#i feel like the previous 3 movies were really good at that sort of thing

[neofelis----nebulosa]

watched the second full scene released from kfp 4 and it is significantly lowering my expectations

[serverusslaype]

Shameless

potential Snape x professor!reader fic?

Shameless Masterpost

so, this was just a thing i typed up late last night because late night snape cravings hit and i honestly just wanted to write something. it's not perfect, of course, but where else to post it but on this beloved, yet cursed site?! <3

i have a few parts typed up so if people enjoy it, i'll post the other ones. just a heads up, i'm not entirely following the book/movie, sort of just making it up as i go.. so please, do not come for me, it's just a self-indulgent fic at this point. :,) considering i have not really proofread this properly, forgive me for any mistakes lmao

also, i've made the reader a hufflepuff because i am one, and so it's easier for me to write .. also cos i feel like i suck at writing as other houses lmfao

anyway.. here we gooooo..

"You look lost in thought, my dear," Professor McGonagall turned to you, tilting her head in a concerned fashion. You wet your lips and turned to face your older colleague and blinked - a pathetic attempt at trying to ground yourself. She'd caught you daydreaming again. "Everything alright?" She questioned quietly, a kind smile picking at the corners of her lips.

You tore your gaze away from the subject of your attention and looked to the Gryffindor Head of House, who was seated to your right. 

"Oh," Clearing your throat awkwardly, you nodded at her. She didn't look too convinced. "Just a long day, I suppose." You lied and glanced down at your hands that were clasped together in your lap; fingers fidgeting nervously like you'd just been caught doing something you shouldn't.

McGonagall didn't look satisfied nor happy with your answer, but she didn't want to press you - that wasn't her business. The older witch was respectful in that way, and for that you were grateful. You offered her a small smile in return to reassure her.

The older woman raised her brows in a disbelieving manner, her twinkling eyes studying your blank face as if trying to decipher what on Earth was bothering you. It felt like you were back in school at Hogwarts all over again, in trouble for breaking the rules or something similar. But you weren't, you were a fellow professor at Hogwarts now, in fact, you were the new teacher for Herbology. Professor Sprout had retired last year and Dumbledore had offered you her position, his memory still serving him well as he remembered you'd always had a thirst and passion for the fauna and flora side of magic. Before that, you were teaching Astronomy.

Currently, you were sat in the Great Hall with the other professors, waiting for Dumbledore to do his usual announcement at the beginning of a new year.

"I don't like it when you lie to me, Y/N." McGonagall gave you a sad look, placing a comforting hand on your fidgeting ones. She stilled your anxious movements and you sighed deeply. Out of all the professors at Hogwarts, you got along the best with the older witch, she had always looked out for you back in school and now. You'd probably say that Sprout was your next closest colleague considering you shared an intense interest for Herbology, so you were sad to see her go.

You didn't say anything in response to Professor McGonagall, you only sucked in your bottom lip and chewed on it for a brief moment before Dumbledore's familiar voice rang out through the Great Hall.

"Good evening, and welcome to another year at Hogwarts," He began, stepping up to the golden owl lecturn, his arms flailing about dramatically. "Now, I'd like to say a few words before we all become too befuddled by our excellent feast. First, I'm pleased to announce that Professor Y/N L/N will be taking over the mantle of Herbology, as Professor Sprout chose to retire at the end of last year. I am very confident that she will be a great successor to our previous Herbology professor." Dumbledore announced, turning to give you a warm smile. You stood up and smiled and waved sheepishly as the students and other fellow professors gave you a round of applause, all of them giving you kind and encouraging smiles.

As your eyes flicked round the table of your fellow professors, you got caught in the gaze of none other than Professor Severus Snape. You sucked in a quiet breath, feeling your body go rigid under his cold gaze. After that, you quickly seated yourself, focusing your attention back onto Dumbledore. Over the past year, you'd unfortunately grown a slight affection for the broody man. You weren't sure why, considering how short and cruel he'd always been with you, but maybe that's what did it. A masochist at heart, perhaps? Surely, that was unlikely for a Hufflepuff like you.

McGonagall noticed the tension, and she immediately leaned towards you, glancing at Snape. "Don't worry yourself about Severus." She hummed to you, offering an encouraging smile. Your fingers rushed up to massage your temples.

"I'll try not to, but I'm probably going to come into contact with him more often now, no? Since he will probably come looking for potion ingredients from my classroom?" You groaned, braving another glance at the raven-haired Potions Master. You felt your cheeks betray you, a light shade of pink tinting them as he met your eyes once more. You quickly looked away. If you were going to keep this under wraps, you were going to need to train yourself not to blush at such small things.

"Well, yes," McGonagall said hesitantly. "But I'm sure he will look to come knocking when you aren't there. He's not the most... socially adept man." She pursed her lips momentarily and you met her gaze, scoffing quietly. She let loose an amused chuckle at your reaction. "You know that, of course." McGonagall added, leaning back into her seat. You hummed in agreement.

"Next on the agenda, I would also like to welcome Gilderoy Lockhart as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Dumbledore's booming voice tore you from your thoughts, and the name he mentioned caught your attention. Gilderoy Lockhart? Wasn't he a famous author?

You looked up curiously, trying to spot him in the crowd of teachers. There he was, standing proudly with a million-dollar grin plastered on his too-perfect-looking face. God, what an ass, you thought to yourself. He wasn't bad looking, but he just seemed to think everyone was there for him. Obviously.

"He's not going to last until the end of the year, surely." You commented, trying to hide the amused grin that was desperate to make an appearance on your face. Suddenly, Lockhart looked over to you, as if he sensed you were talking about him. You quickly wiped off the grin on your face and politely smiled at him, praying he didn't see your previous expression. It didn't seem like he did, as he just winked at you instead, making you cringe inwardly.

You had to refrain yourself from letting your head hit the table out of embarrassment. Gods, how many people just saw that awkward encounter? Surely the whole bloody school considering the man was still stood up. You slowly sink into your chair, wishing it would swallow you up.

The next day soon came, and you were up early in the morning, ensuring that the greenhouse-classroom was set up perfectly for your first class of second-years. You'd thought it would be fun to start off the year with an interesting and easy, practical lesson. So you chose to teach your students about the Devil's Snare - a dangerous plant that can kill if you did get tangled in it unless you kept calm and relaxed within it's deadly grasp. You were aware that Professor Sprout had gone over this last year with them, but you wanted to remind them of the dangers that this plant possesses. You potted some of the plant into small containers and spread them out over the long table, placing a small warning sign in front of it to ward off some of the more.. courageous students. Particularly Slytherin ones - you weren't discriminating against them, however in your experience they were usually the troublemakers.

"Professor L/N," A familiar, deep voice came from behind you, almost making you jump out of your skin from how deep in thought you were. Spinning around on your heel, the skirt of your dress twirled with you.

"Professor Snape, to what do I owe the pleasure?" You smiled politely at the dark-haired wizard, clasping your hands in front of you to show some sort of composure and confidence. Despite this, you could still feel your cheeks heating up as Snape prowled towards you slowly, his face still cool as stone.

"An unusual job change from being the Astronomy teacher to the Herbology teacher." He commented, glancing over your new classroom with a frown. The Potions Master stopped just short of a metre in front of you. Snape's cloak engulfed him, and you were reminded of the times you and your friends had nicknamed him the Bat of the Dungeons back in school. He truly did embody the look of a bat perfectly, making you wonder if he had based his robes off of one.

"If you remember correctly, I had a passion for both subjects." You replied nonchalantly, though slightly curious to see why he had paid you a visit. Snape hummed disapprovingly at your reply. Clearly, the man didn't approve of any student that excelled in any other subject than Potions.

"What can I help you with, Snape?" You turned back to adjusting the pots of Devil's Snare on the long table, retrieving your wand from your robes and casting a charm to create a dark rain cloud to sit atop of the plants to ensure they were comfortable. Snape watched you, clearly intrigued.

"I need some asphodel roots, if you will." Snape stated, making you turn to look at him with a cocked brow. He continued to stare down at you with a disdainful expression on his pale face, making you want to curl into a ball. "A student of mine neglected the task of retrieving some." He added with that look of disappointment still on his face. Snape's tone was harsh, and you could tell he was pissed off, this task was below him. Obviously.

You let an amused huff slip out of your nose, a smile picking at the corner of your lips as you just imagined the bollocking he gave that student for forgetting something so important, especially in his class. He instantly cast an angry glare at you, and you wiped the smile off of your face almost immediately. The man might not be your professor anymore, but he still scares the shit out of you for sure and you weren't willing to take your chances today.

"Ah," You nodded softly, avoiding his stony eyes. You cleared your throat and padded over to your row of plants, looking underneath the wooden fixture for the jar of asphodel roots you kept. "Brewing Draught of Living Death?" You questioned awkwardly, trying to break the uncomfortable silence that enveloped you and Snape. A curt sigh left his lips at your pathetic attempt at making small talk.

"I'm astonished you know what I require it for, Professor L/N, considering you were rather... academically inept in your potion classes." Professor Snape said coldly, making your jaw clench. It was no secret, you were shit at potions, and Snape always made sure you were aware of it when you were in school. Again, why were you crushing on this cruel man? The word 'masochist' came to mind again. Nonetheless, why were you even helping him? He clearly has no respect for you.

As you continued digging through your storage unit, you finally spotted the jar of asphodel root behind some empty, dusty jars. You retrieved it quickly, suddenly wanting Snape to leave as quickly as possible. After his cruel comment you weren't exactly inclined to keep his company.

As Snape held out his hand demandingly to take the jar from your grasp, you whipped it away with a fierce frown on your face. You may be a shy, little Hufflepuff, but you did not like it when people spoke rudely to you.

"You know, it helps a lot when you have a teacher you like." You said to Snape, holding his cold gaze. It's true, you're more likely to enjoy and perform better in a subject if you like the teacher that is teaching it.

"I did not come here to squabble with you, Miss L/N." Snape rolled his eyes, reaching again for the jar in your hands but you held it closer to your body. You clenched your jaw as he disregarded your title. He wasn't stupid, he was clearly doing it to get under your skin, and it was working.

"It would suit you better to respect the people that are willing to help you, Snape." You bit back at him with narrowed eyes. You passed the jar to him hesitantly, balling your fists in a small fit of rage as he took it from you. "And it's Professor L/N. I'm not your student anymore."

Snape arched a disapproving brow at you, turning around to sweep out of your classroom, his black cloak billowing out behind him like a bat. Gods, he was infuriating! You wondered how the hell the other professors have dealt with him all these years. The bastard didn't even thank you either!

He'd left you in a sour mood, and now you had only ten minutes until your class of second-years arrived. What a git.

part 2!

there it is,, i hope you enjoyed this late night idea, let me know if you did with a like or a comment, whichever you prefer. then again, you don't need to do either! 🩷 :)

[battymommastuff]

The Loop [Heartaches by the Number]

Batmom x Batfamily

Prompt: Someone please make it stop. This had gone on for too long...

Masterlist Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

TW: DARK THEMES AND DEATH

Who knew the quiet would make you so uncomfortable. You were used to it after all. Most of your nights were spent with you in the quiet, and alone. Today felt different, those stares that you got once you stepped out of the bathroom...it was odd. Especially the one you got from your husband. What is going on with them? Were they really not excited about breakfast? You always made it the same every year. Were they just lying to make you feel better? God, you hoped not. Maybe you should have let Alfred prepare the meal. Nevertheless, you were going to power through this morning. 

While you were slicing the bacon, an odd sense of Deja Vu came over you. Of course, you've done this same thing every year...but why did it feel like you just did this? Thinking you were having a blank moment, you turned around to see if there was already sliced bacon. There wasn't. "Today is so strange." You muttered before you went back to the bacon. 

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"We have nine hours until she dies again. That is...if this loop repeats again." Duke said, seeming to be the only one who is trying to plan. Bruce and Damian were stuck in their own worlds. The last two loops really destroyed both of them. Jason was busy taking his anger out on a punching bag, and Dick was glued to the cameras. 

Barbara, Stephanie, Cass, and Tim were the only ones who were listening to what Duke had to say. "The first time was a public event, the second, she was out in public. The third she left Gotham. Each instance, she was in a spot that someone can get to her or sabotage a plane." Duke then pointed to the cliche, big red button by the BatComputer, "The obvious plan is to put her on lockdown. Keep anyone from getting to her. No place is safer than the Batcave." 

Duke's plan seemed to reignite the dying hope that had filled the room. "That's genius. This place is like a fortress!" Tim said then high-fived Duke. Dick had now made his way over to the table and looked around at everyone. 

"We spilt again. This is a good plan, but he can't guarantee that it'll work. Half of us will stay here with Mom, and half of us will continue our investigation." Dick then turned to Jason who was wiping some sweat with his t-shirt, "Jason, what did we get from the previous loop?" 

"It's obviously something magical, and it's only affecting us. It all goes back to the fight with the League. Something happened during the fight, and now we are trapped. What were we doing before we woke up?" Jason pressed his hand to his forehead hoping to remember. Each loop always made things fuzzier as time went on. "CONSTANTINE!" He suddenly exclaimed then lifted his head up. "We were going to contact Constantine before we woke up. He might have some sort of clue. 

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"A movie marathon? In the BatCave? Is Bruce alright with this?" You asked as you balanced a tray of eggs, and pancakes down the rocky steps to the Batcave. After finishing your large meal, you were surrounded by Duke, Stephanie, Cass, and Barbara. Each of them begging for you to spend time with them in the Batcave. You didn't get the chance to agree before they were grabbing the food and leading you downstairs. 

"Bruce told us to...he's taking the others with him for official Batman business." Well that was heartbreaking. You weren't going to spend your birthday with your entire family. You hoped whatever it was...it was important. And you hoped that they stayed safe. 

Meanwhile, Bruce, Tim, Jason, and Dick were standing in the ballroom of the manor. Alfred was busy painting a symbol on the floor, "Are you positive this will summon him? This paint will be a pain to get out of the floor, Master Bruce." Alfred asked as he finished the last symbol. 

"I'm sure, I watched Zatanna use it before. Let's just hope he's clothed this time." Bruce mumbled and the symbol started to glow softly then got brighter and brighter. Suddenly John Constantine appeared, a bottle of rum in his hand and a pair of rainbow sunglasses on his face.

"Well this isn't the Pride Festival..." He grumbled then turned around to see several brooding faces, "Aye Bruce! How are ya, batsy?" He asked, once again failing to crack that stone cold face, "One day...I'll get you to smile." John pushed his sungless up onto his head, then set the bottle down on the ground. If he was being summoned by Batman, then it was something serious. 

"We're stuck in a time loop. This is our fourth time reliving this day. Each day, my wife dies...then we wake up." Bruce explained then stepped closer to John, "If anyone knows what spell or curse is on us, its you." He wasn't wasting any time. They had eleven hours left to find their solution. They weren't doing this a fifth time. 

John rubbed his chin as he mentally went through any spell, curse, and cursed object that he knew of. He's heard of something like this before, but it was so fuzzy. Like something was keeping him from figuring it out. It was right there...it was so close. John's eyes then widened. It wasn't close as in his mind...it was physically close to him. Whatever is causing this is in the house. 

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You were enjoying your movie day in the Batcave when you heard a familiar accent followed by several voices telling him to stay out of the cave. John made his way down the stairs of the Batcave. His senses had him on the move, and like a dog; He was following it. John stood in the middle of the Batcave and looked around. So many objects with darkness and demons attached to them, it was almost suffocating. 

"John? What are you doing here?" You asked as you set your empty plate onto the arm rest of the chair. Your question was unanswered, whatever John was doing, he was focused. John kept looking around until he spotted the thing he was looking for. 

"Where did you get that?" He asked as he pointed to the object. It was the same object that they had gotten from the League. You looked over at it curiously. You thought it was some fancy paper weight, but that seemed to not be the case. 

"What are you talking about? There's nothing there?" Bruce said, confused. There was nothing there. Just an empty space. At least that's what he felt like he should say. It felt like someone was telling him what to say and how to react. 

"There's something there, Bruce. Look." John said as he stepped closer to your husband. You glanced around at your children to see them all glaring at John. As if something was overtaking their minds. Bruce looked again, and saw nothing, "With the corner of your eyes. What do you see?" He asked, and Bruce used his peripheral vision. As if the most horrifying monster was standing there, he saw the object that John was talking about. 

He felt his heart start racing and sweat started rolling down his forehead. Something was telling him to look away. To get John out of there. Something wanted him to ignore whatever was sitting there. This action was being repeated by the rest of the children. Except for Duke, who looked almost as confused as You did. 

"You're cheating, John." 

A sickly, and terrifying voice filled the air and just made the growing panic worse. John smirked as his entire aura shifted, "I'm the one who's cheating? I never knew there were rules to this game." He called out while staring right at the object. 

"It's my game, we plan how I want. You're cheating, and now she suffers." 

After that, the voice went quiet and you felt your chest get tight. Your knees gave out as you clutched your shirt above the place where your heart was. Instead of being surrounded by your family, or a loving goodbye, your family just collapsed to the floor and started seizing. Each one of them was shaking and foaming at the mouth. 

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"Dammit, I lost them again." 

"Duke, how are their vitals?" 

"They're spiking, but it's fine. Any more stress, and they'll all go into cardiac arrest." 

"We have to go again. Bring me the music box." 

"They'll figure it out, John. We'll save them." 

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Bruce sat up in his bed, he tangled his fingers into his hair in frustration. What the hell was that? This was the first loop that they were affected in. What did it all mean? 

His thoughts were interrupted when you stepped out of the bathroom, "Goodmorning my love, are you excited for breakfast?"

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[crescentmel]

i watched the x-men films for the first time ever here are my thoughts *spoilers obviously* :D

small backstory: i was going to go watch Deadpool & Wolverine however i have seen the previous deadpool movies but i’ve never watch the x-men films at all, my knowledge of that universe is minimal. my coworker suggested i at least watch Logan before watching Deadpool & Wolverine so i did.

