#also i just watched la la land so that explains the beginning

[cameronsactivities]

Anderperry Week 2023, Day 7

(wild card day!!)

Carpe Diem

The bell above the door dinged as Neil walked into the bookstore. It was one of the last places in the city where he could retain his anonymity after he’d gained some fame as an actor. He loved how it was always quiet, without being silently sterile. The small coffee shop in the corner kept the store smelling like freshly-ground coffee beans and steeping tea. Neil bought a drink, letting the steam fog up his glasses while he perused the books. 

He swore he saw a familiar name out of the corner of his eye. In disbelief, he picked up the book. He wasn’t mistaken. In a neat, serif font, the name “Todd Anderson” was printed right there. Neil opened the book, a poetry anthology. He read the dedication five or six times, confirming that it was undoubtedly the Todd Anderson he was thinking of. “To the Dead Poets Society,” it read. 

Memories of nights crowded in a tiny cave, desk sets tossed off bridges, and promises made in youthful spirit came back to Neil. Memories of kisses in the darkness, hands interlaced beneath covers, and whispers exchanged in chilly air. 

But Neil and Todd were driven apart by career, as Neil moved to Hollywood and Todd stayed in New England. Their excuses held more weight than they thought they did, and suddenly, Neil had realized that he hadn’t called Todd in more than a month. 

Neil never found love again since then, almost five years ago. He gingerly placed the book back onto the display stand and quickly walked out of the bookstore, leaving his tea behind and wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. 

Neil’s own face stared down at him disapprovingly from a movie poster. The balance of success and sacrifice had been wobbling out of control behind Neil’s back for so long, and it was just starting to catch up to him. 

***

“Excuse me, are you Neil Perry?”

Neil sighed, and as humble as he was, he was not in the mood to greet a fan. But as he looked up, he saw a set of blue eyes that he was well-acquainted with, and blond hair that would only appear golden when the sunlight filtered through it. 

“Todd?” Neil took off his baseball cap.

“Hi.”

Five years worth of silence stretched between them, and their awkward departure five years ago went unmentioned. 

“It’s such a coincidence, seeing you here,” Neil said. 

“I switched publishers two years ago, and now I live in LA.”

“Oh.” The silence seemed to push them further away from each other. 

“I should get going,” Todd said. 

“Please,” Neil said, then cleared his throat to make it sound less like a beg. “Please, have a cup of coffee with me. It’s on me.”

From that moment onwards, autumn passed by like a blur. They started quite clunkily, like an old car engine refusing to start, but after a few conversations, they were cruising down the freeway with the wind in their hair like vintage movie stars. The embers of a quieted love were fanned back to life, and the fire was roaring bigger than ever. 

One evening, they booked a reservation at a fancy dinner restaurant, but upon seeing that the prices were absurd, even for Los Angeles, Neil and Todd ordered drinks and left a big tip. They chose to eat grocery store canned soup instead. 

They spent their weekends in museums or movie theaters, and their nights dancing to old songs on Neil’s record player. Sometime in September, Todd moved into Neil’s apartment, and they became roommates again, except they didn’t bother with having two beds this time. Neil’s coworkers wondered why he had started bringing delicious, homemade meals instead of the same sandwich every day.

But as the temperatures dropped and the last qualities of summertime ebbed away, the days of blissful kisses and pretending to hate pumpkin spice lattes came to an end. Neil and Todd laid in bed, huddled together for warmth, as they kept putting off switching their quilt for a warmer duvet. 

“Todd,” Neil said, biting back tears. “There’s something really important I need to tell you, and I’m so sorry for not telling you earlier; that was really selfish of me.”

“What is it?” Todd answered gently.

“Before I say it, I need you to know that I won’t be mad or sad if you leave me because of it.”

Todd stayed silent, as if he were afraid to make a promise.

Neil exhaled shakily, wiping away a tear that had formed. “I have this thing, I found out about it a year ago. It’s a– It’s a heart disease. An arrhythmia.” 

“Neil–”

“No, Todd,” Neil sniffed. “One of the symptoms is sudden death.” 

“No.”

“What do you mean? I can’t just say ‘no’ to a disease.”

“No,” Todd repeated, and they both smiled weakly at the memory that surfaced. “We’ve had five years robbed from us. We can’t afford to lose any more.”

“But what about you? Is it worth it for you to be with someone who’s going to die? I can’t do that to you, I–”

“Neil,” Todd said. “Neil. Neil.” He broke out into a light chuckle. “Neil, carpe diem.”

He smiled back bittersweetly. “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”

[iwillbringyouruin]

Visions Magazine with Tobias Forge on the idea behind Rite Here Rite Now, the importance of soundtracks in general and how he distinguishes between himself and his characters (Visions Magazine issue nr. 377, 08/2024)

Full translation of the included interview by me below the cut - buckle up, this is a long post! There are no spoilers for RHRN in this.

Markus Hockenbrink: Tobias, have you ever watched the movie Metallica: Though The Never?

Tobias Forge: Yes, once, when it had just come out. The topic Metallica came up when we were taking care of the funding for [RHRN]. Every larger production company – and I have to emphasise here that this was before Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour and her extremely successful movie about it – voiced a lot of concern back then whether anybody would still be interested in concert movies. I had to explain time and again that my movie wouldn’t be a typical concert movie, to which I was asked several times: “Oh, so something like Through The Never?” I had to deny that again. We tell a story in our movie most of our fans are already familiar with. So it’s not an entirely new concept, which is already the first distinction from Through The Never. If you only consider that there is a concert part and a feature film part, then those two movies are probably similar. But that also applies to La La Land.

M. Hockenbrink: You describe your movie as a combination of Kiss’ Alive II, Ralph Bakshi cartoons and silent film horror. Is that a kind of childhood dream that comes true there?

T. Forge: Definitely. For as long as I’ve been interested in music, I’ve also been interested in film and television. Working in film could have also been a career option for me, but I always got the rather annoying impression that one would have to go to film school to really find a place in that field. School was never my strong suit, I see myself more as a autodidact in that regard. That I had the opportunity to work on/contribute to my own movie as a sorcerer’s apprentice of sorts is a real privilege. That is a dream come true but it is also something I can picture more of in the future. Next time maybe without the band.

M. Hockenbrink: Can you remember a specific moment in your life when you realised that you were especially drawn to topics that are slightly morbid and unsettling?

T. Forge: I think that due to my family I came in contact with vastly different kinds of pop culture from a very young age. In more traditional families with more conservative parents and siblings of similar ages, you only really start with your respective journey to find yourself in your teens. Then there are often restrictions that are meant to distract from those darker influences. My parents on the other hand are very liberal and my brother was 13 years older than me. There were never limits or censorship for me. My childhood didn’t go by without rules entirely, but I was always allowed to watch or listen to what my brother was also watching or listening to. That was I was exposed to all kinds of teenage culture from the beginning. Sure, I also liked Pippi Longstocking and He-Man. But that was always combined with the French arthouse films my mother liked to watch or the horror flicks my brother was into. I can’t recall a particularly striking horror film experience, but I still remember the first time it dawned on me that movies don’t just exist, they’re made.

M. Hockenbrink: How do you mean?

T. Forge: My father worked as a documentary maker in television. His job was to connect the video track and the sound track in a fitting way for different film production. I saw Jaws on television with him as a small child. It’s important to note that my father is not somebody who can just quietly enjoy films but somebody who likes to butt in. Thanks to him I already had a kind of epiphany during the introduction. He said: “Look closely! There is nothing to see in this underwater scenery except the algae. Technically completely harmless. But it only takes the ominous music to turn the whole scene into pure horror already!” And I thought: Wow! That’s true! Later in the movie you only have to hear that music and it immediately puts you on edge, even when there’s nobody in the water right now. They don’t even have to show the shark anymore. I found it fascinating that the [viewer’s] senses/perception could be manipulated like that. Ever since I’ve been viewing films with different eyes. I can still allow myself to dive into the story but at the same time I see the practical aspect to film-making.

M. Hockenbrink: I had a similar feeling during the introduction of Shining: technically a cozy road trip in the mountains, but a pure nightmare with the music.

T. Forge: I’m with you on that. Shining is one of the best movies of all time. And funnily enough, only the intro sequence was actually shot in nature. All the other scenes, even if they were outside, were filmed in the studio. Exactly that kind of craftsmanship is what I find inspiring.

M. Hockenbrink: With that in mind, what makes a good soundtrack in your opinion?

T. Forge: We already talked about Jaws, but I can think of Eyes Wide Shut as another example. There is that short piano theme that comes up again and again, incredibly effective. A good soundtrack needs to deliver something that you don’t have to be able to see to perceive its existence. Sure, there are no monsters in Eyes Wide Shut, aside from the main character’s jealousy as an internal monster maybe. But just like the music in Jaws, the theme from Eyes Wide Shut symbolises something that doesn’t have to be shown. The sound is enough. That is also a commonly used effect in adventure and love movies. You just put in a short vignette to describe the love between two characters. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker also has his own theme, that is used every time when things get emotional and you’re supposed to feel that hope. You’ve got to pay attention to that. Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th also has a personal theme to recognise him by. Every time you hear it you immediately know “Oh shit, he’s nearby!”

M. Hockenbrink: What about soundtracks that are made up of songs?

T. Forge: With that, I’m especially thinking of Silence of the Lambs. In the scene where Buffalo Bill dresses up as a woman and dances around his basement, a song called Goodbye Horses by Q Lazzarus is playing. I have no idea how the artist felt that since the song is now so irrevocably connected to that awful scene, that you can’t listen to it anymore without thinking of it.

M. Hockenbrink: Do you feel like soundtrack work is more appreciated now than it used to be?

T. Forge: I think that it’s definitely gained importance over the last 40 years. The right song on the right soundtrack can be incredibly powerful. Just think of Stranger Things. Obviously, Metallica and Kate Bush already had successful careers before, but what happened with Master of Puppets and Running Up That Hill following the series was something else entirely. The songs were associated so strongly with the narrative, that way more people listened to them than before. Of course I’m a strong advocate for live music but I also realised that nothing is as strong as the connection of visuals and music. That is still the most powerful way to appeal to a deeper emotion through the association.

M. Hockenbrink: More or less a shortcut to the subconscious.

T. Forge: Exactly. But you can’t be cynical about that either. If I was an A&R person at a big label, I would probably also say: “You just have to find a spot for one of your songs on a popular soundtrack, then you’ll have made it!” That’s really how it is. But when you view it from an artistic perspective, when you want to reach people a certain way or bring across a certain message or a certain feeling, the combination of visuals and sound can’t be topped.

M. Hockenbrink: It especially lends itself to an immersive experience, as seems to be in the foreground of [RHRN]. An album by Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden ends at some point, then you’re gone from that metal world again. With Ghost, however, you get the feeling that the illusion just keeps on going, across several media. Did you plan the Ghost mythology like this from the start?

T. Forge: In part. When I started with the band, I only wanted to make a standalone album. The concept was supposed to be interesting and practical, but I wasn’t planning for Ghost to be a huge thing. The style I pictured has its own limits in my opinion. The band was supposed to function a certain way and appeal to a certain target audience. The concert was supposed to be a theatrical performance in the literal sense. Ghost were never supposed to perform in a normal rock club nor go on tour. I wanted more of a kind of Vaudeville show in a proper plushy theatre. The band was supposed to be as anonymous as the actors that stand on stage and play, say, Faust. The idea behind this was: Those who don’t know who the people are on stage are more ready to follow the story. Then we would perform three days back-to-back in select cities. Berlin, Amsterdam, London. Just like Diamanda Galás who can more likely be found at a culture festival than in a rock shack. But things turned out differently in the end, and I had to kiss my original ideas goodbye again, so to speak.

M. Hockenbrink: Why?

T. Forge: After the success of our debut album, it became clear to me that more conventional concerts were going to be demanded of us and that I could only really say yes or no. This problem became worse after our shift to a bigger label. It became clear that my vision of telling stories clashed with the live sector and requirements for success more and more. At a certain point anonymity doesn’t work anymore and I had to make peace with that in the end.  I originally didn’t even want to do interviews but that’s obviously tricky when you want to sell records. The question that I constantly ask myself since is how I can do those things best in the Ghost way without denying the original Vaudeville spirit.

M. Hockenbrink: In his autobiography Golf Monster, Alice Cooper talks about himself in third person a lot when he is talking about his character. Are you feeling similarly at this point?

T. Forge: At least I can definitely see where he’s coming from. There is a difference between the person Vincent Furnier and the character Alice Cooper. I believe that he was on the verge of completely transforming into Alice Cooper at one point – to the point where one has to decide where they want to live or die. In the end he decided to remain Vincent Furnier and only become Alice Cooper for work, on stage. So far I’ve been fortunate to combine the two pretty well, but had I started Ghost ten years earlier in my life, it would have probably affected me similarly to how Alice Cooper did with Vincent Furnier in his time. But with my humble experience as an actor I have to say: every character you play becomes a part of you to a certain extent. You have to find certain qualities – good or bad – within yourself to bring such a character to life. I think that most actors only play one or two roles throughout their life that they then end up being known for. The different characters that I’ve portrayed on stage are not only very similar but actually also a part of me. Fortunately a part of me that I don’t want to deal with all day long.

M. Hockenbrink: Too cynical and antisocial?

T. Forge: Cardinal Copia or Cardi, as I like to call him, is not an all-around cool person, but that makes him so fun to play for me. He is half Freddie Mercury and half Jacques Clouseau. Kind of clumsy, kind of silly, kind of stupid. The kind of guy who trips over his own feet but catches himself elegantly. That’s also me in a way, but not just. And I think that’s easier to embody than a daredevil hero character who can rival anyone and gets all the ladies. When somebody plays only those characters their whole life, it will probably really go to their head. Especially when there are drugs involved on top of that.

M. Hockenbrink: With all that fondness of doom that can be found with Ghost, that universe also has something humorous about it, benign even. It that an intentionally included contradiction?

T. Forge: Yes, and it is also very important to me that it comes across like that. For me that also has something to do with the evolution of metal. Originally it was mostly a phenomenon connected to the youth, nowadays the musicians and their fans are close to retiring. That brings a certain maturity. Even the Norwegian black metal musicians who were super pissed and extreme 30 years ago and were only made of hate and aggression are well-adjusted people now. Bearded fathers and grandfathers with a pleasant view on life that make others laugh. I see a certain duality there. Everything that has something to do with goth, with metal, with horror, appears dark, dismal and hostile at first. But in reality, that can all be extremely life-affirming and a source of great joy for many people. So pretty much the opposite.

M. Hockenbrink: Speaking of horror: could you imagine making a real feature film some day?

T. Forge: Yes, I would love that. I’m well aware that it’s not going to be easy to make what I’m picturing a reality, just because I’ve done directing once with [RHRN] now. The creative liberty I got to enjoy there also was due to the fact that I funded the movie myself. So nobody was meddling with it. That is likely completely different when you work on behalf of a big studio, because we are talking about different sums here. If I only go off my dreams, I would name two points of reference. One is Shining, the other Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola. I would like to make a movie that’s only shot in a studio, with elaborate sets, matte painting and all that. No outside shots, no special effects, no green screen. And no actors who only gets to see what they were actually doing after the fact. Proper old-school. The way movies are actually meant to look.

