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leah-halliwell92 · 5 years ago

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Mr. Telford History Teacher

Summary: You needed one last elective class to fill the second to last category for your minor. Little did you know the one teaching it would have more effect on you than the corse itself.

(Cred and thanks to @come-join-themurder)

Warning: Swearing, mentions of harassment and rape.

You’d taken a seat in the farthest corner of the room hoping for the class to be smooth sailing. It’s not that you didn’t like history, you do. But European history wasn’t something you wanted to...until the teacher walked into the classroom that is.

He did not look at all friendly, was the first thing you thought when he walked in dressed in black, his shades in place and scars under his goatee. The man himself though is another thing entirely. You stared at the man from behind your lashes and nearly gushed at how handsome he is. All height and salt and pepper hair ticking box after box of what your dream man would look like. You resisted the urge to sigh as he quietly set himself up before moving around the desk and leaning on it and taking a look at the now full classroom.

“You see more cheer in a graveyard,” he commented his accent coming through, a slight grin making his dimples pop under his “Glaswegian smile”.

You breathed a laugh at his small reference and the shaky sighs of the rest of your classmates.

“Ah I see a sign of life from the back corner!” He said exuberantly looking in your direction, “What’s your name darlin?”

“Y/N sir,” you said clearly.

“Manners that’s good,” he said nodding in approval before going through the roster taking attendance.

You quickly discovered that he could read the dictionary and you’d be happy, his voice doing things to you you’d never thought possible. Tender yet gruff and rich to your ears as he finished reading out names and began to discuss what the course is built on and what we would need to do in the coming weeks.

Mr. Telford was just about to begin lecturing on the first portion of the set of chapters you’d be looking at only to be oh so nicely interrupted by none other than Jonathan Darby. You rolled your eyes as he made half-assed remarks he made. The over confident prick thinks that because his dad has ten year that he can do anything he wants to anyone he wants. Fucker thinks he’s above the rules cuz daddy rubs elbows with the right people.

“Shut up Johnny! Some of us actually learn something!” You yelled finally having snapped, “Or do you need me to call your mom again?”

The room snickered as he promptly shut up and sank into his seat.

You looked up to see a smirk of approval on Mr. Telford’s face.

The class proceeded without anymore interruptions to your relief, now if you could only focus on what he is lecture. It wasn’t the content that held your attention but the person giving the lecture. Mr. Telford strolled from one side of the room to the other lecturing as he did. You loved how his accent and voice seemed caress each word he said no matter how rough.

You were both relieved and disappointed when you saw that class was nearing its end.

“Read the syllabus for the important dates and read at least the first two chapters of the textbook before next class, thank you!” He said as students started trailing out of the room.

You’d just about finished packing and stood to make your way down when Darby towered over your standing form a smirk on his face.

“You’re going to be trouble,” he said leaning into you getting in your face, “But I like me a girl that fights.”

You rolled your eyes having heard this before and not really in the mood to be intimidated, least of all by wanna be skin head.

“I’m going to be late for my next class,” you said clearly not amused and moved to side step him when his arm blocked your way.

“I like em when play hard to get too,” he said giving you an appraising look.

You resisted the urge to gag at that and said, “Do you really not know the meaning of “no”?”

He laughed and said, “Bitches like you say that now but you know you want this.”

You pushed your way through to find Mr. Telford sitting a the desk feet up “reading” the book he’d brought with him.

“Don’t you turn your back to me bitch,” Darby growled and made to grab me when you both heard.

“I wouldn’t do that lad,” You turned to see Mr. Telford standing up and standing between Darby and you, “Harassing a woman is against the law for one and I’m pretty sure you don’t want your old man to see how it is you really behave when not in his classroom.”

Johnny stepped back hands up in mock surrender a twisted smirk playing at his lips.

“Nothing happened old man, (Y/N) and I were just having a friendly conversation. Weren’t we?” He asked looking at me.

“Not fucking likely,” you spat glaring at him standing your ground.

Johnny looked like he would jump at you if he could be backed off as Mr Telford stood between you fully keeping you away from Johnny’s sight, and reach.

You heard an exasperated sigh and footsteps as Johnny finally left the room.

You sighed in relief letting out the tension that had pent up the moment he cornered you.

“Are you alright lass?” Mr. Telford asked softly turning to you.

Warm brown eyes bright with concern as he looked you over.

You nod and take out your inhaler. You noticed his eyes widen as you breathed in the medication.

“Yes I’m asthmatic,” you say to his questioning glance, “Johnny doesn’t know it and it’s gonna stay that way. His old man knows and won’t do shit about what Johnny does so if he instigates an asthma attack he won’t get kicked out but at least it’ll put a black spot on his supposedly flawless school record.”

“But you could die,” Mr. Telford said bluntly, “Is getting him sacked worth it?”

You shrug putting your inhaler away and say, “Better dead than a rape victim swept under the rug.”

He looked sadly at you but nodded knowing it would be true before he asked, “Do you have a class after this one?”

You nod in affirmative and look at him in curiosity as he picks up the book and papers he’d come in with.

“Come on, I’ll walk ya,” he said with a kind grin.

You were about to decline but thought better of it and held back a blush as he walked beside you to your next class.

“Health?” He asked with a hint of a grin on his face.

You laughed and nodded, “Needed for nursing.”

“If ya need any more help don't hesitate to ask,” he said sincerely, “And if you need an escort let me know.”

“I couldn’t ask––” You began to say.

“Your not askin I'm offering,” he said kind grin fixed on his face making you blush.

You nod appreciatively and walk into the room to take your seat and saw Mr. Telford make his way back to his own classroom. What you didn’t see was him send a text to one Jackson Teller, who so happened to be sitting next to you, to keep an eye on you during the time that he couldn’t.

Just as you had settled in, a man with impossibly blue eyes and the craziest hair walked in.

“Well come to Sex Education boys and girls!” He said with a playful grin, “Yea we’ll be learning about the do it self but what I will make sure all of you know, boys especially, is how to keep your John protected from all sorts of stuff.”

You laughed along with the rest of the class and figured that this semester is going to be an interesting one.

Tag List: @ideclareflananigans @come-join-themurder @miss-nori85 @xbreezymeadowsx @tommyflanagans

#chibs x reader #chibs imagine #soa imagine #sons of anarchy

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Uncle Scrooge by Don Rosa: The Isle at the Edge of Time (Thank You Comission For Rosie Isla)

Hello all you happy people! Today’s review is a bit special as it’s the result of another review. See I had trouble finding a translation of the subject of last weeks’ mother’s day special, Family Ties.

No not that one. I have Paramount+. I can watch all the Family Ties I want and that’s a fact that i’m pleased as punch about.

No it was the story 80 is Prachtig, called Family Ties in the copy used, Della’s first major comics appearance and one that explains what happened to her in the classic continuity, one that clearly served as the foundation for her far more fleshed out 2017 versions personality and backstory. It also had Pinocchio in it for some reason, and spent most of it’s large run time on a meta comedy plot that had nothing to do with the reason anyone wanted to read this story in the first place.

But despite being a vitally important story, it never got an english translation, something that baffled me till I read the story and found cameos of the racist indigenous stereotypes from Peter Pan. In 2014. You may commence booing. Even with how weird the story was I simply couldn’t find the story googling it and the Della tag is too vast and deep to go spelunking in.

So what’s all this have to do? Simple I put out a post last month when neither I nor Kev, who wanted to comission it as part of Moons, Millionares and Mothers, my coverage of all three season 2 Ducktales story arcs, could find a copy and offered a review to whoever found it. Weeks passed I got nothing.. then in the 11th hour I got a break as the lovely @rosieisla found a translation that was on this very site, one she seemed to have helped with. As a result I could do the review and as a man of my word, offered it up despite her clearly having not seen that part of the post and simply having done this to be nice. Still she gladly took up the offer and offered me my pick of two stories: The Carl Barks Story Back to Long Ago or this one.

As for WHY I picked this one Back To Long Ago didn’t seem bad, i’m just not a fan of “The Cast is put in the past as their own ancestors” type deals. Or in some cases put the cast as people from that time period. It’s just not for me and is most often done in TV where it can get really goofy, Beverly Hills 90210 being a prime example of this, though Girl Meets World was no slouch in being embarassing... that being said I really need to finish that show and miss it.

So yeah when put up against a story with two intresting hooks and FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, even if i’ts not the version that’s my boy, it was no contest. So what are these hooks you ask? Well join me under the cut and find out.

We open with a weird stylistic choice: This story has a narrator complete with caption boxes. Now for those of you familiar with comics or pastiches of comics in tv and film, this probably dosen’t seem like a big deal. It was a common thing in comics from their inception to 90′s to have caption boxes, big boxes of text narrating the action to help move things along faster. It did start to fade out by the 80′s and was gone by the end of the 90′s for the most part, replaced instead with first person narration. It’s the kind of thing you’d see most often in the Golden and Silver Ages, with stuff like tihs

It’s not a BAD device, it’s good old cheesy and bombastic fun and some writers did get clever with it.. like that time Chris Claremont used the narration to yell at a greiving cyclops after he lost a teammate early in his long and storied run on the uncanny x-men.

This is a objectively weird scene that’s still somehow effective by the by. On the one hand it does come off as Chris Claremont essentally bullying Cyclops who already feels guilty for a death that was not in fact his fault as Thunderbird was told the plane he was attacking with fleeing villian Count Nefaria was about to explode and refused to listen.. and that they needed to get rid of either him or Wolverine as both served the same purpose and chose the non-white guy.

On the other htough it comes off just as much as Scott beating himself up in his grief and anger over the event and his perceived failings as a leader. It’s good stuff and shows why this run caught on as this was only three issues in. Also the rest of the issue features the X-Men fighting a giant cyclopian demon that Cyclops accidently freed in his rage by destroying the stone thing keeping him imprisoned. No really here’s the cover

Huh so tha’ts what Nifty’s dad looks like. Neat. Also I REALLY hope we get the X-Men fighting aliens or demons in the MCU. Unlike the XCU the MCU isn’t alergic to getting batshit.. and for the record Deadpool and New Mutants are the exception, not the rule.

My point that I swear I do have is that this was common practice for most comics.. but never really for Disney Duck comics. It popped up ocasionally, like with Scrooge’s introduction, but Barks and those after him never really used them that much. Sure they’d have caption boxes for flasbacks and what not but Barks and Co geninely only used this sort of thing to set up a story. The most i’ve seen it in a duck comic is life and times and even then i’ts usually only used for gags or to set up the passage of time, as the story IS covering decades and thus often needed to have montages to show time passing, and in the case of chapter 11, had to cover decades in the span of a single chapter, so it’s not like they had many other options. So even Rosa as a personal quirk didn’t really use these often.

Rosa used this specifically because he felt the plot was complicated by the use of the international date line. As for what it is, it’s essentially a line marking calender dates from one side of the hemisphere to the others. To use the offical defentition from the National Ocean Service I found via a quick google:

“The International Date Line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth. It is located halfway round the world from the prime meridian—the zero degrees longitude established in Greenwich, England, in 1852.

The International Date Line functions as a “line of demarcation” separating two consecutive calendar dates. When you cross the date line, you become a time traveler of sorts! Cross to the west and it’s one day later; cross back and you’ve “gone back in time."

Despite its name, the International Date Line has no legal international status and countries are free to choose the dates that they observe. While the date line generally runs north to south from pole to pole, it zigzags around political borders such as eastern Russia and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.”

Rosa felt this made the story complicated.... and that... really isn’t remotely true. The narration is mostly used for gagas and really dosen’t clarify anything. it’s mostly used well in the opening.. but the actual explinations for the date line are clear enough in the story that even if I hadn’t looked the thing up, I still would’ve got it and i’m sure a kid would’ve too. It just feels like a weird thing to ruminate on, especially because he’s got actual things to make up for: while to his credit the native american characters he cribbed from carl barks are sympathetic, their culture respected and treated decently and used for a green aseop, their dialouge is stitled and sterotypical something he dosen’t even comment on (And these trades ewren’t THAT long ago)

And of course it dosen’t help that he dosen’t even comment on using a common device in american superhero boooks.. in the same volume where he ONCE again makes an unwanted and outdated diatribe about superhero comics. I’ll probably cover the Super Snooper Strikes again so I can throughly tear this apart but higlights include: Calling superhero comics “Unwanted” just because he dosen’t like them personally, when people like me would disagree and they’ve lasted through a LOT of highs and lows, outdately saying they took over the American market as the only suitable comics which while true for a TIME,but by 2015 when this book was printed is laughably out of date, as non superhero works like The Walking Dead, Saga, and Scott Pilgrim were massively popular, one of my faviorite comics that is entirely slice of life and would go on to bea huge hit, Giant Days, re-debuted that very year. He also has the fucking gal to insult The Uncanny X-Men by name and I swear to god I did not know this when I made those references earlier, but as you probably guessed REALLY god me livid.

And this is just on his COMMENTS on the story I can’t imagine just how bad the content itself is and having read the first few pages which come off as Rosa using Donald to essentially do an “old man yells at cloud rant” about superhero comics, I really don’t want to. Might make htis a patreon exclusive or again would do it on comissoin. You all make the call.... the point is I don’t likes his elitist bullshit about superhero comics, and this is clearly something that gets my hackles up as I just spent a good two paragraphs of an entirely unrealted review yelling at the guy for it. I don’t like when he does this and this authors notes entirley felt like an excuse. I GET the dark age of comics were bad, they REALLY were that bad, but I will NEVER accept painting an enitre genre as bad just because one work in it is bad. And I wont accept it from someone who himself writes about an often throughly unlikeable anti-hero for a living. Scrooge may not have a gun on his gun on his gun or get to stabbing or have pouches, but he DOES finacially abuse his nephew, scoff at people’s personal troubles, and often refuse to use his wealth to help others in general. So yeah in conclusion Rosa really needs to say less about this subject.

Okay so where were we.. right the story hadn’t even started yet. Jesus.

Okay so our story begins with the narrator. Whose going on about time and what not. The main point of this speech about time is that it’s night in Duckburg and Scrooge is going to bed as, even being the workhorse that he is, he can’t keep going 24 hours. While he’s snoozing though something major happens and it’s the hook that made me pick this story along with the international dateline one.. an island rises thanks to volcanic erruption.. and the lava is GOLD. That’s just pure unabashed classic Duck Stuff: a mysterious treasure or phenominon of gold bound to bring scrooge in.

But Scrooge isn’t stupid: the sun comes up and the world still spins while he sleeps, so he set up a satalite to monitor for this sort of thing. The thing naturally goes nuts.. and even more naturally breaks down becasue Scrooge bought cheap parts. A nice gag and a fully in character way to bring our antagonist into the picture, as the Satellite of Loaded falls in the middle of South Africa... right on the property of my boy Flintheart Glomgold.

This is something Rosa brought up in his commentary for the story i’d never thought about. It turns out Glomgold being a citzen of Duckburg WASN’T an invention of the original Ducktales but the comics: some overseas had understandably moved him from his home country of South Africa. Him bieing in the same town as Scrooge instead of half a world away allows for easier setups and more intresting ones.

Rosa however being obdient to Barks Version of things, ketp Glomgold in South Africa like barks did, which was an .. ifffy decision given Apartheid had JUST ended at the time of this story. Not so much in the reboot as not only had apartheid been long gone by the time of the reboot, but that’s more fair. Still we do get some gorgeous vistas as a result as Glomgold’s minon goes to look at it and finds it’s from McDuck Mining company... Glomgold’s reaction is obvious.

So on that note we cut to Scrooge rushing to Donalds house and forcing him awake and not telling him anything at first. Look his Ducktales Counterpart straight up kidnapped his donald in my last review, I’d call this a win. He also tries to dress Donald while explaning both his panic to find the crashed satlitle and what it found: the golden island. The end result of him dressing donald is worth a chuckle

So after Donald puts his shirt and little hat on our heroes get rollin rollin rollin what keep rollin rollin rollin who to Manilla. On the plane we get the scene I mentioned: The boys make a quip about Scrooge having lost a day and the group go over the international date line. It’s a fun little scene especially Donald trying to get paid early at the end. Classic scrooge and donald stuff without the abusive undertones some of their classic stuff has.

Meanwhile Glomgold works out the data and finds out about the gold island, and his excitement accidently wakes a giraffe outside.. welll it was nice knowing him, Giraffes are the deadliest species known to man.. here’s an educational video t back that up....

youtube

So at Manilla Airport, Scrooge finds out abotu the south african crash, figuring he’ll get a laugh out of glomgold being there ... only for Donald to spot the Jet. Scrooge figures this can’t be anything good... now come on man maybe he’s just promoting his energy drink.

As super sayin god super sayian as my witness, I will never get tired of Ultra Instinct Glomgold here.

Scrooge isn’t so nice about that though and figures he better find out if Glomgold knows about the island and bribes one of the fueling crew for his uniform. He sucesssfully eavesdrops on Glomgold talking to his pilot, finding out from him exactly WHERE the island is. He ends up hilariously botching the mission though: when getting ready to leave Glomgold complains abotu the price of gas and that naturally causes Scrooge, just as cheap, to join in... and Glomgold to find out it’s Scrooge. The two wrestle outside the plane but before this can progress to a game of Naked Robber an airport security guy comes up and Scrooge cleverly claims that Glomgold’s plane has an infestiation, requring it to be quanrantined and allowing Scrooge to jet on.. thoguh not with an actual jet. With Glomgold seemingly dispatched, he can afford to save some money and take his time with a seaplane and I know just the man for the job.

