#i loved the first two trolls films but this one was something else

[sm0lprism]

I just got back from watching Trolls Band Together and can I just say that I absolutely loved every minute of it. I've been a fan of the first two films for a while so naturally I had to see this one, but GUYS, THE G/T IN THIS FILM IS REALLY GOOD. Like there's quite a lot obviously (there's a lot of g/t in the first trolls film, not so much in the second one, but def in the first film), and the songs slap really hard too. I also loved the villains in it. OH AND THERE IS A SIZE DIFFERENCE COUPLE!! Spruce/Bruce, Branch's brother, has a wife who is essentially giant sized compared to him. And they even have kids!!! It was seriously unexpected and they even addressed it in the film, asking "how does it work?" To which the wife replies "we make it work". I was actually speechless.

[greatqueenanna]

So, about that interview where Lee said "I will tell you what I think philosophically, that isn't telling you what is in [Frozen 3]. I think Anna and Elsa's journey is only continuing. It was warned by the Trolls that that Elsa's powers would only grow. So that's all I will say."

Did you manage to find the full clip? I've been searching a little and yes, it's a real interview from Wish premiere https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhg-WzSl6n8&pp=ygUUSmVubmlmZXIgbGVlIGluIHFpc2g%3D Not from 2018/2019 or anything like that. Unfortunately the full interview is not on YT and I don't know where else to look for it. And I think what she said is very bizzare, because it sounds exactly like Frozen 2 plot? Why would Lee talk about Frozen 2 five years after its premiere to some random interviewer, though? Especially when she was there to promote Wish. So maybe there's a chance the beans were spilled and she really was talking about Frozen 3.

The only way to find out the truth is to watch the full interview... which no one knows where to find. Arrrrghhhh

If the clip is an interview from Wish’s promotional period, then it’s safe to assume that Lee is indeed talking about F3. Thank you for finding out more about this, and going the extra mile! I’ll try and look to see if I can find the full interview as well.

In terms of F3 being about Elsa’s power growing— I think exploring Elsa’s magic again is expected. The Frozen franchise, as evident in the title, is all about ice/snow magic. The story is loosely based off of the Snow Queen, also a story that has a lot of magical ice.

Frozen’s main conflict was about Elsa setting off an eternal winter, and how she was going to control her magic.

Frozen 2’s main conflict was where Elsa’s magic came from and how this question is affecting everyone.

While there are other plots and themes, the main pull is the magic. Thus, F3 taking this approach as well is not really shocking or disappointing to me.

Also, given that Elsa and her magic is the main attraction of Frozen, it’s pretty self-explanatory where the focus is going to be.

However, this doesn’t mean that this will be the only thing that the films will focus on. As mentioned, there are other themes and plots that are part of the first two films. Just because we’re getting a film that is exploring Elsa’s magic, doesn’t mean we won’t have Anna, Kristoff, Olaf side plots and scenes— or the themes of love, fear, and sisterhood.

Also, what Lee said is very vague. Elsa’s magic growing could mean a lot of things. She could discover a new power, or creates something more advanced than Olaf, the snowgies or Marshmallow. Maybe it’s a more philosophical thing, as Lee mentions herself, and the idea of Elsa’s magic ‘growing’ could mean that Elsa is becoming more noticeable by other places, people, or by other fanatical/mythological beings.

Ultimately, we have to wait and see what she could be talking about before we jump to conclusions.

[slowdiived]

Hey! Could I request maybe a fic where your and kurts fans have been trolling you non stop that kurts cheated on you but it hits a breaking point when a photoshopped image hits Twitter. When he next sees you you tell him to go away that you don’t wanna see him rn and he’s confused ugly crying with no idea what he’s done wrong. When you tell him he shows you it’s photoshop and soothes you that he loves you and only you. Basically it’s the first time he actually gets really spiteful towards having a fanbase. Np if it’s not your type of thing or anything!

I LOVE THIS IDEA FR!

the perfect pair (kurt kunkle x fem reader)

this is cannon to my other stories! mentions of alcohol but that’s about it. this one kinda hurt to write lmao

you were tired after working a double shift, angry that one of your coworkers decided to not show up. you cursed yourself for being such a pushover sometimes, not ever standing up for yourself. you had to cancel on kurt for the night and it made you sad because you really wanted to film with him.

the drive home was unbearable, your legs felt like utter shit since you were tasked with running around and stocking food shelves for too long. your music was quiet, mumbling along to your monthly playlist. you got a few messages from kurt but you ignored them until you got home.

as you parked, you noticed your roommate was home and had another car over. you quickly got all your stuff together and ran up the stairs to your apartment, fumbling for your keys. you managed to find it and unlock your house door. you dropped your bag on the floor next to the welcome mat. you looked up and was quickly greeted with your roommate and a few other people pouring shots, quiet and staring. you felt so uninvited that you picked your bag back up and stomped off to your room.

you threw everything down on the floor and started undressing. you found some pajamas and got them on fast. you threw yourself onto your messy bed and sighed, finally feeling okay.

you opened your phone and noticed it was already 10:20 pm. you can't believe you were suppose to be gone by three in the afternoon, you could've been able to see kurt. you rolled your eyes in annoyance at the situation. you clicked on kurt's messages:

kurt: how was ur shift?💙

kurt: i miss u tbh ☹️

kurt: bobby is being not the nicest and i wish u were here with us 💔🙃

you smiled at his cute messages and responded telling him that you would see him tomorrow. he was free for the day and so were you, content for your fans would be nonstop tomorrow. you soon found yourself on twitter looking at your timeline.

it was all pretty standard tweets, people just messing around. you checked your replies on your newer tweets, always loving what people had to say. you noticed some people talking about how they saw kurt with another girl. you shrug it off and switch back to aimlessly scrolling. people pull weird shit like that all the time.

you found a thread on kurt that had showed up because one of the fan accounts you followed retweeted it. it was titled ‘why i don’t think kurt and (y/n) aren’t actually together’

you and kurt hadn’t made yourselves exclusive yet and especially hadn’t told the internet what had been going on between the two of you. your relationship was a point of attraction to your guys’ content. everyone was on the ‘will they or won’t they’ train. you both did play up for the camera, accidentally saying something slightly off or holding gazes too long. they ate it up every time, the viewers making edits, fan art, and fanfiction. it was something else.

kurt: i know we will see each other tomorrow but i want u rn 😭

you: maybe you can pick me up after i wake up and get ready? then we will have the whole day together :)

kurt’s message gave you anxiety for a moment, scared that he knew what you were reading or something. when you finished answering him, you went back to twitter. you read through people’s ‘proof’ which was weird and utter bs.

then you came across an image of kurt and a girl. the tweet had said that he had been seen with a different girl and they were caught kissing. your heart nearly shattered. you didn’t understand why you were so upset, you guys weren’t fully official anyways but for the last month you both had been all over each other. hell, you were his first kiss and his first cuddle, most of his firsts. no way he used you for that and then turned around to start with other girls.

you shut your phone off and tears started streaming down your face. you didn’t know what to do. you thought kurt wanted to be with you. he talked about how much he cared about you, how happy you make him, how he wants to always please you…

this couldn’t be happening.

you cried yourself to sleep, more exhausted than before.

-

you woke up to the sound of your roommate slamming the front door. you stretched and sat up, looking around your room in a tired daze. you saw your alarm clock said it was already the afternoon. you were shocked at how tired you actually were but you got up.

you noticed your phone had a bunch of notifications from kurt asking if you were still sleeping and when he should get you. he was always spamming messages which didn’t bother you none. you told him that you had just gotten up and that you were getting ready.

as you sent the message you remembered what you had saw the night previous. you opened your phone up to check twitter again, hoping it was just a bad dream, your brain pulling pranks.

soon your whole feed was talking about it. you threw your phone against the bed in a fit of rage. you didn’t want to back out of hanging out with kurt, you thought maybe you could confront him. you knew kurt wasn’t the smartest, maybe he just took a picture with a fan and she asked for a kiss on the cheek so he did it?

you weren’t completely sure.

you took a shower and dried your hair, then just getting in some comfy clothes. you just wore black leggings and a white tank top, a red jacket zipped up to your chest. you put on a pair of vans and kurt had already said he was there. you sighed and put your hair up with a claw clip then headed to your front door. you opened it and jumped at the sight of kurt being right there, smiling his goofy smile.

“shit kurt!” you said, hand over your heart. “you scared me.”

“i just wanted to see you,” he smiled. “wanted to walk you to the car n’ stuff.”

you nodded and nervously bit your lip, hesitating to walk out the door for a moment.

“can i talk to you before we leave actually?” you nervously held onto your arm.

“yeah of course!” he came in and closed the door behind him.

you awkwardly started pacing, nervous to say anything. tears already started rolling and you didn’t know how to stop them.

“what’s wrong?” he said, his tone changing from the happy demeanor he had.

“the girl,” you started talking, voice trembling.

“what girl?” he asked quickly.

“why w-were you with another girl?” you managed to choke out with minor hesitations.

he gave you a confused look, pushing the hair out of his face. he leaned on the arm of the couch.

“i haven’t been with any other girl?” he perked up.

that made you angry. he shouldn’t play stupid. he’s better than that.

“kurt, don’t fuck with me,” you said in disbelief. “you used me because i was nice to you and now because you have like-more followers or something, you push me to the side? it’s fucked up.”

he tried to walk up to you but you gently pushed him away.

“what’s going on?” he said in a panicked tone. “i don’t know why you would say that, i care about you and- like a lot!”

“no you don’t!” you yelled, tears streaming down and the situation escalated. “just get out kurt, you can find some other bitch to make content with. i’m out.”

he was crying as well, hurt that you would insinuate he’s lying. he didn’t want to make content with anyone else, he didn’t want to leave you. he didn’t understand where any of this was coming from. he wanted to kiss you and prove that he wanted you.

“i’m s-serious,” he cried out. “i don’t know what you are on-on about!”

he choked out desperate cries like a child trying to state their case. you furiously pulled out your phone and went straight to twitter as he sniffled in the background. you found the picture almost instantly, your heart sinking all over again, more tears drowning out kurt’s heavy breathing.

“this!” you shoved the phone in his face. “i thought we were like, together kurt!”

he grabbed the phone and looked at it, wiping his eyes with his jacket sleeve. his brows furrowed and he tilted his head slightly.

“that’s a screenshot from one of my old videos,” he mumbled out. “i don’t know who that girl is.”

“bullshit!” you screamed out.

he started scrolling, and you just cried harder. you hadn’t felt this bad since you had first moved to california. this shattered your heart. he was the first real friend you had made and you guys both went viral together. he was the reason you had anything.

he then shows the phone to you, showing you the exact photo of him minus the girl. it was in fact from his youtube video.

you felt mortified, embarrassed, awkward… you looked crazy the way you were sobbing.

you grabbed your phone and turned it off, throwing it on the couch. he looked at you with red tear stained puppy dog eyes.

“you don’t have to worry (y/n),” he sniffled out.

you immediately cling onto him, engulfing him in a hug. you held on tight and he reciprocated. you didn’t want to let go.

“i’m so sorry,” you cried again. “i just saw the picture and everyone was saying that you were cheating. i’ve never been cheated on so i felt so sick.”

he held onto the back of your head and he pulled away to look down at you. he wiped the tears from under your eyes and you smiled up at him.

“i would never,” he reassured, his thumb under your jaw. “i’m gonna be here for a long time-uh, if that’s okay obviously.”

you laughed and closed your eyes nodding. he pulled you in again, rubbing your back as you squeezed tight. he was angry, why would people want to put something like this out to get in between you two? his fans always said dumb shit in his lives or on his youtube comments, but no one had actually crossed boundaries before. he didn’t even have any boundaries, he let people say horrible shit about him or write nasty fanfiction that wasn’t for the faint of heart. he never told his viewers what was right or wrong and now he was going to have to come out with your relationship and tell them to knock it off.

“hey (y/n),” kurt whispered against your head.

“mhm?” you hummed out.

“i think we should tell the viewers that we are like dating-or seeing each other, not dating sorry.” he fumbled his words per usual.

“we can tell them that we are dating,” you pulled away to look at him, your arms still around his waist.

“actually? like you want to?” he asked, his eyes big.

“yeah,” you smiled. “i just nearly lost it as you for being with another girl, i think we are basically dating.”

he giggled and pulled you into a kiss, surprising you that he initiated the kiss first.

[basiltonpitch]

Spencer I know you're still watching but I am popping this ask into your box for when you finish. What were your favorite benvi moments (top 5) of the season and why, what were your top three episodes of the season, what were your favorite/least favorite storylines, and what do you think will happen in s4!

OKAY SO this is gonna be a long post bc i'm including screencaps so everything will be under the cut!!

(also i am sorry it took me over 24 hours to answer this lol)

top 5 benvi moments (the order does not matter until we get to like, 1 and 2 lol)

5: this right here in 3x03:

like, i gasped. i smacked my hand to my face. i mean, i fuckign called it. it's such a small moment, and it's not even a moment with both of them present, but i feel like it holds so much weight. because ben has known that devi is his match. he's known for so long. this wasn't even a confirmation for him, because in his head it was already confirmed. and while i desperately wish devi's card had said ben gross, i think it's important that she figured that out on her own, make the decision herself, instead of having a little piece of paper tell her. but the fact that he kept the card. because even though he knows, even though he has known, this is tangible proof that what they had (have) is real.

4:

listen. they're both so jealous that the other kissed someone else. but it's also just so soft. idk. i love them.

3: one free boink: part 1

idk i just thought it was super cute and banter-y and lowkey flirting (because banter and teasing is their love language!!!)

2: surprisingly not number one, but number two: devi cashing in the one free boink. them coming back together is just so fucking...idk poetic to me. it beats malibu. malibu was about seeing each other in a new light for the first time, while free boink (yes i will keep referring to it as that fight me) is about returning to that and seeing each other in an old light again. while ben has been pining for devi the whole season, i don't think he thought for a single second that she'd want him ever again. the smirk here:

mirrors the post-kiss malibu smirk perfectly. one is about a beginning. the other, this season finale, is about picking up where you left off. about coming back to something that has always been waiting for you, no matter how long you took to come back to it.

1: HALLWAY SCENE. MY BELOVED. bathroom scene in 2x10 used to be my top benvi scene (yes it literally topped malibu kiss i just really loved the vulnerability in the bathroom scene) but it has been knocked down to number 2 after hallway scene. ben's hesitance at first, then just going for it, saying fuck it and telling her he wants her to stay, that he'll miss her. a lot. it's basically a fucking love confession, lets be real. as much chemistry as maitreyi and jaren have with physically intimate scenes, i feel like their chemistry shines so much more in scenes where they're being emotionally intimate. devi tries to give him an out in this scene: "You need my annoying personality to fuel your competitive drive." and he doesn't take it.

it takes major guts for him to admit that he'll miss her like that. he is being so vulnerable with her. this season gave ben such an amazing arc. his character growth was just so fucking good and i'm not over it. he's following what he wants now, not what he thinks other people want out of him. and what he wants is for devi to stay. because he cares for her, because he'll miss her, because he loves her. i don't think he's trying to get her to stay so she'll be with him; as far as he knows, she still sees him as a friend. and he's satisfied with that. he wants her to stay in his life, in any capacity, and he's not afraid to admit that anymore.

but then we get this, and everything starts falling into place:

honorable mentions:

3x02 troll shenanigans! they are just too cute like LOOK AT THEM:

3x06: "i filmed you doing something dumb for blackmail <3"

3x09: "your outfit is ugly <3"

especially since after this he doesn't banter back, he just lets it be, because he knows he has to give her the bad news.

but anyways all their banter this season was just shameless flirting even if they didn't realize it and i refuse to take criticisms on that statement

top 3 episodes:

3: 3x05. i really love these fabpax moments we get:

like this duo is so good. so hilarious but also paxton just helping her out with aneesa even though it doesn't really do anything for him in return. idk. i just enjoyed that

also the whole ben/devi kiss competition thing was absolutely wonderful and i STAND BY the point that they should have kissed each other. THEY WANTED TO.

like this here? devi you idiot he doesn't wanna kiss anyone else because he wants to kiss you!

and this. i really loved this moment, especially with aneesa going off on him right afterwards. like, ben. you fucking idiot. you could have it. you don't have to be miserable.

and then this jealous devi!

like! honey i know you don't realize it yet! but you wanna be the one kissing him!!

