#the jokes were hilarious and shaped my humour sense

[ivyxygoldie]

What have they done to my boy?!?!?!!??!!1??!!!

How the hell is this better than the previous design. Wasn't the previous design fine. Burn this shit.

[clairecrive]

“Voodoo doll” - Billy russo x reader

A/n: and here’s another one for Billy. I got the idea from a request I got for another character and I thought it perfectly fit Billy. As if Ben Barnes could ever be considered anything but beautiful, *scoff* please.

Warnings: a bit angsty, fluff though, jigsaw!billy, season 2 billy

Prompts(loosely): “Please don’t say that about yourself. Please don’t believe that. You’re so much more than that. You’re so…” 

(let me know if you want to be tagged to any of my writings)

“Oh, hi you’re up.” You let yourself inside Billy’s hospital room smiling when you saw that the back of his bed was pushed up. He was sitting instead of lying down and that usually meant that he was awake. 

“How are you feeling today? The nurse outside told me that she gave you something for the pain but that everything is healing nicely.” Billy recovery looked like it was going to be long but after the impossibly long surgery you were just happy to see him alive and breathing. He didn’t look like he shared your optimism though. Granted, he was bound on a hospital bed, his body probably ached him all over and above all, his face was completely covered in bandages. It was the part that had taken most of the hits and Billy was one lucky bastard to even be in a hospital bed instead of being underground. That’s what the doctors had told you, at least.

Still, you could see how hard it was for him to see this whole situation in a positive way. It was taking its toll on him and you knew that no matter how many bruises and broken bones he had, his psychological health was the one which was in the worst shape.

You tried to offer him all the support you could. Sometimes that meant cheering him up with jokes and terrible puns, others simply required you to be next to him. 

Seems like it was one of those days because Billy stayed silent.

“Billy?” you tried again, setting your bag on the ground and taking your usual place by the side of his bed.

“What are you doing here, y/n?” His voice was hoarse from how little he used it these days but hadn’t lost that gruff edge that you loved so much.

“Visiting his majesty of course.”

“You shouldn’t be here. It’s a waste of time anyway.”

“Waiting for the bus for 20 minutes before they tell you that the run has been cancelled, now that is what I call a waste of time.” You complained recalling what had happened that morning.

Since you had entered his room, Billy hadn’t moved. Not that he could manage any big movement given the restraints they had put on him but at least he could move his head. It had been laying on his pillow up until now. He lifted it to try and look you into your eyes.

“I’m not your Billy anymore.”

“Why? Has anyone made their claim on you? Is that what this awful smell is? Your new playmate’s piss?”

Billy made a noise, it sounded a halfway between a laugh or a sob but since his head was covered in bandages, you couldn’t really tell. You hoped for the first, Billy had always loved your sense of humour- he had told you it was one of the reasons why he had noticed you- even if it consisted of terrible jokes. You thought they were hilarious, Billy thought you were adorable. Whatever.

“Listen, I can see how hard you’re taking this whole reversed beauty and the beast plot. But just so you know, I’m willing to let my facial hair grow if that makes you feel like a princess again.” You added on a more serious note, kinda, hoping to convince him that his face wasn’t the only thing you loved about him.

This time, the sound that left him was most definitely a sob. Startled, you didn’t know what to do. 

Could he even cry? Wouldn’t it mess up with his bandages? Why was he crying though? 

Still unsure on how to go about this, you reached for one of his bound hands only to see that it was tightly close in a fist. Your hand wrapped around his anyway, hoping that this small contact could soothe him in some way. 

Fuck, you must be really worse at this than you thought. You were trying to make him laugh and here he was crying.

“Billy?” you tried again in a whisper. 

All jokes aside, something must have happened this morning to make him feel this on edge. Had someone been rude to him? Well, he was a wanted person of course people weren’t going to respond to him like they did before. Billy couldn’t even count on his charm and good looks and you knew how good he was at using them to get what he wanted. 

Wait, could that be the problem? 

You thought about the best way to word the question when Billy spoke again, saving you from the embarrassment.

“I don’t think this is going to work.” Uh, what? Oh no no, he doesn’t get to do that.

“I agree, I’m not a fan of facial hair myself. We could buy you a tiara though. That is definitely going to do the trick.” Completely refusing to acknowledge his words, you kept going along with your previous joke.

“I’m serious y/n.” He insisted, his voice straightening to highlight his intent but still to no avail. Still clueless to it, he had laid on a silver platter your next pun.

“I thought your name was Billy, not Sirius. Wicked name though.” His hand tensed in your hold and you knew that he was getting angry.

“Would you stop joking around for one second? I’m trying to tell you that you shouldn’t waste your time around me.” His voice grew rougher, not exactly the high and strict tone he used to use at Anvil, but you could see he had strained his vocal cord to even attempt a stern voice.

 “I’m going to look like a butchered voodoo doll, forget the beast.” He added in a quieter voice. A confession laced with guilt.

“Oh Billy, don’t say that. You’re so much more than your looks, you know that. Besides, I’m sure you’re still going to be the one with the dashing looks of the relationship.” Your voice came out all wobbly and squeaky but you couldn’t help it, hearing Billy’s words, a far cry from the man he used to be made you emotional. You wanted nothing more than to help him but you didn’t know how. And here he was, trying to push you away.

“There’s no relationship, y/n.”

“I know that you’ve taken a big hit on your head, the doctor told me about your memory loss. It’s okay, they told me that some things are going to come back and you remembered my name when you woke up so that’s a good sign.”

Billy contemplated the idea of making up a story about him not remembering about you and come up with someway for how he knew you name when he first saw you after the incident but even though he wanted you to see his point, he couldn’t do that to you. 

He did remember you and he knew that the first part of your relationship had been based on lies. About his work, about his past, about his whereabouts when you asked him where he was going to late at night. 

He also remembered how that almost had cost him your relationship entirely.

Billy wasn’t one to make promises but he had made one to you. To at least try to be open and honest with you. There were still things that Billy didn’t talk to you about but this time around, instead of coming up with an excuse, he openly said that he couldn’t tell where or what he was doing . That, in the long run, had gained your trust back. You knew it was for your safety and that every time he told you you couldn’t know something, it was work-related.

And despite the fact that Billy was trying to self sabotage himself and your relationship, there was a part of him that didn’t want to see you go.

Yes, he still thought that you deserved more. Not only for his looks but for the things he knew he had done but couldn’t remember. If half the things he was accused of were true, then that didn’t make him a good person, did it?

“I do remember you. There is nothing more vibrant in my mind than my time with you. That’s not the problem.”

“Then I wholeheartedly refuse your attempt at breaking up. You can say whatever you want but I assure you it isn’t going to work.”

“I wish I could say that I did not remember you being this stubborn but we both know it would be a lie.”

“Oh, honey we both know that you enjoy it quite a bit when you want to.” You wriggled your eyebrows, trying and completely failing at making a suggestive face. You were successful, however, in making him laugh.

“Fuck don’t do that y/n, I can’t laugh.” he groaned, his head resting back on his bed.

“Well that is going to be a problem, ‘cause all I’m good at is being a huge cosmic joke.” You smiled at him, happy that he was finally done with all that nonsense he had just tried to pull. Instead, you dived into your back to show him what you had brought him.

It was his favorite comic book.

Apparently, a successful CEO of a security firm had an extensive collection of comic books which was also his most priced possession. The first time he had come around after the surgery, he had asked about them. He was worried that in searching his place for clues and whatnot the police had ruined it or something. You couldn’t see his face but the long sigh he let out when you told him that you had taken care of it personally looked a lot like relief.

What were hundreds of expensive tailored suits in comparison?

You started reading one of his favorite ones, including a very poor but very engaging representation of every sound of action in the story which made Billy smile under all those bandages. He felt like the luckiest voodoo doll in the world.

[jazy3]

Free Guy Review

!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

If you haven’t seen the movie Free Guy (2021) stop reading right now! Drop what you’re doing and go get yourself a ticket! You’ll thank me later!

I loved this movie! I saw it this weekend for the second time because it’s that good! I first saw the trailer on YouTube a while back and then when theatres reopened a few weeks ago I saw the trailer again and my interest was piqued. I had high hopes for this movie based on the fun looking trailer, the premise, the cast, and the sense of fun and escapism that the movie seemed to embody and it did not disappoint. It’s always nice when you have high hopes for something and it meets or exceeds your expectations.

Free Guy is just such a fun and joyous movie. Never taking itself too seriously, packed with lots of heart, cool cameos, full of gaming and pop culture references, and it’s fueled by a unique concept that is well executed. There are just so many things I loved about this movie! It was a ton of fun to watch and the actors clearly had a blast making it. During the movie I kept trying to figure out where I knew most of the actors from but couldn’t place them. When I got home, I googled it and I instantly realized why. The roles are just so different and the actors embody their characters so completely you lose yourself in the film and get completely sucked in. I was honestly so surprised when I figured out what I knew most of the actors from because the roles that they’re known for are so different from their characters in the movie. Their appearances, established ages, and even the accents are so different that I literally did a double take, but that’s what makes the movie so good! Because the main actors obviously didn’t need the paycheque they were just there to have fun and it shows. I think if the situation had been different and the actors involved had been desperate for money or took the role for some other reason it wouldn’t have worked. The film would have come off as cheesy, forced, cringeworthy, or just plain bad. Free Guy is none of those things. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as ‘Guy’ a bank teller in a video game called Free City, Jodie Comer whose best known for playing Villanelle in Killing Eve as programmer Millie Rusk and her avatar Molotov Girl, Joe Keery whose best known for playing Steve Harrington in Stranger Things as programmer Walter ‘Keys’ McKey, and Taika Waititi whose best known for playing Viago in What We Do in the Shadows as the Head of Soonami Studios and the film’s main antagonist and villain Antwan. Rounding out the cast are Utkarsh Ambudka as programmer Mouser and Lil Rel Howery as Guy’s best friend and bank security guard Buddy. In a nutshell, Free Guy is about a bank teller named Guy who finds out he’s a non-playable background character (NPC) in an open-world Grand Theft Auto style video game called Free City. Guy becomes the hero of his own story after meeting Millie, the girl of his dreams, and winning fans all over the world by racking up points by being the good guy and helping others. After leveling up and helping Millie escape a dangerous situation in the game, Guy wins her over and she falls for him thinking that he’s another player. But when the world that Guy knows and all of the people in it are threatened, he teams up with Millie to save his friends before it’s too late. In the real world, Millie enlists the help of her former programming partner and best friend Keys in a race against time to stop their code and all of the sentient characters from Free City from being deleted by Antwan the developer who stole their code when the game’s sequel launches. I love that the movie had a unique premise and didn’t overcomplicate things. There are so many movies that I’ve gone to see over the last few years with such excitement only to be disappointed. For example, I loved Wreck It Ralph, but was so disappointed by its sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet. The trailers made it seem like it would take the premise of the first movie and move things into the online gaming world, and I was excited for that. Instead, the sequel left the premise of the first movie behind entirely and way over complicated the plot and the end result was extremely cheesy and disappointing. Free Guy’s strength is that it’s a self-aware movie made by self-aware people who are excellent at what they do. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously, nor should it, and that allows the story to flow and the characters to feel real and genuine. The movie achieves that perfect balance between being entertaining and telling a cohesive and important story because while the movie never takes itself too seriously the people behind it are serious about what they do. This was very clearly a passion project for all involved, especially Ryan Reynolds, and it shows! As he’s spoken about in interviews and on Twitter, Reynolds called on a lot of his friends to be in Free Guy and help him out and the end result was fantastic! I loved all of the cameos! The Chris Evans cameo was by far the funniest and the Alex Trebek cameo got me right in the feels. When I saw the movie in theatres me and everyone else in the theatre gave a collective “awww” when he appeared on screen. Enlisting real YouTubers to show up as fictional versions of themselves to talk about Blue Shirt Guy’s popularity was a nice touch and you’ve also got blink and you miss it voice cameos by John Krasinski, Dwyane The Rock Johnson, Hugh Jackman, and Tina Fey. Channing Tatum appears as the avatar of player Revenjamin Buttons which for the most part was hilarious. One of my few criticisms of the film is that they went a bit overboard the avatar’s antics as Guy and Buddy are attempting to leave and it got bit a cringeworthy. But I know other people found it hilarious so to each their own. I love all of the little details and references in the movie. Just listing them all would be a post in itself. If you’re someone that loves pop culture references and Easter Eggs this is the movie for you. The characters are fun and believable, and you get attached to them quickly. The actors commit completely to their roles which is makes the humour, romance, and heartfelt emotion of the film work. You buy it. 100%. Something that I absolutely loved was that the characters felt realistic and that the dialogue, attire, and settings for each character really felt authentic. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a movie or TV show and walked away thinking, “The person who wrote that clearly never meet a kid, teenager, or twenty something in their life! That was so unrealistic.” The slang’s all wrong. The dialogue is so eloquent everyone sounds like they did Shakespeare in the Park last summer. You walk away thinking, “What the hell was that? No one talks that way!” What I loved about the characters in Free Guy is that they felt like real people you could actually run into or walk past on the street. I’ve read in interviews that in addition to the written dialogue the cast did a lot of ad-libbing and improvisation and the end result is both hilarious and relatable. The dialogue feels real because it is. The big exception to this of course is Antwan who is altogether off the wall and ridiculous. Antwan is such an outrageous, absurd, vulgar, and cartoonish character. He’s so fun to watch and the actors clearly had a lot of fun with his scenes! I’ve read that a lot of his lines with Keys and Mouser were improvised and I believe it. When he goes all Jack Nicholson on the servers? Lord. He’s such a great villain to watch. The characters that are established to be in their twenties like Millie, Keys, Mouser, and the other employees at Soonami Studios talk, act, and dress like they’re in their twenties. The actors that are in their forties are styled to look like they’re in their thirties and honestly, they’re in such great shape it works! I mean I was honestly shocked to find out Taika Waititi’s real age. I love how the costuming really fits each character and allows you to learn more about them. Keys’ clothing is your typical gamer chic which makes because as we learn from his interview with Millie coding is his life and what gets him up in the morning. From Mouser’s clothing we learn that he’s a sports fan, but also isn’t afraid to take risks like with that blazer ensemble he wears in his final scene at Millie’s apartment.

