#hee hee Leon next

[noodles-and-tea]

I just discovered your Merlin fanart and I would like to say I love the way you perfectly capture the expressions and uniqueness of each character! Have you ever drawn Gwaine or any of the other knights other than Arthur? (I love the way you draw Arthur btw cause Bradley has such an expressive face and you capture it perfectly)

Thank you!! Here is some Gwaines ;)))

[dotster001]

Hello dear writer. I really enjoy reading your twisted wonderland stories. Can you please write a funny fanfic for me?The plot is as follows: the headmaster summons Grimm to his office to appoint him as the photographer for a "beauty pageant" to be held at the college. Grimm agrees to a can of tuna, but since he is very mischievous, he takes pictures of everyone unexpectedly and funny. For example, he can photograph Riddle sitting on the toilet and reading a newspaper. Ace when he secretly ate the "not birthday" cake. Leon with Cheka. Epel in the bath with foam.In general, all of our favorite students, whom Grimm caught on camera at the most inopportune moment. Please🥺

Look at This Photograph

A/N: an anon gave me an idea for a sequel, so just let me know if you want it, hee hee

3k followers Masterlist

"God no," you groaned. 

"Well, you don't have a choice. In my generosity, I can overlook the recent incident, but only if you do what I ask of you."

You gave a pointed glare at Grim, who looked up from licking his paw, and sighed heavily.

"Y/N and I have a deal, where the next time I caused a disaster, I had to do the accompanying task myself."

"A-alone?" Crowley stuttered.

"Yup."

"Like, no Y/N?"

"Yeah."

You leaned forward, the threat clear in your voice. "Grim is the one who blew up the lab, so he should do your little task. Something wrong with that?"

"No! You-you've been so generous up to this point, Y/N."

"Good," you said simply, standing up and giving Grim a final glare.

"Behave, or so help me God-"

"I'll behave! Who do you think I am?"

You gave an unconvinced look, before turning on your heel, and leaving the office.

Crowley handed Grim a camera.

"Get to it, before I change my mind."

….

Riddle had few moments of peace in his life. Especially since the newest batch of freshmen had arrived this year. As much as he was certain the mirror wasn't wrong, and they would grow to fit the ideals of the queen, it was hard to believe it. Ace in particular…

He flipped the page of his newspaper from home. It's not like his mother would fill him in, so he had to fill himself in. 

He was done with his business by now, he just needed a break!

*SNAP*

Startled, he looked up, momentarily blinded by the flash. As his vision cleared, he saw Grim look at a camera, nod, and scamper off. In his shock, he couldn't even utter an "off with your head".

….

Leona hated babysitting.

Well…

That's what he always told himself.

But "princess tea party" wasn't half bad.

As long as he pretended to sip tea every once in a while, Cheka didn't mind if he took naps.

*SNAP*

Momentarily blinded, he heard his nephew giggle, and mutter something about a "silly kitty". But when his vision cleared, it was just the two of them.

….

"Jade, no, if people knew…"

"They won't even suspect."

This was followed by the sounds of heavy making out.

Azul threaded his fingers through Jade's hair, momentarily playing with the long black strand, before closing his eyes again, and just being in the moment.

"Would it really be so bad if people knew?"

He knew Jade made jokes like that, because, in the moment, he liked the way a stiff Azul would cling to him just a miniscule amount tighter.

He didn't truly mean it. He knew Azul was terrified about people calling him soft, and if people assumed Jade had gotten his position solely for being Azul's boyfriend-

*SNAP*

Both mers had miniscule panic attacks. While they had grown accustomed to land, they were used to living in near solid darkness. Whatever just flashed in their faces, felt truly unnatural.

"This is a surprise," Jade heard a well known voice mutter.

If it weren't for his poor boyfriend, he could have taken care of the problem right there.

….

As much as Epel hated Vil's nagging, his skin had never been better.

A cold cream on his face, cucumber on his eyes, a bubble bath with foam specifically designed to make him sparkle?

Sevens, his nighttime routine was the part that was worth putting up with Vil's nag sessions for. 

He took the cucumbers off his eyes, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and made himself a bath foam beard.

"Oh ho ho, Sir Humphreys, are you jealous of my excessive manliness?" Epel boomed in a comically deep voice.

*SNAP*

You get the idea by now. Epel inhaled some of his foam beard, choked a bit, and completely missed whoever took the photo.

….

"Oh! Prefect, I didn't see you there!" Malleus gasped, bowing deeply before a stone gargoyle in a set of ruins he was exploring.

"What? Run away with you?" He covered his mouth in shock, before sidling into the "lap" of the gargoyle/prefect .

"I'm not saying no," he gently caressed where you collarbone would be, his facing moving closer to "your" face. "This is all just," he breathed heavily against "your" mouth, "so sudden."

*SNAP*

….

"As you all remember, we are having a beauty pageant at NRC."

Everyone nodded.

"Well, in my generosity, I remembered that candid shots allow the photo to look more natural, which in turn accentuates your natural beauty. So I have had Grim taking photos of you-"

"That's what those are for?" Ace shouted. "He snapped a picture of me eat-" he trailed off as he side eyed Riddle, "doing some stuff."

The Heartslaybul vice housewarden gave him a suspicious glare, but luckily Riddle himself was distracted.

"It is not okay to take photos of people on the toilet! Candid or not!" Riddle shouted, face turning a crimson it hadn't even been during his overblot.

"My nephew is not legally allowed to be photographed!"

"I have an image to uphold! An expensive image to uphold."

"MY LIEGE WILL SMITE YOU BEFORE ANYONE SEES HIS SHAME!"

Malleus was greatly regretting actually being invited to a meeting.

"Monsieur fuzzball, shall we have a chat about the photos you took of me?" Rook asked with a smile, his eyes flickering venomously.

"I deleted yours," Grim whispered with a shiver.

"Tres Bien," Rook smiled, rustling the top of Grim's head.

"Well let's see what all this is about," Trein moved to grab the camera, but every single student in the area started yelling and grabbing at it.

"Bad boys! Sit!" Crewel shouted with a smack of his pointer. But it seemed to no avail, as a crowd of angry mages chased a tiny gray cat out of the room.

Trein, meanwhile, was laughing uproariously as he scrolled through the photos.

[tonberry-yoda]

I added all the silly characters tee hee

lmk if you wanna be tagged when it comes out!

[grimmshood]

🙆, 💌, and 🎁 for zarahjiwoon yayayayyy!!!!

🙆 for something i can't stop thinking about.

ahee hee hee.... i wrote a bunch of shit then realized i couldnt talk about that bc this is my main so ill discuss something else. i think a lot about how ji-woons va dubbed tuxedo mask in the censored korean kbs dub of sailor moon. my pookie who i can't even hear because j havent found any clips of his voice from that dub yet. i want to hear his actual talking voice so bad outside of the teasers we got. which are like nice of course. isnt it so awesome that he knows his fans are batshit crazy. that's just like a canon thing. its so awesome

💌 for a snippet of a conversation we had.

funny version:

normal version:

zarah complained after having a particularly bad trial. being flashbanged by several police officers wasn't exactly ideal and it gave her a migraine.

"do you want me to go hunt leon down and give him a good beating? because nobody bothers my princess and gets away with it." ji-woon asks this without any hesitation.

"no- wait, what did you just say?"

"nobody bothers my princess and gets away with it?"

"don't say that ever again."

"huh? why?"

"i'm going to kill you if you say anything else."

and then he kept calling her that and got beat up for it :) many of their conversations are like this.

🎁 for a gift f/o has given s/i (or vice versa).

ji-woon gave zarah a charm of his figure as one of his first gifts.. she kind of freaking hated it and crushed it. but then after her next trial it came back. and she kept trying to get rid of it like she would put it in a chest and leave. put it on someone else's hook. put it in the garbage. so on and so forth. and it would not stop coming back. so she gave up and put it on her hook and it stopped being stuck to her. love is so awesome

[lieblxng]

POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON AU POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON AU casually slaps it on all my muses

I haven’t figured out everyone, but the most I have right now is with Leon and Hop. Leon is a Luxio while Hop is a Shinx (maybe I draw icons for these......return to the Furry Days of mine I’ve had hidden and locked away for almost a decade.....), it’s too perfect personality-wise and design-wise (though Leon with a constant scowl isn’t the best so maybe he doesn’t have that (which does mean I gotta draw these icons hee hoo)). Though admittedly, they’re both kinda on the edge of evolving?  Anyway, explorations have a serious cultural impact on the PMD universe. Maybe in this verse, their dad Grimon leaves them but they both and their mother aren’t told a thing? Leon assumes he’s out there and he’s gotten lost, so he starts out a young age exploring to find him. After all, in the normal verse, Leon goes to take the Gym Challenge to both make Hop proud and to see if his dad will come back to them. While doing so, he becomes one of the most famous explorers for all his amazing feats (and quite a young age for him to do so) and the region loves him for it, especially his hometown. Hop is proud of him at first, but then the pressure keeps adding upon his shoulders and he soon starts feeling self-conscious. People start talking stuff about Hop, asking if he’ll ever take on the exploring business like Leon. Like, he has to be an explorer like him, but even if he tries, it’ll never be good enough. 

Hop soon feigns confidence, yelling at himself that he’ll become a better explorer than Leon as he goes out on his own adventure, with his new friend, the protagonist who just moved into town. They meet others like Bede and Marnie on their adventures, before finding out Leon is lost too later on in their explorations once they’ve earned a name for themselves. They then aim to search out to find him and then shit goes down, per PMD style (we assume by rose of course). I don’t know, I’m kinda babbling here, but I am excited to put this verse up and talk about it!

do i make leon a shiny luxio? do i cause my boy hop even more sadness and a bigger inferiority complex?

[emiefaunwrites]

I’m back again lol! Been thinking about little Kei Kuwata! Mondo, Chihiro, and Yasuhiro would totally be her cool badass uncles and Hina and Sakura would be her cool badass aunts! Would it be okay for me to suggest some cute and wholesome moments with her aunts and uncles?

Hello!!

Of course you can! I haven't really delved too much into Kei in the past as she was only really someone I came up with on the spot. But it absolutely makes sense to think about her since she would have been a huge part of their lives!

And you DAMN RIGHT they would be! Uncles and Aunties aren't just blood after all! And what a set Kei has!

Thank you once again for your interest in my little world. You have no idea how happy it makes me!

Hope you enjoyyyy!

**********************

• Kei is the first child in the friend group.

• And that means she gets absolutely doted upon.

• Mondo in particular treats her like a princess.

• He's always got her on his shoulders and buys her whatever she wants (even when Taka says not to).

• He builds her a dollhouse from scratch as well and spends a lot of time playing dollies with her.

• When he's babysitting, the boys will often come home to them fast asleep together on the sofa - Mondo cradling the little protectively against his chest.

• As she grows up, Mondo teaches her to ride a bike and, after a lot of convincing, how to ride a motorbike.

• He's known as Uncle Mon-Mon.

• Chihiro is known as Uncle Chi and teaches Kei about video games.

• Leon has already introduced her but Chi is the one that gets her really into them.

• He starts off by helping her with cheat codes to make her immortal so she can appreciate the stories.

• As she gets older, he plays the games next to her and explains the strategies needed to play optimally.

• And eventually they're just as competitive, and Chi finds himself losing fair and square at some games.

• Hina and Sakura are very different to the two boys and help teach Kei about the finer things in life...

• Like donuts and martial arts.

• The martial arts thing is legit - Sakura giving Kei private lessons in the garden and buys her first uniform.

• And although Hina DOES feed her donuts (to Taka's dismay), she helps teach her to swim on days that her dads can't.

• And they also help the boys when it comes to braiding her hair and other things that they wouldn't necessarily have known.

• (Like some awkward questions that made Leon nearly pass out over).

• They're Aunty Hee and Aunty Saka.

• And then there's Hiro.

