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btsficsforthehumble · 4 years ago

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adj.: 1. Modern, unfamiliar, or different

2. Not based on or conforming to what is generally done or believed

pairing: reader x ot7

genre: college au; angst, fluff, smut, poly, ot7

Summary: You begin your first year at a prestigious university, set out on achieving your academic goals when a series of men step into your life that change the way you view the definition of love.

A/N: Small s/o to Fae from sope-and-shine for giving me great inspiration for this chapter!

Part Three

Warnings: none in this chapter

Word count: 1.8k

You continue down the street, noticing yourself hold a faint smile from your time with Jimin. You have a feeling Intro to Comp will be more fun than you anticipated with him to keep you company. You really appreciated his easy-going nature that allowed playful digs to seem second nature between you two, even if you had just met.

You glance up at the sun, now starting to feel more intense as it approaches midday. Noticing, you slip your sunglasses out of your backpack and look at your phone to double check directions --- you weren’t too confident getting around campus quite yet. As you are looking at your GPS app, you see a text pop up from an unknown number.

*Hi y/nnnnn it’s your favorite seat partner from intro to comp!! Hehe*

You roll your eyes at Jimin’s text, and save his number.

*You are my only seat partner from intro to comp, Jimin. It’s been one day.*

*:( Don’t be a meanie, y/n. You know I’d be your favorite no matter what :DD*

*Who's to say? Maybe next time I’ll sit closer to Yoongi*

*GASP. You wouldn’t dare*

*Are you willing to put money on that?*

As you text Jimin, you follow the directions on your phone and end up at a cute little grocery store, with a built in cafe off to the side. When you notice it, you get some spring in your step. After seeing the coffee that the other students had in class you were yearning for a cup of your own, especially after your hectic morning.

The barista sent you a smile as you read the menu. Deciding on a nice warm cappuccino, you tell her your order and walk over to the side to receive your drink when she finishes.

She rings you out, and as you wait for your drink you begin running though your mental grocery list. Thankfully your apartment had a decent kitchen, which you knew you’d get good use of as you enjoyed cooking when you had a chance. Not to mention, your parents owned a small bakery in your hometown which meant you were well versed in the art of baking, and often found yourself baking during stressful moments in your life as a distraction. Maybe while you were here you’d pick up some basic supplies for baking… sugar, flour, baking soda, vanilla extract….

Your train of thought was quickly cut off by the barista, sliding your drink across the counter with a smile. You give her one back as you thank her, and stroll over to where you think the baking aisle would be. You take your time, checking out the products in each section to make sure you got everything you needed, beyond just your baking supplies.

As you near the paper goods aisle, you barely see a figure swing around the corner and run smack-dab into a paper towel display, which happened to be less than a meter from you. Unfortunately, the collision caused several of the rolls to go flying --- and one flying hard enough to knock the fresh coffee right out of your hand.

The chaos of the moment causes you to stand a little open mouthed while you stare at the now half-empty cardboard coffee cup rolling on it’s side away from you.

Toward the top of your field of vision you see a pair of men’s sneakers, which causes you to scan up towards his face. He is looking at you with the widest doe-eyed shocked expression you have possibly ever seen. His arms are half reached out, as if he wants to help, but can’t as he already caused the damage. One of the arms reaching out at you has a patchwork of black ink, trailing down over his toned muscles to his knuckles. His oversized grey t-shirt and loose jeans seem to swallow him a bit, which only adds to the almost child-like innocence of his wide eyes. Wavy brown hair frames his face, accentuating his masculine jawline.

Once your eyes connect for a few seconds, surely both wide in shock, he makes a squeaking noise and bends down to collect the scattered rolls.

“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going and I took the turn too fast, I’ll go buy you another coffee as soon as I pick these up---” His voice, while speaking rapidly, remained soft and delicate, obviously embarrassed at his mistake. When you bend down to join him in collecting the runaway towels, he cuts himself off to again look at you with a wide-eyed expression.

You smile at him, the surprise from the situation fading as you stretch your upper body as far as you can to grab one that rolled particularly far. “It’s okay, we all can be clumsy sometimes. I promise it’s not that big of a deal, it was just a coffee.” You give him a warm smile in reassurance, wanting to ease his obvious anxiety.

You both stand up, having collected the spilled display and him grabbing your abandoned coffee cup. “Um, what were you drinking? I’ll get you a new one, it’s the least I could do.” His blush deepens with his question, and he nervously glances off to the side as he grabs his elbow of the hand holding the empty cup to make himself smaller.

“It was a cappuccino… but honestly, you really don’t need to, it’s okay.” Sending him another warm smile, you hope to convey your ease at the situation.

“No, I want to. I’ll be right back, okay?” He holds your gaze for a second, seeming to double check that you weren’t going to run away on him.

“Okay.” Once you let out your reply, he sends you a quick smile as he turns around and lightly jogs away from you, back the direction you came from.

You can't help but notice the subtle ripple of his muscles across his shoulder blades as he does so. For being so meek, he sure had quite the muscular build under those baggy clothes. He definitely was “yummy” to use the word Jimin so aptly applied to Yoongi earlier. At the memory, you couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle under your breath.

You scan the area quickly, making sure your run in with the boy didn’t leave a mess anywhere in the store. After seeing it clear, you glance back over your shoulder to watch him talking to the same barista. You could tell, even from this distance, that he seemed slightly embarrassed and had a pink tinge to his cheeks. The duality of this guy honestly is blowing your mind… his tattoos and muscular physique would give the impression that he would be super intimidating and confident, but by the way he blushed at attention so easily and was so timid when he apologized to you showed that he was was really a big sweetheart.

As he was now waiting for the barista to remake your drink, standing in the same spot you occupied a few minutes ago, you felt awkward hovering in the spot of the incident. After a quick glance back at him, you thought he would be able to find you pretty easily if you ventured down the aisle further. An aisle down from the paper goods, you found yourself in the exact aisle you were looking for.

Your mind quickly abandoned any prior thought as you took stock of the baking supplies the store had to offer. It looks like you’d be spending more on groceries today than you had anticipated.

“Um, here’s your coffee…” The boy from earlier had returned before you realized any time had passed. Caught, you looked at him, now looking at you, with a hesitant look on his face, as he saw the almost comical amount of stuff you had balanced in your arms. Now embarrassed a tad, you realize you have no hand to take the coffee from him, and it seems like it had just occurred to him too. He looked back and forth between the coffee in his hand and your ridiculously full arms and quickly offered, “I’ll be right back. I’ll get you a basket.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I’m sorry, I guess I got carried away!” You sheepishly respond to his kind offer. It was above what a normal person would do. He nodded his head quickly and did his half-jog thing again to go back to the front of the store. You weren’t getting tired of the view, to be honest.

Before you even knew it, he was back and gently removing items from the tetris you created in your arms of baking supplies. “Thank you so much, you really don't have to do any of this…” you feel slightly guilty for the boy’s kindness.

“No, it’s really okay, I shouldn’t have thrown paper towels at you.” As he speaks, he catches your eye and gives you a smile you could only compare to a cute bunny or other small adorable creature. You couldn’t help but fall just a little in love with him right there in the aisle. Now comfortable enough to joke with you, you left out a surprised laugh in response. You tip your head back slightly and feel your cheeks squish up without warning.

“I suppose you got me there. Maybe try to lower the aggression levels on your next grocery store run,” you egg him on slightly, a teasing smile remaining on his face.

“What would be the fun in that?” His eyes hold contact just a millisecond longer than normal, and you swear you see a glint of mischief in them. Ah, so bunny-boy knows at least a little how much of a hunk he is.

“Do you flirt with pretty girls at the store by knocking the coffee out of their hands for fun then?” Your eyebrow is raised slightly, and your tone stays as a teasing lilt.

Apparently at his banter limit, he blushes and gapes for a second. “Just teasing you. Thank you again for the coffee,” you reassure. Full basket and fresh coffee in hand, you flash him one last grin before you make your way around him to head towards the register.

As you leave the store, re-entering the street, you can’t help but hope you run into that guy again. He seemed like a genuinely sweet person that you’d love to be friends with. Starting towards the direction of your apartment, you ponder the chances.

You also ponder what baked treat you were going to throw the rest of your afternoon into. After some mental deliberation, you settled on muffins. Easy to take with you for that pesky morning calculus class. Ugh, at the thought of calculus you groaned inside a little. Not only did you have to grapple with the boring math, but you now have to grapple with the decidedly not so boring boys in your class.

#BTS #ot7 #ot7 x reader #poly ot7 #fanfic

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absoluteyoongit · 5 years ago

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Just Dance pt. 1

⇢ pairing: bestfriend!Hoseok x dancer!Reader, more pairings to come

⇢ genre: fluff

⇢ word count: 1.7K

⇢ warnings: just some swearing

⇢ series summary: Jung Hoseok, your best friend since childhood, is one of the best parts of your life. You have always supported him with everything, including his band BTS. Hoseok always kept you a secret from the rest of the group, but now he’s ready to introduce you to everyone. Who knew your presence would improve the members lives, one more than others.

⇢ author’s note: Hey guys! This is the first part of a series I'm concocting. Not much happens in this chapter, it’s just setting the scene, but I hope you all like it. I hopefully will post a new update once a week. So stay tuned!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

You have always been the type of person to let one thing after another pile up and completely ruin your day. Today was just one of those fucking days that wouldn’t let you catch a break.

You looked up just to see heavy dark clouds fill the sky. You frown as the first couple drops hit your forehead, your mood instantly plummeting further down the drain.

“Why does it have to rain right now,” you mumbled aloud as you continued trudging home from work.

The tapping of rain on your head was the last thing you needed right now. The steady tempo lulled you into a stupor and all you could think about was how horrible your day was as you mindlessly walked home.

Your alarm had not woken you up this morning like it usually did, making you rush out of the house without breakfast so you could make it to class. The professor didn’t appreciate your sweaty asthma induced labor walking in 15 minutes late for class. Your sheepish smile hid the actual heat death of the only dignity you had left.

At work, a woman complained three times in a row that her coffee was made incorrectly and you had to remake that very coffee three times in a row. By the third time you remade her drink you could had killed that Karen with the glare that hid behind the sickly sweet smile on your face. That was when your boss told you to go home, no longer able to put up with your attitude.

You huffed remembering how the woman’s nose turned up every time she practically threw her coffee back at you. It wasn’t like you didn’t know what you were doing. You have been working at the same damn coffee shop for three years now and not one person complained about your coffee before.

Now it rained even harder, the cold seeping into your bones. The fuzzy coat you wore today did nothing but capture more rain and your feet squished inside of your sneakers. You were soaked and bitter.

All you wanted right now was to warm up and cheer up. You made it your mission to always have some happiness during the day even if the majority of it sucked. Coming to a stop at an intersection you finally raised your head up seeing the road that would lead you home and the road that would lead you to the dance studio you volunteered part-time at.

You knew that no classes were being held right now and your manager, Joowon, would be just handling desk work. You could have the whole studio to yourself to dance freely.

With new determination you spun on your heels and headed toward the studio. The heaviness of your shoulders immediately lessened. You had a pretty average but busy life, but you would always find time for dancing. It always put you in a good mood.

By the time you reached the dance studio your face was beaming. Pulling the front door open blasted you with the warmth you knew you would find.

Sliding your feet across the mat at the door you removed the matted fuzzy coat you were wearing. With the jacket gone you felt ten pounds lighter but even with the main culprit gone you were still completely drenched.

“Joowon-oppa! Where are you! I am in desperate need of a hug.”

“I am in the office! Where else would I be?”

A sly smile crept onto your face as you tiptoed over to your friend, trying to keep the squeaks of your shoes down to a minimum. You knew that the studio was pretty soundproof and Joowon probably has not noticed the heavy amounts of rain falling from the sky.

Opening the office door with a small creek, you saw the back of Joowon. He was a few yes older than you, not that it would matter, but he wasn’t the type to care for honorifics. He was one of your only friends, the older brother type who I could always count on if I needed help, and you were so grateful for him.

Joowon’s shoulders looked tense and his hair was disheveled, like he had ran a mile through his hair. The air around him suggested that he was also not having the greatest day, which made you sad.

Maybe a nice hug would brighten his day.

“Joowon!” You yelled, throwing your arms around his shoulders.

The combination of your damp skin and clothes, along with your sudden outcry had Joowon jump in his seat.

“Yah! Y/n. Don’t do that,” Joowon huffed, grasping his chest, looking at you with wide eyes.

You shrugged, tucking some wet hair behind your ear, “You knew I was here. Should’ve expected that from me honestly.”

Joowon gave an annoyed look, “You could have scared me and not gotten me wet,” he gestured to his now slightly damp back.

Shrugging again, you went around and plopped down in the chair across from him. “I’m sorry. You looked kinda stressed so I wanted to loosen you up a bit. Did it work?”

You stared at him expectedly wanting an answer to his dejected look.

Joowon sighed looking back down, “I am just working out some money stuff. Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing too bad yet.”

He raised his gaze back to yours as you raised your eyebrows in worry and disbelief.

“I promise if something was really wrong I would let you know,” he let out with a small chuckle.

You nodded in acceptance. This place was like a second home to you and Joowon knew it. He would let you know if he was in jeopardy. Standing up, you headed towards the door.

“Okay. I am gonna head to studio one,” glancing back at your friend, “Please let me know though if I can do anything to help.”

“I will.”

--------

You stared at your reflection in the wall to wall mirror of the studio. You wore one of the backup outfits you had stashed in the office for situations like this. It was just a plain black sports bra with blood red biker shorts. While it was one of the simpler looks you usually wore, it was one of the ones that made you feel the most powerful.

Turning to the phone in your hand you scrolled through songs you were planning on creating choreography for to post on your YouTube channel. That was you. y/n: part-time barista, part-time student, part-time dance instructor, part-time youtuber.

You only made dance videos. It wasn’t much deeper than that, even though some fans comment on how they would love if you vlogged or had sit downs with them. You just wanted a space to share your love of dancing.

Nothing was catching your eye as you scrolled through the music. “What am I feeling? What am I feeling, huh?” you mumbled before your eyes landed on a certain song. A small smile graced your face. Content with your decision, you set it to repeat and played the song.

The sound of gunshot echoing in the room got you riled up as UGH! by BTS started playing over the speakers.

Relaxing, you let your body move to the music, feeling it out. Your process to create choreography was to do what felt right with the music and refining it from there.

You loved BTS. Not just because they were talented and made great music but because your best friend since childhood, Jung Hoseok, was one of the members.

As the song ended for the tenth time, you felt like you made enough progress for the day. You were sure that you would have a fully-fledged out dance by the end of the week.

As you packed up, your mind wandered to Hoseok. You missed him so much. He was your only friend growing up and dancing was something you both shared.

All the days and nights practicing, the breakdowns when either of you thought you were not good enough, all the times Hoseok cried to you when his father would belittle him. Those memories and experiences forged an unbreakable bond that is still strong, even with him traveling the world.

You were always his number one supported and he never forgot that.

When BTS first debuted, he had called you first, basically screaming at you over the phone in excitement. You obviously matched his excitement tenfold, jumping and yelling with him. That was one of your happiest memories.

You have been with Hoseok every step of the way; comforting him when haters said he was ugly and untalented, facetiming each other to create choreography for their songs and even helping him write lyrics.

You were his secret weapon. Literally a secret because he hasn’t told the other boys about you. He wanted you to be his best friend. He didn’t want to share and he knew he would have to if the others knew about you. You were just that special to him. A piece of home.

You didn’t mind keeping your existence a secret, knowing how much it meant to him. You just wanted to have a happy and supported Hoseok, no matter what you had to do. Even if that meant pretending to be his mother when another member would interrupt your call, or hiding from view when Jimin would make an appearance during one of your studio facetimes sessions.

It was all worth it. Even if it meant seeing him in person less when he was home or losing sleep to talk to him when there was a large time difference. You would do anything to not lose him. He was one of the best things in your life.

Hoseok supported and loved you as much as you loved him. He would express it as often and in as many ways as he could. Sometimes he would mobile order your favorite coffee when he was on the other side of the world.

You finished packing and started your trek back home. Thankfully it had stopped raining but that didn’t stop you from splashing in puddles on the way. You smiled at the thought of Hoseok; It had been a week since you last talked to him and to you that was unacceptable.

You’ll have to call him when you get home and ask how he’s doing.

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theannaredfield · 4 years ago

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Resident Evil 8 Overview/Review

Ah yes. The moment everyone has been waiting for. I’ve completed the game and now it’s time to hear my final thoughts. Spoilers under the cut.

To start out with, the opening cinematic was amazing, beautifully animated

I do have some big issues with Mia here, as she does seem to just brush off Ethan’s concerns, and even seemingly gaslight him at times. There’s a lack of communication, and it’s causing them issues. Mia wants to just forget and pretend it didn’t happen, annoyed that Ethan keeps being up the events of 7, while Ethan is scared, worried something might happen again and feel like he can’t just let it go (it’s very likely that both of them have trauma, and the fact that Mia refuses to have them work through it is unhealthy). Plus Ethan makes comments about Mia being scary when she’s angry... it just seems like she might be abusing him, mostly just mentally. Downplaying his concerns and what not.

Aside from that I LOVE Ethan’s character development in this game! He’s so much more alive and seemingly present, I love his comments and stuff, and just not having him be a hallow husk this time!