Millie’s clothing shows the contrast between her and her avatar Molotov Girl, and Antwan’s ridiculous coat enhances the overall wackiness of his character. Guy’s clothing tells us something too. He wears the same thing every day until he meets Millie in the game at which point, he starts deviated from his Free City programming and chooses a different blue shirt. I also really love that they put thought into why Keys needs to wear glasses. Something I noticed on rewatch is that Keys is far sighted which is why he has his glasses on when he’s looking at his laptop or computer and sometimes when’s talking to other people, but not when he goes to see Millie at her apartment or when he goes to get them coffee at the end of the movie. Another interesting aspect of Keys’ character that I noticed on rewatch is self-confidence is really something he struggles with in contrast to Millie and Mouser who are very confident. Millie is a genius programmer and Mouser is excellent at what he does, and they are both very confident in their coding abilities, but Keys isn’t despite being every bit the genius that Millie is. At the beginning of the movie when they first notice the issue with Guy Mouser jokes that Keys needs to be better at his job. In response Keys meekly says he thinks he’s pretty good at his job and trails off at the end. Mouser is just joking around, but because Keys lacks self-confidence comments like that hit him hard. Mouser is moving towards his own desk as he talks so he doesn’t notice how self-deprecating and uneasy Keys’ response is. In the interview from the indie games conference that Millie plays for Keys at his apartment, he brushes off the interviewers comment that he’s a genius and says Millie is the real genius because she created the AI engine and he just wrote the code to make it work. Later on, when Keys helps Millie get into the stash house, she calls him a genius and he tells her that as he’s currently sitting on a toilet stealing user code he doesn’t exactly feel like one. Millie responds offhandedly that he never does, but luckily, she knows better. When Keys realizes that Millie was right, and that Antwan did steal their code and their game worked he tells Millie they need to celebrate because once everyone sees their build she’ll be celebrated and she could win a noble prize. Both Millie and Keys are geniuses in their own right. The game wouldn’t have worked without both of their skills and Guy wouldn’t have come to life without both of them working together. Millie’s AI engine made his sentience possible, but Keys is the one who gave him hopes and dreams so that when he met Millie in the game, he came alive. When done right the settings we see tell the story just as much as the characters do and I love how realistic the settings in Free Guy look. The floor at Soonami Studios where Keys and Mouser work looks like a real office and I love that the desks have clutter and personal effects on them like real cubicles do and that they show Keys taking a box of his stuff with him as he leaves. The lobby with the moving water videos and Antwan’s massive but largely empty office fits perfectly with the obnoxious, zany, and over the top character that he is. I also love the contrast between Keys and Millie’s apartments and how those settings tell us a lot about each character and where they are in their lives when the film starts. When Keys comes home from work to find that Millie has broken in, we see that he lives in a stylish one bedroom apartment with an open concept kitchen full of stainless steel appliances, a large living room centred around an expensive wall mounted TV and entertainment system, with his computer and gaming station set up in the corner. On the walls we see artful clusters of black picture frames, through a partially open door we see a bedroom off to the side, the apartment is full of black and white furniture including a plush couch and nice lamps, and features a textured silver accent wall. All of which makes the fact that Millie managed to break in even more impressive because it is clearly an expensive apartment in a nice building. Keys’ style is minimalist and upper scale and based on what we learn about the events that took place before the start of the movie this indicates that Keys got the apartment and all of the nice stuff in it using the money he received when Antwan bought his and Millie’s game. In contrast, Millie lives in a bachelor apartment and spends her time in coffee shops ordering one single black coffee over four hours. This tells us that she kept her original apartment that she had from before the game was sold and is living off the money she got from the sale while she spends all of her time trying to find the proof she needs to win her lawsuit. When we see Millie’s place, we find that it’s cozy, full of plants, throw rugs, quilts, and comfy furniture. She’s got a bike in the corner, you can see her bed from the centre of the room where she’s got her computer and gaming station set up adjacent to the coffee table and the rest of the living room furniture. Her kitchen is smaller and full of wooden cabinets and her bathroom door has DIY multicoloured square panels on it. Keys and Millie’s apartments are very different and through these settings we see the contrast between where these characters are in their lives, their wealth, and their personal style. The song ‘Fantasy’ by Mariah Carey is featured heavily in the film and is guaranteed to get stuck in your head in the best way! Jodie Comer’s cover of it is amazing! It fits the moment where Guy makes it to the island that is Millie and Keys’ original build and shows it to the world perfectly. This movie made me appreciate Mariah Carey’s music in a whole new way and I can’t be the only way. After watching the movie, I went looking for the song on Apple Music, wound up listening to the Mariah Carey Essentials Playlist, and I’ve become obsessed. I knew some of her hits, but after listening to her music more I get why people love her so much. Her five octave vocal range is amazing, and her music is just so fun to listen to. The film has a really great soundtrack overall and I’ve had many of its song on repeat since I saw it. Something I really loved about this movie and the reveal at the end that Keys is in love with Millie and is desperate for her to notice, but she’s been oblivious the whole time is that they don’t do the supposedly nice nerdy guy whose really a jerk trope. So many movies do this where you have a nerdy male character whose unluckily love, looked over, or his love is unrequited, and we’re supposed to root for him because he’s a quote “nice guy”. But really, he’s not. He’s a jerk who feels slighted because a woman in his life doesn’t love him back or notice him and he feels as if she owes him something. The scene at Millie’s place where Millie tells Keys he looks cute when he brags, and Mouser encourages him to tell Millie how he feels is super frustrating to watch but it’s so important to Keys’ character. He asks Millie out for coffee and when she turns him down to jump back into the game, he doesn’t make a big deal about it even though Mouser wants him to. Instead he gets up and goes and gets her a coffee anyway. She goes to tell him her order, oblivious to the fact that he’s memorized it, he tells her he remembers, and goes to get the coffee anyway much to Mouser’s and the audience’s dismay. This is big because Keys clearly doesn’t want to be walking down the street by himself to get coffee. He wants to be getting coffee with Millie so that he can tell her how he feels to see if she might feel the same way, but when she turns him down he goes and gets the coffee anyway because he truly loves and cares about her and he values their friendship enough to put his own feelings aside and suffer in silence rather than lose her and what they’ve built. So, he takes the opportunity to get some air rather than continue to sit there in disappointment. Which is why he’s so confused when Millie runs after him and calls out to him from across the street. He doesn’t understand what she’s doing there. She turned down his offer to get a coffee and he already knows her order so why is she there? I love that they chose to make that scene non-verbal. I think if Millie had come out and made some big declaration of love it would have felt cheesy and overdone. But her running after him and silently communicating through her smile and body language that she understood and that she felt the same way was perfect. It was subtle and beautiful and perfectly acted. It also felt realistic to the characters because in real life when you’ve known someone a really long time and you’ve spent a lot of time with them you don’t always need words to convey what you mean. What Millie wanted to express in that scene was so big and so all-encompassing she couldn’t find the words to say everything that she wanted to say so she didn’t. She just stood there and smiled knowing that being the genius that he is he would understand. It’s like Keys says in their interview, words will fail you, but code never does. His coding worked and now she understands so rather than try and say it all and fail she just looks at him and smiles to show him that she finally gets it. She finally understands what he’s been trying to say to her all this time. And you can see the exact moment Keys realizes why she’s there. The moment where he goes from being confused as to what she wants to realizing that she saw the video and she knows how he feels and that she wouldn’t be standing there smiling at him like that if she didn’t feel the same way. When I watched the scene the first time around, I was anxiously clutching my nachos the entire time because when Keys ran towards her my immediate thought was, “Oh my god he’s gonna get hit by a car and they’re never gonna get to be together! Oh my god!” But then he didn’t get hit by a car and Millie ran out to meet him and for the first time in their relationship she met him halfway and they kissed and it was beautiful! I think because Free City had so much violence in it that’s where my mind went and I’m very glad they didn’t go that route. One of my only criticisms about the movie is that I wish they had stayed on Millie and Keys just a little bit longer. They kiss and embrace and then very quickly they cut to black. I wish they’d linger on that moment just a little bit longer because I love those characters so much and in the scene that follows where Guy and Buddy are reunited we see them hug and then walk away together to start their new lives and I wish we’d gotten just a bit more time with Millie and Keys. I also really loved the parallel between the different kinds of relationships within the movie and how platonic relationships are just as important as romantic ones. The reveal at the end about Guy being Keys’ creation and a love letter to Millie and her realizing she’s been loving Keys vicariously through Guy and them finally coming together and being on the same page is beautiful because from the very beginning the movie is full of clues, hints, and foreshadowing that all comes together at the end. Meanwhile, we see the friendship between Guy and Buddy and how important that friendship is to him because it’s something that he created on his own. His love for Millie is born out of the programming that Keys gave him, but his friendship with Buddy is something that Guy created all on his own of his own volition. Which is part of what makes Buddy’s death on the bridge so tragic. I cried when Buddy disappeared. Reynolds and Howery play their characters with such sincerity that his death pacts an emotional punch you don’t expect. I love that the security guards at Soonami are so moved by Buddy’s heroism and are so captivated by what’s happening with the live stream that Millie is able to sneak past them into the server room and stop Antwan from destroying what’s left of the game. Something else I noticed on rewatch is that during the final battle after Millie gets booted from the game and Guy has to fight Dude on his own the glasses he’s wearing are very similar to the ones Keys wears in the movie which I thought was a cool nod to Guy being Keys’ creation. This really is a movie in which you find something new every time you watch it. For instance, the second time around I noticed that the foreshadowing that Keys is in love with Millie, but she’s oblivious to it because she’s so focused on the game was really well done. In the video from the indie game conference that Millie plays for Keys at his apartment when asked by the interviewer about their chemistry Millie responds first and says that their friends, their relationship is completely platonic, and laughs off the idea that they have chemistry. In contrast Keys falters and is silent and then eventually says meekly that they’re just friends. Millie is looking ahead at the interviewer and to the side away from Keys as she’s laughing and so she doesn’t see Keys’ reaction. At the end of the apartment scene after Millie breaks in to ask Keys for his help, he tells Millie he cares about her and he almost says something else. It feels like he’s about to say, ‘I love you’ but then he catches himself and instead tells her that she needs to leave. When Keys visits Millie’s apartment to tell her that she was right and they’re sitting on the couch he reaches out and puts his hand on her knee and then snatches it back when he realizes he’s gotten too close. He wants so desperately to be closer to her and in his excitement, he gets closer than he normally would before realizing that putting his hand on her knee in that close proximity is not a platonic gesture. Millie is so caught up in the realization that Guy, the person she’s fallen in love with, is an AI and not a real person that she doesn’t notice. My heart broke for Keys in that scene as he realized that Millie had fallen for Guy and kissed him and was so upset about it and meanwhile, he was right in front of her desperate for her to see how much he cares. It must have just wrecked him to go home that night and realize that Guy was based on the lovelorn character he created and that Millie had fallen in love with his creation while at the same time being so oblivious to his real world affection for her. In the scene at Millie’s apartment after they’ve gotten the server from Antwan and Mouser encourages Keys to say something, I noticed on rewatch just how weak and meager Keys’ attempt to ask Millie out is. He stumbles his way through asking her to get a coffee and trails off at the end so it’s no wonder Millie doesn’t clue in that he’s trying to ask her out. And in Keys’ defence he sent her a whole video confessing his feelings for her and all of the little things he loves about her and then told her to watch it and he has no idea if she did or not. We the audience know that Millie only saw half of it, but Keys has no idea if she saw none of it, part of it, or all of it. He knows she got Guy to remember, but she’s also sending him mixed messages. One minute she’s saying he’s cute when he brags and the next, she’s turning him down for coffee to talk to Guy. From the outside it’s so obvious that Keys is in love with Millie, but she doesn’t see it because she’s always looking the other way, not paying attention, so caught up in the game, and too focused on their work to see what’s right in front of her. On rewatch one of the big things I noticed is that Keys is always on the edge of telling Millie how he really feels but he always stops himself because she brushes him or the idea off and because he’s scared of what will become of their work and their friendship if she doesn’t feel the same way. It’s a huge leap. If Millie doesn’t feel the same way it’s going to make their relationship incredibly awkward and could potentially destroy their partnership so Keys decides it’s better not to say anything or only hint at how he feels rather than run the risk of ruining everything. Something else I noticed on rewatch is that in the interview they give Keys says he thinks of himself as an author and that code is what gets him up in the morning and that he loves the ones and zeros of binary because words can fail you and let you down but code never does. At the end of the movie when Millie goes to talk to Guy in Free Life he tells her that he loves her and while he knows that’s his programming he’s realized that he’s a love letter to her and that somewhere out there in the real world is the author. Such a great callback. All in all, I can definitely say that Free Guy has been my favourite movie so far this year! Definitely my favourite movie of the summer. I went to see it twice in theatres and I’ve never done that for any other movie before. I’ll rewatch them at home sure, but I’ve never actually paid money to see something twice on my own. I’m very excited to see the sequel and my hope is that it will be just as good as the first.  Until next time.

[likeahorribledream]

The One That Got Away

Chapter 7: Number One

Summary: Charlie tries to settle into her new routine, without Bucky. As she's finally getting back on track, she has to go on her first date with Potential Future Husband Number One.

Word count: 4.2k

Warnings: A little bit of angst, one jackass, worst mother ever.

Summary | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 |

The two weeks following the fight, Charlie spent her time either at work or with Steve. As she had promised him, she did all the research she could to find the best training possible with what they had.

The training was going well, both her and Steve were sore pretty much all the time. After a week of working out with him, she had decided to be the ‘’brains’’ of the operation and leave the ‘’muscles’’ part to him. She was way too out of shape for boot camps. Steve was happy to have her around to help him, whether she was working out alongside him or cheering him on while he was doing the exercises she was telling him to do; it was nice to be able to spend more time with her.

It took almost a week of them hanging out together every afternoon after work before he started to see a change. Slowly, his friend was coming back to him. She started to smile again and the first time she laughed he grinned non-stop for 5 minutes. It took her a little more than a week before she stopped waiting for Bucky to show up. She had been waiting for him outside every day for lunch, but he never came. Whenever they were working out in the park together, she was always hopeful that he would join them but he never did. Steve knew it was hard for Bucky to stay away and he was impressed that he had managed to do it for this long.

Every time he had seen Charlie searching for Bucky and looking sad when she couldn’t find him, Steve had wanted so badly to tell her why Bucky had said what he had said and did what he did but that would only push her towards him and ruin all the efforts Bucky had put towards protecting her, so he never said anything. In a way, he was relieved when he noticed she had stopped looking around the park in the hopes that Bucky had finally changed his mind but it also saddened him because he knew it meant she was starting to move on.

When Bucky asked about her and how she was doing, he never knew what to tell his friend. Should he tell the truth and say that she was still sad, making him feel more guilty in the process or should he lie and say she was fine, which he knew would make Bucky feel better and worse all at the same time. Bucky wanted her to feel better, he hated knowing she was still in bad shape but if she felt better, it meant she was forgetting about him and just the thought made him want to cry. Steve avoided answering by only telling his friend what the two of them had been up to with his boot camp, being careful not to tell him anything about how she was feeling. None of the answers he had for Bucky would make him feel better.

Ever since her fight with her parents, Charlie had been more distant towards them. She ate dinner with them every night, per their request. She waited until they told her she could excuse herself before walking away from them. She knew she was on thin ice and that anything could set them off, so she played the role of the dutiful daughter, doing everything they said as soon as they said it.

Charlie came back to her room after dinner. She had been sitting in bed, reading, for an hour before a soft knock was heard at her door. She put her bookmark between the pages open in front of her and closed the book, putting it on her lap. She told the person to come in and was surprised to see her mom. Ever since that night, her mom had been avoiding her. If she had something to say, she would send her father to tell her and Charlie was fine with it. Her mother wasn’t really high up on the list of people Charlie tolerated at the moment.

Mrs. Mathews looked at her daughter, no emotions showing on her face and stepped into her room to stand at the foot of her bed.

‘’This Saturday, you have your first date.’’ Her mother announced, like she was talking about the weather. As if it was nothing when she knew how much it would affect her daughter.

Charlie felt bile rise up in her mouth and her stomach dropped. She knew this moment was coming but a small, naive part of her had hoped they had changed their mind. Her mom kept talking, telling her all about her date. His name, his age, who were his parents, what job he had and where they were going. Charlie forced herself to listen to her mother but none of what she said completely registered with her and as soon as the door closed behind Mrs. Mathews, Charlie had already forgotten everything except that she was going on a date with Potential Future Husband number 1. She knew she was being childish but she refused to learn their names. She had named them PFH number one through five.

Having lost interest in the book she had been reading, she decided to go to bed instead. She put her book on her nightstand right on top of the one that had been laying there for the past 2 weeks. The book that Bucky had started reading to her. She turned off the lights and closed her eyes. She hated the fact that just the thought of Bucky made her sad, she hated that she missed him when he had made it blatantly clear that he couldn’t care less about her. That night, Charlie once again fell asleep with the images of Bucky telling her she wasn’t worth his time replaying in her head, ignoring the stubborn tears that were falling despite her eyes being closed.

Charlie’s co-workers knew something had happened but didn't know what it was. Just that it was bad, bad enough for her to close in on herself and put up her guards. She had even asked to be moved from the front desk to the back office and only work on the patients’ charts and files. The only person who was aware of the situation was the owner of the clinic, her dad’s friend who had hired her. He was on strict orders to fire her the moment James Barnes would show up at the clinic.

Everyone was worried about her, but they knew better than to ask questions. The whole energy at work had shifted, having lost their sunshine; the one person who could make anyone smile through a bad day or through pain. If someone was having a bad day, it stuck with them until the end of their shift because the only person who always knew what to say or what to do to lift their spirits up was hiding in an office, far from them.

They were just as surprised to see that no one was coming in to see her anymore. The friend that used to come eat lunch with her every day was gone and their most regular patient, Steve, hadn’t been seen in weeks. Although it seemed like the two were connected, it was just that Steve was focusing all of his time and energy on his training and didn’t want to risk ruining all of his hard work by getting hurt in an alley fight.

The next day at work, Charlie seemed even more closed off. Her co-workers had slowly started to see the old Charlie coming back to them but all of that was gone overnight. She came in, said a quick good morning to everyone and disappeared in the back office for the entire day. When they saw her again, it was at the end of the day when she left. She wished a good night, to no one in particular and walked out.

She walked straight to the park to meet Steve. No matter how bad her mood was, she never stood him up and always showed up to his training.

When he saw her arrive, he instantly knew something was wrong. Where there usually was a smile, he found a small pout; her face frozen in a frown. Her shoulders were slightly slouched and there was no energy in her steps whatsoever. She stopped walking and started looking around for him, he waited until their eyes met and waved her over.

As she walked over, she gave herself a small inner pep-talk to get into a good mood. Steve had been an amazing and supporting friend with everything that had happened, she knew she hadn’t been the best of company and brought down the mood so she forced herself to smile before reaching Steve and faked enthusiasm.

‘’Hey Stevie.’’ She greeted him, trying to sound as cheerful as possible.

‘’Hey Char.’’ He smiled softly at her before bringing her into a hug. ‘’What happened?’’

She hugged him back, sighing. ‘’I’m sorry.’’ She whispered.

He took a few steps back to look at her. ‘’What are you apologizing for?’’

‘’I’m always in a bad mood lately, I always have problems. I’ve been a bad friend and I’m sorry.’’

‘’You don’t have to apologize for having a hard time. What you’re going through is not easy.’’ He hugged again before letting her go completely. ‘’So, tell me.’’

She motioned for them to start stretching, she was in a mood where she needed to blow out steam and working out with Steve was the perfect solution.

‘’I have my first date on Saturday.’’

Steve stopped stretching, looking at her with sadness in his eyes.

‘’Oh.. Char.’’

‘’It’s fine. We knew it was coming.’’ She tried to shrug it off.

‘’Wanna talk about it?’’

Charlie shook her head no.

‘’Wanna sweat about it?’’ He joked.

Charlie’s only answer was a big grin.

They spent the rest of the afternoon working-out, well Steve was working-out while Charlie was cheering him on, completely out of breath.

‘’I didn’t think I would ever be in a better shape than someone else.’’ He laughed in-between reps.

She stuck out her tongue at him. ‘’Ha. Ha. Ha. Aren’t you a funny one, Rogers.’’

‘’I know, I’m hilarious. It was about time you acknowledge it.’’ He smirked.

She rolled her eyes at him, smiling.

‘’I guess I was too blinded by my own flawless sense of humour to notice yours.’’ She shrugged.

Now Steve was the one rolling his eyes and laughed, pointing at his own head.

‘’How’s your ego? Good? Does that big head of yours make it difficult to walk through doors?’’

‘’My ego is fine, thank you for asking and yes, it is difficult sometimes, some door frames are smaller than others but I just learned to side step. I’ve gotten excellent at it.’’

Steve whistled, his eyes focusing on her head. ‘’Fascinating. I think I can actually see it grow before my very eyes.’’

‘’Aren’t you supposed to be training right now?’’

‘’Aren’t you?’’ He shot back.

Charlie gasped dramatically and they both started laughing. Steve went back to training, finishing today’s boot camp before falling to the ground, sitting next to his friend.

‘’You’re getting better every day Stevie. I’m proud of you.’’ She smiled.

Steve blushed at the compliment, not that anyone could notice, his face already red from all his hard work. She forced him to stretch afterwards, even if he kept complaining that he was too exhausted and he didn’t need to stretch even if deep down he knew he would be less sore the next day.

They walked home in silence, aside from their giggling. Anyone who saw them wouldn’t be able to tell that these two were full grown adults by the way they walked, shoving into one another; their steps going in every direction but a straight line, and by how they acted.

After an eventful walk home, they stopped a block away from Charlie’s house. It had become where they met and where they said goodbye, Steve didn’t come over anymore. They hugged once last time and went their separate ways.

Charlie felt so much better. All the laughing and running around almost made her forget what was waiting for her at home. Almost. But tonight, she couldn’t be bothered with it all. She had just had one of the best days in a long time and she was determined to not let anything ruin it. She was careful not to do or say anything that would set her father off, as soon as it was possible she disappeared to her room and finally let herself relax once she had closed the door.

She was getting ready for bed, brushing her wet hair from her, very much needed, shower. She was looking at herself in the mirror and being tired, she zoned out. Her eyes weren’t focusing on anything in particular, looking in her mirror at the reflection of her room behind her. She was looking around, still through the mirror, when something caught her eye; bringing her out of her thoughts. She gently placed the brush on her desk, to its rightful spot and turned around. She started looking around again, trying to find what had caught her attention but she couldn’t find it. She took a few steps to the side, when she saw it again. Something was shining in the light from her room. She walked over and picked it up.

Her locket.

She closed her fingers around it and brought her hand to her chest, where the locket usually would be and took a deep breath while closing her eyes.

‘’I’m sorry Gran. I know it meant a lot to you, it meant a lot to me too. I really wish you were here right now.’’ She whispered, almost inaudibly. ‘’I miss you.’’

As she opened her eyes again, she tried to think of a place where she could put the necklace. Somewhere that she would know it was safe, hidden from her parents but where she would still have easy access to it. Her eyes fell on the books piled up on her nightstand, finding the perfect hiding place. Her parents never looked through her books, they would never bother themselves trying to find out more about her interests.

She took the book that she had started reading with Bucky and found the page they were on. She hid the necklace in between pages, as close as possible to the bookbinding to not make it too obvious that it wasn’t closing completely because of the pendant. Closing the book, she put it back where it had been; under the book she was currently reading.

She fell asleep easily that night, feeling more at peace than she did the night before and every other night before that.

Saturday came around quickly, too quickly. Like everyone else, Charlie always looked forward to the weekend but not this time. Steve had tried to reassure her, saying it would go smoothly and that maybe she would even like him but she knew that if her parents had chosen him for her, he probably didn’t have anything in common with her but everything in common with them.

The pit in her stomach made it more difficult to get excited and to get ready. Even though she had half a mind to not put any effort on how she would look, she knew it would only mean more trouble for her so she decided to look her best, as if it was a real date. A date she wanted to be on with a man she liked.

She looked at herself one more time in the mirror to make sure her hair was secured into place, that her eyeliner looked good and that her dress looked flawless; not a wrinkle in sight. After all, she had to show her ‘’housewife potential’’. She heard knocking at the front door and took a shaky breath. She grabbed her clutch and opened her bedroom door, cringing at her father’s loud laugh. She walked downstairs, avoiding to look at the man waiting for her as long as she possibly could, that way she didn’t have to talk to him. Instead, she focused all of her attention on her feet as she walked down. It looked completely natural, like she was simply trying not to trip. Unfortunately, she reached the first floor and finally had to look up.

Number One looked handsome, too handsome. He had a smug look on his face, the kind of look that screamed ‘’I know I’m hot, I’m a big shot and better than you.’’ and Charlie hated that. It was going to be a long night.

She shook his hands while her dad was introducing him, honestly she wasn’t really listening and just nodded politely when he asked if she was ready to go.

He told her parents he would bring her back no later than 10pm, then shook her father’s hand. He turned around, opened the door and walked outside towards the cab that had been waiting for them; never looking back to see if she was following him. She followed not long after, a bit disappointed that he hadn’t opened the door for her and let her walk out first, guiding her with his hand resting on the small of her back like gentlemen did. Like James Bucky did.

The restaurant was nice and very expensive. The waiter walked them over to their table, right next to the window that looked over the street from where they had just come from. She followed the waiter, looking on the tables around to see what looked good. Great, she thought, ridiculously small portions. I should have eaten before this. Although it was really ‘’unlady-like’’, Charlie liked it. She didn’t care about the name of the restaurant or how much everything cost. She cared about actually eating and loving the food on her plate. That wasn’t going to happen tonight.

When they reached their table, Number One pulled out a chair and sat down. He didn’t pull out her chair, he didn’t ask her which seat she preferred; the one facing the wall or the one back to the wall. He barely even looked at her. Leaving her with the chair against the wall, she started walking over to sit but was stopped by the waiter who gave her a small smile. He pulled out her chair for her and waited until she was comfortably sitting before leaving them. She thanked him with a small nod and looked at the man sitting across from her, there was no doubt in her mind that he didn’t want to be here either. She wondered why he accepted to do this, clearly he had to be coerced into it otherwise he wouldn’t be here.

She was surprised to learn that he was here of his own free will.

‘’I like those kinds of dates, '’ he started. Dates, plural. Not his first time doing this.

‘’I like to see what kind of sad woman needs her parents to set her up on dates with men.’’ He snickered. ‘’Couldn’t find anyone to love you on your own uh?’’ He added with a mocking tone, pouting to mock her even more.

As rude as he was, Charlie sincerely didn’t care about what he said. He didn’t mean anything to her and his opinion meant even less.

Her eyes drifted to the window, watching people walk by as they looked curiously into the restaurants. Human nature, always so curious. The man in front of her kept talking, never noticing that she wasn’t listening to a single word he said.

