#like maybe the reviewer would have the same reaction to white kids. but i do not know!! and i dont like it!!

[crimeronan]

there's a place in my neighborhood where a lot of kiddos hang out because there are a couple cheap restaurants & convenience stores open late without any bars/age-restricted venues nearby. it's extremely well-lit and by several busy roads and one of the safest places i've gone when walking at night & the kids have always been extremely chill towards me. so i was completely flummoxed today by a review of a business there that says it's in a """sketchy area""". until justice pointed out that it's definitely BECAUSE the kiddos are there that this random asshat thought the area was sketchy.

.......if you are genuinely afraid of a bunch of sixteen-year-olds minding their own business in an incredibly well-lit parking lot. then like. i truly do not know how to help you.

Git Gud....????

[saltygilmores]

Thoughts While Watching Gilmore Girls, Season 2, Episode 7 ("Like Mother, Like Daughter") 

The episode opens with Rory and Lorelai insulting each other's taste in music.

LOL, poor Dido, what did she ever do to you Lorelai? #IWantToThankYouu

Dido reference AND a Discman in the first 5 minutes of the episode. Be still my little Millennial heart.

Rory sitting down to enjoy two slices of white bread with no filling (served on fine china) is one of my favorite moments from this series and another fine example of Rory's bizarre eating quirks. Given that in a previous episode Rory was practically eating a Thanksgiving meal in the cafeteria, this must be some sort of special theme day at Chilton. Prison Lunch Day. Or Public School Lunch Day. Rory's Two Slice Tuesday is unfortunately interrupted by the guidance counselor looking to have a little chat. GC won't say why she needs to see Rory but she needs to see her as soon as possible, then tells her this discussion is going to be long enough to make her late for her next class. I once again am envious of Rory's visible lack of anxiety/blissful naivete. I want to live in the clouds like Rory does. No "We need to talk, but not yet, and I won't tell you why, so eat your lunch and just let the anticipation stew the whole time" in the history of ever has had a good outcome but Rory is just smiling and strolling along her merry way and somehow not hurking up her Prison Sandwich. I had such a visceral reaction to this one-time, unimportant Guidance Counselor character that my review began to turn into something of a trauma dump and I had to reign it in, a bit. As a 12-14 year old whenever I saw a "counselor" or school psychologist approaching to "have a little chat" while I was alone (because I was being tortured by bullies and deeply depressed and these same psychologists were doing fuck all to combat it), and they would always use that same sickly sweet, phony, passive aggressive voice and language like this lady here. My fight or flight response would kick into high gear.

Rory Gilmore? OUR Rory Gilmore? Social behavior? Not Tristan? Or Paris?

Alright lady, you need to leave my poor friendless girl alone. Let her chill alone with her bread slices and fruit cup and her novels and let her listen to Dido on her Discman without interference.

Oh Lady, you did NOT just come for my girl's Discman. DISCMAN. Walkman is for CASSETTE TAPES. Lady: When we write recommendations to a University on behalf of a student, the student's social skills are a big part of it. Lemme get this straight, Rory is constantly being harrassed (and her sexual purity being bought into question) on a near daily basis by Paris, Tristan, Madelyn and Louise and so homegirl here decides she's better off chilling alone at lunch and it's HER fault and she won't get into college? Ayup, this is pretty much of a mirror of my own life in the same time period. Schools just did not give a fuckall about student's wellbeing and mental health and put the blame on innocent students like Rory. *more war flashbacks*

But in the real world, Rory would get eaten alive socially in a big college, so that much is true.

Alright lady. Kindly, from the bottom of my heart, lovingly...get bent. Rory: "Loners are those guys you see walking around wearing out of date clothing, they tend to carry a duffel bag, with god knows what inside!"

Lady: Loners come in all shapes and sizes, even pretty girls. Whoa, lady!!

Rory: I don't suppose there is a Walkman/ reading lunch time club I could join is there? Me: Form one and I'll join you. Us friendless losers trying to avoid passive aggressive guidance counselors need to stick together. Lorelai: What does she expect you to do? Rory: I guess that means going up to strange kids at school and saying "hey, mind if I awkwardly butt in where I don't belong and don't want to be?" My heart breaks for Our Rory Gil. Lorelai: Chilton is a cult! Yeah, maybe, but your beloved Stars Hollow is also a cult, which is compromised of many smaller sub-cults. Kirk Job: Car Mechanic

Lorelai: How dare she do this to you? Rory: It wasn't just her, it was Charleston's suggestion. Of course it was. These Passive Aggressive Counselors and their superiors making lives of their already miserable students even more miserable always worked in teams. I just want to point out again (sort of repeating myself here) that this lady did only minimal probing into WHY Rory might prefer eating lunch alone. Kirk: I couldn't help but overhear. I ate lunch by myself and carried a duffle bag and I turned out just fine. R&L:

Sure he's a grown man with night terrors who lives with his mother, but for a small town with limited employment opportunites Kirk somehow manages to find work whenever he needs it and seems content with his life (and eventually finds love), so don't despair girls. Lorelai wants to go down to Chilton to give PAGC and Charleston a piece of her mind, good luck with that. As I'm watching this show for the fourth time, I'm a jaded chain smoker and no longer blissfully naive and expecting that Rory will suddenly propel through the social stratosphere at PAGC's suggestion.

Portrait of author on her fourth Gilmore Girls rewatch.

I already know that by the time she graduates high school Rory has not made a single new friend at Chilton (besides Paris, arguably) OR outside of school in Stars Hollow, and I also know that by the time she graduates college Rory has still not made a single new friend besides Paris (who is more like her wife at that point anyway, and no I don't count those two bozos they tacked on in a desperate move near the end, Lucy and Hailey or whatever the hell their names were, who cares), and by the time she's 34 in A Year in the Life she still has not made one single friend that anyone is aware of. Okay, okay, fine, I guess we can count Marty as her friend. But my memories of what actually went on there are too fuzzy to opine on. Lorelai to Charleston: I'm here to talk about this ridiculous accusation that Rory is a loner and that's somehow a bad thing. Oh come on, how is it ridiculous, your daughter is absolutely is a loner and an introvert and she only has one friend, one she's known since childhood, but yes, it's not necessarily a bad thing as long as she's happy. Lorelai: I raised Rory to do what she wants, as long as it doesn't hurt someone else.

#JusticeForLindsay Rory could have had a nice new friend in Lindsay... Unlike most Chilton parents, Lorelai has to take precious time off from work at a real job to meet with HMC to discuss a pressing matter involving her daughter, but HMC instead admonishes Lorelai for her lack of parental participation at the school and pressures her into joining some dopey club with a bunch of dopey Chilton Moms. Lorelai leaves the meeting. Rory was barely mentioned. Lorelai goes home to Rory and embellishes a lie/jokey joke about how hard she fought HMC in Rory's defense (she did no such thing, because she was barely given the chance to speak by HMC).

Two Slice Tuesday With A Side Of Fruit continues. Ugh, there's Francie (Francine?) in the back. Fuck. I did not care for this dumb mean-girls/Puffs storyline they had going through most of this season. Another one of The Agonies I'm not looking forward to.

This must be the fancy table, where nobody is partaking in Two Slice Tuesday.

I think the Chilton administration should look into more pressing issues, like why this high schooler is a 45 year old named Patricia.

[aevyk-ing]

Thoughts on Mystery of Aaravos part 1 Episodes 1-3

Wasn’t going to do this until my review but I have too many thoughts. 

- So Viren has been dead for two years? I’m starting thinking Aaravos has some kind of clairvoyance power because he knew he was going to need Claudia.

- Speaking of her, I love the half black/half white hair, but the roots are bothering me. That means her hair will be black again?

- Callum’s new outfit is nice. Not a fan of the hair, though. 

- I’m sorry, but Ezran looks weird. He has grown too much and still sounds the same. Also, I don’t get why his crown is silver. 

- Callum’s voice sounds so deep now.

- Not Soren giving me even more Steve/Lancelot vibes. It’s the hair. I think only Corvus has gotten better. 

- I was spoiled that Rayla left and, surprisingly, I don’t mind. By now. I hope there’s a good explanation.

- Sorry, but Janai should already know Amaya would react like that to any kind of surprise. She’s a warrior and her first instict is to attack. 

- Okay, but leaving in someone’s birthday is just mean. She better have a good explanation.

- Huh, Claudia made a good use of her time. Terry seems like a good match for her. Just stop making characters with glasses take them off and be able to see with no problem. 

- Love some good PTSD. Viren has gotten more interesting.

- “Kids, if you don’t like your vegetables, just throw them out the window.” 

- I would have preferred something like Zym having to clean his room. 

- And he should be talking by now.

- Oohh, so the book is some sort of real-time translator. Hope the ink would fade though. Imagine finding that tome and discovering all the pages have been used.

- Rayla seems too calm about what happened. 

- Also, I don’t like that monkey-thing. It’s creepy.

- Zubeia is huge... and likes jelly. They’re lucky she’s such a collected dragon. 

- “A dragon button.” Claudia, you smart cookie. Yes, you deserve that necklace.

- I don’t know what I was expecting... but it wasn’t her becoming half a snake. Maybe half a dragon and fly away? 

- “Okay, who did this?” Ezran could have delivered the same speech without the incident. 

- It’s nice to have it play at the same time as Ibis and Claudia fight. But having Ezran just popping in the cave was weird. 

- That song is pretty. The music has been quite good overall.

- Things are getting dark again...

- BTW, I would have made Rayla’s first appearance that one, not in Callum’s tower. Just imagine the different reactions of the two brothers. 

[anetherealpoetess]

no interesting update in glen powell's conservative dog-whistling controversy but i still wrote this long damn post anyway!

in case you missed it, i got myself a media degree, i believe glen powell is a republican who is about to vote for tr*mp for the third time, and i believe he is desperate to be a movie star, which means he needs to appeal to us dirty little liberals too. we're watching him navigate his attempt at movie-stardom in tiptoeing around his conservative opinions while still appealing to conservatives through a tactic called dog-whistling. (a tactic the new york times actually called out twisters for using a week or so ago. go the new york times!)

powell has responded to the new york times article highlighting twisters post-pandemic desperation to appeal to conservatives both in its plot and in its marketing by ignoring it, which is media 101: do not respond to negative media coverage. (i said he would not reply to the new york times in my last post about this situation. at least not for a good six months. not replying to these sorts of articles is what we learn very early on in our media degree.)

instead, powell has gone on instagram to provide a counter narrative for the media (also media 101), posting behind-the-scenes photos of twisters and writing a caption about how twisters received a 'universal response' (which could be seen as a low-key dig at the the new york times ... maybe. maybe. powell has shown he is not above playing subtext games.) (also does 'universal response' not remind you of 'critically reviewed' from schitt's creek!) (also 'universal' is the key word to powell's brand and his main issue: he wants to be universally beloved, despite being politically regressive.)

he talks about how he was once a kid who loved movies too (going for relatability here), reminds people he's from texas (he's desperate for texas to be a huge part of his branding), reminds people of his wet white shirt scene but through the context of memes so he doesn't come off looking desperate for attention (which imo the wet shirt didn't blow up organically as much as the movie hoped. manny jacinto's shirtless scene dropped around the same time and stole a lot of the heat) and more. anyway. here is the caption:

can i just say he did too much here. casuals don't have the energy to engage with this amount of information, both visual (he posted a lot of photos in one dump) and verbal. long story short, he is preaching to his choir. to sway anyone else he needed to go for cheeky and short, not sentimental and long. he has demonstrated the ability to be brief and funny. his team miscalculated here, but not in a dramatic way. it's fine. (still, ryan reynolds has easily outplayed powell and twisters in terms of marketing for reasons that are not the point of this post.)

twisters made the massive mistake of not pushing its release date forward by one week to get two weeks in front of deadpool, which is the movie of the year and has stolen all the money in the world. so this caption is both an attempt to remind people deadpool isn't the only movie at the theatres, but it is also a non-response reaction to the times. give the media something else to talk about other than the times article.

what remains interesting is that while olivia culpo and glen powell both participated in conservative dog-whistling in the same week, only culpo's dog-whistling generated controversy. (of course, the times did write about twisters conservatism, but powell has largely escaped scrutiny.) this is partly because culpo is a woman and isn't allowed the same amount of grace as a white men like powell, but also because culpo responded to the controversy.

this was stupid. this was so stupid! if she needed to respond, she should have just said 'i loved my dress and felt very pretty' and nothing more. instead she went on the defensive, played the victim, and fuelled the negative discussion around her trad-wife soft-launch in vogue. (it didn't help her that trad-wives are a trending topic right now due to ballerina farm.)

still, there is a lot of gendered stuff at play here when it comes to people's non-reaction to powell. twisters itself is a sexist film. not valuing helen hunt's contributions to the first film's success, having a male character explain to a female metrologist basic tornado facts, etc. culpo getting heat and not powell is hardly surprising. even if she hadn't responded, she still would have attracted negative commentary, which is actually justified, in my opinion. this trojan horsing of traditional gender dynamics into the mainstream is rampant and scary. i'm glad bridal tiktokers called her out. i just wish more media institutes like the new york times had the guts to call out twisters and powell too.

give it time though. i'm excited to see how this plays out.

[tumblezwei]

So, I’m not super great at the whole “final overall review” kind of thing because my thoughts are too scattered to ever form that kind of thing properly, but here are my final thoughts about Ice Queendom as a whole.

First, to get this out of the way, as a standalone project IQ is a 6/10, some episodes are a 4. The recap in the beginning does a decent job of catching newcomers up to speed with what RWBY is about in vol 1, but it just doesn’t have enough time to establish a lot of core elements that would have made the original story they added better. JNPR’s friendship with RWBY is completely brushed over, especially Ruby’s friendship with Jaune. Ren and Nora getting even less screen time than they did in volume 1, which is saying a a lot. The dynamic just isn’t there so JNPR being present for Weiss’s Nightmare treatment just feels forced, and I imagine would feel especially so for people who haven’t been following these characters and their friendship for 9 years.

The middle of the show drags. It was one of my fears that I had hoped wouldn’t come to pass, but there is way too much time spent slowly going through Weiss’s Nightmare, leaving to regroup, and going back to do the same thing. I think it would have benefited the show greatly if they had varied up the environments a lot more so we weren’t backtracking to the same three locations multiple times in a row. It would have been great if they really pushed the symbolism and abstractness of the Nightmare realm. Or if they couldn’t, they should have cut the amount of time RWBY was in the nightmare to make more room for vol 1 recap.

The animation took a nosedive. Am I surprised? Of course not. This is a D-list anime made for a niche audience that of course wouldn’t get the care and attention that something like...I dunno Attack on Titan or My Hero Academia would get. But it’s not just the poor quality of the action scenes in some episodes, but the lackluster and sometimes downright awful directing. Episode 10 had the worst of it imo but sometimes I truly had to stop and go “wait where are we what’s going on?” And there are other times where the animation itself is decent, but you could tell it’s not as polished as it should be. 

The racism subplot is not helped by IQ’s tenuous addition to canon. It leaves the topic just as shallow and unexplored as it was in volume 1. While we do get to explore Weiss’s inner psyche more in depth and it does lead to some interesting developments, ultimately it doesn’t really say anything new or profound. It’s the same “we’re both at fault” message that RWBY had already outgrown years ago with a funky new hat. 

Suffice to say, if I wasn’t already a RWBY fan I would have stopped watching this around episode 6 or so. maybe I would have stayed for Ruby because my love for her is fated in the stars, but it would have been in spite of everything else around her.

Ok I’m done shitting on it let’s transition.

As a RWBY fan? This is a fucking 10/10 show are you kidding me????

Players and Pieces animated??? White Rose nation waking from their long slumber?? Yang roasting the shit out of Weiss at any given opportunity?? Actually really good and accurate characterization of all the characters that made me see that yes, this is a labor of love and people cared about it?? A (still heavily flawed) exploration of Weiss’s prejudice that we should have gotten on volume 1?? RUBY USING HER SILVER EYES???

How can I not love this show

Even when it dragged there was always something that RWBY fans could point to and freak out about. Whether it was shipping fodder or character analysis or pointing out how this or that scene parallels with something from the OG show, every episode had something to like about it. Y’all know how I freaked the hell out about Ruby in episodes 8-9. A newcomer wouldn’t be able to have that reaction, BUT I SURE FUCKING DID. Would yang using her semblance make any sense for someone who wasn’t already introduced to it in the trailers and volume 1? Absolutely not, BUT THAT SCENE WAS HYPE AS FUCK.

