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#i've watched this movie for how many times already for this past month and a half and there's still so many more things to discover
thefourchimes · 1 month
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im very much sure someone already pointed this out before and we all know how everything mirabel mentioned she'd do in waiting on a miracle, she was actually able to do it in the end, but these two scenes just really emphasize it
similar positions, same pride and happiness in her family's eyes, and even in the first pic, there's a space for bruno!!
like, damn, she really set out to do what she said she'd do
and her desperation and longing in the first pic…in the end, she got what she wanted and more
god i love this movie
sister (heh) posts:
surface pressure what else can i do sister angst
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amaagari · 1 year
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“you are still my slave!”
“and you’d be dead in a ditch without me!”
“I saved your miserable life!”
followed by a short but incredibly homoerotic wrestling in the mud scene DIRECTLY before they find themselves in a situation that flips their whole dynamic on its head I am unwell I am screaming and crying and throwing up I am going insane
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awesomefringey · 4 months
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I haven't been able to find a good fic to read in about 7 months, I've only read A Distant Hazy Light over and over, but I need a good fic to get this out of my system
Ok, I understand we need to do something about it but first of all @greenfeelings wrote a brilliant series! So, I get it!!!
I read so many wonderful fics this year, here are some of them, maybe they’re for you too:
Is This Flying Or Falling by Holdingontochaos (A/B/O) It’s very sexy and very emotional. It’s also a lot of hurt and comfort. (Harry is traumatized from a past relationship, see the tags for triggers)
Quiet People Have The Loudest Minds by @2tiedships2 (A/B/O) I rediscovered it this year and couldn’t put it down again. It’s so very very sweet and made me feel warm and fuzzy.
Danger I Can’t Hide by CelticSky This is the most epic fic. I was worried it would be too dark and too real for my liking with the WWII setting, but the author finds a great balance to create a very real and life threatening atmosphere without it being too unbearable. Although I cried a lot! It is one of the best fics I’ve ever read. Great writing, amazing pacing, a truly unique love story.
Just Breathe With Me by @she-bear369 The Yoga fic. I couldn’t put this fic down. I loved their chemistry and how it was immediately palpable that there was something between them. Also Yoga instructor Louis is truly inspiring! Both Louis and Harry come with a bit of trauma they need to work through, but I loved to watch them process them and grow to be even better people, for themselves and for each other.
Love Is A Word You Gave It A Name by @larrydoinglaundry (3 part series) This one is pretty popular, so maybe you’ve read them already? If not, you must! I can’t really prepare you for it, other than that Louis and Harry will build a room in your heart and never leave it. I’ve read this one (and the 2nd part) multiple times, just to spend time with them.
Secrets, Santa? by @indiaalphawhiskey This fic is a gift to our fandom. I still don’t understand how we deserve authors like India. I’ve been wheezing and screaming over Harry, he’s absolutely hilarious and I love him to bits. The way Harry stubbornly thirsts after Louis is as silly as it is understandable because DAMN Louis is a CEO and Harry is his assistant and why isn’t this a Hallmark Christmas movie and thank god it isn’t because this one is so much better! I read this multiple times and it’ll be forever my go-to fic to get into the Christmas spirit.
And a little extra rec because you’re into A/B/O:
Behind Smoke Stained Curtains by @jaerie This fic was recommended to me recently and I haven’t read it yet but will before the year ends. So if you’re curious, give this one a go.
You can check my tags as well: larry fanfic rec, abo larry fanfiction or larry fanfiction (which is all of my reblogs for fics)
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rxmqnova · 3 months
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So i was thinking about Wanda x Reader where yn is the owner of a company and met Wanda when she went to have a coffee, and it was at her cafeteria, for both of them was love at first sight and for then, they were having dates.
Wanda wanted Yn to met her friends, first Nat, when they met she recognize yn for somewhere but didn't know where, in that, yn didn't tell Wanda about her job because always people tried to take advantage and even Wanda didn't do anything like that, she was a bit insecure about it.
Nat searched everything she knew and found why yn sounds so familiar so she went to her company for answers, and Yn told her the truth, that she is in love and she was planning to tell Wanda about everything and hoping she will understand why she did that.
So when Yn and Wanda had that date, it was at yn's house, and then after having dinner, she told her that secret and ask for forgiveness but Wanda understood and even if she prefered to know the truth before, she didn't care about it, always asking that she doesn't want anything expensive for gifts, she wasn't like that.
The lie
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NO ONE'S POV Exactly 4 months ago Y/N made a decision to get coffee in one specific cafeteria after a really stressful day at work. And since then she hasn't had coffee anywhere else.
The girl who served her and happens to be the owner of the cafeteria, immediately fell in love with her.
Some people don't believe in love at first sight, but these two fell in love with each other right in the moment they saw each other for the first time.
Y/N kept visiting the same cafeteria over and over again, sometimes even more times a day, just so she could see the prettiest girl with the most beautiful green eyes she's ever seen.
And then it happened, Y/N finally got the courage and asked Wanda out on a date on which Wanda couldn't say no. She liked the girl ever since she saw her walk through the door of her cafeteria for the first time.
Well, they started going out quite often and now they're dating for the fourth month already.
"Baby?" Wanda looks at her girlfriend as they're snuggled up on the couch in Wanda's apartment and watching a movie.
"Hmm?" Y/N hums in response, letting her girlfriend know she's listening.
"You know… we're together for 4 months and you still haven't met my friends. I've been thinking that I could invite them over, so that you could finally meet them. Would that be okay with you?" Wanda asks, looking at her girlfriend while waiting for an answer.
"Oh, sure. Okay" Y/N nods with a smile.
She doesn't have many friends, so meeting new people sounds nice. It's just the fact that Y/N has money and lots of her so called friends just wanted to use her kindness and get money from her, so Y/N decided to better not establish any relationships. Well, but then she met Wanda.
"Great! How about Friday?" Wanda asks excitedly. She's very excited about Y/N meeting her friends as she's told them a lot about her girlfriend.
"Friday sounds good" Y/N smiles warmly, pecking Wanda's lips with a quick kiss before the two move their attention back to the movie.
———
Friday came sooner than Y/N thought and the first guest only just rang the doorbell. Y/N takes a deep breath, watching as Wanda walks away to open the door and following behind her.
"Natasha" Wanda smiles widely, pulling her friend in for a hug. "Y/N, this is my friend Natasha. Nat, this is my girlfriend Y/N" She introduces the two happily.
"Hi, nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you" Natasha holds her hand out for a handshake, looking at the familiar face.
"Hey, nice to meet you too" Y/N smiles warmly, shaking Natasha's hand.
"I feel like I've seen you somewhere. Haven't we met in the past?" Natasha can't help but ask, thinking hard where she's seen the girl.
Y/N's eyes widen a little bit, surprised the redhead finds her familiar. She knows exactly where she saw the redhead. Natasha's sister needed Y/N's lawyer services as she got into some trouble a few years ago. Well, and Yelena once brought her older sister to their meeting.
But the truth is that Y/N wasn't completely honest when Wanda asked about her job. She told her girlfriend she works as a driver for one rich guy, even got her personal driver to change roles and pretend she works for him and drives him anywhere he wishes.
It wasn't even an intentional lie, Y/N panicked when Wanda asked her about her job, knowing all of her previous relationships were built up on the fact that she has money. She didn't want this to be the reason of Wanda staying with her… even though she knows Wanda is not like that.
"I don't think so" Y/N lies.
The three move to the living room, sitting down on the couch and talking. Soon they get joined by Wanda's other friends and luckily for Y/N, Yelena's not between them.
———
Natasha is the type of person who's capable of nearly anything to find out the truth. She knows Y/N is familiar and she just has to know why.
That's why she's searched every corner of the internet until she found why Y/N seemed so familiar. Of course Wanda told her friends what Y/N does for living… that she's a driver.
Well, and this lie is something Natasha took an interest in. So now she's on her way to Y/N's company, determined to find out the truth about why is Y/N lying. Wanda's gotten her heart broken a few times and Natasha definitely doesn't want that to happen to her friend again.
"Miss Y/L/N, you have a visitor" Y/N's assistent announces, making Y/N furrow her brows as she's not expecting anyone for the next two hours.
"Hmm. Okay? Who is it?"
"Hm. A woman named Natasha Romanoff. Do you want me to let her in?" The assistent asks on which Y/N sighs, squeezing her eyes shut and knowing her lie just got her.
"… Yeah, let her in. Thank you" Y/N sighs once again, her fingers nervously tapping on her wooden desk.
"I didn't know drivers own companies" Natasha says as soon as she steps into the office. "I don't understand, Y/N. Why are you lying to Wanda? She's been through a lot and she doesn't deserve to be lied to again"
"I- Natasha, I can explain" Y/N responds immediately.
"Well, I hope so" The redhead raises an eyebrow, waiting for the explanation and taking a seat on the couch Y/N has in her office.
"It's just… everyone who I was in relationship before Wanda was with me only because I had money. I didn't want that with Wanda, so when she asked me, I-I just panicked and made up that I was a driver" Y/N explains, hoping Natasha would believe her. "I've been planning to tell her soon, I swear. I would never want to hurt her… I really love her, Nat" She confesses, Natasha staring deeply into her eyes.
"… She loves you too. She won't shut up about you, so you better tell her as soon as possible" Natasha states, standing up and walking out, earning just a nod from the girl.
———
"Why do you look so nervous today? You haven't even eaten much. Is everything okay?" Wanda asks concerned, placing her hand on top of her girlfriend's.
Ever since the talk with Natasha this morning, Y/N's been feeling super nervous about telling Wanda the truth, worrying Wanda would break up with her when she finds out she lied to her.
"… Wanda, I need to tell you something" Y/N blurts out, taking a deep breath.
"Y-you don't want to break up, do you?"
"What? No, of course not. It's just… I-I lied to you… about my job" Y/N finally admits, receiving a confused look from her girlfriend. "I'm not a driver, Wanda… I own a lawyer company. I'm a lawyer"
"Oh… okay. Why… why didn't you tell me before?" Wanda asks, still a bit taken back from Y/N's confession.
"You know, I… I've dated a few people before and just… all those people were with me only because I have money. I know you're not like them, but I just didn't want our relationship to be like that. I'm really sorry" Y/N admits, finally looking up at Wanda and locking her eyes with her.
"… Y/N/N, I really don't care about how much money you have. I love you for who you are and not for money. And even though I'd prefer way more if you had told me the truth right when I asked you… I see why you did it" Wanda says, taking Y/N's hand in hers and interlocking fingers with her girlfriend.
"So you're not mad at me?" Y/N question, still a bit nervous. "I'm glad you told me the truth. Just promise me we won't lie to each other ever again" Wanda smiles, rubbing Y/N's knuckles with her thumb and receiving a smile back from her girlfriend.
"I promise"
~~~
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waldau · 5 months
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hi!! i really love the way you write for wonwoo♡♡♡ could i request wonwoo+friends to lovers(something like she fell first but he fell harder kinda trope?)
thank you so much anon! also you're my first ever request! i hope i did this trope justice, because as much as i love established relationships i don't think i've ever really done much for friends to lovers.
crush — jeon wonwoo | 2,193 words | fluff
gender neutral reader. warnings: none.
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it hits wonwoo like a sledgehammer.
he's glad he's already sitting in his usual seat at the table, because there probably couldn't be a worse time to realize he's in love with you. when you're out on a date with someone else, and when these dates look like they're going to become a steady fixture in your life; something that he's going to have to learn how to make peace with.
wonwoo doesn't just love you. he's in love with you, and he's grappling with the realization of how many months he's missed without knowing the extent of his own feelings for you.
he wishes there was some manual that told him what to do when you had feelings for your roommate. when said roommate happened to be your best friend you'd try to ask out if you weren't so afraid of ruining the friendship.
since the end of high school and the beginning of college, wonwoo's always had you by his side — whether it be in the same classes, or the same friend group — hell, he's lost count of the number of nights you spent together, watching movies instead of trying to get some sleep for the next day.
