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#i haven't been in a relationship since 2005
evermore-fashion · 2 months
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Did I make a mistake?
As you're all well aware of I said goodbye to my blogs and Tumblr thinking my decision was final. However after reading all your wonderful messages I started to have doubts about my decision. So for the last few weeks I've been trying to pinpoint why I thought I had fallen out of love with high end fashion as well as Tumblr itself and the answer has been in front of my face for the best part of four years. A broken down friendship that has been plaguing my mental health… until recently and I'm going to finally explain why. I had a best friend for the best part of 15 years that went downhill both slowly and unexpectedly. We met on a forum back in 2005 and hit it off instantly. We then met up and went on various holidays, attended concerts together, did mini weekend breaks away and got to know each other's families really well. More importantly they were the only person in my life who knew about this blog and shared my love for high end fashion. Like most friendships though it had its ups and downs but no matter what we always gravitated back towards one another, until March 2020. A week or so before COVID and lockdown took hold of our lives they told me they had met someone. I was genuinely happy for them, except for the fact they had let slip that I was the last person to know. This broke my heart and their trust as they continued to let slip more details that indicated that I was being pushed out in favour of a new crowd (aka university friends who they had told me they disliked a few months beforehand) alongside their new partner. They stayed with their partner on and off throughout COVID and I was either pushed out the door or let back in depending on their relationship status. The relationship came to an end for good towards the end of 2022 and as always I was let back into their life with plans for 2023 being made. However I held back knowing the hurt it would cause me if things suddenly changed again. This was also my breaking point with them as I wanted to protect my heart from anymore hurt, and I believe this is where my love for creativity began to faulter. Whilst I found my love for gaming I felt this mental block around Evermore-Fashion and Evermore-Grimoire which I thought was down to my passions changing. I was clearly wrong. The friendship was up and down for another six months, until last summer. They had got back in contact with me despite the fact they had started acting cold towards me which manifested in a crap Christmas and Birthday. Yet I was still willing to hear their side of the story, but it never came as they ghosted me and I haven't spoken to them since which hasn't been fun to deal with both mentally and emotionally. Although I now fully believe this is what was killing my spirit and everything I had loved for so long. Anyway fast forward to January 2024, I've said goodbye to my blogs and Tumblr when lo and behold I come across a social media post that changed everything. The ex friend had written something personal that contradicted everything they had told me (over their relationship break up) which not only angered me but it lit a fire under my butt to stop stewing in the "what ifs?" as well as holding on to a small bit of hope that they'd finally apologise for treating me like a piece of shit on the back of their shoe for so long. Not only that but I started to miss why I enjoyed being online in the first place. I checked out Vogue to see what was occurring during Paris Fashion Week and I yearned to share the Spring 2024 Couture collections on Tumblr (even though I still think it's still a toxic cesspit). Yes I could easily start this up on Wordpress or Instagram but let's face it, Tumblr is still the easiest place to start blogging creatively. So here I am. The fog surrounding my love for fashion has lifted alongside the mental and emotional baggage I've been holding on to for far too long. There's just one thing I'm still wondering though… do you guys forgive me (as I feel like I've messed you all around ) and is it okay to come back? 🥹
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solisaureus · 11 months
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look this is gonna be a hard to swallow pill for the pjo fandom,
but the sun and the star is coming out at a really important time in the USA -- homophobia is on the rise, books like this are being restricted, and policies are being debated and passed to exterminate queer and trans people from the public sphere. having a positive example of a queer relationship in fiction, especially as part of a mega-popular middle grade series, is going to be important to a lot of the queer 10-14 year olds that make up this book's main demographic.
i have never, ever seen a percy jackson book have such a negative reception online. and it's just a coincidence that this is the first queer-focused installment of the series?
people are seeing the extent of the hate and thinking they shouldn't bother reading tsats at all, that they have already heard enough from people who hate the book. I have had people reblog my positive posts and say "maybe i'll give this book a chance, this is the first nice post i've seen about it." that's really fucking sad yall.
maybe tsats wasn't what you expected, maybe it contradicted your headcanons, maybe you prefer ships other than solangelo. you don't have to like tsats. but the amount of vocal hate for it is ridiculous. other pjo books do not get this kind of hate -- picking apart and complaining about every tiny little detail, ridiculing the writing style of both authors, mocking the attempts at sincerity, even sometimes mocking people who did like the book.
i have never seen this harsh of a response before (and i'm old -- I've been a percy jackson reader since the lightning thief came out in 2005) and especially not from such large portions of the fandom to the point where people who haven't read it are feeling discouraged from doing so.
Please look at the big picture. your opinions don't exist in a vacuum. maybe this is a hot take, but at some point the hate is indistinguishable from how homophobes talk about queer fiction. i'm just saying there are better things to turn your anger towards, and if you hated this book so much just do what the rest of us do and write fucking fanfiction to make yourself feel better. fucks sake
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f-t-e · 5 months
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I started watching SUPERNATURAL in November 2020. I know, I know. My partner and I had been isolating alone since March. The timing felt right. I went though a wild amount of upheaval and trauma over the next year and SPN was there for me through it all. It was THE show at THE time and it kept me afloat when I needed it the most. Since November 2021 I've written just about 110,000 words of SPN fanfic, a number that seems unbelievable to me, and that too has been a real blessing to my creative life, no matter what haters say. (why didn't I write my own novels in that time? Because I have a hobby, Karen, and I love it.) And I've read about 500000x that much fanfic, which has been the biggest blessing of all. (ETA: oh right, if you want to read my fic, you can find my stuff here, I wrote a fic where Dean reads books. Lots of books.)
I know I'm a nobody in this fandom but I thought on this, our #DestielDay, I would submit my own humble rec list. I've curated this very deliberately: every fic here has just about 4000 hits or less (most under 3000) and all were published in 2020 or after. So, sort of a rec list for some lesser known and newer fics, something you maybe haven't stumbled on yet. Especially thank you to @jewishcharliebradbury, her rec lists gave me a place to start back in the day and I have tried to model the depth and quality they brought to their lists. I tried to link to everyone's tumblr, but if I missed one, let me know.
Most of all, thank you to everyone who has EVER created something for this fandom, from 2005 to 2023. I am so thankful and, honestly, honored to be among your number. You're not supposed to be cringe and say a show saved your life...but SUPERNATURAL saved me, it really did. See y'all when the movie/reboot drops, to quote Ryan Gosling in The Notebook: IT WASN'T OVER, IT STILL ISN'T OVER. And I'm glad.
-----
Finale Fix-It & S15 and Beyond
What The Moon Was Saying by Amiril (@runawaymarbles)
This is hands-down one of the coolest “Dean Rescues Cas from the Empty” fics I have ever read and the concept is brilliantly structured to mirror the literal and metaphorical things Dean needs to give up and let go to get free. Every scenario is very satisfying and they make sense, is there any better feeling? Dean is very open in this, but in a believable way that still has edges. And, oh, the reunion is so good. Plus all the family stuff. Just excellent, exactly what you want in a fic like this: lovely, well-written, smart, fulfilling, all the pieces clicking, the show but better.
Awake and Annoying by skycruise
I love the use and passage of time in this one, it has some real impact, and I love the way Dean gets into the Empty (so smart, fits just right) and what I REALLY love in this one is the way it lets Dean be really clear-eyed and honest about his relationship with Sam, both the strengths and the weaknesses. And the last line, very clever and moving inverse of one of fandom’s favorite things. 
Living the life you chose by allthismusic
THEEEEE post finale Sam Winchester-Outsider-POV this fandom needs. Sam is absolutely awesome in this, the most believable, loving, realistic mix of “I knew all along” and “I had no idea” versions of Sam, landing somewhere I think that’s really true and in character. It fills in and develops so many gaps and silences in what the show let Sam know in the absolute best way. Best Brother Sam is a weakness of mine and he really shines here, there for Dean in the best ways but also coming into his own, I love it so very much. (this author also has a very great 2022 Big Bang fic, hugely recommend that one too.)
your ear to the wound that whispers by EmandFandems (@lazarusemma)
Who doesn’t love a HANDPRINT FIC?!? And boy this is such a good one. It follows Dean and his thoughts on the handprint from the first touch all the way to fixing the finale and it simply buzzes with longing and desire, tenderness and rawness. It’s great insight in lot of ways into Dean’s journey. It’s short but fulfilling and oh that very perfect last line. (this author also has a lot of great Jupernatural content.)  
Somewhere Off in the Dark by magickastiel 
Another awesome fic that traces Dean’s shifting/growing feelings for Cas from when he shows up in his hotel rooms to a HEA fix it after canon. Dean, again, is handled so deftly in this one, his confusion and sorrow at all the times Cas is slipping away from him all the way through the things he won’t let himself know. He feels really true in this one, sharp and tender in the best Dean ways. Also it has an agonizingly romantic end, you love to end up there.
Pins and Feathers by theskywasblue (@buttherewasnogod)
This author has so many freaking good SPN fics, omg it was almost impossible to pick just one to include on this list. Go treat yourself with their entire list because there’s so much good stuff there! But this one, oh I am a sucker for a finale fix-it that lets Dean be this tender. While I LOVE fics where he just jumps right into Cas’s arms (and write them lol) I also feel like this is so true to Dean too: that “maybe I misunderstood, maybe I shouldn’t say anything, maybe he doesn’t still –” And on top of all that, it’s a “they go the beach” fic and it gets the details of it so right, sand in your toes and all. Tender, amazing slow-burn, real, hot, full of heart and longing and everything unspoken and just waiting. Very satisfying!
i loved you first by kalmialatifolia
A set of four short fics that create an entire world of feeling and emotion. These feel like little whispered stories told under the covers, very atmospheric. There’s one very sexy one, a haircutting one (so good) and they’re just intimate. All together a great set and did I mention they’re in the “Cas saves himself” genre which is mmmm an underrated treasure.
no other faith is light enough for this place by anonymous 
A fix-it fic that has a particularly unique and beautiful visual of both how and why Cas comes back. The mechanics behind it are fairly standard but the way this author creates the visual of it, the sheer emotion and force behind it and how it happens, it really stood out to me and stuck with me. It’s Dean being brave enough to really feel and the way that just blossoms – lovely, aching, full-tilt wonderful.
 no proof, one touch by TakeThisWaltz (@watchinghimrakeleaves)
One thing I absolutely cannot get enough of is fic where Cas is hiding out from Dean in heaven. It just hits. And the only thing better is Dean chasing him down and the WAY he does it in this fic, methodically and – well the method (sobs) it is so endearing and OBVIOUS and gives Dean a chance to shout in all the best ways. This one is just real sweet and kind of goofy and if they have to be in heaven, I want them to still be these same two dorks.
