#Marcello Love Spell

[otomeauntie]

Love Spell: Written in the Stars Marcello's Route, Episodes 3 and 4 Reactions!

Marcello, Marshmellow, who ARE you, sir???

Getting a little further into this route now and lemme telya I'm not USUALLY one for this particular trope (specified after the cut), but I'm not hating it on Marcello.

Disclaimer (just for the sake of consistency): There will be minor to moderate spoilers below the cut! I will be making comments about events that are occurring and showing screenshots from the game, but I won’t be describing EXACTLY what is happening or showing any CGs. So you might be able to piece things together, and get a feel for the direction of the story.

Episodes 1 and 2 reactions here

Please consider supporting the devs and buying the game on Steam or Itch.io!

Episode 3

Confession: I have actually developed an aversion to the "mafia/billionaire/CEO" tropes in romance media. I just feel like the genre as a whole is SO oversaturated with that (in the West, at least) and it doesn't particularly appeal to me, so a lot of times I'm forced to sift through a lot of stuff I DON'T want to find stuff I DO want, and yeah, it's grown into a very mild resentment.

HOWEVER, I am still really enjoying this route a lot. The fantasy twist on this story, in addition to the dynamic between MC and Marcello are really hitting the spot for me. And I just LOVE LOVE *LOVE* how flirty Marcello is. But I also hate it because the AUDACITY of this man? (But I do actually love it. But I hate it? Because what a little BRAT?)

I also love how much of a MENACE Philia is in this route so far. She is an enchanted fairy penguin after my own heart. Her role as an MC's shoulder gremlin (or maybe just ME, embodied) feels much more present in this route so far.

Episode 4

I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT TRUST YOU, MYSTERIOUS HANDSOME STRANGER! you will have to FORGIVE my paranoia, as you've essentially KIDNAPPED me (though I can acknowledge that it's maybe for my own safety, but still not very cool). So if i have NO CHOICE but to be with you constantly, then you at LEAST owe me the choice of trusting you or not. ugh he's infuriating...ly handsome. argh.

Simply had to share this set of choices, because it is just HYSTERICAL and I would like to choose 'D: All of the above', please.

Anyways, looks like I was right about this route being a bit more mature. Like, multiple people have died??? They were just random goons, but after Jamie's somewhat-tame route, it's a significant difference. I'm enjoying the depth of Marcello's character so far, and the mystery of it all is really keeping me on my toes. I am hoping that MC isn't kept in the dark for too much longer though. I just want her to be in the know and have some agency and idk USE SOME WITCHY POWERS or something. Just cuz that would be cool.

Let's see what episodes 5 and 6 have in store for us!

[smash-or-pass-otome]

Marcello DiNucci

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

Who does the kids go to first when they cry or get angry or just in general? Bayverse tmnt pls pls pls lol I love your content btw ❤️

Who Does Your Kids Go To When They’re Emotional?

Bayverse!Turtles x reader

A/N: Aw, thank you so much!💚 It’s a good question and I’ll happily answer. And along with that request comes a full list of my Bayverse OCs! Hope you enjoy!💚

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Warnings: Spelling, crying children, angry children, anxious children, general sibling stuff.

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Leonardo:

Romeo: Much like his own father, Romeo wishes to make his father proud. That had been obvious since he was small, following his father around like a duckling following their mother. And with this need to make his father proud, Romeo often found comfort in his father. He got hurt during training? Leo was there to make everything better. Romeo and Marcello had a fight? Romeo would go straight to Leo, even if he was meditating.

When Romeo was small, he would cuddle up in Leo’s arms. Once Leo had comforted him, Leo would resume his meditation, letting Romeo stay in his arms as he did so. When Romeo got older, it would turn into Romeo just sitting down next to Leo in order to start his own meditation. There had even been times where a mildly fuming Romeo would return from an argument with his younger brother, asking his father if they could meditate together.

Marcello: Leo’s relationship with his second youngest wasn’t necessarily strained, but it hadn’t always been easy. Marcello had found it hard to keep up with his father and older brother since he was small, which often resulted in small arguments or fights, stemming from frustration and irritation, both at himself and the other men of his family. Therefore the most obvious place to go when he was angry or sad was you.

The amount of time you had been minding your own business when a pair of small arms and hands wrapped themselves around you. Marcello rarely spoke when he was sad. When he was little he would just hide his face against you, but once he hit his teenage years, he would just sit down beside you with his arms crossed, waiting for you to ask him what was wrong.

And well, if you weren’t around, he would go look for uncle Raphael. He understood the little guy’s emotions and would happily spend time with him.

Gerardo: The peaceful one, as you and Leo sometimes would call him when you were alone. Gerardo rarely became sad or angry, always sporting a bright smile with bright blue eyes. But when the crime that was making this little angel sad did occur, it did not matter who was around, Gerardo would make a beeline for his parents with a loud cry.

Other than when he was born, Gerardo rarely cried. But when he did, it was loud and ear piercing. Either you and Leo would drop everything in your hands, running for your crying child. Once Leo came jumping out of the dojo at the sound of Gerardo’s cry, katanas ready in his hands, as the sound alone made him think the lair had been invaded. In reality, the toddler had been pushed by Marcello who did not wish to share his Nintendo.

Valentina: Sometimes you and Leo actually wondered; did Valentina ever cry? Well, other than she was a baby and crying was the only way she knew of, to tell when something was wrong, you couldn’t actually remember a time where you had seen Valentina cry or be angry. But with three much older big brothers, all wrapped tightly around her finger, Valentina never had a reason to cry. They pretty much got her everything she asked for. She wanted to play with that priced Nintendo, that had gotten Gerardo pushed when he was a toddler? She could get to play with it, just this one time. Surprise, it was never just one time. She wanted to have a go with the odachi sword Leo had gotten Romeo? Romeo wasn’t too happy about it, but he could never say no to his little sister. Heck, Gerardo would trip his own parents if Valentina asked him to. But luckily she didn’t… at least not yet.

Raphael:

Joan: This girl has and will always be a daddy’s girl, even if her temper and strength shocked Raph at times. She was a hard puncher that rarely cried, but booooy, could she get angry. And when she was angry, the only person that seemed to be able to calm her down.

When Joan was angry, the whole lair knew it, and it had scared her little brother at least twice. Each time Raph had wondered if giving her sharpe weapons as a gift had been such a good idea.

There was really no telling of what had gotten Joan so angry. But nonetheless, Raph had decided to go check on her in the weight room, where she was punching the punching bag so hard that Raph had to blink. Whoever had gotten his eldest daughter so angry was lucky to be alive.

However Raph understood. He knew of the need to punch your feelings out every once in a while, so he did not stop her. Instead he sat down and watched her, waiting for the moment she was ready to talk about it. That moment finally came after some time, where Joan finally stopped punching the hanging sack, before running to her father, throwing her arms around his torso and crying against him. Raph did not ask her to speak, but instead held her tight as she got all of her emotions out.

Minerva: You and Raph’s second oldest daughter was no less emotional than her big sister. She did regularly get sad, and when she did, she was glued to Raph’s side, hugging him tightly as if she was scared he would disappear if she let go.

Mini was a genuinely more anxious child. She often had nightmares and would often come to you and Raph during the night, finding herself feeling more safe in Raph’s arms. It wasn’t a big problem since Raph loved hugging his daughter, but it did become a problem when Raph had to leave for patrol, but Mini cried and screamed whenever he was going out the door. It did not matter if you were the one holding her when Raph left, as she would fight against your grip, screaming for father to come back. That was probably the worst you had ever tried as a mother, watching your 3 year old daughter scream and cry for hours, just wanting her dad to come home. It was stressful, both for you and Raph.

Then something amazing happened. Once when Mini sat in Raph’s lap on the couch, Raph started to knit. Mini’s eyes was filled with interest as she watched him work, and very soon, she wanted to learn it too. And then, when Raph had to leave for patrol, she did not cry. Instead she told him to come home early, so she could show him how far she had gotten with her knitting. And that was the start of how Mini would soothe herself with knitting.

Ragnar: You and Raph’s only son, named after the ruthless viking king and leader (yes, Raph’s idea), was actually quite a softy. Sure, he was sassy and sarcastic, a trait he and his siblings had taken straight from their father, but if there was one thing he hated, it was fighting. Ragnar was a very sweet and caring boy, but he hated sudden noises or when things changed too fast. And his reaction to this? Well, that was crying. And lord did this boy cry a lot as a child. He couldn’t find his favorite toy? He would cry. One of his sisters ate the last piece of cake? He would cry. One of his cousins didn’t want to play with him? He would cry. And each and every time he would run to you and hide against you while he cried his eyes out.

