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majestyeverlasting · 2 years

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Old Times' Sake

Pairing: Eddie Munson x College Fem!Reader

Summary: School’s out for the summer, and after making a surprise trip back to Hawkins from the Big Apple, you reconnect with the person who made leaving ten times harder. (contains 18+ content)

A/N: Had a lot of fun with this one. It's not often that I write smut, but given the prompt inspiration, I figured I’d give it a go. Hopefully it serves to enrich the story (lol)-- we shall see. There’s plenty of fluff as well.

A shrill telephone ring awakens Eddie to golden sunlight in his eyes and his leg hanging off the couch. It takes a few good blinks for him to remember that he’d crashed as soon as he made it back home from school. At the sight of Wayne hunched over the kitchen sink with a wrench in his hand, indifferent to the sound, he fumbles to his feet to go answer the call himself.

His eyes are still bleary as he yawns and puts the phone to his ear, half expecting it to be a telemarketer. There weren’t many people who called their trailer. And given the fact that it was a Friday—not Saturday—he wasn’t expecting it to be you.

But you always had been the type to defy his expectations.

“Hey, stranger.” He can already hear the smile in your words, the giddiness curling around the edges. “Guess where I’m calling from?”

He relaxes against the wall and starts toying with the phone cord, smiling at the sound of your voice. “I dunno—Fifth Avenue…Times Square…off somewhere having fun?” The semester had ended for you, after all.

“Nope,” you pop the p. “But I could be off having fun if you come pick me up.” A few beats of silence stretch on his end of the line, and you bite back a laugh.

“What do you mean?”

The sweetness of your laugh finally washes over him. “I mean you can hop in that trusty van of yours and swing by my parents' place,” you say. “Because I just might be back in Hawkins.”

Eddie immediately clutches at his left pocket to see if his keys are still stuffed in it. “I swear, if you’re just messing with—”

“I’m not messing with you,” you promise. “I wouldn’t get your hopes up for no reason.”

It’s his turn to laugh, a sound mixed with relief and that charming tinge of mischief that hardly leaves. “How do you know my hopes are up, huh?” He fishes out his keys so they’re at the ready.

“‘Cause I know you too well. Which is exactly why I’d bet all my money that you’ll be pulling up soon, rockstar.”

When the line clicks dead, he puts the phone back on its base with a disbelieving shake of his head. And if it was even possible, his smile stretches wider and the excitement buzzing beneath his skin intensifies. Wayne looks on from the kitchen, and can’t help but smirk as Eddie combs his fingers through his hair a few quick times, and steps into his Rebok hightops before calling out, I gotta run.

It’s not even ten minutes later that his van turns onto your street going a couple miles too fast. He slows to a stop along the curb of the sidewalk you’re standing on. Right after the cute little wave you give him, the pale blue skirt resting at your thighs is the next thing that catches his attention.

Upon hopping out and rounding to you, he wraps you in a strong hug that makes you stumble backwards. But he steadies the both of you as you giggle and secure your arms around his neck, breathing him in. He pulls away to get a better look at your smiling face and still can’t believe that after ten months, you’re finally back from New York.

“Told you so,” your tone is light and playful.

“You did,” he breathes. “God, I missed you. Did you miss me?” He wants to hear you say it.

“Maybe a little bit,” you tease. “It’s not like there’s a reason why I sent you postcards, and Polaroids, and bothered calling you on the weekends.” Everything you’d relayed to him practically screamed I wish you were here.

“When’d you make it back in?”

“Last night,” you tell him. “And I’m well-rested and ready to go, so what are we gonna do first?”

A sudden flicker of realization crosses his features. “Shit. I’ve got Hellfire in an hour,” he remembers, running a hand down his face and rubbing his chin. “But I can come get you afterwards and we can hang at my place?”

“Or just take me to Hellfire with you,” you shrug. “Then you won’t have to make an extra trip back. I’ll even bring a change of clothes if you don’t mind me spending the night with you.”

“I’d never mind that. We’ve got some catching up to do anyways, don’t we?” He looks you over with those big brown eyes and wants to know even more about who you’ve become. There’s a certain glow to your face that wasn’t there before you left.

He’s sure you’ve met new people and tried new things that you haven’t gotten around to telling him about yet. But even then, he hopes to find that the girl he met in 12th grade English—who shared her annotations and shushed him although she was smiling—is still there. Because she was the one who knew how to have a good time and make him feel seen in a way no one else ever had.

Luckily, he could already see her shining through just fine.

•••

“Make sure you guys hold on,” you playfully say to the two boys seated in the back.

Night has fallen, and the moon is out along with faintly shining stars and a few clouds that look like thick clusters of wisped smoke.

Dustin gives you a thumbs up. “Noted.”

“Dually,” Mike adds.

Eddie rolls his eyes as he starts the engine.

The Hellfire meeting had gone well. Sitting next to his throne made you feel important, despite only half understanding what was playing out before you. Getting to see him in his element with his friends reminded you why you’d sat through some of his campaigns in the past. There was an energy about him that never dwindled.

By the time Eddie pulls onto the main road, the two younger boys are quietly talking about a girl named El. Eddie’s eyes are focused ahead, and your gaze is cast out the window as a guitar solo softly drones on the radio.

Various shops and restaurants pass by, illuminated by their respective signs and the streetlights out front. There are even a few people out enjoying what little nightlife there is to indulge within. Hawkins was nothing like the city, with its sea of lights and innumerous thrills. The small town had always been quiet, calm, a little strange. But nevertheless a place with undeniable charm if you knew where to look.

You turn to Eddie, and he must sense your gaze because he glances over at you with upturned lips. He doesn’t say anything, just shoots you a wink before redirecting his attention back to the road. A set of chunky rings adorn his left hand, and a lone snowflake obsidian one rests around his right ring finger.

With a curious hum, you pull his hand into your lap, leaving him to steer with his left. “This one’s new. Don’t remember it.” You run a finger over the speckled stone of the ring.

“Yeah. Got it a couple months ago,” he says. “Pretty metal, huh?”

“So metal,” you humor him. “Just like this hair of yours. I’m just now realizing how much it’s grown. Jeez, Eds.” You reach out to run a hand through his curls, nearly making him melt.

“Guess he shoulda got a haircut a couple months ago too,” Dustin quips.

“Actually, all of you guys are looking pretty shaggy. I dig it, though.”

You work your fingers to Eddie’s scalp in a gentle scratch, making the two boys in the back shoot each other a questioning look at the rather intimate exchange.

“Gonna make me pass out at the wheel,” he warns, leaning into your touch until he remembers the extra pairs of eyes watching.

Your hand returns to your lap as he slows for a stoplight. A red glow pours into the van from the brake lights of the car in front, illuminating your faces in an unexpectedly picturesque way. You remember so many late nights with him when he’d be able to cruise through lights and signs because nobody else was out on the road.

“Hey, guys?” Dustin speaks up. “I don’t mean to pry or anything, but were you two ever, like, a thing?” Because without so much as trying, you had their dungeon master loose and playful all evening. It only made sense to ask.

The light turns green, but due to the weight of the question lingering in the air, Eddie’s reaction time is delayed by a couple beats.

You hesitate yourself because of the small pang of guilt that arises.

“Uh, no. We’re just close.” There’s a hint of dejection in his tone if you strain to hear it. But to the boys’ untrained ear, it sounds more like nonchalance.

You two could’ve been a thing if apprehension hadn't once weighed down on your shoulders.

“Oh.” Dustin clears his throat. “Okay. Cool. I just thought since—yeah, never mind. I’m just gonna be quiet now.”

When you make it into the suburbs, small lights hang in front of each house and each cookie cutter lot is no bigger than the next. Mike shuffles around in the back to collect his things, and hops out when Eddie pulls up in front of a cozy, two-story home.

“Later, Wheeler,” Eddie calls.

“Later, guys.”

He shuts the door, and the night's drop offs continue.

Eventually, it’s just you and Eddie like old times. A comfortable silence settles between you, and he cranks down his window to let some cool air flow in. It feels like being caressed by the night. You wiggle in your seat to get more comfortable, only for something to dig into the skin of your rib cage.

A groan escapes you, making a sliver of concern etch between his brows.

“I’m okay. I just gotta…”

After briefly unbuckling your seatbelt, you slip your hands into your shirt sleeves to lower your bra straps from your shoulders. And before he can fully grasp what’s happening, you’re digging under the hem of your shirt to unhook your bra and pull it out from beneath.

“Oh,” he chuckles, eyes sparkling.

“You don’t even know half of it.”

“Lucky me.”

Though he doesn’t overtly mean to, his gaze flickers to your chest. Despite how quickly he looks back to the road, it still feels like he’s staring because the image of your now pierced nipples linger in the forefront of his mind.

You notice the way his grip tightens on the steering wheel, but you don’t ask why.

•••

Not much has changed when you pull up at Eddie’s trailer. Not even the fact that Wayne’s truck isn’t parked out front at this time of night. A few of his neighbors are sitting outside in a ring of lawn chairs, chatting and smoking. A small dog across the street barks from where it’s confined behind a fence.

The smell of pine mixed with a hint of tobacco encompasses you when you walk inside, making a flood of memories rush back: watching TV on his couch after school, sitting in the kitchen and trying the weird snack combinations he liked, coaxing him to play your favorite songs on the living room record player. The decorations on the walls still look the same too; framed pictures, baseball caps, colorful mugs lined along the shelves near the ceiling.

Eddie locks the door behind you two, and finds himself smiling at the way you look around the dim space. It’s as if you’re expecting a drastic change to suddenly stick out. But his place, just like the rest of Hawkins, seems to have stayed fairly true to the way you left it.

It was good to be back within these four walls.

“Fair warning,” he says, “I would’ve cleaned my room if I had a more advanced notice.”

You give him a look.

“What?—I would’ve. You’re the one who decided to pop into town without telling me,” he says. “Could’ve got it all nice and tidy to make you think I became more refined while you were away.”

“Good thing I like you a little rough around the edges.” That makes him bite back a smile. “And it wouldn’t have been a surprise if you’d known. Gotta keep you on your toes.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” he drawls, leading you to his room.

It’s not as bad as you were expecting. The bed is made, but it appears to have been done with haste. Clothes aren’t haphazardly lying around, though a couple things spill from drawers. There’s minimal clutter on his dresser and nightstand. You set your overnight bag in the corner after looking over the posters covering the walls. There are a few new additions that compliment the old.

What you relish most of all is the fact that it smells like him; musky spiced undertones and a smokiness that’s not overbearing.

“So,” he says as he kicks off his shoes, “ready to tell me more about your fancy city life?”

“You already know about the major stuff.”

“I wanna hear about the little things too.” He grins, proud of the fond way he makes you roll your eyes.

For someone whose mind seems to move a million miles a minute in different directions, Eddie proved himself to be a good listener when it came to you. He knew just how to get still and offer his attention in a way you could feel seeping into your skin. As much as it warmed you, it was also a peculiar type of burden.

While it reminded you of how good it felt to have someone so curiously invested, you were also forced to remember your own foolish response when he’d asked you if you wanted to be more than friends. Dustin’s question had made you think about it too. Because even after rejecting Eddie, he told you it was okay, that he understood why you were apprehensive. You remember the pain in his eyes, and the sad smile he hoped would distract from it.

But as with most things, time had soothed over that day to the point where the two of you were able to carry on as the way things were. That never stopped you from thinking what if. What if things had’ve been different?

“I’m ready when you are, hotshot.” He crawls onto his bed and motions for you to join him. “Don’t leave out any details ‘cause I’m all ears.”

So you try not to as you begin to tell him about all your lesser adventures in the city that never sleeps.