The people on the street were much more interesting than he was, she was almost amused; a small smile at the corner of her lips. Her arm was resting on the table and her hand was under her chin, holding her head up. The small smile quickly faded when her eyes met with someone’s on the street. She sat straighter in her chair, her hand falling on the table. The pit in her stomach got even worse, the lump in her throat that had rapidly formed made it hard to swallow or breathe.

It was the first time she had seen him ever since that night almost 3 weeks ago. Bucky.

They both froze into place, even though a window separated them. Her heart started beating faster, just as his did too.

He had managed to avoid running into her for the past 3 weeks. Avoiding every place he knew she went to often, taking a different way home in case Steve would be bringing her over as he lived close to him. He thought that going out for a walk on a Saturday night would be safe, she usually spent her Saturday reading books or by sorting them and rearranging her shelves. He really didn’t expect to see her and the way her expression changed, Bucky knew she hadn’t expected to see him either. He finally broke eye contact, looking her over. It felt like he hadn’t seen her in months, when in reality it had only been a few weeks.

He noticed how dolled up she was and how beautiful she looked. He started moving before he even realized it, walking towards her.

When Bucky broke eye contact, Charlie also took the time to look him over. She wondered if his hair had always had that cute little curl at the front of it. As he started walking closer, her heartbeat picked up. Her heart was beating so fast and so loud that she was sure everyone in the restaurant could hear it.

That’s when he finally saw him; the reason that she was out on a Saturday night, the reason why she looked so beautiful. Number One.

It was like he had been in a trance when his eyes met hers, for a few moments he had forgotten why she wasn’t in his life anymore and why he couldn’t hear his favorite sound again, the sound of her laugh but when he saw the man sitting across from her, everything came rushing back and he was brought back to reality.

He stopped walking, meeting her eyes one more time; so many emotions went through his head and showed in his eyes. He sincerely hoped that everything he had wanted to say and every apology he had been dying to confess could be seen in his eyes.

Then, he turned around and walked away, disappearing as quickly as he had appeared.

Charlie spent the entire date thinking about Bucky and the look in his eyes. He looked so sad but why? He never cared about her, he told her so himself. Hundreds of questions were running through her mind while she ate. She had barely ordered anything, she had lost her appetite.

When the check came, she was glad she did. Number One paid for his half and then pointed to Charlie, talking to the waiter like she wasn’t even there.

‘’She’ll take care of the rest.’’ He said, with a smirk.

The jerk. He wanted her to not be able to pay, to ask him to pay for her half because she didn’t have any money. He wanted her to feel humiliated. Can’t find a man and can’t pay for yourself? Pathetic. She could almost hear him say those words, his smug expression said it all.

Charlie looked at the waiter with a big, genuine smile on her face before grabbing the clutch that rested on the table next to her and opening it.

‘’With pleasure.’’ She said, pulling out a few bills and handing them over to the waiter.

He stopped smiling instantly, clearly angry that she hadn’t needed to beg for him to pay for her meal. It seemed like her parents had left out the part about how she worked everyday, which almost meant she got a paycheck every other week.

Now, he was the one feeling embarrassed. She had completely turned the situation on him and he ended up looking like the cheap date who couldn’t afford taking out women in places like the one they were in right now.

The waiter looked down at Charlie, grinning. He had seen and heard everything Number One had said and done since they had walked in and he was glad to see her put him back in his place.

They walked out of the restaurant and Charlie swore she could see smoke coming out of his ears. He waved over a cab and turned his face to look at Charlie.

‘’You can find your own way home.’’ He said coldly before sitting in the cab and closing the door, telling the driver to go.

Charlie sighed. Although he was extremely rude and she absolutely despised him, she really didn’t feel like walking home alone. Especially not in this dress and those shoes. Her dinner had been expensive and she didn’t have any money left to get a cab.

‘’What a jerk.’’ She said out loud, angry.

Suddenly she felt someone behind her, standing close to her. Too close. A hand rested on her left shoulder before it ran down her arm, fingertips brushing against her skin. They were the kind of little touches that would have made her swoon if she hadn’t been so terrified.

‘’Bad date?’’ Was whispered in her ear as the hand on her left arm reached hers, closing around it.

***

As I promised yesterday, chapter 7 is here! I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think.

[writethehousedown]

Hold Still (Biadore) - tanawrites

Summary - part of the Summer Lovin’ challenge for the prompt bathing suit. What might have happened if Bianca and Adore were paired up for the swimsuit challenge in season 6.

A/N - I’ve just done another rewatch of my absolute fav season of Drag Race (thanks corona for all the spare time I’ve had) and I’m just honestly obsessed with these two. I couldn’t help but be inspired by some of my favourite of their moments and the idea of them being friends early on!

“I want you to pair up with a queen who was not in your original group."  

Now it made sense to Roy the way the production team had carefully arranged them in the workroom that morning. A glance to either side of him was enough to confirm, the lineup was alternating the queens from the two groups and from the expecting grin on RuPaul’s face, it was intended to throw them off.

Some of the pairings made sounds of approval, a few air kisses exchanged and the clasp of hands.

He turned to his right and came face-to-face with one of the younger queens. Not his first choice but it wasn’t really Danny’s fault in particular. Roy was bound to be doubtful of any of the queens he hadn’t worked with yet - it was in his nature to question everybody until he saw for himself what they could do. Especially when his success was relying partly on them as well.

Responding to Danny’s exaggerated look of hesitancy as he stepped closer to affirm them as a team, Roy sideyed Danny. He looked him up and down once before turning back to listen to their rest of their instructions, figuring that would be enough for the cameras. He just hoped it would be used as a foreshadowing in the edit because their unlikely pairing had won them the challenge rather than the alternative.

“…combine bodies to create one lip syncing, bikini wearing bathing beauty.”

Despite Roy’s uncertainty about his partner, he was amused by the challenge. It sure as hell beat trying to look sexy with feathers stuck to Bianca’s lipstick. At least he could bring humour into this.

“Go!”

Once the initial rush of twelve grown men shoving and grabbing for their choice of swimwear, which was about as pleasant as it sounded, Roy took his findings back to his station.

He’d managed to snag a one-piece bathing suit and a sheer cover-up - neither of which he would have had in the suitcases he’d packed, hardly something Bianca would ever perform in. After rifling through one of his bags, he pulled out a floppy hat and large flower that he could pin on his front to hide the fact that he wouldn’t have time to fashion Bianca’s usual chest.

Quick drag was never something he chose to do  - not when he painted Bianca’s face the way he did or with how precise he liked his drag to be. Always tucked neat and tightly, Bianca’s curves cinched and padded to the now familiar figure, never a hair out of place or signature bold makeup smudged.

Before he got started on the transition into Bianca, his eyes sought out another’s from across the room. Once Danny met his gaze, Roy tilted his head slightly in invitation.

“So just based on first impressions, you don’t exactly strike me as a top, queen.”

Before his words could leave a sting, Roy was continuing, gesturing to Danny as he spoke now that he was standing in front of him.

“Plus, we can do a lot more with those legs than my stumps. Work for you?”

Danny nodded, seemingly either too startled or intimidated by Roy’s unquestionable authority to verbally respond. It wasn’t personal, nor intended to be rude on Roy’s behalf. He was used to a time crunch, not usually as pressing as this one but he was a hit the ground running kind of person to begin with.

It seemed though that Danny wasn’t totally acting for the cameras earlier if his current apprehension was anything to go off. Roy wasn’t heartless though, no one should be scared of him, so he dropped his voice a little and relaxed his position from where he had tensed from the urgency of the challenge.

“Great, do what you need to do and meet me back here so we can plan something out? It’s going to take the rest of these bitches that long just to get made up.”

“Party.”

Settling for a roll of his eyes and stubbornly denying the small tug at the corners of his lips at the response, Roy got to work as Danny left his station grinning. It was easier to work together if Danny wasn’t too busy tiptoeing around him, Roy told himself.

Just as Bianca pulled her bangs into the right position and secured them with a pin, Adore was sidling up to her chair, steeled with a new confidence.

“So, I have an idea.”

-

After Danny’s initial panic about working with Roy, the queen already having a reputation for reading their fellow competitors to filth, there came the panic of the challenge.

Adore barely tucked on a good day, let alone well enough to have her crotch on full display.

It was a partner challenge though and after Roy had taken the reins on their team, Danny knew there were expectations for him to meet for someone other than himself now. He only partially understood the reputation proceeding Bianca. She was sharp-tongued there was no doubt about it but who could blame a bitch for being blunt?

He’d approached Roy at Bianca’s station with a hint of hesitancy but walked away optimistic. More importantly, he walked away with a clear head.

Known for being eccentric and impulsive in his behaviour, Danny found it hard to stay focused. Determined, yes but organising all his creative thoughts was something he struggled with. Roy’s assertiveness had allowed Danny to direct his attention without any of the struggle.

Sharing a grin with Laganja in their shared work space, he ignored the way Laganja was trying to catch his gaze. It would no doubt be about his pairing, Laganja whispering in Adore’s ear just yesterday about how scary Bianca seemed after the warning snapped at Gia almost as soon as they’d met. Danny didn’t have the time right now though, almost able to hear seconds ticking away from them before they had to be ready.

Never one to be shy, Danny dropped his pants and reached for his rarely used tape and got to work. He could hear everyone else working in a fluster around him and usually, he would be the kind to be poking his head around and cracking jokes. It was their first challenge as a full group and he wanted to make an impression on Ru and the other queens.

Once he was tucked, tighter than he had been in a long time, he reached for the swimsuit. Danny had grabbed a bright matching bikini and pulled on the bottoms, making sure he looked as flat as he could down there. After a moment of hesitation, he grinned and put the top on as well, covering his flat chest and tugging a crop top on over the top. It wasn’t like anybody was going to see his top half during the challenge but it was very on brand for Adore.

Grateful he’d recently shaved his legs and painted his toes, he slipped his feet into strappy heels that he had to lace a little up his calves. It didn’t totally make sense for a beach but after a glance over at Bianca and her outfit, he decided it matched enough for what he had in mind for their performance.

Grabbing a heart shaped pair of glasses that were left on the table of offerings, Adore grinned and continued on to Bianca’s work space.

“So I have an idea.” She held out the glasses. “And I thought these might save you some time.”

-

Standing next to Adore as they waited for their turn, Bianca laughed at Courtney and Laganja’s rehearsed joke. Once they were motioned for their tone, she took the towels from a member of the pit crew and led their way into the sandpit.

She let Adore lay down first, watching as she shifted around in discomfort. She was expecting it though, having watched a few more pairs go before them.

“Here.” She folded up one of the towels and handed it over to Adore who looked cluelessly up at her. “Use it as a pillow, fuck getting sand in your ass and your hair.”

Once Adore laid back seemingly more comfortably, Bianca moved into position but glanced back before she lowered herself to sit on Adore’s stomach.

“Alright back there?”

“I’m good.”

Bianca nodded and lowered onto her knees, supporting her weight entirely on her legs with her legs spread as wide as she could so Adore had enough room for movement.

“Still good?”

She watched Adore hesitate for a moment before shuffling down a little more and reaching for Bianca’s hips, assuring her hands would be out of the sight for those looking front on.

“For leverage, so I can move my body.”

Adore’s explanation was drawn out in a tone Bianca couldn’t quite put her finger on who it was an impression of but she chuckled nonetheless before taking it as confirmation that they were ready and she could settle the rest of the towels around them. Once she was satisfied they were fitting the illusion, she was nodding that they were ready to start the song.

-

“And the winners of the mini challenge are…Adore and Bianca!”

Bianca let Adore press against her side for their victory shot, her arm raising to wrap around Adore’s shoulders for a quick squeeze as they shared an equally surprised and pleased look.

Their win had come slightly as a shock. They had done well but after watching Courtney’s facial expressions and the man-handling of Laganja’s legs which was hilarious, Bianca’s confidence in her own pairing had lessened. Apparently Bianca’s comedic take on Adore’s burlesque style show with her legs had bumped them over though and she certainly wasn’t complaining.

She wasn’t expecting Adore to return to her station so quickly or with specific ideas for their lip sync. The sunglasses had been a save as well, allowing them an extra five minutes of planning out their performance which was another tick for Adore in Bianca’s mental checklist. Overall, she had been impressed.

Their victory didn’t last long though because soon enough they were separated and picking queens for teams to work against one another as captains for the maxi challenge.

-

“So would you pick from the other team to work with?”

“Bianca.”

Adore didn’t have to think twice before answering the question directed to her once they were in the untucked lounge. She hadn’t gone well in the filming challenge, far too in her own head to concentrate on her lines. She’d bombed the runway as well, getting more critiques than compliments on her look. It had shaken her confidence and she was embarrassed, especially after winning the mini challenge with Bianca earlier that day.

Working with Bianca was a stark contrast than how the group challenge had gone. Having to follow a script had limited Adore’s creative ability and she felt stifled in her group, relying on all of them and none of them all at once.

She had no qualms about repeating her answer when the rest of the group joined them as well, asking what they’d missed out on.

“DeLa asked me who I’d want to work with from the other queens and I said you.”

“Wait, what’s your name again?”

Said with no bite, Adore laughed around her cocktail at Bianca’s response. Most of the other queens looked surprised but Courtney laughed as well, clearly seeing through Bianca’s tone or simply enjoying it enough that she didn’t care if it was said in jest or not.

Adore hadn’t been in good spirits since the runway, trapped in her own thoughts that were desperately battling against the voices in her head that were repeating the judges critiques, her own saying that she wasn’t good enough, the other queens from her group saying her leadership landed in the bottom. The rest of the group, Bianca especially who always seemed to radiate an authority over the room, was a welcome distraction.

“Like yeah she’s a bitch but she’s helpful as well. We killed the rest of you in the mini challenge and even though we’re both really big personalities and I thought we’d clash, it ended up working for us.”

Adore shrugged but she caught the rare smile Bianca sent her way before her expression changed, guarded again against the rest of their competitors.

“I’d choose Adore too if we had to pick someone to work with again.” Bianca pursed her lips before continuing. “I’d make out with her over Courtney again any day.”

After the expected returning quip from Courtney, the conversation shifted and Adore was grateful to take a backseat from the centre of attention. It was the first real challenge, against all the girls and she had disappointed herself. Her mind was racing again, self doubt rising up and forming a lump in her throat.

She had tuned out of the conversation so much so that only the couch dipping beside her as the rest of the queens stood up around her broke her from her thoughts. She mumbled a distracted ‘thanks’ to who was holding the curtain back for everyone before her but faltered when a black nailed hand curled around her arm and pulled her to a stop.

Face to face with Bianca, Adore swallowed thickly and let a small grin curl her lips.

“You trying to make out with me now? Because I don’t really think we have time.”

She was pleased to hear Bianca laugh as Adore referenced her earlier joke, quieter than her usual cackles but it felt even more genuine somehow.

“I just wanted to say not to take it too hard, kid.”

Adore considered arguing back, holding up a stronger front against someone who was supposed to be her competition. Someone who was her biggest competition especially.

It didn’t seem to be worth it though, not when Bianca had already seen straight through her. Not when Adore felt Bianca’s gaze on the side of her face rather than the screen as they watched their teams movies and her jaw was tight as she tried to shield how embarrassed she was on the runway.

“I…thanks Bianca.”

“Come on, let’s go see what these queens pull out their asses. Think Vivacious will attempt a death drop?”

Adore’s laughter followed them down the hallway, Bianca’s arm around her shoulders and her own around Bianca’s slim waist as they walked together and Adore felt lucky. Lucky that she seemed to have a friend, other than Laganja who seemed off and unrecognisable, and lucky that she had seemingly evaded Hurricane Bianca, for whatever reason Adore didn’t dare to question.

[aion-rsa]

The Teleprompter Interview: Katy Wix ‘My First Screen Crush was King Kong’

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“Anchors, rigging, shackles,” lists Katy Wix down the phone, “poop deck, wheelhouse, three sheets to the wind…” The comedian and writer has had a productive year. Filming wrapped on Ghosts series two just as UK lockdown began. Since then, she’s finished one book – Delicacy: A Memoir – due out next April, is pitching another, writing a TV show, and thanks to a new-found obsession with Netflix yacht-based reality show Below Deck, has also managed to acquire an enviable grasp of nautical terminology. 

Wix is an established UK comic actor, with credits across the board, starting with cult hit Time Trumpet and going mainstream as witless, lovable Daisy in BBC mega-sitcom Not Going Out. She’s currently part of Channel 4’s Stath Lets Flats, the hottest comedy around, fresh from multiple Bafta wins. She plays Fergie in royal satire The Windsors, and was among the comedian-contestants in series nine of Taskmaster. In BBC One sitcom Ghosts, Wix plays Mary, a 17th century yokel burned as a witch and now part of the motley group haunting a modern-day stately home. Mary’s distinctive west country accent “just came out”, says Wix. “It’s an insult really, because I can’t claim to do that accent well. It’s sort of a stock noise. The more I do it, the more I think it sounds like Nanny from Count Duckula. Ducky!”

Ghosts series two, which lands as a boxset on BBC iPlayer on Monday September 21st , will give fans more about Mary’s background, says Wix. “I think people will really love it, and then there’ll be another series next year, depending on the big C. Not cancer. The other big C.”

From superyachts to Alan Partridge, The Day Today to Ghostwatch, Anna from This Life to formative sexual fantasies about prehistoric apes… here’s the Katy Wix Teleprompter interview.

Your parents were quite arty, working in dance companies and the theatre. Did your childhood allow for much TV watching?

Oh my god, yes! My routine was: come home from school, watch the tail-end of Fifteen to One, and when I was really young, repeats of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Then it would be The Broom Cupboard, something like Round the Twist, then the sound of the Six O’Clock News and turning over to The Simpsons. I still do it now, if I’m at home and it’s five to six, I’m going to watch The Simpsons, it’s a tradition.

Welsh telly was slightly different to the rest of the country. We have S4C rather than Channel 4. I remember going through the TV listings and seeing what was on normal Channel 4, like The Word, then I’d look at Welsh Channel 4 and it would just be something boring in Welsh at the same time.

Was there a TV show that inspired you to start acting and comedy?

The one I remember the most is Abigail’s Party. Seeing Alison Steadman’s performance made me want to do character acting. It was just a phenomenal, convincing, detailed performance. Years later, I wrote a radio sitcom that she was in. It was one of those absurd moments where you just have to leave your body and look down on yourself to be able to handle it. 

That must happen a lot, you’ve been part of a lot of great comedy casts…

What got me into comedy was Brass Eye and The Day Today. When I was about 15, that’s what changed my brain. It was the first time I’d seen adults being silly and coming up with absurd situations that were my sense of humour. Before that, comedy on TV would always feel like just something your parents would watch but this really felt like it was for us, for me and my friends. It was the same with The Office.

And then you were in This Time with Alan Partridge with Steve Coogan last year.

I was in sixth form when Knowing Me, Knowing You came out and I had it on VHS. Watching people like Rebecca Front and Doon Mackichan… anytime Alan had a guest on the sofa, the level of detail and all the reactions and the tiny little social awkward moments, that made me think I want to do that type of performing. So then, when I got to be in the last Partridge, it was mad. It was phenomenal to be that near to the character and all his tiny micro-expressions. Even the colour of his socks – this weird salmon pink – that was so perfect. Tim [Key] was there as well and we’re old pals, so that made it feel more like, well if Tim can deal with it. But I think even Tim now says he still has times where he has to go into the loo and give himself a moment.

Who or what was your first TV love?

This will sound like a joke, but I swear to God it’s true. It was a running joke in our family that my first crush when I was about four, was King Kong [laughs]. My mum used to tease me about it all the time. It was the combination of brute strength and these massive, soulful, pained eyes – which I still look for in men – that absolutely got me. It was an erotic connection for me. When I look back on it in a Freudian way, it feels like a really obvious, very heterosexual image for a little girl to have, because I wanted to be that woman in the nightie in his massive hairy hand. 

Unusual, yes, but then a lot of people our age cite the fox in the Robin Hood Disney film as their first screen crush.

I do get that. I do get that. What was it about that fox?

He’s rakish. And politically, he was sound too – rob from the rich, give to the poor.

You’re right. And he was really confident too. 

Growing up, which TV character did you idolise?

There are two, a younger one and a slightly later one. When I was 11 or 12, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I would draw outfits all the time in my school books and I had the Usborne Book of Fashion Design and spend hours on it. So I wanted to be Hilary Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air because she just had incredible fashion. She always got boys and she was really cool and confident and wore amazing clothes. She was everything I wanted to be.

