#and just from the intro sequence

[egophiliac]

A-anime?

you know, sometimes I forget that Twst is actually an isekai that starts with the protagonist getting run over by an inexplicable horse-drawn carriage. and every time I'm reminded is a delight because that's AMAZING.

also. look. okay. there's a lot of very fun stuff in the trailer but I am obsessed with that Crowley surprised pikachu face. me when I spend all my keys and gems literally hours before they announce overblot SSRs and drop the anime trailer:

[vivitalks]

i realize there are 6 days left on the poll and that fhjy is coming out on top but i did go ahead and start unsleeping city because if there's one thing i love to do it's ask for an opinion and then do whatever i want anyway <3

no nuance, these are the only two options

[souenkun]

I need the pokemas anniversary to come soon so we can hopefully see volo go batshit crazy again for the second time!!!

[kindaorangey]

also the way i got so excited at nath using his powers for selfish reasons mid-way through the episode. as you can imagine i was out of my fucking seat when he just told marc his superhero identity at the end😭

[britishchick09]

rolfe and earl in chapter 1 of 'rock-afire roadtrip'!

the last part of this was finally completed thanks to @rolfe-dewolfe-fan-page reblogging my first fic post! ;)

...

As the Rock-afire sang of becoming an atom bomb, Rolfe trudged backstage, the metallic rainbow steamers of his stage fluttering.

"What ridiculous lyrics! We're not literally an explosion!" he muttered. "Or they're not. I, the superior Rolfe de Wolfe, will have no part in this!"

"I have an advertisement on the showtape, stupid!" Earl reminded him. "And if you can't get on the stage, neither can I!"

Rolfe groaned. "How can you even think of being in this cheap propaganda? I thought you knew better than this!"

"I do… but you don't! Besides, it ain't cheap, it's free! The Colander Gazette's gonna have a picture of you in it, you know."

A wave of haughtiness passed through Rolfe. He asked, "…It does? Me? Earl, tell me… did they get my good side?"

"Nah, they got your face!" Rolfe rolled his eyes while striding to the storage room, where a big poster board attached to a stick was waiting on a table. With a marker in one hand and Earl in the other, he wrote 'D', 'O'-

"Your sign's crooked, man." Earl pointed out.

"I thought you were a supporter!" Rolfe said.

"I am! I just don't want you to look even more stupid than you already do!"

Rolfe grumbled. He used Earl's head to rotate the poster board, causing the puppet to ask, "Hey, what are you doin' man?" and a fluffy of muffled protests. Once the board was straight, Rolfe finished writing.

"'Down with Colanders'," Earl read. "Shouldn't it be 'Down with Colander Night'?"

Rolfe scoffed. "I'm not redoing the sign. Honestly, can't they think of something better to do? Something like… like…"

The wolf was quiet for a solid half minute.

"Ha! You can't even top 'em!"

"Small Appliances Night!" Rolfe exclaimed with a snap of his claws. "Yes, everyone would go to Kmart and pick up a shiny, beautiful appliance to put on their head," He gave a cocky smile. "A much better idea than some colander."

"I ain't puttin' no dishwasher on my face."

"I said small appliance."

"Meh, it's all big to me."

"Like a… a…" Rolfe lowered his head to think. "Oh, like toasters and crock pots and Mix Master blenders! It's gonna be a national movement! The president will strap a toaster to his face! We'll have national ambassadors and it's gonna be incredible! Don't you see, Earl? We're gonna have history on our hands!" He frowned as he suddenly realized, "Hmm. Well, a mixer would be a little dangerous. And a mini fridge is even stupider than a colander! But I'm not going back on the crock pot!"

"And you thought you were the smart one."

Rolfe rolled his eyes. He held up his sign, picturing the guests at Showbiz heartily agreeing with him.

'Down with Colander Night, Down with Colander Night!'.

Then multiple people would say, 'Rolfe has the right idea.' 'Oh, of course he does. He always has the right idea.' 'Wait, who's Rolfe?'  'Only the coolest member of the band. He should take center stage and kick those other guys out on the curb!' 'Who need a colander when you could put a pot on your head? I'm allergic to spaghetti, anyways.'  'I'm gonna go to Kmart tomorrow and buy out all the pots they have. Then we'll all take part in Crock Pot Night!'

'Yay, Crock Pot Night!' everyone would cheer. 'Boo, Colander Night!'

'That wolf is such a genius for coming up with that. He should get a big, fat raise!'

'Rolfe! Rolfe! Rolfe! Rolfe! Rolfe! Rolfe! Rolfe! Rolfe!'

"Rolfe… ROLFE!"

Earl had cut into the crowd's cheers.

Rolfe blinked back to reality, giving his yellow friend a look as he asked, "What was that for? I was universally beloved!"

Earl scoffed. "The only way you'll get the world to love you is if you quit Showbiz! And don't think about worming your way into regular showbiz."

Rolfe rolled his eyes. He suddenly realized that Billy Bob was singing,

Maybe baby, I'll have you somedayyy…

[hakogyi]

apart from seeing heiji in action i think the part of the million dollar pentagram i'm looking most forward to is the intro sequence...i really appreciate how creative the anime team has gotten with the intros over the years like i loooove black iron submarine's intro so damn much it's so perfect (except for the part where they forgot to explain what the aptx is lol)?? the part where it transitions to the inside of a torpedo tube as the flute starts playing which makes it sound like the music is actually playing inside the tube and echoing off the metal walls like WOW

the bride of halloween's intro was also pretty good albeit a little difficult to follow especially if you're a new watcher, but i still really liked the transitions. million dollar pentagram i am counting on you to blow me away with the intro 🙏

[unnonexistence]

idk if there's anything in stories i get more petty about than poorly-written "main character shows up to a new place and meets everyone" character introduction scenes

[bulletbilltime]

I'm so sane. Only sane people think about "Life is Strange but isekai'd into Paper Mario TTYD". I'm so sane I swear.

[wormsdyke]

happy fhjy finale day to all who celebrate, as excited as i am i remain frustrated that the season has now completed with still no flash warnings for the flashing in the opening sequence despite submitting requests for it multiple times throughout the season's run. they appropriately use flash warnings for in-episode effects so its not like dropout refuses to include them, but the first 10-ish seconds of every episode of this season has been untagged flashing lights and frankly im a little dissapointed

[milkymars]

1.5 update has completely killed any goodwill and excitement i had for this game. the amount of glitches and bugs is actually insane, coop mode is so stupid and useless, and the RETCON of the story we've played and fallen in love with thus far pisses me off to no end. it's nonsensical and greedy.

[lady-luckk]

Can I get more magical girl content? I love magical girls so much :3

lights, glitter, action!!!

# pairings: yandere batfam x magical girl reader

# synopsis: you randomly fall out of the sky and into the arms of the batfamily. now you get to experience wacky adventures with them.

# warnings: this will contain dark themes such as obsession and possessiveness. if you are uncomfortable, please block me. viewer discretion is advised. minors DNI.

