#and i completely blanked out on a design for said animal + it would double my work...

[eteroutsider]

tried to burn out but made the first character of the year for patreon anyway. folk elements of the outfit are based on medieval latgalian traditional women's clothing

[kaediisarchive]

Final thoughts on the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie.

LOTS of spoilers under the cut! Do not look at this post if you don’t want to see spoilers!

And remember, this is all just my opinion. It’s not like an actual in-depth review because I’m not a film student; this is just my perspective on what I saw as a fan of this franchise.

POSITIVE

Sub-Zero and Scorpion were great. Opening fight was great.

“Eddy Tobias” namedrop lmao

I love the snow preceding Sub-Zero’s attack. Very foreboding.

Score is AWESOME. My favorite soundtrack is probably the one that plays when Sub-Zero is attacking them in the city towards the beginning.

Sonya rigging her house with a secret bunker and trap doors is smart and fits her character.

I like that the dragon logo has an integral meaning to the story.

Loved Jax vs Sub-Zero. Not mad about the origin change of Jax’s arms. I like that he had to work through his feelings of inadequacy and failure; people don’t just immediately bounce back after something that traumatic. I also like that his arcana manifests to protect Sonya rather than in the heat of battle. It shows his emotional priorities and what separates him from people like Kano who manifest their arcana in a fit of rage.

Sonya “Throw Hands on Sight” Blade lmfao. They nailed her fighting style too and I am happy.

Kano is the best thing about this movie. No competition.

Kotal reference!

Nightwolf reference!

Shang Tsung’s soul magic being black and wispy and foreshadowing Noob Saibot.

KANO DID THE HEART RIP

CHEKOV’S GNOME I’M SCREAAAAAAMMMMIIIIIINNNNGGGGGG

I love Liu Kang in this. He is 1000000% a Wholesome Boi. I like that he’s younger and unhardened and not the fully realized champion version of his character yet. Let him grow into it so it feels earned later on. I like that he’s the underdog, and I like what they’ve set up for him in the future. Also, the casting for him was perfect and they nailed his fighting style, too.

That little “the FUCK” that the Kano actor improvised(?) in the middle of Liu Kang’s lines made me laugh more than it should have. I don’t know why that moment got to me so much but it did.

I love Kung Lao. And they nailed his fighting style, too! Great to see variation that represents the characters (though there were less shining examples, which I’ll touch on later).

LOW SWEEP! LOW SWEEP! LOW SWEEP!

Egg roll scene is best scene.

Kabal! I love his dry humor. And his voice reminds me of Duke Nukem, which I’m not mad about. It complemented his dialogue well.

Not mad about Kung Lao’s death because it was meaningful. His fatality on Nitara was sick, too.

Liu Kang taking the ribbon from Kung Lao’s hat and wearing it in his honor, giving an origin for his signature headband is FANTASTIC.

THE PIT!

FLYING BICYCLE KICKS!

LIU KANG’S DRAGON FATALITY!

SONYA’S ENERGY RINGS!

Sub-Zero was a GREAT final boss. They really built him up appropriately to make him feel like it.

Scorpion’s fatality! And his skull face!

NEUTRAL

Not sure how I feel about Sub-Zero being wholly evil and there being no involvement from Quan Chi. It’s more straight forward for sure. It makes him an interesting (and badass) character, and I’m really behind this portrayal in that he is one of the most believable characters in the movie, but I’m not sure if I like the implications for later films in how this has simplified the dynamic in the entire Shirai Ryu vs Lin Kuei plotline. Having Quan Chi be the Machiavelli was always one of my favorite MK twists. And how do we eventually end the feud now? If Bi-Han / the Lin Kuei were wholly responsible, why should Hanzo EVER make peace with Kuai Liang down the line? The complexity feels like it’s been stripped down a bit, but I do love this iteration of Sub-Zero. I truly do. That’s why this is in the neutral category and not the negative XD.

Why didn’t Jax tell Cole when he saw the mark? Why wait until his family gets attacked? Maybe he didn’t want to do it in front of his family to keep them out of it, but that ends up endangering them more. Not a gripe, just a curiosity.

Sound editing was a bit too intense at times for my taste. I have tinnitus, so...big boomy bass with very mild voices is a chore for my ears to switch between. My ears were ringing within the first twelve minutes.

Torn between “fuck you Reiko” and “Reiko deserved better”. He deserved just a little bit better, but Skarlet says “get fucked” anyway.

I don’t like the “shaky cam” used in the fight scenes. Not my cup of tea. Very hard to visually process at times.

Whatever cosmic force is picking the champions for Earthrealm is doing a shitty job at it.

Why did they change the location of the Sky Temple to a desert? Again, not a gripe, a curiosity.

“We will not see another full moon before the tournament begins” THEN WHERE IS THE TOURNAMENT BUDDY???

Not sure how I feel about the “arcana” concept. It’s an okay plot device but kinda hammy.

Kitana’s fan! But why? Why is it there? I could understand the Kotal and Nightwolf references because Sonya has been researching, but why is Kitana’s fan randomly in an Earthrealm temple? Purely cheap fanservice.

Nitara was really cool. Shame she had to die, but her death was cool and there have to be some characters that get killed off. Wish she had more screentime though; feels like another instance of fanservice just having her show up basically as a namedrop and a quick kill.

The phrase “Are you okay?” was said WAY too much in this film. So much that I actually notices how often it was said, and I usually don’t pick up on these things.

Pretty sure a camera operator fell at one point in a Sonya scene because the camera jerked around violently all of the sudden then stabilized. Whoops.

How did Sub-Zero know to take Cole’s family to the gym? WHY did he take them there?

NEGATIVE

Opening scene was awesome, but it’s emotional impact felt stunted. I feel like the order of events should have been twisted a bit. Hanzo find his wife and son should have been the big emotional climax of the scene, but it felt like a passing moment and gave him no time to mourn and no time for the impact to truly set in with me. It was an “oh no they died” moment instead of an “ OH MY GOD THEY DIED THIS IS SO FUCKED FUCK YOU SUB-ZERO” moment. I dare say that the Legacy web series did it better in spite of their lower budget and overall quality; the series of events had better pacing and gave more emotional impact because of it. I said what I fucking said don’t @ me.

Wish we got more Scorpion. I love Sanada, I love him as Scorpion, but they didn’t give us the time we needed with his character to truly get a grasp of him.

Cole Young is like white bread in a parade of decorative cakes.

Raiden, a normally passionate and protective character whose fatal flaw is that he involves himself too much in events because he cares about the people in his realm and ends up fucking things up because of it, now seems to not care in the slightest. He feels completely uninvolved save for an occasional pop in to give a nod of disapproval. I don’t like this unemotional take on one of the most emotional characters in Mortal Kombat.

Small complaint from my perspective as a martial artist but uh...”Throw your uppercut!” was a bullshit line in a bullshit scene. If you’re locked up with someone like that and the guy has his arms around your neck, you physically cannot uppercut. You cannot fit your arms between his arms because they are cinched tightly around your shoulders/neck. YOUR HEAD is between your fist + bicep and HIS HEAD. In that situation, the guy has also left his body completely unguarded, so the most logical thing to do since you CANNOT reach his head is to go for BODY BLOWS. Beat him until he lets go to protect himself, catch his floating rib with double strikes, or punch the dude in his fucking liver as hard as you can to DROP HIM. Cole is supposed to be an experienced fighter, yet he makes one of the most rookie mistakes a fighter could ever make. Normally I wouldn’t care to point out mistakes in fight choreography or whatever because it’s MK and I expect ridiculousness, but this is the WRONG kind of ridiculous. It’s just NONSENSE.

I have SO MANY issues with Mileena. I’ll make this as short as I can. I don’t like the design of her mouth. I don’t like her weird stacked voice. She shows NO personality, not in her acting or even her fighting style, just an evil minion that got angry because she almost got her ass kicked. The turned one of the principle characters of the entire franchise and a fan favorite into a GRUNT. There is NO mention of Kitana outside of literal “fan”-service. Not even a reference to one of the most important plotlines in all of Mortal Kombat. And then they KILL HER OFF!!! When they do inevitably bring in Kitana WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY GOING TO DO SINCE THEY KILLED OFF MILEENA???? I’m heated and biased and they did my girl dirty.

Speaking of doing characters dirty, poor Reptile. They turned him into an actual animal. What a waste.

Why are they so mean to Sonya if she doesn’t have a mark? She wouldn’t be as much of a “liability” if they would take the time to prepare her and teach her how to defend against fighters that have unlocked their arcana. Mind-numbingly stupid logic.

This movie relies A LOT on prerequisite knowledge to work. It’s like they want fans to fill in the blanks for them. But not everyone watching is already a fan; this isn’t an obscure release, this is a blockbuster movie released worldwide. These gaps in lore and prior knowledge don’t make sense for such a broad audience.

Cole Young literally could have just been Johnny Cage.

Where was Raiden when his temple was being assaulted?

Cole’s arcana is LITERAL PLOT ARMOR IM FUCKING DONE

No but for real that’s the most boring decision they just ripped off Jax’s MK11 heater effect and Baraka’s blades (I know they’re tonfa and they aren’t attached and I DON’T CARE). Also, now he’s suddenly good at fighting again? After being dog shit this entire movie??? And tanks Goro?????

If Raiden is an Elder God in this continuity, why is he allowed to help Earthrealm AT ALL? It seems like favoritism and bends the rules that the Elder Gods are supposedly bound by way too much. They really just shouldn’t have made him an Elder God; I honestly think they just said it to introduce the concept without a fuck given towards the actual lore of the Elder Gods.

WHY DID RAIDEN TELEPORT KANO TO SONYA’S HOUSE AFTER HE BETRAYED THEM I HAD TO REWATCH THAT SEVERAL TIMES TO MAKE SURE I JUST SAW WHAT I SAW  WHAT THE ACTUAL NONSENSICAL FUCK

Cole REALLY should not have been involved in that last fight. Especially not after Scorpion shows up. It should have been Scorpion vs Sub-Zero ONLY for the final fight. Cole tag-teaming Sub-Zero with Scorpion cheapens Scorpion’s revenge.

Camera work in the final fight was not good, especially in the first portion. At one point Cole gets thrown into a fence, but it cuts to an awkward inverse angle that makes him look like he’s bouncing off of a trampoline. This continues to happen and ruins several shots for me.

Honestly Scorpion should have just possessed Cole. Permanently. No switching back and forth. No more Cole, only Scorpion.

PREDICTIONS

Lots of dead characters come back as revenants and / or with upgrades.

Kano comes back with cyber eye.

Mileena comes back with full teeth.

Liu Kang becomes MK champion, wins tournament, and kills Shang Tsung. As it should be.

Cole Young helps Liu Kang become champion somehow idk maybe he sacrifices himself or something just please don’t make Cole the champion I will start a riot.

Next movie will start IMMEDIATELY at the tournament since there was supposedly less than a month until the tournament starts in this movie.

New characters coming in will be Kitana, Shao Kahn, Jade, Quan Chi, Kuai Liang, Noob Saibot, Ermac, and Johnny Cage.

OVERALL

This movie was good, bloody fun! It’s not an A++ Oscar-winner, but if you expected that going into it, you played yourself. It was Mortal Kombat; it was stupid, it was gory, and I had a blast watching it. Kano and Liu Kang were the best parts of the movie for me, with Scorpion and Sub-Zero tied for third. Also I popped a lot for the cheap nostalgia hits. I’m overall satisfied with what we got in spite of my complaints, and I only complain so in-depth about the things I love lmao so trust me when I say I’m not actually mad, just nitpicky. I’ve watched it twice now, and I would watch it again. It’s like a 6.8/10 for me.

[wemblingfool]

With Beast Wars triumphant return, as well as Cheetor and Skybyte appearing in Cyberverse, and Barricade finally getting pulled out of the bayverse, it's really wonderful to see the G1 deathgrip finally beginning to loosen.

But there are still a ton of characters and designs who deserve to be rescued from obscurity. (Mine is by no means a complete list)

Beast Era- There was just so many, that if I don't limit myself, this list will be nothing but BW. Avoiding Beast Wars US show characters because they get 90% of the attention.

Razorbeast: Was just an empty toy-only character until Furman got ahold of him and did his typical magic to obscure toy only characters. Razorbeast was the best thing from IDW's terrible BW comic.

Botanica: The first (and only serious) plant TF. She would be amazing to see expanded.

Jetstorm: Like a bad gameshow host, Jetstorm was a joy to watch in Beast Machines. He also had a brilliant design that never got justice.

Hydra: From Beast Wars Neo, Hydra was a really lonely Predacon.

Killer Punch: Also from BW Neo, he was a conspiracy theorist on the level of The Question, or The Lone Gunmen. Imagine him sitting in his mother's basement (if Destrons/Predacons had mothers), blogging on the internet about how the original Megatron was secretly an autobot double agent.

Robots in Disguise- Everyone, honestly. Y'all really need to stop the RiD hate train. But here are the stand outs (for me)

Scourge: Is much more interesting a character than anything that's been done with "Nemesis Prime," since.

Gigatron: I go with Gigatron because IMO, he was much more interesting than his US Megatron version. Six modes and driven insane to the point of each mode having a unique personality.

The Predacon Trio: Darkscream, Slapper, and Gasskunk. Skybyte makes the occasional appearance recently. He needs his troops, who were fun enough on their own.

The Autobot Brothers: Sideburn, Prowl, and X-Brawn.

TAI: The best computer the autobots have. In any continuity.

Unicron Trilogy- The biggest continuity outside of the extended G1 continuity. As usual, too many to list.

Thunderblast: Not the most interesting toy, but she was a fun character

Shortround: Dude was a toy collector. He's one of us. He deserved to be brought back.

Brushguard: A decepticon botanist who loves old b-movies. What's not to love?

Ransack & Crumplezone: One of the most iconic duos in all TF

Landmine: We need more grumpy old robots, beyond Ironhide and Kup. Also, autobot construction vehicles are very rare.

Vector Prime: Amazing given how important he was/is, at how little he's been used since. The "multiversal singularity" thing was hands down one of the dumbest narrative moves, but that's no fault of Vector Prime's.

Override: She was an interesting design, and deserves to have more done with her.

Bayverse-

Blackout: neat design and a fairly blank character

Ransack: He's a friggin' biplane!

Sideswipe: same

"Daytrader": A Steve Buscemi transformer. Another Swindle-type character. He deserves to be rescued!

Crosshairs: Fairly big personality, which is rare for a bayverse TF, and an interesting design. I'd take him before G1 Crosshairs.

Animated- Just turn TF into animated for a few more years and I'll be happy. But, in terms of moving characters forward

Prowl: What's not to love? Peaceful nature loving ninja.

Bulkhead: A clumsy, sweet gentle giant with the soul of an artist. Everyone thinks he's an idiot, but he's the best spacebridge technician on Cybertron.

Sentinel Prime: Never been a more fun Sentinel, and never will be!

Lugnut: He just kinda got dumped.

Blitzwing: Would kill to see a future Blitzwing take after him instead of the dull as dirt G1 Blitzwing

Aligned- To be honest, i hate this trainwreck as much as I do Bayverse. But there are still concepts and characters worth salvaging

Knock Out: Dude was a blast. One of the only enjoyable things in TFP.

Soundwave: The only interesting Soundwave out there, imo.

Strongarm: She deserves moving forward

NuRiD Decepticons: Unique and fun designs, all of them! Would love to see Steeljaw and Bisk again!

Bumblebee- It is small. And it is broken. But it is still good... Yeah. Still good.

Shatter & Dropkick: Very much afraid these two will be quickly forgotten about and abandoned.

Cyberverse- it did a lot of new things with old characters. But it did bring some new and unique characters to the table.

Clobber: Sorta stole TFA Lugnut's design while being an amazing new character. She's something we've never seen before- a female big muscleheaded idiot brute. Female TFs are now becoming common enough that we're starting to get variety.

Wild Wheel: Nothing about him wasn't amazing. The show was cancelled before he even appeared, though.

Thunderhowl: Like Wild Wheel, didn't show up until Cyberverse was cancelled.

Hammerbyte: same

Botcon- While under Fun Publications, Botcon became nothing but milling out more G1. But under MiB and 3H, and even in FP's early days, they did give us some unique characters.

Fractyl & Packrat: I don't think there's a more iconic set of characters to Botcon than these two.

Shadow Striker & Roulette: Shadow Striker has gotten to move forward a bit. She appeared in the movie line, which that version was then the inspiration for Cyberverse Shadow Striker, but her sister has been all but forgotten.

Flareup: She's a very bubbly and upbeat personality, who happens to take an almost fiendish glee in blowing stuff up. She's the best thing FP ever did.

Landshark: One of the most hated FP characters, and I've never understood exactly why. He'd be brilliant if he got good fiction:

Landshark doesn't know where he got his name from and he doesn't really care. Some 'bots tend to confuse it with "Landmine", but once Landshark pulls his fist from their abdomen they don't seem to get it wrong anymore. Always the practical jokester and seen by his peers as a wiseguy, he often makes light of even the most dramatic situations. Once, he had one of his power claws ripped off of his body by a blood thirsty Narliphant. Landshark didn't fret about the situation; he simply turned to Flak and asked, "Can you give me a hand?"... Flak was not amused. Able to transform his auxiliary battle platform into a hydraulic booster pack, he has the strength to wield two massive power claws capable of ripping open an enemy's armor plating. This feature also gives him the ability to cling onto or climb up almost any structure. While in vehicle mode, Landshark enjoys intimidating, and then plowing down, anyone that stands in his way.

Like I said, these are all just scratching the surface. But these are all some of my most favorites.

[ikarosisflying]

Elegy with an Angel at its Gate

By Larry Levis

1. Muir in the Wilderness

We were the uncountable stars, at first. We were nothing at first, and the light Of what was already over still in it.

We were never the color-blind grasses,

We were never the pattern of the snake Fading into the pattern of the leaves, Never the empty clarity one glimpses

In water falling, in water spreading itself Into the thin white veil of what is never there, The moment clear and empty as a heaven

Someone has just finished sweeping

Before the moment clouds over and again Becomes only an endless falling of water Onto stone, and falls roaring in the ears

Until they ring, and the throat suddenly Swollen with the eucharist of failure, A host invisible and present everywhere,

Or, anyway, present everywhere we are.

And one by one we vanished from the place, Vanished from it by becoming part Of everyone, part of the horses bending

Their necks to graze, part of every law, Part of each Apache heirloom for sale In a window, part of the wedding cake,

Part of the smallpox epidemic, part of God, Part of each blind crossroad, part Of the unending rain turning to snow,

Part of each straw in the lighted, Open doors of boxcars as they pass, Part of the wars, part of each silk piece

Of lingerie, part of what can never be Untangled, evaluated, cross-examined, part Of the drive by, part of the young woman

Brushing her hair, part of the lover, Part of the tenderest parting of flesh, Part of what must part flesh forever,

And part of what holds it together, Part of each one watching, with an open Mouth, the movie at the drive-in, part

Of the slaughterhouse with its fly-covered Windows, part of the scent of linen, part Of what holds the limbs of the oldest trees

Up and out through summer after summer, Part of the fork in the road where we took Both directions at once to disappear in them,

Into the noise that cuts us in half, part Of the noise, part of what doesn’t come back,

                          ~

Indifferent dog, indifferent horse, indifferent

Fly riding its back beneath the trees, Led by the indifferent stable boy who hates The girl who rides the horse because she’s

Rich, because he reads Marx by candlelight, Is in love with her, is leaving tomorrow To harvest sugarcane in Cuba, is a part

Of a part of a vast revolution, of an age Of revolutions that will free him, free us, Free everyone, put all of us to one side,

To be part of another, larger thing that ends By becoming a movie about it, the popcorn, The audience sitting there watching it

With their mouths open, the big screen there In front of them, each one a part of it Designed to stroll languidly out

Into the hot, impossible evening in the city, Where the signs that flash on and off above The stores, reflected in windows and off the cars,

Resemble the piping on the ushers’ uniforms.

