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tuxedaaron · 2 years ago

Photo

I wasn't planning to draw these pictures when I did. I really wasn’t. When creator, Butch Hartman, came out with his video of what Danny, Sam and Tucker would look like in 10 years, I had already put dispersed images of my own vision of Future Danny and Future Sam (introduced in my Danny Phantom fanfic series), years earlier, so I kind of just rolled with it. But when Hartman decided to hit the net once more with a second video of what some of the other DP characters would look like, 10 years later, I felt I had no choice. So, with without any further ado, allow me to present my fanfic vision of what Danny's family would look like in the "future" of my fanfics. (I wasn't planning to do this until I got at least closer to writing said "Future" stories. But in light of those events, there was a part of me that kind of felt like my hand hasdbeen forced here.) First, let's start with Danny's sisters, Jazz and Danielle (anyone who's been reading my fanfics knows that Danielle has been adopted by the Fentons, so for all intents and purposes, she IS Danny's sister now). In Jazz's case, this might seem a little traditional, taking after her mother and all. But for some reason, I felt that Jazz would wear a suit that was pink (I don't know, it just seemed to suit her). Also, you may note a few esthetic choices, loosely inspired by Marvel Comics, "Spider-Gwen" (or "Gwenpool", if you're one of those fans who prefers to lean THAT way). I also gave a sword that I felt was pretty badass, similarly based on a sword design from the Gundam Seed Destiny anime. And then we come to Danielle, who's definitely had a bit of a makeover as she's reached adulthood. Some people might see this as something of a radical departure from her original design, expecting to stay with something more tomboyish. But my thinking is that over time Danielle comes to discover that a girl can be a badass, but still manage to be all woman at the same time. As such, my thought for a future costume for her takes some design cues from one such all-woman badass who goes by the name of Bayonetta. Now it's on to the parents. In the future, thanks to Danny Phantom's influence, ghostly presences have become a much more common occurrence...and in some cases, even welcome. At the same time, however, ghosts that have been allowed to call earth their home can't be allowed to run around, unchecked. As a result, the infamous government organization, the Guys in White, has been retooled into an agency for POLICING ghostly activity, rather than COMBATING it. And once more, due to Danny Phantom's influence, guess who's been put in charge of heading it up? Of course, Jack, being Jack, tends to feel that the best way method of policing is through superior firepower, which is why Maddie tends to make the bulk of the command decisions. As with most things, the more things change, the more they stay the same. You'll note that overall, Jack and Maddie's looks haven't changed all that much. The jumpsuits are still there. They've just altered esthetics a little, to match with their new environment. One could even look at it as kind of a nod to Marvel's Fantastic Four, when they briefly swapped their traditional colors out for the white suits and called themselves the Future Foundation. Physically, not much has changed, either. Jack's showing signs of a receding hairline, as well having gone grey over the years. Maddie's hair is starting to fade a bit, too but not that much (hey, I had a grandmother who was a redhead and she kept her hair color practically forever, so...yeah). Also, in Maddie's case, I updated the hairstyle a bit, again, giving a nod to her original style, while altering it just enough to make it into something fresh. And then, it’s back to Danny and Sam. Anyone who's seen my previous pictures of these two know there's really not much here that needs explaining. Danny has noticeably done a fair bit of growing and buffed up over the years. Meanwhile, despite having considerably filled out, herself, Sam hasn't grown out of her lifestyle preferences (and as you can see, even went through a bit of a piercing phase at one point). And for anyone with questions about her wardrobe, yes, pants like those DO exist in nature. I have SEEN them. But with the passage of time also brings the next generation, which brings us to the main subject of this pic in Ebony Fenton, Danny and Sam's future daughter. Whenever someone’s asked, I've typically merely described Ebony as "a chubby little three-year-old ball of cuteness". Which she TOTALLY is, as you can see here. Of course, it's also her silly, childlike nature and playful mannerisms, which you CAN'T see (and are too many to list) here, that make her so adorable. However, what you CAN see is in her eyes, showing that she has indeed inherited something from her parents. Something that will become more and more visible, as she grows older. Another addition to the family, however, comes in the form of their pet, a mini potbellied pig who goes by the name of Snuffles...so named for his penchant of constantly sniffling things (Ebony, however, just calls him "Piggy"). The decision for the pet was Sam's, for a couple of main reasons. One, to be different (as she so often likes to be). And two, to give Ebony a pet that may subtly influence her dietary choices later in life. Besides, who can deny that potbellied pigs are RIDICULOUSLY cute? ^_^ Well, that’s all for that. Again, hope everybody likes what they see. ^_^

#tuxedaaron #fanart #danny phantom #danny fenton #sam manson #jack fenton #maddie fenton #jazz fenton #danielle fenton #10 years later

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animeomegas · 4 years ago

Text

Omega!Light - How do his plans change? If he had a mate?

Anon: How about light yagami as an omega? It would be interesting considering how he plans on being 'justice and creating a new world. How would he feel of having an alpha mate?

and

Anon: Could I request for an omega light. I feel like it would really be interesting and it would make sense with the story line a bit. Considering he wants justice and all in an alpha-dominated world. "Omega rules over the world type of stuff "

(Hmm, this was an interesting one to write! It was a bit of a deep dive into Light’s psyche~ I’m sick at the moment and not taking my classes so I’m bulk writing some older requests right now! Sorry it took me so long to get to this. Enjoy!)

Warnings: Mpreg, Discrimination, Light’s general blasé attitude towards murder.

The World

Firstly, let’s look at the omegaverse world in Death Note (pre- Kira) and how it was for Light growing up as a male omega.

Light’s experiences with discrimination very much shaped his desire for justice. He felt like he was never given justice for the way he was treated and he was going to change that.

Omegaverse Japan was very prejudiced against omegas and Light felt these effects at a very young age.

The first time was with an elderly neighbour of his. When his mother was proudly showing off his recent perfect test scores, the neighbour dismissed them with a comment about how he shouldn’t be focusing on education but on training to be a good mate and mother, and that alphas didn’t like omegas who focused outside of the family and the household.

This was extreme, but it did reflect the biases of the older generations.

At only six, Light was crushed, even if he kept those feelings to himself. Eventually, he vowed to show everyone who thought he couldn’t do ‘alpha things’ that he could, and not only that but he was better than any alphas at those things.

Other examples of discrimination he faced are as follows:

Being told by his teacher that he should pick a new future career because “being a police officer is a demanding job. You’ll need to be at home for your future pups, Light kun!”

Alphas at his school never taking no for an answer when he rejects their advances (and the teacher ignoring this behaviour).

Gaining the attention of sleazy adult alphas starting from when he was only 14.

In public, Light tried to play both a respectful genius and good omega boy.

He would never dull his intelligence too much, but he remained soft-spoken and manipulated his way out of situations without causing a fuss. Eg. Claiming he was waiting until he finished school to court, rather than just rejecting his alphas classmates outright.

Light just found that this strategy made people leave him alone more often and therefore was his favourite.

And then he finds the Death Note.

Kira

As an omega, Kira’s actions change ever so slightly.

He is very harsh on hate crimes against omegas.

He goes so far as to seek them out, rather than mostly getting names from watching the news.

This has the unfortunate side effect of L figuring out almost immediately that Kira is an omega though. Which ultimately increases suspicion on Light.

When Light finds out that L is also an omega, he can’t decide if he feels more or less angry.

On one hand, he was imagining an arrogant asshole alpha that he would have been delighted to kill, so this is a more tolerable alternative.

On the other hand, shouldn’t L be supporting him making the world safer for omegas like them? It feels like L is betraying his kind which makes Light angrier.

In the earlier days, Kira’s focus on helping omegas and closing the discrimination gap makes him pretty popular, especially on anonymous internet forums.

With an Alpha mate

Light met you at university. You were a tolerable classmate who expressed an interest in courting him.

Light, although he had no interest in you, accepted the courtship to get L off his back. L had theorised that Kira was either an unmated omega, or mated and very angry/regretful about it. Considering Kira’s age, he decided it was likely the former. For this reason, he figured being in an active courtship would throw L off.

Light picked you because you were one of the more tolerable alphas, but he found himself surprised at how much he enjoyed your company.

You actually listened to him, valued his opinions, supported his dreams. He found himself thinking that it wouldn’t be that bad to be mated to you.

He pushed those thoughts back, following the courting motions with as little emotion as possible.

But when he was in heat (a minimised one because he takes suppressants) he just really wanted you there with him. He was so confused and angry that he was feeling this way, but he caved in and called you over to spend time with him.

As he laid in your embrace, he started trying to justify what he was doing.

He liked to think he was a god, but ultimately he had the lifespan of a human. Who better to continue his legacy than his own child? For a child, he would need a mate. And you were the most tolerable alpha he had ever met. That’s the reason he was doing this.

So, he puts out feelers to see your opinion on Kira and eventually he tells you who he is. He is gleeful when he receives your support.

From this point, he throws himself into the relationship a lot more, moving on from courting to intended mates.

He loves having someone he can be himself with. He never has to put up a mask with his alpha.

His plan is to get pregnant after he’s established the new world order, then raise his child to take over when he’s too old. He doesn’t care what their primary or secondary gender is because he plans to make sure they are raised to be a suitable leader.

Light gritted his teeth as he persevered through his university coursework. His heat was driving him mad. He skin was itchy and he couldn’t focus properly.

It would probably be better if you were here with him.

No. He gripped his pen tightly. He didn’t need anyone else, certainly not an alpha. He was fine. He just needed to lay down for a bit, then he’d feel better.

Closing his textbook, he stretched and made his way over to his bed, supressing a whine at the lack of a nest. No, he didn’t need a nest he was fine.

Okay, maybe he wasn't as fine as originally thought. It had been a few hours and he was only feeling worse. Maybe he should send you a message. Just so he could get back to work of course.

You knocked hesitantly on Light’s front door, clutching your bag tightly. Light had sent you a cryptic message and you were a little worried about him.

His mother opened the door and ushered you up to Light’s room with a smile. You thanked her politely before walking quickly to Light’s bedroom. You knocked twice before tentatively swinging open the door. You saw Light sitting up in bed, looking a little ruffled, like he’d been asleep. You took a deep breath. He was in heat... The omega you were courting had just invited you into his room while he was in heat! Your alpha puffed up in pride.

But... where was his nest?

“Hey Light.” You spoke quietly. “How are you feeling?” You moved to sit on the edge of his bed, watching carefully for any signs of rejection.

“Like crap.” He let out a strained laugh. “I need to get my work done, but I can’t do anything like this.”

You hesitated. “Where is your nest? You’d probably feel a lot better in there.”

“I don’t have one.” Light said shortly.

“Oh!” You said, flustered. “That’s fine. I just thought- but that was rude, I’m sorry.”

Light rolled his eyes. “It’s fine, just drop it.”

You let out a sigh of relief, scooting closer to him and wrapping an arm around his waist. Light automatically leaned onto your shoulder before realising what he was doing and starting to pull away. Before he could, you tightened your grip, releasing a calming scent as you enjoyed the physical affection. Light hesitated, but the feeling of burning itchiness was finally starting to subside and he couldn’t help but lean into the person providing the soothing sensation.

He was only doing this so he would be feeling well enough this evening to write in the Death Note. That’s it. Nothing else.

#death note #light yagami #omega!light #omega light #omega L #alpha!reader #alpha reader #abo #omegaverse #headcanons #scenarios #mpreg #nesting #reader insert #omega male #gn reader #gn alpha #light x reader #omega light x alpha reader

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ask-whitepearl-and-steven · 5 years ago

Note

In these apparently trying times of "lack of content" I was wondering if we could get a glimpse behind the tablet and see how you write! Could you talk about your process and how you keep track of things and parse out your story? Do you storyboard or write rigorous notes? Is it all in your head? I am super curious about your system.

Oh yikes I’m about to disappoint a lot of people.

Okay, here’s the thing - I cannot physically keep notes because I get distracted and forget to write things down. I’ve tried keeping notebooks for WD!Steven stuff and I have come to accept that it’s only for show. I barely use it. I cannot use my memory on the effort of writing notes - I’d much rather use that energy to remember things in my head.

I brute-force everything through my mind palace. My mind... house... mindshack.

My process is simple:

Step 1) THINK

I constantly get asks that I feel might be good for the comics. I’ve made posts on this before but the main way I decide if I’ll use an ask is:

Is the ask addressed explicitly to Steven (or another character?)

Is the ask not giving away any fourth-wall-breaking information?

Is the ask actually ASKING Steven an open-ended question or TELLING Steven to do something?

If the ask is too vague (”so what do u like”) or gives away too much (“Steven don’t u think ur actually half-human? If Rose had a baby it would be half gem half human. Wouldn’t that be the same as u? You should ask Rose about a gem named Spinel I bet she would freak out!!!!!”) or if the ask is just pushing for Steven to do something instead of asking (”go to the moon base!”) then I almost always ignore it.

Step 2) Storyboard!

After choosing a question, I’ll sit and… stare at my desk/the wall/twitter without seeing it and instead storyboard the entire comic in my head. Sometimes this happens in a matter of minutes. Sometimes I’ll work it over in my mind’s eye for days before I like it. This includes the dialogue.

Yes, I do this while driving. I have an hour drive to work. No, I have never been in an accident. My autopilot works really well. I guess. Probably. I often have no memory of the actual drive itself but the comic gets written.

Step 3) Sketch!

Afterwards I go into my drawing program (MediBang Paint) and sketch out each individual panel on a layer. Sometimes the sketches are detailed. Sometimes they are just sloppy action lines to remind me what I’m going for.

I script in my head WHILE I’m drawing the sketches. I try out different lines as I go through each panel and see what fits the most. This sketching process takes about 3-5 minutes per panel.

Step 4) Lineart!

After I’ve sketched at least 50% of the comic, I go back in and start doing lineart. I will do this mindlessly - it is only at this point that I allow myself to listen to a podcast, or music, or have a YouTube video running while I draw. (I cannot sketch/storyboard/script with any sort of noise on. Has to be dead silent.)

The initial lineart process takes about 10 minutes per panel if the panel is simple like the one above. If I go through the process of adding necessary details, patterns, or have to create phone background detail, or draw a background in general, then it will obviously take longer.

If I do color comics, it takes 3 times as long which is why I hate coloring.

For the Lapis arc I also added tones. It was not as annoying as coloring, but it still took me twice as long as an average panel because there was so much layering to be done between the water/lapis’ wings/backgrounds. It was not fun.

Step 5) Dialogue

After I finish the lines for ALL the panels, or at least 50%, I start going back in and finally adding dialogue and details. I do the dialogue all at once because it allows me to view the flow more naturally. I end up reading and re-reading the panels several times to make sure there are no repeating words and that it flows more or less like a normal conversation would.

This takes about… eh… an hour or so for an average 20-panel comic?

The bulk of my editing is done at this stage. I will go back through and re-read the finished comic several times and try to weed out weird details or typos.

If I find none, I post it to Patreon, because it’s a guarantee that I will find 3 more immediately afterwards. That’s how posting art to social media works. Also, many of my Patreon patrons are usually kind enough to point out any typos I’ve missed. (MediBang doesn’t have a spellcheck so don’t judge me too harshly…)

And that’s….. it. I post to Patreon, make any last-minute fixes if I have to, and then queue everything to tapas and tumblr.

And then I immediately begin to worry about the next comic. Because… that’s how it works.

I understand it’s not exactly a professional process. That’s because I’m not a professional! I’m self-taught, and this comic is meant to be for fun, not for profit. If I make a Season-finale comic or a season-start comic, I typically go through the same steps, except I add thumbnailing to the mix (drawing tiny copies of the pages on post-it notes to see how many pages I can fix it to.)

Hope that was… educational? I don’t know. Either way…

#Anonymous #chekhov answers #process #how to #faq

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pointnumbersixteen · 4 years ago

Note

How do you see The Captain's coming out, and growth in confidence and self acceptance thereafter taking place?

I like this question! …and I’m probably going to elaborate on it a bit more than many people will want to read (I noticed back when I was regularly writing essay length posts that they did not get a lot of love) and it’s probably going to get even more ramble-y than usual (brain has not been braining as cooperatively as it should recently and the decision to drink half a bottle of wine right before answering this- sorry- probably does not help), but here we are.

About coming out scenarios, none of mine are particularly elaborate. While I do think he needs to come out for his story line to progress, I can’t imagine him making a big thing out of it (long or elaborate announcements, heart-to-hearts, emotional displays of bearing his authentic self or any of the like), either with the group, or person-by-person, for several reasons:

First off, that sort of a coming-out to-do is a more modern notion, and I doubt he was a particularly modern person even when he was alive, seventy-five years ago. His notions of privacy and propriety are probably much more conservative than ours, and I feel like that makes it unlikely that he’d go into any sort of detail, at least at early in this process, about his feelings/emotions or the specificities of his attractions. We’re talking about a man who doesn’t even use his own name. It’s difficult to picture him going into depth about his desires and love life.

Secondly, he’s a bit of a social coward. (He’s not a physical coward, of course, he jumped on that bomb in the garden without hesitation, and acknowledged after the fact that he gotten caught up in the moment, and therefore hadn’t really thought about how a bomb couldn’t hurt him.) And I get it, I’m a bit of a social coward, too, so no judgement. He probably faced a lot of ridicule in his life. Being a social coward is totally fair. But he doesn’t put himself into situations that might involve awkward interpersonal interactions if he can help it, and legs it whenever interactions he’s already in become to awkward for him. I feel like he’s probably quite desperate (although he’d never admit to it) to save face and protect what bits of his ego remain unscathed.

