#they're just always so well done and the cast fit together so well

[daisyishedwig]

I was literally spinning around my kitchen giggling and twirling my hair listening to the latest episode and I can't wait for the official drop to come tomorrow because I need y'all to hear this. (I do have a tendency to do this with most episodes of woe.begone but this one was a particular joy to listen to)

Very spoilery screaming in the tags below.

[mangowillow]

last to know | ch. 2: as always, even now

pairing: jungkook x (f) reader / kim woosung x (f) reader

summary: you and jeongguk got together at 16 years old, married at 20, and divorced at 21. what was once love ever after turned into nothing but pain and unfulfilled dreams. you keep going despite the pain in your heart that never really went away, until one day, jungkook comes back— to seoul and in your life.

general story tags: divorce au, childhood friends, angst, hurt & eventual comfort, kind of a slow burn, OC is an adopted child in this fic, a lot of flashbacks later on because context is important; and the others that a lot of people seem to dislike: a love triangle and a LOT of miscommunication. look away if this isn't your thing. tags and warnings will be updated as we go along with each chapter!

warnings: mentions of weight loss and a hospital, jeongguk has a panic attack (semi-detailed), problematic parent-child dynamics. let me know if i miss anything and please be kind!

word count: 5.3k

author's note: *peeks into the void* why hello there! let's pretend i didn't disappear off the face of the earth. earlier this year i went to see The Rose live for their dawn to dusk tour and it was so much fun! there's just a lot of things that have happened and continue to do so; please accept my sincerest apologies for being inconsistent! BUT. know that i haven't forgotten about this story. heh.

also a few more things: ♡ to put things into perspective: jeongguk, OC/reader, and woosung are all the same age; that also means they're as old as seokjin and yoongi in this fic. all the other members maintain their age. honorifics may or may not appear at times. if that bothers you, well, can't please everybody! ♡ this fic isn't beta'd nor proofread by anyone. we go rogue, always.

tags for interested readers will be open for as long as this fic is ongoing! let me know in the comments or message me, whatever fits your preference!

fic masterlist

Woosung plants a big, sloppy kiss on your cheek and giggles.

Looking at him, you ask, “What was that for?”

“Do I need a reason?” Woosung teases as he chews on his jjajangmyeon. You chuckle at his candidness and reach out to wipe the sauce that landed on the corner of his lip. The both of you resorted to sitting on the floor, surrounded by boxes, using one of them as a makeshift table to place the food.

“I’m really happy you got to come today,” you muse, enjoying Woosung’s calming presence as he delicately places a piece of chicken karaage on your noodle bowl before setting his own down. You haven’t seen him for a few days because he needed to get some new music done in preparation for his application to a recording agency as a performer and a producer. You were more than happy to support him in any way you could, including giving him his space to figure things out. It was also who Woosung was— a quiet soul who liked working in solitude. 

You and Woosung are so much alike.

“Why? Did you think I’d forget?” Woosung teases, a smirk playing on his lips. 

“No, I just thought… maybe you needed more time to prepare for your application. That’s important.”

Woosung gently shakes his head, ready to disagree— “Nothing will ever be as important to me as you.”

A slight pink dusted your cheeks. You didn’t expect him to be this cheesy so early in the morning so you smile and cast your eyes back down to your meal. 

“... I do have news for you, babe.” Woosung starts. He turns his body to face you. Giving your hundred percent attention, you cut the noodles with your teeth and place the bowl down. Wiping your mouth with a napkin, you hum at his statement, “What is it?”

Woosung smiles and looks at you lovingly. You feel a bit self-conscious every time he stares at you so intensely and like clockwork, you feel your cheeks heat up. 

“I got the job, sweetheart.”

Hearing the news leave his lips leaves you surprised— your hands fly to your mouth and your eyes start to water. “R-really?” Woosung nods and chuckles through his own teary eyes, you throw yourself at him to give him a tight hug. “Woosung, oh my god— this is— “ you hold him by the shoulders, explore every inch of his face, elation in both of your hearts— “this is great, oh gosh I am so happy for you,” you hug him again. 

You feel Woosung’s body relax instantly in your hold; it has been a journey, walking with Woosung through his own painful moments struggling with his art and passion. Two years ago, he came to Seoul desperately needing a break from life and music after many unsuccessful attempts to make it into the music industry back home in the United States. Although he and his bandmates have put out several songs in the past, they never really gained as much traction with an audience as they had hoped. Going back home to his roots in South Korea also meant leaving his bandmates behind— they have been nothing but supportive of him and his time as they also needed to re-assess their own lives and figure out what they truly wanted. 

Two years ago, Woosung also met you. Both your lives changed ever since.

“Thank you for all your support, ____… you know I wouldn’t have been able to get through all this if it weren’t for you.” Woosung whispers, tightening his hold on your waist. You feel this, you feel everything when it comes to him— so you wrap your arms tighter around him, too. “This is all you, babe. This is all your hard work.”

You both stay that way for a while. Unspoken words are left hanging, as well. You both know well what might become of all this as you always try to communicate. You believe it is what has sustained your relationship for so long. 

Both of you know that Woosung will always belong to music— it’s his dream and the reason why he took so many risks along the way. It was only a matter of when. The possibilities have always been there— should there be a moment where Woosung would return to his career, to his band, to becoming a global star. The fears that come along with those possibilities were also ever-present: what you and Woosung’s future would look like. 

All of these thoughts come rushing to the both of you, but neither of you said anything.

For now, the both of you are happy. And that is enough.

When you parted from each other, you pushed away some of the hair that fell over Woosung’s eyes. “When do you start?”

Woosung takes a deep breath, “As soon as the higher-ups get settled in. I’ve been told they’ve recently landed in Seoul so it shouldn’t be too long now. I’ll be meeting with the owners and one of them is the lead producer. I heard he was a genius, but also a bit scary. They’ve also given me a signing bonus and a potential collaboration with him… that was new… he said they liked my work so much…”

“Wow, that… that sounds so exciting, baby. How are you feeling about all of this?”

“I’m nervous, for the most part,” Woosung murmurs, readjusting the collar of his shirt. It’s been a while since I talked to someone else about music professionally and… this company— I’ve heard so many wonderful things about it. For one, it was built by musicians, too. So I’m hoping they’re not just doing all of it for the business.” 

You smile warmly at Woosung and hold his hands. “You’re going to do great, you know that, right?”

Woosung draws in a breath and nods before meeting your eyes. 

That night, Woosung couldn’t sleep. He watches over you as you dream and when a strand of your hair falls on your face after moving a bit, he tucks it behind your ear. His fingers lightly dance while grazing the side of your face. Woosung sighs as a feeling of anxiety starts to creep into his heart. He loves change, but he cannot help but feel somewhat scared about it anyway. He gets so lost in his thoughts about you that he doesn’t notice you wake up.

“Baby, hey… you’re still awake.”

Your voice brings Woosung back to the present. Seeing your sleepy eyes under the sliver of moonlight that passes through your window makes his heart do a mini somersault— it always does.

“Hmm… I couldn’t sleep,” Woosung says. You scoot closer to him, his arm going under your shoulders to support your body in an embrace. 

“Tell me what’s on your mind,” you whisper, eyes closed, inhaling his scent— him. 

“Just… things. I’m not sure how to articulate them yet…”

You hum, “Then I’ll just stay like this with you to keep you warm… warmth helps you sleep, right?”

Woosung nods, bringing your body closer to his. “Hm… especially your warmth.” Seconds later, he feels you breathe deeper, letting him know that you’re about to let yourself succumb to sleep once more. “I love you.”

When no response came from you, Woosung closed his eyes. Then suddenly, in the stillness of the night, he feels your hand squeeze his ever so lightly.

“I love you, too.”

“Hyung, I think that’s the salt—” Jimin starts.

Seokjin snorts, stopping with the shaker in his hand mid-air, “What do you mean, Jimin-ah, I think I know the difference between salt and sugar.” He was about to potentially put salt on the croffle in front of him, leaving Jimin feeling both very nervous and distressed.

“Last time, I remember you put the sugar in a different container because a customer accidentally broke the original shaker. The color of the cap was blue, not red. This—” he pointed at the shaker Seokjin was holding, “— is obviously not blue.”

“Yah, that happened last week, but I already switched them out two days ago—” Seokjin tries to argue.

They didn’t notice Woosung enter the cafe until he spoke, “Why don’t you just taste it?”

“Oh hey, Woosung-hyung,” Jimin greets.

“Hey, Jimin. Good to see you,” Woosung replies as Jimin nods, his eyes turning into crescents as soon as he smiles.

Seokjin scoffs once more before greeting Woosung, but he relents and tastes whatever is inside the shaker. When he makes a funny face, Jimin and Woosung chuckle.

“Told ya, hyung. Tell us I saved your life.”

“I can’t believe this is salt, I knew I already switched it out—”

With possible disaster averted, Jimin doesn’t listen to Seokjin’s monologue anymore, “You’re here early today, hyung. Would you like to order the usual?”

“Actually, I am here to buy a mango parfait… ____’s fridge is crazy cold and the frozen mangoes are, well, too frozen. I might actually break the blender. I also forgot to make her usual overnight oats. We had to move a lot of things very quickly yesterday so she could have a bed to sleep on.”

“I got you, hyung. We just finished making a fresh batch of parfaits. Do you want one, too?” Jimin asks.

“Are there other flavors?”

“Blueberry and strawberry,” Seokjin adds.

“I’ll take one blueberry, then. Thanks.” Woosung gets ready to pay, but Seokjin waves him away. “It’s on the house.”

“You always give us free stuff, Seokjin—” Woosung tries to argue, but Seokjin shakes his head immediately.

“Taking care of my sister is more than enough, Woosung-ah.”

Woosung gives Seokjin a tight smile and nods. Seokjin then asks, albeit softer, “How is she doing lately?”

“She’s doing better,” Woosung reassures. “She has been painting more recently; not just because of her job at the university, but also at home. We’re going to set up her studio today so it should be fun.”

“That’s good to hear, right hyung?” Jimin turns to Seokjin, who nods. Jimin hands Woosung a paper bag with the parfaits. “I put some new desserts we’re experimenting with. Please give them a try.”

Woosung peeks at the paper bag and sees croissants and greenish muffins, presumably matcha-flavored. “Oh wow, thank you Jimin… I won’t take up too much of your time, guys. ____ is still sleeping and I need to clean up the mango disaster I left on her kitchen counter before she wakes up.”

Seokjin chuckles, “You really came all the way here for parfaits when you could have bought these anywhere near ____’s apartment.”

“Ah, but nothing beats your parfaits, Seokjin. A wise man once told me that,” Woosung smiles. He and Seokjin instantly formed a bond the moment they met two years ago, much to your relief. You’ve always been nervous to tell your brother anything remotely new about your love life— and you understand where he is coming from.

“Well whoever that wise man is must be pretty smart,” Seokjin replies. His eyes soften right afterward. “Go. Let’s have a drink sometime, yeah?”

“Sure thing,” Woosung waves goodbye to Seokjin and Jimin.

Jeongguk walks the hallway of the recording studio, still groggy from sleep. Hands in his pockets, he stood outside Yoongi’s door, staring at his peculiar mat: a cat with its middle finger raised, the words ‘fuck off’ glaring at him. Figures, he thought. A doormat won’t stop him from ringing Yoongi’s doorbell, though.

“Who is it?” he hears Yoongi call out.

“It’s your favorite person in the whole wide world,” Jeongguk says, sarcasm lacing his voice. He pinched the bridge of his nose; a habit he developed in college whenever he felt the exhaustion seep out of him. He hears scuffling from the other side of the door until the sound of the door’s automatic lock rings. Jeongguk sees Yoongi clad in a plaid shirt, ripped jeans, and a gray beanie— his signature style. 

“Dumbass,” Yoongi mutters under his breath before turning his back to return to his equipment. “Good morning to you too,” Jeongguk teases as he closes the door behind him. 

“How are you already set up? It’s barely a day since we arrived!”

Yoongi chooses not to respond. 

“You’re kidding me, right?” Jeongguk asks in disbelief. “Please tell me you at least went home to get your shit sorted? Or maybe sleep like normal human beings do?”

“I did… for a brief moment, maybe?” Yoongi starts.

Jeongguk shakes his head, “You have to stop spreading yourself thin, Yoongi. It’ll be the death of you.”

Yoongi fiddles with a few knobs on the synthesizer before muttering, “That doesn’t seem so bad— spreading myself too thin, that is.”

Jeongguk throws his hands up in surrender and rolls his eyes.

“Have I succeeded in frustrating you to hell and back, yet?” Yoongi smirks while continuing to flit his eyes through the numerous screens in front of him.

Jeongguk was about to say something but then the door alarm clicked. Kim Namjoon’s head peeks out from behind the door.

“I came to say my welcome remarks,” Namjoon says as he lets himself in. Jeongguk’s mouth falls open because he couldn’t believe Namjoon could just easily waltz in without any resistance. What’s even more astounding was that he knew Yoongi’s passcode— while he, on the other hand, had to ring the fucking doorbell.

“Oh, great. So your boyfriend knows your passcode and I don’t?” Jeongguk asks.

“He isn’t my boyfriend,” Yoongi states, matter-of-factly. Jeongguk couldn’t help but glance at Namjoon’s way, who seemed unfazed.

“Right, and I’m Neil Armstrong,” Jeongguk plops down on the couch.

“You’re the CEO, Jeongguk, of course, you should know the passcode… right, Yoongi?” says Namjoon, ever the oblivious one. 

Yoongi continues to do work on his computer, his fingers deftly flying across his keyboard, “Don’t encourage him, Namjoon.”

Namjoon looks back at Jeongguk who has now taken an interest in the plant beside the couch. When they met each other’s eyes, Namjoon just shrugged, his dimples showing. 

“How was your flight, you guys? I hope everything was easy peasy.”

“Easy peasy lemon squeezy,” Jeongguk responds. “Not sure about Yoongi here though. He looked like he was about to puke.”

“Shut up,” Yoongi retaliates.

“I can’t imagine the both of you tolerating each other while in another country. It’s a miracle this production company is still standing upright,” Namjoon says chuckling. 

Namjoon met Jeongguk first in university while they studied in New York. Although Jeongguk was a business student and Namjoon double majored in music theory and composition, they ran into each other at a frat party-— with Jeongguk being drunk off his ass. He was about to fall into the pool full of piss (which the other frat members thought was funny) when Namjoon saved him in the nick of time. 

