#and finally... 5) as seen in the trailer. will Put On The Suit One More Time(tm) to go save a captured kenshi

[scalproie]

the super secret 6th stage of grief where I'm placing bets over who will be the one to perform the fatality on kuai in snowblind

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (October 29-November 4, 2023)

Like me, you probably haven't seen Godzilla Minus One yet, making Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar last week's most spectacular new watch. Kazuhiro Nakagawa's ambitions grow with each entry in this series; this time, he was helped by veteran Rider/Sentai suit actor Kenya Saito inside the great new Jet Jaguar suit. The ending wasn't quite what I predicted, but still set up what should be a spectacular showdown last year.

I wish these shorts weren't effectively the last vestiges of tokusatsu in the Godzilla series; I wish even more that Toho would allow them to stay on YouTube. This one, along with its associated behind-the-scenes videos, will stay around until the end of the year, as an apology for the Godzilla Day VOD having such awful audio as to be unsalvageable. But that still means its discoverability will take a serious hit, and it's unclear what Toho actually gets out of this artificial scarcity. Maybe they're plotting to release all the shorts on Blu-ray in a few years. In any case, download this one post-haste.

While he didn't get a new suit, Megalon still made a triumphant return in the other short film released on Godzilla Day, Godzilla vs. Megalon. A sequel to Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex, it's also directed by Takuya Uenishi. The live-action footage in this one helps ground the over-the-top monster mayhem, and a weakened Godzilla displays some cool new tricks, although I found his finisher unsatisfying. As for Megalon, well, he finally shows the world just how terrifying he can be when he takes himself more seriously.

After a mercifully brief marketing campaign, the 37th Godzilla movie, Godzilla Minus One, is in Japanese theaters (and it's making bank). I'm trying to go in relatively unspoiled (always difficult as a Wikizilla admin), but what little I have read has been promising. The basic premise, which the early promos have largely masked, sounds like a kaiju story I wrote in college, which I couldn't be more thrilled by. If you're feeling daring, there's a second trailer out.

We'll get the first episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters even sooner than Godzilla Minus One. Accordingly, Apple has ramped up promotion, releasing a behind-the-scenes video (above), the opening title sequence, and the first scene of the series. We also have names for a couple of the new monsters (the new Skull Island beastie is a Mantleclaw and the critters hatching from eggs are Endoswarmers) and better looks at a couple others.

I joked after the Godzilla Day livestream that it was such a technical fiasco because Toho had put all its skill points into releasing Godzilla Minus One. Similar could be said for the Fathom Events release of Godzilla 2000: Millennium. The showing I caught was fine technically (one brief frame rate hiccup aside), just... uninspired. The preshow was the same brief behind-the-scenes footage of G2K included on the American DVD and Blu-ray; the film used the same translation as the Blu-ray. And now that the novelty of actually being able to watch it has worn off, I've soured considerably on the Japanese version of this movie. The languid score and sound design are especially glaring in a theater.

Godzilla Voxel Wars, available on Steam and Epic Games, probably should have been released in a week less packed with more attention-grabbing Godzilla news. Still zero reviews on Metacritic! Haven't played it myself, but fellow Wikizilla admin Les is enjoying it.

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons #5 also added to the Godzilla onslaught. Still impressed at how big a role the Giant Octopus had in this (and what a brutal ending for it and Ebirah), but the miniseries wrapped up a little too neatly.

Despite backing it on Kickstarter, I had nearly forgotten about Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett. Turns out the reason the book has taken so long to be published (the campaign ended last May) is the page count jumping from "around 200" to 424! It's off to the printer now, so the wait is nearly over.

Worth posting again: the third BOSS Coffee ad featuring the new ShodaiGoji suit. Very little original footage in this one, but some first-class editing.

And a few other happenings I'll keep to bullet points so you can finally stop scrolling:

I forgot to post about Viz publishing volume 7 of Asadora! Huge props for introducing a kyodai hero without derailing the story (I won't say how, but it's quite clever).

After its brief Japanese theatrical run, the black-and-white version of Shin Godzilla is "under consideration for further development." Home video next?

The newest Godzilla Battle Line units are Super Mechagodzilla and a second version of Godzilla '54 who strafes his atomic breath and ignores most status effects. I've had virtually no time to play since the new season started (this post was typed entirely in a Georgia hotel room, put it that way), but I hear they're both stellar.

Godzilla trading card update: disappointment and confusion! The Godzilla Minus One promo cards were only available for a very limited time as add-ons to a $75+ TCGPlayer order. Meanwhile, nobody can find the packs of Surreal Entertainment cards that were supposed to arrive at Five Below on Godzilla Day.

Naturally, lots of toys revealed on and around Godzilla Day. Highlights include a Super7 Godzilla figure with an Imperial-inspired paint job, a Super7 SpaceGodzilla repaint blatantly based on Super Godzilla which sold out instantly, an S.H. MonsterArts Jet Jaguar '73, and Movie Monster Series figures for *inhales* Godzilla '55, Anguirus '55, Flying Stage Hedorah, Godzilla '64, and Minilla '67. The Godzilla Raids Again figures are both getting variants inspired by a Toy Dreams set from 2006. Bandai also started up another Movie Monster Series fans-pick-the-figure poll, but what's the point? They'll have every single Godzilla kaiju represented before the decade's half over. (And maybe by the end of the decade I'll be able to afford all the ones I want!)

[tigerandbunnyftw]

A round up of all the TIGER & BUNNY 2 related news that was released today! First, the most important news, we have a new trailer for cour 2! A reminder that the final set of episodes (14-25), will be releasing on October 7th (yes just 1 week away!) @ 4pm JST - worldwide over on Netflix.

If you haven't seen the trailer already, check it out here:

Next, the cast watch parties, hosted by the troublesome buddy duo - series' seiyuu Hiroaki Hirata (Kotetsu) and Masakazu Morita (Barnaby), will be making its return, with hopefully more cast/staff guests!

The first watch party will be streamed live on the 7th October at 21:00 JST over on the BNPictures Youtube (note - this is most likely to be region locked again). This will then follow with weekly Saturday streams for episodes 15 - 24 at the regular time of 21:00 JST, from the 15th October onward. The final watch party for episode 25 will be hosted on Christmas Eve (also known in the fandom as BUDDY REUNION DAY) on the 24th December!

We hope that Anime Netflix will continue to translate these episodes for us and release them a week after they air, like the 1st batch of episodes.

Want to catch up on the past watch party shenanigans? Check out this handily put together playlist which contains all the episodes so far!

Moving on, the 2nd Blu-Ray cover art and slip case box art has been released, featuring Rock Bison and Origami Cyclone! The art on the left was drawn by series' main character designer, Masakazu Katsura, whilst the art on the right is by one of the series' main key animators, Mika Yamamoto!

This will have 3 episodes, along with many special features:

>Cast watch party episodes 4 (special guest Inoue Gou - Keith Goodman/Sky High), episode 5 (special guest director Mitsuko (Atsuko) Kase) and episode 6 (special guest Mariya Ise - Pao-lin Huang/Dragon Kid).

>TIGER & BUNNY 2 -Precious EVE- night performance recording

>Making of T&B2 Part 3 : Behind the scenes of 'Style 3' hero suit production! (Long ver.)

>Making of T&B2 Part 4 : Infiltrate behind the scenes of "Taibani 2" recording! (Long ver.)

>Special booklet (16 pages)

and a special audio drama CD! Drama #2 "From a Former Hero Academy Student" - summary of the story:

"Ivan is asked to be the MC for a radio show featuring only heroes from the Hero Academy, and he goes to see Edward to prepare a story for the show. On the day of the recording, however, things take a turn that Ivan never expected."

And finally, there will be a Greeting Event held in Japan, to celebrate Barnaby's birthday on the 30th October! The special Barnaby Birthday Party live stream over on Twitcasting will also be delivered on the same day!

Plenty of exciting things to look forward to over the upcoming months. Not long to go until the 7th October, get emotionally prepared!

Source: TIGER & BUNNY Twitter

[fortheloveoffanfic]

One More Time

Thomas Shelby x Reader

A/n- Definitely listened to the series 5 trailer song a hundred times by now lol

Masterlists

Warnings- SMUT/NSFW, Angst

“One more time…..”

He uttered the words softly, his lips so close to the corner of hers that she swore she could taste the whiskey on his breath. She couldn’t believe that after everything, after she’d spent years hoping, they, she, was being reduced to that; one more time. Y/n couldn’t tell what emotion Thomas had meant behind his statement, if it was regret or a coldness that he’d never employed with her, but she did know that every thread in her being hated it. The thought of everything she blindly hoped for, everything she thought she’d seen between them, being proven as nowt was killing her. How could he do this to her? How could he promise her that he wasn’t marrying Lizzie, only to show up at her doorstep two months later and say something else?

“No,” gently, Y/n pressed her palms to his chest, the fabric of his suit rough under the softness of her hands, his warmth radiating off the fine cloth. He was always so warm, and easily, she recalled the summer past, when he’d laid next to her on one of the season’s hottest nights. She’d teased him, told him that he was a furnace, Thomas had hugged her tight and promised that she’d never find an escape from his arms- Y/n never wanted one anyway. But even then, she’d known that she was nothing more than the companion he called on when the voices in his head grew unbearably loud, a friend with potential that would never be realized. Y/n knew that they could be good together, she suspected that Thomas did too, but there seemed to be a wall that existed between them, and every time she thought they were close enough, she was reminded of its existence.

And now, Thomas was laying on another line of brick, making it higher and his love more unattainable.

“Don’t say that, please,” Thomas pleaded softly, enticing her with a chaste peck pressed to the corner of her mouth, and his hands, tired and worn, slid down her arms before falling to Y/n’s ample hips, “Don’t fucking do this to me, Y/n,” his words lacked evident urgency, but she knew him well enough to recognize that it was there. Thomas was as close to her as he’d been maybe hundred times before then and she could smell the sweet tobacco clinging to his skin, she’d tasted his skin and those moments, so many of them, had been seared into her memory. The kisses she’d peppered onto his scars and bruises, the way she’d put her mouth on him, only for her praises to fall off drunken lips, she remembered all of it.

“One more time, sweetheart,” he repeated, nuzzling her cheek, and her breath caught when Thomas’s arms snaked around her waist. Instinctively, she hugged him back, hands slipping from his chest to under his arms and finally resting on his shoulder blades, as if her body had granted permission before her mind, and breaking heart, could.

She knew it was inevitable, it was quite possible that there didn’t exist any version of herself that could refuse him. Not then, not ever. Besides, she knew Thomas, and that night, in her little flat, would hardly be their last. If Thomas were interested in fidelity with Lizzie, he’d have given her up a while ago- perhaps if she’d gotten pregnant instead, maybe things would have been different. He would be back though, maybe he hadn’t realized it yet, but they were tethered in that way, no amount of final moments could ever be enough for two lovers that were so star crossed that their paths had never once aligned.

“Stay with me,” her hushed tone was barely audible over the crackle of the thriving fire, and she could feel his hot lips journeying along her jaw in slow ministrations, “Don’t leave when it’s over, I’m good for you,” she reasoned softly.

Thomas kissed her neck, head bent so his face was buried in her silken skin, and his mouth lingered there, “I know,” he admitted, fingers roaming her back and seeking the buttons at the top of her dress, “You’re so good for me…..”

“Then be with me,” Y/n reasoned just as her dress fell away from her frame, leaving her clad in silk knickers and a matching bra, delicate ribbon holding it closed at the back. Thomas pulled away for a moment, admiring her, just as she reached for the lapels of his coat so she could push it off. Lithe fingers fiddled with the buttons of his shirt, while rough ones tugged on the ribbon of her bra.

“It’s not that easy,” Thomas protested quietly, raising his head. Their eyes met in the dimness and there was a sincerity in the blue of his, she almost believed him. But it was that easy, and Y/n knew it; if he needed a mother for Charles, she could be that, if he needed a doting wife for his political life, she could be that too. “I’m yours right now,” his words were punctuated with a slow kiss, “Isn’t that enough?”

She had to clench her jaw for a moment to restrain the moisture that threatened to spill over. “No,” Y/n sniffled, and Thomas was kissing her collar bone, thumbs hooked in the waist of her knickers just as she went for the button on his trousers. You should be mine, was what she longed to say. What about me? She wanted to ask, because what about her? Why was she meant to stay in the dark? Why was her patience and her love being tested?

Why was she letting Thomas take her for granted?

Because she loved him, the way London seemed to love rain. She loved him the way she loved her own heartbeat- in a way that was so ingrained in every part of her existence that she hadn’t even realized it until the possibility of it going away had become evident.

One didn’t adore the sun’s kiss until winter’s bite.

Her love for him was unspoken and previously unfounded, but she did love him. She would love him until it ate her up inside, she would love him while he married another woman. His trousers fell to the floor with a soft clamor, and as he stepped out of them, walking Y/n towards the bed with his lips on hers, he kicked his shoes off and she stumbled out of her kitten heels.

As she fell to the sheets, with Thomas above her, her hand found the back of his neck, the tips of her fingers grazing the heat of his skin. Y/n could feel him against her thigh, his longing evident, and she hooked her legs against his waist. Her hands slipped beneath the hem of his undershirt, clumsily peeling it away and discarding it carelessly off to the side. With passion riddled fumbles and fervent kisses exchanged, they ridded themselves of the final layers that acted as barriers of cotton and silk between them; Y/n shoving down his pants with the sides of her bare feet while Thomas had hastily tugged on the elastic band of her rose hued and lace embellished knickers.

Lining himself up with her entrance, Thomas typically didn't need permission to proceed, but he awaited her nod nonetheless, easing into her slowly and sparing Y/n a few moments to adjust to his generous size. The lie of one last time, oh the sweetness of that burn. Not yet moving, Thomas stole a moment more nestled between her thighs while pressing the tip of his nose to hers. The tuft of dark hair that usually fell over his brow brushed her skin, and though the gold-tinged lighting coupled with the intimate proximity made it hard to see those icy blue pools that she'd fantasized about drowning in, Y/n swore she could see his soul; the fissures in its beauty, the spots of darkness that hampered its vibrant colors and the pain that lurked just under the surface.

Y/n thought he was going to say something- confess something- but he didn't, instead Thomas struck up a pace of gentle, leisurely thrusts. A shuddered exhale parted her lips as Y/n clung to him, her breath on his mouth, while the pads of her fingers along with tips of her nails were sunken into his broad back and heels of her feet driven into the downy sheets. “Thomas,” she hitched, another soft yelp escaping her agape lips when he rolled them over; she’d at some point deduced that her on top while he sat up was Thomas’ favorite position.

“I like to really see you,” he’d once said, and Y/n had understood because she liked to see him too.

Like that, Y/n could feel him reaching deeper, filling her to the brim, and the continued jerks of his hips as she rolled hers encouraged an incomparable friction. Delicate hands clasped his shoulders for stability and his stocky fingers tangled in her hair, while Thomas’ other hand stayed flattened on the center of her back. At some point, Thomas drew her in closer, and in consequence, Y/n brought her lips to his once more, not in a kiss, simply in a gesture that saw their breaths unconsciously shared. Again, she rasped his name, that time, he uttered hers right back.

Falling further into him, her unclad breasts were pressed to his hardened chest, her knees were propped on his strong thighs and the curve of his length reached the right spot with each controlled ministration, eliciting whines contained in the hollow of her throat. Each noise, strained grunts and sinful yelps, seemed amplified as they echoed off the peach walls of her bedroom. Her body, so attuned to Thomas and his, fit him like a glove, and reacted easily to every one of his expert moves; the angle of his pelvis so he could be buried as deeply as possible, the way he occasionally shifted his grip to her hips to guide her pace, the way he knew just when to slip his fingers between her folds so he could rub her swollen nub. His thumb on the little bundle of nerves, just the right amount of pressure and moving in circular motions, magnifying her pleasure, reminding her that only one man would ever know her body the way he did.

And he was going to marry someone else.

Around them, the heat mounted, only exacerbated by the roaring fire that seemed to match their passion, and even autumn's temperate air, seeping through the razor-thin cracks at the bottom of the window wasn’t enough to douse the stifling heat. They’d had each other dozens upon dozens of times before, Y/n had gripped his biceps in her fragile hands, she’d felt Thomas fill her up to the brim, bottoming out only to test her tightness once more, their bodies had passed minutes that turned to hours tangled and she could have considered herself as having been molded to him by then, but there was something about that night that felt different. It must have been the weight that descended upon her shoulders when he’d showed up at her door with that morose look contorting his steely features, a foreboding heft solidified by his confession- the fact that he’d so bluntly asked for the best parts of her after squashing her heart- whatever it was, it ensured that the ache lingered. As good as he felt inside her, the veins on his shaft rough against her sensitive walls, Y/n couldn’t help but let the acidic moisture rain from her eyes and drizzle down her cheeks.

A hand on her face and a calloused thumb swiping under her eye was met with soft reassurances, “I’ll always be yours sweetheart,” and while Y/n knew it to be a lie, she let Thomas’ words soothe her. He belonged to no one, not even the woman whose heart he unwittingly owned. “Slow down,” he urged soon after, when the sensual roll of her hips quickened, eagerly seeking release. “That’s it,” Thomas praised, his left hand still rubbing her cilt in vigorous circles, his finger on the throbbing nub rousing sparks that she could have sworn she felt in the very tips of her fingers.