(maybe there was a reason why he chose horror movies sometimes, even though you were scared of them.)
he thinks back to all the times your friends joked you were practically dating — that never annoyed him. he was merely surprised at the idea of dating you. you had always been his best friend; nothing more. you were a constant fixture in his life that he didn't see in any other way.
but now? wonwoo wishes he could turn back time and see what could have happened. would you have had the same inside jokes you do now, the same ease that comes with learning to co-exist by carving each other's shapes into your lives?
he looks up from his laptop at the sound of the wind rattling the windows. but he's the only one home.
you're out on your second date in the past two weeks with this guy named seungcheol. for the past two weeks, wonwoo hasn't been able to put a finger on why he hasn't been so keen on this guy you're seeing, despite the fact that seungcheol sounds like nothing but a gentleman.
and now he knows why.
he's heard a lot about how funny and smart and nice seungcheol is, from taking you to your favourite restaurant for a date to leaving you at your doorstep at the end of your night out.
wonwoo wants to argue that he, too, does the same thing for you. he holds doors open for you and gives you his beanie when you're cold and lets you have his popcorn when yours is done, but you just don't see him that way. and he doesn't know what to do to make you see him that way.
he focuses on his laptop again. the words all seem jumbled, and he's pretty sure he's been on the same page for the past half hour. so he takes his glasses off and lets his eyes rest. only to remember the time you took his glasses off when he was almost about to fall asleep on the sofa.
you're loving. it's something he's learned from you. you're always looking out for others, always concerned, wanting them to know you're there in the subtlest ways possible.
wonwoo always wants you around, and now has an irrational worry that he won't have you for much longer. his heart starts hurting — really, physically hurting, like a deep pain in his chest that can't be satiated by anything. he didn't know it was possible, but it's all he can feel right now.
he tries to think about anything else. those few people he'd dated back in college, whose names he can't even remember now. he hasn't dated anyone in the past two years since you graduated, got a job and moved into this flat together.
wonwoo hadn't known what to expect when it came to living with you, because as much as you were best friends, you'd never shared a living space together beyond a night's time. now over the course of the last twenty five months, he's become accustomed to you, and he's afraid he's ruined it all by realizing he's fallen in love with you far too late.
part of that is definitely your fault, he reasons. he wouldn't blame seungcheol for falling in love, either.
the thought of you on your date hurts him enough that he picks up his pen and scratches something on the notepad lying next to his laptop. his strokes are harsh and drawn without care, but when he stops, it's a rough sketch of your favourite flowers.
he lets out a bitter laugh. everything always circles back to you, in the end.
you don't ask for anything on your birthday, but wonwoo always gets you a bouquet of your favourite flowers alongside your gifts, because he knows how much you love them.
he wonders if seungcheol knows they're your favourite.
he's shaken out of his thoughts when you open the door to your shared house and step inside, almost tiptoeing, like you're afraid of making noise. you freeze when you see him looking at you. he wonders how long he's been sitting there, mind blank but also filled with thoughts of you. it's eating him up like a slow poison from the inside, but he forces himself to hold your gaze.
you look amazing. more than that, you look happy.
he's not jealous. he's never jealous when you're happy. but he just wants you to be happy with him, and he doesn't know if he's enough.
he wants to know what it'd be like to take you out. he wants to know everything that makes you smile, because he still learns something new about you almost every day. he wants to know what it's like to hold hands with you, kiss you goodnight, and wake up every morning knowing you're there by his side and his side only.
he wants more than he can possibly have.
"hey, wonwoo," you say, shutting the door behind you before you take off your shoes. "couldn't sleep?"
"no. i wanted to wait till you came back."
you frown at him. "i told you not to."
as if he could ever do that. whether you go out on dates, or to parties with your friends, wonwoo can't relax till he knows you're back home, safe. he just shrugs. this is one thing he'll always be stubborn about.
"did you have dinner?" you ask, ruffling his hair and moving past him to presumably fix yourself a snack before you go to bed.
"yeah," he says, looking back at the laptop. the letters are still jumbled, so he cleans his glasses before putting them back on. "unless last night's pizza doesn't count."
"that's a lot of words for no," you say. "are instant noodles okay?"
"of course."
wonwoo watches as you move around, putting back today afternoon's dried dishes into their respective places and filling a glass of water for yourself.
"did you have fun tonight?"
"yeah," you say, a smile on your face. "cheol picked out this movie i've been wanting to watch for a while. then we went to this hole-in-the-wall cafe that was surprisingly nice. and then he dropped me home."
wonwoo tries not to react at the nickname you already have for him. he's not jealous, but it's getting harder to convince himself of that. he looks at your jacket. it looks...not quite your style.
"is that new?" he asks, pointing at it.
"what? oh, this? seungcheol asked me to return it to him the next time. it was pretty cold today."
wonwoo's hand crumples the note before he realizes. next time? why couldn't he have realized how much he loved you before all of this had to happen?
"you okay?" you ask, turning around to look at him. "come here and tell me if it tastes fine."
"it's just instant noodles," he pretends to grumble, but waits for you to feed him some. he can see you're a bit tired. he wishes you'd fall asleep on him, the way you do when you're stubborn enough to want to keep him company with whatever he's doing.
"tastes good," he hums, licking his lips.
did he just imagine your eyes looking at them before they moved back to his face?
"great. hand me those bowls from there?"
you using him for his height is a running joke he hopes never gets old. wonwoo takes out the cutlery too, but stops when he sees an angry red line on your hand.
"what happened to you?" he asks, holding your hand so he can see it clearly. he tries not to think about how much bigger his hand is. the cut isn't bleeding, but it's still there, starkly visible against your skin.
you hesitate. "i'm not sure. i remember my hand hit something in the cafe, but i didn't see it till now."
"and you didn't bother checking it once you got home?"
you look at him. "i didn't even feel it that much, woo."
"you could have tetanus for all you know!"
"it's just a cut! it's hardly that ser—"
you stop talking when wonwoo switches on the tap and turns off the stove. "take this off," he says, pointing to the jacket. it shouldn't even be in your home. he shouldn't be feeling like this in the first place.
you comply wordlessly, hand limp in his as he washes it thoroughly, before patting it dry with the towel near the sink and finding a bandaid in the cabinet above. you have a propensity for getting hurt randomly and wonwoo's glad to be prepared.
"done," he says, letting go of your hand. you're still looking at him.
"kiss it better?" you ask. there's a mischievous look in your eyes.
and who is he to refuse? he takes your hand back, gently pressing a kiss to it, making sure it's not too forceful. when your eyes meet again, he gets the feeling there's something in the air. even you seem to be aware of it. it's like the tipping point before the scales lose their balance, like the calm before the storm; it's now or never.
"one more time?" you ask, moving a bit closer. wonwoo swears he forgets how to breathe. and he definitely isn't imagining your eyes on his lips this time.
"always," he says, before he leans down to press his lips to yours.
it's magic. there's no other word for it. wonwoo feels like he's transcending worlds when he feels your lips against his, trying to press yourself into him when you wrap your hands around his waist.
when you pull apart, wonwoo swears you're the most beautiful thing he's ever seen in his life. this is what he wants, and he'll be damned if he doesn't try to find out what could have been.
"please don't go out with him again?"
"...what?"
wonwoo swallows, letting go of your hand. his bravery now comes and goes like waves on the seashore, tides threatening to spill out everything he feels about you in one careless motion.
"i don't want you to go out with him again."
"because...we kissed?"
"because i'd never let you get hurt if you were with me."
"you...what?"
"i like you," he says, taking a step closer. "i don't know what that meant to you, but i like you so much, and i hate that it took me this long to realize it. i want...i want you to give me a chance."
"you like me?" you ask, voice smaller than before.
he nods. "i want to...take you out on a date. wherever you want. i want to make you laugh. it's been killing me, thinking about you with him."
"oh, my god," you say, burying your face in your hands. wonwoo's heart drops. "why would you— i've been trying to get over you all this while, going out on dates with him so i can stop thinking about you that way, and now you're just...giving me what i've always wanted?
wonwoo feels like he's been drenched in ice-cold water. "you like me?" he parrots. he doesn't know what to do with his hands, so he pulls you in for a hug. even this simple gesture suddenly feels like a brand new thing in the light of your recent confessions.
your hands find their place around his waist again, your chin on his chest, looking up at him. "of course i do. i'm surprised you didn't realize earlier. it's been...a while."
this is news to him. "how long, exactly?"
you bow your head, not meeting his eyes, "i'm not telling you now."
"you can't hide anything from me, you know."
he can feel your smile against his chest. "i know. let me just have this for now?"
"forever."
you tighten your grip around his waist and just stand with him.
wonwoo makes a mental note to get you a bunch of real flowers.
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annymation · 4 months
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"This Wish" Reimagined
Asha's "I Want" song in my Wish rewrite
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Something that quite bothered me in Wish’s “I want song” is that I never really… Connected with Asha as a character while listening to it.
With Ariel we WANT to see her get to the surface.
With Quasimodo we WANT to see him out of Notre Dame.
With Mirabel we WANT to see her make her family proud.
With Asha I want… her to have more than this…?
And what is “this”? Like, the subject is vague, and that’s because the song writer Julia Michels was asked to just “Write a song about a young woman that wants to fight an corrupt system” which is a neat concept… But Julia didn’t know what that corrupt system even was doing, I’m not joking, she said so on interviews, AND SHE SAID DISNEY ASKED HER TO DO IT IN 3 WEEKS LIKE GIRL!?
Anyway, as a result, I can’t really relate to Asha’s struggles because the song feel like it could be sang by ANYONE facing a hard situation where they “May be young but are not wrong” or “Have hesitations about what to do”…
But who is ASHA in this, aside from the person who is singing the song? Yeah, she wants more, but more WHAT?! You can listen to “When will my life begin” without watching Tangled and you’ll totally understand what Rapunzel’s personality is and what she wants… But in This Wish?… I don’t know who the heck is Asha, and I watched the movie!
It doesn’t help that in the movie the BIG HORRIBLE REVEAL that Asha is facing is that the system that only grants one wish per month… isn’t granting EVERYONE’S wishes… when that should’ve been common sense, like, does no one in Rosas understand basic math???
In my rewrite though, Asha has been silently questioning the system around her but knowing full well she couldn’t change it so she just accepted it, until the day arrived for her to give away her wish to conform to the expectations. She said she didn’t want to, and questioned if the king even granted all the wishes like he said he did. Seeing that she had spirit, the king and queen gaslight, gatekeep and girlboss manipulated her to get a wish out of her, and after that, by peeking through a door, Asha discovered the truth about her kingdom’s wish system, a truth so terrifying for her that she ran as far away as she could. And with no one else to help her… She made a wish upon a star.
(There, I summarized my rewrite so far, if that sounds cool to you consider checking it out here)
I think that’s a more interesting premise, and it gives Asha more nuance, but how do you translate ALL THAT into one song? Well, here’s how I’d change “This Wish” to do that:
“This Wish”
Should have listened to my own instincts No time to cry now for what could have been If I could show them everything I've seen Open their eyes to all the lies then Would they believe in me or in them? But when I speak, they tell me, "Sit down" But how can I when I've already started runnin'? All I wanted to do was grant my wish on my own But now that wish's stolen and, I am all alone [Chorus] So I look up at the stars to guide me For I know they can send me a sign If knowing what it could be is what drives me Then let me be the first to stand in line So I make this wish Asking us for freedom, hope and bliss So I make this wish To have something more for us than this [Post-Chorus] Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah More than this, oh-ah-ah-ah For many years they’ve been tricking us all Yeah, they said “We’ll protect you” while being our downfall Now what’s a girl like me supposed to do? How do you fight a king and queen? oh and they’ve got magic too! And all I've got is reservations and hesitations On where I should even begin I'm past dipping my toes in But I'm not, no, I'm not past diving in If I could just be pointed in any given direction On where to go and what to do My legs are shaking, but my head's held high The way you always taught me to [Chorus] So I look up at the stars to guide me For I know they will send me a sign I'm sure there will be challenges that find me But I can take them on one at a time So I make this wish Asking us for freedom, hope and bliss So I make this wish To have something more for us than this [Post-Chorus] Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah (So I make this wish) Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah (To have something more) More than this, oh-ah-ah-ah [Outro] So I make this wish To have something more for us than this!