[snowywolf1005]

@animatronicanime : Hey, I was wondering if you could do the one-piece old generation where Roger pirate discovers of lunala and nika Love Story. Or the Gear 5 Luffy x Lunala reader? please! 🥺

Roger crew are going to a leagdary place called Mexico? Well, let hurry up!!!!

The crew all appeared to sail, and victoria showed Roger a compass that led the way to Mexico. "So this compass will lead us to Mexico?" Oden asked. Victoria nodded. "Okay, we're going west blue, where the fog will be at," said Sofia.

A few seconds later, they reached the west blue where the fog was at, "it so foggy, I can't even see damn thing," said Rayleigh. "The fog is so big that you couldn't even see. Even if you try to go in, it'll turn you back where you started," Ema

"Well, there is a way to get in. If we play the song called La lorona, " said victoria, "la lorona?" Buggy asks. "Yes!" So Jack got the radio disc and the box that can play the music.

Roger and the crew watch as Ema and victoria are prepared to play the music. And it begins...

Everyone was surprised by the beautiful song. They straight in the fog, the song still playing. It was so dark in here, but they turned on the lanterns. "Hey, guys, do you hear people singing the song? It is like getting louder, " said Shanks.

"Agree, I could hear them, but I can't see them," said oden, looking around, then a huge shadow appeared, scared the living shit out of them, and more boats came. "quién eres!?" The man ask, who is wearing a military suit, "uh, what he say?" Roger asks.

"He asks who are we, don't worry, I'll do the translate," said victoria.

"Disculpe señor, estamos aquí para ir a México con mis amigos. Mi nombre es Victoria, ya conoce a mi hermano, que se une al ejército." She said.

The translate : excuse me, sir! we're here to go to Mexico with my friends. my name is victoria, you know my brother, who joins the military.

"Wow, she pretty good," said Shanks, so the military let them in, then they saw Mexico City but not the tall building. Just a old Mexico city. The crew was surprised, they saw cars (it their first time). Roger crew went to the museum to learn about joyboy and luna.

They did hear the story of luna. Victoria told the Roger crew about a history of Mexico and how it started. "Victoria, I remember I told you about in Mexico, how there kaiju?" Buggy, ask, Victoria nodded.

"Well, where is it?" He questioned, "it in the other side of land, not far, you will see the island called kaiju island," she said.

Everyone was excited, "In fact, the military couldn't let anyone in the kaiju island." Everyone frown. Oh! Yeah! They also went to see the poneglyph that was written by luna. It was in the old ancient castle, which was about 900 years ago.

The poneglyph is in the castle, where they hide something that nobody knows. The military let the Roger crew see, not letting anyone see what was going on.

But victoria brought a friend named Ana, who is researching an ancient history worker, and she studied Mexico ancient history.

"The poneglyph," said Roger, oden walked closer to the poneglyph and focused the letters. "What does it say?" said Ema, oden was surprised by the writing, "what is it, oden!?" Rayleigh asks, "written some love story," Oden said.

"A love story?" Roger question, "Ana, explain please, " said Jack. "Well, we research, and we found out that luna talks about how she met joyboy for the first time, and she wants to tell her people about it," said Ana.

Shanks looked around and saw some painting on the wall, "Hey, Ana, what with these walls?" Shanks ask. The crew looked at the wall, seeing the painting of people, "Oh! These paintings are tells a story, we work hard to study these paintings and find we did find luna form"

Everyone was interested in it. "And where is luna form painting?" Ana, point up. Everyone looks above to see this painting:

"Luna form!" Oden yelled, "No way! It huge!!" Buggy scream, they never seen luna from heights. "Yep, when we first saw it, we were surprised to see," said Ana, "I was wondering what in the kaiju island?" Roger asks.

"When me and my friends went kaiju island with the military, we found another ancient city. we looked around to see and found a pyramid. we went inside and found another poneglyph."

The crew dropped their jaw, "a another poneglyph!? Victoria! You said there's only one!" Oden yelled, "I didn't know there's another poneglyph!! Ana, when it happened!!??" Victoria question.

"It happened when you left to go on an adventure!" Said Ana, "that makes sense, " Victoria said.

Now Roger and his crew will go on adventure to go to Kaiju island to study all about Mexico history.

Part 3 is coming soon!!

[threehuskiesinatrenchcoat]

GUESS WHO‘S BACK! BACK AGAIN! i never rly left but let’s ignore that

I‘ve got an order for a uuuuuh dead bird soulmate au! Anyone order a soulmate au? No? Well shit, it’s here now and I‘m not taking it back.

There‘re honestly so many possibilities with soulmate aus and I love them to bits! Also, there doesn’t exist one for them yet? Couldn’t let that stand. So this one is based on "whatever u write on your skin shows up on your soulmate‘s skin as well" and as tradition demands it, I shall send it to u first! afterwards ao3 obviously lmao also enjoy!! loved talking about this with u

Alejandro slowly rolled his sleeve up. Another little note had appeared while they were busting a cartel house, the slight tingle of the letters being written alerting him to it. By now he knew how to not let himself get distracted by it, but he had been looking forward to reading the message for the rest of the mission. The script was slightly loopy with letters smashed together the faster his soulmate wrote.

He traced the lines on his arm, taking his time reading the message. It was just a simple update on life, some annoying employer demanding they compensate him for a job they weren’t at fault for botching. He’d be incredibly busy the next few weeks. Alejandro smiled ruefully and picked up a pen, choosing his words carefully. They were both right handed, so their left arm got a bit crowded at times, but after an incident with a note being written on his leg, making Phillip stumble and fall into a creek when they were younger, they agreed to limit themselves to their arms.

At times he mourned the distance between them, his soulmate being American wasn’t as bad compared to some he knew were continents apart, but being in the Mexican Special Forces made his life and job too dangerous to actually be together. He wouldn’t give up this city, as much as he wanted to meet soulmate.

It was a sore subject between them. Both of them knew the dangers of their work, but Alejandro was willing to die for Las Almas and Phillip definitely didn’t agree on that. The colonel had no delusions about his fate, but sometimes he liked to imagine a future where they both retired together. They could move into his family’s old farmhouse, maybe get some animals like chicken and a dog, waking up in each other’s arms.

When the tank blew up, Alejandro felt as if his heart broke into a million pieces. It hadn’t taken long for him to figure out that Phillip Graves was his Phillip, his soulmate. He thought he‘d be able to tell him after the mission, when everything was over and done. He should’ve known nothing would go as planned, but now, watching his vaqueros putting out the fire still roaring through the metal cage that had once been a tank, surrounded by smoke and stinking of gasoline, he regretted it.

The darkness around him felt almost oppressing. He tossed and turned in bed, thinking about what ifs and should haves. His arm felt weird, a slight tingle on the inside of his arm. Shooting up straight, he fumbled to turn on the lamp on his nightstand and held his arm towards the light. There, shortly under the inside of his elbow, two words were written in loopy handwriting, letters pressed together: "I‘m sorry."

i cannot even begin to explain how much i love you rn im screaming crying throwing up rolling on the floor foaming at the mouth im

i love love love the ending so much and the subtle specifics about his handwriting that tie it in with the beginning

also the mental image of phil landing face first into a creek makes me chuckle. alejandro fucking his shit up ever since they were young

graves complaining about his job i see what you did there 😌

[empressofthesunwriter]

Kill La Hero: 15

In the lottery of Quirk’s Michi got on really special and annoying one. A living, sarcastic ribbon named Ares, who puts her into superpowered revealing outfits. But this won't stop the girl from fulfilling her dream of being a hero! Just watch her!

(But not too closely please!)

MHA MEETS KILL LA KILL!

Chapter 15: Let the Battles Begin

After Izuku won against Shinso, he was brought to Recovery Girl to fix his fingers.

Michi, Tenya and Ochaco still talked about how amazing Izuku had been, how he had managed to overcome the brainwashing and how happy they were for him moving up to the Quarter-Final Round.

That's when Ochaco saw Izuku coming to class 1A tribune.

"Oh, Deku! Good work!", she called and waved.

So fast no one could look as Michi jumped up from her seat and raced up to the boy.

"Izu-Chan!", she shouted happily and embraced him. "You were amazing!"

The green-haired boy blushed softly and hugged her tight back.

"Michi-Kun...thanks."

They stopped hugging, as Michi took his hand with the bandage fingers in hers, giving them a little kiss.

Izuku blushed harder but had a soft and loving look in his eyes.

"T-to kiss it better, mmh?", he stuttert.

Michi looked up, with the same eyes and nodded.

Both were clearly in lovey-dovey land.

All their classmates stared and sweatdropped at them.

Oh gods, kiss finally you idiots!, they all thought.

Sadly they didn't, a lot groaned silently, as Michi led Izuku to their seats beside Ochaco and Tenya.

Now the second battle took place.

Shoto Todoroki vs. Hanta Sero!

Hanta started the battle by using his tape to try to push Shoto out of bounds. However, Shoto responded by creating a huge pillar of ice, which completely immobilized Hanta and freed himself at the same time. Since Hanta couldn't move at all, he was declared the loser, and Shoto was declared the winner, advancing to the second round. Shoto then approached the almost frozen Hanta, apologized for his actions, and thawed him out with his firepower.

Michi and Izuku found each other eyes.

"Is it just me or-", began Michi.

"Does Todoroki look really sad?", enden Izuku.

Both their hearts got out to their classmate.

Since Shoto froze nearly the whole stage, it takes a while to melt it, but when it's ready it's time for Denki Kaminari vs. Ibara Shiozaki!

The third match of the first round ends quickly; Ibara defeats Denki by using her type advantage Quirk, Vine, to make his Electro Quirk backfire on him.

Kyoka facepalms hard at Denki's defeat as Monoma from 1B looks over to them and mocks them.

Then he gets knocked out by his classmate Itsuka Kendo, who apologises for him, being a brat.

Class 1A was just like what had happened?

That's when class 1A noted Izuku's analysis of the Quirks, writing it down in his notebook.

Just Michi didn't seem bothered and nodded along.

"They just finished, but Deku already thinking about countermeasures for them?", whisper-shoutes Ochaco to Michi.

Michi nods with a besotted look.

"Yeah isn't he amazing?"

All of class 1A deadpanned and thought the same: She is so gone for him!

"It's a hobby of his.", explains Michi, while Izuku theorizes about the Quirks to his heart contents. She would make sure, he wrote all down what goes through his head. "It's not every day he gets a chance to see amazing Quirks outside of those in our class."

"Really?", asked Ochaco.

"Yeah, he has even a whole notebook dedicated to my Quirk.", admitted Michi with red cheeks. You can clearly see how honoured she feels about this. "I bet he has something about your Quirk too. Izu-Chan?"

Only Michi's lovely voice could get Izuku out of his zone, so he turned bliking to her.

"Yeah, what is it Michi-Kun?"

"What do you have about Ochaco-Chan Quirk in your notebook?"

"Of course!", he showed the girls the page. "The Zero Gravity of Uraraka is amazing."

"That's true.", agreed Michi.

This made Ochaco blush.

"Aww, you two are so nice! I always thought you guys were amazing!"

Also an amazing and cute couple!, she added in her head, while Izuku and Michi thanked her and said she was amazing too.

Then it's time for the fourth match.

Their Tenya VS Mei Hatsume!

Both wore support items, but students of the hero course normally can only wear them when they have a petition like Aoyama.

However Tenya explain passionately how Mei said they should fight equally and that's why he agreed to wear them, this moves Midnight and she accepts it.

During their match, Mei takes the opportunity to advertise her support equipment and items.

After ten minutes of cat and mouse, Mei, feeling that she has effectively showcased her support gear to everyone, walks out of bounds.

Tenya wins as a result of this action, but he is not pleased with Mei using him for her own purposes.

"Tenya's earnest, so she probably said some things that sounded good to get him on board.", theorized Izuku shaking. "Hatsume's not just honest, she will also use any means to reach her goal. Amazing!"

Michi had an eyebrow raised and nodded along.

None of the two noted how Ochaco stood up and walked away.

Now comes the Fifth Match: Yuga Aoyama vs. Mina Ashido.

"I hope Mina wins, Aoyama goes on my nerves.", confessed Michi to Izuku.

"Don't tell me, it's because he is French and you Italian?"

"I plead the fifth!"

"Michi-Kun!"

The battle begins with Aoyama firing his navel laser at Mina, but she secretes acid from her feet and uses it to quickly slide across the stage. 

Aoyama continues shooting beams at her, while Mina claims she already knows his weakness because they trained together during the Battle Trial. 

Mina keeps dodging Aoyama's barrage of beams.

After he misses a rather large shot, his stomach begins to hurt, and Mina seizes the opportunity.

She throws acid onto his belt, breaking it and causing his pants to drop. 

The girl takes advantage of the opening and finishes him with a strong uppercut.

She wins!

"God, it didn't need to see his underwear.", whines Michi and hides her face in Izuku's shoulder.

Amused he pats her head.

"There, there Michi-Kun, also you should get going, it's your turn now!"

"Oh right!"

With a quick cheek kiss to Izuku, who of course blushes, Michi raced down to the arena.

"Ares are you ready to face Momo?"

"Let's do it, whirlwind!"

"Now, we've got no time to lose! Let's move on to the sixth match!", announced Present Mich as Michi and Momo walked up the fighting stage. "Offense and defence in one body! The warrior princess is accompanied by the entity Ares! From the hero course, it's Massaro Michela alias Michi! Versus-- All-purpose Creation! She was admitted through recommendations, so her abilities are certified! From the hero course, it's Momo Yaoyorozu!"

Both girls stared at each other, thinking how to best beat their opponent.

Momo knew Michi was physically stronger than her she needed something to help her push the other girl out of the ring and also there was this new technique she showed during the cavalry battle.

Had Michi more surprises up her sleeve?

Michi and Ares just stared Momo down with their red eyes.

They formally burned.

N-No, I can't get demotivated because the two are so calm. I need time to create and then-

Then the battle started!

Surprised Momo gasped as Michi seemed to vanish, but the salmon-haired girl just ran as fast as she could towards Momo.

I'm sorry Momo, but this will be over!

Something hard hit Momo in the chest.

A fist!

Michi's fist!

The black-haired girl coughed and felt how some of her bones cracked and fell down on the floor.

Knocked-out.

Midnight waited a few seconds before she declared: "Yaoyorozu can't fight anymore, the winner is Massaro!"

"This was probably the fastest fight we have seen today. Massaro Michi and Ares are a force of nature!", shouted Present Mic enthusiastically, as Michi waved at the people celebrating her.

Momo was brought to Recovery Girl, even if Michi knew, she only hit the other girl where it was sure she could get knocked out.

Still, she felt a bit bad as she walked back to the class 1A tribune.

"Damn, your girlfriend is merciless.", said Ojiro to Izuku. "She didn't even bat an eye as she punched Momo out."

