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sally-mun · 4 years ago

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OKAY BITCHES ON TO PART 2!

Also don’t forget to check out Part 1 if you haven’t yet!

British

Okay so maybe it’s in poor taste to start the British section with dolls I’m not actually sure are British, but fuck it. The one on the left is a doll I’m reasonably sure I got from a British seller, and the one on the right seems to just be a scaled-up version of it, SO. That’s what I’m going with.

No joke, the left doll is my favorite Sonic plushie EVER. It’s so incredibly fluffy and the proportions are just right and it’s really well-made and AUUGHH I LOVE HIM. Interestingly the doll on the right is made of the same uber-fuzzy material, but it doesn’t have as much of a fluffy effect because of the larger scale. Also the shoe stripes are ribbons for some reason, which makes them stand out from all the other dolls.

So this is from a line of dolls that, as far as I’ve ever seen, are simply known as “Europe prize” plushies. I don’t know if they were actual prizes for some sort of game or claw machine or whatnot, but that’s how I tend to see them listed. These dolls are REALLY nicely made and incredibly cute, like way more than usual. I also have the Knuckles from this set, but he doesn’t live in this net so he’s not pictured here.

I know this line also included Sonic (obviously), Amy, and Shadow, but I’m not sure who else. I’d REALLY like to get the others someday, but I don’t have much hope for that, since they’re long since out of production and prices just keep going up as everyone cashes in on nerd collector culture.

This doll is fine enough on its own (if a bit fearful in the eyes), but what’s really odd about it is that it’s like literally twice as tall as the other dolls in its line, for some reason. I have the Sonic and Tails from this set, and their sizes both match each other, but for some reason Knuckles is a tall boi?? Oh well.

I believe this set also includes an Eggman doll, but I’ve never seen it before.

I wish I’d thought to showcase it better in this photo, but the tag on the bottom of Sonic’s right foot here is the real spotlight of this doll. I don’t know much about the background of this doll, but i know that tag on his foot is what distinguishes him from other Sonic dolls, and collectors go NUTS for this guy. I remember missing out on one years ago because the shipping was too costly (it’s always been rough importing from Britain, but it used to be a lot harder), and for a while I thought I’d never get one. Oddly this one that I did eventually nab is the only one I’ve ever seen with suction cups. I’d like to hope that one day I could get the one that doesn’t have them, but I’m not holding my breath.

Following the last doll, I’m sure a lot of you are immediately noticing that this Tails also has the tag on his foot, albeit a very faded one. This doll is also super odd, because EVERY other time I’ve ever seen this doll before, it has NOT had the foot tag! This one is the only one I’ve encountered with the tag, and I didn’t even know it had it until it arrived in the mail. This doll is also about 50% bigger than the Sonic doll with the foot tag, maybe he goes with the non-suction cup’d Sonic plushie? I don’t know off the top of my head how big that Sonic is supposed to be, so it’s possible! Or maybe these dolls have nothing to do with each other, and I bought some weird anomaly. Definitely one of the weirder Tails plushies in my collection.

Australian

EASILY the ugliest doll I will ever own, short of maybe obtaining the Tails that matches this set. (Trust me, the Tails is REALLY FUCKING UGLY.) I have such mixed feelings on this lil guy because, as many of you already know, this is one of the elusive Sega World Sydney dolls, which means it’s EXTREMELY rare and thus meant to be treasured... and yet holy shit guys how did you fail so hard on this doll. I mean FOR FUCK’S SAKE HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE SOCKS! OR FINGERS!! There were plenty of Sonic plushies in the world by the time this doll was created, and they all socks and fingers, let alone better designed faces. I dunno man, I don’t know how to reconcile how ugly this doll is.

And then there were two.

Those of you that’ve been following me for years have probably already seen these before, but fuck it, here they are again. The Sega World Sydney plushies are the ONLY official Sally plushies to exist, and like the Sonic one, it’s really difficult to reconcile how incredibly ugly they are. I mean I can at least cut them some slack with the faces I guess, because the one on the left isn’t terrible I suppose. I think the fact that she doesn’t have hands is really stupid, but I mean, if Sonic didn’t get fingers I guess I’m not surprised Sally didn’t either. No, the thing that really gets me about these Sally dolls is the hair. It’s hard to tell from this angle but it’s.... bad. Oh my god it’s so fucking bad. It looks like she had a bad incident with a weedwacker. WHO THE FUCK DID THEY HIRE TO DESIGN THESE PLUSHIES?!

Whatever, I don’t turn away official Sally merch. Vests exist for these dolls, but as you can see I don’t own them for either of these two. I do have a third, smaller Sally that DOES have her vest, but she doesn’t live in this net. Maybe another time!

More bad Sally hair, this time without legs because she’s a hand puppet. She probably has the worst hair of all of the Sally dolls I personally own, it’s very clumpy and matted. The others’ hair is at least still fluffy.

I’ll let the fact that she doesn’t have hands slide here, being a puppet at all, but even then it’s only because I’m feeling generous. There’s no reason she shouldn’t have had them.

SOOOO not technically a plushie, but it was in the net and I’m doing Sally items right now anyway, so fuck it. This is a mini-backpack, but the fabric is so furry that it’s pretty much impossible to get a clear picture. I left the strap there sticking out just to help give some idea of what shape you’re even looking at.

I can’t remember what I paid for this, and honestly I don’t care, because it’s so unique and I’ve never seen another one since.

Bootlegs

A friend of mine sent me this as a surprise a few years ago because he thought it was cute, and I definitely have to say it’s one of the more fascinating items in my collection. Most of the time bootleg merch is trying to imitate something official to confuse the buyer, but so far as I know this is completely original! I love it because it’s what I imagine Sonic would look like if he were an Animal Crossing character. The most bizarre detail of all, though, is that the tush tag has the logo for Detective Conan instead of Sonic the Hedgehog. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY.

This is a fake version of the Fang/Nack doll from Sonic the Fighters, but honestly, I don’t mind at all that it’s a bootleg because holy shit this doll is higher quality than some of my official ones! (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, SEGA WORLD.) According to the pictures I’ve seen, I think he’s actually even better quality than the original he’s copying!

