#there’s also a few points i’m keeping track of that i left out eg name meanings jakurai being vague about his reason for contacting kikoku | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

deejadabbles · 3 years

Text

A Thousand Songs (Atem/Yami x Reader)

Chapter Five: Hello, My Old Heart

One /// Two /// Three /// Four /// Five /// (Six coming soon) ///

Summary: You knew that you and your band could make it big. Not only that, but stay together while doing it; the five of you were family, after all. The only problem was that despite all your musical talents...none of you were particularly good at lyrics. After years of struggling to put out your first full album, the solution finally made himself know in chance meeting on an empty stage.

Rock Band AU, Atem x Reader, gender neutral reader.

You could visibly see the poor young man swallowing hard as he settled in the seat across from you and the rest of your bandmates. Try as you might to make the setting casual (cushy chairs instead of a desk, offers of soda and chips, greeting him with an ‘what’s up, my dude?’, etc.) Atem still seemed rather nervous. Not that you blamed him, you distinctly remember Honda making a joke about “oh yeah, ask the dude to come to our secluded studio by himself to meet five strangers, that’s not creepy or anything” when Yugi told you guys how he had invited the man to meet with the rest of you.

“So, Yugi said that you write songs as a hobby?” Anzu began, giving him the warmest smile she could, an effort to ease Atem’s mood.

He nodded, then started unclasping the latch on his leather messenger bag, “That’s right, I’ll admit, I don’t have too many that are finished, but that’s mostly due to boredom and moving on to a new idea, not lack of inspiration.” He then pulled out some papers divided by paperclips. “Here are the songs I think best represent my usual work, the work that’s easiest for me to write as well as what I would prefer to put out there.”

Honda grabbed the small stack and passed out songs to each of you. A bit of an awkward silence fell as you all started reading the various lyrics, but not even that could tarnish how impressed you were with the ones you were reading. Poetic, but not too over the top or pretentious, nice. You glanced up at the others, nodding your head with an impressed smile before switching papers with Yugi to look over another example (you also didn’t miss the way Yugi beamed at you). Now this song struck you, after only reading the first verse you could already hear the beginnings of a beat and chords you could put with the lyrics.

“Yugi also said you have a killer voice,” you said, shifting your eyes from the page to peer up at him.

He gave a cute little cough, “Uh, yes, I suppose I’m not a bad singer.”

You had to actively keep your mind from gushing over how sweet he was. The dude looked like a typical adonis hottie, but his shy outer demeanor just added an extra layer to him. He was wearing something more stylish than the few tabloid pics you’d seen: a long-sleeved black shirt with a silky maroon and gold vest, accessorized with a few rings, bangles, necklaces, and a pair of gold dangling earrings.

You shook the wandering thoughts on his attractiveness away; this was for business, not pleasure. “I was just wondering if you’d mind singing one of the songs for us, that way we can get a feel for the melody you had in mind.”

Again, Atem seemed to swallow something in this throat as a hand reached up to briefly play with one of the flat triangles dripping from his ears. “I suppose I could do that, but, do you mind if I play my violin with it? I’ll find it easier to sing with some music.”

“Of course,” you waved an eager hand, egging him on before handing him back the music sheet in your hand.

His eyes scanned the pages, reminding himself of what song it was before nodding his head and reaching down to the instrument case beside the armchair. Jonouchi had made a comment about Atem carrying his violin everywhere, trying to set a joking mood, but it just caused a flushed Atem to mumble about how he had just picked it up from getting its weekly tuning.

Once Atem was standing, violin in hand, he took a deep breath to collect himself. Then, after two slow heartbeats, he began to play.

The first note was a sorrowful one, long, like a quiet, mournful hum, his slender fingers pulsing to create a wave effect on the sound. Then he was singing. His tone came out like a deep, almost breathy moan, letting the lyrics flow like a story at first- before his tone rose and belted out the chorus.

Atem was captivating, pulling you in with every line, every inflection, making you want to hold your breath lest the sound of it distract from the song. He kept his eyes closed, lost in the music his hands and mouth crafted, and the longer the song went on the more he seemed to relax, to lean into his own notes.

You blinked suddenly, realizing that your mouth had been hanging open just in time to close it before Atem ended his performance on another soaring note and breathy lyric. He stayed like that for a moment, catching his breath, basking in the lingering sound of his song.

Finally, his eyes blinked open and shifted to gauge everyone’s reaction. You weren’t the only one left in awe.

“Holy shit,” Honda breathed.

Yugi’s beaming smile was at maximum sunshine as he leaned into you and whispered, “That’s the song I heard him sing at the theatre, isn’t it beautiful?!”

You nodded and opened your mouth to say something but Anzu beat you to it.

“Can you do that again?” she asked, eager, as she jumped up and walked to her keyboard.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” you asked, also bouncing to your feet and joining her.

Anzu smiled back at you, “Keeping that longer intro and adding keys to it?”

“Yes!” you turned to Jonouchi- who was still staring at Atem like he didn’t quite believe the man was standing there. “Jou, add some drums? Something steady and subtle at first, drawing everyone in before the lyrics start and-”

“-and picking up when the chorus kicks in?” he finished, snapping to attention in an instant, “You got it!”

With that Jonouchi vaulted off the back of the couch, plopping onto the stool at his drum set. Atem was still standing there, now looking a bit bewildered and amused as he watched everyone get to work, perhaps some pride shining in his eyes that his music had inspired it.

“Atem?” you asked, tone gentle and drawing his attention back to you, “Can you play that again?” you repeated Anzu’s question, seeing as how she was fully engrossed in her keys now.

Again, the man seemed hesitant, “Shouldn’t you be taking over, you’re the lead singer after all.”

“Dude, we have to keep that violin track,” you insisted, finding your voice breathy as you pointed at Atem, “It’s perfect for the song, it’s deep and beautiful and-” speechless, you gave an exaggerated chef’s kiss to emphasize just how much you meant what you were touting.

The expression earned you a smile from the violinist, a hint of bashfulness mixing with the fresh and rising pride. “Alright, if you think it will improve the song.” With that, Atem lifted his violin, took another deep breath, and started the song again.

***

It was strange how no hands had officially shaken, no one even told Atem he was hired, but that session was immediately followed up by the band asking when his next free day was and asking him to come back for another practice session. Atem had never intended on actually playing with the band, but, when they acted so enthralled with his playing, he could hardly say no.

The next time they got together (almost a week after their first meeting) Atem found himself just as nervous as when he first met them. Parking outside their studio, he found his chest heating up with some anxiety. Atem never was good around people, after all.

Hello, my old heart

How have you been?

Are you still there inside my chest?

He rubbed his hands against the steering wheel, letting out a long breath and holding it a moment, before making himself grab his violin case and climb out of the car. His feet crunching on the gravel driveway grounded him a bit and he had managed to calm down slightly before knocking on the studio door.

I've been so worried, you've been so still

Barely beating at all

He heard the sound of laughter coming closer on the other side of the door and a moment later it opened, revealing you in the doorway and more laughter echoing yours in the next room.

“Atem, there you are! Come on in,” you stepped aside and waved an inviting arm.

Atem felt the heat in his chest climb up his neck, “Sorry, am I late?”

“Huh?” You then waved your hand again as you shut the door behind him, “Oh no don’t worry, we just got here early, that’s all.”

He heard someone else call his name before he even got to the room where everyone was sitting, and by the time he did enter, the whole band was waving and greeting him. He cleared his throat before nodding back to everyone and saying a weak ‘hello’ before you spoke again.

“Come on, sit down and chill for a bit before we get started,” you waved at a beat-up arm chair even as you perched on its armrest.

Atem realized with a quick look around that there was nowhere better for you to sit and you were likely offering him your own seat. “Oh, that’s alright, I don’t want to steal your seat-”

Before his offer to sit on the floor was out, you shook your head, “Dude, we can’t have our muse sitting in a creaky fold-up chair, at least sit on the other arm so I don’t topple it!” You laughed again as Honda made some comment about how a topple would probably bust the thing in half.

His cheeks were hot now, but he took the offer with grace (or at least, as much grace as he could muster) and perched himself on the other armrest, setting his violin on the actual seat. Atem also remembered how last time, he had been offered the armchair while Anzu took the creaky fold-up chair. Everyone here really seemed to care about making him comfortable.

Hello, my old heart

It's been so long

Since I've given you away

When was the last time he met anyone who had greeted him with such...openness? Such compassion. And a whole group of someones at that...

He cleared his throat again, trying to draw himself out of his wandering thoughts. “So, are we just going to work out more of the music today?”

And every day, I add another stone

To the walls I built around you

To keep you safe

Everyone seemed to respect his want to get down to business, perhaps thinking that he had other engagements, and only chit-chatted for a handful of minutes, before getting down to their rehearsal. It went well, just as the previous session had, and Atem found himself in awe of how well the creative process of making notes together flowed. Just like that first day, everyone seemed to work off of each other so well, bounding ideas left and right, almost always being on the same page. Even when they weren’t, there were just a few goodhearted jabs and sighs before working everything out.

Again Atem found himself shaking his thoughts away. He really should stop, it wasn’t wise to get attached to this process, these sessions, these people. After all, he was just their ghostwriter, nothing more.

Oh, don't leave me here alone

Don't tell me that we've grown

For having loved a little while

He found himself smiling again despite himself, when you started throwing popcorn kernels at Jonouchi; retribution for a comment about how you needed to change the chords up in the third chorus.

“I’m not changing it,” you said with your tongue sticking out, all while Jou looked affronted at your kernel bombing. “It’s a steady beat, that’s the whole point! Right, Atem?”

At the sound of his name, Atem’s eyes went wide, “Uh- What?”

“Eh, don’t drag him to your side!” Jonouchi pouted, tossing some popcorn from his lap back in your direction.

“I’m not dragging, I’m asking his opinion, there’s a difference,” you said matter of factly, then turned back to Atem, who was sweating a bit now, “What do you think, Atem? Are the same chords during the third chorus too boring? Or does it fit the subtle, powerful nature of the song?”

“You’re leading his answer!” Jonouchi countered, again looking appalled, then squawking as you tossed more popcorn at him.

Atem was a bit distracted by the way Honda kept laughing as Jou picked kernels out of his shirt, but eventually he managed to swallow thickly and answer your question. “I actually like the way you have it now, if I’m being honest.”

You beamed at him, stuck your tongue out at Jonouchi in victory, then held the popcorn bowl out to Atem. “Thank you, my muse! Here, have some brain food.”

His face was heating up again at nickname- or, dare he say, endearment? However, even as he blushed, and took a handful of popcorn, he couldn’t keep that smile from making yet another appearance.

Oh, I don't wanna be alone

I wanna find a home

And I wanna share it with you

When everyone called the day's session to an end, Atem tried not to feel...disappointed. Stop that , he told himself again, this was not something to get attached to. As everyone packed their notes away, Honda started asking about dinner.

“Heeey if I give you a ride to work, think you can get me a discount on nachos again?” he asked, turning to you with an eyebrow wiggle.

You scoffed, “Dude, the boss was barely okay with that one time I did it, I can’t convince her again. But I can just buy your nachos if you really want.”

“Where do you work?” Atem found himself asking, far too late to stop himself from getting involved.

“Oh- ever heard of The Mark? It’s a bar downtown.”

Atem shook his head, feeling a bit embarrassed. Admittedly, the only bar he had been in since college was the high-end one in his apartment building.

You didn’t seem to take notice of his embarrassment though and just shrugged, “It’s only popular to a certain crowd. Anyway,” you continued, turning back to Honda, “give me a ride and I’ll buy you nachos.”

“Okay, all this talk of nachos has me hungry,” Jonouchi groaned, “Let’s go with em, Yug.”

Anzu perked up at that, nodding to you as she said, “You know, I’ve really been craving your specialty daiquiris. Jou, got room in your truck for me?”

“Sure,” the drummer shrugged as everyone started milling towards the door.

Yugi was smiling brightly as he held the door open for everyone, “Guess it’s a band outing now! Atem, you want to join? You can follow us to the bar, it isn’t far.”

As his feet were once again crunching on the gravel drive, Atem had to stop. He looked back to the group, ready to see at least one of them giving an uneasy expression at the invitation, if not an outright protest.

Instead, he saw Anzu nodding her head eagerly while Honda locked up the studio. Neither you nor Jonouchi looked wary of the suggestion and instead just looked to him for an answer.

You must have thought he needed further prompting, because you said, “Hey, our ‘girls night’ plate of nachos is more than big enough for all of you.”

Atem had to swallow another something in his throat. All of you were already inviting him out for drinks?

Hello, my old heart

How have you been?

“I- sorry, I have to get up early in the morning. Thank you, though.” Atem could only cast his eyes to the ground during the half-lie.

How is it being locked away?

He saw something flicker in Yugi’s eyes, but he was quick to hide it with a smile. “Okay, maybe next time.”

Your smile matched Yugi’s as everyone headed to Jou’s truck and Honda’s bike, “Have a good night, Atem.”

Don't you worry, in there you're safe

“See you next week,” Anzu waved.

All he could manage was a nod as he turned towards his own car.

And it's true, you'll never beat

But you'll never break

It only took one more session to get the rest of the music figured out, and then it was time to record. Atem was interested in the process, how the five of you set up the sound equipment, what programs you used, he even asked you how you had installed padding to improve the sound quality.

The video part of the recording would be left for later, right now it was just the song to worry about- though you did make a point to tell Atem that you wanted to discuss setting ideas for the video soon. Atem felt his heart swell a bit at that. Not that he wanted to admit it, but he was glad that you wanted to involve him in every step of the song. This song in particular, this first one that had so enthralled Yugi first, was likely one of the more personal ones Atem had written.

Your voice rose with the chorus, fingers dancing gracefully against the bridge of the guitar, and Atem found himself admiring how well suited your voice was to his lyrics. A perfect fit. Though you likely had no way of knowing the background behind this song or why Atem had written it, you belted the lyrics with passion and depth, cared for every bar as if you were singing from the depths of your heart.

Maybe you were. Music spoke to more than just those who wrote it, perhaps not in the same ways, but that hardly mattered.

He heard the way the ending lyric stole your breath, and his violin hummed its final note with you in a harmony Atem had admired a dozen times during these rehearsals. When the last note ended, everyone waited a moment, seeming to hold their breaths, before daring to move. When everyone did, Jonouchi was already bounding over to the computer hooked up to the recording mics. With a few clicks and a quick look over something on the screen, the blonde gave a clap of his hands.

“We got it! That should be all we need for a high quality recording.”

Everyone cheered or hooted at that, and Yugi made a comment about finally having something new to give their fans. Atem was smiling with the rest of them, but he was failing to ignore the way his chest ached just a bit. The song was done, and, unless they asked him to join them on stage, Atem supposed this was the last time he would play with the band.

Writing songs for them was all nice in of itself, but, despite all his personal warnings not to, he would be lying if he said he hadn’t grown a bit attached to these evenings and nights with the band.

Oh, I don't wanna be alone

I wanna find a home

And I wanna share it with you

A sudden call of his name had Atem jolting back to the present, and he saw you standing beside him, a hint of concern creasing your brow. “Everything okay?”

“Uh-” he cleared his throat, “-yes, I’m alright,” he lied, just as he had lied to deny himself the after-work drinks weeks ago. “I was just thinking, we got so caught up in recording this song, that none of you got the chance to discuss if any others were to your liking.”

“What, any of your other songs?” Honda asked, and when Atem nodded, he literally waved the comment off, “Dude, I’m pretty sure we liked all the examples you gave us, right guys?”

“Definitely!” Yugi didn’t miss the chance to boost Atem’s ego (or rather, soothe any worries). “We actually looked over your other songs the other day, and all of us agree we want to record all of them. I told you you were a perfect fit for us!”

The words, as well as the wink Yugi gave, did make Atem smile, but it didn’t do much to alleviate the root of his woe. “I’m glad they fit with the band so well. If you want to know the melodies or themes I had in mind for any of the other songs as well, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

That seemed to give everyone pause.

Nothing lasts forever

Atem watched as they began giving each other looks, very pointed looks, in turns, and he couldn’t ignore the sinking sensation in his chest. They seemed to silently agree on something a moment later, because Anzu spoke up as her eyes turned back to Atem.

“Actually, we were talking about that a lot too…”

Some things aren't meant to be

Atem swallowed hard, heart starting to pound in his ears. Perhaps he wasn’t good enough, perhaps they thought him too pretentious, or maybe he had overstepped the boundaries of his role here, maybe he and his violin didn’t-

“How would you feel about joining the band for the whole album?”

But you'll never find the answers

Until you set your old heart free

Again, your voice put a break on Atem’s reeling thoughts, and he had to blink to collect himself again. “I- you mean, you want me to play for the other songs as well?”

More looks were exchanged, quick ones this time, before Yugi chimed in next. “We talked it over a lot the past week and we all agree that you gel with us pretty well! And not only that, but your violin really adds a lot to our music, we’d really love for you to record more songs with us, not just write them.”

Until you set your old heart free

Now Atem’s heart was pounding in his ears for a whole other reason. He almost wanted to smack himself when he felt the widest, most giddy grin he ever remembered smiling spread across his face.

“I would like that very much,” he said, cheeks going a bit warm when everyone was returning his smile.

Hello, my old heart

“So what are we waitin’ for?” Jonouchi jumped in, all enthusiasm and eagerness, “What song are we doing next?”

That sparked conversation, and everyone started chiming in with their votes almost immediately, Yugi and Anzu even digging out Atem’s sheet music for references. Atem could only take the scene in with a smile that was widening the more he watched them bicker good-heartedly.

And he was glad he had gotten attached to this process, these sessions, to these people.

I wanna share it with you

#atem x reader #yami x reader #yugioh x reader #yugioh band au #series: a thousand songs #atem #yami yugi

40 notes · View notes

operationcavill · 4 years

Text

Untangled - Part 5

She crosses her arms, “If you don’t text me later, I’m gonna tell mom about Nick McDonald!”

Y/N gasps, “You wouldn’t,”

Henry peeks around the corner, he has to hear this. “Oh, I would,” Her sister notices him spying and she points, “excuse me, Clark.”

Inspired by: Butterflies // Kacey Musgraves

Y/N - Your name

S/N - Sisters name

B/I/L - Brother-in-Law

B/N - Brothers Name

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

⭐️This chapter contains sexual content. Please do not read if you are not a fan of explicit material.

“The power went out last night and my phone died! I am fine!” Henry wakes with a start and pulls on his boxers, darting out of the bedroom only to be completely embarrassed.

“Oh my god!” Her sister shouts at him with shocked eyes. Not only does she give him the up and down, but looks back and forth multiple times between the pair.

Y/N offers him a sheepish smile before turning toward her sister, “Ok, bye. You can go now,” She shoves her toward the door but her small sibling pushes back, “Do not…why are you so fucking strong!”

Not being aware of her terrible whispering skills, her sister says, “Superman is in his God Damn underwear in your apartment!”

“I know who he is, [sisters nickname]. Can we talk later?”

“I said you should get out there, not toss him a fucking coin, I have questions!”

“Ok, that was a good one,” they laugh but quickly get back to arguing, “but could you be more of an asshole right now? We have to talk later.”

She crosses her arms, “If you don’t text me later, I’m gonna tell mom about Nick McDonald!”

Y/N gasps, “You wouldn’t,”

Henry peeks around the corner, he has to hear this. “Oh, I would,” Her sister notices him spying and she points, “excuse me, Clark.”

“Stop it, S/N,” He can tell that Y/N is filled with embarrassment, “you need to go.” Her sister leaves the apartment with one last look at her little sister.

“Good Morning,” He strolls over to her and kisses her, “she seems like a handful.” He tugs at her robe, “This the famous robe?”

She nods, “I’m so sorry. She can kinda be an asshole. She has a key and she kinda thought you murdered me or something.” Her hands come up to his chest, “Apparently, sleeping with you was much worse.”

Henry gives a fake sniffle, “Well, I can’t say that doesn’t hurt.”

“Don’t worry about it, and she doesn’t tell our mother anything at all.”

“Who’s Nick McDonald?”

She stops in her tracks, “That is strictly confidential.”

Oh, this could be fun, “And here I thought you were a good girl.”

She pokes his foot with her own, “And I’m not a good girl anymore?” She puts on her best fake pout.

“That depends,” He is dangerously close to her face, “What’d ya do?”

Y/N knows her whole body is flushed by now and she doesn’t know if she can keep up with this kind of game, “Don’t worry about it.”

He wiggles his eyebrows, “That scandalous, huh?”

“You’re not gonna drop it?” he shakes his head, “I snuck him into my parents basement the summer after I graduated high school,” His brow pulls together and he purses his lips.

That’s definitely juicy gossip, but not blackmail gossip, “And? That can’t be all.”

A big exhale escapes her, “You’re not gonna let it go, are you?” he shakes his head, “Fine,” She confesses in a very low, quiet voice.

“Speak up, Love” He turns his ear to face, hoping he heard her correctly.

Her chest flushes, “I said he ate me out and he came in his pants.”

Henry gasps,”You absolute minx!”

“We were just horny kids!”

Henry’s mind fills with thoughts of how badly he’d want a girl like that when he was young; a playful, giggly girl who’d sneak him into her house and use him. That’s a boys dream come true, ”But you were such a good girl that he came without you even touching him,” She blushes hard and her whole body tingles, “do you think it was how good that sweet cunt of yours tasted or the excitement of getting caught?” She can’t find words, she can only lick her lips, “Good girls always taste like heaven,”

She could lose it at any moment, “I swear you’re not a real person, she chuckles under her breath, “It’s stupid.”

He gives her a small kiss on her nose, “Stupid hard.” His demeanor going from hyper sexual to super goofy only proves her point.

He notices the time on the stove, “Oh, we didn’t sleep long at all.”

She starts to give him small pecks, “I’m afraid not.”

“It’s only 8:13, and it’s Saturday,” He feels a soft sucking on his shoulder, “and it’s still all rainy.”

His eyes involuntarily close at the sensation, “Oh no, how tragic,”

His boxers are not doing very little to hide how much he wants Y/N right now, “I know. Isn’t it awful?"

He kisses her forehead and notices that her hair smells like sugar and flowers, “Did I tell you good morning?” He lifts her chin and gives her a simple kiss. He kisses her again, not giving a single care about morning breath. He pushes her against the counter, then has her jump up. “How many good mornings are too many?”

“Let’s find out.” Her legs wrap around his waist, while his hand opens her robe. He tickles her stomach and she laughs , “No!” His fingers descend further, finding her clit in no time, “You really know how to start the day, huh?”

He gives her one Henry kiss before kneeling down when the door swings open, causing them both to jump. “Hey, did I forget—Jesus!”

Henry grabs a box of cereal and awkwardly smiles as he places the box in front of himself, “Just, um, making breakfast, most important meal of the day.” Y/N slaps his stomach without even thinking, “Hmph. Sorry.��

She looks like she could start crying at any moment, but also punch her own sister in the face at the same time, “Why don’t you knock?” He can’t tell if he’s just super horny or if her shouting has further turned him on.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’m just, I uh, thought I left my phone.” She grabs her phone off the counter, trying not to look anywhere but the floor. “Nicholas McDonald!” She practically runs out of the apartment.

Y/N looks at him and lets out a snort, “She’s probably screaming in the elevator right now.”

“She almost got quite the show.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhmm, you ok?” His voice is sensual, deep, but sickeningly sweet.

“Yeah, but she’s never going to forget about this.”

“I’m never gonna stop thinking about it.” Henry kisses her collarbone, “Won't forget this,” he kisses her chest, “certainly not these,” An extra soft kiss lands right above her belly button where she’s ticklish, “or that laugh,” he reaches his intended destination and gently licks her, “or how fucking good you taste.”

Her legs widen in pleasure, “Oh my god.” Her left hand pulls at his messy hair. His hands slip behind her bottom, pushing her further into his face, “Fuck!” She swears she can almost fell him smile against her. He’s much more hurried than he was last night, even more passionate and Y/N never thought of herself as a screamer but she swears she can feel a loud cry bubble up in her chest.

Henry very briefly breaks away just so he can listen to her but connects the second he senses her frustration. Both hands now connect to the back of his head, only egging him on further. He sucks harder and he groans with the tightening grip on his hair. She’s going to come, she’s going to come hard on this counter and it still won’t be enough. He can’t help it, something about her makes him insatiable. Her thighs snap around his head, leaving him in a cloud of pride. He rises as he wipes his mouth, “Good morning.”

Y/N almost lunges at him, backing him into a chair and hastily straddling him. “You’re fucking ridiculous.”

“Me?” Y/N’s robe is peeled from her body and thrown god knows where, “How could you say such a thing?”

Her head rolls back, inviting him to nibble and suck on her nipples. “Because...”

He stops, snaking a hand behind her neck so he can see her face, “Because why, sweetheart?” She whines and trembles at his gentle yet dominant gesture, “Answer me.”

“Because you feel too good.”

“Poor thing,” he pulls her face to his, “it must be so exhausting coming so hard.” His hand on the nape of her neck roams upward and tangles in her hair, “Maybe we should get back to bed,” their eyes are deadlocked.

“Or I can return the favor right here,” Y/N gives him a smirk, as she slides down to the floor.

Henry watches as she rubs her cheek on his thigh all while looking at him right in the eye, “You’re going to kill me.” No one should look so cute while doing something so dirty. She pulls him out of his underwear, stroking him, and not daring to look away from his face. She doesn’t break eye contact until she puts him in her mouth. Even then, she manages to look at times. She lets him go to get some air but stops her before she can continue, “Bed.”