The fights during the middle part weren’t anything to write home about, but when it came to showing off the parts of OG RWBY that made it some beloved the animators went all out. And honestly that’s all I care about. 

The racism subplot didn’t say anything new but it gave me a way to further analyze and obssess over these characters that I already love so much. 

Watching Pyrrha pine over Jaune and crying about it because it’s Pyrrha. Seeing hints in the dialogue about Ren’s semblance. Me personally saying “her right arm, are you fucking kidding me?” when Yang reached out to Blake to pull her out of her Nightmare. The Little Weisses!!! Analyzing the hell out of the Nightmare when we first saw it because of course we know everything about Weiss and we could pick up on those little details. Bat Whitley getting shot like 3 times. Me personally, again, saying “fuck off, Ozpin” when he was like “sometimes adversity reveals your true power :)”

Fun in a way only a RWBY fan can experience. And that’s me, so I had a lot of fun with this show.

And all of this was written before the last episode aired today. And upon seeing that episode, everything still stands as I expected it would, but I have a bit more to say. IQ was made for RWBY veterans. It was made for people who’ve been watching this show for nearly 10 years and have loved it through all of it’s growing pains. I’ve seen the sentiment that the food fight at the end wasn’t as well done as the original, and yeah I agree. But the problem with that criticism, in my opinion, is that IQ’s food fight was never meant to act like a replacement. It was an homage. It was the show going “look at this, you remember this, right? You remember how you felt when you first watched it?” 

IQ is kind of a mess. Some of that mess could be fixed with more time and budget, some of it couldn’t. But I still think it deserves a place in RWBY fandom history, because it’s made by people who know and who love RWBY as much as we do. 

Now give me a season 2 focusing on the time skip between volume 3 and 4.

[showtoonzfan]

Hazbin Hotel: Alastor design reveal (background, character review and rant)

(Authors note: This is a LONG post, so be warned. I first start ranting about the damn background before I get to Al, sorry lol. )

Welp guys. He’s here, the tumblr sexyman himself, Alastor the radio demon. (God, that name is still stupid). The Hazbin Hotel official Twitter released what everyone’s favorite deer boi will look like in the upcoming show. And after the creator Viv hyped his design up SO MUCH, it all led up to THIS.

https://twitter.com/hazbinhotel/status/1504890445112889344?s=21

You.....you’ve gatta be kidding me right? You have got to be FUCKING kidding me. That’s it? THAT’S WHAT WE WAITED FOR? THAT’S THE BIG REVEAL YOU HYPED UP VIV???

Okay...deep breaths. Let’s talk about this shall we? Let me start off by saying........wow. After going through the Hazbin hotel tag on Twitter to see the fandom’s reaction, these people are REALLY hyped and jazzed for a damn WHITE LINE aren’t they? I mean I don’t know what I expected, the tag is FILLED with nothing but praises once again, rambling on about how “good” he looks. Christ, I feel like if you waved a pair of DANGLING keys you’d get the same reaction out of this fandom. Now, before we talk about Al himself, I want to do the same thing I did with Charlie’s design post, despite my blood boiling here more lmao. Start with the background, then the top of the character to the bottom, then my thoughts on the show and or Viv. Without wasting any time, let’s get to it.

First, the background. So, when the official Hazbin hotel Twitter posted what the hotel would look like, we saw that in the top corner of the hotel, there was a radio tower, that of course belonged to Alastor.

Now that we have the new pic, we are able to see a tad at what the inside looks like....and it looks........bland. I mean, here’s the problem. Since the pic is clearly a zoom in on Al, and we can only see the table and a rack behind him, we aren’t able to see the full room. I feel like if the perspective was a zoom out and a clear shot of the FULL room, it would have been better, because the only thing we can see here are the radios, light mic?? And clothing rack, as well as plants, but the room just looks empty and boring despite that. Now when it came to Al’s tower, I never really had any ideas, but I feel like his room here could be more interesting than what we got. Again, this pic should have been a zoom out so we can see the full thing. Who knows, maybe some of y’all can brainstorm what you think his full tower would look like and come up with some cool ideas! If you do, I would love to see them, I’ve seen some of y’alls work, don’t tell anyone but some of these fans are more creative than Viv. Also...now that I’m looking at the outside of his radio tower, it looks uncreative and bland as well. I know I’m raving over little little things, but come ON Viv, with how weird and creepy Al is supposed to be, (or at least that’s the vibe Viv is trying to go for with his character) you’d think his tower would stand out from the rest of the hotel. I mean she herself said that this man has one room that’s tidy and clean, and another room that’s literally a swamp. (She said this in a livestream) now that fact may not be canon anymore, but if it’s still true, I feel like his radio tower would look weird as well, I mean the way Viv describes him, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of his rooms looked like the cannibal family from Helluva.

Hopefully in the actual show, when we see his ACTUAL room, and it’ll be all the more creepy and jarring, especially since he’s a cannibal. Now that’s a fun concept, Alastor’s room! That has so much potential, again, if anyone wants to share interesting thoughts or ideas you have on his room and aesthetic, I would LOVE to hear it!

ANYWAY, let me share my thoughts on what’s actually in the room. The first thing I wanna say is, what the hell is that purple thing on the rack? Is that...a towel? A cloak? It seems random, I mean we haven’t seen or heard about other outfits that Al wears, so I feel like Viv just put that there to fill up space. I will say, I do like the rack design though, it ain’t mind blowing but at least it has variety. Then there’s his couch, which is just a regular couch. Again, this is nitpicky, but come on, the hotel couches in the PILOT had more variety than this! I remember seeing Faust, an ex worker on Hazbin, who designed a hotel couch that looked cool.

I bring all of this up because this is what I hope to see in the show. When it comes to the hotel furniture, I don’t care what it is, it could be anything, couches, racks, dressers, ect, I just want them to have creativity to them. Even the furniture designs you see in the pilot are a good example, I just want something other than multiple eyes to represent the hell aesthetic, it’s the least they could do since hell itself looks like earth but painted red. Okay I know I’m trailing off topic, so if you’re still reading, thank you.

The last thing I want to talk about before we actually get to the blob o-OH I mean Al, is the what seems to be a mic light switch, next to the plants, which btw, I do like.

WHY WASN’T THIS HIS ACTUAL MICROPHONE??? Like....it pisses me off because this proves that Viv knows what 1920’s microphones actually LOOK like, but she doesn’t bother having it belong to Al. I don’t understand why this couldn’t be his Mic, I’m so disappointed like....wasted potential once again. And while we’re here, I don’t even LIKE the design of Al’s Mic. It looks nothing like it came from the 1920’s, unlike this LIGHT SWITCH RIGHT HERE. Also Valentino was right, his microphone just looks like a dildo. Yeah I said it. Call me cringe. 😭

Anyway bois....we finally made it....let’s talk about Alastor’s design.

So.........did Viv EVER listen to the criticism side of the fandom? Like.....EVER? Did she EVER hear someone who had to critique the pilot out, wether it be in the form of a YouTube video, a tweet, or a tumblr post? Ever? Or did she do what I think she did, which was watch and listen to the side of the fandom who just blindly praise her and act like she can do no wrong. Cause....I think that’s what she’s doing y’all....I mean hell, I don’t know why I was expecting her to listen to the critic side of the fandom, especially since she’s known to throw hissy fits when someone critiques her, and let’s not forget how she reacted to a harmless Velvet redesign by Miss Zizi, in the most bitchy and unprofessional way possible. Of course she didn’t change JACK SHIT about Alastor. Jack SHIT. Yeah, I know there’s a tweak of change here and there, and I’ll get to that, but let’s just say it how it is guys, he looks EXACTLY the same. Remember when I said that since Charlie is completely red, I would be upset if Al turns out that way because they then would look completely the same unless Viv tweaks his palette? WELP....HERE WE ARE.

Like...I don’t care if Charlie is wearing a different outfit than him, they both STILL look the same, and that’s a huge problem. And Christ, not only that, but ONCE AGAIN, the background is mostly red, NOT making Al stand out. And yes, I know Pentagram City’s sky is supposed to be red at ALL times apparently, but it would certainly be better and even more interesting if the skies changed color from time to time, like green, orange, purple, because THOSE colors actually make a red colored character STAND OUT. I have two examples here, I found two edits. One of another wonderful person who follows me here, and another from a person on Instagram. Here are the two edits:

The first one is by @sexymen-dystopia, and the next is from insta, I don’t know who posted that one because it was a friend who showed me, but now that these are here, I’ll ask the same question I did when my friend edited the Charlie background edit. Doesn’t this look better? Doesn’t Al ACTUALLY pop out more from the environment? The yellow REALLY makes him stand out, and the green matches his swamp aesthetic, so I like that one as well! And while we’re on the subject of colored backgrounds (don’t worry I won’t talk a lot this time) it isn’t THAT hard to make the background pop out from the character. Circling back to what I said about Viv, one of the major MAJOR criticisms the pilot got was that the characters don’t pop out from the red backgrounds. Viv could have used two choices. One, change the characters color palettes so they pop out from the environment, or two, change the ENVIRONMENTS colors so the character doesn’t blend in with the background. Instead she did fucking neither, because she can’t take criticism and is still stuck in her comfort zone. Rather than actually LISTEN to the fans and try her best to make one of her most famous characters look appealing to the audience and stick out, she instead used a white line. A fucking white line. Now yes, again I KNOW there’s technically more changes than that, but the white line is more important than you think, so hear me out. Now...first let me start off by saying that despite just stating that I think Viv didn’t even listen to the critic side of the fandom, I feel like she sort of did. She knew people kept saying Al was too red and didn’t pop out, so instead of actually trying, she thought she’d put a white line on him and his microphone to make him pop out without putting in the effort. Not only does that piss me off to the core, but.....the hilarious thing is that the white line itself actually DOESN’T make him stand out!

So hear me out. I’ve seen so many fans on here and Twitter say the line makes him pop out and he has better contrast, (because they seem to be afraid to say anything REMOTELY negative) but Jesus Christ guys, that’s not true. The thing about the white like is that since Al is once again 95% red, a first viewer, (and even an AVERAGE viewer at that) their eyes would IMMEDIATELY dart to the white line, and that doesn’t make him pop out, that’s a distraction, and there’s a difference. I just find it hilarious that Viv found adding 1% white to his attire and white on the tip of his cane would do anything, because if anything, it makes him look WORSE, even if it’s a small change. Looking at Alastor as a whole, the character doesn’t even FIT with white, that’s why the critical fandom kept suggesting colors like brown, orange, yellow, or green, because THOSE (out of a few more) color environments DO fit him. Not only would they FIT him, but he would pop out from the red environment. Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:

Now one of them is a redesign obviously, (I take no credit) but these are colors I’m talking about! Yellow, brown, greens, hell, even the crew art for the ALASTOR PROMO CLIP MADE HIM POP OUT MORE THAN NOW:

These are colors we should have gotten guys, instead, thanks to Viv, he’s just a big red blob just like in the pilot. He’s STILL an eye sore to look at. If you looked at canon Al’s full body, you wouldn’t know where the hell to look, or even know WHAT your looking at. It makes me disappointed because she hyped his reveal up only for him to look EXACTLY the same. All she had to do was just tweak his palette just a LITTLE....just a freaking LITTLE to make him pop out from the red environment, but of course, she can’t even do that, I mean......it’s Vivziepop, the girl known for sending her fandom to attack people, and throw hissy fits when people give her any form of criticism or say something REMOTELY negative about her show. I don’t know why I expected her to actually take in what critics had to say about the pilot, I mean who cares if Al literally MELTS in the background! Who cares if Charlie is now completely red, as long as the same characters are there, the fandom will be happy no matter what.

But uggh, let’s finally get to the actual changes that were made. I’m at the limit for pictures, so now ya’ll are just going to have to read. (😭) So....firstly, his damn LAPELS are red now. Viv....OH MY GOD. We can’t have ONE thing that was red before turned a different color WITHOUT having something that wasn’t red turned red CAN WE? Like that choice was just unnecessary, just proves how much this woman is obsessed with the color red. Second, his pants are black now. O-okay?? Like....I’ve seen the fandom say that makes him stand out more, and I must be in the twilight zone because I have NO idea what the fuck they’re talking about. While I’m glad they’re not brownish red like in the pilot, making his pants black doesn’t really make a difference to me, and even if it DOES, it just makes him look boring. The problem is that I’m tired of Viv using black so much as well. Sure, it made be nice that it’s not red anymore, but black is another overused color, we have enough red and black characters, (Al is a whole one within himself) and she could have used any other color to try SOME fucking variety. I feel like the only colors that Viv will consider using on these “redesigns” will always be red, black, white, pink, and yellow. All the other colors are out of her comfort zone, so she’ll probably never take it into consideration. Third, the lines on his suit are limited to two now, and they’re a bit thicker. I am glad of course, because too many stripes on her characters make it HELL for the animators to work off of, but they’re still RED. Ugh. Fourth, the color of his sleeves are a little darker than before. Again, while I appreciate no lines on them unlike before and the color being a bit darker, it still doesn’t really do anything, he’s still RED, same for the dots on his gloves being gone and the color being grayish instead of brown. I’ve already talked about the white line...but man, looking at this design, Viv REALLY thought she did something by added 2% white to his design didn’t she? She didn’t.

OKAY GUYS WERE AT THE END. If you’ve managed to get this far, I thank you. ❤️

The last thing I wanna talk about is Al’s design ALONE, because yeah, it’s bad. To this day I don’t get the whole deer aesthetic Viv is trying to go for with his character. I mean.....he looks NOTHING like a deer, he doesn’t even resemble deer features expect for those small ass antlers at the top of his head that an average viewer wouldn’t even catch. Again, if I hadn’t of followed the project since early 2018, I wouldn’t have known this man was supposed to be a deer demon. Not only that, but I keep forgetting that he’s a cannibal, I mean it doesn’t show in his design or gives me cannibal vibes whatsoever, other than his sharp teeth, which WOULD make him stand out if EVERY OTHER CHARACTER IN THE SHOW DIDN’T HAVE THE SAME SHARP TOOTHY GRIN. Again, his ROOM could probably hint at his cannibalism, like maybe he has furniture made out of flesh or something, which would he cool, but we don’t really have that here. While I do appreciate the whole bayou aesthetic with the plants and his room might result in being a swamp, his design just doesn’t match with his character or even his background of being a radio host. I’m just ganna say what everyone’s BEEN saying, Al just looks like someone’s cringeworthy deviantart OC.

So to conclude this long ass post, Viv can’t make changes worth for shit, Alastor will be a bitch for me to look at in the show, and I have a bad feeling that this show will just be the pilot all over again. Character’s that DON’T pop out from the backgrounds, red everywhere, a shit ton of unnecessary sound effects, ect you name it. Al’s “new” design just proves to me that Viv can’t take criticism at all, or even work to improve so that her characters are appealing to look at. And it’s very sad.

