#i just wish i had some actual friends in the community instead of the half of snzblr that has me blocked lol

[aller-geez]

Vent in the tags, just keep scrolling~

[eiightysixbaby]

sunscreen and chlorine

word count: 3.5k

pairing: lifeguard!eddie x fem!reader

summary: things get steamy during an unbearably hot day at the hawkins pool.

cw: 18+ MINORS DNI - SMUT. oral (m receiving), sexual innuendos with a popsicle, sex in a public place, unprotected p in v, creampie, billy is mentioned in this lol. lmk if i forgot any!

author’s note: lifeguard!eddie has been invading my brain for days so here, have this.

It was hot. So, so unbelievably hot. The kind of heat where you step outside and feel like you can’t breathe for a second, where the air feels thick and heavy and sweat clings to your skin relentlessly. There was no breeze, none at all, just stagnant heat lingering. Naturally, just about everyone in Hawkins was at the community pool, dying for a way to cool down. Bare feet walking on hot pavement, vibrant swimsuits almost blinding in the sun. Brightly colored beach balls being tossed around in the water as screams and splashes rang out. Eddie sat perched in his lifeguard chair, bright red swim trunks covering his bottom half, stopping a little bit above his knees. A black tank top rested on his torso, clinging tight to modest muscles. Even in the blistering summer, Eddie wasn’t one to parade around with his shirt off. Much unlike Billy, who would take any chance he could get to be wearing as little clothing as possible, showing off his biceps to the suburban mothers who’d fawn over him. Bored women who married boring men that they felt close to nothing for, all for the sake of having that nuclear family, now dying to relive their teenage years. Eddie would occasionally throw scandalous remarks their way when they’d whistle at him, but for the most part he didn’t bite.

Eddie was honest to god sweltering, to put it lightly. The shade from the umbrella attached to the chair provided little comfort for him, but at least it kept most of his skin from receiving direct sun exposure. He’d already applied sunscreen several times, rubbing the white cream all over just to sweat it off a half hour later, and then repeat the process. His pale skin was unforgiving in the summer months, quick to turn an angry red if Eddie wasn’t careful about being in the sun. There’d been one too many occasions where he’d sat perched on the kitchen counter after hot summer days, Wayne rubbing aloe on his stinging skin. Sometimes Eddie isn’t sure why he chose to have a job that required him to be exposed to the elements so often, but hey, it pays the bills.

He peered through his sunglasses at all of the patrons in the pool, wishing he could feel the cool water on himself. His hair was pulled back into a low bun, keeping the heavy curls from making his neck too warm. He kept himself occupied any way he could, blowing his whistle at kids who insisted on running around the pool grounds despite several signs warning not to, laughing to himself when they’d slow to a walk, staring up at him with guilty eyes. Sat high on his perch, his eyes scanned over the various suspects down below - teenage girls sprawled out on towels, pretending like they weren’t absolutely miserable in the sun as they tanned their skin, Jason Carver walking towards the pool with Chrissy Cunningham over his shoulders, laughing in protest about the water being too cold, Billy flirting excessively with anything with a pulse instead of watching the pool. Eddie huffed a sigh, for as busy a day as it was, there was very little for him to actually do. Not that he wanted to have to, you know, save somebody from drowning today or something, but he was just bored. Ninety-five percent of the town’s population had to be here today, and yet none of his friends were around to keep him entertained. He was hot, he was cranky, and he just wanted to go home and unwind. Needed to smoke a joint, maybe rub one out, and go the fuck to sleep.

After yelling at some teenager to stop dunking unsuspecting people under the water, he resumed his people watching. His whistle sat loosely in his mouth, Eddie absentmindedly fidgeting with the silver metal between his teeth, whispers of that shrill chirping sound fighting their way out of the object every time he’d exhale too hard. Pulling his sunglasses off and tucking them on top of his head, his brown eyes roamed over the grounds until they landed on you. He recognized you, remembers you from high school though you two were never close. A pretty thing - you always have been - sprawled across a lounge chair, one leg crossed over the other casually. Water droplets dried on your skin, and the ends of your hair were wet, indicating your recent swim. You had a popsicle pressed between your lips, sticky red juice melting down your hand, the heat affecting the sweet ice too fast for you to keep up with. He doesn’t fully realize how hard he’s been staring until your eyes catch his, and you cock an eyebrow at him. He feels his cheeks heat up, for once from something other than the sun, and is about to just scamper down from his chair and into a hole in the ground before you wave at him, fingers delicately wiggling his way.

He gives you a casual wave back, fully catching the smile that you try to cover with your hand. Your eyes are unwavering on his thin frame, taking in his pale skin that’s littered here and there with tattoos. Gaze pausing on the soft muscles in his arms, trailing down to the fabric of his swim trunks, bunched up just below the waistband, concealing the rest of him that you’d very much like to see. You notice that he doesn’t stop looking at you, either. Eddie shamelessly lets his eyes rake up your legs, the vibrant pink of your bathing suit complimenting the rest of you. He swears his heart almost stops when he meets your eyes again, noticing the sultry look in them as you slowly push your popsicle past your lips once more. It almost completely disappears in your mouth before you pull it out, excruciatingly slowly. You lick it from bottom to top, tongue flat against the strawberry flavored treat, eyes never leaving Eddie’s.

He feels his cock twitch slightly in his swim trunks, suddenly finding it incredibly hard to focus on doing his job. You knew what you were doing, and you weren’t about to back down from what Eddie could tell. The dense heat was getting to his head, his brain turning to mush as he watched you. Juice from the popsicle slowly trickled down your chin until you wiped it with your fingers, proceeding to stick the index and middle in your mouth, sucking the sweet syrup off. Eddie shifts in his seat, subtly adjusting the fabric of his swim trunks, trying to conceal the bulge growing beneath them. You notice the awkward movement, lips twisting into a smirk as your mouth resumes its work on your popsicle. By the time you’ve consumed the entirety of the cold treat, pulling the last bit off the stick with your teeth and letting it melt in your mouth, Eddie is uncomfortably hard. He’s pulled the bright red rescue tube that was once secured at the side of the lifeguard chair over his lap, which wouldn’t seem like a calculated maneuver to anyone except you. You know the effect you’ve had on him, and he knows you’re enjoying it. Now that you’re done putting on a little show for him, he’s not sure what to do next. Was that it? Seductively eat your popsicle for him and it’s over, resume his shift as normal? He couldn’t exactly shout across the way at you to ask for your number - or at least, he didn’t want to make an absolute buffoon of himself trying.

He didn’t have to deliberate for long before he caught you jerking your head to the side, eyes following in the direction of the changing rooms and showers. You stood slowly from your chair, making sure he got the hint, before walking towards the big blue door to the women’s changing rooms. He couldn’t help but admire the way your ass looked as you walked away from where he was perched, soft flesh peeking out around the fabric of your bathing suit bottoms. Eddie was fully aware of the fact that fooling around with you at his place of employment in the middle of his shift was probably not a wise idea, but fuck it. He couldn’t hold off any longer. Gangly legs climbed down the steps of the lifeguard post until his feet hit the pavement below, almost immediately protesting at the heat coming from the concrete. He walked quickly in the direction you had led him, pulling his shirt over his head and bunching it in front of him to conceal the horrendously obvious tent in his pants. He approached Billy who gave him a questioning look.

“Cover for me for a few, man,” Eddie said quietly, for only Billy to hear, shoving the rescue tube at the shorter man for him to take.

“What?” Billy asked, stumbling back ever so slightly as Eddie presses the red safety equipment into his chest.

“Just fucking cover for me,” his voice was firm, and he walked away before Billy could say another word. The other man huffed an annoyed sigh as he headed for the lifeguard chair.

Eddie stepped cautiously into the changing rooms, not wanting to startle any unsuspecting pool patrons, but was pleasantly surprised when the only person he found inside was you. You leaned against a wall nonchalantly, twisting a lock of your hair around your fingers, smiling warmly at him.

“Hey, handsome. Decided to join me?” your voice is playful as you eye him up and down.

“That little show you put on sure was something, sweetheart,” Eddie says lowly, stalking slowly towards you.

“Just wanted to get you all worked up for the real deal,” you smirk at him, and he swallows a lump in his throat.

“Give me one sec,” he says quickly, turning on his heel.

Eddie heads back towards the door, grabbing the maintenance sign that sits in the corner. It reads, ‘Sorry! Temporarily closed for cleaning. We apologize for the inconvenience. -Hawkins Community Pool Staff’. He posts it on the outside of the door, letting the heavy metal swing closed behind him. Best to cover all of his bases here, he certainly doesn’t want any kids getting scarred for life today.

“We don’t exactly want an audience, now do we?” he asks as he walks slowly back towards you.

“No, no I guess not,” you reply, index finger bent with the nail between your teeth, a nervous habit shining through your casual demeanor.

Eddie stands mere inches away from you, breath fanning your face every time he exhales. He finds it hard to contain himself, wants nothing more than to have his hands on you. He steps even closer, looking down at you, loose strands of hair falling from his bun. He discarded the shirt he’d been holding onto the floor, and you find your eyes trailing down to his crotch, the slight bulge beneath the brightly colored fabric looking ever so appealing. His big brown eyes watch you intently, searching for any signs of your discomfort.

“You sure you want this?” he asks, voice steady.

“Yeah, ‘m sure. I’ve secretly been wanting you since we were fucking eighteen, so,” you laugh lightly, pulling your bottom lip between your teeth.

“Shit, you could’ve been teasing me with popsicles this whole time?” Eddie jokes, reaching his hands out and letting them gently rest on your hips.

You’re quiet, just admiring the soft freckles on his face and the warm brown of his eyes and those full pink lips. Eddie notices the way your eyes linger on his mouth, and his lips curl into a wicked grin.

“What’re you looking at me like that for, honey? Need something?” Eddie asks, teasing, his face so deliciously close to yours.

“Think I’m in serious need of mouth to mouth…” you say, trying to tease him back but your voice is breathy.

