#this anime has such beautiful colours that making some of these gifs black is a disservice

[kolomo]

@animangacreators challenge 28: winter 2024 ♡ ↳ yubisaki to renren

[neverinadream]

What's Your Favourite Scary Movie?

Summary: What's a better way to watch horror movies than placing a bet on who will jump first?

Pairing: Christian Pulisic x Fem!Reader

Requested: for @thoseboysinblue

Song Inspo: Black Butterflies and Déjà Vu - The Maine

Warnings: 18+, minors dni, smut, moments of fluff, best friends to lovers, mentions of the reader needing to wear glasses, soft dom!christian but also hints of sub!christian, sub!reader, dirty talk, pet names (baby, princess, good girl...), praise kink, body appreciation, nipple play, grinding, oral (female & male receiving), fingering, unprotected sex, spoilers for paranormal activity and talk to me, not edited

Notes: happy halloween whores 🫶🏻 this is a very long one that has taken way too long to write and i apologise that it is being posted later than i normally would post a fic. this idea has changed so much since it was first shared by my lovely mutual/friend. i hope you like it. feedback is always appreciated, especially for a fic as long as this

"Gossip Girl? Again?"

"Stop judging my watch list," Christian huffs, resting his arm on the back of his sofa.

There's a pattern of rom-coms and TV series he had already watched in their entirety, with a sprinkle of recommendations from yourself in there. You fought back a smile knowing he took your recommendations seriously. "Give me your right hand," you request, setting the remote on your lap. He raises his eyebrow but doesn't question it. "Just as I thought," you mumble, nodding your head as you gaze down at his hand, inspecting his palm and scanning the long length of his fingers, "you need to stop abusing this hand and get yourself a girlfriend."

"Oh-" He rips his hand back with a sigh, rolling his eyes. "My dry spell isn't as bad as yours," he makes a good point, welcoming the vanilla and sweet citrus scent that hangs around you as you shuffle closer. Your leg brushes against his and a small smile pinches on the corners of his lips, little butterflies fluttering their wings in the deepest part of his stomach. "When was the last you got laid?"

"Hopefully, this week." You go back to scanning his Netflix account, missing the bridge of his nose turning pink. "Italy is full of gorgeous men," you hum, wrapping your arm around your tummy, caging it underneath as you lean forward.

"Just put your glasses on," he sighs, watching you squint your eyes, "you're making your eyes worse doing that."

You glance over your shoulder. "When did you suddenly change your career?"

He doesn't appreciate your smart mouth, getting up off the sofa in search of them. "It's called being a caring friend," he mumbles, taking one last look at you bent over and leaning forward, before slipping out of his living room.

He hears you call out to him, something about them being in his guest room, but he's already one step ahead of you, opening the bedroom door and taking a step inside. "Don't you mean your room?" He calls back, treading over a pair of heels you had complained about wearing.

Another smile, an even bigger smile, appears as he thinks about last night. Blood stirred and heated his cheeks as he thought about the simple yet beautiful way your dress hugged your body. His skin tingled remember the smell of vanilla and how it clung to every inch of your skin, so much that it made him dizzy. And he swallows a hard breath as he recalls being at the foot of the bed, his thumbs stroking over your soft skin, before unfastening the straps and helping you out of your heels.

"Ha! Nice one!" Your voice cuts him out of the memory.

"It can still be yours!"

You were a freelance animator, recently coming off the success of a short film for some company in London that Christian couldn't remember the name of. It was a dark piece, playing heavily on the tropes of loneliness and trying to find a sense of belonging, told through the POV of a colourless character in a world full of bright colours. Definitely not for children, Christian realised the first time he watched it, wiping away a tear as the credits rolled, a beaming smile on his face as your name flashed on the screen.

It won the company an award, and added a little more attention to your name, making it easier to do the whole "freelance" part of your job description.

It was that part of your job description that Christian used in favour of you moving in with him. Back in London, you were living four streets away from him, and there wasn't a day he didn't go without seeing you. He missed that. Italy was lonely without you.

Everywhere was lonely without you.

Your glasses are sitting on top of your open sketchbook, partially lost under covers, and Christian clears away a cushion, neatly placing it against the pillows. A hedgehog wearing a mask of sorts has been sketched onto the page, with an owl wearing clown makeup sketched on another area of the page, a knife dripping with blood held in its beak. Cute little woodland animals made to look like something from a horror movie. He didn't know if he should be impressed by your talent or shudder from his own dislike of horror movies.

Both, he had decided, grabbing your glasses and leaving the room.

"No."