Then, in his teenage years, it was as if a switch was flicked in his brain, and Ragnar no longer cried as much as he used to do. He still wasn’t a big fan of fighting, but his curiosity for the world has expanded. Neither you or Raph would forget the day a 14 year old Ragnar asked if he could come along on patrol, because he wanted to see the city. Raph had obviously said no, knowing that there was no telling what could happen during a patrol. But instead of crying, Ragnar just sat down next to you with a very sour expression, mumbling about how he would find a way to sneak out with his cousins.

Donatello:

Galileo: Gali was one of those children that did not know how to fully express his emotions. Especially not after he became a big brother to twins. For five years Gali had been used to having you and Donnie’s attention to the fullest, so when there suddenly was not just one more kid to look after, but two, Gali started to feel a bit ignored. He started to crave attention, both by you and Donatello. If one of you were holding one of the twins, he wanted attention. But when you couldn’t give him that, due to the babies in your arms, he did the only thing he could think of - cry and scream. And that worked. It worked too well. To the point where Gali would just scream to get attention from at least one of you.

But as closer to his teen years Gali got, the more he wanted to be alone. A 10 year old Gali often found that his 5 year old sisters gave him headaches, rarely leaving him alone. They would come into his room in order to watch whatever video games he was playing, begging him to get a turn on his newest game, and not leaving when he told them to. There was this one time where a sad and frustrated Gali turned off his computer and left his room, followed by his two little sisters. He then found you and Donnie sitting in the kitchen with his uncles and grandfather. He didn’t say a word but flung his arms around Donnie, crying into his shoulder. After that day, you and Donnie taught your daughters to listen when their brother wanted to be left alone.

Dorothy: Every family has their troublemaker, and in the case of you and Donnie’s little family, it was Dorothy. That did not make your daughter any less loving and caring, but sometimes she needed a little more mental stimulation, often in the form of very clever pranks, often targeted at her siblings, and sometimes her unsuspecting cousins. But as much as Dorothy loved pranks and pranking others, she hated when others decided to prank her.

Neither you or Donnie saw it happen, but apparently it had been one of those very simple pranks you saw all the times in cartoons. So simple that Dorothy could only feel embarrassed. That was why Gali and Marie had made it so simple. A bucket filled with water on the top of her doorway, just waiting to fall when she opened the door. And that was exactly what happened.

You and Donnie were alerted by a shriek, followed by the sounds of Marie and Gali’s hysterical laughter, before a soaked Dorothy came running to you, jumping onto the two of you on the couch, pointing and screaming about what her siblings had done to her. You and Donnie had looked at each other, wondering if life as parents ever would become peaceful, before Donnie left to have a talk with your other two kids.

Marie: The tomboy of them all, Marie rarely cried. Whenever she fell from her wild acts, she just brushed off her knee and kept running, smiling brightly without a care in the world. Unless her brother felt the sudden urge to tease her until she left his room, or when her sister decided to pull another prank on her. In those cases, Marie did not cry, but she did become incredibly frustrated and angry, going to you and your husband with smoke blowing out of her ears, telling the two of you what the others had done to her.

But just because Marie didn’t cry, it did not mean that she wasn’t full of deep emotions, because she was. Evenever something was plaguing the poor girl's head, she would go to either you or Donatello, depending on what her problem was. She had always been well articulated and thought before she spoke, always resulting in her sentences being very precise and very well described.

There was one time Marie came crying to you, and that was after she had gotten lost in the sewers. The little adventurer had managed to get too far away from the lair, and found herself walking down pipes she had never seen before. Donnie, who did not like how long she had been gone, ventured out to find her, finding her crying in the corner of a far away drain. She clung to him as he picked her up and carried her home, before she ran to you as soon as she got to the lair.

Michelangelo:

Sunny: Sunny - or Sunshine as Mikey liked to call her - was a bright and happy girl that hated to cry or feel the emotion of anger. As a child she was a loud giggler with a vivid fantasy, and a surprisingly deep understanding of how emotions worked, both her own and others. There had been times that she noticed her cousins hiding some sort of sadness, to which she would sit down with them and engage them in talk about their emotions, just like her father would have done with his own brothers, and good lord, how proud Mikey was the first time he saw Sunny have talk with one of her emotional cousins.

Other than the time Sunny straight up told her father that she felt like he didn’t want to play with her after her little brother was born, there had rarely been times where Sunny had felt outside, or in the need to have a stern talk with her parents. But as a growing child, there had been times where she fell or tumbled, and cried out from the sheer shock. Obviously, you and Mikey rushed to her rescue each time, picking her up in order to hold her close. But Sunny, the absolute daddy’s girl as she was, would usually point to Mikey when she was in your arms, or straight up ask you to bring her to her father. And of course you brought her to him. You too would go to Mikey whenever you were sad, so why wouldn’t your daughter do the same. And hell, it looked adorable to watch him walk around with your daughter on his hip.

Luis: While Sunny is a daddy’s girl, Luis is a total mama’s boy. Just as happy and smiling as his big sister, Luis could never sit still. He often ran and jumped with the same energy that his father had shown throughout the years.

But with your son being so hyperactive, he obviously got himself hurt quite often. And each and every time, your beautiful son with big emotions cried out for you. Or crying out for Mikey, telling him to go find you.

But as sweet and happy Luis was, he was also quite dramatic. He was the type of kid to stop crying as soon as he saw you, just sniffling with big eyes and lifting his arms, expecting you to pick him up. And when you then sat down with him, he wouldn't move from you all day, sticking to your side and telling you how it still hurt whenever you tried to get up from the bed or couch.

When Luis was in his “I’m hurt and I can therefore only stick to mommy” mood as a small kid, he wasn’t too happy about letting anyone get too close to you, not even Sunny or Mikey. There had been times when Mikey had leaned down to kiss you goodbye as you sat on the couch with Luis, before he was about to head out with his brothers. But as Mikey leaned down to place a peck on your lips, little Luis let out a loud “no!”, before putting a little hand up between you and him. As serious as Luis’ expression was, you and Mikey couldn’t help but laugh at his little cute face.

[hellcatinnc]

Otometober Day 12 The One You Wish Had A Route

Well damn there is a few games that I had people in I liked that needed to have a route. I want to name a few Leo in Piofiore, Hansel in Code Realize Wintertide Miracles, Owen in Cupid Parasite, Sergio in Love Spell Written In The Stars, Watson in Code Realize as well as Miles too and last but not least . I can't choose between so just going to write a little bout what I would love to see in each.

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Owen (Shelby's Assistant) - Cupid Parasite (Tell me they wouldn't be cute together)

You spend so much time with this man since Shelby is always working. I swear you see him more than you do Shelby so I took a liking to him. He is so damn cute even his shyness is adorable. I know in one route you set him up with someone but why not give him a route so you can see what it might be like to romance that awkward assistant for yourself. I feel like he might be a bit of a kuudere but I don't know he is just so cute I would love to get to know him. I mean come on you have to deal with Gil so why not have a chance with Owen which obviously is a better pick.

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Sergio in Love Spell Written In The Stars

This man comes out in the route of Marcello and he is the opposite gang member if I remember right. Anyways whether you die in the route or Marcello dies he has the sweetest demeaner that makes you feel like he would be a very romantic and loving love interest. There is talk of him becoming a route but only after the company makes enough money to do so. That being said I don't know if this man will ever really be a route.

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Leo in Piofiore

Leo this is a sweet sweet man honestly he is very loyal and takes care of Liliana without questioning. Yes he is still young and still learning what to do like the guys that have grew up in it but he is always trying to learn. He is loyal to Dante for all that he has done for him and to Liliana as well. I honestly believe he would love her without question. Not even sure why he was never a love interest seems pretty stupid to me but here is to hoping one day he might be.

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Hansel in Code Realize Wintertide Miracles

This man is so damn hot, I know I have yet to play his route yet that he is in but I do know from reading around the internet his job is the same as Saint Germain's once was he works for the same organization. That being said I would love to see the back story of him like they did Saint as well as let him be a love interest, like who would not want to look at this man daily.

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Watson - Code Realize - Wintertide & Future Blessings

This is a confliction to me like I love Sholmes but I know Watson is like the total opposite of him yet still intriguing. Sadly the confliction I have is he has such a great personality and even a bit of a flirt but he makes it very clear his dead wife is and always will be the only love for him. I respect him so much for this but damn I would love to see that loyalty on the side of romancing him as well.