# notes: reblogs, comments, and likes are appreciated!

thinking of a drabble about a magical girl (aka you) who crash-lands—quite literally—into gotham, face-first into a rooftop during a red hood stakeout. your transformation sequence sparks brighter than the bat-signal, and jason todd immediately points a gun at you before you finish your glittery intro pose. “i am celestia radiant, guardian of purity and—” click “you’ve got three seconds to explain the sparkles.”

“do not shoot that sparkly person,” dick grayson says through comms, voice full of older brother exhaustion. “that’s not a sentence i thought i’d say today, but here we are.”

you insist your wand only “dispels negativity,” which doesn’t go over well when you try to boop jason with it and his helmet actually falls off. “what the—kid, that thing costs more than your tiara.”

tim drake attempts to scan you with his tech. the scanner explodes in pink glitter. he blinks. “great. now my system’s infected with lisa frank malware.”

“i can sense your inner turmoil,” you tell him, solemnly. “do you even sleep?”

“define sleep.”

“when your soul regenerates through restful peace.”

“yeah, no. i run on coffee, spite, and childhood trauma.”

damian challenges you immediately and calls you “a delusional pastel distraction.” you politely deck him with a glitter beam. alfred bandages him while muttering, “perhaps don’t insult people with projectile sparkles next time.”

you enter the batcave and gasps, “so much repressed emotion... this place reeks of unhealed trauma!” bruce walks out of the shadows and deadpans, “welcome to gotham.”

dick pokes your wand, curious. it responds by turning into a cat. neither of them say anything. they just nod like this is normal.

bruce finally sits you down and says, “are you a threat?”

“only to sadness, injustice, and tight schedules.”

“...”

you’re officially listed in the batcomputer as “magical girl (?) – harmless (???) – very pink (confirmed).”

after months of you showing up to “aid gotham’s bravest hearts,” the batfam starts developing a crushing, all-consuming soft spot for you—like an airborne glitter virus of affection.

jason is furious about it.

“they’re weird, they’re loud, and they smells like vanilla cupcakes!”

“you mean the vanilla cupcakes you keep stealing from them?”

“THAT’S NOT THE POINT.”

dick develops a habit of dramatically appearing next to you with his shirt slightly torn. “oops, must’ve gotten grazed again. guess i need magical healing?”

“you’ve got twelve band-aids on and none of them are real wounds,” tim whispers.

“don’t ruin this for me.”

tim claims he’s above it all. “we don’t even know what dimension they’re from.”

“your made them a custom batphone,” jason says.

“for tactical reasons.”

“it’s shaped like a heart.”

“tactical. heartline security.”

damian insists he feels nothing. "you’re a distraction." but when you calls him “gallant” after he saves a kitten, he literally freezes. the kitten escapes. he doesn’t notice. he’s still staring.

bruce has, very clearly, stated:

“i don’t care about you personally.” completely straight-faced. like he’s reading a grocery list. everyone heard it. everyone quotes it.

and yet… every time you so much as glance at something remotely out of budget, he’s already pulled out his black card.

“i’m just funding mission efficiency,” he says.

“that’s a limited-edition 40th anniversary magical cow figure from meow meow doki.”

“you seemed interested. we might need it.”

you mention wanting snacks once during patrol. the next day, the cave fridge is stocked with every brand you’ve ever casually mentioned.

“it’s for team morale,” bruce says, not making eye contact.

“you bought six flavors of celestial-themed ice cream.”

“they were on sale.”

you say it’s cold in your room once.

bruce upgrades the entire manor’s heating system by the end of the day.

“old wiring,” he says. “dangerous.”

over time it becomes apparent that they’ve grown an unhealthy attachment towards you.

whenever dick spots you, he clings to you like he can't bear to be apart. he’ll throw his arm around your shoulders with a grin, holding you a little too tightly. “did you miss me?” he’ll ask, leaning in just a little too close as he whispers in your ear. you can feel the weight of his gaze even when he’s not looking directly at you

jason has a habit of “accidentally” touching you. when you're walking together, his fingers will brush against yours, lingering just a second longer than necessary. he’ll give you a low, almost inaudible chuckle when you flinch. “i know you don’t mind,” he’ll say with a wicked grin, his hand remaining a little too close to yours.

tim loves to stand behind you when you’re busy, too close for comfort. you’ll feel his breath on your neck, his fingers lightly brushing against your back as he "casually" adjusts your chair. “just making sure you're comfortable,” he’ll say with a tone that feels like more than just a comment. when you turn around, he’s already walking away, as if he never meant to invade your space at all.

damian doesn’t shy away from showing his possessiveness. if you're out in public, he’ll stand a little too close to you, his presence always hovering just behind you like a shadow. sometimes, when you’re sitting, he’ll casually rest his hand on your knee, as if to remind you that you’re his responsibility. “stay close,” he’ll say, his voice unyielding.

bruce doesn't need to say much; his actions speak louder. he’ll touch your arm with a hand that's just firm enough to be a reminder. if you're sitting near him, he’ll make sure his leg brushes against yours, the slightest physical connection making it clear he's always aware of your presence. “are you comfortable?” he’ll ask, his gaze unreadable as if keeping you within his reach is the only thing that matters.

something that i've wondered was what people did during those long ass magical girl transformation.

imagine this: the city was in chaos. explosions echoed in the distance. the batboys were in the middle of a high-stakes battle against a villain whose name they still hadn’t quite figured out, but who was throwing around enough toxins and lasers to give gotham a new reason to be paranoid.

dick was leaping from wall to wall, trying to outmaneuver the villain’s henchmen. jason was head-butting a wall, making sure no one tried to flank them. tim was hacking into a control panel, eyes flicking between screens like a caffeinated squirrel. damian was already fighting the villain head-on, his sword clashing against their armor.

then, a voice crackled over the comms, interrupting the chaos:

“hey guys, be ready—i’m just finishing my transformation!”

everyone freezes. like someone hit pause on the action.

dick paused mid-flip, hanging from a ceiling beam. “wait—did they just say ‘transformation?’”

jason’s fist was raised, but he didn’t punch, staring at the comms like he’d been told the laws of physics were invalid. “they’re really doing this now?”

tim blinked. “are they seriously transforming? right in the middle of all this?”

damian, standing with his sword poised and looking perfectly ready to end the villain’s reign, sighed audibly. “this is… highly inefficient.”

but he didn’t move a muscle. not even to attack. he was waiting.

bruce, who had been silently observing the chaos and directing the others via comms, sighed too—his voice just low enough to avoid detection. “if we’re waiting, then wait. no need to rush this. hold positions. let’s see how long this takes.”

there was no mistaking it. he was as much a part of this ridiculous ritual as everyone else.

the villain, who had been watching the absurdity unfold, narrowed their eyes. “what are they doing? are they—waiting? are they—really pausing for a transformation?” the villain scoffed, clearly annoyed by the delay.

they pointed a glowing gauntlet at the group. “you’re all pathetic!”

but the batboys? completely unmoved. they were all still. all waiting. they were locked in place, every one of them silently enduring this ridiculous delay.

jason, gritting his teeth, turned to face the villain for the first time in a few minutes. “we’d love to keep fighting, but... you know. waiting on them.”

tim, flipping through some data on his wrist computer, half-checked out. “i’ll just optimize our schedule for the next one, but... they better have a good reason for this.”

dick was already making a list of things he could do during the wait. "i mean, it’s a whole process. at least we get a breather."

the villain, becoming increasingly frustrated, clenched their fists and began pacing. “no. i will not wait any longer!”

they leveled their weapon toward the batboys, preparing for an attack—but they didn’t move. everyone stood frozen—the batboys too disciplined to break formation, and you?

still getting ready.

there was another long pause. the villain shot a glare at bruce, who was calmly scanning the room, not even bothering to acknowledge the interruption. “are you all seriously letting this happen?” the villain snapped, voice rising. “i can’t believe i’m waiting on—”

and then it happened.

the unmistakable sound of sparkles filled the air. a soft chime echoed through the comms.