“Tommy…..” Y/n gasped breathlessly, swallowing thickly as she fought to control her enthusiastic pace. Eventually, he moved on, deserting her swollen cilt and guiding his hands up her body; groping her perky boobs, rolling pebbled nipples between calloused fingers, kneading the soft flesh harshly. Once more, Thomas angled his head, greeting her neck with open mouthed kisses that seemed to leave a trail of fire on her skin. Practically melting into him as Thomas fondled her breasts and erotically nipped and sucked on her pulse, Y/n curled her toes and her lewd noises grew louder. “I’m close…..” barely able to string the words together, gratification washed over in a wave, “Thomas….Oh!” A languid moan filled the room, accompanied by a rush of sticky moisture as her walls pulsated around his twitching member.

Her legs stiffened, and as her movements went rigid Thomas maintained the steady jerking of his hips until, just as the explosion of euphoria melted into a mural of colors, bold blue, pastel pink and bright lavender, behind her squeezed shut lids, she felt a felt a tell-tale twitch against her center. “Y/n!” Thomas grunted loudly, as her garbled cries subsided into sated whimpers. Ribbons of his product painted her core, seeping out and adding to the silky mess on their thighs, drips staining her sheets. He’d stay on those sheets that night, long after he’d departed. His stiff movements came to an abrupt halt with an obscenity escaping his clenched jaw and his fingers contracting as they stayed on her waist, leaving bruises to match the ones on her neck.

When it was over, Thomas collapsed onto the mattress, taking her with him and like that, they stayed for a while; his feather light touch tracing her spine, her cheek pressed to the inked sun on his chest. Despite everything that had been laid out earlier, Y/n found that there was still comfort in his embrace, be it familiarity or reciprocated love, she couldn’t tell, but she did know that she would stay with him forever if she could. She may have been born in Birmingham, but Thomas was her home, his touch was her refuge.

It was so quiet that she could hear each snap and crackle of the firewood, and for the life of her, Y/n wished that silence had gone on for longer, because when the moon- or the earth, whichever moved- had shifted to add to the glow in the room, tones of cold silver mingling with warm gold, Thomas deserted the soothing gesture and disrupted the peace with his frigid words, “I have to go.”

Her breath hitched and suddenly, the tears returned, possibly because she knew it was very likely that he’d be heading home to her, “Stay,” Y/n pleaded in a hoarse whisper, “Please,” the desperation in her low tone was evident to anyone that could care enough to hear her, yet in his response she could not recognize that consideration.

“I can’t,” he urged her off of him, retreating into himself as he stood to get dressed, and instead of standing with him, Y/n shamefully pulled the covers over herself, no longer able to bear the thought of him seeing her so utterly vulnerable. Not when he was half dressed and almost all the way out the door, not when her nakedness reminded her that she’d chosen to lay with a man who seemed to have no qualms with breaking her heart. “I already told you-”

“I know,” Y/n cut him off, turning away from Thomas to face the window, where she could see the face of the moon, taunting her;

You may favor daylight, its vibrancy, but you need me to see him.

Thomas suspired heavily, and she didn’t have to look to know he’d paused, besides, the hand on her shoulder was proof enough, “Y/n-”

“Just go,” shutting her eyes, she realized that the tears couldn’t be barred, and instead, they simply seeped past tangled lashes, “Please, just go,” Y/n begged, swallowing thickly. With another sigh, Thomas retracted his hand, and she willed herself to stay put as he finished getting dressed. He said something as he’d turned the knob, possibly something about how it wasn’t as easy as she thought it was, though, Y/n was much too consumed with the lesson she was finding hard to take in stride;

As much as she loved Thomas, as deeply as she felt for him, it was never going to be enough. As beautiful as the possibilities were, as sweet as their time;

Nothing lasts.

****

Tagging- @alreadybroken-ts

[baeshijima]

𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫!𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫!𝐲/𝐧

MASTERLIST

now, childe as a general streamer,,, he’s a whale in every sense of the word 

…

poggers—

so childe as a streamer in general would be one word ;

✨chaotic✨

he would definitely be a variety streamer, but more so for games !!

especially pvp and/or pve games

competitive meta mf—

probably plays LoL, overwatch, apex legends, valorant and minecraft

don’t question the minecraft 

he likes mining but has a personal vendetta against the creepers bc once they blew up his mansion 

yes, a mansion

ask any of his community and they’ll tell u he spent a full-blown month and a half playing just minecraft to build it, only for it to go down just like that ;-; 

his chat loved it tho <//3

he’s played honkai too !! mainly for the pve and grinding bc he’s a whale but uh,,, shhh

his community,,, his community are just a bunch of trolls at this point i cant even lie

they just KEKW, SADGE & COPIUM spam everything and the newer viewers get intimidated until they realise he deserves them all HJGKJHF

especially when he starts getting annoyed by the game,,, his reactions are too good to pass up on gn

typically when he does mario kart streams 👩‍🦯 that shit’s wild when it happens oh my

when he falls in rainbow road 🤡 

and especially bc he has his webcam on, his viewers just see him internally dying or wanting to scream

also gets passive aggressive 

shit talks everything and everyone when in that mood <//3

for what’s left of his dignity i won’t disclose what happens

definitely gets jebaited a lot too <//3 unfortunately he’s too easy for his chat ;-;

another mf with a massive community except he has a lot of friends (sorry not sorry albedo)

ppl have a love-hate relationship with him tbh; u either love him or hate him

no inbetween

unless u show ur love through bullying him then go off ig

his discord server, twt + yt are also really big too !! also verified on insta 

also !!

he has lots of plushies :(( esp whale plushies from his community bc he’s the biggest whale they know <//3

but if u look at his setup, there’s a mini whale plushie on the top of his main monitor (he has 3), one big one (like,,, up to his chin) behind him, a smol on the top of his chair so u can see it above his head, and just more off screen HKJSDHL

they asked for a room tour once and half of it was just whale plushies

the rest were LED lights + shelves of merch & gifts from his community !!

he even has some fanmail (actual wholesome ones that aren’t cursed) pinned on a board too 🥺

also has an ensuite—

when he was eating on stream one time, his chat was sent into an absolute outrage

u know why?

bc he was eating noodles with a fork

bby ;-;

so sometimes he’ll get sent those beginner chopsticks with the finger guides to help him 👩‍🦯

he’s actually made sure to eat with them on stream tho bc he was sent one with a narwhal on top and he thinks it’s cute JHGJKH

nOW ONTO THIS MAN BEING WHIPPED FOR U AS A GENSHIN STREAMER !!!!

herkekle

now, his (also) AR56 ass has been playing since genshin first came out

an og if u will

this man,,, he’s been in love with u even before the game’s official release 🐥

not only were u in the promotional art and trailers, but he was also one of the beta testers so he got to try out ur character first hand in the early stages !!

and when i say he fell hard for u,

i mean it 

when the game wasn’t released publicly yet, he wasn’t allowed to disclose any information and ngl, it killed him that he couldn’t talk abt u :((

so all he could do was say this upcoming was really nice so far and subtly brag abt u to everyone JHGKJSDFHLK

when the official ads & promotional art were finally released 🥺🥺 when i tell u he immediately went live talking abt the game and u HKGJHFDK

he didn’t care that he streamed at an ungodly hour bc he’s been waiting for the reveal for so long he needs to let everyone know </3

he retweeted everything from their official twt straightaway, made a yt video based off his spontaneous stream promoting the game + pinged his entire server abt it

yes

his nearly 200k server all got pinged abt this one game bc he’s in love with a character from it

and he has no regrets abt it <33

the day the game was available for download, he stREAMED THE ENTIRE DOWNLOAD PROCESS

while he and his chat were waiting, they decided to watch the trailers and character showcases to get a feel for the game, and played some mario kart to pass the time !!

as soon as the game loaded, he threw mario kart behind him and went on 🐥

he typed his name (ajax) for the when he chose aether and literally everyone was appreciating the aesthetics HKJFS

but childe,,, he was waiting for it to be over so he could see u ;-;

he appreciated the aesthetics, fighting mechanics & voice acting a lot tho !!

now he had gotten through all the tutorials, got all the chests he could he was finally in mond

and there u were 🥺 after the dvalin encounter u arrived before kaeya did

and boy did he show u off sm to his viewers HKJHKLF

they knew he was down bad before but now?? they know it’s hopeless to save him and if he ever falls out of love that’s when the world ends

luckily that’ll never happen tho <33

but he took !! so many !! screenshots !!

oh, and did i mention he changed his wallpapers to u? and his twt + discord pfps are also some very aesthetic screenshots of u from that first scene ;-;

he just appreciates u sm okay 🥺

he even clutched his chest where his heart is and sunk down his chair when he heard u speak 😩

his chat just spammed his downbad + y/nlove + SHRIMP emotes and he accepted them all with grace <33

now when he unlocks the wishing feature,,, u already know he’s wishing for u as soon as possible

ur in the standard banner so ur always there which he appreciates but he would’ve wanted u to be limited so he can rub it in ppl’s faces ;-;

and since it was the first release rewards, he had tons of wishes right off the bat !!

he was gonna roll for venti after he gets u bc,,, well does he need a reason??

also he doesn’t do well with archer characters in general ;;; but if ur an archer then ur obv an exception sooo

bUT he got a 5 star in his first 20 pulls !!

tho it was diluc 👩‍🦯

while he was happy bc he got an incredibly meta character right off the bat,

he wasn’t interested in diluc,,, (even now his diluc is barely looked after, and only used for spiral abyss, *sweats*)

the next 5 star he got was around the 60 mark, and he got a weapon,,,

i mean,,, he got the weapon that was most suited for u so that’s smth at least (ˉ▽ˉ；)

after he used all his remaining primos and fates, he finally got u 🥺

he just went “fuck the storyline” and immediately put u in his party and just

admired u as a whole 

went through all the voice lines available, ur character story, ur idle animations (he had a heart attack from u and his chat clipped it) and took many, many screenshots 

his favourite voice lines would have to be the night + about us + (y/n)’s hobbies

and then he equipped u with ur weapon and damnnn did u look so good with it 😩

he changed u to be his avatar, with his signature as :

“(y/n)’s whale <3”

and now the whaling process begins 👩‍🦯

after at least £2k, he got u to c6, along with at least 1 copy of all the standard 5 stars,,

then he went for venti’s banner—

his chat were just too focused on how he’s gonna play u to even think of anything else tbh HKJAH

with ur kit, u were honestly seen to be a dps or even a sub dps if ppl don’t want u on the field all the time

so definitely a perfect character for mr meta strimmer tartaglia (his twitch name btw ;;; childe is just smth he prefers his community to call him as but they also call him ajax too HKJSD) here

so he went through the archon quests with u as his carry and i won’t lie, ur name card is smth he has printed and framed behind him after he got it 🥺

he later finds out ur part of the fatui in the liyue archon quest tho and has to fight u with,,,

well, u ;;;

he finds it hot tho so it’s okay—

i won’t lie tho, his zhongli after he got him is his second strongest after u

he just builds all his characters in the most broken way he can so he can show his viewers that everyone can be a dps in their own right, not just the ones meant to be since there’s no right or wrong in this game !!

but now ur weapon is r5, ur lvl 90 and u have lvl 20 5 star artifacts that make u the most broken (y/n) seen

ppl who co op with him are honestly baffled,,, especially when the feature of them being able to view other players’ character stats become available,,,

u with ur nearly 3k atk,,,

he’s hit over 600k with u tho and he’ll always flex that

no one can top him as a (y/n) main and that’s honestly just a fact at this point 😩

when he saw that the dating sim hangouts was official, his immediate and iconic response was simply ;

“so when will (y/n) become a dateable, huh 🤨”

to this day he’s still waiting to be able to date u in-game <//3

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

Aug 2021 Wk 2 

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. 

Ongoing Series - Thai 

This was the week of visitors from the past: The Yearbook got Mean & Prem, and Love Area got Jeff. Always nice to se familiar faces. 

Golden Blood Ep 8 fin - cute ending to a series that was a whole lot softer than we had a right to expect (also higher heat), plus some light punching. So many tropes: pinky promise, ground lie, hair dry, kitchen romance, boyfriend claiming x2, boop, back hug with a striped shirt combo. (full review here) RECOMMENDED! 

Love Area Ep 3 - (no subs) if this is a love triangle, I am now entirely in the 2nd leads camp (the cute pre-med across the hall) I loathe a slovenly character. Although I love a good guy uke who still knows how to protect himself and say no. Meanwhile Jeff Satur showed up looking very suave. Hooray! I think this show is good but dialogue is getting too complex for me to follow without subs. (Although I did catch that the play within a play is using “ter” which always makes me happy.) 

The Yearbook Ep 5 - nothing is changing my mind that this is ITSAY meets Fault is in Our Stars. At least we finally know why they’re so devoted to one another. Plus we got the trope of passing the familial obligation of care, been a while since I’ve seen that one. And yes I did tear up. I’ve explained before: self = BIG FAT SAP. 

Top Secret Together Ep 14 - (no subs) lots of EakPhob to start, my least favorite story arc, plus I have terrible second lead syndrome for the cutie younger seme. But then a ton of my two being THE CUTEST BOYFRIENDS EVAH. Look at them communicating and talking about their feelings! Yeah! Nothing from the other couples. Definitely getting Gen Y unevenness from this one. 

Don’t Say No Ep 2 - I’m starting to enjoy it for the delightful shitshow it isn’t (although still kinda is). We got us an out pansexual slut character and a hilarious scene with a prostate wand. So I’m all in and disposed to enjoy myself. Honestly, with a pansexual and a prostate wand, who wouldn’t be?  “Hilarious encounters with pansexuals & prostate wands” is the subtitle of my tell-all autobiography. Just FYI. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Light On Me (Korea) Ep 13-14 - TaeKyung & ShinWoo = most terrifyingly awkward and cringe-inducing first date ever? I think so. Despite this, the frenetic love triangle persists. How will this resolve in only two eps? Also sassy TaeKyung is the BEST TaeKyung. 

Given (Japan) Ep 4 - it’s still quite good and moving along a pace. I’m so glad we’re getting quality old school live action yaoi from Japan. Makes me nostalgic. 

Gossip

CLEARS THROAT

Hear ye hear ye! Taiwan has a new BL movie coming called Light (from GagaooLala). It is a dark high heat movie about an undercover cop and a sex worker with themes of ownership and abuse. My Drama Listing has a good full description. Trailer & Teaser (watch both, they different) 

But guess what?

Behold THE PROPHECY!

It appears to be set in a SUIT SHOP! 

@heretherebedork​ basically willed this thing into existence. 

Meanwhile, I unearthed very old news that Korea’s Color Rush (my favorite BL this year, seriously, nothing will beat this one for me) is, apparently, actually getting a second season. Which means that stinger at the end of Viki’s movie version is for realz. 

(I actually don’t think we need more but I’m disposed to be pleased and confident in Korea.) 

GL-based drama Couple of Mirrors is supposed to start airing. Read that “based” carefully, this looks to be censored GL. So not a bromance a... baimance? Babemance? humm erm ooo oh oh!

Romanchick! 

eh, I don’t know. But you get my point. 

In Case You Missed It

My Lascivious Boss one of my favorite Vietnamese BLs of this year put the full drama with eng subs up on their YouTube channel as a movie. So if you like to consume that way, you now can. I think the subs are worse and some of the heat has been cut out, so you’re better off with the original. (Full review here.) 

Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan (AKA ZZH) of Word of Honor embroiled in a HUGE scandal which has resulted in him being censored, cancelled, and dropped by fans & brands. You know me, my policy is to censor the censors, so if you want the deets I would start with the link I provided, and also educate yourself about the long involved history between Japan and China. Best of luck. 

Grey Rainbow (Thai BL from 2016) is popping back up on Daily Motion. Please don’t watch this. It will break you. It’s HIStory 3 level trauma. You’ve been warned. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International subs accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

This week’s best moments? 

What you want more than @here & self basically willing a Taiwanese BL into existence for the Honor of Grayskull? I think that’s pretty fucking special sparkle unicorn shit right there. 

Fine, well here’s other good stuff: 

[artcupcakes]

Out of all the heisters, Jacket is physically the strongest since his perk deck is the meta for melee builds

In arm strength and wrist dexterity you're probably be right.

But I'd respectfully argue a few other heister to potentially take the strongest metal in other area's.

Long counter argument below (Skip to the end for shit posting about Jacket being the strongest)

Here's where I put the disclaimer: I know not that much about the meta of Payday. I am a filthy casual who plays for fun rather than maxims efficient win rates. Those who can figure out/use the meta have my deepest respect. That requires a bigger brain that what I have. So I am going to be doing analyzation based off of the in universe implications.

If you disagree that's valid and I can understand wanting to have such headcanons based on the meta.

Now on to my argument that Jacket may not be the strongest in every area:

Wolf, for example is represented by the Armorer perk deck and the Technician skill tree.

His perk deck implies high stamina built for wearing armor than say someone like Houston(Rouge Perk Deck) who would be a bit more slowed down as his perk deck is better suited towards avoidance of armor.

Tower Defensive and Kick starter comes to mind. The final skill of the Engineer branch, implies some level of intense working out to gain the strength(Read in-game points to spend on the skill) to carry. Though kick starter seems to work on the goofy logic that allows Duke to heal via whiskey, there's a high iq argument there as well.

Not sure how much this is really relevant, but in more live action trailers and what nots, Wolf is show a preference for melee, even with out a weapon at time.