Some of the cutscenes happened way earlier than I expected them to, and played out differently too. Subverting expectations, good.

There are absolutely 100% multiple assets in the entire game that can and most likely will be reused for RE4 Remake.

This game may not have a bondage kink, but it definitely has a hand torture kink. (Seriously what the fuck. Let Ethan have his hands.)

I really enjoyed fighting the daughters. I thought it was cool and unique (also it was fun to go around and shatter all the windows). I also went to the trouble of knife fighting them for the full experience

Also I can’t believe the daughters are BUG PEOPLE! Oh my god I didn’t expect that, and it just surprises me and like, I’m so happy. They did it. They made the vampires scientific. I’m proud of them.

I’m sorry simps, but Lady Dimitrescu was nothing more than the introductory boss, which is probably why they pushed her so much. After killing her, then you find out the full... situation I guess you could call it.

THEY CRYSTALLIZED MY BABY

I thought house Beneviento was really interesting, however it felt like it was out of some horror game other than resident evil. Like I expected to get attacked by dolls, which was very stressful when it finally did happen, but.... the fetus was... unexpected and disgusting. I mean good, I didn’t see that coming at all but JESUS CHRIST

Speaking of things I didn’t expect in a Resident Evil game, THEY DISMEMBERED AND CRYSTALLIZED MY FUCKING BABY. Like damn I never expected us to go this dark.

I feel like house Beneviento could’ve had a lot more doll action, considering she was the doll maker, but I guess what we got was okay.

It kinda sucks that the Beneviento treasure gets locked off if you don’t go to the tomb right after the boss fight. Like, I don’t think it should’ve locked itself again, especially because not everyone might’ve figured it out. Me and my uncle personally thought we had to go find yellow flowers to put on the grave, we weren’t even thinking about the tombstone. It was basically the only treasure we didn’t get because I didn’t think to look there, nor did I know I was suppose to.

Moreau was just... kinda sad. I felt bad for the dude. He was just trying to do his best and be as good as his other siblings, but he just.. wasn’t. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I felt bad for Lady D and her children too, but Moreau was just a dude trying his best to impress his “mother”

Once again, they subverted my expectations, because Moreau was not a rehash of the RE4 Del Lago fight, very different actually! I’m happy about that.

PS, we see Chris again around here, once again surprising me, but it kinda gives you a “did Chris just... die?” Moment.

I can see why Heisenberg was the second most advertised Lord, because he has the next biggest section, but he’s also the last sibling. He’s also split into 2 parts, the factory and the stronghold. (Kinda sucks because it shows Moreau and Donna got the short end of the stick.)

The stronghold wasn’t that bad, though me and my uncle do wonder if we learned more about the 4 founders and just forgot or what. Like we got the cup from Luiza and that plate, was there more? Maybe.

The factory... Jesus Christ, if the fetus didn’t give me anxiety, this place sure as hell does. Between the fucking FAN MAN and The drill dudes.. Jesus Christ.

Also I can’t stop thinking of Elijah Kamski when dealing with Heisenberg because they have the same voice actor and would probably get along.

This area is... long. Like hella long. (Talking about the factory)

The Heisenberg fight was cool, I loved Ethan just taking hold of whatever that creation was and going ham.

Chris’s part was pretty short, however I feel it was nice, could’ve been longer.

So Miranda and Spencer were a thing and she inspired him and he stole the cave design from the walls..? Weird but okay, I guess I’ll accept it (kinda undermines their genius though.)

So I was right, Moreau and Donna were cognitively delayed, as expected.

Mia is alive, nice to know but

What in the silent hill “you’ve been dead all along” bullshit is this. I’m gonna need to know exactly when Miranda replaced Mia and exactly when Ethan died.

I need a fix it fic to fix the sadness I feel about Ethan dying. He saved his daughter but he doesn’t even get to watch her grow up?! Fuck! My family issues can’t handle this shit. I want Ethan to get to escape with his daughter and watch her grow up.

Fuck this, they didn’t have to kill Ethan. How could they. God damn it (I know he probably would’ve died anyway cause of the mold but FUCK!

LET US SEE HIS FACE, HE’S DEAD NOW YOU ASSHOLES.

Rose is pretty and id love to see her again. But does she age fast because of mold powers

Just... fuck man. I liked the game, I really did but the ending hurt my fucking soul.

Also, so the BSAA are bad guys now? Shit, I sure hope Jill’s okay.

I can’t believe they killed Ethan, he was the only protagonist they had the BALLS to kill. They could’ve just let the dad go home with his baby. Fuck you guys. Fuck you.

#resident evil 8 #re8 spoilers #my thoughts #rant

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2bstudioblog · 4 years ago

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Konami’s wheels are turning... slowly

Lot’s of interesting news heading to our heads this Monday from what I heard from Yong Yea’s video about Konami wanting to outsource their IP’s to 3rd parties.

Obviously, Akira Yamaoka has kinda given away a strong hint that he’s working on a project with Bloober which in this case would be the long awaited SH remake or the direction they had with PT before it got cancelled. Akira Yamaoka also decided that (too late) he wanted to amend the article from his interview and release it later down the line. It’s very unusual that these news happen, but we all know Yamaoka is most famous for his music in Silent Hill.

Which brings me to a funny story about my own involvement of a Silent Hill game. I mentioned this on a podcast that I was part of 2 Konami-owned IP’s that went into another direction and killing off their franchises which have been like dead bodies in a morgue for the last 7 years.

I got the request to write industrial-metal music for a Silent Hill (of course at this time I only knew the IP and their most famous version of the game has been Silent Hill 2.) game. First I was of course very excited to be part of the series, but I jumped to early until I found out it was a Pachinko-machine (A japanese style pinball-game mixed with a touch-screen and a one-armed bandit and a slot-machine in one.), and my heart sank a little. I think I produced 4-5 cues for the machine, but I’m glad that nobody will be able to hear my “mediocre” masterpieces because all you would hear are metal-balls falling into a tray. But the thing about this machine, it had taken cut-scenes from Silent Hill 2, upscaled or even re-mastered/remade the graphics which would have looked great if it was its own game. But it was the same thing they’ve done with all their other IPs when those transfer over to this kind of entertainment. All what was left of it, Jim Sterling turned the game into a Meme and all I can hear is the -”HIT THE LEVER!” and the effects overpowering the music behind it. But I’m glad it didn’t go further then that. Technically here, Silent Hill(s) died with the arrival of the pachinko-slot machine and the series have tried to re-establish itself ever since.

Another game I was a part of was a Castlevania (Dracula in Japan) themed Pachinko-slot machine, with the revolutionary phrase “Erotic Violence” in it’s PR material and video-commercial. I mean, they took the music production part of this machine very seriously because I wasn’t aware of the “EV” part. I just thought it would be a machine praising the history of Castlevania. I was assigned to re-write and re-orchestrate a few songs from Neo-classical Metal music into more Progressive Metal style, and I was super-proud of this one because they had the sheet-music already available for me. All I had to do was re-arrange some parts for a string-quartet (1 cello, 2 violins and 1 viola) and I believe it was engineered and recorded by famed engineer Kenji Nakai who was under and working with famed engineer Mr Bruce Swedien (Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones).

From that moment me and Mr. Nakai stroke a friendship because he has a passion for Progressive Metal and he asked me if I could send more songs his way. From this we both have been incredibly busy on both of our ends, but I hope we can be able to work on something in the future. I have a feeling that might be soon.

So a long story short, Konami spent a lot of money for recording, they approved everything and we were done. But when it turned out to be a pachinko-machine and not a world-wide videogame release, I just had to facepalm myself, asking the question why they keep doing so many poor decisions. Why leaving all those fans out in the cold and really start making Castlevania mean something. This void of “lots of fancy things, but no substance” started right here...

Konami are turning their wheels a little bit too late and too slow until now. After they got rid of Hideo Kojima (Who I believe was thinking of the international-market rather than the domestic one), Konami had only one thing on their minds: Making money quick and domestically. No more wasted time on translations, straight for the gambling crowd. No need to write interesting stories. No need to introduce kids to this adult material. They wanted to earn it back as fast as possible. But we all see their decisions put them on the map as a “black-company”, who mistreat their staff, shaming them out in the office for overstaying their lunch-breaks. Moving staff from one business to another, from a programmer to a Konami-fitness Center-staff, or as a toilet-cleaner at a Konami-owned pachinko-slot gambling hall. The management of the company has been horrendous for the full-time employee. I’m glad I was not part of these later projects and only wrote stuff for them for Pro Evolution Soccer series from 2009-2012. (My work on 2010-2012 was unfortunately un-credited work. :(

Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain In My Ass

When the playable teaser called Metal Gear Solid - Ground Zeroes, came out on the PS3 and later on the PS4, it was an introduction for the new graphics engine designed by Hideo Kojima’s team, simply called The FOX-Engine. Basically this “game” was more of a demo rather than a full-product. But it looked great and with a fantastic score by Akihiro Honda, Ludvig Forssell and Harry Gregson-Williams, it had everything going for it to become something really awesome. It became a standard approach from Hideo Kojima now to produce “Playable Teasers” to show a great concept while offering a 3-4 hour short campaign, showing off the engine’s graphical capabilities.

Still, the story was under progress and I knew early on that Hideo Kojima really didn’t want to do it after he always felt that Metal Gear Solid 4 was final. But here is the curse of the die-hard fans, and I’m sorry to say it. No matter how many Iron Man movies Marvel crams out, at the 3rd movie, I started to feel “This does not feel like Iron Man anymore”. But that’s what the fans wanted and is a standard in the movie industry. Always produce a trilogy. Indiana Jones has always been the 3 movies from 1981-1989. The 4th one doesn’t really need to be called Indiana Jones at all. It was there I felt, just like with Metal Gear Solid V, they were beating a DEAD RACE HORSE.

I can’t deny the talents on display for Metal Gear Solid - Ground Zeroes. It laid down some really cool foundations for the gameplay, but I still believe the better game-series for stealth was beaten by the likes of Splinter Cell and most recently Thief. Stealth in MGS has always felt a little bit childish and I only really enjoyed MGS 1, MGS 2, tried to play MGS 3 (still have it one my Vita!) and will try to finish it. MGS 3 has felt like the TRUE Zeroes experience, with the inception of the story and lore behind the cloning of Big Boss. MGS 4 finally brought it all to a great finale and I felt, there is NOTHING more to tell. MGS 1, 2 and 4 is the Trilogy, MGS 3 serves as the Prequel and I see nothing wrong with that.

Mission - Erase Kojima’s Legacy

The making of MGS V - The Phantom Pain is kinda true to it’s title. Can you feel the nostalgia? Or are we just imagining the sensation of a Metal Gear Solid game past it’s prime? The missing link? The missing limb? And with the worlds biggest cop-out of everything that had to do with story was completely missing.

Each mission is playing out every time the same, with an intro to a TV-show, giving away massive spoilers to who would appear in the mission, you do your thing (not so much of story, just a “go-here, do that approach, sneak back out, head to pick-up) rinse and repeat. I wonder how much of this was Kojima’s fault? I don’t think he was up to it. I’m sure he fought for more story but the big heads didn’t want to listen to what makes a MGS game a MGS game. The new management had now already played the hand to disown the man who put Konami on the map for games since the mid 80s.

The game is no longer marketed like before. The tagline “A Hideo Kojima Game” no longer exists and will never be part of Konami’s mission of erasing the person who gave them their fame and the recognition that a game carrying the name Konami was a brand of quality for any gamer out there. Me myself, personally only played PES because of the stellar animations, but its recently since 2012, I stopped playing the series. FIFA had already cheapened itself, PES likewise. Updating the graphics, but the same old animations have been recycled back to the PES3 days. Maybe there’s been an update in the collision engine, but otherwise everything stayed the same, with the huge amount of data collected from previous years of motion-capture, why do it all over when its all about the brand recognition? Saving money on processes wherever possible. Simple Math. And here it is. MGS V is not a MGS game.

We already knew it was going to be a massive budget behind the game of MGS V. But what can Konami do to save money on MGS V? They already have the Fox Engine running from Ground Zeroes. The assets for “Snake” (I’ll let you know why I put quotation-marks around it) and standard models will extend somewhat. Oh, yes, let’s save money on a character that doesn’t speak (Quiet), over-sexualize the character to start a fan-base of people who just dig character design, animated a sexy “shower” routine for the character for boys to go nuts over. What about voice? Let’s not really try to sync the voices to the mouths. Let’s have the guy from “24″ record his performances onto tape-logs. Kiefer Sutherland would have been a good “Snake”, but I understand now that you are not “SNAKE”. The game explains pretty soon at the end that you are just a Medic and all the tapes you’ve been listening to is the original Big Boss. You never where the character of Snake. Even though this all could have been handled better, Konami wanted to save money wherever possible. We also knew David Hayter was not asked or put forward to return as “The Voice of Snake”. But in this case I start to wonder myself, David Hayter might have dodged the biggest bullet in the most expensive, commercial and very controversial game of all time once Konami decided to kill everything that built up their reputation.

Even during production Kojima managed to start working on PT. The game Konami “silenced” after it was released on the PS-store. Guillermo Del Toro and his friendship with Hideo Kojima’s dream-game was put on ice. All because Kojima was about to get frozen out of the company that was according to Konami “Wasting too much bloody money”. I might get blacklisted for saying this, but once the new management started to mess with the other IPs for just domestic/gambling market, that’s where everything went sideways. Konami wasn’t treating their heritage with respect.

It took them 7 years to realize their mistake! And now, for those who wants to be part of 3rd party developers who would get a crack at a new Castlevania, a new Metal Gear Solid (remake I hope), Konami has realized that the only way they will survive (Yeah, Metal Gear Solid Survive killed them HARD) is to let other’s take over. Maybe my dream of scoring a Metal Gear Solid game would be somewhat more possible now rather than working in the confined space of limitations posed by the higher ups at Konami. Let 3rd party developers breathe life into the IPs because I know there are smarter ways to tell a story and I would gladly like to see the return of David Hayter in the seat, without having to deal with the blank-face approach that he was faced with every time he had to audition for Snake in MGS 2, 3 and 4! David Hayter is a fantastic writer, actor and voice-actor. He has the chops and I think we are all ready for either a re-make or a better follow up to MGS 2 and the time between that one and MGS 4.

#Metal Gear Solid V #the phantom pain #Konami #Hideo Kojima #Akira Yamaoka #Yong Yea #Castlevania #Pachinko #Silent Hill #PT #Ground Zeroes #harry gregson williams #ludvig forssell #3rd Party #Bloober team #remake #Metal Gear Solid Remake

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Suicide Squad: How Idris Elba Brings Bloodsport to Life

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Idris Elba has a certain unmistakeable, charismatic vibe about him. The resulting magnetism extends to the wide range of characters he has brought to life over the years – from playing the second-in-command to a drug kingpin in The Wire to playing a guy who has to deal with the likes like Michael Scott in The Office, to playing a dedicated horseman committed to fighting off gentrifying developers in his neighborhood in the recently released Concrete Cowboy. Whether it’s as a leading man or part of a larger ensemble, Elba’s performances always stand out because of what he brings to each role.

Later this summer, Elba will make his DC Extended Universe debut in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad – a comic book adaption full of talent who could carry their own features if given the opportunity. We recently spoke with him about his role as the lesser-known comic character Bloodsport and what it was like to be part of such a chaotic batch of DC villains and antiheroes.

How were you first approached for the role for Bloodsport, and what made you say yes?

James Gunn reached out to me and said he had this project that he wanted to work on and didn’t tell me what it was. We had a meeting pretty late at night [and] what was appealing to me was that it wasn’t a continuation of the last film, and this is a new character. I just wanted to see where James wanted to go with this new film and this new character. So that was really what drew me in.

Bloodsport isn’t a very famous character. So what did you learn about him and what freedom were you given to bring him to life?

Like you say, he’s not very well known so I sort of traced his history back in the DC world. He’s popped up in some places. He’s more of the vigilante soldier type. He’s not going to have special powers, he’s just a really good assassin, basically. That was pretty consistent throughout his history. There was a little bit of leniency between myself and James collaboratively just working it out … what we want to bring to life. I felt very involved in that process, so essentially I got to bring him to life the way we wanted to.

You’re no stranger to superhero movies. You’re an MCU alum and I consider Hobbs & Shaw a superhero movie because you played Brixton Lore, the fantastic “Black Superman” in it. Did you bring any of those experiences to Bloodsport?

Playing any action character requires a level of real dedication just to the amount of work you have to do. So although I’ve been in the Marvel universe, Heimdall isn’t so much of an action character, despite moments where he’s had action. But Brixton in Hobbs & Shaw was 100% full on. Going from that into The Suicide Squad was a great transition because I basically brought some of the things I learned from the experiences I had on Hobbs & Shaw. It’s not the same character, but the level of effort is the same.

This ensemble cast is one of the wildest we’ve seen in a superhero movie. What was it like to work with everyone?

That was a lot of fun. It’s challenging keeping your character in one lane while you’ve got these really larger-than-life characters around you, especially Peacemaker who is a natural rival [to Bloodsport]. It’s kind of hard to sort of stay in your character with John Cena, who is incredible with improvisations. And then everyone else has this quick-fire banter, but Bloodsport, he doesn’t even like to talk. It’s like, you don’t want to be too friendly with these people. But I think that’s what’s beautiful about his arc. When you see the movie, he goes on a journey.