“magical girl transformation, initiate!”

dick’s eyes practically sparkled. “here it comes…”

jason let out a low groan, leaning back against a pillar. “this better be good.”

tim was frantically refreshing his mental list of everything he’d need to do to process this information later.

damian folded his arms and glared at the villain. “this delay better be worth it.”

there was a soft flash, a trail of glitter, and—there you were. in your full magical girl outfit, sparkling like a dream—the colors bright, the fabric catching the light, and your transformation complete in all its glory.

there was an awkward silence.

jason blinked, covered in what was still residual glitter from the earlier mishap. “okay, that... took a little longer than i thought.”

tim let out a long sigh. “i swear, the next time we’re scheduling this—everyone gets a 30-second limit.”

“done!” you announced, twirling dramatically. “let’s do this!”

bruce stared at you with a level of composure that barely hid his tiny sigh of approval.

“...now, we can continue.”

dick, ever the dramatic one, clapped. “absolutely worth it.”

jason just groaned and rolled his eyes, but the tiniest hint of a smile twitched on his lips.

“yeah, yeah, but next time, let’s maybe—i don’t know—not do this during a fight?”

the villain, now fuming, was clearly done. “this is your strategy?” they snapped. “you’ve got to be kidding me!”

they swung their weapon, clearly intending to take you down—but the batboys weren’t having it anymore.

in perfect sync, they moved, attacking from all angles.

you, of course, were already ready, using your powers to effortlessly counter their attacks.

the fight lasted all of five minutes after that.

once the villain was down, the batboys stepped back, eyes on you. jason let out a snort. “well, that was... something.”

tim raised an eyebrow. “maybe next time we make a better schedule for these things?”

damian just crossed his arms. “you’d think after all these months, we’d learn not to wait for their transformation.”

dick, flashed a smile. “what can i say? it’s worth it.”

bruce, just muttered, “next time, no delays.”

you, oblivious to their frustration and somehow enjoying the chaos, smiled brightly. “i’m glad you guys handled it without me!”

the villain, now completely defeated and embarrassed, could only mumble as they were carted off. “i cannot believe i lost to these people.”

and the batboys? they’d just endured yet another ridiculous chapter in their lives with you. but they all secretly agreed on one thing.

no matter how much it annoyed them… they’d always wait for your magical girl transformation.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

The Ronettes - Be My Baby 1963

"Be My Baby" is a song by American girl group the Ronettes that was released as a single in August 1963. Written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector, the song was the Ronettes' biggest hit, reaching number 2 in the US and number 4 in the UK. It is often ranked as among the best songs of the 1960s, and has been regarded by various publications as one of the greatest songs of all time. Ronnie Spector (then known as Veronica Bennett) is the only Ronette that appears on the track. In 1964, it appeared on the album Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes; the only studio album by the Ronettes (credited to "the Ronettes featuring Veronica"). Produced by Phil Spector and released in November 1964 through his label, Philles Records, the album collects the group's singles from 1963–1964. In 2004, it was ranked number 422 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

"Be My Baby" has influenced many artists, most notably the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, who wrote the 1964 hit "Don't Worry Baby" as a response to "Be My Baby". Many others have replicated or recreated the drum phrase—one of the most recognizable in pop music. As for the opening drum beat, drummer Hal Blaine stated, "That famous drum intro was an accident. I was supposed to play the snare on the second beat as well as the fourth, but I dropped a stick. Being the faker I was in those days, I left the mistake in and it became: 'Bum-ba-bum-BOOM!' And soon everyone wanted that beat." Sonny Bono and Cher were among the backing vocalists. Cher stated in a television interview, "I was just hanging out with Son [Bono], and one night Darlene [Love] didn't show up, and Philip looked at me and he was getting really cranky, y'know. Philip was not one to be kept waiting. And he said, 'Sonny said you can sing?' And so, as I was trying to qualify what I felt my … 'expertise' was, he said, 'Look I just need noise – get out there!' I started as noise, and that was 'Be My Baby'."

The song appears in the opening sequence of Martin Scorsese's film Mean Streets (1973), and the 1987 film Dirty Dancing. The song appears in a fantasy sequence involving Kamala Khan in the Marvel series Ms. Marvel, in the second episode "Crushed". In 1999, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2006, the Library of Congress inducted the Ronettes' recording into the United States National Recording Registry. In 2004, it was ranked number 22 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", where it was described as a "Rosetta stone for studio pioneers such as the Beatles and Brian Wilson." In 2017, the song topped Billboard's list of the "100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time".

"Be My Baby" received a total of 86,9% yes votes!

[year2000electronics]

Bill & Ford & A Book, Oh My!

DISCLAIMER: The Book of Bill has Bill Cipher serving as an unreliable narrator. If we go out trying to say something is "definitively a truth" or "definitively a lie", we're going to keep arguing about it until the heat death of the universe. This is just my own personal interpretation of the source material. If you don't agree, that's fine! Also TBOB spoilers abound.

So it's no secret that interest in the dynamic Bill & Ford have (enemies, platonic, romantic, formerly romantic, whichever way) has really skyrocketed since TBOB's release. Of course, there are the 'easy' culprits to point towards, with Mabel referring to Bill as 'being like a needy ex', and the whole O'Sadley's fiasco (Him literally crying over losing Ford and going "one Sixer, please"? Messy. Messy behavior. Still, I think it goes so much deeper than that.

Bill, being the unpredictable chaos entity that he is, also serves as the main antagonist for a show about family and having close bonds with each other. We don't really need to look into his inner psyche that much, because that's just not what he needed to be doing at that point in the cartoon. He's meant to be a way to divide the Pines, really. And a silly little guy. A silly little obstacle. So, naturally, when it came to Bill's arguably "closest" relationship to someone in the show (Ford), it was very easy to interpret it as Ford being tricked by a completely apathetic Bill, who was just using him as a rung on the ladder. And I do want to stress that Ford and Bill's physical actions remain fairly consistent throughout interpretations, and focusing on the fact that Bill badly hurt Ford is important, so if that's how you still see it, then fine by me! No harm no foul!

But I think the relationship, their story, their tragedy just becomes so much more interesting with the lens The Book of Bill has presented. We’re finally able to see Bill’s perspective as a “protagonist” of sorts in a medium where he’s not just something to defeat- and that’s something we’ve never gotten before, so it’s shedding light on an area we didn’t know about for sure! Again, Bill is lying to the character of "the reader", so we can't trust it as a completely unbiased source. But we can speculate on where the "truth" is between these lies.