Of course with that arguments of Skills and Perks comes the Houston has leg strength.

The Ghost skill tree has skills like Sneaky Bastard and Low Blow implies some level of insane speed. And sixth sense just straight up implies supernatural ability. (But hey half the time it seems like Bain has a level of Omnipresence to him, so I wouldn't be surprised)

Killer Instinct from the Rouge deck perk deck allows for a better chance for any weapon to have amour piercing damage. Of course this is probably small amounts of arm strength in comparisons to melee favoring Jacket, but I thought it was worth noting.

Pretty sure owning a shooting range as basically kid also means something for strength (Kick back of riffles and all) but you could also counter this with an argument of it just being good balance rather than strength. This would also arguably line up with his stealth style better.

Hoxton's skill tree Fugitive is a DAMN good argument but outside of that his lore background is just damning him.

Building muscles in prison is hard as shit. Prison food is the opposite of nutritious from my understanding. The Crook perk deck's dodge is pretty great as well for the leg race between him and Hoxton. But there's more focus on general muscles due to the secondary focus on armor.

Of course if we're excluding skill trees then of course, these arguments have a little less weight I suppose. And it would make sense to exclude skill trees. I'd understand the argument there. As the skill trees while based on og 4 plus Houston(og 5? LMAO)

However Wolf would still have more stamina when he took of his vests and is shown to have a preference for physical fighting

I'd also like to put up for consideration Dragan.

His constant work ethic towards working out would imply general all rounder strength. However a master of one is better than a master of none. So to support this argument I point to the Infiltrator perk deck. The deck build upon close combat

Of course this could be argued that he has to keep up the strength due to his smoking habits murdering his lungs. Old man is 45 after all.

Sokol is an ex-athlete in his prime.

I've seen very few Hokey matches but the ones with incidents tend to be brutal. And it seems like Sokol here had a habit of starting them as well. His over all thicker build implies core strength and balance. You would need such a thing to knock people on the ice with out tipping over yourself (well that a momentum). The Grinder perk deck seems to be focused on healing more than anything, showing an ability to take a hit. But this isn't about a fight, this is just about strength.

Either way I had to include Jacket's Rival/Enemy/Competitive/Negative relation in this. Just for kicks ;)

honorable mentions:

Jiro who is a speedy boy with some melee, but unless he's working out like Dragan his 50+ year old body isn't going to be winning the race with so much young blood.

Scarface: His strength is a lie and all drugs

Duke: He is an alcoholic in denial

However with all that said:

It's still really funny to think of skinny Jacket just taking someone more well built like Sokol and just SLAMMING him into the ground.

Ghost Wolves didn't train little bitches and he didn't slack off of training in Miami.

He is the king of arm wrestling and he and Bonnie quickly made a scheme to challenge the newer heisters to arm wrestling with money bet on the line.

Dallas stopped this after to many complaints of being scammed, but the closest to win was Jimmy who was coked up and using his hysteria strength.

[bronyinabottle]

MY LITTLE PONY: A NEW GENERATION (G5 Movie) THOUGHTS

It’s finally here. The beginning of Generation 5. Though before I get into the movie in some detail I’m going to reiterate one more time what G5 means for my content and a non-spoilery summary of the movie.

Again, I will say that the movie nor will the G5 series coming later have much of an effect at all on any of my blogs. The revelation in Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear that life itself is also magic means that a world that implied to have no magic for years would mean the extinction of all life (Perhaps resulting in the wasteland we saw in the Season 5 finale). There may be something I’ll probably do at some point on a certain different blog. But even then, that may likely be a one-time thing and probably come around the time the series is starting to air.

That said, just because I’m continuing with mainly G4 content doesn’t mean I disapprove of G5. In fact, my non-spoilers thoughts on the movie is I think it is a good start for this new generation. There are questions I have that I’m not sure will be answered (Though many of those questions are the same ones I had in my Trailer/Preliminary thoughts) quickly enough. But the movie is structured well enough, in fact it’s probably a better movie as a whole compared to any of the movies G4 had (The 2017 movie, Rainbow Roadtrip, and all 4 Equestria Girls movies). As the 2017 movie was fun, but it jumped around a lot, sometimes scenes transitioning too fast. And while Rainbow Roadtrip may have been this on purpose, the entirely slice-of-life story taking up a long length… made it something of a less interesting plot to follow. It feels like some of that special could of been cut to at least a two-parter length and keep the same beats they hit. And while i have a soft spot for the 3rd and 4th Equestria Girls movies, I’ll always say a full-length pony adventure feels better suited for what I want to see out of MLP then spin-off movies with high school movie cliches and weird pony/human world shenanigans.

So movie-wise I’m not a G4 purist. It’ll take some time to see how Gen 5 compares to Friendship is Magic when we get to the series. As I feel it’d take a lot for it to surpass G4 in my mind. But I’m going to try to be as fair as possible and judge on it’s own merits. The implied connection to G4 by referring to G4 being ancient Equestria is going to naturally get the staff and hasbro pressured by fans to tell us what happened in-between the generations. Because that’s the trap they put the writers in when they made it so they want to try to say it’s in the same universe. That’s the double-edged sword Hasbro chose to have, trying to appease the G4 fanbase and keep at least some of them around. But at the cost of questions both nitpicky (Such as character design being inconsistent) or actual honest questions that need to be known (Why did magic disappear, and what happened to the Alicorns) for some of us to truly see this as the same Equestria.

After the break, I’ll have more spoilery thoughts

Even for a brief moment, it was nice seeing the Mane 6 and 2D animation. The former because of course those are the ponies many of us that saw all of G4 loved. And the latter, because while the animation wasn’t bad in this movie. I’m one of those who’d prefer to have 2D animation in an animated film. As in most cases aside from Pixar, it’s just a strong preference of mine. If this had the animation of the 2017 MLP movie but otherwise everything else was generally the same here, I feel that would of have been great.

I wish they didn’t have to have Sunny’s dad die off-screen, as he seems like he could of been a compelling character. And not to mention if perhaps he has any connection the “ancient” days in any fashion. But *sigh* I get it, it’s an old trope where part of the character’s offscreen growth is not having their parent(/s) around.

On a side note there’s quite a few times during the beginning of the movie that somewhat foreshadow what happens to Sunny later. 3 times where she had a fake horn and wings on her. Once in the flashback, then 2 separate times when she’s doing her protest where she has her own costumed wings and horn. As well as the helmet and mechanical wings.

Also, there’s no way around it. Some of the discussions this movie are going to get quite political. (Namely one part of Sunny’s song that could be seen as having a double meaning of a jab at Trumpsts regarding “Building your wall”) From the very premise in the early times, we know that the inspiration for the story was last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Which honestly, I do support the message they’re going for. Having an anti-racism message to tell kids from the very beginning and making a focus on it is important when in G4 it only got briefly touched upon in Bridle Gossip and the Heath’s Warming Eve play. Although it certainly rose up to some form of prominence with Season 8 and onward. Still, while you can argue if G4 executed the anti-racism message well. it does come with something of a problem that the series finale left Equestria in the least divided it’s ever been.

And personally, I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time to say “Well, it’s a realistic take. Racism has existed for years in our world. Same should go for the ponies” and while yes, racism is still rampant in today’s world. That said, that ignores that if we went from The Last Problem to the start of G5. There’s a huge difference between our world and Equestria. There is no ancient civilization that we look at like “Yeah, those were the golden days of world peace” when normally the “Golden age” was reserved for the high classes of Ancient Greece or Rome. It was most decidedly not perfect, with slavery rampant and wars for the sake of expanding an empire. While if you look at The Last Problem’s Equestria, you not only have peace between the three main types of ponies. But you literally have non-pony citizens in Equestria. You can see a dragon handing off a flower to a pony which can imply cross-species romantic relations. With the Friendship school still going strong, and was the reason that the world was saved in The Ending of the End. While perhaps it may be too glowing to say that future is perfect for everyone even in-universe. It’s certainly a hell of a lot better outlook then comparing to how we view even the so called Golden age of ancient civilizations. The Last Problem’s Equestria implies it looks to ally with every country outside of Equestria, not conquer them.

So it should still be a valid question on just how this world collapses to the point it gets to where G5 is at the start. I at least assume that it’s not the fault at all of any of the Mane 6 nor Twilight. Or at least I hope it isn’t, as I’d rather the MLP fanbase not have to deal with a The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker situation. (Where after the joyful end of the original trilogy, things go wrong as Luke almost murders the son of one of his best friends and his sister despite trying to hard and succeeding at redeeming his father who at that point in the canon was a galaxy-wide known ruthless mass-murderer.) I assume we’re at a point where everyone of the Mane 6 sans maybe Twilight are presumed dead. And even in Twilight’s case, there’s a chance that G5 decides to say that G4 overestimated the whole Alicorn immortality thing. Though I wouldn’t put it past Hasbro to have some event where the Mane 5 of G5 meet the Mane 6 in some special event whether that’s a a Season finale or a sequel movie/special. Where either the Mane 6 return in a limbo situation similar to the Pillars at the end of Season 7 or Time travel gets involved. They may even string us along on answering just what in the heck happened until they involve a meet-up with the Mane 6 in that way. Though I hope they don’t, I’d really like the beginning of the series (Or I guess this supposed special coming up in Spring supposedly?) starts to answer some questions. G5 should get a chance to stand on it’s own, but I hope the writers are actually well aware there will be so many questions people have and address them in the show. A cynical part of me feels like they’re likely to string us along until at least the Season 1 finale.

Onto the characters for a bit. I think Izzy Moonbow was absolutely the most stand-out character in the whole movie. She was energetic, funny, and aside from “The pegasi are bad news” she along with Zipp and Sunny were the most averse to the way the world was. She was already the most popular due to the tennis ball memes. But now it feels like she legit stands on her own and most certainly deserves to be the most popular character of G5 thus far. Behind her in a bit of a surprise to me was Zipp, who I thought would be mainly a Rainbow Dash-expy. Though she really helps out Izzy and Sunny in Zephyr Heights. Despite having Twilight be my favorite pony from the very beginning of G4 all the way to the end, I didn’t feel as strongly about Sunny for some reason. So she’s in the middle of the pack, she could grow on me later. I just don’t know if I click with her as much as I did with Twilight. As for the last two, while I don’t hate either of them. Either one could be the lowest of the 5 for one reason or another. Pipp (Although I will say she's probably my favorite character design out of the 5) feels like she doesn’t do a whole lot in the movie and it takes until she’s forced to be an outlaw because the other choice was to get imprisoned like her mother was. So she may come off as quite pretentious, though it’s arguable Rarity was the same way early in G4. But she definitely grew later. Could be the same case for Pipp. And as for Hitch, he has shining moments in the film. But what might hurt him is the fact he was such a bad friend to Sunny up until the campfire scene. “I’m the last real friend you have. You really want to lose me too?” is not a healthy friendship. Hitch may have been Sunny’s friend the longest, but it definitely feels like Izzy connected immediately. I don’t know if this show will get into shipping any of the main characters between each other mid-show, but if they do. I hope it’s between Izzy and Sunny currently, cause Hitch and Sunny just gives bad vibes even with Hitch getting better later.

None of the songs I felt were particularly too special. Though I think the closest was Sprout’s “Danger, Danger” song that has similarities to Smells Like Teen Spirit in some parts of the song since I tend towards more rock/metal-esque music.

I touched upon it earlier, but there’s perhaps a stand-out reason for why the G5 movie outdid the 2017 MLP Movie. They have the typical “Our heroic group splits after a sad moment before coming together again for the climatic good end” in Sunny seeing that that the two crystals don’t instantly bring magic back, and when Twilight left the group after an argument that happened with Twilight trying to take a pearl. They perform the same purpose in the movie. But the crystals not working, crushing Sunny’s hope for a little while works better into the story. Where as Twilight’s part frustratingly brought the sea pony scene to an end too quickly and/or doesn’t feel right of Twilight to have done that. It felt forced in the 2017 movie, but works out in the G5 movie. Especially since a part of it is that it’s not the crystals themselves capable of bringing magic back. But it’s the journey going after the crystals that brings the ponies themselves their magic back.

Just a small note on dictator Sprout, he tries to cause a war. Though admittedly the film seems to treat him as a joke the entire time despite his seriously evil ambitions. With the only repercussions is he gets a wishy-washy answer on if he was a good sheriff from his mom. I don’t quite know how I feel about that yet, but I wonder what they’ll have in mind for Sprout given his actions. He and his mom are the only ones that feel like a true antagonist. Though they seem to be ok with things fast when the magic comes back.

But anyway on to the ending, we see that Sunny becomes an Alicorn. Which I guess with no other real Alicorns around, I guess it makes sense to alicornify her since she’s the real leader behind what united the leaders of each type of pony again. Though there is of course this weird thing where her horn and wings don’t seem like as much a part of her body compared to very obvious connected wings on Twilight when she got hers. Sunny keeps her horn and wings to the end of the movie, and has colored streaks in her hair. Though I do wonder if that;s truly permanent. If it is permanent, I suppose at least they got to have a headstart and have it established at the end of the introductory movie rather then have it shock people at the end of a shortened 3rd season. I still feel like Twilight had well earned her alicornhood considering that besides what she did in the series. She has a whole childhood and time as a teenager learning under Celestia. Which had to mean something, and I’m not sure Celestia just leaving her to live the rest of her days with her friends in ponyville was that. Sunny has no doubt been trying countless time to try to spread friendship throughout her life even after the tragedy of her father’s passing. So there’s no doubt she’s been through a lot, and may indeed be worthy of being an Alicorn at this point. Though in terms of screentime before Alicornhood it's definitely a lot less then Twilight had. And it is at least nice to see that it is possible for non-unicorns to become one. (The only case of that we sort of got was a children's book that may or may not be canon that implied Cadence was a pegasus before she ascended)

Though you have to wonder if the visual differences such as Sunny’s alicorn horn and wings, the cutie mark only on one side (Yes I know that’s how it was normally in the MLP generations before G4. But a distinct visual difference between shows is still noticeable even if the context of G4’s cutie marks on both sides of the flank was about it being easier on the puppets for Flash), and how animals can have wings or weird round shapes such as those bunnies when G4 has normal looking animals. There’s enough striking visual differences for any nitpicky G4 to say “This isn’t the same Equestria”. And if someone tries to say maybe some sort of evolution happened. That’s still trying to put a little too much real world logic on this fantasy world. And evolution tends to take millions of years to have such dramatic changes. Not 1000 years or so, there should still be normal looking animals at this point and time. And these small details are probably going to be the things most ignored but nonetheless can build a case that this isn’t the same Equestria. Even if they touch on the important questions like how magic disappeared and what happened to the Mane 6, there will be details they make different that will add to the case that this is it’s own universe if it doesn’t quite matchup with what was remembered about G4. There will be fans who will be that nitpicky to call G5 out of continuity for small details like that. That is again the trap they put themselves in when they decided to try to say it’s the same Equestria.

All-in-all though, I think that’s at least a good enough chunk about my thoughts on the movie to end off here. If there’s something I missed or something from the movie you’d like me to give a particular opinion about or elaborate on something feel free to ask me here. G5 is indeed off to a good start, just I will be along the many hoping some questions get answered sooner then later. And I’m not sure I’m confident in getting anywhere until a Season finale or a 2nd movie. And it’ll be a year before the series starts proper (Though again I guess there’s a 44 minute special coming in Spring to try to hold us over). But I could definitely see G5 finding it's own following, now there's just the inevitable clashes between some of the more vocal fans of each generation bickering at eachother. But hoping there will be enough that take the movie's lessons on divisiveness to heart and be able to enjoy both even if there may be preferences.

[redrebecca]

Hi, I really love your writing. I was wondering if you could write something about Tom where the reader is his co star and they are doing a insta live in one of the trailers? Maybe some flirting? Work your magic girl!

Thank you! This is turned into a long blurb/short fic, but here it is!

*

Seconds after he clicked “Go Live” the numbers of viewers quickly rose, bringing with them an onslaught of comments. Not even trying to read the various questions as they left his screen as quickly as they appeared, he waved to the camera and cleared his throat. 

“Hey guys-“

“I’m Spider-Man” A voice cut in from somewhere off screen. Tom cut a playful glare towards where you sat trying your hardest to keep your face innocent as if you hadn’t just completely slaughtered a british accent.

“As I was saying,” He gave you one more stare, your only response was to stick out your tongue (because maturity is definitely your strong suit) “It’s currently 5:30 am, I’m in hair and makeup and I’m joined with this weirdo.” The camera panned to you just in time for the viewers to see you flip Tom off. However, he was quick to jerk the phone back to him as he gasped. “Y/n! Think of the children!” 

“Oh fuck off Thomas.” You muttered as you took a swig from your water bottle, hoping that it would help to wake you up enough to keep you functioning until the catering van opened so you could finally get your hands on any form of caffeine - needless to say, early morning shoots were not your favourites.

Instead of replying, Tom just grinned at how you were subtly beginning to slump in the chair next to him. You two had been working together for 5 weeks now and Tom had grown more and more accustomed to you and your body language. So although your job revolves around you pretending to be feeling something you weren’t necessarily feeling, the boy had managed to read you as though you had your emotions written across your forehead - which is why he nudged your foot and slid you his half full cup of tea. You sent him a grateful smile over the top of his reusable cup before you took a sip. How did he always make his cups of tea so perfect? 

Whilst you were finishing off Tom’s tea, he took some time to read through some comments.