Stay by redbrickrose
This is a post S15x18 from Cas’s POV and I think it’s very true to where he would be in the moment of getting yanked out of the Empty: resigned, hesitant about what he has in front of him, still a little in shock. And then. And then. Sweet and simple and Dean gets a chance to say, say, say it. This author has a good post series AU and a lovely little spate of S15 codas, all good. And then wrote this in real-time in the week after 15x18 Despair and right before 15x19 Inherit the Earth aired (could you just sob over the possibilities?!) and then hasn’t wrote anything since and that’s a shame but, like, yeah I get it.
like a one-two punch by Muir_Wolf (@muirmarie)
Don’t you love a short fic that feels like it’s a whole novel? This goes AU after 14x20 Moriah but it is a truly delightful twist on how Chuck could’ve reacted there and it makes Dean sharp as a knife, which is one really resonant image woven through this fic. Great imagery here and so many clever solutions for the lazy plotting of S15, including simply one of my all-time favorites in any fic ever solutions to Cas’s deal (genius) and getting rid of Chuck. Brilliant like a puzzle box yet still full of so much fucking joy.
maybe i like pleasure pain by tothewillofthepeople (@kvothes)
The fact that this was written in October 2023 and is so agonizingly good fills my heart with joy and tells me Destiel will never die lol. Cas, in particular, is great in this – he’s having a hard time adjusting to being in a body and with all the fuzz of the world. I love fics where Cas struggles with coming back from the Empty and this uses a really unique approach to it: Cas facing sensory overload and not knowing how to feel but wanting it all. Lovely, hot, Dean is just right in this too.
Earlier Canon (pre S15)
Proverbs 13:12 by starlingcas (@angelcasendgame)
Many might say I am biased because Renu has beta’ed everything I have written in the SPN fandom and they can read my brain and make everything I write better. But it’s not just that. Renu has done something beautiful and delicate in this fic, which is about Dean and Cas getting trapped in a net together (forced proximity trope, yes please) and weaves a web of its own; pulling you in just as they are pulled together. This is set mostly in early S14 (before fixing the finale in the most heart-healing way) and captures that feeling so well. There’s so much that’s unsaid between them yet still conveyed and Renu absolutely nails that, along with the tender longing that was always there. This is a fic to relish.
you may tire of me (as our december sun is setting) by deludedfantasy
You know how the show just sometimes is like “uh so anyway uh then Cas…uh…left.” and it just doesn’t make one lick of sense? FINALLY FINALLY a fic where Dean says “I’ll go with you,” and then goes because he actually would do that. This is a post Tombstone fic so it is exactly where/when he WOULD go and it is tender and hesitant and aching in just all the ways it would be between the two of them at this time. It’s about needing to keep someone in sight, it’s about having another chance to say something so important, it’s slow and soft and just right for the characters in this place. I could read this one about 100 times.
the anatomy of flightless birds by cowlovely (@dollhousemary)
This fic is basically the way you feel when you get all cozy and snug underneath your favorite blanket. This is a domestic-life-in-the Bunker S9 fic where everyone behaves like they are in character and not just like they have to get Cas off screen because the writers panicked. You’ll just want to curl up in this fic and savor it the way you wrap your fingers around a hot beverage on a very cold day, there’s no better way to describe it.
virtue by JenTheSweetie
I think I’ve read this about 100 times and it still gets me everytime? It’s a five things fic about Dean and Cas hooking up and it’s all you’ve ever wished for. This is set in an amorphous S8 and it is not just agonizingly hot but also romantic and very funny. It feels really in character! Sam is hilarious, Dean is clueless but bowled over and letting himself be swept up, Cas is delighting in every second and smarter than he lets on and it ALL feels fated and lovely and sexy and just splendid. (this author only has 3 SPN fics but they are all so good and if you try sometimes, well you just might find is an absolutely brilliant deconstruction of Dean learning the differences between “needing” and “wanting.”)
Romance at the Motel 6 by shelia_amour 
This fic makes me feel like Stefon from SNL. This fic has everything: Cas and Sam pretending to be married, just the right amount of jealous Dean, Dean randomly pretending to be married to Cas, Dean realizing maybe this isn’t so fake after all, motel vibes, Cas in Dean’s clothes, Cas getting bee slippers. If you are not sold on this already, we are very different people. So good, aches just right. (set in a kind of “whenever” of canon, but I like to put it somewhere in S8.)
que sera sera by Purple_Starflower (@hauntedpearl)
The epitome of how fanfic unfolds for us all the things that COULD happen. You can’t PROVE to me Dean and Cas never snuck off to snuggle and feed Dean’s touch-starvation early in S13. I had to check when I finished because I just couldn’t believe this fic was under 4000 words because it feels so full of touch, longing, the things unspoken, and all the ways Dean was reaching, reaching, reaching. The best kind of ache, and everything by this author is lovely. 
the hard edge that you’re settling for by lesspopped (@trekkiedean)
This is some S10 Demon!Dean that made my stomach hurt and my heart ache and I absolutely loved it and I absolutely hated it and it all felt so REAL with who Demon!Dean was and could have been. There’s a TW for mildly dubious consent in this, but to me, Cas was so agonizingly true to who he was/where he was at this point in canon too. This fic is gloriously, claustrophobically intimate. I say unbearable because as a reader you know that this closeness, this intimacy, is what Dean wants/craves/deserves but can only give himself as a demon and the author does an exquisite job at getting all that across. Hurts so good! 
four of swords by sundryvillians (eurythmix) (@perenial)
Can the world ever have enough post 12x12 fic? The answer is, of course, no. Dean and Cas bake bread and in the soft space of creating something with their own hands, get so close to the words Cas said. It’s about healing and anger and making something just because you are so tired of everything breaking. If that alone isn’t enough to convince you, let me also throw in this is another one of those “possible off-screen moments in canon” that gives them something honest and tender and raw and it feels so very possible. 
Fifteen Prayers From the Faithless by koyas_cat
Short, achy, that sweet sting. A set of prayers for Cas from the beginning to the end, full of all the things Dean doesn’t let himself say outloud and just reflecting the changes in their connection over alllll the years. So good.
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mysterycitrus · 5 months
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hi! i' m really loving persephone but i was a little confused about how you're writing jason (and roy). i read through the author's note but i havent read a tonne of earlier comics yet so i just wanted to ask about your characterisation of him? its really different from other fic ibe read
hello! firstly, thank u for the question. i included that chunky list of comics at the beginning of persephone cause i knew how i was writing some of the characters (SPECIFICALLY jason and roy lmao) would be pretty different from popular mainstream interpretations of them. even if most people can acknowledge rhato 2011 was a bad comic these days, it's still (unfortunately) a foundational comic for a lot of jason fans.
the long answer is jason is a very popular character, but because he hasn't had an actual good comic since 2005 a lot has to be filled in to make him a "consistant" character. if u actually analyse any of his modern comics with knowledge of other characters, u would probably notice that: a) 99% of his relationships are stolen from dick grayson wholesale, with no development, b) 99% of what makes him popular was stolen wholesale from characters like selina kyle, helena bertinelli, and stephanie brown, and c) that everything politically interesting about his concept has been watered down to like... a sometimes angry dude who doesn't even use guns anymore.
roy is a separate issue - i truly dont believe most people who identify as royandjason fans have read anything preboot about roy, cause otherwise they'd understand that he would not do any of the things he does in rhato, and he definately wouldn't be besties with his best friends thirteen year old brother.
jason as he exists in fan spaces is a guy who is devoid of nuance, and is basically a reskinned 90s dick grayson stand in. that's not interesting to me. his original conception - the fact that he's from park row, he struggles with violence, he was a fundamentally kind person who isn't anymore because of things outside his control..... that's someone who could engage with batman's legacy in a cool way! a guy with his own moral values who does terrible things but still believes in the inherent value of his personal crusade! when i was writing him, it was important that yes, he can be quippy and fun, but he's also a person who's done a lot of fucked up things, and people aren't going to just roll over and think he's the coolest guy ever cause the writer treats him like a self insert.
the short answer is that im a roy harper fan and i haven't known peace since 2011.
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yanderes-galore · 4 months
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Hi can I request some yandere earthspark bumblebee? With a Terran(idk if that’s how you spell it) darling, Who can’t transform? You can chose how they can’t transform.( idk if you watched g1 but the war last up till 2005 so we are like 22-23 year old)
I get what you're trying to say but Terrans didn't exist until the series starts from what I recall so I'm just going to keep this a platonic mentor/student relationship.
I apologize if something is off, I'm still not very far in Earthspark!
Yandere! ES! Platonic! Bumblebee with Terran! Darling who can't transform
Pairing: Platonic
Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Overprotective behavior, Parental yandere, Poor self-esteem (Darling), Manipulation, Dubious/Forced family dynamic.
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Bumblebee is naturally protective of the Terrans in his care.
He has been given the important role of mentor to them, at first he's very poor at it but he learns quickly with help from the Malto family.
The Malto family has taught him what it's like to have family after so long.
Especially since he plays baby-sitter most of the time to the twins and the Terrans.
Speaking of Terrans... you're one of the newest Terrans introduced into the family.
However, unlike most in your species, you struggle with Transforming.
It's an odd revelation to the family.
Sure, Twitch and Thrash struggled with transforming at first... but you can't just in general?
Bumblebee doesn't believe you can't transform at first.
He recalls what it took for Twitch and Thrash to transform before trying to mentor you.
By the time he meets you he's used to playing teacher and tries to help.
He teaches you how to scan, how to prepare to transform...
He suggest vehicles... animals... things like that.
Yet after days... maybe weeks... you just can't.
The fact you're a Transformer who can't transform messes with you.
You begin to feel you're defective as a Terran.
Maybe you really are... or just haven't met the requirements to achieve that ability yet?
Either way... for now you feel you're a failure and it ruins your self-esteem.
Bumblebee feels pity for you... he can't entirely understand what you're feeling but doesn't like seeing a student of his upset.
The other Terrans most likely try to help you feel better also... but you keep trying to wall yourself off.
Bumblebee doesn't allow you to isolate yourself.
Even when you try to close yourself off, Bumblebee promises to be there for you.
He ends up growing attached as he wants you to feel successful.
Plus he hasn't really given up on training you to transform.
Bumblebee most likely grows overprotective of you, more than the other Terrans.
He protects the other Terrans but feels nervous about you.
Without the ability to transform you're like a sitting duck.
You can't use blasters, you have no alternative mode...
You're vulnerable until you gain those abilities... if you even can.
As a result, Bumblebee takes it upon himself to protect you.
What better way than keeping you at the Malto home?
You feel envious of the fact that other Terrans get to go out and do things while you're stuck at home.
Yet Bumblebee says it's too dangerous, until you can prove that you're fine on your own he's keeping you here.
This gives you some hope which makes you train more.
In reality, Bumblebee doesn't plan on letting you go out on your own.
Even if you could be forged a weapon to use to defend yourself, you couldn't go under cover.
What if someone saw you!?
As your mentor... Bumblebee feels this is the safest action to take.
He'll give you some hope to make you happy, but you should know he's just doing what a mentor should!
He's keeping his student safe.
Bumblebee would coddle you, he's attached and wants you to live a good life away from danger.
For a little while, maybe you're fine with it.
Yet seeing the same environment day after day is boring.
That and training takes a toll on you... with no visible results.
After this you plead with Bumblebee to allow you to leave.
Your mentor refuses the idea, reciting the usual reason.
Maybe this makes you try to run away?
You won't get far, of course, since Bumblebee always has an optic on you.
If/when you're caught by Bumblebee he drags you back.
Why can't you see the bigger picture?
He's protecting you!
Yet, in your eyes, Bumblebee is keeping you prisoner at your own home.
He is always nearby, if he has to leave he has someone watch you.
He hates having another Terran watch you though as he feels they'll cause trouble and get you hurt.