First of all, Bill's backstory was that he destroyed his home dimension- we knew that already. But now, with the extra content we have about it, we see something interesting- that Bill's backstory mirrors Ford's to an uncanny degree.

Both of them champion their intelligence, although they highlight how it set them apart from others, as well as highlighting their own 'rare mutation/birth defect'.

Again, with this self-isolation already spurred on from their "weirdness", but also as a little aside, I would also like to highlight that Bill being 'ready to be one', looking up at the stars, striving to 'reach' them, is a shared motif he has with Ford, who is also associated with space, the stars, and reaching them.

Bill's 'trying-really-quick-to-convince-Ford' fantasy sequence even has him in a field of stars as a sort of "ultimate wish fulfilment". Remember, this is Bill showing Ford something he thinks would win Ford over, at least a little.

(And I'll take a quick time out for this train of thought to point out- hey! Bill admits he sought out most of his other victims, but Ford summoned him, and it took him by surprise! That adds a fun little layer of complexity to everything, don't you think? Another little layer of humanity for this whole mess- Bill didn't expertly seek out the 'perfect victim' or anything, it was just... luck. Some twist of fate.)

Anyways.

Obviously, the intro page to the 'Sixer' section has a ton of red flags galore (I mean, poor guy's literally depicted as a hapless puppet. C'mon, Bill. Not to mention the "OH BOY HE'S ALREADY SO ISOLATED, IT'S PERFECT" thing.). This guy is kind of a terrible companion no matter how you slice it. He's terrible to everyone close to him, because he's a deeply traumatized character who refuses to heal. BUT, the wording here is kinda deliciously intriguing to me. All of humanity is Bill's puppets, his future victims, but to me, it's clear that he holds a fondness for Ford. From "This is what a partner looks like", to "Me and Sixer could be the perfect team", to "He had what I always wanted- fingers" (drawn to his strangeness, maybe?), "He was destined for so much more", "I looked at his futures and giggled", and most stand-out to me, "Society calls these people freaks, I call them Henchmaniacs!"

Going back to the pre-Book of Bill era I was talking about, Bill's offers for Ford to join him were always in a sort of murky territory for interpretation. The first offer could definitely be read as mocking, with the line "WITH THAT SIX-FINGERED HAND, YOU'D FIT RIGHT IN WITH MY FREAKS!" in particular making it seem like Bill was only saying that to rub Ford's strangeness in his face, and the second offer to join Bill being under a new circumstance- that now Bill is desperate and believes Ford is the only one who can help him. But the Book of Bill mentions the idea of Ford becoming a Henchmaniac more than once, and also has Bill upset at losing Ford and claiming "he'll be back", as well as Bill seeming to use "freak" more like a badge of honour, and having previously complimented Ford's six fingers (In the Sixer intro page, he highlights Ford's fingers as a quality he likes, and in the pages about bodies, he states that "humans should have more fingers". To me, that first offer reads more now like Bill being genuine about finding Ford a place among his misfits. ...Although, the moment Ford says no, he does zap him into a statue. So. Y'know. He's still got issues.

(Yeah, again, red flag city. "Just hazing"? Bill, none of what you were doing over there was okay! You might have suppressed everything traumatic that happened to you, but that doesn't mean you can go around traumatizing everyone! Good lord.)

Bill has already been imply to like other characters because they remind him of himself. Pointing towards a connection with a character Bill DOESN'T have a weird undefinable ex-partner thing with... Mabel! Alex has says in multiple official media and interviews that Bill sees a lot of himself in Mabel, and essentially, that he thought Mabeland was the perfect prison because if HE liked all that awesome, uncontrolled chaos over any family or friends, why wouldn't SHE? And we see that again in TBOB. So basically, what I'm saying is that we have two characters to back up the fact that Bill seems gravitated towards humans or other living beings that he views as being 'like him'- beings he can relate to! So, y'know, what does that say about Bill and Ford?

There's also Bill's plans for the reader and "Weirdmageddon 2.0", where he portrays the reader as getting to, like, perch on his arm like a little bird and get their own little crown? And specifically calls out Ford for not going through with things?? Okay, Bill??

AND Ford not only being the only human mentioned on the list of people he "definitely doesn't miss so stop asking", but also having his own category? Alright, man.

Of course, another point to the 'Hey, maybe Bill can actually feel emotions towards humans besides complete and total apathy' club is this page here, which has ALSO been hotly debated! Certainly, we know he's telling the truth about his home dimension being destroyed, and we know that he's lying about the 'monster', but some interpret this scene as Bill not being remorseful at all and playing his reaction up to earn Ford's sympathy. And me, personally, I dunno if I agree. I feel like the specific inclusion of Bill "looking distant, more distant than I'd ever seen him" (Mirroring the fact that he keeps blacking out when thinking about all his large-scale massacres) and him "laughing joylessly", I think this sequence is meant to tell us that Bill actually is being vulnerable with Ford here, it's just hidden under layers and layers of deceit, whether towards himself or Ford or both.

And finally for my Book of Bill collection stuff, there's the stuff that could be read as more romantic in nature. In the 'love' section, Bill claims he doesn't love anyone, but, like-

Come on. You can disagree with me that it's Ford, but he does have exes. And he's clearly not over them. Shrimpy little liar. And then there's the fact that a lot of his hokey 'advice' is stuff he ends up directly doing to Ford.

These rats.

The Love Cage.

The Book of Bill really outlined all that in bold, but in my opinion, it was never an entirely new revelation! Bill seems to hold a preference for Ford over other humans in the show. He shows up in Ford's dreams just to say hi, tease him, and gloat (Mabelcorn) unlike the other two dream appearances he's made (Dreamscaperers, Sock Opera) which were exclusively for business purposes. Unlike every other character that gets exclusively one nickname for their zodiac sign, Ford gets multiple (Fordsy, IQ, Sixer, smart guy, brainiac, the list goes on). Bill asks Ford to join him TWICE, whereas anyone else who tries gets their face rearranged, put in a cage and made to dance, frozen in stone, etc etc. And finally, I think, the most emblematic of Bill's weird, specific relationship with Ford, is that whereas everybody else gets turned into stone, Ford got turned into gold.

Which kinda sums up their whole thing up pretty well? Bill gave him special treatment by turning him into a golden statue (similar to yellow ha ha), always holding him close, but, like... Dude. You still kidnapped a man and turned him into a statue and then threatened to kill his niece and nephew. I don't think it will change his opinion on you if he's the Most Pampered Hostage, Actually. I just don't think that we need to explore the relationships between characters as simply "Well, this character hurt the other one, so we shouldn't really think about why or what they feel personally, because what they did was bad, so there".

