#that's from the story's climax babey! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

felassan · 26 days

Text

Notes and thoughts on the August 30th dev Discord Q&A. (this post contains DA:TV spoilers from the recent Q&A).

Mother Ghil is a herbalist 😌

"there are opportunities in conversations, in dialogue, in scenes where you will, you know - a companion may ask you for a hug because they’re having a rough time and you are able to give it to them"

🥺😭 I'm worried (but in a good way, pls hurt me storylines) because this reminds me of DA:I when the Inquisitor can hug Varric after something incredibly sad happens as a result of our choices (Hawke's death in the Fade) oughh.

Influence on the fate of nations? 👁️

"Rook does become a fairly important figure" - this reminds me of Solas' line in a past trailer: "They call me the Dread Wolf. What will they call you when this is over?"

UNDERWEAR CHOICES

Taash is babey 🥺 it makes sense why in this screenshot she looks young. if Taash is in her early 20s, say 23, that means she probably can't have been one of the Five Belles of Hunter Fell as that was in 9:42 and she would have been like 13

Here is some further info about companion ages that came out since the time of the Q&A

Harding had to have been at least 18 ten years ago in 9:42 when she joined the Inquisition and became Lead Scout, so must be at least 28. but I think older, as I think she was older than 18 in DA:I by a fair few years. like around early to mid 20s at that point in time.

"they’re all people who have been through a lot [...] they’ve been through a tremendous amount by this point by the time you meet them" 🥺😭

"They’re more linear than some of the other parts of the game, because we feel that’s how we can tell the best stories, give you a very intentionally-paced experience, y'know, with lulls and climaxes, so it really hits you."

This was how Trespasser was and it was the best part of DA:I, the storytelling and narrative beats in that DLC were soo good.

Hossberg Wetlands! - new location confirmed, and also described as being one of the biggest like Arlathan Forest. also new location just dropped, Hossberg existed before in the lore but I don't remember hearing about the Wetlands! Hossberg is the capital of the Anderfels. it'll be awesome to see more of the Anderfels than only Weisshaupt. by the name these wetlands must be nearby Hossberg. I wonder whether they're around the Lattenfluss or more around this body of water to the south of Hossberg? the area around Kassel looks wet with multiple bodies of water, but there the nearest settlement is Kassel. we also learned that there's a Davrin-oriented quest there that he can show up in with Assan and help you clear the way forward

also, I remember reading before that "Thedas’s separate regions are connected by The Crossroads, which will allow players to venture out into", but from how The Crossroads was described in the Q&A, they sound kind've like an explorable area in and of themselves in the game like they were in Trespasser, and that's exciting. :D I'm so excited to explore in there some more and see how it has changed from DA:I/Trespasser:

"but this, isn’t necessarily the Crossroads as you remember it. So you’ll be able to explore this, this part of the Crossroads, and as you’re there, you’re absolutely gonna be discovering new areas, new quests, mysteries and new challenges"

like this sounds very 👁️. The Veil has been having a rough time lately and magic has been flowing into the world. reality is warping in places like Arlathan. we've seen the effects this sort of thing is having on the waking world. but what about the effects this is happening on the Fade and Fadey dimensions? I wonder if this game will still reflect that the Crossroads looks different for elves compared to other lineages?

"I wanna see that big 100% completed on my map. That’s gonna take you quite a bit of time."

I love that. :D

I totally agree that the cloth sim and hair sim in the game is beautiful and looks beautiful. you can see this when characters move their heads or when their capes and things move around as they move. its so cool!

"there is a unique Venatori-themed helmet. I, I don’t want to spoil what that is exactly, but, so, you can get a helmet, it is unique, it’s pretty interesting and ties into some of the events that can happen in the game but I’m just gonna leave it there."

inchresting... this helmet sounds like it has special powers or attributes and has some sort of presence in a possible plot somewhere.

I will still romance Strife Dragonage in my dreams

while Rook's romance is within the companions, iirc was mentioned elsewhere that sometimes companions may find romance both inside and outside of the party

Cat Vibing To Ievan Polkka

KFM: "So Taash breathes fire, Lucanis has wings, Harding is a dwarf who has magic. A lot of our companions have some strange abilities - is this because the Veil is compromised?" JE: "Oh, I’d say it’s, I mean partially yeah. I mean, we’ve talked before about how over the course of the time since Dragon Age: Inquisition, I mean, it started at the end of Trespasser. The Veil’s not in great shape. Corypheus already did a number on it, and Solas has very clearly, as you saw, in the [inaudible] preview, not been making things better in the intervening times. [...] because there’s all this magic that’s coming back to the world through the torn Veil"

This is inchresting and ties to what was said in these two previous quotes:

Lore/art direction: “Magic has started seeping into the world through Solas’ ritual”, “and so you’re seeing the effects of that on the space, and on the visuals as well” [post this is from, original source. original source is a John Epler interview video]

“Epler, who writes Bellara, tells me about her place in Thedas as an elf and the connection elves have to the magic of the world. He says if you’ve paid attention to the franchise, you likely already know that elves are historically an oppressed people in the games. Now, with two of their gods on the loose in Veilguard, magic has poured back into the world in a big way. […] A Quick Detour: Magic During my discussion, Epler spoke about magic’s place in the world and how it differs in Veilguard from previous Dragon Age games. Here’s what he said: "Historically, as you’ve mentioned, we’ve been in the south of Thedas and south Thedas is Ferelden, Orlais. Both are fairly still oppressed, they still have circles. Mages are viewed with suspicion, but Tevinter has always been this land where mages rule, mages are in charge, mages make the rules, mages run the show. So what does that look like? And as we’ve gone through [Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition], magic has become more and more present. And part of that is because Solas has been slowly preparing this ritual for longer than anyone in the Dragon Age universe is really aware of, but also, just going into the spaces where magic is, by definition and by the lore, much, much more present. And it’s been fun because, again, we do have rules; we want to make sure we’re not violating the lore or violating things we’ve said before. But it’s also, again, that permissiveness of, ‘Okay, what is the most interesting way to do this? What’s the most interesting way to tell the story? [In] Origins, II, on the Eclipse engine, we could talk about this fantastical magic, but the engine didn’t really allow us to show it. For the first time, we’re really able to let the visuals speak for themselves and not have to tell the player, ‘Trust us, it’s spectacular; this magic is really cool.’ We can actually show you and let you drink it in.” [post this is from, archive post of the original article as that went down when GI did]

The effects of this on space, reality, visuals, people and their abilities, ancient elven artifacts turning back on, and Solas' activities being part of what affected things in the time since DA:I. I wanna speculate that these ancient elven artifacts turning back on or becoming active again is part of why reality has been warping and "something [going] wrong" in Arlathan Forest. I wonder if the Morlyn clan journal relic began rewriting itself as a consequence of the magic returning.

Bellara was an interesting example though, she's a mage not a non-mage like Taash, Lucanis, Harding. was I parsing this right - is the implication that she wouldn't be able to interface with the artifacts that have turned back on if the Veil was in better shape and magic hadn't been pouring back in?

^ Bellara interfacing with an artifact

All the talk of magic coming back into the world are like Sandal's prophecy:

One day the magic will come back - all of it. Everyone will be just like they were. The shadows will part and the skies will open wide. When he rises, everyone will see.

and reminds of a few other bits too:

Ardent Blossom Faerie: "Pulling back the curtain. Let the light in. Let it burn. Bring faith. Bring hope. Bring dreams of life. - Morrigan: "Change is coming to the world. Many fear change, and will fight it with every fibre of their being. But sometimes change is what they need most. Sometimes, change is what sets them free." - Flemeth: "We stand upon the precipice of change."

I loved hearing about Bellara's friendships with Lucanis and Neve. it sounds so well thought-out, and I'm looking forwards to learning the relationships between each companion!!

Bellara believing that family is deeply important combined with a previous quote about her backstory,

"Whereas Bellara is somebody who has seen tragedy, and as you get into her character arc and get into her backstory, you realize this is a character who has seen a lot of tragedy"

makes me wonder if this tragedy has involved her family and if her family are okay. 🥺

Lucanis' belief in the deep importance of family makes me worried in case any of his personal arc/story involves the family tensions he has with Illario and Caterina

I love that Bellara collects newspaper clippings and was basically Neve fan before meeting her!

Neve must be a fairly prominent, well-known/successful private detective/investigator to have formed a large profile in print media

Taash and Emmrich [...] When you’re out in the field like exploring, or on missions with them, their banter is so good, because they do not see eye-to-eye on necromancy, like, at all, and, it’s really funny, it’s really delightful, I love seeing how it evolves

as a necromancer Emmrich doesn’t have a problem with necromancer (makes sense). I wonder what Taash dislikes about it? is it its bad reputation (per Josie in DA:I)? Solas freed the weak spirit the Mortalitasi in Tevinter Nights had bound to stir her drink. maybe Taash doesn’t like the binding part, or the undead helpers or servants part? maybe she just doesn't like the dead the way Bull doesn't like demons?

Having to figure out how Harding's new powers layer into her combat kit - Harding's new magical powers are part of her gameplay abilities confirmed!

Harding can also do Heavy Draw

Interesting - the more you help a faction the more gear you get from them. between that and transmog it means everyone can access the Antivan Crows awesome threads if they wanna :D

Both the specs and gear are themed around particular factions like aesthetically but aren't exclusive-to-them when it comes to use/gameplay

It sounds like each faction will have a quartermaster

Veil Jumper lore! they tend towards electricity/lightning damage and archery in their fighting style. and in general they're practically minded and dress as such because where they go and what they do requires care and protection and is dangerous, they wear boots/shoes etc for this reason

Veil Ranger info! it tends towards electricity, use of the Veil and use of that kind of magic. it also uses archery

The answer to the question about the Evoker spec made me reassured about the answer I wrote here ^^;

Great news that any piece of gear we find will unlock the appearance of that gear and how it can be applied to anything we want <3

Training dummy cosmetic - joke gear pieces like the Wedge of Destiny live on :D

I'm so psyched that we can even transmog our casual wear!! that's so cool and allows for so much agency. I find when I play mages in the past I'm always looking for the.. least magiest-looking mage gear to wear, and previously there wasn't crazy amounts of choice in casual wear, so this is amazing dbgfjdbd

very personal GIFTS for the blorbos 🥺 the gift system sounds so lovely and thoughtful. I think maybe some of the empty shelves that can be seen in the new screenshots of the companion rooms in the Lighthouse just miiight be where the companions will display the gifts

"A really big thing for us on this project is making sure that the gameplay reflects the characters, their arc and their personality as much as possible, so."

looking real hard at Lucanis' wings rn, especially given the context of what else we know about him 👁️

"you’re not even going to see everything necessarily in a couple of playthroughs"

Aaaaaa :D

as a warrior fan the love for the warrior class was really heartening. (love you Inky)

The Missing setting up some of the characters we'll see in the game makes me even more sure that alongside Strife&Irelin and Evka&Antoine we'll see Teia&Viago in the game (plus the characters in the release date reveal trailer that totally look like them ofc)

Emphasis that themes and events/things present and explored in Tevinter Nights are present in the game

It sounds like Vows & Vengeance is set in the weeks before the prologue of DA:TV kicks off

There is a buff called Rally Party where Rook triggers a surge in their companion's ability

MAAEEEEEEEEEE 😭😭😭 this was so good I was like yelling OMG. I'm sooo happy about this, this is so great. she's been on my 'DA4 wishlist of stuff' for so long and we waited to meet her since 2012 (12 years ago!!!). I'm soo excited to meet her oh my god. this reveal was honestly the highlight of the whole Q&A. pack it up, we can go home now. Mae.. 😭 I hope we get to see her interact with Varric. and I wonder if she has some involvement with the Shadow Dragons (Varric said something about "some old friends in Tevinter said the Shadow Dragons were pog to work with" in the gameplay reveal..), and how things are going with her and Dorian's faction the Lucerni

It sounds like Lucanis' parents were killed at some point in some Crow-Crow politics. probably when he was quite young, since when Lucanis thinks back on being raised by Caterina she did things like making him spend days without food or water, which makes it sound like he was quite young when he entered her care

No jealousy dialogue is interesting

I hope for a poly romance option in a future game

ABILITY TO SAVE CHARACTER APPEARANCES for use later in CC aaaa. Amazinggg. thankyouuu. a lot of thought has been put into the quality of life features of this game :') pausing cutscenes is another great one.

KFM: "The question is, is Lucanis possessed?" JE: "So, again, spoilers, everyone has been warned, fairly warned. So Lucanis Dellamorte is also known as The Demon of Vyrantium. And, he has spent a lot of time killing Venatori, who are mages, and who do know a lot about demons, so. Yeah, somebody decided that it might be a good idea to make that nickname stick."

👁️👁️👁️ Aaaaa. Inchrestinggg. From this and The Wigmaker Job I would guess that this "somebody" who decided that and did that to him is Zara Renata. she ended that short story like [evil anime villain laugh] "huehuehue":

"From flying vermin to malicious spirit. That's quite the promotion." [...] "A true maleficar knows demons cannot be killed, only controlled. If this Crow fancies himself a demon, then I look forward to using him to his full potential. He'll be duly punished"

Who else could the "someone" be? Zara, when I catch you.. 😠

I'm sure it will be different this time around as it always is! - both Wynne's situation (the specifics of it, how it came around, the effect it had on her) and how it was explored in the story was different to Anders' which was again different to Justice's in DA:O's to Cole's etc. (speaking veeery broadly in terms of the 'spirit companion' archtype, I know for example that Cole isn't possessed, simply a spirit. yk what I mean). I'm super curious about the take on this theme this time around ^^

(Lucanis possession-y-type-situation evidence [plus his demon-y looking tarot art, plus the wings and purple magic abilities of course])

I love the agency companions are given by them showing up in the field to help you, waiting for you somewhere on a quest they want to go on, or you encountering them out randomly somewhere doing there own thing (like the tidbit from a magazine about encountering Neve). it makes them feel like real people

I wonder if Taash's keen interest in the main story mission & the challenges of its arc in the far reaches of Arlathan Forest (it's strong enough that she shows up there impatiently if you don't take her) has something to do with the eluvian that's in her room?

"Far reaches of Arlathan Forest" is music to my ears btw as someone who has wanted to explore in there for the longest time

"You’ve just been around them, you’re aware of their techniques, and you wanna take that on yourself." - sensical explanation of what 'specs are aligned with/tied to factions' means ^^

KFM: "This next question is, where is the equator in Thedas, or the planet Thedas is on, relative to places we’ve explored?" JE: "That is a great question. So, I will say that, you know, it’s funny until I saw this question, it’s not something I’d ever thought a lot about, but as I started thinking about it a little bit more deeply, based on how the climate changes across Thedas, you know, obviously, to the south are the Avvar and things get a little bit more wintry, and then up north is a lot more tropical, I’d say that Thedas is a southern continent on this world, so."

I feel like the answer that was given here matches what a lot of fans have speculated or headcanoned on this topic. ^^

"There are these times where a companion, either their faction or their story arc is so closely tied or intersects with the events of a main story mission that they do become required, but it’s not the standard"

This makes sense. It sounds like Liara on Thessia in ME3.

When someone asked "Can a companion leave due to your world decisions, and if so, will their partners leave with them?" and John Epler mentioned that he would only answer half of this question as the other half is a spoiler, it made me wonder if companions will leave at certain times due to our world decisions

No mechanic behind companion-companion romances is so nice, it's more organic and real that way. I'm really looking forward to seeing the friendships and relationships between the companions develop

DAVRIN INFOOO 😭🙏 He sounds amazing. I wonder which companions in particular bring out his kindness

"He’s not just a Warden who sees fighting monsters as, you know, just part of the job. He believes in turning this into a skill-set that he alone, you know like, he has more than anyone else. Learning how to defeat monsters, learning their weaknesses, and that does show up a lot in his character arc, so."

this ties back to a related quote from a lil while ago.

I know it can be inferred from her vallaslin, but this Q&A is the first place I remember (atm) Bellara specifically being stated to be Dalish

We already saw each companion's Lighthouse casual wear here

Emmrich?? what are his casual threads like? :D

I wonder if Lucanis being one of the team cooks is part of why he appears to sleep in the kitchen storage/pantry

"It’s funny, I’d say that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is probably the most we’ve talked about food in a context of Dragon Age, ever" - it makes sense that it was only recently that the DA cookbook came out hh :D

Some of the companions being so bad at cooking that they'd burn water and die took me out. who do you think are the ones that aren't even 'passable' cooks but terrible ones hh? :D

So do the Crows in general quite enjoy the finer things in life and in food?

