#definitely going to watch some youtube videos on how to swim but most of all i need to learn how to pace myself!!

[darcyolsson]

today was a Day my besties, i rediscovered my love of rice cakes (why did i ever quit eating them.....), deleted the guy i was dating off my social media, apparently finally dissolved the stitches from my wisdom tooth surgery (they were supposed to be gone a full week ago) and, most notably, exercised for the first time in 2 years even though i hate exercising. i feel like i nearly died and i'm going to bed now. unfortunately i genuinely look forward to doing this again next week

[blackr23]

240918

Rollingstoneuk p3

“The first phase was the most awkward one,” says HAN, who perhaps is best speaking on the subject. He has opened up in the past about how he and Hyunjin didn’t initially get on, which almost resulted in a physical fight during practice. “We had to meet and [get to] know each other. But once that first phase was over and we first lived together, it is a precious thing that we can enjoy. At first, it was very, very hard.”

Seungmin switches from comedy to philosophy with his take on the group’s relationship dynamic. “It didn’t change, but it got deeper. We live together, we play music together, we dance and sing together, enjoy the stage together. We talk a lot… about what we have been doing recently, what thoughts we are thinking about these days. These kinds of talks get deeper.”

Changbin articulates what is very evident: the band’s unwavering hive mentality when it comes to success. “Sharing the same goal and dream with seven other people is something that’s not small,” he says. “The strongest friendships are honed with fights. I’m happy to have gone through the process because now we can say our bonds are stronger.”

Throughout their time with Rolling Stone UK, their unspoken connection is evident. When they arrive on set and are told their mark, they each get into formation without discussion. It’s one hive mind that knows where to go seemingly telepathically. It’s fascinating to watch them move as if they are one organic being.

Their shared experiences have definitely brought the group together, and they have had to navigate some choppy seas. One hurdle for the band was the pandemic lockdown which began in 2020. The group were just catching light, but everything ground to a halt. “COVID was horrible. There were so many things that we couldn’t do because of lockdown,” reflects Bang Chan.

“The weird thing was after performing in front of so many people, then having a concert without people was hard,” adds Felix. “We were performing in front of cameras. That was one of the moments that was really hard for us. And now we’re finally performing in front of fans.” That first time they performed in front of a crowd again at the end of 2021 instantly galvanised them. “It was amazing and so different. It’s like we got all shy! It was like, ‘Ohhh, a crowd! What do we say? What do we say?’”

Unable to follow their usual unrelenting schedule, the group used the period to spend a lot of time online, cultivating a relationship with their fanbase, which is now very loyal and active. The connection forged has proved to be iron-clad.

K-pop ‘idols’ (the term for a music star in Korea), as the name suggests, are treated like demigods by their fans, and the group have to strike a tricky balance between being unattainable yet also relatable. There is a whole ecosystem that Stray Kids exist in, producing content to allow their fanbase to connect with them. Like The Truman Show, they document every aspect of their lives. But unlike the Jim Carrey movie, Stray Kids are in on the whole thing and carefully curate what they show of themselves. Nearly every member struggles when asked to share something that we don’t already know about another band member. Quite simply, they have already laid all their cards out on the table. 

SKZ’s connection with fans goes way beyond TikTok videos and Instagram Live chats. YouTube is home to an entire video series that follows a gameshow-style format where they play games with forfeits, dunk themselves in swimming pools and dress up in costumes. They open their birthday gifts and blow out celebration cakes (usually alone) in front of their fans and have late-night chats with them, answering scores of questions while eating room service alone in their hotel rooms. It lends a very intimate feel to their celebrity, bolstered by shared confessionals that act almost like a therapy session where they dissect their relationships with each other and work through any hurdles. All this helps consolidate their pristine on-stage and music video personas.

Sharing a constant flow of information appears to have developed into a sort of stream of consciousness for them — so much so that they forget that everyone knows their every move. Hyunjin is genuinely shocked that I know about him losing Felix’s bank card in Paris a few months ago. He laughs and lets out an “Arghhh… you saw that?!” His head snaps back and he laughs, before sheepishly grinning and saying, “Erm… I’m sorry to Felix…”

When I ask Felix about a particular video where he is told by an expert that he doesn’t suit his favourite tone of icy blue, he launches into his answer, before double-backing like Hyunjin, surprised that I would have ever known about it. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah… oh, you’ve seen that!?” The RACHA LOG video I am referring to has been viewed 2.3 million times in the past few months. But if they do forget that the cameras are almost constantly on them, Bang Chan tells me that their youngest member is always lurking, checking in on what their fans are up to: “I.N, he’s always monitoring everything that’s going on. He’ll send us the link on the group chat. All these memes and stuff.”

Their private jokes do not go undetected either: a current favourite with the group and the Stay is “That’s not very noice” delivered in a thick Aussie accent. I.N, with his evergreen smile and low chuckle, explains how it started. “That was Felix,” he says, before Felix takes up the story.

“I was recreating a moment where I was talking with my mates. If they would say something funny or in a funny way, dissing like ‘That’s not very noice,’ as a joke, then this guy,” says Felix pointing to Hyunjin, “picks it up, that way of saying it, and then everyone starts saying it too.”

“Noiceeee… Aussie accent!” Hyunjin parrots, almost instinctively, and just as you do with best friends, the rest of the group descend into a chorus of “very noice” that sounds like a flock of seagulls.

“We show a lot of brotherly love,” says Felix. “Fans can see us as neat and calm and cool, but even off-camera it’s two times more crazy. We are more physically active. We’re more [the] brotherly, kind of wrestling type!” 

They display this on set when the photographer asks the group to do some more rough and tumble movements for a particular shot, instantly snapping out of their icy cool poses to tussle, laugh and joke. It ultimately ends with Seungmin purposefully jostling Changbin out of position, eliciting a strangled cry from him that soon turns into laughter.

“when I think of England, the first thing that comes to my mind is rock and punk. So, I want to dive into the culture”

— Hyunjin

When I next meet the group, almost a week later in London, it’s the day of their gig at BST Hyde Park. I am guided through a gate at the opposite area of the vast grounds and wade through barrier after barrier blocked by pass access, as well as groups of fans who have been waiting there since early afternoon (the earliest time they were allowed). Finally, I arrive at the meeting point, hoping I am not late. It’s a very covert operation as I am ushered backstage.

Hyunjin gives an enthusiastic wave while standing on his tiptoes, beaming at me when he spots me as if he has just seen an old friend. Before I know it, I’m enveloped in a huddle of incredible energy. I can see what Hemsworth was on about when he met them at the Met Gala.

“Oh, look who it is!” jokes Bang Chan.

“Long time no see,” Felix chimes in

[mattgambler]

So where is that book you keep yappin about?

It's right here!

But so far I only printed four custom versions for my loved ones. Initial toe-dipping into the query-lake left me with nine form rejections and three silences, so clearly it needs a bit more work. ...I think. Actually, not quite sure! See, the issue with form rejections, as most writers will probably know, is that you don't even get half a clue about what it was that made the honorable slush-pile-reader say no to you. Here is one of my examples:

Matt,

Thank you for thinking of me and Agency on your search for an agent. I'm sorry to say that after careful consideration of your work, I've decided I'm not the best fit at this time. Please note that mine is only one opinion in a very subjective industry, and I encourage you to continue querying to find the right match.

I wish you the best of luck on your publishing journey,

Name My girl Judith read this and went "why not include a query letter with actual feedback in it instead?" But that's the point - I didn't get one, they are all like that. Might be the writing sucks. Or perhaps the issue isn't in the writing itself, but the query letter is confusing? You know, those 350 words that you have tried to forcefully cram your entire novel into, and then you forgot to mention WHY your bad guy is bad? (Not that I would ever do that, ahem) Or maybe you got everything in there, and your writing is better than your rambly blogging skills would suggest, and it's simply that you decided to debut with a six-part fantasy saga instead of with a standalone novel that may have been a lot simpler and easier to sell. Then of course, you start digging, and obsessing, and throwing yourself around in bed at night, wondering if maybe you shouldn't have written that one part where the donkey fucks the queen! But it *is* a really handsome donkey, after all... Then you go and watch some Youtube videos, and this one agent says "at least have an Instagram account where you post regularly". Another one says "you should definitely have your own website at this stage, after all agents will most certainly look you up". So now I made my very first Instagram account (I left Facebook and Twitter years ago and never looked back) and looked around a bit on websites like Squarespace, although a little whisper in the back of my head is telling me that maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Then again, my brother read the whole thing in a week and told me "you should keep sending it, it's actually good". But I am also aware that I am one of thousands that get rejected every week, maybe even every day. Maybe I could write a standalone prequel in the same world. And if I can manage to sell that, then I don't have to debut with a saga anymore, and maybe that would make it easier then. But also, as I said earlier, maybe it simply needs more work. A stronger hook on page 1. A bit less of X, more Y. And so on. If your head is swimming, so is mine. Finishing my first ever novel resulted in a high that I'm still riding to this day, but I also finished in November, and now we have April. And while I have done a lot of work since then, I don't enjoy this part half as much - and I also haven't written anything new since November, and instead spent my time posting on Instagram, watching Youtube videos put out by literary agencies, reading through the archive of query shark, not to mention reading a ton of novels on the hunt for comp titles that fit, even remotely. I guess that's what I get for wanting to write a story that's different from what I've read before, good luck comparing it to... anything. This might sound like I feel disheartened, the negative nancy that is trying to convince herself into surrender, but really I'm just putting this here so I can show it to all the other aspiring writers one day when they ask me how I managed to become the next Stephen King of Fantasy. Obviously.

[poemarsviner]

Research [Walk Cycles]

Walk cycles are a make or break of a character in animated media. It shows their stature, how they present themself, how they control their body and any physical quirks they may have like a limp or a tendency to stumble. It's also the hardest thing to get right, considering the way weight shifts as you walk. But when you get it right, especially for a fictional species like a two legged werewolf running on all fours or an animal with six legs, it sells the animation as real. Below are some of my favourite walkcycles from video games I know. Michael Afton [Five Nights at Freddys: Sister Location]

In this video, it shows various cutscenes of Michael Afton leaving his home and walking down the street as he greets his neighbours. But what his neighbours don't know is that he's actually being controlled from the inside by a robot. Through the cutscenes you can see him slowly rotting and in the final cutscene his walking style changes to a less human look as he's hunched over, clearly a corpse and barely able to walk as he takes each step like he's pushing himself along. I like this one because it shows his physical form changing over the course of the cutscenes, and then at the end the toll is too great as his walking is now affected by the lack of innards he has.

Hillbilly [Dead by Daylight]

[The specific timestamp of his walking is 0:16]

In this video you can see the Hillbilly walking past a survivor. He is a Killer in the game Dead by Daylight and he carries a large hammer and uses a chainsaw for speed and lethality. In his backstory he was shunned for his physical appearance and locked in a basement, before breaking himself free after years and going on a murderous rampage. In his walkcycle, you can see how he's not exactly 'human' as he almost skips with each step as he's leaning over heavily. While his walkcycle isn't the most complex, it's still one of the more interesting ones of Dead by Daylight and I think it fits him well to have a stumbling style walkcycle.

Shattered Glamrock Chica [Five Night's at Freddys: Security Breach]

In this youtube short you can see a small period of her walking. After being crushed by a trash compactor and stumbling through the sewers, Glamrock Chica is..well, shattered. She stumbles around like she's not in full control of her momentum or weight and she overall seems very frantic.

In this youtube short, before the jumpscare you can see Glamrock Chica running towards the player. I like how she has a different running animation to her walking one and it really shows how frantic she is with her flailing arms, like she's trying to swim through the air to get closer to you. I think Glamrock Chica has one of the more interesting evolutions in terms of animations through Security Breach and I really like her Shattered animations. Honourable Mentions: Reinhardt in Overwatch. His clunking armour really feels heavy as you watch him walk and when his shield is active, it feels like a real weight as he can barely move when holding it up. Sims 4 Walking animations. They all feel unique and while it's rare I actually use one, they all have different vibes and definitely fit certain sims well. The Tank from Left 4 Dead. You can tell the Tank is a powerful mutation just from his design, but his walk makes him way more intimidating. He runs like a gorilla and while he's slow, he's very good at soaking bullets and he's pretty agile in where he can climb. Mr X [Tyrant] from Resident Evil 2 Remake (and the original). While he can be slow, Mr X is no one to underestimate. His walk is powerful as you can hear him stomping through floors throughout RPD and the sound alone can strike fear into even the most veteran of players.

[dreamsfreckles]

[6:57p.m.] Whatever Idiot

~

Dream x reader

Fluff

Wholesome bf content 😌 - enjoy!

~

You furrowed your brows in thought.

As much as you loved watching him game with his friends, you got bored sometimes. It’s not like he left you out or ignored you, but today you were craving a little extra love from your 6’3 boyfriend. “Dream,”as his buddies called him, was playing minecraft yet again, just messing around in the SMP. You came to his house an hour or two ago and talked for a bit before he hopped online with the boys. You didn’t mind, of course. Sometimes you’d play with him, while other times you’d just watch; either way it was equally as entertaining. However, today felt super long, even kind of rough. All you wanted to do once the day ended was to fall into your wonderful boyfriend’s arms... But that was kind of hard to do when he was sitting in front of his desk, clicking away on his keyboard and mouse.

You debated your options.

You could bother him to attract his attention, or you could patiently wait for him like the good girlfriend you are...

After much reluctance, you simply decided to just lay on his bed and scroll through tiktok for the time being.

As you aimlessly pass by hundreds of videos... One of them catches your attention.

There’s a video of a girl setting up her phone on a surface to point at a boy who looks to be gaming on a computer.

That looks familiar to your situation...

She then proceeds to walk over to him, sit down facing him in his lap, and then hug him closely whilst he continues playing on the device.

Your heart flutters watching the video.

That was so cute... What would Clay do if you did that to him..?

