped off the counter, kicking some loose hair up with your socked foot. “i’m sure we have glue somewhere, right?”

he pulled you closer by the hips as he stood up, planting a kiss on your forehead. you let the joke go, bringing your hands to ruffle his hair. 

he kissed you gently. “it's in the bottom drawer.”

#wilbuh #wilbur soot fluff #wilbur x y/n #wilbur soot imagine #wilbur soot x reader fluff #wilbur soot headcanons #wilbur soot x y/n #wilbur soot x reader #wilbur soot fic #wilbur soot x you #wilbur soot fanfiction #wilbur soot angst

[sophiasoelberg]

So the symbolism with clothes is INSANE in OFMD.

By Season 2 Episode 6, they're both becoming what the other was. Ed no longer wants to be a pirate because it brought out the brutal, cold blooded part in him that he's been bored of long before he met Stede. But which was a necessity for him to survive, to protect his mother from his father.

Then he met Stede, who was a gentleman, doing and being something Ed has always wanted to be, which is softness. Like the soft, fine fabrics Ed likes, but never really allowed himself to have, only carried the piece of red silk his mother has given him when he was a boy.

Ed only let go of that red silk when him and Stede were apart, because Ed gave up on his newly discovered soft side. He became the Kraken, all hard edges and black leather.

Also, before he let go of the softness with the red silk, he wore Stede's fuchsia robe, which represented the colour entering Stede's life, and by Ed wearing it, he wore Stede's essence, what comforted him as he missed Stede very much. He missed the colour from his life.

Fast forward, in Season 2 after Stede had his first kill, after Ned literally said that if he does it, Stede will become a Real Pirate, Stede looks for comfort with Ed by making love to him. Stede as a pirate who was always scared of the brutality and coldness of masculinity that his father represented to him, I believe.

Yet being a pirate, an infamous one at that, as Stede finds himself suddenly to be, is what he had dreamed about. Which must be conflicting as heck, too. Being something you yearned for, and being accepted for it, which you're not used to, but then that very thing you wanted is also uncomfortable because of the inherent brutality it carries with itself. (Piracy)

Anyway, when Episode 7 starts, Ed throws his leathers into the sea. His things that represent Blackbeard. He gets rid of it after he became intimate with Stede, having taken off Blackbeard, (=his leathers) LITERALLY. This time he's wearing Stede's robe but it's the same dark blue colour as Stede's new "pirate shirt".

Blue is obviously one of Stede's favourite colours, which would symbolise his love for the sea— and Ed wears that. He wears Stede on himself on that Morning After. Ed is trying to find what he can become after he gives up his Blackbeard identity, and what he knows is that he likes fishing and most importantly, loves Stede. He finds comfort in Stede, like Stede does in Ed.

One more interesting thing, since I'm diving into the topic of symbolism with clothes is the fact that there was a huge emphasis on the scene in which Buttons turned into a seagull.

Buttons said: "The sea is my love. To love the sea as she must be loved, requires change."

And Ed: "Buttons, people don't change, not into birds or otherwise." (Just when Ed and Stede's theme starts to play very softly)

But Buttons changes, and Ed is AMAZED by it, and then goes on his own journey to change his ways. So that he can love Stede in a healthy way.

Buttons leaves his clothes behind, and in Episode 7, Ed wears them as he's trying to figure out who he wants to be instead of Blackbeard and instead of a pirate. For me, him wearing Buttons' clothes then means that Edward is finally truly (docked too) ready for change.

But it also means that Buttons is a character who's LITERALLY IN LOVE WITH THE SEA. And in the beginning of Season 2, Stede wore Buttons' cravat. And then Ed wears the rest of Buttons' clothes. Showing that Ed and Stede love the sea.

As of right now, by Episode 7, what they need now, Ed and Stede, is to find a middle ground where both can be who they truly are and continue to balance each other out that way. For Ed to find peace, softness and comfort, (and a fucking INN, give that man what he wants, for whoever's sake—) and for Stede to be who he aspired to be, a pirate, but to also regain his gentleness, because that's a core part of him. That's why Ed loves him.

#our flag means death spoilers #our flag means death #our flag means death season 2 #ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #I DID WRITE THAT MUCH ABOUT A ROBE #YEAH #edward teach #stede bonnet

[rings-of-power-realm]

RopWeek2023

Favourite Original Character

Arondir

When I saw the first proper trailer and got a glimpse of him with his bow, I suddenly felt overwhelmed because somehow I knew from that moment that the show would be phenomenal. Ismael had such a presence in that trailer that quelled any doubt in me (since I was worried beforehand about this show that it would not honour the Middle Earth I love) but it did.

He can do it all, from action to soft romantic scenes, to inspiring scenes of hope and the way he got Theo to trust and confide in him was beautiful.

Arondir represents all the things I admire about Tolkien characters. His strength and grace, his fierceness, his loyalty, his love his unwavering belief, the sadness that simmers below and his absolute selflessness and courage to do what is right.

I adore him and am loving watching his journey. It particulalrly means a lot since Ismael always wanted to play an elf and finally, his dream happened and he has knocked it outta the park.

Special mentions: I truly adore all the characters so wanna say how much I also love the Harfoots, their determination and fact they stick together is truly touching plus I love the friendship between Nori and Poppy and it broke me when they parted.

Bronwyn. Her strength and love is an inspiration.

Disa (my beloved Disa!) As soon as that gorgeous scottish accent rolled out and she beamed I fell in love with her she's incredible <3 Her relationship with Durin and Elrond is one of the highlights of the show and in her own right she is a wickedly entertaining and sunny presence who can also protray the sadder moments. You just feel her warmth in every scene.

The Stranger. What can I say but what a ride it was with him, even in the finale I was still like no don't be Sauron! His power coming through and when he realised he was good was so beautiful and the fact Nori never wavered in supporting him even when we were in doubt to his true nature. His eyes gave so much emotion. What an impactful beautiful character he is and I enjoyed his scenes immensely.

Halbrand. Charlie what an amazing actor. That charm and quick wit but with those chilling undercurrents and moments where you saw that darkness were really powerful. He got under Galadriel's skin, the manipulation was sublime and real. Don't they say that the devil would disguise himself as a handsome man? Truly incredible and when it was unravelling towards the end and his anger came to the forefront (though we had glimpsed it terrifyingly before) I was blown away by the change and the delivery, when you knew for certain who he was, its absolutely chilling.

#ropweek2023 #arondir #disa #the stranger #halbrand #harfoots #nori and poppy

[lovelytsunoda]

take me home // mick schumacher

summary: with less than three hours before she becomes mrs. schumacher, y/n reflects on some of her favourite memories with mick.

pairing: mick schumacher x fem! reader

warnings: one minor sex scene, potential overuse of german pet names.

authors note: i swear to god ‘schatzi’ and ‘liebling’ are the two cutest pet names in the german language and if anyone ever uses them to refer to me i will melt.

munich, germany.

y/n sat at the vanity, wrapped in a pink silk robe. her hair was perfectly curled, falling down her back in tendrils. a simple diamond necklace rested it’s pendant in the hollow of her throat and she resisted the urge to fiddle with it.

the stunning white dress hung next to the mirror, white patent heels sitting stoically next to the gown.

in no more than three hours, she would be y/n schumacher.

and as excited as she was to marry mick, the absolute love of her life, the idea scared her, still felt unreal even though she knew that the german would be standing at the altar with sebastian and kevin, with his adorable wide eyed gaze on her the entire time.

y/n was trying not to cry, lest she ruin her makeup, which gina had spent so much time perfecting, as she recounted all the moments when she thought to herself ‘this could be it. mick schumacher could be the man that i marry’,

stockport, england. three years earlier.

“christ, mick, you do not have to drive me in this weather, i can find my own way home.”

the german scoffed. “come on, liebling. the rain is not that bad.”

the rain was definitely that bad, falling from the sky in sheaths. many people had abandoned their cars and decided to walk, or to catch the bus. mick and y/n had left the production of mean girls in london’s west end, and the rain had only gotten worse the closer to y/n’s home stockport that they went.

“i drive in conditions far less safe on a weekly basis’. the haas driver insisted. “we’ll be fine.”

she snorted. “I grew up in england, schumacher. i think i know more about the climate in stockport than you do.”

“if you’re scared, you can hold my hand.”

“not a chance.” y/n smiled as she slowly reached over the console to lace her fingers with micks. “but i’ll hold your hand anyways.”

the downpour showed no signs of letting up as mick and y/n drew closer to the y/l/n family home. mick was constantly amazed at how small stockport truly was, and how different y/n’s childhood must have been from his own, although she insisted that much of her finer years were spent in livelier, neighbouring manchester.

rain still pummeled the sports car’s metal roof as mick pulled his ferrari into y/n’s driveway, lights still on in the home’s living room window. upon seeing y/n’s father, mick froze.

“maybe this is as far as i go. if i drive away now, your dad won't see me.”

y/n chuckled. “he doesn’t hate you, mick. but in his defense, you did show up in a million dollar ferrari with a leather jacket, basically the epitome of every man my father told me not to date.”

mick leaned over the console of the car, pressing a kiss to y/n’s lips. “you’re so sexy when you use big words.”

“sexy enough that you’ll shield me from the rain while i make a mad dash for the front door?”

“whatever the lady wants.”

the young lovers got out of the car, squealed as the rain pelted them from all sides, mick eagerly pulling off his jacket to hold over his girlfriend’s head in an attempt to shield her from the spray.

by the time they reached the front porch, both millennials were soaked from head to toe.

“come here, schatzi, i want to try something.” mick grinned, baking into the rain

“mick, sweetheart, what are you doing?”

“you’ll see.” the german insisted, reaching for her hand.

laughing, y/n followed him into the rain as mick twirled her around before pressing a deep kiss to y/n’s lips.

in the middle of the pouring rain, as if he was in a nineties romantic comedy film.

“i’ve always wanted to do that.” the haas driver admitted with a giggle, resting his forehead against his lover’s.

geneva, switzerland.

y/n stood at the kitchen island, eighties rock music playing from her phone as she leaned over the cupcake tray in concentration, piping swirls of icing in the red and white haas colors onto the tops of each vanilla cupcake.

mick stood in the kitchen doorway, hair still damp from his post-workout shower as he watched his girlfriend bake. while y/n was distracted, mick came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to pepper her neck in kisses.

“hey, you.” y/n laughed, leaning into mick’s touch

“hi, liebling.” mick gushed, reaching for the tray.

as his hands were about to close in on a cupcake, y/n swatted his hand away.

“mick! those are for the guests.”

mick and y/n were hosting the haas f1 team’s annual season kickoff party, as mick was about to celebrate his second season in formula one. y/n was still relatively new to the formula one world, and she was eager to make a good impression on her boyfriend’s team.

“i just want one, babe.”

“you have to wait until guenther and kevin get here!”

“but guenther and kevin always arrive last!”

“that's the point, darling.”

mick groaned, burying his head in her neck before the song changed, and he pulled her away from the kitchen island. y/n extricate herself from his grip, letting mick take her hand and lead her where he wanted to go.

the couple now stood in the living room of the open-concept apartment, swaying together as ‘sweet emotion’ by aerosmith began to play. mick twirled her around, socked feet sliding across the hard wood as y/n giggled.

“mick, what are you doing?’ she laughed, looping her arms around his neck as mick pulled her close, resting his hands on her waist as the couple swayed together to the music.

“dancing with my girlfriend to her favourite aerosmith song.” the german answered simply, admiring the girl in front of him.

y/n was his personal angel, dressed in a cropped haas sweater and tight fitting jeans. she was always there for him, even when his race performance wasn’t where he wanted it to be.

she laughed, kissing mick. “walk this way’ is my favorite aerosmith song, loverboy.”

“close enough.” mick laughed, pulling y/n closer for a deeper, more sensual kiss. “can i have a cupcake now?”

“not a chance.”

cozumel, mexico.

mick schumacher was in pain.

in theory, spending the day at a beach in cozumel was a fantastic idea, until he came back to the hotel looking like a lobster with the mother of all sunburns on his back.

“babyyyy” mick whined. “i need you.”

y/n laughed, sauntering out of the ensuite bathroom dressed in one of mick’s salmon pink button down shirts and not much else, a bottle of aloe vera gel in her hand.

“i’m right here, baby.” she cooed, heart aching at the sight of her boyfriend lying face-down on the bed, his back and angry shade of pink that she knew must sting when the driver put pressure on it. “you poor thing.”