The dynamic with the actors is incredible. Really good, nice, hard-working people. James was so specific around timing and comedy and how you say lines and stuff. It was great to be a part of that. It’s almost like he’s a comic strip artist and he had these characters to play with and built these amazing frames. I love working with directors that have a complete vision, but allow you a little bit of latitude to bring it to life.

What was it like wearing that intricate Bloodsport costume?

The suit was very tricky to wear. Each component of his costume does something else, so it’s quite a tricky costume to design. I remember speaking to James about the many machinations of designs that he had gone through with this costume. When I came on board, it had to fit to who I am and how Bloodsport moves. It’s intricate but it looks incredible and badass when you see it in the film, but it was a real journey getting there.

What are his weapons like?

Just imagine a weapon that can transform from one thing into another and keep going. He’s got a pretty cool array of weapons.

In the trailer we see Bloodsport in vacation wear, a nice pair of grilling sandals and linen pants. Do you believe that Bloodsport is good on the grill and who would he play Spades or Dominos with and why?

With a name like Bloodsport he’s definitely going to grill. I don’t think he’s the guy that’s seasoning, but I think he’s behind the barbecue with the fire, making sure that meat and blood are cooking. As far as playing games with anyone, he doesn’t do that, he’s solitary, he doesn’t like company, and likes to be alone. He’s very guarded. He just wouldn’t find it interesting to play cards against anyone. He might play chess, maybe, but I don’t think he’s playing Spades at the barbecue.

Earlier this year, there was an announcement about you and your wife, Sabrina, teaming up with your respective production companies to develop an Afro-futuristic animated series. Can you speak to some of the motivation for wanting to put a story like Dantai out into the world?

I can tell you that it’s mainly the brainchild of Sabrina. Her deep passion and history with anime introduced me to it. From my perspective, I just love telling stories, but also this is a medium that’s kind of new and interesting to me, and it feels underserved in many, many ways. Sabrina is a super, super geek when it comes to anime [laughs], so, you know, I’m there. But I’m so engaged from what I’ve learned so far, Crunchyroll is incredible. We want to make something really exciting, hopefully that will maybe even bring more people to the genre.

You don’t know how happy it just made me to hear that your wife is a huge anime fan. I’m a huge anime fan, so finding other Black women who love that art form always makes me happy. So thank you for sharing that.

Yeah. You guys could definitely travel down some wormholes and discuss because she can go deep.

Would you all ever consider developing a superhero story or comic book adaptation?

We haven’t considered it. It would certainly be sort of a natural course of action in terms of how this came about. We would certainly consider that, but right now it’s one step at a time to try and get [Dantai] right and see how we go. But for me, if you know anything about me or my ambitions are out there, so (laughing) I’ll end up doing something in that space for sure.

Retcons and remakes and comics all go hand in hand. Are there any other comic characters you’d love a chance to bring to life, even though you’ve already been in the DC and the Marvel universe?

Well, we all need to see Black Superman but someone else is putting that in the works. But you know, that’s practically my nickname right now. (laughing) I’m being honest. I’m not the best dictionary of comic books [so] I honestly couldn’t speak with authority.

There is a character named Icon from Milestone comics, and although folks don’t like when you refer to him as the Black Superman, he is kind of like that analog. So I mean, there is still a chance for that to happen.

Oh, really?

Yes.

Wow. Okay. Thank you for that tidbit. What did you say was the name of the company it comes from?

He comes from Milestone Comics. They were a Black imprint. Dwayne McDuffie was part of this startup, but they were an imprint of DC Comics. Static Shock, Icon, Rocket and some other really prominent Black superheroes came from them. I’m sorry. I’m a comic nerd.

No, I did not know that. Who has it now?

DC does. Unfortunately, Dwayne McDuffie passed away. But DC is bringing it back. There are some actual comics that are in the works right now. Static Shock is one of them. I know that. I believe Michael B. Jordan is producing the movie. So they’re around. Yeah. So I’m just putting that bug in your ear.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Thank you very much. That’s great. I’m looking it up as we speak.

The Suicide Squad opens on Aug. 6 in theaters and HBO Max.

Check out more on The Suicide Squad in the latest issue of Den of Geek!

The post The Suicide Squad: How Idris Elba Brings Bloodsport to Life appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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ghostmartyr · 5 years ago

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But will 6 chapters be enough to aside from stopping Eren and finding a solution that doesn't involve genocide, also show us what's Historia thinking, that 104th's Ymir is alive and my YumiHisu ending ? Isayama better not disappoint me or else I'll cry

I think I have too many ranty promises about what I’ll do if I’m disappointed, so in the scheme of really not wanting to do things, here’s hoping for a satisfying ending that makes literally only me happy.

Storyboard time.

By which I mean fanfic, but really really lazy fanfic where I put zero effort into any real plot. There is some stuff that could arguably be taken seriously, but no. Effort not found.

130 ends volume 32, which means things are allowed to happen. Not necessarily that they will. We arrive at Odiha, and our heroic motley crew gets to discussing where Eren could possibly go.

(If the manga thinks finding the giant stegosaurus is a problem it gets to be a problem okay.)

Odiha conversation progresses to the point of someone threatening to break Yelena’s arm, and Yelena finally admits that even without Eren sharing this specific part of the plan, he had shown some interest in one of Zeke’s contingencies.

Interspersed with this is shots of the torched Marley coastline, and maybe some of the screaming people, including the refugees everyone partied with. Stego-Eren is off in the distance, and we pan even further out to a freckled figure watching the new horizon from a cell. Insert dialogue here about more nightmares.

131, start of volume 33. Let’s open on Shiganshina, with casual soldiers talking about what went down at the port, and telling off random civilians from getting too close to Eren’s ground zero. NPC Farmer Guy, aka a suspiciously tall blond man, is walking around through most of the shots of the soldiers continuing to talk current events. If you look closely, sometimes the blond guy is accompanied by a short woman.

Odiha side plot is still ongoing, with top tier Mikasa moments because my city now. They get the airship prepped by the end of the chapter, but have solved no problems. Connie has punched Yelena, and Falco is wondering next to Armin what it must be like, to be able to undo being a Shifter.

A few pages cover freckled Ymir reading Marley’s propaganda history books in some prison. Lingering shots on the relevant imagery while the sound effects reach peak rumble.

Back in Shiganshina, the weird blond guy is wandering around still, but is missing his iconic hat. The soldiers decide to finally tell him to get lost. Insert ominous comment about how his work here is done, anyway.

We hit the last few pages with Ymir’s prison being War Hammered, the face of Stego-Eren specifically lowering to glower at her.

At the same time, a different blond guy, now in possession of NPC Farmer Guy’s hat, is being dragged through the streets of Shiganshina by shorty.

Last page is a spread with both scenes, with one dialogue bubble telling the unmoved Ymir and unconscious Zeke that they don’t get to quit just yet.

132. The airship is probably up in the air at some point somewhere around here, but we’re not here to be overly particular. This installment mostly belongs to Zeke and Ymir. Ymir has no idea what Eren’s deal is, except that he’s the guy who announced the quality idea of killing everyone, but he’s made a point of retrieving her and killing none of the people in the prison except by falling rocks. He’s not putting on a good show of knowing how to do any of this. She’s not going to turn down being left alone, but following him along on his journey to wherever with nothing to do is proving very boring. Talking at him is as well. Eren is distinctly not in the mood for talking.

On the other side, Historia’s having the same problem with Zeke. He’s basically trapped himself in the same mode Reiner falls into after his Liberio talk with Eren. It’s not obvious unless you look closely, and with the state of Paradis, no one is looking that closely. Though some people do offer to give the poor young pregnant lady some supplies. Historia politely takes every advantage, and makes sure to hide Zeke’s face whenever someone in uniform walks by.

It’s a traveling chapter, and all the travelers look pretty drained. Toss the dice over the specifics, but near the end of the chapter, Zeke finally starts to come back to something resembling consciousness. Enough to ask why Historia’s even bothering, when everything’s ruined.

“But you’re still standing. Someone with a will like that shouldn’t be giving up.”

Zeke asks if that’s what she plans on telling her condemned child. She gave up the second she agreed with Zeke’s plan, and motives don’t excuse what she has already done to it.

By this point all pretense of putting up with Zeke is gone, and Historia takes out a knife.

Instead of slashing his throat, she drives it into her stomach, and pulls out nothing but fluff through the hole in her shirt.

She announces that Zeke’s plan hasn’t been running this show for a while, now, so he might as well get up and start walking instead of making her carry him the rest of the way.

133. Flashbacks. Not all of them, but enough to cover Historia’s end. Years ago, she thought she saw a dead future. Every year that's gone by without the vision coming true has felt like a gift she can’t accept. Killing Eren would have stopped all of it, and she’s still the one who chose to save him. Because regardless of the future, the person saying he never should have happened was someone she needed to protect. This is what she does. She rescues anyone who thinks they’re beyond hope.

That includes her, it turns out.

Through her perspective, we see her and Eren both starting to spiral, just a little. They can’t see a way out. It finally comes to a head once Eren’s approached by Yelena, and indirect details about Ymir makes Eren feel compelled to have an information sharing/apology session with Historia.

Enter the memory shard. Historia admits that she’s seen Eren’s role in her family’s deaths. She’s known for a while, along with what he’ll do, and, well. Sorry for not saying anything. Eren is visibly fracturing, and being the enemy of humanity is starting to sound pretty good. He wonders out loud if this is fate.

That’s the turning point.

If it is, they’ll change it.

Back in the present, Historia is still with Zeke. Who’s awake, even though he’s looking at her like she’s a monster. Historia makes the point that he’s always searched for a way to end this world. His method’s out, but they’re still here. If she has to drag him along, she will, but him going along with everything would be easier on both of them.

134. This is where everything has to explode, because it would be the end of volume 33. We still don’t have much of Eren’s perspective. Team Airship knows very little except that he’s been overly curious about Ymir, who’s alive for some reason, and also in where the original Eldia began.

Team Airship is avidly chasing after Eren, who is Stego-Eren and easy to track. Shocking. Eren’s perspective begins to have flashbacks.

Ymir still has no idea why she’s here.

Falco has her memories, and the closer the airship gets, the more Ymir is like... wait... do I know this genocidal bastard? Things be trippy.

Airship gets to Eren as Eren finds the spot with the primordial ooze. Directed to it by both Ymirs; one who’s been there before, and one whose only memories include a cult who wished they’d gotten to go there.

World goes back to black and the giant tree, and Mikasa has one last look at Eren before things go really weird.

135.

EREN RUNS UP A HILL AND MAKES A DEAL WITH GOD.

More Eren flashbacks establishing sense.

Historia and Zeke are hanging in the Reiss cavern, as the other point on the planet with the most concentrated Plot Magic. They’re the last two links to OG Ymir, and OG Ymir’s deal with whatever is what’s led them here. She started this story, and with Eren as a vehicle, she’s the one who gets to end it.

Via some complicated ritual, you have Historia and Zeke, who are the OG Ymir’s truest flesh; you have Eren, bearing the OG Titan as well as the Attack and War Hammer; you have freckled Ymir, who is a Titan returned to her humanity; you have the uncaring ooze, who looks at all this and is like, why did you disturb my slumber wtf have you all been doing to this child I made a demigod.

Primordial ooze hears a request, and remakes the world.

136: WOW THAT SURE ALL HAPPENED.

Whatever happens in 135 is addressed, and we all get to spend a few final, treasured moments with the cast. The end.

This is a cop-out.

Because I do not actually know what mechanics are going to be at play.

I’m going with the Madoka option of the world being changed, but with the added bonus of Historia and Zeke acting as a conduit for the memories of the original world, so they don’t fade out. The curse is lifted, and Eldians can no longer be forcibly transformed. Throw in a little, “everyone in the world is now patched into Paths, and Historia and Zeke are absolutely going to use that to convince folks that war ain’t it, chief.”

Eren went into the ooze chamber, and OG Ymir is what walked out. Mikasa puts Eren’s scarf around her.

And obviously, as part of the memory resorting, freckled Ymir gets her memories back from Falco, and has a promise to keep.

Give me an extra two chapters and I could even it out a little better.

Really, I do not know what is going to happen, and that throws a wrench in any and all speculation. There is a singular, “what is it all leading up to?” X marks the spot eureka moment that I do not have where the main plot is concerned. As far as I can tell, Eren’s made such a mess that I don’t think there is any good way to repair it. Mass Madoka powers feel like cheating, considering all everyone’s been through, but without a magical rework of the world, Eren has had a net negative effect on Paradis’ everything, deepening the cycle of hatred, and that’s where the curtain closes.

So I might joke about no effort going into this, but more honestly it’s that I feel like the important parts have to be deliberately vague, because I have yet to come up with something that works well as an ending.

In any case, you can do a lot in six chapters. Especially if you go pure id on it.

#attack on asks #I like to think that if I don't make people question why I have a keyboard #I'm not doing my job #...sorry; I probably could have done a better job of this #probably should have #halfway through the rest of me caught up and ???#...because I thought I was working with 8 chapters not 6 but that's not important

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benisasoftboi · 5 years ago

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Gushing time.

Rune Factory 4 Special arrived a day early, so my entire day has been consumed in nostalgia. The original Rune Factory 4 was the first video game I ever bought on release day - I remember saving up all my money and making my mum drive me to like three different shops trying to find one that had it. I was already a fan of the franchise - before then, Rune Factory 3 had been my favourite video game, across the board. Aside from a playthrough of the first game last year, I haven’t played a Rune Factory game in a long time, certainly not RF4. But just starting up the game and hearing the music again, it was like it was suddenly seven years ago. Running around Selphia and seeing all the characters again - I love JRPGs, have played a lot of them, and I can think of very few that have characters that have stuck with me this long. And the aesthetics - the best thing about the Rune Factory franchise has always been the aesthetics, the music, the scenic and character design, just the general world. It’s a beautifully whimsical balance of urban and fantasy, and it’s the only JRPG world I think I’ve ever come across that I would genuinely want to live in. Rune Factory may no longer be my favourite game franchise - but I don’t think there has ever been another series that has felt so much like home to me.

Here’s a very long selection of personal highlights from the art book (by which I mean photos of the art followed by my rambling opinions):

Yeah, see, here’s the thing - Rune Factory 1 is not a good game. I could write an entire essay on why it’s bad (I actually started and got pretty damn far before realising no one’s interested in my two thousand word review of a game that came out over a decade ago - the short version is ‘Misty Bloom-fucking-Cave’. Anyone who’s played RF1 knows exactly what I mean). Don’t get me wrong, it has good qualities - excellent boss fights, for one, and also, as with the rest of the franchise, it is aesthetically wonderful. But ultimately, it feels less like playing a video game, and more like playing a proof of concept for a game. Which I guess it kind of was - and I can’t hate it because we wouldn’t have the rest of the series without it.

But it literally ends with a dragon spewing plant breath on a tank to make a turnip grow out of the gun. ‘Profound’, my arse.

It’s Raguna! The “master sowrdsman!” (that is not a typo on my part that is a direct quote from the ending of Rune Factory 1 this game’s script had so many issues-). And Mist! My favourite of the ‘canon’ love interests!

Best girl! When I was a kid, my favourite love interest in RF1 was Rosetta. As an adult, it is Tabatha. I don’t know what it is about her that I find so likeable (she’s as lacking in personality as any other RF1 character), but... idk, I just like her a lot.

Camus’s big ambition is to leave town like even once. He will never achieve it

Fun fact about Melody is that she’s extremely depressed, a fact that comes up once in an optional side quest and is never addressed again. It’s incredibly dark for an RF game

Fun fact about Lukas is that he sucks (he’s one of those ‘obsessed with talking about how hot all the girls are’ characters, an archetype that thankfully doesn’t show up again in these games). But also, interestingly enough, thanks to one of RF1′s many, many script errors, if you marry Rosetta (the girl Lukas is the most obsessed with), he’s supposed to express disappointment that he lost her to Raguna - but instead, he implies that he’s disappointed to have lost Raguna to her. The translators typoed their way into giving him a sexuality change. Which is honestly kind of amazing.

LOOK AT THIS SLIME THIS IS SUCH A COOL SLIME LITERALLY EVERY OTHER JPRG SLIME GO HOME DRAGON QUEST GET FUCKED (jk I like Dragon Quest a lot and its slimes are cool too). Wish you could see in-game that this is what they’re meant to be like.

I just generally love the monster designs, they’re really charming

Rune Factory 2! The RF game with the most weirdly mundane protagonist name (Kyle. In the main four games of this franchise we’ve got Raguna, Micah, Lest, Frey... and Kyle). The two generations thing was actually very cool, but when they say ‘each chapter captures a different lifestyle’, what they really mean is ‘the first half is a weak Harvest Moon I’m sorry, STORY OF SEASONS game, and the second half is a pretty good Rune Factory game’

lookit this little fuck

Yue Yue Yue! I love Yue so much, she’s great. She’s kind of like a much chiller version of Anna from Fire Emblem.

It’s really cool that we got to see grown up Cecilia (she was in RF1). I have this silly headcanon that if Kyle doesn’t marry Mana, Nicholas (her friend in 1) comes to visit Cecilia one day in the hazy-post game future, and meets Mana, and they get together. While Yue is my favourite, I do genuinely like Mana a lot, and I just want her to find love, I guess.