Oh nope looks like he’s busy. So one time related rambles later we meet Keoki, their asian pilot from the tiny island of Wookawooka.. and no that’s not a real place i checked... and no Fozzy dosen’t own it his check bounced. That being said it is a very well done represntation of someone from a smaller country: he’s doing this job to try and bring money back home, but being a seaplane captain just isn’t enough and his island is dying. Scrooge naturally is about as sympathetic as you’d expect, having apparently never even heard of the idea of a bonus when Huey, Dewey or Louie suggests it.

Even less suprising is that Glomgold streaks by in his Jet:turns out Manilla was already overun with the bugs Scrooge claimed and Donald rubs it in that had Scrooge got a JET this wouldn’t of been an issue.

So Glomgold easily beats them there, and to add insult and actualy injury to a cash based one, our heroes get blasted by golden lava on the way in and crash. Should’ve gotten launchpad... got the crashing professional. Keoki is dispondent as this means his people are doomed. He also dosen’t know waht staking a claim is when Scrooge mentions it and the boys bring him up to speed with the poor guy saying he wish he could for WookaWooka. Donald also makes a valid point about how greedy and heartlress scrooge can be.. and really billiionares in general.

No no YOUR the Grouch who refuses to have one drop of emapthy. Donald’s just pissed at your general selfish and terrible behavior.

Glomgold glomgloats and has seemingly won... but naturally that rant that seemed extranious at the time about the date line comes into play: turns out the Island is on it, and since glomgold put his marker int he west, Scrooge simply puts his in the east which is a whole day before. Now GRANTED there’s nor eal legal prescendice for the intetaoinal date line itself , as noted above... but there’s enough witnesses in Scrooge’s favor that it simply does not matter anyway. Scrooge SEEMINGLY wins.

But Huey, Dewey Or Louie instead backs another claim: Keoki’s from earlier. While it was made in gest, he and the others along with Donald back it as witnsses instad. WookaWooka is saved and SCrogoe ends the story yelling at the narrator.

Final Thoughts: Don Rosa.. did not like this story, feeling it wasn’t one of his best and apologizing for it. I however.. really loved it. It’s not PERFECT: the narration feels not entirely necessary and the gag isn’t as funny as he thinks, though the payoff of scrooge saying “it’s time for this story to end” is fucking hilarous. I also feel it’s a bit too compressed: the story is only 16 pages and was only THAT long because Rosa added a few for exposition, a worthy addition. This feels like one of his 30 page adventure stories but slightly crammed into half the length. I also feel the golden island bit was BADLY underused as it’s such a cool setting but barely shows up in the story.

But despite that.. it’s still a fun story: as is standard for Rosa the art is gorgeous and the humor is great. And unlike some stories where Rosa casually ignores how terrible scrooge is, here it’s his own greed and hubris that do him in: had he actually agreed to help Keoki, the boys likey would’ve let him keep the island but his own cold refusual to be a human being does him in, just as his cheapness nearly did. Flintheart is also decent here.. not the deepest foe but frankly most classical duck antagonists really aren’t all that fleshed out, and we still get some good bits with him. The dateline bit, while telegraphing that it will be important, as I said REALLY isn’t that hard to understand. All in all while i’ll agree with Rosa this isn’t his BEST, it’s still a really damn good story and one he shoudln’t be ashamed of.

Tommorow: Green Eggs and ham is back for some train shenanigans! Kay.

Saturday: The Tom Retrospective returns for it’s last detour! Eclipsa and Moon team up to stop meteora but grapple with diffrent wants: One to save her daughter.. the other to stop waht she clearly sees as an out of control monster. The result.. will only lead to tragedy and a hell of a two parter.

If you liked this review consider joining my patreon, patroen.com/popculturebuffet. At as low as 2 bucks a month you get accesss to my patreon discord, exclusive reviews, and to pick a short when I do one of my shortstragavanzas, a marthon of theatrical shorts honoring a characters birthday. And given Donald’s is next month, now’s the time to get on board.

But if you go up to 5 you get a guaranteed review of whatever you want every month, and will get me to my next milestone, which will give everyone including yourself a monthly public darkwing duck review, reviews of the two Ducktales minis’ I haven’t covered (Time is Money and SuperDuckTales) and a reivew of the Danny Phantom film the Ultimate Enemy. So please join today and if you cannot, like this review, subscribe and give me your opinions on it bellow. Or even if you can feedback is always appricated and I will see you at the next rainbow.

#donald duck #scrooge mcduck #don rosa #ducktales #huey duck #louie duck #dewey duck #flintheart glomgold #gold #island #volcaones

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prairiedust · 5 years ago

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The Further Folklore of Supernatural

Here’s a little more folklore meta in light of how season 15 has been playing out if anyone is game. I genuinely thought that Moriah would be the end of the folklore stuff and tossed out “Folk the Author” as an “epilogue,” so this is probably less of an addendum than it is a waymarker as I try to continue to parse these themes into the last seven episodes.

Welp. *waves hands at everything* THIS is not how anyone expected 2020 to go. Things got a little bit big and I stopped thinking about Spn in light of needing that energy elsewhere. But I also don’t want this crapfest to ruin how I fan my favorite show, so here I go again. I will attempt a TL;DR, too!

If you’ve read my old “folklore” analysis here about how I think fairy tales and all their baggage fit into Supernatural season 14, you know that I believe Castiel has stepped into a Sleeping Beauty type story, and that coincidentally a few themes and symbolism from Snow White kept popping up around Dean. (I hold Sam to be a Protagonist in the modern “literary fiction” sense of the word, but emotionally, thematically, and narratively he’s always been a little inaccessible to me. I finally understood him when the death-of-the-author plot surfaced, and I’ll get to Sam eventually here. And Jack, there’s a little Jack in here, too.)

If you would rather have the TL;DR than read several thousands of words about how folklore and myth *might* be abstractly connected to an American genre show, all I can say is that I tried. The textual support is all in the folklore posts. This is as succinct a summary as I could fabricate. At least I’m not gonna talk about Sam and bricolage and freeplay! This is an almost completely theory-free post! If you don’t want to read or don’t need a refresher and just want to know how this has been working in 15, you can scroll down to “END OF TL;DR”.

So, to catch up, I’m not talking about the folklore and mythology that this show has always relied on for plot and MOTWs. I wasn’t drilling down into urban legends like Hook Man or world folk monsters like shtrigas or pishtacos. By “folklore” I mean the study of storytelling tropes and tale types that have been with us for ages. One of the many subtexts of the end of the series. I’ve been tracking this because I think it’s fun to see how fairy tale imagery and mythology might layer preconscious suggestions into the text of the show. I personally think it was loud enough to be seen easily, but more than likely viewers felt unsettled, felt cheered, or felt like they knew what was coming? I’m curious to know. Anyway.

When we found out that Kelly Kline was going to name her baby “Jack” waaaaay back in season 12, things started chiming. Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack the Giant Killer. Jack Tales. Jack is a powerful Western character, sort of a cross between a noble hero and a trickster, featuring in stories that often blur lines and boundaries. He is both the poor man’s youngest son and the equal to King Arthur’s heir. Jack is both everyman and extraordinary. Jack is so cool, I wish I had more time to parse that but his qualities are not subtle in the text/subtext, anyway.

But back to my half-crack reading of seasons 14 and 15.

Once upon a time in Supernatural, there were two fairy tales being told. Both fairy tales are found all over the world and in many forms, but they all can be grouped together because they all contain shared elements of the same basic plot or shared themes, and these two in particular are sister stories. So when I mention “Sleeping Beauty,” I’m talking about lots of different versions of the folk tale, and the same for “Snow White,” which can be found in one form or another in storytelling traditions all over the place. It is both helpful and irritating that these are both Disney movies, too.

Jack makes an allusion to Sleeping Beauty in 14x03 The Scar while talking to Castiel-- it’s the kind of subtextual flash that in and of itself means little and proves nothing, but then beginning with The Scar we got three stories in a row that dealt with “sleepers” of some sort-- Lora in 14x03 doomed to die because of a witch’s spell, Stuart in 14x04 Mint Condition in a coma because of a ghost attack, and Sasha’s father in 14x05 Nightmare Logic under the spell of a clever djinn. It’s powerful subtext, like a soft light that bathes these episodes in the color of fairy tale and makes Jack’s Dramatic Swoon at the end of Optimism all the more Dramatic-- subtext amplifying the plot. Jack goes to Heaven, but is eventually cornered by the Shadow, who wants him in the Empty where he will sleep forever-- the Shadow being an entity who has claimed the husks of dead angels since their inception and thus implies a “curse” laid on Jack from the moment he came into being-- but Castiel, who is ever a thief in oh so many ways, makes a bargain with the Shadow and essentially takes over the consequences of Jack’s Sleeping Beauty story (hence my rarely used but hilarious tag “Castiel Thief of Endings.”)

Now that we know from 14x20 Moriah that the Shadow and Billie the Reaper are, if not allies, at least working together when Jack is awakened in the Empty, does that mean that Castiel’s deal is still on the table, or has that fate been thwarted? *pounds table* Was Jack’s death and Chuck’s rise as a “greater threat” in 14x20 enough to shift Castiel’s ending? It’s the kind of subtextual question that lends tension to the narrative and it’s what I am here for.

Well, speaking of thwarted expectations, Dean’s arc was being shadowed by a Snow White tale type. We all know Snow White but why don’t I sum it up anyway, since Disney messed up the folktale ending lol. Snow White is cast out of her home by her jealous stepmother (and echoes of the stepmother’s magic mirror show up in 15x02 Gods and Monsters) who sends her huntsman to kill her; the dude can’t do it and turns the girl loose in the forest instead. Snow White joins a band of outsiders who live in the forest-- in the Disney movie and the Grimms’ tale they are dwarfs, in some versions she happens upon a band of robbers-- and they love her very much and we presume she’s safe for the rest of her life; Michael mysteriously turns Dean loose to join Sam’s gathering of hunters, however we know, like Stepmom, Michael is still out there. The stepmother finds out that Snow White is actually alive and contrives to kill her herself. Eventually succeeding, Snow White appears to die and is usually laid to rest in a crystal casket/glass coffin. Her stepmother’s machinations have _stolen her agency_ (further paralleling Dean’s possession by AU!Michael.) A Handsome Prince stumbles upon Snow White, is besmitten with her, and he asks her protectors if he can have her, as one does. Leaving the Disney adaptation aside, Snow White awakens when whatever item that has caused her death-like state is dislodged (piece of apple in her throat) or removed (magic corset) or withdrawn (poisoned hairpin) by her protectors. Snow White is a story about the community of the dwarves of band of robbers or adopted family caring deeply for her, and when Dean starts making his own crystal casket, the ma’lak box, in which he will ride out eternity in tormented symbiosis with Apocalypse Michael, he has to rely on his family to help him see the plan through. However, here’s where Jack-- who is as much a chaos engine as his surrogate father Castiel if not more so-- steps in and ruins the ending. Jack smites Michael. Dean Winchester is saved. Again. To put the final nail in the coffin, so to speak, Jack later destroys the ma’lek box entirely.

That was quite the surprise ending… for one of the stories.

Was the end of season 14 the end of the Sleeping Beauty theme, also?

END OF TL;DR

I quit writing about “folklore” for a while, but that doesn’t mean it stopped being a theme. It just stopped being fun to write about as the story got more and more dark, and when it transmuted into two parallel themes of “folklore” or storytelling by the people versus Death of the Author--or storytelling by a lauded authority-- and there was so much angst about the boundaries of Chuck’s powers, I just wanted to sit back and enjoy that. I did distill my thoughts about Sam’s new arc in the DotA plot, which I thought would subsume the folktale themes but hey, we still have folktales around, too. I mean, we have Sam and we have Dean, and we have two “literary” subtexts, or maybe rather two subjects about the nature of story, something that I thought was a little bit of a surprise.

Storytelling was a Feature of 15x07 Last Call, both in the sense that Lee and Dean swap new stories and tell old tales of their adventures together as they catch up, but also in the sense that we got additional “text”-- hints of a backstory where John and Dean hunted with Lee in that swampy long-ago “Stanford era,” and again we get storytelling when _Lee recounts how he ended up keeping a marid in his basement_. There is also an allusion to the Thousand and One Arabian Nights in that episode that I yelled about in a meta that I never put on the interwebs, but the “marid” is in a specific tale in many editions of that collection, and thus calls in not only a different folktale tradition but the concept of a framed/nested narrative, which I believe will be important to understanding the last episodes of the series, but that’s an aside. In 15x08 Our Father Who Aren’t In Heaven, Castiel _tells Michael the story_ of how everyone ended up where they are now to convince him to help. And Michael and Adam’s allyship, if not friendship, was probably the best subversion of any “storytelling” expectation we’ve ever had on this show. Belphagor set us up for “room full of crazy” or something, but, no. We got symbiosis.

That almost sums up how I’ve been viewing the last “era” of spn. This wasn’t in the master post, but I shouted a lot about underworlds before 15x09 Purgatory 2: Return to Purgatory, and then stopped shouting because I had to ferment for a while. Also, as has been mentioned, the world turned to crap. But talking to other meta writers during the ramp up to the resumption of the season helped me realize just why this reading of myth to folktales to literature feels so right.

Underworlds and Otherworlds…. Everybody has crossed into an “underworld” or three in Supernatural, it’s really nbd. It was actually surface-level plot in season 13. By the time 15x09 rolled around, our heroes are just, like, strolling in and out of “sealed off” Hell after doing a level one spell and chilling with Billie in the Empty and even that Purgatory trip didn’t have the same feeling of danger that, say, crossing into the AU did. But also, we’re at the point where subtext is leading us to a _satisfactory_ ending. Where before we had serial text, like a cumulative tale type-- “The House that Jack Built”-- which just kept adding more and more plot, we’re hurtling o’er the apex of Freytag’s pyramid now and things are getting loud.

But they’re also getting very shifty.

I wrote a little bit about Sam Winchester successfully reviving Eileen in 15x06 Golden Time and the “Orpheus and Eurydice” symbolism of him keeping his back to her. (I’m not linking it because it’s so, so rough.) But because Sam is not an underworld hero, not completely-- I see him as a modern Protagonist coming to terms in a psychoanalytical model with things like mortality, fallibility, and mastery-- maybe bildungsroman, even -- he was able to subvert the tragic ending of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice because it is not “his” story. But if I were pressed to find a mythic or folk tale type to measure Sam against, I could. I would probably sideye “the sorcerer’s apprentice” trope (ATU 325-The Magician and his Pupil :D ) which began as a poem that entered European folklore on different fronts. (and weirdly, that story was also Disnified in Fantasia. That’s probably more my own limitation as a gen x american lol than anything coming from the writer’s room.)

Dean got his moment in Purgatory where he was able to finally come to grips with his anger and heal the rift between himself and Castiel because Purgatory is a different kind of underworld. Dean is a successful threshold-crosser, having crossed that boundary out of Purgatory before, but in 15x09, his prayer to Castiel is all a subtextual evocation of doing the emotional and mental work of therapy, which Sam, as a modern protagonist, is usually caught up in. The mythic hero also deals with mortality, failibilty, and mastery, but in different terms. I hope I’m doing an okay job peeling apart these nuances that I’m seeing.

Since Castiel accompanied Dean to Purgatory, and in the past made his own wildly successful incursion into and out of Hell with Dean’s soul, and was the one in The Trap who actually retrieved the Leviathan blossom, Castiel counts as an underworld hero, too, but you can pull the lever and send the tumblers spinning again and make him a fairy tale character in that he has made this Bargain with the Empty which is both in the “modern” tradition of subverting a fairy tale, and the tale type “deal with the devil.” Or he could be seen as a modern protagonist in that he’s lowkey grappling with questions of selfhood and identification. “I am an angel of the lord.” “I am no one.” “It’s Steve, now.” “You are nothing.” “I am an angel.”

We even got an episode that playfully explored the concept of “hero” by subverting our expectations (Sam and Dean were rescued by, of all people, an upgraded Garth.) It was called The Hero’s Journey, after the Joseph Campbell book about mythic heroes.... !!! Like, what??? !!!! I didn’t even have anything to say about that episode, it just rocked. The “meta” was just all out there in plot, like the olives and boiled eggs in a 1950’s gelatin recipe.

Some of this slipperiness in the subtext points right at the study of folklore and the (admittedly Eurocentric at first) efforts to transform a “soft science” into something approaching scientific rigor. The Aarne-Thompson-Uther folktale index is today a codifying or cataloguing tool, with which anthropologists and literature scholars can line up stories based on the motifs found within them-- it is useful for cataloguing tales, making comparative studies, and for trying to trace these stories back through human history to find the One First Story of that type, for instance the ur-story that led to Snow White. When did people first start telling that tale, where, how did it spread, and why are we still telling it today? The danger in using the ATU index is that by stripping a story down to it’s bones, we lose the story, if that makes sense. The beauty of using the ATU index is that you find many, many more interconnected stories. It’s sort of a paradox. Some scholars criticize the ATU, claiming that one could take a random selection of these motifs and shuffle them to create a story and, you sort of could? That’s the beauty of the system.