Logan is easily one of the best Marvel films i have ever watched in my life, like top 3 films for sure it was amazing im still thinking about this movie weeks later. so i watch Deadpool & Wolverine and realize im low key obsessed with logan so might as well watch all the x-men films ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ALSO I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE FROM THE COMICS DONT COME FOR ME

The Original Trilogy

Overall i enjoyed the first two films, i think The Last Stand might be my least favorite of the whole franchise im not gonna lie

i’m just gonna say it, i was so not here for the Logan & Jean romance, like im kind of a hater so if this upsets you than this post is not for you lmao

ADORED JEANSCOTT WITH MY HEART AND SOUL !!! THEYRE SO FUCKING CUTE !!!!

Right of the bat, Logan & Jean’s romance felt SO forced. like it wasn’t believable for me, in the first movie it felt like Logan decided he was in love with Jean, not that he is actively falling in love with her, it was kinda weird

Meanwhile you can like clearly tell that Scott & Jean are in love with each other, but it feels like Logan’s character is just disregarding that

I understand in the comics it’s supposed to be a love triangle of sorts, i just think that if they wanted to do that for the films they could have portrayed it better

Ororo is an angel i love her

charles & eric need to make out

scott summers you ball of sunshine

i’m glad the rogue crush thing died in the first film bc ohmygod that was hard to watch

my favorite is X2 of this trilogy i really liked the plot and how it expanded more into Logan’s story

The Wolverine Trilogy

Origins wasn’t like, super terrible? i guess? my least favorite of this trilogy for sure though

i liked the plot twist that his girlfriend of 6 years was manipulating him, i didn’t see it coming, i was like WOW that’s fucked up

was disappointed he forgave her like wtf 😭

deadpool thing was weird i didn’t like that

good film to learn logan’s backstory, his brother was so fucking annoying though

The Wolverine was a decent film, if ur looking for an x-men film that’s more action centric than mutant centric this is your film

it felt like a wolverine side quest lol, nothing crazy going on, but i liked it more than Origins

logan is just tired

snake lady’s powers were cool

this girl is never going to see logan again so at least she got what she could

it goes without saying that Logan 2017 is the best film in the whole x-men/fox franchise

i could definitely make a whole post going into a deep dive of Logan but i’ll just keep it short

Logan’s dedication to taking care of Charles warms my heart in a way you cannot imagine, he truly cares so deeply for that man, charles gave him the opportunity of having a new family and i feel like logan will always be grateful for him

Logan & Laura :’)

it was like watching Logan go from only caring about kids in a “i’m a teacher” way to seeing Laura in a “i’m her caretaker now” kind of way, like there was a shift in his character that he wasn’t expecting

my little family of three that definitely lived happily ever after

my favorite scene of the whole film was when Logan realizes that it was his clone self that stabbed Charles, and his immediate gut reaction was to say “It wasn’t me” and to reassure Charles that Logan would NEVER do that

so that Charles would never die thinking one of his closest friends (AND SON FIGURE) would ever betray him like that and kill him

LIKE THAT WAS SO IMPORTANT TO LOGAN, HE DIDNT WANT CHARLES TO DIE THINKING HE KILLED HIM ;_________;

Logan 2017 the film that you are

X-Men Prequel Films

oh boy here go

right off the bat i’m going to say Days of Future Past exceeds all four of these films, so fucking good, my favorite after Logan

but yeah First Class wasn’t like, terrible per say, i just found myself a little bored ngl

absolutely here for eric & charles love story, they’re literally friends to lovers to enemies to still lovers but they’re still enemies i adore it

i liked the character that mystique brought (& jennifer lawrence) but it was just such a jump from the mystique in the first films

also i just think that if eric wants to kill his abuser then he should go for it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ just saying charles it was a lil weird u wanted to stop him

i get the premise, setting up the basis of the x-men, but i just found it a little lacking

DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

amazing 10/10 movie, i genuinely enjoyed every second, actually felt like a superhero movie

great balance of logan not knowing what the fuck is going on vs charles knowing exactly what to do next & logan just going along with it i love it

i’ve heard legends of how amazing quicksilver is in these films and this went beyond my expectations, fantastic character AND amazing showcase of his powers, the writers cooked on this, also makes me want to rewatch wandavision bc i didn’t appreciate his character enough son i’m so sorry

prison breaking out eric sequence was amazing

there’s so much more but just overall amazing film

apocalypse was definitely something? i mean it was probably difficult to follow up days of futures past so i can’t blame them, not like the worst film ever but ….. idk

THINGS I LOVED !! young jean & scott :’) !!!!! genuinely so happy to see the beginning of their friendship & romantic relationship, they’re literally so fucking cute AND young storm omfg a baby 🫶🏾

took me a second to realize it was oscar isaac lol, also OUCH eric’s little family but also like wtf was that death ??? 😭

idk plot was just kinda everywhere, nothing super memorable, also i just found it funny that logan was there for like less that 5 minutes and all he did was grunt lmfao at least he popped off on stryker for the millionth time fuck that guy

uhm dark phoenix

the one and only highlight for me for dark phoenix was once again, jean & scott lmfao

the whole solar flare & alien race thing was kinda weird, they didn’t even explain the alien race thing that well, idk what to even say about this movie

i thought it was weird that hank & eric were suddenly jumping on the “let’s kill jean” train when like they know she didn’t mean to kill raven ??? 😭 like wtf

someone explain the timeline bs to me bc i was surprised that jean “died” AGAIN.

wasn’t the point of futures past that logan now in the present is experiencing the new timeline in which charles, scott, and jean are all alive

so why did jean die in this, does that not defeat the purpose, like she’s alive in the present

or were they trying to plan another prequel film in which she comes back, again. then it’s just a repeating storyline from the og trilogy

anyways it was kinda bad

i don’t even want to talk about The New Mutants i’m gonna be real, it was also bad

and that is my long af reaction to watching all the x-men films for the first time. if you’re reading this and read all my yapping then thank you i really appreciate it lol 🫶🏾 in conclusion, i’m sad i missed out on a whole era of these movies when they were being released (probably bc im avengers obsessed lol) but i’m glad i did watch them now, and now i have a new universe to hyper fixate on lmfao (and logan) amazing movies !! gonna go rewatch Logan now ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

also here is my full x-men movies ranking, deadpool films included:

[chickenfics]

the way I love the ocean

Relationship: Robin Buckley x Female!Reader

Summary: It was the summer of ‘87. Nothing in your life had prepared you for Robin, but somehow everything had begun falling into place. It all started with a movie and a pair of ocean-blue eyes, and suddenly you were dancing to a Jukebox in a long-closed diner, or racing down the length of a pier, swimming in the moon-dipped lake and walking her home down yellow-lit streets, talking about the way The Smiths sound like indigo and the best time of the summer is when the fireflies start to come out.

It was the summer of ‘87, and you were falling in love.

Word Count: 7.9k

A/N: ........ Hello, I am still alive. Good god, sorry for the wait -- I kept wanting to work on the final chapter and only recently got around to it but it's here! I adored writing this fic, even if it took me almost a year to finish it off. Thank you all for bearing with me, and I hope this final chapter is at least a little worth the wait. Love you all <3

Fic Playlist!  Also on Ao3

Previous Chapter Masterlist

Chapter 8: Tango in the Night (Remaster)

"Remind me again?" 

"Robin," you said, trying not to sigh. "Buckley. She invited me to the movies that one time..." 

"Right, okay," your mom nodded. You sat your fork down. 

You hadn't been eating dinner much with your parents. Between working at the diner and spending the night at Steve's, they'd started to notice -- and they'd started to suspect something was going on. Which, it sort of was. Just not what they thought. 

"And that Harrington boy--" 

"Is just a friend.”

Your dad raised an eyebrow at you. 

"And anyways, he's not even going to be there." 

“My parents are going to some festival this weekend,” Robin had said. “It's like this end-of-summer thing to celebrate the solstice, I don't know. Anyway, would you want to maybe come over?”

It had all come out in a rush. She’d been nervous. It was cute. She'd said to tell her with enough time for her to make her room presentable and “Not like a herd of raccoons lives here -- actually, what are a bunch of raccoons called?”

A gaze. That's what a bunch of raccoons are called.

You'd said yes. 

"Good," your dad was saying. "Becauase you know how I feel about you spending the night with a boy." 

"I know," you said, voice empty, just enough to get by. 

There was so much your parents didn't know and even more they didn't understand. But that was okay. You had a coffee tin stashed under your bed. One night after staying late at the diner at the end of your shift, you, Robin, Steve, and Eddie had gotten it in your heads that, soon, Hawkins would see the last of you -- and the conversation by Steve’s pool had become less of a late-night musing and more of a reality that you could touch with your hands. The night ended with Eddie digging through the recycling bin and pulling out four coffee tins with a dismissive, “I’ll just, rinse them off in the sink or whatever” before handing one to each of you.  

"Gross," Robin and Steve had said at the same time. 

Four tins. Four incomes. A chance to get away. To find your own place. To make it if you had to. 

"But not too far," Steve had said like he didn't really care even though he clearly did. And you had all agreed. Not too far. Close enough to still see the kids. Close enough for Eddie to see Wayne. Close enough… 

So, what your parents didn't know wouldn't kill them. 

“We’re just having a… girls' night,” you said, and it felt wrong, but it seemed right. 

“That’s good,” your mom said. “I’m glad you’re making friends.”

Your dad was silent, turning back to his dinner, and the topic passed. It stayed that way until you finished eating, stayed that way as you helped with the dishes, even stayed that way when you retreated to your room to grab your overnight bag. With all the spontaneity over the summer, you weren’t used to having a bag with you. Something about it felt final, like the way the nights were starting to get cooler and the kids were planning their last adventures before heading back to school. And, perhaps, the tin under your bed made everything feel changed. You couldn’t stop yourself from kneeling down to search it out behind folded sheets and old shoeboxes. Ten dollars and twenty-nine cents in odd change. It was a start. And the bag slung over your shoulder was just the beginning. 

“Will you be home tomorrow?”

“I’m not sure. I can call you.”

There was a dissatisfied silence. “Okay. Be safe, make wise decisions.”

“I will.”

Those two words cut the string binding you there. It furled away from you, carried by its own momentum. You waved goodbye to your parents and pulled the door shut behind you. Outside, the sky was blue and the air hummed softly with cicada song. The summer might have been coming to an end, but the pavement still swam with the heat and beads of sweat still collected across your forehead as you pedaled down the road, feet pumping, heart beating, every inch of it drawing you closer to where you wanted to be. To Robin. Maybe even something beyond that. 

The world was starting to feel more like your own. 

But, for now, the world was still only as big as Hawkins, Indiana, where all the streets you passed looked the same and you knew familiar faces were nearby. Familiar faces that you loved. That loved you. And you knew you’d carry that with you. You’d carry them with you wherever you went. It felt good, to know that. To feel it in your bones, in your soul, in everything that had ever made you who you are. Robin’s street was the only one you were looking for; white letters printed on a small blue sign. When you saw it you smiled, and then you turned your bike, and you thought about the time she’d helped you pull it out of Steve’s trunk and how that seemed like such a lifetime ago. 

You left it along the side of the house, leaning it on a rock next to wildly growing vines and blooms of flowers, their petals starting to fall as summer was on its way out. They decorated the ground of the flower bed like a bright, living blanket. You never would have guessed that they’d fallen because they were already dead. Your bike, its pedals still whirring, became one with the image of Robin’s house. It fit in like it had always been there, along with the half-rotted shed in the backyard and the sun-bleached wood of the porch. There were repairs made, only evident by interruptions of brighter, smoother pieces of lumber. They hadn’t been weathered by time like the boards around them.

You left your bike, its pedals now slowing to a stop, along the side of the house, and you thought you’d be okay if was consumed by the vines, too. If it was covered up by a shower of petals. You thought it would be fine if it blended into the background completely, just another distant color on a polaroid or a picture in a magazine -- just another feature of a quiet house in a sleepy neighborhood where, from the outside, nothing particularly interesting was happening. On the inside, though… 

Robin opened the door without a word -- found your pinky and linked it with hers without a word. And you hugged her. Without a word, you wrapped your arms around her neck as hers settled onto your waist, and you felt the warmth of her all at once, became overwhelmed with the smell of her chapstick and her hair and her skin. It was familiar in a way you’d never known possible at the start of the summer, mere months ago. It made your chest open up like a flower and bloom right there under the warmth of the sun she held within her. All you could do was take deep breaths of each other. 

She tucked her face into your neck and you hummed lightly, sighed heavily, loved overwhelmingly. And outside, a leaf from the big oak tree in Robin’s yard -- the first leaf of the year to fall, perhaps a month too early -- drifted through the air and landed in the basket on your bike. And from the street, if anyone had been there at all, they could have seen Robin pull you through the door and spin you around to kiss you. If anyone had been there. If anyone had been looking. 

_______________________________________________________

She gave you a tour of her home. Where she’d played with pots and pans when she was five. Where she’d kept her pet goldfish until it died when she was twelve and it was three. “I won it at the fair. I didn’t even know those things could live that long.” She showed you the porch where she’d lost her lucky bracelet when she was fifteen -- dropped it straight down one of the cracks between the boards. She wondered if it was still there. Wondered what had happened to it if it wasn’t. 

“It was probably the raccoons,” you said, smirking at the amusement in the crinkles around her eyes. 

“You should be a comedian. Then maybe we could all afford an apartment for real.”

She sat on her kitchen counter and stirred the brownie mix she’d started before you’d arrived because “I got nervous and didn’t know what to do with my hands.”

“Don’t you think we’ll make it?” you asked her, leaning by the sink. “I mean, with all four of us… I don’t know, I think we can do it.”

She set the bowl down next to her, kicking her feet softly as she pulled the spoon out and tilted it in her hands. 

“I want to believe we can,” she said. “I mean, if anyone could make it happen, it’s us.”

And it was enough of an answer, even though it wasn’t really an answer at all. It was enough because you knew you’d never really have an answer. Life gave few certainties, and staying with the people you love wasn’t one of them. But in the same way, you couldn’t envision a life where you didn’t wake up next to Robin, or find Steve cooking breakfast in your kitchen, or see Eddie off to work every morning. You couldn’t imagine a version of Hawkins where they weren’t in your life. Funny, seeing as you hadn’t even known them before this summer. Lucky, how things work out. 

But then, maybe they were one of your life’s certainties. Maybe it was always meant to be. 

“And hey, if it doesn’t work out, we can always just go to the same retirement home,” she dryly joked, licking batter off of the spoon. 

“You should be a comedian,” you grinned wryly. 

“We can be a double act. Make double the money that way.”

The sun was setting as Robin pulled the brownies out of the oven. She had to leave her place between your legs to do so, and you sat at the kitchen table missing the warmth of her skin against yours. 

“Well, at least I didn’t burn the house down,” she said, setting the pan on the stovetop. 

“Shame Steve isn’t here to see it.”

Robin crept back over, frizzy strands of hair framing her face. You were pretty sure she’d washed it recently -- it always got frizzier when it was clean, and its strawberry smell was especially strong when she pressed her cheek against your ear. 

Wrapping your arms around her back, you pulled her onto your lap. Sitting on your legs, she relaxed against you and traced lines across the base of your neck. 

“Can you imagine,” she started, that quiet, contemplative tone to her voice. You loved her like this as much as you loved her joking and her energy. “Every day being like this? This… quiet. Just us.”

You hummed softly and rested your chin on her shoulder, hugging her tighter; feeling the weight of her. 

“One day it will be,” you replied.

Robin inhaled a breath through her nose, shifting so her face was pressed into your neck. “You really think so?”

“I know so,” you said. “I feel it in my bones.”

“In your bones…” Her smile pressed against your skin and you could hear the raise of her eyebrows in her voice. “Well, if your bones say so, then it must be true.”

“It is. You wait and see.”

Leaning back, Robin hooked her arms around your neck, hands draping lazily, fingertips brushing your back. 

“Oh, I’m waiting,” she said, voice low, the faintest smile sparking her eyes. Sureness in every line on her face, every freckle. You felt her hands slide up your spine. 

“I’m waiting,” she whispered, eyelids fluttering closed as she leaned forward, letting your lips meet slowly -- so slowly that you felt your heart beat faster and your muscles tighten with something that fluttered through your whole body. 

“Good,” you whispered back, the words pinned between your lips and hers. 

You watched her smile. You tasted it. 

It tasted sweet. 

By the time you ate the brownies, they were cold. The night was cold, too -- a new change from all the other nights before. The crickets were still singing, though, and the sky was still indigo. And Robin -- she was still here, only this time her thighs were warming your shoulders from where you sat, on the ground now, between her legs. Her chest was holding you up. You leaned back, head bumping her collarbone, and looked up at the sky. 

“I think I got brownie crumbs all over you,” she said, brushing your shoulders off. You smiled and knocked your socked foot against her ankle. 

“Hey, Robin?” you suddenly said, and there must have been something in your voice to change the way the air was settling around the two of you because Robin sat up a little. 

“Yeah?”

There was a gathering of energy and matter sweeping into the center of your chest, like the quiet friction before the creation of a universe. Before the bang. Before everything that’s been building begins. 

“Robin, I love you.”

She sat up further. Feeling something twist in your stomach, you moved off of her enough that you could turn around. 

“You,” she started, her eyes wide, already searching yours. “You… do?”

“Yes,” you breathed, chuckling nervously. “I-I mean, yes? I can’t help it, when I’m with you -- even when I’m away from you, I… You don’t have to say it back, I just c--” Robin grabbed your face with her cold hands and kissed you. 

“Oh,” you sighed in the moment she pulled back to breathe, and then she was leaning forward and kissing you even harder. Your hands slid up to rest on her jaw, thumbs brushing over the soft skin there and she rocked you backward. You would have lost your balance if she hadn’t snaked her arm around your waist, but she did, and she used it to pull you back into her. Your chest brushed hers, and you felt something twist in your stomach again. This time, it wasn’t nerves. 