Think about it: he could have spoken to Fanny on his own about her nightly screaming disturbing him in s1e1, they have a clear association established at the outset of the show, they leave Heather’s room together at the end of the very first scene, but he doesn’t do so until he has the weight of the whole group to back him up about the screaming at their meeting. He had to buck up his courage and give himself his little ‘over the top we go’ pep talk before going to speak to Alison in Gorilla War. Also, if there was actually something wrong with his soldiers’ horseplay after hours in Reddy Weddy- if it was breaking regulations or even his own orders for quiet hours- and he heard it, he could have gone down directly when he heard it, confronted whoever was involved and order them to stop or put them on report. But no, instead he addressed the entire group of soldiers in a sixteen point morning brief. He even dispatched Pat to confront Alison about the party in s2e2, instead doing it himself… and spit out his apology/reconciliation with Pat at the end as fast as possible. And as for legging it when things get awkward, see his retreats following the group confronting him in Getting Out and after Alison telling him he wasn’t needed in the Grey Lady- and on a more figurative than literal level, but most relevantly, his quick turn from ‘I’ll miss you’ to ‘we’ll miss you’ with Havers in Reddy Weddy.

This is not a man who wants to be in awkward or embarrassing situations. And I think that coming out, at least at first, will probably be a bit embarrassing for him- it was scandalous in his time, and I think it will take him longer to get over that feeling and come to terms with himself than it will to finally acknowledge that he’s gay. So I doubt he’d make more of it than he utterly feels he has to, at least at first. And of course, he’d have to be a bit afraid that people would judge him or stop associating with him over it, as sadly, in his own time many people would have done, and most of the ghosts are from even earlier times than he was. So that might add more hesitation…

And thirdly, he doesn’t like and/or respect many of his house mates. The other twentieth century ghosts are the only ones he spends much time with. I doubt he’d go out of his way to communicate much of anything to the rest if it wasn’t “mission related” much less discuss his sexuality with them. He mostly disregards Humphrey. See his, “Oh, it’s you.” Mary obviously doesn’t like him and he only associates with her when it might be useful for his ‘missions.’ He clearly doesn’t think much of Thomas and doesn’t really even bother including him in his plans. These aren’t people he’s going to have heart-to-hearts with.

With those constraints in place, here’s a non-exhaustive list of possibilities by which I might see his coming out finally happening. They’re really just scenarios I made for myself on how I might see him coming out and I like to keep my options open (the first three are strategies he might go for, the last is an alternate scenario, presented in decreasing levels of directness on his part):

1) The ‘pull the bandage off quickly and hope it doesn’t sting too much’ strategy.

The Captain waits for the end of one of their various group activities or meetings, where all announcements seem to be made, gets up, clears his throat, stammers a bit, announces it tersely, using the most proper popular word for homosexuality that existed in his time (think: “Heh-hem. Er. Um. Well. It has recently come to my attention that I am- er- well- as it happens- gay. I, uh, thought it should be noted. That is all.”), and then beats a hasty retreat, so he doesn’t have to try to cope with the potentially negative aftermath. Of course, there isn’t a negative aftermath, because many of the ghosts already have guessed and the rest don’t really care. Someone, probably Pat, because he does the bulk of the emotional labor in the group, and more importantly, he’s Cap’s closest friend, would have to go after him. He would of course be initially defensive, and Pat would have to sooth his feathers a bit- or maybe just spit it out over his defensiveness- that he guessed a long time ago and so had plenty of other people, and they were just waiting for him to be ready, and really, it’s fine, and no one’s going to disown him for it.

2) The ‘well maybe I should tell my friends with the hope they support me’ strategy.

He gets together with a small group, the people whose company he actually values, definitely Fanny and Pat, maybe Julian, probably Alison either at the same time or after he finishes with his ghosts pals, and says it in much the same way as the previous scenario, but waiting for their reactions rather than retreating straight away. Pat and Alison, I expect, would answer with something like ‘yeah, we figured that one out a long time ago, actually, and it’s completely fine’ and Julian’s reaction would probably be something like, ‘well, obviously.’ Fanny’s had a lot of character growth since season one, when I expect her reaction would have been very shrill and judgmental, probably still would be a touch less warm and/or nonchalant, but I picture it as something like a sigh, followed by a pat on the arm and something like, ‘well, I still like you better than everyone else here, anyway.’ Word would eventually trickle to everyone else by way of social osmosis. Or not. No one seems to care if Humphrey or the plague ghosts are well informed.

3) The ‘I’m not brave enough to actually go through the process of actually telling anyone anything about me so let’s just drop hints and hope everyone figures it out without making a big deal about it’ strategy.

The indirect approach (I’m rather fond of this one, but mostly because it was my own primary coming out approach)… he first sends out feelers to certain people on the topic of homosexuality, probably Alison, since she’s modern, hosted a lesbian wedding, and very much implied that she’d be ready to keep scandalous secrets for him in Reddy Weddy, and possibly maybe also Julian, as he’s the most sexually experienced/knowledgeable, and after Alison spent a while inundating him with ‘it’s okay to be gay’ messages (along with a sudden and entirely unexplained influx of LGBT media) as she’s socially clever enough to see that’s what he’s looking for and after Julian spent a while telling him probably far more than he ever actually wanted to know about the potentialities of gay sex, that might boost the Captain’s confidence enough to let him start dropping hints to people, instead of telling them outright (consciously commenting on the attractiveness of men they see rather than occasionally accidentally blurting it out- see ‘the handsome one’- occasionally putting forth an opinion or stance on the LGBT world ‘it would have been nice if gay marriage was acceptable when I was alive,’ maybe occasionally mentioning how certain men would make cute couple), expecting them to meet him in the middle and figure out the point on their own… of course, many of them have already realized, so this isn’t a problem. It’s entirely possible, though, that Mary (world view not terribly grounded in reality) and Kitty (lack of life experience and/or instruction about life, see the how are babies made subplot) never pick up the hints on their own and someone else eventually has to tell them.

4) The ‘someone puts him out of his misery’ scenario.

Cap acknowledges to himself that he’s gay first and then, wishing to avoid embarrassment or lack of acceptance, obviously, awkwardly, painfully tries to disguise it and in doing so draws attention to it, until a third party decides to put him out of his misery and tell him that many of them figured it out ages ago and that everyone is fine with it. Maybe Pat. Maybe Alison. I kind of like the idea of it being Fanny (with her lovely character growth and her couple of suspicious glances his way in the Perfect Day), actually, by way of something like ‘You know, I was entirely prepared to continue on living with my husband, George, keeping his secrets, about the, uh, sort of person he was, and you’re at least one better than him, given that you at least never murdered me- or, for that matter, never married some poor woman you had no interest in to shield yourself from scrutiny… and so, what I’m saying is, I wouldn’t turn my back on you for being the, uh, sort of person you are, either, and maybe things have progressed enough that you don’t actually have to keep secrets at all.’ Cap would take all of this in with a mixture of mortification and relief. I’m rather fond of this scenario, too.

As for the second bit of the question, once his sexuality is out there, though, and no one judges him or hates him for it- and some are quite supportive- I do see him becoming more self-accepting. If no one’s judging him, does he need to judge himself so harshly? And also more confident. Because some of those things that he’s always felt different about and in the past has probably been ridiculed about in the past (even if he’s in denial about being gay, he and quite a few other people had to at the very least note that he’s not particularly interested in women), are, apparently just fine now. So he’s a bit more just fine now himself. And that weight of always trying to be someone else, someone who’s just right, can lift and he can relax a bit more. And that would probably help him a lot, too. I see it as a slow sort of thawing process. No matter what way he comes out, I still see Alison as very helpfully providing a variety of LGBT media to help this process along. And maybe he’d eventually get to the point where he processed enough and warmed up enough to be able to talk more in depth, at least with his friends, about what it was like being him in repressed pre-war Britain, and what sort of men he’s attracted to (I enjoy the idea of him and Fanny- gradually overcoming her own repression- scoping out hot men together). Maybe he’ll even luck out one of his male housemates will decide (or has already decided) that bisexuality is a valid option and he’ll get a date (insert whichever ghost y’all ship him with here). I bet Alison would totally help him set up a nice date, too, with her convenient still-functional-in-the-mortal-realm hands. And it would be nice to maybe see him get a taste of actual happiness.

#bbc ghosts #the captain #coming out #sorry for the giant block of text friends #i find it difficult to help myself

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i-did-not-mean-to · 4 years ago

Text

School AU - Chapter 2

So, just to be thoroughly done with this experiment, here's Bilbo's POV of the same scene.

There it is :D It was worth a celebratory little story...:)

Love you all <3

“Go to school”, they said, “It will be fun”, they said.

Bilbo rolled his eyes at his own naïveté. Of course, it would not be fun to change schools in the middle of the year.

The headmaster, a fearsome old man with a face like a death mask, waved him out of the office before he could even protest; they had decided to put him into a class with all the other “maladjusted” kids.

He was not maladjusted; he was merely new in this school.

“You will be fine.” The gentle old man, his headteacher as far as he had understood, promised him and the mere fact that this was the kind of thing he needed to be told, did nothing to ease his nervousness.

“They got a new teacher already today and now you, really, what an exciting day for the class.” The man went prattling on and on. Bilbo had no interest in being a novelty and he felt increasingly like he was a sacrifice or chum about to be thrown into the cold water, figuratively, physical education was not on the program for a few days at least.

Small mercies.

The headteacher rapped his knuckles against a closed door and then just shoved his head in without waiting for the teacher to accept his brusque announcement. He informed her, quite casually Bilbo found, of the fact that there was a new student and shoved him into the classroom before just leaving.

Bilbo looked at the woman in front of him; her eyes were dreamy as if she had been torn from a particularly pleasant reverie and her mouth curved into a warm smile almost immediately.

She made an off-hand comment about how all the students were new to her and Bilbo felt less alone instantaneously; he had been afraid to find himself confronted with a hermetic group of people who had all grown up together and who had no interest in getting to know a pudgy youngster who talked too much.

The headteacher had called her “Kira” and Bilbo had already noticed that they went by their first names here, so he greeted her as politely as he could and enquired if he had not missed too much of her class.

It would be hard enough to stitch together what he had seen in his last school and what was expected here, he didn’t want to start by lagging behind right away.

“I’ll fill you in.” A voice called out and he flinched. Again, Miss Kira’s presence was a comfort and a rock, for she twitched as well, but probably not for the same reasons. Except if she was a pervert; she didn’t look like one.

Turning his head ever so slowly, Bilbo searched for the face that went with the most beautiful voice he had ever heard: deep and slightly gruff, it had rippled down Bilbo’s spine like a current of silk and pure electricity.

Please, let him be ugly as sin, please, he begged his guiding stars. He did not want another debacle, not on the first day of school, not in a new environment.

Of course, that had been too much to ask and the face belonging to the voice turned out to be just as charming. Figures!

Bilbo had thought of himself as a rather lucky kid for the longest time, until he realised that it was voices and faces like the one just a mere stone’s throw away from him that set his insides on fire.

Another boy was sitting next to “the voice” and he was now ousted with a hearty shove while Bilbo tried to shuffle those feet he hadn’t quite grown into yet along the narrow empty space between the benches. It would just serve him right if he landed straight on his face in front of that…being.

He looked much more like a man already than a boy, a fact the parts of Bilbo he had definitely grown into already noticed with vivid interest. Feeling the treacherous heat crawl up his neck and into his face, Bilbo approached the bench, getting his feet tangled in his rucksack as he sat down on the now empty chair.

The chair was disgustingly warm, but he didn’t mind; he couldn’t even tell with certainty that his own body was not on fire in this very second and he was the one making the scratched plastic melt.

Oh Lord, his own ass was the last thing he wanted to think about now when that face was so close to him that he could smell the fresh, slightly zesty smell of the dark hair surrounding it. Good, he had been mocked mercilessly in his old school for the way he wore his own hair, but it was really nothing compared to those luscious, dark waves…

BILBO! He called himself to order. His polite instincts kicked in and he rearranged his slack jaw into what he hoped would be a pleasant smile.

The boy frowned at him, a mask of guarded suspicion, and Bilbo’s heart immediately mellowed. Here was someone who had known hardship, he knew instinctively, and it made him redouble the brightness of his smile. Had he ever seen eyes that blue? They were hard and glistening like shards of ice, but Bilbo felt that they might warm up to summer lakes in time.

Not on your first day of school, he tried to remind himself, but it was already too late; his mouth had run dry, and his stomach twitched with that all too familiar twinge of admiration. He was a boy who knew simple pleasures: a sunny meadow, a good meal…and a face like that.

Clearing his throat, the other boy shoved over a piece of paper, filled with chicken scratch writing. As soon as he pried his watering eyes off the boy’s face though to glance at it, he retracted it again, slamming a solid forearm down on the page. “Might have some spelling mistakes.” The boy mumbled. Ah, the idiot class, Bilbo remembered, more interested than ever.

“My name is Bilbo.” He spoke gently, putting one finger on the edge of the page and trying to pull it loose from under the massive bulk of the other one’s arm. “Thorin.” He rumbled, sighing a little. “Really.”

“Yes, why wouldn’t it be your name?” Bilbo chuckled. “Mistress Kira didn’t believe me.” He explained in a low voice, finally letting go of the sheet and allowing Bilbo to read through the notes.

There were indeed one or two hasty mistakes, but Bilbo was astonished to find that Thorin seemed to have chronicled the class faithfully. “If you don’t…if…” He stammered and Bilbo looked up, thankful for the quality of the notes because he knew that he was not processing any of the explanations Thorin was providing in that low voice.

He sounded like rough skin on silk sheets, Bilbo thought, another painfully inappropriate thought.

“Hmmm, thank you, Thorin. These are some good notes.” Bilbo mumbled hazily, his heart giving a sudden jerk when a tiny, thin-lipped, careful smile started tugging at the corners of Thorin’s mouth. Pride and awkwardness mingled on his face and Bilbo was quick to reactivate his sunniest smile in return.

Mistress Kira seemed to have given up on her teaching meanwhile; she was engaged in a low conversation with an awkward blonde boy who seemed to have been drained of all colour. The burly boy who had made room for Bilbo said in a challenging tone that nobody liked them, and Bilbo felt Thorin stiffen beside him.

As he looked over, he could see those beautiful eyes grow ever harder and colder in genuine fright and, when they snapped for a second into his direction, Bilbo felt a shiver of apprehension rustle through him like the North wind blew the leaves off the barren branches.

Looking up, Bilbo once again felt like Miss Kira was a godsend, for he could read the same horrified incomprehension in her eyes that he felt surging within his chest. She looked positively indignant when the class challenged her on not screaming at them, and Bilbo could see her hands clench and unclench rhythmically.

“How do you feel about dwarves?” Bilbo whispered to Thorin to distract the boy from the pain setting his gaze aflame.

“Dwarves? Yeah, they’re cool.” Thorin tried to hide his confusion, but failed miserably, which made Bilbo chuckle.

“Thorin and I will do a presentation about dwarves!” Bilbo announced to the teacher who nodded, slowly, her gaze heavy and warm on their faces. Bilbo knew that she had understood his meaning: I am here, and I am ready to roll up my sleeves and be a part of this.

Thorin’s head whipped around, his eyes huge now and, for a second, Bilbo could see behind the carefully closed-off façade of a slightly constipated and very ill-tempered young man; he saw the kind of desperate hopefulness that never failed to break hearts. Had Miss Kira seen that as well?

“Will we?” Thorin asked. “We shall, your notes tell me that you’re a smart fellow. You can come over to my house if you want to and we can work on it…or…we can go to the library.” Bilbo could have swallowed his own tongue in embarrassment; he had been overzealous once again.

“I’d invite you to mine, but…there’s a lot of people.” Thorin replied with a small chuckle that betrayed discomfiture but also a good deal of genuine humour. How interesting it would be to see more of that, Bilbo thought.

“Sure, as you wish.” Bilbo shrugged. He caught Miss Kira’s eyes and realised that he had stared at Thorin with maybe a tad too much intensity…somehow, he felt like Miss Kira saw everything. As it should be. She was a teacher after all.

She was not teaching though, she was observing the class with calm, interested eyes, trying to get a feeling for the children within it. Only, they were barely children, Bilbo was almost certain that he was one of the younger ones.

It was a small-town school, maybe they mixed different ages, he did not know, but it felt strange, nonetheless.

He was curious who that Mister Smaug had been and why he could sense a hint of pain in his classmates’ voices when they spoke about him. Miss Kira had picked up on that as well, he saw, as her own eyes darkened, and her lips quivered.

Healthy anger flashed in her eyes when she repeated that this man was gone. I am here, Bilbo heard between the lines. She was. And so was he.

Bilbo wracked his brains to find something witty and funny to say to that wondrous boy next to him who had relapsed into brooding silence, as if the mere mention of their former teacher was enough to ruin his mood.

“Did he really hate you?” Bilbo found himself asking and immediately, he was met with a withering stare.

“Yes…Things have happened and my family and I…we’re not the best regarded in this town.” Again, that flash of mortification that made his face look like it was carved from stone.

“Well, I am a newcomer and I’ll make up my own mind.” Bilbo said reassuringly. “And I don’t feel like Miss Kira hates you.” He added with a soft smile.

“Yet.” A resignation too old and deep in one so young hit Bilbo square in the chest and his heart gave another painful twitch; had he been less mindful of common rules of decency, he would have put his small, pudgy hand on top of the broad, callused one resting just a few inches away.

A knock interrupted their conversation and another teacher rushed in. He was impossibly tall and intimated that he had been worried that Miss Kira had been slaughtered by the class. Weird, Bilbo thought, as far as he had understood, it had been the class who had been subjected to the abuse of their former teacher and not the other way around.

He had been so focused on Thorin’s shy smiles and overwhelming beauty that he had only half-listened to accounts of a damaged car. What was a damaged car compared to a damaged soul?

Even though she was considerably shorter than her colleague, Miss Kira interposed herself between him and the class, shielding them with her own body and this instinct of a woman reminded Bilbo so much of his own brave mother that it made him miss her even more.

“Asshole.” Thorin muttered under his breath with barely held-back indignation.

