#so going to like. conventions or events is so awkward like yeah i play video games just not any of the ones you've heard of. haha.

[mochapanda]

new york decided to make the dont drink and drive signs formatted like how yoda talks so i screamed out loud while driving FINE I'LL FUCKING WATCH STAR WARS ALREADY

[vikireedphotography]

The Cigar Is All You See

THE CIGAR IS ALL YOU SEE

First, do no TV:  how badly do you want to make it in Hollywood, doctor?  

FADE IN:

I/E.

A HOTEL BANQUET ROOM/OUTSIDE ENTRANCE-NIGHT

An EASEL holds a foam board telling us that inside the dark room-twinkling with spores of glittery tables, is the 2021 American Board of Radiology Conference.

Photos of two men are the evening’s GUEST SPEAKERS:  GREG CRANDON, 53 and BEN HAMMIL, 52.  Crandon is a bit pale, thinning hair on top scalp, bulging but happy eyes. He is posing with TV actor MATT KISLEYAK, 54. Matt is charismatic, and wears his TV-doctor’s uniform, Crandon is ‘on-set’ with Kisleyak and posing with an arm is around the shorter Crandon.  Under the photo it reads:

“Radiology Consultant to Hollywood, Greg Crandon (with “Med Lives” star, Matt Kisleyak).  The second photo is Hammil, who looks more like a TV star than a radiologist. Tall, long reddish hair. His photo depicts the smiling Hammill standing on a Ted Talk stage pointing and smiling.  It’s captioned: “Welcome Ted Talk Keynote Speaker on AI and Radiology, Ben Hammil of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles”  

INT. BANQUET ROOM/BEYOND THE EASEL & SIGN-SIMULTANEOUSLY

In a reverse fractal, Dr. Ben Hammil is on-stage, preaching new gospel.

BEN

Twenty-two years in radiology. I’ve missed things. You know what sees everything? Machine learning. Check this out.

Ben lifts a POWERPOINT REMOTE AND CLICKS!

A massive projection screen behind Hammil fills with what looks like a photo quilt of chipmunk faces (tight crops of just the eyes, nose and whiskered mouth).  

BEN (CONT’D)

Chipmunks. Cute. Sixteen-hundred chipmunk faces. Do you see the cat?

CUT TO:

VIP TABLE/ORCHESTRA SEAT LOCALE-CONTINUOUS SOUND OF: BEN HAMMIL’S VOICE-CONSTANTLY.

Greg in a slightly old-school tux joins his wife, ANDREA, 47.  

In trying so hard to look younger, she forgets to be young. Everyone but the WIVES in the room are fixed on Hammil’s presentation.

ANDREA

(To Greg)

Can you get Matt’s autograph for Penny?  

Andrea’s body language tightens after she notices cocaine on his nose. She grabs a napkin, wipes it. No one sees the coke.  Just her ‘mothering’ him.

Fellow attendee and table-mate LEO, 42, now distracted.

LEO

(To Greg)

You missed Hammil’s award.

GREG Oh well.

LEO

Saw his Ted Talk. I played golf with him-played near him.

GREG

It’s just a tool, this software. A computer can’t deliver bad news or hold a box of Kleenex.

Greg gestures to a passing SERVER for another round of drinks.  He pivots to PENNY, 36, pretty, blond trophy wifetwo small children later.

GREG (CONT’D) Penny? I’ll get you Matt’s autograph.  I’m going to the studio tomorrow.

Penny is electrified. She points at Ben and announces to all:

PENNY

Out of everyone tonight he’s the most interesting and ground-level.

She catches herself when she sees Greg’s reaction.

CUT TO:

EXT. HOLLYWOOD SOUNDSTAGE/PRODUCTION OFFICE FOR “MED LIVES”NEXT DAY

Greg drives his bronze BMW convertible to the GUARD-GATE. A familiar GUARD, 39, waves him through.

Moments later, Greg strides, getting tanner the closer he gets to the the SOUNDSTAGE DOOR. He glides past Matt Kisleyak’s RED FERRARRI. It’s parked next to the door. A sign designates: “Reserved for Matt Kisleyak/Med Lives.  

CUT TO:

INT.

SOUNDSTAGE FOR “MED LIVES”-CONTINUOUS

It’s a magical forest of cables, wisteria hanging lights, cameras, crew, fake hospital sets, ACTORS in costume, CRAFT

SERVICES TABLE loaded with EVERYTHING you could ever want. Willy Wonka time.

KEN (O.C.) Dr.Crandon?

KEN GOLDISH, 37, is one of the show’s Producers. Greg wheels in the direction of his voice.

CONT.

The two walk a hallway lined with POSTERS of MED LIVES’ CAST in character. Ken is ahead and faster.

GREG

(Holding a zip drive and script.)

I have the notes on the next show. Just a few minor details.

Ken turns to see Greg brandishing his work.

KEN

(Takes the thumb-drive.) Keep the script.

They stop at the last door.

What did Matt want to see me for?

KEN

(Knocks twice) He’ll tell you.

CUT TO:

INT.

MATT’S OFFICE-FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER

Greg is seated next to Matt’s desk. The blinds are closed, the only light comes from a large computer monitor.

As Matt sits and shares the glow with Greg you see an unbelievably photogenic man.

GREG

(Staring and smiling at Matt.)

This isn’t ideal. You should send the full study to my office at the hospital.

MATT

Not gonna happen. It’s a favor for a good friend. I’m looking out for him. A secret second-opinion.

Greg nods into gear with a deep breath.

CUT TO:

30 MINUTES LATER-

The star is opening the blinds. He turns around and saws his palm into Greg’s personal space.

MATT

Thanks so much for doing this.

GREG

I’m sure it’s not what you wanted to hear. Your friend definitely has stage-four lung cancer. I couldn’t tell more without labs, biopsies-

Greg stands to meet Matt’s goodbye shake.

MATT

Keep this between us?

Matt opens door. Greg pulls the rolled MED LIVES script out of his suit pocket.

GREG

I’m sorry, but a friend of my wife’s..

MATT

(Grabbing a pen.) What’s her name?

GREG

Penny. Thanks for that. I never ask, but the wife...

MATT

Got it. Hey, I’m hosting a celebrity golf tourney this weekend at Hillcrest Country Club. For Children’s Hospital. You play?

CUT TO:

INT. GREG’S HOME OFFICE, WOODLAND HILLS,CA-NEXT EVENING

A man-cave with no man. It resembles a furniture store display. The only indicator of human occupancy is a box of Just For Men hair dye. He stands before a full-length mirror wearing new golf-wear. Looks a little ‘back to school’.

PRICE TAGS are strewn at his feet.  He snips the last tag from his BELT.

CLOSE ON: BELT/SCISSORS THE TAG READS $169.00. After a snip, it flutters down onto his new shoes. It’s quiet until-

ANDREA (O.C.)

Christ. You could go as Tiger Woods for Halloween.

GREG

Not really funny. Did you want something?

ANDREA

(Sour.)

Dinner. It’s here.

(Taking a last look, then starts to undress.) Good. I’m hungry.

FADE OUT:

EXT. HILLCREST COUNTRY CLUB-FOLLOWING MORNING

The celebrity event buzzes, it feels like a Christmas tree you could live-in.

INT. HILLCREST DINING ROOM-CONTINUOUS

Cacophonous. Seen from above, Greg disappears into a crowd of

JOURNALISTS, CELEBS, TV CAMERAS, FAMILIES OF PEDIATRIC CANCER PATIENTS, BUSY STAFF, CLUB MEMBERS and people dressed like PEANUTS CARTOON CHARACTERS.

A BANNER ABOVE AN EMPTY PODIUM AT THE BACK OF THE ROOM READS:

“Children’s Hospital Of Los Angeles Annual Celebrity Golf Event 2021”

Hearing Matt from behind a potted tree he eagerly rounds the corner.

It’s Matt with Ben Hammil and a few others. Laughing. Drinking.

GREG (TO SELF) Fucking guy...

Matt turns around. Seeing Greg, he’s not unhappy but there’s no reward in seeing him. Greg bounds over, socially awkward in Ben’s presence.

MATT

(To the group.)

This is Greg Crandon. He’s the Doc who makes Dr. Morrow sound like he went to medical school. Hey, Greg, this is one of your radiologist tribal members: Ben Hammil.

GREG

Yeah, we shared a bill at a radiology convention last week. I was keynote.

BEN

It was actually fun. Like an extended Ted Talk.

ANOTHER MAN IN THE GROUP Oh, that’s where I know you from!

MATT

Greg we’re doing a Four Man Cha Cha Cha wager; the losing team coughs up forty-K for the charity. You’re in, right?

GREG

Forty? It’s in my car.

The group laughs.

GREG (CONT'D) Will you excuse me?

Greg breaks away and rushes to the MEN’S BATHROOM.

CUT TO:

INT. HILLCREST DINING ROOM-TWENTY MINUTES LATER

Most of the crowd spills onto the fairway path, outside. Greg hustles to catch-up.

CUT TO:

EXT. FAIRWAY PATH-CONTINUOUS

Greg approaches the REGISTRATION TABLE.

An ATTRACTIVE SWEDISH FEMALE CLUB STAFFER, 23, is dispensing Team Badges, which are mounted on a valet’s keyboard behind her.  The teams are named after Peanuts Characters.  Greg squints to see the SNOOPY Team, which is led by Matt.

FEMALE STAFFER (O.S.) Good morning! What’s your name?

GREG

Greg Crandon? I think I’m a Snoopy, on Matt’s team.

FEMALE STAFFER

Here you are.  You’re a LINUS!

Matt invited me personally, I’m sure I’m a Snoopy.

FEMALE STAFFER It’s a perfect day for a game, you’ll have a great time.

The Staffer dangles the Linus Team badge. Greg takes it.

As he approaches, A GOLF CART WHIRRS away: Ben Hamill is the driver, Matt’s his co-pilot.

They leave a wake in the COLLECTIVE MEDIA bush they pass.

CUT TO:

INT. GREG'S BEDROOM-2 DAYS LATER-EARLY MORNING

He’s on his back, snoring.

ANDREA (O.C.)

Get up! Get up! Matt’s dead! Greg! Wake up!

GREG

(Slowly waking.) What are you talking about?

Andrea turns on the bedroom TV.  Live local news broadcasts the scene outside of Matt Kisleyak’s home in Malibu.

CUT TO:

CLOSE ON:  POLICE TAPE, BODIES BEING ROLLED TO THE CORONER’S VAN.  

The CAPTION READS: “MATT KISLEYAK, STAR OF ‘MED LIVES’,

BELOVED HOLLYWOOD STAR, WIFE AND SON DEAD: SUSPECTED CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING...”

GREG No! What?

CUT TO:

EXT. HOLLYWOOD SOUNDSTAGE/SECURITY GUARD GATE-1 HOUR LATER

Flowers and memorials nearly block the entrance.  

GREG

I have to see Ken Goldish.

GUARD

No one on the lot today without approval. Given what’s happened I cannot do anything. Have Ken call me. Turn around and go park on the street.

Stressed, Greg scrapes his BMW on a concrete safety stanchion.

CUT TO:

INT. KEN GOLDISH’S OFFICE-15 MINUTES LATER

Ken is on the phone with Greg, while multitasking.  A MEMORIAL VIDEO is playing on the production monitor in his office. People on-set and walking by the open door weep.

KEN

(Puts Greg on

SPEAKERPHONE)

The show is obviously going to shutdown until the writers find an appropriate way through Matt’s death. Listen, we can’t have people talking to the press about what Matt did.

GREG (O.S.) What did he do?

KEN

His son, Liam’s cancer. You know, you saw his MRI.

GREG (O.S.)

He said it was a friend of his.

KEN

No. Liam collapsed at college. He’s been living at Children’s Hospital on and on for months. I don’t know if Lily chose to die but everyone was drugged and he closed the windows and messed with his central air...No more pain.

GREG (O.S.)

Can I call you when the show is back up? I think I have an angle on

AI-

KEN

Seriously not the time.  I gotta go. I’ll let you know about the memorial if you want, okay? Bye.

CUT TO:

INT. GREG'S HOME OFFICE AGAIN-ONE HOUR LATER

Greg saunters through his open office door head-down.

The sound of a GARDENER BLOWING LEAVES IN THE FRONT YARD IS A CONSTANT.

ANDREA (O.S.)

(Popped like a cork.) What did you do?

Andrea is sitting at his DESK; it’s littered with the golf clothing TAGS, the autographed script, she’s been rummaging.

GREG My desk..

ANDREA

I answered your office line.

Children’s Hospital Charity Committee something or other called to say they can’t refund your fortythousand dollar donation but they’d be happy to provide you with a tax form so you can declare it.  Were you trying to impress Matt Kisleyak?

GREG Be quiet.

She throws the price tags at his face.

She sits at his desk and lifts the office phone receiver.

ANDREA

I’m calling that charity and telling them you can’t be held responsible because you have a drug problem and I will sue them if they don’t return the forty-thousand.

She dials the Charity’s number, taking it from the tax form.

GREG

I’m warning you-

ANDREA

Now you’re a man, right?

Greg walks towards her, automatically, instinctively. She backs-up to get space between them.  

Now they’re both behind his desk.

GREG

We’re are so done.

In one freakish rage he grabs his office chair and swings it at Andrea. The wheeled feet break her jaw as she drops to the floor.

Greg tosses the chair aside blood from the wheels casts off all over the MED LIVES SCRIPT.  He stands over the whimpering disoriented Andrea and begins to stomp her into a near coma.

He continues as we FADE OUT.

CUT TO:

EXT. HOLLYWOOD-45 MINUTES LATER

Greg is walking up HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD.  Another sunny day.

Surrounded by TOURISTS, WORKERS, WALKERS, SHOPPERS, and CHARACTER ACTORS hawking for tips dressed as DEAD HOLLYWOOD. They appear to be moving on a giant treadmill.

MOMENTS LATER-

The WALK OF FAME STARS peel away under Greg’s feet until he see’s Matt Kisleyak’s STAR with a growing memorial. He looks down at the bloodied LIVES MED SCRIPT UNDER HIS ARM.

Greg enter a crosswalk against traffic.

FLASHBACK TO:

THE ABR CONFERENCE-BEN HAMMIL’S SPEECH ABOUT PERCEPTION.

SEE: IMAGE OF THE BRICK WALL WITH A CIGAR PINCHED IN-BETWEEN TWO-BRICKS.

BEN

At the top we see a garden variety red brick. All of it’s -

RETURN TO PRESENT-HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD HEARING HAMILL’S VOICE.

BEN (V.O.)

-flaws, pores, grit and different colors up close. So many facets and defects.  Below that image we see a brick wall.  However once I tell you that there’s a cigar stuck in that wall? That’s pretty much all you see now. Humans make a choice, AI just sees everything...

CLOSE ON:  TRAFFIC LIGHT ‘DON’T WALK’ SIGNAL.

Greg quickly turns around and RUNS into traffic.

SOUND OF:  SCREECHING TIRES. A SICK BANG AND CRACKING THUD. CARS REAR-ENDING. HORNS.

CUT TO:

CLOSE ON:  THE AUTOGRAPHED ‘MED LIVES’ SCRIPT. BLOODIER, ON THE SIDEWALK.  

A MAN, 29, GRABS IT AMIDST THE CHAOS BEHIND HIM.

MAN

(Into his cel phone.) Bae?  I have some good news and better news.  You know how Matt Kisleyak croaked today? I’m the proud owner of an script autographed by him. YES. The better news is it’s covered in blood.

FADE OUT.

[chronicallylatetotheparty]

Second Love

LoganLight, AO3

Summary:

Adrien isn’t one to fall in love slowly. So, when his heart pulls him in a new direction he goes all in.

Notes: Written for Week 3 of Adrien AUG-reste.

————————————————–

Adrien parried Kagami’s strike and launched a counter attack. Kagami was ready however and dodged easily while landing a hit.

“Sloppy, Adrien,” Kagami commented as they retook their positions.

