#december weekly

[spacehippieface]

Boomers: Grumble grumble, young people don't read the classics, they're always on the tiktaks and their goddamn phones, mutter grumble bah.

A bunch of dorks on tumblr: Where is my good friend Jonathan? We haven't heard from him in a while. Victor, you are a bad parent! Take responsibility for your giant corpse baby! Man, I love Dickens' descriptions. Alas, poor Ogilvy. A trip to Jurassic Park? Sure!

[harveyguillensource]

Harvey’s new interview with EW about Puss in Boots: The Last Wish includes some lovely Perrito concept art and this adorable story about his mother seeing him in the trailer. Plus, for Spanish speakers, Harvey performed Perrito in Spanish as well!

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

[skania]

Akane Nation, how are we feeling at seeing this scene finally getting animated? 😭

Personally I quite liked it! On a week where the manga gave me absolutely nothing to work with (thanks for nothing Aka 🤡), I'm glad that the anime is there to give us some wins.

In particular, I'm glad they confirmed what I've always said about this panel:

While the manga keeps it subtle by mostly showing memories that are about Akane rather than Akane herself, the anime forgoes all subtlety and keeps Akane front and center throughout the sequence. So that was pretty nice to see!

On another note, the anime has also confirmed that Aqua's smile was always meant to be just him smiling at his happy memories rather than him smiling at Kana. Just like the first episode confirmed that the scene where he's looking at her and Taiki was never meant to be about him being jealous lol In this manga of playing at filling-the-blanks, we win some and we lose some. So I'm glad I interpreted these three scenes correctly, at least.

Plus, little details like these are nice to see because Aka is working closely with the anime, so I believe we can trust them to make Aka's intentions behind each scene even clearer than they were in the manga.

Case in point, right after we get Akane telling Aqua that she will bear the painful things together with him, we get this anime-original easter-egg mentioning Hikaru and Ai (Hoshino):

Moving onto the manga, it is interesting that Memcho's chapter was also about her dropping her façade and being more honest. So it seems that we will continue with the "Making amends, overcoming regrets and moving towards the future" theme that was established in Chapter 152.

Aka's pacing remains as frustrating as always, though. The Nino reveal is done in half-a-chapter, but Memcho gets an entire chapter to herself and we get a break right after 🤡

Sadly, this confirms that the anime connection Aka had in mind was just Akane dropping the Ai act right before she goes at it full force in the anime. It'd have been soooo cool if we had gotten a flashback to Akane finding out about Nino this week to match Akane finding out about Ai being Aqua's mom in the anime, but that would've been too much to ask for apparently 😭

Guess now all we can do is wait for Akane to show up in the manga again. At least we will have another Akane-filled Episode to look forward to next week, so there's that!

[chalamet-chalamet]

🍵🫖🍵

[crimson-kas]

Favorite December spreads.

[karaspal]

kara on action comics’ next arc covers. at least she’ll be there. nat too. <3

[cappychino]

What if we were both whalers… and there was only one bed

[academic-vampire]

𝔄𝔯𝔦𝔢𝔰 𝔟𝔞𝔟𝔦𝔢𝔰 ♈︎

[captainkirkk]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes. Please look at tags and warnings on ao3 before reading.

The Magnus Archives/ What We Do In the Shadows (Crossover)

gaslight gatekeep girlboss by thepolysyndetonaddictsupportgroup

"Look, believe it or not, I had no intention of killing the Vampiric Council when I came here,” declares Nadja, sitting alone on the couch. “But Guillermo and I arrived at the first council meeting and did the whole, you know, the whole thing, the first day thing. Introductions and all that, yes hello wonderful to meet you, yes this is my bodyguard, yes he has slaughtered a tremendous number of our kind”--she flaps her hand absently--“normal first day things, you know? It was fine.” She pauses. “It got really fucking weird on the second day."

Or: Nadja and Guillermo seize control of vampiric politics, puppeteer world powers, and have the hottest of hot girl summers.

Unfortunately, they also really miss the stupid assholes they're in love with. With no way left to find them, they have no choice but to consult an Archivist.

DC/Danny Phantom Crossover

Teenage Hero Burnout #56: Interview With A Ghost. by STOVE

Red Robin, (aka Tim Drake) decides to host a YouTube series called "Teenage Hero Burnout'' after he makes a video by the same name talking about his own experiences. He interviews current and past heroes who started their careers as teens and discuss how it shaped their outlook on heroing & life in general.

(This fic is a one-shot. Teenage Hero Burnout is a hypothetical series that I will not be writing, but others are welcome to write their own episodes.)

All For the Game

One More Time (With Feeling) by elesary

Andrew Minyard went to sleep next to Neil Josten in their bed in Denver six years after graduation. He woke up on plane to Tucson between Wymack and Kevin, on their way to recruit Neil Josten, striker sub.

boyfriend privileges by mostly_maudlin

Andrew knows he treats Neil different. So why is it so bothersome that everyone else seems to know it, too?

Five times Neil gets boyfriend privileges, and one time it doesn't piss Andrew off.

SVSSS

The Peace Between Divine Pec- ah-hm sorry - uh…Peaks by AceOfDivineChlorophyll

Well, being kidnapped and tied up had to be the worst part of Shen Qingqiu's day right? Surely it couldn't get worse even if he was being presented to some new and upcoming demonic warlord as tribute after all it would all be mote when Luo Binghe escaped the Endless Abyss right? Well... unless the demonic warlord in question WAS Luo Binghe.

Thankfully... it might not end up going at all how he, or the demons, thought it was going to.

invasive blindfold removal surgery by postcardorigami

Part 1 of side effects may include indefinite photosensitivity

Oh, he thought absently, dizzily. Oh. I love him. I really, really love him.