Robin ducked back and tilted her face down to brush her nose against yours. Your face was warm where her hands were cupping it. You felt her thumb explore the edge of your lower lip. 

"You're--" she caught her breath in a laugh. "You're my favorite person in the whole world."

You smiled, caught your breath in a laugh of your own. Robin didn't let go. 

"I never want to not have you," she whispered, eyes dropping to your lips. 

"You have me," you whispered. "Always." 

Robin pulled you into her and the last of the summer crickets chirped as you kissed under the indigo sky which had begun to grow cold. The same sky that had watched a similar scene unfold under the same moon reflecting off a lake, mosquitoes swimming in the hot air. You hadn’t cared about them back then, and now, you didn’t care about the cold. It was different -- it was a sign of change, of life -- and it was good. 

So, as the crickets sang the outro to their summer symphony, you and Robin finished where you began; kissing under the moonlight in a world that was all yours. 

________________________________________________________

The sun was shining through the windows. When you opened your eyes, it was like a picture staring back at you -- the kind someone would hang on their wall because it was warm and perfect and it lit up the place. A curtain, eggshell blue and half-translucent, captured the yellow rays and held them, glowing, between stitches of fabric. You’d never been in Robin’s room before. It had always been Steve’s house. 

Her room smelled like… her. The laundry detergent she used, the berry shampoo that lingered around her like a halo the day after she’d washed her hair, the vanilla lotion she liked. All of it was contained inside the four walls like a time capsule. And you thought, maybe the world would go on without you if the two of you could just stay here. If that was all the rest of your life was -- a sunny morning in late summer laying in Robin’s bed -- you would be content. You would be happy. You could have spent forever in this picture and you wouldn’t have missed out on a single thing as long as Robin was lying beside you. Inhaling a sleepy sigh through your nose, you stiffly rolled over. The sheets were tangled up between the two of you. By the door, a chair was left overturned from where you and Robin had knocked it over, too tangled up in each other to notice where you were going. 

Your clothes had found homes across the floor. Your shirt was caught on the leg of the chair, your pants were near the window next to Robin’s bra. You smiled faintly, eyes tracing over the edges of her room. It was messy in a lived-in way -- you could see the impressions she’d made on the space, how she’d made it her own. Posters hung on the wall. A small, well-loved desk sat in the far corner, off to your left. In the light of the morning, you could see stickers, now faded remnants of childhood, that you hadn’t noticed last night, when you’d been occupied with other things. 

Like the girl next to you, who still lay sleeping. The beautiful, mind-blowing, wonderful girl. You could still taste her lips on your tongue, could still feel her hands on your skin, the way her hair had felt tangled between your fingers. Everything was golden and ethereal and… perfect. It felt fitting, as if your lives had always been heading toward one another. And, you decided as you propped your head up on your hand and brushed a strand of hair out of Robin’s face, the waiting had been worth it. Every moment you’d been made to feel alone was worth a single moment with Robin. To think things were only beginning. 

How exciting. 

Now that you’d touched her again, you couldn’t keep your hands off of her. You smoothed your thumb over her cheek, your touch light enough not to wake her. You traced the tip of your finger along her temple, connecting freckles with invisible lines before dipping back behind her ear, feeling the warmth of her skin and the softness of her hair. When her eyelids began to flutter open, you were smiling. When her eyes found your face, she was smiling too. Closing them briefly, like she was stealing a moment in time, she sighed deeply. Contently. And then she dug a hand out from under the nest of blankets and caught yours, guiding your wrist to her lips. 

“Hey there,” she murmured, and you felt her breath on your skin a moment before she pressed her lips against your wrist, right over your lifeline. 

“Hi,” you sighed. 

She inhaled deeply, her nose pressed into the palm of your hand. She inhaled like you were made of oxygen and starlight and everything she needed to survive. Laying back onto your side, you scooted forward until you could rest your forehead against hers. 

“This is, like, everything I’ve ever wanted,” she whispered. You could hear the smile in her voice. 

“Yeah,” you smiled back. 

Your bodies were maps. You’d never known just how much time you could spend exploring the beauty of someone else before you’d met Robin. Before she’d brought you to her bed and let you touch her softly. Before she’d touched you. You’d never known how quickly a morning could pass when you were learning the language of another person’s freckles, when you were becoming fluent in every beauty mark and blemish -- how it could be so perfect that it felt like an eternity all the same. But with Robin, you discovered it all. And the morning passed quickly, and it was eternal all the same. 

Eventually, she had to get up. 

“Not to shatter this perfect moment, or anything, but I really have to pee.”

“Every moment with you is perfect,” you grinned, eyes roaming her skin unashamedly as she tossed the sheets off. You watched the skin on her back, scattered with freckles, while she reached down to search the floor for a shirt. 

“Uh, cheese alert. Did you read that one in a greeting card?”

“Ouch,” you played up a wince. “Guess that means I should stick to comedy, huh?”

Turning around, Robin gave you a sly grin before leaning down. Very, very slowly, she kissed you. Your hand found the soft skin over her ribs. 

“Whatever makes you happy, Earth girl,” she murmured against your lips. Your head spun. And then, like nothing at all had happened, she hopped up and pulled a shirt on. Your shirt. 

You watched her as she hopped off to the bathroom, stopping by the door to lazily spin around and give you one last look that made it clear she knew what she was doing to you. You hurled a pillow in her direction hoping that it would distract her from how flustered you were. The moment she disappeared into the hall, you yanked the blanket over your face. It smelled so much like her that it didn’t help your case, but in the few minutes that Robin was gone, you managed to cool your face down. 

You heard her return before you saw her. There was a click and a whirr, and the sound of music had you throwing the blanket off and blinking around. 

“Oh my god, is that Aretha Franklin?” you asked as Robin gave a little spin before dropping onto the bed. She tossed her legs over yours. 

“Yeah. It was my mom’s tape when she was little. She gave it to me when we were going through the attic a couple years ago. You, uh… you don’t mind, do you?” She glanced up at you, hair framing her face like a halo. 

“Absolutely not,” you replied, shifting so your hip bumped against her. She sighed, closing her eyes with a smile. 

The cassette sounded old -- parts of it warped by years of being played, parts of it sounding like they were coming through a portal from another time to slide comfortably into the room. 

“Baby, baby, baby

This is just to say 

How much I’m gonna miss you 

But believe while I’m away

That I didn’t mean to hurt you 

Don’t you know that I’d rather hurt myself”

Your hand found Robin’s hair. The sun had taken up a patch of wall; lit it yellow and bright. The ceiling felt wide. You could feel the room heating up; it was going to be a hot day. Rubbing your thumb along her forehead where you knew there was a garden of freckles, you raked your fingers back through her hair. Robin hummed and tilted her face up. You tucked a strand behind her ear and moved down to her neck. 

“Think of me sometimes

Because if loving you was so wrong 

Then I’m guilty of this crime…”

“What,” you faltered for a moment, your voice sounding like an intrusion; a tear in the canvas. “What do your parents think of me?”

Robin’s thumb was pressed against your wrist. 

“What do you mean?” She lifted her chin further; she was listening, even though both of you were staring at the sun-covered wall. The corner of one of her posters had peeled back. There was a sticker a few inches from the ceiling. Robin must have jumped to put it there. 

“I mean, like…” You meant: did they know you kissed their daughter. Did they know you were saving up to get her an apartment, a life away from here. Did they know you wanted to spend the rest of your life with her. 

“They, uhm, don’t know about us. I-If that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Mine neither,” you quickly said. Robin let out a breath -- you realized that it was a relieved one.

It was a hard thing to tell someone. It was hard to tell your parents anything at all. 

“Do you… want them to know?” Robin slowly asked. She hadn’t stopped running her thumb along your wrist. You felt like there was something to that. Something important. 

“No,” you were honest. Then, “I’m… sorry.” And it was honest, too.

“No, don’t be,” Robin moved to sit up, then changed her mind and pulled your arm closer, sliding your hand down to settle below her ribs. She tucked her face into the crook of your elbow. “Don’t be. I get it. Trust me,” she blew out a breath that was almost a laugh. “I definitely get it.”

“I was scared you were going to hate me, once,” you murmured. “Before…” You shook your head, fingers wandering over her shirt. Your shirt. 

You were scared of her, once -- back before you’d realized there was a world where she would ever be wearing your shirt. Back when you’d read her bubbly writing on a nametag and known that you were absolutely, helplessly caught up in her. 

Robin took a breath, lips forming the almost-beginning of something. And then, instead, she said, “I never could have hated you.”

You tried to imagine a world where Robin hated you, but in all of them, she was only ever wearing your shirt. 

Sliding your arm out of her grip, you folded your fingers between hers, squeezing onto them like you never planned to let go. 

“But what’s inside

Can’t be denied

The power, the power of love

Is my only guide”

Robin hummed softly to the music, and you felt the vibrations when she moved your hands up to kiss your knuckles. The world felt heavy, but the room felt light. You breathed deeply from the air inside Robin’s bedroom, preserved in time like a painting, just like the yard outside where your bike sat collecting falling petals and blades of grass weaving between the spokes. Inside -- inside her house, her room, the painting -- you wrapped your legs around her hips to hold her closer. You always wanted her closer. Ever since that moment in the lake, with water dripping off her hair and her skin soft under the moonlight, you’d known that you couldn’t live without the feeling of her. And Robin -- she leaned into your knee, turning her cheek to it and settling in like she couldn’t live without you, either. 

“Can I…” she murmured. “Here, let me see something, just…” With her words floating into the summer sunlight, she lifted your hands up, holding them out so your intertwined fingers joined the scene of her room in delicate brushstrokes. 

“Hm?” you hummed. It joined Robin’s words as they floated. 

Pulling her fingers free, she arranged your hand in the air, uncurling your fingers, smoothing over your skin like she was opening a flower. With a quick gesture, she told you to “stay” -- a painter with her brush, a master at her craft -- and you watched as she hovered over the rings stacked on her left hand. A simple silver band -- “My dad gave it to me when I was eight. It barely fits my pinky, but I can’t get rid of it. Feel like I would get ten years of bad luck or something” -- a small flower made of wire, two guitar strings twisted together; made by Eddie, who’d given her and Steve each one for Christmas last year. He’d promised to make you one, but “Not for Christmas. That would be too predictable; who likes knowing what their present’s gonna be? Ruins the Christmas spirit if you ask me.” -- and finally, on her ring finger, the silver band with the pale blue gemstone. This ring, you rarely saw her without. The others she would rotate, wearing one or the other, but this one… 

Robin slid it off her finger, holding it up and watching the gemstone pick up the light and fracture it into a thousand splitters, like shatters of blue glass reflecting onto the ceiling. She tilted it, then dropped her arm to rub the gem against your shirt over her stomach. And then, then she lifted your hand with the gentlest of touches and slid the ring onto your finger. Your ring finger. And that was about as important as anything ever could be. 

“...What--”

“It’s yours,” she nodded, raising your hand into the morning sunlight. She smiled distantly at it, as if she was the only one in the room, and then she turned to look at you. “And, uh… I’m yours, too.” Her smile turned shy, her freckles bedding down in a garden of rosy blush. You leaned into her and tried to kiss every single one of them. Who could guess how long it would take? You both had the time. 

_________________________________________________________

“I want to show you something,” she said. 

You were wearing her jacket and your arms felt warm. Part of that, you thought, was from knowing that she’d worn it before you. That you now existed in the space she had occupied. Across the room she sat, looking at you with a softness and an eagerness. You smiled. You couldn’t help it.

“What?” you asked, rubbing circles on the sleeve of her jacket where it was pressed into your palm.

She sprung up from her desk chair, all tawny hair and long limbs and mischievous smile, which you knew meant she was especially excited about whatever she wanted to show you. Placing her hands just above your knees, her squeeze made your head feel dizzy.

“An alien spaceship,” she murmured. With a wink, she pushed off of you and skipped for the door, waiting until she’d reached it to twirl languishly around. She smirked, one of those secret smirks that you knew no one else in the world had seen because they were meant for you alone, and leaned toward the hallway alluringly. 

“Alright, space girl,” you said -- the first time you’d called her anything like that. It was fitting; there was no one in the world like her, and the version of yourself that you became in her presence couldn’t be explained by anything that belonged to this world. 

She was something else, your girl. 

Yours.

The ring on your finger felt heavy. Heavy like grounding. Like the thing that tied you both to this world even if you didn’t quite belong to it. Your thumb moved from the sleeve of her jacket to press onto the gem laid in the silver band. It was cold, but it soon warmed against your skin. 

Robin was waiting by the door. 

You stood and took her hand.

Hours ago, the two of you had returned to her room, but now it was draped in afternoon sunlight. It was stronger and not as soft as the morning light that had covered you like a sheer fabric -- the afternoon was more like fine silk. Robin looked the same in every shade of the day: beautiful. Always. Even when -- no, especially when she was hanging upside down on her chair, swiveling it from side to side while she talked animatedly with her hands about something that had happened in Family Video the other day. Especially when she laughed so hard at some stupid joke you’d made that she snorted and nearly choked on her lemonade. Especially when she got annoyed at the TV when it wouldn’t pick up a signal unless she was holding the antenna just right. 

“Sorry, but we have to break up. I only have eyes for this television now, and she’s a demanding lover.”

You’d laughed, heart swelling at the confirmation that “breaking up” gave you. She truly was yours. 

Well, unless the TV stole her away.

Hours ago, the two of you had returned to her room, fingers intertwined as she led you through her home even though you knew the way by now as if you’d known it in a past life, but hours before that, you’d sat in the kitchen, in the living room, on her lap. Hours before that, you’d kissed her just as passionately as you had the night before, when you’d felt her skin grow hot under your fingers. 

But now, hours later, you were following her out into the yard. You were pulling your bike from the bushes along the side of her house, feeling satisfied when you had to tear away a few vines that clung to the wheels. And then you were running, bike trailing by your side, after Robin, who laughed into the sunlight and shook the hair out of her face. You could see enough of it to notice the way her nose was crinkled, and then she turned forward again and swung herself up onto her bike. You followed suit, the soles of your shoes striking the pedals, and you relished in the solid pressure of them under your feet, the way your muscles sang when you pushed yourself forward after Robin. 

The air carried a warm breeze and, though you missed the weight of it, you were glad to have shed Robin’s jacket in favor of lighter layers. Sweat beaded on your brow as you pumped your legs, soon catching up. Robin threw a grin over her shoulder, her hair furling around her face wildly. You laughed into the late summer sky.

You had no clue where you were going, but you rode through town, swerving around evening traffic as tired office workers made their steady way home. Some of them stopped at the general store or the post office. Robin rode past them like they weren’t even there. You followed her like she was the only person in all of Hawkins. Where it counted, she was.

She swiftly led you out of town, breaking into the backroads like some mermaid slipping into water; suddenly, she could breathe again. And you felt like you were breathing for the first time. You took a deep, gasping breath of air and let it out in a whoop. Standing on your pedals, you raced in front of her, hearing her high, husky laugh. A moment later she swam into view beside you. 

This road you recognized, and you were only slightly surprised when Family Video and its sister shops appeared in the distance. You and Robin’s pace had slowed, though it remained steady. The parking lot outside Family Video was empty except for two cars: a BMW and a big, familiar run-down van. 

Steve and Eddie were outside, lingering after Family Video had closed. Steve was leaning back against the rough side of the building, and Eddie had his arm propped above Steve’s head. You grinned, lifting your hand in reply to their sudden waving. Even from this distance, you knew each other. Robin whooped loudly, and Eddie made devil horns and pulled a face like he might chase after her, and you could see Steve roll his eyes even from the center of the road. And then they were gone, left in the rearview as the two of you peddled on.  

The breeze had turned cooler -- a reminder that summer was at the end of its life -- and the sun was nowhere to be found, lost somewhere behind the endless forest of trees that ran parallel to the road. You recognized the spot where Robin had met you all those weeks ago, when you’d walked and listened to The Smiths and wore flower crowns. That, too, passed behind you -- slipping by your shoulder and, just as you turned to look at it, growing distant and seemingly unimportant.

You knew, though. You knew what it had meant. But things were also so different now. Time kept going, and it pulled you with it. For once in your life, you were grateful for that.

Your pace had slowed again, and just like the buildings and the people, the trees gradually began to thin out. 

“Robin,” you called, unable and entirely unwilling to keep the smile from your voice, “Where are we going?”

“I told you,” she grinned, falling back to set a new pace -- a much more relaxed one. “Surprise.” She lifted her eyebrows and gave them a wiggle.

Now that you weren’t peddling so hard -- now that you could sit back and catch your breath -- you looked around, taking in the far less populated corner of Hawkins. On either side of the road, which had cracked and crumbled and faded to a pale asphalt blue under the relentless scrutiny of the sun, there stretched wide open fields. At the start of the summer, they would have been overflowing with growing stalks of corn -- even now, you could see the hollow stumps; all that remained of what had once been a sea. Now, the slightly rocky and almost alarmingly flat farmland bared itself to the sky like the underbelly of a beast that had rolled over to take a nap. 

Even the fields were preparing for the coming winter. Unlike the fields, the rest of Hawkins would be continuing forward in motion; it was only the land that would get to rest. 

Speaking of rest, you only just realized how late it had gotten. The air was significantly cooler now, making you think of the jacket you’d once been glad to have left behind. You shivered, but it was from excitement as much as it was the chill. 

“Here,” Robin suddenly said, pushing her heels down into her brakes. You hurried to follow, and the sound of tires dragging across the asphalt was the only sound for miles. Even the birdsong had faded away, still back with the trees and the busy Hawkin’s streets. They would be dead by now. Everyone would be settled home, eating dinner or watching TV, surrounded by the quiet glow of their home. Your own parents, you thought, were likely sitting in the living room, illuminated by the light of the television and that old lamp that had been passed down by your Grandmother. 

Standing in the middle of the road, cold fingers gripping the handlebars of your bike, breathing heavily into the wide open sky, you felt like maybe, in a way, you were home, too. 