Then a little bit later, maybe sixth form or in my early 20s. I wanted to be Anna from This Life, so much and I kind of still do. Because she was tall and really cool and had dark hair and a lot of attitude and wore black a lot and smoked a lot and didn’t give a shit. That was my vibe at university. 

Is there a TV character you’d like to be now? 

Probably still Anna? 

Which TV show gave you nightmares?

The massive one for me, when I was about 11 or 12: Ghostwatch. I went to a friend’s house to watch it and I remember being a bit like ‘yeah right’ watching it, and then when I got home that night, I just cried. I was in the bath, hysterical and my mum had to come in and calm me down. It was horrendous. 

Everyone totally swallowed it at the time, because we were less TV-savvy in 1992. I remember they had a phone-in and someone called in to say ‘There’s a shape in the curtains’, which really fucked me up. The whole Pipes thing. I remember being in my bedroom and seeing a shape of an old man in the curtain all the time. I’ve got really vague memories of Craig Charles being in a park, saying that someone had killed a Labrador. I was thinking about watching it again. I actually don’t know if I dare. 

Read more

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When did you last cry watching television?

Last night. Have you ever seen the show Below Deck? I’m obsessed with it. I’m not massively into reality TV but it’s an American reality show all filmed on superyachts that rich people charter. It’s almost like a perfect sitcom family – you have a different captain every time and the deckhands and then the interior, who do the hotel stuff, and then you have the chef, who’s always a temperamental big personality and then each episode has a different group of insanely rich, usually quite horrible, sexist people with loads of money who get really drunk, that’s the premise. It’s non-stop drama. You’re just watching people fall off boats and have arguments. 

How did it make you cry?

In this episode, there was a girl who’d been really quiet and grumpy and everyone was slagging her off, and then she revealed that she’d got a text that morning saying her estranged father had died, so that’s what set me off. It’s got me through lockdown, it’s so addictive. 

When did you last laugh out loud watching television?

Below Deck, same episode!

All human life is there!

I think it was someone’s malapropism, that’s my favourite thing about reality TV, the way people talk in a kind of Stath-like way and get it wrong.

What was the last TV show you recommended to a friend? 

Below Deck! [Laughs] I’ve just got Lolly [Adefope] onto it, and Adam Drake – he’s a comedian in a sketch show called Goose and does Capital, a podcast with Liam Williams – he’s now devoted. One of my best mates was bemoaning that her boyfriend’s not into reality TV, but boys can watch Below Deck too. It’s got loads of boat stuff in it. Chains and anchors. I’m learning all these terms, like shackles, poop deck, wheelhouse, three sheets to the wind… That’s where the expression ‘in my wheelhouse’ comes from. Three sheets to the wind means you’re sailing off course. 

Which TV show would you bring back from the dead?

Changing Rooms. 

Good call.

I also loved The Late Review. I really loved that.

What’s a TV show you wish more people would watch?

Do you know Iyanla Vanzant? She started off on The Oprah Winfrey Show – I love Oprah so much – and she’s a TV therapist/healer/spiritual. She’s got a show you can only get on American TV called Iyanla: Fix My Life. She just speaks so much wisdom. She spends a week with people who are really traumatised and it’s their healing journey. It’s so moving, it’s so profound. She’s doing incredible work for the human race.

She did an amazing show called, I think, ‘The Myth of the Angry Black Woman’ with a house full of women of colour who all got to talk about this trope that they were angry and how they felt unable to speak without being silenced. She did a show that was rehabilitating people that had come out of prison and women that had been sex workers all their loves, just amazing. 

Which current TV show do you never miss an episode of?

In lockdown, what kept me going was I May Destroy you, obviously, Below Deck, obviously. I also became obsessed with the Japanese Big Brother Terrace House, but it just got pulled because there was a suicide. It was so, so awful. I read an article saying the producers didn’t behave well, so I feel like I can’t like it any more. I love Succession too. I started watching this show on Netflix called Intervention and got totally obsessed with it. Again, it’s maybe ethically a bit dubious. It’s American, obviously, and they’ll film an addict who’s in a really desperate state and then the family kind of trick them, or persuade them to go into a room and then the intervention therapist is there and they’re like ‘Guess what, you’re going to rehab now!’ Anything that’s got human suffering, and then a redemption story in it, I’ll watch. 

Given the power, which TV show would you commission?

I think about this a lot – what if I had a channel? I’d commission the sketch group Sheeps to make tons of series. That’s Liam Williams, Al Roberts and Daran Johnson, and so far they’ve only done live shows, but I would commission them for hours of TV. Colin Hoult doing his character Anna Mann, I’d commission hours of that. Everyone involved in Stath Lets Flats, I’d just say ‘Turn up, pitch and we’ll make it’. There’s a documentary from the 70s that I adore, that I would like to show again, which is John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. It’s one of the most beautiful, gentle documentaries. I feel like that should be on TV. And just whatever Gemma Collins is doing, commission that. 

Also, you know in the 90s, late at night you’d get some weird, bizarre performance art happening on BBC Two? I miss that. The sort of stuff that was on after The Word. And then finally, maybe just all of Peep Show again? 

What’s the most fun you’ve had making television?

Ghosts is where I probably laugh the most because of Lolly [Adefope]. We make each other laugh all the time. When me and Anna [Crilly] did our sketch show on Channel 4, it was incredible. It was stressful but exciting. It was such a nice atmosphere to be with all these gorgeous people that you find funny. 

Stath Lets Flats is like that, because we’re all genuine mates. When people take comedy so seriously I really love it. I love that attention to detail. Jamie [Demetriou] and everyone involved really cares. There’s no ‘that’ll do’ attitude, everyone wants it to be the best it can be. Why not treat comedy as a science that you have to absolutely get right?

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Ghosts series two starts on Monday the 21st of September on BBC One at 8.30pm. All six episodes will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer from then. 

Delicacy: A Memoir by Katy Wix, published by Headline, is available to pre-order now.

The post The Teleprompter Interview: Katy Wix ‘My First Screen Crush was King Kong’ appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[fallingin-like]

an aftg fanfic appreciation post

the other day at work i saw something about fanfiction writer appreciation day and told myself “ah i will make a post when i get home” and immediately Did Not Do That. so i’m doing it now! first, thank you to everyone who writes fanfiction! it’s such an honour to be able to read your writing and i am so grateful to the writers who spend so much time and effort into creating these stories. i do not deserve such amazing content and yet i have it. also thanks to nora for this wonderful series which has changed my life in so many ways. 

these are in no particular order. i really tried to tone down my ‘i love you so much and really want to be friends with you’ vibe but i don’t think it worked. this is a super long post and i still didn’t get to say everything i wanted to.

some  fics/series that need more love (aka they have under 350 kudos)

to the south by Morcai - this is a series (never to be caught and secret, safe, close to the door) that was really cool to read. it has elements of the Iskryne Series which i don’t know anything about, but apparently has to do with bondwolves. basically, neil has a wolfbrother who he can speak to telepathically which is written in a really unique way, through interesting phrases and scent-based nicknames for people. i’ve never read anything like these fics and i adore them

all that we see or seem by rorschachs - an inception au. need i say more? this fic flows well, has good use of flashbacks, and an amazing ending. it’s ~23,000 words but feels like much less due to nice pacing and an interesting take on this au

Travelers by @sunrise-and-death ​ - a series (Placeless Destination and Moving Towards) that’s a soulmate au. soulmates can interact through a pyschic bond that allows it to seem like the other person is there with them. neil and andrew meet when they are young and it’s so interesting seeing them get to know each other at this age. we also get to see some neil/mary angst and all of the terrible things happen to andrew. an intense series that manages to feel light-hearted at the same time. the second fic in this series is incomplete

atlas by @purearcticfire ​ / @pipedream-truths ​ - a magic au that features shapeshifters and a cursed neil, so immediately you know i’ll like it. this fic has some cool uses of italics, caps, spacing, etc. that creates a stylized story that helps build tone and gives the story a clearer voice. unfortunately, i can’t tell too much detail about my favourite parts because it they are *ultra spoilers* so i’ll just say, it gets so intense at the end. just trust me about this. ao3 says it’s incomplete (4/5 chapters) but it seems complete to me. also, at ~72,000 words, it’s a pretty hefty fic

Golden Keys and Gray Lines by @wouldyoulightmycandle ​ - just a feel-good post-canon fic that involves a road trip, an ice cream museum, and a bit of Working Through Rough Times. super cute! this fic is incomplete

some authors i just really love and appreciate (you probably already know them and if you don’t then idk what you’re doing)

all of these writers have serious talent that make it look easy to write fanfiction. it’s not easy. you guys have all of my love. all of it.

@nakasomethingkun ​ /  ephemeralsky - basically i just see their name and automatically click the fic without bothering to fully read the tags or summary. they have never let me down and i adore the way they write. everything they write is an easy read and i always come back to their fics. i was going to mention my favourites and then i realized i was going to list everything they’ve written for aftg and i’m not even kidding. funny, angst, fluff, everything you could want in a fic they have it. so so good i actually don’t know how to describe it. their fics break my heart and then put it back together a little bit different so that even after i am finished reading and continue with the rest of my life, i feel different. they make me hurt in a way i didn’t know that i could like. this quality of fic has me scrolling back to the top to reread it the second i finish. what in the world they’re so good.

@annawrites ​ / moonix - 50 aftg fics. that’s actually crazy. and all of them are so high quality and there is such a variety. flower shop/tattoo parlor au? one of my favourite series ever. high school au? of course it includes 4 fully complete fics. shapeshifter au? amazingly done. scott pilgrim vs the world au? so good that i went out and watched the movie for the first time (i am not even joking). i was looking through all the fics and just started rereading them, i just can’t help myself. they describe everything in a way that makes their stories unique, but doesn’t seem like they’re trying too hard. or at all. their fics flow so well and every sentence is a gem. i read and reread so carefully to make sure i don’t miss a thing, but always find myself catching new jokes and quirks.

@lolainslackss ​ / lolainslackss - i really don’t know where to start. once again, i just really love all of their fics. i started scrolling through their works too see if i had a favourite and could not even choose a top 5. their writing is so beautiful i can’t get enough. they always choose the best things to include. selective mutism and sign language? that’s a sure way into my heart. the suit shop au is adorable and pining andrew really is best andrew. i found exycast surprisingly late in my fanfiction reading and that is a real tragedy because it’s amazing and really cute. the soulmate timer fic is an old favourite and if i’m looking for angst, i know i can pull it up.

@gluupor ​ / gluupor - an absolute legend. with 54 fics for aftg, it’s amazing that all of them are outrageously funny, entertaining, and just really well written. a lot of them are fics adapted as an au for other fandoms (like their super popular brooklyn 99 au that i absolutely adore) and they are all hilarious. it’s so fun to search for familiar quotes or realize how similar characters from different fandoms are to the foxes and the quirks they share. these are fics that will definitely cheer you up. i love their sense of humour, it fits the characters so well and helps to shape the world they’re writing in. it’s always exciting to see them publish a new fic.

@idnis ​ / idnis - they have a really unique writing style, i’ve never seen anything like it in this fandom. every story has so much care and love in it that’s evident through the small details that you only pick up through rereading. their stories are stylized with spaces and formatting that help guide the reader and adds to the tone of their stories. i fell so in love with their cat!neil. they write such interesting stories, have original plots, and their fics read like poetry. before you know it, you’ve finished the fic without realising you should have gone to bed an hour ago. they also have some amazing original work that everyone should go check out!

@badacts ​ / badacts - so recently a lot of their fics were made visible to ao3 users only (a shame in my opinion) so if you haven’t read their fics, go make an account! or log into your account! you really don’t want to miss these fics. they have a kid fic where both andrew and neil are baby versions of themselves so it’s obviously one of the best things ever. they who made you/they made me too is so good even the title is enough to make me feel. there’s introspection and realization and it’s from aaron’s perspective. i love seeing the twinyards bond. and, of course we have to mention the terra firma series because i love injured!neil and this one hits me in a different way. i love the way the abrupt transition into injury for neil and being able to experience the confusion and not knowing what’s happening with him.

iaquilam - they have posted 2 fics for aftg and they are some of my favourites in this fandom. this has amazing characterization, neil and andrew and everyone feel so real and so true and i love them. a mouthy, raven neil is one of the best types of neil. they write from andrew’s perspective and i cannot believe have well they capture him and his thoughts. quotes that have stuck with me “there’s more than one way of getting what you want”, “’he hurts,’ kevin says. ‘it hurts”, “you will be afraid and you will do it anyway”, and “to keep living. until i don’t”. also i think that andrew with synesthesia in where everything is good fits so perfectly. the idea that andrew has something so unique ahh i love. “your voice was the first blue one i ever saw” makes everything around me go quiet.

@jemejem ​ / jemejem - first of all i am really loving the radio show ficlet that’s being posted on tumblr. i’m a sucker for breakup fics, especially cheating fics (because i need angst) so only was the find of the century. it’s a fic where no matter how many times i’ve read it, i still feel gutted and achy reading it. their recent fic, the sound, was really interesting and i loved the later chapters so much but can’t share because of *spoilers*

undertow - okay so they also only have 2 aftg fics but oh my goodness they are so good. tenuous is one of my most reread fics, i love the concept, interactions between all the characters, how i feel like i’m there with them, and their descriptions. one of my favourite lines are “The sink turns on; water smacks against the bottom of its metallic basin. It feels—well. It just feels.” ugh i don’t know why i like it so much i just do. it fits so perfectly. and i can totally imagine kevin and neil being super petty in their love song writing, this fic is such a contrast to the other one and yet still so good.

@broship-addict ​ / broship_addict - kid!au! oh my goodness ice cream au! ahh they’re so good at writing cute fluff that has such good characterization that they’ve adapted perfectly into whatever au they have written. and at the same time impulse hit me in a different kind of way. what a joy to read, i love witnessing the ways that andrew and neil come together in all of their fics. also i really can’t not mention their amazing artwork. so grateful to have them contributing so much to this fandom

@unkingly / vicariously kingly - bless these fics. i don’t know anyone that doesn’t love a good de-aged neil fic and this really does The Most for that trope. also can i just say that callboy!neil was a thing i didn’t know i needed in my life but now i don’t know how i lived without it. also mermaid!neil?? yes please. i adore the way they write andriel. their fics are angsty and never fail to make me feel something, often a little bit raw in a good way. latchkey child wrecked me. i felt like i had been scraped clean and felt a little bit off for the remaining night and day after. Say Golden, Pony Boy was eerie and just the right amount of mysterious. i was left feeling unsettled in my own home. these fics have delightful endings that leave you satisfied and yet wanting more all the same

@spanglebangle / spanglebangle - i really really cannot get over sunshine and moonlight. it’s such a soft version of neil and andrew’s relationship, i love the direction that was taken and how the boys grew and the changes because they found each other. i love the quote “you like the big gestures and ridiculous things i say. i’m in your head, remember, i know it makes you feel wanted” fox!neil is really so adorable and pure, but also feisty and protective and funny. i would love to see more of this fic. also the elementary au is everything to me. there’s a lot of content and it keeps me interested, but i especially love the later chapters with everything surrounding neil and then even later with andrew wrestling with his feelings. so well written.

@hopingforcoordinates ​ / crazy_like_a - if you haven’t read their fics then ?? i really don’t know what to say since they wrote 3 of the top 5 fics with the most kudos in this fandom. and if you have read their work then we both know why they are being mentioned. i have fallen in love with their take on raven!neil. their writing style feels so simple and natural, which is a real talent. if you’re looking for a more explicit post-canon fic, then lessons is great, just make sure nobody is reading over your shoulder hah

@fuzzballsheltiepants ​ / fuzzballsheltiepants - the iconic a mewment like this series is so funny, sweet, and angsty and features The Cats which is always a good sign. in particular, i loved the conversation about mark rothko and all of the art they looked at in the 6th fic. i don’t know what counts as spoilers so i’ll say thank goodness for neil ‘oblivious’ josten, trivia nights, and the good bad jokes that made this series such an enjoyable read. similarly, you can’t go wrong with the angst that’s sure to come with a fic where andrew gets hurt and doesn’t remember who neil is. or at least, this fic definitely went the opposite of wrong. 

and i really cannot make this post without mentioning the mind-blowing collabs of lolainslackss and moonix to create dating & other disasters and of moonix and gluupor to write No Place Like Home (incomplete). i literally don’t even have words for how excited i was for when i heard of these fics. these collabs are too powerful for this world and if you haven’t read them then i guess you don’t want to enjoy yourself.

as well, additional thanks from this little ace baby to everyone who writes ace!neil or demi!neil. you guys have a special place in my heart.

i tried to find everyone’s tumblr but obviously didn’t succeed. please tag them if i missed them or tagged the wrong account. thanks! i also did not take the time to research pronouns/names so i refer to everyone as ‘they/them’. i know some of the right pronouns/names but it felt wrong to have some of them and not the rest. some of my comments might seem incoherent or repetitive. my apologies for all of this.

also if you go to my ao3 and see that it’s a little bare/notice that i never comment just know that it’s because i am *ultra lazy* and most of the time i cannot be bothered to log into my account. probably commented as raelle instead. or just ‘a’ because i really am That Lazy. or i’m planning on writing an essay for your fic but haven’t gotten around to it and i’m just drafting it in my head every time i reread.

[angelofthequeers]

Hold Me By Both Hands: Chapter 31

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

Chapter 30 | Chapter 32 | AO3 link

“It’s not funny!” Ladybug snaps. Chat Noir just continues to sag against the metal tip at the top of the Eiffel Tower and clutch at his sides. How can he not? The irony of this!

“It’s – it’s hilarious!” he chokes. “Rena and Carapace hate each other but they’re dating!”

“Alright, maybe the dramatic irony is a little funny,” Ladybug concedes after a moment. Yes! Score! “But they have to be able to work together, Chat! I’m planning on having them patrol together, so they can trust each other as partners like we do.”

“Oh, they already trust each other,” Chat Noir says with a devious little grin. He yowls when Ladybug reaches out and flicks his bell into his chin in response. “Hey! Hands off the bell!”

“Why do I put up with you?” Ladybug mumbles. Months ago, a comment like that might have hit Chat deep down, feeding into insecurities, adding to the dark voices telling him that he’s not enough. But between Ladybug’s grounding presence by his side and his friends and the hurricane that is Marinette, her comment just bounces right off and instead makes his grin wider.

“Because I’m irrepawceable,” he says. Ladybug rolls her eyes to high heaven.

“That one wasn’t even good enough to be mediocre,” she says. “If you need to stretch that far, just don’t make the pun.”

“I see how it is,” Chat Noir huffs and flops down to rest his head in Ladybug’s lap. She rolls her eyes again but still starts scratching behind his fake ears, and if he closes his eyes, it’s almost like it’s Marinette scratching him instead.

“How are things with Marinette?” Ladybug says after a moment. “You seem happier lately.”

Chat Noir sighs and purrs, because inviting him to talk about his girlfriend is pretty much the best way to put him straight on cloud nine. “She’s perfect, milady,” he says. “She’s always got cookies for me and cheese buns for Plagg, and she’s so smart and creative, and I could just sit and watch her design for hours because she gets so into it and her tongue does this little blep and just – aaaah, she’s an angel.”

“Always the romantic,” Ladybug says fondly, though there’s an odd little crack in her voice that Chat Noir can’t even begin to decipher. When she digs her fingers into his scalp, he doesn’t want to begin to decipher it.

“She’s even okay with me liking another person at the same time,” Chat Noir says. “So long as I’m open with her about my feelings. And I looked up polyamory the other day and…well, it said that you can’t just jump into a relationship with another person unless you and the first person can stand on your own.”

“That makes sense,” Ladybug says. “One relationship is enough effort. I think it’s a good idea that you and Marinette are focusing on yourselves for now.” She twirls a lock of hair around her fingers, and Chat Noir lets out a particularly loud purr at that. “I’m glad you’re happy, kitty cat. I don’t feel so bad now about telling you that, well…I’ve got a boyfriend.”

Chat Noir’s eyes fly open and he jolts upright. “Really? And you’re only telling me now? I clawght we were purrtners, mewlady.”

“We won’t be if you keep up those awful puns,” Ladybug deadpans. Then she sighs and squares her shoulders. “And…yeah. I can’t tell you who he is – identity reasons and all, since I’m dating him outside the mask – but…he’s so sweet. A little shit at times, yeah, but he’s really thoughtful and I secretly love his sense of humour. Not that he’d let me live it down if I told him that.”

“Aah, milady has her first boyfriend,” Chat Noir says and nudges her. “I hope he knows that he’ll have to answer to me if he hurts you.”

“Trust me, I think he’ll be more afraid of me than you,” Ladybug says. Chat Noir sniffs.