Thank You For Reading!
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angelltheninth · 10 months
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Falling asleep on Nightwing's shoulder and staying the night with him?
So cute! So wholesome! I've been struggling to come up with a fic prompt for him.
Pairing: Dick Grayson x Reader
Tags: fluff, cuddles, kissing, sleepy confession, staying the night, literal sleeping together
Word count: 0.8k
A/N: Finally some more love for Nightwing, its usually always Jason and I love writing for him but sometimes I like to write for Nightwing too.
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"Thanks for letting me stay over Dick, hope I'm not bothering you too much. I know you're tired too." It felt good to be out of your superhero outfit and into something more comfy, even if it was Dick's borrowed sweater pants and shirt, "And thanks for letting me use your shower, I really needed that."
Dick looked at you from the couch, a big bottle of water next to him and feed crossed over each other on the floor, "Anytime. I'm not gonna make you go all the way to the other side of Blüdhaven when my place is much closer. Feel free to relax, there's some pizza in the fridge if you're hungry."
He was being such a cute host you couldn't help but smile at every word he said, "No thanks, I'm just really tired right now. I just wanna cuddle up and sleep."
"C-Cuddle up?" A blush crossed his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck at the thought of your body against his, "I can put on a movie for us to watch if you'd like. It's been a long time since I've spent time with you. Alone I mean. Not that... your company isn't good otherwise I just..." You pressed a finger to his lips, pushing the bottom one over the upper.
"Dick?"
"Yes?" He mumbled against your finger.
"You're cute but please stop talking." You were too tired to deal with the growing romantic tension that had been growing between you two for the past months. It was easy to ignore when you were with others or focused on patrol or a mission but here, now, when you were all alone together it was getting a little more difficult.
Dick seemed to think so too as he pressed his lips together and moved over to give you some room, gesturing for you to take a seat like the gentleman he was.
"Do you mind the screen?" He looked over at you, noticing how your eyes were already closing as you settled next to him.
"No, just keep the volume low please." You were out barely ten minutes into the movie, the only sound you registered, barely was the sound of Dick's increased heartbeat when your face landed against his upper chest. "'M very lucky to have you in my life. No wonder I love you."
If you could focus you'd hear his heart speed up just then, and felt the faint press of his lips against your forehead, "I love you too."
When you woke up the next morning it all seemed like a dream, one with many pieces missing but you'd somehow found yourself in his bed. There was only you there. "I... guess Dick must have moved me here?" You yawned as you did a few stretches on your way to the living room where just as suspected you found Dick sleeping on the couch.
It seemed rude to wake him up but you had to know if your memory was true, or really a dream. It would have been a good dream and not the first one you've had either.
Being as vigilant as he was Dick stopped your hand mid-air before you managed to touch him, "Oh. Good morning. Did you sleep well?" He asked, trying to sound awake when his face was pressed against the pillow so his already tired speech sounded even more slurred and by extension even more adorable. And then there was his messy bed head that you wanted to fix so desperately.
"It seems I slept better then you." Despite how tired he was he still chuckled, "You shouldn't have slept on a couch just cause I was crashing at your apartment."
"Don't worry, a few workout routines and my back will be as good as new." You had no doubt about that one, Dick never seemed to have back problems. Lucky bastard. "So, about last night-"
"Last night I think I-"
You paused and looked at each other, a nervous laugh escaping you both at the same time. Like last night you took a seat next to Dick, your face heating up when his hand took yours.
"Did you hear what I said?" He asked in a voice so soft you might have mistaken it for another dream.
"I did. I guess that means I really confessed then?" And not even in a cool or suave way, it was actually pretty embarrassing to fall asleep on your crushes shoulder like that. "Does this mean I can take you out on a date tonight?" You decided to shoot your shot with him, it can't get any worse.
"Only if we come back to my place after. To finish that movie of course." He winked at you, eyes dropping down your body for a brief moment.
"To finish the movie... I'd love to." But the movie won't be the only one finishing.
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thatgirlwithasquid · 16 days
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Dear Moor Monster of Mine
3,424 words || read on ao3
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I've been meaning to write a wolfblood harringrove au for so very long, so I'm glad that the @harringrove-relay-race gave me the push I needed to finally put my ideas down!
This is the first chapter. The full fic will be up on my AO3, but I didn't want to post too much here haha :)
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Since the series of incidents last year, Steve’s parents have been keeping an unbearably close eye on him. If you had asked Steve perhaps three years ago, he would have been overjoyed with having his parents around all the time. But, right now, making his walk of shame from the car park where his mam dropped him off to the school’s doors, he can’t bring himself to feel anything other than frustrated.
Instead of travelling away on one of their monthly ‘work conferences’, Steve’s parents have taken to staying home month-round. That now includes the full moons. 
When Steve was little he used to hate that his mam and dad left him home alone for such an important day. Sure, they made sure to get nice babysitters or arrange sleepovers for him with Tommy and Carol, but all he had wanted was to share that experience with them. It didn’t matter that he knew he couldn’t do the transformation yet and so couldn’t fully understand it all, they were still his pack and it felt like they just didn’t want to share something that fundamental to wolfblood life with him.
It was isolating and upsetting, no matter how many kisses or how much quality time his parents would try to repay him with upon their return. He just wanted to spend those days with them. But now? Now he would much rather be left alone to watch movies, hang out with his friends, and not have his trainers chewed-through by his mam’s overeager wolf self.
“Nice wellies, Stevie!” Tommy calls out from across the yard as Steve passes by.
“Yeah yeah, laugh it up,” he huffs, striding on past to where Nancy and Jonathan are already waiting. 
Nancy doesn’t so much as spare him a glance as he comes to a squeaking standstill in front of them. She only manages a distracted ‘Hi, Steve’ as she continues flipping through her bag, clearly looking for something.
“Morning,” he answers anyway before turning to Jonathan.
He’s not looking at Steve either, too distracted by sending his choice of footwear a confused look.
“Planning on trekking through the woods later?” he asks by way of greeting.
“Monsters ate my shoes, had to make do with these instead.”
That makes Nancy’s head finally shoot up. For a moment, she gapes at him, flustered and speechless, before she composes herself with a sigh and a shake of her head. 
It’s then that she straightens up, shrugging her bag higher on her shoulder and brushing her hair back behind her ear. It opens her back into the group from where she had otherwise been sequestered off in her own mind. Steve grins at her.
“Don’t joke about stuff like that when Barb’s around,” she reminds him, expression friendly even in spite of her reproach.
“Don’t joke about what when I’m around?”
Well speak of the devil.
They all turn to Barb as she settles herself into their circle. Jonathan and Nancy look pained but Steve just throws an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a squeezing sideways hug.
“Nothing,” he dismisses. “Just the photography club.”
Barb rolls her eyes, leaning back in Steve’s hold to send him a look that says she doesn’t quite believe him. She doesn’t shrug out of his hold, though, and that might be enough to lighten his petulant mood. The pair of them have come a long way since the whole drama around him and Nancy dating, which is something he’s very glad for.
Losing Tommy and Carol as friends stung, no matter how much he knew it was probably for the best; they weren’t very nice people and being around that sort of character wasn’t doing him any favours, but they had been his friends for years. But cutting himself loose from them, and by apologising properly to Jonathan for being nasty about his brother going missing and to Barb for being such a douche, did bring him into a much nicer friend group.
“You’re not still on about that, are you?” Barb asks him.
“Always,” he replies with a grin, raising his brows. 
Okay, maybe he’s not fully lost all his douchey-ness, but at least now he can argue it’s just part of his charm. Barb just shakes her head and accepts it with a fond roll of her eyes. 
“You already have your own camera,” Steve continues, turning now to address Jonathan, “so it’s not like you need it to be a school club.”
“Yeah, but it’s nice for it to be.”
“Fine, but I still think I deserve more credit for joining.”
“You only put your name down on some paper,” Nancy points out, smiling indulgently at him.
“And wasn’t that to make up for you smashing my camera?” Jonathan pipes up.
Steve cups a hand over his heart with a wounded expression.
“Wow, I see how it is. And, for the record—” he drops his hold on Barb to lean in and jab a finger into Jonathan’s chest “—I replaced that camera, as you should all know. You use it all the time for your stupid club. And what’s the point of the school supplying you with stuff if you bring your own in anyway?”
No one humours that with a response. That’s fine, they’ve gone over this bickering a hundred times before. Steve only really brings it up to wind them up now—all in good humour! At the end of the day, he’s fine with being an on-paper member of their club if it helps them out or whatever, especially since he knows that the Photography Club is Jonathan’s favourite thing about school.
He owes them all as much as well, for continuing to let him hang around. They let him off the hook for last year with less grovelling than was probably deserved.
“Ah,” Barb jumps in. “Speaking of photography… you’ve got to see what I found this morning on the moors.”
She unearths her phone from her bag and Steve winces. Sure, it’s only been about a year that he’s known Barb, but he really has come to like her. 
The whole of Hawkins High has always known about her monster on the moors theory—hell, the whole town probably does—and Steve had laughed at it back then, like everyone else, but now Barb is his friend… It leaves a bit of a sour taste in his mouth to think of the way he’d acted about that before, and the way others still act now.
It was arrogance, that sort of reaction. Thinking he was better than her because of her theories. And it was him in particular who was more arrogant than anyone else, hiding behind it to ignore that twinge of anxiety. It was easier to dismiss it all as ridiculous. Steve hadn’t quite been cruel enough to laugh in her face, but he’d still snickered behind his hands with Tommy and Carol before him and Nancy had gotten together early last year. 
Now that he knows Barb, it’s definitely worse. With him being around her so often, it feels like he’s waiting for her to look at him a little too closely and see just what lies beneath the surface. And that’s something he really doesn’t want, not just for his own safety.
They had to come a long way to get to where they stand now, but she’s undoubtedly one of his closest friends. Her, Nancy and Jonathan. All three of them—despite their rocky time when Steve had thought Nancy was cheating on him with Jonathan—are the people he cares about most in this world. 
He really doesn’t want Barb’s obsession with her own ghost story to get in between them all, he couldn’t handle it if they decided he was still a monster even after everything.
“See?” Barb asks, shoving the screen of her cellphone in their faces.
On it, clear as day, is the photo of a paw print. Realistically, it could be anything so it shouldn’t matter… but Steve can’t help the small shudder of anxiety in his chest. It doesn’t even make sense! His parents couldn’t have been up in the moors to leave that—he would know—and there’s no other wolfbloods around for miles of their territory, so it’s got to be an animal. 
And yet.
“Um… What… is it?” Jonathan asks. “Just a paw print?”
Barb huffs, turning to show Nancy instead, who gives the photo a more genuinely intrigued look.
“ ‘Just a paw print’,” Barb grumbles. “This is proof.”
“It could be,” Nancy says, and Steve can tell that she’s serious. “I could also be a fox or something—”
“Yeah, or a stray dog,” Jonathan suggests.
Barb looks at Steve pleadingly, but there’s nothing he can say. He knows this isn’t what Barb wants it to be. It can’t be.
“We need more concrete evidence,” Nancy consoles her instead.
“But this still proves something,” Barb insists. “That there’s something up there.”
“Hey, Barbara!” Carol calls.
The group of them all turn to see Carol, Tina and Vicki walking up behind them.
“I saw something weird on the moors: you.”
The others snicker as they push past, making their way inside. Steve shoots them a sour look as they strut past.
“Whatever, Carol,” Jonathan sighs, never having enough energy to deal with her dramatics.
Steve can’t blame him, it seems impossible that he had been able to get used to what they were like.
“Ignore her,” Nancy tells Barb.
“I will. We’ll show her when we end up being right.”
Nancy nods with an unsettling certainty.
Walking in to their form room would be the same as usual were it not for the folder of posters Nancy finally unearths from her bag. She leafs through them, splitting the pile into smaller ones to hand to each of them. Steve accepts his own with a begrudging confusion, peering down at the sign-up sheets and trusting the others to guide his way through the halls.