Bill & Ford interest me because they're a tragedy in motion. We can see that Bill and Ford mirror each other in a multitude of ways, and we can see that they both do have positive feelings towards each other at the time they meet, and we see that Bill very desperately wants Ford to be just like him in the unhealthy ways; the ways that make Bill destroy entire universes and compartmentalize it all, because maybe then, he can finally have the companionship he so deeply aches for. Bill and Ford both had tough, lonely upbringings, but Ford moved on from that "I don't need you" mentality. That's what saved him. Bill didn't, and that's what got him where he was in the end. I feel like that's just so much more interesting than Bill just being a flat entity that makes abuse Happen to Ford, just as another Event in his life. I mean, isn't it just SO much more interesting that Ford humanizes Bill, in a way? That Ford makes him- in Bill's own words- "sentimental"? That a chaotic dream demon has regrets and loves and favourites and connections? It's the same thing with Fiddleford & Ford, although, obviously, to a MUCH lesser extent than Bill & Ford. But you get what I mean, right? You know that Fiddleford and Ford are going to undo each other in the end, and the path to that downfall is... it's telling a story! I like the story of it all! I think that's what I've been invested in and intrigued by all these years- the story, the tragedy of Bill and Ford. No matter what form it takes.

(Plus, as tumblr user fordtato pointed out in their own essay (not tagging because this post is messy enough as is oh god), hey, Ford now has two incredibly queer-coded narratives, with one of them being about how he recovered and was able to heal from an abusive relationship. And, well, I think that's just neat.)

Anyways, that's the end of the post. Thanks for reading this long!

[halemerry]

Alright, not to be too predictable, but I wanna talk about space and color as it's used in the intro to episode 1 for a minute. And you know, show some gorgeous space shots.

So we open in the dark. There's distant lights and the occasional flare from them moving through space but for the most part we get the angel that would eventually become Crowley alone in enough darkness that he himself isn't even giving off particularly significant amounts of light.

But then, enter Aziraphale. He arrives in a big ball of blue light shining above him that really emphasizes Crowley's red hair. They get tied to the colors we most often see them attached to, especially in promotional materials.

From here the entire scene gets slightly brighter, even once Aziraphale's light dims down. They're both lit up once they're together, even it the middle of literal nothingness.

They start the universe next, using Crowley's hand crank, which gives off a magic that's a combination of their two colors - purple.

A very similar color to this shows up in heaven as a signal flare for their accidentally too powerful half a miracle. It's a color tied to a miracle so big it could've revived someone 25 times and also a miracle that got the engine of the universe running.

And then. Creation starts. Our first image is a very Heavenly aesthetic. It's a blueish light cutting through the clouds much like Az just cut through the dark.

And what explodes from that is the thing that set me down this little rabbit hole in the first place: it's purple scattered through with red and blue lights.

As the initial burst fades, the blue and the red separate, the color fading except for this tiny blue dot and this growing red zone on the right.

The blue then fades, leaving us with an extremely Crowley coded palette here and a very orangeish red. There's shades of gray, a little bit of light, but not nearly as much color. As the sequence moves the darkness grows but does start slowly filling with small points of light.

We then end up with shades of gray both light and dark. There's balance here, even if it's not particularly colorful.

And then all at once a pinkish red bursts forth with these intense clawing tendrils. At the core of it, from the heart of it, is a bright blue ball of light.

It fades into a blue heart surrounded by darkness with whisps of white resembling a certain someone's hair. Or, as some friends pointed out two people embracing.

As the nebula settles a few other colors set in but the primary scheme is still red and blue. An almost violent plume of red emerges on the left side of the image.

And from this moment on most shots of the two of them back them with their respective color schemes.

They chat and Aziraphale gets anxious. He looks for a distraction and is immediately drawn to the space where the colors mix.

And as we fade out the other colors in the picture fade. We get the most balanced blue and red get. And on the far corners fairly clear dark and light.

So what does this mean? The purple speaks to them being very powerful together. And, the rest is arguably just representative of the plot. We have Aziraphale as a beacon in the dark - a signal flare we know Crowley has throughout history been aware of and drawn to. We have them brightening each other. We have Az's color breaking out of heaven to mix with Crowley's to create something new and wonderful and powerful. Aziraphale's color fades, leaving Crowley alone. We then get a burst of a red closer to Crowley's current hair, with Aziraphale's blue in the core of it that eventually becomes a blue heart surrounded by darkness. That too fades, replaced by the pillars becoming their familiar hand shape and slightly more colors seeping in. As they talk together and move closer together their own colors settle back in and come to balance.

[prodkwh]

WAIT FOR YOUR LOVE ᯓ★

where in ── you completely remove him from your memory after a bad breakup.

⤷ pairing :: boyfriend-turned-ex!felix x f!reader

⤷ trope / genre :: lovers to exes... some fluff, but mostly angst oops

⤷ content warnings :: lots of emotional distress, brief mentions of food / beverages (matcha latte, cake, froyo), small mentions of medical procedures, crying & a mini breakdown, mentions of therapy, strained romantic relationship

⤷ word count :: 4.2k words

⤷ playlist :: intro (end of the world) - extended, warm, Hampstead, we can't be friends (wait for your love), i wish i hated you & twilight zone (all by ariana grande!)

⤷ note :: first actual post how we doin ....... hope yall enjoy <3

Three things you saw: a counter, the woman behind the counter and a painting of the solar system hung on the wall. 

Three things you heard: the woman behind the counter making an appointment with someone on the other line of her call, the muffled weeping of the elderly lady sitting opposite you and the sound of your own breath.

Three things you felt: anxiety, sadness, numbness and more anxiety. Wait, that’s not three.

It was a grounding technique you’d learnt during therapy to keep yourself calm and sane while facing something that made you nervous. By now, it had already been 5 months since you started going to therapy. This also meant that it had already been 5 months since your breakup with Lee Felix. 

Five months after you broke up with the person you once called your first love, you’d arranged a very expensive procedure to completely remove him from your memory. A procedure that your therapist was heavily against – “Why erase him from your memory when you can just come to terms with everything that happened?” – but you knew it was for the best. After all, it would be easier for things to go back to how they were before you met him. 

Wouldn’t it? 

“Y/n L/n?” The woman behind the counter called, getting up and walking over to you after seeing your raised hand. 

“Please fill in this consent form before you go in to get your procedure done.” She handed you a clipboard with the consent form and a pen. You took it and skimmed over the printed text until your eyes landed on the last line. 

‘For this procedure, I officially give Sunshine Inc. the full consent to entirely remove this person from my memory.’ 

Below that line were two check boxes, marked with ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. The pen you held hovered over the one marked with ‘No’. You were hesitating. 

This one procedure meant that all your memories of Lee Felix, good and bad, would be gone. 

You ticked the check box marked with ‘Yes’ and signed the form. Then, you picked up the big box of things that reminded you of him and walked into the operating room. No hesitation. 

This was it. Lee Felix would be gone from your memory in approximately 3 hours.

Three things you saw: your box of things, Dr Bang – the one who would be doing the erasing in your brain – and his assistant Dr Myoui. 

“So, Miss Y/n? We’ll be removing Mr Lee Felix from your memory for today’s procedure, are you ready? Mentally? Physically?” Dr Bang asked. You gave him a small nod, then started to space out while he listed the rough sequence of how the procedure would go. 

“... No after-effects or brain damage apart from the procedure itself. We’ll be using the items you’ve brought today to get a rough gauge of the role Mr Lee has played in your memory, then erasing him from it based on the mapping we’ve done. You’ll be good to go afterwards, okay?” Dr Bang continued while connecting you to the heart monitor. You gave him another small nod. 