“as i recall,” mick groaned “mexico was your idea.”

“oh, come on you big baby.” she laughed, settling herself on the bed so she was straddling mick, squeezing the aloe onto her hands.

mick moaned under her touch as she massaged the sunburn gel into his back, nimble fingers making quick work and ensuring that the haas driver relaxed and still tried to enjoy his holiday, even while his back stung like hell.

“you’re too good to me, liebling.” mick mumbled as her fingers came up to his shoulders, massaging the tightened muscles while also working in the aloe. “you know, if my back wasn’t in so much pain right now, i would make love to you so hard.”

y/n giggled, wiping off her hands and moving to lie next to mick, one sunburnt arm over her shoulders. “sure, baby.” their foreheads are touching, and she brings a hand up to run it through mick’s hair.

“really, y/n. i’m going to marry you someday.”

geneva, switzerland. one week before the wedding.

“oh, mick.”

the room was dim, the only light coming from the scented candles that mick had lit, artfully placed around the room. scattered rose petals lay on the hardwood floor and the cotton duvet that was wrapped around the couple as y/n slowly bounced on mick’s cock, his length at the perfect angle inside of her.

she moaned loudly, back arched and head thrown back as she dug her fingers into her fiance’s shoulder blades. her skimpy silk nightdress was bunched over her hips, mick’s hands leaving impressions on her thighs as he held her close amidst the passionate love making, one nightgown strap falling down her shoulder and allowing one breast to tumble free of the fabric for mick to play with.

“you feel incredible, schatzi.” mick moaned, tilting his head back before meeting y/n’s lips in a somewhat sloppy kiss as he thrust upwards into her again, biting down on her lip gently.

“m-mick, i think i’m c-close” she managed to say through moans, breathing heavy as she held onto mick like her life depended on it

he kissed her shoulder gently, lovingly. “cum for me, baby. show me how good i make you feel.”

as they both came down from their highs, mick held his fiancee close, as if he was memorizing every curve of her body while she righted her nightdress, covering her chest.

mick had already memorized her body a long time ago.

“i can’t believe this is the last time we’re gonna do this before you legally make me yours.” y/n said dreamily, running her fingers through mick’s sweaty hair before pressing a kiss to his forehead.

y/n would leave for her hen week the following morning, and would be back from monte carlo just in time for the wedding. mick would be with seb, kevin, guenther and a couple of other drivers for his bachelor trip, which sebastian had turned into a three-day camping expedition. mick would come back sooner, to help prepare the final “day before” things for the wedding.

“you were mine way before i asked you to marry me.” mick corrected, pecking his fiancee on the lips. “and there’s no way that this was the last time. the last time will be the quickie we have before you leave tomorrow, when i fuck you so hard that you won’t be able to miss me because you can still feel my hands all over your body.”

he said it so innocently, but if she hadn’t still been straddling mick’s cock, y/n would have been clenching her thighs together.

“i can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, mick schumacher.”

“why wait? we already spend every second of our lives together, why should anything change after we say our vows?”

y/n kissed him again, grinding down on mick’s lap. with a sly grin, mick flipped them both over so he hovered over top of y/n.

“the night is still young, my love. we have all the time in the world.”

munich, germany. the day of the wedding.

the knock on the door startled y/n out of her reverie. gina schumacher was standing on the other side, a giddy expression on her face.

“who’s ready to go and let my brother make her the happiest woman in the world?”

y/n laughed. “i just have to put the dress on. do you mind giving me a hand?”

once y/n was ready, the thick train of her wedding dress and veil trailing behind her, she took her father’s arm, walking down the aisle to ‘swing life away’ by rise against. she couldn't see much through the veil, but she could see mick standing at the altar with seb and kevin, who waved at her once they saw her.

fully situated at the altar, mick’s hands were shaking as he brushed the fabric of the veil away from y/n’s face.

“hello, husband.” y/n said quietly as the officiant began to speak.

“hi, wife.” mick grinned, glowing as he laced his fingers with hers, overjoyed to spend the rest of his life with the woman in front of him.

“i now pronounce you, mr and mrs schumacher! you may now kiss the bride !”

#mick schumacher x reader #formula one x reader #f1 imagine #f1 x reader #haas f1 team #precious german boy #f1 x y/n #mick schumacher x y/n #husband mick just became my new favourite thing #wedding saga bc there will defo be more #lovelytsunodas one direction series

[danaty-consolation]

Hai there! Hope you're doing great!!! 🌹

First of all, I love your blog and I'll be honest, It's actually one of the reasons I came here to Tumblr in the first place (I think I found you first through that one Ataru analysis you posted a long time ago). Your blog was just the thing to satisfy my rumic cravings and I hope that we can be friends ❤

And second, do you have a favourite moment for each Rumiko Takahashi couple? I tried searching through your blog but I couldn't find anything which had the answer, sorry if it's already been asked before!!

Hope you'll reply!! X3

FIRST OF ALL, I ALREADY LOVE YOU BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEST DETECTIVE CONAN GIRL IN YOUR PROFILE PICTURE ASKJBDAKSJ

Also thank you so much!!! It flatters me a lot you were the reason to be here on tumblr! (even tho the Ataru defense post has so many misspellings now in my eyes skjdbakjs)

The Rumic World fandom is light and cool so you will be happy here and yes! We can definitely be friends hehehe.

OKAY SO FOR ROMANTIC MOMENTS HUH.

With Atalum is this one for sure:

THE ARC WHEN HE ACTIVELY SHOWS HIS TRUE SELF AND GOES TO SAVE HER AND CARRIES HER BRIDAL STYLE!

Rankane is definitely this one even tho I have a lot of other favorites:

RANMA BEING HONEST TO AKANE AFTER SHE REGAINED HER ORIGINAL BODY AFTER SACRIFICING IT FOR HIM, HECK THIS MOMENT MADE ME CRY IN MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Inukag has so many good ones but I want to share this one specifically:

Forever be salty about how Sunrise handled this scene. THE SCENE OF COMFORT AND TRUST HERE, LIKE HE FEELS BAD FOR NOT BEING ON TIME I AM AKJSBDJKAS AND HIS HUG!!!! AKSJHBDAJKS

Rinsaku is a difficult one because so many cute protective Rinne moments but I will have to choose this one:

IS SUPER CUTE, THEY ARE SO IN LOVE HERE AND IT SHOWS SAKJBDKJASBDAJSDA

Maonoka has pretty good moments to but I need to choose this one:

MAO'S FACE HERE TELLS US EVERYTHING, HE LOVES HER AND SHE OF COURSE LOVES HIM. THESE TWO IDIOTS, MOSTLY MAO THO BC HE KEEPS QUIET OF WHAT HE FEELS VERBALLY LJKASDBNJSKLD

Yumana is super touching and adorable:

I LISTEN, I HAD TO CHOOSE THIS ONE BECAUSE HERE WE SEE MANA BEING HAPPY THAT YUTA IS ALIVE. HERE WE SEE MANA REALLY CARES FOR HIM AND SHE LOVES HIM BECAUSE WE HAD SEEN SHE IS JEALOUS BEFORE BUT DOESN'T KNOW YET WHY NSADKSA

Now to add the other Rumic world couples that I also adore:

Godai and Kyoko are such a mature couple in the end that still are growing together:

I GET SUPER EMOTIONAL WITH THEM OKAY, WE SEE THEM GROW TOGETHER AS PERSONS AND SEE GODAI EMBRACING HER WITH HER PAST AND EVERYTHING AND LOVING HER AND KYOKO. GOD, SHE GIVE HERSELF THE OPPORTUNITY TO LOVE AGAIN WITH HIM I AM ON THE FLOOR.

Now with Kosaku and Nun Angela:

LISTEN, KOSAKU IS A GLUTON AND A IDIOT, BUT HE IS SO STUPIDLY IN LOVE WITH NUN ANGELA THAT HE LITERALLY MADE HER FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM. MARIE LOVES HIM, SHE LITERALLY SAID GOODBYE TO HER LIFE AS A NUN FOR HIM. SHE TRULY LOVES HIM AND THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST LOVE STORIES.

Also this is also such a great way to show my love for every dynamic of the rumic world week skjdba

I am going to use this ask btw, hope you don't mind!

#rumicworldweek #rumicworldweek day 4 #I love a lot of rumiko couples akjbdskjaqsd

[sylvies-chen]

boy do I have things to say after this one so here we go folks…

TED LASSO 3.05 THOUGHTS

as a bisexual, I loveddddd seeing bi!keeley confirmed and having her get together with jack. they have great chemistry and keeley deserves it. as a writer, however, I did not appreciate it. at. all. and I say this so strongly because I just feel like they don’t know what to do with her character romantically so they’re hinting at bits of keeley and jamie, then her and roy, and now having her with jack. it feels like they’re reducing even her work storyline to a romance, and I’m thrilled at the representation but I think we all collectively agreed keeley was bi even without all of this and it just feels weirdly placed and pointless knowing roykeeley is still going to be endgame anyway

I’m soooooo glad zava’s done for, like I thought it was interesting watching the group fall into a cult-like following of him but it was getting really annoying really fast. hope retirement treats him like shit! I do not like that man!

ted coaching himself through his panic attack!!! omg my babygirl is showing so much growth we love to see it I’m so proud of him!!!

okay I was veryyyy iffy about that scene with rebecca yelling at ted at first because yes, she has a right to be upset, but it felt a litte mean. but then she apologized and we got A TEDBECCA SOULMATE CONNECTION SCENE? rebecca saying she bullied ted and ted being taken aback because it applies to henry, another person whom he loves dearly? rebecca being taken aback at ted calling himself something of a psychic? IT’S LIKE THEY’RE UNKNOWINGLY TUNED INTO THE HAPPENINGS OF EACH OTHER’S LIVES I’M GONNA EAT GLASSSSSSS

speaking of rebecca… yeesh. her scenes were tough to watch this week. it’s such a sensitive and personal storyline and you could see how much she allowed herself to hope only to have that hope crushed by the reality that rupert put her in. but rebecca, my love, families come in all shapes and sizes. there are other ways to be a mother, and I hope she finds a way that makes her happy even if it isn’t henry she becomes somewhat of a mother to

I get what ted was trying to do with the believe sign, getting the team to remember to believe in each other and not a symbol, but it still hurt me to see it ripped up in pieces 😭

ok but like roy rly ate with that torture tactic for bullies… not gonna lie I took notes

oh and NATE. NATEEEEE. I really liked his storyline this episode!! I think it was such a perfect way to explore how this new lifestyle isn’t fitting for him and how that good kind awkward but lovable guy is still in him somewhere but through a lens and context that isn’t just ted vs. rupert. I like him and waitress girl!! any woman who brings you baklava is a goddess because it truly is divine so I approve of this pairing. if rupert fucks with that I’m going to kill him.

overall this episode was not my favourite, rebecca’s plot was definitely the star of the episode to me but the ep felt very disjointed which normally happens when you reach the middle of any tv show season so that was kind of disappointing but I have confidence it will all start to tie back together

#ted lasso #ted lasso spoilers #rebecca welton #keeley jones #bi!keeley jones #zava #tedbecca

[canmom]

Animation Night 130: Hayao Miyazaki’s Aeroplane Movies

Oh that Hayao Miyazaki! We sure have a slightly complicated relationship to him here on Animation Night!

See for example...

Animation Night 70, where I talk about his early career and years as a Toei union man, up to the founding of Ghibli;

Animation Night 100 where I tell you about one of my favourite ever films Mononoke-Hime;

Animation Night 111 where we look at the fascinating My Neighbour Totoro-Grave of the Fireflies double bill of 1988.

Tonight, we’re going to look at two films, Porco Rosso and the controversial The Wind Rises, which indicate his particular arc through life in, honestly, a rather sad way. Putting them alongside each other to see what we learn...

If there’s one thing old Hayao loves, it is aeroplanes - particularly planes from the early-mid 20th century. No surprise, really: his dad Katsuji Miyazaki ran a company Miyazaki Airplane, which manufactured parts for world war II aeroplanes such as the infamous Zero fighter plane. (Put a pin in that one!) Despite working to arm the Imperial Japanese military, Katsuji was able to get out of actually serving in the war by telling his commanding officer that he didn’t want to fight when he had a wife and kid, which somehow got him discharged with just a lecture.