“Fine. Be like that. Even though you’re totally right and you’re scary when you’re pissed. I’d hate to be the guy who hurt Ladybug.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem at all,” Ladybug says with a knowing little smile. Is there an inside joke that he’s missing? “And it’s not like he knows I’m Ladybug. I’m dating him as civilian me, not superhero me.”

“I still stand by my statement,” Chat Noir says. “With or without the mask, only someone as deluded as Hawkmoth would mess with you.”

“Aww, isn’t this cute,” coos a voice. Chat Noir jerks in surprise as Rena Rouge leaps down from the very tip of the Tower and lands in a crouch, her mouth pulled in a teasing little smirk and her eyes glittering behind her orange and white mask.

“You know it’s rude to eavesdrop on private conversations, right?” Ladybug says, raising an eyebrow. Rena Rouge shrugs.

“Maybe you shouldn’t discuss it in the middle of Paris, then.”

“Who’s gonna be up here except annoying, eavesdropping foxes?” Chat Noir says. Rena Rouge rolls her eyes.

“Alright, touché. When’s Shellhead getting here?”

“Carapace is right here.” A dark green shape leaps up to the tiny platform from below, where he’d obviously been scaling the Tower. “No need to be such a bitch, dude.”

“Me, a bitch?” Rena Rouge snorts. “That’s rich.”

“Can we not?” Chat Noir says. “Just sit down and try to get along or Ladybug’ll make you wear the getting-along shirt.”

“Rena wasn’t flirting,” Ladybug says with twitching lips as Rena Rouge and Carapace obediently sit. “She’s just a superhero enthusiast. I’d think Carapace could appreciate that enthusiasm, judging by his friends, especially one in particular. And Carapace was just being loyal, and Rena should admire his dedication to his girlfriend. Done? Done. We’re a team, and I refuse to have you two at each other’s throats because of a misunderstanding.”

“Now, kiss and make up,” Chat Noir grins. Ladybug elbows him in response. Okay, okay, but how could he help that, knowing who Rena Rouge and Carapace are?

“I’d phrase it a different way,” Ladybug says. “Apologise, both of you. My god, when did I turn into the mum friend?”

“Sorry for being a dick,” Carapace finally says, crossing his arms.

“Sorry for getting all bitchy at you,” Rena Rouge says, scowling down at her feet. Ladybug smiles and claps her hands.

“See? All better!” she coos, rather like a preschool teacher. Chat Noir bites down on his lip to keep his laughter at that one way down. “Now, I had a good talk with Rena after the battle, and I think it would be a good idea to implement a rule about personal ties with akumas.”

Chat Noir immediately sees where this is going. “Agreed,” he says. “No fighting an akuma if it’s too personal.”

“But what if it’s a family member?” Rena Rouge says. “I realised about two minutes after Ladybug left me. If I have to sit that one out because it’s too personal, won’t Carapace figure out who I am? And the other way around?”

“Yeah, why did Faux News set Rena Rouge off like that?” Carapace says. Ladybug swears under her breath.

“How unladylike, milady,” Chat Noir grins. Ladybug once again elbows him. Okay, it would probably be a good idea to move himself away from elbowing reach, but that would involve sitting away from his lady, and then he won’t get that affection that he so desperately craves in his very soul.

Honestly, fuck Gabriel Agreste. It’s getting to that point, even if there’s still a twinge of have to be the dutiful son, he’ll be proud if I try hard enough lingering.

“That’s a good point,” Ladybug says.

“About the Faux News thing, it’s because he was plagiarising m – uh, the Ladyblogger,” Rena Rouge says. “And I hate it when people steal other people’s work, especially because Alya puts a shit tonne of work into that thing and she didn’t deserve that. Guess I just…got overly invested.”

There’s newfound respect in Carapace’s eyes as he stares at Rena Rouge, no doubt at her staunch defence of his girlfriend, who unknowingly happens to be her. Dear god, Chat Noir’s going to puke up rainbows in a minute.

“But I think I’ll be okay, Ladybug,” Rena Rouge says. “Dick News caught me by surprise. And if you guys can’t just step back when shit gets personal, it shouldn’t be fair to expect us to back off too.”

“Yeah, it’s called teamwork,” Carapace drawls. Rena Rouge flips him off and mutters something about turtle soup in its own shell.

“Productive team meeting,” Chat Noir grins before Carapace can clock Rena Rouge around the head with his shield. “What’s next on the agenda?”

“Oh!” Rena Rouge jabs a finger at Carapace. “The group chat! Emails, guys, and Shellhead needs to shut his eyes because I have to detransform to get my phone.”

While Carapace dutifully slaps a hand over his goggles, Rena Rouge transforms back into Alya, and Trixx settles in Alya’s bag to munch on a berry, Ladybug fishes a strip of paper out of her yo-yo to hand over. Chat Noir rummages in one of his suit pockets until he finds his burner email address, and Carapace doesn’t even need to look at any kind of note to be able to rattle it off to Alya. Her tongue pokes out of her mouth as she works her magic, although it’s nowhere near as cute as when Marinette bleps, but everything about Marinette is so much cuter than anyone else, so there might just be a bit of bias there –

“– done!” Alya’s voice snaps Chat Noir out of his Marinette daze. “We can’t exactly test it up here, so it’ll have to wait till we’re home, but the invite links I emailed should work once you’ve made your accounts. If not…well, I’ll beat my phone till they do. Trixx, let’s pounce.”

Carapace doesn’t uncover his eyes until Rena Rouge tells him that it’s okay to do so, and there’s a glimmer of respect in her eyes at this action that hadn’t been present before. But she still looks like she wants to shove her flute through his throat, so all’s still right in the world. At least they should trust each other enough to be efficient teammates. Hopefully.

“So, like, any more heroes gonna be joining us?” Carapace says. “Or is it just gonna be us four?”

Chat Noir exchanges a look with Ladybug as they have one of their silent conversations, possible only because of the bond they’ve forged over the past year thanks to Hawkdouche. It’s probably not a good idea to mention the zodiacs; even if Hawkmoth has an inkling that they exist, there’s no sense in giving two newbies too much information. Especially since they’re probably not even going to give out any of the zodiacs unless they absolutely have to do so.

“There are five Miraculouses in your tier,” Ladybug finally says. “Fox, Bee, Turtle, Peacock, and Butterfly. The Peacock and Butterfly were lost ages ago, so they’re not viable. But yes, we’re keeping our eye out for a suitable Bee holder.”

Well, she’s not technically lying. The Peacock was lost ages ago, and it’s not a viable option because it’s still broken and because Gabriel will know that Adrien had been lying about the fake brooch.

“Ladybug and I are in the top tier,” Chat Noir says. “We’re the balance of the universe.” He shoots a grin at Ladybug, who just rolls her eyes.

“We should wrap this up,” Ladybug says. “I, uh…may have some important homework to do that’s due tomorrow.”

“Naughty, milady,” Chat Noir teases. “Leaving your homework to the last minute.”

“If you wanted me to shove you off the Tower, all you had to do was ask,” Ladybug says with a sweet smile. Rena Rouge snorts into her hand.

“As much as this Ladynoir banter is killing me, Ladybug’s got a point,” she says. “I have babysitting responsibilities. Ugh. Damn siblings, existing when I could be spending time with Ladybug.”

“Wow, that sounds like something my girlfriend would say,” Carapace snickers. Chat Noir rolls his eyes at Ladybug when Rena Rouge and Carapace aren’t looking, and Ladybug bites down on her lip to muffle her laughter.

“Check your emails!” is Rena Rouge’s parting comment as she pushes herself to her feet, then starts to bound down the Eiffel Tower. Carapace salutes at Ladybug and Chat Noir and follows her.

“Well,” Chat Noir says as he stands. “That was a fun little get-together. Allow a mangy alley cat to escort you home, milady?”

“Nice try,” Ladybug says, though she does let him help her up. “You won’t get my identity that easily.”

“Fine,” Chat Noir huffs. “I see how it is. You can walk home yourself, then.”

“Fine with me.” Ladybug boops him on the nose, then takes off swinging, calling over her shoulder, “Last one to the school’s a rotten akuma!”

“Hey!” Chat Noir whines and leaps after her. “No fair! You cheater!”

[kingstammers]

I know no-one looks at my tumblr. It’s why i log in so rarely.  I'm trying hard to keep a positive vibe going. It's a conscious decision, because when everything is so overwhelmingly negative, I want to be actively putting positivity out into the world.

Today’s leading to a rant though. Don’t worry. It’s not about Covid, or the app they’re asking us to download on the Island, or how much of a moron Boris is.

Can we talk about the coverage surrounding Adele?

I’m a fan of Adele. I like her. I enjoy her music. I enjoy her sense of humour too. Her Glastonbury set had me in stitches. Am I die hard fan? Nah. Not really. But I’ll willingly admit I think her albums are bangers, and she deserves every plaudit she’s ever won.

So when I woke up this morning, and saw her trending all over social media, I was curious. New album maybe? Maybe she cranked out an EP of topical anthems whilst on lockdown. (Hello from the QUARRENNNTTIIIINNNNEEEEEEE)

Nope. She’s lost weight apparently. Good for her. Her body, her choice. Whatever she’s doing, as long as she feels better about herself, I’m all for…

…But I want to talk about the language people are using around this. And unlike half of the pundits that TV have dragged out of quarantine, I actually have some salient point to make here.

Why has it taken up until now for the media to acknowledge that she’s a beautiful woman? Only after she’s shed half of her body weight with aid of nutritionists and personal trainers. Was she not beautiful before? Please, come at me with your half-baked takes. I’d love to hear why her appearance even matters? Frankly she was releasing classic album, after classic album, Could belt it out like a motherfucker, dominated the charts for the better part of a decade, based solely on the strength of her abilities as a songwriter. On top of all that, she set fire to the rain, Which MAY I REMIND YOU, is made of water. Do you have any idea how hard it is to set fire to water?

Is the narrative here talking about how she’s a capable, confident, successful woman? Nope. Once again, society has reduced someone to their clothing size.

Cards on the table time, I’m a larger guy. Im aware of why this is such a personal thing for me. I struggle a lot with my relationship with my body, and have done for a LONG time. I was skinny as a kid, and shortly after I started high-school, my body shape began to fluctuate wildly. I wasn’t too surprised, the general genetic make-up of the males in my family has been described as ’Stocky’. One person referred to us as ‘A line of blokes genetically bred to be rugby players’. That’s one of the nicer comments, so I’ll take that. The moment I started growing a belly, peoples attitudes instantly changed. I became the butt of a lot of jokes. I rolled with it for a while. Im pretty chill about such things. When you hear a joke often enough though, it starts to plant seeds in your brain.

There were a lot of instances that I won’t talk about. Honestly, If I documented all of them, we’d be here for years. There’s three that really stand out. The first was when I was 13, and three kids held me down and smacked me in the face with a cake. It was hilarious apparently. Watching a fat kid’s face get smashed in, nose bleeding through the icing and sponge.

In The second was 15. I was on a bus. Someone spat in my face, and then wanted to know why I didn’t swallow.

The third was at a house party when I was about 18/19. Someone asked me if fucking me would be like having a go on a bouncy castle. Y’know, cause I’m so big and all...

Thing is, I’m not even that big. I mean, Having had it drilled into me since a kid, I’m aware that by acceptable standards, I’m HUGE, but there are people bigger than me.

I even joke about it on-stage nowadays. I talk about the heckles I get. I almost wear it like a suit of armour. Because if I can get in there first, you can’t fucking use it against me.  

So forgive me when I get angry hearing some interchangeable celebrity reporter on ‘Good Morning Britain’ give his two cents on the subject, like he’s ever had to deal with body image issues. You have NOTHING TO CONTRIBUTE HERE. Fucking Nothing.

So here we are again. It’s drilled into us once again that ultimately you’re only real worth is how you look. You could have arguable the greatest discography of modern music? It doesn’t matter because you just so happen to wear an XL pair of jeans.

Have a little sensitivity folks. When you talk about Adele ‘Waving Goodbye’ to the person she used to be, you’re inherently telling the people like the before picture that they’re not ideal. That they don’t matter unless they she’d a few pounds. You’re reinforcing the reasons they don’t have the confidence to pursue certain activities, or Why they’re single. You’re confirming the world view of every bully that ever got a cheap laugh from the class.

I thought we all agreed a few months ago to #BeKind? Or did that trend vanish the moment the press had some papers to flog? I guarantee you, at least ONE of your friends has been made to feel uncomfortable in their skin. Some of them might even genuinely hate themselves for it.

Try being a little kinder folks. Or don’t. What the fuck do I know? I’m just the kid with a broken nose and a facefull of icing…

[macybeckham7]

Baby Reveal- John Stones

Yn and John have been dating for two years and engaged for a year, they were both over the moon when the next chapter of their book cake by. It was no secret that they have been trying to have a little bundle of joy and as soon as Yn jolted up from bed and started puking, John couldn't help but happy dance instead of soothing his fiancée.

The two of them loved keeping the secret to just the two of them, they both usually came home with something cute. The first thing John came back with was a Manchester City kit with 'Daddy' on the back. It was no lie how much it melted Yn's heart just watching the man she loved gush over the small little kit. They would spend nights in browsing through 'Baby Names' making lists for both genders. Most of the time the two texted each other names they heard when they were out and about.

By their second scan, once they made sure everything was healthy with their little bundle, they decided to start telling the news. By default they told Kyle Walker and Annie because John couldn't hold his tongue in anymore. Their were ALOT of tears and hugs from the four of them. When they got to tell both sides of the family everyone was equally as happy.

As soon as everyone knew Yn found herself sat in the middle of everyone's discussion, whether it was the shape of her bump or if it was too high or low to be a baby girl or boy. She found herself getting billion of questions what kind of food she was craving. John found it hilarious seeing his family making bets which was being lead from his grandfather, putting money which gender is going to be the new family member.

This is why they decided to have a gender reveal party, they left both set of mothers to set everything up in their Manchester home. The only thing the couple did was write the invitations for their friends and made sure they were in ready.

The house was packed with their friends and family, with them all wearing either a blue or pink ribbon around their wrists.

"How are you feeling?" Millie, Pickfords girlfriend questioned as the wags were gushing over her watermelon.

"My feet are swollen and I feel like I'm going to explode any minute" she mentioned.

"So you are gold" Ruby joked.

She rolled her eyes playfully. "I need to get pumpkin out"

"Pumpkin? What do you think you've got cooking?" Annie questioned.

Yn shrugged as she looked at her three friends wrist, two had pink and the other had blue. Her eyes gazed over to Dele and Eric who were close by with them both rocking blue. Harry and Katie had pink, who was talking to her mother and Nan, who no doubt were drooling over the England international had one of each.

John came in her eyeline, her eyes instantly travelled to his wrist but he wasn't wearing on.

"It's pretty fifty-fifty" she commented. "I've heard so much that I honestly don't have a clue" she smiled.

John appeared beside her, he excused them both and walked towards the table with all the ribbons.

"Mum is making us choose before we do the reveal" he spoke calmly. "Do you have a preference?" He questioned.

A small smile appear on her face. "Nope, as long as they have your gold heart and your beautiful eyes then I'm happy"

"And as long as they have your patience and funny sense of humour, I'm happy" he smirked before gently kissing her forehead.

Suddenly she bursted into fits of giggles, holding her belly. "Can you imagine HOW they're accent will be" she laughed.

"They'll have an amazing Sheffield accent" he joked.

She caressed his cheek softly as they got lost in their own little world. They knew that their life was going to change in just a few months with their own little prince or princess and they were both equally as excited. John has always wanted to have a big family and to be starting one with a girl like Yn excited him.

"Guys!" Kyle suddenly appeared placing his hand on Johns shoulder and Yn's aching back. "Annie and Yn's mum is going to kill you both if you don't get your arses in the garden" he smiled.

They looked at each other before Yn took a blue ribbon with John taking a pink.

The three of them walked outside, everyone gathered as the young couple collected themselves behind the massive box that was filled with balloons. Annie seemed to have sorted everyone into two groups on what teams they are on.

"I love you" John whispered.

"I love you too" she whispered back.

They started a count down and they both slowly lifted the box up, as if by slow motion multiple of blue balloons arose. Everyone started cheering as both John and Yn engulfed each other in a hug as they both broke down in tears.

[dailydnp]

"It’s always a dangerous game asking the crowd to get involved in a show..." - Dan and Phil talk new DVD Interactive Introverts

Daniel Howell and Phil Lester, better known as simply Dan and Phil, began life as YouTubers, amassing a huge online following with their zany videos and antics.

With hundreds of millions of views, the pair were soon in demand over the next few years scored a show on Radio 1, presenting gigs and even their own documentary.

At the end of 2015, the pair decided to step out from the camera and went out live with their first stand-up tour. That tour, The Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire, was a big success, and a follow-up was demanded. That arrived this year in the shape of new show Interactive Introverts.

This time, the pair handed over control to their audiences, promising them rants, roasts, battles, stories and more surprises. Now the show has been captured on DVD and is now available in hmv stores and here in hmv's online store.

With the DVD now on shelves, we spoke to the pair about the inspiration behind Interactive Introverts and the perils of audience participation...

Can you talk us through the inspiration for Interactive Introverts?

Dan: "We were thinking like if we were about to both get hit by a meteor and spectacularly cease to exist forever, what would we want to do in this show?"

Phil: "The answer is give the people what they want! It’s not about us or what we want - just giving our audience the best time of their lives."

Dan: "The entire show is about that, but who are the people? Are they all the same? What do they want? Why do they want it? Is it even a good idea to give it to them? All about the relationship between artists/creators and the audiences that violently consume them."

Phil: "And so the idea for our show was birthed! As for the name.. well we’re two introverts who don’t really leave the house or talk to people and here we are handing ourselves to hundreds of thousands of people. Kind of funny and ironic."

Dan: "And catchy."

What did you want to do differently from The Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire run?

Phil: "Our first ever stage show was basically the ultimate celebration of the history of ‘Dan and Phil’ on YouTube. Literally, every word was an inside joke to something and it was insanely over the top and amazing, but for this new show we wanted it to be funny for anyone."

"You can take the jokes and the meaning behind all the parts of the show and apply it to any fandom which is really interesting! My parents understood this one which says a lot."

Dan: "Also we wanted to shake up the style of what we did in the show. Our first one was mainly scripted with a few interactive segments which were always the highlight, but given the name of the show, we knew this one had to be almost entirely controlled by the audience."

"This was awesome as every show was different and reflected back on who was in the room that night, but it was also incredibly fun for us to do a mix of stand up/sketches and improv based on the interesting things the audience wanted from us."

You allowed audience members to input their own questions and polls via your own website, did that ever bring any unexpected results?

Dan: "Every town is totally different, it was hilarious! Turns out most people in the UK and USA just want to laugh at us and for us to suffer for their amusement, but in places like Russia and Manila, they were so kind and wholesome, even when we were literally asking to be roasted."

Phil: "It’s always a dangerous game asking the crowd to get involved in a show, that’s what made it so hilarious though!"

You took the tour to 18 different countries, were there any particular highlights on the run?

Phil: "When you say it like that I suddenly feel really tired. We performed the show 82 times can you believe that?! I loved travelling across the USA in a tour bus, looking out the window at all the strip malls filled with IHOP’s. I had a dank Denny’s ‘breakfast slam’ at 2am in Florida."

Dan: "Phil mainly enjoyed the USA for the breakfasts. I loved going to all the far-out places we’d never been before like New Zealand and Mumbai! The craziest thing is no matter where we went in the world everyone had the same sense of humour and meme references, it’s a small internet after all."

You filmed the DVD in Los Angeles, why did you decide to do it there?

Dan: "The audiences in LA are wild."

Phil: "It’s true! Having performed live there a few times we know it’s always a good crowd and being halfway through our tour we knew we’d be good at performing the show by then."

Dan: "The people in the room in the film are so diverse from all age ranges, including a couple of terrified fathers who were quaking in fear that we’d interact with them. They were so animated though!"

"Our audience close ups in this film aren’t people sitting down politely clapping - we have people standing up and jeering, throwing themselves on the floor laughing and even an ironic dab which we had to highlight in shame."

What are you going to be up to in 2019?

Dan: "That’s a good one! Sleeping."

Phil: "Dan’s gonna be like an angry bear deep in a cave that you should only approach with a sharp stick. We’re both gonna chill after our insane adventure this year then think about some new cool stuff we might try."

Dan: "Everyone knows we both like to try new things whether it’s Radio, writing or even game designing so I think each of us will look within and see what we’re tingling for next."

Have you started planning your next live tour?

Dan: "Yes in 2019, I’m going to do a tour of a remote mountain top that I will fly to and live in solitude."