“Miss Kira didn’t believe him. Listen, she volunteered to stay here.” Bilbo tried to assuage the flaming, helpless anger in the other boy’s face. “They’ll not keep her for long if she’s to be exposed to us all the time.” Thorin prophesied darkly.

Bilbo had no idea what had happened here, but, hitherto, Miss Kira seemed perfectly fine. She was presently reading a book and chuckling to herself.

“Mistress Kira…” The shy blonde boy handed her a drawing he had made, and she gushed over it for a few minutes, slowly drawing out confessions from him: he was a good athlete, swift and enduring, but he was nowhere near Thorin’s or Dwalin’s level when it came to brute force.

Dwalin must be that other tall boy, Bilbo thought, eyeballing the dark-haired grump with interest.

“Do you not intend to give us something to do?” That very same person then asked the teacher gruffly.

“Can you not find something for yourself to do?” She gave back pleasantly and turned back to her book, but her fingers gripped the cover a little tighter than before.

“He didn’t mean no offense, Mistress. It’s just…Mister Smaug didn’t like to see us idle.” The smaller boy in the last row provided an explanation. Bilbo thought that he looked incredibly gentle and maybe just a little shy.

“I shall teach you during my teaching hours and I can teach you now if that is your desire. Nonetheless, I think we should go out into the courtyard and get some fresh air. As we’re all bound to be here, we might as well have some fun.” Miss Kira closed her book and shoved it back into her satchel before getting up.

“You want to take us out?” The blonde boy, Legolas, seemed thunderstruck.

“You’re almost grown-ups, are you a flight risk?” Miss Kira cocked one eyebrow and pointed at the door.

“Bilbo and me, we’ll see how we fare with you lot, won’t we?” She turned to him, and Bilbo blushed again, hadn’t that been his exact thought?

He nodded enthusiastically and sniggered when she gave him a discreet wink before tilting her head into Thorin’s direction. “Why don’t you all tell me something about you?” She asked.

Silence.

Bilbo was not about to tell her that he was an orphan and that he had changed schools after a deplorable incident with another boy at his last placement. Only a few months more and he’d be officially emancipated and grown-up.

Maybe, he’d leave school and everything behind and start a new life somewhere else…

“Why don’t you tell us how you ended up in this miserable place to try to teach those everyone has given up on?” Dwalin hissed with unveiled cockiness.

So, that was why he had been put in this class, Bilbo thought, the headmaster thought him damaged beyond repair.

The teacher seemed to hesitate, then she said quietly: “Things have happened…and it is true that I have not chosen you, but I’ll keep you.” She smiled. “If they offer you a normal class, you’ll say: Nay, I’ll stick with the dumbasses?”

Clearly, Dwalin was not about to believe her and again, Bilbo could feel Thorin tense up beside him as they stepped into the courtyard and moved towards a big tree in the middle.

“No, I will not say anything of that sort. I’ll say thank you very much, but no thank you.” Miss Kira’s voice was sharp-edged now. “And why is that?” The blustering air seemed to falter and Dwalin looked a little deflated now.

“Because I don’t hate you and no matter how much you try to get me to, Master Dwalin, I shan’t.” She shrugged and sat down against the tree, taking out her book again and continuing to read as if nothing had happened.

“She’s something.” Bilbo whipped around, had Thorin actually laughed? Yes, yes, he could clearly see a row of white teeth between the stretched lips that looked so sinfully inviting to him.

He also could see the rest of the boy now, even though looking at it was the single worst idea he had ever had in his whole life it seemed to him.

Thorin was tall, a good deal taller than himself and he looked as solid as the tree their teacher was leaning against now.

“All brawn, no brains.” Thorin muttered when he caught the appraising gaze of the new student.

“Yeah, that’s what you want people to believe so they’d feel less intimidated, huh?” Bilbo replied automatically before he could reign in his loose tongue. Thorin stiffened, rubbing the back of his neck absent-mindedly before admitting: “No, that’s what…”

“If you bring up that Smaug again.” Bilbo warned him and Thorin fell silent. Sitting down on the patch of lawn surrounding the tree, Bilbo patted the grass next to him and was pleasantly surprised when the other boy plopped down immediately, a little too close for comfort maybe.

“Miss Kira and me, we are thoroughly fed up with your former teacher already, aren’t we, Miss Kira?” Bilbo felt the need to make this clear and to stand up for his potential friend and definite crush.

“He sounds like a brute.” Miss Kira replied without looking up from her book, but Bilbo could see her mouth curl into a smile behind the pages.

“You know nothing about us.” Thorin mumbled under his breath, honest regret tinging his voice.

“Then tell me, what makes you all so terrible?” Bilbo gathered his courage and placed his open palm on the clenched fist of the boy sitting next to him. “I am just not nice. Blondie is shite at reading. Dwalin has brawls, quite a few of them. Bombur is just fat. Redhead is from the wrong side of the tracks.”

“You’re very nice.” Bilbo demurred, which got him a wide-eyed stare from Thorin. “You think so?”

Bilbo nodded. “Ah, we’re just the kind of people other self-respecting people don’t like to look at.” Dwalin interjected as he passed by with a wooden plank that had detached from one of the nearby benches.

“Look at?” Bilbo thought that maybe, they had switched codes and language somewhere in the middle of the conversation because he could not understand what was going on.

“We make people uncomfortable.” Thorin supplied softly, brushing his long hair out of his face and pressing his lips into a thin line. “Miss Kira, do you know what’s going on?” Bilbo asked helplessly, because yes, Thorin’s looks made him uncomfortable but certainly not in the way suggested here.

“No idea, never seen more handsome teenagers in my life.” Miss Kira replied disinterestedly, her eyes still glued to her book. “Ah, I am not alone then. Are we in an alternate universe?” Bilbo replied, happy to have at least one other person here who was not part of this grotesque play of innuendo and stubborn misbelief.

“Have you seen my father?” Legolas spluttered and then pointed miserably at his scrawny frame hanging from a tree branch. “I have, what does that matter?” Now, Miss Kira looked up, questioning.

“We’re just…” Ori sighed. “You’re “just” nothing at all; you are what you are and, as far as I am concerned, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Miss Kira said with an air of finality and returned her attention to her book.

When the bell rang, Thorin gathered up his things and made to leave.

Bilbo wondered if he should say something; sucking on his lip, he searched for the right combination of words that would sound casual but also express how grateful he was for the care the other boy had taken today.

“Do you want to walk with me?” Thorin asked a particularly nice pebble sitting right next to Bilbo’s right foot.

Bilbo waited for a few seconds to see if the pebble would reply, after all, in a world where people would NOT want to look at Thorin it was about as probable that pebbles were alive and capable of speech.

“Or not…see you tomorrow.” Thorin mumbled hastily and turned away.

“Wait, wait…” Bilbo called out, not taking the time to put on his rucksack which now slapped painfully against his legs as he hastened after the tall, retreating figure. “I do, I do.” He exclaimed breathlessly.

“There are not that many roads around here…so…” Thorin explained sheepishly as they walked along the main road.

“Hey, idiot!” A stunning girl caught up to them, slinging her arms around Thorin’s neck and planting a wet kiss on his cheek. “How was the new teacher?” She asked as he slung his arm under her behind and lifted her apparently effortlessly up.

Mortification and a fierce jealousy rose in Bilbo. Of course, what had he expected? A boy that gorgeous would obviously have a girlfriend just as beautiful and boy oh boy, she was a marvel if ever Bilbo had seen one. Her hair was luscious and intricately braided and the way she laughed expectantly up at Thorin put the very sun to shame.

“We have a new student.” Thorin grumbled, still carrying the girl in one arm as if she weighed nothing at all.

Her radiant face turned to him, then edged sideways in a slow, deliberate motion. “Oh, he’s cute.” She half-whispered.

“Dís…” Thorin hissed warningly, and she lifted both her hands. “I’m just saying…Such a cute little nose and those warm, greenish eyes…” She purred into his ear.

Bilbo was scandalised to see Thorin pinch the girl in the thigh rather unceremoniously.

“Hi, I’m Dís.” She extended her hand to Bilbo over Thorin’s shoulder. Annoyance washed through Bilbo’s befuddled mind, not only was she stunning, no, she had to be nice and charming as well. So much for being a lucky boy.

“Bilbo…” He said, mustering up his polite smile that was just a tiny bit wobbly around the edges.

When he saw his street coming up, he muttered: “This is me. I’ll leave you with your girlfriend then, see you tomorrow.”

“Funny, I was about to say the same thing.” The girl grinned and plopped heavily onto the pavement when Thorin just let go of her. “Ouch, you idiotic moron of a…” She hissed and brought her fist down on his upper arm, which had next to no effect at all on the sturdy limb.

“That piece of wood remotely resembling a human is my brother.” She explained to Bilbo, and he could not suppress the sudden relief that, no doubt, showed on his face if her broad smile was anything to go by.

“He certainly looks sculpted.” Bilbo sighed and then, realising that he had said that out loud, he hurried towards his street. To his utter dismay, other footfalls seemed to follow his hasty retreat.

Damn!

“Hey, new boy, Bilbo, wait…” The girl, Bilbo realised, her voice a song and her steps a flurry of featherlight touches on the stony ground. “Wait, wait…So, you think my grumpy brother is cute, yeah?”

Her arm snaked into the crook of his as she sauntered alongside him, grinning up at him as if they had been friends forever. “He’s not really very dumb, he just likes to pretend he is, so people leave him alone.” She chattered on.

“I had figured as much, yeah.” Bilbo murmured, overwhelmed by the intrusive curiosity of the young girl.

“Leave him alone, Dís.” Thorin barked from behind, that note of utter mortification and humiliation making his voice sound even rougher and deeper than before. “You think he’s cute?” The girl whispered confidingly now.

“He’s…yeah, he’s cute.” Bilbo stammered under his breath, unable to withstand the onslaught of her good-humoured questioning. Did it even matter? It was obvious, everyone could see how fucking gorgeous that boy was.

“Want to go have an ice-cream with me and that cute brother of mine?” She invited him.

Bilbo looked at the house where his elderly cousin was certainly already waiting for him and then back at that glorious new classmate who just stood a few paces away, shuffling his feet awkwardly and skewering his bouncing sister with glares. It was good to make new friends, Bilbo told himself, it was what his cousin had encouraged him to do and if those friends turned out to be the most contrarily grumpy, awkwardly shy and blindingly handsome boy and his sister, who would fault poor Bilbo for it?

“Yeah sure, let me just…” Bilbo just threw his rucksack into the front yard and let Dís lead him back up the road.

@lordoftherazzles So, there's the second chapter with a bit more hurt than anticipated and a tiny bit of pining...If you're looking for me, I'm buried alive somewhere in the forest :S

#fanfiction #thorin oakenshield #bilbo baggins #AU #school AU #i have no idea what I'm doing #but I needed to get all of it out #I'll stick to RPF #Byyyyye!

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sineala · 5 years ago

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The Old Guard

This post comes to you courtesy of the generous support of one of my Patreon patrons, who wanted to know what I thought of The Old Guard. This post contains some spoilers for both the movie and the comics.

So, a few days after it came out, my wife and I watched The Old Guard on Netflix. Tumblr had said a bunch of good things about it, and both of us basically cut our fannish teeth on Highlander fandom so we already had an automatic buy-in for a story about immortals. I knew it was based on a comic by Greg Rucka, but I had not, at the time, read the comic, although I am now reading it in order to write this post.

The premise of the film is as follows: a four-person team of immortals (Andy, Joe, Nicky, and Booker) makes a living hiring themselves out as mercenaries, fighting for causes that they believe are right. They are successful at this basically because their grasp of tactics appears to be (1) die, followed by (2) come back to life and (3) murder your attackers who are no longer paying attention to you because they think you're dead. Honestly, at this point, you wouldn't really need to be very good at the actual fighting part, I would think, but the film establishes that all of them are -- especially Charlize Theron as Andy -- because presumably it wants you to watch action sequences of everyone being badass, which they are. So, yeah. They take all the good-guy mercenary jobs that no one else can do because it would kill them, which is not a problem for them!

Anyway! The group's routine is interrupted by two major events: the discovery of Nile Freeman, a new immortal, who is a Marine serving in Afghanistan who survives getting murdered; and also the fact that one of their employers, Copley (played by Chiwetel Eijofor, whom you may remember as Mordo in Doctor Strange) has sold them out to the movie's Actual Villain, a Big Pharma CEO named Merrick (played by the guy who played Dudley in the Harry Potter series), who has (as far as I can tell) been given instructions to play this role just like he's Martin Shkreli, who is interested in finding the secret of their immortality, and whom you can tell is evil because he has his name in giant letters on the side of his building.

ME: Look, it's the villain! I've found the villain! MY WIFE: Other than Tony Stark, who actually puts their names on buildings like that except villains? It's just villains, right? ME: Uh. The president? The president definitely does that. (We make horrified faces at each other.)

Because we are Extremely Pedantic, we also spent a lot of time picking at how the characters' names and language abilities match up to their stated background. They all know a lot of languages, as you might expect, and the movie was determined to get through them without subtitles, which is an interesting choice but also kind of left some linguistic plot holes.

For example, Joe and Nicky claim to have met each other in the Crusades, with Nicky as (presumably) a Crusader and Joe as (presumably) a Muslim occupant of the area, although the movie doesn't specify this; Wikipedia gives Joe's name as Yusuf Al-Kaysani, which would at least fit that. Nicky is clearly Italian (as is Luca Marinelli, the actor who portrays him) and when he speaks Italian to the rest of the group we see that he definitely speaks modern Italian as spoken in Rome... which is absolutely, definitely not the language he grew up speaking, given that, among other things, Wiki lists the character's full name as Nicolò di Genova. I don't know if the writer of the screenplay (who I see now is also Greg Rucka) didn't know how much Italian dialects had changed in the last thousand years, if he thought that was good enough to be a nod to the character, or if there's some kind of backstory that didn't make it in where every so often Nicky decides to learn a modern dialect and keep his hand in, and also decides that that's the language he wants to use among his friends who would presumably understand several different dialects.

Also, the reveal that Andy's real name was in fact "Andromache of Scythia" was indeed badass but was slightly undercut by my wife yelling BUT THE SCYTHIANS DIDN'T SPEAK GREEK at the television.

Additionally, I feel like the movie could perhaps have been aware of the ways it chose to label on-screen locations, in which the countries were spelled out in large fonts with the cities above them. Places like LONDON, ENGLAND got their entire names spelled out, as did small French villages whose names I can no longer remember, but I guess AFGHANISTAN and MOROCCO and SOUTH SUDAN have zero cities, huh? However, the end of the movie did take place in PARIS which I guess unlike London is its own country now.

So the actual plot features the group of immortals trying to explain this whole immortality thing to Nile while being on the run from the people who are trying to turn them into Big Pharma, who wants to capture them and exploit the secret of their immortality. This is where it falls down a little for me, because the worldbuilding... gets a little shaky. They dream about each other when they're apart. Okay. Why? Sometimes they just stop being immortal and lose the capacity to heal and are dead in their next battle. Why? Why do they even exist? I just... wanted more answers than the movie gave me, and the pacing where I kept expecting there to be explanations wasn't there. There were a couple of scenes where Nile sat there in silence contemplating the fact that she would outlive her loved ones and my brain kept trying to insert Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever?" Granted, the Highlander canon explanation for immortality is deeply, deeply weird, but at least it tried. No, I can't believe I'm defending Highlander II either.

The characters, too, could have been more fleshed out. The bulk of the character development is given to Andy and Nile, and I'm not complaining about that -- they were great -- but Joe and Nicky and Booker only got maybe a few lines each. They would have felt so much more real if they'd just had a little bit more to them. Also I didn't understand Copley's arc at all, but saying more about that would be spoilery. I do like that they have definitely set themselves up for a sequel.

But even with what we got, there's a lot to love about the characters. If you're here for canonically queer characters, you will enjoy Nicky and Joe, who have been in a relationship for probably about a thousand years. They are minor characters as far as the overall plot goes, but what they do have is lovely, and there is a romantic declaration between them at one point that is absolutely beautiful and possibly the most fervent love declaration I can remember seeing in a movie since maybe... ever. If you also like your queerness more subtextual, though Andy is never portrayed as explicitly queer, her past friendship with a fellow immortal Quynh was shown as very intense, as is the role she takes here mentoring Nile into the world of immortality. Also she has a double-bladed axe (yes, we kept yelling BRING ME MY MAN-KILLING AXE at the television) and as we all know, the double-bladed labrys has in modern times become a symbol for lesbians. So there's that.

In addition to the characters of color who play important roles here -- Nile was my personal favorite, but there's also Joe and Copley and (in flashback) Quynh -- there's a lot of diversity behind the cameras as well, or so the internet informs me. The director (Gina Prince-Bythewood) is the first Black woman to direct a superhero movie, and the same is true of her editor (Terilyn Shropshire). And, furthermore, apparently 85% of the post-production crew were women. They didn't have to do that, and yet they did. It was nice.

I don't watch a whole lot of action movies these days because I usually find R-rated violence too... violent, but I found myself really liking almost all of the action sequences here. None of them felt gratuitous, and a lot of them really focused on the physicality of the immortals fighting in a way I liked, because I feel like people are probably going to fight differently if they know they can survive every single hit, and I think the movie portrayed that in a way that a lot of superhero comics and movies don't. My favorite fight scene is definitely the one between Nile and Andy at the beginning, when Andy has trapped her on a plane and it's extremely close-quarters fighting and also extremely brutal. They don't stop basically until Nile breaks enough bones that she can't get up anymore, because until then she's going to keep trying, which is both kind of horrifying and a great character note. And they didn't film it like it was a Sexy Catfight! It was so good.

Also, the soundtrack is really good, and I've found myself streaming it on Spotify all week. I didn't know any of the songs in the movie, but there's a lot of hip-hop and -- okay, I don't even know if this is a genre? -- specifically a lot of hip-hop with an electronic/industrial sort of beat, which I thought was really great and livened up the fight scenes even more; "Going Down Fighting" did a really good job getting me in the mood for the final confrontation with the villain, and... yeah, it's all good. Someone made a playlist on Spotify that will come up if you search for it.