3x05 was just so good lol

2: 3x06. i just really love these windows we get into ben's head, honestly. and samberg's narration is just wonderful. ben's pov episodes both have been so so good, but this is probably my favorite out of the two because the growth in this one is absolutely amazing. from being overworked and burnt out because of his own self-expectations to live up to his dad's legacy, literally not pooping for over two weeks and ending up in the hospital after being carried fucking bridal style by paxton hall-yoshida himself, to realizing that he doesn't have to be perfect. he doesn't have to go to columbia or take every single class possible or work himself to the point of exhaustion. he can take breaks, he can do what he wants, he can find new passions (like art!!). his bonding with paxton was absolutely wonderful; i have been waiting on their bromance since season one and i think they'll make wonderful friends. this moment? so good. and though ben does hear it from his father later in the episode, i feel like it is so important for him to hear that from other people as well. that he's working hard and has reason for people to be proud of him.

and this scene with his father is just wonderful:

i love that howard acknowledged he hasn't always been a good dad. i love that that did not go unsaid, because it needed to be said. and ben hearing his father say "i'm proud of you," even after he admits that columbia may not be a possibility anymore, is just so so good. the whole episode just felt very....cathartic for ben's character, i think.

1: 3x10. so many reasons. paxton's graduation speech, devi telling her mom she didn't want to leave because she needs one more year with her, HALLWAY SCENE, ONE FREE BOINK. i'm not even afraid to say it: this season finale beats malibu. so fucking hard.

fave & least fave storylines:

for least fave, can i just say rhyah in general? like, obv i think narratively it fit really well esp with the whole situation culminating in nalini defending devi & assuring her that she will find someone who loves her just as she is, but i hated rhyah lol. des was fine. he was ok. i didn't particularly like him but i didnt hate him! and i really think it was important for devi to date someone who wasn't ben or paxton before going back to ben. so yeah, des was fine. but rhyah? god she was the worst. i thought she was like, okay at first, but she really turned around on us, huh? i know it was an important plotline bc it led to this discussion in devi's room:

which was definitely so crucial for devi to hear. but also i just wish devi didn't have to think that she was "too much" in the first place.

for my fave, obviously, the whole benvi arc is my favorite storyline because that slowburn was just so fucking good and i am a sucker for romance, but we already know how much i love that. my favorite storylines of this season aside from the obvious are ben and paxton's individual arcs.

i'm gonna talk about paxton's here, because he has never ceased to impress me with the growth he's capable of (and because i already have talked a lot about ben's arc in this post lol). i mean, in season one, we're led to believe that he's really just this shallow hot jock, but he just keeps growing and growing! this season was particularly wonderful i think, even moreso than last season. he owns up to the shitty things he did in the past (which is just…ghosting a shit ton of girls which like, while typical for a teenage boy, is still pretty shitty lol). he is really such a good boyfriend to devi too! (i still don't ship daxton, don't think i ever will, but it's something devi definitely needed to get out of her system) and the way their breakup happens:

him establishing his own boundaries and letting her know that he cannot be with her if she doesn't see how amazing she is just like he does, because she will continue to be insecure in their relationship if they keep going on like that. i also loved that he didn't date haley at all after he broke up with devi -- it would have felt so cheap if he did. they make really good platonic friends! and so do devi and paxton!!

i really love how this season ended with both ben and paxton admitting what they want and going for it (ben with admitting he wants devi to stay, and paxton admitting to trent that he wants to go to asu). and also with realizing that he doesn't want whatever he has going on with phoebe, because before, he did want something easy and thoughtless, but now he wants something more real -- and i don't think he'll find that with devi, because i will always believe that their relationship was too superficial to have any shot at longevity, but i hope he does find what he's looking for. not to mention all the interaction he had with other characters: el, fab, ben. it was just wonderful.

i also really loved the entirety of nalini and devi's relationship this season. they've just continued getting closer and closer as they both work around their greif and it is absolutely beautiful. nalini sticking up for devi with the whole rhyah/des situation? so wonderful. the talk they had in her room afterwards? fucking beautiful. THIS SCENE???

i will never get over it. as someone who has always had a rocky relationship with their mother, this just feels so healing for me.

season four thoughts:

i'm now leaning towards devi freaking out and ghosting ben after they...boink. but i can also see it going in a direction where ben is scared that devi isn't as serious about him as he is about her, so he avoids her and instead starts going out with margot (because he knows he wouldn't be setting himself up with heartbreak with margot -- yeah, he likes her, but he loves devi). and obv this is going to hurt devi a lot -- and honestly, i kind of like the idea of devi being heartbroken by ben for once. i want to see her pining again like we did in season 2 -- openly admitting that she has feelings for ben. and i want devi to be the one to tell ben she loves him. i feel like that's something they both need -- for her to say it out loud, and for him to hear it.

plus this interview from jaren even further solidifies my thoughts on ben and devi being endgame lol

[rieindiegames]

2022 An Introspection and A Look Ahead – Rie Indie Games

Happy New Year everyone!!! It’s that time of year again when I gasp, reflect, and prepare to surge forward another year! One of my resolutions is to have a more consistent presence on social media, so let’s start off the year with this! Since most of this post will be personal and long, I’ll place it under the read more.

First, I still have the same New Year Resolutions for 2023 as I did last year with two new additions! Those are: 1) Stream 2) Consistent social media presence 3) Successful and productive Dev Year 4) Take care of my health 5) Consume enjoyable content

Streaming!? You!?

Yes! Me! Those who are especially close to me, know I rarely like to game or enjoy content by myself these days. I derive a lot of my enjoyment from media in my downtime by experiencing it with others. I think that’s because as a developer; I spend a LOT of time alone at my desk doing things for hours on end that rarely involve others. And because of the nature of what I do for work at my 9-5, I have minimal contact with others.

It’s unfortunately easy for me to be consumed in my world and go for long periods alone. One of my biggest resolutions in 2022 was to work on that. Especially since it got to where I could count on my hands the number of times I contacted or saw loved ones. Even those who lived a 5-minute walk away from me. To any of you concerned, don’t worry. That aspect of me improved! I spent a lot of time with those who’d been silent supporting me, and my personal relationships benefited from it in a way that means more to me than I could write here. So, I wasn’t at my desk as persistently as I had been in 2020 and 2021, where, if you ask my close friends, lol… They noticed.

How does any of that come back to streaming? Well, I’d like to give more of myself to those I care about and keep that as an integral part of my life. Those who support my works and creative efforts are in that category too! I’ve always done small personal streams on Discord, but there are people who follow me who aren’t on discord, and I’ve always been interested in streaming content and process on a streamlined site for it.

So, segue, yeah, I have a twitch channel with branded graphics, emotes, and badges! And to break it in, I’m doing this! The date for the first stream is FEBRUARY 4TH, 2023 at 8AM PST! As for what we’ll be doing, I’ll let viewers vote. I like the idea of doing a “spin the wheel” type choice after adding a few recommended games to it.

Social Media and Consistency

This resolution will be the trickiest for me. I’m not “good” at social media, lol. I get so shy when it comes to shilling myself. However, perhaps I’ve had the wrong mindset about that? From other creators I’ve seen on SM platforms, it’s less about shilling and more about interacting with fans and just…having fun with it? For the longest, I’ve approached indie game development as this thing that should function like AAA gaming spaces in certain aspects. And I’ve thought that due to what I studied back in university. Tease me, okay, but I’ve had the late realization that no, that is not at all what anyone’s here for, lol! (And if you are, don’t be cheeky in the comments and tell me now. Shoo! Unless you’re trolling me. Then sure. Come.)

People engaged with me because they like my content, they like me, and they’re genuinely supporting me. I don’t have to be uptight and professional, as all the engagement comes from the joy of being here in this process together and the adventure of it. There is no need to agonize over the quality of social media posts. I can just have fun with it! Which…come on, that sounds so simple! But don’t you think the simple realizations in life at the ones that make you face palm!? Like, oh, you don’t like the film you’re watching? Well, you can turn it off and do something else! Like, oh, you don’t like that meal you received? You can send it back to the kitchen and order something else. Or not eat it!? GASP!!! I’m exaggerating now, lol. But recall the HDB principle! For those of you unfamiliar, I have this meme below saved on my PC that goes:

Now you know! HDB means Hit Da Bricks to me!!! If it sucks, leave! It’s 100% a meme, but I think the advice in it is solid depending on the situation as it reminds me of another post from the comic artist Randall Munroe?

Anyway, that’s enough being sentimental over that. What it comes down to is engagement and having fun. Genuinely and honestly. I don’t need to hum and haw so much, and I think that’s come out in my posts more recently.

Successful and productive Dev Year? IseKai Release?

Yes, please! I’m so ready to have it out! Why does the last 10% take 90% of the time? Turns out that saying was true. This is the release year. Come hell or high water. IseKai will be out this year. I’ve learned a lot during ICT’s development. About myself. About my skill set. The brand I would like to have going forward for my creative works. Unfortunately, when you think about that stuff, it’s a lot. Like… a LOT, especially when so much of it is new.

But the indie otome space is also incredibly niche and, honestly, hard on newer devs. There’s a whole mess of my thoughts I could share here, but I think it’s better to expend that effort elsewhere. I have a ton of worries and anxieties about releasing my first product. However, doesn’t everyone? That’s a natural part of the process. I won’t know what impact I’ve had until the entire game is just out there. There’s no sense in worrying about things that may not even happen or spending so much time in my head about it.

Do I have plans for after IseKai’s release?

Well, let’s talk about that once we’re there! Getting there is already consuming enough of me, lol. Will I still make games? Absolutely. You cannot be rid of me.

What does a successful and productive year look like? IseKai is released, I take a break to wind down with my loved ones, and then I’m back on the dev grind! Anything related to that falls into the aforementioned category.

Do I have any specific intentions going forward with my works? Totally! I’d really love to settle into being known for releasing products with narratives that are romantic, suspenseful, mature, thrilling, and enjoyable. That’s what I envision going forward. As a fun aside, I’d love to contribute more well-rounded yandere love interest media to the otome sphere. I’d like them to get less of a bad rap in my circle, haha.

Take care of my health

This one is a doozy… For those of you who don’t know, I had several health problems, two of which required surgery, in 2022. Many of these had been with me for a while and were exacerbated do to some stressful family drama I went through that started at the end of 2020, and worsened to its worst point in 2022. I really went through the wringer. My parent’s health took a sharp dive. Several of my siblings had life crises that I don’t feel comfortable detailing. Not a single one of my family members hasn’t had covid-19. And my husband could finally move in with me. Stress attacked me from pretty much every angle. I was hospitalized a few times. I’m still struggling with migraines, anemia, and vision problems, but things are gradually, slowly, improving.

All of those things are private for me. And since I’m taking all the steps to address those, I’m happy to leave it there.

Consume more content I enjoy

This is big too, lol. I was so busy doing pretty much everything that didn’t particularly pertain to downtime I could thoroughly enjoy. Since I always felt behind, it was like a never-ending game of catchup within my community, the broader gaming circle, and among my peers. I love discovering new games, devs, and projects but I want to take more time with it going forward! It’s a special thing to me, and I want to signpost more about everything I adore!

And that’s all! Wow! That was a lot to write. Hopefully, it’s faster to read. Once again, happy new year everyone!!! I adore you all, and thank you once again for all your support and love!

-Riri💜💜💜

[xxminisamxx]

Tag! You’re It!

....Tag Game To Better Know You! Send this to people you'd like to know better!

tagged by @ellcrys!

What book are you currently reading?

I’m currently reading two different books: The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones and The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden. I’m not very far into either at the moment, but have enjoyed what bits I have read. 

What’s your favorite movie you saw in theaters this year?

I haven’t seen any movies in theaters since Avengers: Endgame, and I’m VERY far behind on my to-be-watched list. I did enjoy Wendell & Wild on Netflix, and what parts of Troll I saw while my parents were watching it. And I know I’ll love Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio when I finally watch it.

What do you usually wear?

Jeans and a nice t-shirt mostly. Shoes change from converse to short black boots depending on my mood and venue/occasion.

How tall are you?

5’0’’ - 5′1″

What’s your star sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or historical event?

Virgo, and I share a birthday with Stephen King and the original release of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.

Do you go by your name or a nickname?

When I first meet people I usually introduce myself as Samantha, but everyone ends up calling me Sam. Because of that I’ve decided to start using Sam for all of my writing.

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be as a child?

Kinda. I always knew I would probably end up doing something creative since I was really artistic as a child, but what I wanted to be always changed. At one point I thought I would be a veterinarian or a marine biologist, at another I wanted to be a filmmaker. I did go to college for filmmaking, but have since moved to the writing side of making films.

What’s something you’re good at vs something you’re bad at?

I’m good at coming up with characters and ideas for my writing, but coming up with full plots takes me much longer. And since I want the full plot before I start writing, many ideas get stuck in the beginning stages without progressing. 

Dogs or cats?

Dogs. I have three Chihuahuas.

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what's your favorite picture/favorite line/favorite etc. from something you created this year?

“She was raised in the body of his first love.” This is the opening line to an original short story I'm still working on.

What's something you would like to create content for?

It’s not so much as “for” as much as it’s “with.” I’d love to collaborate with Guillermo del Toro in the future. He’s my favorite filmmaker and I love his take on monster stories.

What’s something you’re currently obsessed with?

Critical Role. I got introduced to them this year and have become obsessed with it. Especially the way Matt Mercer is able to weave storylines and different cultures/backgrounds into the game.

What's something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

The amount of Marvel works coming out. I was excited at the beginning of the year, but many of the shows/movies have become very formulaic. There are also way too many. I’ve decided that I’ll watch for the few characters I REALLY like, and just ignore everything else because it’s gotten to be too much.

What’s a hidden talent of yours?

Like @ellcrys, procrastination. In school teachers always told us that we couldn’t do essays the night before and do well, and I always did and ended up with high A’s, if not 100′s. If I have a deadline, I can get it done.

Are you religious?

No. I was raised Christian but lean more toward agnostic now. I think some religions could be real, all could be real, or none may be real. There’s no way to know for sure.

What's something you wish to have at this moment?

My eyes fixed. I’ve had double vision issues since the beginning of 2020 that the doctors are not completely sure what the problem is. I can’t drive because of it, so it has really impacted my ability to be independent.

I tag anyone interested!

[phantom-le6]

Ramble of the month September 2022: What’s cooking in my literary kitchen

At last, we’re getting into the tail-end of 2022, and with my monthly rambles, I’m taking a bit of a break from my established pattern of topics.  Instead of continuing to alternate between Marvel and something else, I’m doing my October and November rambles on Marvel (completing my look at my hypothetical Contest of Champions), and December’s going to be about the challenge Christmas sometimes poses to autistics like myself.  This then leaves the September article free for me to discuss something else, namely my various book-writing efforts.

 This is something I try not to talk about in too much detail on-line on the off chance something I’m writing is plagiarised by others, and since I have a lot of difficulty with what I say being taken the wrong way, at times I can be reluctant to open up on anything.  After all, if you keep silent, no one can harass, harangue, insult, bully or otherwise hurt you because what you said was somehow “wrong”.  However, keeping silent also means not getting an idea out that needs to be out in the world.  It means the things that mean the most to you might not get addressed, or not in the way you’d like them to be, and it means giving in to those who love to crush freedom of expression through harassment, trolling, bullying and so on.

 Because much of what I want to write about relates to autism and the issues autistic people can have, at least as I have experienced being an autistic person, I feel that I cannot and should not have to hold back writing what I want to write. Whether what I write has a big impact or a small one, I want to add to what people know about those like me.  If that happens, then hopefully society treats us better and I see that in the issues that at least affect me or other autistics I know being remedied.

 As such, I’m going to focus this article very much on the reasons behind each of my projects rather than going into them in set detail.  Before I do so, however, I will quickly discuss two key points to bear in mind throughout.

·First, as ever, I don’t mean any offence in what I say, so please try not to take any.  If something I say does cause offence, rest assured it’s not intentional, and I welcome polite, constructive feedback so I can avoid making the same mistakes in the future.  I won’t tolerate insults, abuse or trolling of any kind.