“Oh, you know,” Adrien replied with a teasing lilt. “It’s hard to focus when your opponent’s so pretty.”

Kagami missed her lunge and Adrien scored a hit. She lifted her mask so he could see her narrowed eyes. That was the first time Adrien called her pretty. Your underhanded tactics won’t be enough to secure victory!

“Is that why I beat you so easily?” Kagami asked.

Adrien lifted his own mask to reveal a smug grin. “You don’t need a handicap for that.”

 Kagami felt a blush forming so she resumed her stance. He did likewise and they crossed swords.

Kagami was grateful for these one-on-one practice sessions. Even though they saw each other at many mutual high-class events it wasn’t the same. They were expected to act a certain way while representing their parents. But when they were fencing?

Adrien mirrored her movements perfectly. Her skill forced him to fight with everything he had. Kagami brought out the best in him and Adrien grinned at the challenge. There were no illusions when they were fencing. He could glimpse the parts of Kagami she kept hidden. Adrien was sure she could see him more clearly, too.

Kagami understood what it was like to be held up to impossible expectations. In his opinion, Kagami did it much better than him.

Which is probably why he was on his back at the moment.

“You let yourself become distracted,” Kagami accused while pointing her foil at him.

“Guilty,” Adrien admitted, embarrassed.

He got back on his feet and they started again. Kagami was always impressive with a sword; her movements fluid and sure like the Dragon she was. Especially motivated by his teasing to show him who’s boss.

But Adrien had motivations of his own. Recalling the move D'Argencourt used on him, Adrien twisted his foil around Kagami’s and shot it out of her hands. He could feel her surprise through the mask.

Removing his mask he smiled at her. “How’d I do?”

Kagami took off her own mask. “That was new.”

Adrien’s smile morphed into a grin. “I’m full of surprises. Some find it, disarming.”

Kagami stared at the self-satisfied look on his face. “… I’ll give you that one but you need better material.”

Adrien pouted.

Kagami turned away to hide her blush and the small smile tugging on the corners of her lips. “Anyway, we should get changed.”

 They went to remove their sweaty gear. Adrien thinking of ways to make Kagami laugh. Kagami thinking of Adrien’s compliments and if they meant what she hoped they did.

 ——————————–

“What made you decide to switch targets?”

Adrien missed the intended keys and the piano clanged in protest. He gazed at her with wide, startled eyes then looked down. “I… I realized something recently.”

“And that is?” Kagami prodded gently.

Adrien took a deep breath. “That it’s not enough to choose someone. They have to choose you, too. And she didn’t. It took me a long time to accept that.”

Kagami was silent as she thought over her words. “You are sure this time?”

Adrien gave her a rueful smile. “You’re an incredible person, Kagami. Honest, brave, loyal. And you picked me. That… I’d like to make it work. If you’ll give me another chance?”

Kagami felt her cheeks heat up at his hopeful look. “I would like that very much.”

Adrien’s whole face lit up and this time it was Kagami’s turn to look away. She smiled at how Adrien wore his heart on his sleeve. For his part he admired Kagami’s rare, shy smile.

Adrien reluctantly pulled himself out of the gentle gaze he was giving Kagami. “… Do you want me to play anything?”

Kagami blinked as she came out of her own thoughts. “Pardon?”

Adrien rubbed the back of his head and gestured to his piano. “I do have to practice. Just thought you might want something specific?”

“I’d like to listen to your favorite, actually,” Kagami said. “You haven’t told me what it is.”

Adrien grinned and started playing an upbeat tempo that reminded him of black-and-white American cartoons and barroom brawls. Kagami wasn’t expecting that but what surprised her most was Adrien himself.

Kagami had never seen him so into a song before. She’d only heard him play a handful of times, true, but he didn’t smile then. He seemed to bounce with the melody and Kagami soon found herself tapping her feet to the rhythm.

The song was so unlike everything that was expected of them. It wasn’t the sterile so-called perfection that permeated their families. Kagami understood what this meant to Adrien without him having to say a word.

They smiled at each other as the joyful tune filled Adrien’s empty room.

—————————-

“No, no, no!” Vincent cried. “I need emotion! Like when your maman serves fresh made spaghetti!”

“Mother doesn’t cook,” Kagami replied stiffly.

Adrien smiled placatingly at the exasperated photographer and placed a gentle hand on Kagami’s shoulder. “Let me try.”

He turned Kagami away from the demanding cameras so they wouldn’t see her struggle. “How you holding up?”

“I’ve done photo ops before. Those photographers weren’t nearly so demanding,” Kagami admitted.

They were at a photoshoot to promote the Agreste and Tsurugi families’ joint venture.

Adrien gave her a sympathetic look. “Yeah, Vincent always gets the best photos but he’s not easy to satisfy. I remember how awkward my first time modeling was. It took me a while to relax.”

“You were quite awkward in the photo you showed me,” Kagami pointed out, a question in her voice.

Adrien rubbed the back of his head, blushing slightly at the memory of his first photo-shoot. “Father intervened.”

Kagami gave him a small smile. “It’s endearing.” Kagami took pleasure in watching his blush darken. “… I’m unsure I’ll be able to perform what’s expected of me.”

Adrien dropped his hand from her shoulder to lace his fingers through her’s. “Think of it as a fencing match. How do you prepare for those?”

“I imagine my opponent prostrated before me after I have defeated them,” Kagami stated seriously.

Adrien blinked then his lips curled up in a smirk. “Well, then think of that with Vincent,” he stage whispered.

Kagami’s eyes took on a predatory glint.

Things went more smoothly after that and they made good progress. Adrien was happy to have someone to talk with; it made the usually boring shoot fun. Kagami gained a new respect for Adrien. His schedule was filled with so many of these! It wasn’t like fencing really but thinking of that gave Kagami something to focus on.

As the photographer wrapped up the young couple wondered when they’d have time to go on their first proper date.

 —————————-

Adrien and Kagami ran through the crowd hand in hand. They flew as though being pursued. Which would only happen if they’d made a mistake in sneaking away from their respective guardians.

Planning the date without telling either of their parents turned out to be harder than expected. The convention may last all week but their schedules didn’t align for most of it.

Still. Adrien had never cosplayed before and Kagami had never been to a convention. Neither was going to miss the first one dedicated specifically to the Guardians of Paris.

Not for the first time Kagami thought about how unfair it was that he’d chosen her alter ego. Ryuko’s colors looked good on him. For his part Adrien thought the same thing about Kagami choosing to cosplay as Aspik. Especially since Viperion was much more popular.

Needless to say, both were blushing messes. Pretending they weren’t a romantic tension filled moment away from melting into a puddle of goo… Kagami was better at pretending than Adrien.

“Tell me again about this akuma video game?” Kagami asked. Adrien was very excited when he heard Max would show it off since he hadn’t gotten a chance to play it yet.

“Max designed the game himself! It’s got all the villains up to Gamer 2.0 and he’s thinking of adding the new ones eventually.” Adrien led her through the miling crowd of superheroes.

Mostly everyone dressed up as Ladybug and Chat Noir, with a few of the other heroes thrown in. Which was part of the reason Adrien insisted on coming as anyone besides them.

That and he didn’t want to see Kagami as Ladybug. That was just asking for trouble.

They found Max’s stall filled with people playing on a half dozen consoles. The line moved quickly as every pair was only allowed a three fight round. Max himself was engrossed in a fierce battle; Adrien didn’t want to break his concentration.

Kagami observed the unusual battles with interest. If she was going to beat Adrien she’d need every advantage. Finally it was their turn.

“I may not have played the game before but Max says the mechanics are similar to UMS III. And I’m still the second best player in our school,” Adrien boasted playfully, purposefully stoking her competitive side.

“Only second best? My victory is assured then. I may be rusty but my proficiency in gaming will be more than enough to destroy you.” Kagami would not let his smug smirk go unchallenged!

Adrien’s grin widened and he picked M. Pigeon, eager to see if the villain would be as effective as last time.

Odd but then so was her date; Kagami chose Riposte.

Adrien gave her a questioning look. Kagami straightened her posture in determination. “He doesn’t control me,” she said simply.

Adrien nodded, he was always in awe of Kagami’s strength and this small display was no exception.

Adrien and Kagami fought furiously for dominion. Learning the controls on the fly and trying to one up each other.

M. Pigeon’s victory caught Kagami by surprise. “Since when can he do that?”

“M. Pigeon used Meteor Strike! It’s super effective!” Adrien leaned into her space. “Say, what do I get if I win?”

Kagami leaned in. “I suppose you’d get to kiss me.”

Adrien turned bright red.

“And if I win I get to kiss you,” Kagami continued.

Powering through the thought of a kiss he could actually remember Adrien focused. “Isn’t that the same thing?”

Kagami gave him a predatory look. “Not at all.”

Adrien swallowed and met her charged gaze with his own. “Guess I better win then.”

Kagami won the next round.

“Why’d you pick Reflekta?” Kagami asked curiously.

Adrien sighed at the Mime’s victory pose onscreen. “I rock a mean pair of high heels.”

Kagami blinked in surprise, then she smiled. “How bold of you.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his head shyly.

Kagami picked Darkblade for the last round. Adrien thought of choosing Troublemaker like Ladybug had but decided to go with Kung Food.

The last fight was much more balanced as both of them had gotten used to the controls. Kung Food had greater range but Darkblade had better defense. Adrien threw cheese bombs as Kagami dodged and blocked. She managed to get close enough to make Kung Food pull out his sword.

Both were on their last sliver of health as they attacked. Their characters charged and hit each other simultaneously. Both fell as the screen proclaimed their battle a tie.

“… Max!” Adrien exclaimed.

“That was unexpected,” Kagami pulled Adrien out of the way of the next pair of players.

“He would put a mutual K.O. in his game!” Adrien grumbled as they walked to a less crowded corner.

“Are you upset because you think you don’t get to kiss me?” Kagami asked.

Adrien reddened slightly. “Well, we don’t have a winner and… What do you mean by that?”

Kagami turned to face him, her cheeks tinted pink. “In a certain sense we both won.” She let that sink in for a moment.

Adrien’s eyes widened and then he was giving her that soft look again. He stepped closer and Kagami did the same. Heedless of the noise of strangers surrounding them.

The kiss was gentle and tentative. Adrien was as soft as she imagined him to be. Kagami as warm as he knew she could be.

They pulled apart slowly and as they stared into each other’s eyes Kagami said the first thing that came into her head. “You smell like Camembert.”

Adrien’s face burned. "I’m sorry! I can’t help it! There’s this, um-“

Kagami placed a finger on his lips. "I like Camembert.” Adrien got even redder if that was possible and she swore she heard someone stifling their laughter.

“You do?” Adrien’s face was an odd mix of relief and chagrin.

“But I’m not sure I want a boyfriend that smells like cheese all the time.” Kagami teased stepping out of his grasp.

Boyfriend! “Yeah, hate for you to tell our friends your boyfriend stinks and give them the wrong idea.” Adrien reached out and grabbed her hand. That was the first time Kagami had called him her boyfriend!

“As opposed to the right idea?” Kagami decided that a blushing Adrien was well worth the effort. Even if he did get used to most of her teasing by the second go around.

Instead of answering immediately Adrien reached up to remove their masks. They didn’t get in the way of the game so they’d been left on.

“I’m sure they already know what my girlfriend got herself into.” Adrien was gratified to see Kagami’s blush darken to match his.

“Return my mask, Adrien. It completes the look,” Kagami said to distract herself.

Adrien complied. “I like being able to see your face. When I first saw you I thought: Wow, she’s cute!”

Kagami smiled shyly as she looked down at her mask. Adrien was always so liberal with his compliments. She had trouble in that department. “When you returned my saber to me I realized how honorable you are. Not many opponents would insist on a rematch after being declared the winner.”

“… You didn’t have to comfort me that day,” Adrien said. “But you did. You were gentle with me. Kind. And I-”

“You’ve already apologized for that,” Kagami interrupted. “And I will not have my boyfriend under a self-inflicted debt.”

“Well. Why don’t you humor me and let me take you ice skating again?” Adrien asked. “A proper date. Just the two of us this time.” He clasped her hands between his as he looked into her eyes.

“As I recall I took you ice skating,” Kagami corrected. “But I’m not opposed to the idea.”

Adrien laughed lightly. “I’ll take that as a yes!”

The young couple redonned their masks as they went to explore the rest of the convention. Wandering anonymously and aimlessly to whatever caught their eye.

And as they walked among superheroes Adrien realized that he hadn’t reacted to the red and polka dots once.

Kagami squeezed his hand and he returned the gesture. They were both making this up as they went along and neither was sure of where it would lead. But Adrien knew they’d figure it out together.

————————————————–

Notes: Basically I took that soft look Kagami got at the end of Oni-chan and ran with it. Also needs more puns. (Written before Desperada)

[lost-midnight-flower]

I was tagged by the ever so lovely @bitoftaewithsugaandkookie Thank you so much sweetie!!!

what color is your hairbrush? purple and pink

name a food you never eat: rabbit meat, bugs, anything that’s an animals intestines

are you typically too warm or too cold? Both, I’m almost always cold but I’m too warm very easily as well

what were you doing 45 minutes ago?: Reading a fanfic hehe

what’s your favorite candy bar?: Snickers

have you ever been to a professional sports game?: If cycling races count, yes, I have been to countless of professional sports games ^^

what’s the last thing you said out loud?: "I always switch up the meaning of left and right” (in politics)

what’s your favorite ice cream?: Mint-Chocolate and raspberry

what was the last thing you had to drink?: water

do you like your wallet?: Yup!!! It’s from Harry Potter

what’s the last thing you ate?: Dinner, just bread with cheese

did you buy any new clothes last weekend?: nope

what’s the last sporting event you watched?: Retro Gent-Wevelgem, when lockdown started they showed previous editions on cycling races on tv

what is your favorite flavor of popcorn?: Sweet

who’s the last person you sent a text to?: my mom

ever go camping?: nope, but I want to someday

do you take vitamins?: yes, a vitamine B-complex for my nervous system and vitamine C 

do you go to church every sunday?: nope, I almost never set foot into a church unless I really have to

do you have a tan?: Yup, including weird tan lines on my legs from my cycling shorts

do you prefer chinese or pizza?: These 2 are equal to eachother!!!

do you drink soda through a straw?: oh hell no

what color socks do you usually wear?: black

do you ever drive above the speed limit?: I don’t even have a driver’s license hahahaha *awkward crying face*

what terrifies you?: Thunder and lightning

look to your left, what do you see?: My ‘wall of fame’ with all the pictures from the geek conventions I’ve been to and took pictures with the actor guests, together with their autographs and some pictures from my favourite cyclists

what chore do you hate the most?: definitely the dishes

what do you think of when you hear an australian accent?: I LOVE THAT ACCENT!!

what’s your favorite soda?: Diet Coke

do you go in fast food places or just hit the drive thru?: I don’t go a lot to fast food places, but we kinda do both..

what’s your favorite number?: 28

who’s the last person you talked to?: I’m currently talking to my best friend over video call

favorite cut of beef?: I don’t really like beef

last song you listened to?: Not That Type by Gugudan

last book you read?: I’m currently reading City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

can you say the alphabet backwards?: I can if I really concentrate

favorite day of the week?: Monday, believe it or not :p I never have to work on Mondays

how do you like your coffee?: 2 sugars and a splash of milk

favorite pair of shoes?: my blue and orange Nike MD Runner 2′s

time you normally get up?: on workdays around 7, during weekends around 12-1pm

sunrise or sunsets?: sunsets

how many blankets on your bed?: currently 2, during summer 1

describe your kitchen plates?: just plain white plates

describe your kitchen at the moment?: Neat, thanks to my mom

do you have a favorite alcoholic drink?: Strawberry Daiquiri, which I drink like maximum 2-3 times a year haha

do you play cards?: I used to when I was little

what color is your car?: Like I said in a previous question, I don’t even have a driver’s license soooo yeah...

can you change a tire?: nope

your favorite state/province/county/city etc.?: SCOTLAND IT IS!!

favorite job you’ve had?:  I am still on my first job, as a pharmacy-technician so yeah, for now that’s my favourite

how did you get your biggest scar?: I fell with my bike when I was about 14 years old, and my whole right shin was like completely scratched from my knee to my ankle, and every year during summer, when my legs are a bit tanned you can see the scar reappearing

Omg I never imagined it would take me so long to answer!!! thank you so much though!!!!

