#nice guy pose // ( promos )

[newdestination]

[Gee, I wonder what I could possibly be up to...]

[catoslvt]

Duncan Tarun (tdi) x Reader

You replace courtney in this sorry ☹️

Challenges are weekly, so I don't need to watch the show 24/7, to figure out who's out first, etc, soz zxx

I stand at the edge of the boat, my heart racing.

I'm only here for one reason, to win, and maybe to make some friends, but mainly to win.

As it begins to pull up to the island, I notice a big crowd of people there already, probably more than half of the contestants, if not all of them, I'm not close enough to see yet.

As the boat stops at the dock, I grab my bags and climb out, where Chris greets me.

"This is y/n!" He exclaims as he motions to all of the other contestants, and a few of them wave whilst some roll their eyes, but I approach the group anyway with a smile, before fitting myself in a gap next to a really pretty girl with green / midnight blue hair and a short boy.

"Nice hair." I tell her, and she smiles widely at me, before an extremely attractive boy arrives on the dock, and I notice almost everyone swooning for him, but my attention is grabbed when a ginger girl begins to arrive, screaming her head off, she must've been excited because she jumps out of the boat before its even docked, whacking her head and chin full force off of the dock, which causes me to let out a small laugh.

Once Chris has helped the girl, he clears his throat.

"First things first, we need a group photo for the promos, everyone to the end of the dock." He announces as I walk with the girl and the short boy.

"I'm gwen." She tells me with a smile.

"I'm y/n." I introduce, and the short boy next to me smiles at me.

"I'm Cody." He says, and I just nod at him before I stand at the edge of the dock, staring down at the water.

As we all pose, gwen and I wrapping our arms around each other, Chris holds up his camera.

"Okay.. three..two..one." He begins, but he quickly lets out a large 'oops!'

"Okay, forgot the lens cap. Okay, hold that pose.." He yells again.

"One.. tw- no wait, cards full. Hang on." He says and I let out a small groan.

"Jesus, do you want me to do it for you?" I call to him earning a small laugh from the group, but Chris just shakes his head, but I did earn a small smile from him.

"Come on man, my face is starting to freeze." A girl I haven't been introduced to yet groans.

"Got it! Okay, everyone, say Wawanakwa!" He yells to us, and we all begin to say it, but the dock breaks beneath us, sending us all plummeting into the water.

"Okay, guys, dry off and meet at the camp fire pit in ten." Chris announces, and as Gwen and I climb out of the water, I stare at her.

"He totally planned that, right?" I ask, and she lets out a small laugh as she nods her head at me.

As we all sit around the fire pit, Chris begins to talk.

"This is Camp Wawanaka, your home for the next eight weeks. The campers sitting around you will be your cabin mates,your competition and maybe even your friends." He says as we all look around each other, smiling at each other whilst a fairly attractive boy up the back just glares at each other, earning a slight eye roll from me.

"The camper who manages to stay on Total Drama Island the longest without getting voted off will win $100,000!" Chris exclaims before the same boy from earlier storms to the front, a slight grin on his face.

"Excuse me, what will the sleeping arrangements be? Because I'd like to request a bunk under her." He coos as he points a finger at Heather, I think that's her name anyway Gwen told me it is.

"They're not Co-ed, are they?" She asks, and Chris stares at all of us.

"No, girls, get one side of each cabin. Boys get the other side." He explains and Linday puts up her hand.

"Excuse me, Kyle, can I have a cabin with a lake view since I'm the prettiest?" She asks, her voice deafingly squeaky.

"Okay, you are, but that's not really how it works here. And it's Chris." He states, and Gwen looks at me with a shocked look on her face.

"That sounded really creepy." She mouths and I nod in agreement.

Suddenly, the two girls Sadie and Kadie who would look like fraternal twins from afar begin to cry in case they're not in the same cabin and Gwen scoffs.

"This cannot be happening." She mumbles, and Owen pulls her and Tyler into a hug by the neck earning an eruption of laughter from me.

"Here's the deal, we're going to split you into two teams. If I call your name out, go stand over there." Chris instructs as he points a finger to the back corner of the fire pit.

"Gwen, trent, Heather, Cody, Lindsay, Beth, kadie, Owen, leshawna, Justin, and noah! From this moment on, you are officially known as the screaming gophers!" He exclaims, and I stare at gwen as she walks away, feeling slightly lonely at the fact the only person I've spoken to so far is in the opposite team.

"The rest of you over here, Geoff, Bridgette, dj, Tyler, Sadie, izzy, y/n, Ezekiel, Duncan, Eva, and Harold, move move move!" He exclaims, and I stand up and force myself to walk over to the other side of the fire pit.

"But Kadies a gopher! I have to be a gopher!" Sadie screams, and i walk over to her and place my hand on her shoulder.

"Sadie, is it? Come on, it'll be okay." I say as I lead her over to our team, trying to drown out her and Kadies screaming on how this isn't fair.

I let out a large laugh when I heard our team name.

"Oh, come on? The killer bass? Who came up with that." I mutter under my breath, and Bridgette laughs before Chris begins speaking again.

"Alright, campers, you and your team will be on camera in all public areas during this competition. You will also be able to share your innermost thoughts on tape with video diaries anytime you want. Let the audience at home know what you're really thinking, or just get something off your chest." He says with a smile, and I nod my head, I'll probably be in there a lot.

"Alright, any questions? Cool. Let's find your cabins." He says, not really giving us time to ask any questions though.

As he leads us to the cabins, I audibly gasp at how small they are.

"Gophers, you're in the east cabin, bass. You're in the west!" He exclaims before ushering us into the cabins, where I slap my hand over my mouth when I see its bunk beds.

"Y/n, do you want to share one with me?" Bridgette asks and I nod at her.

"You can take the top if you want, I don't mind." She offers as I set my bags down on the floor at the bed she's standing at.

"Thanks." I say with a small smile.

As Bridgette and I walk outside, the same dude that was glaring at everyone at the campfire approaches us, his names Duncan I'm pretty sure.

"Nice piercings." I say, raising my eyebrows at him, and he smiles slightly and goes to say something until blood curdling screams come from the other teams cabins, and we all run over.

"Man, that white girl can scream." Leshawna says and we all let out small chuckles before we look in the cabin to see Lindsay ontop of a chair pointing at something crawling around the floor.

"What is it!? Kill it!" She screams, and Dj looks at the floor and lets out an even higher pitched scream as he throws himself at a bed, breaking it instantly.

"That was my bed." Gwen states as she stares at her now broken bed, and I let out a laugh from beside her.

"Just come sneak into our cabin." I say with a joking nudge to her side and she smiles.

As everyone tries to kill the cochroach, making us all scream, Duncan just storms in with an axe and slams it into the floor, cutting the cockroach in half, atleast it did the job I suppose.

"Well, that's one way to kill a cockroach." Gwen says with a small chuckle, and I nod in agreement.

"Hey, now you've got a dead cockroack and a dent on your floor." I say to her, and she just laughs.

As I stand behind gwen in the line for food, Duncan stands behind me, and I can turn to him.

"Not got your axe now, hm?" I ask with a laugh, and he just rolls his eyes before I turn away again.

"Listen up, I serve it three times a day, and you will eat it three times a day. Grab a tray. Get your food and sit your butts down now!" The chef yells, and I raise my eyebrows slightly, taken back by his attitude and sterness.

As he piles food onto our plates, I stare at the food, unsure if it's actually even food, as I walk over and take a seat next to Bridgette, and Duncan raises his eyebrows as he walks over and sits down directly infront of me.

"Yo, my man. Can we order a pizza?" Geoff asks Chris and chef quickly throws a knife at him, missing him by inches, which makes my eyes widen in shock.

Surely this isn't safe.

"Your first challenge begins in one hour." Chris exclaims before he walks out, and we all let out little 'oooo's of excitement.

As we all stand at the edge of the cliff, I regret getting excited.

"Okay, your first challenge is simple. Your first task is to jump off this 1000ft high cliff into the lake." Chris begins, and we all just shrug.

"Sounds easy enough." I whisper to Gwen.

"If you look down, you will see two target areas. The wider area represents the part of the lake that we have stocked with psychotic, man-eating sharks. Inside, that is the safe zone, which is your target area, which we're pretty sure is shark free." He tells us and leshawna shakes her head in total disbelief.

"Excuse me?" She quizzes.

"For each member of your team that jumps and actually survives, there will be a crate of supplies waiting below. Inside each crate are supplies that you'll need for the second part of the challenge, building a hot tub!" He exclaims.

"The team with the best one gets to have a wicked hot tub party tonight. The losers will be sending someone home. Let's see, killer bass. You're up first." He then finishes and as Bridgette and I move closer to the edge, our faces both change in fear.

"Oh, wow. So, who wants to go first?" She quizzes, and our whole team stays silent, Duncan even turning his back to us, and a million thoughts race through my head.

I mean, if I go first I get it over and done with, meaning over peoples screaming won't put me off.

"So, who's up first?" Eva asks and Duncan stares over at me.

"Ladies first." He coos and I furrow my eyebrows.

"Fine, I'll go." I say with a shrug as I approach the edge of the cliff, staring down at the water below me.

As I jump, I actually begin enjoying it, not letting out a single scream as I land in the smaller target, a boat coming to whisk me out of the water almost instantly as I happily climb on, looking back up at the top of the cliff to see Bridgette leaning over and shooting me a thumbs up.

Then Tyler goes, landing on the buoy, letting out a painful groan as he slides off it, causing me to slap a hand over my mouth.

Then Geoff goes, letting out excited screams without a care in the world, Eva following straight behind, Duncan falling close behind too as I stare at him with a small smile on my face as I watch how unfazed he is by this, almost as if he goes cliff diving every other weekend.

Ezekiel comes close behind, too, still wearing his shoes and hat for some reason, but I decide not to quiz against it, and we all clap and cheer from the small sandy area not too far away, even Duncan smiling slightly.

Then Harold comes down, landing on the water in the splits.

"Good luck trying to conceive with him." I mumble to Eva, who smiles slightly, but Duncan is the one who laughs.

"I didn't know you could laugh." I tease with a sarcastic smile.

"I didn't know you could he funny." He teases back, giving me the same smile.

I then realise bridgette, Dj, and Sadie haven't come down yet, which confuses me slightly, why aren't they coming?

But then my jaw drops when both Sadie and kadie jump down from the cliff.

"No fucking way did he let Kadie move into our team." I gasp to myself, which means either Bridgette, Izzy or Dj swapped into the Gophers, and I wouldn't care who did along as it wasn't Bridgette.

But I realise the rest of our team chickened out, as the other team begins to jump.

The screaming Gophers won the challenge they actually won, which means we have to drag our crates back to the camp, and we've got a decent amount away from where the crates were first placed, when Sadie, Kadie and Tyler all decide they need to pee, making me groan in annoyance.

"We're never winning this." I grumble to Eva and bridgette, who both nod in agreement.

Once they all eventually come back, we begin pushing our crates again, my arms beginning to ache from the weight of mine, but yet again Sadie and Kadie slow us down by itching themselves.

"You guys are way behind the other team. Like way behind, what's the problem?" Chris asks and I roll my eyes and point at them.

"Their butts are itchy." I groan in annoyance.

"Did you guys squat down when you peed in the woods?" Bridgette asks, and I try not to laugh at her chicken hat, but it's almost impossible.

"Yeah?" Kadie says.

"Did you happen to notice what kind of plants you were squatting down on?" Bridgette continues to ask.

"They were kind of oval shaped and green and all over the place." Sadie answers, put I zone out of their conversation as I continue to push my crate back to camp.

"Need help?" Duncan asks as he casually strolls over to me.

"Where's your crate?" I gasp and he points smugly over to Dj as he pushes a crate.

"Had to let the chicken do something." He says with a small laugh, and I move over slightly so there's enough space for Duncan to help push my crate.

"I didn't actually expect you to jump off of the cliff first." He admits, and I turn to him and smile, secretly being grateful for his help, as my arms don't ache as much from pushing and we're definitely getting closer to camp.