“This is it,” Robin whispered, perched on the seat of her bike like a bird in a high tree. Her eyes were on the sky. 

You took a moment to look at her, her face framed by all that open space, and you only realized the whole world had changed color because Robin looked particularly beautiful in that shade of orange. 

And then you looked up. 

The whole sky was red. Orange bursts of clouds like paint-soaked cotton rolled across it, so still it was like you were looking at a photograph. The deep maroon melted into a rich pink at the horizon, and every inch of it glowed radiantly. You'd never seen so much sky in your whole life. You thought you could hear the world singing. 

“Holy shit,” you breathed, catching your balance on an outstretched foot. Your bike teetered as you craned your neck. 

“Exactly,” Robin grinned like the two of you shared a secret. More secrets than just this, you realized. 

You shared so much with her; this sky was just another thing. 

Next to you, Robin reached across the point that marked the center of the road -- that invisible line that you could almost see if you looked hard enough and imagined that it should be there -- and she held out her hand. You took it, spinning the ring on your finger around until the gemstone was pressed into your palm. You held it close until it warmed. The cold air blew between you, not enough to push the clouds in the sky, but just enough to make you shiver.

Robin squeezed your hand and, at the edge of Hawkins, under a sky on fire, you could see the rest of your life on the road in front of you. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1992

“Hi there, I’m calling for Steve Harrington. He gave me this number to get ahold of him.” You glanced up at Robin, her face coming into focus, and were briefly distracted by the realization she still had the bluest eyes you’d ever seen, even after all these years; even after all the places you’d been and people you'd met. 

“Yes--” you raised your eyebrows at the voice on the other end of the line. Robin bounced carefully, like if she got too excited the hotel receptionist would be able to hear it. 

“Yeah, sure,” you repeated, then gave the receptionist your name before holding your hand over the phone and whispering, “She’s gonna call up to their room.”

“Right, of course. She has to make sure we’re not stalkers or something.”

“Well,” you drawled, tilting your head. 

“We are not,” Robin grinned, gently slapping your arm. “We’re just -- worried friends.”

“I think that fits into the realm of ‘stalkers.’ Might even be a subcategory-- Yes?” you pulled your hand away, straightening up. Robin drifted in your line of vision as you turned to the wall, unwilling to let your face out of her sight. 

“Uh-huh…. Okay…”

“What?” Robin hissed. You held up a finger. The woman in your ear was talking fast, obviously eager to get back to some task that didn’t involve you. 

“Okay perfect. Thank you.”

“What did she say?” Robin asked, fiddling with her hands. You titled the mouthpiece away, just in case, and listened to the cheery music crackling through the receiver. 

“She’s sending us up. Should only be a few minutes before--”

“You guys couldn’t wait another day could you?”

“Steve!” you grinned, and Robin flapped her hands excitedly. 

“Hi Steve!” she yelled, and you held the phone out so he could hear her. He probably could have heard her anyway. 

“Obviously not,” you replied, pulling the phone back to your ear. Robin behind you and pressed her cheek against yours so she could hear his replies. You wrapped your arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze. 

“How was the ride up?” Robin asked. 

“Loud, crowded--”

“Smelling of old socks.”

“Eddie,” you grinned. 

“My fair ladies,” his voice got closer. You imagined him and Steve standing in a similar fashion, sharing the phone in a dimly lit hotel room.

“Gross,” Robin muttered, rolling her eyes fondly. You checked your watch. 

“You don’t have Dustin and Will yet, do you?”

“Not yet,” Steve replied. 

“They’re still prisoners at the moment. Go figure,” came Eddie’s voice. You could practically hear Steve roll his eyes. He and Robin were more similar than they’d care to admit. 

Living together might have contributed. 

“Would you knock it off,” Steve’s voice grew distant, then returned. “They took their finals yesterday. Spring break officially starts tomorrow.”

“When do you plan to leave?” you asked, pulling the pen off the notepad that hung by the phone. 

“Probably around ten. Gonna take the little shits for breakfast before we hit the road.”

“Don’t hit it too hard,” Robin leaned in to say. You both heard Eddie’s barking laughter. 

“Hey new girl, tell Robin to add a dollar to the jar,” Steve said. 

“But I didn’t swear.”

“No, but I’m about to--”

“Okay,” you butted in, smirking. “Mattresses are blown up, snacks are stocked -- that table you wanted is all set up, Eds.”

“You’re my hero,” Eddie replied. His voice kept fading in and out, and you’d shared space with him long enough to know that he was probably bouncing around the room. 

Steve’s groan, on the other hand, was loud in your hear. 

“D’you guys really have to play that dumb game? It’s vacation, you’re supposed to have fun. ”

“This is fun, Harrington.”

“Whatever.”

“Um, guys,” Robin interjected using that exaggerated voice she reserved for them, particularly when they were annoying her. “Can we stay focused, please? If you keep bickering like an old married couple, you’re going to scare the kids away before you even get here.”

“Please--” Eddie scoffed, again from a distance, while Steve said, “We don’t bicker.”

You and Robin shared a look. It would have been a lie to say it wasn’t a little bit fond. 

“Besides, they’re not really kids anymore,” Steve added, suddenly sounding wistful. 

And he was right. They weren’t kids anymore. Dustin and Will had been in college for almost two years now. Lucas was on the other side of the country thanks to a basketball scholarship, Max was interning at a non-profit in California -- which put her closer to Joyce and El. You knew she was happy about that. So, Steve was right: the kids weren’t really kids anymore. And though you hadn’t known them as long as the others, watching them grow up and move on -- watching the effect it had on your three friends; a mix of pride and sorrow -- had changed you as much as it had changed Robin, Steve, and Eddie. 

The four of you had stayed in Indiana, but the people you’d stayed for had all left. 

It wasn’t bad, though. For the first time in your lives, you had total freedom. You didn’t have to hide from your parents, or the world -- the world had moved into your two-bedroom apartment; everything outside of here was nothing. 

It meant that you could give Steve and Eddie as honest of a goodbye as you wanted to without anyone reading into it or asking what they were to you. It meant that, after hanging up the phone, you could pull Robin against your chest and kiss her. It meant that, in the spirit of enjoying an apartment that wouldn’t be empty for much longer, you could do so much more to her than that. 

A few states and a few hundred miles away, your friends were making their way home, to a little building that sat just outside of Hawkins, Indiana. It was a modest building, with weeds in the flowerbed outside and cracks in the walls. The windows let the winter air in, sure, but there was enough warmth to go around. And maybe everyone had moved on and away, but by staying, you and Robin had found something you’d never thought you’d have before, something you’d only dared to dream of during the summer of 1987… 

A corner of this Earth that could be your very own. 

“I love you,” Robin slowly whispered, each word a promise, her hands in your hair like the endless galaxy that stretched above you, just beyond the ceiling. “Earth girl,” she smiled. 

You leaned forward and tasted it. It tasted of tall grass and indigo and The Smiths.

“I love you more,” you murmured against her cheek. 

In the empty space above the cupboards, four coffee containers looked down at you, unaware of the role they’d played in anything at all, hardly remembering the diner they’d come from. And, somewhere off in the distance, as if it was floating through the window from another room, lazy on the spring breeze, you thought you could hear the soft sounds of a familiar tune. 

“So long ago

It’s a certain time, it’s a certain place

You touched my hand and you smiled

All the way back you held out your hand

But I hope, and if I pray

Ooh, it might work out someday… ”

__________________________________________________________

Taglist: @alonezz , @gaysludge, @gray-cheese, @rare-breed-of-human, @vea-vea-vea, @lady-silkwing, @im-a-milf, @yourmanifestingbigsister, @bubbles0oo, @wormm-mom

[mayzi33]

*clears throat.*

(apologize in advance for any mistakes english isn't my first language)

Alright. Here we go.

Look, I haven't watched MLP in a LONGGGG time. But recently with all the stuff I missed our and since the fandom is still pretty much alive and well I decided to take peek by peek in the seasons I haven't watched.

Until I came across, these guys

And I have so much to say.

I didn't write a script for this or anything so I don't know where this rambling is going so I just ask you to bear with me for as much as you can, okay?

Look, watching the Young Six episodes I've experienced one of the things that angers me the most. SUCH. WASTED. POTENTIAL.

You're telling me we got whatever the hell is G5 when instead we could have gotten THESE GUYS???? THESE COOL, UNIQUE CHARACTERS THAT ACTUALLY HAVE AN INTERESTING STORY THAT MAKES SENSE AND HAVE SI MUCH POTENTIAL TO BE ONE OF THE SICKEST LORE ARCS IN MLP???

I homestly don't know what Hasbro WAS THINKING in giving them so little screentime. There's so much I have to say but I'll try my best to keep my thoughts organized.

First things first, we'll need to talk a little about G5 or "Make Your Mark" series or whatever. I personally enjoyed the movie, though the story didn't make much sense (we'll get to that later) the characters were pretty nice, the songs were catchy and the animation was mwah. I didn't bother to watch all of the G5 series, because- (pardon to all who enjoy it) it's so. Freaking. Boring. Like I know there's a pony girl that's supposed to be a traitor among them but then grows onto being their actual friend and there's a villainess and that whole conflict and yada yada yada. But honestly there just isn't anything I found enganging in the entire thing. I can't explain it, it just feels- off. I know I probably don't have much right to talk, cause again, only now I'm diving into the mlp again after missing out A LOT, but I just can't bring myself to like that series.

Now, the whole School Of Friendship saga in the G4 series with our beloved Young Six, I know some people had some issues with it and it didn't please everyone, and while it does have some flaws and is certainly not perfect, you can't deny there was lots of potential. (I'll try to not overuse that word I'm sorry)

I personally, really liked the concept of different creatures from different cultures coming together and forming the perfectly diverse friend group. Episodes like The Hearth's Warming Club and What Lies Beneath were particuarly really fun, it was nice to dive into their cultures and backstories while also watching the six of them be vulnerable in front of one another and grow closer. If only they had more screentime and more deep episodes like that, they could have been in the top 10 found families in cartoons.

Now, just some other reasons as to why I think they're interesting characters and should've gotten more than what was given to them.

Because

1- Their whole deal is that they're not all ponies, that they're all different species. We get to learn lots about their different cultures and customs. It would've been such a good way to teach children about acceptance and respecting differences while also being entertaining. Especially in a school enviroment.

2- We got not one, but TWO male characters in the group. It would make little boys that are interested in mlp feel more comfortable and valid for it. AND those two males also have distinct personalities and their own active roles. Gallus being sort of the leader of the group, and Sandbar being the only pony therefore the one to stand up for his friends.

3- While they're supposed to be the new represantives of the elements of harmonies, their personalities are still interesting and different from the Mane 6.

Onto that, I really like how it's implied they could be the next helders (or whatever its called) of the elements of harmony. Given their special connection to the tree, how similiar they are to the previous groups (Mane 6 and The Pillars) and how Twilight LITERALLY LIFTED THEM UP AS WELL WHILE SHE SPOKE ABOUT HOW THE ELEMENTS WILL LIVE ON, it would've been such a cool concept.

Onto that, I wanna talk a bit about each of their characters too and how I think they could've been dealt with.

Gallus is the element of magic, but unlike Twilight who's all open and confident-spoken about friendship and all, Gallus is probably the one in the group that's the most closed-off and dislikes getting all cheesy. It would've been interesting seeing his development as the helder ot the element of magic. AND ESPECIALLY since he doesn't have magic in the first place, since Twilight and Starwirl were unicorns. So maybe he could make posions? Get powers someway else? Many posibilities

Sandbar is the element of kindness, but unlike Fluttershy he's extrovert and down to making friends. His overrall personality is that he's constantly very chill-going and nothing seems to ever upset or annoy him. So it also would've been interesting to see how that pattern would break, especially because of his element.

Yona is the element of honesty. She's probably the one that has the hardest time adapting to the Equestrians among the group, and even tried to act like a pony instead of herself one episode. It would've been interesting to see how her element of honesty reflects on how she should be true to herself, especially since her Yak culture comes a lot with honor.

Ocellus is the element of genority, yet, unlike Rarity, she's a lot more like Fluttershy, being timid and insecure, while also being smart and well-read like Twilight. It would've been nice if her development with her element would be gaining confidence in herself and being generous to others that way. Especially since she has a fear of being like the old changling queen (forgot her name) so imagine if she just turned out to be the opposite of her. Instead of selfish and cruel, being generous and kind.

Smolder is the element of loyality, but also like Gallus, she's also not into getting cheesy. But what I find imteresting about her is how she tries to keep her tough, agressive persona (since thats how dragons are) yet it is revealed she's actually interested in cute, fluffy stuff like tea parties and dresses. So it would've been cool to see her growing confident in admiting her interests, therefore being more like Rainbow Dash, who's always confident on herself

And last but not least, Silverstream is the element of laughter. But what's hooking about it is the fact that Silverstream herself probably hasn't KNOWN what laughter is for a long time, having to hide under The Storm King's rule. She's very talkctive, creative and extrovert, like Pinkie Pie, but she also has her trauma that haunts and intimidates her, unlike Pinkie who usually faces her fears headfront. Another great development story.

So just hear me out, okay. I don't care if MLP is over. I don't care if there's G5.

We. Need. A. Young. Six. Spin-off. Series.

I know it sounds crazy, but I genuely think this idea could work out if it was handled well enough, and Hasbro could make some good money out of this.

Just bear with me. A spin-off series set on the timeline between season 8-9 aka, still on the School Of Friendship, focused entirely on the Young Six. We could still get the Mane 6, of course, but mostly as support characters. It doesn't have to be a particularly long series, (though maybe that could work as well IF handled with enough care) maybe just 2 seasons or so. And I'm not thinking like a slice-of-life or fun little extra kind of thing, I'm thinking of ACTUAL lore. Just more about how the tree and the elements work, and how these six students could grow into being their new helders. In each episode it becomes more and more evident to them and the Mane 6 themselves that they're going to be the next generation of the elements. So imagine once they all fully it figure out and talk about it, the Y6 suddenly feel this pressure about how they're supposed to live up to their teachers and fear that they have to be EXACTLY like them. So we see Sandbar taking extra kindness classes with Fluttershy, Yona taking extra honesty classes with Applejack and heck even Gallus is taking studies more seriously (especially since he's supposed to be the element of magic which again I find imteresting since he doesn't really have magic at least not the way Twilight and Starwirl do. ) So we could have an entire episode about the M6 getting through to them and showing they don't have to be JUST LIKE THEM nor The Pillars. They can be their own people.

Another main-plot idea would be having more villains, probably trying to test them or tear them apart (cough cough like Swift Foot from the idw comics cough cough) or maybe you could even fit someone as intense as King Sombra, or maybe even even the return of Tirek, Cozy Glow and Chrysalis in there. (I remembered her name yay)

And, of course, more onto their characters, flaws, backstories and cultures! I would love to see more about their people and customs, just as much as I would love to explore their traumas, fears, ugly sides and how they overcome it together (cough cough found family COUGH COUGH GAGS)

And another thing, I especially would've liked to explore Yona's and Sandbar's relantioship.

I MEAN LOOK AT THEM-

Don't they give massive beauty-and-the-beast vibes? I love how their colors and body types contrast with one and another, and their personalities aswell. Yona being loud, cheerful and clumsy while Sandbar is calm, thoughtful and carefree. I just love the big girl x soooorta small guy vibes and I especially loved how gentle and reassuring Sandbar was towards her in that episode. I mean, "I don't care if you're not a pony, you're the best Yona I know." SERIOUSLY? WHO WROTE THAT LINE? I'D LIKE TO GIVE THEM A HUG. And also, onto the spin-off series matter, it would also be a cool topic to explore. Imagine if some ponies/yaks are judging them for having a relantioship while being different species and they learn to ignore them and live past that??? I usually don't care much for romance, (always prefered friendship and found families) but this would've been a nice little arc and episode theme to see.

Lastly, (I'm almost done I promise) to the more technical/economical part.

Like I said in the beggining, I genuely think Hasbro could make some good money out of this. Firstly because it will be using the G4 characters and lore and not...whatever mess of a plot G5 is.

And secondly because, if they took the time to give them some cool power-up designs like they did with the Mane 6, I'M SURE the toys would sell.

I mean- JUST LOOK AT THESE COOL DESIGNS I FOUND ON THE INTERNET?? (not mine, credits to whoever made it, you ate that)

DON'T THEY LOOK LIKE A TOY SET THAT WOULD CATCH THE CHILDREN'S EYES ON THE TOY AISLE? OH YES I THINK THEY WOULD.

And if anything, they could be as bold as to make an extra Equestria Girls (well, girls and boys) series with them. I know it sounds kinda dumb, especially given the fact that I'm not sure about how that would work given that when Spike went to the "human dimension" or whatever he turned to a dog... So Smolder would also be a dog? Sandbar would be the only actual human in the group?... BUT I'm sure they could come up with some excuse to make it work. Give them some cool, colorful outfits for different events and I'm sure it would sell. And ESPECIALLY since with Gallus and Sandbar in the group, it could get the attetion of young boys aswell.

Anyways. That was it.

Uhm. Conclusion: Hasbro should hire me. I know what I'm talking about. I think. At least a bit.

And I genuely think this could work if only SOMEONE gave it the time and care.

I don't know how to end ramblings so uhmmmm thank you all for coming to my pep talk.

They deserved better.

[lookingforafalseprophet]

For a Moment (I Knew Cosmic Love)

A Jegulus au in the setting of Call Me By Your Name, a book by Andre Aciman, and an adapted movie by Luca Guadagnino.

Synopsis:

It's 1983 and professor Alphard Black has chosen James as his mentee for the summer, invited to stay at the Black family chateau in the south of France. It will be three months of dig-sights, thesis-writing, and academic discussions. Little does James know, it would also be 3 months of swimming, eating the best food he'd ever taste, falling in love, partying, and getting his heart broken. That's if Alphard's nephews have anything to say about it, at least.