I tag: @loveliveswithin @caribbeanaghase @shadeistic

[feitclub]

who knows what closet obsessions lurk within the hearts of men? Certainly not me.

--The following blog post appeared on feitclub dot com (it’s not mine anymore, don’t go there) ten years ago. I read it today and felt like I should reshare it with the world.--

I was riding the train this morning and taking in the human scenery around me when I made this observation via Twitter:

sitting on a train across from a man (NOT a teen) reading a pro wrestling magazine. Even when I was a fan I knew those mags were crap.

In hindsight this sounds harsh but it wasn't meant as a strict judgment of the man, just his choice of reading material. And yet it took less than a second for his magazine of choice to color my whole opinion of him. I started looking at his hair and decided it was weird. I thought the way he ate his breakfast was comically ape-like. My entire opinion of a stranger was dependent on his method of passing time during his morning commute. All this from a man who used to be one of those people who not only watched pro wrestling every week on television but actually spent a good deal of money on attending live events.

After looking across the aisle for a while, I glanced at the man next to me. He was wearing a suit and coat with a briefcase on his lap, and he was reading a Golgo 13 manga. This made more sense to me because Golgo 13 is awesome, but why? Just because I preferred one hobby over the other, I found one guy normal while the other was some kind of primate? That didn't sit right with me.

I know we all have our inner passions, many of which are far from mainstream. Earlier this same morning, I read the following message from Robert Ashley on Twitter:

"... is overrated" is one of the emptiest phrases in the English language. People love everything too much. That's fandom.

As much as I agree with his first point (the Internet is awash with cynical morons who declare "[popular thing] is overrated" ad nauseum) his second point is what echoed inside my head on the train. Falling in love with something means getting excited about it beyond the "appropriate" attention level as decided by the masses. Even those niche hobbies that are considered mainstream, like baseball, have their own subculture of intense statistical analysts and historical archivists whose enthusiasm would not have much in common with the casual fan.

Looking back on my own life, I've had my share of (unhealthy?) hobbies and interests over the years. Overlooking my fondness for certain toy lines as a boy, when I was a teenager I spent my free time playing a lot of video games and watching a lot of Star Trek. While I always had at least one friend who shared my enthusiasm at the time, I always had at least two friends who weren't interested at all. There were video game friends and Star Trek friends, but not both. I would bounce between hobbies and fluctuate my passion depending on the company I kept.

Last night I was watching the latest episode of House which featured an unusual "patient of the week" who had lost all impulse control and said whatever came to his mind. This led to a lot of awkward conversations where he insulted his clients, pointed out the doctors' physical attributes (good and bad), and clashed with his wife about her charity work. But hidden amongst the sitcom-level gimmickry was one interesting idea: what is this man's real personality? If this is what he thinks about all day but he chose not to say it before, does that mean he's always been a raging asshole? Or is the way he decided to behave his actual self?

We all have our own little quirks and habits, and we all shift our behavior depending on who we spend time with. Your average man is not going to comment aloud on a new attractive coworker in the office, no matter how striking she may be, but he will certainly bring it up around his friends afterwards. I know my wife talks a certain way around me, a different way around her parents, and yet another way when she talks to her friends. Which one is the "real" Mako? Likewise, I behave in a certain fashion while at home and in a very different fashion when I attend the Tokyo Game Show. Was her panic concerning my gaming around New Year's really a frightened reaction to seeing too much of my geekiness?

I can't help but wonder if the world would be a better place if we had fewer social pressures to keep our interests bottled up. "Honesty is the best policy" isn't always necessarily true, as evidenced by the guy on House, but isn't more honesty better than less? What if Trekkies could wear Starfleet uniforms in public as casually as sports fans wear team jerseys? What if Danny Choo was just one of a million Star Wars fans who dressed up in stormtrooper armor on the weekends?

I honestly believe that half of the people going to conventions are just looking to be "themselves" for a few hours around people who won't judge them so harshly. I've been to more than one Star Trek convention in my life and I assure you, there's not much to do there. Maybe you get to hear one of the actors speak, maybe you even get an autograph, but the reason I kept going back was the opportunity it presented to just immerse myself in all things nerdy. The exact same thing is true now with my love of Den Den Town. I almost never buy anything but I love being surrounded by old games and marveling at the passion surrounding that old technology.

So go ahead - take this chance to leave a confession in the comments section. What hobbies or interests do you feel uncomfortable sharing with everyone? It's the Internet, let yourself go!

PS: What was I doing on the train this morning? Listening to my iPod, specifically a playlist made up entirely of Neo Geo music. Hell yeah.

[aion-rsa]

The WNUF Halloween Special: The Making of the Most Fun Found Footage Horror Movie Ever

https://ift.tt/2G6IjxE

In 1987, local news station WNUF held a special publicity stunt on Halloween night. Reporter Frank Stewart, joined by paranormal investigators and a priest, entered the infamous (and presumably haunted) Webber House, an empty home that was the site of a gruesome double murder. Hoping to get some ratings by doing a live call-in séance and an exorcism, Stewart and the others bit off more than they could chew as the event went completely awry. While the televised special ended in confusion, a special VHS tape was discovered years later that showed what really happened that Halloween.

That’s the plot of WNUF Halloween Special, released in 2013 by director Chris LaMartina. Told in the form of a news broadcast and follow-up special that were taped off TV, the found footage movie has garnered a cult following due to its unique 80s throwback style, realistic awkwardness, and loads of made-up commercials that add to the at-times casual experience.

If you have Shudder, WNUF Halloween Special is now available on there for you to watch this Halloween season.

In the meantime, I got to discuss the film with prolific indie director Chris LaMartina as he discusses the making of the film, its lovable quirks, and the inevitable follow-up.

Den of Geek: I have to imagine the WNUF Halloween Special was a unique process to put together what with the news prologue, the Halloween special itself, and the many commercials, especially since the commercials seem to get thematically darker as the special gets more ominous. How was that puzzle put together, especially compared to your other films?

Chris LaMartina: It’s really interesting. WNUF came together faster, believe it or not, than any of my other features. It’s kind of funny, it had been a couple of years since we made a feature. It was the second summer we weren’t making a horror film, and that really bummed me out. But what ended up happening was, I sat down with my frequent co-writer, co-producer Jimmy George and I was like, “Dude, the only way we’re going to make a movie is probably if we make a found footage.”

When I figured out what I wanted to do with found footage, when I literally was like, “Okay, how do we actually make the fun version of a found footage movie?”

Basically what ended up happening was we made it the most ass backwards way, making something that has so many more set pieces, so many more working parts. But the thing is, basically it was the fastest thing we’d ever produced because from script to screen it was nine months. Literally from sitting down to write the first treatment to finishing the final product was nine months.

I will say that I did that while we were raising money to make another film Call Girl of Cthulhu. We were running a crowdsource campaign while we were shooting and editing WNUF. The only thing I can say was, I was 27 years old, I was a single guy, I was living in a basement, my job had not become a career. Literally all I did was just live and breathe making movies and playing in a punk rock band, but that was when I wasn’t working. It was a crazy time.

The commercials were done in a certain way. I knew I had resources, a lot of stock footage, either royalty-free stock or public domain footage, that I knew I could turn into commercials. Basically, what we ended up doing was, the movie was written like a movie, it was written with commercial breaks, it just said “COMMERCIAL BREAK.” At that point what I did was I had myself and my buddy Pat York, and a couple other folks wrote just an absurd amount of commercials. There’s commercials that we wrote that were never even made. There’s commercials that are on the DVD but not in the official movie. There’s tons.

What I did was, I had all the people that were helping write some of the commercials come over and watch all the stock footage I had and I would tell them, “All right, I have enough footage for you to make a petting zoo commercial,” or, “I have enough footage for you to make– See this little short film that my buddy Jeff Herberger did? We’re going to take that footage of the space guy and make Galaxy Pilot.”

The majority of the commercials were stock footage of some sort, with the exception of the tampon thing. We shot that one. The King of Castle Lane was actually produced by my buddy Scott Maccubbin. Parents Against Partying was produced by my buddy Jim Branscome. We had four or so guest directors for just four commercials around that at least, no five. Shawn Jones was also Phil’s Carpet Warehouse. But the writing and the other stuff was mostly me and Pat but they involved other folks.

I would wake up at 6:00 in the morning, I would edit two commercials, go to work. I could walk to work from where I was living at the time. I’d come home on my lunch break, edit the commercials, go back to work, come home that night, edit another commercial, that type of thing. It was exhausting, but I had so much fun making WNUF and it was such a thing that was in my DNA.

I worked at a TV station right out of college, it was a government TV channel. At the time I was working in marketing. The year after that I became creative director for a digital agency, so I just loved writing ad copy.

Basically, what I did with WNUF was, I let it be an excuse to say all the shitty, stupid, cheesy things they would never let me keep in a commercial I wrote, so that was pretty cool.

So that’s the physical process of what you went through. What was the mental process that led to you guys putting together this nostalgia/horror/found footage cocktail?

We wanted to make a found footage movie but we were like, “What’s our found footage movie?” We made horror comedies. Basically, what we arrived with was sort of like, imagine if Christopher Guest made a found footage movie.

Yeah, it’s funny you say Christopher Guest because every time they show the anchorman, I kept thinking like he is just so close to being Fred Willard.

Dude, yeah. Yes, Gavin Gordon as played by Richard Cutting, he just channeled that. He’s such a sweet guy. It’s just funny.

Anyway, but yeah I was going to say, I sat down and I wrote down a list of everything I hated about found footage movies. It was like 1) why are they filming this? When things get crazy, why are they filming this? It makes no sense. 2) Found footage movies largely are small casts, so that’s not really interesting to me. 3) There’s never breaks. There’s literally never … It’s just one location. This sucks.

There’s no way to break up the monotony of shitty found footage. Finally I was like, as soon as you go into a store and buy a movie with a UPC code, the illusion of watching a found footage film is immediately broken because you know you’re watching commercially available film, and if it was some sort of snuff movie, there’s no goddamn way people would see that.

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BBC/Netflix Dracula’s Behind-the-Scenes Set Secrets

By Louisa Mellor

First and foremost, why are they filming? I had this idea that they’re filming because it’s their job. It’s a special, it’s TV. If they don’t film they don’t cut to ad, they can’t make money. It’s literally their job, it’s their lifeblood. So then the idea of a TV show was kind of great because you have commercial breaks. Now most movies, when you do commercial breaks people just do one commercial or cut out the commercials. I figured, “No. That’s what we need to do.”

We need to show the commercials, because no one is crazy enough to do that. And there we were, we were the crazy nobodies. Yes, we’re going to make an 81-minute movie where 25 minutes are commercials. That’s insane, but that was fun for me.

And then the whole idea of having an ensemble cast. I had always liked ensemble movies or ensemble films so it was one of the situations where it’s like that was fun to have guests and things like that. And then after that, the big thing for me was the conceit of the story, the conceit of the distribution, how are you buying this movie? When we finished WNUF, for the first three months it was only available on VHS, you could only buy it on VHS, but for six months prior to that I had uploaded the WNUF Halloween Special on sites like Cinemageddon, on torrent sites, for people to think that they were real.

And then we had made copies on VHS ourselves before they were on sale and left them at horror conventions or dropped them off at the thrift store or threw them out of the car window. We had about 50 tapes back then. I don’t know if anyone found any of those. I think a couple of people found them at the horror convention. But that idea of building the mythos and having a whisper campaign was really, really important to me.

Going back to the commercials, like you said, your friends worked on those. Are there any in particular that when you looked at it you were, more than any other, just like, “Wow, that is perfect. This fits perfectly into the eighties aesthetic that we’re doing here.”

It’s funny, I have to think about that. I really think of the eighties local thing because I think there’s a couple of ones that look like national TV ads, but I feel like the local edge is what I really was attracted to in the movie, at least to make the original. I would say the ones that stick out to me are…

I actually really like the ad for the WNUF Halloween Special that you see during the commercial break. I also think the ad for High Pike Farms, feels very like regional TV.

In my head I was like, “Okay, this is a small market somewhere east of the Mississippi, because the call letters there start with a W.” I had this moment where I was like, “I imagine the same company probably paid at least 20% of these commercials if they’re all local ads, but there’s not going to be six video companies in this small town.”

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There were certain things… I was very careful not to make fonts based off the really, really local, local ones. But yeah, I can’t think of one that really, really stands out to me. I love something like the Frumkes Wine Cooler. I think Galaxy Pilot is a lot of fun.

Obviously, Paul Fahrenkopf steals the show as Frank Stewart. What other performance, supporting or minor, really sticks out to you? Personally for me it’s the guy dressed up as a vampire who appears in the background of the event and he’s the one who awkwardly realizes like, “Wait, there was a murder here?” That’s just such a great response, and it’s just such a perfectly awkward moment.

I’ll tell you two things. One, it is seriously my dream for that picture of, as we call him, Acid Dracula. I just want a picture of Mike Walls in that role turned into a meme that says, “Somebody died in this house?” just because I feel like his face is so priceless there. But no, here’s what I’ll tell you. When we shot those—

Oh, real quick. I just want to point out. I don’t know if it’s because of you, but I’m pretty sure on the IMDB page, he’s one of the images that pops up immediately.

That’s amazing. Yeah. Mike Walls, who plays Acid Dracula, he’s incredible. It’s really interesting, I’ve known Mike for a long time through the punk rock scene, but Mike told me, he was like, “What is my character?” Because people were just extras, literally I just said, “Hey, just answer the question and you can say whatever you want.” We had 15 people do that and we ended up using three or four on each segment.

Mike told me later on, “My character has gone to be on TV and right before he’s on TV has dropped acid.”

If you look at the outtakes on the DVD, the other thing that Mike did was during a take, which was insanely funny, was Frank asks him whatever the question is and he says, “I want to win.” And Frank’s like, “What?” He’s like, “Win. I want to win.” And he literally just keeps saying, “I want to win.” And then he says, “Thank you.” It’s just, it’s nuts. Because I was camera operator for a lot of the things too, it was me and my buddy Jim, who I used to work with at this TV station. Literally there were so many moments where I’m shaking, I’m trying not to shake the camera because it’s one of those huge shoulder mounted cage cameras.

But yeah, Mike had me on the floor.

Is there anyone else that you look at in the movie and just like, “That’s just such a great, perfect performance?”

Dude, I’d say right now, I could go down the list. I think the world of Paul Fahrenkopf and wrote the role of Frank Stewart for him. He had been in a film we made called President’s Day and I always felt Paul was just like… It’s sort of weird, man.

When I think about the movies we made, it ends up being this thing like summer camp where your crew becomes your family to a certain degree and hopefully they come back next summer and you make another thing together. Paul, for me, there’s something about Paul and his attitude and his snark that just makes him such a true character.

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But basically we wrote that movie knowing that Paul could be smarmy and like a dick, but still be really charming and funny. That’s one thing that I’ve always done, as I write I try to imagine who the character is going to be played by. It’s based on people I know. Louis and Claire Berger, Brian St. August and Helenmary Ball, they were just phenomenal. All those folks I really do consider an extension of my family.

I was going to say, I think even minor characters, even Acid Dracula or even Kendra North who plays the head of HARVEST. I think they bring something very funny but they’re all very funny in different ways. I think it’s really important to not do something where it’s everyone’s hitting the same note. I think Paul’s humor is a lot different than the Bergers’ humor, but yeah.

WNUF Halloween Special has become one of the annual standbys in my household. What Halloween movies do you always find yourself going back to year after year?