He places a dome-shaped apparatus over your head. 

Three things you heard: the sound of your own breath, your heartbeat (faintly) and the slight whirring of the appliance over your head. 

“Dr Myoui will now be showing you different items from your box, okay? All you have to do is react to them. No words needed, just react to them silently. All good?” You gave Dr Bang another small nod. 

The first item Dr Myoui showed you was a teddy bear. You smiled.

Your first date with Felix happened 3 years ago, at the arcade near the froyo store where you worked. 

“You think claw machines are, like, legit?” You’d asked while munching on cotton candy. 

“You think they aren’t? The prizes they give you aren’t figments of your imagination, you know. They’re real.” Felix said, chuckling while taking a bite from your stick of cotton candy. 

“That’s not what I meant, idiot. It’s always so hard to catch a prize from a claw machine. My dad always said they were some sort of scam; you put in money and hope to win a prize, but most of the time you get nothing.” You retorted, side-eyeing the claw machine. 

“Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s completely unattainable, dumbass. Look, I’ll show you.” He walked over to the claw machine. “You got any 20-cent coins?” 

“If you win nothing after 3 tries, you owe me dinner.” You drop one in his palm.

“You’re on, gremlin.” 

The first two tries were disastrous. He was close to owing you dinner. 

“Trust me, I can come back from this. Third time’s the charm, remember?” He said, inserting another coin into the machine while furrowing his eyebrows in concentration. 

“Yeah, say that again when you’re the one buying me dinner.” 

Famous last words. The teddy bear descended from the claw’s grip into the collection funnel. 

He looked at you with a mischievous grin. “I guess you owe me dinner now.” You groan. 

He bent down to take the teddy bear out, then held it out to you. “Yours. Dinner’s on me too.” 

You smile, blushing slightly. Taking the teddy bear, you tiptoe to hug him. “Thank you, Lix,” you say before planting a small kiss on his cheek. He pulls away and ruffles your hair, his grin widening. 

“Anything for you, gremlin.”

“Okay… Positive reactions indicate positive memories associated with the respective items. Thank you for reacting well, Miss Y/n. Everything alright so far? Show me a thumbs-up if yes.” Dr Bang asked, looking away from the monitor on the table to face you. 

You show him a thumbs-up while flashing him a slight smile. 

“Good, thank you. Dr Myoui, please show her the next item.” 

The next item Dr Myoui shows you is a crocheted snow duck. You smile again, but this one doesn’t quite reach your eyes.

6 months into your relationship, you and Felix had your first real argument. 

It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal; it was just one of those days when nothing was going your way. You overslept, missed your bus, was late to work and got yelled at by a customer. One of those days when the smallest thing irritated you, and all you wanted to do was go back home and rot. 

The moment you stepped foot into your shared apartment with him, it hit you. 

Your original schedule for today wasn’t packed, so you thought you’d come home early in the evening and bake brownies with Felix since the both of you had been craving it recently. What you forgot to tell him was that one of your coworkers called in sick at the last minute so you had to cover for her shift, which caused you to come home 4 hours after you promised you would. 

“You’re home late,” he said, standing up from where he was sitting on the couch to greet you. 

“You started without me.” You bitterly shot back when you caught sight of the 2 batches of brownies sitting on the counter. 

“What was I supposed to do then? You said you’d be home at 5 and it’s already 9.” He protested, eyes narrowing as his tone became sharper. 

“I didn’t have a day off today like you did, Felix. Work dragged on late, okay?” You sighed, taking off your shoes and hanging your cardigan on a rack near the door. 

“You could’ve told me. I was looking forward to spending time with you.” 

You turn to look at him and instantly feel a small sense of guilt wash over you. His expression was unreadable, but you could tell from his gaze that he was hurt. Upset. It seemed like all you did these days only made the people around you upset. 

You clicked your tongue. “I don’t want to fight.”

“Me neither.” He stated, voice flat before moving to wipe non-existent dust off a spot on the counter. “Just tell me beforehand next time, if there even will be one.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You snap. 

“Nothing, forget it. I’m going to bed.” He stormed off while brushing his hair back, something he always did when he was stressed or frustrated – a habit he’d picked up from you. 

You stare after him and roll your eyes, any ounce of guilt you’d felt immediately vanishing after hearing his words. You open one of the boxes on the counter and steal a brownie. They were good, but they didn’t taste the same. 

Felix wasn’t there to enjoy them with you, and you weren’t there to make them with him. 

A few days later, Felix had visited you at work, a cup of matcha latte in one hand and the crocheted snow duck in the other. He couldn’t stand the silent treatment you both gave each other, apologised for saying words he didn’t mean and said he followed a YouTube tutorial to crochet the snow duck as a peace offering because the first snow came while you were simmering on opposite sides of the bed. 

You couldn’t stand being mad at him for long, so you forgave him. Relatively speaking, things went back to normal after that. 

For weeks after the argument, the both of you could tell that your relationship dynamic had shifted. Your movements around him became more calculated, and he grew more analytical of what he said when you were near. 

Yet, none of you had said anything about it. The shift kept building, but ignoring it helped until you couldn’t ignore it anymore and neither could he. 

The first crack in the glass was a brownie baking date that you’d flaked on without meaning to.

“Not so much of a good reaction this time… Bittersweet memories then,” Dr Bang let out a loud exhale. “Everything good, Miss Y/n?” 

You nod. 

“Awesome. Dr Myoui, next item, please.” 

A polaroid. Dr Myoui shows you a polaroid. Your smile falters.

Your birthday was 5 months ago, the day before your relationship with Felix ended. 3 weeks prior, you and him had argued again. 

This was the worst argument you’ve had since the brownie incident, and the longest you’d gone giving him the cold shoulder. 

When you first got to know him, you didn’t think you could handle not talking to him for 3 weeks. 

Now, you weren’t sure if this silence was temporary anymore. For God’s sake, you didn’t even remember what the argument was about. The only thing you knew was that all of your emotions and all of his had been festering for a very, very long time. 

The final crack in the glass. 

The night before your birthday, you’d gotten home late after covering another one of your coworkers’ shifts. You were fully prepared to sleep with your back facing Felix again, but he had been awake and his gaze was now on you as if he’d been inwardly manifesting your presence for the past few hours. 

“I texted you this time. Told you 2 hours ago that I’d be back late,” you snicker, but your words were void of any humour. 

So were his. “Funny. We need to talk, Y/n.” 

“Didn’t think we needed to talk about anything, but sure. Go ahead.” You gesture for him to start saying his piece, and he looks at you like you’d just grown another nose. 

“Seriously? You think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this relationship?” He asks incredulously, and you scoff while removing your makeup. He brushes his hair back again, clearly annoyed. 

“Whatever, I just think that this isn’t working anymore.” 

You turn away from the mirror to look at him. To really look at him. 

It weighs down on you that he’s right. You’d stopped telling him things immediately after they happened, and he no longer reached out or looked at you like you were his entire world. 

Maybe you weren’t anymore. 

