#as an ex-designer now developer.. yeah

[fashionteahouse]

Baby, I have a slightly unusual idea.

How about writing a Paul x Reader where the reader recently moved to Forks and became really close friends with Emily? One day, she visits Emily’s house, and that’s when Paul imprints on her. But there’s a problem: the reader is still getting over a previous relationship that was very good and healthy but ended due to long distance.

For a long time, Paul and the reader’s relationship remains purely friendly. Paul develops romantic feelings for her, but she still has lingering feelings for her ex. Then, one day, they have a fight (you can decide the reason) and spend some time apart. Later, Paul sees the reader with her ex-boyfriend at the beach.

I’d love for it to be a long story with a romantic ending between Paul and the reader. I’ll leave it up to you how to resolve things with the ex to make way for Paul.

oh wowww my love 🩶 I would love to do this ! hope you enjoy :)

swept away - paul x reader

Arms were crossed as you turned side to side, waiting for the cars to stop at a light or even better, let you cross the street.

You huff with a slight impatient stamp of your feet. The feet that had on shoes that earned you a compliment from a stranger.

You turn your head at the dark haired woman, “Thanks.” you say with a polite smile.

The dark haired woman was already smiling, but it turned bigger before she pressed the walking button on the pole.

“They never let you go. It’s ridiculous.” she says with a soft shake of her head.

“I know right.” you say with a breathy chuckle as the light turn yellow.

You both finally walk across the street once the cars stop at the red light.

A store where you could shop for less, you needed essentials. She apparently needed something like that because you found yourself holding the door open for her.

“Thank you.” she beamed at you.

“No problem.” you smile back as you both enter the store and the store clerk welcomes you both in the store and tells them to let you know if you need help finding anything.

“I love this store. Have you been here before?” the woman asks you as she’s already inspecting the shining jewelry that was on display. A shopping basket was hung on her arm now.

Your eyes tried their best to take in all what the store has to offer.

“Never been. It’s my first time.”

“I can tell you’re not from here.” she says and you both are at the same rack of clothes, scooting a hanger to look at the shirts.

“Is it that obvious?”

“It’s just that everybody knows everybody and a fresh face sticks out like a sore thumb….What’s your name?”

“Y/N. Yours?”

“Emily..So, where do you stay?”

“Forks. What about you?”

“La Push.”

“Where’s that?” you say as you press a shirt against you.

“It’s about 20 minutes West.”

“Do you come out to Port Angeles a lot? I’m liking it so far.”

“From time to time. I like to spend money and I try to avoid it as much as I can.”

You smile as you had the same problem. You both walk, veering off from each other. You actually get what you need while also treating yourself.

You smile at the fact that you’re behind her when it’s time to check out. She turns a bit and she sees you stands behind her in line. You look what’s in her arms.

Two cookbooks. A picture for home decor and a set of curtains.

“You like cooking and designing?” you ask.

“Yeah..This one is for muffins and this one has just desserts. Figured I try something new,” she says as she gestures the two books in her arms, “I want to change up my living room. It’s a new season.”

“I might need to borrow your eye. My new place has nothing on the walls and all I have is plain blinds that were already there when I moved in, not curtains.” you chuckle.

She chuckled as well as she started walking towards the cashier who was expecting her. She put her items on the counter as you went to another cashier who was open.

Before the woman named Emily, left, she made sure to exchange numbers with you.

“I love you already. You gave me an excuse to come back here with you. We can get some things to hook your new place up.” she promised with a smile. You couldn’t help but smile back.

That’s exactly what you two did. A week went by of texting and soon, you two were walking side by side, pointing at the different things that had the potential to make your home seem promisingly more attractive.

“Is it just you or are you seeing someone?”

“Just me. I left my old beau behind.” you say.

“I’m shocked that you’re single.”

“Wow, I’ve never received that compliment before.” you say with a lighthearted laugh.

You both entered your home and went right to work. It was fun. You only put up curtains during the times your grandmother would want to spring clean.

You would look at it as a chore.

With Emily, it was fun. You both laughed and talked.

“Are you seeing someone?” you ask her. She was beautiful and so nice.

“Yes. His name is Sam. I would love for you to meet him sometime.”

“Oh, yeah. I have to see your new and improved living room anyway.” you grin as you stepped back admired the picture that hung over your couch.

“You’re absolutely right.” Emily says with two hands on her hips, proud of the work you two put in. The next thing you two did was eat.

As you stared at your ceiling, in the new comforter that covered your body, you blinked at the darkness.

You didn’t know why you picked Forks. It seemed perfect. It was away from Seattle. A place you always wanted to leave from. Unfortunately, it was away from him. You underestimated how small the town was. You were glad though. This meant that friends were to be quickly made. You were grateful for Emily.

That was the last thought you had before drifting off to sleep.

In the morning, you stared at your phone, not caring that your cereal was getting soggy.

Emily invited you over.

You were excited.

She hugged you once she opened the door to your knock.

“Come in, come in.” she encouraged and practically pulled you in the home. It had a distinctive smell. A smell of warmth.

A man in a plain shirt comes in and politely greeted himself.

This was Sam. He looked intimidating until he gave you a smile that made your shoulders fall with ease.

“She’s told me all about you.” he grinned.

“I’m touched.” you admit as you smiled at Emily.

“Come and see the living room.” Emily says and takes your hand.

“This is so amazing. You did all of this by yourself.” you say with an impressed nod of your head.

“With Sam’s help of course. I definitely couldn’t reach to put those up.” she points to the curtains.

“And mine.”

The voice was unfamiliar but bold. You turn and see the man in the doorway taking in the environment. You took him in and he seemed to take you in with his eyes. They were unforgettable. He looked like trouble, but you didn’t mind that.

The feeling was strange however, it felt like you and him were the only beings in the room. No, the only beings on Earth. It felt like chains or a bind had wrapped themselves so tight around your soul and intertwined it with this man that you have never met before until now. A satisfactory hum flowed through you.

You turn back around as he moved himself away from the doorway to enter more into the living room.

“Yes. I can’t forget that you helped me too, Paul. And I thank you.” Emily says.

Paul entered the room and sits in the recliner and Sam makes a distasteful gesture, “That’s my chair.”

“When did Emily grave your name on it?” the man named Paul says.

You didn’t mean to breathe out a small huff of a chuckle but he grinned a bit as he saw the reaction that came out of you.

Sam steps forward and Paul gets up with a carefree grin and tone, “Chill out.” he says to Sam who only seemed to be annoyed with him. He pats Sam’s shoulder once Sam sinks into his chair.

“Get out of here.” Sam grumbled as he swatted Paul’s hand away as Paul sniggered.

“Come on, Y/N. We can try one of these recipes out.” Emily says with a smile.

You nod with agreement and let her lead you into her cozy kitchen.

The cookbooks she had bought were already cracked open on the long wooden table.

The table that Paul has sat down in. You pick one up and flipped through, reading ingredients in your head and looked at the pictures.

“I know you’re not in here to help out.” Emily says.

“I will.” Paul replied.

“Please. You’re just here so you can get first dibs.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

You and Emily chuckled a bit.

“When did you move here?”

You look up from the book slowly. The man blinked at you as he was sat back in his chair. You look down.

“Um…Like a good two weeks ago.”

“From where?”

“Seattle.” You say as you look back up.

“She stays in Forks.” Emily says.

“You have family here or something?” he asked.

“Nope..Just came here on a whim.” you answered.

“You’re probably saying that and you’re on the run from the cops or some shit.”

“Paul.” Emily rolled her eyes.

You grin a bit.

“What? You left Seattle and came to Forks. That’s questionable.”

“I wanted to go to a small town. I was a bit tired of the fast city life. I grew up with it all my life.” you admit as you turn a page.

Emily grabs a bowl as Paul says, “Well, you definitely got what you were looking for.”

“Hopefully.” you say quietly.

Paul watched as the batter was being added in the bowl and offered to stir.

Emily put the books away as you shake your head at Paul about to stir wrong.

“Does it really matter?” he asked in slight frustration. The faster to get them in the oven, the faster he could eat them.

“Yes. You’re supposed to like fold it. Not stir it like pancakes.” you say and take over. He watched. He stood close that you felt his body heat. You cursed your nervousness as he looked over your shoulder.

The light of the oven shined on the growing muffins as Sam entered the kitchen.

You look down and pretended your phone case was the most interesting thing to look at as Sam smooched Emily’s face.

You remember the giggles that once graced your face. The ticklish feeling of featherlight kisses. You missed it.

“I think they’re done.” Paul announced and was already opening the oven. You stand up as you sniffed the aroma.

You gasp and clasp your hand on his arm. You retract it quickly once he looked down at your hand.

“Are you crazy? You’ll burn yourself. Use these.” you say and hold up oven mitts.

“Watch.” he says as he splayed his hands and took out the muffins as if they weren’t straight out of the scorching oven.

“You are crazy.” you say quietly in confirmation. This earns you chuckles.

You answer as you look out the window. The phone was pressed to your ear.

“Hey.”

“Hey. Everything good?”

“Yeah. Everything’s great.”

“How was your day?”

You smile a bit, “It was good,” you walk away from the window as you let your eyes wander about your decorative room, “I met some people who are actually pretty welcoming and nice.”

“Oh, wow. What all you guys do?”

“Bake. Have fun. What about you? Did things get boring now that I’m not there?”

The chuckle he produced over the grainy line still warmed you up, “Hell, yeah…How’s that place treating you?”

“Good. The people made me comfortable…Enough about me. What about you? Save the world yet?”

“Ha, ha. Almost. But, no seriously, I called to let you know, I got the job…With how things are looking, I might be getting that promotion soon. They’re liking what I’m putting to the table.”

You freeze as you try to make out words. It was the thing that kept him back. The thing that made you two have differences for the first time. You two just simply wanted different things.

He wanted to stay in the hometown. You wanted to leave.

“That’s amazing…Wow…Congratulations….I really wish I was there to congratulate you in person.”

“I know…” you hear the smile in his voice.

You almost hold your tongue, but you couldn’t hold it. It’s been too long.

“I miss you.”

It’s silent and you start to regret your words but you hear, “I miss you too.”

Your heart jumps with joy.

“You do?” you whisper.

“You know I do….You ever think that maybe you could just come ba-“ you hear talking in the background before he sighs.

“Im gonna kill them I swear…I promise I will call you soon, alright? I gotta go.”

You chuckle a bit, “No worries. Talk to you later.”

The crunch of your footsteps made noises as you took in the breeze. It was jacket weather but you were surprised to see a figure with no shirt.

The muscles in their arms and chest flexed as they bounced the basketball against the hard pavement of the basket court.

A swish was made before he turned around.

“It’s creepy to watch people like that.”

You grin as you walk around the gate and enter the court. You bump Paul a bit, “Shut up.” you mutter.

Retrieving the basketball, you bounce it. The ping bouncing around you two.

Paul stared a bit before he unexpectedly steal the ball which made you groan. He smiled at your efforts to get it back but you freeze at his successful half court shot.

“Whoa.” you say quietly.

It was clean.

He retrieved it and bounced the ball as he circled around you with a smirk.

You sober up from being impressed. You cross your arms as you look at him, “You just got lucky.”