"Neither did I if I'm gonna be honest." I tell him with an awkward laugh.

"I'm Duncan, by the way incase you didn't already know that." He says and I feel his eyes on me.

"I'm y/n." I introduce with a smile.

Duncan and I are the first to make it back to camp, I collapse to my knees in exhaustion and decide to wait until the rest of my team are back to start doing stuff, and when we start building our hot tub, it's obvious what team wins.

"Congratulations screaming Gophers, you guys have won the challenge!" Chris exclaims, and I let out a small sigh.

"Gophers, you're safe from elimination, and you get to use this awesome hot tub for the rest of the summer, killer bass. What can I say? You lost, and I'll see your sorry butts tonight at the campfire for elimination." Chris says before walking off.

"So uh, what do we do now?" Kadie asks as our team all sits around the dinner table, eating whatever concoction chef has made for us.

"We have to think of someone to eliminate?" I say as if it wasn't obvious, and I can see Duncans' growing smile from beside me.

"Well, I think it should be either Bridgette or Dj." He says, and I shake my head.

"Not bridgette, she's my only good friend on this team, gwen is on the other team." I beg, and Duncan just smiles at me.

When Ezekiel says something really sexist, it's a bit obvious who we're gonna vote.

When he said that boys were better at sports and stronger than girls, I wanted to twist his stupid little head off of his shoulders, I mean, he's annoyed me ever since he got on this team, and he creeps me out. Especially when he was picking his nose and staring at me.

"Dude, you've got a lot to learn about the real world." Duncan says to Ezekiel after I told him why we all voted for him.

"Killer bass, at camp marshmallows represent a tasty treat that you enjoy roasting by the fire, but at this camp, marshmallows represent life. You've all cast your votes and made your decisions. There are only ten marshmallows on this plate. When I call your name, come up and claim your marshmallow. The camper who does not receive a marshmallow tonight must immediately return to the dock of shame to catch the boat of losers, which means you're out of the contest, and you can't come back Ever." Chris states, and we all just stare at him.

"The first marshmallow of the night goes to Geoff." He says, and Geoff runs to Chris and grabs his marshmallow.

"Tyler." Chris then says and Chris lets out a victory cheer as he collects his marshmallow.

"Kadie, bridgette, Dj, Harold, Sadie, Duncan." Chris continues and I suddenly stare up at the group.

Why is it now between Ezekiel and I, when there's one marshmallow left.

Suddenly, my heart begins to race, and I think I feel myself sweating.

"Campers, this is the final marshmallow of the evening.. y/n!" He bursts, and i stand up extremely happy as I collect my marshmallow from him, stabbing my marshmallow with my stick as I begin roasting it over the fire.

I wake up and rub my eyes, letting out a small groan as I roll over, falling off of the top bunk with a large thud, waking up basically all the girls who weren't already awake from the foghorn.

"Are you alright!?" Bridgette yells, and I sit up and shoot her a thumbs up.

"I forgot I wasn't at home. My beds a lot bigger than that, and it's closer to the floor." I tell her as we both let out small laughs, before Eva clears her throat.

"Are you sure you're okay? You bumped your head pretty hard." She states and I turn to her with a large smile.

"I'm sure I'm fine, I fall so much I'm really Clumsy." I say before Chris screams for everyone to hurry up and get out, so I quickly scramble to get changed before we all line up outside, and I speed walk to Gwen were I stand next to her.

"I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute." Chris yells, a little too enthusiastically, and Owen quickly panics.

"Oh, excuse me, I don't think that's enough time to eat breakfast." He says as she shakes his head, and chris sort of nods as if it was the whole point of this.

"Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen. Right after you complete your twenty kilometre, run around the lake!" He yells, and Eva's eyebrows furrow as she lunges at Chris trying to hit him, but Duncan holds her back.

"Oh, so you're funny now!? You know what i think would be funny?" She exclaims.

"Eva, calm down it won't be that bad." I call to her.

Don't get me wrong, I like Eva, but her temper scares me so badly, and I've only known her for a week, but she is nice when she wants to be.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Eva quizzes Chris, and he looks at us all with a smug expression as he points to his watch.

"A little.. you have about thirty seconds." He then says, and Eva's brows furrow as she tries to lunge at him again, but duncans grip on her is too strong.

When the run begins, I suddenly realise how warm it is, and I'm really not in the mood to run, like don't get me wrong, I enjoy running and I'm good at it, but not when it's extremely warm and I'm just up but I walk beside Gwen to begin with, and we both laugh at how other people are running as if they're being chased by a mad psycho serial killer and I tell her about my fall earlier.

"Pick up the pace people, if you're not back for dinner tonight, you don't get to eat!" Chris exclaims as he drives past us on a scooter, and gwen and I both look at each other before we take off in a sprint.

I'm really happy I signed up for Total Drama Island because i met gwen, and I've not had a friend like her ever, I hope we'll still stay in touch once the shows ended.

Gwen and i make it back to the cabin shortly after, and burst in the door panting and almost falling too our knees out of exhaustion.

"Sorry Chris, I think you've mistaken yourself for my P.E. teacher." I growl as I go and sit at the table with people from my team, and Chris lets out a small laugh.

"I could have more than one career." He jokes and I let out a small laugh.

"Is one of them being a major pain?" I quiz and his laughing stops as he just shakes his head at me, but he smiles anyways.

"Clear a table now!" Owen screams as he barges into the cabin and drops noah on it, quickly giving him cpr as gwen stares. I'm shocked, leshawna walking in close behind.

"Where were you, Harold!? We lost!" I scream, and he just shakes me away before gwen lets out a squeal.

"Wait a minute if they lost.. that means we won the challenge!" She yells happily and her full team begins celebrating but Chris quickly shuts them down.

"Woah there, hold your horses, guys. That wasn't the challenge." Chris denies and I stare at him with pure anger, are you seriously telling me I just sprinted for nothing?

"What did you just say?" Gwen gasps, taking the words right out my mouth as I slam my head down on the table extremely outraged.

"Who's hungry!?" Chris yells and as I sit up I see a large table full of all sorts of foods, and usually I'm a picky eater but after I've ate the shit that chefs been making, I'm not so picky anymore.

I stand up and happily run to the table, staring down at all the food, and instantly we all begin eating, nobody caring about the usual table manners we'd normally have, and once we've ate the full table, I can practically feel a full food baby growing inside of me.

"Okay, campers, time for part two of your challenge." Chris yells through a megaphone.

"I thought eating was the second part." Owen gasps.

"What more do you want from us?" Gwen also gasps and Heather nods in agreement.

"Weird goth girl is right, haven't we been through enough?" Heather exclaims and I glare at her for insulting gwen.

"Uhm, let me think about that. No!" Chris screams through the megaphone.

"It's time for the awake-a-thon!" He yells, and I stare at him and gasp. He's just made us run and then eat ourselves to the brink of explosion, and now he's going to make us stay awake.

"The what-a-thon?" Owen asks confused and I turn my head to him, how stupid can one person be.

"Don't worry, this is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility." He announces, and I groan, I am not surviving this one.

"So, what you're saying was the 20k run and the turkey eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to stop us from staying awake?" Gwen asks and chris nods.

"That's right gwen!" He exclaims with an evil smile.

"Move move move!" He then yells, and we all leave the cabin, gwen grabbing me as trent approaches her.

"So, how long do you think it'll be before everyone's out cold?" He asks, but he's mainly asking gwen.

"About an hour give or take." She answers but as Owen walks past us I shake my head.

"Probably less." I say as we walk out the door.

It's been eleven hours, and everyone's still up, but it's clear we're all tired due to the dark eyebags we've all grown to get, but the thing is I'm not even that tired to be honest, but the tiredness kicks in once Owen passes out from lack of sleep, and I instantly realise I am extremely tired.

"This is so boring." I sigh to Duncan who is now somehow sitting beside me, although minutes ago he was nowhere to he seen.

"Atleast the fun people are still awake." He says with a slight nudge to my shoulder earning a small smile from me.

"This has to be some sort of illegal." I then say to Duncan and he just shrugs.

"I mean, we did agree to doing weird stuff like this, plus I've done worse and gotten away with it, so im sure they can too." He tells me, and I cross my arms.

"I wish I could go back in time to tell myself not to do it." I groan, and Duncan nods in agreement as I turn to look at him, and he lets out a small chuckle.

"Heard you fall earlier." He coos and I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, from the top bunk while I was still half asleep." I add, and he raises an eyebrow.

I'm assuming we've almost been up for 24 hours now, and I've came to the conclusion that if I walk around then I can't fall asleep, I mean I'm keeping my brain occupied aren't I?

"Y/n, you have to sit down. You're going to end up killing yourself." Duncan calls and I shrug him off.

"At least i'll die active." I argue, and he just rolls his eyes as he continues to watch me walk around.

Looking back, I totally regret walking around. It made me so much more exhausted, but I didn't want to fall asleep, not yet atleast I don't want to be one of the first people out.

Bridgette, izzy, noah, Sadie, Harold, and kadie are all all sleeping now, and honestly, I'm extremely jealous, but no way am I falling asleep on national TV.

"Congratulations, campers, you've made it to the twenty four hour mark, time to take things up a notch, fairytales." Chris yells as chef walks in wearing a lamb costume whilst carrying a harp, and i know this won't be good, so I begin jogging on the spot, trying to do anything that'll help me stay awake because at this point I'm desperate.

As Chris begins to read the fairy tales in his monotone voice, chef starts playing the harp, and I can't help but let out a small laugh to myself at how insane he looks.

Tyler and Geoff almost instantly fall asleep, and I panic, i have to stay awake otherwise my team will lose, and I do not want to vote another player out.

We very slowly hit the forty hour mark and I find myself back next to Duncan, and we both try to spark up a little conversation.

"The first day when you said 'nice piercings' to me, were you saying it to be mean? Not that I care or anything, I just want to know." Duncan asks as we move to sit on the floor facing each other.

"No, I meant it. They're cool. I wish I was brave enough to pull something like that off." I tell him with a genuine smile, and he shrugs.

"I mean, you never know unless you try, right?" He asks, and I shrug, I suppose he's right.

"My parents would never, they'd kill me." I gasp and he laughs.

"That's one of the reasons why I did it." Duncan tells me, and I laugh and stare at him.

"Oh, big Mr. criminal rebels against his parents." I joke as I rub my eyes, trying my hardest to stay awake now that I'm talking to Duncan.

"Give me a break." He groans, but I can't help but see the smile he's trying his hardest to conceal.

"So, how's life for you outside the island?" Duncan then asks desperately, trying to keep the conversation going as it's keeping us both up.

"Well, I go to school during the day and at weekends I work at a small coffee shop near my house." I answer and he scoffs.

"God. Do you actually care about your education?" He asks, as if it was even a question, and I let out a small laugh.

"I mean, it probably sounds boring or whatever, but I want to be a history teacher when I leave school, I love history." I tell him and he rolls his eyes so I gasp.

"Oh come on, then Mr Big hard criminal, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I ask, and he raises his eyebrows.

"A professional criminal." He answers, and I can't really tell if he's joking or not.

"Nope. Now you can't be one because you've just ruined your plans on national TV, I wouldn't be surprised if you're whisked away back to juvy after saying that." I tell him with a joking laugh which he returns.

"Wouldn't be the first time." He tells me and I stare at him confused, suddenly now extremely intrigued.

"What've you gone to Juvie for?" I question, and he smiles at the fact I'm actually interested.

"Fights, vandalism, petty theft, just the boring stuff, you know?" He asks with a small chuckle.

"You act as if going to Juvie is an everyday thing." I say with a horrified look before he starts a different conversation.

"Why did you sign up for Total Drama?" He asks me and I think for a second.

"I mean, for the experience, I suppose, I don't really do stuff like this and to make friends on the show, I guess. I don't have many friends back at home. What about you?" I respond and he nods.