·Second, to anyone who has come to this article from my Facebook page or otherwise knows me in real life, if anything you read here causes you concern (not that it should, but just in case), please come to me directly with those concerns.  At the moment, everything I’m writing is still either in a planning stage or open to editing.  Nothing is set to be published, and all options, including pen names for anonymity, remain open.  While I am autistic and live with my parents, I am still an adult and deserve the respect of people speaking to me directly.  Please accord me that respect, because if positions were reversed, I would do you the same courtesy.

 Now that I’ve dealt with the housekeeping, let’s add some additional context.  Writing is something I’ve been into doing for a long time.  Old school friends might recall me trying to create superheroes of my own and often using them as a basis (which, in all honesty, was because I stink at drawing and wanted to use people I knew as physical templates rather than out of a sense of friendship).  However, the problem back then was I didn’t really have anything to write about.  I was more interested in the “window dressing” elements that drew me in on superheroes, namely the powers, code-names and costumes.  For a long time, original storytelling eluded me and I eventually gave up.

 Many years later as an adult, I came back to fiction writing because I’d been having some success dealing with more fact-and-opinion-based writing.  I’d done the occasional article about my autism, multiple film and TV reviews, and I was even giving talks on the matter of autism. However, it wasn’t enough, especially when I felt like the people around me at work weren’t as understanding as they should be.  To that end, I began the first of my literary projects that’s presently on-going, a factual book covering my experiences as an autistic person, and key advice for both autistics and non-autistics on how to achieve better integration of the two groups (spoiler alert, a lot of the emphasis is on non-autistics doing more and realising they’re not the be-all and end-all of humanity.  You’re one group in a wider species; get over it and tone down the egocentricity, would you please?)

Now at the moment, the factual book is on the proverbial backburner after several re-drafts have been done, and there are two reasons for this.  The first is that I’ve been trying to get feedback from professionals who work with autistic people that also happen to be work colleagues of mine, or at least they were at the time I started writing the book. They’ve since moved on elsewhere and haven’t responded to my efforts to chase them up for their feedback, so elements of the book that needed fact-checking by people in the know are presently left without such checks.

 Secondly, while my diagnosis is correct, the professions who have made it haven’t been part of the NHS or any other organisation that might be empowered to make it “official”.  Originally, this wasn’t a major issue for me because I still grew up on a Statement of Special Education Needs, I still got the sort of education I needed, and I’ve never had to “prove” my autism to get a job.  However, to make sure no one can denounce me or my opinions because I don’t have something formal confirming my autism, I’ve opted to go down the official diagnosis route now, and then feedback my experience of this through the book. So, until I have a formal NHS confirmation of what I already know and can find autism professionals with the time to verify some of my advice in various areas as valid, this book is in limbo.

 That being said, the issues I’m raising in the factual book and that I keep coming across in real life provide fertile ground for fiction writing, which brings us to these projects.  The first of these I began work on back in late-2019, and the writing and research to get it up to a trilogy with each instalment in the first draft stage took me most of 2020 and all of 2021 to complete.  This project revolves around an autistic man based on myself who becomes a sort of super-powered secret agent in a secret war, and whose powers require him to engage in casual relationship culture to recharge them. In other words, he has to tackle one of the most socially challenging scenarios and environments an autistic person can be faced with in order to be a superhero (also a challenge in its own right).

 This project’s main purpose is really two-fold; the first is to help dispel the image of autistic people specifically, and differently abled people in general, as somehow being unattractive.  As an autistic person, I am often horrified to see some of the comments that ensure when someone with severely different abilities is shown next to a regularly abled person.  Some assume sibling relationships, some assume the regularly abled person to be a gold-digger, others will suggest the differently abled person lacks any ability to be in a relationship.  Almost no one will consider the differently abled person as attractive, and this misconception that the differently abled can’t be attractive still applies even when the difference is non-physical nature.

 Secondly, as my factual book will also point out, casual relationship culture isn’t exactly very autism-friendly, so some of the trilogy is very much geared towards showcasing that and suggesting an alternative.  Alongside this, other issues do get raised, and not just those around autism.  As someone who believes in championing the causes of others as an ally because there will be autistics in other groups (female autistics, autistics of colour, LGBTQ+ autistics, etc), I like to at least try and touch on wider issues if I think I can do so in a positive way that at least tries to be sensitive to that other group.

 In the case of this project, the main other issue is, perhaps inevitably, consent.  Now in case anyone’s been confused by my wording earlier, a superhero that is having to deal with casual relationship culture basically means they’re dealing with sex, and obviously the concept of consent is an integral part of sex.  It’s also become a very high-profile topic with increasing news stories about consent being violated, most often with men as the violators and women being violated, though of course each is only a majority, not a monopoly, which is why I think this is something all genders have to deal with.  As part of this exploration, I even look into some edge adult practices that actually have very positive models of consent that the mainstream of society might be wise to draw on.  At present, I’m taking this trilogy through a second draft of all instalments before considering who I can trust for early draft reads, etc., after which I’ll move on to my second fiction project.

 As with my first fictional project, the second will hopefully work out as a trilogy, but this one is probably going to be a bit darker in tone.  In this case, we’ll be looking at an autistic young man of sixth form age who is being routinely bullied for being different, and who suddenly finds himself gaining mystical power with which to defend or avenge himself.  In this case, the focus is less on building up a positive image of autistics and more on looking into why the negative images of autistics come around.  In essence, it’s the classic idea of kid gets bullied, kid gets gun, kid gets all the blame when he was just trying to correct an injustice no one else could be bothered with.

 This story will also look into the matters of perspective and context, exploring the difference between bullying and so-called “banter”, and why everyone, autistic and non-autistic alike, need to consider context and see issues as a whole, not just from their individual point-of-view.  I’m also hoping that it will serve as an insight into how strict, how “black-and-white” an autistic perspective on right and wrong can be, and how it is often a need for predictability rather than anything else that can be at the centre of our world view.  At present, this stage is only up to a point of being plotted out ready for tackling first drafts.

 Project number 3 is a bit different because originally, it wasn’t meant to be anything more than a creative exercise.  In researching adult culture in varying forms for my first literary project, one thing I stumbled across was the idea of transformation stories.  In adult fiction, this is a sub-genre relating to characters changing from one form into another.  Sex/gender, race and almost anything else imaginable can change about someone in such a story, and while these changes and what causes them varies, there are two things in the stories I looked at that really stood out.

 The first is that a lot of stories borrow from the likes of Jumanji and tie the transformations into a game, albeit minus rhino stampedes and so forth. This struck me as the best setting, so my project will aim to do a twist on it.  However, what stuck out more for me is the second point; when the changes happen, it’s not just a cosmetic change that only affects appearance.  Not only are mental changes possible as transformations in their own right, separate from physical ones, but the physical changes can actually result in changes to reality that would be associated with them. If a character goes from man to woman but their sexuality remains heterosexual, for instance, they begin to fancy men in line with being a woman.  If they change from White to Black, their use of slang changes to reflect Black culture, and so on.

This appealed to me because it plays into my perspective on why I prefer diversification in film and TV adaptations to come through new characters, or the promotion of existing characters that get overlooked in the rush to mine all the “big name” characters, rather than altering race, gender, etc.  The best way I can explain this is cite the Disney & Pixar film Inside Out, which although fictional is based on real-world psychological principles.  In that film, it’s shown that our personalities are based on our experiences, with certain key memories (“core memories” in the film’s terminology) becoming the basis for our major personality traits.  Indeed, this idea is central to much of what happens in that film, but I’m sure some people reading this may still wonder how this relates to my preference for new or existing characters over altering characters.

 As on-going protests against racism, sexism and other forms of prejudice show, many groups in society are still being hampered by a society that is still riddled with intolerance, and while some can be overt and even violent, such prejudice can also be more subtle.  Regardless, its existence means many people have different experiences based on how they differ from their local “mainstream”, often not having as many opportunities or face greater levels of abuse from those around them. Certainly, this is something I’ve had some experience of as an autistic person; had I been born neurotypical instead of autistic, I’d have attended schools nearer to me, made different friends over the years, picked up social skills more easily, and by now would probably be living a totally different life.  By the same token, if you change a human character based in a world with the same kind of societal issues and politics as the real world by altering their race, gender, etc., the character will have a whole new, whole different back story that will alter who they are.

 This, then, is why I prefer new or existing characters of colour, women characters and so on over changing existing characters to represent these groups; because it means the character is who they’re supposed to be and not just a new character sharing a name with someone else from the source material.  By changing something that impacts a character’s experiences, you change who they became because of those experiences.  For characters outside of a real-world-based society, such as aliens or mythical creatures, things like racial shifts make no difference because they’re not based in the politics of difference we know in real life.

As such, it makes no difference to have a Black man play Heimdall in the MCU or see a Black woman playing Ariel in a Disney remake; Asgardians and Mermaids are not human and therefore lack human prejudices, making skin colour inconsequential to who they are.  The same doesn’t apply with human characters in a real-world-based setting (Will Smith’s Deadshot compared to the original being a key example of this).  By the same token, transformation stories that change a character’s skin colour or gender will often alter their memories and personalities to reflect that change; same principle, different application. It’s for this reason I also prefer creating my own characters to represent autistics like myself; I don’t want one of my favourite superheroes changing to represent me.  I want them to stay who and what they are, and to add something genuinely new to the world of fiction.

 Now this doesn’t mean I’m against some changes outside of transformation genre stories.  Character development is an inevitable and important part of writing any fiction, and I hold that LGBTQ+ characters coming out should be less of a change and more a revelation of something always intended.  However, if a character changes in some sudden or drastic way without cause, or without considering all the years of backstory a character may have behind them, then you’re jeopardising some of the audience’s suspension of disbelief.

 Take the character of Iceman in the X-Men comics, who in recent years has been ret-conned to be gay.  While there is evidence to support this in the decades of stories that have gone before, there is also evidence of Iceman being attracted to women as well. Personally, I think that if Marvel weren’t willing to create an original LGBTQ+ character for X-Men lore and therefore had to go down the sexuality ret-con route, it would have been better to have Iceman be bisexual or pansexual.  This would then have been better supported by the totality of his backstory and still achieved greater diversity, albeit not in what I feel was the best way possible.  The best way, to my mind, will always be to raise the profile of existing diversity and to create new characters to add to it.  You want more characters of colour, more women, more LGBTQ+ people in fiction? Do what I’m doing to create more autistic characters in fiction; sit down and write them yourselves.

 At the time of sitting down to write this ramble, I have created the characters for the transformation story and planned out their transformations, but I’ve yet to plot out how I would break that down over a series of chapters. This same attitude of keeping characters as they are also feeds into one of the last two projects I’m considering, both of which are essentially fan-fiction pieces in various stages of planning.  One is a Star Trek story that I hope can be a trilogy, and which is basically set in an alternate reality where alumni from TNG, DS9 and Voyager are combined into a single crew.  This was apparently meant to be something Trek would do as a film in the wake of the TNG film Nemesis, but it was ultimately scrapped in favour of the reboot films.

 Fan-fic item number 2, and that one is a Marvel and DC multiverse tale.  This is the one that will be very much influenced by my “leave characters as they’re first written” philosophy, because a lot of the Marvel side will ignore many 21st century ret-cons while DC’s frequent penchant for rebooting means I’ll be working mainly to the continuities I know best.

 In terms of which I’d prefer to publish versus just posting online somewhere, my current preference is to do my factual book as a proper publication, followed by my autism-based fiction trilogies and the Trek fanfiction if those who publish Trek novels thought it was any good.  I wouldn’t mind publishing the transformation one as well, but I imagine that one is probably more website fodder, and anything Marvel/DC-wise is almost bound to be destined for a fan-fic website.

 So, that’s all on this subject for now.  I hope this has been informative and enjoyable for you all, and I hope that everyone has kept in mind the relevant bits of housekeeping; polite, constructive feedback only and if you have concerns, come to me directly so I can address them rather than disrespecting me by going to others around me. Until my next ramble, ta-ta for now.

[theflyingfeeling]

So I don't know what you've already heard of the Lahti concert from other sources but here's my report anyway 🖤

The first thing I need to tell you is that in front of me there was this sweet sweet girl who needed a hair tie so I borrowed her mine because I wasn't using it and as a thank you she filmed me so many, long videos and she had an EXCELLENT view to the stage!!! 😭

I mean, I did too, holy shit they were close, my breath was taken away when Porko suddenly appeared what felt like mere metres away from me 😵

I could see all their expressions and omg 🥺 they were all so happy to be playing a show again 🥺🥺 I especially loved the look on Niko's face and in general I was happy to see him a little better, I feel like I didn't see much of him at the Tampere gig

Joel did lots of interaction with Joonas as per usual and 🥺🥺🥺🥺 sometimes he went up to stand next to Aleksi and just 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 smile and look at him 😭😭😭😭

OLLI SANG!!! ........except that he didn't 🤡 They/we hyped it up and everyone was like omg he's gonna sing HE'S GONNA SING--- and then he fucking lipsynced to the opening of a Bon Jovi song 🤠 I swear to fucking god. This man is such a troll and I hate him 💞

Also, getting fucking rickrolled at a BC concert is NOT what I thought I'd ever experience, and yet 🤠 thx Porko <3

Aleksi had a little DJ solo of his own and everyone was happy 🥰 He also jumped around the stage during Sharks Love Blood 💓

Speaking of which, The Kiss was 💀!! It happened right in front of my salad and I died, I'm actually writing this from the grave

The setlist??!?! They played SO MANY SONGS I DID NOT EXPECT THEM TO, such as Giants and Enemy For Me 😵 Giants especially was a special moment to me personally, will post a video tomorrow 💗

And they STARTED with Balboa of all the songs, blasting my brain right to the back wall 👌

Niko/Joonas flirting, but what else is new (Niko @ the crowd: "I've been looking at you all evening." Joonas @ Niko: "I've been looking at you too 😏" Niko: "who's surprised, hands up" lmaooo these guys 🥰)

Tommi didn't say a single fucking word the whole gig lol go on give us nothing, #onsealfa

Probably forgot something, will add later

I've had a shit past two months due to work stuff, but this kind of made up for it all. I love this band so much and oh god I'm gonna cry

Anyone with whom I talked about the gig beforehand knows how nervous I was (thanks for all the nice words btw <3) but, as per usual, everything went perfectly fine, I had possibly the best night of my life so far, and I'm so so happy that I went. I wish it would never have ended.

Some time ago someone sent me an ask asking what's the best concert I've been to. Back then I answered Antti Tuisku @ 2017 SuomiPopFestarit and BC @ Tampere back in August. They have now been replaced, and only another BC gig will ever compare. They are amazing live, and if you are given the chance to go to their concert, TAKE IT AND RUN 🖤

But let me tell ya, one of my absolute favourite moments happened AFTER the gig at the merch stall 🙈 This is the interaction I had with Miki, roughly translated:

Miki: *struggles to find the size tag of the WANS hoodie I'm buying*

me: it's an S

Miki: S, got it. *tells me the sum of my purchases*

me: *hands him my credit card*

Miki: *takes the card and inserts it in the payment terminal* it's a busy night!

me: yeah, but it's good you got your hands full am I right

Miki: yes, it's a positive problem! *tells me how to navigate on the payment terminal*

me: *barely manages to choose debit instead of credit and then just stares at the machine when it asks for my pin code because 1) the machine looks completely different to those in grocery stores for example, and 2) I had not expected to get to do small talk with Miki lol)

Miki: ..did you blackout?

me: YES, the numbers are in different order, you know, from the ones they have in grocery stores?!

Miki: *takes out that exact kinda payment terminal I'm talking about* no, they're in the same order

me: *upon seeing the more familiar-looking machine, remembers her pin code, THANK HEAVENS, and the payment is accepted* Y E S

In conclusion, you are all invited to our summer wedding 🥰🤣

[eponymous-rose]

Return of the Revenge of the Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E108-109 (September 15, 2020)

It’s been six months since the last Speech Machine Upper Luminosity (is that right?), so let’s jump right back in like nothing ever happened!

Tonight’s guests are Laura Bailey and Matt Mercer!

Announcements: Talks will now be biweekly, discussing two episodes at a time! Unfortunately, this means fan question submissions aren’t doable yet, since they’ll often be filming Talks for episodes that haven’t aired yet; questions will come from crew, but fanart and cosplay from earlier episodes will still get awards. Dani Carr’s new official title in the company is Lorekeeper!