Phil: "Can I do a tour of places that serve sweet breakfasts? I’ll happily do a show about that."

(link)

[kiruuuuu]

Blitz/Spectre oneshot in which she and Blitz get a little closer. (Rating T, fluff, ~2.5k words) - written for @ruaniamh​! Thank you again for commissioning me and I’m glad you’re happy with this piece ♥♥ You can find out all about Quinn “Spectre” Roach here! My commission info is over here :) 

.

In a – as Spectre finds – deliciously ironic twist of fate, Blitz fails to react to her approaching due to the blinding light of the afternoon sun.

She’s crouched behind the low wall marking the beginning of the bridge’s balustrade and waiting for her next victim: Mira’s heavy boots gave her away earlier and allowed the Canadian to catch her off-guard, and even Smoke’s lighter steps proved insufficient as Spectre swiftly climbed a tree when she caught a glimpse of him nearing her position. She’s keen on racking up a few more ‘kills’, her competitive spirit awakened by Bandit’s boisterous claims of ending up as the winner and nurtured by the crisp October air.

Ultimately, it’s a child’s game they’re playing, a more advanced tag – they were all given a piece of fabric and told to tuck it into their trousers’ waistbands on their backs, a little like a bright red tail now trailing after them and marking them as potential targets. If someone manages to snatch it from someone else for safekeeping, that someone is out and has to return to base and whoever has collected the most pieces at the end wins. Simple enough, though Sledge claimed it’d serve to test their senses and spatial awareness, challenge their manoeuvring skills and showcase how well they work on their own for once. Spectre, however, suspects that the mild temperature and unimpeded sunshine played a not insignificant role in this decision to allow Rainbow to roam the fields outside of the base freely.

In any case, she’s not complaining, instead she relishes the fresh air and warming rays on her skin, has always liked this mixture as it keeps her focused and cheerful whereas the sweltering summer sun often leaves her content yet tired. Proof of this are the four stripes of cloth in her pocket, courtesy of a lot of stalking around and observing carefully. Some of the others declined the opportunity to swarm out in order to find a suitable starting spot away from everyone else, and instead tackled each other head on right outside the gate like children playing football for the very first time, all clumped up and shouting. Spectre managed to grab Maestro’s fabric before he even joined the fray and was already halfway over the hill before he noticed her demonic cackling was directed at him.

Right now, she’s listening to the gurgling of the small stream next to her and to footfalls probably wishing they were quieter. A quick peek lets her catch a glance of fair hair, golden in this light, sharp cheekbones, a compact silhouette – she doesn’t need more than a fraction of a second to be sure of who it is. She’d recognise him by the sound of his laugh, the adorable cow lick on the back of his head, the unusually shaped birth mark on his wrist.

Don’t turn around, she instructs him silently and almost kicks herself for doing so. They might be impressively in tune for most of the time, but they haven’t figured out telepathy yet. Slowly, she creeps around the solid stone railing, follows him as he steps down the river bank, probably to check for anyone below the bridge. Anticipation is making her giddy, she’s looking forward to the dumb expression on his face when he’ll realise what’s happened, and so she makes a mistake, produces a noise, causes him to turn around. But the sun saves her.

In the moment of confusion, the second he blinks and squints, she shoots up and reaches around him to get a hold of her prize, yet the sudden movement makes her lose her footing and crash into the solid body; now they’re both flailing (and was that a squeak from Blitz?), an arm wraps around her waist to regain balance where she has none to give – and the next thing she knows is the horizon tilting and ice cold water enveloping both of them.

.

“Of all the things I wanted to achieve today, a bath in the river was not among them”, Blitz chides jokingly as soon as he’s emerged from the dressing room wearing his spare clothes and a grin which tells Spectre that he doesn’t mind. His hair is sticking up in all twenty cardinal directions simultaneously and she ponders whether to comment on it, eventually deciding against it. She doesn’t want to seem like she’s paying too much attention to his appearance.

“Not like you couldn’t use one”, she shoots back good-naturedly while they make their way towards a well-deserved lunch break.

“What, are you referring to the information retrieval again?”

“You call it intelligence gathering, I call it dumpster diving. Now which of these is a euphemism, hm? Didn’t you have to wade through sewage in Sevilla too?”

“I’ll have you know that both of those missions ended up successful and not everyone can be as limber as you. You probably would’ve climbed along the walls like a spider instead of stepping into that muck.”

Their playful back-and-forth is as familiar as it is comfortable, one of the constants in Spectre’s everyday life she looks forward to the most. Both of them enjoy poking fun at anything and everything, including themselves and each other – which is one of the reasons why they became fast friends. A sunny disposition in their job isn’t that common, usually it entails a much darker, morbid kind of humour. “I definitely wouldn’t have used an entire can of Lynx to get rid of the smell at least. That’s one way to keep the ladies off of you.”

As soon as the comment has left her mouth, she once again feels the impulse to kick herself. Because while Blitz laughs, it sounds oddly hollow to her ears. She shouldn’t have gone there, she knows he’s been wanting someone by his side for a while. She knows he even has someone in mind, overheard Jäger mention it to someone else. Felt strangely betrayed that Blitz would entrust him with this detail and not her, felt a stab of jealousy because who does Blitz call in the early morning after a bad dream? Whom does he send drunk texts which are as illegible as they are hilarious? Not Jäger, that’s for sure. She knows he doesn’t message anyone else, he never does so when they’re out together. She would like to see herself as his best friend but after that she’s had her doubts. If he kept this from her, what else did he keep?

Going down this path is futile and depressing, so she does her best to snap out of it but it takes a few minutes until her smile stops hurting.

A hiss is what finally distracts her mid-chew: “You are a fucking cat, young lady!”

Both she and Blitz snort at Mira’s accusation. “Did she sneak up on you too?”, he asks, amused.

“Please tell me who eliminated you so I can thank them for avenging my honour. You gave me the worst fright I’ve had in a while.”

While Spectre just grins proudly, the German opposite her replies: “More on accident, but we got each other.”

Mira lifts a brow and suddenly, it’s imperative Spectre doesn’t blush so she doesn’t give herself away. All the jokes and questioning glances whenever they playfight or feed each other unhealthy food to create the most disgusting combination are more than enough already. Still. It sounds nice: we got each other. “Is that why you’re looking like a drowned rat?”

“Watch out or you might hit someone in the face with all that charm you’re throwing around”, Spectre grins. Her mauve hair is still damp and probably hanging down sadly, so Mira might not actually be far from the truth – but she finds that she doesn’t mind, no, not at all. She can still feel Blitz’ loose embrace, hears his laughter bubbling up as they dragged themselves out of the stream, shaking the water off like a pair of dogs.

The Spaniard leaves them to their meals, still mock-grumbling, but gets replaced by Jäger immediately. “Can I interrupt you guys for a moment?”, he asks and Spectre idly wonders whether there’ll ever be anything he’d interrupt.

“I don’t know, can you?”, she replies and fights down a giggle when she realises Blitz just uttered exactly the same thing. They exchange a glance and a grin when he lightly kicks her under the table.

For a moment, she’s worried Jäger is going to hurt himself with how dramatically his eyes roll skywards. “Bunch of nerds”, he mutters. “All I wanted to know is whether you’re ready for tomorrow.”

“Of course! Tomorrow is a very special day.”

Blitz’ answer comes so fast that Spectre’s heart skips a beat. Did he – did he remember? She let it slip before, more than half a year ago, didn’t think he paid it any heed, didn’t think he’d care enough. He’s awful with remembering dates, only remembers Sledge’s birthday because it’s the same as his own, and his friends usually remind him of everyone else’s. But could he have -

“Yeah, I know how much you love Halloween.” Jäger earns a nod from Blitz and oh, that’s right. Of course that’s what he means. “You’re coming to Julien’s party too, right, Quinn?”

“Yes”, she replies curtly and contributes no more to the chatter about the Germans’ plans. She’s not hungry anymore.

.

The next afternoon, Spectre is in a rotten mood and hates herself for it. She adores Halloween, even decided to go all out this year and whip up a full-fledged zombie costume, ordered liquid latex for fake injuries, white contact lenses to max out the creepy and went so far as to buy blood capsules. Her plan was to dramatically announce her insatiable hunger for human flesh at some point during the party, and then gurgle crimson – Rook made the mistake of letting everyone know there’d be prizes for the best costumes and she’s determined to make it to the top three.

Well, was determined.

It’s silly and she knows it, yet this changes nothing. She received the usual greetings and best wishes from her family and friends, had Buck and Frost congratulate her inconspicuously, the two shoving candies and other important Canadian foodstuffs they know she misses into her pockets, and it’s how her birthday normally goes. She refuses to make a big deal of it, keeps it secret so people rather worry about enjoying Halloween than to procure impersonal gifts or, even worse, sing for her, and still -

Part of her had hoped she’d be important enough for Blitz to remember, yet she hasn’t even seen him all day. And the fact that this is what brings her down makes her feel even sillier.

No, she’s going to have a good time regardless. It’s not the end of the world. She’s going to freak everyone out by groaning and reaching out when they walk past, she’s going to unsettlingly stare at people and it’s going to be glorious. Rook hates zombies and she’ll have a whale of a time chasing him around his apartment.

Just as she’s made this decision, her doorbell rings unexpectedly.

For some reason, Blitz is holding a mug with the logo of a local wildlife resort in his hand, looking sheepish and apologetic at the same time. “There’s still time before we have to leave for the party, right?” He sounds out of breath, cheeks as red as his ears from the cold and looks adorable.

“Sure, more than an hour. I’m just starting to get ready.” Frowning, Spectre peers into the mug. “Did you bring… compressed dirt? You’re missing a few tentacles for your Davy Jones costume, I’m afraid.”

Blitz just laughs and enters the place where they’ve spent countless hours together, her kicking his ass at her favourite video games, them attempting to bake together, coming down after intense training or when they’ve just returned after a mission. He prefers visiting her, he’s said as much, thinks her flat is more inviting and homely and she secretly agrees. He toes off his shoes, hangs up his jacket and rummages in his pockets for a few more objects before herding her into the living room, taking his usual spot on the couch next to her.

Nothing gets clearer even as he sets the cup on the low coffee table and places an unassuming envelope next to it.

“What are you doing?”

The genuine confusion in her voice seems to amuse him for some reason. “You’re an idiot, Quinn. Did you think I’d forget? Happy birthday.” And with this, he conjures up a small candle and pushes it into the soft mass inside the ceramic. This is when it clicks.

“Is this – a mug cake?” She can’t believe it.

Blitz shrugs with an embarrassed smile. “I’ve destroyed your kitchen often enough that you know how bad I am at baking. This is all I could -”

A hug cuts him off and he seems happy to reciprocate it instead of talking. His strong arms pull her closer, squeeze her reassuringly and her heart sings. She can only imagine how long he must’ve agonised over what to gift her – because she also knows how bad he is at choosing presents. “Thank you”, she whispers and means so much more, but for now it should suffice. Another squeeze. She could get used to this.

And then the quiet, serene atmosphere vanishes as soon as she opens the envelope. Blitz watches her bounce and flail and cheer for a solid minute before he points out: “There are two tickets. I figured you might not want to go alone.”

“Two tickets to fucking Gamescom?”, Spectre squeaks ecstatically.

“And the flights, and a hotel room.” He seems extremely pleased with how excitedly his gift is being accepted – and this is the best thing Spectre could’ve hoped for, it’s the largest video game convention in the entire world. She’ll get to try out upcoming titles herself, collect all the swag, stroll around among like-minded people and this is amazing. “You can take whoever you like.”

In her exhilaration she misses his tone of voice but doesn’t miss his surprised expression when she punches him in the arm. “You hoser, of course you’re coming with me.”

“Really? I – I mean, I can probably be useful since it’s in Germany, so -”

“I wouldn’t want anyone else to go with me even if it was in France, or Canada, or wherever.”

And now she notices his blush still hasn’t disappeared despite his breathing long having calmed down. …maybe the cold wasn’t really its cause. Maybe, just maybe -

“I’d love to go with you”, he says and oh, he’s not really that interested in gaming normally, and he said a hotel room, and maybe, just maybe, he told Jäger instead of her because…

It clicks. And suddenly, she knows with vicious clarity that this is going to be the best birthday of her life. “Elias”, she murmurs and waits until he finally gathers the courage to meet her fond, helpless, hopeful gaze, “do you like me?”

And the bright red colouring Blitz’ face only deepens.

Seems like she won’t be using the blood capsules today after all, not when she’s pretty sure her mouth will be occupied otherwise for the majority of the party.

And only mere minutes later, she starts considering ditching her zombie costume entirely because there’s no doubt they’re going to be late anyway. Now they really, finally, eventually got each other.

[artificialqueens]

Hold Still (Biadore) - Tanawrites

Summary - part of the Summer Lovin’ challenge for the prompt bathing suit. What might have happened if Bianca and Adore were paired up for the swimsuit challenge in season 6.

A/N - I’ve just done another rewatch of my absolute fav season of Drag Race (thanks corona for all the spare time I’ve had) and I’m just honestly obsessed with these two. I couldn’t help but be inspired by some of my favourite of their moments and the idea of them being friends early on!

-

“I want you to pair up with a queen who was not in your original group."  

Now it made sense to Roy the way the production team had carefully arranged them in the workroom that morning. A glance to either side of him was enough to confirm, the lineup was alternating the queens from the two groups and from the expecting grin on RuPaul’s face, it was intended to throw them off.

Some of the pairings made sounds of approval, a few air kisses exchanged and the clasp of hands.

He turned to his right and came face-to-face with one of the younger queens. Not his first choice but it wasn’t really Danny’s fault in particular. Roy was bound to be doubtful of any of the queens he hadn’t worked with yet - it was in his nature to question everybody until he saw for himself what they could do. Especially when his success was relying partly on them as well.

Responding to Danny’s exaggerated look of hesitancy as he stepped closer to affirm them as a team, Roy sideyed Danny. He looked him up and down once before turning back to listen to their rest of their instructions, figuring that would be enough for the cameras. He just hoped it would be used as a foreshadowing in the edit because their unlikely pairing had won them the challenge rather than the alternative.

“…combine bodies to create one lip syncing, bikini wearing bathing beauty.”

Despite Roy’s uncertainty about his partner, he was amused by the challenge. It sure as hell beat trying to look sexy with feathers stuck to Bianca’s lipstick. At least he could bring humour into this.

“Go!”

Once the initial rush of twelve grown men shoving and grabbing for their choice of swimwear, which was about as pleasant as it sounded, Roy took his findings back to his station.

He’d managed to snag a one-piece bathing suit and a sheer cover-up - neither of which he would have had in the suitcases he’d packed, hardly something Bianca would ever perform in. After rifling through one of his bags, he pulled out a floppy hat and large flower that he could pin on his front to hide the fact that he wouldn’t have time to fashion Bianca’s usual chest.

Quick drag was never something he chose to do  - not when he painted Bianca’s face the way he did or with how precise he liked his drag to be. Always tucked neat and tightly, Bianca’s curves cinched and padded to the now familiar figure, never a hair out of place or signature bold makeup smudged.

Before he got started on the transition into Bianca, his eyes sought out another’s from across the room. Once Danny met his gaze, Roy tilted his head slightly in invitation.

“So just based on first impressions, you don’t exactly strike me as a top, queen.”

Before his words could leave a sting, Roy was continuing, gesturing to Danny as he spoke now that he was standing in front of him.

“Plus, we can do a lot more with those legs than my stumps. Work for you?”

Danny nodded, seemingly either too startled or intimidated by Roy’s unquestionable authority to verbally respond. It wasn’t personal, nor intended to be rude on Roy’s behalf. He was used to a time crunch, not usually as pressing as this one but he was a hit the ground running kind of person to begin with.

It seemed though that Danny wasn’t totally acting for the cameras earlier if his current apprehension was anything to go off. Roy wasn’t heartless though, no one should be scared of him, so he dropped his voice a little and relaxed his position from where he had tensed from the urgency of the challenge.

“Great, do what you need to do and meet me back here so we can plan something out? It’s going to take the rest of these bitches that long just to get made up.”

“Party.”

Settling for a roll of his eyes and stubbornly denying the small tug at the corners of his lips at the response, Roy got to work as Danny left his station grinning. It was easier to work together if Danny wasn’t too busy tiptoeing around him, Roy told himself.

Just as Bianca pulled her bangs into the right position and secured them with a pin, Adore was sidling up to her chair, steeled with a new confidence.

“So, I have an idea.”

-

After Danny’s initial panic about working with Roy, the queen already having a reputation for reading their fellow competitors to filth, there came the panic of the challenge.

Adore barely tucked on a good day, let alone well enough to have her crotch on full display.

It was a partner challenge though and after Roy had taken the reins on their team, Danny knew there were expectations for him to meet for someone other than himself now. He only partially understood the reputation proceeding Bianca. She was sharp-tongued there was no doubt about it but who could blame a bitch for being blunt?

He’d approached Roy at Bianca’s station with a hint of hesitancy but walked away optimistic. More importantly, he walked away with a clear head.

Known for being eccentric and impulsive in his behaviour, Danny found it hard to stay focused. Determined, yes but organising all his creative thoughts was something he struggled with. Roy’s assertiveness had allowed Danny to direct his attention without any of the struggle.

Sharing a grin with Laganja in their shared work space, he ignored the way Laganja was trying to catch his gaze. It would no doubt be about his pairing, Laganja whispering in Adore’s ear just yesterday about how scary Bianca seemed after the warning snapped at Gia almost as soon as they’d met. Danny didn’t have the time right now though, almost able to hear seconds ticking away from them before they had to be ready.

Never one to be shy, Danny dropped his pants and reached for his rarely used tape and got to work. He could hear everyone else working in a fluster around him and usually, he would be the kind to be poking his head around and cracking jokes. It was their first challenge as a full group and he wanted to make an impression on Ru and the other queens.

Once he was tucked, tighter than he had been in a long time, he reached for the swimsuit. Danny had grabbed a bright matching bikini and pulled on the bottoms, making sure he looked as flat as he could down there. After a moment of hesitation, he grinned and put the top on as well, covering his flat chest and tugging a crop top on over the top. It wasn’t like anybody was going to see his top half during the challenge but it was very on brand for Adore.

Grateful he’d recently shaved his legs and painted his toes, he slipped his feet into strappy heels that he had to lace a little up his calves. It didn’t totally make sense for a beach but after a glance over at Bianca and her outfit, he decided it matched enough for what he had in mind for their performance.

Grabbing a heart shaped pair of glasses that were left on the table of offerings, Adore grinned and continued on to Bianca’s work space.

“So I have an idea.” She held out the glasses. “And I thought these might save you some time.”

-

Standing next to Adore as they waited for their turn, Bianca laughed at Courtney and Laganja’s rehearsed joke. Once they were motioned for their tone, she took the towels from a member of the pit crew and led their way into the sandpit.

She let Adore lay down first, watching as she shifted around in discomfort. She was expecting it though, having watched a few more pairs go before them.

“Here.” She folded up one of the towels and handed it over to Adore who looked cluelessly up at her. “Use it as a pillow, fuck getting sand in your ass and your hair.”

Once Adore laid back seemingly more comfortably, Bianca moved into position but glanced back before she lowered herself to sit on Adore’s stomach.

“Alright back there?”

“I’m good.”

Bianca nodded and lowered onto her knees, supporting her weight entirely on her legs with her legs spread as wide as she could so Adore had enough room for movement.

“Still good?”

She watched Adore hesitate for a moment before shuffling down a little more and reaching for Bianca’s hips, assuring her hands would be out of the sight for those looking front on.

“For leverage, so I can move my body.”

Adore’s explanation was drawn out in a tone Bianca couldn’t quite put her finger on who it was an impression of but she chuckled nonetheless before taking it as confirmation that they were ready and she could settle the rest of the towels around them. Once she was satisfied they were fitting the illusion, she was nodding that they were ready to start the song.

-

“And the winners of the mini challenge are…Adore and Bianca!”

Bianca let Adore press against her side for their victory shot, her arm raising to wrap around Adore’s shoulders for a quick squeeze as they shared an equally surprised and pleased look.

Their win had come slightly as a shock. They had done well but after watching Courtney’s facial expressions and the man-handling of Laganja’s legs which was hilarious, Bianca’s confidence in her own pairing had lessened. Apparently Bianca’s comedic take on Adore’s burlesque style show with her legs had bumped them over though and she certainly wasn’t complaining.

She wasn’t expecting Adore to return to her station so quickly or with specific ideas for their lip sync. The sunglasses had been a save as well, allowing them an extra five minutes of planning out their performance which was another tick for Adore in Bianca’s mental checklist. Overall, she had been impressed.