Glancing up to him from your spot on his bed, you analyze his set up. Is there room for you to fit in his lap? Is there anything that you could potentially knock over? You sit up more to get a better look. He has space in between himself and the desk that looks to be enough space to crawl into... He also looks calm, so you shouldn’t be interupting anything special...

Deciding that this was your chance, you softly stood from your spot on the bed and padded over to the side of him.

“No, Sapnap, you can’t build that here, it’s-“ Clay spoke into his mic, probably ordering Sapnap around.

With a flushed face, you move to stand more in front of him, causing him to look from his monitor, up to you.

“Babe-“

You wordlessly swing your right leg over his thighs and gently sit yourself down in his lap, facing him, and then wrapping your arms around him. Clay froze, his face heating up as he processed what you just did. You relax into his embrace and nuzzle into the side of his neck.

Finally content with your guys’s proximity, you sigh out the four words you have yet to say to him that night.

“I love you, Clay.”

With his game already paused and mic muted, Clay wraps his arms around you and rests his head on yours. He was smiling, his heart filled with warmth. He didnt realize how much he missed being this close to you.

“I love you too.”

After hugging in silence for a few minutes, Clay’s curiosity got the best of him. “Baby?”

“Hmm?” You breathe out.

“Whatcha doin’?” He asks softly.

“Huggin’ you.”

Clay chuckles, closing his eyes once again, and rubbing his hands up and down your back.

“You are being very cute right now.” He confesses, with a light smirk.

Your lips lift into a smile. “I know.”

Clay lets out a soft wheeze, running his fingers through your hair. “Was I ignoring you too much for your liking? You feeling clingy?” He asked jokingly.

You squeeze him a little tighter. “Lil’ bit.”

Clay chcukles, yet again, and crushes you harder into the hug, causing you to let out a strained squeak. “ClAy! tOo mUcH!” You mangage to yell out, successfully making Clay bubble into a fit of wheezes and giggles. Finally feeling merciful, he lets go of you and allows you to sit up and look down at him. Clay gazes at you with stars in his eyes. Every time he looks at you, a wave of excitment hits him. Being with you was always fun; even if you both were sitting in silence, scrolling through Instagram, or watching youtube together.

Clay’s mind started to wander to how you both got into this situation in the first place. You must’ve gotten a little bored while he was playing. You were usually quite content when he played. Maybe you weren’t. Were you always bored when he played? Were you getting sick of his gaming habits? Worry flashed over Clay for a moment. No... You would say something if you got bored... right? Clay didn’t think it was that deep. If there was a real problem, you probably wouldn’t be in his lap...

Right..?

“Clay?” You broke him from his trance. “Oh.” He blinked. “yeah?” You giggled at his dopey face. “You looked a little concerned for a second.” You admitted, bringing your hand up to his face to pinch his cheekbone. Suddenly, a thought washes over you. “Wait.” You panic. “Is there something on my face?” Clay almost laughed. Almost. He felt a wave mischief wash over him. “Yes, actually.” He smirks. “There’s a very tiny spider on your forehead.” Your eyes widen for a moment and it looks like you’re about to spaz out; but before you do, you realize the look on his face is most definitely cap. You immediately glare at him and smack his shoulder. “I hate you.” You scoffed, getting up from his lap. Clay giggles and tries to tug you back. “Wait, I was kidding!” He draws out, whining at your departure from his lap. You hop back into your original spot and scoff. “Yeah, whatever, go back to blowing George or something.” Clay’s jaw drops at your words. “WhaT DID YOU JUST SAY?” He starts to get up from the chair. You look up from your phone, knowing what’s about to happen. “Nope. Nope. Go back to your desk, I’m not starting this with you again.” You deny, shaking your head and directing him to sit back down. Clay stares at you in disbelief. “Wh-“ he looks back to his computer and then back to you. “What do you mean ‘starting this again’-“ he mocks in your voice. You burst out laughing, denying him from coming any closer. “I meAN-“ you say exhasporatedly. “We both know what the fuck you’re about to do and I CAN’T-“ before you could finish your sentence, you were already being thrown over his shoulder. “CLAY!” You screech. “I’M SERIOUS CLAY, I CAN’T-“ Clay shakes his head, already done with you. “Nope you got on my nerves, this is your punishment.” Clay walks out of his room, through the kitchen, and out the patio door, heading straight for his pool. “CLAY I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU-“ and with one final curse from you, Clay flings himself, with you over his shoulder, into his backyard pool.

Clay is already laughing as you rise to the surface of the water, a glare on your face. Clay is wheezing with laughter. You almost felt concerned that he wasn’t breathing. Almost. As his wheezing turns to laughing and laughing turns to giggling, he finally was to the point where he could function. You raise your eyebrows. “Done?” You ask. Clay lets out one last chcukle, walking towards your body half submerged in the water. “Not quite.” He states suggestively, walking up to you until you’re an inch apart in the middle of the pool.

Now, there’s no way you’re letting him back you up against the pool wall like some PUSSY. So you stood your ground in your sopping wet sweatshirt. If anything, YOU were the one who was going to be backing HIM up against some wall.

Clay stares at you expectingly, water driping from his wet hair. You stare right back at him, no sign of emotion. He looks back and fourth between both of your eyes, trying to make you break. However, your stare is much stronger and is quickly causing Clay to panic. You stare harder. ‘Break, break’ you chant in your head. Clays eyes squint. You follow suit.

Clay blinks.

“FUCK”

“HAHAHA IDIOT I WIN!” You rejoice.

Clay sighs, running his hands over his face. “Whatever.” He deadpans. “Lets just get out of here.” He mopes, walking to the stairs of the pool.

You giggle. “Someone’s a sore loser...” you poke, causing Clay to look back at you with a fierce look in his eyes. You laugh and swim up to him, latching yourself onto his wet t-shirt-clad back. “Stop giving me that look, you puppy. I know who you truly are.” You smile up at him innocently. Clay rolls his eyes and smiles.

“Whatever, idiot.”

Lol, hope you liked it! This was my first try writing with the dream team and I plan to write more! Let me know if you have any feedback! Also, I can take requests if anyone is interested :3 thx!

[acerace]

...you have opened my eyes to a vast universe of VintageBeef lore that I was unaware of. I knew about the New Hermit Order, of course, and the UHC invention, and I've watched a few of his CTM things but -- I will take all the info and lore you feel like giving out because Beef is amazing and my knowledge is so small.

Vintagebeef my beloved <3

So the thing is, right, until about 2016 I only watched two (2) youtubers- Vintagebeef for Minecraft and aDrive for Pokemon (and funnily enough both of them are named Dan irl). So I've watched most of Beef's videos over the years and have a general knowledge of most of his stuff, except because it's been like a decade I don't remember where most of the lore comes from XD

The thing with him is that he doesn't do Lore tm the way other mcyters often do lore- he doesn't have an extensive RP series to draw from like Grian, doesn't have a solo world with steadily increasing amounts of lore like Etho or Zisteau, and while he's played on SMPs and been involved in storylines before it's not really the focus of his episodes unlike with Evo or Legacy or Empires

So where does that leave us?

IRL, Beef always has multiple series running at the same time. Often he's playing on an smp while doing a singleplayer, often modded, series as well as a CTM or modpack with a group of friends. For example, right now he's playing on Hermitcraft, doing weekly Pixelmon and Building a Zoo episodes, and a CTM map with Slip. And to me, this translates to one thing: Beef is an adventurer. He travels frequently- he explores a world and when he decides he's done, he leaves for the next one. That's the basis of my personal interpretation of his series and his character for my writing.

Ok so reading this back, this got extremely long and didn't explain much in the way of lore, somehow? If anyone has any additions to add please do so, I am very definitely leaving out a lot and would love to see what other lore people remember and are using for Beef! I didn’t include the Hermitcraft stuff since my memory of season 4 is blurry (his base was themed after the Martian, that much I know, and he and Iskall were buddies :D) and most of the s5 NHO lore is best watched from Bdub’s perspective from what I remember, and the only s6 stuff is a single line in Hermitgang and then the Area 77 arc with its possibility of an NHO reunion which we did not get rip. And s7 of course had the cloning machine and also the Podzol Party as the main lore. So all the original rambling is still below the cut though it is very long, and I'm gonna bullet point the main stuff here instead:

Actual canonical things:

Invented UHC and was the only survivor of the first ever uhc (Mindcrack UHC s1)

Married to an ender dragon (one of the UHCs I think), later father to a different dragon (Mindcrack season 3? I think?)

Might not have legs if you choose to take that joke as canon (Mindcrack s2)

Was a wizard (RAD)

is a zookeeper (Building a Zoo) 

Had a wife and kids (Sims in Minecraft)

Part of the Trial of the B Team court case (Mindcrack)

NHO founder, founder of the Podzol Party (Hermitcraft)

Created a cloning machine that sort of works (Hermitcraft)

Played the Forest which is I believe the first time he and Keralis played together (look up the trigger warnings for this one, it's a horror game)

Was the creator/owner of Sourceblock SMP (featuring some familiar faces if you know Legacy, Empires, or MCC) and there is literal magic from a mysterious sourceblock of water that teleports people and summons mobs and probably more stuff that I haven't seen yet since I'm still watching it myself

Things you can infer:

Good with animals (Life in the Woods, Pixelmon, Ark)

Is a car nerd (irl and all of the car games he's played)

Is a highly experienced adventurer who has traveled through dozens of worlds both vanilla and modded, across multiple dimensions (Twilight Forest, the Aether, the Betweenlands, Limbo), completed dozens of monuments, fought in blood sports, survived apocalypse after apocalypse, tamed dinosaurs, and played a lot of prop hunt and golf with your friends

If you're looking for what to watch for lore purposes, I'd say the Mindcrack UHCs and Team Canada's RAD series are pretty good, definitely Sourceblock and HC s5, plus the Diversity CTM maps and Ruins of the Mindcrackers maybe? And Mindcrack Prank Wars for the chaos and the origin of Team Canada. And if you can handle horror than the Forest is fun and if you don't do horror you can watch the Pojkband play golf or prop hunt they're hilarious I love them sm I want a Pojkband reunion So Bad 

Beef's first series was a singleplayer series in beta 1.4_01 though he had played the game extensively before that, and was a big fan of Guude, having watched his own Minecraft videos. The series was functionally a hardcore one where if he died Beef would delete the world and start again! I haven't actually Watched this series so idk if he died or how often lmao. When Guude made Mindcrack, which was btw one of the very first Minecraft SMPs, he also hosted a competition for people to join, and Beef submitted a video (which is still viewable on his channel I believe!) and won, and was added to Mindcrack in season 2 :D (fun fact, Guude said that even if Beef hadn’t won he would have added him anyway) 

Two running jokes emerged from Mindcrack- pulling a Vintagebeef and Beef doesn't have legs. The first is a reference to Beef dying of fall damage (I believe the exact instance was him trying to jump into his swimming pool and failing spectacularly) and after the incident, every time someone died of fall damage they were pulling a Vintagebeef. The second joke comes from Guude, who joked that the reason Beef wasn't going to a convention was because he didn't have legs, and then he pranked Beef's base by building a giant pair of legs at the entrance to his castle so you had to walk between them to get into the base. This joke has long since died and both Beef and Guude feel pretty bad about it iirc because there were people who genuinely thought Beef was disabled and were emailing him supportive messages and stuff oops. So if you go looking on the Salad or find old Mindcrack fics, you might see references to Beef having prosthetic legs!

Mindcrack also brought about the creation of several Player groups- Team Nancy Drew, Team Canada, and GOB to name a few relevant to Beef. Team Nancy Drew consists of Beef, Pauseunpause, Guude, and Baj, who formed to investigate a prank on one of the members but I forget who. They're named Nancy Drew after the detective! Team Canada also formed in retaliation to pranks, with it consisting of Beef, Etho, and Pause, the three Canadian members on the server (not including Adlington who moved to Canada but never joined the group). There was also a Team America who pranked them with American flags everywhere. GOB is Guude, OMGChad, and Beef, who played stuff like the Ragecraft, Pantheon, and Monstrosity ctms together but that's way down the line lol

Team Nancy Drew is also notable for inventing UHC. It was Beef's brainchild but it was the four of them who first played it! The first UHC had the four of them working to kill the dragon with no natural regen, with everyone dying but Beef, who "won" the UHC. The second uhc was still dragon focused and iirc is where Beef married the dragon? Memories are hazy but they do kill the dragon in this one I think. UHC was then revamped as a pvp event and became a regular Mindcrack game every few months, featuring most of the Mindcrackers and several special guests, including Dinnerbone, who as we know Thanos-snapped Doc's arm out of existence as a result of Doc killing him in one of them

In one of the seasons of Mindcrack, Beef invited swedish Mindcracker and good friend Anderzel to go caving with him and invented ABBA Rules caving, where the winner takes it all. ABBA Rules is a game where each ore (and also dungeon loot like nametags) is assigned a point value and the person with the most points at the end wins and gets to keep all the stuff collected from the game.

In Mindcrack season 3?, Beef punched the ender dragon in an... awkward area, so when the dragon died and left the egg behind, Guude said Beef was the father of the egg XD I don't remember if I watched s3 so I have no idea if anything Happened with this concept but *history of the world voice* you could make lore out of this!

So Team Canada has played a Lot of CTM maps (which fun fact were pretty much invented by another Mindcrack member, Vechs, with his Super Hostile series! Super Hostile has a bunch of things called "Zistonian", which are references to another Mindcrack member Zisteau, who has a very wild singleplayer series with even wilder lore but I digress). In Ruins of the Mindcrackers, they had a running joke that Beef was Etho and Pause's mom, which is a joke we can leave in the past actually /lh. They also played all the Diversity maps, Sky Factory, Terra Restore, Uncharted Territory uhhh and a couple more ctms and adventure maps! Each map kinda has its own story so in Diversity 3 for example they were trapped in a simulation? I think? Team Canada also recently played the Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons modpack, aka RAD, in which Beef was a wizard with a magic staff that could do anything from summon lightning to control hostile mobs.