So, yeah. It's on Netflix. It's not without flaws (mostly, explaining how the hell immortality works, and a couple of pacing issues), but it's a really satisfying superhero movie.

That's the movie. Onto the comic, which I am just now starting to read as I write these words. Whee!

So The Old Guard: Opening Fire is a 2017 five-issue Image Comics series written by Greg Rucka, with art by Leandro Fernández, and there's also a 2019 sequel, The Old Guard: Force Multiplied, by the same creative team, also with five issues. I have not actually read any of Rucka's work before now because he is mostly famous for his DC work, but I have heard good things about it, especially his Wonder Woman run.

Anyway. The art is very stylized, with a minimal color palette, and it's very pretty but I honestly found it hard to parse sometimes. Many of the characters have very weird noses. Yes, noses. It's basically mostly in Andy's and Nile's POVs, like the movie, and as far I can tell Andy is explicitly queer, because unless I am entirely misreading this panel in issue #1, here she is in bed with a woman in one panel. Whee. Also there are some nice epigraphs at the beginning of each issue.

Okay, so, the plot here is basically the plot of the movie. There is still no explanation of why immortality exists. But even so, there are some fun character moments that didn't make it into the movie -- for example, Andy saying smartphones are too hard to use and she liked the old ones better, only for the rest of her team to say that she couldn't use those either. I think you get a better sense of Andy's world-weariness in the comic. There are also other, now-dead Immortals mentioned, like Noriko, who "went overboard off the Horn." Quynh is not one of them; Quynh basically is Noriko, which is because they cast a Vietnamese actress who asked if her character could be Vietnamese too, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. But anyway, in the comics, she's Noriko. Weirdly, Andy's full name, as she tells Nile when they meet, is Andronika ("man-victory") rather than Andromache ("man-battle," in case you were wondering); I think the movie made a better choice because Ἀνδρονίκα has exactly two attestations in the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, whereas Ἀνδρομάχη has all that shiny name recognition of being shared by the wife of Hector and also the queen of the Amazons and will ping viewers as a Greek name, and therefore ancient, even if it can't be the name she was born with. (There are five for "Andronike" and four more for "Andromacha" so they actually have about the same number of total attestations, as far as I can tell, when you consider the alpha/eta alternation in how various Greek dialects mark feminine nouns.)

(Yes, you totally wanted a review by someone who looks up character names in the LGPN. Don't lie.)

Plotwise, Andy gets all of the initial exposition in for Nile before they get to the safehouse, which Copley has already gotten to before they get back, so Booker is bleeding on the floor and Nile doesn't get to meet Joe or Nicky at this time, and I am also glad they changed that for the movie. But, don't worry, Joe and Nicky's romantic declaration is still in here. We also get Andy pondering the last time she was in love, with a human who grew old.

Oh, and we get Andy's age: 6,732. And by issue #5 her name has changed to Andromache, because what even is continuity? I guess Andromache is her name now.

So Nile finally meets Joe and Nicky when she rescues them and also, uh, that plot point where Andy might die? Totally not a thing here. Nope. And no "surprise! even more immortals!" end-credits moments either.

Basically, I feel like every change they made to the script for the movie really strengthened the story, and even though I thought the movie could have used more character moments, it's way better than how the characters are separated for even longer in the comic. Nile rescuing the team means a lot more when she has met them before, you know?

So Force Multiplied starts us off with Andy, Joe, Nicky, and Nile, because Booker is still on time-out. They are in the middle of a car chase, and Booker's off getting himself kidnapped by someone who wants to know where the others are. The villain of the piece turns out to be Noriko, who is still alive, whom Booker had never had a chance to meet and apparently had never heard of. So, basically, a lot like the Quynh plot that the movie is teasing.

Overall it's a little less action-filled than the first one, which had multiple splash pages of nothing but violence; this one is a little more character-driven and explores the relationship, such as it is, between Andy and Noriko, as well as Nile coming to terms with her immortality, as well as with what everyone else has done over the years. It does have a bunch of violence at the end, though.

I don't want to spoil the ending, but I definitely wasn't expecting where that was heading. There's apparently going to be a third volume, and I am looking forward to it, whenever it exists.

(Although, now that I think about it, the ending is a lot like a fan-favorite moment of Highlander: The Series, but I think if I said which episode you would know exactly what the ending was.)

So, yeah! The Old Guard! I can't say as I feel particularly fannish about it -- there's nothing that makes me yearn to fill in the gaps in canon -- but the movie was really good and you should see it. And you should read the comics if you're into that.

#posts i actually wrote

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ryqoshay · 4 years ago

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Tri-Arame: Feelings Astray

Primary Pairing Trio: YuuAyuSetsu Words: ~1.5k Rating: G Time Frame: Something like their 4th or 5th week of college Story Arc: Stand Alone

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Author’s Note: Some practice drama as well as setup for future stuff.

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“Ne, Ayumu, Setsuna-chan.” Yuu said, turning around on her piano bench. “Would you mind listening to this for me?”

“Of course.” Ayumu and Setsuna replied, practically in unison.

Yuu smiled, stood, and walked over to Ayumu to hand her a set of headphones before giving a set to Setsuna and returning to the keyboard.

The three girls had spent the bulk of the afternoon in Yuu’s room, a bit of a change from their established habit of gathering in Ayumu’s room. This was actually their third day here, as Yuu was working on composing a new piece and needed to use her keyboard. There wasn’t space to move the device to Ayumu’s room so Ayumu and Setsuna mutually decided to keep her company. As Yuu lacked a kotatsu for her guests to gather around, she let Setsuna use her desk to study and Ayumu was sitting on the couch taking a break from her own studies to play a game with Rina on her phone.

Ayumu sent a message to her gaming companion and closed the app before donning the headset. She nodded to Yuu to indicate that she was ready. The twintailed girl smiled again and turned on her bench.

After a deep breath, Yuu positioned her fingers above the keys and began to play. Music poured out of the tiny speakers into Ayumu’s ears as she leaned back and let the experience wash over her. By the gods, she loved listening to Yuu play. Ever since her childhood friend had changed her class course to music back in high school, getting to be part of the audience for small, private concerts had become one of Ayumu’s favorite pastimes. Even if the song was still a work in progress, like today.

Movement off to Yuu’s side caught Ayumu’s attention. Setsuna had sat up straighter, closed her eyes and lifted her chin. Was she…? Ayumu slid one side of her headphones off. Yes, Setsuna was indeed humming along, adding a melody atop Yuu’s piece. Did she already know the tune?

“La la la… Lalala laaa~…” Setsuna apparently was not content to merely hum and began vocalizing instead. No actual lyrics, just the sound of her voice.

And it was beautiful. The harmony was perfect. Ayumu wanted to simply sit and bear witness, but she found herself wondering if Yuu could hear Setsuna as well. She was about to stand and either try to get Yuu’s attention or discreetly move one side of her headphones off like she had done herself. But then Yuu’s hand shot up and quickly did exactly that, barely missing a note. Oh, good. Ayumu relaxed and continued to enjoy the performance.

Then, all too soon, it came to an end.

Setsuna opened her eyes as though coming out of a trance. She blinked and stiffened as she noticed that Yuu’s headphones were half off and it was obvious she had heard her. Pink began to dust her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Yuu-san!” Setsuna blurted out. “I didn’t mean to interfere! I just couldn’t help…”

“That was amazing, Setsuna-chan!” Yuu interrupted excitedly.

“Eh?”

“I hadn’t even considered adding another melody like that, but it was perfect!”

“It really was amazing.” Ayumu agreed, earning a toothy grin from Yuu and a more bashful smile from Setsuna.

“Do you think maybe you could write lyrics to this?” Yuu continued.

“Me? Lyrics?” Setsuna asked.

“Well you just came up with that lovely melody. Surely you could put some words to it, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Obviously I would be happy to help. But, hey, if we do that, maybe you could even use it as a single!”

“Oh, uhm…” Setsuna’s blush deepened. “I wouldn’t want to interfere with your schoolwork.”

“It’s fine.” Yuu assured. “The assignment is just to compose an original work, there’s nothing against turning around and letting a professional idol add lyrics and use it herself.”

“You’d really be alright with that?”

“Of course!” Yuu was practically bouncing in her seat. “It’d be like old times back in the idol club, except now Setsuna-chan is a professional idol.”

Like old times…

“I’d like that.” Setsuna’s smile became more natural as her blush began to fade. “It really is a wonderful work and it would be an honor to sing to it. Thank you, Yuu-san.”

As the two started talking about potential themes for the lyrics, Ayumu found her own thoughts drifting.

There was no doubt in Ayumu’s mind as to Setsuna’s musical prowess, specifically when it came to utilizing her voice. But still, to predict and adjust on the fly like she had just done also implied an implicit trust in Yuu and incredible knowledge about her style of composition. And that was a bond Ayumu simply did not share with Yuu. Or Setsuna for that matter.

Sure, back in high school, Ayumu had done well enough as a school idol, when it came to performing. But she was nowhere near as active as either Yuu or Setsuna when it came the creation of the songs they would sing or the choreography they would use.

Ayumu’s contributions to the club were more of general support. She helped the costume club occasionally with outfit design and creation. She often helped the baking club make snacks for the other idols. And of course, she very much enjoyed being the go-to individual for help with styling her friends’ hair before Live performances or photoshoots, particularly for those with longer hair, like Kanata, Shizuku and Setsuna.

But that often meant that she was doing something for the club other than either Yuu or Setsuna. And they were often doing something together, like when they were spearheading the efforts to organize the School Idol Festival. So, of course they would develop that sort of bond.

And nowadays, they had bonded over many other things as well. They geeked out over idols and anime, often to the point of seeming to forget Ayumu’s presence; not unlike right now. And sure, Yuu had taken to snuggling into Ayumu in bed, but Setsuna seemed to cling to Yuu with a desperation that neither did with her. Even their morning meeting on the balcony, they were more often next to one another. Who knows, the next thing they’ll bond over might end up being cooking.

Was Ayumu getting in their way?

No. That couldn’t be the case.

Both actively sought her out for drying their hair whenever they washed it. Yuu was very open about that fact that she had no desire to go to any hairstylist other than her, for cuts, dyeing or anything else. And while Setsuna hadn’t said as such out loud, her actions seemed to imply that she felt similar.

Both girls were also vocal in their gratitude for all of the cooking Ayumu did for them. And knowing how much they enjoyed her food was something in which Ayumu did take some pride. Not too much, as she knew there were far better cooks than her out in the world. But if the two people she loved most were happy with it, then that was enough to make her happy.

And then there was the fact that Yuu was quite insistent on walking to class with Ayumu, despite having a later schedule. And Setsuna always greeted her enthusiastically when she arrived home. Although she greeted Yuu the same way. And Yuu greeted Setsuna the same way as well… Perhaps that wasn’t the best example.

Even the private piano performances had started out only being for Ayumu. But then Setsuna started to join in regularly. And while Ayumu was certainly happy when the three of them were together, there started to be more and more times like now. More and more times that the other two seemed to forget Ayumu was present.

Maybe I should just move out and let them be a happy cou…

Wait, where did that thought come from?

Ayumu physically shook her head as though it might help rid herself of that thought.

“Ayumu?”

“Mm?” Ayumu blinked to find Yuu had turned her attention to her.

“You alright?”

“I’m fine. I just…”

Ayumu was interrupted by the sound of Setsuna’s stomach growling. Loudly. Yuu immediately started laughing while Setsuna’s face flushed adorably.

Ayumu held back a laugh of her own. “I suppose it is about that time.” She said, checking her phone. “I’ll go make dinner.”

“I’ll come with.” Yuu said, bouncing up from her bench.

“Oh, I’ll be fine.” Ayumu assured. “Please continue to work here if you want.”

“I’m good here for now.” Yuu shook her head. “And I need to do a few things on my laptop anyway.”

Ayumu noticed Setsuna close her own laptop and stand as well. “I’ll come as well.” The raven-haired girl said with a smile.

“Mm.” Ayumu agreed with a nod and headed for the door.

So, Ayumu and Setsuna had decided to keep Yuu company in her room. And now Yuu and Setsuna wanted to keep Ayumu company in hers. That meant they all wanted to stay together, right?

Yes. That had to be the case.

Ayumu thought to herself as she led the way back to her room. It was fine. That strange thought from before should just be forgotten.

Everything was fine.

Right…?

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Author’s Note Continued in Followup Post

#YuuAyuSetsu #Takasaki Yuu #Yuki Setsuna #Uehara Ayumu #Tri-Arame #Love Live Nijigasaki #fanfic

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bleachbigbang · 5 years ago

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Bleach Big Bang 2021 Fic Summaries!

Writing samples for each fic attached.

Fic #01 || Sample

Rating: Explicit

Content Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Main Characters: Kurosaki Ichigo, Urahara Kisuke, Aizen Sousuke

Main Pairings: Urahara Kisuke/Kurosaki Ichigo || Aizen Sousuke/Kurosaki Ichigo

Additional Warnings: BDSM, suicidal thoughts, probably bad self-care, dark thoughts, bad BDSM etiquette, Dom/sub

No matter which mastermind stood behind the plan, when Lady Fate is a bitch who doesn't like to follow what others say.

They planned to go back and change the past, to have a better future.

They planned everything carefully, three masterminds, and a brute force.

They planned but everything went wrong.

Only one person arrived back in time in another timeline. He was alone, without his soul mate, without any help from the masterminds. Will he be able to change the future alone? Will Lady Bitch Fate let him? But wait... Why is that thing there? That shouldn't be possible!

The beginning already changed, why is it there? Why does it still happen?

“Foolish Mortal, there are things that will remain the same, no matter what you do. Can you change the future without knowing what are the invariable happenings in time? Will you be able to find your happiness, while you keep helping others to find theirs? I am curious about it, but Mortal, I’m Lady Fucking Fate, I love chaos.”

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Fic #02 || Sample

Rating: Teen

Content Warnings: Major Character Death

Main Characters: Ichigo Kurosaki, Ogichi Shirosaki (Hollow Ichigo), Grimmjow Jeagerjaques

Main Pairings: Ichigo Kurosaki/Ogichi Shirosaki

Additional Warnings: Reincarnation. Major character death might happen more than once. Heavy cultural reference and possible historical manipulation, mesoamerican focused. ((AKA: if you're racist/have trouble with inaccuracies, think twice))

He doesn't know why was he born into this world. His life has been nothing but pain, always feeling out of place and never in sync with his people and "friends", and once he became an exile, he really felt like there was nothing left for him in this life. That was until he met the God that would give meaning to his existence, and become his reason to fight. "Shiro", now Ichtalcoatl's warrior, feels like everything he has endured was for this moment, and he wouldn't exchange it for anything.

Except, all evil happens for a reason, and there are many truths to be uncovered from Shiro's past, giving meaning to this eternal karma and the never-ending cycle of pain. This is the tale of the final trial Shiro must endure to be worthy of the Sun itself.

Gods/Demigods AU, ft. Quetzalcoatl Ichigo.

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Fic #03 || Sample

Rating: Teen

Content Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Main Characters: Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, Renji Abarai, Byakuya Kuchiki, Kenpachi Zaraki, Visored, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, Ulquiorra Cifer, Aizen Sousuke, Other Bleach characters

Main Pairings: None / Undecided

Additional Warnings: Swearing, Mild Violence, Mild Gore, Canon Divergence

Ichigo is special, he's always been. From the moment he managed to become a Soul reaper, to when he obtained unlikely powers and achieved inhuman deeds, he's always had that natural talent to go beyond the limits. However, his true strength lies not in his latent abilities, but in the charm he wasn't even aware he had. His ultimate power was not his bankai, nor his hollowfication; it was his power to move people's hearts, sway them towards him, and somehow make those who wanted to kill him become his most loyal allies. Or, instead of merely befriending everyone he fought, Ichigo unknowingly builds an army of people who will die for him and change destiny itself in order to protect their one, true king.

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Fic #04 || Sample

Rating: Teen

Content Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Main Characters: Kurosaki Ichigo, Kisuke Urahara, Yasutora Sado

Main Pairings: None / Undecided

Additional Warnings: Teacher AU, DID, Alternating POVs, Supernatural Elements, No Shinigami AU

Ichigo moves to Karakura after an abrupt shift in career. There, he meets faces both familiar (his friend Chad is teaching music) and not (he doesn’t know what’s up with that Urahara guy but for a maths teacher he's not that bad). As the newest teacher in the school, and the least experienced at it, Ichigo decides not to make waves and to let himself fade into the background. Unfortunately, his friendship with the maths teacher seems to drag him into plots that are far outside of anything he’s ever known.

NOTE: I'm really flexible as far as the plot goes and willing to work with the artist if there are any particular elements they'd like to incorporate

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Fic #05 || Sample

Rating: Teen

Content Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Main Characters: Kisuke Urahara, Rukia Kuchiki, Tessai Tsukabishi, Yoruichi Shihōin, Ichigo Kurosaki

Main Pairings: No romantic relationships; Pre-UraYoruTess;

Kisuke has feelings for both Tessai and Yoruichi but that won't develop into anything during this fic though I have plans for UraYoruTess & TatsuHime in a sequel.

Additional Warnings: N/A

There was a soul reaper who was assigned to Karakura town. There was a human who could see ghosts. There was a hollow who wanted to eat. Thus, the sword of fate fell, But the sword did not hit the ground when the soul reaper transferred her powers to the human. For there was a shopkeeper who still had a decision to make Kisuke decides to tell Rukia about the hogyoku and Aizen. They start working together to take down Aizen.