Okay. What I would say is the ones that are like quintessential, like this is Halloween to me…? I have to watch The Midnight Hour, the made-for-TV movie from the early 80s that was basically made to cash in on “Thriller.” What was great was that we did a double feature. My buddy Jim Branscome, who runs a screening series in LA called Cinematic Void, he did a double feature with WNUF and Midnight Hour, so that was one of the best nights because it’s my favorite Halloween movie and a movie I made.

During the day of Halloween I always watched The Halloween Tree, the Hanna-Barbera based on the Ray Bradbury story. It’s funny, I have a long list of Halloween shorts that I find myself, because I collect film print, so short films I like watching. I like Disney’s Skeleton Dance.

Also there’s a great version of Legend of Sleepy Hollow narrated by John Carradine that’s just… I honestly think Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the story itself, is one of the most perfectly Halloween ones as an experience because basically, you don’t know what’s real or not until afterwards and you’re just like, “Yeah, it’s a prank. It’s not real, but it’s still scary and wrapped in disguise in this mythos.”

I recall that there was an attempt to crowdfund a WNUF sequel.

Yeah.

Unfortunately that didn’t hit its goal but I have to ask, what would it have been about and is there still hope for it one day?

Oh dude, I’m making it right now!

Oh, you ARE making it?!

Yeah. That’s why I did GoFundMe. I did a GoFundMe because I don’t have to hit my goal. Look, I’m going to make the movie no matter what we raise. If I had raised 20 bucks, I would have figured out a way to make the movie. What ends up happening is the change in scope. What I have right now is, we’ve raised a decent chunk of change. People can still donate and get copies if they want to because as of right now the GoFundMe link is basically pre-buys at this point. You donate and then I’ll send you the DVD or the VHS or whatever.

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Okay, so let me talk about the movie. I’ve been very tight-lipped about what the movie is about. There’s plenty of people who have worked on it so far that know what it’s about. Here’s what I’ll say, it’s not a reboot, it’s not a remake. There are returning characters, but I’m very careful about what I explain the plot to be. What I will say is, it takes place in the nineties. Characters do return, I think about 10 characters return.

Did Dracula get over his acid problem yet?

Did Acid Dracula? I’ll tell you this, Mike Walls is in the sequel and he plays a vampire of some sort but he is not, as I would call him, Acid Dracula.

Okay. Interesting.

Yeah. The movie takes place in 1994 and 1996. I think the best way to describe this one to people without blowing what it’s about is, imagine if Jerry Springer hosted an episode of Sightings.

And also I think it’s really interesting too, it was really a lot more difficult and dynamic trying to satirize the 1990s in a way that felt believable, but still accurate and still sort of snarky, like you do with the ’80s. We’ve been far enough away from the ’80s when we made WNUF.

I know one of the reasons why WNUF is so important to make for me and just a different experience was like, I had seen so many people make fun of the 80s in a way that’s kind of like laughing at it, not laughing with it, or it doesn’t come from a place of love. Honestly, man, I grew up the youngest of three kids, I was an accident, and I used to get the tapes that my brother and sister taped off TV, but those were my intro to a lot of classic horror movies or TV shows, and they had all the commercials and I watched those tapes and commercials well into my high school years. Basically, I had a really encyclopedic knowledge of what would be accurate for that era, even though I wasn’t a teenager in 1987.

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But what I was going to say was, the ’90s for me, where we’re doing the sequel is, that’s the shit I grew up watching. I’d come home from school and there’d be Jerry Springer on or there’d be Power Rangers or even just like things like Mysteries, Magic, and Miracles that was on the Sci-Fi channel or Mysteries from Beyond the Other Dominion. I think that was the name of it, it had Franklin Ruehl was the host. It was a weird show, I think it was a public access thing from New York that got syndicated and it got picked up. It was only on Saturday mornings for the Sci-Fi channel. I’m totally rambling right now.

What I’ve experienced as I’ve gotten older, but then also as I had the distance of making WNUF and who reacted to it and seeing what’s happening next, the fact is there’s the same type of tropes and type of almost archetypes that exist in every era, but they evolve and change a little bit. I think it’s really interesting, almost like what the type of commercial for a wine cooler might be in 1987 versus what that might be in 1996.

Oh, that’s great. I’m very excited. One of the things that my wife and I would do sometimes, especially in the quarantine, is go on YouTube and just watch a 15-minute block of commercials from maybe the 80s or the 90s. It’s always interesting to see how they stack up compared to each other, especially if you don’t remember them at all.

Right. Yeah, definitely. I was going to say, what I thought was really interesting was, occasionally when I’m doing edits or whatever I’d just want to palate cleanse and look at something just to remind myself of the era, or even just be like, “Man, let’s go look at some fonts that they might have been using for this ad.” And then I’ll find another commercial that’s like, “Holy shit, dude. In this other commercial block I watched I had written something that was almost identical.”

That happens. There were so many times, even with the original, where years later I’d be watching something on YouTube and I’d be like, “Oh my god, people are going to think I ripped that off,” but I didn’t. I literally just didn’t know that existed. I found some public access Halloween thing where somebody made some contacting Elvis joke and I was like, “Jesus Christ, I didn’t see that but somebody probably totally thinks I ripped it off.”

The one trope that I would say absolutely needs to be in at least one commercial is the idea that every kid fucking hates adults.

Yeah, right.

It’s always, “Yeah, my gym teacher’s an idiot. He doesn’t get why I like this cereal.” Or the kid’s all, “Yeah. I saw my uncle today. He absolutely sucks.”

Yeah. No, I think I’ve got you covered.

All right, that’s good.

And I’m pretty sure I have you covered twofold if I’m remembering correctly, but yeah.

Speaking of the sequel, WNUF Halloween Special has its share of, I guess I’ll call it the expanded universe. I know you guys put together an album of earlier Frank Stewart broadcasts. There’s a commercial on YouTube for the WNUF Christmas Special which has some very sly foreshadowing in the description that relates to the ending of the movie. Was there ever any intent to go further than just a commercial? What made you guys think to just put that up or put that together?

The second I finished making WNUF I realized, I had too much fun making this movie. I missed the idea of making something with commercials or the idea of something that feels a little bit more improvised a little bit. It was one of those things where it was like I wanted to make something again, and then when the movie came out, we had never seen such a response to one of our films. I’ve directed eight features and this was the one that people really cared about. I think the idea of the budget being low is what helped people really respond to it and understand the aesthetic.

In December of that year what ended up happening was, or maybe November of that year, I was like, “Dude, let’s do a Christmas special as a joke, almost a social media Christmas card.”

And that’s what we did. If I was actually going to make a WNUF Christmas Special, it would be a goofy, community theater, Frank Stewart and Scrooge, and all the other anchors as the Ghosts of Past, Present, Future.

That’s an awesome mental image. You talk about the big sequel, but re there any other projects that you’re working on that we can look forward to, and perhaps a full-length version of Sarcophagus?

That’s funny. I was going to say, the mummy clips from Sarcophagus are from another film we made many years ago. We made a film many years ago called Grave Mistakes and there was a mummy, so all that stuff put into the mummy is from an actual movie we made, but granted, the whole movie is not nearly as entertaining as that 15-second ad for Sarcophagus.

I’m still working on the WNUF sequel. I’ll tell you right now, I was hoping to have it done a lot sooner but COVID happened and I can’t, really. We’re doing social distance shoots and I’m figuring out how to do everything safely without risking anyone’s health, but a lot of the stuff is not possible to do so I’m going to have to wait at least until the pandemic is over to do some of the things we had planned.

But that being said, I have another film actually co-written with my buddy Jimmy called What Happens Next Will Scare You. What Happens Next Will Scare You is a viral video. It’s like a clickbait horror anthology. It’s about these clickbait journalists who are—

Oh god, I’m screwed.

—who vote on the top 13 scariest viral videos for a listicle on Halloween. An early entry into the night unleashes this curse that brings all the monsters and weird things from the viral videos into the real world. That’s actually premiering virtually at the Nightmares Film Festival in October. I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing some sort of Q&A of some sort, but there’s that.

And then also the Bergers, the Bergers are in that, the paranormal investigator couple from WNUF are in that film. Basically, one of the segments is from an old TV show they did.

Oh, that’s cool. This all ties together.

Yeah.

Oh, I’m sorry. My wife just walked into the room with her own question that she just wrote down for me.

Yes, please.

“Is Shadow going to be in the next movie?”

The cat that played Shadow is dead, unfortunately. I know, that’s really, really sad. Without giving anything away, Shadow – I’m actually looking at my cat right now as I talk about this, which just funny. She’s probably wondering, “What the fuck are you talking about, Dad?” My cat is not Shadow, by the way.

The Bergers are in the sequel and Shadow is involved in some of it, but not in a very direct way, it’s very minor, mostly because I tried to find a cat like Shadow and it was just a nightmare. Trying to replace a very specific cat with a very low budget is not easy.

WNUF Halloween Special is available on DVD and now available to watch on Shudder. Any final thoughts on the project for the readers out there?

I think WNUF was a pretty rare gift and I don’t think anything I will make going forward will ever resonate like the original WNUF did. It really is, it feels like lightning in a bottle. It feels like all the stars aligned and how that movie exists is just really special and unique. It’s interesting to me because Halloween, as just a horror fan, somebody who just loves October, is one of those nights where you want everything to be magical and perfect. Sometimes you have these expectations, it’s really hard to have those expectations live up to what Halloween is in your mind.

We shot WNUF in October. Literally, we shot the majority of the movie in about five-ish days. All the stuff in the Webber House was three or four days. It felt like a fever dream, it was this big convergence of just the right elements.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Yeah man, I don’t know what else I can say except that I feel very lucky that I directed a movie that people tell me they watch every Halloween. I don’t know, that’s really special. I don’t know, I don’t make movies for a living and I don’t know if I even want to. It’s more just like I love the fact that I made that movie out of pure love and not for a paycheck, and I think that’s something that you can tell, when somebody makes a horror movie to further their career versus somebody making something out of pure joy. And everyone who worked with us on those movies was the same way. Nobody got paid for that movie. The budget was $1500.

The post The WNUF Halloween Special: The Making of the Most Fun Found Footage Horror Movie Ever appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[imaginexmeintheuniverse]

Into You

A lovely anon requested: “hey babe, I’m in love with your imagines you are such a good writter and I was wondering if you could do one with Peter Parker based on the music video of into you by ariana grande, thanks bb”

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Warnings: Heavily implied sexy times, but no smut. Heavily implied cheating.

Word Count: 5, 096

Summary: In their early twenties, Peter Parker and the reader have been life-long friends. The reader has anything everyone could ever want; they went to their dream school, landed their dream job, and have the dream boyfriend. However, he’s not Peter Parker.

Masterlist

A/N: I watched the music video and I wasn’t sure as to whether or not it was okay to write as an AU so I guess it ended up being semi-AU-ish in the sense that I made him and the reader in their early twenties. I wrote this piece as how I interpreted the storyline of the music video and I hope it turned out okay! It is so much longer than I thought it would be because I’m Way Too Extra ™. 

Into You by Ariana Grande

You wake up to the sound of soft snores and a slight pounding in your head. When you open your eyes, the light peeking through the worn out curtains is blinding. You immediately shut your eyes as the subtle brightness seems to enhance your headache. It take you a few moments before you build up the courage to let your eyelids peel back again and the light doesn’t seem as harsh anymore.

Once your eyes have been well adjusted, you scan your surroundings without moving another muscle. Your focus wanders from the empty red cups and half-empty packs of candy on the little desk, the cards splayed out on the stained carpet floor, to your clothes that are strewn all over the arm chair, and finally lands on the form next you; the source of the aforementioned soft snores. He has one arm wrapped around your waist to keep you close, his face is buried in the pillow with only his soft brown locks peeking out, and the white sheets are gathered around his hips, exposing his toned and bruised back. You smile as memories from the previous night come flooding back.

You hadn’t told each other explicitly, but you sure as hell both felt it. Instead of using words, you used your bodies; passionate kisses, light touches, and clinging to each other like your lives depended on it.

To say that you’re “into him” is the biggest understatement of the century.

You gently push his arm back and get dressed as quietly as you can, not wanting to wake him up since he barely ever gets to sleep. Looking back over your shoulder before shutting the door, you can’t help but smile at how adorable he looks.

You go to the dining area of the inn you are staying at to grab two cups of coffee with some breakfast in a foam takeout container. After exchanging a few greetings with some of the other guests, you make your way back to your room, stopping at the little table right outside the door. You set the coffee and food down before throwing out the empty bottles and bags of junk food.

You take a seat and take a sip from the paper cup as you recall the night starting out with you and your boyfriend attending one of Tony Stark’s company galas. There was a rift during the night, but it only got better from there. It ended with you tangled in between sheets with the gorgeous Peter Parker who was laying next to you about half an hour ago now.

But Peter Parker is not your boyfriend.

I’m so into you, I can barely breathe

And all I wanna do is to fall in deep

But close ain’t close enough, ‘til we cross the line, hey yeah

So name a game to play, and I’ll roll the dice, hey

Before we get ahead of ourselves let’s take a look at how you came to wake up next to Peter Parker in room 5 of a crappy roadside inn when just yesterday you were at a fancy philanthropy gala with your boyfriend.

Let’s start with you. Being a successful University graduate you landed a job working close to Peter at the Stark Tower. Peter helped you get an internship there during the summers that you’d come back home from college which led to a permanent position once you had graduated. You had everything so many people envied; finishing University with honors, your dream job where you worked next to your best friend, and a steady boyfriend. So why did you feel like you were still missing something?

You had been with your boyfriend for a little over two years. He, like you, worked at the Stark Tower downtown so you were never too far away from him. He wasn’t in any of the science and technology departments though; he was high up in marketing. Unlike you, he had grown up attending the finest schools and living in a big mansion. His family was loaded and he was already accustomed to the “high society” life. He was the conventional definition of a dream guy; gorgeous, educated, and rich . So was it so selfish of you to want more?

Enter Peter Parker. Your oldest and closest friend you’ve known since you were in diapers. You, him, and Ned were like the three musketeers. In high school you had also grown close to Michelle. You found out not long after Ned that Peter was the friendly neighborhood web-slinging hero. You parted ways after graduating high school, you went off your dream school while he attend University close to home. You all kept in touch of course but being away from him for so long, you realized how much you needed Peter in your life and you were ready to tell him that, but only in person. Which is why you were crushed when you came home for winter break to see that he had met someone. It hadn’t worked out but by the time you came back for summer break, you had decided not to complicate the friendship with your feelings.

The two of you worked closely in technology engineering and development, but of course he worked much closer to Tony Stark than you being part of the Avengers and all. You felt blessed everyday you got to work alongside the most important person in your life, but you longed for something much more than platonic love with him. It pained you to see him every day and not being able to hold his hand casually like you had when you were younger, or succumb to your urge to kiss him whenever he did something adorable which was all the damn time. Although it took you far too long to realize it, the facts were that you had fallen in love with your best friend.

From an objective point of view, it seemed like you spent your lives missing each other; doing this dance where you never acted on your feelings because you were waiting for a sign from the other to make a move. This far into your young adulthood, you couldn’t bear to have your feelings be the cause of losing your best friend. Thus, when you caught the eye of a particularly sought after marketing supervisor, you agreed to go out on a date with him after he had asked you so smoothly.

He was very charming and a gentleman. He filled in every criteria that anyone would want in a man, but he wasn’t Peter Parker. The first few dates were fun and helped take your mind of a certain irresistible dork, then he asked you to be his girlfriend and it just continued from there. It’s one of those situations where although you know the events that brought you to where you were, you’re still not quite sure about how you got to that point. When you really thought about it, your relationship was just a trail of milestones and although it felt like it had a natural flow, you thought that after two years you would have fallen in love with him. And you thought that you were, but it was nowhere compared to what you felt when you so much as just looked at Peter.

Oh baby, look what you started

The temperature’s rising in here

Is this gonna happen?

