#so hopefully that leads to more art productivity down the line

[cocolacola]

i will draw sertegra soon or so help me

[whoovesnassistant]

Tips for making a radio play

We've had a lot of experience making this show, and we've seen a lot of series come and go or even crash and burn before they begin. So we're going to give some tips to hopefully help people avoid the crashing and burning.

1: Start Small

A lot of people make the mistake of starting with a grand idea in mind, like "We're going to do an epic with 3 seasons that comes with animatics, original music, and a large cast of characters and-" Slow down. You don't even know what you're capable of yet, so it's a really bad idea to plan so far ahead without knowing what you can do and how much effort it takes to do it. Before you decide to dedicate yourself to something on a grand scale, start with something small to test the waters. A pilot is a good way to really understand the process and give an audience a chance to get interested. This pilot should not be as long as a full episode unless you plan for your episodes to be relatively short anyways. There should be a small cast, 2-5 characters at most generally. You don't need to go all-in with the pilot, just use what you have to do it and hopefully it should garner enough attention to get more people on board in your project team. Even after your pilot, make small goals. Plan for say, 5 episodes at first, and plan for more once you've gotten a flow and idea of production time and how long you want to be working on this project. Radio plays take a lot of time and effort, they aren't as easy as they seem.

2: Don't Cast Too Early

This is a big one that a lot of people tend to do that's a huge mistake to be making. Do not cast your characters way ahead of when you're going to need them. Generally, you should have your next script done FIRST before you cast the characters for it, and even if you have scripts done for multiple episodes ahead of time, do not cast unless you plan to get the lines done ASAP. You do not want to have idle voice actors waiting a really long time before they can even record lines, because this is a good way to lose voice actors or have people feel you don't really know what you are doing or how to organize a project. The exception to this rule is if you know someone really well and you know they want the role and they will stick around for it. It's good to cast people you are closer with as long term characters than expecting strangers to volunteer all their time, which leads into our next tip...

3: Don't Expect Too Much From People

Unless you plan on paying people, don't expect too much hard work from others. Don't expect voice actors to stay on for years and years and years. Don't expect a musician to volunteer original music for free. Don't expect artists to draw a bunch of scenes or animatics. Expect to start with basic resources, like stock music and one piece of cover art. If people want to volunteer more, they will come in time once you've shown your project is legitimately producing content. People are generally not going to just hop on board when you have no credentials and no examples of what you're capable of.

4: Quality Control

You need to have certain standards of quality, and you need to understand what that means. For example, no matter how much you might like someone's voice, if they have a bad microphone there is no fixing that audio, it will be unpleasant to edit and even more unpleasant for an audience to listen to. You can't just chuck together whatever audio you get or have, you need to research how to clean up noise, how to master vocals, how to level volumes, how to make sure your sound effects are good quality and not distractedly bad. Thankfully, Audacity which is a free program can handle most of your audio editing needs and there are plenty of tutorials for it on youtube so there's no reason not to study this stuff before you dive in.

5: Organization

This one's important. You need an organized system for getting everything done. Have checklists, organized folders, a proper place for crew to communicate. Discord is excellent for organizing a project because you can make different channels for different purposes within one server, such as a place for auditions, a place to submit lines, a place to post art, a place to give instructions, and you can make certain channels accessible to only specific people so spoilers aren't getting out to the wrong people. The more organized your project is, the smoother things will run.

6: Don't Overwork Yourself

It's very tempting to just do all the hard work on your own, like doing all the vocal editing, all the SFX, placing all the music, doing all the scripting. And at first, you'll probably have no choice but to do this. But as your project gets bigger, you should start to divide out the roles for other people to do, otherwise you risk burnout. It might feel fun to get all these things done on your own, but after a while it's going to feel tedious and it's often going to take more time to do. It's okay to have people you trust work on scripts, you would still be the director of what that script is about but you might be surprised what other people can come up with. It might be difficult to find a good audio editing crew but it's worth it if you do.

7: Be Willing to Take Criticism

Nobody's perfect, and sometimes people will have constructive criticism about your project. Don't see criticism as failure, see it as an opportunity to improve. For example, if you're having a hard time casting a character and you hear a lot of people saying they don't want to audition for the character because they don't like the character, don't sit there insisting your writing is gold and everyone else is just rude. Examine why people don't like the character, and adjust. If you notice people aren't really jumping on board with your project, swallow your pride and ask why. Try to figure out what it is that needs improvement, and then move forward with it.

8: Have Voice Actors Record Multiple Takes

Be sure that you're not just getting one take of lines, because you never know when a line might not sound right, or if a different delivery would sound better. Have at least 3 takes of every line recorded, and encourage your voice actors to try different kinds of deliveries. This way you have a much bigger chance of getting quality lines and the best takes!

9: Don't Rely on Artwork

This is an AUDIO drama, you CAN NOT expect everyone to be watching the video if you release a video with it. Some people just play these in the background, or download them to listen while they drive. If you're expecting people to understand what's going on from the artwork alone, you're doing something wrong. Imagine your script not having any images to go with it, and try to imagine what people are going to get out of purely listening. There are a lot of clever ways to help people visualize things without an actual visual. Artwork should be a bonus, not a requirement.

9B: Don't Script Visual Only Cues

Speaking of not relying on art, this goes with the above and is an issue a lot of beginners have. Scripting things like "the character smiles", "character waves", "character stands up" is not helpful for sound design. You need to figure out how those would be conveyed if they are important, like for smiling have the prompt for the actor you can have [Said happily] for a tone, a [shuffle] for standing up, a [whooshing] for waving with a character saying something like 'I'm waving as hard as I can!'. Sound effects and exposition are your friends in radio plays, soundless actions are not.

10: Be Careful About Vocal Effects

Vocal effects can be really cool! You can make someone sound like a demon, or a ghost, or some kind of magical creature. But you also need to be really careful about using those effects, because they can very easily make a person's voice hard to understand. This tip doesn't always work, but sometimes you can have the original voice line overlay the effect and make the effect quieter to keep the voice more clear. Run the effects voices by other people to make sure they can understand them.

11: Organization and Communication is Important

Radio plays have a lot of stuff that goes into them. There's a lot of files, often a lot of people, and a lot of tasks and instructions that need to be made. Discord is an excellent messenger to organize a radio play in, where you can organize things by topic in channels and assign roles to people to make sure they have special access to specific channels so other people don't get content they're not supposed to. You also need to make sure you are communicating with everyone and make sure everyone is on the same page. A discord server can help with this by having things like an announcement channel, an auditions channel, a channel to submit lines, etc. Google docs is also a great resource to keep everyone updated, where you can make things like art claims, and progress checklists, and share scripts. You can change permissions on the documents to let people comment or edit, either anyone viewing it or specific people who can be given access. The more organized you are, the faster things will get done and the more your team will respect the project.

12: Format Your Scripts to be Reader Friendly

We had some fairly messy looking scripts in the past, where there was nothing really making the character names stand out from the rest. Lines weren't spaced properly, names weren't bolded, and as a result voice actors would often miss lines on accident or not realize where a line ended or began. Now, you don't have to format it like we do, but you at least need to make it clear when a new line is being spoken and by who. Space new lines apart. What we do is we bold all the character names at the start of the lines and change the paragraph settings to adding a space after each paragraph. This makes it so when a character has a longer line, the spacing remains close together, but a new line from a new character will be spaced away from the previous line. As a bonus, we highlight all the character names in specific colors for specific characters (Not too bright colors!) and this has majorly solved the issue of people missing their lines and we have gotten many compliments for this formatting.

13: Be Kind and Respectful to Your Crew

I really shouldn't have to say this, but it is incredibly important that you respect the people you're working with. More than likely, they are volunteering their time to you, and you have no right to disrespect them by pushing them, tossing them to the side, being picky with them, getting into arguments, rejecting their feedback, etc. You shouldn't even be treating them like this if you were paying them. If you want people to stay and to provide quality content, they will be at their best when you treat them well

14: Listen a Few Times Before Release

So the audio is done, time to make a video and release it! Right? Wrong! You still need to do more quality control! This time you should listen through a few times and pay close attention to any issues that may occur, such as odd pauses, misplaced sound effects, or accidentally repeated lines. This can be easy to miss if you're not paying attention, and once it's out, your mistakes will be out there for everyone to hear.

15: Don't Get a Big Head

On the one hand, it's good to be proud of your work... but on the other, there's such a thing as being too confident and too prideful, especially if you haven't made a reputation for yourself yet. No matter how good you think your ideas might be, you yourself are not going to be the true judge of that. It's up to other people if they like what you have to give, and if they don't like it, there's probably a good reason for it and you may need to take a big bite of humble pie. This is where you need to be open to feedback and realize no one is perfect, no one has the most amazing idea with no flaws. Even we have made a lot of mistakes and will continue to do so, and we know we are always learning. And because of that, we try to listen to constructive feedback. Sure, we can't do everything people want, but we can try to at least improve. Basically, don't boast without knowing what people actually think of your work, and if they don't like it, don't blame them; be ready to look at yourself.

Also, don't put down other creators' work in order to boast about how much better you could or did do it. We're not here to fight, we're not here to compete, we're all just here making something we're supposed to love and be passionate about. It doesn't matter if you honestly think your work is better, having a nasty attitude about it is not going to make people confident in your work. They're just going to see you as someone with no respect for the craft and therefor probably not having the talent you claim you have.

16: Be Able and Willing to Contribute

So you have this idea, and you want to make it happen. What are YOU going to do to do that? The thing is, if you're going to be the one in charge of this project, you're going to need to pick up a lot of skills of your own to do whatever you can for it. You can't always rely on having other writers, or other voice actors, or other editors, etc. The more tasks you can make yourself available for, the better. I'm not saying you have to do everything or even do a whole lot, but the more you are at least able to do if need be, the more you can overcome hurdles such as losing an editor for whatever reason. I think, at the very least, when you're making a radio play you should be able to manage the writing and audio/video editing. Managing the writing shouldn't just be 'here's a small summary of what i want, write it for me', it should involve at least an outline or a collection of notes for what you had in mind, or you should work with people on the writing process by tossing around ideas. If you're just going to be an ideas person who has everyone else perform the creative tasks to make it real, you're going to have a lot of hang ups and you're not going to understand or value the work people put in nearly as much as you would if you learned the process yourself. Your crew might start feeling like you're not actually contributing much and that you're depending on them for everything to happen.

That's all we could think of for now, but if we think of more tips we'll add them to this post and reblog it to show the new ones. We hope this helps!

[todd-machine]

@milekael tagged me so I thought I would hop onto this!!! TYSM FOR THE TAG MILES UAHAHAHA

are you named after anyone?

Not really! I mostly just picked some random things I vibe with tbh.

when was the last time you cried?

I can't actually remember :'D it couldn't have been awfully long ago tho, for some reason

do you have kids?

nope! I don't really plan on it.

do you use sarcasm a lot?

I think so, once in a while. If I do I normally tend to clarify tho, it does tend to pass over my own head a at times so if I notice it happening to others I'm usually quick to explain myself.

what sports do you play?

I've not been so active in recent years, but I used to love taking dance and swimming classes when I was younger tho! I've also dabbled in martial arts and ball games (football and basketball) over the years and I still really like a good walk or run.

what’s the first thing you notice about people?

Usually? Honestly the way people dress or their mannerisms like hand gestures and stuff, since I sometimes gravitate there to understand how people are speaking.

what’s your eye color?

Brown n green on both :3

scary movies or happy endings?

I'm usually not fond of jumpscare/shock horror and I'm more into the suspenseful or slow type really. Happy endings are sweet and very neat ways to end a plot but depending on the case they can sometimes leave me wanting more, idk.

any special talents?

Can measure out a perfect portion of rice by eye for some reason

where were you born?

That one I'd rather not say here. I have lived the majority of my time in England though 💀

what are your hobbies?

Aside from drawing I like... drawing XD but in all seriousness, I really like doing observational drawings from time to time, it helps clear the mind after spending so long animating for uni! I also love working on some short stories slowly, I collect stamps on the side and I've been really getting into cooking lately. I'd love to pick up traditional art to a more serious level once I have the time, too!

do you have any pets?

I don't :'D I'd love to once I can afford to and have the space to keep them though. Thinking mainly of cats honestly.

favorite subject in school?

Probably history! Art was fun too just wasn't so fond of the programme structure there. At least we had some great field trips for that though.

dream job?

Not really sure! I'm close to graduating from my animation undergrad though, hopefully, and I'm hoping to take that into short form stuff or TV within the industry eventually, probably as an animator. I'd love to be able to improve my skillset over time, though, especially in terms of technical and people skills, and maybe do some animation lead or directing at some point. At some stage later down the line I'd love to spend more time on my bigger personal project's production as well.

Augh tags- uuuhrbmrhrm idk @helio5 if u wanna do it go ahead, no pressure tho ofc!!! Anyone else who wants to pick this up as well feel free (sorry for not directly tagging many people, I simply get nervous easily XD)

[moondrop39-dovewing70]

Monkey Cop: K9 Unit AU (Basically)

Monkey Cop: K9 Unit is a show about a K9 officer and a detective becoming partners and solving many different crimes. This is based off of the show "Hudson and Rex" and a bit of that "NCIS" chaos so their will be many different variety of crime and interesting side stories..... *wink wink*

Always the setting is around Megapolis, the characters all have an important part to play in the show. So lets get into each character shall we?

Sun Wukong is an immortal actor who is very powerful and very skilled, both in acting and being a retired officer of the law himself. He keeps his personality but his powers are a bit down scaled. He is one of the main characters of the show (and Fanfic) and the detective of the show.

Macaque is another immortal actor who is also powerful and skilled in the arts of science and acting. He takes on the role of the detective's forensics team, who works really closely with the detective. His personality is much more open and he gets really eager in some aspects of the show. Over all takes care of the team with his "mom" energy.

MK is a dog trainer to the K9 officer/actor in the show. He is a bit more shy and timid but is much more open to the immortal monkeys and the dog. He helps around in the background and helps the actors with their lines. He is overall a helpful eighteen year old kid who is excited to meet his favorite two actors.

Mei is one of our tech members of the department and an actor. She helps with the cameras and following the digital foot trail of the victims. She is very handy with fixing and following them. She is also one of those badass officers and is overall a bubbly person unless you piss her off.

Red Son is the other tech member of the team and an actor as well. He pushes the team into different leads and thinks outside of the box a ton. He is a strategist at heart and it shows in his acting. He always pushes the thread as to how far he can push the directors.

Pigsy is the captain of the department and an actor. He is a stern actor though and most of the time, he isn't really acting just being himself. He does loosen up but very rarely. Hopefully that might change.

Sandy is part of the forensic scientists team and an actor, helping document and move things as well as give the main team help. He doesn't get a big part in the show but is often helpful off the camera.

Tang is a part of the forensic scientist team and an actor, he does what Sandy does too but also helps with the more historical side of it. He is full of stories and I kinda push the more "NCIS character Ducky" attitude with him.

Now for the OC's of the show/gang:

The K9 Officer: A dog shapeshifter who became friends with MK. Her name is Luna and she was moved from America to China due to a high demand of show dogs for movies. She was moved when she was fourteen and met MK when he was 15.

The Autopsy Personel/Actor: A human named Chan, who is a hard worker. Her eyes are a greyish blue and she became an actor after working in the medical field after two years. She is skilled and can help the audience with explaining what happened.

Also to add more spice to this AU. Their are also show ships and ships in general:

Shadowpeach: The show ships them hard and so does the general public.

Freenoodles: The show ship that also became a general ship.

DragonFruit: A ship in general that became another ship on the show.

MKxOC: Ship in general (never appears in the show)

Now with all of this together, I would like to add that these are also featured in the AU and fanfic:

MK is trans.