It’s hard to describe just how nice this doll is, because the picture seriously does not do him justice. The stitching is perfectly clean, the proportions are absolutely perfect, the fabric is soft and high-quality, and oh my god the HAT!! The hat is AMAZING, it’s actually solid and holds its shape VERY well! The same goes for his tail too, on that note. Plushies with long tails tend to have trouble maintaining their shape, but this doll’s tail is really well done. He also has a much longer muzzle than most dolls of this time were willing to use, which again helps his proportion and overall accuracy. I don’t give one single shit that this doll isn’t official, I love him so fucking much! <3 <3 <3

Other Dolls

What can I say, I fucking LOVE Nick Wilde from Zootopia, and this is one of the best dolls of him I’ve ever seen. It’s actually really nicely made (they put a LOT of work into his shirt), and he’s very soft and huggable. Also, bless that smarmy expression, they got it just right.

Jumbo Tom Nook! This is the only jumbo plushie of him I’ve ever seen, so I’m glad I was able to nab it. The fabric is oddly shiny though, and I have no idea why?? I have several Tom Nook plushies from different doll lines, and I’ve never seen another one that’s shiny like this.

Decided to picture these guys together because why the fuck not. I apologize for the lack of clarity, but I’ve never been willing to open their bags. I want them pristine~

One thing I think is cool about the Undertale dolls is that there’s so much uniqueness put into each one. They all have differently shaped tags to reflect their individual personalities, and the plastic bags they come in have different patterns as well. The fabric patterns all completely unique to each one as well, so they’re not all clones of each other (especially with Papyrus).

You can actually still buy all of these guys right now on the Fangamer website! They’re pricey, but you get a quality that makes the price worth it, and you get a discount if you buy them together!

Vault Boy from Fallout, and for some reason I’m just now realizing that I don’t know what vault number is on his back. I feel like a terrible fan, FORGIVE ME. He has also never come out of his bag, so sorry for viewing difficulties here as well.

Companion cube ‘fuzzy dice’ for the car. This is one instance in which I have actually not used the car-related plushie in my car, as at the time I got this it was VERY difficult to get companion cube merch of any kind (these dice were actually a compromise with myself because I still couldn’t afford a regular cube), and after the work I put in to find these I definitely wasn’t going to risk them in my car! Just as well anyway, because they’re awfully big and would’ve been pretty cumbersome to look past.

...I did, however, put these in my car for a while. These are fuzzy D20 dice, because come on, if you’re going to hang dice in your car and have the option to use these, how can you not?? It definitely got a lot of compliments, even from people that simply saw them through the window. I didn’t even play tabletop games yet at the time, I just really liked them~

AAAAND THAT’S IT~ At least, that’s it for this net! Maybe I’ll do this again with the other nets sometime, if you guys would like to see more. I do have another one that also very much needs a dusting, so we’ll see!

Thanks for tuning in!!

#IT IS COMPLETE #I hope you guys like it!#please let me know what you think because this was a lot of work!

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fappellmoan · 5 years ago

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any pairing with "You want me to do what?” !

ok I finally finished this after like a month oops enjoy my first stab at boris/theo and have a lovely day!!!

read on ao3

“You want me to do what?”

It’s late into the hazy evening, far past the point of Boris and Theo running out on some crazy, lucrative adventure–and thank god, because Theo’s been muttering nothing happy for the last fifteen minutes as they passively watched a movie, until finally Boris interrupted his stream of consciousness.

“Paint my nails, Potter, is pretty simple, no?”

Theo meets him with a disgruntled, crumply face, ruined by the stolen bottle of Skyy at his side; his eyelids are practically glued but he’s pissy and argumentative even two steps from sleep. “Why the fuck do you think I’d have any nail polish?”

Boris throws back a, ‘Pah,’ and smacks around the floor loudly, stretching out to find his discarded coat, sitting up with a subtle aha in his face as he brandishes the bottle of black polish he’d found in the pharmacy earlier. Theo, thoroughly unimpressed, rolls his eyes.

“Why do you want it, anyway? Won’t your dad be mad?” he says thickly, muddling the English so poorly that a younger Boris would strain to listen. It’s a miracle he understands anything from Theo’s mouth on nights like these; nights when, with worse circumstances, he’d start bickering with some kid in the mall, perch himself dangerously high on the playground and lift his arms, (‘like Titanic, just for fun, idiot,’) or throw himself onto the first harsh surface he could find, leaving Boris to neatly sweep away the mess before would ever notice. Not that Boris ever minded; it was just silly, almost, to see him so wrecked from such small doses. And definitely scary when Theo had no regard for his life, and suddenly Boris was living for them both–the desire was hardly there anyway, but just enough with Theo on the line.

“Nah, he won’t be home.” Boris tinkers with the simple glassy container in his fingers, letting it roll on his palms and drop from hand to hand as a little game. “Like he would notice anyhow. Looks worse than you half the time, Potter.” He tosses it to an unresponsive Theo, and it lands in his lap, where he just stares for a few moments, spaced-out, before picking it up and uncapping it, gagging at the strong scent that immediately washes into the room. “Looks cool, right?”

Theo mumbles a half-hearted curse at him, then resolves to a, “Whatever. Come here.”

Theo’s funk settling in is nothing out of the usual for them; he starts the night wild and laughing at everything Boris says, school-girl giggling and clutching his arm, which is the perfect precursor to remind Boris why he has to keep them both afloat when shit falls apart a few hours later–when Theo cries, or pushes away, or mumbles self-hatred belonging to the real scum of the earth, those less self-conscious than Theo, those less deserving. All Boris can do is try to create a love he’s never known, really, but one the boy stupidly introduced him to.

And damn him to hell for that.

Boris scoots forward to be closer to Theo, who’s resting against his bed frame, on the floor, feet tucked up neatly under his thighs in the ‘applesauce’ position. Boris lets his legs stretch out on either side of him, sticks a shaky hand out, and tries to hold it up in the air alone, because he can’t see a world where he rests it on the boy’s leg and he doesn’t deck him.