After another round of moaning and groaning, and wobbly legs, they indeed did earn that nap. The coziness of her bed and softness of her skin sends Henry into a place he hasn’t felt since arriving for filming. This girl, this woman, who he’s barely known for 48 hours has made him feel at home. He knows it sounds strange. He knows this is very unlike him and it would seem to be unlike her as well. He’s holding her and has no intention of leaving her, so he pulls her even closer. His heart beats faster as she turns to bury her face in his chest like it was just where she belonged. What is it about her? I mean, he knows what it is but why now? Why when he’s working and leaving in a months time? He shakes the thought, squeezing her close again.

Y/N stirs in her sleep but doesn’t wake. A few moments later, she starts again and looks up at Henry with tired eyes, “I don’t think I’ve slept that hard in ages.”

“Yeah? I slept pretty good myself.” That morning voice.

“You’re so comfy.” She dramatically throws herself on top of him, welcoming his arms around her again.

He kisses the top of her head, “Do you wanna go out for lunch? I’m starving.”

“Oh, will this be that date you were talking about?”

“Yes,” He feels like he just asked a girl to dance at prom.

“Ok."

“But, I’ll need to get back to the hotel for a change.” She disapprovingly groans, “I don’t wanna go on our date with post rain shoes.”

“Post-rain shoes?”

“Yeah, you know when shoes make that fart noise.”

“Ah, the fart noise.” She plays with her necklace, half paying attention.

He blows a raspberry on her forehead before jumping out of bed, “Alright, you want to come with me or do you want me to come back?”

“And risk S/N having another fit at me?” He halts and turns on his heels.

“I forgot she was staying there.”

“She won’t cause a scene if you’re worried.” She has a secret pang of sadness and guilt in her chest. She would understand if he never wanted to see her again.

“I’m more worried about her interrogating me.”

“You should be.” Damn, straight.

“Oh? Any Ideas on what she’ll ask? I should be prepared.”

“Something along the lines of, ‘What were you doing to my sister?”

“I was about to split her in half.” Y/N face goes red.

“Henry!”

He has many smiles but he has a mischievous one that is similar to a boy who knows he’s been improper, “What would you like for me to say?”

“Definitely not that.”

“Maybe I’ll just run away from her. She can’t be that fast, she’s as tall as my leg.”

“Take it from me, that girl is fast when she’s angry. I dated someone much taller than you and she literally caught up to him in less that a minute. Don’t trust the little ones.”

“Taller than me? Good God, did he fall from a bean stalk?”

She laughs at look on his face, “No.” She can’t stop grinning at this suddenly thicker accent, “He was 6’5.”

“So, you’ve dated an Ent before. Noted.”

“I’m not attracted to trees, or any other lord of the rings creatures.”

He says under his breath, “Certainly not the hobbits.”

“I’m attracted to superheroes who hide in bars, and maybe Aragorn.”

“Is that right?”

“Mhmm.”

“I do know how to ride a horse.”

“I feel like British people are just born knowing how to ride horses.”

“Are all Americans born wielding guns?” Ouch.

“Oh, ha-ha,”

“You coming?” She pouts, “Don’t give me that look, I’ll never be able to leave.”

“If I go with you, I’ll never come back.” He stares at her, studying her face and loving how she doesn’t give two shits about how wild her morning hair is, “What?”

“I’m looking at you.”

“Well, yeah but why?” She plops her head back down to her pillow.

He wants to tell her that he find her fascinating and beautiful but he settles with his words, “I don’t know. I just like you.”

“I like you, too.”

“Will you like me next week?” Eager.

“Are you already asking me on a second date before out first date?”

“Yep,” He’s now fully dressed, in that perfect shirt. “How about this, I go back to the hotel, then we meet at Eco’s at 1?”

“It’s a date.” He kisses the top of her head and then very delicately on the lips.

“I’ll see you soon, Darling.” There’s that word again, Darling.

[Tagged: If you’d like to be tagged, just shoot me a message or ask!]

@igotkatiepowers @xxxkatxo @lunedelorient @heartfelt-pen @omgkatinka @viking-raider @summersing69

#my posts #text #henry cavill #henry cavill x you #henry cavill blog #henry cavill x female reader #henry cavill smut #henry cavill x smut #henry cavill x y/n

62 notes · View notes

corpsentry · 4 years

Text

behind the taylor swift gundam was in fact another, smaller gundam: a brief inquiry into the events of june 2020

so back in june this year june and i got together and we made this motherfucker of a story with this motherfucker of a thread to keep track of it all. but you already know that! and i’ve already got one foot and three elbows in my grave, so i’ll spare you the long-winded stuff. you wanna know how i wrote 93,035 words in 4 weeks? i’ll tell you how i wrote 93,035 words in 4 weeks-

-by linking you guys to copies of my planning documents because i feel like those words speak louder than any words i can offer in the present day. these are long documents. but they are also historical artifacts. very interesting. very weird. very, uh, full of cussing. so anyway, here’s

BIG DADDY: THE ORIGINAL PLANNING DOCUMENT

for those, like me, who have no motivation left in life to do anything and rely on summaries from others to acquire new knowledge, it all started with a single line.

prince of a fallen kingdom atsumu tries to kill hinata but falls in love with him instead

june, april something, 2020

with that in mind i tested the concept out with a few paragraphs of text, which you can find at the bottom of the Big Daddy document in the graveyard segment, accidentally sold my soul to the image of hinata with epaulettes, and then worked backwards, structuring an entire plot around two images:

a) hinata getting the shit beat out of him, with snark b) hinata and atsumu dancing in an empty ballroom under the stars

if you want a betrayal, you have to have something worth losing. if you want to fall in love with someone you don’t know, you have to meet them. if you have to meet them, there has to be a reason for that meeting, and so somewhere in between atsumu became a sword instructor and hinata the prince with daddy issues. june and i used this method of glancing anxiously over your shoulder to see what you’d missed to fill out the blanks in the story, after which i tacked up a bunch of post-its, typed out the plot, consulted june, typed out the plot again, and then broke the characters down into a bunch of questions, like ‘what do they want?’ and ‘what do they have?’ and ‘what are they afraid of?’

with the plot more or less ironed out, i decided it was time to start writing, and then i decided that i was actually too scared to start writing after all, so instead i set a couple of timers using classroomtimers.com (15-20 minutes long) and i sat down and i wrote about the world that hinata and atsumu inhabited.

each warm-up was 300-500 words long, and for the first few days, i’d write one before getting into writing the story proper. later these evolved into simply picking a scene from the story and launching straight into it, which became useful for opening those scenes later when i got to them organically.

then i got lazy! so i stopped. but these shitty little exercises were really useful for me because, unfettered by plot, convention, or any kind of tradition hovering over my shoulder, i was able to fuck around loosely enough to realize what i wanted this story to be. it was a very contrived kind of trial-and-error, an exploration of the characters, the story, but most importantly, the tone.

RESEARCH, PLANNING, AND VICTORIAN BOUGIE FASHION

this is a loose map of the castle and Important Locations within it, which i drew up at the start so i could keep track of where everything was and how i could get my characters from point A to point B. i wanted the story to have Some kind of internal logic, you know, even if that logic amounted to ‘a compass would function normally in this world whereas kageyama tobio would not’.

99% of my planning and organizing within those five weeks took place in this lovely dotted cat journal which my sister gave me for my birthday and i repurposed into a metaphorical Diary of Suffering while working on juno. i used it for everything from keeping track of narrative threads to clothing consistency checks, but the main purpose was this: each day at about 10 pm i’d crack open the cat book to a fresh page, stamp the date and the day of suffering at the top, and then write down a list of things i wanted to write, address, or fix today. then i’d sit at my laptop and write like a madman until about 7 in the morning. with breaks, of course, for sitting in the bathroom and staring at the wall and sitting in the kitchen and staring at the wall, but mostly i was writing. and complaining about writing. you were there, you probably remember that.

anyway, here are some pages from the cat book.

aside from the fact that my handwriting is complete shit, you can see that i made zero effort for any of this to be presentable. it was mainly a way for me to keep track of my thoughts because i have the attention span of an ikea wardrobe and tend to forget things as soon as i think of them. the lack of structure also mirrored the way that i went about writing juno. while i did proceed, for the most part, in chronological order, i had a lot of weird and useless revelations during lunch, which by this point was happening around 2 am, and in the 5 minutes before the exhaustion finally hit and carried me down to hell. i changed A Lot. again, to understand exactly how much the story evolved from day one onwards, please consult the big daddy document.

in the meantime, here’s something else.

once june sent over hinata and atsumu’s character designs i sat down like the fucking fool i am and spent 2 hours poring over a document about victorian and other fashion movements of the past so i could assign a noun, adjective, and verb to each element of their outfits. i don’t know why i did this. i certainly could have not, but i attempted to make sense of their ‘fits from a logistical perspective and that went into the cat book too. everything went into the cat book. the cat book is a relic of the past now, stuffed with artifacts such as the birth of oikawa tooru, and also his demise.

MEDIUM DADDY: EDITING, PROOFREADING, AND CREEPY MURDER CATS

i finished writing on june 26th, 2020, approximately a month after i’d first started planning, somewhere around may 27th or 28th. at that point i had about 90,000 words’ worth of story and no sanity left whatsoever, so i took a day-long break to stare at a wall and listen to taylor swift’s enchanted on loop.

and then i made a new document, which you can look at using the link above, and i laid out everything i had to do. i’d discovered a fuck ton of plot inconsistencies and general errors while writing and lying awake in bed at 9 a.m., sleepless in seattle, and now that i was free of the demon egging me towards the first finish line, it was time to Deal with them. i speed-scrolled through the draft, which was 200+ pages compressed into one google doc, because i like to tempt god’s wrath, and fixed up all the plot issues over the course of a few days. this was the fun part.

the actual, hard editing was the extremely un-fun part. i reread the entire thing, paragraph by paragraph, line by damn line, from start to finish, paying especially close attention to awkward phrasing, incomplete dialogue, and moments which had fallen flat in my haste to get on to the next one. this was really fucking terrible. i spent more time lying facedown on the floor than actually editing anything, but after a long time (about a week), that, too was done.

SMALL DADDY: TITLES, SUMMARIES, AND GOOD FUCKING BYES

i spent a good eighty days thinking about the title, though hilariously enough we ended up with something that was a blend of our names. june + elmo = juno, which is, all things considered, pretty perfect, but the process of picking the title was Hell, and i Did Not Come Up With The Title until about 2 hours before posting. you can take a look at the haphazard clusterfuck of my title-selecting process in small daddy, which is linked above.

so the title was a last-minute choice. so was the summary. and the chapter divisions. and actually all the songs in the playlist for juno. the day we dropped juno onto planet earth like a newborn baby pitched out of the sky, i spent an hour hunched over my laptop, cutting my 213 page google doc into chapters based on nothing more than a Vibe. two days before that, i also attempted to voice-act the entirety of juno, an affair which ended at the 20,000 word mark with a sore throat and the kind of exhaustion one typically wants to sleep in a coffin for 23 years to get rid of. so in all honesty, i did very little editing, which is why there are definitely minor typos and/or mistakes hanging out somewhere on that chunky ao3 webpage. but whatever.

my attitude by july 5th (was it july 5th? or 4th? somewhere around there) was basically whatever. anything so i could get finish this damn thing, chuck it out of the window, and never see another google doc until the next century. i’ve been asked a few times how exactly i wrote at a rate of roughly 2000-3000 words per day for four weeks straight, and my answer has always been this: i died. what died, you ask? my soul. my spirit. my Will To Live. i’m a creature of fixations, and juno was my fixation for june. will i ever be able to do this again? would i recommend this experience to anyone? is god real? the answer to all of the above is probably no. juno was a fever dream, and so is my cat book. and so are all the lattes i had. and so was my 9 am to 4 pm sleep schedule.

but what we made is real. the research, oikawa tooru, the 4 am conversations in which i was like ‘how the fuck do i end this’ and june was like ‘jade proposal’ (the proposal was her idea. all rise for twitter user atsuhinas. she is the mastermind behind all of the Inch Resting moments in this story; i just flapped a korok leaf in her direction and made sure the air circulation was working properly) are real as fuck, and looking back, there’s a lot i’d change, but i’m lazy. and college is starting. and anyway, i did write 93,035 words in just under five weeks, four if you don’t count the week of Editing Hell, so i think that’s pretty cool.

thank you for reading this to the end, and for following us on our journey through the enigmatic taylor swift gundam fic which quite literally consumed my entire twitter account for the five weeks i spent working on it. retrospectively speaking i really was butt-obsessed so i am frankly incredibly impressed with everyone around me for putting up with a Husk of a Man for a month. thank you for doing that. thank you for indulging my vague tweeting, and our butterfly dns, and for reading 93 thousand words of gay fanfiction set in a high fantasy world with epaulettes and galettes. on behalf of june, once again, we are incredibly grateful for all your support.

if you have any questions about specific aspects of the writing process, or anything you’d like to know in general with reference to JUNO, feel free to drop me an ask through my tumblr inbox, or through my curiouscat over here. i’m aware i didn’t cover everything, but there’s frankly too much to put in a tumblr post without passing away somewhere around the 56% mark, so let me know what’s on your mind, and i’ll try to answer that to the best of my abilities. but anyway, before i go, here are some

TAKEAWAYS

one: don’t try to write 93,000 words in five weeks. seriously don’t fucking do it you will end up jittery and sleep-deprived and you will leave all your friends on read for a month. pace yourself. set realistic goals. you wrote 2k this week? that’s fantastic. you wrote 4k in a day? you absolute motherfucker. i hope you’re taking a long fucking break tomorrow. your story will not run away from you, but if you run too fast, you will get tired, and then you will pass away.

two: you don’t have to know everything about your story before you start writing. in fact if you have a single camera shot of two characters holding hands under a rose garden awning, i think that’s fucking wonderful. if you look at big daddy, you’ll realize that my initial plot draft, and all the ones following that, are not perfectly aligned with the final version of juno. i improvised over half of the scenes in this motherfucker, and to be completely honest, some of the improvised scenes were the best. fucking oikawa tooru was improvised out of nowhere. he only got written in way later, around chapter 8 or something, because i realized i needed a plot device and a source of information to keep the playing table from toppling over. i Sat Down one day and was like ‘okay, it’s time to write oikawa into the introduction. because he matters now. he didn’t matter last week but now he does, and soon he’s going to be the fulcrum of the entire story, because it’s like that with oikawa tooru’. it’s okay to change your mind halfway. it’s okay to go back and rewrite entire scenes or segments. it’s okay to highlight 4 pages of fresh, sentimental writing, and hit delete. writing is a fluid process, and you Will make discoveries as you progress through your story alongside your characters. be understanding of that iterative process. be kind to yourself.

three: You Are That Motherfucker. you, me, your dog, your dog’s friend, your dog’s enemy, all of us are that motherfucker. i never thought i’d be able to write anything longer than the great big map, which was a much simpler, linear story in which the other main character did not appear in the current timeline until like the eighth chapter. juno was different. juno was the motherfucker, and i was scared shitless of it, and to cope with that fear joked constantly while writing that it’d never see the light of day.

but it did. it was a rocky process, and i was awake for 48 hours after posting it because of the sheer adrenalin stuck in my skull, but i got through it. and i wouldn’t have been able to do it without june, who stepped in when i flopped over facedown on the floor and dragged me to my feet like the badass friend she is, and without everyone else in my life, who put up with me talking about The Thing that i couldn’t really talk about, but juno’s up there now. forever, or until the internet collapses and civilization goes extinct. and if the nineteen year old clown with the attention span of an ikea armchair and an a level certificate from hell wrote the 93,000 word long thing, so can you. i mean this completely unironically and with every ounce of genuine emotion i can summon from the cracked asshole of my heart.

writing is hard. writing is scary. writing is an investigation of the world around you and therefore, by extension, yourself, and that kind of honesty is freaky. it’s like going skinny-dipping next to the president’s mansion. who’s going to see you? what if they take a photo? what if you lose your spot at university?

but don’t think about that. our world is overrun with stories the way cereal bowls are full of cereal, but it’s those stories that keep us all sane in the disgusting day-to-day muck of reality, so think about your story. what’s haunting you today? what message do you want to leave printed in font size 666 comic sans across the southern hemisphere of the planet? what will you be tomorrow?

a writer. you’re going to be a motherfucking writer.

#my stuff

36 notes · View notes

spikemuth-post · 5 years

Text

Impromptu Karaoke Night!

Piers x Reader

Warning, Real world music included that may break immersion for some.

The streets still seemed to be bustling, despite the time of the night and the state of the weather. The rain had let up, leaving a glossy sheen on the streets of Wyndon as you and your friends sloshed through the water. Dinner was sitting on your stomach like a rock and you were almost praying that this night was going to end soon. How much longer could it go on for? Then again, the Gym leaders didn’t get time away very often and wanted to enjoy themselves. Dinner and a movie were nice, it was fun to spend time with the gym leaders but also so discouraging. They were all so close. They were joking and laughing with one another as they walked down the streets, the remaining few that weren’t in a conversation were smiling as they overheard the others. You were just an awkward puzzle piece, shoved in the center the moment you defeated Leon. Heck, they liked Leon’s presence so much that even though he was no longer champion he was invited to come along. At least you weren’t the only one in this situation. Marnie was walking to your left, her arms folded and her eyes staring at the ground. Bede was to your right, his hands in his pockets. They weren’t quite sure where they fit either, also new to this group. Luckily for Marnie, she had Piers. Piers was invited to hang out with the gym leaders, despite his retirement. He decided to use that time to try and integrate his sister into these little outings. Bede had Opal. Every so often, Opal would pass the conversational torch, giving Bede a chance to meld in and shine. You were hoping Leon would be that buffer for you but he wasn’t. If you asked him to be he would help you without a doubt but you felt too embarrassed to ask. “GUYS!” Your little group stopped dead in their tracks, Nessa stopping and blocking the sidewalk and making everyone behind her bump into each other. Piers even tripped, clinging to Raihan on the way down to keep from falling, which Milo found a little funny. “Kram’s is still open!” Nessa cheered, pointing to a neon sign that’s definitely seen better days. The Neon microphone made Piers groan and he dusted himself off. “Karaoke? Nessa, come on-” “What are you complaining about rockstar? You’d smoke all of us.” “...Did you just talk like Karaoke is a competition?” “Oh! That’s a fun idea!” Gordie grinned, “A Karaoke competition! Nice one Piers!” “I did not suggest this, Don’t credit me-” “I’m on board. It sounds like a fun thing to try.” Kabu added. “That does sound pretty fun,” Milo admitted, “Of course, Piers competing might be a little unfair-” “Piers, you have to pick a song out of your genre.” Raihan laid the rule out expecting some kind of reaction but Piers was still giving his sleepy stoic look. It seemed like this was what you were going with. Hopefully, everything would be okay. “It sounds fun.” Marnie finally said. That was all the convincing Piers needed. He sighed, gesturing everyone to follow as he headed for the double doors. “Well, let’s get this show on the road, come on.”

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Piers waited outside of the circular booth as everyone piled in one after another. You kept your distance, examining the dimly lit karaoke bar and letting everyone go ahead of you. There were a few patrons in here, some whispering to each other in excitement to see the gym leaders and of course the champion. The only light was above the bar, above the stage and the tea lights in the middle of every table. You didn’t even notice Piers looking at you. He rolled his eyes and decided to get your attention the old fashion way. “Hey champ, You coming?” “What?” Turning around you saw everyone was already sitting. Piers was on the end with Marnie on his other side, gesturing you to sit beside him. “Oh, Sorry.” “Oh, dear, it’s fine. Never been to a Karaoke bar before, huh?” Opal began. You were afraid to have any more gaffs, opting to shake your head instead. Marnie seemed a little worried about your standoffishness. You were an incredible pokemon trainer, you were the champion after all, but it seemed like you didn’t know how to interact with people. She could sympathize with that. “I put all our names on the list.” Nessa clapped her hands happily, glancing over at the bar cheerfully. “I can’t wait to see how badly some of you sing.” “Come on Ness, don’t call me out like that,” Raihan joked, “also put away your glasses because when I get up there they WILL break.” The table shared a laugh but you just smiled. Bede raised a brow at you, beginning to catch on to what Marnie did. Unfortunately, he voiced his thoughts. “Not having fun, Champion?” That made almost everyone turn to you. Marnie didn’t look over, shooting Bede a look you couldn’t see from your angle and Leon was looking at the song list. You opened your mouth but thankfully didn’t get a word out. “They have 6 pages of duet songs!” Leon marveled, “Raihan, You have to duet with me!” “Ha, if you want your ears to bleed off then I’d love to.” Raihan started, enthusiastic as all hell. “After the competition, we can duet.” “Why can’t we double up for the competition?” Marnie suggested, “It’s all fun anyway.” “That’s a good idea.”Gordie complimented, “If our singing isn’t strong we can team up with someone. Hey, Milo, join me on my song.” “Why me? You think I can save your performance?” As they all continued to joke among each other you accepted the moment of reprieve. This was going to be a long stressful night.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Nessa and Opal hugged each other before they left the stage, Raihan playfully plugging his ears as they returned to the table. Opal tapped his head with her parasol, telling him lovingly to shut the hell up. You were a little more comfortable, laughing at jokes and sometimes adding to conversations. Overall, you were still a lot more reserved than everyone else. Unbeknownst to you, Marnie voiced her concerns to her brother. Piers was looking over at you through most of the night and would even pass the conversation over to you if he thought you’d be comfortable talking. He was about to do that right this minute but then he heard it. “Ladies and Gentleman, a special treat. Next to the stage is the one and only Piers!” “Shit, right now?” Piers mumbled. Raihan, Gordie and Leon were pounding on the table, encouraging him to go up. You got out of the booth to let him get up and as he passed you he got an idea. A risky idea, but it was all he had. He made his way to the stage, grabbing a songbook off an empty table and skimming through it on his way to the stage. He really should have planned this out better. When he found his song he just threw the book over his shoulder. A woman at a nearby table grabbed it and held it close to her. Hell, it wasn’t even signed, calm down lady. He punched the number in the karaoke machine before cracking his neck to the left then to the right. His friends were cheering and you were giving a pretty polite clap but that wasn’t enough for him. He was going to break that shell around you even if he had to do it by force. He picked up the microphone, speaking into it with the kind of oozing charisma you’d expect from a rockstar. “This song goes to the cutie sharing a booth with me, sittin’ right on the end.” You instinctively looked to the other end of the booth and were confused. Kabu is on the other end- “He means you, idiot.” Bede pointed out. That made Raihan give off an ugly laugh and Nessa seemed to be bursting with excitement. You, however, were just confused. Piers was always really nice to you but you didn’t think that there was any romantic reason behind that. You tried not to blush but your face was heating uncomfortably. The smooth guitar started to play and the DJ introduced the song seconds later. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Piers will be performing Treasure by Bruno Mars.” “Go, Piers!” “Shut up Raihan.” Piers quickly added into the mic, trying not to let this performance get the best of him. This seemed like a huge mistake but now we’re this far so he was doing this shit. The words on the screen appeared. Now or never. “ Give me your, give me your, give me your attention baby,” Pier’s voice alone was alluring but that eye contact was downright manslaughter. You had to keep breaking eye contact to avoid exploding. ”You're wonderful, flawless, oh you're a sexy lady “ He pushed his chest forward as he slid his jacket off. The move made some women in the crowd go crazy and making Raihan give off a spirited woo, to which Piers promptly shot him his middle finger. You were so enamored with his stage presence that sometimes you’d just completely ignore the words he was singing. Some of them would come through, though. Girls in the bar were squealing and hell ever some of his friends at the table. Marnie pursed her lips, trying not to laugh at Pier’s attempt to get you to open up. “ Treasure, that is what you are, Honey, you're my golden star “ Just the way he’d flex his eyebrow to emphasize certain words was killing you. You wanted to put your head on the table but you couldn’t take your eyes off him. “ You know you can make my wish come true, If you let me treasure you “ “Holy shit, PIERS WORK IT!” Gordie egged him on, making Raihan and Leon crack up. Piers tried to ignore them but he was clearly laughing through his performing. “ Pretty girl, pretty girl, pretty girl you should be smiling, A girl like you should never look so blue.” “I didn’t even know Piers liked you like that.” Nessa breathed, “Oh this is so CUTE!” “Piers is a master at hiding what he’s thinking.” Raihan defended. “.... Still, I ALSO HAD NO IDEA.” While Ness and Raihan Marvelled on that, Bede and Leon were just rocking out to the song, bobbing along and even mouthing the words. Raihan started filming on his phone, complaining that he missed a lot of the song because he was distracted. “ I know that you don't know it, but you're fine, so fine, Oh girl, I'm gonna show you when you're mine, oh, mine .” Piers got back most of his control, continuing to sing to you. He could see by the look on your face that he was breaking you. He kind of liked it. You looked cute flustered like that. It made him smirk. He was nearing the end of the song and thought he was doing pretty well. “ You know you can make my wish come true, If you let me pleasure yo- Wait, No, TREASURE. FUCK-” “TOO LATE, YOU ALREADY SAID IT!” Gordie yelled. Piers couldn’t take it, pulling away from the microphone to laugh it off. The song just continued but everyone was just laughing and having a good time. He returned to the mic, speaking over the music. “I mean, we can do that too if you’re up for it. the night is young!” “BOO!” “SHUT UP, RAIHAN”! “Give it up for Piers, Everybody!” Despite him messing up the final line of the song, the place roared with cheers. Probably just because it was a fun karaoke night. He got a few high fives as he returned to the table. You got up to let him back into the booth, avoiding eye contact with him. Since you were looking down at the ground when he passed he got access to the top of your head, allowing him to kiss the top of your head before he sat down, making everyone at the table laugh.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

You had to leave when the bar closed. Everyone left the door laughing, complementing each other’s mad singing skills. After Piers calling you out like that on stage, you were much more open with everyone. He spent the rest of the night flirting shamelessly as well. It gave you all a lot to talk about. Upon leaving the bar Piers was oddly silent, a little smile on his face as he left the building. You were the same, hanging off to the side to wait until you could get a moment to talk to Piers alone. Sensing this, the crowd dispersed quickly. All your friends excused themselves and made separate plans to get home, either choosing to walk with each other or call a taxi. You didn’t need to do any of that though, currently staying in a hotel in Wyndon for a match you had tomorrow. That was perfect. Piers walked over to you, clearing his throat as nonchalantly as possible. “Can I walk you home?” “You don’t have to,” You mumbled. You really wanted him to but Marnie was behind him calling a taxi already. “It’s a long taxi flight to Spikemuth.” “Actually I’m gonna check in the hotel for tonight.” He looked off to the side nervously, “I’m uh... gonna be in town for your match tomorrow.” “Well... having company on the walk would be great.” He didn’t need anything more than that, linking arms with you immediately. You tried to hide your flustered face but Leon and Marnie caught it, both of them staying behind to catch a taxi. You both headed down the street towards the hotel, talking the entire way. You did have a place among these gym leaders and in Piers’s arms.