You crave freedom... but your own issues prevent you from pursuing it.
Bumblebee says he'll let you explore more with him when/if you can transform.
But who knows if that time will ever come? He may not even let you go if you could by this point.
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notbecauseofvictories · 6 months
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*taps gently on your window* you said you like the history of chicago? do you have any fun facts specifically related to the history of chicago as the original and eternal capital of pinball? any tidbits that ideally would beyond those found in a typical timeline of pinball history? (ignore this ask if you don’t know anything and/or aren’t interested in the topic ofc)
Weirdly enough, I do! Maybe not a lot, but I know that---much like alcohol---Chicago tried to ban gambling and gaming periodically throughout the 20th century. And I know that---also like alcohol---they failed, completely and utterly.
For those of you not in the know, Chicago technically "banned" pinball games from the 40s to the 70s. Technically, the city enforced such prohibitions.
Technically.
Due to selective enforcement and honestly, people just straight up ignoring the law, Chicago became a powerhouse of gaming activity anyway. Pinball games were part and parcel of that process. I'm talking about Chicago Coin, which was founded in the 1930s, but didn't achieve true success until they started churning out pinball games in the 1960s and 70s. Bally Manufacturing was into pinball games and slot machines long before it ever sold tennis rackets and activewear. Williams Electronics/WMS industries hit the jackpot in 1981 when it produced Defender. (The company has since moved to Las Vegas.) There's a whole complicated history to explore, and I highly encourage everyone to do so.
However, my absolute favorite bit of writing about the city and its symbiotic relationship with pinball is this Chicago Reader piece. It's very clearly an elegy to a dying art form---written in 2005, it's clear that the world of pinball machines is passing away. Still, it loves the arcades of old. Even today pinball games represent an enormous, significant weight on the fabric of the city; sitting in my apartment right now, I'm about a 10 minute walk away from the nearest pinball machine. (Maybe less, I haven't been to every bar in my neighborhood.)
In short, there's a reason that the Pinball Expo has been happening here since 1985---Chicago is the uncrowned queen of the flippers.
So who cares if John E. Cassidy tried to ban them, or that there was an even older 1895 prohibition against mechanical gambling devices? They're as Chicagoan as ketchup-less hotdogs, and complaining about construction on the Kennedy.
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likeabxrdinflight · 4 months
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What is your take on Azula's relationship with Zuko? There's a lot of talk about her rivalry with him, but I find it more intriguing to talk about their other facets, like the implication that Azula deep down actually cares about her brother.
There's this odd phenomenon that's been happening in what I'll call ATLA fandom 2.0 (the post-netflix revival) where it seems like you have to pick a side- Zuko or Azula. If you stan one, you can't stan the other. And I haven't cared for that since, frankly, those two (alongside best girl Katara) are easily my favorite characters. So I'm not all that interested in "picking sides" and I'm not all that interested in them as rivals either. That said, it's important to note that their position in opposition to each other is important to the story the show is telling.
Azula is a character in her own right, but she's also a narrative device. As an antagonist, Azula is Zuko's most direct foil. She's his dark mirror, his evil twin (narratively speaking.) So when she's on top of the world, he's hit rock bottom, and vice versa. She represents the worst of the Fire Nation and is everything he could become if he were to give into his worst instincts (again, this is all speaking symbolically, their personalities are quite different). But because of this, she had to fall for him to rise. It's very effective storytelling within the three seasons of the show. Unfortunately that meant there wasn't much room within those three seasons to showcase any more nuance in their relationship.
I'm always torn on this decision by the showrunners, because on the one hand, it's a huge part of why Zuko's story arc is as effective as it is. And all my biases aside, Zuko's arc is very effective and, for a children's show released in 2005, pretty smartly written. It gets a bit overblown by the fandom, it's a pretty basic redemption arc at the end of the day, but it's still a well executed one and I think it's dishonest to pretend it isn't. On the other hand, it came at the cost of actually developing the relationship between Azula and Zuko and, arguably, of Azula's character as a whole. She isn't allowed to have her own arc independent of Zuko because she really only exists (from a writing standpoint) to be that dark mirror. She's not Aang et al's main antagonist. She's Zuko's. She doesn't really get to do much outside that role.
All that said I do think it goes without saying that Azula cares for Zuko. I think it also goes without saying that Zuko cares for Azula too, but he's ironically worse at expressing it (within the main series at least). Because of the way the show was written, however, none of this can be explored except in supplemental material or fanworks. And supplemental material has been...lacking, I think, in that department.
There's some awesome fanworks out there that explore their dynamic, though. I really do encourage people to go back into the archives and find stuff written years ago because stuff written at the time the show was airing/right when it ended are some of the best. The show hadn't yet been lionized as much and fandom opinions of the characters hadn't yet crystallized into what they are now (and also the comics and lok didn't exist so no one had to deal with that.)
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aidanchaser · 4 months
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This fic is owed to @valiantlyjollynightmare for the original and @ladyofthenoodle for a full 3 rounds of beta reading. I haven't had so much redrafting of a fic or intensive beta reader work since I was writing the HP AU. She was truly a phenomenal help, and her work paid off. Please drop her a thank you for organizing the @mlsquaredance event and all her incredible hard work on this one-shot.
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Read the original work here.
Read the remix on Ao3 or below.
Marinette left her phone on her bedside table as she trudged downstairs. She was done checking messages and pictures, and she was done with tears.
Luka had made his choice. He was on tour again, probably having a great time without her, and there was no sense scrolling through his posts for any signs that he missed her. She certainly didn’t miss him. She’d spent too much of their relationship missing him. Just because she was a bit horny didn’t mean she had to be sad about it.
But the apartment sure was quiet without him.
The refrigerator’s magnetic rubber seal broke that silence with a reluctant pop, and brilliant white light flooded the kitchen. Marinette squinted at her recently filled shelves.
Alya, Nino, and Adrien had been lifesavers after the breakup. Nino had filled her fridge with fresh vegetables; Alya had stocked her cabinets with bottles of wine. Adrien, whose finances were still a legal mess in the wake of his father’s passing, gave her his time.
She’d seen more of Adrien in the past two weeks since the breakup than she had seen of him in the past year while she had been dating Luka. He’d sat with her through her BBC Pride and Prejudice marathon, through three watches of Pride and Prejudice (2005), and through one watch of Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. He’d even offered to stay overnight, to keep her company, as if he knew that company was the way she coped, but she’d turned him down.
One of the challenges of being newly single was waking up at midnight with a very strong urge to be dicked down. She appreciated that Adrien was willing to hold her while she cried through romantic movies; she did not need Adrien to see her wrestling with the urge to roll her hips against his thigh, especially when she couldn’t even be sure that it was Adrien that she wanted. Adrien was a friend, and she wasn’t going to use him just to get some temporary fix. Yes, maybe she had liked Adrien once upon a time, but it was all too complicated now. Just creating a friendship with Adrien had been so much work. She didn’t want to mess it up and lose him.
Neither the vegetables nor the wine held any appeal, so she closed the fridge with a sigh. Marinette leaned against the cool silver door while her eyes readjusted to the dark of her kitchen. Maybe a cold shower was what she needed. She usually had no objections to a steamier shower, but she didn’t want to end up crying her way through an orgasm. She was done crying over Luka, she told herself. She was done feeling sorry for herself.
She opened up a cabinet and pulled down a bottle of olive oil and a jar of popcorn kernels. She’d just make herself a greasy, salty snack before setting into Emma (2020).
The stove clicked and sparked until the gas caught and the fire ignited with a woosh. Marinette poured in the olive oil and waited impatiently for it to sizzle with heat. As she picked up the jar of popcorn kernels, a thud on the small balcony patio of the apartment caught her attention, more muffled than the sparks of her stove, but just as sharp and sudden.
Through her gauzy curtains, silhouetted in the dim streetlight, she saw the shape of a person perched on her balcony. She might have been terrified, or at least startled, if it weren’t for the cat ears on the shadow’s head.
Marinette dumped the kernels into the sizzling oil then unlatched the patio doors.
“What are you doing here?” she said by way of greeting.
Ladybug saw Chat Noir for patrol regularly, of course. But Marinette had hardly seen him in the past year. When Luka had gone on his first tour, Chat Noir had held her while she’d cried, but once Luka had come home, he’d disappeared. Did he know Luka was gone again? Did he know that she and Luka were properly done?
“Making the midnight rounds,” he said easily. His voice was low, like a cat’s purr. “A hero’s work is never done.”
Marinette shifted the weight on her feet, unconsciously pressing her thighs against each other. It was irritating that even just the sound of Chat Noir’s voice was enough to warm her core. Maybe Emma would have to wait until Chat Noir was gone and she’d rubbed out the memory of his purr.
Chat Noir paused and his nose twitched. “Are you cooking in the middle of the night?”
“Just popcorn.”
“Midnight movie?” he asked.
Marinette crossed her arms over her chest and used her ankle to surreptitiously scratch an innocent itch on her calf. She tried not to think about Chat Noir on her couch with the low light of a movie and the weight of a blanket draped over them both. She tried not to think about scratching a different itch.
“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe I just wanted a snack.”
Beneath his mask, his green eyes glinted with a familiar mischief. One eyebrow quirked. “All for yourself?”
She wondered if he was simply asking if she was alone or if he was implying that he wanted to join her. She couldn’t help the icy edge in her reply as she said, “I don’t have a boyfriend anymore, if that’s what you’re asking.”
His perky ears seemed to flatten. It was his turn to shift his stance uncomfortably. He leaned against her patio table, but it wobbled uncertainly and he straightened. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Do you want company?”
There was something delicate in the question. Something in it nagged at her brain, and she recalled the text that Adrien had sent her that morning.
Do you want company today?
Of course she had said yes. She needed noise, she needed distraction, she needed to not be alone with her thoughts. And then she’d sent him home after dinner, because Adrien didn’t deserve to see her like this—sleepless, lonely, and horny.
But Chat Noir wasn’t Adrien.
She pursed her lips and quirked an eyebrow. “I’m certainly in the mood for company.”
His ears perked up again, as if they were perfectly attuned to the purr in her voice. He stepped closer. “And just what sort of snack are you in the mood for?”
“Something simple,” she said as the first kernel of popcorn popped.
The corner of his mouth twitched with a smile, but she thought—maybe she was just projecting her own heartache, but she thought—something in his eyes grew sad.
“I can keep things simple,” he whispered.
She pulled him into a kiss. It was sloppy and wet and she ran her hands through his hair to pull him against her as if she could consume all of him.
It wasn’t her first kiss with Chat Noir by any measure, not as Ladybug, certainly, nor even as Marinette. There’d been kisses done to break curses, kisses done under the weight of curses, kisses done and rejected—and one very wary, delicate kiss on Marinette’s balcony. Chat Noir had told her that he was in love with Ladybug, but, somehow, in the midst of his heartache and her longing, they had kissed. She’d apologized, promised him that it didn’t mean anything, that she was in love with Luka anyway. And a week later, she and Luka had started dating, and Chat Noir had stopped coming by Marinette’s balcony—at least until Luka’s first tour.
He seemed to have an uncanny sense for when she was lonely.
She rolled her hips against his thigh and moaned into his mouth as the popcorn on the stove began to rattle in earnest. His hand trailed down to her waist, but he hesitated as he reached her hip. That wouldn’t do.