•••

A cackle escapes Eddie when you whip around to look at him with annoyance and relief on your face. Conversation had shifted to him and taken a turn. He’s stretched out on his back, fiddling with a rubix cube, and you’re standing at his dresser with his most recent progress report unfolded in your hands. You’d hopped to your feet to look at it the second he told you things weren’t looking too good in terms of finally being on track to graduate.

But his grades were okay, all things considered. He wasn’t acing any subjects, but wasn’t failing any either. And he’d actually managed to crawl up to a C in Ms. O’Donnell’s.

“Don’t play around like that, you scared me.” You slam the paper back down as he grins. “You’re too smart to have to go through that hell again.”

“I don’t know about that.” A laugh bubbles past his lips. “I haven’t managed to solve this thing a single time.” He wiggles the cube at you before starting to toss it up. “It’s my arch nemesis at this point.”

“At least you’re graduating. I’m gonna scream your name so loud.” Then your tone grows more sincere, and something about your expression shifts. “I’m really proud of you, Eds.”

Those words are enough to make him blush, a rosy color that reminds you of the way the sky gets on soft mornings and around sunset. He murmurs a small thank you, and continues tossing the colorful cube into the air.

He catches it every time until the moment he doesn’t. It falls onto his nose with a dull clunk, and he winces before retiring the toy back to his night stand.

Despite the snort that escapes you, your legs still carry you to the side of his bed to see if he’s okay. One of his hands has raised to touch the now tender area, and you can see that it’s turned a faint red. He groans when you take a seat on the edge of the bed, and move his hand to get a better look. It’s a sound of embarrassment more than anything, but you’re nice enough to give him a smile that’s at least somewhat sympathetic.

“You okay, Rudolph?”

“No,” he groans. “M’gonna die. I can already see the light.”

As you look down at him with amusement in your eyes, you find yourself studying his features; long lashes, big beautiful eyes, plump lips. A familiar warmth stirs in your stomach that, up until this point, had been fairly at bay. You should’ve known it was only a matter of time.

Carefully, you lean down to kiss the tip of his nose. “I think you’re gonna make it,” you murmur.

He grumbles out a few words of disagreement just to see if it’ll prompt you to do anything else. He can see your resolve breaking—he wants it too. His own had been hanging on by a thread, unraveling since the moment he saw you standing on the curb in that pretty blue skirt.

Taking the bait, you press your lips to his, granting him a few sweet seconds of the taste of your chapstick and the warmth of your kiss.

He revels in it until the moment you give his bottom lip one last gentle bite and slowly pull away. It feels like you take a piece of him with you, but he knows you’ll keep it tucked somewhere safe.

“Better?” You’ve gone soft on him now, he can see it in your eyes.

“Mm-hm. Much.” He runs his thumb over your bottom lip, and a faint red tint rubs off. “Strawberry?”

You nod, not realizing your own fingers have wandered under the hem of his Hellfire shirt. But he feels them brushing along the skin of his waistline, passing through the thin hair beneath his naval. It prompts him to sit up to peel it off in a swift motion. His curls become more disheveled in process, but your eyes travel right down to the tattoos beneath his collarbones.

With a palm to his chest, you push him backwards to lay down again, crawling on top of his hips. It’s muscle memory that comes all too easy.

“You should get more of them.” You trace a finger over the dark ink, then proceed to draw thoughtless patterns down the rest of his milky torso. The gentleness of your touch makes his muscles quiver. “I’ve got a couple ideas, actually.”

“I hope your name isn’t one of ‘em.”

“Why? You don’t want it in big letters right here?” You run your finger in a straight line just beneath his pecs.

A chuckle rumbles through his chest. “Absolutely not.”

Both of you share a laugh and you find yourself leaning down to kiss the easy sound from his lips. Butterflies flutter through you at the way you can still feel him smiling.

Eddie hums when you pull away to place soft kisses down his neck, lips pillowy and warm. He watches through dazed eyes as you make your way to the waistband of his jeans. Gaging his reactions all the while, you unbuckle his belt, pop the button, and pull down the zipper.

Just when he finds himself short on words, you straighten up to pull your shirt over your head. You’re oblivious to the way you arch your back in the process, causing your chest to push forward. The dainty steel barbells pierced through your nipples make him swallow thickly, hands itching. They look even better than the mental image he’d constructed the back when you’d taken your bra off.

You have the nerve to giggle and tilt your head. “Cat got your tongue?”

“Yeah,” he rasps in awe, a smile tugging at his lips. “When’d you get ‘em?”

“A couple months after I moved away. Just never said anything.”

Eddie hums, then props himself up onto his forearms. You understand to get off of him then, mattress shifting as he scoots up so that his back is against the wall. A giddy smile starts across your face as he motions for you with a curl of his finger.

You crawl between his legs, this time sitting so that your back is flush against his chest. There’s a security in the warmth of him, a promise of care within his touch. He drops a kiss to your shoulder as his warm calloused hands slide up your stomach to cup your breasts in a gentle knead.

He never pegged you as the type to go out and get them pierced, but seeing the glint of the small barbells and feeling them with his own hands, he can’t help but think they’re perfect.

“I’ve missed nights like this,” he murmurs into the back of your neck, sealing the statement with a kiss. Nights when spoken words eventually ran dry, and your bodies still had plenty to say.

His hands soon slip under your skirt, teasing over the damp fabric of your panties and making your legs bloom open for him as if he were the sun. He toys around like that for a while; snapping the waistband against your skin and tucking his fingers into the leg openings to make squirm and murmur his name.

Warmth kindles in your core, and just when you move to guide his hand towards where you need him, he speaks, “I’ll get there in just a second, angel. I promise.” The small smile he’s wearing drips off each word.

You jolt when he gives your nipples a gentle tweak before his hands return to your inner thighs. His fingertips stroke along both of them, up to your raised knees and then back down towards the sweet ache in between.

It’s a featherlight motion he does over and over until your skirt is bunched at your waist, and you’re impatiently pressing back into him.

You realize then, just how much you’ve missed this. How easy it is for him to have you open and wanting. It was always that way when it came to him because he had a knack for knowing what you needed. The entire evening had been a testament to that. He’d listened to you, made you laugh, and drove you crazy in a way you never wanted to escape.

The same was true of him back when you attended Hawkins High. But you were younger and dumber, and the impending threat gossip had intimidated you from being his girlfriend. If you had the chance to do it all over again, you wouldn’t care what anybody else thought about the absolute bundle of life and energy that was Eddie Munson. You wouldn’t have looked into his doe eyes and choked out the words I can’t when you longed to say yes.

And maybe there was still a chance looming in the distance.

When his fingers dip into your panties to trail reverently over your folds, you shudder and murmur, “I’m sorry.”

He thinks you’re referring to your impatientince. “You’re okay. Don’t gotta apologize.” His lips find your neck again and you shake your head.

“For being stupid,” you clarify, breath catching as he begins to rub slow, deliberate circles around your clit, “before I moved away—” a soft gasp cuts you off when he uses his free hand to roll a nipple between his fingers. Then he does the same to the other.

Eddie gets it then, but continues working your body. You’re left anticipating his next words, growing wetter and warmer with each second that crawls by. It takes everything to contain some of the undignified sounds that rise up your throat, and you weakly grip his thighs as they rest on either side of you.

Somewhere along the line, the remainder of your clothes end up on the floor, leaving you bare and exposed against his frame.

With his thumb against your clit, he slowly begins pushing his two middlemost fingers into your entrance. Your body’s already prepared for the stretch.

Once they’re knuckle deep, he pulls them back out to grace over your folds with an explorative gentleness. When he pushes them back in, he curls them in a way that makes your face scrunch in pleasure.

“Don’t say that about yourself,” he finally says.

You hadn’t been stupid. You were scared. And if it was one thing he knew well, it was the feeling of being afraid.

Your eyes slip closed as he begins pumping faster, creamy sounds ringing out softly. He can feel you clenching around his fingers, rutting into them. A heated coil tightens within you, threatening to snap and sear right through.

But you still attempt to continue your apology.

“You didn’t deserve—ohmygosh, oh gosh.” He applies more pressure to your clit and draws tighter circles, fingers still sliding in and out. Occasionally lingering at your entrance to collect your slickness.

“Is that right?” Eddie murmurs into your ear. He nips your shoulder and soothes the spot with a kiss. “You feeling good?”

He knows you are. That’s why he’s growing harder in his jeans, face flushing at the way you’re falling apart.

You nod insistently, leg muscles tightening and relaxing in succession, overwhelmed.

The pleasure is radiating.

“Oh, God—Eds,” you mewl and arch your back, head falling onto his shoulder.

“I know,” he coos. “I’ve gotcha. Do your thing, angel.”

Everything fades away when you let go.

All you feel is fluttering, pulsing, a pleasant ache that runs deep and leaves you trembling against him. Murmuring praises interwoven with his name, and barely hearing the airy pitch of your voice. But he doesn’t miss a single word or twitch of your body as he coaxes you back down, slowing his fingers and pulling them out in all too heavenly drag. Massaging over your nub a few final times before you close your legs with a sealing whimper.

The next time you open your eyes, his arms are wrapped around your middle.

“Are you back on Earth with me?”

Your chuckle is breathless, blissed. “I hope so.” You crane your neck to press kisses to his jaw. “Should’ve smuggled you to New York with me.”

He snickers and squeezes you tighter. “Why, ‘cause I’m good with my hands?”

“You would’ve made the whole experience ten times better,” you tell him genuinely. “I shouldn’t have said no. I was wrong.”

Eddie lifts his hips when you reposition yourself and grasp at the waistband of his jeans with needy hands. Once they’re at his ankles along with his underwear, he kicks them off to join the other clothes on the floor. There’s purposefulness to your movements that suggest you’re trying to make up for something.

Molten runs through him when you crawl back up to kiss him, ghosting a gentle hand down his hardened length. When you peek over to his nightstand—where condoms have haphazardly rested in the past—there aren’t any.

“Check the drawer.” He holds your hip steady when you lean over to do so. “We might have to go on a scavenger hunt.”

You snort just as you spot one amidst the random items inside.

Nerves alight with anticipation, you assume this time will be similar to those that came before it. But it’s not. You realize that the moment you ease down onto his length, welcoming him in to make your two bodies a whole. Eddie’s on his back again, and you’re on top staring down at him. You watch his brows pinch and his lashes flutter over his beautiful eyes. There’s a new intensity that wasn’t there a year ago.

Bracing yourself on his chest, you slowly roll your hips. His large hands find the back of your thighs before you repeat the motion. It isn’t long before a rhythm emerges, composed by the innermost parts of you that are in tune with each other. You rise and sink back onto him again and again, unsure if you’re flying or falling.

The fullness feels too good. Like it should be impossible for him to reach a place within you that’s so thoughtfully tucked away from the world. But he does, with each trust of his hips and word of praise.

It feels like you’re racing towards a rising tide, daring it to wash over you and take you out.

Eddie hears the eventual way your breaths grow shallower and sees the way you’re beginning to shake in your attempt to remain upright. A light sheen of sweat glimmers on your forehead.

“Lemme get on top, angel.” He isn’t sure how he manages to get those words out, but he’s certain they sound wrecked.

It takes a few seconds for you to transition onto your back, and the stars realign when he pushes back into you. Eddie braces his hands on the mattress, caging you in, and you wrap your legs wrapping around his waist. As his trusts grow deeper, you paw at his shoulders and slide your hands down to squeeze his biceps, one of them gripped over his bird tattoo.

He lowers himself to capture your lips in a messy kiss. A beat later, his head is tucked into the crook of your neck, ragged breaths fanning against your skin. You move your hands up to tug his soft curls before raking your nails down the smooth expanse of his back.