The Celestial Realm and some of the demons in the original show work as the production company.

Nezha is the vice director of the show.

LGTBQ+

Gore and Violence

Swearing

Angst

Fluff

And Honest to god just so much goodness in the show and off the show.

There you have it. The AU idea is finished. Fanfic will come soon as well as a master list! Thanks!

[studioincomplete]

Devlog 4- Post RGS and Art Stuff!

Welcome back to another Studio Inc.omplete devlog! I’m Ivy, lead writer and de facto head of marketing for Night of the Delivering Dead. This past weekend we went to the Rensselaer Games Showcase, an event held by RPI’s Game Dev Club to show off student games. We had an updated demo with fog of war up for playtesting, and we were able to get a ton of really useful feedback. We had a few bugs that we’ll need to work out, but we’ll get that posted for you to play as soon as it's in a slightly more playable state. While we were there, we were also looking for art feedback. We’re still trying to iron out a few decisions, primarily whether we keep using the pixel shader or not and what art style we go with for the card art. You can find that survey here, any feedback you have for us is welcome!

After this we won’t have another major event until March when we’ll be going to PAX East and (maybe) GDC, so we’ll be shifting into hard production mode over the next few months. We may be a bit quieter on devlogs while we’re heavily working on stuff. But, with all that being said, I’ll turn it over to artists to share what they've been working on!

Hey all, it’s Ghost, the lead 2D artist, coming at you with an update on the progress we’ve been making on our visual style. Over the past few weeks I’ve been spending a lot of my time focusing on how we can make every aspect of the game mesh well visually. It’s easy enough to design individual elements and call it a day, but it’s a separate beast trying to connect those elements.

To that end I dedicated time to making a style sheet! For our team, it was important to figure out the color palette we wanted the game to mostly follow, as well as decide on line weight, shading, all the various things that I should keep in mind when I work. This was a huge help in solidifying the foundation for our visual identity, and it’s a reference I’ll use up until the very end. If something seems to be deviating from the style we’ve set, the first thing we should ask is if there’s a good reason for it to do so. If not, then we can correct it and that way nothing feels clashing to look at!

The other thing I’ve begun to work on is our cards that you’ll use to control your various undead summons! You’ve amassed quite the repertoire of spells during your time in college, but it’s hard recalling them from memory, so it’s a good thing you’ve written them all down in your notebook! It also means being reminded of all your doodles, messages, and scribbles you made while bored in class.. Unfortunately it seems that we’ve misplaced the pages these sketches are supposed to go on, but we can still show them off for now. Hopefully we’ll be able to find them in the future.

Hey! This is Ari, the 3D Artist for the game :) So far I have been working on some rough models to populate our map, and also working on a blockout for our character. All of these models have been made in Blender, and we’re using a shader in Unity to give them their pixel look.

The vibes for the map so far are spooky suburbia, so I have created some standard houses and other buildings that are most like things you would see in a normal town (along with a giant pumpkin tile, which is VERY realistic). Going forward I am going to be working more on the character models, reworking the current models we have, adding more types of houses/buildings, and creating smaller details like trees and other vegetation. That’s all we have for now, stay tuned for more!

[jorjacrafts]

New! Product Research- Cassette

Following up from a group talk, we had gone over our existing product line. I wanted to talk with he others to see which we could impliment and finalise. We had a big list and I was becoming overwhelmed with the workload of being product lead. Research and supplier hunting consumes a lot of my time and I have barely covered design research and a cost breakdown yet. I wanted a harsh discussion to organise my research. Despite this we actually added more products to the 502 line. That being a cassette. This falls into my individual work quite well and I will enjoy the making of this product a little more than the others, especially when designing and speaking to the supplier. Which I had found fairly quickly. We had found a company called https://www.bandcds.co.uk which produces a range of different music sources; CDs, Cassettes, Vinyls etc.

I think this is a really strong piece of design as it really has the potential to correlate with our brand ethos and studio culture. A question to ask the group is.. are cassettes coming back or are they being implemented as nice silhouettes for designers? I think we aren't neccisarily using this product as a small handful of people out have a cassette player or finds this an easy music outlet to play their favourite songs.

Based on our external contextual sources/ brand inspiration research, our demographic customers I believe would consist of a group who enjoy modern twists on instances and points in time which are now conveyed as 'vintage'. The word vintage and the up cycling of the 20th century is very vivid in todays design work. I think that's partly the reason why we believe this product would be really interesting to sell as we are placing a modern design and technique onto an existing and 'outdated' product. Giving it a new purpose and style of design feels really adventurous to embark upon and I'm looking forward to designing this.

Looking at the inspirations above, using a laser cutter could create a really cool finish onto the cassette. Hamza has good experience working with laser and plastic. One of his previous projects consisted of his designs being cut into a CD case. Despite this being a diverse style of approach for me, I really enjoy hearing another creative of the team using what they enjoy themselves and helping me learn a new art process. What I am loving so far with this project is that each member has their own contributions and actually have the courage to have their own input into the brand. I never thought all of our own personal styles could combine successfully however I have been proven wrong. Naturally group work used to intimidate me as there was always this social barrier between each member and work loads which always lead to unbalanced work labour. However this project feels different and we are all courage to put our own feedback and criticism into our brand and its forming ideas.

A piece of Hamzas work which could aid our cassette design process. I think we should defiantly practise these deigns on the laser cutter prior to using the cassette case because plastic does colour when tempered with which we want to refrain from. Practising with different depth levels of the cutter could refrain this possibility of this. Im encouraged to learn how this sort of process will work from he help of the other members of the group who have more expertise with this technique.

We've began to pick up our own person modifications within this design work which I really enjoy as I feel like it contributes into our cycle of community within the studio. My aims with this product lead role is to make sure all our designs feel personal from each member of 502 and hopefully consumers can see the design process/connection to our narrative within these pieces; making them feel inspired and motivated to walk down their own version of creativity which ever way that applies to them and their own life.

[evnsparks]

A3 - Group Formation and Game Ideation

Hello and welcome. Starting this week, I have been tasked to join a group and start working towards the prototype for assessment 3.

In terms of group formation, I am in a group of 4 with August, Sean and Jarvis. The group was formed from previous group tasks done previously and helping each other out in playtesting and GDevelop thus it felt natural to form a group based on that previous group work experience.

Group Work Communication and Work Tools

To ensure that everyone would be able to work on tasks effectively we quickly decided on roles with August being the main programmer, Sean being the main designer, Jarvis focussing on art and myself helping with a mix of programming, design, documentation, and playtest design. Another aspect that was quickly decided upon was the form in which group work tasks would be done in being in-person as previous experience found it easier and more productive to do this method. It would also allow us to use paper-prototyping methods or sketches to help communicate ideas quickly and dynamically for a more creative game ideation as suggested by Fullerton (2018).

Another important task would be to use communication platforms that we commonly would see throughout the day, for this we settled on Discord and WhatsApp. In terms of tools to be used we also wanted to have something everyone was comfortable with and would not impede us by being confusing to facilitate quick and easy documentation and ideation. For this we settled on using the google docs suite. We would also work towards getting a github setup down the line to allow for coding to be done by any group member if they would like to.

Ideation and Group Work

The group focussed on encouraging creativity and allowing everyone to contribute to ensure the idea would be more unique and one everyone would be passionate and happy to work on. To do this the group decided on a process that encouraged all ideas to be considered and if they may not work to put it aside and build upon it to see how viable they may be. Essentially putting on the list and sorting it out later to be built upon.

(List Example)

This approach as mentioned by Fullerton (2018) as the “No Criticism” ideation process did lead to a more natural flow of ideas that were creative and allowed for more ideas to be proposed rather than stagnation in previous group ideations I had done.

Through this we decided on creating a platformer action shooter and decided to draw inspiration from similar games such as Megaman and Metal Slugs.

(Megaman X, Retro Gameplay Channel, 2016)

We also listed ideas and sketched out ideas to make them easier to understand. These were then built upon by asking how we could make them unique to our game and to add a twist that would be satisfying to create and play with. As mentioned by Fullerton (2018) it is important to not drag ideation to long and so the group decided to take breaks where needed and to do multiple meetings for playtesting which did help ensure ideation could be thought upon and built upon when restarted, it also helped the group build repour and work together more effectively.

(Sketching Ideation Example)

Focussing on The Long Run

Utilising learnings from Fullerton (2018) I found the group made really good progress than from previous experiences and that the group was also more motivated to reach the goals set out for our prototype. It also meant the game we ideated felt more creative and would be interesting to play and hopefully for the play testers to try out as well. The quick progress in ideation then allowed us to plan out what would be feasible and to consider ideas that could be implemented if we have the time. The in-person meetings also allowed forms of rapid prototyping to take place which further helped to refine ideas and test early on their viability allowing us to get features developed faster and have a more complete first prototype for the first playtest to be done. It is now time to look forward and see how things develop. Til the first playtest!

References

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Fourth edition. http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/b16671

Retro Gameplay Channel. (2016, October 22). Mega Man X SNES gameplay 1080p - Retro Gameplay Channel [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQYkJuG2gbo

[absolutebl]

2022 Upcoming BLs - Mid Year Check In

Here’s a list, by country, of all the BLs that have been announced but not yet aired. 

How long does it usually take from an announcement to getting more info on a BL being made? 

THAILAND

Thailand is very unreliable, a trailer does not a BL make. 

2 Moons 3: The Ambassador - delayed from 2020

*insert sarcastic laughter here* They have announced a cast. That came out of nowhere.

609 Bedtime Story

OhmFluke getting yet another 2022 BL? For WeTV Thailand. No MDL listing yet. A one night stand leads to a series of mysterious premonitions and a possible parallel universe.

Absolute Zero - delayed from 2021

Wabi Sabi dropped a teaser at the end of 2021. But it’s one of those we know has been in the works for ages. This is a “time loop to prevent tragedy” romance. We don’t always get HEAs from this studio, so be on your guard.

Art Adore En

University set pulp, country mouse/city mouse, crush, cohabitation, they were roommates, gasp! (forced proximity) Bad boy Ray, an art major ends up rooming with Lloyd, an innocent English major with a sheltered background. got a trailer. Country boy studying at a university in Bangkok catches the eye of his senior.

Bed Friend

Office romance, enemies to lovers, good/bad pairing, player meets tsundere, f-buddies. Adapted from a Y-novel via reliable production house Mandee who dropped a mini intro and a few snippets in 2021. Leads: James was Gui’s best friend in Oxygen and one of my top picks at the time to get his own BL. I am VERY excited about this. Net is an established actor but has not done BL before. JimmyTommy supposed to be side dishes as this takes place in the same office as their BL, Middleman’s Love. See below.

Plot: Uea is reserved and shy and hates players. King is a big time flirt. They work in the same office and share a best friend. Despite the fact that they don’t really like each other they end up in bed together.

Rumors: This pair as originally supposed to be the side dishes for Middle Love, but it seems they split the two stories and gave James & Net their own series. Not sure if this is a lesson learned from Why R U? or a lockdown necessity or a shifting to an En of Love model or if James & Net did so well in rehearsal they earned their own series. They are crazy beautiful together.

Predictions: while JimmyTommy will hold down soft and emotional, I think Mandee is going to use NetJames to bring the higher heat, just like they did with FighterTutor. This series could be good especially as it is based on a book so hopefully it has some plot.

Between Us - delayed from 2020 (Nov 2022)

Side characters from 2019′s Until We Meet Again (adaptation of y-novel The Red Thread), this is an adaptation of spin off novel (Hemp Rope). The book tells WinTeam’s romance from the start, so we might get some recon reboot action (like LBC2). From Studio Wabi Sabi for one of their most popular (and commercially viable) pairs BounPrem (Long Khong, You Never Eat Alone, Seven Project, Even Sun), this has plenty of funding and distribution (WeTV) with established (if inconsistent) BL director New (who did UWMA). Special Cute (non story) teaser clips started dropping Nov 2021, filming also started then. Fluke (Pharm) and Ohm (Dean) are expected to reprise their roles from UWMA.

Big Dragon 

Announced after (but adding to Star Hunter's) 2022 line up, It is based on the y- novel, มังกรกินใหญ่ by Aiden N Vivienne, features Mangkorn (Dragon) & Yai (Big) in a high drama high angst enemies to lovers with a blackmail plot and a secret piece on the side. 

Bitter Sweet

Stars the same actors as My Engineer. But revolves around the co-heirs (played by Cooper & Sean) of a fancy Hotel in Bangkok plus the head pâtissier (Ploy) and head chef (Inntouch). Cooper & Ploy are paired as per usual, which means Sean & Inntouch are playing off each other. Perth and Lay may put in appearances. Official trailer.

Boxer In Heart

A love story blossoms within the boxing arena staring Junior Ronnakorn (Gen Y) and Tiger Tanawat from Pai Roy Kor Production. Announced Feb 2022. 

Buddy Line Y Animal

AKA Buddy Line Y(aoi) Animal (seriously?) dropped a trailer. From the same people who brought us The Yearbook (ugh) and based on 4 y-novels written by Scriper, slated to be released this year. Stars Man & Tile (Yearbook), Oat (Make it Right), and unknowns.

Cafe In Love

New Thai pulp, stars the actor who played Noh’s best friend Ohm in Love Sick 2. When his coffee shop close, he tries everything to get it to reopen and falls in love along the way.

Chains of Heart

Suspense thriller about a forest ranger, smugglers, memory loss, and lost love. Stars Haii (Cirrus in TT2) and Poppy (Porpla in YYY). Adapted from a Y-novel of the same name by TJ Tommy.

City of Stars AKA Fueangnakorn

An actor falls in love with a programmer and the narrative intends to “explore the ramifications of being public figure in the social network era who must endure critics, bullying, and defamation.” Looks like another Lovely Writer / Call It What You Want sort of thing.

Destiny Seeker

Songkram and Aye both are engineering students and live in university dorms. Songkram is the head student of dorm 3, which is where the "strong and athletic" male students are sorted. Aye is the head student of dorm 2, the dorm where all the "good looking" male students live. Aye used to be Songkram's tutor and friend, but they fell apart after both of them were chosen to be head students of the dorms. Dorms 2 and 3 have been at each other's throats for generations. Aye and Songkram might act like enemies, but Aye is actually in love with Songkram. However, he thinks Sonkram has feelings for Mean. What Aye doesn't know, is that he's the one Songkram likes, not Mean.

So, Bad Buddy the second coming.

The Eclipse

Tropes include: sinister boarding school, haze the one you love, good boy/bad boy, suspense & horror elements, self acceptance themes, a curse, enemies to lovers. GMMTV 2022 line up announcement full trailer. Staring First (The Shipper) & Khaotung (Tonhon Chonlatee) side dish pair from FUTS NeoLouis, and Pawin (My Gear and Your Gown). Looks good, dark, kind of Blacklist-ish meets Great Men Academy. I actually really like this pairing of Leads and I think they can handle the content. I’m excited about this one.

Fahlanruk - delayed from 2020

(Also spelled Fhalanruk - sigh) Y-novel adaptation featuring one night stand, friends with benefits, pining seme, and high heat. Trailer from June 2020 said coming 2021, so we live in hope. It’s from director Koo who has a long back catalogue of shows, if not a great track record with BL (Club Friday and Tonhon Chonlatee are his).

Plot: Fahlan (smart jock) meets Sherbet (edgy bad boy) sparks fly and they end up in bed together. Fahlan feels a lot more for Sherbet than is allowed, so he hides his feelings. Fahlan’s friends Ping and Tap, try to help their boy win his man, but are struggling with friends-to-lovers woes of their own.