#Piers #pokemon #swsh #sword and shield #pokemon sword and shield #x reader #reader insert #fan fiction #scenarios #karaoke #nezu #imagine #imagines

82 notes · View notes

laur-rants · 4 years

Text

Transfiguration -- Ch 1: Awake

Fandom: Doom Rating: Mature, because violence against demons Pairing: Sam/Slayer [eventually] Summary: The Slayer has beaten the Icon of Sin, but the work is far from over. There is still much, MUCH to be done. Notes: Yeah. I said I’d write Doom fanfic. Why? Because it’s gay to travel between dimensions and realms just to meet back up with the demigod you helped create, and are determined to save humanity because of him. Anyway enjoy I don’t know what I’m even doing with this. *throws it into the void* AO3 Link Next Chapter

---------- "There is a common saying among the peoples of humanity; 'history is written by the victors.' It is one of their species's constants, a phrase found across the divides. Thus, it can be gleaned that regardless of realms, of region, that history is full of lies. Only those who lost their respective battles yet still managed to survive those considered to be the holders of the more accurate accounts of events. But how many survivors never tell the truth? How many live in fear, unable to share the knowledge they have born witness to?

"I refute being a fearful survivor. Though the 'victors' may say otherwise, I was advised to disappear by the Father himself, to run from my own species in order to save it. The words of prophecy have been set into motion; there are coming events even he cannot stop. I have seen the future, infallible now. The battle is lost, but not the war.

I am Samur. I am the holder of the witnessed truth. I will profess it to you as long as I am alive, and as long as I am able.

Father, if you are listening, please have mercy on my consciousness."

-- Book of the Maykr Samur, pt 1

When he wakes up, it is not in the bed he fell asleep in. He stares up at the bright white of a too-clean ceiling, hears the steady beep of machinery and -- voices, there were voices nearby. Too many for him to still be in the lonely fortress he calls home, a fact that is enough to clear any fog clouding his mind. In one swift movement he's sitting up, his body aching and protesting this sudden change in verticality but he ignores the pain entirely, legs swinging over the side of the bed in an effort to move.

One of the earlier voices shouts, clearer and sharper now-- definitely real and not like the fabrications he's used to. He ignores them for now nonetheless; more urgent is the machinery yelling at him from the bedside. He frowns, pulling off cords and sensors, highly disapproving of the medical gown he's found himself in. Damnit, where the fuck is my suit, he thinks, even as a doctor with black hair and green eyes behind jeweled glasses rushes over to put a hand on his chest and try and push him back down to a prone position.

"Ah, sorry, mister Slayer, sir," the doctor fumbles, trying and failing to even budge the man, the wall of muscle staying stubbornly in place. The aforementioned Slayer watches her take a step back, purse her lips, then push against him, a little more insistently. "I really need you to lay back down. You're already starting to bleed through your bandages."

He blinks and looks down through the smock; most if not all of his upper body was bandaged and wrapped. A particular wrapping on his left arm was indeed bleeding, the pain barely registering even as the splotch of red grows, spreading fast through the fabric. He lets out a small noncommittal noise (causing the doctor to jerk back suddenly in surprise) as he starts to unwrap the bandages himself. A group of nurses and medical staff immediately crowd into the room, urging the Slayer to please stop, to let them handle such work.

Sure enough, as the medical staff peel away the sticky fabric, a nasty gash is revealed, running from the top of his bicep to the underside of his arm all the way to the armpit. It had been sutured shut but as the Slayer had stood up it had easily popped open and was now bleeding freely. He looks to the rolls of soaked bandages, looks to his seeping arm, and appears... apologetic, of all things. The doctor sighs, gives the man known only as the Doom Slayer a quick look over, then fetches new bandages and sutures.

"You're probably wondering why you're here, and have a lot of questions." She looks over to him, expecting some sort of response-- but when he says nothing or doesn't refute her words, she clears her throat, pushing a lock of hair behind an ear. "Or perhaps not. Either way, we received a distress signal, and found your ship. You were in a rough state, possibly connected to the recent fight with the Icon of... Sin…"

She trails off as she sees the Slayer's face harden like stone. She coughs lightly a second time, the color rising to her cheeks. "Apologies. The original transmission was sent by Dr. Hayden himself, so ARC forces immediately responded -- but we did not expect to find you in an alien ship bleeding out on the floor, nor did we expect to see it powered by the Crucible, or to hear Hayden communicating from--" The doctor continued on, but the Slayer was far past the point of listening. Instead, his brow furrows, trying to recall what had happened post attack.

The fight itself had been a blur. The demons had fallen before his wrath and Dr. Samuel Hayden had been in his ear, egging him on until the end, when finally the Icon was there, the only obstacle still standing. It was only so long before the huge titan of Hell itself was falling to his might. He had stood tall, victorious, fueled by rage and adrenaline. And then Hayden had portaled him back... but from there, his memory begins to blur. How had he been injured, exactly? Surely he had at least made it back to his room before--

"Slayer? Sir?"

His eyes flick to the doctor and again his gaze is enough to make her flinch. His fist clenches before relaxing again. He sighs. He closes his eyes, steadying himself, before tilting his head at her in question.

Her throat clears. "You zoned out, my apologies. I wanted to let you know that your stitches are fixed and you're rebandaged. We recommend a few days bed rest -- you may not feel the pain and you will not die from the wounds but--" her eyebrows go up, shaking her head in mild disbelief, "--regardless of your perceived immortality... you are human and you need rest. Now. Do you have any questions?"

The Slayer scowls at her, and the longer she waits for an answer the deeper the scowl grows. Eventually he rolls his eyes, then gestures to his body. She seems to get the hint.

"Oh, your suit?" He nods. "It is in the other room, currently being cleaned. We can bring it in here if you'd like?" The Slayer nods, then crosses his arms --carefully, so the doctor didn't have to re-stitch his arm a third time. "I can also assure you that your ship is secure; Hayden made sure of that, and he is also currently working with ARC scientists to repair the parts of his body that were broken."

As the woman talked, her face grew more flushed, and she continued to avert her eyes. It was at this point that the Slayer realized her voice was familiar. He scrutinizes her, unblinking, head tilted, arms still crossed, before he finally clears his throat, prompting her to stop any rambling she was currently involved in. She squeaks and her cheeks go a bright red, but it is enough to stop her momentarily.

"Oh! Do you need water? Can you speak?"

Not to you, lady, is what he would've said, but instead he simply thinks it to himself while managing to shake his head in response to both. He sighs, sitting back. When even was the last time he was in a hospital? It was more than a lifetime ago, on a different Earth, in a different realm, with different doctors with similar agendas looking him over, wondering his secrets when he argued that he had none to give.

Now he had too many secrets and a vow of silence keeping him from spilling any of them. Not that he'd want to, anyway. And definitely not to this doctor in over her head.

"Of course, of course. Well, ah, if you need anything, my name is Dr. Elena Richardson. Feel free to call if anything, anything at all, is needed." She pats his arm awkwardly and it clicks in his memory; the audio logs. Good Lord, it was her. He gives her a brief nod and smile before looking away and she backs off, blessedly leaving him alone.

He sits there.

Then, less than a minute later, Slayer decides he's been sitting long enough.

Lost in thought, he swings his legs over the side of the bed, taking in the surroundings more fully. His room was isolated, a few monitors tracking not only his vitals, but a few other things, such as blood type, foreign bodies, a chart detailing his wounds. The room smells too clean, like when someone needs to disinfect every inch of every surface, but at least it wasn't tainted with the smell of blood and corruption. At least, not yet.

Or perhaps, not anymore.

Perhaps there was a reason for the burning scent of bleach in his nose, after all.

His fingers tap against the mattress, keeping time with an unheard beat, but then the tempo quickens to impatience. This was not going to be a place he wanted to stay, and certainly not for a few more days, let alone a few more hours. He looks around, glances at the ceiling and windows, checks his condition, and plans.

------

In a different room, in a different part of the complex, in a very different condition...the body of Dr. Samuel Hayden awakens.

Well. Perhaps awaken is not the right word. Waking up implies the lack of a consciousness, whereas Hayden has always been quite aware of his surroundings. For the past seven years or so he's been vaguely aware of scientists watching his body, was even roughly aware of the Doom Slayer as he pulled the remnants of his body away from ARC tech, tossing him unceremoniously through a portal onto the fortress ship the Slayer called home. Things became much clearer and sharper after connecting with the ship and drawing power from it; however, there was a difference between living within the confines of a ship's mainframe for the better part of a month, and being within a body that now fully functioned, with joints that bent when he willed them to. Having a robot chassis did make life complicated sometimes… but being able to return to functional legs years after they'd been ripped off, was definitely a bonus.

With the return of his fully-functioning cyborg body, the sleek black-and-white frame towering 3 feet over the next tallest person, he did feel conscious again for the first time in years-- so if that counted towards "awake", then the word was fitting for his current mental state after all.

"Thank you, Simon," Hayden says, refitting his right arm with his left, his blue LED blinking bright inside his skull. The bald doctor, overseeing the reattachment of the arm, just nods, fixing his glasses. "I think for now, that'll be all. Keep studying the ship while you can; if it can help rebuild me, it can help rebuild others."

His voice was deep, warbled, slightly digital; like it was still getting used to speaking from the chassis, and not from the ship's internal comm system. Nevertheless the scientist didn't seem to mind. He just responds with "of course, sir," and heads off in the direction of the door, passing many other scientists deep in their work as he does so. Hayden rubs a wrist and, --as a few ARC scientists flit around him, removing cables and wires full of man-made Argent-- he takes his first steps with his new pair of legs.

"We have much to do," Hayden states, with an air of authority and urgency. "With the Icon of Sin dead, we need to move towards eradicating any remaining demonic forces before those in space can return to Earth." He turns to the nearest scientist, a woman with bushy red hair and freckles. "How is our guest holding up?"

"Richardson has reported that he is awake and responsive, but we do not know how long he will tolerate being subject to more tests. He's already popped sutures simply by trying to get up."

Hayden tilts his head. "How long ago was this report?"

"An hour ago now." She checks her notes and then looks up at the towering cyborg. "Why?"

As if on cue, an alarm goes off. Hayden looks over, checking a nearby monitor: as suspected, it's from Medical Bay H. The redhead looks incredibly concerned, her eyes going wide.

"O-oh," she says, as a hulking form of muscle and sinew, dressed only in a medical gown, struts past a security camera. The subject looks around then walks up to a nearby doctor, tapping them on the shoulder before "borrowing" their key card lanyard. He uses it on a nearby door, tossing the lanyard back to doctor before entering the room and surveying the object of his desire: a powerful space-faring suit of alien make and design.

Hayden sighs. Of course. He turns away and walks towards the door.

"Sir?" Says the scientist manning the security camera. "Should we… can we… stop him?" There was a futility to his tone; everyone here had a right to be concerned. Even if the humans in ARC weren't corrupt or demonic, the collateral damage the Doom Slayer could cause was well-documented. The hole Mars now sported was evidence enough of what he was capable of.

"Invite him to see me in Complex Wing B, room 235. Don't try and stop him; I can guarantee you won't be able to." There's a dark chuckle there, a dry amusement, but Hayden shakes his head anyway. He continues his trajectory, leaving the room where had been reassembled, opening up a comm line with the Slayer directly.

"Long time no see, so to speak. How about we meet, face to face, one more time? There's much we need to discuss."

#doom #doom eternal #doom eternal spoilers #sam/slayer #fic #my fic #fanfic #my fanfic #anyway #jazzhands into infinity #is there a writing community for doom yet?#well THERE IS NOW #makes it so #long post #read more

20 notes · View notes

incarnateirony · 5 years

Note

Isn't it cute how we keep finding RL parallels to show that what they're doing with Destiel is a Romance with a capital R, and now the show itself used Destiel as a parallel to show that Saileen is a romance (even tho everyone already knew That)? And they'll come back to eachother eventually? Wow. I hope I got my point across, but this thought hasn't left me since the "What's real?" "This is." convo between Sam and Eileen. Two sister ships are driving this season, and I'm all here for it.

Yeah.

The fandom result is less fun, with people calling text subtext because they simply don’t understand the text’s merit (eg, Last Call) that was settled long before anybody in this fandom considered themselves a genius to try to argue circles around it. Like Y2K called it wants to update fandom on some LGBT issues already settled. Oz was… what? 1997-2003? (Which is when Bobo ended up writing his LGBT rep sociopolitical commentary?)

The show has me ecstatic. The fandom has me reeling in horror in how willfully LGBT people have coded themselves into a performative-to-het-demands-culture that they’ll talk down content and structure used for romantic het pairings even when it’s front and center.

This isn’t the world of subtextual secret handshakes anymore, guys. I don’t know if meta fandom is reeling on what an actual Will They/Won’t They looks like as opposed to, yes, S7 wallpapers or fish or whatever rando shit got chased as a stream; or even compared to lowkey structural subtext like Colette which hid so many layers beneath the surface that it needed to be actively negotiated and tracked.

Not front, textual assertions that Dean does in fact have Oz-esque group encounters beyond even Deanmon, that he alone had to bury Cas and burying Eileen was the same for Sam, only to turn around and have them mirror shit and truncate their emotional adventure with a kiss and fandom’s out here footstomping and invalidating the text level bullshit because it’s not said how they want, when they want.

Like guys that shit is text. People not understanding the text does not make it non-text. Whether or not you know your LGBT history and intersectional issues (or have modernly soaked dialogue from alt right platforms that XYZ isn’t gay if you yell no homo, since there’s even parts of the world where men identify “straight” despite routinely pursuing sex with men and abandoning women that FOR SOME REASON PEOPLE HERE CATER TO THE DIALOGUES OF) – whether you know any of this, whether you UNDERSTAND this – the information still exists.

People still try to explain that the earth is flat instead of round because they don’t understand science, or evolution for the same reason. That doesn’t mean there’s actually reasonable permissive argument here. In fact, it’s embarrassing as fuck to watch anyone hold one of these arguments. People not understanding material does not invalidate what the material actually means.

And seriously like– “WE WANT–” … what, a love confession or a kiss, I guess. All the other goalposts that were set up were blown by. The former love yous and similar phrasings (I guess we’re herding love affirmations into ONLY three specific words and otherwise it’s not valid, because… Magic Meta Gay People Rules) weren’t enough! And! AND! Even the ones that WERE those three words, people could arGUE!!! It might not be gaY!!!

So let’s be honest bitters & meta fandom & alternate shippers having sixteen jealousy fits: You don’t even want an I Love You, because it would have to be “I love you, and like, only you, romantically, like in love with you, in the gay way, let’s go have gay sex” for this to pacify this utterly homophobic ball of bullshit they have going on.

So we’ll be honest. You want a kiss.

That’s great. I do too.

At the same time, I can gesture you to a literally endless amount of history where literature and TV did not require a kiss for the romantic content to be valid and even celebrated.

That’s not what magically makes all the text text. The text is the text.

The subtext is elements like Reno, and Mary/John, or Amara/Chuck, and even those are loud as FUCK still. Ironically, *the text is quieter than the subtext right now*

If you take the text: Dean has repeat group encounters that are decades-ago LGBT qualified as queer; Dean loses all hope without Cas, once he has to bury Cas, and Eileen does the same for Sam.

The subtext of this: Dean actually forgot an entire woman in his tryst, which means she wasn’t a focus, which makes this gayer than the default gay text; Dean yet again followed viking widower tradition with Cas as a spouse and buried him himself.

This is literally “Cas is Dean’s Collette” but 1. fully textual instead of 3 levels under and 2. much more personal with a full character we witnessed with Eileen rather than flashbacks of Colette for a few seconds. The text here has subtext. It is text. Whether people understand the text, like the LGBT issues around 15.07 or not is an onus on them, but does not invalidate the content. People not understanding Gays doesn’t delete Gays, that isn’t how that works.

Because the hilarity of the line people trying to keep their blogs valid at– that they’re running? All text is subtext unless all text is explained unto a point that it can’t be argued, but that of course leaves the explanation subtext until it, too, is explained beyond a shadow of a doubt to children, and then so on, ad infinity, in a quantum loop of calling everything under god’s written heaven subtext.

I had a conversation with a meta writer who won’t be named that went full bore in a loop. They called it subtext. I pointed out where it was flat surface text. Yes, they said, that IS text, but people can still argue, so that makes it subtext. Uh, no, I pointed out, that isn’t how this works or what those words mean, someone’s understanding of the meaning of text does not invalidate the actual meaning the words have. Arguing with a phantom menace of a GA that’s all catching on right now to contend with tinhatters and a few other oddballs out there that are hilariously small and not in the GA eye isn’t worth changing the entire dictionary. Because The Dictionary Is A Good Book. If someone doesn’t understand all the words in the dictionary and what they mean that, also, does not invalidate the dictionary if it doesn’t have an infinite set of asterisks defining every definition. Anyway, said meta person completely went postal about it after that because after trying to loop the same argument three times and realizing They Will Always End Up Here, off they went when I said that arguing with idiots online wasn’t worth demolishing the dictionary, media study, or queer content.

AV medium seems to be confusing the fuck out of people that fancy themselves or are even degreed lit savants.

But hey, maybe there’s a ruse being played. Maybe Bobo already got that lucky corporate dice roll and is playing into his thematic structure. Maybe he will manage to break through with a kiss. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Frankly more than to argue with idiots, I kind of want it to exemplify the gross homophobia going on in this fandom. And I don’t mean antis. I mean every single person, right here and right now, redefining things to maintain their hysteria and anger or even just their general relevance/podium that evaporates if they acknowledge that it is what it is; that every bit of queer text AND subtext they talked down and deleted and tried to wedge into “platonic” boxes due to their own lack of LGBT cultural understanding was real, and valid, and while antis screamed and shouted raging at the text as provided, they were the ones there, being enemies this year, deleting queer content until their arbitrary goalpost, fulfilling as it may be, and as much as I personally want it too, was met. But if that happens, IF that happens, it WILL be by Bobo’s hand or Dabb’s with Bobo’s guidance, and I can PROMISE you he will make it such a sociopolitical commentary on the heteronormative bullshit going on (like his DreamHunter commentary that BLEW BY everyone) that I expect several people to delete their damn accounts in mortal embarrassment.

This season is gorgeous everyone. Enjoy it.

For the record, if that million to one shot is on the table, the episode everyone should watch for results, beyond the finale, is 15.18. I’m not gonna get into all the reasons here beyond Putrefaction/Blackening > Whitening > Yellowing > Reddening = Gold and if anybody wants to know what the fuck I mean by that, send me an ask. (I’m working on a Putrefaction video to plug into my series to help with that. And beyond that pacing, structure, rhythm, and Bobo. But that also does not mean anyone should seriously place their emotional chips on it, just to stop getting cranked up and demanding THIS NEXT EPISODE OR PERISH.)

Because if you think there’s ever a point homophobes are gonna stop arguing shit down, you’re in for a bad time. Straight pairs like Mulder/Scully that kissed got no romos mental gymnasticsing around it. If you expect differently with DeanCas you’re IN FOR A RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE

But I don’t want to hear one more goddamn peep about representation from that wing of meta fandom. The representation is there, front and center, to relate to for the intended demographic, it just wasn’t what other demographics wanted. But it’s written by a middle aged LGBT man for middle aged LGBT men and if you aren’t in that bracket, and don’t like the results, you don’t get to go and try to destroy that representative material. Hell if you ARE in that demographic you don’t get to one-card steam roll over other LGBT men too, the way it works from there is you find other people in that demographic and discuss the content’s pros and cons. If it ends at “not the ship I like” instead of genuine problems with the content, you also don’t get to destroy that for other people in the demographic. So whether it’s like, desperate clout/platform/relevance clinging, or just complete lack of understanding of LGBT media history and the represented demographic, that shit needs to stop. Pick a side.

You can’t genuinely fight for representation while going and kicking down rep sandcastles because they weren’t shaped how you want. That isn’t how it works. It works by owning the content, and requesting better or more. Requesting more explicit content does not require destroying the content you don’t consider “enough”, in front of you.

Overt queer subtext AND text remain an overt body within the text even if it does not reach a given explicit landmark that you personally have decided on and is 0% dependent on anyone’s understanding of the fucking content.

56 notes · View notes

snowbellewells · 5 years

Text

“Over the Realms and Through the Woods, to Arendelle We Go”

A @cssecretsanta2k19 gift for @xhookswenchx

“Over the Realms and Through the Woods, to Arendelle We Go”

By: @snowbellewells

This is my belated @cssecretsanta2k19 gift for @xhookswenchx ~ and I truly am sorry for making you wait extra days, Lovely. It was such a busy December, then I traveled home, had family engagements, and so on. But talking with you and learning different things about the show and the holidays that you enjoyed, put this idea in my head early. I just needed the time to write it down. I have very much enjoyed being your Secret Santa. I hope that your Christmas was Merry, that you will have a Happy and Blessed New Year. Please enjoy this story gift just for you!

Summary: Emma and Killian take their crew on a holiday road trip to visit old friends and make new Christmas memories… A CS canon divergent in which the realms have been joined as they were in Season 7’s finale, but Henry has not left the Land Without Magic as he did in Season 7. I always imagined him going out into the non-magical world for college, to write books, and so on (at least once it became clear they weren’t all going to make a permanent move back to the Enchanted Forest). So for the purposes of this fic, he is home for the holidays from college, and Emma and Killian also have two little ones of their own. I used the daughter of my fictional invention, Morgan Ruth Jones, rather than Hope. She’s appeared in some of my other fics, and I’m kinda attached to her. I’ve gathered you enjoy original CS kids in your writing and reading as well, so I hope you won’t mind that liberty taken. I know that Westley Graham is not as completely original as I thought it was when I dreamed it up, but I love it too (especially since the show gave us so many Liams to keep track of already without naming a son of Emma and Killian’s Liam David as I once would have done). Westley for the character in “Princess Bride” (‘As you wish’ makes that seem appropriate) and Graham for the hero they should have been naming baby boys after in canon. You also said you really enjoyed the “Frozen” characters in 4a, so I have tried to incorporate them - and found it to be a fun new character writing stretch. I truly do hope you will find this fun to read!

*************

“Papa, how much longer?” a tiny voice piped up from the backseat over Killian and Emma Jones’ shoulders with the wheedling tone only a four-year-old’s impatience could muster. “Are we almost there?”

Emma glanced over at her husband with bland exasperation and humor mixed together before swiveling in her seat as much as possible to look back at their daughter Morgan where she sat in her car seat behind Killian, idly alternating between swinging her feet and singing little nonsense songs she made up for herself, staring out the window at the changing scenery as they traveled from one united realm to another, heading ever steadily north toward Arendelle to visit Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Morgan’s best friend Sonja, Princess Anna and her husband’s little girl.

Henry, comfortably on his long winter break from his senior year at Boudoin College, had his nose buried in a detective whodunit, and though he was usually quite patient with his much-younger sister, he seemed to be craving some reading time to himself that Emma was willing to humor. She would like to keep them both fairly quiet so that Westley Graham, their youngest at just barely five months, didn’t wake up quite yet from where he was peacefully sleeping in his own backward-facing car seat between his two siblings and where Emma could reach him if needed.

Killian, for his part, chuckled indulgently, his sparkling blue gaze sliding back over to return Emma’s look before answering his little girl, seeming infinitely patient and making Emma love him even more all over again “We are getting closer, little Love,” he assured calmly. “You’ve been very good - and we should be there within the hour now.”

For a moment, Morgan merely nodded and hummed to herself in satisfaction as she watched the scenery pass by out the window. Once they had left Storybrooke behind, the buildings had given way to the forest, thicker and more wild as they had passed through the land of Emma’s birthright rule - the Enchanted Forest. Since then, the forest had thinned out, and slowly the flatter land became foothills, which then turned into snow capped mountains - something which really did seem to almost sparkle before their eyes - not to mention the imaginative view of a toddler. But it wasn’t long before she piped up again, still obviously a bit impatient and unable to hold it in. “Papa? Can you sing a song? … Please?”

Emma snort-laughed at the way her husband’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, not expecting that particular request if his expression could be any indication. Shaking his head, he admitted defeat rather easily for a once-fearsome pirate of the Seven Seas, especially when she playfully jostled his shoulder, egging Morgan on and adding the she would like to hear him as well.