• Ah, Uncle Hiro. Or rather, Uncle HERO.

• Kei ADORES Hiro and quite openly says that he's her favourite (apart from her dads, that is).

• Everyone thought that Hiro would be terrible with kids - but he's amazing.

• He lets her play with his tarot cards and crystals, buying her a crystal ball of her own.

• She plays with his hair all the time and asks Taka if he'll let her have hair just like Uncle Hiro (obviously a no).

• It turns out she has a little bit of a childish crush on him, which she inevitably grows out of as she gets older.

• But its incredibly sweet - especially when she draws him lots of pictures that he hangs on his fridge and makes her blush furiously.

• Of course, she eventually has some friends to play with as the others start having kids.

• But even so, she's always got time for her cool aunties and uncles!

[sarenhale]

Out of curiosity, do you have any ships for the Silver Snakes? If you do, could you name them and elaborate on why you like them? I love your art style btw it just looks so smooth to me!

I do, IN FACT!!!! I wonder if you mean couples within the silver snakes only (oc x oc) or with fe3h canon characters as well? Well, I’ll write about both and the ideas I have here... brace yourself, It’s gonna be a long ask cause you unleashed my love for couples....

Nicolai and Leon is one of my faves, basically brother in arms that become closer as time passes. Nicolai can’t socialize and deal with people for shit so having someone like Leon that has a very sunny and patient personality around is very comforting. Plus Leon has a lot of energy and will to live, and with time manages to... uh... maybe influence Nicolai with it a little? Or, at least, grab his skinny ass when he’s about to sacrifice himself in battle AGAIN and save him. Nicolai has an ardent desire to die and Leon is just not gonna let him, you know? When war starts Leon promises him he’ll bring him to his village in Dagda to meet his family.... and then when war is over they move there and fuck off forever, living in peace for the rest of their days. Nicolai finally has the opportunity to be who he wants and not have to pass down his crest or being haunted by his family legacy anymore.

Nicolai and Kristjan, they’re both very quiet and not exactly socially adapt, but that’s kind of what they enjoy from eachother, the possibility to just enjoy eachother’s presence without pressure or having to talk/break the silence. Incredibly enough, I think that when confronted with another shy person, Nicolai would be the one to step up and be more protective and supportive. I think that this relationship would bring out the protective / chivalrous side in him..... yeah....... I don’t know I just imagine how quiet, peaceful and swee those times would be 

Nicolai and Bernadetta, reject humanity, return to being social recluse... I feel like they have similar personalities and kinda vibe together well, after of course the trials and tribulations of Bernie trying to escape everytime she sees him because she thinks Nicolai is the spectre of death that was sent to kill her or something. But that just adds to the fun part of it and ridicolousness of the couple edhjfcghjdgfh. Plus Nicolai likes reading edgy poetry and novels so he would be really supportive of Bernie’s books. 

Nicolai and Sylvain... hee hoo you know me, I do enjoy a sprinkle of Sylvain content here and there... basically Sylvain is the only one from Blue Lions that doesn’t hate him after they discovered the Haandrastsz family had a part into killing Dimitri’s father. The Haandrastsz family terriroties were also near the Gautier's, so they knew eachother when they were little. (I cannot escape the childhood friends trope I am sorry) After the war, before rejoining with the other Silver Snakes, Nicolai retires to Sreng (where him and his uncle were exiled to by the Kingdom) and stays there, commanding a small army and gaining the trust/leadership of the local warlords. One time he leads an attack on Gautier territory and Sylvain is like ‘Oh hey Nico- HEY WHAT THE FUCK’  And I don’t know... I just think it’s kinda funny... Also Sylvain is the only one in Blue Lions from the original group of childhood friends that doesn’t really... judge people for who they are, you know (that’s why I love him), so it feels realistic that he wouldn’t think less of Nicolai for what his family did. Knowing the guy, he would probably try to find a peaceful solution to the situation, and even if Nicolai usually doesn’t give a shit about people, he would be like “Yeah okay I GUESS I can try talking to Sylvain instead of just brutally murdering him”. So yeah, the sheer contrast between personalities, and the similar trauma from crests/ families... I just think it makes for a cool combo.

Cassandra and Esther, another one of my fave couples, Esther grew up in poverty in the Empire’s capital and hating nobles for the huge power imbalance in Fòdlan, so seeing Cassandra’s objective to completion is one of the most important things in her life. Despite the big differences in their upbringing, they discovered that they shared a lot of things in common, and felt very comfortable and safe in the company of the other. Cassandra always felt like an outcast even between her family, so she finds Esther’s point of view on life very important and close to her heart. Cassandra loves how much of a free spirit she is, and wants to eventually be free and feel like she’s allowed to be herself, two things she can really experience when she’s with her. Esther’s story is part of why Cassandra feels like she needs to succeed and bring a change to Fòdlan, and made a promise to her that if she ever loses sight of her original dream and becomes yet another swayed ruler, Esther has to kill her  👀  Also, that good old “ruler and their right hand” kind of ship... you know? 

Cassandra and Mithra, another good ruler and their right hand ship... Mithra has trust in Cassandra as a leader and person, and is willing to do anything to help her achieve her dream! I think Mithra is a very silent person that doesn’t share her feelings and emotion easily because she’s always on high guard, expecting an attack from every direction, and focused on her duty almost too much to allow herself to be human and not only a soldier. That why it’s really cute when i think about how she would open up and eventually fall in love... YEAH

Cassandra and Sayid, this is a bit of a ‘what if’ kind of ship because Cassandra is gay, so I see this couple as more of a “platonic soulmates” kind of situation. Sayid and Cassandra’s relationship is one of my favourites because it starts from childhood friends, then changes to rivals, to frenemies, and then grows to trusted friends who will never be able to leave eachother. Cassandra was promised to marry one of Sayid’s older brothers when she was little, so he often jokes about how Sayid lost to his brothers even to that. (”Yes, but I was the one that had the honor to be right next to you” he would probably reply) They are eachother’s most trusted person, and Sayid grows from wanting Cassandra’s spot as leader and thinking she is inadequate to the role to being her most trusted advisor, that wholeheartedly supports her. It’s mostly the growth of the relationship that does it for me.

Mithra and Dedue...OKAY No joke I made Mithra Duscurian also because so Dedue could have a friend from the same country... so they can share Duscur stories and culture. Mithra left Duscur when she was little so she feels like she’s missing a part of her culture, and I just feel like her supports and relationship with him would be an amazing opportunity to both expand more on Duscurian culture and allow both to enjoy their home country and bond over it! And then maybe at the end of the war they can move back to what’s left of Duscur and start to rebuild together. 

Mithra and Felix, this is a bit of weird one, especially because of Felix’s shitty views on Duscur, but I’m mostly looking at the promise for a good character development and how cool an idea of a ‘warrior couple’ is. They start off as sparring partner, Mithra shares Felix’s dedication for battle and training, so they often find eachother at the training grounds until they start to train together. They develop a kind of friendly rivalry over wanting to beat the other, and being the two strongest students at the monastery. Felix gets his ass handed to him a couple of times, and his mental process is ‘holy shit how > fuck you > groagrhaprfgakdfgh > okay but she’s strong, I can learn from her if i continue to fight her’ to eventually respecting her skill and position. Mithra recognizes his strenght and unparalleled ability on the battlefield, but comments on his lack of teamwork and how fighting alone and not following orders is going to get him killed someday. (Being that she’s lived her life in the military, diligence is a very important value- and a way of life to her) Their rivalry/competition translates to keeping the other safe in battle (”you’re not allowed to die before I beat you” kind of deal) and eventually... uh... wow... emotions???

Sayid and Ferdinand, dhsgchdgsh To be honest this is boys being fancy and bisexual... They do share some values and morals, Ferdinand’s view on nobility are akin to Sayid’s, even though Sayid is a bit more like ‘earning what you and your family have’ rather than simply inheriting a role. I do like that they mirror eachother by being a leader’s right hand man, and growing their rivalry into a frienship with them, so I feel like they’d have that in common, and some interesting conversations could spark from that! Plus yeah have I mentioned fancy bisexual boys...

Leon and Hilda, okay this one too is like... nothing too deep stort wise, I just feel that they’d be such a cute good couple?? Mostly because of how they both have sunny personalities and how Leon would indulge Hilda and protect her... and they also give me some big domestic vibes?

Esther and Annette is just... listen... I don’t know exactly why I can see the two of them so well together, I just think their personalities would align really well and would lead up to some really cute support conversations and eventually relationship...

Kristjan and Linhardt is an interesting couple because while I think they have similar interests on magic/ crest studies, they have very opposite personalities. I like that Lin is very blunt and unapologetic about his interests and peculiar way of life, while Kristjan feels like even his presence is a bother and something he needs to apologize about. I think they could bond over their shared interests (you know Lin wouldn’t resist to analyze the peculiar crest situation Kristjan has going on) but also count as interesting opposites to eachother. Lin would definitely be a positive influence over how insecure Kristjan is, and have a role in him accepting himself. Also.... cute nerdy boyfriends who love to read and study together??? Yeah...

Kristjan and Lysithea another cute couple, but this time based on how interesting it would be to see them interact and talk about their similar stories with crest experiments. I feel like they would both benefit from being able to talk honestly about the trauma and experience of it all. And I also like that two individuals that feel like their life is not in their hands anymore- CAN grow and create their own life together.

Kristjan and Olympia is... one of the first couples I thought about back when I created the silver snakes! I really like how they’re polar opposites (again) and how well they mesh together. One of the consequences of the experiments done on Kristjan is that he can channel the power of his crest stone to enhance his abilities, and eventually, also to get really physically strong for a short moment of time. I imagined that it would be really cool and unexpected if the one person that managed to beat Olympia in a duel is in fact not even someone who’s an expert with physical combat! Olympia  is a very romantic and affectionate person, and I just really like the idea of Kristjan being showered with the love he deserves. (Plus I love the ship dynamic of mage/studious male character with strong/warrior female character a lot AHAH)

Olympia and Lorenz are... there to be fancy, cute and gorgeous together?? Despite some parts of his ideologies (that luckily he works and grows on), Lorenz’s ‘romantic’ idea of chivalry is very fascinating at the eyes of Olympia, and he kind of represents the idea of the ‘knight in shining (purple with roses) armor’ that she always looked for! They also both love fashion, art, drinking tea and little things like that... and I, AGAIN, love the idea of a couple where the woman is the strongest in the relationship dhgchjdsgcdsh There’s something really cute and powerful about her living her romantic fantasy with someone.

Olympia and Dorothea... JUST GALS BEING PALS... or not. They’re bisexuals together. I think they’d start to bond over Olympia’s idea of romance and research for someone that could beat her in a duel/ win her heart, and eventually really come close due to their experiences in dating/ finding out what they really want from love and relationship. And then they find that together!!!

I think you could sum up the types of couples I like with ‘similar personalities’ and ‘complete opposites’ AHAHAH It’s something that intrigues me with people in real life too! I discovered I tend to feel as fascinated by people that are similar to me, as much as people who are really different from me. This was a LOOONG response, but I loved to think about these couples and write down their dynamics! I hope you’re ready for a very detailed and long response! Thanks again for the compliments on my art and for asking about my babies <3

[galarianace]

Verses

THE HADES CHAPTER

Three years after becoming Champion, Kira has to deal with a new threat creeping up on Galar : a criminal organisation going by the name of ‘Hades’. 

Information : [ link will follow once the overview is complete. progress: 85%. wip given out on request ] Main tag:  ⟡♛ so i crossed the river styx and arrived at 「 hades 」 Related tags: none.

THE THREE POKÉTEERS

After accidentally winding up in the Sinjoh Ruins with Elizabeth ( @imperialsea ) and Ayubi ( @eclipsedmemory​ ), they encounter the weirdest Arceus they’ll ever encounter. Not only does it leave them with three eggs and 0 explanation, it then moonwalks off with some odd ‘hee hee hee’ screeches. Kira winds up with a Giratina, Dusk. Elizabeth with Palkia, Bisera. Ayubi with Dialga, Avik.