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Fic #06 || Sample

Rating: Teen

Content Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Main Characters: Urahara Kisuke, Kurosaki Ichigo, Hirako Shinji

Main Pairings: Shinji Hirako/Urahara Kisuke, Urahara Kisuke/Kurosaki Ichigo

Additional Warnings: N/A

After the Visored were changed, Kisuke had a multitude of theories. One of those was that they might still be contagious. A slip during training proves that theory, and now he has to get his own hollow side under control with the help of his friends. As always, that's easier said than done, given that Kisuke's hollow is as odd as he is.

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Fic #07 || Sample

Rating: Mature

Content Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death

Main Characters: Ichigo Kurosaki, Hollow Ichigo

Main Pairings: Past Hollow Ichigo/Kurosaki Ichigo

Additional Warnings: Flashbacks, Heavy Betrayal, Psychological Trauma, PTSD, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Toxic Relationship

Ichigo -- or what he assumes his name is -- doesn't expect to wake up to the poverty-stricken Rukongai. Without a clue as to where he is or how he ended up there, he meets another amnesiac lost soul, who calls himself Shiro (name pending tbh). However, lurking beneath the two of them is a storm of betrayal waiting to be unleashed.

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Fic #08 || Sample

Rating: Teen

Content Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Main Characters: Ichigo Kurosaki, Hollow Ichigo

Main Pairings: Hollow Ichigo/Kurosaki Ichigo

Additional Warnings: Very fluff, much cute

“We've been childhood friends all this time. I think I would know when you aren't enjoying yourself with someone,” Shiro stated, tilting his head further into his palm to assess Ichigo's reaction.

“It's ... It's not going to be like that, okay? Maybe he'll turn out better than you think,” He countered, causing Shiro to sigh under his breath. While Ichigo hesitantly stuffed the thoughtless gift from his new boyfriend in his bag, Shiro could only watch. He couldn't help but wonder when it'd be his turn to make him happy.

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Fic #09 || Sample

Rating: Explicit

Content Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Main Characters: Momo Hinamori

Main Pairings: Momo Hinamori/Izuru Kira/Shuuhei Hisagi/Renji Abarai

Additional Warnings: Alcoholism, Past Abusive Relationships.

Continuation of All that draws us together (AO3)

Momo knows all the ups and downs of life and love, yet she rides it again and again. Sometime after the battle against Wandenreich, Momo invites Izuru out.

From there begins a maelstrom of confusion hurt, and eventually, the loving partnership of her, Izuru, Renji, and Shuuhei.

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Fic #10 || Sample

Rating: Mature

Content Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Main Characters: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Ichigo Kurosaki

Main Pairings: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez/Kurosaki Ichigo

Additional Warnings: Body Horror, Body Dysmorphia

Ichigo is the most advanced CyberLife Android to date. A prototype. A test model. Incomplete. Grimmjow smiles, and it's not biting. It's more. Painful. There is nothing physically wrong with Ichigo, and yet his chest aches at the sight. "You're my partner, Ichigo. A whole person. You always have been."

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Fic #11 || Sample

Rating: Teen

Content Warnings: Major Character Death, Graphic Depictions of Violence

Main Characters: Kurosaki Ichigo, Gotei Captains, Kamado Tanjirou (KnY)

Main Pairings: None (Gen)

Additional Warnings: Suicidal Ideation

Bleach x Kimetsu no Yaiba crossover. In which all their deaths were in vain, and Muzan lived, and the Gotei are the Demon Slayer Corps in the modern world.

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Fic #12 || Sample

Rating: Mature

Content Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Underage

Main Characters: Ichigo Kurosaki, Shinji Hirako, Kisuke Urahara, minor appearances by Rukia and Co.

Main Pairings: Shinji Hirako/Ichigo Kurosaki

Additional Warnings: Ambiguous Morality, Dark Ichigo, Ichigo Eats Souls, Hurt/Comfort

[some tags might be added, but these are the bulk of the story]

Ichigo’s excuse of a broken soul is not enough to keep him going, and an assassination attempt brings to light just how deep the problem goes.

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Fic #13 || Sample

Rating: Teen

Content Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Main Characters: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Rukia Kuchiki

Main Pairings: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez/Rukia Kuchiki

Additional Warnings: N/A

Grimmjow doesn't think he's coming out of this alive.

A drabble fic.

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Fic #14 || Sample

Rating: Mature

Content Warnings: No Archive Warning Apply

Main Characters: Ichigo Kurosaki, Yasutora “Chad” Sado, Orihime Inoue, Uryuu Ishida, Rukia Kuchiki, Keigo Asano, Mizuiro Kojima, Tatsuki Arisawa, Renji Abarai, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez

Main Pairings: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez/Kurosaki Ichigo

Additional Warnings: N/A

The group had settled on blankets by the bay as the fireworks went off in the distance, the booms, cracks, and sparkles of them could be heard clearly. As they all watched, they got close to each other and kept warm on their shared blankets, friends, or couples, they didn’t care. Grimmjow and Ichigo, Chad and Orihime, Renji and Rukia, Mizuiro and Keigo shared their blankets as pairs, but Uryuu and Tatsuki had their own little spots on their blankets.

They had traveled to America for the school year as transfer students in South Texas and this was the first time that they had seen fireworks like this outside of the tv, and they were the best experience that they have had since being there, thus far. Grimmjow, Keigo, Rukia, and Renji were off in the distance cheering while their partners and friends smiled and watched them as the finale of the fireworks were going off on the boardwalk.

After the fireworks ended, they all picked up their blankets and bags of used small sparklers and party poppers that they had bought beforehand from the Kroger that was close to their host parents’ houses the day before.

#bleach #Bleach Big Bang #bleachbigbang #bleachbigbang2021 #fic #fanfiction #fanfic #ao3

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horrorlad · 4 years ago

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Horrorlad Reviews: The Dentist (1996)

Or at least, like, talks about it a bunch.

Boy was I overthinking my first real Horror Lad post! It was going to be Grave Encounters, but that will have to wait, because I got insomnia and decided to rewatch a movie I hadn’t seen seen since I was 14, which wound up being the perfect opportunity to write out a post!

Let’s talk about The Dentist!

So, The Dentist is a 1996 movie starring Corbin Bernsen. It was directed by Brian Yuzna (one of the producers of Re-Animator, he also directed the 1989 body horror film Society which I haven’t seen, though a cursory image search tells me I need to add to my watch list immediately).

Anyway, The Dentist is about a teethsman who catches his wife giving some other guy a BJ and gets so grossed out about it that he has a nervous breakdown about, uh, how dirty mouths are, I guess? He loses his absolute shit (though he didn’t seem to have it all that together to begin with; this guy’s Jack Torrance is way more Kubrick than King), and we the audience get to tag along for all the wacky fun.

Full disclosure: I can’t give an unbiased review of this movie. I watched it several times in high school, then completely forgot about it for ten years, until tonight. There’s too much nostalgia wrapped up in it.

That said, upon rewatching it, I am in LOVE with the structure of it as a film. You know how, some movies, you can tell that the people behind the scenes are having a blast? This is one of those movies. The structure of the shots vary wildly, and I suspect that there was not one tripod or stabilizer on that set. The makeup and effects are fun, every actor has an opportunity to shine at least once, and the pacing is totally bonkers. I will note, however, that for a slasher movie the confirmed death count is pretty low, AND most of the murders are less dentistry-related than you might expect. Still, it’s a good time, and right now it’s available to watch for free (with commercials) on Tubi, which is pretty sweet!

Read on for the content warnings and spoilers. In the meantime, I give The Dentist 3.5 tanks of nitrous oxide (use with caution).

Content warnings and plot synopsis below the cut.

Content Warnings

Also, I don’t really know what to classify this one as, but there is a lot of “ick” factor to this movie — rotting teeth, sludge, etc. If you’re easily squicked out by that sort of stuff, I’d proceed with caution.

Dental torture (and how!) – it’s basically the whole movie, folks.

Sexual assault – multiple instances, including a character having their head forced down while giving oral sex (in a daydream), and another character being assaulted while on nitrous oxide.

Spousal abuse (physical and emotional) – again, there’s a lot of this.

Child abuse – A young child has their gums stabbed by the dentist.

Animal abuse – a dog is shot offscreen.

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Okay, spoiler time!

Whoo boy, here we go!

I have no idea why I watched this movie so much as a teen. Probably because it was free on FearNet (remember FearNet?) and I would watch just about anything.

Watching it as an adult, my first thought is… man this is weirdly paced. My second thought is that there’s a lot more non-dental-related murders than I would have expected, but we’ll come back to that.

So, our hero(?) is a dentist, and we meet him at the beginning of a framing device, miming dentistry and offering to tell us about his story. The bulk of the movie is then a flashback about how he got to where he is, interspersed with his monologuing or whatever. We meet him and his wife (who are a straight couple in a movie and thus required to completely hate one another) on their anniversary, a fact which becomes clear while he’s in the middle of throwing a fit about his laundry.

Pictured: a totally hinged man. Nothing unhinged going on here, no sir.

At any rate, he gets all suspicious after an interaction with the pool guy, and catches his wife having an affair with the guy. He continues framing-device-monologuing about decay and the world being filthy and all that, daydreams about assaulting his wife and murdering the pool boy, etc. He follows the pool guy to the neighbor’s house, acts all weird, shoots a dog — your basic Tuesday.

Eventually, he winds up at the office, starts hallucinating, assaults a couple of patients, and finally calls an early end to the day (self care is important). We get this delightful (in a heavy-handed sort of way) scene that keeps cutting back and forth between him setting out spooky dental tools and his wife getting dressed for the big anniversary surprise he’s has planned, and that’s when things really start to go haywire.

Okay.

So like.

I get that he’s a dentist.

I get that he’s a dentist whose whole shtick is having the themed exam rooms (though why we have aaaalll these rooms for a bunch of hygienists and one dentist is a little beyond me).

But you mean to tell me that this dude’s special anniversary surprise for his wife was to show her his new, opera-themed dental exam room?

“Oh, honey… you really, really shouldn’t have…”

Like, I know he’s settled on a revenge plot by this point, but I still definitely believe that this guy was legitimately planning the entire time to show his wife his fancy new dental suite as an anniversary surprise. Not to be that guy, but no wonder she was having an affair.

Honestly though, I love this scene. I love the camera PoV shots as he shows off the dental suite, I love the excessive gesturing with his left hand. I love how the scene starts off with his point-of-view of her, and then transitions into her point-of-view of him, cut with those big beautiful teeth-yanking shots. It’s ridiculous.

And then, they get home, he has some monologuing about the pool, etc.

Next scene, it’s the next day, some cops come to ask questions about the murdered dog, his wife is out back on a pool chair with her giant sunhat covering her face (the way normal, totally-not-drugged people hang out by the pool) while the pool guy does his pool guy stuff. Eventually the cops leave, yadda yadda yadda, the pool guy scoops the wife’s tongue out of the pool, he sees how fucked up she is, the dentist murders the shit out of him. It’s beautiful.

Don’t you love it when you finish your to-do list first thing in the morning?

The end.

Wait, no, that’s not right.

Somehow, there’s still almost half a movie left.

This movie starts with this dude fighting with his wife, catching his wife cheating with the pool guy, hallucinating his wife’s nasty mouth on everyone, etc. You’d think that, with his wife tortured all to shit and the pool guy dead, the movie would have wrapped up.

I mentioned before that the pacing of the movie is weird, which it is. I mean, he has his “oop guess I’m evil now” scene on his way to work the next day, which basically means that just over half of this movie is the origin story. It could be longer, with the big climactic nonsense taking up the last quarter or so. It could be shorter, with him freaking out about his wife, losing his shit, and having a proper dental rampage. Instead, The Dentist flies in the face of conventional story structure.

But this man is a busy man. He’s a dentist, damn it.

He has to get back to work!

Things are happening fast now, let’s get condensed.

We go back to work, he pulls some malpractice shit on that lady whose dog he shot yesterday, then strangles Jessica-the-hygienist (I think that’s her job) when she calls him on it. Later, a man from the IRS comes in and uses the dentist’s shady tax junk to get free dental work which is, uh, inadvisable. IRS man, Marvin Goldblum, starts talking about our dentist’s wife (and about how unhinged shiksas are in bed, in case we somehow we didn’t piece together that he’s an awful Jewish caricature), and I’m sure the rest of his appointment goes totally normally.

Get a guy who looks at you like this.

Meanwhile, the cops are definitely onto him regarding the murder of that dog (after all, murdering dogs is THEIR turf). They go to his house, where he left the body of the pool guy he murdered just laying around outside for anyone to find (which they do). Then they go upstairs and find his wife, who is alive but so fucked up.

Back at the office, Karen-the-other-hygienist, looking for her coworker who got murdered earlier, stumbles upon the very fucked up IRS dude. We get to listen to the dentist give a little monologue about how grossed out he is that his wife put some dude’s “dirty, rotten… in her mouth!” before he injects air into a vein in Karen-the-other-hygienist’s neck to kill her.

Next up, this girl who has been waiting for two days to get her braces off gets called back. She’s adorable and chipper, so this, of course, can only go well. When’s the last time you had your dentist pull a gun on you?

Our scrappy youngster runs off, and he gives chase (we find that Mr. Goldblum’s jaw elongation procedure is going well by the way), before eventually letting her go after she promises to take very, very good care of her teeth.

After all, he’s got his next job to get to.

Let’s go teach dental students the importance of pulling out everyone’s teeth!

Yeeep, he’s a teacher! And after he shoots one of his students while hallucinating, the cops show up, resulting in the slowest chase scene any movie has ever had (I mean the dude is literally just briskly walking down the hall and he still gets away from them). Anyway, the dentist winds up in an auditorium where a woman is practicing her opera singing. The dentist is entranced by this (we know he loves opera from that scene with his wife earlier) and reaches out to the singer, but he hallucinates his wife’s hecked up face on her and drops to his knees, presumably to have the rest of his nervous breakdown. The cops… uh… well, they just kinda stand around looking disapprovingly at him while he sits on the floor. And that’s… that’s it, I guess?

“Nah, let him rest, he’s had a big day.”

In our final scene, we have some orderlies at his new mental institution drag him down for his regular appointment, where his wife (who I guess is a dentist now) starts drilling at his teeth. This may or may not be a hallucination. It probably doesn’t matter.

Wow. That certainly was a film.

Alright, so, I’ve been typing up my thoughts as I watch, and I think I’ve figured out what I like about this movie, that had me coming back to it over and over as a youngster. There are some movies that just look fun to film, and this is one of them. A number of the shots are really charming, for lack of a better word. There’s the anniversary scene with his wife I mentioned before, but so many others — this movie plays around with point of view, extreme close-ups, some very fun effects used to indicate the hallucinations… there’s even a sideways shot of one of the cops coming down the stairs. I seem to have a real fondness for that sort-of manic, anything-goes approach to filming. Related side note: is there a single steady shot on this whole film? I’m beginning to doubt it.

Corbin Bernsen does a great job. I mean, all the actors do, really, but he is something else. Like, I can’t think offhand of many actors who could successfully take the character “dentist in bad marriage has a nervous breakdown because his wife gives someone else a blow job and it grosses him out; goes on torturemurder spree” without overacting to the point of distraction. “What are you talking about, this dude’s hammier than Easter dinner,” you say. Now, I get the urge here, but I have to disagree; Bernsen plays a fantastic Emasculated White Guy Throwing A Fit.

That picture I posted up there, after the bit about the laundry argument? A dude who makes that face over the idea of wearing the wrong cuff links to work is at most twelve seconds away from completely losing his shit at any given moment. And the dude’s anniversary surprise for his wife was to show off his new, opera-themed dental exam room; none of this behavior seems too off the wall for that character. Granted, I haven’t seen the sequel yet, and the image searches do suggest that our dear dentist is about to use his well-cared-for teeth to chew the hell out of some scenery in The Dentist 2, but in this movie? I’m just saying it’s not an unbelievable portrayal.

Disgruntled white dudes aside, the rest of the cast seems to have a fun time too. Shout out to the receptionist literally sobbing over what a great dentist this guy is (stunning work). If nothing else, stop by for wee baby Mark Ruffalo before he was famous. It’s adorable.

LOOK AT HIM.

ALL THAT SAID, I have to state again how surprised I am by the sheer number of not-dental-related murders! Like, by my count, this guy commits a hefty amount of malpractice, but for a guy on a torturemurder spree, he sure does seem to keep his torture and his murder fairly separate. Let’s tally it:

I’m tired, let’s wrap this up. The Dentist is a fun movie about a dude who loses his shit, does some dental torture, does some murder, does ZERO dental torturemurders, and then just kinda tuckers himself out and sits down. It’s a big silly mess, and I love it.

Tortures: six

The kid at the beginning, the lady he sexually assaults (it counts), his wife (not dead), that lady whose dog he shot, Marvin the IRS guy (alive when last we see him), and the person at the dental school near the end.

Murders: three people, one dog.

The dog (shot), the pool guy (knifed), Jessica-the-hygienist (strangled), Karen-the-other-hygienist (air injected into artery), and that’s… it..? He does shoot that person at the dental school, but it doesn’t appear to be a fatal wound, and Marvin the IRS guy was alive when we saw him last.

Torturemurders: HECKIN’ ZERO.

Zero! None of the tortures are murdered, and nobody he murders is tortured! What the heck kind of slasher dentist doesn’t even kill people via dentistry? No wonder everyone looks down on him at the end.

Alright, first post written. I’m going to bed.

#horrorlad original #the dentist #the dentist (1996)#corbin bernsen #brian yuzna #horror #movie #horror movie #horror movies #movies #review #film review #movie review

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docholligay · 5 years ago

Note

What hobbies or activities would your OW crew each try and pick up during corona quarantine?

Tracer

Lena is going to try and learn a second language. She took French in school, didn’t she? And didn’t she graduate school? Right! So this should be an absolute walk in the park. French it is. Her first choice was Arabic, as it was, in fact, the prospect of Amari drama that made her embrace the wisdom of being a polyglot in the first place, but Mercy’s gentle suggestion that she start with something a bit closer to home base made her try for French. Arabic could be her third language.