Been waiting and waiting for you to make a move

Before I make a move

Here the night began at the Stark Industries philanthropy gala of some sort; you were never quite sure what any of these events were for. You walked in with your arm looped through your boyfriend’s. There was champagne, white table cloths with fancily folded napkins on the plates, the music had a bit of a club vibe like Mr. Stark liked it, and everyone was dressed in their best suits and gowns.

The usual routine for these events followed; you stayed quietly tethered to your boyfriend as he greeted and conversed with socialites you had nothing in common with until you spotted Peter with the few other fellow nerds of your department where you could take finally refuge from the boredom.

You hadn’t seen Peter before dinner was served and some awards were given out. You figured he was probably out saving the city as usual. Your boyfriend brought you on the stage with him when he was making his acceptance speech for an award he was accepting on his father’s behalf. His father owned this big business company that was affiliated with Stark Industries, a big part of how your boyfriend came to work at the Stark Tower. The bright spotlight, the attention, and the crowd made you feel uncomfortable. Your boyfriend kept you close to him, pulling you to him by your waist. Normally it would be endearing, but at that moment you felt like an accessory. You started feeling really awkward, but then you found your lifeline.

Peter came in, frantically adjusting his tie and jogging to take his seat at Mr. Stark’s table. When your eyes met his, he gave you a reassuring smile with a thumbs up and the fake smile you had plastered on turned to a genuine one.

After a few more minutes of torture, you and your boyfriends went back to your seats at your table where there were other business associates. The conversation for the rest of dinner was boring and shallow, which you stayed out of as usual. You made your escape as soon as the meal was over and looked for Peter.

There had been other events similar to this, but this was the first time both you and Peter attended one as fancy as this. You made your way to Peter where he was standing next to Tony Stark. Tony greeted you with a friendly hug before excusing himself, claiming to have to go speak to an associate. Being left alone, you and Peter took each other in. Seeing each other so dressed up, it sent both of you back to being flustered teenagers.

“W-Wow, Y/N. You look amazing.”

“Me? Look at you!” you chuckled nervously. “I haven’t seen you this dressed up since prom.”

You marveled at how even though he was probably really sweaty and tired, he still looked adorable with his messy hair that looked perfect even though he didn’t have time to tame it properly and how well his suit fit him. But you. You left him breathless. He always thought you looked amazing, but he had never seen you done up like this. From your gown, to your flawlessly styled hair and your expensive jewelry, you looked like you were came straight off the red carpet. Once your were both over the initial shock, your usual conversation ensued. He was telling you about the bank robbery he stopped before arriving at the gala when you saw it.

You had suspected that something had been off with your boyfriend lately. You had ignored it because it had been a pretty busy time for the both of you with work lately, but now all the extra late-nights, minimal texts, delayed responses, and scarce touches began to make sense. In the past, you had always found a way to make it to each other’s apartments or at least talk after a long day of work, but he had been more distant than ever. The rare times you did meet, he insisted it be at your apartment even though you knew he preferred his apartment, and even then, by the time he’d get there you’d still be working on something or asleep. Your heart may have been with another man, but you could never imagine hurting your boyfriend this badly.

You recognized her as one of the new assistants on the marketing floor. You had seen them laughing together when you met him in his office for lunch on her first day. He assured you that you didn’t have to worry about her when you hadn’t even asked. You tormented yourself, watching as she laughed from something he whispered in her ear. You couldn’t tear your eyes away when his arm snaked around her waist, pressing his chest into her back.

Peter noticed that your mind was elsewhere and he always knew when something was bothering you. “Y/N?” He waved a hand, snapping your attention back. “Y/N, are you okay?”

Tears pricked the back of your eyes as you averted your gaze from him. “I-It’s nothing- I-I gotta go- I’ll see you at work Monday,” you shrugged before walking away as fast as you could in the heels you were wearing.

But Peter knew you better than that. All the dots connected when he saw your boyfriend with the other girl. He knew it was important to for him to be there that night but when he made eye contact with Tony, the older man had seen the exchange and nodded to him as if to say “go after her.” That was all Peter needed to spin on his heel and run after you.

He whipped out his phone and dialed your number. The phone rang once. Twice. Three times. On the fourth ring he had began to panic.

“Hello?” Peter let out the breath he had been holding in at the sound of your voice.

“Y/N! Where are you? I’ve been looking everywhere for you-” Peter spoke at a million miles per second only to be cut off by the rest of your voicemail.

“Just kidding! This is Y/N Y/L/N ’s voicemail. Here’s the comes the beep, you know what to do!” His heart falls at the beep, but he quickly left a message and began his search.

Tell me what you came here for

‘cause I can’t, I can’t wait no more

I’m on the edge with no control

And I need, I need you to know

You to know, oh

After searching everywhere he could possibly think of, sending you multiple texts, and calling you several times, you finally answered. Luckily, his mode of transportation was a lot faster so he didn’t have to go through the never ending NYC traffic, so only about an hour had passed and the night was still young. He hadn’t expected you to answer which is why he had to do a double take when you did.

“Hello?”

“Hey, I know I’ve already left you seven messages, but I’m really worried about you-”

“Peter?”

“Y/N!” He couldn’t believe it was actually you instead of a prerecorded message.

“Wh-Where are you? What happened back there?! Are you-”

“Peter, calm down! I’m safe.”

“Oh good,” he let out a sigh of relief. “Where are you?”

“My place. On the roof.”

“What- That’s the first place I looked-”

“I just got here about ten minutes ago.”

“Wait then where were you- Nevermind that’s not important right now I’m on my way. See you soon, Y/N.”

“Okay, see you soon Peter.”

Almost immediately hanging up, your phone buzzes with a new text message.

Y/BF/N: Babe where’d you go?

It took him over an hour to realize that you were gone. That’s when the sadness hits you and you can’t hold the tears back anymore. After the initial shock of seeing him shamelessly flirt with the other girl, you had mostly been filled with anger. While Peter was looking all over the city of you, you had a little adventure of your own.

The first place you went was his apartment. Even though you were already upset, you wanted to confirm your suspicions, which they were once you had investigated. You had keys to each other’s apartments so you made use of yours. He cleaned up pretty well and you were so close to giving him the benefit of the doubt. Until you saw a shirt peeking out of the hamper.

Bright red marks on the light blue shirt caught your eye. A shirt that you got him for his birthday. That was enough evidence for you to do a sweep of his apartment, gathering your few belongings and shoving them into one of your bags that you had left there. You left the key to his apartment on the kitchen counter. You could have gone on a rampage and trashed his whole apartment, but you didn’t because you are a mature adult.

And like the mature adult that you are, you were on your way to his office next to set some traps. You decided to go back to your apartment first to drop off your stuff. Since you were already there you figured you might as well get changed; it’s hard to cathart in high heels and a gown. You crammed all his crap into a box and left it on your doorstep. You proceeded to go to the roof for a breather and that’s when Peter called.

Speaking of which, he came swinging onto the roof, in full Spider-suit.

“Is the suit really necessary?” you quipped.

“People might notice if they see me swinging around in a suit and bow tie,” he chuckled, taking his mask off. A smile briefly played at your lips as you thought about Peter swinging around the city all dressed up. “So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“I think you’ve already figured it out.” He lowered his eyes to his hands that were fidgeting with the hem of his mask. “What are you doing here Peter?” That came out harsher than you had meant it to.

“What do you mean? I-I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” He mustered up some courage and finally met your gaze. “Because I care about you- a lot.”

“I know that- I care about you a lot too. Why did you really come up here? Why did you chase after me?” It took you too damn long for you to realize that your best friend also harbored feelings for you. You knew why he chased after you; you wanted him to tell you.

“You’re one of my best friends- A-And I know you’re still in love with him but-” Scratch that, you couldn’t wait that long.

So you cut him off, “Runaway with me.”

“Wh-What?”

“Just for one night- I just- I need to get away right now.” A smile spread on your face as the wheels in your head started turning. “We can go on an adventure and we’ll be back for work Monday.”

He looked like he was weighing the options and was about to reject the idea until he saw how excited you were. “Okay.”

“Awesome,” you beamed at him. You grabbed his hand and led him back to your apartment where you packed a backpack and he changed out of his suit. “Wait-” You shoot him a mischievous smile. “There’s something I want to do first.”

Getting past security was easy enough when you’re on first-name basis with all the night staff, and have superior engineering skills to get passed locks and digital security. You didn’t trash his office, but you did make a few subtle changes. You started by changing the auto-correct on his tablet to replace certain words by their homonyms, reprogrammed the keyboard of his main computer so that the letters were all scrambled, then you had a more than willing Peter web nearly all his objects to their surfaces as well as the wheels of his chair, and topped it off by taping an air horn under his chair for a lovely morning call. You hadn’t felt that satisfied in a long time. Since you are, of course, a mature adult.

“I haven’t felt this accomplished since that time we somehow came up with more web-shooter combinations for your suit,” you laughed pulled him into a comforting hug. “Really, thank you,” you muffled into his chest  as he wrapped his arms around your smaller frame. Just when you felt your nerves start to calm down, Peter pulled away sooner than you would have liked.

“Hold on,” he smiled at you reassuringly. “Now there’s something I need to take care of before we go. Stay here.” You raised an eyebrow, but didn’t object as he walked away with an impish grin.

While Peter started making a phone call, you checked your phone and opened your messages. You texted your close coworker/friend who was still at the gala to get his key to your apartment. You then opened your conversation with your boyfriend.

Y/N: We’re done. Leave the key with Andy.

Your thumb hovered over the send button. You hesitate; if you send this it’ll really be over. You exhaled the air you’d been holding in your lungs and pressed ‘send’. You felt a little ache in your heart because he hurt you and because even though you weren’t madly in love with him, after spending two years with someone you had come to care a lot about him. Your Ex-boyfriend now.

Just as you are about to call Peter to ask him where the hell he disappeared to, your phone buzzes with a text from him.

Peter: Come outside :)

Confused as ever, you tossed your phone into your backpack and walked out the front doors to see Peter standing by a motorcycle, holding one helmet in his hand and another on his head with the shield up. You saw his eyes crinkle as you approached him with a big smile on your face.

“Peter, what is this?”

“Called in a Stark favor,” he exulted as he placed the helmet over your head. “Come on, let’s go on an adventure.” You hopped on the motorcycle and wrapped your arms tightly around Peter’s torso. Being close to him like this made you feel so comfortable; it felt natural.

“Where to, Spider-boy?”

“Anywhere you want.” He turns the engine on and the vehicle rumbles to life, ready to take you on an adventure. “So where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere,” you say as you tighten your arms around him. “Before we go, Peter, there’s something I need you to know.” He hummed in response. “I was never in love with him.”

So baby come light me up, and maybe I’ll let you on it

A little bit dangerous, but baby that’s how I want it

A little less conversation, and a little more touch my body

'cause I’m so into you, into you, into you

You pulled into the parking lot after seeing the glowing sign of the “Honeymoon Inn” off the side of the highway. After getting your key to room five, you and Peter stopped at the little table outside the door to set the plastic bags filled with junkfood and alcohol you got from a convenience store on the way.

Peter cracks open a pack of gummies and popped some in his mouth. You remembered seeing an ice box around the corner, so you grab the bag that contained a bottle of cheap champagne, wine, and a few other items because drinking room temperature champagne is weird.

You had set the bag on top of the big metal box and were securing the bottles in the ice when you heard Peter call after you, “Hey, Y/N!” You turned around to see a gummy worm being launched at your face. You craned your neck back and almost fell into the open ice box to catch it. You grinned at him with the gummy half-hanging out of your mouth and did a victorious double fist in the air.

You held your arms out and motioned for him to toss you the bag which he did. You took out a worm and tossed it at him. Of course he caught it perfectly in his mouth. “Damn those spidey reflexes.”

He approached you with a proud grin as you chucked another worm which he caught again. You kept throwing them at him and he caught them every time until he was too close for you to throw them. “Okay, Okay. You’re going to make me sick!” he laughed with a mouthful of gummies. “Your turn.” He reached in the bag and held the candy up for you to take it.

“Nope.” You shook your head and stuck your tongue out.

He leaned in, placing one hand next to your head, trapping you between him and the ice box. “Come on, Y/N, I can’t be the only one getting a sugar rush here.” His sweet breath fanned over your face, and that’s when you realized exactly how close you were.

He would’ve closed the distance right there and then, but like the sweetheart Peter is, he didn’t want to cross any boundaries since you had just gotten out of a two year relationship. You looked back and forth between the candy and his lips. You knew that if something was going to happen right now, it would be up to you.

You felt like you had been waiting for this very moment to happen for far too long, and yet your head got in the way again. You didn’t want to mess anything up by rushing things, so you ducked under his arm and climbed on top of the ice box. You sat cross-legged with a triumphant smirk on your face.

He narrowed his eyes as if to challenge you. You reached into the bag and took out two cups. Knowing what you wanted and clearly not caring about the temperature of the beverage, Peter brought out one of the bottles you had just placed in the ice. He poured a cup and held it out to you, only to draw it back when you reached for it.

He smirked up at you, dangling the worm from his finger tips. You bit your lip to keep yourself from giggling at how adorable he looked. You leaned forward and snatched it between your teeth. He handed you your cup before pouring his own. You clinked cups before gulping half of it.

The two of you talked for a bit and refilled your cups enough times to finish the bottle of not-nearly-cold-enough champagne. You were still sat on top of the ice box whilst he leant on it. His chin rested on his arms and he looked up at you with those big brown eyes through his thick eye lashes.

There was one gummy worm left in the bag. You threw it at him, thinking you had caught him off guard but like every other time, he caught it. He grinned at you with the worm half-hanging out of his mouth as you had earlier. Your giggles slowly died down as you found yourself leaning towards him like you were being pulled by a magnet. Your eyes were naturally drawn to his lips; they were so close. You tore your focus away from his mouth to meet his eyes. His breath hitched when you nipped the end of the gummy. You kept your eyes trained on his as you slowly inched forward and bit off a piece so close that your lips brushed, but you didn’t pull back. His eyes sparkled in the flickering fluorescent lighting and the tension that built up was electrifying as your breaths mixed.

Fuck it; this was long overdue.

You let your eyes flutter shut and closed the rest of the distance. He didn’t hesitate to kiss you back, molding his lips perfectly to yours. Despite all the tension and emotions that had built up for so long but were never said, the kiss was slow, passionate, and spoke louder than words ever could. That kiss was the first of many more. Especially that night.

Eventually, you had to pull away for air. You somehow managed to untangle your legs without kicking him in the face and rested your foreheads against his. “I want this,” you whispered so quietly that he probably wouldn’t have heard you if it weren’t for his super-hearing.

He placed his hands on your knees. “Me too,” he said right before attaching his lips back to yours.

Your hands went to his neck where your fingers played with the hair around the nape. He slid his hands up your thighs, leaving a trail of goosebumps. He pulled you off the cold metal surface and carefully lowered you back to the ground. It’s a good thing he was holding you tight, because your knees were wobbly from the overpowering sensation of his kisses. Well, that, and your legs fell asleep from being in a less-than-ideal position for so long.

Like Peter does, he can’t help but always have his brain on, and his mind was reeling with questions and insecurities. When you separated to catch your breaths, he couldn’t stop his nervous rambling. “Am I a rebound- Oh my god- I’m not a rebound am I?! Because-” You shut him up with another kiss that left him breathless.

“Definitely not,” you chuckled as his expression went from stunned and worried, to one that can only be described as pure bliss. “It’s always been you.”

Got everyone watchin’ us, so baby let’s keep this secret

A little bit scandalous, but baby don’t let them see it

A little less conversation and a, little more touch my body

'cause I’m so into you, into you, into you

You and Peter finished half the bottle of wine along with a few other bags of sweets between laughing and dancing around the area outside your room as well as chatting at the little table and by the Inn’s sign. When you finally made it inside your room, you set the remaining alcohol and snacks on a table by the window, which for some reason had a fishbowl on it.

You would describe the rest of the night as one big euphoric blur, yet you remember every single detail.