Here’s original Barrett! There’s a reason he was popular enough to make a reappearance (well, aside from the whole grumpy pretty boy thing he’s got going on) - he was a great character in this game. His and Dorothy’s relationship is also definitely the most compelling of the rival romances. Bonus Max, who also has a little shout-out in RF4 (check the diary in what will become Dylas’s bedroom at the start of the game)

Ray is male, but apparently he was originally going to be a female character, as he has an unused portrait in a wedding dress. My friend and I agree that this makes him a Trans Icon

Monster designs remain excellent. Especially the goblins

Skipping over Frontier (and also Oceans later), as I never got to play it growing up due to not having a console, and still haven’t got around to it - might try this summer. Except I do need to point out that these guys should be memes. I don’t know in what way. But they should.

Rune Factory 3! My first RF game. The transformation thing was very cool, even if it was basically useless outside the main story. My friend and I spent hours mucking about in the WiFi dungeon. I loved the desert settlement and all of the dungeon designs in general, and man, RF3 is just great. I hope it gets a remake one day.

Raven Raven Raven! I LOVE Raven (as do most). Her story with Micah is the first time I can remember getting genuinely invested in a video game romance. I’m so glad she cameos in RF4. I love her. She’s wonderful.

I have an odd fondness for Marian. When I was about twelve, I decided to do a playthrough where I deliberately romanced the least popular bachelorette. After poking around on forums, I determined that character to be Marian, and did a run with her. And... I actually came to really like her. I find her endearing. I get that people find her annoying and don’t like her... unethical medical practices, but doing that run has still made me a pretty protective of her. It’s been a long time since I played RF3, so maybe I’d change my mind if I replayed now, but currently, as far as I’m concerned, Marian’s a good’un.

I think I also used to low key ship her with Collette lol

Pia’s official art has always been super weird to me because it’s so not what her character is like in-game. She’s a ditzy airhead. This makes her look so serious

RAINBOW! Another character whose art makes them look way more serious than they actually are. Daria is great and would be a meme if this game was more popular. I think she’s also implied to be a relative of Margaret.

I’ve always been super confused about what Kuruna’s skirt is meant to be. Is it fur? Is it part of her shirt? Is it even a skirt at all?

Check it out, it’s the guy everyone would ship Micah with if this game was more popular

I want Zaid to make a reappearance and interact with Doug. Pretty sure it’s canon that they’re from the same clan? Think it would be very interesting.

RF3 definitely had the coolest farm. Also, still love the desert settlement.

This is from Oceans, so I have no context, but it’s just so cool that I had to share

Rune Factory 4. Culmination of the series is right - when I was playing it for the first time, I remember being blown away by just how much it is a true love letter to the franchise. I have never come across another game series that so consistently grew and improved from entry to entry. RF4 was a perfect ending.

Not that I’m complaining about getting RF5. Quite the opposite.

But if it had been the end (as we all thought it was until about a year ago), well, like I say. Perfect.

Well. Aside from soda can nipples. Can’t believe they didn’t fix those. Though in some ways, that would have made me sad too

Dolce has such a cool design, in both human and monster form. I’ve always kind of crack-shipped her with Margaret, for no real reason at all

Vishnal! I love Vishnal. Vishnal is pure as heck. Marrying him this time around.

Doug! My choice from last time around. Another character who looks more serious in his official art than he is in-game (well... most of the time)

And then there’s Dylas, who looks much happier here than he does most of the time. Kind of looks like he and Doug swapped bodies, actually. There’s a fanfic prompt for you.

Their ship name is Dyldo. I love them

Leon is nostalgic for me mostly because my friend and I used to get into a lot of arguments about whether or not he’s the hottest character in the game. She maintains that he is, because muscles. I maintain that muscles aren’t actually that attractive. It is a rift that divides us to this day

(He looks oddly... younger in this art though? Weird)

Sechs Empire is such an unfortunate name. Seriously. How rushed was RF1′s localisation team? All those script errors, and then this (the Sechs were the antagonists in the first game, and were only referenced in passing in the rest until RF4 - so it was a bit of a ‘sins of the father’ situation by then).

Seriously, try saying ‘Sechs Emperor’ out loud and tell me you can take this man seriously

I??? Love??? Them???

I??? LOVE??? THEM???

Still confused as to why Kiel, Xiao Pai, Arthur and Margaret are on the cover now. Don’t get me wrong, I like them, but... Amber, Dylas, Dolce and Leon made way more sense? Even the Archival Cover makes more sense (Vishnal, Clorica, Forte), as those three are all kind of Lest/Frey’s servants (well, Forte for the whole town, but still). Of those first four, all but Arthur basically lift right out of the game with little-to-no impact on the story

NO HAT TABATHA NO HAT TABATHA

I’ve always really loved this Raven picture

And I am thankful for you <3

#rune factory #rune factory 4 #rune factory 4 special #rf4 #rf4s #rf4srelease #i love these games <3

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nappingtopknot · 6 years ago

Text

The Awkward Call

Warnings: Smut, obviously.

Word Count: 3,970

Summary: Will accidently dials you while he’s wanking to you.

Under the cut for length.

"I love you Will I always have" you say holding on to Wills hand.

"Y/n the truth is I've always felt the same way I just didn't know how to tell you"

"Oh Will!" You say before you jump into his lap planting a kiss on his lips.

You pull back from the kiss to lift your shirt off revealing your hot pink lacey bra.

"Take me Will, take me right here" You practically scream at him.

Will eagerly starts unbuttoning his Jean's. You're now in just your underwear underneath him.

He inserts himself and starts thrusting.

"Oh y/n", Will moans

"Oh y/n!"

"Oh y/n"

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Will stirs from his sleep, rolling over to groggily shut his alarm off.

He groans mad that his alarm woke up during such a wonderful dream.

He leans over to grab his glasses from his nightstand and rolls outta bed and into the bathroom to start getting ready for the morning.

Down the hall, three apartments over you've been awake for about an hour already.

Your already done getting ready for the day. You slip on your shoes while you grab your purse and head out the door. You lock your apartment and skip merrily down the hallway.

You stop at Wills apartment offer a quick knock before walking in announcing your arrival.

"Will come on were gonna be late!" You shout standing inside the entryway.

"I'm almost done darling calm down" He shouts back from across the apartment.

"You know how busy it gets during breakfast I don't wanna wait two hours for a table"

"It'll be ﬁne, I'm ready to go see?" Will says walking out of his bedroom.

This was a monthly tradition; you would always make time once a month to go to your favorite pancake house and then walk around a museum or downtown.

Will was one of the few people you knew after moving into the city and you were so thankful for him. It was safe to say he was one of your closest friends.

Will on the other hand, had fallen for you.

He always admired you from far whenever you would pass by him in the hallway or mailroom. You always smiled and said hi to him but he was too nervous to ever say anything besides hello.

Will tried to build up the courage to invite you over for some drinks or ask you to the movies but he always talked himself out of it.

Late one night after binge watching a show on Netﬂix you started to get hungry. You ordered your usual from the Chinese place down the street and it was delivered in no time.

After you brought it in and started to open it all up you realized it wasn't the food you had ordered, the delivery driver gave you someone else's meal.

You immediately called up the restaurant and they explained their driver must have got confused and mixed up the apartment numbers.

He offered to remake your order and send another driver out to deliver it but you didn't want to waste perfectly good food so you simply asked for the other persons unit number to go exchange meals.

"307" you say to yourself stopping in front of the door. Questioning if this was weird to do? It's, not right?

You knock on the door a few times before you hear some shuﬄing and footsteps. The door slowly creaks open and you're met with the tall boy you see every so often in the hallway.

"Hi um... sorry this is really weird but I think Lucky Panda mixed up our orders" you say motioning to the bag of food your holding.

The tall boy smiles at you, "You must be y/n"

"Yeah how uh... how did y-"

"The bag, love"

You look down at his bag your holding and see his name in big letters on the receipt.

"Annnd I'm a dumbass"

The tall boy whose name is Will laughs.

He shifts around anxiously before blurting out "I was actually just about to pop on a movie if you wanted to join me?"

"Yeah sure"

You two spent the night watching movies and getting to know each other. Had it not been for that you and Will might not have become friends.

"No, no I'm not even joking! He actually sent her a list of improvements for her to go on a second date with him" you tell Will during breakfast.

"You're joking!" Will responded in disbelief

"No, I'm serious that actually happened. And people ask me why I'm single, dating is pointless"

Will tries to ﬁght a frown.

"Don't even he's is a wanker, there's plenty of great guy's out there"

"Eh most guys are assholes"

"No love, I think you just haven't given the right ones a chance."

"Maybe" you shrug before changing the subject to something else.

Will loves spending time with you even if it's as friends. He thoroughly enjoys your company and as much as he wished you were more than that he just wasn't ready risk anything.

After breakfast you and Will take a walk through the downtown area and walk in and out of the cute little boutiques and book stores.

You're holding some jeans and a blouse, not really ﬁnding anything else that strikes you.

"Lemme try these on"

"Course" Will smiles and follows you back to the changing rooms waiting outside.

You absolutely hate how the jeans look on you but the shirt is kinda cute.

"Hey Will?" You pop your head out the curtain door.

"Yes love?"

"Come here I don't know if I like this or not, I need your opinion"

Will steps closer and you hold the curtain open so he can see without exposing you to the whole store.

He clears his throat noticing your bottomless. Trying his hardest to keep his composure.

You notice nothing because you're too busy looking at the shirt in the mirror, you don't even see his eyes steady on your bum. Will isn't even listening to you talk he's too busy memorizing how you look in those delicate lace panties.

You notice he's not responded to your question, you probably droned on too long about the shirt he stopped paying attention. Guys.

"Sorry, no, I- you're right it is dressy but I think it looks perfect on you" He mentally scolds himself for getting that distracted.

"You're not just saying that?"

"I would never lie to you darling" he says smiling softly.

"Alright ﬁne you talked me into it I'll buy it"

Will had really become your best friend. You value his opinion when it comes to everything. He'll never lie to you and that's what you loved most about him.

After your done shopping you head back home and he walks you inside your apartment carrying your bags for you. Setting them down on the table.

"Hey you wanna come over and watch a movie later?" Will asks

"Raincheck? My coworker set me up on a blind date tonight"

"Oh....yeah?" He can't help but feel a pang of jealousy and betrayal. Even though he's the one too scared to ask you on a date.

"Yeah I'm not looking forward to it but whatever he sounds nice so we'll see"

"I'll take you up on that raincheck" Will smiles trying to fake happy for you, "if you need help getting ready let me know"

"I'll let you know thanks Will"

You didn't actually think you would need his help but you've gone through your whole closet and aren't sure what to wear. You tried asking the girls from back home but no one is responding and

the clock is ticking down.

You text Will telling him you need help getting ready and he said he'll be right over.

Will would be lying if he said he wasn't pacing back and forth in his apartment eager for you to text him for help.

As jealous as he was that you were going on a date with someone who wasn't him, he was at least glad to be the last face you saw before the date. And maybe he can help you not look as hot? Not to sabotage your date, well yes to sabotage it.

You hear a knock on your door from your bedroom. "Thank god" you exclaim.

You run over and open the door for Will.

"I need help" you say exclaim, turning around to rush back to the bedroom

"Well your hair looks nice at least" Will says following you into your room.

He looks at the clothes all thrown around on the bed and laughs, "having trouble?"

"I have no idea what to wear, I thought I did but I didn't"

Will plops himself on your bed. This is the ﬁrst time he's actually been in your room. He's taking everything in, your bedroom says a lot about you.

"Show me what you were thinking of wearing originally"

You nod and disappear into the closer to change. Not long after do you come out in a tight black bodycon dress with a low v neckline.

Will raises his eyebrows. Trying to keep his jaw from falling to the ﬂoor.

"Is this too much? I feel like this is too much?"

Will pauses before speaking, "You look gorgeous, love."

"Really? Like if we were on a ﬁrst date would you think this is too much?"

His heart ﬂutters at the thought of taking you on a date.

"What's your second option?" He asks.

You go back in the closet and come out in A-line dress with 3/4 length sleeves. You give him a little twirl.

"Yeah I think I like this one better" Will says to you.

"Decision made! I'll wear this one"

"Was all you needed?"

"Basically, I've just gotta ﬁnish my makeup and then I'm done. I've got like an hour"

"I'll leave you to it then darling. Let me know how it goes."

And with that he was gone. The idea of you out with someone else made his chest hurt. But he can't be mad at you when he's the one who keeps hiding his feelings from you.

Will throws off his jeans and gets comfortable on the bed putting movie on Netﬂix to drown out the idea of you off with someone else.

The movie ﬁnishes and he scrolls through social media only to be met with a picture of you on his feed.

A selﬁe of you all ready for your date.

Your beautiful face, just enough cleavage in the dress to tease.

How badly he wishes he was the one you were out with.

He stares at your photo. Why did he have to be so attracted to you?

What he would give to run his hands over your body in that tight black dress from earlier. To pull the strap of your dress down and kiss your soft shoulder.

Moving up your neck, your jawline. Before ﬁnally planting a kiss on your lips.

Fuck.

Wills chest feels heavy with lust. He adjusts his position in bed before moving his hand down low into his boxers to stroke himself. To the thought of you.

He remembers the dream he had this morning that felt so real. Feeling you sit on his lap. Moving so that you're now straddling him.

Will can picture you sitting on his lap in those lacey panties from earlier, he sees himself slowly sliding them down and off of you.

Will pulls his boxers down to release himself, springing up. He leans over to grab the lube he keeps in the nightstand.

Pulling the photo of you back up to get another good look before diving back into fantasy land from the very beginning.

He pictures you there with him, teasing him in that dress until you let it slowly slide down onto the ﬂoor.

He's starting to softly pump himself.

Making your way over to him straddling him. He can feel how wet you are for him through your panties. He slides his hand in and takes his thumb to rub circles around your sweet spot.

"Fuck" He says with moan while he continues to pumps himself.

You move down off of him onto your knees to take him in your mouth.

Wills hand now has a ﬁrmer grip as he's fucking himself thinking of you.

"Just like that darling"

You take him fully in your mouth bobbing your head and stroking your breast while he feels himself hitting the back of your throat.

His pace quickens as he lets out a string of moans and cussing.

"Oh God y/n"

Will?

"Fuck y/n you feel so good"

Will?

"That's it y/n just like that"

He's so deep into imagining you he can actually hear you saying his name as if you're really here.

"Will what is going on?"

Your muﬄed voice pulls him from his trance. He wasn't imagining that.

Will is in panic mode when he looks down and sees his phone, he must have accidentally dialed you.

He quickly pressed end call to hang up on you. "Fuck", He says before letting out a deep sigh.

Will doesn't even have time to think of an excuse before his phone starts ringing. Of course, it's you.

He knows he can't answer it. Part of him is hoping you didn't hear anything, that all you heard was muﬄed from being under the blanket.

The phone stops ringing and Will feels like he can relax, maybe try and blame it on an accidental dial.

That is until his phone starts ringing again.

Will watches the phone as your contact picture lights up his screen. He's scared to answer it because he doesn't know what you heard.

The phone ﬁnally dims as the call goes to voicemail. He takes his shirt off and wipes his hands clean on it before throwing it into the hamper.

He goes to open a new message to text you still hoping that maybe the restaurant was too loud for you to hear anything.

He begins typing, "hey love sorry I think i-"

bangbangbang.

She's not?

bangbangbang.

"Will open up I know your home"

Shit.

"Will I have a key I will let myself in"

Giving you a key was a good idea at the time.

He throws on his sweatpants while shouting, "Coming!" Great choice of words Will. Good work.

Will saunters over to the door ready to put on a brace face. As he gets to the door, he feels an immense amount anxiety, he can't look you in the eyes.

He holds the door open and steps aside for you to walk in.

Only when your back is turned does he notice that your wearing yoga pants and a baggy sweatshirt. You walk over to the couch in silence, grabbing onto a throw pillow for comfort.

Will takes a seat next to you on the couch. You both sit in silence until Will ﬁnally speaks, "how was your date?"

You look over at the boy and his eyes are trained on the ﬂoor, "The bastard stood me up"

He lifts his head up at your response to look at you, "He was probably wanker anyways"

"Yeah well better to ﬁnd that out now rather than later" you ﬂatly replied.

Before giving him another chance to change the subject you ask, "Will earlier when you called was I crazy or did that really happen?"

He just shrugs at you.

"You said you'd never lie to me but that is probably the biggest lie you've ever told me isn't it?"

You watch him take a deep breath and close his eyes.

"It's complicated"

"No, it's not you're just being diﬃcult Will, you're going to sit here and lie to my face when all I want is the truth I want to know why"

Will opens his mouth to speak but you cut him off, "I don't want to hear an excuse either. I trusted you Will, you're my best friend I have no one here but you. Is this just a game to you? Am I just your easy entertainment to get off from? Is that what I've been this whole time?"

Will feels the heat rising to his face, a mix of embarrassment, shame and frustration. It's his fault he's here right now if he had been honest about his feelings he would not be sitting here.

He can see the hurt in eyes. Those beautiful eyes.

It takes him a moment to realize you ﬁnished berating him and are waiting for him to answer except Will isn't sure how to even begin to explain himself out from this.

"God Will, you don't even care do you!" You try to hold back from shouting at the boy sitting next to you.

"You know what forget it" you say standing to your feet to leave.