Information: [ bullet point list ] Main tag:  ⟡♛ the three pokéteers 「 kira && elizabeth && ayubi 」 Related tags: none

ALOLA VACATION

For her birthday, Elizabeth gave Kira a spectacular gift : two tickets to Alola! A vacation for her and Leon, everything already arranged. Galar will be left in good hands, Hop and the gym leaders will take care of things in their absence. So, without further ado? Alola to you, too!

Information: [ part 1 ] Main tag:  ⟡♛ alola to you too ; we had a champion time 「 vacation 」 Related tags: none

TEN YEARS FROM NOW

Retiring from the hectic life of a Champion after running around for ten years, Kira and Leon work on the next step of their married life : children. Killian is two years older than Lyra and raising them is every bit as hard as everyone’s always warned them it’d be, but that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy the simplicity of their current life.

Information: [ overview ] Main tag:  ⟡♛ the best is yet to come 「 future 」 Related tags:   ⟡♛ i still fall for you every day 「 future 」   ( @lostchampxon​ )

[ducktracy]

148. the coo-coo nut grove (1936)

release date: november 28th, 1936

series: merrie melodies

director: friz freleng

starring: peter lind hayes (ben birdie), bernice hansell (dionne quintuplets), tedd pierce (w.c. squeals), danny webb (walter windpipe), the rhythmettes, verna dean (additional voices)

the cartoon that caused katherine hepburn to watch it 4 times and clark gable twice. an amalgamation of celebrity caricatures, designs courtesy of the great t. hee. see laurel and hardy share a drink, clark gable flap his ears to the beat of edna may oliver’s dancing, w.c. fields (squeals) flirt with katherine heartburn hepburn, and so on.

a parody of the famed hollywood nightclub the cocoanut grove, we open to a beautiful overlayed pan of the coo-coo nut grove, a nightclub literally nestled in a cluster of coconut trees. the backgrounds are wonderfully stylistic and sharp—not quite art deco, but the same “newness” that page miss glory exuded so well. a zoom in reveals that the red blinking neon light advertising the nightclub is lit up by fireflies, an oldie but goodie.

arriving to the nightclub itself, we iris in on ben birdie, a caricature of radio personality ben bernie. while he’s giving his trademark catchphrases such as “yowza!”, a mouse caricature of journalist walter winchell pops out of a tuba, holding out a scallion for birdie. “flash! an orchid for you, old mousetrap, from your old pal walter windpipe!” birdie takes care of the pest by blowing into the mouthpiece of the tuba, propelling windpipe across the nightclub. bernie and winchell had a good relationship off the set, but assumed the rules of enemies on bernie’s show. side note, danny webb voices the winchell mouse—he’d go on to provide some background voices for a few 30s shorts, as well as voicing egghead (actually egghead, not elmer!) in daffy duck and egghead.

while birdie comments that it’s an ill wind, an ill wind, yowza, we get a good look of the patrons in the crowd. comedian hugh hubert is the first celebrity, who giggles and claps, bashfully averting his gaze. as a daffy duck aficionado, i owe a lot to hubert—he’s the one they voiced daffy’s trademark laugh after. thanks, hugh! the table next to him features w.c. squeals and katherine “heartburn” (an obvious play on hepburn.) squeals admires what a beautiful hand she has, promoting her to repeat the boulevardier from the bronx cackle bashfully before glaring at him in disgust. the laugh is more fitting as a horse, for sure! hepburn would be subject to MANY, MANY references in looney tunes shorts, primarily by tex avery. every time you hear a woman say something like “really it is,” that’s a hepburn impression.

next table over features a crotchety ned sparks, groveling “i go everywhere, i do everything, and i never have any fun.” sparks’ shtick was always playing a miserable, deadpan character. pan up to the coconut treetops (these backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous), where johnny weissmuller is pouring his wife and vedette lupe vélez a glass of wine. i love the bow tie tacked on to his tarzan garb, wonderfully tacky. instead of offering the glass, weissmuller downs it all in one go, beating his chest and doing the tarzan yell that buddy did in buddy of the apes. how i don’t miss you! i’m sure it’s implied, but weissmuller was the original tarzan. even more interesting, he was a gold medal olympic swimmer back in the 20s.

ben birdie introduces “the profile of profiling”, and thus sparks this lovely gag of john barrymore walking through the nightclub, his head at profile. no matter which way his body turns, his head is always at profile. eventually, his head is turned 180 degrees backwards as he sits down at a table. if you look him up, you’ll find that many of his headshots are profiles.

elsewhere, we spot a panicked woman running from some unknown threat. her face is concealed, so we’re unaware as to what caricature she is, but we DO know her pursuer: a bird caricature of harpo marx, galloping behind her and honking a horn. his hat opens to reveal an extending stop sign, and harpo pretends to pull the brakes. the sign switches to go, and harpo shifts back into gear, resuming his galloping routine. the animation is flighty, loose, hilarious, and ridiculous.

back to ben birdie, who moves things along. “and now, let us indulge to a bit of the light fantastic, etcetera, etcetera.” almost immediately, a crowd of couples get up to dance. it seems to me that the animation was reused from another freleng cartoon, i’m a big shot now. cut to another couple in particular, a turtle george arliss and bird mae west. a great pair, seeing as mae west was essentially a sex symbol, and george arliss was much older, being 68 as of 1936. very smooth and fun animation, topped off with west affirming “keep up the good work.”

another warner bros favorite to caricature—laurel and hardy. if my memory serves me correctly, this is the first time we see hardy caricatured as a pig. in many a cartoon, he’d be portrayed as such, often mimicked by porky. these include (but are not limited to) the case of the stuttering pig, you ought to be in pictures (a freleng classic), and the timid toreador. hardy grabs a coconut and signals for laurel to share. they both put their straws in the coconut and drink, and essentially swap themselves. hardy substantially loses weight and turns into laurel, whereas laurel gains substantial weight and turns into hardy. very clever.

the next act features edna may oliver, who does an elaborate dance routine to “the lady in red”. clark gable in the audience is particularly entranced, flapping his ears to the music (another gable caricature staple.) leon schlesinger himself said after the cartoon’s release, “gable [came to see the film] at least twice, mesmerized by the rhythmic waving of his own ears. that ought to answer any questions about can hollywood stars take it.” schlesinger kept close tabs on who came to see his films, which only makes sense: he worked at chicago’s colonial theater in 1908, keeping an autograph book of all the stars who would happen to visit. during oliver’s dance number, a lanky, rubber hose limbed gary cooper struts through the nightclub, doing his walk that he would feature in many of his cartoons. a trio of monkeys observe from the treetops, one of them declaring “he’s pixilated!”

next dance number is none other than the dionne quintuplets, voiced by (who else?) berneice hansell, singing a medley of “our old man” and “what’s the matter with father”. hansell’s voice talents are lovely and hilarious as always, and there’s a great little dance interlude as the quints turn around and tap their feet with their butts in the air. just in case you forgot they were babies! by this time, the quintuplets, only 2 years old, already had a movie made about them in early 1936 called “the country doctor”.

back to johnny weissmuller and lupe vélez, who are applauding the act from the treetops. a great scene as weissmuller spots a mouse skittering right by their table and shrieks. the great, mighty tarzan faints at the sight, and vélez instead does her own tarzan cry, grabbing her cowardly husband and swinging across a vine as the mouse skitters under the table.

back to the mysterious running woman pursued by harpo marx. harpo tackles her, and the woman finally reveals herself to be none other than groucho marx! this gag would be much more notably reused in tex avery’s *hollywood steps out, with clark gable pursuing groucho instead of harpo. i like the inclusion of harpo, it makes the reveal all the more disturbing. harpo, appalled, dashes out of the nightclub while groucho grins.

the next scene is a more somber mood. teardrops rain on the grass, and a slow pan reveals a tearful helen morgan singing “the little things you used to do”, perched on a piano and wringing a handkerchief. the animation is quite good, with lots subtle head tilts. wallace beery is particularly moved by the music. so moved, in fact, that he grabs a nearby banana hanging from a bunch, squirts out a line on a butter knife like a line of toothpaste, and shoves the knife in his mouth to cope with his heart strings being pulled. harpo marx is also moved, using a windshield wiper from his multipurpose hat to wipe away his tears. edward g. robinson and george raft aren’t particularly moved, chuffing on a cigar and flipping a coin respectively. that is, until, they both break down in sobs and embrace each other—a great mood change and great way to totally shatter the “tough guy” act. i believe raft was also caricatured in ali-baba bound as flipping a coin with his foot (eugh).

now, the nightclub is totally afloat, caricatures sitting on their tables as the ground is submerged in tears. slowly, the tables begin to drift away in the current, with the george arliss turtle rowing along, using his shell as a boat. and with that, ben birdie signs off.

while this cartoon is dated, sure, i think it’s a cartoon you can enjoy, regardless if you understand the references or not. i certainly didn’t know a good 35% of the caricatures, and had to look them up. but i truly believe that’s part of the fun of it though, and that’s why i love these caricature-centric shorts. you get to explore and really get hands on, you get to research, you get to learn something new. i sure didn’t know that george arliss was born in 1868, and i find that fascinating! i didn’t know that ben bernie and walter winchell played enemies on bernie’s show, but now i do. it’s fascinating! and that’s in part why i love doing these reviews. no matter what, there is always something new to learn. and besides, if anything, you can laugh and admire how the caricatures are drawn, and the backgrounds are just superb. this is definitely a visual centric cartoon, and it constitutes a watch for that alone. i prefer hollywood steps out myself, but this is a good entry, especially for 1936. i say go for it!

link!

[lovingleonkennedy]

Stuck in Love [Leon Kennedy x Reader]

Anon asked: hii, can u write something like Leon (RE4 or older version of him) and reader worked together in the past and was in love with each other (of course they didn’t know about their feeling to each other), but one day Leon see reader in “normal” place, like shop/café their friends called their on the double date and etc. 

So, i tried my best doing it, hope you like it.

Song: Kim Kyung Hee - Stuck in Love

It was the end of the mission, it let both of you very tired and now, in the helicopter you were going to fall asleep at any moment while your head nod at a nonexistent question.

“You can sleep in my shoulder” Leon said looking at how tired you looked.

“No, no, I’m fine” You answered but at the same time you accept his suggestion sleeping quietly in his shoulder.

It smells like dirt, blood and a small trace of male fragrance which made you smile unconsciously relaxing you, to the point that not even the noise of the helicopter awake you.

Leon watch your sleeping face a moments before he falls sleep putting his arm around your shoulders.

When the helicopter arrives to a safe place the pilot turns back to say that right now you arrived at home, seeing both of you sleeping comfortable in each other arms, he took a picture and send it to you best friend and partner which may be fangirling when the message ring come and see the picture of you two.

Everyone in the agency knew about the feelings that were brought both of you, it was clearer than the sun itself, and the agency partners always wondered who or when they would take the first step to ask for a date.

But, the reality was that you two were satisfied with the close bond that established during the missions, when were just you two and the bad guys.

You noticed this mission was different, Leon doesn’t seem very concentrate in himself putting you always behind when a threat was right in front of you, but you weren’t the exception, with all your skills tried to protect him for everything putting sometimes the mission in danger.

That was bad, you both put in danger just to protect the other, if this continued, both could be fired or, in the worst case, dead.

The last thing you wanted it was Leon getting injured, so you take actions.

 It was a shiny day outside; the sun shines and the birds were singing.

Leon entered in the room like every morning, greeting his partners and siting in his usual chair, starting to read the details for the next mission but that day something was missing, it was you, and your sweet voice greeting him like every morning. Kennedy decided to go to your desk covering himself with the surprise that your things weren’t there.