Apart from Yoongi, Namjoon also served as Jeongguk’s confidant, especially after things went south between you and Jeongguk. When the dust settled and Jeongguk was sober enough to realize the gravity of his mistakes, Namjoon helped Yoongi pick up the pieces of Jeongguk’s brokenness. As with time passing by, Namjoon and Yoongi started to develop into something more, too. Much to Jeongguk’s delight and envy.

However, neither Yoongi nor Namjoon has admitted their feelings to the other. And truth be told, Jeongguk is sick of them dancing around each other.

But he also knows it’s none of his business.

“Hey, Jeongguk, is that family dinner of yours still happening tonight?” Yoongi decides to ask. Also probably to change the subject.

Jeongguk lets out a deep sigh. “Yes, it is.”

“Ouch. Will you be alright?” Namjoon asks out of genuine concern.

“I don’t really have a choice.”

“You always have a choice, Jeongguk-ah,” Yoongi inserts. “You just need to work on making the right ones.”

Jeongguk slacks his jaw and runs his tongue across his lip ring. He doesn’t really have an answer to that.

Because once again, Yoongi was right. Not just about the damn family dinner; Jeongguk also knows his best friend’s words run deeper and imply a whole lot more than just feeling forced to sit down with his parents over steak and champagne.

“See you on the other side, then,” Namjoon says as he pats Jeongguk on the shoulder before leaving the room.

Jeongguk mulled over bringing flowers to the family dinner but decided against it.

He knows that the house would be filled with them, anyway. And his efforts won’t matter, either.

As he got out of his car, a chauffeur was already by his side ready to take his keys for him. When the car drove off, Jeongguk took a moment to look at the house he hadn’t lived in for years. It feels odd to come home; it feels even odder to feel numb about all of it.

It took Jeongguk a few seconds to ring the doorbell; for god’s sake, it was his house too, he thought. Ringing the doorbell meant he was a stranger— which he felt was appropriate.

He was greeted by a new housekeeper. He gave her a nod before stepping inside. Almost instantly, his mother appeared at the top of the staircase. They look at one another for a moment, before his mother breaks the silence.

“You finally decide to show yourself.”

Jeongguk doesn’t move. Doesn’t respond, either. He was prepared for a stare-off match with his mother, but that was until his father showed up from the kitchen. With a dish towel in hand, Jeongguk’s father smiled at him as he placed a hand on his son’s shoulder.

“It’s so good to see you, son.”

Jeongguk, once more, doesn’t have it in him to respond.

At the dinner table, the silence was so loud, that Jeongguk thought it could break glass.

“Did you settle in fine, Jeongguk?” his father asks.

“Yes, father, I did.”

“You should have chosen a place that was nearer to us, Jeongguk,” his mother chides.

“Honey…” Jeongguk’s father tries to put out a fire that is about to ignite. Jeongguk, on the other hand, was so tired from the flight and emotionally, that he felt a need to retaliate.

Because why not? Whether he speaks up or not wasn’t really up to him. Between him and his mother, he has nothing to lose.

“I don’t know, mother, I chose that place because I wanted to get away from here as much as possible.” Jeongguk remarks. He knows he hit a nerve because his mother downed her champagne rather than respond.

“How is the company going, son? Everything doing alright?” his father asks, trying to mitigate a conflict that neither of them could recover from.

“I guess. Yoongi and I haven’t managed to burn anything so that’s nice,” Jeongguk eats a spoonful of mashed potato. He knows he really needs to shut up and regulate his emotions, but he just can’t help but be sarcastic.

Once more, the silence won. However, Jeongguk’s mother is the type to not back down.

“You should think about getting married soon, Jeongguk—” she starts. Jeongguk feels himself grow cold as if on instinct. 

“—and this time, we want you to marry someone your level,” she finishes. Jeongguk felt his heart twisting so painfully that he didn’t notice how tight he held on to his cutlery.

Jeongguk swallows the once-repressed pain that used to consume him whole. He knows this is futile because he never dares to face his regrets square in the face. Instead, he allows the pain to make him angry. He allows his resentment to consume him in ways he doesn’t know how to handle and in a pained effort to avoid causing further damage, he remains quiet. Unresponsive. Cold. Withdrawn.

But his own mother is even more cold-hearted than he is. She is the one who made him like this.

It’s her fault.

“You need to marry a good woman who can keep up with your social status. Remember you’re not just anyone, Jeongguk. You’re a Jeon. And you have a legacy to uphold,” his mother condescends. 

Tears start to sting Jeongguk’s eyes, but he doesn’t want to let his mother win. So he keeps still.

“I have a few prospects for you, dear. We should set dates for them, don’t you think so? I chose the most refined and educated—” Jeongguk hates how his mother knows how to push his buttons and hurt him.

He knows that his mother knows his ultimate weakness.

You.

And because his mother cannot contain her insecurities and prejudice, she projects it all on her son. But most especially, you— whether you were in the room or not.

Jeongguk’s mother continues her monologue. His father miserably fails to become the referee (he always does). Heat starts to rise Jeongguk’s neck and he swears he could hear his own blood pumping through his ears. What almost immediately follows is the high-pitched ringing that only he can hear. 

Jeongguk starts to feel dizzy; like he’s about to lose control.

But instead of releasing, instead of crying, instead of getting angry— he does none of them. 

He finds himself standing up, his hands dragging the plate full of food to the ground. With all his might, Jeongguk tries to breathe deeply.

“That’s enough, mom.” Jeongguk croaks. A tear escapes his eye. “Please.”

Jeongguk rarely addresses her as “mom”. But in times of vulnerability and helplessness, it’s the term he ends up using.

“As I expected… you are still weak, Jeongguk.” his mother states with absolutely no remorse.

Jeongguk feels like he is about to throw up. To save himself, he drags his legs to leave the dining area. Housekeepers try to help him, but he brushes them aside. Security guards around the house up until the gate tried to support him, but Jeongguk just waved them all off.

He just needed to get away before his vision completely blurred. He needed to get out of this godforsaken house.

It was a miracle that Jeongguk got far away from the house as he had. But in doing so, he felt physically weaker and weaker. His mind isn’t done with him yet as thoughts of you start to resurface. His chest starts to tighten again. He feels cold and afraid and tired.

Jeongguk falls to his knees on the side of the road; he allows his body to go limp and fall to the ground. 

He barely remembers what happened next.

When Jeongguk opens his eyes, bright, stale lights greet him. 

He hears beeping, faint footsteps, a voice over an intercom.

He feels something brushing his leg so gently that it takes him a while before realizing that someone is standing over him, wiping the edge of his slacks.

Jeongguk squints his eyes to get a better look at the person touching his leg. When he tries to elevate his upper body, the person in front of him feels him moving.

Jeongguk couldn’t believe who he was seeing. His panic attack must still be happening because it was impossible.

It was you.

“Oh… hi,” you start. Jeongguk is at a loss for words so he continues to stare at you.

You immediately feel self-conscious so you start to wrangle the damp cloth you were holding. 

“Are you okay? Hang on, I’ll call the nurse—”

You start to leave, but Jeongguk catches your wrist. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. You look at his hand on your wrist before Jeongguk lets go of it.

“W-what happened?”

“You’re at the hospital… um, I– I got a call from them saying you were here,” you say.

Jeongguk’s eyebrows met. He is still confused as to how or why the hospital would call you. As he looks at you, in the flesh, in front of him, the familiar ache in his chest threatens to overwhelm him again.

You look as beautiful as ever, even more so than the last time he saw you. The last time he did, you were crying to him. He did that to you. That was his fault.

“Are you hurt, anywhere, Jeongguk? I think I need to call your doctor, just give me a second—”

“No… please. I’m okay. I don’t feel any pain.” Except for my broken heart.

“Oh… okay.”

Jeongguk observes you, more particularly your hands. You still have that habit of fiddling with your fingers when you didn’t know what to do, he thinks. 

“H-how did the hospital call you? You didn’t change your number?” Jeongguk is a hundred percent sure his choice of questions was dumb, but he doesn’t have any idea as to why you’re here.

“The hospital told me I was your emergency contact… they uh– they only found your wallet on you and found this,” you explain as you handed him his wallet. Inside was an old piece of paper with your emergency contact number and e-mail address.

“The e-mail address is now defunct, but my number is still the same because I had it reactivated when I came back here…”

When I came back here, Jeongguk repeated to himself. 

Jeongguk wanted to ask you a million questions, but his throat feels dry and he is unable to speak. 

“I um, I also called Yoongi. He should be here any minute,” you continue. When Jeongguk looks at you funny, you give him a small smile— the first one you’ve given him since he woke up. “We talk sometimes.”

There is a lot of information that Jeongguk needs to process but his head hurts a lot and he makes a mental note to interrogate his friend later.

You move to grab and open the plastic bag that is on the bedside table. You pull out a pair of black socks. Jeongguk sees you hesitate a bit before speaking again.

“I got these across the street… your socks got wet from the rain.”

“Oh.” Jeongguk feels really dumb.

“May I?” you tentatively ask. “Your feet will get cold if we don’t—and you have the IV on so you won’t be able to use your hands—”

“It’s okay…” Jeongguk’s response startles you. “Thank you.”

You nod and sit by his feet to put on the new socks. Jeongguk feels the tears again but he tries to hold them back as he feels your touch and your warm fingers graze his bare, cold skin. When you’re done putting them on him, you smile to yourself.

“Does that feel better?” you ask.

Jeongguk nods and hums. He took his time to look at you and to his mild surprise, you reciprocated. A sense of stillness seemed to occur like time stopped just so Jeongguk could fully take in the sight of you.

He hurriedly tries his best to memorize all your features—old and new. Your face is smaller, your cheekbones higher; both indicative of you losing a bit of weight since he saw you last. Your eyes are softer, but also more tired. You also grew out your hair. 

To Jeongguk, you are still so beautiful.

And he missed you so much that his heart hurt again at the thought of losing you.

“How are y—” Jeongguk tries to ask, but the door to his hospital room slid open, revealing a disheveled Yoongi.

“Jeongguk, are you okay? What happened?”

Jeongguk notices you quickly moving aside to give Yoongi room. 

“I’m fine, Yoongi. I guess I just passed out and—”

“You had another panic attack, Jeongguk. That’s the second time this week. Have you taken your medication?”

Yoongi’s string of questions had Jeongguk feeling anxious. He just had the unexpected chance of seeing you again but under the most dire circumstances. Surely, it wasn’t the time for you to hear about his mental health issues.

“Yoongi, can we—” Jeongguk tried to save face, but Yoongi was faster. 

Yoongi turns to you and hugs you. “I’m sorry, ____, you must have been so confused.”

“No, not at all, I’m… I’m glad I could be of help,” you reassure. More so for Jeongguk because you know this must be very awkward for him. 

A bit of awkwardness did happen because none of you spoke for a bit. Your phone ringing was the only saving grace.

“Hello? Oh, okay. I’ll be right out,” you answer the other person on the line. Hanging up, you say, “Um… I should get going.”

“Is someone picking you up?” Yoongi asks.

“Yes, Taehyung’s just a few minutes away,” you answer.

Yoongi nods and pulls you in for another hug. He whispers his thanks and you respond by hugging him tighter.

You also approach Jeongguk a little closer. “Take care of yourself, Jeongguk.” You see the pain in his eyes, but you refuse to acknowledge it to yourself, even if Jeongguk’s eyes were brimming with unshed tears and his nose was already pink.

Jeongguk doesn’t want you to go. But again, he has no choice but to let you.

“You too, ____.”

As soon as you close the door, Jeongguk allows his tears to fall.

As soon as you get into the car, Taehyung asks his questions.

“Why the hell did you just come out of a hospital?”

“Tae—”

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? You’re the only one there? What happened?” You can feel the panic rising in Taehyung as he inspects you, but you just chuckle.

“Yah—you laugh?”

“I’m fine, Taehyung,” you tell him but he doesn’t look convinced. “I really am.”

“Then why were you in there?”

“I saw Jeongguk again, Tae,” you calmly respond.

Taehyung freezes. “You’re joking, right?”

“I’m not,” you answer.

“And you’re… are you okay?”

“I am.”

Taehyung knows you better than that but he gives you a pass because he could also tell you were tired and your short answers mean that you didn’t want to talk just yet.

“Do you want to talk about it over ice cream and fries?”

For a second, you felt tempted, but you just also wanted to go home. “Maybe some other time, Taehyung.”

Taehyung understands immediately and nods. “Should I take you to Woosung hyung or do I take you home?”

You do want to see Woosung because you know he is what you need, but you also don’t want to burden him with a bombshell of an event so you opt to be alone for the night. “Take me home, please.”

“Okay, ____,” Taehyung answers.

The rest of the car ride was a quiet one.

The short walk in the hallway leading to your home is a heavy one. As you punch in your passcode, you deeply sigh. You want nothing more than to collapse on the bed and ruminate on what just happened over the past few hours.

However, the moment you open the door, a wave of delicious scents welcomes you home. As you take off your shoes, you see a familiar pair. You smile to yourself as you place yours beside it. 

You enter your home further and see Woosung with his back to you, working his way in the kitchen. As if on cue, Woosung turns around and walks toward you. 

“Hey you,” you say with a smile.

“Hi,” Woosung responds, gathering you in his arms and pulling you into a tight embrace. “Did you have a good day, today?”

You feel yourself swallow once before nodding. Woosung, ever the sensitive boyfriend, holds you tighter.

You know you can’t hide from him. So you hold on to him tighter, too.

And you allow yourself to break down and cry.

Woosung feels your body shake and he runs his hand across your back to soothe you. 

He may not know what’s going on right now, but he also knows you will talk to him when you’re ready. So he continues to embrace you; kissing the side of your head after a while.

Woosung whispers against your ear, “You’re safe with me, sweetheart.”

taglist: @whoa-jo @nays2112 @junecat18 @jk97bam @butterymin @smdnai

tags for interested readers will be open for as long as this fic is ongoing! let me know in the comments or message me, whatever fits your preference!

[comicaurora]

Hiya Red! ♥️

This is in regards to something you mentioned about the OST of Last Unicorn.

I love that film and have watched it many, *many* times! And - like you - I always found the duet distinctly... off. I never could pin down why, I just knew it made me uncomfortable and didn't seem to fit. With the movie or even just the rest of the soundtrack. But when you discribed it as 'out of the singers' range' I had something of an epiphany and I couldn't help but wonder what you'd think of it, so here I am. 😆

What *if* that is actually sneaky characterisation/commentary on the romantic subplot? I mean, this whole soundtrack is so well put together I feel like it has to be intentional, right?