The young Hayao, born 1941, was therefore surrounded by planes, which were the source of his family’s comfort. He spent his earliest years fleeing from American air raids, suffering from digestive problems, and watching his stern, intellectual mother Yoshiko suffering from spinal tuberculosis (though she ultimately made it to 1983, at age 72). At school in the 50s, he took an interest in manga - which in those days naturally meant Osamu Tezuka; he also went to see drama films with Katsuji such as Meshi (1951).

In ‘58, he saw Toei’s Legend of the White Snake (白蛇伝 Hakujaden), notable as the first colour anime film, sneaking out from studying for his exams. The film had a profound effect on him. In Starting Point, he writes that he fell in love with the film’s heroine Bai-Niang, and yet gradually started to imagine how he might have done the film differently to better show the secondary characters.

Hayao went to university to study political economy with a focus on ‘Japanese Industrial Theory’, and at the same time, started drawing in earnest, cranking out thousands of pages of manga and spending a lot of time sketching and chatting politics with his middle school art teacher. The 60s and 70s were a high point of left-wing activity in Japan, the time of the Japanese New Left and the Anpo protests against the US-Japan security treaty (c.f. Toku Tuesday 33 on Nagisa Ōshima for a truly fascinating filmmaker who rose to prominence at this time!) So Miyazaki fairly naturally became a Marxist, and stayed such as he got his start working in animation, which I’ve covered in other posts.

So at this point perhaps we can see the curious contradiction that sits in so much of Miyazaki’s work: he genuinely loves aeroplanes and other kinds of military hardware on a kind of aesthetic level, and yet this sits pretty curiously against a worldview that went from Marxist to environmentalist and has no love of war or nationalism.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at a few of Miyazaki’s early depictions of planes. First would be his work on episode 21 of Moomin (1969), by TMS entertainment. On this infamous episode, Miyazaki’s senpai Yasuo Otsuka called in his protégé to handle of all things a battle scene with planes and tanks - one which infuriated Tove Jansson, already dissatisfied with the tone of the adaptation, to the point that she pulled the show out of TMS Entertainment and A-Pro’s hands and gave it to Tezuka’s rival studio Mushi Pro instead.

(I can’t find any embeddable version, but I did get my hands on this episode eventually! Lain bless soulseek.)

This did not deter Miyazaki at all. In his work on ‘Green Jacket’ Lupin III Part I, which he co-directed with Takahata and Masaaki Ōsumi as well as animating several scenes, we start to see his love of mechanical detail shine through once more. Miyazaki’s plane obsession would shine through even more strongly with his direction of two episodes of ‘red jacket’ Lupin III Part II (1980), under the pen name “Tsutomu Teruki”, directing animators like the spectacular Kazuhide Tomonaga as @kbnet​ documents here. By that point his style had matured - the character designs and motion feel like something drawn in Ghibli’s early years, and the plane backgrounds are astonishingly dense with detail. The Castle of Cagliostro is by comparison relatively light on aeroplanes, but truly elevates Lupin’s car to a character - not to mention the film’s ridiculously elaborate finale where the characters battle through an enormous system of gears.

In between these two Lupin jackets came Future Boy Conan, where we start to see Miyazaki find more things to say about planes than “damn cool!”; a full of wonderful plane adventures, yet they also represent the sinister forces of industrialism which destroyed the world once and threaten to do it again.

In an essay from 1979 that opens the collection Starting Point, Miyazaki remarks on the qualities needed to animate a plane on Conan, giving a sense of his philosophy around animated machines - and his perfectionism:

Quite a few of toda’s younger animators plunged directly into this line of work because they were fans. But if I were to ask them to draw a picture of what they think a chaika (a flying boat in Future Boy Conan) would look like in flight, they would only be able to imagine what they had previously seen on past TV anime shows. And I wouldn’t be able to use their work as a result.

To draw a chaika flying in a truly original fashion, you would need to have read at least one book on the history of flying, and then be able to use your imagination to augment what you have read.

This is followed by an anecdote about Russian pilot, and builder of the first four-engine biplane, Igor Sikorsky - the man who for Miyazaki “symbolises the way men really fly”.

Miyazaki of 1979 seemed to have a lot on his mind about the relationship of humans to machines. He criticises the mecha shows of the time for a lack of focus on how the character creates and maintains the machine: “the protagonist should struggle to build his own machine, he should fix it when it breaks down, and he should have to operate it himself”. And true to form, when Miyazaki’s films portray machines, there is as much loving depiction of the maintenance as the actual machines in flight.

We’ll fast forward now, since I talked quite a bit about The Castle of Cagliostro, Nausicaa and Castle in the Sky back on AN 70, and Totoro back on AN 111. I haven’t covered Kiki’s Delivery Service yet, although you can trust we will before too long! No, the first film of interest to us tonight is a bit of an oddball in the Ghibli oeuvre; well known to fans of the studio but not quite as much of a household name. That’s Miyazaki’s flying pig movie, Porco Rosso (紅の豚 Kurei no Buta).

^ here’s your obligatory Yoshinori Kanada-animated background animation scene!

Porco Rosso is Miyazaki’s first movie to not just feature planes, but be truly overwhelmingly about planes. Set in a vaguely Mediterranean world, it expresses Miyazaki’s nostalgia for a lost era of flying before he was born, and yet it’s also tinged with the impending horror of the second world war and the recognition that the planes that Miyazaki loves so much are above all weapons.

Unlike many of Miyazaki’s movies, it centres on mostly adult characters and its narrative arc doesn’t really move to any sort of definite resolution; it’s more a portrait of the era, or rather, Miyazaki’s fantastical imagination of the era, in which there can be sky pirate families flying with dozens of children and, of course, a man can get transformed into a pig. The central character of the film, the eponymous Porco Rosso (so called because he’s a pig (porco) that flies a red (rosso) aeroplane), is an outcast due to his pig curse, but also perhaps because he insists on flying for himself rather than for the Italian military, a stance that is already becoming obsolete.

So Porco ends up adopting a young aircraft engineer - a bishōjo character in the spirit of The Castle of Cagliostro - who is eager to see the world. The largest conflict in the film is Porco butting heads with an arrogant American pilot over the affections of Gina, a woman who runs a bar for pilots - yet the two are clearly more similar than different.

By this point Studio Ghibli is well-established, and Miyazaki can take his pick from some of the best animators in the entire industry. So we see not just Yoshinori Kanada, but also sakuga aces Mitsuo Iso(!!!) and Shinya Ohira(!!!), and with Ghibli money they can truly go all-out. All that attention to mechanical detail, the buliding of machines, is there. Events like the testing of an aeroplane engine are accompanied by incredibly complex multi-layered shots that only a drawing demon like Ohira could accomplish. Only someone whose grasp of 3D form is as precise as Mitsuo Iso could animate some of these shots of subtle wobbles in the pre-CGI era. And on top of that, the colour design of Michyo Yasuda is there in all its beauty, Joe Hisaishi truly came into his own with a score as wistful and nostalgic as such a film demands; it’s an incredibly accomplished work of animation. 

But, planes though.

One of the film’s most memorable scenes - one which unites the two films we’re going to see tonight - sees Porco fly up high into the sky to a kind of flying graveyard of aeroplane pilots. It’s here we especially see the ambivalence that obsesses Miyazaki: he finds aeroplanes one of the most beautiful things in the world, idolises their pilots, and yet of course this period of aviation was an incredibly dangerous one, and moreover the aeroplane development was catalysed by war and soon would lead to a level of destruction never seen before in human history with the bombing campaigns of the second world war.

It would be natural to imagine that the workshop where Porco recruits Fio may in some way resemble the workshop run by Miyazaki’s parents - in spirit, as he imagines it, if not in detail. Like Miyazaki Airplane, this workshop in Italy cannot be doing anything but supplying aeroplanes to Mussolini, and indeed we see Porco utter one of the most quoted lines in the film when he tells his old air force buddy “I’d rather be a pig than a fascist.” even though this leaves him essentially a fugitive, on his own with a plane and a girl (like half his age I guess?).

^ This swarm of tadpole-like children was animated by Masashi Ando.

If you actually read Miyazaki’s comments about his dad, it seems a little different. Far from being lovingly crafted, Miyazaki writes, Katsuji would make defective parts and bribe officials to look the other way. He would go to nightclubs right into his 70s and ask Hayao if he’d started smoking yet.

At the time this film came out, Hayao Miyazaki’s father Katsuji would die only a couple of years later, in 1993. We can find a short piece that Hayao wrote about it in Starting Point (page 208-209, My Old Man’s Back):

...And after the war, he had no sense of guilt about having been involved in the military arms industry or having produced defective parts. In effect, for him war was something that only idiots engaged in. If we were going to war anyway, he was going to make money off of it. He had absolutely no interest in just causes or the fate of the state. For him the only concern was how his family would survive.

(...)

When he died two years ago, those of us who gathered together agreed that he had never once said anything particularly lofty or inspiring. If I have one regret, it is that I never discussed things seriously with my old man. From the time I was young, I always looked at him as a negative example. But it seems, after all, that I am like him. I have inherited my old man’s anarchistic feelings and his lack of concern about embracing contradictions.

So the actual reality of aeroplanes around Miyazaki had little to do with the romantic images we see in his films. But that ‘lack of concern about embracing contradictions’ seems important...

In 2013, 20 years after Katsuji’s death, Miyazaki would direct a new film, The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ Kaze Tachinu, lit. The Wind Has Written) - to date, his last film, although of course like clockwork he’s since come out of retirement to work on another one. Ostensibly, this film is a biopic of Jiro Horikoshi, the inventor of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane so vital to the Imperial Japanese war machine.

However, if you look into the details, you soon realise that the story present in the film - particularly its central element of Jiro love interest and eventual wife Naoko Satomi - is a complete fiction. Jiro Horikoshi did marry and eventually had five children, but there is very little information about them, even in Horikoshi’s own autobiography. An article comparing the film against it remarks...

The Story of the Zero Fighter is 80% plane design ideas, measurements and stories surrounding Jiro’s career. There’s so much focus on the construction of the planes there’s a measly 20% left for autobiographical material.

According to that article, Horikoshi’s autobiography describes his initial thrill at reports of the Zero’s success in the invasion of China, then later, the psychological impact of a bomb striking nearby and his gradual realisation of what a war actually meant. It’s an arc towards increasing horror at the measures the Japanese Empire was taking to win the war with it, particularly the announcement of the Kamikaze suicide-bomber tactic:

Jiro was approached by the press to write a short essay on the Kamikaze, but he declined. He found it too emotionally difficult to think when he looked at photographs of smiling pilots boarding Zero’s, knowing they were doomed to death. Sobbing, the only sentiment that encouraged him to put pen to paper was dedicating his writings to the families who had lost their loved ones in the war. In the haunted depths of his mind he wondered why Japan had not just given up the war, and why they had gone to such measures with the Zero’s.

Very little of this arc makes it into The Wind Rises. Nationalism is glimpsed only at the margins. In one trip to Weimar Germany, Horikoshi witnesses a Jewish man being pursued; later, he meats a privately anti-Nazi German man at the hospital who talks briefly about how foolish nationalism will make a country ‘blow up’, and his final oblique conversation with the dream-ghost of his idol, Italian aircraft engineer Giovanni Cabroni, about what it means to build planes when they will be tragically be destroyed.

Instead, we find Miyazaki draw in a different source for the primary character arc of this movie: a novel by Tatsuo Hori that also has the title 風立ちぬ Kaze Tachinu. Set in a sanitarium much like the one in which Horikoshi spends the latter half of the film, it tells the story of the relationship between a nameless protagonist and a woman dying of tuberculosis.

It seems an odd connection at a glance: why would you take this seemingly entirely unrelated novel and apply it to an actual historical person? To me, the most plausible answer is that this isn’t really a film about Jiro Horikoshi. Because recall that, of Miyazaki’s parents, his mother also had spinal tuberculosis, and his dad also made planes for the war. Yet, the Horikoshi of this film hardly resembles Katsuji Miyazaki either, who we’ve seen was far from a workaholic like the film’s Jori Horikoshi. Instead, this would better resemble Hayao himself. So instead, it seems to be using this historical setting as a kind of place to explore Miyazaki’s feelings about his parents, his own craft in animation (wedded to the technical industrial world as it is)...

Inevitably that’s a pretty fraught thing to do! More so than any of Miyazaki’s other films, the film sparked a lot of controversy, mostly for how it handles the topic of the war. You could argue that like, OK, do you need a movie to moralistically lecture you on how invading most of Asia was bad? Must it rub our faces in the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy to be a worthwhile movie?