Read Chapter 1: Staring at the Sky below the cut.

Chapter 1: Staring at the Sky

James arrived on a hot day in mid-June, one of the sort where you could feel the sun shining onto your skin and soaking in, all the way to the soul. The days previous had been nice, but this one held a particular precious and dream-like quality to it. Even when experiencing it for the first time, it felt like you were living through a day that you knew you’d never forget. Everybody felt it, even the mean old cat, Pepper, stood guard at one of the towering front windows. It was like she was waiting.

The chateau was warm. The early summer air breezed through the halls through open windows and the sun bathed every room in the southern French countryside sunshine. Alphard was determined to make spaces as cozy as they were chic and effortless. He’d lived in this house since the early 60’s, and over the years had collected the most exquisite antique furniture to fill every room. He’d told them all, when they were children, that what interested him more than any visual aesthetics was the energy that came off of his things. He made them crouch and put their ear up to the newly acquired couches, chairs, and tables to tell them what they felt. Regulus, even at that age, didn’t have much as far as an imagination. He usually just complained about the smell of old people and dust. Sirius grinned widely and jumped up and down when he claimed to feel true love radiating off of the new chess table. Alphard had been proud.

“Very good, Sirius. This table belonged to very, very special people. I think you’re right about true love.”

The day James arrived found Regulus sat, bored, on the reading nook across from the chess table. He had his knees folded up to his chest, crossing his arms in front of them, and scowled at it. Sensing an object and any feelings associated with it was complete hogwash, there was no proof, nothing that indicated it was real or possible. It perplexed him how Sirius always seemed to be right. Maybe Alphard was lying. Whatever the case was, it never failed to make Regulus peeved when he thought about it too hard.

So he sat and eventually tried to read. He was trying not to get anxious. He typically hated Alphard’s students. Nine times out of ten they were stuck up, know-it-all Brits with no respect for a precedent. They always ruined plans, threw off the house dynamics, talked too loudly; you name it. Sirius loved having them, but that was mostly due to the fact that it was easier to get into trouble with a guest around. Alphard was busy with mentor duties, and even when he did catch Sirius trouble-making, he was always made softer and more lenient by his enthrallment in his summer work. It had him in jollier than average moods. Sirius always liked to meet new people, too, and sometimes he even befriended the students. This one student, Peter, who’d spent summer there a couple years back, was more reserved than usual. Sirius found him hilarious. He’d really brought Peter out of his shell over the months, bringing him around to see the sights and party whenever his studies allowed it. That year had been even more unbearable than usual for Regulus. He’d never liked Peter and he suspects Peter never liked him.

He was reading when he heard a car pull into the driveway and three doors being swung shut. Sirius’s voice rang out muffled, growing louder as they approached the front door.

“Our home has two small and angry guardians. They both hate strangers, are always watching, and always judging you. Try not to mind them, and let them approach you first!” Sirius clapped James on the back, shuffling behind him to enter the house first. Regulus rolled his eyes, shutting his book and setting it down. He didn’t have the energy to pretend to care about meeting the new student. He left his book behind and escaped up the stairs.

“I thought you only had one cat, Professor.” James questioned Alphard as he walked in, a duffle bag in each hand.

“Yes,” Alphard sighs, exasperated. “Sirius is joking. He refers to Pepper, and my other nephew, Regulus.” Alphard smiled despite himself. James gave a small laugh. He walked through the entry room to a sitting room where Sirius had unceremoniously flopped on his back onto a reading nook built into one of the walls.

Sirius Black had midnight black hair and stark gray eyes. He had girlish looks, with long curled eyelashes, shoulder-length hair, and a smaller frame. He didn’t look anything like a girl, however, his broad shoulders making way for muscle that was neither too much or too little. His jawline cut in a handsome way. James was not above admitting he was an attractive man. More so, even, was his larger-than-life personality that was quick to smile and even quicker to a joke. He had a French type of looseness to his body, slinging his arms around James, and kissing both of his cheeks to say hello when they’d first met. James wished that people were as affectionate back home in England. He loved it. Sirius, on the drive to the chateau, gave him a rundown of all the fun things to do around the grounds as well as in town, which was just a 20 minute bike ride away. Sirius bragged that on his motorbike, he could get there in five minutes.

In the car they had talked about France, which before now James had only ever been to once, with his parents years and years ago. Sirius raved about the cities he loved and hated, the must-see locations, and his favorite patisserie in all of the country (he always got the dulce de leche croissant). They talked about England, too. Sirius shared that he’d studied abroad there from 16 to 18, and loved it. He still had loads of friends there that he wrote to. James told Sirius about his friends from home, and how one of them lived in France part-time that he’d like to see sometime this summer. Sirius insisted he tag-along with James to meet them, and he happily agreed.

It was easy with Sirius. They got on swimmingly. Alphard had let them get on for most of the drive while he drove the car, staying quiet except to laugh when James or Sirius said something especially funny. Sirius made James sad that he never had a brother growing up, because surely it felt a bit like this. The longer they talked, the more his fondness grew for Sirius Black.

(Secretly, Alphard let himself hope that James might keep Sirius out of trouble. It was a pipe dream.)

“Ouch,” Sirius struggled, pulling something out from underneath him. “Regulus and his bloody books, I swear, they trail behind him like crumbs. You could forget he’s around sometimes if he didn’t leave these everywhere he goes. Where is that kid, anyways?” He called out that last bit to Alphard, who was standing in the doorway behind James.

“He’s around, I'm sure. Leave his book there, you know he’ll come back looking for it once we clear out.” Alphard looked out the window to the picturesque day.

“Like a cat.” James commented, amused.

“Like a cat.” Sirius echoed, and James might have thought Sirius was making fun of his brother, but there was a sort of undertone of endearment in his voice that made James smile.

He breathed in the grand house–no, chateau–and looked around at all of the pictures and decor. A vast amount was paintings, but a few family photos were scattered around in old frames. The photos showed the children, assumingly Sirius and his brother, Regulus, at no age younger than 11 or so. They were all taken there at the chateau. The one exception James could see was beside the window and showed the three of them at a beach, Sirius caught in a sprint in the background running toward the camera smiling, and Regulus closer to the camera giving a much smaller smile. They looked to be in their early teenage years. James liked how in that one it felt like you were there with them.

James crossed the room, picking up the book Sirius had placed to the side where it didn’t inhibit his comfortable sprawl over the cushions. The book was a collection of Mme. D’Aulnoy’s fairy tales, and a dogear marked a story towards the end of the book. James read the title, L'Oranger et l’Abeille. He personally loved Perrault, who he fancied to think of as Mme. D'Aulnoy’s counterpart. Some saw them as opposing forces. Different, but equally passionate about the same matters. They loved their fairy tales in different ways. Each of their works bloomed even more beautifully for it.

James found himself excited to meet this person.

Regulus, he tested in his head. It was an odd name, though perhaps not odder than Sirius. James had never really taken to astronomy; he was much too busy learning about everything that had, did, would, and could happen on Earth.

“He won’t miss lunch. You’ll meet him then.” Sirius assured him, popping off of the cushions to his feet.

“Very well, then. Where should I put my bags?” James held up his duffle bags with a grin, excited to see more of the house. From here, he could see a magnificent staircase with a gilded bannister and tiled fronts to each stair. It reminded him of Spanish tiling, but the colors and style was distinctively nothing he had seen before. He made a mental note to ask the professor about them later.

“Follow me, guest of honor!” Sirius clapped his hands together, and led the way to the tiled stairs.

The second story had a long hallway with doors lining each side. The art was magnificent. Romantic oil portraits, marble busts, and small artifacts that were more than likely priceless lined the walls and hall tables. One of the doors that Sirius seemed to be heading toward opened slightly, then after a moment of being open, shut again with a decisive thunk.

“Reg! Nope, I know you’re there. Come out here.” Sirius called after him, snapping James out of his all-consuming awe of the artworks.

“Je ne vais pas bien, laissez-moi tranquille.” A mellow voice called back, deadpan. It was the kind of voice that showcased the true beauty of the French language.

“I’m sorry you aren’t feeling good, Reg. Maybe some good ol’ social interaction will perk you up.” Sirius replied, rolling his eyes to James.

“It’s alright, Sirius, I wouldn’t want to put anybody out. I’ll meet him at Lunch.” James offered. Regulus didn’t respond. Sirius huffed.

“Yes, yes, well you better be packing up in there. We’re coming in.” Sirius waited for the shuffle of his brother’s feet. A door shut quietly from inside the room. Sirius then pushed open the door, revealing a modest sized bedroom. It was cozy and lived in, which James was delighted by. The bed was made perfectly, corners tucked in tight and blanket methodically folded. The pillows looked so fluffy…

Before James could even think to appear grateful and polite, the hours of travel set in and he collapsed onto the bed after dropping the duffle bags at the foot of the bed. His eyes felt so heavy, lulling him to give into sleep.

“Seems about right. You were a good sport for staying awake for the drive here, anyways,” Sirius laughed. “Lunch is in two hours. Regulus is one room over. You’ll have to share a bathroom, sorry. This is his room, usually, but it’s yours for the summer.” He explained.

“Thank you, Sirius. It’s all perfect. This bed is heaven, truly.” James turned his head lazily to look at him as he spoke.

“Yes, my brother’s old full mattress is practically fit for royalty.” Sirius grinned, leaving after flicking the lights off.

James slept hard.

He only woke to the sound of somebody in the room and a door creaking shut. James shifted to regard them. His eyesight was shit, and he fumbled for the glasses that had been scattered carelessly somewhere on the bed. When he found them, Regulus Black came into focus. They stared at each other for a beat.

James studied him like he studied art. The first thing that caught James was Regulus’s nose. He was looking at him at a three quarter angle where James couldn’t help but admire it, grecian, with a small bony bump halfway down. It harmonized with the rest of his face like a beautiful sonata. Regulus had (what he was now realizing was signature for the Black family) gray eyes. Where Sirius's were sharp siren-like, Regulus instead had big and bright eyes that started right back at James. He looked wide awake despite the smoking of purplish-red around his eyelids; it was perfectly human of him. It made his eyes stand out especially so. He had freckles; not a million dotted wash of them, but instead small, dark ones that looked closer to paint splatters across his face and arms.

Where Regulus lacked bulk he made up for in a toned, sleek physique. He was wearing a white button up with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. There was no undershirt, and with the top couple of buttons undone, James could see a bit of his lightly freckled bare chest. Regulus didn’t feel quite real.

“Hello. I’m James,” James started, breaking the heavy silence in the darkened room. “Je m’appelle James.” He added, suddenly paranoid that Regulus didn’t speak English and he’d just assumed. Regulus seemed to be thinking.

“This is my only way out.” Regulus said flatly, in English. James mentally sighed in relief. His French was okay at best. Regulus’s English was great. He had the tinges of a lilting French accent, but only noticeable if you—like James—clung onto words like they were magic. It was hard not to when studying phonetics and language.

“What do you mean?” James looked confused.

“The guest room I'm staying in is only accessible through your room. I’ll have to walk through this one to get in and out.” He said. Without the muffle of a door, James could hear the quality of his voice much better. It had a certain smooth timbre to it, where you could tell he’d have a good singing voice without having to hear him sing.

“Right, yes. This is your room, right? It’s a great room.” James nodded in understanding, adjusting himself to sit up and face him properly.

“Yes.” Regulus said shortly.

“I like what you’ve done with the space.” James looked at the wall behind Regulus. It had a mural of a lake scene.

The mural was a credit to whoever had painted it, with decisive brush strokes and colors that danced together. The other walls were a powder blue, but here in the dark you wouldn’t be able to tell they weren’t white. The furniture had the same antique nature as the rest of the house did. There were multiple quilted throw blankets, one folded over the end of the bed, and another two folded tidily and sitting on a shelf below the bedside table. There was a chair in the corner with some books piled on top that looked like it could be a hundred years old. The desk, tucked up next to the bed in the far corner, was neatly organized, books lining the back and a pen sitting perfectly next to a blank piece of staff paper. The lamp was gilded with a gold gooseneck that let you bend it around to get it shining at whatever angle you wished. You’d only need to use the light in the evening, though, because there was a huge window beside the desk that, had the curtains not been drawn, light would be pouring into right about now. It looked like a nice place to work.

“I spend a lot of time here,” Regulus replied, then changed the subject. “Lunch is ready.”

“Um– I’m still exhausted, do you mind covering for me with your uncle?” James smiled, hoping he wasn’t coming off terribly arrogant as his whole body begged to lay back down. Regulus did not smile back.

“Whatever.” Regulus said, leaving the room. James flopped back in the bed, actually getting far enough to get under the blankets this time.

“Later!” James called after Regulus. He gave James a look before slipping through the door, shutting it with a small click. 

He got a very overdue night of sleep, deep and dreamless.

Regulus had no opinion of James. He seemed fine. It could be worse. It had been worse before. They had stared at each other for a good ten seconds up in Regulus’s room. He liked somebody who could live in silence, and didn’t jump to fill it. James immediately countered the points gained there, though, by skipping lunch. Regulus found that exceptionally rude. It was his welcoming meal. Kreacher had prepared for it. Instead, himself, Sirius, and Uncle Alphard ate their lunch together like normal. So, really, Regulus didn’t mind at all. Maybe James would stick entirely to himself and not bother his familiar routine with his family, their carefully crafted balance they’ve built over the years.

“So… James?” Sirius started, wiggling his eyebrows.

“He’s a nice boy. Smart as they make them, too. He’s the first double major I've invited.” Alphard said, taking a sandwich from the tray at the center.

“Him and I are going to have loads and loads of fun this summer, I reckon.” Sirius bounced his leg excitedly under the table, peeling an orange. Alphard scowled at Sirius, which made him throw his hands up in surrender. Once Sirius looked away, Regulus caught his uncle smiling to himself.

“I met him. Upstairs, on my way down.” Regulus said, nonchalant. Sirius’s leaned forward in interest.

“What’d you think, Reg?”

“Don’t call me Reg, and I'll tell you,” He shot back bitterly. Sirius didn’t move, still waiting for him to go on and give his first impression. No matter how much venom he loaded his words with, Sirius never backed off. It was their dynamic. Regulus rolled his eyes. “I don’t know yet.”

“You don’t know? Alphard, do you hear him? I thought Reggie here knew everything!” Sirius acted like he could faint from shock, the sarcastic bastard. Regulus threw a peel of his own orange he was working on at Sirius’s face. Sirius tried to dodge, but it hit him on the cheek and he looked back at his brother smiling.

“Shut up, Sirius. I do. I’ve just barely spoken to him, yet, is all. He was still tired.” Regulus said.

“It was a long day of travel for him. He’d come from New York.” Alphard commented.

“New York? God, the music scene there is so cool. Did you know–” Sirius started going on about venues and indie bands, then, something Regulus had heard about a hundred times. He could recite all of the facts right back to Sirius at this point. Instead, Regulus thought about James. This summer was going to be interesting.

Read more here.

[sserajeans]

listen closely... 18. yoon's win (half-written)

it took about an hour for the five friends to meet up at a small restaurant nearby. it was a korean bbq place as a result of a debate jungwon lost.

"the ventilation makes my clothes stink!"

well he wasn't entirely wrong...

"how has everything been?" jinwoo, the last to arrive, started conversation as he kept his outer coat in a nearby storage basket.

the other 4 had already ordered plates of meat beforehand, so the food conveniently arrived at the same time.

"you sound like a 40-something year old uncle." rei commented before reaching over for the plate of plain beef. "but we've been fine! preparing a few stuff."

"omg can i have yujin-noona's signature?"

"no jungwon."

"wait wait let's talk about our SHIM JAYOON'S WIN FROM TODAY!" y/n raised her glass of cider like it was beer. she then placed the bottle under yoon's face, resembling a mic of sorts. "how are we feeling about it ms. shim?"

"well, ms. choi i feel very grateful for my team and fans for all the support." yoon played along for a while before shoving y/n's hand away. "okay but for real it just feels amazing... i feel great. and it's nice to celebrate with you guys after a while."

"OH SHIT we're getting sentimental!" jungwon grabbed a tissue and dabbed his eyes, sniffing a little too much. he regretted that not one second later as a piece of kimchi perfectly hit his cheek.

the first batch of meat cooked a few minutes later, causing a period of silence as the five friends devoured the meal in front of them. that's the quitest they've ever been together.

while waiting for the plates for cake y/n bought, rei brought up y/n's dreaded conversational topic. soulmates.

it wasn't stupid to her. she got it, it made sense, it's just that ever since that encounter with the unusual voice (multiple other times after the first), the topic of soulmates was just confusion she didn't want to unpack or investigate.

she simply had other things on her plate. being an idol was enough.

"have you guys figured it out yet?"

y/n noticed jungwon poking around his leftover rice, shoulders down. she took note to ask him about it later.

"oh i have suspicions about it being this friend of mine from back at home, but i'm not quite sure yet." jinwoo was first to answer. y/n remembered him talking about this one girl he grew up with before moving to seoul for the idol life, so if it was her, she was really happy for her best friend.

rei and yoon talked about how they were both clueless for a good 5 minutes before the conversation focused on the two hybe idols.

"jungwon's lost, so am i." y/n's short answer left the other 3 dumbfounded. jungwon was relieved he got his ass saved though.

"what do you mean?"

"i heard a weird voice, barely sounded like a song. straight out of a horror movie really. kinda just shrugged off trying to find whoever it was after that." y/n explained as she distributed the plastic plates and forks for the small cake she bought on the way.

"what did you hear exactly?" yoon began chewing on her cake, eyes still glued on y/n.