“Oh, Zendaya says ’Hi y/n’.”

“Hi Z!” You say, shuffling your chair closer to Tom’s so you can also read his screen. You let out a surprised noise as Tom grabbed the arm of your chair and pulled you towards him, which was much more effective

“Do I not get a hello?” He said to his phone, waiting for Zendaya’s response. You couldn’t help but grin as her reply of ’no’ popped up in the comments. “What?” He gasped teasingly. Your laugh rang out in the empty trailer.

“It’s because I’m her favourite.” Your grin only spurred Tom on even more as he slapped a hand to his chest in mock offense. “That poor woman shot two movies with you, that alone is commendable. I’ve barely made it to five weeks.” This time your quip was enough to make him guffaw and turn his head to look at you in the eyes. You raised your eyebrow expectantly. 

“You little shit.” He laughed, which made it near damn impossible not for you to laugh back.

“Tom!” You said, feigning shock, “Think of the children!” Now, your Tom impression definitely was not the most accurate (it was a mix of you pitching your voice up and putting on a questionable british accent), but it always was enough to get a reaction from him. He tipped his head back as he laughed, giving you a light shove which only made you giggle harder.

“Why is she up so early?” Tom questioned, his morning voice in full effect. You gave him a strange look.

“Have you forgotten that time zones exist?”  

“Oh!” He exclaimed after a moment. “Yeh that makes sense.” Tom turned to look at you, just in time to catch you mid eye roll. He narrowed his eyes and you were quick to do the same back. 

“I think the question you should be asking is why are we up so early. Isn’t it Thomas?” His reaction was instant - he tipped his head back and groaned.

“Don’t even start” 

Deciding that you were going to ignore his request, you turned to where his phone was propped against the mirror. “This man,” You accusingly stuck your finger towards where Tom was sitting, “Told me that our scene was at 5, but what time is it actually at Thomas?”

“Seven.” Tom muttered. 

“So instead of getting a few more hours of sl-“ Your next words were muffled by Tom’s hand.

“In my defence, I got sent the wrong timetable.” He told the camera, his hand still clamped over your mouth. “But if it’s any consolation, I am very sorry love.” He said whilst looking you in the eyes. The sincerity, eye contact and pet name was making it very hard to keep your cheeks from turning pink, but you didn’t have to worry about it for long because seconds later the trailer door was opened. Tom dropped his hand from your face and followed your gaze to the door. 

“Hey guys!” Diane, one of the makeup artists, called before she paused. “Wait what are you two doing here this early?” You slowly turned back to Tom. He took one look at your, no doubt, smug face and dropped his head into his hands and groaned.

“Scheduling issue.” You told her, purposely leaving out Tom’s involvement in that issue, because despite all the teasing you knew he felt guilty. Diane didn’t ask any more questions- instead she hummed and moved to unpack her bag. 

“Adopt me.” Tom said from beside you. 

“I’m sorry, what?” 

Tom chuckled at your confused face and pointed back to the screen, “Someone wants us to adopt them.” This time your confusion was directed at the comment.

“I can assure you, you do not want that.” On the live video you could see Tom nodding along next to you. “I mean, have you seen Tom’s cooking?” Now that stopped Tom’s agreement. He crossed his arms and leant back in his chair.

“You know what-“

“Now, now children,” Diane teased and reached to pat Tom’s shoulder, “Y/n leave Tom alone,” Tom gave you a sickly sweet smile before Diane continued, “It's not his fault he can’t follow a recipe for shit.” You couldn’t help but laugh when Tom whipped his head to stare at the giggling makeup artist.

“You two are the worst.” He said. You would’ve felt bad, but you watched as he started to grin whilst looking between the two of you. 

“Nah, you love us.” You replied, once again you turned to look through some more comments. Tom slung his arm over your shoulders.

“I guess I do.” He said. Why was it so hard to fight off a blush? Thankfully, before Tom could notice your reddened cheeks, Diane took her purse out of her bag and walked towards the trailer door. 

“I’m going to get some coffee. Do you guys want me to bring you some back?” 

“Yes please!” You both said in unison.

“Any particular size?” She checked. You and Tom turned to her. Diane took one look at the dark circles under yours and Tom’s eyes and chuckled, “Two larges, got it.”

[shesawriter39049]

|Got Me Loosin All My Cool| M|

Pairings: Jungkook X Reader | Jimin X Reader( Smut) FT- Side Tae & Yoongi

Note: Kook is in 80% of this but he’s “new” to the dynamic...so the smut is with Jimin and the OC...not Kookie!

About- Jimin and yourself take Jungkook shopping for a new suit to wear to the “Spectrum” launch party! OH, and Jimin fucks you in the backseat of your truck in the parking garage of the mall…..

OR: You know Kookie still in that “Broke college grad” phase only being with the company barley a month, and you don’t want him to feel self-conscious at the event! You’ve also been too busy to really check in with him to see how he’s adjusting! So, you thought something like this, in a more laxed atmosphere, would be a good solution! Oh and Jimin, honestly he’s just nosey as fuck and inched himself along, like nobody really invited him he invited his damn self! Also Jungook can’t underatand why the fuck your all so damn attractive...like...why!?

Jungkook’s a sweetheart and lowkey confused and whipped for everybody

Tae’s kinda being a spoiled asshole

Yoongi’s over it!

Jimin’s being a brat, he’s not use to having to “Behave” around others, espeically while your wearing “that” dress.....

-Song Reference- COOL-  Dua lipa

WC: 6K

WARNINGS: Semi-public sex/Top OC/Power bottom Jimin/ Spit play/ Cum play/ Fingering (F receiving) Cockrings/Lube (yes ppl actually use that IRL )Dirty talk/ biting, finger sucking

FINAL NOTE: This little excerpt is the prequel to the next full-length one-shot “All Eyes On Me” which is Hoseoks official ‘Intro” if you will. The full Summary for that can be found in the Masterlist which is linked below! Also if you’re new here..this is a stand-alone one-shot within my OT7Poly AU called “7 Deep” Short version: Your husband Namjoon and yourself run a successful Adult Film Entertainment Company called “Onyx” with your 5 best friends from college who you also happen to be in an open relationship with!