“Uh huh….I bet I can do that everyday.”

“Everyday?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why aren’t you pro?” you tease. You were a bit shocked at the fallen expression that was subtle. He went back to being neutral.

“You try then.” he says and bounced the ball back to you.

You grin as you throw it with a dramatic heave. It was an air ball.

Paul cackled as you rolled your eyes.

“I’m leaving.” you announce and leave out the gate but he keeps the ball under his arm and follows you.

“When you introduced yourself, you should’ve told me you were such a sore loser.”

“Would you quit it?” you say and touch his sweaty arm.

“You touch me a lot.” he says.

“You pick with me a lot.”

“I bet you like touching me as much as I like picking with you.”

“You shouldn’t be so cocky.” you say as you chuckle a bit.

“See? You didn’t even deny it.”

You groan as it was his turn to chuckle.

He goes to throw an arm around your shoulders but you duck as he laughed.

“Man, I’ll see you later. You’re getting on my nerves.” you say with a playful shake of your head.

As you walked, he called out.

“You wanna see a magic trick?” he says and you stop but don’t turn around.

“Does it involve sweat?”

He softly breathed out a quick laugh, “Not at all. Just follow me.”

You follow him. You didn’t recognize the area but it was nice to take in with your eyes. You walked through trees, away from the park and you stood in open space.

The birds chirped softly as you cross your arms and watch him set the ball down on the ground. You keep your eyes to the ball with a soft smile, thinking he was going to do something to make the basketball disappear.

“Alright. You gotta turn around.”

You look back up.

“That’s the oldest trick in the book. I turn around and you’ll leave me here.” you say humorously but deep down, you didn’t want to be left alone.

“I’m not going to leave you. I promise….It’s a transformation….You don’t have to be scared.” he explains.

“Like a….” you furrow your eyebrows with a questionable look. You didn’t know what to think but he just asked once more for you to turn around and when you look back, don’t be afraid of what you see next.

“Are you going to kill me?”

“Worse. You’re going to want to kill me.” he says.

It was suspenseful. So you turn around and next thing you know, you hear panting at the sight of the trees swaying side by side like a slow dance.

A loud crackling noise, almost sounding like electricity, bounced as you next heard a big heavy heave.

You blink as you were afraid to turn around but you still have your shoulders squared. You then relax completely once you felt a nudge because you figured Paul was making noises to mess with you.

You were ready to tell him how corny it was.

Only for you to gasp in total disbelief.

A shimmery live wolf was panting before you as it kneeled down. The eyes were friendly but the animal was just huge.

“Who’s…..Pet?” you just threw out because you knew it was a wolf, but for it to be so well trained, it was creepy.

“Paul?” you call.

The wolf responded and you stumble back some a bit but you don’t fall.

“What? How did you do that?” you stutter out.

The animal gets up and you can see the fluid muscles work with the fur. It circled you as you thought that you were dreaming.

“You’re not going to eat?”

You blinked at the full plate.

“Im not really hungry.”

“Y/N, you’re allowed to get freaked out.”

You look up and look at Paul who was nonchalant about everything.

“Is it hard? Did you freak out when it happened for the very first time? Wait. Were you born like this?”

“Which one do you want me to answer?” he asked with a slight smirk.

“All of them.” you whisper as you lean in. He leans in a bit too.

“The first time is always the hardest. I freaked out but I was mainly pissed. I was born normal it’s just that my wolf gene from my ancestors, was triggered. Growing up, we’re told the stories but I mean me, I didn’t ever think it would really happen.”

“Hm.” you hum as you look at the other people in the booths in the restaurant.

“You’re not scared, are you?”

“No.” you answer.

“Good.”

“I’ll still be your friend if that’s what you’re worried about.” you say quietly to him. He has an amicable look.

You thought things would be awkward but, you found yourself hanging everyday with him. He wasn’t as annoying as you tell him, he was actually nice to be around when he wasn’t out protecting.

He told you he calls them patrol shifts. On his turn, he has to scope out the area. Making sure no cold ones, vampires as known, come close to the reservation.

Lounging on his bed, you both simply talked.

“I don’t think I had a real real girlfriend. I don’t think I’ve dated anyone past two months.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense.” you say. A blind person could see that Paul had a face that made you believe he was off of the market.

“I’m picky.”

“Doesn’t seem like it.” you tease, earlier, your jaw dropped at a detailed escapade.

“We all have wants. But, I haven’t been able to find my need.”

“…I hope you find it.” you say as you look at a piece of string on his comforter.

“I found it recently.”

At night, you worried about him. You check your phone and the time was ticking.

You sigh softly into the dark room as you wanted to sleep but your mind kept you awake. You just wanted your thoughts to be swept away. It didn’t matter that Paul could turn into an animal. In a way, you felt it in your heart to be there for him if needed.

“We still keep in contact.” you say as you try out his gaming system with him.

“What’s the point? He’s your ex.” Paul says. He was grumpy. Groaning under his breath as he pressed down on the controller.

“Yeah, but we’re still friends. It’s possible to be friends with exes.” you playfully roll your eyes.

“So, if we were dating and I were to be friends with an ex, you wouldn’t have a problem with it.”

“No, because you don’t have one in the first place.” you burst out laughing in his face. He threw the controller down. You laugh again.

“You’re mad that I won.” you point at him.

“Whatever. That guy is probably taking some girl to bed as we speak.”

You sober up your laugh, “He would never do that. I know him.”

“Yeah, not so funny anymore isn’t it?”

You scoot off of the couch and go to his kitchen to get water.

“Our relationship was healthy. We knew…Well, know each other for a long time. He’s too busy with his work. He has dreams…He’s so smart…..When we ended things, things were respectable.”

“Not respectable enough…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Seems that no effort was put in to still be involved in each other’s futures.”

You blink at him.

You shake your head as you move out of the kitchen.

He sees you with a shoe in your hand and he points a bit at the shoe.

“Leaving?”

“Yeah. I’m putting in effort to do that.” He rolled his eyes in annoyance, “You're being dramatic.” “And you’re so fucking disrespectful.”

“And you don’t know what you want. You don’t know how to fully let go of something that’s supposed to be in the past?”

“How about I leave you in the past?” You grit to him.

You try your best to give him a powerful shove.

“Don’t push me. Keep your fucking hands to yourself.” He snapped.

“Don’t call me.”

“I won’t. Don’t ask me to come over.” he sneered.

“I won’t.” you hiss.

With that, the house that you were comfortable with being in, was out of your sight as you made your way back home.

Time was spent apart. There was an aching in your chest but you didn’t want to be ridiculous. You were sure that it was all in your head.

The only time it seemed to ease, was nights when you would want to sleep.

“I was thinking, since I don’t have work this weekend, we could talk all about it in person.” You gasp with happiness as you reply, “You would come here?”

“Yeah! I want to see how you’re all set up and everything.”

“Cool. I can even show you around.”

You hug him tightly after he made it in town. He entered your home and smiled.

“Really nice.”

“Really?”

He nods. His smile still made your stomach do backflips and he takes your hand.

“Come on, you said you’ll show me around.” He says.

Paul was tired of the annoying pain. Most of all, he would be lying if he said that his days weren’t starting to be lonely.

He slept under your window in his wolf form whenever he could.

He didn’t care to talk to anyone else. He didn’t want to talk to anyone else.

A sharp knock hit your door. He was going to apologize for the words being said.

A different scent intermixed with yours. His heart dropped because he knew it wasn’t a cold one. He was afraid that you met someone else.

The beach usually calmed him as his chest rose up and down. He was upset with himself at the fact that he let words that could’ve been avoided, be thrown out.

The smell of the sea and the sound of the waves went unnoticed by him because all he could smell was your scent. All he could hear was your laughter. All he could see was your body that was close to the guy you showed him.

Your ex.

He turned to walk away after studying the scene before him.

It was as if you two didn’t miss a beat. You two caught up on everything, he told you all about his job and how excited he was.

“I have to tell you something.” He says quietly and it made you pay close attention.

“What is it?”

“I miss you.” He says quietly.

You look down.

“Just come back home, Y/N. We could finally move in together just how we dreamed of. I finally make enough.”

You thought about it. When you come home, the face that you wanted to see whenever you come through the door, wasn’t his.

Paul’s face popped in mind. It startled you.

You lick your lips due to slight nervousness.

“I kind of don’t want to come back.” You whisper. You already were starting to love it here.

“I know.. You always wanted to see the world. We could travel in the summers.” He offered.

“I have to think about all of this to be honest.” You whisper.

“Of course..I’m not going to rush you.”

You hug him outside of your door as he has to leave.

“Can I call you when I make it back?”

“Of course. Drive safe. Please?”

He nods and he hesitates for a bit but he leans in and places a soft kiss on your cheek.

You watch as the car disappeared from your driveway.

Shaking their hands, they reminded you of brothers. You giggled as they were full of energy.

“You guys know Paul?” You ask as you munched on the new dessert you helped Emily make.

“Yeah.” The guy named Jared tells you.

“He um…He didn’t come over?” You ask.

“No. He’s at home.” A guy named Embry speaks out.

As they started falling into their own loud conversation, you packaged a treat.

“Hey, Em. I’ll be back.” You tell her quietly. She nods as she sits in Sam’s lap.

Slowly, you walked to his house. It felt like you were walking on clouds as you realize that you haven’t been on his street for a very long time.

He opened the door. A robe was around his body and was tied tight.

You two blinked at each other.

“Are you going to just stand there or come inside?” He asks in a soft but deep voice.

You slowly smiled.

“For me?”

You nod, “Yeah….It’s my peace offering. We both said mean things. I miss my friend. I miss you Paul.”

He took the container with a grin before he eyed you a bit.

“I came by your house a couple of weeks ago. To apologize…You weren’t there. So, I went to the beach and I saw you.”

“Really? How come you didn’t come to me? We could’ve hashed things then.”

“You were preoccupied with your ex.”

You look down and let out a soft breath.

“I wasn’t going to interrupt that.” He says.

“It’s okay. You weren’t interrupting anything.” You say as you sit down on his soft sofa.

He has a seat next to you.

“He came. Why? Are you two back together?”

“No….He wants me to come back home. He thinks we can work things out.”

Paul sits back in the couch and looks ahead. You look to the side at his exposed knee before swallowing.

“So, you’re leaving?”

You blink at the tears that didn’t fall down your face.

He looked at your face before letting out a tired sigh and rises up. You don’t know why you did it, but you clasp a hand on his wrist.

“Paul-“

“So that’s why you really came over. To tell me goodbye.” He says at you and slid his wrist out of your grasp.

“No. Let me explain-“

“Y/N, I’d much rather if you didn’t come-“

“I want to stay with you, Paul.” You blurt out.

He froze.

“I can’t leave. I don’t want to leave…I love it here…I’m glad that I met you.” You say as you look down.

“What do you mean you want to stay with me?” He whispered.

You couldn’t look him in the eye as you became incredibly shy.

“Y/N.” He called to you.

He takes your hand as he was back next to you.

“I think I like…You.”

“I like you too.” He chuckled but you take your hand out of his and rest your hand on your forehead.

“No, I mean like….” You sigh, “Never mind.”