I wonder if part of Lucanis' interest in food and cooking stems from when he was young and Caterina made him go for days without food and water? :(

"So one of the things I really love is, you know, Bellara and Lucanis actually end up being, essentially, the team cooks. Bellara, you know, spending a lot of time out in nature, learning a lot about, you know, different types of cooking, is really big on experimentation, she likes to, you know, try different things. Lucanis comes from the Crows, Lucanis is very big on the finer things, so between the two of them, there’s a point in the story where they basically decide, if we don’t do this, the entire team is going to starve, so let’s just call ourselves the cook, cooks, and make sure that nobody dies of food poisoning, so."

I love this so much 🥺💜 ooh my heart. (its so wholesome and so funny at the same time). also Bellara's creativity and love of learning and exploring expresses itself in her cooking too!

It's great that fine, fancy dwarven-style beards are returning :D I wonder if there are also hairs with beads woven in? Strand hair in the beards 👌 beard physics working with different armors 👌 (amazing work!!). Dwarf Rooks shown before launch 👌 as many options in CC being universal as possible 👌 I love what I'm hearing!! I would guess from this that it means hair isn't gender-locked and mostly isn't lineage-locked (I can understand qunari hair may have to be) and things like that.

It wasn't in doubt ofc but this Q&A is the first time I remember hearing a clear mention that Solas was written by Trick Weekes in DA:TV

I'm really curious about the Rook faction background-dialogue with that same companion. it sounds like some have only heard of them and some may have known them a bit more directly. Like for example, is Antivan Crow Rook also from House Dellamorte, or another Antivan Crow house? Has Grey Warden Rook ever been to Weisshaupt (some Wardens don't seem to have)? Did Veil Jumper Rook ever go on adventures with Bellara? Did Emmrich and Mourn Watcher Rook ever be direct colleagues in the Necropolis? etc.

"maybe even heard of you leaving the faction to go help Varric to track down Solas" - this snippet makes it sound like part of Rook's backstory may involve having left their background faction when getting picked up/tapped by Varric for the work. inchresting

This screenshot shows an example of the Veilguard team hanging out together

"Rook and Solas have a connection, they have a bond'' - my guess is this is to do with Rook interfering with Solas' ritual, and the Lyrium dagger passing from Solas to Rook

I'm curious about the differences in Solas' connection/relationship with Rook to the one he had with the Inquisitor

"there are followers who, you know, are going to have a more complicated connection and complicated relationship with just, Solas as an entity, you know, Bellara, for example, is an elf, she’s Dalish, and this a person from her pantheon, so. There’s going to be a lot more of a, I guess, like I said, complex relationship between the two of them. Davrin is another example, someone else who is Dalish, so, you know, their views on the gods in general are going to be a little bit different"

I was happy to hear this. ^^ it would be odd if this sort of thing wasn't explored or at least acknowledged in the game. you can hear a bit of this in Bellara's release date trailer line, "Our gods are back. Our gods." it was also hinted at a bit in this Game Informer article I feel.

It sounds like Bellara and Davrin have slightly differing views on the elven gods.

It's so cool that we have 2 Dalish elf companions in the team this time! I missed a Dalish perspective in the roster in DA:I.

Turning off some of the UI components is great for taking screenshots and stuff

I think that Bellara's unique exploration ability is Tinker

Party swap-points confirmed?

Rook's ability to channel the companions' exploration abilities through the Lyrium dagger is super interesting 👀 I wonder how that works and how that comes about? Is it to do with lyrium? the Veil? the runes that can be put on the dagger? the mysterious entity in the Lighthouse that assists with crafting? do the companions each have some kind of connection to Rook sort've how Rook does to Solas? back in the day, when Solas led his own band of followers during his rebellion, when Solas' Lighthouse was filled with his own group of companions (Solas sees himself in Rook etc), did he channel his own companions' abilities the same way using the dagger? Was Felassan once essentially a party member of Solas'?

Great news on the helmet situation :). I wonder if the vitaar variants of helmets thing also applies to Taash?

Here's an example of qunari vitaar, two

Themed color-variant cosmetics 👀

Flowing faction-themed capes 👀

ASSAN SIBLINGS... after the Mae reveal, this was the highlight of this Q&A for real :D and it makes sense, griffons seem to lay clutches, so unless Assan was created or something wild or all the rest of his clutch died somehow, there would be others around in the world. I wonder what role the others will play in the game, and what the plotbeat around griffons is more generally

Confirmation that if companions showed up previously in TN they were at that point intended to be companions. It gives you an idea of how long some of these characters were worked on and developed for

Rook's surname being referenced in dialogue quite a bit 👀 interesting, I wonder when. Neve and Varric have called Rook "Rook" in videos from the game

Confirmation that the shape of Morrigan's crown is meaningful and tied to Flemythal stuff/themes

"In the case of Morrigan, she’s coming to terms with a lot of truths about both herself but also her mother, you know, you see her with Flemeth’s crown, or a variation of it, and that’s speaking to her personal journey of, what I would call, kind’ve acceptance of who she is and how she connects to Flemeth, because ultimately we want this to feel like a real world"

It sounds like all of these hints are coming to fruition now:

"A soul is not forced upon the unwilling, Morrigan. You were never in danger from me." - "Mother is the inheritor, she who awaits the next age." - "Designer’s Notes: This is Flemeth from the previous two games. In this game, Flemeth’s story comes to a head – she knew that Solas would summon her, and that he would need to steal her power to further his plans. She knew that because they are both elven gods…yet Solas has slept for a thousand years and his power dwindled, while she was killed long ago and a spark escaped from her into the body she now holds. She has nurtured that spark, and knew that Solas would need it. He was once her oldest friend, but she knows in his drive to save the elven people he will kill anyone – even her. She intends to let him have the power, so long as she can pass the essence of her god-hood onto Morrigan, a gift Flemeth had always planned for her daughter yet one Morrigan misunderstood as hostile possession."

Even mundane Kieran's dialogue line about who his mother is ("She's the Witch of the Wilds") touches on this. The old Witch of the Wilds, Flemeth, is no more. Morrigan has taken on the mantle, in a manner of speaking. These things seem especially impactful in worldstates where Morrigan drank from the Well. I am curious about how Well-drinking Morrigan vs non-drinking Morrigan will play out.

In a way, Morrigan has already stepped into her mother's role in the world of Dragon Age. Flemythal used to show up dramatically and mysteriously in every game to interact with the main character of that story. Morrigan has also been doing that, also now for 3 games. I'm reminded of Varric's tombstone in the Fade, Became His Parents. especially if she continues to do this while she gets older, the similarity is apparent.

It's cool that you don't have to be Spellblade spec to use orb and dagger

"while City Elf versus Dalish Elf is a lot more of a useful distinction in, you know, Ferelden, Orlais, we’re in northern Thedas, things are different up here. And a great example is Rivain. Dalish settlements, you know, they have Dalish settlements within cities, integrated into the cities, because, again, they don’t have that same bias, that same distinction."

New lore, or maybe a return to older lore? in DAII Isabela tells Merrill the Dalish haven't reached Llomerryn. but prior to that around 2009, David Gaider mentioned that the Dalish elves in Rivain have a semi-permanent settlement in Llomerryn. this sounds like that, and it sounds like it's not only Llomerryn. of course, Bela could just have been mistaken or this could be a recent development that began in the last decade or so in the world. I think it makes sense for what we know about Rivain.

"It’s a lot more about, how you play into the faction, you know, and, in some cases it matters more that you’re an elf, in other cases it doesn’t actually matter to the people of that faction, they’re just looking for someone who could do the work. A great example, and I’ll just, very, very light spoilers, Mourn Watch is a great example where, they just care that you are capable of, you know, executing the duties that you’re given, so."

I'm curious about which do and which don't for this, and not only for the elf lineage. an elven Veil Jumper may have more to say on or different investment in the artifacts they find and places they explore. an Antivan Crow who was employed because humans often find them attractive, or an Antivan Crow who was an enslaved elf or enslaved human and then bought by the Crows may have different thoughts on/experiences being a Crow than say a human who was born into it. (this is previous lore stuff, the Crows favoring recruiting elves, Zevran was bought etc). etc.

Lastly a quick recap on the things that came up in the Q&A that the devs said they would be talking about more soon:

They will be going deeper into settings, accessibility settings/features and similar things closer to launch

(On accessibility features, Corinne Busche mentioned that she thinks they are doing a feature, some kind of blogpost on that subject)

They will be talking more about exploration next month

They will be talking more about the Lighthouse next month

They will be showing some dwarf Rooks before launch

[transcript link]

108 notes · View notes

shoko-komi · 1 year

Text

Weekly Komi Report - 12th of July 2023

Ahoy hoy! In addition to my usual new chapter reactions, I have some news to report. There's been goings on and I've done some... investigating (very minor)!!!!! If you're bored by this info (fair cop) skip to the green text below for the usual chapter reactions!

So long story short - about 2 months ago, Viz Media started simulpublishing new chapters of KCC on their official website (only in the U.S. and Canada U_U, and partially behind a paywall 😤) which led to Church of Potetto - the scanlation group working on Komi at the time - to drop the series and encourage readers to support the official release. No more scanlations of Komi...

Until! Yesterday, a person or persons from the group Mylene Scans uploaded a scanlation of this weeks chapter to Mangadex ahead, not only of it's release by Viz, but of it's release in Japan! A snipe!! An act that is very much against the site's rules. The scanlation was taken down by site admins until it could safely be restored.

So here's the little bit of investigating I did: I have entered and perused the Mylene Scans discord. It seems that they were initially unaware of the reasons the series was dropped by CoP. They're also small fries. In my personal opinion they seem somewhat irregular and disreputable. I have inquired as to whether they intend to continue the series. The Viz release is blocked behind both a region lock and a paywall, so scanlators picking up the series again would make it more accessible to readers. I'll update you if they respond to me.

Now, with that out of the way...

Chapter 411 - Summer Festival for Two!

You can read Komi Can't Communicate on the Viz Media website, Mangakakalot, or, with the complications descibed above, on Mangadex. or elsewhere!

So right away that first image is a callback to Komi and Tadano's first summer festival together. Back then they were alone together at the festival by circumstance. This time they're alone together by intention... ooh là là

🎵she. is. wearing. that! dress!!🎶She is wearing. that dress🎵she. is wearing that dress. the dress🎶the Ta-da-no's choice. dress 🎶

Yipeeeeeeee!!!!! I'm certain that Kato was extremely happy to have Komi around to borrow a yukata from her mum. It's a major dose of love action to fuel her shogi powers.

Everything goes wrong in progressively terrible ways...

Komi has to change from the beautiful yukata into her (admittedly also beautiful) regular dress.

🎵He. is. covered in mess 🎵

This... actually was for the best. T-shirt and shorts?? C'mon man. His face here is a depth of emotion we don't often see from Tadano. His life is flashing before his eyes...

Like I said - for the best. He changes into a nice button up and slacks. Much better.

To bad literally every inconceivable thing goes wrong at the festival asndjasd

Including but not limited to back pain

very funny that this old lady having back pain is included in their date going badly.

literally the saddest image ever ever produced. They're so blindsided they haven't even reacted yet.

this is a new face for her aksjdnajsda

NEW FACES omg. This chapter gives us so much. I WILL be using this Komi face as a reaction pic

Literally!! Peace on MOTHER Earth!!! This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life

she hee hees......

computer, enhance

smooching??? That's smooching, babey!!!!!!!!!!! aw hell yes!!!! This is such a tasteful and romantic way to handle it. The climax of the chapter is that big beautiful shot of them sharing a moment of laughter and joy in the rain, then their first (proper) kiss happens in a quiet and intimate moment. Being so far away from them is like giving them some privacy. It's beautiful. I am healed and restored 💞💞💞💞💞

Until next week!!

#komi san wa komyushou desu #komi can't communicate #komi #komi report

10 notes · View notes

munchflix · 2 years

Text

MUNCHFLIX - HALLOWEEN ENDS

IMDB BLURB: The saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode comes to a spine-chilling climax in the final installment of this trilogy.

WARNINGS: The usual blood and guts slasher stuff, plot holes, discombobulation, facepalming, psychic linking, the elderly, old Michael Myers. Some cheesy gore included in the review.

RATING: You are finally safe from Shia Labeouf.

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: All reviews are done solely for humor and should not be taken seriously ever. If you cannot handle cursing, crude humor and probably some offensive things, pls do not read this.

Munch: This is going to be full of so much of us just ranting. I hope you fuckers like reading, because we have some things to SAY. There's so much going on in this movie, and absolutely none of it made ANY sense to me. I don't understand why this was a trilogy when the only thing the movies had in common was Jamie Lee Curtis. The first movie has nothing to do with the second. The second movie felt like a two hour long trailer for the third, and the third movie completely ignored everything that happened in the two previous movies. This movie is an absolute clusterfuck. HOWEVER! My one unforgivable sin for a movie is that it is BORING, and my friends....my beloved friends...this movie is sure as shit not that.

Biscuits: I think you're frontloading this with way too much information. There's no real way to preface Halloween Ends and honestly there's no real need to.

M: Fair. The movie opens with the introduction of one Corey Cunningham, who is obviously not a collection of tumblr sexymans all crammed into one pathetic waifish sad little man.

B: He's basically like...dollar store Will Graham. He's perfect. He's tumblr sexyman bait 101. A textbook poor little meow meow

M: He was not, however, mentioned at all in any of the previous movies.

B: No, but he's here.

M: And he's a babysitter, replacing the entire Tommy Doyle storyline in the second movie.

B: Disclaimer, I don't remember anything about Halloween Kills except evil dies tonight.

M: The entire last movie was about Tommy Doyle!

B: I remember Laurie was in the hospital and a guy got killed and maybe we were the virus the whole time!

M: Corey really is like...the most pathetic. He's getting his ass handed to him by what...a seven year old?

B: He looks like young Patrick Wilson in this intro. They're watching The Thing! In the original Halloween, they did watch a movie called The Thing, although the John Carpenter version wouldn't come out for a few years. However it’s still a reference to the original.

M: Corey gets yelled at by this punk ass kid and goes to drink some choccy milk, because he's a baby.

B: As someone who drinks chocolate milk...wait, am I a baby? Beer? NO. Choccy milk. And there's a NOISE.

I diagnose you with babey.

M: Jeremy has staged a home invasion, because he's literally the worst little shithead kid.

B: In the old days kids in movies were like, “oh poor little Tommy Doyle, he’s just a nice boy who likes comic books” and nowadays kids in movie are always cursing and beating people up. Kinda boomer energy if you ask me. Anyways, Jeremy is going to really impressive lengths to make Corey think he's getting murdered or some shit. He's committing to the bit I guess.

M: Unfortunately for Jeremy, he's underestimated the poor little meow meow's claustrophobia. After locking Corey the babysitter in the attic, Corey begins to FUCKING FREAK OUT. Which, I understand. And then the parents are back, it's been like ten minutes.

B: There was an implied time cut but it feels really fast.

M: Jeremy is taunting the panicking Corey directly in front of the door and Corey then kicks it down, screaming about how he's gonna kill Jeremy and then kicks the door somehow hard enough to send Jeremy flying over the railing to his death.

B: That's honestly impressive considering that Jeremy is about as tall as the railing. Maybe don't live in a 20 story house, what can I say. The house doesn't even look that tall from the outside?

Funniest shit I’ve ever seen

M: Anyway, kid dead. Right in front of his parents. Corey bad. I wasn't expecting that at all the first time, it honestly was one of the few moments of this movie where I was like - oshit.

B: Corey IS bad, we establish that later, but he didn't mean to kill the kid so right now it's just like, well that sucks for everybody.

M: The intro is cool though, the title screen with the pumpkins is cool.

B: It does feel wrong to have the opening credits in BLUE. They've always been in that weird yellowy orange. Is John Carpenter alive?

M: Yes!

B: I feel like we had this conversation last time, when Halloween Kills came out. Wes Craven is dead, right?

M: *laughs* Yes. How did the audience score get up to 57 percent?

B: Everyone was like OH MY GOD CUTE BOY.

M: Laurie comes on the narrate the entire history of this particular timeline, conveniently leaving out the entire second movie except the death of whatserface, her daughter.

B: Including footage from the first movie, over 40 years old, which looks better than this movie. Halloween kills felt like it was just setting up this movie and they don't even reference it except with the lady who got stabbed in the neck. Laurie owns a house in Haddonfield now, which she bought with all her money from doing....something. She lives with her granddaughter now and she's writing a book.

M: I guess she's been in therapy now. She's a kinder, gentler Laurie.

Laurie Strode is in this movie, I guess.

B: Every movie has a different metaphor and none of them ever get fully fleshed out. They always feel like first drafts, even in the 2018 Halloween. I don't know why they keep trying to this hashtag deep stuff. Just make a movie that's GOOD and the metaphors will come naturally.