"What?" Your arm hovers in the air, your hand wrapped around the TV remote, with the 'Horror' section of his Netflix up on the screen. "What's the matter?" You ask, with a coy smile, knowing exactly what his grievance was. If there was one rule for any impromptu movie night, it was no horror movies allowed.

Christian's rule, of course.

You, on the other hand, loved horror movies. The blood. The gore. The old classic slashers. Movies with a budget so low they either become cult classics or a painful ninety minutes. You loved it all. You loved the suspense and the anticipation of waiting for the next jumpscare. The adrenaline that pumped through your veins every time that it happened. It left you feeling more alive than ever.

"We are not, and I can't stress this enough, watching a horror movie."

"I'm not wearing them," you distract him enough to keep flicking through the catalogue. Saw. Don't Breathe. Last Night In Soho. Halloween. You flicked over each one of them, hoping at least one of them would spike your interest. "I hate them," you mumble, ducking and turning your head away from him. He grumbles something about you being stubborn under his breath, his body partially leaning over you as he places his knee on the edge of his sofa. "I don't- Ow!" You gasp, mouth hanging open and head turned up to look at him. "You just poked me in the eye-"

"Because you wouldn't stop moving!"

You readjust your glasses, your head still turned upwards, eyes squinting up at him. "God, is that what you really look like?" He doesn't appreciate your joke, rolling his eyes as you lower your glasses. "Seriously? I should've worn these things the night we met," you continue, adding a second act, "might have thought twice about falling into bed with you."

A deep blush sets on his cheeks, reaching his ears as partial moments of that night come to the forefront of his mind. Hands tracing soft skin. Mouths coming together in feverish exchanges. Him stumbling over his words the next morning, unable to bring himself to ask you if you wanted to get breakfast, settling on remaining as "just friends."

His teammates had even joked that he had fucked his way into the friend zone.

"Give me the remote," he stretches out his hand. You pull your hand into your body, restricting his access to the remote. "You know we have one rule for a movie night: no horror movies."

"Oh, come on," you tease, biting the tip of your tongue, the corners of your mouth turning upwards into a smile, "it's not my fault you're a big scaredy cat."

He rolls his eyes, despite liking the mischievous glint you got in your eyes every time you saw an opportunity to tease him.

"I think I might have to start telling people your tiger tattoo is just a botched job of a sweet, little Tabby, because a real tiger definitely wouldn't shit themselves at the likes of Scary Movie." You point the remote back at the TV, flicking through a subsection of the horror genre until one of them seemed the right fit for tonight's festivities. "It's not even a horror movie. It's a parody!"

"First of all," he reaches back, grabbing a few pieces of popcorn, "I didn't shit myself." He tosses the pieces of popcorn in your direction, the sweet pieces of confection bouncing off your shoulder and your cheek. You pick it up, the tips of your fingers feeling sticky from just one touch, and throw it back at him. He bats it away from him, and you stick your tongue out at him. "It was you who kept purposely making me jump by jabbing your finger into my side."

"I always find it funny how you and I recall events so differently," you mumble, clicking the down button and flicking onto the paranormal section.

"Okay," he talks over you, reaching forward for one of the two beers sitting on his coffee table, "just stick a movie on." He pops the cap off the bottle with a low grunt, flipping it onto the coffee table. It bounces twice, hits the edge of the centrepiece, a decorative glass bowl his parents gave him as a moving away/house warming present, and flips onto the floor. "And just don't pick a super scary one," he mumbles, taking a sip, "I actually want to sleep tonight."

"Scared you're gonna get nightmares?"

"I don't get nightmares."

"No, of course you don't," you shake your head, "you're Mr Captain America! How could you let yourself get scared over something that's not even real?" He rolls his eyes, giving you a soft shove to the side with his elbow. You pluck the brown stained bottle from his hand, noticing the not so subtle way he was watching your lips as you take a sip. "Do I have something on my face?" You ask, the bridge of his nose blushing red. He turns his head away from you, mumbling something under his breath but you didn't catch it. "Sorry?" It was like poking a sleeping bear. "What did you say?"

"Come on," he mumbles, motioning his hand in the direction of his TV.

"Don't rush me," you hiss, catching your tongue between your teeth, the tip poking out from between your lips. It amused him greatly how serious you took picking the movies for movie night, but it was just one of those 'little things' that he loved about you. "You wouldn't want to be rushed whilst taking a penalty, or something."

He pulls a face. "I don't see how those two equate to being the same thing."

"I-Shut up."

You settle on an old favourite: Paranormal Activity.