Theo grabs Boris’s wrist sloppily with one hand, and tries to leave the bottle on the ground, dip the brush thing into it carefully, but his shaky disposition knocks it over, and he swears again; the liquid is slow-moving, at least, and he picks it up with only a small stain left behind as any proof. He starts with Boris’s pinky, leaning forward with much intent, but the brush is extra gloopy and it seeps into the skin of Boris’s finger. Theo pauses, tries to dig the paint out with his own nail, and is somehow shocked when it stains his skin. Boris grumbles a, ‘Bozhe moy,’ with a chuckle, and Theo wipes the garnish on the carpet and gets back to business.

Having a wildly-crossed Theo attempt to do this job is quite the experience, as he probably wouldn’t be so hot at it even sober, but like this–shit, it’s bad. Earlier, they had turned most lights off, wanting a break from the brightness and to ‘embrace the dark’ and some other depressing poetic bullshit philosopher-Theo was pulling out of his ass, and Boris had just laughed a ton and smacked the light switches down to appease him, so all Theo really had to go by now was the light of the television and the moon breaking through the curtains.

Theo slips again when he gets to Boris’s forefinger, groaning in frustration and glaring at his hand, as though it’s somehow its fault.

“Careful now, Potter, don’t make a mess,” he grins.

“Fuck you.”

To avoid the awful joke that crosses his mind, Boris lifts his head and clicks his tongue, shaking disapprovingly. “Mother tongue, Potter?”

Listening to drunk-Theo attempt to repeat fast Ukrainian or Polish or anything is one of Boris’s favorite pastimes, anyway–he can take advantage of the guy a little bit, alright?

“Fine, how do you say it?”

“Poshel na huy.”

“Cool, posh-el-nah-hoo-ey. Fuck off.”

“Aye, play nice,” Boris manages through a laugh, examining the blackened tips of his fingers. Theo follows the gesture of his hand with his eyes and yanks it back to finish up his thumb.

He’s very focused at this moment; holding Boris’s hand steady with his own similarly unsteady hand, trembling like the wings of a bee in front of both of their eyes; he’s staring at the messy polish caught on Boris’s bony, milky white fingers, and doing his best to just coat the nail and not the entire beds and knuckles surrounding.

As he moves onto Boris’s other hand, glazed eyes locking on their fingers caught in a tender gesture, Boris recognizes that he’s sort of, by some distant definition, holding hands with Theo. And it’s fucking strange.

Before, he’s woken up with Theo draped along his torso, or sniffling into his shoulder, or curled up in fetal-position after a night that left them with deepening violet bruises; but the boy annoyingly always forgets it, or at least he does not acknowledge it. These are the best nights of Boris’s life, times that make his heart pound and his mind come up with something other than visceral definitions of I love you, but they’re all long lost in Theo’s blackout habits.

Tomorrow, he’ll probably ask when Boris did this to himself, make fun of the fucked up nails, and move on. He won’t remember that he clung to Boris’s hand carefully, lifted his wrist to inspect and clean to the best of his ability, traced his fingers along the lines of his hands like they belonged as one.

But for now he’s fucking up Boris’s left hand and swearing to himself in Polish, which makes Boris smile a little–his pronunciation is far from perfect, but he’s murmuring words that Boris has said so offhandishly that he didn’t think Theo was paying attention, but he was. God, he’s an anomaly.

“There.”

Boris flashes all ten fingers in front of his face and lets his eyes sweep across. “They’re hideous, Potter,” he laughs, and then he notices that that fucker left one blank. He flicks his left middle finger up and says, “What is this about?”

Theo snorts and takes hold of the finger, strangely, and pulls it closer to himself. “It suits you.” He turns Boris’s hand over and trails his finger along his middle one over and over, pressing at the skin.

Boris shivers at the touch–it’s just a strange spot, alright–and grabs Theo’s wrist. He takes the polish and coats Theo’s left middle finger with it, pulls it closer, and blows. “You too.”

Slower than ever, Theo gazes at it, groans, and says, “You suck.”

“You more, idiot.”

And then they’re both cracking up laughing; and they sit with matching nails, matching bruises, matching dispositions to the world; and eventually they succumb to the moon and the stars and the gentle breeze of the night.

listen to my vegas playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/640TmiVg8X7xM3jTx69j31?si=BdoGbV1AQh2Z4eoyiqIE1w

#boreo #boris pavlikovsky #theo decker #the goldfinch #fanfiction #fic #mine #writing #prompts #asks #anon #my gay brain: the hands its about the hands

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killscreencinema · 6 years ago

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Final Fantasy XV (PlayStation 4)

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A Final Fantasy for fans and first timers... is the first words we’re greeted by as we boot up Final Fantasy XV, ya know, the one with a hunky all male cast of four who look like a K-pop band.

Though, to be fair, as far as equality in sexual objectification is concerned, it doesn’t take long before absurdly scantily clad ladies show up in the game in the form of Cindy, a friendly auto mechanic, with a distinct Southern twang, and a penchant for prominently displaying her decolletage*; and Aranea Highwind, a Dragoon and, I can only assume from her outfit, S&M enthusiast.

*To elaborate on this point, Cindy has a tendency to move in very unnatural ways during conversation, such as bending or leaning forward, like she’s practicing her Maxim cover pose, which serves no other purpose than give the player a good look at her cleavage. While this is an unfortunately common trope in anime and video games, it bugs me... not because for SJW reasons, more because NOBODY MOVES LIKE THIS!

Anywhoozles, I guess my point is that before this game was released, it seemed like there was a lot of bitching about the main boy band cast, but let Cindy and Aranea serve as reminders that Final Fantasy XV is an anomaly in an industry that normally caters predominantly to straight males.

End of rant - on with the review!

Final Fantasy XV, released by Square Enix in 2016, starts off with the main character, Noctis, crown prince of the kingdom of Lucia, setting off on a road trip with his buddies... his entourage if you will... as one last hurrah before he gets married to the lovely Lunafreya. While gone, though, the capital city of Insomnia is attacked by the evil Niflheim Empire, the king is assassinated, and a power Crystal is stolen for an unknown, likely destructive, purpose. To retaliate against the Empire, Noctis and friends travel the countryside in search of the Royal Arms, powerful relics left by previous Lucian kings, as well as the blessings of the godlike Astrals in order to gain their assistance in the battle ahead.