2. Bunny Mayo in the New World

We brought the shape of the angel with us In the shapes of women and in the shapes Of ships because we trusted only what we

Could feel by hand, beneath us and above us. And sure some among us had seen angels, In the blacksmith’s empty fire in the street

With no one there. And sure someone felt an angel In the shape of the mad daisy the hammer In his hand became before he was emancipated

From his troubles and his flesh was left hanging From limbs of trees and little gateposts In the rain—as a lesson to us all—

The kind of thing the British made us memorize, Generation after generation after generation Until it was knowledge not worth knowing.

Larry Doyle touched an angel once, he said, In the woods, and said its back was thick, Thick and fat and flat. And look at what

Happened to your Larry Doyle at the end, Gone to hell in an Easter Basket with Your permission, Mrs. Munna Mayo.

We was just two tents of flesh over bones. Still, it was a surprise how easy it was To leave the place on a warm spring afternoon,

And clatter over these long planks into The ship with its hull shaped like famine itself, Angel and woman and famine taking the same shape

And crowding one another in and out of it. To follow the path those shapes kept Disappearing on, I knew where that led,

I’d seen asylums grazing the sides of hills. More of ‘em around the City every day. You see an angel in a bar in North Beach Love

You keep your cake hole shut about it. Remember, a lie here and there is a veniality, Forgettable and necessary as sin unless

You’ve become overattached to your state Of unemployment and think there’s a sandwich Under every pillow; otherwise, where it says

Experience on the application, you’re better off Letting your imagination fill in the blank. But seeing things is another matter altogether.

Here in the Sunset it is. It’s not allowed.

3. Stevens

This was one idea, like water seen through glass, Then like a water seen through completely, Seen through and regretted and longed for

In a downpour in Hartford where he sat, Piano and attorney of the soul, turning Angels into air, the air into a mirror

Reflecting everything and the nothing In everything, so that when he dozes off In the chair, the manicurist bent over

His nails, filing them, the sound of the file Is the sound he made as a boy, running Over the dry beach grass on a winter day,

One step ahead of the quiet, one step ahead Of what is overtaking him, the background chorus Of semis on the interstate, and their new god,

Shirtless and asleep in the trailer parks, The treeless slums on the outskirts of the slums With trees in them, trees the past stuck there?

But he’s just a man asleep. He could easily be The pages of the newspaper spreading around him In the yard, he could easily have been

No more than the illiterate light of a warm Afternoon in winter shining at that moment In which I suspended all my judgments

Of this place, because they were not mine. But have it your way, for there wasn’t any us, There was only the empty light and a path

Running beneath the trees with no one on it, No sound of a keel scraping the sand of some New World, no coinage of what’s sexual.

The new god is a revolver in the sun.

4. Like the Scattered Beads of a Dime Store Rosary

One August afternoon, in the midst of lying To my counselor to get things over with, The counselor appointed by the court,

A nice enough young guy with a cold, Too many cases, and stains on his shirt, I thought of him, of how the whole point

Was not to be trapped by circumstances, Not to spend a night in a jail in a Day-Glo Orange jumpsuit, and then walk home past

Houses flaking into paint, into the pieces Of some puzzle the children have abandoned, Each lighted porch a history of desolation.

The point is to live beyond all jurisdiction, To be the uncountable stars again, the shape Of the animal running through tall grasses.

It is too late for either of us now. Angel in the gate, walk with me sometimes,

Or whatever it is you do, air stepping Or gliding through air, as far as you want, As far as eternity is, in our poor neighborhood,

With the toys spreading over the lawns behind you, And the children gone, and the sills they leaned Out of, once . . . thin, dry, freckled as leaves,

And framed by a house that is too delicate now, Too brittle to withstand the lightest touch, Or any mere kingdom’s nowhere breath,

With the light coming back to one star In the late summer dusk after another Until at last the sky above it resembles

The vast rigging of some lighted ship Drifting slowly out of reach. Come with me, Stray a little from your task, which is set

In stone, where you must stare out, stupidly Pretentious, with your frown and Roman hairstyle, And with ears that might double as handles;

Walk with me a little, just for company, As far as your owner allows, or as far as you Want, in our poor neighborhood; be the air

Cutting through an empty world of air, Be the cold air of an angel, older, thinner Than fire, like something almost remembered

From a childhood swept clean by fire, Spreading its wise chill over my flesh Until my flesh is my own and not my own;

For a moment, and then for one more moment, Let me belong to another; let me step From the snare, the lie, the trap

That would have me believe only the empty scrape Of a man’s steps as he walks home, As he begins to hear that sound and no other,

Begins to hear, in the ancient trees he passes, Only the echoing of his steps; If only for the company, walk with me a little

Through the litter and catcalls of this place. With the wrong, other angel trapped in stone, With the heaven behind you on fire,

So that I might recognize my own voice When no one speaks, so that I might know Who touches me in that realm where fingers

Are extinct and no one’s there, the place This one with its trees once whispered of, Once granted us, gave us a path to

That ran under the trees and the infinite Whispering of what we really desired, The dry, white path empty under the leaves

As we turned from it, and walked back To the ship with the silly carving of the body On its bow, and lost the place—

Lost it forever in a matter of a few seconds— So that its melody might run through my limbs, And loosen them, a lovely dust,

And sunlight through the windows of other lovers— As yet unborn, their faces pressed against The windows of the cells in the rush of the blood

Like faces pressed against the windows of a train—

Walk a few steps more with me,

Show me the house I must still be living in, Where eternity was no more than my hand Scurrying across a sheet of paper,

Kindling blent to the music of its hush; Walk with me a little way past it, now, With the wrong, other angel trapped in stone,

With the heavens behind you on fire.

[neverwatchedonepiece]

638-639: "A Deadly Blow! The Astonishing King Punch!" and "The Fighting Fish Strike! Across the Deadly Iron Bridge!"

Franky offers to wipe Sol’s internet history.

I knew there was something up with that toy.

Never thought he’d be part of the Resistance, though. (May the force be with you, Sol.)

Once Block B’s Battle Royale concluded (more on that later), the action cut to Franky and Sol the Toy. Sol was suspicious and alarmed by Franky’s willingness to ask any random person he met about destroying a top secret local weapons factory. But Franky was unmoved. He needed intel. He followed Sol out into the stairwell.

At first, it seemed Sol wouldn’t talk. Franky threatened to leave and find someone else. “I said I need to beat up a Donquixote Family member and find out how to destroy the Smile factory!”

But Sol’s caginess stemmed from the fact that he was already involved in a similar plot! (Very cool.) “You keep talking about this radical plan, but why do you want to do such a thing? It seems like you know things ordinary people don’t. What is your true purpose?”

Franky kept his mouth shut. He’s streetwise enough to know not to let any old random in on the Strawheart Alliance’s Yonkou Stompin Plan.

But he was also smart enough to spot a potential ally. “Then you too!” he said. “Where is the factory? Tell me right now and I’ll destroy it.”

Sol refused. He was not against destroying the factory but first, “we want to save the workers.” The use of ‘we’ was a definite giveaway. Sol is not acting alone. He mentioned Rebecca earlier. Maybe she’s part of the Resistance too? I am also suspicious about this Ricky character. He also hates Doflamingo. I have a funny feeling he might be connected to Kyros too (maybe he is Kyros). After all, no one remembers seeing him fight, he just disappeared and it was only twenty years ago this happened.

Another issue Sol raised was that the fall of the factory could lead to the downfall of Dressrosa itself. (Hence Franky shouting about the factory in public not being a good idea.) Okay, I thought. That makes sense. It’d trash the local economy and bring upon the island the wrath of Kaidou. But in that case, why would Sol want that to happen? Well, maybe not *want* it to happen. It’s more like, why would Sol rather have Kaidou wreck the place rather than let the status quo run its course?

I felt like Sol almost gave it away when he said to Franky, “If you have the nerve and are determined to go against Doflamingo, I’m going to tell you everything about this tragic kingdom of Dressrosa!”

Yes, please! Please do tell us all about the tragic kingdom of Dressrosa!

But I was blueballed. The credits rolled and the plot hasn’t circled back to Sol and Franky.

I’ll make a mad prediction while I wait. I’m thinking all these invisible fairies hanging about might be the original inhabitants of Dressrosa and the Donquixote Family have enslaved them or are forcing them to work in the factory for practically nothing. 

And the Winner Is...?

Meanwhile, in the Colosseum, Block B’s battle was about to conclude.

The twists and turns here were great. I guessed Bartolomeo would emerge the victor (laws of shounen: the fighter who is totally relaxed and barely lifts a finger always ends up winning (this only applies to battles that aren’t vital to the plot)). But how the fight played out was really entertaining and I never imagined it ending that way.

The mystery of Bartolomeo’s Devil Fruit power was kept until the very end of the fight. Even Bellamy’s speed and power couldn’t break Bartolomeo’s strange, deflective powers. At first I thought it was a rebound power. This was only because Bartolomeo seemed surprised by one of Bellamy’s attacks (like the power seemed to happen automatically - not controlled by Bartolomeo). Now I know Bartolomeo must have had his fingers crossed while Bellamy was attacking. The only thing that planted a seed of doubt? Bellamy did manage to grab Bartolomeo. How had that worked?

The scene of multiple betrayals was fun. Dagama urged the fodder fighters to regroup, muster their strength and focus attacks on Blue Gilly - only for Dagama to cut them down when their backs were turned and reveal he had really teamed up with Blue Gilly all along! That was a fun twist in itself. Then, when Gilly double-crossed Dagama.... ooooh, the intrigue! The fact the fodders were probably coerced into fighting because Dagama had poisoned them only upped the scumbag stakes.

I love that Dagama had the cheek to complain Blue Gilly double-crossed him. It’s like Gilly said, “Can’t believe people would trust a dubious guy like him in the first place!”

While everyone was double-crossing each other, Elizabello shadow-boxed and sweat-dropped. A bunch of chuckling, vengeful thugs surrounded him. Gilly decided to gloat. Called him a “helpless king without a court” who couldn’t do anything without Dagama.

When Liz ceased so shadow box... that should have been everyone’s clue to take him out. Instead, the other idiots in the ring let Liz power up. The guy stood there red-faced, yelling and popping veins like he was locked in the bathroom suffering through a difficult poop.

Even the audience knew something was wrong before they did. A group of worried randoms figured out their section of the Colosseum would be wrecked if they didn’t scarper.

By the time Gilly and the other fighters noticed something was seriously wrong, Gilly’s attempt to take Liz out was too late. KABOOM! Liz threw the King Punch. It was pretty spectacular. A golden-tinged impact that would have done Caesar proud. It took out almost everyone. Bellamy, Gilly, everyone who had been knocked out, was blown away into the moat.

Only a single-person remained in the ring.

IT WAS ME, DIO BARTOLOMEO!

Yes, it was Bartolomeo! And the trick he had been using to job the entire fight was revealed by Liz’s King Punch. 

Bellamy was right: Bartolomeo was a Devil Fruit user. He has eaten the Barrier Barrier Fruit, which enables him to protect himself from (any?) attacks if he crosses his fingers. He also unwittingly used his powers to save a large section of the Colosseum and the crowd who would have been obliterated by the blast. Not sure if he’d like that. But a win was a win, right?

Interestingly, Bartolomeo also has a reason for fighting. After he told the audience to go to hell, he declared he would win the Mera Mera Fruit and dedicate it to “That Person.”

As yet, I have absolutely no clue who it could be. 

But Bartolomeo’s reaction to finding out Strawhat Luffy was in the mix was intriguing. Was that fear I saw on his face? I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen Bartolomeo before but am drawing a complete blank. The weirdest thing was that there was no confrontation between Luffy and Bartolomeo. Looking forward to seeing what is up with this guy later on.

Luffy cheering on Bellamy was a good twist too. Actually, it’s not really a twist. When it comes to most people Luffy doesn’t care much about the past (Teach and Akainu are probably on the shit list for good). If he can forgive you, then all is forgotten. Of course, Bellamy felt embarrassed being cheered on by the old enemy who gave him a pasting. Doubly so, since he has failed again and Luffy has become so much stronger (able to use Conqueror’s haki - like Doflamingo, I guess).

Now the focus is on Block C. The competitors here seem a bit fodderish, with the exception of Don Chinjao. We have Sai, Boo, Brutal Bull (lmao), Hajrudin a Giant pirate mercenary from Elbaf, some fighting champ called Ideo, the Funk Brothers (lmao) and some guy called Jean the Bandit. Rebecca should clean up here. Then, when Block D comes around, it’ll be Luffy vs Cabbage.

Unpopular Opinion Time

I am beginning to like Caesar.

There must be something wrong with me.

Oda, I can’t believe you’ve done this. It is entirely your fault.

The action cut from Bartolomeo’s horrified Luffy realisation to the Caesar Handover Team out on the bridge.

My prediction that it would take them ages to cross the bridge was shot down in glorious flames. Thanks to Caesar, it didn’t even take them half an episode! Thank you, Oda.

It turned out the solid-looking iron bridge praised by Usopp was not especially robust. I think Caesar jinxed it, though. He was the one who said, “We’ll be fine if the fish don’t strike.”

Then a bubbling rumble in the depths announced itself. I lol’d heartily when a Vast Horned Abomination slammed itself into the barrier and stared at them with a grin stretched across its face and a look of murder in its mad, red eyes that said, “There will not be a second smash.” (I liked their design, by the way. The fighting fish look awesome.)

As Law wanted to reserve most of his strength for the return journey, he left Robin and Usopp to smack down the fighting fish (literally in Robin’s case). They were doing a fine job, but when Law asked Usopp to uncuff Caesar so he could fight...

Holy moly, Caesar is actually pretty strong. I keep forgetting, since he acts like such a highly-strung goofball diva a lot of the time, but damn... those Gastille beams fried those fish like it was cookout season!

Still, there were a lot of fish. And the bridge had collapsed in the middle. With nowhere to run, Law almost used Room, but the offending fish was speared, netted and dragged away along the other half of the bridge by freaked out, invisible people. (Interesting.)

Once Caesar was convinced to fly them all over the broken bridge (Caesar is basically Law’s bitch now his heart’s in a box. He is hilariously bitter about it,) they discovered the netted fish drag marks led straight to Green Bit.

It’s a strange place, is Green Bit. It is supposedly deserted and is therefore overgrown, wild, full of animal life. Ships lie wrecked all round the coast. A single, huge rose towers over everything else (hence the name Dressrosa?) Usopp should be fine here. He’s used to hostile wilderness terrain. Unless the invisible fairy people attack them. Then all bets are off.

KNEW IT.

I totally knew Sanji was being played.

Still, I’m glad the dumb charade has finally run its course. At least it only lasted for a couple of minutes each episode. I was getting tired of Sanji dropping all his Strawhat responsibilities for a random.

Got to admit, though, the brief skirmish with the thugs in the warehouse was cool. Sanji was so fast, the guy never knew what hit him. Sanji is always so stylish when he fights.

And look at what it’s got him into. Cuffed and likely hauled off to who-knows-what fate. Sanji’s reaction to Violet was interesting. It was almost like he recognised her face. (Either that or realisation hit that he was being played the entire time.) Whatever the case, this plot line has just become ten times more interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing where it leads.

If I can make another mad prediction? Violet is a member of CP0. Absolutely no basis for this other than she looks pretty dead behind the eyes, is kinda scary and her working with CP0 would tie them into the main plot nicely.

“Excuse me, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour, Donquixote Doflamingo?”

[alpacannot]

So, I’m finally getting around to rewriting my Reaper Saga books, with the newly renamed “Reaper”. The past, like, four times I’ve tried to rewrite this book, I’ve always stuck with the same general opening chapter, introducing Tris, her work, and the other characters fairly quickly, allowing them to talk about themselves. This time, I’ve tried for a slightly different approach, which I like more. It took me forever to write it though, partly because I’m rusty (I haven’t written anything fiction related since 2016) and partly because I just wanted to skip to the good stuff. It was tempting to just copy in the original prologue, but I’m super pleased with how this new first chapter is starting. It’s not done, and I haven’t proofed it yet, but I was so excited that I just had to share it. So, without further ado, here’s the first, unedited bit of “Reaper” chapter 1:

“Tristan Sieghard—for crimes against humanity and for exposing the Afterlife, we, the Highers and the Gatekeeper, sentence you to death and eternal damnation in the deepest pits of Hell.” The Highest’s voice echoed throughout the assembly hall as several Runners drug her away from the crowd gathered inside the seemingly far-too-small room. Alex avoided her gaze, his brows pinching together. She wanted to shout out, “You could have stopped this!”, but she knew that she had chosen this. It was her neglect that ultimately caused her downfall. But, at least she was brave enough to act, to seek out justice for their daughter. He was by far the worse parent, choosing to do nothing.

******

I awoke with a jolt, sitting bolt upright and drenched in sweat. The same nightmare haunted me, the screeching of tires across asphalt ringing in my ears. My throat was raw from screaming. Glancing to my right, three blinking red numbers drilled into my eyes—4:27 a.m. “Fantastic,” I muttered, dragging myself out of bed and untangling the mess of slightly damp covers from around my legs. My mouth was dry, and my tongue felt like lead. Scrubbing the sleep from my eyes, I forced myself into the shower, letting the scalding water beat against my back. No pain was enough to drag me into reality though. I sat there, dead to the world, until the water ran cold, after which I pushed myself up and out.

I coiled my curls on top of my head, giving up on looking presentable. The dark bags under my eyes said what my mouth couldn’t: I wasn’t well. I grimaced at my reflection, at my body’s betrayal. Stumbling towards my closet, my numb fingers clutched at my work clothes: black and white and garish red. I looked like a corpse every day, which was ironic considering I spent every working hour turning other people into corpses. As I fumbled with the buttons, I tried once again to desperately return to reality, but the memories clouded my eyes, refusing to let me escape.

Realizing that the day was already a loss but determined to earn my keep in some way, I gradually made my way to the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee, and left my apartment. Locking my door presented everlasting problems for my still unresponsive hands, but I eventually managed to secure my door. Stopping to collect myself once more, I reveled in the silence of the hall. Still, my peace was short lived as the muffled sounds of music rang out from the adjacent apartment. I longed for the effortlessness with which PJ lived his carefree life. I knew that it hadn’t come easy to him—after all, he hadn’t always been this unburdened. He, too, had had his fair share of trauma and regrets. It seemed like everyone here did.