"No!", Will says grabbing on to your hand, pulling you back to sit down again.

You sit back down but Will doesn't release your hand from his. He's holding onto it tightly.

"Will talk to me, Jesus Christ just say anything"

"I-I'm trying, believe me I'm trying, I can't I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I can't"

"You can't or you won't"

Will drops his head down letting out a deep sigh.

"Both?", he responds before releasing a soft chuckle. You really have him feeling so tongue tied.

"Is this really just a joke to you Will, or am I just a joke to you because I'm really starting to feel like-" your sentence is cut off by Wills lips crashing into yours.

He releases his hand from yours bringing it up to your face to pull you deeper into the kiss. Will almost regrets his decision as your lips are still against his.

You feel him hesitate before starting to pull away from you, but you grab onto his shirt to pull him back into a kiss. Kissing him back this time.

You climb onto his lap to straddle him, your arms hooked around his neck holding him close while your mouths dance with each other. Wills hands are all over your body, grabbing at your hips, your thighs, wrapped around your waist.

He pulls away from your lips, pushing a stray strand of hair away and behind your ear. His eyes are starry, full of love.

"I have been madly in love with you since the night we met. And I've been too afraid of saying something because I was worried if I did, and you didn't feel the same then our friendship would be over and I'd lose you."

"Will..." you whisper softly placing a kiss on his temple.

"I'm a wanker, words are hard for me. And I'm sorry for making you upset"

You stop him from trying to break eye contact, pulling him up from his chin.

"I love you too, okay?"

Will nods his head and pulls you back into a deep kiss. Your hands are knotted in his soft hair, completely immersed in lust for the boy.

Both of your soft moans and heavy breathing echo throughout his apartment as your make out session intensiﬁes. Your grinding into Wills lap.

You pull away from his hungry lips to remove your shirt tossing it somewhere behind you before

latching onto his lips again.

"You're... so fucking.... beautiful" Will says in between kisses.

He unclasps your bra kneading your breasts with his hands. His lips move up to your neck, nibbling softly on the skin in between his open-mouthed kisses.

You feel him growing hard beneath you. Feeling size against you is making you throb wanting more than just grinding.

You shift positions gently removing Wills hands from your breasts. His eyebrows knot in confusion trying to understand what you're doing.

You scoot off him backwards until your knees touch the ﬂoor, your hands move to massage his thighs, exciting him.

Wills face is frozen with anticipation waiting for your next move. His cheeks are bright red, eyes full of lust looking down at you hovering over his lap.

You move your hands up to pull at his waistband and he takes the initiative lifting himself up to help push them down.

He pulls himself out from his boxers, pumping himself for you. Biting his lip eager to feel your touch.

Your hand replaces his, softly at ﬁrst pumping his length. He's bigger than you expected.

Taking just the tip in your mouth at ﬁrst. Teasing with your tongue swirling around him.

Wills head falls backwards on the couch, mouth agape from the pleasure and you haven't even done that much.

Watching Wills face with his slacked jaw has got to be one of the hottest things you've ever seen. All you want to do it feel him inside you already, but you're not done yet.

Moving forward you readjust to take as much of him in your mouth as possible, hollowing your cheeks and working the rest of your length with your hands.

This elicits a string of moans and curses from Will, "fuckin hell, love, that feels so good"

He knots his hands in your hair helping guide your pace. This is real, this isn't him alone in his room fantasizing.

Will's breathing gets heavier the more your mouth works its magic on him. He feels himself getting close but he’s not ready to finish yet.

"Come up here darling I want to feel you"

You hastily try to pull off your leggings almost falling over causing a laugh from Will. He holds his hand out to help you steady yourself.

Holding on to his hand you slowly cross one knee over his left thigh, and then the other over his right. Hovering just above his length. Will uses his free hand to guide himself in as you lower onto him.

Feeling him enter you, ﬁlling you up completely, a sharp moan slips out from you both.

Wills arms wrap around you holding you close to him. Your lips are on his neck, sucking and kissing tenderly at his soft skin.

Grinding into him as you ride him, feeling him slide in and out of you as you pick up the pace. Soft moans and more heavy breathing ﬁlling the empty silence from you both.

Will moves his hands down to your thighs gripping them tightly.

"Hang on" he whispers before pulling you up and gently placing you on your back on the couch. He's on top and in control now.

Thrusting into you with a quickened pace, kissing at your neck and chest before moving down and leaving open mouthed kisses on your breasts.

The sensation pushing you closer and closer to your edge.

"Please Will" you cry out.

His hand cups the back of your neck as he holds onto you against him tightly, each thrust making your walls close in on him.

You hear his soft groans and warm breath in your ear, it triggers your ﬁnal wave of pleasure as your thighs wrap tightly around his waist wanting to feel him as deeply as possible while riding out your high.

He feels your walls gripping him tighter as you reach your peak. Wills thrusts hitting deeper, sharper and rougher as he begins to near his end.

Curses mixed with moaning continue from you both as you hit your peaks together.

Will gently lays on top of you, resting his head in the crook of your neck before trailing soft kisses down your jawline.

"Hey Will" you say tracing circles on his shoulder blade, staring at the ceiling.

Will pushes himself up to look you in the eyes.

"Earlier when you said I just wasn't giving the right guys a chance. You meant you, didn't you?"

He smiles softly, "Yes darling I meant me".

#hot dang this was long #will poulter #will poulter imagine #will poulter x you #will poulter x reader

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emmy024 · 5 years ago

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Alright! He's finally here and mine :madlaugh: I can't believe how hard this was and how anxious I was about a fucking 3D model! That's what happens when you love to an extreme a secondary character from a videogame franchise. I can't thank her enough but KelluArts save my ass here and seriously, she's the absolute best!! And you're probably wondering "why was she anxious for? It's just a videogame character for God's sakes!" I know, I know it sounds ridiculous but still I had a lot of renders in mind with him since the dawn of my hobbyist existence, so this was a key element for me. He's the father of one of my OC's and the husband of another, so is kind of fundamental for me to have him and expand my own take on the RE's universe here with you guys. Just writing about him is not the same as doing renders with his face, for me was incomplete until last December when he was first shown.

With RE3 I have a "special" relationship if you can say that about the game. Is a good game but not better than the original. It had it's moments when it was but sadly as a whole the game was not superior at all. I'm still a huge lover from REmake, the one and only I consider a remake in this franchise and could never beat that milestone Capcom set in 2002. Sorry not sorry.

In another news I hope all of you stay safe inside with your families, and if you're alone I hope you get in contact with those you love. This wretched virus might dominated our current lives but it wouldn't be forever, and sooner or later we will resume our normal lives again leaving these difficult times behind.

Now! Let's explain what you are seeing here! Ok I had a discussion with one of my good friends some weeks ago (while crying on her virtual shoulder because of this asshole) about what would be the best explanation visually and narrated for Brad's decision to stay behind Raccoon. This render is dedicated to her and her infinite patience with me and all my crazy ideas, even if this year looks awful for now she's one of the best thing ever happened to me in 2020. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and one day I'll make your render with Brad on top of you xD

Ok: the idea here was basically show his emotions and the contrast between life and death. The green, yellow, red and orange represent the "life" side, in which he had his family, friends and distant relatives too. At his back I played a little bit with a white lamp to represent his religious side, because he's the son of an Italian immigrant and all the religious connotations it represents. Resurrection, pureness, peace and all those significances. On the opposite side of "life" we have his fate: death. Represented with cold colors as blue, light blue and purple is what was waiting for him after he decided to stay for Jill. His face is turned to his left facing the idea of trying to help other fellow citizens and his co-worker because he wanted something: redemption.

That's the title of this render: redemption. Why? Because he felt the survivor's guilt of surviving back in July. He knows he did what pilots do: he followed the right protocol. He left to look for help. Had he stayed, the whole team's survival would have been zero. He returned and throwed you the rocket launcher (a team like STARS should have fast roped in, in the first place. Not to mention, had he stayed on the ground, he would have likely been killed like Bravos Pilot and everybody would have been fucked). But still, even if he knows it and his wife mentioned a hundred times to lift that guilt from his shoulders, he felt like he was in debt with his team. I have a lot to write about this and a confrontation with Chris when they arrived the RPD after the incident, and I think I'll make another render, so I'll explain better in the near future.

This happened during the middle of the night, days before Emily's departure from RC with Chelsea. He was overwhelmed by this situation and his own marital situation (a lot of arguments because he decided to stay, harsh words from his wife telling him "you don't deserve the daughter you have, you don't deserve her at all" or "we suffered a lot to finally have her and still you want to throw it all away. You're an asshole, Brad! That's what you are!". Brad felt the need of telling his own little girl of just days of age why he chooses that path, why he would probably die in RC and never get the chance of being with her. The effects on the notebook are an extract of a beta stage of what I had written about, still is blurred just for the fact I might have to change some of it in the future.

The portraits at the back are just for decoration with old renders I made during these years. Nothing special (wall was empty, so I decided to add those and a plant. Yes, a fucking plant xD) to be honest. Well at least for now nothing more to add with this render, I have another already scheduled to publish. Nevertheless, I'll try to post it next week or maybe in two weeks, I haven't decided yet xD

Thanks for reading and I hope you like it!!

(Oh and I love how he was portrayed in this game. Characterwise RE3 is really good (most of the times at least).

S.T.A.R.S. Team (now and forever!)

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romancing-lady-whistledown · 6 years ago

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Favorite acting - Second roles

in which I somehow manage to make the longest appreciation-post so far for the character who was known for only showing up on Fridays.

I swear the only episodes of season 3 that doesn’t have a scene on this list is episode 1 and episode 6 - oopsies!

The trailer

I recently shared all the trailers for the remakes of Isak’s season with my friend who is an actress and who is not watching the Skam-remakes. The Skam France trailer stood out to her, and the first thing she said was “I like the acting of the guy who plays French Isak”. Just like alot of people when they watched the trailer for the first time, she thought Eliott was Isak/Lucas, but unlike those who knew what Lucas looked like, she didn’t realize that he was Even/Eliott when he turned around. She said Skam France was one she’d check out if she ever decided to watch a remake. The point of this little story was that Maxence’s acting stood out to her from the trailer alone enough to make her interested in watching the season, and the exact same thing happened to me when I first watched it. Maxences performance in this trailer was what captured my attention and made me intrigued enough to watch the season live. I am eternally greatful for that.

The Piano-scene

I don’t think I need to go too much into depth about this one, we all know why this scene is amazing, but I need to say something. Now, I don’t know about you guys, but if someone put me in front of a camera and basically told me to fall in love right then and there, I would not know wtf to do. But Maxence clearly did, because there’s no other way to describe what is going on in this scene. In the trailer Eliott definitely had his “love at first sight”-moment just like Lucas did when he saw him for the first time in the common room, but this clip took the whole thing one step further. It was like Eliott in the trailer saw Lucas and immediately knew that he was gonna be someone important to him. I'm sure that if we had been following Eliott’s pov instead of Lucas’s we’d see something very similar to what we saw from Lucas in episode 2. Eliott trying to learn more about Lucas, Eliott looking for him at school. I think from the moment he saw him in the hallway Lucas was always on his mind, just like Eliott was always on Lucas’s mind. But during the piano-scene, there is no denying things reached another level. We moved past the curiosity point. During this scene Eliott fell deeply in love, and by the end of the scene he was so far gone that he was past the point of no return, which is why by the time he tried to distance himself from Lucas in episode 5, it was far too late. The whole time we were watching Lucas in Season 3 we saw that he was hopelessly in love with Eliott, but Maxence’s performance in this scene makes me feel like, had we been following Eliott instead of Lucas, we would’ve seen that he was even a little further gone than Lucas. Maxence manages to show the change that has happened in Eliott in the way he looks at Lucas as he’s about to leave. Before the piano scene he was acting very flirty and smooth, but after? Lucas looks like he can at least pretend to be somewhat casual until Eliott shuts the door, meanwhile Eliott looks absolutely mesmerized. We know that Eliott was holding back from kissing Lucas for the first time in this moment and looking at Eliott’s face in this screenshot, had I not known how the scene plays out, I could’ve totally pictured him jumping at Lucas here.

Oh look, I went too much in depth about this scene after all. Should I say I’m sorry or you’re welcome?? Either way this clip was definitely one of Maxence’s best acting moments in Skam France, and the fact that we basically switched pov to Eliott for a moment just added to how Maxence totally stole this scene. Anyways let me shut up.

The eyef*cking in episode 3

Idk if it’s the mannequin elite in him or what, but Maxence sure knows how to secude the camera. If you once again put me in front of a camera and told me to look like I wanted to completely devour the person I’m looking at, Idk how I would do that in a way that didn’t look either ridiculously over the top or so subtle the camera wouldn’t pick it up. But Maxence, once again, nailed it. As far as the scenes leading up to the first kiss in episode 4 are concerned, I would say the piano-scene in episode 2 is overflowing with romantic tension, while the scenes at the end of episode 3 are overflowing with sexual tension. First you have the dancing-scene and then you have the scene where Eliott casually comes out to Lucas and then proceeds to not so subtly eyef*ck him right in the middle of the street. And I think we all felt like we were in Lucas’s shoes practically begging Eliott to kiss us as we were watching Eliott's expression in this scene.

That time Eliott asked Lucas on a date right in front of his girlfriend’s face

Let’s get this out of the way, this scene as a whole is actually pretty hilarious when you think about what’s actually going on in it, namely that Eliott asks Lucas out on a date and they proceed to pick up the eyef*cking from last time while Chloe instead of picking up on what’s going on starts planning a double date for them. But what I’m actually here to talk about today is Maxence’s performance.

The way Maxence walks up to Lucas in this clip really communicates so much about how Eliott is feeling in this moment. He looks so nervous and vulnerable. We know he’s had a bad couple of days, and as a result of that he had to stand up Lucas and hurt his feelings in the process which took them a big step back. From the way Eliott looks it seems like the only reason why he went to school was to apologize. He’s putting himself completely out there, leaving himself open for rejection, a risk he is willing to take to at least have a shot at making things right and spending some time alone with Lucas. Maxence portrays this vulnerability so well. Another thing he plays so well in this scene is how Eliott only has eyes for Lucas. It’s a miracle that Chloe didn’t at least suspect that something was up just from the way Eliott was looking at him.

The dreaded scene

Time to step into the more painful scenes shall we? Starting off with the first Eliott-scene I had a really hard time watching all the way through (except for the dubstep-scene but that’s a whole other story). The way Maxence took Eliott from incredibly happy to see Lucas again for the first time since their special morning together and excited to be with him, to completely heartbroken by Lucas’s words. Just taking a screeåshot of this scene hurt tbh. But the acting? A++

That time Eliott was a hopeless romantic and both I and Lucas fell for his sweet ass words

This one is maybe a bit random and oddly specific, but I just love the way Eliott says “No” when Lucas asks if the kiss with Lucille really didn’t mean anything. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much feeling in a “no”.

That scene

I’m not gonna write an essay on this scene simply because it’s not one I’ve rewatched as much as some of the others. But that's not because I didn’t absolutely love Maxence’s performance. Maxence killed it and that’s why it’s so difficult to watch.

Remember me

Maxence was literally just in this scene for a few seconds but those few seconds are hella memorable. The way he’s sitting alone in the dark, making himself as small as possible, the haunting image of Eliott crying after seeing his big ol’ sunshine smile in the majority of his scenes of the season...it’s short, but it’s very, very effective.

The time Eliott got to speak for himself

We all desperately wanted a scene like this and boy did they deliver. And this was another scene in which Maxence totally stole the show. He portrays the absolute vulnerability of Eliott in this scene perfectly. Eliott is sitting down, lowering his head, once again making himself look smaller. He’s on the verge of tears, voice breaking. He’s opening up completely, leaving himself completely bare, no more secrets to protect him. And he’s bracing himself for the most painful rejection that he has been expecting ever since Lucas said “I don’t need crazy people in my life”. The way Skam France handled Eliott’s mental illness in Season 3 episode 10, and Maxence’s performance in said episode, is the biggest reason why I so desperately want a full season for Eliott, and I know I’m not alone in that.

In conclusion: GIVE HIM A SEASON YOU COWARDS!

#skamfr #skam france #eliott demaury #renewskamfrance #elu

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flying-elliska · 6 years ago

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S3 Rewatch - Episode 3 - Vendredi 21h36 - “Pas forcément une meuf”

And we are dropped right in the middle of the action, sound like a bass drop after the buildup of the previous clip, after a brief shot of the lit up foyer from outside (lol so not discrete guys) with a little powerpoint zoom effect on the timestamp. It works to immediately immerse us in the wild feeling of the party - everyone dancing, the angles askew, the lights flashing and swirling. Three things. First, Arthur looks hella fly in his James Bond tux, class act, hope we see that side of him again in his season. Second, how good must it have felt for Imane to be able to wear her headscarf in school like she wants but can’t do bc of messed up laws ? Also - the girl dressed as a whole ass shower with curtain and ring is a f*cking Legend she should pop up in fics more. Like the level of extra - why a shower ? Who even does that ? did she ever think about how complicated it would be for her to get away if they got caught ? Nope, she did it all for the Drama. She heard ‘Infiltration’ theme (so like, being discrete and shit) and she went and got the most out there costume she could find. Respect. Also I saw someone in a penguin onesie lmaoooo.