"Michi and Ares are the strongest Quirk Users I know. Even Kacchan can't beat her and he tried it often enough. I know she would win, it was not even a question.", answered Izuku, just to turn red and shriek. "M-Michi i-isn't my girlfriend, s-she is just my best friend."

"SUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!", chorused the whole of class 1A together.

"I don't believe you!", added Mineta.

That's when Michi returned.

"I hope Momo will be okay...so did I miss something guys?"

Izuku stood up and waved his hands around.

"N-Nothing, you missed nothing Michi-Kun!"

She blinked confused as she noted how Tenya and Ochaco were missing.

So she asked Izuku where they were.

He didn't know either, so the two searched for their friends.

They found them in the Player Waiting Room 2.

"Ochaco-Chan, Tenya!", greeted Michi as Izuku and her entered the room. "There you are."

Tenay bowed.

"I'm sorry I didn't watch your match Michi, I was worried for Ochaco."

"I'm sorry too, I should have supported you.", admits Ochaco ashamed. "How did it go?"

Izuku put a proud hand on Michi's shoulder, while she smiled at them.

"She knocked out Momo with one punch. Michi has qualified for the next round."

Tenya gave her his congratulations and Ochaco stood up to hug her friend.

Michi hugged her tight back and then took her face in her hands.

"So what is bothering you Ochaco-Chan, is it your fight with Bakugo?"

The brunette nodded.

In comfort, Michi took her hands and squeezed them.

"Ochaco-Chan, Bakugo may seem dangerous but when you know how to handle him, you can beat him. I did it often enough!"

Izuku nodded in agreement and showed her his hero notebook.

"Michi and I came up with a rough strategy, how you can use your Quirk to beat Kacchan. Please let us help."

Touched Ochaco looked at her friends before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

She let go of Michi's hands and walked over to the door.

"Michi-Chan, Deku I admired you both so much. I keep seeing more and more amazing sides of you guys. During the cavalry battle, I thought it'd be easier to team up with friends, but now that I think about it, I might've been trying to rely on you two. That's why, when Tenya said he'd challenge Deku, it actually made me feel a little embarrassed."

The other started to protest, but Ochaco continued: "That's why it's fine. Everyone's facing the future and trying their hardest. That means we're all rivals, right? That's why, let's meet in the finals!"

Ochaco gave them a shaking thumbs up.

"Wait, Ochaco-Chan before you go!", Michi walked swiftly up to her and planted a soft kiss on her cheek.

The other girl blushed surprised, as the boys stared.

Izuku the most.

Michi didn't give cheek kisses to anyone.

So it had to mean something.

"This is not a good luck kiss, but a promise kiss!", explained Michi, her red eyes burning as she took Ochaco's hands and squeezed them. "I know you can beat Bakugo and you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because you are already an amazing hero. Your Quirk will demolish him."

Now tears gather in Ochaco's eyes and both girls hugged each other tightly.

"Break his fucking femur!"

"I will Michi-Chan!"

Both girls seemed to be burning like suns!

"Girls, breaking femurs is a bit too much!", told Tenya making his hand chop.

"Let them Tenya, that's a girl thing, I'm sure.", said Izuku. "Or at least a Michi and Ochaco thing."

After the boys wished Ochaco luck, the three who didn't fight got back to the tribune, while Ochaco had to face Bakugo now in the arena.

The match between Bakugo and Ochaco kicks off with Ochaco taking the initiative.

She lunges towards Bakugo, but he swiftly counters with an explosive attack.

As the dust settles, Bakugo attempts to seize Ochaco, only to discover that her jacket is all that's left.

Seizing the opportunity, Ochaco manoeuvres herself behind Bakugo to launch a surprise attack, but his lightning-fast reflexes allow him to fend her off with another explosive blast.

Despite the barrage of explosive attacks from Bakugo, Ochaco expresses her gratitude for his vigilance, as it enables her to put her plan into action - creating a distraction by manipulating the rubble using her Quirk.

She unleashes a meteor shower of debris, with the intention of launching a direct offensive using her Quirk.

However, Bakugo retaliates with a colossal explosion, annihilating Ochaco's meteor shower and sending her crashing to the ground.

Despite her valiant effort to rise, Ochaco's injuries overwhelm her, leading to her collapse.

Midnight attends to her and announces that Ochaco is unable to continue, declaring Bakugo as the victorious contender.

"GOOD FUCKING DAMN IT!", screams Michi. "SHE NEARLY HAD HIM! FUCK!"

The salmon-haired girl was standing up, waving angrily her fists around.

Izuku and Tenya can only silently agree.

And so the first round of the final was over and in the next round the Quarter-Final Round the matches were:

Izuku Midoriya vs. Shoto Todoroki

Tenya Ida vs. Ibara Shiozaki

Michela Massaro vs. Mina Ashido

Katsuki Bakugo vs. Eijiro Kirishima!

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

The tags in that Lenny Bruce gif I reblogged are not enough, I have to rant 😄 I completely forgot how much S5 annoyed me.

First of all, I thought the finale was the last episode of S4. And it made sense, with Midge out in the blizzard, looking at that billboard. A hint to what's to come, left to the audience's imagination. To my surprise, this spring they released S5. Ok. It was mostly a waste of time for me. Not entirely and I'll explain why. I wasn't some hardcore fan, I don't even know how it's being talked about online (although I think there's some ship discord with the whole Lenny and Midge thing). Mrs Maisel was one of my comfort tv shows. You know, when even the beautiful setting and the clothes are enough to keep me in front of a screen once a week. Which is why I could always ignore the little bits that annoyed me.

And now I have to get into Amy Sherman-Palladino territory. I like her writing style. Overall. I watch Gilmore Girls. A season each spring and autumn. I like the fast talking. But my god, the line between liking and hating is so thin sometimes. It's like sometimes she pushes too hard and disrupts the balance. I can keep up with a fast talk argument between 4 to 5 characters but if it last just a little bit longer and if it gets a bit more nonsensical, I'm done. I feel tired and I get angry myself. I know this is about me and not really about the writer. I'm sure plenty of people love that exact thing about her. Gilmore Girl success is a testament to that.

But getting back to Mrs Maisel, what was the point though? They went back and forth between timelines which is in theory a good writing technique, but here it was messy. For four seasons we were stuck in late 50s-early 60s and now it jumped through decades in the future to show us glimpses of what would happen. I felt it was unnecessary and it was sloppy. What made the show so fun and compelling to watch was seeing Midge trying to make it as a comedian in that specific period of American history. It was about her beginnings. Do I need to know how her adult daughter resents her later? Not really because if someone were to ask me what I would think would happen, I would have probably given the same answer based on the mother-daughter almost non-existent relationship in the entire 4 seasons.

Also, dragging that whole Midge and Joel thing up until the end? Really?

And now I'm making my way down to the Lenny Bruce situation. I like the idea of having this character be but an appareance in Midge's life from time to time. A will they, won't they. The aura of mistery. The palpable tension (the Las Vegas episode was hotter than the one in which they actually slept together in S4). But Luke Kirby is so damn charismatic that it was impossible for me to feel content with only 2 episodes/season. The mood changed the moment he was on screen. It was electrifying. Not a lot of actors can do that. Or maybe I'm just highly subjective. Cause it's not only because he's hot though. He just knows how to move in a scene, how his gaze should land, his intonation...some perfect combination that left me wanting for more.

[the-offside-rule]

Nico Gonzalez (Valencia C.F) - New City, New Faces

Requested: Wattpad

Prompt: something Nico Gonzalez related with fluff

Warnings: none

Nico walked around Valencia aimlessly. He had close to no reason to be walking around, yet that's what he did. Every corner he took, people asked for a photo. He wanted to have a little bit of privacy while also getting the Valencian experience. He looked around, quickly looking for somewhere to disappear into and his eyes landed on a library where a group of students walked in together. A smile appeared on his face and an idea was planted in his head. Nico lifted his hood over his head and crossed the street.

As he walked into the library, he looked around awkwardly. Its not like he never set foot in a library before, he used to go all the time when he was younger but he hadn't been in a library since he was still in school, it was like a whole different place than outside. He looked over to the old librarian woman staring him down. He gave a lighthearted smile and walked towards her desk. "Disculpe, estoy buscando algunos libros?" (Excuse me, Im looking for some books?) Nico asked the librarian. "Bueno, entonces es una suerte que estés en una biblioteca, no?" (Well, it's lucky youre at a library, right?) She replied rudely. Nico nodded slowly and walked away towards the classical book sections. He looked around the shelves, not being able to choose a book, moreover a book he hadn't read before. Through a gap in the books, he looked through and spotted a girl looking through the books too. He smiled to himself as he watched her look so effortlessly beautiful.

Nico decided to follow her a bit and maybe 'accidentally' bump into her like they did in movies. "Disculpe? Sabe dónde puedo encontrar EL Gran Gatsby?" (Excuse me, do you know where I can find The Great Gatsby?) Nico asked as they both turned the corner. "En inglés o en español?" The girl asked.

"Eh, estoy buscando un desafío, tomaré inglés." (Eh, I'm looking for a challenge. English.) Nico smiled as the girl grabbed a book and handed it to him. He looked down and smiled at the plain looking cover. "Ah, perfecra. Me encantan los desafíos." (Ah perfect. I love challenges.) Nico swallowed the lump in his throat as his words set in and embarrassment set in from what he said. "Eh, ok? Encantado de hablar contigo." (Eh, ok? It was nice speaking with you.) She replied awkwardly, beginning to walk away but was stopped by the spaniard stepping in front of her. "Espera, espera." She looked up confused. "Me preguntaba si podría estudiar contigo." (I was wondering if I could study with you.) Nico lifted the book and his lips turned to a thin line. "Soy un inútil en estas cosas." (I'm useless at this stuff.) She looked between him and his book, then looking him up and down. "Puedes hablar ingles?" She asked. "Estoy bien en eso." He smirked. "Perfect. Let's go sit." Nico was dumbfounded as her accent changed, but soon smiled as he followed her.

The pair sat down together and began reading. Y/n flicked through the pages of her own book, writing down key quotes with their page number and chapter for study. "What are you doing?" He asked. "I'm just highlighting significant points that I can refer back to in my exams." She explained. His face twisted in confusion. "Shall I explain in Spanish?" He nodded his head. She leaned forward and slid the book and refill pad closer to him. "Vale, básicamente estoy mirando preguntas de exámenes anteriores para practicar cómo responder mis preguntas. Escribo comillas, así que tomo las que necesito y luego escribo el número de página y el capítulo al lado para que pueda hacer referencia a él. Para que el examinador sepa que estudié." (Okay, I'm basically looking at past exam questions to practice answering my questions. I write quotes so I take the ones I need and then I write the page number and chapter next to it so I can reference it. So that the examiner knows that I studied.) She explained. "Smart." He replied in English. "Very smart miss-" He looked and waited for her to say her name.

"Y/n. Y/n Y/l/n. And thank you." He smiled and looked between her two eyes, not being able to look away from the woman. "So, what do you study?" Y/n smiled. "Um- English literature?" Y/n arched a brow. "Well that's not true. I'm studying that and you're not in my class." Nico's mouth opened and closed looking for an answer. "And we are certainly not studying The Great Gatsby." He swallowed the spit in his mouth. "I also know there are no footballers in my class." She pulled the books back to her side and read as Nico sighed and looked down at the white table. "You figured it out that easy, huh?" Y/n smirked and nodded. "It was a good plan but there have been people taking photos of you since you walked in." His eyebrows knotted in confusion before Y/n looked up at him and moved her head to the left. Nico looked over and saw a small group of students quickly move their phones off him. He let out a sigh and closed the book, before standing up. "Fue un placer conocerte-" He paused. "But I have to leave." He stretched his hand out for her to shake, so she did.

Nico shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked out of the library and down the street past the cars. All his friends were a matter of hours away in a different city while he just moved and sat here alone. He had left the library about three minutes ago and already heard someone calling his name. Maybe a fan. His footsteps grew quicker and he became faster. Until he heard the voice getting louder and figured it was probably easier to just turn and take the photo or whatever to avoid further attention. "Nico! Espera! Wait!" Nico turned to see Y/n running towards him, her bag flying around aimlessly by her side as she sprinted. "Do you not have exams to study for?" He shouted back. She finally caught up and stood panting for a bit. "I'm- more- than- prepared." She said in between breaths. "Plus- you need- a friend here." She lifted her arms and motioned towards herself. "I thought I'd be your friend I guess." Nico smiled and took her bag for her. "Why is this so heavy?" He asked as the pair walked away together. "Well, Im I'm over achiever. What can I say?" She chuckled. "Coffee sound good?" He asked. "Sounds amazing."

[countessofravenclaw]

El Lugar más Feliz de la Tierra: Chapter one

To all that come to this happy place, welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.

- Walt Disney

Luna had never heard these words before, nor had she heard of the man who had said them... well until she and Mateo end up having a movie night and Luna comes up with an idea. If there is really a place that can be called "the happiest place on the earth" she wants to see it for herself. So she and all her friends leave on an adventure ... an adventure over to a place where you can leave today and enter the world of the past, future, adventure, and fantasy.

There is a dedicated song for every chapter. It will be liked below V ¤

Ready to begin? Let the wonder take ahold

“Matteo that was amazing!” Luna exclaimed as Demi Lovato’s version of Let it Go started playing over the credits. “How have I never seen that movie before?”

“I have no idea,” Matteo, who was sitting next to Luna on the couch, said. “that came out in 2013, over ten years ago. How are you so unfamiliar with Disney?”

“This Disney+ thing didn’t exist when I was a kid. Mom didn’t want to let me go to movies by myself as a kid and we didn’t have a DVD player.” Luna explained. “I guess I just fell out of the loop.”

Luna and Matteo’s plan for the afternoon had been to get the wedding planning started as they were done with Gastón and Nina’s wedding, and they were on their honeymoon, it was the time to focus on their own wedding. The wedding date had been set to spring 2025. The late date was mostly because the wedding would be quite a big affair given Matteo’s vast family, and the fact that during the past year there had already been two weddings from their friend group, and Pedro and Delfi also seemed to be determined to tie the knot in the frames of 2024. It was hard to plan a wedding while constantly being part of others’ wedding parties. 

But no planning had gotten done this far since they had just ended up watching old animated movies.

“How is that even possible if you are friends with Nina?” Matteo laughed, “I mean, I love Star Wars, but that is all thanks to Gastón.”

Luna laughed. Their best friends, nowadays the Peridas, were extremely big nerds on all that kind of stuff. Nina had tried to rope Luna into something she didn’t even understand many times. “She has tried to make me read those super thick wizard books for like ten years now.”

“Ahh, yes the Harry Potters,” Matteo shook his head, “I agree with her on that. Luna, you are a Gryffindor, you should really understand what it means.”

“It means that I am a Lion right?” Luna wasn’t really sure why she had never gotten into reading books. She was just too active and thought on her feet too much. Maybe she’d learn someday. “Anyways, lets watch another movie.”