“Go on, Y/N. It’s just me.” He encouraged.

His eyes were warm and friendly as you let your eyes swim in them.

“I didn’t want to work it out with him. I want what we had to be swept away. For good. I want to….I don’t want to be just your friend. I want us to…Try each other on.”

He doesn’t say anything and you immediately regret letting the words spill out.

“What would you do if I said I feel the same?”

You blink at him in disbelief.

“Would you like that?” He asks you.

A burst of butterflies formed in your stomach as you nodded slowly.

“You don’t care about the wolf thing?”

“No. Of course not…I accept you and all of you.”

He leans a bit and you stop breathing.

“I have to tell you something.”

You nod. A fear was developed. You braced yourself for him to tell you that he met someone. You would be happy for him, but you don’t know if you could handle it.

“Part of being able to shift into a wolf, we are given a gift. A gift of our other half. It’s called imprinting.”

You nod woodenly.

“I imprinted on you. You’re my other half.”

“Really?” You whisper. He nods.

“So…Does this mean I become a wolf…Too?”

He chuckled before shaking his head, “It just means that you will always be apart of my world. I can be your friend, protector, brother…Boyfriend..”

“Do you want…To?….Be my boyfriend?” You ask quietly.

“I do…”

You were breathless and even more so as you felt his soft lips grace yours. You kissed your ex but this made you feel like it was a joke.

A soft sound was made when you two separate. You bring your lips into your mouth to collect yourself.

“It’s about time…I felt this way about you for a long time.” He admitted quietly as he cradled the side of your face.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” You whisper.

“I thought you two getting back together was a possibility. That’s why I acted shitty when you told me you two were still friends.”

You roll your eyes, “Seriously? That stupid fight could’ve been prevented.”

“It could’ve…..But, it only brought you back to me.” He proclaimed and you laugh under your breath as he pulled you close enough for you to be squished against him.

[lenalenouilleisblogging]

2024 feminist movie retrospective ~ day 1

Yeah, let's get the big one™ out of the way first. Or one of the two big ones I guess. I'm sure you can guess what the second one is. Just a heads up : even if it doesn't reflect my convictions, I'll use "sex work is work" vocabulary in this review for the sake of time, clarity, and because the movie uses these words. Also obviously graphic talk of sexual content ahead. Spoilers will be in red.

Watched : November 3rd at an independent theater. The showing was quite packed.

I went to see this film with my mom and brother, and the conversation we had after the film immediately made me realize that gen Z male "feminists" like my brother are 100% this movie's target audience. You'll understand why later...

I'm gonna be transparent, I did not go into this with a fully open mind, I had 2 worries from the getgo : one, Adum from YMS gave this movie a 9/10. This guy is one of the most competent YouTube film critics but he's also a spineless, hypocritical liberal "male feminist", every time he recommends a movie about a feminist issue it's a red flag. And two, the only other Sean Baker film I've seen is Red Rocket. If you haven't seen it (honestly good for you) it's about an ex "porn star" who is now too old for the job and is forced to move back to his shitty home town. When he meets a teenage girl who develops an obvious crush on him, he sees it as an opportunity to groom her into "sex work" to make money off her and get back into the industry. Not only was the film really boring with zero likable characters, but knowing what I know now about Sean Baker, a creepy pro-porn, pro-unregulated prostitution """activist""" the movie is even creepier. (Full disclosure, I wasn't aware of these things when I saw Anora)

Let's start with what works in Anora. Honestly, I don't really have anything negative to say about the technical aspects of the film. It's very well shot, well lit, well edited. The dialogues are realistic, fun and dynamic and all the character interactions feel very real and genuine. Mikey Madison is the obvious standout in terms of acting but the rest of the cast is very good as well. The actor who plays Ivan (the husband) is quite good at being an absolute tête-à-claques (face made for slapping) as we say in french. Seriously this guy's insufferable. The two russian henchmen are a new spin on a tired character archetype and they're super likable and entertaining. I also appreciate that they cast Russian actors to play the russian characters, and not USAmerican actors of vaguely slavic descent. That's a big pet peeve of mine.

In short, the way the movie conveys what it conveys is very good. The problem is, well, WHAT it conveys.

Anora is the character who gives the movie its name. She's a prostitute at a strip club who meets Ivan, the son of a russian oligarch. He's a very easy client for her as he's very rich, not violent (or very active at all seemingly) in bed, gives her access to drugs and alcohol and he immediately decides to exclusively hire her. He buys her more and more often, to the point of bringing her to Vegas with his friends as a "date" and the two end up getting married there, and she moves into his massive house.

Problem is, Ivan didn't ask permission before spending massive amounts of money (and marrying a prostitute) in the US and his family's pissed off. They send three henchmen that are supposed to make him divorce Anora and bring him back to Russia, except he runs away and from then on, the movie follows Anora and the three henchmen in wacky situations as they look for him.

I just made the plot of this movie sound way more clear and concise than it actually is. Because in the actual final product, the rhythm is WACK. But that's by design. The movie sacrifices a lot to make the audience's dick hard, because a lot of it is just porn.

Ivan's family intervenes around the 45min mark, before that we follow Anora as she lives her prostitute life. We also see a lot of other prostitutes at the club she works at. The movie is EXTREMELY explicit for no reason. From what I can remember, there are at least 6 or 7 sex scenes (I count stripping scenes as sex scenes here) in that first third which is enormous, they don't seem to serve a purpose and seem to only exist to titillate the male audience. The stripping scenes in particular are just full dance/stripping routines with the actress shaking her ass and naked breasts at the camera. It drags on and it's very uncomfortable to watch. But hey what do I know. When people suggest skipping the sex scenes to move on to the actual plot this is how men on reddit react :

The movie's sexism doesn't stop at gratuitous sex and nudity. There's also the fact that Anora is BARELY a character. Apart from the fact that she fights off the russians to stay married to Ivan, she makes no real decision at all in the film. She has no fears, wants or dreams. She is entirely defined by what other people do TO her. She has no real personality, especially since the character herself plays a role of sort for a lot of it. She plays the role of a willing, consenting girlfriend/wife with Ivan AND with his family. As shown in the trailer, she's very angry and aggressive with the henchmen during a lot of the film, she physically fights them, she has a foul mouth, she's constantly antagonizing everyone. But it never makes her feel real. She feels like a character archetype in a hentai game. The rude prostitute with the Brooklyn accent who gets into fights but is super sweet to her rich husband <3

Apart from that, the most emotion we see from her is the final scene, after the final confrontation with Ivan's family. Him and Anora divorce, she's not gonna get anything out of it, she even gives the ring back, and she goes back to her sister's place where she lived at the beginning of the film. One of the henchmen, Igor, has been tasked with driving her there. (Igor is a very silent character but the camera often shows us his reactions to the action, and it's abundantly clear that he was on HER side during this whole ordeal) Before she exits the car, Igor reveals that he has managed to snatch the ring back, and he gives it to Anora. Anora then climbs on top of Igor in the car, and long story short (the scene is once again an uncomfortable length) she puts his penis in her and does her thing until he cums. (I feel like even in the context of the film I can't call what she does sex because it's something she does very clinically and almost on auto-pilot) Igor then tries to kiss her, which sends her into a fit of rage, she starts hitting him then slowly starts crying and breaks down in his arms. End of the movie.

So. If you're watching this movie with a feminist eye, the final scene feels like it makes sense. This poor woman has finally found a way to """escape sex work""" by sticking to one client who's not too bad, and just when it becomes comfortable, she is snatched back to the cold reality. When a man does something nice for her completely selflessly, she reacts by giving him sex because it feels to her like it's the only way to say thank you, she only sees sex as something transactional. What defines her interactions with all men. But when it turns out this man likes her as a person and not just as a piece of meat, she doesn't know how to react because it's so unknown to her. And she ends the movie sobbing because after all that, she has to go back to poverty and full-time sex work.

When it's told like this, it almost seems like this narrative takes a stand against prostitution right? It shows us how it broke this woman, how miserable she is, how it affects all of her relationships. Except that's when it all crumbles, because what makes this movie horrible is that this is very much NOT its message.

(just a quick note about the character of Igor because I don't know where in the review to put this : I'm curious what other women, especially women who are survivors, felt about him. That character actually really worried me for a big part of the film. Every time he was alone with Anora (which happens a few times) I was expecting something horrible to happen. In the end obviously it was fine, because this movie takes place in a fantasy land where strippers love their job and criminal henchmen are never inappropriate towards the tied up prostitute they're meant to be intimidating. And yeah I sincerely believe that the character is supposed to be read as this innocent guy who has a crush on Anora or at least really respects her. That's what I meant by "likes her as a person" anyway!)

As I said at the beginning of this post (approximately 84 years ago) I had a conversation with my mother and brother over some fries after the film. My mother and I started talking about how sad we were for the main character, saying pretty much what I've written in these last paragraphs. And then my brother intervenes. "No" he says. "She's so sad at the end of the film because she was genuinely in love with Ivan and that's why she fought so hard to stay married to him, and she has sex with Igor at the end because she likes him too, she has grown attracted to him during the movie." I'm sure you can imagine the look of disbelieving shock on my mother's and my face. The details of the discussion that followed don't matter (My brother was the only one who hadn't been made extremely uncomfortable by the half hour of sex and stripping in the film, funny that) but it made me think.

Let's see this movie for what it is. It's an hour of misery porn that follows 45 minutes of actual porn. It's the misadventures of a poor prostitute who gets thrown around by the plot, written, directed, and produced by a man who believes prostitution should be 100% unregulated and is proud of being a big onlyfans patron. (and holy shit don't look at his following list on twitter) Oh yeah, and he was okay with not having an intimacy coordinator because Mikey Madison didn't want one. It's fine if it's what she wanted right? Liberal feminism is starting to sound like a parody of itself.

As much as it hurts to admit, I think the film my "male feminist" brother believes he saw is closer to what the creator intended than what I think I saw. Because it just makes sense. If it's a porn fantasy about a prostitute who loves her job and falls in love with a rich client, then yeah, the nudity and sexual content are on theme. The ending is still bleak as fuck tho. But let's not forget that the movie at its core is still just award bait. And no wonder the old guys who give these awards loved it. It was made for them. And it's also easier for everyone, no one likes how dark the real world is. They want easy archetypes. That's why radical feminism is unpopular, it's depressing. This movie's highest rated comment on letterboxd is just "a terrifying tale of dating a mama's boy" because yeah, apparently everybody else agrees that what we saw in this film was "dating". What the hell, sure. I'm sure these people also thought Red Rocket was about a harmless cute couple with a bit of an age gap. Well anyway, that was my last Sean Baker.

Final rating : KAM/10

This post wasn't meant to be this long! I had more to say than expected. The other reviews won't be nearly as long. The only other movie I predict I'll yap this much about might be the other big one. See you tomorrow, same time for part 2!

[riewritten]

Johan Liebert, who doesn't want you to love him, started to do everything he knew you'd hate as soon as he got to know you head to toe. His acquaintanceship with you was specifically designed just for that.

Any being Johan has loved—if he's indeed capable of such an act—always ends up hating his very core, and it is all in accordance with his will. After all, hatred has been proven to be much stronger than love in the grander scheme of things in humanity—or so Johan believes.