It wasn’t long before Killian’s clear, strong voice was ringing out within the walls of their newer smallish SUV, having left the Bug at home in favorite of more passenger leg room and space for the wealth of presents they were bringing along, both from their immediate family and her parents and other Storybrooke folks who had come to know the Arendellian visitors when they were in the Land Without Magic some years back. The tune her pirate had selected was a rollicking sea shanty - one of their daughter’s favorites - that he and his crew had once sung on the Jolly Roger many years ago as they circled the waters of Neverland endlessly. His song and its playful, raucous melody seemed practically bouncing around the interior of the vehicle, swaying with the rolling buoyancy of its rhythm and pulling Henry from his reading to grin at the song he had heard countless times before. Thankfully Westley didn’t seem in the least disturbed, sleeping right through the impromptu serenade, and Morgan was giggling and clapping her little hands along with her papa’s song. Emma soon found herself singing along as well, watching her family in their joyous uproar, and marveling at the reality that this was the sort of cozy Christmas journey she could have now.

Killian seemed so into his song, and his children’s entertainment, that Emma couldn’t help checking to be certain he was still paying attention to the road ahead. It hadn’t really been until the last couple of years that Killian had begun to take over some driving duties for them on longer trips; having learned to drive capably well before that, but never fully becoming comfortable with - or trusting - their “horseless death traps”, as he often called them. Modern automobiles still seemed smoky, loud, and entirely too unpredictable to a person long used to ships on the sea or riding horseback and in carriages - not to mention one whose first experience with them had been being run down on the road and seriously injured.

All the same, he shot her a look of exaggerated affront as he finished singing, waggling those wildly expressive eyebrows of his at her and pressing his hooked arm to his chest in further drama. “Honestly, Wife? Don’t you trust me more than that by now?” Taking his hook from where it covered his heart, he gestured out the window to indicate the lane beside them. “I may not be as old a hand at driving as most, but I won’t drive us under a semi trailer like that Griswold fellow on the magic box.”