In an instant he’s swept you into a kiss. He groans softly as your hands climb up the back of his neck, tugging on his hair where it meets his scalp. His head is swirling, still fuzzy from the early July heat and now from the feel of your soft lips on his. You smell like sunscreen and chlorine, taste like artificial strawberry flavoring. Your lips are passionate yet gentle in their movements against his, and he wants to melt onto the floor for someone to mop up later. The kiss deepens rapidly before Eddie finally has to break away, the temperature in the large room growing to be unbearable. You read his mind before he can even say anything, and pull him into a shower stall, turning the water on to a comfortably cool temperature. You close the curtain behind you, and when you turn back to face him you drop to your knees, hands grabbing at the soft fabric of his swim shorts.

Eddie feels like he’s floating, like the scorching day got to his head and he’s having some weird fever dream hallucination. The feeling of your fingers ghosting over his happy trail and hooking under the waistband of his shorts brings him back down to earth. He sucks in a sharp breath as you tug the swim trunks down, his cock springing free a couple inches from your face. You’re mesmerized at the sight in front of you. He was big, longer than most you’ve seen but less thick. His cock seemed to stare you directly in the face, flushed pink tip leaking pre cum. A small patch of dark curls rested at the base, and his heavy balls hung low beneath. You lick your lips, cool water from the shower falling in small streams over his shoulders and down his chest. The smooth tile floor is hard against your knees, you’re sure they’ll be bruised and sore tomorrow. You grab the base of him, tapping the tip of his cock on your tongue a few times, looking up at him with wide doe eyes. Eddie hisses, grabbing fistfuls of your hair with his hands.

“Don’t be a tease, honey,” he growls down at you, and you look at him innocently.

“Me? Never,” you reply, taking the head of his cock in your mouth in one swift movement.

He inhales abruptly, then lets out a sigh as you slowly bob your head on his cock, adjusting to the warm feeling of your mouth. You take him as deep as you can, his tip hitting the back of your throat, making you gag around him. Eddie groans in response to this, pulling tighter on your hair, silently begging for you to do it again. You oblige, letting the head of his cock abuse your throat, mouth wide open for him.

“Fuck, baby, feels so fucking good,” Eddie’s voice is deeper than before, his eyes dark as they watch your movements.

You lean down further, sucking his balls into your mouth, letting your tongue roll over the stretchy skin. He genuinely yelps, surprised at the contact, eyes squeezed shut. You smile to yourself before sucking them into your mouth once again, Eddie’s whines and whimpers echoing throughout the walls of the building. You bring a hand up to toy with his balls as you redirect your mouth’s attention to the swollen tip of his cock, practically pleading for you to take it past your lips. Eddie’s in shambles as you lick and suck his sensitive head, cleaning the salty pre cum off with your tongue. You take him fully into your mouth again without warning, eliciting moans and curses as he steadies himself with one hand on the shower wall. The contrast between the cold water hitting his back and the sticky humid air tickling the skin of his chest made his head spin, the warmth of your mouth engulfing him only adding to the varying sensations. He feels himself inching closer and closer towards release, and he abruptly grabs your chin and pulls you gently off of him.

“Can I fuck you, baby? Need to be inside that pussy,” he’s trying to maintain his composure but the words come out like a whine, like he’s desperate for you.

You nod as you look up at him, admiring the water droplets that fall from his bangs and the tip of his nose, pussy throbbing between your thighs as his cock rests inches from your face.

“Use your words, pretty thing. Tell me I can fuck you,” Eddie coaxes you, pulling you to stand in front of him

“Yes, Eddie, please. Want you to fuck me,” your eyes are pleading and it makes his cock twitch.

He wraps his arms around to your backside, signaling for you to jump. He holds you securely, back now pressed against one of the shower walls, your legs wrapped around his waist. His lips are on yours instantly, tongue exploring the inside of your mouth with fervor as you whimper for him. His mouth travels down, kissing your jaw, your neck, your collarbone. Hot tongue licking your sticky skin, the faint taste of sweat lingering. He pushes the wet fabric of your swimsuit bottoms to the side, lining himself up with your entrance. He kisses you deeply as you feel him slide into you, stretching you open just for him, velvety walls snug around his cock. He groans into your mouth, pushing himself slowly in to the hilt, and your nails claw at his back in desperation. The stretch is so good your toes curl, your body begging and screaming for more.

“P-please, Eddie, oh my god,” you whine, Eddie’s lips now attacking your neck.

“What, honey? What do you need?” Eddie purrs, big hands squeezing the soft flesh of your ass.

“Need you to move, fuck me rough Eddie, please,” you beg him, clinging to him like a vice.

He gets his bearings on the slippery floor before rutting up into you, slick sounds of wet skin on wet skin bouncing around the shower stall. Eddie gasps as his cock fills you once more, every thrust reaching so deep, his thick fingers pressing into your smooth skin as he supports your weight. You can hear faint screams and laughter from the pool outside, and the reminder of the way no one on the outside knows what Eddie’s doing to you in here makes you dizzy with desire. Eddie’s grunting with every snap of his hips, hair frizzy and bangs sticking to his forehead, a panting mess as he fucks you like his life depends on it. You’re sure your lower back will be sore after this, every jolt to your body ramming you against the wall, but you’re too drunk on Eddie to care. The way your legs are wrapped around him opens you up for his cock to hit the perfect spot inside of you, and you’re screaming his name as he pounds relentlessly into your sopping cunt.

“Yeah? Feels good, baby? You like having my cock deep inside you?” Eddie rasps into your ear, hips moving at an unforgiving pace.

The friction against your clit as his body moves against yours paired with the way his cock hits your favorite spot inside of you has you approaching your release rapidly, your body aching to let go. Eddie’s close, too, moaning out strings of curse words and praise as your walls suck him in.

“Not gonna last much longer, honey, where do you want it?” he asks breathlessly, brown eyes blown wide as they search your face.

“Inside, need it inside,” you choke the words out, so blissed out it’s hard to speak.

Eddie picks up his pace, hips stuttering as he lets himself go. You feel his cock twitch, warmth spreading inside you as he pumps you full of his cum. Your orgasm hits you the second you feel him fill you, clenching around his already spent cock, milking him for everything he’s got. Eddie presses his forehead to yours, releasing the harsh grip on your hips as he gently sets you down. Your legs tremble, cum leaking out of you and dripping down the insides of your thighs. You rinse them off with the water from the shower head, before turning it off.

“Fuck, that was hot,” Eddie pants, pulling his swim trunks up before pressing a soft kiss to your forehead.

“When do you get off work? Maybe you could come over after,” your voice is shy as you suggest it.

“I’m the closing guard tonight, actually. Sooo… I could totally get fired for this, but if you wanted to come back here around 8pm after lock up, I could give you some, y’know, private swimming lessons,” he smirks, cheeks turning a slight shade of pink.

“Count me in, baby. I think I’m gonna be needing lessons weekly, though…” you trail off, heavy lidded eyes looking at him as you twirl his hair around your fingers.

“I can work with that,” Eddie grins, pulling you into a kiss.

As the heat of the day eventually fades into a hazy nightfall, Hawkins residents slowly filing out of the pool and returning home, Eddie thinks of nothing but you. Billy almost slugged him for leaving him in charge for so long, but in Eddie’s book it was worth it. Sure enough, at 8pm on the dot, you saunter towards the gate to the pool. In your left hand was another popsicle.

Eddie was sure you’d be the death of him tonight.

[dropthedemiurge]

Got prompted by @pinkkop but also partially this might end up as the controversial Thai BL post because the range of characters I'd defend with the passion is very wide for me:D

8 BL BOYS I WILL THROW HANDS FOR

Uea (Bed Friend)

This show isn't jokingly called 'A Tale of 1000 Traumas' for no reason, I mean – there is only so much one young adult can go through, and Uea has been through... well, almost everything. Tagging hurt/comfort fics on AO3 will result into red triggers all around. What fascinates me in this character is his resilience, too. He managed to go through everything with the sheer will power and knowing his own worth, what he deserves and what he does not. I am so glad the show made an active choice to send him to therapy and give him a considerate and loving boyfriend! He really needs both.

Sky (Love in the Air)

Again, no surprise that everyone would want to protect Sky. The acting was also chef's kiss in this show, I know I shouldn't be but I absolutely enjoyed seeing Sky getting triggered and sent to the red-lit room in his mind because this was pure cinematography, but irl I would just hug Sky with consent and never let him go. And kick Gun until he never rises up again too. I think Rain should've been given full freedom to avenge for his best friend. But this is also why I'm writing all these skyrain fics – because they are safe space for each other and I want to keep seeing it.

Rain (Love in the Air)

Ehem, like I said– the show has not declared it loudly but he's one of the most ADHD characters in Thai BLs if I ever saw one. He does not deserve to be mocked for his struggles and airheadness. I wish we saw more of him playing into his strengths beside taming a dom, instead of being infantilized by the show sometimes. Don't ask me to dive into full analysis though, I only could watch the PayuRain half of the show once so I'm going off vibes I remember, but I absolutely adore Rain and love reading fics that focus on his ADHD headcanon and how others understand and help him. And also those platonic BDSM tendencies he has with his best friend Sky.

Kawi (Be My Favorite)

For this guy, I would not fight the show or narration because they treated both characters and viewers with care, gentleness, wise teaching and love (Max is a harsh brat but that's his personality). I would actually fight the fandom: from people who hate-watched this show and refused to acknowledge it was amazingly done further than 'i might've liked it but ew screw this actor and novel the show was inspired by amiright don't judge me for liking it jk lol' to some individuals who missed the beautifully developed and portrayed close bond (aspec on at that, I'll stay firm) that spread across >10 years and different timelines and reduced Kawi to immature whiny weirdo who's scared to fuck Pisaeng ten times a day instead of one, idk. This show is a gem with many life-lessons and Kawi has one of the strongest and fascinating character development in Thai BLs that I've seen. Hands are being thrown.

Boston (Only Friends)

The creators of the show said the series didn't have any intentional message, but considering how many long discussions and poured out frustrations we had with some people, Only Friends definitely did Boston wrong. So what if he's a proud slut, should the show punish him for it while praising 'righteous' characters high on their horses? I don't think so. My guy was constantly filmed illegally and threatened by his hookups and friends, he's very hesitant about falling in love but he tried his best with clearly spoken offers, poly views and limits. I also see Boston kinda neurodivergent and/or demiromantic based on many lines he said about himself and his own view of people and relationships in the series. Nick might not be fully compatible with him, and I would throw hands for both of them, but if those two would communicate better, there would be no need for the OOC "twist" at the end. Their story could be beautiful, sad and realistic, instead Boston being kicked down in the street dirt by everyone after opening up about his heart and fears made me angry.