M: Try viewing a Jordan Peele movie, he's a master at it. Anyway, back to Corey, this pathetic wet man is now an adult or whatever but he's still a huge wuss.

B: He was an adult! They said he was 21! So now he's ....25? These radio segments are giving me ptsd.

M: I have no idea.

B: He works at a garage with his dad, who gives him a motorcycle. He is now me. He likes chocolate milks and motorcycles and wears flannels and I'm gonna sue them for putting my likeness in this movie.

M: Cut to Allyson, who is still here for some reason. And her shitty almost boyfriend cop guy?

B: He's into her or...he's flirting with her or...hey there's a guy. Hark a vagrant! Horror movies always gotta have a creepy homeless guy. It's kind of a gross stereotype that homeless people are insane and evil. I feel like the day has passed when we need to use the creepy homeless guy trope.

M: Corey wanders into a convenience store for some choccy milk and gets harassed by some fucking senior high schoolers who want him to buy them beer.

B: These are the unrealistically shallow bully stereotypes, which I also thought we'd moved past.

M: They even have the slightly reluctant bully character. None of these dudes look they'd be hanging out with a football jock. But here comes Laurie!

B: Kind of like Henry Bowers, except Henry was an older kid picking on younger kids and these are kids picking on a grown man and causing him bodily injuries. Laurie shows up and has her ONE moment of seeming like a badass and they slash the bullies tires. This Laurie will never show up again.

Laurie woke up this morning and chose violence. Unfortunately, she will not choose violence again.

M: The characterization is SO bad, everyone changes constantly. Why is my Laurie suddenly so soft and easily injured?? All I wanted was for her to kick ass this entire movie and she absolutely does not do that. She has little flashes of being the Laurie from the first movie, but overall she is so torn down and deadened.

B: This movie has similar themes to Halloween Kills but they never reference the events of Halloween Kills, like the town forming an angry mob and killing an innocent man. That could have some parallels to Corey’s situation, maybe the town would’ve learned a lesson about jumping to judgments and mob mentality... but it kinda just seems like everybody (including the writers) just kinda forgot about that shit. Honestly if it wasn’t for Karen being dead, this could’ve just been a direct sequel to the first one and it would’ve made just as much sense.

M: Probably more sense, actually. Allyson is at work and Laurie comes in with Corey and suddenly OH MY GOD. Allyson is like - you are the tumblr waif I have been waiting for all my life.

B: Also, gonna screech about how much this boy looks like Will Graham. His hair, his glasses, the way he dresses, they deliberately styled him this way. Just do that guy from Hannibal but put him in this movie. Also, Corey's arc makes no sense. They so heavily coded him as autistic in the first part of this that it might as well not be there at all. But then he jumps to being a nasty boy who enjoys murder like...really quickly. It spirals out of control so fast.

M: Everything in this movie does. Let's talk about pacing! Like so many movies we've reviewed recently, pacing is a major flaw in this one.

B: Does Hollywood even know how to make movies anymore?

M: No. The first part of this movie goes SO FAST. There's no build up, it's just thrown in your lap, in your face, at mach speed. Corey and Allyson have had a super major bonding experience in 12 seconds over him getting stitches and now they're in love.

B: Allyson is hitting on him and he has no idea how to react.

Behold: the human uwu

M: Now Laurie is back at home with Allyson and this random tarot reader chick.

B: I will give this movie one thing, Allyson pulls out the death card and they say IT DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN DEATH, fucking THANK YOU. It's a pet peeve of mine.

M: No you're right, it doesn't actually mean death in tarot but it says death and looks spooky so....Laurie has another little moment of being cool while she's making pies or whatever and talks about showing your tits to grief.

B: Corey's parents are a piece of work. Really just his mother. His dad or stepdad or whatever seems fine but his mom is awful. An incredibly overbearing and controlling parent, which I guess is maybe supposed to be influenced by his trauma? Or his neurodivergence?

M: Corey's dad is awesome tbh, I was rooting for him. Allyson is suddenly back at the junkyard with Corey and they're gonna have a lesson or something but it's just fodder for their stupid burgeoning pointless relationship side arc.

B: We also get the obligatory bully's dad doesn't really love him moment but it's so irrelevant. Speaking of irrelevant, Laurie has a whole bit in a supermarket with Frank but at least these two have some chemistry.

M: Frank being the cop from the other movies, and honestly I was kinda rooting for them. It's kinda cute and I liked the idea of Laurie actually being happy for a change.

B: It feels genuine, the two play off each other well. Unlike Allyson and Corey where she's like HELLO I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU NOW and he's like.. Okay.... You can't just take this guy home, you gotta do your research.

M: Also for no real reason, Laurie is accosted outside the supermarket by the family of someone who was assaulted in Halloween Kills. This is one of the only references to Halloween Kills. Now more bullshit radio exposition. Allyson did not do her research, and takes her poor little traumatized autistic boyfriend to a crowded party at a public bar full of people who don't like him.

B: You can't just take one home cos it looks cute in the store! It gets bigger than you thought it would, it needs too much attention, it doesn't get along well with other dogs... This is how they end up in shelters Allyson!

Being a black cat, she really should be more conscientious of these things.

M: Or in the sewer. Introducing alcohol to a boy who only drinks chocolate milk, also not a good idea. Corey is, however, getting the fuck down. This isn't gonna go well.

B: The first time I saw this, I legit thought he was having a seizure.

M: CONVENIENTLY, the mother of the kid he accidently killed is at the bar and drunk! Can you spell McGuffin?

B: She's still a little pissed about that one. There's another implied storyline in that Corey killed someone and was found innocent... wonder how that went. Might’ve been an interesting premise for a movie. Maybe they’re trying to imply that he got off because the defense used his neurological deficiency as a defense but they didn't want to SAY it. Maybe I'm reading too much into this?

M: Allyson chases Corey into the street where he yells a lot because he's massively overstimulated and upset and Allyson doesn't know how to take care of her new pet. To be fair, he's got points. They do not see him and Allyson in the same light.

B: You can't leave them alone! He needs constant supervision! You think you can fix him but you can't. You don't know him like I do, I can fix him.

M: ON CUE, the bullies from earlier show back up after Corey walks off to harass him some more. For no reason. Also they have not changed their clothes. They start beating the shit out of Corey, as is his lot in life thus far.

B: Another plot point, EVERYONE in Haddonfield is a fucking asshole. Corey, already angry and prone to outbursts of emotion, confronts the jock and they throw him off the bridge. Like for real. Corey accidently killed a kid, but these guys are just dicks.

M: They assume he is DEAD and just leave him there. And this is where...things start happening. Oh god. Corey is dragged offscreen into the sewers by what we must assume is Michael Myers. This raises some obvious questions. Why is Michael living in the sewer? What's he been doing down there for four years?

B: He just disappeared at the end of the Halloween Kills and just went to go live in the sewer? .....Why?

M: Why hasn't he killed anyone in those four years?

B: This movie would imply that he, the same man known for his supernatural strength and endurance, suddenly became old and feeble.

M: How's he been feeding himself this whole time? Rats? Old Mcdonalds?

B: Maybe the vagrant has been feeding him? Maybe he doesn't survive on conventional sustenance. Also this movie rips off IT a lot. Everyone is an asshole, irrationally evil bullies, and weird monster living in the sewers. Except this monster is old man Michael Myers. I don't know.

M: We are 1/3 of the way into the movie.

B: Allyson is sad because her boyfriend got angry and left. Back in the sewer...Corey wakes up, there's rats. He's fine. Maybe a little head trauma.

M: Michael Fucking Myers just....left him there. Just laid him down and went, aight. You just rest. I'm gonna stand over here and stare at you while you sleep. Then I'm gonna grab you by the throat and all of the sudden we're gonna psychic bond.

I...I got nothin'.

B: He chokes Corey nearly to death and there's a rapid fire dream sequence of Corey's entire life and now he's infected with the Michael Virus tm. (we forgot to mention that Laurie said something about being infected with evil earlier, this will become relevant-ish ) *laughter*

M: I don't even wanna type this out. This is really happening. There's been absolutely no evidence of Michael having psychic powers. There's been no evidence of Corey having these abilities, but here we are. There will not be another moment of this type of thing happening again.

(Dib: They're having a bro moment. A Broment.)

B: Maybe it’s not like a psychic powers thing. It could just be...really bad editing?

M: It's implied that he's seeing all this through Michael's eyes! And then he just lets Corey go. Corey gets out of the sewer.

B: He's infected Corey with the Michael virus and now he's using Corey to do his bidding!

M: But that makes no sense because Michael goes out and does his own shit too!

B: I'm trying to make it make sense! I’m trying rationalize this when the simple answer is that it just isn't rational.

M: I can't believe you're sober for this one. The harbinger vagrant from earlier shows back up and is like- WHY DID HE LET YOU LIVE?? That's a very fucking good question, my guy, but it's moot because Corey is gonna stab him to death.

B: The vagrant pulls a knife on him but he turns it back on the vagrant and that's accidental death number two, and then he yeets the knife but now he's been infected with Michael Myers lycanthropy or whatever so he can go enjoy murder now or whatever. He has his crazy person Will Graham staring in the mirror moment, sweating and washing the blood off himself.

M: All we're really missing here is a wendigo.

B: Oh yeah Allyson's friend got a promotion and she's mad because she wanted it but that's not really relevant but I'm not sure what IS relevant. Laurie does a lot of monologing in this movie.

M: That's kinda her entire role in this film now. Gone is my badass kickass Laurie. But there's Corey, standing outside her house like Michael Myers.

“Hey who’s feeding this guy tiers?”

B: He's trying to farm Tier 3 off her. And then she comes out and Corey is like oooh sorry I'm sorry I got jumped and got my ass kicked. This is your sexy murder boy, this tiny boy who can't finish a sentence.

M: To be fair Allyson, you kinda were a dick to him. But now he's infected and we get a Laurie slow mo where she's like HEY WAIT I SMELL EVIL.

B: And Corey's just like - hey I killed someone is that gonna affect our relationship? But not really. They go to the house where he babysat for to show Allyson where he killed a kid.

M: Perfectly normal relationship things. Just go to a murder site and tell your new girlfriend about it. There's still bloodstains on the floor ffs. But she's like - no it's cool, I heard about it and I was like - I know this boy, he's looking for me.

B: Whatever the fuck. Laurie goes to visit Corey's mom and she's more than kind of a bitch. Why does this sound like a parent teacher meeting? " I know he's had his difficulties..."

M: It doesn't go well. Now Allyson is at a restuarant with Corey where she trauma dumps and is like - I wanna burn Haddonfield down. Now she's suddenly all edgy in this movie.

B: Allyson goes through like seven 180 turns in this movie.

M: You're not afraid now, Corey? This entire town's been kicking your ass this whole movie. Then the fucking cop ex boyfriend CONVENIENTLY shows up in the middle of their dinner to also provide some rising action.

B: Most of these people have no reason to be this awful! They're just horrible awful stinky people. It's just a town where everyone sucks.

M: Corey's a badass now, because he's got Michael Myers virus or whatever so he's gonna get up in the cop's face, but the cop is a huge dick anyway. Also he is now wearing a blue jumpsuit. They leave and go on a romantic bike ride to her house where they're gonna kiss kiss make out.

B: But Corey's like, nah, I'm gonna go. And this cop guy, instead of LETTING IT GO gets in his cop car to go beat the shit out of Corey, as is the town's national past time, but Corey knows what he's up to, so he's gonna feed him to Michael Myers. Because Corey is a murderboy now.

M: No really, this is what happens. Why does Mikey need someone to bring him people to kill???

B: He needs to regain his powers or something.

M: BUT HE DOESN'T DO THAT. It makes NO sense. The cop guy find the dead vagrant and goes oh noes, but Corey is there and attacks him.

B: It doesn't go well though because Corey's still a little bitch but he runs into the sewer and this fucking cop GOES INTO THE SEWER. It's not worth it, homey! Your masculinity really so fragile you gotta kick his ass because he likes your ex girlfriend.

M: I still don't get why Michael needs this shit. But there he is, and Corey's just gonna stand there because he likes to watch. " Show me how to do it!" Corey says like a fucking murder virgin even tho he's killed two people at this point. It ain't hard, bruh. You just stab. Michael is looking pretty rough tbh, he can barely even fucking walk.

B: It looks weirdly sexual. He's really horny for MIchael Myers, but he can join the club because a lot of people are horny for Michael.

M: I think it's intentionally sexual tbh. It seems to be implied that Corey is in some way getting off on this. Corey runs back to Allyson and is like WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME, WE SHOULD BANG.

B: He's just badly written Will Graham, that's all there is to it.

M: Laurie sees them going upstairs and Michael apparently left the sewer to go stand in the bushes and stare at Laurie but now he's gotta go back to the sewer. Oh my god, we are only halfway through. Nobody talks like these fucking people in real life.

B: "I keep seeing his eyes, Michael's eyes in Corey." He's got Michael Myers eyes...like Betty Davis eyes, but not.

M: I want some ice cream, you type for a minute. Oh god, we're only halfway through.

B: WHOOOAA we're halfway there, o-ooh~

M: Michael in a chaiirrr. Or something, I dunno. Oh yeah, Laurie goes to the same bar Corey had his breakdown in, because it's the only bar in town, so we can further this stupid infection storyline - which was not hinted at or built up in any of the previous movies.

B: The dad of the kid Corey killed is rambling on about how Corey had the devil in his eyes. He looks like an angel, walks like angel, talks like an angel, but we got wise.

M: Everyone in this movie shows up at the exact moment they're needed for the plot.

B: Oh yeah, the shitty doctor is fucking the nurse who got the promotion at Allyson's work and they gonna get SLASHED. Finally, some cheesy gore in this fucking slasher movie.

M: OKAY - so all of a sudden, in this next bit Michael, who has been shown to be a feeble, barely-functioning sewer gremlin, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is still very strong and very murderous. But after this scene ends, they throw that all in the garbage.

B: Bla bla bla get to the murder already.

M: Corey has to...initiate things, for some reason. Corey has to do the foreplay.

B: Also, the scarecrow mask looks dumb. They couldn't have gotten anything mildly more sinister?

M: I love this scene where you can see Corey in the background stabbing the doctor like 18 times. Corey is basic bitch-ing this shit.

B: Corey is not very good at murder. But thankfully, daddy lion is here to show baby lion how to hunt.

M: SEE! Michael fucking holds her up by her throat! He stabs her clear into the wall! This is not a feeble old man! Meanwhile, Corey is like mentally masturbating. Or...just masturbating.

“You’re a murder tramp, murder tramp...”

B: He's very excited.

M: Now I guess he went and got Allyson again so they could go on another ride.

B: They're speeding down to the radio station roof like two punk kids who don't give a shit for some exposition.

M: Allyson just says infected for no reason?

B: I think she's commenting on his wound but...it's like wow you're infected with Michael. Evil does not literally work like a virus! I understand the allegory but like...you don't get infected with it from someone else who is evil.

M: The radio dj comes out and like everyone else in Haddonfield, he's a huge dick. So he sits there just berating Allyson and Corey for no good goddamn reason.

B: They could just...leave the situation. But they just stand there and let him insult them until he tells them to leave. This is not how real adult people react to these situations. Corey's feeling overprotective. Laurie is stalking them.

M: Back to Corey's house where his unbearably overbearing mother is slapping him and berating him and then his dad's like - I hope you find love. Wtf. And now it's Halloween. Corey is asleep on the floor of the murder house.

B: Laurie is there! She's got a paper airplane, aka a reference to the beginning of the movie. Inside of you there are two wolves, Corey. One is gay. The other one is gay.

M: Laurie can just smell the Michael, and she again mentions infection. But they never really elaborate on that. They never come out and say - hey Michael is infecting this town.

B: Laurie is threatening in this scene almost to the point of seeming evil. She's like - Allyson didn't read the manual, she's not equipped to deal with you so we gotta take you back to the shelter, buddy.

Stop dating my granddaughter, grungy little murder hobbit.

M: Corey makes the incredible mistake of saying - if I can't have her, nobody will, and demands that Laurie just give up and let herself just drown in misery until she DIES.

B: But then she's not there.

M: Her Laurie senses were tingling.

B: Or she didn't wanna listen to Corey's sudden and unwanted slam poetry. Which also doesn't make any sense. I'm trying to commentate on the dialogue but it's just nothing. It's a nothing sandwich. Corey calls Allyson on the phone sounding like fucking Ghostface.

M: Why not throw another reference in there?

B: And he's like - your gramma is trying to kill me and Allyson is just like - yes that is absolutely true.