So that brings us to Jack. I feel like Jack, as in Jack of all Trades, is anything that the narrative needs him to be. As far as I can find, “Jack” is not a “tale type.” He shows up alongside any number of them-- sometimes as a trickster, sometimes as a hero, almost always as a kind of slippery character. In the first folklore post, I invested many words in exploring Dabb’s obsession with threes-- AU Michael asks three beings what they desire, asks his human victim to guess his name three times, then we follow three sleeper stories, and so on. The original TFW was three people. But Jack makes four.

What is Jack’s story going to be?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And speaking for a sec about the origins of myth and folklore-- what about ALL OF THE OTHER PEOPLE in the world? Are they lowkey churning the matrix of reality on their own and generating their own content, like Becky and her AO3 stories and mackettes?

*¯\_(ツ)_/¯ intensifies*

It all just feels so good at this point, even the peril that I feel surrounding Castiel.

I *think* this will be the last of the longform metas before the end of the series. I mean, I can only hope so. I’ll drop some stuff about individual episodes that might be applicable as I rewatch, and I might clean up my post about Last Call and drop it on here, but I just wanted to kind of hold this up as a mile marker before the Final Seven air.

#the folklore of supernatural #idk even what to tag this

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wolf-with-a-pen · 4 years ago

Text

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door Part 2

TW: Angst, Hurt/Comfort?, Swearing, Unreality?, Death Mentions

Previous, Masterpost, Next

Tell me if I have missed a trigger warning, ask if you would like me to tag this with anything, and I hope you enjoy.

Last time I said you could skip if you didn't like some of the triggers, but most show up again, sorry.

I might start mentions if you want to be notified when I upload, so if you want that, tell me.

Enjoy!

Word Count: 4170

IT HAD BEEN 3 MONTHS since Ansel had gone and Edward did not take it well. Gradually, they withdrew from general society, spending more time with Jojo and less time with those in the village, those that did not know what had transpired that day and those that would never understand their pain. Most just looked at them with pity in their eyes. As if they needed pity. All they wanted was space. Most of the time was spent watching the realms or sat staring at the walls of the now empty house, that caused pain with every single look and every memory within it. Since the event, they had seen him -the shell they used to call a brother, but they couldn’t anymore. The one they knew was gone, replaced only by the one that looked, sounded and had the same name as Ansel, but was just another extension of the hive mind called the Guardians. There was no reasoning with him, no fun or game, and almost no personality left by the hive. Everything that made him who he was, was drained from him that day. So, Edward ignored him. One thing they never forgot was their promise. Constantly they thought about how to free all those trapped, and the land from the oppression they now saw everywhere they went.

One thing they had managed to do was befriend the Guardian of the realms, Isi, who once you got to know it, it was a good listener and sensible, as well as childish and had a personality so amiable that you couldn’t believe that the outside matched the person. And yet, it was how it was. By the time we are at currently, they were pretty close, close enough they both knew some of each other’s secrets. For example, both knew they were non-binary – Isi was agender. Both knew about each other’s lives. Isi knew about the incident. Edward knew about Isi’s girlfriend, and how Isi had crossed over before in order to save her from death. They bonded over their circumstances, ideals and motives- to protect those they love, even if it is breaking the rules or likely to get them killed, or worse. Edward had even told it their plans, and what they had overheard. Isi was more than willing to help, but refused to break rules unless necessary. However, not everything lasts forever.

It had been a normal meet-up as far as they were concerned, they had managed to create a working plan- go around and find all of the remaining elders, and convince them to help round up enough people to overthrow the Guardians. What they didn’t know, was there was someone eavesdropping, curious about why they were talking and as close as they were. Despite not hearing everything, Biff still heard enough to know that Edward was planning on overthrowing the guardians, and so she visited the guardians to tell them of his treachery. That set their timer. It would start the second they left. Thankfully for them, they spent at least 1 human day in there. However, the second they came out they noticed something was wrong by the looks a now-returned Biff gave them. Death-glare. As if they had killed her parents. Isi climbed back into the box, marked Edward back in, and waved them off.

Isi turned to face Biff. “What’s wrong?”

“I hope you are not joining them in their plans.”

“What plans?”

“Don’t act dumb, I know they’re planning on overthrowing the Guardians. I hope you aren’t joining them.”

“Of course not.” Biff lied, completely and utterly scared to death. It rarely lied, so hopefully Biff wouldn’t notice.

“Good. If you were, you would be in deep trouble right now.”

In its head, Isi breathed a sigh of relief, but still felt fear, knowing that someone knew their plans. Knowing that Edward would be in danger. Knowing that it was in danger. Isi excused itself, knowing that nobody else would come, only Edward, pretending it had filing to do, and then it would go to bed. Quickly, it packed all of its stuff in a bag, as well as using one of two phones they stole while in the border room to contact Edward and warn them to collect all their stuff that they could want on earth, and meet back at the border as soon as possible. It hoped they got the message in time.

Of course, they didn’t- well, not quite. By the time they got that message, they were on their doorstep, staring intently at the letter, taped exactly where Ansel’s was. However, this time, they had an escape plan. Quickly they jumped into action, bursting through the taped message, and grabbing the bags that they had already prepared, grabbing a few empty ones and packing up everything they had left out. Nostalgia and memories flooded through them as they prepared to step through the door for the last time. Nobody knew whether they would be back, but all of them knew they would be gone for quite a while. Not everything went to plan though. Outside the door stood three Guardians, preparing for resistance. Turning on their heels, they jumped through the window and landed running as fast as they possibly could, looking back once or twice to make sure they weren’t being followed, before heading straight for the border. A familiar buzz told them Isi had texted them, and reading the text, they had to laugh. It had come just a few minutes too late. Luckily, they figured it out quick enough they escaped, but others may not have been as lucky.

A short run later, and they were there- at the meeting point, another border post that had been long since blocked up and was relatively abandoned. Mainly due to it not bordering anything. Only Isi and the guardians had access, and barely anyone knew about it. They were greeted by a nervous Isi that was clearly worried. “We need to leave, now. Biff knows and told the Guardians. I know when the shift swaps over, we should be able to sneak through then, and be gone before anyone figures out. Do you have somewhere to go?”

“Not that I know of, but I can find something.”

“OK, I have a place to go, if I can I may be able to convince her to let you stay for a while until you find a suitable place. I recommend either going to school or getting a job, since you look around that age in order to blend in and earn money to use.”

“Alright, I agree, but I will get out of there as quick as possible. On Earth I will try to gain an army so we can come back and rescue the angels from the Guardians. Will you help me?”

“Yes, of course. It will be harder though because we need to find enough spirits who can enter heaven and humans that can see through the veil of death. Both of those are rare, but once we find one we should be able to find the rest.”

“We’d better get to work then so we can shorten the amount of time they live in control.”

“First, to get to earth we will need to get the jewels.”

“Jewels?”

“The ones I told you about? The ones that give us a physical form on Earth?”

“Oh, right. Yes, of course.”

Isi led them round a corner, into a room lined with just the jewels in all different forms- some necklaces, some watches, some earrings, some more obscure like notebooks or bags, but all had one thing in common- they were all iridescent and depending on how you looked at them they change colour. One instantly caught Edward’s eye, a golden jewel glinting in the corner of their eye. They turned and gently walked towards it. As they did so the jewel glowed brighter (if that was even possible). Eventually they notice what it was embedded in- a earring small, silver and with a whiteish jewel that glowed golden if you looked at it right. Mesmerised, they took it off the stand and put it on. Looking over they watched Isi take a pretty necklace- a gold chain with a modest sized jewel that looked grey but eventually as it moved changed to purple, then red, then pastel blue and back to grey.

“Ok, you got yours?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“No problem, the guards should be changing around now, and so the border is left relatively unguarded for a few minutes.”

“Let’s go then, if you’re ready.”

“After you.”

Unfortunately, Isi was wrong. Due to an “escaped convict” (as of yet they hadn’t been convicted of anything and they hadn’t been caught), that “is extremely dangerous” (they couldn’t hurt a fly), guards had been doubled for most of the next few days. They had two options- go back to the abandoned post until the guards died down or fight their way through. Naturally, they chose the former. Neither of them particularly wanted a fight. The universe had other plans though. “Hey, what are you doing here? Wait… aren’t you the wanted convict? Hey, stop that! No-” It was at this point they had him tied up. Both had reacted quickly considering it was Isi’s first time at violence on another person, and Edward did not particularly enjoy it. Sadly, not quick enough. He had managed to alert a few of the guards in the main room, the one Isi usually sat in, and they were ready to attack. Edward saw the violent way out. Isi saw the cowards way. Quickly, it ran and closed the doors, locking them with the key it had been given in case. “Follow me, I know a way. All the guards are in the main room trying to break down the door, so the side room is clear.”

“Ok.” Edward answered, following after it, through a side door in the tower.

Behind the door was what they believed must have been a break room of sorts for if the guards got tired or hungry. Not that they could particularly, but it was still a nice thought. It was full of counters, a fridge, a microwave and a small stove. A couch sat against one wall, a coffee table just in front of it. However, that wasn’t what drew their attention. Biff was stood threateningly, staring straight at them, looking as if she had been watching the door for ages. “Well, well, look at what the cat dragged in. If it isn’t the convict and their assistant.”

“Biff, you don’t want to do this.”

“Oh, but I do. You have betrayed your people. And me. I was the one who helped you remember. And yet, you’d leave me so quickly. For them. A convict who wants to bring down our glorious guardians. So why? Why do you believe them over me?” She snarled, biting into Isi with every word.

“Unlike you I can see the truth of our supposed “glorious guardians” and they are not what you think- cruel, murderous and they could not care less about us. Any of us. We are just toys.”

“Oh sweetie, I know. I always knew. You were so easy to manipulate into believing me, I just didn’t expect you to ever break out. I tried to stop you from joining them, I really did. But now I will have to kill you.”

“No, no you won’t. Remember who beat your score on the training course? I can and will do it if you force me to.” Isi taunted, watching as fear flashed on Biff’s face. “That’s what I thought. Now will you let us through or will you make us do this the hard way?”

Begrudgingly, Biff thought over the preposition. She really didn’t want to fight Isi. She knew that it was better at fighting than her, however its personality completely nerfed that. She came to her decision. “This time, I will let you through, but the next time you meet, you better be prepared. I will not hold back.”

“Yeah right, coward,” antagonised Isi, as it dragged Edward through the door to the portal room.

“Hey! Asshole!” Biff yelled as she watched them slam the door closed, and heard the familiar click of the lock. “Great,” she thought. “Imma be in trouble.”

On the other side of the door, Isi was running to lock the main doors as Edward lugged their stuff to the portal. Once it was sure it was locked it ran to Edward, and began to watch the portal. Before long they heard the sounds of the door being smashed in. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! went the door as the guards tried to burst through, struggling due to the strength of the lock. Under its breath, it was murmuring “Come on, come on, change already,” clearly frustrated at the portal and the lack of it changing. All Edward could do was wait. Watching. With every hit, the door bent beyond how you believed it could. Each time, their sinking feeling increased. Gradually losing hope. Eventually, believing they were not going to make it. They heard a sickening crack, coming from the door. They knew it was over for them. However, they weren’t going down without a fight. Edward estimated another two attempts and the guards would be through. Feebly, they raised their fists, ready to fight them back until the portal opened. Bang! Attempt one. Bang! Attempt two. Bang! CRACK! The door collapsed in bits onto the floor. “It’s open!” Isi yelled, and before they could think, both had grabbed their bags and ran through the portal, almost straight into a wall. As they stepped through, they heard the annoyed guardians, the leader barking out orders at the Guard, threatening him with demotion. Edward didn’t care anymore- as far as they were concerned, they were safe.

Through the portal, it was dark. As expected though- it had been evening when they had left earlier. Once their eyes had adjusted, Edward could just about tell that they were in an alley somewhere. Expectantly, they looked at Isi. It didn’t notice – it was too busy watching outside to see whether the coast was clear or not. Glancing back quickly, it dragged them out into the very deserted street, only an occasional car broke the silence. “Welcome to Coventry!” Isi exclaimed. “Now, I know it doesn’t look like much yet, but trust me, you’ll like it. First though, we need to get set up and try to find all the supplies we will need until I can find Vanessa tomorrow.”

“Who’s Vanessa?” They asked tentatively.

“Oh, she’s my girlfriend. Unfortunately, she thinks I’m dead. However, I should be able to explain everything to her and get us in there. I know she hasn’t been dating anybody or filled my spot in her flat.”

“That sounds kinda stalkerish.”

“Nah, I’m not stalking her. Just making sure she’s ok. What else am I meant to do with my days? She’s the only one that still cares. The rest forgot I existed.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s inevitable and natural. I’ve been dead 6 years. She should have moved on but she chose not to. I honestly don’t want to because it will permanently stop her from moving on, but we have nothing else to do. And I missed her. Too much. Anyway, let’s go.”

Edward followed it as they wandered down through town, to the few places it knew would be open and it could trust.

Light was just beginning to appear over the horizon as they made their way to the third and final place they would go to before visiting Vanessa. It was a little bar- looked cosy and homely from the outside, flower beds under the windows with flowers in all the colours of the gay flag. Pansies, roses, lavender, violets and carnations. Above the door there were a few hanging baskets in the trans and non-binary flag’s colours, vines trailing down from them in pastel blue and pink, hot purple, yellow and black, white trailing roses hanging between them. The building was relatively old- white with black woodwork, making it look almost like a cottage. A sign over the door read “Dick’s Dicks (And Drinks)” in bold, black on the white sign, outlined in rainbow.

“This place looks cool,” Edward said without realising they were saying their thoughts out loud.

“It is, it’s a gay bar, but focuses on inclusion, as you can tell by the sign on the door saying everyone’s welcome. It is open nearly 24/7, and the staff are funny and kind. When I was alive I used to come here all the time with Vanny. It’s a bar but really it’s a safe haven for anyone, as long as they don’t promote hate.”

“Ok, now it sounds amazing. We going in?”

“Of course we are.”

As they walked through the door, Edward marvelled on how pretty the inside was as well as the outside. The walls were half and half-top half was grey brick, bottom half was painted, each wall a different colour in all the colours of the pastel rainbow. To the left was a set of stairs leading to a second floor, to the right was a curved bar, cutting off a corner of the nearly square room. Tables, chairs and couches were strewn around the room, mostly empty. Behind the bar was one member of staff, relatively tall and with a kind, weathered face. A mop of brown on their head, and eyes staring at both of the newcomers. In shock and recognition. "Hey Isi, aren't you dead? And Isi's friend, I saw your death on the news."

"Yeah, we're dead." Isi explained.

"You didn't get kicked out of heaven did you?" The barman joked.

"Well, we can't exactly go back. If we did we'd be punished,and there's only 2 punishments: losing your soul or being destroyed permanently. Neither sound good so." Edward explained, sitting on one of the bar stools.

"Wait, what? Seriously?"

"Yeah," Isi replied.

"Wow. So, I guess you came here because you couldn't go any other place."

"Yep. "

"OK. You want any drinks or food?"

"Yes please." Isi asked.

"OK, I'll let you look over these and decide what you want." He said, handing them some rainbow menus with gold detail on them.

1 hour later and they had had the best (and one of the only) meal since they had died, the entire time talking to the barman, who Edward now knew owned the place, and was called Dick. "Hey, you'll need a job won't you Eddy, how'd you fancy working for me?"

"Wait, really?"

"Yes."

"I'd like that, thank you Dick."

"It's my pleasure, I needed a new worker, so who better than someone I know? If you give me your phone number I'll text you your timetable. If you're free now, we can start training and Isi can go find it's girlfriend and reconcile."

"That sounds great thank you."

"I'm fine with that. I'd probably better go hadn't I?"

"I know your nervous, but from the sounds of it she loves you, she will not be mad at you, and you will be OK."

"Thank you. OK, so I'll see you later then?"

"See you, I'll come back with Vanny in tow in a while, probably around lunch. Have fun while I'm gone."

"Oh, we will, won't we Ed?"

"I guess. Bye." Edward replied as they watched Isi leave.

Isi wasn't nervous. It was petrified. It had spent the morning wondering how she would react and now it was the time to talk to her. Every step felt like torture as it walked through the peaceful streets, tracing a familiar path back to where it used to live. A small flat-2 bed with a living room, kitchen and a dining room as well as a bathroom and a study. Modest but that was all it needed to get by that and the beautiful views (despite being in the centre of town the block was tall enough to see out beyond the city). Most of the time it was out helping others or at work so it didn't matter to it. That was always its personality-only hindered by the lack of social skills and confidence to actually talk to others, but it didn't mind. It had a few close friends before death, and it was content with those. Isi was so absorbed in its reflection on the past, it hadn't noticed it had marched into Vanessa's home and was stood looking disoriented around the living room. Everything was the same as it was, but something was off- just the aura of it. One of emptiness and abandon. Not surprising considering everything. However, before it knew what was happening, Vanny was behind it, knocking it out with a frying pan. Isi crumpled and fell to the floor.

Meanwhile, Edward was stressed. What Dick hadn't mentioned was that it was the busiest time of the year, month, and week due to all of the people not being in school and adults taking time off for the summer holidays. They instantly realised why Dick wanted them to stay behind- he needed the help. In total there were 3 people behind the counter and about 3 or 4 tables for each of them to tend to at all times. They were surprised at this-they didn't expect it to be as popular as it was, considering everyone around them's reaction to them coming out, but they proved them wrong. Finally, the lunch staff came and they could have a rest.

"You didn't tell me it would be this busy."

"Because I knew you wouldn't stay if I told you, and I needed help and fast."

"I'm okay with it, just tell me next time."