The way I see it both singers are straining just like the characters are, for something that is just out of their reach. And also isn't really right for them. And I feel like on some level they know it. That, I think, is why the climax of the song is particularly discordant. It's to signify that them coming together, as they are doing in the scene, is wrong. For them as people and for the story at large.

Dunno. Just my two cents.

I would love to hear your thoughts on it. IF you have the time and energy to spare! No stress! Most of all I just wanted to let you know about a possible (maybe?) reason for this weird thing, just in case it kept bothering you. (As a fellow ADHD brain I know it be like that sometimes. 😄)

Thank you so much for all your hard work! Love your channel so much! You guys are the best!! And can't wait to see your next stream! (You gotta save my giiiirl!!! 😭🐉)

💖💖💖

Tbh I kinda doubt they'd intentionally make music that sounds bad to do that, when there are many musically pleasing ways to signal that a romantic duet is between characters that are actually incompatible - even things like Love is an Open Door, where "we finish each other's-" "sandwiches!" "That's what I was gonna say!" helpfully hints that Hans is fluidly saying whatever he needs to in order to appeal to Anna without making the audience's ears hurt. One of the more impactful bits of the Death Note musical is that Misa keeps trying to have a romantic duet with Light and Light is much too busy having homoerotic duets with L instead, so Misa ends up basically belting a solo over the much more synced-up music of the dynamic duo. It's a musically pleasing way to signal which characters are in sync and which ones aren't. Several songs in Wicked do this too, like in Dancing Through Life where the romantic duo declare that since they're both perfect they must be perfect together, or the song that basically says "I must be happy, because happy is what happens when all your dreams come true."

I think the main thing that makes that duet not work is that it's one of the only parts of the OST that's sung by the main voice cast rather than a professional singer. The composition is solid, but it kinda sounded like it wasn't composed with their personal ranges in mind - possibly composed before they were cast. They could've done what disney was doing - cast a singer for the character songs and a separate voice actor for the dialogue - which they apparently did in the theatrical release, having Kate Irving sing instead of Mia Farrow, but they didn't for the video release, so the voice actors have to just try their best, possibly with only one or two takes to do it in, and the end result is a bit of a mess.

[laugtherhyena]

Out of curiosity, Are you able to talk about all the characters in Danganronpa Another and what you do and don't like about them?

And out of curiosity, what is your opinion on the creator?

Be ready for a lot of rambling anon because you just opened the floodgates here.

Ok so first and foremost, I don't really feel much towards Linuj himself? That's sorta of a me thing where i tend to not care much about the creators of stuff i like so you'll never see me go like "wow i love this person they're fucking awesome" or "Goddamn that guy sucks" (unless said creator has done something genuinely awful, in that case obviously I'd dislike them) at most you see me go "that's wild" or complain about writing decisions and that's about it, none of that makes me inclined towards liking or disliking Linuj as a person. Tho as much as i rant about his games i gotta give credit where credit is due, the dude manages to make two whole games prey much all by himself and I respect that honestly.

Onto the opinions on the charcters, I'll just be doing the Dra folks because it's been years since i last went through Sdra2 and since I don't like that game nearly as much as a the first one i feel like whatever I've got to say about the characters would be really shallow in comparison to the first game's cast and that's like,, not fair? In my head?So yeah, sorry Sdra2 fans, maybe some other time.

Kiyoka Maki

Kiyoka is a character i genuinely love a lot because she feels like the most perfect execution of a first victim character in a Danganronpa type game, so much so that i am genuinely appalled that Linuj just randomly decided to pick her as the first victim like, what?? She fits that role so perfect that it genuinely feels as if she was created with the idea of being the first victim in mind rather than creating the character and only assigning the role later, from her personality, to character traits and even down to her design, everything works so well together that it's insane for me to think that he created the pinnacle of first victim characters pretty much accidentally.

Regardless, the way she was written and inserted into the story never fails to amaze me but i already went into more details about that here so go check that out cuz now i wanna take this time to talk about her as a standalone character instead of just her role in the story.

Because really, Kiyoka is such a funny character! She's just this silly girl that wants to chill out and hang out with her besties but she could also shoot you square in the face from several feet away. That immense discrepancy between her talent and personality is something i always found absolutely hilarious, tho if there's one thing i dislike about her is that i wish Linuj would have explained how she got into spining in the first place? Since it's such an out there talent that Kiyoka herself doesn't even like that I can't help but wonder how that happened. Not in a "the character NEEDED this" way, I'm just genuinely curious and I'd love to know how she got herself into that pickle.

Her interaction with everyone else in the cast are delight too, i love thinking about her and the sunshine trio going around and getting into stupid shenanigans and i think Linuj did a fantastic job writtring her and Ryutaro's relationship, it's a very realistic portrayal of sibling relationship which makes me really sad whenever i think back to ch6.5 and how Ryutaro will never be able to apologize to his sister. Fun fact! The ending segment of that chapter where we see him at Kiyoka's grave was the first time I've ever cried over anything that happened in these games.

Mitsuhiro Higa

Higa is in this weird spot where I don't dislike him but I don't like like him either, it's this limbo area where I'm way too indifferent to actively dislike him so he just exists there and I don't think about him like ever and that's pretty much it.

Seriously, it's hard for me to even think about way to say in terms of likes and dislikes when it comes to him because i just. Don't think about Higa-

One thing that sorta bothers me about him is how Linuj tried to make him a bit "heroic" in that one flashbacks sequence we see in Ch6 that shows how the class was captured. It's just comes out of nowhere and it's so jarring considering not even his FTEs try to paint Higa in a nicer light. It's also really weird to me how Kizuna, the other awful person in a similar vein as Higa, didn't got any of that treatment which is just,, off.

Kizuna Tomori

And speak of the devil! Kizuna Tomori my beloved, they could never make me hate you❤️

I actually got this question about Kizuna specifically a while ago, so go read that post so that I won have to repeat myself here.

Ayame Hatano

Do you guys know Dungeon meshi? Have you ever seen people talk about how they've improved their eating habits or are generally eating and cooking more often because of how much they like Senshi, whose main character traits revolve around proper nutrition and cooking? That's literally me but exercising frequently out of how much i love Ayame.

Honestly? I feel a little embarrassed getting to talk about my liking for her like this because this is a character that's only around for like 1/3 of the game at most? If you count flashbacks scenes and extra materials like the FTEs and the IF chapter. At the end of the day Ayame is by no means an incredibly complex character so I'm not here to ramble about how she's actually really a deep and intricately constructed character and you guys just don't see it because ultimately, she isn't.

The older i get the more i realize that this is the sort of character i tend to gravitate towards in any media i consume. Very rarely do i ever become this attached to characters who are super intricate and complex, let alone main characters, i feel like even simpler characters like Ayame who has pretty normal life in comparison to others from the cast and not a lot of crazy stuff going on in her backstory have things going for that the casual fan may not notice but are absolutely worth looking into.

And it's crazy because i like quite literally everything about Ayame from her character to her design, in fact, it was her design that initially brought my attention to her because Ayame's hair is one of my favorite hairstyles to see in any character design ever (specifically the little spiky parts on the side that stick up a little) so that immediately made me like this character a bit before i even knew anything about the game other than the death order and that it came before Sdra2. And for real, i think Ayame's design is really good, simple yet solid much like the character herself honestly.

While Ayame was always amongst one of my favorites characters from Dra, I was much more into Sdra2 back when i first got into the series so for a good while my liking for her wasn't as imense as it is nowadays, but it was definitely more than i liked any other character in the first game though i could never quite place my finger on why i liked her so damn much. It was only when i got back into the another series years later that i was hit with a wave of emotions as i remembered how much i adored this character and looking into her again with a better understanding of things made me finally piece together what made me love her so dearly. Spoiler alert, it went much beyond my dumb teenage self pointing at the phone screen and going like “she's just like me fr‼️” to the point that nowadays i really don't relate to Ayame as much as i used to back then, i guess a good term to describe her would be a comfort character of mine but that doesn't feel that right to me either? I think this level of attachment to a fictional character goes beyond that like she has a special place in my heart and I think by now I've rewatched Ch2 more than any other person in this fandom-

I think what i love the most about this character is the inherent contrast within her, one so prominent that it goes as far as blending into her sprites and expressions, she appears as a serious and maybe even a little intimidating person upon first impressions with Yuki and while those are indeed parts of her Ayame is also a caring girl with a huge heart she's just a little awkward.

She struggles quite often when it comes to communicating and socializing with her peers but i cannot stress enough just how much Ayame cares for her classmates even though she's not the best at showing that, and don't mean just Akane (though she's by far the person she was the closest to). In the Ch2 post trial we learn that Ayame had actually been affected pretty heavily by the first motive video the cast was given yet she kept it to herself which when taking into account how she wishes for the rest of the class to get along as she's leaving for her execution reads to me as Ayame genuinely caring for the others as well to the point she wanted them to see her as strong so that they could also remain strong amidst the despair, and if that isn't enough to show her care then just look at the fact that this girl went as far as reopening an old wound on her leg, one that brought her so much pain and despair in the past, as a means of apology to all of them in case she managed to win the class trial (+ i personally believe this was also a self inflicted punishment for killing Kizuna since Ayame is well aware that she could have tried to save her instead of leaving her to bleed out with a knife on her neck, but that's more on the interpretation side than in-game implications.)

And this is where the nuance of this character comes in because while Ayame is a good person at heart, and a courageous and determined one at that, she's not beyond being cruel and getting her hands dirty in order to protect those she loves, but amidst this desire there's also a heap of selfishness in her acts that Ayame herself admits in the post trial as being the reason why she didn't just admit she was the killer from the start. She killed to spare Akane's life from an unavoidable execution but at the same time she wasn't free from the urge to take that as a chance to leave hope's peak academy herself and that's just,, ough man i love when characters can be brutal yet kind, selfless and selfish at the same time and i think this conflicting aspect of hers is what truly makes this character special.

So much so that i feel like if you just look at chapter 2’s case purely from a “clean” perspective where Ayame wanted to save Akane and there's not much more to that then you're missing out on the most interesting aspect of both the trial and her character and if that's as deep as most viewers tend to interpret her actions then it's no wonder why she's commonly deemed not very memorable and tends to be reduced to her relationship with Akane.

Yes, what she did was noble and it truly showed just how much she cared for Akane when she was willing to give up her own life and dreams for the future if it meant sparing her from a terrible fate, but you can't just gloss over the fact that at the same time Ayame had the selfish desire to use that as an opportunity to escape, and most importantly in my opinion we shouldn't ignore the fact that this sacrifice came in the form or brutally murdering someone she had the opportunity to try saving. It's just as cruel as it is noble yet simultaneously intertwined with Ayame's own selfish desires and wow! This character makes me unwell❤️

So yeah, in conclusion i like Ayame a whole lot and i wish more people would acknowledge the fact that she's kinda of a little freak too.

Kakeru Yamaguchi

So Kakeru is a weird one, in concept i like him quite a bit! I love the gentle giant archetype and i think the idea of him switching into a more assertive and loud personality in trials is really cool, but much like Kakeru as a whole, that is pretty underutilized and results in a character that could have been so much better than what we actually got in game.

I get the feeling that Linuj didn't really know what to do with Kakeru, he had a handfuls of ideas but there was no proper execution for them and he so he was sorta just,, there for the ride. I think what bothers me the most is how dumb he is in the trials, sure, DR trials aren't at all similar to the real life ones he would have been used to going to due to his talent, but that doesn't excuse the fact that Kakeru is surprisingly dumb in both the trials he's in when he should at least be able to argue and bring more to the table than just be another one of the characters that goes "i don't get it" or says something blantantly wrong for Maeda to refute. + If he smarter than that then maybe he could have been one of the characters to oppose Tsurugi more directly, since he is a lawyer and Kinjo has his "all criminals are scum" mentality. It would have fit well in with the characters and storyline but because Kakeru is such a nothing burger that role ended up being passed to Kinji since he's one of the few smart characters in Dra.

Still, none of that makes me dislike him it's just a little disappointing and ultimately makes him one of the people I don't think about very often but he's still a pretty sweet dude who i think it's pretty silly and funny in his interaction with the others from the cast so yeah, he's neat :]

Kanata Inori

You know, Kanata wasn't a character i originally thought much about but the more i looked into her the more i started loving this character, simultaneously, i felt disapointed of how underutilized she was in the story, but I'll get into that later.

Kanata is just such a sweetheart and you can really feel how much she cares for everyone during her interactions with the cast during the storyline, she's also quite useful in the trials she was in seeing as she was able to perform autopsies and give Yuki information that he probably wouldn't have known otherwise which more often than not ends up being pretty decisive in figuring out who the culprit is. I also really enjoy her backstory and how Ando's kindness in working to save her life despite the borderline nonexistent chances of her making out alive inspired her in such a way that Kanata decided to pursue a medical career so she could bravely save people just like he saved her! They're one of the sweetest family relationships in this series in my opinion so much so i get so sad whenever i rewatch ch6.5 and get to the part where Ando talks about Kanata and how she's an amazing kid :(

Much like Kakeru, the one thing i dislike about this character is that she was ultimately underutilized in the story, but whereas Kakeru's came from the fact that his character is an unorganized mess of ideas, Kanata had things going for her, they just weren't shown through most of the time she was on screen for whatever reason. Seriously, why was she reduced to the emotional character who cries all the time? I get that she's very nice and cares a lot for her classmates but c'mon, she worked at a hospital she should be able to deal with the situation at least a little better instead of bawling her eyes out whenever something bad happened.

Kanata hit a yakuza member on the head in the middle of a gang fight so that she could treat him properly once, she can be fierce and assertive when the situation calls for it, so why did she never do that in the main story?? This is absolutely baffling to me because it genuinely does such a disservice to the character and can end up driving people away from learning more about, like if i wasn't writing for an AU where she was a major character during the time she was alive I don't think i would have looked deeper into this character and learned how incredible she is because the main story made me think of her as just "the emotional one who cries all the time".

I also feel like it was a missed opportunity to not have her being the one who died trying to save the other ch3 victim. Like c'mon, her backstory shows us how she can often put other's safety before her own, that would have fit so well.