“When did you have time to print these off?” he asks.
“I came in early,” Nancy tells him with a shrug. “My parents wanted me to show Mike around on his first day anyway, so I was in early.”
Steve hums.
“That’s right, you two—” he gestures between Jonathan and Nancy “—have your brothers starting year 7 now, right?”
Jonathan nods to him; “That’s right.”
They turn a corner, heading towards the stairs up to Mrs Click’s room.
“Why don’t you just get them to sign up for your club, then? They’re nerds. That way you won’t need to stick these up around school.”
Barb rolls her eyes as Steve reaches over her to wave his stack under Nancy’s nose. The brunette just bats him away with an unimpressed look.
“I don’t think they’d find that particularly… cool,” Jonathan answers in her stead, “hanging out with their older siblings.”
Steve shrugs. He can’t say he can relate, being an only child, but whatever, he can see where they’re coming from. 
Barb and Nancy are debating the best ways to go about getting new members for the photography club when Steve goes rigid. They take a few more steps before they realise he’s fallen behind and then, with curious eyes, turn back to call out to him.
Steve doesn’t hear a word of it. Something’s off.
An unusual scent roots him to the spot. He doesn’t know what it is—or maybe he does, but it can’t possibly be what he thinks. All he knows is that this has never been here before, and it shocks him with a deep sense of wrongness. It doesn’t belong there.
He needs to root it out.
An instinctive territoriality spurs him onwards, picking up his pace until his friends are following after him with confused shouts. He needs to find whatever left that scent throughout the school. It’s like he can see it, a trail of scent in the air guiding him to whoever or whatever left it.
“Steve?” Nancy is calling. “Steve!”
He just keeps moving, feet carrying him onwards. Turning down hall after hall, paying no attention to the loitering students he shoulders past. 
“Steve, you’re going the wrong way,” he thinks that might be Jonathan this time.
The bell rings and more students hurry through the corridor, dispelling the scent trail. If Steve had gone through his first transformation by now, he’d probably still be able to track down whoever left it from the lingering traces, but with his senses not being fully developed yet…
He stands still dumbly, staring ahead with a sense of uselessness. The wolf instinct within him feels unappeased.
“C’mon,” Jonathan coaxes, leading him back over to where Barb and Nancy stand looking concerned. “We’ve got class.”
It’s probably lucky for them all that the scent trail Steve was following didn’t create too big of a detour. As it stands, they get into Mrs Click’s class for form in the nick of time. The woman stands up at the front of the room, talking to an unfamiliar head of blonde curls.
At first, Steve notices nothing askew—Mrs Click is talking to the new student about how she is their form tutor and head of year—but then it washes over him. The adrenaline of nearly being late to his first lesson fades and that scent steals his attention again. 
He freezes in where he’s stepped aside to allow Barb to shuffle into their shared desk, eyes swivelling to that new figure. Now that he’s paying attention, it’s like the scent itself is visible in the air, clouding around him with that cloying wrongness and announcing to the world how wrong his presence here is.
There’s a cocksure smirk on his face that makes Steve’s lip curl in disdain, an instinctual need to snarl and warn off the outsider barely suppressed.
“Everyone, this is William Hargrove—”
“Billy,” the new kid buts in. “It's Billy.”
A chorus of ooohs rise from the room, students goading on the attitude shown to their teacher. For her credit, Mrs Click takes it in stride. Instead, she nods and turns to settle the class.
“Okay,” she says, raising her voice over the beginnings of chatter. “That’s enough, thank you…”
But Steve is barely listening. It’s like everything else fades away and his focus narrows down to this William—Billy—still standing at the front of the class. Like Steve’s whole world is overtaken by the beating of his heart and the inescapable smell of him, a smell that’s so familiar. Familiar in a way that has his hackles rising in unease. It’s almost like…
“You smell like my parents,” Steve blurts out, and the rest of the class starts laughing.
Nancy reaches over from her and Jonathan’s desk to yank him down into his seat by the hem of his jumper’s sleeve. She shoots him an unimpressed look as Mrs Click scolds him:
“Alright, Harrington. Sit down.”
Steve barely hears any of them, barely notices any of it. Billy’s eyes had locked on to his, deep and blue and endless. It felt like Steve was falling into them, diving head-first into their emptiness where Billy would eat him alive. 
“Steve,” Barb whispers, jabbing him with an elbow. 
It’s only then that Steve realises he’s been watching Hargrove as he walks over to an empty seat at the very back of the room. 
“What’s gotten into you?” she asks, sounding concerned.
“Nothing,” he dismisses, trying to turn and give her his full attention. “It’s nothing.”
He can’t get involved, not after everything. Steve has been working so hard to prove to his parents and his friends—hell, even to Tommy and Carol as they watch with a smug anticipation for his downfall—that he’s not the guy he used to be. That’s something he can’t just throw away by causing problems with the new kid, even if he’s breaking every rule Steve has ever known.
There’s no question that this Billy is a wolfblood like he is, like his family is. The question is what is he doing here? One doesn’t just set up themselves on some other pack’s territory, and the Harringtons have held the territory around Hawkins for centuries. 
By showing up here, Billy is throwing everything off balance, but Steve can’t risk doing anything about it. Not now, not like this. As much as Steve wants to step up and scare him off, this is something he’s going to have to leave to his parents to deal with.
Even as he feels the itch of Billy’s eyes on the back of his neck, Steve keeps on looking ahead.
Billy, so it seems, takes no time to settle into Hawkins. By the time lunch rolls around, he’s already settled himself pride of place between Tommy and Carol, a wolfish curl to his grin that flashes just a hint of canine. It’s so outlandishly taunting that Steve has to sit with his back to their table to avoid staring at his sheer gall.
Nancy and Jonathan are discussing the school paper when Steve decides he can’t stand this silence anymore. He tears his head around from looking over his shoulder after Billy’s eyes catch his and his smirk seems to dim.
“Where the hell did he even come from?” he asks, cutting off Jonathan’s suggestion about… actually Steve isn’t sure, something about a book of the week.
“Who?” Nancy asks and Steve jerks his head back to where Billy now keeps sending glances his way. 
He can feel the others’ gaze on him, like someone is brushing his fur the wrong way. 
“Billy,” he says, trying with great difficulty to keep his tone neutral. “Someone must have seen something. Moving vans or something. Anything.”
Jonathan just shrugs.
“Not that I heard. Seems like everyone’s interested in him now, though.”
Steve looks around again in time to see Tina and Vicki settle themselves in the seats opposite Billy and Carol, effectively severing Steve’s line of sight. He huffs and turns back around. At the very least, them blocking the way soothes that feeling of being observed.
When he meets her eye, Nancy has a concerned look on her face.
“Leave it Steve,” she warns, voice carefully neutral. “You don’t want to get caught up in any trouble again.”
He hears what she’s saying, even if she won’t just come out with it. 
I won’t put up with you if you act like an asshole again.
It rankles him. It’s not even like it’s him doing anything wrong here! He almost wants to tell her that, to point out that for once he’s not just being an asshole, but doesn’t dare. He can’t, he reminds himself.
He couldn’t tell Tommy and Carol—probably for the best given their massive fall out—and so he can’t tell these guys either. No matter what. Which means he just has to bite his tongue and mind himself. This is something he just needs to let lie and have his parents handle it.
They can reach out to Billy’s pack, he thinks. And then this will be sorted.
“And who’s that?” 
Billy’s voice is clear and quiet with consideration, cutting through all the background noise like he had whispered the words directly into Steve’s ear. He shouldn’t be able to hear it, but he can’t help himself from focusing his enhanced hearing to pick up the conversation.
“Him?” Tommy says, breaking off with a derisive laugh. “That’s ‘King Steve’, used to be top dog around here. The Harrington’s have lived here for years, one of those right old families and Steve acted like it until he got all soft and cosied up to Nancy. Well—” Tommy laughs again and Steve clenches his fist beneath the table “—until Nancy ran off after weirdo Byers, there.”
Billy hums, interested. He doesn’t say anything else, but Steve can feel the way his eyes linger on him for a long moment.
The canteen smells like the sweat of overcrowded kids as he takes in steadying breaths through his nose. Jonathan, Barb and Nancy chat on none the wiser. It takes a long moment, but Steve manages to reign in his self control and steel himself into an icy indifference.
It doesn’t matter what Tommy thinks of him. Steve’s moved on, he’s better than this now. And the new kid won’t be around for long. Wolfblood packs don’t mix; even if he’s here now, he won’t be for long. Him and his pack will be long gone by the end of the week.
---
Stick around to see what wonderful work @medusapelagia has put together for us next!! <3
53 notes · View notes
canirove · 3 months
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In The Name of Love | Chapter 20
Author's note: Sorry to everyone who got mad at Val (and me 😅) after reading the previous chapter 🫣 But you have to read this one and what is coming! This story is 35 chapters long (34+epilogue), and we still have good and cute things happening, and maybe another drama 🫣 But it will be worth it, I promise! 🤞🏻 I also struggled a lot writing this chapter and I've edited many times these past few months and even yesterday because I wasn't happy with it, so I hope it doesn't disappoint 🫣
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He is kissing me. Ferran is kissing me again, and I'm not freaking out or stopping him. I'm letting myself go, I'm…
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" a woman says after bumping against us. "Are you ok?"
"I'm… I…" I say, looking from Ferran to her and back at him. "I need to get out of here" I blurt out.
"Val, wait" he says, trying to hold my hand.
"I… I have to go" I say, taking a step back and not letting him touch me. 
"Val…"
"Please, Ferran. Let me go."
"At least tell me where you are going."
"Outside. I feel too hot and a bit dizzy, I need some fresh air."
"If you aren't feeling well I am going with you."
"No!" I say, raising my voice and making some of the people around us look at me. "I want to be alone. I need to be alone."
"Val, I'm sorry. I just… I…"
But I don't hear anything else he says. I'm already walking away, bumping into people who are dancing, pushing them while trying to find one of the doors, the music getting louder and louder, my heart beating faster and faster. I can't believe I let Ferran kiss me again. That I… that I…
"Valeria, stop!" 
"Marc?" I say when I look up at the owner of the hand that is grabbing my arm.
"I've been calling after you. What happened?"
"I need to get out of here."
"Valeria, are you ok? You look…"
"Now!"
"Ok, ok. Come with me."
"I want to be alone, Marc. Why can't you understand it?" I cry, freeing myself from his grip and starting to walk away. Though I don't know where I am going.
"Valeria, this way."
"Don't touch me!"
"I won't touch you" Marc says, lifting his hands. "But let me walk you outside."
"And then you will leave me alone" I say, wiping away my tears.
"And then I will leave you alone" he repeats. "Now come with me."
"Finally" I whisper when we make it outside, taking deep breaths as I stand in the middle of the garden. It is a chilly night and I could definitely use a jacket, but I don't care. 
"Valeria, are you going to tell me what happened?" Marc asks me.
"I thought I told you to leave me alone."
"I saw you arguing with Ferran. Is everything ok? Did he do something?"
"Marc, I want to be alone."
"I can't do that when you are like this, Valeria."
"Yes, you can!" I say, turning around to look at him. "And stop calling me Valeria!"
"But… but that is your name" he says with a confused look.
"And I don't like people calling me like that! It's Val! Val! Only my teachers and my mum call me Valeria. Them and you for whatever the reason." 
"I… I didn't know you didn't like it."
"Of course you didn't!" I say, raising my voice. "Because you knew nothing about me and still don't!"
"Valeria… I mean, Val. Calm down, please."
"I don't want to calm down!"
"You are making a scene, Valeria. And this is my wedding."
"And this is my wedding" I say, making fun of him. "It is always you, Marc. You, you, you."
"What… what are you talking about?"
"You don't care about anyone but you! We were together for a fucking decade and you never gave a shit about me!"
"Valeria…"
"It was always let's hang out with your friends from uni, let's go on holidays to the places you like, let's watch the movies you enjoy, let's move to the flat you prefer… You never asked me what I wanted to do, what I liked, what I needed, how I felt! You probably don't know my favourite colour or my favourite food" I laugh.