Looks to be a strong contender in the Thai BL pulp dumpster fire of joy arena. It’s using tropes we rarely see and it tonally seems like a combination of Nitiman + Y-Destiny’s players episode (2 of my 2021 favorites). I like sexually messy and identity confused college dramas but this isn’t popular with BL main, and I suspect tastemakers know that. So Fahlanruk might struggle to find funding, but I will toast mad marshmallows over it, if it burns in truth.

Future the series

Based on a y-novel by Faddest (En of Love - yeah I didn’t know that was based on a novel, either). About, you guessed it, an engineering student and a dentist. Maybe this will be the FOTS we were all hoping for? Cast not fully announced yet but Fuse (the engineering student) played by Boom from the En of Love and might be the same character, in which case we can expect this one to be soft.

Heart by Heart

Half Toast Production adapting y-novel of the same name, the trailer is GOOD, and here’s an even longer one, I’m more excited for this one then I thought I would be. Has a bit of a Tasty Florida, jock/nerd, bad boy/good boy, high drama going on. Stars all unknowns but they look like decent actors. (Original trailer staring Gameplay is here, it’s now with a different production company, and new cast.)

I Feel You Linger in the Air

New Thai BL movie from the producers of Lovely Writer. This is a time travel historical romance. FROM THAILAND!  H I S T O R I C A L ! ! ! Thai BL adaption of y-novel Violet Rains as I Feel You Linger in the Air has been cast and will be a MOVIE from WeTV x Dee Hup (producers of Lovely Writer). This is Thailand’s first historical BL set in the 1920s (time travel). The MDL listing has been updated with a plot description.

Intern In My Heart

Announced in February, starring Toptap Jirakit & Fame Chawinroj (the doctor in My Ride) in a WeTV production.

I Will Knock You

For Ch3Thailand starring unknowns, adapted from korean_rabbit's y-novel of the same name, directed by Champ Weerachit (2gether & Kiss Me Again) starring fresh faces. A college student and part-time tutor confronts the leader of a gang who then turns out to be his next student. College set student/tutor bad boy/good boy sunshine/grumpy younger seme pairing, enemies to lovers, bully romance? (I like these tropes). 

Imado Jinja

For Amarin TV and KANTANA Group under Y Momen. Something to do with lucky cats and Japanese shrines. 

Love at First Sight

The description says only, and this is a direct quote: “Reflects different social classes through trains.” I’m confused too.

Love in the Air

New MAME Thai BL offering that got a trailer and inspired much amusement.

Make a Wish

Fluke Natouch (OhmFluke UWMA etc...) & Judo (The Miracle Of Teddy Bear) to star in the upcoming WaGa Creative's medical-fantasy. Has had a read through, no trailer yet. 

Middleman’s Love 

(Formerly Middle Love) adapted from a Y-novel: office romance, friends to lovers, younger seme, self acceptance from reliable production house Mandee who dropped a teaser in 2021. Stars Jimmy Tommy (Why R U?, Close Friend, Peach of Time (not as a couple) and James (Beer in Oxygen) & Net (Bed Friend - see above). This pairing the specializes in soft, to be directed by Cheewin. Sigh. We saw them teased at the and of Cutie Pie so presumably they started this project next. 

Plot: Jade works as a graphic designer and has always been stuck in the middle - average. His heart is hardened after a life spent being overlooked because he is not as charming or good looking as the rest of his family or friends. When his office gets a hot new intern, Mai, Jade assumes Mai couldn’t possibly be intersted in him. Instead he believes Mai is after his friend, Uea. Mai, of course, has other ideas.

Thailand’s version of Cherry Magic from their #1 softest ship? If script and production do even a half-arsed job it’s going to be adorable. Low heat and highly toothsome.

Motor-Cycle - delayed from 2019

Formerly known as Motorcycle the series, was supposed to release in 2019 and had a trailer, got bumped to 2020, and now? Who knows what’s up with this one. Dead I think. 

Moonlight Chicken

Part of GMMTV’s 2022 line up, full trailer, director Aof has signed on so this is like to happen. Possibly not a romance, probably not BL, adult issues, self actualization, messy gays, cheating, soulmates? Stars EarthMix (1000 Stars, Cupid's Last Wish), First (The Shipper) and Khaotung (Tonhon Chonlatee). 

Plot: Mix plays an openly gay character in a relationship with First’s character. Earth portrays a Chef who runs a restaurant while taking care of his nephew.

Apparently Thailand is entering Taiwan’s territory since this looks like a queer actualization narrative. Super smart of them to pick EarthMix for this style BL: messy gays being messy about life, love, and self acceptance. (However, do I think they can handle the high heat? Doubtful. Do I think GMMTV will bring the true high heat? Also doubtful. Case study? Friend Zone) Since this seems to be part of GMMTV’s "Midnight Series” dealing with darker themes like wealth gaps and social struggles, this might be a shorter piece. Good title. May not end happily.

Mr. Bad Guy

Only listed no further info. 

My Broccoli

“The law of living in the human world is not to feel loved.” 

My Engineer 2 - delayed from 2021

Second part of 2020′s My Engineer, continuation of the story arcs, but shifted focus to side couples (particularly RamKing). Filming was to start in April 2021, lockdown stopped it, so far just promo content. Many of the actors are now involved in other projects. Most of the support cast (except Mek) are expected to reprise their rolls.

My Lucky Cat

From Star Hunter, confusing but possibly about cat tribes (an old yaoi archetype) in a business setting, stars Dun (Thanu from Gen Y) and Bas (Wayo/Wayu 2 Moons, Gen Y).

My Only 12%

Y-novel adaptation (author Afterday - Bad Buddy) friends to lovers, from Studio Wabi Sabi starring SantaEarth (7 Project) about neighbors and childhood friends, Cake & Seeiw, who have totally opposite personalities slowly growing apart because of this. This one has the chemistry and the script so fingers crossed it’s not sad. To air on iQIYI.

My School President

Announced as part of GMMTV’s 2022 line up full trailer, this it their one high school set BL, with tropes like whipping boy, love triangle, and sing your feelings, it’s Love Sick + Korea and Japan's influence. Yes, we’ve seen it all before, but this is me: I never met a high school BL I didn’t want to grant a fair shake and I love me some whipping boy. Interesting to see such an old fashioned trope having a bit of a renaissance right now. All fresh faces in this one except Aun (Folk from My Gear).

My Tempo

BL collaboration series from The Brothers Thailand and Proxie Thailand with Chookiat Sakveerakul (Love Of Siam) to direct.

Never Let Me Go

GMMTV’s answer to KinnPorsche part of their 2022 line up, this is a mafia, attack dog (whipping boy + bodyguard), love triangle, obsession, suspense BL (full trailer), with Jojo of 3 Will Be Free to direct, so we know the action parts should be good. Stars PondPhuwin (Fish Upon the Sky), Aun (My Gear), and Chimon (My Dear Loser). Another dark one from GMMTV, not their strong point but this looks good but creepy. Feels a little classic yaoi with almost Japanese elements. I’m delighted to see Phuwin & Pond get a crack at something that’s not FUTS and of course Chimon ALWAYS makes me happy, since he’s one of my favorite GMMTV actors.

Nilundon - delayed from 2021

This is an ensemble of 2 BLs + 1 GL, featuring adult characters, cafe, grumpy/sunshine, rich/poor. It was postponed from 2021 to recast one of the leads, never a good sign. About a freelance photographer and heir to a famed Seoul hotel and restaurant business who, following a family death, returns to Thailand and meets a gregarious young barista. Side romances: producer is head-over-heels in love with her YouTubing bestie, and a veterinarian falls in love with the lead character’s impish cousin.

Past-senger AKA Pastsenger

Stars Marc (My Gear & Your Gown) and Copper (My Engineer) in a time slip story (90s kid travels to 2022) that seems a lot like a couple Kdrama’s I’ve watched only BL, so that’s cool. The show has a massive cast with popular actors like TIger (Top Secret Together), Champ Chenrach & Fluke Phisith (Siew Sum Noi) play side dishes. (Marc wasn’t in GMMTV’s 2022 line up, so he may have left after Bad Buddy.)

Past Love In The Future

From MAME rumored to star Smart Chisanupong and James Pongsapak aka LeonPob of Don’t Say No.

The Sweet Robot

Has been cast but with predominantly unknowns, Sib from I am Your King is the only one I recognize. Supposed to have sf/f elements.

Tell the World I Love You: Friends Forever - delayed from 2021 (Movie)

So much for Perth (Ae from Love By Chance) never doing BL again (although that subtitle gives me bromance vibes). He’s opposite Bas (Wayo/Wayu 2 Moons, Gen Y) in this action movie which has completed filming. Was supposed to release to theaters April 2021 then January 2022, not... nothing new trailer here. Established director Poj, support cast include Bank (Gen Y) about two teens falling in love caught up in the world of gagsters. 

The Theory series

University set but a couple of mature themes and decent acting, kinda like what FUTS should have been only pulpy. Stars Dome (2 Moons 2) and Benz (En of Love), and Ken (Tum in Lovely Writer who I LOVE). Looks like a classic Thai uni BL about a freshman boy who falls in love at first sight with a graduating senior. I think it’s En of Love stye, so three separate but equally weighted love stories from within a cross over friendship group. (trailer). 

Till the World Ends

Got nothing.

To Sir, With Love

New Thai HISTORICAL gay romance came outta nowhere (probubly not BL) aka Khun Chai. Does not look like it’s gonna end happy, but I’m still excited! (trailer)

Trouble Maker

This Faddist y-novel was optioned in 2021 (for 2022 they say) to be directed by Jane (Oxygen, SOTUS S, Nitiman, Our Skyy), starring KaownahTurbo (Love Stage!!!). 

War of Y 

20 episode of Cheewin’s nonsense. 

Wish Me Luck

Starring my boy Fiat (Grean Fictions, SOTUS S, My Gear and Your Gown, Triage) who I’ve been waiting to lead a BL for a decade (it feels like). About a boss and his temporary employee in an advertising company, based on Bittersweet's y-novel of the same name. 

Work From Heart

From DV8, starring Love With Benefits couple Gameplay & Folk a romance between two men set in the office featuring lots of other couples. 

Y You Y Me

Chalk another one up to CRAZY description gods. (from WeTV). “It tells a story about BL's fandom through Gap, an ordinary boy that never has any experience and the female lead who is an active member of the fandom. The series is about the music band.” 

You Are My Favorite

Adapted from a JittiRain y-novel (2gether) announced by GMMTV in their 2022 line up, (full trailer): timeslip, university set, one night stand, rewrite the past to change the future, sunshine/tsundere. Stars Krist (SOTUS) + Mike (2gether, Tonhon Chonlatee) and splitting up two long established branded pairs. Daring move from GMMTV. Another timeslip? (That’s at least 5 from Thailand in 2022). Who knew Krist would do a BL again? Like seriously? Also, is this going to be actual BL? Trailer does feature some classic tropes: elevator, rooftop assignation, lie on ground. I suspect this was originally intended to be a SingtoKrist vehicle, but I like Mike, and it’s nice to see him get a lead. I find him a likable, highly-watchable screen presence. Neither actors nor GMMTV are known for kissing in the BL, so I think we can expect this one to be Korean style low heat. These two are IRL friends though. 

You Light Up My Life Again

This is a colab project between Thailand's Studio Wabi Sabi and Mainland China, directed by New Siwaj for WeTV in Thailand and Tencent in China. Chen Wen played Yang Meng, the pretty fae bestie in Addicted Heroin (2016). Thai actors include Mark Siwat (Bite Me) who plays a het side dish, and Wabi Sabi stable actors: Boun (UWMA) and Yacht (LBC). To film at Dhurakij Pundit University known for having more students from China than any other Thai uni in the Mandarin language. (Promo Trailer) Rumor is it's a proper kissing BL but will be edited (censored) and not actually be distributed to China as such, to avoid censorship. Or it will be a bromance. Regardless, don’t trust this one to HEA. 

Plot: Qin Jun Hao (Cao En Qi), born into a wealthy family with a passion for basketball, breaks up with his GF, goes Thailand to pursue his dreams. He rooms with Yuan Zhiming (Chen Wen), a poor kid determined to work hard with a scholarship to study at the Faculty of Music. They grow close. Their friends include handsome senior "Charlie" (Mark), prankster "Da Ya" (Hu Hao Fan) and the basketball player "De De" (Boun).

It is about a Buddy & Budder pair system that lasts for a semester. Budder has to take care of Buddy. (For the Americans out there it’s like secret Santa but in service.) The Budder knows the identity of their Buddy, but the Buddy will not be aware of the Budder’s identity. If Buddy guesses the identity of Budder correctly, the Buddy will not need to write a report and get full marks and have the right to ask the Budder to take care of them until graduation.

Tropes already in the trailer? The little yellow backpack (it’s New after all), OMG they were roommates, jock/nerd, piggyback, beach frolic, sing your feelings, freshy games, possible love triangle.

I have a list of BLs that are cross country projects here: BL Without Borders

KOREA

Korean BL is more likely to happen than Thai BL and their trailers come much closer to release of the actual show, after filming completes. 

Bon Appetit 

From GoGo Studio a romance between office worker Do Hun and Yoon Soo, a man next door who cooks well.

Blueming 2

This is one of my favorites from this year (9/10). I’m not thrilled about this. It’s the same director as TMS2, and I didn’t like that one all that much. Still, I’m always intersted in where Korea goes when it’s given enough rope to hang itself.

Circumstances of Pungdeok Villa Room 304 

To be adapted into an 8 ep arc (25 mins ea) about a happy-go-lucky third-generation chaebol who receives an ultimatum from daddy to: 1. Leave the house penniless and survive for 2 years; and 2. Achieve results as team leader in a new business venture. The owner of the villa he lands in ignores and disregards him. However, it turns out they work in the same company. Let the cohabitation office drama commence. Rumored to star the same pair as Kissable Lips - Korea’s first example of a co branded repeat pair. I liked them A LOT and am very excited about this show. 

Eccentric Romance 

From Silkwood (Peach of Time) about friends of 10 years who’ve been hiding feelings for each other enter the same university. Plus MURDER. It is already in production, stars former The Man BLK member Yoon Jun Won and Thai actor Save Saisawat (Ai Long Nhai). I begin to think every The Man BLK member will eventually lead out a BL at this point. This will be Silkwood’s second Thai/Korean colab but not their last. 

Eul's Love 

Adapted from a webtoon this is a reunion romance office BL.

Heesu in Class 2 

Adaption of the comic by Lily, about a shy unpopular boy with a secret crush on best friend. 

Comfort the Boy 

(Adaptation of Dongmul's manwha webtoon A Shoulder to Cry On) to star idols Jaehan & Yechan BOTH from Kpop group OMEGA X in 12 ep run. School set, features a teasing confident gay, fake dating, and a rich/poor pairing, about homophobia/gossip putting a scholarship in jeopardy. Interesting that an idol company is allowing two idols from the same group star in a BL together. *danger will robinson” Due out in the fall.

Director Who Buys Me Dinner 

This webtoon adaption is  supposedly already filming about a new production house employee whose director (absolutely perfect in every way except that he seems to have lost his mind) claims to have lived three lives. Insists that they have to date if they don't want to die.

Happy Merry Ending 

From Kidari Studio about 2 men who work with wedding events, grumpy/sunshine pairing.

Follow The Wind 

Webtoon adaption from Myung’s BL Film (supposed to have released in the first half of 2022), from the director of My Sweet Dear. 

Love is like a Cat 

From Silkwood (Peach of Time) another Korean+Thai colab project, this one to star Mew Suppasit (Yeah. Fucking-A.) who plays a rookie film star, called the Cat Prince (for his cold arrogance) who goes up against a charismatic puppyish director. There is also a side romance (love triangle?) with a veterinarian. What the hell is Korea going to do with Mew’s level of gorgeous high heat? Guess who else is in the cast? Lee Geon Woo AND Chu Ji Min AKA Geonu & JM of JUST B.