You played various card games, talked, and kissed. At some point you even spent about twenty minutes staring at the fish. You were both actually staring at the other through the glass bowl. Both of your clothing came of piece by piece throughout the night till you were only in your undergarments. Once that happened those didn’t stay on for too long either.

And that brings us back to the present; you sitting at the little table outside room 5 of the Honeymoon Inn, waiting for Peter Parker to wake up and join you after the best night of your life.

You’re snapped out of your trance by the sound of the door opening and closing. You turn your head to see a smiling sleepy Peter.

“I thought you ran out on me,” he chuckles, his voice an octave lower with sleep.

“Never.” He plants a quick kiss to your temple before taking a seat in the other chair. “I got breakfast.”

“You’re the best.” He shoots you a grin as he picks up a piece of toast.

After the food is finished, the two of you are left sipping your coffees in a comfortable silence. He reaches across the table and tugs on your hand to signal for you to come closer to him. As soon as you stand from your seat, he pulls you onto his lap. “I want every morning to be like this,” he says softly into your ear as he hugs your waist from behind.

“It can be.” You twist your neck so that you can see his face. Just as you’re registering how relaxed and serene he looks for the first time in a while, you know that he’s thinking of something.“What are you thinking of?”

“Nothing- Just-” He bows his head to press a feathery kiss to your bare shoulder. “I want to make you happy.”

“You already have.”

[mugzdabug]

The Magnolia Convention

NaLu Week Bonus Prompt June 15th: Video Games Setting: Modern AU Title: The Magnolia Convention Word Count: 1,514 (sorry) Rating: Teen/Mature (just in case..) This is so late...I’m so sorry >~< Summary: Natsu Dragneel is a video game enthusiast who lives in the town of Magnolia. It so happens that Magnolia hosts a grand video game convention each year. Natsu isn't all that romantic...Although there is a particular blonde that caught his attention. What will Natsu do about it?

read on ff.net

Every year, the town of Magnolia hosted a video game convention. The dazzling events and wide variety of it made the convention a very popular place for fans to gather. A young man named Natsu Dragneel lived there in Magnolia and he was quite the video game enthusiast, buying the newest games as soon as they hit the market. So, obviously, the salmon colored haired male went to the convention every year. Whether it be with friends, or just by himself, Natsu didn't mind. Video games were his true comfort, and that annual convention was almost like a second home to him...Most would say that Natsu's one and only love were the accumulated copies of video games in his possession.

Although...there was one particular blonde that caught his attention. At every convention he went to, Natsu always saw the blonde headed girl in question there. One time he was able to get close enough to the girl, and saw that she was cosplaying as one of his favorite characters from the video game, Fairy Tail. It was at that time, Natsu started developing feelings for the woman. Although, he was too...thick-headed...to notice it then. Eventually, though, the feelings he had for her grew, to the point where even he knew that he had fallen for the mysterious blondie. Now, Natsu was not one to hide his true emotions, so the man decided that when the next Magnolia video game convention rolled around, he would tell the blonde of his feelings.

Well...how would he do that? Now, Natsu is what you could call romantically impaired, so, he asked all his friends on what he should do. From the girls he got romantic mushy stuff, which wasn't much to his taste...and from the boys he was told to use pick-up lines. Pick-up lines, he could probably do...but he only knew video games. Well then, how about video game pick-up lines? Seems like a win-win. For the next couple of weeks before the convention, Natsu searched the internet trying to find the best gaming pick up lines. Most were hilariously bad, but there were some that the man decided he would try to use.

As the day the convention arrived to Magnolia got nearer, the salmon haired man became even more panicked. Would the pick-up lines work? Would she like him back? As the male thought about it more, the more defeated he felt about the whole ordeal. He could just not say anything and live the rest of his life...but he knew that he would regret it if he did not. Alas, the day the convention started finally arrived. (Natsu was so nervous to the point that he was slightly shaking, not that he would admit it.)

The man looked everywhere for his mystery girl, but saw her nowhere. Maybe she didn't come to the convention this year, although highly unlikely. Still, Natsu felt dejected, and went to go sit down on a nearby bench, too depressed to look at the stuff provided at the convention. That's when he saw a flash of yellow in the corner of his eye. It was the blondie! The salmon haired male quickly got up and ran as fast as he could in the direction that the girl went. Finally, the blonde stopped at a Fairy Tail booth, looking at all the merch with much passion. Well, now was his chance. Natsu quietly went up to the blonde and gently tapped her shoulder. The blonde spun around, a little frightened that she was abruptly...tapped? "Jeez! You scared me!...Is there something you need?" The blonde said, having put her hand over her heart, trying to calm herself down. Natsu's mind drew a blank, he never thought he would have gotten this far. After an awkward pause, the salmoned haired man gulped and nervously stuttered, "I...I..I'm on a quest for your heart." The blonde girl blushed, but grinned and replied, "Do you like Nintendo? Because I think wii would look good together."

Now it was Natsu's turn to blush, but managed to spit out, "Full character customization could never capture your beauty." "For you I would travel all levels around the world," Lucy said, cheeks ablaze, challenging the odd pink (salmon) haired man in front of her. Natsu took the unspoken challenge, and countered the pick up line with, "Are you a magic flower? Because you're burning me up!" Of course it wouldn't be right unless Natsu used a pick up line involving fire. After all, he is a pyromaniac, but that's for another time...The blonde quickly tried to think of another game related pick up line, not wanting to lose the unofficial game. Ah, she knew exactly what to say.

"I'd raid your dungeon." Lucy smirked, knowing it was worth saying that when she saw the mystery man in front of her choke and turn as red as a tomato. Looks like the blonde won this round. "...My name is Lucy...what's your's?" The blonde asked, waiting for the stranger in front of her to stop his choking fit. Once the salmon haired man finally got control over himself he replied,"Natsu. The name's Natsu." Oh god, that sounded way better in his head…

Lucy giggled, "Well Natsu, what spurred whatever that was, on?" Only Lucy would ask something like that, quite analytical that girl is. The man stuttered, "Well I uh...You caught my eye? And I just uh...felt the need to come and say hey? I mean not to be a creep or anything but I saw that you're very interested in Fairy Tail which is my favorite-"

"No way! You like Fairy Tail too?!" Lucy exclaimed, eyes gleaming, cutting the man off. Natsu gave a small laugh, rubbing the back of his neck, grinning, "Yeah! I have all the installments. Fairy Tail is just such a wonderfully designed game...in fact it was the first game I ever bought." The blonde gasped, "It was my first game too! Fairy Tail got me into this awesome world of gaming hehe."

The two hit it off after that, conversing about the latest games, who their favorite character was, etc. As the time passed, the more they learnt about each other. It almost seemed as if it was a conversation between two old friends (cough lovers cough) instead of complete strangers...After a while, Lucy's friends, who accompanied her to the convention, motioned her to hurry up, wanting to go visit the other booths. The blonde looked back at them, giving them the 'I'll be there in a minute' look. Looking at Natsu again, Lucy apologized, "Sorry, my friends are waiting on me...It was fun talking to you! Oh! Before I forget, here's my number." The lady took out a pen and small notebook from her purse and wrote down her phone number on one of the pages. Ripping the paper out and putting it in Natsu's palm, the blonde blushed and smiled at the man in front of her. "Here you go!" The salmon haired man grinned, trying to make the sexiest face he could muster, "I'll be sure to call you later." The blonde blushed even more, and quickly walked away toward her friend group.

"Oooh who was that hot piece of ass?" A brown haired girl purred, slinging her arm over Lucy's shoulder. Lucy rolled her eyes and pushed the brunette's arm off, "His name is Natsu and he likes Fairy Tail. He's a sweet guy, not someone that would suit your taste Cana." The brunette pouted, pulling a bottle of alcohol out of her purse,"Aww that's no fun, I was hoping I could make him my play thing." "I don't know if that would be a wise decision...It looks like Lu-chan took a liking to him." A short, blue haired girl piped in, giggling.

"I...I did not! Sure he's a cute and funny guy...and we have a lot of things in common...but it just...wouldn't work out." Lucy defended, moving her arms in a shape of an X. "If you think that...why is your face as red as a tomato?" The bluenette smirked, knowing that Lucy obviously had feelings for that man. Well damn, she got me there, Lucy thought.

Natsu was quite dumbfounded. He finally got the courage to talk to his dream girl, who he now knows as Lucy. They were hitting it off really well, at least that's what the man believed. Yet, now the blonde was walking away with her friends. He wasn't ready to say goodbye yet...sure he had her number but it wouldn't be the same as talking to her in the flesh. He knew what he had to do. Natsu built up the courage and followed the blonde and her friends.

"Wait!" Lucy turned around, giving the man in front of her a questioning look. Natsu took a deep breath and continued,"It's dangerous to go alone...Here, take this!" After that was said, the salmon haired male quickly grasped the blonde's hand and held it. The girl blinked once, then twice, trying to process what just happened. Soon afterwards, though, Lucy snorted and squeezed Natsu's hand.

"Dork."

[enharmonious]

Here's a compilation of all the clips I managed to record during Anime Impulse 2017 during the panel with Jonny Cruz, Christian Howard, and Gaku Space. I recorded mostly talks about Overwatch, although the panel did cover a bit about Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist, in which both Gaku Space and Christian Howard play significant roles. 

These are in clips because I was running out of space on my phone and was concerned if I wouldn't be able to catch something good that could came up later. orz This is also why some questions are not recorded in these clips. It’s not much unfortunately (panel was ~1 hour long I believe).

It can be extremely hard to hear at times, even with a headset, so I've done my best to transcribe what they've said. (Warning: I'm bad at it.) Also, hope it helps for those who can't listen to the video!

The transcription under the cut also includes one other recording (to fill in some of the things I missed), but is not in my compiled video above, so be sure to read it. It’ll be bolded to easily spot it!

These clips are in chronological order.

Contents: 0:00 - Gaku Space’s experience with voice acting (esp. Overwatch) 3:34 - Jonny Cruz’s experience with voice acting (esp. Overwatch too) 8:11 - Gaku and Jonny discussing new Overwatch events; ult voice line requests 10:08 - Q&A - “Jonny Cruz, can you do the longest ‘aw yeah’ possible?” 10:25 - Q&A - “Who is your OTP?” 11:15 - Q&A - “Can you sing the pineapple pen song?”

Key: DP = D-Piddy, the host. GS = Gaku Space. CH = Christian Howard. JC = Jonny Cruz. [?] means I'm unsure of what was said. Otherwise, everything in brackets are just notes by me, usually giving context about the video clips.

As usual, if you find errors and can give clarification, please do let me know and I'll fix them!

-----

[The beginning, which I did not record, is mostly Christian Howard talking about Street Fighter. If I remember correctly, Gaku Space didn't speak at all and never chimed in.]

Clip 1 (0:00) DP: How is doing something from live action to voice acting Overwatch - how do you prepare differently for the roles, for Genji or Gouki? GS: Towards the beginning, I got the audition - I didn't know what it is. So they have fake title, and a fake name, and fake everything. So only the description says that, "Looking for the voice"...is like a younger version of Ken Watanabe in Last Samurai. And then I just try that and then they booked[?] it. [?], they revealed that, "Oh, this is Overwatch" and now it's like...huge, so I don't know... DP: Yeah, Overwatch is huge. I mean, is there any Overwatch fans here? [small audience cheer] DP: Have you personally played the game at all? GS: Uhh, no. DP: I know there's two Japanese characters named Genji and there's Hanzo, did you cast for both or did they particularly pick you... [incoherent, they're talking over each other] GS: In the beginning, yeah, I just voiced over Genji. And then...I didn't...I haven't met Paul [Hanzo's voice actor]. DP: You haven't met him? GS: No. So, animated short, just - I only did my part. So I did not [see him?] DP: Oh, I see. It's just like that I'm unfamiliar with voice actor stuff - do you go to the studio, they have you read a bunch of lines, and you're done? GS: [Yeah, that's it?] Yeah, because I voiced Akuma, the older version of [?] but I have to match the lip sync so [it was awkward?]...it was Joey... CH: Yes, so Gaku had actually...even though Joey was playing Akuma as the older version, and he was speaking Japanese on the day, just because of Akuma's voice... DP: He's the one who did his voice. CH: He's augmented[?], so Gaku actually filled in and did a lot of the voice for older Akuma as well. Which is, again, this is a serial thing because you're in the studio on your own, and you're technically interacting with other people like...for Overwatch, right? You said you’ve never interacted with Paul, but you have to dialogue[?] when you see the final thing. So you gotta bring the intensity and [?] to the lines, it's gonna reach out. DP: Ooh, cool. For Genji's character, did you do any research and like...[?] in live action you try not to get into the character's head, right? For Genji - I mean, for Gouki, for example? But for Genji, do you have to learn the backstory? Does that help at all, or do you just go there and read the lines? GS: The thing is only the director's and writer's right there while I'm recording it. So I asked right on the spot, "So what's the character's...what's the subtext for this line and everything?" And then I recorded probably like 4-5 times. By then, I'll be done with that so they don't have to tell me specific stuff that I already knew. And when I recorded the animated short, [I went ahead ____ video game?], so I already knew the characters. DP: Genji's voice is a little distorted because of his helmet. Is that imposed, or do they have a little filter thing to speak over? GS: That was post-production. DP: Oh, it was post-production. CH: Did you know what Genji looked like before you did the voice? GS: Yeah, yeah, I knew. I saw on the sketches and stuff. DP: What do you think of the large popularity and growth of the game?

[At this point, the questions were not answered because a staff member had stepped up on stage and stopped D-Piddy to talk to him privately.]

Clip 2 (3:34) [Pre-recording: D-Piddy has announced that there is another guest, in fact a second Overwatch voice actor, at Anime Impulse. The audience has already yelled "let's break it down" twice. However, D-Piddy instructs that on the count of 3...] DP: "Let's break it down," okay? 1, 2, 3! [audience yells "let's break it down;" as Jonny Cruz pops up behind the wall, the crowd cheers] DP: Jonny Cruz, Lucio himself, is in the house! JC: Whoa, look at this crowd. [?] DP: [?] How's it going? JC: Good, good. I went here, so it's great. Audience. Never been to one of these guys in my life. But now I'm here. First time with you guys. [The lack of loud cheering here is very upsetting and saddening to me. I'm used to big, big cheers if a special guest announces that they're here for the fans, especially if it's their first time at an anime convention. That aside--] DP: So how do you take this perception of Overwatch's overwhelming growth of popularity in the game? JC: I had no idea it would turn into what it turned into. The game itself, you know...I've been actor for 15 years, right? Grinding away for many years, and the one thing that really shoots me to popularity is a video game, which is like...mind blowing to me! I'm like...this is a whole new world. And just the fanbase is amazing, the people that play the game, the vibe has just been so overwhelming. I'm a huge fan of you guys. DP: Do you play video games? JC: I did extensively growing up. I've been [?] until I had to get a job. [?] DP: You played Overwatch before right? JC: I have played Overwatch before. DP: I think I've seen a video of you playing your own character? JC: I was watching somebody else play me terribly. DP: Weren't you just commentating on it? JC: Yeah, I had a...it was a fart gun and that looked like Lucio's gun and every time I would be like, "Oh let's break it down! [raspberry-fart noise]" If you watched the video, it was all my idea. DP: Wow, that's really cool. Do you interact with some of the cast members? I've seen a video of Jonny going around...BlizzCon or...? JC: Yeah, it was BlizzCon. DP: It was at Blizzcon; interacting with all the other voice actors was pretty amazing. Do you keep in touch with them at a regular basis at all, or some of them? JC: Oh yeah, we're friends online. On Facebook. We've got a little group chat, we've got a little group chat. But the one I mostly interacted with before that was Darin de Paul [Reinhardt's voice actor]. We did some voiceover work together in the past. But that day at BlizzCon was the first time I actually met Gaku and a couple of the other people. They're all just wonderful human beings that we really just have fun and make a little dumb video of it, so that was uh...[looking at Gaku] I thank you! CH: That was when I knew - Gaku's still alive as well. Because this guy has NO social media presence. He doesn't have Facebook or anything. So we're seeing his video with Jonny and we're like, "Oh, Gaku's alive." JC: "He's alive!" DP: What - is there a reason why you don't? You just like keeping it private? Gaku? JC: What was that? DP: Oh no, uh, Gaku. I mean, does he - you don't have a Twitter or Facebook page? GS: Nothing. Nothing. JC: Why's that? CH: Keep it private.[?] DP: Keeping it private? JC: Why's that? GS: I don't like it. JC: He doesn't like it. That's the reason why. DP: Jonny, I follow you on Twitter, so you're great. You said you like riding the wave around and you've done video game voiceovers before, or...? JC: I was a voice in Prototype 2, and I was all the Hispanic characters in Prototype 2. And that was kinda my foray into video games - it was never something I had thought about really - but I had a great time at the booth, because at the end you do all the weird like...you know, okay, this is the sound of you getting your head ripped off, and then you have to figure out what that is. And there you're just like, "Alright...'GWAGHGHDGAAA!!'" and that to me is the [laughs] fun stuff of it. All of those weird sounds. DP: How about the grunts? JC: Oh grunts...I've never had my head ripped off or my arm ripped off. But how does that sound?! DP: Do you have any other video games that you're working on or any more voice work that you're possibly doing? JC: I have done a few more video games after Overwatch, but I cannot tell you what they are. Which is the WORST. [Post-recording: I managed to find the continuation of this conversation in another video (https://www.facebook.com/borei.kang/videos/vb.650113324/10154299562193325/?type=2&theater).] JC: IT'S THE WORST. DP [to Gaku]: You too? JC: You too? [?] GS: Actually, I have [?] next week, Genji again, but I cannot tell what it is. [crowd goes ooOooOoOo] DP: Here's another question for Gaku and Jonny. So you know how they release holiday specials and stuff? Have you recorded all that stuff previous, like months and months ago, or...