[jeongvision]

nct’s jaehyun’s perfume collection review!!

for part two, please refer to here!

hello, all! so some of you may have already known that in the past month, i have impulsively purchased various of perfumes, some of which are based on jaehyun’s personal perfume collection that he uses as mentioned on various platforms. some of the scents he uses are:

tom ford white suede

tom ford fucking fabulous

le labo neroli 36

jo malone myrrh & tonka

jo malone wood sage & sea salt

byredo bal d’afrique

as someone who loves collecting perfumes myself, this was a perfect excuse for me to buy some to get an idea on how he would ‘smell’ like!

some of you have asked for me to post a review of his perfumes! i will be primarily listing my reactions, experiences, and ratings for each scent, along with pictures of jaehyun associated with each scent and if the scent is masculine, feminine, or neutral. i have purchased all of them except for tom ford fucking fabulous. the byredo bal d’afrique will be reviewed at a later date after it arrives in the mail, so for now only 4/6 scents will be discussed.

disclaimer: this is NOT an advertisement but simply a fun and personal review of his perfume collection! but i wouldn’t be opposed with possible brand deals with any of them

before you buy!! some of the fragrances will react differently on your skin as the scents are based on your body chemistry with certain chemicals listed on their ingredients. thus, you may smell a different scent when sprayed on your body than on mine. not only that, some of the perfumes utilizes synthetic ingredients, which can be a deterrent for those with a sensitive nose. i strongly recommend sampling them out at local stores before purchasing as these brands are expensive.

without further ado, happy reading! please do tell me your personal experiences if you have also tried some of them (or perfumes from other members!) <3

warnings: heavy cursing, some vulgar language lmao (they will be listed as [**] if you would like to skip those parts, especially for minors)

TOM FORD WHITE SUEDE

“The addictive pull of leather and suede is channeled through an elegant musk-derived composition. Musk’s primal intensity is harmonized with saffron and thyme, heightened with velvety rose and warm amber. Warm, supple and sensual, a perfume with an irresistible expression of raw desire.” —Tom Ford

first and foremost, i just want to say holy fucking SHIT HE SMELLS SO FUCKING GOOD WTF ASKJFKLSJ

[**] HE SMELLS SO FUCKING SEXYAJJF IT’S HARD HOURS FOR HIM EVERY TIME I SMELL IT

like?? oh my god?????

i literally CRIED in my car after smelling it bc oh my gOD HE SMELLS LIKE THAT??!?!??

HE SMELLS LIKE A FUCKING BOYFRIEND OH MY GODJSJFJKS

i can never look at him the same way ever again holy crap

“raw desire” sOMEBODY PLEASE SAVE ME I CAN’T—

[**] like honestly it makes me want to eat his neck and choke on his dick whAt

anyways

it has a leathery and musky scent to it with a mix of powdery!!

slightly sharp when you first spray it but once it settles and marinates on your skin and clothing, it’s PERFECT

listen i’m still shooked that he smells like THAT

my friend told me one day to spray it on a big sweater and wear it to mimic wearing one of ‘his’ sweaters and—

:(

i wanted to kith him

and hug him

and cuddle with him

and never let him go aaAAAHHH

[**] oh daddy

masculine or feminine? androgynous

recommend? YES ARE YOU KIDDING ME

rating? “i’m going to name my future kid eleven because he is going to be better than you.” —liu yangyang to ten

LE LABO NEROLI 36

“Neroli is another name for the essence of Orange Blossom. The unique quality of our Neroli is its sunny floral character with an extraordinarily warm, sensual base. Rose, musk, mandarin orange (slightly aldehydic), jasmine and vanilla, among other essences, complete the portrait, bringing Neroli 36 spikiness, ease, zest and heat... Well-being, elegance and charm all in a bottle!” —Le Labo

okay so i purchased this (and many other scents) as a sample (1.5 ml) bc this shit is hella expensive

like bro the price of it as 15 ml costs more than jo malone’s 30 ml

maybe it’s bc they said lab techs compound it on-demand??

not sure

but anyways

this gives me straight flower boy vibes

like i’m in a flower shop and there’s a cute florist behind the counter trimming and tending plants with such careful hands

but the white floral kinds

OHOHOHOHO

WE LOVE IT

if you like those kinds of scents, then this is definitely the scent for you!

seriously it smells like lilies and all the white florals alike

personally i like the sweet floral scents so this one is okay to me

still smells really good!

reminds me of glade’s fresh linen carpet powder so it unlocked a repressed memory of my childhood LMFOAODA

what a gentleman he smells like uwuuu

honestly if i was getting married to someone and he showed up to my wedding as a guest wearing this perfume i’d leave my fiancé on the spot

this man has quality tastes wtf

masculine or feminine? gender neutral (ish)? more feminine if i have to say

recommend? if you like white floral scents then you would go BONKERS over this!

rating? 7/10 only bc i prefer sweet floral over white floral scents but if i didn’t then i’d rate it 10/10

JO MALONE MYRRH & TONKA

“Rich, hand-harvested sap of the Namibian myrrh tree, mingling with the warm almond and lush vanilla notes of the tonka bean. Noble and intoxicating.” —Jo Malone

oh bitch

BITCH

THIS MOTHERFUCKER SMELLS SO FUCKING GOOD OH MY FUCKING GODDDDDDD

“noble and intoxicating” DAMN FUCKING RIGHT IT IS

[**] I WILL GET ON MY KNEES FOR THIS MAN IF I EVER SMELL THIS ON HIM

my royal liege, jung jaehyun, i am at your SERVICE HELLO SIR WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU TODAY

he could step on my face and i’d thank him for allowing me to breathe the same air as him oh my god—

ahem

moving along now

it has a vanilla and amber scent to it! a very nice and sweet scent to it that’s not too overbearing

usually i’m not a big fan of vanilla or cake fragrances bc they tend to nauseate me

but this one?

ohohoho

this is the good stuff

i didn’t exactly purchase this one; i bought other fragrances from jo malone and they gave me free samples to choose from, and myrrh & tonka was one of them sO MIGHT AS WELL TRY IT OUT

so glad i did omg i don’t regret it

i might just buy a bottle of it

[**] another one bites the dust just RAIL ME ALREADY JUNG JAEHYUN I’M BEGGING YOU—

[**] daddy pls

masculine or feminine? androgynous, but leaning slightly towards feminine

recommend? YES OH MY GOD

rating? CHITTAPHON OUT OF TEN

JO MALONE WOOD SAGE & SEA SALT

“Escape the everyday along the windswept shore. Waves breaking white, the air fresh with sea salt and spray. The mineral scent of rugged cliffs, mingling with earthy sage.” —Jo Malone

yo this shit smells good

like REALLY good

he smells like beaches and lemons hELLO THERE

no wonder this is one of their best sellers wtf this man has IMMACULATE TASTE EYE—

AND THERE’S ONLY ONE (1) OF HIM IN THIS ENTIRE WORLD???!?

HUH!?!!?

life truly isn’t fair, huh

okay god i see you with favorites

now

let’s see here

very citrusy!!

also has that marine type of scent to it making it exceptionally aromatic!

not too much of a boujee scent like m&t where you would use on special events

this is more like a scent you would use on a daily basis going out

but upgraded

like you would smell fresh and expensive

kind of like a lowkey rich kid type of scent but you’re humble about it but lowkey kinda flexing yk?

this smell is BEAUT i love it omg i cant stop sniffing it

i’m a sucker for citrus scents :(

i’d wear this shit to school everyday if i could and have all my friends smell me

damn i bet his sweaters smell hella nice with this perfume :(

masculine or feminine? gender neutral

recommend? yes, yes, and yes.

rating? 10/10

tl;dr— jaehyun has expensive tastes and smells so fucking sexy how is he even real what the fUCk

[hologramcowboy]

Live with Kelly & Ryan Review

Outfit: 6.5/10

While it’s appropriate for a morning talk show (casual, but still dressed up) this outfit is a little off. The white t-shirt and white skinny jeans aren’t quite the same shade of white, and it’s bothering me. It also kind of looks like he’s wearing pajamas with a sport coat thrown over them when he’s sitting down. The shoes don’t match the look, they’re much too casual and the wrong color. The only reason I’m giving this look a relatively okay score is that it does seem like something Jensen would dress himself in, if maybe in a different color palette. In fact, I’m pretty sure he wears those shoes to cons all the time. Marcus, please stop putting Jensen in glaringly bright whites. It’s not his color. His hair looks nice though, fluffy and that sort of effortless tousled look. No used car salesman vibes, a win!

As for the interview himself, he’s visibly very nervous and awkward. Little to no eye contact with Kelly or Ryan when he talks, lot of “uh” and “um” going on, twisting/rocking around in his chair. The nervous part I don’t understand. He’s been working for over 20 years, he had been doing press tours for a month at this point so he’s had a ton of practice and time to warm up, he’s known Ryan Secrest for years, and Kelly and Ryan are so personable that it’s very rare that they get a guest they can’t make comfortable.

They start the interview by trying to establish that Jensen and Ryan used to run in the same circles back in the day. It falls flat and they move on to talking about his family. He doesn’t mention Danneel by name, just says we and talks a bit about the kids. Mentions that Austin is their home base, but that they spent a good chunk of the pandemic in Colorado. Then we get some very questionable parenting. They had the kids in school in the middle of a deadly pandemic before vaccines were available. They have the money to hire tutors for homeschool, they already admitted to bringing the nanny back early because they couldn’t handle their kids so it’s not like they sent them to school to get a well deserved break. It’s wild to me that two parents, who already come across as very hands off, would risk the lives of their children just to get more time away from them. Especially because Danneel is a stay at home mom, her job is literally taking care of her children. I’m also side eyeing them because if they do truly live in Austin and that’s where the kids go to school, that means they either pulled them out of school for a month (or more, I have a feeling they were there from around Mardi Graas until the end of filming) to live in NOLA while they shot the pilot, or they left them behind in Austin with a nanny and brought them out to NOLA on the weekends. Both kind of sucky scenarios. I try not to judge the way people parent because parenting is such a circumstantial thing and there’s no right way to do it, but the Ackles make it so hard not to judge. They really do seem like parents who only had kids because that was the next step in life and they’re really not sure what to do with them. Like they like them and all, but having them around really kills their buzz.

Very little talk about The Boys. Jensen doesn’t really know what to say, but he covers it up by saying it’s so inappropriate that he’s not sure how to make it daytime TV friendly. He gives the same answers he’s given in every interview: Soldier Boy is a bad person, all of the superheroes are bad, and that the show is very raunchy in a way that pushes the envelope. He somehow makes this show heavily based in shock value sound pretty boring. Kelly’s stories about how her husband and son watch it and her reaction to what she’s seen were selling the show much more than Jensen did.

Kelly is the one who really carried the interview. She tried so hard to engage with Jensen and draw him out of his shell. I’m surprised that Ryan kind of took a backseat given that he has known Jensen longer, but maybe he’s just resigned to the fact that Jensen just isn’t good at interviews and knew that there wasn’t much he could do. It’s not the worst interview Jensen has done, but it’s not good by any stretch of the imagination. If you were watching the show as someone who isn’t already a fan, his segment would have been when you took a bathroom break, walked your dog, or made yourself breakfast. Which isn’t great because these interviews are meant to draw in an audience for whatever project is being promoted.

Not even going to touch the parenting comments because you all already know how I feel about Danneel. Jensen needs to get as far away as possible from her and he also needs to focus more on his children's well being. This Anon sent in reviews of Jensen's recent interviews and I will be sharing them one by one.

Here's a link to the interview: https://youtu.be/8v4UbzuvEkc

Fully agree about the awkwardness, he was fidgeting too much which is not a smart thing to do on camera. In fact, the less one moves the more power they are perceived to have, all the moving is what causes people to perceive nervousness, lack of experience as well as and especially lack of power. That's a little charisma tip. What I mean to say is that for the camera movement is different and it needs to be done effectively, too much or too little can create some pretty awkward results. His past history with his buddy did not come through at all, in fact, Ryan looked like he tried to reel Jensen in but didn't get anything out of him. Kelly truly was the one who effectively marketed the show by using her personal experiences in a genuine, fun way. As opposed to Jensen who was reciting the same old thing he said in other interviews and doing so in a way that conveyed a bit of neuroticism. @ANON, I know Jensen often wears those shoes but can I just say, I hate them with a fiery passion. lol It's a taste thing, I just can't stand that type of shoe.

Part I of III

[pretchatta]

a little bit more of the university au I started here, inspired by @bythevay‘s amazing sweater vest kanan and date night hera. I still haven’t made it to the actual date yet... but it does exist in draft form! I’ll be putting the whole lot on AO3 as soon as I have a title (suggestions are welcome!) but until then it’ll be small sections on tumblr as and when I feel they’re finished.

edit: it’s on AO3!

rating: general; kanan jarrus/hera syndulla; 1.3k words

---

The soft, burbling sounds of the café reached his ears as Kanan pushed open the heavy wooden doors to the library. The foyer was grand, if a little tired, with wood-panelled walls and a polished marble floor that contrasted sharply with the modern security barriers cutting through the middle. Sweeping up one side was the long reception desk that served both sides, though only those with a university ID card could pass through the turnstiles to the café and, more importantly, the university’s precious trove of knowledge beyond. 

Kanan made his way to the desk, not needing to enter the library proper today, absently greeting the old librarian who sat on the other side.

“Morning, Okadiah.”

The human raised a white-haired eyebrow as Kanan reached over the desk to a currently unused library staff computer. “It’s past one.”

“Oh. Good afternoon, then.” He twisted the monitor around to face him and tapped a request on the keyboard in a practised way.

“Someone’s a little distracted,” Okadiah commented. “If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were thinking about a woman, but since you’re never off campus and the gender ratio of your department is abysmal, that’s about as likely as you reading my sign.”

The sign in question read ‘DO NOT LEAN ON THE DESK’, and Kanan had been ignoring it since graduation. That had been when he’d started working at the library to support himself through his PhD and learnt that Okadiah was far less formidable than he’d first appeared. Since accepting a permanent position in the School of Chemistry faculty he’d not stopped acting like a member of library staff, and he was pretty sure Okadiah only allowed it because Kanan was still one of the few people who could actually work the library’s archaic cataloguing software. 

“Well, maybe next time I’m here for a book I’ll ask you to call it for me, because this woman… I don’t even know how to describe her.”

“Oh boy.”

“She was incredible. She’d dropped a lab coat, and she had these eyes… I’m telling you, I’ve never seen eyes like hers before.”

"Eyes, huh -- is this her, coming in now? Lab coat, check. Eyes, check..."

Okadiah had no idea what Hera looked like, but Kanan's head whipped around to see if it was her nonetheless. He tried not to look too obviously disappointed at the diminutive sullustan woman in white who’d just come through the doors. Her huge eyes roamed around the room before landing on the desk, which she then made a beeline towards.

"Excuse me," she said, peering up at the librarian. The lanyard around her neck proclaimed her to be a guest speaker from one of the university’s affiliate companies by the name of Zaluna Myder. "I'm meeting someone inside, a member of university staff."

"You'll have to wait here until they arrive," Okadiah replied kindly. “When they do I can sign you in.”

The woman nodded. “Very well. I’ll just take a seat here then.” She slid down to sit on the floor at the base of the desk. 

Kanan frowned in confusion, but was distracted by a besalisk with an armful of books arriving at the other side of the desk. 

“You requested this one, Oke?” the woman grunted, passing the topmost one over to him.

“Thanks, Lal, it’s for Professor Jarrus here.” Okadiah took the slim textbook and the library assistant departed again. He glanced at the cover before sliding it over to Kanan. “Hey, this has got to be the fourth Physics book you’ve ordered this term. Is it for that kid again? I don’t know why you don’t just give him Young and Freedman and be done with it.”

Kanan rolled his eyes. “He’s fifteen. I’m trying to encourage his passion for the sciences, not break his spine.” 

“If you’re hoping he makes it to higher education,” came a new voice from behind, “a little strength training maybe wouldn’t go amiss.”

Kanan almost couldn't believe his ears, but there was no mistaking that voice. He turned, and sure enough, there she was. She was wearing different overalls today, but those eyes were the same as he remembered, if not even more beautiful.

Play it cool, Kanan. 

"Hey, Hera," he said casually.

“Kanan, right?” She was smiling at him again, and it made his heart flutter in his chest. “I thought you said you teach Chemistry? Do you often teach extra subjects?”

“Yes -- I mean, no --” He was flustered, and forced himself to start again. “I’m tutoring this kid, and sometimes he gets curious about non-Chemistry topics. Sometimes I worry I’m losing him to Physics, but then I give him a sheet of algebra and he’s back to asking about rates of reactions.”

He felt like he was rambling and stopped himself from saying anything further, but she was nodding.

“I’d be interested to hear more about your teaching.”

“I -- well, you’re always welcome to come by during my office hours.”

He heard what sounded like a disappointed sigh from Okadiah.

“Dr Syndulla?” came a voice from below; the sullustan woman had stood back up. 

“Zaluna!” Hera said brightly, apparently recognising her. “I’ve booked one of the private study rooms for our meeting - unfortunately we can’t use my office today, I share it and my colleague has a tutorial in there right now.”

“If you show me your staff ID, your guest can sign in here and I can grant a temporary day pass to the library,” Okadiah said, bringing out the visitor log book. Zaluna took the pen and started writing as Hera rummaged for her ID card.