It was Henry who snorted his laughter then, at the reference to National Lampoon’s which they had watched the night before, prior to setting off on their journey. Shaking his head at his stepdad’s odd way of reassuring him, and humored in spite of himself, Henry placed a marker in his book and more fully joined their antics, now that they were drawing nearer to their friend’s kingdom anyway. Danger and adventure, or just taking a family trip; be it Christmas or some random everyday in between, there was never a dull moment with their little crew.

~~~~~***~~~~~***~~~~~

When they entered the Arendelle borders and pulled up to the palace’s front gates, within 45 minutes’ time just as Killian had promised Morgan, the sense of awed anticipation settled over all of them, the air inside the car going quiet at the stunning beauty that met their eyes. Somewhere within the last half hour or so, light flurries of snow had begun to fall around them, looping and twirling through the slowly purpling sky as afternoon inched closer to evening. The ground had already been covered in a picturesque light dusting of white, but it was growing deeper as the additional fluffy flakes continued.

Thankfully, ice didn’t seem to be a part of this particular snowy scene; the roads had remained safely passable and they had made good time. Four uniformed guards two on either side of the wide, silvery sparkling arch and gates of the front entrance to the Queen’s castle and grounds, bowed respectfully as the passageway opened for them. Emma had spoken to her dear friend via magic mirror that morning before they set out, and their arrival had clearly been anticipated.

Despite having been there several times before by that point, all over them sat in openmouthed adoration that overcame them for a few breathless instants. The setting sun hit the gate and front of the castle, sending glitter and sparks of light out to dazzle their eyes. It was as if the whole structure were indeed beautifully coated in ice - and yet there was none of the frigid austerity one might once have feared. Queen Elsa of Arendelle has long since found her equilibrium, allowing her the self-acceptance and open understanding to balance the cold with genuine warmth. She learned to love every part of herself - including her powers - just as she had once helped Emma to do, and as Killian had reminded her ever since.

Their vehicle had barely parked, and they were just stepping out and stretching their tired limbs when they heard familiar voices calling their names, a childish squeal of delight yelping Morgan’s in particular, the sound of several pairs of feet hurrying over freshly fallen snow (well, feet and one set of reindeer hooves) and then they were engulfed in a flurry of hugs and handshakes by the royal family themselves. Anna was predictably firing questions at them as quickly as she could voice them, about their trips, the rest of their family, Belle and the library, without even allowing them time to answer. Kristoff was shaking Killian’s hand and accepting baggage and gift wrapped boxes to lead them inside. Sven snuffled around Henry’s pockets and Morgan’s hair seeking out carrots and other treats as well as providing his own animal greeting. But through the melee, Elsa pressed through to wrap Emma in a fiercely tight hug for several long moments. When she did pull back, it was with a watery smile and unshed tears in her eyes to match those which started in Emma’s.

“I’m so glad all of you have come,” she stated fervently, that sweet, melodious voice trembling with sincerity beyond its usual poise. “Come in, come in. We’ll get you warm and settled, then we can get caught up.”

Emma nodded, pressing the queen’s hand tightly in her own, before turning to grab more luggage and unfasten Westley from his car seat to do as Elsa suggested.

“Let me help you,” her friend offered, holding out her arms to take the still-sleepy child so Emma could reach the suitcase behind. “May I?”

Emma didn’t hesitate for even a second, easily passing her just-barely-stirring-to-wakefulness infant into her friend’s arms, moving her hand gently so Elsa could cradle Westley’s head and crooning lowly to him until he settled again, rooting deeper into the young queen’s arms as a pleased and rosy smile pinked her cheeks.

Throwing a surreptitious glance over to Killian, only to find him watching her with a comforting smile that already knew where her mind had gone and wished he could undo the old hurt, Emma shook her head to clear the memory as best she could and send her husband a small grin as reassurance that she would be fine. As much as she had tried to banish the moment from her mind, and as much as the sharpest stinging slap of betrayal had faded, Emma still saw her own mother pulling little Neal away from her, protectively fearing her magic and not letting Emma hold her younger brother. Intellectually, Emma knew her mother loved her, magic or no, realized that the knee-jerk reaction had not been aimed to hurt her… and yet… it had.

Watching Elsa as various emotions flitted across her face while cradling her friend’s youngest in her arms, gazing down at the drowsy babe adoringly, Emma knew Elsa had felt that same fear and suspicion she had, and that perhaps Elsa had almost resignedly expected her request to be denied, knew that parental protectiveness all too well, and had been thrilled when she was granted trust instead.

Little Westley Graham did nothing more than flutter his eyelids briefly without fully rousing and gave a slight coo of contentment as the Queen bowed her head to press a light kiss to the top of his downy, sandy-colored hair. “Come on then everyone,” she suggested cheerfully, looking as merry and confident as they had ever seen her and leaving Emma blessedly assured of her friend’s happiness. “There’s hot chocolate with plenty of marshmallows in the large sitting room.”

She led the way, with Killian, Henry, and Kristoff bringing up the rear to make sure no overexcited little girls, snowmen, or reindeer were left behind. It didn’t take long to find their luggage placed in their rooms, their coats and snow boots shucked off, and all of them seated comfortably scattered around the large open room full of soft chairs and sofas, a roaring fire in the hearth at one end, and plates of toast and jam, cookies, doughnuts, scones and a whole pot of rich hot chocolate with marshmallows set out for the taking.

Conversation hummed warmly throughout the room as the kids played; Henry showing Olaf, Sonja, and his little sister how to make a chain of snow angels for the tree while the four adults caught up on all that had happened since they were last together. Westley had woken up, but to everyone’s surprise, the little boy had not cried or fussed for his mother, and so Elsa still held him gladly. His guileless blue eyes, the mirrored hue of his pirate father’s, blinked up at her curiously, looked more enthralled that concerned by the less familiar person holding him. One pudgy little hand unclenched to reach up toward her almost startlingly white braid and wrapped around the end of it, tugging gently with his tiny fist, and burbling happily as he did.

Elsa practically giggled, a musical, enchanting sound that the rest of them had rarely heard, and a light carefree look graced her face beautifully. “You really are quite a sweetheart, aren’t you?” she whispered to the little one softly.

She did eventually hand Westley back to Emma when he began to wiggle and wanted to eat. Once Emma returned with him after his feeding, she found the Queen of Arendelle seated cross-legged on the floor with Morgan and her niece watching wide-eyed beside her as Elsa effortlessly shaped and reshaped whorls and twists of ice into glittering ornaments she handed them to place on a tree they had left bare for that very entertainment. The girls let out little ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of excitement and surprise with each shape that seemed to bloom from Elsa’s hands into thin air. Each new creation brough exclamations of delight, and the two children then ran to their papas at the tree to lift them up to place them high on the branches, then hurried back to see what ‘Auntie Elsa’ would create next.

As the decorating eventually wound down, the two little whirlwinds huffing and puffing from all their trips back and forth over the length of the room, and Elsa lightly chuckling at their theatrics, Killian came to sit near them as well, gathering Morgan into his lap and nodding encouraging at Sonja until she scooted up close to his side as well. Soon he was telling them a story of the first time he saw snow fall at sea as a young lad. He remembered how it looked trailing down to rest on nearly frozen arctic water, where their captain had unwisely taken them too far north for the season.

He was relating how his older brother Liam had distracted him by encouraging his wonder at the beauty of the sight. Killian himself had not realized until much later - a similar instance on his own ship facing the very real danger of ice floes in the water and the precarious travel a ship must make in the depths of winter driving the memory home - just how much danger they had been in that night as he had simply marveled at what seemed to his young mind cold falling stars of sparkling light. “He said each one was unique - no other could exactly take the place of the one before. Like people, Liam said they were…” Killian nearly whispered this last over the sudden lump in his throat, seemingly lost in another time and place. Emma reached out a hand to rest upon his knee, and he came back to them with a bit of a start, the faroff gaze clearing from his eyes. “Like us even,” he added. “We might have been expendable slaves to most - but we mattered, at least to each other, and he always made sure I knew that.”

Both of their daughters had drifted off to sleep by then; the excitement of the day overtaking them once they had settled in to listen to Killian’s quiet, lilting voice. Kristoff came to lift Sonja from Killian’s side to carry her to her room, wishing the rest of them goodnight. Anna followed with a contented wave as Sven trailed behind, headed outside to his barn to bed down for the night.

Queen Elsa’s gaze remained on Killian, though the story had finished. There was a melancholy, almost wistful, look within her light eyes as she seemed to consider the story yet. “He sounds like the best sort of big brother,” she finally said to Killian softly, and gentle and a bit sad smile curving her lips. “I wish I could have met him….” This last was said almost hesitantly, as if she herself did not quite know why it had slipped out, and yet she nodded determinedly after, as if confirming the sentiment.

“I wish you could have met him too, Milady,” Killian answered fervently, his voice a bit hoarse and husky with the regret and pain of still missing his elder sibling, even after ages had passed. “Maybe it’s just something about the way a younger sibling sees a beloved older one, but at times I can see something of Liam in you.”

Elsa smiled once more, gratefully accepting what for Killian must be the highest compliment he could give someone. The three of them settled into a sort of peaceful remembrance of those no longer with them - bittersweet but not unpleasant, as they were reminiscing of good times and not just their loss - before she rose as well to retire for the night.

Her exit left Emma and Killian seated cozily before the fire together, one last mug of hot chocolate in each of their hands and the silent beauty of the room around them, still decked out for Christmas, and snow still falling outside, weaving a lovely spell. Tilting her head up, Emma found Killian’s lips waiting to capture hers tenderly, sipping from them as if they were even more delicious than the chocolate and twice as precious. “I love you, my Darling,” he murmured against her cheek as his kisses trailed back to the spot behind her ear that made her melt on the spot.

Practically keening back that she loved him too, Emma held her husband even tighter, wanting nothing else she could possibly imagine in that moment. As she gazed into Killian’s blue, blue eyes she could see the future of them, and their family, together, and she knew the coming year would be their best one yet.

Tagging: @cssecretsanta2k19 @xhookswenchx @searchingwardrobes @kmomof4 @jennjenn615 @whimsicallyenchantedrose @thisonesatellite @profdanglaisstuff @resident-of-storybrooke @revanmeetra87 @teamhook @hollyethecurious@winterbaby89 @darkcolinodonorgasm @hollyethecurious @gingerchangeling @spartanguard @lfh1226-linda

#cssecretsanta2k19 #cs canon divergence #cs holiday oneshot #ouat holiday au

44 notes · View notes

kurogabae · 6 years

Text

Tsubasa: Trainwreck Chronicles

And Why Bee Train Has Failed Me Not Only as a Company, but as a Concept in General; an Essay by Popular Demand

part 1 -- part 2

In part 1 (linked above) I spoke about the anime adaptations of the opening/introductions of our main cast through Jade and our first filler. These were episodes 1-16. Out of 26 for the season and 52 for the series. I don’t feel like my time has been wasted with pointless, endless, literally 30+ second long shots of characters staring at each other or into the distance for no reason. No. Not at all. Those moments added a lot of needed and organic tension and suspense.

Really.

But Sakura gazing longingly at a giant fish aside, we’re going to get into what is probably my most hated canon arc of the anime - Outo. Now, I loved Outo in the manga, it was an amazing world and it really kick started a lot of character and plot developments in TRC, not to mention that it was just generally a lot of fun. It was the longest world thus far and it had had the most characters in it as well. Outo was great. It’s one of my favorite worlds, right along side Piffle and fanon!Yama.

Bee Train did me dirty guys. Real dirty.

Outo:

So the animation swings wildly in this arc from “yeah that’s not so bad” to “Fai is that your hair or a giant yellow spider eating your head?” - pretty par for the course as far as the anime goes. Mostly. But then we have the changes to plot, both for the sake of the Children(tm) and... Just Because? It’s also in Outo that we start really noticing that whoever was in charge of directing the music usage was really just throwing music at the animation and hoping something stuck.

I’ll try to keep this linear but I make no promises.

We start off pretty normal - arrive, greeted by The Ladies, whisked off to City Hall. Fai gives them all their delightful Outo names while Syaoran looks on in a mild panic. They buy the cafe and get attacked - and here I have my First Issue.

For some reason, probably to make me hate them more than I already do, they change the events of the Oni attack just enough that Kurogane doesn’t grab Sakura out of the way of the ambush, iirc Fai grabs her. This might seem like nothing, but the anime has kept Kurogane and Sakura’s interactions to basically zero and if someone were to only watch the anime they would miss out on a lot of very small but meaningful moments between those two. Also, it’s important to me okay!

Morning comes and plot is still basically on track - Syaoran and Kurogane become oni hunters and Fai and Sakura open the cafe.

Now, when the family gets their costume changes, things get a little odd and the music is to blame. Sakura wakes up and goes to greet the family, who are all wearing what they’ll be sporting for the rest of Outo. As her view pans (ba-dum tss) over each of them a weird smooth jazz sort of music starts to play. I don’t know what to call it, but the tone makes it feel vaguely sexual/romantic, or at least like that’s what the intent is. Now if this had happened over Syaoran alone it probably wouldn’t have been weird, but funny. It doesn’t just happen to Syaoran though, Kurogane gets the music too (Fai is the first she sees and the music only starts playing as Sakura begins to look away). It’s a really strange music choice for this moment.

When Sakura changes into her cafe maid outfit and the boys see her it isn’t just a Sakura and Syaoran moment, which would be fine. If they weren’t playing that music again. And also Kurogane hyuus. At Sakura. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It was all very weird. I didn’t like it. Could have been just me.

Night one of oni hunting is here and so is another change that I don’t understand? Before when they added characters to the scene it was Sakura and I assumed it was them trying to give her more screen time, but Sakura is very much left out of this whole bit while Fai, who should be back at the cafe with her preparing to open up a business, is with Kurogane and Syaoran. Why? “I like to watch you at work, Kuro-sama.” (Which would have been simply amazing foreshadowing if we were ever going to so much as glance at Fai’s backstory in the anime, which we aren’t. Hell, at this point we don’t even know what it is because Celes hasn’t been published yet, so Bee Train is pulling this out of their ass. What a waste.)

Syaoran and Kurogane kill some oni, there’s very vague talk about Syaoran’s blind eye (they never outright say he’s blind in it, just that he “has trouble with it”), and we get to meet Yuzuriha and Kusanagi. Syaoran does not fawn over Inuki and I am once again personally insulted. It’s here that Kurogane learns about the names.

Fai manages to make it all the way back to the Cafe alive before Kurogane corners him. Also, even though Fai was gone all night with the puppies he still has a chocolate cake made and ready to serve to Yuzuriha and Kusanagi after they follow his and Kurogane’s immature murder trail home. Which is frankly bullshit. I know Sakura didn’t make that cake.

Syaoran and Kurogane don’t have to fight to prove their worth to the information seller, which is whatever I guess. Probably just trying to save time and budget, but that didn’t really help you now did it Bee Train?

Now, surprisingly, I actually liked the change they made to the bar scene/the fight before the bar. Fai and Kurogane don’t have their Moment in the bar, since this time they’ve missed Oruha and will have to come back. And instead of fighting on the way to the bar, the oni attack them on their way home. The song “Kaze no Machi he” plays over not only the KuroFai vs oni fight, but also sweet moments between Syaoran and Sakura in the cafe, effectively setting a very nice parallel between the two couples while still contrasting them. It’s a wonderful scene and it’s part of what makes me so extra mad at Bee Train for how they treated the whole series, because they clearly know how to do their jobs, they were just too lazy to give TRC the effort and care it deserved.

It was a really great scene and I would suggest watching just that couple of minutes, even if you don’t watch anything else from the Bee Train anime, simply because of how well it’s put together. Was it all just a happy editing accident? Maybe, but it’s one that I love.

Of course, like all things I love, Seishirou soon shows up to ruin them. This time with bad special effects.

This is of course after a pretty much canon-compliant intro to Ryuu-ou and Souma, complete with Kurogane dropping his freshly injured boyfriend on the ground in shock. Followed by pouting that I will take as a personal apology.

It’s not enough to make up for the lack of drunken shenanigans. Not even close.

Syaoran’s learned that not all of life’s problems can be solved by kicking. Sometimes you need to stab them. He asks Kurogane to teach him, but unlike in the manga where this is a sweet, if somber, moment between just the pair of them, Fai is, again, on the scene where he shouldn’t be. He’s also acting rather bitchy and tells Syaoran that if Kurogane teaches him to use a sword he needs to be ready to kill with it. Now this new dialogue is fucked up on a couple of levels.

Firstly, this is the same night Kurogane just lectured Fai about valuing his own life and admitted to killing more people than he could count in order to protect what he considered important to him. I’m sure we’re meant to read this as a type of semi-protective warning on Fai’s part towards Syaoran, but it comes off as petty at best and out right cruel at worst, to both Syaoran and Kurogane. Syaoran because he’s thirteen and he just wants to help save the love of his life who he is convinced he’ll never get back. Kurogane because he’s having this thing that’s pretty central to him at this point in his life thrown in his face with venom and treated like a danger towards his own adopted son.

Second, and big spoilers, if you’re watching this after Tokyo and Celes have been published (which at the time of the airing they were not) Fai telling Syaoran to “be prepared to kill” is fucked up. It’s clear in Tokyo that Fai has known for a while (we don’t find out how long exactly until Celes) that Syaoran is a clone. He also has known that Syaoran is a very real threat, basically a ticking time bomb. Fai would not be egging him on like this.

So, the whole exchange is very drastically changed in tone by giving Fai a small handful of lines, and in my humble onion it isn’t for the better.

Do you wanna know what is better though? The quality of these weapons compared to the everything else that’s been seen in Outo so far, and we don’t get better. The animation takes a noticeable dip from here on out. It’s especially noticeable because Bee Train has gotten into the habit of padding episodes with flashbacks and recaps of things we saw only a few episodes ago like they’re fucking Naruto and when you cut from one of the decently animated flashbacks to the current shitshow it’s really jarring.

Quality aside (for the moment) the puppies finally get their swords but before they had left, Sakura asks Syaoran about what he and Kurogane are planning to do during the day. It’s a fair question since they’re heading out early, but no oni can be hunted until night. For some reason he doesn’t tell her they’re going to get weapons? Or that he’s going to train with Kurogane? He just says “It’s nothing to worry about” and like... why?

On several levels why. First we have the whole why have Sakura ask if Syaoran’s not even going to tell her anything - maybe to add tension, as if they didn’t have enough, maybe to add angst, as if they didn’t have enough. He’s got no reason to hide this. She knows he hunts oni, telling her he’s going to better arm himself would only be a good thing, hell if he really wanted to avoid saying that he was going to get a sword he could have said that he was going with Kurogane to get one since Kurogane’s broke the night before. Second, Syaoran not answering only makes Sakura feel bad and worry more and I’ve never been so frustrated in my life. Yes, Syaoran tries to keep things from hurting Sakura but in the manga he doesn’t treat her like spun glass.

And then Mokona just tells her anyway so honestly the entire exchange was 95% meaningless and I demand to know who made these choices so I can meet them in the pit!!

Really the purpose is probably to waste time and pad the episode, but there’s enough in Outo that they really shouldn’t need to do this? But hey, what do I know? I’ve only read this series 10 times and done I can’t tell you how many analysis essays on the characters and plot. Surely some hacks who probably only glanced over the material know better.

So now Kurogane is throwing rocks at Syaoran. Not a whole lot is different for a while - we throw rocks at Syaoran, we blindfold Syaoran, we leave Syaoran all on his own to wander the city, Ryuu-ou stops Syaoran from getting his ass kicked by oni that he’s too focused on puzzling out to dodge, they flirt, they flirt so much.

Ryuu-ou takes Syaoran to see the Biggest and Prettiest cherry blossom tree in Outo, because Ryuu-ou goes big or not at all and he’s got a boy to woo.

Meanwhile, Fai has gotten a piano for the cafe that he can’t play and Sakura can speak to musical instruments, kinda. After another TouYuki cameo where they don’t recognize Sakura, Fai leaves Sakura to look after the cafe for reasons I can’t recall but that are probably dumb. Oruha shows up and she and Sakura have a Magical Musical Moment where Oruha plays the deus ex baby grand and learns all about how Sakura can’t remember Syaoran and somehow sees all the memories that Sakura can’t see/doesn’t have and folks I could not tell you what this adds to the story other than more confusion to people new to the series and frustration to people who have read the manga.

Let me break it down - Sakura doesn’t have these memories. Yuuko literally took them away as payment, they no longer exist. If they try to exist Sakura goes through a soft reset as seen earlier in this arc. Oruha should not be able to access them, super special VR powers be damned. The memories aren’t there to access. 404: Childhood Friendship not found.

This is all without touching on the creep factor of someone casually rooting around in Sakura’s head without her knowledge or permission. Hasn’t she’s lost enough autonomy?

Magic Music Memory time over, Oruha leaves and we’re spoiled and shown that Outo is VR and not actually the world we think it is, ruining both a really neat reveal and the weight of Syaoran and Fai’s “deaths” later in the arc. Do you want suspense and angst or not Bee Train?!?!

After reading some notes I had on the anime I think Fai left Sakura alone to go drinking with Kurogane because it’s now that they have their Moment in the Clover bar and finally meet Oruha (who stopped at the Cat’s Eye, sang with Sakura and read her mind, and then popped back to Clover because fuck you).

So. The dads are drinking and gathering info, the boys are flirting, and Sakura is doing what she did in Hanshin - where she enters zombie mode and autopilots towards her feather. Yuzuriha appears in the nick of time to stop Sakura from meeting Seishirou and for this I think she should receive a medal of some sort in all honesty.

As the girlfriends make their way back to Cat’s Eye Seishirou summons a Giant Deku Baba (seriously, Nintendo should look into copyright) and attacks the boyfriends. Ryuu-ou has to, once again, pull Syaoran out of harm’s way as he stands there aghast at the sudden turn of events. Things get a little too close to becoming a very uncomfortable tentacle based hentai and everyone escapes with their lives and virtue intact.

Syaoran tries to defend Seishirou’s honor because he thinks Seishirou has honor to defend, but no one is buying it. We also get a brief look at our resident Lava Lamp Dweller (who I might remind you all we never get answers about in ANY form in the anime) before we are swiftly moving along to another moment between Syaoran and Sakura where he’s pretty much lying to her face about things he doesn’t need to lie about and Sakura ought to chew him out.

Why? Why Bee Train? This is so OOC. Rewrite this fanfic.

It’s Tower of Terror time and Kurogane is Delighted about the 3% chance of survival he’s been handed. So far we’re back on track. Except we’re not.

Manga readers will remember looking back on this as one of our first Big Hints about Kurogane’s past - his hang ups about the demons leaving behind no bones or bodies of their past victims, implying that they’ve been eaten whole, and how that seemed to bother him. There’s the vaguest of hints that Kurogane still has a personal grudge with demons here in the anime, but it’s a lot less impactful and I don’t know how much meaning it would have to someone who didn’t have prior manga knowledge to fall back on. I feel like it falls a bit flat (especially once we see how Kurogane’s past has been sterilized for a younger audience).

Aside from that, the tower is more or less the same, bad hentai jokes and all.

Things also go very similarly at the cafe - Sakura works herself up into a tizzy and passes out, Fai feels the first emotion outside of Guilt and Horny he’s felt in upwards of a century, and Mokona tells him that he’s fine and that no, that’s not heartburn it’s affection.

Enter King Trashface. He’s holding the feather in some sort of weird space disco ball? Not the worst thing, just an odd choice? He and Fai exchange words (starting with Fai telling Seishirou to fuck off in the most polite way ever) - during which Fai’s animation makes it seem that the closer Fai gets to “death” the more his face distorts, which is terrible and hilarious.

Before Fai gets turned into demon chow though, Seishirou calls him out on being Mr. Deathwish, especially since Fai is fighting without using magic that could very possibly save him. At this point Fai flashes back to his and Kurogane’s “how about we don’t die” talk earlier and Fai says that he might want to live after all. Which is like. Bullshit at this point in the journey. He doesn’t want to live, he really really doesn’t and the very fact that he’s not using his magic is proof positive of that (see: Le Court). Though also, even with a bum ankle he thinks he can take Seishirou until he pulls out the feather. At which point Fai basically tells Mokona to pay attention to how he dies so she can tell the others about it. Which is so... against what he just said?

This is well before we ever see even a manga version of Fai with anything resembling self preservation or a proper will to live, but we have enough of his character for the anime writers to know that this is a very big leap for him to be taking so soon. I feel like if they wanted to give him a hopeful outlook (which is what I think they were trying to do after coming off the scene with Sakura and Mokona) they could have had him seem more wishy-washy about it, or phrased it as a curiosity. “Something I didn’t expect has happened and I wanna see where it goes” is a much better way for him to have made the same statement. At least in my opinion.

Anyway, he dies and I find his death scene really funny because you just see his legs dangling slowly and it’s so... idk it might just be me but I couldn’t stop laughing.

Now I am pretty sure Seishirou causes this but Outo starts glitching. Everything starts going full Matrix rainbows on us and all the NPCs vanish. Souma is worried about the game falling apart and Ryuu-ou and Yuzuriha are both worried about their potential love lives new friends.

Here we come to a few things I very much HATE that were changed. Once Fai is dead Sakura goes zombie again and starts to follow after her feather/Seishirou before the puppies get home, so only Mokona is there waiting. This means I have lost yet ANOTHER FATHER-DAUGHTER MOMENT!! It also means that when Syaoran runs after Seishirou and gets murderized she not only sees it happen but... dies? with? him? Because she hugs him while the game is transporting him out? I dunno. It’s bad and dumb and I hate it.

So Kurogane thinks they’re ALL DEAD, which is great. It’s not like he isn’t already having a bad enough day. Not that you could tell by looking because the animation doesn’t have him emote at all. He looks basically bored as Mokona tells them that Fai is dead while Syaoran is a step away from a full on meltdown. @beetrain you do know that Kurogane has emotions other than anger and Fight Me(tm) right?

And now Seishirou is idk posturing? Bragging? He talks about how there’s no one left to oppose him now that the 13 year olds are dead, completely ignoring the pissed off ninja murder machine that has nothing left to lose that’s coming for his sorry ass. I don’t remember him being that cocky in the manga? Am I misremembering or did the anime somehow make Seishirou even more unlikable? Either way, Kurogane finds the slimeball and, to my extreme annoyance, only asks if he killed Fai and Syaoran - not Sakura - even though he believes all of them to be dead. The anime keeps doing this and I have ranted about it so much I’ll spare you the retyping. For now.

A quick list of minor things that happen that I dislike:

Fai’s coat and Sakura’s cloak both pull random appearing and disappearing acts between episodes

No one is even a little surprised when Syaoran’s sword sets itself on fire

The pacing could kill a man. Unfortunately Seishirou lives.

My soap opera isn’t real and this is

Seishirou knows Syaoran is a clone and drops hints about something we are never getting resolution to

Oruha, after allowing Seishirou to fuck off, just, you know, tells Sakura that she has missing memories of Syaoran

Memories that she somehow was able to access even though they no longer exist within Sakura

If Yuuko says no memories she means NO MEMORIES!!!

FWR watches the demon rampage across Edonis. He’s probably reminiscing. Like an asshole.

Outo wraps up and is it the worst of the arcs? No. But am I bitter about the things that were done to it because it changed a lot of fundamental things about the characters and the plot? Yes.

See you next time, where I’ll probably talk about more than one arc. Until then, have this.

[part 1] [part 2]

#Tsubasa Trainwreck Chronicles #my meta #TRC #spoilersTRC

23 notes · View notes

impishnature · 7 years

Text

Life Aboard The Stan’O’War

AO3

Sequel to The Light Keeper The Adventure of A Lifetime,

Rating: T

Summary: The Stan twins are finally setting off on the adventure of a lifetime, both ready to face whatever the sea has to throw at them. Though, sometimes…. it might not be the sea they have to worry about. At least the Stan’O’War will weather whatever storms they find themselves sailing through. Lighthouse Keeper AU.

A series of oneshots.

AN: There were too many cute conversations about this AU. I will write all the things. The next chapter is already up on patreon here. Come check it out!

Part 2: Casper

For the most part, their sibling antics and arguments were just that - purely superficial and utterly playful in nature.

Neither of them meant any harm, Ford knew Stan was taking great glee in having him back to rile up in any way, shape or form and really, he couldn’t fault him for that.

After all, as much as part of him had to groan and roll his eyes at Stan’s mischief, he really did love being there with him too. And hearing Stan’s amazingly terrible puns was just part and parcel of the experience.

Not to mention as much as he would deny it to anyone listening, he gave as good as he got when he could.

It wasn’t one sided, the sibling banter and childish teasing that sent them both into almost affronted shock before the laughter set in. It was like they were children all over again, reliving the humour and antics they had once had then.

Two small kids left alone to their devices.

Of course they were going to get into trouble, egging one another on.

Of course they couldn’t help just trying to push the limits and tease relentlessly when nothing else was occupying their minds.

That was the way with siblings. Even ones that got on like a house on fire had their moments, their own inside jokes and silly remarks that no one else understood.

Unfortunately, in most instances, his nose was deep into his research giving his brother ample opportunity to come up with small quips and jabs that he really wasn’t expecting.

Even if in a lot of circumstances... he really should have seen them coming.

Stan had old favourites, after all. Ones that he just couldn’t seem to help himself from using especially when Ford left himself wide open.

“Are we almost there yet? You’ve been making me hike up this god damn mountain for hours now.”

Ford rolled his eyes for the two seconds he could afford to before his gaze darted back to the compass in one hand and the scribbled map in his journal in the other, trying to pinpoint the landmarks that he had noted down in miniscule writing wherever he could on the same page. “Stan, we haven’t even been walking for an hour yet, don’t exaggerate.”

“Exaggerate? You’re the one that’s gonna get us lost in the mountains looking for a place that doesn’t exist! So remind me again, who exactly is exaggerating?”

Ford huffed, turning to his brother with an irritated noise that was on the crest of being a snarl of a remark before he saw the soft smile on his face. He deflated with another roll of his eyes. “You know this place exists as well as I do, Stan.”

Stan shrugged, glancing around the landscape with a look of boredom. “Who knows, none of the people we asked at port had ever actually seen it. All word of mouth from their ‘great grandmas’ or ‘grandpas’ or whatever even older relative had managed to somehow tell the story.” He hunched his back over, glaring reproachfully at Ford with a pointing finger, eyes sparkling playfully behind the mock scowl. “Remember what I told you! You stay away from those woods at night, otherwise you might find the-” Stan paused, frowning thoughtfully before shrugging and continuing. “You might find the ghost town and never return! Just like your long lost Great Great Cousin Jimmy- or whatever his name was.”

Ford couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped him. “Really? You’ve forgotten the name of the town already?”

Stan’s grin only widened as he shrugged again, his entire demeanour playful and teasing. “What can I say? I didn’t see the point of remembering the name of a place that doesn’t exist. That’s for your storybook.”

“Oi! It’s a journal and you know it.” Ford scowled, clutching the item tight to his chest. “Besides, you’re one to talk.” He smirked, amusement bubbling up at his brother before with that final utterance, he turned back around, continuing his hike into the foliage.

“Wait? What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hmm? Oh, nothing.” Ford looked over his shoulder with a grin. “Just you seemed pretty serious when you listened to those ‘old wives tales’ when someone’s Grandma was actually there to tell you about them herself. And I’m also pretty sure you wouldn’t act so flippantly if it was Soos’s Abuelita who was telling you those stories. You seemed to take her stories to heart when you took me to meet her before we left.”

He turned forward yet again, hearing a defeated little huff of a noise from his brother.

“Yeah well, her stories about the lighthouse always hit a bit close to home. Wouldn’t have much common sense if I ignored her other stories, now would I?”

Ford hummed in agreement, letting the matter slide, done with his teasing now that Stan had admitted defeat. His brother came up to walk beside him, nudging his shoulder as he looked down at the journal between them.

“So? How far to this Imber then?”

“Oh? So you do remember then?” Ford raised an eyebrow as Stan nudged him again with a roll of his eyes.

“Of course I do, you haven’t stopped going on about this place for the last week. It’d be hard not to.” Stan sniffed, looking away from him. “Didn’t want you thinking I didn’t listen to ya. Even if I don’t always understand it all, I do try and listen.”

Ford hummed appreciatively, nudging him back. “Oh yeah? So what was that all about then?”

“Bored.” Stan’s grin turned cheeky, teeth gleaming brightly in a way very reminiscent of times when he’d stopped Ford from studying in a similar manner when they were a lot younger.

“Really? You’re bored? We’re about to find a ghost town that nobody has seen in decades and you’re bored?” Ford almost stopped but his feet kept propelling him forward, even as his face scrunched up in obvious confusion. “How on Earth can you be-”

“You stopped rambling not long after we started the trek.”

