#Can’t believe Disney forgot about him again

[delicate-moon-princess]

that last ask has me thinking about soft daddy Henry who cares so much about your mental health. I have adhd (not bad but it’s there) and I really struggle with depression and anxiety in the wrong environment. I can just see daddy!Henry mode activated if you went to a party you didn’t know would be so loud and chaotic. He has you lean against a corner and breathe in sync with him, uses his charm to find a perfect excuse to leave. You’re all “I’ll be okay, we don’t have to go,” and he just gives you that daddy look like he can’t believe you would downplay your needs like that, and he low (high) key wants to spank you for it. And then he cuddles you all night long. But then if you get depressed (maybe you’re PMSing, maybe someone said something that triggered a bad thought cycle), he runs you a bubble bath and pours you a glass of wine and rubs your shoulders and snuggles you through your favorite Disney movie. And goodness help them, if someone did say something negative to you, but he would spend the night making you fall apart on his fingers and tongue until you forgot all about that silly person 🤭

(Henry is a big protective bear in this one, so a gif of Walter had to be used obviously.)

 Overwhelmed

A party gets out of hand when some harsh words are thrown around. Henry is there to pick up the pieces, but it’s not always so easy healing your broken mind. (Based on this original ask)

Warning: 18+ smutty content, RPF, minor alcohol consumption, bullying, minor violence, bad thoughts and self image, mental health issues, panic attacks, comfort, daddy kink (not exactly dd/lg, but could have undertones), oral (f receiving), Henry being a gentleman and expecting nothing in return 🤭, multiple orgasms

5.1k words

Any typos are my own

******

This was supposed to be a small get together. That’s what you were told. A plan for a few friends to gather for a couple drinks at home. Maybe you would play some board games.

But a few people quickly turned into loads. And a couple drinks was soon an incessant river of alcohol. Now you found yourself stuck in the middle of a jumping house party.

At least thirty sweaty bodies were packed into the mediocre sized home. And new faces seemed to be showing up every minute. And the only person you knew in this place, Henry, had left to go get you some water when he saw you start to panic. 

This definitely wasn’t your kind of crowd.

Miraculously, he had found a quiet corner for you to wait in. So that is where you waited for him, as patiently as you could. You did your best to remain calm as the loud music thudded in the other room. The vibrations rattled your throbbing head. You leaned against the wall in the empty hallway, sighing.

Why did social gatherings like this overwhelm you? It always seemed like a good idea in theory. A place to meet with people, an opportunity to make new friends. But your imbalanced brain had a way of ruining things. You could never enjoy yourself. And you were sure you weren’t a joy to be around when you got overstimulated like this.

Wait for Henry, you told yourself. Don’t get too worked up. He will be back soon.

You heard footsteps approaching, so you lifted your head with a weak smile. You were expecting him to return, and all would be well again. Only it wasn’t him. Instead it was the host of the party, the one who told you it was a small gathering.

Jake. A friend of Henry’s. One that always gave you bad vibes. You bit your tongue with your bad feelings about him. If your man liked him, so should you. You were being paranoid. As always.

“Hi, Jake.” You wiped the anxious sweat from your brow, offering him a polite smile. “Quite the party.”

“What are you doing here? I thought you left already.” His voice seemed to be laced with distaste, but you figured you were imagining it. 

“I’m waiting for Henry. He left to get us some water.” You explained, wiping your damp palms on your thighs.

“Your little errand boy, right?”

“H-Huh?” You uttered in confusion. Errand boy?

“You’ve got him wrapped around your finger, don’t you? You say jump and he says how high.” He spat, crossing his arms

“Jake, I’m not-” Perhaps you were about to stick up for yourself, but he cut you off again so the words died in your throat.

“He can’t seem to go anywhere without you tagging along. Asking him for a guys night is like pulling teeth. Always spending time with the old ball and chain. You’re nagging him 24/7, aren’t you?” He scoffed.

“No, I…” You trailed off, thinking long and hard. Did you nag him?

Jake gave you hardly any time to think before spurting out more insults.

“Y’know I never could see what he saw in you. No one can. The man can get anyone. Everyone knows that. So why does he go and pick a ugly slag like you?” He jabbed, and you felt your eyes prick.

Your chest tightened. That was a question you asked yourself everyday. Everytime you woke up next to Henry. When he greeted you with a kiss and a smile. A beautiful way to start the day. But deep down it made you feel vulnerable. 

What did you do to deserve him? Nothing. Nothing at all. You were nobody. A nobody with a broken mind. 

“Why don’t you leave so the man can actually have some fun for once?” He was right. 

You blinked and didn’t say anything. You took his advice though, wobbling away as your heart began to beat quicker. You had to get out of here. The front door never seemed so far away.

You could already feel yourself spiraling as you rounded the corner to the living room. It was packed and loud. More people shuffled into your sight range. With each new face, it felt harder to breathe. You were suffocated.

You inhaled shakily, stumbling a little. You collided with a hard body, and as you were about to whip around a pair of hands cupped your shoulders. You tried to turn and apologize, but the person spoke.

“Darling? Are you alright?” Henry. You looked at him, taking in his features. He was here to protect you. But why weren’t you able to calm down? 

His lips were moving, though you couldn’t hear him. Everything was muffled. The people, the music, his voice. It all sounded far away. Like you were underwater. 

Your breathing was labored, your brain dissociating when the panic almost overtook you. The only way you were going to survive this was by detaching your mind from your body.

You felt yourself being moved. His solid presence was behind you, holding you by your shoulders. Your attention was focused on the floor. Pairs of shuffling shoes invaded your vision as he guided you through the crowd.

The fresh air entered your lungs when he got you outside. Cool and refreshing, unlike the stuffy hot air inside the house. Your hands shook as you reached up to hold your face, hiccuping when you were forced back to reality.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay, I’m here. You’re safe, I promise.” His hand gently laid on your back, not crowding you.

“Breathe, baby. Breathe in against my hand here.” He placed his other palm on your stomach, a gentle reminder to breathe in through your diaphragm.

You closed your eyes, inhaling as you concentrated on not panicking. Your breathing was shaky but it did wonders to calm you. His soft voice rang in your ears, praising you.

“There she is, good girl. I knew you could do it, I knew you could work yourself down.” He murmured. 

He stroked your moist cheek, pushing your hair away from your sweaty forehead. You leaned into his touch, your rapid heart slowing.

“Darling, what happened in there?” His face showed his worry.

“I… I got a little overwhelmed. That’s all.” You murmured while glancing down at the ground. He didn’t need to know about your encounter with Jake.

He rubbed the base of your neck sympathetically. He could tell there was more. Something was bothering you.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t realize it would be so crowded.” He kissed your temple as he apologized.

“It’s alright. Neither of us could have known Jake would invite everyone he knew.” You gave him a weak smile, shaking your head.

You thought you kept your tone even while speaking about that wretched man. Henry caught it. He didn’t let his surprise be known. He was confused by your sudden annoyance towards Jake, who you tolerated before.

“Let’s go home, princess. I think we’ve had enough fun for one night.” He took your hand, kissing your knuckles while giving you a dazzling smile.

You frowned, disappointed in yourself for not being able to handle a simple house party. He had seemed really excited about this get together. Even as more people showed up, he kept his smile and light heartedness. That was until your mood had dropped.

Jake was right. Henry couldn’t have fun with you around. You ruin everything. Quickly, you had to fix this.   

“No, no- I’m okay. I-I only needed a breather.” You shook your head frantically, swallowing. You grimaced when you realized how dry your throat was.

His expression dropped slightly, resembling a scold. He held the water out to you after opening it, silently urging you to drink. You took the bottle sheepishly, sipping from it slowly. 

“We’re not staying here anymore. We need to go home and decompress. Both of us.” He sighed when you pouted, softening his features as he rubbed your shoulders. He leaned in, kissing between your brows as you furrowed them.

“I really need to snuggle my favorite girl right now, okay? We can have a nice bubble bath. I’ll wash you up then maybe we can watch a movie after I get you into some warm pajamas.” He leveled with you, cupping your cheek.

“Okay...” You smiled weakly. Cuddling with him sounded better than anything. 

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” He started to turn towards the car.

“Hey, you two!” A voice called out from behind you, a familiar one that made you both freeze. For different reasons.

Henry spun around first, a grin on his face as he greeted his friend. They embraced in a hug as you turned slowly, trying to keep a polite smile. You hoped Jake would just let you two go without any snide comment.

The man in question spared you a glance as Henry patted his shoulder. 

“Hey, man. This has been quite the party. Y/N and I had a great time.” 

“Really? You’re leaving so soon.” Jake questioned, his brow raising in suspicion.

“Oh, I’ve got an early meeting in the morning. My manager contacted me with some stuff about emergency re-shoots. You know how it goes, man.” He quickly came up with a solid excuse, smooth as ever.

“Yeah, I know how it goes. It’s whatever the lady says right, pal?” Jake took a hearty swig of his beer, staring your man in the eye as his face dropped. You shifted on your feet, looking down in shame.

 “Sorry?” 

“Tell me, does she carry your balls around in her purse? Because you seem to have lost your pair.” He bit out viciously, the liquid courage burning in his chest.

“What did you just say?” Henry reared up, taking one long stride to get right in the other man’s face. 

His brows were pinched angrily. Jake’s eyes widened in the slightest, but the alcohol in his system was making him braver. He didn’t back down.

“You heard me. Ever since she’s been tagging along, you’ve turned into an utter bore. Must be some good pussy, because it seems to have sucked the life out of you.” He spit.

The anger that flashed on your boyfriend’s face was bone-chilling. In the blink of an eye, he had the smaller man’s collar clenched in his fists. Yanking him upwards, Henry shook him while growling.

“Do you think the fact that you’re hammered is going to keep me from punching your teeth in? I’m going to make you regret disrespecting her.” He growled dangerously.

You finally came to your senses when you saw him pull his fist backwards. Jake flinched. Thankfully you were able to stop your boyfriend before his knuckles were to connect with the drunk’s jaw.

“Don’t.” You gasped softly, catching his gaze while holding his arm in both of your hands. His eye twitched as his fist clenched tighter. You felt the tendons in his forearm jerk. You squeezed reassuringly.

You shook your head silently, a wordless plea for him to not escalate this. Punching him would only make things worse. Jake wasn’t worth it.

The anger dissipated from his face as he gazed at you. He lowered his fist, while his other hand on Jake’s collar loosened. Henry was about to let him go completely, until Jake scoffed under his breath.

“Pfft. Pussy-whipped.”

The actor’s face twisted once more. You sighed, cursing the hammered bastard mentally. He wasn’t making this any easier. You could tell Henry was still itching to beat him mercilessly. Said man grunted, your hand falling from his arm as he gripped Jake’s collar once more.

The large man lifted the smaller one off the ground. At least three feet upwards before tossing him on the grass in the front yard. You grimaced as he fell on his back in a heavy heap. Luckily Henry chose to drop him in the grass, as opposed to the pavement. 

You could see Jake’s ego wounded immediately, and you would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious. You crossed your arms, holding in a sigh as Henry bent down to talk to him.

“Don’t bother trying to apologize tomorrow when you sober up. Or else I’ll be forced to come back here and finish what I started.” He stood up, glaring at him for one last moment before he turned to you.

“Let’s go.” He whispered, walking behind you as he led you to the car. He kept you from even sparing at glance at Jake.  

You were silent as he got you in the car, looking down at your lap as he got in the driver's seat. He looked at you, you could feel his stare burning into you. Shame kept you from looking at him.

“Darling… Did Jake say something to you earlier?” He finally broke the silence. 

You opened your mouth, before closing it with a nod. Tears welled up as you recalled his hurtful words. From earlier in the night, and from now.

“What did he say to you?” He prodded.

You finally looked at him, and his jaw ticked when he saw your puffy eyes. Right then, he felt like going back and beating that idiot to a pulp for making his baby girl cry.  Your sniffles broke his heart.

“I-I don’t… I don’t want to talk about it.” You hiccuped, shaking your head. 

“Is that what got you so upset?” His voice was soft, almost broken with guilt. He should have never left you alone. 

You shrugged, Jake’s badgering surely didn’t help your already overstimulated mind. Henry bit his lip as he was forced to push away his anger to comfort you. He stroked your hair, rubbing your shoulder.

“Baby..” He trailed off, being interrupted by you.

“I just want to go home. And take that bubble bath you promised.” You begged, causing him to sigh and let it go for now. He gave you a smile.

“Of course, sweetheart. Let's go home.” He kissed your cheek before pulling away, turning the car on and driving.

Your eyelids were heavy, your head resting on your hand. You let them close for the rest of the car ride home. Your silence was making him want to squirm, but he did his best to not show his displeasure. It killed him to see you so upset.

When he parked he was sure you had fallen asleep, but you surprised him by lifting your head. He turned the car off, reaching to cup your cheek.

“Are you okay, my baby girl?” He searched your face for any more signs of tears. He saw only the dried streaks from earlier. 

You gave him a weak smile, and it did little to mend his broken heart. He matched your smile though, stroking your hair away from your face as you leaned into his hand.

“I’m okay. I promise.” Your voice was softer, smaller.

He leaned forward to kiss you, and you kissed back half heartedly. Henry pulled away, knowing you were still trying to put on a brave face for him.

His brave girl. You didn’t always have to be strong. That’s what he was here for. He wasn’t going to push you. You would talk to him eventually. You always did. 

“Let’s get inside, pumpkin.” He kissed your knuckles before getting out of the car. Of course he opened your door and helped you out.

You held his hand as he led you inside. He knelt in front of you once he closed the door, working on taking your heels off for you.

“You look so beautiful tonight… I still can’t believe you gave a man like me even a chance.” He murmured the last part to himself, rubbing your ankles when your shoes were gone.

You couldn’t quell the quiver of your lip. You’re the one who didn’t deserve him. Not in the slightest. Jake was right. What does a man like him see in a woman like you?

You masked with a smile, stroking his hair as he kissed your clothed hips. He watched you carefully, still on his knees in front of you.

“What do I have to do for you to see how perfect you are?” He whispered as he nuzzled your stomach, squeezing you close.

You hiccuped quietly. Your fingers weaved into his hair, feeling his silky curls between your digits. The sensation calmed you a little.

Soon, his warmth pulled away and when you opened your eyes again, he was standing. He cupped your cheek, his thumb rubbing your flesh.

“I promised you a bubble bath. Come on, sweetheart.” He bent down to kiss your nose. You smiled lightly. 

You both went into the master bathroom, where you sat on the closed toilet lid. He turned to mess with the knobs on the large tub. The water filled the basin, then he added bubbles. 

You took a deep breath, the soft smell of vanilla and brown sugar filled your nostrils. The scent caused you to relax, the sound of the water lulling you into a calm state.

Henry stood up, helping you stand and start to undress. His fingers unzipped your dress, letting it fall off your body and pool at your feet on the tile floor. You shivered when his digits trailed over your form. They hooked on your panties and pulled them down your legs.

He helped you into the tub, and you let out a sigh as you sunk into the warm, scented water. The bubbles covered your chest, and you let yourself rest for a second. He stroked your hair, an added comfort to the warm bath.

“How does that feel, darling?” He spoke softly, his hands disappearing. You heard liquid being poured into a glass.

The sneaky devil had snagged a bottle of your favorite wine before coming up here. He was pouring it into the stemmed glass. Somehow you hadn’t noticed he grabbed it. He glanced back at you with a smirk. How did he know exactly what you needed?

“It feels perfect.” You whispered, in awe of this man. He handed you the wine, and you took a smooth sip. You hummed.

Well, it was almost perfect. There was one thing missing.

“Come in with me?” You blinked up at him, your hand wrapped around his wrist when he went to sit beside the tub.

He melted, nodding his head instantly. Anything you wanted, he would not hesitate to give to you. And anything he couldn’t do, it killed him that he wasn’t able to fulfill your every need. Thankfully, this was a simple request. He began to undress as you set the glass aside.

You watched him unashamed. This beautiful man was yours. All yours. You felt your heart begin to swell. As it always did when you thought about the fact that you were his and he was yours.

How did something like that happen to someone like you? It was unbelievable.

You scooted forward as he lowered himself in. He dragged you back into his chest after he was seated, making you relax in his embrace. He began to wash you, his breath ghosting over your shoulder as he kissed it.

“It kills me seeing you so upset.” Henry finally spoke after a lull of comfortable silence.

You pouted, feeling guilty about worrying him. Before you could open your mouth to apologize, he cut you off.

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry.” He turned your head, looking at you seriously. “None of this is your fault.”

You closed your mouth, swallowing your apology as he stroked your cheek. He sighed to himself as he traced your lower lip with his thumb.

“It took every ounce of my self control not to beat him to a bloody pulp for disrespecting you.” His voice was flat.

The protective tone he held made your heart skip a beat, and a tingle to grow between your legs. A smile ghosted your lips, your hand coming up to cup his face.

“I know. I’m starting to think I should have let you.” You cracked a smile. A real one.

“I would have. All you have to do is ask.” He turned to kiss your palm. You laid your head on his shoulder, his arms around you making you feel safe. 

“I know you would.” 

Your words had the whisper of sadness. He was perfect. Too perfect for you. There must be a catch. Henry kissed the top of your head, squeezing you gently.

“Do you want to talk about what he said to you?” He murmured, dragging the washcloth down your arms.

You sighed, his touch easing you enough to talk about it. You tell him your encounter with Jake, from the very beginning. Tears burned in your eyes as you retold the story, but they didn’t fall as you repeated his hateful words.

“He said you were too good for me. And no one understands what you see in me.” You looked at him, blinking away your tears. You don’t tell him the harsher words Jake uttered to you. No reason for him to get angry again.

“And you believed him.” It wasn’t a question. He could tell by your expression that the drunk’s words resonated deep within you. 

You shrugged. He kissed the back of your neck, breathing in your scent. He sighed, his nose pressed against your skin.

“I wish I had the words to change your mind, my love. I don’t like the way you view yourself. While you think I’m too good for you, I believe in the opposite. It is you who is too good for me.

Every morning when I wake up next to you, I always ask myself one thing. ‘What did a fool like me do to deserve such an amazing, beautiful woman?’. I still don’t have an answer.”

He kissed the side of your face, his lips next to your ear. You shivered, hanging onto every word as his hands rubbed your sides.

“But I try not to dwell on it. Because every moment I spend with you is a gift. And I much rather enjoy it and then spend our time together stressing.”

You nuzzled him as he squeezed you. You sniffled, his words calming your woeful heart. You pressed your lips to his cheek, whispering against his skin. 

“Thank you, Henry. You always know how to fix things.”

“Anything for my precious girl. Anymore wine, sweetheart?” He offered you the almost empty glass. You shook your head, gesturing for him to finish it.

He winked at you and tossed it back. You watched as his tongue came out to lick the rest off his lips. Your mouth watered. His taste was intoxicating by itself, mixed with the sweet wine it had to be heavenly.