One answer is that with the amount of modern nationalism and historical revisionism out there, it might not go amiss for national hero Hayao Miyazaki to take a stand there! But honestly it’s more that, with such subject matter, seems to go out of its way to avoid showing what the Zero was actually used for. The main tragedy, as far as Horikoshi was concerned, seems to be that so many pilots of this beautiful aeroplane die; that his pursuit of engineering beauty was corrupted by worldly matters like a war.

Which isn’t necessarily a completely inaccurate portrait of the real Jori Horikoshi’s attitude to his creation. The quote that inspired the film was “All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful.” But then this film goes out of its way to emphasise Horikoshi as a caring family man, a wholly sympathetic character, when to much of the world, Jiro Hirokoshi is a symbol of....

That. (And that’s the low estimate. It could easily be four times higher.)

But let’s look at how it relates to old Hayao and the contradictions he talks about living. If not to the same degree as old Isao Takahata, Miyazaki is an infamously exacting and demanding boss, heavily correcting nearly every cut that passes his desk. He’s spent his life working at a frankly kind of insane pace and expects his employees to keep up. Studio Ghibli has at least one dead body on its hands. Yet if you look at his films, they’re all about freedom and romanticism and the importance of enjoying nature. In Totoro, the dad is pulled away from his desk to play outside by his children. Probably not a good idea at Ghibli.

Then there are all the family relationships, all the way from the panda in Panda Kopanda to the mother in Ponyo. But Hayao Miyazaki was a distant father (he writes in Starting Point that his children were basically raised by their mother), and infamously callous to his son Gorō when he attempted to direct a film that Hayao didn’t think he was ready to handle.

Can we analogise animation to an aeroplane? It is beautiful in much the same way as an aeroplane is: elegant shapes, the technical coordination of many disparate parts to achieve an effect that would perhaps otherwise sound far-fetched (a flying machine? a picture that moves?). What’s the cost of animation? Well, thankfully nothing comparable to killing millions of people. But it is not a light undertaking. It is something that does eat lives. Is that a comparison that Miyazaki would have had in mind? I doubt it, honestly, but it’s what occurs to me faced with this film.

Thus I read the film’s Jori Horikoshi is a strange emotional blend of Hayao Miyazaki himself, an idealisation of his father or perhaps the sort of man he wishes his father was, and the real man who invented an effective fighter plane which helped enable his country to pillage most of Asia. And the rest of us? Well, the person working through these contradictions is Hayao Miyazaki, at the head of one of the highest concentrations of skilled animators the world has ever seen, so it’s going to be shared with nearly everyone. Would it probably have made more sense to do this in something like a manga, instead of a high profile movie? ...Well, I think so. But that’s not what happened, so we have this movie.

Inevitably for a late Ghibli movie, this film is crazy good looking. No Yoshinori Kanada anymore since he died in 2009, but Shinya Ohira is still alive, and he is absolutely capable of handling a Kanada-like background animation sequence. One of the most breathtaking sequences is the portrayal of the Great Kantō Earthquake by Atsuko Tanaka and Taichi Furumata, which combines both brilliant multiplane shots and unbelievably complex full background animation scenes of waves rippling through houses and streets. Tanaka also handled these mindblowing shots of cloth flowing in the wind as Naoko paints that form the film’s major recurring image.

The film uses slightly more digital compositing effects than the 90s pre-digital Ghibli films. For the most part the colours are just as lush as those older films, and there’s even very effective use of CG with handpainted textures now and then; Ghibli weathered the transition to digital a lot better than many studios.

And yet, despite all of this, it is a movie that leaves me feeling pretty unsatisfied, like a lot of late Ghibli movies. Hayao Miyazaki has said that he’s attempted to move away from familiar kishōtenketsu structures and try something novel, but when I watch films like Howl’s Moving Castle, I’m left wondering like... what did all of that amount to, in the end? For all its spectacle, what is this film even saying that Porco Rosso didn’t say... honestly, say better?

Maybe I’ll find an answer on a rewatch. It’s... far later than I planned to start, but if you’re willing to join me, please hop into twitch.tv/canmom and we’ll watch Hayao Miyazaki’s two big films about planes! And I’ll show you the Moomin thing too.

#animation night #hayao miyazaki #animation #anime #the wind rises #porco rosso

[blueskittlesart]

i know you love tamaki but thoughts on each of the other hosts? my favourite is mori <3

full disclosure tamaki was my first real conscious fictional crush at the ripe age of 11 and TO THIS DAY i have to pause the show during the piano scenes to recover my dignity so he will always be my number one. my everything. my absolute love interest of all time. i could write essays on him for real. i HAVE written essays on him. that being said i can absolutely talk about the other hosts bc im literally obsessed w this show

haruhi was the gender blueprint. truly. girlboy swag. she and misa amane death note were definitely like. the two most influential characters on my personal style in middle and high school. this doesn't say anything good about me. she is also multifaceted and well characterized in a way that's SO refreshing for a romance protagonist. character of all time. also btw im the exact demographic this show was written for meaning i was a tamaki/haruhi truther from the very beginning. where is the tall blonde prince boy to my short stupid gnc bitch. when is it my turn to be happy

hikaru and kaoru. yes i know the twincest thing is weird but i am CHOOSING TO IGNORE IT because 1. the show is making fun of shoujo tropes. its SATIRE GUYS and 2. they are literally so well characterized that it MAKES SENSE THAT THEY DO IT. ugh. anyways kaoru was always my favorite of the two bc i love a man thats in tune with his own emotions. i like hikaru in theory but i think if i knew him in real life i would murder him. i am also obsessed with their characterization and backstory in general bc their specific brand of trauma is one that i so rarely see represented in media and i think they had a very realistic response to it?? like they're genuinely very well written characters i like them a lot. i could also probably write an essay about them

kyoya. im obsessed with him. hes a genius. hes an asshole. he runs a literal profitable business pimping out his besties. girls somehow like him despite him never actually showing affection to any of them in canon. hes literally the worst person alive. hes genuinely kindhearted despite everyone in his life attempting to beat it out of him. hes GAY. this is a joke mostly but i truly think that every decision in his life post-middle school is made because he is obviously, painfully in love with tamaki and also completely oblivious to this fact. like the show might attempt to make you think that hes got a thing for haruhi but literally every decision he makes is for tamaki's benefit (the manga is even MORE explicit about this btw and it makes me insane) and the entire time hes in denial about the fact that tamaki is literally everything to him. it's hilarious. "and so kyoya met him" uhhh fellas is it gay to consider the single most important event in your life to be meeting another man

i kinned honey in middle school for real and every time i think about it i want to die. i unfortunately still like cake. and rabbits. and i am still blonde and short. i might be haunted by this character for the rest of my life

i didn't get the appeal of mori at first tbh which might be a result of watching the anime 2 million times but never reading the manga LMAO bc he really is just a filler character in the show. but hes fun and i like him well enough. im sort of hoping he gets a little more room to be a real character in the manga tho bc ive like. just gotten out of the chapters that were adapted directly into the show so we're in uncharted territory now. im waiting for his chapter im SURE its coming

#I WISH THEY KEPT MORI'S LITTLE BROTHER IN CHIKA'S EPISODE OF THE SHOW. LITTLE MORI IS SO CUTE :(( #finally an excuse to talk into the void about ouran #my discord server is so tired of me sending 'me and who' with every screenshot of haruhi and tamaki i can find #im so normal guys i promise #asks

[mitskimwah]

Things I noticed in Heartstopper S2 <3

————— Heartstopper spoilers

1. The scenes with Tao and Elle in them were recorded in a similar manner to Wes Anderson’s filming style. Especially the scene where Tao asks Elle to the movies, the far camera angle and Tao standing directly in the middle of the screen gives the scene a distinct Wes Anderson feel. I also felt Tao and Elle correlated with Wes Anderson when the two of them went to the museum in France, the way the two of them circled around the wall, further added to the idea that it was being filmed like a Wes Anderson movie.

2. The gradual buildup to Issac taking the “ACE” book out of the library! From the beginning of the series to the end Isaac is mostly seen by himself, which promotes a sense of pity as everyone else has “paired off” but when we see Issac talking to the aroace artist at Elle’s art showing it creates a safe space for both Issac and people watching the show. We watch Isaac develop an understanding. We watch him realise that he isn’t broken, and truly it’s a beautiful scene. This felt intentional but I noticed that when Isaac told James he didn’t feel the same way Alice Oseman’s book “Loveless” was featured in the background, I felt this was important as the book is about Georgia, who goes on a journey to discover her sexuality and eventually finds out she is aroace. I felt this hinted at Isaac’s own sexuality perhaps?

3. The beauty of Charlie, Tao, Isaac and Elle’s friendship, although the four of them are all going in different directions they’ve managed to stay just as close. I think it highlights the effort put into their friendship and lets the viewer know they’re always there for one another. I specifically liked the bond between Charlie and Tao, although they fell out in S1 their bond is just as strong, showing how much they care and depend for each other. Specifically the scene with the lock in Paris was one of my favourite scenes between Tao and Charlie. I felt it really highlighted the fact you can have deep and meaningful conversations with people and not be romantically involved with them.

#heartstopper #nick and charlie #season 2 heartstopper #nick nelson #charlie spring #tara jones #darcy olsson #tao xu #elle argent #isaac henderson #aroace #gay #bisexual #transgender #lesbians #imogen heartstopper #loveless #alice oseman #tori spring #wes anderson #asexual #aromatic

[manycoloureddays]

1, 16, and 18 for the ask meme!

1. Favourite character and your favourite outfit of theirs?

this is like asking me to pick a favourite child! like, objectively it's steve harrington, he's the most character to ever character, he has the worst day of his life, finds out monsters are real (contributing to the worst day ever tm) and decides to become a better person than even the narrative gave him credit for all in the same 24 hours and then proceeds to martyr himself at every opportunity and adopt a bunch of half feral traumatised middle schoolers and he's lived in my head rent free since 2016. but then there's robin, because how can you have steve without robin or robin without steve, it just wouldn't be right! and besides that she is a code cracking ice musical genius who is good and kind and a little bit mean and brilliant and after one truly horrendous life or death situation she decides steve is her person and she will follow him into all subsequent life or death situations starting immediately and also into all future employment situations which amounts to the same thing. and honestly i could do this for nancy, lucas, max and mike as well, but i fear the rambling would take over and the wall of text would be too much, so here, have a favourite steve and robin outfit and we can all go about our days like i'm not in way too deep for so so many of these characters.

16. Favourite song in Stranger Things?

it's gotta be heroes playing when they find "will's" body. that needle drop haunts me. the kids' acting in that scene, the horror of that on first viewing has not been dimmed over time! i watched s1 a couple of months ago and it still winds me! it's painful, but so so very good

18. Least favourite character?

this is such an interesting question! there are so many characters that dislike in the show, but who are not meant to be likeable, so they're functioning well, they're doing what they're meant to be doing. i find ted wheeler insufferable, dr brenner is reprehensible, troy makes me furious, and yuri gave me nothing, but again, they're kind of doing their job.

i think my least favourite character would have to be billy, in large part because parts of the fandom (and occasionally the show) want to brush over truly heinous things he's done because they think he's hot. i have zero time for billy.

and from a slightly different, i think after they gave us tommy and carol, two incredibly interesting characters, angela as a cardboard cutout high school bully in s4 fell really flat for me

#i wrote a lot about nancy yesterday but honestly not writing a whole paragraph for her lucas max and mike is an exercise in self control #i don't know what they put in these characters but most of them are Fascinating to me and i could talk about them all day #that ask meme #peter-pantomine #stranger things

[haledamage]

Infamous asks!! Training, Performance, Quitting, Besties, Baby, Voice, Wild card, and Seven

Training: How did they learn to sing? Have they had any formal training? How do they continue to maintain and develop their singing voice?

Melanie took chorus classes in elementary/middle school, but there was a talent show that she sang at (either the same year that she met Seven or the year before) and it was the moment she realized she wanted to be a singer. I like to think she did a song from some famous musical (On My Own, maybe? or Defying Gravity) beyond that, I think she's taken a few singing classes to learn the "proper" way to do things, mostly because she doesn't want to cause herself any harm by doing it wrong. and she practices a lot. her parents are never home, so she's just singing all the time to herself even when she's not on stage

Performance: What are they thinking and feeling while they’re performing? How do they act on stage?