"i got a voice note of it the first time i heard it. i'll send it when i get home."

the five best friends stayed by the restaurant for another hour or two (no one could ever keep track of time when they were together) before everyone went their separate ways, promising to meet again if their schedules allowed them to.

jungwon and y/n got in hybe's company car with both their managers. the girl whipped out her phone as she sat down, keeping her word of sending the voice note to the group chat.

previous, masterlist, next

taglist: @yumtooki @gojosrug @limbforalimb @wonniefied @lizseos @noiacha @ahnneyong @babycubchae @bwljules @luvkait @rinpopz @falling-intoo-deep @captivq @luvrsxt @oshyci @somsomishy @lcv3lies @jennasluma

[dorizardthewizard]

Galactik Football season 3 rewatch, eps 4 - 6

Episode 4:

Aww Tia and Thran talking about TV shows, I like seeing more interactions between characters we don't see together that often.

Also Tia looking out for D'jok by getting the video checked! We see her check up on him a couple of times in these episodes, I love their friendship. Here it's like a little reversal of when D'jok was looking out for her when the whole Rocket Netherball thing was going down

Hooooow does Thran's filter program somehow let him see what happened before the explosion?? That's not filtering anything out, it's straight up new footage!

Artegor putting his hand on Aarch's shoulder after D'jok's disappearance... they're such a divorced couple with messy history who still care about each other

Clamp: Without D'jok here, we don't have a captain!

A complete non-issue since D'jok only started being the captain because Rocket left, but he's back now so

THE KINGS, THE LEGENDS!!!

Aw that little moment of the Snow Kids being a little star struck, getting to play against Aarch and Artegor at their prime. Although I still don't know how that works exactly with the holo-trainer and their irl physical fitness but whatever

THEY'RE PLAYING IN PERFECT SYNC AS IF NO TIME HAS PASSED AAAAAAA

Standing all cool as they tell their Snow Kids to take a break and then immediately crumpling with their middle aged bones ajshahaha

Why does Sonny's English dub voice sound so forced now. "It COULD be a TRAP!!"

Aaaaand now D'jok's leaving as well, that was quick

Are they... you know 😳😳😳

No seriously Sonny's delivery just sells this ahahaha

I love team Paradisia's designs btw, very y2k. We've even got Clover from Totally Spies here!

Ok quick rant about the attempts at portraying "girl power":

Honestly idk about D'jok being annoyed they're all girls, this with the Elektra's comment earlier are examples of S3 being more heavy-handed like, “yeah these players are girls, but ACTUALLY that doesn't mean they're not good players!”. Compare this to the previous seasons where we just... had players that were really good and happened to be girls, and no one needed to comment on it? Like, Kernor is the top goal keeper and Lun-Zaera is the best striker for the Wambas, plus Tia was the Snow Kid's biggest weapon in season 1 so I don't think D'jok would immediately dismiss the girls like that. Maybe he would be disconcerted at being the only boy, but still. It's like in the lego n/in/ja/go movie where they were like “she's a GIRL, but she can still be a NINJA!” which has a weird psychological effect of actually enforcing to kids that there is some sort of disparity between men and women, when instead they could just portray her as an equal and let that do the talking, no need to manufacture sexism so you can call it out like “hey, we're so progressive!” (not that you can't have stories with that too, I just don't think it makes as much sense in this situation and shows a different approach than the first two seasons).

Rant over <3

NIKKI-4 IS TALLER THAN D'JOK YASSS

I like Team Paradisia's football outfits but what's the point of the visor?

They kind of have the Cyclops' style of attacking, lmao

D'jok you're such a bitch

Y'know at this point Aarch is like. Wow don't we have contracts with any of these kids? With notice periods?

I feel like S3 could have been more fun if the player switching had been more planned like, mix up the teams! The Snow Kids knew they'd have to get a player from another team but for some reason did not seem willing to let go one of their own, even though logically they would have to?

Artegor: He was bad for the team and we're better off without him!

Ah nice to see Artegor's no chill side still comes out sometimes

GASP! What a twist!

Episode 5:

Ooooh new name for a Ryker's player! Kinda wish it was the blue hair one just to distinguish easier lol

Nihla!! Although apparently Nihlis in secondary material. Not sure if it's clear what their gender is in the og French but I hc that the Shadows fuck around with gender anyway

Ok what, I remember this All Stars game happening but I thought it was later. I thought I skipped an episode for a second there because what, there was no mention of this mixed all stars game before at all??

also TIA SHOULD BE ON A TEAM

Nikki-4 sounds like the actual name Nikifor. heh

Rocket and Tia's H2O t-shirts! iconic nerds

My reaction to the Mice-delight advert breaks are the same reaction I have to any advert break

Ah ok so they were all contacted by other teams lol, in my mind Tia got contacted for the All Stars game but she turned them down because things were tumultuous for the Snow Kids and she wanted to be there for them <3

Also why are they dismayed that everyone's been contacted by other teams, that's kind of the point of this mixed flux tournament, no? It means they're good players!

Micro-Ice only got contacted by a fan club? WRITERS STOP CLOWNING ON MICE AND ONLY USING HIM FOR COMEDIC RELIEF HE IS A REALLY TALENTED PLAYER! Artie back me up

Ah ironic, Rocket can't make the flux jump and he falls, as opposed to season 2 when he saved Tia from a fall with the flux. Now I'm imagining Tia jumping up to save him and carrying him bridal style. It should have happened, writers

Rocket: Yeah I'm okay! Rocket: Actually, I take that back

We love a self-aware king who knows his limits <3

Christ it's just disaster after disaster for the Snow Kids, huh

Callie giving Nork the STINK EYE lol DRAG HIM she at least has some journalistic integrity

D'jok's being such an ass with the way he's talking about the Snow Kids, at least Mei showed there were no hard feelings when she left. What did they do to you, man? I can understand him feeling hurt and needing to get away, but now the show's going back to “D'jok only cares about winning” again. Like sure that could definitely be a front, but the show doesn't really look behind it as far as I remember

YAAAASS LUN-ZEARA

Surprised we didn't start this match with D'jok and Sinedd taunting each other

How dare you use the Pirate's soundtrack and not have a Pirate on the field >:(

YES KERNOR! weird to see her tired out though

The animation 😭😭😭

ooo call back to Netherball with this resonance thing, glad that has consequences. Cool that they show it affecting other players too, Kernor was the Netherball champion before Rocket after all

Does Simbai get dressed in her flux society clothes just to have a zoom call with them?

Ah wish we had more of that all star game

Episode 6:

Oh come on this is just sloppy now, he says the Shadows vs Rykers but that's the Pirates' logo. They got it right on the previous shot as well!

Is Mice practicing confessing to Yuki? I thought they were already dating lmao, surely they're past this

Why is Mark drawn with nipples but Micro-Ice isn't? Wait no he has them too in the next shot, what are the rules here 😂

Ah this scene is a classic. But 🅱lease give Micro-Ice some development that's not just comedic relief, even his stuff with Yuki is played for laughs. What about the fact that his best friend, no, brother, just up and left and shits on the Snow Kids on live TV?

SHARKY THAT. DOES NOT FEEL VERY LEGAL. SEXUAL HARASSMENT, IN FACT.

Kernor enjoying her little treat <3 I love when we get to see tough characters doing mundane things like eating ice cream.

I love this butler guy who hates his job. His wince when Tia says she needs someone to talk to before he reluctantly offers an ear, LOL. An icon.

Awww I'm glad to see Tia and Mei still being good friends. Mei I missed you!

THE SHADOWS WALKING IN UNISON UNDER THE UMBRELLA DSFJKFSSDF I know I shit on the animation but they do try to put in little things like that. They didn't have to animate that, but they did, for us.

Artie and Bennett shenanigans yaaay

Not Ahito and Thran deciding to watch the Shadows match instead of supporting Yuki

It's so fun watching the Rykers with how intimidating they are. Unfortunately my brain has been ruined and I keep getting reminded of something else when I see this gesture

He looks so unbothered 🤣😭😭

Again, what's the point of the Elektra's visor? Their flux looks so cool though

THE SHADOWS PLAYER IS SO TALL COMPARED TO THE CYCLOPS LOL

What position is Mei even playing now

Why didn't Kernor use her flux? Honestly goalkeepers should just use their flux for every save considering they don't have to run around as much

Is it just me or is Ahito not falling asleep as much as before

4-0???!!! NOT A SINGLE GOAL FOR THE RYKERS???!! RUDE!!!

The look Tia gives Lun-Zia, wtf man, this whole jealousy plot is just ridiculous. SHE WOULD NOT FUCKING DO THAT!

Why ya'll being so mean to Mice, dafuq ToT He just got violated by the paparazzi lmao show some sympathy

Sidney's reaction to Kernor sfsdfjksfjk good taste sir

OH NO NOT ZOLEEN

Ooooooo Pirates lore!! So they were already a thing before Sonny, he just took control from Magnus Blade and gave them a PR change

[shittyelfwriter]

ALRIGHTY here we are at weeks three and four for the santa clauses series! I did not rewatch a second time because genuinely, these melted my brain. anyway, lets get into it below the cut!

So apparently according to the tsc tag, episode 3 that I missed last week is a sort of filler episode? OH BROTHER REALLY

Normally I would not complain bc I miss old format, 20-23 episode series but because I know this Isn't That? DREAD. how are you going to plot well and good in 7-8eps if some are filler? that is just SO condensed, my guy

Counterpoint to people who were sad about it but: I thought the teen romance was annoying and I'm GLAD they ended it even JUST for a bit (it will come back to haunt again, trust. It’s a disney series ffs.) Whoever is writing this needs to ask a teen about how they talk nowadays. This is not it.

I also think we're driving the whole "Buddy is terrible at everything" punchline WAY past its breaking point. Which I would argue was last season entirely, but. At the very latest, last episode with how heavy on cringe it was. Yes, EVEN for kids/teens.

Again, they are not antagonizing Magnus Antas enough for me to hate him. waaaaay too funny to be a villain. I can't take him seriously and DON'T want to

The way that Noel keeps sideyeing the Betty cutout as if to say "do you see this shit?" during his brunch with the Clauses SENT me tbh. That's bernelle coded and I love it

I do not know why Disney gets OFF on the Clauses being absolutely inept parents but I wish they would stop

SHOUTOUT JUDY OMG JUDY'S ACTRESS THAT’S JUDY JUDY IS HERE YOU GUYS (SCREAMINGGGG)

LOVING the exterior shots of the workshop and Elfsburg. As someone who has POURED over all available screenshots from the movies of those I am LIVING for new angles (even though I do NOT think bernelle would live that close to the Workshop, but it doesn't seem like Betty and Noel can POOF like Bman and Elle can (and do))

I don't know why there are TWO instances of a "misspoken turn of phrase" in this episode but neither were funny and TWO OF THEM was REALLY bad

CHUBBY BUNNY DID NOT EXIST THAT LONG AGO. NOT IN MAGNUS ANTAS' TIME. THAT WAS AN INTERNET FAD LESS THAN TEN YEARS AGO. WHAT ARE WE DOING DUDE. WHAT ARE THESE WRITERS ON (it's not good, I don't want some)

Crossing guard callback? For what? (okay, shrug I GUESS dot meme)

Why does this specific franchise always have to make EB SO WEIRD. WHY. Nothing about this is funny it's just off-putting. Just like the previous EB flirting with Carol's MARRIED MOM in tsc3

This Carol and La Befana scene was actually very good. LOVE it when they actually just let the characters be HONEST with each other. Women supporting women core. Even if Carol's reason for being mad at her was really shallow and obviously stems form Carol's lack of identity as Mrs. Claus because they just cannot wrap that plot point from last season up.

THE LETTERS DEPARTMENT. It looks dope but HATE the explanation for it. Half assed as hell. WARNING! Rant incoming: like from what I know a LOT of postal services have little lore stories about how they get the letters to Santa. WHY COULDNT WE JUST SAY THERE ARE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN SANTA AND OTHER ADULT PEOPLE WHO KEEP THE SPIRIT ALIVE FOR OTHERS AS WELL? Why is this series so obsessed with making everything only powered by magic and never by others (yes, humans) who want to keep the spirit alive as well? It feels like magic is being used as an "explain it all away" crutch narratively. Even in season 1, the "solution" to mass consumerism wasn't for people to be kind to each other and do little things to keep the magical parts of Christmas alive, it was to show the world that magic was real. Season 2 so far, the answer to everything is also just magic. I'm hoping that maybe the B plot with Kris will touch on this. Because as it stands right now, it feels like the writers are talking out of both sides of their mouth. Commercial Christmas is bad, but Kris is a loser for having a Santa theme park. Like?? Homogenization of Christmas is the Big Bad at large, but also up at the Pole they are trying to find ways to do the same thing to be "current". CHRISTMAS IS MULTIFACTED. It is both secular and religious! That is OKAY, I don't even think "woke" people are arguing about that. Sheesh.

Can't believe I'm micro rambling IN my ramble post. New achievement unlocked omg

The way Magnus Antas picks up on modern slang so quickly practically puts Scott to shame. Good for him

AGAIN, the misturn of phrase jokes. DEAD. Not funny. STOP

If they are going to make Sandra so op that she can just Wanda Maximoff chaos magic "I just say something when I'm mad and it happens, anything I want with no negative impact on me" I will not find that swag. That is in fact Mary Sue territory, lads

Sandra's little outburst @ La Befana was giving magical nepo baby for a moment there. Oof. "Too bad I'm just naturally more skilled than you even though I'm new and you've been a witch forever" girl SHUT. UP. You are like a little baby. Also that is so mad disrespectful like no WONDER La Befana is wanting you to slow tf down. You fly off the handle WAY to easily and we ALL know you lose control when you do! Okay loose cannon! Werk!

Riley. Girl. "we never see each other" you were just up at the Pole?? Like. OFTEN?? This is so stupid of a breakup but they are teenagers so go off kids, be dysfunctional or what have you. Rah rah, as Jack would say

Episode four now, lord help us. God has cursed me for my (loving this one Christmas movie series) hubris and my work (watching it's hellish series spin off) is never finished

"Reversing a transformation is never a guarantee" what is this La Befana? the Sims? Sounds like transformation ray odds. Magic is not THAT unpredictable, even by in-universe logic

CURTIS-ITIS!??? CURTIS FUCKING EXPLODED??

ARE YOU SO FUCKING FR RN. SO BERNARD IS MARRIED TO A SENIOR CITIZEN AND CURTIS. FUCKIN VAPORIZED?? FROM STRESS? WHAT'S NEXT? Lemme guess, Judy joined the circus. Quintin is a crypto investor or works for Tesla. WHAT ARE WE D O I N G

Not Scott moving the scissors like he's afraid Buddy will shank him or others?? SIR

SANDMAN AHHHHHHHHHH HELLO SIR /POS :D

So they just con him? As though that's a long term solutio-- OH MY GOD NOT SCOTT USING SANDMAN'S SAND ON SANDMAN HIMSELF?? that's ILLEGALE?? According to tsc3 lore: "We legendaries can't use magic on each other?" I am so bewildered by the level of retcon occurring before my very eyes at BREAKNECK speed

Sandra doesn't need magic she needs THERAPY for her ANGER ISSUES bruh. Damn. She doesn't need a rage room (in someone's house too I might add? okayyyy) she needs to learn to process like a normal human being wtf

Scott being able to look like his normal self whenever he wants and they just didn't tell him? For like. 25 years? Like its clear that by the series standards, the elves think he's a total moron. But it pendulums hard and fast between "haha funny joke" and "damn they really think he ain't shit, huh"

Edie being a fashion diva is such a serve she's grown on me this season ngl

"I had to teach him how to do all the Legendaries jobs" Scott I know you're waffling, absolutely FUMBLING but what the FUCKKKKK is that excuse??? What's Cal going to do? Be EVERY Legendary? TERRIBLE AWFUL HATE IT UNINSPIRED. Not to mention, SOME OF THE OTHER LEGENDARIES MIGHT NOT TAKE THAT NEWS WELL. Some might even feel THREATENED

"The man I die for in my sleep every night" UM? Noel? You okay there bud? Holy heck

THE PURPLE JACKET IS SWAG AND SCOTT IS A HATER. HE CANNOT SEE THE VISION

Do you guys think according to this new lore Edie made Jack's suit? because me thinks PERHAPS

Magnus Antas is kind of popping off, damn. Like I think if the gnomes hadn’t given him MAJOR delusions of grandeur and an ego trip, he could have stayed totally a vibe. But stop giving the Santas snow powers and reconning Jack holy SHIT dude. First Scott now him? HATE IT

The way they made Scott and Cal look when "invisible" is Not a Good Look heck. Its like a bad picsart filter

These Scott visions. I get why, its through the Santa magic, right? But dang its corny

So Scott knows Magnus Antas is back now. Okay. They got away from him. Lost visual on Olga, have a bad feeling she somehow sneaked into the sleigh. Weird cliffhanger but EVERY episode has been like that so far

Final thoughts: I feel like they're definitely trying to make this season take itself less seriously, but I feel like the trade off is that the writers are taking too many liberties for diversions from source material and are therefore, losing the plot entirely and retconning movie lore at will and convenience. Tl;dr, it's messy. Concepts are fun until things just become so irreverent they fall apart or lean into entirely unfunny territory. Which is just a hallmark of T*m All*n brand humor, tee em, but you know.

It feels like this series is doing everything and nothing. It wants woke points, but immediately doubles back and makes fun of those same things. It wants us to feel empathy for these characters, and immediately makes them insufferable. I am so confused as to what the takeaway is supposed to be. It all feels so poorly executed--the series retcons itself constantly, not to mention the movies. I want it to be fun, and to take it at surface value, but if you know literally anything about the movies, that becomes a challenge to do. I'm just so confused dude.

I will be shocked if this gets a third season. Truly.

Also, I miss Betty too, Noel. Wish this whole season was about HER shenanigans, instead.

So. See you all next week then?

[broke-on-books]

So I just watched Oppenheimer (with my best friend, she's really into physics and wanted to see it with me) and these are my thoughts [with spoilers]

This was a movie that was simultaneously horror-inducing and not horrifying enough in my mind. I cried at about three points during the movie (with the majority of that being for around 10 to 15 minutes straight during the Trinity sequence) for a couple of reasons.