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Miles - Code Realize - Wintertide

I know absolutely nothing about this man I just surfed through Code Realize characters and saw him and drooled. Damn from his sexy smile to that beautiful face and the way he dresses.... ahhhh this man is too damn hot not to be a love interest.. Just WHY??

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Orion - Amnesia

I thought about him because my friend @misschimotosuwa-blog loves him and Leo but I wanted to add the other reasons I think it would be cool to have Orion too. I think yeah so he is a kid but everyone else ages in the other games so why couldn't they have done the same with him even if he was late teens still would have been able to work just felt they didn't bother which is sad yet brocon can make a route for a 12 yr old smh.

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Anyways thats my choices of men that I really wish had a route I might bring them to life in my own fanfic at some point. Also miss chi I'm sorry would love to add Mythril Rid Pod but I love him just not with Anne in anyway lol.

[hootenanie]

tagged by charlotte @charlottan to spell my url in song titles! tyyyyy my friend

H-hung up on a dream by the zombies. this is maybe my favorite zombies song. beautiful barque pop instruments. beautiful harmonies. beautiful homoerotism. what more can be said? it's the zombies, I've only ever met one person who didn't love them and she was later exposed for abusing her boyfriend.

O-oh death by kaleidoscope I really like this folk song! it feels so much like a fake traditional ballad someone would make up to put in their bad horror movie trailer lmao, so I'm glad it's real. the kaleidoscope version is... fine. kaleidoscope in general is kind of just fine, but I'm including their version because of how much I like their album art and because I don't wanna go through the trouble of finding a better version rn. sorry

O-one of our submarines by thomas dolby. Thomas Dolby is pretty hit or miss for me, but when he hits he really hits. I love his atmospheric synth songs, and I love how they're equally suggestive of a bleak after-the-end future and an analogue world wartime past. this is I think one of his best songs special thanks to @psygull for introducing me

T-train song by the pentangle. this is from basket of light, which is one of my favorite vinyls I own! it always cheers me up, it's so warm and friendly sounding, quite a bit of uk folk from that period is. I don't really have any special thoughts on the pentangle, only that they where very good, remarkably technically skilled, and I'm glad John Renbourn and Bert Jansch went on to release collaborative albums together after the group broke up. you know, it's nice when people seem to be friends

E- è tornato sabata, hai chiuso un'altra volta! by marcello giombini. I love themes with lyrics that explain the premise of the movie SO much. every film should have one. and this one is so good, it's really catchy, it's sung in English which is good because that's the only language I can understand, it explains who our protagonist is ("sabata, fastest gun in the west. nine-fingered man, four barrel dillinger, he's the only invincible man in the country side") what the stakes are ("if you want money, if you wanna get rich, you gotta be a son of a...") it's got a goofy singer whose elongating vouls like crazy. again: every movie should have this

N-(the) night has a thousand eyes by gary lewis & the playboys. I've got a weakspot for early 60s bubblegum pop, and for unintentionally unnerving stuff from the same era, which you can probably tell from the title this also is lol. I also think this album is just really solid. this isn't one of the best songs on it, but it's one I listen to more than most. anyway, I reccomond it, or at very least opening track This Diamond Ring to fans of the Beatles' early work

A- america by allen gingsberg. not a song? fuck you it's on spotify. that's where the songs live. america I feel sentential about the wobblies

N-no love lost by tucker zimmerman. I found tucker zimmerman by chance while looking for something else, and I'm really glad I did. he's got a gentle voice and a simple & emotionally open lyrical style I find really nice. this album, songpoet, in particular is a real gem of a find and I'd say more about it if I wasn't getting really tired

actually y'know what I'm so tired I'm just gonna list the last two without commentary

I-I'll follow the sun by the beatles.

Eastern Spell by t. rex.

tagging @chymical @itsonofthem @psygull @lindaloring @chaumas-deactivated20230115 @bluecheer @lew-basnight @bill-blake-fans-anonymous

[ivyprism]

You play otome games? Which ones do you recommend??

I've only really gotten into it. But I do have a few ones I'd recommend.

Warnings: Long, also mentions 18+ content in Sims recommended.

My current gamer grind is Arcadia Fallen. It's a beautiful game and I recommend it. My favorite route, so far, is Kaiden. I saw that man and I immediately wanted to marry him. My second favorite is Michael. You can customize your MC and it comes with LGBT+ representation. :)

I also recommend Love Spell: Written in the Stars. I loved it, I am a very simple girl. The routes are predictable to some extent, but they're beautiful and very worth it. I have two favorite routes: Marcello and Jamie's route. Marcello is for the more stakes route and Jamie is less stakes, more slice of life, and I adore it. The third would be Aslan. But there is a route I want to play REALLY bad, but it's not out... So a small downside is that the main protagonist will always be a girl. This one has 18+ subjects that you can skip over if you like. I wouldn't recommend this game if you are not over the age of 18.

Another good one is Witches and Warlocks. My favorite route is Zero and Lawrence. This one comes with LGBT+ representation like Arcadia Fallen. It's free on Steam! It's simple, sweet, and to the point. It's very wholesome.

A Witchy Life Story is also a really good game! Don't know if it counts as an otome game, but the routes are fun and it's interesting! It comes with LGBT+ representation and a customizable MC with the ability to change pronouns.

I then recommend Tailor Tales. This game is also free on Steam. You can customize your MC, but you can't change her gender. A small thing about this game is that it touches on R18+ content, so I wouldn't recommend this game if you're not over the age of 18. My favorite routes were James and Gray.

My Candy Love is a good one to start with though. So, this game is in the mobile app store and on the desktop. The only gripe I have with it is that the AP system is absolute garbage. This has LGBT+ representation after the high school arc (this is the first part of the My Candy Love story chronologically). This one touches on 18+ topics like Tailor Tales, but I believe it's optional. I wouldn't recommend this game if you are not over the age of 18. Unfortunately, the MC's pronouns are unchangeable and remain feminine. You can customize your MC too.

-H

[archer12xx-main]

📌 Pinned Post 📌

Ayo! I'm D and welcome to my main blog. This may be overdue but better late than sorry, right? Haha lol jk

Anyway, here's the list of sub/secondary blogs that I have under archer12xx-main:

archer12xx - this secondary blog is for Tobias Fox and other Infinite Blue (it's an otome chat sim game created by Velvet Fox Games) related posts. I'm most active here (aside from my main)

beelscheeseburger - this one is for Obey Me and my love for Beel and Mammon-sama. Though I'm like a bubble on this blog lol I could disappear any time.

his-little-fool - this one's for Lucien Xu of MLQC 💜 (same with beelscheeseburger though, a bubble 😂)

d-plays-otome-and-vn-games - this one's for everything else, from twisted wonderland to pc otoges. It's kinda new and it's the reason why I decided to make a pinned post.

thepepperwoodchronicles - last and definitely not the least, my New Girl-themed blog. It's inactive at the moment but I'll be right back to it for sure (probably after I'm done with OP)

--

Kinda wish tumblr would allow us to choose which one to use when commenting and stuff. But... hope this helps! 🥰🥰

Keep reading to know more about me.

TL;DR - an introvert who loves One Piece, MCU, otoges, webtoon and manga, basketball, dogs and cats, languages, movies, and non animated tv series. Also someone who has a lot of secondary blogs. 😂

Author's Section:

Like I said above, I'm D hehe nice to meet ya!

I'm 24 and I go by she/her

Currently in college

I'm a filo living in the Philippines

English is not my first language, so if you see errors forgive me T_T I also speak Korean, a little bit. I pick up languages easily because I love learning them. But too lazy to actually study them. 😅

I sometimes write stuff and I try to draw, too (you can see some of my works on my sub blogs ^^)

I like/love a lot of stuff and a lot of characters lol namely;

On One Piece, my main man is Roronoa Zoro. I also love Shanks, Law, Pell, Katakuri, Ace, Rosinante, Smoker, (and for some reason, probably before I knew who he was) Kaku, and of course Sanji-kun and Luffy. I'd say Rayleigh and Mihawk too but not the same kind of love. I just think these two are so cool and I'd love to have them as my ojichan and otochan respectively. 😏😉 (Yes, I'd call Mihawk Otochan not jijiwe, not otosan... otochan lol)

Aside from OP, MCU is one of my other obsessions hehe but don't ask me what team I am on Civil War because you won't get a serious answer lol ✌️ I love Iron Man, though. He's my favorite Avenger. Loki is my favorite, too. And if I have to choose among the villains, I'd choose... Thanos because I hate him the most. 😅

And then there're Infinite Blue Tobias Fox, Obey Me Beel and Mammon, MLQC Lucien, Twst Leona, Jack, and Trey, TOT Vyn and Marius, Duskwood Jake, Mysme ZEN, Wannabe Challenge Biho and Yooha, Ikevamp Leonardo and Vlad (and a little bit of) Sir Arthur, Ikepri Leon and Jin, Nekopara Sage, Blooming Panic xyx, RLFC Lex and Sol, Colorful Mirai Millo, TeachersLP Edgar and Dr. Fox, Under Maintenance Theo, Love Spell Marcello, Sinsations Greed (do not judge me pls lol), and the list goes on and on and on. Lol

I also read webtoons and manga

I also watch tv series, such as New Girl, kdramas, etc.