At that moment Hunnigan approached him with the intention of preparing the mission, but Leon was kind of dazed with the sudden disappearance of your things, so he asked.

“Were did it go (Y/n) things?”

Hunnigan kept silence for a few minutes.

“She didn’t tell you?”

“What?”

“(Y/n) was transferred to the CIA yesterday in the evening”

Leon couldn’t understand why you went without telling anything. It was for something he did or say? That kind of questions filled his mind causing uncertainty and frustration.

He starts regretting why he didn’t ask you to go out, why he kept his feelings inside his chest.

But now was too late for that.

 It had already been a month and there wasn’t news from you, he asked your friend about you, but she didn’t know so much so it was useless.

The day was rainy, Leon decide to go for a coffee before he went home, one of his coworkers tell him about the new coffee shop so there he was asking for a simple coffee then he turned around searching for a table near to the window, just to see the raindrops stamped against the glass.

Then he notices. A Familiar shape in the table close to the window, reading a book and drinking a cappuccino with a croissant.

He never had the chance to see you without the uniform, without the equipment and the rough face you put in the missions.

It was his chance, maybe the last he had before you disappeared again, leaving him with the frustration.

So, he walks to you with firm step until he gets your attention.

You almost choke with the coffee seeing him in front of you looking at you with his beautiful eyes, made you fall in love once again.

“Hey” He said in an attempt to greet you.

“Hey” You said back, feeling nervous because his intense staring at you.

“So, can I sit?”

You nodded at answer, focusing in your book trying not to blush or something, you feel how fast your heart race faster.

The past month you were trying to forget your feelings for him, but it was impossible, you were stuck in love for him.

“So, how it’s the CIA?” He asked, breaking the silence.

“Uhm, well, it’s nice, I guess”

“Why did you go?” He finally asks, catching you off guard.

Maybe this was the chance to get those feelings outside and let go your love for Leon.

“I tried to protect you” You tell him, looking at his blue eyes you remember how much you missed his presence.

“Protect me? What were you talking about?”

“I love you, okay?” You finally said, starting to blush.

“What…?”

“Remember that last mission when they almost shoot my leg? I was distracted cleaning your way and making you go safe to the point” You said covering your hot face, now you were already a living tomato.

Leon was in shock, he can’t believe you confessed your love to him, when he was going to do the same.

He started to laugh covering his face.

“W-what?”

“I was doing the same”

You looked at him incredulous, giving him a little shy smile.

“Because I love you too” He finally says getting up just to give you a needed kiss in the lips.

Meanwhile, your bestie sends you a text message with an old picture of the both of you with a text:

Mission accomplished.

From your old work mates.

Maybe been stuck in love isn’t that bad.

[jeffreydove]

Sophia Woodsman: What Lies On The Moon

The sedan was old and rusted, but it was mine - and it was going to the moon. Come at me, NASA.

    My car’s frame bucked as our speed increased on the rainbow road made of Starlight. Grace clutched the passenger door reflexively.

    “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” She glanced at the shaking dashboard, “Either of you. We could have taken my dad’s town car.”

    Grinning like a madwoman, I squeezed the bare steering wheel and laughed as Starlight shone on my face in a kaleidoscope of colors. Grace was reserved on the best of days, but today, her brown eyes had an especially severe edge to them.

    “It’s fine, Grace,” I bubbled. “My car runs alright, and I’ve studied everything there is to know. Besides, I’m sure you’ve entered plenty of Starlight realms.”

    Grace panicked, whipping her head to look at me incredulously. The car shook with a loud “Crack!” multi-colored light reflecting off the windows.

    “What?! Sophia, what the hell? I’ve never done this before!”

    Oh… she hadn’t? Without turning my head, I glanced at her out of the corner of my eyes. She raised her eyebrows with a small head shake as if to say, “Yeah, idiot.”

    Returning my eyes to the dazzling road in front of me, I took a deep breath. Fear and adrenaline filled my chest as reality dripped away around us.

    My voice was small, almost a whisper, “Right. We got this.”

    In a single swipe of silvery light, our bodies dissipated. There wasn’t any pain, but I couldn’t tell if my life was just done or on a loading screen. My perception hung there in the silvery void - but with no “me” to speak of. I wanted to scream. Time for all that studying to save my life.

    The book was Pockets in Space by the illustrious Alberto De Leon. “The realms of Starlight constitute pure intelligent existence, the basic building block of course then being - the decision.”

    It wasn’t a great read.

    “A caller must needs reconstitute oneself by invoking the essence of their identity. When difficult to determine, core personal decisions may be found by addressing this most basic of queries: What is most important to you?”

    I could feel Grace next to me already forming back into herself. Dammit. I was the infamous Starcaller of Earth. I was the reason we could even attempt this in the first place. The reason we were here. But she was always better than me. Faster. Smarter. More level headed.

    I was tired of being the second rate caller always getting shown up. I was ready to play in her league. Sure, I wasn’t a member of fancy House Majesty, but I could hold my own. This was my opportunity to show that, and I wanted that more than anything.

    And there it was. I felt my body solidify, and found myself on the back of an animal with Grace. The moonlight around us was still forming an environment, but she was herself, as clear as ever. Her dark skin contrasted against a silvery satin dress. But her face was twisted in concern - as she looked at me.

    I lifted little hands to my face, then examined thin spindly arms. The animal we were on stopped as my voice squeaked out, “This doesn’t seem quite right.”

    Grace carefully shook her head, “No, Sophie. I think you did it wrong. You look like a kid.”

    As we spoke, the animal got nervous, and rotated its long grey head around to look at us. It began braying, “Hee-haw, hee-haw.”

    The creature bucked, and we both fell to the soft dirt ground. The beast looked sickly with droopy eyes and patchy fur. It regarded us with naked arrogance.

    I exchanged a glance with Grace, “What’s with the judgmental donkey?”

    She chuckled, “I would imagine that’s the noble steed we rode in on.”

    My “car” looked me right in the eyes and peed. The smell went straight into my brain, tingling like wasabi. Grace gagged and we scurried away.

    “When’s the last time you got your oil changed?” She gasped.

    “Sunday?” I estimated.

    “This last Sunday?”

    “I mean I think it was on a Sunday.”

    “Yeah, what year?”

    “Shut up.”

    Ignoring Grace for a moment, I took stock of our surroundings. It was a normal wooded area, but all in monochrome - the green of grass and leaves replaced with bright silver.

    Starlight realms are deeply personal, and you can only enter realms of the planet you’re aligned to unless someone else brings you along. There aren’t any Starcallers of the moon, but the moon is subservient to the Earth, so we theorized I’d be able to get us here.

    And I had. I took a moment to let that sink in. Despite whatever was going on with my body and the car, this had worked. Starlight power of the moon was only a theory - until now.

    My tiny voice piped up, “We did it. It’s real.”

    But I was a firm believer in save twice, save often. So I wanted out of this place, “Maybe we should head back now and tell the older callers.”

    Grace bit her lower lip, looking away.

    “I’m not so sure they’d even believe us,” she ventured.

    “Well not me of course, but they’ll believe you” I replied.

    That guilty expression turned sad and she shook her head, “I dunno. Maybe. It’d be better if we could bring back proof.”

    Proof? What did she mean, proof? It’s not like we were going to pluck baubles out of imagination land to bring back home with us.

    “Maybe we can find some starlight artifacts here and reconstitute them in reverse when we leave,” she mused.

    God dammit.

    “It’s been done before in other realms,” she wheedled.

    I sighed as I grabbed the donkey’s reigns and walked towards the top of a forested hill.

    “Sure, Grace. We can look around for a little bit. But I don’t want to get stuck like this, and the donkey’s seen better days.”

    Her eyes moved left and right, shepherding her thoughts.

    “We just need to find something important. Like a nexus of lunar power or something along those lines,” she said.

    As I looked out over the valley on the other side of the hill, I just shook my head in disbelief. A large squat silvery temple was built across the entire base of the valley. Moonlit trees grew up and around it in fractal patterns.

    I smiled and pointed, “Just throwing it out there, and I’m open to suggestions - but we could check in there.”

    Her face beamed with excitement. And exchanging a single nod, we made our way to the temple in the center of the moon.

    The temple was more shelter than building. Open on all sides, the silvery vegetation grew everywhere inside the stone structure. Grace was taken in by it all, brushing her left hand over the wall to examine it. Many times, I’d seen her form a fist with that hand, focusing her Starlight into the brilliant ruby ring she wore on her middle finger. But here, even it was reflecting in black and white.

    I followed her loosely with the donkey. My short legs were getting tired.

    “I wish I could figure out what went wrong with my body,” I complained.

    She responded absently while examining carvings on the stone walls, “You probably channeled the wrong essence. Did you focus honestly on the core of who you are?”

    I resisted the urge to sing-song her question back to her. In truth, I hadn’t been focused at all. I was mostly jealous that she had her crap together. Speaking of which, she seemed to reconstitute perfectly.

    “What did you focus on?” I asked.

    She hesitated, then spoke quickly “Oh, nothing. It’s not important.”

    “Well it seemed to work out great for you, so it’s not nothing. What was it?” I demanded.

    She turned around, anger in her eyes, “It’s none of your business, Sophie. You clearly have your own problems. Why don’t you focus on them instead of badgering me?”

    Ouch. Well there it was. Grace was practically a princess of House Majesty, but she’d stood by me anyway. Treated me like an equal. But I always knew better. When the chips were down, she was one of them. Better than me. Too good to slum it with a heretic and share how she reconstituted perfectly on the first try.

    I dropped the donkey’s reigns and threw my hands up, “Fine, I’ll figure it out on my own. Good luck finding your ‘lunar nexon' or whatever.”

    The beast began to “hee-haw” neurotically as I left. And look, I play Guardians of Greystone. I know what a nexus is. I was just pissed at her. Some distance would be good to clear my head.

    The inner walls of the temple formed a maze of small rooms and alcoves. Now on my own, I distracted myself by exploring the little rooms. And soon enough, my investigations turned up a dark set of stairs leading down into a basement.

    For a moment, I considered telling Grace, but she wanted me to take care of things on my own anyway, so that’s what I did. I descended the stairs into darkness.

    At the bottom of what felt like a marathon of steps, smooth moonlight shimmered around a corner lighting up the darkness. It swayed back and forth on the stone walls with a rhythm that seemed eerily close to breathing.

    That corner led into a massive basement room, albeit one without a floor. A single catwalk lead all the way across the pit, with a circular dais in the middle. The pit, however, wasn’t empty. And I nearly jumped when I saw it.

    Massive shimmering scales lined the lunar dragon’s hide. It slept in the pit beneath the little bridge, curled up nose-to-butt. Its razor sharp wings folded around itself forming a blanket. He would have been adorable sleeping there if every inch of him didn’t inspire terror in anyone who laid eyes on him.

    Motion caught my eye on the far side of the room, and I could barely make out a woman in a shimmery dress making her way down the catwalk on the other side of the room.

    Grace! I wanted to scream at her. What are you doing, there’s a freaking dragon there! But I followed her focus towards the dais in the center - where two glowing honest to god lunar artifacts sat on stone pedestals.

    One, a long gnarly dragon’s tooth, the other a silvery dragon eye the size of a Yoga balance ball. And she was going to get there first.

    Stealthily traversing a small bridge is exactly the sort of situation the Starlight of Earth is suited for, but I was unprepared. My reagents were all back in the car - or the donkey or whatever. So I’d just have to make it on my own.

    My annoyingly small body crept across the bridge, the dragon’s slow breathing causing moonlight to cascade back and forth across the little walkway. I had hoped being a child would make me quieter, but my brain was mapped to normal me, and I felt clumsy as hell.

    Grace got there first, no surprise, and I watched as she examined the artifacts. I’m not sure what she saw, but her mouth curled up into a smile as she grabbed the glowing tooth with her left hand. And as though it were responding to her touch, the dragon beneath us snorted - and woke up.