Trudging down the endless, blank hallways, I finally arrived at the front of my department. The room was virtually empty, save the night security guard, who was unsurprised to see me. He barely glanced up from his book, nodded in my direction, and continued reading. It wasn’t unusual for me to be in the office during the wee hours of the morning. The first few days, he was suspicious, but as the days turned into weeks, he stopped commenting on my odd hours. Always the first to arrive and the last to leave—not because I was an overachiever, but because work was safe. When I went home, my mind was cut lose, free to torment me.

I flicked on the lights, illuminating the long stretch of cubicles. Even during normal working hours, the desks were usually devoid of people—overflowing with paperwork, but not a single living soul in sight. I ruffled through the stack of reports on my desk, mostly reference files that had yet to be signed off and returned to the Keepers. Grabbing my pen, I began to furiously sign any remaining legal work, tucking the death certificates in the back of their respective manilla folders. Neatly stacking the completed files in the outgoing basket on my desk, I rang for a Runner and sat back as I waited for their arrival. As expected, they were waiting in front of my desk in a matter of seconds.

“Two Pink Card files today. The rest are all Blue Card.” The Runner nodded and whisked away the folders, disappearing from view in a flurry of fabric and papers. I ran a hand through the tangle of still-damp curls that had slowly begun their escape from the knot on the top of my head. Now what am I going to do? The new files won’t come in for another hour at least, I thought. As if on cue, Alex came striding through the glass doors.

“Another early day?” he asked, as if this wasn’t a common occurrence.

“Of course. Just like every other day.” With an unusual grace for someone so large, he sat on my now empty desk, folding his long legs. He took up the whole space, making my already cramped office even tinier. I had never felt more miniscule. His long, thin fingers tapped rhythmically on his biceps, drawing attention to the muscles there. If I didn’t know him better, I would have thought he was trying to intimidate me.

“What about you? What are you doing here so early, Alex?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“You know, the usual. Pink Card Keepers never rest.”

I choked back a laugh, but it sounded like a strangled animal. “Are you kidding? Pink Cards only cover what Yellow and Blue Cards don’t, which has been like next to nothing these days.” His eyes tightened at the corners—I’d struck a nerve for sure. Just like that, he relaxed, returning to his usual joking self.

“Well, I was called in early this morning—two new Pink Card only files were brought in a few minutes ago. I wonder who could have sent them in?” I feigned innocence, but I felt bad for waking him up. I wasn’t sure why those files couldn’t wait until normal hours. I had just assumed that they’d wait on someone’s desk until everyone else clocked in.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t know they would wake you up for them—they’ve never done that before?”

“It’s fine. You know how anxious they are to get Pink Card work wrapped up, especially dangerous people like those two. The sooner the paperwork is done, the sooner HR can get them in Hell and away from all the innocent souls.” He paused, waiting for me to react, but my numb brain wasn’t truly processing anything. “Well, I better get to work then. Those files aren’t going to seal themselves.” With that, he turned to leave. At the double doors, he stopped, looked back, and winked at me before continuing on his way.

Hours later, other Reapers started filing in. Today’s files were brought by the Runners, although I’d barely noticed them. Honestly, the Runners were like phantoms—there one minute and gone the next. Opening the first packet, I skimmed over the list of humans I would be Reaping today: Bethany Jones—Blue Card, Amanda Howard—Blue Card, Lydia Ramirez—Yellow Card. The list went on and on. No one in particular stood out to me, and I grimaced—today’s Reaping wouldn’t take me but a few hours. I would be home alone with my thoughts for a majority of the work day.

PJ strode in, interrupting my stream of melancholy thoughts. His curly hair was slightly disheveled, a lazy smile on his face. “Whatcha’ think about today’s Reapings?” he asked.

PJ was in charge of assembling the list of Reapings and preparing the proper paperwork—as long as the files were within his level of clearance. PJ was relatively new to this work still, stagnating at Blue Card Keeper since graduation. Together with Chris, my designated Yellow Card Keeper, and Alex, PJ was my behind-the-scenes crew. On the off chance that I worked extended assignments on Earth, he got to read my reports and add them to that person’s file, but I hadn’t worked an extended assignment in years. In fact, I wasn’t sure PJ ever saw the other’s when prepping my work. During extended assignments, he would work closely with Chris, but I wasn’t sure the two had ever actually met before. In fact, I hardly ever saw Chris.

PJ snapped his fingers at me, drawing me from my internal monologue. “Are you listening? I asked what you thought about today’s Reapings.” I shook my head, forcing myself to focus.

“I’m a little bummed out actually. I don’t see anything that will keep me working for very long today, so I’ll be going home early. Which I know sounds great to you considering you’ll be here late working on the files because almost all of them are Blue Card, but it’s a real downer for me,” I explained when I saw him opening his mouth to protest. He grinned at me.

“You owe me. Dinner tonight. Your place. I want to talk to you about this new guy I met the other day!”

“If it’s a new love interest, I’d love to hear about it, although I’m a little miffed about cooking. However, since it’s a short day for me, I suppose I can make dinner tonight. Now get out of here—I have work to do, and so do you.” I playfully swatted at him. PJ always brought out the best in me and made it easier for me to shake off my early morning melancholy.

“See you tonight!” he called out as he all but skipped through the doors.

[rueitae]

The Secrets of Beasts

Completely unplanned and the fastest 2000 words I’ve ever written. Much fluff and sap inspired by some talk on the Pidgance Positivity Server about show epilogues/time skips/general Paladin futures. And also this post.

Plance as usual, set at an undetermined amount of time post series.

The team is investigating a mysterious nebula, but the Green Lion is obstinate about Pidge joining them.