Their victory didn’t last long though because soon enough they were separated and picking queens for teams to work against one another as captains for the maxi challenge.

-

“So would you pick from the other team to work with?”

“Bianca.”

Adore didn’t have to think twice before answering the question directed to her once they were in the untucked lounge. She hadn’t gone well in the filming challenge, far too in her own head to concentrate on her lines. She’d bombed the runway as well, getting more critiques than compliments on her look. It had shaken her confidence and she was embarrassed, especially after winning the mini challenge with Bianca earlier that day.

Working with Bianca was a stark contrast than how the group challenge had gone. Having to follow a script had limited Adore’s creative ability and she felt stifled in her group, relying on all of them and none of them all at once.

She had no qualms about repeating her answer when the rest of the group joined them as well, asking what they’d missed out on.

“DeLa asked me who I’d want to work with from the other queens and I said you.”

“Wait, what’s your name again?”

Said with no bite, Adore laughed around her cocktail at Bianca’s response. Most of the other queens looked surprised but Courtney laughed as well, clearly seeing through Bianca’s tone or simply enjoying it enough that she didn’t care if it was said in jest or not.

Adore hadn’t been in good spirits since the runway, trapped in her own thoughts that were desperately battling against the voices in her head that were repeating the judges critiques, her own saying that she wasn’t good enough, the other queens from her group saying her leadership landed in the bottom. The rest of the group, Bianca especially who always seemed to radiate an authority over the room, was a welcome distraction.

“Like yeah she’s a bitch but she’s helpful as well. We killed the rest of you in the mini challenge and even though we’re both really big personalities and I thought we’d clash, it ended up working for us.”

Adore shrugged but she caught the rare smile Bianca sent her way before her expression changed, guarded again against the rest of their competitors.

“I’d choose Adore too if we had to pick someone to work with again.” Bianca pursed her lips before continuing. “I’d make out with her over Courtney again any day.”

After the expected returning quip from Courtney, the conversation shifted and Adore was grateful to take a backseat from the centre of attention. It was the first real challenge, against all the girls and she had disappointed herself. Her mind was racing again, self doubt rising up and forming a lump in her throat.

She had tuned out of the conversation so much so that only the couch dipping beside her as the rest of the queens stood up around her broke her from her thoughts. She mumbled a distracted ‘thanks’ to who was holding the curtain back for everyone before her but faltered when a black nailed hand curled around her arm and pulled her to a stop.

Face to face with Bianca, Adore swallowed thickly and let a small grin curl her lips.

“You trying to make out with me now? Because I don’t really think we have time.”

She was pleased to hear Bianca laugh as Adore referenced her earlier joke, quieter than her usual cackles but it felt even more genuine somehow.

“I just wanted to say not to take it too hard, kid.”

Adore considered arguing back, holding up a stronger front against someone who was supposed to be her competition. Someone who was her biggest competition especially.

It didn’t seem to be worth it though, not when Bianca had already seen straight through her. Not when Adore felt Bianca’s gaze on the side of her face rather than the screen as they watched their teams movies and her jaw was tight as she tried to shield how embarrassed she was on the runway.

“I…thanks Bianca.”

“Come on, let’s go see what these queens pull out their asses. Think Vivacious will attempt a death drop?”

Adore’s laughter followed them down the hallway, Bianca’s arm around her shoulders and her own around Bianca’s slim waist as they walked together and Adore felt lucky. Lucky that she seemed to have a friend, other than Laganja who seemed off and unrecognisable, and lucky that she had seemingly evaded Hurricane Bianca, for whatever reason Adore didn’t dare to question.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Shield Hero 20 - 22 | Sarazanmai 7 - 9 | BSD 32 - 34 | Fruits Basket 8 - 9 | Demon Slayer 8 - 10 | OPM 20 - 21

Shield Hero 20

Motoyasu getting dragged by Filo was funny…not enough to get a proper laugh though. Just a smirk or two.

Stop narrating and just get on with it, Naofumi and friends…!

“I was saying we should fight together all along.” (from Itsuki) – Were you, now…? (skeptical)

Ass-pull! I call “ass-pull” at the power to swallow the phoenix flame! Seriously, when did the dragon get the opportunity to teach Naofumi how to do that???

How did Naofumi not die after losing so much blood…?

What does the Q even stand for in the queen’s name…?

Sarazanmai 7

The seagulls…so fluffy…

For some reason, I expect a fakeout, but then it never arrives…these boys are really connecting…

I found some kappa croquette thingy online, but it referred to a “Shiki City” which probably isn’t in Asakusa…

The shirt…Kazuki’s shirt says “frog” but I get the feeling it also means “return”.

Shirohasu water. It’s Irohasu in Japan.

Was the lyric to Kawausoiya (the otter song) “gonna take ‘em”…?

Nice ET reference, Sara.

Balls…not just sport entendre, but…y’know. The sort of humour I don’t like as much.

Ooh…Keppi is shaping up to be the bad guy. But what plans does he have? Am I speculating too much and is he being framed? Hard to know until next time…

BSD 32

When Kyouka is eating the sundae, she looks like the Tofu Kyouka from Mayoi…hmm.

Can I confess something? Before I saw the illustrations for s2, I thought Louisa’s hair was much darker than what it is in the anime…hmmm, indeed.

I don’t think we were ever told (in the manga or the anime) what Louisa’s wish was…

This bit with Fyodor…I don’t think it was in the manga.

Subarashi-sou is a pun on “it seems wonderful”. That wasn’t in the manga, but it’s a great pun (because it’s right up my alley).

Fitz laughing at the neighbour’s TV wasn’t in the manga either, but that’s just the anime director’s humour peeking through.

“Blalack Daniel’s”, LOL.

Ohh…a quick Google reveals TJ Eckleberg is from the Great Gatsby. In there, he’s an eye doctor, but here, he’s an engineer.

George B Wilson is also from the Great Gatsby…Here be spoilers, but…George dies in his original work too.

Manhasset is a place in New York…I assume it’s connected to the Great Gatsby as well…

Oh yeah! Random Poe moment. That’s in the manga, so Igarashi (or whoever’s responsible for the terrible humour) doesn’t have to fake that bit.

Cue “Objection!” by Fitz, lemme guess. Even if I know the outcome and how it was done, I’d like to have my memory refreshed (by stabbing in the dark…and making an Ace Attorney joke in the process).

I already know, without googling, that Tom Buchanan is part of Great Gatsby as well…

Bank of Amerigo…LOL.

Fruits Basket 8

“If you show up for the banquet now…”

“The banquet sounds just like the folk tale!” Honestly, subbers, proofread…

Haa-kun and Haa-san. No distinguishing between them (aside from honorifics), even though they’re two completely different people.

Hatori’s squinty face was…hilarious, to put it simply.

Oh…I forgot the dance seems to be something the animal of the year does. So if Yuki was 3 years ago, it makes sense Momiji is doing it this year.

Best seat in the house for a sunrise, huh?

Kimetsu no Yaiba 8

I’ve seen Muzan being described as “Demon Michael Jackson” and now I can’t get that out of my head when I see him…sorry.

Tsukihiko, huh? It translates to “moon’s radiance” or something like that. That name is appropriate for a bad guy, isn’t it?

This is the first time I’ve really listened to the OST (aside from the OP and ED), so it’s…really something.

Ooh, I didn’t realise until now, but Ufotable even imitated the paper Jump is printed on with the next-ep previews…

OPM 2 8 (OPM 20)

Er…I haven’t mentioned it for the past few episodes, but Suiryu is hotttttttt. (No? I said that? Okay, next step.) That’s basically the only reason why I’m watching anymore…I can’t seem to find anyone who thinks positively of this tournament arc enough to do reviews of it that I can read, which has made my own opinion of this beloved series go down the drain…Also, if you weren’t aware, my taste lies not in Suiryu’s huge bulk, but rather in the fact he’s got long hair.

Didn’t Suiryu get pierced in the abs??? Where’s the blood coming from his injuries??? Update: He does have injuries there, they’re just not bloody…that’s all.

The main criticism for OPM 2 is the fact that it keeps cutting between different events, so it’s hard to follow. Well, I’ve had worse (see Concrete Revolutio) so that’s why I’m still here.

People say that clothing changes you – say if you put on a new outfit, you feel like a new person. (Of course, that’s all glamorising and praising consumption, but that’s beside the point here.) I think that’s what’s up with Max and Snek.

Shield Hero 21

“…the Shield Hero is worshipped.”

Really? Boob jiggle, at a time like this??? (Context: Malty is getting th slave crest painted on her.)

Wait, was there ever a Shield Church???

Okay, that felt like a real seasonal ending. What the heck is going to happen in the last few episodes, I wonder…?

Sarazanmai 8

Chikai knows the real meaning of YOLO…heh. I’m only kidding…

To be honest, I think I like Toi best out of the main trio. I tend to like the boys in blue…and no, I don’t mean the otter police.

Kazuki’s service provider is “Kappa Phone”, LOL.

When Reo held up the gun, I was yelling, “Enta! Get it for him!” (i.e. take the bullet) I didn’t expect him to actually do it…

…and here I thought tragic yuri was common enough and we don’t have enough Tragic Yaoi Dudes…

Notably, Toi was registered on Enta’s phone as “Kuji”, while Kazuki is registered as “Kazuki” (katakana) on Toi’s.

Shots fired…!

Update: I didn’t notice this, but the evil dude with kamome written behind him (I think it’s in this episode, but it might have been in the last one instead) must be based on a seagull…because that’s what kamome means.

Bungou Stray Dogs 33 (BSD S3 Ep 8)

I think it was around here I stopped reading the scans, because the series was picked up legally anyway…but I can see the death flags for a certain Port Mafia man…one who stands at the top.

As expected…butt shot. Igarashi (or whoever’s responsible for that shot) likes butts, so between this and Sarazanmai…*imagines image of kappa!Kazuki holding a shirikodama* There’s absolutely no buts about it (LOL), there’s no shortage of butts this season.

“To think that the rabbit being hunted would show its face…” – I think it’s hard for you to say that, Akutagawa, when you yourself have no face in that frame…

Why are both Akutagawa and Fyodor Naruto running today???

“So you’re doing this for that woman.”

What is “Mukurotoride”? I don’t seem to remember…maybe I never learnt what it was. Update: Apparently a tower in Dead Apple is called Mukurotoride.

Conspiracy time! This book sounds like Kunikida’s Ability…so imagine if it were under Dazai’s nose the entire time…

Fruits Basket 9

I love how the synopsis for this episode goes, “Kyo fights Yuki, Yuki fights a cold…”

Hatsuharu’s wearing such an ostentatious fluffy jacket…LOL, I love it.

Holy cow (LOL), I forgot how old Hatsuharu is…so that means he’s 15-ish, right?

Come to think of it…I see Fruits Basket characters in Ro Te O, which I started writing at about this time in 2013. The Azrael of that time was a hybrid of Hatsuharu, Ritsu and Ayame, Tetsuya is basically Yuki and Ryou is Kyou…hmm.

Apparently, Shigure had in the 2001 anime a song that went like, “High school girls, high school girls, cute high school girls for me.” So that’s where it was??? (Context: I haven’t seen Fruits Basket 2001, but read the entire manga.)

Kimetsu no Yaiba 9

Recap time, recap time…so the lady’s in the back room and Tanjiro conveniently forgets the man is in the basement…? Wuh?

Moya was complaining about how repetitive this show can get when it comes to the script (i.e. it repeats itself because it doesn’t trust its audience, but I think that’s because this is originally serialised on TV week by week that people may forget if they’re not bingeing, taking notes or following the manga). I’ll talk more about that in my KnY collab post, I guess…

When Yushiro said “watch your back”…he really meant it, huh?

Temari are the balls, but kemari is when you kick the balls.

“…the eyeballs on his hands are creepy.” – LOL.

Shield Hero 22

The ep title just says “Hero Council”…not specifically that there are 4 of them.

My stream’s been buffering more than usual, so I went “like mother, like daughter” before Naofumi did…

It would’ve ben massively funny to hear Melty call Malty either “Trash” or “B****”…especially the last one, because that’s always a fun way to end a sentence (especially for a girl as young as her). Update: She does, but the way she does it isn’t as funny as I thought it would be (and she doesn’t end her sentence with her sister’s new name).

Wait, I thought they got rid of her slave pact??? I thought it was only for the duration of her trial that she needed it for.

L’Arc and that lady seem like they’re foreshadowing for later…hmm. Update: The next-episode synopsis says “yes”. So does that new visual.

Sarazanmai 9

I can’t believe this show’s almost over…That means I gotta get a move on with RobiHachi, but to be honest? Non-anime things are probably going to kep me busy until…a few days from now. So I’ll get RobiHachi watched then.

Characetrs are dying en masse in this episode, aren’t they??? I saw a spoiler that (well, SPOILER) Chikai’s gonna die, but I don’t know about Enta or Keppi…Update: To be honest, I thought Chikai was going to become the next monster – a gun monster, perhaps. Maybe now that I’ve finished the episode, he’ll become a real zombie. (Hey, see what I did there with the bolding…? How’s that for hiding spoilers, eh???)

Oh yeah…I forgot Enta’s sister was Kazuki’s teacher…

There was a sign behind Masa that said”Hinode Asakusa” – “hi no de” meaning roughly “under the sun” or “leaving the sun”.

Tokarev…? The gun? Gun monster, maybe? Is this a critique of the American gun…(exaggerated voice) Nah, can’t be…this is Japanese.

Lionel…Lionel…for some reason, that name in relation to soccer seems familiar...I just can’t put my finger on who it reminds me of, though. Update: Is it, perhaps, Messi…? Yes, I think that’s the guy I was thinking of…!

Aw…I’m not crying, you are…But these words were running through my head before Toi chucked the bag of money away and yelled, “F***!”: “Everything I do, I do it for you.” Isn’t that cute…?

Bungou Stray Dogs 34

“…one by one?” Junban means “sequentially”, so I don’t see why you have to use the phrase “one by one”. Or “one at a time” would also work.

Hardbank…to contrast Softbank (a phone company in Japan).

Face-stealing aliens strike again…(re: Atsushi)

Oh flip. This reminds me of my Kunikida fic…yeah, I bet you don’t remember it.

Hey, this dude! Apparently he’s from one of Kunikida’s stories. I really am approaching the end of what I know of canon…*gulp* Update: Oops, we already passed that part…

I wonder if the real Fyodor could play cello…? Or is this just a thing to make him ominous and villanous…?

The cross on the wall behind Kunikida…makes this show more like Eva than Kekkai Sensen…exquisite. Absolutely exquisite, isn’t it?

Another cool cross, behind Tanizaki!

What’s a tatamigatana? Also, I didn’t know other people could be synchronised using Doppo Poet and Ranpo’s deduction…

Does Kouyou mean (by “the one I most despise”)…Chuuya? Or herself? It’s definitely not Ace.

Kimetsu no Yaiba 10

Headpats for Yushiro as well! Headpats for everyone!

There’s a lot of Tanjiro being terrified in this episode…

Wait…Kizuki? I thought they were the 12 Moons? (Well, “tsuki” means “moon”, but then what’s the “ki”?) Update: The “ki” means “demon”, so the Kizuki are the 12 Demon Moons.

Being alone with the body…that’s always a scary thought in murder mysteries…for the people who dissect them to determine the cause of death, that is.

Considering the name of the episode is “Together Forever”…nup, I don’t see Nezuko and Tanjiro separating anytime soon…

The Kasugai crow is what happens when you can’t turn off your Google Assistant…or GPS…or Siri.

If Tanjiro knows the name of his crow, how do the crows get their names? Do their trainers (is that the right term for a crow breeder in this case…?) give them names?

OPM S2 Ep 9 (Ep 21)

LOL, that one shot of the ants…JC Staff really don’t care about this series, do they…?

I kinda forgot about Genos after a bit more than a week…sorry, I was watching other anime in between. (More than usual, at least. I started playing Chibi Tamago – a forum game for AniList where you collect badges for watching anime - that’s why.)

Did he (Pri-Pri Prisoner)…store his phone in his butt…?

[robotslenderman]

Non-spoilery pre-release thoughts.

OK so I haven’t finished my 10 hours of Andromeda yet, but I’ve gotten as far as the trial allows me for the main story and I’ve got like one hour left of pre-release play anyway.

For those on the tag/those who missed my earlier post, I ended up getting Origin access just for the trial because the “OMG ANDROMEDA IS GOING TO BE AWFUL AND BIOWARE IS RUINED FOREVER” talk was really starting to get to me after I saw the bad face animations. Didn’t want to wait a week because I’ve been excited for Andromeda ever since before ME3′s DLC came out. While I was super hyped and had high hopes, at the same time, I thought I had fairly realistic expectations (”Yeah Bioware’s not perfect this isn’t a bad thing” instead of the “OH GOD I’M NOT GONNA BUY THIS GAME BECAUSE BIOWARE KICKS PUPPIES” bullshit I was seeing around) but… yeah.

It was really getting to me.

So here’s some dot points, no spoilers, under the cut. This covers character creator, face animations, world exploration, and narrative, without any spoilers. Any possible spoilers are referred to so vaguely you’ll have no chance of putting anything together, so don’t worry.

I also have a bit at the bottom covering things I really like about this game.

TL;DR – Guys. It’s fine, it’s okay, it really is. Chill. These issues exist, but they’re tiny ass things you’ll barely notice, like in every other game ever. You’ll love Andromeda, you really will. Yeah, it is DA:I in Space, but it’s also not – it’s DA:I in space, but better.

Honestly, these issues are fucking terrifying when you’re hyped up and can’t see the game for yourself yet and everyone’s nitpicking about these dumbass tiny things like they’re Huge Fucking Issues, but when you do play you won’t run into them nearly as often as people made you think, and when you do see them you’ll shrug and move on and forget about them ten seconds later, like you do about 99% of glitches you run into in other games. 

You’re not gonna hate the game just because Jallo’s legs clip into his seat or Addison stared at you way more blankly than any other character or something, for fuck’s sake.

Character Creator – I had a heart attack with the character creator at first because I thought that all I could do was select premade Sheps Ryders and had heard as such, but it turns out the option to customise those premade Ryders was up the top and not easily spottable. Whew! People are right that it’d be great if we could choose separate eyebrows/etc like in DA:I instead of having to choose a custom Ryder and then fiddle with proportions and so on – you can’t just choose “eye shape 1, eye shape 2″, etc. 

But really? It’s actually no big deal. I was super afraid of this as well, but when actually faced with it in-game I was like “oh, okay, that sucks” and then forgot about it thirty seconds later. It’s okay, guys, really!

Bad face animations – Honestly, I totally forgot the animations were supposed to be bad. Yeah, they’re not great, but nine times out of ten I didn’t notice them until I went, “oh, hang on, aren’t the face animations supposed to be bad?” and actually paid better attention. 

Then it was like, “Oh, yeah, they do seem to have a bit of a vacant stare.”

Then I forgot about them three seconds later and kept playing. No big deal.

The other one time out of ten the bad face animation really shows and… it’s not a big deal either. Like, yeah, it’d be great if they didn’t exist and Bioware please fix them, but when I did run into them, I didn’t become a huge angry beast foaming at the mouth because the whole game was ruined. Actually, I thought they were fucking hilarious. 

And then after the conversation I forgot about it again. No big deal. Seriously. Chill.

There’s a clip I saw of default Sara having a HUGELY blank face but when I ran into that bit in-game Sara didn’t have that expression at all?? It may be because I made a custom Sara, or maybe Bioware sneakily fixed it before I played, I don’t know, but Sara didn’t have that :^) expression I had seen in that exact scene on youtube.

World exploration – “ME:A is DA:I in space!” shrieks the masses, their faces melting from the neurochemical implosion happening inside their skulls. “THIS IS A BAD THING.”

Uh

No it’s not

ME1 had exploration. ME:A’s is way more interesting.

(But I also thought exploration in ME1 was interesting except for the sidequest bits, because I’m the kind of person who loved to drive around on the mako doing nothing but finding spooky shit and then got growly when I wound up in yet another premade husk-infested mine. But I loved just being on Luna and stopping the Mako as I fiddled with something on my desk, and then suddenly hearing those whale-like sounds in space, googling it, finding out those calls were rachni, and running into them again by accident on other planets… I love that. I’m addicted to that. Running into tiny little things like that.)

Yeah the worlds are huge but uh you’re in a Nomad which goes up to 120KMH, it better be fucking huge. You won’t give a shit how big the world is because you’re zooming past it thinking about how cool the Nomad is and laughing your ass off when Ryder goes “~oops~” every time you run over a space desert bug.