It was scary enough that you knew Christian would jump a few times, but not scary enough to have him crawling into your bed in the middle of the night. A single creak could be a footstep. Pipes cooling down could be a ghost groaning. Silly tricks of his mind and all enough to scare him into your bed, with his tail tucked between his legs like a scared puppy. If you wanted that, maybe you would've picked something like The Ring or The Blair Witch Project.

"Shouldn't be too scary for you," you tease him, grinning over your shoulder.

———————

"You don't use-" Christian lifts his head from the cushion, his mouth turned down into a frown, his focus turned away from his television and now on you. You had moved to the end of his sofa, moving to give him space to stretch out, with your knees pulled up to your chest, toes wiggling as they sat over the edge. "Are you going to sit there the whole time?" He quizzes, meeting your eyes as you turned to look at him.

"Yes?" You pan down to his body stretched out on the sofa. One knee was pointed to the ceiling, his other leg stretching the length, with his foot tapping against you. It wasn't deliberate, almost like he was still checking to see if you were still there. "Where else am I meant to sit?" You fire back your own question. "For a little guy, you sure know how to take up a lot of room."

"We both know I'm not little," he replies nonchalantly.

"I don't know," you shrug, biting your bottom lip to stop yourself from smiling, "it didn't really leave a lasting impression." You giggle, his foot tapping against you deliberately this time. "But, seriously, where else am I meant to sit? On the floor?" You motion in front of you. "On you?"

He grins, teeth sinking into his bottom lip to hold back his thoughts, but you roll your eyes like you had read his mind. "Just lie with me," he mumbles, patting his hand against his chest.

"What, and crush you?"

It was now his turn to roll his eyes. "You're not going to crush me."

"I might."

"Do you see me?" He pans his hand down his body. "Do you see this? I can take my shirt off so you can better look-"

"Please don't."

He taps your leg again. "We both know you like me better when I have my shirt off," you avoid his eyes as he teases you like your eyes might deceive you and tell him he was right, "But, c'mon, I'm getting cold over here." He pouts, eyes looking rounder as he tries his best at 'puppy dog eyes.' He grabs at the air. "Please?!"

"You're actually the worst," you mumble, giving in to him, "the worst of the worst." Your bodies become a tangled mess, legs wedged between each other, his thigh half-straddled as you rest your head on his chest. His hand travels down your back, his fingers skimming along the band of skin exposed above your jeans. "Also, I call total bullshit on 'getting cold'," you add, unconsciously tucking your hand under his shirt. Your touch makes his skin tingle.

"Yeah?" He raises his eyebrows, looking down his nose. "Why's that?"

"Because you're perpetually warm."

Christian's attention flickers back and forth between you and the movie, pressing his fingers harder into your skin whenever Katie screams Micah's name, which you didn't mind, even though it would happen a lot. When he wasn't subtly trying to hide the jumping, he was glancing down at you, focusing on the steady and relaxed movement of your breathing. He would half-smile at the way you mumble your reactions under your breath, humming a simple "yes" or "okay" to acknowledge them.

He takes in a deep pull of your scent, closing his eyes as he lets the smell of honey and vanilla wash over him. Everything about you could make him dizzy. From your laugh to your smile. To the way you would always cut your sandwiches into four small squares because it made you think of the nostalgia of the school lunches your mum would make you. But nothing was like that honey and vanilla aroma that managed to stick to you like a second layer of skin.

"You better not be falling asleep, mister!" He grunts as you pinch his hip, his eyes snapping open at the sound of your voice. "I didn't lie down with you just so you could take a nap," you prop your chin against his chest.

"Then why did you?"

"Like I already said, you're always warm, and your apartment is freezing!"

Our apartment, he thinks to himself, knowing he'll bring the question up once more before you have to leave. "It's not cold," he says instead, tucking his free arm underneath his head, "and I wasn't falling asleep."

You raise your brows. "Yeah? Then what just happened?"

"He's just shown her the quija board and you just commented on them being stupid for using one." Your eyesbrows drop and the corners of his mouth twitch. "See," he gloats, giving the small of your back a soft pinch, "I wasn't falling asleep."

You chew your bottom lip. "I am right though, you should never use a quija board."

"No?"

"No!" You shake your head. "You don't know who you could be communicating with, or what you could be inviting in!" He smiles, making you squint your eyes and frown up at him. "What's that smile for?"

"You've thought about this before, haven't you?"