 You decided not to wonder any longer, pressing your lips to his. He hummed, deepening the kiss as he stroked your tongue with his. You gasped into his mouth when you felt his half hard cock twitch against your spine.

He grunted, smirking as he nipped at your lower lip. He squeezed your hips, pulling away. His nose brushed against yours.

“Let’s get out and dry off, shall we? Get into some warm pajamas and then you can pick a movie to watch.”

You grinned as you started to brainstorm about which movie you were going to pick. You were off in your own world as he helped you out of the tub. He quickly dried himself. Then gently patted your body dry with a fresh towel.

You hummed a soft tune, a sign to Henry that you were starting to feel like yourself again. The material of the soft towel was making you relax. Your skin still smelled of vanilla, as did his. 

He kissed the top of your head after he was done, both of you still nude until he wrapped the towel around you. You kept stealing glances at his naked form. He smirked to himself.

“Go wait for me on the bed. I’ll pick out something comfortable for you to wear.” He pecked your lips, patting your side to urge you towards the bedroom.

You bit your lip and nodded, leaving him in the bathroom. You made sure you weren’t dripping any water before sitting on the edge of the bed. You grabbed the remote, browsing for something to watch.

Henry entered, fully clothed now as he held a pair of clothes for you in one hand. In the other, a bottle of lotion.

“I’ll get you dressed, but first-lotion.” He knew your routine.

You smiled at him, watching him massage the lotion into your shoulders and arms. He lowered the towel to get your back as he sat behind you. Your eyes were closed, listening to his breathing as he lathered you up.

His large hands spread over your chest. He weighed your breasts in his palms as his thumbs lightly grazed your nipples. You moaned softly, leaning into him. His lips touched your ear, kissing his way down your neck and shoulder.

“Lay back sweet girl.” 

You did so, gazing up at him as he stood at the end of the bed. He gathered some more lotion, rubbing into your feet. You groaned in delight when he massaged your aching soles. The sensation made you melt.

You felt his lips on the sensitive skin on your foot, gently kissing your heel, and each of your toes. He gave the other foot the same attention. His fingers creeped up your legs till he was squeezing your thighs. 

Your legs spread instinctively, presenting your core to him. His eyes became half lidded as a pleased growl tumbled from his lips.

“So beautiful. Every inch of you, darling. There’s not a part of you I don’t love.” He tugged you up on the bed, lowering himself down on his stomach between your legs.

Your breath shook when you felt his mouth against the inside of your thighs. He peppered kisses along your skin as he lifted his hands. You gasped as his fingers bumped your clit. 

“Please, Daddy.” You needed more, squirming in front of him as he teased you.

“Shh, baby girl. Daddys got you. You don’t have to beg. I’m gonna taste this perfect cunt either way.” His breath hit your center as he leaned closer, covering your slit with his mouth as soon as he ended his sentence.

His tongue was hot as it weaved between your lips, seeking out the bundle of nerves hiding. His wet appendage swirled the bead once, twice, before he puckered his lips around it. Henry suckled gently, his large hands holding your thighs apart.

You arched your back and moaned, the stimulation making your gut tighten. You reached down to hold onto his hair, tugging lightly when he gave your clit another suck. You couldn’t help it

He didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, moaning against your flower as you held onto his curls. He gazed up at you, admiring the look of pleasure on your face. His tongue explored further down, dipping into your leaking hole

You bucked against his mouth, panting as your heart started to thud quickly. Incoherent groans left your mouth as you wiggled on the bed. He held you in place, snarling as he increased the pace of his tongue and lips. You tensed.

He pulled the orgasm from you with skill, your body rolling. Moans of wanton pleasure escaped you, falling apart from his lips. Your skin didn’t stop tingling until he finally pulled away.   

You panted and opened your eyes when his mouth disappeared. His lips and chin were shiny, his smirk large as you got bashful at the sight of him.

“Mmm, you taste delicious. As always. Wish I could eat you all day.” He growled, one of his hands going back to your pussy. Your jaw dropped open as he traced your puffy slit.

You inhaled as he sunk a finger into you, your hole closed around it eagerly as you clenched down. He moaned under his breath, his gaze attached to the way your body swallowed his digit inside. 

“So tight, baby girl. It feels so nice to just relax and let Daddy make you feel good, doesn’t it? I love seeing you squirm. I want you to cum again. Can you do that for Daddy, beautiful?”  

You nodded quickly. He added a second finger, almost like he knew you needed it. You concentrated on the feeling of his fingertips rubbing against your convulsing walls. He found your special spot with no problem, growling when you let out a cry.

“There you go, good girl.” He grunted, shaking his fingers inside you. You squealed, and Henry moaned at the sound. “Cum for me, princess. Cum for daddy.”

He toyed with your g-spot, his lips finding your nub again. The sensations all blended together, and soon you lost yourself in another orgasm. You sobbed, gripping his head between your thighs and you arched off the bed.

He gulped down all that you gave, rutting his fingers into you to pull you through the tendrils of euphoria. Your body relaxed as your orgasm subsided. He finally pulled away with one last lingering lick of your cunt.

“Are you still with me, gorgeous?” He chuckled when you hummed and nodded lazily. “Did you decide on a movie to watch?”

You pouted silently as you glanced down at his groin. He was obviously aroused, yet wasn’t expecting you to return the favor. You wanted to take care of him. Your hand rested on his thigh. He chuckled, lifting your hand to kiss it. 

“That’s nothing for you to worry about right now, darling. You need to rest. Now, have you decided on a movie?” He questioned you again.

“Lilo and Stitch.” You murmured as he stood up, your gaze following him.

“Lilo and Stitch it is then.” He grinned leaning over you to peck your lips. You could taste a hint of your own essence on his tongue.

Henry dressed you in the warm pajamas he picked out of you beforehand. You sighed in content, smiling up at him as he switched on the movie. He smiled back at you, scooting onto the bed and pulling you close. You snuggled him, your face in his chest.

“I love you, Darling. Don’t ever forget that. No matter how bad your thoughts might get, I want you to remember how much I love you. You mean everything to me.” His voice vibrated in his chest, and you lifted your head to fixate on him.

“I love you, Henry. You’re my everything. I don’t think I could live without you.” You whispered, your eyes locked.

“Good thing you won’t have to. You’re stuck with me, I’m afraid.” He smiled, kissing you with a pleasant hum. You giggled.

“Now let’s watch ‘Lilo and Stitch’. Who’s the little blue guy again?”

******

A/N: Slowly chipping away at my inbox. Thank you for your patience as I slowly complete your requests. I apologize to anyone who has been waiting for months. Some things in my personal life have affected my mental health negatively, and I haven't been writing as much. Recently I've been easing my way back into writing, and I want to start being more active on here. I love you all, I feel like I don't tell you that enough. I’m sorry when I go MIA 😭❤️

Taglist: @sunshine-with-daisy @leigh70 @islacharlotte @lysarria @kebabgirl67 @pandaxnienke @identity2212 @rach2602

[lemonbitrambles]

Here’s the wonderland residents! (Most of them, I shift characters around a lot and I forgot the puppy, who’s just a big dog from the original 1939 draft)

Each characters design is based off one or two iterations, some of which are pretty weird (except Ella I’ll explain Ella-) but the entire concept of this series(??) is a bit weird . Info on characters under cut

Before we start, depending on which path Mickey follows, wonderland will either take on the personality and look of David halls 1939 draft (scary, beautiful but scary) or Mary Blair’s concepts. Certain characters will or won’t show up either

We’ll go in order

Anthropomorphic drink me bottle- from the original 1939 David hall draft. Was essentially replaced by the doorknob. Only character in the movie to be original and not come from the book.

Dinah- the scrapped concept of Dinah falling down with Alice and becoming the Cheshire Cat gained life in wasteland, and retains the more helpful guide side of the character from what was Mary Blair’s concept I believe. She plays a lot with the David hall vs Mary Blair aspect.

Mary Ann- also showed up in the David hall draft. Her design and personality I took from wonderland, a comic book series published by Disney and slave labor graphics

Jokerface- HAH OkAy SO THIS IS A BOSS FROM DISNEY MAGICAL WORLD 2- he a ghost that can impersonate others and when I replayed the game in 2019-ish I fell in love with him and he showed up again in the remake I’ll never play but people can’t seem to remember he has a name so he COuNTs. I’ve played with the idea he frames Mickey and plays as a mini boss in the “good” path

Griffon and mockturtle- these two made it into drafts from the 1940s. Some by David hall, one by Mary Blair, but more specifically ones depicting a scene where they dance with Alice and lobsters (can’t find the artist at the time). Their design are a mix of that specific draft, and my favorite, their jello commercial. Where they are fully animated in old Disney style with new designs and talk to Alice about how to entertain and feed guest at the same time with the wonderful power of jello.

Executioner- from the David hall draft. Design is from the Alice in wonderland dark ride in Disneyland because in the Draft he’s just a dude. He would be the boss in the “bad” path, trying to execute Mickey. He’s also the caretaker of the heartcards

Heartcards- from one specific piece of work by Mary Blair. They’re childish and innocent at heart. Only show up in the good path.

Ella- HeH, whoops okay. This is already a long post and Ella needs a lot of explaining because she’s not a wonderland character. That will probably be in a separate post. But just know her design is based of a butterfly and some David Hall drafts of the caterpillar

[flowersofstarlight]

Okay so, @themisfitmouse explained what McBasilRocks said and finding out about the Original storyline of Epic Mickey 2, and reposting what the original plot was, I was shocked by the fact that Prescott was supposed to die in the second game, which sounded dark and insane. The Mad Doctor was supposed to be possessed by the Shadow Blot as they transformed into some kind of a monstrous, abomination creature would be interesting. And the fact that Oswald was supposed to gain a heart of his own after he and Mickey defeated the Mad Doctor and the Blot sounds a lot better than the second game’s ending.

While I still love and enjoy Epic Mickey 2 as much as the first game, there are many things that I hated about and wish we could’ve gotten the original plot that @themisfitmouse said. Epic Mickey 2 would have been greater and I think it should’ve been a little darker, not too dark at least from the concept art for both games. It also made me question why they made The Mad Doctor sing the whole cutscene when he’s on screen.

The story in the second game is poorly put together, lacks consistency, and very predictable on who the villain is. It seems like there was no thought put into it and they only did it to get a younger audience, even though most people who played Epic Mickey weren’t little kids. I also feel like the Mad Doctor is kinda pathetic. I feel like him gone for good would be a better ending than in the game. I honestly didn’t care much about the Doctor, so I think the original plot would’ve been better.

I really hate what Disney did to Oswald in the second game. He went from a well developed character to one of Mickey’s dorky sidekicks. They really didn’t take him seriously and made him idiotic. Throughout the game he’s praising the Mad Doctor, saying that he trusts him and instantly believes he’s changed.

But they really made him not learn his lessons or forgot that the Mad Doctor BETRAY him and choose to side with the Blot in the first game. In the cutscene, when he and Mickey find out what The Mad Doctor was really planning, Oswald acted shocked and said “I can’t believe the Doc lie to me.” And I was like, “Dude! He literally betrayed you in the first game and destroyed the Mean Street while singing!” It really disappointed me and I’m sure the Oswald Fans would agree.

I really think they could’ve made Oswald a bit serious, smart, and not trusting the Mad Doctor easily even though he’s giving him a chance. They could’ve made Oswald not trusting him fully, and is suspicious what the Doctor’s up to, to keep in eye on him a little bit and trying to find secrets while Ortensia and Gus create a machine that can transport Mickey back to Wasteland to find out if the Mad Doctor is still a threat. But again, they really made it so predictable in the game, it was really obvious that the Mad Doctor is still evil and lied that he changed. And then Oswald’s only concern is that people aren’t paying any attention to him. Like what exactly did you think this was going to happen when you and Mickey are on an adventure to find clues?

And the other thing that annoys me is the Mad Doctor is the only one singing the whole cutscene while on screen. I really don’t understand why they made him sing instead of just talking like Mickey and the others. I don’t see the point of why singing is necessary. It would’ve been better if he didn’t sing.

While I never played the second game, I did hear that people complain about the gameplay, sidequests and puzzles. I heard that it was tedious, confusing, and too difficult to figure out. The bosses were easy but also tedious.

The only few things I like about Epic Mickey 2 is the animation, the voice acting, Oswald and Mickey’s friendship, and Gremlin Prescott. What I like about Prescott is his personality, his voice fits his character, he has a unique design compared to the other gremlins, and I found his motivation and becoming an enemy is well written and thought out well. In fact, I think he could’ve had redemption after helping Mickey and Oswald defeat The Mad Doctor by dismantling his machines in the final battle while Gus frees Ortensia and the others.

I feel like they could’ve wrote Prescott to be a sad, prideful and bitter character to redeeming himself by helping the duo by distracting the Mad Doctor in the final battle to give them the opportunity to defeat the Doctor. I imagined at first Prescott thinks he doesn’t deserve forgiveness and is accepting whatever punishment they’ll give him, but Mickey sees the good in him and gives him a second chance. Oswald and Gus agreed, and while both of them forgive him, he still needs to atone what he has done and fix the projectors, help rebuild the town, and other things that got damaged by the earthquake that the Mad Doctor caused to bring the Shadow Blot back to life. Prescott would be surprised and may never understand why or how Mickey and the others would forgive him and have faith in him after everything he has done working with the Mad Doctor.

But I also think he would have been a great surprise villain and that would have made him an even better villain than the Mad Doctor. He has the perfect motivation and was tired of feeling under appreciated by Gus and the other Gremlins and wants to prove that he’s better and more intelligent then them, which I think makes him a better villain.

So yeah. That’s all I want to talk about Epic Mickey 2. I’m really excited to see Epic Mickey: Rebrushed! The gameplay and animation looks great, they’re fixing the camera that people complain about in the original first game and I heard they’re adding new skills for the remake that might be for combat and puzzles, which sounds cool.

I’m also wondering if the cutscenes will still have 2D animation like in the original and have actual voice acting in the remake instead of just dialogue. If that’s not the case, then I guess it’s fine. Anyway, to those who are Epic Mickey fans or enjoyed the games, let me know what you think in the comments or reblog it, because I am curious what you’re excited about the Epic Mickey remake and my thoughts about Epic Mickey 2.

[thegreatstupidity]

How I got out of QAnon and more

I was 10 when the presidential election of 2016 happened, first time I thought about politics. Up till that point I had only thought that politics was about tax’s and how would it effect us going on vacation or Disneyland. Before I knew that I was bisexual, before I knew I was gender-fluid. There was Trump.

. . .

I was told this man would make American great again. I believed it, because I had no reference to say if this was true or not. I believed my mom because I thought she hadn’t lied to me before. What’s funny was I booed trump at first because I wanted Obama to run again (I didn’t know that he couldn’t) then I was told that we wanted Trump in so I praised him like a dummy npc. (I would like to note that I’m high functioning autistic). Trump as we know had won the election. . . .

And things changed in that time. I could remember after trump won, my mom told me “when you get to college that to be careful of who you lay with because the liberals will say you raped them and will destroy your kids ability to have their own kids because they will be turned trans”. Now what she said was stupid and was idiotic but back then I was scared and would stay up all night to scared to sleep, scared that my life would be gone in a snap just like that. . . .

Now I feel stupid about that but what else was I post to think. I was moved to the right even more and more over those two years. And then my mom showed me this documentary which I believe it was called the 10 part cobalt or something I can’t remember what the full name was but it was like 3 hours of QANON/conspiracy junk that sounded believable to 12 year old me.

. . .

And again I believe it. It talked about pizza gate, pedos, why immigration was wrong or like it was all made up or photoshopped or something to that that effect, their thing about a Disney shop that said sweet and sexy kids or some shit like that (which I think that was photoshopped as well). It also went over pizza gate with Obama and Hillary Clinton having emails about how many kids they had and how they were going to use them for blood sacrifices or like sex slaves I think. I don’t exactly remember but it made me have goosebumps and shit. . . .

I believe in QANON until after a year after Jan 6 and I rewatched it and realizing that they were all trump supporters and I started my way to the left. Trying to figure out more of what happened before all of QAnon and such. I didn’t ask for help when getting out of qanon. I got out of it mostly by myself. . . .

What got me out all the way is when I started to watch Vaush. Which helped me truly get out of the far right. (I forgot to say that when I was in middle school I figured out that I was bi and I thought I could tell my mom, she freaked the fuck out and had a mental breakdown about it and I couldn’t do the pride event in my school). . . .

After getting out I thought I was non-binary then I realized that I was gender-fluid a year later. How I found out my Gender was not the same was when I fell deep in love with a trans man and I didn’t talk to for ever so far and I’m not in love with them no more since they have their own partner. I still live with my parents so I just got to wait to get to college.

[motownfiction]

smell of snow

On Christmas Day, Sam wakes up with the smell of snow stuck in his nose.

The forecast said there might be snow last night, but he wasn’t taking it very seriously. There was no snow last night, and all hope for a white Christmas seemed lost. As it turns out, while he and everyone else slept, the ghost of Bing Crosby was working his magic somewhere. There’s the perfect amount of Christmas snow outside … enough to look at through the window, illuminated by the gold lights on the Doyles’ Christmas tree, and know that everything will be OK from now on. Because it’s Christmas, and there is snow.

Sam’s not sure why he’s always been so fond of a white Christmas. He’s twenty-two years old, and he’s driven through too many bad Michigan winters to be impressed by the stuff anymore. It’s not like when he was a kid, and he used to believe that snow was made of glitter.

Or is it? Is it still just like that, and he feels like he can’t admit it? Now that he’s moved out of his parents’ house, he’s obsessed with what it means to be an adult. Do adults drink hot chocolate after a long, cold day in the winter, or do they find something else to keep warm? Do adults carve out special time in the evening to lie on the couch, stare at the ceiling, and dream about falling in love with the perfect person again? Do adults like Bomb Pops, or is that just him? When he was still a child, his mother always said he had the spirit of one … almost like it was a bad thing, almost like she forgot to remember that she still eats smiley face potatoes. Sam always admired his mother’s youthful energy … always wanted to figure out a way to preserve it for himself. But when she didn’t seem to appreciate it, he didn’t know what to do. He still doesn’t know what to do. Every second of his life is consumed with maturity, with propriety. He thinks about brown shoes, black coffee, and white gloves. At least, he thinks he should be thinking about white gloves. Do mature people wear white gloves? Or is that just butlers and Disney’s Cinderella?

Sadie tells him that he doesn’t need to worry so much about looking the part. That as his twin, she knew he was plenty grown up.

You have your own apartment, and you make rent on time, she said last night at Christmas Eve dinner, when Mom made another crack about Sam’s love for Christmas cartoons. You look out for other people when they need you. You’re a grown-up, Sam. Trust me.

Her words ring in his head as he opens the door of his childhood bedroom and walks into the living room. The snow is there, through the window, lit up by the Christmas tree. The stockings are slung on the back of the couch, which always makes Sam laugh. Get a load of the family without a fireplace. He notices his stocking, with a canister of Pringles and a glass bottle of Coca-Cola sticking out from the top, which makes him smile. And that’s when he realizes why he loves Christmas snow. It’s not about the snow.