Sourceblock SMP is a vanilla survival 1.14 series that ran for one season and the series starts with each of the Players being drawn to a strange sparkling water source that, once they touch it, brings them to the Sourceblock world. It also summons a giant zombie at one point. There's probably more lore for this series but like I said I haven't watched it all the way through yet 

He has a Patreon server called VintageCraft and has done a series or two on there as well, and played a few UHCs with them, so lore that how you will! 

Beef also played a few popular mods, notably Pixelmon, Life in the Woods, and Feed the Beast, with LitW being singleplayer and the other multiplayer. He's also recently played the Zoo and Wild Animals mod a lot. He did a short series with the Minecraft Comes Alive mod where he married one of the villagers and had two children, so that's canon now :D he’s played a Lot of Pixelmon starting when the mod first came out iirc (he chose Turtwig in his first series and built a Grass gym, then made a Normal gym in another series in uhh 2016) and he still plays to this day. Quite a few Hermits played on his Pixelmon servers with him, like Wels, Etho, Iskall, Stress, Slip, Zueljin, and also Guude and Phedran (a Mindcrack adjacent player and creator of the LitW modpack) and a few Mindcrackers on the older servers 

Mindcrack and friends played a lot of other games too- 7 Days to Die, Ark Survival Evolved, Unturned, to name a few, so you can pull a lot of lore out of these as well. Speaking of friends and non-Minecraft games, Beef teamed up with Pause, Keralis, and Slip (a former Hermit) to play the horror game the Forest, which saw them stuck on an island trying to survive against terrifying mutated human... things. They played it a few times as the game updated but as afaik it's the first time Beef played with Keralis and possibly Slip and since the game starts with the Player's airplane crashing, that could totally be how Beef first met them in-universe 

I... think? that’s everything I mentioned in the tags? There is probably way more stuff I’ve forgotten that stems from inside jokes and things that happen within each series, but I hope that was a) helpful and b) at least somewhat comprehensible lmao 

[blackradandmad]

why blippi is rotting yr children's brains

preface: i literally expect no one to read this. it is an essay length, strong opinion piece critiquing a niche youtube-based children's show that i don't expect most of y'all to even have knowledge of lol. but like, i promise that even if you know nothing about what i'm talking about, in my incredibly, super humble opinion, it's a good piece of writing and interesting nonetheless. anyway if you read this whole thing for some reason yr really hot and we should kiss.

i thoroughly vet everything my child watches before he watches it, episode by episode. and we rarely watch youtube for entertainment; we usually just look up educational videos when he has a question about something and wants more detail than i can provide him. and that's mainly because children's content on youtube is so fucking troubling and distressing. i don't judge parents who give their children a tablet at a restaurant at all bc i've been there and sometimes it's easier on everyone to just put on a video and avoid a giant scene, but i do judge parents who just leave their children alone with youtube kids on autoplay.

take stevin john, a literal millionaire who got famous from dressing up as a silly character called blippi and going on tours of places like aquariums, zoos, construction sites, etc and posting it on youtube. this has branched into a whole empire of blippi videos, hulu shows and specials, live shows and tours (that he outsources to another character actor), merchandise and so on. this 30-something year old man cites his main influence as being mr. rogers, but i question if he's ever even seen an episode of that program.

mr. rogers had no background in early childhood development or media production, but he revolutionized the world of children's media, because he respected his audience and didn't shy away from real world situations, all while creating a show with an enormous heart. mr. rogers begins his episodes by inviting the viewer in, literally changing his attire to be more comfortable, and talking about/doing things he genuinely cares about. whereas mr. rogers calmly and maturely addresses the viewer, blippi puts on a high pitched, contrived voice, interjecting every other sentence with a forced exclamation such as, "teehee! we're having so much fun!"

i don't find it a coincidence that john (blippi) is a veteran, either. his videos are completely devoid of the absurd, abstract, childlike thinking that makes children's media fun, creative, and entertaining. his thinking and process is methodical, devoid of emotion, and very superficial. this line of thinking clearly shows the kind of creative sterilization and emphasis on sameness and conformity instilled in the military. blippi simply observes things and interacts with them in a stale, matter-of-fact way. "this ball is purple! this ball is pink! anyway... what's over there? teehee! a car! vroom, vroom!" objects are colors, toy cars don't do anything but drive, curiosity is simply not encouraged.

he uses the "it's educational!" excuse to hide the fact that his show lacks everything that makes media a valuable resource for children to consume in the first place. further than identifying colors, numbers, and the occasional letter or shape, there is just this total lack of children's need for social and emotional development. when mr. rogers breaks the fourth wall to address the viewer and let them know they're special, it feels authentic and natural, because we've spent the last half hour building whole worlds with diverse characters and unique stories in a pretend neighborhood, learning about and enjoying different musical instruments, being exposed to and making friends with (even if parasocially, it is still a real bond to children when done properly) children who are similar to us in character regardless of physical or environmental differences, feeding the fish, making art together, and so on. when blippi tells the viewer, "you are very special, and i enjoy spending time with you!" it falls completely flat and feels unearned, because the last half hour was spent running around a soft play center pointing at bright, colorful objects, visiting interesting locations like farms or fruit production factories while failing to acknowledge the humanity of the humans actually working there (everything is machine or product focused; the human workers are simply an extension of the machine), learning "fun facts" about elephants that just list attributes of elephants, not taking the opportunity to inform the viewers of elephants' intelligence, or diet, or matriarchal society. it is a loud, sensory overwhelming display of a man so disconnected from the social and emotional needs and desires of children that he assumes they're stupid, easily entertained idiots who only need some silly dances and fast-moving cartoon graphics to give their attention (meaning time and desire to purchase products meaning $$$). john clearly views his audience as a means to gaming the algorithm and ultimately a paycheck by the hollow way he addresses them.

the show is so narcissistic, so focused on all the fun blippi is supposedly having, but he lacks any of the character traits that make individual children's show hosts memorable, so much so that he was able to have someone else who doesn't even vaguely resemble him dress as blippi and impersonate him and host the show or appear at live shows, and it went unnoticed by most of his toddler and child audience. the show is so formulaic and the character of blippi is so unmemorable that instead of taking the blue's clues route of developing a story of the host leaving for college and his brother now stepping in, or making some sort of believable excuse for the change in actors, they can simply swap him out with some random guy and not acknowledge it at all. although a comedy show for older children, the amanda show in no way could or would try to replicate the show with the same name but swapping out amanda bynes with a random teenage girl who is clearly not amanda bynes. it's weird and nonsensical and shows that his character is so much of a farce put on for a paycheck that not even his dedicated audience is affected or even cares when he is replaced by a random, unknown person.

this is completely garbage content made by an opportunist with no experience with children who saw his nephew watching children's youtube content, took it at complete surface level and still hasn't realized that while children's content only looks and feels so easy, entertaining, and enriching because it is so hard to do well. even with outsourcing his music, that aspect of the show still sucks. famous and successful children's musician, raffi, is known for his song describing the life of a little white whale, called "baby beluga." it opens with a calm strumming of his guitar, followed by the lyrics, "baby beluga in the deep blue sea/swim so wild and you swim so free/heaven above/sea below/and a little white whale on the go." is it silly and kind of pointless? yes, but the point is that he is captivating children and showing them the fun of listening to music, dancing, singing, and appreciating art. the "excavator song" featured in an episode of blippi about construction vehicles opens with what sounds like a default garageband loop and the flatly sung lyrics, "i'm an excavator/i'm an excavator/hey dirt, see you later/i'm an excavator." i don't feel i have to meticulously analyze the aforementioned lyrics; the stark contrast should speak for itself.

i have a million more criticisms about both blippi specifically and youtube children's content as a whole, but this is already so long and i doubt many people will get this far anyway. it's an issue i was completely apathetic towards until i had my own child and had to wean him off these kinds of junk food shows because i realized the fast-paced visuals and bright colors and repetitive songs/lyrics were putting him in this spaced-out, fugue state, and he thought he could demand this show or that show whenever he wanted. the moment he started regularly yelling things like, "watch! cars!" or "no! click it!" i knew i had to be a lot more invested in the things he watched even if just for entertainment or as a soothing message. i showed him an episode of mr. rogers yesterday and feared it would be too slow to hold his attention, but he was mesmerized, greeting and interacting with mr. rogers verbally, asking me, "what's that?" to different objects on the screen. since purging this low-brow children's entertainment, he has had a noticeable increase in attention span and concentration, can focus on a task for longer amounts of times, is more likely to "read"/look through books without me initiating it, and doesn't throw a fit when the tv/my laptop is off.

i just know that for me, growing up with so much unsupervised internet access definitely led me to real-world pain and consequences, and it seems like now children are born with an iphone as an extension of their arm. if my child is going to be consuming videos, i'm definitely supervising every second and am going to be highly critical of the videos and the credentials (or lack thereof) of the creators and team behind it. but i also know, from pure observation admittedly, that parents letting youtube kids autoplay parent their children for hours at a time is not an uncommon occurrence. and it worries me that a generation of children are being raised on videos that rely on being as loud and bright and superficially enjoyable as possible. what's the use of a child knowing their colors and alphabet if they don't know how to treat people with kindness and empathy and respect? there is something wrong for a children's show host to plug the spelling of his name at the end of his videos ("well, that's the end of this video. but if you wanna watch more of my videos, just type in my name! can you spell my name with me? b-l-i-p-p-i!") after essentially rotting his audiences' brains for a half hour. there's something so insidious about the prioritization of naming different parts of construction vehicles over honest depictions of and conversations about dealing with feelings, or why someone with autism may act differently than you, or what to do when you feel lonely, or ways to make art and express yrself creatively. also, not to mention the blatant police propaganda and outright worship is seriously jarring; as a black mother to a visibly non-white child, i cannot sit there and watch blippi show kids how to be a bootlicker for the shittiest profession on earth, but that could be a whole essay in and of itself.

anyway, thanks for reading, if yr looking for quality children's content, i recommend, in no specific order: mr. rogers, sesame street, the electric company, molly of denali, daniel tiger, bluey!, blue's clues, the odd squad, word party, trash truck, puffin rock, uhh... that's definitely not an extensive list but that's just off the dome!!! ok bye y'all <333

[marshieee]

Can i request bokuto akaashi oikawa kenma with a famous s/o(you can pick the occupation) and they go to an interview with her one day and they answer questions that the fans have been dying to know or like buzzfeed thrist tweets(mayhaps both)

Im sorry if im requesting too much(considering that i sent in your first request and all the others)

-midnight anon

Oh no it’s fine!❤️ i would love to do your request and i love the challenge sometimes hehehe... so it’s fine if you guys request something i really appreciate it🥺❤️ sorry this took so long lmaooo

Answering fans questions

Bokuto

He’s pretty famous himself

Being in the japan V. League who wouldn’t?

Even back in highschool he was popular as well

He didn’t mind having a famous s/o to be honest he was very proud of you all the hard work finally paid off.

So you being a popular singer means there’s a lot of fans in your way.

You two haven’t really made it official to the public so the fans just assumed a lot and rumored a lot.

It’s not like you two don’t want to make it official, you two just forgot to make it official lmao.

So when you decided to watch one of bokuto’s game everyone was surprised and confused.

At first they thought you’re just a volleyball fan but when they saw you wearing a jersey with bokuto’s name and number on it...

It was a chaos in some way.

A lot of paparazzi and reporters came rushing in when they saw the news online.

After the game was finished you went and greet your boyfriend but just to be surrounded by reporters.

At first the both of you were confused asf but when they bombarded the questions.

“Are you two dating?”

That’s when it clicked, you would look at each other and laughed.

“Actually yes we are”

“When did you two started dating?”

“Hmmm when we were still at high school”

“Why did you two just made it official now?”

“To be honest we just forgot to announce it, we just didn’t care since we’ve been together for too long”

The news spreads like wildfire about y/n the famous singer officially dating bokuto or bokuto officially announced his relationship with y/n.

You still find it funny how everyone was shooked by the sudden announcement.

Well at least their rumors became true right?

Akaashi

Akaashi was very supportive when you told him you wanted to be a youtuber

He helped you with your contents and all.

Your subscribers already knows your boyfriend since you post some couple stuffs on Instagram.

So when you begged him

BEGGED HIM

To join you in one of your videos you were thrilled when he said yes.

“Hi guys today’s video is a special video because i have a very very special guest today!”

“Hello”

“And that is my boyfriend! So anyways i asked you guys to ask us some questions on my tweet right? So that’s what we’ll be doing!”

You would immediately laughed at the questions that your fans asked you.

They were thirst tweets and you know akaashi.....

Akaashi wouldn’t

“Akaashi do you think y/n is a good kisser?”

That would caught him off guard and will be a blushing mess.

“Uh...um...y.....yes”

You would laugh at him for being so cute and flustered. In the end you didn’t finished all the thirst tweets since you felt bad.

“Akaashi say one thing that you like about y/n”

“One thing only? I have many things that i like about y/n, that’s a hard question hmmmm....”

Akaashi would smile and look at you.

“The love that y/n gave to me no the love that y/n continues to give to me that’s what i like, like is not the right word that’s what i LOVE”

Now it was your turn to be a blushing mess.

You two had a lot of fun answering questions about you, him and for the both of you.

And then little did you know right after you two uploaded the video.

You guys were trending.

Oikawa

Ok

OK

HEAR ME OUT

THIS BITCH WOULD MOST DEFINITELY

DEFINITELY WOULD BE SOOO CONFIDENT ABOUT HAVING YOU AS HIS S/O

the fact that he’s already a man oozing with charisma and confidence

Having you tripled it.

You were one of the mvps of the Argentina women’s swimming team.

How could he not?

So when the both of you won the olympics.

Boiii a lot of requests came in just to interview you two.