Episodes 108-109

Brian asks Matt about the tug-of-war with the Moonweaver’s influence: “how much of that did the Traveler and Jester’s interactions influence him not going back to the Feywild?” Matt: “Okay, well, the Moonweaver isn’t necessarily happy about taking on the images and icons and co-opting elements of her worship, but also isn’t a vindictive deity necessarily.” She has a similar fey history to Artagan, “so I knew this encounter, there would be a punishment involved, at the very least to take Artagan down a few pegs.” He wasn’t going to be actually banished; the Moonweaver just wanted to “scare the shit out of him: You think you’re a trickery god? Welcome to the original trickery god, bitch.” There was a possibility of him just vanishing for a while, if there was no sign of humility; but based on their interactions, it was just enough to show the planetar that maybe this isn’t the same “troll of an Archfey” that the Moonweaver had known. “Maybe this is enough of a lesson.”

Laura thought Artagan was going to be “gone-gone, and Jester was going to be left alone”. She thought there was going to be a Feywild rescue, and Jester would have to try to find a new deity.

Laura’s wi-fi conks out. So does mine. Ah, 2020.

Jester would probably have followed the Moonweaver in an attempt to make amends. Laura mentions that every time she sat down to prep something for Traveler-Con, she realized Jester wouldn’t sit still long enough to plan it.

Laura: “If that cult hadn’t been there and she hadn’t seen what a false god could do to people, I don’t think she would have come to the realization that what her and the Traveler were doing was detrimental: oh, we’re fucking over people’s lives, hardcore.” If Artagan hadn’t been on board with picking a different deity, Jester would have stepped down at Traveler Con and she would have exposed the lie.

Matt’s “super happy” because he was purposely making sure he didn’t know what was going to happen at Traveler Con. “Okay, everything around it’s going to be interesting and fleshed out, but as to the actual convention, I have no idea what’s going to happen.” He wanted to balance a complete train wreck with character beats and mini-arcs, and he was satisfied with how that worked out.

Brian asks if Jester ever considered walking away from the Traveler. Laura: “Yeah. It could have progressed to that point. Jester always gave him the benefit of the doubt, and loves him with her entire heart, so if he would have not seen that what they were doing was not acceptable, in his own way, then Jester would have probably walked away. I don’t know if she would have walked away from him, but it would have been a big issue for her. I have no idea what that would have meant for her... my entire character arc.”

How does Jester feel about the Traveler now? “She loves him, but at the same time, she doesn’t adore him without boundaries. She sees a little bit more of who he is, and the worshiping aspect isn’t there anymore. She sees him more like another friend. That’s a complicated relationship for a cleric to have.”

Matt talks about what a fan he is of his players. “I’ve just been enjoying the hell out of this.”

Has Artagan learned his lesson? He’s been living for a long time, and old habits are hard to break. Matt points out that Artagan “is free in a place that he doesn’t have complete domain over, and he’s been humbled a few times. I think he’s definitely learned a series of lessons to some degree. We’ll see how far it sticks and where their relationship goes.”

Brian asks Laura how it’s been to have the spotlight on Jester for a long time. Laura: “It was nerve-wracking. I feel very relieved that it’s on to something else now, but it was so much fun, too. I feel like I kept getting so emotional as her through all this. Having to come to terms with all the things she was going through was crazy. But it felt good.”

Cosplay of the Week: An amazing Yasha by @shiieldmaiden on Twitter, photo by @asheneyed.

Matt: “I took a bath for this.”

Brian notes that Jester found herself caught between her god and the M9. Who would she have chosen if Artagan hadn’t kicked her off? Laura: “Here’s the thing. If Fjord hadn’t jumped on my back, Jester would have gone. But him doing that, I mean, that’s why I froze like I did. I really didn’t know where it was going to go. Thankfully Artie made that choice for me.”

The Vilya reveal’s been waiting since Marisha made Keyleth’s backstory. Brian recalls that the question of what happened to Vilya came up in the campaign 1 recap, and Matt was cagey about it. “When I got the original backstory from Marisha, in my head, I was like, her mother’s probably still alive, just lost to the chaos for reasons that I’ll get to, but I like the idea of an eventual reunion when it made sense.” As they got later in the campaign, Keyleth’s story became about taking on this leadership and stepping into her mother’s footsteps: “I didn’t want to rob her of her journey by bringing her mother into it before it was complete. There wasn’t a beat that felt right for it in the first campaign unless the players actively wanted to go and seek it out.” He knew she was on an island somewhere, and that there was an issue with her memory, but the details were still hazy, and it never came up in the first campaign. “As soon as we got to Rumblecusp as a possible visiting location, I was like, this would probably be the island that Vilya’s at.” He knew the community would pick up on it quickly, but the players would likely be too engrossed in their own story. “Getting to send her home was wonderful, both for an idea of closure, but as a long-waiting gift to Marisha and Keyleth. It’s something that I’ve been looking forward to giving to her.”

On building Vilya’s character: “I wanted to make sure she wasn’t too similar to Keyleth. She couldn’t remember her family, but when she did, it meant everything.”

Brian asks what inspires Jester’s thought process to try and befriend every creature they come across. “Everyone is interesting. Except for Celia, she’s a bitch. If you piss her off, she might just hate you forever, but everybody else she thinks is pretty great. Jester can hold a good grudge.”

Brian asks Matt about the inspiration for Vokodo. “It is a heavily customized version of a Morkoth. I was just intrigued by how they had created this creature that creates this island around it. It has ways of affecting the minds of creatures around it. I didn’t enjoy that the creature was only Medium in size, and I wanted it to be something that was a little bit more changed by its experiences.” He also tied it in with the Astral Sea lore and suggested that it had been changed by its proximity to this volcano, similarly to how Thordak did in the first campaign.

Fan Art of the Week: An amazing Traveler Con Jester and Artagan by @callanthee on Twitter

How about the visions of the living city? Laura: “I don’t know what the fuck is going on with that thing. If it true that there’s a Molly connection, the Eyes of Nine, I don’t know. It’s just too much. We have to look into it.” Matt, blandly: “Weird mysteries.”

Who would the Disintegrate spell have hit if it had ricocheted? “Initially, I would have wanted to choose Caleb, like back at himself, because the immediate threat of that ray towards Vokodo, it would have been just right back at him.” But the runner-up would have been Jester because of the threat of the banishment back to the Astral Sea, the one place he didn’t want to go.

Laura could tell from Liam’s gameplay that he hadn’t realized someone was going to perma-die from that. “I thought it was going to be me, because I had been the one to banish him.”

Dani points out that the group would probably have gone after Artagan if Jester had died right before Traveler Con.

Matt highlights Cad’s Divine Intervention as pretty much the only way they could have learned the important information they used to prepare for the fight with Vokodo. He was torn between frustration at not being able to use this boss to its fullest potential... and pride in his players.

Laura is amused at listening to the characters talking about Jester when she’s not there. “It’s fun to hear but not be able to use that at all in your interactions with them.” Laura points out that even her sister who watches the show doesn’t trust the Traveler. Matt mentions that he’s always being very careful with the relationship between the Traveler and Jester, because it could get into rough territory. “There are unhealthy elements of their relationship, very much so. A lot of her story has been about disillusionment.” Laura: “Yeah. Eyes open.” They’ve set up bumpers to make sure they don’t veer into territory the players find uncomfortable. 

“Artagan at the end of campaign one versus Artagan at campaign two are different. He came into this world a purely selfish being of id and impulse. He still has those dark tendencies and can lean down those dark paths. But he went from a purely chaotic, selfish creature to unintentionally beginning to care for people that aren’t him.” Traveler Con definitely left a mark on him. “Aw shit, I let them in.”

Sam starts Facetiming Brian. “How does he know when we’re filming this?! No. I’m not going to do it.”

Matt and Laura are "super excited” for the new landscape of the next part of the journey.

Laura notes that Jester is getting past the point of “needing to put on the mask”, including around her mom. And as that’s happened at Traveler Con, the small breakdowns have been piling up. “That’s what therapy’s like, right?”

On the new goliath shopkeeper (even with the mispronunciations as clues, I got nothing on that spelling), Matt points out that purchasing magical items is tricky because most things were pulled into the war effort. He was trying to figure out how a shopkeeper could build a business in that environment: “with a bunch of really small, shitty enchantments”. As a kid, he loved novelty shops, and took a lot of inspiration from those memories.

So glad everything’s back in business! “As always, don’t forget to love each other. And don’t worry, it’s almost Thursday.”

[haircoveredwriter]

Do you think Lynn is still filming or do you think she was done by ep 10? Curious your thoughts, and I would love to hear your spec on what’s to come for 11b if you would be so inclined.

I think it’s pretty clear her story arc wasn’t meant to - and doesn’t - go past the MSP/episode 10 when they will have wrapped up everything Reaper. Leah is meant to bolster Daryl’s realization he can’t save everyone and show us a clear and concise conclusion to his hero complex which Carol brought up in Find Me. Furthermore, the only brief glimpses we have seen of LyCol on set in 11b have been while she’s wearing her full Reaper attire - complete with unnecessarily long and combat counter intuitive duster jacket - signifying to me she was probably doing reshoots because I HIGHLY doubt the Commonwealth would let her 1) inside their gates as well as 2) walk the streets in paramilitary gear.

And yes I have seen all her social media posts trying to insinuate Leah is still around and kicking, but that being said, we shouldn’t forget how well LyCol plays the self promotion game. Choosing these moments to accidentally drop images or “hints” about a storyline that’s been universally fandom wise disliked as well as when most of the GA wants Daryl to kill her after the msf, possibly continuing screams outright trolling IMO. I won’t get into the nitpicky details of each of her posts but I’ll point out she purposefully said several things in her live which have been proven to be untrue. Plus many of the show’s past characters went to great lengths post show death to not let the audience know they were no longer filming … Michael Cudlitz and Samantha Morton come to mind.

In regards to 11b, I think we are going to see a lot of parallels to when the group first arrived in ASZ and didn’t trust anything; especially with how secretive and just plain weird the commonwealth has been shown thus far. I can’t for a second see Carol believing anything Lance Hornsby is serving up and I’m dying to see scenes between the two if for nothing else than more secret agent Carol 😁. Yes please. My dream head-canon would be for Caryl to employ the fake marriage troupe yet sadly I don’t think tptb will give in to my deepest desires; more that we’ll see them skirting their own personal issues for a few eps until they feel they’ve figured things out for team family (whether they be at CW or ASZ) and then finally have that heart to heart. Maybe a little awkward moment brought on by everyone’s favourite observationalist, Princess, or we do know there are a bunch of creature comforts they haven’t had for a while in the Commonwealth so potentially our two adorable misfits can do some talking after drinks? Or someone says something after the first long hot shower in months? I’m not beyond seeing either Zeke or Connie come back and play a role by saying something to either Carol or Daryl since Kang wrote them in for the exact same uses in Caryl’s development.

Other things I think we could see, and it’ll be in point for because at this point I’ve rambled long enough:

- Maggie staying back in ASZ along with Aaron to not make the originals push to CW

- Princess, Carol, and Daryl sharing scenes because this is just all the yes 🙌

- I don’t think Zeke is making it to the end of the show…sorry

- One or both Carol & Daryl fitting against the class system they have in place. We know they aren’t going to be given the glamorous life so I think we’re in for an uprising (see amc, THIS would be the perfect excuse to have Caryl pretend to be married so they can keep up appearances with the grimes kids while they look in the CW’s bedside table for dirty secrets … just saying 😊)

- lol yeah I said this was going to be point form but I guess I failed at that again too

- Jerry finds a pasta maker and opens his own place which he calls Fusili Jerry (anyone get that Seinfeld reference?)🤣

- Not going to say who but I don’t think all the kiddos are making it to the end of the show. Don’t hate me okay. And by kiddos I mean not old enough to drive age.

- Mercer is going to get sucked into helping TF fight the CW system because who can resist the ways of Princess

- Please let them give us a scene of Caryl talking after they’ve both showered and someone mentions how good the other one smells. You guys already had Carol talking to Dog about the Dixon aroma; don’t drop the ball. We know Daryl would notice what kind of soap she used before she says anything and get the deepest shade of red once she teases him about it.

- If you want the outline, amc…hit me up.

- Connie’s story will revolve mostly around doing investigative reporting like before the ZA as she tries to figure out what’s wrong with the CW

- Oh and someone is going to pop that Sebastian twat again and I will stand on my chair and cheer.

[roetrolls]

Moving Day (Poison Apple Drabble)

Kattia loved her job. Being a content creator was something she took pride in, and she truly couldn’t imagine herself doing anything else. It came with its downsides, sure, but things were never too extreme to handle. She was careful about what she showed the world, and that caution hadn’t failed her yet.

Mallum had his concerns, of course. He’d told her as much when her channel first started getting popular. He wanted her to move in. She sympathized with his worry and his desire to protect her, but she valued her independence far too much to give it up, even for her matesprit’s peace of mind.

She thought about their last conversation on the topic as she set up her filming gear. He had dropped it when she refused to budge, but Kat couldn’t help feeling annoyed that he’d brought it up at all. How many times did she need to turn him down before Mallum finally stopped asking?

She shook her head to clear it and returned her attention to focusing the camera. The damn thing could be so finicky at times. She eyed her monitor, watching the picture become clearer. Wait, too far. Other way. There! Perfect.

Satisfied, Kat plopped into her seat and reached for her mic. Before she could grab it, however, the camera picked up some motion in the hall behind her, drawing her eye. She tensed and turned to look over her shoulder. Kat could hear her lusus chittering under the desk. It couldn’t have been her outside.

She rose from the desk as quietly as possible, wracking her brain to try and remember where she left her pickaxe. She thought she could narrow it down to two possible locations: Either leaning by the front door, here on the first floor of her hive, or up the stairs in her respiteblock. She’d check the front door first.

As she crept into the hall to retrieve her weapon, Kat could feel the hair rising on her neck. Aside from her own footfall, the hive was still, but dread hung heavy in the air. She trusted her instincts and she knew what she saw. Something was in her home, and her weapon was, best-case-scenario, two full rooms away. 

In the silence, her every step felt like a threat. One wrong move would give away her location. She considered what she’d do if the pick was upstairs. She couldn’t risk cornering herself, could she? But leaving the hive without it would be dangerous.

Kat turned into the foyer to find that her pickaxe, had, in fact, been by the door. Now, however, it was in the hands of a lanky cerulean standing in her hive as if they belonged there. She inhaled sharply and darted back the way she came just as the intruder lifted their gaze towards hers.

“Kat!”

The pickaxe clanked to the floor. Kattia could hear footsteps pounding after her, drawing closer. They knew her name. A fan? How did they find her? She braved a glance behind her to see the cerulean within striking distance. Shit. Shit. Kat had one advantage here. She knew her own hive better than they possibly could. But that meant nothing if she couldn’t outrun them.

Their hand closed around her wrist. Kat, jarred by the sudden stop in momentum, found herself stumbling over her own feet and into the floor with a painful thud. She scrambled onto her back and looked up at them with wide eyes, heart pounding in her chest.

“What do you want?” Kattia asked, voice tight. 

Their only reply was a wet cough. Before they had a chance to speak, three golden prongs burst through the cerulean troll’s stomach, sending a spray of cobalt blood towards Kat.

Behind the gasping troll stood Mallum, eyes burning with hostility. The cerulean slumped forward, sliding off his trident and onto the floor beside Kat. Mallum dropped his weapon and crouched in front of Kattia, tugging her into a tight embrace.

“Are you hurt?” He asked, pulling back to cup her face.

She shook her head. “No, I... I’m fine. How did you know they were-?”

“Someone leaked your address. I saw it circulating online. When I get my hands on the fucker responsible for this...” Mallum growled, pulling Kat to her feet and using his thumb to wipe a bit of blood from her cheek. He took a deep breath to collect himself. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Kattia nodded, eyes trained on the cerulean. They were still alive, clutching their stomach and coughing horribly. Seeing her grimace, Mallum took Kat by the shoulders and turned her around.

“Go get your things. I’m not letting you stay here knowing these creeps are coming looking for you. I’ll take care of this.”