Say what you will about the bro-ness of it all, the plot is nice and simple, with a fairly clear goal and memorable if somewhat archetypal characters. Noctis is the reluctant hero with a destiny; Ignis is the snoody intellectual; Gladio is the surly tough guy; and Prompto is the wisecracking lovable loser - the “Ducky” of the group, if I can borrow a reference to Pretty in Pink that only people may age will maybe get. We’ve seen these characters in hundreds of other stories, but darn it if these protagonists don’t have a charming dynamic with each other that makes bantering fun to listen to (although it gets repetitive as they’ll often repeat the same conversation loops throughout the game - I can’t tell how many times I’ve heard Prince Noctis suddenly whine that it’s too hot before Gladio curtly replies, “Then lose the jacket.”).

The only character I didn’t feel worked as well is the villain Ardyn. He looks douchey enough, with his MRA fedora and an outfit that looks like a Goodwill vomited on him, but I never felt like I had a clear understanding of his motives nor his connection to Noctis, until its the information is dumped at the climax of the game, and even then, I could barely hear what the hell anyone was saying because the music drowned out the dialogue. What I could glean of Ardyn’s motivation seemed kind of weak though. The moment you meet Ardyn, he seems like a harmless weirdo who wants to help, but everyone in the Noctis’ party is immediately wary of his intentions for no real reason except the video game knows he’s the villain. I feel like reveals such as this are more effective the closer the villain is personally to the protagonist. Had Ardyn been a trusted chancellor of Noctis’ father, and even a beloved mentor for the prince, masquerading as an ally and one of the few survivors of the Imperial attack, only to betray Noctis as a crucial moment (along the lines of what happens in Altissa that seals the deal as far as Ardyn’s role in the story goes), then I would have felt more investment in this conflict. Such as it is, I didn’t really give a shit and that’s kind of where the story slowly fell apart for me.

What I did enjoy all the way through was the gameplay. This entry of Final Fantasy dispenses with turn-based combat altogether, instead leaning hard into full-on real time fighting reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts. While it’s fast paced and fun, the Final Fantasy fanboy in me still misses the good ol’ fashion slap fight combat the series was built on. I certainly hope this style of fighting isn’t going to be what we get for the FF7 remake.

One of my favorite aspects of the combat is how summons work in the game. As you build alliances with Astrals, you can call on them during battles to assist you with a massive attack so powerful it leaves total devastation in the surrounding environment (which is a beautiful touch). However, you can summon them at will, as the option to summon them only pops up if you meet certain requirements during battle. For example, if Noctis’ HP is critical and the battle has been going on too long, you may or may not get the option to summon Ramuh (the wizardy lightening god). While it’s good that the player can’t use these summons whenever they want, as it would GREATLY Nerf the challenge level of the game (these attacks will often end any boss fight instantly), it’s also rather frustrating figuring out how to trigger the summon if only so you can see the cool animation. Thank goodness for YouTube, I guess!

I really dug the familiar modern aesthetics of our world mixed with a fantasy setting of Lucis. This is nothing new in the Final Fantasy series, as both Final Fantasy 7, and to a larger degree FF8, both effectively achieved this mix. Speaking of which, the overall throwback to earlier FF games are nice, such as the idea of an evil Empire equipped with magical technology that they use to dominate the world ala Final Fantasy VI (my personal favorite of the games btw). Seeing Magitek engines and troops with modern graphics almost makes me pine for a remake of Final Fantasy VI... though I worry such a thing might take the magic out the experience of playing the 16-bit game.

Anyway, while I liked the world of FF 15... I feel like we barely scrape the surface of it. Whereas in nearly every game in the series you are eventually able to travel the entire world at will, visiting every nook and cranny, with Final Fantasy XV, you’re limited to Noctis’ kingdom of Lucis, a watery Venice-like city called Altissa, and... that’s about it. It just feels very, very... small. Also there are invisible barriers, and in a post-BOTW world, this is unacceptable. Granted this game was probably already nearly complete by the time of Breath of the Wild’s release, nevertheless, games like Skyrim and the entire Elder Scrolls series existed and had little to no invisible barriers. So my point is this: invisible barriers are obsolete. If you consider you game “open world”, artificial barriers shouldn’t exist. I should be able to jump my Chocobo over a goddamn road barrier like I’m Evil fucking Kenieval, not suddenly have my leap impeded by nothing, forcing me to find a more inconvenient, circuitous route to my destination.

Anyway, once you begin getting used to the overworld, at some point during the story, the game thrusts you on “rails” and it’s good-bye open world, hello unwelcome Final Fantasy XIII style corridor gameplay. You can go back to the open world at any point, but that doesn’t make finishing the game any less of a tedious slog. The game’s momentum comes to a HUGE halt once Noctis is completely separated from his friends and is left wandering the bland, dark corridors of an Imperial lab for what feels like a goddamn eternity.

So I guess what I’m saying is Final Fantasy XV, an otherwise excellent game, really shits the bed at the climax, but is ultimately still worth checking out.

#final fantasy #final fantasy xv #final fantasy 15 #noctis #gladio #prompto #ignis #rpg #jrpg #role playing games #square enix #ps4 #playstation 4 #sony #video games

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kapsbrakclapsback · 8 years ago

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Dreammaker, You Heartbreaker (1/?)

I’ve got chapter 1 of the Breakfast At Tiffany,s AU! It’s also on AO3. But here it is! Based on @takealottodragmeawayfromreddie‘s awesome idea.

The lost man moves with a purpose, walking with a fashionable black evening coat paired with a coffee to-go and a Danish, the oil of the pastry leaving dark yellow-gray stains on the white paper bag. Sunglasses stand on the bridge of his nose, and no passerby can read his story from his eyes because of them. The city feels awfully tall as it surrounds him, but as big as the world around him is, he can still hear the soft taps that his slightly worn but high end shoes make on the pavement below him.

Maybe he’s been walking for hours, maybe minutes. We don’t know, and it’s not even clears if he knows. Nonetheless, he stops, sure in his halted step as he makes a sharp turn to face the large, shiny shop window. He takes a sip of the bitter coffee and just lets himself look.