“I’m sorry for everything, Lix… For – for being a bitch, and for every single moment I’ve made you feel like I didn��t care as much as you did,” you say hesitantly after a few moments. You weren’t reluctant to apologise; you just didn’t know how to phrase it, or whether an apology would fix everything that’d gone wrong until now. 

He lets out a breath he probably had no clue he was holding. 

“You remember that voice message you sent me 2 months into our relationship, when you’d gotten your valedictorian award at graduation?” He asked, his voice starting to shake. You nod – there was no way in hell you would forget that. 

The feeling of him being the first person to share every emotion with you. 

“I remember how proud I was of you, and how sorry I felt about missing the whole thing because I was overseas. When your sister sent me that video of you walking up to the stage and receiving the award, I was so happy I actually burst into tears. Seungmin looked at me like I was crazy.” You let out a small chuckle, moving to sit on the bed and lean your head against his shoulder. 

“I don’t want to forget that. I don’t want to forget how happy you made me; how much I loved you, but… I feel like we’ve let this thing snowball for so long that it made me forget.” 

You pull back to see his eyes brimming with unshed tears, and immediately move to wipe them away before they fell. Even now, you still couldn’t bear to see him cry. 

“I’m sorry, sunshine… I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help you preserve those feelings, I’m sorry for letting this bother us for so long; I’m probably apologising too much right now for it to sound sincere, but I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry.” You utter, wrapping your arms around him tightly like you never wanted to remove yourself from his embrace. 

The both of you stayed like that for a long time, just crying until you were too tired to continue. 

After a while, you broke the silence between you. “Do you think we can try again, Lix?” 

He hesitated. You take his silence as a no. 

“Is this it? For us; is this it, Felix?” You look up at him, desperate for him to say something. 

“I think so… I don’t know if we can try again, Y/n. I’m sorry.” You almost crumble at his words, but you stop yourself. You didn’t think you deserved the right to feel sad when you had allowed the inevitable to finally happen. 

“Celebrate my birthday with me tomorrow? One last time, then I’ll be out of your life for good.” 

He nods, a sad smile on his face.

The next day, you sit on the counter and watch while Felix lights the candles on your birthday cake. 

“You’re a year older now, grandma.” He says fondly, hopping onto the counter before holding the cake out to you. “Happy birthday.” 

You playfully roll your eyes before closing them, clasping your palms together to make a wish. 

I hope that Lee Felix finds happiness in someone who will treat him right – better than I ever did – and that we will get our own happy ending in another life.  

You open your eyes and blow the candles out. 

He beckons for you to hold the cake for a while, reaching for his polaroid camera to snap a picture of you and the cake. “What’d you wish for?” 

You looked at him like you used to, before all the arguments happened and the dynamics shifted. It was as if everything had rewinded itself to when your relationship first began. Your grin widens. 

Click. 

“World peace,” you shrug. 

From the furthest corner of your mind, you could hear Dr Bang saying, “That’s pretty much it for the mapping. I think we can proceed with the erasing now.” You ignore it, willing your mind to focus on submerging yourself in the last few memories you had of Felix before you no longer could. 

The polaroid is left on the counter to develop. You smear icing on his face. He smears icing on yours. You fall asleep in each other’s arms on the couch, but he’s gone when you wake up. 

It’s weird, because you didn’t feel like anything was missing when you woke up. It was as if he was never a part of your life. 

Your memory of Lee Felix was getting erased.

Your eyes fly open. The heart monitor was beeping like crazy. Dr Bang and Dr Myoui rush to stabilize your condition, but all you could think of was Felix. 

The world looked blurry. You were crying. 

“Miss Y/n? Can you hear me?” Dr Bang frantically asks, eyebrows furrowed with worry. 

You grip the pendant hanging from your neck; a matching half-heart you’d gotten with Felix at the fair 2 years ago, the one thing you forgot to put with all the other items in the box. 

“I… I know I – I wanted to get my memory erased… I know I had to gather everything that reminded me of him for this to work, but… Can’t I just keep this one? Please? Dr Myoui, Dr Bang… Just let me keep this one. Change the way I got it in my memory; I don’t care. Just let me keep it.” You let out in between sobs and sharp breaths. 

“Noted. I’ll change it for you, Miss Y/n. I’ll change it, okay?” Dr Bang rushed over to the monitor, typing furiously on the keyboard while Dr Myoui tried to anchor you back to reality. 

Three things you saw: Dr Myoui’s concerned gaze, Dr Bang at the monitor and your trembling hand gripping the necklace without a single intent to let it go. 

“You’ll remember it as something else, Miss Y/n. Stay with me, okay? Breathe – in, out… in, out…” Dr Myoui held onto your free hand in consolation until you calmed down, your features relaxing.

You could’ve sworn the necklace you were wearing was given to you by another person. 

It definitely wasn’t given to you by your best friend Ryujin; it had to be someone else who gave it to you. The only problem was that you’d forgotten who. 

Maybe you were thinking too much. Maybe it was really just Ryujin who gave you the necklace. 

One thing was for sure: your memory of Lee Felix was now completely erased.

You’d woken up 30 minutes later with both Dr Bang and Dr Myoui telling you that the procedure was a success. 

You’d shaken Dr Bang’s hand and hugged Dr Myoui, thanking them for their hard work. 

Once you’d exited the room, Dr Myoui closed the mini door to the incinerator and ignited the flames for your box of items to burn. 

The only recollection you had of the procedure was that you did it to get over someone who used to be in your life. You couldn’t remember who, but you silently wished them well.

A year after you’d gotten the procedure, you and Felix crossed paths again. 

Some things stayed the same: you still worked at the froyo store, still wore your matching necklace with “Ryujin”, still loved baking brownies even though a part of you always felt missing whenever you taste-tested them. 

Yet, things were different. Felix was now in a far better headspace than he was a year ago, but you still occupied a portion of his mind. The ‘what-if’s that could’ve taken place if you’d tried again plagued him, but the procedure erased him from your memory so intensely that even the sound of his name was now foreign to your heart. It was as if he’d never stopped being just a stranger to you. 

When Felix stepped foot into the froyo store for the first time in ages, his heart stuttered after seeing you. He still thought you were beautiful; he always did, but you also looked… Lighter, as if you no longer had the burdensome weight of him to carry. 

You were sitting at one of the tables near the window after your shift, a cup of vanilla froyo in your hands while you read a book. He always used to joke that your go-to froyo order was far too boring for someone who worked at a froyo store, but that was something you didn’t remember anymore. 

Just then, his breath hitched. 

Your necklace. You were still wearing it, and so was he. 

His body moved before his mind could, approaching your table without a second thought. His inner conscience screamed at him to stop, to turn away, to follow Dr Bang’s instructions and not do anything that could trigger a lapse in the procedure, but he didn’t. 

He almost ditched his entire plan and bolted out the door when you looked up at him, your eyes now carrying only a hint of curiosity. No more trace of the love that used to be his. 

“Can I help you?” You asked politely, your tone slightly distant. 

“No, um, would you mind if I sat here? All the other seats are taken,” he said, immediately wishing he never opened his mouth when you looked around to see every other seat unoccupied. 

You chuckled. “Nah, of course I don’t mind. Do you need me to help you order anything?”