Since you’re really popular yourself too even before you two were official.

“So how do you guys feel that the power couple won a gold medal in olympics”

He loves to hear all sort of nicknames that the fans calls you two.

“Well i am very proud of y/n winning the gold medal, i knew that she could do it”

“How about you y/n?”

“I already know that oikawa was set on winning the gold medal and i know that he’ll get that no matter what so i am also very proud of him”

“A lot of fans asked since y/n is a professional swimmer that means a lot of people tried to pursue her right?”

“Oh yes most definitely”

“How do you feel about that oikawa?”

“Well i am too have a lot of pursuers so i do get how y/n feels and i can’t blame them for pursuing her i mean heh just look at my girlfriend!”

You would lightly tap his shoulder as you try not to blush so hard.

You should have been used to this but no. When it comes from him no.

“Of course there were times i would feel jealous since a lot of famous people tried to get her even though she’s already taken”

“Oh? Really?”

“Yeah but too bad”

He would grabbed your face and give you a sweet kiss on the lips RIGHT INFRONT OF THE CAMERA.

he’ll look at the camera and give a cocky grin.

“She’s already mine”

Kenma

Kenma doesn’t give a single flying fuck if you’re famous

Because he is too.

He trusts you sooo much so he knows when to step in or when you can handle yourself.

He’s not that type of person where they always flex on their s/o

Sure he posts you on his Instagram and promote your shows in his ig stories

But not that much.

You being a famous actress well doesn’t really concern him

He doesn’t like the actress you he likes the you you and that what’s matters.

So you invited him to the awardings with permission of course

As your boyfriend and partner and escort.

It was a hit when they got the news that kenma was going to attend.

To be honest it was really hard to convince him lmao.

And a lot of questions hits kenma but nevertheless he answered calmly

“What are your thoughts about having y/n as your significant other?”

“Nothing really, she’s beautiful, she’s elegant but that’s not what i fell in love with actually even if she’s not a famous actress or whatever I’ll still love her”

“The fans want to ask how do you feel whenever y/n has an kissing scene?”

Kenma would just scoffed and smile at the camera.

“It’s fine i don’t mind and besides i kiss her everyday”

[hakasims]

Shitty Luca Movie Recap, Episode 4

Can’t Watch Nina, Even For Luca?

Don’t Worry, Me Neither. Goodbye.

.

..

...

Ok, fine, I’ll talk about the damn thing.

So it’s a warm September night, and I’m in the mood for a Luca Marinelli feature. In my infinite wisdom I choose Nina. “It’s directed by a woman,” I reason, “and women know what’s up.” ‘What’s up’ in this particular case is code for ‘how to frame beautiful men for the female gaze’. Because women can be auteurs, too, and being an auteur means making movies about your own personal wank material.

Turns out, sometimes a woman’s wank material consists less of a gorgeous male form and more of fascist architecture. We’ll discuss the former in due time, but for now, what’s Nina even about? Well, at its core it’s a simple story about a young woman who doesn’t know what she wants, set against the backdrop of the Rome that is almost entirely empty due to most people leaving for the summer. This could have been a fairly straightforward coming-of-age film, but Nina is too indie and up its own ass for that. Literally nothing of note happens in this movie, and it’s all long static wide shots of empty streets, endless stairs, and domineering largeness of Rome’s most famous fascist buildings such as the Palace of Italian Civilization, the Sapienza University of Rome, Palazzo dei Congressi, and, most prominently, the Fountains Hall. (Google what they look like if you don’t know.) Now, I’m guessing those locations weren’t chosen by accident. They could have easily added to the creepiness of the movie — and I’m assuming creepiness was intended; otherwise how do you explain these hoverboarding nuns?

Anyway, the employment of the locations could have been atmospheric and thematic had the shots not been so bland. But they are. Bland, flat, and always looking the same no matter what is happening in the scene. Usually audiences are willing to sit through slow uneventful movies because of interesting visuals or characters worthy of attention, but Nina has neither. The titular character herself is tedious. Even her bad fashion sense is bad in a boring way that doesn’t tell you anything about her. Is she stuck in perpetual adolescence? Is she searching to get in touch with her sensuality? Who knows. The only thing I’m certain of is that she needs to learn to tuck her tops into her bottoms.

Nina spends her days giving singing lessons, going to Chinese calligraphy classes, eating cake, exercising and taking midnight walks in the empty city. She wants to go to China in September — it’s the closest thing to a goal she has — yet she’s done no preparations, and instead of learning Mandarin she’s studying calligraphy. And she’s real bad at it, too.

There are reoccurring visual elements in the movie besides the vast emptiness: stairs, white columns, a jogger, a red dress, animals… You’d think those were very straightforward symbols, but they’re used too sporadically and inconsistently to hold any meaning. For example, animals. Nina is tasked with both helping out in a pet store and house-sitting an apartment with a German shepherd (a good boy named Homer), a guinea pig and a tank full of fish. The instructions she’s given are absurd, like feeding the dog sleeping pills and putting the guinea pig on a diet. And then there’s a supposedly American TV show always playing in and out of diegesis about dogs living in cages and swimming happily in pools, and it looks and sounds like a video off the political section on the dog version of YouTube. It contains timeless classics like “You are a dog born in the age of consumerism” and “Depression is an evil illness now spreading amongst dogs of every breed, dogs belonging to every social class.” The butter commercial from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend could never. And I wish the whole movie was as surreal as this TV program but unfortunately it’s as bland and directionless as Nina herself.

And boy is it directionless. There aren’t any subplots in the movie, no cause and effect, no acts, no structure, no flow; only scenes that happen, and I can’t even find any reasons for the order in which they happen. The scenes also don’t start or end; they just interrupt each other, not leaving any emotional impact. For example, there’s a scene where Nina sees her future self. She’s on one of those midnight walks with the good boy Homer when she sees a couple being romantic. The woman is wearing a long red dress, and the man is in all black. The shot is wide, so it’s impossible to see their faces, but the woman is obviously Nina:

And the man is definitely Luca. I recognized his ass. I’m not joking, guys. It’s his ass:

Also I was later directed to the website of the photographer who took the set photos, and yes, it’s Nina and Luca.

I never forget an ass.

Anyway, Nina, who at this point hasn’t properly met Luca’s character, Fabrizio, sees herself from the future acting romantic with him, and doesn’t react. We don’t even know if she recognizes herself or him or whether it’s even a real scene or a dream. How are we supposed to empathize with a heroine who isn’t allowed to react to her environment?

Whatever, it’s time to talk about Fabrizio. He plays the cello and he’s obnoxious. That’s it. He first appears as a patron of Caffé Palombini, the real-world café Nina frequents (and buys her cakes at). She’s drinking her usual milk shake and reading. At some point, their eyes meet, but neither says anything, and then Nina gets up and runs after the good boy Homer who decided to take a little stroll by himself. She leaves all her things behind: her milk shake, her handbag, at least three books, a whole stack of paper for calligraphy, and her diary. It’s obvious she’s going to come back as soon as she gets the dog. And yet before her feet are even out of frame, Fabrizio gets up, goes to her table and fucking steals her diary!

His next several appearances are random and sporadic, and it looks like he’s stalking Nina, but by the time of his first actual scene she is following him for some reason. Obviously, he can’t let a woman outcreep him, so he ambushes her:

He tells her blankly, “You’re following me,” but I think this scene deserves better dialogue. Thankfully, we have a whole well of predator/maiden media to pull from.

Though I personally believe this is the most appropriate line:

Fabrizio lets Nina know he has her diary in the dickiest way possible: he quotes from it to let her know that he’s read it. He then informs her that he’ll only give it back to her if she continues following him. And it’s not blackmail; “it’s an agreement.” What an asshole! I’m weeping for the dignified cuckoldry of Joseph.

And what was the purpose of that “agreement” plot point if the next time they meet is by chance? Quirky love interest writing, duh. So quirky that the accidental meeting happens when Nina is walking past a phone booth where Fabrizio is… doing a phone prank? I don’t know, I got nothing. Anyway, he’s annoyed their meeting is unintentional on Nina’s part, but he returns her diary, and I guess they start dating? He watches her sing once with what could only be described as a complete absence of emotions:

In the next scene she watches him play the cello after which they go on a date. Nina is wearing the red dress from the vision, but Fabrizio’s shirt is different. I fucking give up.

Their next (second?) date is a romantic dinner on Nina’s roof, and they’re dancing for entirely too long. She then tells him she’s scared of how much she’s enjoying his company, gives him a ridiculously chaste kiss goodnight and… completely ghosts him afterwards. And if you didn’t dislike Fabrizio before, you will now as he starts calling Nina at ungodly hours (including 5:30 am) and leaving her very whiny and increasingly more passive-aggressive, entitled, and accusatory voicemails. At some point he even leaves a voicemail for the fucking dog! He’s like, “Homer, I’m worried, meet me at the café.” Again, quirky love interest writing: extortion, phone pranks and a voicemail for a dog.

Fabrizio then lets Nina know he’ll be leaving town in three days in case she’d like to see him one last time or whatever. And she never fucking does! In any other movie she’d be chasing through the airport, but here she just drops him like he’s a well-tucked shirt! She tells the kid she’s befriended (she hangs out with an eleven-year-old boy the whole movie, don’t worry about it) that she’s afraid to be “like everyone else”, with a job and a boyfriend, so she doesn’t even say goodbye to Fabrizio. At some point she goes for a walk with the good boy Homer, and Fabrizio is also there, and they just miss each other. Even fate isn’t interested in that romance.

And then all the fascist buildings get covered in gigantic paper figurines, and the red-dressed Nina runs into Fabrizio’s arms. Because of course.

Nina is one of those movies where the main theme — a struggle to grow up — is obvious, but the rest of the elements are a mess only the writer-director could decipher. And I don’t really care. Again, I had to read Japanese postmodernists at university. What I do care about is the male form I mentioned at the start. I know I have no one but myself to blame for my expectations of how the director should have framed Luca’s body or face, but it’s one thing to frame him blandly and a completely different thing to isolate him as the only character (or actor) she’s deeply uninterested in filming competently. Everyone else in the movie gets their fair share of close-ups and decent lighting whilst Luca — whose name is literally second in the credits — gets, um, neglected.

This is his introduction:

These are literally all his close-ups:

Should I even count this last one? What’s with the lighting? Like, this is as well-lit as his face gets:

Oh, the shot is too wide and you can’t see his face properly? Well, tough poop:

Are you kidding me with this shit?

Nina may not be objectively the most terrible of the movies Luca’s been in: I’d argue both Mary of Nazareth and L’ultimo terrestre are worse, as is Slam, whose time’s a-coming. Nor is it the movie where Luca appears the least (The Great Beauty’s literal one minute of screen time is saying hi). But it’s the only movie I have no reasons to watch: it’s blandly shot, poorly structured, badly themed — and it’s actively obstructing Luca’s beauty and charisma. So no matter which film you’ll ask me to do next, at least in terms of the visual component of my posts, we have nowhere to go but up.

[queensusanthemagnificent]

A Review of The Slipper and the Rose (1976)

So, based on a comment in the tags of the kisses from 1997 Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella post I made, I decided to watch 1976′s The Slipper and the Rose.

It’s a film I’ve seen mentioned once or twice in some of the Cinderella comparison videos you can find on YouTube, usually discussing things like the best Cinderella dress and it tends to end up near the bottom or the middle, so I kind-of knew about it, but certainly not enough to feel any burning need to watch it. I’ve seen the two older Rodgers and Hammerstein films from 1957 and 1965 mostly just to see how they stacked up to 1997′s, but aside from that, I’ve tended to stick to more modern adaptations. But @withbriefthanksgiving, who I still cannot tag sadly, said it was their favorite film for its STORY, which definitely caught my attention, so I figured it was worth a shot.

What I HAD NOT KNOWN and probably would’ve gotten me to see this a LOT earlier was that this film was a MUSICAL. Like an honest to god musical written by Robert and Richard Sherman, who were involved in writing the music for both Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The choreographer Marc Breaux ALSO worked on all 3 films (as well as Sound of Music). And you can tell. 

Somehow that ends up both hurting and helping this film, and here’s why.

(tl;dr at the bottom)

I love those other films. I saw them a lot as a kid. Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Sound of Music were a MAJOR part of my childhood growing up and inarguably a large part of why I enjoy musicals today. Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music are pretty well-known for being masterpieces in the world of movie musicals, too, and for GOOD REASON.

So it helps the film to be associated pretty heavily with these films I love so much, I’m definitely charmed by the choreography that hits at that nostalgic funny bone and, when the songs do well, those hit that same nostalgic funny bone, too. And of course, being from 1976, it has a lot of the same LOOK as those other films that were from a decade earlier, which isn’t hurting it either.

The problem comes from the fact that I just. Like those other movies better. It seems cruel to compare it to films like Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music which are just in almost a league of their own in terms of music and story, but I CAN compare it to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

For anyone unfamiliar with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, it is a really wacky film just to start. Trying to give a nice brief summary of events is next to impossible because it’s just. Really fucking wacky. It involves an eccentric widowed inventor with two kids who ends up in a romance with a beautiful heiress to a candy factory, a car that is at least semi-sentient that can fly and swim, a fantasy German kingdom that has banned children, people pretending to be dolls, and a crotchety old grandfather who spends most of his time in the family outhouse pretending he’s going off on grand adventures. It’s not exactly a masterpiece of cinema is what I’m saying, so it feels easier to compare it to The Slipper and the Rose than films like Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music.

And had I seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as an adult, I likely would feel similarly about it to the way I’m feeling about The Slipper and the Rose. It’s... fine. It’s okay. It has some good moments, but some stuff that does feel very dated to when it came out, and a really wacky nonsensical plot that’s hard to get into and sometimes is a tad unclear. But I didn’t. I saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a young child who didn’t really care AT ALL that the plot makes little to no sense and found a lot of humor in the film that still gets me a good chuckle now, 20 years down the line and 50-60 years away from when the film was made. The Slipper and the Rose suffers a bit from the fact that I have no nostalgia associated with THIS PARTICULAR FILM, but is helped a lot by the fact that I’ve got a LOT of nostalgia associated with this particular STYLE OF FILM.