“Weren’t we supposed to plan the wedding?”

“Well, we are! Didn’t you see the scene in this one where they were talking about their wedding?” Luna turned her head towards the TV. It was not like the wedding planning was way off the schedule. They had over a year, and the date had been set. The venue would be just the mansion so that was also set. The wedding party would be the same as everyone else’s. There was just so much they could do right now, since the Maid of Honor and Best man were off on their own honeymoon, “I want a wedding just like that. Ice cream and Chocolate.”

“So you want our wedding to be like Disney Villain and Disney Princess?” Matteo teased her, reching over to play with her engagement ring, “Brilliant plan, Chica Delivery.”

“No not like that,” Luna laughed again, “But this is very good wedding research. Now a new movie. I want one with a princess… and a wedding.”

“I am pretty sure all of the princess movies have a wedding in them.”

“Oooh, there was one with a mermaid! Did that one have a wedding?”

“I don’t think I have seen that one.”

***

“And then the reason why the magic was disappearing was that the family was broken from inside,” Luna gushed to Simon and Ambar at Roller a couple of days later. “I legit cried during the ending”

“What is she talking about?” Simon turned towards Matteo, “What did you give her.”

“We ended up watching some Disney movies couple days ago and Luna became a fanatic,” Matteo smirked. “Now Luna wants as grand of a wedding than any Disney Princess, which I am okay with.”

“Fanatic about something else than skating?” Ambar jokingly gasped, “How is that even possible?”

“I have no idea,” Matteo laughed. When Luna got excited about something, there was no end in sight. 

“Well, don’t tell her about the parks then,” Ambar hushed to Matteo in a lower voice.

“There are parks?!” Luna’s gaze shot up to Matteo and Ambar. She sometimes had super hearing. “What kind of park?”

“Amusement parks,” Ambar explained. “Like the one we went to a month ago. Remember, you had so much fun there that you wanted to hold Nina’s bachelorette party there until we all told you no.”

“Oh right. You mean there are amusement parks like that, but they are themed to Disney?”

“Yes.”

“Uuuu, I wanna go to one!” Luna started gushing. “Is the park close?”

“No,” Matteo answered. “The closest ones are in USA.”

“There is also one in Europe and three in Asia,” Ambar continued the explanation. “The first one was Disneyland which was built in the 50s. It is the only one that the founder of the company Walter Elias Disney developed himself.”

“Hold up a second.” Luna, Matteo and even Simon stared at Ambar. “When did you become Nina? How do you know this?”

“Okay, I read his biography when I was 12,” Ambar threw her hands in the air, “It was a thick book with a fancy-looking cover, so Sharon approved of me reading it on the plane.”

“Have you ever been to any of the parks?” Luna asked the others. 

“No,” Ambar shook her head. “Sharon never let me, even when we did visit Florida many times.”

“Well, I never left Mexico before I met you lot, so I have never been.” Simon shook his head as well.

“I have,” Matteo said as Luna turned her eyes to him, “Gastón’s parents took us to Disney World when we were 14.” Matteo smiled at the memory. That had probably been the first time he had actually enjoyed traveling since his mother’s death. That had been when he had really started to consider Gastón’s family his own. “It was really fun, but the parks have probably changed quite a bit during these years.”

“This is so beautiful!” Luna had started scrolling on her phone, apparently looking at pictures of the Disney parks. “Matteo, Matteo, Matteo! Can we go here on our honeymoon?” Luna held up her phone up to Matteo’s face, showing a picture of the Disneyland castle.

“Luna, we already have our honeymoon booked to Aulani Resort in Hawaii. It was your idea.” Matteo said. Luna had been the most excited person alive — which was saying a lot, about being able to go to Hawaii and eat nothing else but coconuts. 

“Oh, right.” Luna said, her face falling for a moment.

“Plus, Disney is great fun, but maybe not the most relaxing as a vacation or as a honeymoon.” Matteo continued, “but if you really want, we can chang—”

“No, I wanna go to Hawaii!” Luna interrupted, just like Matteo had expected. 

Suddenly Luna’s eyes lit up, like they only did when she was having an idea.

“MY BIRTHDAY!”

“Is in four and a half months,” Matteo completed Luna’s sentence, “What about it?”

“I wanna go to Disneyland for my birthday!” Luna almost started jumping on her chair. “Lets make it a birthday trip and go with everyone!”

“Luna, your birthday is two weeks before Pedro and Delfi’s wedding,” Ambar jumped in before Matteo had time to say anything. “You have no idea how stressful that time will be. Delfi is going to need her bridesmaids.”

“Oh, right…” Luna stopped jumping, “You are right, we can’t go…” Luna’s voice trailed off and she looked like she was deep in thought. 

“Luna?” She had stayed quiet and still for such a long time it kind of started to scare Matteo. This did not happen often. 

“How about we just go now?!” Luna’s eyes had lit up with another idea. 

“Now? As in now now?”

“No. Now as in two or three weeks.”

“I don’t know if that is the best idea…” Matteo did not wanna shoot Luna’s idea down, going to Disney would be sweet, but that kind of vacation plan was not something you could just do spontaneously. It needed planning… but on the other hand, Luna was Luna and Matteo had chosen to marry her. On the other words, he knew what she was like and when she got an idea, she was not going let it go just like that. He also just wanted to see her happy. 

“Luna, you know—” Ambar started speaking, and Matteo felt relieved. Ambar was always level headed and would speak some sense into Luna. They could make that Disney trip happen, maybe next year, after Christmas and as everyone else's weddings had been settled.“—since our birthdays are close to each other, what do you say if we’d make it a shared birthday trip. That way we have more to celebrate, and we can take absolutely everybody.”

“OMG of course!” Luna started jumping up and down on her chair once more. Matteo glanced over to Simon, who apparently had no plans of challenging his wife. He just gave Matteo the “it is too late now” look. “Matteo, please please please please!” Luna had turned to Matteo plastering her face with her trademark puppy eyes. 

“I guess we’re going to Disney!”

“YAYYYYYYY!!!” Luna jumped out of her chair and hugged Matteo. Matteo knew it was pointless to say any kind of no to her, or even try. 

“Okay, we need to start planning! How do you plan a Disney trip?” Luna was already surfing the internet on her phone.

“Well, first we need to calm down and be orderly.” Ambar sat Luna back down on the table and took her laptop, that she had had with her, on the table. “First, before we can reserve any hotels or flights, or even park tickets, we need to figure out when we are doing all of this. There are lot of us, and people like me and Gastón have employers and I am sure your agents won’t like it either if you give them no notice about a vacation. I think the first step is just to inform everyone that we would like to take them to a trip to California to Disneyland.”

“Lets do that then!” Luna grabbed her phone once more. Matteo was just leaning back at his chair and observing. This was girls’ idea so they could sort it out. “I’ll just sent a message to Nina about this first—”

“Oh noh, not in my watch,” Matteo quickly straightened and swooped to grab the phone from Luna.

“Why?”

“Did you already forget that everyone is under strict orders to not contact them unless someone is dying, while they are on their honeymoon?” Gastón had left Matteo to enforce that rule. They had gone completely media silent after having left for the honeymoon, which they had informed everyone beforehand so no one would think something had happened. Matteo was sure there still were tons of pictures being taken during the honeymoon that would appear on Instagram after the honeymoon, but right now, there were definitely better things to focus on as newlyweds. 

“But didn’t they fly back yesterday?”

“Yes, they did, but Gastón specifically said that the ban will be lifted once they say so.” Matteo said firmly, “We are having lunch with them on Friday, thats probably when it will happen. Leave the newlyweds alone, they do not wanna hear from us.”

“Oh, right…” Luna looked down, “Then how will we proceed with this then?”

“Well, we are talking about Gastón and Nina here,” Simon started talking, “I am sure they will like the idea. You don’t really need to guess what they will think.”

“I think, we should just let everyone else know about this.” Ambar was still tapping away on her laptop. “Luna, just send a message in the group chat.”

“Yeah, good idea. Matteo would you give me my phone back?” Luna held her arm to Matteo, “I promise I won’t break no contact ban. They said that they have the group chat muted.”

“Okay.” Matteo gave Luna her phone back.

“Huh?” Luna said as she appeared to be staring a the screen. “Someone has changed the chat name.”

“Probably Ramiro.” Simon said while leaning back on his chair as well.

The Legends of Roller

Luna: What is up with the chat name?

Jazmin: It has changed?

Jazmin: What is that? Who did this?

Yam: Take 3 guesses

Jim: There is only one person who would come up with something this dumb

Ramiro: Hey! It is an awesome name

Pedro: Who cares what the chat name is?

Delfi: Pedro get off the chat, we are supposed to be talking about the flowers!!

Ramiro: When one wedding ends, another begins… when will we ever be free?

Jim: Ramiro don’t complain! Weddings are so romantic. I love the fact we have two still ahead

Yam: And who knows, maybe more

Jim: I really hope so 💕

Luna: I was just asking about the name because I really like it

Ramiro: Luna knows what is up

Luna: Anyways… What was I supposed to send here?

Luna: Right! Me and Ambar just came up with the most awesome idea for our birthdays. Something that we can all do together.

Delfi: Luna I am sorry, but your birthdays are really close to the wedding

Luna: We talked about that, don’t worry. Our idea was to go in like 2 weeks

Yam: Go where?

Luna: Oh right, I should probably tell you. The idea was so awesome

Jim: What kind of idea?

Luna: Okay, so me and Ambar talked and we came up with an idea that we wanna take all of you to Disneyland for our birthday

Luna: Well, not on our birthday, but like in 2 or 3 weeks. Who can make it?

Jim: Me and Yam absolutely can!!!! Disney!!! This is amazing!!

Ramiro: I am absolutely coming

Jazmin: I get to dress up like a Disney character!!!

Pedro: We are coming too. Delfi needs to get a break from the wedding madness (and so do I)

Delfi: I am thinking very seriously do I ignore that remark or not

Nico: Did you say in 2-3 weeks. I think I promised to go to Brazil to see my cousins then. Can you come back to me with a date?

“Everyone’s on board… except that Nico is a maybe,” Luna raised her face from the phone screen. 

“Excellent,” Ambar looked at her from behind the computer, “Now we just need to confirm the date from Gastón and Nina. You and Matteo can do that once you meet up with them. Now in meantime, we should just look up some stuff so we know what to reserve when we can. There are three hotels on property.”

“Uuuuuu, lets stay at the namesake!” Luna scooted next to Ambar’s laptop.

“Disneyland hotel?” Matteo just watched as the girls huddled over the computer. Since this was going to be their birthday trip, they would get to worry about the planning. It did make him very happy to see Luna so excited and he never would have imagined to see Ambar as excited about a theme park.

*

“I am so excited!” Luna gushed from her seat while Matteo rounded around the block to the street that led to Gastón and Nina’s house. Or he guessed, it could now be called the Perida household. Yep, that was going to take some getting used to that Nina’s last name was Perida as well. 

“I am not even going to ask what you are excited about since we’d be here until tomorrow if you start listing them all.” Matteo parked the car on the yard next to Gastón’s car and they got out of the car. 

As they walked to the door, they took note that the black that had said “Simonetti” on the door had been removed. 

Matteo and Luna had a key to the house, which had been given to them for emergencies by Gastón and Nina, and they had one to Luna and Matteo’s studio apartment, but since they were coming as guests to the house, they would not use it. The keys were to emergencies only. Luna rang the doorbell while skipping slightly back and forth.

“Come on in!” Gastón opened the door arm firmly around Nina. 

Matteo stood back as Luna sprang to hug them. This was his way of avoiding getting caught up in it himself. Not that he didn’t like Luna’s hugs, he loved them, but the ones given in huge excitement, like right now, could be painfully tight.

“I need to hear everything you did! I need to see all the pictures you took!!” Luna was jumping up and down again after all the greetings had been completed. 

“You can see them, but most of them are still on our cameras. I just started wiring them to the computer, but that will take at least an hour.” Nina responded to Luna.

“It doesn’t matter! I can look at them from the small camera screen! Can you show them to me now?”

“Go show her,” Gastón said to Nina, “Otherwise she’ll bounce off the walls the whole day.”

Before Gastón removed his arm around Nina so Luna could drag her away, he leaned down to briefly kiss his wife. 

“Well, I don’t think I need to ask how it is going, because I can see that it is going well,” Matteo laughed as he and Gastón had been left alone in the living room. “You two are all over each other as always”

“I can’t argue with that,” Gastón said as they sat down, “I am the luckiest man on earth.”

“How’s that?” Matto asked pointing to the wedding band Gastón was now wearing in his left ring finger. Matteo had never seen Gastón wearing any jewelry outside of a watch and knew he didn’t really care for jewelry.

“Getting used to it,” Gastón responded while twisting the ring slightly, “But it is all worth it. My wife is amazing.”

“So the honeymoon was fun?”

“Understatement of the year.”

“Good to hear. Did you get lots of learning done about the culture at Bermuda, since there is nothing more romantic to do at your honeymoon?” Matteo joked. He had lightheartedly made fun of Gastón and Nina’s choice to take a five-night cruise to Bermuda, instead of just staying at New York the whole of two weeks on their honeymoon, due to it being a historical location. 

“You very well know that there were many opportunities to be romantic. The ship was extremely nice, and we…”

“Okay, I don’t need details,” Matteo interrupted, “I believe you. It is not like you could keep your hands off her anyway.”

“And I am not planning on trying, she is my wife.” Matteo had to admit that he really had missed Gastón and love seeing him so happy. And hearing him call Nina his wife so lovingly, made him just more anxious to call Luna his soon. “Speaking off, how is the wedding planning going?”

“Well, it is not going.”

“Don’t tell me that engagement is already off? Matteo, we were gone for two weeks.” Gastón jokingly lamented. 

“Hey! We have just not had time to start the planning quite yet.” Matteo laughed. “We did try, but Luna got distracted, and we ended up watching Frozen instead.”

“You mean she had not seen it yet? How is that even possible?”

“I do not know, but that gave her an idea—” Matteo was interrupted as he saw Luna and Nina descend the stairs. 

“By to way, does this mean that you two are back in society?” Matteo asked after Luna and Nina had joined them on the couch. 

“Well, I’d love to say no. It has been way too peaceful,” Gastón said while resting his arm on Nina's hip, “But I have to be back at work on Monday.”

“And I am sure our parents are ready to raid this house if they don’t hear from us soon,” Nina continued, “I am so glad we went against giving Mom the key.”

“After the pictures have been transferred to the computer, we probably just unmute the group chats and send like a photo dump there and let everyone know that the ban is over.”

“Oooooh, wait before you look at the Legends of Roller group chat,” Luna jumped up from the couch.

“The what?”

“Ramiro changed the name,” Matteo explained quickly, “But that is what we wanted to talk you two about. We, or more like Luna and Ambar have been planning something and there has been a bunch of talk about that in the group chat.”

“Matteo, I wanted to be the one to tell them!” Luna whined.

“Floor is all yours.”