“Jesus,” he rasps, thrusts growing more desperate. “You feel so good—so fucking warm.” He pushes himself up so that he can look into your eyes, finding your gaze dreamy and blissed. “Oh god, m’gonna come.”

He feels the pressure building, the heat weeling, and knows it’s about to overcome him. So he slows his pace until it borders on torturous in hopes of lasting a little while longer.

“Eddie, move. Please move,” you breathe, arching up into him. A deep sound loses from your throat when he reaches between you to rub your swollen bundle of nerves.

The sight of you begging has him dizzy. Maybe it’s the hopeful depth in your eyes, the desperate way his name sounds rolling off your tongue. All he knows is that he likes it, revels in it like it’s heaven-sent.

“I am moving, angel.” He gives you a pointed thrust that makes you writhe. “See?”

“Yeah, but…” you try digging your heels into the back of his thighs, but it does nothing to spur him on. “M’close, Eds, c’mon. Please,” you whine. “I’ll do anything you want, I swear.”

The breathiness of your voice makes a small smile quirk onto his lips, and you groan at the sight. Had pleasure not been rippling through you, the scowl you attempted would've actually looked like one.

But he sees that he’s driving you crazy—right along with himself—and finally decides to issue reprieve. He steadily gains his momentum back, earning a euphoric sigh that’s mixed with a moan. His thumb traces over your lower lip and you pucker your lips to kiss it lazily.

The precipice grows closer and closer until you’re both at the edge, panting each other’s names. Eddie swears it’s going to be him, but you’re the first to tumble over, warm waves washing over you in bouts that take your breath away. Your walls flutter around him in strong pulses that pull him right along with you. Eddie comes with a low groan and rides it out.

You’re trembling when he relaxes on top of your frame, burying his face into your shoulder as his body twitches with aftershocks.

Still nestled inside you, he lifts his head to give you a tired, lopsided grin.

“Welcome back to Hawkins.”

And as you blink up at him with heavy eyelids, you realize that it wasn’t really Hawkins that you’d come back to. It was him.

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aha-chuu · 9 months

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My thoughts on the Fontaine characters rn (pre 4.0)

I saw someone making a post about their thoughts and they were tragically wrong and I disagreed. So here I am, being opinionated.

I'm not gonna discuss leaks, I'm just talking about the character designs and what lore we know from the trailer and teaser :))

Lyney

So, Lyney is great. I love that he's kind of sussy, and his teaser that recently came out is almost... Sinister. And yet, he also checks the boxes of being really fun and extroverted! Venti vibes tbh.

Design wise? His animations are the best in the game, hands down. They suit the performance aspect of his character perfectly and are almost enough to make me pull for him.

Tragically, his character design isn't really for me. I think the simplicity works with the bombastic animations, and I'm glad to see he's wearing a reasonable outfit for the job he does (a rarity in Genshin). And yet, I'm a bit too much of a lesbian to be uber interested in the twinky direction his design leans.

Not pulling.

Lynette

So she's super cute. We have got a lot of cat girls already (I think Lyney should have also been a cat-person tbh) but I love that Lyney isn't actually doing cat things. Like, she's this subdued introvert, no meowing during her attacks or curling up in boxes like Kirara. She's just a person.... Who's also a cat.

I like her character design better than Lyney's; the blue just stands out a lot more than his red does, and the big bow is a better centerpiece to her design than Lyney's hat is to his. Plus, her animations are also nice.

We're getting her for free so I likely won't pull, but I am already preparing artifacts to build her on my account.

Freminet

Have I said how much I like sibling dynamics? These three actually seem pretty close and like they will gasp interact with each other! In comparison to the likes of the Kamisatos, this is miraculous.

I know several people who love this guy, and I do think he looks good. I saw some complaints about his hair cut (I think it's adorable), and the chunky boots & coat really serve to emphasise his awkwardness without sacrificing aesthetics.

Unfortunately, he's a physical claymore character, so it's a big skip from me.

Focalors/Furina

Well she's a brat huh. I worry after Raiden that they'll destroy Furina's character arc in order to make her more palatable, but I want her to go full Marie Antoinette. All the lore with the Oceanids disliking her and the general stuff about using the court for entertainment make me very interested in her.

As a design, I just dislike the twin tails. I love the blazer and the huge gem and the hat that's actually a crown!! Like, Furina is extravagant and over the top, obviously self obsessed - she looks perfect in that regard.

Since she's the archon and she's Hydro, she'll probably be broken meta wise. I'll likely pull, but mostly to make cool teams with her, not because she's a fave of mine specifically.

Neuvilette

... Father?

FR though, I understand why several people are crazy about this man. I do wish he looked a bit older since that's sort of where his characterisation is - he's done with Furina's shit and he's doing all the actual work of running Fontaine. With the elf ears, I expect him to be some sort of long-life species - he has no visible Vision and his hair kind of looks oceanid-like, so I figure he's not actually human. That along with the slits in his eyes. I hope he turns out to be older than Furina, and that he has a kind of reluctant dad & spoiled daughter relationship with her; we do see him tell her off in the teaser.

Neuvilette is the most feminine tall man character and the hair is a great aspect of the design. The colour palette is good and I do like the robes since he's a Judge, however I think it might get a bit boring to look at when you're playing as him - which is probably why the hair is so dramatic, in order to bring interest to the design.

He'll probably be Hydro and he'll probably be a catalyst based on that outfit (it's not exactly maneuverable enough for anything else ':))). I am interested in pulling almost a 100%.

Wriothesley

Another man???

I don't understand people talking about the lack of husbandoes in Fontaine, like look at these fine gentlemen.

We don't have much official info on Wriothesley so I'm gonna dip a little into leaks here, skip if you don't wanna know. He is some sort of prison warden which I bop with - it's an expected expansion on the justice landscape of Fontaine. He's on the rough side of the Fontaine infrastructure, in comparison to most of the other characters. That interests me since it feeds more into the duality themes of Fontaine, though currently we're unevenly biased rn to the more santized characters.

Design wise he's one of my favourites. White/black/red looks so good, as does his kind of punk esque chains. The tie puts me off somewhat, like he looks sort of smart and put together, but then the rest of the design undercuts that.

Leaks say Wriothesley is a physical standard banner five star. This fills me with fear. I also don't know what his actual personality will be, so let's say I'm undecided on pulling him.

Charlotte

I liked her personality and en VA in that one TCG event, unfortunately much like that event, Charlotte looks boring. She's cute, whatever, but she doesn't seem particularly story relevant and her design hasn't captured me.

I'm just not that interested.

Sigewinne(?)

Okay, she's cuter than Charlotte she's a sea slug person so immediately more interesting. She was also hanging out with Wriothesley, which is so adorable considering how different they seem.

We're dipping back into leaks here, but it seems like she might be another Hydro healer. I've seen people annoyed by this, but I'm perfectly fine with it - I don't have Kokomi and I like Nilou bloom as much as the next person.

If Sigewinne is a four star, I hope she's on a banner for a cool five star.

Navia

I know a lot of people like this woman. Taylor Swift etc (I am not overly into Taylor Swift), but I think Navia could be cool.

I find her design overcrowded. I do think this suits the fact that we're playing with French Revolution ideas and she's part of the bourgeoisie, so ofc she's overdecorated and elaborate in her fashion. Even though it makes sense, I still don't like the arsthetic of it.

On the other hand, I do like the yellow - it's not a colour we see in too many Genshin designs. I don't really like how it fits with the blue jewellery though.

Personality wise, I worry a bit that she's gonna be our waifu bait, but they did Dehya's characterisation really well without falling into that trap. Navia could be very fun and I think there's a lot of promise in the idea that she might be a class traitor, teaming up with us against the Fontaine government (wow Genshin loves a corrupt government huh).

Will I pull? She's a geo claymore user and my triple crowned Itto is already collecting dust. That's a no from me.

Clorinde

Everyone say hello to my wife:

(I'm waiting)

I've seen so many people mad at Clorinde when I think she looks great. Her outfit is simpler than is typical for Genshin, but that's cos she's a no-nonsense fighter type! Like how we saw with Lyney, more muted designs often mean more dramatic animations, and we already saw Clorinde doing some dynamic fight stuff in the trailer.

She really interests me in that she's a champion duellist, strong enough that even Childe wants to fight her. We see Clorinde works directly beside Neuvilette in the trailer, so she must be high up in position. A gun and a sword? She's trying to kill Navia, but the Devs describe their relationship as "complicated"??

Clorinde is an Electro woman and these are always queer fyi.

I hope she's pretty straight laced, but not quite in the Sara way. She's boring tbh, mostly because she is always answering to someone else, and she gets so little screen time. For Clorinde to work, I think she needs to have independence and apt presence in the story to be explored - not just a prop/obstacle.

Her personality makes me fearful, but rn I'm pulling 100%.

#genshin impact #Fontaine #Lyney #lynette #neuvillette #focalors #Furina #navia #Clorinde #sigewinne #charlotte genshin impact #freminet #Wriothesley

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jedusaur · 1 year

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Recs: the best Clint/Bucky fics with under 200 kudos

I just finished combing through the entire Clint Barton/Bucky Barnes tag on AO3 sorted by kudos, which got to be a bit of a slog toward the end, but there were some delightful underappreciated gems buried in the mud. so I decided to share some favorites!

D.I.Y. (Demons In You), by @redteamshark (38k) Clint and Bucky are renovating their new house, Clint is a YouTuber posting progress videos about the renovations, turns out the house is haunted. this one was the inspiration for this list, because based on the quality, length, and posting timeframe, I would expect this to have about 700-1000 kudos, and it has FIFTY-SIX. WHY. it's an engaging AU concept, the plot and relationship arcs are well-executed, it has fewer copyedit-level issues than some of the hugely popular fics, it hits good emotional beats, it's got fun minor character cameos, the HGTV-style home reno details are great. that kudos total is a cosmic error that requires rectification, pls assist

don't care what you did (as long as you love me), by veryrach/@mightymightygnomepriest (21k) a job goes wrong and Clint needs money fast, so he gets a job as "the blond one" for all the boybands in a '90s tribute act, supervised by a mysterious hot bodyguard. super fun but not actually crack-level ridiculous, it mostly plays the premise pretty straight, and at the end it does something interesting with the framing device that my will-they-or-won't-they dopamine response liked very much :D

A Muscle The Size Of Your Fist, by @there-must-be-a-lock (99k) in which Clint and Natasha are trailer park neighbors in 2008, Nat invites him to see her band play, and he meets Bucky in the pit by elbowing him in the face. lots of bandom nostalgia and ~emo kid~ feels in this one

Aw, Blood, No, by @reremouse (19k) Clint gets turned into a vampire and Bucky drags him out on a cross-country road trip to avoid the SHIELD agents trying to imprison him. featuring "blood-lover's pizza" and Tony's Malibu mansion with a private cove full of cars piled up underwater for the Aesthetics

Team Spirit, by @noxnthea (17k) rival ghost hunters, with peak The Sunshine One/The Grumpy One vibes. silly tropey fun :)

Safely Home, by @bluflamingo (5k) soft sweet post-CW fic about Bucky deciding to move in with Clint on his farm instead of going back to New York, over Steve's objections. especially loved this line about Bucky and Steve's dynamic: Bucky, if he was honest, thought their friendship could maybe stand to carry a little less of the weight of history.

love was just a glance away, by drunkonyou (30k) '70s Jersey Shore AU, in which Clint and Bucky meet when they're both contestants on The Dating Game and then spend the weekend on the shore together (warning for homophobic violence near the end)

been lonely too long, by veryrach/@mightymightygnomepriest (10k) a beautiful story about tattoos and pain kink and people being imperfect and messy and doing their best

#recs #fic #marvel #winterhawk #clint barton #bucky barnes #fandom

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chirpsythismorning · 1 year

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I think what really puts into perspective the likelihood of ST5 premiering in 2025 (I’m gonna predict March 21st for fun), is that a year from now is just barely Summer 2024, and yet as of now, they have not even started filming.