I don’t think the songs are as good as the other films by the Sherman Brothers, and I’m not sure their story writing is as up to snuff as their song writing is. Again, I’m watching it from a more adult perspective, so I’m being a bit more snooty about it and more nitpicky than I ever am about films like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. But Chitty Chitty Bang Bang REALLY leaned in to how wacky it was and the songs reflect that, so there’s a LOT more songs in it that are just fun and catchy tunes. There’s maybe... two? three? songs in The Slipper and the Rose that really caught my eye as real fun songs. And a number of ballads that all kind-of just... flow into each other and I don’t really remember much about them. This style of movie musical does a lot better (for me) when it focuses more on the fun, catchy tunes rather than the ballads.

The stand-out song of the whole film was, without a doubt, Oh What a Comforting Thing to Know. And the entire song is... SO WACKY, I honestly loved it. The prince is spending the ENTIRE SONG just dancing and hopping and flipping and swinging around his family’s mausoleum with his best buddy, singing about how comforting it is to him to know that no matter what he does in his life, how well he does as a King, he’s always going to end up right here in the mausoleum with the rest of his dead ancestors. And Cinderella just. Watches. Because she’s at the neighboring cemetery for the rest of the poor folks, singing a ballad about how there’s no one left alive who loves her now that both her parents are dead. It’s a bit of an immediate tonal whiplash, and Cinderella’s snooping on the prince for some reason and it quite literally NEVER COMES UP AGAIN that she did this.

I think the other song that stood out to me was perhaps Tell Him Anything (But Not That I Love Him) mostly because, were the romance written JUST a little bit better, this would be an absolutely HEARTWRENCHING song. It IS a heartwrenching song, sung by Cinderella after her prince has ALREADY FOUND HER and brought her back to the castle but is told he’s not allowed to marry her for plot reasons and so she’s literally being sent into exile by the king. I just wish I cared a tad more about the romance between these two characters so I could really just SIT in those emotions this song gives, because it is, genuinely, a great song and a highlight for the romance in this particular film.

It also really highlights what I think this film’s greatest strength is, which is how it DID try to add some depth and nuance to the Cinderella story in a way that I honestly thought was truly interesting! The kingdom is about to go to war and they need the resources to defend themselves, so the Prince is required to find a bride among some foreign princesses, but he falls in love with Cinderella, so even after he finds her and gets to the place the story normally ENDS, they have one more obstacle to get through in that Cinderella has no resources to give that would help the kingdom survive an attack.

It’s really really good! Unfortunately, it’s... a tad soured by the resolution to this which involves the foreign princess we’ve never even seen before and whose name we don’t even know suddenly and conveniently falling into love at first sight with the prince’s odious simpering cousin who, up until this point, has just been comic relief not unlike Mr. Collins from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. He’s creepy, he’s unattractive, he’s overly confident for no discernible reason, he’s inferior to the other main male characters in every way. And he has exactly zero interactions with this princess.

It’s weird and kind-of trite and the writing seems to recognize this a bit given the dialogue between the two Kings about it, but it means Cinderella and her Prince can get married and have a happy ending, so.... who cares. Whatever, moving on.

Not my favorite resolution to what is actually quite an interesting storyline, but I’m willing to give the film a lot of kudos for a REALLY solid effort when very few other people were doing anything that interesting with the Cinderella story. Even today, there aren’t that many adaptations that try to continue the storyline passed the Prince FINDING Cinderella.

The other highlight of the film is actually the Fairy Godmother, who we actually get to see IN HER OWN HOME, taking care of the world’s fairytales and is just an overworked career woman who does like and believe in her work but wishes more people could handle themselves every so often so she could just get a moment for herself. It involves a lot of references to other fairy tales and folk tales like Robin Hood and Hansel & Gretel and Snow White, which is really cute and what does feel like a very unique take on Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, especially in a non-modern setting. She’s not unkind, but she is very matter-of-fact and likes to get things done in a timely manner because she’s a very busy woman with a lot of things to do.

I also think there was a LOT of really funny moments, usually involving the King and his court, that genuinely made me laugh out loud. It’s got some delightful little details that make no sense but are insanely charming.

There are some things in the film that feel like they don’t really go anywhere or do anything and are just there to... be there. Which isn’t PARTICULARLY surprising in a film that’s about 50 years old and is based on one of the simplest fairytales out there, but it did drop the film a little in terms of how it stacked up for me in comparison to other adaptations I’ve seen.

If I had to rank it in terms of MOVIE adaptations, it’s definitely still below the 1997 TV movie musical. I still think that the 1997 film REALLY understood the theme they wanted to convey and the characters they were writing and the romance and chemistry between their characters was all absolutely top notch. It also has better music. It took the simpler aspects of the Cinderella story and breathed so much depth and life into it that I have never seen anywhere else. But I’d probably rank The Slipper and the Rose equal with Ever After, perhaps? Solid effort, falls apart in a few places, but definitely a worthy watch. The Slipper and the Rose might even rank a tad bit higher just because it’s a musical which is a massive plus for me, and I personally think it was funnier. If I include book adaptations, Ella Enchanted would beat it out, as well, just for being a much tidier narrative and having a massively better written romance.

tl;dr, if you like movie musicals of the 60s/70s, in particular Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, you’re probably going to love this movie. If you’re really not into that style of movie musical, even if you DO like Cinderella adaptations, I wouldn’t recommend this film at all. It NEEDS you to like that style of movie musical, I think, or it’s going to fall REALLY flat really fast. It’s a solid effort, really solid 8.5/10 for me, I think, just based on my personal preferences.

[zevlors-tail]

Shinsou x Reader x Deku Zoo HC’s

Pairing: Poly ShinDeku x Reader/Shinsou x Reader x Izuku

Description: A day trip to the zoo with Reader!

Warnings: Established poly relationship, otherwise none. Maybe tooth rotting fluff.

A/N: First and foremost! Both boys and the Reader are in an established poly relationship, are Pro!Heroes, and are aged 21+. Bet y’all can’t guess where I went today lol. Today had hella Shinsou vibes, and of course I will forever love the green ball of sunshine that is Izuku Midoriya, so this happened. Enjoy!

A Day At The Zoo

-It’s so rare that the three of you ever end up with the same day off together, so most of the time you have to plan ahead if you want to have outings or adventures, the zoo included!

-It was Deku’s idea first. Well, not idea per se; he just suggested it in passing and you hopped on that train of thought so freaking fast! A whole day spent looking at cute animals with your cute boyfriends? Um, yes please!

-Shinsou had never been to the zoo before, so he didn’t really understand the hype at first. What exactly was the point in visiting animals other than cats? Especially when you can’t pet or hold them? But if it made you and Izuku happy, then who was he to say no?

-Izuku recommended a zoo that was a little bit farther away than your local one, but it had so much more than the typical barnyard animals at yours. He’d gone a few times himself for fundraisers and meetings but you and Shinsou had never been there before.

-So the three of you planned out a day in advance, took the day off from your respective places of work, and thus, the adventure began!

-You talked about it for weeks beforehand, right up until you were parked at the front gates. “Are you guys excited? Because I am SO excited! I’m gonna pet the goats, and the stingrays, and the sharks, and look at all the birds, and take so many pictures-!”

-The first thing you spot is the giant monarch butterfly chilling on the flowers outside of the front gates, so you already know it’s gonna be a good day. You already have your camera whipped out to take a pic.

-Izuku thinks it’s the cutest thing, and Shinsou is literally taking a picture of you taking a photo of the butterfly. The butterfly might be photogenic, but honestly, he thinks you’re the real work of art here.

-The three of you pay and no sooner than when the receipt was in Shinsou’s hand were you running off to the first exhibit, both boys trying to keep up with your pace so they didn’t lose you.

-The first exhibit had some arctic animals like polar bears and seals, which you watched for a while with a content smile on your face. The bears were up and playing around with a dented bucket and a huge rubber ball, and you got some really cool pictures of them. Izuku even managed to get a video of a seal gliding through their underwater tunnel.

-Once again Shinsou is taking pictures of you taking pictures of the animals, because he thinks it’s absolutely adorable. He has this little smirk on his face as he watches you from the camera lens. Although he has to admit, the polar bears are super cute. 

-You keep bouncing around from exhibit to exhibit. One moment the boys are watching the wolves with you, and the next, you’ve wandered over to the giraffes by yourself. Shinsou briefly wonders if they should invest in one of those backpacks with a leash for you.

-Eh, they can just use Izuku’s arms instead. At some point in the day, you’re not really sure when, Izuku just resulted in wrapping his arms around you and holding you while you’re looking at exhibits to keep you from running off. He likes to rest his chin on your head and listen to you gush about how cute the animals are.

-And when you’re walking from place to place, you can bet he’s immediately reaching for your hand to lace his fingers in yours. You end up in between him and Shinsou who also wants to hold hands with you.

-You point out all the animals, even the ones that aren’t a part of the zoo, and the boys think it’s endearing. “Awe, look at this dove over here in it’s nest! Isn’t it so cute!?”

-”Y/N, I don’t think-” He’s being good-natured about it and laughing because he finds it sweet, but Izuku can’t finish his sentence because Hitoshi is slapping a hand over his mouth.

-”Just let them be. It’s precious.”

-”Hello, Mr. Squirrel!” You probably name all of the local ducks and geese walking around, too.

-Eventually you guys make it to the aviary, and you start to explore all the bird exhibits.

-Shinsou, immediately: “It’s so loud in here.”

-Izuku seems to know little random bits of information on the birds, and really enjoys watching them fly around.

-”Shinsou,” you beg him, “can you take my picture next to this giant bird!?”

-He perks up a little after that. Also, he already took your picture. He’s super sneaky and really good at taking pics while you’re not looking. Some of the best photos he has of you and Izuku are candids he took without you knowing. Nothing terrible; they’re all literally still shots of your smiles, your eyes, or just of the two of you doing routine things. His whole camera roll is full of you and Izuku.

-After the birds, you come to the penguin exhibit.

-Penguins just so happen to be Izuku’s favorite animal at the zoo. He loves how they waddle around without a care in the world, and he thinks their black and white patterns are just so unique!

-Definitely embarrasses Shinsou by imitating the penguin walk. He’s a goofball with the two of you, you know he would! And you’re right there with him, following him around with your hands at your sides as you waddle behind him. 

-”I don’t know them,” Shinsou jokes with the people next to you. But he loves you both, you can tell by the way he’s smiling. He thinks it’s cute how the two of you act like this together...in a dorky way, but still.

-Finally, you guys get to the aquarium. The moment you step through the door, Shinsou is practically mesmerized by the fish. He’s never seen so many before; there’s so many colors and shapes and sizes...

-He feels peaceful while he’s watching them swim around.

-You like all the really weird fish. Izuku likes the tropical ones with all the crazy colors, and Shinsou...

-He loves the moon jellies. The second he stepped in front of that tank, he was gone. You and Izuku just watch him for a moment as he relaxes his shoulders and stares into purple tinted waters, totally serene and carefree.

-Izuku takes a 2 minute long video of him bc the moment is just so precious. RIP anyone else who wanted to look at the jellyfish today, bc Shinsou’s literally been there for like 10 minutes now

-Shinsou decides he really likes the zoo after that. Every other exhibit is much more enjoyable and he’s in such a better mood. Not that he was in a bad mood when he first got there, it’s just that he didn’t see the point in all of it at first. 

-Izuku also spends a while looking at the sea turtles, which happen to be his second favorite animal.

-You guys spent the most amount of time in the aquarium no thanks to Hitoshi, but you did manage to make it to the museum before it closed for the afternoon as well.

-Izu reads all the plaques out loud to the two of you and tells you all about the animals and displays. Some of them are interactive, and you can’t help yourself from pressing every single button and listening to the noises and information it gives you.

-There’s a section in the museum where you can pet stingrays. You had never done something like that before, and neither had the boys, so the three of you decided to give it a go.

-It was so soft.

-Stingrays feel like wet velvet, almost. 

-Izuku decides he’s done so he just ends up taking pictures of you and Shinsou. But soon you’re done too so you grab Hitoshi to leave, however-

-You and Izuku are walking away and suddenly: “Uh, Y/N? Wasn’t Shinsou with you?” “No, I thought he was with you?” “Where’s our boyfriend!?”

-You turn back around and he’s still there petting the stingrays. He’s SO fascinated, please don’t make him leave. He’s having the time of his life! It melts both of your rapidly beating hearts (you know, from the mini heart attack you had bc your other third was missing for a second).

-You both let him stay there for however long he wants, and when he reluctantly leaves (finally), you make your way to the giant gift shop at the end of the zoo.

-You guys buy so much stuff it’s not even funny. Partly because as Pros, you have the money to spend, and partly because you want to support the zoo so you can come back. They always appreciate business and donations.

-Speaking of donations, Izuku whips out his checkbook and makes a huge donation to a cause for sea turtles. The zoo is super thankful and you couldn’t be more proud. 

-You’re sure that if there was fund for jellyfish, Shinsou would be donating too.

-You all end up buying each other a plush of your fav animals; Izu gets a penguin, Shinsou gets a jellyfish, and you get your favorite animal too.

-You may or may not have bought a shirt as well... It has the zoo’s museum name on it along with some really cute animals.

-All in all a really great day! 

Bonus Content:

-Shinsou wants to book another trip as soon as you all are back home. He loves the zoo now and he wants to go, like, all of the time.

-You and Izu have caught him watching jellyfish videos on youtube on more than one occasion. He finds them relaxing and can’t wait to go see the real thing again.