“It’s okay,” he managed to get out, almost choking on his own words. “What are you reading?” 

“Oh, this? It’s ‘Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982’ by Cho Namjoo. My favourite book.” You said, slightly sheepish. Everyone always told you people would never guess that a feminist book was your favourite based on first impressions, assuming you’d rather read other books with fluffier plots. 

Then again, Felix wasn’t just anyone. He knew your favourite book by heart. He knew your favourite everything, even after a year. 

That familiar ache in his chest surfaced again, Dr Bang’s instructions replaying in his head. “She’s gotten the procedure. She’s not going to remember you anymore, so just… Don’t do anything that could reawaken that destroyed part of her memory. Let her move on, she’s hurt enough; it was obvious from how the procedure went.” 

He ignored it and stayed put, because he knew he would rather have multiple first-meetings with you than never get to see you again. Even if the first option eats him alive more than the second one does. 

He nods, holding out his hand for you to shake. “I’m Felix.” 

“I’m Y/n. It’s nice to meet you, Felix,” you grin while shaking his hand, and he has to bite the inside of his cheek to refrain himself from telling you that you’ve not just met, but also loved each other before. 

“Nice necklace. I’ve got a similar one.” He comments before showing you the pendant on his. The matching half-heart, though he knew that part of your memory had already been erased. 

“Wait, that’s a crazy coincidence!” You laugh. “Mine’s a matching one with my best friend, yours?” 

“I’m… matching with my younger sister, yeah.” He says with a smile that he doesn’t mean. 

“Cool.” 

The both of you remain in silence for a while after that, the atmosphere between you bordering between comfortable and awkward before a notification sounds from your phone. 

He catches a small glimpse of your lockscreen before you pick your phone up to check it, and a sinking feeling dawns over him when he sees an unfamiliar man’s picture there. 

“Who’s that on your lockscreen?” He asks before he could stop the words from tumbling out, and wishes for the ground to swallow him whole when you look at him with an eyebrow raised. 

“Pretty personal for a first meeting, don’t you think?” You squint your eyes, your suspicious facade breaking as you cackle while he stutters his way through an answer. 

“I’m kidding, that’s just my boyfriend. He comes here almost everyday, but he’s on an overseas exchange trip right now.” You clarify. 

Boyfriend. This time, Felix wishes for the ground to really swallow him whole. 

It’s not like it was unexpected for you to move on, but a selfish part of him had still hoped that maybe you were waiting to meet and fall in love with him again. 

“Cool.” He mentally slaps himself for giving such an awkward answer. 

You walk out of the froyo store a few minutes later, saying you had somewhere to be and telling him that you’d love to see him again. He returns the smile and wave you gave him as you left, before plopping his head down on the table once you were out of sight. 

Maybe he was being stupid, but he didn’t want to move on from you yet. He still wanted to cling onto the memory of you for a while longer, before it no longer hurt to remember the things you forgot. 

Even after everything that happened, he still loved you with every fiber of his being. 

He didn’t need you to remember, and he most definitely did not need you to love him again after seeing how much happier you looked after moving on. 

The only thing he knew was that if forgetting everything was what you needed to feel okay again, he would cherish all the memories you’ve shared for the both of you. Always, without a doubt.

@prodkwh 🧸

⤷ reblogs are appreciated ! thank you for reading (づ> v <)づ♡

⤷ tag list :: @coriihanniee @lvlyhiyyih @kjwluvr @8makes1atom

[anim-ttrpgs]

How to Choose Music for a TTRPG Session & Eureka Song Selections

When our own group plays any TTRPG, we always like to have some amount of background music to help with the mood and tone, and if you do too, then here's a post about how best to choose it, because it is a learnable skill!

I am one of the creators of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

and the idea for this post grew out of making a curated list of songs for Eureka sessions, each sorted into different categories for easy access. The Narrator in a Eureka campaign exercises very little control over the story and pacing of the game, so it isn't very helpful to plan for a specific reveal of specific scene set to a certain song. To that end, I have sorted these songs into various types of scenes, tones, etc. for you to grab as the story is emerging.

You can find these lists here:

Session Intro Music (in case you wanna open each session with a musical theme like an episode of a tv show)

Investigation Scene Music (low-stakes) or Meal Scene

Investigation Scene Music (tense/creepy) Part 1

Investigation Scene Music (tense/creepy) Part 2

Foot Chase Music

Vehicle Chase Music

Scooby-doo-ass Chase Music

Investigators Fleeing/Hiding from Monster Music

Unarmed Combat Music

Deadly/Armed Melee Combat Music

Deadly/Firearm Combat Music

Monster Rampage Music

Monster Hunting Music (as in the monster is a PC who is hunting prey)

How to Choose Music for a TTRPG Session

There’s a few things that make a good TTRPG session song that aren’t immediately obvious.

Avoid Lyrics

Lyrics are a no-go 90% of the time. You gotta assume that the players will be trying to read rules and/or do math during the session and lyrics can make that harder.

Avoid Loud, Dissonate, or Disorienting Music

For the very same reasons—and this is especially useful to keep in mind for a horror-themed game like Eureka—it can't be too dissident or grating. A lot of horror video game music is really dissident screechy and offensive to the ears because this induces a tiny sense of panic, but again, like with lyrics, this means it’s hard to actually play a TTRPG while listening to this.

Don't Outpace the Combat

For combat music, a fast-paced “action” song can work, but if it’s too fast-paced it really quickly outpaces the combat itself because TTRPG combat is necessarily kind of slow. I do have plenty of fast-paced actiony songs in those lists, but those are best grouped into a playlist in sequence rather than looped, because then you at least have the rather frequent serendipity of the song changing on a per-turn basis.

The usual better option is something “tense” and “cool” but a bit more understated, usually with a mid-intensity repeating beat. Complex action songs work in other mediums like movies because their notes can be tailored to sync up to the actual actions on-screen, but that won’t happen in a TTRPG 90% of the time, even if just because describing a character throwing a punch takes way longer than a character throwing a punch in a movie.

For Eureka I also had to like make sure there was a good selection of action music in there that wasn’t too “cool” or “heroic.” Eureka characters are not fearless action heroes nor usually trained soldiers. If they are in a fight, it usually isnt cool, it’s scary. If anything, the combat music should be the bad guy’s theme, not the protagonists’, because they’re the ones with the advantage. When a Eureka PC does have the advantage and can be super “cool” in a fight, they’re probably a monster, in which case it’s the other way around, they’re the terrifying bad guy in the NPC’s story, and I tried to pick music to reflect that with “darker,” more “sinister” tracks.

Choose Songs without Shifts in Tempo or Intensity

You want something that is very easy to loop. Lots of cool songs go through pretty dramatic changes in their intensity over the course of their runtime. This is cool like I said when they can be synced up to action in a movie, but they’ll never (or rarely) sync up with anything in a TTRPG session. They’re going to be playing over and over on like a 3-minute loop as you roll dice and occasionally look up rules, and if this loop is really noticeable because of how the song starts out slow and then swells in intensity, that is going to be annoying fast. You want a song that has a relatively consistent level of intensity throughout its whole runtime.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!

You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.