Are fans really expecting them to have season 5 filmed, fully prepped with marketing and promo ready, with everything ready to be released within one year from now (roughly speaking, give or take a couple months)?

In all honesty it's very much the norm for Stranger Things' to have promo leading up to an upcoming season last for months. And I'm not talking like 3-5 months I'm talking a year+.

This isn't like s1 where they put out a trailer and a release date and some low budget marketing roll out on social media, which is something they do for every new Netflix show. This is a $35 million + budget per episode series and thats just to budget for the literal episodes... There are dozens of partnerships they have going on with merchandise and things like that which are discussed and planned for months/years. There are music rights negotiations which go on for months upon years. Shit, post-production has the capacity to take, at the very least half of the time it takes to film, and in some cases as much time or even more. This shit takes time!!!

The build up to a new season is so huge, that each month leading up to it, there are different things dropping, creating the hype that guarantees millions of fans engagement for a long time.

Like 1 year up to the 6 months before the release, promo starts heating up officially. The main accounts for the show will start posting stuff, initially it'll be cryptic using old footage to kind of recap the characters and get us refreshed on where we left off. This time could have some really awesome surprises, but it's mostly casual. If we're lucky we can count on Atlanta filming paparazzi bc those people are insufferable...

6 months up to the one month mark is when it starts to get more real. At this time we're likely to get an episode list announcement, along with sneak peeks and teasers that are quite short, being that they're still likely in the editing process when they are releasing these so it's very much in part them trying to tide us over and keep us interested.

The final 3 months leading up to it is when it gets REAL real. This is at the latest when we'll get a release date announcement, but that's a worst case scenario. I feel like it took so long for them to announce s4, and not until like Feb 2022 bc they wanted to be certain certain. And that could apply to s5 as well. The state of the world isn't like awesome I would say... Look what happened last time? Like it sucks to be the person to say that but I think also considering delays in general, for any reason are a possibility, is also what contributes to my open mindedness about an early 2025 release.

And so based on what we should be expecting for marketing, that means that assuming s5 would somehow premiere in summer 2024, means we are already close to the one year mark, which means promo should be ramping up right now, with literal content to share? And yet we have nothing filmed...?

A lot of people have this idea that s5 is going to take as much time to film as s1 took, which is just not the case. Not saying it will take as long as s4 took, however it's still going to take a while. One of the main factors for this is an in demand cast with conflicting schedules. In a perfect world, everyone would be available all the time throughout the entire production run. Instead what you have is certain actors not available at this time, and so you have to overlap those that need scenes together and schedule according to all of that. And so even if it wouldn't take more than 7 months to film literally, adding another 4+ months might be necessary to accommodate everyones schedules so that they can have these A/B list actors be able to film scenes together.

And then there’s editing and VFX to account for, happening during filming yes, but also with them needing months to focus on AFTER filming is complete. S5 is arguably going to have more VFX than any other season, as most of the season is expected to be surrounded by UD conditions and with the final battle being pretty epic with a 3 headed dragon potentially. Editing is more likely to be 7+ months post filming AT LEAST, vs. like the 4 or less, which is what I think everyone is imagining and telling themselves.

This is also the last season and so they obviously want to focus on the quality, not their ability to churn it out as fast as possible. Rushing for a quick release is just setting themselves up to flop.

The story is over forever after this (excluding spin-off prospects). It would make sense for them to give themselves the wiggle room to make it perfect (the stakes are so fucking high you guys), as opposed to rushing the entire time just to have it release as early as possible.

This also reminds me of what Noah said when asked about s5 premiering in 2024, where he basically just deflected and said that they want to focus on quality… essentially hinting at the fact that it’ll probably not be soon as we’re expecting, but we’re better off for it bc it gives them time to ensure it's the best that it can be and also is just realistic in terms of considering potential unplanned delays.

And then there are the strike implications. While I think the ST production is lucky in that they wouldn't be impacted as much as other productions, that doesn't mean the solidarity won't impact other parts of the production beyond just the writers. This is an industry where people are extremely overworked and underpaid, where a strike could be on the horizon at any moment. And we’re out here telling them hey i know the conditions are horse shit, but I'm gonna need you to step it up and experience even worse conditions bc I need s5 asap... which is just, it’s asking too much if I’m being honest.

Not trying to rain on anyone’s parade here. I know it sucks hearing that it could be another 1 year and 10 months. But lets be serious right now.

All the action that happens in the fandom, building up to the release is arguably just as exciting as the actual premiere and I think we overlook that. Again, once it premieres, it's over. So being so hellbent that it comes as soon as possible, is built on this idea that getting it is the only worthwhile part of this experience, which couldn't be further from the truth. Hiatus and all of the activity that happens during that time is what makes this experience so unique and without it, none of us would be here.

I think realistically, the timeline for s5 production is likely to look something like filming taking place from May 2023-Feb 2024 (giving them AT LEAST 10 months, but if you ask me srs i think it'll take 12...). We should get an announcement post from the official Netflix/ST social media accounts the very day filming starts.

As time passes and they're filming more and more, we will start to get teasers and sneak peaks from the little bit they have filmed from the earlier episodes in the season. Technically they can't spoil that later stuff too much in promotion, so it does work out for us in that sense.

But in all honesty, well planned out and detailed promo is likely to not start getting official until this fall when they’ll actually have at least (hopefully) over half of s5 filmed, and be planning ahead plenty in advance so all of the promo leading up to the release is well thought out.

I won’t rule out Fall 2024. But there are no Friday dates in fall 2024 that ring any bells to me as being the perfect day? Maybe Winter 2024? Or like January/Feb 2025?

The problem is Netflix loves ST for their summers... But summer 2024 is too soon and Summer 2025 is too late imo...

So what it will likely come down to is them trying to be realisitic about their options, and how to ideally get it to match with the setting of the show, which is something they have tried to do with s2-3, but couldn't in s4 (for obvious reasons), and so I definitely see them thinking ahead to try to bring back that approach for s5 if they are able to.

So filming, best case scenario, ends maybe Jan-Feb 2024. If we give them at least 7 months, which is still arguably rushing to me, that lands them in September 2024.

BUT if they were smart they would be realistic and just plan for late 2024/early 2025 so that they don't have to keep delaying... also why they haven't announced a date/year... if it was for certain going to be 2024, they would say it. But they aren't. That alone should tell us they are not willing to make that commitment bc it's not something that can be made when there are so many impromptu factors at play.

I imagine a scenario though honestly, where it takes them a year (12 months to film), so they won't be done until May 2024, which means that they would have until January 2025 to edit with 7 months for that strictly. And that just honestly feels realistic to me to look at instead of hoping that everything just is swift and fast as possible.

Not to mention ST5 2025 just fits.

However, I don't see anything wrong with hoping for late 2024, since as of now I think it is still possible.

But I also think, keeping all of the factors in mind, most notably a potential strike and also them ensuring quality over a speedy release, I think 2025 is something people should also be prepared for as a possibility.

The good news is that we'll know eventually as s5 starts filming and as time goes on.

If filming is complete in 2023 then we could definitely hope for a fall 2024 release. If filming isn't complete officially until early/mid 2024, then pack up your duffel bags bc we're going back to spring break...

#byler #stranger things #stranger things 5 #st promo #st5 preditioncs #i had this in my drafts but bc that rumor from that source #i felt the need to post this #i always get passive aggressive asks when i try to explain why it would be valid for a 2025 release #and i get that people just want it #like i do too #but lets remember we want this shit to be epic crazy good #and we want them to be able to sleep and eat and live not on god awful conditions to succeed in that #marketing is going to go crazy for the final season also #it's going to be like every other season combined #and there there's the potential implications of a 2 vol release....#hell we could get vol 1 in 2024 and vol 2 and 2025 #idk how they'd do it #but 2 vol seems like a major possiblity #and i personally enjoyed getting to theorize in between #i'm sure netflix enjoyed having hype for a show last over 5 months instead of 1-2 at most #it would make sense for them to what to apply that model for the last season of their most memorable series in history...#so that's another thing to consider in terms of release possibilities #AND THEN LETS NOT FORGET ABOUT THE MOVIE DNA BOARD LIKE COME ON WE WILL BE SWAMPED WHEN THAT DROPS #AND THAT COULD LITERALLY DROP WITH IN THE NEXT MONTH TO 5 MONTHS OR SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN?#or not at all...#we are not ready regardless of thinking we are #which is the best part honestly #we are not ready!!!

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mamibaddie · 2 years

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Okay!! I finally wrote out how perv!bestfriend!Eddie x reader start dating. The next ones will obviously be more smutty but in the format of the other ones. I haven’t had much motivation lately with writing but I hope this is still enjoyable. I’m trying to work through my writers block with plans for my WIP and two other new stories I’m planning for this cozy fall. If you haven’t already, or if you need a refresher, I suggest reading the other parts of Perv!bestfriend!Eddie so that you can kinda understand what’s going on. I’m not sure if I ever have but I wanted to thank y’all so much for enjoying my Perv!bestfriend!Eddie mini stories! It means a lot to me that people enjoy them and look forward to them. Please let me know what you think!!

As always, 18+ only!! Contains smut. Minors DNI!!

This is it. Todays the day. Eddie was finally going to work up the nerve to ask you on a date and be his girlfriend. After many, many months of excruciating teasing from both sides, he decided to put his feelings and heart out there. He had teetered back and forth with whether or not to actually do it. He had assumed that everything you’ve said and done were flirtations. However, there was a side of him that thought maybe you were making fun of him. He knew he was a bit of a perv and toed the line of boundaries one too many times.

That didn’t stop his mind from wandering. It also didn’t stop his heart from wishing. It was now nighttime. The tail end of summer in the air. It was still unreasonably hot out, but some cool air would come in and wrap around you. It was rather welcoming, considering you two were on the second blunt of the night. Eddie had drank three beers in a lame attempt to calm his jangled nerves. You were nursing your first wine cooler for the evening. You typically liked the fruity, sweet type of alcoholic drinks. Before you, Eddie only had beers stocked at his trailer. But since you started coming around more and he started falling for you, he realized what kind of alcoholic drinks were your favorites. Hence why he now keeps both beers AND wine coolers stocked at his trailer. So, when he looked over at you, he knew he might as well do it now.

“H-hey, uh-“ he cleared his throat before mumbling your name. Your head slowly turned over and a grin spread across your face.

“Yes, Eddie, my love?” You let out a little snicker. You always called him that and it made his heart flutter. It was the corniest thing ever, and the if it was anyone else he’d probably scoff but the fact that it was you; made all the difference.

He stammered before clearing his throat. “I have something to tell you…”. You looked him in the eyes and based on his tense and serious demeanor, you knew it was serious. You tilted your body towards him to let him know that he had your undivided attention. Which should’ve comforted him but only made him more nervous. “Okay, what’s up?” You ask. Taking a drag of the blunt before passing it back to him.

He puts it between his lips and inhales a large amount. He slowly let it leave his lungs in a last ditch effort to calm his jangled nerves and figure out the right words to say. “Well,” puffs of smoke escaping out of his mouth and nose, “it’s more of a question to ask you. Actually, uh, it’s both.”