And it isn’t that Tracer is stupid, so much as she has the full confidence that she can try hard and find success. This has been true so many times in her life, that she was simply the one most dedicated to the outcome, and so she managed to wrench it from the hands of fate. She is quick, and clever, and capable! What’s FRENCH got that she can’t handle.

Lena, five minutes in: Oh, right, I hated school.

She tries, god love her, but it just doesn’t hold her attention. She’s trying so hard to write verb forms and study and study, but she doesn’t honestly care much to KNOW French. It reminds her of Amelie, for starters, and that always gives her a little bit of a pit in her stomach, and without Amelie, there seems very little reason to know it. Only one in the house who speaks it is Mercy, really.

So she takes account of the languages her team knows.

Hana...Korean, of course, and at least some Japanese, mostly for promotional reasons. Lena takes one look at the Japanese rules of politeness and deference and gently sets the language to the side. She thinks about Korean--Korea’s been so much help since the omnic crisis, and it’s a good thing to converse with your allies--but the daunting aspect of having to ask Hana, who seems not even to know herself whether she likes everyone in the house or not, overcomes her.

Fareeha, well, that’d be Arabic, and that’s it, so far as Lena knows, and Ang’s already warned her off of that one. Fareeha’s feeling a it pricky about the whole Arabic situation since her mother’s come back, anyhow, and all her workout music has turned to English, and Lena’s not certain why she seems to be blaming the entire Arab world for Ana, but then again, Lena doesn’t understand Fareeha in the best of times.

Winston, he’d of course help her, but a lot of his knowledge is tied up in Latin and Scholarly Greek, and she’s not sure why anyone would take all the effort when you couldn’t even properly go on holiday. He does know a fair amount of German, she figures, but if she’s going to do that, she may as well go to Ang, and besides all that, Winston dos so much for her. No need to throw in another thing.

Ana: No.

Jack: No, but a bit softer.

Angela seems the natural choice, as she knows so many languages, comparatively. Her father was a linguist of sorts, to hear Ang talk around the edge of it, and so German, French, Italian, Latin, Hebrew, at the least, all come to her quickly and easily. It’s English she likes the least, and she’s better at it than she gives herself credit for, near perfect but for a few stange tenses. It really only Ang who notices. But Angela is, well, Ang, and with all the troubles of the world, she’s lost her mind, a bit.

So there’s no real help to be had, and Lena buys a few Muzzy tapes in French and learns how to say “I am a young girl” and “I like apples” before deciding that her quarantine time is better spent ensuring that she can actually climb the drain to the roof, jump from the roof into the pool, and other extremely valuable information. No one was hiring her for the language department anyhow.

Winston

WInston is more used to solitude than the rest of them, and as far as he’s concerned, it’s not really loneliness if Tracer is with him. THough he feels bad for her, and how stir crazy she’s getting. It makes him sad to see her so bored and glum, though she is trying to make cheer of it.

And so Winston has a genius idea. Tracer LOVES gymnastics, and Winston loves a project. So the idea for the super bounce trampoline is born.

You cannot tell Winston this is a bad idea. You cannot tell Winston this is a bad idea, because, on some level, he already knows. He knows, but he sees Tracer doing her little cartwheels in the yard, running laps, trying to create little games for herself where she creates time trials around the house, trying to improve on each activity lap. At the time where she breaks three plates trying to see if she can beat her time for table service, it even starts to sound like a GOOD idea.

He’s fine making little picnic lunches together and watching TV and having her ‘help’ in the lab, but she is becoming despondent with the boredom of it all. It has been ten days.

And so, he looks at the metals he’s engineered for use in his prosthetic limbs. Couldn’t they also be used to create a spring that would double your strength and energy return of a normal spring? Than Lena could do all kinds of maneuvers on the trampoline, and besides, it’s always important to know the limits of engineering.

Angela tries to remind him hospitals are full.

Dva

The first day of quarantine, Hana Song pops a soda in her pj shorts and says, “It’s a pandemic! Why do we have to improve ourselves? God, isn’t it enough to be alive?” She takes a deep sip. “I’ll do some charity streams, okay?”

As she’s walking away Tracer asks her if she’ll help paint the upstairs den. Tracer is making little physical projects for herself in varying levels of horror, sometimes while watching the Muzzy tapes to convince herself she hasn’t given up on the bilingual dream. Painting seems tame. Hana stops for a moment, then agrees.

She is the only reasonable person in this house.

Mercy

Angela is in a panic. The entire world seems to be crumbling at her feet, and though she is no epidemiologist, she knows that none of this is good. She wants to go. Pharah begs her to stay. She is afraid for Angela. To put her in some ICU where she could get the illness, where it could be, as such, that Fareeha would not be able to come to her. She understands Angela’s need to help, but also, she says, what if something happened to you? You are the only doctor with any real knowledge of Tracer. What would be come of her.

Angela only looks at her for a moment before her face darkens, and Fareeha shakes her head, ashamed. “I was using Tracer to excuse my own fears. I am selfish. You should go.”

And in that moment, Angela does not leave not because she is the only physician who can properly work with Tracer’s condition, but for the great love of Fareeha Amari, who for the first time since Angela has known her, is truly afraid.

The days pass with difficulty. She is writing guidelines and ideas to anyone she can, coordinating donations and writing out thank yous and pleas, sitting in the bay window of their bedroom as the sleeting snow and rain fall against the window one bleak afternoon. The sun and storm come in patches, she’s noticed, but the grey seems to speak to her most all.

Fareeha comes to her one day. She has a mug filled with hot chocolate and whipped cream and brandy and love. She gently places her hand on Angela’s knee.

“I hear you crying in the night,” she says, though she cannot look to Angela’s face, “You should go. You must go.”

She loves Fareeha so very much.

She goes.

Pharah

Which immediately drives the sort of disconnected and floating morass of ennui that is the Overwatch household into Von Trapp style whistle blowing order.

Pharah’s project, you see, is everyone else.

Fareeha is a lovely person in most respects, all of them would say in one way or another, but she has certain control issues, and these never become more pronounced than when her life seems, well, out of control.

No more laying about. There is a kitchen to be reorganized, there are drills to be done, when was the last time you lifted? There is a color coded schedule posted in the kitchen and we should all take note of the way Fareeha has scheduled our time. Tracer balks, of course, that she’s the leader as well, and Fareeha has a terrible habit of assuming that it’s her who’s the leader entire and complete, and you know what else--

Winston pulls them apart. Neither of them, he tries to say, are actually angry with each other. He shakes when he says it.

And so Pharah tries. God love her, she tries SO HARD. She improves herself, and tries to let others be. She reorganizes the entire kitchen. She labels every bulk container, She scrubs every floor in the house to a gleaming shine. Her clothes, and Angela’s all washed and organized by sshade and season.

One night Lena comes downstairs and sees her looking out the window, drinking a Labatt, rubbing at her wedding ring. Lena wouldn’t embarrass her by asking, but her eyes seem to beglistening, jsut a bit.

The next morning, all three of the rest of the OVerwatch team are lined up, at the bottom of the stairs, at 6 am sharp.

It’s true that Fareeha takes herself on three hour runs across the prairie in all weathers to give everyone some down time where they don’t have to be doing anything, but they broker a sort of peace wherein they spend a certain amount of time doing Fareeha Amari’s Twelve Point Improvement Plan every day, and time doing their own thing, and Fareeha seems genuinely cheered to be plotting out their workout and meal plans, their online seminars to listen to. She and Lena even watch a few Muzzy tapes together.

She even forgives Tracer when the first test of Winston’s trampoline finds Lena sailing through Pharah’s (Thankfully open) bedroom window.

Ana and Jack:

They spend all of quarantine watching 90 Day Fiancee and eating TV dinners.

#creative ask day #moonlight1130

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niomemizune · 6 years ago

Text

Niome Mizune LFRP

→ Basics

Name: Tsukimi “Niome” Mizune Age: 26 Birthday: 15th of the Second Astral Moon (3/15) Race: Au Ra - Raen Gender: Female Sexuality: Bisexual (male preference) / Demisexual Marital Status: Single (monogamous) Nicknames: Nio

→ Physical Appearance Hair: Short and Dark Brown, but she has started to grow it out. Eyes: Dark brown with purple limbic rings Height: 4 foot 10 inches (roughly) Build: Curvy - Plus-sized Distinguishing Marks: Small various scars along her arms and hands, small-sized gunshot wound on her stomach Common Accessories: Kitchen knives, Carbuncle headpiece

→ Personal Profession: Owner of Carbuncle Cafe in Shirogane (formerly worker at The Bismarck in Limsa, formerly ninja in Doman rebellion) Hobbies: Sewing, Painting (occasionally), Botany (occasionally), Singing (occasionally) Languages: Spoken only: Common, Doman, Hingan Residence: Apartment in Mist, Carbuncle Cafe in Shirogane Birthplace: Sui no Sato, Ruby Sea Religion: Newly converted follower of Menphina Fears: Abandonment, Lack of Acceptance, Heights

→ Relationships Spouse: None Children: None Parents: Mika Mizune - mother, Mizuki Mizune - father Siblings: Mitsuki Mizune - little sister Other Relatives: Hazuki Mizune - grandmother Pets: Peridot Carbuncle, various mammets, a chocobo named Tsukimi

→ Traits * Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted Disorganized / In Between / Organized Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded Calm / In Between / Anxious Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable Cautious / In Between / Reckless Patient / In Between / Inpatient Outspoken / In Between / Reserved Leader / In Between / Follower Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic Traditional / In Between / Modern Hard-working / In Between / Lazy Cultured / In Between / Uncultured Loyal / In Between / Disloyal Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

→ Additional information Smoking Habit: Never Drugs: Never Alcohol: Rarely Theme (changes): Ikanaide, Deep Sea Girl, Reset Faceclaim: None

→ RP Hooks

Carbuncle Cafe - Niome’s newest adventure! Niome decided to open a Carbuncle-themed cafe on a whim. Kinda. She knew she wanted to branch out and own her own place, and she loves pastries and sweets, so it was always in the back of her mind. That being said, owning a new business is tough and Nio needs all the help she can get! Merchants, customers, etc are all welcome additions!

Kugane Regular - Niome has started to spend more of her time in the Far East. She tends to hang around Kugane when she’s not working. You’ll spot her easily in her work uniform - a Carbuncle-themed outfit! But she does love the culture of Kugane, so you might see her taking in a sip of tea or trying on the latest fashions. She also does a lot of trading with local merchants.

The Bismarck - Niome spent the majority of her time at work… cooking up delicious treats in Limsa Lominsa! She might not be the best chef The Bismarck has ever had, but she works hard and is constantly improving and her knifework is something to write home about! She worked as a cook, so you won’t see her bussing tables, but maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of her in the kitchen.

Limsa Lominsa Regular - Niome spent the bulk of her free time wandering around Limsa Lominsa. She has tried just about everything that the city has to offer. Arcane magics? Her summons never listen to her, but she can at least summon them. Fighting with an axe? Not as smooth as she is with a knife, but she can at least do a little damage. Blacksmithing, Armor-making, and Fishing? She’s dipped her toes into each specialty.

Ninja Past - Niome was a ninja in her past, fighting for the Doman rebellion. This probably has earned her a few enemies, especially considering she abandoned the rebellion shortly after the Calamity and made her way to Eorzea. Have a Garlean with a disdain for rebels? Want your Doman citizen to recognize Niome for who she is?

Noble Birth - Niome was born into a relatively prestigious family in Sui no Sato. The Mizune clan were well known for their tact and grace. However, Niome wanted to see the world when she was younger and find her own love, something that her parents were strictly against. This made her run away from home. While she is back in good graces with her grandmother and will occasionally spend time with her new little sister, Mitsuki, she still doesn’t seem to see eye-to-eye with her parents.

→ OOC Notes

NO ONE KNOWS NIOME’S REAL NAME - Niome’s real name of Tsukimi is unknown to EVERYONE, as she has gone by Niome ever since leaving Sui no Sato as a child. If you come up to her calling her Tsukimi she will probably attempt to kill you, so DON’T DO IT.

Mun is 18+ - That does NOT mean it is a free invite to erp. Niome is a shy bean, and while she can fall fast and hard, she is largely inexperienced in a lot of those things.That being said, violent themes and the like are welcome as long as they make sense.

Preferred RP - Niome is mostly looking for connections, friends, possibly a lover down the road. My preferred genres are slice-of-life, adventure, and possibly romance. While I tend to avoid darker themes on Nio, they are certainly a possibility as long as we talk about them beforehand.

→ Contact Information Tumblr: @niomemizune

Twitter: @/NiomeNinja

Carrd: https://niomemizune.carrd.co/#

In-game: Niome Mizune on Zalera

Discord: Ask please :)

@mooglemeet @crystalxivrp

#lfrp #updated #Niome Mizune #let's do this again!#boost plz

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darkzeruda1214 · 6 years ago

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Kairi deserved better.

Oh, boy this is going to spark up some debates.

Now I want to CLARIFY before I start.

I DO NOT. Under any circumstance hate. Or dislike Kairi. Personally I think she was one of the few characters that actually have an interesting background and has a lot of potential as a character. And I really do like Kairi, but I think the rest of the fandom can agree with me.

She. Was. Done. Dirty.

Seriously. Does anyone in the development team even like or want her in the series?!

This girl deserves better. As well as give her some spotlight and some much needed personality!

*Canon Kairi is just really... unjust. The fandom does a much a better job portraying her character! (TAKE NOTES NOMURA Dangit! You could learn a few things from the fans!)

Anyways...

Time to get to the topic, (also thanks for my cousin for allowing me to use their exact words for this argument).

(SPOILERS FOR KH3)

So after finishing KH3 I was left unsatisfied and just plainly angry at the ending. And after what happened to Kairi, there’s nothing more than I want is for her to get some redemption because what happened to her is utter bullshit. One of the things that really pissed me off was how they handled her.

And yes, I’m talking about the final battle, but one thing I think many people tend to overlook is her treatment in the trailers.

Now I know some of you are confused by what I mean. But the trailers really deceived fans about what Kairi was going to offer. A lot of fans speculated, argued and theorized that Kairi was FINALLY bulk up and be ready to fight. She was finally going to be useful.

Now to be fair she isn’t and act totally useless. I mean she did save Sora during the Final World arc. (But you know, Square totally missed an opportunity that could have given Kairi more substance, but that’s for a totally separate debate for another time).

The trailers made it seem that Kairi was going to be part of the final battle. Now that part wasn’t a lie, but they clearly only gave her the spotlight for a couple of scenes, she’s a party member for the first part of the battle and then that’s it. We don’t even have her throughout the ENTIRE battle. She’s just cast away, because PLOT!

Utter. Bull.

But another thing that really degraded her character as a whole is the lack of personality.

Kairi used to be a snarky and sarcastic character in KH1. And I really enjoyed what kind of character she used to be during my second play through.

(Though I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t have any attachments to any of the character -not including Disney exclusive characters- in my first playthrough until later on in the story. Riku was the only one I was more intrigued about).

Back to Kairi, even with the few seconds she was in, she had something that made her feel like fleshed out character. Not by much, but there was something. And all of that was nearly taken away in KH2, now some of you are probably ready to argue that KH2 was her best version. I’m incline to disagree, now while Kairi was mostly asleep in KH1, she had more personality in the first game compared to the second. Because in the second game, she becomes less sarcastic and more bold when it came around action.

This is where I feel Kairi started to fall as a character and more as a plot device. Because as we all know it, she get’s captured. At least in the first game she had purpose and a reason to be there.

In KH2 she had absolutely no reason to be there.

As much as I hate to say this. Her character direction fails in the second installment, because the only time she’s relevant (not including Naminé) is the Roxas telepathy conversation and the bottle scene. After that, the only way to keep her in there is by having. Her. Get. Captured.

She’s ‘the fire’ that keeps Sora going. And at that point she’s only there as a plot device for Sora. Who he himself wouldn’t be relevant either had it not been for the Keyblade and for Roxas. But since he’s the playable character he’s obviously important. But… the same can’t be said for our Princess of Heart. While they managed to keep something in for Kairi in the second game, it was completely tossed out entirely in KH3. Honestly, the only thing I got from her is that she's heavily infatuated/in love with Sora (which isn't a bad thing, it's just that’s ALL her character had to offer in the third installment). And just in general I think her development went in the wrong way.

So we finally get to the title of the rant.

I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me and that's fine. Since we all have the right to our opinion, and to disagree and agree.

But I think she didn't need to have a Keyblade.

Or at least in the way how the writers decided to give it to her.

Reason I say that? She didn't even EARN her Keyblade. Yeah, I said it.

She didn’t earn it, Riku gave it to her like a gift card. Like: here, it's yours. (It’s pink. So I don’t want it. It matches your clothes though).

That’s it.

They just handed her a Keyblade. That it. She didn’t even have to WORK FOR IT. (Not even a joke since the franchise is handing those things like lollipops) Now. If they had allowed her to manifest it. I dunno, actually EARN it, like how Sora and Roxas did. (Heck, even Riku got it, off screen, but he still got his). And addressing the Wayfinder’s Keyblades, it’s pretty obvious since they were training to be masters at the time. And don’t even get me started on Union X and Ven.

But Kairi was just given the damn thing like a kid given candy. Not through some rigorous trial of heart, mind or soul. Not through battling. No. Just handed one.

I mean yeah sure you could argue her coming to another world could work for her favor, after all she traveled from one world to another. Being brave to help out Sora despite being in danger herself. But again, she’s just given the Keyblade by Riku. Not by her own power. She’s just gifted THE DAMN THING!!!!

I’m sorry. But I don’t think that’s how KEYBLADES WORK!

Look at Axel/Lea! He manifested the Keyblade in his hand! Sora’s appeared to him at first, but then he earned it after showing that his heart is strong and his power is through friendship.

Roxas earned Kingdom Key through Sora, but later he earned his own Keyblades after his strong promises and from battling. One from defeating Xion and the other from the sworn promises.