Although I’m almost 100% sure someone has done something very similar, here’s my humble take.

~~~~~

Pidge yawned, cupping a hand over her mouth, exhausted from near constant research. She should call it a night, it was near two in the morning. Anything for a mission, she supposed.

She had the sleeves of her Coalition uniform rolled up to her elbows and shirt unbuttoned, exposing the black flight suit. A bright green stain on it nearly matched her uniform, but it was only the remains of hastily cleaned up food goo, spilled earlier while her mind had been focused on the mission.

“Where did the time go,” she wondered, rubbing her eyes. At least she was finished with her studies to the point of personal satisfaction. Looking at the data any further wouldn’t be productive. Hunk would double check things for her anyway.

The Green Lion rumbled, expressing a concern for her Paladin.

Pidge grinned, feeling less tired with her closest companion in her mind. “I know I have to take care of myself, Girl. I’ll go to bed as soon as I report what I have to the team.”

It took only a few steps to walk over to her communications station, one that she had retrofitted to her specifications. Her father’s design for the Atlas left little to be desired, but the comfort of having a workstation in the Green Lion’s hanger reminded her of their time on the Castle, and it meant a lot to her.

She called up the Black Lion and Keith answered immediately. He smiled warmly and Kosmo joined him, nearly pushing Keith over to sniff the screen.

“Hey Pidge, any good news?” he asked while pushing the cosmic wolf gently to the side.

“Somewhat,” Pidge responded. “The nebula seems to be harmless at least, and there’s no evidence of the Rift Creatures that I can tell. You guys should be good to proceed.”

A second screen popped on to her monitor and Allura joined the conversation from the Blue Lion. “I have not sensed the Creatures either. Although, I would feel much better if we had the means to form Voltron.”

“I second that,” Hunk chimed in, creating a third screen on Pidge’s monitor. “I do not like poking at a complete unknown, even with all of us. It just seems like a bad idea.”

Pidge offered a condoling smile and a shrug. “Sorry I couldn’t be there. Green was pretty adamant about staying on the Atlas while Dad and Shiro run the system reboot.”

Pidge couldn’t help a grin as Lance finally rounded out the team on her monitor. His face read of angst and displeasure.

“You know listening to the Lions is for the best Lance, they know what they’re doing,” she told him. “Blue took us to the Castle remember? Stop pouting.”

“I’m not pouting,” he protested. His frown deepened. He was definitely pouting. Pidge found it adorable and endearing. “I’m a little annoyed that I haven’t seen my wife in a week and when I do, she calls Keith before me! Don’t I get any kind of marriage privileges?” he finished dramatically.

“Oh my gosh,” Hunk said. He tried to groan and feign equal annoyance, but the delight on his face told a different story. “Can you two not have a couples spat on the Voltron mind link?”

“Do not answer that question, Pidge,” Allura said firmly. “Lance has been a Goybeenian Monkling all movement because of your absence. He deserves it.”

“I am not!” Lance defended. Although wearing his helmet, Pidge could easily imagine his hairs standing on end.

“I think Green would have said something if the sample I have was truly dangerous. If Allura isn’t sensing anything, Keith isn’t sensing anything, and I haven’t found anything scientifically dangerous, then you’re good to proceed.” She yawned, unable to help it after her long winded answer. “Although if you wouldn’t mind waiting another six varga I'd like to be awake to watch.”

“Yes, I think that is a fantastic idea,” Lance agreed firmly, huffing and crossing his arms.

“Sounds good, Pidge. We’ll see you in six varga,” Keith confirmed. Kosmo hogged the right side of the screen, and despite Keith’s soothing pets, continued to whine and whimper.

“Everything alright with Kosmo? He usually isn’t this vocal.” Pidge worried.

Keith frowned, and didn’t answer right away. “He just misses you,” he finally said with a genuine smile. “Congratulations, by the way.”

“What are we congratulating?” Allura asked, confusion written on her face, and everyone else’s save Keith.

“Uh, Pidge is having a baby,” Keith said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

The video link went dead silent, but the chatter in their minds ran a mile a minute.

“I’m sorry, I’m what?” Pidge exclaimed.

Keith blinked. “You didn’t know? Kosmo says he’s been smelling it on you the week before we left.”

The unmistakable sound of Green standing on all fours took Pidge’s attention away from her team momentarily. The Lion’s eyes lit up bright yellow and unleashed a proud roar.

Allura gasped in delight. “This is wonderful news. And it now makes sense why the Green Lion refuses to leave the Atlas. She wanted Pidge to find out first.”

“Oh man, this is amazing!” Hunk said. “We are totally throwing a party. Lance, dude, buddy, you’re gonna be a dad!”

Lance’s screen wobbled slightly, a sign Hunk had steered the Yellow Lion to give the Red Lion a congratulatory bump. The Red Paladin himself hadn’t yet spoken, his jaw hanging open slightly.

Pidge sympathized, she wasn’t sure what to say either. She cleared her throat. “Well… I guess I can’t argue with a cosmic wolf and a ten thousand year old sentient mechanical lion that lives in my head.” Her heart swelled and she couldn’t help but smile. “So, hey Lance, I’m pregnant.” The words sounded so foreign, but none had ever felt better to say.

That finally broke Lance’s silence. Tears welled up in his eyes behind his helmet. “I’m gonna be a dad,” he said. “I’m gonna be a dad!” he said once more, animated and bouncing up from his chair.

“Okay, let’s let Pidge rest,” Keith said, still smiling. “We’ve got a mission to complete later. We should all do the same.”

Green lowered herself and opened the ramp through the mouth, beckoning Pidge to climb in and pilot.

Pidge couldn’t stop smiling. “Looks like I’ll be joining you guys after I get some sleep.”

“Sounds good, ‘night Pidge.” Keith ended the communication.

“Congratulations, Pidge, Lance. We look forward to seeing you soon,” Allura said before also dismissing herself.

“Okay I just need to know, what kind of cake are we talking?” Hunk asked. “Regular Earth flavors or are we thinking something a little more exotic?”

“We’ll talk about that later, Hunk,” Lance said, tinged with a bit of annoyance. “Can I just talk to Pidge for a second? Alone?”

Hunk slumped. “Yeah okay. Just consider Hovian chocolate. In the back of your minds.”

Pidge crossed her arms and smirked. “You and Matt are going to be co-godfathers. Go prepare yourself for that.”

“Pidge that’s not fair!” Hunk protested, tears streaming down his face. “You can’t pull something that important on me when I can’t hug you!”

“And now you know how I feel,” Lance pointed out dryly.

“Okay, okay I get it. I’m off!” He paused. “I love you guys.”

“Love you too, bud,” Lance said affectionately, sniffling to dry up his tears.

Hunk removed himself from the group conversation.

“He’s right you know,” Lance started. “I want to be with you right now, holding you and our kid.”

“I know,” Pidge agreed. “I’m still trying to wrap this around my head. It doesn’t feel real.”

“You’re the smartest person I know,” Lance said warmly. “It’ll come to you before me.”

Pidge fiddled her thumbs, bringing her abdomen in her field of vision. She brought her hand to rest where she knew months from now the pregnancy would be obvious. “It’ll be a new challenge,” she said. “But less stressful than saving the universe I think.”

Lance laughed. “Ask Lisa or my mom and they’ll probably tell us otherwise.” His smile changed to one radiating confidence and compassion. “We’re gonna do it as a team though, just like we do with Voltron. And it’s going to be great.”

His eyes were filled with nothing but love. It made her feel comfortable and warm.

“I know. I love you, Lance. I’ll see you in person soon. After I sleep I need to get the sample loaded. We can tell our families the good news when we get back - together.”

“Sounds like a plan. I love you too, Pidge. Send my kisses to our peanut.” With exaggeration, he blew a kiss and placed it on his monitor.

Pidge humored him and caught it dramatically, placing it on her belly. “You’re going to need a better nickname for the kid,” she chided. “You know I hate peanuts.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “I’ll have one by the time you and Green get here. Get some sleep, Pidge.”

“Night, Lance,” she responded.

He ended the group chat and Pidge stood for a solid minute just staring at the blank screens, mouth curved into a frown and missing him already.

She turned to Green with a wry grin. “You’re pretty good at keeping secrets, Girl. Anything else you got for me?”

A low, playful rumble was the only answer she received.

“Fine then. I guess millennia old beings can have their secrets,” she teased. Pidge walked up to Green, who closed her mouth to allow Pidge to pet her snout.

She received a purr in response.

Pidge wrapped her arms around Green’s nose as much as she physically could, smiling the whole time. She figured maybe it was the pregnancy, but all of a sudden Pidge was in a very affectionate mood. “I love you, Girl. You’re the best Lion, don’t let the others tell you any different.”

The Green Lion sent a wave of images through her mind; her bed, pillow, pajamas.

“Okay, okay, I get it. I’m exhausted,” Pidge said, pulling away. “I’ll see you later.”

As Pidge exited the hanger, Green sat up in its default mode, effortlessly looking proud and dignified.

Pidge made it as far as her pajamas and getting under the covers, but sleep eluded her. The excitement of discovery and a new personal mission kept her mind buzzing.

Eventually, she focused on the wall of photographs she and Lance used in decoration for their room. Many of them were of the whole Voltron team, a good number of them on some of their more memorable dates, but the one her eyes wandered to was their wedding photo.

Pidge could still feel the comfort of her dress, and how happy the white chiffon and green sash had made her, given to her as a gift from some of Matt’s close Coalition friends. She’d been expecting to wear her uniform, as Lance did, since wedding dresses hadn’t been on the forefront of minds while rebuilding Earth’s infrastructure and economy.

She’d missed having a good reason to wear a dress. The thoughtfulness still made her tear up to this day.

Now she’d have more reason. Even her baggiest clothes wouldn’t fit her eventually.

The thought made her curl up and close her eyes with a smile. The coming months would have their downsides, but all she cared about right now was how good and warm she felt. Lance beside her was the only thing that would have possibly made her happier.

It would only get better when she woke and joined her Voltron family.

Pidge decided the first thing she would do though, is EVA over to the Red Lion and hold her husband for all he was worth.

It would be a very long hug.

[littleoldrachel]

Eleventh chapter is up! Read it here on ao3, or here on ff.net, or under the cut. 

100 Ways to Say I Love You Summary: In which actions speak louder than words, Sirius and Remus sort of fall in to a relationship, and even though neither of them have said those three all-important words, they both know it anyway.Or: 100 Ways to Say I Love You by Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Previous |  chapter 11/100 - “You can have half.” | Next Based on this post by p0ck3tf0x Tw for grief, anxiety, hints at depression, a use of the f-word, mentions of child abuse.

Against James’ wishes, Remus’ advice, and Akilah’s concerns, Sirius returns to work just a few days after the news breaks. Having lost four days to his grief, his schedule is tighter than ever, but the pressure is a blessing in disguise - because he plunges headfirst into his projects, and just… does not surface.

Time loses all meaning, now that he's spending every single second in the office - sketching, programming, editing, it's all time-consuming work that requires Sirius’ utmost attention.

His friends bring meals to the office and his colleagues force him outside once in a while for some fresh air, but without his graphics tablet in hand, he's a shell of a person, aimlessly fidgeting and tugging at his clothes. He needs to be busy and productive because otherwise he's just the waste of space his parents always claimed he was, haunted by memories and longing for relief - but nobody seems to want to accept that. He begins to sleep at the office, but with no semblance of a schedule; he crashes beneath his workstation whenever exhaustion gets the better of him, and wakes to expressions of concern, aching shoulders, and the feeling of bone-deep fatigue that no amount of sleep can solve.

His grief is a current that keeps pulling him away from the work he's trying so hard to focus on, and every time it's a little harder to propel himself back to it. It tugs and claws and drags at him, and no matter how firmly he tries to embed himself in the sand, his pain is relentless.

But so are his friends in their compassion. Lily brings him his medication, and texts him reminders to actually take it, you silly angel. Frank cooks his favourite comfort foods, and doesn't complain a jot when Sirius cannot manage more than a mouthful. Kingsley makes him drinks by the gallon - some alcoholic, some not, some piping, some ice-cold, depending on how sad he looks at that moment.

Alice sends him videos of animals doing stupidly adorable things that thaw his frozen heart like nothing else can, and bakes him cookies and cakes that go largely uneaten. Peter seems to be the only one who understands Sirius’ need to be at work, because he enables him like the rest of the group refuse to - taking him to work, bringing him fresh clothes, asking him about the projects, and it's refreshingly normal where nothing else is. James encourages him to talk about his feelings, takes him to therapy, and doesn't get mad ever when it all gets too much and Sirius screams at him to fuck off, Prongs, I'm fine. Every time Sirius thinks James has peaked as a best friend, he goes and pulls something like this, which just reminds Sirius how utterly indebted he is for this friendship.

Marlene gets in touch with a promise to chase up the issue with Alphard leaving Sirius everything. Sirius wants to shout that he doesn't give a fuck, he wouldn't touch a penny if he could just have Alphard back, but he knows that she feels guilty she can't be there physically, so he lets her do what she needs to without arguing. On top of all of this, there are well wishes and messages of love from school friends he hasn't spoken to in years. It's a lot.

(It's too much, and every day, more and more messages stack up in his inbox that he simply doesn't have the energy or the will to respond to).

And then there's Remus.

Lovely, soft, understanding Remus, who comes to the office just to sit in silence and be with him because he somehow knows that the memories are a little less intrusive with his presence. Who brings him flowers just because Sirius’ shoulders slump a little less with the sight of them. Who stops him from torturing his heart with a caffeine overload. Who witnesses every single panic attack and anxiety attack and supports him through them no matter what he's supposed to be doing. Who never asks for anything from him but gives and gives and gives, and Sirius takes it all greedily, because God knows he's earned the right to be selfish.

(Sirius cannot comprehend why he's spiralling when he has literally the best support network he could ask for, but he hates himself for this perceived flaw in any case. And this self hatred only shoves him harder into his work - he doesn't spare a thought for what he's going to do when he's finished because all that is keeping him going right now is the fact that he needs to get these done).

His therapist tells him that the way he's responding is normal and expected, and he wants to yell fuck off in her stupid face, because if it is normal to be this angry and numb and depressed and overwhelmed, he is uninterested in ‘normal’ and ‘expected.’ He tries to channel this frustration into his art - because healthy outlets are important, she also reminds him, but there’s just… some kind of barrier? Blocking his emotions from the blank white page? He wants to fucking smash something - because fuck healthy coping mechanisms, fuck it all.

Of his two projects, the most pressing task is a double page spread in the next month's issue, which will introduce a character of Sirius’ own design, complete with costume, backstory, and a personal article. He has enough free reign that he barely needs to ask Akilah's guidance at all (which is a blessing because the thought of talking to anyone brings him out in cold sweats and ragged breaths).

His character is one he's been perfecting since his Final Project at university, and perhaps this makes it such an easy task despite the fogginess of his brain. He pours his tattered heart and battered soul into first the paper sketches, then into the tablet, his eyes aching from the attention to detail. What he ends up with actually stirs a feeling of something in his stomach, and he clings to the thought of something that isn't grief-related like a lifeline.

Ember, a trans woman of colour whose 'real job’ is in chemical engineering, can manipulate shadows to travel through the world, and she's, in Lily's words, completely fucking awesome, I love being bi. Sirius maps out her afro with painstaking strokes, referencing and counter referencing her features to ensure he's doing this right, and by right, he means don't be a racist fuck and make her nose all like a white person, in Frank's words.

The comic strip of her origin story involves an unhappy childhood, a found family, and a journey of self-acceptance that is so close to his own, it's almost embarrassing, except he's so in love with Ember, he doesn't give a single shit. Her superpowers come about from an experiment gone-wrong at work, the product of enthusiastic conversations he'd had with Gideon about the plausibility of this incident all those years ago. It’s nostalgic in just the way he needs - living in the past, a past in which Alphard was alive and well and thriving, means that he can pretend, however briefly, that the ground hasn’t collapsed beneath him.

The final section - the personal article - presents the greatest challenge, and he half-heartedly bashes out a few paragraphs on the importance of representation that make him wince in their detachedness. It takes almost a full bottle of whiskey late one night to actually allow the emotions to spill out, into sentences about how works like Queerllustration’s saved his life, how the realisation that people like him could be heroes too meant so much to anxious, closeted twelve-year-old Sirius. It’s cheesy and personal and possibly too-much when he sends the article to Remus to edit, because as gifted as Sirius is with pictures, it's Remus who's best with words. Remus sends an edited version back within a few hours, and Sirius loves him for it - both the eloquent way he's rearranged Sirius’ syntax and the speed with which he's turned a diamond-in-the-rough shiny.

The end result is one that, even in his grief and frustration, Sirius is proud of.

(He thinks Alphard would be too).

(If only he were here to see it).

The second project is one that Sirius had been so excited to be commissioned, because the idea of a mural for a children's ward sparks the sense of adventure and hopefulness that he sorely needs. Fresh from the adrenalin of churning out his first project, he refuses all offers of time-off or an extension, and ploughs onwards, ignoring how flat and empty the world outside his sketchpad has become.

Remus comes to the office at eight o'clock at night one day, and watches him work for a while in silence. He’s been working on the mural mock-ups for hours by now - a fact, he knows by the ache of his shoulders and the sting of tired eyes. Eventually, Remus shifts from his spot in Sirius’ swivel chair, and crouches before him, cupping a hand to his cheek and forcing Sirius to meet his gaze.

“Please come home,” Remus says softly, and the vulnerability in his eyes almost breaks Sirius. He almost caves. Almost.

“I have to finish this section,” Sirius mumbles, reluctantly removing himself from the warmth of Remus’ palm, and turning back to his designs.

Remus says nothing, and Sirius cannot bear to look back at him, for the disappointment in them will be unbearable. When Remus gets up and leaves, Sirius feels his already-broken heart shrivelling, and he forces himself to breathe through the pain of it, concentrating as hard as he can to distract from the ache in his chest.

But then -

The door clicks open once more, and Sirius jerks around in surprise. Remus is standing there, his expression heart-rendingly kind. He’s got a blanket wrapped about his shoulders and arms full of take-out containers.

(Sirius wants to sob at the gesture - at how good Remus is, and how much he cares - but he can’t seem to remember how. Or rather, there’s something that doesn’t allow the tears to come, they’re somewhere inside him, but trapped).

Remus sits beside him, and Sirius tucks against his side, huddling into the blanket that Remus drapes between them. When Remus pops the lids on the various containers, the aroma of Indian food hits his nostrils, and for the first time in weeks, the smell doesn’t nauseate him. He manages more than a few mouthfuls, listens to Remus natter about his day, allows himself this hour to just be.

Because then it’s back to the grind, and no amount of pleading from Remus will persuade him to cut himself some slack.

(Why should he take it easy when Alphard cannot take anything ever again?)

The finished design is pretty fucking epic; superheroes will decorate the wall, clad in brightly coloured costumes and masks, but these superheroes are special, because some are in wheelchairs or on crutches or missing limbs, some have Special Needs, some have no hair, some have oxygen tanks. In other words, they look like the children he’s seen on his visits to the ward, all with various illnesses and injuries, all far stronger than anyone their age should have to be.

(And if there’s a hero in there who’s older, with crinkles around his grey eyes and a wild mane of platinum hair, whose features make Sirius’ chest pang, then what of it?)

The commissioners are utterly thrilled with it. The children are delighted, the families are admiring, the medical staff appreciative. Congratulations, interview requests, and thanks come pouring in at an alarming rate. Plans are made for it to be painted the following month, and the attention it attracts funds a second commission in another section of the hospital. All Sirius hears is how well he’s done, that he’s a rising star, that this is only the beginning of a bright future. And of course, he’s grateful, these are things he’s dreamed of hearing his whole life.

But it’s too much.

Of the people clamouring his brilliance, there are none more enthusiastic or proud than his friends, all of whom photograph it from every single angle, save any and all mentions of his name in the local paper’s coverage, are more supportive than he deserves.

And Sirius -

Does not register any of it.

It's almost like he thought that finishing these projects and making a name for himself would feel like enough - would counter the horrible, unacceptable truth that Alphard is gone.

But nothing has changed.

Alphard is still gone.

And logically, Sirius knew that completing these projects and pretending things were normal wouldn’t change this fact.

But he still feels like a failure for it.

When the paint is dry on the walls, Sirius leaves the hospital, nodding at the nurses he’s come to know by name, and… walks. He walks past the tube stop he needs to take if he’s heading back to the office, past the stop that leads home, past the buses that he could catch to Peter’s - and he just keeps walking.

The sun drifts lower and lower in the sky, until the Christmas lights are flickering on and Sirius is low-key shaking with the cold the evening brings. Businessmen shove past him impatiently whilst tourists amble in front of him, and no matter where he positions himself, he is in the way, a burden, an annoyance, empty, empty, empty. Catching sight of his reflection in the shop windows is a nasty surprise; he barely recognises himself in the heavy bags beneath his eyes and the downwards twist of his mouth, but he can’t find it in himself to care.

By the time his nose is running from the cold air and his limbs are well and truly numb, the crowds have thinned out, but he doesn’t stop walking. His mind is oddly blank, and his feet keep carrying him, as though each step might shake off the incredible weight of grief he’s shouldering.

(It doesn’t).

He’s not sure at what point the tears start coming. In fact, it’s only when an older gentleman leaving a mosque stops him in concern that he’s even aware that he’s crying. He accepts the tissue the man is pressing on him, but waves off any other questions, dabbing his leaking eyes and forging onwards.

It’s ironic that the harder he cries, the more people avoid meeting his gaze. The tears are streaming and his vision is too-blurred to see straight - he’s a complete fucking wreck, and nobody cares enough to help him.

(Except that’s not quite true).

(Because there are friends who would help him only a phone call away, and it would break James’ too-generous heart to know that Sirius was walking the streets alone and devastated).

(As it is, it’s Remus’ door he ends up at).

(Because of course it’s Remus. It’s always been Remus).

He’s trying to pluck up the courage to knock on the door, when the man himself comes round the corner. Remus is wearing his university sweater - the one that Sirius likes to steal and curl up in because it’s huge and carries Remus’ scent better than anything else - and has his earphones in, a carrier bag swinging loosely from his fingers. Sirius hasn’t been spotted yet, which gives him approximately five seconds to arrange his features into something a little less distressing, and wipe his eyes.

Then, Remus looks up. The second his eyes meet Sirius’, he’s running - and Remus doesn’t run - but he makes the short distance down the corridor in record time, and presses a hand to Sirius’ cheek.

Neither of them say anything for a moment, but Remus’ eyes flit frantically over Sirius’ face, before he loops his arm around Sirius, and tugs them both inside his apartment.