You gave him a look that let him know he can continue. He whispered an okay and took a deep breath. That’s another thing he’s always liked about you. You were patient with him. It might slightly irritate you at times, but you allowed him the space he needs enable to gather his thoughts. “I…kinda, sorta…like you…a lot. I don’t really know how to say it or to put it into words but, you’re so…” you were expecting him to say hot but instead he said, “…captivating. Interesting, even…um…” he began to rub his hands up and down his thighs, something he did to calm himself down. You reached out to put your hand on top of his. “Eddie,” he looks up to look at you in the eyes. “I like you too…sorta, kinda.” You rolls your eyes playfully and laugh. He lets out a sigh of relief mixed with laughter. “Really?” You smile at him. “Really, really.”

“Well, in that case, I was wondering if you’d wanna be my girlfriend?” You smile at him while biting your lip. You nod your head. “I can’t believe it took you this long to ask me. I was about to lose hope, ya know.”

“Wait… you knew that I liked you?”

“Eddie, it’s so painfully obvious. You didn’t know I liked you too? With all the, you know, reciprocating I was doing.”

He looks back at the times you both teased one another and played the game of cat and mouse. The longer he thought about it, the redder his cheeks got, and the harder he became.

“Besides,” you say, rubbing your hands up his thighs and leaning closer into him. “I’ve been wanting to know if the rumors are true.”

“W-what rumors?” He gulps. The closer you get, the more he can smell your perfume and it almost has his eyes rolling back.

“You know,” you look at his lips, “how much of a freak are you really Eddie?” He whimpers and you lean in to kiss him. It started of slow and gentle at first, and became lustful and hungry. Especially on Eddie’s end.

He broke away from the kiss breathlessly. “Do you really wanna know?” You nodded. You gently grab one of his wrists and pull it towards you. You guide his finger past your flimsy shorts to feel your bare pussy. “Do you feel that Eddie?” You moan and in turn he lets out a groan. “I get so turned on thinking about you Eddie.” You push two of his fingers into you. You start moving his fingers in and out of you. “Do you hear that?” The gushy noise of how wet you are, rang throughout Eddie’s room. “O-oh fuck.” Eddie groaned. “That’s all for you.” Eddie looked up from the image of seeing his fingers being pushed inside you, in and out. You were so turned on that his fingers were drenched. You both looked into each other’s eyes before he pulled his fingers out of you and moved to hover on top of you.

“Get ready sweetheart.” He said, looking you in the eyes. Before popping the two fingers that were in you into his mouth. You moaned at the sight. You thought he was going to reach to unbuckle his belt but he moves off the bed and towards his wall. He got his handcuffs off of the nail and turned to you with a mischievous grin.

“Ever been handcuffed before?”

#eddie munson #eddie the freak munson #eddie munson smut #perv!bestfriend!eddie #perv!eddie munson #perv!eddie #perv!boyfriend!eddie #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x black!reader #eddie munson x female reader

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jq37 · 4 months

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Please let us know if you solve this mystery!

OK! It’s the end of the year so let me compile everything I was able to come up with (with the help of everyone I dragged into this–you know who you are and thank you and I’m sorry).

To anyone who’s just seeing this and doesn’t have context, in November, right before the movie Wish came out, I made a longish post questioning who Allison Moore was (which, incidentally, is the first post that comes up when you Google “Allison Moore Disney”).

The reason I was curious about who this random writer is is because she’s credited as one of the co-writers of Wish, Disney’s 100th Anniversary Feature Film BUT she has no obvious experience writing for animation, children, or fantasy when everyone else on the main team has credits on stuff like Frozen and Encanto. I thought it was bizarre that there would be someone so green on a project so big so I went digging.

Here’s what I learned:

(1) Moore wasn’t originally announced as being attached to the project. Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Fawn Veersunthorn were all mentioned when the project was officially announced in Sept 2022 (for example). Moore was not. And you’d think they’d mention the *co-writer*, right? You don’t start to see her name until a year later in Sept 2023 when the trailer dropped (for example). So it seems like she was brought onto the project later. Of course, this could just be a normal quirk of the industry or something I’m misinterpreting, but I think it’s worth mentioning.

(2) Moore seems to have a lot more credits in stage writing than she does in screenwriting. I wasn’t able to 100% confirm it until recently (I’ll get to that in a second) but she’s written a bunch of plays and it seems like this is where she has most of her bona fides.

“Allison is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships, two McKnight Advancement Grants and the Bush Artist Fellowship.”

That sounds fancy. But it still doesn’t say “Top Choice for Disney Anniversary Movie” to me. That’s not a statement on writing quality. I haven’t read/seen any of her plays. It’s about the subject matter. Look at some of these synopses:

None of that really screams Disney. Which isn’t to say people can’t have range. George Miller wrote all the Mad Maxes but also Babe and both Happy Feet. But if I was hiring someone for a really big project, I wouldn’t want that project to be their first attempt at expanding into that genre.

(3) This isn’t actually inherently important but she was on an episode of Nailed it. That’s where this picture comes from:

She won the first round and the game ended in a three way tie for the first time in the show’s history.

The only reason this is noteworthy in the larger scale of things is that, until very recently, this was one of only two places online you could see Allison Moore talking. The other is this very short interview on the red carpet during the premiere.

youtube

There’s nothing in that interview that explains anything. It’s mainly her talking about how it was fun working on the movie and how good the movie is.

Honestly, good for her for not being Extremely Online, but it really felt like I could get a bit of a handle on everyone else who’d worked on this project in a high profile way but not her. Which is part of why I started down this rabbit hole to begin with. There was nothing to show where she might have had a connection or an interest or anything that would connect the dots.

For reference, Fawn (who was one of the Directors and story writers) has the kind of resume that I was expecting Moore to have when I initially Googled her:

Smaller jobs on other kids/animated movies (Hop, The Lorax, Despicable Me 2), some storyboard or art work on other Disney stuff (Frozen, Moana, Zootopia, Ralph), and then a big break (Raya and Wish). Based on my understanding of the industry (and I know a fair bit because it’s one I’m interested in professionally) that’s a very typical track to get to the writing side of animation.

A couple of people speculated that Moore got onto the project in a mentorship capacity. Now, I’m a Black woman who writes fiction professionally when I’m not on this hellsite (affectionate) with the rest of y’all. That means I have firsthand experience with what mentorship looks like in writing–both official Diversity and Inclusion type mentorship and more organic “Let me take you under my wing” type mentorship. I have *never* seen anyone get a job this high profile at the jump just due to mentorship alone. Going from zero to Disney’s 100th anniversary is kinda insane. This wasn’t some B project or something. It was a Big Deal Project. And this is Disney so they could have hired basically anyone they wanted. So you have to assume this was an active decision someone made and not just a thing that happened for lack of options. But in all my searching, Moore wasn’t mentioned except to just say she wrote the screenplay with Jennifer Lee. It was just the baking show and the Youtube clip.

Until today.

(4) I’m going to preface this by saying this doesn’t actually answer the question in a big AHA! way, but it is the only interview I’ve seen about Wish from Moore besides the red carpet clip.

On December 15th, Moore gave this interview with the San Antonio Current.

I stumbled across it while searching for a different piece of information and eagerly clicked to see what she had to say after three weeks of silence after the movie dropped on November 22.

Here are some highlights:

-In high school she was a theater kid and thought she wanted to pursue acting.

-I college she did playwriting and eventually she got her MFA from Iowa (which has a weirdly great MFA program btw, and also, this interview is how I confirmed she was the playwright Allison).

-When she started on the theater track at her college, she told them she was a playwright so she could study that too even though she’d never written a play before. So it sounds like Wish isn’t the first time she’s just jumped into a new thing without experience. You have to respect the hustle.

But this is the most important line in the interview because it’s like, an answer and a non-answer all in one. She’s asked, “How did you go from writing plays to writing for TV and film?”

And her answer is, “I had a whole career writing for theater, and then when my son was born, I realized I needed to make more money, so I started pitching for TV. I worked in television for about a decade. In the midst of working in TV, I continued playwriting. That's how I got on the radar at Disney.”

Which kind of sidesteps the most intriguing part of the question? Like, first of all, it’s not 100% clear if she means her playwriting or her TV writing caught Disney’s attention. I’m guessing playwriting, but I could be wrong. Secondly, who is “Disney” in this situation? A Disney recruiter? A Disney director? Did Jennifer Lee see a production of Slasher: A Horrifying comedy while passing through Texas and think, “Her. I want her to be my co-writer on this children’s film.” And what did she do to impress them so much that they right away put her on the the *Anniversary Project*? Like, I know I keep harping on this but I can’t stress enough how big of a deal this is. It’s hard enough to write for just your average sitcom or little movie. To just jump on something this big is baffling. I obviously don’t expect Disney to be justifying their every hiring decision publicly but, usually, when someone is doing something like this, it’s very obvious why they were chosen and, even with this sliver of explanation, it’s still frustratingly opaque. And with the strange post hoc timing of the interview (seriously, doesn’t promotion usually happen PRE movie release?) It almost reads like an interview that exists because someone realized the lack of any online presence was weird.

(5) When she was a kid, Allison Moore had a crush on Fox Robin Hood. That’s not at all important to the mystery, that’s just information she volunteered during the interview and that I’m now sharing with you. So when you search her name now, the top results are me wondering who she is, her IMDB, and her talking about how she liked Fox Robin Hood's little hat. Which isn't a LOT of information, but it’s more than we had before and that’s something.

#Wish #disney’s wish #wish 2023 #disney wish #I cannot stress enough that I don’t have anything against moore as a person #(if anything I'm impressed by how she managed to pull off what feels to me like a magic trick)#I just can’t resist a mystery #and as a writer this is a big one #i’ve had this in my inbox for a bit #but I was hoping new info would drop that I could include #and the interview did it #also just as a side note #speaking of mentorship #if they were going to bring a co-writer onto this project it might have been nice for them to pick someone with more cultural connection #you know to their Moorish lead from their Iberian setting #this movie is so culturally bland #and someone who could actually speak to the culture might have helped a lot!#like I know pete docter got a Black writer in on Soul part way through #and he talked about getting the barbershop scene just right #there was no moment like that in this movie #asks

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autisticjoys · 2 months

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Inside Out 2: Thoughts and Speculations (long post)

New Emotions: Why Them and Why Now?

While the trailer has only shown 1 of the 4 new emotions, the comments got me thinking about why these specific 4 were the ones added as Riley hits puberty.

Anxiety

I've seen a lot of comments after the first trailer asking about the difference between Fear and Anxiety and based on definitions from the internet, Fear is essentially a response to a perceived threat that is present at the moment, while Anxiety is a response to "What if?" type scenarios that may or may not happen or even be realistic.

When I gave that answer in the comments, many people told me that Fear functioned as both in the original film, and that brings me to the "Why Now" part. I think Anxiety appearing after puberty is meant to represent how, when we're younger, fears that might seem irrational or unrealistic to others (adults especially), feel real to us (if a kid believes monsters exist, the fear of a monster in their closet is very much rational in their mind). But, as we get older, we start to learn the difference between things we should be afraid of (or at the very least more aware of/careful about) and what are unlikely events that our minds simply obsess over, hence the appearance of Anxiety.

As for the other 3, tho we haven't seen them, based on the nature of the emotions, in my opinion it also makes sense why they specifically only appear after puberty hits.

Embarrassment, in my own definition, is the feeling one experiences when they think they've said or done something that makes them look "uncool" or "weird/odd" (this also applies to things others say/do that makes you or themselves seem "uncool" or "weird/odd"). While this can also happen to younger kids, I feel like it's more so teens that have very rigid definitions of what counts as cool or not, as well as being real jerks to anyone not meeting these rigid definitions (kids can be really mean too, but i think they're more flexible about what they consider cool), and therefore Embarrassment is much more likely to occur strongly in teenagers.