Movies, too. Like a lot. Romcoms, action comedies, sci-fi and a little bit of Stephen King horror stuff.

I still play Left4Dead (yeah you read it right haha) and my go-to character is Zoey. Though I could never get past the freaking subway T_T (I don't want to use a walkthrough though...) Rip 💀

I love dogs and cats, despite being allergic to them lol

Taylor Swift, 5sos, and everything else.

Coffee and tea

Loves basketball, too. PBA - Ginebra Kings (Thompson and Brownlee), NBA - GSW (Klay Thompson, sometimes Curry but mostly Klay)

Anyway, this is getting too long and if I continue you might end up knowing me better than I know myself. 🤣🤣

And it's probably obvious by now, I don't have a lot of friends. 😂😂 Not just because I'm an introvert. Lol jk (serious about the introvert tho)

That's all folks! If you're still here... Wow! Thank you so much for reading this!! Stay safe, drink water everyday, take care of yourselves, and hope you're having a much better day today than yesterday! I mean that for tomorrow, as well. 💚💚💚

[traipseartist]

May 12 - I Was a Falls, I am Become Rapids

For the sake of our sanity, Lewis and I planned this trip with only one day of "rest" from the road--and since he had visited the town of Minneapolis, Minnesota last fall on his way out to school, he had strong and fuzzy feelings around returning.

This was the first stop where I was on ground I had traipsed before--I had come to Minneapolis in February of 2016 for a work trip to visit a glamorous financial institution in a very tall building in a very cold season and was... unimpressed... with the experience. Lewis was set on changing my disposition.

With Henrietta's suggestions in hand, we walked down to Black Walnut Bakery, which frankly ran like an absolute machine on the brunchiest day of the year: Mother's Day. Lewis and I had a small agony over what pastries to choose and gawked at the most beautiful cakes in the pastry case.

We munched on banana walnut bread and kougin amann while we went to purchase sunblock for my origami paper skin and navigated back to Henri's to get ourselves situated for a bike-a-ganza.

Lewis had brought his bike, Zolpa (don't kill me Lewis, I don't know how this could possibly be spelled otherwise) on Stacey's back from Boise and with a pretty comprehensive system of Lime rental bikes scattered around down town, I was set to tag along on my own set of wheels. We took to the streets! We scooted down to a sculpture garden on the grounds of the Walker Art Center which was hosting a massive art fair with 100+ tents and kiosks. Local artists were selling paintings, photos, sculptures, furniture, ceramics, air plant holders, tiny sweaters for tiny stuffed animals, jewelry, beer, jewelry for you beer, and much art in between. We chatted up some very friendly Midwestern artists (we bought several prints from a woman who told us that she couldn't hear the long "ay" in her pronunciation when she asked us if we wanted a bayeg for our purchased goods.) and people-watched over good beer in the still shade. The tents nestled among and around sculptures brought its own touch of other-worldliness to the vibe, and we walked the grounds unencumbered with art peddlers when satisfied with our survey of the fair.

Now, time to go explore! We pedaled through downtown and down to the river to take a look at the Mighty Mississip'. Old industry buildings towering along the edge and the roar of the dammed water spraying us on a bridge-crossing between the twins added to the flavor. Maybe I was starting to like Minneapolis after all.

From there we beelined for another brewery in hopes of finding food but instead found... even more good beer. A cryptic later, a liiiittle drunk and a prevailing hour in a separate space (I really, really needed a pedicure) meant our afternoon trickled away easily. When I met Lewis at a rooftop bar down in Lynnwood, I could tell spontaneity was already afoot.

The bartender, a sweet, sympathetic person named Johnny, was filling Lewis in on the details of the evening--it's a Saturday in Minnie, we have to do something!--and mentioned that the Violent Femmes were in town and playing across the water in St. Paul this very eve. Lewis, who had been listening to a Violent Femmes greatest hits CD in his car since people listened to CDs in their car clicked his heels at the news. Snapping up two floor tickets with a little strategy, we finished eating a shared veggie burger and headed home to shower and put on our aging-punk clothing.

The Palace in St. Paul is an old-school spot that had likely been repurposed many times as a formal theater before it became a venue where people spilled locally brewed beer on the floor and squeezed up the (probably, once) red-carpeted stairs to the gauchely painted mezzanine. Bless Marcello for his gift of ear plugs back in Salt Lake City (Marcello's plot is gloriously one jersey barrier attempt at sound dampening away from the freeway behind his chicken coop in his backyard) because I did love this crusty punk music but I wanted my eardrums for tomorrow. They played things I knew, things I didn't, and Lewis happily but cautiously headbanged from the back of the tightly packed crowd

Tired and high on the energy of a room full of people singing till their voices wouldn't. The band played two solid hours with xylophones, conch shells, bassoons, and bath robes to the crowd's delight. As they rolled gently off stage, we all filed into the night, aiming for the hangover cures that would meet us on the other side of the sunrise.

[yourfavninjaturtlefan21]

The children of the Turtles

AN: Some of these names I took from other people and some I found myself :)

Warning: The spelling and wording is kinda weird

Leonardo

Marcello: Marcello is the oldest cousin in the Hamato family , over protective of his little sister , Very good at soccer, and loves Fast and Furious (watched all of the movies at least 5 time). Age:18

Mosiah: Just like Marcello, Mosiah is very protective of his little sister and would kill anyone who messes with her. Mosiah also likes formula 1 , loves the band d12 and Lil Uzi Vert.Age:16

Luna: Has her brothers and father wrapped around her finger, If she wants to use Marcello laptop, he is going to let her or wants to watch f1 with Mosiah she can. Luna is a person that can read your emotions quickly , if your feeling sad or anxious. She can tell and try to calm you down , She loves Olive Rodrigo , Makeup and fashion. Age :14

Raphael

Anthony: Anthony is the secound oldest in the Hamato family ,He also loves football, soccer ,boxing and basketball. And just like Marcello is very overprotective of his little sisters and loves to annoy them. But he likes hanging out with them and even every Friday they have movie night. Age:18

Ria: Ria is just like her father, Fierce and competitive .She's the "tomboy" of the family , She likes watching sports (espacially boxing) and playing sports, and if you mess with her or any of her family members she will plot her revenge and it wont be pretty. Age:14

Valentina: Valentina is very into spider man, she has mostly every comic and dvds ( nobody knows she has them). Valentina nickname is spider because her liking of spider man (ria created the nickname) and Valentina loves knitting to! Age: 11

Valarie: If Valarie has more than 2 pieces of candy she will and when I mean she will, SHE WILL have the biggest sugar rush ever , and it will take hours to get her calm. Valarie is a very shy and sensetive girl at first but is wild when you get to meet her. Age:7

Donatello

Daniele: Daniele is just like Donnie from mutant mayhem , Loves anime and K-pop (mostly stray kids). When she was young she felt that the name Daniele was to long so she started to write Dani on her drawing , "school" work (Donnie teaches all the kids) and started to correct people her name and say to them call her Dani. She is an only child! Age:13

MichelAngelo

Stella: Just like her cousin Luna ,Stella can read your emotions quickly and will cheer you up some how. Stella loves the color orange just like her dad and cheerful. and she LOVES Wolverine ,The Weeknd and Sabrina Capernter. She just a girl version of Mikey with her own unique twist ! Age:13

Sammi: Sammi is just like Valarie shy but wild when you get to know him, Sammi loves Wolverine just like his sister and both of them would spend hours watching it. Sammi is very good at art when his is feeling sad or nervous, he would get a paper and pencil! His fav color is green! Age:7

[garyrevel]

In recognition of MLK Day 2023

MLK Day: 2023 - They Slew the Dreamer

They Slew the Dreamer - MLK: The Gary Revel Story

Gary Revel is known as the rarest of living individuals who knows the secret details of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.. This feature film tells his story. From humble beginnings, growing up in Alabama to Hollywood, NYC, Memphis, Nashville and his special investigation of MLK's killing.