"How did it go?"

"Don't ask. " Edward replied, remembering all of the awkward responses he gave and all of the things that went wrong. "Just don't ask."

"OK," replied Dick, not asking. "How about you meet the other member of staff- properly, not during a rush."

"Sure."

Dick dragged Edward over towards the table that said co-worker was sat at, idly scrolling on his phone. "Mast meet Edward. They are a new staff member." Mast started, not expecting someone to come up behind him. "Oh, hello, I'm Mast, how are you?"

"I'm good thank you. I am Edward. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, what brought you to work here?"

"I needed a job, happened to come down here today and was offered a job, not knowing how busy today would be."

"It was quite busy wasn't it. I can't imagine how hard a first day would be with all that traffic."

"I managed. It can't get any worse can it?"

"Trust me, it can. How did you find this place?"

"Oh, my friend brought me here. I'm new to town so it was showing me all of the places of interest, and we finished here for breakfast. It knows Dick, so he gave me a job."

"Cool."

"How long have you been working here?"

"Only a year or so, but I enjoy it and feel like I've been working here forever at this point."

"Cool."

"You're waiting for the friend you mentioned earlier aren't you?"

"Yeah, it said it would come back for lunch with its girlfriend but it isn't here. I wonder how it is."

"It's probably fine, if you're that worried, message it."

"Oh yeah, I forgot I could do that, thanks."

"You're welcome."

Isi woke up on the sofa. Whose sofa, it didn't know. It also didn't care. Staring straight at it was Vanessa. "Is it really you?" Vanny said meekly.

For a second, Isi was startled and disoriented from just walking up. Then it clicked. It remembered everything that happened including getting hit in the back of the head. Gently it lifted the upper half of its body until it was on eye level with Vanny, ignoring the stinging pain in the back of its head.

"Yes, it’s me Vans, I'm here now."

At this, Vanny broke down into tears. I mean-how else could she react to finding her dead partner is actually alive. “Hey, hey,” Isi murmured, gaining Vanny’s attention, “What’s wrong?”

“I hurt you. I promised not to and I did.” Vanessa replied, choking on her tears.

“It was not your fault, OK? You were not expecting me, I did not warn you, and honestly I would have done the same. You did not hurt me on purpose. Plus, I can’t physically get hurt for long anymore, OK, I am not mad.”

“Really? Wait, what do you mean you can’t get hurt?”

“I will explain everything once you have calmed down enough, OK?”

“Ok,” Vanny reluctantly agreed, as she laid on the sofa next to Isi, who was alreayd laying back down, hugging it gently. She rested her head on Isi’s shoulder. Isi hugged her back, happy that it could at last.

#tw swearing mention #tw angst #tw unreality #tw death #Knockin' On Heaven's Door #original content

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haknew · 4 years ago

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pls talk about your thoughts about chanhee and also the other concepts!! I always have such a hard time interpreting music and videos but i love to read about it

“bestie pls share ur thoughts on make your own concepts specifically chanhee’s but any others that are ur fave too 🎤- mar”

omg mar thank you for enabling me all day today 😭🥺🧡 thenks bestie ily :,)) and thank you too anon ! i should preface that T-T i have not read any other theories or analyses so these are just my opinions / impressions but i hope it’s entertaining to read about haha :p ! (feel free @ anyone to add on or share your thoughts too ! :,))

HYUNJAE - okay so audio cues... if you listen to the beginning there’s a sound of a bomb going off before the music starts ? and that ties into the dystopian / cyborg aesthetics that jump out at me of course, but what i immediately thought of was their no air perfo ? like we know hyunjae in the no air mv got that shot where he’s laying in the bathtub filled with water but also their kingdom performance with it also had those underwater shots ! so i think it ties into that... i feel like we saw in gen z, he’s a very straightforward person he says things on his mind which can come off as blunt but he thinks it’s better than not saying it ? which is interesting bc i think that speaks to his self- determined personality, he’s much more inclined to do whatever it takes to get something done, which i think falls perfectly in line with the “make your own air” phrase that he gets, if it’s something he needs he makes it himself, in a situational sense methinks u.u

JUYEON - JUYEON’S DJSKHDG i’m waiting for dri’s essay but in essence we see the gen z “juyeon is not such a good boy” shot and these text bubbles that pop up that say “sexy” “you so hot” “such a bad boy” and tbh i like this ‘concept’ ? for him better than his gen z one ? it’s not bc of the concept itself but i like the idea that he can “make your own character” as in he has the capability and power to be whoever he wants to ! you see him throwing white paint at the gen z canvas and i think ?! that’s symbolic of like a fresh canvas ! of remaking himself to whatever he wants bc the canvas is now blank again thanks to the white paint and flowers usually indicate spring ? so renewal and stuff like that ! i really like his, it’s also fun word play on “character” which has been juyeon’s intro in tbz (bc his name sounds like main character in korean) but yea :o ! i really love his the idea he can just repaint / paint over a literal image of him gives it the possibility of becoming smth new and that’s so so cool

CHANGMIN - SCREEEEECH okie um oh boy um *windows shutting down noises* this was so so so very different from his gen z stuff but i actually think BOTH are equally perfect for him ? the way that he set up the sparklers and neon lights on this very obviously trashy and kind of rundown rooftop with the cityline behind him is so ?!?!? LITERALLY making his own stage as his tagline goes, sort of like how the physical stage itself does not matter but rather it’s changmin himself that makes the stage special ! i talked about this in gabi’s set that i rbed ;-;/ but changmin puts a lot A LOT of stake in his position as a dancer it means almost everything to him as a form of expression from what i can see ? so he’s always trying his best to put forward the best performance possible and seeing this segment makes me feel like he’s doing just that ! pouring himself into it to make his stage pls i care him

HAKNYEON - god i’m a jusadan but just u.u rest in peace me, i’ll ... T_T be kind of honest this one confuses me a little ? i have assumptions and i feel like i know ... quite a bit about haknyeon (LMAO) my best guess is it has smth to do with self assurance ...? the way he’s framed and the fact that he’s sitting on a bed in the middle of a church surrounded by candles gives me christ figure symbolism (where my ap english takers at :/) and the light that perfectly frames him in a halo gives me angel vibes too, but the tagline of “make your own romance” paired with him kissing his reflection makes me think it’s about self love ;;;; from what i can tell haknyeon has always been someone who really likes feeling validated and praised for the stuff he does well, which he does for himself a lot of the times too ! but sometimes i think the self assurances he compliments himself with is more for reassuring himself rather than bragging (which i think people misinterpret) so it’s more about becoming the person he wants to fully love and being happie with himself which *tears* i might be reading too much into who knows i just love him ok ... U.U

KEBINNN - i know !!! dri mentioned this in my gifset tags but ! kev on kpop daebak (? was it) or smth mentioned how he strives to keep a childlike wonderment for the world around him, which is a reason why i think he loves drawing and sound / music production, he talked in a fancafe post once about an artist who turned mediocre everyday objects into art and he said he really loves that sense of wonderment so peter pan who “never grows up” is actually perfect for his worldview ahhhh T^T also kev really likes disney lmao, the way he’s doing this outside in this “neverland” garden on a balcony which is a part of this very typical apartment backed by a typical city bg also i believe ties into this turning a mediocre everyday thing into smth wonderful through his sense of childlike wonderment and his tagline of “make your own fantasy” (i also care him a lot this concept >>>>>>) and keeps to his referencing movie plotlines like he did in gen z jddkfj

SUNWOO - i also mentioned this in my tags on sunu’s set but this gives me 100 degrees vibes which i still to this day think is one of the most “sunwoo” vibe things ever, it’s a lot of him having fun and doing his own thing, and mixes both more mature and youthful aspects together in a way that i’d only ever describe as sunwoo vibes LMAO like the roller skating around and all the soap bubbles ! cute and youthful ! the crop top and celine wasitband (don’t laugh at me we all noticed) more mature and a callback to his gen z look methinks U.u, think sunwoo has always been a more go-with-the-flow or do whatever he feels like doing sort of person and so “make your own vibe” fits well with him in that sense to me

SANGYEON - .... *silence* *more windows shutting down noises* *jess.exe has stopped working* OKAY i feel like ! sangyeon’s is also more self explanatory :p i love the juxtaposition of boxing AND the arcade type fighter games ?? like both require very different sets of skills i feel like one is more physical the other is more mental ? but both require adapting to changes whether in the game or the boxing ring which as leader sangyeon would know a lot about, esp being flexible and quick to respond to different situations, and the “make your own glory” i feel is maybe more on the nose, but tbz are this man’s pride and joy you can see it literally anywhere and for him, as leader, to have made it this far with tbz, winning rtk and building their popularity through their hard work and efforts really is building his own glory and i just HHHHHHHHHH

YES EYYSFDHSHF CHANHEE YES - i said it in the tags of my srb before deleting it so i’ll just repeat it here but CHOI CHANHEE !!!!! this detail i didn’t quite process first watch was the continuous flashing of lights in all his scenes, like ... from the shots and the set it looks REALLY empty ?? but the flashing seems to indicate cameras and photos being taken of him despite there being no people we can really see in any of the shots ? WHICH IS SO COOL i think the implication is like “all eyes on him” type which SO TRU i love that idea, like i said the walking past the wedding dresses ? v heavily implies fashion designer which i think you mentioned mar :o ! and i see it in the sense of his tagline “make your own stereotype” bc white wedding dresses are the very traditional / typical choice and obviously feminine in stereotypes, whereas chanhee is wearing a SUIT which is all black in a very clean b/w set with no color which i feel is very stereotypically MASCULINE and the glasses too, it’s such an interesting contrast of his “stereotypically feminine” features (in my view) with very masculine symbols, like glasses we usually associate with more soft hearted / meek stereotypes ? but the geometric shape of the windows and again his suit seems to indicate the very opposite ? it’s a mixing of stereotypes which i think is the point, by putting those together he quite literally makes his own stereotype and puts on the crown while the cameras continue flashing while pointed at him AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

YOUNGHOON - okie might have less to say about this one :o i feel like both hak’s and younghoon’s i don’t see the connections quite as readily but ! i think it’s interesting that his tagline is “make your own classic” but then in the scenes itself he has a flip phone ??? with an antenna (okay boomer /j JDHFKFG JK PLS) and a teddy bear while in PERIOD stylized clothing and setting where those two things are more modern / contemporary in origin (but also not modern enough bc ,,, it’s a flip phone LOL) like 90s kid vibes ? you know but as an emperor in the joseon era haha :p while eating shrimp chips and reading a (comic ?) book, like idk too much of what it means but it’s a cool dichotomy LOL, think it might also tie into actor ! hoon bc it’s make your own classic and i think acting has become a very important aspect to him :o after seeing what he’s capable of in love revolution and his atbz video so it’s interesting u.u (need help w/ this one)

JACOB - think my explanation in han’s set’s tags didn’t really make sense so lemme ... reexplain LOL,,, so ! similar to his gen z video ? like he’s talked about how difficult it is to open up about his own feelings etc. and he said it’s less bc he realizes he needs to but rather just to make other people feel more comfortable when it comes to understanding him, and like the whole breaking the mirror with his reflection in the wanna be angry jacob, it’s about freeing himself to the point he can express the emotions he wants to ! in gen z it was about being able to be angry when he felt that way instead of being tied by his image of being just nice ? and in the video with his pilot uniform not only does he control the ride but he also rides on it himself ! quite literally making his own freedom (symbolically), a sort of realizing he can free himself ? from what’s been tying him down and i think the really big smile he has while riding it just comes to show how he wants to feel :,))) (jacob bae i care you)

ERIC - last one :p AHHH this is one of my favs too, the quite literal “make your own pride” I LOVE IT ! sooo i think the biggest takeaway i got was that of course in this video his “pride” is symbolized by the hot pink car (that he’s going to pick up his christmassy date in of course u.u if he has a license which he does n- his driver’s license in this was literally his aaa / boy version of reveal photo which in no dmv anywhere would a license picture be allowed to look that good-) and LITERALLY when he finished and takes it for a joy ride while sitting on the roof he’s STILL covered in the dirt and grime stains ! from working on it ! which i think is so symbolic ! it’s my favorite detail actually, he literally put sweat into this car which is his pride and now that he’s finally riding around in it, it feels accomplishing ! his pride ! love that, also when he’s grabbing a stub from that flyer i noticed he chose “youth” over the others (which was like .... ca$h, beauty, ice cream, hamburger...) which i think also just indicates that despite all this hard work he put in he still cherishes his youth and still lets that be a huge part of who he is (i mean pink car so of course) so idk i think it’s very neat go bestie mwah

#sunnew #anon #asks #not tbz #jess.replies #be your own king analysis #I WROTE SO MUCH PLS #even more than my gen z analysis i think #anyway if anyone reads all of this oof thank you #HHHEEELP #i just did all of them ....#my weakest ones are def hak sunwoo yh #idk but i like what i came up with for the others ! ^^#i've seen a few twt threads but haven't read any lol #wrote the most about chanhee but no one is surprised of course

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wonjaekook · 6 years ago

Text

As Sweet As You

A/N: This was supposed to be trope 20 as you can see but it’s the ninth one being posted because it’s the holiday season... it felt weird writing honorifics (is that the right word?) with some of the dialogue but it also felt weird not doing it in some instances, so you’ll see some of that? This was fun to write and I hope you enjoy :))

21 Tropes: 20. Mistletoe/Holiday Theme + chocolate w/Jeno

Description: It’s the holiday season and, even in the cold, there is warmth and sweetness to be found.

Word Count: 4.2k

Genre: fluff

Warnings: some swearing

“I don’t understand how she’s your cousin,” Jeno says, doing more daydreaming than helping with party preparations. Decorations are only half set up in the dorm, with strings of lights affixed to the wall and little green and white candles in evergreen arrangements displayed on tables.

“What does that mean? Am I supposed to be offended?” Doyoung responds curtly, taking out more cups and stirring the giant pot of hot chocolate on the counter.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Jeno quickly defends, looking up apologetically at his elder. “She’s just so… I don’t know. Sweet?”

“Aren’t you weirded out by him drooling over your cousin?” Haechan chimes in as he walks into the room, carrying what seems to be the last of the decorations in his arms.

“It would be disgusting if it was any of the rest of you. But, Jeno… he’s fine, I guess.”

Haechan huffs. “Favoritism.”

“If you want to be the favorite, you should work on hanging up that tinsel.” Taeyong says from across the room. “Jeno, can you get the door for Johnny and Yuta? They’re back with the tree.”

Jeno gets up, making his way to the front door. He’s hit by a fresh blast of pine as he opens it, Johnny and Yuta barely visible from behind the layers of needles. “Why did you get to carry the stump end again?” Yuta grumbles, knocking some needles onto the ground as they turn into the dorm.

“Because I’m older. Also, dibs.” Johnny retorts, glancing over at Jeno as they walk in. “Thanks, Jeno. Wait, Yuta, turn, turn, turn! Taeyong is going to be pissed if we dent the wall!”

“Eight months! Eight months older! That’s not anything! Also, I know where I’m going.” The two bicker playfully as they put the tree in its stand, Jeno lending a hand wherever needed. Once it’s up, he turns, prepared to get some of the others to help them decorate, but Yuta stops him. “Hey, wait. I have something for you.”

“I didn’t tell you this if Doyoung asks, but you should take what he gives you!” Johnny chimes in as he leaves the room.

“What?” He watches as Yuta pulls some plant out of his pocket. It takes him a moment to recognize it, but when he does, his eyes widen. “Hyung, is this mistletoe?”

“Exactly. Listen,” he hooks an arm around Jeno’s shoulder, hunching over like an old man giving advice to a young whippersnapper, “Y/N is coming to the party, right?”

“How do you know about…?”

“Everyone talks. But, keep this on you and, when the time is right, you know what to do. She likes you too, right?” He hands it to him and all Jeno can do is stare at him incredulously.

“No! I mean, I don’t know, but-!”

“I’m also going to hang some strategically around the dorm just in case-” “You’re just trying to trap Sicheng under one with you,” Doyoung says, looming in the entrance of room, looking slightly terrifying and very unamused. “What are you telling him?”

“I’m giving him a good luck charm,” Yuta says, straightening up. “I’ll go get some of the kids to help decorate the tree!”

“You’re being like one of the kids right now,” Doyoung mutters as he passes by, to which Yuta just smiles at him in response. He turns to Jeno. “I’m not going to threaten you because you’re my favorite, but I’m going to warn you. You should know already, but she’s too shy for anything like that. You’ll scare her off.”

Despite his inhibitions and Doyoung’s warning, Jeno pockets the red and green plant. “I’m not a jerk, hyung. I won’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to. It’s a, um, good luck charm. Like Yuta-hyung said.”

“Whatever you say.” He starts to open one of the boxes with lights and ornaments in it and Jeno joins him. “Just be careful. She doesn’t like the attention.”

“Yuta-hyung said you’re going to woo the love of your life today, Jeno?” Jaemin questions, appearing from around the corner with Chenle and Jisung in tow.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Doyoung sighs. “No wooing in the house.”

“Tell that to Johnny-hyung. You already know he’s going to flirt with the first girl that any of us invited,” Jaemin says, walking into the room and opening an ornament box.

“Can you guys just start decorating?”

As the boys decorate their Christmas tree, halfway across the city, you’re wrapping your gift to Jeno. You had put too much thought into the present, but you’re nervous that it’s not enough. Will he like it? Will he even use it? You’re also nervous about the party itself - should you even be going?