(Were he in a better state of mind, Sirius would be concerned over the fact that Remus doesn’t bother with a key, because his lock’s still fucking broken).

Winky hops down from her perch on Remus’ countertop, and purrs as she winds through their legs, following them to the sofa. Remus pulls Sirius down beside him, and Sirius goes, willingly, hugging as closely to Remus as is possible. The tears, which have momentarily eased, return again in full force, and Sirius is racked with sobs as he arches into Remus’ lap. “W-why am I - crying - again?” Sirius manages, and Remus runs a soothing hand up Sirius’ back. “Why can’t I stop?”

“Because you’ve repressed this for too long,” says Remus so gently that Sirius doesn’t even flinch at the blunt honesty of it. “Because you pushed through it, and didn’t let yourself grieve.”

Sirius screws his eyes shut, the pain in his chest mounting with every ragged breath he draws. “It hurts, Moony.” He claws at his chest vaguely, though hurts doesn’t even cover it - it’s all-encompassing, all-consuming -

“I’m sorry, love,” Remus whispers. He twines their fingers together, rubbing his chest in circular motions. It does nothing to ease the pain, but it’s a reminder that he’s not alone in this hell-hole, and it’s Remus.

“Hurts,” Sirius repeats to himself.

“What can I do?” Remus says, the desperation seeping into his tone.

Sirius shakes his head, has to bite his tongue to stop himself from snapping something like bring back my dead uncle, and murmurs, “just hold me?”

“Of course,” Remus whispers, tugging Sirius even tighter against his chest.

Eventually, Sirius’ flow of tears ceases, though this has more to do with dehydration and exhaustion than because he’s nowhere near done feeling terrible about it. From that point, the intense cuddles morph into something more relaxed; the tv is left on a Netflix show they’ve both seen before, Remus reheats some leftovers, and Winky settles down in Sirius’ lap. Sirius looks blearily at the menorah in Remus’ window - it’s electric, because anything else in a flat so poorly-built and badly-designed seems too risky - and watches as Remus lights another of its candles. He looks so beautiful in the candlelight - all soft edges and warm golden glow - and he ducks his head self-consciously when he catches Sirius’ staring. “Happy Hanukkah,” he says.

“Happy Hanukkah,” Sirius returns, trying to ignore the thought of is Remus missing Hanukkah with his family? Is that because of me?

“Where do we go from here?” Remus asks, what must be several hours later, judging by the temperature drop in the room. Sirius, almost cozy and comfortable in his nest of blankets-safety-Remus, takes an anxious breath, because he knows what he needs, but it’s not what he wants.

“I think… I need to sign off work for a while. But like, properly this time.”

Remus squeezes his hip where his hand is resting. “I think that sounds like a really smart idea. I’m proud of you.”

“I love you,” Sirius says quietly, and one day, when his head is less grief-heavy and his heart less broken, he will be able to say those words with the full significance of everything in his soul. But today is not that day.

Remus replies at once, and the words bring a warmth around his heart that is the most feeling he’s had in far too long. “I love you too.”

And so begins a true healing period. One in which Sirius lets himself sob when he feels his heart re-shattering, scream when everything feels so unfair dammit, smile when something pleasant happens - because lovely things do happen, and he doesn’t have to live the rest of his life feeling guilty for it.

(Or so his therapist says. He’ll get there eventually).

In other news, he’s sort of living at Remus’ now? For the time being at least? The first night he’d slept over, Remus had had to go to work the next day, and Sirius just… didn’t leave. And then he continued to not leave. He spends the time Remus is working hanging out with his friends in their various workplaces, or binge-watching shows with Winky, or sketching for fun, not for work, I promise, Prongs. It’s the first time in forever that his mind has been able to just be, and he can feel the weight lifting a little with every day he spends waking up to the sight of Remus bashing his alarm clock in annoyance.

That’s not to say it’s easy - it’s not. There are days where getting out of bed is Far Too Much, and he cannot breathe for panicking. There are times when he remembers that he’s probably really overstayed his welcome at Remus’ and works himself into a tizzy about burdening his best friend.

But there are also lazy Saturday mornings with pancakes and syrup, late-night excursions for ice cream, tug-of-wars with Winky, outfit-selecting for Remus, phone conversations to Remus’ family… it’s all so fucking domestic, and it makes Sirius’ heart ache for what could be. The thing is, living with Remus is safe and warm and comfortable, and Sirius wants it all, all of this and so much more.

(“Is it helping?” James asks him one Wednesday evening, when Remus has a bar shift and it’s just the two of them in the flat. Sirius feels guilty for the wistfulness in James’ eyes as he nods, but his heart flutters as James admits, “you seem so much better these days. Remus is so damn good for you”).

In Sirius’ incredibly unbiased opinion, he’s inclined to agree, because days later - days? weeks? months, even? - he opens his eyes, takes a breath, and isn’t bombarded with painful memories. And a little while after that, he wakes up and finds that his chest isn’t a gaping hole - it’s more like there’s the skin covering the wound is thin and fragile, but healing. He’s healing.

Before Sirius’ colossal and overwhelming breakdown, Marlene had promised to help him with the Will Situation, because an official-looking letter arrived from his parents’ lawyer that had made him burst into tears without even opening it. He kind of assumes she’s got better things to do, until one day, he gets the following cryptic message:

Marlene: ahem, bow down before me, underling, for I have worked magic and it is finally time to recognise my brilliance

Sirius: ????????

Sirius: i kno ur brilliant i don’t understand

Marlene: true, true

Marlene: but no seriously, I’ve dealt with your shitty family and the will money is yours. They can’t touch it, or you.

Sirius: ??????

Sirius: !!!!!!!

Sirius: are you for real???

[Sirius is calling]

“Marls,” Sirius half-sobs the second she picks up, “Marls - thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Marlene’s voice - usually full of the fire and justice that make her such a successful lawyer - is soft, but no less protective. “It’s amazing what you can achieve with accusations of child abuse and neglect.”

Sirius winces, because she’s right, but the truth hurts. “I love you,” he says, and Marlene makes an mhm sound that Sirius knows is accompanied by a hair flip. “I - I don’t know how to thank you enough -”

“No seriously, don’t mention it. You’re my friend and I would do anything for you, yada-yada-yada, let’s not get sappy.” Marlene’s briskness has returned, and Sirius can’t help the fond smile his lips curve into. “I’m gonna send you over the details of emails between me and their fuckheads - I mean lawyer scum - and the form you need to sign, and then the money is yours.”

There’s a pause, in which Sirius exhales, trying to process everything all at once, and Marlene softens her tone again: “And Sirius, love?”

“Mmm?” Sirius says vaguely, still too affected to deal with more.

“It’s a lot. The money, I mean. He’s left you everything.”

“I don’t care about the money - as long as I don’t have to face them again, I couldn’t care less about-”

“You will, when you see it.”

(Despite Marlene’s efforts to warn him, waking up one morning with an extra two digits on his account balance is a shock, to put it mildly. Once he’s finished logging in and out of his account, refreshing the page, and even contacting his bank, it finally begins to sink in that Alphard has given him everything. And the implications of that generosity are huge).

Because, here’s the other thing: Sirius knows that Remus is poor. Living with Remus had been like a brick in the face at university, because he’d never had to worry about where his next meal was coming from, or choosing between paying the gas bills and paying for school textbooks. But Remus did have to, saved and scrimped every penny like it was goldust, and got terrifyingly annoyed at the rest of them if they were ever wasteful. But somehow, in Sirius’ disgusting throne of privilege, since university he’s sort of forgotten what it looks like to be poor. It’s only as he watches Remus cut open toothpaste tubes to scrape off the remnants, or mix his toiletries with water when they’re half-full, or save potato peelings for homemade soups, that he remembers. (And he’s completely disgusted with himself that he ever forgot).

He watches Remus’ pile of bank letters grow, watches the way Remus’ wrinkles deepen and his shoulders climb higher and higher with tension whenever he’s opening his bills. He watches Remus’ gaze skip straight over the Tesco Finest selections, to the reduced to clear and everyday value ones. He watches Remus wear through the sole of his shoes, shrug and continue wearing them, because what choice does he have?

And his door’s still fucking broken.

Sirius thinks it’s this last thing that causes the spark of inspiration in his brain, and once it’s ignited, it’s unstoppable.

“We should move out and get a place together,” is what he proposes over dinner that night, his heart hammering and palms sweating.

Remus raises his eyebrows, forces a laugh, and says, “very funny, Padfoot.”

“No, I’m serious -”

“So am I,” Remus says, laying his fork back on the plate. “We’ve talked about this before. This place is a shithole but it’s also the only London property in my budget.”

“Not if we were living together.”

Remus pauses, and for a split-second, Sirius thinks he’s going to agree. “You and I have wildly different budgets,” he says eventually, taking a sip of his drink, and not meeting Sirius’ eye. “And besides, I thought you were saving up for your own place?”

“Just listen to me, for a second,” Sirius says, reaching across the table and wrapping his hand around Remus’ wrist. Remus looks at him, but says nothing, and Sirius takes this as a sign to continue. “I’ve researched this properly, Moony. This place is awful, and I hate the thought of you living somewhere like this… but if we joined forces - well, with the money from Alphard, we could get somewhere together - somewhere nice and safe.”

Remus has stiffened, and Sirius feels the anxiety creeping up his spine like a serpent.

Fuck.

“I don’t want your money, Sirius,” says Remus tightly. “Or Alphard’s. Let’s drop it.”

“But it could help us find somewhere to live,” Sirius protests, his anxiety making him clumsy and insensitive, but also unable to stop his efforts. “You could live somewhere with a landlord who’ll fix your door, and where you don’t get faggot written on your mailbox, and where-”

Remus stands abruptly, taking his bowl to the sink, and scrubbing at it harshly. “Drop. It.”

“Just explain it to me then!

“I just did, you’re not listening.”

“If this is about the money, then you know I don’t care -”

“Exactly, you don’t care about it,” spits Remus, whirling back around to face him and - oh, he’s pissed. “Because you’ve never had to. You look at a place like this and think, oh what a dump, and throw your money around, but for some of us, this is as good as it gets, okay?”

He’s not quite shouting, but this is no longer a conversation, and Sirius feels awful and shaky. “But I’m offering you a way out of that,” he says in a small voice, even as he digs himself further and further into this grave.

Remus closes his eyes, presses his fingers against his mouth, and says, “I don’t want your money. I’m really happy that Alphard’s left you enough money that you’re able to offer this, and I know this comes from a good place, but-”

“You can have half,” is what spills out of his mouth, and he knows how it sounds - it may have come from a place of utmost care and concern but right now, it just sounds privileged and classist and awful. “I-”

“I don’t want your money,” Remus repeats. His face has shuttered off, and Sirius feels a swell of annoyance because this wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

“Stop being so bloody proud, I just want to help,” Sirius snaps back, hating himself even as he’s ruining everything. “I love you, and I don’t want you to live like this.”

Remus laughs, but the sound is wrong-wrong-wrong, miserable and cruel and so un-Remus-like that Sirius flinches. “If you really loved me, you would understand that you’re being a massive dick about this.”

Silence falls. Winky looks between them, at the shattered remnants of their friendship/relationship/whatever they are to each other. Sirius’ chest hurts once more, but this is an entirely different type of heartbreak, one that he’s not sure he’ll survive.

“You can go.” Remus won’t look at him.(Sirius has ruined everything).

[vantemei]

“jimin no, come on!"

"nope! you made the bet tae, now you have to pay up!"

taehyung glares at jimin, lips forming a pout as he peeks out from behind the light pole he has decidedly taken shelter behind to peer up at the sign in front of him.

'agust d ink' in slanted, bold letters stand above the glass double door entrance and taehyung feels sick. he never should have challenged jimin to a pokemon trivia contest.

"come on, it won't be that bad! i'll hold your hand the whole time!" jimin grabs taehyung's hand and yanks him forward with the surprisingly large amount of brute strength compacted in his tiny body, ever present eye-shrinking smile on his face as he drags his protesting best friend up to and through the doors.

the air is a bit colder in the shop, contrasting the warm early fall outside. taehyung gulps audibly as his eyes roam over the shop while jimin steps forward to talk to the receptionist(?) (he looks sort of young?). the walls are a muted grey and covered in black and white drawings. beautifully detailed tattoo designs and a few pictures of the art on skin.

one of those ones catches taehyung's eye. it's a large tattoo in dark blue ink that stretches across a muscled back, fading out once it's reaches wide, strong shoulders and disappearing below where the edge of the picture cuts off right above a butt. the tattoo clearly continues lower and taehyung blushes. the tattoo itself is amazing. it's a dragon, more specifically the face of a dragon and what looks like claw marks run across the face, but the claw marks are just harsh lines where there's no tattoo. as if someone had run an eraser through the finished picture.

it's one of the most beautiful pieces of art taehyung has ever seen.

"taetae!"

jimin grins as he grabs taehyung's hand again. the younger boy had blanked out the whole time jimin was talking to yugyeom, the receptionist of the shop. taehyung's well-known blank expression fades from his face and is replaced by a look of mildly suppressed fear. it seems he remembers why they're here.

"jimin~" taehyung whines, pulling out his best puppy eyed pout as he faces the shorter male but jimin just shakes his head. taehyung's pout intensifies and he can see jimin's resolve begin to waver, heart growing soft with his best friend but it's ruined when yugyeom walks back out from the hallway he had disappeared down and announces; "he's ready. i can take you back there now."

jimin's softening expression morphs into something taehyung imagines would frighten even the most devious of shakespeare's trickster characters. "he's ready!"

"alright, let's head back now," yugyeom smiles kindly as he starts walking back down the short hallway and taehyung panics when jimin lets go of his hand with a small apologetic smile.

"j-jimin?! you said you'd come with me!" taehyung reaches back for him but jimin dances out of his way, eyes flashing to the mint haired male behind the counter that taehyung hadn't even noticed. "i was but i think i'm gonna get another ear piercing today taehyungie. you know i've been wanting one for a while!"

the mint haired man's eyes slide up to jimin at the mention of potential business and jimin is already waltzing over to him as if he hadn't just betrayed his best friend for a hot guy.

there's a cough to his left and taehyung looks down the hall to see yugyeom poking his head out of a door and looking expectantly at him. taehyung gulps and, with one last withering glare to jimin who happily leans far to much over the counter towards mint head, he walks down the hall and lets yugyeom usher him into the room.

it's not too small and there's one of those big black chairs in the middle that looks straight out of a dentists office and beside it on a swivel stool is the hottest guy taehyung has ever laid eyes on. black hair falls into dark brown eyes that are fixed on taehyung and taehyung isn't any better, suppressing a shiver as he watches muscle shift under a tight white shirt as the guy stands to reach his hand out, a small smirk on his lips when he notices taehyung's eyes tracing the veins in his arm.

"i'm jeongguk and i'll be your piercer for the day," his voice is smooth and sends a shiver down taehyung's spine.

taehyung swallows and draw his eyes back up to jeongguk's face.

"i'm taehyung,"

jeongguk watches taehyung's tongue dart out to wet his lips before snapping back up to the blonde's eyes and his smirk widens the slightest bit, hand wrapping around taehyung's and holding for a few moments too long, biceps flexing subtlety before he lets their hands drop.

"and i'm busy so i'll let you guys get to it. once you’re done you can pay up front where you came in," yugyeom directs the last part to taehyung before he shuts the door and his footsteps are fading down the hallway.

taehyung licks his lips again before turning back to face jeongguk with a nervous smile on his face.

"so," jeongguk gestures for taehyung to take a seat on the black chair as he sits back down on the stool and starts to grab things from the table behind him. "what piercing are you getting today?"

the seat is cold beneath the thin layer of taehyung's jeans and it doesn't help that the room is chilly anyways. he shifts anxiously before answering, making a point to keep his gaze focused on the ticking hand of the clock above the doorway. "nipple piercings."

silence. jeongguk turns to look at taehyung and raises his eyebrow as the boy blushes, eye lashes fluttering as he purposefully avoids his gaze.

"did you lose a bet or something?" jeongguk breaks the silence, turning back to get the proper barbells for the piercings and double check that he has everything. he notices the shaky but relieved exhale from taehyung at the joking manner and feels his lips curl in a smile.

"yeah, i did actually. i challenged jiminie to a pokemon trivia contest yesterday and lost."

jeongguk snorts and looks up at taehyung, eyes shining with mirth. "a pokemon trivia contest? really?"

"hey! it's a good show! a staple in any good childhood! are you telling me you've never watched pokemon?

"i never said that, i just- really? nipple piercings?" jeongguk sees the way taehyung's shoulders tense and the insecurity that draws his eyebrows together and scrambles to fix his mistake, hand reaching out to pat the blonde's knee.

"not that i don't think they'll look good. it's just an odd punishment for such a funny game,"

taehyung's shoulders relax again and he grins, large and rectangular and jeongguk feels all the air rush out of his lungs, cheeks heating like a furnace.

"thanks jeonggukie! you're right, jiminie's pretty harsh but i think it's payback for the last time he lost during overwatch and he had to dye his armpit hair green and keep it long for two weeks.

jeongguk can't hold back the full bodied laugh that imagery causes him and taehyung laughs too, his voice deep and smooth - like velvet - and jeongguk smiles at the sound.

"alright, i admit the piercings kind of make sense now. speaking of, are you ready?"

taehyung jolts, like he forgot why he was here in the first place and jeongguk sees panic flash through his eyes.

"it's alright, it won't hurt for very long and it'll be over before you know it."

taehyung looks dubiously convinced at best but he sighs and nods.

"alright then, i need you to take you shirt off,"

taehyung feels his cheeks heat up and he suddenly wishes he had taken jimin up on those morning run offers now because he's about to take his shirt off in front of super hot, probably should be a model, muscle bunny jeongguk and he really wishes he was more in shape to do it. as it is, taehyung's curls his fingers under the hem of his soft brown sweater and pulls it off, shaking his hair back into place as he hangs his sweater over the foot of the chair.

jeongguk's eyes rake over taehyung's bare chest, taking in the lithe and toned but not muscly frame and the very slight tummy that peeks out before his eyes settle on dusty pink nipples, slightly pebbled from the cold air and jeongguk can't help the way his tongue darts out to wet his lower lip.

taehyung feels small under jeongguk's intense gaze and he reeeally regrets denying those runs but his face flushes when he notices jeongguk's tongue slide over his lips as he looks taehyung up and down. jeongguk swallows and taehyung's eyes lock on to the way his adams apple bobs.

"ok, i'm going to run a disinfectant wipe over your skin and then i'll mark where the piercings will go. you can tell me if you see something wrong or want them a little different and then we'll do the piercings. ok?"

"ok."

jeongguk reaches to the table and rips open a small packet of wipes and glances at taehyung, waiting for his nod of confirmation before he presses it to his nipple.

taehyung's body jerks at how cold the wipe is and his cheeks flush at the small squeak that left his lips. one hand clenches on his knee as jeongguk opens a second packet and wipes his other nipple, both completely hard at this point, and his other hand is drumming his fingers on the chair next to him.

taehyung tries not to shiver when jeongguk's fingers ghost over his skin, pinching his nipples slightly and concentrating intently as he marks on either side of each nipple with a small black marker. he pulls back and he seems satisfied and gestures for taehyung to look.

the markings jeongguk has made on his nipples look perfectly even and taehyung takes a deep breath and looks up at jeongguk with a grin.

"they look good! i'm ready,"

jeongguk nods and grabs the forceps and the first barbell, unscrewing one side and placing both pieces on the chair next to taehyung. then he rips open another small package and pulls out a needle. taehyung's throat runs dry at the sight of the needle and jeongguk seems to notice, giving him a reassuring smile.

"so taehyung, what's your favorite animal?"

the question takes taehyung by surprise and he blinks, taking a moment to process it before a large smiles takes over his face.

"a dog! i love dogs so much! they're so cute! i have a dog back home in daegu, her name is soonshimie and she's the most precious little angel!"

jeongguk smiles as taehyung keeps rambling, not even noticing when jeongguk clamps the forceps on his nipple and presses the needle to the pre-made mark.

"she sound adorable taehyung, i need you to take a deep breath in and then out,"

"and she- what?" taehyung inhales and only just notices what's happening halfway through his exhale.

jeongguk pushes the needle through.

taehyung's face is completely blank as he looks down at his nipple, at the needle shoved completely through it and then he blinks, eyes shooting up to jeongguk is is grabbing the barbell.

"jeonggukie you- that was amazing! i didn't even notice! how-" the soft smile jeongguk turns towards taehyung makes him choke on his words and a flush covers his cheeks, heart thudding against his chest.

"i'm gonna put the barbell in now. this might actually sting a little bit but it'll be over really quickly."

taehyung nods, still blushing and he does indeed flinch and suck in a breath through his teeth when jeongguk pushes the barbell through, pulling the needle out at the same time, but jeongguk was right. it's over in a second and then jeongguk is screwing the little ball onto the end and grabbing a new needle.

the second piercing happens just like the first one, jeongguk distracts taehyung by asking if he's in university and what his major is. jeongguk's heart thuds at the way taehyung's eyes light up as he talks about a watercolor project he's doing, barely noticing when the second needle pushes through and a barbell soon replaces it and then jeongguk is wiping at the tiny drop of blood on taehyung's right nipple with a tissue, listening intently to the difference between squirrel hair and hog bristle for watercolor portraits with a soft smile on his face.

[kaiserdingus]

MegaMan PSP Games - Powered Up / Maverick Hunter X

The Mega Man series has always been tough for newcomers to dive into. Its a series based on challenge, skill, and memorizing stages and patterns. The original series was restrained by the technical limitations of the time, so they look more cartoony and kid friendly. The Super Nintendo’s Mega Man X series was a sequel intended to carry the torch and bring the Blue Bomber into the 16-bit era with a new look, new moves, and a new, more mature storyline.

In 2005 Capcom announced a pair of simultaneous releases for Sony’s PlayStation Portable handheld console. Mega Man Powered Up and Mega Man Maverick Hunter X were remakes of the first games in the Mega Man and Mega Man X series that utilized the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation Portable to render new ways to experience these gems of gaming. Both were remade with the idea to be accessible to newcomers, and plans were in the works for sequels to both games based on Mega Man 2 and Mega Man X2.

Unfortunately, sluggish sales would lead to both sequels being canceled. Today we have the Mega Man and Mega Man X Legacy Collections to give us our fill, but these titles were more than just ports. There were new features, new bosses, they were practically their own games worthy of their own discussion. That’s why today we’re going to be taking a look at Mega Man Powered Up and Mega Man Maverick Hunter X.

MegaMan Powered Up

It’s said that when designing Mega Man, Keiji Inafune wanted to use a “super deformed” style for the characters. Big heads on little bodies for a funny, cute look. The problem was that the technology of the time made it difficult to portray this style, so a compromise was made. The characters were still cute, but the proportions weren’t as exaggerated as originally intended. Inafune would get his chance to try his “chibi” designs when Capcom announced Mega Man Powered Up in 2005, a complete remake of the original Mega Man, updated for Sony’s new PSP handheld.