Kanan started to feel a little awkward and wondered if he should leave - he had his book now, after all - but he didn’t want to. He wanted to talk to Hera some more, but he didn’t know how to start with Okadiah and Zaluna there.

“There’s a new restaurant that’s just opened up on Gorse Street, y’know,” Okadiah said, interrupting Kanan’s train of thought.

“Huh?” Kanan was momentarily confused, but caught the twinkle in the old librarian’s eyes.

“There,” Zaluna said, finishing signing her name.

“Great, let’s get going. It was nice to see you again, Kanan,” Hera directed the last part to him as she started walking towards the turnstiles with Zaluna.

“Wait!” he called, and she paused to look back. “Do -- would you like to get dinner? With me? There’s a new restaurant…” he finished lamely, gesturing at Okadiah, who covered his face with his hand.

But Hera didn’t seem put off. She smiled at him again, and he didn’t think he’d ever get tired of seeing that smile. “That sounds nice. I’m free tomorrow evening -- meet me under the Illum Bridge at seven?”

Kanan couldn’t help the smile that split his face. “See you tomorrow at seven!”

He watched her walk away, feeling like he was floating. He was taking Hera on a date! Him! And her! For a whole evening, at--

“Wait, what restaurant did I just invite her to?”

Okadiah’s eyes sparkled with mirth over the tops of his glasses. “Luna Cynda has received nothing but rave reviews since it first opened last week, and is fully booked for the next month.”

“What?” Kanan’s heart rate spiked with anxiety. “Fully booked? Where am I supposed to take Hera tomorrow?”

The old man merely smiled at him. “I’ve been meaning to give it a go myself, but since I can’t stand the thought of you taking such a lovely woman on what would otherwise undoubtedly be a terrible date, I suppose you can have my table reservation.”

“Really?”

“Tomorrow at seven-thirty. I’m living vicariously. Treat her well, please.”

---

Continue Reading

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About The Mitchells vs. the Machines

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is up there as one of the best installments of the MCU. Sure, the action and CGI sucks, and the season finale could use a bit more polish, but there is so much more of what it does right. It brings up an engaging discussion through Karli; the bromance between Bucky and Sam is incredible; Zemo's surprisingly a riot, and U.S. Agent is a character whose inner psychology is something I would like to study. Plus, the series really dives deep into the themes of race and the realistic hesitance that comes with making a black man Captain America. It's easily an 8/10 series that is worth an in-depth discussion.

But f**k that s**t, because I'm talking about The Mitchells vs. the Machines instead!

I know it might be questionable that reviewing a movie starring a predominantly white family of idiots saving the world instead of the TV series about the powerful journey of a black man taking the mantle of an American icon...but this movie is fun, alright? And yes, I'm going to spoil it to explain how. So if you still have a Netflix account, I highly suggest you check it out when you have time.

Because, random people on the internet who most likely won't read this, this Ordinary Schmuck who writes stories and reviews and draws comics and cartoons is going to explain why The Mitchells vs. the Machines might just be my favorite film of the year (steep contest, I know).

WHAT I LIKE

The Animation: Let's get this out of the way right here and right now: If a single person ever tells you that this movie has awful animation, or the worst animation they have ever seen, just go ahead and assume that person is an idiot. Because holy hot cheese sticks, does this movie look amazing!

Say what you want about most of Sony Pictures Animation's movies, but you have to admit that they nail making a CGI movie looking like it could be in 2D. And The Mitchells vs. The Machines is the peak of that style. Every character in nearly every frame looks like they could work well if the movie was hand-drawn, and I love it. I am addicted to seeing films that look 2D with a 3D makeover because there has to be ten times the amount of effort to get that look just right, what with modeling each character in unique ways to nail that style wherein a hand-drawn film, you could just, well, draw it. Not to mention that the cell-shading and certain hand-drawn elements also add to the aesthetic.

Plus, there is so much attention to details, such as most of Katie's character model being covered in sharpie, or how you can see a hint of Eric and Deborabot 3000's drawn on faces even though their black screens are showing something else. Seriously, you can listen to any criticism this movie gets, but don't you dare let someone get away with telling you that it looks awful. It doesn't. It's incredible, and I SO wish that I could have seen it all on the big screen.

The Comedy: On top of being incredibly well-animated, this movie is also incredibly funny. Like, really funny. I shouldn't be surprised since it's made by the same people responsible for Clone High and The Lego Movie, but yeah, I found myself laughing, chuckling, and snorting with nearly every joke in the film. Not every joke works, to be fair. But because of the fast-paced humor, the bad jokes are almost immediately followed up with better ones soon after. What's even better is that the writers know when to take a break with the humor and let some surprisingly compelling drama take over. And even then, when there are jokes during the dramatic moments, they add sincerity to the scene rather than take anything away. Looking at you, The Amazing World of Gumball...I mean, I love you, but sheesh, you need to learn to let a solemn moment play out.

Anyways, the comedy is hilarious. And while I won't spoil every joke, I will go over some bits that might have gotten to me the most.

Katie Mitchell: Let's just go ahead and add Katie Mitchell to the list of characters I highly relate to on a personal level (which is getting longer by the minute, hot damn). But jokes aside, I really like Katie. Her love and desire to make movies is something I identify with, and her goal to just go to a place where she feels like she belongs is easy to understand. Trust me, if I found out there was a group of weirdos who like the same things I do and enjoy the things I make, I’d be willing to pack everything I have and go to them as fast as possible too. Plus, I feel like a lot of us can relate to a character who lives in a household where people question if our career goal is something we can make a living with. I remember two years ago when I told my aunt that I wanted to make my own animated series, and her reaction is a little too similar to Rick's when Katie showed him her movie. They mean well, but sometimes it's for the best to have a cheerleader rather than a critic, especially if that person is family.

Now, Katie isn't perfect as her enthusiasm can get a little annoying at times, and her desire to leave can be conceived as a little too harsh as well. Still, she's pretty cool and serves her role as a protagonist pretty well...also, if the movie gets a sequel, let's hope she and Jude become cannon by then. GIVE KATIE A GIRLFRIEND, DAMN IT!

Aaron Mitchell: But as great as Katie is, it's this goober that earns the reward for my favorite character. At times it looks like Aaron is nothing more than a source of comedy, but he handles some dramatic moments really well. Partial credit goes to Michael Rianda for that one. Yeah, having a child actor would have made Aaron sound more like a kid, but no other voice could have fit him better than what Michael offers as he comes across as weird but never obnoxious.

Also, let's give the writer points for making a character who is clearly neurodivergent. Yet also refraining from having him be annoying or useless to the rest of the cast. No one ever really disrespects or belittles Aaron and instead chooses to work with him rather than against him. Especially Katie, who forms a solid sibling bond with Aaron as a fellow weirdo. It's genuinely sweet to see, and I loved every minute that the writers showed that just because someone acts on a different wavelength doesn't mean they shouldn't be treated any less because of it. You get that with Katie, a little bit, but I see it much more with Aaron, for some reason. And I love him every minute, so that’s a win.

(Plus, I may or may not have had a dinosaur phase when I was younger, so go ahead and add him to the list of relatable characters too.)

Rick Mitchell: This is probably a character you will either love or hate, and I can see both sides of that argument. Because on the one hand, I really like Rick Mitchell. His motivation is clear and understandable from the first set of home videos with him and Katie, both near the beginning and the end. Sure, he messes up a lot, but he is still a man who cares deeply about his daughter, as well as his entire family. He gets to the point where he would make great sacrifices for all of them, especially Katie. Plus, it's just pleasant seeing a cartoon dad who isn't a complete idiot or overprotective regarding his daughter's love life.

However, there are times when Rick comes across as an irresponsible d**k. When he does things like smash the family's phones without telling them or giving them screwdrivers for "presents," you're either gonna find that funny or you won't. Personally, I enjoy Rick and his antics, and I have no problem with irresponsible cartoon dads. As long as they don't cross the line toward Modern-Peter Griffin territory, I've got no problem with dads like Rick, who I believe has never even got that bad. Still, some people might think differently, and I can't blame them. Because after getting great cartoon dads like Greg Universe, I can understand if some people won't be interested in characters like Rick Mitchell.

Rick’s and Katie’s relationship: Alongside the top-notch animation and gut-busting comedy, Rick and Katie's relationship is what I consider the movie's most essential asset. These two are the main characters of the film, and as such, they develop through each other. And what's crazy is that they have very conflicting goals. Katie wants to escape and be with her people, where Rich just wants one last chance to have a good memory with Katie before she leaves. To do so, they first have to understand each other. Katie has to learn why Rick is so desperate to spend time with her, and Rick has to realize why Katie is, well, Katie. What I love most about it is that they try. These two don't spend the entire movie arguing and being at each other's throats until a sudden "Oh" moment in the end. No, there are actual moments when they genuinely try to understand one another and fix their relationship. It's nice to watch, and I especially love when it cuts to Linda and Aaron celebrating each time Katie and Rick get closer to each other. When recommending this movie, I'd say come for the animation and comedy, stay for the phenomenal relationship building.

Monchi: There are probably people already comparing Monchi to Mater or the Minions due to being a comic relief with nothing else to add...but gosh dangit, do I love this little gentleman. Maybe it's because I'm a dog person, but I find Monchie to be incredibly adorable, and I will fight anybody who disrespects this king of kings. Probably not physically, 'cause I'm a wuss, but I will verbally. So WATCH IT!

“HeLlO. i Am DoG.”: Have I mentioned that this movie is funny?

Rick’s videotapes of him and Katie: And right there. Rick's motivation for everything is set in stone through a solid case of visual storytelling.

PAL: The writers do almost everything they should have with this character. PAL might not have the most creative evil plan in the world, but to me, a villain can have a generic scheme as long as they're funny. Thankfully, PAL is funny. Not only is the idea of a smartphone ruling the planet hilarious in all the right ways, but Olivia Colman delivers such a great cynical energy that the character needs. The way PAL reacts to people explaining why humans are worth living is just the best, and her flopping around in a fit of rage successfully gets to me.

If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I wish PAL had more of a meaningful resolution to her character. The movie builds up that she makes a big deal about Mark dropping her, so it feels weird that neither of them really get any actual closure with each other. I'll get more into that in the dislikes, but I wish PAL had more of a fitting end than just dying after accidentally getting dropped in a glass of water. Other than that, she's a great comedic villain for a comedic movie.

PAL MAX Robots: These guys are the funniest characters in the movie. Half of it is the bits of visual humor, while the other half comes from the solid line delivery from Beck Bennett. Especially with Bennett's and Fred Armisen's Eric and Deborahbot 3000. These two are definitely the comedic highlights, as nearly every line they say is both hilarious and kind of adorable at times. And just like with Monchi, if you dare disrespect these characters, I will fight you. Because they are funny, and I will not hear otherwise.

PAL demonstrating what it’s like to be a phone: Have I mentioned that this movie is funny?

(Don't disrespect your phones, kids. Otherwise, they'll try to take over the world.)

PAL turning off the Wi-Fi: Again, have I mentioned this movie is funny?

“I love the dog. You love the dog. We all love the dog. But at some point, you’re gonna have to eat the dog.”: It's the sick jokes that get to me the most. Everyone booing Rick afterward is just the cherry on top.

Attack of the Furbies: Have I. Mentioned. That this movie. Is funny?

Seriously, if you haven't lost your s**t during every second of this scene, then you never had to deal with the demonic entity that is a Furby. In a way, I commend you. But you also don't get to appreciate the comedic genius of all of this. So I also weirdly feel bad for you.

The Mitchells deciding how to celebrate: You don't have a real family if you spend more time arguing about how to celebrate after saving the world than you do about how to save the world. I don't make the rules. I just abide by them.

The PAL MAX Primes: There's not much to say about them. The PAL MAX primes look and act pretty cool, are brilliantly animated, and raise the stakes while still being funny at times. I love 'em, but I don't have much to analyze with them either.

The origin of the moose: ...I'd make the "I didn't need my heart anyway" joke, but to be honest, it's still shattered after WandaVision.

(For real, though, this is a really effective scene that establishes why Rick makes a big deal with the moose and why he might feel hurt that Katie is willing to disregard it completely)

The Theme of Technology and Social Media: There's a theme about how family is important, and working hard on making things work is worth the effort. But that's a bit too generic for my tastes, so instead, I'm gonna talk about the equally important message this movie has about technology. Because as twisted as she is, PAL makes a great point. The technology we have today helps us in a variety of ways. It's especially useful with sites like YouTube, allowing content creators like Katie to reach out and share their voices. The only issue with technology is how people use it. Take note that the main reason why the Mitchells stand a chance against PAL is by using her own tech against her. Yes, over-relying on all the advancements around us can be dangerous, but if we're smart with how we use them, we can get by just fine. This movie isn't about purging all technology like most robot apocalypse stories are. Instead, it's about using it correctly and not being helpless sheep the second the Wi-Fi gets turned off. Which might just be the most unique thing this movie has going for it story-wise (more on that later).

The Climax: The Mitchells vs. The Machines has everything that I think I climax should have. First off, it utilizes callbacks and jokes that I wouldn't have thought twice on actually coming in handy for how the Mitchells win the day. But showing that Monchi causes the robots to malfunction turns a pretty "eh" joke into a solid case of foreshadowing.

Second, everyone does something. Some characters do more than others, sure, but the fact that every Mitchell, even Monchi, has a hand in beating PAL and her robots is a great sense of writing to me. It shows that you really can't cut anyone from the main cast, as they each add value to how they are essential to the plot. Even Aaron, who arguably does the least in the climax, still manages to be the catalyst to what is easily the best scene in the movie. Speaking of which...

Linda Kicks Ass: By the way, that's the actual name on the soundtrack. I'm not even kidding. Check it.

Anyways, for the most part, Linda seemed like a decent cartoon mom. She's insanely supportive but still has the common sense to keep her foot down, like agreeing with Rick to stay safe in the dino stop the second the apocalypse starts. A pretty fun character, for sure, but nothing too noteworthy...but the second she loses her s**t, Linda Mitchell frickin' SKYROCKETS to the best-cartoon-mom territory! Believe me when I tell you that seeing her slice and dice robots like a middle-aged female Samurai Jack is as awesome as it is hilarious. Does it make sense how she can suddenly do this? No, but at the same time, who gives a s**t about common sense?! Because this moment was epic, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching it over and over again.

Rick Learning How to Internet...Again: I consider this the funniest moment in the movie. Trust me, the Furby scene is a close, close, CLOSE, second...but I think this scene was funnier.

The final goodbye: This is what I'm talking about when I say humor adds to the dramatic moments. The Mitchells saying "I love you" in moose is pretty funny, but it's also a sweet moment given that this is absolutely how this family of weirdos would say goodbye to each other. And, yeah, I got a little misty-eyed during this scene. Especially when Rick saw Katie pocketing the moose. That s**t just cuts deep, man.

Alex Hirsch Voices a Character: ...That's it. I look up to Alex Hirsh as everything I want to be as a creator, and the fact that his name is on this movie fills me with joy. He's also a story consultant, so that can also explain why the movie turned out as great as it did...although there are some imperfections.

WHAT I DISLIKE

Katie-vision: What's Katie-vision? Well, throughout the movie, we get to see how Katie views the world as there are these hand-drawn elements that look like effects Katie would add if she was the one who made the movie. At times it can be subtle and cute, like when this little beating heart appears when Katie is talking with Jude and her other friends. It's when the movie is in your face with Katie-vision does it get annoying. Like showing how Katie is lying about being certain she can drive up a vertical ramp or signifying what is the Rick Mitchell Special. Even if you justify that this would be how Katie would edit the movie, it still doesn't change how obnoxious these moments can be. For instance, Monchi is justified to be essential for the plot, but that doesn't mean people won't hate him...I'll still fight them if they do, but that's beside the point.

I can totally accept this being a personal issue, as I'm sure some people enjoy it. As for me, I think Katie-vision works best when used subtly instead of crudely.

The Meme humor: It's something similar here. Because some people like meme humor...but I don't. To me, it just dates your story if you reference memes even once. Now, a show, movie, or book being partially dated is nothing new. We Bare Bears, a series that I love, reference memes, apps, and social media constantly. Yet, the show still has a timeless feel to it as it doesn't rely on those references too much. The Mitchells vs. the Machines doesn't rely on memes as much either. But even then, that doesn't make a difference about how annoying that gibbon monkey joke was. Seriously, what the f**k was that? And how is THAT the joke that gets used twice!?