    Her eyes went wide as the dragon reared up in a single jerky motion, his back demolishing the piece of bridge I was standing on. I jumped as far as my little legs could take me and rolled clumsily to a stop on the dais.

    Not to be outdone, I grabbed the eye from the pedestal as the creature whirled around beneath us. The circular platform shook like an earthquake as the dragon shifted around down there. And then it leapt forward through a massive tunnel I hadn’t noticed, its tail slapping the dais and knocking both of us off our feet.

    We both reached out with a single free hand and grabbed on to the lip around the edge of the platform. My body strained as I barely held on, jerking once from the force of the fall.

    Grace hung there as well, her left hand barely holding the dragon’s tooth. Her left hand, the one with her ruby ring. The hand she had to form into a fist in order to use her Starlight. Shit.

    I still had the eye balanced awkwardly between my right arm and hip. God, my muscles hurt. I hated this little kid body. I wasn’t going to be able to hang on much longer.

    But I wasn’t about to lose. This was my time. I got us here, and I wasn’t going to be the one to leave here empty handed. I looked at Grace.

    “Let go of the tooth, then pull yourself up with both hands. Then you can pull me up, and we’ll get out of here.”

    She shot me a dirty look and tried to pull herself up with a single arm, struggling while hanging on to the heavy tooth. She got maybe an inch, then almost lost her grip entirely.

    “Grace!” I shouted.

    She looked at me, then down to the tooth in her hand. I could almost see her swallow her pride when she turned desperate eyes towards me. The rumbling subsided, and the room went silent.

    “I thought about my dad,” she blurted out. The statement echoing throughout the pit.

    I shook my head at her, “What?”

    “When we reconstituted. This is a chance for him to notice me. To take me seriously. To respect me. If we prove a new source of power exists here, he’ll have no choice but to look at me.”

    I’d had no idea, and just hung there with a dumbstruck look on my face.

    Grace shook her head, “I sort of wish I’d ended up like you. At least that would mean there’s more to me than dad. But even this place thinks I’m defined by him.”

    She looked ashamed, “I need this, Sophie.”

    I… wasn’t used to thinking of Grace as someone who struggled - with anything really. But it made sense. The way she was acting. It wasn’t about me. She had her own problems, and I wanted to be there for her.

    That was it!

    My jealousy. My insecurities. As real as they were, they were distractions. What I wanted most was to be there for my friend. She needed this more than I did, and I’d been too stupid to see it. Enriching her world would enrich mine.

    With that thought, I felt strength returning to my arms. A calm came over me, and I knew immediately what I needed to do.

    I caught her eyes with mine and smiled. My voice now my own and resolute, “I’m here for you, Grace.”

    I chucked the eye into the void beneath us, and vitality surged back into my body, restoring me completely. I felt my face mature and my limbs lengthen.

    Pulling hard with both arms, I practically leapt up on to the ledge. I grabbed Grace’s arm and hauled her up until she could get her legs underneath her.

    “Time to go,” I said.

    “Agreed.”

    We both scrambled to safety, making our way to the tunnel she came in through. There was no sign of the dragon as we reached the donkey still waiting there in the center of the temple’s ground floor.

    “Maybe it forgot about us?” Grace suggested.

    And then the far side of the valley absolutely erupted as the massive dragon burst out of the ground. Its silvery head had a severe underbite, and its one eye darted back and forth, looking everywhere, unsynchronized with the head as if it had a mind of its own.

    And then it stretched like a dog at the top of the valley, albeit the size of barge. Its crazy eye locked on to us, and it pushed off the ground, silvery wings carrying it towards us.

    I looked at Grace. I looked at the donkey. And I had an idea.

    “I insisted on taking my car because it was mine. Even though your dad’s is in better shape, I thought I needed to prove I could do it without help from your family.”

    She looked at me, then back at the rushing dragon, her eyes huge, “Yeah, Sophie, I kind of figured. Are we doing last words or something? Cause I’d still like to get out of here.”

    I smiled, “I wasn’t really fessing up to you. More myself, I think. I’m starting to realize just how much the truth matters in this place. Watch.”

    Accepting my dumb decision to bring my crummy car for what it was, my calm spread to the donkey. And the braying faded into an equally obnoxious panic button alarm as the beast transformed back into my neglected sedan.

    Grace laughed victoriously, “Nice!”, and we strapped into the car.

    I had assumed flying around to the front of the temple would slow the dragon down at least a little, but it had other plans. Bee lining towards us, it crashed through two of the support columns holding the back of the temple up.

    The engine rumbled on, and for the first time in my life, I literally floored it. The back end of the sedan spun way out, and I nearly lost control as huge chunks of stone temple fell from the sky around us.

    Smaller pieces of dust and debris were being sucked backwards past us, and I realized the dragon was taking a very deep breath.

    “Crap! Glove compartment!” I yelled.

    Grace flicked it open, and handed me a styrofoam cup filled with Starlight-infused soil of the Earth. Unceremoniously, I grabbed a handful of the dirt, quickly spat the phrase, “Perfection of Fitness,” and absorbed all the Starlight I could.

    In an instant, my body heated up. Fat burned. Muscle repaired, but most importantly - my reflexes and perceptions got jacked.

    In slow motion, I saw the solid mass of lunar fire shoot out from the dragon’s mouth like a laser beam.

    His aim was respectable - he was leading me perfectly, the little shit. But my hands were steady, my motions sure - even with bits of dirt now everywhere.

    Pulling on the emergency brake, I cranked the steering wheel, and my sedan drifted in a long arc, just barely missing ground zero of the blast. The dragon raised its head, and the tail end of the beam swiped up and across the final temple columns in front of us. The temple’s entrance - our exit - began to fall.

    “Keep going, I’ve got this,” I heard Grace say in slow motion.

    I’d seen her control objects before, but nothing of that size. It was our best shot though, and I gunned it. She held her left fist out towards the windshield, and the ruby on her ring glowed red, the first bit of color I’d seen in this place warming the monochrome.

    The pillars in front of us froze in place - mid fall. But holy crap, it wasn’t just that. I realized in that moment that the entire ceiling was dropping on us, and that too was frozen in the air five feet above the car.

    Her eyes were strained in concentration as sweat dripped down her face. Just a few seconds more, Grace.

    And then the ruby on her ring exploded. The force of it smacked her hand against the passenger side window, and she yelped as everything came crashing down.

    But the little car’s engine was true, if only just, and the structure fell to the ground in our wake. We emerged from the fallen temple in a cloud of dust and smoke. I did not look back.

    It was a small miracle the car didn’t get stuck in the grassy hill leaving the valley, but we made it. Back where we entered this realm, I could feel the energy of reality hanging there. We could go home. And none too soon. Who knew how close the dragon was to catching up again.

    I turned to Grace, “You still have it?”

    She giggled, lifting the large silver tooth from the back seat.

    “Now that is an artifact worth remembering. Pretty sure that’s gonna make an impression on him,” I said.

    Grace wore a proud hopeful grin, “Yeah. I think you’re right.”

    I took one last look at the silver forest, revved the engine, and willed us back to the real world.

                                                           * * *

    Lord Thomas’ office was tactically tidy. Three certifications decorated the otherwise bare eggshell walls. Curtains were drawn half shut over a huge window that overlooked Crosschester’s business district.

    He wore a black suit and sat on a simple wooden chair behind his desk. He was bald and had deep brown eyes that could bore a hole through your soul. I got the impression lying to this man would be a pointless endeavor, and I shuttered to think of what he saw when he looked at me with those eyes.

    He motioned for us to approach. We did, but declined to sit on the nice leather seats prepared for guests. He stood as Grace held out the silvery dragon’s tooth.

    Her voice was nervous, “Hi dad. We were able to get to the moon successfully. Lunar starlight is real. We brought back this.”

    He took the artifact in his hands and regarded it with a skeptical smirk. His eyes found me for a moment, and then he shrugged, placing the tooth down on his desk.

    “It’s… at very least a curiosity. Maybe Ethan’s team will look it over.”

    Grace took in a quick breath, like she was about to respond, but he just walked away. He hardly even acknowledged her as he made his way to the office’s door, “I have a meeting with King Crowe. You broke your ring. Fix it soon, it’s dangerous like that.”

    And with that, he was gone. I wanted to protest, but it was already too late. Shit. Was that really it? It happened so quick.

    Grace stood there by her father’s desk, looking brittle and very alone. In all the years I’d known her, I’d never seen her like that, and it broke my heart. She’d been there for me so many times. I couldn’t make this right, but I had to do something.

    I walked up beside her, took her hand, and squeezed. She squeezed back as her shoulders shook.

    “You did a really good job today,” I said. “What we did was important. I’d have never been able to do it without you. Thank you.”

    I felt her sad smile, but didn’t look to see if there were tears. She wouldn’t want me to. Her voice was small, “Thanks, Sophie. It means a lot.”

    I felt her place the silvery tooth in my hand.

    “You should probably head home,” she said.

    What?

    “But your dad just said someone was going to look into it. When they do, they’ll see that lunar starlight is real! That’ll change everything! Our entire understanding…”

    “Sophia, no,” her bitter voice interrupted. “It’s not happening. They don’t care. Ethan’s backlog is a black hole. Take it. Just take it.”

    I… was stunned. How could they not care about something this important? But Grace seemed resolute, and I wasn’t about to argue with her. I took the artifact, gave her a hug, and left her in her father’s office. I could tell my roommate wanted to be alone for a bit. She knew I’d be there when she was ready. I’d be sure of it. I headed home.

    When the garage door closed behind me, I reclined my seat and laid there with the tooth resting on my chest - contemplating a world that didn’t want to move forward. The heretic Starcaller of the Earth didn’t have that luxury. I had to move forward. And not just keeping up with Grace. I realized I had to start doing things my way.

    Placing the tooth on the dash, I pondered what I had to offer to this crazy world, and the tooth began to glow with the light of the moon. Static crackled in my car’s speakers as wispy tendrils of silvery smoke formed into the lunar dragon’s head on my dashboard, albeit the size of a bull’s. Its raspy voice spoke over the car radio.

    “Caller, you seek the truth. This pleases Luna.”

    Huh, I smirked, looking at the familiar.

    He continued, “There is much I can teach someone who’s willing to see things as they truly are.”

    New options. My loadout was expanding. And not despite being an outsider - but because of it. My heart warmed at the thought. Somewhere in this tangled mess of new roads ahead - was me, the person I was meant to be. And for the first time in my life, I was sure of it.

    I looked at the little dragon, confidence and mischief dancing in my eyes.

    “Alright, then. What can you teach me?

    I’m ready to learn.”

[cyanoticfireflies]

Pokémon Sword Avatar Challenge Playthrough Part 11

We’re making good progress on our Pokemon Sword, Avatar Challenge - Water Tribe playthrough.  Really good progress.  I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel - or the Champion at the top of the Pokemon “league,” whichever you prefer.

I like that the past few games are trying something a little different with the formula, either through Totem Trials instead of Gyms or this bracketing system instead of a standing League, though I think if the bracket winners weren’t 100% preset it could be more interesting.

If you missed Part 1, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 2, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 3, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 4, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 5, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 6, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 7, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 8, it’s available HERE. If you missed Part 9, it’s available HERE.   If you missed Part 10, it’s available HERE.

Ready?  Let’s dive in!

Piers, Marnie, and Team Yell join us in front of the hotel where Oleana shows up to throw down the gauntlet.  Nothing like ridiculous parlor games to find the key.  Rose may enjoy these kinds of games, but chasing clones around a city? All that’s making me do is question if the sequel is shutting down the illegal cloning factory under the Wyndon Gym.

Of course the idiot we want is the one staring face-first into a wall.  The staff are great for power-leveling Okama the Centiskorch since almost every single one of their Pokemon is Steel-type from this point forward.

But even after we beat him, Eric won’t give up the key.  So it’s back to hide-and-seek.  Again. He’s talking with a pair on the left side of the area, so we just beat him down again.  He runs a-gain, so we find him in the phone booth and beat him down a-gain.