Basile wants to vomit and we really needed to know that, I guess. Alexia has such BDE casually dropping the whole ‘oh yeah that cute girl that looked at me flirtily is my ex, paws off and yeah i have much more game than you also bye’ at Basile. And the way she casually comes out to her boyfriend and orders him to get her a drink as soon as he gets weird. Because she acts as if she is entitled to a normal reaction (and she is!!!) and anything else is annoying. I love her. Her boyfriend doesn’t deserve her. The painted wall behind them looks so cool. Then another hilarious instance of Daphy freaking out over rules even if she’s basically the biggest rule breaker since she started this, Imane protecting Daphy from Basile being yikes, again being the friend who does the Most, and we cut to Chloé dissing the music. Lucas asks her if she listens to Jul (an extremely lame white French rapper) which is hilarious - it’s a ‘as if you’re any better’ covert dig. And then it turns out that she does listen to music Lucas likes and the best part ? He doesn’t even care. He wants nothing in common with her. He listens to dubstep now and he’s gonna like it even if it’s atrocious. He’d rather be with Eliott and listen to annoying music than to be without him (foreshadowing!!!!). He doesn’t give a shit about Chloé and her snobbish ways. Also there is a sun projected on the wall behind Lucas (symbolism !!!) Meanwhile Mika in his metallic silver suit and rainbow shirt is being super extra and kissing boys without a care in the world, and the way Chloé talks about him is dripping with condescension - ‘did he get the wrong party’ as if everyone is not being over the top anyway, or talking abt gay men as if they’re party accessories. Alexia correcting her feels fitting - Eliott in this clip is all about being mysterious and witholding so it’s okay he’s not the one doing that even if him correcting prejudice would have been awesome. I just don’t quite see Eliott standing up for himself in the way Even did. He’s always so much more nervous when it comes to talking.

The music then goes “oh oh” as Eliott arrives, as if on cue. Like hiding-in-plain-sight camo for Lucas, the fact that the mask is actually blocking out his face physically is very fitting (beyond looking hot as fuck) - like Eliott’s tendency to actually disappear and hide when shit gets rough. Also sorry but Lucille looks gorgeous right there - they both do. The petty “salut, mec” - l e g e n d a r y. I remember how we all thought that Eliott was going to be super sad and down after Lucas shooting him down and there he is, all smoldering ! I love that he’s never doing the expected thing. He’s sensitive, yeah, but he can be hella bold too. Eliott doesn’t even respond to Chloé and challenges Lucas with his super expressive downright bedroom-y eyes. Lucas looks so pissed off and overwhelmed and done and turned on at the same time. Like how did Chloé not notice anything, she really is next-level oblivious. Bubbles are floating around them, I love that, works with the ‘brief bubble’ they find themselves in later.

I think we wrote entire dissertations about their remake of the ‘Call Your Girlfriend” moment - how much longer it was and felt like an entire conversation. It left me so wired and breathless after I saw it. Eliott’s little “okay we can play that game” smug smirk, open mouthed kiss, jumping in sync with Lucille, both of them looking so cool together like college kids do to high schoolers, all easy grace and racy confidence, and those neon rings around their necks like fallen haloes - whereas Lucas looks like he’s just bumbling around and smashing his face on Chloé’s clumsily out of sheer nerves and annoyance and jealousy. Lucas staring angrily at Eliott who seems absorbed in kissing Lucille and having fun without him for a moment. And then. And then. We can see Eliott pivot and the white of his eyes as they open towards Lucas. He’s staring back ! This is the first moment that we, and Lucas, unequivocally know he wants him back. It’s a culmination of three frustrating weeks of them running after and dancing around each other. But finally, there is absolutely zero misinterpretation possible. And after that, the kissing slows down, it feels like they’re both floating, and as they close their eyes - Lucas especially - we just know that they’re picturing kissing each other instead. Like for a moment, they’re caught in a trance together, in this moment of confirmation, of stolen bliss, of revelation. And bam ! Lights back on and it’s extra brutal compared to OG because it’s not just a random cut, it’s the janitor and they’re in actual danger of being found out, it adds to the ‘caught in the act’ tension. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

And then they run, and they find each other. Eliott just grinning and thriving in the general chaos is so funny. Another reason why the forbidden party thing is awesome - in the panic, their first reflex is to look for each other, and that is very revelatory of their priorities, but it also gives them the freedom to leave together unnoticed. Eliott walking Lucas home gives us those romcom sweetheart vibes. and it’s so. obvious. subtletly whomst ? Lucas keeps having to make the choice of following Eliott - and I love that Eliott is giving him these choices, it’s a way for him to progressively ease into choosing Eliott entirely.

Canal St-Martin ! I’ve been there ! It’s very cute and romantic ! Then we have the conversation of absolutely Unsubtle Fishing. I love that they keep giving each other outs - to protect each other and their own hearts, to make it easy so they can deny if they need to (so it’s serious with this gf ? so you it’s really hot between you and this Chloé - lol Eliott you know it’s not - ? so you don’t want to be in a couple ? ) and just. NOT. TAKING. THEM. And being like no Chloé is too much it’s annoying, no my couple with Lucille is coming to an end, no bitch it’s you I want !!!!! It’s that reciprocal dance they do, Lucas tentatively coming out of his shell, Eliott giving him time but also making it easier for him (and more enthralling lol). But I did NOT expect Eliott to come out like that. Like ! I was in the tram when I watched this lol (I was still not aware of the importance of Vendredis back then) and. i. just yelped out loud like a moron lmaooo. I wanted to cheer him on like he was a football player that just scored. It’s just such bi/pan goals in particular to come out like that, so nonchalantly, because you’re so easily assumed to be straight and it’s kind of a pleasure to turn ppl’s expectations around, but it demands a certain level of confidence. I love how the music rises and it goes in a second from ‘friends hanging together all casual like’ to ‘yeah they want to jump each other’s bones’. Daaaaamn Manon.

This clip is just so thrilling. Last Vendredi was the wonder of discovery but all very uncertain - this is confirmation that the special someone likes you back, and it’s such a high, they transcribe it so wellllllll.

Previous clip.

#skam france #s3 rewatch #it's overinterpretation time !!!

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alvacchi · 6 years ago

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Hey could I ask for a scenario? After last chapter, I think would like a scenario between the three after Norman's plan goes horribly wrong and what happened with him at Lambda is revealed. Basically, Emma and Ray verbally and possibly literally smacking sense into him and telling that he is still very human (fallible) and should have just told them the truth from the start. Ending of course with a touching moment.

What a prompt! Alrighty. Before I get started, shouts out to @couldnt-think-of-a-better-name, @vobomon, and @youuuimeanmee for their awesome theories! I touched on a couple here from their blogs. Hope you guys don’t mind! That being said, this scenario is by no means completely accurate nor do I claim many of these ideas. Without further ado, enjoy!

–

[Spoilers up to Ch 132]

–

SCENARIO: You’re Not Alone Anymore

How did this happen? What went wrong?

He didn’t want them to see it.

The side he tried to keep under covers for so long.

The side he despised and felt disgusted with so much.

His demonic side.

But fate had other plans.

[Ray and Emma, coming back from the Seven Walls, came into contact with chaos in the demon world and not in the direction Norman had predicted. In fact, everything was going wrong and Norman was slowly succumbing into a mental breakdown. Giran and his army were having trouble with the Royals. Norman’s army was nowhere to be found. All the cattle children weren’t ready to evacuate, if many weren’t already dead victims. It wasn’t until when Emma had to protect Norman from an ambush and lost an eye that he realizes the plan was a complete failure and they had to retreat. He ended up revealing his regenerating ability when he was fatally hit, much to Ray and Emma’s horror and surprise.]

[They now sit together hiding in the cave underneath the Promised Forest in the meantime. There was still a lot to do about saving all the remaining cattle children but first, Ray and Emma were waiting for Norman to explain what happened back at his gruesome incident.]

Ray: Norman. You owe us an explanation.

Norman: Alright. You guys deserve to know everything.

[Norman goes on to explain what happened to him during Lambda and how he was planning to also kill himself after his plan was finished.]

Ray: So that explains why you know so much about demon genetics. You’ve not only experimented on the demons but you’ve also become a part of them…

Norman: I’ve become so much like them. No. I was already them from the start. Ever since I was born, I was a cloned experiment of the Ratris for their purposes and sent over to Grace Field. They were trying to benefit from achieving immortality through me. No matter how much I injure myself, it heals back up like nothing happened. However, I believe it’s possible to die if I get injured faster than the regeneration speed.

[Norman’s frown deepens as he spoke.]

I’m afraid I may be the cause of Smee’s death when my demonic side took over. He was one of the scientists who observed me during the experiments and a Minerva supporter. I don’t remember clearly what happened when I broke out of Lambda.

[Emma’s fists were shaking on her lap, her head hanging low. Her mind was still stuck on Norman’s intended suicide.]

Emma: ‘I already suspected but hearing it from Norman’s mouth…! Wasn’t it supposed to be metaphorical?’

Emma: …iar.

Norman: Emma?

Emma: [looks up at Norman] LIAR! YOU SAID YOU WEREN’T GOING TO GO ANYWHERE!

Norman: I’m doing this for everyone’s sake! It’s better this way! I’ve sacrificed so much, at the cost of my own humanity. I even was going to use your friend Musica, if not kill her! The demons must die and that includes myself. If I don’t do this, the Ratris would have succeeded in their experiment!

Ray: Bullshit. Don’t give me that.

Norman: Ray–

Ray: STOP BEING SELFISH! DON’T GO MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES I DID! BECAUSE OF ME, EMMA LOST HER EAR! NOW AFTER ALL THIS HAPPENED, EMMA LOST HER EYE!

[Sheer silence and shock takes over the three.]

Ray: Sorry…

Norman: ….I’m a monster.

Emma: Norman I don’t blame you for what happened.

Norman: But I can’t forgive myself because I failed to protect you again!

Emma: Norman….

[Emma goes to cup Norman’s face in her hands.]

Emma: I don’t need my sight to see who you truly are. You’re not a monster. For once, stop trying to act like you’re William Minerva or God or whoever else you’re pretending to be because you’re not. Demon. Human. Half demon. Whatever you think you are. It doesn’t matter. You’re still Norman.

Ray: Emma’s right. Why are you acting like such an anti-hero. We’re both here for you, you know.

Norman: Emma…Ray…

Emma: We’re going to rescue Phil and the others! Norman. Do you remember? I told you to let me shoulder a bit of this. We already have an idea on how to remake the New Promise. It’s all going to work out.

[Norman looks at her in shock.]

Emma: Come here you two.

[Emma pulls Norman and Ray into a hug. They all get teary eyed as the feeling of warmth and love spread between them.]

Emma: Just so you know, I don’t blame you guys for my injuries. I’m glad both of you are still alive and well.

Don’t go growing up without us Norman. In the end, we’re all just children.

[Norman, feeling a relief after hearing Emma's words, finally decides to hug her and Ray back.]

Norman: …You guys are full of surprises….Thank you.

#the promised neverland #tpn #tpn spoilers #yakusoku no neverland #ynn #anime #manga #tpn scenario #scenario #writing #fanfic #tpn emma #tpn norman #tpn ray #full score trio #based on tpn theory #ask #suggestion #valkyrieelysia18

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lightsandlostbells · 6 years ago

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Skam France season 3, episode 9 reaction

Okay, I finally did this one! I’m not sure how many people still care since Skam France S3 ended back in March, but I wanted to complete the whole season. Sorry for the delay, anyone still interested! I apologize if I forgot some crucial details in writing this since there was such a large gap between viewing the rest of the season.

Episode 9

Clip 1 - Guru advice for a sad boy

Lucas is lying on the couch after his rough night. Are they still going to make him sleep on the couch after this shit went down? Why is he even there anymore after he told them sobbing that this was his room now a few episodes ago? Or when he stumbled in with his boyfriend to fuck on the sofa and Lisa was like, yeah, make Manon sleep on the couch instead since she’s not getting any? Because I refuse to believe that Lucas chose to camp there voluntarily either when he was a) getting laid or b) in the throes of despair.

Mika checks in on him and tries to comfort him. There’s a nice, humanizing part where he says just because he seems happy all the time doesn’t mean he’s never sad, and just because he sleeps around now doesn’t mean he’s never been in love. Lucas apologizes for saying a dumb thing and Mika says it’s OK to be dumb when you’re sad. But don’t be dumb too long, meaning don’t be sad too long. He gives Lucas a kiss on the forehead. So at least we’re getting some of this affection between them later in the season.

Lucas asks Mika how you move on and Mika is just like … shrug. Like he literally shrugs. I mean, I get that there’s no easy answer, but you could have said that instead of leaving Lucas hanging, dude, give the guy a little relief.

Clip 2 - Lucas’ dad suuuuucks

Lucas is doing laundry and looking up bipolar disorder on his phone when Eliott sends him a picture, kinda similar to the one on IG of his raccoon fursona throwing away crumpled drawings? I think it’s be the same one. It’s like he’s trying to say something to Lucas but doesn’t know what. He sends another pic where the raccoon seems to want to call out to hedgehog but the hedgehog spurns him and doesn’t want to talk. Eliott then sends him a bunch of photos at once and Lucas texts him not to contact him because he's not dealing well right now. Which is kinda different from Isak’s reply to Even the night after? It might be lost in translation, but Isak was more “I don’t know what’s going on” and Lucas is like “I’m not dealing well with this,” so confusion vs. hurt/upset feelings.

More dramatic piano music as Lucas gets another text. not from Eliott, but from his dad, asking if it’s true he has a boyfriend. OK, so Dad is a homophobe? Because he sure took a while to answer his son (compared to Isak’s dad who answered him immediately). Like did he need almost a full week to process that his son was dating a guy, he didn’t text or call in the meantime? Dad says if that’s true that Lucas has a boyfriend, it’s not a good idea to bring him to church. He attributes it to Lucas’ mom not being able to understand, but this seems way more like Lucas’ dad’s problem.

Isak’s dad wasn’t a great guy, but I think he genuinely didn’t have a problem with Isak being gay, or at least not a huge one. He responded to Isak’s coming out right away, said it was nice if Isak had a boyfriend and he would like to meet him, and checked in with Isak about whether he was sad about breaking up with his boyfriend. It’s very possible he wasn’t 100% fine with it, but it seemed like he was awkward at worst rather than actually disapproving. Lucas’ dad feels like he is seriously not OK with it even if he’s trying not to come across that way. He waited almost a week to respond to his son coming out to him and then didn’t say anything nice like “I’m happy for you” on top of that, he just said went into how it wasn’t a good idea to bring his boyfriend to church. Lucas’ mom’s possible reaction felt like an excuse for his own problem. And I don’t think it was even her potential response as a religious person, but maybe the dad thinking that Lucas should keep his gay relationship away from the church as a general rule.

Lucas starts to type out that it was a joke (about having a boyfriend), but deletes the message and doesn’t reply, then seems about to cry again. So like Isak, he can’t bear to say it wasn’t real.

Also, by this point in Isak’s season, Isak had come out to both his parents, and he got his mother’s acceptance text right at his lowest point, when he needed it. So at least that weight was off his back. Lucas hasn’t even told her about having a boyfriend yet, so it’s just pure misery for him with no relief. He’s probably even more anxious about his mom rejecting him because of his dad’s text.

Clip 3 - Charles is THE ACTUAL WORST, NO EXAGGERATION

Manon and Emma are talking about Charles when Lucas gets home. Can we please inform the remake writers that this storyline is not even necessary in adaptations where the William actors don’t leave the show? Remember how much Noorhelm there was in S4? If it’s like this in S3 what will the Manon and Charles drama be in Imane’s season? Or will it be toned down in that season and is only more prominent in this one as a way to incorporate the girl squad more in a boy’s season?

However, Manon says Lucas can stay to hear about what happened with her and Charles, which is seriously a sweet moment since it shows how close they are and how much she trusts him. Additionally, he gets to return the favor (of sorts), because Manon supported him and Eliott and was there for him when he was falling apart, so now Lucas can listen to Manon’s story and support her in her time of need.

Manon tells her story. At first it was great with her and Charles, then he got busy working for his dad and Manon had classes, and she didn’t make many friends. I like that she’s all “not my strong point” to Emma; that’s nice continuity, since Emma was the first friend she made at her new school, and they bonded over not having friends, heh. Manon got summoned to testify against Nico and she was upset about it; Charles noticed but she couldn’t talk about it. Then Charles went back to Paris to see his mom and Nico was invited without warning. They talked, Nico cried a lot, he was depressed and regretted what happened. Charles thought Nico needed therapy, but prison would fuck up his life. Especially because Nico didn’t even rape Manon. Yes, that is what Charles actually said to Manon. The fuck.

Charles said he would support Manon in whatever choice but really, while he didn’t impose anything on her, he also didn’t support her. The day of the trial, she went to court but ended up leaving before it happened. Charles asked how it went and she told him the truth, but that she wasn’t coming home, either. Manon didn’t tell anyone what happened because she was embarrassed about leaving for London with her dream man and coming back after only a few months. She felt so stupid. Manon cries, Emma is supportive, Lucas suggests they all drink. Emma is like YESSSSS. Lucas is not surprised Emma wants to drink.

Manon is like, the last time I drank wasn’t exactly great. I mean ... good point, maybe not the best idea to remind her of Nico right now. Except Emma is like, I won’t make out with you, OK? Lucas is like, neither will I. Heh.