I'm not going to make this a long post so I'll break it down into two short paragraphs of what I liked and disliked about the movie

Like: I actually enjoyed this movie much more than I thought I would? I didn't have super duper high hopes going into it because Oppenheimer isn't really the kind of movie I'd typically watch or enjoy from what I'd seen of the promo beforehand (I was honestly worried I'd bored) but I'd say that mainly wasn't the case. I'd say that the Trinity test sequence was utterly chilling and really technically done so well, I loved that they showed the light so intensely and had it go almost silent for a good few minutes (honestly between 3-5) before shocking the audience with the noise of the blast. I also think the monstrosity of everyone involved was done in a very realistic and human (and therefore terrifying) way. Like the scenes where the people on base at Los Alamos were cheering and celebrating and lifting Oppenheimer up before the American flag after the test were just so deeply chilling and just disturbing to me. I think I whispered 'you motherfucker' under my breath at least 30 times to 10 different characters while watching this movie

Dislike: My main dislike here is really that I couldn't tell how much of the racism present in this movie was actually intentional on the part of Nolan and the writing team. Like I think with many things the answer is likely somewhere in between the two extremes, but this movie is one that for me is really difficult to pin down where I think it stands on that issue. I really wish I was still in my film study class because I'd honestly like to know what my peers and teacher would think about it. Because I feel like the shying away from actually showing the affects of the bomb (not a SINGLE Japanese person is ever heard or seen in this movie) and tests (Native Americans are mentioned twice but their reactions to the Manhattan Project or the repercussions of the tests on the natives and other nearby communities are never/barely addressed) is an effective and powerful way to show the reality of the racism of Oppenheimer and his contemporaries but the way it is presented in the movie makes it almost impossible to distinguish where the line lays behind Oppenheimer's bigotry in text and where the biases of Nolan and Hollywood come into play. And even IF Nolan's exclusion of Japanese, Native, Hispanic, and other perspectives was entirely intentional (to showcase Oppenheimer's biases and story in his own eyes) it STILL raises the question of what stories Hollywood finds worth telling. Like the story of this kind of human monstrosity in the face of curiosity is one that I believe has worth to tell, but is it worth telling at the exclusion of other perspectives of this event and the sheer human suffering it caused? And what does it say about our culture that this is the perspective of the event Hollywood decided to put millions of dollars and thousands of hours behind? These are just some of the questions this movie makes me want to ask.

The previous paragraph was supposed to be about all my dislikes of the movie and instead just covered the majority of what I have to say over the main one, which for me was my central conflict as I watched this movie. However some other more minor gripes are as follows:

1) I didn't like they had like 30 to 45 minutes worth of the senate confirmation/security clearance trial stuff after the Trinity test sequence. I found this part of the movie unpleasant to sit through as I couldn't really find it in myself to care or have any sort of empathy or compassion for Oppenheimer after watching him build test and hand over bombs that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Like I was not remotely interested in his problems after that to be real with you all.

2) didn't appreciate the Florence Pugh sex scenes to be honest. Like I guess I get that they were a part of the story and Oppenheimer's relationship with her character and their affair is important to his story but to be honest. I was 100% perfectly content NOT having to see her boobs and 3 times was definitely a little much for me

3) why were the parts with Robert Downey Jr in black and white they literally happened after the colored parts. Also I just really didn't like these parts of the movie to be honest. They weren't the parts I was there for and to be honest I didn't care too much about what happened to him

4) this isn't fully a dislike but I have complicated thoughts on the prometheus analogy in that I both like it and think it doesn't work for oppenheimer especially in the way they tried to apply it. Idk I won't get into it because I'd like this post to end sooner rather than later and my thoughts aren't the most organized on this matter

5) I was pissed when they did the cut to the scientists and the scientific community as those who would never forgive oppenheimer with the scene with Einstein by the lake. Like THAT'S what he told him? Screw the scientists what about the world!!!!!!! What about humankind!!!!! This was the last scene of the movie and they made up for it the teensiest bit with the "I think I already have [started a chain reaction that will end the world]" but if ANY TIME is when to talk about the world and the future and repercussions on humanity and oppenheimer's legacy to HUMANITY. it was that scene. Literally smh here

Anyways those were some of my thoughts, I'd thought I'd put them out there because I have a lot of lingering things I'd like to discuss and say after seeing this movie, many of which I didn't see talked about on this site after a quick cursory search. Feel free to reply/comment/add your own opinions etc.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 3/14/2023

one of the good things about the tuesdaypost series is that it reassures me i did actually do things in a particular week, even if the week felt very much like an unmemorable gray blob

listening

Aretha Franklin's Chain of Fools this came on last night as i was making dinner. two (three? let's not think about it) years ago i found the las vegas jazz station bc i wanted something on in the background while i wrote cowboyfic. and now (when i remember internet radio exists) it's in the rotation of things keeping me company while i tend to my databases

-

reading

it's been just over two weeks since philip marlowe has burrowed his way into my brain. i have read through most of The Simple Art of Murder, which contains the titular essay and eight novellas/short stories. if you enjoy reading and thinking about criticism as its own genre/art form, this seven page essay is well worth reading. chandler had extremely strong opinions about his colleagues that he kept to himself with varying degrees of success. aside from a brief catty snit at what we now call "cozy" mysteries, it's a very level look at the challenges and limitations of detective fiction as a genre.

The realistic style is easy to abuse: from haste, from lack of awareness, from inability to bridge the chasm that lies between what a writer would like to be able to say and what he actually knows how to say. It is easy to fake; brutality is not strength, flipness is not wit, edge-of-the-chair writing can be as boring as flat writing; dalliance with promiscuous blondes can be very dull stuff when described by goaty young men with no other purpose in mind than to describe dalliance with promiscuous blondes. There has been so much of this sort of thing that if a character in a detective story says, "Yeah," the author is automatically a Hammett imitator. And there are still quite a few people around who say that Hammett did not write detective stories at all, merely hardboiled chronicles of mean streets with a perfunctory mystery element dropped in like the olive in a martini.

i had a tremendous amount of fun reading through the novellas and picking out elements he reused and expanded upon in later full novels.

im yoinking this example from wikipedia but this sequence in The Big Sleep:

The room was too big, the ceiling was too high, the doors were too tall, and the white carpet that went from wall to wall looked like a fresh fall of snow at Lake Arrowhead. There were full-length mirrors and crystal doodads all over the place. The ivory furniture had chromium on it, and the enormous ivory drapes lay tumbled on the white carpet a yard from the windows. The white made the ivory look dirty and the ivory made the white look bled out. The windows stared towards the darkening foothills. It was going to rain soon. There was pressure in the air already.

first appeared in the short story The Curtain:

This room had a white carpet from wall to wall. Ivory drapes of immense height lay tumbled casually on the white carpet inside the many windows, which stared towards the dark foot-hills. The air beyond the glass was dark too. It had not started to rain, yet there was a feeling of pressure in the atmosphere.

when you are an exacting self-editor who will spend five months on one short story i imagine it's quite easy to go back and expand on a previous framework? it is fun to see how the sausage gets made

-

watching

the westerner (1940, dir. Wyler). really had me thinking about the Types of westerns i like. this is a perfectly adequate, well-acted little open range vs. homesteaders film with an impressive prairie fire sequence. walter brennan (a guy i love to see) more than deserves his oscar. gary cooper is great as a quick-thinking drifter who scams his way out of a noose. our heroine looks very much like olivia de haviland around the eyes. the original nyt review points out that cooper is very much overshadowed, and cooper only did the movie under duress bc he was worried about this very thing (p. 138-140).

between the fact that the movie thinks cooper should be the lead but brennan steals every scene he's in, this movie does not grab me by the lapels and shake me like some others i could name. part of it is that i do not like brennan's character. he is a self-appointed judge with a 100% hanging rate. i also think this is a totally different movie if you are not a woman, bc his character is INCREDIBLY weird about women. the ending tried very hard and failed to make me go "aw he was all right deep down anyway huh".

the other part of why this movie does not work for me: it starts off as my favorite genre "Some Guy has an incredibly fucked up day" but most of it is about good bible-thumping homesteaders enacting the american dream. what if we all got along??? america's big enough for everyone isn't it?? this movie really pulls its fuckin punches re: any sort of a theme, and i do not like cooper as an actor or brennan's character enough to say i had a good time. this movie does not delve into an aspect of the cowboy western mythos i am particularly interested in, but it is on kanopy, and it is part of my goal to watch every western on kanopy in order to convince the boston public library to add more westerns.

-

playing

man i wish fallou/t 4 was good. ive really got to fucking suck it up and start rdr2 even though i know it will consume my life in a time where i do not have a ton of time to spare

-

making

chicken fajitas. no pics all gone.

also: 6/10 baby blanket repeats. im trying to get this out by midapril so if i decide to fly down and look at apartments in person i can deliver it in person. so far i am happy with this rate of progress. i am going to frown about the edging for a while when im done knitting the body but that's a problem for future kay

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Thoughts: Joel Crawford Is *Not* Directing KUNG FU PANDA 4

Not too long ago, a Swiss Universal movie slate was making the rounds... KUNG FU PANDA 4 was on there, as the movie is - and has been - scheduled for release on March 8, 2024. The slate curiously listed Crawford, who directed PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH and THE CROODS: A NEW AGE, as director.

He is not directing KUNG FU PANDA 4, per a recent interview with him and LAST WISH co-director Januel Mercado... Perhaps whoever made that slate up in Switzerland made a little mistake. It happens, we're all human.

This seemed somewhat fitting, though... Crawford took over both the CROODS and PUSS IN BOOTS sequels, and him being handed the torch for KUNG FU PANDA seemed right.

THE CROODS: A NEW AGE was originally set to be directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, who wrote and directed the first film that came all out the way back in 2013. We're actually inching right towards its 10th anniversary, which makes me wonder... Where does the time go? And, #2, will we get some sort of CROODS 3 announcement to commemorate? Their CROODS 2 was set for various fourth-quarter 2017 release dates for a good while, until DreamWorks had their rough week in January of 2015... When they - in response to the box office performances of several movies released over the previous few years - shut down a whole studio (Pacific Data Images), rearranged their slate, and cancelled multiple in-development movies. THE CROODS 2 managed to hang on... But then... The Comcast acquisition happened a year later. Changing heads, changing administrations, projects killed in transition... THE CROODS 2, a sequel to a movie that made nearly $600m at the worldwide box office, was *surprisingly* one of those movies... It was on the grounds that, supposedly, the crew just wasn't feeling it.

This allowed Chris and Kirk to move on to other things, namely the 20th Century-released THE CALL OF THE WILD for the former (it's actually a pretty solid old school adventure movie worth checking out, even if the dog being CGI is a bit iffy for you), and Sony Animation's VIVO for the latter. (I dug VIVO as well.) THE CROODS: A NEW AGE was confirmed to be back in development in September of 2020, with Crawford taking over directing duties, making his feature directorial debut. Crawford had no involvement with the first CROODS, but was a story artist on all three KUNG FU PANDA movies, and was also a story artist on SHREK FOREVER AFTER... So he had some SHREK in his resume when being given the PUSS IN BOOTS assignment. More on that in a few...

Crawford worked off of a story from Sanders and DeMicco, though, and it seems like it was more or less the one they were developing for their 2017 CROODS 2, just with some changes here and there. There was a pencil test for the movie done by none other than James Baxter that leaked online about a few weeks before DreamWorks announced the revised CROODS sequel was back on track, and it seems like it was more or less what we got... Just a little different. The girl in the pencil test is presumably an earlier version of Dawn Betterman, she is a lot more modern-looking. It's as if the Crood family had stumbled upon a family in the 1950s. The duo were quite involved, all things considered, but just didn't direct. If anything, Crawford kind-of semi-rebooted THE CROODS... A franchise that was only one movie and a 2D-animated Netflix TV series at the time. This gave the caveman family comedy a fresh coat of paint, if you will, and it really worked out. Crawford's approach was noticeably different from Sanders and DeMicco's. Those who were onboard with Sanders/DeMicco missed that touch, those who weren't all that fond of the first film found the sequel to be a significant improvement. I personally really like both for those reasons, they both bring something of their own to this very base-level concept.

So that brings us to PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH. Previously, that was set to be a much different film, a sequel titled PUSS IN BOOTS 2: NINE LIVES & 40 THIEVES. An Arabian Nights adventure, it was to be directed by the first PUSS IN BOOTS' director, Chris Miller. He also directed SHREK THE THIRD alongside Raman Hui. In early 2014, DreamWorks had it pegged for a holiday 2018 release, until that bad week in January happened. It got removed entirely from the release schedule, but was still in the works per Antonio Banderas in an interview months later. The Arabian Nights movie got thrown out along the way, and after the Comcast acquisition of DreamWorks, Illumination founder Chris Meledandri started to get involved with the SHREK franchise and would have a hand in determined its future. There's something kind of amusing about that, by the way. Melendandri, prior to founding Illumination in 2007, was an executive producer on the first few Blue Sky films, of course that includes ICE AGE. I was rewatching ICE AGE a little while ago, and am watching the sequels for the first time (I'm over a decade late!), and that first ICE AGE is very similar to SHREK. In that, it's a big, annoyed, cynical guy with an itch to scratch, and an annoying smaller critter being a pain in the ass for most of the journey. Even as a kid back in March 2002, sitting in the theater, I caught that right away, like "Hey, this is a lot like SHREK." There's a similar vibe in Disney Animation's BROTHER BEAR, to go off on a tangent: Big teen bear Kenai, annoying little bear cub Koda... It's also set at the end of the Ice Age. There are mammoths in it. Coincidence is such a funny thing.

Anyways, where was I going with that? Oh yeah, ICE AGE. Similar to SHREK. Chris Meledandri was exec producer of ICE AGE, and went on to exec produce the next three Blue Sky movies (ROBOTS, ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN, HORTON HEARS A WHO!) before setting up Illumination... Chris Meledandri, after Comcast's acquisition of DreamWorks, becomes more involved with the SHREK franchise in particular and not DreamWorks as a whole. PUSS IN BOOTS Dos was announced once again in early 2019, with Bob Persichetti attached as director. This was *hot* off of SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, which he was one of three directors on. Persichetti, appropriately, was head of story on the first PUSS IN BOOTS. Seemed liked the best choice possible, but he appears to have had no part in THE LAST WISH, only a - presumably - archival recording of him voicing the "Oooh" cat, who makes a brief cameo in Mama Luna's place. I wouldn't be surprised if the film embracing a more SPIDER-VERSE-inspired stylized look and feel was his idea, coming off of that very film.

But I sense a pattern here, of sorts. Crawford breathed, with the help of his crews, a new life and zest into both THE CROODS and SHREK. It looked like he could've done that for KUNG FU PANDA 4... But, he said in that recent interview that he's not directing, and he's interested in playing around in the world of SHREK some more, which *could* imply that he is directing the fifth SHREK movie, whatever they decide to call it. He's not working on anything at the moment, that there are original ideas to pursue (his resume is currently two feature sequels, it'd be cool if he pitched a wild and fun original movie of his own, but he was also being quite vague.

KUNG FU PANDA 4 has at least one director, but for whatever reason, we don't know who that is just yet. The movie has got to be deep in production if it is coming out next spring. Sometimes with animated movies, we know who is directing. Right off the bat. But some studios, or their distributors, just say "So-and-so, coming out sometime in 2024!" That's basically all we heard about KUNG FU PANDA 4 since last year... It was a tweet that the movie was happening, an image of Po, and a release date of March 8, 2024. Keep in mind, this date sandwiches the movie in-between ELIO (a Pixar film, 3/1/2024) and SPIDER-MAN: BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE. (3/29/2024)

Does Jennifer Yuh Nelson, director of KUNG FU PANDA 2 and 3, return to helm the sequel? She has been supervising director on Netflix's LOVE, DEATH & ROBOTS, so I'd imagine she's been busy. Her last feature film, as director, was a live-action flick called THE DARKEST MINDS. Without googling, I think it was a Y-A movie? Hey, you wanna know something funny about Jennifer Yuh Nelson? She got her start as an assistant animator on... Various Golden Films/Jetlag animated fare. You know, those movies based on public domain stories that were cranked out in the early '90s to capitalize on the Disney adaptations? Yeah! She's credited on things like Jetlag's 1994 CINDERELLA and their 1995 ALICE IN WONDERLAND movie. She later graduated to TV shows such as SPICY CITY and SPAWN, was a storyboard artist on the film DARK CITY, and then started her DreamWorks tenure as a storyboard artist on SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON. Her first assignments being in Golden Films "fool the granny at the dollar store" movies goes to show... You gotta start **somewhere**!

KUNG FU PANDA 3's co-director, Alessandro Carloni, could be a candidate. Already heavily involved with the first two films, and several other DreamWorks hits, was director of the ill-fated ME AND MY SHADOW... He'd be great, but what's he up to now? Directing THE FOURTEENTH GOLDFISH for Skydance Animation, apparently. He was supposed to direct their debut film LUCK, but John Lasseter apparently - true to form - kicked him off the movie; or changed it up so much that Carloni decided to walk away from it. But yeah, that's apparently what he's up to, so I think that rules out KUNG FU PANDA 4 for him...

Maybe, on the off chance, the directors of the first movie came back. Or at least one of them. Mark Osborne, John Stevenson... Osborne previously worked on THE LITTLE PRINCE. He was - as far as I know - directing ESCAPE FROM HAT for Netflix. Previously a Blue Sky project, it entered production in 2018. Not a peep since... Was this a casualty of Netflix's ongoing animation purge? Stevenson recently worked on a short called MIDDLE WATCH, and is helming a picture called THE ANT AND THE AARDVARK, for - apparently - a 2024 release. So he's out of the question.

Who else could it be? One look at KUNG FU PANDA 3's story credits could give one a rough idea. I see that a lot of the time in animation, folks who were involved with films on the story artist/storyboarding level get graduated to director for the sequels. Barring Crawford, it could be any of these people...