“Okay,” Luna jumped up enthusiastically, “So, me and Ambar have been planning that we want to take everyone on a shared birthday trip”

“But isn’t that—?” Nina started asking but Luna interrupted her again. “Two weeks before Pedro and Delfi’s wedding, I know. Thats why, we are going now, or as in two weeks. We only needed to let you know so we can decide on the dates. OH, AND WE ARE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!” Luna had started jumping from where she sat on the couch. “You need to come along!”

{}

Do you know how long I have been planning this? Well, a long time. I remember seeing pics of the cast at either Disney World or Land and I can just imagine the chaos that would reign there if the Roller Crew went there. I went with Disneyland because it is smaller and easier to manage for a fic. Plus I am a huge Disney nerd and am obsessed with D~history. Disneyland is the of and that's why they are going there.

[masterchef901]

We're weird here, right? Yeah? Good. Let me tell you about the fucking MAGICAL narrative journey that is the CoD Zombies story. It's weird, it's jank as hell, and by the end it has me thinking seriously on the implicit meta-narrative to it. Also, the story ends like 4 separate times.

So we begin with CoD: World at War.

"Nazi Zombies", a minigame unlocked by beating the main story, where you get to feel more justified in sinking lead into a horde than possibly anywhere else in gaming, or life for that matter. Over the course of the original maps, the devs see positive fan response and put a little effort into it. We get perks, fancy technomagic laser guns and wonder-weapons, and even some characters and lore.

That lore, by the way, is "The nazis were experimenting on mysterious rocks that turned out to turn people into zombies. Then the zombies broke out. The end." Our heroes, meanwhile, are all simple as hell. A Japanese honor-obsessed samurai, a German mad scientist, a Russian whose only desire in life is vodka, and an ultra-macho rambo-esque American with an IQ only marginally higher than that of the zombies they'll be working together to slaughter. Basically, all stereotypes, but played for that over-the-top sort of comedy enough that I'll be generous and call them 'caricatures' instead. This group would eventually come to be called "Ultimis".

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Back by popular demand, is the Zombies mode, now no longer exclusive to the nazi brand of zombie, because the story's going international. This time, our heroes are going on a tour of WWII-era conspiracy theories. Ancient Vril mysticism, Shangri-La, nazi moon bases - basically the plot of Iron Sky 2. Simple, except not really, but definitely absurd in a fun, goofy way. Notably, the loading screens and advertising also framed these maps in a sort of "comic book"-y way, to help us understand the level of narrative consistency and complexity we'd be seeing here.

(Before continuing, by the way, we also have the absolute TREAT that is the map "Five". Seriously, go watch its opening cutscene, and then imagine those characters being your friendly voices for the duration of the game)

The critical thing here is that, while WaW had some "easter eggs", they were just cute little bits and bobs. "Interact with some rocks hidden around the map, play a song", stuff like that. But Black Ops easter eggs were something else entirely. Trying to explain these feels like explaining the conspiracy theories that inspired the maps. "Go stand on the floor panels to enter Eclipse mode. Then find the four wall-dials and set them to specific values. Now use the shrink ray on a specific rock, which you must then shoot around the map until it lands on the temple." Stuff like that. And even though nobody realized it until the end, they were all connected - if you do all the easter eggs leading up to it, then the Moon egg culminates in the mad scientist character taking over the zombie horde. And then you blow up the Earth.

That's right, they decide to just go flying beyond all chance of imagining this stuff was happening on the fringes of history, it was all-along the story of an apocalypse enacted by a mad scientist and his rival engineering events against him. The End. This was the BIG moment that grabbed the attention and imagination of me and others as a kid. It took Zombies from "neat" to "COOL", and, for better and worse, secured this storyline and style as the "zombies breadwinner" for several games to come.

Side note: I don't recall exactly when they did this, but at some point Treyarch's writers realized that it's maybe a bad look to have one of the playable characters be "'German scientist who helped create the Nazi Zombies", on account of, y'know, the fact that that makes him a nazi. So at some point they did that thing where they "soft-retcon" in some audio clarifying that actually while he was always a psychopath, he was only ever in it For The Science (tm) and it was actually his rival Dr. Maxis who signed his research team on with the reich.

I'm not sure if there's a term for this sort of the thing - when writers don't really retcon in the sense of overwriting previously established facts, but use "reveals" to try and overwrite the meaning of those previously established facts. Yes, technically that's what all good reveals do, but it's also obvious in times like these that there used to be a clear understanding of the lore on both the authors' and audience's parts, which the author has since decided they don't like and want to redo. "Oops, that previous evidence/event didn't count because of contrived circumstances you knew nothing about and could not possibly have guessed."

If I sound like I'm going off on a tangent, I want to be clear - firstly, this sort of practice always frustrates me, because it makes it clear that the author is readily willing to "cheat" in the game that is the communication of a narrative, and secondly because that's secretly what this whole mega-ramble is actually about.

Black Ops 2: We Care About The Lore Now

So, Treyarch wanted to do more Zombies, and they liked the vibe they had so far, so they decide to stay in the storyline that exploded earth. The characters - now a farm girl, a nerd, a hobo, and a schizophrenic guy, all American, all came off more annoying than the "comedic" take Treyarch wanted. This group would be dubbed "Victis", and not only were these characters poorly received, but the story itself would feel aimless. How do you one-up a grand master scheme and the apocalypse? What are our survivors even doing? Treyarch has our old mad scientist and his rival acting as voices in the Victis gang's collective head to try and vie for control of the zombies, and this story would ultimately culminate in one of them (based on player choices involving arcane steps punctuated by some oddly sexual ones) winning the power struggle, and either way, some type of "the world ends again", either with the mad scientist turning the world into his plaything, or (the canon ending) the rival scientist enacting some weird arcane collapse that will let him be with his daughter. Either way, we don't revisit this world again.

I specify world because the characters will return, and even in the same game, actually.

But first - in the middle of the Victis plotline we take a brief visit to Alcatraz for an unexpectedly great zombies experience that's entirely disconnected from either of the plotlines so far. I bring this up only for completeness sake, and for a point that'll hopefully become clearer later.

Anyway, we now return to our regularly scheduled zombie programming - by which I mean, a whole new experience, Origins, featuring "modernized", more tasteful renditions of our original Ultimis team. We're introduced now to a strong-but-disciplined American soldier, a now safely WWI-era not-quite-mad German Scientist, a world-weary Russian who uses alcohol to tastefully take the edge off, and a Japanese samurai warrior who's struggling with the decaying traditional idea of "honor" in a World-War 1 setting.

This "new" (yet chronologically older) variant of the team would be dubbed "Primis".

And this time the plot has them freeing the spirit of a young girl, Samantha, daughter of Science Rival Guy Dr. Maxis who we'd just seen end the world (twice) from some weird arcane trap on the battlefield "of the Great War" so she can go to a mysterious place called "Agartha". Also, the ending cutscene shows her and "Eddie" (who appears to be a child version of our playable german scientist) to be playing with dolls and action figures of the zombies and the playable characters - implying that in fact our whole storyline thus far was "just a game", and the shift of control over the zombie hordes in the first game to Edward Richtofen was in fact just "Eddie" taking his turn playing as the zombies.

It's easy to forget for those of us who've kept up with the story since this, but I cannot overstate how confusing this entire situation was to resolve from a lore perspective. Options were:

1: As implied in the cutscene, acktually "it was all just a game". The lore that players had worked hard to uncover was all, within its own canon, a game being played by children. This was wildly unpopular, but also quite possibly the authors' intended interpretation because in a very real sense, it all WAS a game, and the lore mostly WAS made-up by players out of scraps of lore they'd found.

2: Our four protagonists had acktually all met for the first time in WWI, then again incidentally wound up together again after un-developing as characters due to Magic Rock Exposure (tm) in WWII. Somehow the little girl freed in Origins and her dad whose brain got put in a drone during that process both get put back into their bodies, I guess.

3: It's all a parallel universe with its own separate continuity; the little girl and Eddie believe they're just playing games with toys when in reality they've been shipped off to copyright-safe-Heaven and "games with toys" is how they cope with the trauma of their zombie-filled lives.

BLACK OPS 3: MORE

So, Treyarch picks option 3. Makes sense, it keeps us gamers feeling like our investment was in something worthwhile and not arbitrarily patched together, while also allowing them some more narrative liberty. Easy, right?

WRONG

Rather than just roll with "We're doing zombies again in a newer, cleaner universe", they have to tie everything up ALL together. Our new plotline is that ACTHSDHALY the zombie-rocks came from a bunch of eldritch tentacle-creatures called Apothicons from super-hell. We meet Dr. Monty, who's basically like if Willy Wonka was actually secretly God who's trying to get the kids safe and sound up in heaven and the now eldritch-based zombies sealed back away.

We follow Team Primis as they go back into our first universe to harvest the souls of Team Ultimis (so, their own original souls) which will somehow allow them to go to I-can't-believe-it's-not-Heaven too. They go there, shit accidentally goes wrong when eldritch-satan breaks out, but the gang beats him up with guns and Monty is able to re-establish his perfect world.

Except, uh, he tried to delete the Primis crew while he was it it, but don't worry, that random moment in Alcatraz earlier was act[coughing fit]ally super-duper important and drinking the blood of those prisoners let out heroes survive! BUT ACTASKFHALY THIS WAS MONTY'S PLAN ALL ALONG and he teleports them back in time to fight in-

oh right so "the great war" from origins wasn't in reference to WWI, it was

actually

the site of The Great War between humanity and the apothicons, and Monty time-travels the crew back then to be the heroes of legend that set up Origins to happen, creating a time loop. Characters are, this whole time, saying "the paradox must be resolved" without ever explaining what it is.

But yeah anyway the whole ride this game leads to a big "it was all a time loop" cycle deal, and also the tone has slowly shifted from BO1 comic-style to something that feels more like an "Avengers"-style quiptacular with MORE budget, MORE stakes, MORE lore that actually isn't a good thing because the more lore they pile on the more twisted and absurd the story has to get and also it occurs to me that "going avengers" actually is kinda the natural conclusion to "being like comic books".

BLACK OPS 4: BUT WAIT THERE'S FOUR

So at this point, Treyarch and Activision in general are spending more focus on trying to figure out a new angle to Zombies, but nothing takes off. Infinity Ward's "Zombies in Spaceland" was a whiff, Cod:WW2's "reboot" of Nazi Zombies didn't stick, and their new "Chaos" storyline featuring mixed-religious lore was also met with lukewarm-to-poor response (sidenote here: now that we're in a proper era where it's common practice to ask "What if Ra punched Odin in the face while Ares watches" we really should establish a term for it, like "Mixed-Religious Combat" following the form of "Mixed Martial Arts).

SO They felt some pressure to go back once more to the cash cow what is their absolute mess of an "original" zombies story, now termed the "Aether" arc. They don't have many maps left to develop this but that doesn't stop them from opening the story again, and this time the writers have fucking HAD IT with this story so they decide it's time to fucking END it.

Here's your finale: Victis crew (the all-american team nobody liked) are back, slightly better written this time, on the map that had gone the longest without a remake (notably, in keeping with modern media practice, every zombies map from from the Ultimis-Primis plotline had been remade at least once by now), and they make a macguffin.

Then Primis Nikolai (the russian guy) uses it to wish a new, zombie-free universe into existence and sends the kids away into it.

Also he poisons and kills all of Ultimis and Primis. Then has the kids shoot him. THE ADULTS ARE ALL DEAD NOW AND THEY GOT BANISHED TO SUPERHELL WITH THEIR MULTIVERSE THE END. Nikolai gives us some lore mumbo jumbo about how the arcano-babble and the eldritch-babble had done some techno-babble that "bound the team's destiny forever to the apothicon menace", so that the only way a universe could ever be free of zombies would be for him and his friends to all die.

And the thing is, he's right. Because if you've followed this far, you're probably seeing a pattern: People like these characters, even in their worst-written moments, and Activision isn't going to just let that go unmilked. As long as there is any possible way for these characters to return, they'll be brought back and the lore is going to be held and gunpoint and forced to cook up a reason for them to be there shooting zombies. So the only possible way to let this tortured, tangled mess of a plot finally reach an actual ending is to kill its protagonists - and not just kill them, but write them off so conclusively that there's no chance of resurrection, no more alternate universes containing them, NOTHING. THEY ARE GONE. And true to the Homestuck-ass law that was inspired by this exact effect, the only way death can stick from a narrative sense is if everyone's death is either a Just end or a Heroic sacrifice to nobly ensure a better life For the Kids.

Samantha and Eddie (at this point nobody asks why Eddie even exists or what timeline these kids are from) are finally safe. The end.

COD COLD WAR THE STORY KEEPS GOING

As if to prove my point, Cold War Zombies picks up with a new set of protagonists... and an easter egg featuring the return of Samantha, now slightly more grown up, I guess, and also with superpowers? And then she flies around a bit, before finally heroically sacrificing herself out of the story for good. Eddie - now a full adult Edward Richtofen once more - is a "big reveal" in a cutscene afterwards, confirming that, in fact, there will be no peace fucking ever until every last character from this beautiful, twisted plot is gone.

EPILOGUE

And I want to be clear, it is beautiful. I wouldn't have followed it this far or spent two hours learning just how much I have to type about it if I didn't love every second of it, especially the seconds spent hating on it. I could, and probably eventually will write another essay at some point on how fucking much I love jank-ass "broken" things like this.

But for now, I hope y'all see my points here. It's this weird case you see happen every now and then where people just fall in love with their characters, and won't ever let go. Certainly doesn't help that the authors of those characters can't figure out how to write anyone else decently, but this is just one of many franchises I've seen where the unwillingness to let go of a fan-favorite leaves the plot tied in knots as it constantly has to try and present a NEW BIGGEST THREAT EVER that becomes a BIG DRAMATIC CONCLUSIVE FINALE that then needs even bigger contrivances to bring the favorites back.

It's done a fucking number on Halo's story, which is impressive because a lot of halo's core fans never even really consider that it has one. It's hard for me to talk about Halo here without thinking to myself "STOP TALKING ABOUT JOHN"

Same deal with Marvel, same with Homestuck, same deal in a lot of cases that I'm sure you're aware of too.

So as my closing thought and my reward to you for reading this far, here's some homework! What the fuck do you call these problems? What do you call it when lore starts to go sour because it's spent too long being about the same thing? What do you call it when fan demand forces writers to rethink their endings repeatedly? What do you call it when writers "cheat" their way around prior writing, re-contextualizing everything so much that it's hard to actually believe anything they say anymore and we're just left to sigh and feel odd relief when they say "Somehow Palpatine has returned" without further explanation because at least that means ONLY the ending of the original trilogy has its weight retroactively worsened?