Marinette grabbed his wrist and, without breaking their kiss, yanked him into her apartment. She backed into the kitchen counter and guided his padded leather gloves to the elastic waistband of her pajamas.
He took her invitation readily, slipping his fingers inside the soft satin of her underwear and into her damp folds. She hissed like the fire on her stove and moaned with a heat just as warm as his fingers pressed into her clit. She rolled her hips again, but he dropped his other hand back to her waist and held her in place. She whined as he set the pace of her pleasure and whined again as he broke their kiss.
He pressed his lips to her cheek and then to her ear. His hand continued to pump her as he whispered, “You’re letting your popcorn burn.”
She hadn’t noticed that the sound of popping kernels had ceased. She hadn’t caught the whiff of charred popcorn yet. And now that he pointed it out, she didn’t care.
“If you stop, I will kill you,” she hissed into his ear.
His laugh was deep in his throat, another purr of pleasure as he picked up his pace. She gasped and tipped her head back. He responded by pressing his lips against her throat. The sharp canines scraped her neck and she shivered. She was so familiar with those teeth, familiar with the way they scratched her tongue and now her exposed skin. It was those teeth that assured her that she had never met Chat Noir outside of their masks. She would know the shape of those fangs on sight.
If his claws had not chosen that moment to catch on her clit, sharp and poignant, it might have occurred to her that the canines were as conjured as his expressive ears.
Her entire body trembled and she bit down on her lip to hold in her moan, not because she was afraid to be loud but because she was afraid that her pleasure would break her if she indulged it too heavily.
Chat Noir, however, didn’t seem to notice her attempt at restraint. He flicked the tip of his thumb against her clit again and she choked on another moan. One of her hands tightened in his hair, and her other squeezed his waist like she was afraid he would evaporate. He sucked gently on her neck and curled his fingers up into her.
“Chat,” she whined and gasped as her fluids soaked his hand, as her orgasm rippled through her until she was boneless, pinned between him and the kitchen counter, and still he didn’t stop. “Chat,” she cried again, breath hitching as his thumb drew her up suddenly into another tight coil and release. “Chat, please—”
He dragged his lips back up to her ear, and his teeth nipped at her lobe. “I thought you’d kill me if I stopped,” he murmured.
“I think I’ll die if you don’t,” she gasped.
She felt the shape of his grin against her jaw. He pulled his hand out from her shorts and pulled her back into another soft, delicate kiss, just as wary and gentle as the kiss they had exchanged a year ago. Her first epiphany of the evening sparked without warning and she pulled away from him with a start.
He didn’t love Ladybug. He never had.
“You lied to me.”
“I would never lie to you,” he murmured, and moved his kiss down her chin, back to her neck. He nosed against the underside of her jaw like a cat insisting on affection.
“You told me that you were in love with Ladybug.”
His lips went still against her throat. “You said you wanted this to be simple.”
“I want you to be honest.”
He still hesitated. The sizzle of the oil hissed in the kitchen, but its delicate scent was overwhelmed with burned popcorn. If they weren’t careful, the smoke detector would force their kiss apart, but Marinette wasn’t going to let him go without an answer.
Finally, he admitted, “I was in love with Ladybug. Until we kissed.”
She swallowed, painfully aware of the way her throat bobbed against his lips. “And so this past year?”
“I’ve waited.”
“Chat…”
“You’re about to burn your kitchen down,” he murmured, and pulled away.
Reluctantly, Marinette turned off her stove and scraped the black scraps of charcoal that had once been popcorn into the garbage. Chat Noir scrubbed his gloved hands clean.
Hot tears, fueled by frustration as much as embarrassment burned behind Marinette’s eyes as she scraped the blackened mess into the pan. She’d sent Adrien away because she didn’t want to risk her friendship with him, didn’t want to need him in a way he didn’t need her. Now here she was, doing to Chat Noir exactly what she had never wanted to do with Adrien. As much as she might want to give back, as much as she might want to meet him where he was, she couldn’t, and that knowledge hurt.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked. She was glad that her voice was hardly audible over the running water; maybe he wouldn’t hear the bitter anger. It wasn’t meant for him, anyway. It was directed at herself.
She tried to nudge him aside so she could clean the pan, but he wouldn’t budge. Instead, he took the pan from her and picked up a towel. She was forced to watch as he scoured the blackened pan. He looked so intent on the task, she wondered if he had heard her question at all.
Then he turned off the water and said, “You told me that it didn’t matter.”
Her hand was on the pan, ready to take it from him and dry it off, but she froze. Though a protest sat on the tip of her tongue, she couldn’t give it voice. She was the one who had said that their kiss a year ago hadn’t mattered.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said, unsure what else she could say.
He shrugged, as if indicating carelessness, but as she took the pan, he anxiously twisted the ring on his finger. Though the green, glowing paw print was dim, it seemed brilliant in the dark kitchen.
“I’m no stranger to rejection.”
Her heart lurched as it occurred to her that his familiarity with rejection was her fault on two counts. But she never knew what she was supposed to do with Chat Noir’s feelings. Somehow she always managed to misunderstand him when he did nothing but lay things bare for her.
“I guess I should make more popcorn,” she murmured.
As she set the pan back on the stove, Chat Noir grabbed her wrist. “Marinette—”
She looked at him—truly looked—at the flat shape of his ears and the slump in his shoulders, haloed by the streetlight flooding through her open balcony. Despite the darkness, his green eyes glinted like his ring and his jaw worked as he worked through his thoughts. He was always so quick with his wit in a fight, but in the quiet spaces like this, when he was with Marinette, when he was asked to be vulnerable, he was always so cautious and careful.
“It’s okay with me,” he finally said, “if this is all it is. I just want to be with you, and I don’t mind if—”
“Chat, I can’t—that’s not fair to you.”
“I don’t care.”
“But I do.”
The irony that she cared too much to do this to him, that she cared but not in the way that he wanted, was not lost on her.
He let her go and turned toward the balcony.
“Chat…” She didn’t mean to call him back, but she didn’t know how she was supposed to let him go like this. “I am sorry,” she finally said.
His hand lingered against her kitchen counter, and his claws clicked delicately against the tile. “Would you trust me if I said that it hurts less to be with you, even if I can’t have all of you, compared with the agony of being apart from you?”
If she was just Marinette, maybe she would have accepted his offer. Maybe she could have trusted him when he said that he would let it be simple, that he’d allow her to use him as she needed without ache or bitterness. But she was also Ladybug, and she knew the way her partner threw himself on swords for others. She could not fight beside him each day while also destroying him each night.
But Marinette couldn’t tell him that.
As he took her silence for denial, his hands flexed and contracted with his unspoken frustration. He managed a rather tight, “Good night, Marinette,” before disappearing into the night.
She swallowed as he left, waited a moment in her dark kitchen as the silence filtered back in, as the quiet settled into her bones and the ache settled back into her heart.
Maybe she did know what he meant about the agony of being apart.
In search of noise and company, she went back upstairs to her phone. Her thumb hovered over Luka’s icon for only a moment before she swiped away. Instead, she snapped a picture of her laptop screen with the streaming page for Emma open and sent it to Adrien. Then she left her phone on her bed and went to take a cold shower.
Adrien would get the picture in the morning. He’d offer to watch it with her again during the day, and she’d accept his offer of company and distraction. Maybe they would watch Clueless after, or even branch out their romantic film subgenres beyond Austen films and try 10 Things I Hate About You.
But when she got out of the shower, there was already a text from Adrien.
I’ll bring snacks.
She was still reading the text, still trying to make sense of it, as she stood in her room wrapped in naught but a towel and her hair still dripping wet, when a gentle knock sounded from downstairs.
A key jiggled in the lock—she forgot that he had kept the key she’d given him to water her plants when she’d gone with Luka on his second tour—and her door creaked open.
Adrien’s voice broke into her dark, quiet apartment. “Marinette? I brought cheesecake.”
She shrieked, “Adrien, I’m not dressed!” and slammed her bedroom door closed.
His laugh was a snort, muffled and distant. Hastily, she toweled and combed her hair and yanked on a fresh, dry pair of underwear and shorts. She didn’t know where her bra was and she didn’t have the time to look, so she simply threw on a t-shirt.
When she came downstairs, Adrien was standing in her kitchen with two forks in hand. She knew she must look a mess, but he beamed at her, despite her own scowl.
“I thought the picture was an invitation,” he said, head tipped to one side.
“I didn’t think you were awake! I thought—I didn’t know—”
He cut her fumbling protests off with another laugh. Adrien settled onto the edge of her couch and opened up a pale pink cake box to reveal a cake with red raspberry swirled into the cream. She wondered where he had gotten a raspberry cheesecake at this hour.
“I’ll go if you want me to,” he offered, “and leave the cake.”
“No—stay.”
The words were hardly out of her mouth before Adrien was already pulling off his coat and collapsing into her couch. Beneath his neat black peacoat, he was dressed in his own pajamas, like he had seen her text and merely rolled out of bed and into a jacket.
While Adrien plated two generous slices of cheesecake, Marinette dug through the couch cushions for the remote. She found it wedged between Adrien and the back of the couch, yanked it out, and clicked on the T.V. The pale blue light flooded over the two of them, and when she turned to get cheesecake from Adrien, she found him staring at her with an unfamiliar expression.
He was smiling, eyebrows lifted in his usual fashion, like something between expectation and excitement, but she thought—and maybe she was just projecting her own heartache, but she thought—there was something sad in his green eyes.
Then those strangely sad eyes dropped to her collar and his hand drifted to her neck. His fingers brushed against her skin and lightning lanced through her lungs. A dozen protests bubbled to the surface, all the arguments she had just used with Chat Noir—she only wanted something simple; she wasn’t ready for anything truly intimate after this breakup; things were always complicated with Adrien—but they all died on her tongue, as her words so often did when it came to Adrien.
But instead of pulling her against him like she thought he might, he asked, “What happened here?”
In her haste to dress, she hadn’t bothered to check herself in the mirror, but her heart pounded with the memory of Chat Noir’s lips latched to her neck. Was it only a bruise of blood drawn to the surface, or were there also scratch marks from his canines? Her face was hot with blush, but she hoped in the dim light of the T.V., he wouldn’t be able to tell.
“It—” Her throat lurched against Adrien’s fingers as she tried to swallow down a lie, but she wasn’t sure how to tell him the truth. “I don’t—I mean, it’s only—”
And then Adrien’s fingers curled around the back of her neck and his thumb brushed the underside of her chin so gently, so carefully. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Her heart stuttered with a familiar agony. She had promised herself that she was not going to cry about Luka tonight, that she was done with tears, but they welled up anyway.
She and Luka had tried so hard; they really had. But he always wanted more of her than she had to give. He wanted everything, and Marinette could never give her partner everything—she had too many secrets that she had to keep. She had too many bits of herself that even she was still processing, that were still too raw and rough to share.
She’d tried giving Luka everything that she could. She’d even left Scarabella in charge while she went on tour with Luka once, but nothing had ever made it better. She’d wanted time—they’d needed time—and there had never been enough.
But here was Adrien, offering her the two things Luka never could: her secrets and his time.