"To get out of juvie, also for the money, but then again I'm not guaranteed to win anyway am I?" He answers, and I nod. He has a fair point. Whoever wins is completely luck based, apart from challenges anyway.

But my attention is grabbed when Owen walks past us butt naked, and we both let out large laughs, and I'm surprised it didn't wake the other already sleeping contestants up.

"Even when you're dying of exhaustion, you're still pretty." Duncan says to me and I look at him as I begin blushing with a small smile on my face, but I say nothing and look away trying to hide my blush.

"You've got a boyfriend back at home, don't you? Sorry." Duncan quickly says, and i shake my head as I turn to him.

"No, I don't, I just don't handle compliments well, plus you're not too bad yourself." I reassure you, and he nods as he begins smiling again.

We eventually hit the fifty-one hour mark when everyone looks at Justin, who's just been staring out into the forest, unmoving for the past probably, fifty hours, I'd say.

But when gwen pokes his face and his actual eyes open, revealling that he painted his eyes on I let out a horrific gasp.

"Holy shit." I gasp to myself.

"His eyelids are painted, I saw it!" Eva screams, and everyone turns to Justin as chris begins to walk over to investigate, but he's still out although it was impressive.

We finally hit the eighty five hour mark, and honestly, i know duncan inside out, i could answer any question about him. it's insane, and that's when Duncan leans close to my ear as he points to Harold.

"Do you want to see something funny?" He whispers and I nod and Duncan quickly slips away before he comes back with a cup of water and places Harold's hand in it, instantly making him pee himself I snort with laughter as I slap a hand over my mouth trying to quiet myself.

"You're so sad!" I whisper yell to Duncan through my laughter.

Heather, gwen, Trent, Duncan Eva, and I are the only ones left, and I hope they all fall asleep soon so I can finally shut my eyes.

"Alright, you six stay with me. The rest of you go get a shower for heavens sake you stinK!" Chris yells to everyone who's now eliminated.

"I didn't want it to come to this, I said that to Chef Hatchet last night, I said 'chef, I don't want it to come to this!' But darn it, these campers are tough, so I've come up with the most boring, sleep inducing activity I can find." Chris yells and I furrow my eyebrows.

Honestly. What can be more boring than sitting awake for eighty five hours straight with hardly anything to do apart from talk to Duncan and gwen, and as much as I wasn't complaining, I was going to kill the other contestants just so I could sleep, I mean seriously how is it possible we all stayed up for that long? But I don't mind staying up with Duncan. He's really nice once you get to know him. I think I like him a little.

"The history of Canada, a pop-up book. Chapter one, the beaver and a real fine hat." Chris says putting on the same monotone voice from earlier as he pulls out the book, opening it up and I let out a massive sigh as I go to throw my hands up outraged, I realise Duncan and I are sitting as if we're glued shoulder to shoulder together and I find myself blushing.

Eighty six hours in now, Chris is still reading, Eva and Heather are asleep now so it's just two remaining from each team.

As chris continued to groan on with that silly monotone voice, I was due standing up and ripping that silly book from his hands and beating him to death with it.

Gwens pov 😜

As trent falls asleep, I look towards y/n and Duncan to see how my competition is holding up, and that's when I watch y/n fall asleep, her head landing on duncans shoulder as he turns bright red clearly oblivious on what to do, and he stays like that for a solid ten minutes until Chris closes the book.

"Bathroom break, any takers?" He asks and I watch as duncans leg bounces up and down as he clearly needs the toilet.

"I've held it this long, sweetheart, I could go all day." He scoffs to me and I raise my eyebrows as I stand up.

"Yeah, but can you hold it for another ten chapters?" I coo, and his face goes ghostly white, and he goes to jump up, but y/n let's out a small tired groan, and he looks at me.

"Gwen, swap places with me, we can switch back once I'm done." He begs and I nod my head as we carefully switch places, me being careful not to wakeup y/n, but chef comes quickly to pick her up and take her to her cabin so she can sleep on her bed for a little while.

Back to ur pov

When I wake up, i only hear Eva screaming and throwing things around in our cabin, but I'm too tired to care so I instantly fall back asleep, being awake for eightysix hours changes you I swear.

As I sit next to Duncan at the bonfire falling in and out of sleep, he has to shake me to make sure I stay awake from time to time, and each time I open my eyes to his extremely tired smile, but I think its cute that he's still trying for me, could Duncan like me back?

I know it's insane that I've now got a crush on Duncan when I've only known him for a week, but after spending eighty six hours talking to him straight, it changed my perspective on him, he's sweet.

I'm not even listening to what Chris has to say, really. I'm too tired, I'm only listening for my name, which is said third, so I happily stand up and grab my marshmallow, sticking it on my stick as I hold it over the fire till its a perfect golden shade, and I blow on it for a few seconds and begin eating it, letting out a small gasp when I realised I did it perfectly, and as much as I'm sad that Eva was voted out anyway, I'm kinda glad. Her temper was too much for me.

"I definitely do like Duncan, I think he's really nice to me anyway, and that's all that matters, right? But he can't like me. He's probably just acting like this with me, so I fall into a fake alliance like what Heather is doing with Lindsay and Beth. It's cruel but smart." I say to the camera in the confession booth toilet thing, I'm still not too sure what it even is at this point, before I rake my mind trying to think of what else to say, but there's nothing really, so I open the door and climb out, walking straight Into Duncan.

"Woah there, princess, watch your step." He coos as he places his hand on my shoulders.

"Watch where you're standing." I coo back as I motion to how he's right infront of the door.

"Maybe I wanted to hear what you were saying." He says, and I feel my face drop. He's joking, right? He has to be joking.

"It's meant to be confidential!" I gasp as I stare at him.

"Confidential, but you're saying it to a camera which broadcasts it to live TV? Cmon y/n I thought you were smarter than this, you want to be a history teacher!" Duncan argues and I roll my eyes but I can't help but smile at him.

"It's not an act, by the way." He says as he grabs my chin with two fingers and forces it up to look at him, and I turn bright red before he lets go and begins climbing in our make do confession booth.

"I'll see you at dinner, princess." He then coos as he slams the door, and I stand and stare at the door for a minute. Surely this isn't happening.

As I walk back to the cabins, I see gwen walking over to me with a large smile on her face as I approach her and I quickly grab her wrist and drag her into a area only slightly into the forest, but its far away from everyone so nobody can hear, and I let it all spill, everything.

"Wait, so Duncan heard you confessing you like him, and now he's flirting with you?" She asks with a small laugh and I shrug.

"I don't know if I could say it was flirting.. more like teasing?" I answer and she shakes her head.

"Y/n, come on, how blind are you? He's so into you." She says as she grabs my shoulders and shakes them violently, shaking up my brains, but we both laugh anyway.

"So what should I do about it?" I then ask, and she smirks.

"At dinner, ignore him. Come sit with trent, and I, make him talk to you." She states and I nod slowly taking all this in.

And at dinner I do exactly that, I sit next to gwen, trent sitting directly infront of us as we eat chefs food, and honestly I've grown to like it and I'll definitely miss it when I have to go home, but I think I'm going to miss everything about the camp, even maybe Chris and Heather. Maybe.

All throughout dinner, I can feel duncans eyes on me, and gwen confirms it when she nudges me.

"God y/n, I'm surprised your head hasn't exploded with the way he's staring at you." She whispers and I smile and look up at Duncan, who continues to stare at me even now that I've noticed his staring, and he doesn't even look embarrassed that he's been caught and instead he just waves and I wave back, and gwen motions for him to come sit with us and honestly he flies off of the table he's sitting at and practically runs towards our table taking the seat infront of me.

"I couldn't handle another minute of Sadie and kadie talking." He groans, and I smile.

"Yeah? Try sharing a bedroom with them all night they sit and giggle about best friend stuff." I say, furrowing my eyebrows, and gwen nudges me.

"If we're ever invited back once this season is over, we should beg Chris to let us on the same team so we can do that." She gasps and I widen my eyes at her as I nod.

"Yeah, smart idea." I agree and Duncan and trent both shake their heads.

"Please don't." They both beg in usion and gwen, and I let out small laughs.

Once dinners over, we all decide to walk to the firepit, seeing as we don't see anyone walking in that direction, and once we get there, Duncan grabs my hand.

"You guys wouldn't mind if I borrowed y/n for a moment?" Duncan asks, but he doesn't even wait for an answer as he drags me down to the bottom of the dock of shame where he stands infront of me, and I can't help but imagine how many people are watching this right now, but I mean it's not really my main concern at this exact moment of time.

"I do actually like you, and I know it's hard to believe seeing the sort of situation we're in right now, but I really do." Duncan quietly tells me, his big Mr criminal ego suddenly dissapeared.

"Well, you listened to my time with the camera so you know I like you too." I tell him as i shake my head.

"No, but y/n, I mean I like you, like no matter what happens on this island, I want to leave it being in a relationship with you." He continues and I just laugh.

"Duncan?" I ask.

"What?" He replies.

"Shut up." I say with a small laugh before I lean up and kiss him.

[felassan]

Just poring over some of the new images. ◕‿◕

I like the overall shape of the dragon, its wings and silhouette, like it's maintaining this theme, two. It particularly reminds me of the DAII cover, with the figures of other characters being present in the dragon's wings. the pattern in the background gives the impression of a sunburst or explosion/outwards burst of energy (there's been lots of that going around in promo images for DA:TV over the years hasn't there). :D chunks of rock float around, which by now is associated with Fadey stuff (floating rocks in the Fade), the barrier (Veil) crumbling in key arts, and reality warping in places like Arlathan Forest. the dragon, open-mouthed, golden-eyed and ready to breathe fire, recalls the dragons on the Dragon Age vinyl arts, two, especially with its general position, and the dragon in this screenshot/scene. in the background at the bottom you can even see a hint of the 'concentric circles' pattern that represents the Veil.

I love that this group shot truly does include the whole team, including Assan and Manfred. I wonder if they will come into the field too if we select Davrin or Emmrich to come out with us respectively? We saw Assan capably fighting darkspawn in the character trailer, and in this image Manfred is helping fend the monsters off. Does Manfred carry Emmrich's stuff in his lil backpack..? 🥺 and I wonder what the purpose of Manfred's goggles are. Visually they set him apart from other skeleton/undead-type enemies and make it so you don't have to peer into empty the eyesockets of a skull, but also they're green (necromancy magic color) and we see Emmrich doing magic on them here. Are they part of the enchantment keeping him animated? also happy to see Varric in this one even though he is not one of the 7 companions. also, Bianca is still here. RIP

Taash looks so cool. :D Even her weapons are gold. her upper body armor in this piece has the aesthetic to me of like a dragon's ribbed armored chest and underside. I like that her weapons are unique generally, and from each other too. her dual-wielding like this as [I presume] a warrior differentiates her from Rook who if a warrior would be sword and shield or twohanded. her gauntlets look like they have dragon teeth or spines on them (the sticky-out parts that are not scale-like).

Davrin is at Rook's right hand. ♡ the floating triangles near Bellara show that she is using her magical device. I wonder what the white sphere part of Neve's wand/staff is. like, in this particular image it gives me the impression of a big pearl. Lucanis' eyes are glowing, like we see here, in that way that seems to hint that something interesting is going on there. overall it's cool to see all the team and cast together like this, working together heroically to stave off doom.

some of the monsters the group are fighting at least are red lyrium darkspawn. the ones with 'shark fin'-shaped headpieces are the same kind as the one at that link. are the rest all darkspawn too (there are different types of darkspawn ofc), or are there some walking dead mixed in there? (lol at the one Varric has just shot in the face). the non-sharkhead ones seem to be these guys from concept art. the prominence of darkspawn in this key art give the impression that we will fight a lot of red lyrium darkspawn in this game and that the threat they pose, including the Blight, is a significant part of the game's storyline.

at the center of it all and at the forefront is Rook. in a nice bit of poetic mirroring (the Wolf and the Rook), they too stand on a rocky outcropping, also with the knife - just like this. the knife is blue here.. blue lyrium influence? the very ground on which they stand bursts with energy. I wonder if Rook's outfit here is sort of their default, iconic look, like the Champion of Kirkwall armor for Hawke etc? I love that they have a cape and the point of their helmet gives them a bird-like feel. (omg.. we can have capes in this game fr). they have the Veilguard symbol on their chest. and could they be canonically left-handed..? :)

[ttheatre-trashh]

Read me yap about original kids ride the cyclone :333

for any more info about this show!! Look through the tag here

Dream of life. Jane doe walks on stage, and is kind of crumpled over, and slowly makes her way to stand up with stiff movements. This is the only song I have a recording of. As she slowly stands up, Jane doe lifts her head.