Love Tractor 

Comic adaptation from WATCHA (Light On Me & Semantic Error) about a stressed-out law student who family obligations force into the countryside where a series of strange encounters and misunderstandings with his hunky young farmer neighbor commence. Will this be an extended version of Strongberry’s Some More? Or Korea’s take on Restart After Come Back Home? Either way I am SO EXCITED. Country boy meets city boy is a very underused romance trope in BL.

New Employee 

Ffrom WATCHA (Light On Me & Semantic Error) rumored to star Choi Si Hoon (Netflix's Single's Inferno). Another office set BL. 

Oh My Assistant 

Acquired and cast about but this is a sexy one for Korea, about an artist who draws adult webtoons and spends most of his time horny because of it, who hires an assistant that turns out to be his biggest fan. I guess we’re gone see how Korea handles thirst.

Secret Relationship 

To be adapted by Cradle Studio (subsidiary of Kakao). About clever and resourceful Daon who has worked hard to overcome being poor. His cheap ways annoy his coworker, Sunghyeon but after “an incident” with his parents, Daon grows closer to him. But Daon also has feelings for his former tutor. This has the signs of a classic Kdrama all over it: Office setting, love triangle, lead suffering for his self-actualization. I’m optimistic about a longer treatment. Read more about it here.

Space Bakery 

From Silkwood (Peach of Time) about a spaceship that crash-lands into and destroys a bakery shop. Of course this means the alien and the baker end up living together. At the same time, other aliens-in-hiding all around the city start hunting for them. One of my most anticipated BLs. It sounds SO WEIRD. 

Unintentional Love Story 

To star Cha Seo Won and Gongchan (maknae of K-pop B1A4). All we know is it’s a “love story that started with a lie” about rebuilding trust.

VIETNAM

About as unreliable as Thailand. No links to MDL because no Vietnamese shows are on MDL. 

The Lost Ring 

Reboot expansion into series of 2018 microfilm The Ring Goes Missing. College kid takes work as a houseboy for rich asshole who falls in love with him. From 02 Productions with the original lead pair, but delayed for funding reasons. 

Melody In Me 

Was to release July 2022 from AB Studios, Vietnam’s first classic uni-style BL featuring music and baking clubs and 2 soft boi pairing. 

TAIWAN 

Taiwan is more reliable than Thailand or Vietnam, less reliable than Korea. 

Ghost and I Becoming Family 

Movie about gay and traditional marriage with a police officer who creates a bond between a human and a ghost. Stars Lin Bo Hong and (I think) Greg Hsu.  

God's Military Officer 

Now THIS is a catchy title but I got nothing but rumored for CHOCO TV from the producers of HIStory 2&3. 

About Youth 

Alternately I Secretly Fell in Love with Student Council President (let the dumb titles continue) for CHOCO TV from the producers of HIStory 2&3, the director of H1: Stay Away From Me; H2: Crossing the Line; H3: MODC; Love Is Science is attached (we like her). About 2 high school boys with different backgrounds, personalities, and values who compete for student president, but have more attraction than animosity.

Papa & Daddy 2 

Coming to GaGa starring Melvin Sia (Damian) and Chiu Mu Han (new actor as Jerry) scheduled to be released on August 8 (Taiwan's Father's Day). 

My Tooth Your Love 

From Result Entertainment (We Best Love series) about a dentist and his patient, a bar owner and a rebellious young man (who took the initiative even with a 12 year age gap!) script by Lin Pei who loves VERY traditional yaoi tropes (writer of HIStory1: Obsessed, HIStory2: Right or Wrong, HIStory2: Crossing the Line, HIStory3: Trapped, WBL, & See You After Quarantine?) Stars Andy Wu (Amensalism), Yu Jin, Michael Chang, and Alex Chou (composer/musician and the other bartender in WBL). 

JAPAN

Japan is as reliable as Korea but takes more time about everything. 

Egoist (2023)

One of my absolute favorite Japanese actors Hio Miyazawa (from His the movie) has the lead in this movie adaptation of Makoto Takayama’s autobiographical novel Egoist. He’ll be opposite super famous actor Ryohei Suzuki. This is about an openly gay but vein and superficial man (Hio) who falls in love with a personal trainer (Ryohei) who is stuck taking care of his sick mother. It’s not BL, it’s gay coming of age and we can’t expect it to end happily. Still, I’ll probubly try to watch it. Japanese movies are notoriously difficult to get ahold of, tho.

Kabesaa Doujin Sakka no Neko Yashiki-kun wa Shounin Yokkyuu wo Kojirasete iru 

No English title yet Minamoto Kazuki's manga:  starring Matsuoka Koudai (I know him from Five) and Nakao Masaki (Kakafukaka, Bow Then Kiss - he’s a BIG DEAL ya’ll) slated to be released in October. (source) The description from Crunchyroll is up on MDL but it’s incomprehensible.

My Beautiful Man: The Movie AKA Utsukushii Kare 2 

I’m very nervous, I think that series stands alone and is perfect as it already is. I’m worried Japan is over egging the pudding. Meanwhile, My Beautiful Man won the Grand Prix “My Best TV Award” at the 16th Galaxy Awards.

Our Dining Table AKA  Bokura no Shokutaku

Mira Ori's BLOVED manga (especially be me) is getting an adaptation! Lonely salaryman (talented cook) gets accidentally adopted by a college kid and his baby brother. They build a family together. This is a sweetly gentle and cozy manga and it will make a GREAT live action piece. I’ve recommended the manga in the past to anyone who likes BLs like Ingredients, To My Star, What Did You Eat Yesterday? and I think we are in for similar gay domesticity to Old Fashion Cupcake with this adaptation YAY!

Takara-kun to Amagi-kun AKA Takara and Amagi

AKA Takara-kun and Amagi-kun 8 eps about a popular guy and an outcast boy who like each other and start dating in secret. Premieres August 18 no word on distribution yet.

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

Cambodia released a trailer of upcoming Khmer BL មើលបានហាមសម្លឹង AKA Eye Contact. We are in “don’t bet on it happening (or finishing)” territory.

(source) 

Dated July 2022. I’ll be tracking these on my magic spreadsheet henceforth and no updating this until the end of year report. Ask if you want to know more. 

[gottawriteanegoortwo]

Marmien - Let Us Have Tonight

So I accidentally landed in the Marmien tag while procrastinating in work earlier in the week. I got inspired by the idea of how Mark and Damien might officially begin a relationship if Damien were the sibling Mark fell in love with originally. 

It… Was supposed to be flirty. But then it went kinda sad. With that in mind, there’s a pretty strong focus on controlling parents so I’ve stuck it under a read-more.

Word Count: 1,694

-

It had been a wonderful night. Since gaining full ownership of the Manor, Mark had redecorated and brought it up to the full splendour it deserved. It was the location of many parties that would allow optimal chances to brush shoulders with the crème de la crème of the city. But tonight, it was a smaller, more important affair. Mark had invited his three closest friends over for dinner and drinks to celebrate William’s arrival home from an overseas expedition. The staff were given the night off so the four could fully unwind without the worries of anyone eavesdropping. Spirits were high as they swapped stories and snacks. William had been hired for a job that required him being security during a wildlife documentation trip. The meal was accompanied with tales of William’s adventures and mishaps. The conversation was briefly interrupted as the four partook in the chaos of attempting to clean the dishes. Bubbles were blown, Mark’s hair was soaked, but it was good times, something all of them needed.

One the kitchen was (hopefully) to the chef’s standards, they returned to the living room to lounge on the chairs and chat. They shared casual conversation, and all took it in turns to quiz Celine on the course she was taking. Her parents didn’t think it necessary that a woman get a qualification, but she decided otherwise. After all, they didn’t particularly care what she did if she did it herself. But as for her twin brother?

--

Oh, how Mark’s heart ached when he glanced at Damien. He was the youngest child, but the only son. That meant that he was the prime focus of the parents. He was left to burden the responsibilities of the family legacy, whether he wanted it or not. His life had been plotted for him with no room for discussion on the matter. Mark was sure that they would have encouraged Damien to distance himself from Mark and William because neither men were ‘suitable’ to their impossible standards, only that they had been friends since childhood. Mark was certainly thankful for that. Damien was already a lonely soul. He couldn’t bear to think about how worse it could be. He had already spent most of the evening quiet, unable to share his own tales with how restricted his life was.

It was why he jumped the gun and asked Damien to stay on when the others were getting ready to leave. Why force him back into his cage so soon? Maybe that was why Celine agreed, throwing her brother a sympathetic look, and suggested that she too would avoid going home so Damien wouldn’t face potential punishment. Damien was grateful for the support, giving a weak chuckle when William patted his friend on the shoulder and reminded him of the soldier’s promise to ‘pummel the daylights out of your old man’ if anything did happen.

When the door closed, Mark fetched Damien a glass of water. Alcohol would not help matters right now and he knew it. He didn’t want to bring the mood down any more, not when his heart was begging to do something.

A badly kept secret in the group was this: Mark had been in love with Damien for years. Not only that, it was reciprocated. 

When they were teenagers, Mark’s parents - well-known patrons of the arts with generations of money running through their veins - had hosted a party to celebrate the success of an operatic production that had been on that day. It was a rare time Damien had returned home while in university. With Celine sick at home and William in the army barracks, the pair stole away from the stuffy public spaces and hid in the library. Talk gradually shifted from the opera they had watched, to the idea of what love was and what importance it played in their families, to how they themselves viewed romance in their lives, to Mark admitting he thought Damien to be quite beautiful and that it might be the first time he’s fallen in love, to Damien quietly confessing he wants to be with Mark. Their first kiss hidden amongst the books was soft and tentative. Murmurs of love were shared with breathy whispers, but neither could do more about it beyond sharing kisses and compliments and promises to be true no matter what. Damien was caught under his parents’ thumb. If they chased this relationship further, he would have been forbidden to return to university out of the state, transferred to the local university they wanted him to attend… And would have forbidden him to see Mark again. Instead, they agreed to stay on ‘not yet’. No matter how impatient Mark was, he’d wait. No other person made him feel ‘complete’ as Damien did.

(Oh, his parents had tried to encourage him to date Celine, but he refused. Sure, she was beautiful, but waiting for Damien was one promise he would keep)

Yet as the years went by, something always happened to result in Damien asking Mark to delay his advances no matter how he wanted the opposite. Every single time, the reason would lead to Damien’s suffocating parents being the root of the problem. At least now Mark, Celine and William were old enough to work together to try and give Damien a little more independence. Even now, Celine was willing to put her neck on the line so Damien could have some time alone with Mark with William as her accomplice. Which brings us back to the present. The pair sat in silence on the couch, Damien sipping the water as he was lost in thought. Mark barely needed to tilt his head to know that Damien was weighed down by the stories Celine and William had shared throughout the evening.

“For what it’s worth, I still think you’re incredible.” Mark’s attempt to break the silence hit the nail on the head.

“Of course you would say that,” sighed Damien, not objecting when Mark draped an arm  over his shoulder and pulled him close. “You’d say that no matter what.”

“I say it because it’s true. You’re such a clever, charming, intelligent, handsome young man. I’d listen to you talk all night if you’d let me.” There was another sigh, but Mark lightly squeezed his shoulder. “Hey, no, don’t start that. I mean it. You’re so well-read, you always have something insightful to say about everything. You’ve been able to give me tips during my rehearsals for a play you’d never heard of, for pity’s sake. Those good days are coming. We’re all older and wiser, while your parents are old-fashioned farts.” Damien snorted, but he reluctantly moved back so he could look Mark in the eye. There was a smile Mark loved to see, but it was tinged with sadness.

“You always manage to face everything head-on like a wall you can easily climb. I’ve always liked that about you.”

“I’m sitting on that wall ready to pull you up whenever you want. Just say the word.”

“You know I can’t.” The conversation was spiralling back to one they’ve had several times over the years - whether or not now was the ‘right’ time to do anything with their feelings. “My parents won’t approve -”

“Your parents haven’t approved of me from the day I went into the acting profession. They haven’t scared me away, I won’t let them.”

“But -” Damien’s counter vanished into nothing as Mark cupped Damien’s chin with his hand.

“Do my advances make you uncomfortable?”

“No.”

Mark leaned in.

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No.”

“So then why not be selfish, my love, just for tonight?”

They were close, so painfully close that all Mark needed to do was push forward a fraction more. But he couldn’t. He had sworn to himself that this relationship was on Damien’s terms. If Damien moved away, he would respect that. He always did. 

In that moment, Mark was sure that all his senses were amplified. He could hear his heart pounding in his chest. Damien was wearing the cologne Mark gifted him for his birthday and it made him feel giddy and light-headed. He let himself be mesmerised by Damien’s beautiful eyes.

He felt an arm snake around his neck. All he could taste was Damien on his lips.

Mark’s eyes fluttered closed as Damien indulged in selfishness and pressed against him. The kiss was quick to deepen as both men let the feelings they had bottled up spill out. Mark’s hands moved fast, wrapping around Damien’s waist and encouraging him to climb onto his lap. Damien broke the kiss to catch his breath.

“I love you. God, I - I need this. I need this so badly…” He trailed off with another kiss.

“Then stay. We can say you fell asleep on the couch and I hadn’t the heart to wake you. We can have tonight and then act like this never happened.” Mark was almost pleading. He would do anything if it meant he could have this moment.

“No… Fuck my parents. I love you and I’ve hidden that for too long. I don’t care what they think.” Damien’s stubbornness, at last, had kicked in; and both men knew it wasn’t the alcohol talking. Mark laughed and brushed a hand through Damien’s hair.

“I love you. And you know, I don’t think either the world nor history won’t care about us. Did you know they think a lot of the great historical figures in Ancient Greece were in same-sex relationships? If the world finds out, they’ll do whatever they can to pin us as close friends. I know I’ve read articles showing how wilfully oblivious the press can be if the couple travel in similar social circles” Tomorrow, Damien might decide to not be as open and bold about their relationship, but Mark would gleefully encourage it tonight as his hand pressed against the back of Damien’s head so they could kiss again.

Words weren’t needed now. They had each other. Without the world watching them, they could finally keep their promise from years ago as they broke apart and embraced.

For now, at least, they had tonight.

[mxndoscyarika]

Honeydew (Marcus Pike/Moreno x OC) | Chapter 1

Summary: Erin He moves to DC after working for the FBI in Texas and runs into a hero in disguise; Marcus Moreno. Something about him is familiar, too familiar, yet different in a way that she can’t quite place. Although confused, she can’t deny her feelings for him; perhaps, after years of regret, she finally found the one.

Warnings: food/drink mention

Ao3

Honeydew masterlist

Like my writing? Here’s my masterlist.

Author’s Note: I’m so excited for you all to read this story! Special thanks go to Lynn (@mindless--ramblings​​) for always being so supportive and helping me stay inspired! Ever since I found out Pedro now has two characters named Marcus, I’ve wondered about ways I could connect them in one piece of writing. And this? This is that piece of writing. Moreno won’t be making an appearance in this one, but I hope Pike will make up for that 😉 Enjoy!

Ground floor.

First floor.

Second.

Erin He took a deep breath, thankful that the elevator was empty. She straightened the collar of her shirt as the fourth floor approached. At her side was her government-issued laptop, which she’d picked up from the front desk. Her fingers gripped its edges tightly. This was it. She made it.

The elevator let out a soft ding and opened its doors, revealing a floor of cubicles and conference rooms. Austin sunlight filtered through large windows, illuminating the space alongside the bright fluorescent lights.