The tears she had been fighting all evening finally burst out, and Adrien pulled her against his chest, as he had so many times before. She didn’t want to know how many tears she had soaked into his T-shirts in the last few weeks, how many wrinkles she had worn into his clothes by clutching at them with tight fists, how much of her snot he’d had to wash out of his laundry.
With Herculean strength, Marinette rubbed her eyes dry and pulled away. She fumbled for a tissue, but the box on her coffee table was just inches out of reach. Adrien pressed a handkerchief into her hand, like he had come prepared. It wasn’t fair to him to take so much, but it was so easy when he gave so readily.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
Marinette wiped her cheeks and blew her nose. “What on earth are you apologizing for?”
Without her to hold onto, his hands found each other. His thumb rubbed into his palm like he might be able to push his explanation out. Even in the dim light from the T.V. and the street, she could see his jaw working through his words, like he was turning the pages of a dictionary in his head to make sure he picked the right ones.
“I…” He paused again and swallowed. “I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he finally said, which felt like so small of an apology when weighed against the length of the pause.
“It’s not your fault,” she assured him. “I just…” She didn’t need to explain how lonely she was to Adrien. He’d heard it all before, and of course he must know it, or he wouldn’t have shown up to her apartment in the middle of the night with cheesecake in tow. “I just really appreciate that you’re always there for me,” she finally said, and even though it felt small, it was earnest.
“I would rather be with you than not.”
Her heart fully stopped, and she searched for something in Adrien’s eyes, some clue that the connection between his plea and Chat Noir’s question was more than coincidence, but he was no longer looking at her. His eyes were on his hands as he twisted his ring around his finger. The dull silver still glinted in the dim light from outside.
She felt like she was looking at her Lucky Charm at the moment it fell into her hands, knowing the answer was right in front of her but unable to put all the pieces together. She followed her lucky instinct, though, and placed one hand over Adrien’s hands, forcing them still. The other lifted to the back of his neck and pulled him closer into a kiss.
It was soft, delicate, gentle. It made sense for Adrien in a way Chat Noir’s kisses had never quite made sense for him.
Adrien, who was so willing to give her his time, and Chat Noir, who was always there when the people Marinette wanted weren’t.
Adrien pulled away rather suddenly, like something had yanked him away from her. “I’m sorry,” he said again. “I shouldn’t—you don’t want—this isn’t fair—”
It was unusual to watch Adrien flounder for words. Marinette, though, didn’t have it in her to be amused, not with the weight of this secret dawning. She waited a moment for Bunnyx to appear or time to reset, but Adrien continued to struggle his way through an apology, and the T.V. continued to hum its bright blue static glare.
There was no undoing what had been done, and she couldn’t exactly avoid it.
“I think,” she murmured, “that unfair is showing up on my balcony after I told you that I was ready to be alone.”
The panic in Adrien’s eyes was brief as he realized he’d been found out, but he crumpled into himself almost immediately. His hands raked through his hair and Marinette’s first thought was that she could be running her hands through his hair, but her second thought was how utterly broken he looked.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I didn’t want it to—I didn’t mean for it to turn out like it did. I just—I was worried about you. You know what it’s like at my house and—I know you think I don’t want to see you sad or something, but Marinette, being with you like this is a hundred times better than being without you.” He kept his eyes on his hands as he twisted his ring around his finger. “Please don’t tell anyone,” he whispered.
Marinette frowned. “I wouldn’t.”
“I mean it—I-I can’t let Ladybug know I’ve broken her trust.”
Marinette bit down on her lip. She wasn’t sure how to say the thing she knew she had to say next. Her throat felt tight with the secret she had kept for so long, that she had finally choked out to Alya after one terrible day.
But he looked so genuinely terrified to think he might hurt Ladybug, and Marinette had the power to assuage that fear. For once, she could offer him some comfort.
Marinette unhooked Adrien’s hands from his neck and pulled them into her lap. Then, she unfastened her earrings and placed them into his palm.
Though he did not move, did not look up at her, she watched the tension in his shoulders shift. His hand closed around the earrings and he felt the shape of them, the warmth from being fastened in her ears and from the magic that pulsed within them.
Finally, Adrien looked up at her. His eyes were still sad, but the longing was so much more prominent. His voice was tight as he said, “Are you… truly?”
She nodded.
Then his shoulders sagged and he looked away. “No wonder you keep turning me down. We have a job to do, and I suppose the job comes first. No sense complicating things, right?”
But Marinette’s need for simple had nothing to do with complicating Ladybug and Chat Noir’s relationship. It had always been about protecting her partner and protecting her own heart. But knowing that the boy she had fallen for long before Luka, the boy who was always there for her, and her loyal partner were one and the same? She was no longer interested in simple.
In fact, she felt like an idiot for thinking she could get away with only displaying the palatable parts of herself to Adrien. He knew her better than anyone, and she knew him, and it was never going to be simple when there were that many fractured pieces stacked together between the two of them.
“Adrien,” she whispered, “I think… maybe without so many secrets, it isn’t all that complicated.”
He met her eyes again and something in his posture perked; she could almost see the cat ears on his head lifting to attention.
“Marinette,” he said, so softly, so tenderly that Marinette could not help but lean in.
She leaned in until their lips were pressed together. The wariness, the gentleness, the tenderness—all of it was cast aside. This kiss transformed into nothing but want and need, as if she could draw all of him up into all of her.
Adrien’s softness and wariness evaporated suddenly. He turned his kiss against the corner of her mouth then to the underside of her jaw. “My lady,” he murmured into her neck, and his voice seemed to reverberate in her chest and curl into her stomach. He pressed her lips against the mark on her neck in a grateful, needy kiss and adjusted to sit on top of her, pinning her back against the couch as Chat Noir had pinned her against her kitchen counter.
Marinette fumbled for the remote and clicked the T.V. off. They didn’t need a movie to carry them through the evening, and they certainly didn’t need the glare of the empty screen. The dark was enough; each other was enough. The cheesecake would wait. Marinette had a much better midnight snack to get to.
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marine-indie-gal · 7 months
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Dedicated to anyone out there who did their own Tribute to Stephen Hillenburg, I'm pretty sure we all know we're all know that I am indeed exactly Five Years late for this 😅
Considering that Today is the 62th Birthday to SpongeBob's creator who already passed away, I wanted to share my own tribute to him by drawing my own personal interpertation of Salacia hugging one of her pals (SpongeBob) knowing that Hillenburg is still there for his own creation (even if he may not be alive anymore).
Speaking of which, I wanted to share my own personal history with my own relationship with Hillenburg's creation throughout the Years.
As someone who was born in the 2000s era, I was never born in the 90s which always made Me the Youngst growing up as I was born around in a Crazy Blizzard around 2005 in the month of Christmas. There were a lot of popular things in life around my childhood like Angry Birds, Minecraft, Cut The Rope, My Little Pony, Hello Kitty, and even some First Modern Cartoon Network shows (before that studio went down) and all kinds of Early 2000s/2010s stuff that I've seen in life. One of my first exposures around in Pop Culture of that era when I was young was Disney and even a little addition of Dr. Seuss. I've watched SpongeBob around in its Seasons 4-8 when I was a Young Kid, growing up, I've always adored the Little Sponge Guy around in my childhood considering that it was one of my favorite shows from my childhood. Well, techincally, back then, I was actually more of a TAWOG Person being that Gumball was actually my very exposure of a very first fandom growing up as a kid (I even remember being obessessed with that CN Show until when I stopped watching it. Either that I was too busy on other things or that I was always stressed out on School).
I saw its First Movie when it came out One Year after I was born. I myself had watch that movie all the time as a kid, as I still enjoyed it at the very least to this day. Looking back at it, I actually haven't re-watched the film for quite a long time as it has been such a wicked long time considering that a lot of things change over the past few years of decades. Some things don't certainly age well in our childhood, others do age like wine.
Being a 2000s kid, I actually did had a few DVDs of Old Episodes from the Show from Seasons 1-3 as someone who always had a family moving place to place for weekends of vacation, I would always watch Movies and Shows all the time with my Parents. Sometimes, even if my Parents weren't around, I would sometimes watch a Few Movies and Shows by myself (mostly the obscured ones) on streaming services. Growing up, I had a fascination with Beach Life. I would always collect Seashells, Explore around the Sandy Places, and even most of the Time swim underwater where the Fishes would swim by. Though, oddly enough, SB wasn't the only Aquatic Media that I always loved as a kid since there were a few others that were also Aquatic as well like The Water Babies, Finding Nemo, Shark Tale, Disney's The Little Mermaid, and even Bubble Guppies. So yeah, you can at least pretty much tell that I was already born to be a Marine lover person who always had a life for Life under the Sea.
But when things start to change as I was around in my earliest Teen Years, I had no such more focus on SB anymore considering that like again, I had much focus for other things in life. New fandoms, Better Days (some were also terrible if you could put it that way). In 2018 (when I was 12 at that time of year), when I found out that SB's creator (Stephen Hillenburg) had passed away, I was completely shocked about his death and I had felt bad for the Other Hardcore Fans who missed him dearly partially because on how that he helped everyone's own childhoods with his own creation. I still remain a SB Fan that day but as someone who actually did not seen his New Seasons during that time, I still had no focus on looking back at it but whenever people pass away throughout decades, you'll always know how much you're gonna miss them, even if they were famous people from your childhood, especially for the ones who happen to inspire your own creaitives. Even losing a family member is hard for someone who has lost a few of them in their own life.
Then, around in the year, 2020 (when I was around 14), when SpongeBob was going to release its Third Film after it's Second Film in 2015 ("Sponge Out of Water" when I was 9), that Year itself was hell considering most of the horrible things that happened during that year that I'm pretty sure no one hasn't forget and still remembers that Worst Year to this day (My Mom broke her own Leg during that Year despite that she now broke her Arm in this Year, Kobe tragically died, and even COVID was the reason why we all had to be inside). Not to mention that I already lost my own Grandfather in December and my Mom was extremly heartbroken losing her own Father. When "Sponge On The Run" (Originally titled, "It's A Wonderful Sponge") was annoucned, it had so much delayed troubles I couldn't even be looking forward to seeing it, even after when it finally released around in August in Canada and then in March of 2021 on Netflix (though, it's not really on Netflix anymore last time that I've checked). But when I heard about the Controversy surronding it all because of the Spin-Offs that a lot of people on the internet were saying stuff like "STEPHEN DIDN'T WANT SPINOFFS!!!!!" or "NICK IS SPITTING ON HILLENBURG'S GRAVE BECAUSE HE ASKED FOR NO SPINOFFS!!!!!!" Look, I know that was all History stuff but if a few people are still acting like it to this day, they should get over themselves now. 
In case if you didn't know (or never watched the Third Movie), Sponge On The Run actually started the Whole Spinoffs in segments of Flashbacks to the Days where the Gang were at a Camp which was a brand new fresh start for SB considering after when Steph died, it was only up to his crew to take care his creation. Despite the fact that if you'd had watch all the episodes from the show, you would know that the franchise actually has its own Lore from Each Episode from the Past which people pointed out on how it was ridicolus to restart the lore (even I myself used to believe that). But looking back at the show, and how one of the Writers (Vincent Waller) pointed out that Steph knew about Kamp Koral, it turns out for what people have mislead in the past (if some still do to this day), I think what were all blind is that Steph actually said "He didn't know IF he could have seen in the potentails in wanting give his own Creation a Spin-Off" which, come to think of it, despite the show's genre of Surreal Comdey, I think we've been just living under the rock this whole time judging by how when we grow up, we start to realize that there is no such thing as "Canon" in a show like SB (usually, you'd see different types of canons in every other franchise like Sonic or Angry Birds). But even for that, sometimes a Story has no connection to the Other in terms of speaking in Timeline.