Ford did stop them, thrown for a loop as Stan continued to walk forward without even noticing. “I- what?”

Stan shrugged, stretching as he looked around the area. “I mean, not that I always get what you’re talking about but you stopped answering most of my questions a while back. Too engrossed in that map of yours. Thought something like that might pull you back to the world of the living again.”

Ford seemed lost for words as he glanced at his hands. “I- but I need to keep track of where we’re going.”

Stan hummed, smirking slightly as he shook his head. “Sure you do. So, come on Poindexter, which way are we headed?”

“North?” Ford blinked a few times owlishly as Stan nodded and continued through the plant growth, following the gesture that had accompanied Ford’s words. He shook his head, jumping to catch up and make sure they didn’t miss their next landmark as Stan hummed under his breath to himself, his boredom obviously sated. He waited a few more moments, running over the conversation in his head. “I take it that was a hint to interact more?”

Stan snorted at his choice of phrase. “What am I, a science project? It got quiet and I got bored, that’s all.” He eyed up Ford’s journal with a small amount of amusement. “Feel free to go back to your storybook now. I just wanted to make sure you were actually capable of hearing me.”

Ford shook his head, closing his eyes for a second in endearing irritation. Sometimes he forgot that Stan’s interests lay elsewhere and the thrill of a ghost town that by assumption could be completely and utterly empty held little in the way of intriguing his brother like it did himself.

Stan liked the hustle and bustle, the liveliness of their adventures- the monsters, the creatures, the treasure. This probably sounded as stuffy to him as them sitting in a library all day.

No monster in sight, no cursed treasure or people to save.

Just a mystery to solve, one long past and not quite as present as Stan needed to hook him in.

Though Ford was sure that even in these cases, usually his own enthusiasm could rub off on him if he worded it right, if he explained the mystery in the right terms to get Stan thinking about it instead of shutting down to his ramblings without even attempting to follow his train of thought.

He frowned thoughtfully, skimming back over their interactions over the last few days at port.

…Perhaps he hadn’t done enough of that this time round.

Sure, Stan had accompanied him as they spoke to people around town, listened intently to their warnings and half-forgotten tales, but he hadn’t been through the nearby records to find the other written accounts, the ones that added more and more mysteries to the remarks and made him all the more curious to get to the bottom of it all.

He shook himself when he felt Stan’s eyes on him, his face now slightly concerned and nervous, as if he thought he’d done something wrong and Ford couldn’t have that. “Noted.”

“Noted? What that you’re carrying a storybook? Cause you never usually agree-”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve used my research in the past, thank you very much.” Ford straightened his back, the snarky comment slipping through without help though he was glad for Stan’s returning grin at the words.

“Yeah- for the Mystery Shack, I needed some good fairy tales for that.”

Ford gave him a scathing look over the top of his glasses. “You know that’s not what I meant, Mr Lighthouse Keeper.”

Stan bit his lip, obviously trying not to laugh at the successful rise he was getting in response. “Alright, alright… one of your stories turned out to be real.”

Ford took a deep breath, biting down on his tongue as he looked back down at the compass to check they were going the right direction before walking straight ahead again, head held high as he brushed past his brother.

The silence didn't last long however, the words at the back of his throat refusing to be quashed. “And for the record, yes I am perfectly capable of hearing and getting us there at the same time.”

“Noted.” Stan parroted back good humouredly before going back to following behind his brother.

There were a few beats of silence before he spoke again, amusement in his words as if he wondered if Ford had zoned out again.

“Well I guess there’s only one way to find out. Next time I get bored I’ll just get the harmonica out instead of striking up a conversation.”

“Oh god no.” Ford turned to him, a look of almost horror on his face at the evil grin residing on his brother’s. Stan was actually quite good at the musical instrument if he put his mind to it.

‘If’ being the crucial part of that statement.

“Oh, you can hear me still. Good to know.”

Ford bit down on his lip to stop himself from joining in the childish antics and sticking his tongue out triumphantly. He instead threw the compass to his brother, watching him flail with it for a few seconds in perplexity before explaining. “Here, I’ll have the map, you have the compass. Good way to keep you occupied?”

As much as Ford expected some kind of annoyed response at the sudden responsibility, his brother seemed taken aback by the notion, eyes going between the compass and Ford with little twitching movements.

“You really trust me with that?”

Ford’s eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

“I mean, I’m not actually trying to distract you from navigating or anything. Just-” Stan gestured widely albeit uselessly before looking down almost hopefully at the compass. “You know?”

“Yeah, I know.” The quiet didn’t suit Stan. “And yes I trust you to use a compass. So, how about I get out of my head and you stop being a distraction and we both work towards us getting there?”

Stan beamed, the most genuine smile of the day. “Sounds like a plan! Lead the way, Sixer, what are we looking for?”

“OK, so, we need to go North until we see…” Ford stood close to him, pulling the map out for both of them to see as he pinpointed the trail they needed to take and the next landmark they needed to keep an eye out for.

He knew the journey would be slower going this way, even with the extra pair of eyes.

But really, even he had to admit, it was a lot more fun from that point onwards.

“Is this it? Are we actually here?” Ford could feel the excitement coming off of him in waves, could hear the snort of pure amusement from his brother as his eyes no doubt lit up as they ran gleefully over the derelict old buildings covered in thick trailing vines that seemed to bend and crack them further into distorted versions of their former selves.

A sight no one had seen for so long and here they were, ready to document everything possible. To shed light on everything that had happened there.

When there was no response, just a warm good natured amusement beside him, his mouth ran away with him.

“Come on, Stanley! This is it! This is the Ghost Town we’ve been looking for! Aren’t you even the tiniest bit intrigued?”

“It’s not a Ghost Town.”

Ford blinked, taking a quick step back. His mind raced ahead, eyes now scanning for forms of life, expecting to see whatever Stan had seen. Nothing seemed to catch his eye though, no movement, no lights. He opened his mouth to say as much, his face scrunching up in confusion as he tried his best to gather whatever Stan had.

But before the words had even made it up his throat he felt a sudden sharp shove to his back.

He stumbled forward a few paces, past the threshold into the town, his demeanour changing instantly. Due to a few of their fast paced adventures already he caught himself quickly, spinning around as he slipped to find the culprit, eyes narrow and face serious, hand twitching to the weapon at his hip.

Until all he found was a pondering, thoughtful Stan, whose mouth kept twitching into the grin he was so desperately trying to hide. “Stan? What-?”

“Oh, guess I was wrong.”

“What?”

Stan’s pondering mask cracked even further, a rumble of chuckles escaping him along with the words. “Well, now it’s a Ghost Town.”

Ford continued to stare at him for a few moments, lost to his brother’s whims until it all hit him in one fell swoop, his body relaxing even as a deep disappointed groan escaped him. “Really? How long have you been waiting to use that particular joke? Since we started looking for this place or on the walk up here?”

Stan shrugged, eyes alight with mischief. “Who knows, I’ve always got a joke up my sleeve, you know that.”

“Well I hope you didn’t spend too long thinking up that one.” Ford did indulge in some childish behaviour this time, sticking his tongue out petulantly, though it only seemed to add to Stan’s glee.

“Aww, don’t be like that. Casper’s a classic joke!”

“If you say so.” Ford grumbled under his breath, tuning out the near constant giggles that were now erupting out of Stan. Instead he focused on his equipment, getting out the anomaly detectors and other small creations he’d fashioned just for the occasion.

They walked deeper into the town, finding a small well-trodden path through the buildings that had become overrun with brambles. The entire area had been lost to time and though he itched to enter the buildings, he thought it best to give the entire place a quick scan first, marking down a crude map to find their route back the way that had come again if need be as they went.

The small machine in his hand gave a sudden sharp beep, Ford stopping in his tracks as he waited for it to continue. A hushed excited whisper left him as he turned back to his brother who was giving him a small curious tilt of the head as he waited expectantly. “Stan.” He could almost feel himself buzzing at the thought as he brought the piece of equipment up for his brother to see, his voice still quiet and exuberant. “There’s a presence nearby!”

“A ghostly presence?”

Ford nodded happily, exasperated by Stan’s slow uptake. “Yes, if you like. A ghostly presence nearby.”

“There’s always a ghostly presence nearby, Casper.” Stan spoke at a normal volume though it sounded loud and reverberating through Ford’s hissing words. “You made sure to set your equipment accordingly, right? Don’t wanna skew the findings with your own ghostliness, now do you?”

“God damn it, Stanley!”

“What? I’m just saying-”

“Will you take this seriously?!”

“Now, why would I do that? You’re taking it seriously enough for the both of us.”

As much as he really wanted to be annoyed at the constant barrage of jokes, he couldn’t seem to stop his mouth twitching upwards at Stan’s booming heady laughter behind him, slap bang in the middle of the echoing stone cold atmosphere of the abandoned place they’d found themselves in.

Stood in the middle of a possibly haunted town and Stan was giggling like they were at a terrible tourist attraction.

Trust Stan to take it all lightly, it had kept them going for this long.

And really, he’d rather this outright refusal to be serious than the cautious nervous shell that his brother had been when he’d asked him to go sailing in the first place.

It was good to have him back, in all his childish glory.

Even if that meant dealing with his frankly terrible jokes.

AN: ALL THE FLUFF! ALL THE PUNS 8D HAPPY GRUNKS

#gravity falls fanfiction #gravity falls #lighthouse keeper au #stanley pines #stanford pines #grunkle ford #grunkle stan #the light keeper

47 notes · View notes

lorrainecparker · 7 years

Text

After Effects: revisiting feature requests from 2008

June 2008 seems like a long time ago now. Adobe had only just released After Effects CS3 and I was mostly working on a G5 PowerMac. Four gigabytes of RAM seemed like an awful lot. George W Bush was the US President and the Apple iPhone was only 1 year old – a month later in July Apple would release the iPhone 3G, but that was still a secret.

Just a quick reminder about June 2008… After Effects came in a box, the iPhone was at version 1, and the US President was George W Bush.

What Apple did announce in June 2008 was the name of their next operating system – “Snow Leopard”. At the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference a few details trickled out – most significantly, the announcement that Snow Leopard wouldn’t introduce any major new features, but rather focus on performance and “under the hood” improvements.

When I read the various Apple news reports I started to wonder – what if Adobe took the same approach with After Effects? What if the next release skipped any major new features and instead focused on performance and small improvements? I thought it was worth daydreaming about.

Just for fun, I posted the idea on the After Effects email list, and asked for suggestions for minor feature requests that would make everyday work faster and easier. I remember finding the responses interesting, as there were several things I had never thought of. It was a good reminder that After Effects is used by lots of different people in lots of different situations. After a week or two, I compiled the suggestions together and emailed the list to Adobe, and received a thank-you email from Michael Coleran, the After Effects product manager at the time.

It’s not quite 10 years later, but last week Adobe announced the latest releases of their major CC apps, including After Effects. As usual with such a major update, it takes time to go through all the new features and work out what’s new and what’s changed. There are videos to watch, blogs to read, twitter posts to examine and so on. Right now, I’m not even sure what it’s called. Is it After Effects CC 2018? The update appeared on my Windows machine as just After Effects CC…

Whatever the name, how does the latest version of After Effects stack up against the list of feature requests I sent to Adobe almost 10 years ago? Let’s go through the list and see. Bear in mind that this is a list of suggestions from a range of different people, so there’s some overlap and a little ambiguity. I’ve loosely grouped them together according to the part of After Effects they apply to.

Interface:

Moving/dragging interface tabs around can be “undone”

I used to think this looked better than the current After Effects interface. I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

It’s hard to remember, but After Effects didn’t always look the way it did. Adobe gave AE a major interface revamp with version 7, but many users – myself included – initially hated the radical change and resisted the upgrade.

Eventually After Effects CS3 was released which prompted us to upgrade and grapple with the new look and feel, and it really was a big leap from the old floating-windows of After Effects 6.5. But while it now seems 2nd nature, dragging those tabs and palettes around took a bit of getting used to. It was easy to accidentally drag something to a new place, or close a panel you didn’t mean to, or basically just click in the wrong spot and find your workspace layout had become all messed up. Unlike changes to the timeline, these changes to the interface layout couldn’t be fixed with an “undo”.

Nearly ten years later it’s still easy to accidentally mess up your favourite workspace with an errant click, but can you “undo” workspace layout changes in the latest version of After Effects? Still no.

Verdict: Still waiting…

a colour swatch palette

It’s fair to say that we got more than we asked for! The Photoshop swatches palette is on the left, the Kuler panel in After Effects on the right also includes tools to create colour schemes.

In 2008, the majority of the work I was doing involved motion graphics for large corporate clients with strict brand guidelines. Clients generally had a small, rigidly defined colour palette to work from, but After Effects had no way of saving colours for easy and repeated selection, in the way that Photoshop and Illustrator did. With CC 2014, Adobe introduced the Kuler panel, which finally gave users a color swatch panel but also much, much more. While the Kuler panel is above and beyond the expectations of any AE user who just wanted the same swatch panel that Photoshop had, it’s unfortunate that Adobe hid this awesome new feature away in the “Extensions” sub-menu, so many users are probably unaware it’s there.

Verdict: We got it, but they’ve done their best to hide it from us…

colour labels for composition tabs…

After Effects used to be monochrome, but colour – and colour labels – slowly crept in over time. The lower image is from a time where layers could be given a colour label, but not the actual composition.

Using colour labels has become an essential part of my workflow, but if you go back far enough there was a time when the entire AE interface was monochrome. At some point, After Effects included colour labels for layers in a composition, but presumably there was a period where you couldn’t assign a colour label to the composition itself. But AFAIK, compositions have been able to have colour labels for some time now…

Verdict: Yes thanks!

colour labels for effects

…but there’s no way to assign a colour label to an effect. If you don’t use colour labels to organize your projects then this is probably pretty meaningless to you – but to those of us who do, they are an essential organizational tool. The “Select label group” function is one of those powerful workflow features that isn’t immediately obvious but can save an enormous amount of time and frustration. Perhaps a future version of AE will allow individual effects to have colour labels – but so far it’s a no go.

Verdict: No, not yet.

Plugins & Effects:

a list of favourite effects

While After Effects has allowed you to save your own presets for many years, the plugins themselves are always listed in same groups in the “Effects” menu. In the same way that many applications keep a track of recent documents opened, and After Effects keeps a track of recently imported footage, it would be nice to have a list of recently used effects. So far, however, that’s yet to appear.

Verdict: Still waiting…

Make obsolete plugins (eg Basic 3D) an optional install. Weed out older, redundant and inferior plugins. For example- why is there a CC Toner AND a Tritone? Do we still need a fast blur AND a Gaussian blur? The CC Power Pin is much better than the older Corner Pin, the “Hue/Saturation” effect is miles better than the “Colour Balance (HLS)” effect etc

Over the years, Adobe has bought software from other companies (or just bought the company) and also licensed existing plugins from 3rd parties so they come included with the basic install. Along the way, some older plugins have been superseded and others have duplicate functionality. In recent years, Adobe HAVE started to address this issue, by introducing the “Obsolete” menu. And while there is the potential to do more with the way duplicate functions are handled – and they confused a lot of people by changing the Gaussian Blur and Fast Blur effects recently – they seem to at least be aware of the problem. Verdict: Well I guess they’ve made a start.

a button to move a layer to the centre of the composition

While After Effects has had an “align” panel for a long time, it was overhauled with CS 5 and gained the ability to align layers relative to the composition. Technically, to centre a layer you have to click twice – once for the horizontal and once for the vertical axis – but we’ll give Adobe a tick for this one.

Verdict: Yes thanks Adobe!

a button to reset the anchor point of a layer to the centre

a button to add a keyframe from within the effects palette

These requests are perfect examples of the types of workflow enhancements I was looking for, when I made the analogy between Apple’s approach to Snow Leopard and what I thought Adobe could do with After Effects. They sound so simple yet so useful – but so far neither of these features has been added.

Verdict: No, not yet. But check AEscripts…

a histogram in the “curves” effect

A lot of After Effects users – myself included – complained about the “old” curves effect. It wasn’t that great, and when benchmarked against the “levels” effect it was incredibly slow. In a rare move, Adobe publically announced they were going to completely overhaul the Curves effect and even asked for suggestions as to how it could be better. The “new” curves effect is fast, has a great scalable interface, and is generally much easier to use. While it doesn’t have all of the features everyone may have asked for, it’s vastly improved over the old one. I use it every day. But does it have a histogram? No, no it doesn’t…

Verdict: Still waiting… if they haven’t done it now, they’ll probably never do it. I’ll just keep on using the levels effect after the curves effect just for the histogram…

give all plugins a consistent edge crop and blend-with-original option (like the way all Tinderbox plugins do)

Tinderbox was one of the first 3rd party plugins I owned, but they were sadly bought by GenArts and then discontinued (I assume some of the technology made its way into Sapphire, GenArts existing plugin range). One feature that helped make the Tinderbox plugins feel professional was the way every plugin had identical controls to crop edges, resize the layer if needed, and to blend with the original image. While some After Effects plugins have some of these features, it was the consistency across all Tinderbox plugins which helped them feel like a high-end tool.

Compositing options – I love them!

Adobe addressed this with the CC 2014 release – which gave all effects a “compositing option” to fade the strength of the effect, and also the ability to use masks to isolate where an effect was applied to an image.

In CC 2017, Adobe went one step further and now every plugin that references another layer can now be controlled to see the layer either before or after effects have been applied.

Verdict: Yes thank you! The “compositing options” are very powerful and the improvements to compound effects in CC 2017 were an unexpected bonus.

a depth shadow effect (not sure what this means, maybe an extruded shadow, not a drop shadow?)

Remembering that this list is a bunch of suggestions from several people, I’m not actually sure what the person who suggested “depth shadow” really meant. But since After Effects introduced Layer Styles from Photoshop, which offer more options for shadows (as well as bevels and all the other layer style goodness) I’m going to assume that’s what they meant.

Verdict: Well we got layer styles, which are pretty cool. I guess that’s what you meant?

Fonts & Type:

a reset button on the character palette (but please don’t reset the font, it’s annoying)

If you’re jumping between different motion graphics projects, it’s common to be working with many different fonts, and many different character settings. Font size, leading, tracking and so on can be radically different between projects and when changing to another project it can be easy to miss settings in the character palette that should have been adjusted. Maybe (just hypothetically… it happened to a friend of mine) you’ve spent hours working on an awesome typography layout only to realize that all the text is superscript… or faux bold… or set to 110% wide. A quick button to reset the character palette would help avoid these sorts of issues.

While there isn’t a clickable button to reset all of the parameters in the character panel, you can choose reset from the character palette’s contextual menu. I’m not sure if this has always been there, but it’s good to know. The fact that the person who requested this specifically asked for the reset button not to reset the font suggests they knew about the menu option but really, really wanted a button to press.

Verdict: There’s a reset option in the contextual menu, but whoever suggested this really wanted a button.

keyframable text palette parameters

Animating text is one of the core uses for After Effects, and so it stands to reason that the text animation tools are incredibly powerful. The problem is that they are SO powerful that even basic text animation can be complicated, or just plain overwhelming. Common text treatments such as animated tracking require the user to manually add a text animator and potentially deal with selecting ranges and so on. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to animate simple parameters like font size, leading and tracking without having to dive into the world of text animators? To date, Adobe hasn’t agreed.

Verdict: Still waiting…

make the default kerning optical (PLEASE! At least an option in preferences…)

In my experience, optical kerning nearly always looks better.

Verdict: Still waiting…

include fonts with the “collect files” function

Such a common and obvious request, and I can only assume that the reason it hasn’t been done is to do with legal issues surrounding the distribution of fonts. It’s also possible that Adobe’s push to the Creative Cloud TypeKit means they see that as a solution for font problems.

Verdict: Still waiting…

put all fonts used in a project at the top of the font list (as well as in alphabetical order)

Seriously Adobe, frickin’ accountants using frickin’ spreadsheets had it better than us for years!

This is something that Microsoft Office products have done for years, and it’s great. Especially for those of us who spend weeks at a time working with the same font, or sets of fonts, it’s amazing that an application that is used so heavily for text animation has lacked an easy way to identify which fonts are being used in the current project.

Verdict: Hooray! Thanks Adobe, they’ve overhauled fonts and the font menu with the latest release.

Masks

keyframable/ trackable mask axis

While Adobe have continued to add features to masks since it was released, it’s been up to 3rd party scripts to fill various voids and enable new ways to manipulate or work with masks. While there was a time when you could only have one mask per layer, the most recent release of After Effects now provides access to individual path points on a mask through expressions.

Verdict: Yes thanks Adobe! Christmas came early this year.

per-vertex mask feather

This powerful feature was added in CS 6. My own personal observation, however, is that lots of people asked for it but when it finally arrived not so many people actually used it. When you need it, though, it’s invaluable.

Verdict: Yes thanks Adobe! It’s there for when we need it.

Animation

separate X,Y & Z position keyframes

Verdict: Yes thanks Adobe!

adjust and save your own “ease” settings as keyframe assistants

The velocity of keyframes is what gives animation its personality. You could say that the “design” in motion graphics design comes down to velocity curves. While the default “easy ease” helps make animations smoother with the press of a button (I press F9 many time a day…) the default values can make your animations feel a bit generic. Being able to set and save presets for your own favourite “ease” settings would be a huge bonus, and if you have a project where the overall “feel” comes from using specific velocity curve values, it would save lots of tedious clicking and typing.

Verdict: Still waiting…

solids have their colour keyframable without using the fill effect

At first glance this might seem like a flippant request, but remember that this list was made in 2008 and After Effects CS3 was a lot more restrictive than it is now in terms of rendering order and the way compound effects worked (and see above for the compositing options now available). But in 2008 there would have been cases where changing the colour of a solid without having to use an effect would have been very useful. So while it’s clear that this feature hasn’t been implemented, other more significant features to the After Effects rendering pipeline have possibly made this request redundant.

Verdict: Still waiting, but we’ll give Adobe a pass on this one

Preferences

user-defined keyboard shortcuts

With so many apps offering this feature there’s little to add except to note how long it’s taken to arrive. The very latest release, CC 2018, finally brings keyboard mapping to After Effects.

Verdict: Yes thanks Adobe! Christmas came early this year.

adding a preference for the level of detail used by pixelmotion, so you can adjust the quality of time-remapped footage without resorting to using Timewarp.

This is an interesting suggestion, but it will need some explanation. When Adobe licensed the technology behind The Foundry’s “Kronos” plugin and introduced it to After Effects, they also introduced a level of ambiguity and misunderstanding with their terminology. Firstly, there’s the “timewarp” effect, applied to a layer from the effects menu. But there’s also the term “pixelmotion”, which is enabled by cycling through the frame-blending options in the timeline window. Behind the scenes, they’re doing the same thing – you can think of “pixelmotion” as the timewarp effect, but instead of being applied as an effect and being controlled by the parameters in the effects palette, it’s automatically and invisibly enabled by setting the frame-blending button to the appropriate setting.

But as anyone who has ever used pixelmotion/timewarp can tell you – the results aren’t always perfect. But if a layer isn’t rendering quite right with pixelmotion, the next step is to jump into the full-blown timewarp effect and play around with all the parameters. Wouldn’t it be nice and easy if there was a simple way of adjusting some of the pixelmotion settings globally, in the preferences panel, so that the user has a basic level of control over pixel motion. That way, minor artefacts can be fixed without having to change to the timewarp effect.

Verdict: Still waiting…

re-ordering queued items in the render queue when the current render is paused

Once you hit that “render” button, After Effects effectively locks you out of doing anything else until it’s finished. If you have lots of long, intensive compositions queued up then this can mean leaving your machine running for hours, or even overnight. Unfortunately, if your priorities change after you’ve started rendering and you want to change the order that compositions are rendered, you have to stop the whole process in order to be able to move items in the queue. It would save a lot of frustration if you could change the order of queued up renders without having to stop the current one.

Verdict: Still waiting…

saving or locking old render queue information

The render queue isn’t just a blue bar that shows how long you’ve got to watch cats on YouTube before you can get back to work. It’s also a record of what you’ve rendered, where you’ve rendered it to, and when you did it. Looking through the render queue panel can solve the mystery of how to fill in your timesheets, where to find that file you’ve lost, or whether “final final” came before or after “final master fixed”. Being able to save the render queue information or even lock it (locking in file paths for compositions would be very useful) allows this valuable data to be saved for future reference.

Verdict: Still waiting…

overhaul the “Pre-compose” function, at the very least to include options for the behaviors which are currently only available through scripts

If it wasn’t for AEscripts, I would be insane by now…

Pre-composing can be a necessary evil in After Effects, but for such a fundamental workflow tool the options were always limited. With many 3rd party scripts available to add more power and functionality to After Effects’ basic functionality, Adobe added a trim feature to CC 2014, but nothing more. Luckily, there are all sorts of 3rd party scripts out there to help you pre-compose exactly as you want to.

Verdict: Still waiting… best to head over to AEscripts.

an integrated scripting/ expressions environment

Expressions – love them or hate them, they’re essential to many people. But despite their power, you’re still stuck with a simple text box that’s not even easy to resize. If you move up to scripting, at least you have the Adobe ExtendScript toolkit app to help things feel more professional – but it’s hardly integrated with After Effects itself. Many users find expressions and scripting hard enough without being restricted to a tiny text box that has basic problems with copying & pasting text. It could be better…

Verdict: Still waiting for it to be easier to write expressions. The ExtendScript Toolkit is OK for scripters, but not exactly integrated.

3D reflections

Difficult to comment on this one. On one hand, obviously Adobe hasn’t given us 3D reflections inside the After Effects timeline. As After Effects is basically a 2D transformation engine, it’s unlikely they ever will. But they have given us increasingly powerful Cinema 4D integration, and bundled the lite version with the basic AE install. So if you think of Cinema 4D as the solution to this feature request, then Adobe have delivered it with bells on.

Verdict: I’ll just say a big thank you for the Cinema 4D integration.

real time scopes in Synthetic Aperture

Color Finesse is awesome but its integration with After Effects has never felt completely seamless. But the real problem with this request is that it depends on what you mean by “real time”. After Effects isn’t a real-time app, although there’s RAM previews. I do use Colour Finesse a bit and from what I can see, the scopes do update when you play clips within the colour finesse interface – but the playback itself is hardly what you would call real-time. But maybe that in itself is an improvement from 2008. I just don’t know.

However when Adobe released CC 2017 they included Lumetri, a new colour correction tool ported over from Premiere that brings scopes to the regular AE interface. Hooray! I’m going to guess that Lumetri is the future…

Verdict: I don’t know about Colour Finesse, but we got Lumetri. Close enough?

dynamic project structure system, with project folders linked to the file system

This is one of those power-features that makes perfect sense to one group of users, but probably has others scratching their head. Basically, this request means that instead of each user manually organizing their After Effects project by creating and naming folders, importing assets etc etc, After Effects would do this all automatically by copying the folder structure and files from somewhere on your computer. If you’re working on a network drive and someone adds a new folder or a new render on the network, everyone’s After Effects project would automatically (dynamically) update and maintain sync with the master folder. If this sounds useful then let Adobe know, because they haven’t implemented this yet.

Verdict: Still waiting…

And finally…

LAYER GROUPS

Yeah. Ha. Well somehow I’ve written 3,000 words on all these feature requests to date, and I could easily write another 3,000 just on layer groups alone. But let’s just say – they’re still not here. Let’s hope it’s not another 8 years before we finally get them.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

So it’s approaching ten years since that list was emailed to Adobe and much has changed since then. The integration with Premiere has created entire new workflows for some users, and the integration with Cinema 4D has had – and will continue to have – a major impact on the motion graphics industry. And in 2008 who thought VR would become a thing?

But there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Sometimes, those of us who rely on After Effects every working day don’t need or even want the next big headline feature. We just want a few little tweaks to the sorts of inefficient things that we continue to do every day, to help make our lives easier. And layer groups. We really want them.

I’ll dive into CC 2018 over the next few weeks and no doubt I’ll notice many improvements and new features. But there’s always room to go back to the very basics of how After Effects works and make those little tweaks. Are you listening, Adobe?

The post After Effects: revisiting feature requests from 2008 appeared first on ProVideo Coalition.

First Found At: After Effects: revisiting feature requests from 2008

#viddy find

2 notes · View notes

death-is-a-new-beginning · 7 years

Text

The Truth About Secrets Part 1

Sunshine Take A Chance You're A What?