M: And then this fucking shit. Corey just zooms on back to Sewer Michael, and just kicks the ever living shit out of MICHAEL MYERS, THE UNKILLABLE KILLING MACHINE, THE PERSONIFICATON OF EVIL, THE MOTHERFUCKING SHAPE and takes his mask. Yeah okay. The same dude who was strong enough to pin a chick through a wall in the last kill.

B: Corey is sapping his strength now?! Because of the Michael virus?? I'm trying to engage with this movie on it's own level.

(Dib: You tried to read this movie's terms and conditions?? WHY??)

M: This is such utter bullshit and I hate it.

B: They have this whole drawn out scene of these two wrestle. There's no tension at all, it's just like two drunk dudes duking it out outside the 7/11.

M: Michael sits up though after his ass beating.

B: The dumb teenage bullies, still wearing the same clothes, and Corey has scratched up their car or whatever so now they're gonna kick his ass again.

M: Allyson is leaving Laurie and Laurie is like no he's crazy and murderous, but to be fair I don't like anyone in this movie. Laurie is obnoxious, whiny and preachy Allyson is dumb and doesn't pay attention to anything.

B: Also again, it's utterly out of character for Allyson to just suddenly to be like no grandmother you are psycho bonkers crazy.

M: The bullies have been led to the junkyard where Corey works which is obviously a fucking trap, but people in a horror movie never realize they're in a horror movie so they gon' die.

B: They're gonna fuck up his bike but actually they're gonna get slashed and stabbed and shit. There's not even that much murder in this movie.

M: There's almost no Michael Myers in this movie.

B: Billy Bully gets stabbed in the eye and then they run away from a speeding vehicle in A STRAIGHT LINE, just go between the cars or anything?!?!

M: Corey's dad is working late though and Jock Bully is like OHMIGOD HELP US and so dad goes out there but Corey's still murdering people but now with the Myer's mask on. And unfortunately for Corey's dad, the one not totally awful person in Haddonfield, he gets shot through the brain and dies.

B: The kid crushed under the vehicle is still alive but Corey fucking BLOWTORCHES this jock bully and then crushes the other's head like a grape because he's apparently super stronk now.

M: Corey's gotta go home now and kill his mom. Because we need more Halloween references since Michael's not even in this fucking movie. And then we're gonna go kill the radio guy because he was also an asshole. Corey's gonna be fucking busy if he's gotta kill every asshole in Haddonfield.

B: Do not disgrace these old fucking retro jukebox songs with your terrible movie.

M: Corey also kills his assistant, Darcy the mail girl. Also this kill is hilarious and they had to realize it looked fucking stupid and silly. No points for that shit.

I apologize but words could not do this justice.

B: The rest of the movie is not silly. Tone? Never heard of her. Allyson magically shows up right where she needs to be, in the town's one diner waiting for Corey but he stood her up to do murders.

M: Laurie keeps calling because I guess that's building tension or something but not really because we already know Corey's gonna go after Laurie. I'm too sober for this. Laurie, however, went to the school of 'already lived through like seven Halloween movies' and she's not dumb.

B: She's gonna mope around her house and they're gonna set it up like she's gonna commit aliven't. Commit gun-head. As they say in Roblox, go commit stop living. But it was just a ploy?? I don't get it, why does she do this?

M: Because, like Michael has an evil virus, Laurie appears to have some sort of precognitive ability of her own when it comes to evil, and she knows what's about to go down. Also to fake out the audience. As if we really believed she would just off herself in the finale.

B: She doesn't need to fake out Michael.

M: Michael who? She's faking out Corey. Michael has no part in this movie.

B: She didn't really need to fake out Corey. She shoots him and he falls off the railing.

M: What's the opposite of foreshadowing?

B: Dumb.

M: She empties the gun for no real reason and then says LET'S GO BITCH to the dying Corey.

B: He makes ugly cry face, realizes Allyson is back and then pulls a 5000 IQ move. He is playing 5d chess. He stabs himself in the throat and then Laurie pulls the knife out just in time for Allyson to walk in and see her standing over the corpse of her boyfriend!

Oopsie daisy.

M: Laurie doesn't even try to explain herself. Also this is bullshit. Why did we spend the entire movie building him up and Michael's fucking successor only to have him OFF HIMSELF at the end of the movie just to one up Laurie?!??!

B: Corey deserved better. As I've said, Tumblr's manic pixie dream boy had the whole movie building him up just to give him such an ungraceful ending. I was banking on him sacrificing himself just to save someone else, probably Allyson. And that would ahve been a fitting fucking tumblr fucking meow meow ballering ending for him so everyone could be like OH NOES HE WAS A GOOD BOY ALL ALONG but no...they just end him. They just put him down.

M: Y’know maybe we souldn’t have spent all that time talking about how autistic he is and then constantly referred to him as a shelter animal.

B: I'm allowed to make these jokes. When a bunny calls another bunny cute, that's okay.

M: Allyson does not at all suspect foul play, she's just like oh god grandmother killed my boy. She doesn't call the cops or anything she just goes outside.

B: And disappears from the movie for a little bit.

M: And now Laurie is sitting there like oh bum. But again, her Laurie senses are tingling because suddenly FUCKING MICHAEL MYERS IS HERE and he wants his mask and his goddamn knife back but Corey has to be like HAH FAKE DEATH TROPE only to have Michael break his neck.

B: Why did they even have him come back to life if they were just gonna have Michael kill him? Because Mike doesn't need him anymore? Or he's angry that Corey betrayed him or whatever?

Godnight swet prins

M: We've never been given any indication that Michael has feelings. Let alone betrayal. He's just a shell full of evil. But anyway he's here and now we're gonna have the uh....climactic showdown??

B: Why did the cops call Allyson?? Why didn't they just go to the house where Laurie called???

M: This time Laurie doesn't have a house full of traps this time, but she does have....uh.....um....big kicks.

B: Michael spent four years living in a sewer just to lull Laurie into a false sense of security.

M: Not only does our boy know how to drive cars, he also knows how to use a garbage disposal. Also....again...this is not the feeble old man who got his ass kicked by a 25 year old twink. This is STRONK Michael, he is kicking Laurie's ass all over the place. Is he fucking old and sick or strong and unkillable???

B: Also why did they set up the whole Michael virus thing and him passing off his virus to Corey if they were just gonna kill off Corey? Also Laurie pins Michael to the table and stabs him a lot, pinning him to the table and she monologues again.

M: And takes his mask off and now he's all old and sad and feeble again. Maybe the mask is the source of his power?

B: Of all the confrontations these two have had over the course of the series, this is honestly the least climactic one.

M: But then we get a montage of more climactic confrontations.

Maybe it’s supposed to be like...their lives flashing before their eyes or something?

B: Allyson just runs back in from nowhere and breaks Michael's arm and also apparently when Michael chokes people, they have flashback montages. Little known power of his. But fucking......but all of the sudden, because of that PHONE call I guess...Allyson has another 180 and is like Oh my god you were right, Corey is evil and I believe you and I was wrong and I'm gonna help you kill Michael. But WHY!??!? For what reason???

M: They filet Michael like a pig, making sure all his major arteries are compromised because it's not like the 90000 other ways they tried to kill him worked. The cops show up and they're like OH SHIT THAT'S MICHAEL and ignores the other dead guy on the floor because yanno. The soundtrack is good, but c'mon.

B: I have a theory.

M: Okay.

B: They wrote the ending first, then realized they had written the entire movie about Corey and then killed him off because they realized it didn't fit in the movie. They tie Michael to the roof of Laurie's car and have a huge Michael procession of the entire town to the junkyard.

Dib: How does nobody record this and upload this to LiveLeak?

M: *laughs* Nobody's gonna tell because it's Michael. But tbh this would never happen. Laurie was writing a fucking book about it. Suddenly everyone in Haddonfield is here.

B: An entire town of deplorable humans.

M: This entire movie is so terribly lit btw. It's so dull.

B: They crowdsurf Michael's body to the garbage grinder or junk grinder or whatever. Industrial shredder.

M: If he's infected, his blood is getting on EVERYONE right now.

B: This is my favorite scene in the whole movie.

M: Laurie, standing triumphantly on top of the grinder, rolls Michael into the shredder and they grind him like so much fucking sausage.

The SFX in this movie are like...really good.

B: How many millions of dollars did they spend on this movie? How many bags of PopRocks could you have bought with all that money and THIS was the best y’all could do? And then Allyson is like hey you were right about Corey this whole time WHAT???

M: Her and Laurie are all good now and Michael is definitely 100 percent completely dead this time. Super dead. He has been killed dead and Allyson moves away and moves on and Laurie writes her book but she leaves it open for a sequel. Please let it die.

B: We get a footnote where she and Frank have a little mo' where he brings her veggies so we can remember their budding romance.

M: I just wish like...any other movie had been made. This was so anticlimactic. Michael is barely even in it. Laurie is reduced to just...a whimpering mess, Allyson is whatever they want her to be in the moment, Corey is...pointless and yet the entire movie surrounds HIM. This is the antithesis of what I, and a lot of other people, wanted from a finale, but here we are.

B: I adore this movie. It is terrible, it's an absolute trainwreck of a film that makes no sense and goes off the rails so many times you're left wondering if there ever were rails to begin with. It's is full of obvious 'cute-murder-boy sexyman-bait uwu' moments, but hell, I'll bite. It is a perfect storm of garbage, like a tornado in a landfill.

In our Halloween movie tier list, I made mention of Michael Myers being sort of a metaphor for the Halloween franchise as a whole, and honestly I think Halloween Ends is the best setting for this metaphor: creature once powerful and feared has become old, embattled, and toothless, and barely able to claw out any relevancy in its own context. It tries to come back for a thrilling final showdown to prove it is still as strong as it once was, but ultimately proves to be a pushover and ends up getting shredded like the garbage it is. In many ways, Michael Myers is Halloween. And the fact that Corey Cunningham is the one thing from this movie everyone is hyperfixating on really proves that Halloween isn't even really relevant to Halloween anymore. But for all my words, I think this movie itself delivers the most poignant and quite possibly the most important message about the Halloween franchise that there could be, in the form of an unambiguous two-word poem: Halloween Ends.

Is it the ending we wanted? Hell no. But it’s probably the one we deserved.

Munch and Biscuits out, yo.

#munchflix #movie review #horror #halloween ends #halloween ends review #Michael Myers #corey cunningham #laurie strode #halloween

16 notes · View notes

feanorianethicsdepartment · 3 years

Text

more of tauriel’s hellfamily adventures! there’s still a couple of gaps in my conception of this au, which is why these are bullet points and not an actual fic, but i think i’ve got enough to progress the plot, such as it is. certainly got a bunch of anecdotes i think are funny

i’m not even going to bother explaining how tauriel ended up in one of the fëanorians’ boltholes being treated for mild injuries

nothing super serious, but enough that she’s out of action for the rest of the night. the palace is on fire

the bolthole opens, and celegorm (who’s doing first aid) turns his head. his preemptive scowl melts away instantly. ‘hi elrond!’

the former lord of imladris just sighs. ‘please tell me you idiots haven’t abducted tauriel’

legolas has concerns, apparently. he saw celegorm vanish into an alleyway with her slung over his shoulder and immediately started panicking

‘i've talked him into delaying his rescue mission until i had the chance to check that she was safe’ elrond finishes, sounding absolutely exhausted

tauriel confirms that she is doing fine, as much as she can through the concussion. celegorm’s like ‘if he’s so worried about her why doesn’t he just come up here’

elrond disappears, and a few minutes later legolas scrambles inside

he’s glaring at celegorm. celegorm tells him where the first aid kit is, punches him on the arm, compliments his tracking skills in a vaguely threatening manner, and jumps back out to assist with the chaos

legolas collapses by tauriel’s bedside, still clutching his bow. tauriel pats him on the thigh reassuringly

neither of them are surprised elrond knows the fëanorians - they stayed in his place in tol eressëa for a while, dude knows literally everyone - but they don’t really know why

closer to dawn, elrond’s voice drifts up into the hideout. he’s going on this long irritated rant that climaxes in an extremely exasperated ‘valardamnit dad!’

maglor cackles. tauriel’s like ‘huh didn’t know that.’ legolas makes a face like he accidentally swallowed a spider

by this point, tauriel’s known the brothers hellspawn for long enough legolas has been unnervingly close to a kinslayer way more times than he’d like

this is the longest he’s spent in proximity to them by far, but it’s not the only time he’s interacted with them. they seem to like tauriel, and he knows she can take care of herself

but like still

it keeps happening, though. as tauriel further ingratiates herself with these awful awful elves, her two separate social circles keep bleeding into each other

take the time legolas and co visited the aulendili

before they left middle-earth, gimli whipped round every dwarf they knew and assembled several volumes of complaints. they refuse to confirm or deny whether aulë is the maker, but they are determined someone’s gonna hear their grievances

and thus a small wagon train of wood elves head up into the mountains. including tauriel

tauriel offhandedly mentioned the upcoming trip to the twins, and amras was like ‘hey we’ve got family up there!’ a few messages went up and down the funicular, and now gimli and crew have a place to crash up there

they’re put up by some of the fëanorians’ less murderous (if equally loud) relatives. it’s a pretty interesting trip

half the town is redheads. several people still mistake tauriel for a fëanorian. it’s been happening a lot in the wider noldorin territory lately, it’s weird

caranthir stumbles up into town about halfway through their visit. he gets into an extremely long philosophical argument with gimli that somehow ends with a mutual dwarven nod of respect

he also ends up fighting back-to-back with tauriel in one of those debatebrawls so common among the noldor. neither of them is quite sure how it happens

that’s the way it goes, isn’t it. there’s no big official moment when tauriel becomes part of the family

she just grows closer to them over her time in valinor, as they do to her

she merges into their social world. she develops a rapport with maglor’s wife - a first age mountain sinda and a third age forest avar don’t have that much in common, but they are both looking at noldorin culture from the outside. they have so many injokes about ridiculous bling

(it goes the other way too. this childhood friend oc of hers i’m developing - pretty sweet guy, the token sane man in the legolas-tauriel-him trinity - gets along really well with celebrimbor)

this one time tauriel punches a guy out for calling elrond a traitor. it doesn’t matter that he’s like three times her age, he is babey

she gets chewed out by maedhros and tests out new devices for curufin and drops in on nerdanel for tea. even though she doesn’t permanently live in the definitely-not-fëanorian quarter, she has her own personal space in its innermost warren

she’s one of them long before anyone consciously realises it

what causes that realisation is, admittedly, partially the conspiracy theories. if you say something often enough, you’ll start to believe it, and while the tauriel origin stories circulating through the noldorin rumour mill vary a lot in the details they all agree she is a fëanorian

but that’s a gradual long-term thing. it’s one more thread that leads to the moment

because there has to be an inflection point, i think. the fëanorians have plenty of family friends within the ranks of their definitely-not-minions. some are even as close to them as tauriel’s become

something has to happen to show she’s something more. fortunately, as demonstrated by the darkening and the númenorian invasion, no matter how peaceful it seems, history never stops

shit goes down. the exact details i’ll admit i don’t know yet, but at some point some sort of massive crisis rocks all of valinor. it’s during that crisis that tauriel does stuff that makes it blindingly obvious she’s not just on her side, but one of them

what stuff? again, i don’t know yet. i have this mental image of her leading a strike team that’s half definitely-not-minions and half legolas’ people through a burning city to do... something badass, but that’s as specific as i can get atm

what i am certain about, is that throughout the unfolding of the crisis, tauriel is permanently on the fëanorians’ side, just like they’re on hers

it’s one thing to be someone’s friend in bright happy days. it’s another thing to stick by them when everything’s falling to pieces and the whole world is against them. it’s in the depths of this crisis that both parties have the chance to fully prove their worth to each other

that probably wouldn’t be enough on its own, but combined with the friendship and the conspiracy theories and just the general way she is, once the dust settles it’s blazingly clear that tauriel is a daughter of the house of fëanor

there’s a little debate about where exactly she fits on the family tree, but not much. our sample size is admittedly small, but third generation fëanorians tend to have the slightest modicum of common sense? elrond and celebrimbor both have a fair degree of self-awareness and at least a few brain cells

tauriel does not. tauriel is mad, bad, and dangerous to know, just smart enough to understand that her sheer chaoticness is something she can channel but not nearly close to regularly thinking through the consequences of her actions. she’s loud and violent and does whatever she wants whenever she wants without a single thought towards what people will think of her

and more than that, she doesn’t relate to the second generation fëanorians the way the third generation does. she’s their friend and partner-in-crime, not one of their precious perfect must-protect children. she gets jerked around and bullied and does all that stuff right back, and while she doesn’t have a solid place in the second generation’s internal hierarchy yet she would easily slot in

no, tauriel’s a second generation fëanorian, one of fëanor and nerdanel’s horrible children. the fact that fëanor is currently indisposed and unable to provide an opinion on the matter doesn’t seem to bother anyone

she gets inducted into the family in a massive group hug, and from then on out the brothers hellspawn are the siblings hellspawn

her new family doesn’t replace her old one, of course, she has a long talk with elrond wherein she hashes this out. she’s still a silvan of the greenwood

she’s just also the little sister of the most bloodthirsty elves in history

(that sound in the background is legolas screaming)

#silmarillion #tauriel #feanorians #house of feanor #the feanorian tauriel saga #my terrible fic #this is late because i needed to sleep last night #extremely panicky background legolas #the worst part is he can't even deny it #current plan is looking like one more main entry and a couple of errata #there's a scene i don't think i'll be able to fit in and a little minific about why tauriel doesn't believe in maedhros

66 notes · View notes

hetacakes · 5 years

Text

snow white.

all haikyuu x reader (the gender isn't really specified in the story but in the summary below i used her as a substitute)

shapeshifter au

in which all the haikyuu characters are shapeshifters and fall in love with the reader, but she only meets them in their animals forms. will they all get to become hers?

this is supposed to be a oneshot/twoshot (if you want a second part!!) but i can add extra sort of spinoffs for specific characters so please let me know your thoughts!!

also in the gif below they look super intimidating but in reality they're all babey

word count: 8,148

You were definitely a night person; the hooting of owls and voices of other night birds didn't bother you half as much as waking up to the sun in your face and birds chirping their hearts out. Any other person would love to wake up to such a beautiful fairy tale morning, but then again, most people didn't have the most irregular sleep schedule possible.