She stepped out, searching for the art theft department’s main office. As much as she understood the need for technology specialists across all the FBI’s branches, she never quite grasped why she was placed in the art theft department, of all places. She always thought she’d be in the operational technologies department, developing and maintaining tools for others to use. Though she couldn’t blame them; intellectual property was highly valued and often stolen.

The email said to report to the department supervisor’s office for a quick onboarding, but they didn’t exactly mention what it would be. It could’ve been anything from a quick handshake to being told to shadow a coworker. Hopefully the former.

Part of her begged to the gods of computer science that she wouldn’t be assigned to yet another condescending old white man. Her last welcome at a company had been less than mediocre, and lukewarm at best.

The other part of her nagged that she’d signed up for exactly that.

“Ah, there you are. Welcome to your first day, Special Agent He,” the department supervisor–Harold Strauss–greeted as she entered his office. He gestured to the man standing in front of his desk. “This is Agent Marcus Pike. He will be showing you the ropes today.”

Agent Pike looked at her over his shoulder, the corners of his lips curling in a friendly smile. He couldn’t have been much older than her, with his faint smile lines and soft brown hair. He tucked his hands into his pockets and turned around to face her.

“Thank you, sir,” she replied. She shook his hand and then extended her hand to Pike. “Nice to meet you. Thanks for taking time out of your day to show me around.”

“Likewise,” he replied, shaking her hand. His brown eyes sparkled as he proposed, “Should we start? I have a meeting in about half an hour, and I’m sure you’ll want to meet some of our operational techs and digital forensics team. They’re the backbone of everything we do here.”

They acknowledged their supervisor once more and then left to begin the tour.

As her personal guide gave her the rundown of the floor’s organization and workflow, Erin couldn’t help but sneak a couple more glances at him.

He was taller than her by a few inches, but not in such a way that she felt like shrinking into herself. And he always stayed at her side, never walking ahead or lagging behind. His strong jaw led her gaze to a pair of soft lips, which seemed to be in a perpetual smile as he talked about the breakthroughs the department had in the past days.

“Do you know where your desk is?” Pike asked.

“Yeah, they told me the other day,” she answered, tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ears. They walked over to her assigned desk, which was barren save for a standard computer, box of pens, and notepad. “If you’re going to ask if I need help with setup, I think I should be alright for now. Nothing a few installations and linux commands can’t fix.”

He chuckled softly and nodded. “You’re living up to your title, Agent He. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I could’ve been much help even if I offered. Have you done work similar to this before?”

She shrugged. “I worked in cybersecurity and software development,” Erin replied, setting down her bag and laptop on her desk. Slipping off her black blazer, she continued, “But I figured I should do something more than just build products for tech companies. Use my skills to aid in investigations.”

He nodded in understanding. “I see what you mean. Actually, I was originally studying to be an art history professor. But then I found this job and figured I could use my knowledge to help find and preserve artworks.”

Hm, noble.

“Sounds like we aren’t so different,” she observed, following him across the officespace. “Let’s hope that I can be of help around here.”

He chuckled softly, the dimple in his cheek showing as he smiled. “I think you’ll fit right in.”

---

The words on the screen blurred into the white background of the screen, as if they were mocking her. Each line of test slowly lost its meaning, turning into mind-numbing strings.

Erin pushed her computer away and rubbed her eyes defeatedly, sighing. The department was launching an investigation regarding a museum that was broken into and wiped clean. What little data was left on the computers, from what she gathered after hours of poring over them, was largely useless. Hopefully, one of the other agents would find something helpful in the other remnants. Perhaps an address, or some sort of signature that could be traced to a group. Her, on the other hand? She just wasted hours of work.

A steaming cup of coffee was set down onto her desk, along with some sugar and tiny cups of cream.

She looked up to find Marcus–Pike, she reminded herself–standing at her side, looking down at her with a soft smile. “Find anything?”

“Nope,” she sighed. It turned out that Pike was one of the best agents in the department, and that meant he spent most of his time leading and organizing investigations. What that meant for Erin, then, was that she had to answer to him. Thankfully, he was never weird about it. Quite the opposite, actually. Tapping the side of the cup, she asked, “Is this for me?”

He laughed softly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah! Sorry; I would’ve fixed it, but I wasn’t sure how you liked your coffee.”

“Well it’s nothing complex, if that’s what you’re nervous about,” she teased. Two sugars and a drizzle of cream turned the pitch black liquid into a deep brown. She took a sip, the placebo of caffeine already kicking in. “When you’re in STEM, you learn to appreciate caffeine in any form. But I like it like this.”

“Noted,” he said, his voice a soft timbre amongst the flutter of papers and clacking of keys. Hands resting on his hips he asked, “How long do you think it’ll be before you find anything?”

“Anywhere from an hour to another three...or five,” she sighed, lazily scrolling down the file. Basking in the steam from her cup, she continued, “I’m gonna need a lot more of this coffee. There has to be something useful in this file, I just need to find it. I might need to cross-reference with some of the other evidence to notice anything.”

A headache was already descending upon her, and she was only six hours in. Weak–she’d stared at a computer much longer without any problem many times before. Why, of all times, did it have to happen when she was talking to her coworker?

“Well, I’ll be here pretty late tonight, so if you need anything, just let me know,” he replied, patting her shoulder. The crease between his brows deepened as he squinted down at the screen. “Maybe you need a fresh set of eyes on it. Take a break, Erin.” At her responding pout, he reasoned, “It’s been almost a month and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you rest.”

Of course he noticed her breaks, or lack thereof. She rolled her eyes, hiding a bashful smile in her cup. “I work best in sprints.”

He hummed amusedly. “But even sprinters need breaks, don’t they?” Then, his eyes lit up. “Actually, why don’t you take a break now?”

Erin raised a brow. “Am I not taking a break right now?”

His laugh was warm. “I mean a real break. Let’s get lunch; my treat.”

“Are you really going to make me choose between food and digital forensics, Agent Pike?”

Nodding definitively, he replied, “Yes, Agent He.”

Unable to resist the prospect of free lunch, she gave in and followed him out to his car. The work would still be there when she returned. For the moment, she could just enjoy Marcus’s companionship.

He drove out to a local diner about ten minutes away, his turns confident as if he’d gone there hundreds of times before. Judging by the way his eyes had sparked with joy at her agreement, he probably had.

They let their shoulders relax in the serenity of the car, shedding the formalities and passing time as if they were close friends.

The diner was small and cozy, booths worn with age and serving breakfast all day. Erin’s lips curled up in a little smile as the hostess recognized Marcus. So he was a regular, after all.

They sat down across from each other in a booth. Erin shrugged off her navy blue blazer and smoothed her dark hair back into a thick ponytail.

As she fixed her hair, Marcus gave her his recommendations, leaning in with the menu so she could follow along with her eyes. He seemed particularly fond of the pancakes, so she decided on those. Surely he wouldn’t lead her astray.

And with the way his voice rasped just slightly, she could listen to him speak for a whole day.

“Honey? Did you hear anything I said?” he asked, tilting his head slightly with a little smirk.

Erin snapped out of her reverie, cheeks burning. “Oh, um. Yeah. Sorry, I spaced out for a bit.”

“No worries, it happens to all of us,” he reassured, laying the menu flat on the table. “What were you thinking about?”

Less than an hour had passed before they were back in the office, stepping out of the elevator with full bellies. The familiar clicking from computers and buzz of conversations filled the air, and they were officially agents again.

Erin turned to him and nudged his arm. “Hey, thanks for the break.”

“Anytime,” he replied, walking with her along the perimeter of the room. They stopped at the hallway leading to the conference rooms and offices. His large hand moved to rest on her arm, his thumb rubbing gently. “I guess this is my stop. You know where to find me.”

“And you know where I’ll be.”

The next day, Marcus was greeted in his office by tupperwares containing homemade fried rice, some cut up fruit, and a sticky note.

Thanks for sticking with me yesterday. -E

The corners of his eyes crinkled as he tried to refrain from grinning like a maniac, though he was sure anyone who happened to pass by would’ve thought he looked like a schoolgirl with a crush. Erin’s handwriting was soft and curved, so similar to calligraphy but simple in a way that made the note feel that much more intimate.

She had an interesting way of showing her care for others, he found. Perhaps it was a byproduct of the work she dedicated her life to; she seemed to always be one step ahead, ready to pull out small details that others would dismiss. He wondered what she might know of him.

There were a few things she clearly knew; things that surprised him every day. Just as he’d learned her usual coffee order, she’d learned his. When he’d walk in every morning, her head of dark hair would tilt to peek over her cubicle, as if she could sense his presence. And when their eyes would meet, her smile was better than the best espresso in the world.

Marcus shook his head to himself as his heart fluttered. Years of failed relationships and a divorce later, he still couldn’t keep his feelings in check. His mother always said he had a soft heart, one that would be his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. But Erin was anything but a weakness.

She wasn’t a weakness, but a strength. A constant in his life, making each day feel just a little more special. He didn’t need a relationship to be happy, but….he wouldn’t be opposed to one either.

Yet, as he spotted Ian Malarkey standing a bit too close to her, he forced himself to backtrack. What if she didn’t want him? What if they were meant to be just as they were: just friends?

Maybe it was time for him to move on.

After a few months, their friendship had grown well past a workplace acquaintance. It wasn’t as if she was trying to get attached to him; it just...happened. And it was only a little surprising to her; she tried to stay as professional as she could in the office, but outside? Outside, she could just be Erin, not FBI Special Agent He. Outside, she could shed her jacket and swap the button-down shirt for a ribbed sweater and some jeans. Outside, she and Marcus could sit as close together as they wanted without drawing unwanted attention.

She knew it was silly to fantasize. After all, Marcus was a coworker, if not a superior. And with the way he fussed over her water intake and made sure that she wore her glasses at the right times, he could easily see her as a little sister. As nothing more than a new agent who happened to be friendly.

But if that were true, why would he go through the effort of bringing her lunch on Thursdays? Why did he call her little names like “honeydew” and “sweetheart,” and why did it feel so natural coming from his mouth?

The commotion coming from the direction of the conference rooms told her that the team was back from the investigation. Maybe Marcus was there; she knew he’d gone, but he hadn’t texted since morning. It wouldn’t hurt to pop in to check on him; he did that often enough with her.

When she entered the break room, her heart sank. Sitting off to the side, by the wall, was Marcus asking Teresa Lisbon out on a date. She wasn’t sure why she felt defeated;  it wasn’t like she had any plans on asking him out.

But then why did it hurt her to the core to see him giving those puppy eyes and little smiles to Lisbon? The woman didn’t even look interested in him; if anything, she looked confused and hesitant.

Ian caught her eye as she surveyed the room once more, his lips pulling into a tight-lipped smile. He knew about her feelings for Marcus, having spent hours going over evidence and making small talk. In fact, he’d even encouraged her to tell Marcus her feelings, out of fear that she might never get the chance.

Perhaps her chance had passed after all. Turning on her heel, Erin decided that, for once, it was time to go home. Marcus would come to her when he was less busy.

The thing was, though, she didn’t want to go home. She wanted to go over and say hello, and check to make sure he wasn’t injured in the scuffle. Moreover, she didn’t want to be a fill-in for Lisbon’s absence. She didn’t want to be his second choice. And she knew it wasn’t her fault, nor Lisbon’s, that Marcus didn’t choose her. But it still stung.

She watched as their shared lunches became less frequent, the senior agent replacing her space by Marcus’s side. When the elevator would ding at 7AM and she’d glance up to see if it was him, she found him searching the room for Lisbon. They never drifted over to her desk. That fact always made her grip her pen just a little tighter.

On the days when he did grace her with his presence, she felt like a tornado of emotions.

Happy, because she had missed her best friend.

Sad, because she knew the next time she’d spend time with him was in a few weeks rather than a few days.

Grateful, because she knew how hard it was to socialize after a work week of at least 50 hours.

Envious, because of the stories he told.

Relieved, because he still cared.

Plastering a halfhearted smile on her face, Erin listened to Marcus practically worship his girlfriend. His summer breeze of a smile and sparkling eyes made the pain that came with listening worth it. The only other time she’d heard him talk that passionately was when they’d visited an art museum.

At least one of them was happy.

She thought of trying to date again; it had been over a year since she’d been in a relationship. But she couldn’t do it. More than once, she’d put on some simple makeup and casual clothes, ready to head out to the bar, but no. She couldn’t bring herself to leave the apartment. The apartment was where she and Marcus watched movies, where she would cut up fruit and bring them to him on a plate while he pored over reports in the warm lights of the kitchen. It was where he’d navigate her cupboards and fridge to make her a mug of his special hot chocolate. It was her safe space, the one place in her life where she could just be Erin, and he could just be Marcus.

The knife cleaved the melon in half with ease, revealing its pale green interior.

Marcus leaned up against the counter next to her, hair tousled and necktie loosened against his chest. He absentmindedly started rolling up his sleeves, undoing the cuffs of his shirt and folding them up.

She tried not to stare too long at the way his forearms tensed with the movement.

He broke the silence first. “I got the job in DC,” he said, voice soft like velvet.

“That’s great.” A simple response, though Erin cringed internally. Was that any way to react to her best friend’s job promotion? Surely not, but a part of her–a selfish part of her–knew that it meant he was leaving. Leaving not just his position, but her. Texas. The apartment.

It would’ve been disingenuous for her to say anything more.

Then, he added, almost sheepishly, “I also asked Teresa to marry me. And move to DC so we can be together.”

The blade of her knife hit the cutting board a little harder than normal. “Oh. That’s nice.” Cutting away the tough outer skin, she forced herself to ask, “What did she say?”

He sighed and crossed his arms, biting his lip as if to contain a smile. “She said she’d think about it. But I think she’ll come around. I kind of, uh, sprung it onto her the other night.”

And yet there he was, standing next to a woman who would’ve been ready to say yes. But even so, she said, “I’m sure things will work out between you two. You’ve already given so much to your relationship; it would be a shame for her to not see how great you are.”

She slid him a bowl of perfectly cubed melon.

Smiling softly, he took the bowl into his hands. “You’re the best, honeydew.”

The best, but not the one.

“You’re just trying to get on my good side before you leave for DC, brown eyes,” she jested, nudging him with her elbow. Her chest filled with warmth at his laugh. She tried her best to hang onto that feeling, to that sound. “When are you two leaving?”

“I’m already about halfway packed,” he mused, chewing on a cube of honeydew thoughtfully. “So maybe within the week? I hope that’s enough time for Teresa to make a decision.”

There was less time than she thought. She hummed softly. “Are you sure that’s what she wants? That it’s what you want?”

He nodded confidently. “Yes, I...I know that I don’t have the best track record with relationships, but something about her feels right.” The bowl was set into the sink and filled with water. “I’m happy, honey. You don’t have to worry.”

Erin’s eyes burned as she quietly replied, “Okay.”

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TAGLISTS: (please let me know if you’d like to be added!)

PERMANENT: @cinewhore​ @randomness501​ @theghostwiththemost-babe​ @ahopelessromanticwritersworld​ @catfishingmorales​ @halfwaythereroyal​ @fioccodineveautunnale​ @talesfromtheguild​ @tortles​ @ladamari68​ @theokatcov @snivellusim​ @starryluce​ @inked-poet​ @browneyes-djarin​ @shedobewritingalittle​ @chews-erotically​ @thefandomimagines​ @emesispo​ @mindless--ramblings​ @phoenixhalliwell​

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[lostatsea303]

Let’s Talk About The Finale

Hey guys before we talk about that last episode we’re going full spoiler in this post so if you haven’t seen it yet you may want to stop here

So I wanted to make this post after seeing so many different opinions on the content of this episode and I figured I could add my two cents in and hopefully bring some praise and constructive criticism from my point of view.