Gaming had changed a lot between the 1980’s and the mid-2000’s. Before, game design was influenced by arcade trends. Challenge and difficulty were added to games of the time to hide the fact that these games theoretically could be beaten within the span of a few hours. The original Mega Man games came from an era where rental services like Blockbuster made it easy for someone to spend $5 instead of $50 on a game for the week. If a game could be beat in an afternoon, then there was no reason for the gamer to buy the game. This was also helped by the lack of save features in these early games.

In the mid-2000’s, however, these tricks were irrelevant. Game development had reached a point where games had enough content. There was no longer a need to pad a game with challenge to keep them from beating it in a single sitting. With this in mind, Capcom sought to re-work the original Mega Man series for the next generation of kids who hadn’t grown up with the originals. Now there are multiple difficulties to cater to different kinds of players.

The premise, characters, levels, music, almost everything in the game are based on the original Mega Man, but now everything is expanded upon. Characters pop-out in 3D, and the levels follow the same designs, but now the world feels more alive. The story is played out through character dialogue and little cutscenes. This game would go on to influence the story and characters in the Archie tie-in comics.

Two new characters were created specifically for this game, each with their own unique level. Time Man and Oil Man bring the game’s original six Robot Masters up to eight, in line with the rest of the series. Oil Man’s design would cause controversy as it closely resembles the “Blackface” stereotype, with his black skin and big red lips.

For some background, Japanese artists are influenced by those who came before them, and a lot of the original manga artists learned from American cartoonists. Blackface portrayals were prominent in American cartoons and comics, which were imported to Japan after World War II. The average person in Japan doesn’t have any context for the history of Blackface in America, which doesn’t excuse the depictions. Because of this cultural misunderstanding, Oil Man’s skin was turned dark blue and his lips were colored yellow.

My favorite addition to this game is the ability to play as the boss characters you defeat. Each boss has their trusty weapon as their base weapon, and now the empty hole they left in their stage has been filled by a rogue Mega Man who’s looking for trouble. There are other playable characters, but I won’t spoil them for you.

I’m disappointed that we never got to see any sequels to Powered Up. It seemed like the perfect formula for Mega Man. Remake 1 through 6 in this style, maybe 7 and 8, then they could’ve done 9 and 10 too. Every time I see a new trailer for 11 I just think of it as a sequel to Powered Up, but with a more streamlined design. Don’t get me started on Mighty No. 9, the unfortunate “spiritual successor” to the Mega Man series.

Mega Man Powered Up is one of the best PSP games, and possibly one of the best Mega Man games. It’s unfortunate that it came out too early in the PSP’s lifespan to really take off, maybe if Capcom had ported the game to the PS2 or Gamecube it would have fared better.

MegaMan Maverick Hunter X

Maverick Hunter X, the companion title to Mega Man Powered Up, is a remake of the 1993 Super Nintendo classic Mega Man X. Unlike Powered Up, which completely redesigned the classic Mega Man, Maverick Hunter X stays relatively true to the original design and style of the Mega Man X franchise. It features anime cutscenes, similar to those used in Mega Man X3 and X4. One could argue that the animation and voice acting are noticeably better this time around.

While Powered Up was designed to be accessible for anyone, Maverick Hunter X is designed to be a more mature challenge. There’s no Easy Mode this time, only Normal and Hard. The first Mega Man X was never as challenging as later games in the series, but it wasn’t a walk in the park. Maverick Hunter X isn’t easier, but it does feel a little tighter to control.

The MegaMan series has never been strong on plot, but the Mega Man X sub-series does have a surprisingly strong lore. This has only ever been casually hinted at, with little exposition besides a few animated cutscenes or slideshows. Maverick Hunter X delivers a decent story in the form of an animated opening cutscene, as well as character dialogue between stages. Each boss battle opens with a back-and-forth between X and the boss in question where they explain their perspective before jumping into the action.

Once you beat the game you unlock what’s probably the coolest bonus a video game can have: a 25 minute animated film. The Day of Σ is a self-contained animated special that ties in with the game. The special is a prequel that ends where the game begins, and it tells the story of Sigma and the other reploids going Maverick.

This approach to video game storytelling works surprisingly well because it doesn’t interfere with the gameplay. Most story-driven games feel bloated with unending cutscenes, other games don’t feel fleshed out enough when they don’t include any cutscenes. Maverick Hunter X including an anime OVA is similar to 2003’s Dot Hack series from Bandai, which also came with a four part animated mini-series. 2010’s Dragon Ball Raging Blast, also from Namco Bandai, similarly featured a 20 minute special called The Plan to Eradicate The Super Saiyans.

Fans of the Mega Man X series have noted some inconsistencies with Maverick Hunter X and The Day of Sigma compared to the rest of the franchise. These story inconsistencies wouldn’t matter if Capcom had gone through with their plan to reboot the X series. Had they continued the groundwork started by Maverick Hunter X, future games would fill in the blanks, and re-tell the original stories in new and exciting ways.

As far as fan speculation goes, we can draw all of Mega Man’s problems in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s right here. Mega Man Powered Up and Maverick Hunter X were great games, but for one reason or another neither title was very successful at the time of release. What’s worse is, Maverick Hunter X was available digitally on the PlayStation Network Store when the PlayStation Vita debuted, but Mega Man Powered Up couldn’t get the same treatment due to technical issues.

Both games are great and it's a shame that they’re lost to time, trapped forever on a long forgotten handheld. I have nothing against the Mega Man Legacy Collections, but I miss the days when developers attempted to remake their classic games for later generations. While there’s no arguing against the value of preserving original games and making them available to be played as originally intended, I think the world would benefit from more modernized remakes that take advantage of today’s technology to do things they could never originally do.

I hope one day Capcom releases both Mega Man PSP games. Possibly alongside other mid-2000’s curiosities like Mega Man X Command Mission and Mega Man Network Transmission. There are enough oddball Mega Man spin-offs to fill a few more Legacy Collections, I think.

Where to Buy

Mega Man Powered Up (PSP)

Mega Man Maverick Hunter X  (PSP)

Mega Man Double Pack (PSP)

Click Here To Support Y2K Fun Zone On Patreon

[easy-tae-breezy]

Unexpected Enthusiast | Neighbour!au Chapter 2

Members: Ten/Reader 

Genre:  Neighbour!au  | Fluff

Word Count: 2,000

Chapter: 1 2 3

Mini Recap- You’re a manhwa artist locked out of your apartment after grocery shopping. When none of your friends want to help you, fate decides for you to go seek help from your neighbour, Ten. 

As much as you wanted to decline his offer, you knew that the ice cream you just bought would inevitably melt and no longer be the same glorious confection that it used to if you were not to let Ten take your shopping. And with that, you were convinced –

‘Perhaps this is for the best..? I’ll just double check no one else is available…’

You rapid-fire-text your best friend to win her over and get her to help you out instead of your neighbour.

-

You, 16:13 PM

Yo, Ten’s helping me out with my groceries. A COMPLETE stranger is being a better friend than you, man. Step up ya game 😏

You, 16:13 PM

I’m safe by the way, thanks for asking…

A+ Amigo, 16:13 PM

Y/n???? who tf is Ten?? 😮😮😮

You, 16:14 PM

You know that dude you passed by when you visited last Tuesday? The one you called ‘super duper cute’? Yeah, him. MY neighbour.

A+Amigo, 16:14 PM

HoLY Cow!! Bro, if I come pick you up… promise to introduce me??

You, 16:14 PM

Hahaha, I knew you’d pull through 😘

A+ Amigo, 16:14 PM

I’m on my way y/n’s cute neighbour!

-

‘Wow…So much for being busy, huh? Such a snake haha,’ you mentally roll your eyes at how your friend was easily swayed into helping you as soon as an attractive male was involved.

Somewhat hesitantly you step into his familiarly constructed apartment and take off your shoes at the doorway. Looking around, the layout was similar enough to your flat next door: a simple bathroom to the right, an open space studio and kitchenette tucked into the far left beside the veranda. However, this flat was personalised and furbished completely differently to your minimalistic, light focused flat. Instead, Ten’s walls were the complete opposite: painted black with one entire side shielded by a large mirror and a hi-fi set strategically placed against it. His home screamed dancer and swag. The studio barely had any litter or long forgotten laundry that boys his age would usually have, totally throwing you off guard even more.

‘How strange..?’

The flat was tastefully peppered with red features and decor, such as burgundy shelves pent up above his crimson sofa and a red bookshelf alongside it to match.

Ten was now kneeling in front of his fridge, carefully clearing space for some of your groceries while flowing into idle, easily-flowing conversation.

“So what are you gonna do now that the landlord is temporarily away? Have you found a place to stay yet?”

“Yeah, luckily a friend gave in and said she’d pick me up in a bit,” you explain as you continue to aimlessly looked out of his studio window.

Ten turns his head temporarily revealing a glimpse of his slightly saddened, puppy-eyed expression but quickly returns to his task thinking that you hadn’t noticed.

“Honestly though, you must think it’s pathetic that a grown woman can barely remember her own key code.” You bitterly chuckle at yourself under your breath.

Your eyelids flutter shut with internal frustration and disappointment. Never had you been so forgetful in all your years of life.

 It was embarrassing.

 The recent move completely changed you. Despite the freedom thrust upon you, the liberty you had once wished for finally being granted right before you, you now wanted nothing more than to be semi-dependent on someone. Not fully leaning on a person, just faintly - or at least enough to know that you weren’t alone in the new city.

“I just haven’t been able to fully settle and feel comfortable after moving out here on my own…”

You sigh as a gloominess begins to engulf you while you stand awkwardly in the middle of his flat.

“No!” Ten exclaims as he rises from the fridge, shutting its door as he did so. “That’s such a brave move on your part! Do you remember when I asked if you needed help moving your boxes up the stairs on that day the elevator stopped working?”

You nod and smile at the strangely fond memory. Never had you felt your thigh muscles burn so much.

“And you immediately shot me down! Said it was your ‘duty’ to do this alone?,” he continues, air quoting as he strides towards you.

“And honestly, I’ve never been rejected so fast. And with such an unusual reason too! And it showed to me that you really were a strong, independent woman,” He exaggeratedly Z-line snaps. 

“I did find your multiple trips up the stairs extremely entertaining and endearing too,” Ten nudges you and winks.

You shake your head and shine a small smile as the memory replays and internally cheers you up.

He smiles in satisfaction.

“Go ahead and take a seat, I’ll only be a minute with the coffee,” he says while gesturing to his comfortable looking couch. Your attempts at being a helpful guest were quickly dismissed, you merely nod and continue to project your small smile of gratitude towards his generous words.

Continuing your observations regarding his interior design, your eyes land upon his bookshelf and you notice some very familiar books. Almost half of the romantic comedy manhwas that you had worked so hard to produce over the course of three years were perfectly lined up in order on your college student neighbour’s book shelf.

You inwardly gasp and begin to giggle at how a grown man could be such a fan of your teen manhwa and curiously raise a brow.

‘So this was how he was able to flirt so easily without being flustered, he must have picked up some lines from my comic haha…’ You thought.

Not soon after, Ten arrives with two mugs of steaming, warm, golden coffee and sets them in front of you on the table. He quickly notices the comic you’ve picked up and is easily tinted a shade of embarrassment. He -almost- instinctively throws his hands out along with multiple whiny requests for you to give it back, only to have you react by pulling the book out of his reach and laugh.

“Haha! Alright! Alright…”You slow down the hectic moment,  

“Do tell me, Ten… Why does a grown man, such as yourself, have a collection of romantic comedy manwhas?” you breathlessly say as the two of you finally calm down after a short game of ‘grab the book’.

He knows he’s been caught and with an exaggerated sigh he complies and explains himself.

“Ah, they’re not mine I swear,” he scratches the back of his neck while shaking the other free hand in the air in a denying manner  “my sister left them while visiting so I thought I’d tidy them”.

A small, silent pause embraces the two of you… You quickly break it by drumming on your lap vigorously, mimicking a drum roll.

“And the most unconvincing story of 2017 goes to… Ten!” you exclaim in your best announcer voice, laughing at his cute bashful side that was being unveiled right before you. The man before you no longer seemed so overly confident and indifferent, he was flustered and glowed a heartwarming pink flush. A complete polar opposite.

“If your sister really did leave them, a book or two would have been believable, but she definitely wouldn’t have left an entire series that was large enough to fit in 2 boxes,” you explain.

He lowers his rose tinted face in defeat and chuckles along with your point.

“Okay, you got me,” he exaggeratedly whimpers “but what I said was partially true! She did visit and leave a few volumes, I was gonna throw them out but the art was so pretty and unique. I was drawn to read them! The character design is perfectly tailored to each character’s traits and the background art is so detailed and unlike any other artists work that I’ve come across. It was difficult to put the books down and lead to me purchase a few more and before I knew it, I had almost half of the series! I really recommend it, y/n!” He beams despite his red cheeks and ears.

You sat there slightly blank and dumbfounded by his kind words. That totally wasn’t what you expected. Usually when people complimented your artwork, you’d immediately argue that it definitely lacked in some areas and could totally improve. Your self-depreciation would often prevent you from truly seeing eye-to-eye with your publisher and fans, causing a lot of release date delays and unhappy teens. However, when Ten gave you his honest opinion on your work you couldn’t help but feel gushy and warm on the inside, his sincere and animated words gave you pride and a deep sense of happiness.

His comments were somehow different.

The genuine and thoughtful words burned their rightful mark into your memory, forever embellishing themselves in your mind.

“Thank you,” you say in a small voice as a blush similar to the young man’s grazes your cheeks.

“What? Haha, you want to borrow one?” He chortles with a hint of confusion in his voice.

You simply hold the book up and point to the artist’s name, your name.

His eyes widen in surprise, he covers his mouth and notably resembles a deer caught in headlights. 

‘How is he so cute?’ You think to yourself.

Ten’s emotions go through a rapid melt of confusion, surprise and utter glee. The man now gleamed with joy and admiration. Ten takes a seat beside you while effortlessly grasping your small hands in his own large, strong and sturdy ones.

An instant feeling of protection, safety and content surge through you at his affectionate skin-ship. He leans a bit closer, excitement pouring out of his every word.

“No way! Tell me, please, does Jae Min end up with David- No! Does Yoo In come back from her spy mission in Japan? Or is she really dead? Ah, don’t tell me! It’ll spoil the surprise,” he concludes with a pout.

“…Or tell me if you want?” He later contradicts in a quiet voice.

You inwardly snicker at his twinkling, child-like expression. To reply to his questions, you merely wiggle your brows to the best of your ability and say:

“A mystery’s a mystery, and girl’s gotta keep some secrets… Buuuut, Yoo In is alive” you whisper ever so slightly in his direction.

You wink, beam a broad, beautiful smile and decide to leave it at that.

‘Hopefully that’ll keep him intrigued for at least another three volumes,’ you laugh to yourself.

Ten comes to his senses, remembering that the two of you had only just formally met half an hour ago. He removes his hands with a minor jump and instead clasps them in front of his chest. Acting melodramatically, he nods whilst still wearing his adorable pout, as if already coming to terms with your statement.

“I knew you wouldn’t let her die, y/n,” he softly sends an angelic smile to you.

“Hey, how about this, if I ever get to open my door, I’ll let you have a sneak peek at the next volume, sounds good?” You attempt to enhance his bright mood and also return the enormous favour that Ten had done you. Not only had he welcomed you into his home and saved your ice-cream, but he essentially helped you quick-start your self-confidence in a way no one else ever had.

Ten had easily proven to you to not judge a book by its cover; a man once so chic and cold looking had a compellingly delicate, angelic and excitable personality within him that was easily uncovered with a bit of encouragement. And to top it all off, he was apparently skilled in the arts of dancing and acting, but to you, that didn't matter too much, because to you, he was in fact the walking art-piece.

He shone you one of his brightest, pearliest smile and eagerly nodded in reply to your offer.

Ring. Ring…

Your phone slices through the light atmosphere and forces you to answer. Your friend had impeccable timing and was ready in the lobby to pick you up. After hanging up you sigh and turn towards Ten, informing him that your friend had arrived much to your dismay. The events thereafter the phone call flashed before your eyes as time began to seem inconstant.

Ten helps you gather your belongings and leads you down to the lobby. You edge out of the elevator, reluctantly furthering yourself away from such a sparkling and kind-hearted being.

The two of you part with alike smiles containing a hint of sorrow. The two of you truly matching one another’s current inner emotions.

You were totally oblivious to the fact that you’d bound to be back in less than a week, after all, you did live next door…

As the car door shut, Ten waves and quietly laughs to himself at the situation he got caught up in and with no one other than one of his favourite artists, and one with such an endearing and appealing personality at that.

“See ya ‘round, neighbour.”

Thank you for reading this! <3 What did you think? I found this really lovely to write and had lots of fun. Should I continue the scenario and see where Ten and his neighbour end up? ^^ Don’t mind any grammar mistakes, I’m on my way to proof reading it again for the 5th time haha

Edit: Another chapter of this series will be added soon! Thank you to all the people who sent in support and kind words towards this series. <3

[kor-knight]

Darkness Prevails epilogue

AND ITS DONE. Though, this was actually very hard to write. I overall wish to thank all those who read my story, and everyone who liked it, reblogged, and commented. You are my very existence. I also wish to thank my boyfriend, cause he’s like my biggest fan, following the story alongside all of you guys haha. Angel, enjoy it hunny! @stillapieceoftrash

Perfect

Of all the words in the plethora of words known to man, Betty would have never thought she would use that specific word to describe her life right now. But no amount of words that came to mind could possibly describe it better than that – her life was perfect.

7 years had past since the events of her teenage years – since her life was on the edge of a blade and she danced with darkness more times than she liked to. After her trip to the hospital and court hearings, Betty finally went back to school, soon after graduating top of her class – valedictorian obviously – alongside Archie and Veronica. Jughead had graduated a year later, having to repeat due to absences and lack of good grades. But once they were all done high school, it was a collective agreement to attend college together.

So they all applied, and got accepted to NYU; Betty and Jughead with the English majors, Archie on a sports scholarship with a minor in Music, and Veronica majored in Fashion design. After long conversations with parents, tons of planning, and house-hunting, the 4 set off for the city that never sleeps (or was that Paris?) They moved into a slightly larger apartment relatively close to the campus, adorned with two huge bedrooms located on opposite sides of the space - “for privacy sake” Veronica had said, a coy smile on her lips. The large common area had 4 desks, one of which was huge – Veronica clearly stating she needed a big one for her designs. Betty was solely in charge of cooking for the 4 of them, whilst Jughead and Archie were strictly on cleanup duty. Their little family was dysfunctional, but just as much home as Riverdale was.

College had been fun too, albeit insane exams. Classes were easy (at least for Betty they were), and her professors were pretty cool. They had even attended a few parties, more so a ‘Veronica and Archie’ scene as a designated “Power Couple” on the campus. Jughead and Betty had chosen more reserved extra curricular activities, such as poetry reading nights at the Java Jones down the road, or (big surprise) the double feature at a local theater.

But it was during their last year of college when Betty and Jughead’s life had changed for the better.

Betty had found out she was pregnant.

After countless failed attempts at getting back into their rhythm, of nights spent crying over too real nightmares and reoccurring ptsd, Betty finally sought the help so the elephant in the room didn’t butcher her relationship with Jughead any further. Though, even with all the struggles, Jughead never pressured Betty into anything, always letting her be the one in charge, pulling away when he felt her whole body tense, or just sit and talk her back from the edge of insanity. He had been everything she needed, and then some. So after weekly sessions with a therapist, Betty was able to expand their relationship to the peak they had it at before.

They spent nights wrapped in naked embraces, whispering sweet nothings to one another as they conquered Betty’s internal battles and heeded Jughead’s external desires. So little words were said during their times together, only primal sounds of need and want, battling for control throughout the night.

And thus lead to their baby.

She still remembered telling Jughead the news, every single detail.

“Juggie, I need to tell you something.” Her lip was between her teeth, eyes carefully watching the man in front of her. They were in their room at the apartment, Betty seating at the edge of their bed while Jughead was perched at the head of it, back against the wall.

Jughead blanked, body timid, eyes concerning. “Did I do something wrong?” His voice was raspy but soft, just above a whisper.

Betty shook her head furiously, placing her hands on the sides of his face. “No Juggie, you didn’t do anything wrong.” His smile melted her heart, hands coming to rest on her sides.

“So what did you need to tell me?” Jughead asked.

“I uh-” Betty bit her lip again, looking away. Jughead’s hand came to rest on her jaw, bringing her eyes back to his, without saying a word he just nodded. Letting out a breath and standing from the bed, Betty finally said. “Juggie I’m pregnant.”

The first thing Jughead did was drop his mouth open in shock. Or awe. Or dispair. Betty didn’t quite know what emotion it was, but what came after is what Betty truly loved. Jughead smiled. He smiled so large she thought his face was going to crack. A full, toothy, completely and utterly happy kind of smile. Then he kissed her. He kissed her again, and again. Peppering kisses across her face, along her neck, back to her face. His arms were around her, pulling her so close she thought he was trying to morph them together.

“Really?!” He asked, so much excitement and joy, Betty had never seen him like this before. She just nodded, unable to find words in this wonder. “I’m going to be a dad?” He said the last word tentatively, sorta like he was testing it out. His smile a few seconds later made Betty assume he was fine with the term, and new title. He picked her up in his arms, twirling her around a few times before setting her down once more, placing another quick kiss on her smiling lips. Jughead stood quickly, launching himself off the mattress with ease.

Then he dropped to his knees, side of his face flush against her tummy as he smiled. “My baby,” was all he said. A tear escaped Betty’s eye, words cutting off from the lump in her throat. She just sniffled. Jughead looked up at her, concerned. “Whats wrong?” He was standing in front of her again, hands on either side of her face. Betty just shook her head, a few more tears streamed down her cheeks. Jughead’s thumb gently wiped them away, kissing her cheeks softly. “You are so beautiful.” Betty just smiled, closing her eyes. “The mother to my baby.”