New 2023 remix-edit of the docu/music film/video They Slew the Dreamer on IMDB Pro.

They Slew The Dreamer - This song is written about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4th, 1968, and Special Investigator/Recording Artist Gary Revel's findings of that killing.

On April 4, 1968, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Civil Rights Leader, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. Gary Revel sings his song that uncovers the shooting of MLK. He describes the assassination in this 2023 re-mix of THEY SLEW THE DREAMER with the pictures of Martin and those who were most responsible for the murder; Lyndon Baines Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, Vito Genovese, Santo Trafficante Jr., Sam Giancana, Meyer Lansky, Joseph Colombo, Frank Costello, Don Carlo Gambino, Joseph Bonnano, Paul Castellano, Carlos Marcello, Dealy Plaza Tramps, and the CIA's E. Howard Hunt. (Vito Genovese is pictured twice). The spell-binding story of Gary's investigation is coming to film, look for it at a theater near you. MLK: The Gary Revel Story, Producer: Jeff Olm, Director Carmeron Arnett.

Final Report on the special investigation of the assassinations of MLK and JFK … Link - https://garyrevel.com/final_report.html

Gary's investigation of the MLK assassination led him to ties with the assassination of President John F. Kenned and Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, John Lennon as well as the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. His investigations have been the fact bearing pillars of several screenplays including; MLK (Screenplay by William Sachs), JFK: The Real Story (Screenplay by Ambyr Davis, Robert Burns, and Gary Revel), One Day in November (Screenplay by Frank Burmaster and Gary Revel), Red Polka Dot Dress (Screenplay by Frank Burmaster and Gary Revel), Dead of December(Screenplay by Frank Burmaster, Jim Edwards, Pat Becker, and Gary Revel), King of the Little People (Screenplay by Frank Burmaster and Gary Revel),, To Jodie with Love (Screenplay by Frank Burmaster and Gary Revel), Assassination Inc.(Screenplay by Frank Burmaster and Gary Revel), Khashoggi (Screenplay by Frank Burmaster and Gary Revel), … and more. Learn more about them at http://garyrevel.com … The Gary Revel Pro IMDB page… https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm5836026/

[marleneoftheopera]

1500 Followers! Vintage Phantom Audio Gift

As a huge thank you for 1500 followers, I bring you 10 vintage Phantom audios! 

These are 10 of my favorite audios from 2000 or before. I feel like a lot of the vintage recordings are so lovely, but often overlooked for the newer audios. Which is understandable, as many of the casts from 1990-2000 are relatively unknown. So let’s show them a little love!

The link to all of the audios is here: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/edh34vyegj0jd/Gifts(2)

The cast, dates, and my little thoughts on why they’re great are below!

Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman, Steve Barton, Nicholas Wyman, Cris Groenendaal, Judy Kaye, Leila Martin, David Romano, Elisa Heinsohn February 28, 1988; Broadway I think we can all figure out why this one is here. Anything of the original cast is a treasure to me. Besides that though, I think Sarah sounds really nice here and gives a bit more emotion than you get on the cast recording. Most of the time people who don't care for Sarah judge her more on the OLCR and some YouTube clips. I think she sounded even better as time went on. And of course the rest of the cast is wonderful. I think a must-listen!

Dave Willetts, Jan Hartley-Morris, Michael Ball, Maria Moll, Michael N Harbour, David Firth, Mary Millar, John Aron July 15, 1988; London I have been told this is a soundboard, which sounds very possible. But due to age and probably wear and tear/downloads it isn't the best quality. Still, has a wonderful cast. Jan is the standout for me and yet she is definitely the least known out of the trio. Her voice is absolutely divine. Dave was wonderful in reminding you of Michael but also making his Phantom unique. And Michael seems like he was a wonderful Raoul.

Colm Wilkinson, Susan Cuthbert, Byron Nease, Paul Massel, Gregory Cross, Lyse Guerin, Kristine Marie Guiguet, Peter Cormican, Donna Rubin March 17, 1991; Toronto, Canada Never been a huge fan of Colm, but especially now since Rebecca Caine's story. However, this is the only audio of Susan Cuthbert, who I think sounds lovely and is so overlooked. Rest of the company is great as well.

Mark Jacoby, Karen Culliver, Hugh Panaro, Paul Laureano, Jeff Keller, Patrice Pickering, Marilyn Caskey, Gary Rideout, Catherine Ulyssies August 1992; Broadway Act 1 is a soundboard, Act 2 is a very good audience recording. I think the entire trio is absolutely lovely. Also, baby Hugh!

Thomas James O'Leary, Sandra Joseph, Gary Mauer, Teressa Eldh, Frederick Herenges, George Lee Andrews, Patrice Pickering, Jeff Keller, Gerdalyn Del Carso February 3, 1998; Broadway Posting especially for Thomas. Pretty unknown Phantom nowadays, but I have always liked him. Sandra vocally is a bit of a hit or miss sometimes for me, but I tend to like her more in her early days. And Gary as Raoul! Such a lovely voice.

Glyn Kerslake, Jill Washington, Chris Harley, Anthony Raffell, Leo Andrews, Jasna Ivir, Heather Jackson, David Hillman, Amanda Light March 6, 1999; London I loved Glyn's voice the first time I heard it. Another relatively unknown Phantom. Jill has a wonderful and lush voice.

Ted Keegan, Rebecca Pitcher, Richard Todd Adams April 17, 1999; Norfolk Great clear sounding audio. Ted Keegan is one of my favorite Phantom's and he is still understudying the role on Broadway today! I saw him in 2019 and he very much gives me Hugh Panaro vibes vocally and is a great mix of old school Phantom in the modern day. Vocally, Rebecca doesn't always impress me but her earlier years I like much more. So she sounds pretty good here.

Hugh Panaro, Adrienne McEwan, Gary Mauer June 11, 1999; Broadway Adrienne is honestly one of my favorites because she has a very unique voice. Having been in the show for so long and part of 2 anniversaries, I am always surprised she isn't better known. Also, Hugh in his first Phantom run! And another Gary as Raoul audio.

Mike Sterling, Charlotte Page, Gartor Thor Cortez July 31, 1999; London If I could time travel, this would be one of the casts I would see. Mike vocally seems like he was ahead of his time in a sense. He reminds me a bit of Tim Howar. Charlotte has a stunning operatic voice. Also features Gardar Thor Cortes as Raoul! Not sure why, but he spelled his name different back then. Love his voice as well.

Ian Jon Bourg, Colby Thomas, Christopher Morandi (u/s), Vera Borisova, David Hunerjaeger, Linda Bruske, Marcello Ronchietto July 5, 2000; Hamburg, Germany Super clear audio of the original German production featuring 2 long running Phantom cast members? Yes please.

[otomeauntie]

Love Spell: Written in the Stars

Marcello Route, Episode 1 and 2 Reactions!

Pic for attention, and to show off Marcello's featured assets heh

This is my second route from this awesome little indie VN. I played Jamie's previously and his was very sweet. I even managed to get the good end (I'm pretty sure) without a guide!

I'm expecting Marcello's route to be much more mature in both tone and spiciness, just based on his character design alone (see above).

Be warned! There will be minor to moderate spoilers below the cut! I will be making comments about events that are occurring and showing screenshots from the game, but I won't be describing EXACTLY what is happening or showing any CGs. So you might be able to piece things together, and get a feel for the direction of the story.

Reaction to Episodes 3 and 4 here

Please consider supporting the devs and buying the game on Steam or Itch.io!

EPISODE 1

Okay, MC is a certified HOT MESS and her life is in absolute SHAMBLES but I love how spunky and sassy she is in this route. Marcello 100% deserves it; he's kind of a pushy asshole, but also very charming, so I'm very okay with yelling at him.

aaargh I'm so torrrrrrrn over himmmmmm. quirky nicknames are one of my WEAKNESSES and "pinks" is such a good one! But I'm very unimpressed with how he just keeps throwing money around like it'll solve every problem. (it's his attitude. he comes off as SUPER arrogant and flippant.)

EPISODE 2

I'm sorry EXCUSE ME SIR??? WE LITERALLY JUST MET.

WHAT THE FLIP FLOP IS HAPPENING??? i absolutely deserve to KNOW WHAT THE HELL KINDA DANGER YOU'RE DRAGGING ME INTO BEFORE YOU DRAG ME INTO IT. You're very handsome, but I am not a fan of this behavior.

omfg we are REALLY in the shit now. I'm actually kinda really mad at Marcello for pretty much tossing MC into the deep end of his life. Like BRUH.