She gets horrible stage fright, up until the moment she goes on stage. Once out there, she's fearless. It's just pure joy. She's energetic and magnetic and one of those singers that everyone watching falls a little bit in love with while she's on stage. It's a surprise to everyone who knows her the first time they see her perform, and an even bigger surprise to anyone meeting her in her downtime if they've only seen her as Avenue before.

(putting the rest under a cut because this got really long 😅)

Quitting: Have they ever come close to quitting their professional music career? When? What brings them back?

she almost quit when Seven left. almost walked right out with him. Rowan talked her back from the ledge. on bad days, she thinks about quitting and just becoming a songwriter/producer, working behind the scenes, but she loves performing too much to ever leave it behind. she's never even considered quitting music entirely

Besties: What’s their friendship with Rowan like? What are some things only he knows about them?

She loves all of the band, of course, but Rowan's her person. He's the only person she loves as much as she loved Seven... though probably in a different way. But she's not going to look too closely to find out, nope, she's learned her lesson about falling in love with her best friend and it's not gonna happen again. Probably. but Rowan was there the first and only time Melanie got drunk. he's the one that gave her the nickname that eventually became her stage name. he's heard at least one song that she's written that is way too raw to ever be performed. though Laney's open about her sexuality, Rowan's probably the only one to actually witness her bisexual awakening (likely courtesy of one Victoria Valentine)

Baby: How do they feel about Jazzy leaving? How are they coping? What are their plans to stay in touch?

she'll miss Jazzy, obviously, but she's so happy for her! Melanie is going to absolutely spoil that baby rotten. she has already called dibs on Favorite Aunt and is willing to fight to keep that title.

they text each other constantly, pictures and personal updates and just random heart emojis. Melanie will probably need to buy another suitcase just to fill with all the souvenirs she buys for Jazzy, Chris, and little baby Leo while on tour

Voice: What does their singing voice sound like? Do you have voiceclaims(s) for them?

so I was going to say Melanie sounds kinda like Addie from Halocene, but while looking for a good example I discovered Yours Truly, and their sound (and especially Mikaila Delgado's voice) are very close to how I imagine Avenue's singing and Since Breakfast's style of music

and on a related note, I will now be adding some new music to the playlist I'm building for ~band vibes~ 😉

Seven: Do you have headcanons about their friendship and/or romantic relationship (past or future)? What do you imagine some of their best memories are? What do you think some of Seven’s favourite things about your MC were/are?

Melanie was completely head-over-heels in love with Seven and is nowhere near as over him as she pretends she is. She didn't realize just how much not over him she was until she saw him again at the party

I have this really clear mental image of a scene between Melanie and Seven (that I might eventually turn into a fic), and it's so specific that I think it has to be one of her favorite memories. the two of them, probably 19 or 20 years old, at an outdoor swimming pool, probably a hotel pool, and it's after dark and it's long past closing time, but they snuck in. Sitting on the edge of the pool and talking, with no light except for the ones underwater inside the pool. At some point, Melanie pushes Seven in the pool and he drags her in with him, both of them fully clothed. It's before their first kiss, but it's the first time Laney thinks about it. She thinks "I could kiss him right now, and he'd let me"... and then either a security guard spots them and they have to run away, or the rest of the band shows up and joins them (followed by the security guard probably) As for Seven's favorite things about Melanie... her sincerity is definitely a big one. she never puts on airs or pretends to be anything other than herself. Even while performing, Avenue isn't a stage persona she's just pure distilled Laney: Unleashed. She also snorts when she laughs. It is, unfortunately, adorable, and is impossible to stop finding adorable even when he's actively trying to hate her.

Wild card: Tell us something about your MC! Feel free to really just roll us over with an emotional steamroller and crush the souls out of our bodies, if you’d like. (You’re also welcome to choose one of the other questions to answer!)

In an attempt to sort-of avoid confrontation, Melanie chose to share a bus with Soft Violence instead of Underground Wastebasket (because "I don't want you here" is at least better than "I don't think you deserve to be here") but in doing so has put herself in the most Rock Star Situation ever of all time

because, as I said before, she's still harboring feelings for Seven... and she's also secretly seriously into Orion, who is, y'know, her manager. and also riding on the bus with them. but I'm sure it'll be fine and completely undramatic

#melanie rhodes #infamous asks #I like to think that in an attempt to avoid another situation like what happened with seven #melanie's heart decided to latch onto the LEAST seven-like man in the entire world and that's how her feelings for orion started #(though actually it probably started because of one of the few things he actually has in common with seven which is that #he knows both the melanie and avenue sides of her and considers the first one the more important/worthy and most people... don't)

[vinxwatches]

(re)watching Transformers: Prime season 1

this was a series that was on during a time, but i don't think i ever saw the end or even a lot of it, though i do remember the motorcycle robot well and thought she was really cool (may have been lesbianism or gender envy), and Red from OSP mentioned is with some regularity which has kept it in my mind. also it was what i was watching when i got picked up to see my sibling for the first time after they were born and i remember being quite annoyed i had to stop watching the show, which clearly has stuck with me for way too long.

ep1 darkness rising, p1

well, it almost looks good. almost, but the lighting engine is just too weak to pull most things off. the graphic quality just doesn't seem to be able to pull of what they want it to. the terrain is extremely low in quality. i expect that to get a lot better, not just with seasons but even though the first season as they build up more assets.

damn that wasn't long for the first death. might also explain why he didn't look great. how much time do you put into a character that exists for 5 minutes?

it's interesting to see an enemy with a plan we know at least in part will fail as they don't truly have the element of surprise. for protagonists it's common, classic tragedy stuff. but never for antagonists.

wow, real subtle guys. two dark purple spiky cars driving like assholes. no one will ever notice anything up. also pausing really reveals how bad things blend. the entire scene has motion blur Except the characters. even still the action is surprisingly good. i just hope the human cast won't be unbearable.

small dextrous fighter dodging around strikes for larger opponents that she can take down? well if that isn't my favourite. no seriously that's always what i try to play in games. i'm no good at hit but it's my fucking jam.

oh she has way too much detail to be a background character. i don't remember this goth girl at all for some reason though. she does have the best personality so far though (yes i like enthusiastic characters)

p2

good way to make him intimidating: give his every footstep a screen shake.

i thought they were going to go somewhat light on combat. NOPE. the bad guys will cut people in half. the good guys will do a fancy kick move of someone's neck and take their head off.

and sometimes it's Very ps2.

damn, it didn't take long at all for the villain to make a turn for the monstrous. i thought that would be season finally or at least mid finally shit. oh shit i think i remember that tiny robot very well, may well have inspired a lot of things i've come up with over the years.

p3

man they really use a lot of plotpoints in the opening multi parter. my fear is that that'll result in a very status quo no progress middle of the season.

i'm getting the feeling that they either don't have the ability or time to fully render some scenes which is why some turn out way worse then others.

and of course the military can't be shown as truly bad.

p4

seriously that the undead army is already a thing is worrying to me. where do you get to go beyond that? "if your opponents are already dead how can we defeat them?" you stop them from being able to move.

ah, they are trying to give the humans a purpose... good luck.

blades extended straight out of the forearm. seems rather impractical. severely limits the amount of cuts you can make as you can't edge align, and these blades seem really short.

the boy walks away... i'm sure i'm supposed to be sad about it, but i'm really not. he added nothing other then being whiny. he'd obvious return. got to have a "default" guy, lets hope he find a bloody use. because responsible isn't interesting.

ok, pretty good threat for what to avoid in the future.

p5

i repeat again: a LOT of big plot point early. i'm afraid for the rest of the series.

transformers is pretty big on defending the home you didn't choose. there's a really harmful message in that. patriotism is incredibly dangerous, which is part of why america is so dangerous, to others and too itself. it's also big on them choosing to defending the home they didn't choose. there's a much less harmful message in that.

Masters and Students

oh, Starscream has a goa to work towards. will it be one episode or a seasonal thing?

"you are a motorcycle, shouldn't you know how to put one together?" "you are a human, can you build me a small intestine". there are some significant differences (motorcycles are designed and lack most useless parts while humans are not and our internals are a bloody mess design wise). but also fair point and fucking funny.

also neat choice to make soundwave, who acts the most like a robot, a drone in plane form.

oh i think i remember this episode. at least the science project subplot i hated.

Con Job

oh yea, he has the high villain shoulders.

Convoy

i was going to say that there were less and less ps2 moments. then they introduced a new setting and yea it's not looking great.

pretty good ending speech and pretty interesting concept for future plots.

Speed Metal

fucking hell don't say "that's my girl" it's fucking weird and gross.

at least they aren't (currently) pairing up the main human male and female character because i don't trust this show to do that well.

Predatory

oh shit we're diving into some heavy shit here. i'm afraid spider lady will be an obvious bad guy.

damn there's serious PTSD going on here. and how RC seems perfectly equipped to fight her could be extremely deep story telling if you read it that the made herself perfect to fight exactly her again.

Sick Mind

ok, they found the hidden enemy ship. so things are maybe moving forward. also really telling that they'll try a rescue of someone they don't know over hitting the enemy they know they have.

a plague ship. such a cool idea. so sad that it's currently probably a bit bad taste to use for things like ttrpgs. though if it's like a necrotic disease. zombies that turn you into zombies by biting you it's probably fine to use.

oh, inside someone's brain episode? really liked those in the owl house, lets see how they visualize it and what they do with it.

"i have thoroughly researched the theoretical literature" and today in least confidence boosting sentences.

interesting it's bumblebee and nor rc. i wonder why.

damn, smart play by bumbles, smart counterplay by megatron. not smart enough. really cool.

not to inventive with the visuals, but probably the coolest episode so far, maybe with predatory. and damn that cliffhanger.

Out of His Head

powerplays between the two people conspiring together. very interesting dynamic.

ok, megatron is back, things do move... and no one seems to be too bothered about it atm. i'm guessing that's what the next episode starts with.

Shadowzone

oh damn, starstream going to use the dark energon in desperation to be level the playingfield.

oh hey, people being out of phase, i recently saw this startreck episode. damn, and they left most of a zombie in the other phase. that'll be interesting for the future.

Operation: Breakdown

damn, how much transformer gore will we see in this one? just one lose eye and where it was supposed to go, kind of a letdown

Crisscross

fucking hell this episode is going brutal. more brutal then the breakdown episode.

Metal Attraction

damn, first instance of damage being permanent.

so they try to make the mom look bad by being over protective. but we don't get any sense that most recon missions go perfectly smoothly and safely. now i'm sure that's like characters in stories going to the toilet, but it does make it feel like they are very often dangerous making the mom seem more then reasonable. they also try to make RC seem over protective even though she takes them on missions she believes are safe and sends them back when dangers shows. i don't think they'll make the conclusion stick well.

i wonder how permanent they'll make those very neat retributive cuts. she seems like the type who'd keep them until she killed the one that gave them.

oh, his dad left... i though he might have died... that's either a much stronger stance, or his father will be revealed later making it much less interesting because we've seen that dozens of times. and they didn't make them worrying the bad thing they did, but instead not accepting change. surprisingly well handled.

Rock Bottom

not like this (be burried under a metric fuckton of rock and then drilled to death)... why not? a swift, easy end to one of the biggest threats. boring for the series? sure. but they could have made it saving before attacking and it would have made total sense.

Partners

i just realized the autobots make for a pretty standard 5 man band... sort of. some are easy. like bulkhead is the obvious big buy, ratchet is the obvious smart guy. now arcee and optimus are obvious leader and lancer. but you could question who's who. for the leader optimus is rather rarely the focus... but yea no he's the leader. and arcee is a neat lancer being the smallest compared to the largest, nimble and dodging instead of standing his grown and tanking. which would make bumblebee the heart which makes total sense.

if anyone would turn coat starscream would make some sense... but also not as he'd want to tripplecross. however he thinks he'll get more.

T.M.I.

damn this episode felt like one of the writers was struggling trough a family member suffering dementia.

Stronger, Faster

i think i remember this episode. unless the energy problem keeps coming up.

i mean... is what he's saying not true though? he's saying it like an asshole, sure, but what did he say that was wrong?

are you really giving the decepticons two corrupted forms of energon? seems redundant.

One Shall Rise, Part 1.

the only vagally reasonable natural threat to europe is something weird that kills power. sorry, it's just bizarre how safe Europe is compared to the rest of the world. this is not a flex, Europe is life on easy mod.

on the one side that's some cool lore. on the other i'd love it if for once something was called "the blood of X" and it's just myth, nothing more. not the plot twist of "the blood of X was Actually the blood of X and not just a fancy name".