(Sneak peek)

~~~~~~

ONXY ENTERTAINEMENT 10:45 AM

Jungkook’s happy I guess almost surprisingly so, I mean yeah Yoongi and yourself seemed cool in the interview, and when he did is work interview the vibe was chill. But let’s get real, we all know shit always seems better than it actually is in the interviews!

For one he honestly wasn’t expecting to be given such free reign already which is also why he’s happy as hell he didn’t listen to his roommate’s Mark and Ten and lie on his resume. Granted, everything still had to go through Yoongi first but he wasn’t just... I don’t know editing thumbnails like he thought he was actually doing real work. He’s been here barely a month and he already has reels he can add to his portfolio! Learning new tips and tricks, believe it or not, even through his internships he’s learned that some people are stingy when it comes to sharing knowledge. Yoongi however was far from that, thankfully he was well aware that just because you teach someone your “secrets” doesn’t mean you’re essentially replacing yourself! What makes you good at your job isn’t just how it’s done its how you do it!

If only Kookie could stop internally fangirling over Yoongi his life would be a little easier! He’d seen hundreds of your companies films before and being the production major he is..of course, he’d watch it the first time to jack off..then the second time he’d find himself just as if not even more turned on for the production quality. That’s something Onyx is always praised for..”Aesthetically pleasing porn”. Every morning, Yoongi would sit him down and show him something new and for the first time he finally understands what people mean when they say that someones mind is..attractive! Not Yoongi himself though, because that’s his boss and that would be weird but like his brain, ya know? Yoongi’s brian is sexy in a broboss way...I don’t know just go with it!

Anyway, Kook’s current project was actually one of his favorites so far because it was forcing him to actually challenge himself! This was something actually requested by Hoseok, who he learned was 26, the head of marketing, always bouncing around like he’s had 6 expresso shots and somehow manages to make streetwear look professional…. But anyway the task is creating trailers for films that are pc enough to not be blocked on platforms like IG but spicy enough to get ppl to wanna watch the full thing. Making a climax without the actual climax if you know what I mean. So he’d have to sit there and watch the films, try not to get hard and wanna jack off while watching said films...then take notes and screencaps of the best moments and compile them together without showing “too much”. He’s never been so thankful that he could wear sweatpants to work….because…..yeah it was hard..literally and figuratively hard...but like I said he’s happy and can pay his bills so that’s cool too!

Don’t get me wrong he still feels a little out of place at times and surprisingly enough not for the reason he expected! Two months shy of his 21st bday he assumed he’d feel a type of way because he’s the youngest but that’s not the case! Hell, they went to Nobu for lunch last week and Jin actually slid him his drunk so he wasn’t the only one not drinking!  Flashing him a cheeky little wink and whispering “Don’t tell mom” in reference to you once Kook looked back at him like a deer in headlights! It seems as though they care more about his talent than his age which is the way it should be because he knows he’s good at what he dose!

However, Onyx is kinda like those offices you see on TV, the kind he never thought where real, behind closed doors the environment is far from pc! It’s not a normal morning unless somebodies cursing out there computers! This morning he swore Taehyung told Jimin he had a shrimp dick…… There’s “that’s what she said” jokes being thrown out left and right, people cracking jokes on one another. And it’s not that he feels uncomfortable by any means again he’s a 20 y/o kid from LA it’s just ...he’s new...ya know? So he doesn’t know if he’s “allowed” to do that! So in the meantime, he just spends his days laughing until his chest hurts!

But besides that everybody’s chill , he’s still trying to learn people, regardless of how laxed the office is everybody’s busy as all hell especially Namjoon and yourself! The two of you are actually his biggest mystery, he’s never thought of marriage being something that he’d want. He’s always heard that people change, and shit gets boring, but even in a work environment that’s far from the vibe he gets from the two of you! You actually make marriage seem exciting, worth it, like a gift, not a task…..

Something else that he can’t truly wrap his head around is that your his boss, like legitimately his boss! Somebody that looks like you,I mean fuck your not even 30, you sway around the office in your little dresses and designer heels! Always dolled up hell sometimes he questions if he’s the one in some upscale porno! Actually, not just you all of you why the fuck are all of you so effortlessly attractive and put together?! To make it even worse you all know your shit too! Two days ago for example Kook went to Yoongi to ask if there was a certain way he wanted the ending credits to come into frame, and instead of Yoongi responding you did! Using terminology that had him ready to run home and pull out his “Intro to production” text box! Shit don’t make any Goodman sense...even Yoongi sitting in his office looking like he could be in one of the films he’s editing and no, god no why is he thinking this about his higher-ups?! No, no, nope try again Jeon!

However, now that we’re on this topic, there is one person that he can’t quite wrap his head around...I mean yeah he’s nice but he just seems more reserved around Jungkook than everyone else. Which is odd considering he’s the one Kook meet first, he’s actually the one that encouraged him to even submit his resume, to begin with! What makes it even odder is Yoongi and yourself actually told him that Tae was the most outgoing...it’s not that Jungkook nessercally thinks Tae dislikes him it’s just ...I don’t know, I don’t know…I guess he was just...warmer when the two of them met at Starbucks then he is now that they actually work together!

...And I guess that’s why he almost shit himself when his phone rang and the incoming name rang though as….”Taehyung Kim”...he kinda hoped he pocket dialed him and would just hand up! But wait, I guess you can’t really do that from a landline can you?? Fuckkkkkk

“I know technologies come a long way Kook, but phones don’t answer themselves ya know…” Eyes fluttering over to see Yoongi smirking at him, tone blatantly amused as he flipped through a file he had in his hands.It’s like he could sense how nervous he is too “Don’t worry about Tae, he’s more bark than he is bite, he’s literally a puppy dressed in Gucci…” Flicking his chin in the direction of the phone with a reassuring smile.

With a timid nod and shaky fingers Jungkook picks up  the call on the final ring “H-hello??”

“Jungkook? Can you come to my office in the next 5 or so minutes?” His tone wasn’t rude by any means but it also wasn’t the most inviting. Eyes fluttering overly timidly in Yoongis direction because he knew Tae was loud enough that the elder could hear and he smiled fondly, nodding in approval. Arms crossed firm against his chest, head cocked to the side, eyes squinting slightly from under his black baseball cap, as if he was now purposely trying to hear the conversation.

“Umm, yeah, yeah of course…” God, why does he sound like he’s still going through puberty right now!? Voice fluttering ina and out of an octave!

“Great!”

Tae just hangs up, no goodbye ...promoting Yoongi to roll his eyes, with an exasperated sigh...Jungkook just sits there for a moment, not too sure what to do!

“You’re free to go, Seok dosen’t need these until Friday and your deifiently far enough along, a little time away from your desk wont hurt! Oh, just save your stuff first though! The systems moving slow as fuck and I’m about ready to break my damn computer so I’ll probably do a system reboot while you’re gone!”

Jungkook nods timidly, swallowing so hard he’s sure Yoongi heard it, fingers scattering to do as Yoongis instructed, he literally feels like he’s going to throw up! Why does Tae make him so nervous? I mean no offense but Tae isn’t even his boss why is he more freaked out of Taehyung than is actual boss!

He hears a heavy sigh fall from behind him, as Yoongi invites himself to take a seat, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder ‘First off, you’re doing fucking great, and I mean that, so step back...and breath...” Squeezing his shoulder slightly, tone calm yet stable enough to ground the younger! 

 “Second, I’m ordering lunch from that coney up the street, Hyungs treat” He watches Jungkook go to open his mouth in protest and Yoongi just groans, loud and obnoxious, eyes fluttering to the back of his head more times than he can count!

“Don’t even try and give me that “Your not hungry bullshit” Eyes narrowing in the youngers direction challangingly “So let’s try this again, what do you want? And yes Tae can wait I already texted him and told him so you’re fine! Now go to google and pull up Leo’s menu and lets order lu-”

“Yonngggggiiiii!!!’ Whines through the studio, which only promps the man in question to slowly sink into his chair as if he was trying to make himself dissapear! And before Jungkook can even make heads or tails as to what’s happening...a pair of skin-tight leather pants, a florial silk shirt, that was sitting so low it mideswell not even be buttoned, flashy shades and windswept pastel pink hair comes strutting in... Looking like something straight out of Vouge so again he asks why the fuck does everybody look like this!?

Not even botherng to ask if he’s interupted anything, just flinging his arms around the production manager’s neck, propping his chin on top of his head,

“I need like...20 headshots edited...in the next half hour” Jungkook watched Yoongi go completely ridgit a scowl on his face as he tried to pull away but the casting manager only held on tigher “...and before you kill me even though I drunk some of it this Amerciano is for you soooo, I feel like I’ve made it worth or while, please and thank you! ” Smiling so big his eyes dispered into his face it took everything in him not to coo and swoon all at the same damn time!

Jimin fucking Park......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heyyyyyyyy,

That’s all she wrote for now, don’t know the post date yet, I’ve written up wo when they actually go to the mall so it’s like halfway done.....

MASTERLIST FOR THIS AU IS DOWN BELOW, I’M GLAD PEOPLE ARE ENYOING THIS “UNIVERSE”!

7 DEEP

[thehungryplaice]

Fun Wedding Food Ideas

5 Hot Food Trends for 2022 To Consider For Your Special Day!

https://www.the-hungryplaice.uk/fun-wedding-food-ideas

Food Glorious Food!

The Food served on your Wedding Day is one of the most important (and expensive) parts of the day, there are so many different types of Wedding Food available that you no longer need to stick to the traditional sit down meal, there are lots of Unique Wedding Food ideas around whether you want a huge array of Food Types for your Wedding, a Simple Wedding menu or want Cheap Wedding Ideas On a Budget.

Here is our guide on how you can win over the crowd with 5 amazing and memorable Fun Wedding Catering ideas....

1. Street Food Vans at Weddings

There has been an massive explosion of Street Food Vans For Weddings in the UK, the Street Food Industry has seen a surge in the last few years with huge numbers of Street Food Markets appearing in City Centres and at Local Towns, there are Food Fairs and Street Food Areas found at most Public Events these days and there seems to be no let up in the scope of the food being offered. The Street Food Revolution has not been missed the Wedding market and any type of Food can be booked for your Wedding Day.

You might want to create a Street Food Village for your guests or you might want to have a Food Van for breakfast the day after to feed those hangovers. So there are two elements that you would be looking for when you find yourself a Food Van, these are the type of Food Served and the Unit that the Food will be served from.

Types of Food For Wedding Food Vans

The List on this one is literally endless, Mobile Caterers these days offer foods from around the world from American Slider Burgers and Greek Souvlaki to Thai Noodles and Caribbean Goat Curry. There is the old traditional Fish and Chip Van Hire (our favourite of course!) and we are used to seeing Burger Vans but Mobile Catering is more savvy and trendy these days so you can have a Gourmet Burger Van serving Kangaroo and Crocodile Burgers and Pizza Vans that serve Hand Kneaded Sour Dough Pizzas. There are types to suit all tastes and these cover both hot and cold food as well as Mains and Desserts.

With all the different lovely foods to choose from you'll be spoilt for choice, it is important to pick the right type of food to fit in with your day. You will want the Food to reflect your day, it might be a very chilled laid back type of day where a huge BBQ would be just perfect, you may wish to have an Italian theme with lots of Antipasti, Pastas and Breads, you might want to offer a smaller snack to your guests or have a Food Van for the main meal of the day, you might want a Crepes or Waffles Van or an Ice Cream Van as a little treat .

Just remember to choose something that you like and you are happy with and that most of your guests will like too you won't be able to please everyone but you need to remember to cater for a range of age groups who will all have a different taste palate!

Type of Food Vans for Weddings

For some couples the Look of everything they have at their Wedding needs to be perfect, everything needs to be in Beautiful, Colourful, Exciting and Exuberant, it could all be line with a theme, colour or style, to others it's not so necessary as long as the main points are covered.

Now how you view the point above will influence your decision on a Wedding Street Food Van and this will also affect your budget, you might be happy with a Simple Food Trailer but to have something special means you will have to spend more. You might have always had your eye on that Vintage Fish and Chip Van and because it fits in with your day you are willing to compromise on your budget to account for it and it means less spent on a different area of the day. There are smaller Gazebo setups and regular shaped Trailers aplenty, lots of these may be wrapped or themed, if these are offering something standard you will normally get a reasonable priced quote on these, just remember if you want authentic foods you may want to pay a little more.

If you want to make more of a statement there is lots to choose from horseboxes are everywhere at the moment in a huge range of different themes, colours and types, you may wish to have all your Food Vans to be the same type and as there are so many Horsebox Mobile Caterers it would be a good choice to choose them. As above you should expect to receive a reasonable quote for these sorts of setups it may be the type of food that would determine how much more expensive the cost will be.

The final type of Street Food Van is the Specialist Vehicle or Trailer, these are all unique catering units and will charge a premium for their services but you these will be truly memorable for your guests and give them something to talk about! There will be either be a modern unique vehicle or a converted Vintage Food Van, remember not to try and compare this type of offering to those above you should expect to pay more than a standard small sized trailer if you want something like this at your Wedding.

You might need to do a bit of research to see if your vision is actually on the market somewhere, the internet has a huge resource to show you what types of Food Vans are around, try Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, take a look at some Bridal Blogs and Bridal Magazines. Try typing in Google for the sort of thing you are looking for or look at Quote Comparison Websites.

2. Food Stations

Food Stations are a fairly new trend for Weddings, these are where an area of a room is allocated for a table, a Cart, or something like the top of a Barrel and on this a "Station" is setup with an array of food offerings. You might want to offer a snack during part of your day or setup a series of Food Stations to showcase your desserts. This is Fun Wedding Idea that could incorporate a huge number of ideas.

You could use a Food Station for practically anything you want, you may wish to employ someone to do this or just set one up yourself.

What Wedding Food Station Ideas are there?

Sweet Carts, Cupcakes and Chocolate Foundation are sure fire favourites for a Wedding but how about planning something a little different.

You could have a Station for Wines, Pretzels, Jelly Babies, Chocolates, Chips, Gins, Marshmallows, Cheese and Biscuits, Donuts, Pizzas, Fruit, Sweets, Crepes, Ice Creams and many more.

Just consider how you want to arrange everything and that the food will be left out so you might want to have certain things covered with closed jars etc, some items may need to be kept hot so you'd need specialist equipment for that but there are plenty of options for a Cheap Wedding Food Station Idea.

3. Grazing Tables

A Grazing Table works much like a buffet but should be Colourful, Exciting and Beautiful to look at, this is an exciting developing trend in the Wedding World and Caterers are finding new and wonderful ways of styling Tables and Food to make it look more glamorous and appetising for guests.

A Grazing Table could be made up of certain foods you have requested to go with the rest of your day or have items that reflect your theme like using flowers and foliage to complement your Vintage Themed Wedding.

This type of offering could be arranged by yourself or you could employ the services of a professional to take it all off your hands. You might want to offer a Grazing Table as part of your main meal or to replace the evening Buffet, similar to a buffet your food will be left out so you need to think about that if you are having your food outside for example and it may be difficult to keep food hot before serving in this way due to the nature of the Grazing Table Setup and "look".

4. Afternoon Tea

You might have a break in your Wedding Day just after you arrive at the reception venue or your main meal might be a few hours before your Evening Reception so you could opt for a Traditional Afternoon Tea.

This is a Cheap Fun Wedding Food Idea that you could put together yourself, head off to some charity shops and have a browse on Facebook for un-matching vintage crockery to use on the day, you might have someone handy who can help turn these into tiered cake stands where you can put some cakes or sandwiches and when you have finished with the crockery just sell it back on again! You could include Cream Teas, Hot Drinks including Hot Chocolate, Tea and Coffee and Sandwiches and fancy cakes.

The alternative is to look for Mobile Caterers that offer this service, they will include everything you need and will clear it all away when its finished so you don't need to worry about any washing up!

5. Alternative Cake Ideas

So this takes us to the last Fun Wedding Food Idea.....the Wedding Cake! The Traditional Wedding Cake is normally Tiered, it's Fruit or Plain Sponge, Iced on the Outside with decorative items and a Cake Topper on Top, wedding Cakes of today however are a lot more sexy!

Some people choose to have bespoke cakes made to reflect a theme, some want more or less tiers of colours other than the traditional white. Cupcakes have long been a Wedding Cake Trend with large or small Cupcakes filling a mountain that might also be tiered, this gives the opportunity to provide a selection of looks and tastes to suit the most discerning of guests.

Cakes can be displayed on a number of surfaces (as long as its food safe) like Cake Tables, Wood Slices, Plates, Platters and Boards.

But what about other ideas a little different to the norm?

Well Rainbow Cakes are a big thing nowadays with layered colourful sponges inside or multi coloured outside and of course there has been the move from Cakes themselves to things like Macaroons, Cheese, Jelly, Chocolates Pork Pies and Sausage Rolls!

So 5 Fun Wedding Food Ideas for you to consider at your Wedding, go on dare to be different.....

https://www.the-hungryplaice.uk/fun-wedding-food-ideas

[shenandoahandback2021]

We got to Missouri and ended up new near Laura Ingall's Wilder house and decided to stop and see it.   It was very interesting and she had a very interesting life before she starting writing the books about that life. As luck would have it, there was a campground right across the road from the house. We spent a nice relaxing evening there is there and then headed East on route state 160 which was like a rollercoaster but nice driving and good pavement.   Sep 2    We found a campground that was only available for one night  on Thursday. It's a campground specifically designed for 4 wheelers to come and ride around in the wilderness. It's near the river and quiet hours don't start until midnight! The owners of the campground ask us to come over after we ate and visit with her friends and family.  It was an interesting visit. Her husband and a couple of the other guys are Civil War  Re-enactors. They have some interesting stories about incidences happen during some of their maneuvers.  In the morning we went over and spent a couple of hours chatting with some other people and had a great time but finally had to leave   Sep 3    We were close to Loretta Lynn's home place in Butcher Holler so we decided to go there. Getting there was a hoot and the road turn into a single lane road and there was no place to park for an RV. We drove past the house and turned around on a on a very narrow turnaround place. Wed were able to park parallel to the road. The house was very interesting and had most of the original furniture. Her 2 nieces gave the tours and they knew much more about a her than any person who had been schooled in it.  Since it was Friday night of the Labor Day weekend, we could not find a campground so we had to sleep in the Hardee’s parking lot.   Sep 4    We drove to the New River gorge National Park. There were no rooms at the end at the 1st two RV parks but we found a nice park across from a National Guard armory and decided to spend 2 nights. In the morning, we went to the New River Gorge National Park.  You can walk under the bridge, but there were no openings at the private company that ran the bridge walk.  The bridge is the longest single-arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the 3rd longest in the world.  It was the longest in the world for 26 years when first completed. We drove down to the bottom of the gorge and stopped on the way to look at the bridge construction. We drove over the river to the other side of the bridge and parked to come back and look at it from a different perspective.  The signs said the road was not recommended for RVs or trailers, but when we parked on the other side of the river there were school busses and trailers carrying raft equipment for people who raft down the river down the river. We met a group from Raleigh and New Jersey who commented that they were looking at a Leisure Travel Van to purchase so we showed them ours.  At 1st we didn't know they were from Raleigh but when we found out I told them I had graduated from NC State. One gentleman, Clive, had graduated from state and the other man was from New Jersey. They had a Chinese grandmother with them along with the Chinese wives from New York City and we had a great conversation. I showed them my lifetime membership to the NC STATE student union.  The grandmother said when you come to Raleigh again you must come visit and I said be careful what you ask for. You only have to give me your address. I gave them my card but we haven't heard from them.   Next day.    We had two things on our minds for the next day and decided to drive down to an old abandoned coal mine. Again it said the road was not suitable for RVs, but I stopped at the last leg of the trip and asked the man living there if our RV could make the trip. He looked it over said, ”Yup” because he drives his oversized pickup truck down there often to the river. It was an interesting drive and we had to blow our horn around a couple of the curves to make sure no one ran into us. Sure enough one curve had someone coming around and she heard our horn and stopped before we smacked into each other. Her little Chevy would have been a hood ornament on the Mercedes. It was a pretty interesting drive all the way and when we were 100' from the parking lot there was a pothole on the left side. I decided to go a little bit right to miss that instead of slowing down too much and there was a rock hidden in the grass and it tore out our steps from the side door. We were able to tie the mangled steps up to the frame to drive back out of the area. I stopped and told the man who said that RV would go there that we lost the steps. He was apologetic but I told him it was not his fault.  