"Pink and… pasta?" he says.
"Pink and pasta? Are you fucking kidding me, Marc?"
"I… I don't know."
"Exactly, you don't know! Because you only care about yourself! You are a selfish prick!"
"Valeria, there is no need to insult me."
"Don't call me Valeria!" I yell. 
"I'm sorry, I…”
"I am so glad I broke up with you, Marc. So glad! Getting rid of you has been the best decision of my life, because it finally made me free! Free to be who I really am and to meet someone who truly sees me. Someone who listens to me when I'm  rambling about something I like but also when I'm feeling vulnerable, who makes me feel like I can trust him and open up to him. Someone who makes me laugh, who comforts me when I'm feeling down and gives me the push I need to keep improving and do better, to not give up, to follow my dreams. Someone who makes me feel things I thought impossible  because he has bothered to learn how a woman's body works, who cares about me in a way no one has ever done before. Someone who actually loves me for who I am."
"Someone like Ferran" Marc says.
"Ferran? I’m not talking about Ferran" I snort.
"What? Then who are you talking about?"
"I… I…" I've fucked up. The alcohol in my system has made me talk too much. Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
"She's talking about the guy she's leaving me for."
"Ferran" I gasp when I see him standing behind Marc.
"What… You… I'm lost."
"Val and I broke up this summer because she met someone else. Because she fell in love with someone else, the person she was talking about" Ferran explains.
"Then why are you here together?" Marc asks him, looking more and more confused by the second.
"Because they aren't ready to be official yet and she didn't want to come alone. Because she didn't want your wife to make fun of her and bully her like she's been doing for years."
"Isabel isn't like that."
"She is a bitch, Marc. She's always been" I say. "But you've never noticed because, again, you never gave a shit about me."
"I loved you, Valeria."
"You have no idea about how truly loving someone feels like, Marc."
"And you do?" he chuckles. "With this guy you are dating now?"
"I do."
"Then why were you kissing your ex, uh? If you love him so much, why were you kissing Ferran?"
"That’s my fault" he says. "You saw us arguing because I kissed her without her consent. Because I still have feelings for her, because I still love her, because I wish it was me the one her heart belonged to" Ferran says, his eyes fixed on me while saying all that. 
"Oh, Marc, there you are!" Isabel says, walking towards us. "What is going on? Why are you three out here? And why are you crying?"
"Oh, I'm not crying" I say, quickly wiping away a tear. "I drank more than I'm used to and… well, you know. I'm not the biggest fan of puking."
"You are disgusting, Valeria."
"Likewise" I smile.
"Marc! She just insulted me!" Isabel cries.
"And so did you, Isabel" he says.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Let's go inside."
"What? She insulted me! Aren't you going to do anything?"
"Yes, go inside. It is our wedding day, remember? Let's go" Marc says, grabbing Isabel by the arm and dragging her back into the party while she keeps protesting.
"Looks like he finally grew some balls" Ferran chuckles.
"Better late than never" I sigh. "Ferran, I…" I say after a few seconds in the most awkward silence ever. "What you said…"
"What I said is what I feel, yes. I've fallen in love with you, Val. But I didn't mean to, I promise."
"I don't think that's how falling in love works. Meaning to do it and it happening, you know?"
"Yeah, true" he says with a sad smile. "What I wanted to say is that… It just happened. When Pedri first showed me photos of you and then introduced us, I thought you were really hot, but just that. And then as I got to know you… you know" he shrugs. "But I promise you I've never wanted anything bad to happen between you and him. When I've kissed you it's been because I've lost control, because I'm weak. Not because I want to start drama and make you break up. That's never been my intention. Ever. You two love each other, and I love you both, and even if sometimes seeing you together hurts… I want you to be happy."
"We have to tell Pedri, tho. I can't lie to him, I have to tell him what happened tonight. What I.. us did."
"He… he knows."
"What?"
"Not about today's kiss, of course. But he knows about my feelings for you."
"He knows?"
"Yes."
"Since when?" I ask, raising my voice more and more with each question.
"He always suspected something was going on, and after kissing you at the school I told him everything."
"He's known since then? I can't fucking believe it!" I laugh. 
"We thought that not telling you was the best" Ferran shrugs.
"Well, you thought wrong."
"Val… Val, hey, where are you going?"
"To bed" I say as I walk away. "My head is killing me."
"Do you want me to accompany you?"
"I want to be alone."
"Val…"
"Alone, Ferran. Can't you men understand that word today or what?" 
"I'm sorry, I just… Ok. Good night" he says after I give him my most murderous look, my head literally feeling like it is about to explode. 
━━━━━━❃━━━━━━
"To your place?"
"Yes."
Those are the only words Ferran and I share during our drive back home. And before that, the few more we shared weren't the friendliest.
The moment I got back into my room after our argument I went straight to bed. I just wanted to sleep and forget about everything that had happened. About what I had done, about Pedri lying to me.  
And I managed to do it, because when I woke up, Ferran was snoring next to me and I didn't remember hearing him walk in.
After getting changed I left the room to have breakfast. Some of the other guests gave me pitiful looks, probably because they knew my footballer boyfriend and I had had an argument during my ex boyfriend's wedding. But I didn't care. I just wanted to be alone, and I managed to do it since everyone else I knew was still sleeping.
On my way back to my room I got a few more pitiful looks, but no one bothered me. 
"Val."
"Ferran" I say, closing the room's door behind me.
"I thought you had left."
"Without my things?"
"Yeah… You are right" he says, running a hand through his wet hair. He had just come out from the shower and was only wearing a towel around his hips.
"Can you please put some clothes on? I want to leave, and the sooner the better."
"Yes, of course. But I would like to eat something first if that's ok."
"Yeah, yeah. Just be quick, please. I need to get out of this place."
"I will be, I promise" he says before running into the bathroom.
Once he left to have breakfast and I was alone again, I broke down. 
I can't remember the last time I cried like that, my whole body shaking with each sob, my throat hurting that much. But I needed to let it all out. My anger, my guilt... Everything.
When Ferran came back I was a human ball laying in our bed, too tired to move or do anything else.
"Val! Val, are you ok? Val, what happened? Please talk to me! Val!" 
"I want to go home" I murmur.
"Val, you can't go anywhere like this."
"Home" I repeat.
"If they see you like this…"
"I don't give a fuck about them! I just want to go home!" I say, starting to cry again.
"Ok, fine… Let me finish packing everything and take it to the car. It will give you some time to wash your face and… you know."
"Whatever" I reply.
And now here we are. Parking in front of my place while I try not to cry again, surprised that I still have some tears left. 
"Val…" Ferran says, stopping the car. "I'm sorry."
But I ignore him. I just open the door and move to the boot to pick up my things.
"Val, are you seriously going to give me the silent treatment? Ok, fine" he chuckles when I don't reply. "I'm gonna tell Pedri about everything that has happened. So don't get mad at me if he texts you before you say something to him like the last time. And you aren't talking to me. Got it" he sighs. "Just take care, Val."
━━━━━━❃━━━━━━
"Val… He's here. Again. And he says he isn't going anywhere until you talk to him."
"Then I hope he's waiting in a comfortable chair."
"Val…" Silvia sighs, closing the door of my room and sitting in the bed next to me. "Don't be like this. You need to talk about what happened and fix things." 
"What if this can't be fixed? What if talking only makes things worse? Just look at the way I snapped at you, Silvia."
"Everything can be fixed. It won't be nice, but it can. So c'mon, Val" she says, grabbing my arm and lifting me up. "Time to make up with your boyfriend."
━━━━━━❃━━━━━━
"Hello, Val" Pedri says.
"Hi."
"Don't you want to sit down?"
"No" I say, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Is this gonna be your attitude?" he asks after a few seconds in silence.
"I don't know what you mean" I shrug.
"It's been days since the wedding, Val. Days I've spent calling you and texting you, you always ignoring me. And now that I'm here to talk in person and fix things, this is how you behave?"
"What did you expect, that I would jump into your arms as if nothing had happened?"
"No, but…"
"Pedri, I'm angry at me and with you. This is me being angry. Because in case you've forgotten, I kissed your best friend and you've been lying to me for months! Months!"
"I know."
"Do you? Really?"
"Yes, I do, Val" he says, meeting my eyes again. "But we thought it was the right thing to do. We thought that if we didn't tell you anything, it wouldn't make things awkward between the three of us and that it would be easier for Ferran to move on. We thought that if we acted normal and as if nothing wasn't happening, it would just go away. And then I…"
“Then you what?”
“I didn’t want you to know because I was afraid you would leave me.”
“What? I laugh.
“When I first told Ferran about you, he asked me if he could hit on you if things didn’t work out between us. He was just teasing me and being annoying, but after he met you in person I saw the way he looked at you and I knew… I knew he liked you.”
“And that’s why you always were so uncomfortable when he was around.”
“Yeah…” he sighs. “And then, when the accident at the Camp Nou happened and everyone thought you were dating, I got so insecure… Because everyone was saying that you looked perfect together. Fans were supporting your relationship since the beginning, something we both know won’t happen to us the day we make it official. And your mum was desperate to meet him, already planning the wedding in her head. Then he kissed you, he told me that he had fallen in love with you and I… I feared that you would see everything that people were talking about and realize that being with me wasn't worth it, that it was too much and that with him things would be easier. I thought that after the kiss, if you found out he had feelings for you, you would realize he was better than me and break up with me to be with him.”
“So you didn’t tell me because you were insecure about my feelings for you? Really, Pedro?”
“Yes” he sighs again. “I know it is stupid, but… I don’t know. I thought it was the right thing to do.”
"Well, you thought wrong, because it only made things worse. If you had told me about how you felt since the beginning, the three of us could have talked about it and avoided going through all this mess. But you didn’t, and that only made Ferran fall harder for me, making him find the guts to kiss me. And then, when I noticed that something was different with him, it made things awkward between us because I didn't know how to behave around him, hurting our friendship. And all that led us to him kissing me again, to me letting him do it and kissing him back. I kissed him, Pedri."
"Yes, you did. But I know it meant nothing to you, that you were drunk and instantly regretted it."
"But it still happened!" I say, not being able to contain my tears anymore. "Didn't it bother you? Like, at all? You just told me you felt insecure because of him!”
“When Ferran told me I did get angry and we argued, but I'm not insecure anymore. Because I know that you love me, Val. That you want to be with me and have no feelings for him, that the kiss was just a mistake.”
“A mistake, yes. One I can't forgive myself for. One that makes me be angry at myself for doing it and at you for not telling me about Ferran's feelings. A mistake that is hurting him, and us, and everything is wrong, and a mess and…"
"Val, hey…"
"No! Don't touch me!" I say, taking a step back when he tries to hug me. 
"Val…"
"I… I need time."
"What?"
"I need time, Pedri. Time to let go of this anger and forgive myself and you too."
"Are you… Are you breaking up with me?"
"I just need time."
"You didn't answer me, Val."
"I… No, I'm not breaking up with you. I love you. And because I do, I need to fix this. But on my own."
"Ok" he whispers.
"Pedri, listen" I say, closing the space between us and cupping his face to make him look at me, his sad eyes breaking my heart. "I love you."
"I love you too. I do, Val. And I'm sorry I fucked up, I just… I didn't want to lose you. I don't want to lose you."
"And you won't" I say, wiping away a tear from his cheek. "But right now we need some time on our own to focus on ourselves. Both of us. You are about to start the new season and I the new year at the school. That's what matters now. And when we are ready, we will see each other again."
"I hope so."
"We will, Pedri. I promise you."
"I love you, Val" he whispers, resting his forehead on mine.
"I love you too" I whisper back, hoping this is the right choice and that I am not making the biggest mistake of my life.
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moonlightdancer26 · 8 months
Note
"People only like Snape bc movies" I actually don't like the movies very much. They sanitize so much of the series.
I was that kid who took the books to point out how inaccurate the movies are. And while I've toned down things, I still don't care much for them. I watched them like, 20 times?