You were an up and coming author, and your first book was somewhat of a success. It was definitely far from being as popular as classics like Harry Potter, but it had its fair share of fans. You wrote for the creepier, mysterious and suspenseful side of literature. The building of anticipation, the blissful yet terrifying feeling of being in the unknown, the resigned feeling of realizing going forward into whatever conflict awaits is the only choice left; those elements of writing were ones you enjoyed immensely, both in reading them and writing them.

Your first novel was about a girl who was absolutely sure a monster lived under her bed, and tried desperately to convince her parents that the monster was there, and only came when it was bedtime; her parents always ignored her, as if she didn't even exist. It was a truly captivating story, and the climax came when the girl peeked over the side of the bed, coming face to face with the monster. Except the monster was the one that screamed, and when the so called monster ran out to find her parents, she and her parents returned only to scream in horror, yelling at the demon child sitting on the top bunk. The protagonist was actually the monster, and was actually trying to take the girl's place and influence her parents, but the way you described it in the first half was so believable, and the foreshadowing wasn't too obvious, yet revealed themselves like small epiphanies, one after the other.

Yet apparently it wasn't good enough for the public, and many critics called your story too abstract and vague to truly be considered horror: after all, excessive description of detail is what makes it just that much more interesting. Fans of the book argued that too many facts ruin the guise of suspense and the fear of the unknown, but the number of fans the story garnered was not high. You saw your name across headlines maybe a few times, then were quickly drowned out by more popular stories.

But this time, you were sure you were going to make it. Using the recognition you got from your first work, you planned to take advantage of the few eyes on you by publishing a newer, better story. The first novel paled in comparison, and seemed like little more than a simple warmup!

If only you could write it.

The past three days had been a slump, and no amount of hair pulling at any ungodly hour of late nights and early mornings was able to fix it for you. Your document stayed blank, cursor flickering on the screen.

And waking up to a morning fit for a Disney princess only made it worse.

"Shut up!" You cried, looking out the window. A tree that grew tall enough to reach your apartment on the third floor extended its branches outward, a few making it right in front of your window. Sitting amongst the leaves were a group of bluebirds, along with some robins and sparrows. A few of the birds, the color of the sky on their feathers, turned to look at you, as if those select few somehow heard and understood you, before turning to the others and resuming their incessant chatter, as if they were actually having a real discussion.

"Stupid birds and their chirping and their soft feathers and their cute round bodies and their little wings," you cursed, walking unsteadily to your bathroom, reluctantly getting ready for the day.

You had plans to meet up with your friend Haiba Lev, a Russian that was born and raised here in Japan. He offered for the two of you to go to a nearby cafe and talk for an hour or so, before he had to leave for his final year in university, and you didn't have anything else to do, so you agreed. You yourself had graduated a year early, at the cost of working yourself into the ground and writing paper after paper after paper.

You found it odd that Lev specifically mentioned a pet-friendly cafe, and when you suggested another that was a little bit closer, he adamantly refused, insisting that the pet-friendly one was a better option, for an unknown reason.

But you shrugged it off, not really caring.

As you locked your apartment behind you, you tucked the keys into the inner pockets of your denim jacket, the light blue seemingly extra pale compared to the dark colors of your shirt. It was one of the first days of autumn, and while it was still quite warm, you pulled a jacket over your striped t-shirt, just in case. Stooping down to tie your shoes, double knotting to be sure, you pulled out your phone from your back pocket, turning it on and searching for the location of the cafe. It was quite a long walk, but you planned ahead and left early to have enough time to make the trip.

Stepping out of the complex and into the sun, you took in a breath of air, feeling the contrast of the slight chill in the air and the warmth of the sunlight. Making your way down the sidewalk, you began your journey.

About halfway to the cafe, you were at the end of a block, with a dumpster in an alley next to you. A soft meow made you turn around, searching for the source of the noise. Another meow made you crouch closer to the dumpster, the throng of people you had been waiting with now walking, walking away.

There, curled in between two garbage bags, was a tortoiseshell cat. It had a white underbelly and an orange back with dark grey spots in some places. When it turned its face towards you, you saw that one half was grey, and the other orange, including the ears. Its eyes were a golden color, and they stared into yours, as if it knew something you didn't.

"Hello there, mister cat. Are you a mister?" You greeted, thinking in the back of your head how insane you must look right now.

The cat mowed in response as it stood and stretched.

"I'll take that as a yes. Would you like to come with me?" You asked him. You were going to a pet-friendly cafe anyway, might as well take advantage of it. The cat walked over to you, rubbing his head against your knee. You pet him gently, before gingerly lifting him in the air, holding him in your chest. He purred, shifting into what you assumed was a more comfortable position. Squeezing him softly, you picked back up where you left off, taking the cat with you.

You spotted his head of silver hair before he saw you. Given his insane height, you could easily see his head from the door, even though the place was fairly busy. He waved you over, and you took a seat across from him.

"I ordered for us already, and I got you a caramel macchiato, is that cool?" Lev asked, and you nodded in agreement.

"Oh, you made a friend?" He asked again, eyeing the cat, still in your embrace.

"Yeah!"

"When?"

"Today," you answered with a smile, placing the cat on the table.

"He doesn't like me," Lev stated matter-of-factly, just as the cat glanced towards him before turning away, hopping off the table and into your lap.

"How did you know? Aren't you curious if he's mine or not?" You questioned, looking at him suspiciously.

"Oh! Well, you see, it's because I met him already, at a park! Yeah! And he doesn't like me because he says I'm too energetic and he's lazy," Lev huffed, glaring as the cat meowed at him.

"He said that?" You said with an indulgent smile on your face, as if you were speaking to an imaginative toddler.

"Yes! I mean, no! I just figured, you know, because some cats sleep a lot and he's sleeping right now." Lev gestured to your lap, and sure enough, the cat was dozing off, purring softly.

"One caramel macchiato and one cup of freshly squeezed orange juice," a waitress said as she smiled at the two of you, setting your drinks down from her loaded tray.

"Thank you!" You called after her as she walked away, before turning to Lev. "Really? Just an orange juice?"

"Someone told me that I had too much energy this morning and that if I drank coffee, I'd become 'out of control'" he said, air quotes on the control part.

"I bet it was the cat," you joked as the cat shifted, purring louder.

"You'd be surprised," he grumbled, taking a sip of his juice.

You waved goodbye at Lev, wishing him good luck at university. You turned your attention to the cat, still in your arms, but awake.

"You want to go now little guy? Or do you want to come home with me?" You asked him, petting him between his ears.

He stared at you, as if contemplating your question, before jumping out of your arms. You expected him to scamper off, but he stayed by your feet, looping between your legs. Getting the hint, you started walking home, the cat right at your heels.

"Okay, kitty. This is my apartment complex," you gestured to the building, standing out of the way of the entrance. The cat stared up at you.

"I live on the third floor, on the right side, near the corner," you explained, as if it mattered to a cat where you lived, if he even understood you at all.

The cat continued to look at you, before jumping on the steel handrail you were leaning on that closed off the concrete entrance from the grasses and trees. He rubbed his head against your arm, before jumping off, and walking away.

Smiling to yourself, you walked into the building. Maybe the morning wasn't so bad after all.

"I hate you, past me," you complained, waking up to yet another morning of tweets and chirps after having stayed up late again, with no progress, last night. Looking out the window, you noticed an eagle flying over head, before it landed on a branch. The chirping of the birds grew louder as they surrounded the eagle, who did nothing but look down on them. It gave one caw, which silenced the bluebirds, which you suspected to be the same ones from yesterday. Then the chatter restarted, only this time, the noise was tenfold. One bird rose and flew around the eagle, chirping nonstop. The eagle shook its feathers before lifting its wings and flying away, the smaller bluebirds still yelling after it.

"Pfft." You stifled a laugh behind your hand, smiling at your window. You had originally woken up grumpy, as you usually did, but the show the birds had put on was enough to lighten your mood.

Two of the bluebirds noticed your laughter, and one flew to your windowsill, pecking at the glass. You opened the window, cupping your hands and offering them to the bird. It hopped in happily, chirping in a way that you found cute, and not annoying, for once.

"Aww, well aren't you such a pretty little bird. I can't believe I told you to keep your lovely little voice quiet," you cooed, using your finger to pet its head, smoothing its feathers. It seemed to soak up your praise, spreading its wings and wiggling a bit. The other bird, which had landed on the windowsill, flew into your hand as well, pecking at the first bird.

"So this is the second show, I suppose," you laughed, looking at the birds in amusement. The second bird turned towards you, before looking away, as if in embarrassment.

"Well, I'll have to use something to give to you guys, so I can tell which is which. If you come in, I'll go find some ribbon to tie around you guys. Don't worry, I'll try to tie as gently as possible, and you can chirp if it feels uncomfortable, alright?" You offered, looking at the birds in your hand. The first bird chirped eagerly, hopping around your hand, while the second bird seemed to hesitate a moment, before chirping softly.

"Alright! Stay wherever you want, I'll be right back," you said, expecting them to perch on a table or counter. Instead, they flew to your shoulder, one on each. You chuckled, smiling fondly.

You walked into your kitchen, opening your drawer of miscellaneous stuff, better known as the "random stuff goes in here in case you need it" drawer. Sifting around, you found two spools of thin ribbon, wider than string but no thicker than the width of a pencil.

"Okay, who wants the light blue ribbon?" You asked. The first bird, who had perched on your left shoulder, hopped down eagerly, chirping away. You gently tied a loose bow around the bird, loose enough to be slipped off by its claws, but tight enough not to fall in flight or by accident. The bird stayed quiet, indicating that he had no qualms against the ribbon, which matched his feathers of sky blue and white. The other bird flew down too, shifting from foot to foot. You pet its head softly, cooing when it rubbed its head against your finger. You tied the green ribbon around its neck in the same manner, humming when they kept silent, pleased with your work.

"I'll just refer to you as guys, is that fine?" You asked them, much like how you asked the cat you found yesterday, with the "looking crazy" and everything. They both chirped once, which you decided was a yes.

You glanced around, spotting your empty bookbag draped across the back of a chair. You grabbed it, before speaking out loud, "I'm going to a cafe today, to work on my novel. Do you wanna come with me? Don't worry, it's pet-friendly."

Walking into your bedroom, not really expecting an answer, you grabbed your laptop and its charger, and a portable charger, just in case. You tucked it into the laptop pocket of your bag, along with a notebook and a few pens. Putting the chargers in the front pocket, you looked through your closet, searching for something. You made a happy noise in the back of your throat when you found your old scarf, creamy white in color and huge in size. A friend had bought it for you as a joke, knowing it would be either impossible to wear it as an actual scarf, or absolutely hilarious. You put it in the empty space of your bag, making it comfortable enough for the animals to rest inside.

You closed the door of your bedroom behind you, half-expecting the birds to have flown out the open window, long gone. To your surprise, they had stayed where you left them, watching you eagerly. You grinned, before crossing over to the window and shutting it. Slipping your phone and keys into the side pocket of your bag, which was meant for the water bottle you promised yourself you'd take but never actually did, you opened the bag, motioning for the birds to hop in. The blue ribboned bird hopped in, chirping away, which you had already begun to become used to, with the green ribboned bird following quietly. You pulled the flap over, making sure not to click it shut.

As you walked out of the building, a familiar meow caught your attention. Looking down, you saw the cat from yesterday, only this time he brought friends.

"Oh! Hello again. Who are these?" You asked, gesturing towards his company as you sat on the floor with him.

The tortoiseshell from yesterday stayed curled up on the ground, while another cat, this one black with a mess of fur on top of his head and over his eye, walked over and rubbed himself on you. Following him were two baby crows, one with glasses-like marks on his eyes, and one with spots across its face, almost like freckles. Relaxing with the tortoiseshell were two more crows; one had bright orange eyes, while the other had blue eyes. You did a double take, not having seen such unusual, but extremely cute, animals before.

"Er, do you guys want to come along?" You asked, half hoping they'd walk away and act like actual normal animals. To your slight dismay, they all stood and gathered around you, the two cats pawing at your bookbag.

The two ribboned birds flew out, chirping loudly at the offending cats. They settled on your shoulder, tucking themselves into your neck. Seeing the two of them be so close to you must have sparked something in the other animals, for they all clambered onto you.

You made an "oof" sound as you fell back on your elbows, the two birds still curled into your neck while the crows crowded into the pockets of your jacket, peeking their heads out of both pockets in pairs. The two cats slipped into your bag, and curled up with each other, making use of the limited space. The two birds flitted from your shoulder to your hoodie, nestling in there instead. Accepting your fate, you pulled the bag over your shoulders yet again, continuing on your way to the cafe.

"Hey! You have any room over there?" A voice yelled at you from a distance. Looking up from your laptop, you saw a head of buzzed hair sit across from you. For the past two hours, you had been sitting in a corner booth, finally making some progress on your story, the plot loosely sketched out on your notebook. The cats had shared the space of your lap, resting their heads on each of your thighs. The crows had moved from inside your pockets to inside your sleeves, their feathers soft against the back of your hand. The bluebirds were still happily tucked into your neck, occasionally chirping conversationally into your ears.

When Tanaka sat down, two of the crows, the orange and blue one, jumped up to greet him, cawing softly.

"I take it that you guys have met before?"

"Yeah, you'd be surprised at how similar we are. They hang out with me a lot," he mentioned casually, before looking at the rest of the animals cuddled with you. "Wow, you just attract all of them, huh?"

"I guess so. At first I came here with Lev and this cat came along, then this morning I met these two birds, and then when I left my apartment this guy brought all his friends," you explained, motioning to the tortoiseshell sleeping on your thigh, then to the birds perched on your collarbones. "Thanks for the dumb scarf, by the way. I put it in my bag to carry all these little ones."

"It's only one in a million for a gag gift to come in handy, and I knew it would."

"Yeah, right. You'd have no way of knowing how many of these animals have begun to visit me."

"Watch, when nighttime falls, you'll get two more owl visitors," Tanaka said wisely, taking an exaggerated sip from his coffee as if it was tea.

"Yeah, sure," you said, taking it as a joke, not realizing that he was only half kidding.

"Well, thank you for coming guys. I think your company blessed me with writing powers today, and I really appreciate it," you told the animals, as you sat in an outside table of the cafe. You had called it a day just ten minutes earlier, packing your laptop and chargers away, as well as the notebook and pens. The animals were spread out on the table in front of you, and when you thanked them, they all spoke once, a chorus of what would've been "you're welcome", had they been people.

"Well, I'm heading home. You guys better get to your homes too," you told them, cracking a smile when not one of them budged. The black cat pawed at the blue ribbon around the bluebird's neck, and as the bird hopped away, chirping indignantly, you realized, "Oh, do all of you want ribbons?"

Again, they all chorused in agreement.

"Watch, you guys will become mine soon if you keep this up," you joked, not noticing how all the animals perked up at that, as if that was their goal all along.

"My apartment has never felt so full," you said aloud, watching as the cats curled up on the counter, with the crows sitting near them. The bluebirds were already on the windowsill, no doubt needing to go back to where they actually belonged. You opened the window, saying goodbye to your bluebirds, watching as they preened at the word 'my', before taking flight.