---

Mallum watched Kattia slink upstairs to collect her belongings, waiting until she was out of view to turn his focus to the dying troll at his feet. What was their goal in coming here? What did they think was going to happen?

When he picked his trident back up, the cerulean held out one of their hands, a desperate look on their face.

“Wait! Wait, you-” they coughed, blood dribbling down their chin. “You can find the person who did this! I can tell you who shared her information!”

Mallum scoffed. “No you can’t.”

“I can! I can,” they pleaded, breathing ragged. “I-I have their email... You can find them with that, if you look!”

“Not with that address,” Mallum hummed, twirling the trident in his hand. “I used a pseudonym.”

---

The troll was dead when Kat returned.

[swan-of-sunrise]

Spellbinding (Chapter Three-Part Two)

Summary: (Y/N)’s magical training with Loki begins, and she begins to evaluate her growing feelings for her best friend.

Pairing: Loki X Reader

Word Count: 2.4k

Warnings/Disclaimers: None

A/N: Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter Three (Part II) April 29th, 2015 Avengers Tower, New York City (Previous Chapter)

Over the next couple of weeks, Loki helped (Y/N) acclimate to her new and overwhelming role as an Avenger. He gave her tours of different parts of the tower, introduced her to several teammates she hadn’t met yet, and read with her in her room when she grew tired or was feeling too uncomfortable with all the attention. Whenever (Y/N) wasn’t with Loki, she was slowly getting to know the rest of the team. While she got along fairly well with all of them, she was the most comfortable around Steve and Bruce; She and Steve initially bonded over their mutual love of classic films and history books, and Bruce was always kind enough to invite her down to the lab for lunch whenever she wasn’t busy with Loki.

The only Avenger that (Y/N) couldn’t stand being around, however, was Iron Man himself. It was no secret that (Y/N) and Tony disliked each other; it turned out the Artificial Intelligence system named J.A.R.V.I.S. had caught their first interaction on camera and the other Avengers had gotten a hold of the recording; they thought it was hilarious that the self-proclaimed playboy had gotten a well-deserved talking-to and Tony fumed because it had somehow gotten leaked to the others. (Y/N) suspected that Loki had something to do with its release but whenever she mentioned it to him, he’d only flashed her a mischievous smile and changed the subject. Thankfully, whenever Tony wasn’t on a mission he was either busy in the lab or off overseeing Stark Industries, so (Y/N) didn’t see him around very often.

Once her prescribed two weeks of rest were up, (Y/N)’s magical training began. She, Loki and Thor gathered together in the tower’s gymnasium; now that she knew the brothers were Asgardian gods, it was amusing to see them dressed in ‘Midgardian’ workout clothes. And it’s official, she thought as she subtly examined her best friend and his hoodie-basketball shorts combination, Loki looks handsome in just about everything he wears.

“Magic is nothing without concentration, Lady (Y/N). You must focus completely on the task you’re trying to accomplish, or you risk failing and perhaps overexerting yourself.” Loki paced before her with his hands clasped behind his back as he spoke, looking every part the serious instructor.

Thor spoke up, “What did you feel when you used your magic on that Hydra agent?” Thor was only there to observe and occasionally offer advice, but (Y/N) had found herself comforted by the older Asgardian’s supportive presence.

(Y/N) thought back to the incident at the library. “Well, I remember seeing the man and thinking ‘He’s going to hurt us.’ Then, I sort of instinctively raised my hands and felt a tugging in the pit of my stomach; that’s when I pushed him back with the purple magic and fainted.”

“The reason you fainted was because although you had the proper concentration on your target, you didn’t have a clear thought about what to do to him, which caused you to use too much magic.” Loki explained patiently. “When performing magic, you must keep two things in mind: Object and intent. That way, you can control how much magic you use and keep it from exhausting or killing yourself.”

“All right, object and intent. Got it.” She nodded in acknowledgement. “And will I always have to use my hands to perform magic?”

Loki tilted his head thoughtfully and stopped pacing. “I’m not sure. Since very little is known about your particular brand of magic, you may be able to eventually use both your hands and your eyes. It will undoubtedly take a great deal of practice to even reach that level so for the time being, you’ll only try and use your hands. Now, let’s begin, shall we?” He looked around the room, his brow furrowing in concentration. “Thor, do you remember what Mother used when she first taught us levitation, before you stubbornly quit to train as a warrior?”

“Ah, you mean when you used your tricks to make an illusion of a troll chase me around the palace and I decided that magic wasn’t to my liking?” Thor chuckled as his younger brother shrugged innocently. “If I recall correctly, Mother had us begin by practicing on statues in the gardens. I don’t think that will work for a Midgardian beginner such as Lady (Y/N), though; they’re too heavy.”

(Y/N) pointed at the rack of weights across the room. “What about those?”

Smiling, Loki went over and came back with a ten-pound weight in his hand. “Brilliant, Lady (Y/N)!” He set the weight in front of her and backed away to stand next to Thor. “Try and levitate this. Remember, object and intent.”

“Okay,” She took a deep breath and raised her hands. Her eyes never left the weight as she willed it to obey her. Nothing happened. Frowning, she stared down the weight until she felt a familiar tugging sensation in the pit of her stomach; the weight was all the sudden surrounded by a purple glow, rising about a foot in the air before landing back on the ground with a dull thud. “I did it!”

“Well done!” Loki was beaming, a hint of pride in his green eyes. “This time, levitate it and see if you can’t move it in other directions…”

Hours later, (Y/N) was drenched in sweat and her body ached all over, but she’d progressed to controlling fifty-pound weights to move around the room; Loki decided to call it a day when he and Thor were nearly smacked in the head by a wayward dumbbell.

“I know it’s your turn to read aloud but I don’t mind taking over; you’ve worked hard today, after all.”

(Y/N), who was lying flat on her back on the ground, groaned. “Thank you, Loki, that would be great; I wouldn’t want to stumble over my words.” Over the past week, she and Loki had taken turns reading poetry aloud to one another; since he enjoyed reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream so much she’d introduced him to her leather-bound collection of famous poems, which he’d instantly taken to. “Why didn’t you two tell me magic was so tiring?”

Loki only chuckled from his seat on the workout bench beside her. “Don’t fret, Lady (Y/N), magic becomes nearly effortless after a while. I must say, though, you’re learning quickly for a beginner, it’s impressive.”

“Loki’s right, your magic is stronger than I could have ever expected, Lady (Y/N).” Thor spoke as he sat next to his brother. “And I know for a fact that it’s nearly impossible to impress him.” He nudged his brother’s shoulder with his own. “Perhaps she’ll impress you again when her magic surpasses yours one day, brother!”

“I have no problems with that, Thor, just as long as she promises to use her magic to bludgeon you with dumbbells whenever required.” That made them all laugh.

(Y/N) clambered to her feet and stretched her arms. “Well, I’m going to go take a quick shower before we read; I’ll meet you in your room in an hour, okay?” After turning to leave, she turned around to face the brothers, specifically the eldest of the two. “And Thor, if you even think about eating my snacks while I’m in the shower like last time, I promise that I’ll tell everyone about your secret stash of Pop-Tarts.” Thor gulped nervously as she shifted her gaze to the younger brother. “Could you please protect my snacks from him, Loki?”

Loki nodded, giving her a mock-bow and a grin. “I shall endeavor to guard your snacks from all who dare threaten them, my lady!”

“Oh, my hero!” Playing along with him, she clutched her chest and looked up at the ceiling dramatically, earning another laugh from both men. “See you soon…”

She left the gymnasium and as she walked down the hall, she heard Thor remark, “Well, brother, I can certainly see why you-Ow! That hurt!”

Behind all the pranks and insults they seem to care a lot for each other, she thought with a smile as she made her way to the elevator. She’d spent the past couple of weeks silently observing the brothers, and despite being slightly intimidated by him during their first meeting, she’d grown quite fond of Thor. And although he’d never admit it to her, she began to think that Loki was wary of living in Thor’s shadow, but she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by prying. Pride filled her as she thought of his praise of her developing magical skills, and she couldn’t wait to learn more about her powers with him. Hopefully I won’t be as sore from now on, though, she thought with a wince when she stepped into the elevator and hurried off to enjoy a soothing shower.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A moment after she knocked, Loki opened his door of his suite with his usual grin. “Your snacks, my lady, kept safe from annoying oafs as promised.” He allowed her in and closed the door behind her before gesturing to his large sofa and coffee table piled high with food. “Make yourself comfortable.”

(Y/N) smiled and sat herself carefully on the cushions, sighing in satisfaction at how comfortable they felt to her still-aching muscles. His room was very similar to hers, except his had a distinct green and gold theme whereas hers was more lavender mixed with other pastels. “Thank you, Loki. I was wondering, have you ever tutored anyone else in magic before?”

He sat next to her, her leather-bound book in his hand. “Never. I’m simply attempting to channel everything my mother taught me about magic when I first began, though I’m afraid I’m not nearly as skilled as she is…”

“Well, I think you make a wonderful teacher!” Her pulse quickened when he smiled shyly at her compliment, so to distract herself she began nibbling on her granola bar. “Now, where did we stop yesterday?”

“Um…” Flicking through the pages, he found the page that was bookmarked. “Ah yes, ‘She Walks in Beauty.’” He cleared his throat and began reading aloud:

“She walks in beauty, like the night  Of cloudless climes and starry skies;  And all that’s best of dark and bright  Meet in her aspect and her eyes;  Thus mellowed to that tender light  Which heaven to gaudy day denies. 

One shade the more, one ray the less,  Had half impaired the nameless grace  Which waves in every raven tress,  Or softly lightens o’er her face;  Where thoughts serenely sweet express,  How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. 

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,  So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,  The smiles that win, the tints that glow,  But tell of days in goodness spent,  A mind at peace with all below,  A heart whose love is innocent!”

(Y/N) sighed dreamily when he finished. “I’ve always thought that poem was brilliant. The way Lord Byron presents the woman’s beauty as a delicate balance between light and dark is so eloquent, and I love the conclusion he draws about inner and outer beauty living in harmony with one another. It’s very sweet how he describes this woman who he obviously has feelings for…” She trailed off when she noticed Loki smirking. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just that you’ve proven a theory of mine correct.”

“And what theory would that be, exactly?” Crossing her arms, she raised an eyebrow at him and tried not to smile at his smug expression.

“That you, Lady (Y/N), are a hopeless romantic.” Loki grinned triumphantly as a blush spread over her cheeks. “I suspected as much when you recommended Pride and Prejudice to me all those weeks ago; though you claimed you enjoyed the novel for the witty banter and period drama, it was obvious that you also enjoyed it for the romantic plot between Elizabeth Bennet and Mister Darcy.”

Shrugging noncommittally, (Y/N) retorted, “All right, I’ll admit that I’m a hopeless romantic…just as soon as you do.” His green eyes widened in surprise. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you flicking through Much Ado About Nothing the other day, and when you were reading ‘She Walks in Beauty’ just now you couldn’t keep the goofy smile off your face.”

Loki’s stunned expression shifted as he gave her a lopsided grin. “I suppose you’re right, Lady (Y/N). Though if word of that got out it would ruin my reputation as a terrifying, all-powerful god, wouldn’t you say?” He leaned closer and jokingly stage-whispered, “I promise not to tell anyone your secret if you promise not to tell them mine. Agreed?”

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Loki.” She felt as if she were melting under his intense gaze, and it wasn’t until her eyes involuntarily flicked to his lips did she realize how close their faces were. Quickly pulling away, she fumbled with the hem of her peasant-top and trained her eyes on the book in his lap, fully aware that her face was reddening as she pushed her glasses back up her nose. “So, um, shall we continue?”

She heard him clear his throat and reply, “Yes, of course, um, right…” He hastily picked the book up and flipped the page, the sight of him licking his finger to do so only causing her blush to deepen. “All right: ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud…’”

As he continued to read poem after poem, (Y/N) replayed everything that had happened in her mind. She’d nearly thrown caution to the wind and kissed her best friend. Over their three months of friendship, the small crush she’d been harboring for the Asgardian had developed into something much larger and though she wasn’t sure if what she felt was love, since she’d never experienced it before, she knew that her strong feelings could jeopardize their friendship. Besides that, he was an Asgardian, practically a god, and she was just an ordinary Midgardian who just happened to have a Light Elf for a mother; there was absolutely no chance of him possibly returning her feelings so at that moment, she decided to try her hardest to repress them for both their sakes and the sake of their friendship.

But maybe I’ll let myself enjoy today, she thought, tentatively leaning her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes, reveling in the feeling of being so close to him. To her surprise, he reached around her shoulders and pulled her closer, leaving his arm wrapped tightly around her as he continued to read. His soothing musical voice combined with the warmth he radiated and his unique scent relaxed and lulled her to sleep, but not before she heard him flip back several pages and read, “‘She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies…’”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Thank you all so much for reading and commenting! In the text I included a link to a Youtube video of Tom Hiddleston reading ‘She Walks In Beauty,’ you should really give it a listen! I’ve also created a Spotify playlist inspired by this series, and I’ll be updating it every time I upload a new chapter. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2wx8TZwpDN0l33tES3W3Nk

Chapter Four

Spellbinding Masterlist

Tagging: @nexiva @ravenclawbitch426 @cminr @confusedfandomwriter @momc95 @nickkie1129 @austynparksandpizza @brooke0297 @destructivebliss @outoftheregular @itscomplicatedx​ @0-artemis​ @vivloki​

[yuta1forme]

like magnets | ten

summary: in which you and ten are up and coming choreographers who are forever at each other’s throats. but maybe fighting is just an excuse to get close.

pairing: ten x reader

genre: angsty fluff

warnings: some swearing, alcohol mention, loads of bickering

length: 4.3k

tag list: @sly-merlin​ @animegirl366​ @yonoohcore​

He’s confident to the point of arrogance. He knows exactly how to get under your skin. When the pair of you start fighting, all the other dancers make their way out of the studio, not wanting to get involved in another explosive Y/N-Ten showdown. He counters your every suggestion. He always has more critique for your performances than praise. 

And yet, he is the best dance partner you could ever ask for. He matches your poise with his passion. In dance, you both have found a middle ground. 

When Ten first joined the studio you really wanted to like him. He was a young, up and coming dancer from Thailand. What you had not seen coming was that besides being the same age, you and Ten had precious little in common. The day you first met Ten, you had decided in less than ten seconds that you two would never, to put this lightly, become the “best of friends”. 

You had entered the break room of the studio that day, late and soaking wet because of the heavy downpour that had begun the night before. Hungry and disgruntled, all you had wanted to do was to grab a steaming cup of green tea and the last of your favorite jelly doughnuts. Only the thought of those jelly doughnuts had you hanging on during your hour and forty-five-minute long journey to work this morning. They were your emotional support food, your one and only indulgence. After almost three years at the studio, all the other dancers knew not to touch your jelly doughnuts. All except for the bucket-hat wearing Thai newbie who clearly hadn’t gotten the memo. 

“Those were my doughnuts”, you had barely managed to huff out, focusing your mind on not raising your voice or worse, bursting into tears.

Now, if he had just apologized for eating them without asking you first, you both might not have started off on the wrong foot. No, the fucker just shrugged and said, “Didn’t see your name on them”. No shame in his eyes, not an ounce of regret in his voice. The powdered sugar from your doughnuts still around his mouth and dusted over his all-black ensemble. That fucker.

“So people just waltz into a room and eat someone else’s snacks where you’re from?”, you asked, your pitch becoming shriller with annoyance. 

“No of course not. Because where I’m from, people don’t leave their snacks where everyone can see them, without putting their name on it first”, he replied, cool as a cucumber. 

Taeyong had entered the break room at this point. He took one look at the powdered sugar on Ten’s face and the eyes-gonna-pop-out expression on yours and connected the dots. As one of the senior choreographers in the studio, Taeyong had developed a sixth sense for sniffing out conflicts before they broke out. 

“Y/N! I see you’ve already met Ten! He’s the new dancer from Thailand. Ten this is Y/N”, Taeyong had prompted by way of introductions, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and inching closer to the door he had entered from. 

“Oh, you’re Y/N. The one who choreographed the last Pink Cashmere comeback, right?”, Ten had asked, suddenly sitting up straight. Seeing that your conversation was turning civil, Taeyong had left the room just as quietly as he had entered it.