Envy, is also an emotion that, in some form, exists in younger kids, however the biggest difference is, I think, in the focus of the emotion. When we're kids and we see someone have something we don't have, but want, our focus is on the thing (which is almost always material), rather than the person ("I want to have X too!). However, as we get older, our focus shifts to the person who has that thing (which can be material or immaterial) we don't have, but want ("Why do they have X?). Notice how, in the first instance, our reaction is a desire to possess that thing (it's less about someone else having it and about us wanting it), and in the second, it is a questioning of why someone else gets to have that (it's more about why they are the ones who have it, than about us wanting that thing). The latter is what Envy is.

Ennui is a form of dissatisfaction with the way things are, that mixes boredom and tiredness. Children often live in a world that is full of fun, adventures and magic, however the world of school gradually loses these qualities and issues can pile up on top of each other. Riley turns 13 in the film, which is around the time (at least in my country) when kids enter high-school, which is progressively less about fun, even compared to earlier forms of school. This is also the period in many teens' lives where they start questioning why they need to do things and things such as existential crises or depression can come in, both of which can lead to things feeling pointless or meaningless, which coupled with burnout from expectations, can result in Ennui.

New and Old Emotion Pairings

Aside from Joy (who is the only positive emotion in the bunch), I think the 4 other old emotions could each pair well with one of the new ones.

Fear and Anxiety

As mentioned above, the two fulfill similar functions, and at Riley's age it's probably really hard to clearly distinguish between them. So I can easily imagine one of them freaking out, which freaks the other out and so on, so forth.

Disgust and Embarrassment

More so as opposites compared to the previous two. As mentioned in the first film, Disgust's role is keeping Riley from being poisoned (both physically, but more important to this point, socially), which includes keeping her from doing things that are seen as "uncool" (like when she wanted to tell Riley's mom that she shouldn't take her to school). And what exactly did I say Embarrassment is? The feeling we get when we have said or done something "uncool". Basically, I can imagine Embarrassment tailing Disgust, preemptively worrying about the outcome of any situation where Reily might say or do such a thing (especially if socialising or romance are going to be topics in the film, which I'd assume they'd at least partially be).

Anger and Envy

If you think about it, this combo makes a lot of sense too. Anger has been shown as the one who seeks justice and fairness. Envy (as per the definition I gave), includes a feeling of unfairness about someone else having something you want to have too and if you dislike that person or simply think you'd deserve that thing more because of y, it can easily lead to feeling "rightful" Anger (at that person, at your parents, at the world or even yourself). So I can see Envy riling Anger up at different things, both material (like a new phone) or immaterial (like popularity).

Sadness and Ennui

Sadness has been depicted as someone who likes to engage in deep thoughts. Due to the nature of Ennui (as I described above), it would make sense to me if they were deeply philosophical, after all, their existence is partially borne of a questioning of one's existence and purpose. So I can just imagine the two of them engaging in deep conversations, even about hard topics like death or the expectations and hardships of adulthood, maybe even gender, sexuality, discrimination and depression.

I don't want to make plot predictions, but I think the positive to negative emotion ratio will play a part, and tho I don't necessarily think Joy will go back to how she was in the first film, I can definitely see her treating the new emotions (Anxiety in particular) similar to how she treated Sadness, at least initially. I also think that Anxiety, who I think will kind of act like the leader of the new emotions, might get antagonised, perhaps even more so than the rest (just like how Sadness was in the first one). I also think that perhaps Joy will kind of get pushed out by the other emotions, as Riley might go through some of the rougher parts of teen life. I also think that after the initial shock, Sadness in particular would be the first to open up to the new emotions (she's been shown to be empathic in the first one with Bing-Bong).

#inside out 2 #disney #theory #disney theory #speculation #my thoughts #predictions #disney pixar #pixar inside out

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dootmoon · 2 months

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Some thoughts on Ex Astris

Okay so the TL;DR is: Go play it if you're someone who is mainly motivated by gameplay, it's one of the most enjoyable games i've played in like 10 years (im not kidding). the story is not bad, but it's very poorly told and leaves a lot to be desired. I should also warn that i'll probably spoil a couple of things, mainly on the gameplay side (because yes, I do believe some encounters are better if you dont know the gimmick).

Where do I even start, I only watched like 2 trailers before playting, i had 0 idea of what i was getting into, all i really knew about the game was that it was a full game release by the AK guys and that it was a turn based rpg. I legitimately bought it out of morbid curiosity, I was not expecting to find my favorite jrpg in a literal decade.

I'll go over what I liked the most and then explain the couple of issues I have with the game, it might sound like i loved it (which i did) but it's far from perfect and i think there's room for improvement. I think the combat is the real deal in this title, for those unfamiliar with it: it's a classic turn based jrpg but it has layers. The main 3 mechanics that make it stand out from other games is that each turn you have AP (action points) which limit what you can do each turn, however you can directly manipulate them with a combo system that gives you back AP. The second one is a parry system, during the enemy turn you can directly parry their attacks, you have 2 colors for parrying, both colors have different properties and there's certain attacks that can only be parried with the respective color. And lastly, theres a stagger bar, similar to FFXIII or posture bar in sekiro, although i think it's more akin to stagger in FFXIII. Once you break said bar you can enter hyper time for a few seconds where you have unlimited AP so you can combo them for massive damage. The combo system is very enjoyable, you will be blindly experimenting your combos for optimal damage each time you unlock new moves in the skill trees. Theres a very satisfying feeling to landing a big combo on an enemy that feels like it was entirely something you came up with. This sadly comes with a downside, once you figure out your big damage combos, there's not much of a reason to try anything different. It doesnt mean it stops being enjoyable but this is a wall most of games with combo systems have. Now the parry system, while it's fun, it sadly makes the game too easy. Sure theres enemies that will mix their timings to throw you off and a couple of unparriable attacks. But really, if you get good there's no reason to ever get hit. "But what about the unblockables?" yeah about that... Theres really just 3 enemies in the game that had them, and 2 of them were bosses, which you get a hard counter to the unblockable in the first boss that has it. I wish the game had more ways to work around you to make it more challenging. The only time the game REALLY tries to fuck you up is the final boss (this is a good thing) however it was still too easy. She really just makes the screen black and white and makes you parry based on the icon, then she makes you parry based on the color of the attack. This was sick and i wish there were more moments like this in the game. Now the dungeons were great, they feel like they belong in an older 3d zelda game. Sadly they dont get too crazy on the gimmicks, they were just box puzzles where you have to move them in the correct spots or point lasers to certain switches. Apparently this game has plans for DLCs so if theres something i wish upon to get explored more it would be this in particular. The rest of the game is the towns and the sidequests inside them, they're very usual stuff for a jrpg so you know what to expect, i cant elaborate much on it. Overall I think the game is meant to be replayed, by the end you're only able to fully build 3 characters out of 5 party members, sidequests expire and there's a bunch of stuff to mess around to make a playthrough different from the last one. The game changes a lot when you already know how it works or what really happens in the story.

Now the elephant in the room, the story: Yeah it's kinda just there, it's very poorly told. However it's HG and i can tell there was a lot of thought put into the wold building, it's very well made. It's just a shame that i could barely care about anything happening in it, even though I was kinda invested by the final hours i dont think that excuses the really bad storytelling. However starting my second playthrough is when I noticed it was indeed meant to be replayed. There's a bunch of stuff that feels so incredibly cryptic or really make no sense, once you go over it already having context it all makes sense and you just go like "oooh so that was they were talking about". I'm not excusing bad writing though, this is bad, but at least the story feels better on a second playthrough. Anyways, i'm kinda upset this was a mobile game, maybe if it wasnt, 10 people would've played it instead of just 5. I cant stress enough how this is a phone game that is way better than most of modern jrpgs in the market. it's like the devs went back and asked themselves what was the main appeal of the genre and what they thought made them fun to them and made an entire game around it. This is probably gonna be the biggest surprise of the entire year for me and i'm gonna have brainrot about this game for a while.

#ex astris #im just rambling because i havent had this much fun since fuckin smtiv and i must tell the world

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starsopinions · 7 months

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Why I'm excited for The Marvels

The first real introduction I had to the MCU was in 2019, my best friend and I decided to go to the cinema. We weren’t sure what movie to watch but we eventually landed on Captain Marvel, I remember being hooked from the first second and being so excited when, at the end, the words “Captain Marvel will return…” appeared on screen. We left the theatre excited for the sequel which we promised to watch it together. I’m not friends with her anymore but I have to say that, less than a month away from the release of The Marvels, I can’t wait to finally see it and I don’t understand why there seems to be so much negativity surrounding the release of this, in my opinion, very promising movie. So here is why I'm excited for The Marvels!

The cast

Watching the trailer, the first thing that jumps out at me is the cast. The main cast consists of actors who have done consistently good jobs in the past. You may not like Brie Larson but there is no denying that she can act, which is further proven by her many awards, including an Oscar for best actress in 2016. Joining her is Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau who, I think we can all agree on, did an amazing job in WandaVision. And completing the trio is Iman Vellani who is playing Ms marvel. I know a lot of people didn’t like Ms Marvel as a show but I think many are disregarding the fact that the target audience was (younger) teens and not middle-aged men (that isn’t to say that Ms Marvel was perfect but I think it was a fun addition which added something new to the MCU). Besides, I think the problem in Ms Marvel definitely wasn’t Iman’s performance and if they fix the writing issues there is nothing wrong with her character. She is very charismatic and funny, and in my opinion, she is a joy to watch. I am so excited to watch the trio’s dynamic and chemistry!

And as if that wasn’t enough, acting alongside them will be Zawe Ashton. You may know her from Fresh Meat or Velvet Buzzsaw. We don’t know a whole lot about her character yet besides that she will be the antagonist. I think Zawe has a lot of talent and I’m excited to see more of her villainous side.

“throw-away villain”

A lot of people seem to think that this will be a boring, one-time/throw-away villain- kind of movie but I honestly think that that is just what the MCU needs right now. There have been so many big cross-over movies recently that deal with very complex issues (time travelling, the multiverse) that something small that focuses on the characters and story would work really well. Especially as it seems that Zawe’s character is going to be building on past villain Ronan (Guardians of the Galaxy), which gives her an already established back story so it doesn’t come out of nowhere which is often an issue with these one-time villains.

Recent MCU movies have been falling into the trap of building up lots of expectations, for them just to have a simple storyline. For example, everyone was expecting Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness to include loads of crossovers and references to other movies which made the reality so much more disappointing. I think The Marvels has done a really good job of building up realistic expectations while still making an exciting trailer. No one is expecting Wanda or Loki to appear in this movie so no one will be disappointed when it doesn’t happen.

“The M-She-U”

I have been reading the comments on the promotion for the movie and a lot of comments say things like: “Ain’t no one watching this ms marvel Has become sadly feministic”

and

“I am willing to bet money this movie I’ll include nothing but horrible comedy, political takes, and sex takes”

(yes, these are actual comments)(I’m not sure if I should correct the grammar or just leave it help)

These comments are commented by people who have seen as much of this movie as you and I, and that means they have seen a 2-minute trailer and you just can’t base a full opinion on those snippets of an entire, 2-hour movie, but let's address them anyway.

“Horrible comedy” – To be completely honest, comedy is always a difficult topic because that is just such a personal preference. But based on what we have seen so far, it seems pretty funny and I hope they’ll be able to balance the serious tones and the comedy. I think to write off a movie as having horrible comedy purely because you think the trailer isn’t funny is shallow and kind of stupid. If one person doesn’t like something that doesn’t mean the whole world agrees with you.