All last night Stiles and I had stayed up researching anything we could find about herbs and something that could counteract whatever was wrong with Isaac but we came up with zero. Zilch. Nada. At about three in the morning, Stiles was passed out on my bed with papers scattered all around him. I, on the other hand, continued to search for pretty much anything that could point me in the right direction but there was so much that I didn't know, so many variables it was frustrating. I glanced at the clock a few hours later and it was six o'clock in the morning, I rubbed my tired eyes and yawned. I wanted to go to sleep but I needed to at least have some answers. I've always been this way, my brain wont rest until it's solved the problem even when my body just wanted to rest. I got up from the table in my room that housed my laptop and walked downstairs to the kitchen. Once in the kitchen I decided to make a pot of tea, something to calm my soul. I stood by the counter, watching the water boil as I zoned out. I needed to call my mom and ask her about the herbs and why we do what we do but it was still too early. Damn it , why couldn't I figure this out. All I could find is that when a werewolf's eyes are black, it's usually because of a Lunar Eclipse which doesn't fit because there wasn't one last night. I sighed, feeling a little defeated, tired and a little mind blown. Stiles couldn't believe that I had taken Scott being a werewolf so well and I couldn't explain to him that somewhere deep down I knew there was something supernatural about Scott. It was still a strange night, I never imagined I would be helping a werewolf let alone being friends with said werewolf's best friend. I definitely never thought that it would be Scott and Stiles who'd become the protectors of Beacon Hills. I rubbed my eyes again, so tired, what am I gonna do? The water was finally ready so I turned off the stove and poured the hot water into a black mug. I added all the necessities that went with tea, then took a well deserved sip. The tea made all the tension exit my body and I sighed with relief. After I finished the tea I placed my cup in the sink and went back to my room. As I entered my room, I saw Stiles sitting up checking his phone as well as responding to texts from Scott no doubt. It was still really early and all I wanted to do was lie in bed. Stiles quickly looked up at me and returned his gaze to his phone. "Morning Sunshine," he mumbled lazily, "Scott said that Isaac still hasn't woken up yet, Lydia is going to head to the clinic in a bit to see if she can sense anything. Scott asked if we found anything on our end and I told him that we haven't come up with anything." Stiles looked up from his phone and concern flashed in his eyes. "You haven't gone to sleep have you?" He asked looking slightly upset. I looked down and shook my head, "Why haven't you, Y/N?" He pressed. "I was researching and I didn't look at the time," I mumbled tiredly, it wasn't a complete lie, I did lose track of time but I also don't think I could trust myself around Stiles. When Stiles said my name it sent warmth throughout my whole being, lighting me up. I didn't like it, not one bit. "You need to rest Y/N. We can't resolve anything if you pass out on me, so you need to get your butt in this bed before I drag you in here. I'll stay right here and wake you up in a few hours so you can call your mom," he said kindly but I knew he would drag me to bed if I didn't go of my own volition. If I was being honest a part of me wanted to challenge him and see if he could drag me with him. I decided against it and put one foot in front of the other, making my way to my bed. He grinned smugly, that I was listening to him. That just made me want to roll my eyes but he was right, I was so tired. I got under the covers sighing happily as my body slowly relaxed. Stiles pulled me into him so my head was laying on his chest and his arm was wrapped around me I gazed up at him and looked at him, I mean really looked at him, he had massive bed hair with pieces of hair going in every direction. His chocolate brown eyes were clear yet there was a hint of darkness and sadness, like a smudge of dirt on a white rug. His lips were thin and lightly pink, what would it be like to kiss those lips? I closed my eyes tightly trying to mentally shake the thought from my mind, we're only friends, I mean barely friends, there is no way I could ever jeopardize the only friend I have by thinking this way, didn't he like Lydia? I slowly opened my eyes to see this pale faced boy looking at me like I was the most interesting thing he's ever beheld. He held this expression that I've seen him wear once before but I still don't know what it meant. Stiles confused me to no end, he made me feel things that I didn't want or expect to feel. I furrowed my eyebrows feeling conflicted, I needed to get a hold of my feelings and push down whatever this was or at least hide it a lot better. Stiles looked at me pensively then switched his attention back to his phone using his free hand. "Go to sleep Sunshine," was all he had to say for my heavy eye lids to close with his fast heartbeat lulling me to sleep. A few hours later Stiles's phone rang waking me up from the deep sleep I had fallen into, my eyes slowly opened to see a passed out Stiles with his mouth slightly open I chuckled quietly and reached for his phone, Scott was calling. I answered it quickly, "Hello?" My voice thick from sleep. "Y/N? Why do you have Stiles' s phone?" Asked Scott to which I rolled my eyes. "Am I not good enough to answer Stiles's phone?" I asked then laughed a little, "Sorry to disappoint you but Stiles is like passed out right now and I was the one who was conscious enough to answer. So what's up Alpha?" I joked, but Scott didn't laugh. "Isaac is awake and he's asking for you actually. Do you know Isaac at all?" Scott inquired carefully. "Why is he asking for me? I honestly only met him once because he was in a class of mine but other than I have no clue why he'd want to see me." I replied, trying to think of anything I might've missed. "I need you to come down to the clinic, he keeps screaming out your name and his eyes are changing from black to yellow," Scott exclaimed, I was already getting out of bed and walking out the door of my room by the time Scott was done. "Okay, I'm on my way, what should I do about Stiles?" I paused looking back to see Stiles in the same position from earlier. "Just leave him there, he'll be fine." Scott answered then hung up. I nodded my head unconsciously, and placed Stiles's phone on my table then left the house. When I got to the clinic I felt like there was a strong negative force surrounding it, I could feel it as I opened the car door slowly making my way out of it. The energy crackled around me making the hairs on my arms stand up. Something wasn't right and I didn't want to be here but I trudged on making my way through the back doors of the clinic. "Scott?" I called out carefully. "In here." Scott yelled back. Deaton and Scott were standing by where Isaac was tied down on the table. It was almost as if Isaac sensed that I was there because in an instant his pale eye lids opened, his eyes were black. "So you came? You stupid girl," Isaacs voice didn't sound like him, he scared me to my core but I kept my façade from showing my fear. "Who are you? What have you done to Isaac?" I asked emotionlessly. "He's gone. I'm here now." replied the thing inside Isaac. "Who are you then? Why did you want me to come here?" I asked inquisitively cocking my head to the side. "Ah, Ah, Ah I'm not going to reveal all my secrets. If you want an answer then you're going to do something for me in return," said the stranger in Isaacs body. "I doubt you're in any condition to make demands," I paused to look at the restraints that held him down then continued, "I'm pretty sure you're the one tied down right now not me." I had no idea where this sudden confidence came from but I was glad that it came. "I don't think you understand how little control you think you have over me. I can break these restraints right now and kill your friends here. I have no need for them all I need is you." The black holes that were his eyes narrowed. "Look, I don't care who you think you are or how powerful you think you are, whatever it is you think you want I can promise you I can't help you." He then started to laugh maniacally, "Oh child, you don't even know what you are yet. This is perfect!" The man exclaimed. "You must be confusing me with someone else, I have one of those faces you know, I get mistaken with other people quite a bit." The nervousness was slowly creeping it's way into my expression. My façade was falling quickly, I needed to gain back whatever control I had in the beginning. "You're Y/N, Y/L/N daughter to Y/D/N are you not?" I stared back at him and nodded slowly egging him to continue, "Then you're exactly who I came back for. You will be mine," He laughed. "Like hell she'll be yours," A familiar voice said behind me. Sure enough there stood Stiles who was slightly panting. A growl sounded erupted from Isaac, I ignored it as I was still looking at Stiles. I kind of expected him to show up but I didn't expect it to be so soon, I have to admit I was glad to see the dimwit, I gave him a small smile before turning back to Stiles. "You better tell your boy toy to get out of here, or else he and his friends die, my child," he spat. "First of all I'm not your child, second I don't belong to you and lastly he isn't my boy toy he's not even my friend I barely know him. Like I said earlier you're not in a position to make demands." I lied, I couldn't bring myself look at Isaac in the eyes because it would be a dead give away how much I really cared about this boy. My body felt different, I felt all tingly like something was coursing through my veins. The tips of my fingers felt prickly and warm, I rubbed my fingers together trying to rid myself of the feeling. "Oh is that so?" All of sudden Stiles dropped to the ground choking on whatever Isaac was doing to him, I ran to him and I fell to my knees, Isaac chuckled darkly. "Stop! Please stop?" I yelled. "Oh child, I'm just getting started," He smiled evilly, then Scott and Deaton fell to the ground gasping for air. I looked around the room to see these people that I had once considered strangers lying on the floor, Stiles was turning purple, Scott's alpha eyes were glowing, Deaton was in a similar position as Stiles. I don't know how but the tingly feeling got worse, it felt as though it was being rushed through my veins and I felt hot. I stood up onto my feet, this strange feeling taking over and I wasn't in control of what I did next. "You will stop this or I will make you," I demanded. When he didn't make a move to stop killing them, something erupted from within me taking over, it was almost like I was taking a backseat ride in my own body. I could hear my voice say something in a foreign language, "Hola dimoni, ha estat molt de temps,"(hello demon it's been a long time). I began speaking in a foreign tongue but I oddly knew what I was saying. Isaacs eyes widened with surprise, I proceeded to say, "Deixar als nens anar o pateixen les conseqüències. Tots dos sabem que sóc més gran que tu," (Let the children go or suffer the consequences. We both know I'm older than you). He laughs, he actually laughs at this comment as Stiles and everyone is being strangled to death, We need to do something. The part of me that had taken over seemed to acknowledge that fact. My hands felt hot and tingly "I only need your vessel, I could care less of these mortals," Isaac explained smugly. "Well you won't be happy with what I do next then," I said forcefully. I could feel this build up of energy within me waiting to burst at the seams. He didn't seem to understand what I meant until I muttered some phrases that could only be described as incantations, my hands started moving out of their own accord. At first my fingertips became stiff and kind of contorted but as I kept muttering phrases my hands became outstretched an flowy. Isaac started gasping for breath and screaming insults in languages I didn't even know, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed on the table. When I was done everyone that was on the ground were gasping for air, except for Stiles, his face was blue. There was a tinge of panic but this new part of me wasn't worried, I walked over to him and knelt down as I whispered some phrases I apparently knew. I closed my eyes then I rubbed my hands together until they were red and warm, I then place one hand over his stomach, the other over his head connecting himself to me. My mouth moved on its own accord, I felt the warmth and energy from my hands flow into his body. The energy surrounded us like a force field, I could almost taste it and feel it around us. When I finished Stiles's body was still for a second then he turned to the side coughing for air. I gave a sigh of relief that he was okay, Scott ran over and helped Stiles up. I tried to stand up but as soon as I had my feet under me, things got blurry then it all went black. All I heard was Stiles scream for me and I was gone.

Okay loves, I know this chapter took forever and I'm sorry, I'm doing my best. Thank you for being patient (:

#stiles stilinski x reader #stiles stilinksi imagine #stilinski trash #teen wolf imagine #teen wolf #scott mccall imagine #lydia martin

16 notes · View notes

ann-spoon · 7 years

Text

Fanfiction Writer Interviews!

I’ve decided to interview writers of Next Generation fanfiction, to see how such an open-ended universe can impact the fans. And whether or not social media or certain fans influence the way we view other characters.

Your Rose Weasley may not be the same as mine basically.

Today I’ve decided to interview Nessie or her ff.net username Nessie-The Pillow Biting Monster. She is also known as @anopheliamiratio

!!SPOILER ALERT!! This interview may contain spoilers for the fanfic so go away if you don’t want to read. Otherwise, the link is down below if you want to read the fic.

Link:https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7585004/1/James-Potter-and-the-New-Marauders

Q. How did you first get this idea of starting a Next Generation fanfiction?

A.That’s a tough one. It has been so long since I started planning this story. I always liked Next Gen fanfics, even in other fandoms. Back in High School, I finished Deathly Hallows and there was the Epilogue… it was screaming “Write a story about what happens next!”, didn’t it? In fact, my writing skills were hardly adequate to write Harry Potter fiction in English back then. So I scribbled down some stuff (let’s say the draft of chapter 1) and then started gathering information.

Q. How would you describe all the characters in 3 words? A. Witty, sneaky, mischievous?

Q. Do you feel as if your portrayal of these characters are different from what people expect? If so, tell me why.

A.I’m not sure. There’s this flawed logic that kicks in when I get to work with so “undefined” characters. There are a few things that “make sense” to happen, so I use them as a base. For example, James was teasing Albus in the Epilogue, so I figured he could be a prankster in general. Of course, readers expect this since it’s been done before. Ron said Rosie got her mother’s brains, so she should be smart. Right? But they told her not to let Scorpius beat her, so how about making Scorpius smart too? I’m sure all this has been said and done before too. I also started out by making Albus somewhat meek and hesitant. Those are things that “should” be done, according to my strange logic, so that I don’t develop people who are “out-of-character”.

A character doesn’t stay the same forever though, especially when you’re dealing with an 11-year-old. That’s just the first impression. People change, they develop. I used those as a base and gave them a twist. Rose is smart, but she’s older than her mother, loves flying, mostly pretends to follow the rules but has few (or no) second thoughts about breaking them. She’s a powerful character, inspiring fear ON PURPOSE to make sure she doesn’t get bullied in a hostile environment.

Scorpius is smart but he’s better when it comes to theory and potionmaking rather than spellcasting. He’s trapped in his family’s expectations of a “Malfoy” but he also has those ideas about equality slowly growing in his mind. Albus gets more confident at school, where he learns things he’s good at. James gets in trouble from day one, so he has some life-threatening situations to deal with and they keep him from being the easy-going prankster he wants to be. I’m not sure if readers expect that. Perhaps they do. But labels aren’t nice. A character isn’t just smart or just a troublemaker, or anything else. Characters have levels. Hopefully, readers won’t figure all of the levels at once, so that they can be surprised further along ;)

5.Which character are you most fond of, or have a soft spot for?

A. Hmmm, not quite sure. When I started writing the story, I wasn’t alone. It was written by me and another 3 authors, good pals whose writing styles I loved. Each of us picked a different POV, which is why the story shifts from Albus to Rose and Scorpius and James between chapters. Past the 4th chapter I kept writing on my own, but until then I had only Albus’s POV. The rest of them were initially developed by my friends, therefore I tried showing Rose, Scorpius, and James in the light they had shed. Perhaps Albus has a little bit more of me in him because of that? But the character I truly adore is Lily Luna. I can’t wait until she’s old enough to go to Hogwarts so that I can show more of her.

Q. Is your story different from any other fics?

A. I can’t say. I haven’t read that many next-gen fics and the ones I did were… eh… well, they were abandoned after a while and they were mostly listing “slice-of-life” kind of situations. So this answer is going to be even more subjective than what I’ve said so far. The most blatant difference I can see is that I have a new villain in the story. He’s not Voldemort reincarnated, not Voldemort’s secret child, not Voldemort who didn’t really die AGAIN. He’s a new person with strange motives it took me lots and lots of brainstorming to figure out. He’s working in the shadows, plotting, setting his plan in motion. James is caught in between all along, but he can’t ask for help, not in his current situation. Everyone is disoriented by the way Timothy (the villain) has turned things upside down, and they don’t even realize it’s him – or anyone in general – that’s done anything strange at the moment.

I am well aware of the fact that I am following plenty of cliches. !Spoilers ahead! I know Albus and Rose and Scorpius got sorted into Slytherin. I’ve been intending to explain this all along and it will happen later in the story. Personally, I think they’re more of Ravenclaw material *cough cough* Not Slytherin *cough* I’ll leave it at that for now ;)

Also, I got some professors to retire. Did anyone ever consider most of those people taught the first generation, the second and fought in two wizarding wars? They NEED to take some time off. It’s not like I wouldn’t love to use the professors who were already perfectly developed by Mrs. Rowling, but it didn’t feel very logical. Since I got in the trouble of doing that, I tried giving a more… multicultural twist to the new staff, including the headmistress. This will lead to student exchange programs and other stuff that will probably be pretty fun to write about (and hopefully will be pretty original). Especially with all of the new school information released on Pottermore last year, I have even more canon facts to work with (I wanted to do this since before Rowling mentioned those, so when she did I was ecstatic).

Q. Do you feel as if the differences you’ve made was a daring decision that paid off? Especially regarding James Potter as the main character of this and the whole multiple points of views.

A. Yes, I think it has paid off. The story needs a plot to keep the readers hooked, not just to show how smoothly and awesomely the next generation excelled during their Hogwarts years. Children will be children and they’ll mess up multiple times. James is actually the perfect example of that. He’s not a model student, but he’s not stupid either. He’s a smart kid with a mindset on things totally unrelated to his studies. He’ll get in trouble along the way and he’ll have to accept the consequences.

The multiple points of views are kind of the remains of the original co-authored story. I switched the story to 3rd person and only left them there to indicate whom each chapter focuses on. I love juggling with four characters instead of just one though because each of them can have their own personal drama every now and then, or separate friends and stuff. I hope it gives the readers more insight into each character’s personal thoughts and personalities and breaks the monotony.

I should probably mention that the story’s title is also a little deceiving. I liked Rowling’s titling pattern, where she said: Harry Potter and … (something important for each book’s plot), so I wanted to have my titles along the same lines. All four of the kids are equally important to the plot, it’s just that James gets in the gravest situations, so his name goes first. “The New Marauders” encases perfectly Albus, Rose, and Scorpius so I let it so :) (!Another spoiler ahead! The New Marauders is due to the fact they’re trying to become animagi like the original Marauders).

Q. How does it feel to have such a wide universe to play around with? A.

Wonderful. I LOVE playing around in another person's playground and the Harry Potter universe is so vast! There's an endless supply of pre-existing characters to pick from and there's plenty of room to create more when you need them. Especially since James Potter and the New Marauders is a next-gen fic, the freedom I get is tenfold one of the people writing about the first or second generations.

It's still a bit of a pain because there are a lot of things to take into consideration: We're in 2017 when Albus, Rose, and Scorpius go to school. 2017? Wait, it's 2017 just NOW, since this January! So everyone writing next gen fics so far might not have even considered what would be accurate or at least expected of the Muggle and/or the Wizarding world in 2017. As said, some professors need to leave the school. New students need to come. A whole new student body, consisting of 4 different houses and 7 different years! I have an excel file where I have all of the new characters' information written down to keep track of all the kids I've made. There's no other way, or things get super messy. And those kids (and professors) need to be well-developed or readers will get confused or bored pretty soon.

love digging up canon details of the next gen that Rowling has shared and I'm obviously using them. (I should say I don't consider the Cursed Child completely canon so I used only what I liked from this one). The kids of the next gen mentioned by JK exist in my story and some of them are important and some are not. For example Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, the kids of Luna and Newt's grandson? Of course, they've gotta exist. Same goes for many other children. And also if JK has said what became of certain 2nd generation characters (eg: Ginny's career as a Quidditch player and then a sports reporter) I stick to this information. But there also need to be some originals, because unless the characters from the books multiply like bunnies, we can't have enough students for all of Hogwarts by just using their kids. In general, I have a love-hate relationship with these kinds of things. I love developing, but often get lost in it, or feel like I need to straighten out details and hold back from writing because of that. It's a toughie if you want to be accurate at least.

Q.. Choose a song that's the theme song of your whole fic. A. Rock Paper Scissors by Katzenjammer

Q. Would you say that your writing has improved during this duration you've been writing this fic?

A. Yep, most probably it has. As I already said, I conceived the idea when I was pretty younger and my English skills were very very undeveloped yet. There have been tremendous changes since the first chapters, although they might not be so obvious anymore because the first chapters have been heavily re-edited since I got back to the story last summer.

10. Last but not least, what advice would you have for fic writers wanting to write a Next Gen story? Writing Next Gen stories is a great idea. There can be a million stories that look nothing like each other, so they're one of the awesomest categories you can pick, especially if you get discouraged when you see a story with a similar plot to yours. But there are some things I'd keep in mind if I were you: The timeline. Albus, Rose and Scorpius go to Hogwarts in 2017. What has changed until then in the world? Has perhaps the development of the technology affected wizards? Has it not? The plot. Why are you writing? Is there a kind of situation your characters will deal with or are they just studying witchcraft and wizardry in Hogwarts, making friends and excelling (or failing) in their studies? The romance. Oh dear lord, please pay attention to this! The kids are 11 when they go to school, PLEASE, it makes NO sense for them to have anything stronger than a childish crush before year 3! And also… You can develop dozens of convincing OCs, so don't have everyone pair up with their relatives (one or two cliché pairings are ok, like ScorpiusxRose or LilyxScorpius or something, but that's IT). The sorting of the Next Gen. Anything is possible, as long as you explain it properly. Albus can be Hufflepuff if that's where you want him and Scorpius can be Gryffindor or whatever. There's no right or wrong. Just give your readers a good reason for it ;)

#fanfic authors #interview #fanfic author interview #harry potter #harry potter next generation #harry potter fanfiction #19 years later #all was well #next gen #harry potter next gen

4 notes · View notes

fineillsignup · 8 years

Text

FUQ

That stands for Frequently Unasked Questions because people rarely ask me any of these so FAQ would be a lie.

Q: Sempai, how do I get you to notice me?! A: Send me a message or ask! I don’t have to be following you to do so! Also, don’t be shy to tell me about some content you think I might enjoy. I basically only follow people who tag descriptively. Generally this means, at minimum, fandom, pairings, and marking explic!t content. I don’t have any triggers, but I do have some strong squicks, and I look to be able to filter those out as well.

Q: You used to follow me and now you don’t, did I do something wrong? A: Almost certainly not. If you don’t usually tag your Tumblr, that’s probably the reason why I unfollowed, so don’t brood any more than that. I follow a lot of blogs and I rely on people tagging well to help my blacklist keep up by filtering out shows I don’t watch and content I don’t want to see. I’m not angry at you for not tagging--it’s your blog--but if I can’t figure out a filter to keep stuff I don’t want on my dash, I unfollow.

Tumblr also glitches a lot. I have been on both sides of a Tumblr-induced unfollow. If I used to follow you, now I’m not, and you tag well, message me to check in! It’s totally possible I don’t realize that Tumblr made me unfollow you. Fuckin’ Tumblr, man. I’m also always willing to explain an unfollow if you want to know why.

Q: Why did you block me? A: Almost everyone I’ve blocked is because they blocked me first, so uh, check that first of all. If you’re a fairly block-happy person, maybe you don’t even remember doing it. I block anyone who I discover has blocked me. If you no longer wish to block me, you can reach out through another person or perhaps an anon ask to tell me that you want to be cool now and we’ll be cool. Simple as that.

I’ve also preemptively blocked people who expressed an explicit desire not to interact with people who ship my ships or have my opinions. Eg, making or reblogging a post that says “kaka//saku do not interact”. These blocks are my attempt to make YOU comfortable. I respect people’s desires to curate their Tumblr experience. If you think this may be the reason I blocked you and you are ok with me interacting with you, reach out to me through a third party and I’ll unblock.

Another possibility is that you’re a troll who has left me or one of my friends a personal attack, uses slurs, etc. Have you done that? Don’t be like that.

Third possibility is a mistake--I’ve mistaken you for a spam bot, or Tumblr has done something wonky, etc.

Q: I ship your NOTP. Do you hate me? A: Why would I hate you just because you have an incorrect opinion of whether two fictional characters should rub their genitals together? No. I don’t hate you just because you ship my NOTP, and you are completely welcome to follow me, message me, etc.

Q: So Sasu//Saku is fine then right and it’s just a matter of taste? A: Haha no canon ending SS is garbage, let’s not get carried away here, I’m just saying I think you can ship it and still be a good/nice person. Just because I don’t shipper bash doesn’t mean I can’t and won’t point out everything that’s wrong with SS as written in canon. This is called “literary criticism” and “critical engagement with mass media” and is something I won’t apologize for enjoying.

Q: LMAO why do you care so much about a cartoon for teenage boys? A: Two possible answers here. One is that you can ridicule basically any hobby or special interest this way--”why do you care so much about some overpaid men kicking around a ball”, “why do you care so much about two needles and some yarn”, “why do you care so much about a tiny plastic train going around a track”. It’s called entertainment, bitch.

Second answer is, my God! If there’s any segment of society that I don’t want uncritically reading stories that reinforce sexist ideas and give abusers carte blanche, it’s teenage goddamn boys. If my little drop in the ocean makes the slightest difference against that, I don’t consider it wasted time.

Q: I do assholish things like tell people to die for shipping the wrong thing but I ship one of your OTPs. We cool right? A: 🎶 don’t stand, don’t stand so, don’t stand so close to me 🎶

Q: I have a squick or trigger, will you tag it for me? A: I will do my best! Send me a message or ask. You don’t have to explain why you don’t like it.

Q: You have a lot of weird tags, do you have a tagging system? A: I do! It’s a bit complex, but in addition to commentary tags (stuff like “too cute” or “i’m crying in the club rn”), I try to tag descriptively for blacklists.

For original content, I usually post character names in several different forms for the benefit of tag search, eg both “Kakashi” and “Kakashi Hatake” and “Hatake Kakashi”. I also tag with the original artist’s name (if it’s a repost or translation), and “creative commons” or “with permission” depending on whether I was following a usage policy or explicitly got permission from the artist.

For reblogs, I only tag character’s first names, generally.

My meta tag is “naruto analysis”. My typesets tag is “my typesets”. My fanfic tag is “my fanfic”.

I try to tag triggers like “alcohol /” and “blood /” with the slash at the end.

If a piece of art could be interpreted as romantic or platonic, I usually tag with both the character names and the ship name. If it is unmistakably romantic, I only tag the ship name.

Q: You post a lot of stuff and I don’t always come back to Tumblr that often, but I’m really interested in [this character/pairing]. Could you message me when you post original content for that character/pairing? A: I can try! I do this for some people already. Obviously if tons of people want me to do this it won’t work, but right now I’m doing it for less than ten and it works ok. Message me!

Q: Is this a sideblog? Do you run any other blogs? A: It’s Naruto on main here, baby. I have a few other sideblogs. @fineilikefmab is a blog for Fullmetal Alchemist content. @domesticaphrodite is for food, beauty, lifestyle etc and is more of a personal blog. @fineilikesmut (which I can’t tag) is my blog for reblogs that are not SFW.

Q: I found some Chinese art that I want translated! Will you do that? A: Send me the link! I will definitely consider it. Any pairing will be considered except post-699 canon-compliant SS. Right now, I only do typesets for artists who give me permission to modify their work. (I have complex feelings about fair use and abandoned works, but as a matter of priorities, when there are artists who have given me permission whose works haven’t been translated fully, it only makes sense to prioritize them.)

You can also request a character or pairing and I’ll go hunting for content on my own. Some pairings that are very popular among English speakers are not popular among Chinese speakers and vice versa, so obviously my ability to find content depends on that content existing.

Q: I’ve noticed you repost work from Chinese artists. Sometimes you say “with permission” and sometimes you mention something about CC-BY or similar. What is this CC thing? A: Creative Commons is a copyleft movement dedicated to make it easier for people to share their work while retaining aspects of control that are important to them. As opposed to copyright, a CC license makes a work freely sharable and may or may not permit changing the work and using the work for profit. The website LOFTER, by default, does not apply any CC license to artists’ work, but they can opt in to using one, and there are a variety to choose from. Therefore, you can be confident that the artist chose to let people share (with credit) or remix their work.

Q: Can I ask you something about your writing? A: YES PLEASE DO THAT :D :D :D

Q: 我是一位說中文的藝術家，妳願意把我的火影忍者粉絲繪圖翻譯成英語嗎？ A: 我很願意！請給我留言。繁體、簡體都可以啦。

#faq #it me #fuq #my translation #my typesets #my fanfic #resources

74 notes · View notes

betrayedvirtue · 7 years

Text

GETTING NOWHERE, FAST (W/ @VisionaryFury)

Mike: [[ I feel as if the /truth/ I’ve promised Annisa I’d search for is out of my grasp...I’m not convinced there is substance to what Annisa believes but I also can’t deny I have a nagging feeling that won’t go away whenever I read over the Quileute legends. What I do recall from my high school years is the people from La Push kept to themselves for the most part. There were rumors of gang activity or something but all that is hazy for me now. I remember Jacob Black because for a while he used to follow Bella Swan around like a lost puppy. Why do I remember that? Because I liked Bella and when Jacob had a sudden growth spurt and went from looking like a boy to man I was jealous. He became my competition until, Edward Cullen resurfaced and swept Bella off her feet again. I ended up with Jessica Stanley who no matter how many times I treated her like crap kept coming back for more. She falsely thought I’d come around at some point but that never happened. The moment the word /marriage/ crossed her lips I was gone for good.

I haven’t been able to see #Angela yet...she’s the one married to a La Push guy and would have the answers I’m seeking hopefully. I’ve made arrangement to go and see her “to catch up on old times” I can’t tell her about Annisa but I can bring up a bunch of hypothetical questions. Maybe it will get me somewhere. The problem I face right now is I need a favor from Annisa, but I have nothing to offer in return as an incentive. #Zen has been keeping close tabs on Annisa and her progress. He’s not impressed she hasn’t attacked anyone in almost two weeks, all that means is she’s biding her time. #Zen also doesn’t like the choice I made to allow Annisa an hour a day out in the garden. He doesn’t feel she’s earned that privilege.

Which brings us to our current dilemma. He wants to observe my interaction Annisa. I’m sure it's to make sure she won’t try to claw my eyes out the first chance she gets. Am I worried? Yes, I am. This observation could mean my job if it goes south. I’ve sent the orderlies for her. This time around Annisa will be unmedicated. I want her lucid for this interaction. She also will be escorted here without a straight jacket to my office. She’ll get here 10 minutes before #Zen is due to show up. I’m praying it’s enough time to give Annisa a heads up about what’s going on. I’m debating on if I should be upfront and tell her how close she is to being sent away from this facility for good.]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: Pacing back and forth in my room, I’ve been looking forward to this appointment for a few days. It’s been a couple of weeks and as much as I’ve enjoyed my hour outside every day, I’m really interested in hearing what Mike has been able to learn. I’ve kept every promise I made to him that day. I haven’t attacked one person. Although, there is that one nurse that makes things incredibly difficult. It’s almost as if she loves egging me on, like she’d rather have me out of her way, in solitary, than on her list of things to-do. She doesn’t even know how close she’s come to having some knock-down drag-outs. On top of that, I haven’t given anyone a hard time, redecorating the art room, starting food fights in the dining room. Although, I did wind up the other patients a few nights ago during TV time. I needed to have some fun and when Francine and Cat were arguing about what we were going to watch, it just made it way too easy.

Actually, I kinda like Cat. She’s pretty new, only been here a couple of weeks. She’s about the same age as I was when I got dumped into this pit but, she’s definitely got some fire in her. I don’t know much about her story but, I love the way that she’s not afraid to stand up for herself. She doesn’t let people bully her into doing anything she doesn’t want to do. I wished I had learned that at that age. It took me considerably longer to learn that lesson. But, I did.

Anyway, by the time the orderlies had arrived to deliver me to my appointment with Mike, I was pumped and ready. It didn’t even bother me that I was going to be confined in one of those stupid monkey suits. However, when they showed, they were sans the straight jacket and they didn’t look incredibly happy about it. These two reveled in their job of tying me up and marching me through these halls. Not only that, I’m pretty sure they liked me about as much as my favorite nurse did so, having to walk me down to Mike’s office without a way to keep me from being able to attack people, made their jobs more difficult. After only a couple of weeks of me behaving, they still didn’t trust me. In a way, I didn’t blame them, not with my track record. I didn’t care about that, though. It was Mike that needed to trust me. As long as he trusted me, he would do as he promised, and I needed him to do that so, I would do everything I could to gain his trust.

The two goons deposited me into a chair in Mike’s office and gave him a look as if to say, “Are you absolutely sure you want to be left alone with this one, without her straight jacket?” But, he just nodded to them and they left the room. Once the door was closed, it took me all of two seconds to twist back to Mike and ask, “So… what did you find out?”

Mike:[[ This is what I’ve been dreading...Knowing Annisa would want to know if I’ve been made a believer or not. If I plan on gaining her trust then I have to be as transparent with her as I can.|| “ There is someone from my past I have set up a meeting with I need to speak to in order to answer some questions I have concerning the “wolf” you saw. During my high school years a few girls I went to school with saw huge wolves but no one believed them. As a matter of fact the girl I’m going to see is married to someone from the Quileute reservation. He was suspected as being a part of a gang who called themselves “The Protectors” when I was back in high school but those were rumors. The leader #Sam I think his name was seemed like a good upstanding guy. Anyway...I did some digging into the legends and the wolves are actually people who are shifters… they protected their tribe against the cold ones which are actually vampires. So...that would go along with what you said about a large wolf saving your life and killing the vampire.

I had such a one track mind back then. There was this girl I was infatuated with so I feel like there is information I’ve forgotten. Annisa, I have a nagging feeling in my gut there is a key piece of information I’m missing. Like I’ve blocked it out or something. I firmly believe once I speak with Angela it will jog my memory about what is bothering me. So I guess what I’m saying is I’m still figuring things out.”

|| We don’t have a lot of time to talk about this. #Zen will be here soon. I need to give Annisa a heads up about that or I can see it being a disaster. Sighing I pinch the bridge of my nose as I get a sense Annisa isn’t pleased with my answer. Well what I have to say next won’t be any better.|| “ I don’t want to change up the subject on you but I feel it only fair to warn you #Zen will be participating in this meeting. He’s gotten my reports of your progress and would like to see for himself how well you are doing. I’m letting you know so it’s not a shock when he shows up.If this session goes well then #Zen will be satisfied which will allow me the freedom to keep my end of the deal I have with you…” || This is my way of saying if Annisa fucks this up then my hands will be tied and she’ll lose the only chance she had at someone finding the truths she claims are out there concerning her attack.]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: His lips are moving and a lot of the right words are coming out of his mouth but, there’s no understanding to them. It’s as if he’s just reciting a book of legends. This was not what I agreed to! I didn’t need him to tell me about what everyone in Forks has already heard. The cold ones, the wolves, the age old agreements... wives tales, as far as anyone else was concerned! I knew the truth. It was all 100% actuality. None of it was just a story in a book. Vampires and super wolves existed. I didn’t want Mike to tell me about what he read. I wanted him to tell me what he found out, what he thought, what he KNEW in his heart to be real. Did he believe me? How long was this going to take him?