Everything about it gleams. Tiffany's was like heaven as imagined through children's books, full of sparkle and shine. The shine itself takes on a new, indecipherable meaning in the kind light of the 7 am rising sun.

He takes a bite of his Danish and lets his head tilt in fascination, Let’s his concealed eyes scatter about the magic charm of it all. He wonders for a second if he should take the glasses off, but remembers that his hands are full and decides that he probably couldn’t comprehend Tiffany's if he got to view it in its unshaded glory.

This is god, he thinks. This is salvation, this is heaven. Nothing bad can happen here.

He gives himself a few more moments to heal, to let the power of Tiffany's and all of its glittering diamonds seep into his soul. Then, he pulls his eyes away from it, and begins the walk to his apartment building, falling into step with the collage of New Yorkers until he is more part of the pavement than he is an individual.

——

When Eddie got out of his impossibly bright yellow taxi and pulled out his suitcase (the rest of the boxes were to come later, he'd been told), he took a moment to stand on the sidewalk and just look.

He gazed at the way that the city popped and whirred to life around him, like some grey-brown toy store. Everything around him was tall, com the buildings to the pedestrians, but Eddie had been short for a long enough time to know that the feeling was to be expected in most new places. People of all types passed him as he let his gaze travel across every surface. Despite the circumstances, he felt freedom burn in his throat, felt it sear behind his eyes.

He heard the taxi drive away, but didn’t tear his eyes away from the cityscape. It was only when some gruff shoulder knocked against Eddie's, and he was pulled back to earth. After taking a moment to collect himself, Eddie walked out of the flowing sidewalk and onto the steps of the apartment building.

Before walking in, he reached into his pocket for the key that would let him into the set of hallways to get to his room. When it wasn’t in his right jacket pocket, he checked the left and then the right again. Panic grew, blossoming into a fire when there was no unchecked pocket and no key to the building, only to his apartment.

He took a breath in and another one out, but the effort was futile. He still felt like he was on the verge of combustion when he decided to just ring up a room to ask to be let in.

Eddie let himself into the lobby-of-sorts of the apartment building (it was a mostly blank room consisting of a board and a locked door), and tried to cool the panic stirring up in his lungs with a long breath. He took note of the inhaler in his back pocket to calm himself before settling himself before the board of his destiny, as his occasionally fantastical mind referred to it.

Sufficiently convinced that he could handle the next set of events, whatever the hell they were, Eddie stared at the grid of pearly white buttons. He let the pads of his fingers trail softly over them, the romantic streak in his mind looking at the possibilities hidden in it. His hand, of its own accord as far as Eddie's concern, drifted to the mid-left of the broad board. He took a look at the room number, just to be sure (it was E4, and the number/letter pair burned itself into his mind with a crisp harshness. He supposed it was a result of his heightened emotion). Finally, he put his index finger on the button and pushed firmly, leaving no room for hesitation.

The piercing, alarm like sound was unpleasant for him, but he persisted until whoever was on the other end answered back.

"Who is this?" asked a rough voice, raspy with sleep. Eddie smiled despite himself, glad that he actually got a response.

"Eddie, Eddie Kapsbrak. I just moved in, and I don’t have my building key. Could you let me in?"

"What time is it?" Based on the slow, fatigued rhythm of the voice on the other end, Eddie presumed that he had only heard about half of what he had said. A yawn could be heard through the rickety speaker, further solidifying the tiredness of the man in E4.

"10:30, if my watch is anything to go by," said Eddie, carefully stepping around his words, making sure they were slow and not too rambling. He still felt the panic itch beneath his skin, but began to put on the most calm, collected face he could.

"Shit! Do you have a bottle of water, by any chance? I have an appointment and I can't turn myself into a man worthy of New York this quickly without help."

The request was odd, but Eddie still peeked into his satchel to check, and smiled lightly when he found an unopened bottle.

"I’ve got water. Room E4, right?"

"Absolutely. Come on up."

Eddie heard a click, and strode towards the door, feeling optimism beneath his feet. He pushed the door to the building open with ease- it wasn’t not the grand, decorated door at the building's front, this one was thinner and had a weaker knob- and he held his case, letting it swing back and forth as he made his way down a hall and up a flight of stairs. He followed this pattern until he reached the fifth floor. He let his free hand trail on the painted white banister by his side, but quickly retracted it at the feeling of dust beneath his fingertips.

He stopped in place, holding his hand mid-air to figure out what to do about the dust. He could feel the tips of his fingers begin to itch, and he had read enough about dust to know its dangers. Before Eddie could take a second to think, he jerkily wiped it off on the front of his jacket, before realizing that he had basically just transferred the dangerous substance from his skin to another place on his body.

Idiot, idiot, idiot, he thought, berated himself with a venomous tongue. Eddie then used his palm to make brushing movements on the coat to get as much of the dust off of it as necessary before pulling out some hand sanitizer from a pocket inside his coat.

He put a copious amount of the aloe vera scented jelly on his hands, and scrubbed with veracity as he continued walking, stilted and distracted, his attention focused on purging the dust from his vicinity. His mind began cycling through the possibilities, but was interrupted as he gave a glance to the placard next to a door, and was shocked out of his illness infested reverie with the realization that he was a few rooms away from E4.

E1 may have looked the same as E2 which looked the same as E3, but E4 was an anomaly, a misfit among the uniform set of doors. First, there was a welcome mat, and a well used one at that. There were scrapes of dried mud, and the corner was stained with a faded crimson color, probably red wine. There were some words printed on it, but they were worn past readability. Eddie knocked three times, keeping a borderline musical pattern to them. He didn’t get a response for a long enough time that he moved his hand to knock again, but he was interrupted as the door was swung open, revealing the man who lived in E4.

Eddie found his breath taken away, but not in the way that he was used to. The man was dressed in a tuxedo shirt that was a few sizes too big (on second thought, it probably didn’t even belong to him) and a novelty sleeping mask pushed onto his forehead. The mask was rose pink with shiny gold eyelashes, and it must’ve been either a gag gift or a party favor. He was lanky, with wild, dark hair that curled around in effortless twirls. There was a smattering of freckles around his nose and cheeks, and he had cheekbones that made Eddie want to collapse in the middle of the hallway.