I asked if he knew someone who had a torch that I could get to cut the mangled steps off so we could continue our trip. He said to pull over front of my white truck there. As I drove over to it, I noticed that he had cutting torches on the back of his truck and he was a welder. How lucky can you be when you are so unlucky to start with. He cut the mangled steps off and we discovered that he had trained to be a tanker at Ft Knox after I had been there. We had a nice talk and he wouldn’t take any pay for the work. We went back to the campground and worked on the minor metal damage under the door. The motor was still working but it had nothing to move. I think I'll leave the body damage alone to remind me of my situation. There was plenty of room to make the drive I just had a 50-50 decision and went right instead of left. At least I can buy a new set of steps on Amazon and put them on when I get home. There are only 4 bolts holding the step mechanism is up to the frame.   Next day    We drove down to the end of the gorge and turned back up to the Sandstone Falls that are part of the National Park. There is a boardwalk that you can walk out to see them and it's a very interesting area. We met a nice couple from Virginia Beach, Ted and Julinne on the way out there. They have been thinking about buying an RV like ours to start traveling with in a couple of years. They were very interesting couple and had traveled a bit already. We invited them to have a cup of coffee with us because it was coffee time and we ended up spending 2 and a 1/2 hours discussing the RV, traveling what’s to see in Virginia et cetera. We hope we hear from them again and they said they would to ask us more information about the RV. On the way in we had seen an RV park on the river so we went back to that and stopped because it was getting late. We got a spot there for the night and it was very peaceful on the river.   Next day    We had morning fog below the ridge line call my but it was very nice and we had a relaxing start to the morning. We headed toward the north end of the Shenandoah Valley National Park. We got within 2 hours of my cousins house and her 3 daughters before we stopped for the night. I contacted them by phone and I thought by text but the text didn't work. We spent the night in a Walmart parking lot because there were no openings at the nearby RV parks.   Next day    We had given up seeing my cousins because I had not heard back from them, but in the morning, they called me and said please come by. We went to Ashburn, Virginia to see them and were able to park in the driveway. We had a good 3 hour or so visit is and they decided to go for a late lunch at one of their favorite restaurants. It was an old barn converted to a restaurant and it added on to it with different venue spaces and had several bars. In one bar they had carriages hanging from the ceiling from different eras. When we got back to the house about 5, I said guess we'll be going now try to get somewhere before it got too late. They said the traffic will be pretty bad and said why don't you spend the night. We said, well if you don't mind we'd love to. They have a 5-bedroom, 5,500 ft² house on 3 levels to the head plenty of room. We stayed up watching the news and then the US Open tennis matches and talking until midnight when I suspect they usually go to bed pretty early. I had not visited with my cousin or her family except for a funeral for her brother and we didn't get to visit very much then.  The three sisters have been living together for several years, at least 20, I think.  When their dad died a few years ago, my cousin, their mother came to live with them. Everyone has their own bedroom and bath and private space.  There is a suite downstairs with a gigantic screen TV with a Projector. We had that suite last night. After a late breakfast and lots more stories, we headed down to the Skyline Drive for the Shenandoah National Park. It was a beautiful drive part way down the Park until we decided to stop at KOA for the night.   Next day  We arrived at the Luray Caverns and spent most of the day there. We had a very nice visit at Luray caverns, very relaxing. It is an interesting cave, unlike any we have seen. The formations are striking and many stalagmites have come together with the stalactites. It is a very easy walk through the caverns on a paved walkway that is non slippery. They have an antique vehicle museum with all types of vehicles calls from buggies to Rolls Royce’s. They also have a Pioneer replica village set up that has many buildings from the surrounding area that were taken down and completely restored in this village. When we got back to the RV, there was a nice young couple next to us that we struck up a conversation with and ended up talking to them for about an hour. The husband is a pastor at the local Hispanic church and he is also a computer Tech for the IRS for his regular job. His daughter plays the flute and his wife sings and leads the church choir. They are from Puerto Rico and most of the family have come here to be with them. They came here 21 years to go to live 5 years or so and go to school. He was a police officer in Puerto Rico. When we got back to the KOA for the night, a couple we had met our first day stopped to speak to us and we had a drink and talked for an hour or so. They said they were sorry they didn't get to say goodbye to us this morning not knowing we would be back tonight. We didn't know we were going to be back tonight until we got to the caverns and decided we should stay another night to relax. It's lucky that we called as soon as we decided, because the campground is full tonight. We just enjoyed some homemade fudge from a small shop in the Luray Caverns Village.    

[jiminwreckedme]

The Beautiful Deception.

Chapter 1

| Masterlist | Trailer | Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |

Member - Bts OT7

Genre - Thriller, Mystery, Angst, (Smut)

Word count - 5K

Summary - When your ex-boyfriend’s wife goes missing, you are the only one who can help him find her. But in a world where everyone is a friend and everyone is a culprit, where lies are decorated with the best ornaments of facade, where everybody and nobody is right, how will you find out what happened to the woman he loves?

Without falling for him all over again?

Rating - NC17 for mature themes of the whole series.

No warnings for this chapter

15th February 2017 

As you stand outside the cafe, hand on the handle of the glass door, you’re barely able to recognize it. A place so close to your heart, a place where you made so many memories - it no longer looks the same. Not the furniture, not the things on the menu, not even what you feel as you stand at its entrance. Nothing is the same. 

You’re jerked out of both your lost thoughts and into the cafe, as the waiter, whom you didn’t see approaching the door, opens it for you from inside causing you to slightly stumble in.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry.” He apologizes embarrassed as you run your hands through your hair, pushing your fringes back to where they belong, tucked behind your ear, and walk in slowly. “I didn’t see you holding the door.”

“It’s fine, it’s my fault, I was just….It’s ok.” You brush it off, slightly smiling, finally taking a proper look at him, eyes squinting in recognition. 

You know him…..not his name though, but you remember his face really well. You’d seen him working in this cafe back in the day, since you were in high school. His hair looked just as curly but it seemed to have been colored a lighter shade of brown, his expression was just as excited, but cheeks a little rosier, a little chubbier. He’s probably doing well then. The thought makes you so happy. 

He smiles back at you, holding his hands behind his back, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”

“Yeah.” You nod slowly, “Quite a while.” 

“What brings you here again all of a sudden?” He raises his eyebrows and then shakes his head furiously, muttering. “You’re here for coffee of course, what a stupid question.”

Coffee. Sure, that’s what you were here for. 

“Yeah I’ll take a-” 

“Cappuccino? The usual order yeah?”

“Yeah,” You smile, frowning curiously, “You….How do you still remember?”

“It hasn’t even been that long since you were here.” He laughs as he fishes out a notebook from the front pocket of his apron and the pencil from behind his ear. “Why don’t you sit down? I’ll get it for you.”

And with that he walks away leaving you with a sad smile as you slowly walk into the cafe. ‘Hasn’t been that long since you were here?’ Is that how fast the world was moving? It had been 3 years, 3 years since you last came here and he spoke to you like he saw you just a few months back. Were you the only one stuck in the past?

“The usual cappuccino for you?” 

You turn around to see the same boy bowing to a lady who seems to have just walked in. 

“No, the usual Americano for me.” She replies, taking her extra huge sunglasses off slowly, smiling a little. 

“Ah yes yes,” The waiter rubs the back of his head, turning red. “To go yeah?” 

As she nods and the waiter rushes away sheepishly smiling at you, you let out a small laugh. So your cappuccino was just a lucky guess. Of course, that made sense, why would someone remember something about someone 3 years later? Except you, you remember everything. 

You ignore the throbbing pain starting in your head and look around. The cafe looked quite packed, never before had you seen so much crowd here. That’s one of the things you’ve always liked about this place. It was always quiet, empty, barely inhabited. Maybe 3 years ago, standing in the cafe crowded like this would have been hard for you. But you’re not the same person anymore. Nothing is ever the same after walking through fire. It molds to fit into something new all the time. So had you. 

Yet you still choose to walk past all the tables and go to the one all the way at the back, in the corner of the cafe, far from the crowd. As you sit, you run your hands across the ridged surface of the bare round wooden table. The last time you were here, they were all square with a red and white checked table cloth, glass tops above with the menu under. The slowly turning ceiling fans above were also gone, but it was cool even on such a sunny day. Probably central air conditioning. The baristas had a change of uniform as well - they no longer wore those lemon yellow ones, now it was shades of black and grey. A pity, you really liked that soft color, there was something pleasant about it. The tiles had changed, the windows seemed different too but you couldn’t really tell since they were hidden behind the blinds and the paintings on the walls were replaced with plants that creeped from the floor till the high ceiling. 

The only thing that didn’t change was the jukebox all the way on the other side of the cafe, that looked somehow out of place in the current setting but you like it there. There’s at least something that you recognize and that makes you feel a little warm, a little at home. Taking out your phone you quickly click a picture, capturing the one thing here that was a symbol of your past. 

“I’d advise you not to do that.” Your waiter puts your cup of coffee down on the table before he points at the sign on the wall. 

No Photography.

“Oh,” You put down your phone quickly looking around, “I didn’t know, it wasn’t there before-”

“That’s alright, it was put up recently. It took a while for me to get used to as well. As long as you don’t use flash and are not obvious it shouldn't be a problem.” He winks at you. 

You softly laugh before squinting at the sign curiously. “Although, what kind of cafe doesn’t allow photography?”

“There was a big problem here a few months ago. Some legal issues.” He sighs. “A woman claimed her stalker kept taking photos of her here or something, I’m not really sure, but basically the new boss didn’t want any legal trouble so he just put up a sign. And those cameras.” He points at something right above you. You look up to see the round black mold with it’s tiny red light sitting there, looking at everything. 

“This place has changed a lot hasn’t it?” You slowly blow the steam off your coffee and take a sip. 

“Everything changes with time doesn’t it?”

It does, it really does. There were 3 things for which you always chose to come here - the coffee, the music, and the smile of someone who cared for you. The coffee tasted the same but it wasn’t as comforting anymore. The music sounded the same but it wasn’t comforting either. Would his smile at least be comforting after so many years? Would he even smile seeing you? 

“Let me know if you need anything.” 

You nod, “Thanks….uh....?”

“Myung.” He rolls his eyes playfully. “I remember everything about you Y/n, how can you forget so soon?”

You can feel your ears getting red from embarrassment.  “I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s fine, it’s alright.” He shakes his hand laughing and starts walking backward, “Call me if you need anything.”

You nod, sipping on your coffee again, turning to look out of the window, into the city. 

How did you find yourself here after so many years? Rather why? 

10th February 2017 

“Congratulations, you two!” 

“Look at them, they look meant to be!”

“Imagine how the kids are going to turn out, absolutely beautiful!”

You can feel the pink rise in your cheeks as you and the man whose hand you hold, make your way from the car towards the hall, the crowd parting as you did, tabloid photographers capturing photos from all sorts of different angles, flashes going off everywhere, people’s comments getting louder and more excited. Stopping right before the large oak doors, the both of you turn to face the crowd, his arm around your shoulder, yours around his waist as you waved, smiling at the squealing crowd. He turns to you, looking down at you a little despite you wearing heels to try and match his height, “Shall we?”

You nod and he holds out his hand, making you smile and put your hand in his as he opens the door to a much smaller crowd but it erupts into much louder cheers. You look around beaming at the people closest to you - your family, friends, colleagues - just the people you wanted to celebrate this occasion with you. 

The moment you take a few steps in, people rush towards you, congratulating you, taking your hand to see the ring, teasing you endlessly making you turn from pink to absolute red. 

“Look at this stone.” Your grandmother gently holds your hand, a fond look on her face. “How could you let us know about this so late? There’s just 4 days left for the wedding!”

“Because it took her years to say yes.” Your fiance appears from behind laughing a little, “I didn’t want to delay the wedding any longer.”

Your grandmother places her hand on your cheek slightly tearing up, “It doesn’t matter if she took months or years to say that, as long as she’s happy when she says it.” You turn your head slightly, kissing her hand softly. “May you always be with the one who makes the happiest person in the world, my child.”

Your smile falters a little but you hide it, forcing yourself to smile wider and nod. 

And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the band starts playing and your uncle rushes to grab your aunt and start dancing to the music. You hear laughs ring across the hall at the sight of the lady in their long embroided evening gown and the man in his white suit shaking to 90s Jazz tunes and grabbing more people to join them in the center. Resisting your efforts, you are also pushed into the circle in the middle and laughing, you dance along, momentarily forgetting the forceful smile that you had adorned for quite some time now. It’s only when you stop to catch your breath that you realize how tired you are. Breaking apart from the crowd you proceed to grab a glass of water from the buffet table which held the dishes you had spent the last few weeks very carefully selecting. 

“Your phone has been ringing.”

You turn to see your sister standing behind you, her left hand extended out to hand you your phone, while her eyes were busy on her own phone as she flipped through the pictures of the party that she was clicking. 

“Who is it?” 

You grab a neatly iced cupcake on the tray nearby, devouring it hungrily, as your sister replies, still not looking up. “Don’t know, didn’t pick it up, but it’s not a local call, it’s some different country code.”

You frown confused, stuffing a piece of chocolate into your mouth. “Who would call me from outside London? Literally our whole family is here-”

You turn around at the sound of your ringtone. 

Your sister quickly takes a look at the screen. “It’s the same number.” 

Watching you wipe your hands with a tissue, she impatiently leaves the phone on the table next to you and disappears into the crowd. Sighing, you walk closer and look over at the screen flashing the number, and suddenly the world stops. 

You can’t hear the music, everything around seems to be moving much slower, getting more blur by the minute. 

That number. 

You know that number. Even after so many years you recognized it. 

Hands shaking you pick up your phone, simply staring at the number flashing on your screen. You can’t bring yourself to lift it. You can’t bring yourself to cut it. You are unable to do anything. To move, to think, to act. You just couldn’t.

“Where are you lost? I’ve been calling out to you for so long.” 

You turn around and see your fiance walking up to you, face bright from all the laughter and dance. “Put this aside Y/n, let’s go!”

He takes the now silent phone from your hand leaving it on the table and playfully drags you back into the celebration, to become a part of all those joyful faces before you. But you can’t. 

You can only find yourself turning around and watching your phone carefully as it’s screen lights up once more with a call as though that’s the only thing in the world that matters to you.

11th February 2017

It’s almost close to an hour now. 

You are standing under the shower as it releases thousands of lukewarm drops, darkening your hair, trickling down your back. The water gets warmer and warmer as it courses down your body, down the curves, tracing your shape as it rolled down. 

It’s been 3 years. Three years since you last saw him. Why now? Why did he have to reach out now, after so many years? When you had finally forgotten him, put everything behind you and thought you moved on, just why? 

Suddenly the water turns ice cold and your eyes fly open. He wasn't in trouble for anything was he? He was okay right? 

You swallow on nothing in panic, simply staring at the tiled wall before you. You’re blinking multiple times and there’s a hundred different thoughts running through your head. You hurriedly switch off the faucet, barely wrapping yourself in your bathrobe, still dripping wet as you rush out of the bathroom into your room, grabbing your phone from the dresser. 

You should call him. Why though? Why did you have to call him? 

But your fingers as though by habit had already typed out his number. Even after so many years, you remembered everything about him so well. 

You stare at the screen, a finger hovering over the call button. He didn't deserve it. Even if he was in trouble he didn't deserve it, did he? After all you went through, he couldn't possibly think it was alright to ask you for help? 

You clear the number off the screen, shaking your head, determined. You are not going to think about this anymore.

But despite everything he had called you then….it could mean he had no other choice? Did he call you because he was desperate and you are his last option?

You run a hand through your wet hair frustrated, your breaths getting faster, deeper. Before you even consciously knew what you were doing, your fingers shaking, had dialed out his number and called him.

And the phone rings. 

It rings and rings and rings and you stand, heart beating faster by the second, eyes shifting nervously, cold drops trailing down your neck and it rings and rings and rings…

….only to end in a high pitched beep, followed by an uncomfortable deafening silence. 

After a soft sigh leaves you when you finally breathe out, the sound of dripping water is the only thing you hear in your room as you stand unmoving till the sun sets. 

12th February 2017 

You absentmindedly kick the stone out of the way as you make your way down the garden of your backyard. The gardener gives you a small bow as you pass by him but you didn’t even see him. As he continues pruning the bush a little confused, you walk down even more confused. You run your fingers on the unlit screen of your phone, clutching it hard. 

Why did he call you? And if he wanted to talk to you, why didn’t he pick your call? 

You attempt to kick another stone out of your way, a little too carelessly this time and end up tripping over it but luckily into the arms of the man you didn’t even know was behind you, trailing the path you took all this while. 

“Careful.” You straighten yourself as he holds you tighter. “Where are you lost?” 

You turn to face him. There’s a small smile dancing on his lips, but you can see concern shining in his eyes. Wrapping your arms around his waist you rest your head on his shoulder, looking over it. “Are you ok?” He holds you gently, as you feel your heart racing in your rib cage against his chest. 

“Hold me for a while, please.” 

And he does, softly caressing your hair, placing a soft kiss on the skin of your shoulder. You watch the sun setting over his shoulder, spraying colors all across the sky. It was such a beautiful moment but you are not even a little at peace. Your heart is not slowing down, your mind is not at rest, you are not even a little calm by being in the arms of this man, why? 

You feel your phone vibrate in your hands and bring it up to your eye level behind him and squint a little at the screen. 

A voice message. From the same number. 

And suddenly there’s a sinking, turning feeling in your stomach and you feel something rise at the back of your throat. Was it fear or disgust or something else? You didn’t know, you simply pushed yourself out of the embrace you were locked in with a strong jerk, staggering to the edge of the sidewalk, bend over the bushes and throw up. As you proceed into a coughing fit, your companion grabs you by the shoulder, helping you stand upright, rubbing your back, worried.

“I’ll get you some water.” He makes you sit on the bench a few feet away, waiting till you finally manage to stop staring at gravel by your feet and look up at his concerned face and nod softly. As he rushes away, leaving you by yourself, you wipe your lips with the back of your hand, wincing at the acidic taste in your mouth. What was that? 

As you sit grasping the edge of the bench, the thumping feeling in your chest is getting softer and softer and your breaths slow down and get more regular and all the millions of thoughts racing through your head become just one thought. 

You glance over at the phone beside you and hesitatingly hover your finger over it for a whole minute before touching it softly allowing the screen to light up. 

The notification sits on the top of the screen, waiting for you, but you clench your fist tightly. You don’t want to open it.

13th February 2017 

You look at the woman before you. Her face is blank as a canvas. 

There's no smile, no tears, no expression, nothing - if one saw her face, they would have no idea what she's thinking, what she's feeling. But not you. You know exactly what. 

She's hurting. The parts of her that broke years ago, the parts that she swept up and dumped aside are all pricking her once more. But somewhere deep down, there’s a warm feeling as well, that maybe she would finally get the chance to heal, maybe finally get the explanation that she deserved so she can fix her broken heart and put it in the hands of someone else without the fear of it shattering this time. 

But as soon as the warmth rises in her, a cold shiver over runs it. What if that doesn't happen? What if instead she breaks even more? What if she ruins everything that she managed to put together over the last few years? 

There is a ring shining on the finger of her left hand, there's a man who loves her, there's a future ahead of her that's waiting to finally put a smile to that blank face, what if she ruins everything? 

You look down at your hands resting on your lap, your phone nested between them. His voice softly plays though the everlasting silence of your room. 

“Y/n, I…..I need your help, please Y/n I cannot trust or ask anyone but you, please help me, come back Y/n…..please”

You tilt your neck up, blinking hurriedly at the ceiling, refusing to let your eyes react to his voice and the desperation in it. But  when you look at the woman ahead of you, it's not a blank canvas anymore - there's a tear drop streaming down her face. She had decided. The woman in the mirror had decided. 

And within 10 minutes, the room looks different from what it was before. Your wardrobe had lost a significant number of clothes, all casual ones, clothes to wear in the season of spring. Your phone, your charger, your wallet, all your essentials, they were all no longer in their original place. The shoes that you always wore for travelling just left a dusty mark behind and the seat on which you were sitting in front of the dressing table now has a depression in it, a result of your unmoving posture for hours together. And there's a piece of paper fluttering beneath a beautiful diamond reflecting light all across the room and on the handwritten message scribbled beneath it. 