First let’s talk Directing, Choreography, and Acting

First off let’s tip our hats to the VAs this episode they all did an amazing job! Elizabeth Maxwell, Miles Luna, and Taylor McNee all deserve recognition for being standouts in an episode where everyone nailed their parts.

In terms of choreography I think this met the RWBY standard. The Ironwood and maiden fights were top notch and while the RWB fight against Cinder and Neo felt a little off I think this was intentional; Team RWBY has been fighting and without rest for nearly 24 straight hours, they’re going to be slow and tired.

Directing I thought was very solid. There are some great shots I want to highlight in fact:

I think all these shots are excellent and there are a few more I’ll be using later. Directing and lighting has been something I think this volume has done exceedingly well! However there is one scene I think fell short.

This kinda looks like a meme doesn’t it? This moment completely took me out of the moment and I was wondering why. It’s not because of Harriet’s action’s I think she was sick of physically fighting and just wanted everyone to leave so she could die going down with the ship. No, I realized it was this shot: if this sequence had a close up of Qrow struggling against the weight of the bomb and cut back to another close up of Harriet yelling where you could see the desperation on her face (cause CRWBY did a great job with facial animation) it would work. Instead the framing, drab lighting, and stillness really hurt this scene.

Outside of this one scene however, I think this was a stellar finale in terms of production value!

WRITING

Overall I thought this was another good episode for the writers. Character dialogue was on point:

“You chose nothing, this was a gift”

“Whatever you wanted, I hope it was worth it.”

“I’ve only done what’s best for Remnant, and no one is grateful.”

And of course the whole Cinder and Salem interaction.

The events within the episode, I think, were all very good choices but there are two in particular I want to focus on:

The Sacrifice

I’m gonna talk about this first because I know this is where there is the most division right now and understandably so. We all love Penny, she has always been one of the purest characters within the show. That is why her death, even so shortly after she became human, is not only the right decision but a good one.

When you think about it Penny and Pyrrha are very similar characters: Morally upright, strong, and viewed as paragons amongst their peers. Pyrrha was chosen to be Vale’s Guardian and Penny was the protector of Mantle. They were people who always did the right thing for everyone else. However, their journey’s, not as people within the show but characters within a piece of art, would always require them to meet their end. 

Penny’s development was never about her learning what it was like to be a “real girl” because she already got that from being friends with Ruby. Her development was based around one of the key themes of this show: choice and control

RWBY has always focused on the question of who do we choose to be and what do we let control us. Penny rarely had a choice, and was always in danger of losing her control to someone else. At Beacon she was at Ironwood’s behest, in this season Watts had control over her in spurts. She was always in a battle to decide who she would be, and this was shown literally in the show with the fight between the virus and her soul. So when she became human she completed the biggest step in her journey of development: she no longer had any strings.

And she finally got to feel the warmth of the heart.

And that left her character development at an end. She had already learned what it meant to live, she finally got to experience the physical side of it, and finally she couldn’t be controlled again.

So when faced with the threat of someone taking away her control (Cinder) the completion of her character arc comes with her making the choice that Ruby didn’t earlier. But this time she was at peace with it, because she wasn’t dying because she had to due to an uncontrollable circumstance. No, now she chose to give her friend’s a chance, give Remnant hope in a new Winter maiden, and take from the enemy what they once took from her.

She chose.

While this completes her character arc it also develops everyone else’s which leads us into our final section

The Separation

We all knew that they were going to fall, you don’t have foreboding lines like “Do not fall” and not explain why.

But now all of the events have culminated in a perfect storm for our characters next season. Here’s what I mean:

This finale, especially with Penny’s sacrifice sets up every single character in this show for major developments. Starting from the outside:

Winter now has to learn to be a leader, not just a soldier anymore. She has to unlearn the years of regimenting and oppression that she’s been a part of.

Ren and Nora get to truly figure out who they are: There will be no team leaders among them, they will have to become them.

Oscar and Ozpin have to become the heroes that the former has always wanted to be and the latter always had other to become.

Qrow continues to learn to deal with loss and how even in spite of it he can keep moving forward and that the pains of the past can push him to better instead of holding him down.

Neo will learn what family is supposed to be, and coming to understand forgiveness for the things others do.

Jaune has to come to grips with the reality of being a hero and that sometimes the best choices we can make for others are the ones that cost the most of us.

Ruby will have to face not only another close loss in her life but she’ll have to learn about sacrifice and the unfortunate necessity of it. She’s been surrounded her whole life with people making the choice to sacrifice for her: Summer, Yang, Qrow, Weiss, and now Penny. She’s going to have to face Jaune making the choice she wouldn’t (Not to say that situation called for it but understanding the differences in those situations) and understanding that sometimes people have to go. While we should always do our best to save everyone we can, sometimes running away from the grief in our lives can creating greater loss than if we face it when we have to. 

Weiss has to learn to let go of control. She tried to protect and save everyone but in the end she was the last one from her team left. We’ve subtly seen through out this volume, and really the last couple of them if we’re being honest, Weiss always trying to be moderate within the team and be the glue and protector of the team as a whole. She’s always trying to be the best teammate she always promised to be but that has made her terrified to fail and in the end it’s stopped her from reaching her full potential. It’s a noble thing she does, but she’s so beholden to the expectations of other’s (now her friends instead of her family) that it secludes her. We’ve seen moments of her true strength when she focuses and trusts herself but she still hasn’t fully gotten there.

Blake is the flipside to Weiss, she needs to learn to take control. She’s still held down by the fear of being what Adam said she was that she won’t take the step forward. Whether this be with her relationship to Yang or even in situations like the one we saw in the second to last episode frozen and unsure how to proceed at the end. She tries to play it safe because of what she’s gone through. But Penny’s sacrifice and when she thought she lost Yang will push her.

Yang has already learned to necessity of sacrifice but she has to learn that not every situation requires it. Put simply she has to learn what she means to the others. Yang has always been the first to throw herself in the line of fire for others and take the risk when it’s time. But she’s never thought about how she affects others with her sacrifice. Penny’s loss may initially affirm her current view but she will have to come to face that Penny’s sacrifice happened only when absolutely necessary and when it was best for everyone else. Yang needs to know she’s worth more than what she can do for other people.

CONCLUSION

Honestly guys this was alot and if you read all this way thank you! I’m sure some people will disagree with some of my thoughts and that’s totally ok! In the end we’re all fans, and we all care alot about this show.

See you guys next season!

[hetacon]

Prom Queen: Chapter 2

First || Previous || Next

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Word Count: 1,900

Pairings: Endgame Prinxiety, Platonic LAMP, more could be included at a later point

Warning: Swearing, food mentions (Let me know if I missed anything, this one seemed fairly tame!)

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Summary: He missed Roman. High school had been, in the grand scheme of things, largely without his best friend.

(Make sure to read the notes at the end if you want to hear my thoughts on the chapter! As always, feel free to let me know if you want to be added to my taglist for this story or just my art and writing ones in general! Enjoy!)

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High school wasn’t great but it certainly didn’t seem to be terrible either. That’s what Virgil was gathering from the whole experience anyways. It definitely didn’t hold as much of the awkwardness in terms of trying to find himself and who he was as a person like middle school had brought about.

But still, there were still a fair share of complications. Roman’s popularity throughout the years had started to become one of them.

Neither of them had honestly expected it really. Theater put Roman in the spotlight, both literally and figuratively, that was where part of his newfound popularity came from. With that little bit of exposure, people started to take notice of him.

First it had been Roman running late to English a few times when they started out freshman year.

That expanded to Roman joining some clubs Virgil was content to stay out of for a couple days in the week.

More interaction with more people meant Roman got to talking with some interesting people from student council through his Model UN club meetings, including a familiar face from theater serving as their stage manager in the upcoming fall production.

“Hey guys, there’s someone I’d like you to meet!” Roman said excitedly as he dragged along a guy that looked around their grade, firm hands on his shoulders. Roman beamed as Virgil and Patton looked up from Virgil’s phone. “This is Logan!”

Patton smiled at Logan and held out a hand. “Patton Hart, it’s nice to meet you Logan!”

At the sight of Patton’s hand reached out to him, Virgil noticed Logan visibly relax, reaching out to shake Patton’s.

“Hello Patton,” Logan merely said with a nod.

“And of course, Logan, I’ve told you about my best friend Virgil,” Roman’s voice cut through, Virgil’s gaze flickering over to the impossibly widening grin on Roman’s face at that little detail.

Logan nodded once more. “Ah yes, Roman talks about you often.”

“Nothing but bad things I assume?” Virgil snorted, smirking at Roman’s mock gasp of offense.

“No, he speaks rather highly of you, Virgil. Oftentimes it gets in the way of things such as letting him running lines and letting me work on my own work for his play,” Logan commented, giving Roman a pointed look towards the latter half of his statement.

“A boy can’t talk about his best friend? Harsh, Specs!”

Patton laughed at the two of them bickering. “So how’d you and Logan meet?”

“Model UN, he’s done a much better job than I have! He’s trying to show me the ropes but he’s definitely much smarter than me at it!” Roman said with a chuckle, sitting down with Logan doing so as well.

“He says that but he isn’t doing too poorly, honestly Roman,” Logan sighed.

“Yeah yeah, but not as good as you. Now hush and let me tell them my story!”

Roman considered joining student council by the end of freshman year but decided theater was already a large commitment.

Sophomore year rolled around before Virgil knew it and Roman was cast as the lead role for the fall production as well as getting on the sophomore homecoming court.

Homecoming carnival was fairly nice as Roman practically dragged him and Logan along. Virgil didn’t have half a bad time though he admittedly just stayed by Patton who was working at one of his club booths. Roman was surrounded by too many people at one point for Virgil to really want to follow him anyways.

Spring semester of sophomore year was pretty uneventful aside from Roman somehow getting even more popular. Virgil could barely get a word of conversation in with him after their school’s spring production of Beauty and the Beast, despite him going to nearly every night of the show’s run. Patton was good company during one of the nights though and the two went out for milkshakes afterwards.

“Virgil! Gosh, I really don’t need you seeing me cry,” Roman laughed as he scooped Virgil up in a tight hug before pulling away. “You didn’t have to come for closing night!”

“I wanted to, you know?” Virgil asked. “Also holy shit are you hot.”

“Oh trust me, I know! My sheer beauty is truly a thing to behold!” Roman teased, only for Virgil to shove him with a snort.

“Congratulations Roman, you did a great job!” one of their classmates said in passing.

“Thank you Cissy!” Roman called after her with a proud grin on his face.

“No, you know what I mean, you must be dying under the lights,” Virgil chuckled.

“Oh, that-!”

“Roman, you did amazing, look at you!” another person said, coming over to give Roman a hug.

“Thank you, and thank you for coming!” Roman replied.

“How could I not? You did great!” the woman said. “Hey, have you seen Chloe around? I’ve been trying to find the poor girl for ages, she might’ve been swamped.”

“I think she might’ve gone to go change, I think she’ll be out soon!”

Virgil zoned out a little as Roman continued to make conversation for a little longer.

“Ro, you down for going to get ice cream after you free yourself from your wire prison?” Virgil asked once he thought Roman’s attention was finally back on him but a hand was clapped on to Roman’s back.

“Hey dude, awesome job, how’d your voice hold up?” one of the other actors, Justin if Virgil remembered correctly, asked.

“My throat is honestly totally killing me, I can’t wait to drink my weight in tea when I get home,” Roman laughed, wincing for emphasis.

“I feel you, I think I’m going to head home after I change,” Justin said, running a hand through his hair and fixing his glasses. “You planning on going out with the rest of the cast afterwards?”

“Nah, Virgil and I are going to get ice cream and then I am going to sleep like there’s no tomorrow!”

“Fair, fair, I’ll see you on Monday!”

By the time that Roman was finally free, a dozen people had asked Roman for picture and Virgil, with a quick text, told him that his mom had to pick him up unexpectedly.

Logan started to hang out with Virgil and Patton during lunch by the time junior year came by, only skipping a portion of Wednesdays in order to go to student council meetings.

By this point in their time in high school, lots of changes happened but some things still stayed pretty consistent. Roman decided against auditioning for the fall play but still seemed to remain as busy as ever with the theater competitions he was now taking part in, fitting in clubs in seemingly any place possible. Logan had become the junior year president for student council, still taking part in Model UN and a few AP classes definitely keeping him busy. Patton had been the one to change the least aside from Virgil himself. Virgil was happy that both he and Patton were both taking AP studio art. Apart from that, the two of them just focused on trying to stay sane.

Prom came up during their junior year as a topic of discussion (seeing as only the juniors and seniors could go on their own) and the four of them decided to go together as a group. It was a disaster in Virgil’s opinion and he had to leave early when Roman was asked for a dance by one of the popular girls in their grade. He felt sick to think about it.

Virgil stared up at the ceiling for a while the night of prom after he’d gotten back home, trying to figure out what was even happening at this point. A girl had asked for a dance, Roman accepted.

Except suddenly, Virgil remembered just how many times Roman had arrived late to lunch, how many times he’d sat down only to realize he’d had club meetings, how many times Roman would be preoccupied with rehearsals and homework and conversations in the halls before English. The study sessions at Roman’s house had become minimal and Virgil’s interactions with Roman’s brother Remus were more frequent than the interactions with Roman himself.

He missed Roman. High school had been, in the grand scheme of things, largely without his best friend. It still didn’t feel right, like he was missing something with the realization he’d come to.

As soon as he thought of Roman asking him to dance and kissing him though, he knew.

Virgil cried for a while that night.

Suddenly after prom, Roman dropped most of his clubs.

“Why’d you stop going?” Patton asked during their current conversation, taking out his lunch. He offered Virgil a cookie who took it reluctantly.

“Eh, I don’t know, I’ve just been so busy you know? Wanted to see if it helped,” Roman offered as explanation, shrugging. “Oh hey Logan, did you finish studying for our APUSH test today?” he added as the aforementioned took a seat at the table, finished with his student council meeting.

Logan nodded and wordlessly handed his notes to Roman with a roll of his eyes. “I knew you were going to ask.”

“You know me well Specs! I swear, he’s really going nuts with AP test prep, huh?” Roman asked, flipping through the neatly written notes.

“Teachers tend to overprepare us for AP tests, I promise it’s worth it.”

Patton sighed and turned to Virgil, letting the other two talk over their test next period. “Hey Virge, do you want to come over to my house today? I got some new paints I wanted to try out but I’ve been waiting for you to come over,” Patton tried, smiling hopefully at him.

He really didn’t have anything better to do that afternoon so he nodded. “Yeah, sure, do you want me to bring anything?”

Patton shook his head. “Nope, just yourself!”

Virgil nodded.

Summer came around and Virgil started to spend less time with Roman. His family had dragged him on more than one trip so luckily he had a good excuse. Roman certainly didn’t seem very available either so it wasn’t exactly hard for their schedules to conflict.

With a week until senior year started, Virgil went to help Patton walk his dog.

“Hey Pat..?”

“Hm?” Patton asked, looking to him with a smile.

“What would you think if I wanted to... I dunno, change my style I guess?” Virgil asked, tugging at the sleeves of his sweater.

“Hmm... Well, what are you thinking about? Like, just a little change? Starting from scratch?” was Patton’s response. “Not for any reason, I’m still supportive no matter what you want to do!”

Virgil thought on it as they continued walking. “I don’t really know yet, I just know I want to change it I guess?”

Patton nodded. “Well I say do it! You can always change it back!”

With that, they moved on to other subjects. Patton was excited about school while Virgil ruminated on Patton’s questions.

The day before senior year started, Virgil knew what he was planning on, staring at the hair dye in his hands.

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Hey hey hey, we are finally going to be getting into the actual conflict! Gosh, I’ve been waiting for the chance to do so, the next chapter will definitely be interesting!