Clip 3 (8:11) DP: Do they bring you in periodically for updates and stuff, or how does that work? JC: Yeah, they bring us in periodically, way in advance, they're planning it out. So they test it out, we see their works. So it's always usually a while. DP: Can you tell us what the holiday event is going to be? JC: I have no idea. [looking at Gaku] Do you know what it is? The next holiday event? Do you know what it is? GS: I know. JC: Oh you know? Why are they telling...Gaku? But they don't tell me nothing? GS: Because it's not important! DP: Is it Valentine's? You don't have to say anything, but I'm going to guess it's Valentine's. GS: Yeah. DP: Yeah apparently, there's some Genji and Mercy shipping going on. [scattered cheering among the audience] GS: I can tell - I recorded my lines about Angela. JC: About? GS: Genji and Angela. DP: Wuh - Angela? JC: The voice actor. [Her name is actually Lucie Pohl.] GS: Mercy. DP: Ahh, okay okay. Well that's a hint. You guys know who he's shipped with.[?] Can I get a request from all of you guys? JC: Sure. DP: Jonny, can you do one of the ults? Can you... JC: [adjusting the mic] Here we go, here we go. [pause] Oh let's break it DOWN! [audience cheers] DP: Christian Howard, can you do one of Ken Master's special attacks? CH: ...I'll try. DP: Here we go, here we go. CH: Shouryuken! ["Rising Dragon Fist", I believe?] [audience cheers] DP: Gaku? Genji? Can you do a little Genji ult? GS: What should I do? Which one? Which one do you want? DP: Dragonblade? GS: Ultimate? DP: Ultimate, ultimate. GS: Ryuujin no ken o kurae! [audience cheers] DP: That is so awesome! Cool!

Clip 4 (10:08) [Pre-recording: Q&A session. Someone requested Jonny Cruz to do his longest "aw yeah." I noticed that the person requesting it drawled out the "aw" rather than the "yeah," but did not appear to be conveyed to Jonny. It’s still great though!] [...Do I even need to transcribe this?]

Clip 5 (10:25) [Pre-recording: During Q&A session, the three were asked who their OTP was. D-Piddy took some time initially to explain it since they didn't understand the term lol. For those who don't know: OTP means one true pairing. It's basically another way of indicating two characters that you wish would be paired up with each other as a significant others/partners.] JC: ...Yeah yeah yeah. Everybody here always asks me about D.va. Uh...and I'm about it! I'm about it! DP: Lucio is down with Lucio and D.va! JC: I think everybody should just be shipped together! A big ol' pile! DP: One big Overwatch... JC: One big Overwatch shipping. Haha! DP: How about -- I already know, you -- you like Mercy, right? Genji and Mercy? [Gaku nods and makes this...hand motion. He points out to the crowd at a witch!Mercy cosplayer.] DP: Genji's pointing at you, yeah! [witch!Mercy makes a heart symbol with her hands. She told me that Gaku returned the heart symbol, but was not recorded in the video.] DP: True love in the air! How about you, Christian? I mean, do you ship any particular Street Fighter characters? CH: ...I'm not sure if I understand the question.

Clip 6 (11:15) [Pre-recording: The three were asked if they knew about the pineapple pen song. Only Jonny Cruz knew about it (a little) and was requested to sing it.] JC: You have a pineapple...pineapple pen! Is that - is that how it goes?! Is that how it [?]? [looking out at the crowd] DP [to the person requesting this]: Was that alright for you? What was that? JC: It was okay?! DP: It was alright, it was alright. You go like this. JC: You have a pen. You have a pineapple...[muffled mic sound] Pineapple pen! Yeah? Yeah alright! DP: You were missing the [muffled mic sound].

Random tidbit I remember, but isn't recorded by me: Q&A - “Who is your favorite Overwatch hero?” JC loves playing Junkrat; GS responded with Mercy.

[thethousandscars]

My very first author convention. I think it turned out alright!

So yeah! This is going to be a fun ramble of sorts. I was really nervous for this weekend, mainly for mental health reasons. I’m not good with people (The Friday night was my first night out in several years) but I found myself able to be myself so easily (Tough luck on that, authorly friends!)

I was looking forward to being a socially awkward fuck, but also to meet a ton of people. So, I got packed and ready (bought a new fancy suitcase for £4, go me) and I went down to Darlington to get picked up by this charming lad, Jamie Edmundson. He very graciously offered to give me a lift there and back, as long as I could get to Darlington. Felt like one of those mafia jobs.

We consumed a fair bit of junk food this weekend. The chicken didn’t stand a chance.

The drive down was long with a lot of traffic issues, I provided the road rage and telling drivers to fuck off so Jamie could keep focused on driving. Despite the delays, we had a good time travelling down, and we got on well which was what I wanted. Otherwise it would have been an awkward as hell 10-11 hours commute!

It also rained. A lot.

Welcome to the U.K, folks.

So we finally made it through to the Hilton Doubletree. I was staying there for the weekend, so off Jamie went to his nearby Travelodge (and fight the battle of trying to find a parking spot) I got checked in fine and went into my room.

It was a damn fine room.

So I got a change of clothes, drank a quick coffee (I was fucking flagging at this point! Damn CFS) and went down to meet everyone. Tom Clews was the first to greet me, awesome guy, and soon I met up with everyone else. I was nervous for perhaps 10 minutes, before I finally found my zone. That I think shows how comfortable an event Bristolcon is. Everyone was so friendly!

A drink with Rita Sloan, Tom Clews, Luke Scull and Phil Williams before food.

For the Friday night, a large group of us went out for food. There was an enjoyable moment of unity when I was struggling with the fatigue (The trip to the Spitfire BBQ was about a mile walk, and with CFS that gets quite painful for me to walk long distances), so I got offers either to half carry me there, or to carpool a Taxi. Fortunately, I was able to make the trip there and back.

  Spitfire BBQ was an amazing place to eat. Great food, the staff were excellent and it was a good night all around. We got back to the hotel around half 11pm and I stayed up chatting for an hour before finally turning in for the night.

  The night kinda sucked. Chronic Fatigue has a weird thing that when it’s really hitting hard, you don’t have the energy to fall asleep, so I didn’t drop off until about 3am. Still, I woke up at 6am and managed a quick shower before going down to breakfast.

  Food is fucking food, people.

The breakfast was great with a nice choice of options.

Anyway, it was finally time for the Bristolcon event! Workshops and panels all day and a lot of social meet and greets. I’m just going to post a little montage of photos I got with people!

Lee Conely, author of Ritual of Bone. Awesome guy!

A very tired-looking Gareth Powell. I think it was early in the morning and neither of us had much coffee yet!

Me, Timy Takács, Lee and Damon. I swear these photos either make me look like a serial killer or someone who enjoys his pies. Look at that gut!

Lee and Damon doing the British and Irish Community panel.

A large group of writer folk at their local habitat.

Discussed video game writing with these awesome people.

I managed to sneak some good photos during the weekend.

Huge props to Agnes Meszaros for taking so many quality photos during the weekend. Got a great one with me and Mark Lawrence. This might be the only photo where I don’t like like a serial killer.

Thanks to my potato camera this didn’t turn out as well as it could, but this is with the old The Thousand Scars I published during 2018. Hard work is in place to get it ready for its relaunch in 2020!

Courtesy of  Agnes Meszaros with Mariëlle Ooms-Voges!

I attended a great workshop by Anna Stephens on worldbuilding, and my final event of the day was a panel on myhical creatures.

  We got an amazing band playing for the night’s entertainment too!

Sadly by 10pm I was really flagging, so after farewells and hugs to pretty much everyone in the room, I retired for the night, but not before fighting with my suitcase for getting everything packed. It took time, but I managed it.

  Sunday brought the end of the weekend. After another long journey on the road, I got back home around 6pm. This week has been one of recovery as I picked up the “Con-Lurgy”, but I had an amazing time. It felt good just meeting the author community, and I felt so at ease!

Great things I remember:

The hotel was excellent with helpful staff all weekend.

The company, too many to list as a callout as you were all fantastic.

The workshops I went to were very good; one in particular being about evolution and how it should impact character/animal design. I learned a lot!

The food was good all weekend.

Anna Stephens accidentally heckling Steve Mchugh in the mytical creature panel!

]Going forward

I have a lot to do. The Thousand Scars got quite a lot of interest at the weekend, and despite me not feeling too confident right now, I’ll do what I can to get the book ready for a launch in 2020.

Hope you enjoyed my little ramble.

                                                                                                                                              A little ramble of sorts on Bristolcon! #Writingcommunity #amreading #amwriting #blogging #fantasy #amreading #convention #NanoWrimo My very first author convention. I think it turned out alright! So yeah! This is going to be a fun ramble of sorts.

[not3worthy]

The State of The Summer

Feels like it's been far too long since I just sat down to write just to write-- not that I haven't been having a blast penning characters and developing engaging dialogue with my friends in Florida playing Dungeons & Dragons 5e over Twitter when we can-- but I haven't really made time to just get my thoughts as they are and not seen through the scope of a character on the page.

In a small recess with said Floridian friends making preparations for BronyCon which starts next Thursday--Friday may be the first official day of the convention, but setup for vendors and getting all of the I's dotted and T's crossed and a lot of what's known in the trade as Day 0 activities occur from when access to venue spaces is given to the setup crews--I now have a window to write in.

"So, Note Worthy, what's all been going on with you since last you wrote... May, was it?"

I used to joke when I would write a blog post after a long pause that I had to clear the cobwebs out or someone stole time, but the truth is I simply do other things... such as the aforementioned D&D on Twitter.  Other times I'll just listen to music or watch the same YouTube videos I've watched a dozen or so times over already.  The highest likeliness that is that is if it's a day that ends in "Y", I am rolling initiative or RPing with my group of characters.  And, again, it's been fun and I enjoy the chance I was given to play with some very imaginative and fun people.  Wouldn't trade it for anything, really... well, maybe companionship.  One day a week would be enough to just spend with someone and then D&D the rest after work.

I've been working, sometimes 10 hours in a day.  My route has undergone fluctuations from slow days that lull you into a false sense of security to days where the scanner keeps sounding and you're already an hour behind schedule and somehow someway you manage to get back to base on time to get your truck unloaded and all of its cargo on the plane.  You never question it--it steals the magic and almost guarantees you that right--and I do mean right--at 5:30, you get a stop that's on the other side of town and it closes in 30 minutes.  Fun times.

Sadly, that's a pretty good summary of what I've been up to.  I haven't really gone out anywhere save for the scheduled Mall meets to have a meal and try to catch up with "friends" and some real friends.  My life has become rather pattern based, a rut of constant order.  Oh, yeah, I went to a wedding.  Sort of awkward but I managed to have a decent-ish enough time.

On the D&D front, I've created three characters, deeply developed one and changed his alignment and created two more that I'm slowly figuring out how to play.

I signed up for another online dating site, only to get one person to write me back and say she wasn't interested.  I deleted my profile the other day; little point in keeping "bait" in a location where I'm not getting any bites.

"Wow.  That really doesn't sound all that great.  How are you handling it?"

Primarily by doing this.  I've whined at my friends often enough and heard nothing back from them.  I've clued into the fact that they've tuned me out when it comes to stuff like this and that any further attempts at gaining some measure of understanding of my situation are hopelessly in vain and should be discontinued.

I keep saying what I want, yet unable to communicate it in a way that lets people know that I'm not trying to be desperate, needy or excessively whiny.  I'm being honest about what I sense is missing from my life and trying to wean some insight as to why it's not happening the way I would like it.

As I was driving home tonight, the sweat from unloading my truck and loading the cams to set out to go to our sorting facility in Columbus, Ohio and ultimately on to their destination finally drying, I was allowing myself some time to just get some thoughts out, using a backdrop of My Little Pony music to help filter some of the concepts flitting through my brain.  It was a moment where I wish I had the wherewithal to pick up my phone and try to voice record it so I could get the wording right.  I'll just do the best I can here.

Earlier this week, I had come to a realization; I have been jaded.  I've also been very bitter with people and situations.  Oh, not all at once... just here and there, cold thoughts about people, feeling unloved, unlovable, just... run of the mill crap like that.  So, after that, I told one of my friends... who didn't really react to it.  Maybe because my issue that was going through my tilted mind at the time had nothing to do with the issue of the epiphany of what has happened to me over the last few years.  Then I prayed about it and left it alone.

What I think I was trying to put into words as I was traveling at 35 MPH down Minnetonka Boulevard at around 9 at night was that I'm just... confused.  I've said it myself in tweets before: there is too much in my life for it not to be poured out into the lives of others; and, even as I am doing that, I can't seem to locate the sense of satisfaction that I used to feel when I did something that mattered to me. I feel as a vessel that has been filled and emptied out but not refilled with anything new then left to be neglected and unfilled.

There's a line from a song by Ponyphonic Trusting You that I was listening to... and it kind of resonated with me.  Some of the other lyrics are a little depressing.  I'll give you the quick synopsis of the song: it's about a person who has decided friendship is only pain and the only way to keep yourself "safe"  is to shut every door, close every chat and do everything within your power to manage to get through life by yourself.  Here's an excerpt of the closing chorus:

My heart is crying Neglected and confused

There are days where I simply don't know how I should feel, or I have my feelings swing on a dime from the happiest I've ever been to near homicidal and depressed. It's... really not a lot of fun.

"Oh, man, dude... that's almost unhealthy. Have you considered seeing a therapist or counselor?"

It's on my "I'd love to have the time" list. I haven't investigated the option at all because of my work schedule which has its own benefits and challenges--benefit is I don't start until 11, the challenge of not getting done until 9 PM some days. Don't know the policy on weekend appointments that my HMO has.

Maybe my hesitation about seeing a counselor is that it won't solve the underlying issue of people not communicating with me until they need something (certain exceptions do apply). What I have done in the interim is... sort of turn my friends into impromptu counselors. Which ain't why there are in my life... they're present because we have shared interests and they're pretty cool people.