Akk (The Eclipse)

These descriptions just keep getting longer and longer? Oops... I don't think I need to explain the desire to protect Akk – this guy has not stopped crying since a mischievous and passionate newbie managed to break through his 100m thick wall of composure, pokerface and sheer will to survive. And also through all the manipulation Akk faced from the people he looked up to. Akk and everything that he went through managed to rip my heart out, and I'm not kidding. If you're repressed, oppressed and/or struggling with money, desire to make your parents proud and can't help but feel 'disapproved' feelings for someone – meet Akk, he's very relatable. I'd protect him and you too.

Thua (The Eclipse)

*clears throat* I did say this post would get controversial. I can and I will consider 90% of the people who hate Thua as lacking media literacy :D But without getting into useless fandom discussions, Thua is a poor teenager that needs love and support to be able to find himself and his own voice. He's stressed out by a harsh step-father, constantly facing homophobia and mocking in school, has suicidal intentions and the only good friend who opposed homophobic students and teachers, who showed him safe space and helped reach out to his mother, encouraged him to speak out loudly... went behind everyone's back, started dating the main "bully" of the school who threatened every queer for months and decided to support him while silencing students' and Thua's voices. At least that's what Thua experienced from his POV. Would you throw hands? Thua did, and while I may not agree with how he handled the situation, I can't hate him. He finally stood up for himself and his own, tried to change the system, and I'd fight Suppalo school for him too.

Black (Not Me)

There's someone who doesn't need my protection at all! A second before turning into bloody merciless activist-fighter who doesn't shy away from murdering capitalists and cops, I would still want Black not to think he's better off alone. While antagonistic sexually-tense exchange of comas with his ex-best friend can count as one of the most delicious type of romance that happened in subtext not text, he still deserved to seek solace in his ex-girlfriend and (ex? they were so close, why Gram does not care about him at all when he returns? we'll never know) other activist friend's company. Also, fighting with his life to change something in how the country works and hearing 'nah, your twin is better, he knows how to fight with social media so we achieved more with him than with you' from his mentor and Black deciding that he should again ditch everyone he cares about...noo:( I need spin-off about him where he gets everything he really deserves.

[sudoscience]

Finished The Indigo Disk last night, so time for some more PokéThoughts:

For costing more than half the price of the base game, I feel like the story could have been longer. I'm certainly not done playing the DLC yet (still haven't caught the Loyal Three, for example), but I finished the story in ~2 days. The base game probably took me about a week? To be fair, I did start the DLC with a full team of Lvl 100 Pokémon, so that probably saved me a lot of time.

Similarly, for being called "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero", you really don't spend that much time in Area Zero. Again, this is likely due to having a late game, high level build. Part of the reason it took longer in the base game is because you don't have Koraidon, so you can't just jump and fly to get where you need. Also, I just immediately used the warp point to get to Research Station 4 instead of walking through all of Area Zero again. I hope I didn't accidentally skip any fun interactions, but with how much Game Freak tries to railroad you into doing the plot how they want you to (see my previous post about the DLC), I feel like if there were any cutscenes there, then you just wouldn't be able to use the warp points for... reasons.

That being said, what time you do spend in Area Zero is just as awesome as the first time you go there in the base game. The new music is great, too.

Speaking of new music: Celestial (Remix by Toby Fox)?! Leave it to Toby to make an Ed Sheeran song actually good, I guess.

Performance wise, it's comparable to the base game, maybe slightly better? Only clipped into a mountain once. Haven't noticed any other glitches so far, but it does occasionally seem to run a bit sluggishly. (And it continues to suffer from a lack of voice acting.)

Koraidon can fly now!!! Wish there was an option to invert the y-axis, but it can fly!!! Also, you can BE your Pokémon now!!!

Spoilers?

I like how they tell you Blueberry Academy is in Unova, but it's not, like, attached to it at all. It's just an island. They could have said any region, and it would have had negligible impact, imo. (But I am saying this as someone who hasn't actually played Gen V, so maybe there were things I missed.)

Well, okay, I think it did have one effect. I haven't played B/W, but I know Unova is supposed to be based on America, so when one of the NPCs mentions "BBQs", I was like, "Oh, that's cool. They have barbecues here instead of picnics." Nope! Stands for Blueberry Quests.

Terapagos being tiny when Kieran first pulls him out was the funniest shit

It broke the fucking Master Ball?! It can do that?!

Still not sure I really understand how the Stellar Tera Type works. I know it's not every type at once. I'm not sure how that would work either. Wouldn't they just cancel each other out?

I don't feel like the game did the best job of communicating how much time had passed. Carmine (and later, Kieran) always being like, "You really kept me waiting". I literally did not??? But also, Kieran saying, "I looked up to [Player] for so long", meanwhile I'm pretty sure that, at most, one in-game week has passed since I first met him. I guess if I had played the first part when it first came out, it would've felt like a longer time. (It was probably supposed to be at least a few months in-game.)

Also makes it a little hard to buy into his motivation being his desire to beat me in battle. Wait, maybe that makes it more believable, actually. "You're still bitter about that?" "Yeah? It was just last week..."

But, again, I would be perfectly happy to let him have Ogerpon. He has a personal connection to it! If I keep it, it's probably just going to stay in one of my boxes. (It is pretty cute, though.)

Despite the lack of hugs, I found the ending acceptable. I do still wish you could have hugged Kieran, though. Or at the very least, when he says, "Can we be friends again?", you should have been able to say something like, "What do you mean 'again'? We're still friends!"

[summonhouse]

did u know !!!!! i am . INTERESTED in your characters and u should Tell me all about them

WAA WAA WAAA (HITS YOU WITH BRICKS )

Heres two collections of characters .

housecats who ive detailed plenty recently. the perfect person/pp, xerox, catch 22, and amaryllis/no signal. they are (sans amaryllis) fiction aware interdimensional creatures. the perfect person is the hand of god (me as a writer) torturing and assisting fictional creatures, xerox serves to clean up forgotten and abandoned stories lest they become overrun by nightmares and void, catch 22 is the nightmares and void, and amaryllis is pps normal child.

pp's a righteous bitch, extremely erratic and constantly experiencing back and forth. to have personality while also being explicitly and only a tool for someone who enjoys hurt/comfort is existentially hellish; it cannot allow for any personal connection because it will inevitably be torn apart for some writer sanctioned angst. its also only able to do what writers are capable of and so could easily be written stripped of its powers and lives knowing it has to serve or be trashed (which it had been for a year until recently and is still recovering). xerox is nice and sweet, despite regularly killing people and fighting monsters and the other housecats being very mean to him. he wishes everyone had the clarity to enjoy their time on screen and submit gracefully when the curtains close as an inevitability. catch 22 is just miserable and wants to see everything end (as it cannot) so seeks to permanently ruin any story it could. it personally despises pp for reasons i actually cannot remember. something about stealing its partner before it turned into a creepy void centaur? amaryllis is pretty normal, half mortal and ignorant to the larger problems around it really. in canon verse its been kidnapped by catch 22 in the hopes of hurting pp or inspiring it to try and rescue it but pp actually doesnt really care so amaryllis has been left abandoned to rot away in the void. i like to think about what i call "normalverse" aus where that didnt happen and it grows up relatively normal. i think it has a very .. heady personality

heres characters for fibs story which im in the process of rewriting. i originally made it in 2019 and dropped it for 2-3 years and am only now picking it back up so theres a lot of reworking i need to do and explanation is mostly going to be recollection. its about a dog named fib (first guy), he used to be prince lye of the laurel kingdom before labyrinth (second guy), a malicious magical entity, teamed up with another canine to usurp his parents and tossed fib in a magical prison for a decade or so, where fib slowly goes mad. the usurper has since died and so fib has been released, but the magic of his binding has leaked into him and he is now cursed so that he cannot tell the truth, instead automatically saying lies which then warp reality into whatever he had stated. still he is the only one who can take title of king and now struggles to maintain control of his kingdom. he now goes on an adventure to try and track down labyrinth to reverse his curse, learning lessons along the way about self reflection, different nonverbal ways of communication, boundaries and expectations in relationships he has with others, and generally coping with immense trauma. cricket (third guy) hunts fib down during his journey; when fib was a normal boy, so was cricket, and they were young best friends before lye was imprisoned. with no clarity on the situation as someone new takes over the throne, cricket assumes that lye had simply ran away, abandoning the kingdom for worse as the new king subjected the kingdom to needless war, drafting the young cricket who dies on the battle field and resurrects through his rage, digging himself out of his mass grave and now seeking to kill fib. lie (fourth guy) is like totally nothing i just wanted to put him up there LOL hes some sort of spooky doll magical creature who seeks to manipulate fib by feigning kinship, for profit i guess

i love. to think and talk

[kazesauce]

TWD:DD Rewatch Recap Ep 3

I'm rewatching the first season of TWD: Daryl Dixon to look for anything that stands out now that we know all the characters and how the season ends. The third episode gets into the meat and potatoes of the plot and character interactions. As usual, strap in or scroll on. Ep1 Ep2

Fallou and Quinn

They both lead a small community and are adept at playing whatever angle they can to get what they need. Fallou is a commanding presence that knows when to be forceful and when to be gentle, while Quinn is a self-serving, materialistic scumbag that uses his charisma to manipulate people into doing his bidding. Fallou knows how to navigate the underbelly of Paris, but he isn't part of it like Quinn is. They both save Daryl's bacon at some point, but Quinn's sins are punished with a slightly redemptive death. Fallou's only flaw is believing Losang isn't full of it.

Codron and Genet

Codron cut an intimidating figure walking down the tunnel to go meet Genet, but his face showed a terrified man trying to act tough. Genet was skeptical about hiring him to find Daryl until she saw how passionate he was about avenging his brother's death. She found the easy button to manipulate him, or so she thinks. Genet showed Codron the walker experiments Daryl disrupted and he is disturbed but undeterred. Another tally on the wall of why he ends up turning in the finale.