I will say I had a bit of trouble with this one. The last chapter starts off with the first day of freshman year but I just felt it was a good way to set up the dynamic. I wanted the story to be set in either junior or senior year though mainly due to the maturity level at that point. It feels more comfortable and lets me have more room with what’s to come! I tried to get there without just saying “Look, here’s a time skip, wow!” I really hope I did it well, it feels a little clunky!

I hope you guys liked this chapter and as always, feel free to chat with me in the comments! I love hearing your guys’ opinions!

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Taglist: @artissijules, @virgils-paranoia, @its-the-cat-queen, @myyoutubecorner, @marshmallow-the-panda, @anotheregofanficblog, @tssidesfamily, @shapa-likes-art, @isabelle-stars, @falsemood, @prinxiety-shipper101, @katlikethesword

[officialleehadan]

Spell to See

“I need to know who she is.”

Alivir, in a fit of daring, had cornered Eikh, the most powerful of the school’s enchanters. The mastermage was not known for his good temper, but he loved a puzzle, and Alivir had the best one in the school. It didn’t hurt that Eikh was one of the few in the school with a natural talent as a seer.

“You aren’t prone to dramatics, beyond the usual ones expected as a seer of your strength,” Eikh said without looking up from the book he was annotating. “The interruption is unwelcome, but I imagine you will not leave until you have an answer. Which ‘she’ are you referring to?”

“The statue,” Alivir said, surprised and pleased to have the master’s attention, considering ho Eikh generally felt about interruptions. “The one by the little pond beside the library. You know more about the history of the school than anyone. Who is she?”

Surprised and taken aback by the question, which was clearly not the one the master was expecting, Eikh actually set his book aside and sat back in his chair to regard Alivir. As always, he was garbed in his preferred robes of faded red,, sewn with the runes that marked him a mastermage, and indicated his specialties. He was a clean-shaven man, and still wore his greying hair up in the warrior’s braids of his people.

“Why the sudden interest?” he asked with surprised curiosity. When he nodded to the chair across from him, Alivir took a seat and gave the mastermage his full attention. “I know the statue in question, but I was under the impression that it was just a statue.”

“She’s… she’s not. Or maybe she is. I’m not certain.” Alivir was dithering a little as he tried to figure out the words. “She spoke to me.”

Eikh blinked twice and leaned forward, interest truly caught. “And said what?”

“Save me,” Alivir said, the memory of stone lips against his as clear as a vision in still water. “She asked me to save her. Who is she?”

“I don’t know,” Eikh said thoughtfully with a glance at his books. “The statue has always been there, as far as I’m aware. I’ve never given it particular thought, other than as a quiet place to meditate on occasion. Did you detect any magic on it?”

“I’m no good at anything that doesn’t have to do with my Sight,” Alivir pointed out with a sigh. His ongoing lack of ability was a frustration to most of the teachers. He could barely even get a basic light spell to work properly, let alone anything as complicated as a magic-detection spell. “No, I tried, but she hasn’t spoken again, and even… even repeating the circumstances hasn’t worked.”

“The circumstances being…?” Eikh asked expectantly with a raised brow.

“I kissed her,” Alivir said with only a little embarrassed reluctance. “I’ve been- I’ve been kissing her for most of a year. Twice a day, mostly, but sometimes more.”

“If it’s gotten further than kissing, I’d rather you didn’t elaborate,” Eikh said dryly and raised a hand to cut off Alivir’s stammers. “Be quiet, boy, it was a joke. Why have you been kissing a statue? There are nearly a thousand students in this school. You couldn’t find someone of flesh and blood?”

“I unnerve most of them,” Alivir muttered. His hand found the crystal in his pocket and he turned it over in his fingers, tracing the smooth lines of it to steady his mind. He rarely used it to scry, but it made a fine worry-stone. “She’s easy to talk to and it just… I was lonely, so I kissed her the first time, and then I sort of kept doing it.”

Eikh smiled with a little sad understanding in his eyes. Like Alivir, he was a prodigy in his own right and knew better than most how difficult it was to make friends when everyone thought you were strange. He thought for a minute, and went for his bookshelves.

“The Sight is sometimes accompanied with other sensitivities,” Eikh said as he paged through the book. “They’re generally so mild that most mages don’t notice them, or write it off as hunches.”

“You don’t think I’m crazy?”

“It’s generally accepted that most mages are crazy,” Eikh muttered as ha flipped through the book. “It’s something of a wonder that you have as much of your mind as you do, given your Sight. You’re not prone to the usual idiocy of many of your peers, and you know the consequences for wasting my time. That leads me to the conclusion that you must be absolutely serious in your query.”

That was… well, there was a reason that Alivir went to Eikh. He hoped that Eikh would listen to him, and now, it seemed, he might even get some answers.

“Will you come look at her?” he asked hopefully. “No one seems to know who she is, or where she came from, only that she’s always been here. Usually, statues have at least a plaque, saying who they are.”

“We have a number of art pieces that are simply the product of different sorts of magic,” Eikh said absently. “Ah, here it is. Look at this.”

He set the book down on his desk. It was an old thing, hand-lettered, and annotated in a dozen different hands over the years. The original text seemed to indicate a spell for determining the history of an artifact. More than one of the annotators professed to trying the spell, but stated difficulties that stemmed form a lack of a powerful Seer to, well, See whatever the spell revealed.

Not, Alivir assumed, a problem he was likely to have.

“Come,” Eikh said, and marked the page carefully before gathering a few components from a cabinet on the walls. “I have two hours until my next class, and I’m curious enough to lend some skill to this little endeavor. Shall we to the pond, and see who, or what, this statue of yours truly is?”

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Stone Kisses:

He always kissed her, the statue who sat beside his favorite pond. He never thought that she might kiss him back.

Save Me

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More Stories!

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[paint-lady]

Faux Stained Glass

I posted a while back and a portion of yall mentioned you wanted to see some of my work, so here’s one of my best pieces...Faux Stained Glass. This was for my university’s production of Into the Woods. 

Looks like hundreds of individual pieces right? Yeah. Its actually 8 pieces of plexiglass. The process was one of the smoothest I had ever done, and I am really proud of my management skills as the charge artist for this production. This took a crew of 4 dedicated painters, and anywhere for 4-6 shifts of students completing hours for their courses. In total man hours, this took a week to complete.

So how did we do it? Well I got the draftings and renderings and looked at the designer and said, “so this is a translucency right?” A translucency is a process of stretching fabric with starch instead of white paint or sizing mixture (glue and water), which allows light to pass through the piece. Translucencies are challenging because you have to get the painting right on the first try- any layers inhibit the light passing through. Additionally, the watery consistency of the paint required has a tendency to bleed onto other areas. Regardless, I sat down and started formulating plans to make this and the designer looked me in the eye and said, 

“No. It’s on plexi-glass.”

“Glass?”

“Glass.”

“How is the paint supposed to stick? It’ll just peel off!” 

“Figure it out.”

So I got to work. I began testing how to make the paint translucent yet thick enough to bind onto the glass. The process involved “roughing up” the surface of the glass with sandpaper- this would give the paint something to “grip” and hopefully allow it to last longer through the show. 

I eventually came to the conclusion that the paint needed to be mostly white glue, which when dried yellowed a touch. This helped “age” the glass. And then I could add dyes and liquid pigment to create the colors I needed. 

For at home recipes it is a 2 to 1 ratio. For every 2 cups of glue you needed 1 cup of water. And then add your dye (drops!!). At home, you can use food dye or vivid acrylics, since I assume it isn’t normal to have 165$ worth of liquid pigments on hand (self drag). If you use paint, you will need more than drops for the color to show and you might want to switch to clear glue- as it might get too opaque or crack. However much pigment you add, whether spoonfuls or drops, you start by adding the same amount of sealer. This helped create a “shine” to the paint that my designer wanted. Once I had it all figured out, I put it in bottles. You’ll see why in a sec.

Once the paint mixture was finalized and tested to the designer’s liking, I was simultaneously figuring out how to make this process as simple as possible for a bunch of first year students to work on. A lot of the students were actors looking to fulfill their one semester requirement of a tech class. And stagecraft is an easy twice a week lecture and 2 hours of studio a week. So a lot of them haven’t taken an art class in a while. 

So I made it a giant paint by number. 

I spent about two days redrafting the piece in scale and printed it on the plotter (which has a max width of 2′6″) and lined it up. We laid the plexi on top and traced the lines with black caulk (easily available at your local hardware store). We let the caulk dry overnight. 

In reality, the caulk doesnt need overnight to dry. It really needs like... 4 hrs to be workable. However, if for whatever reason it is not set properly, the color will bleed underneath it- and we don’t want that!

Before we can color, we have to make sure the surface we are working on is perfectly level. I came by with my yardstick level and checked before they started and made slight adjustments by propping parts of the glass up. 

If the surface is not level, the paint will run and pool unevenly, ruining the illusion of stained glass.

Then came coloring. I printed out a big Key and labeled all the paints with numbers. I taught them how to flood as if we were making pancake or cookie art (most of them had seen those on instagram). You start on the outside, outlining, and work your way in. The paint should ooze a bit, so one student was given a variety of toothpicks, brushes, (i discouraged using fingers but some still did) to “smooth” the flood. It is very important that the colors don’t bleed or overflow the black caulk leading. 

Some of the glass had “gradations” in their coloring. I had my skilled painters handle those. It was all about how the paint swirled together and was agitated (poked with a stick) as it was drying. 

The trees were the most difficult and I ended up supervising those. 

Once the piece is done, it is left to dry overnight. And this is where it needs to not be touched. At all. Dont look at it, dont touch it, dont breathe on it, dont think about it. I ended up taking over a far corner of the tiny shop. I pulled the welding guards (no one was welding anymore, it was all assembly for the carp crew at this stage) to block any debri and shield off the area. 

You should monitor the piece as it dries, check every couple of hours to make sure nothing is pooling in strange ways, nothing got stuck to the surface, and nobody moved it. I had keys to places and abused that power, and would wake up in the middle of the night to check on them. Don’t tell my professors. 

This image above is a partially dry one. 

Once everything was dry and moveable, I handed them to my Technical Director and said they are ready for install. And after a nail biter of watching them precariously dangle in the air to their new home...they were in!

And the show went up! I felt so relieved when I finally got to see the glass lit up, I made sure I got gifts for my fellow students and went a little wild at the tech party on opening night. 

Feel free to ask questions about this process! Asks are open! If yall want an at home tutorial, I can make that happen in the new year.

[manychocolatefactories]

CatCF Dark Chocolate: Part 2, the tour

Willy Wonka and his factory:

For the Factory in this version, I wanted to give a feeling of the factories of the 19th century. Something between a place where a mad scientist would work and a steampunk fantasy. Willy Wonka himself is based on Jules Vernes.

Willy Wonka himself is a man with an "impressive beard", a solemn but kind air on his face, and an overall feeling of knowledge and wisdom. Wearing a thick and tight jacket, a black top hat and a dark green coat, his appearance actually gives mixed signals: his short hair is fluffy and shaggy, like a man of free spirit, of amusement and not much care, but his beard and mustache are neatly trimmed and cut, like any serious and respectable man. His hair is brown, chocolate-colored, but with touches of white and gray here and there. His eyes are kind and twinkling, but his mouth is a harsh thin line. He is the kind of man that will say the most extravagant things perfectly seriously, but treat serious and common business as a joke. Don't think however that is an extravagant or funny man. Again, he rather gives the feeling of a kind mad scientist.

As for the Factory itself, actually the locals, the people of the town over which the Factory looms, dislike it. Sure, the Factory is admired by people wordlwide - tourists come to see it, painters come to paint it, it is a landmark admired in foreign countries. But the locals do not like it at all. It is a tall, dark, cold and stern building, with no color of beauty, only locked doors, metallic fences, thick walls and high chimneys. The Factory does not employ anyone of the town, in fact no one ever saw the Factory workers arrive or leave. Wonka himself has never left his factory for decades now. Couple that with strange white silhouettes seen at the windows, and the ramblings of the local homeless man who apparently hates the Factory and keeps insulting it, and quickly a bad reputation was built for it. Adults believe Wonka is trying to hide a shameful secret, the kids tell tales of "the haunted chocolate factory"...

In fact, I wanted an air of creepiness for the Factory. I took back the original idea of Dahl that all the workers are regular humans dressed in white, and I pushed it a little further: they are basically so covered in white you can hardly see them anymore. They have white blouses and jackets, white gloves, white masks, white caps, white helmets... After each kid's demise, a mysterious poem is recitated (like in Dahl's original drafts), mysterious voices that could be eithe the worker's or something else... In fact, with each kid demise there is an element of sppokiness which may be the kid hallucinating out of fear, or not (Augustus in the river thinks something is tying to catch him or drag him down  ; Wilbur and Rice in the dark hear and feel creepy things...). And Wonka himself keeps making ominous references to "selling your soul to the devil"...

But in truth the Factory isn't a death trap at all. Behind the scenes, the workers are just normal people with their own life and their usual office routines, and who happent to leave very discreetly the Factory. The Factory is also based a lot on the Menier chocolate factory, which is the "real-life" Wonka factory. I may speak more about it one day.

Anyway... now let's go on with the tour!

# The Labyrinth. Behind each entrance, before each exit of the Factory, is a labyrinth, a maze Wonka designed after the works of Penrose and Möbius. Only he and his workers know the way out of them. This is merely a security measure.

# The Edible Garden. For this garden, I wanted to insist on the idea of it being fake and artificial - Wonka didn't try to create a perfect replica of a landscape. This room doesn't even have any real sense in the Factory, it is merely a piece of art he created so that he could come in here to relax and mediate. There are no windows, all the lights come from spots on the far-away ceiling and the ground is grey stone (because Wonka is revolted at the idea of making grass out of candy, it would be too dirty). There are trees of hard caramel and mint candies, orchards where the fruits are made of gummy, lollipops shaped like flowers and numerous sculptures of sugar - none of this is to be eaten however. At the back of the garden, there is the Chocolate River. The River serves a double use: on one side, it is merely an aesthetic addition to the Edible Garden. On the other, it is a source of energy for the Factory - it used to be a water mill, and Wonka kept the ancient structures but replaced water with chocolate. As such, the production of chocolate actually helps create energy back - and the river ends with a series of different pipes, each one leading to a different room where the chocolate will be used.

This is where Augustus Pottle meets his demise. The competitive  glutton tried to empty the river of its content, and fell into it. Sucked up by one of the glass pipes, he did a long travel through the tubes and pipes of the factory, which crushed and reshaped his fat into a cylindric body - before he fell into one of the boiling vats. There, the heat was enough to have all his fat melt, like in a super-intense sauna. Hopefully, he was rescued before being boiled alive - but Augustus left the factory as a mass of sagging, extra-skin, his wrinkled folds dragging on the ground, like a skeleton wearing a bride's dress made of human flesh.

# At the back of the Edible Garden, there is a long hallway that passes by a balcony. Said balcony allows one to see the "Mosaic room", a place where Wonka makes mosaics out of pralines - and since the room is really vast, he can make giant mosaics.

# The Vanilla Fudge Mountain. While it looks like a miniature mountain kept inside a giant room, this titanic hunk of vanilla fudge is actually a fragment taken out of the Honeylaya mountain range (located somewhere between the great Black Thunder chocolate mines, and the sugar marshes of the Sea of Marmelade). [References to the Himalaya, the Black Thunder coal mines, the Black Thunder chocolate bars, the Sea of Marmara and salt marshes ]. This room is basically a copy-cut of Dahl's deleted chapter of the same name, with workers breaking down the mountain, piling the fudge in wagons and then sending it to the Cutting and Pounding Room.