And it’s no doubt Riku got his from all the hard work of fighting the darkness and helping Sora in his journey.

But Kairi. Didn’t. This pisses me off.

Honestly... at this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised that the writers (actually I think I want to blame Nomura for this) don’t like Kairi. If they don’t even bother to put any effort in making Kairi a fighter. Why on earth did they have to give her a Keyblade?

Again. If they allowed her to manifest it, or let her go through a small trial of some sort like everyone else, or test the power of her heart then I wouldn’t be arguing this topic.

I’m not saying it’s intently bad that they gave her a key. I’m saying the way how they did is simply lazy writing and makes Kairi look useless.

Because of her Keyblade, I think that’s the reason why a lot of people wanted her to fight. And honestly, I feel that was the wrong direction to grow her character.

I can name a good number of cartoon, game and anime characters who don't have ANY fighting experience but are still amazing characters.

And I think that’s a problem in pop culture in general. What most fans of any series don't realize, is that well-written female characters aren't just those who kick butt and shoot stuff.

They don't have to be a badass to be a good character!

And I think that's what really screwed Kairi over in the end. (That and what Nomura did to her). But the moment they decided to give her a Keyblade to fight, it really tipped her off badly.

So going back to the trailers, since I clearly forgot to remind myself, the trailers really made it look like Kairi was finally going to be able to help in physical part of the battle.

They emphasizing so much on her training, that it made it seem like Kairi was going to be a stronger character "physically.” But… once the game was released, there wasn't anything to back it up all that “training.” In fact we didn‘t even get to see her and Axel train at all.

And to me that was a shallow move. The only thing the trailers served was a cheap extension to encourage people to buy the game. I think they tried really hard to sell the game by releasing too many trailers too early in the year that not only spoiled the story, but made fans wait even longer for a game that didn't even feel complete.

All that’s left is the Re:Mind trailer. (Edit ReMind fixed her character. About DAMN TIME!)

But that's just my opinion, if you don't agree with me, that's fine I respect your opinion. I don't mind at all Kairi having a Keyblade or learning how to fight. But I don't think that's what she needed in order to be a good character. She really needs a fleshed out personality and some interests/hobbies outside of simply being in love with Sora.

No hate to Sokai ship. It's a good couple, just... was poorly executed in cannon. Fandom works have better stories and delve into the relationship and characters (better than Nomura ever could write) I'm sorry. But I'm still bitter to what he thought would be a good thing to add in KH3 especially after how many years fans waited the game's release.

*I know there are other reasons as to why Kairi looks and is treated as a bad character. But her poor development discussion has been overdone so many times that it’s practically common knowledge for any Kingdom Hearts fan. But again that's me.

I really needed to get that out of my system.

#kingdom hearts #KH3 #Kairi #Kairi was done DIRTY!!!#lack of character development #she deserves better #keyblade #discussion #personal confessions #confess series #kairi deserved better

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vael · 5 years ago

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2019 Annual Review

Each year, I look back at the previous year’s annual review and note that things didn’t go as planned. For some reason I am always surprised, but this time it’s a little painful, too. From 2018′s Annual Review:

“2019 outlook? Sunny! I hope it will be my best year yet.“

Oh, Vael. You built your house, you moved to the promised land. But your year did not go as planned. You are not even close to the zen you craved.

It has been a wild year. This will run long. All I can do is stick to the format and hope my memory and average writing skill will do the year justice. So, as usual, we start with the positive.

What went well this year?

We like our house. We do. The builder was no good, resulting in some warped walls and a lot of headache getting them to finish everything properly, but the layout is very suitable for us. My office is exactly what I needed, our TV room has just the right space for us. We finally have a respectable kitchen. Since I’m living and working in the house 24 hours a day, it’s important to have a comfortable space.

Game development. For the past five years, I’ve put in some serious work. A lot of it was within my game engine, GAM3, and tinydark’s gaming network, The Orbium. While I put in a lot of work, not much came in the way of actual games produced. I finally rallied in 2018 and put out Bean Grower. It was designed to be a supplemental game, not a main driver, so it will not bring in sustainable income. I went on to think that I should open GAM3 up to other developers, license the engine out and collect a share of what they make.

I resolved to refactor GAM3: a word which means to rewrite and modernize many parts of it so that it’s easier to work in, and for it to present better. I would come to realize this desire to share GAM3 was due to a lack of confidence in myself to produce something great, and financially sustainable. Around the time I was realizing that multiplayer was the answer, I discovered Marosia.

Then we moved, I took on contract work, and things generally slowed for me for a few months, eking out what development I could. I played Marosia throughout and in August, it died. I wrote a teardown for it. The stars had aligned: though I had a lot of prelim work to be done, I would make a successor to Marosia. I managed to hype a few people in the community with a demo of GAM3 and I spent the next few months coding a chat prototype and generally organizing myself, and finally mid-November began the refactoring. It would end there, but just this morning (seriously) we learned Marosia was coming back. I had a momentary freakout but it’s ultimately a good thing for my own game.

I haven’t been more excited for a project in a long time. I never thought I’d be so excited to create a standard fantasy world, but it’s a ton of fun, with intricacies I never considered. The game’s design lends itself to a sustainable monetization model: I’m thinking $3/mo for quality-of-life upgrades, with a discount for buying in bulk. I would have paid double for Marosia, so I think this is fair. (6 months of die2nite is currently priced at $69, 6 months of Hattrick is $90!) And most important of all, I can do it ethically, with a game that truly means something to people.

Web development. I’ve learned quite a bit this year! I am so grateful for svelte. I liked but never loved React.js. It always felt ponderous to me. I have no doubt The Orbium’s refactoring would have taken me half the time it did if I were learning svelte vs. React, simply because React is so much more convoluted than svelte, and all in the name of uglier syntax. Svelte seamlessly integrates style and functionality into UI components, which means that if I’m working with a button that clicks to open a modal, everything I need for that button is in that one file.

Due to my contract work (with Harley Davidson, I can reveal) I also got some experience with Symfony and other modern development practices in PHP. PHP doesn’t really excite me these days, loathing having to produce views with it, but it is at least comfy.

My job. “Yeah, yeah.” I got a raise, most of which was contributed to getting Eve and my son onto my badass healthcare plan. We’re developing like it’s 2012, which is frustrating and makes even simple tasks take forever, but I can’t complain about the pay nor the stability of the company and my position there. I also work mostly remotely.

What didn’t go so well?

2019 was dominated by the bad. Eve’s not putting out an Annual Review, but our pain is shared.

The move. 11 months after the contract was signed, our builder was finally ready to let us move in. The house was not finished, just livable. So we rushed out of Rhode Island. We packed my car with everything we could fit, even removing the spare tire, but we got almost all of it. Me, Eve, our son, and our two cats.

At around 7:30 PM, we were driving on a dark highway when we were struck by a muffler that had fallen out from the truck in front of us. It destroyed the front-end, spilling radiator fluid onto the road. I had no idea what was going on, but it so happened that a mechanic had broken down right near us and was able to help. The engine barely carried us to the nearest motel, and I was in shock. I carried all our stuff to our second-floor room, it was even lightly raining. And I was defeated. Eve reports she had never seen me so bad. I had no idea how long we’d be in this ghetto-ass motel, what it would cost us during this time of great financial need, and mostly: I was just miserable. We could have died. If it had hit one of our tires, we could have spun out at 70+ MPH. All I wanted to do was get to our house the next day, and here we were.

I won’t detail the rest here, but I do want to thank my friends for their support and appreciate the good fortune that we got through this time.

We got to the house at 11PM on a Sunday; I still appreciate our builder taking the time to show us around so late. And... it was not at all what we were expecting. We had no driveway, and it had rained. We were tracking in some mud but that didn’t even matter because the entire house had to be cleaned. There was dirt all over the floors, they’d forgotten I didn’t want a chandelier over the dining room table, and the feeling was that we’d gone through Hell (and austure financial practices) to get here and this was it. So much wasn’t done. We knew that, but we didn’t think we’d be sweeping and wetting the floor with paper towel just to have a place to put our stuff. Shoutout to my friend Cody for setting us up with a supply drop.

We spent a lot of time buying furniture, aided by our rental SUV, all the while worrying about our newly purchased things sitting around the house without our protection as workers came in and out. I had to go back to Virginia to pick up the car and through exhaustion, caffeine, stupidity, and anxiety, managed to go 88 MPH and get myself a ticket: a misdemeanor, even. I spent the entire day picking up that damn car (5 hours up and down) and returned home in the worse state I’d ever felt. I was emotionally, mentally, and physically depleted.

But there was no stopping for me: I took on contract work and I had to get it done just to stay afloat. And then we got a fucking dog.

The dog. At some point in 2018 we determined that our son could use a companion and that a dog really completes the family. Leading up to the move, we put a down payment on a rough collie: the “Lassie” breed. They usually run around $800 and we got her for $500. I was a fan of the breed and Eve had done research that proves it’s a great breed. (it is) Even after the accident, we thought we should pay the rest for her and bring some joy into our life.

We named her Esme, and getting a dog was definitely one of the worst macro decisions I’ve made for the family yet. I couldn’t last more than a month with her. It was my decision to get rid of her, which made my wife and son sad but we were getting so little out of the experience. The cats beat her up, she was afraid of everything, and all she wanted to do was run around but we kept her cooped up in the house because we had no fence. I hated that there was still a dog smell, and I hated that it farted during Game of Thrones. It was over when we went grocery shopping and came back to a poop-filled crate, which the circumstances of the night dictated I must clean.

Young Living. Eve was supposed to sell essential oils for some side money. We knew it wasn’t going to be big money, unless she got lucky or turned out to be a natural-born saleswoman, but it was something to do and we believe in the products. I really trust in Young Living and I personally have seen the benefits of their oils and products.

So she went to the YL convention in Utah to learn to sell and, hey, have some fun. She returned feeling even less confident: they’d changed some numbers, and the truth that we always knew was that the market’s highly saturated. There are memes trivializing the effects of oils and there’s no denying the company’s an MLM. A lot of the big earners made their sales early on. Coinciding with the bad feels of Autumn, we decided to put the oil dream aside and focus on mental and physical health.

Eve mental/physical health. The muffler changed a lot for us. It morphed what should have been a very happy time in our lives into a very stressful one. Eve felt fatigued and broken down, and I wasn’t much better off. One day before her planned back-to-action, pick ourselves up and get ready to enjoy Summer, she sprained and tore a ligament in her ankle while coming down the stairs. We hoped it was just a sprain and did everything we could to avoid going to the doctor, but a week later she hadn’t gotten better and so began the PT and bullshit regimen. Our plans of hiking the blue ridge mountains were crushed.

But she recovered, and I shit you not, the very day before she planned to return to action, it was Father’s Day. She was making me my special breakfast and was using a hand-blender to blend pumpkin french toast mix when she went to clean some gunk out of the blender with her finger. It was a split-second decision to help make breakfast faster. Her finger twitched, caught the irresponsibly sensitive power button and tore her finger up. Immediately took her to Urgent Care and then the Emergency Room. $3,000 and some luck later, she kept her finger, but has permanently lost some feeling in it.

That was a bad time for us. I was overworked, she was miserable, and yet she still managed to get to Utah to learn how to sell. To salvage our year. In Autumn, all the anxiety, stress, and the damage from her upbringing finally culminated and she broke.

Her physical health tanked in tandem with her mental. She suffered frequent menstrual issues and her EDS (a joint disorder) flaring up. It is hard to detail all the pain and frustration, and it really is beyond the scope of what needs to be said. My wife is depressed, prone to feeling overwhelmed, and I’m happy to say that we are getting her professional help soon.

What’s remarkable is that I can’t recall a period of time that she didn’t try her best to recover. Every month, most weeks, she would constantly express that the next day or month was her time. She’s done it for this month and 2020 as well. And I don’t think she’s lazy or unmotivated. She is just defeated and I am a poor comforter. Honestly, I am just shit at helping people if the solution isn’t “well just force yourself to do the thing.” That’s how I get through my problems and it doesn’t work for everyone, not even always myself. Still she is strong. I think writing this out has helped me remember that.

Relationship with my son. I had hoped my increased efficiency and happiness would improve our relationship. I planned for more structure: things like “once we’re upstairs for bedtime rituals, no going back down.” Each night I make a point to spend a minimum of 30 focused minutes with him. But I have only succeeded in making our relationship worse. I don’t think he needs professional help, but there is something within him, from when he was three years old, that just prevents him from being a hard worker. Respect is important to me and I don’t respect him. He is a frustrated child, often not understanding the world, often forgetting things he was supposed to do. I’m not doing a good job of helping.

I think I could have done better, but there were simply too many fronts to fight.

Mental performance. I haven’t gotten any better from last year. I am still not as sharp as 2017-Vael. It is a matter of stress and lifestyle.

What did I learn?

How to be a homeowner! Generally how to manage a home. I got my tools, all cute with my little leaf blower.

SLOWWWW DOWWWWN. The outside of the house needs some work. We need to extend our driveway, clear an acre, and put up a fence. I could take a loan out to do this and be fine, but I could also just slow down. Take a deep breath. Enjoy what we have for the Summer. It sucks I won’t be able to use that acre for farming, but I think I have a good place to plant a single apple tree this year. And hey, less mowing.

A shit ton of web development.

Probably became more cynical. But I think The Good Place has helped remind me to be a good person.

To just accept Eve needs help. And that I really suck at helping her.

Future Outlook

All that bad stuff that happened? Pfft. Shitty year. 2020′s here, it’s a brand new decade. I’ve got a cool game I want to make, we’re gonna get Eve some help, and...

Get pregnant! Yeah! Right now we definitely aren’t ready for kids. We need to use our new health insurance to make a bunch of appointments, recover financially, mentally, physically. But we very badly want more children. I feel it all the time. I have begun to suspect that genetics do matter, and I wonder if Abel’s laziness mirrors his biological father’s laziness. My dad loved to work and I do too. It might be possible to pass these traits on.

Better office. I need to get some furniture and improve my work environment.

Vacation! We desperately need a vacation. We’re going to Disney this year, either May or June.

Zen Vael. I will attempt to be “the person I want to be” as detailed last year. My soft goal for this is March 15th, as I set last year. I will undoubtedly fail that date. There is no way I’m wrangling my sleep and attitude in the next two months, but surely by the end of the year?

Thanks for reading.

Vael

#annual review

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acockius · 6 years ago

Text

these are the days ; I

I have been writing this self-indulgent piece for quite some time and have decided to take the gigantic leap and share the first chapter. This first part contains the excerpt that I’ve previously posted and loving called ‘Shortshop.’

I try to follow a pretty realistic timeline, but it may be flawed. In addition, the plot deals with personal topics based on what is public knowledge. I’ve done my best to respectfully mention those topics.

I’d love to know your thoughts, and if I should continue to share what I’ve worked on up until this point (It’s already several chapters in development).

Joe Mazzello x Reader ; 4,616 ; overall angsty with pops of fluff, mentions of death, mentions of sexual themes, implied pregnancy

After a heated night of passion, the two of you spent the entire morning tiptoeing around each other. You were both were conscious of the inevitable: Joe leaving for a few months to participate in a press tour to promote the Bohemian Rhapsody movie, and you waiting patiently for him to return home once the movie had launched worldwide.

He’d offered to have you join him, but you denied the invitation. You were well aware of how the movie’s management felt about the reputation of their stars’ and their respective relationships. Of course, Lucy and Rami had gone to hell and back in efforts to keep their relationship a secret. In due time, they’d have the option to let the world know that they were an item if they chose to do so.

Dreamboat Ben Hardy lived the bachelor life, and everyone envied him. He could have anyone he’d wanted, and on most nights, he did. You’d given Joe an out prior to filming, knowing that the distance would be nearly impossible to stand and that a shoot like this would give him a world of opportunity, including any and every girl he could get. Imagine your surprise when he put a ring on your finger prior to leaving to film.

Gwilym had a girlfriend, and he kept her neatly under wraps. You admired that quality very much so, as you believed that anyone who cared so deeply for their loved one would have trouble keeping them out of them limelight. Once you understood he’d done it to protect her, everything made sense. You jokingly told Joe to take a note from Gwilym, and it lead to a small spat that surrounded his immense pride for the future Mrs. Joseph Francis Mazzello, the third. It wasn’t that you didn’t appreciate the attention Joe gave you in interviews and on social media, but you were well aware of the image that their publicity team was going for; the foursome would play rockstars and be worshipped by fans as such. It was difficult to give devotion to a man who was already attached to a woman.

You worked in Public Relations and Entertainment Management, and your career was how the two of you had met. You weren’t a stranger to the occasional flirtation of a celebrity. Most would argue that you were lucky to be given that much attention. Prior to Joe, you’d never mixed business and pleasure. To this day, you were certain that if it hadn’t been for your Yankees necklace, he probably wouldn’t have tried so hard to get you to agree to go for a drink with him.

The filming of Bohemian Rhapsody lasted a steady six months, and that gave you a generous amount of time to plan your intimate wedding. Joe gave you complete control, which terrified you but kept you busy while he was gone. You’d settled on a late May wedding, and that’d given enough time for Joe to return from filming, put the finishing touches on whatever he needed to be a part of, and of course, celebrate with a bachelor party.

However, when Joe returned home from filming Bohemian Rhapsody, a majority of his time was spent with his father, who would eventually pass away from a treacherous battle with glioblastoma. Your wedding was cancelled out of respect for Joe’s family, and though it was initially hard pill to swallow, you knew that it was what was best for Joe to mourn the loss of his father and heal properly.

The summer months brought on an intense grieving process that you never could have prepared yourself for. You held Joe up on some days, and did everything you could to ease the pain of losing his hero and best friend. It was never not instinctual for you; you loved Joe. You were going to spend the rest of your lives together, and being married meant taking on each other’s baggage, no matter how large. Joe confessed that he fell deeper in love as you walked him through the start of life without his dad.