Underutilizing Mark Bowman: It really bothers me how this guy barely does much. I mean, Mark Bowman is the main reason that anything happens in the movie. Because he mistreated PAL, Mark acts as the catalyst for events to come. So the fact that he could have been written out the second PAL takes control doesn't make sense to me. It's worse since I could see more potential with his character through his relationship with PAL. These two could be anti-Rick and Katie, as Mark and PAL show what happens when people disrespect their family. So separating them halfway through the story, and keeping them as such, is a huge mistake as it results in neither having a proper resolution to their arcs. Like I said, Rick and Katie develop through each other, and the same could have happened with Mark and PAL. It doesn't, making it something that I can't help but feel disappointed about.

The Poseys: These are characters I feel like work better with multiple appearances. Sure, they only have the one joke about being a perfect family, but at the same time, you can make a joke like that work. Look at Yvonne from Shaun of the Dead (Which might just be my favorite movie). That's a bit-character whose only purpose is showing how better she is than Shaun despite being in an eerily similar situation. But she works well as we constantly see how great she's doing in every instance we see her. The same could be done with the Poseys, as using a similar joke for one scene is underutilizing great potential to make an already good movie into a better one.

Plus, if you're gonna shoehorn in a romance between Aaron and Abby Posey, the least you could do is have more than one scene developing that...just saying.

Katie’s and Rick’s “Oh” Moments: I want to make it clear that I actually like these scenes. They're well written and effectively emotional. My problem is that they also happen two seconds apart. There's nothing wrong with having a character realize the error of their ways through a tear-jerking moment. It's a popular tactic for a reason. And given how both Rick and Katie are the protagonists, they both need their own "oh" moment. But you gotta space them out, as it makes things easier to see the emotional manipulation that you're clearly trying to pull on the audience. They work, but putting them back to back is an issue easily solved with at least two minutes of padding, not two seconds.

Katie’s Death Fakeout: This is one of the few instances that a joke doesn't work in the movie, made even more annoying with the fact that I could see the punchline a mile away and kept thinking, "Just get to it already." I'm pretty sure no one bought this, especially when Katie didn't look like she could have gotten killed in any way after throwing PAL. It's poorly handled and proof that even the funniest comedies have a stale joke every now and again.

Nothing New is really being done here: Keep in mind that in terms of style, this movie is incredibly innovative. And here's hoping future animated projects can take notes. But narratively speaking? Yeah, there's nothing really new that this movie is offering.

A story about how technology will be the death of us? Been there.

A story about a group of idiots miraculously saving the world? Done that.

A story about a father forcing their teenager on a road trip so they can spend quality time with each other, thus ruining the teen's chance of hanging out with their girlfriend? Believe it or not, I have seen A Goofy Movie...multiple times...both as a kid and as an adult.

Now, I have no issue with a movie's plot being a bit by-the-books, and in some cases, cliche. If done effectively, and if I still have a good time, I don't think there’s much to complain about. And there isn't with The Mitchells vs. The Machines. The problem lies with that I'll forget this movie along with the dozens of others like it in a couple years. Which might just be the biggest issue any film can have.

---------------------

Overall, I'd give The Mitchells vs. the Machines a well-earned A-. It has nitpicks, sure, but it's still a blast to watch. It might not be innovative or groundbreaking as movies like the last Sony Pictures Animation movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. However, it is fun. And when the world is burning down around us, it's nice to have a fun movie that can distract us from all of it. So feel free to log in to Netflix the next time you're in the mood for a film that is great for the whole family. You won’t be disapointed

(And I will talk about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier pretty soon. I just needed to get this out of my system first.)

[bellasweetwriting]

Fix His Broken Heart

Jess Mariano x f.reader

(not my gif)

masterlist

request: Hiii, i want a jess fic🥺 theres not enough jess mariano fics here, how about after rory goes to visit him at truncheon he meets the reader and she helps him move on from rory and he falls in love with reader. 💞💞

requested by: @beautiful-thinking

note: I’m a big literati shipper so this was hard but also fun to write I really love this

warnings: movie references, drinking, gilmore girls s2,s3 and s6 spoilers, some fancy vocabulary, Logan hate

word count: 1,7k

reading time: 7 min

And he saw her walk away to his arms. She found comfort in another guy. She moved one.

He hated himself for realizing that after all these years of knowing this person, still, it isn't enough. He and Rory evolved separately, they don't have the same goals or the same resources. As much as they try, it seemed like destiny didn't want their paths to cross one another.

He realized that he lost her as soon as she walked out of that door. She was gone. What now?

He'll probably see her again at Luke and Lorelai's wedding; hell, he'll even see Logan there also. The way he despited that guy. He cheated on her, and still, there she was, madly in love with him.

Logan is better than him in Rory's eyes, and he couldn't do anything to change that. He was a forgotten part of her story, an item locked inside a box that she opens when she feels lost. She probably doesn' think of him anymore like she used to.

But he thinks of her at least once a day. When he walks through the bookstore and notices the new edition of Dawn Powell's My Home Is Far Away, or when his friends bring coffee and offer to him, reminding him of her slight coffee addiction. Who's he kidding? There's nothing "slight" about Rory Gilmore's coffee addiction, it's concerning.

Any little thing reminded him of her and the fact that now he's sure she doesn't think of him anymore... saddens him.

Everyone was celebrating the success of the event that day, while Jess drowned his sorrows in a cold beer, also glancing over the girls that walked past him.

"I should warn you that if you are planning to Kurt Cobain on my bar, don't." That expression provoked an immediate reaction on Jess's face. "Not a fan of dark humor?"

"Not when it comes from the mouth of a stranger, not," he replied, making the girl chuckle. "Do you always attend your costumers like that, Rick Blaine?" Asked Jess naming the main character of Casablanca, who happened to owned a bar/restaurant in the 1940s.

"Rick Blaine? Don't tell me you are one of those guys who listen to The Clash on repeat and think they are better than the rest of the world because they know references from black and white movies and have read at least one book by Bukowski in the last three months." Jess drank from his beer, making the girl opened her mouth widely. "Oh, God, you are! A living Danielle Steel novel main character drinking alone in my bar." He laughed.

"I used to be that guy," Jess corrected her. "I've changed."

"A girl?"

"A breakup with a girl, to be fairer. I work at a little bookstore called Truncheon. We are all independent writers, and to give you some credit, some of us do look like Danielle Steel's characters. Not that I have read anything by her, though."

Jess wasn't like that. He didn't tell people he doesn't know about himself or his personal life, but for some reason, probably the effects of the alcohol in that beer were making him loosen up a bit with this complete stranger. Yeah, a significant event has happened in his life. The girl he thought he was going to be with forever decided to be with someone else rather than him, and he hasn't thought of anyone else romantically. He's so used to being alone, so used to not having anyone to actually talk to, that, maybe, liberating his internal thoughts and regrets with someone he isn't going to see again is probably for the best.

Not a therapist or a friend, just, someone external who isn't going to dig dipper in his subconscious to understand his situation and actions or someone who is involved in the story; someone who just―listens.

"You read one, you read them all." She commented. "Independent writers, huh? Have you published anything I have written?"

"Probably not," he said with that typical modesty he has earned through the pass of the years. "I just have one book out, is a self-published, so..." She nodded. "I actually did a little road trip, trying to make independent bookstores like mine to put them in the store. Probably, by the end of the month, I'll have twenty bucks and a sticker that says: «keep trying, champ.»"

"How poetic," the barista murmured, and both chuckle.

"Do you have a copy of your book?" She asked, and he nodded, giving it to her. "The Subsect, by Jess Mariano. Truncheon Books," she read before turning it around and reading the back cover. "«A self-published, prominent and dark-humored coming of age short novel following the unique life of J., a seventeen-year-old with no place to call home.» That's dark. How much for it?"

"Twenty bucks and a sticker," she chuckled, "or, a free beer."

"Sounds like a fair deal, Jess Mariano." He smiled at the mention of his name. "I'm Y/N."

"Nice to meet you, Y/N." She placed the book inside her apron with a tiny smile. "So you work here."

"Oh, you said that because of the apron and the fact that I'm behind the counter? No, I'm just a big fan of... college bars in Philadelphia." The sarcasm in Y/N's voice made Jess grin. "My brother owns the place. He lets me live upstairs while I go to college, and I pay rent by working here. The books you see behind me are mine. I study on my break."

"What are you studying?"

"English. I want to be a screenplay writer." He sighed before shaking his head. "What?"

"A film writer? Why?"

"I love films. I love watching them, reviewing them, analyzing them. I want to write masterpieces. What's wrong with that? At least I'm not writing coming of age short novels."

"It's not a coming of age novel, that's just the hideous synopsis that my poet friends come up with for the book. It's actually a lot deeper than that."

"The only way of finding that out is reading it, right?"

"Right."

Both looked at each other for a few seconds before she asked for his glass to refill that free beer she offered him.

"How about... if I come tomorrow, take you out, and you buy me that beer? How about that?" Y/N chuckle before agreeing.  He didn't believe it actually worked. He had tried to ask girls out in the last two years, but they've always said that they weren't interested. But there was something different and intriguing about Y/N that had caught the young writer's attention. "At what time do you finish class?"

"Pick me up at eight here, I'll wait."

"Cool."

"Cool."

...............................................................................................................................

He was nervous.

A date. Jess has never even been on one before. Not even with Rory. He never took Rory on a date like a dinner or a movie before they started going out. He used to tease her, and she fell for him, God knows why.

He took Rory on dates when they were dating, although if you count the car ride as a date. No, it wasn't a date. She was Dean's girlfriend at the time, and he crashed her car.

Why did she even like him? He crashed her car for God's sake. If he was Rory, he would have hated himself.

He hated himself already.

It wasn't like in books. Girls are complicated, and the male writers he is so used to reading about usually don't talk about dates and how to get a girl; the girl is already in love with the main character.

She did mention Danielle Steel. Did she read that kind of dramas, like Nicholas Sparks and John Green, where the characters just die in each other's arms like a shoddy Shakespeare tragedy imitation? Did she like that? He didn't know how to be a "romance" kind of guy. He still used the "bully her because you like her" technique, and maybe that's the only part of him that hasn't changed with the years.

He still didn't know how to communicate and express himself. He still wasn't used to talking about his emotions or being in a healthy relationship where there's no such thing as privacy. He wasn't born to assist to cotillions and balls, wear tuxes like James Bond and use fancy words gentleman-like, such as "Farewell," "Luxury," "Eloquent," and "Hope you had a marvelous evening, thanks for joining us in our humble and splendid gathering."

But that was Rory's world. Probably Logan used words like that without even knowing the meaning of them.

He quickly noticed that thinking about his ex-girlfriend before a date wasn't a good sign.

Maybe he should stand her up? No, that is an old Jess move. He is a changed man, he doesn't treat girls like that anymore. He is better, he is more mature, he wants to achieve something, actually becoming a better and selfless person who thinks about the consequences before acting. He wasn't going to stand Y/N up.

By a quarter past eight, he was standing on the bar's entrance, making eye contact with the barista from the previous day. Y/N smiled at him before saying goodbye to the guy next to her, grabbing her purse and walking towards Jess.

"Thought you wouldn't show up, Romeo."

"Can't believe you took me for a coward."

"In my defense, I saw you drinking your problems away yesterday." He nodded before putting her coat on her shoulders for her, making Y/N smile. "What a gentleman."

"There are so many things you don't know about me. You would surprise yourself."

"Oh, let me guess: you've never been on a date before."

"What? Why would you say that?"

"Well, because we are walking instead of driving."

"I have a dark past with cars and girls. You wouldn't want me to be behind the wheel while you are inside the car after you hear it, believe me."

"Good to know." Both laughed as they walked under the streetlights of Philadelphia. "I've never been on a date either," she admitted, taking him by surprise, but not as much to make a comment about it.

Jess has never felt more comfortable. Next to her, he felt like he was free of judgments. Starting a new story, blank page, blank notebook. He felt safe, and he hasn't felt safe in another person's arms in such a long time.

This was good for him. To finally... move on.

And who better than her to fix his broken heart.

[sunshine-tattoo]

just finished watching the new netflix anime BNA (brand new animal).

wanna give it a review. SPOILERS AHEAD. (also im bad at spelling Japanese names because of my dyslexia so ill be referring to their characters mainly by their titles)

things i liked:

lesbian undertones

dont trust pharmaceutical companies

the real evil in this world are rich white guys

wolf guy had big dad energy

animation was charming

nina was adorable

some cool biopunk elements

themes of erasing identities for the sake of calm

athletic female protagonist was not sexualized

equality should not mean sameness

cute furries

things that could have been improved:

the ending made no sense at all

it was obvious that alan was the villain all along but the pureblood wolf thing came literally out of left field. there was no buildup at all. no mention of beastman species only marrying each other and the politics therein.

and the solution to this plothole could have been sooooo easy.

have “pureblood” beastmen be high members of society or something. like the malfoy family in harry potter. have it be an actual plotpoint. instead of the entire series being beastmen vs humans up until the final episode.

or have pureblood beastmen be ones with no human ancestry. the same themes apply.

also if alan really was immortal, then a better story would have him as the actual general of the army that wolf boy fought. that would have really clinched the dynamic between them.

the biopunk elements needed to take center stage

some of this may just be my personal taste towards scifi vs fantasy, but i felt like their was a lot of buildup towards a story about genetics and equality that never really went anywhere.

take the scene where rhino guy goes completely bonkers. i thought for sure that it was from him being injected with something by the masked snake guy. that maybe it was some kind of drug to make beastman DNA go completely haywire. i was actually digging his crazy transformation a lot.

but then they go and explain that its some kind of syndrome that beastmen get by being in close quarters?

that felt both like weak writing and a bit ableist.

a better solution would be to have it be an experimental drug that the pharmaceutical company developed and was using the beastman city as a testing ground.

or if it needs to stay connected to the past, perhaps the compound that causes the reaction was found in the environment of wolf boy’s ancient european city. the human army witnessed the beastman transformations and recorded it. eventually alan’s family found why it happened via science and made it into a drug.  

the role of women in the city

the episode with the orphaned kids and grand grandma honestly was a bit of a waste for two reasons.

the first is the very human-centered idea that animals are sexist the way humans are. this is incorrect.

quite a few species are matriarchal. like elephants. or they have no hierarchy at all.

the fact that a lioness was being told she was weak for being female fucking blew my mind. have you ever seen a lion pride? females bring home the food and the males look after the cubs.

the second reason is that, even if you ignore the lack of basic understanding about animal societies, the sexism trope didn’t go anywhere.

we never see any other cases of women being treated badly outside of that episode.

the mayor is never belittled and one of the strongest baseball teams in the city is made of female pink flamingos.

don’t spend a whole episode trying to establish something in the world-building and then don’t use it again.

the mayor’s past as a holocaust survivor should have had more plot importance

maybe this is just me speaking as both a jew and a gay, but i really didn't like that the holocaust was used as just a backstory for how the mayor and wolf boy met.

i was really hoping to find out that there was connection to the pharmaceutical company and the cruel medical experiments that were done in the camps. as many scientific breakthroughs can trace their origins to horrible human experimentation done at the hands of fascist governments.

it also would have cemented alan as personal villain to both wolf boy and the mayor.

how magic works

they did not need to explain everything, but maybe a little explanation here and there could have really made the story clearer.

for example, when tanuki girl arrives in the city she learns about how magic is something that can be found in beastmen blood but it is very rare and species dependent. so tanukis and foxes have a much higher chance to do magic than other species (like japanese folklore). they can change their tails to do basic shape-shifting.

it also would explain how wolf boy became immmortal. since he bathed in the blood of his fallen clan and absorbed all their magic.

alan’s identity as a beastman

honestly i could write a whole post about him but ill just keep it to the basics.

alan should not have been a beastman. he should have been a human.

because making him a beastman took away the themes of oppression in the story.

alan was a rich, white human man who did not care for the lives of others (human or beastman) and was happy to use them as pawns and test subjects. not to mention his family most likely had ties to the nazis.  

his particular hatred for beastmen could have come from the killing of his ancestor’s army by wolf boy. leading the family to want revenge on all beastmen and the silver wolf in particular.

that is a realistic villain and one that the audience is happy to see defeated.

how fox girl and tanuki girl becam beastmen

i think that them changing into beastmen should have been intentionally done by the pharmaceutical company, not as an accident via hospital embezzlement

two girls badly hurt in a bus crash would have been easy targets to inject an experimental serum. one that was designed to change a human into a beastman so that the company could learn how to reverse it and make all beastmen into humans.

fox girl exhibited symptoms first and was grabbed by big pharma to use as a pawn.

tanuki girl was a spare who eventually disappeared from their radar and then reappeared in the beastman city.

i think that the embezzlement story could still have happened, but the effects were worse. beastman blood sold to the highest bidder, which turned out to be the pharmaceutical company itself and its illegal experiments.

tanuki and fox beastman blood could have been chosen specifically because of their ties to magic as well. which allows for their shape-shifting.

snake guy and his mask

i think that snake guy should have been one of the first beastmen experimented on by the company.

the results left him scarred and stuck between his two forms. but because he was brainwashed by the company, he gladly serves them.