[jongside]

hi!! secret anon again jeje

oh wow so you're an expert in kpop o.O and you even know skz since begining!! that's so cool

which was the first group you got into?

oh my fav onewe ones are RAIN TO BE, veronica and montage_ (you can guess my fav onewe song lol)

omg yes so many song recomendations!! they're going straight to my 'to listen' playlist (i'll let you know what i think as soon as i listen to them) well the txt ones i already knew them, the other ones i don't. I kinda like txt, i know them and their names but i don't really stand them yet

OMG YES YES YES i also can't stand the tv show for shadowhunters, it was really bad,,,, like from minute 0 everything was wrong. i'm reading the last serie, i'm still on the first book hahah. i need to know, who's your fav character? mine is Magnus cause he's iconic,,,, (as you can see i'm a big fan of shadowhunters lol9

yes!! i don't like kdramas that make me cry cause,,, no thanks hahah. The spanish series i'm watching is called "Las chicas del cable" ("cable girls" in english) and it's based on 1930 in spain, and the protagoinst are girls who work at a telephone station(? sorry i don't know how to explain it well (english is not my first language haha)

YES cause after telling you the top 3 songs i was like,,,, waitttttt. let me tell you i like every song they've released jajjajaajajaj

thanks!! i really like my job, is like my dream so i really like it ahahah

i've never been to a kpop concert YET, but ateez are coming to europe so i hope i get tickets. and i haven't been to any festivals tbh, i went to a few concerts, most of them cause they were in my city and for free, i saw two spanish groups 'Maldita Nerea' and 'Auryn' and another one i went cause i really liked, they are 'Destripando la historia' (translates as gutting the story) they are a spanish duo of youtubers that make songs ab disney stories but telling the truth behind the story, like the real story and not the one disney told

and by now you can guess im from spain lmao

okay new question,,,,, how many albums do you have? do you collect pc? do you own lightsticks?

have a great day<3

case 65 anon ✨

Hi my dear anon 💖

U-kiss got me into kpop, like i was so so much into them and i do still take so much pleasure listening to the old songs, Only You my beloved. Then it was Shinee and Btob. What was the first kpop song you heard?

I discovered Onewe with Rain to be so it hold a special place in my heart 😊 Ah yes tell me when you listen and if you like some of them. I must add Xeed to that list cause i just start stanning and OMG i'm obsessed Dream Land is on repeat all day.

It was indeed really bad 🙈 and all the things they changed. Alec wedding...that is when they lost me for good! My favorite character is Jem (baby 🥺) and Magnus and Alec are my favorite couple, so cute.

Las chicas del cable, i watched season one, it was nice hey hey another spanish one that i only watched season one yet but really liked was Gran Hotel! And since now i know you from spain it is only fair for you to know that i'm from france 🙂

In all honestly i don't own any albums or anything kpop related...yet. I always feel "weird" when i say it cause i know that for some people it makes you not a real fan. Well once again it's quite pricey...but now that i have more stable incomes i'm thinking about buying 1 or 2 albums as a treat. What about you anon? Is there some you really want? Or do you have a favorite one? Oh maybe what is your favorite stray kids album?

Have a nice day 💕

[artistsfuneral]

I quite liked your Witcher!Jaskier short fic! The idea that Calanthe allowed a single Witcher to remain on her lands and the pull of destiny brought them both there even in such different circumstances really caught my interest. Will you be continuing it?

Awww thank you!

Prooobably won't be writing that fic anymore, so I will just tell you what was supposed to happen, hope you don't mind :)

So the base is this: Jaskier once was a witcher of the (redacted) school, but for - apparently - no reason, left everything and everyone he knew behind to serve the crown of Cintra as a personal tool, if you will

Obviously the other witchers didn't like that so they started attacking Jaskier and the crown-wearer (Calanthe's father in this case), verbally and physically

The problem is that Jaskier is mighty strong in this one, like Eskel he's very good at magic stuff, super intelligent and high endurance etc etc - in a way he's the perfect soldier

After to many wichters got fatally wounded or died, Cintra became kind of a no-go-place for them, though every once in a while someone is stupid enough to try and take Jaskier down

The story starts with Geralt entering the cintran palace at Pavetta's betrothal, where he meets Jaskier for the first time and the reader learns about all those things I just told you

Geralt isn't really afraid of Jaskier, (he actually could take him in a fight, I tell you know) but the not-witcher makes him really really uncomfortable for a few reasons, but he's there on a mission

What am I talking about? You see, Pavetta hired Geralt to protect Duny and while Geralt doesn't want to get involved in any of those weird politics, he kinda does need the money she offered him and the curse Duny is under intrigues him

So yeah, Duny appears a la hedgehogman, Calanthe orders Jaskier to kill the monster and Geralt's and Jaskier's swords meet

Peculiarly enough, Geralt wins

Because Jaskier wanted him to

Jaskier, who hasn't said a single word yet, had let his actions speak louder than anything - the problem is, Calanthe who knows what Jaskier looks like when he's fighting, has noticed too

She starts punishing Jaskier, who does nothing to protect himself, so Geralt steps in and his brain short circuits as he calls for the law of surprise - the unborn Ciri is now bound to Geralt and what he doesn't understand yet, so is Jaskier

Years pass, things happen and Cintra goes up in flames

Geralt finds Ciri in a forest, crying over Jaskier, who is heavily wounded after doing everything to protect Ciri, Jaskier sees Geralt, smiles and passes out from blood loss

Geralt tries to take Ciri away to safety but the girl is having none of it, desperately screaming and crying that she won't leave Jaskier, that he's her best friend, that she will do everything to protect him because that's what he has to do for her, because surprise surprise Jaskier is cursed to serve the Cintran Crown until a rightful ruler (with elder blood) sets him free

So now Geralt somehow has to get Ciri and Jaskier to safety (Kaer Morhen), preferably without either of them dying

(this is the part where Yennefer and Triss help and they also discover the whole elder blood discourse etc)

Obviously Geralt and Jaskier fall in love along the way and it turns out that Jaskier has quite the cheerful personality when he's not oppressed by a certain warrior queen and half her courg constantly watching him

He still can't talk, that's part of the curse (to make him a perfect soldier and so on) but he is very quick with paper and ink and over the years Ciri has become quite excellent at interpreting his wild gestures and weird faces

In the beginning the other witchers are definitely not thrilled to suddenly have a hated "traitor" amongst themselves, but with Geralt, Ciri and the sorcerers explaining everything they slooooowly begin to trust him

Then there's this whole thing with a nilfgaardian king that decided to just declare a full on war to every single witcher and it's all vefy dramatic and heartbreaking and there's a lot of cried confessions and then everything goes to shit when said king captures Ciri and she's crowned Queen right there during the battle and suddenly you can hear Jaskier scream her name and she's sobbing and crying as she hears his voice for the first time, thinking it all ends there and that they have lost

But oh, hold on, the curse is broken and with it Jaskier regains a loooot of strength and he berserks across the battlefield like a parent throwing a car off their child with bare hands while simultaneously fighting three bears and a moose

They win because Ciri stabs the shit out of the nilfgaardian king, which also makes her queen of nilfgaard and yeah

Lots of crying, lots of hugs and then there was supposed to be a calm epilog where Ciri is back at the cintran palace where Geralt and Jaskier first met and Jaskier stands by her side as she is traditionally crowned queen and one of the first things she does in front of everybody is bow down to Jaskier

[standard-muse]

2521 vs LA LA Land and Why it Hurts so Dang Much

I was trying to figure out why the ending of 2521 hurt like an absolute semi-truck to the face when La La Land (LLL), which has a similar narrative, is one of my favorite movies. It wasn’t that they didn’t get together that was causing the absolute sob-fest into my bowl of cereal, because there are many other movies, shows, or dramas where that is the case and it seems like the perfect ending.

So why does 2521 hurt so dang much?

If we compare the two stories of LLL and 2521 I think it shows us something very interesting. Both LLL and 2521 share the narrative of a couple being together, but ultimately letting go of their relationship because circumstance and the desire to pursue their dreams supersedes the functionality of their relationship. So why did one ending make me cry tears of joy and the other absolutely broke my heart when they were so similar in nature?

I also want to preface this by saying 2521 is INCREDIBLY well written and as a writer and a somebody with a psychology degree focused on marriage counseling, I cannot get over how healthy and beautifully written the relationship between Baek Yi-Jin and Na Hee Do is. Books upon books could be written on how well their dynamic was set up through the lens of a psychologically healthy relationship and we can only hope more stories follow their lead.

But the reason why one story ending hurts so much more than another when they’re so similar in nature lies in the difference between LLL and 2521’s story structure and the perspective used on the relationship. Mia and Seb in LLL are a fully completed Jenga puzzle that slowly gets torn down, while Yi-Jin and Hee Do were two piles of Jenga bricks that slowly got put together. Let me explain.

For Mia and Seb in LLL, their relationship is presented to us very early on as a fully completed Jenga puzzle. Within the first act of the story we see them jump from awkward strangers to two people in love, living together, and passing their first or second anniversary. The entire development of their relationship is shown in one quick montage and the audience is immediately thrown into the deep end of their relationship. It’s one big “plop” and the entire Jenga tower that is their relationship is presented to us right out of the gate. Then, the story becomes about how that Jenga tower is slowly torn down. Seb takes a job where he works crazy hours? A few bricks are pulled from the tower. Seb feels Mia isn’t supportive of his career? A few more bricks are pulled from the tower. Seb misses Mia’s play? A few more bricks are pulled from the tower. Mia considers taking a job in Paris? A few more bricks are pulled from the tower. By the climax of the film, their relationship Jenga tower is just a skeleton of what it was at the beginning. It had been slowly worn down by time, circumstance, and questionable choices that left it structurally unsound, until eventually they decide to knock over whatever remaining tower is left and go their separate ways. The viewpoint of their relationship is one that starts off completed, and then slowly degrades.

In comparison...

The viewpoint of Yi-Jin and Hee Do is the complete opposite. We start off with two separate piles of bricks, and the story revolves around us slowly watching them build that Jenga tower up. Hee Do tells Yi-Jin they can be happy together in secret? A few bricks of the foundation are laid down. Hee Do and Yi-Jin listen to each others messages for support while they’re away? A few more bricks are laid down. Yi-Jin protects Hee Do from his scary coworker during the documentary? A few more bricks are laid down. Hee Do provides a safe place for Yi-Jin to be happy? A few more bricks are laid down. Yi-Jin defends Hee Do by interviewing the ref? A few more bricks are laid down. Hee Do supports Yi-Jin in the tunnel? More bricks. Yi-Jin supports Hee Do in her fencing tournaments? More bricks. Then more bricks. Then more.

The course of the whole show is watching these two as their relationship is slowly built up over time, in the third act eventually reaching the place where they become a couple and their Jenga tower is finally “complete”; only for us to then watch it get knocked down in the duration of two episodes. With Seb and Mia we were presented with a completed tower that we watched slowly degraded over time. With Yi-Jin and Hee Do we were with them as they fought to build their tower in the first place. We were with them from the very beginning and we hand our hands on every brick as it was being laid down.

Focusing solely on the aspect of their relationship, (as this story isn’t just about first love), this show was about building. It was about them growing together, about learning more about each other, supporting each other against all odds, leaning on each other more, feeling deeper emotions towards each other, sharing bigger burdens together. They started off as strangers, and we were with them every step of the way as they grew closer and closer – slowly and beautifully building towards something. Only for, at the 11th hour, all that hard work to be quickly knocked down. With an added confusion of us holding on to extra bricks that we never even found a place for. (Who is Mr. Kim? Why is her woodwork shop called 2521? Where is Yi-Jin in 2021?)

The second comparison for why it hurts so much is the payoff. When Mia and Seb part at the end of their story, we see that their relationship was fundamental in them reaching their dreams. It salves the wound because even though they’re not together, their relationship served a greater purpose and they both reached their dreams. Mia becomes and actress and Seb gets his jazz club, and it’s clear that if they had never met they probably wouldn’t have ever made it there. Their dreams and their goals were set up at the very beginning and we see them become a reality when they meet again at the nightclub later in life. And it’s pointed and clear that they needed that relationship together in order to achieve those goals. We see this by how Sebastian names his club “Seb’s” and uses the exact design that Mia gave him. We realize in that moment that Mia was instrumental to him reaching his goal, and that their relationship served a purpose even if it didn’t work out. Same with Mia being an actress, if it hadn’t been for Seb driving to her house and encouraging her to do one last audition, she might not ever have come back and gotten the role. As an audience member we can walk away knowing that their relationship served a greater good.

In addition, we actually get to see Mia and Seb reunite after several years and have true closure with one another. We see how the two of them view each other now, how happy they are even if they're not together. There's peace between them. It's settled. It's okay now. Unlike with the 2009 interview where Hee Do and Yi-Jin appear to have unsettled emotional conflict and desire, and no reunion in the present 2021 timeline.

Peace vs unresolved conflict.

With Beakdo though, it hurts so much more because it feels like we’re missing the payoff. We were working towards something that eventually ended and the consolation is that life is hard and nothing lasts forever, that adulthood sucks and love will never last.

Basically just -

I was waiting for the reason why. Why did Min-Chae even read the diary in the first place? What was the point?

I thought that we might have gotten a Definitely, Maybe situation where the father is telling his daughter about how he met her mother, only for the daughter to figure out midway that her mother wasn’t the person her father should have ended up with, and she encourages her father to go after the one he really did love. But we don’t get that either? Or a Mamma Mia situation where the daughter reads her moms diary and brigns the guy her mom loved back into her life? But...no. Nothing.

In the present day there was no payoff or reason why Min-Chae was reading this story or what she was supposed to learn or take away from this.

We watched the beautiful building of a relationship that ended…but why?

Knocking over a Jenga tower that had already been sitting on the kitchen table is one thing, but if you were the one that sat there, slowly putting it together brick by brick, it’s going to hurt a lot more if somebody comes up to you and knocks it over just moments after you complete it. And knocking over a Jenga tower so that you can use the space on the table for a bowl of ice cream is one thing. But knocking over a Jenga tower so it can be replaced with a stack of HR forms and W2’s is something else entirely.

In the end, I guess 2521 is a beautiful and powerful story about youth and memory and the painful reality of life and adulthood. It's a commentary on growing up and all the challenges that entails, not a fantasy to escape in. The fact the Yi-Jin’s computer has a security question asking, “Who is your first love”, I think is a painful but accurate representation of something that is so common to the human experience. We all have a first love that we had to let go. And this story took us through the entire experience of that. While Mia and Seb’s story gives us a bit of a crutch by skipping the majority of the building of their relationship, only for us to walk next to them during it’s eventual downfall, we get to experience the rise and building of Yi-Jin and Hee Do’s relationship from it’s conception. And while Mia and Seb offer a consolation and a purpose for the loss, Beakdo doesn’t really give us that.

And that’s why it hurts so dang much when it eventually ended. Their relationship and story is realistic. It’s life. Life is hard and life can hurt, and sometimes there isn't a resolution or an answer no matter how badly we want it.

Does that make the ending any better? That's up to you to decide. But I hope this helps for anybody that was struggling with why the ending was hitting so hard.

[captnjacksparrow]

Why did Sasuke have sex with Sakura if he did not like her? He did horrible things to her and yet he made a baby with her so it means that he finds Sakura attractive. He is not that type of guy who would put his d just like that and I do not believe that he did not know about protection so he wanted a baby with Sakura.