We get to the train station and Piers pulls a microphone stand from… somewhere.  He starts performing and the Zigzagoons lose their minds along with all the people.  Somehow in all the chaos we grab the key to take the monorail to Rose Tower then head inside what must be one of the least structurally sound buildings in all of Galar. There’s no way that many floors wouldn’t just topple over, I’m calling it.

(As a broke millennial, I manage to find some sympathy for the first grunt.  Poor thing can’t afford a house.  I feel you, man, I say as I listen to the neighbors in the next apartment almost drown out the background music.)

We get on the definitely unsafe elevator and engage in various Pokemon battles as we ascend to the top floor of the building.  I don’t care what they say about the walls of light, this company must have sensational insurance.  Oh, wait. Sure enough, they try to sell us some life insurance on the way up.  This game, smh.

They make such a big deal about reaching the top floor that it’s not surprising when Oleana is standing there waiting to battle us.  Hop even mentioned being able to Dynamax up here.  Talk about your ridiculous Towers of Babel.  Apparently the height is doing things to Oleana’s head because she goes bananas and starts flinging Pokeballs.

Oleana actually has a pretty well-rounded team compared to her peons with various types, and combos like burn/Double Team and poison/Venoshock.  I’ll give it to her: she’s got some skill.  She’s no match for us, but she’s got some skill.  Maybe there’s protein powder in the corporate Kool-Aid she’s been guzzling.  But… the most hilarious part of her team is her final Pokemon, a Garbodor.  Does this one… not seem to fit with all the rest? Sleek female Pokemon and then, well, sludgy hell.  Gigantamaxing Garbodor does not make it any better, Oleana.

As soon as we beat Oleana we make it to Rose and Leon who are deep in a discussion about the future of Galar and its ever-increasing energy needs.  Game. On. Point.  Maybe Rose should invest more heavily in renewable energy.  Hmmmm.

Anyway.  After that long detour I’m sure all of us are starving so Leon makes good on his promise to feed us.  Finally.

The next day it’s time for the Championship Finals battles.  Our first battle is going to be against… huh.  Well, Bede showed up for the party.  That outfit actually suits him.  “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?!”  Poor baby.  Tee hee.

Bede isn’t any harder than he’s been the whole time even though his team is now Fairy-heavy instead of Psychic-heavy.  I think we one-shot everything on his team up to the Hatterene, even though Rapidash nails us hard with a critical Psycho Cut on Haku.  We move to Aleyla the Mr. Rime to deal with Hatterene, hitting neutral Max Hailstorms and tanking the hits.  Having chip damage from the hail is nice too.  Once again, Bede’s bark is bigger than his bite.

(Does it take the fun out of it for anyone else that they heal you between matches?  No?  Just me?)

We get another shot at Nessa, who is even easier this time since we’ve got solid Electric- and Grass-type attackers on the team.  Ah, the days of challenging her gym with Body Slam.  Even Aleyla has Freeze-Dry!  This battle just isn’t even a challenge.  Still love her design, though.

I wish we could watch the other battles.  Bea vs Gordie would be a literal beat down and Raihan would probably wipe the floor with Milo, but Piers versus Kabu could be a good match!

What makes our team interesting after all the change-ups is that our Psychic-type is weak to Fighting moves.  Let’s… let’s see how this goes.  Aleyla manages to take down Hawlucha, Sirfetch’d, Falinks, and Grapploct, but she’s gotten beat up a little.  Haku resists Fighting-type moves so we send him out to handle the Machamp and call it a battle.

The final match is against Raihan.  At least this one isn’t another double-battle.  Raihan’s reworking has some interesting effects on the battle. We switch in and out to deal with Yawn from Torkoal and accidentally throw Amal clean into a Body Press and one-turn Solar Beam.  Okay, Raihan actually brought the big guns this time.  I love it.  He’s actually doing a better job with the first two Pokemon as the Fire-type gym leader than Kabu, but don’t tell Kabu that.  The Dragons are easy enough with Aleyla, then we put Okama in against Duraludon. Max Flare is only neutral and Duraludon hits first with Max Rockfall, so Okama can’t close the deal.  But getting Duraludon down to about half makes it easy for Haku to finish of Duraludon even with resisted moves.  Raihan actually brought the battle.  I’m pleased with that one!

[iztarshi]

Lunar Interlude I -- Episode 17

Ooh, carnival, that should make an episode that almost has to be dedicated to levelling up and shopping more interesting.

The BoB has only been in operation a year, so is this the first or second Midsummer Solstice festive they've thrown, I wonder? It's also nice to get a time of year, although it really hadn't occurred to me to wonder, previously.

Ooh, costumes. Magnus dressed like Taako.

Oh, is the "very slight man" where the apparently canonical mention of Taako being thin comes from? Yeah, I think they just meant he wasn't a wall of muscle like Magnus apparently is. They haven't exactly established… I don't think they've even established HOW Taako dresses yet, except that it involves a robe and wizard hat. And an umbrella, but if Magnus tries to take that he's gonna be seeing stars.

Don't know who Judge Lance Ito is, but it probably doesn't matter.

"Travis: I- I’d like to eat some fried centaur on a stick."

Uh.

Travis rolls to see how drunk Magnus gets XD These guys roll for some weird stuff.

Magnus deciding to just. Eat unicorn. Unicorn horn, too, which is definitely gonna be crunchy. I half expect him to be cursed to a half life :P

"Justin: I always assumed that the horn was its dick. Was that just me?"

Yeah, no, I think that was just you. I mean… how? Anatomically speaking, HOW?

No, I don't think a roc's egg is the size of a softball. Ogre's eyeball, maybe.

I'm not actually that sorry they're beating up the vendor, because he is definitely ALSO cheating. Okay, no, they don't beat him up.

Heeeee. I have no idea why or how there's a YEARLY eclipse, but I am charmed by the sunglasses being handed out. I remember that from my own eclipse viewing. (That was also the year we went to Disneyland Paris and I remember the 3D movie-ride had a big sign in front saying you couldn't use the 3D glasses for eclipse viewing.)

And here's the adventure. Possibly arriving slightly sooner because Justin was going to complain if it didn't.

I really thought this was going to be shopping and levelling up spiced up by a festival setting, it took them a whole episode last time.

"Uh, and as it reaches its apex and the light of the sun is completely blotted out, uh, the three of you can see in the sky, for- for just 2 seconds, uh, just a brief moment, the sky is filled with thousands of bright, white eyes. And they’re all just burning intensely, uh, and then as the sun and moon part from one another, they fade out just as quickly as they appeared."

That's legitimately extremely creepy, kudos to Griffin, but apparently foreshadowing and not an adventure for right now.

The Hunger?

"Travis: I slap her.

Griffin: She slaps you back."

YEAH. You hit him, Lucrecia. Break him of the habit of slapping anyone who looks woozy when he wants to talk to them!

"Travis: We walk around slapping everyone."

…damn.

God, this debriefing. Poor Lucrecia. I wonder if she's wondering why she ever missed them.

No, they're not fired, Lucrecia is just DONE with this conversation.

I want to take a brief interlude to talk about the characters so far. My impressions of them.

Taako's my favourite. He's still wavering on how smart he is and stuff like that, but part of the reason it shows is because he's GOT a character, and it's interesting enough for me to be trying to dig into it, so he's… it notices, when things about it change.

When Merle told him he was "street smart" in answer to him saying he definitely wasn't the smartest for the test it sounded like being kind, but it HAS become part of his character during the Rockport Limited arc. He's quick with a lie or a con, he's perceptive.

He also seems the most upset about Phandalin. None of them are exactly broken up about it, but it seems to be… weighing on him. He's most likely to bring it up or think about it, even if it's stuff like intending to send the train there because it's already destroyed. And it made sense that he was thinking about it when he was afraid they were about to destroy ANOTHER city. I feel like that's behind his certainty someone else should be doing this, sometimes. It wasn't a good start.

Magnus is. Uh. He's developing more personality, but I'm not sure I LIKE him right now. He's protective, reckless, a good comrade in battle. He also has no sense of boundaries, says some, uh, weirdly flirty things? In situations and to people where that's… I mean, he's a giant, muscle-bound warrior? And he smacks people when they're unconscious and shows no inclination to tone it down beyond not slapping them hard enough to break their jaw. So far he's acting like a bully.

On the other hand he's very, very loyal to his friends. Even if he's not always nice to them he would, demonstrably, jump 60 feet to save them.

Merle I still don't have a feel for? He evangelises, he quips, he goes along with whatever's happening. He cared a lot about his family, but they have… not come up since they all died.

So, that is my current feelings on them.

Back to whether they'll actually keep their mouths shut about the eclipse monster.

Aaaaah, right, HERE comes the levelling up etc.

Okay. Those were some weird personal messages. Nothing to do with the show itself. Uh. They have some weird listeners is all.

Hee! I like the slippies of haste. So does Merle from the sounds of it. So, Merle is now wearing fuzzy slippers while Taako is carrying an umbrella around. Awesome.

And Magnus is wearing mismatched gloves because they do different things. One on each hand.

Taako's doing this again. Only this time I'm not sure he's not doing it on purpose to mess with Leon. So hard to tell with Taako.

Nope, I think he's genuinely…

Oh, and in the background Magnus is telling Merle to shoot him.

"Travis: And I run over and pick it up, and I’m like, “I did it!”"

XDD

Is this where fashion!Taako started? With him getting fancy fan while also having a fancy umbrella?

Ooh, Umbra Staff can now cast Slow Fall whenever Taako wants. I wonder if it can do it whenever LUP wants? Like, if Taako falls off something and forgets to ask she can just do it anyway.

Taako got the pocket spa while his friends stared at a Mystery Bag. Will they die of curiosity if one of them doesn't buy the Mystery Bag?

"Travis: I’m pretty psyched Griffin, but it is very much like the feeling when a kid is begging for a dog, and the parents like bring home a goldfish."

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, okay. He has a pet! He possibly has the only piece of livestock on the moon! But still, it's not a puppy.

Yeah, they levelled up.

Taako's ability to make Transmuter's Stones sounds useful, especially if he's allowed to do it between adventures.

And next episode, a new adventure.

[jimblanceusa]

Asian, Asian American heroes to power Marvel Comics series “Agents of Atlas”

Asian superheroes — assemble.

Jung-Geun Yoon, Marvel via AP

This image provided by Marvel shows the cover of the first issue in “Agents of Atlas,” Marvel Comics’ five-part standalone comic book series set to roll out in Aug. 2019. Marvel Comics is giving ink to an unprecedented team-up of nearly a dozen of its mightiest Asian and Asian American heroes.

Marvel Comics is giving ink to an unprecedented team-up of its mightiest Asian and Asian American heroes, also known as the new Agents of Atlas. Established icons like martial arts master Shang-Chi and newbies like Wave, the newest Filipino superhero, will team up in a stand-alone, five-part comic book series starting this summer, the publishing giant told The Associated Press Thursday.

The roster of 10 super-powered pan-Asian champions made their debut as a team earlier this month in “The War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas.” That comic book is one piece of an ongoing saga involving several different groups across the Marvel universe, including the Avengers, doing battle with a fire goddess. But the exclusively Asian limited series is set to roll out in August.

The man leading the heroic charge is veteran comic book writer Greg Pak. Pak is credited with ushering in a new era of Asian characters in co-creating Amadeus Cho, a Korean-American genius teen. The character first appeared in 2005. A decade later, he absorbed the Hulk’s powers and started going by Brawn.

“It’s always been my dream to do a team book using a bunch of Asian and Asian American heroes,” said Pak, who thinks there’s more appetite for representation with the success of the movie “Crazy Rich Asians.” “There’s literally never been a better time in my memory with more opportunities for doing work that specifically includes Asian and Asian American characters.”