I still remember that time around in 2021 when I was introduced to SMG4, I remember seeing SpongeBob in other parody videos and even that one time I made my own SMG4 Fanfic featuring their own potrayal of the SB Characters (which I believe was kinda embrassing to Me to this day now that I've actually been thinking about it). 
Anyways, now as someone who has already gotten old, I have been looking back at some of my very old nostalgic things around in Childhood since 2022 while still looking forward to new things ahead. Mainly because after so much stress and grief upon everything that I once had in my old life, and now that my own Mother lost her Brother (who was my Uncle), I've already made my own descion Last Year of going through a New Life where I would have to face everything in my upcoming Adulthood, but I still missed my own childhood days. I've watched the Modern New Episodes (Seasons 9-12) for the very first time and honestly, I'm gotta have to admit here, but I actually like the New SpongeBob so much better than the Old One (apologises to those who still prefer the Classic), I still don't have nothing against the Old One but the New One feels so much improved with such Cartoony Whacky Animation that I like to think that I prefer the New Style over the Old Style (but still support both). I had watch the Third Film for the first time as I did used to think that it was bad (like how a lot of people say they would) but overtime, the way that I draw Poseidon somehow makes Me like that Third Movie since the Writers did want to put much heart for how much that Friendship truly meant around SpongeBob and his Friends.
I also couldn't thank Other Artists who done their own versions of Greek/Roman Gods into my own Personal Versions if the Other Gods in the Pantheon were in the Same Artstyle as King Neptune and King Poseidon in a Silly Show as inspiration for those (like my own friends) who have done interpertations of what Other Characters from the Source Material that never been adapted would look like in a form of the Artstyle. Ever since that I did my own personal take on Salacia, it completely took over Me as it made me have a strong fond for both the Sea Kings (even Poseidon and Amphitrite just became my New Mythological OTP alongside with Hades and Persephone thanks to Myself). Not to mention, I also had a long-passion for Old Stories for a long time, it also help Me to inspire to create my own personal versions of these said stories to interprete them in a different way which once lead me into my own Prequel Headcanon Project about the Lives of both King Neptune and King Poseidon in my AU if they weren't from different timelines. 
Overtime, as I always kept looking back at my old self, remembering the Days that I actually did had a Good Childhood, I'll always never forget my own Glorious Days where I grew up with such Nostalgic Things around in my life since SpongeBob was always truly one of my most favorites since the very beginning when I was came to the World. It just makes Me feel so much inspired by Hillenburg considering that he's a Marine biologist like how much I have a huge love for Nature and even a soft spot for Animals. Not only did I once feel hope for having a better future, but for a fact that I was born as a Sea Lover when it comes to looking into Other Aquatic Cultures and Media (New Ones like Splatoon, Ruby Gillman, and even Luca) and even old ones that I didn't saw as a child until Teenhood (The Sea Prince and The Fire Child).
It has come to my conclusion that SpongeBob as a show has always helped us build our childhood as things will always inspire us to give our very own bright imagintation, even to People who have Autism like Myself. While I do respect for those who are not into the show anymore because of its recent seasons, I still support it, even in my heart since I have not look back into it for such a long time as I believe it was my fault for not looking back at everything in my childhood. 
Thank You, Stephen Hillenburg. For reaching all of our own childhoods, even if we don't know what would life would be like without your own Magnificent Sea World.
Salacia (c) Me SpongeBob SquarePants (c) Stephen Hillenburg and Nickelodeon 
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ryan ross iceberg (tier 7)
tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, tier 4, tier 5, tier 6, tier 8
deep waters:
light up skechers fancam:
this is a fancam made by twitter user fleetwood_wac. the background song is skechers by dripreport, and i think it was a tiktok song? (i don’t have tiktok) in 2020/2021, it became famous on ryan ross stan twitter. i don’t think the original tweet is still up, but aryn has it in this reply.
side note, if you weren’t on ryan ross stan twitter in 2020, you were sorely missing out.
go figure. to late honey:
this is a quote from one of ryan’s livejournal posts from july 3, 2005. it’s SO iconic.
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zrosswald:
this refers to ryan/z berg/alex greenwald. i think it’s meant to refer more to their friendship; the golden trio, if you will. however, i’m sure there are people who genuinely ship them all together, just like rydan.
they have been a tight group for a while, as z and alex both played with the young veins some. also, ryan and alex made appearances at z’s prom events.
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eta: as i suspected, this is definitely a real ship.
here's a tumblr post explaining the ship dynamics a bit more. this blog has a lot of zrosswald content if you're interested!
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kale:
on thanksgiving of 2011, ryan tweeted this:
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in 2021, it became a meme in the ryan stan twitter community, and people tagged gordan ramsay in the tweet, asking his opinion on ryan’s cooking.
first male model for mac:
the story goes that in the fever era, the makeup company mac offered ryan a spot to be their first male model. unfortunately, he declined. according to the comments on a livejournal post i found, ryan discussed this in a 2006 spin magazine interview [i]. there were scans of the interview, but sadly, they’re not available, like most pictures on lj. it hasn’t been archived either.
the same commenter says that article doesn’t specifically mention mac, though. mac did offer ryan free products, but he doesn’t say if he accepted them [i].
so, it’s unsure if ryan was offered to be mac’s male model (unless there’s another source i’ve missed) or another brand’s. either way he turned it down. my guess is that the mac idea came from the fact that he used mac’s products back then.
beef with pete wentz:
after the split, brendon got pete in the divorce.
in a MTV interview that ryan did in 2009, it says “…he wishes Urie and Smith well and still considers them both to be his friends…The same cannot be said, however, about his former boss -- Decaydance Records honcho/ Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz -- who seems to have clearly aligned himself with the Urie/Smith camp following the split" [ii].
in the same interview, ryan specifically says:
"I haven't spoken to him in a while, since this happened. I guess I've been meaning to call him back. He called me, but I've missed a lot of phone calls this week," Ross said. "We're not sure [whether Ross' and Walker's new band will be on Wentz's Decaydance Records]. I'll have to talk to him, but obviously from what's happening online, I think he's ... he's written a lot about them. I don't know if they're working together on their stuff. I'm not really sure, but it's been awhile since we've spoken. It's strange. It's kind of weird" [ii].
the author of the article speculates that ryan and pete’s friendship is over [ii]. i can’t find the source for this, nor can i remember what the specific comments were, but i swear that pete did make some shady comments about ryan at one point.
however, it does seem that their relationship is not on negative terms currently. in 2016, pete tweeted this and this about ryan [iii] [iv]. also, this year (2023), pete mentioned ryan in a video fall out boy posted of pete reviewing his old fashion! you can watch it here:
instagram
i’m also going to link an article i found that chronicles ryan and pete’s entire relationship, which is an interesting read (although i get the feeling they’re a little biased against ryan…).
ryan’s pet turtles:
i can’t find the post or comment, but on a lj post, ryan commented “this reminds me of when my dad ran over my pet turtles with the lawn mower. thanks.”
“i went to high school with ryan:”
i have two sources for this, and i’m not sure of which one is the original. however, this one is the one i remember seeing first (around 2014).
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on tumblr, someone sent in an ask saying essentially the same thing, also in 2014.
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i know that both are referring to the same thing; i’m just not sure if the first pic is based on the ask, or if the ask is based on the image. either way, the sentiment is the same.
honestly, i don’t think this story is true. still funny nonetheless
hot girls eating pizza:
this is another one i cannot find a source for anywhere (not even a tweet mentioning it), even though i was able to in the past. i apologize.
but i’m pretty sure that what this is about is a tweet/social media post in which he referred to hot girls eating pizza.
if anyone has a source or more information on this one though, please let me know!!
(i was going to dm the creator of one of the icebergs i referenced to ask her, but twitter won’t allow me to send dms to someone who doesn’t follow me unless i pay for twitter blue. i’m committed to explaining this iceberg but not enough to give elon musk my money i fear)
sent to an island:
in an alternative press interview from 2018, z said that on christmas eve, she shipped ryan off to an island to clear his head. ryan says, “true story” [v].
kate moss playboy:
in the following picture from ryan’s instagram, you can see a kate moss playboy on the table.
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hentai:
in the fever era, panic did interviews for a japanese magazine. someone ran ryan’s portion through an image translation, and it brought back something about hentai.
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eta: update, twitter user givememallce bought the actual magazine from japan and provided us with translations of this image and the questions the band was answering! they also included the answers from the rest of the band if you're curious about those [vi]. so the biggest shoutout to them and their service.
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fake wedding with z:
in 2009, ryan and z pretended to be married. ryan tweeted a picture of z with a wedding ring, called her his wife, and also tweeted a quote of her calling him “the best husband ever” [vii].
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later, he tweeted that his wife left in the middle of the night. he then had a revelation:
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the best part is that all of these events took place within a single day.
here’s the masterpost with all the details:
not actually 5’11:
this is a conspiracy that ryan is lying about his height.
one piece of evidence was that brendon is 5’9, meaning ryan would be 2 inches taller than him. however, in a lot of photos they look to be relatively the same height.
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the other piece is that multiple fans who have met ryan said that compared to their own heights, he can’t be 5’11. i don’t have specific sources of people saying that, but i know it was discourse on twitter at one point.
next is the final entry in the iceberg, where we get into the most obscure stuff the iceberg has to offer and finish this thing up.
tier 8
references:
[i] https://bandfandom-ref.livejournal.com/133181.html
[ii] https://www.mtv.com/news/1fedpk/exclusive-ryan-ross-talks-about-leaving-panic-at-the-disco
[iii] https://twitter.com/petewentz/status/794988164901261312
[iv] https://twitter.com/petewentz/status/795025751930114048
[v] https://www.altpress.com/ryan-ross-z-berg-the-bad-list/
[vi] https://twitter.com/GIVEMEMALlCE/status/1695649402663363028
[vii] https://pathetic-at-the-disco.tumblr.com/post/180912208431/ryan-ross-and-z-bergs-wedding-masterpost
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tuiyla · 1 month
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NATLA Ep. 1 "Aang" thoughts
It might not be the Avatar but it's still an Avatar show which means I'm giving it the respect of not doing anything else while watching, so I'm not gonna liveblog, as such. BUT, I do have many many thoughts after just episode 1 so before I proceed I'm gonna digest a bit and do a word vomit of those thoughts. Maybe I'll get around to a more in-depth and critical examination later after watching the whole thing but for now, a few thoughts here and there. Spoilers inbound.