She has an echo effect added to her voice, and it sounds amazing. 

The Karnak is honestly hilarious, I loved his comedic timing. I can’t tell if he also had the echo effect, or if he was just an amazing voice actor. Sometimes he would mess up a line, but very quickly turn it into a robotic stutter, which was pretty smart. Love this guy. 

For virgil, they projected a projection of him onto the backdrop curtain. He was so silly I loved himmm. There was a fun transition from tiny rat form to anthro bass player. The bass solo was also great obv. 

Uranium suite was incredible. Ocean has almost this Disney channel main character voice? Idk but it’s so good. 

Mischa was slacking the whole time duh. Pulled out his phone at some bits. Ricky looked bored out of his fucking minddddd. Constance is just the sweetest ever I will kill for her. Noel is amazing and I love him. Like the pure SASS and EVERYTHING about him. Ricky the whole time stared into the audience like “kill me now”. We made eye contact a few times it was nice haha

After Uranium Ocean is kind of like,, calm but freaking out?? She kicks Karnaks box a few times throughout the show, including here. There are fun lights flickering and sound effects. Her voice is squeaky and cracky when she panicked or whatever. Again, karnaks comedic timing is amazing. 

What the world needs was so good. Oceans voice is amazing, the choreography was so snappy and swishy and sassy, very ocean. They hold up signs that spell out OCEAN, and in the flip side of them there’s a picture of ocean. Everyone was on point, and oceans delivery of every line was perfect. Like, the pure disgust she has when she goes “and a transformer movie” like babe has a personal vendetta against transformer movies.

I cannot stress enough how on point the choreography was, during the whole show, but like, I’m obsessed with the choreography of this song. There was a lot of hand flicking of that makes sense? Some fun little kicks.  There are tiny clips of it in some of the promo. 

After wtwn, ocean is freaking out. Karnaks delivery is perfect “blah blah blah needs a unanimous vote” oceans face drops. Long pause. « from each. And every. Member of the choir.”  

When ocean says she “loves” Jane, jane reaches out her arms and runs to hug her, but ocean dodges her and Jane doe just ends up almost running  into a wall. When she says she loves Noel, he just looks at her like “bitchgetthefuckawayfrommeew” and does his gay little pose. 

(E, the actor for Noel, uses they/them, so if I use those I’m talking about the actor) The play was so cute. After Noel said his line, ocean started crying and screaming and her and Constance were whining “NOOOEEEELL WHY DID YOU SAY TAHTTTTTT!!???” “UGH you always ruin these things!!!”  And stuff haha. It was great. 

Noel’s monologue was incredible, he fell to the floor during the dramatic bit about wanting to feel, goddamit.

 “I wanted to wake up,” fake throwing up for a second “in my own VOMIT.” huge grin. “Missing TEETH!” 

Noel goes behind the curtain/projector screen that they have on stage and starts singing. At about “I write poems to burn my firelight,” he comes out in Monique costume. Monique was so cool, she had fishnets, the iconic black wig, and a dress just like kholbys iconic one, but there was a little bow in the front,  and the skirt had strips of ripped fabric on the skirt. 

Again, the choreography of this song is amazing. everyone had chairs, and it was very leg-y? If that makes sense? But like in a “sexy” way, not an “Irish jig” sort of way.  Super snappy and clean cut. vocals are amazing, obviously. Ricky is kindof ominously standing in a corner with a beret and a cigarette playing the accordion. 

For the kiss, Monique and Constance danced together, then Monique and Ricky. Then Monique slapped Ricky, and Mischa comes over and they kissed. Adorable. 

The ending was so good, like the final « if I could have just one dream/if he could have just one dream/id be. That fucked. Up GIRL./HEY ». Mwah. Chefs kiss.

Every story’s got a lesson was so silly. Constance nailed the improv scene. This Ocean just. Needs to be in control. All the time. But like?? I’m making her sound bad but I felt bad for her because she wants everything to go her way but she’s not great at expressing that in a positive way. Any way, Constance gets excited at the end, like, « so I go out and do all. The. Drugs. 😁😁 » her little « BATH SALTS FOR EVERYONE!!! 😃😃 » 

Anyways. Mischa. 

Spence is literally an amazing mischa, he was so good. He started beatboxing really badly into the mic before he started talking about feeling, and the audience laughed. His accent was on point, and he spoke really naturally. Like, it didn’t feel super forced unlike some other Mischa’s I’ve heard (all Mischa are amazing some are just better accents yk)

This song is awesome was so fun. He had a tight white undershirt under his button down, which kind of just added to the silliness of the song instead of just being shirtless, yk? He had a chain and hat, duh. 

Everyone had these massive light up glasses, and Ricky was wearing a robot mask. It was so silly and I loved it. They did the iconic thing where they held onto Mischa’s unbuttoned shirt and made us flow to look like wind blowing

Omg. Talia. So this was so good. 

He awkwardly yet confidently re buttons his shirt, which the audience laughed at but I was like “yall stop that this gets emotional” but I think I’m just a bitch lol. 

The Talia monologue was incredible. Just, yes. Delivery was amazing, everything. I cried. A lot.  Mischa scrolled on his phone when something new appeared in the projector, like the photos and stuff. They used the curtain/backdrop as a projector screen, and there was the footage of Talia and Mischa. The wedding stuff and romance and shit. 

It was so sweet. I don’t have anything special to say about it, the monologue was just amazing. I completely broke down. 

For Talia, oh god. This was genuinely of the best things I’ve ever seen live. Spence’s voice is amazing, and again, I sobbed through this whole song. 

Everyone had the traditional costumes, and the girls had the big skirts, with the projections of Talia on them. I wasn’t sure if they were gonna do that, but it was beautiful. They also had the projection on Mischa’s chest at the end, when he’s belting. I completely fucking lost it.  

And then there’s the iconic nischa hug.  My heart. 💜 oh my god. 

MY FINGERS HURT (I LOST MY FIRST COPY OF THIS??? I HAD TO RE TYPE THIS???) BUT @noelgruberfr and @knockoff-conlon FEEL FREE TO FINISH THIS !!!

[goldensstateofgrace]

Hugs and Kisses H.S

Masterlist | Tell me your thoughts  

A/n: this is gonna be apart of something fun so keep your eye out tomorrow!!

Summary: Y/n comes back from a trip and Harry wants a hug 

Warning: TOOTH ROTTING FLUFF 

Word Count: 1.1k 

I hope you enjoy! Happy reading <3 - G

“Can I have a hug?” Harry asks, looking so comfy in his hoodie and sweats, leaning against the doorway leading into the living room. 

You look over at him as you toe off your shoes by his front door, “Why?” you say, scrunching up your nose at him. 

“Why?” He asks, eyes wide and his mouth slack. His hands that were once down by his sides are now held out in a “Why’ motion. Almost like he couldn’t believe you’d ask that. 

“Because it’s been a year since I've seen you and I want a hug,” he says, like it was obvious. 

“God, you’re so dramatic,” you laugh, shaking your head at him. “It’s been two days Harry. Two days!” You hold up your hand, showing off the number two with your fingers. 

You had business in New York, dealing with a particularly stubborn client. You're a photographer, and you went to shoot a wedding. The bride wasn’t exactly happy with her last photographer, so you stepped in and offered to retake her bridal party and groomsmen pictures so she’d at least have some good pictures to remember her special day. 

It was all a big headache, but you got it done and she was happy in the end.

He just shrugs, looking like a sad puppy “Felt like it.” 

Then he shakes his head at you like you're the problem and says, “Stop distracting me, come here. Come hug me, right now,” He says, fake pouting. His finger pointed towards the ground right in front of him now. 

You watch as Harry crosses his arms over his hoodie covered chest and waits.

 When you don't move for a minute he starts tapping his foot looking at you, staring intently. 

 He’s a piece of work. 

Rolling your eyes, you fake huf to make it seem like you don’t want to when, in reality all you want is for him to wrap you in his arms and never let go. 

You give in and walk over and stop right in front of him, looking up you find his bright green eyes focused intently on your flushed face, or rather the bottom half of it.

Was he staring at your lips? 

No, he couldn’t be. Right?” 

“Well? Are you going to give me my hug?” Harry asks, finally looking right into your eyes. A small smile playing on his lips. 

He holds out his arms, waiting patiently for you to hug him. 

And you do, you hug him, wrapping your arms around his waist as his arms go around your shoulders. Your head rests right over his heart, and you can hear the fast pace of it beating loudly in your ear. 

Is he nervous? 

Why is his heart beating so fast?

God he’s so warm, you never want to let go. 

“I missed you,” you whisper into his chest, tightening your arms around him. 

“I missed you too, love.” 

You love it when he calls you that, makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. Like maybe, just maybe he likes you more than he lets on. 

Turning your head up, you rest your chin on his sternum gazing up at his stubble covered tan face. 

God he looked beautiful. 

You and Harry met during his One Direction days when he came home to England to celebrate his mothers wedding. You were a newer (amateur) photographer just trying to make a bit of money to put yourself through college. 

You guys hit it off right off the bat, you couldn’t believe how nice and warm he was. Not that he wouldn’t be knowing Anne but you could only imagine what living in the spotlight would do to a person's ego. 

He was funny, whenever you’d be taking pictures of him he’d always make a face or strike a pose. 

 You could remember making conversation with him and completely freaking out inside trying desperately to not show it. If he had noticed, he never said anything. 

He was probably used to it by that point. 

You both eventually crossed paths again when you were hired to shoot with the band for promo for their last album before hiatus. 

You guys caught up and have been best friends ever since. 

You couldn’t remember the exact day you fell in love with him but you could remember the day you realized it. 

Harry had just come off stage of his first solo album tour, you were backstage waiting for him. You watched as he came down the stairs backstage and made a direct line towards you, not paying a lick of attention to anyone else. 

He hugged you breathless, his huge smile on his face. 

He didn’t let go until you patted his back, needing him to ease up just a bit. When he pulled back he just smiled down at you, his hands on your cheeks, his thumb slowly stroking your cheekbone. 

You just stared up at him and you could feel this love wash over you, and you just knew. He was your person, and it didn’t matter if he felt the same. You’d love him from a distance just to be around him. 

“What is it?” He mutters, looking down at you. 

You shake your head slowly, still just looking up at him. A smile spreads across your lips, “I can’t believe you’re real.”  

When you realize what you said, your eyes go wide and you pull back from him. 

“Like, you know,” You chuckle awkwardly. “Because you're my best friend, and, and you're a famous singer and I'm no one, really. I can’t believe you even want me arou-” 

He cuts you off with his hands touching your cheeks and his lips encasing yours. 

You stand there shocked, your hands frozen in the air. 

Harry’s lips are soft in yours. He pecks your lips once before going in again and slowly kissing you. He eases you into it, his top lip catching between both of yours before he nips at your bottom lip. 

Once the shock of the kiss slightly wears off, you kiss him back. Your hands come up to rest on his forearms where his hands rest on your cheeks. Your lips take his, your tongue peeking out and running across his bottom one. 

Harry opens his lips and lets you take control for a minute before coming in and running his tongue over yours, before pecking you twice and pulling back. 

“Why’d you do that?” you ask, staring up at him, wide eyed and confused. Your chest heaves trying to catch your breath and your lips tingle from the way he kissed you with such passion. 

“Because you wouldn’t shut up.” He says like it was obvious, smiling cheekily. 