The decades-old character of Agent Jimmy Woo (portrayed by Randall Park in last year’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp” movie) leads the pack as head of the revived secret protection society Atlas. Others getting in on the action include Brawn and Cindy Moon, who is the Korean American web-shooter Silk.

Other recruits have only previously been seen in Marvel video games or web comics only available in Asian countries. Among them is Korea-born Luna Snow a.k.a. Seol Hee, a K-pop star who can manipulate frozen elements. There’s also Aero and Sword Master, the products of creatives in China. Besides crime-fighting, the group will spend time doing things like eating dim sum or singing karaoke.

“That kind of diversity within diversity is amazing,” said Pak, who is half-Korean and half-white. “No one character here has to represent all Asian-ness or Asian American-ness. That’s a ridiculous demand for any character.”

The rest of the “Atlas” creative team includes writer Jeff Parker and artists Nico Leon and Carlo Pagulayan. In the series, the do-gooders find that someone has flipped a switch and created a “cross-Asian portal city” called Pan. In Pan, Asian neighborhoods get geographically scrambled and then stitched together into one city. So, the streets of Tokyo could be next to neighborhoods from Honolulu, Manila and some of Marvel’s fictitious Asian countries.

Filipino American Loren Javier, 50, discusses Marvel comics on his “Castles, Capes & Clones” blog and podcast. There were few Asian characters in the lexicon he could look up to as a child, and many were often stereotypical mystics or man-servants.

“I love Marvel but I didn’t necessarily see myself in the comics,” said Javier, who recalls being teased by a classmate who called him “the enemy.”

“Now, finally, I think about kids who are reading this new generation of comics and heroes and getting to see themselves a little bit more,” Javier said. “It’s very powerful.”

Charlie Kirihara, who is half Japanese and half white, was thrilled by “New Agents of Atlas” and tweeted at Pak and Marvel pleading for more content.

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Kirihara, 26, said it was a welcome change to see characters that represented Asian and American cultures in “The War of the Realms.”

“I read through the book and realized that was the first time I’ve read a comic book that was all these Asian characters and that wasn’t manga written in Japan,” Kirihara said, referring to a genre of comics or graphic novels. “I want to see it have legs beyond this storyline.”

That’s Pak’s wish as well. But it depends on how Marvel finds the fan response.

“If people buy the heck out of it, I’m happy to keep writing them,” Pak said.

from Latest Information https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/23/agents-of-atlas-asian-americans-marvel-comics/

[laurendzim]

Asian, Asian American heroes to power Marvel Comics series “Agents of Atlas”

Asian superheroes — assemble.

Jung-Geun Yoon, Marvel via AP

This image provided by Marvel shows the cover of the first issue in “Agents of Atlas,” Marvel Comics’ five-part standalone comic book series set to roll out in Aug. 2019. Marvel Comics is giving ink to an unprecedented team-up of nearly a dozen of its mightiest Asian and Asian American heroes.

Marvel Comics is giving ink to an unprecedented team-up of its mightiest Asian and Asian American heroes, also known as the new Agents of Atlas. Established icons like martial arts master Shang-Chi and newbies like Wave, the newest Filipino superhero, will team up in a stand-alone, five-part comic book series starting this summer, the publishing giant told The Associated Press Thursday.

The roster of 10 super-powered pan-Asian champions made their debut as a team earlier this month in “The War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas.” That comic book is one piece of an ongoing saga involving several different groups across the Marvel universe, including the Avengers, doing battle with a fire goddess. But the exclusively Asian limited series is set to roll out in August.

The man leading the heroic charge is veteran comic book writer Greg Pak. Pak is credited with ushering in a new era of Asian characters in co-creating Amadeus Cho, a Korean-American genius teen. The character first appeared in 2005. A decade later, he absorbed the Hulk’s powers and started going by Brawn.

“It’s always been my dream to do a team book using a bunch of Asian and Asian American heroes,” said Pak, who thinks there’s more appetite for representation with the success of the movie “Crazy Rich Asians.” “There’s literally never been a better time in my memory with more opportunities for doing work that specifically includes Asian and Asian American characters.”

The decades-old character of Agent Jimmy Woo (portrayed by Randall Park in last year’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp” movie) leads the pack as head of the revived secret protection society Atlas. Others getting in on the action include Brawn and Cindy Moon, who is the Korean American web-shooter Silk.

Other recruits have only previously been seen in Marvel video games or web comics only available in Asian countries. Among them is Korea-born Luna Snow a.k.a. Seol Hee, a K-pop star who can manipulate frozen elements. There’s also Aero and Sword Master, the products of creatives in China. Besides crime-fighting, the group will spend time doing things like eating dim sum or singing karaoke.

“That kind of diversity within diversity is amazing,” said Pak, who is half-Korean and half-white. “No one character here has to represent all Asian-ness or Asian American-ness. That’s a ridiculous demand for any character.”

The rest of the “Atlas” creative team includes writer Jeff Parker and artists Nico Leon and Carlo Pagulayan. In the series, the do-gooders find that someone has flipped a switch and created a “cross-Asian portal city” called Pan. In Pan, Asian neighborhoods get geographically scrambled and then stitched together into one city. So, the streets of Tokyo could be next to neighborhoods from Honolulu, Manila and some of Marvel’s fictitious Asian countries.

Filipino American Loren Javier, 50, discusses Marvel comics on his “Castles, Capes & Clones” blog and podcast. There were few Asian characters in the lexicon he could look up to as a child, and many were often stereotypical mystics or man-servants.

“I love Marvel but I didn’t necessarily see myself in the comics,” said Javier, who recalls being teased by a classmate who called him “the enemy.”

“Now, finally, I think about kids who are reading this new generation of comics and heroes and getting to see themselves a little bit more,” Javier said. “It’s very powerful.”

Charlie Kirihara, who is half Japanese and half white, was thrilled by “New Agents of Atlas” and tweeted at Pak and Marvel pleading for more content.

Related Articles

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Superhero dogs documentary director says narrator Chris Evans is a pup enthusiast

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Why for Avalanche rookie sensation Cale Makar, the sky’s the limit

Kirihara, 26, said it was a welcome change to see characters that represented Asian and American cultures in “The War of the Realms.”

“I read through the book and realized that was the first time I’ve read a comic book that was all these Asian characters and that wasn’t manga written in Japan,” Kirihara said, referring to a genre of comics or graphic novels. “I want to see it have legs beyond this storyline.”

That’s Pak’s wish as well. But it depends on how Marvel finds the fan response.

“If people buy the heck out of it, I’m happy to keep writing them,” Pak said.

from News And Updates https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/23/agents-of-atlas-asian-americans-marvel-comics/

[noonmutter]

Etiquette

(Another round of modified chatlogs. Terry and Dwyn regularly compete with Leon and Pin for cuteness points, but only when they’re alone. This takes place just after the last Dragoon meeting, which I missed for purely OOC reasons because I’m a dumb.)

The directions Shedwyn leaves for Terry guide him to the far side of the lake from the Cathedral. It's a bit of a hike or a short boat ride, one that she apparently made on her own, because by the time he arrives she is sitting on a blanket with a picnic basket. As he approaches, she pulls out a bottle of liquor and a pair of glasses. She pours just one glass, for now. It's not exactly a public place, but seeing her out of bed with all her illusion spells off is unusual. Showing off all those scars, tattoos, and her "weird" eyes isn't her style. Of course, the gold "dress" isn't really her style, either. It's far too exposed.

The hike itself isn't too difficult for him, not after running about in the rocky mess of the Shore. Really, his reflexive checking for fel pools slows him down more than anything else. Once he sees her, but doesn't see the chair, he's immediately impressed. The booze gets a bit of a smile, and the...visibility of her more of one, after a moment's surprise. When he's only a few feet away, he pries off the heavier bits of his armor and drops them carelessly to the grass, and closes the remaining distance barefoot. "Y'look good, babygirl."

"I always do," she smirks, and offers the glass up to him. "I feel good. It felt like the thing to wear."

He settles onto the blanket beside her and leans over to kiss her cheek, only then taking the glass. "Did y'actually walk up 'ere?"

She laughs. "Not all the way, no."

"Tch. 'Ere I was about t'be impressed." He takes a drink with a quiet sigh of satisfaction.

She looks him up and down, and leans over to plant a little peck on his shoulder while he drinks. "You look like hell. But I'm so happy to see you, hon."

He really does, at least compared to his standard. Most people probably wouldn't think the softness to his features was anything significant, but she sees him too often for that. "Nah. 'Ell's a dif'rent shade o' green. But I missed you too."

Chuckling, she pours herself a finger of whiskey. She leans away a bit to watch him while she savors her drink.

He's really enjoying that drink, if only because the only booze one is going to find on the shore is cheap stuff soldiers sneak in. He's worn, in that have-slept-but-not-enough way, but healthy otherwise, and content for the moment. If she doesn't interrupt him, he'll finish his glass without saying stopping. Not chugging, just...savoring it.

She's content to enjoy the whiskey and the view with him in silence for a few minutes. Once he's done, she silently offers to refill his glass.

With another small smile, he nods and holds it out. While she's pouring, he takes his turn to watch her, not skipping an opportunity to see what she normally hid even from him.

She's a little sad, a little nervous. As she pours, she says, "I have a question, but first I should tell you something."

Well, he isn't sad, but he's certainly nervous, now. "All right?"

"I could hide it from you indefinitely with little effort, and I considered doing so. It seems to me it will only hurt you... But if I want this to last, I should tell you. It certainly won't if you find out on your own." She frowns a little and brushes the back of her fingers down the side of his arm. "Do you remember when I said there were others, but nothing serious, when we recognized that you and I are... well, perhaps not 'serious,' but significant?"

From nervous to scared in record time, congratulations Dwyn! "...yeah?" He doesn't move, but there’s enough tension in his face to momentarily erase the apparent weariness he's been fighting off.

She curses under her breath and looks away, putting the cool glass to her forehead. "I'm so bad at this." She looks back up at him. "The others were irrelevant, no one you're ever likely to meet, but one of them was your brother."

His brain runs in slow motion while he's parsing what he's been told and making sure it doesn't involve him having done something wrong. Then he goes over it again, looking for something she did wrong, and alarm klaxons go off right at the end. His eyes don't widen, they don't narrow. He doesn't outwardly do anything except stop blinking.

She swallows hard on the knot that had been trying to form this entire time. "It ended up being just the once, but still." And there she goes, looking away in shame. Both from sleeping with his brother and trying to justify it so lamely.

"...You're not still, are you?" He makes wholly unhelpful motions with his hands. "I know Leon does that... swingin'...thin'..."

"No." Offense catches up to and surpasses shame. "No! I-! No. I cut him off. Hell, until the other day when I had this same conversation with him, I hadn't seen him in weeks, not since the day I cut him off."

The stiffness in his shoulders is only really noticeable because it suddenly goes away, and he finally starts blinking again as he leans back. "I mean... I 'aven't been with Rhiswyn in ages. A while b'fore Alynore'd ever said anythin' t'you. I ended it with 'er, too."

Shedwyn shrugs and shakes her head. "I didn't think you had, really." She makes a face and sips her drink quickly. "That will certainly be a nightmare for a while, but no, I never really thought you might still be seeing her. And I told you, I'm yours. Only yours. I'm not going to touch anyone else unless you and I - us - changes."

"Babygirl, I'm not Leon... I don't really care tha' much 'o fucks 'im. I mean... I know it's kind'f a, a sore spot for 'im, but... this ain't th' same."

Shedwyn nods, ands looks away, thinking. "It really isn't."

"There was this girl, Lilith, 'o'd wander int' town back in th' day. Most'f th' lads figured she was a bored 'ore 'o came 'round whenever th' local law got too pushy. She'd entertain 'erself--and us--fer a few weeks, then shove off again back t'wherever she came from. Y'know.