The opening
The first huge difference is of course how the whole thing kicks off. Trust me, despite having been a huge ATLA fan for over 15 years I'm not trying to approach this in a way where I automatically shit on everything the new show changes. It's a different era, different medium, different audience. Well, in a way. So some changes are outright necessary and, in some cases, even good! Therefore I don't automatically roll my eyes because we don't open with Katara's narration and the Southern Water Tribe. Modern audiences, Netflix audiences are more fantasy savvy than Nick's target audience in 2005 so it makes sense to open with the war's beginning. I'll even take the Sozin scene, though it feels a bit wrong, in a way, to introduce a character like him so early on. I wanted to say, without much sense of threat, too, but it's not live action movie Ozai levels bad and we do get our arguably most brutal scene when Sozin straight up burns an earthbender from pretty much inside out. This level of violence is something I'll perhaps get into more in another post but long story short, I think it's the right amount. This ain't a Nick cartoon anymore but it's also not gratuitous. What it is, is war.
Part of the opening is the intro, of sorts, a twist on the beloved opening sequence as narrated by Katara. The twist itself, I'm okay with, but I have Feelings on Kyoshi being our narrator that are again for a more in-depth look. In short, it makes no thematic sense for it to be the Avatar from before the last to narrate this. I know Kyoshi is the fan favourite, pun intended, but that's all the justification they have. If anyone other than Katara, who is done dirty by taking her narration away btw, it should be Roku. You know, the actual last Avatar? Having it be Kyoshi is fan service as much fans are symbolic of her. Bad pun, I know. I haven't seen ep 2 yet but do tell me we're shifting to Katara, pls pls pls. Another gripe I have is the title, "Aang", since the OG show has such beautiful symmetry with its first and last ep titles but this is a nitpick. Also, nothing to indicate that this is the season of water? Titling the seasons after the elements matters very much.
And then, just when I think we're jumping to 100 years later, we meet Aang. I'm already going into more detail with thoughts here than I intended but I just do not like how we drag this on and on. Show Aang's backstory and the details of the attack later, mid-season. Yes, like the original did it, because the original did it for a reason and that's to not info dump in the very first episode and have sloppy exposition that would have felt more natural had it been delayed for later. We don't need to know everything about the world and the role of the Avatar right away. I do like how the Aang and Gyatso relationship was established but we didn't need All That, and we could have had the vast majority if not all of this as a flashback later on. Random idea, but maybe even in the episode where Zuko's backstory is covered. I'm really innovating here, I know. I'll explain why this was too much in another post, maybe, but for now I'll say the positive that I do think these scenes are done well, I just don't like their placement. And I don't like what we're doing to Aang's ch in terms of his responsibility and role so far, such as him not actually wanting to Run Away run away, but I'll wait and see where they take him for the rest of the season.
Wolf Cove
Omg what, the Southern Water Tribe? Finally. The ch who started off the whole thing in the OG appears 21 minutes into this episode, almost the length of an entire ATLA ep. So far, the sibling dynamic is Fine. Again a bit too heavy on the exposition but what can you do when you cut Katara's opening narration about their family and tribe. Some things I take issue with include the way Katara breaks the iceberg open, i.e. lack of feminist rage and in general her lack of strong presence in this first installment. It feels like they're trying to give Sokka more but you can showcase Sokka without making it feel like Katara is less of a presence, less of a driving force, and frankly more of a kid than she is in the OG. I do like her and the actress, her interactions with Aang and role in the story just feel lacking so far. And then they actually include her intro word for word, just said by Gran Gran! Like yeah we know Katara tells the story like Gran Gran told her but damn, straight up theft.
I'm also not satisfied with Kanna's place in the story. Her breaking the news to Aang feels flat and devoid of the tension that was present in the OG where Aang and Katara put two and two together on their own. Also no goodbye to Gran Gran? No big sendoff to her grandkids? No speech about destiny? Disappointing. What is done well is the sense of dread when the Fire Nation ship arrives at the village and Zuko's whole entrance, that's good. But again, he and Iroh give away way too much way too early about his mission and banishment and such. You guys, you have a whole season to get into it, why rush. I have a fear as to why they're rushing but we'll see. It just feels like a rookie mistake to try and shove so much into the first ep. We get it, the world is so much bigger and these chs so much richer than they first seem but that's the point, the audience will watch and learn as the season goes on. Just because Avatar has all this lore way beyond the first installment doesn't mean we have to go back to Wan and explain everything before we can head to the North Pole. I joke and exaggerate, but there were times I rolled my eyes at the dialogue. Again, not Shymalan levels bad but that is not where the bar should be.
Overall
I have less to say about the Southern Air Temple as it is quite brief, all things considered and because we already got so much of it before even making it to the present. I do think it's funny people thought the live action would let the story breathe more just because the eps are longer because look, here we are, three 23 minutes eps shoved into less than an hour with expanded stuff from the very beginning. This is not it breathing more because there aren't 20 eps to work with. They have a lot of content to get through and as a viewer you can feel it, which doesn't bode well. The whole script does have this first/second draft smell which is sus, when this thing has been in development since at least the end of 2018 and the OG eps it's based on just turned 19. Yeah, that's right, nineteen.
As for things like the visuals, the costumes, the acting, the score, bending, I think it'll make more sense to pass a judgement at the end of the season. Besides, what I'm most interested in is the script and I don't pretend to know much about things like costuming. First impression, it looks good. CG is a bit stifled at times but I like how oversaturated it often is, especially with the nations' colours. It's probably the closest we'll ever get to Avatar in live action and I'm okay with that, since I still believe they should stick to animation anyway. But yeah, good. Nothing mindblowing and bending so far but I'd also rather it didn't try to razzle dazzle with just flashy CGI and no substance. As is, there's not too much substance so far anyway so I'm waiting for subsequent eps to be more confident in what they're doing, whether that's building on or steering from the source material.
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Gilmores prove life doesn’t end after 40
By Deseret News Feb 7, 2005
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UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — There's a certain irony in the fact that the WB — the network that targets teens and twentysomethings — has the two most believable, most well-rounded characters in their 60s on television.
And Richard and Emily Gilmore, as portrayed by 61-year-old Edward Herrmann and 60-year-old Kelly Bishop, have been an integral part of "The Gilmore Girls" since the show began 100 episodes ago.
"I know the WB is known as a young network and viewed, I think, a little bit too much that way," Bishop said. "This show is multigenerational. And, frankly, it's not about my own ego, but I wouldn't be inclined to watch this show as a viewer if it weren't for us, because I'm going to identify with an older person. I'm not going to be watching shows about teenagers because I've been there, done that."
In a medium that places such a high value on youth, the elder Gilmores are such an anomaly they're almost alone.
Herrmann replied with humor to questions about his "elder" status. "Let me get out of my wheelchair and dance," he said, affecting a truly elderly voice.
"That's kind of wonderful, too, that we're still alive," Bishop said. "And, what, 60 is the new 30, right?"
Well, maybe, but Richard and Emily have never had to act like teenagers to get airtime on "Gilmore Girls." They're not simply saccharin grandparents, they're complicated people living imperfect lives.
"It's interesting. It's wonderful," Herrmann said. "I mean, these people are lively. You don't die after the age of 40."
The Emmy-winning actor said the show's writers have "done a wonderful job with Richard."
"He's a fellow who's gone through a number of changes. . . . There have been a lot of plot lines for him, which I find true to life. So I haven't been bored at all."
The premise of the show is that their daughter, Lorelai (Lauren Graham), got pregnant when she was 16 and decided to keep and raise the baby on her own. Which, not surprisingly, drove a wedge between her and her parents.
A wedge that remained until Lorelai's daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel), was a teenager and Lorelai had to turn to her wealthy parents for financial help to send Rory to private school. That reopened the daughter-parents relationship and gave Richard and Emily their first chance to really get to know their granddaughter, but it's a rift that's never been entirely healed.
"What I look for at the end of the tunnel is the reconciliation between (Richard and Lorelai) in some way," Herrmann said. But when he has raised the issue with creator/executive producer Amy Sherman-Palladino, "She said, 'Not yet. We can't. There's a wonderful tension between the two that you want to try to maintain.'
"So it's great fun. And, actually, (executive producers) Amy (Sherman-Palladino) and Dan (Palladino) have given us really good stuff to do this year."
Good stuff that culminates Tuesday (7 p.m., Ch. 30) as Richard and Emily renew their wedding vows. The couple, married almost four decades, have been separated since last season. Not separated by much — Richard moved into the pool house — but their relationship had deteriorated badly.
"I love the idea because I think that those of you who are in long-term relationships will realize that you have, of course, that initial love/lust and all that," Bishop said, "and then it settles down. And then it kind of hits a point sometimes in a relationship where you're really bored with the other person and kind of think, hmmmm.
"And then out of no place and for no particular reason . . . you look at the person one day and you are so in love with them all over again."
It made for some great material for Bishop and Herrmann. Over the 99 previous episodes, they've done comedy, they've done drama, they've had surprises and they've always come across as real.
"The palette is rich. There's a lot of stuff to talk about," Herrmann said.
"I mean, almost to slapstick," Bishop said. "I finally got to do physical comedy climbing out of the basement window. (Richard accidentally locked Emily in.) That was so much fun."
And she loves playing a woman who's not exactly a caring, nurturing mother/grandmother. Emily Gilmore loves Lorelai and Rory, but she expresses that love in a manipulative way that drives her daughter crazy.
She's at it again in the 100th episode, using Rory's father, Christopher (David Sutcliffe), to try to end Lorelai's romance with Luke (Scott Patterson) — a relationship she doesn't approve of.
"I've gotten some really nice, vicious things to say to people," Bishop said, "which I always enjoy. . . . She's a piece of work, but, yeah, I had a lot of fun this year. Amy gave me some really nasty things to say."
Sherman-Palladino is amused at how Bishop — "one of the nicest people in the world" — takes so much joy in playing Emily, who is not. "I just love that she's so excited that she gets to be horrible to people."
But Bishop said she doesn't always understand viewers' reactions to the character.
"I'm surprised. People seem to really like her. And I haven't figured that out yet, because I think she's just horrible," she said. "I love playing her because she's so mean.
"And every once in a while people say they identify with her and I say, 'Why? I'm glad you're enjoying my performance, but you don't have to like Emily. Because I don't particularly like her. I like playing her.' "
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random-mailbox · 1 year
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Random-Mailbox's Favorite Sailor Moon Fics - Week 18 - High School AU
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This post’s theme was suggested by the wonderful @lilliebellfanfics (check out her works on AO3 and FFN (links to her profiles are in platform names) since they do not fully overlap and trust me, you don’t want to miss them!). She just started posting her Dendy AU shorts too, so definitely worth a look.
High School AU, from @floraone ’s matrix (here is the post with it for reference), is a fun way to explore the dynamics between Mamoru and Usagi in a more age appropriate setting for Anime based stories and more in line with Manga characterizations.
As always, my apologies in advance for spoiling some of these for you (Fic Titles are linked to either FFN or AO3 entries).
Wool you love me already? – @midnightdrops
The story set in an AU where Mamoru and Usagi are great friends and classmates right from the start. It starts with Usagi telling Mamoru that she would like to confess to someone she likes in their class, which is why she cannot tell him who it is. She even enlists his help in making sure the confession goes to plan. The catch? Mamoru is the one she will be confessing to.
(side note: make sure you are logged into your AO3 account to access this story, it has been locked down with all the scraping and reposting on other platforms without writers' consent)
Box of Chocolates - Chapter 3: Day 6: Alternate Universe – @kasienda
Instead of Mamoru springing going to Harvard on Usagi and just leaving, in this story he comes up with an alternate plan – he suggests Usagi joins him in the US and attends a high school near his campus, so he doesn’t have to be away from her for as long. Her parents agree to their plan as long as their conditions are met – Usagi passes all her classes for the fall semester AND gets good scores on her TOEFL exam to prove to them that she is ready.