Despite your nerves, you neatly write his name on a gift tag. A moment later, your phone buzzes and you see a text from your cousin telling you that the party will be starting soon. Glancing at your present again, you figure that it will have to do. Pulling on a warm coat, a hat, and some gloves, you walk to your front door and call out to your mother as you slip some shoes on. “Mom, I’m going to Doyoung-oppa’s thing now! I’ll be back later!”

“Wait just a minute!” Your mother appears from around the corner. “You’re not going over there without taking something with you!” She hands a large tin full of what you assume are Christmas cookies to you, which you gratefully accept. She saved you the embarrassment of forgetting because, while it probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal to most of the boys, Doyoung would complain about not getting any of your mother’s baked goods this Christmas. “Say hi to Dongyoung for me!”

“I will, thank you!”

“Jeno, can you go down and get Y/N? She’s outside the building and needs to be let in.” Doyoung looks up from his phone at Jeno after reading the text from his cousin, quickly getting back to work.

The boy in question nods and gets up, puts on his shoes, and heads down. When he spots you through the glass doors at the front of the building, butterflies seem to swarm in his stomach. The way you’re bundled up and have a slight tinge of pink to your cheeks from the cold makes his heart do all sorts of crazy things that he would be embarrassed beyond belief to admit. You smile when you turn and make eye contact with him through the window, waving with one hand and holding the cookies and your gifts for Jeno and Doyoung in the other. You can’t help but think he looks incredibly handsome with his dark hair, but the sweater he’s wearing makes him look cozy at the same time. You’re both relieved and nervous that he was the one who came down to meet you and you can already feel your body warming up in embarrassment and shyness before he even opens the door and ushers you in.

“Hi, Jeno!” You say, smiling sweetly. He really hopes he isn’t turning visibly pink at how cute he thinks you are.

“Hi, Y/N. Merry Christmas! Or, I guess, Merry early Christmas?” When he sees that you’re carrying things, he extends his hands, offering to help. “Can I help you carry anything?” “Oh! This is actually for you.” You take the wrapped present with his name on it off your stack and give it to him. He takes it with a wide-eyed look.

“You got me something?” You feel like you’re back in high school again, like you’re handing your crush a box of chocolates to confess to him. You blush hard, but try to push down your lack of composure.

“Yup! But, no opening it until it’s actually Christmas, okay?”

The bright eye-smile he gives you makes the embarrassment worth it and you can’t stop looking at his happy expression. “Thank you so much, Y/N. You didn’t have to…” He breaks eye contact with you to look down at the present before he looks up again with a start. “I actually have something for you, too! It’s just in my room right now… sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. You can get it later.” Your hands are shaking badly with your barely-contained joy, but you hide it by clutching the tin of cookies and Doyoung’s gift. “Also… I might have only brought gifts for you and Doyoung-oppa, so this is a secret, okay?”

Jeno makes the zipped lips motion with his hand, still smiling. “Let’s go up.” As soon as they get in through the door, he takes her coat and puts it in the closet by the door, setting off waves of butterflies in her stomach. “I’m going to go hide this,” he says, holding the gift up. After getting a nod and smile from him, signaling to him that she heard him, he leaves again, heading to Dream’s dorm just down the hall. After he shuts the door, he practically melts as he walks, sighing dreamily before he realizes he isn’t alone.

“Gross.” Jaemin sidles up next to him, stepping out of the doorway of the Dream dorm. “I’m kidding, it’s just weird to see you like this. Has she seen your angry side yet?”

“No, and she isn’t going to.” Jeno frowns, but has enough sense to try to hide his gift behind his back. To his dismay, Jaemin sees, tilting his head.

“What’s that?”

“Nothing,” Jeno answers quickly, trying to sidle past his friend, but Jaemin stops him, snatching the present out of his hands.

“To: Jeno, From: Y/N, Merry Christmas? Cute. I hope she put this much love and thought into all of us, otherwise I might think that she likes you or something.” Jaemin eyes him, giving him a mischievous, knowing smile.

“She only got stuff for Doyoung-hyung and I, so it’s a secret, okay?” Jeno walks past him, heading towards his room with Jaemin trailing him.

“Are you gonna open it?”

“I’m not supposed to open it until Christmas.” Jeno switches the light to his room on.

“Don’t you want to know what’s inside, though? It could be a confession.” Jaemin draws out his last word very purposefully and he sees Jeno’s eyebrow twitch.

“You’re evil, you know that?”

Jaemin gives him a mock-offended look, bringing a hand to his heart. “It really could be! What would be more romantic than a confession on Christmas? And, if it went south, then she wouldn’t have to face the embarrassment in person!”

“She doesn’t like me like that!”

“Oh, come on.” Jaemin gives him a look of complete nonbelief. “Anyways, if it’s a confession of some sort, you should open it now. That way, you won’t even need the help of Yuta-hyung’s mistletoe! Come on, you know you want to.”

“You just want to know what it is.” Jeno’s eyes, once on firmly on his friend, drift back to the gift in his hands.

“So do you.” With a sigh, he finally gives in, beginning to gently unwrap it. His group member watches in anticipation, but just looks confused for a moment after all of the paper comes off, revealing a CD case with a clear front cover. Inside the plastic case is a CD labeled “Summer Songs to Make the Winter Less Cold.” Stuck carefully to the back of the case is a note listing the songs and artists. Jeno isn’t familiar with any of the songs listed on it, only recognizing the band DAY6 next to one of the songs. He doesn’t listen to them, but he knows of them. At the bottom of the song list is a note from you.

‘I tried to find songs that you might enjoy but don’t listen to a lot yet. Hopefully they’ll bring a little warmth in the winter season. I don’t know if you’ll like it, but we can listen together if you do! -Y/N’

“Okay, not necessarily a confession, but still cute, I guess.” Jaemin reads the note over Jeno’s shoulder.

“I’ll listen to it later, let’s go to the party. Everyone is waiting.” Jeno turns around, setting the CD case on his nightstand before grabbing the gift that he got for you. Unlike yours, it isn’t wrapped, but he hopes you’ll like it anyways.

“No one is waiting for us, except maybe Y/N for you!” Jaemin declares, following Jeno out of the room.

“Merry Christmas, Doyoung-oppa!” Meanwhile, back in the 127 dorm, you greet your cousin, setting down your tin of cookies on the counter and interrupting his drink preparations to hug him and present his present. “This is for you.”

“Merry Christmas, Y/N.” You put your gift in his hands and smile. “What’s this?”

“A Christmas present, for being a great cousin. Plus, some cookies from mom to share.”

“This is why you’re my favorite. Always the sweet one.” He puts the gift aside, pulling out two cups.

“Favoritism in the family, too, huh?” Haechan says from across the room, finally done with all of his decorating.

Doyoung rolls his eyes at him as you greet him. Before turning back around, your cousin starts to speak again. “Where’s Jeno? I assumed you would be glued at the hip.”

“He had to run back to the Dream dorm to put something away, no biggie.” Despite being certain that your cousin knows about your massive crush on his dongsaeng, you don’t want to give away that you gave him the special treatment of a Christmas present.

“Hot chocolate or eggnog?”

“Hot chocolate, please.” You say, watching him take out two cups.

“Two hot chocolates coming up, then.” The look you give him gives away your confusion and he quirks an eyebrow at you. “Some useful information: Jeno also likes hot chocolate. Plus, giving you some for him will give you an excuse to talk to him. Not that you need an excuse, but it’ll help.”

Instead of trying to deny what your cousin is implying, you just nod, looking down. “Thank you.”

Doyoung grabs the large container of hot chocolate, preparing to serve it, before he realizes what happened and frowns. “...or, you could get him to come here and wait with you because someone unplugged this and now it’s cold!” He gives the inhabitants of the large common area an accusatory look and you stifle a laugh.

“It’s fine. I’m going to go… talk to him, I guess. I’ll tell him about your frustrations with the hot chocolate.” As you get up and turn the corner to leave the room, you bump into just the person you were looking for, incidentally grabbing onto his hands to stop yourself from falling over.

“Shit, are you okay? Sorry, Y/N, I didn’t mean to run into you.” Jeno apologizes, not letting go of your hands. You’re instantly aware of what you’re doing, but don’t want to say anything because his hands feel so nice. Trying to stutter out an apology of your own, you look anywhere but at him.

“Ah, no, it’s my fault, I-”

Hoots echo behind the two of you. “Would you look at that!” Yuta yells from the other side of the room. The pair of you look up, seeing the fresh mistletoe hanging above your heads. “Kiss, you lovebirds!”

“I guess we have to, right?” Jeno says after a moment of silence, chuckling awkwardly and reaching a hand up to scratch the back of his neck. Realizing how he must sound after seeing the astonished look on your face, he quickly backtracks. “If you’re okay with it, though? I mean! We don’t have to if you don’t want to…”

“No, it’s fine, I…” You say, trailing off. You can almost feel the eyes of all the boys in the common area on you, burning into your skin. He nervously puts his hands on your shoulders. You keep your head down, gaze fixed on the floor and cheeks heating up more the closer he gets.

“I can’t kiss you if you won’t look at me,” he says quietly. Slowly, you tear your eyes away from the ground and tilt your head up. Your eyes meet his warm chocolate brown ones and your heart suddenly feels like it just stopped in your chest. For that moment, he is the only thing you see.

Then, a second later, you remember all of the other boys staring at you and your heart sinks and fills with nerves at the same time. He’s closer than he’s ever been before, but all you can think about are the other pairs of eyes on you.

“I-” You start, heart caught in your throat. “I can’t do this.” You shrug his hands off of your shoulders and back away towards the front door. “I’m sorry, Jeno, I can’t.”

In a flash, you have your coat and shoes on, slipping out the front door like you had never been there at all.

He stands there, shocked, feet frozen in place for a moment as what just happened processes. Then, he noticeably deflates, his hands dropping to his sides, his shoulders sagging, and his chin lowering.

“Idiot,” Doyoung hisses, smacking Yuta on the shoulder across the room, “I told you it was a stupid plan.”

Jeno still stands under the sprig of mistletoe, staring at the ground. Doyoung makes his way over, resting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “What are you doing? Go after her.”

“She rejected me, hyung. Flat-out.” He says, barely feeling his lips move.

“No, she rejected kissing you in front of all of us. She’s always been people-shy and you know that. Now, go after her.” He gives the younger a slight push, startling him. His eyes move between Doyoung and the door before he’s rushing to throw on some shoes and a coat, the door slamming behind him.

You silently make your way out of the building before sitting on the street curb outside of the dorm with a defeated sigh. At some point during your time inside, it had begun to snow. “Stupid,” you mumble, rubbing at the tears pricking your eyes, “stupid.”

You wanted to kiss him, you really did, but you were afraid. Afraid of the others watching, afraid that he was just doing it because he had to. You always tell yourself that you should stop being so afraid, but it isn’t that easy, and now you’ve messed up at your chance to kiss the guy you’ve had a major crush on for months. Snow begins to dust your hair and coat as you sit there, mulling over your choices from just a few minutes previous and wiping at your eyes as you cry silently. Suddenly, you hear the snow next to you crunch down as someone else sits beside you and you look over with bleary eyes to see Jeno looking at the snow settling on the street.

“Y/N-”

“Jeno-”

You both start and stop at the same time. Silence settles between the two of you again before you clear your throat, looking at him. “You first.”

“I just wanted to apologize,” he starts quickly, rambling almost to himself. “I shouldn’t have tried to pressure you into kissing me and I’m sorry if I- were you crying?” When he finally looks you in the eye, he sees the sheen and redness of your eyes and immediately panics, reaching out to cup your face. His panic just makes the tears start fresh and he swears, thumbs coming up to rub away your tears. His hands are warm. “Shit, shit, shit, don’t cry!”

“J-Jeno,” you say, your emotions overflowing, “I don’t want you to apologize. I’m the one who’s sorry.” He freezes. “I just like you so, so much, but I pushed you away because I got scared.”

“What…?” He says, dumbfounded. You actually liked him? “What were you scared of?”

“I didn’t like the other guys watching,” you sniffle, refusing to meet his eyes once again. He’s silent for a little longer and the tears start fresh, reminding him to speak.

“I really like you, too! Please don’t cry, I like you, too.” He dries your cheeks until you stop crying, his words processing in your brain.

“What?” You say, finally looking into his eyes once again. His chocolate brown hues are warmer than even his hands on your face.

“I like you, too.” He pulls his hands away once he’s sure you’ve really stopped this time. He swears that he’s never seen prettier eyes in his life and, even though you had just been crying, the city lights and pristine white snow reflecting in them make his heart beat faster. Pausing for a moment, he solidifies his decision, reaching and taking your hand in his and slipping them into his coat pocket together. You make a decision of your own a second later, shifting closer to him so that your shoulders are pressed together.

After a beat of silence, you speak. “Did you open your gift?”

“...I did. Sorry.” His cheeks burn with guilt at the whole situation, but thankfully, you’re not looking.

Your giggle makes his heart do all kinds of flips. “It’s okay, I knew you would. Here,” you say, using your free hand to get out your phone and the pair of earbuds you always keep on you, connecting them. You offer him one side and you start to play the first song on your playlist titled Summer Songs to Make the Winter Less Cold. Soft music fills your ears and you hum along quietly, occasionally singing a line or two.

“Sometimes, I imagine

What it would feel like if I kissed you

I know I shouldn’t

But because I shouldn’t, I’m thinking about it more.”

The hot blush on your cheeks contrasts the cold of the night air, but you sing the whole line nonetheless. Jeno squeezes your hand in his pocket, getting you to look at him. “You don’t have to imagine anymore, if you don’t want to.” Pausing, he digs around in one of the pockets of his pants before producing a slightly crumpled sprig of mistletoe.

You feel like laughing, but your heart is caught in your throat. Your voice comes out almost impossibly quietly. “Kiss me, Jeno.”

As he leans down and presses his lips to yours, your hands squeezing each other tightly in the warmth of his pocket, the song drifts quietly into your ears.

‘Chocolate

I should stop, I know this

But I can’t stop thinking

My heart keeps going and going

The more I think about you, the sweeter you get.’

When he pulls away, blushes blaze on both of your faces but smiles also blossom there. “It’s true,” he says, and you meet his eyes, “the more I think about you, the sweeter you get.”

You bury your face in his coat, feeling like you’re about to catch on fire with how hard you’re blushing. “Stop,” you whine playfully, “you’re so embarrassing.” He presses a kiss to your forehead, wanting nothing more than to be with you at the moment. “Oh, I forgot that I was supposed to tell you,” you say, pulling your face away from his coat, “someone unplugged the hot chocolate, so it’s going to be a while before it’s hot again. Doyoung-oppa wanted me to tell you.”

“Did he tell you I like hot chocolate?”

You nod. “I was going to bring you some, but…”

“How are you so cute?” He wonders out loud before going through the stages of realizing that he didn’t just say that in his head, then remembering that it’s probably okay for him to say it to you now. “Do you like hot chocolate, too?”

“It’s my favorite.” The song ends in your ears and you pull out your earbud, taking the other end from Jeno when he offers it to you, and put it away. “Do you want to go inside? It’s a little bit cold.”

“Yeah, let’s go.” As the two of you stand up, hands still interlaced, he remembers your gift. “Wait, I have something for you.” He lets go of your hand to unwind the scarf that he had draped around his neck, wrapping it around yours instead. You look at him with wide eyes. “I know it isn’t wrapped, but you said you were looking for a nice scarf and this is your favorite color and-”

You lift up a finger, hushing him. “Thank you, Jeno. I’ll treasure it.” You grab his hand again, pulling him along as you walk back towards the dorm building. “Did you really have your coat and this scarf on you when you ran after me?”

He’s silent for a beat before he answers timidly. “I put it in the hyung’s dorm because I was going to offer to walk you back to your car when you left.”

You try to hold back your reaction, burying your face in the scarf he had just put around your neck. “Who’s the cute one, now?”

“Don’t worry, it’s still you.” As you approach the door, he reaches into his pocket before freezing. “...shit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I left my key in the dorm…”

For a moment, the two of you just stare at each other. Then, you both burst into laughter, the tips of your noses and ears red from the cold and the apples of your cheeks pink with the warm, chocolate-sweet feelings rushing through you. The feeling of his hand in yours and his eye-smile and the glow of the lights decorating the building is warm enough for you, anyways.

#jeno fluff #nct fluff #neowritingsnet #nct dream fluff #lee jeno fluff #wonjaekook #if anyone has any suggestions for the rest of the playlist #hit me up!!#also let me know what you thought if you can spare a minute :)) my ask box is always open #happy holidays everyone

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wafflewarriors · 5 years ago

Text

The Dealbreaker

Chapter 4

You were in your old home. Your feet were bare and we wore a light blue dress that was now stained with dirt and grime. The only light was the orange glow of the fireplace. But the moment you looked away, the fire wasn't in the safety of the fireplace anymore, but on the walls, burning framed pictures as it climbed the wallpaper.

This is a dream, you told yourself. Nothing but a dream. But it didn't feel like a dream.

You ran. Your two short legs raced down the halls, trying to find an exit. Little lungs that gasped for breath in the heavy smoke. Wide, teary eyes. You tumbled out of the door and into the nearby brush gracelessly.

The tree leaves were lit up with flashing reds and blues from the cop cars and ambulances below them. They lit up the entire street, and without the sirens they felt dismal. They sent that sinking feeling of dread to the pit of your stomach when you couldn't see your brother.