When he was a kid, he was more well-versed in navigating hatred than love (not that he had more people to love back then aside from his sister). Love was tiring; he always had to worry about his other half being caught by the monster that chased them. Love was temperamental; his other half erased his existence for good as soon as she knew of his ways (not that he'd ever take it against her, for that was the right call—he doesn't exist). And when he met you, his viewpoint of love was reaffirmed even further. Your previous relationships, romantic or platonic, had all taken a toll on you. Johan has heard plenty of stories about you being disappointed with the people you’ve tried to love. When they weren't able to do this or that. When you sleep at six in the morning, exhausted, because trying to understand their actions in the name of love had kept you up all night. How interesting; oh, how genuinely interesting, Johan had thought.

And it even becomes more interesting that despite all that, you're still someone who seeks love, who seeks to love and be loved. “Why?” he asks. How strange. “I just have a lot of love to give, is that too wrong?” you reply, smiling. And when Johan doesn’t answer, you add, “I’m just waiting for the right people who'd be willing to receive them." “Even if they have demanded a lot of your time? Even if they used you—repeatedly so—only to change their mind on you at the last minute?” he prompts, which then makes you gaze down for a bit. However, Johan doesn’t expect you to lift your head just as quick, with a nod and smile so bright, so contrary of him. “Yeah, even so, I choose to love and be loved.”

And so, amid the very clear stance, Johan still wants you to understand. Your thirst to love and be loved has gained his interest for quite some time now. He saw very well how genuine you were when you told him one night that he's your closest friend now, and you treasure him so much. But the morning after, he's suddenly not the approachable-mister-congeniality type of friend anymore. After showering you with friendly affection and being the best company you've ever had in your life, he now doesn’t acknowledge your presence when you try to make it known. Johan, much as he had never felt emotions so extreme, never thought he'd take pleasure in the way you looked at him, full of yearning and confusion. How pretty you are with glassy eyes, doing everything in your power to not let the tears fall, as people started avoiding you as well not long after he did. 

Don't you worry; he liked being near you, too. But you need to understand where he's coming from. Johan doesn't want you to love him, for love is weaker than hatred. As people say, 'hatred is something you can use, sculpt, or wield.’ Oh, hatred. You've been full of love despite how many times it humiliated you, but hatred will cradle you. It will make you understand his point. The contrasting characters you two have that ultimately keep your distance can finally be mended if you come to understand him.

Months later, your glassy eyes and yearning gaze developed into something more sinister, and Johan couldn't help himself but smile wider. Maybe you finally figured it out. How come all the exes you had told of him started disappearing one by one? How come the friends you'd grown distant to have started contacting you again—begging for their lives and apologizing for wasting your precious and benevolent love—only to be found dead the morning after? How come that with all these incidents, they never fail to mention a certain blonde man whom they call the devil? How come they all cried to you the same begging, "Please tell him to leave me alone," "I will be next!" "Oh god, oh god, he's here. Please, forgive me. I will love you better this time. Just please don't let him kill me!"

And the worst thing of all, because most if not all the victims contacted you before their presumed death, an inspector came knocking at your door one day, asking you to cooperate to avoid consequences.

You poor thing. Johan's sweet mourning lamb. There's nothing you can do. It's already been done. Don't worry. Once you get to understand his point, he will come back to see you again. And by then he'd be able to see how strong you feel for him.

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inspo:

[e3rt]

concrete rendition of Liu please 🙇‍♂️

I’m so late to this but LIU!!! After 7 years incarcerated Liu was finally free at 25. Having no farm to go home to, never finishing highschool all he had was his little work experience in prison. Very few places would take on an ex criminal but luckily his time in prison let him develop some…new skills. One which his pen pall took GREAT interest in.

His notoriety around town meant it was time to hit the road and with the help of this avid writer he did. That beat up commodore was all they needed to get out of dodge. If only Liu knew what his brother had been up to in his absence.

————

Yeah this the design! Here’s some extra information;

- In this rewrite, Liu’s “pen pall” is actually Sully. Liu developed him in prison to cope with the loss of his family. It’s like a fight club situation, an alter ego to keep Liu on track and stay alive.

- he stole the car 🥴

- he’s the older brother

-he assumed in his mad spiral he killed Jeff, assuming he was replaced by something other and would’ve killed him if he hadn’t.

- when he finally reunites with Jeff, he witnesses his familiar cruelty which convinces him there’s still his brother in that zombified body.

-Liu’s convinced that if he kills the slenderman that his brother will be returned to normal(since the slender sickness is what’s keeping him alive). And it will atone him for how he treated Jeff after the fire incident.

-if he succeeds though it will just kill Jeff and any proxy

- this is what causes the major conflict between the two, and also strengthens the hold the Slenderman has over Jeff.

- the Slenderman can’t penetrate the mind or EITHER brother, which is new for it and highly frustrating so it has to use circumstances to maintain control

- Liu is the only thing that scares Toby, even though he knows Liu can’t really kill him under the Slendermans domain

- he recreationally set fire all the time growing up like it was actually a problem

- Liu now has pyrophobia even though Jeff doesn’t lol

-his Eastern European inflections are stronger than Jeff’s since he spent more time with his parents working on the farm than the younger did

- he’s straight(sorry) and doesn’t really get along with men in general. The only “friend” he really has was his brother growing up, and can’t develop bonds with anyone he’s not attracted to

- he picks up a small cat on the road(not smiley cat I just don’t see him as a dog person). The cats orange but he names it Silver after his favourite horse growing up

- he’s the shorter brother(doomed to older sibling being the shortest)

- been weight lifting since his early teens

- terrified of ghosts

[nite-puff]

you’ve asked US.. but what are your thoughts on each of the captives??

OOOOOOHHH. yippeeee. i’ve spent so much time talking about certain captives to my friends in private. might as well talk about them here too!!

let’s get the ones that show up out of the way:

komaru: girly!!!!!! love you teenage girl protagonists that act like teenage girls. gotta be one of my favorite genders. i do have to refresh myself on udg to really get a better grasp on her nuances and growth throughout the game. but from what i do understand. she’s so nice. top three protag!!

yuta: wish we got more time with him fr!!!!! i do wish they kinda tried to make him more different from aoi. because they’re both kinda just hyper sports kids (at first glance. ofc aoi becomes more than that. maybe yuta would too if he stuck around more). it’d be nice to see what separates them. can’t believe he’s the only character death in udg. like wtf (taichi doesn’t count). he was still a nice presence when we had him. fly high, king.

taichi: fun fact. i actually don’t have many opinions on taichi. i know there are people who very much do. but idk. he didn’t really stand out to me. and that’s a me thing. not saying he’s a bad character or anything. i do think he’s funny when juxtaposed with hiroko and takaaki. loving husband and father who’s still happily married and the two most divorced individuals on earth.

hiroko: HIROKO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER! I COULD TALK ABOUT HER FOR HOURS. i came to the realization recently that she’s probably my favorite female character in all of dr. she’s in my top 5 favorite dr characters for sure. she’s who mondo wishes he was. she’s so kind and loving but also cool and badass. there’s so much about her that i want to know. which sucks because the writers don’t really want to develop her beyond “hiro’s hot mom” other than the fact that she’s an ex-biker turned nurse. which is. really cool!! i love her and want to know more please!!!! ultra despair hagakure 2: hiroko edition please!!!!! rando headcanon: she has a tattoo sleeve from her biker days. there’s a prevailing fish motif in it, to go with her jacket design.

okay. now the other guys.

takaaki: i mean. cmon, it’s takaaki. of course i have thoughts on him. i tried to abstain from voting in the poll, but then accidentally voted (i’ll say who when i get to them). but if i voted on purpose, i would’ve voted for him. he’s just…. man. a friend translated his beta design sheet recently and found out that they went into his design with the intention of making him look like the saddest old man ever. and yeah. they succeeded. i feel like a lot of people want takaaki in a game because it feels like what we already know about him implies a lot of nuance and character growth. he’s the only captive we know of that has a weapon on him (other than protag komaru). and he seems very serious, but is capable of having the same sense of justice and emotional highs as kiyotaka?? and they even point out how unlucky the guy was/is in the main game. like there’s a lot already going on there. what’s it like to be the son of a disgraced businessman/prime minister?? how does it feel to be the father of an aspiring prime minister (who fucking DIED. at the hands of someone trying to make money off his death)?? man…

takemichi: my rotten soldier. my sweet cheese. my good time boy. imagine your one job being to protect your best friend and lead your gang in his absence, but you indirectly fail at both of those and lose everything in one fell swoop. yeah, it wasn’t takemichi’s fault. but imagine if he still internalized the fuck out of that. if you can’t tell by the fact that he’s literally my pfp. i also have a lot of thoughts about takemichi. it’s almost like mondo and kiyotaka are the two characters that ive been hyperfixated on for the past 4-5 years. i feel like they were setting up the “cute but deadly” trope with him, what with them hyper focusing on his short stature and boyish looks but also his positions as head of the elite guard and mondo’s bodyguard. and i like that trope when it comes to him. he’s mondo’s cool best friend, and they both know that. i also can’t help but imagine his dynamics with other characters. his dynamic with takaaki is a given. mondo and kiyotaka were a standout duo. so it’s only natural that people like to think about what the dynamic between their respective closest persons would be like as well, especially with the whole “cop and delinquent” thing. i also love to imagine what his dynamic with hiroko was gonna be like. it’s clear that she’s automatically endeared to him. like she automatically gives him a nickname, something she doesn’t do to any other captive save for protag komaru. (i love “michi” as his fanon nickname, but “ruru” will always have my heart). also they’re both past and present delinquents. they’d obviously bond over that. just let me see them have one conversation please!!

kanon: uuuhhhhhhhhhhhh… i know that she’s the victim of an author who just wanted to write a fetish novel. and she could’ve been a way better character had someone else handled her. but man. i can’t get passed how she was written in udh. it also kind of breaks how we’re supposed to view the respective student-captive relationship. like every student thinks fondly of their respective “closest person.” and then there’s leon. who’s made very uncomfortable by his. sucks for him ig. by that logic, i can’t get behind the idea that her portrayal in udh was what was always intended to be her character. like that can’t possibly be the case right?? like they must’ve had another idea before handing her off to a writer who wanted to write a fetish novel. then again, udg’s writing in general tends to get weird. so who knows atp. also who knows if udh even happened. it feels like they retconned it in the dr3 anime by having hiro there and never mentioning the events of the light novel.

ayaka: she’s the one i accidentally voted for. and i mean. i wasn’t that hung up on it. cuz ayaka’s neat. people brought up some really good arguments for why she would’ve been included in the main game, very notably bringing up how she could’ve paralleled kotoko when it comes to how it’s like to be a young girl in the entertainment business. also obligatory “komaru was a fan of her girl group, so that interaction would’ve been fun to see.” there’s definitely something you can say about her being the least popular out of her girl group, but also being the only one left alive after everything. like imagine that being the one time you stood out among your peers?? it’s also fun to imagine what her friendship with sayaka looked like. there must’ve been something unique to their dynamic if she was the one chosen as a captive and not the three other girls. wonder what it was… only negative thing i have to say is that i wish they gave her a different name. just don’t have it be one letter away from “sayaka” please.