It’s about Christmas.

It’s about the one day a year where no one expects him to feel sorry for having joy, for smiling, for singing and dancing past the age of six. It’s the one day a year when he can take his own advice: Don’t be embarrassed about whoever you are. Everybody’s obsessed with maturity until it’s Christmas. It’s like Halloween for grown men who like Cocoa Puffs.

Sam opens the door and takes in one more smell of snow. He grins.

Fresh.

This is his favorite day of the year, he thinks. This is the one day that will never do him wrong.

(part of @nosebleedclub january challenge -- day x! it’s barely still tuesday here, so i’m barely on time again)

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

More detailed thoughts on Watching and Dreaming

Despite the fact I've talked about how I've been numb. But considering the type of person I am along with other reasons. Including since I'll be seeing the Super Mario Bros movie tomorrow. It's likely best I write this to help well, ease out the sadness. Warning, the way I talk about some of this will be crude. I apologize if I sound rude in anyway. But again, I loved this finale. I'm more sad that the show is officially over. And I'm not one of those people that sticks with the "Don't be sad it's over, smile because it happened" or something. But alias, I'm just being weird.

I especially want to write this down because a marathon of the first 9 and 12th episode are playing on Disney XD as a marathon.

Spoilers ahead.

The animation on certain parts, they were amazing. Such as the final battle. Like, truly epic considering that this is the finale. All the lead up to so many things.

The little call backs to the first episode. Particularly the whole "NOW EAT THIS SUCKA!" like...people hoped that would happen. And I'm glad it did.

I actually appreciated that despite they couldn't stop him. The fact Raine was trying so hard to keep Belos away from the Titan's heart. Even with Belos commenting Raine is annoyingly, like...that speaks volumes.

In all seriousness, I genuinely liked that moment where the Collector TRIES to help Belos with the whole, "Kindness and forgiveness" but not because people were joking about Steven Universe. In fact, I get really annoyed by a bunch of dissing towards Steven Universe. Even if I'm not huge on the show these days. I loved that part but more so because...this kid was actually trying to help. But he legit didn't understand things were more complicated than that. Like, he thought he could try to make things better that way. It's sweet yet sad because oh my God. And then it leads into well...

Luz's death...listen...I forgot if this was a part that got me or so. But I understood that Luz would come back anyway...but oh my God. That's still a shocker because she technically died trying to protect the Collector. Who well, didn't understand certain shit and was basically you know, terrorizing the Boiling Isles in a sense. And seeing the reactions on the faces of Eda and King...oh my lord. Like, even after that. DAMN!

Also, I forgot to say, Belos going full blown fucking kaiju. That was a sight to see, like...I loved it.

Eda and King going fucking berserk and literally fighting Belos like, amazing. I swear, a weird comparison I want to make just seeing that I think back to Rampage (2018) with George vs Lizzie. But a better comparison would be if the original King Kong (18-24 ft) fought the original Godzilla (50 meters) but again, that's so weird. It was cool to see anyway.

Luz's...titan form I guess you can say. Being a mixture of Eda's owl/harpy form and the titan...that was beautiful. That was perfect as well.

I had to look this up because people have mentioned it, but I needed to be sure. .....Arin Hanson voiced King's dad..."Papatitan"...and he voiced the Snaggleback...I can't believe I didn't know the Snaggleback one. But THE LITERAL TITAN. But yeah...and I'm talking about this Arin Hanson. Game Grumps Moments: Arin Freaks Out About Sonic Glitch - YouTube That's...literally perfect. Oh man, I liked him.

You know, despite it's actually very fitting that Belos/Phillip dies in such a...humiliating way. And I get what they were trying to do. I'm surprised he didn't just decided to say actually more worse shit because he knew he was done for. Or say something horrible to Luz like, "Your father deserved to die" but he never knew about Luz's life/family. I get he was still trying to manipulate her, and he failed. I'm just going to miss this literal asshole of a monster. Because he's honestly one of my personal favorite villains. What a great villain. Yet were there people that actually expected him to be forgiven? Holy shit, that would've never happened or just... I think I'm so used to seeing villains die horribly.

I was surprised like...I heard there would be a "Time skip" but to see it actually happen...they actually did that. But in all seriousness. I'm just so glad to see all the characters grow up, living happily, and healing. Even the characters we don't see much of. That was genuinely beautiful. And how far many of the characters have come since the start of the show. Even with little instances like Vee, and major ones like...it was so lovely seeing that...if I'm guessing right or so...guessing the post credits scene takes place in the mid 2020's.

I question this, where are people getting the idea that, "Switching your earrings with your loved one is the Boiling Isles way of marrying someone" unless Dana says so. But that is legitimately cute. Yet...I want to hear a confirmation.

Considering all the complaints I saw by people who seemed to hate the show more than loving it. But I understand the criticisms. Gus finally got a new haircut, and what I've seen, people have ceased their "Bitching", but his new haircut really does look great. And again, I get the criticisms because other characters had different hairstyles.

The fact Luz is able to go back and forth into the demon realm, and just again, all the characters in better positions than they originally were before and just...it's beautiful.

The final "Byeeeee" that was great...that...is likely the last time we will see these characters in a long time.

There's a lot of good stuff concerning this finale. I really liked it. I haven't watched it fully again. And I had to look back at what the Collector actually said concerning the "Kindness and forgiveness" part...it's going to be kind of hard to...it ended on a good note. That's what matters. I'm going to miss this show. 

I forgot to mention I'm sad we didn't get one final flashback or something confirming Evelyn, the witch Belos mentioned was possibly related to the Clawthornes. But I feel like that can still be kind of confirmed. But that's a whole other topic. 

And concerning writing wise, the way the show ended. It still fits within whatever plans I have for whatever I want to write. Especially with this one ship I love, I'm just going to go full in with Johanna X Eda X Raine. Because while I'm a Joheda fan, I love Raine and Raeda too. I feel bad not putting Raine in there, and because I remembered the Calamity Trio today...I should try to do this. 

But yeah...great finale. Still sad it's over...yet the sadness will be over soon. I'm glad as a longtime fan of this show to witness its conclusion. I've been a fan since the first episode, yet there were fans when there were only some images of the show. But again, what a journey it's been.

Anyway, “A Lying Witch and a Warden” is on. Turns out and thought I heard it right, they’re gotta air every episode. Not just for today. That’s sweet.

[spooksverse-asks]

 “Get off my case I won’t say it”

“Boy don’t be proud, it’s okay, you’re in love”

=============================================================

Can’t believe I forgot to post this here, but here is the first official art post I did for 2023 a couple of weeks ago! Mainly wanted to draw the Small siblings again, and the song “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” from the Disney movie Hercules also made me think of these two a lot for some reason, so the idea for this piece came after I was watching the movie at the time of first working on it lol

This scenario for them mainly takes place a couple years prior to the current timeline, so they are about a sophomore in college and high school respectively here. His sophomore year was probably the worst one for Liam, since it is the year that both Shadow and Suzie started dating each other and Kyle dated his first boyfriend, so he felt lonely a lot of time. While he is/was happy for his friends and supportive of their love lives, he couldn't help feeling out of place amongst their friend group when they did all hang out together, as no matter how they made sure to include him he couldn't help but feel like the "fifth wheel" at times. Since he did not want those feelings to occur he often chose to spend his weekends at home instead, either studying or playing his video games. With Mai she usually tries to visit home every weekend when she can, where she mostly likes to spend time with her brother as they are quite close together and consider each other their favorite person. On one visit when she passes by her brother's room she can feel a bitter energy radiating from within, further confirmed when she decided to check in with him and could tell from the short and a bit snippy replies he gave back. Upon further investigation she found out that he was bummed about not being able to hang out with Kyle that weekend like was originally intended(as he forgot they were thinking about it when his boyfriend had last-minute date plans), prompting her to get the hint that her little brother may be a little jealous and have a bit of a crush on his best friend. When she asks him about it he of course denies that he does feel that way, but with her love-sensing abilities she knows what the truth is, and with her role as big sister she does like to playfully tease but also offer her encouraging support whenever the subject does come up again.

[thebestorworstofit]

:// disney really tried to keep me 3 different times tonight

• first I get stuck on a ride to literally no one ever gets stuck on - like how are you going to keep people stuck 10 feet before a stop just bc yallllll forgot to water up the train that literally runs off STEAM.

• then the cast member assigning people rows on runaway was supercalfragalosticly ignorant and kept trying to put me with bigger groups (like yes it seats 5, but there’s no reason to squeeze that many in / it’s usually grouped in no more than 4) and when i tried to explain that i’m autistic and get uncomfortable that confined and asked to sit with a smaller party she legit looked me in the eyes and said “it’s okay you can do it i believe in you” when i’ve NEVER had a CM have any problem with helping me out when i’m by myself or with a friend (i’m very nice it’s not like i’m demanding or loud about it) and because she made me so uncomfortable and unsettled, it like ruined the experience for me, so i asked another cast member to help me exit - he showed me where to go AND YET I LITERALLY GOT LOST TRYING TO FIND MY WAY OUT OF A CARTOON HALLWAY. ended up in a place not for me and had to wait like 15 minutes for someone to walk me out while i’m already visibly upset (shout out to paul who walked me out and over to roger rabbit where he sent me to the front of the line to make up for the experience i had / bc obviously i told him everything like a freaking baby)

• AND THEN I go to leave. I’ve done my shopping. I have my coffee. I have my treats. I did my thing I am a happy camper again. So I get this wild idea to throw away any trash in my car before i leave - but to my surprise when I got to my car my keys weren’t in my disney bag… my keys were not anywhere on my person. So naturally, I had a full-blown freaking meltdown, because by that point, the park was closed.  which made going back through security, onto the tram and back to the front of the park super fun.  and then because I couldn’t go back into the park. I got to explain my whole situation to a security guard i can’t remember the name of, and like god bless that man he had no idea what to do with me but thankfully, I am very loud and one of the leads by the gate. Heard me freaking out, pulled me aside and had me list the stores and places i went into where I remember having my keys and she walkied every single one of those places, after about 10 minutes, we get worried that someone found my keys, but they had just sent someone with them to lost and found which led to an absolute angel named Melissa tracking this person down, getting my keys and bringing them up to the front of the park while poor sweet sharon just listened to me like cry for almost an hour while we waited for a resolution.

I definitely wouldn’t say it was a bad disney evening but man it was a time…

now, you would think with all of that one of those might be my low points for the evening, but no… I am shocked to say the worst part of my evening was when a large woman who was arguing with her husband and her children came and sat on me. Technically next to me, but next to me by not enough because her silent it on the outside of my thigh, and her arm was touching me. When I looked at her and I said oh, excuse me - yaknow the universal signal for hey I’m fucking existing here you cow please get out of my personal space. I may not need 3 feet anymore but 3 inches wouldn’t fucking hurt…. She just looked at me and turned back to her conversation.

As someone who is only vertically 5 feet and a lil change, I am used to being bumped into, passed over, and stepped on, it happens. It’s okay… what’s not okay is that this is the second time in a month that someone has sat on me. I do not understand this selectively invisible super power, and I will tell you right now I do not like it.

It took almost 3 extra hours to get home with all of these banana pants obstacles and now it’s 4 am - and ofc i am wide awake when i have work 2-10 and a cannaevent from 4-11.

if anyone’s down to come punch me in the face just to knock me out, lemme know - i’ll drop a pin. 

[mygreatadventurehasbegun]

OK. I'm hoping that the changes are minor, but I just need to explain something:

“URSULA IS CLEARLY MANIPULATING ARIEL TO GIVE UP HER VOICE.”

That’s.

The. 

Point.

Ariel is young and naive...as well as being hopelessly in love with Eric and emotionally drained after her father destroyed all her things.

And Ursula takes advantage of all of that because she’s the villain (who has also been spying on Ariel, so she knows that Ariel is obsessed with anything human...and her falling for Eric was the perfect way in).

So, she throws on the sweetest disposition she can muster and goes to work.  Telling Ariel how much she understands and sympathizes with her problem...if only there was something she could do...(side note, when I played this role, the director kept trying to get me to be more obviously evil, which I would not do, because it makes Ariel look stupid as a result.  If Ursula is too mean and nasty, she’ll never get Ariel where she wants her, because anyone with an ounce of sense would just leave).  

And when she’s pulled Ariel into the fantasy of her becoming human and getting to live on the surface with Eric, she goes “oops, I forgot, you do need to pay me...and it’s nothing really...just your voice....you’ll never even miss it.”  And before Ariel can think about it too hard, she starts laying on “the truth” about what human men want: a quiet girl, who is demure and is basically just a pretty face.

And we, as the audience knows that that is wrong...once again, that’s the point.  We should be shouting at the screen for Ariel to not believe what Ursula is telling her...and not because Ariel is dumb, but because she is being manipulated.

But the temptation becomes too great for Ariel...the chance to experience life as a human, the chance to be with Eric forever...she can’t resist, and she signs the contract.

And the thing is...even though Eric and Ariel didn’t have their kiss before the end of the third day...Ursula still failed, because Eric still fell in love with Ariel.  Not because she was withdrawn, held her tongue and didn’t gossip.  Even without her voice, her personality still shone through, and he developed feelings for who she was...the only thing that was holding him back was the fact that he couldn’t get that mysterious voice out of his head.  But after his brief talk with Grimsby, (before Vanessa shows up*) it’s heavily implied that that he was going to go up to Ariel’s room and propose to her.  Because he loves her for who she is.  Yes, it’s a three-day romance and it’s “not realistic”, but let me remind you (and more specifically the people at Disney that keep making these changes) that it’s a fairy tale...realism and logic is not required for a fairy tale to work.

*And the reason Vanessa shows up at all is because Ursula could not conceive of the idea that Eric could fall in love with Ariel if she couldn’t talk.  And I personally think it’s because she thinks that there’s no way something like that could happen without some kind of manipulation...because she’s a manipulator herself.  She honestly thought that the only way a man could fall in love with a woman is if she sweet-talks him, plays to his ego, and flirts up a storm.  And Ariel didn’t need to do that, so Ursula had to take matters into her own tentacles.*

OK. 

This has turned into a much longer rant than I expected.

I’m hoping the changes to the song won’t be as major as I’m fearing they may be...but as a former Ursula (as well as a massive fan of the original movie...I was four when it came out, this was my Frozen), I’m annoyed that they feel these changes are necessary.  

We’ll see what happens.

howard ashman me and the girlies will avenge you !!!

[carrtoonfreak]

95 years of this rabbit

What an old man, Happy Birthday Oswald!

[accio-victuuri]

MY SDC 5 Episode 11 thoughts 💭

I can’t believe we’re down to the last episode before the finals. for all the excitement of yibo joining this season ( and my personal bias towards this show ), I feel like it went by too fast. So I just had to write down my favorite moments from tonight. It was excellent because, well, it was all battles. The heart & soul of this show will always be dance battles and how raw it is. Those moments really come across the screen especially to the audience, even if we’re not there physically.

SPOILERS AHEAD SO BEWARE. ❌

How can I make this without applauding the one & only - Sean. I swear. From Day 1, this kid got me. He did so well in all the survival battle rounds and I am so thankful for Poppin C cause he saved him to get through to the Finals. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

and I didn’t know they were familiar with each other, but since they both do popping, it makes sense. It’s so cuteee!

The part about them talking about their regrets and wishes was also cool cause it gave us an insight to their personal lives. I’m cackling at Zyko & Dykens writing down they wanna go to Disney Shanghai & Great Wall of China WITH HANGENG. It was a good move cause obvs, the good host that he is couldn’t possibly say no. I hope they all get to go on that trip. Lucas was again super cute talking about how his mom would comment on posts about him @ SDC. He clearly just wants his mom to be proud of him. 🥺

The past seasons had great personalities that you can’t help but love and at the beginning I thought SDC5 will not deliver. I was wrong. The combination of well known dancers and new generation brought out people that I grew attached to. I’m sad Yuki & Doudou were eliminated but they have a bright future ahead. ☀️

THE INITIAL BATTLES for a save. Zyko. That’s all. I don’t care and do not remember anything else but Zyko battling. How can someone be so creative and work well his team + be a beast in battles all at the same time? I am convinced he is some kind of a genius. I’be said it before but I’m happy that he came back.

( i mean look at that. and he owned the battles. completely. )

Tho my favorite part would have to be the 2nd round of “save” care of the Masters. All these amazing dancers? We had all of them last season? I can’t! This is why some people can’t help but compare S4 and S5 this line up reminded how amazing last season was. and the fact that yibo danced a lot.

AND OMG ROCHKA. I forgot how fun it is to watch him dance / battle! Look at the reactions of the dancers and you’ll know he’s got that vibe in him. Observe Kyoka, homegirl is feelin the moves!

AND FINALLY, the collab I didn’t know I needed was AC & SIWEN! Miss prim and proper with the Chaos that is AC. The performance was fun and sexy! Yibo definitely liked it — he said his thoughts about Siwen’s progress. It’s actually one of the things I like about Bobo as a mentor. You don’t have to the absolute best. You don’t have beat yourself up every day that you don’t get the number 1. You just have to be better than who you were yesterday. Progress is the most important.

I also felt for Siwen when she pretty much said she’s a loner and doesn’t get along with people. but joining SDC 5 changed that. It’s moments like this that make me think that humans aren’t trash. gives me hope. Lol.

AND UH— I definitely caught this moment. Bouboo whispering to Yibo like a schoolboy after Siwen’s performance. HAHAHAHA! and Yibo being the supportive friend. I remember that episode ( hotpot ) where Yibo was lowkey teasing him about Siwen. I can’t blame Bouboo, she is gorgeous!

THAT IS ALL. It was so much fun! I’m feeling the separation anxiety now but I gotta prep for the Finale. We know how exhausting that is. Looking forward to 10/29 🤍🤍🤍

P.S. Thank you to this season for giving us Shipper! Wang Yibo.

[popculturebuffet]

You Should In Fact Say Gay All The Damn Time Special : Fire and Ice/Father Figures (COTC and PF: LAP)

Hello you beautiful technicolor rainbow. I’m Jake, I review animation, comics and other media. And as you can tell by the title today’s reviews are a response to recent events over in the state that god and shirts forgot, florida. As you all likely know but i’ll repeat for any latecomers, a bill passed, dubbed by the public as the “don’t say gay” bill, a bill that prohibits education on LBGTQ+ topics from kindergarten to third grade and allows parents to sue the school if they don’t like what their teaching. In other words a barely concealed way to prevent LBGTQ children from getting critical need to know information to make their lives better, to feel normal and to help straight children learn things every child should know, disguised as...

Bullshit that , ONCE AGAIN, tries to paint gayness as a topic JUST for adults and that kids can’t POSSIBLY queer. Spoilers they can, are and I know some.  As you can tell i’m just a tensy bit absolutely pissed off about this whole mess despite living far from florida, especially since this comes as Texas is trying to pass a transphobic and homophobic bill that would force teachers to out students. 