That wasn’t a new thought—Shen Qingqiu had always known that he loved Luo Binghe. Thinking otherwise wasn’t a concept that had occurred to him. He’d loved him as a fictional character, as a sticky and eager-to-please disciple, as a troubled young man. He loved Luo Binghe the same way he loved the world around him: easily, wordlessly, endlessly, and in full acceptance of all faults and flaws.

But this- this felt like-

I think, Shen Qingqiu thought, for the first time in this life or the one he’d left, I think I’m in love with him.

And- and then-

I want to tell him where I come from.

or Shen Qingqiu, in order: hits the ground, pulls himself back up, and comes out. About several things.

Dreaming of Gardens in the Desert Sand by TGP

Huan Hua Palace master Luo Binghe never thought there'd be any reason to worry about the master that threw him away all those years ago. Surely, he was safe and cared for by the martial siblings he'd so thoroughly enamored.

Luo Binghe was wrong.

(Or, the one where the Jinlan City event doesn't happen and Luo Binghe's plan to slowly show he can be a righteous cultivator actually goes as he expected, with consequences he did not)

starry-eyed by shoutowo

"Shi-Shizun,” Luo Binghe says, going cross-eyed in an effort to see what Shen Qingqiu just placed on his forehead. “What is this?”

“A star,” Shen Qingqiu explains, while not explaining at all.

or, Shen Qingqiu has a sticker sheet.

Clone Wars

(you were) meant to save them by cjwritesfanficnow

The building was only five stories. With the gravity on Melida/Daan, it should’ve been over in seconds... but he—

just—

kept—

falling—

And then there was nothing around him, but he was still falling, down down down, infinitely, through space, stretched thin, twisted and pulled and the Force curled so tightly around him that he couldn’t tell where he ended and it began, and then—

And then he was falling straight out of a clear sky and down down down—

Onto another battlefield.

-

In which Obi-Wan is abruptly transported from the civil war on Melida/Daan to the Clone Wars.

(Alternately, in which I noticed how few clones there are in all my other fics, and this wouldn't leave me alone.)

Tactical Engagements by elwenyere

Even before he managed to open his eyes, Obi-Wan felt the tug against the base of his neck, the snarled thread of energy that only ever meant one thing: something had gone very, very wrong.

-----

Or, Cody, Obi-Wan, and the 212th are sent to Ringo Vinda with Anakin and the 501st, and it changes the field of engagement.

[raethereptile]

Ok you lot

Edit: been told there was a version done last year, so if you guys keep voting yes I'll do a Christmas carol and other assorted Christmas stories by dickens, just to keep things different

Edit 2: December With Dickens Substack! See my new sideblog @december-with-dickens for the happenings, tag #december with dickens

[cubesugarss]

One thing i really like about hiiai's dynamic is that they contrast each other in so many ways. Hiiro who is super honest about everything vs. Aira who expresses himself differently depending on who he's talking to. Hiiro the naturally talented genius vs. Aira the "ugly duckling" who constantly feels left behind. Hiiro with no personal ambition to become an idol (initially) vs. Aira who has had one clear dream since childhood

I love thinking about their early dynamic bc it's a lot of Aira looking at Hiiro who is everything he ever wished he was in terms of being an idol and he just feels so. Conflicted. He knows he's in the wrong for thinking of Hiiro in such a negative light because they're Unitmates for god's sake, but he can't help but be a little selfish when he does what Aira's always wanted so effortlessly. He admires him and wishes he were like him but also resents him for how good he is at everything. The fact that Hiiro was only really there to get his brother back was also like rubbing salt in the wound

But then u look into them a little more and ur like oh. They're each other's first and best friend. Thermometry means so much bc it's the first time their demeanors completely switch around.. this time, Hiiro lets himself be vulnerable in front of Aira and Aira kind of pours his heart out and that's when u realize they Both feel like they would be back at square one if they didn't have each other.

I love how meaningful of a relationship they managed to develop despite how they're basically complete opposites. There's a lot of push and pull with them but look at them now. They are best friends and each other's idol. They go from rivals in the I'm going to kill you way to the you make me want to become a better person way. I'm sick!!!!! I'm so sick!!!!!!!!!

[harveyguillensource]

Harvey Guillén for his Metro Weekly cover feature, photographed by Justin Wu.

[btrflyng]

I ran out of options so you have to choose one of those. 🤷 Sorry 😘

[brotherdusk]

initially I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of reading a very long email comprised entirely of random quotes about whales but I persevered and my GOD. using existing sources to trace the story of humanity's relationship with whales and nature through history. how in antiquity whales were godly leviathans, feared, unknowable, then the slow transition into the modern age and european colonies, the growth of industrialised hunting, increasingly heartbreaking imagery of the whales' death agonies and more and more lurid descriptions of the dangers of whaling and the power of nature, cycling back to the very beginning of the chapter... poetic cinema. my god I'm invested. hit me with the next one ishmael I'm ready

[chalamet-chalamet]

Wonka Cast-Around the Table-Entertainment Weekly

Timothée: He’s [Hugh] mad at me because he spilled coffee on his shirt before.

Hugh: It’s your fault.

Timothée: It’s my fault. Yeah, I told him I was going to bring him a back up of this (points to his gold shirt).

Hugh: You’re so like my mother today.

Timothée: We did press in Japan and I walked in and he goes ‘wow, you’re the spitting image of my dead mother.’

Hugh: It’s true! I think mum is coming back through Timothée.

Timothée: I’m here to scold you. 😆