I’ll pay a compliment before I get into my rant: Marilyn Lima did a great job depicting Manon’s breakdown. I really felt for her. And that made me angrier at this narrative choice, honestly.

OK, I’m just like ... exasperated. And disgusted. I am not a Noorhelm fan. I didn’t like this story in Skam about why Noora left London. I think it illustrated why Noorhelm were not compatible as a couple, because the same mistakes were happening in S4 that happened with them in S2; just like when he ditched Noora at school when he heard from Niko and then ignored her texts telling him it was rape for days as she begged with him to talk to her, this incident again showed that William was not capable of supporting Noora to the degree she needed it. Sure, it’s a lovely moment when he holds her as she’s panicking, but what about when he cruelly removes that tenderness and love when he finds out why she’s panicking? It was her sexual assault, not his, and I know it’s more complicated because his brother was the perpetrator, but he still needed to put his own feelings aside and support his girlfriend, the victim. When he can’t do that, repeatedly, then we really need to question whether he is the right person for Noora. Not to mention that this issue was resolved off-screen, with Noora being vaguely like “we talked and I understand him so much better now” as if Noora’s failure to understand William’s feelings is the real problem here. Not to mention any other criticism I could say about Noorhelm. And in some ways I think Marles was worse than Noorhelm; there were times when Charles was more of a domineering asshole than William (the scene where he leaves Manon crying on the ground, for example, is even nastier).

So I say this as someone who doesn’t really care about the pairing … did they have to make Charles so much of an irredeemable asshole here?

Charles probably has some “good” reason for his behavior that we’ll find out later. Too bad I don’t give a fuck what it is. He minimized his girlfriend’s sexual assault because the attacker - his brother - didn’t technically rape Manon, because the brother is just so upset about it and crying and he needs therapy, not prison. Fuck Charles. Nico is probably manipulating him, or maybe Charles is doing this for his mother’s sake so her son doesn’t go to prison, who knows, but whatever the reason, he basically planted the idea in Manon’s head that Nico didn’t need to go to jail. He downplayed her need for justice. He downplayed her trauma. Like … the only acceptable explanation is that Charles was replaced by a pod person or an evil clone in Paris, and in S4 the real Charles fights his way out of the underground secret laboratory where he’s being held hostage and tells Manon the truth. That is the only way I will accept Charles and Manon endgame after this.

I would not have a problem with this development were I confident that Manon and Charles were going to break up for good. Okay, that makes sense as a factor that permanently separates them. I do still think it’s kind of frustrating and pointless, like why the fuck did we spend a whole season on their supposedly great and epic love if Charles was going to commit the same selfish and hurtful mistakes he did in S2? I think it would be fine to do a storyline where Marles/Noorhelm doesn’t work out because Charles just can’t be the guy Manon needs him to be, but like … that should be the story of S2. When they’re the focus of a season. When you can develop that idea clearly because the POV allows it. You could get them together earlier in the season and do an arc similar to Eva’s where the Noora realizes that while she loves William, it’s best if they break up because they don’t work as a couple (even if this might be a redundant storyline after S1, I think it could still have value in trying to portray girls not putting up with their boyfriends’ bad behavior). But not “we spent a full season trying to convince you they belong together, but something happens off screen and they broke up.” That’s narratively unsatisfying. And anyway, this whole rant is probably pointless, because my issue is that I don’t think they’re going to break them up for good. Charles will come swooping back later in S4 just like William did. He’ll likely have some weak excuse that we’re supposed to accept as justified for putting Manon through all of this pain. For fuck’s sake, even if, IDK, Nico was threatening Manon if she testified against him, or something dire like that, so Charles had to find a way to discourage her - in what world is it not better to tell Manon about this than to keep it to himself?

You know what? Even if you have sympathy for Charles, even if you think it’s understandable that he doesn’t want his brother to go to prison, however loathsome said brother might be - that still doesn’t mean he’s right for Manon. Maybe they love each other, maybe it’s not fair, but if he cannot support Manon entirely over his brother here, then this relationship will never ever be healthy. She is a victim of sexual assault; Nico is the one who assaulted her. There is no grey area to this situation. So if Charles cannot accept that, then he and Manon cannot and should not be in a romantic relationship; Manon deserves someone who can support her through her recovery of a harrowing experience wholeheartedly. I do understand if Charles has complicated feelings about the issue, but frankly then he needs to go to therapy and work them out with someone who is not the victim of a traumatic crime.

I mean, shit happens, sometimes you have to account for sudden unplanned factors, like when Thomas Hayes left the show. But Michel Biel didn’t as far as I know, so there was no reason to insert this frankly evil drama into the narrative. There was no reason to send Manon to London at all? She was going to move in with Charles. That was literally what was planned for them after S2 to free up a room for Lucas. It’s just so goddamn dumb.

I’m trying to consider if maybe the purpose of this crap was to make a parallel to Lucas’ situation, maybe to show Lucas how Eliott must feel to be abandoned by the one he loves by showing Manon breaking down? But nah. If that was the case, it’s really not highlighted enough, I don’t think we see Lucas clearly link it to Eliott. I know subtlety isn’t this show’s strong suit, but this would have been so subtle as to not be present at all (which is why I don’t think it was intended). And it’s also way too big as drama not to have drastic consequences in itself.

God. I just. Why. Whyyyyyyy.

Clip 4 - Pity party turns to pity rave

They’re all hanging out and drinking, nice to see all three season leads so far get a scene together. Manon’s lying in Lucas’ lap, that’s cute. They’re bemoaning their love lives and it’s Emma’s turn to vent about her relationship with Alex. Manon suggests talking to him to find out if he has good qualities other than sex. See, I would buy this if all we knew about them was that they were hooking up, but we’ve seen through social media that they do hang out together outside of the bedroom? They go places together enough to document their experiences on IG. So they would’ve attempted conversations already, they would’ve tried to bond. I think it’s time for Emma to call it like it is: a satisfying sexual relationship, nothing more.

Lucas is like, you’re lucky, you have a boyfriend unlike Manon and I. Dude, Lucas, come on. Emma is just FWBing it with Alex anyway, according to her. He’s drinking and getting sloppy and telling them about Eliott’s freak-out and him being bipolar and Emma is like, I have it worse. Lmao shut up, no you don’t. I get it in the sense that having a bipolar boyfriend is not a terrible thing, but Eliott’s manic episode is certainly a more drastic and serious thing than just being with some conversational dud who knows how to maneuver his penis. Even Lucas is like BUT MY BOYFRIEND IS BIPOLAR, though in his case I think it’s still the ableism peeking out.

Manon is like, excuse me, I have it the worst. They agree. I also agree. Charles is undoubtedly the worst.

Mika and Lisa come home and join in the debauchery. They put on a disco light and everyone dances. It’s very tonally jarring and I think it’s supposed to be kinda not actually happening? Or rather, some version of this is happening but Lucas’ POV is exaggerating or distorting it because he’s drunk. The lyrics are like “Take control” so I suppose this is his desperate way of reclaiming his messy emotional state

I do like the shot of Mika showing off his nipples and Lucas seeing it and being like … nope.

Manon and Emma make out and Lisa and Mika make out and I’m kinda cranky about it, because I don’t need more straight girl hawt drunk make-outs or a gay guy kissing his female roommate, like what a double dose of bullshit. More generously, I can attribute this to Lucas hallucinating and being out of sorts while he’s drunk and so imagining “wrong things” like everyone around him standing still, Manon and Emma kissing when they’re not a couple, Mika and Lisa kissing when Mika is gay, etc.

It’s all fun and games and party electronic dance makeouts until Lucas slows down and gets miserable. Things get blurry. He can’t drink his angst away, not for long.

There’s a shot spliced in of Eliott making eye contact with him on the dance floor in episode 3, as Lucas is coming down from his high. Nice inclusion as Lucas is trying to escape his problems but of course he can’t get over Eliott or his sadness that easily.

There’s possibly more you could analyze about the composition of the ending but the editing kinda gave me a headache so I only watched the clip once, sorry.

Clip 5 - Basile isn’t a dumbass for once

Lucas is very hungover at school on Monday. Yann is like oooo, night out with Eliott? Lucas explains that it’s because of Eliott that he got drunk. He says Eliott is bipolar as Arthur and Basile sit down. Arthur is like, Kanye West is bipolar. Maybe not the best example to use in 2019, bro.

Honestly they’ve ruined Basile SO FUCKING MUCH with his horrible creepy sexism that I can’t even enjoy this moment from him where he talks about his mom. I mean, this is easily the best Basile has been all season, and if they hadn’t made him so disgusting, it’d be a great scene for him. And I completely understand people liking him in this moment. Hell, divorced from anything else in this season, I like him in this moment! But I cannot get over how atrocious their depiction of him has been elsewhere in the story, like I’m glad he dropped some wisdom on Lucas but this isn’t some magical fix-it that will erase my negative feelings about him.

Like for example, Basile says the first time his mom saw a Tom Cruise movie, she fell madly in love with him and flew to LA and went to his house and got removed by the cops. And not to be insensitive since this is an example of her mania, but my first thought was, “Oh, stalking runs in the family.”

The rest of the dialogue is pretty similar to OG where Basile inquires about how Eliott is doing and he suggests Lucas talk to Eliott, Lucas is a dumbass for listening to Eliott’s ex, etc. Basile says it seems like Eliott really wanted to be with Lucas, and that there are times when it will suck, but if Lucas wants to be with Eliott, he’s got to do it, you have to take people as they are. I dislike the music intruding over the end - I don’t think it’s well-timed and it feels forced - but other than that, the message is fine.

Clip 6 - Bye bye foyer

I like how Lucas and Yann are kinda cuddled into each other as they share earbuds and the couch. Lucas is still wearing his ROMANCE sweatshirt despite being deep in heartbreak. I admire his commitment to love.

There’s a little meta joke because they’re watching a show on Yann’s phone, and he says it’s episode 9, and it’s almost over. Which is of course a reference to it being episode 9 of Skam France with the season almost over, heh.

Lucas gets a text from his mom about going to confession and how God forgives those who deviate from the path as long as they come back to it. This leads into the coming out from his mom, and THAT GODDAMN TINKLY PIANO MUSIC starts up again. I do think it’s been used appropriately at times, but at other moments it feel so soap opera-ish and overly dramatic. Sometimes it seems like Skam France is a really insecure show, like how they have characters state the obvious like they were afraid the audience wouldn’t get it, or they go for the OTT music as if the writing, acting, and directing won’t be enough to elicit an emotional reaction.

I mean I realize it is Bad and Wrong to compare Skams but remember in the original version of this scene where Isak just sat and typed out this entire, very long message, and it was silent except for the cafe noises and the camera stayed still on him the whole time, because Julie trusted the audience not to fidget and for Tarjei’s acting and the importance of the scene to hold everyone’s attention? And in Skam France we get the music and the camera will not stop moving like they assume the audience is made of easily bored toddlers who need stuff swirling in front of their eyes at all times. Speaking of, WHY ALL THE FUCKING PANS, why does the camera need to move so much, whyyyyyyyy. It’s distracting and doesn’t even fit for the emotional tone of the scene, really? Like isn’t he actually pretty steady writing this to his mom? Shouldn’t the cinematography reflect that?

Lucas starts to type a text about how he met someone and don’t get mad at him, but he deletes it and just types out a message saying he’s gay, sorry if it hurts or disappoints you, see you on Friday, love you. And Lucas’ mom texts him back immediately to tell him she loves him, too, and that she’s proud of him.

Heavy sigh. I feel bad being negative about this scene because it is important and beautiful for Lucas to hear, he’s profoundly touched by his mother’s acceptance, but boy oh boy did they minimize the impact of this scene, even aside from my gripes with the cinematography and music.

So the Religion clip was the catalyst for Isak coming out to his mom, and he specifically uses Sana’s words to come out to her. None of the S3 remakes seem to understand that clip’s importance to the Isak character except that hey, talking about religion and homosexuality is good! It aggravates me because it makes it seem like the writers missed a basic connection within the story; they think stuff just happens in the season Just Because and don’t get the cause and effect (like the generalization dialogue earlier in the season, something both France and Italia included without really seeming to get why it was there other than “the message is important”). And I mean, you can adapt the religion scene so it’s not the same! You can adapt the message, it doesn’t have to be verbatim. But not connecting the religion clip to Lucas coming out to his mom makes that relationship between Lucas and Imane less meaningful. It makes the scene more of a tangent rather than an important stepping stone in Lucas’ coming out narrative. It’s just there.

Again, I hate being sour about this but it just makes me grumpy, like I feel this is a demonstration of the differences between Skam and Skam France. Skam did this simple, quiet coming out scene where we just lingered on the actor for a while and which was built up to within the narrative by a prior scene that linked the two thematically, and which delivered the “punchline” with some excellent pacing (where Isak’s mom didn’t reply until when we least expected it, and with powerful timing and execution, when Isak most needed to hear it), and Skam France flies by this pivotal scene and does it in under two minutes like it’s getting it out of the way, with nothing remarkable about pacing and timing, but with dramatic music and camera movement.

Part of my problem is that honestly, I feel like Skam France kind of ... doesn’t care about this moment. Consider the amount of time given to Lucas’ coming out to his mom and her acceptance, versus the amount of time for the foyer stuff that takes up the rest of the clip. I feel like other than Yann’s random initial rejection, all of Lucas’ coming out stuff has been so smoothed over and easy, not just from an outsiders’ perspective, but from a personal psychological perspective. And it’s not that I expect CONSTANT TORMENT but it feels massively oversimplified, like these scenes are just obligatory. I hate to say this because I know the screenwriter is gay and I don’t want to diminish any personal anecdotes on coming out he brought to the story, whether this reflects his own experience. But I almost feel like they knew the Evak fans would flock to this season (which is true, we know with all the behind the scenes stuff and cast interviews they were doing that were blatantly to appeal to shippers) and so they allocated some screen time to getting in the shippy romantic content while pushing aside some of the pesky, less exciting stuff that doesn’t have to do with romance. Like for instance, coming out to one’s mom.

I do like that when Lucas is crying, Yann asks him if he’s OK and Lucas is just kinda like, yeah, I’m fine, and Yann smiles at him. It’s a simple, nice moment.

But here I go again. Just the fact that this incredibly pivotal and meaningful scene is cut off so we can get to the fucking common room drama?? The common room is more important that Lucas coming out to his mom?? They could have at least made the coming out moment a separate clip from the foyer stuff with the principal. It’s not like they haven’t been doing that all season, splitting up big scenes into two or more clips. (And yeah, Isak’s coming out to his mom didn’t have its own clip, but the content surrounding it was at least extremely important and concerned Isak on a very personal level, compared to the foyer stuff.)

The principal storms in and yells because the students have been snatching the Wifi. Daphne takes the blame and gets in trouble for it. Then the principal hears giggling from another room and there is the nerd dude who set up the Wifi and Chloé’s friend Maria, getting cozy on the mattress. They get up and run off when the principal yells at them. Okay, who the FUCK thought it was a good idea to put a mattress in a room behind a closed door, in a school full of hormonal teenagers??? Did you not think this is where it would lead? Idiots.

The principal is roaring mad and yells at Daphne more. What’s next, a Fight Club (lmao, I wouldn’t be surprised) or a heroin den? He singles out the mural as peak bullshit and tells the students to pack up their things. The foyer is closed. And they have to come in on Saturday to repaint the mural.

Lucas is like, no, that’s where I lost my virginity! It’s a monument to my first experience with gay sex! No, actually he just defends it as an homage to Jackson Pollock. Yann defends it more calmly, but the principal gives them both detention. Well, that’s not fair, Yann didn’t deserve that.

Imane stands in front of the principal and gives a speech about how they all participated in the mural and how it means something to them and represents their differences, difference races and sexual orientations. It shows how they can all live together. And now he wants to paint over the mural in white, of all colors? It’s a good speech not because she means it, because L M F A O they did not all paint that fucking mural, Lucas and Eliott splashed some paint on the wall before fucking against it, but because it appeals to the principal’s sense of self-preservation. Does he really want to erase the mural that represents his marginalized students and the harmony and diversity of the school? Does he really want to risk the backlash?

The principal backs down from the mural and leaves. Wait a minute. Imane didn’t actually mean that speech did she? Because lmao, this mural did not mean anything about diversity. There’s an ass print on the wall, for fuck’s sake.

I think she was definitely manipulating the principal and going over-the-top, but the issue is that the rest of the season then tries to play her words as sincere, like that’s the whole point of them standing up for the foyer in the finale, that it’s a place that brings different people together.

Anyway, they’re all sad. The foyer is closing! Daphne says there will be a solution, the others comfort and reassure her.

Maybe because I’m in a bad mood from the coming out part of the scene but: I do not care about the foyer. Actually, I care about it a tiny bit in that Daphne would be sad if it closed and Daphne is my girl but other than that? Nah.

And you know what? The principal had a fucking point! Multiple points! They did host a party after school hours where dozens of students broke into the school and potentially caused mess or damage. They were stealing Wifi to the point where it was slowing down the network. They did have a room with a mattress where two students were just caught in the act of trying to hook up. He was being petty about the mural, but other than that? He’s not wrong. I love Daphne but looking at it from the POV of a meanie adult, she’s enabled a lot of irresponsible actions with this foyer regardless of possible negative consequences.