Or someone whom we would not expect whatsoever... I wonder why they're quiet on this... And also that RUBY GILLMAN: TEENAGE KRAKEN movie that's supposed to open 3 1/2 months from now... And whatnot. DreamWorks is like super-secretive with what's coming, these days, to the point where you don't officially hear a thing until... Maybe 3-4 months before the movie in question releases! I like that, though. Kinda. It's like guessing games. It reminds me of the early 2000s when you only knew what maybe the next 1-2 Pixar movies were when a new one was around the corner.

All I know is, I was quite shocked when KUNG FU PANDA 4 was announced a while ago. I know that the third movie collected over $540 million at the worldwide box office, and that in the world of American feature animation, it's never really over. SHREK 5 is coming, TOY STORY 5 is coming, FROZEN III is coming, ZOOTOPIA 2 is coming, there's a third LEGO MOVIE in the works despite the 2nd mainline movie flopping at the box office. It never ends, and if it ends in a way where a sequel absolutely *can't* be made without some serious retconning? Like HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD? Oh, easy, do a streaming series set in the modern day that's well past Toothless' passing... Or do a goddamn live-action remake then. Anyways, yeah, these things don't end, but with the way KUNG FU PANDA 3 wrapped things up... I didn't know where it could go from there, though that new series - THE DRAGON KNIGHT - exists. I haven't watched it, I don't have Peacock. Is it any good?

I love the KUNG FU PANDA movies, personally. The first one is particularly resonant for me, because I see a lot of my autistic self and my life in Po himself, and the second film always makes me an emotional mess. I wrote extensively about that elsewhere. I was initially kind of ho-hum on KUNG FU PANDA 3, but the more the first two clicked with me, the more I found a lot to love in the third movie, even if it is a little uneven to me... But a fourth one? I love this world, the characters, the kinetic action that came with each movie, and everything else. If DreamWorks' artists really push the stylization we saw in the third film and beyond, we could be in for a real treat. Bring it on, I say!

Who do you think could direct KUNG FU PANDA 4?

[fooligandan]

SO! Kingdom Hearts, huh?

Much has been said about this series over it's decades long existence and you've decided that now's your time to get into it. And what a great time for that, you don't even have to buy any extra systems anymore! Still, Kingdom Hearts has a reputation of being, well, kind of a lot!

But now you do want to get into it, and you remember you've heard all sorts of noise about it. Noise like "The series' story is a confusing mess!" or stuff about entries with strange and wordy titles, how KH3 isn't the third game in the series and every title is actually super important, how ~actually~ you need a very high IQ to understand the story, how apartment 'complex' is actually quite simple and clean, so on and so on forever.

And all of that is intimidating! Luckily for you, person reading this, I've got a worryingly large knowledge about this series and a great willingness to help people get on the path and join me in my fungus patch, so from here out in this post I'll do my best to answer some questions and offer a guiding key to help you have as minimally painful an experience as possible while starting out.

(This got long so the rest is under a cut)

So, first of all, what are you even actually gonna be buying?

Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 ReMIX

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

Kingdom Hearts 3 + ReMind

That's it! Just three games in your Steam cart (or only two if you want to save KH3 for later)! All things considered, this is pretty good value for how much you're getting per thing, though if you want to be safe and see how you like the base gameplay then just get the first entry in the set. You'll have time to get the other ones if you're feeling on board for Mr. Nomura's Wild Ride, and if you don't it won't be a huge loss of munny for you. But as of right now this IS the majority of the series. There's a couple odd-ones-out, but don't worry about that right now.

What you'll do after getting these is this:

Boot up Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 ReMix on whatever you have it on.

Play the titles in the order shown to you by the menu. There's a mild quirk here but I'll get to it in a second.

Once you have played all the content on 1.5+2.5, do the previous step again for 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.

Once that's done, you're ready for KH3+ReMind, so play that one.

And just like that you have played all of Kingdom Hearts! Hopefully you had a good time with it, it'll have been a major time investment that I hope you'd not just bulldozed through all of as fast as possible, because that's a really good way to burn yourself out and probably also miss some things with the story (because your brain is fried and has a suspicious key-shaped hole in it now).

There's probably still some stuff you want an answer or two for though. KH has a lot of quirks and some probable points of frustration for new players, so I'll try and cover most of them. Without increasing the amount of stuff you gotta worry about by a megaton, I hope.

--FAQs--

Q: "What's included in these collections/how many games even is this?"

A: 7 (+1 DLC) games and 3 movies. Most of them are the "Final Mix" versions of the games, which means they're the director's cut and have all kinds of extra fun stuff and story content in them. The movies are essentially just the story information from some of the other titles condensed for you. These ones are not playable games, but you can probably find them ~elsewhere~ to play them, if you catch my drift.

Q: "How should I tackle these games?"

A: In release order. The collections will list the games this way, but if you have any doubts, play the games in order of release. This is the order they were written in, so the order they'll make the most "sense" in and make for the best experience. Since you probably don't want to go googling release dates, the order is this. Movie representations are marked with (m)

Kingdom Hearts -> Chain of Memories -> Kingdom Hearts 2 -> 358/2 Days(m) -> Birth By Sleep -> Coded(m) -> Dream Drop Distance -> Back Cover(m) -> Final Chapter Prologue -> Kingdom Hearts 3 + ReMind

The series was pretty much written as it went, so there's all sorts of callbacks, plot twists, retcons and all that fun stuff. There IS a chronological order, though, which is different to this list here. For the curious, a chronological timeline of ALL the games in the series looks like this (* for notes):

Back Cover/UnionX -> Dark Road -> Birth By Sleep -> Final Chapter Prologue* -> Kingdom Hearts* -> Chain of Memories + Days* -> Kingdom Hearts 2 -> Coded -> Dream Drop Distance -> Kingdom Hearts 3 + ReMind -> Melody of Memory

-(* Final Chapter Prologue takes place in the background from when BBS ends until halfway through KH3, sort of. CoM and Days' stories have direct overlap with each other.)

-(* Days is listed on the menu before KH2 for some reason. I don't think anyone knows why this decision was made. Play KH2 before you go ahead and grab your popcorn or set sail on the seven seas for it.)

This is much more confusing, and IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO PLAY THIS WAY AT ALL IF YOU ARE NEW. You certainly could if you really, really wanted, but you will be nothing but horribly confused. Don't to that to yourself, please. If anyone does suggest you do this, DO NOT listen to them, they're sending you down a dark path.

Q: "Wait, ALL of these titles are important?"

A: YES. There is no such thing as a spinoff or non-canon title in Kingdom Hearts. Don't just play KH1 and KH2 and call yourself good, you'll be setting yourself up for some BIG CONFUSION when you boot up KH3 and everyone is talking about stuff you never learned about, with people you have no clue who they are, why you should even be caring about them, or what the hell is even going on!

However, all of the games have some kind of gimmick or two, and some are more…contentious than others. Which ones specifically is subjective, but if you aren't really liking a particular title and how it plays, go ahead and don't play it. BUT!!! Be sure to watch the story content of whichever one it is somehow. Not knowing stuff from another title and being confused on something will not help you have fun, but neither is forcing yourself to play a game you're not vibing with.

A let's play or fan-made cutscene movie will do just fine. They're pretty easy to find these days, lots of 'first time playing' LP's too if you want to watch a fellow newbie play something. I'd recommend an LP over a movie on the merits of getting to see what the gameplay is like. You can judge for yourself if you'd want to give it (another) shot then.

Q: "Isn't the story actually super confusing nonsense? I've heard this one a lot."

A: This is kind of true but also a little exaggerated. Not that different to any long-running series TBH, it's just better when you actually see it yourself instead of someone doing a lore dump that might as well be complete net zero information.

This reputation also stems from the "all these games are important but spread across different platforms for some goddamn reason?" issue, now since solved by the collections, but the general writing is gonna be the way it is no matter what. You'll just have to accept it and let the occasional cringe or cheesy dialogue just wash over you. Keep your disbelief in suspense, the surprise tools the story drops may more resemble cow tools, but they will end up helping later. Eventually. Probably.

Q: "What about Union X? Dark Road? Melody of Memory? Missing Link? Where do these fit in?."

A: I mean, basically don't worry about it, by the time you would start having to think about them you're likely roped in and deep down the rabbit hole anyway. I'll explain anyway, though.

Back Cover is meant to cover most major elements from Union X, and in my experience it served fine for understanding those for KH3 if that's your concern. Union X and Dark Road cover Deep Lore Story Content, and while important in that way, they aren't exactly majorly required IMO. Union X is no longer playable anyway, so you'd be looking at YouTube videos for it. Dark Road is similar (but still playable), and Missing Link is, well, missing right now.

Melody of Memory I don't know much about beyond it not currently off of consoles (Switch PS4 and XBox) and being after KH3. Again if you're this far in you'll check it out somehow so. Don't worry about it.

Q: "Why bother with this series at all, and why should I even care? Especially since it's such a huge investment of my time?"

A: Why do, play, or invest in anything? Because it's fun!! These games have been popular and have a hugely passionate fanbase for a reason. If everyone thought it sucked hugely it couldn'tve had such strong staying power or even gotten as far as it has. If you like Disney, Final Fantasy, real-time action JRPGs, and are at least curious about the story I'd say go for it! It's not a series for everyone, and like said way earlier if you're even a little unsure just get the 1.5+2.5 collection by itself so your investment is relatively minimal.

Q: "Why DO you care so much about if newbies have a good time or not?"

A: Because I like this series and -- somewhat selfishly -- want others to have a good time with it, too. Whether people actually end up liking these games is up to them to decide but I'd at least like to offer help starting off on the right foot, I guess.

Q: "Accessibility for disabled players?"

A: Good question, I'm not actually sure and googling isn't helping me out on this. I found one article but it's about KH3 specifically, I found nothing for any other games in the series.

For the concerned, you may encounter the following things: Fine motor controls for combat, platforming, minigames, as a general gameplay requirement; visuals can often get cluttered with Effects from attacks etc; Dialogue boxes and menus may be hard to read especially during focused gameplay; Donald is Donald and is hard to understand without subtitles.

--!!This Should Help!!--

Game difficulty is a choice before starting, and there are 0 negatives to playing on Beginner. There's even benefits! Only downside is "you don't unlock the secret movie" which is effectively meaningless. Most of them are previews of whatever the 'next' game is anyway.

Ability to 'lock on' to enemies focuses the camera to look/you to attack in that direction. Not applicable to every situation -occasionally can add to confusion if the camera got stuck on something- but useful for orientation at minimum.

Audio cues in general are very present across the game's everything, you WILL know when you're at critical HP and the bosses will make distinct sounds and the same voice line for their big attacks before they do them.

Pausing the game works at any time, even when it won't bring up inventory/options for you. Use this to orient yourself and in KH2 onward you can see reminders/hints during some battles or events.

Shortcuts for items and spells are available, and are highly recommended to be used in general.

Subtitles are present in all cutscenes, as well as field dialogue in later games. Dialogue bubbles for unvoiced scenes usually do not disappear without player input.

If all else fails, guides and walkthroughs are plentiful.

I'll end this off here, I think if I tried to do more that I'd never finish this at all, but feel free to ask any further questions! Be they gameplay questions or about what the hell is going on at some part. I'll be happy to help!

~*May Your Heart Be Your Guiding Key*~

[noirapocalypto]

for the love day game! 🤎 and ❤️ for casey and baz <3

Thank you so so much!! 💕 [ Love Day Emoji Ask ]

I've actually already answered these two in previous posts 😅 But I'll still copy/paste them here 💕 with some further expanding!

»»———-　ᴠᴇʀᴅᴇ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ　———-««

❤️ Who is the more romantic one? Do they wish their partner was more romantic?

Both are pretty romantic, in their own weird/unorthodox way. They balance each other out very well because of their bond. Where Casey lacks, Baz makes up for and vice versa. Baz is spontaneous and has a sense of adventure, whereas Casey is a bit more mellow and tends to lean towards more quiet nights in. I don't think the either mind though. Casey gets to experience things he might have never gotten to experience without Baz, whereas Bastien gets to experience stability and gentle intimacy that he's not really used to. They're both happy with how the other expresses romance.

Bonus addition:

Their different approaches to romance actually did clash with the other when their relationship was still platonic and they were seeing other people. 🤭Back when they were young adults, they sometimes double dated with Bastien trying to pull the date one way and Casey trying to pull the other way. Sometimes Baz would suggest the group go to concert or some sort of rowdy show while Casey had just planned for a quiet movie date or even something a bit more calm like peaceful hike/walk through a park. More often than not, the two couples would just go their separate ways if they really wanted their date to work out. Other times, the two boys would end up going home alone thanks to their chaotic double date. 😂It wasn't until it was with each other, than they began to appreciate how the other goes about trying to impress and woo.

🤎 How do they comfort each other?

Bastien absolutely needs vocal reassurance and physical affection. Whenever he's having a moment, whether it's out of anger or sadness or panic, the moment Casey hugs him and reassurances Baz that he's okay and that he's 'got him', the other starts to calm down. And since Casey's a naturally affectionate person, this comes easy to him and he won't hesitate to become Baz's literal safety blanket. Bastien needs to feel loved and treasured.

When it's Casey's turn, he wants his feelings to be validated and acknowledged. Baz doesn't have to understand, he just needs to listen. He also responds well to physical affection, which Bastien is more than happy to provide. Casey's a bit more emotionally sensitive, so out of the two, he's likely the one to cry a bit easily when overwhelmed. He wants Baz's shoulder to cry on. Casey's comfort is feeling protected and taken care of.

Bonus addition:

When it comes to situations that aren't too dire or big of a deal, they both turn to more casual but thoughtful ways to try and cheer the other up when they have a bit of a storm cloud over their head. Whenever Casey's bummed out about something, Bastien cooks for him. Baz is the cook of the family, or at least, the one that's very, very good at it (he claims its thanks to his cajun side). Baking is also in his skill-set and he knows exactly what treats Casey likes. So whenever Casey's moping around, Baz surprises him with his favorite: a big plate of New Orleans style beignets.

When it's Bastien's turn to be a gloomy boy, Casey turns to humor. Bastien closes up, and walks around the place with a long face and a stiff demeanor. And that's when Casey tries to make him laugh because if there's anything Bastien likes, it's laughing his ass off. It never works the first time, with Baz determined to remain stoic. He'll even brush it off with a "I know what you're trying to do, it ain't gonna work". But pun after pun, joke after joke, his wall begins to break down and he begins trying to hide his smiles/keep from chuckling. Eventually though, Casey has him rolling and he's forgotten what was bothering him at the start.

[fordp1nes]

Why is banban bad plural red I watched like. A third of snoepy (?)'s playthrough of game 1

you guys are good, dw! i wouldn't necessarily call it bad rep (although you could definitely make a case for that), but it's definitely among the worst rep of 2023! banban and gollum shits below the cut:

for me, the distinction between bad rep and worst rep goes something like this:

bad rep is a portrayal of plurality that ends up being harmful in its depiction- think something like split. the movie goes above and beyond trying to demonize its system villain, and (though it did bring some visibility to plurals) ultimately i think it's safe to say it did more harm than good.

worst rep, at least to me, is where the characters' source game/movie/whatever is flawed in however it executes its depiction! here is where gollum & smeagol come in also. the TL;DR is that, in-game, they're a system of 2 members who were formed after smeagol encountered the One Ring and fuckshit happened. their plurality is actually a mechanic in-game.

here's some screencaps from the gollum game. because gollum & smeagol are the main characters of the game, someone came up with the decision to let the player take sides in internal arguments. this, on paper, is a cool mechanic! however, in practice, this concept didn't work out. because the game sucked.

so for the sake of the argument, let's boil it down to this:

good and bad are a scale of the representation's harmfulness vs accuracy/positive portrayal, and best to worst is a scale of the rep's source media and its quality. of course, i think this is all much more complicated than what we've got going on here, but it's a start for what we're gonna do.

so far, we've basically got this kind of thing going on:

i haven't seen split outside of the plural community's reaction to the movie, so i think i'm not equipped to rank if the movie itself was the best-of whenever-the-hell-it-came-out or not. besides, my opinion is inherently biased anyway.

garten of banban, on the other hand, i feel more equipped to talk about!

let me just start off, plain and simple. i can't find a single metric by which these games (specifically 3 and 4- they discuss and portray banban's plurality the most, and came out this year (i think)) would be the "best of 2023". i think, in terms of relatively well-known games, we can safely mark this game as among the worst- which is why i included it with gollum on my previous post.

in terms of good vs bad, i also happen to think banban (the character, not the game)'s plurality is also not fantastic rep. i'll spare you the details (because i fucking hated every second of witnessing this game), but essentially, banban is composed of 2 "sides"- the memories and core personality of his genetic donor, dr. uthman adam, and his "base instincts" (i can't remember the exact wording. i refuse to go back into scorpy's vod to check, and the banban wiki seems to be written by literal children.). obviously, this plays a lot into the "evil alter" trope (and he literally hulks out like a damn cartoon character), and in-game banban seems to REALLY WANT to suppress that side of him down. if they played this like Actual Plurality- like uthman being a factive (which would be FASCINATING if the lore was actually good), and the base-instincts side being some sort of persecutor/protector- it would work. but as it stands now, banban (character) is bad rep, and garten of banban (game) is one of the worst games he could be in.

so that leaves us about here!

of course, obligatory reminder that every system is different, not all systems have roles for their headmates, and so on. if you& (rhetorical, not directed at sender of the ask) see yourselves in any of these depictions, that's perfectly fine and i wish y'all well.

thank you for coming to my TED talk that made witnessing Garten of BullShit retroactively a little more tolerable. i look forward to more worst plural rep shitposting in the future

(p.s; i control-F'd for the amount of parentheses in this post and i hit ~14 parenthese'd segments. i love including additional information that is not necessary to understand things)

(p.p.s; i've pluralposted on cohost about some of my favorite rep in different media/s, if anyone wants to hear some of my other takes i'm more than happy to type something else up or crosspost smth)