Kinji Uehara

Just like Kakeru, he's also a character I don't think much about but that comes from personal preference rather than feeling as if he was underutilized in story. Kinji just isn't the kind of character i tend to pay much mind to and that's ok! I do think he's a pretty interesting character, with his deal with the orphanage and also being the traitor in the game, i also enjoy how he always made his opinions clear to everyone like when he left the group because he didn't agree with Tsurugi's way of going about things and how he stood up against him and called him out in his hypocrisy in the Ch3 post trial.

If there's one thing I don't like about Kinji's is how linuj structured his murder plan, his method are SO violent for a character who had a noble motive and wasn't just some kind of crazy serial killer. Kakeru's make sense, since he was trying to stop him as fast as he could but i just don't understand why he still went on to kill Kanata when he had already killed someone (which was all he needed to do according to his deal with Monokuma), we're never told that Kanata saw it was him who attacked her, so why did ge insist on killing her anyway? Just because he had the plan set already? A plan that was also uncharacteristically brutal for a guy like Kinji. Seriously, when i first spoiled myself of all deaths in this game i got to Ch3 and thought "oh so he's the token crazy serial killer character" and while i was happy that he wasn't that, it's jarring that he got so violent out of nowhere + his breakdown in trial also feels pretty out of character in my eyes.

Haruhiko Kobashikawa

See, Haru is a cool guy, him Satsuki and Teruya (for a good part of the game) are essentially DRA's comedic relief characters and I've always had a big soft spot for those in DR games, when my faves inevitably die really early it's there character's inclusion that keep me watching the rest of the game!.. And then they die and struggle to get myself to watch the final chapters because most of the remaining characters are people I don't care nearly as much for- (thank god Ch5 has Mikako and Teruya survived the whole game)

But the thing is, when it comes to Haru himself I don't actually have much to say about him? He reminds me a lot of Kiyoka in the sense that he's a pretty normal guy for his age with a really out there talent that he's crazy good at. I think where Haruhiko really shines is not in his actions during Ch4 (tho that was amazing too, i can totally see why this is so many people's favorite chapter/case in Dra), but in his interactions with the other character because pretty much every single one of them are just so endearing to watch, regardless he's just being a dumbass or getting into trouble, in fact! I quite enjoy how he's a little hot headed (not sure if that's the right term)? The dude stands his ground and is not afraid of getting into fights if something's bothering him a lot, tho his own shortcomings and paranoia can often get the best out of him and he'll be sorta of an asshole and makes him feel so real to me, like he's just some dumb teen bound to make mistakes in a dangerous situation like the killing game and i really like that.

If i had to think of one thing i dislike about him I'd say is how he was characterized in the Ch6 flashback segment, like, by that point him and Satsuki are a couple right? So why was he trying to hit on the random Kisaragi fundation worker? That's not necessary out of character for him, but it's really weird that he's doing that despite havinya girlfriend of her own (smh Haru, i expected better from you).

Satsuki Iranami

Satsuki isn't a character i talk about a lot but i like her a lot! Not only is she a genuinly funny character who i love seeing her interactions with pretty much anyone in the cast, but i find her relationship with her family and the way she goes about it really interesting. I think anyone who've seen Satsuki's FTEs can tell that her family is insanely abusive, creating an environment of making their kids compete and compare themselves to one another on who's the best clown and treating Satsuki like absolutely garbage since she's considered the worst of them. Hell, I'm pretty sure they only sent her to hope's peak so they could get rid of her since she was of age to attend which is just,, damn. This is a fucking awful place to grow up in.

Yet Satsuki herself isn't a sad person nor do we ever see her get really depressed and upset when talking about her family, at most she looks a little sad and, unfortunately, agrees with them that she's the worst of the clows while sticking to not crying or sulking about it, instead she goes on to keep being silly and joking around which has always striked me more as a coping mechanism instead of "Satsuki it's too stupid to realize how terrible her family situation is" because as goofy as she is i do get the feeling that she knows her situation is absolutely awful but doesn't know a great way to cope with it other than what she's already doing.

And this seeing this strange coping mechanism explains so much about the way she acts in the killing game, she keeps joking around even during trials or when faces with murder motives because she just wants to remain happy and tries to see if maybe doing so will lift up the spirits of her classmates as well. Not saying that this is by any means a healthy coping mechanism, like, no, Satsuki girl it's okay to cry and be upset over terrible things, be it her family situation or the killing game, but this is nevertheless the most fascinating aspect of this character to me.

And once you take that into accound, it makes perfect sense why she was choosen to be sorta the "hope beacon" of the cast in Ch4 because really, that's just what Satsuki's Been doing the whole game. Tho i do wish this aspect was given more of a spotlight even in Ch4 itself because on first watch (without going through her FTEs) it felt a little jarring to me how Satsuki "randomly" became really important, but i consider that more of a nippick in comparison to other things I've complained about here.

Yamato Kisaragi

Oh right, this guy! He exists in the same indifference limbo as Higa but only because I don't think about him that often (so much so i forget he exists sometimes) because whenever i do think about him he gets violently pushed onto the active dislike section. Which is really funny to me considering Yamato is the perfect and super cool genius guy of the first another game, and that's a big point on my lack of care for him. The game insists in telling us how awesome Yamato is, how all of his classmates like him and how much of a hero he was for try to save them both in the Ch6 flashback and in the IF chapter, and i think that's exactly what made me feel such insane annoyance/repulse towards this character to the point that I'll see him and just groan and roll my eyes.

He's a character the story actively wants us to like but he's just so bland and generic that this push just annoys me and i feel nothing towards him as a person, the fact that we barely see him be himself in the game doesn't help either since he died almost as soon as he's introduced and all we have are flashbacks, the other character's opinions/memories of the guy and his Ai version. And even when we do see Kisaragi be himself in the IF chapter, his role there is like,, textbook generic anime nice guy protag and i just feel?? Insane???

His bland ass is like a piece of wet cardboard to me that i see people point at and act like it's the coolest thing ever and i just look down at it in my hands and think, i don't get it. I don't see it.

And don't even get me started on how Linuj fucking side lined Mikako's role and character in favor of giving this guy the spotlight by having him come in as if he's the goddamn saving grace of the killing game and solve all the mysteries that were set and build up BY ANOTHER CHARACTER, because nooooooooooo we can't have Mikako do that, it has to be Kisaragi because he's THE. GUY. EVER. ISN'T HE JUST SO FUCKING AMAZING EVERYONE????????

This makes me. Genuinely so mad and since I'd rather not pop a vein while raging as i write this go look at this post if you wanted to see me ramble a little more on this part.

Wow, after this it's tricky for me to even think of a positive to say, uhm.. I guess his relationship with Mikako is nice? I do like how it genuinely seems like they care a lot for one another tho sometimes this care can come off the wrong way and lead to arguments between the two, like how Yamato was avoiding and being rude to Mikako during that flashback sequence i keep mentioning over and over even tho she could tell there was something wrong with him and just wanted to help. They're sweet and tragic when thinking about how they met their ends but I can't feel much on that regard seeing how many,, feelings. I have towards Yamato.

Mikako Kurokawa

You know i feel like we as a fandom don't talk enough about the horror that Mikako goes through during the killing game. She never lost her memories, she remembers these people being friends and having strong bonds with other another and she's just forced to sit there and watch as they forget everything and murder each other without knowing of what she knows, and if Mikako does as much as try to say a few words regarding what she knows her head already starts splitting into two and she'll have headaches so bad they'll make her pass out and puke blood. And that's without counting the fact that she's left completely in the dark about her brother's whereabouts through most of the game and when she does reunite with him is in the worst way possible because Yamato’s mental state is even worse than hers and he dies not long after with her being blamed for his murder. She had the worst time ever in that game and i feel like it really isn't an understatement to say she suffered through the whole thing.

And that's where Mikako's spirit really shines because despite all the pain she went through, both physical and mental, she always held onto hope and wanted to help her friends even if her options were incredibly limited. She cared for each and every single one of them to the point she even wanted to try and save Yuki and Akane even though she knew they were the masterminds because she thought that with their memories erased they could embrace hope as well and come out of that as better people, and in her very last moments she still wished to help the remaining characters and kept talking even though she knew it would kill her. That's such an insane level of courage and determination from her part that it never fails to impress me.

She's such an insane character I can't help but feel like we were robbed when she died, especially when it happened before she could unravel all the mysteries Mikako had help build up through the entirety of the game and instead we get her amazing and so cool brother doing that and getting all the spotlight instead of Mikako herself.. How nice.

But i think what bothers me the most about her death is that it was so?? Unnecessary?? Like, what did it do for her character arc? It feels like she died more because Linuj wanted her to die than because it felt fitting for the character’s journey to end where it did, and you can't tell me it wouldn't have been awesome to see her in Sdra2 and how she'd react learning that her shitty mother was one of the reason why that second killing game happened in the first place.

I explained my thoughts on Mikako's death in a nicer manner in this other post so please go check that out because I will never not be upset over her death in this game, especially when her execution ends in a way that she would have survived if she wasn't already dead by the time started.. that just felt like an unnecessary fuck you from Linuj’s part-

Akane Taira

Another character I've rambled about in the past and so don't feel like reiterating it all here (this post is getting REALLY long), so yeah, check it out but tldr, I think Akane is a really cool character and i think writing her so frequently in -2+2 has made me not only get a better understanding of her character but also like her a lot more too!

Yuki Maeda

As y'all know, Dra Yuki>>>>>>>>Sdra2 Yuki always and forever in my heart ❤️

Seriously, for someone who tends to really not give a fuck about the protagonists in DR games it genuinely surprised me how much i grew to enjoy Dra Yuki after i went through the game's full translation and realized “Woah! He isn't the same universal punching back as the Sdra2 one!” Because prior to that i was under the impression that both Yuki acted and were treated the exact same by the game's storyline and as you can probably tell I don't like Sdra2 Yuki all that much.

Dra Yuki differs because not only does the game not try to force the horrors upon him constantly but he feels very human in his actions, he's just some guy not the embodiment of good or a hope hype man so he's bound to get a little sick of this shit sometimes and make mistakes. We see this during Ch4 in his argument with Akane and also in Ch2 where he decides to break the groups trust by reading the secret note anyway which later comes back to bite him when the cast finds out, and this really stood out to me and made him instantly more interesting than other protags in my eyes, although I'm pretty sure this nuance of his character was done as a way to foreshadow his reveal as Utsuro/The mastermind.

Either ways, it ended up creating one of my favorite protags of any DR type game + i do really like the twist of the protagonists being the mastermind at the end of the day, it was something super unique by the time Dra first came out and it's still something i haven't seen be done in any other fangan (tho to be fair I don't look much into those anymore nowadays-)

It's hard for me to pick something i dislike about him since he's overall just a neat guy in my eyes but if i had to pull something I'd say he constantly taking Tsurugi's side feels kinda annoying at times? Sometimes it feels like he just glosses over some of the nasty stuff Kinjo says, like when he questioned why the group for kicking out Kinjo in Ch3 as if he hadn't just told Akane to kill herself right after she saw her best friend be grinded into minced meat. Like okay buddy i get that you see good in Kinjo and you wanna help him, but he really deserves to get a good slap in the face sometimes and the others are rightfully mad at him.

Utsuro

Not much to say here honestly, i feel like i like the idea of Utsuro and what he brings to the table in terms of world building, how his presence and powers affect the others around him and even the story itself. The idea of someone with insane luck powers he can't control that made his life miserable since he could achive literally anything with no effort and everyone he met only wanted to exploit said powers which led to him falling into the despair ideology since by that point it was the one thing that made him feel something it's just so,, wow man, thats some crazy angst and such an unique way to explore the borderline magical luck that exist in the DR franchise.

I love thinking about him in that vein but as a character?.. Erh, i really don't care nor think much about Utsuro at all. Which in a way, i suppose isn't all that different from how the world saw him in universe? How ironic.

Teruya Otori

By far my favorite out of the survious though I'm not sure how to explain why i like Teruya so much? I feel like part of it comes from the soft spot for comedic relief characters i talked about earlier and the rest from the way he was written in the story.

It's crazy because i feel like Teruya's writing in itself really highlights the changes in the way Linuj viewed and went about characters by the time he started working on Sdra2, i feel like if Teruya was a character that originated from that game he would be portrayed as a bad person who you shouldn't sympathize for even though he has his reasonings for acting the way he does sometimes, sorta like how Linuj tends to punish Hibiki even tho she was the bigger victim at the end of the way.

Just like Haruhiko he feels very real to me and his character arc through Dra has gotta be one of my favorites. Teruya is not a bad person, he's a good kid at heart but the severity of the situation they're in and the stuff that gets forced upon him gets to him a lot which leads to Teruya lashing out at his friends and doing some pretty bad things here and there, yet he's never portrayed as an awful person that shouldn't be forgiven or shit and he does change for the better at the end of the day. He went through a lot and came out bigger and stronger on the other side and is a shame this kind of character arc isn't properly used in Sdra2 since Linuj's mentality became so black and white out of nowhere.

I love this little guy, I'm so glad he survived the killing game though unfortunately the same can't be said for the second one but honestly? Teruya's entire role in that story was such a mess, and sometimes even a detriment to his character in my opinion, that nowadays I can't even feel that sad over his death anymore. While there are a handful of things that bother me a lot about it, like the amnesia plot just because Linuj seems to hate actually building up to things in that game and his entire role in ch4 (seriously. What was that. Why.), i think what i dislike the most is the fact that he ended up being permadead while Rei escaped the killing game fine.

I know Linuj actually gave a good explanation to why it happened (unlike Mikako's barely explained sudden brain explosion), but still, it feels like such a mean thing to do to someone who's been through so much and still tried his hardest while being in a dangerous and unpredictable situation. My guy was done dirty in that game.

Rei Mekaru and Tsurugi Kinjo

Grouping these two together because i feel like my opinions on both of them are not only pretty much the same but they also stem from the same place, so yeah-

Don't get me wrong, these two are very interesting characters and I'd argue they're one of the more complex ones in the cast as well, not only because they make it through both games but also because of their own personal backgrounds and how that shaky upbringing affected the kind of person they became as they grew older. With Tsurugi living under his father's black and white ideologies of criminals being deserving of death no matter what and falling deeper and deeper into that the more friends he loses during his life and Rei being abandoned (albeit unintentionally?) by her parents at an young age which led to her working hard to get where she's at now which not only made her quite used to being on her own but also loathe those who "take the easy" way and want all awnsers handed to them on a silver platter, which explains why she's so rude to the rest of the cast since she wants them to figure out stuff on their own too.