Daryl and Isabelle

The first half of the episode is Daryl being fed up with Isabelle lying about radios. The one at the abbey was broken, the one in Angers had been dismantled by a lunatic to create an inventively macabre walker orchestra, and the third place actually used homing pigeons instead. After suppressing the urge to throw Isabelle off the roof, Daryl was ready to leave and try to find the way home on his own until Fallou and Isabelle stopped him and said they could still help.

Isabelle took him to her apartment to gather her stash of drugs and stolen goods to barter for a trip home for Daryl, and they talked obliquely about their lives before the outbreak. Isabelle was trying hard to connect with Daryl, but he was staying politely distant. What made him finally soften towards Isabelle was her obvious pain and guilt over abandoning Aimee and seeing her as a walker trapped in overgrown vines.

When Quinn reveals himself to be Laurent's father and starts aggressively manipulating Isabelle, Daryl goes into full blown savior mode and removes her from the situation. Isabelle is livid and they fight in the catacombs. It almost feels like Daryl is fighting with Isabelle while simultaneously reliving his fight with Carol. Isabelle said she could handle it, and Daryl said everybody has something from their past they're trying to run from and she's not really mad at him. This felt like things he wishes he would have said to Carol, to be compassionate toward her desire to run away and to admit that he wasn't really mad at her, he was mad at how his fear of losing her physically and emotionally made him feel. Isabelle, however, informed Daryl she was actually mad at him for dragging her to Paris because all he cares about is his promise (to Carol, we find out in Ep5). She said they weren't the same and admonished him for taking over and trying to save her, that she only asked for his help, not for him to be a hero because she doesn't need one. Daryl just scoffed because he had no response. He thinks protecting people from the hard things is being a good friend, but really he needs to support them through the hard things. In Carol's case, he doesn't understand why she's reluctant to open up to him (Rick's words in Indifference), which leads to him being frustrated and feeling rejected. I hope with all of my soul that Carol finding Daryl in France finally convinces him that she loves him and wants to be in his life forever, and Daryl reacts to seeing her with exuberance and gratefulness that finally convinces her that he will love her forever, no matter what.

Isabelle, Laurent and Daryl

I thought the fable of fortitude about 'the woodsman who wanted to die but had a change of heart when death came so asked for help with his burdens instead' was going to be meaningful, but I have a different take now. Both that fable and Laurent declaring Daryl will not die in Paris are meant to make Daryl and the audience question whether Laurent is special. The fable doesn't apply to Daryl's situation or mental state at all, and confidently proclaiming the titular character will survive is as risky as declaring the sky will be blue tomorrow.

When Laurent is being greeted reverently and given gifts at Fallou's place, Daryl makes a comment about how much pressure Laurent is under and Isabelle responds with “God chooses our burdens.” No, lady, the burden placed on Laurent to be treated like and behave like some kind of savior is entirely earthly. Sonia, the inconsolable widow, allowed Laurent to hug her because she's been told he was special, not because he actually is.

Daryl attempts to sneak away at the end of the episode because he no longer feels wanted or needed, and they aren't doing a good job helping him get home anyway. Isabelle invokes Laurent to try to manipulate Daryl into staying. Daryl is unswayed, but tells her she needs to tell Laurent the whole truth about him and his parentage so he can decide for himself if he wants to continue to play the role of humanity's gift from God. Isabelle's weak response is that Daryl just doesn't understand how special Laurent is. Daryl says Laurent isn't special, he just got lucky and lived, and she just needs Laurent to be special for her own reasons. Isabelle has a weird smile on her face when Laurent hops out of bed screaming that they did this and he hates them both before running away. Turns out Quinn led Codron to the American, so Daryl's attempt to leave is thwarted yet again. He's thrust back into being Isabelle and Laurent's duty-bound protector, but now his desire to help them runs a bit deeper than the deal they made at the abbey.

Carol Connections

There was a tiny woman with short gray hair manning the weapons locker at Fallou's place, so shout out to her.

There were multiple shots of the Carol-like knife during Daryl and Isabelle's escape from her old apartment building and his fight with Codron, including two shots where he dropped the knife and recovered it yet again. Daryl fell through a glass roof like a cartoon character and still managed not to lose the knife. It's so frequent and obvious it has to be symbolic.

The pigeon man, Antoine, was adorable and his line “Maybe he has a girlfriend, we all have someone who waits for us somewhere” was followed by a shot of Daryl bowing his head in sadness in a frying pan reminder of Carol and his promise to her.

Isabelle and Daryl see “The Water Lilies” and Daryl says it reminds him of home, lingering by it even after Fallou called them away. My mind was immediately filled with memories of Daryl and Carol sitting by the pond talking. I can't think of a single non-Caryl scene at a setting that resembled that painting.

Odds and Ends

A French cover of “Strange People” playing while they're walking past Jim Morrison's grave was a great choice.

The Demimonde looks a lot like The Third Rail from Fallout 4. I guess all apocalyptic nightclubs have the same aesthetic.

I had a theory that Codron was Laurent's real father, so Quinn's reveal absolutely blew my socks off. All of Laurent's on-screen family members have light, straight hair, so there's part of me keeping hope alive that Lily had a romp in Marseilles with Stéphane with the dark, curly hair.

Isabelle explained that people joined The Cause because after the outbreak they needed to cling to order. Daryl quipped “or God”, earning a stern glare from Isabelle. Daryl equating The Cause and The Union of Hope feels like foreshadowing that The Union of Hope isn't wholly benevolent.

[lloydfrontera]

i can also see suho writing at least a few "what if the count and his wife never died and Javier kept his family" aus. Just for self-indulgent reasons lmao. Maybe even some "Lloyd still dies but everyone else lives" or "what if Javier's birth family (basically ocs) never died and he got to still go on adventures" lol.

oh. oh that's. that's kinda sad :(

but like if we ignore the massive self-projection and wish fulfillment going on, i think that would actually be a pretty popular genre of fic in the hypothetical "the knight of blood and iron" fandom (i'm just gonna write tkbi now btw i'm tired ajkshdk). like we know in the webcomic that when the author killed off sillurian people were really incensed because it seemed like javier was really Going Through It at that point. and we all know nothing makes fandom more motivated than feeling like their favorite characters are being mistreated aksjhdjksa

and while it's also said that part of the appeal of tkbi is that javier is a very sad and lonely protagonist i have to imagine there's at least a good part of the fandom who wishes to see him get some comfort to offset all the hurt he goes through. so i think there's probably a healthy and thriving fix-it and hurt/comfort community that dedicates itself to write some nice fluffy fics (while also inflicting all new kinds of pain upon him but shhhh it's all good it's normal nothing to see here-)

maybe suho would gravitate more towards the fix-it fics end of the spectrum, instead of the hurt/comfort ones. he'd write these very elaborate aus that explore "what if"s and "for a want of a nail" plots that vary in their degrees of fluffiness but that are almost always about avoiding the early tragedies in javier's life. (eg 'what if javier met count cremo when he was younger', 'what if javier had an imaginary elf friend as a child except it isn't imaginary', 'what if it had been the baroness that rescued javier as a child', 'what if lloyd hadn't been an useless drunk', etc etc)

his habitual readers are always amazed by how detailed his aus can get and how much world building he does and explores, they especially like the ripple effect all of his fics have, how the smallest actions can have many consequences down the line, even if they do think he focuses too much on the beginning of the book when he could explore the latter chapters more. he never does romance and always writes family and friendly relationships and only includes the romantic leads as friends too. but overall his fics are pretty popular within that side of the fandom.

some people do think he has a bit of dislike towards lloyd frontera's character, which showed especially in his 'lloyd frontera dies in the beginning of the book and everything is better because of it' fic but he's otherwise pretty good at hiding it so it's not too much of a flaw. plus, lloyd is a bit of human trash overall :/

his 'the baron and baroness never died and thank's to javier's heroics they were saved from debt' fic is his most popular work but the 'javier's bio family never died' one is a close second. his 'the family still lost the estate but no one died and they all went on adventures' isn't quite as popular but it has a steady following.

there's one that almost doesn't get attention but that everyone that does read it agrees is probably his best one and it's a one shot, 15k, character study, memories, flashbacks, major injuries, implied major character death, open/ambiguous ending, bittersweet ending fic, with a summary that just says "javier is tired. he wants to go home. he can hear them. everyone is waiting for him" and leaves everyone who reads it both in tears and also half wondering if they should ask the author if they need them to pay for a couple therapy sessions (please he needs them so badly)

dang it i got carried away again jkashdksa but yeah! i do love the idea of fanfic writer kim suho i think it's very funny. and also him being a fix it fic writer means he already got a little bit of practice before being isekai'd lmaooo

[choccy-zefirka]

15 Dialogue Lines!

Tagged by @druckkugelschreiber ! Thank youuuu, I love being tagged in things, even though I am always so slow with filling out the memes, and am too awkward to tag people back!

The prompt was: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

I chose my forever gal Yvie! She's a half-dwarf, half-elf, so I tag her as Lavellan for convenience. The lines are mostly sourced from just a couple of fics bc I have not actually posted a lot of written content about her! (I had some now-deleted fics about Yvie-like OCs I've since scrapped, but they need to be reworked!).

Imagine all of this spoken with a French accent, because Yvie is, in fact, Orlesian (but from a rural area rather than Val Royeaux; there may be some communication issues when she uses her village's dialect around Vivienne, who is a very studious non-native speaker with impeccable knowledge of the standard Orlesian, as prescribed by the Fantasy Académie Française).

"I heard some Chantry sermons from the humans in my hometown, but I don’t remember the part where Andraste cooked meals for the Maker"

"You see someone half the human height, with ears to match, and your mind instantly jumps back and forth between 'servant' and 'smuggler'… And yet humans are not so quick to let either of my kin learn a trade, no?"

"It is never gratifying to kill people — not for me! I am a gardener, not a warrior"

"My eldest sister joined the Grey Wardens many years ago... After the Fifth Blight ended and the Hero of Ferelden vanished, Empress Celene sent her to Amaranthine, to rebuild. And I ran away from home, all the way from Orlais, to visit her. I was still so young back then, and I thought it was going to be some grand adventure, but — but instead, I saw the darkspawn come back."

"Créateur! Of course I won’t punish you!"

"There is nothing wrong about loving a monster... And trust me, nobody wishes Corypheus was worthy of love more than me."