[weirdmageddon]

💀 In-depth guide thread for people who want to get into The Venture Bros. 💀

a lot of people have shown interest in the The Venture Bros. since i’ve started posting about it and because the series is funny and engaging as all hell i want them to get the best possible experience. this will include the background/what it is about, content warnings, the episode order to follow, and where you can watch it. this can also be a guide just for anyone curious.

💀 1) What is The Venture Bros.?

Created by Christopher "Jackson Publick" McCulloch and Doc Hammer, The Venture Bros. is an adult animated sitcom that has been broadcast on Adult Swim since 2004 and is currently their longest-running original series to date. What initially started as a largely Jonny Quest/Space Age boy adventurer-inspired satire eventually grew into something entirely new and unique.

The show largely follows the Venture family: twins Dean and Hank, their pathetic daddy-issue riddled super-scientist father Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, their brutal but protective bodyguard/secret agent Brock Samson, and the involvement of this family with their supervillain arch-nemesis The Monarch and his squad of butterfly-themed goons. My succinct description here really doesn't do the show justice though.

It's a situational, action, adventure, sci-fi comedy that largely rags on how incompetent, pathetic, or unfortunate many of the characters and situations are in this show. This show is heavy in pop-culture references, largely Gen X ones (70s/80s/90s music and TV/movies). It’s scored by JG Thirwell of the 80s one-man post-punk/industrial band Foetus; seeing how deep their music references in the show can get, it's no wonder the creators chose him. The Venture Bros. is in 4:3 aspect ratio for Seasons 1-2, and turns to 16:9 from Season 3 onwards.

💀 2) Content Warnings

The show itself is great but it can't go without saying that as an Adult Swim show from 2004 there are some things to be aware of before jumping in. It has questionable, outdated humor in earlier seasons but it gets much better later on (observe......), so try to pull through! This list probably isn’t complete and there’s almost definitely stuff I forgot, but it’s a start so you can know what to expect. Most of these (with exception to the frequent ones) are gone or at least far less frequent after seasons 2 or 3.

Frequent depictions of: - Violence - Injury detail - Bad language

Occasional depictions of: - Uncensored nudity in some releases - CSA mentions - Homophobic stereotypes - Racial stereotypes

Rare depictions of: - Bestiality mentions - Incest mentions - Transphobic remarks - Hallucinations

💀 3) Watch Order

There are important specials in the series that can be overlooked due to the odd ways in which they were released. To get the best experience out of The Venture Bros., it's recommended to follow this order.

If you can’t see the images or you use a screen reader, here’s a transcription:

[Image 1]:

- DO NOT watch The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay before Season 1; you'll get the wrong idea of the whole show. After Season 1, watch it at any time. - A Very Venture Christmas can be skipped, but can also be watched anywhere during or after Season 1. - From the Ladle to the Grave: The Story of Shallow Gravy can be watched in between Seasons 4 and 5. - A Very Venture Halloween can be watched before, during or after What Color Is Your Cleansuit?. Despite being a special, it is an important episode you don’t want to skip. - All This and Gargantua-2 is an hour-long special that should be watched directly after Season 5 and basically treated as the Season 5 finale. A lot of people miss it because it’s placed weirdly, but it’s an essential episode. After watching it, watch the Special Epilogue available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDRIMO7AL8U.

[Image 2]:

Listings with numbers either/or can be watched in any order. The pilot (“The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay!”) is recommended at least after Season 1 because it is non-canonical and has several differences from the main show that could give new viewers the wrong impression about it.

1) Season 1 episodes 2) “A Very Venture Christmas” 3/4) Season 2 episodes 3/4) “The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay!” (Pilot) 5) Season 3 episodes 6) Season 4 episodes 7) “From The Ladle To The Grave: The Shallow Gravy Story” 8/9) “A Very Venture Halloween” 8/9) “What Color Is Your Cleansuit?” (S5E1) 10) Season 5 episodes (S5E2–S5E8) 11) “All This and Gargantua-2” 12) “The Venture Bros. Special Epilogue” 13) Season 6 episodes 14) Season 7 episodes

💀 3) Where to Watch

If you're in a country where you can legally support the show, please do! Living in the US, you can legally stream the full series from: - Hulu And you can rent/buy from: - Amazon Prime - Google Play - iTunes - YouTube

If you're in a country where these options are not accessible, most cartoon streaming sites have it available, though censorship may vary with different video sources like Adult Swim TV rip vs Blu-Ray DVD rip. You can also sail the high seas if you know what I mean.

Enjoy! 

[cant-blink]

Favorite and Least Favorite Ghidorah Incarnations

Probably gonna regret making this post, but it’s been a long time coming, so let’s do it. I guess I should warn, not suitable for people sensitive to opinions that might be different from their own. Can’t believe I have to say that about a list of fav Ghidorahs, but alas...

Anyway, enjoy!

-

Let’s start with my Top 5 favorite Ghidorahs! Going from my most favorite down! All five of these are amazing and any one can easily become my #1 at any given time! :D But at the moment, my number 1 is...

Showa Ghidorah

Showa Ghidorah should come to nobody’s surprise, given how much I’ve been writing about him lately! I admit though, it wasn’t always like this. It took some time for him to grow on me, and he actually used to be one of my least favorite through design alone. But he has grown exponentially on me, and now I love everything about him! The manes are unique and I love the crescent moons on his heads too. His eyes are so big, and I feel they have more expression compared to other Ghidorahs. And the inspiration of the more traditional Eastern-style dragon is there in his face too. 

His backstory and personality, though, is what really got me to change my mind about the character. His personality is perfect as far as I’m concerned! Coming from space to destroy planets just for the lolz, cackling maniacally all the way! Even the fact he was mind-controlled was something for me to delve into in my stories, on how such a thing impacts the character. It really opened my eyes to the more subtle parts to his personality, like I realize that Ghiddy wants NOTHING to do with Earth. He tried to destroy it once and that failure is all he needed to know to stay away. The plot device of mind-control is used to keep him coming back in future movies! Even when he defeated Godzilla and Rodan, he chose to fly away back into space! There’s layers to his character if you look deep enough!

There’s just so much story-potential to this guy, I love it! Even in real life, he has an arc, going from one of my least favorites to being the top of this list! That’s definitely special!

Overall, a lot of love for this character, often wrestling with Legendary for the number 1 spot! Speaking of which...

Legendary Ghidorah

The one that started it all for me and they’re second on the list?! Blasphemy!! Nah, seriously though, Showa and Legendary really do often switch places for me all the time! Just right now, Showa has squeezed into the top spot. For now........

Anyway, Legendary Ghidorah needs no explanation for being a favorite incarnation of the character. Whilst Godzilla has always been a very vague presence in my life, KotM’s is what had me diving headfirst into the fandom, all because of Ghidorah. Their design is amazing, sleek and intimidating! The detail that they whip up storms just by flying creates an awesome menacing atmosphere everytime they’re on screen!

The personalities between the heads is unique, providing all sorts of material for my writer side to explore! Their backstory is left open for me to explore as well, like where they came from and how their species functions! It’s been a lot of fun! I may be slightly burnt out from how much I’ve written and posted about them, but make no mistake, I still ADORE this Ghidorah and I have them to thank for starting this whole page in the first place! 

Shin Ghidorah

That’s right, Shin Ghidorah exists in official TOHO canon and he needs more love!!

Shin Ghidorah was one I was introduced to not long after I learned Kamata-kun (oh, and Shin Godzilla) was a thing. With my obsession with Ghidorah, I wanted to know if there was a Ghidorah in the Shin universe and after some digging, I found that there was! Featured in a ride in Universal Studios Japan! And better yet, videos of it exists on youtube! I loved it the second I saw it! 

The design is amazing and surprisingly unique! This is because Shin Ghidorah was originally a scrapped concept for the original Showa Ghidorah! Like, Shin Ghidorah is basically an oversized three-headed Skullcrawler with wings! Because you see those “legs” he has? Those are actually ARMS!! Ghidorah could’ve been a giant Skullcrawler all this time!!

I also love his movements, oddly enough. He doesn’t just fly, he SWIMS though the air, something I don’t recall seeing in any other Ghidorah!

The only thing I don’t like about him... is the fact that he wasn’t around longer! A shame the ride is so short, I would’ve LOVED to see more of him in a movie. Oh well...

Grand/Cretaceous Ghidorah

Both are the same individual, so they’re both in this entry! I remember learning about him through a video talking about Ghidorah’s most sadistic moment and this was it. Grand Ghidorah kidnaps children with the sole intent to devour them, but he doesnt eat them right away, no. He holds them hostage to stew in their terror, returning to them every so often just to listen to their screams and cries. You know he’s enjoying every minute, knowing he’s torn families apart. Without a doubt, all this is just a game before he destroys the world as Ghiddys do. The way he toyed with Mothra Leo, leaving him to suffer after beating him to near-death. Or the way he possessed one of the Mothra twins to try to kill her own sister! It was great! He has such a regal design too! I can see why the fanbase have come to call him Grand King Ghidorah, he’s absolutely majestic. Shame he’s overshadowed, likely due to not being in a Godzilla movie.

Cretaceous Ghidorah has a more Western-dragon look to him and it works. He is basically a baby Ghidorah and he is so cute! His big eyes and squeaky roars, I love it! He also SOMEHOW made me feel sorry for my least favorite dinosaur! That's some true power right there!

The regeneration ability too, is amazing! This is likely where Legendary got the idea, but Grand does it better by regenning from just a small piece of tail left behind. Just badass, all around!

Void Ghidorah

A controversial pick, I know. I made a whole post about my detailed thoughts on Void Ghidorah, see here. Long story short: I think he has great potential, just suffered from piss poor execution. I love the idea of turning this alien dragon into an interdimensional GOD, with followers and everything. His full-body model looks amazing! He’s the biggest and most powerful Ghidorah yet, the biggest kaiju in the entire franchise in fact, and I don’t see him ever being topped. Granted, I dun really judge how much I like a kaiju based on how strong they are, but it’s a bonus here. He needs all the help he can get!

Adding more, his roars are insane, not just a combination of Showa and Heisei Ghidorah! But sounds that are truly otherworldly.

Void Ghidorah deserves love, and a better movie. Guess I’ll just settle on Godzilla: Star-eating Wings as the go-to Void Ghidorah video!

-

I have no real opinion on the new ride Ghidorah, as I have yet to watch the full "movie” and thus, can’t judge how well I’ll like it compared to the others. So for now, tis neutral.

-

Now I’m totally going to get hate for this list of “least favorite Ghidorahs”, but this is my opinion. I don’t like any of them, and they’re all outshined by my favorite non-Ghidorah kaijus, and some even being beaten by my “meh” kaijus! Anyway, this is gonna go from “best” least favorite to my “worst” least favorite. Here goes:

Heisei/Mecha-Ghidorah

Tis no secret that I don’t particularly like Heisei’s version of the character. I’ve mentioned it more than enough. Oddly though, I liked the design when I first looked through Ghidorahs from past movies, and I DISLIKED Showa Ghidorah’s design. How things have changed when I learned more about both of them... 

Now I’ve grown to not like Heisei very much. They took Ghidorah as an alien dragon that destroys planets for fun, and turned him into pets that I’m sure are meant to be cute, but just remind me of Furby’s in how creepy they are (tis not the good kind of creepy either!). I like the scrapped idea of him being an attempt to clone Showa Ghidorah from DNA left behind when he destroyed Venus, so I keep that canon in my head just for some attempt to like him more. Tis why I call him “Kitty Ghiddy” whenever I write him, I legit cannot take him seriously. Such a shame that he’s basically replaced Showa Ghiddy on merchandise, so it’s harder for me to find said Showa Ghiddy because of this thing. Oh, well.

Oh, and he replaced the BIDIBIDI of Showa with generic Rodan calls. And he also turns into a good guy at the end of the movie with Mecha-Ghidorah, and.... well, go down to the next entry for my thoughts on stuff like that.

GMK Ghidorah

He’s a good guy here. They nerfed the fuck out of him by having him be a juvenile (not even done well like Cretaceous Ghidorah), and turned him into a good guy. Granted, he was never meant to be in this movie in the first place and it shows. I’m a villain kind of person, and Ghidorah’s evilness is one of the biggest draws to his character for me. So taking that away... It just doesn’t work for me. It says something when I like GODZILLA more than Ghidorah in a movie. His design is okay, so at least he has that going. But...

Desghidorah

I really don’t like the design of the character. That’s literally it. I think four-legged Ghidorahs are very awkward looking; Ghidorah has a lot going on as is, three heads, two wings, two legs, two tails. Adding more legs... it’s just too much going on that tips the scales from ‘awesome’ to ‘messy’ in my mind. I can’t explain too well why I really don’t like the four-legged look to Ghidorahs, I just really don’t. But credit, he does pull off the look slightly better than the last one on my list.

AND MY LEAST FAVORITE GHIDORAH AND LIKELY TO GET A MOB ON ME IS.....

Keizer Ghidorah/Monster X

“An awkward horse” is what someone described him to me as, and I can’t help but agree. Again, that four-legged look breaks it for me but somehow, he looks EVEN MORE awkward than Des. I just can’t look passed it. Maybe it’s the front legs, or the wings looking too small for his body. Des just LOOKS a bit more natural in his four-legged-ness. 

Making it worse for me, Keizer has a second form that I REALLY don’t like: Monster X. They don’t even resemble each other. I can’t help but feel MX was supposed to be his own Kaiju, but they felt pressured to make Ghidorah the final boss so they combined them. Dunno if that’s the case, but it feels like that to me. Not even getting into the “how the hell does a dragon come out of THAT, where does it all GO when he changes back?”. And the biggest thing: I don’t like human-looking characters. I don’t care for human characters at all in any sort of media, or anything that resembles humans too closely. I skip human scenes entirely just to get to the monsters. Tis why I don’t really care for gijinkas either. As far as I’m concerned, I like the kaiju for being kaiju, and making them human just takes away all things interesting.