And while Don’t Say Gay hasn’t been signed yet by Flordia’s Govenor Ron DeSantis, it’s all but guaranteed he’ll sign it. DeSantis has spent the pandemic proving he cares nothing for human lives,doing the right thing or shutting the hell up, uincluding a recent incident where he yelled at teenagers for wearing masks at an event, so even possible pressure from coprorations probably wont’ stop him. Thankfully the LBGTQ+ community of flordia HAS rallied against this nonsense and is prepared to fight any stupid lawsuits and sue the state itself, so we have that at least but it’s still a very bleak moment in an already bleak time for this country. 

And of course what would a slap in the face to LBGTQ+ people everywhere be without Disney somehow making it worse? During this mess since Disney has a lot of stake in florida, Disney Fans were HOPING the company would speak up against the bill, maybe even use their signifigant pull in the state and vast money bins to combat it in some way. Granted we knew we were likely setting ourselves up for disapointment: this is the company that killed one of it’s finest shows and its possible headliner for being gay as shit, and had about 87 “FIRST GAY CHARACTERS” in various franchises that are either just queer coded or could easily be edited out of foreign dubs and releases in homophobic countries before FINALLY balling up and having Phastos be openly gay in a way that can’t be written out for eternals. If there’s something remotely queer in something on D+, they do not put anything about it in the summary to avoid offending the right.. forgetting that this happens anytime they see something remotely gay

So hiding it isn’t going to make them any less homophobic. But while not suprising, CEO Bob Chapek’s comments aren’t any less disgusting: 

“I want to be crystal clear: I and the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities. And, we are committed to creating a more inclusive company — and world. We all share the same goal of a more tolerant, respectful world. Where we may differ is in the tactics to get there. And because this struggle is much bigger than any one bill in any one state, I believe the best way for our company to bring about lasting change is through the inspiring content we produce, the welcoming culture we create, and the diverse community organizations we support.”

To break down all the ways Bob is talking bull patties in this statment:

1) “ we are committed to creating a more inclusive company “ You have canceled 2/3 shows that have had a queer character prominently in the cast so far, with the only one you haven’t still up in the air and would not let ducktales outright confirm a character was a lesbian nor gravity falls confirm two characters were gay till the very last minute. You took 20 films into the mcu, not including pre+ shows you barely controlled or cared about, to have an out gay character. And of course we have this clusterfuck from pride last year

2)  “ I and the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities.” Again the owl house debalce, where at leat one exec hate dit being gay so much he canceled it and you either were him or did nothing to stop it. 

3)  Where we may differ is in the tactics to get there. And because this struggle is much bigger than any one bill in any one state” Yes it is.. but “it’s a big ongoing, neverending battle for progress” isn’t an excuse for not doing shit on a smaller scale ESPECIALLY when you do tons of buisness in said state. You have more power than ANYONE other than Ron DeSantis himself to stop this bill and did nothing. even condeming it alone would send DeSantis poll numbers down further into the gutter simply because you create tons of jobs in said state just by existing. And shit like this spirals: other states might be emblodened to do their own version of it. Small thigns can grow into large problems. You should know this, you own fucking ant man. Furthermore, as a wise man once said “the only way for evil to win is for good men to do nothing” By doing nothing.. your enabling this to happen adn impliciitly condoning it. You care more about the money you’d loose making an actual stand, money that would be a drop in the damn bucket for you, than actual decency

4)  I believe the best way for our company to bring about lasting change is through the inspiring content we produce, the welcoming culture we create, and the diverse community organizations we support.” The first part IS a good way to go about things. But again your not doing it now and have no clear plans for queer content we can see right now. You might have something up your sleeve and in that case good. But your history of burying queer content or canceling it tells me you aren’t really changing. I’ll belivie it and praise it when I see it. 

Furthermore said content.. dosen’t come from you. It comes from the creators, many of the biggest having come out to condemn this shit. Alex retweeted the tweet I used, Dana posted a heartbreaking video about how draining this is, Matt Braly posted in support and Bruce of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder posted on his twitter a message from the crew condeming the bill.. on the same day an episode aired about gay dads. No one planned for this, it was on the schedule for some time, but Bruce certainly loved the timing. 

My point is Disney fucked up royally... UPDATE: This review was originally SUPPOSED to be published thursday but a day long bout of sickness so bad I was unconcious during mos tof that day and in pain when I wasn’t , so naturally the above rant wasn’t published with Chapek’s apology in mind. I”m still going through with this both because said bill passed.. and becaue it took severe and notable backlash from disney’s own creators, staff and the general public for him to actually take a stand against it and by the time he has it’s too late to fix anything. Now if he GENINELY doubles down on queer content and actually trying to make a change after this, I will fully credit him for that but for now it comes off like half hearted ass saving from a man who could’ve done so much more so much sooner As such today’s double feature is dedicated to both showcasing some truly great queer content from recent months, including as recent as yesterday no less, as well as using both episodes to shoot down the bullshit of the bill and disney respectively. So join me under the cut as we get extra super triple gay and super salty at disney and florida shall we?

Craig of the Creek: Fire and Ice

So our first episode up is the most recent episode of Craig of the Creek at the time of this writing, a show I haven’t really covered since I got super behind on it for a while. Like the second part of this double feature I INTENDED to save this for Pride Month.. but it was so relevant to the issue at hand I just had to bump it up. 

And COTC has never been remotely shy about Queer content. We’ve had gender nonconforming characters, non-binary characters, and TONS of gay characters: Raj and Shawn, Laura and Cat, the Witches, Jasmine. All supporting sure but all nicely understated and all very present. It’s not hidden or coded, it’s just there as it should be. Proud and beautiful. 

The one exception to the shows out and proud nature was Kelsey, brave warrior, bird enthussit and loyal friend. She’s also in third grade, which gives you some context already as to why I felt this one was extra relevant, but more on that soon. She’s also been transparently gay since the show started, having subtext with her friend, archivest and closest frined outside our main trio stacks, and having what amounted to a very obvious crush on wildernessa. The creators even outright confirmed both Kelsey and Stacks were lebsians last year in word of god posts. The question was would the show be able to pull the trigger. While Cartoon Network has gotten better at representation, they could still be gunshy about having a child be openly gay given the whole stupid, entirley wrong school of thought that “Gays should be only a thing adults talk about”. 

Fire and Ice’s response was “Yup, one of our three main characters is gay.”. Not the first time, see steven universe, but unlike steven there’s no space rock buffer here: this is a queer child, one of the main characters and she’s gay beyond any resonable shadow of a doubt. 

And thus for an event of this weight we do get an episode actually struggling with Kelsey’s sexuality in a painfully realistic way, especially since I myself was in denial for some time and despite being twice kelsey’s age if not more, panicked at the idea I was into men as well as women. I”ve obviously fully accepted it by now, but it was still terrifying. So imagine being a kid who likely knows gay people exist but never realized she was one NAD realizing those feelings because you suddenly realize your in love with one of the only people in your life who it’d destroy you to loose. 

And that my friends is the episodes brilliant and heartbrekaing central conflict: At the creek’s secret book club, because of course this recess style book club has a secret book club that was started entirely to trick Kelsey’s friends into reading, the kids are all reading their own books they made. And part of the show, and this episodes strength is it’s built on previous continuity. every other episodes with Stacks has built here and built their relationship to this point: She first bonded with Kesley over reading, helped trick Craig and JP into finally reading a book which lead to said club expanding, then helped kelsey sneak her own book into the library which lead to a kids section after the librarian found out kids wer emaking their own books, and finally their last major ep together, not counting the mercurial halloween special, had Stacks confront kelsey on being left out and thus get included more.  Every step here is paved on previous stories in a way that’s accesible, you can watch this episode without having read them, but that still rewards you for taking the trip to get here. 

So it’s not a huge shock after tons of romantic subtext and time together that the two’s epic, she ra-esque fantasy story about brave warrior fire and her beloved wizard companion ice takes a turn for the romantic for the duo as they fight a dragon , nor that Craig obllivously points out just how similar kelsey and stacks are to fire and ice.. something that would normally be no problem. Kelsey’s entire life is one long larp. But here it makes Kelsey scream internally as she finally puts the pieces together... and promptly runs the fuck away and tells Stacks she can’t write for a while, musing over the idea, in dramatic monologue of course, that she really could like stacks. Naturally Craig and JP, who badly want a solution to the cliffhanger the story end on, are no help, trying to put themselves ihnto the story (which Kelsey shoudl consider overall, they’d make great supporting cast, but now isn’t the time). We then get what I find an intresting moment.. when kelsey admits she’s stuck, JP knows just who to call: his sister Laura’s girlfriend Kat, who we met way back in season 1, casually introduced as Laura’s childhood friend and longtime friend of the mercers turned girlfriend. And what’s intresting to me is i’ts ambigous: did JP send kelsey to her because she’s a writer.. or because kat is gay and he could sense what was really going on, but knew just taking Kesley over there for what she REALLY needs help with, accepting that she’s gay and her feelings are normal, would just scare her more. And yes JP is legally brain dead half the time... but he has shown he can be wise with romance and not only was pratically raised by his gay sister, but has a stable relationship. Pun unintended. I’d like to think he did. 

So from that we get the bets scene of the episode, Kat talking with Kelsey over her work and being geninely impressed while JP plays with his cat Goo, who we need to see more often. It’s a gentle, touching scene as Kat admit’s it’s impressive.. and also not only gets the character thing.. but gets what’s going on. But both her and Laura, who naturally also helps because she’s the best, ease Kelsey into it: Kat simply gently backs Kelsey away from trying to make it not resembler herself, and talks ther through WHY Kesley wants to change it: she’s scared of her feelings. Laura points out what she feels.. is good and it’s not wrong to feel it. And what I like is the angst dosen’t come from the outside but the in... it can be hard to accept what you are even if you know those you love will accept you no matter what. And this beauitful scene of having two experince lesbians help a younger one see what she is is beautiful and she should embrace it.. it’s so damn sweet. 

And i’ts why I choose this: because even if flordia wants to pretend gay children don’t exist.. they do and they need someone to reach out to. To guide them and tell them what they are is normal, not hide it because “oh kids can’t be gay”. To embrace it. It really is sad when a , if brilliant, children’s cartoon is doing more to actually educate kids on queerness than the actual goverment running the schools. 

Anyways the episode ends on a touching note: Kelsey , now accepting she gay, finishes the story with the two heroes confessing.. and then tells stacks the truth while the rest of the club is distracted.. nad Stacks reciporcates, closing the episode with the two cutely and awkardly holding hands. And this sin’t the end.  She hasn’t told craig, Jp or most importantly her daddy guy yet. The journey isn’t done... nad I can’t wait to see where it goes. As if you coudln’t tell this episode is truly excellent, Noel does some of her finest work here, check it out immedeitly. 

The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder: A Rope of Sand: Father Figures

So onto disney getting shot in the groin with a gun it designed, manufactured and handed to the shooter. 

So we open with Felix’s first role of note since the revivial began. While he had a small cameo last episode coaching the opposing team, this time he’s actual integral to the plot as Oscar lures him to his garage and traps him in there and won’t let him go till he invests in Oscar’s newest scheme: Snackland

Naturally Felix has no intrest in this and Oscar is only trying to dupe his best friend into it because he has such horrifying credit he can only get the loan needed for this latest disaster if someone cosigns. Felix naturally wants no part of this and thankfully before things can turn into a psychological horror movie real fast, Felix tunnels out bugs bunny style. 

Unfortunatley for Felix, Oscar is ALSO skilled at bugs bunnying and tunnels into Felix’s house to stalk him some more. Felix still swiftly turns him down before getting into his marriage issues, as he DIRECTLY PUTS IT ‘Sunset... she’s... happy!” 

Now I get the original show had these kinda jokes with Felix and sunset.. but it wasn’t funny then.. and almost 20 years have passed. Comedy has evolved to thankfully expunge this shit for the most part. While ther’es stil plenty of ...

The whole terrible married life played for sitcommy laughs trope has died out in all btu the most hackned of sitcoms and shows. So choosing to keep this of ALL THIGNS, especailly when they eased up on it for the most part with Oscar and Trudy is just utterly baffling. You’ve had 20 years to see this is stupid, why did you not think this through. Just because we liked the show dosen’t mean you can’t fix up things and if the creators didn’t think that, they wouldn’t of added needed representation. This kind of shit died out for a reason.

Anyways the reason Felix is worried is that he fears Sunset is cheating on her with her new partner Barry, aka the sexiset dad in disney history. Right above evil ranting moth dad. Which of course somehow leads to the second overplayed cliche as the punchline becomes

Another outdated and offensive joke. It also is to the show’s credit that despite these jokes.. Barry and his Husband Randall.. have a completely beliviable and wholesome relationship. Whenever we see the two together it’s clear they love each other almost more than anything, with only their kids being as important in their eyes and in a show where the romances and gender politics are handled about as well as that crate full of osolots Oscar illegally imported last week, and while the episode has misteps, it’s handing of these two and their relationship, as well as how they ar eis parents, is not one. We’ll get to the latter in a second. 

So while this was going on the kids were competting for tickets via an online video using Lacienga, who after being symathetic in the first ep... is back to her usual self centerted bitchtastic self, calling the others her “followers” and putting her face over zoey’s flute solo. 

Naturally given Lil WIzzy is the other competior, our heroines loose but Barry just happens to be working security as a side hustle and invites the girls to come along, with Sunset shooting down an attepmt to provent laceinga to go by felix.  God this part of the plot makes me age 10 years I swear.

Okay so at the Pink I Concert, who I like a bit probably because both pink hair and freckles are a thing for me, our heroes meet Randall, KG and Maya’s other dad. We also get great KG content as while Maya is still in resting bitch face towards our heroes for stupid reasons.. despite you know having hung out with one of them last episode for no reason, KG warmly introduces his dad.. which everyone but Djonay gets as them having two dads. It takes her about two minutes to get it. 

This ends up being a bad thing though as while their all leaving, Djonay tries to snap a pick of the happy family together, which itself is a really nice moment, showing the dads holding their daughters up after the concert. It’s also a humanizing moment for Maya, one of two in this episode, as it shows her being vunerable for the first time all season. She may be angry around penny and co... but she loves her dads and appricates them. 

Penny EXPLICITLY tells her not to and for good reason: While Djonay tries to reflect with “it’s the roaring 2020′s” penny isn’t that naive: just because we’ve come a long way dosen’t mean bigotry dosen’t exist and evne if it didn’t.. it’s still NEVER okay to out someone or their parents. Naturally the second Penny’s not looking after SWEARING not to tell.. Djonay texts everyone she can the picture.

The show does get credit though in how the outing comes out: while there’s a few bigoted dicks, most people either fully accept they have two dads or geninley don’t care because why should they. Someone having two dads should be perfectly normal. 

But i’ts clear from Maya and KG’s walk into school the next day i’ts not so easy: social media is one thing but real life.. is a bit more complicated. It’s clear from Maya and Kg’s expressions they know exactly what’s happened: once again someone’s outed their dads, and while ther’es plenty of approving looks from most of the students.. there’s also a nasty message left on KG’s locker. It makes the message painfully obvious but in a way that dosen’t feel overblown: just because most people have grown accepting dosen’t mean everyone accepts lbgtq people or their children, and that this kinda bigotry is just something the two will have to put up with their whole lives, just as their dads have... and i’ts something their used to.

Penny , despite having every reason to hate maya.. feels bad for BOTH of them, getting that as much as she can’t stand her rival’s self righteousness.. no one deserves this, getting only worse when a character I don’t remember from the first series but Penny mentoins having liked so I assume we’re supposed to know him bullies KG. Though KG’s response.. cements how much I love this freaking kid as while he was releatable comic relif before.. this episode fleshes him out as a person. HIs response to being bullied is to actively challenge Frankie to step outside and while Frankie says he’s “nothing to me” and walks out.. it’s very clear the asshole did not expect KG to actually want to fight and feared he’d actually take him. 

So Penny tries to figure out who dunnit.. and it takes all of two seconds to realize it was Djonay. And look Djonay did a LOT of shitty things in the original series.. but outing two people’s parents and not giving a shit about the damage she caused is the lowest the fucker has ever sunk. And she outright REFUSES to go sit with them in solidarity when penny offers despite being DIRECTLY RESPONSEIBLE FOR THIS SHIT. Like my god they’d actually put work in to making Djonay less obnoxious, even toning down her stalking after episode 1, but this.... I haven’t seen a character crater this fast since

Oh yes that’ll do. Oh and none of them but micheal stand by her on this. Lacienga I get, she’s just selfish as hell, but Zoey? I get she got peer pressured before but here that’s not the excuse. Her excuse is and I quote “I’m running for class president and have to stay neutral on this issue”. and much like bob she only turns around on the issue when i’ts convient for her. Disney could not have crafted a bullet better shaped for their nuts if they tried. 

And yes ONCE AGAIN penny’s friends betray her and look terrible.. I know this suprises few people but.. I GENINELY thought the show had abandoned this shit.. and god does it suck to be proven wrong. Again you had 20 years and fans SCREAMING AT YOU about how bad of a friend Djonay was.. nad you didn’t fix it. What a waste. 

Thankfully Micheal stands up for them but Penny’s attempts at making jokes fall flat.. and we get yet another fucking fire bit from KG as while Maya just storms off KG at least explains: While he appricates them sitting down and actually trying to support them, they don’t know them well enough to joke about it.. especially not having a mom as it turns out ,to my suprise as I thought the two were adopted as babies, part of Maya’s anger.. comes from being adopted and likely bounced around in the hell that is the foster system. Of not knowing who her birth parents were and why they abandoned her and then finding loving, wonderful parents.. only for the world to mock and scorn them just for being who they are. 

Speaking of which as Penny heads home, Trudy and Oscar are fighting... and Trudy telling her to not fill their daughters head with his nonsense makes it damn clear Oscar, despite Penny thinking otherwise, is a homophobic ass, as proven when he tries to tell her not to hang out with maya and KG. And this is where the ep really shines for me as the homphobia is portrayed realistically: the kids bully at school but only where they can’t get caught, in public sure but not where any teachers are, while Oscar tries to not outright SAY he’s against this to his daughter.. even though ti’s clear he is and the most he can say about KG and Maya’s bullying is “life isn’t fair”.. which EVERYONE glares at him for, knowing i’ts a bullshit way of saying “It’s their parents fault for being gay”. And it fits oscar: he’s been prejudiced, sexist and other stupid shit before. Him being homophobic is not suprising. And for once his mom’s abuse comes off justified saying “this is why I don’t like telling people your my son”. Most other times she’s said that shit it was bad, still is... but here her son is being a bigoted dickhead and refuses to stand down or listen on the topic. 