"Okay! I have red ribbons," you said, pulling it out. It was wider than the other ribbons, and you knew it would only fit on the cats. They both lowered their heads obediently as you tied theirs as gently as you had tied the bluebirds' ribbons. You pulled out a light orange ribbon, the same width as the blue and green ribbon. "You guys don't look like each other that much, so do you all want to have the same ribbon?" You asked them, watching as only one crow hopped forward. You sighed at their behavior, realizing they didn't want to match with each other. You tied the ribbon to the orange-eyed crow, and did the same with a dark blue ribbon to the blue-eyed crow. You tied a yellow ribbon the color of honey around the glasses crow, and searched for a green ribbon a shade darker than the one you used earlier, remembering how adamant the crows had been on no matches or twinsies. You opened the window for them too, and they flitted away as you called your goodbyes. Motioning for the cats to jump down and follow you, you walked them all the way to the entrance, waving goodbye as they ran off.

Determined to keep up the writing streak you had earlier, you opened your laptop again, pulling up the document, no longer blank and was now satisfyingly filled with words and letters.

An hour and a half had passed since you started typing again, and you were at least halfway through the rising action, the climax and turning point only a few chapters away. Satisfied with your productivity, you decided to stop there, for fear of overworking yourself. From past university experiences, work you made when you were past your limit was never good work, and would've gotten a better grade if it was done late, but well. Plus, you felt like you had compensated for the three days you spent having writer's block, and were confident you could get in touch with your editor and publisher by the end of the year.

Deciding to treat yourself, you saved and closed your document, before opening up Netflix. Hooking your laptop to your TV, you used your remote to browse for something to watch, settling on a true crime documentary. If you needed justification, you could always brush it off as research for writing mysteries and horror.

As soon as the movie started, you were entranced, amazed and interested in the narrator's words, taking note of the phrases he used to set suspense and keep his audience on the edge of their seats. Just as the big moment was going to happen, the strike to seal the victim's fate, pecking resounded from your window, just like it did earlier that day. Confused, you stood, walking over and peeking out, the TV screen playing in the background, volume lowered as the characters moved in silent actions.

It was dark outside, and you could barely see much more than the branch in front of you. Your bluebirds weren't anywhere to be seen, and none of your crows' ribbons were showing, swimming in the sea of navy blue and black.

All of a sudden, a huge white owl flew to your windowsill, pecking vigorously. You jumped in surprise, before thinking back to what Tanaka had told you, so you opened your window, watching as it eagerly flew in.

"You make one, and I bet another one is coming soon, right?" You asked the owl, watching as it jumped around your carpet floor. It swiveled its head to you, before hooting loudly, answering you enthusiastically. Sure enough, the sound of wings flapping made you turn back to your window, and another owl was there, a cute barn owl of browns and greys with adorable, big dark eyes.

"Aww, aren't you just the prettiest owl? Come here," you cooed, wondering if cooing will become one of your quirks or something. You stretched your arm, and the owl flew to you, settling gently on your forearm. You pet his head, smoothing the feathers down from the top of his head to the middle of his back, right in between his wings. The owl hooted softly, appreciating the attention you were giving it.

The moment was ruined when the first owl flew at you, making the other owl take flight as well. Your head spun as you watched them fly around each other, before they both flew towards your couch and settled in the middle. The white owl, with feathers all shades of grey among the snowy feathers, hooted loudly, this time as if it was complaining or whining. You plopped down on the couch, leaning against the armrest. The first owl, with feathers on his face replicating the look of eyebrows, jumped on your leg immediately, looking up at you. The other stared at the two of you, before looking down, as if embarrassed by the other's antics.

"Awe, it's okay, you're also a very nice owl. So handsome," you said, petting his head, smiling as he nuzzled your hand. "Huh, Tanaka was right, I got two owl visitors."

The owls hooted together, one softly and the other loud and proud. You turned to them, "So, what brings you here?" You already accepted that animals either somehow understood you and answered in chirps and meows, or you were completely off your rocker.

The two owls looked around, before crowding towards you, nestling into your sides.

"I'll bet you got word from some birdies that I'll coo over you and give you attention for free," you remarked, laughing as they both looked away, as if ashamed.

"Well, I'm going to sleep soon, but I know you guys will stay awake for much longer. I'll open the window for you," you said, getting up and starting for the wall. A loud, sharp hoot froze you in your tracks, and you watched, puzzled, as the white owl flew to your kitchen, hopping on the counter. The brown owl quietly joined it, looking at you expectantly.

"Oh yeah, how could I ever forget the ribbons?" you sighed, before making your way to the drawer. Not bothering to choose specific colors, you picked up the first one you saw and hadn't used yet, which turned out to be a shiny gold ribbon. The owls hooted happily as you tied the ribbons around them, and they flew and nuzzled your cheek before flying off, back into the darkness.

You had long since passed the point of being a pet lover, and were on the verge of becoming a zookeeper. Shutting the TV and your laptop off, closing the finished movie page, you gave up trying to fight off being a crazy animal lady, distant relative of the typical "crazy cat lady next door".

You accidentally woke up early the next morning, early enough that the sun was barely rising and none of the birds were around to sing their songs. Missing the chirps of your bluebirds, you leant against your window, watch as the sun slowly rose, painting the sky with hues of red and gold.

To your surprise, when you turned to the branch to check if anyone was there, there sat the eagle from before, the one who was bothered by the bluebirds. You quickly opened your window, motioning for it to come inside.

"Usually, it's the animals that ring the doorbell, but right now I'm inviting you in to apologize for my bluebirds," you explained as the eagle stared at you, before flying in, staying on the windowsill.

"I really don't know why they're so persistent on annoying you, mister eagle. Can I call you mister eagle?" You asked, as if it really mattered what you called the eagle. Of course, as normal eagles do, it stayed quiet, sitting and staring. "Anyway, it's funny that little birds like them think they can pick a fight with such an incredible eagle like you. May I?" You held out your hand hesitantly, not wanting to scare him away. Sure, the birds that frequented the trees have already become familiar with humans, but you had a feeling an eagle, an impressive bird that you've always admired, wouldn't be living in a city along with crowds of bustling people. Maybe he was just passing by.

The eagle again did not respond, but he didn't move away as you came closer to him. You scratched the feathers under his beak, grinning when he tilted his head back, asking for more. "Wow, are you being cute?" You teased, pausing as he turned his head to the side as if your teasing had actually got to him, before he tipped his head again, allowing you to continue to pet him as you chuckled at his endearing behavior.

The sun was already in the middle of rising in the sky, and you knew your birds would be flocking to your window soon. "Hey, the rest of the birds are coming soon. You might wanna escape while you can, unless you want them to start an argument with you again," you laughed, the scene replaying in your head. Yet the eagle stayed still, looking expectantly at you.

You facepalmed. "Right, the ribbon. I never thought a special eagle like you would want one of my ribbons," you remarked, sifting yet again for a ribbon in your drawer. You quickly snipped a piece of maroon ribbon, and the eagle stayed still as you tied it around his neck, as you had done many times before. The eagle cawed once with finality, as if both thanking you and saying goodbye, before it took off, flying away.

"He makes nine birds in total," you sighed, turning away from the window.

While you were still alone and without all your animal companions, you quickly slipped on a thin hoodie and joggers, before making your way to the door, keys and phone in pocket. You stopped for a second, before you went to your drawer and picked up a yellow ribbon, the color of the sun.

You slouched, holding on to your knees to support yourself as you looked around the park in front of you. You had nothing else to do so early in the morning, and since you kept making half-hearted attempts in getting yourself to exercise and actually the sun again, proven by the full bottle of water that you still kept in your fridge and still did not carry with you, so you went out on a walk. Unfortunately, a trip to the park would have been very difficult had your little friends came along. It wasn't like you didn't like them, you loved them as if they were yours, but going from no pets, completely alone, to suddenly managing a pet store was quite a big change, and putting leashes on nine birds would've been quite the scene.

And it didn't really help that a golden retriever was bounding towards you.

"Oof!" You gasped as the dog crashed into you, pushing you to the floor and eagerly licking your face. You couldn't contain the laugh that bubbled out of you as you lightly pushed on the dog, wiping your face as you sat up. "Hey there big guy."

He was definitely far from being a puppy, being way bigger than your cats, and he couldn't have been any older than them. His coat was a smooth golden colour, and his tail was wagging at the speed of light.

"Where'd you come from?" You asked searching for a tag or collar. You found none, and looked behind him, seeing if anyone was running after a stray dog. "Huh. Who do you belong to?"

The dog paused, looking at you, before he leapt again, licking at your face. You protested good-naturedly, petting him around his neck, shaking him lightly. "How do all you animals keep finding me?"

The dog, of course, did not answer, but only barked happily.

"Please tell me you don't want a ribbon as well," you teased, making a pitying noise in the back of your throat as the dog pulled a sad face, looking down shamefully. "It's alright, something told me I'd be needing this ribbon," you reassured, pulling the bright yellow ribbon out of your hoodie pocket. The dog barked loudly, smiling and wagging his tail as you tied the ribbon around his neck.

"Bark twice if you're planning to follow me home," you said, expecting silence. Instead, you were met with two ecstatic barks. "Well, you're gonna have to keep up," you scoffed jokingly, turning and starting to jog back to your apartment. The sound of paws and panting made you smile fondly, peeking over your shoulder to see the golden dog chasing you eagerly.

The crowing of birds caught you and the dog's attention, making you grab onto the steel handrail in front of your complex and peer into the trees above you.

Four crows, just a little bit older than the baby crows, flew out and lined up on the rail next to your hands. The first had a brownish head and stood firmly, as if it was the leader of the group. The second had a grey head, and cocked its head at you adorably. The third had a brown head and streak reaching the middle of its back, and he shuffled on its feet, hopping from foot to foot. The last was normal, save for a streak of blond in between its eyes, and the way it hopped up and down excitedly, mere seconds away from jumping up and flying in your face.

The dog barked once, a protective, "back off or else" bark. The first crow cawed in response, as if saying it meant no harm. That seemed to satisfy the dog, as he sat on the floor, waiting for your next actions.

"What a good guard dog," you cooed, rubbing his head, ruffling his fur. "Looking for four more crows?" you asked, watching as they stared back at you, having no answer, as they were, of course, birds. "Might as well follow me," you decided, leading the dog and four birds into your apartment building.

"How did all of you get here?" You asked, softly closing the front door behind you. The four crows you were with joined the other four, and they grouped together, as if reuniting. The dog ran to one of the cats lying on your sofa, nudging the black cat excitedly. The white horned owl joined the cat and dog, hooting loudly. The brown owl watched its perch on the back of the coach, the tortoiseshell cat sleeping underneath him. Your bluebirds flew to you immediately, perching on your shoulders. A caw from your windowsill caught your attention, and you saw the eagle sitting there, the slight breeze from the still open window ruffling his feathers.

"I'm going to change," you said offhandedly, before being stopped in your tracks by the streaked crow and orange crow flying in front of your face, cawing loudly. They settled on your kitchen counter, and the streaked crow pecked at the orange ribbon around the other crow. You sighed good-naturedly, "All four of you come over here, this is the last time I ribbon another pet as mine."

You looked fondly at the four new crows, ribbons around their necks. The first crow, the leader looking one, had a black ribbon, almost the same color as its feathers. The grey crow had a fitting grey ribbon, and it hopped happily, a small jump in its steps. The nervous looking crow looked more confident with the chocolate colored ribbon around his neck, and the streaked crow jumped vigorously as soon as the bright orange ribbon was safe and secure.

"Now I'm changing," you called, walking into your bedroom and slipping your hoodie and joggers off for a simple tee and sweatpants.

"I really don't know how I suddenly got a bunch of pets, but I might as well start calling you all mi-" you said as you walked back into the living room, expecting the animals to be exactly where you left them.

Except there were no animals in sight.

Lounging on your sofa were two guys, one seemingly napping and the other staring at you with a smirk, amusement in his eyes. On the armrests were two more, one calmly sitting on the rest, looking at you with the prettiest pair of eyes you've ever seen. The other was leaning towards you, head next to the bedhead boy on the couch, wide-eyed and looking like he was about to burst from excitement. Sitting on the floor leaning against the furniture was yet someone else, the glint of a tongue ring flashing at you as he stuck his tongue out playfully.

On your coffee table were four boys, all leaning against each other, back to back. The tallest had glasses and the typical "I'm going to push my glasses up while scoffing at you" face, and behind him was someone just a bit shorter than him, with freckles and a sheepish smile on his face. The shortest had the brightest orange hair, reminding you of the sun, and he looked at you as if he was looking at his favorite thing in the whole world. The last had an ever present angry face, but you could see a soft expression in his deep blue eyes. Leaning against your kitchen counter were four more guys, the first being broad, standing in a self-assured stance, looking at you fondly. The second had grey hair and caring eyes, which closed when he smiled sweetly at you. The third had long hair tied back in a bun, and he looked up at you, obviously not one of the most confident people around, but definitely getting there, smiling at you as well. The last was short with a streak of blond in his hair, with fire in his eyes and endless energy radiating from him. The shutting of your window drew your attention to the last one, tall with a stoic face, but you could see how he softened at the sight of you.

"Call me your birdie again, please?" A smooth voice whispered in your ear as an arm rested on your shoulder.

"Don't listen to that idiot," a husky voice spoke to your other ear, leaning on your remaining shoulder. Looking from side to side, you could see the first voice belonged to a boy with chocolate hair and eyes, both because of the color and because of the sweetness in his appearance. The other belonged to a broader, stronger guy, with arms you could drool over for days. He too had an intimidation-prone face, but the way he looked at you was far from intimidation and closer to adoration.

Like any normal person, you freaked out.

"Who the hell are you guys and what are you doing in my apartment?!"

All of them looked towards you, before chorusing in a familiar way, "We're yours!"

"So you're saying I babied and tied ribbons onto real people?!" You asked, blush spreading like fire across your face. You had sat down in the middle of your sofa, which greatly pleased the two already sitting on it, as they tucked themselves into you, one sleeping quietly on your shoulder and the other sitting behind you, arms around you and head on top of yours.

"Awe, but I liked it when you called me handsome," the face said on your right thigh, pouting as he spoke. The face leaning against your left thigh turned away, redness in his ears and cheeks, since you had also called him, quote, "the prettiest owl".

"You even said I was your very good guard dog," the one sitting in between your legs said as he tilted his head back to look at you, looping his arms around both your legs and holding them over his shoulders.

"I don't even know your names!" You exclaimed, reality sinking in.

They all remained quiet.

"Well, can you guys tell me?"

"You have to ask properly," the voice from your shoulder piped up softly, holding your hand as he drifted between awake to asleep.

"How do I ask properly?"

"The same way you asked us if I was your pretty little bird," the one tucked into your other side said matter-of-factly, snuggling into you happily as you wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

"I'm not doing that!" You said hotly, fully embarrassed by everything that you had learned and everything you had done.

"Awe, come on! Please? We used different colors for a reason!" The short, orange-haired kid pleaded from his seat at the table, pointing at the ribbon around his neck.

"Oh, right. I'll take these off for you now," you said absentmindedly, lifting your hand from around the boy's shoulder and towards his neck.

"No!" He cried, holding your hand with his, lacing your fingers together, successfully keeping your hand away from his ribbon.

"Why would you want to keep that?" You groaned, looking down, wishing the ground would eat you up.

"Because it means we're yours," the one behind you said, holding you tightly. The rest of them agreed, nodding their heads.

You relented. "Fine, which ones are my bluebirds?"

"Us!" The one snuggled into you and the one sitting beside the coffee table said, arms and biceps on display for you. "I'm Oikawa Tooru, but please keep calling me all the cute names you gave me," the one in your shoulder said, light blue ribbon around his neck, looking at you both pleasingly and teasingly. You blushed, turning your attention elsewhere. "And I'm Iwazumi Hajime," the one at the tableside said, green ribbon on his neck, a faint blush on his cheeks.

"Who are my cats?"

"Me," the voice behind you purred, rubbing his cheek on your head. "Kuroo Tetsurou, cutie."

"And me," the voice from your other shoulder whispered, looking up and resting his chin instead of his cheek, red ribbon against your arm. "I'm Kozume Kenma."

"Who are my crows?"

"All of us!" Eight people stated, making you sigh inwardly. Why do you have so many crows?

"I'm Hinata Shouyou!" The orange-haired boy stated proudly, with a matching ribbon, sitting slightly diagonally in front of you. "I'm Tsukishima Kei," the one next to him said, pushing up his glasses to hide the blush that had appeared on his cheeks, golden ribbon on him. "I'm Kageyama Tobio," the blue-eyed boy leaned over, looking over Tsukishima's side, the loop of a dark blue ribbon peeking out. "Yamaguchi Tadashi," the last said, leaning over on the other side and rubbing the back of his neck, dark green ribbon shifting slightly.