grand bois chéri: cat :3. that’s it really. nothing much going on there. there was no way he would’ve effected the plot if he was kept in, yet he was scrapped anyway. so there can’t possibly be much there.

aloysius: as we move down the list, i start to have less to say about these characters. yeah, i don’t have much on aloysius. i do think his potential dynamic with byakuya is interesting, considering the two have a better relationship than byakuya has with his family (which, i know why that is, but it’s still fun to think about). there’s something to be said about him being close to the elites of the world, but still only as a servant to them. like there could’ve been something cool there. does byakuya still only think of him as a servant, despite him apparently being the closest person to the heir?? much to think about. (side note: i just figured out how to pronounce his name not to long ago. it’s aloysius as in. o’hare.) (also obligatory “alfred reference”)

fujiko: i think she’s very silly!!!! she has a really cute design, and for that reason alone, i wish we could’ve seen more of her. i think her interactions with komaru could’ve been really nice because, again, komaru is a fan of her work. and i feel like the whole writing debate hifumi and toko had in thh would’ve been rehashed for a conversation between fujiko and toko. i can’t trust that the dr writers would’ve done something worthwhile with her, and i think that’s what’s really holding me back from discovering her full potential, writing-wise. tho i know there are fujiko fans who have really good arguments for what she could have going for her. and for that reason, i think she would’ve been neat to see. also the design. the design is really cute.

fuhito: another character i don’t have many thoughts on. i haven’t read the kirigiri novels, but i know they get into some lore on him. i don’t know how big his presence is in them but still, maybe that’s why im less privy to wanting to see more of him. still when it comes to thh grandpas, there’s definitely worse.

kenshiro: i feel like he’d definitely give off a more hiroko vibe if he was in the game. like a calmer presence to offset all the chaos. would also love to find out how he’s managed to survive during all that. it’d get turned into a lesson about hope and persevering despite it all. i feel like he and takemichi would get along. i can see them having a very danganronpa-like conversation where they promise to spar after everything goes back to normal and kenshiro gets better. death flags are raised. i always pictured him as stoic but very kind, very much like sakura. idk where im going with this. he’s not my personal pick for “character i want to know more of” but i wouldn’t be against finding out new information. he’s just neat.

kameko: bug. idk. once again, not much more to say.

and those are my thoughts. i’m, of course, biased to the characters who are close to the characters i have a hyperfixation on. but i think they all have potential to be cool characters (save for like. the animals). some didn’t live up to that potential, while others didn’t get that chance in the first place. but it’s cool that fans are interested anyways. tbh i really love the fans that are really into the captives. they’re insanely creative when it comes to crafting their ideas about these characters that the writers have most likely completely forgot. but it’s fun to imagine things anyway. anyways, someone go bother kodaka and ask about what the hell is up with these guys.

(this is also an invitation for people to talk to me about the captives more. please. my inbox is open.)

[anthurak]

So I’ve been theorizing about Rosebird Parents, aka; ‘Raven is Ruby’s real dad’ for close to five years now, and it’s funny how in that time I haven’t actually touched on what feels like somehow both the most obvious AND most innocuous bit of potential foreshadowing to this theory.

I am of course speaking of Saphron, Terra and Adrian Cotta-Arc, aka; the wlw couple raising a child together.

Now on the one hand, yeah it is really easy to read this as a potential subtle hint towards Summer and Raven being Ruby’s parents; a case of the show ‘planting a seed’ in the audience’s head of the image of two women in a relationship raising a child together. Particularly as there is no mention an ex-husband/boyfriend or other kind of ‘sperm-donor’, leaving open the possibility that Saphron and Terra may have conceived Adrian themselves.

On the other hand… yeah it’s also possible to read a bit too much into this. It’s entirely possible that if Saphron and Terra are meant to hint towards anything, they could just as easily be meant as a hint towards Bumbleby, given their shared hair-colors and the fact that Volume 6 is so pivotal towards the development of Blake’s and Yang’s relationship.

And appearance-wise, while Adrian certainly looks a lot like Terra, his design doesn’t exactly have any stand-out elements that point to him also being Saphron’s biological kid.

At least not in the same obvious way as Raven being easily mistaken for Ruby’s mom.

So when it comes to ‘the Cotta-Arcs are foreshadowing Rosebird Parents’, my honest take is pretty much: ‘They might be, and they might not be.’

That. Being. Said.

If it IS ever mentioned, especially in-show, that Saphron and Terra really did conceive Adrian together…

Then I would consider that to be THE, smoking-gun evidence that Rosebird Parents is ABSOLUTELY a thing that is HAPPENING.

Because when you really get down to it, the prospect of ‘two woman normally can’t make a kid together’ is really the biggest ‘barrier’ to Rosebird Parents. It’s just one of those things that is generally a given in most stories. Something that the audience just assumes to be true.

But, if RWBY happens to put ‘two women can make a baby’ on the table as a thing that CAN and does happen in its setting?

Then that means EVERYING myself and others have been saying is now ALSO on the table.

Ruby looks nothing like Tai but enough like Raven that Raven can be confused for Ruby’s mother?

Summer and Raven seem to have been quite close with strong hints that at least Raven was in love with Summer?

Raven has all the classic traits we so often see in “I am your father” characters?

The creators have disproven Qrow being Ruby’s dad by saying she and Yang are half-sisters which is a relationship which would be unchanged by Raven being Ruby’s other parent?

ALL of that and MORE starts being a LOT more relevant.

It effectively takes a statement that ‘if Raven were a dude, we would ALL be expecting them to be Ruby’s real dad’ and says “Yeah, for all intents and purposes, she basically IS now.”

[genderpotionwitch]

HEY! YOU! LOOK AT THIS!

Cavern Cafe is a game development project that I am at the head of, currently being designed & developed by my game studio. This post contains a lot of info we have about it!

You play as Nova, a nonbinary protagonist, who has just moved into a new town and opened up their cafe with their brother, Nate. In the move, you discovered your parent's old spellbook. Using the spells contained inside, you discover a pocket dimension of infinite and constantly shifting cave tunnels, filled with magical ingredients and creatures.

The game is a cafe management simulator, with roguelite and horror elements. Dive into the caves to gather ingredients, and then go back to the cafe to increase relationships with your customers. As you explore further into the caves, you come across different biomes. Most of the names are self-explanatory. Green Grotto (Mossy and full of life) Dried Delves (Sandy, Desolate) Ravined Rivers (Full of water and marine life) Frostbite Fissures (Ice and snow everywhere) Magma Mineshafts (Lava, Magma, etc.) Crystal Chasms (...Yeah this is the most self-explanatory.) Toxic Tunnels (Rivers, flora, and fauna; all of which can kill you with poison or venom.) Vexing Void (Breaking the laws of physics and reality, nothing here is logical. Fish swim in the air. Deal with it.) The Inbetween (We'll get back to this later...) Each biome contains new ingredients! There are a few different kinds (Fish, Fruit, Fungi, Grain, Misc. Plants, Sweeteners, Seasoning, Vegetables, Meat, & "Standard" Ingredients). Meat is obtained from killing different monsters, and Standard Ingredients are from the surface, not the caves. But every other kind has a unique ingredient for each biome (or several ingredients per biome!) There is not a single repeat ingredient. But a stupid thing that we started, which has caught on, is that every single ingredient name alliterates. (Ex. Sizzling Salmon, Aerial Anchovies, Restless Rhubarb, Overgrown Octopi). There is NO repeat ingredients, and NO repeat description words. The player has to get creative with how they prep the ingredients, leading to wild and zany dishes; but they also have to be careful of the customer's personal tastes and allergies. This is a fantasy world, and some species are harmed by different ingredients. What may be poisonous to a human might not be for a dwarf. There will be hundreds of customers, each with their own unique personality and story you can explore through dialogue at the cafe. Each one will have a taste profile, with favorite/least favorite ingredients. As you progress further into the caves, you start to notice... are those eyes? But the moment you look at them, they disappear. Must've been your imagination... or so you think. A creature known as the Stoneheart lurks in the deep layers of the caves, biding its time to try and escape. You can find ruins and scrolls throughout the caves that tell you the story of why the pocket dimension was created; and what the Stoneheart really is. Just be careful to not let it break out... (Foreshadowing? Maybe. Why am I writing like this, I feel so cringy) This is most of what we have thus far! We have some more details on story, design, and potential other projects, but I'll be slowly talking about those here as they become more solid. If you're interested in supporting the development of this project, share this post; or if you have money to spare, consider supporting our Patreon! There are perks, although admittedly there won't be a lot right now, as we are broke teens working with hopes and dreams. But we'll get it done one day! If you read this far, have a cookie :3

[cuntyglam]

First Time That I Saw Your Eyes, Boy You Looked Right Through Me

Reiner x Bertholdt

Bertholdt sees a handsome stranger at the other end of the bar.

word count: 1.8k

tags: meet cute, modern au, drinking, designated driver reiner, ymir and bertholdt are cousins, background yumihisu, past beruani, background jeanmarco, sasha mentioned, connie mentioned, country boy reiner, city boy bertholdt, bertholdt and ymir are arab, reiner and historia are extremely white

A/N: this was originally made for a writing challenge in the AOT server i’m in but i took too long 😭 so glad i decided to finish it as i like it a lot <33 also the name is from “clumsy” by fergie cus the prompts were “drunk” and “eyes meet across the room”

“You okay?” Historia asks him, practically having to look straight up to talk to him. Bertholdt and Historia, Ymir’s girlfriend of three years, were standing at the bar together while Ymir was in the bathroom. He held his cousin’s drink as they waited. At first Bertholdt was surprised when his cousin introduced him to her girlfriend a few years ago, never expecting her to go for a quiet girl like Historia. Well, he had thought of her as quiet, until he’d seen her try to fight a girl who had hit on Ymir a few months into knowing her. Also, more importantly, he never expected his cousin to go for a blonde. Ymir was a proud Arab woman that mostly hung around other lesbians of color. To say he was shocked when she brought home the tiniest little white girl he’d ever seen would be an understatement.

Bertholdt shakes himself out of his thoughts and looks down at Historia, “yeah I’m all good. I’m just a little out of it, my last drink was a little stronger than I had expected…” he admits, leaning against the bar on his elbows. It was becoming clear that it was a bad idea letting Ymir pick out a cocktail for him.

Historia laughs, “take it easy then,” she smiles, a warm smile that makes his face soften into a smile of his own. Bertholdt can see how she captured his cousins heart all those years ago. He’d developed a soft spot for her in the years since. Despite her own fiery passion, she balanced his cousin out well, keeping her grounded in a way none of her girlfriends have before, and he was grateful for that.