You turn your head down, mumbling your answer into his chest, using it to hide the embarrassment in your voice. Yes, you had thought about it. You had thought about it multiple times and every time you watched a movie where one would be used to contact the vengeful spirit haunting the unsuspecting couple, but it's the last thing you would admit it to Christian. It would just be another thing for him to tease you with.

"Sorry," he laughs, his whole chest shaking, "what was that?"

"I said I'm putting another movie on," you lie. He bites his tongue to stop the soft groan that nearly slips out when you straddle his waist, silently praying that his body can stay calm for all of two seconds. "This is getting boring," you stretch across and grab the remote, "I want something proper on."

He lets his hands travel down from your hips and onto your thighs, drumming his fingers against the dark denim. "This is something proper."

"Babe, this is two tropes away from being a parody!"

Babe. It makes his heart beat twice as fast. He clears his throat, doing his best attempt at dislodging the feeling from his chest. "There's not much left," he mumbles, lifting one hand away and following yours until it's out of his reach. He chuckles, the soft sound growing a little louder as you beam down at him with a triumphant smile. "Just leave this one on."

"Or," you press pause, silencing the screams, "we could have some fun."

"Fun?" His throat bops. "You and I have very definitions of what fun is." Your lips twitch. "And I don't like that smile."

"You shouldn't," you giggle, letting your weight sink further onto him, your core pressed firmly against his crotch. The not-so-subtle way his mouth parts on a slight groan makes your stomach flutter. For a second, you slip back into the memory of his hands grabbing at your hips and guiding them, as he threw his head back into his pillow, groaning your name which back then was foreign to his tongue. "Let's make a bet," you snap back to reality, "the first person to jump has to go down on the other person."

He mules it over for a second, a deep blush forming on his cheeks and spreading to his ears. "But what if neither of us jumps?" He asks, keeping his focus on something that isn't the movement of your hips as you shift above him.

"Then no gets to come today."

"You mean: you don't get to come today," he fires back, "you don't know what I was doing this morning."

"So, that's why I heard my name coming from your bathroom?" You throw him a wink. "Don't worry, I've basically nicknamed my vibrator CP." He rolls his eyes and mumbles a soft 'ha, ha' under his breath. If your current position wasn't already bad enough for him, then hearing about you using a vibrator on yourself was nearly tipping him over the edge. "So, do we have a deal?" You raise your eyesbrows.

He shrugs his shoulders. "Why not?" His tongue darts across his bottom lip, looking at you like you might be his last meal. "I've been looking for an excuse to eat your pussy again."

———————

Christian frowns. "I don't get it." You lift your head from the comfort of his shoulder, unable to hide a half-smile when you catch sight of the crease in his brow and the slight way his bottom lip would pout. Flashes of confusion fill his eyes. "She was the one sucking on his toes?"

"Yep."

"But she thought it was that...other thing?"

"Yep."

He sighs, running his hand down his face. "This is so confusing."

You prop your hand under your chin, using your free hand to poke his cheek. He bats your finger away, but the corners of his mouth twitch upwards. "You're very pretty," you mumble, bringing your finger back against his cheek, touching the constellation of freckles that reside on his face. They were his prettiest features, after his eyes of course. "How are you single?"

"Me?" He slides his hand down your back, bunching up the fabric as he reaches the small of your back. His touch is warm and it makes you shiver. "What about you?" He counters, tucking his head down. His nose brushed against your temple, and you could smell the faint smell of beer and toothpaste on his breath. "You're a lot prettier than me."

"I go on dates," you shrug, finger drifting down to his bottom lip. It was soft and light shade of pink. And very, very kissable.

"You do?" His body tenses and the jealousy he feels churns in the pit of his stomach. "Oh..."

You wish you could say that your dating life was a story of success and one that involved you finding true love but, unfortunately, that just wasn't the case. The apps were full of guys looking for a night of easy sex or carrying bouquets of red flags. And the dates you were set up with either talked only about themselves, were hung up on their exes, or talked about their mothers at an alarming rate.

Oh, and none of them were Christian.

"But clearly none of them have worked out for me," you sigh, removing your hand and settling your head back down on his shoulder. His body relaxes, pulling you firmly against him. "It doesn't matter though, I don't need them," you mumble, breathing in the smell of the cologne that stuck to his skin. After being apart from him, you had come to realise that it smelt like home. "I've got you."

"For now and always."

For now and always.

It was your thing, you could say, a promise that neither would be alone.

You first said after Christian suffered one of his first injuries whilst at Chelsea. His stubborn ass had ignored your messages after the injury occurred, a part of him, he supposed, didn't want you to see him like that, but your ass was just as equally stubborn as his and you didn't take his silence as a final answer. You were there for his recovery every step of the way, and for every disruption that came afterwards, repeating the words: 'for now and always.'