I opened my mouth to respond when he hits me with the second bombshell. Fucking Zen! So, not only does he have nothing for me, he’s not going to be able to talk about any it with me because he’s got his boss joining in with him on the session. Zen wants to see me behave like a good little monkey. Put a hat and a vest on me, wind me up, and watch me go. Do I get cymbals too, I wonder?

“Do you even know what it’s like to wait on pins and needles for twelve days? Wondering… hoping… daring to trust? I have nothing to do with any of that time! It’s not like I have dinners with family and nights out with my friends to occupy my time while you wait for a good time to scratch an itch. What the hell are you waiting for? You told me you’d look into it. Everything you’ve told me an eight year old living in Forks could have told me! I don’t want legends, I want you to fucking dig! Go out there and… “ As I turn to point at the door, it swings wide, allowing Zen a perfect view of me kneeling on the chair, arm outstretched, midsentence. I turn back to Mike, slump down in my chair and literally snarl at him. So, this is how he wants to play this. He’s given me absolutely shit, yet he wants me to be a good little girl and play nice for his boss. Mmmhmmm… I’ll show him just how amenable I can be.

Mike: [[ The whole time Annisa is ranting I sit back and let her. Progress...she may not know it but all of this is progress for her. I’ve never gotten her to express herself with words like this before. Yes, she’s pissed but she didn’t lunge at me or spit. She’s not trying to escape. Before we can try to conclude this conversation #Zen walks in and before my eyes Annisa retreats from the fiery woman I know to the angry patient that lashes out at any given moment. I just tried to warn her the best way I can. If Annisa wants me to dig deeper then she better behave or #Zen is shipping her out of here. I won’t be able to do anything about it. I act as if what Zen has walked in on is no big deal as I stand and gesture for him to have a seat. || “ Hello, Zen. It’s good of you to come join us. Annisa and I were just talking about her week until you got here.” || I smile at Annisa as Zen takes his seat. I’m not going to prompt her to do anything. To be honest I have no set plan on how this session should go since I don’t know how Annisa plans to act now that she’s upset with me.]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: My eyes bore into Mike’s as Zen takes his seat. I had no interest in anything that man had to say or not say, nor did I have any interest in acknowledging his presence. The man has done nothing but made my life a living hell for the past few years. He doesn’t deserve my attention, nor my courtesy. Mike doesn’t understand just how much I loathe this man. He doesn’t know the torture I’ve endured at the wave of his pen, the nights in solitary, being tied up to a bed for days on end, hooked up to a catheter so he doesn’t have to unhook me, even just to pee. The man gets absolutely no love from me. If I wasn’t so sure that the fact he is here was a warning, I’d have jumped over the back of my chair the second he walked into the room. Not that I’ve fully decided not to. At the moment, I was just biding time.

I hoped the look I was shooting at Mike was completely transparent. This room just went from a battlezone to a warzone in two seconds flat. I ground my teeth together, muscles popping in my jaw. I could also feel blood dripping from the palms of my hands as my white-knuckled fingernails dug deep. This was going to be one hell of a fucked up meeting. I was already pissed off to all hell by Mike’s little revelation that he had done absolutely squat with the past twelve days. Now, I couldn’t talk to him about it, or better yet, yell at him about it, and I had to sit next to this asshat for the next hour. They’d be lucky if I made it five minutes.

Mike: [[ By the time this session is over I might not have a job anymore. I have no idea what may come out of Annisa’s mouth or what she may actually do. I take a deep breath realizing I’m not acting like the therapist I should be. It’s my job to help Annisa and right now I’m not doing that. #Zen isn’t saying anything but has a pad and pen in his hand to take notes I assume. I reach behind me and pick up my pad and pen so I can get this session started.|| “ Okay Annisa...the holidays are coming up and I’ve been using these sessions to touch base with everyone concerning their families. There is a Winter Wonderland Dinner coming up. Would you like to attend and if so we could invite your parents to come.” || Not the best topic to broach with Annisa but I got the memo from #Zen to do this with all my patients and of course my boss would pick this week to assess Annisa. Makes me think he wants Annisa to fail. I know how she feels about her parents. They betrayed her. I doubt she’ll want to see them but then again I have no right to assume anything.

I have my pencil poised as I wait for Annisa to respond. I see the muscle in her jaw twitching just like I see her glaring at me. Outwardly I keep a calm demeanor but inside I’m fucking cringing. I feel like I’m poking a fucking bear right now. At any moment that bear is going to pounce and devour me whole.]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: Every muscle in my body constricted in ire at the mere mention of my parents. Was this really where he wanted this meeting to go? Did he want me to lunge across his desk and attack him, again? There were no orderlies, or straight jackets to stop me today, and we all know Zen wasn’t going to get in my way. The guy was a card-carrying pussy. I pulled my legs up onto the chair and crossed them beneath me as I took a deep breath in, trying hard to hold myself back, as every fiber of my being wanted to strike out at Mike for everything he was doing to me, in that moment. He wanted me to show his boss that he was making improving strides with their worst resident, that he was this amazing therapist because he was able to do what no other therapist has. Yet, he’s done absolutely nothing that he’s promised me, he brings Zen into the session with all of two minutes warning, and he starts off the session by goading me with questions of holiday dinners and my parents. Fucking really?! I gave him one final, unsettling glare before sweeping my gaze elsewhere, hopefully, getting the point across to him that he was going to get no cooperation from me today.

Mike:[[ I catch #Zen flinch as Annisa repositions herself on the chair. To be honest, I am quite proud of her. I see the fury in her eyes but I also notice her attempt at taking a few deep breaths. In the past that would not have happened, and Annisa would have reacted and suffered the consequences for it later.

I don’t see her non-response as failure. I know it will take baby steps with Annisa and I put her in a very difficult situation. She has no idea how infuriated I am having #Zen in this session. Zen and I both know Annisa is not ready for this and to be honest it’s prompting me to want more than before to find out that all the time and Annisa has been right. Regardless of how I’m feeling right now I still have to do my job and continue this conversation even if it is one sided. I write down a few notes and then continue speaking.|| “ I know I’m bringing up this topic abruptly, I would prefer to get to know a little bit more about your background with your parents so if you are unable to give me an answer right now I totally understand. How about you process it for a little while and we’ll broach the topic again in a few days perhaps outside while you were in the garden having your outside time. You wanted to know what my views were about La Push and the people there. We haven’t had a chance to talk about it but I should be more equipped with the answers you want by then I promise.” ||

I give Annisa pleading look and a reassuring smile as a way of giving her a clue I am going to do the best I can to give her the answers that she needs but I do need her to continue to work with me. Zen shifts in his seat and clears his throat as if to say something but I raise my hand as a way to remind him it will be best if he remain quiet he is only supposed to be observing.]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: Everything he’s said has going in one ear and out the other. Hell, I stopped listening to him the second he brought up my parents. That was pretty much the final straw for me. Done. Finito. End of. However, the slight twitch of Zen’s movements when I adjusted my legs on the seat was not missed by me and the opposite side of my lip twitched up in smug satisfaction.

Looking out the window, I imagined what my beach would look like today. It was overcast with just a drizzle of rain but, the wind was definitely whipping around. I could envision the waves rolling in with thunderous crashes against the rocky coast. There would be a handful of idiots out there trying to surf and look badass to their friends, each one doing something more foolish than the next. The gulls would be picking up the crabs and dropping them down on the rocks. Other than that, it would be entirely peaceful. Most days when I used to go out there, I could tune out the surfers and just listen to the sound of the waves and the gulls. What I would do to be able to go back out there, now. Would I ever get that chance to lie back on the rocks and listen to my beach, again?

The word “La Push” broke me free of my daydream. After that, I caught “I promise.” Yeah? Fuck you! You promise, I thought with disdain. Words don’t mean shit. Actions speak. I didn’t want to hear one more word out of Mike’s mouth, and his cheap-ass grin made me want to vomit. I knew he was trying to beg me to behave, play along with his little act for his boss but, he was going to have to stop pissing me off, if he wanted that. I’ve been so good in the last twelve days. My actions have screamed volumes. Apparently, he hasn’t been listening.

I stood up and crossed the room to get a better look out the window. Watching the raindrops fall into the puddles and ripple outward reminded me of days long gone. I had once been a child, with no cares but how high the water would go when I jumped as hard as I could into a puddle. In a way I would give anything go back to that time. On the other side of that coin, I wouldn’t trade the knowledge that I had now for anything. I had been woken from a lie. I wouldn’t want to live with blinders on, again. I’m not one of those people that wants to live with their head in the sand. Give me the truth! I’d rather face that head on, every time.

Mike: [[ More silence... #Zen is steadily writing on his note pad but I can’t tell what he’s thinking by the blank expression on his face. I have to tell myself to calm the fuck down and remember where I am and what I should be doing which is helping my patient. For now I have to forget about the /other/ stuff and focus on the present situation. I turn to #Zen as Annisa gets up and walks to the window. I don’t show any concern about what her motives may turn out to be. I figure if she wanted to attack either one of us it would have happened by now. This time when Zen shows signs of speaking I don’t try to interrupt him.

|| “ I’m looking through your notes and you’ve steadily been decreasing the dosage of her medications...why? I’ve also noticed you’ve ceased the restraints when she is out of her room. Perhaps you are moving too quickly, Mike.” || Even though I’ve been doing a few unorthodox things, I’ve never tried to compromise Annisa’s treatment. She has impulse control issues along with everything else going on with her. I felt it important to help her learn now to control that. Now dangling the promise of believing vampires exist in Annisa’s face might have been wrong to use as a means to an end but Annisa has proven my theory correct. She is more than able to control herself and /behave/ when she chooses to.|| “ I’m not a fan of using medication for behavior modification. To me it should be used as a last resort only. As you can see over the past few weeks she’s done well.

If you look over all my charts you’ll see a few other patients have shown improvement without the medications as well. I would prefer to have this conversation another time since it’s taking away time from my patient.” || #Zen raises a brow as if I’m telling a joke. Annisa is looking out the window and could be in another world in her mind or she could be soaking in everything we are saying. I’d hate for it to be the ladder. I don’t like speaking about my patients as if they aren’t in the room. I see it as disrespectful. || “ Alright, I’ve seen enough anyway. Continue with what you are doing. It seems to be working. I still expect regular reports.” || I expected Zen to remain for the whole session. I’m glad he’s on his way out for his sake and mine. Who knows once me and Annisa are alone she may go ahead and do more than just glare at me. Zen gets up and looks at Annisa’s back before walking out the door. I remain in my seat and wait to see if this will continue to be a one sided conversation or if Annisa will resume ranting at me.]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: My thoughts were disrupted by Zen’s voice in the room. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard and I inwardly cringed as he spoke. It’s not totally unexpected, what he said. The shithead would rather see me back in solitary, tied up on the bed, with a catheter in me. Locked up, key thrown out. Right about then I guess I could be thankful to Mike for that fact that I wasn’t yet, it wasn’t enough. Yes, he has done some things to make life a little more tolerable for me. He still hasn’t done what he’s promised. What good is his word, if he doesn’t follow through?

When I heard Zen get up to leave, I watched his reflection in the window. That’s right dickwad, run. Get the fuck out now before you say something to make me lose my cool and you end up with a few new scratches to your face. Having him in here had been pushing the envelope. I had made a promise to Mike, and even though he hadn’t kept his end of the bargain, I needed to keep mine because, I still wasn’t completely convinced Mike wasn’t going to keep his. I hated being in this position. I was literally at the whim of Mike’s promise. It’s been twelve days, twelve long ass days but, I could give him a little more time… not a lot but, a little.

I watched in the window as Zen’s reflection walked through the door and it closed behind him. No sooner did it latch shut, that I rushed over and slammed my palm into it. “Good fucking riddance.” I spoke under my breath.

Mike: [[ I’ve noticed Annisa only speaks when we are alone. Not that it’s happened often but still. She clamped her mouth shut the moment Zen entered the office but he did witness her in mid sentence as he walked in.|| “Keep that up and no one will believe when I say you know how to use your words.” || I tilt my head and write a few notes before I continue speaking.|| “ By your actions I take it you don’t like #Zen too much. Would you care to explore why?” || Zen and Annisa have a mutual dislike for one another. I wasn’t aware of it until I saw how Zen handled the situation of her attacking me. His punishment was extreme and I’d like to know why. Yes, Annisa hasn’t been a model patient but she’s still a person who deserves to get the help she needs.

I shake my head as I think about the fact Annisa has a lot of people against her. Or at least that is how she would view it. Her parents, the staff here, some of the patients. I’m sure I hold a spot on her list especially after today. The session isn’t going like I’d hoped, I’m learning to always expect the unexpected here. Is that good? No but it is what it is.]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: I whipped around to face Mike. “I don’t give two shits what people think about what I say. Actions speak, Mike and from yours, I’m beginning to think you’re a liar. I have done every single thing you have asked from me and what have you shown me on your end? ‘I haven’t had time… I will… I found out about all this crap that you can read in folktale books, though… ‘“ I mocked. I was beyond furious at this point. “You haven’t done shit!” Quickly, I added on, “And no, I don’t want talk about asshat! And I would prefer to not be blindsided by another session with him sitting in. Look over your notes, they should tell you why I don’t like the dick. Or maybe they won’t. He probably doesn’t put in there when he treats his patients like waste.”

I began pacing around the room. It was obvious this whole appointment had me riled up. At least I didn’t have to worry about fucking up in front of the boss, at this point. If my anger got away from me, I could try to steer it towards Mike’s desk or a chair, instead of his face… maybe. That would all depend on what his next words might be.

Mike: [[ I don’t know what it’s like to not have control over my own life. Just like I don’t know what it’s like to live in a world no one else believes in. It doesn’t mean Annisa’s words can’t bother me. I have been trying to discover the truth no matter what she thinks. I stand up and place my tablet and pen on the table then walk around my desk. I keep my voice calm as I speak. || “ You’ve been waiting and I get that. You were hoping I’d have the answers you wanted to hear and I don’t. You have a right to be disappointed but what you don’t have a right to do is tell me what I have or haven’t done. If I said I’ve been looking into things then I have the best way /I/ know how to do.” || I yank open a desk drawer and drop files filled with papers on the desk.|| All of this is notes from my elementary exporation. I don’t sleep at night because that is when I work on this. All I can tell you Annisa is give me a few days and I should have something to tell you either good or bad.”

|| I snatch up the files and shove them back into my desk. I have issues with having my integrity questioned. This is no little thing. I’m not trying to see who killed Tupac. I’m trying to find validity to Annisa’s claims vampires exist.|| “ Since you seem to think my way is wrong then what do you suggest? I make myself bait and if I suddenly come up missing then you know I discovered the truth?” ]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: There was a fire to his response and I got a thrill from watching it burst forth from the customarily collected facade. Did I actually strike a nerve, and if so, why? Was it being called a liar that he didn’t like? It was actually unfortunate, in a way, that he had shown me this side to him. I had a way of figuring out what buttons worked on a person and diving in, head first. No holds barred. It had been my entertainment for the past few years. I had little else to do. No one had ever believed me, had ever bothered to listen to me, and they treated my like a wild animal most of the time so, what had they expected? I was going to just roll over and surrender like a wounded pup? Nope. I turned into that wild animal they seemed so desperate to want to believe that I was.

However, there was something about Mike that made me not so willing to push those buttons just for the pure amusement of it. With him, I wanted to do it to spark an outrage in him. I wanted to see his passion. I wanted him to want to learn the truth. I felt as if I was getting a chance to see him for who he really was, not the deceptive disguise he plastered on when he walked through the doors of this place. It was a connection to someone’s truth. A real person. I hadn’t had a chance to connect with anyone on a genuine level in so long, I was beginning to realize how badly I craved that in my life. Not therapist to patient, patient to nurse, patient to orderly, patient to whacked out patient. Person to person. A god damned honest connection.

Fuck! I didn’t want to think this way. Walls, Annisa! I abruptly turned back to the window. I had let one therapist in, once, a long time ago. It turned out she was just baiting me, telling me what I wanted to hear, only to pull the rug out from under me in the end. She was the first person I ever attacked here, and the last person I’ve ever trusted.

Mike: [[ Of course it isn’t until the words leave my mouth I come back to myself and feel frustrated for speaking to Annisa as if she’s other than a patient. I get a sense of dread that the more time I spend with her the deeper hole I’m going to dig for myself. I’ve gone against so many regulations over the past few weeks with Annisa, it’s as if I’m begging to toss my career down the toilet before it has a chance to get started. Why? What is it about this individual that has me so intrigued? Is it the connection to Forks we share? Is it the fact she’s too passionate about what she believes to assess her as insane? A small voice in my head brings up the fact she’s attractive that could be the fascination. I shake my head and sigh. No...I’m not that petty. A pretty face isn’t enough to make me fall off the rails like this.

The silence in the room causes a volatile atmosphere. In this moment I’m not worried about what Annisa has to say or not say. I’m more concerned with my lack of professionalism. I rub my hands over my face as I take a seat behind my desk. Annisa has retreated within herself. I can see it by her posture as she gazes out the window. A question comes to mind and it’s something I shouldn’t ask but I do anyway since I’ve already created a minefield that will fucking blow up in my face at any moment.|| “ I have a question for you Annisa. I’m sure every other therapist has thought of it but was too afraid of the backlash to ask you. It’s evident you are highly intelligent. Even though the staff here is trained for this line of work the right sort of people can work the system to get the results they want. At any point you could have gotten yourself out of here. All you had to do is conform to what you’ve been told is the right way of thinking it never had to mean you actually believed it. Why didn’t you? Why not just agree to what you’ve been told is real instead of standing by what got you locked up here in the first place? Truth or not if saying vampires are a figment of your imagination would have gotten you the hell out of here then why not just go that route? You would have gotten the last laugh by making fools out of everyone in this place /and/ you would have had your freedom.” ]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: Reaching out, I gently touched the small succulent perched on the window sill. I imagined it was probably a gift from someone, thinking a plant would brighten up Mike’s office yet, too afraid to give him a real one that he might kill.

He made a good point with his question. However, I had already discarded that option years ago. I was proof that it wasn’t all a lie. A vampire had actually killed my best friend and a ginormous wolf had kept it from doing the same to me. If I went back on my word, how would the world ever know these dangers existed? How could I ever look myself in the face, knowing I could have stopped this from happening to someone else? Not only that, the whole thing was my one truth. The one thing I still had to hold on to. If I lied and said it never actually happened, what did I have left? Parents that would welcome me back if only for being a liar, friends that wouldn’t talk to me ever again, anyway, a life back in Forks, looking over my shoulder all the time, waiting for the next vamp to show its face. Of course, I could lie, get myself out of here and leave Forks, never look back… but, what would I tell people wherever I ended up? I would have to create this elaborate lie about who I was and where I came from. Yeah, some days I thought it would be great to be able to create a totally new persona and start fresh, someplace where no one knew anything about me. But, I would have to lie to myself to do that, and right about now I was so done with all the lies. If I lied to get myself out of here, I would have nothing, not even my own truth. I wasn’t willing to give that up.

I wasn’t sure I could explain any of that to Mike, though. I wasn’t sure he would understand. I’m sure it would make perfect sense to anyone else to just lie and get myself out. It was ten times more difficult to explain to someone how much the only truth a person had left meant so much more. So, I side-stepped. Turning around to look at Mike, I responded with a cool, “Now, why didn’t I ever think of that?”

Mike: [[ I toss my hands up in the air not surprised by Annisa’s response. I’m not in the mood to entertain her sarcasm though. I glance at the clock and see our time is almost up. Nothing is going to get accomplished today. Too much negativity was stirred up the both of us. I’m not going to open my mouth to give a sarcastic response. That won’t help this situation. No one has been able to get under my skin like this ever...I’m the professional here but I feel at this moment Annisa is pulling the strings. I close my eyes and count to ten before speaking again.

|| “ Alright...I think we are done for today. I can’t see anything productive happening in the remaining time we have left. For what it’s worth given the circumstances you should be proud of yourself. You were pushed to your limit today but made better choices. So instead of being drugged and dragged away to solitary you will wake up in the morning and have the freedom to enjoy our outside time. A positive step in the right direction. That is something good to focus on. It can only get better from there.” || I’m not just stating a bunch of words, even in my angry state I mean what I say. Not that Annisa will appreciate it. She has a way or warping everything I say.]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: I took a deep breath and rolled my eyes at Mike’s so-called praise. Yeah, yeah, yeah… so, I managed to keep my anger in check today. It’s only because I needed something in return, which he better have for me the next time I see him. This twiddling my fingers and waiting shit is for the birds, as they say. I’m getting seriously tired of it all.

“Which proves that I’ve done as you’ve asked. So, are you still going to keep up your end?” Damn! I hated depending on anyone for anything. I just felt that I needed to hear him say that he would. We never really finished our conversation and I got the feeling that I might have pissed him off a little today. Not that I was totally upset about that. Serves him right for the whole debacle he put me in but… he made promises to me. I wanted to hear it from him that he would keep his word.

Mike: [[ “ Yes, I intend to keep my promises to you. I’ll continue to search for the truth and will meet up with you in a few days. We’ll have our discussion in the garden for privacy if the weather permits.” || I pick up the phone to let the orderlies know they can come and retrieve Annisa. I’m sure they will be surprised there were no incidents.|| “ Unless you have something else to say we can be done for today. Continue to stay out of trouble and perhaps in a few days you’ll finally get the validations you’ve been hoping for since the day your life changed forever.”]] @BetrayedVirtue

Annisa: I felt a sense of relief as Mike reaffirmed his promise to me, and I only nodded in response, deciding it was best to leave the session there. The orderlies filed in just as Mike finished his comment about me getting validations. One could only hope, and I was desperately trying to hold onto some of that. It had been a long ass time since I gave hope a chance, I wasn’t sure I knew how to do it, anymore but, I was doing my best. I would find out in the next week or so if it was worth taking that one last chance with it. It was all in Mike’s hands. Shit! I seriously hated that!

I followed the orderlies back to room without incident. I could see smoke flowing out of their ears as their wheels grinded, trying to figure out why I had been so cooperative, lately. I was going to have to do something to mess with them soon, just because. I was becoming too tame. I needed to keep them on their toes. This place was becoming stagnant. Sitting down on my bed, after they left, I began to plot.

0 notes

ontherisedjacademy · 7 years

Text

DENON DJ PRIME – FIRST WORDS

Back in November 2016, we we’re treated to a mysterious marketing campaign video from Denon DJ showing of blueprints of kit that simply ended with #ChangeYourRider, and that was all it took for the buzz to start. DJs climbed over themselves to speculate on what was coming, blogs created mock ups of what it could be and the DJ world just kept throwing out their guesses as to what Denon DJ was going on unveil.

2 months passed at the guessing game ended as Denon DJ finally revealed their new Prime Series SC5000 Media Player, X1800 Mixer and VL12 Turntable. Personally I’m not a fan of any of those forced tense moments on TV that keep the viewer in suspense as they always seems to be totally over egged for the result, but hats off to Denon DJ, their highly successful marketing campaign resulted in a big win for DJs and the #ChangeYourRider tease certainly lived up to its name.

We’ve been lucky enough to have the SC5000 media players and X1800 mixer at our studio for a few weeks now thanks to DJKit.com (and a special thanks to Decksavers for supplying the covers) and we were keen to see if they lived up to the hype. #ChangeYourRider is a big statement to drive a marketing campaign and in a world where Pioneer DJ has ruled for well over a decade, you need to be able to put your money where your mouth is. Bottom line is Denon DJ have indeed flashed the cash, got the cheque and left a generous tip. Their Prime Series is the first serious contender to challenge the Pioneer DJ range and in some cases goes well beyond. Will everyone suddenly change their rider and jump ship? No of course not, but, what the Prime series has done is raise the bar and in a world where competition is healthy, the ultimate winner is going to be the DJs. Whether you convert to Denon DJ or not, Pioneer DJ will undoubtably step up their game for the next CDJ model, win win either way.

Before we get started on the units and software I wanted to mention Mix Master G, why you may ask? Well it’s quite simple really, he’s created a conversion utility tool to export/import Rekordbox cues & loops to Engine Prime. One of the biggest obstacles DJs will face going from Rekordbox to Engine Prime (Denon DJs preparation software for the SC5000 players) is having to recreate all your cue points and loops again. Personally over the past 8 years or so I’ve done this 3 times with my collection of over 2500 tracks with Serato, Traktor and then Rekordbox and the thought of doing it all again is a little much. Keep an eye out for a separate review when this gets an official release but in the mean time check out our ultimate digital organisation article.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

DENON DJ – SC5000 PRIME MEDIA PLAYER

There have been plenty of articles talking about the tech specs and features of the new Denon DJ SC5000 Media Player so I want to focus more about my hands on experience with them and how they performed in in the mix. My first live use was on our weekly Facebook Live show a couple of weeks back (see video below). I spent a few hours prepping the tracks in Engine Prime and exported the tracks ready for the show.

The first feeling I got standing in front of these was simply, wow! Even brushing aside that ‘new kit’ buzz, these units look and feel amazing. The screen is big, bright, detailed and multi touch. The simple, well spaced layout is really in tune with todays DJs demands and the main highlight for me is the performance pads. Seriously, why has it taken so long for someone to put these in the right place! Using these you really feel in control, they are perfectly situated for those who like to remix and manipulate the music as it’s playing. Separating out the Hotcue & Loops works really well creatively and the screen gives you a clear layout where they all are if you need reminding. The Slicer and Roll effects also work really well in the mix, you can hear in my live set below that I was having a lot of fun with both of them! Be warned the Slicer effect (on any unit) can certainly be very hit and miss so choose your moments wisely, I found more minimal parts of tracks with no strings or melodies work best.

I toured with the Traktor S4 controller around the world for about 4 years and loved it for many reasons but two of them I linked straight away on the SC5000 was the Beat Jump & Loop controls. I used the Beat Jump a lot and although other models do have this feature, they are within touch screens and for a tool you use regularly, I like a hardware button to control and the SC5000 does just that. Similarly with the Loop control, you rotate the control to get the desired beat increment, then pushing down activates & deactivates the loop, nice and simple and when using this with 2 of more tracks in the mix you have that extra element of control.

Dual Layer – really not a whole lot to say on this apart from amazing innovation! Switching between the 2 layers is just a single button and the screens feedback keeps a tight control on which track is playing and where from so when you do have 3 or 4 tracks on the go it’s easy to keep a track of where you are and whats going on.

Onto the platers, these are just amazing. Sturdy, responsive and the ability to adjust the tension to your own personal taste, using them I can’t quite shake the same feeling I get when I’m using turntables. Like with any new hardware you need to find it’s biting points, but once you do there’s a real level of control you feel with the SC5000 platters. Top job.

I can describe the experience in two words ‘innovative fun’, a feeling I’d not had with DJ kit for a long time. In fact the last time I remember feeling that buzz was when I’d first moved from CDs to Serato and bought a Numark NS6 and immediately felt a new love for DJing. Creative ideas just kept flying into my head as the realisation that DJing is no longer linear, we’re not at the mercy of a needle any more. We can do what ever we like. And that’s what these media players have done again, they have take the USB/CDJ world and merged it perfectly with the controller world giving the DJ more power and control over their creative output.

These units not only rival competitors, they’ve blasted one step further.

DENON DJ – X1800 PRIME DJ MIXER

The mixer layout is on point and will be instantly familiar to many DJs, everything is where it should be and in some cases, like the performance pads on the SC5000, much better.

Using the mixer, it’s the effects section that really brings it to life. The time division touch strip enables you not only go from 8 beats up to 1/16th in one straight movement, but that added bonus of the Instant Effects works great for those creative DJs looking to add more to their sets with just a simple touch. As a DJ I’m all about organise & prepare, for those that know me know I’ll work tirelessly before my sets preparing to ensure I free up all the time I can in the booth to focus on the crowd and creativity and the instant function facilitates this perfectly. You’ll see in the Facebook live stream videos that adding these effects and dropping them into a mix is really simple and more importantly, effective.

In the release version of the X1800 there are 12 effects to choose which cover most of the effects you’ll find on many mixers. The stand out one for me is the BeatBreak one, this is a lot of fun! In the mix you can shuffle and manipulate tracks with different patterns which gives it a great live remix feel, my only gripe with this effect is that it also seems to increase the output a little which I’m sure will be looked at in future firmware updates.

The second bank of effects I also had a lot of fun with is the Sweep FX section. You’ve got Dub Echo, Gate, Noise (does anyone actually use this?!) and my favourite; Wash Out. The Wash Out effect is like a Echo/Filter which again works amazing in the mix to create tension and tease parts of a track as well as a simple yet very effective transition between different genres/tempos.

The on board dedicated Filter control did something I’ve not seen before – total kills on high and low pass. This blew me away. Like many DJs I use the filter a lot and now, having the ability to bring in a tune from silence and sweep through the frequencies, adds more creative options to my mixes, very impressed!

There’s a solid and replaceable Flex Fader crossfader which will certainly please scratch DJs and the up fader’s are smooth with mirco small incremental bumps, these are a nice touch as it feels you’ve just got that bit more control with those long subtle mixes. My only thoughts here with the faders is they feel a little too close together to what I’m used to and I occasionally kept hit channels 1 & 4 (I was using 2 & 3). I’m pretty animated with my mixing and used to wider space so I just have to be aware and get used to them.

Connection wise there really isn’t much you can’t do with this mixer and the added bonus of a built in network hub means less hardware to add to the set up.

Innovative fun again pops into my head while I’m using the X1800 mixer which for me is important, DJing is about have fun and being creative and the better tools you have to do so the more fun it’s going to be (for you and the crowd).

DENON DJ – ENGINE PRIME SOFTWARE

Like with Pioneer DJs Rekordbox, Denon DJ have released a free software download, Engine Prime, to manage and prepare your tracks and playlists for use on the SC5000 Media players.

I’ve successfully exported both Rekordbox and Engine Prime playlists to the same USB and they both work fine, just make sure it’s formatted as FAT as Denon DJs SC500 won’t read anything else.

I’m not going to go into too much detail on the software as I expect there will be some major updates in the coming weeks that will resolve some of my initial thoughts. Until the full review I will say though it’s very easy to use, especially if you are already used to using a DJ management tools like Traktor, Serato or Rekordbox.

BONUS TIP: Save your 600×600 logo artwork as “logo.png” in the Engine folder of the USB to overwrite all the track artwork displayed in the centre of the SC5000 Media Player platter.

PRIME RANGE SUMMARY

Innovative Fun. I’m saying this again as it’s my driving thought while playing on Prime Series, Denon DJ have clearly kept their eye on the current market and predicted well where it needs to evolve and come up with an outstanding range of mixer & media players to facilitate this move.

Denon DJ could have quite easily gone with #GameChanger and still been bang on the money.

EXTRAS

If you’re investing in the Prime Series it’s worth spending a few extra quid to get Decksaver covers to protect both the SC5000 Media Player & X1800 Mixer . Cable wise we use the Neo / Oyaide audio cables, not only are they phenomenal audio and USB cables but they also perfectly colour match the Prime Series range!

OVER TO YOU….. HAVE YOU TRIED THE NEW DENON PRIME RANGE?

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THEM? DROP A COMMENT BELOW!

On The Rise: Denon DJ Prime Series Review & Live Videos DENON DJ PRIME - FIRST WORDS Back in November 2016, we we're treated to a mysterious…

#CDJ/USB #Denon DJ #Mixer #Vinyl

0 notes