But the books-I was always reading the books. Since I was 8 or so. I brought them when I moved and they were the only thing to do besides TV. In the other time I moved I read the books. I was obsessed.
Snape's just interesting. And it's possible to like a character even though/because they did bad things. I like him because he shows trauma symptoms (please can I burn the trope of having characters go through traumatic things and then not reacting to it?). And I like him because his story is probably the only well done example of 'sometimes the good guys have bad traits and do bad and sometimes the bad guys have good traits'
And before anyone gets up on me-I love the Marauders too! Sirius is an interesting character. James (at least in fanfic) is funny. Remus is my favorite of them all.
And Snape was a lousy teacher. He had racist ideologies in the past. He's not a nice person. Don't make the accusation against me that I don't know my fave's flaws.
On a different note, it may be worth noting that Snape's Worst Memory was pretty much cut-just a few seconds, and no one's identity was shown. If it weren't for the books I doubt anyone would know that was the Marauders, and not just some random students.
I could make the same argument about Marauder fans. Wonder if people would've liked Sirius and Remus and James if SWM had been shown? I could make a whole list of things the Marauders did that wasn't shown in the movies. But it would be unfair to say that people only like the Marauders because of the movies. My Marauders-stan bestie certainly doesn't like the Marauders only because of the movies. And neither do you Moon.
Also: I don't get it. If you all want (mostly) unflawed blorbos the Golden Trio and the Silver Trio are right there. Babies, all of them. And Harry's other darling classmates too. Cho and the Patils.
Hundreds of languages out there and you decide to speak facts, anon.
Honestly that claim is so flawed for many reasons.
Literally every single character (except my beautiful bbygirl Ronald Bilius Weasley whose character was completely destroyed in the films and deserved sm better) in the movies was very simplified and at least a little bit whitewashed compared to their book counterpart. Even Umbridge was better in the movies than she was in the books, of course we can’t expect the filmmakers to shoehorn every single detail of Snape’s character in the films.
Be that as it may, a majority of Snape’s heroic actions were ALSO cut from the films. Did the films mention when Snape took the time to brew Wolfsbane potion perfectly each month for a man he didn’t even like? Did the films mention when Snape prepared the mandrake draught potion that cured three Petrified muggleborn students? Did the films mention when Snape revealed his dark mark in front of the Minister of Magic when he began questioning Dumbledore? Did the films mention when Snape went back to Voldemort in GoF and continued spying for Dumbledore? Did the films mention when Snape yelled at a portrait for referring to Hermione as a Mudblood? Did the films mention when Snape straight up saved Remus’s life in DH? Did the films mention when Snape rushed to the fifth floor in his pyjamas when he heard (the egg) screaming? Did the films mention when baby!Snape introduced Lily to the Wizarding World and told her everything she needed to know (including the Dementors; something Harry learned about when he was already a teenager)? Snape’s whole character in the movies (aka the one that stripped 80% of his personality) was done dirty. They didn’t manage to bring up some of his most heroic/genuine moments in the series, so antis better quit complaining about Snape “being whitewashed!!!!!!” in the movies, especially not when they’re Marauder stans as well (legit 89% of the bad things they did were barely even brushed upon).
Hearing people say “people who like Snape only watched the movies” is extremely amusing, especially when one remembers that… they’re talking about… one of the most best-selling book series in the entire world.
Book!Snape is far more diverse and complex than Movie!Snape can even dream to be. We see how his trauma affected him, how he grew as a person throughout the years, his relatively detailed backstory, his realistic bitterness regarding the son of the man he hated and the woman he loved, etc. Saying we can’t possibly appreciate his character is ludicrous, liking a fictional character doesn’t mean you believe they’re a flawless angel or even that you believe they’re a good person. People are able to enjoy problematic characters for what they are. Alan Rickman definitely did his best with what he was given, and movie!Snape was 100% iconic in his own dry way, but the filmmakers still did his character dirty.
My Marauders-stan bestie certainly doesn't like the Marauders only because of the movies. And neither do you Moon.
You’re right, anon. The reason I even like the Marauders (except Jimmy Jimmy coco puff) is because of how deep and complicated their characters are — as adults, we realise just how flawed and grey they are and that they aren’t as wonderful as how Harry views them.
Anyway, I decided to rant a little for you guys because I’ve been starving you for a while. Enjoy. <3
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steppingonyourshadow · 3 months
Text
Selected excerpts from GQ February 2024
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His is a face that's constantly under a microscope. A few months ago, his studio posted a series of photos for his birthday. Sharp-eyed netizens noted immediately that his face had "become rounder". In order to play Guo Jing of Tsui Hark's Legend of Condor Heroes, Xiao Zhan put on weight before filming began. His face was no longer so narrow, and he had obviously bulked up. The photos showed him with a scattering of stubble, a little rough.
Strictly speaking, Legend of Condor Heroes is Xiao Zhan's second movie. There have already been many iconic portrayals of Guo Jing, so the pressure was obviously on.
The day of the GQ cover shoot, Xiao Zhan got up early to go for a run. He couldn't help but worry that he'd lose muscle mass from sweating so much, and hesitated over whether to continue. Finally he decided to do a full 30 minutes. After that, it occurred to him that he wouldn't start burning fat until 30 minutes in, so he did another 10.
It's all for the sake of the job. "Actually, I'd rather not be running - it decreases muscle mass. But I have to, to get rid of bloating." After the shoot, no matter how late it got, he plans to go do more weight training. The discipline of an actor is the constant process of creating their character's look, all the while strictly controlling their diet and maintaining their figure. Xiao Zhan sees both as standard and imposes this standard on himself.
I was curious how he felt having been under constant scrutiny these past few years. I wasn't expecting him to say that it was barely on his mind most of the time, and hadn't brought much disruption to his life either, that the "cruelest" thing was "not being able to eat whatever I want".
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"I still sneak out for a bike ride, or a walk. I've been spotted just the once, within five minutes of walking around a Hutong. I've also snuck into cinemas to watch movies, no one cares that you're there, really. Once you're away from the internet, a lot of problems just solve themselves. Sometimes we think what's in front of us is the whole world, that's a mistake, but one that can't be avoided. Nothing to be done about it."
There are lots of things he wants to do, like ride the subway, go shopping. "I really will use the subway, maybe tomorrow, nothing extraordinary about that. I used to do it every day."
For Xiao Zhan, this is real life. He's no longer bothered by social media comments.
"If I still let it get to me after all this time, what kind of life would I live?" He laughs. "Really, it's fine."
Right now, Xiao Zhan is very satisfied with his life. "I have my work, my own life, and an audience that appreciates me. Nothing to be dissatisfied about."
To an extent, Xiao Zhan's relaxed state stems from increasing clarity about his goals. Outside voices no longer bother him, he knows what he wants and what he doesn't want. Right now, more and more he's trying to simplify. In the past two years, he hasn't done much variety, choosing to focus on acting as his most important goal.
Three shows in which Xiao Zhan played the main character aired in 2023. Each character was a challenge in different ways. During the interview, Xiao Zhan said "it was a lot of pressure" many times, in relation to each of these stages, but his tone was always light, nothing of the heaviness of someone bemoaning difficulties, and more like an analytical mindset after the event, with concrete and objective reasoning: this show was the first time he did green screen, that one was his first solo lead role, first contemporary drama...
Where Dreams Begin was a script Xiao Zhan loved. He really likes stories from that era. When he was a kid he watched Bloom of Youth and Happiness As Flowers. In his mind the 70s and 80s shine brightly, in vivid colour.
Many say that the character of Xiao Chunsheng is perfect, but Xiao Zhan saw this as his greatest flaw. He found the character very interesting and wanted to give it a go. Xiao Chunsheng is a Beijing kid. How to convey his demeanor and speak in authentic Beijing dialect was no small challenge to Xiao Zhan who grew up in Chongqing.
The Longest Promise's Shi Ying is cold and aloof. Because he didn't want to disappoint everyone who had high expectations of his guzhuang look, Xiao Zhan pushed himself above and beyond to lose weight before filming began. "The Longest Promise was a script I got in 2020. Among the ones I had to choose from, it was the one with the most well-rounded characters, and the most nuanced relationships. Plus, it had a strong sense of internal logic and coherence. So it was my best choice."
Sunshine By My Side is the one Xiao Zhan had been considering the longest. He was given the script in 2019. Sheng Yang may be in the same line of work Xiao Zhan had been doing before debuting, but he wasn't certain he could recreate the life of a designer for the screen in a natural, believable way.
Recently, Xiao Zhan found an old book at home - Danshari [book about decluttering and optimization of the home by Hideko Yamashita]. It had been recommended to him by his boss when he was a designer. What the book said about organising one's life made him rethink what he wanted, and what he ought to leave behind.
"Contemporary and slice of life dramas were a totally foreign territory for me." At the start he was to eager to finish his lines, having them memorised back to front. But no one in real life speaks like that. Later, he realised that there was a particular logic in where to pause and where to place the emphasis in a line in a contemporary drama.
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For example, when he decided to be an actor, and that he didn't want to do anything else other than acting. "If you try and force me, then let's have the debate. There's no such thing as right and wrong, my people are only looking out for me, isn't it positive to have so much work? But for me, I need to simplify my life. Because there are some things I definitely don't want."
Xiao Zhan's acting career began with an "ordinary overage guy pursues his dream into the entertainment industry" story. He went into a survival show at the age of 24, learned to dance as a total novice, debuted in a boy group, acted in internet dramas, played bit parts in movies, until he hit it big in 2019 and became an attention-grabbing star.
If you choose to do something, then give it your best. That's what Xiao Zhan was taught from a young age. When he was in junior high, his parents bought him a cellphone. Initially when he sent text messages he'd use spaces in place of punctuation. But his father said to him very severely, "where's the punctuation, why isn't there a question mark at the end of your sentence?" So now Xiao Zhan always pays attention to punctuation.
Xiao Zhan has had a competitive spirit since he was a child. So long as it's something he can control, he'd rather not miss a single opportunity. He used to take the bus to school and get anxious on behalf of the people who fell asleep and missed their stops. For the things he can't control, he'd remind himself not to get too caught up and learn to accept the outcome. And before that, do everything he can the best he can.
When asked which of his projects had come about following a lot of effort on his part to land it, Xiao Zhan's response is surprising. He says, "all of them". Before he made it big, he auditioned a lot. Once he'd passed the interview stage, gotten into the final round, even did trial shots with full makeup, and was still replaced. Now of course people pass him scripts, but Xiao Zhan always tells himself, that's just an expression of interest which can be given to many people at once. If he encounters a script he really likes, he'll set up a meeting with the director and talk to them about his understanding of the character. He feels it's important to display the right attitude.
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Xiao Zhan grew up just like any other 90s kid - his parents worked, his grandma did all the cooking, he went to school every day, came home, and if he did poorly in an exam he'd get a beating. They ate dinner at 6:30 every night, and then his friends would call for him to come down and play Hide and Seek, Red Light, Green Light, or Hopscotch.
His face shines when he speaks of this time. These ordinary little things all seem rare and precious now. Xiao Zhan says he's grateful for those first 23 years before his dream-like brave foray into the entertainment industry. "I really value those times, I think it was great."
He thinks that if he hadn't entered the industry, he'd probably be living like his classmates and friends, taking clients out for dinner only to come home and do more overtime to finish his design work overnight, day after day.
"Being seen" makes him happy. No matter how busy he gets, Xiao Zhan never complains. "If there's work to be done, then do it properly." While filming The Oath of Love he was also recording the variety show Our Song. Whenever he had a moment between scenes, he'd put on headphones and sing along softly. When his costars came over out of curiosity, he'd give a sheepish grin and explain that he was practicing the song he had to sing that night. "There's no time, really none." Back then, work took up pretty much his entire life.
Xiao Zhan will almost never give himself a holiday. "Unrealistic," he says firmly. When he's exhausted enough, he can fall asleep sitting upright on set.
This year, Xiao Zhan felt a sense of urgency stemming from "not enough works". "Compared to some of my seniors, when they were in their thirties they already had many credits." He clearly understands that a huge breakthrough in his acting skills from just a single piece of work is unlikely. "That probably won't happen for me."