You sit up on your elbow. "Christian?" He hums but doesn't look at you. "Chris..."

"What's u-" You silence him, pressing your lips against his, moaning softly into his mouth when you feel him kiss back. "Uh," he pulls back, touching his hand to your face, his fingers softly stroking your jaw, "hi-uh, what?" He nervously laughs, the tips of his ears turning red. "W-W-What was that for?"

"I don't know." You shrug, touching your hand to your mouth. "I'm sorry."

His eyes widen. "What? No! Don't apologise for kissing me. I liked it."

"You did?"

"Should that even be a question?" He scoffs, smiling at you. His thumb brushes gently across your cheek, the softness of your skin shooting goosebumps up his arm. "Of course, I liked it. Why wouldn't I have liked it?" His gaze lingers on your mouth. "Come closer and kiss me again, please?"

"Well, since you asked so nicely..."

It's with a smile on both of your lips that you lean in and press your mouth to his. His lips are soft and willing, parting to welcome you as you run your tongue against his bottom lip. At every groan he made, you would whimper, and Christian would swallow each of the sweet little sounds. They were his to keep. They were his to remember when you left at the end of the week.

His hand grabs your thigh and pulls you to straddle him, rutting his hips up as you settle on him. "Feel that?" He grabs your ass, squeezing firmly as he pushes you down onto his bulge. You grind your hips against him, your movements slow and torturous. "That's it, baby," he bites his bottom lip, groaning your praise and grabbing your ass in both hands, "keep grinding like that for me - make us both feel good."

Your lips roam his jaw and neck, imprinting your whimpers into his skin. "I guess the bets off then?" Your laugh is sultry and yet still sweet.

"Bet or no bet, I would still love to eat your pussy," he purrs, flipping you onto your back, "can I take this off?" He fingers toy with the hem of your shirt.

"Only if you're taking yours off."

You prop yourself up onto your elbows, watching him sit back on his knees. He grabs the back of his collar and removes his T-shirt with one sharp tug. "Beautiful," you whisper, letting your hands roam freely over his chest. They start at the waistband of his jeans, your fingers stroking over the soft trail of hair, before travelling over his naval and feeling every muscle.

Christian was right; you did like him better with no shirt on.

Your eyes pan back down to the bulge in his jeans. "Can I taste you?" You ask, looking back up at him as his hand nestles firmly on the base of your skull.

"Go ahead," he nods, with excitement in his voice, "take it out."

Your eyes shimmer with anticipation as you take a better look at the tent in his boxers, his jeans pulled low enough down. Peeling back the waistband, his cock springs free, slapping hard and heavy against his stomach. He was big, bigger than you had remembered, and your face grows hotter as you try to think of a way to fit him all into your mouth.

"It'll fit," Christian says like he could read your mind, "trust me." He wraps his hand around the base, pushing the tip gently against your mouth. "Give it a kiss." You pucker your lips and lay a soft one against the crown of his cock, tasting the pre-cum as you pull away and lick your lips. "Now open your mouth," he instructs, gliding it against your wet tongue, "already being such a good girl for me."

You swirl your tongue over the head, smacking your lips as you pull off him. "Definitely the prettiest dick I've ever had the pleasure of sucking," you tell him, replacing his hand around the base.

"Sucked many dicks?" His face quickly drops. "Don't answer that."

You run your tongue against the underside of his shaft. "Not in a long time," you answer anyway, giggling as he scowls.

You wrap your lips once more around his cock, focusing on the tip, sucking it lazily in and out of your mouth, as your hand worked the base. "Fuck, that feels good," he pants, hanging his head back, exposing the column of his neck and the beard that scattered the underside of his jaw to you. "But I'm gonna have to make you stop."

"What?" You pull off him, a string of spit still connecting you. "Why?"

"Because it's been way too long, longer than I would like to admit since I was last with someone, and if you keep sucking me off like that, this is going to end quicker than it started."

You wipe your mouth. "Oh."

"Yeah," he blushes, tucking himself back into his boxers. He tugs his jeans up but leaves them unbuttoned. "Now," he clears his throat, "wanna help me take your clothes off?"

———————

"Fucking gorgeous!" Christian touch sears your skin, burning his prints into you as he grips your thighs. You pinned to his mattress, with nowhere to go, looking down at a pair of hungry eyes. His tongue splits your folds and draws a line between your entrance and your clit. "This pussy has been a part of my dreams for years," he confesses, turning his head, kissing the inside of your thigh, "god, I think about it-think about you when I'm touching myself."