To that Anon..... Who once asked me who is hornier, NaruHina or SasuSaku???.... And I told you my answer.... And if you are reading my post today... This ask is the literal proof for you!!!! Look at the proof of their Love.... 

God!!! I'm really uncomfortable talking about sex in an ask. Anyways, this will be my last time...

Disclaimer: The Word ‘Sex’ is used many times in this post. If you feel uncomfortable, please don’t read it.

Reasonable Answer:

The Studio forced Sasuke to do 'the thing'. That's all.

Prediction Based Answer:

Why do you think 'Having Sex' must always be related to attractiveness and romance????

Your question makes me doubt your Media Observing experience. I mean, maybe you are a 12 year old kid who never watched modern Movies other than Disney Stuffs.... 

Do you really think every sexual experience that everyone had so far was romantic????

Have you heard about 'One Night Stand'???? Or 'Casual Sex'??? Both of them were done just for experimenting... I mean horny teenagers get hormonal rage and they just do it and then forget about it. I'm sure you must have watched it in many Hollywood Movies. Popular Movie Example.... Iron Man... Tony Stark had wild sex with Christine Everhart for one-night but he never loved her or even remember that thing.

He is not that type of guy who would put his d just like that

Since you yourself had admitted that Sasuke is not that type of Guy... Surprisingly, I also agree with you on this, Anon.... So, can we safely eliminate One Night Stand and Casual Sex out of the possibilities?????

With that being said.....

There is something called 'Obligatory Sex'.... Like Back in those days, Kings cannot marry the girl they really loved. Because of Social Status. So, they marry a socially sound girl and make them into a Queen. Their purpose is solely for making Prince and Princess. They really won't share the same bed chambers because the King don't really love the Queen. But most of the Kings take their loved girl as their Beloved Concubine with whom they can share their true love in an honest way... Go and watch Historical Chinese and Korean Drama.... They are full of these themes. Or watch Game of Thrones Season 1...  The King, when he was trying to have sex with the Queen, he whispers his Beloved Girl’s name.... That irritated the queen... So the Queen went behind King’s back and had sex with her Br.... Sorry, some person and ended up having 3 kids.... What’s more?, She passed all those 3 kids as the King’s Children. The sex portrayed in this series are mostly either abusive, non-consensual... if it is romantic, it always ended up in a Tragedy, if it is an One-Timer, one of the partner will dump the other in the end..... or if it doesn't belong to any of the above, then it must be the sex that happens in Brothel House.

And there is something called 'Give and Take' Sex... Like having sex for one time, just as a favour. There is this Oscar Award Winning movie called 'Forrest Gump'... in which Tom Hanks mother have a one-time sex with a School Principal... Just for making her disabled kid to get admitted in his School.

And there is something called ‘Societal Pressure’ Sex... In Patriarchal Societies, such as mine, most of the marriages are Arranged Ones. So, Couple’s don’t really love each other in the beginning and they were forced to marry. And it’s this girl’s responsibility to bore a Baby within 10 months, otherwise, the Mother-In-Law or her Neighbours will pester that newly married girl.. .. And finally they consummate the marriage just for satiating her ‘New Found’ Family. Because Infertility thing will not be tolerated. This is how my Grandmom had her 5 kids... that is, without loving the Man she married. To this day, she still resents my Grandfather because she hates him for personal reasons. This is very common from where I come from.

And finally.... ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Sex.... Rather than me explaining it...You must watch this Oscar Award Winning movie. Oh, By the Way.... This movie was directed by Ang Lee from China... A place where homosexual contents in contemporary media were strictly banned and censored by their Government but they are the best in producing successful and soulful Shounen Ai novels...

He did horrible things to her

He never did anything horrible apart from rejecting her love advance... If she stayed quiet and remained non-horny in Chapter 693, he wouldn’t have put her in that Genjutsu. 

So, Stop making Sasuke as this monster just to portray your Kween as a Victim. She is the harasser in SS. 

I have given 2 Oscar Award Winning movies, 1 Most Emmy Award Winning TV series, Culturally similar TV series from China and Korea, 1 Blockbuster movie which gave rise to a Biggest Billion Dollar Franchise called MCU, Real Life Experience..... And yet here you are living in your la-la-land thinking that every Sex is based on Romance. Sasuke might have ‘did the deed’ based on any of the above... If he did as you said, that is, having Sex out of Attractiveness, he wouldn’t have abandoned her and Sarada for 12 years, he wouldn’t have asked her, “What are you doing here?” on seeing her face after a decade, he wouldn’t have refused to Kiss her.... The very natural response after seeing your beloved person is to Hug.... or atleast have a Brimming Smile. Sasuke did neither.

Please come to the real world instead of staying in your Colourful Disney World, Anon.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Just read your paranoid Bella post (it was awesome) and what stood out to me is that in these kinds of AUs the Quiletes seem to be kinda left out. If I recall, Billie actively tried to warn Bella that Cullens are bad news and even argued w Charlie about that. How do you think a scenario with Bella who’s not interested in Edward and instead rekindles her childhood friendship w Jacob from the get go (mb befriends Leah too? and is known as ‘the kid w her own company outside of school’) could go?

The post anon is referencing.

I guess I can answer this earlier than I would normally. Sometimes it's good to shuffle the posts around!

Why No Quileute?

Many of the AUs people ask about center around either the Twilight period (something about Bella is significantly different before Twilight begins), the New Moon period (New Moon changes in such a significant manner that Eclipse never happens), or very rarely the post Breaking Dawn period (Bella's off prancing in the woods and Jake is just kind of there).

With the first two especially the circumstances make it unlikely Bella will significantly cross paths with Jake let alone discover the secret of the wolves and meet the rest of the Tribe.

What Do You Mean Bella Might Not Find Out?!

Remember, Jake was not Bella's childhood friend, that was his older sisters. When Bella stops visiting Forks Jake, only a few years younger, seemed like light years younger than Bella Swan. He was not on her radar at all and was that annoying kid brother.

Even as a teenager, Bella's clearly bothered by the age gap between them, seeing it as much larger than it really is.

In the beginning of Twilight she's pleased to see Jake, is willing to flirt with him for information, but she's not at all interested. She only seeks him out in New Moon to work on the motorcycles with him as free labor. From that, the friendship we see through the rest of the series grows.

Before that, though, Billy was more on Bella's radar than Jake ever was. And Billy in canon is Bella's slight enemy as he tries to warn her away from Edward the vampire. Well, Bella certainly knows more than him! So, there, Billy!

As for the wolves themselves, they didn't want to tell Bella, Sam had Jake cut all ties. By happenstance Jake had happened to tell Bella this story and he happens to be able to jog her memory. Had that not happened, she would have assumed he left her just as Edward did and sunk even deeper into depression.

Likely, Charlie would have sent her to live with her mother.

She would never find out the mysteries of the "bears" in the woods, would never meet all the members of the tribe, would never truly develop her deep friendship with Jacob, and she and the Quileute would simply not cross paths.

Bella and the tribe very easily could have been ships passing in the night.

Why No Quileute in Paranoid Bella AU?

Now, this is a Bella who does not want to be with Edward but she's also a paranoid, terrified, wreck. Edward is sneaking into her room every night before Bella gets to First Beach

I imagine she likely does not go to the beach, or if she does, pointedly does not ask anyone about Edward. NOPE, SHE KNOWS NOTHING. Because for all she knows, Edward is hiding somewhere in the bushes watching her.

He, after all, has dropped hints that he knows everything that happens to her.

Bella doesn't know about the treaty at this point and that Edward cannot physically go to La Push.

When Billy gives her cryptic hints, she probably gives him deer in the headlights looks and debates scribbling "SAVE ME" on a sheet of paper, but for all she knows Billy is a human and stands no chance against Edward. In that moment, Edward is right outside her house, in his car, listening to every word.

If Bella tells Billy to get her the fuck out, she might very well be condemning him to be eaten.

"AHAHAHAHAHA BILLY, I LOVE MY BOYFRIEND. SO MUCH."

When Billy sends Jake to Prom, Bella is in Edward's arms, right at that moment. Worse, unlike Billy, Jake does think this is ridiculous and is utterly mortified at interrupting her date like this.

Bella wants to cry.

"AHAHAHAHA, JAKE, I LOVE MY BOYFRIEND. SO MUCH."

Point being though, Edward doesn't tell Bella about the wolves, and she likely doesn't know about them from the beach. So to her, the Quileutes are just humans who seem to know what she knows. Edward likely never expands on this as he never has to in this universe. So he also never explains things like the treaty. This means they are just normal people who stand no better chance against Edward than she does. She can't go running to them for sanctuary, screaming, and potentially have Edward eat the entire tribe as he would have Biology class.

Just as she wouldn't put her mother or Charlie in danger, Paranoid Bella will not knowingly endanger the tribe.

Paranoid Bella Rekindles Her Friendship with Jake (and Leah Comes Along for the Ride)

Let's say Bella does go to First Beach and notes that Edward says he can't make it for whatever reason. Bella's not sure she believes this but he does seem unnaturally disappointed.

Sam drops his "The Cullens aren't welcome here" ominous line and Bella stares at him long and hard. He seems to know something, might even know the same something she knows, in the first timeline she likely decides it's not worth the risk of Edward overhearing them.

In this one though... this may be her only chance to gather information.

Sam is intimidating and scary looking (which is too bad as he's the one who could actually do something in this situation). So she resorts to her "bad flirting with Jake" plan.

Once again, it works, but this time Bella's soul dies inside.

Oh yeah, the Cullens are vampires and eat people (Bella knew it, SHE KNEW IT) but Jake thinks it's all superstitious nonsense. The only way he has heard of to kill them are noble werewolf spirit warriors from the tribe. But they have the treaty with the Cullens because they don't eat people on purpose (Bella cries inside).

No, Jake's never heard of anyone being an actual spirit warrior, don't be stupid, Bella. It's just an old legend.

Bella leaves the beach miserable.

The Quileute Tribe clearly knows but it seems like there's nothing they can do about it either.

BuT EdWArD's StIll In HeR RoOm aT NiGHt!

Bella decides it's worth the risk.

She drives to Billy's, watching for Edward tailgating her at every moment, but sees no sign of him (thank god). Luckily for her, in this early Twilight period, Edward was trying to pretend not to be a lunatic. So he wasn't running down her car yet like he was in Eclipse.

He's very unhappy she's visiting land he cannot go on but will pretend everything's fine. THIS IS FINE. SHE COULD BE EATEN BY BEARS BUT THIS IS FINE.

Bella confesses to Billy that Edward Cullen, the vampire, is sneaking into her bedroom at night to watch her sleep and she is certain he will try to eat her.

This was not what Billy had hoped or expected to hear from Bella Swan.

Those demonic motherfuckers.

Billy likely debates calling Carlisle, the head of the coven (who genuinely would be appalled by all of this), but he doesn't trust any of these people. He assumes Edward is grooming Bella to be Dracula's Bride (he is) and that this is just a thing vampires do (it's not).

But the Tribe cannot go to war with the Cullens.

They have only one wolf at this point, Sam, who is at this point still a teenager and untried in combat. He would be fighting seven vampires alone, they would be condemning him, and the tribe itself to a massacre.

However, that they haven't come after Bella yet is perhaps a good sign. The Cullens may not want to break the treaty either (Billy doesn't realize it's just Edward out there who wants to break it).

So here's what they'll do, Bella will "rekindle" her friendship with Jacob. She'll come over every single day, immediately after school with no exceptions, and will live at their house every weekend.

No exceptions.

The Cullens cannot enter Quileute land and, if they do... Well then, I guess they prepare for war.

Jake is ecstatic, though weirded out, as Bella suddenly practically lives at his house. They get along very well and soon their friendship is formed. Jake keeps trying to date her though and Bella's not very interested.

As for Leah... Sorry anon, but Leah is at the most miserable point in her miserable life. She's been dumped by Sam for her cousin and she has no idea why this has happened and Sam offers no explanations. She's a ball of rage and misery and has no time for Jacob Black's jittery girlfriend from Forks.

Meanwhile Edward is becoming annoyed.

He accepts the explanation that Bella and Jake are childhood friends, that she knew his sisters growing up, and that they've struck up their friendship again but... He doesn't like it.

He goes from imagining Mike Newton's head exploding to Jacob Black's head exploding.

Every day he curses that treaty and thinks it's so damn convenient that Bella keeps running off to the one place he can't follow.

He sits and he seethes.

...

And I stop here.

Wherever this path leads, anon, it is not one we should follow.

[thedragonnerd]

Rayaari headcanon - let's have celebrations for their Wedding

(Inspired by these lovely anons)

Raya spends weeks having a beautiful golden armband made by Fang metalsmiths, which she then brings to Heart artists for the engraving process - wanting her proposal offering to have aspects of both cultures displayed prominently.

But while the armband is still with the engravers, she ends up being beaten to the proposal accidentally by Namaari. They've gone for an evening walk, taking the opportunity to spend time together in private, and enjoy the night sky. Raya is gazing at the stars and pointing out different constellation shapes, when she realizes Namaari is watching her instead of where she is pointing.

'I was going to have a whole...thing planned,' Namaari tries to explain, and Raya just smiles at her, confused at what she's referencing. Namaari grasps her hand tightly, and rests their foreheads together. 'Dep la, I don't want to wait. I just want to spend the rest of my life with you. Would...would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?'

Raya kisses her deeply, tasting a slightly hint of salt, although she isn't sure which of them is crying - or if they both are. She almost forgets to say yes afterwards, too busy covering Namaari's cheeks with kisses.

They tell Benja first, if only because they are currently staying at the palace in Heart. He swings Raya round in a hug, and she can't help but laugh at his joy. Namaari approaches and tries to bow formally to him, about to apologize for the lack of ceremony she's displayed with her proposal, but he merely steps forward and sweeps her into an embrace also.

Raya accompanies Namaari to Fang two days later, wanting to tell Chief Virana as soon as possible. Virana isn't surprised by the news, but alternates between welcoming Raya to the family in a warm voice, and scolding Namaari for being unable to wait a few more days until the ceremonial daggers were ready for a proposal.

Namaari finally presents Raya with the daggers the following night, when they are sat side-by-side on the large windowsill of her bedroom, looking out at Fang's kingdom. 'These represent the balance between you and me,' Namaari explains, presenting both knives with slightly unsteady hands. 'The symbols are for protection, so you will never fall in battle.'

Raya laughs slightly when she takes them - they feel solid yet lightweight in her hands, perfect for close-quarter fighting. Truly a wonderful gift for her.

Raya uses the moment to thrust her own offering towards Namaari, having collected it in Heart before they left. The armband also has protective symbols engraved along the side, as well as important moments of mythology from Heart and Fang alike - combining the history of the two lands into one.

They agree on two ceremonies; firstly because they would never risk telling one of their parents that a wedding won't happen in their land, and secondly because it is important to introduce the other in an official sense to the citizens.

Namaari suggests that the first ceremony is held in Heart, well aware of the message it sends to the rest of the lands: Heart and Fang are uniting, and there are no longer grudges held between their families. Raya agrees, especially since she wants everyone to accept her new wife as easily as possible, considering their history.