There's a lot to look into these characters and it makes sense why so many people like them a lot, I'm however not the biggest fan of this type of character (tho i feel like that lies more in their personality than anything else?) so i never looked much into them before i started writing DRA -2+2 and decided to look into everyone in the cast to get a better grip on their characters. And man, writing these two really did give me a newfound appreciation and love for them! They're such fun characters to write and have interacting with the rest of the cast. Tho i wouldn't by any means say i have a proper understanding of them, i feel like that's a bit out of my league still.

If there's one thing I'm not a big fan if is that i wish we would have seen more of those two in Sdra2 instead of them just having a major role in Ch6, AKA; the messiest chapter in this entire series. Like, would it have hurt that badly to not have the Void theather segments and instead cut to small scenes at the Kisaragi foundation showing what the characters are doing and how they're reacting and planing to go about interfering with Mikado's killing game? I feel like that would have been so much more interesting than watching Emma bother Hajime with bad puns while Nikei and Iroha continue being the same assholes they've always been + it would have made Tsurugi's backwards development less of a shock to see whenever Ch6 actually rolls around.

Anyways, to wrap up this massive post here's what i hope will be the definitive Carol Dra cast tierlist

[remidyal]

Game Changer Season 6 episodes, ranked by my personal enjoyment

Because I also enjoy arbitrarily ranking things! If you disagree... I mean, that's fine? I liked every episode this season, just.. I liked some episodes better than others. I'm grouping the Ratfish episodes together, so we've got eight entries. Spoilers for, um, every game changer episode this season, obviously.

#8 Pencils Down:

I'm not as into drawings and all as I am a lot of the other stuff, though this was probably the most wholesome episode of this season. I'm, naturally, opposed to wholesomeness too.

Favorite bit:

The proposed tattoos were a lot of fun.

#7 Ratfish (parts 1 and 2):

I think this one got hurt for me by a couple things - I know absolutely nothing about the show they're mimicking, unlike Survivor or the Bachelor, and I did not particularly enjoy anything directly to do with the Ratfish or understand why I should care about his opinions and arbitrary decisions. I assumed that the cast would recognize who this person was and we'd get some kind of payoff there, but nope. Everything just between the cast was great, though.

Favorite bit:

Honestly there's a ton of quick moments to choose from here, but I think my favorite is Brennan incorrectly going for the seat marked Brennan Lee Mulligan at the end.

#6 The Newlyweb Game:

This one was gentle good fun, I enjoyed everyone involved, there were just more standout moments in some of the later episodes on this list. This is fighting with Pencils Down for the most wholesome episode, or at least the one that would least fit into a saw trap. In spite of that this would be the episode all time of Game Changer I would least be willing to be on, even in the world where I'm not firmly aroace and have a partner - I think I would sooner light myself on fire than let someone I know have full access to my phone.

Favorite bit:

Revealing how many unread emails people had and the shock and judgement at totally reasonable numbers, as someone with around forty thousand unread emails in my primary gmail account dating back to 2004.

#5 Bingo

We're really into tough competition now! I loved this episode, and that it somehow turned into a tormenting Brennan episode even though he wasn't even supposed to be there. This was obviously slightly rigged so that the players in the third set of Bingo were most likely to win (and it was actually impossible for the people on stage) but honestly pulling it off was so good.

Favorite Bit:

I mean, it's the reveal to Trapp and everyone of the existence of the third group of course.

#4 Second Place

First, I know that for meta reasons this should be second, but it's not. Oh well. Sam alleges that this episode wasn't intentionally meant to torment Brennan; I do not believe Sam's lies. Everyone in the world saw the twist at the end coming and it's still funny.

Favorite bit:

Ally declaring that Brennan can ring the gong the loudest and Brennan's brain breaking harder than anything that Sam had actually planned.

#3 Sam Says 3

I can't believe this one's only third. If this is how Sam Says ends - and I have a hard time seeing how a fourth edition can escalate, even outside of the BTS claiming that they see three times as the limit for the same premise most of the time - then what an ending. I'm not sure any other game concept has managed to make the players so consistently tricked. My only critique of it is that I think I like the first couple times at this well just a little bit more, with nothing in this quite matching Ally flying to New York or the Something We'll Have To Bleep energy for me.

Favorite Bit:

It's hard to top the fake Sam body dropping from the ceiling.

#2 Beat the Buzzer

Every episode with the Seven cast is always incredible, and production-wise this seems like the craziest thing they've ever pulled off. Any episode where they break out of just the stage is always good, and I think this is the most extensive use of that they've ever done. Incredible variety, great cameos from Aabria and Persephone, complete manic energy from all three contestants. A+ episode.

Favorite Bit:

There's so much here, but I think mine as someone who worked as a pizza delivery driver was the entire exchange where Rehka just ends up getting the bag with the buzzer and a bunch of loose oreos. Was production prepared with everything that was on that menu or would they have actually ordered breadsticks somewhere to use as a prop?

#1 Deja Vu

Time loop stuff is always a favorite of mine, and pulling one off as an episode is ALREADY a great premise before you even get into all of the other cast and the editing. (Shout out to Siobhan Thompson for being in exactly two Game Changer episodes and them being this one and Escape the Green Room; guess we know what pepper rating she puts down.) Great chemistry between the cast, a truly deranged display from Sam, and of course the Wenis. Genuinely the WEIRDEST episode of the season, too, always a good sign.

It's a shame they already repeated the premise too much to do a follow up to this one...

Favorite Bit(s):

I'm doing two for this one because it's my list and I can.

"This isn't fucking Um, Actually!" with sincere righteous anger.

Everything to do with Zac as Grant, most of all how easy it would have been to just make that Zac as Zac.

[rhysdarbinizedarby]

‘Night Court’ – ‘The Duke’s a Hazard’ Post-Mortem Interview with Rhys Darby

NIGHT COURT -- "The Duke's a Hazard" Episode 212 -- Pictured: Rhys Darby as Alistair -- (Photo by: Nicole Weingart/NBC)

Rhys Darby is an accomplished actor and comedian that has graced many a popular and iconic franchise with his many skills in both arenas, and this week… he graced another. For Rhys played Alistair, the refined love of one Donna ‘Gurgs’ Gurganous on this week’s episode of Night Court on NBC, and we had the distinct honor of sitting down with Rhys to discuss all things, Night Court.

John Betancourt: I would love to start off by getting to know what it was that attracted you to the character of Alistair?

Rhys Darby: Well, I know the show, Night Court, watched it as a kid with my mum, have fond memories, and she passed a while ago. So, I felt like “I've got to do this, I want to do this for mum, because we used to watch the show together back in the day.” And the character, I can easily fit into those shoes. It's someone who's a posh Duke, that is a little bit clueless, looks down their nose at people but needs to try to fit in and needs to learn how to be bit more human. So those are all those kinds of traits that I like playing, I find the comedy that comes from that character is well within my wheelhouse. So, I decided to do it.

John Betancourt: Something I’ve noticed about Night Court that I think is wonderful, is how the quirks of every guest star are fully fleshed out in every episode. How did you as an actor bring those to life and make them feel so real?

Rhys Darby: I think that's the key with comedy is, make it look realistic. Because as soon as -- you can kind of over accentuate things to a degree, but it's got to be believable. And when you go past that line of believability, you don't relate. And I think it's finding that right line and kind of swaying and playing on that line. And that's where you get the physical comedy. You know, people in general don't necessarily, aren't necessarily hilarious when they're doing something physical. Unless well, certainly when, unless it's done by accident, in which case you do that thing where you laugh at someone and then you go, “Oh, I shouldn't have.” But you know, it's one of the reasons America's Funniest Home Videos was such a huge hit. But it's kind of like trying to find a grounded, slightly grounded character that is also an open buffoon. And you've got to fit the tone right of the show. And once I started working with the cast, I’d already seen some episodes of the new Night Court. So, I knew what the what the vibe was. And it's always been silly. So, it's always been like, a touch out of touch of reality. And that's my favorite type of comedy. So, it was it was easy to fit in.

John Betancourt: Now you’ve spent a lot of your career working in single camera shows, but you have done multi-cam. What do you have to do as an actor to prepare for that kind of shift?

Rhys Darby: Yeah, I forgot a little bit because I've done multi-cam a few years ago, I forgot how many times the script changes. So, I’d turn up at the beginning of the week, and like, start learning the lines. And then the next day, it's changed, the next day it’s changed again. So, by halfway through the week, I was like “Right, forget the lines. Just concentrate on being funny.” (Laughter) And the other, the other part of it so yeah, so prep isn't a big one. It's really kind of like, the fun of nailing the two different parts of it, which are the prerecorded pieces, which I had fun, I was able to do some improv in, so the subway scene. And then, and then there was a couple of other scenes, but there's that side of it. And then there's the completely opposite side where you've got an audience and you're performing in front of a crowd.

So, it's the best of both worlds. And I kind of kind of forgot, I think I kind of forgot that some stuff is recorded. And I was like, “Okay, we've got to learn this like a play.” And you don't. So, on the night, you also get a few takes, you know, and the crowd loves it when you guys change it up, when the writers come in and go “Try this line. Try that line.” So, yeah there’s fun to be had. And I can see why multi-cams are still a thing because it's a real coming together of all of these different kinds of features, to including the audience, that are that are participating in and helping create the final product and making this classic American art form. So, I think it's cool.

John Betancourt: So, I have to ask, how much of that improv stayed in the final cut?

Rhys Darby: There were some pieces, yeah. There were some… I have to have another look at it. But definitely in the subway scene when I took my coat off, and it fell on the ground. And then I just said something about “That's gone, we have to burn it.” That was all made up. There was probably another little piece that I had with Dave Foley, when we're having the dinner table all sorted, we're having little cups of tea, when he came in. And then stylistically I just chose how I was going to walk and how I was going to look, give my looks to the actors. And I changed that up every time as well. So, there was for, for a show that you know, for multi-cam, that definitely don't allow too much improv, there was certainly… the director was open to letting me have a few, do a few extra “Darby Takes,” shall we say?

John Betancourt: Now something that has come up often in discussions with the Night Court cast, is how the live audience just offers a vibe or energy. I’m curious as to what it does for you as an actor?

Rhys Darby: Well, as a stand up, you know, I'm used to having an audience laugh at me. It helps with the timing, it helps… give you a slightly raised performance, because you can hear a whole bunch of people laughing. So, you're not… you're doing.. you're matching the right tone that is required for that show. So, you're not, you know, subtleties aren't really going to play. So, yeah, I think it's just fun to do. It's fun for anyone who hasn't done that kind of thing. It's a good discipline to have down, at least give them a try.

John Betancourt: So, I can hear it in your voice now, just how much you relished this experience, what did you enjoy the most about working on this episode?

Rhys Darby: I think just working with the cast, I think, you know, meeting John (Larroquette) and the rest of them and having them be a real sweet family and welcoming me as a guest onto the show, working with Dave Foley again, because I haven't worked with him for a long time. So, catching up with him. And just being on a show, that's a bit of an institution. You know, I think those are the those are all the highlights, and the fact that it was just filming down the road from my house. So very easy.

John Betancourt: Oh, I bet the short walk made it amazing.

Rhys Darby: I don't often, I don't often get that. Because I'm always, like, having to fly somewhere or go stay somewhere for a couple of months or whatever. So that convenience, plays a lot into actors, jobs, it doesn't always happen.

John Betancourt: Now, regarding the legacy of the show, why do you think Night Court continues to endure?

Rhys Darby: Well, a number of things, the writing, you know, John Larroquette’s performance. And I think that just the nature of the show. How every week, you're gonna get a different situation of people that are in court, for some reason, for the most stupid idea, stupid reasons. And the interplay between the characters and their lives. It's just simply said, it's just a really good setting for a sitcom.

John Betancourt: Last question I have for you today, what does it mean to you personally to now be part of this franchise?

Rhys Darby: It means a lot. Because I've done a lot of stuff in my career. And I've been lucky enough to be part of some pretty big franchises, some pretty cool legacies. And when it comes to comedy, this was one of them. So that's why it was a no brainer to take. And yeah, and seeing the final result, seeing how funny it was, I was like, “Good, nailed it! Next!” (Laughter)

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Source: Nerds That Geek

[polycrowtruther]

Several Sentence Sunday

In honor of @dreamtigress's own SSS post, I will share mine as well! I'm working on several different WIP's and they're all different genres so I figured I'd do a couple sentences from each to show the variety in what's to come!

(excerpt from the Spirit of Grief)

“We’re ready,” Matthias said, his voice hoarse. He squeezed Kaz’s shoulder to get his attention, “We’re going to start now, okay demjin?”

“Do your wors’,” Kaz’s lips wobbled but they found their way to a grin eventually, “S’not like ‘m going anywhere.”

Matthias choked on his response, dropping forward to rest his forehead on his forearm unable to speak. Lying prone over Kaz like that, the two of them looked like a statue. As if they had both been cast in marble. Grief poured down Inej’s throat as she tightened her grip on Kaz’s pants. Fuck, she loved these boys. She loved this life she had, and the person she owed the most to was fighting for his own life now. He had to pull through this. His place beside her was too invaluable to lose.  

“Nina’s gonna fix you right up,” Inej said, before correcting herself, “She’s guiding Jes, he’s gonna get that poison out of you.”

“I’m certainly going to try,” Jesper chimed in weakly. 

They waited only long enough to confirm Kaz could hear what they had said, but they were done hesitating. They’ve wasted too much time already, it was time to act now.

(excerpt from God I Want to Feel Again)

“Kaz is a fine boss - ,” Jesper fired back quickly. 

“ - That’s funny, because if I recall correctly Per Haskell was in charge of you. Does your allegiance lie elsewhere now? I’m sure he’d be delighted to hear that.” Iago lifted his paw up and sniffed it, “Not that I much care, that is. I’m sure you follow whomever you please, so long as their pockets are deep enough to keep up with your ‘extracurriculars’ right?”

“Fitting a leech like you’d assume we could be bought,” Clem growled, “But unlike all your boss’s lackeys, it takes more than just a flash of kruge to secure our follow.”

“And what about your discretion?” Iago cooed, “Because we are only here on behalf of a rumor that came directly from your mouth, after all. How much does it cost to keep you quiet, Clementine?”