(The Nomad is really, really cool.)

Like seriously though, one thing I didn’t like about ME2 and ME3 was that sidequests got narrowed down more and more until you were basically a rat following a preset path in a maze. ME:A breaks away from this. You get to choose what to do next, you don’t go into a special area for one quest and get stuck there until you’ve played it out.

Granted, if you genuinely didn’t exploration in DA:I then I don’t have good news, it is a lot like DA:I so far. It’s too early in-game to be able to tell if it had the same issues DA:I exploration had 

(”everyone put all the sidequests in the Hinterlands!!“ 

“uh. bossman. bosslady. bossperson.”

“yes?”

“other zones exist?”

“they do?? FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.”) 

but I’m gonna trust Bioware and while I might end up being wrong, until I see otherwise, I’m just gonna have faith that they evened out sidequests a bit between worlds. I mean, people were Yelling about it non-stop and Bioware’s actually really good at listening to people. stop giving them shit for this, they do listen.

(But honestly reason #1 and #2 I loved DA:I exploration stuff, is #1, exploration always came with lore even when there weren’t sidequests attached such as at landmarks [sadly, ME:A doesn’t seem to have that with it so far, but I’m hoping that changes later in the game], and #2 I loved stimming by just running around looking at pretty shit and also knocking down collection quests. That’s just me, though, I never got bored doing that and found it soothing just being in the world.)

Narrative – OK, so every review site I’ve seen so far says there’s not enough story and I’m genuinely ???? over this because there is way more narrative/squadmate banter in this than any ME or DA game so far, wtf?? Yes, way more than DA:I! 

Like right up to the first planet exploration, it was almost non-stop story, and the bits in between cutscenes were filled to the brim with Liam chatting in my ear and reacting to the world, reacting to Ryder’s actions, making suggestions or adding his thoughts. Radio silence didn’t dominate like in the previous ME games.

IDK why one of the review sites was complaining about people making big deal out of the floating rocks in one world, that was actually hilarious in context and only got funnier??? I guess that writer didn’t have a sense of humour.

On Eos, the first planet that opens up after the prologue/first chapter of story finishes, cutscenes and so on definitely wind down as the game opens up player freedom more. But that’s a good thing so why are people complaining??? every game has a cutscene-intensive beginning, then that winds down as players stop being funnelled through a preset path and get to do what the hell they want. There’s drama, then there’s a breather, and then the drama ramps up again, it’s a cycle that’s common to every good story and game.  And like I said before, you hear way more from squadmates if you decide to wander around after sidequests instead of the main story.

One thing that’s brilliant about this is in most Bioware games, squadmates and companions almost completely ignore sidequests. There’d be token comments and Solas (Silently) Disapproves or Garrus picking a fight because Do It His Way Dammit Shepard, but that’d be it, it’d almost be like the companions weren’t aware that sidequests exists. ME:A so far seems to have fixed this in that squadmates are obviously engaged and invested in the sidequests. I was following a sidequest that involved scanning things lost underneath sand to solve a mystery, and it felt like the companions had something to say at each step of the way – including verbally cringing when a crucial piece of evidence went and chucked a huge fucking wrench into this small storyline. It was great, it really felt like I was travelling with people, for the first time, and not just walking guns.

Also, Bioware is as good as ever at punching you in the Feels. I am not joking. There’s a crucial scene in the first chapter that literally made me cry, it punched me in the Feels that much, and just remembering it is tearing me up fuck fuck fuuuuuck Bioware whY??? FUCK ME OH MY GOD

Interface – Honestly the interface is the biggest bugbear but, again, not a big deal. It’s annoying that I can’t just open and close the map, I have to close the map then close the “esc” options. I hope they fix it, but if they don’t, don’t care. 

There’s also the loadout screen that tripped me up – in ME1-3, you get the loadout screen, then the squad screen. But much like CC, you might miss the squad selection screen because the “select squad” button is in the loadout screen, at the top of the screen, and not easily spotted the first time around. 

You also might get tripped up because you don’t ever have to change squadmates; you load squadmates, and then you have the option of never seeing the “select squadmates” screen again if you don’t want to. I guess this is Bioware’s solution to “everyone always takes the same two companions everywhere” thing that made choosing squadmates kinda redundant. 

But I got tripped up here ‘cause I recruited Vetra, went onto Eos, and… wait, where’s the squadmate selection screen?? why is Cora and Liam there??? I want Vetra??? Went back onto the ship, came back out, nope??? wasn’t until the third try that I saw the little people icon above my guns in the loadout screen, clicked it, “Oooh, there it is!”

Honestly, all Bioware’d have to do to fix that is make the button ping or glow subtly or something to just grab your attention. Once the game “trains” you to check the top of the screen for extra categories, you won’t even notice this any more.

Even though I’m talking about things from a “what’s the big deal” perspective I somehow still make this game look bad, so I’m gonna make it look as good as I actually see it as here:

Overall, things I am loving about this game so far:

The Companions/Characters – 

In summary, every character so far has either hinted or outright shown that they’re multifaceted and that they’re… people. Like human beings IRL, there’s who they are in company, and there’s who they are in private, who they are when shit hits the fan. Every character so far has shown shades of this – except for Drack and Peebee, and that’s only because you’ve only just met them before the trial stops letting you proceed through the story, and I have full confidence they’ll both show to be more than they seem to be, too.

I was fully prepared to be bored by the human companions. I’m not. I love Liam. I love Cora. Liam’s super witty and playful, and as far from boring as you can get. He is no Kaidan 2.0, let me tell you. I had no intentions at all of romancing him but… well, I haven’t decided who I’m going to romance for certain yet, but he’s definitely found a place on the list now. He’s awesome! Even if I don’t romance him, he’ll definitely be my Ryder’s canon best friend.

Cora’s also great. She makes me think of a Mom Friend even though she’s not really Mom-like. She doesn’t fuss or anything. But she is encouraging of Ryder, and is also interesting in that she appears to think a certain way but then the face she puts on cracks a bit and you can see that there’s more to her than there appears to be, and that maybe she isn’t as well put together as she seems to be. She makes me think of Dorian, actually, in that respect – except while Dorian screams “HA HA HA I’M ONLY PRETENDING TO KNOW WHAT I’M DOING I DON’T, ACTUALLY”, Cora’s so subtle that you won’t notice the difference between who she is and who she tries to be until the facade cracks. (I also wanna romance her too, oops, I wanna romance everyone who do I romance shit shit shiiiiit)

Vetra is fucking incredible, holy shit. You know how Garrus liked to pretend to be a smooth motherfucker but it was totally see-through and he was a total dork? Well, Vetra is who Garrus wished he was. I have never seen a character portrayed as this smooth and subversive without being a slimeball, but Vetra’s wonderful, charismatic and so damn smooth that she kind of pulls something and you won’t even notice until she’s like “uh, yeah, so it looks like I totally Did The Thing…” and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, she did do The Thing, didn’t she?” because she pulled it off right in front of you so casually you didn’t think about it twice.

Peebee and Drack have both been met but the trial doesn’t go far enough in the story to let you recruit them. For those who follow me, Peebee is as Space!Liriel-y as I thought she was, minus Liriel’s Fight Me. Peebee does what the fuck she wants and is totally casual, but not at all crude or mean. She’s so cute. Drack, in comparison – only met him in one scene, so far he seems typically krogan, so I don’t know what he’s like beneath that mask.

Jaal I have not even seen a sign of yet. No signs of any angara yet.

Alec Ryder is lovely. He’s a total badass. I was expecting him to be this super tough anal frowny Military Father Who Disapproves but… he’s not. He’s great fun, he’s badass, and yeah, he could’ve been a better father, but it’s not a “RYDER HAD A FUCKED UP CHILDHOOD” kind of way, it’s in a “yeah I should tell my kids I love them” kind of way that… every good parent ever has, really. He’s also shown huge signs of having hidden depths, too, and it looks like exploring these will be a major part of a subplot – if it doesn’t wind up tied into the main plot itself.

SAM has some spoilery things that ping me as there being more to this AI than meets the eye, and I really look forward to getting to know them.

Jallo (Kallo? Fuck), Suvi, Lexi, Gil, etc – They seem awesome so far, looking forward to getting to know them better, too!

Nakmor Kesh – Special shoutout to this lady krogan who’s a fucking engineer! Holy shit.

The Other Stuff – 

I am still upset and emotionally scarred by That One Scene. You’ll know it when you see it. oh god. oh gooooooddd.

The characters being better than in previous games only makes the story more engaging. They have way more to say, way more reactions.

Bioware commented once that ME:A’s cast was way more inexperienced than the trilogy’s cast. Without spoiling, at first, Ryder seems to be the only one self conscious about their inexperience, thinking everyone else knows what they're doing. Then it becomes evident that, no, everyone is making it up as they go along, they’re either better at covering it up or they’re giving up on bothering with that. It’s fantastic, it really reinforces the overall theme and atmosphere of the main story – which is “we tried to settle in Andromeda but oops shit went wrong, what the fuck do we do??”

FAST TRAVEL!!

THE NOMAD.

SAAAAAAAAAAAAM.

The overall atmosphere. The characters, the story, the design stuff – all of it supports that atmosphere of “oh shit what next” when Things Go Wrong. It really reinforces Ryder’s own arc of growing into a leadership role. Because when shit goes wrong, it’s Ryder who steps forward. Even though you have the option (much like every NPC ever) of going “FUCK WHAT NEXT” out of sheer panic. Or you can play it cool and pretend you know what you’re doing, like everyone else before Things Went Wrong.

Overall, I can’t wait to get to know the characters better. I adore Alec especially. I am gonna wind up being a huge Alec fangirl, I just know it.

I’m loving this game. I can’t wait until the full game is released. Zero regrets about preordering, all my fears have been laid to rest.

It’s gonna be awesome.

[mindofamaka]

So, it’s basically independence day. This day probably solicits a wide range of responses from people, from absolute joy (because, public holiday and whatnot) to numbness. Some may have probably lost all motivation and hope for this country, due to the hardships they have faced in it.

  I’m still quite young, and have been blessed, with God providing me with avenues for my most basic needs and comforts to be met. However, I know that my country Nigeria is flawed. We’re far from perfect, and have a lot of things to get right, starting from our electricity supply.

  Imagine Nigeria with 24/7 electricity and all the possibilities! Imagine a Nigeria with every road and path clean, with designated paths for pedestrians and cars/motorcycles in every place. A Nigeria where efficiency and effectiveness is the order of the day. A Nigeria where key issues are brought to life instead of festering, taking life from those who wither away in silence. Hopefully, Nigeria will become better one day. I just hope that one day is sooner than later, especially with the 24/7 light concept.

  I like Nigeria. I’m not just saying this because It’s Independence Day. I don’t know where this strong like came from, but it has influenced many things. My Wattpad username is even ProudlyNigerian – I created the account on October 3, 2011. I can guess why I chose that username.

  I could’ve been born an East African girl (and be raved about on a Kendrick Lamar track, while having hips for days), or I could’ve been Sudanese, Zimbabwean or even Ghanian. However, God made me Nigerian. This is all part of his greater plan for me, which I am yet to figure out. I love our food, especially jollof rice, more specifically, party jollof rice. Other favourites of mine are soups – Peppersoup, Egusi, Vegetable, Okro, Banga etc. I love our tribes and languages, especially the attire associated with said tribes! Don’t even get me started on Nigerian weddings!

It fills my heart with a great pride when I see cultural dances going on. I love our slangs, and most especially the influence we have. I’d say that Nigerians have a magic touch. Some of us have such a strong ability to influence, and wherever we go, we inspire and make our mark!

So, in the theme of Nigerian pride, I’d love to share some of my admired Nigerian creatives! I didn’t want to do a typical post, as it’s already cliche enough I’m making a Nigerian pride post on Independence Day.

So, Why Creatives?

I chose to flaunt our creatives because well, we all know the prevalent mentality a lot of African parents have. A joke was once said that as an African, you can either be a doctor, lawyer, engineer or disgrace to the family. It’s funny, but a sad reality for some.

Some creatives can’t bloom, as there is no room for expression! And so they go, forcing themselves into moulds created for them by the people around them, living unfulfilled lives, with talents wasted. Creatives can also be affected especially when people around them don’t believe in their vision and goals, when people don’t take them seriously for the unconventional path they have chosen to take. Some, like Asiyami Gold, even get disowned by their family members. Granted, some pursue their creative endeavours while also keeping the conventional stuff in place, and that is also okay!

These people are honestly so amazing, with wonderful minds and ideas. They’ve also influenced me one way or the other, and I am rooting for them constantly! You may know most of them, but also this is a chance to find some new faces!

Ifeoma Amadi (@thesvnflower) – Draped in Basics

I can’t even deny it. There’s just something about Ifeoma. I don’t know why, but I can’t stop bringing her up! She inspires me so much, from her blog posts, gorgeous photos, thrift finds, to her Instagram and everything associated with it. She had such a unique style of doing things, she knows what she is doing, and she is definitely going somewhere.

I just hope I don’t get too obsessed, because sometimes this might result in copying, but honestly, she’s a babe! I’ll never regret finding her blog, never! I think she even inspired me to give blogging another shot!

Maryam Salam – Fashion By Daisy

I only discovered Maryam recently. Prior to the discovery, I’d simply been participating in her project. Maryam is the founder of The Blogger Point, a Nigerian blogger agency – the first one in Nigeria, If I may add. She is seriously quite innovative and business minded. Her blog is one you can go to in search of knowledge on blogging or business. She also has really nice outfit posts, and an absolutely gorgeous skin tone. 

  I’m quite excited, because I won a free 1 week blog consultation from her which she offered here! I hope to make the most of the opportunity, and that a lot of good will come out from this consultation. I’m ready to get my A-game on when it comes to my blog!

Asiyami Gold

Asiyami is honestly so awesome! She has established herself, and is only going higher! I am so proud to be Nigerian when I see creatives like her. I love her dressing, her face, her photography, and especially her Instagram feed. She takes us all around the world with her, getting such good shots of spots. She’s really had a rough time getting to where she is now, and so she deserves all the very best!

Yagazie Emezi 

Yagazie is an amazing photographer with a quirky personality. Talent and creativity clearly run in her family, because her sister Akwaeke is also an awesome writer.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I can’t call Chimamanda my favourite author. This is because I have read just 3 of her works – Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah. However, I will say she is amazing.

She has made a name for herself, and that is something I want when it comes to writing. Her writing is so deep, and she tells complex stories of complex lives and complex people. That is writing goals! 

Lola Shoneyin

I don’t know much about her, but what I know is that she writes really well! She authored the book ‘The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives’, which is honestly a must read. The storyline and the characters are such a mess, it makes for a great read!

The way she brings her characters to life, is something I really admire. She was also quite detailed and hilarious in the book. Just check it out, thank me later.

Emma OhMaGod

This guy is just way too creative! I love how he remixes songs and puts his special touches on them! You should seriously check him out!

Now, we’re getting to an interesting part of this post. The following people have seriously influenced me when it comes to cracking jokes. I’ve always had a strange sense of humour, and it’s always been shaped by social media. Did you know, I run a meme account called African Memes? Anyway, I have such a strong love for them, and will always be rooting for them! 

Samuel Ndubuisi Okafor 

Sam Okafor, who used to be known as @samtakesoff, one of the most popular Vine users, will always have a special place in my heart. He is hands down the face of ‘african parent’ jokes, most especially ‘african dad’. He made such a great impression on us, and left me dying from laughter so many times. His posts were hilarious, and I will always have his facial reaction photos stashed away for the right moments.

I loved his videos so much. He’s a great dancer, and also makes good songs. If I could, I would honestly marry him lol (he’s engaged o, to a beautiful black queen known as Sao @withlovesao)! I remember when he had a meet up in the UK or so, and hundreds of people showed up! Honestly though, I would love to meet him at least once in real life! Unfortunately, he ‘retired’ from the comedy life, choosing to focus on his music. He also lost his mum, a very sad event. I will always root for you Sam!

  Tolulope Ogunmefun

Which Nigerian doesn’t know of Don’t Jealous Me AKA Tolulope Ogunmefun? I discovered him from his ‘magdonna’ video, and he has seriously blown since then! What don’t I love about him? He is funny, and his short clips on IG are hilarious. We have watched him grow so much, including becoming a married man and soon to be a father! More life!

Of course, there are many other Nigerian comedians such as the all too famous Dr Craze (Craze Clown), Wofai Fada, Comedian Ebiye, Maraji, African Ape, Klinton Cod, how can I forget The Real Femi? There’s just so much talent! Take all my MB!

Speaking of take all my MB, I am not an avid Youtube patroniser, but when I do, these are people I can turn to for interesting content. And look at God! They’re Nigerian!

Jackie Aina

Finding out she was Nigerian was honestly one of the most amazing things. Jackie has really built a brand out of her name and Youtube channel, and I love her for that.

Her videos (the few I’ve watched) are fascinating, and she’s just hilarious! 

Dimma Umeh 

Yes, we all love Dimma, who used to be known as That Igbo Chick. I’m not really a makeup tutorial person except for where I’m feeling like learning something new, or researching on something. I love her ‘Dimma Living‘ Vlogs. I also like how she’s in Nigeria, and she’s just so authentic. Go girl!

Uche Natori

Uche is a makeup Youtuber based in the UK! Found her by accident, really, but she’s awesome. I just love her face, she’s quite beautiful. I also like her makeup looks, and she’s definitely one you should watch out for!

Toni Olaoye

I like Toni’s makeup videos, and her intros are bomb tbh. She’s based in Canada, and I like watching her flourish as a Youtuber.

There’s many more Nigerians who are poppin’ on Youtube such as Grace Ajilore, Omabelle, Patricia Bright, Adanna of AdannaDavid, Ronke Raji, Jennie Jenkins, Shirley B. Eniang… need I go on? Nigerians are honestly everywhere, and we definitely make our mark wherever we go.

I think a shoutout needs to go to Yemisi Abraham, most popularly known as Serra Bellum.

Her feed is bomb, okay? I don’t even know what she does for a living or whatever, but her feed is bomb! It takes work to maintain such a feed. 

Of course, I can’t just conclude this post without throwing some light on some gems! This section is dedicated to up and coming Nigerian blogs who are amazing. and totally need more people to see their amazing-ness! I may not know them personally, but there’s nothing wrong with giving other people shoutouts

  Bunie – She Fancys That

Bunie will always have a special place in my heart, because she is the first blogger I’ve met in real life! The other ones, I simply interact with from my computer. My first impression of her was that she was this energetic, bubbly person. She’s one to definitely look out for.

Bukola Jayeoba – The Naija Brides Outlet (TNBO)

TNBO, authored by Bukola Jayeoba, is a blog I honestly found by accident. The way I found this blog also shows just how beneficial the WordPress reader is. I can search a tag, and then boom some blog posts pop up! It was through one of such searches, that I found this blog. At the time I found it, she was writing posts expressing all the challenges faced during the planning of a Nigerian wedding.

I read all the way until now, where she has transitioned from planning a wedding, to actually living married life. I love the way she writes, and can honestly see her concept becoming as big as Bella Naija. She should even be featured there! I’m not married or even planning a wedding, and I won’t be for a long while, but I love her posts so much!

Want to get on a faster track to that ‘thaty billion for the account’? Check out Saving with OJ. Want to know how one can slay while being saved and secured? Check out Saved, Secured & Slaying. Want to know how stressful Nigerian weddings are to plan/relive your memories planning or participating in one? Check out The Naija Brides Outlet.

  There’s also other awesome people who are not so new, but also up and coming. These include The Blackk Beauty, Joyce Daniels, Uzzymami, Girl Eccentric, Diary of a 20 Something & Spoken Voicelessness.

Lastly, I know an awesome chick you totally need to check out! Her name is Amaka, and she is the author at Mind of Amaka! She’s a bit of a mess though, and is still trying to figure out her style, as documented here and here.

That’s right, I’m shamelessly advertising myself on my own blog, in my own blog post. What are you going to do about it? That’s right, nothing! *Hiss* Now, why don’t you check out my other pieces eh? Don’t just #BuyNigerian, #ReadNigerian too! Lol!

Recap: Nigeria So Far

Suleja Prison Visit: Lessons Learned

#BuyNigerian or Nah?

How Fake Foundation Taught me to Speak Up

God bless Nigeria, Happy Independence Day!

What is your favourite part of being Nigerian? For non-Nigerians, what do you love most about Nigeria/Nigerians?

Nigerian Pride: An Ode to Nigerian Creatives So, it’s basically independence day. This day probably solicits a wide range of responses from people, from absolute joy (because, public holiday and whatnot) to numbness.