But there was a car, an Impala '67, which had parked itself nearby. And from that car emerged two faces you would never forget. Two brave, courageous mystery men dragged your brother from the fire's reach.

They left before you could thank them.

///

You were at least taller than the door handle now, thirteen years old. Your hair was longer, curlier. You wore pajama pants and a t-shirt, and on your feet hung fuzzy slippers.

Your brother was there as well. You were both home alone, watching television in your small apartment while you cuddled up into your brother's side. He was eighteen now, so both of you were finally out of the foster home system. He was officially an adult, but he could still laugh like a child at the cartoon that played along the screen.

He tensed up when he heard a noise from outside. It was a scratchy noise, one you might hear in movies. The kind of sound a branch might make against a window. An innocent sort of sound, but fear-inducing nonetheless.

"What was that?" you asked.

"Probably the wind," he said. But neither his tone nor expression were convincing.

You watched him curiously. "The wind?"

"Yeah," he said, throwing you a smile as he got up to look out the window. "The wind makes all kinds of noises."

You hummed, stretching on the loveseat. "Sure."

"Hey, you know what? How about we play in my room? Yeah? Let's go. I have some Legos or we can play cards if you want."

"Legos all the way."

He led you to his room, sending the window nervous looks every now and then. Then, he handed you a box of legos. "Set them up while I do something quick." He bought out a bag of salt and began to pour it onto sill of his window and the crack of the doorway.

You watched him in concern. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, it's part of the game," he said, rapidly typing away on his phone. "The salt marks our borders of the city. Yeah? Okay, now let's start building."

About fifteen minutes into your Legos competition, the lights flickered. Your brother pretended not to notice.

He only paid any attention when there was a shatter of glass and wind began to blow the salt away from the door. He swore softly to himself and scrambled for the door. "Stay in this room, okay? Please, whatever you hear, stay in this damn room. We already lost mom and dad, I'm not losing you too. Understand?"

You understood.

He left the room with an iron rod you didn't know he owned. Where had he gotten that thing? And why did he need it?

Assuming he had called—texted?—the police, or at least some form of an emergency line, you watched from the window. You anxiously wondered if there was an intruder.

You couldn't help but stare as an Impala '67 pulled up in mint condition, exactly the way you remembered it. Two silhouettes exited the vehicle. You were very tempted to leave the salt covered room.

You managed some deep breaths before opening the door. The hall was dark. Your eyes were wide, trying to adjust to the dark, but it was pitch black. You crept forward, cautious, and you tiptoed over the salt line. There was a creak of the stairs, and your eyes shot to the source of the noise, but all you saw was blackness.

Then you were abruptly blinded by a flashlight.

The shadow paused, surveying the salt line and short, little you, standing outside of the circle. The figure approached you and you stumbled back. They grabbed you and dragged you back to your brother's bedroom.

You screamed, struggling against his arms and crying out for your brother.

"Hey! Hey, it's okay." The man said, letting go. "Crap, I didn't mean to scare you. Just, stay in the salt line okay? Your brother's fine, you're fine, we're all fine."

You were shaking as you stumbled back to the safety of your brothers room.

"There was a… um. A man tried to break in. But we got him, okay? You're safe now."

You nodded, though you knew he was lying. Everyone lied to you. "What's your name?"

"Sam. Sam Winchester."

"Who's the other one?"

"The other..? Oh, that's my brother, Dean."

///

Sam and Dean Winchester.

They were names you thought about every now and then. It was your password, your usernames, in random scribbles. Half of this obsessive behavior was to remember your heroes names, and the other half was a lost hope of drawing them in and one day finding them again. You wanted to thank them, properly.

They had saved you and your brother twice now.

After a few years, though, you began to believe they were just dreams. Just two characters you’d imagined to make yourself less lonely.

But sometimes you had to come back to reality, to close the book and just live your stupid, boring life.

That was, until you found your brother with his belongings all crammed in one suitcase and yours in another.

"What's going on?"

"We, are going on a road trip," he said. You knew that tone. That fake cheeriness which tried to hide his fear.

An internal battle churned inside of you. I'm seventeen now, I don't need you sugarcoating stuff like this anymore. Tell me what's going on. But you said nothing.

This road trip really meant heading to South Dakota, for whatever reason. He told you about the black hills, and if they had time, you would see Mount Rushmore.

You couldn't help but worry about the real reason why you were leaving. Was someone after him? Did he get into some sort of legal trouble?

Was someone after you?

Tags:

@vicmc624

@satans-0-spawn

@rosaren2498

#supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #dean winchester #sam winchester #reader #reader insert #supernatural series #castiel

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ifishouldvanish · 6 years ago

Text

Editing tips, I guess?

Hey uhhhhh, so I've gotten lots of new followers over the past few weeks and wanted to do some kind of thank you?? Also, I have seen a fair share of "omg HOW" in the tags on my edits (which??? always make my day?? my week??? my life????)

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my ~techniques with y'all? So here goes:

(lmao this got really fuckin long so cuuuuuut)

1. Make EVERYTHING a Smart Object

Okay, maybe not EVERYTHING, but seriously. Do it. It will save ur editing life. You ever shrink something down and then an hour later change your mind and decide you want it bigger? If you're not using a smart object, it’ll get blurry when you scale it back up and you’ll be fuCKED!

To make a layer/group a smart object, just right click on it in the layers panel and select "convert to smart object". This makes Photoshop store the layer's original data in a separate space for safe keeping (an embedded .psb file, to be exact) -- so you can shrink it and enlarge it as many times as you want without any lossiness.

As soon as I paste/place a screencap, texture, or whatever into my document, the first thing I always, ALWAYS do is convert it to a smart object!!

Why, you might ask?? Continue to item No.2 :)))

2. Harness the POWER of Smart Objects!!

The reason I am obsessed with Smart Objects is because I am obsessed with making any edits as non-destructive as possible. If you use “Image > Adjustments > Levels/Selective Color/etc” on a regular layer, that’s a destructive edit. Same goes for any Filters (such as blur/sharpen) and transforms (Warp, distort, perspective). You lose the original data that was there and the only way it can be undone is with ctrl+z. Might not seem like a huge deal at first, but if you keep chugging along for an hour and decide, “hmm, maybe i went too hard on that levels adjustment after all...” your only options are deleting the layer and starting over, or uh... hoping it’s still in your history panel.

However, it's really easy to avoid destructive edits when you use smart objects!! Because all those adjustments, filters, and transforms become “Smart Filters”. Smart Filters have all the non-destructive advantages of performing these adjustments via adjustment layers, but have the added bonus of ONLY effecting the layer they’ve been applied to, instead of cascading down and effecting all the layers beneath. (Which can be a good thing sometimes, but that’s a whole other topic)

Smart filters are attached to their ‘parent layers’, and can be hidden, deleted, or modified (by double-clicking their names) at any time:

Can I hear a wahoo???

Other cool things about Smart Objects:

You can copy a Smart Filter with all its settings to another layer by alt+click+dragging it over

You can change the order in which Smart Filters are applied by clicking and dragging them around

You can edit a smart object independently/in a sort of 'isolated' mode by double-clicking on its thumbnail!! I like to use this for edits that are specific to a given screencap-- like cutting out the background and any initial adjustments, like levels and selective coloring. Once you’re done editing the contents of the smart object, hit ctrl+s and it will automatically update in the main document!

But really, the biggest thing for me here is psychological. I know I’m much more willing to try things and experiment when I know that I can easily go back and tweaks things at any time. Otherwise, I’d stick with adjustments I don’t really like all that much simply because it would take too much time/effort to redo them.

3. Don't even THINK ABOUT using the eraser tool or I will STOMP YOU to death with my hooves!!

Use a layer mask instead. Please I am begging you. It all comes back to making your edits as non-destructive as possible. If you erase something, it's gone forever. When you mask something, you can make changes to which parts are visible/not visible as often as you want.

For the newbies or the otherwise unacquainted, a mask is a greyscale ‘map’ attached to a layer (or layer group) that controls its opacity. Black areas give the layer 0% opacity, white areas will give it 100% opacity, and you can use shades of grey to achieve partial transparency. You ‘draw’ on these layers with the your trusty brush and paint bucket tools.

You can create a mask by selecting a layer and then clicking the little mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel (it’s the one with the little circle inside the box). Draw black on the parts you want to hide, and if you erase too much on accident? Just paint back over it with white!

I love masks, and sometimes i will throw an already masked layer inside a layer group and apply a second mask to said group. This way I have two masks that can be edited independently from each other. Like layer mask-ception.

So anyway, yes. Eraser tool? Don’t know her.

4. Try using channels to create masks!

This is a technique that works REALLY well for cutting out complex shapes, such as wispy hair (or feathers!) -- provided there's strong contrast between the subject and the background, and the background isn't too busy.

This is also a fantastic method for capturing alpha transparency. For example: If you have a neato paint stroke/splatter/watercolor texture you want to use as a mask, but has a solid background that’s getting in the way of things. This method will capture all the semi-opaque areas flawlessly!!

While editing your image (which you had better have made into a Smart Object!!!) do the following:

Switch from the "layers" panel to the "Channels" panel.

Toggle through the R, G, and B channels, and decide which one has the most contrast for the areas you are trying to mask.

Ctrl+Click that channel's thumbnail. This will create a selection marquee.

Switch back to the layers panel

Click on the target layer/group (the one you are trying to mask)

Click the mask icon at the bottom of the panel (the one with the circle inside a box)

Release the selection and invert the mask if necessary

If you're using this method to cut out a subject from its background, you probably won't want alpha transparency. In this case, select the mask thumbnail and use a levels adjustment on the mask itself to bump the contrast until you have more of a cutout effect!

It sounds like a lot of steps, but it’s really simple! So I made this handy GIF: (click to view from beginning)

Sometimes you won’t want to use this method for the entire image, but just a specific part. For example, if you’ve cut out a character with some other method (magic wand, manual brushwork), but are having a hard time with their hair in particular. Use this method to create the selection, but instead of converting the whole selection into a mask, use the brush tool to apply the mask only where you need it! You can invert the selection itself with shift+ctrl+i.

5. Outlining text

The font I used here is Salomé, which is actually a solid typeface with no outlined version. But you can make virtually any font into an outlined version if you so desire!

There's two possible methods here, actually:

The Easy Way:

Add a stroke layer effect to the text layer (by selecting the layer, clicking the little “fx” button at the bottom of the layers panel, and choosing “Stroke...”)

As far as settings go, aligning the stroke to the inside usually yields the best result/maintains the integrity of the letterforms.

Make the color of the text itself match the background.

If necessary, use the lighten/darken blend modes to create the illusion of transparency.

If you need true transparency (which I didn't until I decided I wanted to apply a gradient over the text), you'll have to try something else-- The Also Easy But Less Than Ideal Way:

Right click the text layer in the layers panel and select "convert to shape".

Now you can edit the fill/stroke the same way you would any other vector shape.

Again, you’ll want to set the stroke alignment to ‘inside’. For vector shapes, those settings are a little hidden. You’ll wanna open up that little dropdown in the toolbar with the line in it, and click “More Options”.

This is semi-destructive, so if you're working with a lot of text you might have to edit later, consider duplicating and hiding those text layers first so you'll have a 'backup' of it.

And while I’m on the topic of text...

6. Try breaking up your text layers!

I know a lot of people like to draw a neat little text box to put their text in, and then they center it all nice and neat and probably use a small font size to make it subtle and stuff... and that’s cool. Everyone’s got their different styles and things they like to emphasize in their edits and there’s absolutely merit to that sort of thing (case and point: the bulk of my dear @herzdieb’s work), but. Listen.

I love typography. I love a good typeface. The stroke widths, the letterforms, the ligatures, the serifs... I get like, horny on main for a good typeface. I like to make the text on my edits BIG, so that those details can shine. I also like doing interesting things with the text. Jumbling words/letters around, distorting them, deconstructing them and just... letting the text really ~interact with the rest of the composition instead of just kinda politely floating on top of it.

I’m not saying you have to do that kinda stuff. Or that I think neat little floaty text boxes are boring, or lazy, or whatever. It’s just... personally, I get really inspired by type. Fun type treatments are one of those things I LIVE FOR, something of a ~signature of mine, and I encourage everyone to just... try it? To use text as more of an integral Design Element and less of a... idk. A caption?

So if you have a quote, or even just a word... put each word (or letter) on its own text layer. And then: make ‘em different sizes. Make the words so big they don’t fit on the canvas. Rotate each one at a fun angle. Scatter them around. Go nuts. Use masks to chop parts of the letterforms off. Make ‘em overlap. Just have at it. Or, as the kids these days are saying: go absolutely fuckin feral.

If that really just isn’t your style, or doesn’t work/make sense for the edit you’re doing, fine. Delete all the layers and just do a text box or whatever. But. I’m tellin u.

Give it a try.

At least once.

Just... a lil taste.

7. Understand the difference between lighten/darken vs screen/multiply

For a while in my photoshoppin' youth, my understanding of these blend modes basically amounted to "darken makes things darker, and multiply makes things really darker", and vice versa for lighten/screen. But there's an important difference between how these blend modes work, and if you understand them, you can use them more... strategically? I guess?

Darken and Lighten are kinda misnomers tbh, because they technically don't really darken or lighten anything. What they actually do is make it so that only the areas of the layer that are darker or lighter than the content of the layers beneath them are visible. This produces some pretty nifty layering effects that you can't achieve with screen and multiply.

Here’s an example: (if you’re reading this on a phone with the brightness dimmed down you probably won’t be able to see the differences)

Without any the texture applied, you can really see the noise/graininess of Crowley’s jacket in the screencap. You can also see the ‘seam’ where Crowley fades into the background-- the jacket is a green-ish black, while the background it’s fading into is more of a purple-black.

With the texture set to ‘Screen’, the whole image becomes lighter across the board. Crowley’s jacket gets lighter, and so does Aziraphale’s jacket and the pink cloud thing. This does little to nothing to obscure the poor image quality and disguise that ‘seam’.

But with the ‘Lighten’ blend mode, ONLY the dark parts of the image appear lightened, and not only do they appear lightened, but they get kinda equalized. Notice how the patchy jpeg artifacts on Crowley’s jacket disappear, how that color seam smooths out, and how the brightness of Aziraphale’s jacket and the pink cloud doesn’t change at all.

This isn’t to say that lighten/darken are better and that you shouldn’t use screen/multiply. They each have their uses. But most often, I find myself using lighten/darken because the way they work is honestly really helpful? And just cool af?

8. Masking individual frames on gifs

If you ever feel like torturing yourself by making a gif that has frame-by-frame masking, my advice is don't try to mask each frame from scratch. You'll get patchy/wobbly results from the masks being slightly different on each frame.

Instead, mask the first frame, then alt+click and drag that mask onto the next frame. Make any minor adjustments to the new mask as needed, and repeat for each frame. This saves time and more importantly, keeps the masking consistent on areas with little to no movement, which makes a HUGE difference in how smooth the final product will be.

If you look at the edges of the animation, they’re nice and steady and consistent. It’s only the parts that have a lot of movement (like the back of his neck) where you can see any ‘ghosting’/wobbly-ness happening.

Sometimes the mask will move when I copy it to the next frame. Like, for the whole document. It gets nudged 20 pixels down or to the left or s/t every time. I have yet to figure out why, but I’m betting it has something to do with shooting myself in the foot with the frame 1 propagation settings at some point during editing?? ANYWAY, when this happens, just unlock the mask from its layer (click the little chain icon between their thumbnails) and move it back into place.

In these cases, I also like to pick a spot with a hard edge (such as the shoulder in the above gif) as a reference point of where it needs to be moved to. It kinda sucks having to do this for every frame, but you already signed up for some suckage when u decided to mask every frame of a gif, so I mean... 👀

9. Don't be afraid/too intimidated to do manips as needed!

Manips can be tricky if you're really striving for realism. There's light sources and color grading and perspectives to reconcile!! But when you're doing an artsy Edit with a capital E, odds are those kinds of discrepancies will be thoroughly camouflaged by all the levels, black and white, etc adjustments you're doing!

Something I run into often is, "I like this screencap, but the top of their head/hair is chopped off :(" But if I go back through all the screencaps from the scene, there's usually another frame where the camera is planned/zoomed out enough that I can steal the rest of their head/limb from it! And since it's from the same scene/shot, the lighting and color grading should already be a perfect match!

A super simple example:

So I wanted to use this picture of David and Michael for this edit, but 1) They’re standing on the wrong sides for their characters, and 2) part of David’s arm is covered up by Michael’s.

Of course, the easiest course of action would be to just mirror the photo so they’re on the correct sides, but 1) mirroring faces tends to yield wonky results, and 2) that still wouldn’t give me a perfect, free-standing cutout of Crowley to place wherever I want in my composition (as opposed to being forced to awkwardly position him off the edge of the canvas to hide the fact that the other arm is missing)

Fortunately, it only took all of like, two (2) minutes to draw a crude selection around his good arm, copy and paste it into a new layer, flip it around, and add any necessary masking to get the shape right.

My point here isn’t to teach y’all how to do manips, or to pass this off as an impressive example of one. Because it’s really, REALLY not. My point here is to demonstrate that even something as tiny and simple as this can really open up your options for what you can actually do with an edit/composition.

So next time you’re feeling limited/inconvenienced by the crop of a screencap, just... you know. Consider whether or not it’s worth attempting a quick and dirty manip to fix it.