"I looked into his eyes when he tried to pry the Mark from my hand. I saw how much he had suffered. I saw the pain of wanting to find his gods, to discover, perhaps, what he truly meant to them, to the world; what meaning his life could have… Only to find a cold, indifferent silence."

"[The Architect] is a friend of my sister’s... I met him once, a year after the Fifth Blight."

"I could not fathom what all the fuss was back then. Why would silly Julie fall for [Loghain] a man twenty years her senior, who'd been the archnemesis of her predecessor? But it seems like a weakness for villains runs in the Kader family."

"Experimental nug breeding facilitator. Formulated at the request of Lady Nightingale. Handle with care. Effects on humanoids may be adverse"

"I shared my family’s fruit preserve recipe with [Flissa], though there’s not much fruit to choose from, with snow everywhere!"

"The dwarf side of my family was lucky to start a fruit orchard on the surface instead of getting sucked into the Carta."

"Do you know how flimsy the locks are in here? Before the cells started filling up, I would watch Sera — who is a friend, by the way; do not be hard on her — pick them for sport!"

"I am sorry. In the future... When the Elder One had taken over the world... I — I had to kill you."

"I cannot stop thinking about why every highway robber I 'take care of' chose to do what they did."

[24hlevi]

My AIB S2 Review

okay everyone, i had to take some time to write this out because it was only getting longer and longer the more i watched s2.

now, i did read the manga before s2 came out so i already knew what was going to happen, so naturally, this will contain major manga spoilers!!! i do love this show and manga very much it is my number 1 manga but i thought a review could be enlightening to some.

i will be going in episode order to make it easier

episode 1:

i thought episode 1 was pretty good actually. the first scene being the same scene from season 1 was a good touch to remember how arisu was before being sent to borderland and getting a small refresher. the king of spades intro was good, it was dramatic for the first person dying and i thought the actors did great on the whole car chase scene as well. also ann was amazing for driving i love her. i don't really have a lot to talk about this episode to be honest but i think the intro for king of clubs was great. though, i wish niragi was a little more fucked up looking? he looks pretty bad in the manga when they first meet him at the venue for king of clubs but dori does an amazing job portraying niragi. i also enjoyed the cast's reaction to kyuma being naked because i would react the same too.

episode 2:

starting the king of clubs. to be honest, i think it was both good and bad they took 2 1/2 eps to do the king of clubs. good for people who are willing to understand the opposing team more and feel more emotion, bad for people who just want the game to be fun and see people die. i do wish yamashita would've had more...expressions? kyuma is often seen smiling in the manga and while yes, i think he was still portrayed more, a smile or two might've been nice. i think king of clubs personally was the best adapted game in season 2 excluding the queen of hearts. i really liked the band members on kyuma's side too they were all really cool.

episode 3:

episode 3 i really enjoyed. i liked the flashback for tatta being foreshadowing to what will happen to him in the king of clubs game. as always, i really liked kento's acting when tatta died. also, i enjoyed the parallels to season 1 ep 3 when karube and chota died. i think kento did an amazing job for expressing his sadness even if arisu didn't know tatta for that long, he was still a friend, and naturally, people would cry with situations like this. i really liked kyuma's last words as well to arisu. very motivating. also his death was cool.

second half of episode 3. the jack of hearts. when i first saw the images/trailer with chishiya in the jack of hearts, i was worried they would ruin the whole aspect of the game. and while really, chishiya didn't change anything about the game, they did take out some parts from the manga that i'm disappointed didn't make the cut. for example, enji being a hypnotist and hypnotizing kotoko into everything she does and believing he won because of him thinking he was superior to the players. i think hayato did a great job as banda, he definitely gave off a good creepiness to the character that you're supposed to feel even as a viewer just by the way he stares. again, chishiya being there was weird. urumi was also portrayed amazingly i really loved her more even if she was only in one ep she was great.

episode 4:

i don't have a lot to talk about this ep really. the end of jack of hearts was...eh. to be honest, removing enji's whole inner dialogue with himself and removing the fake eye aspect were the things that made me wish were included because it could've been so much better. chishiya...was good i guess. i mean, he's not a hearts player, he's a diamonds player, so why would he join the jack of hearts? i don't fucking know. it felt like he was almost given plot armor from the writers and just made him have a "feeling" enji was the jack. also, the snacks bags communication was stupid in my opinion. it would've been much better if they kept him being a hypnotist instead. other than that, i think it was done pretty good. the second half of ep 4 was good too even if there was only a little bit of action with the king of spades. though it's weird to me what things the makers of the show chose to take from the manga and what not to, but i'll discuss more of that later. i did however, think it was funny how arisu ran into aguni and heiya. i really believed we would get doudou (manga only character) and it worried me about the dynamics that would be created and change by adding arisu into the mix instead of doudou. and i was right to be worried.

episode 5:

alright, ep 5. so, heiya is my favorite character in this series. reading the manga i was so excited to see if they would include her and when i saw the first picture of her in the adaptation i was so happy. what made me even happier was seeing the seven of spades aka her first game. reading it hit like a truck, but it was so good. that's how it felt watching it too. i'm glad we got at least one scene of her before being sent to borderland and her mentioning her mother. while it wasn't told in the adaptation, heiya just appears to have some issues with her mom. well, the manga definitely puts more thought into heiya's character as a whole just by her first appearance in the side chapter 37.1. it's shown that she has quite the broken family. with her father constantly at work, her mother would bring back affairs to the house and tell heiya to not tell her father which started the hate against her mother. the adaptation just didn't even bother with that i guess. we were lucky enough to even see the seven of spades honestly.

now, as i said, heiya is my favorite character. but i believe they just didn't get her right. i love every bit of yuri's performance as heiya and she did phenomenal, but i personally think they could've done more to show her character more. i do like that they kept her "everything i do is for the future" talk so at least they got that right. to me, i see heiya and aguni as a father-daughter duo, especially in the show. in the manga with doudou included in the trio and not arisu, he even says they are like a family. but we got basically none of that. i'll say it, arisu shouldn't have been included in the trio. i think it would've been better if they had even just brought a brand new character to join heiya and aguni instead of dragging a main character into the games where they aren't supposed to be. much like with chishiya in the jack of hearts. the side characters deserve their spotlight, and i think the show was too determined to make sure that they had at least one main character in every game for season 2. i didn't like that. sure, arisu gave some comedic relief in the ep but...yeah.

queen of spades was pretty cool. for it getting a lot of screen time without it being in the manga was interesting seeing as many of the others were just clips from them. the game is basically advanced tag with taking turns involved. the set was really cool though and it was awesome how they were moving around to get to others faster. usagi's speech was a little too long but it got the job done like always so i can't complain when she does great at everything. the queen was good, too.

episode 6:

second half of queen of spades. i thought the fight between usagi and lisa was amazing and fun knowing both actresses did the stunts themselves making it appear more real when they get hit. the kid was there for what seemed like no reason though but i understand why lisa chose him as their teams king since he was just a kid and couldn't do anything, it was a smart move on her behalf that very easily could've made her win if not for usagi. overall, i thought it wasn't too bad for a show only game.

onto the king of diamonds. when i saw kuzuryu in the trailer at the venue for king of diamonds with his pose, i was so happy knowing they would do it. while i don't understand the rules pretty much at all because i suck at anything math related, it was very interesting. i'm glad they did it but upset by what they did with chishiya and his backstory. in the manga, he's not even a full doctor, he's still a med student. the show practically changed his entire backstory for ultimately no reason at all. we didn't get to see him as a child who was neglected all his life which resulted in him becoming the way he is, and we didn't see how he actually was in the manga. they basically dumbed him down to just some sarcastic "unbothered" character when he's far from it. nijiro did amazing as chishiya i really love him and how he did portray him even if it wasn't the same as he is in the manga. i am surprised that they did show a flashback for kuzuryu to understand his thoughts better and why he made his game fair. overall, i really liked king of diamonds and am so glad they decided to keep it in.

episode 7:

this episode was...definitely something. the first half battle royale between niragi, arisu, and chishiya was good, not as great as it could've been along the lines of dialogue, but still good. i didn't think they would keep this honestly. but i was so happy that they did. while chishiya's words weren't the same and didn't have as much impact as the manga in my opinion, i believed it was still pretty damn good. this is also me just being grateful it made it to the final cut.

king of spades. now, i cannot express how unbelievably irritated i was at this whole thing. for one, they basically erased all of shirabi's (the king) thoughts and feelings on how he believed he was giving the players mercy by killing them. we barely got the flashback of him killing his fellow solider and i was annoyed they just made him out to be the bad guy who just liked killing others.

as for the rest of the ep, i was extremely disappointed. i thought that maybe because they would change the king of spades maybe they could have it equal the manga in terms of how the group would defeat him, but no. there was no tracker shirabi had that heiya shot and broke. there was no shirabi burning down the forest and causing the others to venture back into tokyo. it was just so different that it made me hate the king of spades game as a whole for the show. i love love the king of spades in the manga because the trio of doudou, heiya, and aguni were able to do it alone by themselves. but apparently in the show even all of them couldn't defeat him nor could a fucking bomb. they basically just obliterated half of the cast for no good reason except to fuck with people and that alone was irritating. i didn't think they could fuck up the king of spades so bad and then they did.

for personal reasons, i will pretend ep 7 doesn't exist.

episode 8:

everything i hoped for. this was the best ep in my opinion. mira crying was especially interesting to see after usagi and arisu's little moment with one another. people said this ep dragged on and was boring but i thought it was excellent. riisa did a great job at being mira and i just fell in love with the character even more after watching this. i liked that they showed the meteorite hitting them and that they stuck with the manga ending. but, the joker card. personally, i would be perfectly happy with the series ending where it's supposed to. but if they do a s3 of sorts i will probably still tune in. i understand why they did that instead of showing the joker like the manga, but i would rather it just ending. but, a little disappointing they didn't show arisu drinking the tea beforehand and that's why he's believing what mira was saying because i really enjoy the panels where she talks about the tea being a hallucinogenic and causing him to freak out. but, i can't complain too much.

overall:

i thought s2 was still amazing even if there were some downs that i didn't like, i still love this show and manga to death. i was happy with it as a whole product and thought it was still brilliant and i am so glad to have seen this become a adaption and have so many people watching it when it went viral on twitter in multiple countries, the hours viewed are amazingly high compared to last season, and just the general reaction to it. i'm very thankful for the actors who were able to participate in this show and the director. it was truly amazing and i will most definitely continue rewatching over and over again.