Jesper flinched. The crew had already discovered this revelation, back when the Black Tips had struck as they left Ketterdam, and to be honest Wylan didn’t really blame Jesper - or Clementine, for that matter. It had been dangerous, and Inej had taken a major hit, but Wylan believed that was inevitable. There was no way they’d get to go on this heist without other players in the game taking notice. If it hadn’t been Clementine’s overeagerness, it could have been Wylan’s rambling. Or Matthias blunt honesty, or Shanti’s well-meaning fretting. Hell, Oomen himself could have stumbled on them in the street and put two and two together. No amount of discretion can prevent bad luck and simple mistakes. Jesper had a big mouth, and he could say things that left deep cuts, but Wylan would always place his bets on the sharpshooter to have his back when it mattered. Loyalty did crazy things to a guy, sometimes. 

(Excerpt from ambiguous and not yet named lingerie shopping trip fic)

“Have you found what you’re looking for?” A raspy voice asked from behind her. Speak of the devil, as they say. 

Nina turned, smiling brightly at her boy, “Yes, actually, I have. Be a dear and hold onto my choices for me.”

Without preamble she hefted her picks into Kaz’s arms, feeling her grin sharpen as he balked at the amount of clothing. Wordlessly, he looked at her, as if waiting for a more concise explanation. She hummed, pausing a moment to take a generous sip of her wine, before setting down her glass again. 

“We’re going to be here awhile,” She patted his cheek lightly. 

He furrowed his brow but did not lean away from her touch, “We have to try on everything? If one pair of smalls fit and the rest are the same size, they should all fit. If they don’t, that’s just bad tailoring.”

“You speak as if you’ve been privy to the process already,” She pouted, “What if I don’t like the color on you? Or what if it’s not the right feel? I want you both to look your best, and if we buy it we should make sure we look damn good in it, right?”

“Fair enough,” Kaz acquiesced with a shrug. He shifted the finery in his arms until they were no longer wrinkled in his hold. So far it seemed any fight he’d put up was, upon closer inspection, just his grumpy curiosity. Nina grinned. Kaz Brekker was a very good boy. 

softcore tagging @sissytobitch10seconds and @lunarthecorvus as well as anybody else who has been reading/writing SOC/SAB fics!

[nightfurylover31]

Time to give Digimon Crests to Sonic characters!

If you know me, you'll know I've done this a few times with Yugioh characters, and the Ghost Game cast. After getting invested with Sonic, I can't resist the urge to do it again!

Sonic- Courage Knuckles- Friendship Tails- Knowledge

Sonic, ready to take on any challenge. Knuckles, initially reclusive but becomes one of the most loyal friends there is. Tails, smartest kid you've ever met. If you guys watched Digimon, you will see these three fit perfectly with Tai, Matt, and Izzy.

Amy- Love Sticks- Sincerity Shadow- Reliability

I was going back and forth with Amy for Love or Sincerity, as both fit her pretty well. She's compassionate and always helps others, while also wearing her heart on her sleeve and honest. In the end, especially with what happens in Frontiers, I went with Love. She does have the biggest heart out of anyone out there.

Sincerity was hard, so I asked a friend for help. She recommended Sticks. She may be a bit much, but she's always open with how she feels, and it could work with all her conspiracy theories. Plus, I do love including her with these kinds of projects.

Shadow is not the most open person, but he is quite dependable. When he sets his mind to something, he goes through with it. His devotion to protecting the world and its people, despite his own feelings, is proof of that.

Silver- Hope Blaze- Light

Silver is literally hope for the future! He wants to make a better world. And no matter how bad things get, he never gives up and tries to be optimistic. The phrase "every cloud has a silver lining," is used to inspire hope. It's literally his name.

Light works well for Blaze for so many reasons. Since she's both the imperial princess and guardian of the Sol Emeralds, she is beacon for her world. She did literally bring light to the future in 06. Not only is the Crest of Light's symbol similar to the Crest of Courage, Sonic's crest which could fit their connection, but light and hope are almost always together. Just like how Silver and Blaze come together even though they're from different worlds.

There's one last crest that's a less known, since it was introduced in the sequel series.

Cream- Kindness

Like the Crest of Kindness, Cream doesn't get the chance to shine much. But she's still there, and she is the sweetest person in the world! She's super polite and hates fighting, but will do so to protect those she loves.

[ilovescaredysquirrel2]

Why I haven't been posting + thoughts on upcoming movies

Okay, so I mostly am gonna still spam reblog about the KOSA bill until we can finally stop it but I want to still use Tumblr for what it was meant to be for all along; to have fun! I just will take a short break on posting cartoons but I'm still active here every night! Tumblr's honestly the only place I feel like I can truly be myself right now...

Okay, let's put the stupid bill aside for the moment and talk about my thoughts on some upcoming movies and shows right now. Disney's really been p*ssing me off lately with their sequels. Like, I feel they're only making sequels of Moana and Inside Out to impress the hardcore Disney fans, because their "new original ideas" failed (like Wish, but it failed because they used A.I to write the story). The Inside Out sequel looks cute from what I seen, but I still have trust issues when it comes to Disney. And before you go blabbing "It's Pixar", let me inform you that they're not the same and Pixar is literally just Disney with a better animation studio. Like, it's literally part of Disney! Like, I feel like I trust the Inside Out sequel a little more than the forced Moana sequel but still... I don't trust them. The worst is the Moana sequel though. I heard they originally planned for it to be a Disney plus show but instead they're making it a sequel on a super low budget and the animation is gonna be done overseas. No joke! I honestly think Disney needs to take a break on making movies for a while and focus on stuff like Kiff. Kiff is the only thing from Disney right now that's keeping me from leaving them all together. And when Kiff ends after season 2, I'm done with them forever! I honestly think they should let Kiff run a little longer than 2 seasons, look how long Kick Buttoski ran (that was a weird show, let's face it). Anyway, that's my thoughts on Disney right now.

I haven't posted my review on Orion and the Dark yet but I think I will soon. Like I said, I been really terrified after hearing about the KOSA bill and will continue to spam reblog until I get justice! Long story short, Orion and the Dark was better than DreamWorks's other recent movies. I haven't seen Kung Fu Panda 4 yet but I'm sure Orion was better. I mostly only like the first two Kung Fu Panda movies. Orion and the Dark was better than Trolls 3, though. I don't think Chicken Run 2 Dawn of the nugget counts as being DreamWorks (the first Chicken Run will always be a DreamWorks movie whether you like it or not) but Orion and the Dark was better! Maybe I can post my review on it soon...

Okay, let's talk about The Amazing Digital Circus now! We all love that, don't we? I hope TADC episode 2 makes more money than Disney on their forced sequels. I'm really excited about episode 2, although I really really don't want to see any of the main cast get abstracted. Like, every character fits in with the show so well and makes it worth watching. Ragatha, Gangle, Pomni, and Kinger are my favorites, but I don't want anyone to get abstracted because they all fit in together perfectly. You have Pomni the new girl, Ragatha the supportive friend and optimistic "peace maker" of the group, Jax the sassy trouble maker, Gangle the emotional one who doesn't stick up for herself, Kinger who's upbeat and crazy and childish, and Zooble who's also kind of sassy and doesn't really care much. Plus, there's Caine and Bubble who are hilarious as well. Like, I just don't want any of the main characters to get abstracted so soon. I'm just way too attached to all of those characters! However, I'm still a huge fan of the show and hoping that episode 2 will make more money than Disney! And if there's anyone here in the comments who's also a TADC fan and wants to see my sketches that I'll never post on tumblr, I'll dm them to you!

PLEASE DON'T IGNORE ME, I DON'T BITE! CHAT WITH ME PLEASE!!!! Just please chat with me in the comments, I'll be nice!

[being-of-rain]

Time to write down my initial thoughts on Space Babies and The Devil's Chord! I'm currently busy staying with my girlfriend in America, so I've only watched the episodes once. And there's a lot of episode to talk about! I guess this is the most TV Doctor Who to come out on a single day, both by episode count and I assume by runtime. (I sure hope it doesn't get overtaken any time soon. Weekly episode schedule my beloved, whole-series-at-once events my despised.)

I've said before that I've used the word 'fun' too often as a way to sum-up new episodes, but it looks like that's going to be harder and harder to avoid. This season so far has a very wacky zany silly cartoonish style (especially apparent in the lead duo's energy together) and I think that's the season's greatest strength. My opinion on both of these first two episodes are similar: they're just okay, with the pros and the cons kinda balancing each other out, but the cartoony style makes them much more enjoyable to watch.

Under the cut I'll go into more details. Probably more complaining than not, because nitpicking is always easier to spend time on, but here's your regular reminder that these are opinions and anyone reading is encouraged to disagree.

And if you thought my ramblings about new episodes were long before, this time there's two at once!

--

Grossout stuff like bodily functions never really appealed to me, and neither does talking babies, so Space Babies had those things against it. But it also had things that I loved; on top of the infectious energy of the leads, there were some fun sci-fi concepts, playing with storybook narrative, and the design of the Bogeyman. And the Doctor saying that "nobody grows up wrong" was alone worth the episode. I adore that sentiment and it fits so well into Doctor Who with its constant cast of scary aliens, artificially altered or created beings, and characters with generally convoluted backstories. It's just a shame the episode faltered at its climax when applying that idea to the Bogeyman, because the sympathising and acceptance of it felt very rushed.

It's fun when new companions get an introduction scene or two where the show tries to teach as many of the important rules and backstory as possible. And Butterfly Ruby certainly was a hilarious addition to that. But as much as the show is allowed to mess around with time travel rules, it can still feel contrived when it says things like 'taking Ruby to meet her mum is too dangerous.' I can't think of a reason why they couldn't just park a bit further down Ruby Road and talk to her after she seemingly doesn't have any more effect on Ruby or the Doctor's lives. I'll talk more about the ongoing story arc stuff in a bit, but right now I still haven't strongly connected with Ruby. This is very much a personal thing, but she still feels kinda Generic Companion to me.

Oh, and I think every time the Doctor talks about how the Time Lords are gone and he's the Last One, I'm going to groan and roll my eyes. Honestly I think the best thing to do with that is just show that a lot of Time Lord society survived (very easy, since there's no reason at all that most of them couldn't have just run away from whatever the Master did to the Capitol) and then just move on. I'd love to explore post-War Time Lord society more, but at this point I'd rather just leave them alone and be done with retreading old ground that the show is not going to actually do anything with other than the odd angsty line.

--

The Devil's Chord had a lot of fantastic moments and elements, but that made it more frustrating to me when it didn't put the effort into fitting everything just a little better. It reminds me of my thoughts on The Giggle; I love love love whimsy and emotionally-driven stories, and stories don't have to be a slave to logic all the time, but moments of silliness or entire plots that revolve around whimsy are so much more satisfying if they have a narrative logic behind them. I think a prime example is the song at the end of The Devil's Chord: even if it's not particularly good (most songs that are just repeating one line for 90% of its runtime aren't going to interest me), it's whimsical and joyous and makes me want to see Tardis teams sing and dance more often. But it doesn't have an in-story reason to happen, it doesn't quite fit the episode's tone, and (as much fun as fans have been having fitting it into the season arc) the episode doesn't even really have a twist at the end. If any of those things weren't true, the song would've had so much more impact than it did, and I find it annoying that the episode couldn't shuffle things just a bit to make it work.

Somewhat similarly, the Maestro themself was spectacularly entertaining, but also felt rather shallow and full of missed opportunities. I was already a bit over RTD writing flamboyant and random queer-coded villains after he reinvented the Toymaker the same way he reinvented the Master (although a drag queen certainly adds a welcome layer to that) but it was sad that Maestro had the same surface-level connection to music as RTD's Toymaker had to games. Yeah they climb out of pianos and use sheet-music-themed whips and dress in a conductor's outfit, but that sounds more like a Batman villain than a Concept Made Flesh. Sure they can magically-somehow stop the world making music, but their motivation for it is... kill everyone in the universe? I really hope RTD can write better Old Gods than his last two if he plans to make them recurring villains. (By the way I assume that the world losing the ability to make music for two decades was magically unwritten at the end, but then again I assumed the same thing about the Flux destroying the universe and that was only half undone.)

Also, I know not every historical episode has to be a 2005-10 style celebrity historical (even though that might be one of my favourite ways of doing it), but if they didn't want to do that then it felt a bit out of place to have two of the Beatles turn up at the very end, with no idea what was going on, and save the day. (And the other two Beatles vanished completely. ...I know the other two were a bit less famous, but after learning that RTD ships the Supernatural brothers, I really wouldn't be surprised to learn he ships McCartney and Lennon.)

Anyway, some other fun or great moments that I wish were in a slightly more coherent episode are: Ruby playing her lovesick lesbian song, the Doctor and Ruby doing their piano battle together, the sonic silence scene, and the destroyed London scene which Maestro abruptly turned into a black background. Oh, and the Doctor saying "I thought that was non-diagetic" was hilarious, I think fans are going to get a lot of mileage out of the idea that the Doctor can hear the background music in older episodes.

Other random things about the episode: it did make me think of Scherzo's fairytale about the king who banished music from his realm. As a batfamily fan, the music teacher at the start being named Timothy Drake for no reason is confusing and funny. It's a niche pet peeve but I think its silly when fiction ties itself to when it's coming out for no reason or in contradiction to its own continuity, so Ruby saying her present day is mid-2024 baffled and irritated me. Since the last episode she's either been travelling with the Doctor for several months, staying at home for several months, or has decided to skip several months ahead, none of which seem very likely.

One last thing I'll say about The Devil's Chord is that the zany cartoonish energy, the visiting of recent history, and the magical menace all remind me of Legends of Tomorrow. It's one of my comfort shows that puts a lot of plot importance and stress on whimsy, jokes, and feel-good moments, but actually does tie them into the narrative. Compared to the last half dozen episodes of Doctor Who, Legends is more of an outright comedy, but its more satisfying and the emotional beats hit harder. If its trying for a more similar tone, I hope Doctor Who can reach the same highs as Legends (which, to be fair, took a few seasons to figure things out).

--

Finally I'll talk about the story arc! Or story arcs, because there's a lot going on. And looking back at his first time on the show, I realise RTD is a big fan of arcs that are basically just repeating things in the background that don't have any impact until the last few episodes. Personally I prefer arcs with a bit more relevance and development, but unfortunately that's probably harder to do on Doctor Who with less episodes.

That said, I was very surprised that Ruby's arc is one of the most interesting things to me in these episodes. The Doctor's memory of her mother changing and then breaking through into the real world is cool as hell, and then Ruby having something about her that trips up a god is really compelling 👀 Is that girl a cosmic horror??