The amount of time it took for Eddie to find himself helplessly infatuated with him was about the same amount of time as it took for the man to collect himself from his slumber just enough to groggily open his mouth.

"D’ya have the water, Eds?" he asked, voice dragging and low.

"Don’t call me Eds," Eddie responded without thought, shaking himself a bit as he grabbed the water out of his satchel and handing it to the guy, who grabbed it with a heavy hand and casually beckoned Eddie inside.

"Hey, what’s your name?" Eddie asked, stepping in after him carefully, putting his satchel and suitcase next to the doorway.

"Richie Tozier's my name, and breaking hearts is my game," slurred Richie, smiling to himself at some hidden memory, before uncapping the water and taking a deep, long drink. Eddie felt his heart twinge in an odd, bitter way.

Richie continued to drink, and Eddie took a look around his apartment.

E4 was as unusual on the inside as it was on the outside, as it was simultaneously cluttered and empty. There was a nice couch which had just been slept on, if the blanket and pillows were anything to go by, but it was paired with the oddest side table Eddie had ever seen. It was misshapen and crooked, like a shop class project gone wrong. Curled at a leg of the side table was a tan-colored cat, who slept peacefully.

"You have a cat?" Eddie asked, eying the pet with wariness, remembering a specifically scarring testimonial he read about a claw scratching out an eye that had made him swear off pets when he first read it in college.

"Yep. His name's Cat," Richie answered, putting down the bottle and moving to the other side of the living room. There, he pulled off the eye mask and placed it on top of a stack of newspapers.

"Short for Catherine? Nice pun."

"No, he’s just Cat. As in the animal. He’s a free spirit, doesn’t need a name. We're kindred spirits, him and I. I barely have a name myself," explained Richie, his voice becoming floaty as he became a bit more alert. He grabbed a hairbrush from the seat of a wooden rocking chair, and began to casually run it through his hair as he rambled.

"How can you barely have a name? Everyone has a name, whether they like it or not," said Eddie, following Richie as he moved to get something from his bedroom. He leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, as he watched Richie fish around for something.

"What if someone is called by everything but their name? What if people just point at them and start talking? They don’t really have a name," said Richie, as he found what he was apparently looking for at the bottom of a small basket. He held up the glinting slip of metal victoriously, and on second sight, Eddie realized that it was a jeweled clip.

"Well then, I guess their name is just 'Hey you', or the name that they introduce themselves as. You can’t just not have a name."

"Maybe so," replied Richie, lackadaisical and gorgeous in the pink lampshaded lights of his room. He peered into a mirror and slipped it into his hair, before grabbing a wide brimmed hat on his bedside table. An easy silence followed, before curiosity stirred in Eddie once more.

"So, what’s with the rush? What big event warrants all of..." Eddie trailed off, trying to find the right word for the flurry of hair clips and clutter that was this whole event, before finally choosing to make a noncommittal hand gesture as he said "this".

"I’m seeing Sally Tomato, and visiting hours are tight. He’s in Sing Sing right now, and I’ve got to give him the weather report," said Richie as he finished his sentence by moving into the adjoining bathroom.

"Sing Sing? The jail?"

Richie stuck his head out of the bathroom doorway to answer, and it was so cartoonish and peculiar that Eddie felt the corners of his mouth turn up, almost against his will.

"You know, I always thought that Sing Sing should be the name of an opera house," said Richie, and he then left Eddie's sight again. Eddie, however, could hear strains of an impression of an opera singer through the distance. It wasn’t a refined mimic, as the voice drifting through the doorways was more Richie's than anyone else’s, but it held an odd charm.

Richie then darted out of the bathroom, arms outstretched as he searched for something on the floor. He paused to look up at Eddie, staring bemusedly down at him.

"I’m looking for shoes, nice black ones. Shiny. You’ll know it’s mine if there’s a white line on the sole, it’s how I keep track of them at parties," he then dived under his bed, and Eddie decided not to contemplate on parties that required an absence of shoes and instead went looking.

There another stretch of silence, now accompanied with the musical sounds of shuffling through a messy bedroom, before Eddie spoke up again.

"You mentioned a weather report. What’s the deal with that?"

"Well, my good old friend Sally passes along messages with another one of my jail visitor friends. They’re always weird things, but never funny enough, which is a real shame. I mean, if you’re just going to tell each other the weather, might as well make it fun, right? But my little Sun-Dried Tomato wants me to quote verbatim, like some kind of fuckin' Latin teacher. It’s ridiculous, but what can you do? I mean, one time I- Found it! Got one shoe out of two. Any luck, Eds?"

Eddie tried to will the cobweb off of his left hand while making a sad gesture with his right.

"No luck whatsoever."

Richie, in that moment, seemed to be hit with some divine inspiration, looking past Eddie at a rickety wardrobe.

"Can you reach deep, deep in the clothes part of the wardrobe? I think Bev may have pulled something. That’s her usual stash space."

"Is Bev in Sing Sing too?" asked Eddie as he followed the instructions, his palm touching the (dusty, so ridiculously dusty) back wall of the wardrobe as he fanned it across to find the shoes. Richie was laughing softly at something Eddie couldn’t decipher when Eddie's hand hit the trademark stiff leather of a nice shoe, and he grabbed it with confidence, pulling them out victoriously.

Richie gave a cheer, and Eddie threw it across the room. Richie's catch was successful despite Eddie's inability to aim, and Richie disappeared back into the bathroom. Eddie, officially in the bedroom of a guy he had just met, took a deep breath and looked around.

This was an unknown feeling, the feeling of newness as it crashed its waves on him. He breathed it in, let himself soak in the unfamiliarity of it, until he was interrupted by the squeaking of door hinges. He looked to the door of the bathroom, and felt himself drown.

If Richie was beautiful in sleepwear and an eye mask, he was absolutely breathtaking in his streetwear.

His outfit, a semi-casual suit with a wide brimmed hat, was a fascinating sort of elevated normalcy. Richie himself, Eddie realized, was a sort of elevated normalcy. He had routines and schedules and everything that made Eddie dread daylight, but every movement was accompanied by a panache that was addicting.