[gregorygerwitz]

I’m a useless lesbian so tell me about Erin, Hailey, and/or Kim in the hockey au!!! 🏒

oh god that's multiple people I have to figure out, huh? uh... I honestly hadn't thought about Erin and Hailey yet. in theory, they have a place in this universe, but it's hard?

Erin

I don't want to keep using the "Jay's girlfriend who left him" thing for Erin because, as much I use it as a plot point, she deserves better than that. I think she'd still have grown up around the Voight family, still had her teenage rebellion, still wanted to do something to pointedly distance herself from her mother and keep something solid under her, if that makes sense? I don't know if I'd make her do the whole Follow In Hank's Footsteps And Be A Cop thing tho.

It would be neat to see her interact with the law in other ways, though? Maybe she went to school, got a degree, isn't exactly a lawyer - because woah that's a lot of school and not quite what I envision for her - but like... I don't know where I was going with this. Maybe some kind of social service job? Maybe doing a community outreach thing? Helping teens who are in a rough spot like she was, running a substance abuse help center? Something like that. Still helping people, just without the badge, if that makes sense.

It's a rich boy Mouse AU, maybe she's loosely friends with Greg because one of her programs benefited from a charity gala one year and they're the same age (canonically!!!) so they ended up talking at the event and now they're Facebook friends and wish each other happy birthday every year and meet up for drinks every few months to catch up.

Hailey

Another difficult one. Because this is very much so a Moustead AU, not Cozy Trio (as much as I love them, I took on too much with YOTP this year and I feel burnt out, so I'm taking a break).

As much as I don't want to do it (because I'm already basically doing it with Chefs AU eventually), it would make a lot of sense, in this universe, for her to be a part of her parents' restaurant, in some way. Not in any meaningful way, at first, but maybe she's the one who suggests expanding? Buying a space in the little arena that the Mice play in and selling food there during games to make a little extra money for the business. And, because it was her idea, it's hers to run with over summer breaks and when she finishes high school - whether it succeeds or she crashes and burns with it.

So she knows Jay, very loosely? Because he was at practice for a few of her location scouting trips, and she was just a kid, and there's no games during the summer so he only saw her on scattered afternoons when he went to skate. She doesn't actually run the little outlet of the restaurant, so to speak, full time until the summer before Jay and Greg meet and start to get together. But like... they know each other's names? And he'll get a late dinner from her if the game goes into OT? They've talked and they're friendly but they're not friends.

Kim

I'm still figuring out the exact details of Kim. Because @fighterkimburgess mentioned that this could easily be an actual siblings AU (Greg and Kim as half siblings because Gregory's a whore), and they're right. And if that's the case for this AU, I want it to be closer to the Gerwitz Siblings AU instead of something where they meet later in life? Where they were kinda-sorta raised together near the end of their teens but aren't as close as they are in that one?

Because it's kind of obvious that Kim is only included in the family for the sake of appearances, and Greg is very clearly being groomed to take over the family business and, presumably, he's the one who will actually pass on the family name to kids (he won't, he's very gay, but it's cute that everyone thinks that), and she definitely falls off the public radar a bit more when she starts dating Adam Ruzek, a player on her father's minor league hockey team. Her decisions don't matter in the grand scheme because the entire family legacy isn't on her shoulders, so she's kind of lucky, in that respect.

She gets to date Adam, and cheer him on openly at games, and be happy. Unlike her half brother, who is closeted, and when he does start dating someone, he can't be open about it, and he can't just start suddenly showing up at games and cheering on the Mice louder than everyone else when he's openly frowned upon the fact that his father bought the team at all. Kim gets it easier, and she knows that, and she's thankful for it. (yes, Burzek is here, because it's me, but also because canon gave us them literally playing hockey with Mack and I was supposed to let the opportunity pass me by???)

[ ask me about the hockey au ]

[wordsandrobots]

[The following is not an essay. It is the author's attempt to grapple with the despair at losing something important to him, presented in hopes someone in a similar situation may know such things are worth grappling with.]

Apropos of Doctor Who's triumphant return to having writing and direction I can actually care about again, I've been reflecting on how much casual 'Moffat-hate' irritates me.

Obviously, I need to unpack that a bit.

I'm talking about the reflexive antagonism towards Steven Moffat's era as show-runner, writing tics, writing in general, moment of centrality to British TV and so on that I am no doubt going to run into if I go anywhere near Doctor Who reviews and analysis again. A sneer about perceived sneering here, another repetition of a narrative-construction gripe there. The regurgitation of old arguments because there is a strong contingent of people who loathe that era and Moffat in general, who have every right to that opinion, and who can quite reasonably bring it up when talking about Russel T Davies' new, second era of running the show, however that shakes out.

The me-problem here is, I loved a lot of 'the Moffat era' of Doctor Who when it was being broadcast. For whatever reason, it hit lots of nice buttons in my head and I had a grand old time watching it unfold. The 11th and 12th Doctors provided some really excellent examples of the show doing its best at what it does best. Indeed, 'Listen' may be my favourite example of a story delving into what Doctor Who is all about, ever.

But there is a degree to which my enjoyment is now perpetually enmeshed in defensiveness. Because the fandom was/is wild tangle of very strong opinions, much of them to the contrary, and that isn't likely to change any time soon.

[And for me personally, my best friend hates that era, which threw into sharp relief a lot of hang-ups I have around needing to justify the things I like. Having an emotional breakdown kind of sharp relief. That's not the sort of thing you just shrug off, even after all this time.]

To be clear, I am not here to defend Steven Moffat. I do not give a rat's arse about Sherlock – it was enjoyable at the time but I can't say it registered beyond 'a thing it was fun to watch once' – and I actively despise Twice Upon A Time, the last 12th Doctor story, for pretty much the exact reasons I think most people rag on Moffat's other work. It is a story ostensibly in conversation with a piece of source material that instead only concerns itself with the refracted, pop-cultural version of said thing, for the sake of being constructed like a joke.

Which in general is an approach far better suited to Doctor Who – a series progressively layering 'canon' atop stories that could not be recalled as anything other than half-remembered versions of themselves for a very long time – than it would ever be for something like Sherlock Holmes. Even if I didn't like Twice Upon A Time, I can at least forgive it as a wider pattern and oh for goodness sake, I've started defending the man anyway, haven't I?

You see the problem. I can't make a critique with any teeth because I am braced for the whole to be dismissed even as I home in on the specific part I wish to unpack. Must I defend a writer in toto because I vibed with one piece of their corpus? I don't think I would for anyone else and yet here we are. This is probably why I count myself lucky to have never been deeply invested in Doctor Who fandom in the communal sense, online or off. This and the people who fawn over the racist giant rat story.

[Talons of Weng-Chiang is a Yellow Peril tale, straight up, nothing else. It also jobs Leela, rendering her forever 'the savage' despite the entire point of her introduction being a rejection of the superstitions imposed on her people and thereafter proving herself extremely capable in new and strange situations. It was also written in Britain in the 70s so this is almost self-explanatory. Just fucking own the fact you enjoy the production values and excellent cast while accepting it's indefensible to claim this is the best the classic series produced, you chronic dipsticks.]

See, I can do it with other examples of what I dislike, bare my teeth and go for the throat. But few people argue we should write off Robert Holmes' extensive contribution to the series because he did a massive racism on account of being a British writer in the 70s. Maybe they should. I don't know.

What I do know is, I understand why the 11th and 12th Doctor eras work for me. I am a white cis man who thought he was straight when they started airing and who is exactly the kind of Doctor Who fan who'd want to solve the regeneration limit with a Five Doctors reference. I never felt like Moffat's grand arcs were talking down to me because, I suspect, I was the kind of person most easily able to imagine I was in on the joke by the end. Then again, the writer who's done some of the most extensive analysis and defence of this era is a trans American woman, whose work did more for my appreciation of Doctor Who history than anyone else. So – yeah.

When I said 'irritate', I meant exactly that. This whole topic is a burr, making it difficult to revisit things I once enjoyed. Maybe this would be the case anyway. I have grown a lot since then. So did Steven Moffat, over the course of writing more Doctor Who than any other person ever. He gave us gender-flipping regeneration, tried colour-blind casting and when it failed to make a difference, specifically cast for a black lesbian. And he revisited Donna's ending with an eye on querying the moral failure of it long before RTD2 wrapped around to the same point. Why should I look kinder on his predecessor, who presided over the abusive shit-show that was the production of the 2005 revival season and yet gets to come back to save the programme again?

Oh, yes. The writing. But Russel T Davies annoys me just as much in some places as Moffat does other people. So it goes. Although I suppose Moffat did hire Toby Whithouse to write the central part of Bill's arc and it was a chauvinistic wet fart because it was Toby Whithouse. He also worked for ages with Mark Gattis, whose writing I could shred on similar grounds. And around and around we go, sniping and arguing which of the middle-aged British guys tried their best, or wrote the worst.

[I am still mourning what Chris Chibnall's era of Doctor Who turned out to be. I was so hyped for getting Jodi Whittaker as the Doctor and then we hit Kerblam! and the oldest, most foundational piece of my inner cultural map no longer felt like something I wanted to be a part of. So yeah, he's the worst, for allowing that story to go out, 'the system isn't the problem, it's the people' and all. That's my 'hot-take', years too late. The man wasted dozens of excellent, interesting, diverse writers and actors on what is ultimately, in my opinion, the most mediocre crap since the Saward Era and his big contribution to the series going forward is to fanwank in an explanation for the Morbius!Doctors that essentially makes the Doctor the specialest special whoever specialed.]

At least Moffat previously made some attempt to spork the god!Doctor approach, before deciding they should textually be the reason evil doesn't triumph in the universe. Sadly, that endpoint seems inevitable. We're long past the days of the Doctor being a university drop-out, bumbling around the universe, interfering from the edges. Pick your saccharine alternative, I guess.