When you reflected on the time you spent together between the passing of Joe’s father and his departure for the press tour, it was clear that you’d grown tremendously as a union. There was never a ceremony but there was a certificate to prove that you belonged to each other until the end of time. You never had the opportunity to celebrate your love for each other, but you didn’t need to. Having each other was enough.

As you rifled through Joe’s luggage, making sure he had everything he needed for an extended period away from home, you wiped a few tears that fell from your eyes. You both were harboring feelings that you were afraid to share with each other, which truthfully was a setback in your relationship.

The whole summer was spent being transparent with each other and working through your feelings. In the beginning, Joe spent the bulk of his grieving by fucking you senseless. He channelled his sadness and anger into physicality; you accepted it at first because you were reaping the benefits. However, after tremendous coaxing, you finally became a couple who talked things out.

This time, you didn’t discuss your feelings about being apart for an extended period of time at all. You both spent the days building up to his departure being sarcastic and pretending it wasn’t a thing that was bound to happen. Two days prior is when the reality of the situation set in. You barely spoke to each other aside from a casual nicety here and there. You both were always on the verge of saying what you felt but never quite getting there.

You were making a very simple dinner the night before Joe had to leave when he caught your lips in a deep kiss. You’d turned from the stove to grab the pepper and he grabbed your face and kissed you hard. Instinctively, you melted into his touch and threw your arms around his neck, battling the height difference by dancing on your tip toes.

Joe turned off the stove with a quick flick of the wrist and lifted you onto the counter, mumbling something about how eating you would suffice. Your sex life was always adventurous, but this outburst of passion caught you off guard.

He had his way with you on nearly every surface of your apartment that night, which was quite the accomplishment seeing that you lived in a one-bedroom. By the time morning came, you’d lost count of how many times you did. You clung to each other, limbs tangled, until Joe’s alarm went off.

Joe silently excused himself from the bed and started a shower for himself. You spent too long toying with the idea of joining him before you actually did so, catching your husband with a head full of shampoo and a goofy smile to match. He ducked down to press a tender kiss to your collar bone, which allowed you to loving massage the shampoo into his scalp. Though your favorite place to fool around was the shower, you tried to respect Joe’s time this morning and helped him clean up in order to look his best for his first day on his press tour.

Joe left the shower first, and then the bathroom, leaving you with a wave of nausea that you did your best to battle. It ended with you on your knees in front of the toilet, dripping wet. You did your best to convince yourself that these vomiting spells were due to the stress of Joe leaving, but deep down, you knew better. Your breasts were incredibly tender, and your period was dangerously late.

In the wake of summer, you stopped taking birth control. The decision was mutual and one suggested by Joe during a sloppy quickie after being caught in a rain storm. The man was positively famous for mumbling casualties during sex. This particular time, he whispered, “Mmmwannaputababyinyou” against your nipple, and you couldn’t let it go.

You were always open with Joe about the fact that conceiving would be difficult, as your family history had plagued you with fertility issues. He was accepting, thank goodness, and vowed to die trying to have a baby. You weren’t actively trying at the moment. At the same time, there wasn’t anything preventing you from getting pregnant.

After you cleaned yourself up, you paced, still stark naked, trying to figure out what to do - if anything. Joe did not need the idea of leaving his pregnant wife at home looming over his head for the entirety of the press tour. You weren’t even sure that you were pregnant! And you didn’t have time to find out until after Joe left.

You quickly changed into one of Joe’s shirts and a fresh pair of undies before throwing your hair up into a towel. When you emerged from the bedroom, you caught Joe staring out of the large window overlooking the New York City streets. His brow was furrowed, his face somewhat pained.

“Babe, are you deep in thought again? There’s smoke coming from your ears.” You’d resorted back to sarcasm, because you knew sooner or later, that you’d have to stare your feelings in the face.

Joe chuckled to himself, running his hand through his hair. “Funny.”

“S’why you married me,” you reminded.

He shook his head, negating your statement. You crossed your arms and tilted your head curiously.

“Look, I could stand here and rattle off all of the reasons why I made you my wife but I’m sure that you’re fighting off tears just as much as I am right now.” Joe turned his attention back to the street and rocked back on his heels. “I’m just trying to spare us both, alright?”

You clicked your tongue against the roof of your mouth and went to your husband, arms snaking around his chest and pulling him tightly against you.

“Joey…,” you started.

“No - don’t. Please…” His voice wavered.

It was discouraging, to say the very least, to watch him uncoil in such a way. You were watching your husband take several steps back from all the progress he’d made after losing his father. You immediately blamed yourself for his behavior; if you would’ve been honest with how you felt about him leaving, he would’ve done the same.

You squeezed your way into the minuscule space between Joe and the window, capturing his face in your hands. He looked away from you, trying to hide the crumbling facade he’d worked so hard to keep up over the past few days. You wouldn’t allow it; you turned his face to yours and pressed up on your toes, kissing Joe feverishly.

It took him a minute but Joe eventually wrapped his arms around your waist, holding you close to him as he kissed you back with the same about of passion. He was the first to pull way, his hand reaching for your cheek to bring your forehead to his. When you opened your eyes, you witnesses tears fall from his own.

“Baby, don’t cry.” You kissed his nose, and wiped away the fresh tears that had fallen with your thumb.

“I don’t want to leave you. I - don’t want to be apart from you for so long.” Joe sniffled, embarrassingly wiping his eyes with the back of his leather jacket.

Joe was such a passionate person, and that was one of the things you loved most about him. He felt with his whole heart, and it was so beautiful. Watching him experience sadness and pain was almost unbearable. You wanted to hurt everyone who ever made him hurt and you were constantly afraid that you’d be the one to cause that hurt. You were terrified that you were the reason at this very moment.

“It’s three months. You were gone for nearly sixth during filming.” You wrapped your arms tightly around Joe and looked up at with sympathetic eyes.

You wanted to ease any kind of worry that Joe was experiencing. You couldn’t have him leave you feeling devastated and anxious. You ran you fingers up his back, swirling circles into the fabric of his leather jacket and kissing his chest softly.

“We somehow survived that. With constant texting, and Face Time…”

“- And sexting. And phone sex. And Face Time sex.” Joe was very quick to add.

“We’ll keep the same habits as last time, my love. And you’ll be back in my arms before you even know it.” You bit back a convincing smile, looking up at Joe with promising eyes.

You saw Joe begin to speak, but he cut himself off with a kiss to your towel-covered hair. You suddenly felt very silly, and ripped the damned thing from your head, tossing it to the ground.

“I wish I was a little bit more put together for this moment.” You admitted, running your fingers through the tangles of your hair. “Not that your Goonies Tee, my wet dog hair, and the lucky Mazzello undies aren’t doing it for me.”

Joe quirked an eyebrow and his hands went to the hem of his shirt that you were wearing, lifting it up just enough to see if you were a woman of your word. His face was plastered with a toothy grin once he saw that you were, in fact, wearing the lucky Mazzello underwear.

Before you’d became a couple, Joe invited you to a Yankees baseball Game. He knew how much of a fan you were, and was delighted to be able to share something in common with you. He was sorely disappointed when you emerged from the subway in every day clothes and a Yankees cap. He knew deep down that a girl who wore her team around her neck was a diehard, and he wasn’t buying this innocent fan act that you were putting on for him.

You considered yourself moderately crazy. You had several wardrobe pieces, including official jerseys and sweatshirts. You had the score sent to your phone, and always kept up with stats and any news about the team. You could handle rabid baseball fans; your brothers and father were as crazy as you’d seen up until this point in your life. That was until you’d met Joe, of course. His devotion to his team only made him more attractive to you. You’d only been on a few casual dates, but if this were to ever turn into anything, you’d be eager to see that passion in other aspects of Joe’s life.

To say the game itself was an absolute shit show was an understatement. You sat there and watched as your beloved New York Yankees were being completely annihilated. Luckily for you, Joe’s company was cushioning the loss tremendously, and you were hoping that he felt the same about you. You enjoyed pleasant conversation about your team, and shared ballpark snacks over a couple of beers. When it was Joe’s turn to grab a snack and a round of beers, you were beyond please when he returned with a batter’s helmet full of chicken fingers and fries.

“Got you something else while I was up.” Joe stated with a mouthful.

Both of your hands were nursing your beer, intensely watching the game. When you hummed in response, Joe set a small package in your lap. You set your drink down to examine it closely, realizing that this son of a bitch had been bold enough to purchase you a pair of cheeky briefs with the New York Yankees emblem on the front. You squinted your eyes to read Joe’s scribbled note.

“Maybe if the team scores, I will too. - JM”

You felt your cheeks become red hot and you tried to play it off, but Joe was none the wiser.

“Too much?” he asked coyly, crossing his legs.

You were still quite dumbfounded by Joe’s advanced actions, because no one in your life had ever made such a valiant attempt to flirt with you. Also, you had to admit it: it was incredibly clever. You let your fingers run over Joe’s handwriting, examining the way Joe wrote his initials in a sleek cursive.

You set the package back down and grabbed your beer. You took a long sip before finally speaking. “Which player is your favorite?”

Joe let a pregnant pause permeate the space between you before he awkwardly rung his hands together. He was convinced he’d struck out with your apparent attempt to change the subject.

“Currently or of All-Time?”

“Currently. I don’t need a magnifying glass to know you’d die for Donnie Baseball.”

Joe smirked, impressed by the fact that you’d been paying attention to him, even if you denied his advances to sleep with him.

“Didi. Why?” Joe crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.

You shrugged playfully, taking another sip of your beer. “I think that if Didi Gregorius can score before the night is over, that I just may be able to make an exception - just this one time, of course - and allow you to also score.”

“Fuck -“ Joe sat up in his seat and leaned towards you. “Come again?”

“That’s an advanced question. I suppose the fate of that rests entirely in Didi’s hands.” You took another nonchalant sip of your beer while you watched Joe practically squirm in his cushy seat. “And here I was satisfied with the thought of just once.”

“Home run? Or does he just have to cross the plate?” Joe’s voice was somewhat strangled as he inquired about the fine print of your arrangement. To say that you were positively giddy to have taken the upper hand in this situation was an understatement.

“I’m not a cruel woman, Mazzello. A run’ll do just fine.” Your voice was smug and Joe had undoubtedly caught on by now. “The man has an at-bat or two left with how things are going… It’s achievable.”

“Fuck right, it is! My man’ll get the job done for me. I’m sure of it.” Joe reached to relax his arm around the back of your seat, a delighted smirk tugging his lips upward. You leaned into his gesture and continued to sip your beer, your free hand admiring Joe’s penmanship.

As the rest of the game played out, the biggest Yankees fan you’d ever known had nearly abandoned ship on his team. He didn’t necessarily care about the Yankees losing, for probably one of the only times in his life; he just needed Didi to score a damn run. Unfortunately, the Bronx Bombers were not victorious, but they nearly were - thanks to Didi Gregorius. The shortstop came close to evening the score with an impressive grand slam in the bottom of the 8th inning, with two outs.

When Didi’s bat made contact with the ball, both you and Joe shot up from your seats, watching intently to see if the ball would land in fair territory in the outfield stands. When it did and the patrons around you clamored in excitement at the rally, you both reached for each other to draw the other into a heated kiss. You knew the possibility of it happening was very strong - Didi Gregorius was a good ball player. But the intensity and thrill was enough for a celebratory make-out session that would continue throughout last out and until most of the crowd around you cleared out.

“I will make you come four times.” Joe mumbled against your lips during a sloppy kiss. “One for each RBI the bastard earned.”

You desperately wanted to card your fingers through Joe’s hair, but you settled on toying with the ends that poked out from his hat. “I’d be satisfied with just the two times I’d decided on at the start of the wager.”

Joe somehow managed to coax five orgasms from you before dawn, and god damnit, was every single one incredible. You’d stayed the night at his place, waking in your new pair of underwear. They fit perfectly and they would make you feel invincible throughout the years. Joe always lingered a bit when you wore them, because all of his favorite things existed in harmony at the same place and time.

“I don’t know how these manage to look fresh, out-of-the-package new every time you wear them.” Joe stated, his hands reaching to paw at the bits of flesh that weren’t covered by the thin fabric.

“It’s the voodoo magic behind them, baby. Don’t question it.” You grinned before pressing playfully kisses along Joe’s jaw.

“Me? Question the magic behind such an enchanted pair of panties? I could never.” Joe gave your ass a playful smack and sighed.

Joe tucked a piece of hair behind your ear and squinted. “Man. I put in fifteen years at Catholic School, only to grow up and believe in our lord and savior, New York Yankees Shortstop, Didi Gregorius.”

“You’re crazy.” You snorted.

“About you.” His response was immediate and it had your cheeks flushing just as they would when you were getting to know Joe.

Joe leaned down to kiss you, a playful smile on his lips, when his phone began vibrating in his jacket pocket.

“Shit. Fuck — no.” Joe grumbled as he fetched his phone from his pocket and sighed before picking it up. “Hello? Yes. Okay, I will be down in a few moments. Thank you so much.”

Your eyes welled with tears before Joe’d even answered the call. You were doing impeccably up until this very moment. Joe cupped your face in his hands and exhaled through his nose.

“No, you’re not gonna do that.” Joe started. “You just gave me the speech and I’m going to give it right back to you. So you better listen up, beautiful.”

You nodded and choked on a sob, face crumbling a bit. That didn’t help Joe’s attempt to be the strong one in this situation. He wrapped his arms around you tightly, kissing your hair and rocking you gently.

“My beautiful wife…” Joe whispered. “Fuck you for making this so hard.”

You laughed and scrunched your nose at your husband as tears streamed down your face. You smoothed your hands over Joe’s jacket, fighting the urge to ball the leather into fists and haul him close to you, and make it so that he didn’t have to leave you.

You wiped your cheeks with the back of your hand and cleared your throat before crossing your arms.

“Dad is with you, throughout every step of this, Joe. Don’t forget that, okay?”

“Joseph Mazzello or John Deacon?”

It was the perfect response. Joe didn’t want to dwell in the sadness of the moment or the past eight months without his father on this earth. You admired him so very much in that moment.

“Both.” You snorted.

He pulled you to him with a firm hand on your shoulder, kissing your forehead once more.

“I love you, Joe.” You gushed, your hand reaching to caress the stubble along his jaw.

“I love you.” Joe turned his head to kiss your palm before taking your face in his.

Joe kissed you as if his life depended on it. If it was going to be the last kiss he’d have for months, he needed for it to count, god damn it. He nibbled softly on your bottom lip, his tongue drinking every last bit of you in before you parted from this kiss. You smiled softly, albeit a bit heart broken, and pecked Joe’s lips once more before going to grab his luggage for him.

“I know what your plans are for this evening, so I don’t expect a call… But a text goodnight is necessary.”

You wheeled the suitcase to Joe and he took it from you with a nod.

“So, like if Roger Taylor and I wanted to FaceTime you to say goodnight, you wouldn’t be into it?”

“Not unless you want Rog seeing my lucky undies, Joseph.”

Joseph hummed to himself and shrugged. “Could be hot.”

“Oh, fuck off!” You laughed, rolling your eyes playfully.

Joe gripped the handle of his suitcase but he didn’t move; he just started at you.

“Baby, you can do this.” You assured him.

“I know. It would just be easier and more enjoyable if you were by my side.” Joe shrugged.

You went to him and stole one more deep kiss. God, you were going to miss those fucking lips.

“I’m in your head. And definitely in your heart.” You reminded.

Joe took your hand and pressed a kiss right near your wedding ring. Your free hand was pressed against his back and it guided him to the door once his lips left your skin.

“I will text you after the concert, beautiful. And probably a million times in between.”

“I know you will, and I look forward to every last message.” You smiled up at Joe and opened the door to your apartment.

Your body language and facial expressions were doing the exact opposite of what you wanted to in the moment, and you were so close to having Joe on his way so you could just cry this out.

Joe stepped out of the apartment, but still faced you. You were both very much aware that the door’s threshold separated you and it was more painfully then you thought it would be.

“I’ll let the boys and Lucy know that you send your love.”

You nodded. “Please do. Let them know how tremendous I think they all are.”

Joe puffed out a breath against his lips. “I’ll do no such thing. They all have big enough heads as it is.”

“I’m sure Ben would be thrilled to know you think he has a big - head.” You leaned against the door frame, accidentally encouraging his behavior.

“Now, that’s the threesome that I should try and arrange.” Joe’s stuck out his tongue playfully and raised his eyebrows.

“You’re so weird. I can’t believe I married you.” You playfully retched, but it stir something in you that you thought you’d fought off earlier.

“Me either, babe.” Joe grinned, and pressed a kiss to your lips. “I love you so fucking much. I’m going to miss you.”

You were on the verge of blowing chunks all over your husband, but you gripped the door handle and kissed Joe back.

“Can’t miss me if you don’t go.” You smirked sympathetically, wondering if you looked at green as you felt.

“That’s tempting…” Joe toyed with the idea for a moment but jumped back when you threw a playful slap in his direction. “Okay, I’m going. I’m going.”

Joe wrapped his hand around the handle of his suitcase, committing ever last feature of your to his memory before turning on his heels and heading towards the elevator, pulling the suitcase behind him. You could feel your heart break, and that coupled with your nausea nearly took you out.

“I love you, Joey. Make me proud.” Your voice was weak but encouraging.

“Always, my love.” Joe didn’t stop this time; he didn’t turn around to look at you, and he quickly disappeared around the corner. You waited a beat to make sure he’d left you for good before you closed the door to your apartment.

You sank completely to the ground and heaved, your vision blurry as you rid your body of whatever nutrition it’d had left. You cried as you vomited on the wood floor of your apartment vestibule. You missed your husband already, and you were scared to face the reality of the situation: you were going to have a baby.

#my fic #joe mazzello fic #joe mazzello x reader #joe mazzello x you #joe mazzello x y/n #please be gentle #joe mazzello imagines #borhap cast fic #joe mazzello #joe mazzello headcanons

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