"Do I look okay?" asked Richie, doing a goofy twirl.

"Yeah, I guess," replied Eddie, closing his dropped jaw and trying to play it cool. Richie rolled his eyes, smiling brightly as he pushed past the blushing Eddie, who followed his path as it led both of them into the hallway.

Finally, there Eddie stood, a changed man in the cramped quarters of the carpeted hallway in his new apartment building, the man of his dreams on his way out. Richie's back was turned as he flitted down the hall, swinging a bag with one hand and adjusting his hat with the other, and Eddie called out to him.

"Hey, Richie!"

Richie turned around, somehow looking both hopeful and afraid.

"See you around," said Eddie, and he smiled as Richie gave a soft wave.

Richie turned back, and Eddie swiveled to the direction of his room, feeling something warm and sunny grow in him.

#it (2017) fanfiction #reddie #richie tozier #eddie kapsbrak #the group chat is prob mad at me because i still haven’t written the legally blonde au but #hope this makes up for it

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floralbfs · 6 years ago

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WIP Ask Game!

thank u anon!!!!

1: Summarize your WIP in 10 words or less.

orphan gains powers, gets adopted by alien, saves the world.

2: Post a line from your WIP with no context.

'There's a whoosh of air, and Leo suddenly hears a voice he never thought he'd ever be able to hear again.'

3: Does your WIP have a title? If so, explain its significance. If not, what are you calling it for now?

Okay so I have been calling it the Youtuber Superhero AU (because it started as a fandom au but then i made it an original!!) but I thought maybe it could be "Thicker than Water", since my MC, Leo, is an orphan and he lives alone for most of his life (most of his life lmao at least until canon point? read also: around 9-11 years when in canon he's like 19?) in a remote, lowkey magical place/dimension?, but ultimately he comes back to his hometown and creates a family for himself!!!! i won't give spoilers but, since i already said this, part of his found family is his adoptive dad, an alien who is also a superhero!! If not TtW, I would call it maybe,,,,, Moonstone???? at least the first book!!! (ooh, maybe TtW can be the series name and Moonstone the first book's name?) because Leo kind of gets his powers through a moon stone????? it's not actually moon stone; it was a strange rock he found in the magical dimension that seeked out a champion for the god Huitzilopochtli??? and the closest word Leo could get for it was Moonstone, because of its uhhhhh singular qualities!

4: Describe the setting of your WIP.

OKAY, this is a fun one!!! Leo's hometown is named Star Nova, idk why it just seemed cool, and it is a futuristic city!!! They don't follow capitalism Because I Said So, and they're really into, like, environmental stuff!!! So you'd see SO much flora all over the city kshdsjfh like those???? idk what they're called but like the towns overridden with plants? but controlled!!! There's a tiny percentage of the population (tho I still haven't decided if this is worldwide?? I have a way to make it worldwide but idk) who have superpowers, either due to "individual" factors (e.g Leo's powers are bc of the moonstone, and Matthew(his dad)'s powers are due to him being an alien!) or were affected by a weird experiment an Evil Corporation™ were doing; ECtm was trying out an illegal experiment that could alter living beings' genetics to their will, but it went wrong and their substance exploded and went airborne. Those who were working on it knew about its risks and toxicity, ergo they were wearing a special suit and weren't affected, but the gas contaminated and ??mixed?? with the air and spread to the nearest city, Star Nova (the unofficial capital of the Joint Pacific Nations) and affected a Whole Lot Of People!!! this all happened a while before canon, and the corporation got away with it bc they were filthy rich basically. Anyway, a lot of the people who were affected to the "virus" reacted negatively and died, some were uhhh """immune"""???, and a few Seemed to be immune but had actually had a successful celular-level bonding with the substance! It didn't do anything to them, but their children/grandchildren were born with physical or mental anomalies, also known as super powers (gasps)!!!! BUT!!! a lot of the story happens in the magical city of Coatl (it means serpent!), located within a pocket dimension somewhere inside the Mexican southern forest, where Leo finds himself when he's four years old, recently orphaned, guided by a magical ....bird....being....? he lives there for around eleven years, and he's granted Huitzilopochtli's Champion's power once he's like. Not A Baby lmao. Coatl is.... kind of like,,,,, an Olympus, I guess? Only those with like the destiny to find it know where it is, and they can lead other people there if it's for good causes! It's almost like a sentient city, and the Aztec gods kinda. chilled there???? my theory is that a lot of religious mythologies exist, at least in this universe, and they all co-exist on earth, or pocket dimensions inside of it!!! anyway, Leo lived there and was basically raised by gods???? and an AI???? bc i love AIs???? and uhhhh i think that got away from me ajdhsjdhsj does all of this even count as setting??? am i missing anything????

5: Search for the word “knife” in your WIP. If you find it, paste the line and explain the context.

no knives sadly :( i guess i haven't reached Those Scenes yet???? tho there should be one in the first chapter….. my wip document is just kind of very messy ajdhsjdjsjdh i might just have to make a new document????

6: Search for the word “dream” in your WIP. If you find it, paste the line and explain the context.

???????????? why am i not using any words?????????? sorry :/

7: What are you most proud of?

probably the worldbuilding and characters (at least those with superpowers? maybe i should say superpowers period)!!!!! they're very complex and thought-out????? and i THINK they're original!!!!! so!!!!! ＼(￣▽￣)／

8: What is your biggest challenge?

oooooof,,,,,,,, probably..... getting an actual plot lmao????? like i have an overall view of my would-be first and second books, but i don't know if they actually have enough to them to be written as they are?????? like… idk if the conflict is really like??? worthy to be a Main Conflict™????

9: How would you describe your writing style?

oooooooh uhhhhh maybe….. flowery prose???? i'm a poet at heart, so if i don't use loads of metaphors and language uhhhh idk their name in english but language variators??? i will literally die. but seriously nsjdhsjdhsjfh nothing too serious!!!! most of my “”””angst”””” scenes are….. not so sad, i think skfjsjfj

10: How would you describe your WIP’s narrative style? (1st person, 3rd person, multiple POVs, single POV, alternating chapters, etc.)

oh!!!! well, i think it'd be multiple povs, alternating chapters, third person???? i'm still not sure whether to use 1st or if i already have??? p sure that's a different wip i'm thinking about tho

11: Which character do you have the most in common with?

uhhhhhhhhhhhh seeing how underdeveloped she is right now??? probably Persephone???? bc she's genderfluid skfjsjfjdjfh or uhhhh Scott??? bc i too love leo with my heart and would die for him and stay with him in the afterlife. (hypothetically, of course….)