“You do that often?” you say more jokingly than a question, raising your eyebrow as you look up at him. 

He shakes his head, a chuckle falling from his pink lips, “Only with you.” 

As you go to say something, he just shakes his head and places his hands on your cheeks pulling you up to his mouth and whispering, “shut up, and kiss me.” 

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[neoyi]

Summer Steam sale happened, so I picked my annual batch of games that will, nevertheless, take me the next 5 - 84 years to complete, forever gathering dust in my ever expanding digital library till then.

Here are my purchases and my excessively detailed reasons on why I bought them. I'm sure a few of them will have you screaming at me, wondering why I wasted money on Game Such and Such.

American Arcadia I played the demo and found it intriguing. A mixture of The Truman Show with a conspiracy behind it is one thing, but the 70s background and style and how the game graphically incorporated it visually drew me in. I don't, in any way, find 70s aesthetic appealing, but darn it, the whole thing looks pretty.

Plus I'm rather drawn to the main character's design. He looks like someone's pathetically sad, nerdy dad. I'm aware his appearance, right down to the sweater vest and bushy mustache, is just culturally fashionable of that time period, but just look at that him in that promo pic. He's trying so hard to pull off an action-y pose. It's cute. I wanna help this Ned Flanders-ass guy figure out what the fuck is happening. I wanna drop him off at a nice, cozy cottage where he can have some time for himself. He just looks like he'd rather be grilling in his backyard, socks and sandals-clad, while casually chatting with his neighbor, Ted, on what 8-track tapes they bought and how persistently annoying "Disco Duck" is lately.

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore I'm not sure how much I want to devote what little time I have playing any of the CD-i Legend of Zelda games in preparation for Arzette. I know I'll miss the experience of its banality and unintended cheese in order to truly appreciate Arzette, but I'm only human, and I'd rather play a good game that so just happens to pay tribute. I've heard people whine and discuss the dang CD-i games since the late 90s, so I think I know enough just through pure osmosis.

In any case, I didn't feel compelled to play Arzette (despite an incredibly faithful trailer) until I discovered the creator was the guy responsible for remastering the CD-i Zeldas into something resembling tolerance. And I can harp the same complaints everyone else has dished out onto those games, but in reality, I've not played a single one to truly say how I'd feel about them. As a consumer of awful, endearing media relevant to my interest, I'm sure I would have kinda even loved them.

I don't know the developer's thought process, but it sounds like he had that exact feeling when he made Arzette. Right down to the style, the same voice actors, and animators, you do not create your own Original Characters Do Not Steal based on some of the most infamously awful games to ever exist if you did not have an ounce of sincerity behind it. That's insanity. That's dedication. That's love, and I respect the hell out of it.

Bear and Breakfast

I'm getting used to seemingly endless games of crafting and house sims and hotel managements and what-have-yous, but I always appreciate the ones that has a plot that you can complete behind it. I've devoted countless hours into Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, but there's immense relief knowing there is a finale that allows me to end it there if I need to.

Bear and Breakfast feels like another good, turn-off-your-brain-and-enjoy-while-a-Youtube-video-is-playing-on-another-monitor type of game, but I'm just as intrigued on the plot. It might be a whole lotta nothing (bear and friends solve some mystery that might be lurking in the woods or something), but between an actual plot and maintaining an inn? I'm sold.

Cavern of Dreams

It was described as Spyro the Dragon+Banjo Kazooie.

With the prospect of either of these games series ever getting a sequel dwindling each passing year (Activision, for fuck's sake, would you kindly release a Spyro the Dragon 4?), maybe Cavern of Dreams will sate my classic platforming thirst.

En Garde! Oh, come on. You think I wouldn't get this game? it's got sword fighting! It's got swashbucklers dueling rapiers and wearing fancy feathered-hats. it's got capes and swishing and swooshing.It's got cheesy European accents in a fantastical cavalier setting! It's got daring-doos! Look at the poster! It's got a kickass lady in masculine clothing which I am always gonna be drawn to. It's got another lady with a piratey hat and an eye patch! It is EVERYTHING that appeals to me! So shut up and take my money!

Everhood

All I've ever heard from trusted mutual is that Everhood's story is very, very bad. Nothing about this game aesthetically vibes with me in any way other than it being a rhythm game (I guess from the trailer it shows me), but I am an intensely curious fool when something piques my interest based on a set of criticisms. Will I feel the same? Will I disagree? I guess I'll find out someday.

Florence

"An interactive story about love and life" tend to fall into what I like to call, Indie Quaint, where an indie game attempts a theme with deep meaning that ultimately just feels so sentimental and heart-wringing that I end up feeling exactly the opposite of what it was set out to gravitate.

But Florence is auto-biographical, so there could be something genuinely sincere from something deeply personal (very understandable) that might warm the cockles of my dark, dark heart. I don't begrudge the creator for speaking directly from her heart.

Also, this was on sale for, like, 2 bucks.

Gunbrella I'm not particularly fond of the grim, apocalyptic setting, but as a long-time fan of absurd weaponry, especially the gentlemanly umbrella, I couldn't keep my eyes away from this game for too long before I ended up buying it.

Gunbrella, 'nuff said.

Melatonin It looks like Rhythm Heaven and Steven Universe had a baby together.

Fine with me. I could use another pretty rhythm-based game that I absolutely suck at to play with.

Powerwash Simulator: Alice Pack This one was not on sale, but I love Powerwash Simulator, so I pick up pretty much any DLC they release.

Almost.

I still regret purchasing the Spongebob one; I figured my love for the game would overwrite my indifference towards the show (sorry, I didn't watch anything but a handful of episodes), but I find myself not as motivated to wrap that one up as I did the FF7 one and eventually, the Back to the Future one. I skipped out on the Warhammer one for precisely that reasoning. And if this DLC had been released maybe a decade back, I might have passed on it, too, because there was, for a time, an overwhelming amount of Alice in Wonderland adaptation that I really grew tired of. Nowadays, not so much, so I'm looking forward to this one in my spare time.

Summerhouse Definitely looks like one of those super chill games I would be able to play at my own leisure. And my desire to make fictional houses is more than enough to draw me into purchasing Summerhouse.

Super Kiwi 64 Man, can you tell I'm a nostalgic-baited son of a bitch who loves N64/PS1-era platformers?

Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom Man, can you tell I'm a nostalgic-baited son of a bitch who loves N64/PS1-era platformers?

YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG

"NEO WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" "NEO WHY DID YOU SPEND MONEY ON THIS!?" "NEO WHY ARE YOU TORMENTING YOURSELF!?"

Same reason as Everhood above: if it's a supposedly bad piece of media that is relevant to my interest, I want to play it. I want to know the method of its madness. I want to know specifically what makes it so pretentious and Indie Quaint. I want to know what on earth this hipster chic game has anything to say that I can formulate my own opinion of it. I want this game, which takes place in the 90s, a decade I grew up in, to bewilder me with on the hows and ultimately the whys the creator chose this particular era and specifically named it after the Y2K bug, a once persistent doomsday-bringer that severely drove my then 14-year-old's heart into full on anxiety the likes I've not experienced at the time.

I am but a moth to flame for shit like this and I am absolutely looking forward to seeing what this game has to offer me.

Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't say what really convinced me to give this game a go is Youtuber Zingus' video essay on it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avX7hqzT7ag) which is exceptionally well-made. Please give it a look.

[babybammargera]

You're supposed to be rivals Pt.2

Bf bam x fem skater gf

(this is the vibe i imagine)

Somehow you've managed to drag Bam out of bed early so he can go with you to the promo shoot your manager is insisting on. You had April help you with your hair first, now your boyfriend is sitting on the bathroom counter watching you do your makeup as if it's the most interesting thing he's ever seen. “Babe I feel like I don't tell you this enough but you're so hot.” You lean over to kiss him leaving him with bright red lipstick that you wipe off with the sleeve of your sweatshirt before he forgets “I've gotta get dressed and you need to fix your bed head before we leave.” He looks in the mirror before following you back into his bedroom, “Well if you didn't want my hair to be this messy you wouldn't have your hands tangled in it for hours every night.” You roll your eyes and start to get dressed, “Keep it up Margera and that won't happen again for a while.” He steals a kiss and actually starts to get ready himself, “Okay okay no need to make threats, especially when I have to look at you like this all day.” You smile and pull on a pair of socks not wanting to have to wear heels the whole way to the shoot, “Thankfully I have skate shoes in your car. This is really impractical like who's gonna skate dressed like this?” You shrug grabbing your nice heels and he grabs his keys and guides you out of the room, “impractical but hot.” The two of you get in his car and head to the shoot, as he parks the car you touch up your makeup in the rearview mirror and can feel his pretty blue eyes burning holes into you, “Bammy you’re staring more than usual.” He smiles and looks over his sunglasses at you, “I can’t help it babe, I mean you’re always hot and this is different.” You roll your eyes taking off your socks and replace them with the tall black heels, “Just don’t get too used to it babe this is wayyy too much effort to be a common occurrence.” You pull him into a quick kiss then climb out of the car, he rushes to your side like a puppy still eyeing you up and down as he slips his hand into yours. Your manager rolls his eyes the moment he spots you and rushes over, “About time you got here come on!” Adjusting your bodysuit you make a face behind his back as you follow him to the skate ramps, “this whole thing was your idea so don’t complain it took so long for me to get ready. I’m here, I look hot let’s do this.” You’re rushed onto the makeshift set and handed a skateboard to pose with, the photographer hyping you up as Bam stands next to her grinning with his eyes glued to you the entire time and not so sneakily taking pictures on his phone as well. Once she shoot is over you sigh and sit down on one of the boards and kick off your heels, Bam strides over with your socks and your “emergency”pair of DCs (skate shoes) from his car, “we could go home and have a real skate sesh on the ramps if you want but my one request is that you keep the outfit on for a while.” You smile and he helps you up after you put your shoes on, “I think I can work with that.” As you kiss him your manager walks up with his arms full of boards, “ before you even say anything I don’t care about you two just don’t let it affect your skating and remember on completion days you two hate each other from the moment you enter the event until you skate, understood?” Bam tries to pretend he’s listening but you know he’s not. You nod at your manager and he pushes the 5 boards into Bam’s arms, “These are yours, you’re free to go home and be out of my hair for the day.” Bam cracks up a bit and mumbles, “you mean lack of hair.” Your manager shoots him a look, “you said something?” You both stifle laughter and turn towards where he parked. As soon as you get to the car you punch his arm, “Really Bam.” His smile matches yours and he tosses the boards into the back seat, “What? I’m not wrong, Dico has more hair than that guy!”

[byrdstrolls]

art tip: if you ever need a reference photo for like a tonnnn of character poses in one room. just look up "kpop band [insert number of guys you need] members" and then look up promo for whatever band comes up, they always have very nice group photos of a lotta people hanging out and chillin

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

The announcement of John Oliver inexplicably doing the Horne Section TV show, despite having spent years trying not to have anything to do with British comedy, has reminded me of my hobby: collecting anything that ties John Oliver to British comedy. Why am I so invested in this hobby? I don't know, it's clearly displacement of some psychological issue or other, something about finding satisfaction in histories that connect things that seem disparate, I don't have time to figure it all out now. Don’t worry about it, just enjoy my collection, which I have decided to collate into one post and put it below the “keep reading” link.

Obviously, there are the actual shows he did before he left Britain, and things he did after he left Britain that continued what he'd started to do while he was in Britain, which was to talk shit about politics with Andy Zaltzman. Here’s a folder I have with recordings of things Zaltzman and Oliver have done together, before and after one of the two abandoned their country for America.

My favourite pictures of John Oliver + British comedians:

This one I first saw a couple of years ago when I read David Mitchell’s autobiography, and I’ve seen it floating around the internet a fair bit since. Based on my research, which consists of spending over two years being on Britcom social media a lot, it may be the most widely shared of all photos in this post. That makes me feel a bit bad for the one guy in this picture who didn’t get famous, since every time it gets shared, he gets described as “that other guy”. I will do him the courtesy of referring to him by his name, which is Desmond O’Connor. Wikipedia says he’s a “ukulele-playing cabaret host and musical comedy performer”, so that’s fine.