Your lips part on a silent breath. "You do?"

"Every time, baby." He blows hot hair against your clit, grinning as your squirm. "Every. Single. Damn. Time."

"Good," you giggle, cupping your breast and tweaking your nipple, "because I wasn't lying about nicknaming my vibrator CP."

His cock strains in his jeans at your words. "Don't say that," he growls, rutting his hips into the mattress, "not unless you want to be cleaning the cum off my cock."

You prop yourself up, looking down at him between your thighs. "Sounds tasty," you throw back, licking your lips.

His lips twitch. "Speaking of tasty..." He drags his tongue back and forth along your slit, groaning as your wetness pools in his mouth. You were intoxicating. A drug for him to get high off. "Tastiest thing I've ever eaten, baby," his praise has you throwing your head back into the pillow, "and the prettiest, too."

"Oh, my..."

He pushes the air out of your lungs, stretching you out as he slowly works two fingers into your pussy. They twist and curl up to stroke your g-spot, and you feel him grin against your clit when he wrangles out a pornographic moan. No one had made you feel this good. Not in a very long time.

"Christian," you pant his name, pushing your hips up. He groans, flicking his tongue faster over your clit.

He was playing like an instrument and eating you like were his last meal.

"So fucking tight," he licks his lips, tasting you on him. He twists and scissors his fingers, stretching you some more. "And wet, baby," he purrs, rotating his thumb in circles over your clit. His honey-dipped eyes look up at you, roaming every part of your naked figured. "If you could see the mess you're making - just dripping everywhere."

"I want you to look at me like that all the time," you stare down at him.

"I do." He kneels between your legs, dipping to kiss over the tops of your breasts, the dip at the base of your neck and then your lips. "I look at you like this all the time, baby," he presses his thumb harder to your clit, making you squirm, "I've just gotten good at hiding it." He crashes his mouth against yours, pushing his tongue into your mouth, letting you taste your arousal off his tongue. "I'm gonna grab a condom."

You stop him as he reaches into his bedside cabinet. "I'm on the pill."

"You sure?"

"Yes," you answer, kissing over his stubbled jaw, nipping playfully at his ear, "now lose those jeans, pretty boy." He raises his eyebrows, the corners of his lips curving up with amusement. You give a sharp tug on his belt loop. "I said lose the jeans."

He chuckles, pushing to stand up. "What is this?" He pulls his jeans down, kicking them off as they reach his feet. You bite your lip, eyes zoning in on his cock bulging in his underwear. They were removed next, a smirk gracing his lips. He wraps his hand around his shaft, jerking his wrist a few times, wincing a little when he squeezes the tip. "Think you're in charge here?"

"Maybe."

He shakes his head, brushing his lips against your temple. "That's very cute." He kneels between your legs, tapping his tip against your clit, chuckling as you whimper. There was nothing worse than being teased. "But that's not happening, baby."

He slips the first few inches inside, watching your pussy swallow and clench around him. He waits, giving himself a second to adjust. "Just remember it's been a while, okay?" His cheeks blush, spreading down his neck onto his chest. "Don't be teasing me if I end up coming too quickly."

"Hey, look at me." You reach out to touch his face, your fingers brushing over his jaw. He leans into your touch. "We're in the same boat, remember?"

"But what about all those dates you've been on?"

You shake your head. "The last guy I had sex with was Kal." Sliding your hand between your bodies, you sink the last few inches inside. The feeling of fullness has you losing your breath, but you find it again when Christian leans over to kiss you. "Forget about the timestamp on your last time, and stop worrying about blowing your load too quickly," you talk against his mouth, soothing your hands over his chest, "just be here with me, okay?"

He nods, biting his bottom lip. "I can do that." His head dips and kisses the centre of your chest, hands exploring your thighs and the globes of your ass as he ruts into you. "Fuck," his voice is strained, "you feel...you feel perfect, like you just for me."

"Yes," you whimper, your heart aching as the words hit your ears, "just for you."

He nuzzles his stubble into your cheek. "Say it again."

"Just for you," you repeat, now grinding your hips up to meet each thrust, "just for you." You pull his head up and crash your lips together, exchanging a kiss like it could been your last. Never had you imagined this is where you would be when you got on the plane four days ago. "You," you managed to make out through a moan, breaking apart, nuzzling your face against his cheek.

He chokes your name on a sob, "I'm not gonna last must longer."

"Let go, Christian," you wrap your legs around his waist, and run your nails down his back, scratching lightly at the muscles that strained, "come for me, baby."