If Ghidorah kept everything intact about his personality, but you made him human... I wouldn’t even give his character a second glance, much less devote my Tumblr page to him! But yeah, tangent over. Monster X just looks too human for my tastes. 

Plus, tis hard to compete for my attention when you’re in the same movie as FW Gigan! It says something when Showa Gigan and Showa Ghidorah can share the screen and I love them both, but FW Gigan completely outshines FW Ghidorah...

-

So there we go, a complete list of my thoughts for every Ghidorah incarnation that I can think of. Hopefully I didn’t miss any. Again, these are my opinions and you’re free to like whatever Ghidorah. I’mma sleep now.

[ad1thi]

henlo adi tis i with a request for some stevetony fics,,, angsty if you have 'em 💓

okay so this rec list is mainly classic stevetony fics, but i assure you - there’s angsty ones in there (ive marked the angsty ones with a 😞 so you can identify them quicker) just a general note that a lot of authors are going to repeat, because there are some authors that (imo) are stevetony staples (so if you see an author more than once - thats a sign that ALL of their stevetony is good and ive cherry picked the ones i love the most) (ive also marked those authors with a 🌟) 

//

in the light of limerence:  @shell-heads

It's the final game of the season, their biggest one yet, and there's only one question on everybody's mind: who the hell is Captain Steve Rogers' boyfriend, and why does Cap keep dodging questions about him?

"You gotta admit it's suspicious that only Bucky and Sam have met your boyfriend, dude," Clint points out as he shoves Pietro away with a smirk, pulling the uniform over his head and tugging it down. "We've known you, what-two years? We've never seen the guy even once."

"And your phone mysteriously only has pictures of Tony Stark," Johnny Storm adds as he joins the conversation, knocking knees with Thor when he sits down on one of the benches. "Tony Stark, who has at least ten fansites and personally assured me he's had a boyfriend for the past five years."

"I can't believe Cap is actually out here acting like Tony Stark's boyfriend," Luke says with a smirk, resting against a wall without a care.

"I can't believe you guys still think this is a joke," Sam throws back while tossing his other dirty sock at Luke, who dodges it smoothly.

In little more than ten minutes, the biggest question of Shield University is answered with much aplomb by none other than Tony Stark himself.

almeno tu nell'universo: @silkspectred 😞 🌟 (funfact: this is the fic that got me into stevetony) 

Tony drives off.

Well, he wants to.

But he can’t.

Because.

Steve Rogers is in front of his car.

Steve fucking Rogers. Is in front of Tony’s fucking car.

Rookie and Jailbait Take On The World: @theapplepielifestyle 🌟

“You really should be in school, you know.”

“Why would I be there when I could be here, solving crimes with my favourite rookie?” Tony flashes a grin, and Steve’s stomach twists like it did on the first day.

Teenager, Steve’s mind supplies. Definitely not legal, stop doing fluttery things, stomach.

Thumb, Index and Pinky Extended: @/Eudoxia 😞

Tony Stark is twenty-one when he loses his voice. It shouldn't matter, but in a world where the first words your Soulmate says to you are marked on your skin, it can be pretty damn annoying.

I (created from fantasies) exist solely for you: @mizzy2k

Six years ago, without the Avengers Initiative there to save the day, scientist Dr. Eric Selvig sacrificed himself to save the world, the almighty demi-god Thor was lost to a terrible storm, and vigilante Iron Man – spotted with a nuclear weapon trying to take advantage of the situation – was forever labelled an enemy of SHIELD.

This is a comic book office AU, where Steve is defrosted a year too late, Thor has forgotten who he is, and no one knows Tony is Iron Man.

Also includes: office pranks, inappropriate post-it notes, and superheroes who like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.

Celestial Navigation: @sabrecmc

Celestial Navigation: 18 year old Omega!Tony finds himself Bonded to Captain Steve Rogers. He isn't happy about it until he is.

By request, here is CN in one place without other stories and artwork.

Ironsides: @copperbadge 🌟

Antonia Carter Stark takes no shit and no prisoners.

Paved With Good Intentions (I’m On The Road To Hell): @itsallavengers 😞 🌟

When the mysterious group of vigilante assassins known only as 'The Avengers' are tipped off about the dirty secrets that lie within Stark Industries, Steve Rogers has his heart set on taking out Tony Stark for good in order to protect the rest of the world from his evil. He's seen the footage, after all- Stark is a man who fights only for himself. And of course, when a job arises as chief bodyguard for Stark, to protect him from the growing threat of an ominously infatuated stalker, the opportunity is way too good for him to miss out on. It's the perfect placement, and the perfect way to find out whether or not their tipoff is genuine.

But as Steve falls into rank as the new bodyguard for Mr. Stark and he spends time getting to know and protect him, his initial hatred begins to falter and merge into something different, something far more terrifying than the prospect of killing the face of Stark Industries.

Steve Rogers may just be falling in love with him instead.

The Problem With Communication: @itsallavengers

Steve is terrible at flirting, but when he finally picks up the courage to talk to the adorable barista who makes his drinks, he finds himself hitting a small snag:

That being, Tony is deaf. He doesn't know what Steve is saying.

But never say Steve Rogers does not rise to a challenge.

Killing Me Softly (With His Song): @itsallavengers

Steve is Tony's whole world. Tony couldn't imagine life without him. They've grown up together, after all.

Steve gets cancer.

Open Field In Front of Him: orphan account

Steve Rogers's football season is functionally over after a loss to Rutgers, but he finds a distraction in Tony Stark (yes, THAT Tony Stark). A college AU Stony fic.

Good For You: @orbingarrow 😞

Steve doesn't understand why Tony dates people who abuse him. Tony doesn't understand why Steve cares.

The rest is bad choices, good choices, rehab, milkshakes, paintball, YouTube videos, couples therapy and learning to put the past in the past. Or: How Tony finds his happy ending.

COMPLETE 5/27/16 Edited to add art as last chapter on 6/23/16

Wrapped Up In Clover: @festiveferret

It's been seven years since Steve and Tony split up, and Steve's sure he'll never see Tony again. He's finally managed to put their failed relationship behind him and move on, focusing on his friends and building his business. But then his best friends, Bucky and Clint, decide to get married, and their wedding week at a cabin resort in Vermont turns into a minefield of heartbreak for Steve.

little green soldiers: @/nasa 🌟

“Rhodey,” Tony says. “I’m not stupid. He’s shipping out in three months. I’m not going to fall in love with him.”

Tony is a student at MIT; Steve is a soldier. They meet at a house party six months before Steve is set to deploy. This is their story.

flesh and bone: @/nasa 😞

“You or Rogers?” they ask, brandishing a knife or a gun or a flame.

“Me,” Tony says, over and over again. “Me, me, me,” always me.

Buried: @not-close-to-straight

When Howard Stark demands Tony work at a dig site in S.America one summer to "build character" and "learn about life", Tony is furious. But then he meets soldier/archeologist Steve and falls in love with blue eyes and a perfect smile. 

Just as they are ready to move forward together, Steve leaves abruptly with no explanation and breaks Tonys heart. Ten years later, Tony stumbles across the file for the old dig site. He's determined to visit and shut it down, but discovers that instead of a village, the dig has uncovered a temple and actually needs MORE money to stay open. A security team is hired to protect the staff and the artefacts they find, and Tony comes face to face with Steve Rogers all over again– except Steve is bearded and BIGGER and way more dangerous than he used to be...And Tony likes it.

When the camp is attacked, Steve jumps into action, snatching Tony and running into the jungle to escape and work their way towards safety. But long days and nights together bring back old feelings, and one day Steve takes a risk and asks Tony to give them another chance. Will Tony say yes? Or is his heart buried too far for the soldier-turned- archaeologist-turned-mercenary to find it?

don’t know why it took me so long to see: @3799steps 

“Oh, watch this,” Natasha says, propping her chin against her knuckles and turning a sweet gaze on him. “Tony, what’s it like dating a superhero?”

Tony bristles in irritation. “We’re not dating,” he snaps. “Captain America probably thinks he can get into anyone’s pants just ‘cause he’s got a mask, costume, and reputation, but not me, buddy. That shield? Gotta be overcompensating for something.” He adds, a bit petulantly, “Oh, and all that blue? Definitely more Steve’s color than his.���

- In which Tony is a genius in all matters except recognising his boyfriend past a mask

Heartlines: @nanasekei 🌟

“Let me,” Tony repeats. He regrets it deeply, so much, he wants to stick the words back into his mouth again, and it must show, in the way his voice wavers. He feels exposed, all of a sudden, as if he’s asking something bigger than what he can actually say. Let me touch you, let me take care of you. “Just… Let me do it.“

Feel Whole Again: @thepartyresponsible

Steve turns to leave. It’s easier to talk, somehow, when he’s not looking at him. “If you need anything,” he says, “I’m just a few floors down.”

“Might regret that, Cap,” Tony says to his retreating back. “I’ve been told I’m needy.”

Steve doesn’t know who the hell said that to Tony. It’s probably for the best that he doesn’t.

“It’s an honor,” he says, a little helpless, out of his depth and out of his time. “It’s an honor to be trusted with something like that, Tony.”

Attack Dog: @/salytierra

Steve doesn't swim in self-delusion. He knows that he is sick and that his owner is even worse. He is aware of it every time he rips some nameless guy’s throat out and feels the crunch of bones under his fingers. He is aware of it every time the rush of adrenaline at seeing life slip away from a stranger’s eyes hits him and gets him bothered and panting in ways that have nothing to do with physical exhaustion.

But it feels so good…

His owner’s approach is less personal. His shots fall clean and take out several foes at a time, his figure elegant and so graceful he looks like a god among savages. He is power incarnated, cold and burning like a sun at the same time… and Steve tries not to focus on him when they are fighting together, least his knees go weak and his technique falters. It’s fine though. They will go home afterwards and his owner will fuck him on the hard floor, with most of their gear still on and a vicious grip in his hair.

[nuatthebeach]

New Ginny

Link to AO3 for comments/reviews

"You know this was not what we had in mind for a low budget vacation, Winston!"

"You said you wanted to go somewhere you couldn't find at home."

"So, why would you take us to the beach all the way across the country, man?!" Sand shot in the air as an angry kick on the shore was executed effortlessly by the man Schmidt himself. "We live in freakin' LA! There's beaches crawling out of everywhere! And you wonder why no one lets you choose any of our vacation spots anymore, ya freak."

Cece threw up a hand in exasperation, diamond ring winking in the sun. "Yeah, why didn't you just tell us we were going to the beach, Winston? We could have saved a lot by just taking a car nearby instead of you surprising us with these 'low cost' plane tickets."

"See, you guys don't get it. I told y'all we were going on a cheap trip we ain't never done before, right?" Winston's smile brightened, the look of misguided, twisted comedy overtaking his expression with alarming speed. "And then, boom, I took y'all to the beach. On the East Coast. Ha! You just got Bishoped!"

Nick shook his head, right hand rubbing wearily against his face, looking just as tired as the rest of them. "You've gotta stop with your pranks, man."

"Y'all should've seen the look on my face - "

"Y- Seen the look on your face?"

The only word to describe the look on Schmidt's face was 'flabbergasted.'

" - When I swiped y'all's credit credit cards last month as you were all arguing with Nick over that Flat Earth theory video on YouTube - "

"When they asked the guy about his qualifications, he answered 'critical thinker'! Does that sound like someone who would just lie to you?!"

" - And for your only holiday weekends too! And, man, Nick is so broke right now! I was trying so hard to hold it in!" Winston was absolutely beaming with mirth at this point, reducing his friends' sense of camaraderie towards him to a terrifying low. "You know, you guys should really be checking your billing history more often, for real, someone could really be stealing from you, and you'd have no idea."

Before Winston could register Schmidt's increasingly tomato red face, something else in his periphery caught his attention. "Damn it, Ferguson, don't go near that water! It is not your friend, baby!"

"What type of idiot lets a cat roam free on the beach!"

While Cece attempted to alleviate the pressure between Schmidt's tightly clenched teeth, an irritated look overpowering her own, a low voice spoke from behind. "Are your friends always like this?"

Ginny, who had been laughing at her loftmates' antics and was surprisingly not feeling as bothered by Winston's tendencies as the rest of them (this vacation is, after all, well-deserved after the shitty week I've had, and every second counts, even if they are each spent planning Winston's upcoming ultimate demise), turned around to see an incredibly fit man her age speaking to her directly.

Sweeping her eyes over his form once, she leaned closer. "I'm afraid they are, yes, but I've got to warn you I'm not much better."

He seemed equally as amused as her. "How so?"

"Well, as you can tell from my completely American accent," she deadpanned in her British accent, amused when the stranger rolled his eyes in response, "my sense of humor is a bit dry. Superior, of course, but I'm told some people can't handle it."

"Natural selection will handle that, I hope," he chuckled.

"If we're lucky," she smiled. Feeling particularly introductory that late afternoon, she gestured halfheartedly to the obnoxious chatter several meters ahead of her. "My loftmates here, on the other hand, each have an equally questionable sense of humor themselves."

"Who, those few?"

She rolled her eyes, failing to prevent the corner of her lips from quirking upwards. Pointing to the man who was now dragging an increasingly wet and agitated cat from the Atlantic ocean, his jeans completely soaked from the knees down, Ginny drawled, "That idiot over there who cost us a proper, well-earned vacation is Winston. The only thing this man loves more than crazy pranks is his even crazier cat, who I'm pretty sure doesn't even know he exists. Needless to say, I've really never been more envious of a cat's attention span myself."

Moving on to Schmidt and Cece who were lying on the shore as far away from Winston as much as possible as a form of spite, Ginny explained matter-of-factly, "Schmidt and Cece don't have a cat, but that won't stop them from also making ear infection-inducing noises at six in the morning through our paper thin walls."

Pointing to the last couple on the beach, she continued, "Not like Nick and Jess are any better, though. They like to make weird noises too, but it's not always during sex, and that scares me more than it should anyone, really."