The other people in the picture are, of course, John Oliver, David Mitchell, and Richard Ayoade. It’s from an unspecified time during their Cambridge days, probably around 1996:

The exact year of this one is also unspecified, as is the reason why they’re sitting in a tree. Oliver and Ayoade at Cambridge, mid-nineties sometime:

Cambridge Footlights group picture from 1996, featuring, among other people, John Oliver, Richard Ayoade, Matthew Holness, David Mitchell, and Lucy Montgomery. The man who is now a cabaret host is noted as absent that day:

I don’t know what’s going on in this next picture. I’ve seen it labeled as a Cambridge picture, and they all look like students and appear to be on a campus. But neither Noel nor Julian ever went to Cambridge. Was it a Tim Key situation where they just hung around Footlights despite not being students because fuck the class system? We’ll never know, because I’ve never found any context for this picture. But it does feature John Oliver, Julian Barrett, Noel Fielding, and Richard Ayoade, looking young and confused.

We now move into the post-university years. Here is a picture from 2004 of two men who both have their original teeth because no one has yet had cause to try to make them more telegenic:

And here is a poster for a 2004 double bill comedy show, in which Russell Howard and John Oliver have specifically posed for promo shots, but both look worse than they did in the nice picture above this paragraph, where they were just sitting around being normal:

We now move to 2005, when John Oliver took this promotional picture for The Department, a radio show he made with Chris Addison and Andy Zaltzman (the radio show also featured Matthew Holness and Lucy Montgomery, who appeared in the previous Cambridge picture), which can be found in the Google Drive folder I linked early in this post and should be listened to by everyone because it’s really good, not just good as a nostalgic “look at the quirky BBC Radio Four show where these now-famous people started out” thing, it’s legitimately good:

Here is John Oliver with his double act partner and soulmate Andy Zaltzman, performing a joint show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005:

I’m not sure exactly when or why the next picture was taken, so I’m adding it in here. Trying to decide what to write about it, I almost said it gives me nightmares, but that wouldn’t be true. This picture doesn’t give me nightmares, it just keeps me awake at night, wondering what on Earth the photographer told them to do while they were posing, and what was the thought process behind those instructions:

We now move to 2007, and this one almost doesn’t qualify for a collection of “John Oliver + British comedians” pictures because he’s with an American and a Kiwi, but Kitson’s British so it counts. Daniel Kitson, Kristen Schaal, Jermaine Clement, and a John Oliver who looks even more uncomfortable than usual, presumably because he’s realized the taking of this picture means he’ll be forever immortalized with a weird skull on his shirt:

One more Oliver and Zaltzman picture because they’re lovely people who make incredible things together and I want a nice one to make up for that insomnia-inducing one - this is a promotional picture for The Bugle, probably taken around 2009:

And finally, I will jump forward a bunch of years to this picture at a baseball game with Daniel Kitson in 2015:

Some videos of John Oliver + British comedians:

This one was recently taken off YouTube, I think, but luckily I never trust things to stay on YouTube so I have this downloaded, and have re-uploaded it to my Google Drive so I can still share it: Backstage at Cambridge Footlights, 1997 (featuring, among other people, John Oliver, Richard Ayoade, Matthew Holness, and that woman who played April in Peep Show and was in an episode of The IT Crowd)

A game from the infamous Tuesday comedians’ football league (”league” might be the wrong word... would “syndicate” be better?), I think this one’s from 2001. It features four people I know well: John Oliver, Andy Zaltzman, Lee Mack, and Russell Howard. It also has a few people I sort of know, like Alun Cochrane and Gavin Osborn. I think there’s a guy named Steve Williams, who’s written on Russell Howard’s TV shows. Narrated by a comedian named Ben Norris. John Oliver is easy to pick out despite the terrible quality video because he's the only one in track pants instead of shorts:

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Some shit that went down at the Gilded Balloon on August 26, 2003, the last night of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Featuring Adam Hills, Daniel Kitson, John Oliver, David O’Doherty, and Demitri Martin. No more needs to be said about that night. I assume the Chocolate Milk Gang has a pact called We Don’t Talk About the Night of August 26, 2003, when they sacrificed the animal that provided their sustenance throughout the festival (again, terrible quality video, but to pick out John Oliver he's the one in the red shirt):

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A compilation of John Oliver’s best bits from Mock the Week (a show on which he appeared seven times from June 2005 to February 2006), though to really appreciate John on there, you should watch the full episodes. You need to see the moments that didn’t make his list of “best bits” to fully understand how visibly and obviously he hated every second of being there:

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From The Russell Howard Hour in December 2017, this is one of my favourite interviews that I’ve ever seen:

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Here he is being interviewed on The Russell Howard Hour again, this time in September 2020 and under COVID-safe circumstances (conducting interviews with Russell Howard under physical distancing is probably safer for John anyway, based on the end of the previous interview):

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Miscellany of John Oliver + British comedians:

Here's a quote from Russell Howard on his BBC 6 Music radio show from March 2007:

"A few years ago, I remember saying to my friend John Oliver, who is now on The Daily Show and is very funny, ‘Oh I’ve read this new book, it’s really good.’ And this was a few years ago, and he’s like, ‘What is it?’ And I go, ‘Oh, it’s called the Da Vinci Code. It’s a real page turner.’ And I was kind of into it. And I really enjoyed it, it was before it got really [popular]. And you feel like an absolute oaf for kind of going, ‘Yeah I read it on holiday, I quite enjoyed it, I did it in about two days, it was all right.’ And like two days after I said that, John went, ‘You know that book you quite enjoyed?’ And he showed me, and there was an article in the paper, the Chelsea football team had set up a book club, and they were all reading the Da Vinci Code, and Frank Lampard was there reading it, and you go, ‘Hm. Yeah. Well.’ And it’s just so awkward when you think, ‘I’m reading the same stuff as Frank Lampard.’ How awkward’s that?”

There was another early episode of that radio show when Russell Howard and Jon Richardson made a joke of texting something weird to a random person from their contact list. The random person Russell Howard got was John Oliver, whom they described as a friend of Russell’s who was “now in the States, working on The Daily Show.” Jon got upset because he got a promoter from some comedy club, and said it wasn't fair that he had to text the stupid thing to an important person while Russell only had to text someone who doesn't matter like John Oliver.

Zaltzman and Oliver being quite awkward while filling out a questionnaire for their 2004 Edinburgh show.

Nish Kumar telling the story of how he finally met his esteemed predecessor, when John Oliver was in England at the end of 2017.

There's the saga of the Chocolate Milk Gang, which is told, as far as I can tell, mainly through weird articles like this one, David O'Doherty interviews, and stories in Daniel Kitson’s stand-up. There are also quite a few stories just about John Oliver in Daniel Kitson’s stand-up. There's this shit. Also that time when Marc Maron interviewed John Oliver and spent the whole time being weirdly dismissive and condescending about anything non-American, and was specifically sort of backhanded compliment-y about Daniel Kitson, which I believe to be the reason why John broke from his usual rule of insisting everything he did in England was terrible, and said actually he had an okay career there and he made some cool stuff and some people liked him and Daniel Kitson was his best mate and fuck off, Maron. The last one might have only been said subtextually. In that interview, John also told some cool stories about how at Cambridge, he and Richard Ayoade were comedy writing/performing partners and friends who bonded over both not coming from the same class background as most people at their university.

Not documented in this post: Gash, an Armando Iannucci show from 2003 that featured John Oliver among others and I have not been able to find it anywhere on the fucking internet. I have a video of a soccer game from 2001 and two different angles of the same night at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but I cannot find this actual Channel 4 television show.

Do you know what isn't featured anywhere in this collection? I have become an expert on John Oliver's ties to British comedy, and in all the ties I’ve been able to find, here’s a name I’ve never seen come up: Alex Horne. I do not understand. If I'm going all Beautiful Mind on this, which I am, there is no string connecting John Oliver's name to Alex Horne's. I can get there in a few moves - the more you get into British comedy, the more you learn that you can get anywhere in a few moves. John Oliver to Daniel Kitson who did a play with Tim Key, who's also doing the Horne Section show. I'm sure a number of other Chocolate Milk Gang members have done the Mark Watson marathons. But I can't see any direct connection to Alex Horne, and I have checked (not just because of the announcement of the new Horne Section show's cast or anything, I already knew this stuff but that announcement made me decide to collate it in one post). I'm almost sure they just missed each other at Cambridge, though they could have overlapped by one year.

I do not know why he’s picked The Horne Section’s show as his reason to do British TV in 2022, after spending years insisting that he wants nothing to do with British TV. I am definitely going to watch the show and I hope it will shed light on the situation; this post should capture something of the scale of my interest in that sort of thing.

[fourseasonsfigs]

Xuxu 【雙徐】♥️

This pair of figs looks like Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan - but it's actually two of their characters!

This Double Xu features Zhehan as (modern) Xu Jin from The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion, and Gong Jun as Xu Si from Rising with the Wind (to be aired).

I still have The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion on my to-watch queue, so I haven't caught up with our sparkly-eyed modern Duke Su yet. I don't want to spoil myself (or you!) so I'll simply add a promo pic of him for fig comparison purposes:

Keen-eyed observation notes he looks broad shouldered and super cuddly in that soft looking cardigan.

Wait a minute, the fig is of him in a suit, not a cardigan! Hold on, hold on, let me get a promo pic of him in a suit...

Hmm, there we go. That suit matches the fig, although it needs the coat over it. I'll come back once I've properly watched the show!

Xu Si is Gong Jun's genius investor character from Rising with the Wind, which should be hopefully airing soon. Xu Si was spotted during filming wearing a lot of very beautiful suits and coats, such as:

But let's not talk about that so much in order to jump right to the fig maker's bonus for the first 1,000 buyers.

The fig maker offered this lovely bonus of an A5 folder with artwork of the two of them. This is what you saw featured as a fig background and you can see the full view of here:

Rooftop proposals are always in style! And YES, let's talk about this.

You may recognize that handsome pose from this handsome photo:

Yes, here we have Gong Jun wearing a gorgeous long coat over a gorgeous tuxedo and looking like a 100 million billion dollars yuan. This photo shoot of him striding across the Shanghai Peninsula Hotel helipad like he owns Shanghai himself, his long coat billowing and snapping in the wind, is pretty much everything I've ever wanted in a visual ever.

This photo shoot was done on 12-21-2021, during filming of Rising with the Wind.

Hot damn. If you will recall from me raving about Zhehan's Weibo Night McQueen frock coat, I have an intense weakness for long coats. They are my favorite. He is debonair in this.

Incredible. Wow, do we ever have exceptional taste, I must congratulate us.

Ok, I could stay here all night staring at these photos, but we have figs to talk about!

Look at that dapper suit and tux and those shiny shoes! Those Oxfords are polished to a mirror shine. I like it when each other has the other's symbol in their eyes, so we have Gong Jun Xu Si (ugh, it's hard to stay in the JZUniverse for this!) staring at his moon and Xu Jin literally starry-eyed looking at his beautiful star.

You notice the ring in Xu Ji's hand? Yep. Really, these figs are a blend of JZEU and Junzhe.

The white rose Zhehan / Xu Jin is holding is of course a nod to Zhehan's comment that if he ever confessed his love, he would confess it with a white rose, as well as Gong Jun's single white rose his assistant was spotted with during filming:

Oops, so easy to get distracted by all the symbolism. Onwards!

Love the detail on the rose here, and little flip in the back of Xu Si's coat (it must get windy on that helipad indeed!). The fig maker did a nice job with the hair - really captured Xu Jin's hairstyle from the show, and we have Xu Si's expensive layered cut.

Interestingly not much of a height difference on these figs. Xu Jin is pretty tall in the future. We have a bit of a forward lean on both of these handsome men, but otherwise they stand pretty well.