He spots Ymir making her way through the crowd. When she reaches them she smiles at Bertholdt, grabbing her drink from his hand, “thanks man. So… anyone catch your eye yet?” she asks, a shit eating grin on her face. He can’t help but roll his eyes. Bertholdt now knows it was a huge mistake to admit to her he was feeling lonely as of late. He’d been single for a year now, ever since he broke up with his ex-girlfriend Annie. Well, it was more like they broke up with each other. They had only been together for about six months and it just… wasn’t working. Bertholdt’s a very nervous guy and it worries him that he could never tell what she was thinking. They had to have multiple conversations about how she didn’t date him, it was just hard for her to open up to people. Eventually they got tired of it and decided they’d be better off as friends. In the year since their breakup they’d become really close, and Bertholdt was very grateful to have a friend like her in his life. Lately though, he’d found himself missing the comfort of a relationship, someone he could be completely vulnerable with.

“I know this might come as a surprise to you Ymir, but I wasn’t able to find the love of my life in the five minutes you were gone,” he chuckles, his mind a little soupy since his last drink.

Ymir slides a hand around Historia’s waist, laughing. “Well, it’s not too late to find them!”she says before whisking off a flustered Historia to the dance floor.

Bertholdt gives them a quick wave. He spends some time leaning forward into the bar, sneaking a cherry every once and a while from a container near him. After a while of people watching he notices a man further down the bar, clearly nursing his drink. Bertholdt takes the time to study him. The man was, for lack of a better word, huge. Well, maybe that wasn’t the right word, as he was significantly shorter than Bertholdt. He might barely reach his shoulder in height. Despite being shorter, Bertholdt was almost intimidated by him. He was a wall of muscle. He wore a flannel shirt, his sleeves rolled up to reveal his strong forearms. His side profile was stunning, a strong nose and jaw framing a gorgeous face. His stubble, shirt, and blue jeans all painted a picture for Bertholdt. Maybe he was a construction worker, or maybe a trucker? He doesn’t think a trucker would be in a gay bar in Baltimore Maryland on a Thursday night, but anything was possible. His eyes looked tired. They were a gorgeous shade of golden brown that bore into his soul.

Oh shit. How long had they been staring into each other’s eyes like this? Apparently long enough, as the man he had been ogling was now making his way over to him. Bertholdt curses his drunk brain for not realizing he was very publicly checking him out stranger and readied himself to be told off by this hulking stranger.

“Hey, could I buy you a drink?” the blonde smiles at the taller man, sidling up to the bar next to him. He had been right, the man came up to about his shoulder in height. Against his better judgment Bertholdt nods quickly, “yeah- yeah sure!” He really doesn’t need to be any drunker, but who could say no to the beautiful man in front of him?

“My name’s Reiner by the way, could I get yours?” he smiles warmly before taking a sip of his drink. Probably a rum and coke by the looks of it. “Yeah, my name’s Bertholdt. You know what? Could I have like a water? or a shirley temple? I think I’m done drinking for the night,” he feels his face flush at just how close Reiner is. He’s not abnormally close, but close enough that he feels a bit nervous. There was no way sober Bertholdt would be able to be this nonchalant with a man like Reiner hitting on him. Or at least he hoped he was hitting on him.

Reiner laughs, “I get you, I drove here with a few friends and I’m the designated driver, so I’ve barely drank anything.” Bertholdt watches as Reiner flags down the bartender and orders a shirley temple and a water. He gets the water quickly after and hands it to Bertholdt.

“Thanks, I think I just had one too many,” Bertholdt says, taking the water gratefully. He begins to sip it, studying the man before him.

“No worries. So, uh… you from around here?” Reiner asks, sipping his drink.

“Yeah I am! I was born in Lebanon but I’ve lived most of my life here in Baltimore. What about you? You don’t look like you’re from the city,” Bertholdt says. While talking he had noticed this blue collar man was also wearing cowboy boots.

Reiner chuckles, “I’m just visiting some friends here. I’m originally from Texas but I live in a small town outside the city. I work on a farm with my friend who I’m helping out.”

“Wow, country boy,” Bertholdt smiles. “What’s it like living on a farm? I’ve been living in the city my whole life.”

“It’s not for everyone, but it is for me. It can get a little lonely, but it’s really nice and peaceful out there. My friend Sasha took over her family farm with her best friend and she hired me as a farm hand, and it’s good pay and she lets me stay there for free. We have horses and chickens, so even when it’s just the three of us we have company. And when I get too lonely I just drive into the city,” Reiner smiles.

“Do I make you feel less lonely?” Bertholdt teases, surprising himself. Clearly the liquid courage in his system was doing its job.

Reiner blushes, “yeah, I think you do. I hope to get to know you better though.” The waiter hands Reiner a shirley temple and he passes it to Bertholdt.

Bertholdt smiles, taking a sip of the drink. “Well, how long are you in town?” he asks, feeling bolder than he usually does.

“I'll actually be in town for the rest of the week, so like two to three days. Me Sasha and Connie, my friends who run the farm with me, are crashing at a friends place. But, we’ll also be back in a few weeks for his birthday, so…” the blonde averts his eyes, clearly nervous.

“Are they the ones that dragged you here?” Bertholdt smiles.

Reiner chuckles, “yeah, they’re around here somewhere. Jean, our friend that lives here, is… well he loves to party. And Sasha and Connie don’t have any issue keeping up with him. His poor boyfriend always has to make sure he doesn’t get into any real trouble, but I don’t think Marco minds too much. I personally prefer a quiet night in, but that’s just me.”

Bertholdt watches as Reiner takes a sip of his drink and takes a sip of his own. “I completely understand, my cousin can party with the worst of them. She’s running around here somewhere with her girlfriend. Luckily we’re walking distance from here so we don’t need a designated driver.”

“Lucky you,” Reiner smiles warmly and looks at him in a way Bertholdt hasn’t been looked at in a long time.

Bertholdt blushes and quickly opens his phone. “Uh, here’s my phone if you want to give me your number. Maybe we could do something we’d both enjoy more? Like coffee?” he fumbles with his phone before managing to press it into Reiner’s hands.

Reiner chuckles and begins to type his information into the taller man’s phone, “I think that sounds really nice.” Reiner hands his phone back.

“Maybe we can have lunch on-” Reiner’s face pales as he stares at a spot behind Bertholdt’s shoulder. Bertholdt turns around to see a man with chestnut brown hair spewing his guts onto the bar’s floor. A worried looking freckled man with black hair is patting his back.

“That’s- he’s with me,” Reiner groans, giving Bertholdt an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry, I gotta get him out of here, but text me?” He gives Bertholdt a hopeful look.

Bertholdt nods, “Maybe we can do something Saturday?” Bertholdt asks as Reiner quickly closes out his tab.

“I’d really love that,” Reiner smiles before hurrying his friend away with the aid of who Bertholdt assume is the puking mans boyfriend.

As he watched him leave Bertholdt felt a smile on his face. Despite their short conversation, he couldn’t help but be excited at the thought of seeing the other man again. He stared down at his phone, his contacts still open. The name “Reiner 💚” stated back at him and he couldn’t help but giggle.

A/N: thank you so much for reading, this is by far the longest fic i’ve written so far !! i am swamped with midterms so i don’t know the next time i’ll post a fic, but i hope it will be soon !!

[jujumin-translates]

[A3!] Misumi Ikaruga | [SSR] A Face-to-Face Rival | grass memory - Part 2

Kazunari: Alright, here ya go! The manga we were talking about yesterday!

Misumi: Thanks~!

Kazunari: I told Azamin that I was gonna lend it to you next, so once you’re done reading it, you can just return it to him directly~.

Misumi: Got it!

Kazunari: This manga is like SUPES interesting!

Kazunari: Even Frooch-san said it reminded him of his ex-delinquent days~.

Misumi: Sakyo’s been reading it too!? What’s the story about~?

Kazunari: It’s a story about friendship between these young delinquents! They’ve got this really passionate development going on and it’s super hype~.

Misumi: Ooh~, that does sound interesting!

Kazunari: Ah, lemme give you this too! It’s the leaf you used as a prop during our etude yesterday.

Misumi: Leaf?

Kazunari: It’s some fake greenery one of my designer buddies gave me. You put it in your mouth during our performance yesterday, didn’t you, Sumi?

Misumi: Ah! That leaf~.

Kazunari: You looked crazy good with it! So I’m giving it to you, Sumi!

Misumi: Thanks!

Kazunari: ‘Kay, I’m gonna keep reading too~. Mind if I stay here to read?

Misumi: Feel free to~. We can read together!

Misumi: …

Misumi: (There’s so many different types of characters. It’s really fun that it reminds me of the etude we did yesterday~.)

Misumi: (...Ah, this guy is relaxing in a tree with a leaf in his mouth.)

Kazunari: Do you like it, Sumi?

Misumi: Yeah, it’s interesting to see so many different characters!

Kazunari: That’s great~. What part are you at?

Misumi: Umm~... The scene where one of the delinquents is in a tree!

Misumi: “You’re up there lookin’ all melancholic again, huh”...

Kazunari: Ohh, there! The part where he’s like “You’re just tryin’ to distract yourself from your loneliness,” right?

Misumi: Yeah, yeah!

Misumi: “That reminds me, what’s with you always havin’ that leaf in your mouth?”

Misumi: “Ain’t it obvious? Havin’ a leaf in you’re mouth is somethin’ normal if you’re a delinquent!”

Misumi: --.

*Flashback*

Hakkaku: Do you think it’s interesting, Misumi?

Misumi: Yeah! It’s interesting how their clothes and hairstyles are different~.

Hakkaku: The gakurans and pompadours aren’t something you see too often, are they, Misumi? You’ve only ever seen them in this delinquent-themed performance recording, haven’t you?

Misumi: But they’re fighting… The way they’re hitting each other looks like it hurts.

Hakkaku: Don’t worry, they’re not actually hitting each other. It’s sorta like sword fighting.

Misumi: Oh, okay! Actors really are amazing~.

Actor’s Voice: “Speakin’ of me, this leaf is still my trademark, ya know.”

Misumi: --Hey, hey. Why is that guy eating a leaf?

Hakkaku: He’s not eating it. He just has it in his mouth.

Misumi: Ohh~! But why?

Hakkaku: Well, I’m sure there’s lots of reasons, but… I’m not sure you’d understand even if I explained it to you, Misumi.

Hakkaku: I’ll tell you when you’re old enough to understand.

Misumi: Got it! It’s a promise then, Gramps.

Hakkaku: Yeah, a promise.

*Flashback end*

Misumi: (...Now that I think about it, I dunno if Gramps ever actually told me about that.)

[ ⇠ Previous Part ] • [ Next Part ⇢ ]

[mcsm-r0ckz]

In my opinion, Axel is an AMAZING character. He is one of the bestest characters in MCSM and he DESERVES more screen time.

First off, he has a very interesting character design! He stands out from the crowd abd it's what makes him unquie! His monobrow, his width, short legs, arms, hair, everything! He has an awesome build and people don't talk about it enough his designs are genuinely awesome, especially his season 2 one. I feel like his season 2 design shows more of his personality and FITS his personality.