It also shows how even if a parent can teach good values.. they sometimes don’t practice them. Oscar and Trudy taught Penny to respect other people and to hav eempathy.. but when the time comes to man up and show empathy to two men and two kids who need it.. oscar has none. I also give the episode credit for NOT making the main cast exempt from fuckups. Granted I WOUL’DVE liked Djonay to actually suffer for her actions, but when you look at it one of our main family is homophobic, and all but the pansexual one among Penny’s friends, while not against gay people, aren’t willing to actually stand with them if it risks their own comfort or saftey. It shows that sometimes homophobia.. is just doing jack shit about queer problems. And with Penny’s blunder at the lunch table it also shows sometimes even well meaning allies can fuck up. Even if I don’t like Penny’s friends betraying her for the 888th time, I can appricate the creators not holding back and having major characters be bigoted or have bystandar syndrome despite the heavy risk of doing so. 

So the next day the family, including the twins and puff, ignore Oscar as he prepares to go try and get his loan anyway.. from Randall who he’s unaware is gay. 

We also have Oscar outright trying to suck up to him by putting on sterotypical african garb to just try and score points.. something I actually talked about with my friend @cipher-club who is from africa and enjoyed the bit for how stupid it makes oscar look and added a lair to the gag: Oscar is putting on a costume literally an dfiguartively, not bothering to check his heritage or anything just wanting to score points, something Randall no sells. Randall does geninely bond with oscar, seing oscar as the good natured determined idiot he is and gladly singing the lone. But naturally being this is oscar his biggest enemy is himself.. and upon Barry showing up and the dots connecting in his head, Oscar’s brain about explodes.. and finally does, along with his eyes shattering, when the two kiss, with Randall swiftly taking in the loan. And I like Randall a lot.. and not just because he’d make a good three way with his husband. Seriously he’s like a cuddly bear. No he’s also just a good, genine person whose willing to give Oscar a chance when most wouldn’t.. but will not take homophobic bullcrap for a moment, not getting shouty with oscar but not giving the guy a win either for his blatant prejudice. 

So that night, Penny and friends head home from school and see Maya getting jacked by the gross sisters. once again her friends want to stand by and do nothing

But Penny finally shames them into doing the right thing, starting with fake-ass zoey and trickling down. Turns out though the Gross Sisters aren’t jacking Maya for having gay dads.. but the fact Penny was willing to stand up to the three of them on that premise does geninely suprise Maya, shattering her half baked notions of penny and seeing the real person for the first time. The real reason is hilarously simple: their dads both make decent money as a police officer and banker respectively, thus Maya has more to give. Still Maya dosen’t back down, but Barry shows up and Maya dosen’t snitch, earning the sisters respect... for a second till KJ dosen’t want to return ole’s affections because SEXUAL HARRASMENT IS FUNNY RIte. So maya GENINELY thanks penny and we get a great bit about penny standing on a soap box. 

So we end on a truly amazing scene, as what was supposed to be a small get together for the neighbors, ended up being most of the neighbors showing up for Gumbo, with the bigoted bully from earlier apologizing and Oscar still being blind from earlier and still trying not to go in. But what I like most is how oscar breaks from his bigotry. As the party linedances to Earth Wind and Fire’s all time banger september, as you do, Randall admits he approved oscars loan afterall as thanks for what Penny did for his kid, recognizing that while Oscar might be an idiot.. he raised a good kid and maybe he CAN change... and recommends he do so by seeing it from penny’s eyes. And it’s by seeing all his friends nad familyd ancing, treating these two men as normal.. that oscar’s vision symolically and literally clears and he sees the two men kiss crying as he does. Is it a bit over the top? Sure. Is it any less poginant, showing Oscar finally realize how stupid he was to judge these kind wonderful men by their orentation, and to not listen to his daughter? NOPE. The following talk betwene penny and oscar is likewise really sweet

Penny: Daddy, I know you don't agree with me. But you and momma taught me to treat other people the way I wanted to be treated. Oscar: Mm-hmm. I know, baby-girl. I'm just glad you listen to the smart things that we say, and ignore the dumb stuff.

It’s a geninely touching ending. Will the prejudice for the Lebowitz-Jenkins end entirely? Probably not. But by one person having the courage to do what’s right.. another realized they were wrong. And sometimes that’s enough

Final Thoughts: As if yo ucoudlnt’ tell this episode is excellent, it’s only issues being ones from the series as a whole they haven’t fixed rather than anything. It’s one of the first shows for kids to geninely tackle bigotry. While I appricate other shows showing everyone being causally acepting, and that still rocks sometimes you still have to tackle bigotry head on if you want to get anywhere.. and they did so with flying colors here. See you next time

Patreon. Please join I’m broke as oscar. 

[alpacaparkaseok]

If You’ll Have Me || KSJ

➣pairing: Jin x reader (established relationship)

➣premise: Kim Seokjin. The love of your life. Your boyfriend of three years. The man who insists on taking you to the zoo for every milestone in your lives together. There’s just one thing...you have no idea what you’re celebrating this time.

➣warnings/tags: fluff, SFW, we live for Jin in this household if you haven’t noticed

➣word count: 4.3k

➣commissioned by @delacyrose224 as a part of army for AAPI! thank you so much for requesting this, I loveddddd writing this little story. I’m so soft for this man. you always have the best ideas!!

“We look like idiots.”

“Yeah, well,” Jin shrugs, handing you yet another t-shirt to try on. “That can’t be helped.”

You gasp, snatching the shirt away from him and heading toward the fitting room. “Rude! I meant with all of these ridiculous clothes!”

Jin’s laughter follows you as you close the door and throw on what feels like the thirtieth gaudy t-shirt from the zoo’s souvenir shop. This one is vivid blue, which you suppose is an upgrade from the caution-cone orange Jin had you trying on a few minutes ago.

“Ok,” you call out, “ready?”

“Ready!”

Peeking out of the little room, you notice Jin sitting on the little sofa in the waiting area. He grins up at you, already wearing a matching shirt.

“Do you like it?” He asks, lips pouting out a bit as he waits for your answer.

Avoiding looking in the mirror for too long, you manage a feeble, “Yeah…it’s not as bad as the others, I guess.”

That’s all Jin needs to hear. With a clap of his hands he’s jumping up and herding you toward the front of the shop. You don’t miss the amused glances people are giving you and your boyfriend, who pauses to grab a couple of baseball caps.

“Let’s see…” he brushes some of your hair back before sliding the cap onto your head, stepping back to get the full effect. “Perfect. And, it’ll protect your scalp from the sun!”

Like a couple of walking mannequins, the two of you head up to pay for the clothes you’re now wearing. Jin has a backpack on hand for your other clothes, which you unceremoniously shove inside before zipping it shut.

The cashier offers you a wide smile as she assists with the transaction. You know what she’s thinking:do I pity or envy her?

Honestly, it’s a toss up. Of course, there’s the fact that Jin often makes you do ridiculous things (exhibit A, bright blue zoo t-shirts with roaring lions on the front and waddling penguins on the back), but then again, you don’t stop him.

Rather, you egg him on. There’s something just so adorable about the way he gets so excited for such simple things. And for today, it’s over a trip to the zoo.

Of course, you’re excited as well. Mainly to see the meerkats, which Jin will never let you live down. When you told him that the meerkats were your favorite animal, he stopped and stared at you for an unnervingly long amount of time. You had begun to wonder if you’d somehow upset him when he burst out laughing, claiming that he could see it.

“See what?” You seethed.

“The resemblance,” Jin choked out between laughter. “You’re basically a meerkat in human form!”

With a smack to his chest, you glared at him and said, “Yeah well…you’re a walrus! Yeah, a walrus!”

Needless to say, he was extremely offended and didn’t speak to you for hours. In fact, the only thing that had brought him out of his misery had been you dragging him to the souvenir shop and giving him permission to get whatever he wanted. That apparently included getting you some items as well.

“Ah, it’s such a nice day,” Jin remarks the second you step outside. His hand slips into your seamlessly, a testament to the countless times you’ve repeated the action. “Perfect day at the zoo.”

Indeed it is. The sun is shining, there’s a cool breeze licking at the nape of your neck, and there’s fewer people than you’d expected to be here on a day like today.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it’s Tuesday morning. It would appear that most people – the sane ones, at least – are busy with work and other weekday obligations. Neither of you are, though. Jin has a rare day off and he’d had the day circled on the calendar for well over a month at this point. You had made sure a long time ago to have this day off.

“When’s the last time you went to the zoo?” You ask, glancing sidelong at your boyfriend.

Perhaps it’s his undeniable good looks or the fact that you hardly get to see each other due to your hectic schedules, but you can’t help the little sense of wonder that comes over you as your survey him in the morning sun. Somehow, you really have no idea how he does it, he manages to pull off the shirt and hat. Sure, he looks silly. But he owns the look.

It’s a wonder that he’s yours.

“Hmmm…” Jin ponders for a moment. “I think it was the last time we went together.”

You gasp. “That was like…three years ago! You seriously haven’t been since?”

Laughing at your shocked expression, Jin shakes his head. “Nope.”

Three years ago, close to the time when the two of you had first started dating, Jin wanted to take you out on a special date to celebrate the beginning of your relationship. Without telling you where you were going, you had assumed there would be a nice restaurant, maybe some sort of play or whatever else it is that fancy people do when they first begin to date.

Oh, how wrong you’d been.

Assuming that just because Jin was…well, rich, you couldn’t be more wrong about his taste in dates. When he had parked in the zoo lot and led you through the entrance, you had been waiting for the punchline.

There wasn’t any. No, he had simply wanted to spend the entire day with you. Walking around, having an “excuse to hold your hand” in Jin’s words, and somehow making you believe that crocodiles’ tails could change color when it danger. (don’t ask)

“I still think that it would be so cool to live up there,” you point to the houses in the distance, overlooking the zoo. There was a neighborhood of stately homes just a little way’s away which the two of you had snooped on after your date to the zoo all those years ago.

Jin chuckles quietly. “What if a tiger escapes and ends up in the yard?”

You shrug. “I guess it makes for a good excuse to always keep a steak in the fridge. I’ll lure it away with that.”

“Absolute genius,” your boyfriend hums, making you scrunch up your nose at his obvious sarcasm. “So, where should we begin?”

“At the beginning?”

Laughing jovially (honestly, the best thing about Jin is the fact that he thinks you’re funny), the two of you set down a little path which will take you to a butterfly exhibit.

“Agh, I forgot how hot it is in here,” you mutter the second you step inside. Plants of all different shapes and sizes loom over and around you, home to several different kinds of butterflies. A few stray butterflies flutter overhead, making you temporarily forget the humidity of the greenhouse.

Jin ooh’s and ah’s over the bright yellow butterfly that brushes past him. “Did you see that? It nearly landed on my nose!”

“Aw, it recognizes a Disney Princess when it sees one,” you coo, earning a half-hearted glare from Jin.

“I thought we discussed this,” he grumbles. “I’m Flynn Rider.”

“Right. My bad. Who am I again?”

A giant grin splitting his features, Jin wiggles his eyebrows at you. “Mother Gothel, obviously.” The slap to his right butt-cheek echoes through the greenhouse, quickly followed by his yowl of pain.

Pretending to wipe tears from his eyes, Jin limps after you as you continue through the greenhouse.

“You’re lucky nobody was in here to see that,” he says. “They could send you away for treating me so horribly. I mean, look! I bring you to the zoo, I buy you a nice shirt, I let you choose where we go first-”

Whirling around to face your boyfriend only to find a knowing smirk already on his face, you glare up at him. He knows that he won.

“Yah! What do you want?” You ask, exasperated. Limping forward, clearly milking this for all it’s worth, Jin pouts down at you with big, brown eyes.

“Just one kiss.”

You gasp, feigning horror. “A kiss?! In this sweaty, public greenhouse?!” You frantically point at the butterflies which are your only witnesses in here. “In front of the innocent butterflies?”

Jin looks at you and shudders. “Wow. I think it’s official.”

“What?”

“We spend way too much time together. You’re impersonating me right now, aren’t you?”

“Was it that obvious?”

“Yeah. But I still stand by my condition.” Finally taking one final step, Jin towers over you. With a playful wink, he puckers his lips.

“Ugh, I hate you sometimes.”

Jin peeks one eye open. “You just said you loved me earlier.”

“Is it too late to change my mind?”

“Sorry, no refunds.” Then, taking things into his own hands, Jin cups your cheeks and swoops in for a kiss.

On your nose.

Sputtering as he steps away, you glare at him. “What was that?!”

Turning on his heel and heading toward the exit, you notice that Jin’s over-exaggerated limp is long gone. With a devilish grin over his shoulder, Jin says, “You were taking too long. But you still owe me a kiss, whenever I ask for it. No matter where we are or what we’re doing, ok?”

You can recognize a trap when you see one. However, you’re left with no choice. Grumbling out a “yeah, whatever” you follow after him.

After the butterfly exhibit you make your way to the reptile house, opting to get all of the hot and humid indoor places out of the way while it’s still morning. The Gila monsters make you laugh as Jin takes a video of the tongue flipping in and out of its mouth and sends it to Hoseok. The two of you know full well that the boy in question will no doubt scream in horror as he watches the video.

Hand in hand, Jin finally swerves off the path toward one of the final indoor exhibits: Animals of the Savanna.

Once you’re inside, you pull and tug at Jin until he’s relenting and allowing you to find the meerkats. To onlookers, you’re sure you look like a child dragging their disgruntled parent to and fro. However, once you spot the meerkats, any thoughts of maintaining your dignity in front of these people eddies out of your mind.

“Jin! Jin! Seokjin!” You hop up and down on the balls of your feet, completely missing the tender look Jin sends your way as you drag him closer. “Look at them! Woooow there’s so many! Aww and there’s little babies, too!”

Jin just hums along, smiling as he watches your wide eyes. You get as close as humanly possible, grinning at the creatures that occasionally look your way. Through it all, he maintains some sort of contact. Giggling without knowing what you’re laughing about. Just laughing for the sake of it.

He just…loves the zoo. Yeah, that’s it.

It had been a silly idea, to bring you here three years ago to celebrate the beginning of your relationship. In fact, you had looked at him like he was already bordering on crazy when he had brought up the idea of doing something special now that you had agreed to be his girlfriend.

“Don’t people usually do something special for anniversaries?” You had asked. Your hair had been longer then, a tell-tale sign of your youth.

Jin shrugged, completely under your spell without your knowledge. He found it nearly impossible to look away from you at times like these. “We can do that, too. Next year. But for now, why don’t we just celebrate the beginning?”

“Sure,” you mimicked his shrug, snuggling into his side on the couch. Despite his unaffected demeanor, he wondered if you noticed the way his heart was pounding as you rested your head against his shoulder. “I’ll do whatever, as long as it’s with you.”

So, after discussing it with his best friends, he decided to take you to a beautiful dinner looking over the Han river. There was a new restaurant that was outrageously fancy and delicious, and he wanted to treat you to the best.

When he arrived at your apartment that evening, just in time to hopefully catch the sunset on the Han if all went according to plan, he overheard you talking on the phone. Your window was open, and like the snoop that he was, he waited to listen in on your conversation.

He wouldn’t have it he hadn’t heard your mentioning his name.

“I don’t know what we’re doing tonight,” you admitted. You were quiet for a moment while listening to the other side of the conversation. “You think so? I don’t know, I’ve never dated someone like this. You know, like…rich. What do rich people do on dates? I’m a little out of my element here, I just hope I won’t make a fool of myself.” Your laugh had him hurtling to reality, and he realized in an instant that he couldn’t take you to that restaurant.

A part of him knew in that moment that you were going to be the rest of his life. You were it for him. And if you want something to last, you treat it differently.

A perfectly forgettable meal surrounded by gossiping netizens wasn’t what you deserved.

So what did you deserve?

That had been the question on his mind as he tried to hide just how sweaty his palms were when he knocked on your door.

“Oh, I think he’s here. I – yeah, I’ll call you after. Ok, bye.”

Seokjin has always been good at pretending that he has a plan even when he has no idea what to do. Which is exactly what he did. You had been absolutely adorable, bouncing in your seat as he set off down the highway, begging him to give you a hint.

When he’d seen the exit for the zoo, he turned down that road without a second thought. You looked utterly confused when he pulled into the parking lot, and little did you know that he was just as confused as you were.

He just prayed that you wouldn’t think he was the dumbest person ever for letting those reservations slip through his fingers for the fanciest restaurant in Seoul. Perhaps a date to the zoo wasn’t the right idea, perhaps it wasn’t romantic at all, perhaps-

Perhaps you were happiest with his hand in yours and a meerkat a few feet away from you.

He’s so tempted to cash in that kiss right now, with how adorable you look. But he bites his tongue, reminding himself that he has to save it for later.

Once you’re loved of meerkats is sated enough for you to be herded away, Jin leads you to a street vendor. “Eat up,” he says as he passes the bread cone filled to the brim with macaroni and cheese to your outstretched hands. He’ll never understand your love for the little abominations, but he caves and orders one for himself as well.

“Don’t you want to sit and eat it?” He asks as he spies you wandering off. You twirl around, licking the cheese off of your lips. And stupid as it is, his heart skips a beat.

“They’re gonna feed the penguins in ten minutes!” You respond, clearly expecting that to be enough of an explanation. Again you turn to wander away. You’re not worried about leaving Jin behind, though. His long legs catch up to you within a few seconds.

The two of you eat in relative silence as you watch the penguins waddling around. Once you’re finished with your food, you spend a good hour sitting in the amphitheater watching the penguins and wondering which ones the two of you would be.

“I’m that one,” you point to a particularly fat penguin attempting to get out of the water. “That looks like me trying to get out of my chair whenever I eat.”

Jin nearly chokes on his water at your remark, squinting at the penguin that has yet to be successful in getting out of the water. “How pitiful. Oh, that’s me.”

Another penguin appears on the ice, looking down at the fat one.

“Oh, have you come to rescue me?” You ask, sitting forward and resting your chin on your hands. Jin immediately begins massaging the small of your back, knowing that it’s a troublesome spot for you most days.

“Probably- oooh down he goes!”

The two of you burst into a fit of laughter as the penguin pears down into the water only to lose its footing and slip in alongside the previously struggling penguin.

“Yeah, that’s us,” you confirm, still laughing.

“Definitely us. We’re a mess most days.”

You lean back, taking up your usual spot on the crook of his shoulder and resting your hand on the inside of Jin’s knee. “At least we have each other.”

You say it with a teasing tone, but Jin can’t help the way it goes straight to his heart. Sneakily planting a kiss atop your baseball cap, he squeezes you a little tighter. “Yeah, that’s true. Don’t know where I’d be without you.”

“Probably still on land,” you remark slyly, peeking up at him. With slightly pink cheeks and zero hesitation you utter out, “I love you.”

He’ll never get used to you.

“Love you, too.”

From there you head over to the polar bears, which appear to be largely unimpressed by your presence. Jin drags you to see the hyenas, sporting some strange interest in the creatures. It only makes sense to sit and stare at the large tigers after that, your mouth ajar as you marvel at its size.

Then it’s the elephants and rhinos.

“Ugh, it smells like your fridge that one time,” you joke the second to get a whiff of the rhino’s habitat.

“It does not!” Jin shouts, drawing the attention of some of the other visitors. “My fridge smelled much worse.”