Time After Time – @idesofnovember
In this almost sickeningly sweet multichapter, Usagi transfers to a new school part way through the school year to get better guidance in her Arts pursuits, and is introduced to the school president on her first day. He is someone she has known when she was little and was one of her best friends, however, she lost touch with him. But does he remember her and promises they had made?
Graduation - @celticreeder
When even Andrew bails on attending Darien’s graduation, Serena makes sure that the day is a special one for him, attending the ceremony and inviting him over for a celebratory dinner with her family. But what happens when Darien has to go abroad to study?
Our Secret Notebook - luna-magic-2005
Mamoru was headed to the roof to brood in peace, when he gets armful of Usagi, rushing to their art class. While quickly picking up books she dropped in their collision, she forgot her notebook. Having read it, Mamoru starts leaving notes for her inside it, passing it back-and-forth.
The Longest Trip Ever - Serenity-hime
Usagi, the girls and Mamoru are all doing one week exchange to the US, relieved to get away from fighting Youmas. Except that's where Dark Kingdom chooses to strike next. Without knowing Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask's true identities, our duo must balance secrecy with trying to save everyone.
The Golden Boy of Juuban High - @uglygreenjacket
Student council president Mamoru and Usagi have been sneaking around for months, making out all over the school. Usagi getting sick finally makes Mamoru confront his feelings, but in true anime-centric fashion he royally screws up communicating them.
That's it for today! Next week's post will cover some "Slice of Life" stories for @lilliebellfanfics!
Here are the links to the previous Tumblr posts in these series to explore more amazing works based on different themes - make sure to check them out if you haven't had a chance! (Click on title name to go to the post) - I will keep updating the list every week as new posts come up:
Week 1 - Groundhog Day
Week 2 - Established Relationships
Week 3 - Sex Positivity
Week 4 - Unfinished Stories
Week 5 - Darker Stories
Week 6 - Potions 🧪
Week 7 - Reveals
Week 8 - 👻Halloween🎃
Week 9 - Wrong Perceptions
Week 10 - Non-Senshi AU
Week 11 - In-Progress Fics
Week 12 - Mutual Pining
Week 13 - Enemies to Lovers
Week 14 - Slow Burn
Week 15 - Christmas Part 1 - Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Santa!
Week 16 - Christmas Part 2
Week 17 - New Years
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blush-and-books · 1 year
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Top 5 all-time favorite ships?
TEA!!!
Warning - this list is literally just the same m/f couple in different fonts. A lot of these were more formative and influential in my childhood or were from series that are from a couple years ago. I am naming these as my top five because of how insane I went over them/how hard I hyperfixated on them.
When I made this list I was disappointed to realize that there hasn't been a wlw couple from a series or movie that has influenced me this powerfully, but I hope to find it soon and if you have any recs lmk! :) Will also include honorable mentions!
1. Kirsten Clark and Cameron Goodkin, Stitchers (2015-2017)
This is tied with Julie and the Phantoms for one of my biggest hyperfixations ever. Kirsten and Cameron were a slowburn that was done really beautifully and nobody was doing it like them. I watched this show at a very pivotal developmental point in my life, and I think these two taught me a lot about the work that a relationship takes and the fact you have to be willing to put it in - they were a healthy relationship example for me at a time that it was necessary for me to see it. They have a lot of character development over 3 seasons but grow together in healthy ways, and the writers kind of bake it into the plot that they're meant to be lmao. They also are just a great example of loving someone for everything that they are. They definitely made me a little mentally ill but also inspired me to be a writer, so...
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2. Julie Molina and Luke Patterson, Julie and the Phantoms (2020)
I don't know how long you have been following me anon, but if I've been on your dash at all in the past couple years, it was most definitely related to Julie and the Phantoms, and probably related to Julie and Luke. In one season, they had insane development and beautiful chemistry. The way their characters were written made them naturally fit together, and made me cry "soulmates!" quite often. I will forever mourn what they could have been, and be grateful for some of the most stellar works of fanfiction I've ever read that were produced in their name.
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3. Anne Shirley Cuthbert and Gilbert Blythe, Anne With An E (2018-2020)
Technically they're from the whole Anne of Green Gables Universe but AWAE is one of my Shows Of All Time ™ lol so I'm crediting them to the show!!! Just everything about them..amazing. Definitely gave me unrealistic expectations for love tho bc who tf assaults a man and still bags him in the end!??? Anne. She's that bitch and I haven't reached that yet but I'm working towards it.
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4. Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, Pride & Prejudice (2005, dir. Joe Wright)
This is another one of those ships where I'm like if you've followed me long enough you could have seen this coming lol. These two are from the general Pride & Prejudice Universe, first created by the lovely Jane Austen, but P&P 2005 is by far my favorite movie of all time, and it is still breathtaking every time I watch it. Keira Knightley and Emmy Award Winner Matthew Macfadyen are really a perfect pair and their adaptations of the characters are so genuine and whole. Everything I do, I do for them.
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5. Nina Martin and Fabian Rutter, House of Anubis (2011-2013)
My original Ship of All Time. Was very mentally ill over them. I rewatched this show last year and I expected to be like "oh god this is cringe how did young me like this so much" but instead I was like "oh god this is so well written how could anybody hate this show." Yes it has its silly moments but I could write essays on how well it was written. The foundation of trust between Nina and Fabian was more powerful than any "do you trust me?" YA teen fantasy movie moment of the 2000s. Fabian was the blueprint for every fictional crush I have had since.
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HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa, Six of Crows Duology and Shadow & Bone TV series
Aziraphale and Crowley, Good Omens
Su-hyeok and Nam-Ra, All Of Us Are Dead
Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper, Stranger Things
Zoya Nazyalensky and Alina Starkov, Shadow & Bone Trilogy and TV series (yes I am a Zoyalina truther sorry)
Dan Humphrey and Blair Waldorf, Gossip Girl (will I receive hate for this one? to be determined)
Steve Harrington and Eddie Munson, Stranger Things
John B and Sarah Cameron, Outer Banks
Ethan and Sarah, My Babysitter's a Vampire
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martini-time · 4 months
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Ok, there's smth vague that still bothers me and i wanna share with you (maybe i read too much into it, i dunno).
Layla had a few vague posts with very weird timing that i cannot figure out. Probably you or beautiful anons can elaborate.
First one is this https://ibb.co/bW0HPqM (07.29.2015). It feels like a message to someone (to herself maybe?), or it's about insecurities? The timing is weird cause at that time noel was back on set (07.31 is the day they had cast reunion and noel was there sitting next to cam, cam deleted that pic, btw, for whatever reason, you never know with him). It's also the time when cam had an emotional breakdown and posted heartbreaking shit (many people i know firmly believed he just missed noel and once they met at cast reunion, he seemed a bit happier after that, but it was most likely cause of sadie and their constant on-and-off relationship).
Second one is https://ibb.co/xY2rPfY. A very optimistic one like something suddendly resolved like she wanted to\hoped for? The timing is also beautiful - right after noel filmed the dock scenes in chicago and came back home.
Third one is https://ibb.co/mqnK2zk. A month before the wedding. I have no idea whether it has any meaning or not but it sounds like it does, since layla is not the type of a person who would post some weird shit just for the sake of it (like cam often does).
Now, this one is the most interesting one https://ibb.co/zSxv9jm. She posted it twice: 1) in july 2016 (then week after steve howey hinted in his twitter that noel is coming back). A few days later she posted another weird post saying smth like "no matter what you're going through - beauty can be found anywhere" or smth (i don't have it, it's in her insta). What is funny, Noel posted a song not long before that, Sam Cookie – A change is gonna come. (the same song he posted when he had a fallout with Layla in 2018). What is even funnier, a week after that Cam also made a vague post about fear - https://ibb.co/m40tXWC. A day before that he made another vague post about darkness\lightness (i find some symbolism in it, assuming he means he is the darkness) - https://ibb.co/1TZsvCy. 2) in september 2017, they were already married, and nothing really happened at that time, so i wonder... trouble in paradise? but why...
Ok, so maybe it all means nothing, but it still rubs me the wrong way. I don't believe she posted it just cause. She definitely meant something and it was personal (not necessarily about Cam or Mosher, but definitely related to Noel\herself).
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You know, maybe sometimes we all read too much into it, but I don't think we'd all be here if we didn't see anything suspicious or strange or coincidental. I don't believe in coincidences. Maybe only sometimes. :)
I do not know if you wanted me to sort out each of her quotes and timelines. Someone may say that these are just quotes and we all like them. it's true, sometimes we like a quote from a movie because it sounds good and that's it, but Layla posted them to her page as separate posts, so she felt a certain way that she needed to add this or that thing to her page.
But it's not even about the quotes. Look, they've been together like since 2005 and they've never been super busy actors, but they only got married in 2017 right when Noel was filming and he went back to LA to get married, whereas they could have chosen any time any date of any year to do it calmly and possible to choose a nicer place than the backyard of your house, in which you haven't even unpacked your boxes, come on, Noel.
So I don't need to read too much into the quotes to know that this is some kind of shit lol
Or that time after the dock scene Noel didn't go to hang out with the cast, but went to Layla and she made sure to post that pic of Noel in their bed and say he's with her, suck it, red.
It's too much for a private person.
I don't know if that's what you wanted me to say.. But yes, I think these three definitely communicated through posts, stories, songs and tweets on sm.
And you wrote there about the trouble in paradise. Look, this is the first time they appear at an event as a married couple. Happy faces hahah, yeah
So yeah, I'm sure they've had troubles more than once.
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scarlet--wiccan · 1 year
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Has Billy ever dated anyone other than Teddy? Does Eidolon count? What about Teddy? I haven't kept up.
The short answer is no, not that we know of. Billy and Teddy were introduced as a couple in Young Avengers (2005), and they've never really broken up or had any other relationships since.
Their relationship wasn't explicitly confirmed until #7, and the original series was never totally clear as to whether they were already together at the start, or if they became an official couple sometime off-page. Recently, however, the King in Black: Wiccan & Hulkling tie-in established that Billy and Teddy did, in fact, meet at school and begin a relationship prior to joining the Young Avengers.
Neither character has ever indicated that they had any previous relationship experience. In Children's Crusade: Young Avengers, which is a single issue one-shot, Billy mentions that he used to make out with a classmate named Jimmy Stidham, but he doesn't say that they were dating. Teddy had a fraught relationship with a classmate named Greg Norris, who knew about his powers and basically used to take advantage of him. Some readers have interpreted this as a romantically and/or sexually charged abuse situation, but that's not strictly canon.
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I don't think that their relationships with Eidolon and Goebig should actually count, but it was interesting to see them with different partners! Maybe if Hulkling & Wiccan had been a better comic, I would place more significance on those relationships, but the story was simply too shallow and too rushed. I know that Trujillo is writing another installment at some point, and while I can't say I'm looking forward to it, I am curious about Eidolon and Goebig and I want to see more of them. I thought it was actually very clever to pair Billy and Teddy off with people who they share more direct experiences with, and I'm curious to see what kind of dynamic they'll have in the "real" world.
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