“Yes, that would be me”, you had responded. That was your first time working with an idol group and was a milestone in your career. You had spent weeks running on pure adrenaline and Americanos (and the occasional jelly doughnut), spending day and night listening to the new comeback track, reviewing concept photos and looking up old performances to get their style down just right. When you watched the girls perform the choreography for the first time, you were so immensely proud of yourself, you hadn’t stopped beaming for days. 

“I should’ve known it was you, it had your signature footwork style all over it”, Ten had said, nodding his head slightly. You had felt flattered at that, surprised that anyone had even picked up that you had a certain trademark in your choreography.

“But, I thought it was too showy if you know what I mean”, Ten had continued, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair, a slight frown on his face. 

You were almost embarrassed at how much his words affected you. While you were used to internet trolls taking jabs at your work, it was something entirely different to hear full-blown criticism from your peers. As the youngest choreographer in the studio, you rarely got challenged when it came to choreography, with most of your colleagues wholeheartedly encouraging you to spread your wings and grow no matter the outcome. It probably was not intentional on their part but it had become a fear of yours - what if nobody would outwardly challenge your decisions because they thought you were too weak to handle the truth?

Still, you felt a need to defend your creative decision. You needed to stand up for yourself. “The girls are great dancers and I thought a more challenging choreography would push them out of their comfort zone. Sooji and Maya were actually part of a hip-hop dance crew pre-debut. They were itching to try out a new concept”. 

“But why not use more formations in the dance? It’s an eight-member group. You could’ve used that to your advantage”, Ten had countered. He made a good point. But you didn’t want to concede to him. Who did this man think he was? Walking in here and questioning your vision as a choreographer?, you though to yourself.

“Most of the other girl groups that came back around that time had similar songs but only Pink Cashmere had a distinct choreography. I wanted to make their choreography memorable”, you had said. 

Ten had remained quiet for a while. “I didn’t think of it that way”, he had replied, a thoughtful look on his face. “In that case, I think you succeeded at whatever you set out to do with that choreography.  It was definitely memorable, Y/N.”

He turned his gaze up towards your face and flashed you a sweet smile. He looked like a whole different person, almost innocently brushing powdered sugar off his cheeks like a mischievous cat who had just been caught doing something he shouldn’t have done. 

Your whole first interaction with Ten had confused you. First he walked in acting like he owned the place, critiquing your choreography as if he was a veteran dancer. But then he had just as easily praised your abilities. But at the back of your mind you had this nagging feeling that whatever Ten had said to you was not in an effort to undermine you, unlike some of the backhanded compliments delivered by your peers. He had criticized you because he thought you could take it, because he thought of you as an equal. And you kind of enjoyed that.

Arguing with Ten became a part of your everyday routine thereafter. So did labelling your snacks with your names and leaving passive-aggressive messages on post-it notes.

At nineteen, you gave up a full-ride scholarship to a prestigious law school in your country and moved to Seoul with a single suitcase and your old school backpack in hand. Your family had threatened to cut off contact with you if you left the country, but you left anyway; Your passion for dance was stronger than your fear of losing them. Dance was your first love. You lived and breathed it. Like hell were you giving up on your first love that easy. 

You worked odd jobs during the day and filmed original choreographies for your YouTube channel during the night. After struggling for over a year, your hope slowly dwindling, you got a notification that changed your life. Kim Jongin, one of South Korea’s ballet prodigies had shared one of your videos on Twitter. Your subscriber count had quadrupled overnight, with hundreds of thousands of commenters dubbing you a “prodigy”. Fate brought you to Jongin, who then introduced you to Taeyong, who brought you to SM studios. 

It was a dream come true - for years you had only struggled, floating in dark and murky water, swimming forward towards a hazy future. Now, you had thousands of fans, dozens of supportive friends, and a solid foundation from where you could dream. Your friend Hendery liked to joke that you would need more than twenty-four hours a day if you wanted to do everything in your planner. And truth be told, he was right. You had given up a lot to pursue your dreams. Given up on your family, most of your friends, your home country. You wanted to make sure it was all worthwhile. So you wanted to spend every day making the most of the opportunities that you now had. You went to bed each night with a head full of ideas and woke up every morning with the fire to bring them to life. 

Of course, dedicating your life to your craft came at a cost. The rest of the world had not stopped moving just because you decided to make dance your life. This dawned on you one rosy Valentine’s Day evening, when you, date-less for the fifth year running, quite naively decided to scroll through Instagram. Amongst the sea of pink, flowers and picture-perfect happy couples were two faces that made your stomach instantly drop - your ex and a stunning woman posing for the camera with their fingers intertwined. On her ring finger, a diamond the size of a blueberry. 

You remember the day you broke things off with your ex like it was yesterday. You were at the airport, waiting to get on your flight to Seoul, positively buzzing with nerves. You had waited until you were seated on the plane to send your ex a rather heartless text message saying you were breaking up with him to find yourself and that it was best if he forgot you. Very dramatic, even for you. But you were nineteen and had just watched ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’. In return he had left you an equally dramatic voicemail, pleading with you to not end the relationship and proclaiming that he would never stop loving you. You had all but laughed at his message then.

You weren’t laughing anymore though. He was happily engaged, while you were lonely, lying in bed on Valentine’s day in a pizza grease-stained sweatshirt. You had spent the last few years working relentlessly which had given you a career that you could be proud of, friends you could rely on. But besides the occasional fling here and there, you didn’t have much in terms of a romantic life. You guessed you deserved this, that karma had finally caught up to you.  Didn’t stop you from feeling like shit though.

So you did what you always did when you felt particularly shitty. You went down to the studio, turned the music on full blast and dove right into a new choreography. You were freestyling, too lost in the moment to hear the door creak open.

“I gotta hand it to you, Y/N, that was pretty impressive!”, a male voice exclaimed. You had spun around expecting to see Sicheng or Hendery at the door. Instead, you were met with a tired but rather amused looking Ten.

He was dressed in a white silk shirt and a pair of black slacks. You noticed the roses in his hands, slightly wilted but still beautiful nonetheless. He was clearly dressed up for a date. He looked striking as always but you didn’t linger too long on that, thinking that it was your romance deprived mind projecting thoughts onto the first attractive male it saw. 

“What are you doing here? It’s Valentine’s day, don’t you have a crowd of screaming fans to attend to?”, you asked sarcastically.

“One date. And they stood me up, actually”, he replied with a bitter smile. He must have been quite upset if he didn’t have a snarky response for you.

You were truly taken aback. Ten? Getting stood up by someone? Ten, who could charm the socks off of anyone he set his eyes on, getting stood up on Valentine’s day? 

“But how?”, you blurted out, instantly regretting it when you saw the quizzical look on Ten’s face. Yet you foolishly continued mumbling, or rather digging yourself deeper into a hole.

“I mean, you’re just...so...you”, you said vaguely gesturing at his whole form. From his boyish good looks to his ability to sweet-talk, Ten’s charms were undeniable. Ever since he joined the studio, the number of signups for the afternoon classes had doubled. Dozens of people would come to the studio every day, just to catch a glimpse of him. And he indulged them all too, flashing them his signature grin or paying them a cheeky compliment. If only you weren’t all too familiar with the way he could run his mouth during an argument, you too might have fallen for his charms. 

“Sorry to disappoint you, Y/N, but I’m not quite the Casanova you expected me to be. But I will take that as a compliment”, he said with a wink that had you resisting the urge to roll your eyes.

“Still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here though”, you mumbled out.  

“I like to choreograph at night. I think I’m my most creative after midnight. Besides I just got my heart broken and I should channel that emotional energy somewhere right?”, Ten said feigning nonchalance. You could tell he was genuinely upset from how his night had played out and couldn’t help but sympathize with him.

“Well, I’m here for reasons along similar lines. You could join me? Help me choreograph this new freestyle piece I’m working on?”, you had asked. 

Ten cocked his eyebrow at you, clearly not expecting you to extend an olive branch to him in this manner given how you were still being snarky with him five minutes ago. But he accepted your offer nonetheless.

You both entered your element pretty quickly, letting the music move your body freely. You worked out a simple choreography, cheering for each other when you came up with a particularly impressive move. You were having fun, even though you wouldn’t admit it to yourself. At least you hadn’t thought of your ex in the last couple of hours, mind completely occupied with the thought that you and Ten surprisingly made good dance partners. Perhaps the friction between the two of you translated to great chemistry when you were dancing. Taeyong would be pleased to know that.

“I’m beat”, you exclaimed, slumping down on the floor after the final round of practice. Ten sat down next to you, resting his back against the mirrored wall. The pair of you sat wordlessly for a few minutes, letting your heartbeats slow back down. You lay flat on the floor, too physically exhausted to move. As soon as you closed your eyes, your traitorous mind brought back the images of your ex’s engagement and you groaned loudly.

“Long day?”, Ten asked, giving you a slightly concerned look. You just chuckled bitterly in response.

“Want to talk about it?”, Ten pried in an almost uncharacteristically gentle voice. You wondered if he had ever spoken to you in that tone before. 

“I don’t know if we’re close enough to have little heart-to-hearts yet Ten”, you replied. There was an invisible wall between you and Ten that you were just not ready to tear down. The thought of sharing embarrassing details about your love life with someone you could consider a frenemy at best, too jarring. You didn’t miss the way Ten’s shoulders slightly slumped at that. You hadn’t meant to sound harsh, yet you felt somewhat guilty.

“But…maybe we are close enough to have a drink together?”, you asked, suddenly emboldened by a rush of confidence that confused even you. You took his cheeky smile as a yes.

You spent the rest of the night drunk and giggling with Ten. The thoughts of your ex were long forgotten. Perhaps you could learn to do more than merely tolerating Ten’s presence. Perhaps you could learn to enjoy his presence too.

Soon it became a ritual - if you and Ten were the last ones left in the studio, you would grab some beers and head to the roof. It was such strange departure from your usual selves that you often wondered why it was so easy for you to enjoy his company sitting under the stars like this when you would be at each other’s throats the rest of the time. 

Over time your conversations had gone from discussions about art, to plans of travelling the world, what you were currently binge-watching on Netflix, and everything in between. Still, there were some topics that you both steered clear of - talk of family and love lives was seemingly off the table.

Until one night after a couple of drinks, when Ten pulled his phone out to show you a picture of two women, one older and one younger. The striking resemblance between the faces in the photo and Ten confirmed that they were indeed his mother and sister. His sister was clad in a dark blue graduation gown and his mother was holding a beautiful bouquet of light pink roses. 

“She graduated last week, my baby sister”, Ten said practically glowing. The proud look on his face was a testament to the close relationship he had with his sibling. 

“You must miss her a lot”, you said, voice barely a whisper.

“All the time. My family are my biggest supporters. I don’t think I would have had the courage to move out here on my own if it weren't for their encouragement”, Ten answered. 

You hadn’t spoken to your family ever since you came to Seoul. In the past, the longing left a pressure in your chest that sometimes made it feel like your throat would close, choking you on your guilt. Now, it just left you numb. 

“What about you?”, Ten asked, cautiously prying into your personal life.

“What about me?”, you countered, diverting your gaze away from the man sitting next to you, instantly wary of how much you wanted to share about your past. 

“What about your family? Your old home?”, Ten asked. 

It couldn’t hurt sharing with Ten, right? It’s not like what he thought of you really mattered to you. Right?

“I actually don’t keep in touch with my family any more. They weren’t too keen on me becoming a dancer. It’s been, what, three? Three and a half years since I last saw them. When I first left home for Seoul”, you said, trying your hardest to suppress any trace of emotion in your voice. You kept your gaze focused on the city skyline ahead of you, too afraid to turn and see the expression on Ten’s face. You wondered what he thought of you, whether he thought you were stubborn. Worse yet, whether he pitied you.

After a few moments, Ten broke the silence. “I guess sometimes, not having a family is better than having one that doesn’t love you for who you are. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t possibly know how you must have felt, all these years. But I want you to know that the people who love you now, love you without any agenda. Not because they are related to you by blood, not because they are obligated to love you. But because they just love you”, Ten said, eyes shining with an emotion you didn’t know how to react to. 

“And they could be your family too”, he finished in a voice that was so warm, so gentle, you wondered if this really was the Ten who stole your jelly doughnuts when you first met.

You were speechless, processing his words for what felt like hours but was probably just a few seconds. Then you did the only thing your impulsive mind could think to do - you leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. In response, he wrapped you up in his embrace. You stayed still, focusing on the faint scent of his cologne on the sleeves of his hoodie. You breathed out a thank you, soft as a whisper. Whether or not Ten heard you, he moved his left arm slightly, gently stroking your hair and continued to chatter on about some entirely different topic. 

You knew that once the sun came back up and both of you returned to your lives inside the studio, this little moment would not be brought up in front of anyone else. That moment was just for the two of you to share and bury deep within your hearts.

You knew you were in too deep one day when Ten gave you a friendly smile in passing while making his way to the break room, and you felt your cheeks and neck heat up. You had finally let the Thai dancer charm his way into your heart. 

Typical Y/N, you thought to yourself, Falling in love with any cute boy who gives you attention. But he wasn’t just any cute boy. It was Ten. Ten, your frenemy turned close confidant. Ten, who would send you pictures of cute animals he saw on the street just because you once told him you wanted to adopt a cat. Ten, who took you dancing to a club in Hongdae when you were feeling low and all but carried your drunk ass back to your home. Ten, who over the last couple of months had heard every single one of your deepest insecurities and had still chosen to stick by you. Ten who had just left a box of jelly doughnuts in the break room, next to a post-it note with your name on it. To make matters worse, you were supposed to start working on a new collaboration together this week, a contemporary piece set to an R&B slow jam. How were you meant to work with him all week when you could barely make eye contact with him? You had to physically restrain yourself from facepalming.

You spent the week, evading conversation with him beyond work and some small talk to fill the silence. But none of your usual banter. You had even turned down his suggestion to grab dinner together several times that week, to the point that even typically non-confrontational Sicheng had picked up that something was off.

“Why have you been avoiding Ten all week? I thought you guys had given up fighting?”, Sicheng asked after he cornered you one day.

“Avoiding him? Now, why would I do that when we’ve been working together all week?”, you had chuckled nervously, desperately looking for an out from this conversation.

“He’s been sulking around since Tuesday, Y/N. He said he doesn’t know what he did to upset you”, Sicheng had asked you sharply. 

The guilt in your eyes must have been apparent because Sicheng dropped his voice into a gentle whisper for what he said next. 

“I know the two of you are as good at dancing around your feelings as you are at dancing on stage. But maybe try talking to him, Y/N? I think right now, you two might have more in common than you think”, Sicheng told you as he gave you a knowing look. 

The day of the performance shoot came and there was a noticeable awkwardness between you and Ten. You decided to cut the tension by apologizing to him, citing the nerves for the performance as the reason you had been on edge the whole week. Whether or not Ten believed you, he accepted your apology and wrapped you up in his arms. You wished you had psychic abilities so you could read his mind. Did he have the same butterflies in his stomach right now?

As soon as the music started any nervousness you felt around Ten melted away. Dancing with him was like second nature to you by now. The song started with you on stage alone, dancing under the single spotlight illuminating the stage. You could see him out of the corner of your eyes, following your every move and observing you with nothing short of adoration. You left the stage for Ten’s solo and you could feel the goosebumps on your skin from watching him perform. He was absolutely stunning, moving fluidly through the movements as though he was painting with his body on the canvas of the stage. You joined him on stage for the chorus, dancing apart but facing one another as though mirroring the other’s movements. Through the bridge you inched closer and closer to one another. You felt your heartbeat beginning to rise from the proximity. 

Both of you could communicate with each other with your eyes alone. You danced perfectly in sync with one another, pulling apart only to fall right back into each other, just like magnets. So different yet inseparable. You could see it in his eyes, when he looked at you, that the emotion in his mirrored yours. You knew you weren’t imagining it when he audibly gasped as you melted into his embrace for the final move. His heartbeat was racing a hundred miles an hour, just like yours. The pair of you stood there, lips just a few millimeters apart, breathing deeply as the studio erupted into thunderous applause. You were no longer afraid to admit to yourself and to the world, that you had it bad for Ten Lee. 