One Shall Rise, Part 3.

damn, that's one hell of a cliffhanger for season 2. sure, the threat is defeated, but now the decepticons have optimus.

#Transformers: Prime season 1 #Transformers: Prime

[shititbe]

Anyway, HSM2 is about internalized homophobia, and no one can tell me otherwise.

High School Musical is one of the most beloved franchises in the world. Teenagers all over the world grew up watching Troy and Gabriella harmonize together. Three movies, and nearly a decade later it’s still beloved by all. The first film easily forgotten in the ashes of the early 2000’s, the third film stuck in a purgatorial limbo of the rather unfortunate late 2000’s. The second film on the other hand sticks out between the ruckus. 

The second High School Musical film takes place at Sharpay and Ryan’s family country club, during the summer between junior and senior year. The Wildcats are working summer jobs on the country club, often forced to the beck and call of Ryan and Sharpay themselves. Sharpay uses all her prestige to help Troy with college instead of starting at the bottom ( or rather, in the kitchen washing dishes) with his friends. In the time she’s helping Troy, she is also pushing her brother away; replacing him with Troy in their musical number for the talent show, and refusing to hang out with him in preference for Troy. Ryan becomes vengeful to his twin and starts hanging around the Wildcats in the kitchen. At first, he was met with some distasteful looks and words (most of which from Chad). With the help of Kelsey, and her neutral party, Ryan fits in smoothly with the other teenagers, eventually giving the WildCats all dance lessons.

 Throughout the movie, the main conflict continues to be the internal conflict of Troy Bolton. He debates over and over again if he should go through with Sharpay’s shenanigans, or if he wants to “listen to my own heart.”  This of course involves Gabriella, as she is Troy’s love interest. She’s not in the second film except for the beginning, then, where she leaves in the middle of the film - in order to create angst for Troy - then when she shows up again in the finally to sing/rejoin Troy. 

The conflict in the second film  is the combining of Troy’s two worlds. His first - his main world in the first movie, that hence became his secondary world - which is represented by Chad. Then his secondary world - which becomes his main world in this movie - which is represented by Ryan. Chad represents Troy’s masculinity, or his more idealized version of himself. Ryan represents Troy’s femininity or his current version of reality. These two worlds collide in the iconic song “I don’t dance”.  

Since this movie - and hence this scene - came out in the early 2000’s, a lot of the innuendoes went over people's heads. Luckily, as the children who watched this movie grew older and more experienced, and the world became more accepting, we’re able to see this song for what it is. 

Before getting into the lore and symbolism of the iconic “I Don’t Dance” sequence, context is needed. For most of human history, homosexuality was seen as a sin in all places except ancient times (see: Greece and Japan). The modern age is the most accepting on all fronts, such as sexual orientation, race, and religion. In the early 2000’s, High School Musical director Kenny Ortega was not publicialy out yet. He wouldn’t be till 2014. 

Originally, while writing this, my first thought was  that Kenny - the director - would be using Troy as a y/n type character to project his insecurities and struggles with masculinity, and what that means in defining his orientation and societal views that would be placed upon him. Then, it came to me later that this is in fact not the case, Troy (and Gabriella - who is in fact a y/n character for the female audience) is more of a character for a man of his time, confused with his own ideals of masculinity and the views of society because, “oh god, I can’t like theater/drama because only queer people and girls like it!” The second point is pushed further with the Troy and Sharpay sub-plot. Sharpay tries to further Troy’s career as a basketball player, though that’s not what he wants anymore, and Troy is no longer sure if that is what he ever wanted to begin with (enter the song “Bet on it” and the hilarious meme “no dad, I’m giving up on your dream”). 

Keeping these things in mind - Kenney’s queerness, and Troy’s struggle to realize you can in fact sing and be a heterosexual, wow, revolutionary - it became clear to me that Kenney’s y/n characters were Ryan and Chad. 

For those who aren’t into the arts, or find them too difficult after a singular attempt thinking they could write a world class novel on the first go, let me be the first to tell you every author has a y/n character. First, for those who don’t know what y/n stands for, it’s a popular fanfiction trope where a writer will write a story about a character dating, being friends, and so on, with the reader. The y/n stands for “your name” so anyone can be the main character in this story at any time. For a writer of mainstream fictional work, such as High School Musical, Game Of Thrones, Lord Of The Rings, Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, even most comics. Now, most writers or directors aren’t going to be as obvious as having a character not named (or named y/n) or even named Jane (looking at you Jane Austin), the y/n character of many mainstream authors/directors/comic artists and so on is usually the character they feel or have given the most attributes similar to themselves. 

It’s the same reason people have favourite characters. You see a fictional character and you either 1. Want to Bob the Builder them, 2. Some sort of weird sex thing, or 3. See more/the most of yourself in this character. Number three - thankfully - is usually the main reason. Some people just create their own favourite characters. An even easier way to think about this, is just projection baby, that’s psych 101.   

Before I went off on a small tangent of fictional works and how human emotion plays into creating them (except anything Disney has made in the past decade, and no you can’t change my mind on that) I mentioned that Chad and Ryan are Kenney’s y/n characters. As a queer person myself, it’s clear for me to see the different struggles each of these characters face and how these reflect the queer experience. 

So, let’s finally get into it. 

Ryan, without it being explicitly said is clearly a character of what people in the early 2000s think a gay man is. He is effeminate, wearing bright coloured outfits with lots of accessories - namely his signature hats - he is also in the theater department doing musicals, and passive/subservient to any of his twin sisters' wills. Yes, now we know gay men aren’t just feminized men, but in the early 2000’s a gay man who can do "masculine" things like change their car oil, like sports, and so on, break the "effeminate" stereotype thus confused many cishet people. Sharpay is painted as more confident - or, for sake of comparability - masculine to her twin in the first movie, and most of the second movie. Making Ryan a bit of her dog who would do anything to get by - painting Ryan as lesser than human, once more, playing into the homophobia of the early 2000's.     

Despite the clear stereotypes playing into his character, Ryan is consistently one of the most confident characters in the movie. The other, being his sister of course. This confidence in himself is what gravitates the other characters towards him, either by being intimidated (Troy, thinking Ryan and Gabriella were a thing), or admiration (Chad, by the end of “I don’t dance”). 

Chad, on the other hand, is a whole different ball game. While he is confident in the first movie, and the first portion of the second movie, he begins to break more and more when Ryan becomes a more integral part of the Wildcat group. To keep in mind, Chad is also the most vocal about his distaste for Troy’s artistic past-time. When the other Wildcats join Ryan and begin learning how to dance for the talent show at the end of the movie, Chad is also the most vocal about his distaste. The baseball game where “I don’t dance” takes place, is the climax of Chad’s arc and his turn towards acceptance to Ryan/Troy’s hobbies. 

Of course, there is more to the “I don’t dance” sequence than just Chad’s realization - the exact one Troy comes to terms with in the second movie as well - of “oh my god I don’t have to be gay to enjoy stereotypical ‘feminine’ things.” That is the main part of the song though, that and all the sexual tension. 

Going back to what I’ve stated previously, Chad and Ryan are Kenney’s projection or y/n characters. Let me do a small recap before we get into the nitty gritty of the famous “I don’t dance” video. 

Thinking back to the first few paragraphs, I stated that Kenney wasn’t publicly out till 2014, about 7 years after the second movie came out. This could be due to the fact that a) it’s the early 2000’s and everyones still very homophobic, or b) self-doubt that comes with the queer experience. The most likely reason is a mixture of both of these. Because of this, Ryan is the more self-assured version, or idealized version of Kenney that he wants to be. Ryan is confident, never being swayed about his lifestyle (could be read as: sexuality) even though Chad - and most of the wildcats in the first movie - put him through relentless “teasing” and humiliation. He’s confident, almost to a fault, he’s sure of himself, and yet still reaches out a hand to Chad and the other wildcats to show them that they’re just being, kinda dick-ish. 

Every queer person wants to be Ryan. Despite his heavily stereotyped characterization, I personally believe he is one of the stronger written characters in the movies, mainly due to Kenney putting the time in to really make Ryan feel like a real person, to give himself some sort of relief of his own anxieties, a chance to see the world through a person who truly has no fear. Unlike Kenney himself. 

This is where Chad comes in. 

Chad is seen as “confident” in the first movie, the second Troy “leaves” basketball though, all that confidence comes crashing down. His best friend has another hobby - one he thinks is “not right” (it’s okay, you can say gay), - they wont be spending all their time together (first, can you say dependent relationship much, yikes).Chad’s defining characteristic up until their fight that instigate act three of the second movie, is being Troy’s best friend. I’m going to take this as if this were truly the case, and not a decently written character arch. Some people base themselves around their friends and their whole identity on being a friend, that they lose sight of themselves, this mainly in high school of course, when your whole world is really nothing but school, and friends. Newly developed independence is there, but that’s scary, so instead of worrying about the future, cling to something that’s reliable. I’ve seen this happen, mainly at the end of high school, when the “real world” is coming a bit too close for comfort. This could generally be the case if a person is lonely, but for timeline sake I’m going to say Chad has got some anxiety about graduating (considering the second movie takes place the summer of junior year). 

His lashing out at Troy’s hobbies and at Troy’s neglectful friendship, make more sense with that background, and are seen more in the second movie where Troy begins spending all his spare time with Sharpay (trying to collect that BAG!). Chad - and others (read: father) - insists that music is not a feasible career option, and Troy should just stick with basketball (like...that is a feasible career option). The tension Chad creates in the studio only grows when the other wildcats decide to take up Ryan’s offer for dance lessons and move from the kitchen, to helping out with the talent show. (Next essay idea: how high school musical two was really about class all along, cause Jesus). 

 Chad is the less obvious option for a y/n character. Though again, the 2000’s were not as cool people like to pretend they are. Chad - for Kenney - represents what he actually feels, this fear of being rejected for how he is and how he chooses to live his life/lifestyle, so he sticks to something reliable. Ryan is new, and exciting, and confident in a way that Kenney/Chad wish they could be, but in order for that to happen they need to understand that maybe people are complex creatures, and can enjoy multiple hobbies (aka: the same lesson Troy is teaching the viewers, but far less boring). But, for Kenney/Chad facing that thought and that realization is scary, and thus, they lash out at anyone (read this paragraph as: Chad mad jealous of Ryan cause Ryan bomb as fuck). 

All this build up, finally comes ahead in the employee baseball match 

                                                       ******

The baseball game is probably the most memorable scene in the whole High School Musical franchise (minus Sharpay’s “Fabulous” solo, but that’s also from the same movie, and it’s kinda rude to give what’s already the best more points); the tension in the scene, and what it implies makes it the best written segment of all three movies, let alone the most entertaining. 

Some things to keep in mind from our background information: Chad is missing his bestie and struggling with what being “masculine” really means for him and others. Ryan of course makes this confusing, because the traditional method is being thrown out the window. In short, Chad has internalized homophobia, and Ryan being open - or as open as Disney would let him - is causing all sorts of problems. 

Despite the song, “I don’t dance” being logged into our collective skulls for all eternity (you’re probably humming it right now, sorry about that), the very brief interaction of Ryan and Chad before the game is lost on the public consciousness. The two are clearly comfortable with each other, though the distaste seems to be on Chad’s side more than Ryans. So, the two start playfully jabbing at each other before deciding to do a bat toss to see who will be in the outfield first. 

Before they begin the bat toss, Ryan says “You don’t think dancing takes some game?” Chad then very clearly checks him out, doing a simple but effective ‘drag-your-eyes-over-them-top-to-bottom-then-smile’ and says “you got game?” (Seen in gif below) 

I don’t know how much you know about sex metaphors and how many of those baseball has in it (seriously though, it’s a lot), but with the bat toss, Ryan’s hand ended up on top, and Chad’s under Ryan’s. Let’s ignore this for now, it’ll be implied again later. Ryan’s team starts out in the outfield because he won the bat toss, and hence, the song officially starts. 

The first lyrics (ignoring the chores of “hey batter batter, hey batter batter, swing”) is 

I'll show you that it's one and the same

Baseball, dancing, same game

It's easy

Step up to the place, start swingin  

This part is sung by Ryan, who is taunting Chad out in the outfield. Before the game, as stated, Chad was taunting Ryan about his lack of “game” (both sexual and not sexual metaphor are implied), and now, Ryan has turned those tables around. Baseball - is seen as more masculine than dancing, not as masculine as football or basketball, but it’s up there. Chad is someone who cares about his masculinity, enough to the point that Ryan playing baseball makes him loose his mind. Makes him question his own personal definition of masculinity, if you will. 