"Inside you?" His rhythm is sloppy and you have to keep grinding against him. "Can I come inside you?" He grabs your hips and clamps them against him, moaning into your shoulder as his whole body shakes above you. "Oh, god," he whines, his cock twitching and pulsing, "I'm coming-I'm..."

Silence.

For the next few seconds, Christian is silently mouthing your name against his skin.

You soothe your hands through his hair as he finishes inside you, letting your hands roam over his shoulders and down his back. "You okay?" You whisper, tucking your head to brush a kiss to the side of his head. "Christian?"

"I think I just had an out-of-body experience," he answers, audibly groaning as he pulls out. You giggle, tiredly rolling onto your front, moving with him as he collapses next to you. His arm comes up over his face, hiding his eyes, before ripping away to look at you. He looked worried like he was realising he had done something wrong. "You didn't come?"

You shrug, giving him a reassuring smile. "It's fine." Which it was.

"No, it's not." He tries to sit up but crashes back onto the mattress. "When I have recovered, you are coming," he declares, pulling the pillow over his face. His voice is muffled as he adds, "we are not leaving this bed until I've made you come."

———————

Taglist: @shanoontje @maseandkepa @theblxefox @blueathens  @ofxinnocence @mrschilly @geek-and-proud @in-my-body-bag @laurasstufff1 @mountchilly @spicysainz @thoseboysinblue @kickinganddriving @lizzypotter14 @bracedes @chilwellspulisic @notsoattractivearenti @swimmingismywholelife @lovelynikol16 @masonsrem @landoslover @kathb59 @emcv1427 @gagaslonina @afterpills @pulisicsgirl

[sheeple]

A purple-eyed bride for your green-coloured son

Part one |  Part three

There are days that Lucerys Velaryon can't look at his sister. It's not because he thinks she's ugly. Gods no. Lucerys thinks his sister is one of the most beautiful girls he has ever seen. Long, snow-white hair cascading in tight curls down her back. The vision of a true Valyrian.

He can't look at her some days because of the guilt.

His otherwise flawless oldest sister is missing an eye. And it's all because of him. She and their uncle both lost an eye the same night because of him.

Lucerys has lived with this guilt for almost six years. It eats him from the inside, festering in his heart like a black, sticky goo. It's tar-like and it makes him wanna throw up.

Next to Lucerys is his brother, Jacaerys Velaryon. He wants to hate his sister for what she has done. He wants to despise her. Because he, as the eldest son and heir to the throne, should be the one to protect their siblings ─ not her. But he can't.

He knows that his sister has given up a lot. She has given the right to the throne to him. Because she knows he will be a far better candidate than herself. She has no taste for the crown or power. Y/n Velaryon has told him so herself.

And now she has given up her freedom. The freedom to choose whom she marries. At least that is what all the Velaryon siblings have in common, their marriages are chosen for them.

Across the table, sits the Stranger himself personified. Aemond Targaryen watches with not so well hidden amusement how Lucerys squirms under his gaze. Aemond does however not enjoy the emotionless look his niece has on her face.

He always thought they were equal; two halves of the same. But in contrary to how he hides the jewel that fills the empty socket, she shows it with pride. An amethyst shines eminently in place of her eye, the colour matching the one she gave his mother half a decade ago.

It excites him. He truly believes that she did it all for him. Over the years, her eyeball kept him company, whispering how they are meant to be together. It drives him crazy how she teases him.

The King gives a heartfelt speech, after which the other members of the royal family follow. The Queen and Princess seem to reconcile, and Jacaerys makes a not-really-meant reconciliation to his uncles. Princess Helaena looks really proud of herself once she has spoken, earning a few chuckles and a nod from her grandsire.

Once Jacaerys takes his aunt to dance, princess Y/n's eyes drift from them to her uncle, who's already staring intently at her. She raises her eyebrow and lifts her cup to take a sip of the wine. It's like she's challenging him, decides Aemond.

Before he can act on his desire to claim her before their family, a still-sizzling piglet get's placed before him and the quiet laughs of his nephew set him off. His speech is damaging and the Queen buries her face in her hands.

Jacaerys punches Aemond first but gets pushed to the ground fairly easily. Aegon grabs Lucaerys and pushes his face on the table. The one-eyed princess jumps up from her chair and kicks her eldest uncle in the back of his knees so he lets go of her brother and slams his head on the table.