Another Example:

Sometimes you’re torn between two screencaps. You like one element from Screencap A but also want some other element from Screencap B. What to do? Just frankenstein ‘em together. Layer one on top of the other, get them lined up, and mask out the necessary parts.

It’s easy to get hung up on stuff like “Uh... should Crowley’s shoulder be doing that?” but let me assure you that like... the people looking at the final product are none the wiser to your butcherwork and will not notice. Especially if you’re going to add a bunch of contrast and color adjustments later on. (in fact, sometimes I’ll apply those adjustments first so I’m not distracted by any discrepancies that are going to come out in the wash anyway)

“I dunno... 🤔🤔 doesn’t seem anatomically correct... 🤔🤔🤔🤔” thought no one.

Point is... point is... dolphins you can get away with a LOT more than you think you can. Don’t let the desire to make these kinds of manips perfect get in the way of just... making them good enough. The bar isn’t that high, I promise.

10. Know what inspires you

What types of edits get you EXCITED? What kind of work do you see on your dash and go, "oh, I'm reblobbin' THAT!!1!"

I know for herzdieb, she's all about emotional pieces. She likes matching words/lyrics/poetry to on-screen moments and punching you in the feels with both. She hears a song, or reads a poem, and the lightbulbs go off for her, and she does her thing.

As for myself, I just live for the aesthetics of an edit. The colors, the fonts, the composition. I almost never know what text/screencaps I'm going to use when I start an edit. I just see a font I like, or a color palette, or a texture, and think, "I wanna use that!"

And once you know what inspires you, collect that inspo! I hoard textures and fonts. I have them organized into neat lil folders. When I wanna make an edit, that’s where I start. I just browse through them all until one or two start calling my name. Herzdieb collects songs and quotes and poems. Maybe your thing is color palettes, or aesthetic-y photos. Or whatever.

The point here is make the kinda stuff you like/want to see. Not the kinda stuff everyone else is making or the kinda stuff you notice gets the most notes.

11. Be able to let go of things that aren't working

I often begin an edit with a rough idea of the style, colors, or layout I'm going for. And I almost always end up doing... something totally different.

So don't get too fixated on what your initial ideas are. Be open to experimenting and just let the edit be what it wants to be. If something looks nice, do it. If it doesn't, don't try to force it just because, "well, I was inspired by this piece that did xyz and I wanna try it too".

When you see a certain effect that inspires you, just keep it in mind as a possible solution for the next time you make something-- don't make it into a benchmark, or some imaginary 'goal' you have to meet for This Edit You Are Working On Right This Moment. In fact, sometimes the elements I end up ditching are the very ones I started with, that initially sparked my inspiration. And that's okay. Inspiration can be a moving target, and if your vision for something changes, let it.

You wanna know what inspo reference I was looking at when I started that “Temptation Accomplished” edit?

Fucking this: https://search.muz.li/YTdiNjkwN2Rh

You might be thinking, “how the fUCK was that the inspiration??!! Your edit looks nothing like that at all!” ...and you would be 100% correct, and that is 100% my point. I spent a good hour or two trying to incorporate that cutout text layering effect before finally accepting the fact that it just wasn’t working for the edit I was making. And it wasn’t until then that it actually started to come together.

12. Be patient, and take the time to explore all your options!

I’m not gonna lie, y’all. I spend hours on my edits. I usually complete them over the course of 2-3 days/sittings. I rarely have a plan. 99% of the time I'm just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. When I get stuck (when, not if), it helps to step away from it and come back later with a fresh perspective/set of eyes.

Every single edit I've posted, I have at some point felt like giving up on because I thought it looked like garbage (and not just because I was being self-deprecating/doubting myself, but because at those points, they simply weren't finished/something about the composition just wasn't working for me)

Work through those moments, and if necessary, take a break/sleep on it. It's always after I've exhausted my early ideas that the really good ones start to come to mind!

Here’s how the character poster edits I did progressed:

In Classic Me™ Fashion, I literally started off with just... textures I liked, and a font that I liked. Now, there were obviously a lot more ‘steps’ involved in both designs, but hopefully at the very least this gives a sense of how things get from point A to point B.

So uh... thanks 4 comin 2 my TED talk. I hope u learned at least one (1) cool new thing or maybe just feel vaguely inspired by this rambling mess?

#idk what to tag this...#photoshop #i guess?#tutorial #maybe?#w/e

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asexualzoro · 7 years ago

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so you want to make a twitter (part 2)

tweeting

i’ve seen a few guides on twitter for new twitter users, which is nice, but something about having the posts being things you had to finds on twitter--a new site for the people who needed those guides--seemed unhelpful to me. so, i figured id make a small series of guides of my own here for anyone considering a move (or just making an account) who dont know how

this is a series of posts, since im going to be sort of detailed, so feel free to use just the pieces you need. ill tag them all “lews twitter tutorials” so you can find them on my blog

this is written under the assumption that youve read part 1 of this mini guide series, and dont know anything about twitter or any other social media site but tumblr

ill put it under a cut to save your space, but here’s the most important feature of twitter: tweeting!

so, tweeting. this is something you obviously have to know how to do. this is how to make a tweet, differences between tumblr and twitter, and how to interact with a tweet

so, making one! when you make a new tweet on mobile, the screen looks like this

(the icons are p much the same whether you use mobile or desktop, so it doesnt matter which i use)

first, the tweet itself! tweets can only be up to 280 characters, and cant be edited once you post them. theres no feature to bold, italicize, underline, or add linked text in twitter, so its not as good as tumblr for stuff like that, unfortunately.

here’s what the icons at the bottom do, from left to right

- pictures! this is sort of straightforward: it lets you add pictures. a tweet can only contain either 4 pictures, 1 gif, or 1 video. you cant have a gif and a picture, or a picture and a video.

a note for artists! twitter is known to compress image quality when images are uploaded, BUT there is a workaround! if you have even one single transparent pixel, your image wont be compressed.

a note for everyone! you can enable image transcription captions in settings (Settings > Accessibility > compose image descriptions). this allows you to type a short image description to any image you post, if you choose to. it’s a feature i recommend you have on and try to use for your followers who might have worse vision!

- gif keyboard! this image is a search for reaction gifs, basically. i almost never use it bc i can usually never find the specific gif im looking for...

- polls! tis is a feature i like about twitter! it allows you to conduct anonymous polls with up to four options. you can set a time limit and leave it up to allow people to respond. settle arguments between you and your friends or get opinions!

you cant post an image and a poll in the same tweet, so if you want opinions on something in an image, just have the poll be a reply to your tweet

- location! you can add your current location to any tweet. ive had this disabled for so long i genuinely dont know like... anything about this.

listen, im trying my best

- the little circle at the bottom which is grey with a dot of blue is the character counter. the circle is grey when empty, and gets bluer as you tweet. it wont count out how many characters you have left until youre within 20 of being full, in which case itll let you know so you dont go over the limit.

- finally, theres the + icon, which is for making threads. it lets you edit multiple tweets at once, connected in a string. threads are helpful for a lot of reasons!

if you have information to share, then put it together in a thread! if one tweet in a thread is retweeted, it’s marked as being part of a thread. this will encourage readers to look at the rest!

if you like to livetweet series, put it in a thread! this allows you to keep all your livetweets in one place, and also allows people following you to mute the thread if they arent interested

- i also know on mobile if you close out with the X, you can save a tweet to drafts to edit and post later. i dont know if you can do this on desktop because i never use desktop, and when i have, i couldnt ever find the drafts thing. i know if you delete the app, all your drafts are deleted, too

WELL, now that youve got the basics on a tweet....

interacting with the tweets of others

okay, heres a bit on what buttons do what, and some Twitter Manners

here’s our sample tweet, posted. this isnt how it appears on the timeline, but how it appears once you click it, so i can show the full range of things you can do with a tweet.

you can see the tweet, who posted it, and the date/time, and other stuff

- profile. top left. if you click the icon/display name/handle of the op, you can go to their profile!

- menu. see the little arrow in the top right corner? thats a menu.

on your own tweet, you can delete the tweet here, pin it to your profile, or mute it. muting a tweet means you no longer get notifications when someone interacts with it

on someone else’s tweet, you can follow or unfollow the op of the tweet, mute the op, block the op, or report the tweet

in the bottom row....

- theres tweet activity. it only shows up on your own tweet, and lets you see how many people have seen your tweet.

- below this would tell you how many likes and retweets your tweet got, but no one liked or retweeted my wonderful tweet for some strange reason, so i cant show you

worth noting, if your account is on private, you wont show up in the notifications of people who arent following you

now for the buttons

- the speech bubble is replies! that lets you repy to the tweet

worth saying, if you reply to a retweet or conversation, its important to be sure to un-@ the people who you arent talking to. when you reply to someone, at the top of the reply it will list everyone youre replying to. click the little names and unclick the check boxes by the names of those not involved, and youre good to go! not doing this is considered rude/annoying

- next, retweeting! retweeting is sort of like reblogging. you retweet another tweet so it shows up on your own account. you can retweet without comment, which brings the tweet as is, or with comment, which allows you to add your own sort of caption. the op of the tweet will nto be notified for any replies, likes, or retweets on a comment retweet

a note! people often do retweets with comments on stuff like news stories to add their own commentary/jokes

another note! DO NOT do this to art by artists, even if youre doing it to be nice! a lot of artists, especially international artists, find this incredibly rude, as it takes away attention and retweets from the art itself. if you want to share art, just retweet. if you want to say something nice, just tell them in replies!

its not uncommon for people to retweet something without comment, then make a tweet of their own to comment on them.these tweets generally start with LRT (last retweet)

- likes are pretty simple. you press the like button and you like the post. one thing thats different from tumblr to twitter, though, is twitter has a feature that shows your likes (and that you liked them) to your followers (if they havent disabled it).

- the share button allows you to share tweets! you can DM them to your friends, bookmark them (this is good for articles and such), or copy the link to share elsewhere.

and... that concludes tweeting!

#twitter #lews twitter tutorials

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myseoul17-blog · 7 years ago

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In addition to seeing the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) at night time, I specifically came here to do some evening shopping at the Kakao Store, DDP location! There are other locations that I could’ve went to but I like to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, if possible - to save time is the main reason. There will not be too much text content in this post; I just want to show you guys around. Many products, as you can expect, can be found at all other locations, in addition to “carrier stores” like Artbox for instance. If you want more selection, of course, you would want to come to the actual Kakao Store.

I visited Korea during the Chu-seok holiday (Korean Thanksgiving; aka Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival) so there were some Chu-seok themed items when I came here. The above was a promo poster for their holiday gift sets.

Beautifully wrapped chocolates. They have Jeju mandarin infused ones as well as Jeju green tea infused ones. Of course, plain chocolate ‘block’ ones too.

For those who love Ryan: the gift set includes pens, notepads, & jelly beans.

Bag blanket on the top, which is a great idea! The blanket itself has a flap so you can roll up your blanket then stuff it inside the flap/pocket - becomes a pillow! In the middle, there’s some washing bands (so basically small towels).

& passport holders! These were the fancy kinds that were thicker & has card slots inside.

Travel tags & more passport holders. I got the Neo from this shelf. It’s lighter, has a pocket on the front (for boarding passes), & not as bulky as the fancy one.

Various driver covers for golfers.

“Self massage stick” *see poster for explanation.

Omg !!! Spotted my favourites!

Selca! While waiting for my turn to have my photo taken with them. ..

Picture with my favourites~ There are several photo zones inside the store, but this one was the most popular.

Plushies galore! You will find all characters at all sizes in various costumes & ‘format’ (some are keychains, some simply have a string on top for dangling, some are plushies but have a small piece of plastic/wood support at the bottom so it’s like a figurine, etc. ..)

That Apeach dressed in panda attire. .. I want!

See what I mean. These are the display cases that show you what’s available, & it’s sorted by character.

Neo & Frodo always together.

There were literally walls of these (just like how the panda Apeach is displayed).

Muzi & Con. Yeah, if you’re indecisive, either buy it all or do homework before coming haha there’s so much!

Mini plastic figures.

These are larger figures. Like the plushies, there were diff sizes of these figures so it might seem repetitive by design, but the inventory on the shelves is overwhelming.

Another photo corner. The wall scrolls were pretty cute.

So far, we’ve covered the Chu-seok gift sets, the travel section, & plushies/figures section. Now moving onto home items. I didn’t get any photos bcos I’ve seen the many overlapping products at Artbox - mugs, tumblers, toothbrush/toothpaste, towels. .. utensils, scent diffusers/plug-in’s, slippers, etc. Nothing new or exciting to me, personally.

The photo-zone that I didn’t care for too much. But check out that Apeach apron on the side haha

The many mugs. ..

& more.. . Just to show you what kind of things to expect in this section of the store.

The technology corner: you’ll find a lot of phone cases & iPad/tablet cases/covers, ear buds, USBs, charger cables, mouse pads, etc. .. On the left, there was a good selection of postcards, greeting cards, pens, & note paper/notepads (ie: the stationary items).

Selca in my favourite section. I spent a long time looking at pens.

In the middle of nowhere, you’ll find some jewelry display cases like the ones you see in jewelry stores.

The Neo earrings right in the middle are so cute!

Rings.

More chocolates on shelves as you are lining up to the check-out counter. Very strategic organizing :P

Various teas.

& omg! Kakao chocolates! I would probably not eat these if I had a box of it. Too adorable!!

All in all, the shopping trip was successful & took longer than anticipated haha if it takes longer for me. .. I think it would take even longer for the majority of ppl bcos I’m already the fast shopper type of person. As much as it was overwhelming, seeing so many products, there were also a lot of ppl inside the store. Therefore, I suggest budget more time here just in case.

Additional info on pricing down below for those who are interested!

I got several pens & depending on the “complexity” of the pen, they range from 4000w-6500w. For 1 regular ballpoint pen, I would say that’s quite pricey but it’s all for the character design, right? I thought it was worth it bcos I cannot get it for a cheaper price with the quality guaranteed (ie: online purchase is my only option if not in-store). The foot-long plushies in boxes are ~$30.00CAD. Mugs ~$15.00CAD. The fancy passport holder ~$22.00CAD, while the one I got was $9.00CAD. Being a “brand name” store, I thought some prices were pretty crazy (namely the plushies/figures & technology item), but stationary items, which I’m interested in the most, were reasonably priced in my opinion. Like postcards were only 1000-1500w, which was more than reasonable & they make excellent souvenirs!

I hope you enjoyed cruising through the DDP Kakao Store with me in this post! In the next post, we’ll be doing a lap around the DDP!!

#travel #Seoul #Korea #DDP #dongdaemun #Dongdaemun design plaza #kakao #kakao store #kakao friends #shopping #neo

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hydrus · 8 years ago

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Version 286

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I had a great week. There are a bunch of small improvements and fixes, and you can do some important new things with sessions.

session improvements

You can now save 'page of pages' into sessions! Just right-click on a page of pages tab to see the new option. The 'save session' menu also lists the existing session names to make it easier to re-save processing sessions.

You can also append sessions from the tab menu, and they'll insert in that location. They will spawn inside 'page of pages' pages named for the session. The idea here is to allow you to load sessions in and out more easily. I have never really been happy with the clunky workflow of sessions, so I hope this helps.

I'm open to doing more on this--like perhaps adding some auto-save functionality to our new page of pages sessions. Anyway, this is a big enough change on its own, so please play with it and let me know what you think.

other highlights

The file import status window (which lists all your import paths/urls from any import context) now has an 'open sources' menu entry on its right-click menu. It will open urls in your web browser and file paths in your file explorer. (Although Linux can't do the file explorer part, unfortunately.)

While doing some booru work and talking to some users, we discovered that booru.org seem to have messed up their SSL certificate. If you go to https://booru.org in a browser, you'll get the 'add exception' page with some error about the cert being set up for hypnohub.net. I presume they mixed up their certs or something. I am not sure how new this error is--I seem to remember it working right before. In any case, if you use hydrus to download from any domains that are explicitly ***.booru.org (by default, the [email protected] booru does), you may get connection errors. Please go to network->manage boorus and then click restore defaults->[email protected], which will correct the initial gallery search url to 'http'.

The shortcuts system now allows you to set 'content' shortcuts (tag and rating mappings, typically for the 'media' shortcut domain) to explicit 'set' in addition to the old 'flip on/off' behaviour. Set will only ever set on.

If you run in advanced mode, all thumbnails will now have a 'reparse files and regen thumbnails' right-click menu entry. This updates any old borked files that have odd rotation or resolution or duration to the best the newest code can do. It also regenerates thumbnails. I've also improved the update pipeline here, so you'll see both the new metadata and thumbnail immediately!

I have been putting more time into reducing some ui overhead. Clients that have many import pages open should find they run just slightly faster and with less ui lag jitter, particularly when several queues are actively downloading at once.