“sadly feministic”/”political takes” – I think it is weird to call any MCU movie “sadly feministic” because it is something that was lacking so much in earlier Marvel movies and their more recent works have started to include more female representation but that doesn’t mean the problem is suddenly solved. I do agree that some representation has been lacking in depth which makes it feel cheap but that’s all the more reason to be more feminist. But even without that, the trailers don’t feel like they are pushing a feminist agenda. They are just heroes who happen to be women and I, as a young girl, am really excited to see that on the big screen.

At the end of the day, anyone is entitled to their own opinions but the hate and negativity that has been surrounding this movie is absolutely insane. There are a lot of people who have decided that (without seeing the movie) they don’t like it and no one else can either. It is 100% okay to not like something but please don’t ruin it for other people.

The cast and their chemistry have me really thrilled for this movie, I am very excited to see what Captain Marvel has been up to all this time.

I will be there opening night with high expectations and a very large bucket of popcorn, I hope to see you there :D

#the marvels #captain marvel #marvel mcu #loki #natasha romanoff #marvel #movies #ms marvel #wandavision #nick fury #cinema #mcu #the marvels 2023 #monica rambeau

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stingrayloveblog · 2 months

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Whee side order

My thoughts on it! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!! Youve been warned.

So, here are my honest thoughts. Let me just start by warning further that this is mostly negative.

Took me about two hours and one attempt to beat all 30 floors. Was pretty fun. I used splattershot though because i suck at dualies.

But... it felt very quick. Felt like there was a whole lotta nothing plotwise, too. It was fun, but the plot is pretty weak. Its just another rogue-ai-tries-to-assimilate-everyone plot. Which has already been done. For some reason they keep trying to do octo expansion but again and they keep failing to do that.

Taking everything into consideration, acht really had no reason to be there. You could remove acht entirely and have the same results. And im not just saying that because i dont like dedf1sh. They dont add anything to anything.

I havent unlocked all marinas dev notes but so far theres been her motive of saving the sanitized octarians which......... i have my own personal issues with that. They seem to not be able to decide how they want sanitization to work.

Doing the pallets, i assumed they would give you some memory thing related to the associated character, but you just get a stupid little comment from the post-final boss that doesnt really add anything to the plot or the characters. Also murch is on luna blaster for some reason. I was speculating a lot on who luna blaster and octobrush could be assigned to, but seems like theyre just doing anyone. Murch is very irrelevant to everything as a whole so its kinda just like whatever.

That being said, i feel extremely bad for agent 4 fans. Those humanoid red eyed things with one of them looking like 4 and then them not doing anything with that at all was a huge fake out.

From what i saw, a lot of people were theorizing and expecting things based on all the evidence we got that we never did end up getting because they went an entirely different route. No agent 4 being possessed or whatever (unless thats still true and just unlocked much later, which im hoping because it would make everything a lot more interesting), no implied body swapping, no copybots.

And most of all, nothing from the first trailer we got. With all the concept art. I know it was just CONCEPT art for a reason, but surely you cant just show off all these things and then have the final result be absolutely nothing like it? Then again, splatoon 3 has had more than enough false advertising already, so i guess it was wrong to expect things to be as shown. I just really really liked the giant hostile architecture black spikes picture. And theres none of that at all.

Basically, everything that was expected was significantly cooler than what we got, and to be completely honest, i dont think it was worth splatoon 3 being in really bad shape for such a long time. I dont think it really justified the amount of dumb things that happened over the past few seasons.

I do still think its fun, and i absolutely am going to try to collect everything, but it was significantly less interesting overall than i anticipated.

I do think the final boss attacks syncing with the rhythm was cool. But other than that the level design is extremely repetitive and there really is no variation. Im only enjoying it now because ive used weapons that i like/dont mind using, but once i have to start using weapons im bad at i just know itll be insufferable.

Overall, i am unfortunately disappointed but i still have hope that maybe there is something more, because surely that couldnt have been it.

Also just because it doesnt go along with any of my oc stories at all and i am absolutely not changing anything on my end because frankly im sick of doing that

#and if you dont agree with me thats perfectly fine and i dont want to hear it #splatoon 3 #weaponblog #side order

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matchstickdolly · 3 months

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So long, farewell! 💜 I won't be posting from this account anymore. To close it out, here is a roundup of my Lucifer fan works, as I think that's how most came to find me here.

You will need an AO3 account to read most of my stories; it's relatively easy to sign up if you don't have one. Though I'm gone from here and elsewhere in the Lucifer fandom, I will continue to read comments and attempt to reply to them, so please consider sharing these fics and commenting your thoughts on AO3!

LONG READS (20,000+ words)

A Refraction of Light

314k words. My giant post-S3 canon divergence that spans Earth, Hell, and Heaven. If you didn't like Lucifer's Netflix era (the last three seasons) or wished there were more power couple vibes for Deckerstar, you might enjoy AROL. Though I finished it in 2020, after S4 had aired, I think it works quite well as a S4-S6 fix-it for those who'd like one.

In Sorrow Thou Shalt Bring Forth Children

210k words. The 50 female-focused "blip" years Lucifer's finale conveniently left out, also several post-S6 chapters. Heavy angst surrounding family and spiritual trauma but aims to be cathartic by acknowledging pain. All that said, more humor and Deckerstar than you'd probably expect, given the CW tags.

Reins Series: Try My Reins and My Heart & As Certain Dark Things Are to Be Loved

35k words when read together. Porn with feelings/plot. Fun, sweet kinkiness that should be read in order. Dominant!Lucifer because I struggle to see the Devil otherwise and because Chloe deserves a fucking break in the care of her sex god beau.

In a Similar Vein

21k words. Funny, sweet, and absurd S1 divergence wherein Chloe becomes (very wrongly) convinced that Lucifer is a vampire. Alas, it is missing the last chapter.

Chloe KNOWS

20k words. Funny, sweet, sexy S2 divergence in which Chloe accidentally gets a devil reveal when she stumbles upon an ageless Lucifer in vintage pornography. Oops.

MEDIUM READS (5,000 to 20,000 words)

If the Shoe Fits & In the Family Way

14k words when read together. Alternate post-5B/S6. Feel-good, funny, fluffy, even sexy. Godifer and Mrs. G being good partners, parents, and Improvers of the Universe. If you need a sweet, positive fix-it for the end of Lucifer, these fics might fit the bill.

Rebound to You

12k words. Feel-good, funny, sexy AU where Lucifer is still the Devil, but he and Chloe didn't meet as in canon. Instead, they meet a couple of years later, after Lucifer has naturally gotten a phone and Chloe has divorced Dan and is now resorting to dating apps to meet people. Features a fun gimmick of Tinder-like chat logs (used sparingly, I promise).

Something More & Pump It Up

11k words when read together. These two canon compliant fics won't seem like they go together at first, but I promise they do (thematically). Both are pre-canon and about the subtle ways in which Lucifer and Chloe are an amusingly great match. They just haven't met (yet) to know it! The first story is sweet and about Jed and Chloe's relationship; basically a character study of Chloe as told from Jed's POV. The second is a bit of a sex farce about Lucifer watching Hot Tub High School after settling in L.A., but it's also porn with plot or at least a character study.

Not to Mii

10k words. Lucifer sticks around at the end of S3's "The Last Heartbreak." One thing leads to another, and you get strip Mario Kart. I promise it works.

The Fine Line Between Desire and Fear

10k words. Feel-good and silly post-5A divergence featuring a haunted mansion on Halloween. Almost solely Deckerstar-focused but also imagines a future where Michael is trying to redeem himself and earn Ella's affection; the only problem is that he's afraid...of a lot, actually. The irony!

Sweet and Sour

10k words. A comical Michael/Ella fic based on the 5A trailer. Turned out to be rather in-character for many aspects of Michael, so it holds up, I think.

Now That's What I Call Big Devil Energy! Series: Big Devil Energy & Satan's Got a Heart On

9k words when read together. Funny, sweet chaos. Lucifer being a completely over-the-top Devil in love.

All You Can Play

9k words but really more like 3k if you want the finished part of the fic. (First chapter can stand alone; don’t read past it if you don’t like unfinished work.) Chaotic humor, sex farce. Canon compliant missing scene wherein I will tell you not to hate the player (me) but the game (S3). The reason Lucifer isn't there to protect Chloe at the end of 03x04? He's with Lexy, the judge's soon-to-be ex-wife. This is that story. Featuring Chuck E. Cheese.

Bound by Iniquity

8k words. Dark 5A canon divergence from Maze's POV. Her dirty dealmaking with Michael backfires, big time.

Get Thee Behind Me

7k words. Porn with plot/feelings. Lucifer and Chloe try anal sex for the first time. Feel-good comedy ensues.

Baptized by Desire

7k words. Dark but sweet S3 divergence. Lucifer comes to believe he really is a delusional human while he's in the psychiatric hospital in "God Johnson."

Hells to Betsy

6k words. Answering the question of how Chloe afforded a large three-bedroom townhouse in L.A., especially once Maze moved out. Come on! Detectives are paid well but not that well!

Darkest Before Dawn

5k words. Sweet, funny, sexy wing fic. No wing oil, but there's a barrel of crude oil and Dawn dishwashing liquid. This is not an ad.

SHORT READS (<5,000 words)

The Dotted Line

4k words. Porn without plot. Lucifer is attracted to Chloe in anything, even undies from Target.

Checked Baggage

4k words. Porn with light plot. What if Chloe took up Jana's offer for a threesome, partly out of spite? Bisexual chaos that is still ultimately very much about Deckerstar.

Winging It & Made in His Image

4k words when read together. Both are chaotic sex farces that wax on about the Devil's dick. They must be read in order.

Reefer Gladness Series: Flying High & Baked with Love

3k words when together. Sweet fluff. Established Deckerstar getting high together.

Lunch at the Y

3k words. Porn without plot. Roughly set in a better post-5A world where Lucifer eats Chloe out in a dressing room because of course he would. That's a love language.

Those Who Favor Fire

2k words. Porn without plot. Roughly set in a better post-S3 world where Deckerstar have gotten their HEA and have been together for some ten years or so.

My God's House Has Many Rooms

2k words. S6's "happy" closeout is creepily vague to me. This story explores a horrific what-if.

Raising Hell

1k words. Porn without plot. An ode to the blowjob.

Use My Words Against Me

1k words. All dialogue, pure chaos. Caught up in yet another scandal, closeted Republican Senator Olin Graham asks the Devil for a favor. You'll only appreciate this if you know enough about American politics and aren't a fascist piece of shit. Sorry not sorry.

Earthly Delights on Borrowed Time

666 words. Post-S4 reimagining where Lucifer and Chloe are making things work.

The Perfect Help Meets

666 words. Dark, canon compliant one-shot about Lucifer's angst/depression as he tries to make things work with Eve, all while he's in love with Chloe.

Other Stuff

A softness came from the starlight and filled me full to the bone — Lucifer meets the comic A Softer World. Inspired by an old post by @casimania that can be found here.

General Fanvids — Deckerstar being painful and/or lovely, plus some Trixie because I love her character.

S6 Critical Fanvids — Just me making sense of S6's plot, which I cannot read as anything other than incredibly dark and anti-choice.

Crack Fanvids — Pure comedy and chaos.

Lucifer Season 6 Time Travel Visualizations — Lucifer S6 uses time travel without clearly laying out how it works. I made two visualizations to help explain the possibilities: one for the loop existing in a single timeline and another for the loop causing or being a part of many/parallel worlds.