He's considered whether he wants to be an actor with a unique individual style or a crowd-pleaser. His answer is the latter. "They might not be fans of yours, or even feel very positive toward you, but when they know you have a show on, they think, maybe I should check it out, his shows are all pretty good. That's what I want, that's my current goal. Whether I can reach the level of the actors I admire, that's a long road, I'm going to take my time."
"Make more shows, work with more good people, that's the current goal. I'm not thinking about the rest right now," Xiao Zhan says.
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[I'll translate and post the Q&A segment later.]
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miru667 · 1 month
Note
How do you manage to stay in a fandom for so long? I'm always mario jumping from fandom to fandom every 3-6 months
Oh, so many reasons. I think I've answered this before but in a much more concise way so idk what happened here when I tried to answer again from scratch but uhhh I wrote a lot lol?? Long ramble time. 😂
I found this fandom at a point in my life when I really emotionally needed it, so I got really attached to it. I stayed because of the friends I've made in it and because of the OCs I got invested in, both mine and other people's, and every so often something invigorated my interest like a new roleplay I got to join or new concept art that got discovered.
I'm also just a really dedicated person (for better or worse) and I still have ideas that I want to get out there creatively. I don't get a lot of free time, and I rarely have energy for hobbies after work so my time passes slowly in the sense that I may still be in the middle of appreciating a thing, meanwhile everyone else has already sped through and processed it and moved on.
So I've gotta be really careful about choosing what to spend my limited time and energy on. It sometimes takes me a whole month to draw a piece of art that I'm proud of. It would be a huge waste of my time to spend so much energy on a fandom that after 3 months I think I might not care about anymore.
And like, if it's going to take me a month to draw 1 thing, what am I going to choose? Fanart of a character from a show that I just finished that I might possibly move on from in 3 months? Or art of my darling Audrey OC that I've been developing for years and whom I know will always bring me joy for the rest of my life? It's not a hard choice! Like I'm sure it's obvious by now but I really love my oc. It's gotten to the point that I look for her in every media I consume. I like characters because they remind me of her, and I like plots because they remind me of her. When I watch a movie and end up loving it, I'm not going to be drawing fanart for that movie, I'm more likely going to be drawing Audrey Grace in some way that's consciously or subconsciously inspired by that movie. I'm sure other people with beloved ocs can relate to that, too.
Back to media consumption: I'm constantly watching new things, shows, movies, letsplays, and I'm able to love them just fine, but I never participate in their fandoms (unless you count reblogging fanart as participation. I personally don't). I just don't feel motivated to and I feel like it's unnecessary. I shouldn't need to prove anything. You can appreciate media without engaging in fandom. In fact, I encourage it, because a lot of what I see in fandoms these days is just stressful, at least to me. And I don't want that stress. I'm much happier as a person when I don't have to read other people's opinions, discourse and drama over some show's themes or ships or whatever. I can just quietly revel in my own enjoyment of the show without being tainted by anything else, and my love for it is not any less valid than the person who's livetweeting their loud emotions while watching the same show and putting out fanart 1 hour after every episode. Bless them, though.
And I guess that's mostly what I do these days with the Onceler fandom, too. Appreciating it more quietly these days, I mean. It's just that...I have a fandom related oc so I draw her. And I have friends here so we do stuff together and we reference fandom inside jokes no matter what activity we're doing. If I encounter art that deeply moves me personally, I reblog it, just like I reblog art for other media on my sideblog. When anyone has a fandom history related question, I'm eager to answer because I don't want the past to be misrepresented or misunderstood. And also, since it's been over a decade, this fandom has long ago become my daily normal. I can do whatever I like but I can't really "leave" this fandom unless I delete all my social media and cut off all my online friends. And delete my memories of the past 12 years of my life as well. Just become a completely different person.
So I guess I can reverse the sentiment: I can't relate to people who hop fandoms every 3 to 6 months. 😭 All the power to you, but that's just not the way I happen to live my life, nor the way I engage with the media I consume! The Once-ler fandom was the one exception. It was special.
But who knows, anything can happen in the future. I'm not so proud that I'm purposely blocking myself from looking at other fandoms or anything. I just go with the flow! Right now I'm slowly making my way through jjba, an omori playthrough, a Plague Tale playthrough, and urusei yatsura season 2 (the new anime). Probably nothing will come out of any it except for a bunch of Audrey inspos, but again, who knows. XD I'm also going to an idkhow concert soon, and I've bought merch from their store already. Does that count as participating in a fandom? Maybe not. But now that I think of it, even if I "join" another fandom, it doesn't necessarily mean I'd leave the onceler fandom either, so maybe it wouldn't matter haha.
Thank you for the ask and thank you to anyone who's read my entire answer!
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cosmicdream222 · 2 months
Note
hiii i hope you are doing well (^_^) so here are some things i manifested this week !!
- my package arriving in my ideal time, i was rushing to go to school and my dorm doesn’t accept packages so i wanted it to arrive before i left and it was INSTANT i visualized for a few secs and then was gonna continue getting ready but a got a call saying my package arrived
-seeing angel numbers, this was just for fun but so easy and instant again
-money. so i was running out of money and was about to get worried but then i just told myself “oh i never struggle with money i always have more than enough” yesterday and went on with my day and today my dad called me to tell that he received money from work randomly
and some more daily things that i forgot now but i recommend everyone here to work on their self concept. it’s been 10 months since i’ve discovered loa and i got the most results this past week as i’ve started to work on my self concept and been thinking how i wish i started doing it immediately. but it doesn’t matter bc what’s important is to start :) and do not be intimidated by it, i was scared that i would struggle with improving my self concept as i used to be bad at it but no, it was wayyyy easier. anytime you feel worried remind yourself in whatever way makes you feel good and let go. you really do not have to constantly flip every thought or affirm. what works the best for me is to focus on making yourself feel good, if you wanna watch a movie or go to mcdonalds then do it, chase you happiness, it will make you feel good and i think works better than to stay at home and meditating for hours, putting what you wanna do on hold. (not to say meditation doesn’t work or isn’t beneficial, it’s just do not force yourself to “manifest” anything, remind yourself that you can and will manifest that “desire” anywhere anytime so you do not have to put your happiness on hold, and you know what? you already manifested it, remind and comfort yourself knowing that this will change and you are certainly going to live your dream life, be excited about it, or even plan what you are going to do)
-🍒
Yass I love this and I'm so happy for you! Self concept really helps everything! And I definitely agree to focus on what makes you feel good and just have fun and enjoy life as much as you can. Even if your current circumstances aren't ideal, there's always some little things you can do to feel better. Lately I've just been enjoying sitting out in the sunshine and doing nothing for a few minutes every day ☀️
Thanks for sharing your successes and here's to many more 💕
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braceletofteeth · 25 days
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Hello!!
I just wanted to know how are you, and let you know you've been missed, and I know it hasn't been a month since we last saw you here, but I miss see you in my dash.
Hope you are okay and super busy with great shows
Alright, I might have teared up a little reading this...
Thank you for caring about my well-being, Bask. I too hope you're doing okay, and I miss being here with you just as much :(
Well, let me update you then: this past month I've been studying very hard for an exam that I'll be taking this sunday (April 7th; I said I'd be away for only a month, but that was just to use a round number—I'm not off the hook yet 😅). My score on the exam will determine if I get the job position I'm trying for (to teach english in a small village).
There is no name for what I'm doing in english, because a "public contest" is not a thing in the US (nor the UK, I think?), but since we're from the same country you might know what I'm talking about. I'll battle against 29 other warriors to the death, and if I win, I'll have to move away from home/my family and live alone in a place I've never been before, doing a job I have very little experience at. So, it's been a little stressful. I couldn't even fall asleep unless I was completely worn out for two weeks straight, because I had to learn many things in very little time, and I felt like I was going mad 🤪 (the things we do to survive in a capitalist society...)
There hasn't been much free time to watch any new shows, unfortunately :( But I'm still watching The Devil Judge with my brother (we've watched half of it already), and every now and then I watch a movie (some of them are even good!), so there is that. There is not much else I can do to prepare myself at this point, so I'm not stressing too much about time anymore.
I don't know if I'll do well on the exam, but I know that no matter what happens, I'll definitely be back and active again starting next week, and we won't have to miss each other any longer than that! :')
See you then, beloved! <3
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docilepillow · 2 months
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2024 February Media Post Thingy : Featuring Movies Also
I've never really liked doing editing " do-overs". i think if this was like a normal year with no leaping ( As of starting this post a couple of minutes ago ( 4:51 PM ) , i only just learned that this year was a leap year? Just goes to show how little i pay attention..! But yea, on topic, on topic, i don't look back to edit these kind of thought pieces after i write them, it'd feel odd to do so, ,and january's post was a mile and a half to write , so, after finishing the Big Thing for this year, i'm starting the writing on this on the 28th so i dont have to finish it all in one sitting this time. I'm not sure when i'll drop or pick up on it, and its not like, done Live with the month, so the actual timeline of things won't be completely perfectly accurate, but anyways : the things covered here are in rough sequencial order, mostly focused around New Media i've tried this month, with an added blurb about anything ive revisited this year at the very end. I'll try to add a blurb about everything, but no guarentees. Also, i said i'd have more screenshots to share, but i forgot again. A significant number of games here were also on 3ds which i have no good way to get screenshots for. planning is hard This month was heavily characterized by the absolutely wonderful time i had for my birthday and the days surrounding it, because wow, am i in love with my boyfriend! after many, many months spent long distance, i'm extremely glad to say that the first few days of this month were absolutely heavenly, and i do absolutely "get" all the lovey dovey emotional stuff that surrounds it. While he was over, we got to watch a whole bunch of different movies and such, and most of the video game focus was directed towards one big game, being God Of War Ragnarok, which is an absolute behemoth of a triple a game and also one aattached to the very sentimental god of war that i've also shared with him in the past ( they're some of his favorite games of all time, and he's especially knowledge on Norse stuff, so it's cute to listen to him ramble about it whenever actual mythology stuff comes up. Its absolutely adorable the way his voice lights up..! ) So, you'd expect the first piece of media i got through this month would be God of War Ragnarok, after all the time i've spent hyping it up already, while it's still fresh in my mind as of typing, And i'm on a massive, sentimental tangent on it, But...! TRUMP VS ILLUMINATI < Least Romantic Movie I've Personally Made Out With Someone Over >
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theres not all that much to say on this movie as the title'd show, actually, and, obviously, the movie's a complete joke, through and through ( the titular protagonist isn't even the real deal, he's just a clone of the guy who lives on mars for whatever reason as the last human alive (?) ); and it's so ameturishly put together that i'm almost certain the entire scripting process of it was put together by looking at the title of the movie and quipping in a discord call brainstorming for a couple of hours, but it's absolutely great for virgining couples beccause you'll want to watch the movie for a bit, a bit that's been going on for i want to say little over three quarters of a year, but then, when you actually get to watching, it, you'lll both decide unilaterally to make out sloppy style instead of watching the movie, wow!