You can’t help but cackle at his remark. “I stand corrected.”

Toward the end of your visit you pass by to visit the monkeys. “If you squeeze my hand any harder, it’ll fall off.”

You try and fail to relinquish your grip. “Sorry, they just freak me out.” As if on cue, a monkey swings by in front of the tall glass window, making you jump and squeal in terror.

“Should we leave?” Jin questions, hiding his laughter.

You bury your head in between his shoulder blades, squeezing your eyes shut. “No, just go fast.”

He does just that, speeding through the exhibit until he’s announcing that you’re nearing the end. Slowly you look up, blinking at the now dark sky.

“Have we been here all day?” You ask in wonder. Checking the time, Jin nods.

“Yep. It’s about time to head home.”

Languidly making your way back up the path to the zoo entrance and exit, you swing your hands back and forth. “That was so fun.”

Jin raises his brows. “Really? I thought you were a goner back there with the monkeys.”

Faking a shiver, you revel in the way Jin falls for it and automatically pulls you in closer. “I thought I was, too. But I just thought of the meerkats, and I made it through.”

Snorting, Jin waves goodbye to a few of the staff members the open the gate for the two of you to leave. “Is that so? It had nothing to do with your big, strong, boyfriend protecting you?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Oh really.”

“No. Why? Did you think we had something going on?”

Rolling his eyes, Jin bumps you with his hip, making you giggle. “If not, this has been the most dedicated friendship I’ve ever experienced.”

“Dude, you have six best friends-”

“Ok, first you say I’m not your boyfriend, and then you stoop so low as to refer to me as dude?!”

Your laugh rings out loud and clear in the evening air, followed by Jin’s stupefied laughter. “You’re so dramatic,” you accuse, reluctantly freeing yourself from his grip as you near the car.

“Hey, you don’t get to judge me. It’s not like you’re my girlfriend.” Still bickering back and forth, Jin starts driving and heads off to the right instead of the left.

“Woah, where are we going?” You ask, frowning out at the night.

Jin shrugs. “Let’s go snoop around those houses again.”

“The ones by the zoo?”

“Yeah.”

You’re all too happy to go along with it. Clutching your hand atop the console, Jin maneuvers his way to the small hill overlooking the zoo.

“Wow,” you breathe out. “I forgot how beautiful this view is.”

Indeed it is. The city lights glow and glint in the distance, creating a warm blanket of familiarity. The zoo lights are shutting off, only a few left on here and there. The sound of music from floats up toward you as you roll the window down, drinking it in.

“The residents always hear the closing songs each night,” Jin supplies, somehow reading your mind as you wonder about the music coming from the zoo. “It turns off by ten on weekdays and eleven on the weekends.”

“How’d you know that?”

“I have some friends that live up here.”

You turn to look at Jin, eyes wide. “You do? How come you never told me?”

“They just moved,” he explains with a forgotten smile. “You wanna see their house?”

“Yes!”

Jin turns down a different street, slowly stopping before a beautiful home with colonial style columns in the front. Sure enough, there’s a sign in the front of the house with a red sticker stating SOLD for all to see.

“Should we look around the lot?” Jin asks, turning off the car and taking off his seat. “It looks like they’re not home right now, but they said we could look around if we wanted.”

“You told them we were coming?”

He shrugs, hopping out of the car and hurrying around to open up your door. “I mentioned that we’d be in the area.”

“Who are these friends of yours, anyway?” You ask, stepping out of the car. The house quite literally takes your breath away, and you turn around to capture the full view. The city is still visible, the zoo and its music appearing more like a memory than a reality. “Wow, this is amazing.”

“Uh,” Jin scratches the back of his neck. “Their names should be on the sign right there.”

Frowning, you ignore his avoidance of the question and skirt around him to walk up to the edge of the lawn. Crouching down, your eyes scan the sign for any names you might recognize. There’s a small paper, almost like a receipt, hanging from the sign. Smoothing it out from where it’s flowing in the breeze, you squint at the names that appear.

Sold to Mr. Kim Seokjin and –

You know that name. You know that man.

And the name beside his…

“It’s our names…?” You breathe out, not quite understanding. Straightening up, you turn to face Jin with a confused expression. “Why does it-”

There’s Jin, but he’s not where you left him.

He’s down on one knee, looking up at you with the expression he gets when he holds his breath. Behind him the city gleams as bright as ever, however it somehow dims in the face of what you see before you.

Jin, opening up a small box. And inside the velvety interior, a ring shining as though it were made of stars.

Suddenly, it clicks. The date to the zoo, where you’d first officially began this relationship. The house with your name on it, the way Jin had this day circled on the calendar for longer than you care to remember.

Jin can’t breathe, and he can tell by the way your chest has stopped rising that you can’t, either.

“I- I’d like to cash in that kiss now,” Jin stutters out.

In a rush of limbs and a mixture of laughter and sobs, you find yourself kneeling across from Jin and kissing him hard enough to bruise his plump lips. You’d feel bad, except for the fact that he returns the kiss with just as much fervor. When the kiss begins to taste of salt, you pull away to discern of those are your tears or his.

It’s both, you realize as Jin gazes at you, completely oblivious to the tears streaming down his cheeks.

“O-oh!” He exclaims, staring down at the ring box in his shaking hands. “Will you marry me?”

Without a single ounce of hesitation, you laugh, voice thick with emotion. “Yes!”

That’s all it takes for Jin to pull you in close again, attacking you with kisses at a speed you can’t keep up with. He pulls back, panting and eyes alight with pure elation. “And do you want to live here with me, then?”

You choke on a laugh, still crying and on your knees. “Of course I do, Seokjin. You- you bought me a house.”

“Yeah,” he sniffles. “I did.”

Then, gasping with wide eyes, Jin snaps his fingers. “I almost forgot!” Jumping up to his feet, he runs back to the car. You watch after him, too in shock to stand at the moment. Your glinting rings on your hand catches your attention, making you wonder when exactly he put it on. No doubt it was sometime in the midst of his breathless kisses.

Jin returns a moment later, dropping to his knees again. Nevermind the fact that there are plenty of places to sit. He has a lanyard around his neck, and he places another around your own.

“What’s this?” You ask, grabbing the little card hanging off of the end. Once you catch sight of it, you begin to laugh (and somehow cry) even harder.

Season passes to the zoo.

masterlist

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Button by Button

Prompts: (I’ve never requested anything before, so I apologize if I’m not doing this right) Would you be willing to write something where Janus (nervously) goes to Remus because he wants to get clean from self-harm, but realizes that he needs help/can’t do it alone? - anon

If you’re still taking requests, can you write a side (preferably janus, but anyone works) having a pretty rough time and resorting to unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with it, and then one (or multiple) other sides help him? Love your works! - anon

Ah yes more of these. Y'all know what time it is!

CHECK POINT TIME MY DUDES~

unclench your jaw roll them shoulders back drink something go to the bathroom eat something look away from the screen for three goddamn CONSECUTIVE seconds

okay cool now you may proceed love you very much

Read on Ao3

Warnings: implied/referenced self-harm. Very brief description of scale removal

Pairings: platonic dukeceit

Word Count: 2187

It’s when Thomas catches him with one of his scales missing that he knows he needs this to stop.

The problem is that he doesn’t realize he’s doing it. Not until it’s too late. One of his fingers will just…accidentally catch the wrong edge of a scale and then he’ll slip his fingers under it and pull and…off it pops.

Well, it doesn’t really pop off.

If he’s being honest—heh—it’s part of the reason he started wearing the gloves all the time, not just when he has to go and perform for the rest of them. If he could hide his nails beneath the fabric then maybe it would be more difficult to pop them off.

But the seams of the fabric are even better at snagging on the uneven scales. He swears they were built to find the little ones that didn’t sit quite right with the others. How wonderful.

Most of the time he can hide it.

Not all the time.

It’s when Thomas starts frowning at his hand halfway through filming a video that he snaps.

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing, it’s just—“ he waves to the glove— “there’s a—you got something there, bud.”

Janus glances down and notices the stain.

Shit.

“I’m sure it’ll take you by surprise to know that Remus is far from the paragon of cleanliness,” he remarks dryly, waving the hand out of sight.

Virgil snorts. “Uh-huh.”

Roman rolls his eyes. “Did he at least use the plastic tarps I dropped off?”

“Oh, there were supposed to be tarps?”

“You know, that’s enough of an answer.”

The conversation steers back on track but Janus keeps his fist clenched out of sight.

Too close. Thomas is not allowed to know. Janus may not be able to hide as much as he would like from Thomas but this Thomas will not know.

And…alright, maybe the feeling of too-raw skin rubbing against the inside of the glove is getting a little unbearable.

Maybe the fact that he has to keep his face turned away at all times is starting to grate on his insecurity.

Maybe trying to stop picking at his hands makes it difficult to keep the gloves on even though they’re the only thing keeping him sane some of the time.

…maybe he needs help.

Janus looks down at his hands, shakily pulling on his gloves and standing. He glances in the mirror and winces. Even for him, he looks like he’s trying to hide something. He makes a point to avoid the living room at all costs.

Remus’s door is ajar but the room is dark. He glances up and down the corridor, maybe Remus has gone into the Imagination. Then the toilet down the hall flushes and he sighs.

“Don’t tell me,” he says as Remus emerges, “you’ve ruined your own bathroom again?”

“I wouldn’t say ruined,” Remus chortles, “it’s a masterpiece! I just can’t use much of it right now.”

“Thrilling, I’m sure everyone will be glad to hear it.”

Remus just waves him off. “What’s up, Jan-Jan, haven’t seen you in ages.”

Janus blinks. “You saw me ten minutes ago.”

He rolls his eyes. “The point, Jan, is that you don’t come around anymore and I’m bored.”

“Well, if you’re so easily bored…”

“Hey, nuh-uh, you just showed up, no leaving!”

He pretends that Remus dragging him into his room is the opposite of what he wanted.

“Take a seat,” Remus sings gleefully, plopping down onto the floor and wriggling around like a worm on a string. Not far off. “Talk to me!”

Janus sits, doing his best to avoid whatever that is and folding his hands. He drums his fingers nervously against each other.

“What’s going on, Jan-Jan,” Remus asks, and ah, Remus has figured out something is wrong, “are you okay?”

“I need your help,” he decides on eventually, “to hide something from Thomas.”

Remus quirks an eyebrow. “You know that’s not anywhere near my specialty right?”

“And here I thought you were the picture of subtlety.”

“What’re you trying to hide?”

Janus swallows. Then he shakily peels off the glove and offers his hand to Remus. Remus takes it, frowning at his face before he turns to examine the scales. He runs his thumb gently over the places where scales meet flesh and turns Janus’s hand over.

He sweeps a finger down the scales and his nail catches a rough one.

Janus flinches.

Remus’s eyes widen as he takes in the patchwork of missing scales and sucks in a breath. “…Jan?”

“Thomas can’t know,” Janus bites out, “I have to hide it.”

Remus fixes him with a look. “And what else?”

“What else?”

“No lies,” he reminds, harsh tone a sharp contrast to the gentle movement of his thumb on Janus’s hand, “that includes lies of omission.”

Janus’s hand twitches in Remus’s grasp and he takes a deep breath.

“I can’t stop it,” he whispers after a moment, “I need your help.”

“Okay.” Remus gives his hand a tug. “Come closer.”

Janus shuffles forward on the floor, shame burning his cheeks. Remus tuts and raises a hand to pat his face.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Snakey,” he says quietly, “this is hard. Talking about it is hard for most people, it’s gonna be harder for you.”

“It shouldn’t.”

“Don’t say that. You’re not perfect. It’s hard. And you lie.”

“A lot.”

“A lot,” Remus agrees, laying Janus’s scaled hand in his lap, “so it’s gonna be hard.”

Janus takes a deep breath and squares his shoulders. “What do I do?”

“First off, stop looking like I’m about to have you executed by a pack of hyenas with machetes.” Remus raises an eyebrow. “I’m not mad at you, Snakey, and I don’t exactly have any authority over you.”

Janus huffs.

“Jan, look at me.”

Janus looks. Remus’s expression softens a little.

“Hey,” he says softly, “I’m not mad at you, it’s okay. You’re gonna be fine, we’re gonna deal with this. This is hard, this is mean. It’s okay.”

“…you don’t think I’m being a hypocrite?”

“If you are—I said if, bitch,” he says when Janus huffs again, “you’re far from the only one here and you’re far from being to blame for it.”

“What?”

Remus rolls his eyes. “Have you met the other people we live with?”

“…fair enough.”

Remus squeezes his hand. “It’s not gonna be easy, Jan, but it’s okay. I’m proud of you.”

Janus scoffs. “What on earth do you have to be proud of me for?”

“Okay first, don’t like the way you said ‘me,’ second, this is hard, Jan, admitting you need help and coming to find it? That’s not easy.”

Oh.

Janus swallows the lump in his throat and squeezes Remus’s hand back. “…so what do I do?”

“First, do you actually want to stop?”

Janus’s head snaps up. “What?”

Remus doesn’t waver. “Do you actually want to stop? ‘Cause this is only gonna work if you do.”

Does he want to stop?

It would be bad if Thomas found out. It would be bad if the others found out. He would have to deal with their looks and their whispers and he doesn’t want that.

If he grew all his scales back, if the scars faded, would it be like it never happened? Then he…then it would just be gone. He wouldn’t have it anymore. The scars hurt to get but something…something about them tugged on the string in his gut that made him feel safe.

Was that slight tug worth it?

Was it worth the gloves? The worry of someone finding out? The stinging showers? The look on Thomas’s face?

“…yeah,” he mumbles after a while, “yeah, I want to stop.”

“Okay.” Remus gives his hand another squeeze. “I’m real proud of you, you know that, right?”

“Alright, alright,” he mumbles, still ignoring the heat in his face, “that’s enough.”

Remus laughs and pulls him closer. “Gimme a hug, Jan.”

“Fine.”

Surely Remus can’t tell how much he really wants to hug him by how tightly all of the arms wrap around him. Remus chuckles into the crook of his neck and he definitely believes that Janus is being forced into this hug and there’s no way he’d be doing it on his own.

Remus definitely believes him.

“Hey, hey,” Remus murmurs, rubbing his back, and oh, he’s crying, “shh, Jan-Jan, it’s okay, I gotcha. You’re alright now, it’s okay.”

Janus turns his head into the crook of Remus’s neck. Remus is warm against his scales.

“It’s okay, I gotcha.” Remus squeezes him tighter. “You just sit here with me for a minute, ‘kay?”

They sit. For a while. Remus holds him close. It’s warm.

“Hey,” he mumbles after a while, “do you still wanna do the next part now, or do you wanna wait a little bit?”

Janus squeezes his eyes shut and pulls back. “We can do it now.”

“Okay.” Remus cups his hands in his lap and concentrates. Then a little glass jar appears. “Here.”

Janus takes it warily. “What is this for?”

“You. Now pick something you like. Something small that you can have a lot of. Eyeballs, old octopus suckers, paperclips, fuses, glue, wicks…you know, office supplies.”

Despite himself, Janus chuckles. “I forgot that was a Disney movie.”

Remus’s mouth falls open. “Oh, we are so watching that for movie night.”

“Is that tonight?”

“Think so.” He nudges Janus. “You got something?”

“…buttons?”

Remus grins and in a few moments, he holds a massive plastic bag of little buttons. “Like these?”

Janus nods.

“Great. Here’s what we’re gonna do.” He takes one of the buttons out of the bag. “Every day you can go without hurting yourself, you put one of these in the jar.”

The button clatters to the bottom of the jar.

“…that’s it?”

“Uh-huh. But if you break the streak you gotta take ‘em all out.”

“I see.” Janus looks into the jar. The lone button sits at the bottom. It looks so small. “Do I…do I get something if I fill up the jar?”

“Do you want to get something?”

He shrugs. “I’ve never been very good at the whole…self-imposed reward system. Because I can always just have it now and it’s fine.”

Remus snorts. “That sounds like you trying to give yourself deadlines and then being like ‘wait I know the guy who made these and he’s full of shit.’”

“Exactly.”

Remus nudges his shoulder. “Then don’t do that. Just set little goals to start with. Get one button. Then get another.”

“…one day at a time?”

“That’s how this shit works. Slow and steady wins the race.”

“You say as if turtle soup isn’t your favorite.”

“Turtle soup is a fucking delicacy, you whore.”

“You’ve been watching too much UNHhhh without me.”

“Then fucking watch it with me.”

“Thank you, Remus,” Janus mumbles, leaning his head on Remus’s shoulder, “I, um, I don’t know if I’m gonna be any good at this.”

“Be patient with yourself, Snakey, healing isn’t a linear process.”

“I know that…”

“But it never hurts to have someone else reassure you,” he murmurs, his breath warming the top of Janus’s head, “we’re here for you, Jan-Jan. You don’t have to tell us everything, just let us help you.”

Janus stiffens. “Do you think the others will…”

“They’ll ask if they worry—“

“Which they will.”

“—but they respect you, Jan,” Remus finishes, “and they’ll back off when you tell ‘em to. I’m sure you just have to tell them you’re working through some shit and they’ll ask if they can help in any way.”

“But I don’t have to tell them.”

“No, of course not.” Remus finds his hand and squeezes it. “You know I’m proud of you, right?”

“So you’ve said.”

“But do you know it?”

Janus turns his head to let his forehead rest against Remus’s. “Yeah, Remus, I do.”

“Good. Now come on, the day’s almost over. Let’s get you to dinner and movie night and see if we can get you that first button.”

“They’ll agree to watch The Lost Empire, right?”

Remus gives him a look. “Logan loves Milo, don’t let him tell you different—“

Janus snorts.

“—Patton is happy to do anything that makes you happy—“

“Remus!”

“—Roman wants to watch Disney always, all the time—“

“True.”

“—and Virgil is always going to make fun of obvious villains that no one is surprised by.”

Janus can’t stop laughing and Remus wraps an arm around his waist.

“You’re gonna be fine, Jan,” he says softly, “we gotcha.”

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[lord-explosion-baku]

Trident Tale part 2

Mermaid!Shinsou x reader x Kirishima x reader

Warnings: adult themes (minors DNI)

Author’s note: sorry to those of you who have asked me to put on the tag list! I don’t do tag lists! But if you don’t want to lose this story, you can always bookmark it on AO3.

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

Original image by @maewoahoah

Moving to an island where everyone is big on the surf scene and other oceanic happenings might not have been the brightest idea for someone so afraid of anything that has to do with water, but you make do by spending your days looking after the Bed & Breakfast, trying not to burn the house down when you fry a few eggs, and obsessively scrolling through Eijirou Kirishima’s social media page. He’ll never notice you, and you think you’re fine with that, until a mysterious force washes into Ms. Shuzenji’s pool after a particularly nasty storm.

Hitoshi Shinsou is a pain in the ass from the get-go, but you put up with him, fins and all, when he promises he can help unite you with your soulmate. The catch? The fish is hellbent on taking back what was stolen from him, and he won’t lift a gracious finger until he gets what he came for.