And when he kissed you on the rooftop that night, you knew that he had it bad for you too. 

[andsmile]

Honestly I'm starting to lose hope to ever get Varchie back. First KJ saying he and Lili have a lot scenes together, then writers changing Betty's personality so she can become Archie's doormat and now this Betty's interview about ba having a emotional scene... Seriously their fans are so sure ba is not only happening post time jump but for the whole season and I- I don't know, I swear I'm not a troll but I'm really starting to lose hope. I don't even want to think about it because I'm a huge Varchie fan and like I could survive a few episodes of those two cheaters dating, but the whole season? Pls, tell me ba fans are just being cocky and there's still a hope for us?

By the way I love your tumblr. Your replies are always so mature and make so much sense. Your positivity is what's making me still having hope for Varchie get back eventually.

OOOOOKAY nonnie, and other 39 anons I’ve got ever since Lili mentioned the word “emotional” somewhere.

Listen to me. I’m old (lol) and shouldn’t even be in the Riverdale fandom but I am and here we are, this show is entertaining, I love writing fics for it and I love Varchie, Veronica, Archie, Bughead, and all the characters. I just don’t love B*rchie, as you guys know, and the writers. But anyway, this love and dedication for my hobby -- before I get anyone else saying I should get a life (I’ve got a troll recently saying that) -- has brought me many great friends, some of which work in the industry or are close to people who do. I don’t say the stuff I say just because I’m big brained, it’s a combination of analyzing spoilers, behind-the-scenes, the actors interviews, reviewers analysis, and hints from people who definitely know more than I do.

Do I know everything? No. Can I be wrong and fall flat face and y’all will hate me? Unlikely, but it can happen.

However, listen to me when I say: Varchie and Bughead are not threatened by Betty and Archie dating in seven years from now. 

Of course, it’s bumming that they have to go there, that the cheating plot happened (even though RAS clearly rewrote stuff to downplay it) and that they’ll be explored, but explored is the key word here. I’ve been telling you guys since May that Betty and Archie are gonna date after the time-jump. I’ve been telling you guys that I just didn’t know if they’d start together already or if they’d start because they see their main romantic interests with other people. Lili’s interview basically confirms the latter.

Do I know if Archie and Betty have feelings for each other that were lingering for seven or however many years etc etc? No, I don’t know. But think logically, it was bound to happen. They’re all going to be apart. Betty and Archie were best friends their entire life (as KJ said in his interview, where he called her his best friend 3 times and never mentioned ‘love’ unless talking about Veronica) and it’s probably easier for them to reconnect. Lili alluded to Betty going through some changes, too. Nostalgia is B*rchies biggest theme so far, so why would it be different? They’re all coming back. Jughead has a girlfriend, even if not for long. Veronica has a husband. It’s the next logical step, to have them date.

I know the big B*rchie accounts out there will try to make it look like BA are having this epic slow burn build up that will come to a head around episode 10/11 (filmed in February) where Archie will give her flowers and declare his undying love or something, but please. The casting call was proved fake but even if it wasn’t, this isn’t going to happen. You guys -- us Varchies especially -- need to stop catering to the B*rchies narrative so easily just because they’re loud. KJ and Lili most likely have already filmed their romantic arc, are probably in the way of finishing this arc right now (hence the ‘emotional’ scene), he’s been steadily filming with Cami, Chris and other people involved in that arc, even if in group scenes, and their schedules (and Lili and Cole’s too) are bound to change from now on to be more focused around each other.

Trust me when I say this isn’t permanent. Bughead and Varchie are not going anywhere and the only people who believe that are just catering to this narrative that the BAs plant in our minds through their excessively annoying tweeting of headcanons and well-crafted edits.

Also, and just because I don’t want to answer anyone else, people need to STOP blaming this arc on Lili or KJ or Cole. Cole and Lili breaking up hasn’t affected the storyline, they are professionals and will film together again. Lili and KJ are talking about B*rchie now because that’s the storyline for early in the timejump and it’s their job to promote half of the ship they’re in. I know before hand Lili hasn’t enjoyed the idea of B*rchie but she has no power over the narrative, and if she does now, what if she changed her mind? She’s not gonna change what the writers have in store; if she did, Betty would have never stripped in front of a group of grown man, I’m sure.

KJ doesn’t ship B*rchie or Varchie, Lili doesn’t ship Bughead or B*rchie, they’re professional actors getting paid to tell this story. They enjoy working together because they’re friends just as KJ and Cami, KJ and Cole, Cami and Cole, etc. And as for Sprousehart breaking up affecting the storyline: this isn’t One Tree Hill.

So, I hope this help keep your chin up. It won’t be easy to see BA dating, but you have to trust Archie and Veronica’s and Betty and Jughead’s journey, that has been built for four seasons already, and it’s clearly not over. You guys need to keep your focus on them. And if BA dating affects you a lot, just jump season 5A and you’ll be most likely good.

And please don’t share this on Twitter, I get enough trolls and hate as it is!

[be11atrixthestrange]

Step 8: Navigating Arguments

Also, for all those asks for a Romione first time... this the chapter for you!

From 12 Fail-Safe Ways To Charm Hermione Granger

As your relationship deepens, expect disagreements to surface. All couples fight, but pay attention to the way you fight. Do your best to establish healthy and productive habits by focusing on your own feelings and actions, and never attack your partner's character. Remember that you're arguing with someone you love.

******

Ron and Hermione were no strangers to fighting, and ultimately, Ron was thankful for that. Their friendship was based on an argument— If Ron hadn't called her a nightmare back in their first year, she would never have ended up crying in the girls' bathroom. And if she hadn't been crying in the girls' bathroom, she wouldn't have needed saving from a Mountain Troll.

That was the argument that began their friendship, but there were many more that defined it. In the third year, he thought he'd never talk to her again because her cat definitely ate his rat. But as it turned out, Crookshanks was innocent, his rat was really a middle-aged killer, and he missed her so much that he would have forgiven her even without those valid reasons.

Their fight at the Yule Ball in their fourth year also stood out as a defining moment. Hermione still thought of that as the moment when he finally realized she was a girl, but she was wrong. That was the moment he knew that other people realized she was a girl, and he convinced himself he was entirely undeserving of her attention.

He still cringed when he remembered their estrangement during year six, which Hermione now referred to as 'The Lavender Days." It might have taken a canary attack, but that fight showed him that they ultimately felt the same way about each other. Dating someone else for five months might not have been the most efficient way of discovering that, but it ultimately worked..

They could fight like dragons, but they always resolved them, even back when they just called each other friends. Their fights didn't end when their relationship began, and it would have been naive to assume so.

They argued about where to spend holidays, and splitting their vacation time equally between the Burrow and Australia frequently required a spreadsheet and a third party. They argued about dirty dishes, and messy rooms, and what to make for dinner. They even rowed about muggle movies, and whether to watch a romantic comedy or an action film. Ron only doubled down on his opinion there, because he believed more men needed to admit their love for romance films.

Ginny and Harry jokingly referred to their bickering as foreplay. Despite his initial embarrassment at their observation, he knew there was some truth to it. Their arguments remained a constant feature of their relationship as they progressed from friends to lovers, but making up— that got much better.

Before, when they were just friends, making up meant a handshake, or a hug, or a promise that they could talk to one another again. Now, making up meant hours in the bedroom, under the covers, naked. He'd developed a certain pride in how many ways he could say "I'm sorry," without speaking a word, and she'd gotten quite good at convincing him that all was forgiven.

Today he was pretty confident that they could get through any fight, but it hadn't always been that way. The first few major arguments of their relationship didn't have a solution in sight, and it took time to figure out how to row with one another in a way that didn't deepen their divide. When long estrangements ceased to work, they had to figure out how to fight productively, which took time. Sharing his feedback on their relationship was risky, but Ron soon found out that with that risk, came a big reward.

******

Harry and Ron both moved into Grimmauld Place and started Auror training soon after Hermione and Ginny left for Hogwarts. The long, empty schedules of summer felt so far away when they were suddenly faced with twelve-hour training shifts. Ron jumped into training enthusiastically because it was something to do, and it filled his time enough to get his mind off of missing Hermione.

He looked forward to writing her lengthy letters once a week, describing his days in as much detail as he was authorized to give. It was no substitute for talking to her, but it was the closest thing he had, so he cherished that time. She wrote back too, and he tried to imagine what it would be like to be with her at Hogwarts, based on the details she provided in her letters.

Luckily, Ron didn't have to wait until the Christmas holidays in order to see her. Her birthday fell on the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year, and he was able to get a day off of Auror training to meet her. It was a weekend to remember— they started at the Three Broomsticks, and caught up over a few rounds of butterbeer. Ron learned of all the details about school life that she hadn't mentioned in her letters, and she surprised him by agreeing to take a few shots of firewhiskey. They inched closer to one another with each passing sip, and it wasn't long before Ron was grateful they'd picked a booth in the back of the bar, hidden from view.

He could have stayed there all day, with Hermione in his lap, tasting the alcohol on her breath, but eventually, Madam Rosmerta forced them to leave. Madam Rosmerta who? Ron could hardly remember why the barmaid had caught his attention for so many years at Hogwarts. Bloody mental, he was. Madam Rosmerta was far from his mind when he pulled Hermione into an empty alley behind the bar, slipped his hands behind her thighs, and picked her up. He pressed her back against the brick wall as she wrapped her legs around him, and he wondered how many more secret Hogsmeade snogging spots they'd never gotten the chance to discover.

School must have picked up in October, because her letters were shorter. He still enjoyed reading them, but even more, he wished he could be there to relieve some of her stress— preferably in an alley behind a bar. He did his best to fill in the gaps, kept his letters as long and detailed as possible, and hoped that they'd be able to catch up fully during their next Hogsmeade weekend.

It was the end of October when he saw her again. They had planned to meet at the same place. Unfortunately when he arrived at the Three Broomsticks, the private booth they had enjoyed last month was taken, so he set himself up in one nearby, and simply hoped Hermione would see him.

She came rushing in after Ron had already finished his first butterbeer, and apologized for her lateness. Although he was well aware of her tendency to lose track of time in the library, there was a part of him that felt slightly offended. He didn't want to spend his only day with Hermione brooding, so he ordered a few more rounds of drinks, and listened intently as Hermione filled him in on the details of the previous month. She spoke of her homework load, her Head Girl duties, and lamented her lack of free time to write to him. He slipped his arm around her, stroked her hair, and pushed aside the hurt from earlier. It wasn't long before she was leaning against him, stroking his thigh, and he turned to kiss her.

It wasn't as frenzied as last month. She never made it to his lap, and Madam Rosmerta didn't need to kick them out. When they strolled down the high street, and he tried to guide her into that empty alley, their empty alley, she resisted.

"I have to get back to the library, Ron."

She looked away when she said it, and Ron assumed it was so she didn't have to see his face fall. He sighed.

"That's ok," he said, and he wrapped her in his arms for another kiss before letting her go. It was shorter and more chaste than he wanted it to be, but he cherished the contact either way.

He continued to write to her after that weekend, and she continued to respond, but her letters grew shorter and shorter. It seemed she had written most of them in the library in between essays. Based on her rushed responses, school was overwhelming. She had taken on more NEWTS than anyone else, and it was all starting to catch up to her.

He wanted to believe that was the only reason behind her disappointingly concise letters, but his resentment was growing. He was busy too, and he still looked forward to spending hours writing to her, because had no one else he wanted to share his life with. An old insecurity began to resurface with every hastily written note— he knew it was mental, but maybe she had someone else to talk to, so writing him felt redundant.

Before their November Hogsmeade weekend, Ron booked a room at the Hog's Head. He knew better than to think she'd be able to spend the night with him, but it meant that she could see him two days in a row, and there'd be a place for her to really unwind, away from the prying eyes of anyone at the Three Broomsticks. They still met at the bar, in the same private booth as their first trip.

Even though he expected her to arrive late and slightly frenzied, he was still annoyed when she did. He offered her a butterbeer, partially hoping that she would catch his stiff tone, but she didn't even notice. Hermione started rambling on and on about her schoolwork, her Head Girl duties, and the stress she felt at school. He listened intently as she described her daily life in detail, and he couldn't help but wish she had included it all in her letters.

They left on their own when the pub closed, and no one had to kick them out. Hermione turned toward the road that would take her back to Hogwarts, and Ron reached for her hand.

"Don't go back yet," he said, pulling her back around to face him. "I got us a room."

He expected she'd need some convincing, and was prepared for it.

"Ron, I can't stay the night—"

"I wasn't expecting you to!" he assured her.. 'I just figured we could use some alone time. And then you can come back tomorrow." He tugged on her arm, trying to pull her into his arms, but she resisted.

"Ron, I can't—," she looked at him apologetically. "I don't have any free time tomorrow."

"It's a Sunday, what else have you got?" he was still holding onto her arm, half-heartedly trying to pull her into a hug, but she just stood still, unresponsive to his touch.

"I have a meeting with the prefects, four essays to finish, and I need to start revising for exams."

"That's a lot for a Sunday," said Ron, noting the hint of frustration in his voice.

"Well I scheduled everything on Sunday to make room to see you today, so yeah, it's busier than normal."

Her words felt like a punch in his stomach. "Well thank you for making room for me, Hermione, I'm sorry I'm hard to fit into your schedule."

"Ron," she said, sounding hurt. "You can't be mad about that."

"Well, I'm upset," he returned. Something, whether it be anger, frustration, or hurt was boiling up inside of him. "It kind of sounds like you don't want to be around me."

"That's not true!" she said. "I just wish you had told me."

"I wanted it to be a surprise."

"I hate surprises," she said. "If we had planned this out earlier, I might have been able to schedule around it." She had slipped out of his grasp and was now facing him with her arms crossed.

"Plan it out? You hardly write to me anymore. I have no fucking clue what's going on in your life, how am I supposed to know what your schedule looks like if you don't talk to me!"

She took a step back, looking affronted. "Ron I write to you every week."

"And you hardly say anything."

"Well I'm sorry my letters aren't detailed enough, I'm doing my best to keep up with yours."

Ron froze, playing her words over and over again in his head. She was making room for him. Doing her best to keep up with his letters. Adjusting her schedule to fit him in. All of it sounded like he was just another chore on Hermione's to-do list. A burden.

"Do you still want to be with me?" The words were out of his mouth before he could think to filter them.

She stared at him, her lip quivering. "Of course I do. Why would you say that?"

"It just sounds like I'm stressing you out," he shrugged. He felt his own face burning hot, and even though it felt like a regression of their relationship, he willed himself not to cry in front of her.

"It's not you—," she started.

"Is there someone else, Hermione?" He braced himself for her answer.

"No! How could you think that!" She was crying now. He wanted to run to her and wipe the tears from her face, but he willed himself to stay rooted to the spot.

"I just had to ask," he said, as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

Ron watched the image in his head of how he'd planned the night dissipate. He and Hermione were supposed to be enjoying a bottle of wine in their private hotel room right now. He'd hoped they'd spend this night reconnecting, both verbally and non verbally. He definitely hadn't planned for them to be standing five feet away from each other in a cold alley, arms crossed, and holding back tears.

"I really should go back," she finally said, avoiding his eye contact.

"Fine," he said, resisting the temptation to pull her into a hug, kiss her, and tell her he loved her. He knew she wouldn't respond with the level of enthusiasm that would make him feel any better.

"I'll see you at Christmas."

"I'll see you at Christmas," he responded stiffly. He waited until she walked away before he let his tears fall, and disapparated back to Grimmauld Place.

Ron approached letter-writing with far less enthusiasm after their fight in Hogsmeade, but was grateful for some correspondence, however flat it seemed. They wrote to each other simply to make plans for the Holidays. Hermione was planning to spend the first week of Christmas at Grimmauld Place with him, before spending the second half in Australia with her parents.

He was pleased to learn that he was still invited to visit her parents, but unfortunately, Auror training didn't leave him with a long enough break to join her. His anxiety to see her again was growing, but he had no idea what to expect from their reunion. They had a lot to discuss since their last Hogsmeade date. Although he was committed to a calm conversation, they didn't have the best track record when it came to rational discussions.

Luckily, any tension he felt quickly melted away when she arrived. He felt a wave of relief when she collapsed into his arms as soon as she saw him, almost knocking him over.