I like the coat detail of each of their hands in their pockets. Ugh I love the long coat even from the back, that's how deep the love for gorgeous long coats goes.

Top view - they're very seriously and cutely talking about their upcoming wedding plans.

Extreme closeup of their outfits, the rose, and the ring! I love Xu Jin's uwu mouth (because of course I do, that mouth shape is so cute!)

Xu Si's Serious Investor Face together with his Serious Investor Mouth looks frowny from this angle (sorry guys, I don't look good in an upshot angle myself!), but from a regular straight on view he just looks Serious. Well, I guess proposing to the love of your life IS the most Serious Business there can be!

Look at the heel on these shoes! The detail in these! I love it. What a great set of figs.

I'm not sure why there's chocolate bars on the box cards, but I'm not here to question artistic choices in fig designs. Maybe a better question is why not have chocolate bars on the box cards?

Now I kind of do want some chocolate. Advertising of the cutest kind! I'll buy it all!

Material: PVC (and apparently different percentages of cocoa)

Fig Count: 201

Scene Count: 17

Rating: Handsome and delicious!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[justsomerandomntmranking]

Jerry Koivisto

Place: Winner

Average: 2.6

Jerry was such a rootable and adorable guy that I grew a huge soft spot for him (thus why he’s currently my profile picture. My profile picture before him was Lukasz from PNTM C10). Jerry had such an infectious personality. He was very antisocial but bubbly all at once, he was very open about his personal problems like addiction (which he still talks about on his instagram) and homesickness throughout the problem. I felt terrible for him since his lack of confidence would show in the shoots, especially during the middle of the competition. However, it would never show in photos since he was able to embrace a more confident version of himself by the end of the competition. Jerry started out strong with his outstanding promo shots before going on to make hit after hit with the candy and jewelry shots, both showing a lot of versatility and his commitment to the shoots. He did take a bit of a stumble with his weak couples shot but he was able to bounce back nicely with his lipbalm ad, which is one of my personal favorites of the cycle and campaign shoot, which is one of the best as well. Even if his treadmill was a weak showing, he was able to bounce back quite nicely with his cute wedding shot before eventually making an awesome cover that he eventually win. His improvement throughout the entire competition is just admirable, he was always going to a bit unsure and unconfident in himself but he was able to grow more and more into himself as the weeks went on, it made him one of the most rootable people I’ve ever seen in a reality tv show. His walk was also very smooth and nice and again, his personality was just straight up adorable, there’s a reason why he was so successful when it came to commercial billing ads. My main love for Jerry is how he was so willing to do whatever he was given, unlike most male models, he was able to do something different with every shot. It’s never the same face, it’s always something different with a different pose and energy throughout all his photos. That makes him one of the more underrated winners to me, yes, Sofia could’ve won since she had more confidence and Juuso had the more interesting look, but Jerry was just such a sweetheart that it’s hard not to hate him. I felt terrible for him when he was feeling lonely with the group and happy when he was able to nail the final photoshoot, it was amazing to see his genuine and cheerful reaction to winning, it felt like an amazing end to a rocky story. Overall, I love Jerry as a winner and I’m so happy to see him get some love nowadays, he can be edgy yet goofy whenever he wanted to and wasn’t afraid to take risks. He was a great winner for the cycle and really ended things with a bang (well, until the next winner of the new Finland cycle). 

(I am also very obsessed with his post work, he is so versatile)

[chanelfunnell]

Mail

A) anon, I think it is visible that Razer has had removal of moles on his face. It is dangerous but you search and compare old and recent photos. Tazee had a facial hair on the sides like Wolverline. I'd not called a beard and never proper moustache like his dad lol

Compared to Max Domi who is a complete mystery with his look to me. He looks often like light brown faired cherubim, then just a ginger beard, dark hair and greyish in his hair in just 27. Very good teeth.

B) caley is my fav for her fashion style. Green suits her and matches her ginger colour. Yes she is like a royalty regarding her dad and a profi athlete husband but more like care free no chains Zara Phillips and her husband enjoying themselves in Australia and her mother working as normal than posing behind the wheels bcs a niece runs rude sharing company and tech tycoon. As sinners up to church lol, at the niece's estates as the niece M lawyer lodged lawsuits in USA about Henry Hewitt's crap rap about, geography, of Balmoral Castle etc for security reasons. Deluded man child fancying himself but he is a pupet of his domineering wife aka NHL puckbbunny boiler as her 3rd husband and she stalked and brainwashed him.. I doubt he's royal son. Too much info we don't need. Out of senses like old hag Camilla thinking that her bed share with former Prince of Wales makes her irresistible to hot A lister Tom Bildeston at a book party rather than any young blond historian or Marketa, sexy promo girl, a budding actress lol paparazzi, paparazzi, do private lol too much yuk info and stuff. What. Reality show of the Adams family lol

Weirdos regarding PR to be lazy, spend the biggest amount on clothes during hard times and no charity work at all. Just stupid staged photos behind ghd wheel. As Marketa has a driving license I don't think she's up to jokes about pedal cars in the race by Gordon Lenox aristo bloke announcing he's single. Sbe stated in 2015 that she is into sporty guys and not vons and hons and leaves them to Pippa. Middleton.. App Princess Anne wss into athletes and both horsey women lol. These Mohntbatten royal in laws are clothes horses posing by light speed, so Harry's ex gf. Visible who's grounded and royal. Also funny the athletes were smarter than Harry and Charles who is a coward to ban his son so up to Government. Cayley has nice life, family, job..

Shame Tazer did not get together with a girl from. Bachelor, she was classy from good family. Meg is OK but her links to racist and charlatan with psychedelic is bad influence.

D) anon, Montreal Canadians are tanking for longer time but the play off stugles are more dominant problem.

E) anon, I know it is fashionable, modern style, often coveted but often fugly. Examples below, all white, beige is also annoying

Shoes?

Ugg-ly even for pensioners

Storm troopers boots and legs out don't return atrack

[urarenge]

    𝐊𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐇𝐀'𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓!

                                        by shi. personals do not interact. 

[the-last-rat-standing]

1. I didn’t even know they still made TV Guide.

2. I’m glad for those fans who have carried on with this show, because I see that image and it amazes me how much this show has fallen. 

[thesims2comics]

any chance of rating the posters? cue eyes emoji

*cracks knuckles* let's GO!

(I've included some posters from the EPs and APs, otherwise this would be a very short list of like 4 posters)

LONG POST AHEAD!!!

Engineered Angst Full poster: 5/10. what's going on here?? Is the person in front going to an eye doctor with funky walls? And why does she kinds look like a Urbz DS render? So many question, no answers

Engineered Angst Red: 6/10. Better than the previous one imo, I like the sims' facial expression a lot! And this is a me problem, but it kind of reminds me of the promo clips of the virtual boy?? Y'know that nintendo console that only used red and black as its colors? Still pretty cool though!

Searing Indifference: 7/10 Angsty teen poster number 3. Honestly? Iconic, this is one of those posters that I still remember from playing the game when I was younger. I've always thought it was a band poster though. Nonetheless, it's a very cheesy poster but I just can't rate this any lower

"Civic Idol" by Adora Wall Arts: 7/10 AMAZING POSTER!! I'd say it's the best "emo/edgy" poster in the game. I'd only like to know what the hell that humanoid thing is. Also, the red thing looks wonky and apparently the white stripes are meant to say "Civic Idol". But the skyline and the moon look so great and the red stripe makes it look like dangerous and egdy. Kudos for the amazing composition of this one

Pets poster: 5/10. Cursed. For some reason, this poster looks much more jankier and pixelated than the others, even the basegame ones. Kinda simple, but it sorta does the job (Fun fact: this is one of the few posters that have variants! Which redeems it)

Revolutionary Rebellion poster: 8/10. Really cool! I love the hard red with the black and white and is much less crispier than some other posters. In the build&buy description it says that we should check out the Sim with the moustache but honestly, I have no idea what that's about. At least it looks pretty nice! Kent, Nervous and Moustache Mercutio is my fave rockband

"It's Reggae, Mon" Poster: 9/10. Really pretty!! I love the posing of this guy and with the sun flare and background it's one of the most beautiful posters available! Also, seeing the previous music posters' description, I thought the devs would've made fun of the genre since they also did that with the teenage angst posters. But I think it's actually really nice and cool what they wrote about reggae music so I've included it for you to read

"Fists of Bunny" poster: 8/10. I think this might be an anime reference or something? Or is this what the Social Bunny does when he's not with a sim? Just anime kicking in the Void? I don't get the reference, but it does look cool! Would I hang this up in my actual room? Probably yeah! And I like that it's the Social Bunny, we don't see the guy that often in the Build&Buy

Inverted Vertigo, Cover art: 5/10. What the hell is going on here??? Hands??? light strokes? Some people? A face??? This reminds when I discovered blending layers in a drawing program for the first time honestly.

All the alien posters: 8/10 Tumblr limits me to only upload 10 images, so these guys are getting grouped. Hell yeah! Alien posters! These look cool as hell, HD quality next to the pets poster. I don't know how to feel about the way too human alien head on the left though, it kinda freaks me out, because for the sims 2 this is far too realistic. And apparently the guy on the surfboard is PT#9 cousin, RT#66 surfing through the galaxy, good for him! These posters are rad as hell in my opinion, especially after some rather small and pixelated ones.

That's gonna be it for the poster review! There's an image limit of 10 and because I have the Super Collection I don't have all the posters, so there isn't gonna be a part 2 from me. If anyone else feels like completing this list with all the posters form the Ultimate Collection or make their own review with the posters, feel free to do so!

These were just my opinions on the posters, if you have others thoughts on the posters that's fine, your opinion is valid!

[look-at-the-soul]

The Photoshoot (Part 4)

Cillian Murphy x OC

Thank you for reading! I’d really love to know what you think :) Yes, I did my homework looking for old pictures haha

Edit: Credits for the Dean inspiration goes to @lyarr24

Taglist in comments.

More here

Some of the photographers that attended the workshop invited Yael to a pub nearby for a drink, of course she refused the invitation, but as she was about to get a cab, Dean, one of the guys in the group asked her out, he had brown hair, 6'1" tall, green eyes with a three-day beard and was wearing a dark t-shirt under an unbuttoned shirt and tight jeans, he looked like an American sexy farmer, strong muscles against the fabric, he was handsome but he wasn’t Cillian.

The other reason, was because she was honestly hoping to have something serious with Cillian. Yael didn’t like it to be fooling around, especially when it came to people’s feelings. She wouldn’t have Cillian by her side and then turn around and have someone else, she just wasn’t like that. She didn’t feel like having a backup guy just in case was right.

She hadn’t been asked out in a very long time, and now out of nowhere this guy did, she thanked him but made it clear she had to get home. He looked like a nice guy, but he seemed more like her friend Lee-Anne’s type, maybe she would make them match, set them up for a date. She would show her later the picture the group took to see if she was interested.

Plus Dean was a photographer, her first boyfriend was also a photographer and it didn’t end well, he made sure everything was a competition instead of taking it as a reason to grow together, he always got jealous of the projects she got and even made her quit some of them so he could take them. It was Vassilis the one who made her open her eyes after the scarecrow photoshoot, he noticed all the red flags and made sure she started noticing at her own pace, until eventually, they broke up.

With Cillian, things were flowing so naturally, without any pressure, he made her feel heard, showed interest in her work and was kind enough to even share things of his life on set, he was funny and humble, wasn’t trying to impress her. It felt as if they were longtime friends catching up. But with all the flirting going on between them, it felt more like a friendship set on fire.

Cillian was one of those people who wore their hearts in their sleeves, guarded of course, but once he felt comfortable with you, he was a totally open. And she wanted to know more about him.

In fact, she still could feel his lips against her, his hands around her waist and the way he caressed her cheeks while they were kissing. She had been daydreaming with his lips, she loved the way he smelled and the taste of coffee on his mouth.