BRUH.

Her life is the PITS as it is already!!! would you PLEASE consider her autonomy as a person and maybe tell her what is happening so she can make a CHOICE on whether or not she wants to continue associating with you???

You can't just THROW A NORMAL-ASS GIRL into a situation like this without any warning. goddamn.

He is still very handsome and charming, but I'm not gonna let him get away with this for much longer.

We'll just have to see how the next few episodes play out...

[smash-or-pass-otome]

Tags and Links A-M (In Progress)

Some might still be missing cause I just went down the Smash or Pass tag on here and there's some i forgot to tag

Also I put links for the Lovebrush guys cause I didn't want to list each version

If any links don't work please let me know. I tested some but not all

The * is just me marking where I stopped when making the list

Alice in the Country of Hearts

Elliot March

Amnesia Memories

Kent

Arcana

Asra

Julian

Lucio

Muriel

Nadia

Portia

Arcana Twilight

Sirius

Ayakashi Romance Reborn

Kuya

Toichiro Yuri

Yakumo Koizumi

Backstage Pass

Adam Eaton

John Brandon

Matthew Partridge

Baldur's Gate 2

Anomen Delyrn

Birushana

Minamoto Yoritomo

Blind Griffin

Alexei

Emilio

Giovanni

Blooming Panic

Quest

XYX

Boyfriend Dungeon

Sunder

Bustafellows

Crow "Scarecrow" Miller

Helvetica Orsted

Limbo Fitzgerald

Mozu Shepherd

Shu Lyn O'Keefe

Cafe Enchante

Canus Espada

Ignis Carbunculus

Il Fado de Rie

Kaoru Rindo

Misyr Rex

Charade Maniacs

Akase Kyoya

Futami Ryouichi

Iochi Mizuki

Mamoru Chigasaki

Cinderella Phenomenon

Karma

City of Love Paris

Louise Paquier

Cloud Meadow

Kreyton

Code Realize

Impey Barbicane

Saint Germain

Collar X Malice

Takeru Sasazuka

Court of Darkness

Fenn Luxure

Cupid Parasite

Alan Melville

Gill Lovecraft

Raul Aconite

Ryuki F Keisaiin

Shelby Snail

Cute Demon Crashers

Akki

Kael

Mirari

Dangerous Fellows

Lawrence

Zion

A Date With Death

Grim Reaper

Demonheart

Raze

Sir Brash

Xan'ari

Devil butler with Black Cat

Berrien Cliane

Devil Kiss

Cain

Dragon Age Origins

Zevran

Dragon Age 2

Fenris

Dragon Age Inquisition

Cullen Rutherford

Eldarya

Leiftan

Error 143

Micah Yujin

Even If Tempest

Tyril I Lister

The Fate of Wonderland

White

Fire Emblem Fates

Kaze

Saizo

Fire Emblem Three Houses

Claude Von Riegan

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

Edelgard Von Hresvelg

Felix Fraldarius

Mercedes von Martritz

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 4

Hiiragi

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town

Cliff

Gray

Hatoful Boyfriend

Kazuaki Nanaki

Shuu Iwamine

Havenless

Noah

Hustle Cat

Grave Serling

I was a Teenage Exocolonist

Marzipan

Ikemen Sengoku

Masamune Date

Sasuke Sarutobi

Ikemen Vampire

Arthur Conan Doyle

Kamigami no Asobi

Anubis Ma'at

Loki Laevatein

Kissed by the Baddest Bidder

Mamoru Kishi

Shuichi Hishikura

Knights of the Old Republic

Carth Onasi

Love Spell Written in the Stars

Enix Gray

Florian Atlas

Jamie Niro

Marcello DiNucci

Lovebrush Chronicles

Ayn Alwyn

Cael Anselm

Clarence Clayden

Lars Rorschach

LoveLink

Blake Bailey

Lover Pretend

Asagi Eiichiro

Kamikubo Kazuma

Makino Harumi

Sena Yukito

Riku Nishijima

LoveUnholyc

Leo

Lullaby of Demonia

Ifrit

Max Gentleman Sexy Business

Samuel Finch

Sinterklaas

Vicki Lestrange

Vlad Nibblesome

MeChat

Wu Xiang

Metro PD: Close To You

Katsuyuki Kyobashi

Monster Prom

Damien Lavey

Moonlight Lovers

Aaron

Beliath

Ethan

Ivan

Neil

Raphael

Vladimir

Mr Love Queen's Choice

Gavin

Kiro

Lucien

Victor

My Candy Love University Life

Castiel

Mystic Messenger

Jumin Han

Saeyoung Choi

Yoosung Kim

Zen

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

Bayverse tmnt scolding their sons since they went a different direction or didn’t listen and didn’t follow with the orders their dad gave out, and nearly got spotted by humans while the eldest was trying to keep the middle from mucking around and go back on track?

I feel like they will be grounded after coming back to the lair and get sent to their rooms and have their mask taken off them. :D

Sons of Leonardo (Fluff/Crack-ish)

Bayverse!Leonardo x reader

A/N: I love this idea! But I decided to focus on one group of children instead of all four. I went with you and Leo’s kids (aka, my OCS), because that was the first that came to my head😂💙

Buuuuut! If you want me to do more of these with the others, I would happily do so💚

-------------

You and Leo are at least in your 40’s.

Warnings: Spelling, you and Leo’s sons being silly teenagers💙

-------------

Romeo did not like it one bit. Actually, he had been very much against it from the start, wondering how the hell Marcello had managed to get their father to agree to let them go watch the basketball game. He had probably used that eye trick uncle Michelangelo had taught him. Heck, even Gerardo knew how to make those eyes. But of course, their father wouldn’t just let Marcello and Gerardo go on their own. No, no. Romeo had to come along and make sure that his brothers didn’t do anything stupid, or worse, getting noticed by humans.

And that was how Romeo found himself stuck inside the jumbotron for hours, stuck watching a basketball game he didn’t actually want to see. If this was the “responsibility of the oldest” that his father kept talking about, he could easily understand how he could be so uptight sometimes. And as Romeo pulled 12 year old Gerardo back from the edge, he wished his father would have been more uptight that day.

As soon as the game ended, Romeo was ready to go. They had promised not just their father, but their mother as well, that they would return home as soon as the game had finished. So when Romeo had his brothers returned to the roof once more, the last thing he expected was 15 year old Marcello heading the opposite direction, leaning over the edge of the building in order to get a better look of the people walking out onto the street.

“Marcello! No! Dad told us to get home as soon as the game finished!”, Romeo commanded, pointing in the direction they had to go - away from downtown.

“Calm down, junior, I’m just watching”, Marcello said, waving his hand at his older brother. “I’m just watching”.

“Hah”, Gerardo laughed, pointing at Romeo. “He called you junior”.

“Marcello, seriously”, Romeo sighed. “You know how dad gets when he’s worried. Hell, do you remember the time you went too far out in the sewer, and dad, granddad and all our uncles almost exploded with worry? Do you remember how sad mom was?”

“Dude, I was 4”, Marcello said with a deadpan look. “Now I’m just as old as dad was when he and his brothers started going out”.

“Yeah, but they also listened to dad!”

“Haha!”, Gerardo laughed. “Donnie, Raph and Mikey listening to dad? That was a good one ‘Meo!”

“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?”, Romeo sighed, side eyeing his little brother.

“Relax”, Marcello said, straining his neck to get a better look at the crowd. “I’m just looking around. You never know when you see a pretty girl”.

“A girl?”, Romeo asked skeptically. “Bro, you’re 15”.

“So? Mom and dad met when they were 15”.

“18”, Romeo corrected.

“Whatever”, Marcello said, rolling his eyes, letting his hands rest on the edge of the building.

“Why do you wanna look at girls?”, Gerardo asked.

“I don’t know”, Marcello mumbled. “I just wanna look…”

“You are not going to score a human girl”, Romeo said, crossing his arms.

“Says who?!”

“Dad, who is waiting for us to get home”, Romeo said. “Come on, he knows when the game ends and how long it takes to get back”.

“That hypocrite”, Marcello said. “Mom is a human, dad is a mutant. They didn’t meet because he kept hiding away!”

“No, mom and dad met through aunt April at a house party”, Romeo said, putting a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Now, let’s go before dad and our uncles go looking for us. Or even worse, granddad”.

“No!”, Marcello said, pulling his shoulder away from his brother, getting down to sit on the edge. “I wanna see some humans!”