"Nishinoya Yuu!" The other short one declared, bright orange ribbon as bright as the wearer, as he stood proudly. "Asahi Azumane," the bun boy said softly, playing with the end of his chocolate brown ribbon. "I'm Sugawara Koushi, it's really nice to meet you in person," the gray-haired one stated sweetly, matching ribbon on his neck as well. "And Daichi Sawamura, the sort of leader of these crows," the last said, looking over at the younger crows the same way a parent looks proudly at their child, black ribbon turning with him.

"My owls?"

"Here!" A loud voice from your right thigh said, gold eyes and wide smile pointed towards you. "Bokuto Kotarou, your handsome owl!" He said happily, gazing at you adoringly, gold ribbon rubbing against your thigh. "Akaashi Keiji, your… pretty owl," a softer voice from your right thigh side, facing upwards towards you but eyes shifted away, pink prominent across his cheeks, gold shining on his neck.

"My dog?"

"Me! I'm Terushima Yuuji, the bestest boy, of course!" The one in between your knees said, twisting around to face you, infectious smile on his face. As he twisted, his ribbon moved as well, as yellow as his coat, when he was a dog. "If you have to say it then it's probably not true," Kuroo retorted, hugging you closer to him. "Hey!" Terushima exclaimed, offended.

You laughed at their playful bickering. "And my special eagle?"

"Over here," the tall one said, leaning on the back of the sofa. You craned your head to look at him. "I'm Ushijima Wakatoshi," he said, tilting his head downwards to look at you, maroon ribbon on his neck, contrasting with his appearance, making you turn away with a heavy blush on your cheeks.

"Hey, why is Ushiwaka special?" Oikawa complained, rubbing his face into your neck, "'s not fair."

"I mean, he is an eagle after all. I never expected to actually see one for myself," you admitted, looking at Ushijima with stars in your eyes. He held your gaze for a second, before turning away in embarrassment, the same way he did as an eagle.

"Hey hey hey! I'm an owl, that's cool, right?" Bokuto whined, looking at you desperately. You thought about it for a moment, before agreeing, "Yeah, owls are cool too, but I hear hooting every night. The only eagle I've ever heard is Ushijima."

"But you said I'm a pretty little bird," Oikawa grumbled softly, still tucked into your neck, the same way he did as a bird. "And you are," you assured him, squeezing his hand.

"You let me follow you home! Technically, all these other guys are intruders, so I should kick them all out," Terushima said protectively, living up to his self-proclaimed title of your guard dog.

"No! We came in with you too!" Nishinoya piped up, voice loud as he gestured at himself and the other three next to him.

"Hey, it's alright. All of you are mine anyway, right?" You cringed at your question, it sounding awkward to your ears.

To the others, though, it was their favorite thing to hear. "Yours!" They all chorused, excited voices accompanied by softer ones.

"Well," you clapped your hands together, "I don't know about you but it's eight in the morning and I was up at at least five thirty, and suddenly all my pets are people, so I think I deserve a nap. Wake me up when it's twelve," you announced, standing up and walking to your room.

To your dismay, all the voices said again, "We're coming too!"

And that's how you got to your current situation. Kuroo was at your back, arms around you waist and head on top of yours. Oikawa was at your front, face buried in your neck and arms around you in a hug. Terushima was curled up by your feet, snoozing away as a dog. Kenma was curled on your thigh, somehow balancing on top of you using cat magic or something. As you wrapped your arms around Oikawa, holding his head softly, your other arm, the one supporting his head, stretched out, and your crows had gathered around it, their feathers soft against your skin. In the palm of your open hand was Iwaizumi, and you curled your fingers to squeeze him gently, watching as he snuggled into your hand. Your owls were nested at the space between your knees, pressing themselves against your calves. Your eagle was perched on your headboard, observing, before deciding that you were safe, and he tucked his head into his wings.

You pressed a soft kiss to Oikawa's forehead, smiling fondly when he shifted impossibly closer to you, placing a kiss of his own on your neck.

Kuroo rubbed his cheek against your head, the same way he does as a cat, before deeming you had enough of his scent on you.

You slipped your eyes closed, realizing there was no way all of you would actually wake up at twelve.

673 notes · View notes

aqvarius · 4 years

Note

Do you think Kazuomi is actually really serious with his relationship with mc? Because I don't think so and I feel bad since his mc is most likely be more invested in their relationship emotion-wise.... Same goes with Kei too, even though his hasn't overcome his trauma but I think he shouldn't be in a relationship with his mc (cant put it into words). How would you rank them in terms of "serious, emotionly and mentally stable, compatability" since imho only yuzu and his mc are a fit lol

hmmmmmm good question. i have to admit that i haven’t yet played kazu’s s2 fully (but have read his s2 pov and the epis) but the feeling i get from his and his mc’s relationship is that it’s a really fresh relationship which hasn’t yet matured. kazuomi and his mc are a good match in terms of chemistry and compatibility in that they always challenge each other. i did think they were finally getting close in obscura where he finally got to see her ‘real self’ and i was kinda hoping they would drop the whole games thing and really start to get to know each other beyond the banter. and then they kind of went and reversed that development with nudus and season 2. his s2 pov made me realise that at that time, he wasn’t actually in love with his mc, he’s just attracted to her more intensely than he has been with the other women in her life. so he ‘fell’ for her in season 1 but in my opinion it wasn’t really love. and tbh even at the end of his season 2, i think he likes her VERY much but i’m still on the fence as to whether or not it’s love. i think it’s pretty obvious from the way i talk about my favourite voltage moments/characters/couples that i love DEVELOPMENT lol and i just feel like with kazu and his mc, there is a sort of sense of arrested development? one of the big issues in his season 2 imo that i feel didn’t get resolved in his pov (i can’t say about the main route) is that he is confronted with having to change his way of life for the sake of his gf and their relationship and yet every time he chooses to just do things his own way?

edit: rest of the answer placed under cut for season 2 spoilers + length

for kazu, i feel like their relationship will only mature when he’s willing to give up the core aspects of his “selling points” (money/power/games) for his mc and their relationship. i do understand that they’re still pretty early on in their relationship, like it’s just been a matter of months and you don’t get deep with people that easily, but i hope that we do eventually get to see him really change in the future and they can love each other sincerely for who they are underneath all the games and banter. i think that’s why i love his self-pleasure story in otkoi bc we just got to see kazu do stuff that’s so not his style just for her, and then they had a really straightforward and wholesome talk about what’s missing in their relationship without being hidden behind codes and games.

i think they rely so much on the concept of kazuomi as thrilling that we don’t really get to see that many genuine moments with him which i’m a bit sad about, because i love his genuine side the most. even in devians, when he was pretending to be normal, he still orchestrated everything and then the story took it back to that whole concept where the selling point of the route is that kazuomi is really rich and powerful and does huge grand gestures. i don’t mind that bc kazuomi is Extra to his very core but i really miss the REAL kazuomi that we saw in his s1 being all soft for just like... seeing busy and vibrant spaces full of happy people.

insert that magneto “i prefer the real [owner of the] raven [hotel]” meme lmao.

ANYWAY i do think that his occultus second night shows him finally starting to open up a little outside of just like “you’re the only one who can match up to my wits”. i feel like kazuomi showing off with grand gestures and flaunting his wealth and power is kind of his way of coping with the loneliness and trauma of the darkest part of his life, which is why it’s so significant that he lets her into the space where he was at a low point living in that motel before meeting zack. i hope that we get to see kazu really have to sacrifice some of his current core values/priorities for the sake of his mc, and i hope the way he thinks about her changes to become deeper and more mature beyond just like “she can always stand up to my challenges” - basically going from liking and being attracted to her to really loving her.

with kei, i have a lot of mixed feelings about how bdsm is presented. since i’m not a mental health professional, i don’t really want to make any strong comments about what’s healthy or not when dealing with childhood trauma aside from like the idea that therapy is important (although kei himself admits that he’s actively driven away all his therapists). but i agree that he hasn’t overcome his trauma and, like kazu, still hasn’t even after the events of his s2. i haven’t read any of the content after his s2 main story so i can’t speak on what happens when his mc meets his grandparents and such but just based on the way he just peaced out during his s2, it’s evident that his issues manifest through at the very least his phobia of commitment (not even going to comment on the way he acted when her necklace was broken and how she was literally afraid of his reaction and also the way he like... forced her to drink juice? i picked the option where i tried to reject the juice and the fact that he forced me to anyway and she drank it bc she was afraid of him made me really uncomfortable lol). in my opinion, his sexual relationship with his mc is also very much based on his issues with power and control (ostensibly stemming from trauma) and she kind of bends over backwards to not step on his toes when it comes to his control issues. my experience with bdsm is that communication (and aftercare lol) is so important for maintaining a healthy relationship but i just kind of feel like she’s not necessarily an active participant as a sub and doesn’t really know what being a sub entails in a healthy dynamic but rather is just like going along with what he wants bc (1) it’s thrilling maybe? (they really play up the like physical pleasure aspect) and (2) he might be kinda distant if they don’t do it like that? i guess? i don’t really know bc i don’t tend to read his stories bc i’m not like the most comfortable with how they deal with power play.

i do think that the relationship he has with his mc isn’t exactly a balanced and healthy relationship? and i also think that kazuomi’s relationship (that we’ve seen so far) is also kinda unhealthy lol. essentially, with both kazu and kei, i feel like their relationships with their mcs kind of enable (what i perceive to be) the coping mechanism aspects of their personalities.

WITH THAT SAID, i don’t think that people need to be at a fully stable and emotionally mature place to fall in love and start relationships and honestly voltage loves doing the thing where like the mc falls for awful people bc they’re only so mean bc they're so broken and she wants to fix them uwu shinobu narita lmao which personally i don’t like, but it does make for dramatic routes and does set up for future development. it’s still early stages yet in their relationships since i think they’ve only been together for a few months, and they’re definitely still testing the waters. i think we’re being tricked/distracted by all those dramatic climax moments into thinking that their relationship is really serious but tbh they are just barely beginning to actually open up to each other. i just hope that they allow the love interests (and their respective mcs) to mature and develop into healthy people without just throwing out life threatening routes where the relationship dynamic doesn’t necessarily change but it just becomes about newer and grander ways of making big and powerful gestures to save the situation lol. does that make sense? i don’t know if i’m articulating myself well.

but anyway i agree, from season 1 i always though yuzu’s mc was the best out of all of them. and they are the only ones who have a remotely healthy relationship like why is the yuzu the only one who’s actually considerate? sometimes he can be such an obtuse block of wood but that’s just who he is as a person. and when it comes to the important stuff, he’s actually the most willing to change and compromise for his mc. like... the Difference between kazuomi and his mc’s contract scene vs yuzu and his mc’s contract scene is kind of astronomical. even in yuzu’s devians which is like 3 chapters long only, you can see his growth from being an insensitive blockhead to really trying to understand what she needs from their relationship. and just looking at the way that he treats her emotions re: their relationship has evolved from treating it like a beta test where they give each other feedback reports to him embracing her ‘bugs’? that’s growth babey. time for kazuomi and kei to learn some lessons from the only valid masquerader.

#yikes why did i write so much #kazuomi shido #kei soejima #yuzuru shiba #masquerade kiss #mk #voltage inc #otome romance #love 365 #snow answers #Anonymous #meta

28 notes · View notes

incorrecttwoset · 4 years

Text

Lesson time with Dani:

youtube

I think the lesson here is that... you cant destroy your self esteem if you dont have self esteem. Gosh, this is the first time im rewatching this in days and im IMMEDIATELY REMEMBERING THE TALENT.

Onto the reviews!

My little swiss roll by a 33 year old Japanese composer. If it is not yet clear, i cannot read Japanese. And Eddy, we don't make you fat you just like eating. (omg i like eating too! Soulmates confirmed?! Yeah nah my heart will always be for my brettybae) Also, fUCK now i want bubble tea. (I am smelling bubble tea right now. Even though there is no bubble tea. Am i gOING INSANE.)

1. Kitai - Anticipation. Oh, i can dEFINITELY feel the excitement in this one. Is there a word for excitedly waiting? Or is that just the word anticipation? Because let me tell you, i genuinely yEARNED for swiss rolls with that part. Its so light and joyful, like watching a baker prepare your swiss roll as a young child who's most important worry is the swiss roll he's about to eat. Yes, there are some questionable parts but overall, i think the bois conveyed the proper emotions and feelings correctly. Its either that or my stomach is asking me to eat breakfast.

2. Gochiso - Feast. I am already getting an image of putting a piece of cake in your mouth and savoring the wonderful sweetness and flavors of the cake, icings and fillings. The way your face slowly turns into a smile as the sugar dissolves and spreads onto your tongue and the way the fork just cuts the soft cake. And the strawberry topping you pop in your mouth. Thank you for that perfect pizz. Turned my heavy romance fluff fic back into a happy lil comedy.

3. Akogare - Longing. Okay, this is too sad to be felt IMMEDIATELY AFTER eating the cake. Its still fits the title of longing its just wOAH OKAY EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH EXISTS. If this was set like a story thing, i feel like this takes place after our protag has left the bakery and has lost the sweet taste of swiss roll cake from his lips. And started to yearn once again for more, the faint flavors of his tongue reminding him of a happier time. A time with swiss roll cake...

Damn now i want swiss roll.

Aviolintango by Lorezno Gutierrez. wOAH THIS ONE SOUNDS EPICCCCCCCCCCC. Dude, this sounds like something that could play in like a fight or chase scene in a fight scene. Its pretty short but its still a wonderful piece. And that soft troll ending? Perfect. Not just because of the reactions. Because youd want it to end on an even bigger grander note than the one before it right? But, the composer decided to step away and let the cheeky spy vibes flow until the end. Please do not judge my opinion, if it isnt clear yet, even though ive said thus a thousand times over, i am just a kid who likes two violin bois and classical music. I just vibe yo.

Inspiration by Vladimir Bodunov, 39 years old. Damn. The first part they played sounded to me like the desire and struggle to lift off the ground and fly. Like, the person wants to, the desire is there but its not enough. I feel like they stopped that part near the "climax" where the tension finally breaks and it takes off. The final part to me sounds like... (a dying seal) the person in focus of the piece or whatever finally reaching the sun. And having a phoenix-like rebirth. With just two chords too! The talent and skill. I kent.

Duet for two violins by Robyn, 13 years old. (Okay flex) Also pretty nice of her to leave dynamics up to interpretation. (Even though i have nO IDEA what that means) And i kNOW THAT ITS A DUET BUT- for some fUCKIN reason, its giving me quartet vibes. And i dONT. KNOW. WHY. IS THE PIECE JUST THAT GOOD. (Lol probabky just heard a quartet playing something like this and my memories were instantly. Unlocked.) I guess it gives me vague schubert or schumann vibes. I forgot which one had a lot of chamber music. BASICALLY WHAT IM TRYING TO SAY IS. It nice. Me like. (Tiny claps)

Flying Fledglings by Anastasia Loiko, 14 yrs old. (Please stop flexing. I already know im uSELESS) It sounded very smooth, in the way that the first few bars personally sounded like a strange... denial despair troubked feeling feeling, ykno? That typa tension, when youre still riled with emotion. And it transitioned over to a more uplifting feeling like yeah, it might not be with us anymore but its probably gone to a better place. It sounds like a person slowly letting go of their saddness, and even though there was some rocky parts (not just from the bois playing OOP-) they still accepted that its not there anymore and learned to live wih that saddness. Ykno? (Or I'm overthinking this too much because of too much angst fics and depression things. Personal life bABEY. IT COMPLI.)