“I'm sorry.

You are the only who deserves an explanation from me, but what can I explain when I don't understand myself. 

I don't know what I am doing. I don't know if this is right or wrong. I don't know what will be the result of it. But I know that for the first time in very long, I am listening to my heart. Every time I did that before, I ended up hurting but I figured, how could I possibly be more hurt, how can anything break me more? 

So I want to take my chances. As an heiress I've always been trained to conceal the storm inside me and show the world a smiling face. But it's killing me on the inside, I don't want to live like that anymore. So I'm going. I'm taking my chances and going to finally clear away that which is inside me. 

I don't know what to say but thank you, you were there for me, guiding me through a darkness that I never thought I could get out of and you will be there tomorrow waiting for me to walk down the aisle. 

But I'm sorry, I'm sorry to leave you like this. I can only hope to return as a woman who will genuinely smile at you at the altar, who will wear this ring without feeling it's weight as a burden, who will leave behind that darkness and be with you in the light.

I’m sorry.” 

And as you and the woman in the mirror set off to make things right again, already miles away from your house heading to your destination, the man you are to wed tomorrow clutches the ring tightly in his hand, his tears slightly staining the paper. 

He looks into the mirror before him with a sad smile on his face. 

“I will wait for you Y/n. Always have and always will.”

14th February 2017 

You stand in the balcony, arms resting on the railing, leaning out to take a deep breath of the air around you with your eyes shut. 

You missed this city. It had been years but still it had its way of comforting you. Even when you watched it unblinking, through the cab window on the way to the hotel, and didn’t recognize it one bit, it provided solace. The streets were different, there were new high rise buildings, there were a bunch of cafes and chicken shops you had never seen before, there were suddenly so many big LED screens flashing ads of actors and bands. Nothing about the city was the same except the peace it made you feel. 

You fish your phone out of your pocket and click a picture of the sky. It had been years since you were under it, you wanted a picture, a memory that gave you some happiness. Other memories in this city gave you so much pain. 

You walk back into your room and fall backwards into the softness of your bed. As your hair fans out around behind you, you stare at the false ceiling and its delicate designs, fingers tapping on the phone in your hands. You were here. After almost 11 hours of flying,  you were here in Seoul for almost 16 hours now. And all 16 hours you were only in your room. 

Sometimes you’d walk to your suitcase to unpack it and start taking out clothes. Then you’d think. You had no idea why he called you here. You had no idea how long you needed to stay here. Moreover, you didn’t want to stay for long, so why should you unpack? And then you would proceed to place all your clothes back in the suitcase and sit down and think. You had to meet him first to know how long you were going to need to stay. You needed to contact him first for that, let him know you are here. And so then you would reach for your phone. And suddenly your mind would scream something else at you. 

What were you doing? You really had no idea what you were doing. You had no idea if you wanted to meet him or not. Your hands shake at the thought of seeing him again. Your head hurts every time you hear his voice message pleading for help. You want to throw up every time you think about how you left everything behind and ran to this man over a simple voice message. You immediately take your suitcase and things, wear your shoes and rush to the door only to stop pushing the handle down half way.

But you had already done the damage. You left the note for your fiance, you left your house a day before your wedding, you had left the city and flew to another. You had done so much damage already.You were so close to what you had come for, you might as well get it. Get that explanation you wanted - the true reason you came here. Find out why after so many years he remembered you again and why he didn’t even think of you once all this while. And so then you walk back into your room and leave your suitcase where it was again only to think about unpacking it a few minutes later and repeat the cycle of events. You had done the same thing about six times now. Unpacking, packing, trying to leave and then coming back. 

Your head is blasting with pain, you need to come to a decision fast. 

Getting up, you grab the bottle of water and the strip of medicines in the side pocket of your handbag and pop a pill in your mouth. Taking a deep breath you sit down on the sofa across the bed and get a hold of yourself.  Just do it Y/n, get it done. That’s for the best of everyone. You unlock your phone, type a few words and hit send without thinking too much and toss the phone onto the bed before you. You sink back into the softness of the couch and close your eyes refusing to let yourself think so much about it. 

Within seconds, you hear a soft ding and your eyes fly open to see the screen of your phone light up. He replied. This was it. This was the beginning of everything getting better. Right?

Before you can bring yourself to gain the energy to get up and go see, the soft throbbing in your head forces you to shut your eyes and lulls you into a deep slumber as you remember the first thing you had said to him in 3 years. 

“I’m here.”

15th February 2017 - Present day 

10 am, usual place. That was all he said in reply. 

He didn’t mention when, you knew it was the next day. He didn’t mention where, you knew it was this cafe. Even after so many years, like always, he barely spoke and yet you understood. 

You wince at the sudden sunlight falling on the profile of your face and turn slightly to see someone raising the blinds. It’s so pretty, the way the light streams in, illuminating everything in its path yet you couldn’t see a thing. All that's visible are the silhouettes of the people scattered across the cafe. You can hear them laughing, you can hear them talking, yet you couldn’t see their faces. It’s so strange, kind of like you were there, you were watching everything but you also weren’t - no one so much as even looked at you, you were just as invisible to them as they were to you. It’s a fascinating sight, and entirely forgetting what the waiter said earlier about not taking photos, you snap a picture with your phone before quickly bringing it down and hiding it between your thighs, eyes widening as the realization washes over.

Slightly muttering a bunch of words describing your absentmindedness, you slowly bring out the phone and look down at it, staring at the picture, fascinated by how your eyes could barely see the details of the sight before you but your camera had managed to capture it. 

And you’re so immersed in that tiny device in your hand, you don’t hear the soft ding of the door when it knocks against the bell hanging above as it opens, or the footsteps getting progressively louder as someone walks towards you. You don’t notice till a shadow casts over you, blocking that soft sunlight and you look up to see the already obscured face covered by a cap. And as you swallow a strange unknown fear, every cell in your body recognizes him before his voice leaves him as a whisper.

“Y/n.” 

.

.

.

“Yoongi.” 

[starwarsnonsense]

Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2020

Now I’ve got my embarrassingly late ‘Best of 2019′ list out of the way, I can finally proceed to the list that’s probably more exciting - my most anticipated films of 2020!

This list excludes films that have already been screened at festivals (otherwise, stuff like Saint Maud would be here). It’s also somewhat analogous to groping about for a light switch in the dark - these lists very rarely accurately predict my ultimate favourites for the year, so it’s more of a fun speculative exercise. Hopefully this puts some intriguing-looking films on your radar for the year ahead! 

1. Dune (dir. Denis Villeneuve)

Plot: The story of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people.

Why be excited? The reasons to be excited about Dune should be pretty self-evident - it’s directed by one of the greatest filmmakers working today (Villeneuve’s Incendies and Blade Runner 2049 are all-timers for me), and is based on one of the best science-fiction novels ever written. The cast -  Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, and more - is absolutely stacked with talent. There’s every reason to believe that this will be something special, and I couldn’t be more pleased that Villeneuve is the man responsible for filling that Star Wars-shaped hole in the December release schedule.

2. Annette (dir. Leos Carax)

Plot: A stand-up comedian (Adam Driver), and his opera singer wife (Marion Cotillard), have a two-year-old daughter with a surprising gift.

Why be excited? You may not have heard of him, but Leos Carax is one of the most exciting directors working - he only makes around one film a decade, but the films he does make tend to be very special. I’ve only seen one film of his - Lovers on the Bridge - but that was filled with such ecstatic romance and wondrous visuals that it made me tremendously excited for Annette. Annette is a top-to-bottom musical with songs by American duo Sparks (if you know them for anything, it will be ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us’), and said songs will be delivered by Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. It goes without saying that both actors are extremely talented performers with great voices (see Driver in Marriage Story and Cotillard in Nine for evidence), and I’m looking forward to seeing how they demonstrate their talents here.

3. Last Night in Solo (dir. Edgar Wright)

Plot: A young girl (Thomasin McKenzie), passionate in fashion design, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer (Anya Taylor-Joy). But 1960s London is not what it seems, and time seems to fall apart with shady consequences.

Why be excited? I’m not the biggest Edgar Wright fan, but I admire him greatly and the premise of Last Night in Soho is like cat-nip to me. Speaking to Empire, Wright explained the story as follows: “I’m taking a premise whereby you have a character who, in a sort of abstract way, gets to travel in time. And the reality of the decade is maybe not what she imagines. It has an element of ‘be careful what you wish for’.” I’m a sucker for a good, old-fashioned high concept, especially when said films play with genre and really challenge the viewer. The two female leads - Thomasin McKenzie (JoJo Rabbit, Leave No Trace) and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Emma) - are among the very best young actors working today, and the supporting cast features absolute legends such as Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp. Whether it’s successful or not, this film feels like a genuinely original prospect and I’m eager to see how it turns out.

4. The Green Knight (dir. David Lowery)

Plot: A fantasy re-telling of the medieval tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Why be excited? There has been a sad lack of films based on mythology in recent years - or, to be more accurate, there has been a sad lack of films that attempt to honour what the myths were actually trying to convey. The stunning trailer for Green Knight promises a film that genuinely engages with its source material, and is just as interested in the psychological truths of the tale as the spectacle of its fantastical scenarios. Dev Patel is an extremely talented actor coming off another great movie in The Personal History of David Copperfield, and the supporting cast (Alicia Vikander!) appear to be fully committed to their parts. I’m excited to see a true myth on the big screen again, and David Lowery (A Ghost Story, The Old Man & The Gun) can be trusted to give an old tale a new sense of vitality. 

5. The French Dispatch (dir. Wes Anderson)

Plot: The staff of a European publication decides to publish a memorial edition highlighting the three best stories from the last decade: an artist sentenced to life imprisonment, student riots, and a kidnapping resolved by a chef.

Why be excited? It’s a Wes Anderson movie! Of course I’m excited! In all seriousness, the trailer was all I needed to get hyped about this. It’s clearly Anderson’s quintessential style, but it also shows flashes of some very bold and striking compositions (yes, I’m thinking of Chalamet on the back of that motorcycle) that you wouldn’t necessarily think of in relation to him. I’m intrigued by the prospect of there being stories nested within a story, which feels like the perfect choice for the structure of a film about a newspaper. The cast features all of Anderson’s old favourites (Swinton! Murray! McDormand!), as well as some exciting new additions (Timothée Chalamet, Elisabeth Moss, Christoph Waltz, among others) that feel so well-suited to his style it’s surprising they haven’t worked together before. Bring on all those immaculately composed shots and exquisite colour palettes.

6. Tenet (dir. Christopher Nolan)

Plot: Unknown. The project is described as an action epic revolving around international espionage.

Why be excited? I hate to sound repetitive, but ... it’s a Christopher Nolan movie. That alone is enough to be hyped about this. Details of the plot are vague for now, but the teaser suggests the sort of intelligent, high-concept film-making we’ve come to expect from Nolan. John David Washington - who impressed in BlacKkKlansman - is a great choice for the lead, and I also love that Tenet will feature Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki (among my favourite actors) in prominent roles. There’s not much else to say given how little we know about this, but suffice to say I’ll be there on day one!

7. Wonder Woman 1984 (dir. Patty Jenkins)

Plot: Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) comes into conflict with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in the 1980s and finds a formidable foe by the name of the Cheetah (Kristen Wiig).

Why be excited? The original Wonder Woman was an absolute delight, and I couldn’t be more pleased that Patty Jenkins is back to continue Diana’s story. The decision to pick up with Diana in the 1980s is most intriguing (and paves the way for all kinds of exciting choices when it comes to the music and the fashions), especially since it looks like the film is actually going to explore the implications of being an immortal being in a mortal world. 

8. Raya and the Last Dragon (dir. Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins)

Plot: A lone warrior from the fantasy kingdom of Kumandra teams up with a crew of misfits in her quest to find the Last Dragon and bring light and unity back to their world.

Why be excited? The animation scene in 2020 looks kind of ... blah at the moment, with the notable exception of Raya and the Last Dragon. The setting was described by the film’s producer as  "a reimagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization that venerated the mythical dragons for their power and their wisdom”, and that alone is enough to fire up my imagination. Off the back of Moana and the Frozen films (which I all unabashedly love), I trust Disney Animation to instil this with plenty of colour and verve.

9. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (dir. Charlie Kaufman)

Plot: An unexpected detour turns a couple’s road trip into a terrifying journey through their fragile psyches.

Why be excited? Directed by Charlie Kaufman (writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), I’m Thinking of Ending Things is based on a prize-winning novel. However, despite the pedigree the main reason I’m looking forward to this is Jessie Buckley. Buckley gave a star-making performance in Beast a few years ago, and has since proven herself an actor of immense talent and skill (see Wild Rose for proof of what a powerhouse she is). I’m excited to see her career continue to go from strength to strength, and I’m Thinking of Ending Things seems poised to be a great showcase for her.

10. The Last Duel (dir. Ridley Scott)

Plot: King Charles VI declares that Knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) settle his dispute with his squire (Adam Driver) by challenging him to a duel.

Why be excited? Ridley Scott is a bit of a mixed bag for me, and has never come close to reaching the heights of Alien and Blade Runner with his recent work. Nonetheless, against my better judgement I can’t help but be excited by the prospect of a medieval epic with Scott at the helm. The acting talent attached to The Last Duel is top-notch, and I’m particularly fond of Jodie Comer (of Killing Eve fame) and Adam Driver (do you really need me to say more?). There’s a very real danger of the highly sensitive plot (the ‘dispute’ at the heart of the story concerns an accusation of rape, the truth of which is to be determined with a duel) being mishandled by Scott, but the involvement of screenwriter Nicole Holofcener gives me some hope. This could turn out to be a misfire, but my hope is that it will, at the very least, be interesting.

[travllingbunny]

The 100: 7x01 From the Ashes

Disclaimer: This post is about the episode of the show The 100, From the Ashes, the season 7 premiere, and only about it.  In this post, I will NOT be discussing any original scripts, unused takes, bloopers, behind the scene photos or videos, scribbled notes exchanged between the writers, or any  tweets, Instagram posts, SMS or e-mails by any of the cast or crew members,  considering the fact that none of those things constitute the  show’s canon, which consists of the actual episodes.

I will also not be discussing anything about the future episodes posted by any ‘spoiler accounts’, and, in fact, I am unaware of most of these things, since I’m trying not to read any spoilers. Please do not tell me any spoilers for future episodes or ask me about them.

I really enjoyed this episode, in spite of the unfortunate lack of Bellamy (which I was already expecting since what happens to him here was already spoiled by the trailer. Of course, I’m looking forward to see Bellamy again, and, before that, to everyone finding out about disappearance and it becoming the focus of the season. But until then, the show has quite a few other storylines to deal with, from setting up and delving more into the Anomaly mystery, to dealing with the fall-out of season 6 in Sanctum, and both of these were handled well, for the most part.

This episode in particular had really good characterizations all around - for Murphy, Echo, Indra, Madi, Raven, Emori, Gaia, even Jackson - and, of course, Clarke, who had an arc that took her tendency to try to repress her feelings to an extreme, until they exploded in a most memorable way. It will cause her trouble, no doubt, but it was great to watch, and something I had been wishing for for quite some time. 

There is just one character whose storyline I’m still not sure how I feel about, because I’m not sure what the show is doing with him. 

After the last season’s cliffhanger, there was some concern in the fandom that Bellamy would regress to being all about protecting his sister, after their relationship had been redefined with “You’re my sister, but you’re not my responsibility”. Some of that was really exaggerated: there’s absolutely nothing odd or surprising about Bellamy crying over his sister disappearing in his arms. Of course he loves her and wants her safe. But I was concerned they may regress his development if they make him forget about everyone and everything else in his life in order to impulsively jump after her into the Anomaly. However, that did not happen - Bellamy didn’t decide to go on his own, rather than tell others and make a plan. He was taken.

The mysterious people from the Anomaly seem to be able to control the Anomaly, and have some sort of a cloaking device, presumably connected to their suits and helmets, that makes them invisible to others. They also have some sort of a screen inside their helmets, with facial recognition of targets and commands. It’s all a bit creepy - these seem to be humans, but they are receiving orders the way a robot would. (It’s all very Terminator-like!) Maybe because they also have lost their memories while going through the Anomaly? Where did they get the info about who Bellamy, Gabriel and Echo are - was it from Octavia’s memories? 

Memories and memory loss are obviously going to play a huge role this season. People who come from the Anomaly to Sanctum seem to lose their memories, except when the Anomaly is still there. Does this happen only on Sanctum, or at the other side(s) as well? How does the fact that the Anomaly sucks in radio signals fit into that? Hope had to use a message she put into her own arm to remind herself to “TRUST BELLAMY”. (Interstellar is mentioned a lot as an inspiration for this season, but this reminds me of another Nolan film, Memento.)

We also see Clarke spout knowledge about how the big mansion was built (by Russell for Simone, to remind her of her house on Earth), which she would know due to still having some of Josephine’s memories. And I’m sure that the fact Madi still has the memories of past Commanders will play a big role - specifically, the fact she has Becca’s memories, which could be the way to tie the present day story to the prequel/story about what happened during and right after the apocalypse. (She also probably knows about Sheidheda more than anyone else alive, which may play into the Sanctum story.) 

It’s too early to judge Hope as a character, but the mystery surrounding her is certainly super interesting. Why do the mysterious people from the Anomaly have orders to kill her on sight (as opposed to capturing, which they were supposed to do with Bellamy, Echo and Gabriel)? Is it because of who she is, or what she is - is it about her actions, does she know too much, or is her existence itself that’s the problem? 

I loved the Octavia cameo in Hope’s hallucination, with the confirmation that she was an “aunt” figure to her, a part of a found family with Diyoza and Hope. The Anomaly makes you see your biggest desire or biggest fear - and Hope’s biggest desire seems to be to be reunited with her family 

Echo’s hallucination, on the other hand, is obviously about her biggest fear - so it makes perfect sense that it’s Roan who appears to her, as he exiled her from Azgeda. Of course biggest fear would be losing her kru and her king/queen and being left alone and adrift. I’m as surprised as anyone that I found Echo's scene to be maybe the best in the episode. But she did have some really good character moments in seasons 6, and this is IMO her best character moment so far, picking up from her red sun hallucination in 6x02, and flashback from 6x11. which revealed that even her identity as “Echo” is fake. It seems the show is finally doing the character development it neglected to give her in season 5, and addressing all the obvious issues with Echo’s development and her relationship with Bellamy. I think this confirms that it was indeed Echo talking to herself while hallucinating Emori in 6x02, since her hallucination of Roan tells her the same thing, that she is still just a killer following another master’s orders. We finally see Echo feeling guilt over the things she did in the past, including her betrayal of Bellamy in season 3. When she imagines him calling her out on betraying “the man she now claims to love”, is it just about her thinking the others would doubt her love, or is she herself questioning whether her feelings for Bellamy are really romantic love, or just loyalty to her current leader? Their relationship, especially in S6, often came off more as the latter.

 (It was also really cool to see Zach McGowan again) 

The timeline of 7x01 seems to have confused some fans, but I think it’s pretty obvious that, at the beginning of the Sanctum story, no more than a day (probably less than that) has passed since 6x13 - going by the facts that 1) the Anomaly storyline picked up minutes after the end of 6x13, and the Sanctum story was presumably happening at the same time, and 2) Indra had to explain the situation in Sanctum to everyone. The only thing that seems to go against that is that Russell is said to “not have slept” since what happened on the ship, which makes it seem like it’s been longer. Or maybe Russell was just being extra dramatic. “Oh, I have no slept for a whole day!” He certainly spent a lot of this (his last) episode feeling sorry for himself. At least he seemed to have finally realized he wasn’t the superior good guy in all of it (”Tell them I’m treated better than I deserve” - yes, indeed.)

Indra was great, even though poor Adina was forced to be an exposition machine for a part of the episode. 