[goodpeachtea]

𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘, 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘪𝘥. (𝟎𝟎)

Summary: People could say that Baby was crazy, so they could say that hell is more preferable than spending a day with her. Baby agreed. But no one could say that the girl was not a genius or that she was like everyone else. Baby Jones was special - yes, she could be a nicer special type, but anyway, special.

Couple: Spencer Reid x OC.

Words: 1.9K

Warnings: Mentions of kidnapping, death, torture and corpses. Slightly PTSD. Language.

Author’s Note: Hey! So, this is the “first chapter” of BABY, yaay! This is gonna be just a introduction to what happened to our special Baby and marked her for the rest of her life. This story will alternate between past and future (more present than future, despite what we see in this opening chapter), showing the Jones Case and Baby Jones joining the FBI. Hope you like it! :)

➤ MASTERLIST.

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                         (𝟎𝟎). 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖩𝖮𝖭𝖤𝖲 𝖢𝖠𝖲𝖤.

   DAVID ROSSI looked up to the suburb white house, memories from twenty years ago flooding his head and an immeasurable frustration in his chest. The SSA hated more than anything the feeling left behind in him referring to the old-case which never had closure. Indianapolis was a synonym of bad luck to the Italian man, but he needed to know what happened two decades back and finally bring some piece to the Galen family.

   It was his third time there just in a time period of four hours. He was obsessed. Rossi thought that maybe, looking to the house he bought eighteen years ago due to his involvement in that case, a new and absolute lead would pop up and all his problem would be solved. Now, with the new information that the technician Penelope Garcia provided it, he couldn't be more pissed off. The BAU team was involved. They were coming to Indiana and David couldn't do nothing about it.

   He went back to the hotel he was staying, disappointment clearly on his face. He took a sip of the alcoholic drink from his glass, blinking his eyes and noting that suddenly, Prentiss, Morgan and Jareau were there. Then, David realized that he had already told all the information about the case and his personal involvement to the trio, sighing and seeing the worried looks on the younger ones. It was a rare event for Rossi to be so emotional about something related to his professional life. Of course, he worked with innocent lost lives, kidnappings and people who were born in an environment so precarious (in every possible way) that it was almost as if they never had a chance. It was tough. But that kind of personal boundaries it almost never happened. For the best-seller writer, happened twice. Both involving kids. Both horrendous. The first one was the one he was currently working on. The other... it was his last case before retirement.

10 YEARS AGO - WASHINGTON, D.C.

– Clear!

   Gideon and Rossi exchanged looks while the SWAT agents were checking every room in the house for the suspects or the hostage, both looking at the stairs that would take them to the basement. Jason pressed his lips together and hoped they wouldn't find a little girl dead, while David took the lead and walked toward the stairs, the weapon prepared for whatever came. He looked at the bullet marks on the wall, noting the lack of blood nearby. Both men were startled and stepped back when they heard the firing of a gun, landing next to the other three pieces of evidence on the wall. "Get out of here!", the FBI agents' eyes widened at the sound of a child's voice, relief filling their chests.

– Baby Jones? – They heard nothing, so Gideon spoke again. – We are not here to hurt you, okay? We are with the police, you're safe now... I'm going down the stairs, don't shoot. I'm with the good guys.

   Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking is the only word the pair of profilers could think of when coming down the stairs, Gideon followed by Rossi. The wood of the stairs creaked when the two hurried to see a terrified Baby along with two corpses. The Italian David felt a shiver run down his spine, analyzing the bloodied Jones, a woman shot in the head, belly to the floor, and a man, stabbed to death. Gideon hurried to get the .475 Wildey Magnum out of the eight-year-old, comforting her quickly. "Everything will be fine, sweetie", is what he repeated as a mantra, while Baby tried to believe it.

   The girl was taken to the hospital immediately, the mans noticing the purple handprints around her neck, the bloody wounds all over her body and the lean structure that was at least two pounds less than before the tragedy. The girl had to be carried to the ambulance, with no strength in her legs and face buried in Oliver Sanchez's coat, not wanting to notice the pitying looks she received.

– We only have two bodies, a suspect is missing. And if the boy is involved, two more to go. – Aaron announced to the rest of the team, sighing.

  "You, Sanchez and Hill stay here. Gideon and I will see the girl's situation and what she has to say", commented David Rossi, getting into the black car and mentally preparing for the reports of the now saved Baby Jones. Gideon thanked for being at the destination of a hospital not for the morgue, to talk to a child they helped bring alive - even though when they got there, the situation was already resolved.

– How is she, Doctor?

  The woman who was looking after Baby Jones, Dr. Leblanc, left the patient's hospital room when she saw the two FBI agents curious and concerned about the child. Before answering them, the doctor looked at Jones through the glass and blinds, sighing deeply at the sight of a terribly traumatized girl.

– The wounds are pretty ugly, but she'll be fine with time. Well, at least physically. She hasn't said anything since she got here.

– I can't blame her. – Rossi said, not knowing what to feel in a situation like that.

– You really can't: Baby was tortured. You can name it, whip on the back and hands, drowning, cuts, broken leg. Fortunately, there was no sexual assault.

  The men thanked Dr. Leblanc, pressing their jaws, frustrated by what happened to such an innocent girl who had lost everything. "Nothing makes sense. We believed that the Copper's perverted son would sexually harass Baby, but there is no evidence of that. However, he is gone. Then the cowardly psychologist who can't live without his brother and his sister-in-law runs away without them. It's confusing", David commented, while Gideon's eyes focused on the girl. "There is only one way to fill those gaps", Jason told Rossi, who agreed, both entering the hospital room.

– Hello, Baby. – Said Gideon, smiling softly at the little girl, sitting beside her legs on the bed. - Do you remember me?

   "You can call me Jason. That's David," Gideon spoke each word with extreme delicacy when she agreed, understanding that the girl had not experienced any of that feeling in the past three days. "We both work for the FBI, do you know what that is?" Baby, a lover of police films and secretly watch the absurd crimes that passed on TV and were strictly prohibited for her, nodded positively.

– Baby, is it okay if we ask some questions about what happened to you? – Rossi asked, in the same mild tone as Gideon.

   The red-headed girl blinked her blue eyes, which were no longer as bright as they once were, and sighed, memories of the latest events flashing like a film in her head, the image of her dead parents and siblings invading her. The two men were surprised when Baby smiled, with tears in her eyes. "Nothing happened to me," she said in a crying voice, swallowing dry.

   The two BAU people exchanged looks, both smiling weakly at Baby and leaving the hospital room so they could talk properly. Jones continued to look at an invisible spot on the white sheet that covered her, with a frightened features and feeling the tachycardia in her heart, together with the dizziness in her head and the sweat on her body.

– Dissociative amnesia?

– I don't think so. – Rossi said to Jason, looking at the girl through the glass. – Did you see her reaction? She clearly remembers and just doesn't want to relive it. Baby has a hell of a PTSD.

– What do we do then? If she doesn't talk about it, we won't be able to catch the bastards who did this to her. – Jason grunted, running his hand over his mouth and closing his eyes so he could concentrate. - You know what, I'm going to call one of the boys to help me with her. Review the case from the beginning and try to find some new information, there must be something we left behind.

   David quickly agreed, watching Gideon call Bruce Hill and wait for the handsome 35-year-old FBI agent, watching the extremely disturbing behavior of the poor Baby Marie Jones. He returned to the car, heading towards the police station to remember everything and hopefully, offer closure for the little child. Rossi sat in a chair, closing his eyes and letting the memories and files dominate him.

77 HOURS BEFORE - DECEMBER 26TH.

– Do you know what we need? A jet! – Bruce exclaimed, irritated by the lack of space in the crowded car in which they were traveling to another part of Virginia.

– We're not even traveling to another state. – Aaron smiled (which would be rare in the future), denying the older man's behavior with his head and turning his focus on the report in his hands. – And besides, the FBI will never have money for such a thing as a jet.

   Jason took his eyes off the case file, making a grimace and massaging his temples, exchanging a look with his friend David Rossi. "Is it bad?", the Italian asked, shifting his focus from the road to his teammate. "One of the worst I've seen, and I've seen a lot of things out there".

– I didn't have time to read the report, explain me the case.

– Last night, December 25th, at approximately eight o'clock at night, a group of at least three people entered the Jones family house and killed 19 people. – Gideon spoke in a irritated tone by the content of the papers, Rossi listening carefully.

– 19?

– Exactly. The whole family was there, even distant cousins. – Bruce Hill explained, fidgeting in the back seat.

– But isn't this a kidnapping situation? A little girl for what I saw... – David murmured doubtfully, Oliver Sanchez, the other member of the BAU team clarifying the situation.

– The only apparent survivor was the daughter of the couple who owned the house. Her name is Baby Marie Jones, eight years old. – Oliver said in a sigh, pressing his lips in a mixture of anger and pity. - It all happened on her birthday...

– Coincidence or did the unsubs know that information? – Jason asked rhetorically, while looking at the pictures of the countless corpses, pressing his jaw when he saw dead children. – M.O are headshots, execution-style, and stabs to the heart. Two victims, however, had an overkill. 20 stab wounds to the abdomen. It looks like one of the killers has a taste for death.

– Let's be realistic, would these unsubs really do all this just for the girl? We have to work on the possibility that she only tried to escape and was killed elsewhere. – Bruce Hill discussed, believing that in the end perhaps death was more pious than letting the girl live after killing her entire family in front of her. – If they only wanted the girl, why not kidnap her in a more favorable situation, like going to school or some soccer practice.

– I don't know. But it is hard to believe that she is dead. There were at least 3 people to control a child, it would be difficult for Baby to escape. Furthermore, they found no evidence that someone had managed to run from the room.

– Your doubts are valid, Hill, we have to think about these issues, but Hotch is right, we have to treat this as a kidnapping. – David sighed, watching the police, neighbors and journalists around the crime scene that just arrived.

   As soon as they passed the reporting crowd and saw with their own eyes the nineteen cadavers - women, men, children, adults - the same thing crossed the minds of the five members of the 1997 BAU team, knowing that that case would be different from all the others: "holy shit".

[acavatica]

i-wakeupstrange said:

i’m not including this in my review of the elevator fic because it was becoming its own huge, ridiculous tangent, but in short: it’s now my headcanon that Marco is into anime (OF COURSE why didn’t I realize sooner) and in a roundabout way that’s Peter’s doing. (he’s a little old for NGE but, I think, about the right age to have gotten real into, say, Robotech. and decide to show his son these shows. because he’s a Cool Dad. or tried to be before... you know.)

Peter told himself that he was watching cartoons because of the baby, but also all the baby books he’d tried to force Eva to read had said that babies have about a foot of vision and see colors like a dog. Then he told himself that he was watching cartoons because the bright colors and laser sounds kept him awake. At least that wasn’t a complete lie. 

The full truth was that he thought Robotech was cool. It was serialized, which was more than he could say for any American TV shows. It wasn’t as if Peter could read Dune with a baby in his arms no matter how much he wanted to, even if he’d missed the last two books and another was coming out later that year. And it wasn’t as if Peter could read Dune anyway since he was off Ritalin again, but that was neither here nor there. TV shows would catch up to book series eventually.

The fact that it had a story he could follow was just a bonus. The real draw of Robotech was that it aired in marathons in the middle of the night. That was a lot less likely to wake up his ten-week-old than changing his Doctor Who tapes every four episodes. Plus, he’d had to pay someone on USENET to ship the tapes all the way from Brighton. If he wore them out, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to find the guy ripping VHS tapes on net.tv.drwho again.

Eva’s alarm went off, muffled by the bedroom door. Peter closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the couch cushion. 5:30 already. He’d been letting her get most of the sleep to reimburse her for the whole pregnancy thing, but now that she was going back to work, he wouldn’t even have a choice.

He listened to her shuffle around the kitchen. He heard every step of her putting on a pot of coffee. Eva never did anything quietly, but it hadn’t taken him long to get used to it. After all, there was nothing more comforting than knowing his ever-so-slightly evil partner would at least never be able to sneak up on him. 

He opened his eyes to catch her shaking out her still-rumpled hair and stretching out the crick in her back. He heard that too, from all the way across the room. Another thing Peter was repaying her for. She saw him watching and closed the distance between them. Eva draped her elbows over the back of the couch and touched her cheek to Peter’s head. Peter took a deep breath, and he smelled her shampoo and the coffee and their new baby. 

Putting his PhD on hold was worth it.

Eva cocked her head to the side, rolling her chin over Peter’s forehead. “Wow, look at her hair. Japan really has progressive ideas about the meaning of ‘spiral curls.’” She walked around to the front of the couch, plopped down, and held out her arms. “Hand him over.”

Marco started whining almost immediately. 

“I’m surprised you know it’s Japanimation.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “We had Japanese cartoons in Mexico. And actually, the acting was way better than this.”

“Yeah, but were there giant fighting robots?”

“I dunno, this shit is for nerds.” Marco was still fussing in her arms, but she was looking down at him like she understood where he was coming from. “You’re gonna make our kid a nerd, aren’t you?”

Peter smiled. “I don’t know what you expected when you decided to have a baby with me.”

“Feh, yeah, ‘decided.’” Eva stretched her leg out and gave Peter’s knee a good nudge.

She pulled her leg back, crossed her ankles, and cradled Marco with her whole body. All three of them fell quiet, and Minmay sang Marco back to sleep.

⁠—⁠—⁠— 

Marco was born whining, and after four years, he still only stopped when he was asleep.

“Why do I have to do daycare?”

“You asked to watch Voltron. It’s the fifth time we’ve watched Voltron. Please watch Voltron.”

Marco bobbed his head back and forth as he quoted the onscreen conversation between Queen Merla and King Zarkon: “The chamber is full of quarks. ⁠— Quirks? ⁠— No, quarks. You see, everything is made of atoms, and all atoms are made of quarks. ⁠— Hm, nice, but how does it work? ⁠— Well, there are six kinds of quarks: up, down, top, bottom, strange. And my favorite kind, charmed.”

“Well. At least we can be sure you’re my kid. And Eva’s. And of why I like this show.”

“If you like it, don’t complain.”

Peter ran his hand over his hair and tried to ignore how thin it was getting. “Definitely Eva’s kid…” 

Marco rolled over closer to Peter and looked up at him pleadingly. “Whyyy do I have to do daycare?”

“Because,” Peter said reluctantly. “I finally finished school, and it was really hard, but I got a cool job out of it.”

Marco’s eyes basically tripled in size, and he poked out his lower lip. Definitely, 100% for sure, Eva’s kid. “But I’ll miss you.”

Peter sighed. “I’ll miss you too. But you’re starting school in the fall anyway, so think of it like practice.”

Marco crossed his arms and turned his eyes back to the TV. He stayed quiet for maybe a minute, long enough for the pilots to form Voltron. Without taking his eyes off the TV, he said, “What if they don’t know how to microwave Spaghetti-Os?”

“If there’s any lesson you have to learn, it’s that sometimes you have to settle for Spaghetti-Os that aren’t made by Chef Boyardee Champion of the World, Your Dad.”

“Spaghetti-Os aren’t even Chef Boyardee,” Marco mumbled.

Peter reached his leg over and nudged Marco’s knee with his foot. “Don’t you want to be brave like Lance?”