That being said, Raya is somewhat disgruntled that the largest crowd of guests will be coming to this first ceremony, especially as it seems like every dignitary from Talon, Spine and Tail have agreed to attend. But this wedding is bigger than just the two of them - it's a symbol of hope and peace for Kumandra. And at the end of the day, she knows she will be walking away with Namaari as her wife, so it's a small price to pay.

Benja goes wild with the catering for the ceremony. He wants everything to be absolutely perfect for his Dew Drop, although Raya gets an incredibly embarrassed look on her face whenever he says as much. Namaari just nods along wisely at everything he says, and says 'You can't blame him for wanting everything to be perfect for his favourite daughter.' Raya dislikes this new vibe of her father and 'Maari bonding together against her, but merely grumbles 'I'm his only daughter.'

Soon, of course, he will also have a daughter-in-law.

On the day of the ceremony, Raya almost wants to flee, just from the fear of the crowds and expectations surrounding her. But Namaari holds onto her hand tightly, and whispers how she can't wait to begin the rest of their lives together, and it is this image Raya clings onto whenever she begins to feel overwhelmed.

As part of her wedding ensemble, she insists on wearing the two daggers from Namaari, strapped to her waist, as well as a necklace that belonged to her mother.

Namaari wears Raya's armband meanwhile, as well as a well-worn necklace in the shape of Sisu - a private connection to their history, that no-one else knows. There is a large sword hanging at her own waist. It had belonged to her father, and although it is too great in size to be a good weapon for Namaari to comfortably wield, just having it with her brings a feeling of strength.

Tuk Tuk is not allowed to the official ceremony, but as soon as the evening party begins, Namaari sneaks him (as much as she can sneak, with his size) into the palace just to see Raya smile in surprise.

The ceremony in Fang is held a week later, and is a much more subdued affair, at least in terms of the number of guests invited - focusing not on world-saving symbols, but on introducing Raya to the Fang citizens.

Unlike Benja, Virana seems to be quite content at allowing Namaari to deal with all the preparations (but in reality, neither of the girls realize how much micromanaging she is carrying out behind the scenes - she is adamant that her Morning Mist will have the perfect wedding, even if it's a second one).

In tone however, there is nothing subdued about how Fang celebrates weddings. They are a warrior culture, and with that comes, to Raya's amusement, sparring and fighting as entertainment. General Atitaya wins the competition, bowing low to her two Princesses.

'It could have been romantic for me to fight for your hand,' Raya teases in a whisper to Namaari, whose cheeks blush pink in response. 'You had my hand long ago,' she whispers back, and follows that up with a subtle squeeze of her fingers on Raya's knee.

Namaari's serlot is curled up at their feet throughout the entirety of the evening's feast, and if anyone asks, Namaari merely smiles serenely and says it is for security purposes.

Sisu and her siblings of course attend both ceremonies, and Raya is amused to see that Namaari is still as star-struck all these years later as she was when she first met Sisu.

When the wedding finally ends, they take a week to enjoy travelling, not as Princesses of Heart and of Fang, but as Raya and Namaari, two newly-weds who want to have personal adventures and time to themselves.

They take Tuk Tuk and Namaari's serlot, spending their week exploring forests, deserts, market places and more through all the lands. They camp under the stars as much as possible, and remain incognito whenever they enter towns.

They finish their time away by arriving back in Heart. That evening, Namaari takes Raya's hand and leads her on a walk, and they stroll along the pathway while enjoying the growing darkness.

Raya realizes she's taken them to the exact place where she proposed, and they kiss under the stars.

[perriwinklesblog]

I know some people prefer consistent content but I like to take it as it comes and sometimes life happens and other projects need to take priority. 

So right now, I consider this to be a mid season break. Techno going into the prison was like the midseason finale for the Dream Prison Arc and Wilbur and Ranboo’s stuff was like their midseason finale and the Red Banquet where the egg was contained, was a midseason finale and alllllllll the mini episodes we’ve had since there are like specials etc. 

You know, like how in Dr Who you can go a few years without a solid season but get a special at Christmas and New Year? You know like that. 

So like all other programs, stories, videos I watch, I am coming up with ways in which the next bit could go. Some are a bit out there and definitely not happening, others I could see happening. 

This is long and pointless and full or errors both grammatically and spelling wise but I had fun thinking of what could happen next. Read if you want.

Dream escapes prison with Technoblades help. A server wide man hunt comes for Dream but unlike his videos he had stolen the spare armour in the prison and so is pretty OP making it easier for him to put distance between his enemies and himself. 

Technoblade returns to the artic and him, Phil and Will come to an in pass, a slight disagreement. Philza whilst having sided with Dream before, knows he’s not a good guy. Only used him to help destroy lmanburg for his own morals. It was not because he agreed with Dream. In his eyes, he was using Dream for his own goals. Plus, now he’s seen the aftermath of Dream’s terror on the citizens he realises the man perhaps shouldn’t be set to run entirely free. This slightly goes against Techno’s beliefs but the main issue of tension between them is Technoblade willingly placing himself in danger when he didn’t need too and helping release the man who tortured Tommy and clearly has something going on with Ranboo thats bad. 

Wilbur is angry because Techno won’t say where Dream has gone due to an agreement between the two and Technoblade is a man of his word. Wilbur wishes to thank and meet the man who saved him. This also worries Philza because he’s worried he’ll revert back to the man he saw the day he blew up L’Manburg. Over all tension between the three

Niki and Wilbur finally meet and it is as heartbreaking as it is beautifully tragic. Wilbur apologises but misses the mark, misses what hurt her which hurts her more. There’s an explosion with their argument that leaves a stunned silence. Niki asks Wilbur to leave. He does so. 

This leads to a Wilbur and Ranboo conversation where Ranboo tries to reason with Wilbur about Niki’s side. Wilbur brushes it off because much like the blue counterpart we all miss, he’s not a fan of the negative emotion. He tries to focus on the business etc and let’s slip that Dream has escaped somehow. Ranboo leaves. Wilbur is confused but distracted by a confrontation with Quackity.

Ranboo then starts his stream and he’s in the fucking panic room and he’s panicking because there are signs so many signs and they don’t make sense. Theres lesson rules, asking about the missing journal and it’s like every issue he’s ever faced is staring right back at him because Ranboo has never really resolved any issue, just pushed and moved on. He’s tried but that usually failed and for a while he’s ignored all the issues and here they are in front of him, all at one. A big volcanic eruption of anxiety and stress, and it ain’t sitting with him. 

Dream appears. But is it really him? We never know because after a conflict and a back and fourth about everyone in Ranboo’s life eventually landing on a threat about Michael and Tubbo, he blacks out and the stream ends. 

Quackity is livid with everything thats happening, the careful empire he’s building is falling apart and he’s shifting the blame around from person to person. He manipulates everyone around them into believing this is somehow their own fault and that they must make it up to him because he has been nothing but kind and loving to them. He gave them a place, a roof on their head when they had nothing. He misses out the parts where he insulted and or destroyed their homes, but it works and his employee “family” become the main bounty hunters for Dream, with Bad and Ant tagging along since they’re guards. 

Now the streams relating to the manhunt displays everyones wants. They’re all doing this wanting something, and whilst it’s to gain Quackity’s favour back they’re all doing that for different reasons. Their motivations are somewhat different even if on the surface they are the same and so on the man hunts, because there will be many, this is slowly picked apart and through that the manipulation of Quackity is revealed and then we see a parrallel between Quackity and previous people in power where they start to get desperate to keep control over the thing they’ve created. Because that’s been one of (not the only) issues with every leader on the server, the control and their feeling of lack of, even if thats not truly the case. But you get these moments between all the characters where they’re trying to outwit one another, trying to figure it out without blatantly saying it. Maybe Foolish does. He’s a bit of a himbo. 

Ponk always said he’d leave the door open for Sam and I truly think something happens, whether it be a look in the mirror with one of his guards going too far with someone or a conversation with Quackity where Quackity holds the mirror up to Sam maliciously, that causes him to hit the rock bottom and just break and I want that breakdown in front of Ponk. And I want Ponk not necessarily to give him the second chance off the bat but give him that peace offering, give him that hand to pull him up. I want him to take Sam to Niki and explain to Niki we’ve done bad things in the past, this is a safe haven and I believe Sam needs help and a place he can truly feel safe and for a moment Sam does and this begins his raid to redemption in gaining back the trust of the people in his lives. He becomes Tubbo 2.0 spying on Quackity like Tubbo did for Wilbur, but maybe less... bad.

But what of the Fiances? Wellllll,. With Dream escaping him and George meet in secret. George confesses he doesn’t believe it’s real and for a long time has been struggling with reality. He misses the early days, misses when they’d just have fun. Dream says he was having fun and George says I wasn’t. Dream shows true regret for George but says its too late now, can’t change the past. George agrees. Dream asks him what he’s going to do and he simply replies with “Sleep” Ending stream. 

Sapanps stream is a lot more WE ARE GOING ON A DREAM HUNT WE’RE GOING TO CATCH A BIG ONE, I’M NOT SCARED. vibes. He’s gearing up, he’s suiting up and he’s saluting pets on the way. He made a promise and with everything else going on in his life, he’s ready to throw himself into a distraction. He tries to convince George to help him but he waves him off saying, what’s the point? and mumbles something about divine powers and dreams which Sapnap just shakes off. He tries to find Karl in Kinoko but instead comes across Quackity. They have a blow up about how They abandoned each other, both did wrong but neither see the other side of things and eventually he tells him to leave. Quackity says okay, and the place blows up. Foolish cries in the corner. All that heard work but the boss said so. Sapnap ends the whole thing saying at least he’s there for Karl and Quackity pauses and is like why? And Sapnap is all like you care. Just go, you’ve done enough damage, I can’t have you damaging him too. And after a little more but but but between the two, Quackity goes. Sapnap leaves the place to burn, going to find Dream and hopefully Karl on the way. 

Karls in space. That’s where his latest travels have taken him and where the other side decided was his time to visit. Here I see a Wizard in Oz scenario where solutions to some issues will be revealed for Karl in relation to the other side. When it comes to his Dream SMP stuff, he starts confusing names and people more and Sapnap is worried about him, considering keeping him in a safe place. The only place that survived was the library with Karls books. Karl says he’ll stay there. Thats where the answers are anyway. Sapnap is unsure and gets bad vibes but is distracted by a lead on Dream and agrees, he tells him he’ll be back soon. 

They don’t see each other for a long ass time 

I’m not sure on the egg stuff but I do feel Niki and Puffy should have a conversation about all the shit thats happened and Puffy trying to help Niki and vice versa. I feel like Puffy should reach out to Foolish and try and comprehend what the fuck is he doing with Quackity. They have a little argument but it comes to a point where Puffy realises she cannot shield Foolish from harm and that her son ,just make his own decisions. All she can do is guide him where she can and hope that when it comes down to it he will make the right choice. She hopes she didn’t fail this dependant like she did with Dream her duckling. Though only she sees it as failure. 

Jack and Niki finally talk. She goes searching for some things and comes to his new place, he tells her to fuck off and that he doesn’t need anyone. They all abandon him. Niki pretty much does the verbal equivalent of slap some sense into him as she and him discuss how he is not the centre of everything, how he is not the sun. She was hurting, and he didn’t bother, no instead they just fed off each others anger and once he couldn’t feed of her or anyone else he isolated himself. She tries to convince him there are better things in life, there are better ways to place your energy etc. A lot of healing talk with Jack being stubborn. Eventually Jack finds himself at the door of Quackity after sticking to stubbornness, not quite ready to heal and he becomes the next member of Las Nevadas. A big blow to Wilbur too. 

They finally destroy the egg with magic. I dunno how but either destroy or hatch. Either or would be great. Red comes out the thing and I want a gay ass villain please. Bring it Red. Let’s go. Invite him to the server, bring the fire, bring the plant power Red. He can be the villain that unites everyone in a begrudging way. Like they all hate each other but fine i guess we’ll team to stop Red and Ant. 

Skeppy’s dead. 

Tubbo and Ranboo have a fight but Ranboo says “Weren’t we enough?” and it’s in relation to him and Michael (this happens before panic room). Thats when Tubbo realises where the wires got crossed and he immediately rectifies it but explaining he’s happy with the two of them but he wanted a job, something to work towards. Family wise he’s got it all, he’s content with it all but he wanted a project and one that didn’t incite violence. Fun rivalry sure, but he’s done with violence, he’s doesn’t want to add to the nightmares he already has. He wants competition but not one that will put all he loves in danger. So they talk it out and Ranboo feels more confident and Tubbo asks him to tell him if he ever takes anything too far because he can get a little carried away sometimes. Ranboo agrees and then they have a cute playdate with Michael. Then Ranboo does the thing with Wilbur and ends up in panic room.

Tommy and Tubbo discuss everything and lay it all out on the table because Tommy doesn’t want to be on the other side again with Tubbo. Tubbo doesn’t understand why everyone is making such a big deal about his burger business and Tommy tries to explain the issues with Quackity and the level of intensity he’s seen with Wilbur but Tubbo just laughs it off. They eventually talk about Ranboo and Tommy relents saying he likes Ranboo although he does sometimes get jealous of how Tubbo seems to have it all. Tubbo tells Tommy of his nightmares and so does Tommy to Tubbo. They come to an understanding with each other and understand that no matter how long they go apart, there is always a space shaped to fit them perfectly in their lives for them. Tubbo and Tommy then go play some pranks. 

Wilbur is unhappy with the pranks and gives a lecture and they get into a fight. This leads to Wilbur talking man to man to Quackity. Theres some weird sexual tension. Once again they’re trying to outwit one another. That when we get to the crazy stuff. 

And here’s where I get crazy with my stuff. 

Ponk is digging in his lil cave when he accidentally breaks through to a random room buried deep underground. Tommy’s there trying to scam him out of something he has. Tubbo and Ranboo too. When they get to this room Ranboo thinking it’s the panic one and freaks out, but the others calm him down. Ponk thinking theres diamonds in the room storms ahead setting off some traps but surviving. Tubbo opens one of the chests and just says theres a bucket in there. Ponk pulls it out and says it has a named fish in it. 

You see where I’m going. 

They empty the bucket whilst asking what the fish is called. They are interrupted by a voice. It’s Sally. 

Dream had captured her and bound her to a bucket and put her in the chest and hid her from Wilbur. 

She has been released. She freaks out over how much time has past because for her nothing has changed at all. She thought it might have been a couple of hours or something since Dream pulled that prank on her but clearly not. 

They all catch up and the season ends with Sally and Wilbur meeting in front of Quackity, Dream in the shadows and Sally and Wilbur turning to see Fundy who just freaks the fuck out. 

Oh and just a side, Callahan is the last member of the syndicate and God of the server and is having fun playing with the mortals. 

And then I have the next season planned out and how I’d end the whole thing but like until then. This is it. Mid Season to finale. How I picture things happening. 

None of this will happen but isn’t it fun to imagine?