The biggest thing that becomes a problem is when you want to communicate your desire to be involved in the events your friends do... but not actually be delivered in such of a way of "invite me or else" or "everything is horrible I don't want to be alone". I've tried all I know, and after it proved to be ineffective, I stopped trying. (Which means I should run that sucker through the scientific method again and ask different questions.)

Even in my current frustrated state, I'm still living life.  It's just... emptier than I would like it to be.  There's space available for the ride.  Wanna come along?

[heartythrills]

Scroll along. Just being self-indulgent to recover from a bad day.

My sister once told me that her friend’s assessment of me is that I essentially interview new people I meet to see if they could become potential friends. When I meet people, I’m usually the first to talk. I ask a lot of questions. For example, I went out to a Beer Day event with my friend? Acquaintance? in April of this year. Let’s call him Ben. Just to clarify, I barely know him though. We worked in the same company in college, but never in the same place. When he started working where I used to work, I was transferred to work somewhere else, but he knew of me because my coworkers would talk about me. Anyway, beer day. He’d been inviting me to go since last year. Him and my friend, whom I’ve known since freshman year because we were in several classes together. I finally went so it doesn’t seem like I didn’t want to hang out. Besides the warm greeting I got from him, it was awkward as hell. I don’t really drink anymore, so I didn’t know what beer I should order except that I should get a light one because I don’t know anyone there. After I got my beer, I picked a person to talk to, let’s call him Andy. I don’t about the rest of society, but I never go for people in groups. I’m a person who’s really bad at handling rejection, so I really assess the situation, or person before I approach. Things I look for includes how they’re dressed, what they wear, how they clean themselves up, their body language, are they on a device or not, male or female in some cases. Yeah, it’s not nice to judge a book by its cover but hey, if no one fucking greeted you to begin with and the person who invited you didn’t go introduce you to anyone, better go with the basics. The person I picked was a guy with a green backpack of invader zim. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I approached him because I assumed he liked anime. Ben isn’t super obsessed with anime and comics, but does have a handful of friends who are deep into fandom. He goes to expos and conventions with his girlfriend etc. So, in the event that Andy is into any of that, I can hold a conversation. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can have all sorts of conversations, I just prefer to have conversations that go somewhere instead of small talk. I really don’t like small talk. Anywaysss, I go up to Andy and was like, Hi, I’m Tilly, is it ok if I take a seat here? Oh btw, he was still eating a burrito, the only one eating. After taking a seat, I asked him how he knew Ben and how many times he’s gone to Beer Day. Because he was very responsive, I continued to converse with him until the other host came and entered the conversation and they all got kinda caught into their own conversation. I just kinda stood there and act like I’m listening, asked them how they knew Ben, same same. Most of them actually went to the same school I did. But bc we were in different majors, we never really crossed paths. After about like 30 mins there, we went to a different bar. Ben was kind enough to keep me with him. He quickly introduced me to the girl who would be driving us to the next location. She lived in that city so she knew her way around. Apparently she has like 3 - 4 different jobs. Housing in that area is pretty expensive though. We got to the next location and I seated myself in the far table. Andy had already gotten himself a drink since they arrived there before us. There were a bit of confusion as to where we would be sitting since there were like 25 of us. Some of them didn’t go to the first bar. I talked a bit more with Andy before he took out the cards from his backpack. I guess he was prepared on how to occupy time. We played Exploding Kittens, a game I would never have ever picked up to play. Anyways I lost about 10 mins in, not really feeling the game or the crowd. I went to the restroom, texted my ride and went to order another drink. When I got back, someone took my seat so I went over to the neighboring table and asked if I could take a seat there. Same conversation. How do they know Ben. They knew Ben through his girlfriend and through conventions. That means, they do anime and comic. So to push the conversation further, I asked if they cosplayed. Yes. What have they cod played as. These two questions measure how into anime they were and what anime or comic or game they liked. Once I get the title of the series or game, it’s easier to converse. If it’s a series or game I like, I can open up discussions or conversations. If it’s a series I don’t know, depending on how they sounded when they first tell me, I can ask them to tell me more or I can stop at that. They weren’t a bad group, and I was actually starting to feel comfortable because we were having actual conversations, but my ride had arrived at this time and I had drunken my beer too fast so I could feel the intoxication so I actually decided to leave. People don’t really admit to liking anime unless in obvious places or events like anime expo or house parties where the host is into anime. I usually don’t tell people I like anime either. It’s not that I’m ashamed of it. It’s unnecessary info if the person I’m talking to is just talking to kill time and is not actually genuine about getting to know me. And some people judge you right away for liking, not that I don’t defend anime and myself well when that happens because I do. When I was in college, I accidentally let it slip that I liked anime, and I was totally judged for it by my supervisor. She hated anime (but really it was just Pokémon) because her step daughter who hates her and she hates liked Pokémon. So my supervisor would bring it up every so often, saying that anime is cartoon and I’m like, you watch Disney animated films, you read D.C. and Marvel comics, it’s the same fucking thing. Shut her up. Anyways, in addition to just titles of series, I judge, yes judge, a person on what they like from the series or game, or why they like it. The world is filled with so many different minds, so it’s only obvious that we all like very different aspect of different things. There was this girl that became a new manager at the same office I worked at. She’s a very optimistic person. And not that I hate optimism, but there are some optimism that irritates me. So I tried to get to know her, asking any shows you watched lately? The show she loved is the show I hate. Once Upon a Time. I hate that show because I hate the Charmings, Snow White to be exact. And this girl loved Snow White. I heard her out, listened to all the reasons why she loved the series, which was all the reason why I didn’t like the series. A single conversation can give you so much insights, which is why I want actual conversation and not just the ‘hey’ ‘how’s your day’ ‘good’ 'fine’ 'anything new’ 'no’ like, work with me here! Anything new? no? Just same-o same-o? How about urself??? Ugh. You know a person doesn’t want to talk when conversations go like that. My answers are like “anything new? Not really. Life’s just going. How about yourself? How’s the bf? Are your parents still visiting? Etc etc” in terms of anime “did you read the latest chapter????” “Don’t you think Kuroo was fucking gorgeous???” I like a deeper connection. Like, to be able to pick up a series or game and be like “I hate how they used character b as a stepping stone and then abandoned him!” And the person gets me. I have a person I talk to every once in a while. Let’s name him Bob. Bob and I went to school together since 6th grade. I knew him from 5th grade though. I talked to him a lot in middle school, or maybe it was really the other way around because we both liked Kingdom Hearts, and I was a rare finding at the time since I was a girl who liked both anime and played video games. Apparently (not to brag) I was pretty popular among the boys. Yeah, the only problem was that I wasn’t aware of that. I was too focused on Inuyasha and my love for anime and Kingdom Hearts. Anyways, I started talking to him again at the beginning of last year. I was talking to him because I was interviewing him because I was working on my story and got stuck as to why the second guy did what he did and why the friend wanted the main girl to get back with the second guy. Somewhere along the chat, we went down memory lane and he admitted to liking me, which I pretended that I didn’t know but I knew because at the end of 8th grade, two girls I was pretty close to tried to set me up with him but I didn’t stay long at the party because I didn’t believe them because we were actually starting to have problems. It wasn’t until high school when another friend of mines, maybe 2 different ones were like 'yeah, he liked you, you didn’t know?’ I was like, course I didn’t know. I just thought he talked to me because I always had the latest news about Kingdom Hearts. Anyways, I pretended I didn’t know and told him he should’ve asked, maybe I might’ve said yes. At Least that’s what I thought when I was chatting with him, kinda drunk in to conversation and almost desperation really. When I reflected on it later, I realized, I wouldn’t have said yes. I had another crush at that time. And dated a different guy who I did quite liked, but broke up with him because we couldn’t even basic date, like you know hold hands. I also rejected one of my guy friends at the time, who I knew liked me because he was so obvious about it and yeah it was wrong of me to kinda lead him on by talking to him too much, spending time with him a little too much. But hey, he knew the amines I was watching. It was rare to find someone who had so much knowledge at that time. What was I talking about? Right, Bob and I started talking, kinda flirting on FB and then we went out to dinner once and hung out with some of my old classmates and his band mates for my cousins birthday and I could sense the overwhelming feeling in my chest. Yeah, I was starting to like him. But I felt he didn’t feel the same. He brushed off my feelings a couple of times, so I wrote him a letter telling him that I feel like I was starting to like him, so I was going to distance myself a bit so that those feelings don’t bloom and overcomplicate anything. We still chatted but a confession like that is bound to change one’s perspective. I won’t lie that he didn’t get meaner, bc he did. One time, I told him that he should go archery with me. When I told him I’m available any weekend in the following month, he asked if I didn’t have any friends, why were my weekends so free. Uh, excuse me. I was making time for you. And I’m an introvert, I don’t like going out. I could make plans if I wanted to, I just don’t want to. But I didn’t say any of that. I just thought it. That moment, he became someone who wasn’t worth it. I just told him, I haven’t made any plans yet. We agreed to a day but he canceled and honestly, if he didn’t, I would’ve. After that I didn’t contact him for a while and suddenly he started watching all the animes I recommended based on his taste. He started conversations, and I wasn’t gonna be a bitch about it and not talk to him. He wasn’t worth playing hard to get or ignoring or whatever. I made sure he realize what he did didn’t impact me in any way…besides the fact that I still grudge him and will forever hate him for it. I even went to a night market with him. He kept trying to get us to share food, like wtf is his problem? I agreed to eat his takoyaki bc I like takoyaki but afterwards, anything he asked me to finish, I declined, saying that I was saving my stomach for other food. I digress. Anyways, I heard him out, and realized we watch animes for very different things, liked very different animes. We always end up arguing about the anime. I don’t like his favorite anime and he complains about every tiny detail of the ones I like. I can’t have those conversations often. He thought I enjoyed him bitching about my favorite series, when honestly, I think he’s the one who enjoys me dissecting his comments. I’d write essays to him. My last straw was when he started talking about how he didn’t like Suwa from Orange, all bc Suwa was presented as the popular guy. And instead of just admitting to not liking Suwa or saying that it’s just in his nature to dislike guys considered popular in a series bc it hurts his ego for some reason, he starts dragging in Suwa’s move on Naho etc. And that got me so riled up, like You don’t even know about that until the end and you’re telling me that was the reason why you didn’t like him 'from the start’??? You were judging him based on his looks, not his character. You didn’t follow the storyline and to defend yourself, you drag in something Suwa did NOT in this world, but a parallel world? Saying that it wasn’t right? When Naho and Kakeru weren’t even dating? When Suwa was definitely not supporting Kakeru? Saying that it broke the code of bros when we can’t even be sure they were bros at all in that parallel world. To top that off, he wanted the ending to change, like what would happen if the character never go their letters? Would they have cared for or notice Kakeru like how they are now? Like, dude. That’s what happened in the other world. They didn’t care as much for him and didn’t notice the problems he was going through that’s why he committed suicide. We already k ow the end result. Like, consider the genre of the story? Consider the message of the story? Anyways after writing like 3 essays to him, he thanked me for having arguments with him, all of which he enjoys very much. I clarified that I hated those arguments or debated. I get so worked up and for what? So we haven’t really talked much since then. We went to dinner early this year, but that was about it. When he tried to bring up anime discussions, I geared toward an anime we can both rant about instead of talking about my favorite ones. I don’t like wasting time on things I don’t like. I don’t like wasting time on people I don’t like. I prefer to use all my energy loving, though that’s not to say I wouldn’t write a whole 10000 word rant about something I don’t like. Usually I would do so if it irritates me too much and I have to let it out. I’ve done so for various occasions. Anyways, I’ve written for 2 hours now so I think I’m recovered. God, I’m such a difficult person.

[legitimately-beastly]

"i CANT BELIEVE IM SEEING HIM!".. Time flies so fast. I didnt even know that tomorrow is the day he will arrive, I wasnt prepared,I wasnt even expecting it because I have been waiting for it for the longest time. So here we go, I will tell you a story of how meeting him went. I woke up very early obviously very excited but it was nerve wrecking since its our very first time meeting each other. Going back, I found out about him when he passed an entry of Philippine Kpop Convention look alike and everyone went crazy, my friends started tagging and sharing me this photo of him. I still remember when I first opened the photo, my heart was beating fast. He really does look like Yugyeom of GOT7, my bias. As a normal fangirl,I also went nuts about it, started looking up for him until it grow it something deeper. (wait mag tagalog na ngaako medyo OA kung lahat english HAHAHA) So ayun na, I was tasked to fetch him at the airport with other 2 guests. It took us a while to wait for them. On our way riding taxi to the airport, the taxi driver told me when I got down "You must be so excited to see him." even the driver can tell so. We waited and my heart starts beating up so fast, so many questions in my mind on what to do or how to react. So it was me who first saw them with my other two friends, it was truly like a scene in the movie, you know that slow mo moment where the actor/ actress sees someone they like it was so similar on the first time I saw him, he was amazingly glowing and Im not even kidding when a song "See the Light" of GOT7 was playing on the background out of nowhere when he was walking towards us. I was so amazed because to be honest, i wasnt really setting that much expectations that he really looked like Yugyeom at all.I just like him of the way he is because he was humble, so funny and very cute. So ayun, plus points pala yung mukhang Yugyeom nya like Im so shookt when I saw him. He really had this resemblance of Yugyeom, coming from the person or me who saw Yugyeom few times, he looks like Yugyeoms predebut or kapatid nya. I was sweating so bad and cant even look at him straight in the eyes. I was so shy. I couldnt talk and Im really glad I have two friends with me who were there. Dude, Lalynn, come on, you're making it so obvious even my friends said so.So we were eating at a cafe, still not having the guts to talk to him, i cant even look at him. I dont even know what to ask or talk to him about. Everytime I look at him, he always reminds me of Yugyeom. ugh... Moving forward.. I also was asked to back him up on his performance, im like, yeah cool sure but deep inside it was a dream come true. It was really awkward when we did our practice but I was trying to focus and be calm. So moving forward, DDAY everyone was excited! You can hear the screams when he went in, he was really really shy which makes him extra cute. To be honest, I wasnt even focused on him at this event because I got so busy but during the time when its our turn to dance, im fcking gonna dance in front of him, what a nerve wrecking experience especially the fact that I portrayed Yugyeom and I saw one video that him and judges kept pointing at me, huhuhu. During the [icture taking with the guest, this heart dropping moment ng inakbayan nya ako during sa pagpicture i was trying to keep calm so hard like mdfiogertj. why the heck is he doing this, he didnt do this to other girls who took pictures with him bes. ANO TOOO! So i jokingly asked him for a hug cos basically thats what these girls who were into him does after taking picture but I didnt do it of course and he laughed, we even had a picture of it. Looking, I can really tell how many fangirls were swooned over him, especially when he started dancing, the collar bones tho. I was at the back, still watching him dance at the back was so annoying haha, I really wanted to see him dance so I kind of regretting backing him up but damnnnn, he can dance too. So nagmamasid rin ako while he was at the judges seat, I remembered looking at the real Yugyeom at nestival tour just few days ago before COE. Im really shocked at how they look so similar. After the event, you can tell how he was enjoying the event and Im glad that he was having fun, it was definitely worth all the overtimes I did at work just for him to get here... Seeing him smile makes my heart melt so much, I'd like to see him smile everyday that would keep me going, his smile is truly my weakness and my happiness at the same time. We were able to have dinner together with the staff of COE. And then we went to Roxas Night Market, another shimkong moment with him when he had his hands around my shoulder yung parang nakapatong ganun while walking, ito naman yung pagtatry kong kumalma haha, trying hard talaga. Then yung, inoffer nyang dalhin yung bag kong sobrang bigat shocks. Grabeh, huhuhu he was such a gentleman. He made me fall in love with him even more. I told him its ok, ako na still he wants to hold it. My heart bes cant take it. So ayun, I dont wanna leave yet, I dropped them off at their hotel and said good night to each other and I basically couldnt stop smiling the whole night and it left me sleepless. It was so enchanted to meet him. Was looking forward to meet him the day after :)