This is where Wilbur and Rice meet their demise. Unruly, and tired of having all their pranks and "fun" sabotaged by Wonka and Bertie Upside, they decide to ride the wagons. Of course, they are sent down the Cutting and Pounding Room - hopefully for them, Wonka has installed an intelligent wire strainer/net that can catch all impurities detected, to clean the fudge. So the kids are saved, right? Well the thing is that, while waiting on the wire strainer for someone to save them, the kids, bored and gluttonous, ended up eating all the fudge that fell down around them. They ate so much of it, that the machine ended up identifying them as "fudge" instead of "impurity" (since they were basically 80 percent fudge after their gorging Xp). So they where sent down in the Room, thrown on a conveyor belt... ready to be pound and cut into slices. The workers realized this of course and stopped the conveyor belt before the knifes - but the kids still got pounded. Wilbur, who was lying on his side when he got pounded, became tall and thin ; while Tommy, who was standing up, got pounded on the head and became small and large. In fact, when they got out of the Factory, their angry parents ended up mistaking one for another and going home with the wrong boy.

# After the Vanilla Fudge Mountain, the tour goes by another hallway, this one with numerous tall and colorful windows - stained glass made of sugar. Each window illustrates a famous chocolatier or candy-maker, but in the style of saints in churches. You have Philippe Suchard (the grandfather of Milka), Henry Isaac Rowntree (the maker of the Fruit Pastilles and Fruit Gums), the Menier family (the biggest chocolatiers of 19th century and first half of 20th century Europe, and distant relatives of Wonka) ; the Murrie family (creators of Hersheys) and the Mars famly (bheind the Mars bars, the M&Ms, the Snickers and the Milky Ways). "All families" Wonla notes with an air of sadness. Indeed, Wonka always wanted a family - or rather at this point in his life he regrets to not have a family and an heir, isolated that he is in his factory.

# Inventing Room number 3. There are numerous "Inventing Rooms" in the Factory, dedicated to developping, inventing, testing, studying products or just do crash tests. The number 3 is clustered with huge, squat and heavy dark machines, with vats, cauldrons and ovens, and all sorts of other structures dragon-like due to the steam and fire they spill out. It quite a grim and sinister place, but it is also where Wonka tests his most fantastic inventions, like the Rainbow Drops, the Luminous Lollies or the Three-Course Meal Gum.

As you guess, this is where Violet Beauregard will meet her demise. I set myself a rule to avoid all blueberry transformations when dealing with the demises of the Violets, so here I rather use the tomato soup: after chewing (not only did Violet took the gum due to her "talent" but also because she misheard Wonka and thought it was a "tasting" room), her face becomes red and chubby, her skin smooth and glossy, her cheeks puff out, her nose bulges, her forehead bloats, her throat becomes big, her lips thick and her ears thin, pointy, green. Result? Her face looks like a mass of tomatoes. Tomatoes for cheeks, a tomato for a forehead, tomatoes instead of eyelids, a tomato for a nose and two for the lips... Think of the Arcimboldo paintings, how he made faces out of flowers and vegetables. It is the same thing here. And while her parent is furious at first, they end up actually realizing it might be for the better - because now she is truly unique and attention-attracting, and that's what her parents always wanted...

# Follows a long hallway with a series of different rooms: two are taken from the original book, the Fizzy Lifting Drinks and the Squares that Look Round. One I changed slightly: the Chocolate Milk Room, where Wonka keeps special cows that have a chocolate-flavored milk.

# The Heating Room. A room taken from Dahl's deleted chapter "The Warming Candy Room".

This Heating Room looks like the negine room of a submarine or a freighter, filled with turbines, pistons, pipes, wheels and pressure gauges. This is where Wonka creates all of his heat-related products: hot ice-creams to fight chilling days, hot ice-cubes to give back warmth to a cold drink, and finally the warming candies (see the original deleted chapter). Marvin Prune, absolutely outraged by what he perceives as Wonka breaking all laws of science and physics, tries to prove that he is a quack by stuffing himself with handfuls of warming candies. Which results in him over-heating: he becomes red, sweaty, thirsty, removes all of his clothes (save for his underwears) and screams to death.

Wonka will have him put in the freezer, and also covered regularly in water, to avoid him drying up to death or combust. But even as he is leaving the factory, he is still red, sweaty, steamy and in underwears - the falling snow melting as it touches him.

# The Nut Room. Another classic piece of the original factory that I wanted to reinvent. Basically, here the kids do not visit the Nut Room proper, but the Under-Nut Room, or Sub-Nut Room. You've got the Nut Room where the white-clad workers separate good nuts from bad nuts Then the "bad" batch is then in this under-room, where trained squirrels will sniff out any potential "good nut" the workers may have missed. All the nuts are on a conveyor belt, that is getting then thrown down a chute.

Of course, Elvira Salt meets her demise here by trying to take one of the squirrels by force, resulting in a squirrel attack. However, the squirrels do not push her down the chute. Rather, she climbs on the conveyor belt to avoid them and has her fur stuck in the belt. She could have escaped if she had let go of it, but she refused to let it go, so she fell down the chute... and Wonka cannot remember if this particular chute leads to the compost vat he uses to grow his fruits, vegetales and berries   - or to the furnace...

But don't worry, she actually falls down in the compost. Elvira will leave the factory extremely dirty, unbearably stinky, so much not even an entire week of baths and showers can remove it, and probably with one or two diseases, but alive.

# The Television Room. I did not had time to clearly prepare this one, but it will be where Michael (Mike) T-V meets his demise. Discovering he can go inside television, he is more happy to oblige, and is absolutely thrilled to be in his favorite shows. But as soon as he leaves the television, he realizes that he is now as small as a television character! No bigger than the screen! He will be sent back to his home, now only able to play with his toys and figurines, the only things at his doll-like size.

# The Molding Room

This room is also taken back from Dahl's original draft. Basically, it is where Wonka creates many of his chocolate sculptures - he has an entire zoo of chocolate animals, and very recently created a machine able to form men, women and children out of chocolate. And this is also where Bertie Upside will meet his demise.

You may be wondering: Bertie? What has he done wrong? He is kind, gentle, generous, perfect. He helped Charlie on numerous occasions, he stopped the mischief of the brats... Isn't he a good kid?

HE IS NOT. Grandpa Georges was right all along: if he appears better than the others, it means that he twice as worse.

Bertie Upside truly has a heart of gold. Which means a heart of cold and hard metal, not of flesh.

Bertie Upside is a psychopath, a sociopath, an evil little boy. Sure he knows how to put on a nice and gentle facade, but it is just manipulation. If he is orphaned, it is because he killed his own parents, and now that he is left alone with Charlie (Wonka being busy elsewhere), Bertie will try to kill him, just for fun, by putting him in the "Chocolate Boy" mould so that he would be smothered in a chocolate statue.

However (I have to admit this part is a bit blurry), Charlie will resist and Bertie will end up thrown inside another moulding machine... A piñata-creating machine. When Bertie will get out of the machine, he will still be a living boy... but now with a flesh as fragile as papier-mâché, and insides filled with candies. Now he is really a sweet kid inside as he is outside. And  he will have to be really gentle... if he doesn't want to break.

And of course after that Charlie gets the factory, as it turns out that Wonka was looking for an heir with this tour. Happy end!

   Now, as I mentionned a poem forms itself through the story, rhymes being added after each kid's demise (an idea originally taken from Dahl's first drafts of the story). It goes like this:

"Nine little children, in the garden they went,

But one fell, and then they were eight."

"Eight little children, an unruly mix,

Two rode to Chicago, and then they were six."

"Six little children went into a room as busy as a hive,

But one did not listen carefully, and then they were five."

"Five little children, less and less at every door,

One had a fever and then they were four."

"Four little children saw squirrels down the tree,

One fell down the squirrel hole, and then they were three."

"Three little children, and none are new,

One went to play and then they were two."

"Two little children, we are soon to be done,

One got his trickandtreat, and then there was one."

"One little children, everything he won,

He lived ever happily, and now we are done."

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Madoka, Wonder Egg Priority, and the Future of Late-Night Magical Girl Shows

  Beware! This article contains spoilers for the beginning of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

  It is January 21st, 2011. In the shadows of a witch’s labyrinth, two girls named Madoka and Mami form a close bond. Mami is a magical girl, powerful but lonely. Madoka decides, then and there, to fight by Mami’s side. But then, in the middle of combat, the witch Charlotte transforms into a giant worm and bites off Mami’s head. Madoka’s eyes widen in shock. A broken china cup seeps tea on the ground. Smash cut to the wails of goth rock trio Kalafina as black clouds roil and a single flickering shape strides toward oblivion. Three episodes in, Puella Magi Madoka Magica threw down the gauntlet. Over ten years later, the mark it left is still there.

  Puella Magi Madoka Magica was special. But why? Not because it was the “first dark magical girl series.” Sailor Moon, the modern magical girl standard-bearer, became popular not just because of its charming characters but because the show could do things like briefly kill everyone during the series finale. Even magical girl series aimed at younger audiences, like Ojamajo Doremi, tackled subjects like the death of a pet or the aftermath of a divorce. Not to mention the infamous 46th episode of Magical Girl Minky Momo from 1983, when the titular heroine was hit by a truck! Truly, everything has been done before.

  The secret to Madoka Magica’s success is that it is not really a magical girl show. It is a suspense thriller cunningly disguised as a magical girl show. It has as much in common with Kamen Rider Ryuuki as it has with Sailor Moon, and was written by Gen Urobuchi, a former eroge game writer who ran in the same circles as Kinoko Nasu and Hoshizora Meteo. Madoka Magica is not interested in the slow process of endearment by which magical girl series ease you into the daily routines of their characters — the weekly monsters, transformation stock footage, holidays, and very special episodes. It presents as such only as long as it takes to put you off guard, and then (clad in the gorgeous raiment of art team Gekidan Inu Curry) it goes for your throat. 

    So it was that Madoka Magica became the standard-bearer of a new kind of late-night anime. Rather than “cute girls doing cute things,” let’s call this genre “cruel things happening to cute girls.” Take something charming and unassuming, like a magical girl story or a high school slice-of-life show. Populate it with fun, marketable characters. Then set those characters screaming when the real story pops out like a jack-in-the-box. The frisson between cute and scary hopefully generates enough charge to catch the attention of audiences, but  — most importantly  — audiences don’t have to reach that far to engage with it. That is because these shows are built off those same conventions that anime fans are familiar with. Those conventions just happen to be evil this time.

  As often happens in the entertainment industry, the success of Madoka spawned many copies. These projects did not have Gen Urobuchi, and they were often not lucky enough to have an art team as singular as Gekidan Inu Curry. All things considered, they tried their best. YUKI YUNA IS A HERO brought a different former eroge game writer, Takahiro, on board. Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka made its team of magical girls a proper military unit. More recently, GRANBELM added giant robots to the stew. I’d say Granbelm is my favorite of these, if only because the giant robots were pretty cool! I’d love to see them in a Super Robot Wars game one day.

    Some of the more interesting entries in the “cruel things happening to cute girls” genre didn’t have any magical girls in them at all. Selector Infected Wixoss was a card battle show about teens fighting for wishes; writer Mari Okada smartly changed focus from the cruel system tearing the characters apart to the way that individual selfishness keeps cruel systems running perpetually. SCHOOL-LIVE! featured a group of schoolgirls continuing their slice of life activities within a world devastated by a zombie apocalypse; the anime production was bolstered by a murderer’s row of writers from Nitroplus, Urobuchi’s former stomping ground. Episode 3 — a flashback to teacher Megumi on the day of the outbreak — is a genuine triumph, precisely because it is so earnest. Rather than pushing hard to shock or disgust the viewer, it allows the characters to breathe in the moments leading to disaster and lets the horror come naturally.

  Traditional magical girl shows, in the meantime, have been doing just fine. We’ve seen several good seasons of Precure and two fantastic ones, the all-rounder Go! Princess Precure and uneven but groundbreaking Hugtto! Precure. Sailor Moon’s Crystal remake seasons and movies have steadily improved after a rocky start. The first few seasons of magical idol series Aikatsu are charming and introduce a fun legacy quirk that ties together characters from different seasons. Even Ojamajo Doremi has seen a follow-up film that puts the spotlight on the generation who grew up watching it.

    Madoka’s successors, on the other hand, are in a trickier place. Some of them have been successful, others have been good, but none have recaptured that lightning in a bottle that made Madoka a hit. Even a recent Madoka Magica series based on a phone game, written by Gekidan Inu Curry themselves, came and went without much buzz.

  In the years since Madoka aired, there have been plenty of folks who have expressed their reservations about the “cruel things happening to cute girls” genre. After all, magical girl series can be revolutionary or transgressive without being cruel. Hugtto! Precure introduced the series’ first male Precure (equally comfortable wearing dresses as skating outfits) and featured a romantic partnership between two of its female leads. Go! Princess Precure’s best fight scenes are as spectacular as anything in this year’s Jujutsu Kaisen, yet remain perfectly accessible for its target audience of young girls. Madoka's progeny may have been targeted at older — and often, male — audiences, but outside of some blood and gore just a few of these series were more genuinely mature than the children’s series they riffed upon.

  Image via HiDive

  I do still see a future for late-night magical girl shows. In 2016, a weird magical girl series called Flip Flappers aired. Directed by animation wunderkind Kiyotaka Oshiyama, it featured two girls in love traveling through many strange and colorful environments in search of macguffins. Hidden inside a candy coating of marketable elements was everything from the Freudian fairy tale theories of Bruno Bettelheim, to architectural oddities such as thomassons, to occult figures like Jakob von Uexkull. Flip Flappers harnessed some of Madoka Magica’s sense of danger, putting its cast into intense and scary situations from the very first episode. But it was not a show about girls being tortured by an evil system; it was a show about girls exploring surreal dreamscapes. A new genre had been created: “cute girls doing weird things.”

  Here are the cornerstones for the “cute girls doing weird things” genre: you need girls of course, maybe even magical girls, but the rules behind their magic are nebulous. Rather than take children’s genres and corrupt them, you build out atmospheric settings, drop in the characters, and see what happens next. You give the cast room to express themselves within the bounds of the story, rather than leading them down an assembly line to their doom. The malevolence of Madoka is not off-limits, but more useful still than malevolence is uncertainty. The goal is to unsettle the viewer rather than disgust them.

  Image via Funimation

  Five years after Flip Flappers, a new show walks these same steps: Wonder Egg Priority, an original series from CloverWorks. Of course, Wonder Egg Priority is aiming at something totally different than Flip Flappers. Its spooky environments are incidental. Its main aim is, through riffing on the work of Kyoto Animation and famed director Naoko Yamada, depicting in full and uncompromising detail the difficult emotional lives of teenage girls living in the modern-day. Those lives just happen to be filtered through an anime lens of trauma manifesting as horrific creatures that have to be destroyed, and girls that need to be saved. Yet to me, Wonder Egg Priority captures the dreamlike atmosphere that Flip Flappers achieved in its best moments — the means by which characters exploring unfamiliar spaces reveal themselves in new and different forms. Despite being made of familiar parts, in execution, I think it is something new.

Somewhere between Flip Flappers and Wonder Egg Priority lies the future of late-night magical girl shows. They should not ever replace the ones made for kids; those do perfectly fine on their own, thank you very much. But in their embrace of uncertainty, I recognize a ghost of what I once felt when I first saw Charlotte’s gaping maw. The sensation that the ground had disappeared, and that — like magic — anything was possible.

  What's your favorite recent magical girl show? Are you excited for the newest season of Precure? Does Wonder Egg Priority terrify you on a weekly basis like it terrifies me? Let us know in the comments!

      Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he isn't reciting lines from Revolutionary Girl Utena, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at @wendeego

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Adam Wescott