He kissed her then, and no matter how many times Betty relives the moment, the kiss gets longer and longer. Better every time. Their lips played a devilish dance, limbs wrapping around one another in a fight for dominance. Betty finally let Jughead take control, falling into step with his movements and just living for the moment.

Betty flushed at the memory, touching her lips with her finger and smiling. The door opened to her right, Jughead appearing from the threshold.

“Hey Juggie.” Betty said, smiling. She was making lunch, smiley face sandwiches and only the best fruit. Jughead took a step forward, placing a quick kiss on Betty’s temple.  

“Hey Betts, where’s Hunter?” Jughead asked, grabbing an apple slice and shoving into his mouth.

“In the living room with Ronnie. Archie should be here soon.” Jughead smiled, kissing her temple once more before retreating to the other room, happy giggles erupting from within. Betty smiled as she continued to cut the fruit. Finishing up, she plates everything and quickly emerges in the other room, food in hand and a smile on her lips.

Before her was Jughead, seated on the floor with Hunter – their energetic 9 month old son – while Veronica laughed from the couch. Archie was walking into the room as Betty put the food down, nodding for everyone to eat while she pulled Hunter to her arms. He cooed loudly, throwing his tiny arms around her neck. Betty giggled, enveloping him with her arms.

Jughead was beside them soon after, picking up the toddler easily and tossing him up slightly in his arms, igniting fits of laughter from the tiny boy. Hunter’s green eyes bright with excitement as Jughead continues to play with him, tickling and playing airplane. Betty just watches, laughing at her two boys. Veronica comes to sit beside her, gushing about a new set of cute clothes she’s going to buy Hunter. Archie pipes up about teaching their son how to play the guitar.

“He’ll be a rock star, like me!” Archie puffs out his chest, smirking. Veronica laughs, while Betty just smiles.

“Sure Archiekins, whatever you say boo.” Jughead says coyly, making silly faces at his son.

Archie just smiles wider, laughing. “I don’t know what’s more scary. Jughead calling me boo, or the fact that Ronnie didn’t have my back!” He feigned hurt, thrusting a hand to his chest and hanging his head. Betty bursts out laughing, covering her mouth to stop herself from snorting at the poor boy.

Veronica moves to sit beside Archie, placing a manicured hand on his shoulder. “Babe, there isn’t anything I can do to help you there.” Her smile was smug as he pulled from her grasp, gasping at her words.

“You guys are so mean to me! Why did I ever become friends with you again.” Everyone was laughing then, even Hunter, at Archie’s exaggerated expressions and flailing of his arms. Betty held her stomach tightly, the muscles in her core tense from the fits of laughter.

Once she calmed her laughter, she leaned back against the couch, watching her friends. Archie and Ronnie were talking about something, both their face close to one another and animated. Ronnie was smiling at something Archie said, leaning her head against his shoulder before kissing his cheek. Betty smiled at them, fingers tracing the scar on her wrist idly.

Jughead’s hand engulfed hers, bringing her attention to him. His blue eyes were filled with concern, looking down at Betty’s fingers then back up at her. She just shrugged, smiling at him. He mouthed the words she knew all too well, nodding before he could finish. He frowned, placing their son on the floor in front of him before scooting over to drape an arm over her shoulders.

“You ok?” He whispered, voice tickling her ear and sending a wave of pleasure down her spine. She bit her lip and nodded, not trusting her voice won’t sound heady. She notices his frown again, before leaning her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes gently.

“I’m ok Juggie.”

He cleared his throat, Betty feeling his head move in a nod. She keeps her eyes closed, unaware of if she’s falling asleep of just lost in thought. She’s brought back to reality when Jughead moves away from her, causing her head to dip painfully to the side. Rubbing her neck, Betty just opens her eyes. Hunter was sleeping on the couch behind her head, snuggled closely with his toy monkey named FP. Looking around, she stands.  

Jughead was watching Archie and Veronica closely, waiting for the signal. When Archie finally looked over at him, a slight nod was all he got before Archie stood.

“Ronnie?” Veronica looked up at her name, concern filling her perfect features. 

“Yes Archie?” She stood, sparing a glance at Betty, who just shook her head with lack of knowledge. “What is it?”

“Veronica. Ronnie. You’ve been by my side for longer than I can remember. You’re my biggest fan, and truest supporter, you’re one of the reasons I even continued with music when I wanted to quit.” Veronica was watching him, a charcoal tear trailing down her face. Archie reaches behind him, grasping something, then drops to one knee. “Veronica Lodge, will you marry me?”

“Holy shit!” Betty’s voice broke the silence, causing Jughead to chuckle. Veronica stood silent, tears streaming down her face, smudging her makeup. She had a hand over her mouth, nodding furiously. Archie shot an eyebrow up, confusion all over his face.

“Yes!” Veronica finally shouted, a choked laugh following. Archie smiled huge, standing up and enveloping her in his arms. “100 times yes, Archie. Oh my god.” Archie kissed her then, while Betty whistled, laughing at the two of them from her side of the room.

“Betty?”

Jughead’s voice broke through the noise, Betty turning on her heel, still smiling. Then she halts. Before her is Jughead, down on one knee and navy blue eyes burning bright. A hand comes up to her mouth, strangling the gasp that escapes her closing throat.

“Betts, I don’t have a fancy speech like Archie does, but I just have one question.” He pulls out a tiny box, opening his with a click. Inside is the most beautiful ring Betty’s ever seen, engraved on the side is a J, opposite of that is a B. Tears flow freely down Betty’s cheeks as she inhales sharply. “Elizabeth Cooper, will you marry me?”

“Oh my gosh.” Veronica’s voice rang out, a shrill sound in the silence that followed.

Betty doesn’t respond, just launches herself into his arms, tears flowing quickly as she wraps her arms around his neck. He wraps his arms around her torso easily, holding her tightly. She could hear his small sniffles, indication of his own crying.

She pulls back slightly, leaning back on her knees. “Yes.” His face lit up at the one word, leaning forward to capture her lips in a kiss so full of passion, it was a wonder the whole world didn’t shatter. Betty wrapped her arms around his neck, tangling her hands in his messy hair. His arms came around her waist, pulling her as close as possible. They stayed like that for eternity, or at least it felt like it to them.

Pulling away, out of breath and flushed, Betty leaned her forehead against Jughead’s, biting her lip.

“I love you, Elizabeth Cooper.” She opened her eyes, looking up at him through her lashes.

“Jughead Jones. I love you.”

[semi-sketchy]

Hey Sassy, what are your thoughts and opinions on the Character Customization in Sonic Forces? Also have you thought/planning to get a Nintendo Switch?

Oh gosh, I’ve been waiting for an ask like this!

I’ll answer the simple one first: yes I do plan to get a Switch. My brother says he’s going to try and pick one up around Black Friday this year. However, I’m going to be buying Forces on the PC because mods.

Now the long answer… The character customization is something I’m iffy with. The announcement caught me highly off guard as I was like “there’s no way they would ever do that, it’s just not Sonic” and BOOM. Actually when I saw it I screamed “OHHH HELLLLLLL NOOOOO” because I was hoping for a good story. Now let me explain this…

I have been majorly turned off from character customization games and that’s thanks to Xenoblade Chronicles X. That’s meant to be a story-driven game, but aside from it being handled poorly, it’s a solid game. Without spoiling the story (just in case anyone actually cares about it) you play as an avatar and you get multiple voice options and a yes or no option in some cutscenes. The voice options are only for outside of cutscenes though (like grunts, battle cries, you know). The main issue is there’s a super serious cutscene and your avatar just stands there next to the other characters, completely blank like a third wheel being dragged around at a party. Once in awhile a character will turn to the avatar and ask a question, your options are always “nod” or “shake” and depending on what you pick, one line of dialog is changed and your avatar goes back to being ignored. Your choices don’t matter. The avatar feature doesn’t help me feel like part of the world, if anything it makes me feel really awkward in those cutscenes. The other thing they did to make this character a blank canvas with give them amnesia, which is a really cheap writing technique. Going on with it, it’s basically just brought up from time to time like “ohh yeah stasis hangover never wore off, lol, you’re part of us now” and it’s just…so annoying. I would have rather played as a fleshed out character with a backstory and motives, someone I’d want to help rather than represent me.

Of course, there’s no saying the custom hero will be handled just like that, but I can see how easy of a pitfall it is to fall into when writing a linear story. One way I can think to avoid it that would please me is just let us design the aesthetic of the character and forget the multiple choice options. Give us a backstory and the only difference would be a male or female voice actor in the cutscenes. although that defeats the concept of having a fully custom character, so it most likely will be avoided. The again, Pontac and Graff are writing the game, so I probably shouldn’t expect too much of the story.

Another issue I have with it is if I wanted to see me in the Sonic world, I’d look up some reader insert fanfiction. I play Sonic games for Sonic characters, so I would rather the story would focus on Sonic and the giant cast that hasn’t been touched in years.

Gameplay wise, it looks okay. It kind of makes me think of hybrid between Espio and Shadow with the grappling hook and use of weapons. (The grappling hook reminds me off that one mission from Sonic Generations. *Shiver*) I’m unsure of how it will control, but I have always been terrible at the timing on stuff like that. Those bars at the bottom of the building in City Escape on SA2 have been the bane of me for years. If you watched that video I linked, well, they make it look easy. I spent 2 hours just trying to pass that mission and is the only one in the game I haven’t S ranked. However, looking a bit more on the positive side, I’m thinking with the inclusion of Wispons, they’re going to try and make this character play more like Colors Sonic, which I loved to death.

Now I’ve talked about this entire custom hero thing for so long without talking about the major part, designing it. I guess because it’s not the part I’m concerned about. “lol sonic ocs are canon cringe” no. Just…no. That doesn’t matter. I’m not bothered by people making their own characters and if they want them in the game, more power to them. I think I’m going to really enjoy this part. There will probably be days where I’ll boot up the game and just mess around with the character creation tool. My only issue, and this is just a me thing, is that I get really frustrated with those. If I tried to remake a character of mine in there, I’d probably go nuts because it couldn’t look the way I want. Of course, I’m sure the modding community will really step in that part, and it doesn’t really affect the core gameplay, so it doesn’t matter too much to me.

Something I do want to come with the avatar feature though is the option that once you beat the story, you get multiple slots for avatars. The reasoning for this being is that each animal has different abilities and I’d like to try them out without having to delete my save file. It wouldn’t make sense to offer this from the beginning, just flip-flopping between avatars during the main story would make things a little weird. While you will be able to change your avatar’s appearance as the story progresses, you probably won’t be able to change what kind of animal they are and even so, I may like my avatar but want to try out another critter. You can say “just give us multiple save file slots” but that would mean playing through the game 7 times. I love SA2, but damn I don’t think I could stand playing through it 7 times, I think I’ve only done it 4 over the 5 or so years I’ve owned it. Plus, if I think “maybe the bird’s double-jump would help me get this red ring” or “the bears homing attack will help me reach this other path” I don’t want to have to play through the entire game again to try out one critter on a single level.

This is something I have to say real quick… The Sonic fandom on Tumblr has blown up with this with the entire concept that “it’ll stop the bashing on Sonic OCs and encourage frightened people to share theirs because SEGA has said it’s okay!” no. Sonic OCs have a stigma and frankly, I’ve seen more bashing on OCs since the news came out. SEGA is well aware of all the fan characters out there, that’s why in Smash Brothers, Sonic’s alternate skins only changed the color of his shoes otherwise they’d run into legal issues with recolors. Having an avatar in a game isn’t going to let up on the stigma. “SEGA says it’s okay” you’re missing the point. The people that are afraid of sharing OCs aren’t afraid of SEGA; they’re afraid of the people who are making all these jokes right now. The people that are making the jokes don’t like the custom hero feature. This changes nothing.

Overall, I could take it or leave it. Basically everything that’s keeping me on the edge is stuff we don’t know yet and won’t know for awhile, probably until the game is released. Just going to have to play the game to see how I truly feel about it.

Okay, there’s my tangent, sorry it was so long!

-Sassy

[itsfinancethings]

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Bojack Horseman.

What do you see when you look into the eyes of Bojack Horseman?

Do you see anxiety? Do you see dysfunction and excess and addiction? Do you see yourself?

The creators of Bojack Horseman hope to conjure all these thoughts and more—but before the show even really begins. The 40-second title sequence, shown at the top of each episode, is instrumental in building the show’s tone and mythology. It changes subtly over the seasons and even from one episode to the next, exposing emotional subtexts and foreshadowing plot points. “It’s tremendously important—I definitely think it’s affected the show,” Bojack creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg tells TIME.

But the title sequence’s biggest impact isn’t uncovered until the show’s penultimate episode, which was released on Netflix on Jan. 31. In that episode, it’s revealed that the show’s climactic moment has been hiding in plain sight from the very beginning. This long payoff, six years in the making, is just another small but key example of how Bojack has been one of the smartest and most transgressive shows on television in recent memory.

Lost-in-life feeling

While Bojack is now widely revered, its fate was much less certain when the filmmaker Mike Roberts was brought on to direct the title sequence in 2014. For the most part, adult animation was confined to a specific lane—largely consisting of crude jokes aimed at teenage boys—and the first few episodes of Bojack hewed dangerously close to that standard.

“The first three episodes didn’t give everyone the full picture of how serious and dark and thematically deep the show goes,” Roberts tells TIME. “The main thing was to let the audience know that it wasn’t just this typical show—that there was some depth coming.”

In creating the title sequence, Roberts hoped to take viewers on a tour of Bojack’s everyday life—just like the introduction to The Simpsons and Scooby Doo—but from a peculiar vantage point: as if a GoPro was locked facing Bojack’s head. Roberts says he was primarily inspired by YouTube travel videos and how unintentionally strange they are: “It has this weird sensation of being there but also not being there, because the person is such a large part of the frame,” Roberts says. “We wanted this lost-in-life feeling, as if you were on a vacation somewhere exotic but stuck in your life that you kind of hate.”

The sequence shows Bojack walking through his house, going to the supermarket, partying with friends, and falling into a pool. But while his day is action-packed, he doesn’t seem to be in control—his body drifts automatically through space, wobbling slightly. “We wanted to feel like the day was running away from him,” Roberts says.

The sequence also communicates a disconnect between Bojack and those around him. Because Bojack faces the viewers, he can’t actually see the people that populate his house, and thus mostly doesn’t react to them at all. While he moves fluidly, the other characters flicker in stop-motion, as if they they’re not quite real to him. The amount of space Bojack’s own face takes up in the frame also reflects his narcissism and his inability to see the world outside of himself.

And the sequence not only gives the viewer clues about Bojack’s disorienting headspace, but forces us into it. Bojack’s blank stare has a startling mirroring effect, as if you were staring at your own reflection through the window of a moving train. “The feeling of the camera being locked to you while the background is moving is so surreal and weird,” Roberts says. “In some ways, it feels a bit like being drunk or being high.”

While the visual sequence was arresting on its own, the accompanying music would also be crucial in signaling the show’s tone. After culling through options, the creative team ultimately came down to two pieces: an instrumental by Patrick and Ralph Carney propelled by braying saxophones, and a melancholic ditty by Grouplove. “The Carney song was intense—almost a film noir kind of thing, while the Grouplove song was scary-funny in a Lynchian way,” Roberts said. “As we overlaid them, it was obvious which one fit.” They chose the Carney song, with its sinister haziness, for the top of each episode, and then moved the Grouplove song to the end credits as a pitch black resolution.

“You’d feel the momentum”

Bob-Waksberg loved Roberts’ concept: “It illustrated what the show was going to be even when the show itself was not illustrating that,” he says.

But he wasn’t completely satisfied—and he asked that the sequence reflect another key aspect of the show. “One of the things that set us apart early on, as opposed to other animated shows, was the fact that Bojack was continuous and serialized,” Bob-Waksberg says. While other animated sitcom protagonists, like Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin and Sterling Archer, perform reckless actions that are mostly wiped clean at the end of each episode, Bojack’s life doesn’t reset; his decisions have devastating consequences to himself and those around him.

Bob-Waksberg wanted to use the title sequence to underscore those continuing repercussions—”so you’d feel the momentum of the series.” So Roberts and his team worked to implement small changes to the background of each episode’s title sequence. Some of the changes are little more than fun easter eggs: when Todd jumps on Bojack’s bed and breaks it, for example, his bed is propped up by books the next episode.

But other changes are far heavier: they document the end of relationships (with Wanda and Gina quietly disappearing) or show how Bojack’s actions have affected the outside world (after he gets the director Kelsey Jannings fired from Secretariat, she’s summarily replaced in the sequence by Abe D’Catfish). Before it’s revealed that his mother Beatrice has been drugging his sister Hollyhock through coffee, Beatrice is shown pouring a cup for her at the beginning of each episode.

And as the series goes on and Bojack devolves deeper into addiction and narcissism, the title sequence changes even more drastically. In season four, the segment that previously showed Bojack finally leaving his house is replaced by a kaleidoscopic montage of characters, signifying his past and present collapsing, his mental grip on reality spiraling out of control. (The sequence is triggered by Bojack drinking coffee, which also could be a nod to Beatrice’s sleight of hand.) “We wanted to have a trip-out kind of moment to show that he’s losing it,” Roberts says.

Bojack’s disconnect from reality is brought to its logical end in the season six title sequence, which was designed by Peter Merryman. Rather than showing Bojack meandering through his day, he instead wallows in his most entrenched and devastating memories, whether being confronted by his dying ex-friend Herb or eulogizing his mother. The sequence serves an unsettling double function: showing how Bojack has become locked in a prison of his own memories, and as a quasi-curtain call for the show’s most memorable episodes. “You’re watching a part of show that reminds you of watching a show that was about a guy that was in a show,” Merryman says. “You can peel that onion for a long time.”

A downer ending

Over time, the title sequence wormed its way into the show’s ethos and plot. In season three, for example, Bojack chooses a mirror-based ad campaign for his film Secretariat that looks eerily similar to the sequence.

But its significance rises another level in the penultimate episode, when a relapsed and depressed Bojack returns to his old house and flatlines in his pool. To Roberts, the possibility of this ending had been looming from the start: “The sequence implies that Bojack could fall into a pool, drunk and high, and maybe not come out,” he says.

Bob-Waksberg says this wasn’t by grand design—he had no idea when or how Bojack would end when he began writing the series. But he says that “the motif of swimming versus drowning gradually accumulated a lot of poignancy—and part of that is because it’s in the main title sequence. When someone brought up the idea while pitching, it felt so perfect and appropriate.”

Bob-Waksberg and the writing team then added another devastating connection to the title sequence. While the viewer might expect Diane to come to Bojack’s rescue—given that she perennially and anxiously hovers over his fall—this time, she fails to pick up his call. The fact that he will not be saved by his best friend means that the cycle shown in the title sequence—where he emerges from the pool scot-free from his mistakes—has truly been broken.

That climactic moment was widely hailed by critics and fans—and its emotional impact surely would have been dulled to anyone who uses the “Skip Intro” button on Netflix. Bob-Waksberg wishes that the button would be removed entirely. “I think it’s useless and it hurts the show,” he says. “Especially when you’re binging, it builds up anticipation and gives you a moment to think about the episode you saw and the episode you’re about to see. If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t have included it in the show that I delivered to Netflix.”

[newstechreviews]

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Bojack Horseman.

What do you see when you look into the eyes of Bojack Horseman?

Do you see anxiety? Do you see dysfunction and excess and addiction? Do you see yourself?

The creators of Bojack Horseman hope to conjure all these thoughts and more—but before the show even really begins. The 40-second title sequence, shown at the top of each episode, is instrumental in building the show’s tone and mythology. It changes subtly over the seasons and even from one episode to the next, exposing emotional subtexts and foreshadowing plot points. “It’s tremendously important—I definitely think it’s affected the show,” Bojack creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg tells TIME.

But the title sequence’s biggest impact isn’t uncovered until the show’s penultimate episode, which was released on Netflix on Jan. 31. In that episode, it’s revealed that the show’s climactic moment has been hiding in plain sight from the very beginning. This long payoff, six years in the making, is just another small but key example of how Bojack has been one of the smartest and most transgressive shows on television in recent memory.

Lost-in-life feeling

While Bojack is now widely revered, its fate was much less certain when the filmmaker Mike Roberts was brought on to direct the title sequence in 2014. For the most part, adult animation was confined to a specific lane—largely consisting of crude jokes aimed at teenage boys—and the first few episodes of Bojack hewed dangerously close to that standard.

“The first three episodes didn’t give everyone the full picture of how serious and dark and thematically deep the show goes,” Roberts tells TIME. “The main thing was to let the audience know that it wasn’t just this typical show—that there was some depth coming.”

In creating the title sequence, Roberts hoped to take viewers on a tour of Bojack’s everyday life—just like the introduction to The Simpsons and Scooby Doo—but from a peculiar vantage point: as if a GoPro was locked facing Bojack’s head. Roberts says he was primarily inspired by YouTube travel videos and how unintentionally strange they are: “It has this weird sensation of being there but also not being there, because the person is such a large part of the frame,” Roberts says. “We wanted this lost-in-life feeling, as if you were on a vacation somewhere exotic but stuck in your life that you kind of hate.”

The sequence shows Bojack walking through his house, going to the supermarket, partying with friends, and falling into a pool. But while his day is action-packed, he doesn’t seem to be in control—his body drifts automatically through space, wobbling slightly. “We wanted to feel like the day was running away from him,” Roberts says.

The sequence also communicates a disconnect between Bojack and those around him. Because Bojack faces the viewers, he can’t actually see the people that populate his house, and thus mostly doesn’t react to them at all. While he moves fluidly, the other characters flicker in stop-motion, as if they they’re not quite real to him. The amount of space Bojack’s own face takes up in the frame also reflects his narcissism and his inability to see the world outside of himself.