But mostly? I don’t care about this. I’m weary of how the foyer has encroached on Lucas’ season the way the bus took over Sana’s season. I only gave a shit about the bus because as it meant something to Sana with reconciling her Norwegian culture with her Muslim/Moroccan culture, and because I wanted to see the girl squad have fun in the bus, not because I cared about the bus in itself and how big it is or whether it has certain features or if they can afford a bus as opposed to a van. Likewise, I care about the foyer only in how it relates to the main characters, and so far mostly it’s just Daphne’s investment in it. Lucas’ investment in the foyer is mainly that he and Eliott did the mural and fucked there, a scene that was ridiculous in itself, so I have a hard time caring about it.

But like … if Lucas really cared about this foyer instead of seeming just along for the ride for most of its development? It would make more thematic sense in the season. Like if he and Eliott were more actively involved in fixing up the foyer all season instead of just the mural scene, if it really represented something to them. Say he and Eliott had more meetings and flirtations in there. Or Lucas secretly crashed here when he was having problems at home. If this foyer really felt important to Lucas. Because honestly, I feel like his involvement is mostly “the girls asked him to do something and he did it because he had nothing better to do/got railroaded into it.”

He does text later that the mural is all he has left of Eliott. But the mural is now safe? The principal backed down from painting over the mural. So again … who cares.

IDK, I feel like there were so many ways this could be better. For example, if the foyer was more actively a place that represented diversity and LGBT rights and anti-racism and political activism. If the mural had some legitimate political commentary behind it, or they’d hung a pride flag somewhere and the principal came in and told them to take it down. Or maybe he just got word that a gay couple (aka Lucas and Eliott) were being snuggly in here - not that they banged, just that they were kissing and holding hands in a place that made them feel safe and welcome, and he came in to shut it down in a way that was loaded with microaggressions against them. Then the foyer would genuinely feel like something that needed to be protected. As it is, I’m just like … he’s not wrong about anything he said, lmao, and the idea that the foyer is some haven of diversity and different people coming together feels totally tacked on.

Clip 7 - Lucas’ mom is great

Lucas goes to church and meets with his mom. His mom greets him warmly and hugs him, so that’s very sweet. But it turns out Lucas’ dad isn’t coming. Mama blames it on leaving too many voicemails for him, and that she thinks he doesn’t want to see her anymore since the separation. Nah, I think Lucas’ dad is just a turd, and probably a big homophobe.

Mama says people are the way they are, you can’t try to change them, they have good qualities and their faults. We just need time to understand. So kinda similar to what Basile said earlier about taking people as they are. Lucas ponders that and they go inside the church.

I’m kinda ehhh on them using a church for this scene, considering there hasn’t been as much religious symbolism in this season? Lucas’ mom did send him Bible texts, and there was the Lucas light/dark stuff, but that didn’t seem explicitly tied to religion the way the Isak birth/rebirth stuff was through the 21:21 reference, or the baptism imagery, Even’s Halloween costume, the presence of Christmas? However, I could totally just be missing something. And I don’t think it’s wrong for them to use a church, just that I think it’s a church because it was a church in Skam, rather than because they built up the religious symbolism in this season.

Clip 8 - Run for your love

Lucas and his mom are in church. There are some shots of candles so I guess that’s a tie-in to the light/dark imagery. Or that Lucas is finally seeing the light, heh.

The mass starts and soon Lucas gets a text from Lucille about how no one can find Eliott and they’re freaking out. So Eliott himself doesn’t send Lucas a text, let alone a goodbye text. He’s totally gone off the grid.

We get a montage through Lucas and Eliott’s relationship as the priest talks about how believers can find peace and comfort in God, God gives us the strength we need. No matter your sorrow, God accepts you and you’ll never be alone because God is with you. The church is your shelter. Mixed in with the priest’s words are images of Eliott, so it comes across pretty clearly that Eliott = God in this scenario? Lucas finds peace and comfort in Eliott, he gets strength through him, he’s not alone with Eliott.

I think this would come across a bit stronger if they had built up that religious symbolism throughout the season, because otherwise the Eliott = Lucas’ God thing is a little ... random. I get that they probably just wanted the priest’s words to resonate with Lucas rather then trying to say Eliott = God as a metaphor, but it’s one of those those things where they could have subtly planted connections all along. (I don’t remember any but I’m also finishing this recap like two months later, so I could’ve forgotten something.)

The montage is kinda funny if you consider that Lucas is in church, flashing back to the better times of him boning Eliott. I mean ... who wouldn’t, really.

I enjoy Seinabo Sey and appreciate Skam France using so much of her music, but at first I wasn’t sure how I feel about this choice of song. Is it too on the nose (“I’ll remember you” for a flashback montage)? Skam used plenty of songs with lyrics that described what was happening on screen. Does it fit the church setting? Eh, I don’t think a church scene needs a religious soundtrack. So the song choice has grown on me a bit since then.

I think the reason I was somewhat hesitant about the montage is that Lucas gets a text that Eliott is missing and he just sits there for a few minutes flashing back to the good ol’ days instead of reacting immediately like oh shit, Eliott’s disappeared. Even if they’re not in a relationship, that’s still cause for concern. Whereas with Isak, he didn’t quite understand Even’s text at first; he just smiled and sat down because Even loved him and he read the text in a purely positive way. It was when he realized Even’s text was a possible suicide note that he left the church to go after him. I guess because Lucas was remembering his relationship with Eliott, he was able to figure out where Eliott might be? But still, seems like he should’ve reacted instantly to Eliott possibly being in trouble.

Lucas decides to go and tells his mom. They exchange I love yous, which is sweet and a great closing note for this relationship. The shot of him walking down the aisle feels like a direct homage to OG.

“Remember me under the sun” - OK so I guess that’s another light reference.

The growing intensity of the music is good and I was getting into the scene but dear lord, the slow mo of Lucas running is ABSURD. Why did this turn into Chariots of Fire all of a sudden? Why is Lucas running through the actual street and not the sidewalk, he’s going to get by a car!

OH MY GOD HE ALMOST DID GET HIT BY A CAR, WHY WAS THAT NECESSARY, I STARTED LAUGHING MY ASS OFF

Like was that some outtake where Axel Auriant almost got mowed down because they asked him to run in the fucking street and they decided to keep it in for the ~drama? Talk about a mood killer.

I do like that Lucas knew where to go because he knew it was a place special to Eliott, and to the two of them. And that he found Eliott in the dark and that Lucas brings the light on both of them (literally, with his cell phone). Maxence does a nice job of crying and looking heartbroken.

This scene isn’t bad (except for the running and almost getting hit by the car…. why) but it does makes me think the remakes really need to start from scratch with the climax of this season. Not just recreate an O Helga Natt-ish clip with similar setting, music, dialogue, or story beats, but to look independently at what the themes of the season are - not OG, their season - and then build up something that’s consistent with that. That’s a big part of why O Helga Natt is such a masterpiece: It ties together Isak’s main lessons throughout the season, as well as paying off foreshadowing and incorporating multiple motifs and threads of symbolism that have been developed along the way.

So for example, just a small observation: Lucas tells Eliott he’s not alone anymore. Which is of course a line from O Helga Natt, and a line that does have a powerful meaning in this context. I’m not saying it’s a bad line in the slightest. But in O Helga Natt, Isak was saying it as a direct response to Even’s text message, in which he says “everyone is alone anyway.” And also in response to something Even said back in episode 5, about “the brain is alone” and being alone with your thoughts and the only way to escape is death. And to some degree in the hotel clip when Even said the alone way to have something forever was to lose it, just after they were talking about Isak and Even in infinite universes, as if Even was talking about losing Isak and being alone. It was established that Even had a fear of being alone. Here, Eliott does not send Lucas a text, so “You’re not alone anymore” is not a direct response to anything. And I don’t remember Eliott saying anything about being alone in episode 5, having that line of Even’s, or in episode 8 (Again, I took a long break between recaps so it’s very possible I just forgot Eliott’s prior comments about being alone to Lucas, feel free to remind me.) So while the line is sweet and supportive and powerful, IMO it lacks the extra punch that Isak’s “You’re not alone” did simply because Skam’s writing was tighter. I mean ... if Isak hadn’t said “You’re not alone,” would Lucas have said it to Eliott? Might he have said something else relevant to their relationship, rather than recreating an existing iconic line? I don’t know if I’m explaining myself clearly, and I truly don’t mean to make a mountain out of a molehill, because the line is perfectly fine here. It’s just that I think the remakes need to not lean on O Helga Natt so much, and instead rely on their own ingredients in the season to craft this climactic scene, if they want to create something with the most impact.

Social Media/General Comments:

Lucas doesn’t text Mika after the boat clip, he texts Manon. Which seems completely in line with those relationships, in my opinion. Isak texting Eskild and Eskild dropping everything to go home after the hotel is a testament to that relationship’s strength, but Lucas and Mika still don’t seem to have that degree of closeness, even if their relationship has gotten stronger. It’s Manon who Lucas seems closest to, the one who can cry with him and sit in silence together just for comfort.

However, Lucas doesn’t give Manon the details or even imply something is wrong in his text to her; he writes a (typo-filled) draft where he explains what happened on the boat and then deletes it. I’m assuming he told her afterwards, but this is a really good detail! Skam France and other remakes sometimes miss innovative ways to use social media to enhance the story, and I think this small touch is quite clever. Lucas is shaken and distraught after the boat and writes this messy draft of a text to Manon, spilling everything, but he deleted it and went with a neutral text, holding back the information. The reason I think he deleted his explanatory text is not just because of how messed up it was, but because writing out everything - Eliott disappeared, he’s bipolar - would make it more real, and Lucas cannot handle that it the moment, it’s too much.

Mika sends Lucas a link to a sad song, for help with his wallowing, I guess. Maybe not the best thing to send tbh, but it was kindly meant. And Lucas posted on his IG story that he was listening to it, so perhaps it helped him.

The pity party was documented quite well on IG. I wonder what Eliott thought if he saw any of it? Lucas drunk and dancing ... could go “he’s upset” or “he’s glad to be rid of me” which tbh I could see happening in a depressed mindset.

Eliott posted colors to his IG - like just colors - and deleted them really fast. Which is another good use of social media here, possibly to illustrate his changing moods, to hint at his mindset (like his depression being just a dark gradient) I’m kind of like ... why didn’t they do something like this last week to hint at his mania?

Lucas contacted Eliott via text, saying he wanted to see him or talk. That would’ve been good to see in a clip, really.

People using Imane’s BS speech on IG to promote the common room cause = LMAO.

Lucas says the mural is all he has left of Eliott, which is at least some reason he’d care about protecting it and the foyer. The boys encourage him to go to Eliott’s place, and Lucas is hesitant, saying he was told to stay away. However, then there’s an IG story of Lucas outside Eliott’s building.

Lol, OK, that’s something that definitely would be better as a clip rather than a stalker-y IG post. I mean, when you think about it, isn’t it kind of weird for him to broadcast that to the world? I guess he hoped Eliott would see it and know Lucas cares and wants to talk to him?

But sooo many questions. Like ... did Lucas try to ring the bell or contact Eliott while he was there ... or did he just stand looking up at his window like a creep ... how long was he standing there ... I don’t think they thought this one through. Yeah, absolutely should have been an actual clip so we know what the hell happened.

Ok I realize it is sooooo after the fact, and regarding this topic that has already been discussed to death, I hate to come back with another rant like AND ANOTHER THING!!!! but at some point I came to another realization about why Yann’s reaction to Lucas’ coming out is bad and stupid and I wanted to get it out because it has been bugging me.

Yann’s reaction is bad and stupid because the “you weren’t honest with me/told everyone else but me” reaction is often fake and disingenuous. Like I hate to generalize and I’m sure that somewhere in the history of the world, someone has genuinely been hurt that their friend came out to other people before them, but also, sorry, I don’t think it’s a common authentic reaction. It’s a smokescreen for homophobia.

So let’s talk about Please Like Me. Please Like Me is one of my favorite non-Skam shows ever. Like Skam S3, its protagonist, Josh, is a young gay man just accepting that he is gay and coming out (although he’s older than Isak). Like Isak, Josh has a mentally ill mother. Like Skam S3, Josh gets into a relationship with a mentally ill person. It’s less idealistic and more painful than Skam, but still completely worth a watch, I highly recommend checking it out.

At one point in Please Like Me, Josh goes with his boyfriend, Arnold, to Arnold’s birthday party with Arnold’s family. Arnold is not out to his family yet and is planning to come out to them at the party. However, in a previous episode Arnold told his friends that his dad has said he doesn’t like gay people and told Arnold to quit singing in a choir because people would think he was a (homophobic slur) and beat him up. So, Arnold’s dad is an established homophobic asshole!

At the party, Arnold announces to his family that he’s gay and dating Josh. Arnold’s brother and mom are like “Yeah, we knew,” which is not the best thing to say but they’re overall chill and supportive. Meanwhile, Arnold’s dad stands there with a sour look on his face. When he does finally speak, he says that he’s been “backed into a corner” - presumably because the rest of family supports Arnold, and because they have other guests with them looking expectantly at him waiting for him to say he’s OK with Arnold being gay. Like he’s basically saying he doesn’t have the freedom to react negatively. You know, something a total non-homophobe would say! Then he starts going in on Arnold for lying to him, and saying the biggest problem is that Arnold didn’t feel he could be honest with him. (Then he knocks over a croquembouche.) Arnold’s dad leaves, but not before telling his wife that Arnold should be gone when he gets back.

Why am I bringing up Please Like Me? Because Please Like Me, created-written-directed-acted by real-life gay man Josh Thomas, is smart enough to recognize that homophobes often direct their disapproval into other excuses to be upset when someone comes out. Arnold’s dad didn’t stand there and rant about how homosexuality is wrong or gross. He didn’t say anything about homosexuality at all. Instead, he funneled his feelings into the weaselly excuse of “you weren’t honest with me.” (This right after Arnold has said, in his coming out speech, that his best chance at happiness is to be honest. Honesty in this case acknowledging he’s gay and has a boyfriend.) But let’s be real: if that were the case, if Arnold’s dad were upset about the lying rather than his son’s sexuality, would he really get that angry? Enough to effectively kick his son out of the house? To knock over a goddamn croquembouche? No, this scene is obviously about a father being pissed that his son is gay. But he feels “backed into a corner” and it’s not like he can say he’s upset that his son is gay in front of everyone else, in front of the guests, his son’s boyfriend, his wife and other son who have known for a long time and are fine with it.

Circling back to Skam France: we had Yann upset enough with Lucas coming out to him, for Totally Non-Homophobic Reasons, to walk away from him because he was hurt Lucas didn’t come out to him first. And I do believe the writer intended for Yann to not be homophobic at all! But it’s such a shitty, cheap excuse for drama, such a flimsy rationale for Yann’s reaction, one that doesn’t fit his prior behavior at all, that frankly, it pings too close to a smokescreen. Like Skam France is trying to pass off this blatantly artificial reaction as genuine. If someone reacted like this IRL, my gut feeling would be that they were a fucking homophobe. They’re most likely homophobic but aware that openly saying bad things about gay people, openly expressing their disapproval, is not a good look for them. Or they’re homophobic but trying to tell themselves they’re not by channeling their disappointment into other reasons that don’t rely on discomfort with homosexuality. It’s completely plausible and even probable for people to have some homophobic hangups under the surface, that in theory they were OK with gay people but when your best friend is staring you in the face telling you he’s in love with another man, those hangups might suddenly rise up.

And if somehow we give these reactions the benefit of the doubt, that someone is truly upset because “you lied to me” or “you didn’t tell me first?” - that person’s still a selfish asshole. Think about it. Your friend is confessing an extremely vulnerable secret about themselves, something that may have caused them great internal stress and pain, and you’re mad that they didn’t tell you sooner? Fuck off.

Anyway. The point I’m making is: in a Doylist sense, I think Yann’s reaction is not homophobic. The Skam France team really didn’t think of it that way. In a Watsonian sense, I call bullshit. Yann walking off during the coming out scene is most plausible if Yann actually had a homophobic reaction to Lucas’ coming out, and needed some time to process it before accepting Lucas’ sexuality. His explanation to Lucas is weak and unlikely. If it is true, that makes Yann a self-centered asshole. I know people don’t react perfectly and obviously Yann stepped the fuck up for Lucas afterwards but let’s acknowledge it for what it is, prioritizing one’s entitlement to someone else’s deepest, most painful secrets over their comfort and safety in keeping those secrets.

To be clear, I don’t hate Yann, not at all, and I attribute this mess solely to bad writing. It’s one of those things where the intent is different from the finished product. In analysis of Yann or Skam France or whatever, I’d acknowledge the intended purpose of that creative decision to make Yann walk away. But I’m also acknowledging that this creative decision is some stupid shit, lmao. And I’m aware the screenwriter is gay, and for all I know this is based on personal experience, but for now this scenario feels fake and manufactured only for drama, and inauthentic to how people would genuinely think and react in these scenarios. Someone who walks out on their friend when said friend comes out is probably homophobic to some degree, or else self-centered as fuck. Simple as that.

I am not French, so please feel free to correct me on any translation or cultural notes that I missed.

Like I said, I took a break from recaps, so I also might have forgotten certain details of this season, feel free to remind me of any of those, too!

If you got this far - and if you are still reading this after all this time - thank you very much, I love you!

#skam france reactions #skamfr reactions

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