She gestured to herself. "And last but not least, you have me, whose most normal experience of today is having a fit guy at the beach wonder out loud about how five idiots managed to drag their even more fit loftmate out of her comfortable bed and into an expensive five hour flight. Just to do the same things that I easily could have done if I just took a simple albeit very long stroll outside. And I would have had a much better view, too, no offense to your rather peculiar looking ocean over here. What shade of contaminated gray would you call that hue, by the way?"

"No, that's a pretty accurate way of describing it, actually. I'd like to think there is some green in there, though. Just to give it the illusion of appearing to be clean." Reluctantly, Ginny had to agree.

The stranger's lips pressed firmly in amusement the entire time she was talking - ranting, more like - clearly trying to not give her the satisfaction of knowing how funny and charming he thought she was.

She found that endearing. They all try at first.

Eventually, he settled with: "So you and, uh, Winston, are the only two people in the loft who are not coupled up?"

She raised an eyebrow, impressed by his nerve. "Pretending to ignore your intentions for asking such a tactfully worded question, no, actually, when Winston's not too busy canoodling with his cat, he's canoodling his girlfriend - Aly - back at home, but she couldn't make it here today, lucky girl. So it's just me."

Finally smiling now, the stranger ignored her challenging look ('why are you so curious about my relationship status, you hot, inquisitive, none-of-your-business stranger?') and asked her teasingly, "Aren't there a lot of people to fit in just one loft?"

"I mean, we're from LA. Rent there is mad, so we need all the help we can get," she shrugged. "But, yeah, most definitely breaking some housing rules here or there. Is that something that bothers you?"

He smiled, something akin to arrogance taking over his face. She found that look more stirring than she'd like to admit out loud. "You'll find I'm not really the rule caring type."

"Oh? When would you imagine I'd be finding that out?"

She was beyond the point of caring how brazen she must have sounded to a complete and utter stranger. And if she was being honest with herself, she never did care, really. Besides, if she was going to fit a hot summer romance in the span of a whole day, she thought she might as well get on with it.

He cleared his throat, his gaze silently indicating how much he'd like to agree with her on that one, too. "Okay, Miss Dry Humor. I guess I know everything there is to know about your loftmates without risk of my mind being fully blown apart, now. What's your story?"

"What's yours?"

He chuckled at her retort though immediately furrowed his eyebrows afterward, as if he was confused by this question himself.

Ginny did not know what to think of that, though she found a strange fog overtaking her when she tried to ponder on her own personal history too.

Strange.

Instead, she prompted, trying to clear her mind, "You're a lifeguard here, right?"

He looked down at his form, a lanyard draped across his increasingly interesting collarbone and a whistle resting just above his bare chest.

"I can't swim."

She blinked.

"What?" she laughed. "Isn't that, like, a hazard for what you do?"

"Probably," he said sheepishly, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck. "I don't mean to, like, put anyone in danger or anything. It's a long story, but basically, I'm covering for my friend while he's, um...making noises with his girlfriend, as you said. Hence, the whistle right here. So I'm not really a lifeguard. But if anything happens, my other friend - an actual reliable lifeguard - can help you out. He's right over there nearby."

He pointed to another dark-haired, attractive man standing farther away from them along the shore. At first, Ginny thought he was winking at her, but when she saw the tension building along the shoulders of the stranger next to her, she knew who that teasing look was meant for.

"Sorry about him. He thinks I'm trying to make a move on you."

"Oh? Is that not what's happening right now?"

His cheeks flushed slightly. Ginny found it amusing how this man could be so confident but also so shit at flirting too. It strangely caused warmth to expand, but this time it was not through her lower belly.

"I don't want him to think that, though. I'd never hear the end of it."

It was not a direct answer to her question, but his eyes were so soft and mischievous that she had no doubt as to what he really meant.

She rolled her eyes anyway. "I thought you Americans were supposed to be more direct than that."

He scoffed, eyes lighting up at her jibe. "Oh, I see. You're one of those. Dry humor doesn't have to equate to being mean, you know."

Ginny laughed. "Well, that's why my loft arrangement works out so well with this lot over here," she jabbed her thumb to her friends, watching as Ferguson was attempting once more to drown himself in the ocean to escape his owner's clingy attentiveness. "My sense of humor is mean and dry, and their sense of humor compensates by being mean and wet."

He coughed. "Wet?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, pretending like she hadn't made any suggestive comment whatsoever. "Well, occasionally we do like to alternate, though."

"Of course."

"If I was always dry, and they were always wet, we'd have a different problem altogether."

He barked out a laugh, his cheeks flushing again. "How are you even real?"

"Well, anything's possible if you've got enough perv."

The man's breath hitched, his green eyes staring at her intensely. Despite her earlier insult, Ginny thought the color reminded her exactly of the ocean they were at now, something much stormier than the one back in California.

She found herself growing fond of this beach in a way she was not before.

"Do I know you? I swear I feel like I met you before."

She leaned closer to him, fighting feeling flustered herself. "I've probably got one of those memorable faces or something."

"Something like that." His eyebrows furrowed, but his lips were still upturned. "I'll certainly remember it much later today anyways."

His ears promptly reddened.

She gasped playfully, smiling as she hit him lightly on his very fit arm. "You are much smoother than you look. And randier."

He laughed. After a short while of them standing in a silence filled with smirks and silky sheet-like possibilities, he finally asked, "Okay, Miss Dry Occasionally Wet Humor - "

"Nice."

He bit back another chuckle. "What's your name?"

"What's yours?"

He rolled his eyes ("stubborn too"), he relented, "I'm Harry."

She chuckled, shaking his hand that was offered to her mockingly. She tried to ignore how well it fit in her own small one.

"Ginny."

He watched her nose crinkle, a deep smile spreading across both of their lips contentedly.

It was something tangible, she thought, as her insides fired up, not out of lustful heat - though certainly that too - but something warm, like receiving hugs after being shoved outside in a freezing tent in the woods for months and months, with nothing but a piece of marked parchment to keep one sane.

Parchment?

Something within her squirmed, and she thought that if she listened closely enough, the sounds of seagulls cawing in the distance could easily be replaced by something akin to an audience crooning in sympathy.

As if watching a pair of hopeless lovers on a silver screen.

Suddenly, Nick's comically high pitched scream filled the air, allowing Ginny to shake her head at her crazy thoughts.

"It's just a ghost crab, Nick!" Jess yelled from far away, annoyed as her boyfriend jumped on her back in fright, almost causing her to topple over herself.

"Why are there crabs and ghosts, Jess! You can't have both! You know I always told you that crustaceans are the cockroaches of the sea! It's a crazy world out here!"

At Jess's blank stare, Nick chuckled incredulously, his last brain cell firing meekly. "Wait. I get it. You're teasing me, Jess. Ghosts aren't real. Psh. Nice try."

Nick's neck cricked as he glanced around in paranoia.

Jess rolled her eyes, attempting to drop him down from her back but failing badly, his legs wrapped around her like a vice. "Ghost. Crabs. Nick. I don't know why you're even scared of them - they even walk sideways like you do!"

"They should not be blending in with the sand like that! They're all spooky ghosts! It's not right!"

"You. Are. So. Infuriating, Miller!"

As Nick hopped off of Jess to moonwalk away from the ghost crabs, a thought came to Ginny.

"They kind of remind me of..." Both Harry and Ginny said at the exact same time, causing them to stare at each other hastily.

When neither of them finished their sentences (what even was I going to say anyways?), Ginny huffed. "Right," she said, "Well, I've got to head back now before Nick finds out that it's getting late, which can only mean that more ghost crabs are bound to be crawling all over the place soon."

He laughed but quickly became alarmed when she made to leave. "Wait."

She turned around, hand cupping her forehead to squint at him through the waning sun. Harry swallowed, eyes drifting to her red hair in a daze.

Before he could say anything, however, Schmidt and Winston's obnoxiously loud voices were shrill above the sounds of the waves crashing ahead of them.

"Of all places for a prank!" Clearly, Schmidt's ability to let things go was about as weak as Ginny's right hook. "Why did you decide to take us here in the end?"

"As in, why the East Coast and not a beach in a whole other expensive ass country? Damn, now that would have been a better prank."

Four legs reached out to kick sand in Winston's face, Ferguson following with a screech.

"But to be honest, I couldn't wait to see what the sunset looks like on the other side of the country."

Pause.

"Winston! We are on the East Coast! The sun falls west at night time! Look at where the sun is now," Schmidt gestured aggressively behind him, where towering beach homes covered the view. "You can't see the freakin' sunset on this beach, man!"

"Aw, damn, my bad."

"How are you actually one of the more intelligent people I know in my life?!"

If there was one thing she and Schmidt shared, Ginny concluded, it was their inability to handle rage.

Her eyes flitted to Jess, who was trying to catch her attention.

Ginny chuckled, holding up a hand to let her loftmate know to wait there when she saw her smiling knowingly towards her and Harry. She watched as Jess's eyebrows waggled dramatically, stuffing her index finger through a hole she made with her other hand in repetition as she chomped down on her lip.

Completely unfazed by her loftmate's quirks at that point, Ginny turned to Harry again.

"If we can't do that sunset, I suppose I'll have to make plans for a sunrise tomorrow before we head back to LA, then. Join me?"

His answering smile could make a grain of sand feel alive.

She had the strangest feeling that the sound she could have sworn she heard a while ago was ringing faintly in her ear once more.

This time, she thought she heard boisterous whoops instead, clapping cheerfully as Ginny smiled one last time to Harry before finally walking toward her friends.

…

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[yandereplumsim]

Ophelia Nigmos (all !)

Nonnie is trying to finish what the vaccine started... Aka kill me.

❤️: OTP

Johnny Smith. They're so cute together, I can't break them apart. I once tried to have the JRO three way relationship, but it wasn't really working for me.

💔: No OTP

Ripp. I'm sorry but after that experience I really can't ship Ripp and Ophelia, at least not on my game, I still enjoy it on others, but is a pass for me.

🌈: Sexuality

Straight. I have never found a ship for her with a girl that (or outside Johnny and Ripp) called my attention.

😊: Friends

Beside her friendship turned into love with Johnny, she is good friends with Ripp, she almost sees him as her younger brother.

💀: Enemies or Rival

Pita Florica (The Sims 2 psp) , I brought her to Strangetown just for this. Thru Pita dislikes her more than what Ophelia dislikes her.

She doesn't like Tank.

🌷: Flowers or plants they like

Ophelia loves plants, specially cactus and their flowers because they're colorful and bright and they give her strength. She loves going to Johnny's house because of his green garden. But the one plant that own her heart is her little cow plant that she has started growing recently ❤️

☀️: Favourite Season

Spring time, is not too hot as summer, and is the perfect time to practice gardening.

🌧️: Favourite Weather

Raining. In the desert it doesn't rain as often as she would like, but after the rain the desert blooms in colors.

🕯️: Favourite Aromatic candle

Lavender and Jasmine. As I mentioned earlier, Lavender helps with anxiety and Insomnia, while Jasmine is found to be anticeptic and sedative. All things that Ophelia needs. Beside Jasmine is a night Blooming flower so.. . Fitting.

🥘: Favourite Food:

Ophelia on my game is a vegetarian, which makes sense, as is a healthier diet... And it has an irony with her meat eating Cowplant. Favourite dish might be vegetarian chili with meat or Shawarma.

☕: Favourite Drink

As a get go Green Tea. Chai Latte at the coffee shop... But most importantly, Ophelia makes sure to drink 2 lts of water every day, not from the tap.

🍦: Ice-cream Flavour

Don't ask me why, I just know that is pistaches... Like I can feel it in my bones.

🍕: Pizza Topping

Garlic. She prefers Gaelic bread over pizza actually, but if it's pizza she will add some dried Garlic over it.

🍟: Snack

Cookies. Something that she picked up from living with her Aunt Olive.

🍿: Movies they like to watch

Hollywood Golden age movies... Because they're the only ones that the Strangetown Car Cinema would show.

📺: TV Show they like to watch

Medical series like Gray's anatomy and Doctor House (I need Simlish versions of these) but only the early seasons. The gardening Chanel.

🎵: Music they listen to

90s/2000s Alternative Rock

⚽: Sport they like or play

Walking from the house to school and back is enough exercise for her. She used to swim when she was little, but not anymore.

📚: Books they like to read

The Medical enciclopedy, the vademecum and some Herbal journals that aunt olive owned. She might read some old short sci-fi romantic book if found appealing.

🕹️: Video Games they like or Play

Whatever videogane is working at the Strangetown arcade that week.

🎻: Musical instrument

She knows how to play the organ and was the person in charge of playing the piano during the Strangetown High School events. Ripp has been begging her to form a band ever since.

🎨: Favourite Colour

Lavender, indigo, burgundy & black

👠: Shoes they like

Sandals, convers & docs

👕: Clothing style

As a teen I would say late 90s early 2000s grunge, with ripped baggy jeans, t-shirts, cardigans and slip dresses. As a young adult her fashion is mutating more into the Gothic boho style.

👜: What's always on their bag

Gel Alcohol and desifectant. She carries a little farmacy on her bag. (all Around the sims Cold misery set)

📰: Section of the Newspaper they read

The Gardening section.

💻: Website they visit the most

Google search, looking up possible symptoms. YouTube "top 10 medical conditions" videos or Gardening Tutorials.

📱: Social media they use the most

Instagram, because of Ripp.

📗: Favourite School Subject

Biology and Natural science classes were her favorites during high school.

📕: Less Favourite School Subject

The P. E. class, no Metter how many (fake) doctor recipes she presented, the teacher refused to acnowlage her medical conditions and forced to take part on classes.

🎓: University they attended (or not)

La Fiesta Tech.

🎒: University Major

I'm on the fence between Biology and Paranormal... But definitely leading toward Biology as I want to put her on the Natural Science career later on.

🔮: Something Random

She's witch.