You’re helpless to lend him a hand, so long as you stay dry. Unless, of course, he has other plans.

You know how the saying goes: you rub his fins, he’ll rub yours.

The thing about being hungry is that you can sometimes convince yourself that you’re full. You can sip water, swallow your breath, pop a few mints in—hell, you could even pretend to eat. However, even if you might trick your brain, your stomach will still be empty.

By the time you finally get some real goddamn food in your stomach, it will be aching from being teased.

It feels like this is exactly what Hitoshi Shinsou has done to you. Teased you. He’d mentioned being one of Ryūjin, which you can only assume is something religious or magic. You know he’s a fish, and that he makes people’s skin glow when he touches them, and apparently his lips or his saliva can heal wounds. But he’s not yet given you any real goddamn food.

The jerk has been swimming circles around the pool, commenting on how disgusting it is being stuck with all the trash, and complaining about your poor hospitality, but has not yet told you what the hell he’s doing here.

It’s not like you ever asked for some creature to crash into Ms. Shuzenji’s pool. Maybe some people would be ecstatic over finding an actual merperson, but life isn’t all about singing songs and talking to seagulls. He’s definitely not an Ariel, unless he is in fact looking for a prince. With all his sass, you think he’s much more of an Ursula than a Disney princess. If he is a sea-witch, he refuses to tell you.

It won’t matter much by the time Denki gets here anyways. You had been honest when you said you wouldn’t put it against him to call some news station when he sees Hitoshi. You figure that after some science lab’s helicopters carried your intruder away to run tests on him, the fish-man will be out of your hair and a thing of the past.

Despite the cynicism crawling through your head, the thought actually makes a guilty pit form in the bottom of your stomach. A life is a life, afterall.

“At least tell me why you tried to…to…” Your mouth flattens when you recall Hitoshi leaning into you, his lips a whisper away from yours.

“To?” Hitoshi asks while he observes the wayward bra that blew into the pool with notable repulsion.

“To kiss me!” You bark out, ears warm.

“Oh, that?” He purses his lips, spinning the bra around in the water. Then, he’s contemplative for a moment, as if he’s thinking of an excuse that won’t make you angry. Or will. He seems to get a kick out of frustrating you.

“I suppose I should’ve considered that it’s not a social norm for humans to greet other humans with their lips,” he says with a cocky, probably lying smirk. “My bad.”

“You expect me to believe that mermaids kiss each other to say hello?”

“Not a mermaid.” The fish is all teeth as he regards you. “I’m one of Ryūjin. And I’d like to think that you’d believe anything I tell you, since you seem to know nothing about my people.”

“Because you won’t tell me anything about your people,” you mutter right before the house bell rings. Your heart jumps with a spike of panic. You haven’t thought about what you’re going to say to Denki yet. You begin thinking about science labs again, and that knot in your stomach tightens.

“Okay,” you say in a warning tone, “I’m gonna let Denki in now…”

“Uh-huh.”

“He’s gonna see you…”

“That’s the plan.” Hitoshi lifts a brow. “You’re not worried for me, are you?”

“I just think you should be more worried about yourself,” you say. “Humans aren’t…” There’s a pensive pause when you try to search for the right word. “Humans aren’t good.”

“Would you say that you’re a good human?” He asks.

What a question. You’d like to believe that you are, but you can’t kid yourself. Never one to be very self-sacrificing, you utter your next words with confidence. “Nope.”

“And yet, you haven’t done anything malicious towards me. Nothing, besides that half-assed attempt to kick me away from you, anyways.”

Rolling your eyes to keep your couldn’t-care-less facade up, you left the smirking merman to wade around in the murky pool. There’s not another second to think about what you could possibly say to Denki about your surprise guest, because when you enter the house, you see his face peeking through the side window next to the front door. You could see a drink holder and a Tiki Burger bag in his hand. His smile is bright, while yours is grim.

He pouts, seeing through forced body language, and proceeds to make a funny face. You let out a half-sigh, half-laugh. You might not be a good person, but Denki is. He’s an idiot, but you don’t think he’d ever do anything to harm another creature, mythical or not. This could even be fun to him. Exciting. Something extraordinary happened, and you’d been too scared to react to it appropriately, but Denki would be different.

Your changing emotions grow palpable when you finally reach for the handle.

“Heard you had some thingies that needed twisting,” Denki says as you open the door. He’s wearing his company’s shirt, a brown thing with the PoolPros logo on it, though it’s cut raggedly short to show off his midriff. He’s been particularly confident ever since he’d gotten his navel pierced, and happily showed off the topaz stone that Kirishima had given him. It hangs right above his buckle. It forces onlookers to look at his abs…or maybe his groin. He says it’s lucky, and you haven’t argued with him about it. You would probably call something Kirishima gave you lucky too.

In a flash, you’re grabbing him by his shirt collar and guiding him in and against one of the hall mirrors.

“Something’s happened.” The words immediately spill out, even while you still do not know what you’re going to say. You hope that if the right things tumble out of your mouth, Denki will get the picture.

“Uh…” Denki’s cheeks are red hot, reacting to your close proximity. “Was it a spike in your libido?”

God.

“No, shut up!” You smack his chest and glance down the hall towards the back door. The pool isn’t in your line of vision, but just knowing what lurks there gets your blood pumping. “This is going to sound crazy, but I need you to keep an open mind.”

He bobs his brows. “For you? Always.”

After an exhale, you gather your composure, and tell Denki everything with as much eloquence as you can muster.

“There’s something living in the pool!” You bark out, erratic. “It’s big and it has zero impulse control and it’s rude! It talks! When it touches me, my skin glows. Then it tried to kiss me, Kaminari! And it’s rude!” You add that in again, because you cannot stress it enough. Hitoshi Shinsou is as unrefined as a piece of driftwood, and he had the audacity to make comments on behalf of your decorum. “It won’t tell me what it’s doing here, either. I offered to get it back into the ocean, but it said it wanted something else, but it won’t tell me what, and I don’t know what to do!”

Denki blinks rapidly, like his eyelashes are repelling every word you toss at him. There’s a beat, he swallows, then his lips tilt up into a knowing grin.

“Alright,” he says, “I see you.”

“You do?” Maybe you had to give Denki a little more credit. That hadn’t been your best description of a nightmare scenario.

“Sure do, little lady. This is some kinda belated birthday prank, huh? Thought you could slide one past me when I was least expecting it! I was thinking that maybe you just forgot about it, but now you’ve got something up your sleeve, don’t ya! Well cutie, I might be dumb, but I’m not stupid!”

Striding into the house, Denki places the shakes and burger bag onto Shuzenji’s kitchen counter. Shoulders deflating, you follow him while he fishes a few fries out of the bag. If he doesn’t get it now, he will soon enough.

“What could it be?” He ponders, tossing a fry into his mouth. He nods towards one of the cups and mumbles about a shake for you, then towards the back door. “Couldn’t be a party—it’s too early for a party. And you don’t talk to many people…”

Ignoring the slight burn, you front Denki, and extend your hand out to his. His eyes widen for a moment, he wipes his hand on his pants, and takes yours.

“I need your help, Denki. Seriously.”

“Yeah,” he says, a touch more reformative. “Okay.”  

What should’ve been some grand reveal, however, turned out to be anything but.

The pool being clean is the first thing you notice, as absurd as that is. It’s now half-filled, with only sprinkles of algae leftover by some miraculous clean-up. There’s no more silver fish swimming around, and all the trash that had previously taken sanctuary in the pool now lays on a mountainous pile with the bra sitting at its peak. Your guest is no longer in the pool—the very clean pool.

Denki chuckles and says, “well, this doesn’t look bad at all. By how hysterical you were on the phone, I was expecting something much worse. Oh! Hello!”

Your jaw drops as Denki waves at Hitoshi—a very comfortable-looking Hitoshi who lounges on one of the reclining pool chairs, head turned back like he’s sun bathing, one leg crossed over the goddamn other. Legs. Attached to feet—feet that definitely were not there when you’d met him.

Tricky, magic fish-man.

“Oh,” Hitoshi says, carefully considering Denki. “We have company?”

The ‘we’ in his statement doesn’t sit right with you anymore than his appearance does. He stands, and both you and Denki gasp when you see his new outfit in its entirety. It’s all royal blue, fine silks, and sheer fabric that only covers the places that would make Denki blush. Puffy, yet flowing sleeves connect to his now two golden cuffs. A heavy gold necklace hangs around him, and he’s got a light sash thrown around mostly his bare chest. A golden, v-shaped belt holds his deep blue harem pants up.

They are the gaudiest goddamn pajamas you’ve ever seen.

Hitoshi moves like water to face Denki, then firmly grasps him by the forearm, yanking the boy forward so that their lips are mere inches away from each other. Noting that there’s no glowing from their contact, you watch as Hitoshi’s indigo eyes slide from Denki’s lips, to you, and shows off a dubious glint.

“Whoops,” Hitoshi murmurs basically into Denki’s mouth. “I almost forgot that you don’t greet people like this here.” He takes a step away and smirks. “Forgive me. I’m Hitoshi Shinsou. You must be the pool guy.”

“Um, yeah. ‘M Denki Kaminari.” Denki laughs nervously. His cheeks burn red, and he keeps shifting his weight from one leg to the other. Grabbing onto your hand tightly, he starts back towards the house, towing you along, saying, “excuse us, we just have to—uh. Talk.”

In a tick, you’re whisked right back inside, in the land of private conversations.

“It didn’t look like that before, Denki. I swear to god.” You’re insisting as soon as the door is closed.

“It?!” Denki balks, his cheeks turning even more red. “Do you mean the pool or that hunk of a man hanging around your backyard?!”

“Both, I guess, but I wouldn’t call it a man! It had a giant purple tail before you showed up!!”

“That’s very rude, y’know.” Denki peers back at Hitoshi who’s lackadaisically cleaning his fingertips. “What are their pronouns?”

You imagine Hitoshi surrounded by others like him, all either screaming or clicking to communicate with each other in an inhuman language. “I don’t think pronouns matter wherever it’s from!”

“Hmm.” Denki slides the door open and pops his head out. “‘Scuse me, Hitoshi, what are your pronouns?”

Without missing a beat, Hitoshi answers him. “As in titles? You can call me Shinsou, but if you’re so inclined, I’ll allow you to call me lord.”

“Lord, of course.” More nervous laughter as Denki closes the door. “Lord. That’s a kink thing, right? It’s gotta be!”

“It’s not!” You bark, but Denki doesn’t hear you. Instead, he rushes towards one of the hall mirrors and begins fussing over his hair.

“I honestly can’t believe you did this. I mean, you, of all people. You’re braver than I gave you credit for. Coulda given me a heads up, though. I would’ve worn somethin’ nice. Or not come at all. I do feel like I’m intruding.” Denki’s eyes light up. “Unless this is for my birthday and you’re…you want me to join you?”

“You’ve lost me.” You're too busy trying to figure out what you can do to convince Denki that Hitoshi is a mermaid. You’ve considered pushing him back into the pool, but you don’t know if that would change him back to his sea-man state, or just make you look like a jackass.

“This is so weird. I haven’t seen that guy on the island before, and believe me, I know everybody. It must’ve cost a pretty penny to get him here. On top of everything else-“ He clears his throat- “how much is this costing you? Does Shuzenji know what you get up to while she’s away?”

It hits you like a freight train. “Oh, Kaminari…No…”

“The jig is up!” Denki stomps his foot defiantly and points towards the door. “You’re paying that man for sex!”

“God no!” The very idea that you’ve paid Hitoshi to be here, to touch you, flusters the hell out of you. If anything, you’d pay for him to leave. “You’d honestly think I’d hire a prostitute?!”

“Escort is the term they are using nowadays, and no, I wouldn’t think you’d hire an escort until now!” Denki scoffs, then moves his hand through his hair, exasperated. “The thing is, babe, you don’t need to. You’re cute and fun! If you got out every once in a while…”

“Fish!” You yell, cutting him off, because you’re not about to have another conversation about your hermit lifestyle. “He’s a fish, Denki! I didn’t fuck a fish! Nor am I planning to!”

Denki blinks at you. Not like before—not like he’s reflecting your words. This blink is more like a blink one would offer someone who’d been having an otherwise normal conversation, until they started talking about the earth being flat, or homosexuals burning in a lake of fire.

I’m not crazy, you think and will Denki to believe. I’ll prove it.

Before you can give Denki a play-by-play of what happened—properly this time, and not just your rambled recall—the door slides open, and Hitoshi steps in.

“May I enter?” The regal-looking man asks.

At the exact same moment you say, “no,” Denki says, “of course.”

“I was just hoping to find something to eat.” Hitoshi stops in the kitchen, arms crossed and expectant.

“You haven’t fed your hooker?” Denki whispers and it blows your mind that he can say hooker and you can’t say prostitute. “You can have half my burger!”

“Burger,” Hitoshi repeats the unfamiliar word, and looks around, probably wondering what it could be. Denki takes the hint and proceeds to fish his meal out of the bag. Overly familiar with Shuzenji’s kitchen, he finds a knife to cut the sandwich in two, then hands one half to Hitoshi.

Hitoshi frowns.

“I’m sorry, are you a vegetarian?” Denki asks, and you can tell he’s being overly hospitable in a house that is not his. When Hitoshi doesn’t answer him, but doesn’t stop frowning, Denki asks, “do you not eat meat?”

“This is meat?” Asks Hitoshi, shaking the burger in the air. Some mayonnaise-covered lettuce falls to the kitchen floor.

“I have to clean that!” You yip and wet a paper towel. When you’re on your knees, Hitoshi gives you a smirk of indifference.

“What, do you not have hamburgers where you’re from?” Denki asks, and when Hitoshi refuses to answer him again, he says, “the meat is the patty. It’s beef.”

“Beef.” Hitoshi begins dissecting the thing, throwing the bun halves, pickles, tomato, and lettuce all on the floor. You continue to curse at him while he sniffs at the patty. “What animal is this?”

“Beef is cow, dude.” Denki sounds more skeptical now, which you’d be grateful for if you weren’t already on your hands and knees, scrubbing ketchup out of the tile. “Man, throwing food on the floor is rude no matter where you’re from. Babe, you shouldn’t have to clean that up.”

“If I don’t, who will?” You ask, sardonic.

“There’s not really a floor where I’m from,” Hitoshi says once he swallows his first bite. He places the patty back onto the burger wrap, and steps away from his mess. “At least, there’s no floor when it’s meal time. We just let shells and bones float around until they go down to where they’ll eventually break down and decay.”

Denki asks, “where did you say you were from?”

“He’s a fish, Denki.”

“I didn’t.” Hitoshi gets down on his knees with a wetted paper towel of his own. He swipes at the places you’ve missed, then looks at you. “Tell me, would a not-good person clean up a mess that isn't their own?”

“It’s kind of my job,” you retort and stand so Hitoshi can finish cleaning. Instead, he stands with you.

“And what is his job?” Hitoshi nods towards Denki who looks more and more fretful by the second. “I assume he’s here to provide services. If you’re paying him, shouldn’t he be the one to clean for you? Prepare meals for you? Bend to your whims?”

Denki says, “I’ve got a couple jobs, but I’m not a housekeeper, no.”

“No?” Hitoshi gives out a terse laugh and hands the towel off to Denki. “Clean.”

Denki looks to you for an explanation. You’re about to chew Hitoshi out, when he again says, “clean,” but this time, there’s something attached to his voice. Something that is nothing, but also more. It sends goosebumps up your arms and compels Denki to fall to the floor and obey the command.

“Yes, my lord.” When Denki finishes cleaning and throws the rest of the mess in the bin, he looks at Hitoshi, eyes glossy, waiting.

“Fetch me some water,” says Hitoshi, and after another yes, my lord, Denki begins searching for a glass.

“Quit it!” You shout and very nearly grab on to Hitoshi’s arm, stopping only when you remember the glow and the prickles that accompany his touch. Decidedly, you hurry after Denki and grab the glass from his hands and snap your fingers in front of his face.

Denki blinks, and this time it’s not because he doesn’t hear you, and it’s not because you’re spouting crazy nonsense. He blinks, and it’s a revelation.

“Hypnosis!” Denki says the word like eureka! and you want to shake him, because he should be angrier than he seems.

“I’m surprised you understand or even remember that much,” Hitoshi drawls. “You’re more in-tune than you’d like people to believe.”

And I’m Mother Teresa, you think bitterly. The fish is contemptuous as hell, but he doesn’t read people well. To him, you’re good and apparently Denki’s a genius.

“How did you do that?” Denki asks with growing excitement. “When I was a kid, I was really into magic, but could never get any of the tricks right. You didn’t use any triggering noises or images or anything.”

“There is a bit of magic about you,” Hitoshi says like he’s thinking out loud. “Not enough to pull something like what I just did off unless you have the proper tide jewel. But you do have enough power to utilize a tide jewel.”

“Don’t do that again,” you warn, and pour water from the sink into the glass. There’s purified water in the fridge, but Hitoshi hasn’t earned it. “To Kaminari or to me. The difference between a house guest and a home-invader is who does and does not use hypnosis on other guests.”

“I wasn’t aware that hypnosis is a common occurrence in your residence.” Hitoshi reaches for the glass, but you hold it away from him. Casting out a withering look, he says, “I wouldn’t be able to hypnotize him again, even if I wanted to. Not for a while, anyways. Not without my tide jewel.”

“What’s a tide jewel?” Denki asks. “Is that, like, sea glass?”

Eyes flicking from the glass of water, to Denki, then to you, Hitoshi says, “he knows how to ask a question.”

The questions that you ask get ignored! But instead of saying that, you continue to withhold the water, and say, “then answer him.”

Mildly peeved, Hitoshi turns his attention back to Denki. “You say you have a couple of jobs. What would they be?”

“That’s not answering his question,” you mutter.

“I’ll decide whether I should answer him in a moment. Denki, if you will.”

“Oh, well…” The sheepish Denki brings his hand to the back of his neck, blushing slightly. “I’ve got the PoolPros gig, and sometimes I pick shifts up at The Salty Barrel. I sort of got an affinity for making drinks…and cooking…and fixing things, so they like to keep me around.”

Unamused, Hitoshi pries. “Anything else?”

“Sometimes I pick up odd jobs. Fishing and delivery. I guess I’m pretty dependable because of the boat.”

This catches Hitoshi’s attention. “You have a boat?”

“Sure, yeah. It’s nothin’ too special yet. I’ve been working on it, and it’s coming along, but it’s not ready for what it’s truly intended for.”

“Which would be?”

Denki looks at you and winks, making your ears warm. You know exactly why he got the boat.

“Romantic rendezvous.”

“I see,” Hitoshi says pensively. Then, his eyes go sharp when he notices you fiddling with the ties on your shorts. “Are you two mates?”

Denki lifts a conspiratorial brow towards you, before throwing his arm around your shoulders, pulling you against his body. “Sure, yeah—we’re mates!”

You push away from him, and bite, “not those kinds of mates.”

Although nobody disagrees with you, you sense Denki sulking.