On the other hand, another mention of 'the One Who Waits' is really boring lol. Just another ominous name that everyone can look concerned about without any substance. But I have seen fans connect it to the billboard for Chris Waites and the Carollers, which is hilarious. And speaking of, the mention of Susan was really cool, and so in-depth that it has me wondering if she'll actually come back, which I don't think New Who has made me do seriously before. Then again, it's so on the nose that surely it must be a red herring...

I can't wait to find out what it all means. And I can't wait for the next episode!

[vulpine-spectacle]

noticed that you were a benedict fan!!!! thoughts about bridgerton season three part two???? i seriously cant wait until the two weeks are over!!!

Genuinely, I love this!! Thank you so much for putting this into my ask box - finally, an excuse to talk about my hoe boy Benedict!!

So! Far context regarding Bridgerton, I want to preface that I have not read the books. I have skimmed parts of them through TikTok or on tumblr, but otherwise I haven't touched them. I have seen every season thus far, including the spinoff Queen Charlotte. Here's a brief summary of my thoughts on each season:

Season 1: started off strong, but I didn't like how Daphne/Simon's relationship was portrayed. I didn't like how Daphne basically assaulted Simon and it was never brought up again. I enjoy the first half with all of the longing, but when it got to that scene and what follows, I just really struggle with it.

Season 2: glorious, amazing, spell-binding, never been done before - all I ever wanted and more. Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes ever (clearly), and Anthony and Kate's chemistry was through the roof. I absolutely adored the storytelling this season and the mutual longing between them and the TENSION. I was also very pleased by how the show portrayed vulnerability and trauma in a male character without turning it into a joke. The show very validly portrays Anthony's trauma and his insecurities, and I appreciate it. More of that in media. I also really, really loved Kate as a character. She was so badass and witty and was so much fun to follow. From beginning to end, flawless.

Queen Charlotte - definitely my favorite out of the Bridgerton universe. First of all, the casting was beyond incredible. Not only did the young actors look, sound, and act like their counterparts, but they so realistically captured their identities without being copycats. They're not replica portrayals. They feel like how the characters would be decades prior to the events of Bridgerton. They are all so nuanced and incredible and flow into each other flawlessly. The chemistry between Charlotte and George was beyond amazing. Like, that love declaration??? Amazing. Even when they're bitter with each other, they're still so hopelessly in love, and it's so moving. And, again, I adore the portrayal of vulnerability in male characters without making it a joke. Charlotte's rise into authority is also done so well. The way she's so steadfast in herself, then how she learns to rule and govern - and her own vulnerability in the realization that she has the responsibility of heirs, the sanity of her king to safeguard, and also the fact she's the one who'll have to rule. It's so amazing. Everything about this show is wonderful.

Anyway...you asked about season 3, so...uh...cough, cough. To sum up, I genuinely did not like season 3. I felt as if it was rushed, tacky looking, and the chemistry was suffocatingly lacking. The fact that we were drowning in subplots and Polin barely had any scenes together was inexcusable.

Lemme try to bullet point this shit.

The costumes were tacky. As a history buff and an overall costume fanatic, I recognize that historical pieces won't always be accurate. I don't mind changes - i.e., not wearing bonnets - so long as they fit within the narrative. What I loved about the early seasons of Bridgerton was the simplicity in the costumes. They are beautiful and elegant without being flashy. The Featheringtons, for instance, dress flashy and out there with context. They are trying to stand out, they are behind the times. The Bridgertons dress in pastels and simple patterns, which is soft on the eye and makes them stand out against more solid colors. But in season 3, everyone was dressed outrageously. The nuance of storytelling through costumes was completely lost. Even the Bridgertons began to dress flashy and out there, looking more like the Featheringtons. It defeated the purpose. No one stood out because they all looked alike.

Similarly, the set designs suffered. There was such extravagance in the set designs. Within each location, it was obvious where you were. Between color scheme and style, the show was so in tune with setting the mood, environment, and context of the scene. But in this season, everything was also so big and flashy and nothing stood out. Like, the weird ass flower thing that bloomed in the middle of the ballroom and took up a ridiculous amount of dance room space. It was ugly. It looked horrible in the background. It's stupidly impractical to dance around. It did not fit the scene or the show in general.

We have spent seasons watching Colin and Penelope interact and watching Penelope pine for him. The chemistry was there between them, even when Colin was being a dumb-dumb and oblivious to her affections. The foundations were right there to set up childhood friends to lovers, but the show blew it. They only spent an episode on Colin's lessons with Penelope, which really should have been the meat of the season. So much more time should have been dedicated between them on those lessons, watching how Colin becomes flustered with the realization that Penelope is naturally charming when she's out of her shell, and how he's falling for her while Penelope. By proxy, Penelope should have had way more suitors. If the show was smart, it would have dedicated time to Penelope's lessons, and then seeing the outcome. Imagine scenes of Penelope interacting with potential suitors. Imagine how shellshocked she would be having options, and how she'd relay these feelings to Colin - who would malfunction with the realization of how he messed up. His panic, torn between assuring her she was always deserving of such attention, and his fear of losing her - with feelings he doesn't wholly understand yet. IMAGINE the yearning.

Lord Debling disappearing?? The man spends so much time being a candidate for Penelope, and then dips out without another word? Lame. Horrible. I hated it. I wish he had been developed more as a character, seeing him interact with characters before meeting Penelope; even in passing scenes. Establish his character naturally, then have him be introduced to Penelope. Let them have more scenes together, where there could be chemistry, or even just cute friendly interactions. He also deserved an exit scene. The show could've gone the direction that he was upset about losing Penelope or even being played, or what have you. But have those feelings be portrayed. He could interact with Penelope before leaving for his excursion. Also, something should have been resolved between him and Cressida. I'm not sure what the show plans for Cressida, but the fact Cressida and Debling did interact and have "marital" interest needs to be resolved. Even if it's just a scene where Debling states he won't marry her because Insert Reason Here, or telling her she deserves better than a husband who won't be around. Or even, fuck it, they do get married and Cressida gets to live in his big ass mansion girlbossing with Eloise while he's off searching for birds.

The subplots were draining. I wanted a show about Polin, not the millions of subplots laced throughout the story. I feel like Francesca's story was botched. I actually like the change from Michael to Michaela, go for it. Yes, love it. What I don't like is how the show goes out of its way to validate a more quiet, less whirlwind, romance between Francesca and John only to invalidate it by having that whirlwind, jaw-dropping romance. As an introvert myself who loves quietly, it was really nice to see a romance portrayed on screen that is a little awkward and quiet. It was wholesome and a nice contrast compared to the past Bridgerton romances. It was so validating for Francesca to explain to her mom that she loves differently. Francesca then has a total love at first sight with her husband's cousin, stumbling over her name. The way this scene could have been fixed is if it was the cousin who stumbled over her words, stunned by Francesca, while Francesca is still taken by John. It adds depth and angst and yearning. And then when John dies, how Francesca might come to terms with her own affections and desires, and how she might experience that whirlwind romance with Michaela. I'm a chaotic introverted bisexual, so for me, this felt like a dud. Also, the Eloise/Cressida storyline should have been queer. I'm sorry. Cressida marries Debling to save her reputation and then Eloise goes to live with her in her mansion and...gay shit. That would be compelling. If the season had leaned into that angle, hmm. Yes. That would have been interesting and it would have tied better into the Polin storyline, with Penelope and Cressida in the marriage market. Hell, it would've been wholesome if there'd been a scene where Penelope and Cressida both break down, expressing their frustrations with society. It's a vulnerable moment and for a moment, they share in each others' pain. It's short lived, but it has an impression. Also, the Benedict storyline was so frustrating. The man lives, laughs, fucks his way through each season, and it just drains his character. I want to see Benedict doing more art shit, exploring that side of himself. Have him be soft and blushy when painting half-naked and wholly naked men. I'd dig that. And then he can threesome at some point.

Colin being portrayed as a saucy manwhore when he's been such a girl's girl the whole series. Literally, remember how he couldn't even kiss Marina? I wanted that Colin. Imagine a more innocent Colin. We've had rakes each season between Simon and Anthony. Give us Colin being the absolute sweetheart. If there's a need to portray him as rakish, fine. But imagine he's feeling pressured from the ton and society, so he winds up visiting a brothel but just talks to the girls. Literally, he's sitting across from them and asking about their lives and stuff and they're "???" but go with it. And after, Colin thanks them for their time and kisses their hands because he's a gentleman. Penelope assumes he's a total rake and Colin confides in her that he's not, actually. He feels the pressures of society and tries to play into them, KIND OF REFLECTING HER OWN CIRCUMSTANCES. Boom, stuff to bond over.

Damn. I went on a tangent. I have more thoughts, but here's the gist.

[fraeuleintaka]

AAIC Pre-Order Bonus Trailer

This is the 62nd post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 19 days left until release!

Today's topic: the Pre-Order Bonus Trailer for the Investigations Collection!

Another post, another new trailer for the Investigations Collection! We're really getting spoiled here! And I love them all, keep them coming! This time Miles and Gumshoe talk about the pre-order bonus that comes with the collection. I always love it when characters from a game talk about their own game that they're a part of, it's so wonderfully meta. Like the games are just an adaption of their real adventures and they're judging how well they've been represented. So much potential!

The conversation starts with Miles contemplating that he should soon put in the pre-order for his own collection. (You haven't done that yet? Shame on you, Miles!) Gumshoe assures him that there's no rush since you can buy it whenever you want. Miles corrects him (rather confidently) with information about the pre-order bonus, the 5 arranged tracks from I2 you get, and Gumshoe, shocked, immediately runs off to buy the collection before Miles can stop him. He ponders to himself that Gumshoe hopefully knows you can't directly buy the pre-order bonus right now and then says (out loud!) with a grin that he can't really fault him for wanting to see him (Miles) in action so badly.

Once again a wonderfully precious interaction between the two! Of course Miles would know all the information about his own collection and Gumshoe isn't fully in the loop. I love how Miles appreciates his enthusiasm though! It's also praise for himself, sure, but he seems to be flattered that Gumshoe is so excited about the release of his collection (and doesn't want to miss the bonus content). Considering how often he's impressed by and in awe of Miles' deductions during the Investigations games this fits their dynamic perfectly and it's kinda cute to imagine Gumshoe playing or watching a recreation of the cases they solved together and being amazed by Miles all over again. You'd think Miles would be annoyed by this and he does react confused about it sometimes but other than that he's just flattered and even enjoys Gumshoe's praise when it doesn't interfere with a current task. This even goes into their relationship arc in I2 with Miles sort of taking Gumshoe's unwavering support for granted and realizing how much he truly relies on and needs him. It's a wonderful progression and I always love the contrast of Gumshoe's overflowing enthusiasm with Miles' calm rationality in their dynamic. It's one of the things that makes them such a perfect fit and an amazing team.

Now I'm thinking about the entire main cast of the Investigations games buying (or pre-ordering) the collection 😄 Few of them would probably be as excited about seeing Miles specifically in action as Gumshoe is here but I can only too well imagine their reactions to the parts they didn't see directly and the shenanigans Miles got up to in them. Now that's some interactions I want to see!

[canonicallysoulmates]

J2 Gold Panel Vegascon 2023

Going to jump right into questions, with regards to Radio Company what gets written first melody or lyrics? Jared jokingly answers that he just starts humming in the shower and right when he's washing under his left armpit he knows it's gonna be good 😆

Actual answer, Jensen and Steve usually come up with a melody and then start humming where the words might go and from there they try to come up with the lyrics that fit the melody. Jared says he was actually listening to a podcast that morning where they were talking about Paul McCartney creating Get Back and they said he was walking around humming the melody he had in his head and that's how he went figuring out the lyrics.

Jensen says that's probably the most common way of doing it, that writing a poem and then trying to put music to those words would be more difficult. x

Without mentioning the cast and crew, what do they miss most about being Sam and Dean? And what was the hardest part of them to drop for their next character? Jared needs a minute to think about his answer so Jensen says he'll answer first; the first thing he did after SPN was The Boys and the thing he was most fearful of was using Dean's voice, that luckily he had Kripke and Phil Sgriccia watching his back and he remembers there might have been a couple of takes where Sgriccia had to step in and point out to him he was doing Dean's voice. But he'll take Kripke's word that he never saw Dean in Soldier Boy so that was the pat on the back that he was looking for but the voice was a hard thing to drop.

As for the thing he misses the most, it's hard for him to come up with something other than the camaraderie of a set that's been working together for the better part of two decades. That one of his favorite things about what he does for a living is the morning set walk, getting to the trailer and then walking over to maybe get some breakfast and saying hi to the catering crew and seeing the morning kind of come to life as everybody gets ready, that feeling and the camaraderie that exists between the whole crew and the cast, and everyone gearing up for a day that's going to be at least 12 to 14 hours which is what SPN was- everybody was gearing up for battle and he misses those morning moments with people that he knew so well; he still gets that he got it on Big Sky, he's gotten to know those people but it will be hard to ever know their crew as well as they knew their SPN crew.

Jared concurs, he says that he does have 2 and a half to 3yrs of experience with his Walker cast and crew so that's starting but on SPN it wasn't just knowing somebody's name or what they did for a living it was knowing when they got married or when they lost someone, they really knew the people they worked with and that's a product of time. He will say that for him on Walker he gives kudos to Fricke and Fahey who were kind of co-running the writers' room at times because he felt out of sorts but during the first season of Walker, Cordell is also out of sorts so it kind of worked. He felt weird as Jared but Cordell also felt weird.

Something random for him that has been an adjustment is that Walker doesn't have long setups, they don't shoot studio mode often where there's a bunch of lighting so on SPN he and Jensen would shoot a scene then they'd have like half an hour to do whatever, on Walker they're always ready because it's not so crisp if there's a shadow on your face or you're partially obscured by another actor it's not a big deal. So a day of work on Walker is shorter but it's kind of a sprint, on SPN they would shoot 14hrs, sometimes 16, Bugs was around 18 they even had a third lunch cause if you're doing a night shoot and only have the location for a day you have to get it done.

Jensen brings up that they never referred to any meal on set as dinner it was either lunch or second meal no matter what time they were actually eating, and Jared adds that every year, at least once a year they'd be eating "lunch" at 1am. Breakfast would be at 6pm and lunch would be at midnight.

Jensen also mentions there's also things they probably can't talk about, things they kind of grandfathered in because they had started so long ago, when they started SPN they were shooting on 35mm film, he doesn't know of any show that films on actual film anymore. But there were things they started to do early on that established that's just their behavior that no other cast could get away with for example back when they started the show social media wasn't what it is today so their contracts didn't include any SM clauses but when SM became more popular, around 2012 every season they would have a piece of paper in their trailer that were the SM guidelines and they were supposed to sign it, it was a commitment between them and the studio and the network that they would follow certain protocol via their personal SM accs. And every year they would crumble it up and toss it away, didn't sign it once.