Gerardo watched the interaction with unease. After 12 years he knew that his two older brothers could get into some heated arguments, just like their father and their uncle Raphael had done when they were younger. But Gerardo also knew that neither Romeo or Marcello would back down so easily.

“You have seen plenty of humans today! You watched a whole basketball game!”, Romeo exclaimed in frustration, grabbing for his brother once more. “Now, let’s go home!”

“I said no!”, Marcello exclaimed, pulling away yet again, this time with much more force. This caused Marcello to tumble forward, his weight pulling him off of the roof, down towards the big crowd of humans below. But thanks to the higher powers for Romeo’s fast reflexes, he managed to get a hold of Marcello’s hand, pressing his heels against the edge before leaning back. Gerardo yelped, running to throw his arms around Romeo, helping him pull their brother back on the roof safely.

Once Marcello was back standing on the roof, slightly shivering from the sudden shock and fear of falling from a high building, Romeo was on him in less than a minute.

“Are you okay?! Did they see you?! What were you thinking!?”

“It wasn’t on purpose, worry fart”, Marcello said, pushing Romeo off of him. “And no! No one saw me”.

“Guys, I think we should go”, Gerardo said, looking over his shoulder in unease.

“Rardo’s right”, Romeo said. “They could be checking the roof soon”. And with those words, the three brothers hurried home.

—

The three brothers entered the quiet lair, their senses heightened for any sounds of movements that would alert them to their extended family’s presence as they sneaked through the lair.

“Do you think dad has gone to bed?”, Gerardo asked.

Marcello smirked, his back straightened as if he didn’t have a worry in the world as he clapped Romeo on the shoulder in victory. “Told you that old fart wouldn’t notice a thing”.

“Look twice before using the term old fart”, a voice sounded, causing the three brothers to jump in surprise, finding their father standing right behind them. His arms crossed and a scolding expression on his face, his towering statue causing his sons to crane their necks in order to look up at him.

“H- hey dad”, Marcello smiled with a sheepish smile. “H- how long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough”, Leo said, his expression unchanging. “Where have you been?”

“At the game”, Gerardo said. “Just like we told you we would”.

“The game finished an hour ago. It only takes 15 minutes to get from the game and to the lair”, Leo said, his hands resting on his hips.

“The game stretched out”, Marcello said, feigning innocence. This caused Leo to sigh, rubbing the bridge of his beak.

Romeo sighed, knowing what this meant. “You and the others watched the game on TV, didn’t you?”

“We did”, Leo sighed, sounding more than a little frustrated.

“Okay, we might have hung around after the game and watched humans, but that’s it”, Marcello said, ignoring his brothers’ burning glares when he used the word “we”. “But it’s okay now. We’re home, safe and sound. So if you don’t mind, I think I’ll head to bed and get some sleep before heading to dinner at aunt April and uncle Casey’s tomorrow”, the middle child smiled innocently, trying to sneak past the broad form of his father.

“Oh no you don’t”, Leo said, grabbing on to the tails of Marcello’s bandana, janking him back with a small tuck, and then pulling it off of his head with a smooth flick of his wrist. “Because you’re all grounded”.

“WHAT?!”, Marcello yelled out loud, grabbing onto his bare head.

“Aww”, Gerardo said with a sad expression, not resisting as his father took the bandana off of his head. “I hate being grounded”.

“That’s the rules”, Leo said, waiting as Romeo untied his own bandana before handing it to his father. “You don’t follow the rules, you get grounded”.

“That’s not fair!”, Marcello yelled. “You went out all the time when you were 15!”

“Yes, I got grounded too”, Leo said. “You see how that works?” He gathered all bandanas in one hand before pointing in the direction of their rooms. “Now go to bed. We start training early tomorrow”.

The three brothers groaned, Gerardo and Marcello being extra loud as they did so, dragging their feet toward the metal stairs that lead to the second floor of the lair. Leo watched them leave, making sure they had gone to their rooms, before returning back to your and his shared bedroom.

In your bedroom, he found you reading a book in the bed table light, your baby daughter cuddling against your chest as she played with her teething toy. You looked up and saw the bandanas in Leo’s hand, watching as he laid them on top of the dresser.

“Grounded?”, you asked, Valentina wiggling in your arms at the sight of her father, a big smile on her face.

“Grounded”, Leo confirmed as he got ready for bed.

“Hopefully they didn’t take it too hard”, you said, closing your book before placing it on the nightstand.

“Well, Marcello wasn’t too happy about it, but the others took it pretty well”, Leo said, crawling under the covers, wrapping arm around you, before pulling you and blabbering Valentina close.

“So nothing new there?”, you asked, resting your head upon his shoulder, watching as your daughter started to hit lightly upon Leo’s plastron with a wide smile. Leo shook his head in a response, resting his cheeks against the top of your head, watching you daughter place both hands on his chest. Leo sighed with a smile, tickling the side of little Valentina, her giggles loud and happy as she hid against you.

“And you, young lady, better not be like your brothers when you get older”, he said, finding peace in her small giggles.

“That, or she’ll be even worse”, you joked, your fingers soothing her small shell.

“With three big brothers? Yeah, you’re probably right”, Leo chuckled, placing a kiss on the temple of your head.

[alwaysalreadyangry]

most of the UK reviews i’ve read of martin eden have been a disappointment, tbh. i don’t know if this is because critics have been busy with cannes or because outlets here just don’t have the space, or because it’s kind of seen as old news. i have seen no real engagement with the politics or form beyond a couple of cursory lines, and it’s a shame because... i think it’s really rich wrt those elements?

so i am looking again at the (wonderful) review from film comment last year and it’s such a shame that it’s not available freely online. so i thought i’d post it here behind a cut. it’s long but worth it imo (and also engages really interestingly with marcello’s other films). it’s by phoebe chen.

COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS              Jan  3, 2020                    BY PHOEBE CHEN

EARLY IN JACK LONDON’S 1909 NOVEL MARTIN EDEN, there is a scattering of references to technical ephemera that the 20th century will promptly leave behind: “chromos and lithographs,” those early attempts at large-scale reproduction; “a vast camera obscura,” by then a centuries-old relic; a bullfight so fervid it’s like “gazing into a kinetoscope,” that proto-cinematic spectacle of cloistered motion. These objects now seem like archaic curios, not much more than the flotsam of culture from the moment it shifted gears to mass production. It’s a change in scale that also ensnares the novel’s title character, a hardy young sailor and autodidact-turned-writer-célèbre, famously an avatar of London’s own hollowing transmutation into a figure for mass consumption. But, lucky him—he remains eminent now on the other side of a century; chance still leaves a world of names and faces to gather dust. Easily the most arresting aspect of Pietro Marcello’s new adaptation is its spotlight on the peripheral: from start to end, London’s linear Künstlerroman is intercut with a dizzying range of archival footage, from a decaying nitrate strip of anarchist Errico Malatesta at a workers’ rally to home video–style super 16mm of kids jiving by an arcade game. In these ghostly interludes, Marcello reanimates the visual detritus of industrial production as a kind of archival unconscious.

This temporal remixing is central to Marcello’s work, mostly experimental documentaries that skew auto-ethnographic and use elusive, essayistic editing to constellate place and memory, but always with a clear eye to the present. Marcello’s first feature, Crossing the Line (2007), gathers footage of domestic migrant workers and the nocturnal trains that barrel them to jobs across the country, laying down a recurring fascination with infrastructure. By his second feature, The Mouth of the Wolf (2009), there is already the sense of an artist in riveting negotiation with the scope of his story and setting. Commissioned by a Jesuit foundation during Marcello’s yearlong residency in the port city of Genoa, the film ebbs between a city-symphonic array and a singular focus on the story of a trans sex worker and her formerly incarcerated lover, still together after 20-odd years and spells of separation. Their lives are bound up with a poetic figuration of the city’s making, from the mythic horizon of ancient travails, recalled in bluer-than-blue shots of the Ligurian Sea at dawn, to new-millennium enterprise in the docklands, filled with shipping crates and bulldozers busy with destruction.