"Hi," she murmured into his shoulder.

"Hi," he said, chuckling. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." She held him at arm's length, and lovingly brushed some of his fringe away from his eyes.

Ron smiled and tightened his grip on her waist, tugging her closer. Their lips met, and she moved her hands from his shoulders to his hair, and at least for a few moments, they forgot about any potential arguments on their horizon.

The conversation didn't come up until later that night. When she slid under the covers with him and her head landed on his chest, he automatically turned toward her and tangled his fingers in her hair before kissing her firmly on the top of her head.

"I love you so much," he told her.

"I love you too," she said sincerely. The unexpected wave of relief he felt indicated a fear he hadn't yet recognized he had. "You know that, right?" she continued, now looking up at him.

Her head slid off his chest and they turned to face each other. "Yeah. I know that."

She turned her gaze to her hand, which was tracing the scars on Ron's arm. "What went wrong?"

He knew they couldn't avoid the conversation any longer, so he took a deep breath before answering. "I know you love me, I just didn't really feel that way over the past few months." He felt her stiffen in his arms, and he tensed too, preparing for an angry retort.

But it never came. Instead, Hermione's eyebrows furrowed and she propped herself up on her shoulder. "You don't?" she asked in a small voice.

At this point Ron was aware of his own insecurities, and knew full well that Hermione might call them out. There was a part of him that wanted to shove this conversation under the rug, because he thought he shouldn't be insecure, and it might come across as needy, and she might not find that attractive. But he also knew that this was simply how he felt, it was affecting them, and it was valid even if it didn't make sense to her. He took another deep breath, and spoke with a shaky voice. "I questioned it a lot over the last few months, to be honest."

Hermione's eyes watered with tears, but she didn't say anything. She gently nodded for him to continue.

Ron hadn't really prepared to elaborate, which he now realized was a mistake. He didn't have a solution for her, and he didn't have a reason to tell her that didn't sound like blame. But he had her attention, so he continued, hoping the fact that his words weren't perfectly curated didn't come back later to bite him. "We hardly spoke. Your letters were so short. I couldn't help but feel like you rushed them, which made me worry you thought writing to me was a chore. Then our Hogsmeade weekends didn't go as planned, and I just kind of spiraled into thinking that you didn't miss me, which made me worry that you didn't love me—"

"That's why you thought I had met someone else? I had no idea you felt that way," she said, cutting him off. She snaked her arms around his neck so she was pressed up against him. "I'm sorry, Ron."

"It's ok," said Ron, even though it wasn't.

"I was just so stressed with school, and I couldn't really spend time with you, so I did my best to focus on classes so I didn't miss you too much. I thought if I could just get through this year, then we could go back to how things were over the summer. And honestly, I did think of writing to you as a chore, because it was a horrible substitute for actually talking to you, and just made me miss you more. I dreaded it."

Ron's stomach sank when she said that. Writing to Hermione was his favorite part of the week, and the fact that she didn't feel the same way really stung.

They laid there silently for a while, as neither seemed to have much to say. What was there to say? He hated it when she didn't write, and she hated writing to him. It seemed like there wasn't a solution.

"What do you want me to do?" she eventually asked.

Ron winced. He didn't want to tell her she had to do anything. He just wanted it to be simple.

"Ron, I'm not good at this," she said.

"Not good at what?"

"All of it," she said, motioning around her like she was referring to the room they were in. "I'm not good at being a girlfriend. Reading your mind. Knowing how to make sure you know I love you. Writing it in a letter doesn't feel sincere to me."

"That's not true," he told her. "You're a good girlfriend." Although she had a point, something was missing, and there were many times this past fall when he had felt like he didn't even have a girlfriend. He didn't know if he could make it six more months like that, unless something changed. "I just hate how much happened this fall that I knew nothing about. I just want to know everything. Sorry if that sounds needy."

"So you want me to write to you more. Is it that simple?" she asked earnestly.

Ron groaned. "Hermione, it's not a want. I need you to write to me more."

She looked at him contemplatively. "If it means that much to you, I can do that."

"Really?"

She nodded. "I didn't know how it made you feel when I didn't write."

"Even though you hate writing to me?"

"Ron I don't hate writing to you. It just stresses me out and makes me sad," she turned to look him in the eyes. "But it's better than knowing you feel like this."

"Thank you," he said. He pulled her back in for another hug, this time turning to his back so she was on top of him. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it felt a lot better that she knew how he felt. "I love you."

"McGonagall did say," said Hermione thoughtfully, before she shook her head, evidently deciding against continuing that thought. "I love you too."

"What did she say?" asked Ron.

Hermione sighed. "She said I could use her floo in emergencies. But on second thought, I don't think she would consider needing to see my boyfriend an emergency."

"Can you ask her?"

"Ron—"

"Please."

Hermione sighed, then nodded. "I'll ask her. Because I love you."

Ron beamed at her, then captured her lips with his. A year ago, Ron had just returned to the horcrux hunt, and would never have dared to tell her he needed more from her. Back then, he was simply grateful she was speaking to him, and he figured he'd spend the rest of his life making up for leaving her. They really had come a long way, and maybe he had finally done enough to earn his keep.

Ron felt her snake her arms around his neck, which only made him want to kiss her more fervently, so he did. He pulled the hem of her shirt up and off her head, before tugging at his own, and tossing both to the side of the bed.

He smiled at the view before him. Some things he would never get used to. His lips crashed back into hers before he trailed kisses down her neck, dragging his hand from her breast to the buttons on her jeans. She helped him slide her jeans off until she was down to her knickers, and then shimmied his way back up to her smiling face for another kiss. He kept his lips on hers as he kicked his own trousers off, and when they broke apart, she moved her mouth to his neck. Ron felt her teeth gently bite down into the soft flesh of his neck and he groaned almost involuntarily.

"Fuck, Hermione."

He felt her hand slide down his body and slip inside his pants. She smiled approvingly at his very evident excitement to see her, and shifted lower on his body, trailing kisses down his stomach. Ron propped himself up on his elbows just in time to see her tug his erection free from his pants, and slide her mouth over the tip.

"Merlin," he heard himself say before he collapsed back on the bed in surrender, tangling one hand into her messy hair while the other gripped his bedsheets. His heart rate picked up when she dug her fingers into his thigh, and he knew she had to feel his pulse against her tongue. He quickly lost interest in controlling the volume of his voice, and it didn't take very long before he felt himself spill into her mouth and unleash a string of expletives when she swallowed.

He had barely recovered when she kissed her way back up his torso to his neck. She turned to her back, and tugged his arm so he shifted on top of her. "I love you," she whispered in his ear.

He pressed his lips to her neck, contemplating his many options for returning the favor. "Love you too."

He placed his forehead on hers to look her in the eye, and felt himself growing hard again when she bit her lip and looked at him shyly. "What do you want me to do for you?" he whispered, before leaning in for another brief kiss, gently tugging her lower lip with his teeth when he pulled away. "I'll do anything for you."

Hermione smiled sheepishly at him. "I did the charm."

Ron raised his eyebrows. "The charm?"

She nodded.

Ron felt his stomach tighten in nerves. At this point, they had pretty much done everything they could do without having sex. They'd been dancing around the topic for quite some time, so he had an inkling that it would come up over the holiday. But he stopped himself from getting too hopeful since things had been feeling off between them. "Are...are you sure?"

She nodded again. "Do you know your charm?"

"Yes," he said. "I know it."

"So, you should do it then," she said. "Unless you need more time to recover."

They both glanced down between them, where Ron's erection was awake and ready to go. Hermione chuckled.

"I don't think I need any more time." He shifted off of her and reached for his wand, before pointing it at himself and muttering the incantation that his brothers had embarrassingly made him memorize years ago.

Hermione hooked her fingers over the hem of his pants, and slid them down his legs. He stepped one leg out at a time, until he was completely starkers. Even though she had seen him naked many times before, he suddenly felt exposed. His face was red when he tugged at her knickers. She lifted her hips for him and he pulled them to her ankles, before she kicked them off and onto the floor where the rest of their clothes lay.

He steadied himself on top of her, shifting his hips between her legs. "One more time, you're sure?"

She nodded and opened her legs wider in answer.

Ron looked down and used his hand to rest himself at her opening. "Just tell me if you need me to stop, ok?"

"I will," she said.

He pressed forward, guiding himself slowly into her, watching her facial expressions for any sign of discomfort. When she looped her arm around his back and encouraged him closer, he pressed a little more firmly, and watched his erection start to disappear inside her.

He heard a sharp intake of breath and looked up to see she was wincing.

"Sorry!" he said, and he started to pull out, but she gripped his hips with her hand to stop him.

"No, stay," she said. "Just go slow."

Ron took a deep breath and pressed himself back in until she winced again and he stopped. "Is this ok?"

"Yes," she said, a little more high-pitched than normal.

"Ok," he answered, but he didn't move.

"You can go further."

"I don't want to hurt you," he said as he dropped a kiss to her lips.

"It's not that bad," she said sympathetically.

Ron chuckled. "That's what every guy wants to hear on their first time."

"That's not what I meant," laughed Hermione. She wrapped her legs around his lower back and pressed him the rest of the way, letting out another sharp exhale as their hips met. "Ok, let me get used to you."

Ron stayed perfectly still, save for his lips, which went immediately to her neck as he kissed her right below her jawbone. "Get used to me, huh?"

"Well yes," she said, running her fingernails up in circles on his back. "You're quite big."

"That's more like it," he said. He gently tugged some of the soft skin on her neck between his teeth, and could almost feel her rolling her eyes.

"Ok, you can move now," she said.

Ron propped himself back up on his forearms, and dropped another kiss to her lips, before he slowly started moving his hips back and forth, sliding in and out of her. "This ok?"

She nodded, and he continued. It wasn't smooth or graceful by any means, quite clumsy actually, and Ron was grateful for all the time they had spent in bed together before this moment. He was with the only person he trusted to share this awkward attempt at sex, and the self-consciousness he could have felt was far overshadowed by his gratitude for Hermione in that moment.

He watched her focused expression, which was distinctly different than the one he saw when she was about to let go, and he was relieved that he knew how to please her in other ways. He had a backup plan.

He steadied his hips to kiss her again. "I love you so fucking much," he said when he broke free. He knew he wouldn't last much longer, so he propped himself up on his arms again and picked up the pace of his hips. "Fuck, Hermione," he said as she tightened her legs around him and tugged on his hair, and soon enough he buried his face in her hair, muffling the sound of her name that escaped his lips.

He collapsed on top of her, and she untwined her legs from behind him. With one last kiss, he rolled off to his side, and turned to face her, smiling. "I love you too," she said. He ran a thumb across her cheek.

He smiled. "That was brilliant. For me."

She simply smiled.

"I'm sorry you didn't—"

"It's ok," she interrupted. "I didn't expect it the first time."

He slid his hand from her cheek to her breast. "We still have time," he said, eyebrows raised. She grinned and closed her eyes as dragged his fingers down her body, gently parting her legs for his fingers.

"We have our whole lives," she said. He smiled as she bit her lip, and he slipped his fingers between her thighs.

Our whole lives, he thought. He could deal with that.

[brawltogethernow]

How much can you tell about a fan from how much they like Raimi Spidey

Who you are based on your Raimi Spider-Man opinion:

1. The best Spider-Man adaptation! You don’t like new things and don’t adapt to change well. You’re probably an older Millennial or Gen X. You respect an iconic scene and cheesy drama and don’t retract your enjoyment of something when the pressure is on you to do so. You like adaptations of superheroes more than the comics.

2. The most comic-accurate Spider-Man adaptation! You have never read a comic these films were based on. You may have never read any comics. You read or heard this opinion somewhere and are parroting it, and may think you can verify it’s true because you read one Avengers issue from after 2002 where Peter Parker cameos. You have high potential to become a deep comic nerd someday who will be embarrassed you ever said this so watch out for that.

3. Revolutionary for its time, paved the way for later comic book films, pared down the source material out of necessity - respect without enthusiasm You’re a little jaded but you’re trying not to let it get you down. You’ve gained immunity to MCU hype. You were happier before you did, but you can never go back. Analyzing fiction is second nature to you.

4. I just hate them Toby McGuire is consciously on your list of celebrities who could not get it. You turn over interests fast and see disliking things as its own activity, a dark mirror of fandom. You have strong negative opinions of properties you have not personally checked out and you’re happy that way because dissing stuff with people makes for good conversation.

5. Must a movie be “good” to like it? Is it not enough to have colors moving on the screen very fast. I respect you. You’re the better timeline version of the first category. Self aware and witty, a little insecure.

6. They’re bad because [thirty minute list of flaws] Wow you’ve thought about these movies a lot. You like review and analysis series like CinemaSins. (You may have a flaw list for CinemaSins specifically: It’s just an example.) Possibly an aspiring writer. You’re very plugged into pop culture and it doesn’t really occur to you to avoid media just because you don’t think it’s good.

7. I liked the first two when they were newer but they didn’t age well. Your persona is very go with the flow, not very opinionated. You consume media casually. In school you liked whatever bands your classmates did.

8. I have a soft spot for them but the effects are bad. You like MCU Spidey. You overestimate how empathetic and discerning you are. You don’t judge quickly but you do judge heavily.

9. I can’t hear you there’s only room for one Spider-Man movie in my brain WHAT’S UP, DANGER?

10. The third one ruined the whole trilogy! THAT’S what ruined it for you? You’re not wrong but your taste is unreliable.

11. I love [ship]! You’re very resilient. The weird kid. You glom onto stuff you like and don’t let go. Natural resilience to acting because of peer pressure, though you can take emotional hits from it. Probably internet friends with the three other people as deeply invested in this version of this ship as you are. Excitable in both positive and negative senses. You still use ff.net a lot. Above average vintage and otherwise lesser known comic knowledge but your attention is divided. The rare media targeting you is the 2017 cartoon if you’re a Parksborn and the Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane comic series if you’re a PeterMJ.

12. Uh I saw one or two in theaters? I don’t really remember them. You only read this list this far down because you like seeing people discuss their pet topics regardless of whether you understand them. May have to hit up a search engine to be sure what “Raimi” is.

13. Directly responsible for a lot of bad 616 trends, weird storylines, and character assassination. You’re a dyed in the wool comics nerd. Don’t get so mad you forget why you even like superhero comics. Go drink some water. You pirate media because capitalism can’t sustain how much you read.

14. Directly responsible for a lot of great 616 storylines!!!! Also a dyed in the wool comics nerd but all your favorite storylines are in the early aughts (and maybe late nineties), which was a formative time of your life. You like dropping niche comic trivia as talking points, also from this era. You not only actually go to comic shops but also have a pull list. Pour one out for the Ultimateverse amirite?

15. Peter sure turned into a giant spider and gave birth to himself because of this movie lmfao. You embrace the humor and weirdness in situations to stay sane. You know weird history or science facts and like to pepper them into conversation. Your ideal history rant is arranged to be reminiscent of that meme with the guy knocking over a giant domino with a row of successively smaller dominos. You feel the most enjoyable parts of comic community are online. You might be on Twitter. You could beat the above category in a trivia-off but would probably flub the execution due to being put off by them. You vibe with nihilism memes but you care just under the surface.

16. My blurry half-remembered impression of them isn’t negative You’re nice. You like cute desserts. I feel like you had an anime phase and go to cons.

17. Garfield Spider-Man sucks!!!!!! That’s not actually a Raimi opinion but you think it is. Low humor is just humor to you and you don’t see that as a problem.

18. I’ve been waiting for you to PRAISE the Amazing movies actually? You like Taylor Swift and would be super down for it if Kindred turned out to be Gwen Stacy. You’ve been screaming for years. You don’t like the Raimi films but don’t have time to get down on them while defending your own maligned property. You know Fant4stic was objectively not great but you’ll defend it. Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield live in your head rent free. You like to curl up and watch some good looking people having a tragic romance okay.

19. Spider-Man 3 is a cinematic masterpiece. You like shock humor and stoke attention from internet trolls on purpose. You discern your own opinions and don’t give a damn about anybody else’s.

20. I’m very two cakes meme about Spider-Man content! Raimi good! MCU good! Webb good! All the cartoons are good! I see a red mask and a thwip and I riot. A pure soul. I don’t understand you, but that doesn’t reflect well on me.