What was I talking about before I dived into my own bitterness and angry fan-ranting? How much people deriding one sitcom writer for his faults and prominence within a particular era of big British TV that sparked vast swathes of internet discourse continues to be an aspect of Doctor Who meta? How that makes me feel? Hah. Who cares?

There's no widely applicable point here, just an emotional sore making me wonder if I'm ready to 'get back into' Doctor Who. Because yes, actively being revolted by the Chibnall Era is the real reason I fell out with the show. And yes, maybe I've just grown beyond the point where Doctor Who satisfies, full-stop (let's leave the political rant about The Zygon Inversion for another time; I'll only be repeating other people). But sitting here, being honestly, genuinely delighted by The Star Beast and Wild Blue Yonder in ways I'd frankly forgotten I could be by Doctor Who . . . there's a still part of me that doesn't want to risk going back and running into those same old arguments. I've seen them before. They're boring. They annoy me. I don't have the energy to deal with it. And I haven't yet worked out how to thicken my skin against them.

Someday, maybe, I will sort the love for Doctor Who I had since I was six and watching Peter Cushing romp around in glorious Technicolor from a factional fandom pissing match I didn't even play a part in. I never was someone who picked fights online over this or tried to make grand sweeping arguments about why X, Y or Z was better. I want to be mellow about differing tastes and just like what I like. I certainly don't want to be the kind of person who rags endlessly on things I didn't enjoy, which is why the emotional outburst above is about as far as I'm prepared to go in talking publicly about the 13th Doctor's run.

[I want to go back. I want to love Doctor Who again, flaws and all. I probably will regardless of this. I am not making a plea concerning fandom's nature. I am neither asking for grace nor extending it. The answer is undoubtedly to carry on along the sidelines, a skulking hermit-crab of a Whovian. Yet the burr remains, the grief sticks and the solid ground of a long-held interest remains cracked. Perhaps that is growth. Self-examination does not entitle one to set discoveries aside, job done, card stamped, and return to pleasures-as-were. Yet I can't deny the raw emotional urgh that comes of hearing the same punches struck over and over, about a portion of the show that at least tried.]

Ultimately, however, I like picking apart the things I enjoy and I enjoy watching others do likewise. And I don't get to do that here without cautiously curating my experience to avoid the ten billionth iteration of ten-year-old internet arguments.

I'll keep doing it, obviously.

But it is irritating.

[This post brought to you by listening to El Sandifer's podcast about The Star Beast. Eruditorum Press is a great site for fascinating media analysis and her TARDIS Eruditorum series is well worth a read if you're interested in the show's development.]

[ordinaryschmuck]

Blue Beetle is Generic

That's unfortunately the best way to describe the movie, as a lot of it features your standard superhero fair.

There's the attempt to balance drama with jokes, some of them hits, most of them misses.

There's big fight scenes, using CGI body doubles. Though, there are some fights that have actual humans in it with CGI touch-up. And yes, those are the best fights of the movie.

And there's the generic villains, one who's motivation is being rich and the other's a brute who's motivations are...kept secret for good reason. And I'm still on the fence on whether or not what they do with him is actually good or cheap.

So, yeah, your standard superhero stuff. Now, does that make it bad?

Well...A friend of mine gave the perfect analogy that all this superhero content getting pushed out is like studios feeding us a lot of ice cream. Everyone but with lactose intolerance loves ice cream, but if you give us too much we'll get sick of it.

For me, I see it as studios offering ice cream, but too much of it is vanilla. I like vanilla just fine, but I'll want more flavors or at least toppings. Like, the least you can do is add peanut butter cups to it.

Blue Beetle is like vanilla ice cream. The question is, does it have any toppings to make it better?

Well...There are two things.

For one, there's the family. Jaime's family are full of personality, and it's a blast watching them react to this crazy thing that's happening to him. Like, other people probably won't laugh at George Lopez screaming in Spanish about how the Scarab went up Jaime's ass, but those people probably never had or seen a chaotic family before. That type of response just feels natural.

Plus, there's a lot of heart with them too, with a handful of sweet, charming moments as these characters root for Jaime and back him up when he needs them the most. And, yeah, I got a little misty eyed with scenes involving the father.

Another thing that makes Blue Beetle better is that it's about a Mexican superhero. There are...a LOT of white superheroes. So many, in fact, that casting directors would sooner make the random white boy a different race instead of creating a new character or using one that's already a person of color. So it's nice to shine a light on a character like Blue Beetle, who I feel like acts as wish fulfillment for the Latinx community. Now, I'm NOT Latino. I'm whiter than your average Peter Parker. But I have SOME knowledge of what the community goes through and...still felt uncomfortable about this VERY REAL scene where Jaime's family are yanked out of their home by these cop-like figures, pointing guns at them and threatening to shoot if they don't do as they're told. This is then followed up with Blue Beetle showing up and kicking ALL of their asses. I'm willing to bet people who unfortunately lived this experience would have LOVED to see something like this happen to them. Or even kids wish they could be Blue Beetle too. To protect their neighborhoods from corrupt systems like Kord's. And that's great...But for me personally, I still wish Jaime could shine brighter as a character.

My knowledge of Blue Beetle is limited to the versions in Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Young Justice, and both those versions of the character would work GREAT for a movie. Maybe even as a combination where he's a fanboy of superheroes who wants to be one of them, but struggles to control a suit that thinks for itself. What we get instead is...fine. He's an awkward character who WANTS to do good, both for his family and community, but is forced into the superhero role when the Scarab...doesn't give him any other option after all but forcing him into this crazy scenario. And that idea COULD be great, but there's hardly enough time to build on it as the movie just RUSHES through everything in breakneck speed.

Yeah, that's always the crazy part about superhero movies. We always demand that not all of them needs to be two and half hours, but when we GET one that's two hours long, we start wishing it had those extra thirty minutes. And MAN could Jaime use those thirty minutes to make his hero's journey pack an extra punch.

Blue Beetle is...fine. It has pacing issues and lots of stuff that's to be expected with superhero media, but the family and the representation helps it stand apart from others. If you're looking for something like The Batman or Spider-verse, movies that change the game for the genre and show what makes superheroes awesome...you're not going to get it. But if you're looking for something that's generic but still fun, Blue Beetle's that. It's nothing spectacular, but it's a helluva lot better than the last three movies DC made.

[piqued-curiosity]

“i do sincerely agree that bisexuals and lesbians should simply not interact beyond calling out bigotry tbh. imma call out lesbophobia when i see it but i have no wish to go have community with some of the deranged people i see here and i’m sure it’s likewise cause all it does is build even more resentment”

To be honest I’m the same, and it’s because of a combination of real-life experiences and online ones. I understand there’s a lot of sympathy for lesbians who “have bad experiences with bi women”, but in MY experience, at least a good chunk of the time, the “bad experience” is that the bi woman dated a man at some point after they broke up, or acknowledged that she was attracted to men and the lesbian was disgusted.

I was in a serious relationship with a woman, and she broke up with me after a year and a half. It was amicable and I was upset but nobody was in the wrong. 6 months after we broke up I started dating a man and she told all our mutual friends that I had “gone crawling back to cock” and must have only been treating her as a bit of fun etc even though SHE BROKE UP WITH ME! I was open about being bi before we started dating so it wasn’t a shock to her, but for some reason she thought it was her business and I had “betrayed” her in some way by dating a man??

Like, they are aware we are bi, they know what the definition of bi is, and then are upset when we aren’t the same as a lesbian and are actually attracted to a man? I had another relationship where the lesbian wanted an open relationship after 4 months and I didn’t. One of the terms of the “open relationship” would’ve been that I couldn’t date a man, only women. I didn’t want an open relationship ANYWAY but I thought this was insane. Like the “open relationship” is basically that she gets what she wants but I can’t do any icky thing that would turn HER off. She was flabbergasted then when I broke up with her instead of going along with it, and I was the bad guy then of course.

It’s like some lesbians are offended and disgusted by the concept of bisexuality, but want to date us anyway? Just like straight people pretty much. But then there’s the added bonus that the lesbians feel entitled to tell us to shut the fuck up about our experiences and basically pretend we are lesbian to appease them, but at the same time want to us acknowledge that we are different from them and stop riding on their coattails or whatever. Like “how dare you act like your experiences are in anyway similar to mine, acknowledge that you are different!!” And then want us to functionally be lesbians???

And when we say we’ve been assaulted by men etc it’s “well that’s your fault for associating with men in the first place” victim blaming bullshit. Female solidarity my ass.

For this reason I only date other bi women now, and while I recognise that there of course ARE situations where bi women treated lesbians badly, I’m very very suspicious whenever I see a lesbian saying she had a “bad experience” with a bi woman. I’m like “did you? Or are you just not ok with her innate sexuality?”

It’s funny though cause I don’t usually admit that I feel this way on radblr cause I get metric tonnes of shit from lesbians saying I’m calling them abusers or whatever. I’m a big lesbophobe if I say I have bad experiences with lesbians. But when lesbians say actual heinous shit about bi women they get sympathy because “I’m sure an evil bi woman did something to her to warrant her saying that bi women are all asking to be raped :(“

I’m sorry that you had those experiences, you were treated unfairly.

But I don’t know why you’re so shocked about the attitude these lesbians have towards opposite sex attraction when it’s something we voice constantly.

Lesbians often talk about how awful it feels when we date a woman and after breaking up she dates a man. Even if it’s just part of what bisexuality is, lesbians have been raised in a homophobic society which tells us to view ourselves and our sexuality as lesser. A lot of people feel badly when they see who their ex is with, maybe they’re with somebody taller than you, prettier than you, etc. A lot of people feel insecure when they see who their ex is with. Lesbians are human too so we feel those normal emotions, and for us an ex’s partner being a man is just one of those traits that fuels insecurity. Just as a woman might feel insecure seeing her ex date a taller woman because that’s something she can never be, a lesbian might feel the same about seeing her ex dating a man. Except now add a bunch of internalised homophobia.

If you think that’s irrational that’s fine, plenty of bi women have voiced that because they simply don’t understand the lesbian experience and that’s fine. Your ex acted really shitty with the whole “crawling back to cock” thing, and I’m not excusing that. You just seem baffled by how she could possibly feel the emotions she felt so I’m explaining.