Undicht by Jiro Yoshioka, 20 yrs old. Omg, i LOVE this. The first violin part on its own sounds like some kinda James Bond spy theme. BUT THEN THE PIZZ- OMG its sounds like sUCH a whimsical spy theme oH MY GOD AHAHAHA (i mean it kinda morphs into a more chill and serious part after that but like cMON. THE WHIMSY. I KENT-) And aCHK Eddy's lil hip shake i cANNOT. THIS IS JUST SUCH A FUN PIECE TO LISTEN TO AHAH

#lesson time with dani #the tags are actually the fidst thing i wrote in this post. after the first paragraph of course #im not sure if yall noticed in my tags but my mental state is not in a good position right now #i still love and care for the boys yes but like quarantine is really draining me man #add that to the fact that my mother is currently lowkey panicking because my sister has a runny nose #which makes just a wonderful cocktail of delicious vibes that i cant escape from everyday #only peace i have in this house is literally just lurking in the fandom and the internet #school is also starting in a few days so #great emotional and mental variables all around #i guess what im trying to say is that ill only post the lessons on the days twoset posts so i can have a brain break #like jesus christ i need it. first thing i did when i woke up was cry because of a really good breddy angst fic call pax de deux or somthin #hope yall are okay with that. also lol only posting this now because i was about to stress fic write and decided to do this #because that stress writing thing was originally for a friend #...should probably check out my drafts again #wait did i just unknowingly take a twoset sabbatical?????#AHAHAHAHAH WHAT THE FUUUUCK #Youtube #twosetviolin #twoset violin #twoset #not a quote #not incorrect twoset #not incorrect twoset quotes #not incorrect quote #not incorrect quotes #original #original composition #original compositions

9 notes · View notes

scholarhect · 4 years

Note

2 3 15 babey

HI BRO ILY

2. what’s your taco bell order

crunchwrap supreme. maybe a burrito, idk. i had a bean burrito today but i thought it was gross. plus the red freezy thing (starburst flavored, i think). except today i had baja blast and it was pretty good

i want you to know that this question is the entire reason i made this post. this was the germ, the mustard seed. “ask game: what’s your taco bell order”. and the rest was history

3. tell me about that one thing you wish someone would ask you about

(spoilers for tma if anybody’s gonna listen someday, i guess. literally major spoilers for seasons 1-4. turns out i don’t know how to shut up. thanks for indulging me)

okay. okay i’m gonna talk to you specifically. listen to me, i am talking directly into your ear now. i wish for the opportunity to tell you about ms melanie king. you’ve already heard about her as the inspiration for my haircut and also my fishnet outfit from that time i dragged you to that thrift thing, but she is such an icon. first of all she’s a YOUTUBER. (not like a vlogger, i guess, she hosts a show on youtube. but a youtuber nonetheless.) she hunts GHOSTS. on YOUTUBE. so, she shows up at The Magnus Institute, London, to tell them about that time she saw a ghost (but it was like ... a weird ghost. not a normal ghost. you know). immediately she insults the guy’s shitty old tape recorder that she is expected to speak into, in the year 2016. so they get snippy with each other and end up in a full-blown “The Girls Are Fightinggg” passive aggressive argument because they both view each other as pathetic, fake, not-respectable paranormal investigators. (and they both have A Thing about being respected & taken seriously.) like it turns out that the institute has a fucking laughable reputation in The Academic Community because they’ll just take a statement from anybody about their supposed supernatural experience. meanwhile jon thinks the people on ghost hunt shows are charlatans because their goal is entertainment and, yes, they “do ham it up a bit for the cameras.” ANYWAY. she’s all dragging the magnus institute and he’s like. “but you’re here.” it’s very funny. turns out she can’t tell the Serious Academic Community about her experience because it’s so wild that they’d laugh her out of her career. so she’s here. so she’s got no choice but to tell her story. so the episode continues, and ends, okay, and you’re like, “wow that was a fun and iconic one-off character. right?” WRONG.

season two... she’s BACK baby! after her experience at the military hospital, she wants to do research on War Ghosts, but the magnus institute wouldn’t let her in bc she didn’t have the Academic Clout for it, so the only way is to get an employee to vouch for her. so. she goes to jon like “please you’re the only friend i have here i need help” and they DO fight again but he does agree to help her (because they’re the same person. they are *spiderman pointing meme*). so, later, she’s back. she did some research on War Ghosts and broke into an old train graveyard (which is a thing apparently) and got stabbed by the ghost of an army medic and she got caught and arrested and she was screaming about how She Got Stabbed By A Ghost and somebody took a video and posted it online and then she BECAME A MEME for a couple days and nobody wanted to associate with her anymore. rip. but now she likes jon and she’s here to say goodbye (because she’s going to india) (she also sets off the climax of the season because she just happens to be that one person who can see that the monster pretending to be a major character is not, in fact, that character. she’s like “oh, which sasha? the new one? or the old one?” and jon’s like “what the fuck” and she’s like “there’s definitely two sashas. are you trying to gaslight me.” but whatever)

ok this is literally less than half her arc (i’ve covered. three episodes.) but this is long as fuck so i’ll wrap it up. “what a cool reoccurring character,” you may think! “i hope i get to see more of her!” well GUESS WHAT. she comes back from india (she’s been SHOT BY A GHOST) she wants to talk to jon but he’s not there (he was unfortunately in very close proximity to a murder and he’s on the run so he doesn’t get framed. double traumatic experience, very fun. anyway he’s staying at melanie’s friend’s house, whom she has conveniently namedropped a couple times so far (in the last episode she was like “she actually has nice things to say about you, why didn’t you tell me you knew her” and he’s like “we didn’t part on the best of terms”) because she is his ex-girlfriend, so, though he literally was just pretending that he didn’t know her, he now knows that she doesn’t hate him so he shows up at her place and she hides him from the cops because she’s literally the only person he knows outside work. but this isn’t about him.) so melanie has no job so elias is like “you want a job” and she’s like “sure?” so now she’s an archival assistant at the magnus institute (i realized i had to explain that. i don’t think you even know who elias is. head of the institute, everybody’s secretly evil boss, currently lowkey framing jon for the murder he committed. but lowkey) her coworkers don’t want her there because they’ve realized that their job is evil and they Physically Cannot Quit so they’re like “great now she’s stuck here too” but she doesn’t know that so she’s just like “why does everybody hate me. are you misogynists” because her Disrespect Alarm is going off in her head. and then they have a Department Meeting where jon comes back with an open knife wound on his neck and demands elias tell everyone about the TWO murders and then there’s a standoff situation where somebody wants to shoot elias but he’s “knife cat”ing at her and very dramatically forces her codependent friend slash partner (in the cop way not the gay way) to sign a contract as an archival assistant so that daisy (the cop with the gun) can’t hurt elias because, oh yeah, if he dies supposedly they all do too. so melanie is ... thoroughly disillusioned. and she becomes sullen, too, kind of. and she begins to try to murder elias. queen

things get worse (in a supernatural way. she gets Angry Knife Powers. there’s a Ghost Bullet from India lodged in her leg pumping murderous energy through her body and while she’s asleep jon removes it, it’s all very terrible.) but then she starts going to therapy because she wants to get better and she ends up making the difficult journey to Being Okay. (she also literally blinds herself to escape the institute, and that doesn’t really sound analogous to therapy out of context but it is, okay) and her arc is over and she’s the only character in the story who is currently Okay. we’re proud of her. her last appearance (so far. who knows what s5 has in store. hopefully not much) jon, who is in some deeeeep shit by this point, shows up asking for help, and she’s like “i can’t help you bc i can’t get dragged back into all that, but you’re always welcome in my life as a friend” which is not great for him at that point because he is kind of having a breakdown, but it’s still <3. much better than the beginning part of s4 when she wanted to kill him on sight. also she’s dating jon’s ex now lol

15. if somebody irl you didn’t know asked you how you feel about mcr what would you say (this question isn’t quite asking you how you feel about mcr, but it’s not not asking that)

i’d be like “yeah they’re pretty cool. i like them”

#ask #i am so fucking sorry.#i wrote this at 12-2 am last night. in case that wasnt obvious

4 notes · View notes

mcschnuggles · 5 years

Note

Support dork here! Am I allowed to ask about 14, 37, and 38?

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

“Said is dead” “No adverbs” etc, but I think the absolute worst is “show don’t tell.” Like don’t get me wrong, all of these are important IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS, but sometimes you just need to get the story from point A to point B to get to the more important stuff. Honestly rules like that put a lot of pressure on me to make every little sentence beautiful and poignant, but sometimes you can just say “she was sad,” “she said sadly” etc. My biggest beef with this advice is how it’s all presented like hard and fast rules of writing instead of suggestions for more intense scenes/climaxes/points of symbolism/whatever.

37. Talk about your current wips.

I have made absolutely no progress on anything but lessgo anyway. Welp I still have “Playing House” in the works. Aside from that I have mostly TAZ fics. Especially since rereading “Proficiency in Babysitting” I REALLY want to write an adventure fic with teeny Magnus. It’s so much in the planning stages, but the idea is that he’s half small while dungeon crawling and ends up getting hit with an illusion spell that makes him see his allies as enemies. Also heavily debating starting a Graduation fic because Fitzroy is 100% babey

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

Someone once commented something along the lines of “*slaps Taako* this bad boy can hold so much trauma” and honestly I think about this almost every day

6 notes · View notes

monkey-network · 5 years

Text

Good Stuff's Best of 2019

WARNING: Just wanted to say cheers to you for making it through another year. I send you best wishes for next year to be fruitful. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy. (Best of 2017) (Best of 2018)

Dedicated to Russi Taylor, John Witherspoon, Rip Torn, Tartar Sauce, Caroll Spinney, Peter Matthews, and the many of KyoAni lost in the arson incident. You all did wonderful; rest in peace.

Welp, I figured the last year of this decade would be the most chaotic one by far, then again everything peak after 2012. As for now, I am counting down the best cartoons/animations/comics I’ve seen and loved this year in no particular order other than #1. Same rules apply: No sneak previews of future projects, no repeats, and this time anything goes.

Runner Ups: Superman Smashes the Klan, Marvel’s Aero, Infinity Train, Enter the Florpus, Amphibia, Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart, Helluva Boss, Meta Runner, Lego Movie 2, Forky Asks a Question

Anyways, Badda boom bang whiz, let’s do this shizz...

10. Super Mario Bros GT

Nostalgia can be quite a mystery, especially one that can come out of nowhere. Super Mario Bros Z kicked so much ass as a kid that now, it still frustrates me to this that it got a cease & desist from Nintendo, even the reboot from the same person couldn’t last long. But the gods have offered a slight miracle in the form of this new spiritual successor that has heart and soul put into every pixelated frame. There is much to celebrate with Youtube animation, where many say it’s dying due to the algorithm and all of the site’s corporate bullshit, but it’s stuff like this which helps me understand why we should celebrate. Against all odds, channels like Smasher Block willfully put their works out their for the people and continues to because on top of getting a little dough, it’s what they want to do.

9. DC SUPER HERO GIRLS (2019)

Awwwwww yeah, this is She-Ra and the Princesses of Power done right. Diverse female squad, each given a quality screen time to truly shine (Beecher especially) on their which makes the episodes where they’re all together feel earned and joyous to watch. Certainly reminds me of Friendship is Magic, which is coincidental since they were created by the same woman. I’d like to think this and MLP G4 were the answers to Faust’s cancelled project Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls where multiple personalities collide to one extraordinary superhero team of girls capable great feats that are lifted from their insecurities or drawbacks. And on top of this being a fun series to kick back to all around, it’s a comforting, somewhat aspiring thought to consider.

8. JOKER

I am somebody that rarely goes to the theaters to watch a film; you have to hook my tight just for me to even think of buying a ticket, no less plan to. But honestly, Joker was worth the hype, the ticket, and the fact that it wasn’t the incel uprising that buttfuck normies tried to make it out as. It’s lower on the list because in thought, there definitely could’ve been some tweaks to the dialogue and a couple scenes that I felt didn’t work in the long run. But really, this movie to me worked because of the escalation that leads to a cathartic climax and ending that left me in actual tears. I don’t give a shit if it “doesn’t fit”, having Frank Sinatra sing the film's credits put me in shambles. Joaquin Phoenix was phenomenal as Arthur, and this movie felt authentic in its many details. This is definitely up there with my favorite comic book films of all time. Good thing, too, Spider-Man was taking up most of that shelf.

7. TUCA & BERTIE

This series being what I can’t help but say is a spin-off to Bojack Horseman, a show I respect, was enough to pull me into watching it. But it being like Bojack where it’s tight-roping between a bouncy comedy and a grounded drama was what kept me around for more. It is a damn shame this was cancelled after one season (while 13 Reasons Why gets FOUR seasons like what the fuck), because while this did feel enough like a complete series, I was certainly interested for more because I really enjoyed it all. I have my issue with a couple choices in the show, but I am sure this series would’ve addressed them later down the line. I can see why some women would find this personally endearing, it felt like the personal stories of actual people, and it deserved better. Either way, I enjoyed this series and I recommend it just as much as Bojack.

6. PRIMAL

Genndy Tartakovsky is that kind of cartoon creator where you feel he’ll go beyond if you give him the right amount of space. He’s not a perfectionist like John “Dirty Diddler” Kricfalusi, but with things like Hotel Transylvania and Samurai Jack, he certainly has proven to have the range in animation where you know how he plays. Primal showcasing his noted skill in dialogue-less storytelling and dynamic action scenes, able to convey everything clear with its ruthless yet careful protagonist and his dinosaur friend, all on top of the most luscious backgrounds. This is a series that definitely feels like Genndy’s taken what he’s used from his previous works and putting it together for a brutal yet passionate look at the prehistoric life. He truly brought us an adult series to enjoy and to look forward to more in the coming year.

5. SPINEL

Bet you didn’t expect a character to be on this list, eh? Spinel is the best thing to come out of Steven Universe in general; makes me wish she was in a better movie. The crew certainly did their darndest to make her not only an enjoyable and connectable character through and through, but a very versatile character that the fandom could take in any which way. Call it corny, but Spinel perfectly represents SU as a whole: a lovable goof that can certainly mean business but deep down is deserved of a hug because of what she’s gone through. Wish she had a more satisfying resolution in her respective debut, but really it’s the balance between those three elements mentioned that makes Spinel almost eternally wonderful.

4. MOB PSYCHO 100 II

As someone that doesn’t like reading, I’m a firm believer that the best animations or visual medias elevate the writing to a memorable degree; the visuals hook to the point where you want to think about what you saw and how it was conveyed. Mob Psycho 100, for two seasons now, does this in spades where Studio Bones throw them bones in animating one of the most dynamic animes of the modern era, providing the writing and characters a proper chance to flex its muscles. The characters are especially what makes this and MP100 as a whole work so well, the story being about a boy learning to be more sociable as well as emotionally stronger all while helping others understand maturity and empathy. For more on this, I recommend Hiding in Public’s video(s) on Mob. But with the animation, Bones was able to provide a sense of impact and immersion to the moments that matter, not making it an overstimulating mess, and putting some respect on ONE’s webcomic art style.

3. KLAUS

Hands down, this is a great Christmas movie. Take away the animation and you have a charming, wanna say ground and authentic, story about the makings of Santa Claus. With memorable and likable characters, a nice escalation in terms of the plot, and moments that are/can be so satisfying, they can bring you to tears. A couple overdone tropes in the road that doesn’t make this the most perfected story, but those sincerely minor compared to everything else that makes this story the best. Now. Add in the animation, and you have a gold, nay a platinum animated story of the year where the visuals definitely enhance the story to a degree where they’re undoubtedly inseparable. The visuals alone is enough to check this movie out and it’s eye-opening when you learn of how it’s all done. Klaus is a film that did it’s job and then some, and I hope this will be well remembered as a classic holiday film for it deserves that status.

2. BEASTARS

I’ll be fair, I’m mostly referring to the manga and not the anime but since the anime premiered this fall, it counts. Because be it the anime or the series overall, Beastars has such well intricate world building all while offering a little something for everyone (violence, romance, slice of life). The story is well paced and even when we aren’t focusing on the main characters momentarily, Itagaki is surprisingly able to make every supporting/side character we come across memorable in their own way; like I said before, the city is much a character in this story. Oh yeah, and the mangaka is the daughter of Keisuke “Grappler Baki” Itagaki, that in itself is a treasuring bit of trivia for this. Everything about Beastars is enticing and Studio Orange certainly helped in giving this series more of a following.

1. GREEN EGGS & HAM

Well, well, well. Guess Netflix is three for three in terms of bringing its best foot forward among its few steps back each year. The best term to describe this series is surprising. Surprising that this is a Dr. Seuss story that got expanded a 13 episode series, that has fleshed out characters, fun hijinks, an easy story, lovely emotional, more quieter moments... on top of being 2D hand drawn animated. I mean, what else is there to say? Green Eggs and Ham is to Dr. Seuss what Seven was for Final Fantasy, what Friendship is Magic was for MLP, what watermelon was before a nice menthol cigarette. This definitely took the top spot because to me, it was able to bring many good elements from the previous entries and knot it all together into a well kept bow that I never knew I wanted until now. I’m genuinely glad this show got to exist the way it is and I am hoping, praying, that the second season keeps that momentum up.

That leads us to the actual number one which is

1. STEVEN UNIVERSE FUT-

Total Dramarama is now the two time World Heavyweight Champion, babey. Will 2020 give us a quality contender? Will the streak last another year?

Stay tuned, and always seek out the Good Stuff.

16 notes · View notes