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by the way, most of the movie is just weird little stock models talking at each other for what i rememeber being 50 or so minutes. i dont tihnk this is a good movie buut i thought itd be funny to bring up because in a shirtless daze after watching it i had the mortifying realization that this shitty movie was gonna be on the top of my media diary if i chose to go through with it . so here it is ! ! ! CATS & DOGS < tulpa movie >
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idk what to blurb about this movie i think its entertainment value comes from the varied" WHAT DOES THIS IMPLYYY " moments in the movie and how like
excessively silly it is im not sure if it was this movie in particular but i have a very specific anecdote of this movie as a child before my parents divorce where i was actually Forced to watch it for some reason with my dad and with an anecdote like that the only thing i can think to say about it is that i think i actually enjoyed it more then Wonka theres some puppetry with the cat villain in this movie thats actually pretty endearing actually. its a decently entertaining spy movie. DOCTOR STRANGE
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not having a title for this one isnt like reverence or anything i still watched this with my boyfriend in our little place and it was very enjoyable, and, in particualr, this was actually the first movie i watched of this list that i actually wanted to seek out to watch, actually! i've never been an mcu guy ( And, if you expect my movie reviews to professionalize, with like, research on the actors anything, you're dead wrong, i think , also. i think when it comes to assosiating characters with their actors or whatever celebrity or director or whatever, i just. .dont do that. i can see why normal people do but i dont have that built into me. so if i refer to a character it'll be for their character. ) i think this is a good movie i think this is a neat movie i think this a very pretty movie and i like mister stranges arch alot and i think it was really well characterized and enjoyable and id watch this movie again sometime maybe. im not a live action head but i think this movie just looks cool and is well presented in general. i think as an asshole mister strange is very watchable which is unusal for me cus i wince whenever characters do a thing thats like regrettable like noooo dont do that like an autistic weirdo but that wasnt really a problem with me for this movie i think its cool how this prick gets grounded by the fantastical shit in the movie and i think his little mini arch over the movie really stands out as a good character piece. thats all i have to say about it as someone who doesnt super hero movie this movie movies really good and stands on its own. i think its cool. i think this is a very enjoyable movie. i think people should watch it if theyre on the fence on it beingg mcu bc i dont think its like thoose other movies at all. im repeating myself. w/e Alot of early febuaary is characterized by movies bc i want to make it clear that the main game i played in that arch of time was God of War, and there were very much Not Media things that were more pressing for my time. lol VIDEO GAMES!!!! VIDEOVERSE < Most Heartwarming Eboy Game >
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the docism i picked for this game sounds demeaning but thhis game is absolutely worth i think everyones time and if theres a game from febuary i'd make as a general reccomendation to my friends, it'd be this one, i think! it's an absolutely heartwarming narrative about an early 2000s era internet community that's being shut down, and its very resonant to at least Me, as a wii u / 3ds era fan
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though it kinda melds that kinda stuff with a more early internet aestetic , which i think the combo works Really Well in terms of like vibe alone. the game is very naked with how it presents an early internet community and id describe it as being like hypnospace outlaw but without you the player being in the seat of like an internet moderator. Like you can moderate in the game a little bit but it's much less of a focus compared to the being in a game community with your friend aspect
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this games a very well executed narrative about this emmet guy ( in the image above this one, he's on the far left of the screen ) and playing it as the first non GOW game of the week was definitely a choice i made that made me kinda sappy and clingy ( since its very much about the internet anxiety of losing a bunch of friends you care about due to dumb internet social media crap, which feels pretty well timed with this whole tumblr drama going on. also, as someone in a long distance relationship, the romance thing in this game also is pretty relatable in parts )
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idk! its a very short game. i played it on deck and it was a very short but sweet pair of game sessions. i think if u like what you see here i reccomend giving it a shot if you're looking for a visual novel . ithink it is cute. if you like cute things this game is for Cute PRINCESS REMEDY IN A WORLD OF HURT < cute em' up where nobody has to die ! >
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i actually falsely appraised this as gameboy color style when its supposed to be dos evokative. i knew i was missing something.
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this is a free top down shmup game from steam about a cute healer girl! the game has really cute writing and is about an hour long. i think the writing makes it worth giving a try if you have an afternoon! the final boss is litearlly a guy with Every Disease that also has a refrence to ff6, so me being charmed by this game was kind of a given. Oops! I think more people should look at this game! it's worth it !
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also, since everyone in the world of hurt has some kind of injury for you to remedy, some of the ones that get picked out are pretty amusing, also. its usually structured around " heres the problem with me " dialogue and " thank goodness im better " dialogue. this game is also for the gays because u can marry whoever you want after the credits. Yay! SUPER MONKEY BALL 3D < worst game icon ive ever seen for a video game award >
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the games just kind of mediocre and the only reason i downloaded it is bc it was on 3ds and i just want to point out the games icon is Just a low resolution picture of ai ais face on a white bg. i think thats funny but the games so easy that thats pretty much the only novelty you'll extract of it if youre a monkey ball fan. oops .
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something like this ive spent longer trying to find this games home menu icon then thinking about the game after playing it sorry i dodnt think this game is worth that just kind of sad
MEGAMAN XTREME
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no reverence for this either pretty much all the games thatre gonna be talked about thatre on 3ds were just me looking through hshop slightly interested in something to do while waiting for my bf to wake up for more gow
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all i can really say is that this game is a gameboy demake of the x games thats just slightly worse and going in with that expectation is correct but also its just Really annoying sometimes is very much a game where the levels are short and easy and the boss fights are kind of choppily designed and difficult and i think finishing this game was kind of more of an act of stubbornness then anything. theres this one boss second to last from sigma thats just killing this boss that spams 4 nearly undodgable spammy fast projectiles while you're on two tiny platforms over death spikes and i think that kind of speaks for how much id reccomend this ( not at all ) i think this is the angriest ive been at a game in a bit actually remembering it . i think i said a funny misnomer about it but i dont remember. something about this contributing to why mega man fucking died or something. im realizing i didnt actually consume alot of good media this month took a break writing this on leap day and umm FIRE EMBLEM WARRIORS ( The 3ds version ) < POPCORN VIDEO GAME >
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as someone whose never played a dynasty warriors type game this was actually a little less boring then i was expecting it ? you'd assume picking the switch or wii u version would be more ideal, but, as someone whose favorite console is the 3ds , and considering it'd take less time to download to my system, i ended up picking this version. it actually runs pretty well and my only real complaint is that the character i wanted to play as is thuroughly stuck into the post game ( Celica from FE echoes ).
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functionally this is kind of just a game that exists to be a stim device while you're in like a voice call or something but at that its pretty good from what ive played. used minerva for most of it and it wasnt too hard but not especially annoying either. its okay. i never got to unlock celica though ( bummed out ) and its not bad at all for somemthing i pretty much only played to pass the time between when my BF was awake to watch me play god of war, which it succeeded at. ive played every FE naturally available on the 3ds. TOM AND JERRY WILL WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
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huh what happened howd this happen
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guh MARIO MAKER 3DS
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game i actually owned legitimately that i forgot i did. technically since the games are going down in a month from now this is my way on reminicing on Maker in general , but i mostly just reflected back on itt as a cute wii u memory and that cute packet that comes boxed with the game. the 100 or so challenge levels in this are neat but not Especially special. kind of existed to pad out the games i've tried and finished this year so far to an even 15. its not bad or anything, it did remind me of a few interactions i didnt know about before. maybe sometime before maker 2 goes down ill finish making that super world i started on when the game was new... putting all my thoughts togetherrrrr GOD OF WAR RAGNAROK
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Igod of war ragnarok is pretty cool. for context, im pretty sure the first game of the i wanna say ps4 " duo " of norse GOW games are the two video games that both started me on my ps4 journey recently and got me and my boyfriend together? which i think is very sweet its also very unexpected cus other then being a soft mythology nut i dont see how id get into these kinds of games naturally, considering i'm less genre savvy when it comes to i guess " modern-style " story focused 3d adventures. Considering i'm a nintendo head, these could count as some of the only super duper gamerhead games i've ever played? though i don't know if it means anything when i say that . i think this game definitely needs the groundwork of the first gow to stand up, but, thats not a bad thing, its a very well thought out start to end NARRATIVE, and its a really good one at that. lots of well thought out character interactions and setpieces,a friend of mine described it as a universal ride-style game , and , in terms of linearity, it kind of IS that, but in like the most postive way i can think of in terms of the kinds of games i play , this is probably the drop-dead most prettiest game i've ever looked at from start to finish ( When it comes to detail and realism, i mean. .i think its very pretty to just look at the environments n stuff ) god of war ragnarok is pretty cool. for context, im pretty sure the first game of the i wanna say ps4 " duo " of norse GOW games are the two video games that both started me on my ps4 journey recently and got me and my boyfriend together? which i think is very sweet its also very unexpected cus other then being a soft mythology nut i dont see how id get into these kinds of games naturally, considering i'm less genre savvy when it comes to i guess " modern-style " story focused 3d adventures. Considering i'm a nintendo head, these could count as some of the only super duper gamerhead games i've ever played? though i don't know if it means anything when i say that . i think this game definitely needs the groundwork of the first gow to stand up, but, thats not a bad thing, its a very well thought out start to end NARRATIVE, and its a really good one at that. lots of well thought out character interactions and setpieces,a friend of mine described it as a universal ride-style game , and , in terms of linearity, it kind of IS that, but in like the most postive way i can think of in terms of the kinds of games i play , this is probably the drop-dead most prettiest game i've ever looked at from start to finish ( When it comes to detail and realism, i mean. .i think its very pretty to just look at the environments n stuff ) ( I have screenshots of the game on my ps4, but as i'm a day late to uploading this in the first place, i'm too lazy to both fetch them with my capture card and upload them to an image sharing site, so here's a picture of Jalla, a cute cow critter you get to ride in the game thaat made me very happy . )
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I've heard of games that take up entire segments of people's lives for months , and while i've played lots of " longer " games, gow despite being shorter then something like SMT 4 is definitely one of the first games i've played thats been defined like that to me. i dont wanna say too much on the plot because i think these games are worth playing back to back on their own merits, though for me the experience definitely was raised above by , you know, sharing it with the love of my life, haha. its very cute to listen to someone visibly light up when talking about a game and its definitely my boyfriends infectiousness for the game that motivated me to keep coming back to it and dig for all the little details, even if i play 3d games like this like a game's journalist.... but yea god of war is really good i dont want to spoil anything on it but even if you haavent played the past games but have a ps4 and an appreciation for storytelling, i'd definitely reccomend it. Surprisingly cozy, heartfelt story on parenting and war and lingering regret n junk. also i like mimir alot hes silly and brok theres alot of characters in this i like alot
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if you know you know TERMINATOR 2
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oh yea i watched terminator 2 also very gripping very cool top moms in media for sure i can see why this is a classic movie it abosluely rocks and i was technically present for the voice call where they watched the first movie but i wasnt paying attention to it at all whoops thats technically the last of the new media i did but i also tried out a pokemon X nuzlocke and i replayed king of cards which was really fun and i remembered how much i liked madam meeber
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the nuzlocke was a disaster but i actually did do it so winner
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im sure there was other stuff too but im tired of typing and i forgot CLICKING SEND!!!!!
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sparklermun · 5 months
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Well everyone, here we are at the end of another Pin Post Month! My goodness has it been fun to reminisce and talk about these pins. So many of which had interesting backgrounds and origins that I personally got to learn a little more about when writing their post.
Sadly though things must come to an end, and with the end of November we also see the event begin to wrap up with this final post as well. This Pin Post Month has probably been one of the most difficult ones for me so far, simply because of my new work and living situation. Though I'm glad to see that these posts were still enjoyed by pin and Wreck-it Ralph fans despite the change in things. Throughout the month there were many moments of excitement and wonder while doing research for some of these pins. Such as the Harmony in Color pin from last night which lead me to watching videos of the parade and learning about its history.
Of course there will be more pins like that as there are plenty more to share! This year has been a good one for WIR pin collectors, and I've already started pulling together the skeleton for what will be next years tenth annual Pin Post Month! It's both exciting and strange just thinking about how I'll soon have managed to host this event for a full ten years. Of course though this wouldn't have been possible without the WIR community that was so welcoming to me all those years ago, as well as those who have followed this event all this time. Each night your comments and tags brought such a smile to my face, they were literally one of the highlights of my days! Making me consider aspects about each pin I hadn't considered, while also pointing out details I either misses or hadn't had the room in the post to point out myself. It brings me so much delight in seeing other people share their love for the movie and these pins after each post, and I appreciate each and every interaction.
I suppose it is time to wrap things up as the month too comes to a close. Though before I do, I ask if anyone has some thoughts on the past month's Pin Post Month as well as any ideas on how to make it better next year. Since it will be the tenth year of hosting this event, I kind of want to make it special so I would love to hear any thoughts on how to do so.
With that said, I hope that you all have a wonderful evening and smooth days ahead of you in the following month. I'll see you all next year!
-Sparklermun :)
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