Lucifer S6 Wiki — After Lucifer Season 5B and S6, I started digging into the writers’ interviews to understand what the hell had gone wrong. You'll find their answers to a lot of common S6 questions here. They’re real, er, interesting Hollywood folk, to say the least.

#lucifer fanfiction #lucifer fanfic #lucifer on netflix #deckerstar fanfiction #deckerstar

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bulletbilltime · 10 months

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Pikmin 4 verdict: Ok this is gonna be the best game in the series isn't it

Stray thoughts below:

SPOILERS FOR THE PIKMIN 4 DEMO BELOW

The caves are... actually interesting and well designed?? no more half-assed roguelike random cave attempts (sorry pik2 fans but that game's caves just cannot compete IMO)

That being said... I'm a bit disappointed so far that we're only seeing the same styles of caves as Pik2. They do look gorgeous though, mind you.

Industrial Maze was such a cool cave, simply by virtue of actually having a proper puzzle it's already my favourite cave in the series not named Submerged Castle.

Oatchi my beloved!!! he actually works way better with the game flow than I expected when I first saw him in the trailer. He doesn't feel too overpowered; he's basically an upgradable super pikmin but he doesn't ever particularly feel like he truly outshines the actual Pikmin. (Maybe he could if he gets all the upgrades but

YOU CAN FUCKIN MOVE BASES I'M FSBGFJKSHSAJKDLHS I WAS PRAYING TO THE GODS WE'D GET AN OPENWORLD PIKMIN GAME WITH MULTIPLE BASES AND IF THIS IS AS CLOSE AS WE GET I'M FINE WITH IT

The 20 pikmin in the overworld thing might feel super limiting after being used to squads of 100 piks in the previous games... But honestly I think it's a very inspired design choice! It makes it so the early game stuff can still wreck your shit if you're not careful. You can't just easily roll up with a squad of 100 piks on day 3 and destroy everything in your path. It allows for your in-game character to become progressively more powerful which I think is more satisfying in the long run

I love how you don't just automatically get the onion upon finding new Pikmin types. Makes them feel more precious. Basically: the wild pikmin mechanic is really neat! And it could allow for the return of Purple/Whites without feeling too unbalanced.

"Olimar is the fuckin leaf boy" basically confirmed. Question is: what's with Moss? My current theory is parasite pikmin are involved.

And speaking of... the wild pikmin mechanic means we could possibly get overworld bulbmin if they add them... if this happens, I imagine the entire fandom will go nuclear (in a good way)

If you look through the controls, the Form Line controls basically confirms that you will obtain some form of SWARMING as an upgrade!!! C-STICK FANS REJOICE (The text mentions cardinal directions only but I feel like the odds are high that you will be able to actually swarm your crew with this mechanic. I'd say 70-30 odds of it being true. Don't quote me on that. But if true, then fuck yeah)

Honeywisp is back 🥹

Collecting raw material is so much fun, and

I feel like this game is really leaning on fan service, but also manages to balance it with new things to make it feel fresh!

Someone said it felt like all 3 previous games mashed together and yeah I absolutely get that feeling

Very disappointed that they only have the co-op star bits thing. This game in genuine co-op would rule.

So far the music of the game doesn't quite strike me quite as strongly as the themes from the previous games. Hopefully this will change with time.

Is this game like... an alternate timeline to Pikmin 1? Moss was definitely NOT in Pikmin 1, and the story segment seems to hint that Olimar met Moss during that first crash... Giving the "bad ending" theorists more food IMO.......

This game really, really drags out the wait between Y/N landing on the planet and the first Pikmin huh. It felt a bit too much that you went through the first cave before even getting a single pikmin IMO.

I really like the crew in this game!! They're fun, though they do talk a lot and I could see that bothering some ppl.

Honestly I was super disappointed when I thought there were only 6 crewmates to find in the entire game... but then I found the first castaway and I was back to being excited

I like that you have a little base to meet ppl and discuss tasks!

One of the castaways I saved wrote notes on the Treasures I collected. This implies that we will probably get a biologist who will make notes on the creatures 👀

TL;DR: July 21st can't get here fast enough. The 2 hours or so I've played of this game is already my GOTY and it could genuinely challenge for GOAT (game of all time) if it sticks the landing with the rest of the game.

#pikmin 4 #pikmin 4 spoilers #might make more thoughts if I think them #anyway HYPE MODE ENGAGED #I will be normal (lie) for the next 4 weeks (absolutely not I am going feral)

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comma57 · 7 months

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devil may cry netflix show!?

hi everyone. welcome to my in-depth analysis of the upcoming devil may cry netflix anime. yesterday was the first time we got a look at what to expect visually. it was very short, but there's a lot to talk about. long, image heavy post ahead.

what's old?

firstly, let's briefly go over what we had known about the show before the trailer was shown. it's featuring dante (of course), and lady and vergil were confirmed to also make an appearance. so i had assumed it was a dmc3 adaptation, since it was unlikely to be post-dmc5. the first season would be 8 episodes long, with more seasons to come. the producer and co-writer is adi shankar, and is working with the producer for the original dmc and 2007 anime, hiroyuki kobayashi. (1)

here's a selection of quotes from some interviews with shankar, previously known for work on netflix's yasuke and other shows (something called "castle" "vania"). apparently he's working on a PUBG show too. okay.

"I've acquired these rights myself, so that the jabronies in Hollywood can't fuck this one up too." (2)

"Again, this was developed by a DMC fan for DMC fans, that was the ethos of this project. Production should start at the beginning of next year." (3)

"I feel like I can meaningfully contribute to the lore of the series. Devil May Cry has unique iconography and emotionally engaging lore." (4)

"The characters in DMC have an operatic depth and they experience growth across the series so it’s fun to – in a Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 3 kind of way – play with and explore that depth through the lens of psychological realism and dissect the trauma buried below the surface of that depth." (4)

"Devil May Cry.. will join Castlevania in what we're now calling the 'bootleg multiverse'. Let the speculation begin." (6) (i forgot he said this i'm so scared)

"You're a Vergil fan? Are you also a Thanos fan?" (6)

what's new?

with that awesome start out of the way, let's get into the new stuff. with no release date other than "soon", we know it's being animated by studio mir, a studio based in south korea ("anime" feels like a misnomer now but i won't get into that) and previously worked on legend of korra, voltron legendary defender, and star wars visions vol 2, to name a few.

hideaki itsuno, director of the dmc series since dmc2, tweeted that he was "supervising it properly!" (7)

there was also a promo for the netflix stream that showed ebony & ivory.. from the DmC reboot. which hopefully was a mistake. and that the reboot has nothing to do with the show.

here's the tagline for the show: "In this animated adaptation of the popular Capcom game, sinister forces are at play to open the portal between the human and demon realms. In the middle of it all is Dante, an orphaned demon-hunter-for-hire, unaware that the fate of both worlds hangs around his neck." aww, dante.

alright, now let's get into the trailer analysis..!! LET'S ROCK!!!!

dante..?

here's everyone's favorite devil hunter- wait. where is he? who is this? checks notes um. well. i guess this is supposed to be dante. white hair, red coat, twin pistols, confident smirk.. it has the key points of dante, but something is off OH GOD IS HE WEARING A SHIRT? (and suspenders??)

1. his shirt? now, in all other iterations of dante he wears a shirt yes. but fans of the series would know in dante's look in devil may cry 3, he very much doesn't wear a shirt. that iconic red jacket is the only thing standing between him and catching a cold in cerberus' icy chambers. not having a shirt tells a lot about dante as a 19 year old living on his own. who's got time for shirts? he just took a shower and a demon crashed into his office. he's only got time to put on his coat in a very cool and dramatic manner. but that's not the only thing different from his dmc3 design.

2. his hair. dmc3 dante's hair is nearing shoulder length, and is pretty flat. his bangs have a tendency to cover his eyes, but in the original game (not hd collection, which fucked with the textures), there was a bit of transparency. (8) of course i would not expect the same level of detail in animation regarding the hair, so some liberties must be taken. going forward acknowledging that when i further discuss his design, netflix dante's hair is totally different when it didn't have to be. his hair is much shorter, and kinda flares up in the back. it's more like lady's hair in that regard. his bangs are also totally different. with the middle part, it looks like much inspiration was taken from dmc5 dante's hair.

3. his coat. or whatever his shoulder pads that connect to the back of his coat (to hold his sword and pistols) are different. personally i feel they take up too much real estate on his coat's striking red. the shoulder straps are there for dmc3, but the back part of it looks inspired by dmc5 (minus the skull, sadly).

4. his amulet. if nothing else, this is what confirms it's an adaptation of dmc3 for me, since we haven't seen the amulet since dmc3, and chronologically, since dmc1. it went into the sparda, after all. i'm actually very happy it's visible on his neck, since in the game, it's only visible when he's coat-less (at the beginning of the game), or when it's relevant. otherwise it's tucked away. so here's the slightly concerning news. the amulet doesn't look like how it appeared in dmc1/3. in fact, it bears a closer resemblance to the reboot, with the brown string and lack of silver encasing. scary! that's scary!

5. his guns..? these don't look like ebony and ivory, seeing as they're the same color. but honestly that's intriguing to me. it's possible the show could cover what the pre dmc3 novel covers—how dante got his iconic twin pistols, and lost a friend in the process (nico's grandma, nell goldstein the gunsmith), which i would actually love to see how that would be done.

6. his sword (OR LACK THEREOF) WHERE IS REBELLION?! maybe he stuck it in a beast. it literally took me this long to realize it's not there. feels intentionally omitted. what happened to it..

7. his voice. he has a different voice actor. which is awesome because reuben langdon sucks shit as a person.

now, there is nothing wrong with a redesign! but i can't help but be disappointed. the art style is not my favorite so far concerning his ..face.. but i think his hair was truly the biggest loss, especially when dmc3 dante is my favorite. it just doesn't look like dante to me. it's always possible he'll change over the course of the show (lose the shirt and suspenders for one).. maybe he gets a haircut.. one can hope. and those pants man. lose the gray pants. dark brown looks better.

miscellaneous musings

the last section of this analysis is on all other visual elements besides dante's design. you might want to turn your brightness up for this part.

here's a shot of some industrial looking area—looks like cement floors, some crates and metal shelves. there's a table? a bench?? and a support pillar, which makes me think it's in some kind of warehouse, lit up with moonlight from windows. also dante disappears for a moment, only to reappear a moment later, which i want to believe is him using air trick. one can believe.

the first picture looks like a tail or something slamming into the wall, which dante was jumping to avoid in the shot. for the second and third pictures, something with a bat wing like appendage swings at dante, and it becomes veiny and much like a blade. there are no dmc3, much less any dmc enemies that this could belong to. i would place my bets on it being a new demon designed for the show, unless they are drawing from some other media (novels, 2007 anime) that i'm less familiar with the demons of. it could look cool, i'm always down to look at new demon designs.

and that's pretty much it! i hope you enjoyed reading this. i will be watching it when it comes out and will definitely have thoughts and strong opinions on it, and probably will more informally discuss any other promotional materials they may share.

(1) https://www.ign.com/articles/devil-may-cry-anime-scripts-done-multiple-seasons-dante-vergil (2), (6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i-bP9MSi0c (3) https://comicbook.com/anime/news/devil-may-cry-netflix-anime-producer-adi-shankar-update/ (4), (5) https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/11/adi-shankar-interview-devil-may-cry-anime-netflix (7) https://twitter.com/tomqe/status/1707071614423310754 (8) really recommend this video for those interested in how the hd collection differs from the ps2 originals. also catbus has done one on dmc1 too. general flashing warning bc it's dmc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USE6-uwB6gc

#dmb #PHEW. there's all that

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