“Ah,” Shinsou muses. “You haven’t yet fought for her hand?”

Before you can groan at the idea, Denki laughs quietly, but his laughter quickly grows uproariously as he considers the idea. Soon, he’s gripping his stomach to stop himself from doubling over. You glare at his feet.

“As if there’s another guy to fight for her,” Denki bellows, wiping a tear away from his eye. “Maybe if she ever went out, but for now, the only person I gotta fight for her hand, is her!”

“Oh, I understand,” Shinsou says, eyes on you. “A battle to assert domination.”

Denki hoots loudly at the idea. “Looks like I’m screwed!”

To your growing agitation and embarrassment, Denki continues to laugh. It’s as if you’re not constantly shooting him down. You’re not pitiful. Not helpless. And you think you’d have some game if you put your heart into it. You just have a type, and the pool guy just doesn’t fit the bill, whether he’s handy or not.

There’s no humor to be found in Hitoshi’s eyes, though. He’s glaring at you, like before, only now he’s looking at you more like you’re a piece of meat—like he’s some kind of predator and you’re his newfound prey. You inadvertently step closer to Denki, as if he could be used as some sort of defense shield, then elbow him in the ribs, pretending that you’re not at all intimidated by this fish-turned-man.

“Nobody’s fighting anybody,” you say, keeping eye-contact with Hitoshi. You’ve been told before that the fact that you’re never the first to look away is a little off-putting. Hoping to have the same uncomfortable effect on your guest, you don’t even blink when you say, “I just have my eyes on someone special.”

At the same time Denki stops his laughing, Hitoshi narrows his eyes—not out of malice, but what seems to be curiosity. That’s as far as you’ll go with revealing any more personal information. You might not be physically spoken for, yet, but at least you’re emotionally unavailable. You vaguely wonder if those kinds of ideals are acknowledged by sea people.

“Yeah, Kiri,” Denki says with a roll of his eyes. So much for keeping things personal. “He’s not interested in dating anyone, though. In fact, he’s pretty much married to the ocean.”

“At least there aren’t other girls,” you say, and with a quick glance at Denki, you add, “or boys.”

Denki exaggerates a woeful, hand-over-forehead pose and cries, “at least we have each other!” Then, he places his hand back around your shoulders. Again, you scoot away from him, and this time, you catch Hitoshi’s lips quirk up, just a bit.

“Alright,” Hitoshi says. “I’ve decided.”

“Decided what?” You ask.

“That the two of you are going to help me.”

The fish-man moves to flatten the burger wrap down on the counter like a map, and proceeds to decimate the other half of Denki’s burger. Denki says, “oh that’s fine…I wasn’t that hungry anyways.”

“Help you with what!” You bark, practically starving for details. Despite Hitoshi and all that he’s done, your interest is piqued, and you feel as though you’re finally going to get to the meat of his situation.

Lining a few fries on the paper wrap, Hitoshi finally says, “a few of my worldly possessions have been stolen from me. They’ve been missing for quite a long time now, and I now plan to take them back. Four of the six items happen to be tide jewels. I figure those will be the easiest to locate and extract.”

Denki snaps his finger. “Tide jewels! That’s what we were talking about! What are those?

Dabbing his pinky into some mustard, Hitoshi says, “artistry…” He dips his ring finger into the ketchup and says, “reign…” he tears a piece of lettuce in half and says, “tide…” and finally, he rips some of the patty and says, “soul.”

“Artistry, reign, tide, soul,” Denki repeats, peeking over Hitoshi’s shoulder. “You don’t happen to be a musician, do you? A magician musician!”

“I’m a connoisseur, but not a practitioner.” Hitoshi breathes. “And you’re too close to me.”

“Well, you’re certainly not an artist,” Denki huffs, taking a few steps back. You move in to see what Denki saw.

On the wrap, the French fries have been warped to look like some sort of three-pronged fork. On the left prong, there’s a dab of ketchup, in the center, mustard, and the right has a piece of lettuce sitting on it. Connecting the three prongs is the bit of hamburger meat Hitoshi had ripped.

“Is this supposed to be a fork or a trident?” You ask, then kick yourself, because it’s obviously a trident. Duh. Mermaids. “Is that one of the things that have been stolen? A trident?”

Hitoshi says, “yes. All four of the tide jewels connect to the trident. With them, the trident could very well be one of the most powerful blessed objects on this planet. If it falls into the wrong hands, the results could be catastrophic.”

“Now, hang on,” Denki begins, brows curved into a frown. “What?”

“So good at questions,” you murmur.

“Each tide jewel has its own magical property. The names speak for themselves, but since the two of you are a little slow on the uptake, I’ll explain.” Hitoshi points at each different spot on his fries-trident, explaining what each point represents.

“The yellow jewel is for artistry and skill. Whoever wields it, whether in its natural form or attached to another object, will learn trades quickly, can craft almost anything at a master’s level, and they’ll have a more creative way of thinking.”

“The red jewel is for reign and rule. Whoever wields this can command any audience. Wars have been fought, kingdoms taken, and women stolen by the power of this gem. It’s almost the most violent of the four, but it can also be used to keep peace.”

“The blue jewel is for the tide. They used to be two jewels, one for tide-ebbing, the other for tide-flowing, but they’ve been molded together after another theft mishap. With the power of this jewel, one would be able to control not only the water of the sea, but water itself. This gem can create storms you couldn’t dream of. This is possibly the most dangerous stone if placed into the wrong hands.”

“Sir, that’s a piece of lettuce,” Denki says.

“Your burger didn’t have anything blue,” Hitoshi growls, “nor did it have anything purple, which brings me to the last jewel. This would be the soul jewel. It aids people with wishes, can offer good dreams, and can allow the wielder to see people’s auras, or souls. This jewel has stopped many malevolent unions in the past.”

Finally, Hitoshi turns back to you and Denki. There’s nothing content about his expression now. If anything, he looks grave.

“The fact that the trident is not in my possession has already had a cataclysmic influence on the world you know now. I need it, and the jewels, or else there may be dire consequences.”

Throat dry, palms sweaty, you swallow thickly, and allow yourself a moment to process all that he’s saying. It may be idiotic, but you believe him. Maybe if you hadn’t seen him in the water earlier, things would be different. You’d be more skeptical. But since you’ve already seen one impossible thing today—two if you're counting the fact that Hitoshi grew legs and magically poofed himself an outfit—you don’t think he’s lying.

However, Denki did not see him in the water. Which is why he’s the first to speak.

“Right,” he says, looking down on you. “Sorry, babe, but the marvel universe did it first with Thanos and his gauntlet. If this is supposed to be a scavenger hunt of some kind, can we skip the game, hints and all, and get to the dinner? I expect there’ll be candles and such for nighttime, so maybe you and I can hang out at the beach, sans the mean magician?” Denki looks at Hitoshi. “No offense, buddy. You could join us if you cheer up a bit. I’d never say no to a threesome with two equally attractive people.”

The water in the glass you’re holding begins to shake. It shakes, and then it moves, and then it lifts up into the air, snaking around like a gelatinous worm, and slowly makes its away to Hitoshi’s mouth. Never before have you seen anyone swallow menacingly, and this has changed it.

“I am not your buddy,” Hitoshi hisses between his teeth, “and this is not a game.”

“He just…” Denki begins stuttering. This isn’t something he can chock up to something as mundane as a magic trick. This is pure magic, and you feel less like a giant dork for how you reacted to Hitoshi showing himself to you, with how distraught Denki seems to be.

“I told you,” you say under your breath, “he’s a fish!”

“I am Hitoshi Shinsou. I am one of Ryūjin, and you will not desecrate my name or my people by belittling me or my power.” It hadn’t occurred to you until now that he’s not only speaking to Denki, but to both of you. The thought makes you shift with unease as Hitoshi’s eyes slide from your friend to you. “Not without consequences. I’ve been burdened with this purpose, and the two of you can choose to help me and reap the rewards that follow, or you can return to your miserable lives, loligagging and ogling the things you know you want, but are too lazy to obtain.”

At this moment, Hitoshi Shinsou seems ancient to you. Trepidation crawls up your spine, chilling you to the bone. You regret most of what you’ve said to him, even the things you’d thought he deserved. You have an inkling that if Hitoshi really wanted to harm you, or Denki, he would. Easily.

“Okay, well-“ Denki, again speaks first, thank god. “You didn’t say there would be rewards.”

Maybe don’t thank god yet. But before you can apologize on Denki’s behalf, the air that you hadn’t realized had got heavier, thicker even, lifts, and Hitoshi eases up, lackadaisical smirk back on track.

“You both wish for something,” he says. “If you help me retrieve what’s rightfully mine, I will graciously return the favor by granting your wishes.”

“We do?” Denki asks. It’s wild to you how easily he could jump back into conversation like this, although, when you look closely at him, you can see that he’s trembling faintly. “What do I want?”

“You wish for a boat,” Hitoshi says, “so I will give you a boat.”

“I have a boat.”

“I’ll give you a better boat.” Hitoshi seems to be enjoying himself now, even going so far as to lean on the table, picturing exactly what he’s describing. “A captivating boat that both women and men find irresistible. It will sail smoother and faster than the other vessels out on sea. You will never want or need for an upgrade for it will never wear or tear.”

“A super boat,” Denki muses, beguiled by the idea. It’s your turn to be skeptical now, because you haven’t wished for anything. At least, not aloud for Hitoshi to hear.

“Then, what do I get?” You ask, arms crossed. You can admit that you’re interested in what he might have to say.

“Oh darlin’, that’s easy,” Hitoshi purrs, and moves from the counter over to you. Slowly, like he’s savoring your anticipation. Lifting a finger to your arm, he slides it across your skin, watching as both the glow and the tingles return. You have to hold your breath to yourself from sighing.

“You want to be loved,” he says, “adored even. And not just by anybody. You want to be with your soulmate, isn’t that right. That may be why you came to this island to begin with.”

There’s no way he could’ve known that you’re new to the island. Nobody said anything about it. But he’s not wrong. Though you can’t say he’s right either. You came to the island in hopes to find…yourself. And though you haven’t yet found yourself, you sure as hell found Kirishima. And soulmate has a nice right to it.

“So if we help you find these gems—“

“—tide jewels,” he intervenes.

“Tide jewels-“ you roll your eyes- “then you will give Denki a super boat, and you will unite me with a soulmate?”

“Exactly,” Hitoshi confirms. “Easy peesy, isn’t it?”

“How do we know you’ll uphold your end of the bargain?” Denki asks, finally out of his super boat daydreams.

“I said you were good with questions.” Hitoshi smirks. “You don’t know. You can’t know. But you can either do this with me, and probably get a super boat and a soulmate out of it, or you can not, and get nothing.”

Denki side-eyes you, and you him. You hold each other’s gazes for a brief moment, and you already know how this would play out if you refuse. Denki would convince you to do it. You don’t do anything, he says with his eyes. Might as well hang around and see how this plays out.

“Fine.” Even though your good conscience screams at you to do otherwise, you let up. “We’ll help you.”

“Excellent.” Hitoshi beams, or at least, he beams in a way only someone who was just threatening two other people can beam. “Then we should start our search today. We’ll probably need to go into town and see if there are any supernatural occurrences or old folktales to check out.”

Going out to town is the last thing you’d planned on doing today. Or maybe the second to last thing you planned on doing. You have to ask, because if you don’t, you’ll go batsy.

“We won’t be getting wet, will we?”

Hitoshi scoffs, which isn’t an answer. Maybe you really don’t ask the right questions because when Denki asks, “you said there were six things you need to retrieve. What’s the sixth thing?” Hitoshi winks at you, and grins. And when he grins, your stomach aches.

[d-criss-news]

20 Questions With Darren Criss: How Acting Has Helped Him Make New Music

While Darren Criss has graced our TV screens with a range of characters, from high schooler Blaine Anderson on Glee to serial killer Andrew Cunanan on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, he was last spotted just being himself, on our For You Page on TikTok. “I’m walking to rehearsal with a guitar on my back with a Trader Joe’s bag ... I did not bring an umbrella because I forgot that it was raining. I’m rocking that NYC musician life,” the Glee alum explained in the hilarious clip posted three days ago.

While Criss’ acting work has earned him acclaim and stardom, he leaned into making music during the pandemic. On Aug. 20, he dropped a new EP, Masquerade, featuring five new tracks that Criss says were inspired by the different characters Criss has embraced throughout his career. After Criss wrote songs for his musical comedy web series Royalties and Apple TV+’s animated sitcom Central Park before the pandemic struck the United States, he then used those experiences as a precursor to his new EP. As Criss continues to promote his new music, he answered 20 of Billboard's questions – giving us a peek into how his new EP came together, and how growing up in San Fransisco shaped him as an actor, singer and all-around artist.

1. What inspired your latest project, Masquerade?

Although I would have preferred that it come at a far less grim cost, I finally had the time. Before the pandemic, I had written 10 new songs for my show Royalties -- along with an original song for Disney and another for Apple’s Central Park. These were all assignments in which I was writing for a certain scenario and character. Go figure. It was the most music I had ever written in a calendar year. This really emboldened me to rethink how I made my own music— to start putting a focus on “character creation” in my songs, rather than personal reflection. The latter was not proving to be as productive. The alchemy of having this time and having set a new intention with my own songwriting and producing made me put on a few of my favorite masques and throw myself a Masquerade.

2. How do you think your background as an actor complements your music?

They are one and the same to me. I treat acting roles like musical pieces— dialogue is like scoring a melody; there’s pace, dynamics, cadence, tone. Physical characterization is like producing -- zeroing in on the bass line, deciding on the kick pattern. Vocal characterization is like choosing the right sonic experience, choosing the most effective snare sound, and mixing the high end or low end. It goes without saying that it works in the complete opposite direction. Making each song is taking on a different role literally and employing the use of different masques to maximize the effectiveness of the particular story being told.

3. On Instagram  you wrote that “Masquerade is a small collection of the variety of musical masques that have always inspired me.” Which track do you identify with most in your real life?

Everybody absorbs songs differently. Some key into the lyrics, some into the melody, some the production, some into vocal performance. When I listen to songs, I consider all of their value on totally different scales. So it’s hard to say if there’s any track I “identify” with more than any others, since I -- by nature -- identify with all of them. I think I just identify with certain aspects more than others. If it helps for a more interesting answer, I will say I enjoy the slightly more classical, playful -- dare I say -- more Broadway-leaning wordplay of “Walk of Shame,” but that’s just talking about lyricism. I enjoy the attitude of “F*kn Around,” the batsh--t musicality of “I Can’t Dance,” the relentless grooves of “Let’s” and “For A Night Like This.” All have different ingredients I really enjoy having an excuse to dive into.

4. What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

Beatles audio cassettes: “Help” and “Hard Day’s Night.” I just listened on repeat on a tape-playing Walkman until my brother and I got a stereo for our room with a CD player in it, which was  when I just bought the same two albums again, but this time as compact discs.

5. What was the first concert you saw?It’s hard to say, because my parents took us to a lot of classical concerts when we were small. But I guess this question usually refers to what was the first concert you went to on your own volition, and that my friend, was definitely Warped Tour ’01. My brother and I went on our own— two teenagers going to their first music festival, in the golden age of that particular genre and culture. It was f--king incredible.

6. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?

My dad was in private banking and advised really, really wealthy people on how to handle their money. My mom was, by choice, a stay-at-home mom, but in reality, she was my dad’s consigliere. They discussed absolutely everything together. They were a real team, and I saw that every single day in the house. They both had a background in finance (That’s how they met in the first place.) and were incredibly skilled at all the hardcore adulting things that I absolutely suck at. They were total finance wizards together. So of course, instead of becoming an accountant, I picked up playing the guitar and ran as far I could with it. Luckily, they were all about it.

7. What was your favorite homecooked meal growing up?

My dad was an incredible chef. For special occasions, I’d request his crab cakes. They were unreal. I’ve never had a crab cake anywhere in the world that was good as my dad’s.

8. Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?

I don’t know if I’ve actually realized that yet.

9. What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?

The specifics change every day, but the core idea at the top is to continue being consistently inconsistent with my choices, and to keep getting audiences to constantly reconsider their consideration of me. But I mean, sure, what performer doesn’t want to play Coachella? What songwriter doesn’t want to have Adele sing one of their songs? What actor doesn’t want to be in a Wes Anderson film?

10.  How did your hometown/city shape who you are?

San Francisco. I mean, come on. I was really lucky. The older I get, the more grateful I am for just being born and raised there. It’s an incredibly diverse, culturally rich, colorful, inclusive, vibrant city. By the time I was born, it had served as a beacon for millions of creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to gather and thrive. I grew up around that. The combination of that with having parents, who were unbelievably supportive of the arts themselves, laid an incredibly fortunate foundation to consider the life of an artist as a legitimately viable option. It’s a foundation that I am supremely aware is not the case for millions of young artists around the world. I was absurdly lucky.

11.  What’s the last song you listened to?

I mean probably one of mine, but not by choice. I know, lame. But I’m promoting a new EP, what’d you expect? But if you wanna know what I’ve been listening to, as far as new s--t is concerned: a lot of Lizzy McAlpine, Remi Wolf, and Charlie Burg.

12.  If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?

The Beatles is an obvious "yeah, duh." Sammy Davis, Mel Tormé, or of course, Nat King Cole. I would’ve loved to see Howard Ashman give a lecture on his creative process and his body of work.

13. What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your sets?

I feel like just having a crowd at all, at any one of my sets, is pretty wild enough.

14. What’s your karaoke go-to?

The real answer to this I’ll write into a book one day, because I have a lot to say about karaoke etiquette. I have two options here: I can either name a song that I like to sing for me, for fun, or I can name a song that really gets the group going. The answer depends on what kind of karaoke night we’re dealing with here. So I will say, after I’ve selected a ton of songs that services a decent enough party vibe for everyone else, then I would do one for me, and that would be the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling.”

15. What’s one thing your most devoted fans don’t know about you?

What I have up my sleeve.

16. What TV show did you binge-watch over the past year?

Dave is a stroke of genius. There are episodes that I believe are bona fide masterpieces. Also, My Brilliant Friend is a masterclass in cinematic television.

17. What movie, or song, always makes you cry?

It’s A Wonderful Life.

18. What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Get used to sharing everything about yourself and your life now, or more astutely, to the idea that you don’t necessarily get to control how your life is shared. I know it’s not really your thing, but you’re gonna have to get used to it, so start building up those calluses now. And don’t worry, all the stuff you love now will be cool again in your mid-thirties, so keep some of those clothes because you’ll be a full-blown fashion icon if you just keep wearing exactly what you’re wearing. Oh nd also, put money into Apple and Facebook.

19.  What new hobby did you take on in the last year?

I’ve always been a linguaphile. My idea of leisure time is getting to study or review other languages. This past year, I took the time to finally dive into learning how to read, write, and speak Japanese. Other than making music, it was one of the biggest components of my 2020-2021.

20. What do you hope to accomplish or experience by the end of 2021?

I hope I get to play live shows again.