12: Which character do you have the least in common with?

Maeve, probably!!!! she's, uh…. Something.

13: Your characters are stranded on a deserted island. What happens?

They Are All A Mess. akfhajfjajfj Matthew would probably become the leader and like. establish order and shit???? but he's also the hugest nerd so he'd just give the leader role to someone else (probably seph staine?) and goes exploring and cataloging shit skfhsjfhdjf Leo is probably the most resourceful one of the bunch, so he would immediately like. start planning for huts and food and stuff???? also idk if they would have their powers in this situation cause it'd be too easy to get them all out of there????? but let's just say they do but the island is inescapable by flight?? he can talk to animals, so he could communicate with the local fauna and like form alliances???? Seph is a good leader, so he'd probably like….. keep everything in check???? and Leo's friends are all good and resourceful, so they'd make a good team!!!! tldr they basically create order immediately and do their best to not struggle??? after a few days/weeks, some of them start to like. break down? but the adults are like. wise and shit??? and i'm pretty sure at least one of them is like a licensed therapist??? so they help each other out uwu

14: Have you chosen birthdays for any of your characters? If so, when are they?

oh!!!! only for a few!!!! Leo and Maeve's birthday is on March 25, Scott's birthday is on August 27, Matthew doesn't really have a birthday??? because time is different in his planet????, Percy and Persephone's birthday is somewhere in November, and uhhhh im p sure that's all i got akfjsjfjsj i suck at birth dates

15: Do you know your characters’ MBTI personalities?

GOD, no. maybe i should do their tests???👀

16: What would your characters be for Halloween?

Leo… doesn't believe in/care for Halloween, as he didn't grow up around it, but it's totally Scott's jam!!! they are dirt poor in a good first half of the book, though, so they can't really dress up :( they met in the library, and after (spoiler alert!!!) scotty's death, Leo feels it appropriate to dress up as Scott's fave characters every year. Percy and Persephone are (very weak) shapeshifters, so their costumes ROCK!!!!! they always do matching costumes, so they get cliché pair costumes!! Matthew….. uh. he is… way too old for that. he was literally alive before Halloween was even a thing, so it's not really his thing. Leah just……. does her own thing??? she can see ghosts, so she sometimes does like historical costumes and stuff with their help!!! and Ben…. oof tbh that depends on what his fave song/album/whatev is at the moment??? he kinda creates like a story/aesthetic for them and dresses up that way!!!!

17: Does your WIP have any themes or motifs?

uhhhh found family, definitely!!!! i really can't think of any bc i'm an idiot, but uhhhh intelligence??? if that's a thing??? like,,, they're all powerful and shit but it's also like. brains over brawns????

18: What’s easier, dialogue or description?

i think description!!!! neither of them are… hard??? but!!! description is like…… where i can go hog wild akfjskfjsjfb

19: Post a picture or gif that describes your WIP.

20: Post a brief excerpt.

Leo @Leoberry

You asked, I answered. New Q&A video is now up!

[3k retweets, 10k likes, 9k replies] 20 min. ago

[My First Q&A- video transcription excerpt]

[Leo Berry, a nineteen-year-old brunette guy with green eyes, wearing a red shirt with a lightning symbol on it that's loose on his muscular form, waves at the camera and smiles widely, dimples showing up on his cheeks.]

Leo: Hey, guys. You've been asking me to do a Q&A for a while, and the day has finally arrived! I told you to ask me questions on Twitter with the hashtag #AskBerry, and I've picked a few!

[Leo smiles brightly and lifts up his cellphone.]

Leo: First off, here's one by @razzberry- nice username, by the way-: “what's your cat's name? Do you have more than one?”

[The video shifts, and there's suddenly two cats sitting on Leo's arms: a large, orange cat quickly falling asleep on his shoulder, and a black kitten hugged in his arms.]

Leo: I do! This little fella-

[He gasps as the kitten in his arms struggles to get free and runs off-camera.]

Leo: Don't leave me! Okay, that little fella is Onyx, and, as you can see, he doesn't like me very much. Anyway, this little gal asleep over here…

[He points toward a small orange cat sleeping on his shoulder.]

Leo: ...is Tigress! She's my little baby. You've probably seen her around a lot on my vlogs, since she really likes to hang out on my bed.

Leo: Next! @Honeybats asked: ‘“is it true your dad is Jade?”

[Leo smiles and, after a few seconds of trying to school his features, bursts out laughing.]

Leo: You mean to ask whether my dad is Matlal Jade, the greatest superhero of our era?

Leo: ...Well, yeah! My dad- [more laughs] my dad is totally my Jade. His name is Matthew, and I keep asking him to fly me to school. He says it's not funny!

[He sobers up for a second.]

Leo: Jokes aside, he adopted me a few years ago and he'll always be a superhero in my eyes. I was in a really dark place when he found me, and I can't thank him enough for all that he's done for me.

[Leo looks away for a second and loses his smile. The video cuts and skips again, and Leo appears once again, this time sporting an easy smile and a blue shirt, this one tighter around his shoulders.]

Leo: things got a bit too deep! This one was sent by @shazhangs: “are you dating anyone at the moment?”

[Leo laughs.]

Leo: God, no. I mean, I'm not really a people person, you know? And I’ve been so focused on work, vlogging, and, uh, extracurriculars, that I really haven't had any time to socialise.

[Leo laughs again.]

Leo: This one comes from @perspartone: will you collab with any other youtubers anytime soon?

Leo: Yeah, sure! I don't think I have done any videos with other people in the past, so it'd be a fun thing to do! I just have to find a friend first.

[Leo laughs loudly.]

[End of excerpt. For viewing of the video, refer to Leo Berry on Youtube, and find the full transcription here at DailyBerries in a few hours.]

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