And the sequence not only gives the viewer clues about Bojack’s disorienting headspace, but forces us into it. Bojack’s blank stare has a startling mirroring effect, as if you were staring at your own reflection through the window of a moving train. “The feeling of the camera being locked to you while the background is moving is so surreal and weird,” Roberts says. “In some ways, it feels a bit like being drunk or being high.”

While the visual sequence was arresting on its own, the accompanying music would also be crucial in signaling the show’s tone. After culling through options, the creative team ultimately came down to two pieces: an instrumental by Patrick and Ralph Carney propelled by braying saxophones, and a melancholic ditty by Grouplove. “The Carney song was intense—almost a film noir kind of thing, while the Grouplove song was scary-funny in a Lynchian way,” Roberts said. “As we overlaid them, it was obvious which one fit.” They chose the Carney song, with its sinister haziness, for the top of each episode, and then moved the Grouplove song to the end credits as a pitch black resolution.

“You’d feel the momentum”

Bob-Waksberg loved Roberts’ concept: “It illustrated what the show was going to be even when the show itself was not illustrating that,” he says.

But he wasn’t completely satisfied—and he asked that the sequence reflect another key aspect of the show. “One of the things that set us apart early on, as opposed to other animated shows, was the fact that Bojack was continuous and serialized,” Bob-Waksberg says. While other animated sitcom protagonists, like Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin and Sterling Archer, perform reckless actions that are mostly wiped clean at the end of each episode, Bojack’s life doesn’t reset; his decisions have devastating consequences to himself and those around him.

Bob-Waksberg wanted to use the title sequence to underscore those continuing repercussions—”so you’d feel the momentum of the series.” So Roberts and his team worked to implement small changes to the background of each episode’s title sequence. Some of the changes are little more than fun easter eggs: when Todd jumps on Bojack’s bed and breaks it, for example, his bed is propped up by books the next episode.

But other changes are far heavier: they document the end of relationships (with Wanda and Gina quietly disappearing) or show how Bojack’s actions have affected the outside world (after he gets the director Kelsey Jannings fired from Secretariat, she’s summarily replaced in the sequence by Abe D’Catfish). Before it’s revealed that his mother Beatrice has been drugging his sister Hollyhock through coffee, Beatrice is shown pouring a cup for her at the beginning of each episode.

And as the series goes on and Bojack devolves deeper into addiction and narcissism, the title sequence changes even more drastically. In season four, the segment that previously showed Bojack finally leaving his house is replaced by a kaleidoscopic montage of characters, signifying his past and present collapsing, his mental grip on reality spiraling out of control. (The sequence is triggered by Bojack drinking coffee, which also could be a nod to Beatrice’s sleight of hand.) “We wanted to have a trip-out kind of moment to show that he’s losing it,” Roberts says.

Bojack’s disconnect from reality is brought to its logical end in the season six title sequence, which was designed by Peter Merryman. Rather than showing Bojack meandering through his day, he instead wallows in his most entrenched and devastating memories, whether being confronted by his dying ex-friend Herb or eulogizing his mother. The sequence serves an unsettling double function: showing how Bojack has become locked in a prison of his own memories, and as a quasi-curtain call for the show’s most memorable episodes. “You’re watching a part of show that reminds you of watching a show that was about a guy that was in a show,” Merryman says. “You can peel that onion for a long time.”

A downer ending

Over time, the title sequence wormed its way into the show’s ethos and plot. In season three, for example, Bojack chooses a mirror-based ad campaign for his film Secretariat that looks eerily similar to the sequence.

But its significance rises another level in the penultimate episode, when a relapsed and depressed Bojack returns to his old house and flatlines in his pool. To Roberts, the possibility of this ending had been looming from the start: “The sequence implies that Bojack could fall into a pool, drunk and high, and maybe not come out,” he says.

Bob-Waksberg says this wasn’t by grand design—he had no idea when or how Bojack would end when he began writing the series. But he says that “the motif of swimming versus drowning gradually accumulated a lot of poignancy—and part of that is because it’s in the main title sequence. When someone brought up the idea while pitching, it felt so perfect and appropriate.”

Bob-Waksberg and the writing team then added another devastating connection to the title sequence. While the viewer might expect Diane to come to Bojack’s rescue—given that she perennially and anxiously hovers over his fall—this time, she fails to pick up his call. The fact that he will not be saved by his best friend means that the cycle shown in the title sequence—where he emerges from the pool scot-free from his mistakes—has truly been broken.

That climactic moment was widely hailed by critics and fans—and its emotional impact surely would have been dulled to anyone who uses the “Skip Intro” button on Netflix. Bob-Waksberg wishes that the button would be removed entirely. “I think it’s useless and it hurts the show,” he says. “Especially when you’re binging, it builds up anticipation and gives you a moment to think about the episode you saw and the episode you’re about to see. If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t have included it in the show that I delivered to Netflix.”

[lorrainecparker]

The Accidental CFO: The Section 199A Deduction

What was Congress thinking, passing major tax reform a week before the holidays when there was still some serious shopping days left? Even if you did take time away from the festivities to read a few details of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the media were so focused on the reduced rate for large corporations (now 21%, down from 35%), that you might have missed the fact that some rewards trickled down to small businesses as well. So without getting into the politics of the bill (tis what it is…), let’s focus on the new 20% deduction for qualified business income of pass-thru entities.

First, don’t panic. All the changes apply to 2018 income. When filing your taxes this April for the 2017 tax year, you’ll be following the same rules as for 2016. So even though the tax reform bill was passed hastily (with amendments scribbled in the margins in the dead of night), the IRS will have some time to clarify the details. However, if you like to file accurate estimated taxes for the first quarter of 2018 (deadline is April 16), then you’ll want to include this deduction (if you qualify) as well as take into account the lower rates and expanded tax brackets.

Second, I (Trish here) am not a financial or tax professional; I researched this deduction for our own situation (Crish Design is a Partnership, filing married jointly). For this article, I’m going to assume that you are a self-employed freelancer or small business (not an employee who receives W-2 wages) and that you provide professional services (the rules are a bit different if you manufacture widgets).

Third, you might want to make a nice cup of tea before you dive in. (And yes, reading about taxes means you also deserve a nice choccy biccy…)

Business Entities

It’s worth noting that the IRS has no concept of a “freelancer”: If you are an independent contractor receiving Form 1099 from your clients, then the IRS considers you a small business (or “business entity”). Congrats – you qualify! How you structure your business is up to you. If you prefer to stay small, you can operate as a sole proprietor.

Pass-thru entities include partnerships, LLCs, and S Corporations. These entities file a business tax return (usually by March 15), but don’t pay taxes on any profit; instead they report the profit to their owners “on paper” (for instance, a partnership would prepare a Schedule K-1 to report each partner’s share). The owners then pay taxes when they file their individual tax return.

A sole proprietorship is not treated as a separate entity for Federal tax purposes; the owner files a Schedule C for business income and expenses and includes this form with their individual return. However, for the purposes of the new tax bill, all pass-thru businesses including sole proprietors can take advantage of the 20% deduction for qualified business income (QBI for short).

This particular part of the tax bill (known as Section 199A) is confusing enough that I thought I’d share what I’ve learned after searching for days on the intertubes. I’ll assume that you are reasonably familiar with the tax code and know your way around your Form 1040. If not, I’m working on a follow-up article for those who are more likely to give a shoebox of receipts to their tax preparer on the afternoon of April 14 (you know who you are…).

Broad Strokes

First, and most importantly, all the tax cuts for individuals (including the QBI deduction) have a “sunset provision” built in, so they all go “poof” and expire after the year 2025 unless Congress acts to make them permanent (you can mark your calendar now for complete chaos around that date).

Second, let’s dispel a myth regarding freelancers “no longer being able to deduct their expenses.” That’s pants-on-fire wrong (it originated in a badly written article that some people misread and then spread all over social media). What is true is that if you are an employee who works for a mega corporation and receives a W-2 (yippee, you’re not!), you can no longer claim certain unreimbursed employee expenses related to your job or your home office. When you are running your own business, you are actually an employer, and there is no change to the business expenses you can claim on your Schedule C or business return.

For a super-quick roundup of all the major changes in the tax reform bill, I refer you to the list posted by CPA Kevin Tully on the TBC Blog Network. These are the main highlights:

Tax Brackets: Drops of individual income tax rates ranging from 0 to 4 percentage points (depending on the bracket) to 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%

Near doubling of the standard deduction to $24,000 (married couples filing jointly), $18,000 (heads of households), and $12,000 (singles and married couples filing separately).

Elimination of personal exemptions

Doubling of the child tax credit to $2,000

New $10,000 limit on the deduction for state and local taxes (on a combined basis for property and income taxes; $5,000 for separate filers)

New 20% qualified business income deduction for owners of flow-through entities (such as partnerships, limited liability companies and S corporations) and sole proprietorships

The Qualified Business Income Deduction

Assuming that you receive business income from a pass-through entity, I expect you have a few questions at this point: Do I have qualified business income? What are the limitations? How is the deduction calculated? And exactly where is the deduction taken on my tax return?

Who qualifies?

To cut to the chase, if you receive business income from professional services and your taxable income (not your gross business income, but the amount on [currently] line 43 of Form 1040) is less than $157,500 for individuals (or $315,000 for married filing jointly), then you can claim this deduction. Whether or not you can claim the full deduction will depend on another important calculation (covered later).

The first limitation covers what exactly is qualified business income (QBI): It does not include any guaranteed payment for services in a partnership or LLC (health care premiums are one example, as you already get to deduct those elsewhere on Form 1040). It also doesn’t include any investment business income (capital gains, dividends, or interest).

The reason I’m assuming you provide services is that the new law differentiates between businesses that build stuff versus those that provide professional services. Because the Senate decided that it didn’t want this deduction to apply to rich actors and lawyers, they added a threshold for high income earners in specified service industries:

A specified service activity means any trade or business activity involving the performance of services in the fields of health, law…performing arts, consulting…or any trade or business where the principal asset of such trade or business is the reputation or skill of one or more of its employees…

Whoa, that would seem to cover many independent contractors reading PVC – graphic designers, animators, video editors, authors, and consultants – where our reputation and skill is our main selling point. So how successful do you have to be to lose out?

The tax deduction starts to phase out for owners of professional service businesses whose taxable income exceeds $157,500 for individuals or $315,000 for married filing jointly (MFJ). If your 2018 income rises above those thresholds, the deduction will phase out over the next $50,000 of income for individuals ($100,000 for married couples), which means the pass-thru deduction will be completely gone at income levels of $207,500 for individuals and $415,000 for married couples.

So unlike some deductions, where you can avail of the deduction for income up to the threshold, this phase-out is a sliding “cliff”: at the top of the cliff you can claim it, as you earn more you start to lose it – and when you end up on the beach you get no deduction at all. Another way of looking at it is that the income that falls into the phase-out zone ($157,501 – $207,500 for singles, $315,001 – $415,000 for couples) is being hit with a much higher tax rate as it gradually loses the benefit of the deduction.

Again, this phase-out is based on taxable income (currently line 43 on Form 1040) – which is the amount after all deductions are applied except the QBI deduction itself. And bear in mind that all income (including other non-business income, such as interest income) would be used in determining whether the service business threshold has been breached.

Where is the deduction taken?

It’s important to note that the QBI deduction is not taken on your business return or Schedule C, so it does not reduce your self-employment tax. From what I have read, the Sec. 199A deduction for qualified business income will be applied at the top of page 2 of Form 1040, after Adjusted Gross Income is calculated. Why is this important?

Where any deduction is taken in the “flow” of tax forms can have big implications not only for how valuable the deduction is, but also how it affects other thresholds. If you’re not familiar with what you’ve claimed in the past, grab your last tax return (or even a blank Form 1040 from IRS.gov) and review it.

First off, the big picture: business expenses reduce your business income which reduces all taxes – Self-employment (SE) tax and Federal income tax (plus State taxes if applicable). Any adjustments and deductions claimed on Form 1040 only reduce Federal tax – they do not reduce your SE tax. And Self-employment tax (calculated on Schedule SE) remains unchanged at 15.3%. (In fact, your SE tax may amount to more than Federal and State taxes combined when all is said and done.)

If you review Form 1040, after reporting your Business Income (under Gross Income), you reduce that total with adjustments, such as half of your self-employment tax, contributions to retirement accounts, HSAs, health care premiums, and so on. These above-the-line deductions reduce your Gross Income to arrive at Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), which is carried over to the top of page 2.

On page 2, you claim below-the-line deductions such as personal exemptions (which are going away), and either Itemized Deductions or the Standard Deduction, to calculate the all important line 43, Taxable Income. This is the amount that is fed into the tax tables to arrive at the amount you will owe in Federal taxes. After that, tax credits are applied (if applicable), and the Federal tax owed is added to your Self-employment tax (line 57) to arrive at Total Tax owed (line 63).

One implication of the QBI deduction not being an above-the-line deduction, is that it does not reduce your AGI if it’s just a bit too high to qualify for subsidies under the ACA (Obamacare). Similarly, AGI is used to determine if you qualify for Roth IRA contributions. On the other hand, it is also not an itemized deduction, so you can claim it in addition to the standard deduction.

While it remains to be seen exactly where the new deduction will be inserted on Form 1040, remember that taxable income, not AGI, will be the threshold used for the phase-out discussed above. As experts point out:

From The Games They Will Play: Taxable income is calculated after taking into account other deductions, like the standard deduction or itemized deductions. As a result, individuals with even more actual economic income could still fully qualify for the [QBI] deduction.

Note: It also appears that most States won’t take the pass-through deduction into account, because they use Adjusted Gross Income as a starting point.

How is the deduction calculated?

I mentioned that you might not be able to claim the full deduction, and here’s why. Even if your taxable income falls well below the taxable income threshold, there is another very important limitation – what I call the “lesser of” rule:

You can claim either 20% of qualified business income or 20% of ordinary* taxable income – whichever is less.

According to the Evergreen Small Business blog:

A first limitation that applies to every taxpayer: Tax law limits the Sec. 199A deduction to no more than 20% of the taxpayer’s taxable income subject to ordinary income tax rates.

A taxpayer with $100,000 of pass-thru income might hope for a deduction equal to 20 percent of $100,000, for example.

But if the taxpayer’s taxable income taxed at ordinary income rates equals $50,000, the actual deduction equals 20 percent of that $50,000.

You’re probably wondering how you can have $100,000 of business income but only $50,000 of taxable income! But if you only have business income, and contribute to a retirement account as well as claim health care premiums plus the standard deduction, it’s likely that your taxable income will be far less than your business income.

On the other hand, if you have both regular W-2 wages with some self-employment income on the side, you may be able to deduct the full 20% of your side gig income. Or you may have other sources of taxable income (from savings interest, a working spouse, or from retirement account withdrawals), which would allow more of your business income to qualify for the deduction.

As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts. Expect to spend some time with a spreadsheet or calculator to get your head wrapped around the “lesser of” rule. It will be a challenge figuring out how to maximize the QBI deduction without losing out on other subsidies or credits. Also, some moving parts are not well defined and are awaiting more guidance from the IRS.

* Note that the lesser of rule uses ordinary taxable income; that would seem to exclude long-term capital gains income or qualified dividends (which are already taxed at more favorable rates). However, this favorable income would be added to ordinary income to determine if you have breached the income limitation threshold.

I don’t envy those who have to code online tax software…

S Corporation Specific

Up until now I’ve been assuming that you receive only pass-through income from professional services. However, entities that elect S Corporation status for tax purposes can reward their owners with a combination of wages (W-2 income subject to self-employment taxes) and distributions (that are passed-through). To stop an owner avoiding paying SE taxes, the IRS requires that “reasonable compensation” for a trade or skill is paid in the form of W-2 wages.

If you are researching the pass-through deduction for S corporations, don’t freak out when you read that qualified business income does not include W-2 wages received from the business. For instance, consider this excerpt from a very detailed article from Forbes’ Tax Geek Tuesday:

If you are a shareholder or a partner in a flow-through business, it is important to note that QBI also doesn’t include any wages or guaranteed payments received from the business. To illustrate, if you own 30% of an S corporation that pays you $40,000 of wages and allocates you $80,000 of income, your QBI from the S corporation is only the $80,000 of income; the $40,000 of wages do not count. And…if you’re a shareholder in an S corporation who provides significant services and you don’t pay yourself any wages, the IRS may treat you as if you took wages anyway, in which case this “reasonable compensation” will not be treated as QBI.

This seems pretty straightforward, but there is an important exception covered later on: If your taxable income falls below the phase-out threshold, then this rule doesn’t apply! So you get to take advantage of this tax break after all.

Also, remember that if your business makes widgets (or you are an engineer or architect), then your QBI is not subject to the phase-out threshold for service businesses. But if you breach the threshold and you receive a combination of wages and distributions from an S corporation, the limitations (i.e., the “lesser of” rules) get more complicated.

The more complex your situation – you have stakes in multiple businesses, you have carryover business loss from the previous year, or you have a capital-intensive business – the more you will have to rely on a good CPA to sort it out.

How much will you save?

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act retains the current seven individual income tax brackets, but changes both their widths and tax rates. For a quick overview, check out Forbes.com: What the 2018 Tax Brackets, Standard Deductions and more look like under Tax Reform.

How valuable the QBI deduction will be to you will depend on how much of a deduction you are allowed times the tax bracket that income falls in to. For example, if you are allowed a $10,000 deduction ($50,000 x 20%) and your marginal tax rate is 12% (married filing jointly), then you could save $1,200 in Federal taxes – and even more if that income fell into the 22% marginal tax bracket.

Also pay attention to other major changes that affect your household, such as the elimination of the personal exemption, the $10,000 limit for State and Local Taxes (SALT), and the expanded child tax credits.

To better understand the other major changes in this bill and how it affects your household, I recommend this excellent article from Michael Kitces on his Nerd’s Eye View blog: Individual Tax Planning under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 – the section titled New “Qualified Business Income” 20% Deduction For Pass-through Entities is half-way down.

There are more article links in Sources (below) plus a few Tax Calculators that may help you figure out if you’ll save on taxes under the new bill (although I don’t believe any of them are sophisticated enough to include the many permutations of the QBI deduction yet).

Wrapping Up

When I started this article, my intention was to help us all figure out this new deduction and wrap it all up with a nice bow in as few words as possible. It was not to be… Even the tax geek at Forbes had this to say:

New Section 199A, however, is anything but simple, and the 20% deduction is far from guaranteed to business owners. Claiming the new deduction requires navigating a tangle of limitations, terms of art, thresholds, and phase-ins and phase-outs, with one critical definition thrown in the mix that could potentially jeopardize the whole damn thing.

It’s clear that the IRS will need to issue guidelines for how to interpret some rules. Not only that, but it is also being debated that if a CPA interprets the new law the way it is written, different business entities (sole proprietors vs. partnerships vs. S corporations) could qualify for more or less of the QBI deduction, instead of all small business owners benefitting equally regardless of their business structure.

So much for doing our taxes on a postcard…

Sources & Reading List

When searching online for more information, make a note of the date the article was written. The tax law was settled on December 15 and signed on December 22, 2017, so information posted before that date could be based on the House bill, the Senate bill, or an early reading of the conference committee’s compromise bill. Also consider the source: articles written by CPAs for their clients tend to be pretty solid.

Note that the correct name for the section of the Internal Revenue Code that covers the QBI deduction is Section 199A. Also useful for search purposes: the tax code refers to the entities that benefit from this deduction as pass-thru entities and not pass-through entities.

Finally, I found most articles are applying their advice to “builder” businesses with a mix of W-2 and distributions at high-income levels, or those with rental income. Remember that you can skip those complex calculations if you provide services. Also, the entire bill is full of exceptions, followed by exceptions to the exceptions! So when you read any article, be sure to read the entire text to avoid reading something out of context.

Tax Cut and Jobs Act Conference Report (708-page PDF; section on pass-thru entities starts on page 205). Good luck with that…

Kitces.com: Individual Tax Planning under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017

Washington Post: The Final GOP Tax Bill and What’s In It

Watson CPA Group: Section 199A deduction

BDO.com: Section 199A Deduction

Evergreen Small Business: pass-thru-income-deduction

Forbes.com Tax Geek Tuesday by Tony Nitti: Making sense of the new 20% qualified business income deduction

Also from Tony Nitti: The New ‘Qualified Business Income Deduction’ Varies Based On Your Business Type – Or Does It?

The Games They Will Play: An Update on the Conference Committee Tax Bill; download the paper as a PDF

Tax Calculators (may not apply the QDI deduction properly):

Tax Plan Calculator

Trump Tax Reform Calculator

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