And that condition of an open relationship makes perfect sense to me. Men easily transmit STDs, of course a lesbian doesn’t want to have to worry about opening herself up to that risk. I mean, the solution would obviously be to not have an open relationship… but I can see where she’s coming from.

Plenty of lesbians are honest about all of the above and say that’s why they don’t date bi women, but then they get called biphobic. So yeah we do get caught in a weird spot, similar to the one TRAs have us in, where we don’t want to date within a group of people, and are called hateful bigots for it. So a lot of us don’t want to date you, we’re just pressured into it.

What you’re explaining is exactly why I support lesbians who don’t date bi women, because it’s an unfair situation all around. Bi women shouldn’t be in relationships where they have to suppress a part of their sexuality, and lesbians shouldn’t be in relationships where they have to be around OSA if it makes them uncomfortable.

[thvnderr]

@pcisxnivys Continuing from here...

It was more about testing the grounds and curiosity rather than an endorsement for a more saintly life. His own persona resting back on the chair with a fingertip tracing over the edge of the porcelain cup. His response was not much of a surprise knowing the bluntness that the tattooist used to carry himself; a hard life stones someone's soul and moral compass until they are nothing but old souvenirs stored in the chest — he could understand that — it had taken Sky some good time to break through and polish the practiced kindness into an actual personality trait of his. "Some would argue that the preservation of others helps with the preservation of oneself if said person lives in a community".

"I see", he briefly commented as Atticus explained the situation of his childhood, and so, he understood how such an upbringing could cause lack of empathy for others' problems. "Your community failed you, I apologize for my previous words, I did not have idea", he commented in the same calm and melodic tone before bringing the cup to his lips, tasting the flowery scents that the bronze liquid permeated into his tongue. He took the moment afterwards to take a look at the rest of the place, quite lavish and clean, opposite to most of the places where people would gather here in Anchorage. Sky wondered what it was that made the few fortunate ones want to stay in this hellish freezer instead of migrating to literal greener pastures. Were they all too acknowledge with the purple fingers and the dull colors? He had a mission there, friends even that helped to make of his stay something more amicable, but he guessed that with the lack of any of these, he would have fled at the first notice of a killer on the loose. Why bother dealing with safety when he could be getting dizzy at after parties and snobby cocktail events? "So you and your brother do not get along much? I understand you both run very opposite types of lives", Sky said, "I always wished for siblings, but never had the fortune of one", he hummed. A little smile toyed with the corner of his lips at the statement about him and Micah. Oh, he had lived his own days of misery, the program being able to leave their employees to their own to test their resilience, but truth was, he was far too accustomed to the faultless lifestyle he ran with now. "It is impossible for the human being to completely understand the position of the other, be animal, plant or person; but I do appreciate all kinds of tales in case you want to share more; I may not empathize entirely, but I think I have heart enough to listen intently without condescendence. What kind of jobs have you had in the past, if you do not mind me asking? The conversation can head some other way if I am being too nosy", he declared with a brighter smile.

Sky had been fiddling lightly with the tea cup, but as his company proceed to ask questions, the second more piercing than the other, he laid the porcelain down with a very quiet ring of the material; the words clearing any other kind of thought he could be having and he did not fight to make it less obvious. "The world up where Micah and I grew up has its own horrors, its own dogs devouring each other merciless just as where you grew up; but these fights look different, more about backstabbing and venom, but just as visceral and deathly—", a soft chuckle dragged half of his lips up, "— I'm sure your wife has talked to you about it", he added while his fingers intertwined on the table in a proper posture, leaning his own body forward. "What I mean is, we are not allowed for much of a guilty conscience if we want to survive either. In fact, I already receive a lot of well-derserved scorn for my affinity to the arts and nature. My faulty curiosity has made me develop sympathy for those around me, but I am very well capable of shutting it down when necessary. Very few instances have required it, though, and I intend to keep it that way. Living with bitterness in my heart has proved to cause more wrinkles", Sky laughed, but it was soft and sweet as if not admitting hard cruelty also rested in his bones. Still, the smile vanished a little at the thought of his ex-fiancée. "It would be futile to pretend I was not affected by her departure. Her safety was priority and I always got sure to establish that with her. Hansa's parents were also rather concerned and for the sake of all, she left", he explained, although could he really know? Even if he felt everything was real for the first time, there was no point on denying he felt insecure about it; like she had played back the same card he slammed on the table months ago; and with very good reason. Sky had no right to feel bad at all, so whatever had been her decision, she had to respect it. "I did promise I would take care of myself while investigating everything and if you allow me to go back to my first point, I find out that taking care of others is usually the easiest way I can take care of myself. Healthy relationships have been more fruitful and resourceful to me rather that dry ones", he made a pause, sipped from his tea and nodded, "yes, maybe my short time with Hansa did soften my heart a little bit", he concluded. "But what about you and Micah? How did you guys meet each other?"

[nerdyprocrastinator]

Movies I Have Recently Watched in Order to Procrastinate

A while ago, I made a post describing which shows I can't finish watching because I am truly afraid of what they will do to my emotions. This time, I will be talking about the things I have started to watch on impulse in order to ignore the fact that I actually need to do work.

Wolf Children

This is a movie that I have been wanting to watch for ages. I have always seen clips of it on YouTube and TikTok, so it's always been on my To Be Watched list. The thing is that I have not been able to find where to watch the show for the longest time.

But, recently, the movie came out on Crunchyroll, which I have a subscription to. And as soon as I saw that I had the chance to watch it, I jumped at the opportunity and ignored everything else on my to-do list.

It was an amazing movie that told the story of a mother trying to raise her werewolf children after their dad dies. I enjoyed the story, though I do wish they focused a bit more on Yuki in the 2nd half.

Entergalactic

When I first saw that this movie came out on Netflix, I simply put it on my Watch Later list and didn't really think about it much. The reason I started watching it was because I saw this TikTok talking about how Kid Cudi was in so many projects and Entergalactic was one of those projects.

Now, I have no idea who Kid Cudi was when I saw the TikTok and I still don't really know who he is now. However, I can tell you that he was absolutely amazing in the Entergalactic movie.

I loved how the art style was very similar to the art style of Into the Spider-Verse. I also loved the fact the representation and the humor in the movie. The music from the movie is now also on my Moody Studying playlist because I loved the chill sound that it had.

Your Name

When it first came out, this movie was pretty big in the anime community. I had wanted to watch it back then, but I didn't have Crunchyroll or any other streaming platform that I might have been able to watch it.

Years have passed since it came out and I just kind of forgot about it.

Well, this past week, I saw the movie on Crunchyroll and I asked some of my friends I was with to see if they'd seen it before and if it was worth watching. One of them told me it was worth the watch. But the thing was that it kind of reminded me of A Silent Voice and that movie absolutely wrecked me, so I was skeptical at first.

Today, though, I watched the movie and just ignored the work I had to do that was due today. I loved this movie and it did, in fact, completely hurt my heart. It was a beautiful movie and I would recommend it to anybody who has access to it.

These were some of the best movies I have ever watched and I will definitely come back to them later. If you ever get the chance to watch them, please do as they are completely worth watching.

Please let me know if there are any movies or shows that you think are interesting or that you love watching instead of doing work. I love finding new things to watch and, on top of that, I love hearing from you guys.

[qnewsau]

Brisbane's radio husbands Tony and Jasper got married

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/brisbanes-radio-husbands-tony-and-jasper-got-married/

Brisbane's radio husbands Tony and Jasper got married

Tony Tranter and Jasper Manfield, Brisbane’s radio husbands, have made it official and married each other in a one-of-a-kind wedding on their 15th anniversary.

Tony is a host on Redlands-based radio station Bay FM 100.3 and is also the artistic director of Bay Pride, which debuted in Wynnum last year.

Last month, Tony and Jasper and their 230 wedding guests travelled to a farm just outside Brisbane. Celebrant Lisa Laker married the couple 15 years to the day after they met.

The couple turned their wedding into a three-day festival that was both unconventional and deeply traditional at the same time.

“Our marriage is already a non-traditional event, so for the wedding, we wanted to throw out anything that doesn’t really resonate with us,” Tony told us.

“We brought in different celebrations from different religions and spiritualities and cultures.

“Lisa was so accommodating of everything we said we wanted to do.”

Image: Thomas De Weger

Tony and Jasper’s unique wedding ceremony

Jasper and his groomsmen wore Scottish kilts, and he and Tony wore intricate henna tattoos for their nuptials. Instead of a wedding aisle, the couple had a wedding circle over 30 metres wide.

“We didn’t want an aisle dividing people in half, because they’re all our family and friends,” Tony explained.

Around the wedding circle, the couple and guests hung strips of fabric, a Celtic tradition called cloots (above), which act as prayers and well wishes for their union.

  View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Lisa Laker Marriage Maker. she/her (@lisalakermarriagemaker)

“We did a handfasting, a Scottish tradition. During our vows, we interlocked our hands and pieces of fabric went over them,” Tony said.

“After the I do’s, we slid our hands out and pulled the fabric into a knot. It’s where the expression ‘tying the knot’ comes from.

“The knot included tartan from Jasper’s kilt and some of my grandfather’s ties. We’re going to have it framed.”

An ancestors table at one end of the circle allowed guests to light candles or incense to pay respects to those they’ve lost.

“We’ve always loved the weddings that do things a little bit differently,” Tony said.

“We wanted people to feel like they weren’t just guests, they were actually participating and taking part in it.”

  View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Lisa Laker Marriage Maker. she/her (@lisalakermarriagemaker)

Wedding banquet and late-night party

Following the wedding ceremony, the couple hosted a banquet as well as a late-night dance party in a century-old barn, hosted by DJ Richie Lestrange.

The space was decked out with “excessive” rainbow lights and pride flags, Tony said, all borrowed from Bay Pride which he directed as part of Wynnum Fringe last year.

You can listen to Tony Tranter on Bay FM 100.3 on the south-east’s bayside. Tony is one of the hosts of G’day it’s Saturday from 8am, and co-hosts So Bae Party Mix every Sunday from 6pm with Callum Cantrill.

In November, Bay Pride was a big hit and is now up for a Queens Ball Award in Brisbane this weekend (June 29).

Planning is also underway on the second annual Bay Pride when Wynnum Fringe returns later in the year.

Big congratulations to Tony and Jasper!

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