Speaking of which, I love his character! He may act, quote, 'selfish' or even 'full of himself', but in reality- he's just insecure and cares for his friends. [Ex: "Yeah, it's pretty sweet. I was worried I wouldn't be cool enough, or smart enough, or whatever enough to be in the Order of the Stone."(EP 5 S1), "I'm tired of being the selfish one."(EP 4 S1), "Hey! Nobody talks to my friends like that! Now shut your mouth -- or else."(EP 1 S1)]. I love the fact that he's a complex character and I wished we got more of him so we could see his whole potential. He's extremely funny, and he's so excited seeing Magnus for the first time in episode 2 season 1 and it really shows. He clearly sees Magnus as an idol and wish we got to see how he coped with Magnus’s loss. Also, I like Axel got a bit of a character arc/arcs. Like his and Lukas's rivalry[that had so much potential] and how he doesn't always resort to violence a lot anymore[mentioned in season 2]. I just wish we got to see Axel's breaking point, and his arc more.

Third, he is extremely hilarious! Almost every scene with him in it makes me laugh when he makes jokes. Like episode 1 season 1, Axel replaces one potion with another, saying- "Fixed it!". Episode 4 season 1, when they discuss on getting the endermen to focus, Axel says- "How do you get endermen to focus? I can't even get myself to focus!", and so much more. He's the jokester of the group and it shows.

Fourth, all the possibilities with his character. I could name so much other things that they could of done with Axel but they never did! Showing character arcs, a more dramatic rivalry with Lukas, Axel coping with Magnus’s death, how Axel was affected after the Witherstorm, and so much more! I really wish they gave him the development he deserved.

Overall- in my opinion, Axel is one of the best characters because of his design, personality, humor and all the possibilities with his character. I really love his character and he's just amazing.

[dragoonphoenix]

My T. Vee redesign

reg t vee seems so boring, she's just tall like what. I tried to incorporate her original beta design, her gameshow job, and her scrapped skin for her design.

In this version, she, amd other mains are much harder, but in response take up 2 twisted slots(ex. If I twisted are supposed to spawn and a main is rolled, instead a main and 1 other rarity(which can also be main, it only takes up 1 in the case of odd numebrs)).

Vee twistes due to strong emotions, as the lore in cpgame shows is a thing(teagan, shelly T. Research description). Vee's fear of being replaced, forgotten, overtook her in some kind of event. Her wiring came out, the ichor developing it to be able to act like legs/to slither on. She is constantly in pain btw since the wires are kinda her mutated insides and the ends are broken off, bleeding ichor. The suit is damaged since it no longer fits her. The ichor mutated extra screens and yeah.

Vee normally wanders the floor like glisten. She will be passive, but becomes hostile if she spots someone on a machine. She has high detection range, but mid-low attention span due to her faulty, destroyed systems. I think her speed would be a little high so she's still a threat a little? The pop-up stuff is still here. So she can be a real threat when on a floor and left to her devices. And while you cannot distract her by making her chase, as if she spots anyone else on a machine she'll move priority to them, and after a while she'll stop chasing/initiate the next thing I'm gonna explain. She prioritizes machine over everything so failing skillchecks have higher priority than chasing. Now the thing is you can distract her in a non traditional way, she'll give you gameshow questions. Failing questions and minigames can have downsides like temp(but long) negative status effects, stolen items, tapes, and even loosing a heart. When doing so you can kind of choose where she is. Keep her in one spot, lead her around(more dangerous since she priorities machines).

When panic begins she goes into her aggressive form like glisten. Lore reason is she doesn't want you to leave, to forget her and have her be replaced. She knows machines lead to floor completion, which leads to them leaving her. She assumes they'll immedietly forget about her

Thanks for reading :3 I hope twisted vee gets redesigned in some way(like with the new update maybe?) I love vee so much

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: SMG4's Silence of the Cats

How long has it been since I reviewed SMG4 like this? *whispers* FIVE YEARS?! Thought it would be longer. For me, the machinima youtuber started out this year with something that intrigued me enough for me to review what is now their seventh movie. Now that it's out and the saga surrounding this is for now over, I have my feelings of not just this but SMG4 over the years. I'll discuss the latter at a later time, but let's start with a little background.

The channel's universe is full of characters, but Karen you wouldn't have thought much about at first. Felt like she was the Larry from Gumball character or an Incidental from Spongebob who's around for odd jobs surrounding whatever adventure the crew goes on in an episode. Then it turned out she's a mom of 3 and I was cool with it; nothing amazing for the initial few times she was around but nothing I hated. Then last year the episode 'We Have to Kill Mario' came around and I was like, "Oh shit?" and up to now, that feeling were carried as while she's not my favorite in this universe, I really enjoyed the episodes she got. As for this movie, I'm for once surprised of the direction SMG4 went. Then again, let's get this out the way.

This was pure melodrama and I loved it

Even after sticking with this series for so long, I'm not gonna pretend SMG4 has evolved to pen-dropping writing that rivals my GOAT list of media. You can predict everything that happens in this if you've watched other movies and shows, and if you didn't care about Karen before this will not change your views. Never gonna call it slop like some people, but like I said before long ago, where it lacks in being well-weaved or uncontrived, I say it made up for it in active and emotional fun. For the first movie that basically involves nobody else, cameos aside, Karen, Mr. WPNZ, and the kittens carry the runtime especially when you kept up with the episodes leading to this. Elsie and Gianni are stellar in selling the emotion that comes with bitter exes struggling over a fracturing family. This honestly has better moments of everyone working through things than the previous movies which they tend to rush even when they're not restricted by runtime. I say this, but there is one thing... that troubles me.

Mr. WPNZ worked for this on the surface; he was introduced, has clear motives, never feels like they pulled him out of nowhere despite his design and how Karen birthed kids with a fish cyborg... At the same time, I'm conflicted of him being the villain. On one hand, it's simple to get that yeah, he wanted to reconnect but is dead set on chasing the highs of the past that he's essentially using them for his gain. On the other hand, his aggressive, self-destructive nature could've been done better. I say, from the getgo, let him be more genuine in trying to change that even Karen's taken aback. Let him spend more time with Karen AND the kids before the big mission where he naturally relapses to his old tendencies. Hardly much would need to change, and you'd have a stronger, more convincing character.

Otherwise, I'd kinda change next to nothing

There's a scene of Karen and SMG4 sharing a heartfelt conversation of what it takes to be a parent that exists not long after it's reveal the former's kids are part weapon like this is Chainsaw Man. Having stuck with this webseries for so long, there's a beauty in seeing a shitposter develop a vast world where the power of family and friendship can overcome vindictive bastards and you're along for the ride. Writing hiccups aside, it's that "cringe but free" energy that always keeps me coming back to SMG4 and invested in stories like Karen's. The drama never gets in the way of having kickass and funny moments, I'd kill to protect the catkiddos myself, and I'm glad the writing crew stuck to their guns to let their OC have her time to shine.

Fact they didn't immediately bank on Minecraft movie at its peak hype says a lot too

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. I've had me issues, but it's been well a while since I've expressed the joy of watching SMG4 and seeing a feature made with some originality like before. I'm glad the channel stays thriving, more so if you count Glitch Productions, and while this won't be everyone's tea, this film more than impressed me.

Know What? 9 Out Of 10; Machinima Kino

"Hey Monkey, you never brought up Mr. Puz-"

[ep2nd]

@anxious-anon-time sorry for being late, was really busy this weekend

I'm very sorry this is 2 weeks late, had to board a plane, then was relaxing on Vacay, then had to catch up in school the next week

"What do you think of the Ink Scroll arc"

I absolutely stinking loved it.

Now here's the essay you ask for (or didn't, I just want to write an essay)

1. Love the foreshadowing/self awareness. Ex. When MK says "Maybe this the part of our journey where things get DARKEE" the poor boy- also love how the word Journey was used, foreshadowing how it was about the Journey to the West

2. Everyone had good arcs, except Pigsy? Like, MK beautiful, Meis opposite nature to Ao Lie, lovely, Sandy fighting the monster allegations, been his trauma since the beginning (when he references he's changed since meeting Pigsy last), showcasing the difference between Tang and Tripitaka qns for Tang to get more development?! Woo!!! But Pigsy?? Having the same plot/character development of Sandy, where being a monster doesn't matter Yada Yada Yada, it just didn't make sense.

There was no part beforehand where Pigsy EVER questioned that part of him, unlike Sandy who's been afraid of hurting someone, yes I enjoyed the episode, the Cook references from previous (and also Freenoodle crumbs) were amazing. What I wish they had done was something like Pigsy questioning his family, or chosen family in this case. THEY EVEN WENTOF THEIR WAY TO MAKE THE "MONKEY KINGS NOT MY DAD PIGSY IS" MOMENT. Like- I just Pigys arc was more family/friend centered, definitely would compliment whatever jumbo shrimp mess MK had going on

3. Talking bout MK- the trauma and angst were GORGEOUS we love it. My boy been through so much. And we learned more of his past?! The theorists were going CRAZY. Love the Sunburst and Soysauce moment, MMMMMMMM, this boy needs to stop trusting people so quickly oh my gosh AZURE WHEN I CATCH YOU-

4. Really good villain. Love how they went with a villain who thought HE was the hero, and main character I guess lol. Was he a turned villain? Yes but he was a good one! Kinda wish the foreshadowing was better, instead of that one episode where Tang just watched and realized it. He's a complex character, who just wanted to help people, and yeah his ambition wasn't even bad, the Jade Emperor isn't great even, but he took it too far

5. Great job yall, you guys made a character everyone hates, Peng, Revalis brother from another mother

6. Yellow Tusk was ehhh, wish we saw more of his character, seemed interesting, loved his loyalty

7. Now LMK is very special from other shows I've watched he'd because well, I'm willing to rewatch many episodes, even if I know what will happen, I tend to not rematch ANYTHING because of this problem, but LMK is just different. For some reason the Scroll arc is the exception, I like it, but for some reason I don't see myself rewarching it, don't know why

8. Ink MK was a beloved, his voice?! Design?!? DIALOG AND SPEECH PATTERN!?!? BRILLIANT. really love all Ink people moments, mostly just Ink MK, and Wukong.

9. Glad Wukong got development, man is facing the consequences of his actions and its really getting him, I'm glad he's getting really good development.

10. Master Subodhi. Do I need to say more?! Loved him dearly. Wish he and Wukong remet. :( liked his character very much, I like how he wasn't even real in the Scroll and still had omniscient abilities. My only question was what else did he know?! On that note, is anyone going to talk about how the girl is just, like immortal?! The Acolyte as yall call her. Now I don't think Subodhi just GIVES out immortality, I feel like he saves it for special people, like Wukong, no I have theories and headcannons for her but that's another day.

Also I'm a suckered for any JTTW character appearance. LMK GIVE ME ERLANG SHEN, GOLD STAR OF VENUS, GUANYIN, ANY OF NEZHAS BROTHERS, AND MY LUFE IS YOURSSSSS

11. The only thing I can think of left is how in the world did the Scroll worked?!? Like, it didn't teleport them to the past, I've been making a simulator almost? But then why does the characters inside feel so real, and how did Wukong trap Peng and Yellow Tusk, and where and hwt have they been doing?! AND HOW DOES THE OMNISCIENT POWER OF SUBHODI WORK. MAN CANT HAVE THAT MUCH PLOT REASONS POWER. AND FOR GOODNESS SAKE HOW DID THEY GET THE OLD PILGRIMS WEAPONS LAST TIME I CHECKED TRIPITAKAAS STAFF WSS IN WUKONGS CAVE

[onlyancunin]

Hey guys,

a little update on my situation with my ex if anyone's interested. Gonna be a doozy, but there's just so much in my head right now and I know there might be some worrying about me.