Also, clients with many files overall will now perform system:similar_to queries much much faster. These queries should now typically always come in faster than a second.

full list

simplified how thread watcher assigns DEAD and 404 status--it should do it more reliably now

thread watchers now publish their page names (including updating dead/404 status) right after they check

the save session menu under pages now lists the exsting sessions for quick-save--if you select one of these, it will throw up a yes/no overwrite confirmation dialog

'appending' sessions now loads them in a new page of pages named as the session name!

right-clicking on a page of pages now gives you a 'save this page of pages to a session' option

right-clicking on the page tabs lets you append a session anywhere

'load' session is now 'clear and load', and it throws a yes/no dialog for confirmation

the gallery pending queries box now allows multiple selection with ctrl/shift clicks. it'll even move up/down correctly on non-contiguous selections!

the gallery query input is now a new combined textctrl-and-paste button control that will appear in other places across the program

the page of images input now also uses this new control

the page of images and raw urls queues will now ignore any input that does not start with 'http'

pasting a list of texts from the clipboard will now typically strip the pasted content of leading or trailing whitespace

some text and tag cleaning is a bit faster and neater

the file import status panel now supports 'open sources' on its right-click menu--it opens in your web browser or file explorer as appropriate. (linux can't do file explorer though)

thumbnails will no longer 'fade' when their pages are not visible, reducing CPU load in several contexts

thumbnail fade will use less CPU overhead on very fast computers

the timer loops that all import pages use to keep themselves updated are now harmonised into one loop at the top gui level (this should reduce some idle CPU overhead and improve some ui responsiveness)

content (tag and rating) shortcuts can now be set to 'flip on/off' or 'set'

the manage subscriptions dialog now waits for any currently syncing subs to cancel and save themselves before opening itself (keeping it all synced and rollback-proof)

added a 'watchable' url class type and wrote examples for 4chan/8chan thread urls

added 4chan/8chan file url classes to the examples, which if added will auto-hide them from the media viewer

fixed 'add parameter' in edit url match panel

simplified some stuff in the existing parsing system

added preliminary 'url type' support to the parsing system

the html formula parsing object can now return the full child html of the node it finds

the new url and html stuff doesn't do anything yet--but it will in the new downloader engine

added a bunch more booru entries to the url classes defaults. I will continue filling these out, hopefully setting comprehensive defaults next week

the advanced mode thumbnail right-click menu lets you reparse and regen thumbnails for any files! if you have rotated or stretched files, you can now fix them from the menu!

added new tools to let the client update media file metadata and thumbnails live!

the new reparse and regen should update file metadata and thumbnails live!

improved how some 'quiet' errors are printed to the log. they'll now have the full trace of the error as well as the stack

added a daemon_report_mode debug mode. it throws up a popup every time a daemon fires its callable

fixed an issue with the editstringtostringdictcontrol

fixed an issue with loading (and updating to a new version) import pages or import folders with some kinds of unicode paths

you can now set the 'woah, you should close some pages' warning value under options->gui. its default remains 165 pages

system:similar_to searches should be a lot faster on clients with many files

the manage subscriptions and edit subscription panels now both list their num_urls summary column as '22' if all done but '11/22' if not. this column also sorts based on percentage completion, then num total, then num done

the database migration dialog now uses the new listctrl--its buttons are now also clever, and will disable when they are invalid

misc fixes

fixed an index bug in the new listctrl after certain types of 'setdata' call

cleaned up some search code

some veto code cleanup

cleaned and harmonised how text is pulled from the clipboard

next week

I plan to spend the two weeks from the 20th to the 3rd focusing on a big ui update, so next week will be the last normal work week of the year. I would like to catch up on outstanding bugs and maybe tie up something neat for the break.

#release

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dreadlock-detective · 8 years ago

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PREPARE FOR THE ASK ANSWER OMNIBUS!

I'm clearing out my ask box, so here's a rapid fire bunch of answers to the 43 questions in there! A lot of these I wanted to draw a comic or do a little animation for but just never got the time or energy, and others I didn't know what to say, but I think that some response is better than no response, so while these are all going to be either text or doodles, I wanted them all to actually get answers.

Below the cut because this’ll be a hella long one~ Plenty of Zelda doodles in there though so if you just wanna see doofy drawings click too!

@definitely-darcy - Ahhh I'm sorry I wanted to make an animated gif of this for a long time now and just never got around to it T_T. But thank you for the kind words!

@hfbdhhjsbnjdknfsjkbnfkjbgsm… I feel like this is some kind of internet talk that I totally missed the memo on

@sgo-j - Buliara definitely needs some art! She'll actually show up in my AU comic if I get far enough… probably another 3 sets of pages away or more at this point though.

@jackiithedevil - !!!!!!!! <3

@sparkybananaboi - no wolf Link but it’s somethin ;D

@scythfi-writer - Ahhhhh pressure! Eheheh, but glad I could entertain! Hope I haven’t disappointed so far ;D

@draceempressa - …wait there's a sidequest about that!? I saw the sign on the cliff but never saw a sidequest about it lol. Dangit even though I got this ask a while ago I forgot all about it lol. WHELP something else to do when I get back into the game for the DLC!

@rabbitmagic - Even a messenger of the heavens needs a hobby, right? :D

@nathanswallofopinion - They only think that because they haven't been seduced by his amazing puns yet~

Bucket has since died~ using my Windows PC now. Which drives me insane, but at least it's way more powerful than my old iMac. (Still hate Windows though - it's user interface is just so horribly inefficient…)

We're all wonderful band of seally fools here! Glad to have ya!

Teba's been in my AU comic stuff so far, and his family will probably show up in the next set if I get around to it. Unfortunately his personality doesn't lend itself too well to my stupid jokes so he's only been in my more serious stuff so far~

@verlinktbeichris

@sparkybananaboi

Is this still a problem? I haven’t got a way to check lol. I need to update it anyway to be more informative so I guess I’ll check it out then!

JUST AS SOON AS I CAN GET THE WORLD DOMINATION APP TO INSTALL ON THIS DANG THING!

I have no idea what you're talking about, Anon~ Just a bunch of potassium lovers here that's all~!

@redventure - That's Bob~ he's super supportive~ Kind of an enabler really…

@angeliquenoir1912

Ahhh!! thanks!!

Hm. Uh. Not that I've seen, but I'm not exactly diving into their collection~...

Once while he was relaxing out of uniform he ran into a nervous Shiekah girl. They got into a pretty heated argument over who’s face tattoo was upside down. Does that count?

I think this was before my Mipha comic, so at least I’ve drawn her a bit more, but yeah no Link x Mipha stuff directly yet~ I might get around to it! No silly ideas are coming to me to doodle out right now though, sorry!

OH MY GOD BE PREPARED IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS EVER AND AFTER READING THIS I WANTED TO DO A WHOLE ANIMATIC OF GANNY DOING THE SONG BUT THAT WAS EXACTLY WHEN MY COMPUTER DIED AND I LOST ALL MOTIVATION T_T

But I needed to at least do my favorite bit

Fun Fact: apparently the Hyrule Warriors website lists Dragmire as his last name again. Not that that game is canon but still. But yeah high five for old school Zelda lore!

*cries because I don’t have photoshop on my PC to edit Kamina’s shades onto loads of Sidon screenshots for this reply*

@purrple--kat - Well I sure have done a lot of art of them from commissions now haven't I? lol. I think they're a cute couple~ From my own relationship I can say that having the same sense of humor is vital for me, and those two are definitely on the same level!

*strikes a Kamina pose with Kamina shades to make other Anon happy too~*

@asfcruppy + @talk-shit-you-get-hit - I have a little comic half drawn for this but it's on my Surface instead of my PC.. need to get that moved over to finish it up~!

…why did I never think to do this? Of all the dumb things I've done, this was not one of them! I am ashamed!

YA HA HAA! YOU FOUND ME!... what you were looking for an answer from someone?

All 900 Koroks end up in group therapy because they get so confused by Mr. Hero’s behavior they legit cannot deal and are tired of him handing them self help books~

Bonus: They don’t have a digestive system, so logically you can just feed them the same apple over and over! (Need to go make another stal-horse friend sometime~)

@fluxed-touko - Ssshhhhh! Spoilers maybe ;)

@kirchuuuu (this one wont tag for some reason?)- I did one drawing of her being a bit older, but still wasn't an adult~ I like to imagine she'd actually still be super short though, mostly because it keeps her distinct from the others (speaking of, what the heck happens to Gerudo when they're older? the old gerudo are all so much shorter! And then there's the Twinrova witches from Ocarina… Gerudo spines must be all sorts of weird, start tiny, get huge, shrink down super small….)

@capnbanana - Usually 8.5x11 (standard US letter size), 300dpi. 350dpi for commissions, and commissions and comics are more likely to end up a different size (though never smaller for commissions)

Considering the lack of any sort of reference to a Gerudo king in BotW, I personally feel like the Gerudo abandoned that tradition after Ganny went evil. Not against him being actually Gerudo though!

@legoofallthemes22505 (this one wont take either...)- SOON!

@jcummins151 - Ahh thanks <3 I'm glad random strangers on the internet are enjoying my silly stuff! And I don't really mind that people want me to draw NSFW stuff - it's kind of flattering to know people find my art good enough to.. uh… wanna.. *cough* *Mighty Banana jokes*

Ahahahaha, I love that this was the next one to come in after that last one! Nothing in the works but maybe some day :P

@bearlycute - He’d freaking LOVE it if they’d be content to just watch or snuggle...

HOLY CRUD THAT’S ALL OF THEM! GEEZUM!

Thank you to everyone! Love hearing from ya’ll, and sorry if it takes me forever to reply to asks sometimes! Can’t guarantee I always will but I’ll always try to and DEFINITELY read every one! Love ya!

#ask omnibus #Legend of Zelda #LoZ #Link #Korok #Riju #Urbosa #Yunobo #Yiga #Dave #Bob #PUNS #Breath of the Wild #BotW #Dreadlock Detective

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makeup-wonder-woman · 8 years ago

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A soul mate to remember chapter 10

A/N: Welcome to my 200 follower celebration! I’ll be posting 2 chapters in my series, and opening up Headcanons for 24 hours!!! You defiantly have to send them in through my ask box for me to def. answer/see it.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9,

Tags: @welcometothecity, @miss-nerdalots,@marvelsimaginess, @naturalnation123 , @suavehayes @nervouswastelandvoid, @glrynwor (let me know if I missed you/you want to be tagged) so I can add you to the list! Hope you enjoyed!

Chapter 10-

It had been three months since Jason and you had met, you had still kept his secret, and he had occasionally come to work with you. Your stitches were out but your leg wasn't fully healed, your Mom somehow sprang back faster then you, and it annoyed you ‘cause she was now a big helicopter mom. But in the last few days she'd backed off.

The public found out your name not long after that lunch. You soon noticed that many, many women gave you some dirty looks whenever you were out and about, but you couldn't really blame them, your Soul Mate was attractive and part-heir to a fortune. You didn't particularly care about that, you weren’t gonna lie, you were eternally grateful that your soul mate was a 10.

Your mother was thrilled, however, more so about the money. After all, you lived in an apartment, and you had no hope to move out in the near future, as half of your money that you made working three days a week went to your rent and the other half went to any fees that the program you were in, didn't pay for. You tried not to focus on the money, but the two of you had spoken briefly on it, but you both were both too nervous to really breach the topic, you guessed.

You thought about how people treated you different now. Like when Ben had come back to work that following Wednesday, his usual chipper self. He was a kind boy with sandy hair and deep brown eyes that pulled you into a cacoon of safeness and warmth if you got too close. Ban and you watched the kiddos as they played in the sanctuary- that doubled as an indoor gym at times-though any sort of sports-ball was strictly prohibited. He fashioned a paper fortune teller for a two preschoolers,"So. I hear someone met their soul mate."

You nodded,"Yep."

Ben's eyes suddenly became cold and his whole demeanor seemed to shift,"Well good luck with him."

You stiffened, about to retort or say something, when as soon as that shift was there, it was gone. Ben was back to his warm, charming self and was rounding up the kids for snack and story time. You scrambled up after him, maybe you had been seeing things?

You put it out of your mind, after all Ben hadn't done anything similar after and it had been a few months. Jason and You were having dinner. You shouldn't be thinking about those kinds of things, you decided. The two of you were talking about our childhoods more in depth, when Jason asked,"So, can I know about your father?"

You put down your fork,"I don't see why not. He..." You paused thinking over your words and how to best choose them,"He was a good Dad, a little bit of a hard ass at times, but he was still good. He... He died trying to evacuate the streets during one of those Batman-Gang fights a while back."

Jason nodded,"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," You sighed,"He knew the risks, especially living in Gotham. I just wish he could have met you. I think he'd like you."

Jason took your hand and gave you a soft smile,"I think I would have liked him too."

We settled on a routine, you’d see Jason during the day, and after his nightly activities, he'd usually shoot you a text which you'd read that morning, just to know he was fine.

But one night, You were working on a research paper due the next evening. It was late, or rather early, about two-thirty. You hair was pulled up into a bun, and you wore only a white tank top and tights. You were so focused on your work you had hardly heard the loud noise out on your fire escape, the only thing that made you snap back to reality was the heavy tapping on your window. You set your laptop aside and pulled your blackout curtains aside, revealing the Red Hood, holding his side and kneeling.

Your mouth dropped open and you rushed to get the window open,"oh my god," You gasped when I really looked at him. You gave a heave at the window before repositioning your hands. You hadn't opened the window in about a year and struggled with it, but eventually it creaked open. You leapt back and helped Red Hood- who surprisingly, tried not to get his dirty boots on your bed- into your room,"Are you okay?"

Instead of responding, he collapsed onto the floor with a groan. You quickly glanced out your window, looking for anyone else. Finding no one, you shut the window and then repositioned the curtain,"Jason," you asked tentatively, moving to kneel next to him,"What happened? Are you okay?"

Jason opened his eyes and the weird white 'eyes' for his helmet settled on you,"Yeah," he rasped out,"I'll be fine," he removed his gloved hand from his side to reveal a shallow cut,"Got grazed by a knife. Won't need stitches or anything, thankfully."

You nodded and smiled,"I can fix that right up!" Jason watched you, his eyes widening with amusement as you lifted your bed's skirt and crawled under it.

"Not that I don't love the view,"Jason told me as you reached for your tub of first aide supplies,"But what are you going?"

In response, You came back out from under your bed with the large blue tub and smiled,"Ta-Da!"

Jason chuckled and removed his helmet,"Oh I get it, you wanna play nurse?"

You bit your cheek, and crossed your arms over your chest,"I figured with your family, of need the supplies. Plus, my dad taught me everything he knew about first aide."

Jason sobered up slightly,"Oh I see. What else did your dad teach you besides first aide?"

"Take your shirt off," You told him pulling out some antiseptic and bandages. Jason shot you a look and you blushed,"Not like that. But I'll tell you after you do."

Jason smirked and took his shirt off. You had to force your mouth to stay closed at his physique, geez. You knew You shouldn't be thinking like this but God just wants to make life hard for you didn't he? You don't even want to have to have a conversation or debate about virginity and stuff like that with Pastor Howard but you could see the man worrying. So, you should expect one soon. Especially if Jason was possibly half of the man his adopted father was.

Your hands shook as you opened the antiseptic, but quickly poured it onto the wound, Jason hissing as it made contact. You brought the bottle back up and you both watched as it fizzed. It only took a few moments for it to really clean itself and You pulled out the gauze and wiped it clean while saying,"Dad taught me self-defense too. As well as how to shoot a gun, and some Mind-Trick stuff like common tells from liars. Then the basic stuff, driving, swimming how to ride a bike."

You went to bandage the cut but your hands were still shaking. Jason grasped you hands, then shifted them into one of his and used the other to tilt your face up at him,"Are you okay?"

You looked down, your hands steadily loosing their shake,"Dad... Was... Stabbed. He made it to a hospital, and he fought hard... But..."

Jason brought your hands up to his mouth and kissed them before bandaging up his cut himself,"I... Know what it's like to feel worried and scared, I might not be able to feel your specific pain, but I relate."

You cocked your head at him,"You know, most people say sorry or something."

"I want my Sorries to mean something."

You smiled and leaned into him, being carful of his cut,"I see. Why did you wait so long to come and see me?"

"Didn't wanna push you or go too fast. I have been stopping by every night though."

"That is equally as sweet as it is creepy."

Jason smirked and wrapped his arm around you, then kissed the top of your head. You lifted your face and caught him off guard by kissing him. You both relaxed into it immediately, so much so that we fell backward, and you ended up laying on him. You blushed and stammered but Jason held me against him, and just kissed me saying,"I won't move too fast, I swear. But tonight, I really want to kiss you- is that okay?"

You nodded, and he pulled me down to him.

At some point we had just been cuddling and you had fallen asleep, and Jason had put you back into bed, put in his shirt and helmet, before exiting through your window, locking it behind him.

Jason returned to the manor, and was surprised to find his Mother still up waiting for him. He smirked,"Ma, I'm not a kid... You don't need to wait up anymore, for all you know I could have been at one of safe houses."

Mrs. Wayne looked back over her mug of tea at her son,"Jason Peter Todd Wayne," Jason flinched at the use of his full name,"I want grandchildren, but I would appreciate if you would wait until you and your soulsmate are out of college."

Jason nodded,"Okay. I'll keep that in mind. Besides we haven't even gotten that far yet."

Mrs Wayne 'hmmmmed,"And here I thought you'd take after your father... Or Dick..."

Jason smirked and simply hugged his mother,"No, thankfully all your lectures about gentlemanly behavior somehow stuck with me."

"Good. Otherwise you'd get the safety talk from me every time you met a girl. I feel like that's the only why Dick hasn't brought any girls around here lately."

"That would explain it."

#Jason Todd #Jason Peter Todd #Jason Peter Todd Wayne #soulmate!au #soulmate AU #Chapters #Batman #DC #DC comics #Jason Todd X Reader #fanfiction #self-insert #reader-insert #Reader insert

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