Ryan says, “baseball, dancing, same game,” impyling that, to him, baseball and dancing are one and the same. That is baffling to Chad, cause well, how can something meant for girls even be close to something meant for boys. 

Chad comes back with: 

 I wanna play ball now, and that's all

This is what I do

It ain't no dance that you can show me, yeah

This only proves my previous point. 

I had a conversation with myself about this, and I’ve decided not to include it in this essay, but a second essay may or may not be possible. Basically the premise - the dancing/”musical” moments of High School Musical are conjured up images by those meant to see them (ie: like a visual hallucination, but, not really) but this scene kinda poo-poos that idea. 

Now, the thing I am talking about is Ryan and Chad’s  peacocking at each other during the time they sing these lyrics. The movements they’re making could be mistaken for dancing - as we automatically assume it is because of the title and themes of the movie - or it could be them just getting ready for the baseball game. Ryan swings his leg over the pitcher's mound, tossing the ball up and down into his glove, making wavy hand gestures, etc. Chad brushes off his gloves, swings his legs, hits the bat on each foot, and so on. 

For the peacocking, Chad makes a mock of the ballerina foot stance before strutting over to the home plate. Ryan laughs at this, which earns quite the smirk from Chad himself (see gif below). 

This is when it becomes a conversation.   

You'll never know - R

Oh I know - Ch

If you never try - R

There's just one little thing - Ch

That stops me every time, yeah - Ch

Come on - Ch

When Chad says “Come on” it’s when Ryan throws the baseball at him, starting the game, and giving Chad’s team their first strike of the game (get it, it’s funny). Now, obviously we need to talk about the “there’s just one little thing that stops me every time.” As a queer person, I assure you, two of the things that kept me from living my Best Life were 1) my own ignorance of what asexuality was and 2) the fear that everyone I love would hate me for who I am, and what I have no control over. 

Sorry to get deep like that on main, but, can any other queer person say different? Obviously, your first point may differ, but my point still stands. In the video/scene there is a very short moment (to which I have condensed into a gif for you all, you’re welcome, and I’m sorry about the quality in advance), of the camera moving over to Chad’s team (or his friends in this case since it’s an employee baseball game) as he says this line (gif below). 

I will not be explaining the use of subtly in this essay, but I’m sure you get the metaphor Kenney is trying to use. If not, let me spell it out for you in very simple words. This song has a lot of sexual innuendos (as mentioned pervious with the baseball bat scene and still, more to come), with that in mind, and clearly queer themes at play (as mentioned before, again), this scene only shows Chad isn’t as straight as he leads on. His fear/phobia of Ryan/the arts come from a much deeper place. 

In shorter, and much simpler terms: Chad queer. 

But, let’s get back to the boy's conversation. 

I don't dance - Ch

I know you can - R 

Not a chance, no - Ch 

If I could do this, well, you could do that - R 

Translation: “If I can do this weird, sweaty, dirty, Male thing without blowing a fuse, you can and should be able to dance just fine.” 

But I don't dance - Ch 

Hit it out of the park - Both 

I don't dance - Ch

I say you can - R

There's not a chance, oh - Ch

Slide home, you score, swingin on the dance floor - Both

I don't dance, no - Ch  (This is just the chores, you’ll see it multiple times throughout the essay, I just figured if the song is going to be in your head, go all the way right). 

Two-steppin, now you're up to bat - R

Bases loaded, do your dance - R 

Here we are with the baseball metaphors you’ve all been waiting for ladies and gentlemen. Girls, gays, and non-binary pals. For those who have somehow managed a sheltered existence with access to the internet, lemme help you. Ryan is talking about “loaded bases” both in the context of the game (where it shows each base has one person from Chad’s team on them) and in the term of sex. While you go out there dating - while it’s mostly douche bags and people using it ironically - your nosey friends may ask you how far you got. 

“First, second, or third base?” They may ask. Or something like, “oh wow, did you get to home plate/base?” These are simply the rankings of the stages of a sexual relationship. First - kissing, sometimes just handholding, Second - making out, some light groping, Third - full on groping, no clothes come off, but it gets close. While each person has different boundaries, these are the general accepted definitions for the bases. 

Home base is obviously full blown sexual intercourse. Since Chad has his “bases loaded” it means he’s done all these things before, just never gone completely to sexual intercourse with someone - in the terms of the song and the history we’ve already established, it’s most likely a male character. This is only proven by Chad’s uncomfortable nature towards Ryan (internalized Homophobia, thank you, returning theme) but his easy, and cocky personality towards everyone else. “bUt thAt DoEsnT pRovE” hush, that’s the final cherry on top. Remember this conversation. 

It's easy - R  

Again. Previous points have been made.  

Take your best shot, just hit it - Ch 

I've got what it takes, playin my game - Ch

So you better spin that pitch - Ch 

You're gonna throw me, yeah - Ch 

I'll show you how I swing - Ch

Ah, the famous “I’ll show you how i swing” a very strong baseball metaphor for everyone. Keeps queer people from defining themselves to dangerous (straight) people, and, well, that’s it actually. This term is mostly used by bi/pan people, though if you want to stay in the closet or are in a dangerous place, it is also used to subtly tell other queer people you are in fact, not straight. My favourite is when this term came into play when President Buchanan got elected in 1856 (for those that don’t know, he’s the first and only gay president). 

You'll never know - R

Oh I know - Ch

If you never try - R 

There's just one little thing - Ch

That stops me every time, yeah - Ch 

This is again, the same lyric as before it doesn’t pan, and the tone is much different. The camera stays on Chad as he says this line, meaning he’s reflecting, he is now his own problem, the person that is keeping him back. His friends are not on his mind anymore, which is good, Ryan’s Gay Propaganda has been working. 

Come on - Ch

I don't dance - Ch

I know you can - R

Not a chance, no, no - Ch

If I could do this, well, you could do that - R

But I don't dance - Ch

Hit it out of the park - R

I don't dance - Ch

I say you can - R

There's not a chance, oh no - Ch

Slide home, you score, swingin on the dance floor - Both 

I don't dance, no - Ch

Lean back, tuck it in, take a chance - R

Swing it out, spin around, do the dance - R

I wanna play ball, not dance hall - Ch

I'm makin a triple, not a curtain cal - Chl

I can prove it to you til you know it's true - R

'Cause I can swing it, I can bring it to the diamond too - R

You're talkin a lot, show me what you got - Ch

Again, like the beginning of this song, this is a heavy base for flirting and sexual tension, which this song is drowning in. 

Stop swinging - both

Hey - both

This is the part where they all start a flash mob in the middle of the baseball diamond. Again, alluding to the conversation I had to myself earlier, this only proves my own theory as no one takes notice of this. But, that’s not this essay, this is where I mention how close Chad and Ryan are at the end of the group dance.  

Come on, swing it like this - both

Oh, swing - both

Jitterbug, just like that - both

That's what I mean, that's how you swing - both

You make a good pitch but I don't believe - both 

Here is yet another (and the final) sexual innuendo. This is actually a rather quick one. Pitching in queer culture is considered the person who tops (because queer people even had to straight-ify their sex lives to “top” and “bottom”), this is the person who is giving, if you know what I’m saying. 

I say you can - R

I know I can't - Ch

I don't dance - Ch

You can do it - R

I don't dance, no - Ch 

 Here is where that mosh pit ends, and how they get a little too close to comfort. 

Nothing to it, atta boy, atta boy, yeah - both

The rest of this song is simply a mash-up of the baseball game being finished, and this lovely gem. 

Now, clearly, Chad’s self conscious nature towards his sexuality is gone, he’s sitting close - if not squishing - Ryan, and talking to him like they’ve been friends forever. Take note of the change of close, most likely due to all the tension at the end of the song, and maybe a little of Chad’s own natural human curiosity built in. Now, I leave you with this note: 

If there is anything that confirms all this more, its Chad’s girlfriend wearing the pride colours. 

Also note: this could also be seen as a friend helping his bro discover his sexuality and fighting internalized homophobia, but, that’s ignoring the sexual tension, so go off I guess. 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.  

Watch the full thing here

#high school musical 2 #ryan and chad #do they have a ship name? #troy bolton #high school musical #the original not the remake or whatever the kids have now #ryan evans #chad danforth #Sharpay evans #troy x gabriella #ryan/chad #that baseball scene #yall know what i'm talking about #i don't dance #the gayest scene ever #and gayest song #Anyways: the series #should I write that second essay? #thanks for coming to my ted talk

[mskatesharma]

i love you tags! yeah i can’t believe more people aren’t complaining about the fact these two sisters didn’t have a convo that wasn’t abt Anthony after episode one. it was glaringly obvious. even in episode 1 though the only thing these two girls talked about was suitors. they barely had a conversation that wasn’t about a man or alluded to a man. the show tries to play their conflict as about the sisterly relationship but it is way too anthony centric. i really hated that they had Edwina cry over not being good enough for anthony & watching her try so hard to please him. idk i did not watch this show to see a brown woman try so desperately to win this white man’s approval.

the sisterly relationship was weird bc Kate was really playing more of a maternal role but the show also didn’t want to Mary to be seen as an absent mother. (they had no idea what to do with Mary and that is so obvious in the first episodes). they sacrificed so much of the Sharma relationship to make Kate and Anthony mirrors. and what’s worse is that they didn’t even bother to properly explore the new dynamics of the sharma family or explore Kate’s different personality and trauma. i never got the vibe that either sister really new each other at all and that’s largely bc i don’t think they really knew themselves. sorry this got long!

I think you're referring to the tags on this post, which were (please mind the awful grammer):

#kate & edwina#bridgerton#kate sharma#edwina sharma#the viscount who loved me#of my favourite bits of the book and I honestly get teary everytime#*one of#the fact that we didn’t get an equivalent scene in the show#instead most? all? of their conversations after episode one centred on anthony is something i’ll hate these writers for forever#naaaah the way a white man came between these two sisters will never not infuriate me#jfc i will never be over the way they completely butchered kate & edwina#and the sharmas as a whole#WHERE WAS THE KATE AND EDWINA LOVE STORY YOU KEPT GOING ON ABOUT BECAUSE IM STILL WAITING TO SEE IT#soulmates my arse

They really didn't have a conversation that wasn't somehow related to Anthony after episode one, did they? It's so bleak jfc. When they released the posters for this season, and they had Anthony in the middle of Kate and Edwina, I was pissed off for so many reasons, but one of the main ones being this white man was shoved in the middle of these two South Asian sisters. I remember telling someone that if I hadn't read the book and didn't know about Kate and Anthony, that main poster would have turned me off watching season two, because it's the last thing that I would want to watch. It was so fucking reductive, but I guess it was a good indication that the storyline was going to be as well.

You are absolutely right that they didn't know what to do with Mary, they wasted her character (and Shelley Conn), as she was basically a non-entity for the for the first five/six episodes,?

Tbh, I didn't necessarily mind that they tilted it to make Kate and Anthony mirror each other even further, it's just infuriating because they altered the Sharma family dynamic so drastically when they didn't need to. You could have had Kate take on the mantle of being the de facto head of family, but still have Mary trying to emotionally support both her daughters, like she does in the books? The Sharmas could have still had a bond similar to that of the Sheffields in the book, with both Mary and Edwina knowing what Kate really wants, but Kate struggling to admit it to them, and them not neccesarily knowing why she struggles. Kate seemed so lonely on the show, for no reason, because even Anthony had Violet and Daphne in his corner encouraging him to choose happiness and love, because they could see that marrying Edwina was not what he truly wanted. On the show, Mary and Edwina thought that what Kate craved most was freedom and independence, and returning to India, when that wasn't it at all.

I just…I feel like Kate and Edwina's (and Mary's) relationship on the show had next to none of the warmth that we see in their book relationship? You never really got the sense that they understood the other better than anyone else. Edwina's line in episode eight where she says Kate "does not know herself" pisses me off, because actually, Kate knows who she is and what she wants, she's just been too scared to admit it and really go for it because a) she doesn't think she's deserving of it or done enough to earn it, and b) she doesn't want to open herself up to a similar heartbreak like she suffered when her father died. It takes Mary telling Kate that she deserves to be happy, and that she doesn't owe people things in return for being loved, for Kate to actually admit what she wants.