A common complaint I’ve seen among fans is that it’s weird that Clarke and others in Sanctum aren’t worried about Bellamy and co. I don’t understand this complaint, as it’s clear that very little time has passed and that Bellamy, Octavia, Echo and Gabriel must have told everyone they were leaving and why (though I don’t know how many details they told them about the Anomaly Stone). People have been gone for a whole day in season 6 when they just went to the Offering Grove (Echo in 6x06) or the radioactive shield (Raven, Emori and Echo in 6x05), which are within the confines of Sanctum and much nearer than the camp by the Anomaly. What are they supposed to do but wait for a couple of days for them to come back? It’s not like they can call them, when radios and other means of communication usually don’t work on Alpha because of the Anomaly sucking the signals.

In fact, their absence was mentioned in the picnic scene, when Raven toasted to “absent friends” and we got a reaction shot of Clarke (I know, Clarke, I'd be annoyed too if I was you, but Bellamy had to be all "I'm gonna go now and explore the Anomaly Stone while Sanctum is in chaos and you're in mourning for your mom" because the plot needed him to..., before Niylah toasted to the “departed ones” (which would include Kane and Abby) and we got a close-up reaction shot of Clarke trying to keep it all inside, as she did every time in this episode someone mentioned Abby. 

The idyllic picnic by the mansion - everyone’s attempt to get some rest and nice time after everything they had been through - was such a contrast to the “powder keg” of Sanctum and the end of this episode. But it also felt fake - just as fake as the deception and lies that Murphy and Emori are Daniel and Kaylee Prime, or that Madi still has the Flame in her head - to keep the devout and Wonkru under control, respectively - and just as fake as Clarke’s attempts to convince everyone she’s “fine”. As usual, the song playing in the background (”Darkness” by Pinegrove) was very fitting:

Suddenly I find I've got darkness on my mind It's a question mark that keeps me looking And it's never satisfied And it's never what I thought Saying I'm happy when I'm not No, I got darkness on my mind Leaning out the frame When it's particulate and gray I'm perpendicular to my whole being When I lean a certain way Saying I'm happy when I'm not Finding roaches in the pot Oh, I got darkness on my mind Some people spend their whole lives looking For someone who could understand While meanwhile a lilac blooming Sometimes on the driest land And I know it's been a long time coming I'm angry and I know that's weak And I'm longing out that open window For whatever it is I seek [musical breakdown] Some people spend their whole lives looking For someone who could understand And while meanwhile a lilac blooming Sometimes on the driest land And I know it's been a long time coming I'm angry and I know that's weak So I'm trying not to be so bitter I'm just looking at it honestly Well, I know it's been a long time coming I'm angry and I know that's weak And I'm longing out that open window For whatever it is I seek Some people spend their whole lives looking For someone who could understand While meanwhile a lilac blooming Sometimes on the driest land, yeah 

I like that there was anger, blame and conflict between our kru and that everyone didn’t just forget what happened last season (and for once, Clarke is not the one getting the blame!) It would've made no sense if no one was blaming Murphy, and it makes sense it would be Jackson, who was so close to Abby and who’s not particularly close to Murphy. It also makes sense there was disagreement about the method of keeping peace in Sanctum, and that not everyone would be happy with Memori cosplaying the Primes. 

Murphy himself had a really good characterization in this episode - we saw his grief and his feelings of guilt. While he tried to defend himself when blamed that he didn’t know what Russell would do, when left alone, he blamed himself for various actions that led to it, which is something Murphy from a couple of seasons ago wouldn’t do.

It’s great to see Raven looking more like her old, pre-season 6 self, and even better to see that her self-righteousness has gone. She’s more like the old Raven but without the snarky b1tchiness. I’m glad that she got called out by Murphy on her “Miss Morality” role from last season (which never really made sense, pre-time jump Raven was never a moral compass of the group, she was smart, pragmatic and could be as ruthless as anyone).

Another major theme of the Sanctum plot were the new beginnings.  Clarke pointing out season 3 feels like another world seems almost like the show going meta and pointing out to the audience how much Clarke and all these people have lived through and been since.What is Sanctum now after the Primes have been defeated, with Children of Gabriel coming back home and clashing with the Devout - brainwashed and loyal followers of the Primes, with the rest of the Sanctumites in between? How are Wonkru and the 36 Eligius prisoners going to start again on a new planet moon? (36?! Wow, so they really suffered heavy losses in that gorge, too, when there are so few left?) Can Grounders be without a Commander? Gaia without her religion? Can Madi be a normal kid, without the Flame - or is that even possible while she has to pretend to still be Heda? The title From the ashes seems to refer to that - and maybe the end of the episode means that you have to burn down the old beliefs and old idols to build something new? 

Mothers and daughters were another theme.  I liked that Madi mentioned her biological parents (well, mother) on-screen for the first time, since the fandom tends to forget about them and ignore them too often. Madi was unsuccessful in her attempt to make Clarke share her feelings with her - maybe because this conversation showed a big difference in how they see each other? Clarke thinks of Madi as her child, but Clarke has never had a child before, while Madi had parents and suffered their loss; Clarke assumed Madi was talking about her and what happened in S6, but Madi always calls Clarke “Clarke” rather than “Mom”, and tried to connect to her on the equal level, as another daughter who’s lost a mother. Maybe it’s exactly because Clarke sees Madi only as her child that she feels she must be “strong” for her all the time and not show grief. 

There was an unexpected parallel between Indra and Clarke in how Indra also tried to suppress outward expressions of grief when her partner - Gaia’s father died, which clearly wasn’t healthy and caused a rift between mother and daughter. (I’m not sure about when that happened, i.e. when Gaia first decided to become a Flamekeeper. I guess it must have been before the timeline of seasons 1-3. So Gaia’s dad is probably not the man that Indra recognized in 2x15 as one of the Reapers? I’m still angry that we never got any resolution to that storyline and that the Reapers were forgotten after season 2.)

 The one thing I’m not sure about is Jordan’s characterization and arc. I’m not sure what the show is doing with his exactly, and I’m afraid that they’ll try to leave it ambiguous just how much he is or isn’t brainwashed. 6x13 made it very clear that he has been “adjusted”, which Russell confirmed here, and Jordan’s “adjustor”, who was creeping behind him in the season 6 finale, was very present and active in this episode, and clearly still had a big influence on him. At the same time, we learn that Jordan does not believe in the divinity of the Primes - instead of that, his hallucinations made him see something connected to the mystery of the Anomaly, which Russell describes as something “greater” (almost like he has finally found God, of sorts, after all, which he talked about 236 years before when he first landed on Alpha)? The good news is that it means Jordan will have a role in the Anomaly story, rather than being the advocate for the Devout. What I’m afraid of is that the show will gloss over the fact that Jordan was brainwashed - whether or not he came to believe that Primes were gods, he certainly did a 180 from despising Primes as murderers, being outraged by their actions and knowing very well that Priya was not Delilah but someone who took over her body; to (just a few days later, after “adjustment”) spouting Prime propaganda about the “peaceful” society they had before the Bad People from Earth came (that’s the peace they had when they regularly murdered their people to steal their bodies, left babies to die, and made them go crazy and kill each other from time to time) and having some kind of attachment to Priya herself and her mind drive.

At least, I hope that Russell unceremoniously smashing the mind drive means we’re done with that storyline. I loved it, it was my favorite storyline of the show, but it’s time for it to be over. It makes no sense that anyone is still letting Russell keep his mind drive, for starters. When will they realize they need to destroy these things?

- Clarke’s way of dealing with grief over her mom’s death was certainly unhealthy - repressing her feelings even more than usual, trying to be calm, composed, logical, to do the things needed to keep peace. In her last scene in 6x13, Clarke was open about her grief with Bellamy, looking to him for comfort, finding comfort in his arms and his words. But now he’s absent, there’s no one else she can be that open and vulnerable with. (The only other person Clarke looked for comfort to was Abby.) It’s nice to see that she and Raven have mended their friendship with Raven, she is starting to develop a new one with Gaia over their mutual care for Madi, she has mutual respect with Indra, she’s known others - like Murphy or Miller = for years, since the Delinquent days... and they all want to help her, but she’s not opening up to anyone, not even Madi. She thinks she must be “strong” for all of them, and her Head and Heart are unbalanced - she’s repressing the latter, until she finally explodes. 

I love the scene of Clarke finally losing it and beating up Russell (I had already seen it in the trailer, and it was my favorite moment) and then crying while holding Abby's clothes. I don’t know about anyone else, but I love seeing an angry, emotional Clarke, letting it all out, especially when it's anger at people she has every right to be furious at. We haven’t seen that from her since early season 3 (when she yelled and spat in Lexa’s face over her betrayal). It had bothered me for a few seasons that Clarke - who used to be vibrant and could be impulsive, angry, hold grudges, yell at people in seasons 1-2, had become so repressed and muted due to her constant self-blame. I’ve had enough watching Clarke look sad while other people keep yelling at her and blaming her. (The only other instance of Clarke being furious was her hurt and rage at Bellamy and the slap in 5x09, but that was more of a silent, “internally screaming” rage/hurt, which turned into Clarke being emotionally frozen for the next couple of episodes, until learning he was alive. When Clarke is keeping everything inside and not yelling, that’s when she’s in the worst emotional state.)

It is, however, so sad that she still blames herself, too, for her mother’s death, whispering “I’m sorry”, the same way she whispered after seeing her father floated.

My only problem with the scene of that stupid palace burning down is that  "mistakes" is a serious real understatement for what Russell has done. I know, I know, this will cause a lot of trouble in Sanctum and Clarke will probably have to go back on some of these decisions to keep peace. But there’s really nothing morally wrong with deciding to execute Russell - not only does he deserve it, but he’s arguably even an exception from the general objection to death penalty, since he’s lived several times the normal human lifespan, by stealing other people’s bodies. And the palace burning down is a symbolic way to send the message that the old power structures are gone - which Clarke pointed out when she said there will be no kings or queens anymore.

Sheiheda taking over Russell’s, or rather his latest host’s body, wasn’t surprising, as that was the most popular theory. But it was cool to see Sheidheda’s creepy mindspace again and Sean Maguire as the original Russell. The bodysnatcher got bodysnatched. That’s something like poetic justice.

I just have to post this because it’s such a beautiful shot!

Rating: 8/10

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Riverdale Season 5 Trailer Thoughts/Breakdown

Yay the trailer is finally here! So excited. Anyway here is my breakdown of the trailer and my initial thoughts and theories. I do want to say real quick as a trigger warning that the trailer did have images of what appeared to be a suicide by hanging and there are images of that in this breakdown (I have put them under a tag) so if this is something you feel will upset or trigger you please be careful. Also obviously there are spoilers.  

Firstly they didn’t really give us much new content. Most of the footage was stuff we have already seen and consisted of shots from the videos the voyeur had put out and the characters staring at tv screens. But there were a few new scenes in there for us to over-analyse and go crazy over. Also most of the scenes look like they are pre time jump which to be honest I was expecting because season 5 footage could potentially spoil the ending of what would of been season 4/ the current storyline with the voyeur. 

So the first bit of new footage I think is this shot:

At least I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen it before. It’s clearly Jughead and it looks to me like he’s got a book on his lap (circled in red). Here’s the question I have, is he lighting the match to read the book because there’s no light where ever he is or is he going to burn the book. One theory I have is that from the character description for jughead’s new girlfriend it talks about a book that he’s not writing. Basically he’s struggling to write a book. Maybe this is actually a cleverly placed post time jump scene and he’s frustrated about his fight with his girlfriend over the book and so he burns it. That is the book in his lap is a draft or something of his own book. Maybe he then goes back to Riverdale to start the book over and get new inspiration. But that’s just my best guess of what’s going on here. I mean it might not even be a book in his lap. 

Next new scene is this one where Betty and Jughead are talking to Brett in prison:

Anyone who read my season 4 theory/review posts knows that I think Donna is involved in the whole voyeur plotline and is in fact the leader of a ring of voyeurs I spose you could call it. For me this scene makes me think this is even more likely. Brett says ‘something’s coming and it’s going to hit you like a mack truck.’ So he obviously knows something about the voyeur. Unfortunately I think this might also suggest that Charles could be involved, if anything is going to hit them like a mack truck it would be finding out their brother is out to get them. I really hope thats not the case though. I mean Brett could just be being dramatic right? 

Not really sure how I feel about the B*ghead scene. I talked about this in one of my reviews, about how when Betty and Jughead slept together for the first time I was uncomfortable about it because at the time Betty was lying to Jughead about having kissed Archie and to me that just didn’t seem right or fair to Jughead. This is a very similar situation. I feel like if Betty has already told Jughead about the kiss with Archie and they’ve worked it out then fine its another b*ghead sex scene whatever you know, I’m not overly invested in B*ghead but I don’t really mind them either, I’m just bored of them to be honest, so it is what it is. But if she’s still sleeping with him without having that conversation with him then I do think that’s a mistake on Betty’s part and that she isn’t being fair to Jughead. But from the look on Jughead’s face in this shot:

I think it looks like she does tell him which I am relieved about it even though it’s going to really suck to see Jughead heartbroken like this. In which case if she has told him then this could be breakup sex or it could be Jughead decides he wants to try and make it work and this is like makeup sex. If it is the latter I do think later they will both realise they just can’t make it work and they decide to part before or during the time jump. Though I do want to make it clear no matter what does happen if she does tell him or not that I would never hate on Betty, the same as when she cheated, at the end of the day she’s a teenage girl and she makes mistakes, hopefully she learns and grows from those mistakes, she has time to and the same for Archie too.  

 So prom looks like it is going to be fun, well at first anyway. It does look like Veronica is going to find out about Betty and Archie at prom which isn’t really new information:

Look as excited as I am to see Barchie and the potential of them being explored, and as bored as I am with the current couples it’s still going to be really hard to see Veronica (and Jughead) hurt. I mean look at my poor girl she’s devastated and 100% doesn’t deserve this. But I do feel like the current couples did need to be changed up a bit and breakups are always going to hurt, but it does suck to see. 

It looks like more than just relationship drama goes down at prom. There is this scene:

It’s hard to tell whether this is like on a big screen at prom or whether this happens after prom but either way it looks like someone else is going to die and this is going to be a disturbing scene. What does make me curious is this shot:

 I’m sort of confused by this scene because at first I thought this and the image above were related and there is obviously something happening, some kind of drama but we can’t see what it is. The thing is they don’t look scared. They look more shocked/ surprised. And the guy on the end next to Reggie (apparently he’s a character from Katy Keene but I just know him as Austin from a show called Make it or Break it and honestly its weird seeing him in Riverdale but I digress) he just looks really confused. My theory is that Veronica and Archie are having a fight in the middle of prom after she finds out about the kiss with Betty and Reggie is making that ooh face because Veronica has slapped Archie. I reckon something has caused Betty and Jughead to have already left prom so Jughead won’t find out until later. Another explanation could be that theory that footage of Barchie’s kiss gets shown at prom. Obviously Austin/ Character from Katy Keene is confused because he doesn’t really know anyone there so probably doesn’t have any idea what’s going on. 

(Ok so the next part is to do with that trigger warning I mentioned earlier so again please only continue if you are comfortable to do so.)

So we’ve got our first potential shot of the voyeur here wearing an owl mask. That’s not creepy at all.  

The interesting thing though is this shot:

As you can see cirlced in red this person who appears to have hung themselves is wearing that same owl mask. But I actually think this is a bit of a red herring. I think the top image is Donna, the jacket they are wearing is similar to the jackets she likes to wear and to me the build of the person in the top image is different to the build of the person in the second image. To me the top one looks more feminine and the second more masculine. Though it is hard to tell because of the difference in angles and what not. But my theory is that Jughead and Betty start to get a little too close to uncovering her so she kills someone else to make it look like the voyeur has taken their own life and throw them off. Maybe she takes a page out of Jughead’s book and fakes a death so to speak. Another possibilty is this is a re-enactment of Clifford Blossoms death and like a last message to Riverdale if I’m making sense but then it doesn’t make sense that they are wearing the owl mask and not the cliff one. It does make me wonder who this person is. They’ve got dark hair and they are wearing quite a formal suit but otherwise we don’t have much information to go off. Also I wonder if this is the same person who appears to be killed in the prom video or whether two people are going to be killed. 

Ok whoever is standing over Jellybean with a knife better have their running shoes on because I’m coming for them. I don’t think they will hurt Jellybean but I actually think this could be what they use to have FP leave the show. I think the voyeur will release videos of them all sleeping and show that they have been in their house with the knife and that they have the potential of harming them which is really really terrifying and like one of my worst nightmares. I think FP will be like Nah not my little girl and for her safety will take Jellybean and move away from Riverdale. I could see some arguments in the family where some members like jughead and Betty refuse to leave and others want them all to go. Maybe in the end Alice decides to stay to look out for Betty and also maybe help Betty, Jughead and Charles with the investigation and FP takes Jellybean. 

From these two images and that image that was released a while back of Archie in the boxing ring it looks like Archie is going to have a boxing match I know an amazing deduction there what can I say I’m a true detective. There’s not really much that can be said about it. I’m not sure why he is having a match, maybe something to do with the navy if he hasn’t already decided to join the army instead? Or maybe its more Hiram Lodge shananigans. Hopefully Archie will win. But it does look like Archie won’t be the only one getting into fisticuffs. 

 Looks like Jughead will be having an altercation with someone as well. I think it might have something to do with the voyeur because you can see a projector in the background with images of houses on them. But I can’t tell who the people in the picture are. If I were to take a guess I would say its possibly that tickle ring. I said in my season 4 theories that I think Terry the ticklemaster is involved in the voyeur plot as he would be able to get the ‘actors’ for the videos. But who knows like I said its hard to see from these pictures. 

Speaking of the voyeur it looks like the next person they want to mess with is Archie with an re-enactment of the blackhood in the diner. I have a horrible feeling that this is only the end of that video and it will also show someone in a Fred mask getting shot first then we’ll see this image of the blackhood holding Archie at gunpoint. Obviously this is going to be soo upsetting for Archie and is going to bring back up his grief at having lost his father. I feel like this will happen after prom too so I feel like he’s going to have just broken up with Veronica then get home to this video. I think he’ll then go for a run to try and let out some of his emotions and end up at his father’s grave where he’ll have a bit of a break down. I mean poor Archie. I’m going to cry at this scene I just know it. 

So this picture is one of the ones I’m most curious about. Now I’m pretty sure that this is one of Cheryl’s dresses, like I can’t remember where I’ve seen her in it but I am 90% sure I have seen her in it. Also to me this looks like the crypt under their house where she kept Jason and where her uncle was killed. Cheryl wasn’t wearing this dress when her uncle was killed so its not his blood on the dress unless she wore it when getting rid of the body. I did wonder if it was the voyeur’s way of letting Cheryl and Toni know that they knew what they had done. But it does beg the question of why is there blood on the dress. Was Cheryl wearing it when it got the blood on it? Or did the voyeur take it and wear it whilst killing someone then bring it back? One theory I have is maybe someone is messing with Toni and the others and Cheryl goes missing then this dress shows up and it looks like Cheryl has been killed but obviously she won’t be. I am interested to see what this is about. 

Ok so the last scene I want to talk about is this one:

I actually think, like the first image, this might be post time jump. Betty’s hair looks a little different here. Although it is pulled back she has got some bits of hair framing her face which is not normal for betty. Usually when her hair is up it is all scraped back. Also I know it sounds odd but she just looks more grown up to me. Also she seems alot more confident in holding a gun now which if she’s been training with the FBI would make sense. As to what is going on in this scene it could be exactly what it appears Betty hears something down stairs and theres some kind of threat down there. But I actually think this might be more of a comic scene. My scenario is as I said I think FP will take Jellybean away from Riverdale. It’s possible that Alice will than go join them after the kids graduate and go to college. I think this scene could be where Betty has come back to Riverdale and is in her old home (from what I can tell from these images it looks like her old house) some freaking stuff has happened in Riverdale since she’s arrived back you know a murder here and murder there and she’s hiome alone when she hears a noise downstairs, investigates gun drawn and its actually Alice showing up in the middle of the night unexpectedly. The both get a scare. 

So what did you guys think of the trailer? Are you excited for season 5? Do you have any theories on what you think will happen?