She had shared texts with Cillian over the day, and it was everything, a little joke, a food recommendation, anything, every little detail that seemed to be small. But to her, it wasn’t. He had impressed her over the photos she took of him, so different from the scarecrow session they did together years ago. The last one showed him in a very natural way, no extreme posing, not pretending to be something he wasn’t, all the opposite, he had opened his heart and soul to her, he didn’t even need to speak, all it took was just one look from him.

Workshop done, can’t wait to have some rest. What about you? She pressed send.

Just finished a radio interview for promo, I’m on my way to a small birthday celebration with the cast. He replied right after.

Unsure about what to answer, she typed a reply, but seconds later, deleted the words. What should she write back?

Can’t wait to see you tomorrow. I’m up for the pawty. His second answer came in shortly.

Maybe you will learn a few new tricks on how to pose from the puppies. Have fun.

Looking forward, text me 30 min before you arrive to pick you up x

Thank you, will do… I’m off for now x

Boring, maybe I will show you how to have fun xx

Yael smiled at the flirty text she got, she was blushing. And they were now sending kisses over the messages.

Her cousin Violet asked why was she smiling like that a couple of times, and each time, Yael tried to lie about the real reason behind her smile, it was really early to share any news, and besides, she wasn’t a big fan of sharing personal matters like it meant nothing.

They were really close, only eleven months of difference between the two of them and they were both the only girls of each family, so they grew up more like sisters.

“No but, really… is he a good man?” worry visible on her face.

Yael wrapped her arms around her cousin. “He is.”

“Good. He better.”

“Where’s Jan?” Violet and Jan were high school sweethearts and had been living together for five years now.

“Off to the lake with his mates fishing.”

“Oh, so you will be alone this weekend?” Yael took the plates to the table and sliced the pizza they had ordered.

“Thanks god for that, I needed a break.”

“You’ve been fighting again about the wedding?”

Her cousin explained to her the reason why they had to postpone and how they lost all the money they had already paid since all the suppliers decided not to make valid the deposit. They had a medical emergency, but the wedding suppliers said it wasn’t a valid excuse.

“At this point of my life, I would be happy to just sign the fucking papers.”

“Don’t say that, you will have the perfect day you deserve.”

“We already live together, fight like a married couple, I framed the pre-wedding pictures you took of us. What’s the difference anyway?” Perks of having a photographer in the family. “Don’t answer that, I need you to bring your plus one to my wedding.”

“Take it easy bug, we’ve just met. I don’t want my brothers to scare him.”

“Well this new discovery is making wonders in you, I can tell.”

“It was his smile you know? As soon as I saw him smile… I thought that was the most genuine and beautiful smile I have ever seen, it even reached his eyes.”

“Holly fuck, you are falling deeply for this man.”

***

Later that night, her cellphone rang, without taking a look at the screen, she answered.

“Hello?”

“Been thinking of you all fucking day.”

She froze, must have the wrong number as she didn’t know that voice.

“I kissed you yesterday and you forgot me already?” Cillian’s voice calmed her.

“Of course not… What’s with your voice? You sound different.” She got comfortable in bed, the phone between her shoulder and her face.

“Ah, that… I was reading some lines for tomorrow’s scenes, the accent got stuck.” He laughed now in his normal voice.

“Brummie?”

“Yeah, I’m glad you recognize it, it means it’s not that bad.”

“It sounds so… deep, impressive.”

“So, you’re impressed huh?” He did the Tommy’s voice again.

“Ugh don’t do that to me.” She closed her eyes, imagining his face. The effect the sound of his deep voice in her hear was something she wasn’t ready for.

His laugh in his regular voice had the same effect in her.

“What are you doing this late still reading the script anyway?” She tried to change the subject.

“Well there’s one line I need to figure out how to get the perfect tone, the pauses… I just needed to take a break from it and wanted to hear your voice.”

The way he was so dedicated to his job, how his attention went to every little detail on the script in order to step over the line, the compromise he poured into this project made her admiration for him grow.

It was late and he was still working, so focused on perfecting the body language, the movements of his head, the glances and stares he needed to bring the gangster alive.

She could tell that by the things he was telling her. And it was easy to picture him like that.

“You are going to smash it, I’m just sure.”

The myth of this Thomas Shelby was slowly growing in the back of her mind.

***

Since Yael told her she would see the mysterious man who was making her happy today, Violet convinced her to wear a one shoulder floral top she owned, very ad-hoc with the spring season.

“Now I will straighten your hair.”

“No, why?” Yael complained.

“Because… I want him to see you prettier than you are and not with that messy hair.” Violet teased.

“But…”

Violet placed her palm over her cousin’s mouth. “Shut up, you will thank me later.”

“I don’t like it straight straight.” Violet rolled her eyes and assured Yael she would make some beachy waves, messy like she liked.

****

“I will go to visit you unannounced one day to see the man who is making you smile like that. Sex must be good.”

“Shut up. Love you.” She hugged and waved good bye after that.

As she waited, Yael decided to text Cillian.

Just got on the tube, will arrive around 10:30, photoshoot with the puppies is at 3:00 pm. X

She checked her phone, but still no reply, until around twenty minutes later.

I’m caught up filming, my driver will pick you up. x

Don’t worry, just wanted to let you know, I will get a cab to go home.x

Absolutely not. I will be calmer if he drives you. Have to go.xx

She decided she would sleep for a while, since she stayed up late catching up with Violet. Haven’t seen each other since Christmas when the whole family got together.

“Mr. Murphy asked me to take you home.”

“Thank you so much James, I didn’t want to bother him or you.”

The man opened the back door for her. “It’s my pleasure ma’am.”

On the way home, James told her he had been driving Cillian since 2013, when they filmed the first season and he required James services again since January.

“He is very humble.” James admitted. “I did notice he was different this morning but couldn’t quite figure why… now I know why.” He drove Cillian to the photoshoot the day they met, but then told him he could leave, that’s why Cillian drove to her apartment as they finished their photo session.

A shy smile appeared in her lips she didn’t know how to handle the situation, on one side James was really polite, and she wouldn’t treat him different because he was a driver, she treated the janitor with the same respect she showed to the CEO, but she didn’t know if she could be sharing information she shouldn’t.

“Absolutely, he’s really kind.”

“He gave me tickets for the premier last season.”

“And did you have a good time there? I have never been to a premier.”

“Oh, yes, yes… he even came to say hello to my family.”

Yael smiled at that, she remembered how he shook everybody’s hands at the photo session.

“Now that the filming is about to finish, if you need anyone to drive you, let me know.” He handed her a card with his number.

Once they arrived to her apartment she thanked him again and texted Cillian to tell him she was home. Cillian called her right away.

“Hey, why don’t you get your things ready and ask James to drive you here, we could go to your work once I’m done.”

“Let me see if he is still here.” Yael went back to the street, fortunately, he was about to drive away when he noticed her.

“Do you need something ma’am?”

“Cillian says if you could drive me to the location where he is?”

“Yes, of course.”

Yael smiled at him. “Thank you, I will just get my things really quick.”

“Great. See you in a bit then.” He told her after hearing James.

Hanging up, she hurried to get her camera, and mobil lamp, she wouldn’t use the flash with the dogs because sometimes, they get scared.

She was nervous to see him again. Another hour later, they were arriving at the entrance of the West Gorton’s Space Studios, a guard gave Yael a pass and asked for her information, then James drove to the back of the building.

“Mr. Murphy suggested you could wait in his trailer, follow me please.”

As she was following James by foot to another area, she could see people walking around, carrying carts with clothes hanging, moving furniture…

“His wha-”

“Thank you, James, I’ll take it from here.” A deep voice said behind them. She recognized immediately, but when she turned around, she found a different man in front of her. Cillian was dressed in a three-piece suit, long coat covering him, a flat cap in his hand. The hair seemed shorter on the sides of his head. She was surprised. “Do I look as bad as your face is telling me?” he joked. A smirk on his lips. “Yeah I missed you so fucking much too.” His voice sounded different too like the night before, even his walk seemed different.

Yael closed her mouth while Cillian placed a hand on the small of her back to guide her around.

“No, not bad sorry I just… you look so different from when we had breakfast. But I do love the gangster look.”

“Thank you, I was starting to feel self-conscious.”Cillian smiled. “You look beautiful, stunning actually.” Every time she moved her head, he would sense a soft smell of roses coming from her hair.

Surprised, she couldn’t find her voice, but when she looked at him, he was already looking at her.

Violet 1- 0 Yael. She would have to thank her later.

“I showed the writer and director of the show the pictures you took and they want to know if you would be interested to make some shoots.”

Yael stopped walking, shock showing in her face.

“Looks like you saw a ghost.” He smiled, his hand rubbing her arm up and down.

“Oh my, what happened to your cheek? Does it hurt?” Yael asked shocked.

Cillian laughed so hard, easing the tension and breaking away from Tommy finally.

“Come here, I will show you.” Guiding her inside of a room full of wires, pilled chairs and other artifacts, he closed the door and turning her around, pinned against the door to kiss her lightly on the lips. “Been waiting all day to do that.”

He tasted like herbs and mint.

“You look so attractive with this suit.”

Pulling him by the neck, she kissed him one more time.

“But I wouldn’t change that white t-shirt and jacket look.” She rubbed her hands over the fabric of his suit.

“It’s a makeup cut for the show.” He explained with a wide smile, taking a look outside again to make sure no one was passing by. “So, you want to take the pictures?”

“I do! But I didn’t bring my flash.”

“Come this way.”

He introduced Yael to Steve Knight, told her he was the writer of the show, and then Colm McCarthy, who was the director, they both complimented the shoots she did.

“I think my wife still hates me for losing a bid on one of your photographs, a ballerina if I remember correctly, it was an auction to raise money for the people affected by a hurricane, right?” Steve knew her work.

“You have to be joking, I will get you a copy, the complete series if you want.”

Cillian kept sneakly touching her every time he found a chance and when she looked at him, he was looking to the opposite side, as if he did nothing. But eventually they managed to get a few shots of Cillian on set, explaining her part of the idea and how important this place was in the series. James Wright had been talking on the phone with Steve and Colm about using the photos for promo in the magazine.

“Let me change and get rid of this, please make yourself at home, there’s water and snacks in the fridge.” Cillian said as he made his way in the back of his trailer.

Taking one of the spots on the leather lounge, she looked around, it was neat and organized, a pile of books in the corner, a bag of chips on the counter, a notebook and a pen over there, a laptop charging in the corner. She felt out of place, like intruding into his personal life.

He appeared back wearing a black and white striped shirt, black jeans and boots, and the Sox baseball cap on his head. Unplugging the laptop, he kept it in a backpack.

“Are you done filming?”

Cillian turned around to see her, the cut on his cheek was gone and his face clean from the makeup, freckles showing.

“Yeah done for today and I have free tomorrow. Let’s go.”

“This is impressive, you do all the filming here?”

“No, some parts are in real locations, my favorite are the ones when we film on an open field, those places are breathtaking, you would love that, the mountains it’s all green, fresh air, very natural.”

She helped him hang his clothes and when she found the pocket watch she stared at it intensely.

“This is… I don’t even know what word to use. Incredible, perhaps?”

“Yeah, the production team goes beyond the expectations, everything looks so real.” He looked at her, eyes still on the watch. “You really liked it huh?”

“I just remember some pictures I took a long time ago of some war letters and different artifacts found of soldiers. This really looks like that.”

“How did you get your hands on that?” They shared a glance and a smile.

“Well they were digitalizing the letters and I was in charge to take the pictures of the lost items the museum had, there was a heavy energy over that. Can you imagine all of the stories of those soldiers?”

“Not really, but I do want to see those pictures later.”

He just needed to return the wardrobe to the team and he would be free to go.

But before they left the trailer, he asked her: “Will you be editing the photographs again?”

“No, I have more time to edit for this shoot.”

Cillian touched her lips with his thumb, outlining them. “You will then have the best dinner tonight, I’m cooking.” He held her by the chin and pulled her gently for another kiss.

“That sounds promising.”

“You think you know, but you have no idea.”