Marcello brings a similar approach to Martin Eden, though its emphasis is inverted: it’s the individual narrative that telescopes a broader history of 20th-century Italy. In this pivotal move, Marcello and co-writer Maurizio Braucci shift London’s Oakland-set story to Naples, switching the cold expanse of the North Pacific for the Mediterranean and its well-traversed waters. The young century, too, is switched out for an indeterminate period with jumbled signifiers: initial clues point to a time just shy of World War II, though a television set in a working-class household soon suggests the late ’50s, and then a plastic helicopter figurine loosely yokes us to the ’70s. Even the score delights in anachronism, marked by a heavy synth bass that perforates the sacral reverb of a cappella and organ song, like a discotheque in a cathedral. And—why not?—’70s and ’80s Europop throwbacks lend archival sequences a further sense of epochal collapse. While Marcello worked with researcher Alessia Petitto for the film’s analog trove, much of its vintage stock is feigned by hand-tinting and distressing original 16mm footage. Sometimes a medium-change jolts with sudden incongruity, as in a cut to dockworkers filmed in black and white, their faces and hands painted in uncanny approximations of living complexions. Other transitions are so precisely matched to color and texture that they seem extensions of a dream.

Martin’s writer’s optimism is built on a faith in language as the site of communication and mutual recognition. So follows his tragedy.

Patchworked from the scraps of a long century, this composite view seems to bristle against a story of individual formation. It feels like a strange time for an artist’s coming-of-age tale adapted with such sincerity, especially when that central emphasis on becoming—and becoming a writer, no less—is upended by geopolitical and ecological hostility. At first, our young Martin strides on screen with all the endearing curiosity of an archetypal naïf, played by Luca Marinelli with a cannonballing force that still makes room for the gentler affects of embarrassment and first love. Like the novel, the film begins with a dockside rescue: early one morning, Martin saves a young aristocrat from a beating, for which he is rewarded with lunch at the family estate. On its storied grounds, Martin meets the stranger’s luminous sister, Elena Orsini (Jessica Cressy), a blonde-haloed and silk-bloused conduit for his twinned desires of knowledge and class transgression. In rooms of ornate stucco and gilded everything, the Orsinis parade their enthusiasm for education in a contrived show of open-mindedness, a familiar posture of well-meaning liberals who love to trumpet a certain model of education as global panacea. University-educated Elena can recite Baudelaire in French; Martin trips over simple conjugations in his mother tongue. “You need money to study,” he protests, after Elena prescribes him a back-to-school stint. “I’m sure that your family would not ignore such an important objective,” she insists (to an orphan, who first set sail at age 11).

Anyone who has ever been thrilled into critical pursuit by a single moment of understanding knows the first beat of this story. Bolting through book after book, Martin is fired by the ever-shifting measure of his knowledge. In these limitless stretches of facts to come, there’s the promised glow of sheer comprehension, the way it clarifies the world as it intoxicates: “All hidden things were laying their secrets bare. He was drunk with comprehension,” writes London. Marcello is just as attentive to how Martin understands, a process anchored to the past experiences of his working body. From his years of manual labor, he comes to knowledge in a distinctly embodied way, charming by being so literal. At lunch with the Orsinis, he offers a bread roll as a metaphor for education and gestures at the sauce on his plate as “poverty,” tearing off a piece of education and mopping up the remnants with relish. Later, in a letter to Elena, he recounts his adventures in literacy: “I note down new words, I turn them into my friends.” In these early moments, his expressions are as playful as they are trenchant, enlivened by newfound ways of articulating experience. His writer’s optimism is built on a faith in language as the site of communication and mutual recognition. So follows his tragedy.

One of Marcello’s major structural decisions admittedly makes for some final-act whiplash, when a cut elides the loaded years of Martin’s incremental success, stratospheric fame, and present fall into jaded torpor. By now, he is a bottle-blonde chain-smoker with his own palazzo and entourage, set to leave on a U.S. press tour even though he hasn’t written a thing in years. His ideas have been amplified to unprecedented reach by mass media, and his words circulate as abstract commodities for a vulturine audience. For all its emphasis on formation, Martin Eden is less a story of ebullient self-discovery than one of inhibiting self-consciousness. There is no real sense that Martin’s baseline character has changed, because it hasn’t. Even his now best-selling writing is the stuff of countless prior rejected manuscripts. From that first day at the Orsini estate, when his roughness sticks out to him as a fact, he learns about the gulf between a hardier self-image and the surface self that’s eyed by others.

WITH SUCH A DEEPLY INHABITED PERFORMANCE by Marinelli, it’s intuitive to read the film as a character study, but the lyrical interiority of London’s novel never feels like the point of Marcello’s adaptation. Archival clips—aged by time, or a colorist’s hand—often seem to illustrate episodes from Martin’s past, punctuating the visual specificity of individual memory: a tense encounter with his sister cuts to two children dancing with joyous frenzy; his failed grammar-school entrance exam finds its way to sepia-stained shots of a crippled, shoeless boy. These insertions are more affective echoes than literal ones, the store of a single life drawn from a pool of collective happening.

But, that catch: writing in the hopes of being read, as Martin does (as most do), means feeding some construct of a distinctive self. While the spotlight of celebrity singles out the destructive irony of Martin’s aggressive individualism, Marcello draws from Italy’s roiling history of anarchist and workerist movements to complicate the film’s political critique, taking an itinerant path through factions and waves from anarcho-communism in the early 1900s to the pro-strike years of autonomist Marxism in the late ’70s. In place of crystalline messaging is a structure that parallels Martin’s own desultory politics, traced in both film and novel through his commitment to liberal theorist Herbert Spencer. Early on, Martin has an epiphanic encounter with Spencer’s First Principles (a detail informed by London’s own discovery of the text as a teen), which lays out a systematic philosophy of natural laws, and offers evolution as a structuring principle for the universe—a “master-key,” London offers. Soon, Martin bellows diatribes shaped by Spencer’s more divisive, social Darwinist ideas of evolutionary justice, as though progress is only possible through cruel ambivalence. Late in the film, an image of a drunk and passed-out Martin cuts to yellowed footage of a young boy penciling his name—“Martin Eden”—over and over in an exercise book, a dream of becoming turned memory.

In Marcello’s previous feature, Lost and Beautiful (2015), memory is more explicitly staged as an attachment to landscape. Like Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro, Lost and Beautiful plays as a pastoral elegy but lays out the bureaucratic inefficiency that hastens heritage loss through neglect. Rolling fields make occasional appearances in Martin Eden, but its Neapolitan surroundings evoke a different history. Far from the two oceans that inspired a North American tradition of maritime literature, the Mediterranean guards its own idiosyncrasies of promise and catastrophe. Of the Sea’s fraught function as a regional crossroads, Marcello has noted, in The Mouth of the Wolf, a braiding of fate and agency: “They are men who transmigrate,” the opening voiceover intones. “We don’t know their stories. We know they chose, found this place, not others.” Mare Nostrum—“Our Sea”—is the Roman epithet for the Mediterranean, a possessive projection that abides in current vernacular. Like so many cities that cup the sea, Naples is a site of immigrant crossing, a fact slyly addressed in Martin Eden with a fleeting long shot of black workers barreling hay in a field of slanted sun, and, at the end, a group of immigrants sitting on a beach at dusk. Brief, but enough to mark the changing conditions of a new century.

Not much is really new, however: not the perils of migration, nor the proselytizing individualists, nor the media circus, nor the classist distortions of taste, nor, blessedly, the kind of learning for learning’s sake that stokes and sustains an interest in the world. Toward the end of the film, there is a shot of our tired once-hero, slumped in the back seat of a car, that cuts to sepia stock of children laughing and running to reach the camera-as-car-window, as if peering through glass and time. It recalls a scene from Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire, which leaps backward through a similar gaze, when the weary angel Cassiel looks out of a car window at the vista of ’80s Berlin and sees, instead, grainy footage of postwar streets strewn with rubble in fresh ruin. Where human perception is shackled to linearity, these wool-coated and scarfed seraphs—a materialization of Walter Benjamin’s “angel of history”—see all of time in a simultaneous sweep, as they wander Berlin with their palliative touch. Marcello’s Martin Eden mosaics a view less pointedly omniscient, but just as filled with a humanist commitment to the turning world, even as Martin slides into disillusion. All its faces plucked from history remind me of a line from a Pasolini poem: “Everything on that street / was human, and the people all clung / to it tightly.”

Phoebe Chen is a writer and graduate student living in New York.

[baybeered]

Behold! the Grung!

I'm making a backup character for the current dungeons and dragons campaign I'm doing bc rn my character is like on a one way trip to npc possesion-ville so even though I love her to death I need a back up.

Ender d'Oob.

He's a Grung that was caught in a magical hurricane and tossed into Icewind Dale. He was a folk hero but one day he went to sleep in the water and Auril cast her winter spell! Freezing poor d'Oob for two years till our current party axed Auril. He burst forth from the ice and quickly made friends with a deer who he named Marcello.

also sidenote, this is my first time trying this kind of art style oops