Marco pushed Peter’s foot away, crossed his arms again, and sank into the couch. “No. I wanna be diablo-lolical like Prince Lotor.”

“Well, Prince Lotor doesn’t even need his dad.”

Marco glanced over at Peter, and Peter grinned. Marco sank even further into the couch until his feet almost touched the floor.

⁠—⁠—⁠— 

The bluish glow of the TV cast long shadows across the room. There wasn’t much contrast because it was a pretty dark movie, but Marco was still illuminated against the dull, colorless room. The volume was only one notch above mute, but he was sitting on his knees, so close to the TV that he could almost make out every word. It’s not like the sound would have bothered his dad, even if he turned it all the way up. Marco kept it low so he could still hear Peter breathing, and even acknowledging that feeling ate away his insides.

It had been a whole year, and for a while Marco had tried not to think about how he was the only thing keeping his dad alive, in more ways than one. It got harder the longer Peter didn’t get better. Marco didn’t even have cable to distract himself from his messed up life. He just had the same old VHS tapes, and they’d had to donate a bunch of them to Goodwill when they’d moved. 

The box was still there, still packed and next to the TV, labeled in Marco’s sloppy kid handwriting. Peter hadn’t helped with the move⁠—it had mostly been Jake’s family and his mom’s relatives he’d never met and would probably never see again. Marco could still see his hands pulling the tapes off the shelves, sorting them, reading the labels in Peter’s sloppy grownup handwriting, and not being able to bear to throw away the memories of sitting between his mom and dad with popcorn in his lap, even if he might never be able to watch those tapes again.

There were only a few tapes scattered around the plastic milk crate the TV sat on. The rest were still in the box. Marco had gone through them dozens of times, and he was still limited to the few tapes he didn’t associate with a time when he had a family. 

He’d never watched Ghost in the Shell with his dad. That was probably a good thing, because there was a lot of nudity, and that was always awkward. There was also some gore, which Peter knew gave Marco nightmares, even if he pretended not to be scared. Marco had played the movie in front of Peter dozens of times anyway, but his eyes didn’t track it, and he didn’t tell Marco that he should turn it off, he was too young to see all these nipples.

Marco turned around, blinded from sitting so close to the TV. He didn’t need to see his dad. He knew he was curled in on himself, his face buried in the place where the back of the couch met the seat and the arm. There was no way to know if he was asleep or awake, and Marco wasn’t even sure those words had meaning in Peter’s life anymore.

“Hey Dad,” Marco said, his voice creaky, either from disuse, disgust, or some other kind of emotion. “What do you think about the whole brains jacking into the internet thing? Realistic? It seems like the kind of thing you’d have worked on.”  Marco listened to Peter’s breathing. It never changed. Marco could say anything. “You know. When you worked.”

Marco turned away, back to the TV. He pressed Stop, and the tape clicked off, flooding the room with light so bright and blue, it hurt his eyes. He pressed rewind and the whir of the tape drowned out Peter’s breathing. It was crazy, but as the VCR started to grind to the end of the tape, Marco was suddenly, irrationally, completely sure that when the tape stopped rolling, the room would be totally silent. His body flashed hot and then cold and his pulse pounded painfully in his temples.

The tape clicked off. Marco held his breath.

Peter breathed in. Out. In. Out.

Marco pressed play, turned the volume up a few more notches, and got to his feet. As he passed, he shoved his dad’s leg with his foot. He stood over him, waiting like he expected some kind of reaction. The TV lit up his motionless body in green, gray, white. The cyborg pulled the cables out of her neck and stood.

“If only someone would ghost hack you.”

Marco went into his bedroom⁠—the only bedroom⁠—and slammed the door.  

⁠—⁠—⁠— 

Marco’s back was flat against the dirt floor of the scoop, his head resting on his folded arms. His right leg was draped over Ax’s back and he’d slowly tangled his left leg up in Ax’s tail. Ax didn’t like that, and he knew Ax didn’t like it, and that’s why he’d taken it slow. He’d started by sticking his leg under Ax’s tail. He’d waited a couple weeks, and then he’d surreptitiously make a loop over the course of an hour. Now, after like a month of acclimating him, Ax’s tail was wrapped around Marco’s leg like a boa constrictor, and maybe Ax didn’t even notice.

He definitely noticed. Marco had just pulled off an incredible feat of exposure therapy. Ax just wasn’t allergic to how annoying Marco was anymore. Too bad the allergy was familial, and it was harder to wallow a hawk into submission.

<You’re not even watching,> Tobias complained.

Marco lolled his head to the side and pointed his eyes at the TV. “Why are you making me read TV, Tobias? The point of TV is to not have to read.”

<Subtitles are more authentic,> Tobias said, his voice dripping with condescension.

“But what about Ax? Poor Ax can’t read at all.”

<I can read,> Ax said, his voice a mixture of defensive and arrogant. <And even if I couldn’t, my translator chip has no trouble processing Japanese.> Snobbiness ran in their family too. 

“I’m just saying, I’d be able to pay more attention if I could understand the words and look at the pictures at the same time. You know, how it’s intended to be consumed?”

<It’s intended to be consumed in Japanese.> 

Marco rolled his eyes and sighed. It was the obnoxious kind of sigh, the voiced kind that’s practically a groan. “It’s just robots, dude, it’s not that serious.”

<Neon Genesis Evangelion is art, Marco,> Tobias said, ratcheting the pretension up to eleven. <It’s an exploration of how humanity would develop, given exposure to advanced alien technology in the face of an oncoming alien threat. And the only thing protecting humanity from annihilation is some teenagers with special powers. It’s like, relatable.> 

“Wow,” Marco said sarcastically. “Never seen anything like that before.” That was basically the plot of Robotech mixed with Voltron, but boring.

<I mean, you must have never seen anime before, or you’d know how terrible the English dubs are.>

Marco sat up on his elbows and narrowed his eyes. Ax tightened his tail ever so slightly around Marco’s leg, like he was trying to hold him back. Marco pulled his leg free. “That’s pretty funny, since how could you even have watched so much subbed anime when no one cared enough about you to buy you decent clothes or new shoes or Clearasil? Let alone to go out of their way to buy you anime, subtitled specifically, the way it’s intended, of course.”

Tobias stared at him. Ax stared at him. Hell, Shinji Ikari stared at him.

Marco couldn’t take even a minute of it. “Say something.”

<I just wanted to share something I like with you.> 

Tobias opened his wings, fluttered to the edge of the scoop entrance, and flew away.

Ax was still looking at him with all four eyes. Marco squirmed, but he pressed his lips into a line and didn’t break eye contact.

<That was too far,> Ax said finally, his voice more gentle than Marco deserved. <Why did you react so forcefully?>

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Marco leaned around Ax, grabbed the remote, and changed the audio to English. “Let’s just watch this dumb robot show.”

[prolestariwrites]

The Wish [2]

Fandom: Devil May Cry Characters: Dante, Vergil, Nero, V, Lady, Eva, Sparda, OC Rating: General Tags: Family, Humor, Fluff, Angst, Typical demon hunting violence

Summary: A demon gives Dante the chance to have his greatest desires made real. When he finds himself in a seemingly idyllic life, all seems well until it starts to unravel. Will he sacrifice himself to save the family he lost, or will he choose to give them up for the truth?

Now Posted: Chapter 2, in which Dante hunts for clues and to who he is, and where he is, when he reconnects with a long-lost relative.

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Chapter 2: Pictures and Clues

Dante spends a full ten minutes just sitting on the bed in his underwear. He reviews every step of the night before: Nero texting him about this job, catching the train to Fortuna, the two of them driving out to the warehouse with the radio blaring and picking up burgers on the way. Then the demons, dozens upon dozens, that weren't difficult but packed to the brim so that when they pried open the front door of the building they swarmed like roaches.

He had found the queen at the top, but there it gets fuzzy. It talked to him, but about what? Something about his family? Every time he gets to that part, his headache turns a little sharper, so Dante decides to give thinking a rest so he can figure out where the hell he actually is.

His jeans are slung over a chair so he grabs them and fishes inside for his cell phone. It's different from the one he normally has, and he frowns as he turns it on and finds a passcode. He tries the first thing he can think of—1, 2, 3, 4, easy enough—and luckily it works. Quickly he dials Nero's number, but isn't really surprised when the automated voice comes on the line to tell him that number is not in service.

Dante scratches the back of his head. He's here, in a strange house with a woman who knows his parents, and Nero is… somewhere. Got it.

But then he wonders if something might have happened to Nero. What if he needs his help? Then this has got to be a dream, right? So how does he wake up?

Once he pulls his jeans on and finds a t-shirt in the other set of drawers, he tries the door. Cautiously he opens it, but the house is quiet, so Dante slips into the hallway. There are two other bedrooms and a bathroom which look suspiciously normal. Even the closets are tidy, and Dante snorts when he gets to the linen closet. This must be a dream. Who owns so many towels?

Next, he heads downstairs to the main floor. At the bottom is a living room, complete with a comfortable-looking sofa and a big-screen television. Dante stands in front of it and admires it for a minute before grabbing the remote control. He lets out a low whistle when he sees the picture quality, thinking if this is a dream, he's got good taste.

That demon's got good taste.

Dante shakes his head and continues his search. A small dining room is to the left, and to the right is a hallway leading to another half bath. The kitchen is nice too, the dishwasher humming and a pot of coffee warm on the counter. Even the refrigerator is stocked, and Dante helps himself to a piece of chicken he finds in a plastic container, figuring he can eat whatever he wants in a dream.

Out the kitchen window he can see a little backyard, and Dante sighs as he leans against the counter and chews thoughtfully. It's a nice enough house, something any ordinary couple might buy for a starter home. He glances down at the gold band on his finger, holding it up so he can examine it closely. Setting the chicken down, he wipes his hand on his jeans and slips it off, turning it over until he notices an inscription on the inside: Dante and Lir Forever.

He pictures the cute blonde who was half his size but acted more than familiar. "Lir," he murmurs out loud, slipping the ring back on as he looks around.

Wandering back through the house, Dante notices some pictures sitting on the windowsill in the living room. He walks over and picks up the first one, his face going a bit pale. He is in a suit, and that woman‚ Lir, is in a wedding dress. They are posed and smiling in front of a cake, holding a knife together as if to cut it. He turns it over but there's nothing out of the ordinary about it, and Dante snorts as he sets it back down again.

The next few are of them as well: a selfie in winter gear, posing in what Patty would call "Sunday attire", in bathing suits at a beach, arms around each other and grinning at the camera. He's gotta admit, they look pretty good together. His brain did a good job dreaming this girl up.

The next photo, however, feels like a punch to the gut. It's a double-sided frame on a hinge, and on one side it's him and a man who looks exactly like him, only his hair is slicked back instead of hanging in fringes around his face. In fact, he looks exactly like what Vergil would look like. If he was still alive.

Dante's hand shakes as he examines the picture. It is Vergil, it's got to be, the same slightly slimmer build and the half-inch in height that made it possible to tell them apart. The only thing that shocks him more than seeing this picture is the one opposite. Across from Dante and Vergil posed with small smiles is Vergil and Lady, her hand in his arm as they smile into the camera.

Gripping the picture frame, he grabs the next one and braces himself. Staring up at him are two people he somewhat recognizes, as if he had seen them in a dream. They are older, in their 60s maybe, the man grinning with his arm around his wife, sitting together on a couch. He has longish silver hair, not unlike Dante's, a pair of glasses hanging around his neck. Her blonde hair is swept up into a bun, streaks of white only making her more dignified, her hand on the man's knee. Dante brings the picture up so close his nose nearly touches it, and that's when he realizes that the woman is a dead ringer for Trish, if Trish was about 40 years older.

His cell phone rings in his pocket, startling him out of his examination. Dante fumbles for the phone but freezes when he sees the name Vergil appear on the screen. It takes another three rings before he gets the courage to answer. "Yeah?"

"Did I wake you or something?"

Dante staggers to the couch and sits heavily, still clutching the two pictures in his hands. He knew what to expect, but nothing could have prepared him for hearing that voice on the other end. "Dante," it says again. "You there?"

"Y-yeah," he stammers, his voice cracking around a dry throat. "Verge, is that you?"

"Of course it's me. I want to talk about tonight." Dante's eyes close as he listens, trying not to freak out. Even Vergil's exasperation for him is the same. "I'm paying for dinner, and I don't want to hear anything about it. We need to settle this now so we don't argue at the restaurant."

"What uh…" Dante's mind is spinning and he shakes his head to clear it. "Yeah uh, Lir mentioned something about a dinner. Do you know Lir?"

"I'm surprised you forgot, Dante. Usually you remember these sorts of things." Dante leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he tries to breathe. "This dinner tonight is important and I don't want a scene. Just let me pay for it, and afterward we can agree on how you'll pay me back your half. Agreed?"

Dante swallows thickly. "Yeah, yeah that's fine. Vergil. Vergil."

Even saying his name gives Dante the shivers. "Well I expected more of an argument. Glad you're going to listen to reason. Don't be late."

"Wait, Verge?" Dante looks down at the picture in his hand, something hot and tight tickling his throat. "Can I see you? Can you come over?"

"What for? I'll be seeing you tonight, and I have the kids. Are you sick? Where's Lir?"

"She covered a shift," Dante replies. "Please, Verge, I got… I need to say some things."

"Well say it tonight. I'm not driving all the way over there when I'll see you in a few hours."

Dante chuckles, swallowing tears as his breath escapes in a laugh. "Okay. Yeah. Hey uh, is mom and dad… they really gonna be there? At this dinner thing?"

There is a long pause, and then Vergil huffs, "Don't be stupid," before hanging up on him.

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

The rest of the afternoon Dante spends figuring out his life. He finds photo albums in the closet, handmade scrapbooks that Lir definitely made. They chronicle some of their vacations, and he smiles as he turns the pages to see them camping, at the beach, at Disneyworld. The wedding one makes him wince a bit, the smiling faces of his brother and his parents making something in his chest tight. The date on the preserved invitation tells him they've been married about ten years, which is pretty funny since the longest relationship he's ever had was about ten minutes after getting dressed.

He looks weird in a suit, and Dante snorts to think what Lady or Trish would say if they saw him. But Lady is there, on Vergil's arm, and that is a mystery he can't wait to solve. And Trish kind of is there, in the form of his mother, looking slightly older but just as lovely.

There is a drawer in the desk in the office that has some bills, and he boots up the computer to take a look through. The email is pretty normal, receipts from online orders and utility companies, messages from the family and people he doesn't know. There is a link to a bank account and Dante's brows lift to see the balance. Compared to his normal finances, the amount seems like a small fortune.

There must be something a god of fortune can give you.

A cat appears suddenly, jumping onto the desk and stalking across the keyboard to plop across his arms. Dante pulls back in reaction, which earns him a very annoyed look from the cat. "Hey uh, there," he says, tentatively reaching out to pat its head.

The cat snaps at him, and Dante rolls his eyes. He never got along with animals as a rule. "So you want to sit on my computer as I'm using it but I can't pet you, hm?" he grumbles. The cat yawns in response, so he decides to go find lunch instead.

There's not much more to discover after having a sandwich. His life seems completely ordinary, although he doesn't know exactly what he does or even if he's still in Red Grave City. The other question still to solve is Nero. If Vergil is alive and married to Lady, then does Nero even exist? His face goes a bit hot to think of the kid not being around. But Vergil had mentioned kids on the phone… is it possible?

He is dozing on the couch and watching television when the door bursts open. Dante is on his feet and reaching for his guns that aren't there when Lir hurries in, her arms filled with dry cleaning as she comes like a whirlwind into the living room. "I'm so sorry I'm late! I can't believe I got stuck there! I told them I couldn't stay, and now look at the time!"

She pushes the clothes and plastic into his arms and pulls her cell phone from her purse. "Did you take a shower yet? You still need to shave. You are going to shave, right? You can't look like a sasquatch at the party."

Lir looks up at him expectantly, and Dante shrugs. "Yeah, I guess?"

"Good. Wait. Are you okay?" She steps up and presses a hand to his forehead. "You were sick this morning. How do you feel?"

"I'm okay," he assures her. "I had a weird dream."

She smiles, and his heart actually skips a beat. His brain is good. "Good. Did you feed Claudius?"

"Claudius?"