Or maybe I'll just spark a bit of confidence in someone else ✨

You know how you get a pizza, all excited, try it, and it's not good? Like it was fine at first and hey, you were hungry, but with each bite it progressively got worse. Do you stopped after a piece or two or three. And just tossed out the rest.

But it was enough to give you a severe food poisoning. So you spend a good portion of the next however many days throwing up and not being able to meet with friends and family because you're too sick. And you're so frustrated, because the pizza wasn't even that good, and you didn't eat that much, but you're still unable to function??

So yeah, I got severe emotional poisoning from relationship with my ex. But after we broke up I got nowhere to go, and he agreed to continue living together, so that I can move out once I secure money for deposit and whatnot.

Never go for that.

Last Sunday ex threw another jealous fit at me, making me unable to work for another 2 days - and then he was off to holiday with his friends (which couldn't come quick enough, I literally counted hours for him to leave). That left me and severely poisoned, but also gave me opportunity to collect myself and regroup a little away from him.

3 days later I had a new place and just today I got the keys.

Coincidentally my post about him about two months ago sparked a friendship with someone from here (Tumblr is a country okay). She kept me together through all that and let me tell you this was fucking tantalizing. It's surreal how things can change in such a short time. Having her as a friend truly opened my eyes as to what a relationship is NOT, seeing how someone who was just a stranger a few months ago, today cared for me more than he ever did.

I gave myself up for scraps of attention and believed when everyone around was telling me he is "one of the good guys". He came from nice, big family, with stable finances, nice group of friends. A noble job, a paramedic, which always impressed my sorry graphic design/IT developer ass. Like the only thing I'm saving is oceans from existing with the amount of shit that's being produced partly by my designs. So it felt good to be supportive of the good person and finally have a family, since I do not have one of my own.

Which is probably why I took the break-up so badly, even if I initiated it. I felt incredibly guilty for letting everyone around down. Everyone loved him. And I mean everyone. The only thing I ever aired I discussed with people outside of our common friends, and those were the people who told me something doesn't add up. And as I started following my gut feeling (and had a speedrun to breakup by hurting my knee and needing help where my ex completely dropped the ball), he started acting up. Suddenly setting boundaries with his family was me being jealous over him even having one, I just couldn't understand apparently how I'll never be the most important to him. Me asking him to be here for me when I'm having a hard time was met with "You're having a hard time EVERY DAY!".

Essentially I just ruined his family visits, his vacation with my knee injury, his days with my bad moods etc. But he ruined one too many Sundays for me.

So here I am, packing my sh#t and planning what goes where because I know I will be thoroughly exhausted after all things are moved, so I need to plan ahead.

And I still throw up emotionally, sobbing every 10 minutes, I don't even know why anymore. I just cry until I stop and then I continue prepping for move.

It's just a bad pizza.

[onemillionfurries]

not for nothing, but around 2021 the CEO of the studio behind palworld was tweeting about ai generated pokemon designs, and how he “can almost not tell the difference,” referencing that exact article, actually. I do not think every single design was ai generated or that any ai references were used from start to finish with no human touch, but the CEO is very openly interested in ai technology and its applications in game development! I don’t think its a stretch to guess it may have been used somewhere in the pipeline. and as someone who also messed around with fakemon generators when the tech was still a bit novel, some of the designs do have that ai stink to them, even from around that time.

yeah i chose that article specifically bc i knew that the CEO had referenced it in a tweet. I WANTED to get into it in the post, but it was also 9am and I hadn't gotten a wink of sheep that night (... bc i was up all night playing palworld WHOOPS--) (im writing this off a 2 hour nap so pls forgive me if it's incomprehensible)

I remember the whole "palworld used ai to gen its monsters" narrative literally started because someone qrt'd someone pointing out that CEO's tweet and extrapolated that because the CEO spoke positively on AI generated pokemon, then the game MUST have AI generated monster designs which... wasn't what the original tweet was saying at all. but unfortunately nuance and reason is like poison to twitter so the speculation spiraled from there. (not like tumblr is much better. but I at least have the space to explain myself here, however poorly that may be :P)

And like, the unfortunate thing is that nearly /every/ CEO is interested in AI. their whole job is to make money, not art. some are just louder about it than others. with the insane crunch that the pokemon developers go through, I wouldn't be surprised if AI is also used in those games somewhere in the pipeline, whether that's in the past or a future release.

Let's also not forget when the pokemon company international was interested in hiring simeone with knowledge in NFT/web3 technology. if we're automatically assuming that open interest in something means that it's implemented, or that it will be at some point, then we better get to boycotting pokemon now!

I wanna be clear that I'm not defending the use of AI art in game development. it may very well be that AI /was/ used somewhere in the Palworld pipeline. I just don't want people to be asserting something as true with little to no actual evidence. ever since I got "called out" by an ex-friend of mine for some heinous shit that i quite literally never did, I've been a lot more diligent in figuring out if something people are freaking out about on social media IS actually true, or if it was a mountain made out of a molehill, as it tends to be 99% of the time.

(btw I'm curious as to what pals you think have that AI stink to them? im generally trying to avoid spoilers for later game pals bc i wanna discover them on my own, but if you wanna send a list or something that I can look up when im further in the game I'd be interested.)

[alittlextrathatway]

Line: "And the saddest fear comes creeping in." Location: HGTV taping.

Alright time for a brand new AU universe.

You guys don't know it but I have an AU idea in my head for HGTV Brettsey for YEARS.

I am not throwing away my shot.

***

Sometimes Sylvie feels guilty about the lie she and Matt are perpetrating for the world, but then she remembers what it felt like to essentially be blacklisted from working and decides a lie is better than being homeless and starving.

Besides, this lie hurts no one but themselves. They're the ones who have to forego love lives in order to pretend to be an engaged home renovation power couple.

Their friends Severide and Stella introduced them years ago. Matt's business-partner-slash-ex had left him in the lurch. She sold him her half of the business, which was great, but she left him without an interior designer. Sylvie's ex and former best friend had taken all of her clients and run her out of town so she was an interior designer without any work.

She met Stella on her first night in Chicago while the latter was bartending at a firefighter bar named Molly's. Sylvie literally cried into her beer about her misfortunes and Stella was quick to help.

"You know, you're an interior designer with no clients and my husband's best friend is a contractor with clients but no interior designer. Maybe the two of you could help each other out?"

It was the suggestion that changed her life.

Kelly and Stella hosted a dinner to introduce her to Matt and they got along like a house on fire. Matt is funny, genuine, and thoughtful. The opposite of her ex. They also had similar visions for a few of his current clients. His design ideas for construction reflected her favorite interior spaces to decorate. Professionally speaking, they were a match made in heaven.

And their clients' feedback reflected that. As business grew so did their friendship. But since things went horribly wrong with Harrison and Hope, Sylvie promised herself never to mix business and pleasure. Matt felt similarly, considering his history with his own ex. Which meant, no matter how close they became or how her feelings evolved, they would always only be friends.

Even when the world and HGTV thought otherwise.

They hadn't meant to perpetrate a fraud but they got the offer for the tv show, signed the contracts, and then found out about a terrible misunderstanding.

HGTV thought they were married.

That was the real reason they wanted to offer them the show. They wanted half reality television and half home renovation. If they weren't married then the show would have been cancelled.

It was a shot in the dark that they would be picked up for a full season anyway. So, after a lengthy discussion, they went along with the story and decided not to fully correct their misunderstanding. As a compromise and an attempt to assuage their guilt, they told HGTV they were engaged instead of married.

By some miracle, they bought it.

And now, three years later, their show is still going strong and the American public thinks they're happily engaged and on their way to wedded bliss.

Only in Sylvie's wildest dreams.

Of course over the last three years, her pretend love for Matt Casey has become full blown, head over heels, unconditional love. Not that he knows that. She's pretty certain he's none the wiser.

"Cut!"

Sylvie's jarred from her thoughts by the sudden yell and shakes herself back to the present, taking in Matt's concerned face.

"Hey, guys," he requests, smiling politely. "Can you give us a second?"

The director nods and sighs tiredly. "Yeah, sure thing. Take five, everyone! When we come back we'll pick back up with the initial property walk through."

Once the crew has dispersed, Matt gently pulls her aside with a guiding hand on the small of her back. "Are you okay?"

She bites her bottom lip and idly spins her engagement ring, a habit she's developed when she's anxious. "That meeting we had with the network this morning..."

"I thought we said we weren't going to worry about that today?" He asks her, with a soft scolding stare.

"We say a lot of things, Matt, but that doesn't mean they're all true."

He snorts and chuckles at her, taking her left hand in his to stop her from twirling her ring. "We'll work something out."

"Work something out?" She says in a harsh whisper. "They want us to set a wedding date. A wedding date for our extremely fake engagement. A wedding date that will be used to market the renovation deadline of our future home that we're going to take on in the midst of all of our other clients and responsibilities."

"They'll compensate us appropriately so we can scale back our clients and focus only on our house. The workload will be fine," he assures her.

Okay, but that's not even the biggest part of her concerns! How is he so calm? How is he okay with marrying her, a woman he doesn't love? "Great, I'm glad to hear about the workload," she replies dryly. "Nevermind the huge wedding they want us to have, film, and then promote as a tv special. That's not a big deal at all."

He sighs and the sound comes off as hopeless and wistful all at once. His callused fingers grip her chin and lift her face until they’re eye to eye. Once he has her full attention, he brushes a loose tendril of hair out of her eyes and tucks it behind her ear. The gesture makes her stomach swoop in the most delightfully nauseating way.

Ugh, why does she have to be in love with her best friend and business partner? Why is nothing in her life ever straight forward?

"Look, I get it, no one wants you to marry a guy you're not in love with, least of all me. But we'll find a way to stall them. We've gotten pretty good at it over the last few years. We'll think of something. For now, though, let the network think they're gonna finally get that wedding special they've always wanted. It'll keep them off our backs for a little while at least."

She doesn't like his tone. He doesn't sound like himself. Not the flirtatiously playful version of himself he usually is when they're filming anyway. This is solemn Matt Casey. The one she sees most often when he’s stressed or anxious or in some sort of emotional turmoil.

He was fine until she let her fears get the better of her and got distracted during a heavy filming day. For his sake, she needs to get it together. She can sort out how to bury her feelings for Matt and get them out of this mess later.

"You're right," she says, taking a slow and soothing breath. "We'll figure out. We always do. I mean, whatever else our fans think we are, we've always been a great team." She smiles warmly at him, hoping the expression leaves her faith in the two of them on full display. From the day they met, he's been nothing but exceptionally good to her. Even if his feelings have never gone beyond platonic. "I don't see that changing anytime soon."

He squeezes her hand with an earnestly devoted look on his face that's too beautiful to be misread. "Not if I can help it. There's no one else I'd rather be partners with than you."

He means business partners. She knows he does, but is it terrible of her to internally swoon anyway? God, she's so screwed. How did she let this happen and how can she get out of it unscathed?

Matt Casey's going to break her heart and he'll never even know it.