And like you said, they didn't properly explore Kate's trauma and grief, and just how that affected everything she's done since her father died. Yes Edwina was right to be angry, but we never get a conversation between her and Kate where it's acknowledged exactly what Kate has sacrificed, and what else she was willing to give up if she thought it meant Edwina (and Mary) would be settled and happy. And it sucks.

#ask #the-greendalehumanbeings #bridgerton #kate sharma

[juletheghoul]

Oblivius Chapter 4

Am I insane for posting another chapter? Yes. Am I doing it anyway? Yes. Should you message me about how you feel about Spills & Francis? YES!

(Got a song you want added to the playlist? send it to me!)

I've gotten so much love over this series and I cannot tell you how happy it makes me that you guys love these two idiots as much as I do. <3

(Feo means ugly in Spanish but it can be used as a term of endearment between [male] friends)

Likes & reblogs are appreciated

Frankie Morales x F!Reader

Pairing: Frankie x F!Reader

Word Count: 2.2K

Warnings: Angst, yearning, 18+ language, alcohol (Spills gets wasted)(Please let me know if I forget anything)

Masterlist Series Masterlist Part 3 Part 5 Playlist

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Age: 17

“No Francis I don’t wanna watch this - I’m gonna get scared.” It was late, you were both sitting in his cozy living-room, a big shit-eating grin on his face.

“Why, are you chicken? It’s just The Shining, it's not even scary.” He put it on and despite your protests, he settled and let the movie play, You gave him a pout.

“Okay if you really don’t want to I’ll change it you big baby.” He rolled his eyes to grab the remote but you stopped him.

“Promise you’ll walk me home?” You knew it was one of his favourites. He smiled wide.

“Of course! If it’s too much I'll change it.” He gave you most of the blanket that was draped over his legs and you sat very close to him. He was taller than you remembered him being, having gone through a growth spurt over the summer and he towered over you now. All knees and elbows.

When the room scene came on you burrowed your face into his neck and he wrapped an arm around you, you were so pretty. Your hair smelled so good and he buried his nose into the messy bun you wore. You practically clawed at him, trying to get closer - he made you feel safe.

“Is it still scary?” You spoke into his neck.

“Yes - don’t look yet, just a little longer.”

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

**Present Day**

Pope was holding up a shot-glass full of something and there were shots lined up for the three of you when you walked in.

“Catfish, I never thought it would happen for you feo, but I’m glad it did. Claudia, he’s lucky to have you.” He raised his shot glass and a chorus of ‘To Frankie and Claudia’ rang out before everyone tipped the liquor back.

The burn in the back of your throat couldn’t just be from the tequila, you’d swallowed a lump. You’d forced back the tears stinging your eyes when he dipped her back to kiss her. With her laughing and grabbing his neck they were the picture of romance and the smile you had plastered to your face must have looked manic. Popes eyes caught yours then and his eyebrows raised, a question in his features that you couldn’t quite read but he looked away and left you with your thoughts.

-

You got very drunk. Fall-down drunk. Forget about everything drunk.

“Spills, I think you should stop - you’re going to feel like hell tomorrow.” He was softly taking the shot out of your hand and you tried to fight him but his grip was iron.

“St-op t-telling me wh-what to do Francisco.” You tried to take it back but it seemed like the floor was coming up to say hi. An iron grip around your middle stopped you from losing a couple of teeth.

“Jesus Spills, okay - that’s enough. I’m cutting you off.” He held onto you and you wanted nothing more than to turn around and kiss him but you also wanted to throw up. Decisions decisions.

“I-think-imgonnabesick…” you brought your hand up to your mouth and part of you expected him to let go but he didn’t.

“Take a deep breath, it’s okay, Pope can you get me some water?” He was holding onto you, rubbing soothing circles onto your back and you tried to focus on his hands on you as the whole room spun dangerously. A few minutes later he was holding a cold glass of water to your lips. “Drink the whole thing, I'm going to hold it because if you spill it I'll kill you.” You chugged it down and he put it on the table.

“When did you get so strong, Francis?” Your words were slurred and you felt his chest rumbling with laughter at your question. “You smell so good.” You said it lower- more to yourself, but he heard and the laughing stopped.

“Oh no! Are you okay Spills?” Claudia was there now, her hands pulling your hair away from your face and before you could succumb to the urge to tell her never to call you that Frankie spoke up.

“She’s okay, just need to get her home. You’re okay right, Spills?” His voice was lower, so soothing you could fall asleep to it.

“Hey Frankie, you and Claudia should stay, tell me where she lives and I’ll get her home.” It was Pope, Frankie must have trusted him immensely because before you knew it he was putting you into the front seat of Pope's rental and buckling you in. Claudia was tying your hair back and putting your purse into your lap.

“Be careful please - this is her address, just make sure she gets in and lays face down. There should be a bucket somewhere in her bathroom - water and some aspirin on her night table.” Frankie was talking as you closed your eyes. When you opened them you were parked in front of your place.

“Hey honey, come on let's get you inside. I’m just going to look for your keys, okay?” Pope was taking your purse out of your lap. You nodded vaguely.

He helped you in and guided you to your bed. You could feel him taking off your shoes and throwing the blanket over you.

-----

Someone is driving an ice-pick into my skull.

The light was intense and you swore out loud when you cracked an eye open. You stretched and felt a piece of paper beside you on the bed.

“I locked your door - keys are in your mailbox. Drink the water - take the ibuprofen. Let Catfish know you’re okay when you wake up- he was worried. - Pope”

You groaned.

[Francis]: Spills, are you okay?

[Francis]: Can you answer me please?

[Francis]: Don’t tell me you’re still asleep? What, are you a teenager? Getting drunk and sleeping until 4pm????

[Francis]: Sorry Spills, just worried - can you please let me know you’re okay before I show up?

You could see the three little dots signalling that he was in the middle of typing another message and you quickly called him to stop him.

“Jesus, it’s about fucking time.” He sounded worried and relieved and it pulled on your heart strings in a way you both loved and hated.

“Stop yelling Francisco, I am begging you.” You threw your arm over your eyes to block out the light as you lay there, in yesterday's clothes. You didn’t even want to know what you looked like right now.

“Feeling all that tequila aren’t you? I haven’t seen you that drunk for a long time.” You could hear the faint smile in his voice.

“Yes yes I know - so fucking embarrasing. Did I do.. Or say anything..?” You were trying to ask him without asking him.

“You almost threw up, but if you’re asking me if you started table-dancing you’re good.” He laughed and you sighed with palpable relief. All you needed was for him to tell you that you’d confessed your love or told Claudia to fuck off.

“Thank god. That would have been all I needed. Can you tell Pope I said thanks? Okay, I'm going to go shower for a million years now.” You wanted to hang up, your head was pounding and you needed a few hours of silence and about a gallon of water.

“Okay - see you in a few hours.” You didn’t want to deal with both of them together, not with how you felt right now.

“No Francis I don’t want to entertain, I already embarrassed myself enough yesterday.”

“It’s just me coming and I’ve seen you much worse. I haven’t been home in a long time so, take a shower and do what you have to do and I'll be there at seven.” He hung up and you could have thrown your phone across the room.

Fuck.

---

The knock at the door at exactly seven didn’t surprise you.

What did surprise you was how nervous you were that he would be coming over.

You were literally attached at the hip at one point, he’s seen you at your worst.

“You’re looking much better than you did last night, Spills.” He laughed as he walked past you and into your home.

“Oh god.” You groaned as he laughed, why had you been nervous? You watched him as he set down the bags of what looked to be way too much food on your kitchen counter. Grabbing napkins and forks - completely at ease within your space. “What did you bring?” moved to peak into the bags.

“Chinese - “ He looked to see your eyes wide and the big toothy smile you were giving him and laughed. “Did you think I’d forget you always get Chinese when you’re hungover?” He laughed as he took out what looked to be all your favourites.

“You’re a lifesaver Francis, truly.” You were practically bouncing on the balls of your feet as you served yourself.

“I know, I’m practically a saint.” He walked over to your couch and plopped down, an egg-roll in his mouth as he turned on your TV and looked for something to watch. This was it - this was how it was supposed to be.

This was easy.

He had come over in comfy clothes and seeing him on your couch in sweats and a soft flannel was almost too much. His hair had gotten longer than he had worn it before he went away and it looked so soft; practically begged for your fingers.

“Are you still a baby about horror movies?” He asked without looking at you, you saw that he had put on some cheesy zombie movie. A big smile on his face.

“No, I’m okay, as long as you check every single corner of this place before you leave.”

“God I love horror movies, Claudia hates them so we never end up watching.” He sighed. Her name cut through the air like a knife. An ice cube casually dropped into your shirt.

“That’s too bad.” You quickly shoved food into your mouth, stopping yourself from saying anything you’d regret but he knew you too well. He looked at you then, eyes narrowing a fraction.

“Do you like her?” He asked, point blank and your eyes widened at him.

Fuck, don’t make me answer this right now.

“Yeah, she’s great.” To your credit, you tried. You really tried to sound genuine.

“Why don’t you like her Spills?” He sighed heavily, putting his plate down onto your coffee table to face you properly.

“What are you talking about? I said she was great!” You could feel the flush creeping up your neck and licking at your face at the lie. She was great, that wasn’t a lie - you just didn’t like her.

“Seriously? You’re going to act like I can’t tell you’re lying through your teeth? Just tell me! I’m going to marry this girl. I have to know why you don’t like her.” He had a little frown on his face and you could see that he was worried, but what would he have to be worried about? Worried you’d picked up on something he’d missed maybe?

“I just don’t know her, Francis, that’s all. There’s nothing wrong with her, you know I'm just weird. She seems really nice and I’m sure I’ll like her once I get to know her better.” You smiled at him sadly, you didn’t want to talk about her anymore.

He smiled back at you and picked up his plate, happy with your explanation.

---

It always seemed to happen this way, ever since you’d been teenagers. He’d put on something scary and you would end up with your face buried into his chest.

“Oh god - that is disgusting!” You shut your eyes as he laughed, his chest rumbling underneath you at a particularly gruesome scene. You felt his hand rubbing your arm, and it was such a comfort that you sighed lightly. The words bubbled up without your permission.

“I missed this.” You felt him rest his chin on the crown of your head.

“Me too Spills, I always missed this while I was away, missed you.” He spoke into your hair, you could feel his breath ghosting along your scalp and your heart raced, you wanted nothing more than to turn and kiss him. His hand stilled, and you felt his heart beating under your ear. You wanted to do it, your whole body seemed to tense with want and you turned slightly to look at him through your lashes. He was already staring at you, his mouth was so close.

His phone rang, snapping him out of his trance and you moved away from him reluctantly.

“Hey babe, what’s up?” He smiled apologetically. “Just take a deep breath, it’ll be okay. I’m on my way.” He hung up and gave you a look that said I’m sorry. “Gotta go, wedding emergency.” He sighed heavily as he got up, taking both your plates to the kitchen with him.

You wanted him to stay, you wanted to grab him and sit him back down on the couch and straddle him. Grab the soft material of the flannel while you kissed him but you didn’t. Instead you smiled and thanked him for coming and for the food.

He made his way through the apartment before he left, opening every door.

“Just checking every corner, so you can sleep.” He smiled.

I love you too.

————————————

Tag list: @frannyzooey @foli-vora @danniburgh @sambucky21 @greeneyedblondie44 @lola4pedro @mouthymandalorian @221bshrlocked @artsymaddie @supernaturalgirl @sleep-tight1 @softdindjxrin @wheresarizona @sherala007 @freak-nasty-thick-dick-mando @marydjarin @cannedsoupsucks @thirstworldproblemss @ilikechocolatemilkh @lori-tovar @freeshavocadoooo @hrk-fic-recs @greeneyedblondie44 @maxwell--lord @princessxkenobi @the-feckless-wonder @kirsteng42 @girlimjusttryingtoreadfanfics @thisshipwillsail316 @feministfanboi @dihra-vesa @gaiuswrites @stevie75 @sweet-creature98 @readsalot73 @tobealostwanderer @elegantduckturtle @diogodxlot @alczysz17 @evyiione @absurdthirst @beskarboobs @andruxx @littlemissoblivious @1800-fight-me @goldielocks2004 @maievdenoir @gracie7209 @omlwhatamidoinghere @bellaorisa @hellovanessax

#pedro pascal #frankie x reader #frankie morales #frankie catfish morales #francisco catfish morales #frankie morales x you #frankie morales x reader #triple frontier #francisco morales #francisco morales x reader #oblivius #frankie x female reader #frankie x you #frankie x f!reader