"Yes. The cat." Lir laughs and pats his chest. "Was he a problem today?"

Dante thinks about the cat that interrupted his computer search. "No. And no, I didn't feed him."

"Okay. I'll take care of it. You go shower and get dressed. And don't take too much off, you know I prefer a bit of facial hair." She takes the dry cleaning from his arms and pulls one of the hangers to hand back to him. "Here's your shirt and pants. I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Yeah." He watches her step around him, draping the rest of the clothes over the back of a chair before disappearing into the kitchen. If this is a dream, it's more vivid than any he can remember.

The shower feels good, even if Dante is amazed by how many things are on the shelves. He's never lived with a girl but is there anything needed really other than a bar of soap? In one of the drawers under the sink he finds a shaving kit and goes to work before the shower fixing up his face just like she asked. It occurs to Dante that this is his dream and he can do whatever he wants, but something makes him not want to disappoint her, so he makes sure to leave a nicely trimmed beard while removing the rest from his cheeks and neck. Once the shower is hot, he goes for the least-strange sounding soaps before finishing up and drying off with a nice fluffy towel.

He peeks into the bedroom and finds it empty. Quickly he hurries over to the bureau and opens the top drawer, rummaging around for some underwear. Dante just has his first foot in when Lir enters, and he yelps when he sees her. "Hey! I'm getting dressed!" he protests.

She freezes and looks at him in surprise as he pulls his boxer briefs up. "Yeah. I see that." With a laugh she moves to the closet and hangs the rest of the dry cleaning up before disappearing into the bathroom.

Dante frowns before he remembers, they are married. He rubs his hand on his face with an internal groan. He is going to have to get used to this as long as this dream or whatever lasted, including being half-dressed in front of her. While she's gone he quickly pulls on the dark slacks and gray dress shirt before heading to the closet. He finds some black dress shoes he figures Lir will like, and once he's all ready he stands and looks at himself in the full-length mirror that is propped against the wall.

Dante barely recognizes himself without the low-slung denim and some red leather, but he figures he still looks pretty good. As long as he looks better than Vergil, he'll be satisfied, chuckling to himself at the thought. But then he sobers a bit as his stomach turns, wondering what it will be like to see Vergil again. The last time was on Mallet Island, and before that, watching him fall off the Temen-ni-gru. Did that even happen in this place? There had to be a Temen-ni-gru if Lady was here, right? He shakes his head, confused as ever. He needs to figure this out, and fast.

Lir steps past him, again dressed in only a bra and panties, and Dante quickly looks the other way as she pulls her dress over her head. "Will you get this zipper?" she asks as she steps into a pair of heels.

Clearing his throat, he steps up behind her and carefully pulls the zipper up as she smooths her hands down the front. It's a sleeveless blue little number that fits her just right, and when she turns around to fix his collar he admires how nice she looks. "Okay," Lir smiles. "You ready to go? Dinner with the family is always interesting."

Dinner with the family. "Yeah, I'm ready," he grins. Maybe the mystery-solving can wait until after seeing them again at least. Couldn't hurt, right?

[uservillanelle]

Killing Eve ― 3x02 (Review)

I’m finally back to discuss 3x02!! It’s kind of late, I know, but thankfully I haven’t read any other reviews, reactions or thoughts of the episode yet, so my opinion hasn’t been affected by anyone elses and the perspective is still pretty fresh, lol! So let’s get into it, shall we?

The Funeral

This is exactly the place that ended up bringing all, or most, of characters together. Literally. Carolyn is there, Eve is there, Konstantin as well, Kenny’s girlfriend Audrey including his employer and a colleague. Oh, let’s not forget Kenny’s sister - Geraldine! The only person who’s missing here is Villanelle.

I assume they haven’t seen each other for 6 months. And by “they” I mean Eve, Carolyn and Konstantin. Some thought that Konstantin being there was very random, but not exactly. Sure, he didn’t personally know Kenny, but he makes it look like he’s there to support Carolyn since they are “old friends”. Eve immediatelly picks up on that and calls him out. “Don’t pretend... for one second, that you ever think of anyone but yourself.” Eve hasn’t spent as much time around Konstantin as Villanelle has, and despite that fact she seems to know him really well. And in a way, by saying so Eve is reminding US of who exactly is Konstantin Vasiliev.

So. The Bathroom scene. Now that I’m thinking about it, there are 3 characters that perfectly express 3 different stages of grief. Carolyn seems to be almost unaffected by her son’s death, not saying much, not feeling much, perhaps? At least she doesn’t show it. She’s clearly in denial and that’s the first stage of grief. Then there’s Eve, who is so determined to get to the bottom of things and solve the case that got her dear friend killed. She’s obviously angry because she’s the only one who truly believes Kenny didn’t commit a suicide. That’s second stage of grief. And finally, there’s Audrey, who allows herself to be vulnerable and accepts the fact that Kenny’s gone. So pain and acceptance follows the previous two stages. It’s just so interesting as to why they would throw all 3 of them in a bathroom like that with three completely different reactions. So yeah, I do think they did th scene only to show us how those 3 are dealing with the loss. 

Next, Geraldine comes into the picture. And she does that through Konstantin. Konstantin is minding his own business, getting his hands on the food and Geraldine comes to greet him, obviously happy to see him again. Based on their brief conversation during the scene shows that she had a way better relationship/bond with Konstantin than she did with her own mother. That says a lot. Also, we find out that Konstantin has been there for quite  A LONG time since she and Kenny were kids. It’s safe to say he and Carolyn did have an affair at some point and who knows... maybe he was way more involved in their lives than they’re letting us on. But yeah, I’ll touch upon Geraldine and Konstantin a bit later.

The fact that Carolyn was the only one who was wearing WHITE instead of black gives us a clear indication of the denial. Not only she did that, but.. “Couldn’t we be sad and listen to good music?” Carolyn Martens, everybody. She might just have the weirdest yet coolest one-liners in the show and I’m all about it.

Were any of you just as annoyed by Jamie, Kenny’s employer, as Eve was? I’m sure the conversation between him and Eve was intentional especially knowing that they will have to work together to crack the case of Kenny’s death, but damn! Still not sure what to think about him. Seems rather shady to me. Then again.. there are too many shady characters on this show we cannot trust, lol, so might as well add another one in the list!

Villanelle & Dasha

I honestly thought that the new place Villanelle moved in belonged to her wife. It only made sense. I mean.. where the hell is MARIA?! Don’t tell me we won’t see her again. What’s the point in having Villanelle marry someone and not share any scenes with that character again? We  better see her again and the fact that Villanelle is not even wearing her wedding ring is hilarious and shows exactly how FAKE their marriage really is.

Okay, back to Villanelle and Dasha. I don’t think her wanting to go back to Russia is the only, or main, reason why she had to bring Villanelle back into business. I hope we won’t have to wait until the finale to find out what Dasha did to Villanelle. It had to be something very extreme.. or not at all. Let’s not forget... Eve rejected to go with Villanelle and she shot her..almost killed her. So Villanelle saying she’ll kill Dasha.. you can never know, right? 

Villanelle having to work WITH someone? Really? I think the show made it pretty clear in 1x04 how Villanelle can’t work in a group. It will not end up well and this time it was no different. I actually liked Felix a lot. He was such a baby, but he did fucked up after all and Villanelle told him straight away that she’ll kill him if he made her look “bad”. Good old foreshadowning on it’s finest. 

Patience and responsibility is required to be a Keeper. Villanelle has neither of those two and she even admitted that herself. She knows it, we know it, and Dasha knows it. Instead, she tells her to “pretend” to be patient and responsible. Not only that, but handle Felix in a particulary way, by lying to him and giving false hope he “might” be good. Not a minute after, Dasha uses this manipulation technique on Villanelle to show how well it works. Thankfully she didn’t fell for it. But that makes me wonder... if Dasha has been acting like this ever since she found Villanelle again. She’s giving her false hopes of becoming a Keeper and being “good enough” to be one. She has no power to make Villanelle a Keeper, so... she’s manipulating her to do the dirty work and.. maybe deal with her after she did whatever she was needed to do. Which might lead to yet another betrayal... and this time she might not survive. 

It has always been Konstantin’s job to remind Villanelle of Eve and tease her about her all the damn time, so when Dasha brought Eve up and Villanelle possibly STILL thinking about her, she got immediatelly defensive and kind of pissed off? I mean... it doesn’t get as obvious as this. We get it, sweetie. You’re still as much in love with her as you were 6 months ago. 

Carolyn

There was a part of me that believed in a way that Carolyn might be involved in her own son’s death. Yes, that would be very fucked up to say the least, but... we don’t actually know her, do we? She could’ve done anything and everything and we wouldn’t know. And neither do other characters, as it seems. Even Konstantin, who has known her for YEARS is ordered to spy on her. Truth is... we don’t really know anything. But then.. there’s something else.

Then we get the scene in the car, which was very well needed. We needed to see a more vulnerable side of her, the emotional side of Carolyn to see that.. she might not have been involved in Kenny’s death. She has been acting that entire time, pretending he comitted suicide because she knew there will be people who would be spying on her. Hell, she probably knows Konstantin was there to do that, but decided not to mention anything.

One name. FIONA SHAW. The car scene was phenomenal. Carolyn doesn’t get many scenes like that where she gets show emotion and open up a bit more so I really appreciated the scene and again... her GOLDEN one-liners. “Why don’t you go and do that thing... where you close your eyes and breathe?” This line KILLED ME! It might just be the most iconic Carolyn line for me so far. Don’t try to change my mind lol!

So on top of everything that’s going on, and her trying to investigate Kenny’s death, wanting Eve’s help... she tries to talk about her family, especially her father but Eve’s not having any of it. So plan B is to bring up Villanelle, because ohh she knows...just how important Villanelle was AND still is to Eve and all she needs to do really is to binrg a photo of her most recent victim and tell Eve that she’s back. This can’t be about Villanelle anymore... I mean Kenny JUST died and this just has to be a way for Carolyn to get Eve back in the game. And it has worked.. even though Eve declined her offer. “I thought you’d want to know” Yes, Eve DOES know now. And she won’t let it go. The level of her “subtle” manipulation is just... soo efficient. What I don’t understand is why she keeps “firing” Eve and then coming back later and asking her to come back and chase Villanelle all over again. And when she does so... Carolyn doesn’t want Eve to be as invested in Villanelle anymore and that’s the same case with Villanelle and Konstantin and honestly... this topic deserves a separate discussion and I’ll touch upon it really soon because I’m VERY curious and even slightly frustrated about the whole thing.

Konstantin

This man might be just as shady as Carolyn is, this season. At least one thing we DO know. He has a mission and will play an important role. Last season all that he wanted was to get back to his family and hopefully quit working for the Twelve? Yeah, that didn’t work out. Like at all. 

He’s not with his family, his wife has a boyfriend, his daughter is stuck with them and she hates it and Konstantin doesn’t really care that much. I mean, what could he do? Bring Irina with? She’d only end up dead so he can’t involve his family into this thing. And that leaves him alone in this... mess. I’m not even sure where his REAL loyalties lie anymore. I’d say his family but you can never know. He did say... he never stopped working for the Twelve. So that might just answered my previous question.

At the same time I feel he is STILL working with Carolyn to some extend. Carolyn went to tell Eve that Villanelle is back then Konstantin goes to find Villanelle to let her know that Eve is alive and well. Were Konstantin and Carolyn ordered to do that separately or it’s their own plan in getting Eve and Villanelle to chase one another once more? Shady stuff, indeed. 

Just like Carolyn manipulates Eve, Konstantin’s like “Eve’s alive. But DON’T go to London”. LMAO, seriously Konstantin?! Of course she’s NOT going to London in the following episode to visit Eve. Don’t even worry about it. It’s very suspicious he only comes to visit Villanelle after half a year and exactly when Eve knows that she is back and everything else. He was ordered to stay in London for a while... so now he’ll bring Villanelle to London and shit will go down. Good job, dad!

Eve

So recently I had a very huge realization. The thing is... Eve has always been Villanelle’s shadow in a way, because most of us LOVE Villanelle to pieces and we often, if not all the time, forget about Eve being another LEAD of the show. I’m not gonna lie, I was like that for the past two seasons and I really underestimated her. But.. this season, these first two episodes proved me wrong and I’m still shocked as to how much Eve has changed since S2. I can’t really put my finger on it... but shes’s different. Shes completely different person now. She’s so much more grounded in so many ways, and yeah I know she’s a MESS right now but the character development so far... wow. Maybe she’s like that because Niko is not really in her life anymore and she doesn’t need to pretend about anything. She gets to express how she really feels and I’m all for it. I’ve been ASLEEP for too damn long... and I finally awoke.. and I fucking LOVE Eve Polastri. Please, do not underestimate her. She and Villanelle were always equal but now... now they truly are and I cannot wait for next episode to see how she’ll react to Villanelle and how different their interactions will be from now on. Since.. old Eve IS dead and this Eve gives zero shits about anything. All I can say... careful, Villanelle, you don’t want to mess with her. 

Sandra Oh. That’s it. Her ability to just.. become this new version of Eve fascinates me so much. It almost seems like she doesn’t even need to try and I LOVE that. She’s bringing this wild, crazy side to Eve that we haven’t really seen before and her every scene deserves a fucking applause. Truly. So let’s appreciate Sandra for being sooo ridiculously amazing as Eve and serving us each episode with amazing content. I’m starting to see what Villanelle sees in Eve... and I’m a bit worried lol!

Alsooo I can’t be the only one who noticed the change in Eve’s choice for drinks. Throughout first two seasons she ALWAYS went for Gin and Tonic. Now, though? It’s only GIN. Yeah, this is a different Eve and shes going for real, clear drinks and that’s all we need to know. 

Villanelle 

I’ve covered most of the things previously in ‘Villanelle & Dasha’ part. I just want to quickly discuss Jodie Comer’s acting. Can we do that, please? Okay, so there were two scenes that stuck out for me. The one where she and Felix had THE conversation about being rejected by the loves of their lives AND obviously the ending scene with Konstantin. Jodie Marie Comer. There are NO limits for her acting... none at all and I still catch myself watching scenes like that with my jaw to the floor. 

The scene with Felix is soooo important and you can’t tell me Villanelle is incapable of having feelings after watching it. She HAS feelings and she DOES feel them. More intensively than others too. And the way they used the Unloved “Cry” soundtrack in there... just glued me to the screen and I had to rewatch the scene several times. A truly highlight of the episode.

Now... the ending scene. That was something I didn’t think I’ll see in terms of.. how outstanding Jodie’s acting was. They also focused on HER only, blurrying Konstantin’s image out and pushing him into the background because that’s how Villanelle felt. She basically went through AT LEAST 4 emotions through the same scene and that’s all because she found out Eve is actually alive and... I’m still SHOOK. 

Soundtracks

Just feeling like I need to mention how wonderful are the show’s soundtracks. Like the crew finds and picks mostly not very popular songs and they work so well and makes the show so unique. Most shows use already known songs and Killing Eve just... goes for something unpopular (yet), older foreign songs that fit so perfectly in the given location of the show and the songs usually, if not always, have a very deep meaning. They reflect and tell a story for us that the characters are not telling and that is suuch a brilliant way of using the soundtracks. The two that I REALLY loved this episode was USP by Liz Lawrence and Dart For My Sweetheart by Archie Bronson Outfit. If I’m correct both of the songs were playing during Kenny’s funeral, which is soo fucked up! But like.. thanks Carolyn, for requesting some good ass music!! I definitely recommend you guys to check those songs out and the rest of the soundtracks, as they carry such a strong Killing Eve vibe!

Overall Thoughts 

Like I said about the premiere being and feeling different, this episode was somewhat similar to that meaning that the show is different now and we shouldn’t expect miracles of it because we will end up disappointed. So far, I’m loving it and I CANNOT wait for next episode... I know I will not surive and probably neither will you. They’re still taking their time into getting back to the “normal” pace of the show and current events but I have a very strong feeling next episode will NOT compare with the previous two and that’s when the story itself will pick up the pace and will actually GLUE us to the screens until the finale! 

As always, feel free to let me know your throughts, reactions or even predictions for the next episode as we have basically 2 more days until 3x03 and we all will need help afterwards. So my inbox and askbox is always open for you guys! And MASSIVE THANK YOU to those who actually take their time to read my nonsense!