"I pointed 'er Leon's way one time. 'E was a quiet li'l dork an' 'e was never gonna get anywhere if 'e was th'only one 'o 'ad any say innit, so I thought I was doin'im a favor, y'know? Get 'im 'is first. Mighta been 'is last, but at least 'e'd 'ave a first…"

Shedwyn scrubs at her face. "Yes, I know what happened there. It's one of many reasons I was afraid to tell him. Interesting to hear your side of it, though."

Terry looks down at his empty glass. "Yeah, well. Iunno what 'e was expectin' back then. Either way, tha's not me. Pers'nally I'd rather not know 'o 'e's stuck it in." He pauses, then closes his eyes in a very 'god damn it, man' way, realizing what he just said.

"Heh. No. I suppose you wouldn't, but if you found out from someone else..." She sighs, bumps his shoulder with hers, and then moves away to crawl toward the basket. "How does steak sound for dinner?"

Yes, she is trying to distract him from imagining Leon fucking her.

Not expecting an offering of food, he looks up at her and then at the basket. "What? Oh. Yeah. 'Ell yeah. Mess at Deliv'rance Point does pretty good but, y'know.” He paused, then quietly followed up with, "Thanks fer ownin' up. But, uh. It's okay."

She pulls out a pair of covered plates. A good, rare steak, with garlic mashed potatoes and some grilled vegetables is passed off to him with a shrug. "Thank you for being understanding. And for explaining a bit. But it makes my question feel even more silly, now." Scallops, rice, and butter-drowned vegetables for her.

Anyone judging by his expression would think she'd just stripped in front of him and said 'have at it,' the way he looks at that food, and especially once he's smelled it. He actually makes a tiny little 'hee' sound in the back of his throat when he takes the plate. "What question?"

She picks up her drink to sip it and wait until he's not eating, drinking, or holding anything that will break if he drops it from laughing too hard. Still, she can't help but smirk from behind her glass at how silly her question feels (especially with how it may be a touch tardy). "Is it alright if I fall in love with you, or would that be too serious for your taste?"

Good decision. He chokes on air and nearly drops the plate even though it's in his lap. Once he's not coughing, he's chuckling, putting the plate down on the blanket next to him and wiping his mouth. "This from th'girl 'o made fun o' me fer usin' 'fancy'? 'Is it all right?'"

She shrugs. "It is rather adorably quaint slang." She's smiling at both their silliness, now. "I've been with men - and sometimes insisted on the rule myself - where getting that attached was not alright."

Leaning over a bit, he nudges her with his shoulder. "Adorably quaint, pff. Don't get smug on me now, babygirl, y'were doin' so well."

"Humility is not a good look for mages."

"Can be. Y'look amazin' on yer knees."

"So do you." She pops a scallop in her mouth and tries not to smirk up at him.

Someday Terry's gonna have words with himself about how easy it is to make him blush. "Only t'you."

She hooks a finger in his shirt collar and pulls him in close, affecting a sharkish grin that loses most of its edge because she's trying not to laugh. "Only for me."

He can't quite help the way his eyes widen when she does that, even if he does know she's messing with him. It happens and goes away after a second, but it definitely happened. Then he closes the remaining distance between them to kiss her, if only for a peck. "True."

She leans back, still grinning, but gestures at his dinner. "Am I to take it that means it's alright?" Another scallop, still with her bare fingers. Terrible manners on this woman!

Bit of a 'damn' to his face when she doesn't let herself stay distracted, and he picks up a bit of steak he'd cut. She started the terrible manners, he's allowed. "Can't very well stop y', can I?"

She shrugs. "I can choose to fall in love, I can choose to not, no?" She winds her arm around his and leans against him, picking at her food with her free hand. "Besides, you know I already love you dearly. If you wanted, I could be happy with just this, for as long as we have."

He sets his hand on her hip almost without thinking, and rests his head on top of hers once he's done chewing. Wouldn't do to get crumbs in her hair. "Dunno. Can y'choose t'turn somethin' like tha' off?"

"Pft, I can do anything if I put my mind to it." No, no, she can't, but she's not about to admit it right now.

"Mm. So, I got a question fer yer question."

"Fire away."

"Are y'askin' if it's all right, or are y'askin' if I feel th' same way?"

"... I don't need you to be in love with me, Sam. I don't even need you to love me, or 'care deeply,' however we'd like to put it, which I-" She pauses and clears her throat quietly. “It would be nice, but it's not necessary. I just don't want to make you uncomfortable, either by holding you at a distance or pulling you closer."

He's quiet for a bit, eventually curling his other arm around her waist and shifting to sit a bit more comfortably. "Y'din't answer my question, babygirl. Are you askin' me what you actually wanna ask me?"

"I am not asking if you're in love with me, Terry. That would be... Incredibly rude, for lack of a better way of phrasing it. I'm not playing any silly games. I'm asking exactly what I want to know."

"Then m'answer doesn't really change." Ducking his head, he kisses her cheek. "I can't very well stop y'."

She sighs, smiles and exasperated little smile, and continues eating with her fingers. "Eat your dinner, old man."

"Old man! Aren't you older'n me?" Chuckling, he picks up another steak bit.

"Hm, how old are you?"

"Th--" He pauses and squints upward for a minute. "...irty one? I think? Did I miss thirty? ...No. Thirty-one's this year. Yeah. Thirty fer now."

"Then yes. I am older than you are."

"Oh no y'don't. 'Ow old?"

"Thirty-four."

"Gods, I'm stuck with a crone."

"An eternally youthful and beautiful crone, thank you." She tweaks his chin. "You're not stuck with anything."

"She says with 'er arm snaked so tight 'round mine."

"Oh? And that arm around my waist is for balance, I suppose?"

"No, it's t'keep a girl 'o loves me from gettin' away too fast."

"Hmf. Won't be leaving unless you give me reason to." She huffs. "Besides, you're the one always going where I can't follow."

"I 'alf expect t'turn 'round an' see y'comin' up be'ind me t'wreck shit, anyway."

"Soon, I think. I have some ideas..." She shakes her head.

"Pursue 'em. I wanna see my girl beatin' th'shit outta th' demon 'ordes."

She tries to pull away a bit so she can properly look him in the eye again. He won’t stop her, at least not unless she scoots too far.

"Please remember that above all else, no matter what else happens, I am your friend and want to see you happy and healthy. Right?"

His smile fades a little, one eyebrow rising. "Well...yeah. I wasn't questionin' tha'. Should I 'ave?"

"No. I just want to make certain you remember it. No silly self-sacrificing to save me, or worse, my feelings."

"Can't necessarily guarantee th' first bit, babygirl. Y'kin take care o'yerself but some shit's just reflex."

She pouts, but nods. "And the second?"

"Well... I don't 'urt y’ on purpose." He waves his fingers underneath his chin for a second. "When t'shut up. Y'know."

"We both have that problem. As long as we don't leave it at shooting off our mouths, I think we'll be alright."

Terry nods after a minute, then tilts her chin up with a finger. "Kin I 'ave my kiss now?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because I want mine, first."

Smirking, he leans down until his eyes are level with hers, lips damn near touching hers, and stops. "Take it, then."

She cups both hands under his jaw and barely brushes her lips against his, then turns his head to continue back along his jaw toward his ear.

That is less of a kiss than he expected, but he's not about to pull away, going as close to statue-still as he can manage when he's bent at such a sharp angle. She is, after all, rather wee. The soft little groan that simple brush of her lips along his ear draws out of him is nothing but satisfying.

It ends with a frustratingly short tug on his earlobe with her lips before she goes back and murmurs, "Your turn, Sam," against his mouth.

She barely gets to finish the 'M' before he's mashed his lips into hers and is pushing her down to the blanket.

The best part is that she can't manage an evil cackle when she's too busy giggling giddily. She has just enough sense to shove plates out of the way.

"Evil li'l bitch" is all he manages to say, mouth still pressing hers down. If she hadn't moved the plates, he would have...eventually...probably. After he's spent a good five seconds trying to steal her soul, he lifts his head with a lazy grin. "Yeah... yeah, I think it's all right with me."

"Hwuh? Oh... Good." She tries to blink away the confusion, but just looks unsurprisingly dazed. "Skipping dessert, are we?"

"I want y't'appreciate right now 'ow much I care 'bout you, tha' I am not makin' any cracks about chocolate at this moment."

She gives him a fake little smack, further ruined by the way her hand just stays there as she catches his earlobe between her fingers. "I appreciate you not being a lazy bastard just because you love me sooooo much."

Turning his head to kiss at her wrist, he leers sidelong at her. "There is a rest'raunt somewhere tha' makes a fancy sundae with gold foil on, though." One hand flicks the shiny material of her clothes.

She sighs and rolls her eyes. "No doubt. There's also one that makes an amazing fruit tart with the fruit piled several inches high."

"Callin' you a fruit tart seems t'be in...poor taste...too." He nips her wrist, grinning unrepentantly.

"But easier to stomach when I haven't been compared to it my whole life."

Shifting smoothly into Suramarian, he says, "{And yet you quiver so, should I refer to your kiss as the cool brush of an evening breeze.}"

Her eyes go wide, but then she scowls. "I hate you so much."

"Do you?" Reaching up to hold her hand in place, he begins kissing his way down her arm. "Why?"

"Mmm, making fun of my weakness - hf - for decent lines of poetic flattery."

"{Decent, she says, even as she holds back another mewl.}" There's a nibble this time.

"You don't believe me when I tell you they're good!"

"{Then quiver, my tiny darling, quiver for me, and speak to me of quality in a language I know.}"

She groans, and it's only partly exasperation. "What am I going to do with you, Terrence Samuel Ambroce?"

"I kin think of a few thin's, but they're a lot less soppy than th'shit I've been sayin' in th' last few minutes." The grin has no shame. The grin does, however, fade into a thoughtful line before he kisses her palm again. "{...do you love me, then?}"

"Rude."

"{Rudeness holds no sway over the classless.}" He smirks. "{Do you love me?}"

She scowls, and says in Thalassian, "{Like the honeybee loves her hive.}"

"{A curious love. The queen is slave to the hive, unable to leave and ever producing, ever expanding the hive.}"

"{It is no better for the workers. They may leave the shelter of the hive, but must always return with all they have for the hive. But queen or worker, what you call slavery, others call purpose.}"

"{You speak of obligation, not love.}"

She sighs noisily. "{I speak of a metaphor that has entirely changed meaning by being examined too long. I wonder if it would be more accurate to say 'as the hive loves the honeybee,' then?}"

"{Perhaps accuracy is best found in literal terms, rather than metaphor. You asked my permission to fall in love with me. If you are not already there yet... what do you feel now?}"

"Protective. Admiration and respect. Frustration. And... there's a, a glee at how well we fit, that made me wish to ask if it was alright to fall in love with you, and to express it." She threads her fingers into his hair. "To allow myself to be possessive, and proud that you are not just my friend, but mine."

He's a bit startled at the language switch and his eyes dart from side to side for a split second like he's actually afraid someone will overhear, but it's there and gone. Her hands are in his hair and he's settled a bit, though she can easily feel the surge of warmth that rolls through him at the way she says 'mine.' "...Do I..." Irritably, he switches back. "{Do I have yours?}"

She tilts her head. "My what- oh!" The genuine smile that brings on turns wicked. "You know, any other woman might feel intimidated into agreement by having you pinning her to the ground."

"Any other woman'd not get th' offer."

She grins at that. "Oh, you're 'offering' to fall in love with me, are you?"

He grins back. "Weren't you t'me?"

"I was asking permission. Not offering. Very different. But." She tugs him downward. "You're welcome to try."

"Yer a terrible liar, babygirl." He settles on top of her to rest his forehead against hers. "But I'll take tha' as permission anyway."

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, just enjoying how close they are for a minute. "...I would not suggest it as a wise course of action. But please do."

"I'll let y'know if I do." He kisses her again, not waiting for her to respond.

( @shedwyn , @rhiswyn for mentions )