They got left to their own devices and Jensen comments that's something he misses because now that they're on new shows they're having to follow the rules a little more closely while it was the wild west on SPN. x

I'm just going to point out what I think all of us have noticed which is that the boys SM has changed over the past couple of years sometimes a lot of the times not even sounding like them. Just something to think about in connection to this comment Jensen made about now having to follow the rules more closely.

Jensen reveals he would have scotch tastings at lunch, Jared says if it was like midnight on a Friday. He also shares that for the first few seasons for their birthdays, they would get each other an entire keg of beer put it in the trailer, and just drink it all day while working throughout the day they'd go and get themselves some beer like they were in college and everyone in production just pretended not to see what they were doing. But as they got older the amount went decreasing until it was just a six-pack.

Another thing Jared brings up is that because they filmed in Canada they don't recognize American Thanksgiving which is an important holiday for the boys so during s1 they were scheduled to work the full week and they were like that's cool but we're going to be watching the Cowboys game, they were shooting like an hour away from Van and their plan was to find the nearest place that had the game on and go there to watch it so what production did was get a portable satellite dish so they could watch the game in their trailer and stay closer to set but then they were like "why don't we have this all the time?" and so from that moment on they had TV in their trailer, and people would be surprised by that even Stephen Amell was surprised, sometimes their teams would even have to get there early to set up the satellite.

Also, Jared makes it clear that while they sound like heathens they always got their work done on time, they always knew their lines, knew their marks, hung their wardrobe, all that stuff. x

By the way, them reminiscing and sharing stories takes up a huge chunk of the panel, they only got through 4 questions, but it is one of the best panel segments I have seen in a very long time, I loved hearing these men share some of the crazy shit they were able to get away with I highly recommend seeing it for your self.

Would they be on Hot Ones, and how well do they think they would do? They both immediately say yes! And Jared gets all excited because he became obsessed with Hot Ones, and met the host, Sean Evans, in the green room of a UFC fight.

Jared saw him across the room and got all giddy, and baby girl is about to break into giggles remembering that they had eye contact for a moment, so he goes to Evans and tells him he's a really big fan and that he'd love to be on the show and it turns out they've tried to get both of them on the show! And Jared did not know that! So he was like "what???!!! why don't we do it?" and after that Jared went online and ordered a bunch of super hot sauces and he ordered one called Dave's Ghost Pepper hot sauce (the name is actually Ghost Pepper Jolokia Sauce by Daves Gourmet. Neither Jared nor I are responsible for anybody who decides to try that sauce.) which is supposed to be really spicy and he decided he was going to train and he put it some on a plate and dipped a chip in and got a bunch and everything above his clavicle started draining. For an hour or two he couldn't do anything he was a snotty, teary, drooly mess. Milk my boy. Milk. Or another dairy product, he had too much hot sauce so it wouldn't take the full burn away but it would have helped. Also, he's so lucky that didn't result in getting mouth ulcers. But he'd love to do it, and he'd like to do it with Jensen and MC, and he thinks he'd do alright.

Jensen says he would not tap out that he'd just let his face melt off. x

Last question, what has been the best part about wrapping up such a momentous project? For Jared, it's that he finally started to allow himself to be proud of it 🥹

Something he and Jensen talked about for 15 and a half years is that when you're in it, when you still have a job to do you can't really toot your own horn or pat yourself in the back, but now with it in the rearview mirror he's like yeah that was pretty fucking cool, we did work our asses off, we did grow up a lot, we did learn this and that, and make these friendships. At the time he was like don't tell me how cool it is cause I still have to wake up and do eight pages or watch this video on a fight I have to do but now that it's "behind" them he can go 'man that was cool'.

Jensen was proud of the fact that they went out while still firing on all cylinders. That one of his biggest fears was that the show would start to decline in its quality and that it was hard to still be performing and telling a story and loving the characters and playing at that level and walk away but something he and Jared had talked about is that they didn't want to stick around until it started to decline or until the audience lost interest and they started caring less and not putting in the effort. He still feels like they went out after winning the Super Bowl and that's something he's proud of and he thinks it's one of the reasons why they can still talk about it because it wasn't dying, it was still very much alive, it still had a lot to give, and that it still is giving, it's kind of living on through the cons and he thinks that's just setting up the return at some point.

I don't agree with Jensen POV regarding the quality of the show but I'm really glad that he's so proud of the work that he and Jared put forward because he should be; the writing might have gone down in later seasons but these two always gave it their all and put their best work forward.

Jared adds that something he tells his kids when they're upset about losing a game is: did you try your best? He is very competitive with himself, he just wants to be the best he can be and do the best he can so if he gets home one night and he's won whatever game but didn't give it his best he feels worst than if he had lost and done his best. He'll never beat Lebron James in a one-on-one game but if he works really hard and he can maybe dribble a couple times without him stealing it and dunking on him he'll lose but he'd have done the best he could do, and he'll say this he and Jensen are both aware that some episodes were not as good as others but every day, every scene, every line they gave it everything they had. Yes, you did baby. x

J2 Gold Panel Vegascon 2023

[hee-blee-art]

are there any specific ocs your rotating in your brain rn that you wanna talk about ✨👀

yes! always :)

recently I've been thinking a lot about my toyhouse corners guys as I continue working on their comic, especially basil, alfred, foster, and mac :) coincidentally (or not so) they're the four of the cast who do the most yearning and pining and of course I'm very normal about all that (that's a lie they all make me insane). I can't wait to reveal more about them, I could (and will) talk about them for ages (any questions always welcome, I'll try not to spoil anything too big). particularly I've been thinking about basil's past, his complex troubles with getting close to people, and his relationship to whisk, a troubled kitten who he sees a lot of his younger self in and may or may not be fixated on trying to help because he wishes he could somehow reach though time and help himself when he was a kitten in a similar position to her. all in all I am very excited to keep putting those guys in situations (there will be a candyland, a creepy safety village-esque town, and a mirage-like travelling megastore called appleworld in their future).

I've also been thinking (as I often do) about my tragic fantasy gays, sebastian & konstantine. I've been busy enriching their world with lore and planning out their story so I can start (yet another) draft for the first book of the grey circle, and with that comes a lot of thinking about those two, the haunted prince & his begrudgingly valiant knight who knows him better than anyone and yet cannot know him fully because of his unfathomable secret... oh, there's just something so intimate about being doomed by the narrative and bound together, done part by none, not even death <3 they're very enemies to lovers in a "we're on the same side but I can't stand you but I also can't stand to be without you and if anyone messes with you I'll kill them" way, which I can't get enough of myself.

also! the grey circle has lots of characters I haven't posted about nearly as much but are so dear to me and that I oft rotate in my brain, like ilèan & cainiph, who are a very skilled fairy princess with truly profound mommy issues and cain-and-abel vibes with her sister & an adrenaline junkie bounty hunter who is a bit of a hothead and accidently becomes a werewolf :) another mismatched pair that end up needing each other as much as air. and of course, gren & bain, the little mousy halfling-type creatures who are inseparable best friends in love beyond words, a sly bartender & a leisure-loving bard respectively, both incredibly curious and brave beyond credit, setting out to right a wrong and solve an old family mystery. I think about the grey circle very often, it's one of my favourite little worlds to visit in my head & I can't wait until I have something written that allows others to visit as well :)

the last herd of ocs I've been preoccupied with lately are my room & board cast, the characters for a comic idea I have about silly and bizarre sci-fi/fantasy comic about alternate-dimension-faring roommates travelling in a house-turned-spaceship in search of a (the?) holy grail. they're all old ocs of mine (6+ years I think) that I've rebooted a few different times, and returning to them after some years off feels like reconnecting with old friends as cheesy as that sounds. I genuinely missed them, and I'm excited to be messing about with a story for them again, even if it's just for fun. I've especially been thinking about the main(est) character, martin, and how her journey with transness fits into their larger existential and relentlessly silly adventures.

thnks for offering the stage to talk about my ocs! I love talking about them but I'm not always sure anyone wants to hear, but perhaps it's time I curb that mindset and just start putting more out there because it's fun for me :) also! if anyone reads all this, first of all thnk you for indulging me, and second I am genuinely always open to hearing about other people's ocs, whether through ask or dm or whatever! I know it can be intimidating to just reach out of the blue but I really do love talking about people's characters / stories / creations and I am always open to it. maybe I ought to make some more dedicated venue for that sort of thing but yeah casual oc chat is always an option! I hope anyone who sees this has a wonderful day / night :)

[raspberryconverse]

Here is an example of a good boss. TL;DR: Your boss should always advocate for you when people higher up on the corporate ladder are asking you to do things that are unreasonable and/or not in your job description. Work/life balance is important for everyone, but especially when your job is not life and death. If someone isn't going to die/get injured because you didn't do the thing that's not in your job description, you should not be expected to do the thing.

First, a little background. I work as an email developer for an office supply distributor. My job basically is to build and send out all email communications, both internal and external. I work on a couple landing pages (web pages) too, but email is my main role.

Here is the cast of characters: CW icon: my boss, Marketing Automation Manager LS icon: my teammate, who fills in for me when I'm gone, but mostly works with our customers (people who buy products from us). We have a bunch of email marketing programs they can sign up for that we create for them that pulls in their logo and links to their website. She supports and trains them. She's also basically the cishet version of my spouse. They both have fibromyalgia, autism and ADHD. E: Director of Communications C: Senior Director of Customer Care and Sales J: Director of Marketing Operations (my boss' boss) G and C: Managers of External and Internal Communications, respectively

Laughing react is from my boss. Don't you love how E is using words like "empower" to make it sound like being on call 24/7 is a thing we'd want to do? Like we'd feel we were missing out on an opportunity by not taking on extra work that's not in our job description and not something we'd get paid extra to do because we're salaried.

For real, nobody ever died because they couldn't order post-its.

And here's the thing: we have a really awesome team. We do work really hard and we are really appreciated. I can't tell you how many times when I actually go into the office that people tell me this. I hear it at least once a visit. I only go into the office for free food because there is literally no reason I need to be there to do my job. I don't collaborate with anyone. I just copy/paste and wait for people to get their shit together.

E literally just had her 1 year anniversary with the company a few weeks ago too. Oh, I looked her up on LinkedIn and apparently her bachelors is in textiles and weaving. So there's that.

I've been here for 7 years and my boss for 9. LS only has 3 years, but she's fit in amazingly well and done such a great job with her responsibilities. LS and I are happy in our roles and honestly have no desire to move up and take on more responsibilities. The reason we love our jobs is because of the balance and flexibility we have. Being able to shut your laptop and rest or just live your life is important to us. Are we willing to hop on if there's something urgent and we're not busy? Sure. But as my boss said, we're not taking our laptops to the grocery store and whipping them out to send out something that absolutely can wait because nobody is going to die if they can't order paperclips. We don't sell medical supplies (other than first aid supplies). We sell a wide range of office supplies, but literally nothing anyone would result in someone dying if they didn't get in a timely manner.

So yeah, if your boss can see thought the "opportunity for empowerment" bullshit, they're a keeper.

[antiquery]

re-listening to the magnus archives for the nth time and man the quality drop-off after the episode where gerard kaey just Explains the Lore to jon is astonishing. I'd thought the decline was mostly confined to latter season 4 and 5, but nope! it's there halfway through the series!

I think a number of things about the show's premise are fundamentally unworkable, but one that really stands out to me now is the extent to which it wants to be a drama when it has done very little to establish, specifically, what its characters are like around each other. I have a pretty good idea of who Jon is, and a reasonably solid sense of who the rest of the cast is, but I don't really understand how any of them fit together. even Jon and Martin, ostensibly the central relationship of the show...I don't really understand what that is! what's the shape of their dynamic? what do they see in each other? what do they like and dislike? why are they together (even in a platonic sense)!

(sidenote: honestly I feel like the most well-developed relationship in the whole thing is Jon and Elias, because there is a very clear rationale for what's going on there: Elias is grooming Jon and has some emotional investment besides that because he thinks of Jon as his property; Jon at first isn't aware of this and then struggles with wanting to leave but also wanting to stick around because he's curious, and because on some level he wants Elias's approval. yep, check the box, that's A Relationship)

now this lack of character stuff isn't so much a problem in the early series when it's primarily about the shortform statements— a frame narrative, and a handful of constant characters to populate it, are handy for all kinds of reasons! there's a much better version of this series that casts Jon as a kind of occult Hercule Poirot, and afaict that was originally what the series was supposed to be. but once the show makes its ill-fated pivot towards drama, it has to be about the characters because that's all a drama is ever about, and the gaps become blindingly obvious especially because of the decision to make the first part of season 4 about Things Falling Apart

and like, listen, if you have a group of characters who are friends, and you're a drama, you kind of always want to do this, right? the Platonic ideal of this kind of thing is the lead up to the Buffy season 4 finale, where Spike tries to get everyone at loggerheads, and then all of season 6. but the reason that works on Buffy is that the viewer has a very clear idea of what all of these relationships are, and why they exist. take Xander and Buffy: Buffy loves Xander because he's a goof and he's sweet and he does the right thing when it counts, even though he's not special or strong; she needs someone like that, who knows and sees everything she is and yet still loves her from the ground, and it was never going to be Willow because Willow is also, in her way, part of the supernatural world. where's the wedge? Xander feels inadequate and like he has nothing to offer Buffy! boom, done, conflict generated.

but like...what is the conflict between Martin and Jon in early season 4? Martin used to be super involved and now he's not and there's kind of nothing to be done about it? Basira just randomly despises Jon because...she lost her partner, but never expresses it in a way that reads as anything other than petty sniping, which isn't really in line with the rough sketch of her character we've gotten so far? it really feels like the writers' room (well, one guy in this case) decided that there would be A Conflict at the beginning of season 4 between the characters, but never stopped to realize that with the board state as it was, there wasn't really a way to do that that made any sense, because we have no idea who these people are when they're together.

it's such a shame because the early season horror shorts really are so strong. I know the author cites MR James as his inspiration, and that shines through in a way that I'd confidently call an improvement on James' work! really well-crafted, minimalist horror with a laser focus on the story's core idea, the Thing that makes this tale scary— there's a wonderful intention to it that makes them a joy to listen to. I just wish it'd kept going like that...