Jacaerys breaks free from the guards that restrained him but contains himself when his sister steps in between uncle and nephew

"You should be ashamed of yourself", she hisses, chest heaving and jaw set. She feels Jacaerys ready to pounce like a wild animal behind her but she doesn't budge. "Your tongue should be cut out for talking such blasphemy."

What nobody expected is that Aemond advances, grabbing hold of the Princess' throat. Swords are unsheathed and shouts for the Prince to let go of his niece. But his gaze is set on her only eye, mirroring his own.

"You're playing a dangerous game, uncle. If my betrothed in the North hears about you putting your hands on his princess, Cregan Starks won't hesitate to march down to here. Then your eye won't be the only thing you've lost." The last part is only for her uncle to hear.

Aemond's jaw tenses, but it is his mother that speaks his thoughts. "Betrothed? Since when?"

Princess Y/n frees herself from her uncle's hold to address the Queen. There is a certain look in the brown orbs of the Queen that betray her true feelings.

"Such a same isn't it, Queen Hightower? Now you won't have a purple-eyed bride for your green-coloured son."

The face of the Queen hardens and Prince Daemon grabs his step-daughter's arm, ordering her and her brothers to go to their quarters.

With one last sharp look at Aemond, the princess leaves to pack for their return home to Dragonstone and she swears to never return to the capital while the Greens plague the halls of the keep. At least not of her free will.

Tagged: @ryuuisthecutest @thepineapplesimp @yeah-just-a-fan @linn-a-a @foggyturtleknightangel @the-phantom-of-arda @bellameshipper

[sexlapis]

autumns with toji

♡ : toji x gn! reader

. contents : headcanons, profanity, fluff, halloween, petnames, soft toji!

.. how you & toji spend the autumn together

… a/n : this is not proofread i just wanted to babble abt autumn toji ♡

masterlists

toji takes you on peaceful walks in the forest. the trees are just so beautiful & vibrant & you love it very much!

toji takes pictures of you when you’re in the as well, you just look so happy in nature. he keeps the pictures to admire them later on.

and toji just looks so hot in autumn…his wardrobe consists of red & green flannels, turtlenecks, woolly denim & suede jackets, timberland boots, black beanies…& his hair has grown out slightly all the way down to his chin…n he has visible stubble…he’s so father fr…anyway.

you both go lead hunting for all the possible colours of leaves

you like to collect conkers & pine cones. you give them to toji & he gladly accepts accepts them, putting them all in a box for safekeeping

toji loves camping. so he makes a lil camp in yalls big backyard with a fire and everything. you’re both cuddled around the fire pit making s’mores. toji looks at you with heart eyes because you’re just so damn precious, wearing one of his red flannels & looking so cute and he just gives you kisses🥺

afterwards you both go inside. toji makes you both some tea and he puts on a movie in the big projector you have in your shared room (the movie is fantastic mr fox ♡) & you both cuddle as you watch it. you obviously fall asleep halfway through. toji’s heart beats out of chest at the sight & he turns the movie off before falling asleep himself.

after seeing a hedgehog in the garden, you wanted to build it a house. toji being the handyman he is obviously helped you build it! (and by helped i mean he built the entire thing & you just watched him because 1. you didn’t know what you were doing & 2. toji looks sexy when he builds things). when finished you put the house outside in the garden, with hedgehog food.

you check on the house everyday until you finally see the little, cute hedgehog in the house. you nearly squeal as you run to tell toji & drag him outside. now you’re both just crouched on the ground looks at the adorable hedgehog. toji admits its a cute kinda ugly thing.

your dumbass tries to touch it and you end up hurting yourself & almost scaring the poor hedgehog away. toji flicks your head for being stupid (but checks if your injured anyway)

you both find the best cafes in your city & simply buy pastries & relax at the cafes for hours on end.

you both go apple picking annually every autumn. you try & get the best ones! toji is there to pick the apples from branches higher up where you can’t reach & give them to you. you make the sweetest apple pie together with them along with homemade ice cream

you both go to a pumpkin patch to pick out the best pumpkin for halloween. toji does not give a shit about the holiday & is only doing it because he loves you

you: “toji which one should we get? this one or that one” toji: “???kid, they’re all the fuckin’ same?”

you end up getting 5 pumpkins

you ask toji to carve a pumpkin & he is surprisingly talented in the art department? he carves out your favourite animated characters and it’s literally amazing while your pumpkin just has two squares for eyes and barely a mouth.

toji reassured you & tells you that your pumpkin is absolutely lovely (it’s not it’s really shit but he think it’s cute how bad you are at carving a pumpkin+ the way you beam at his praise makes him happy)

you both give out candy for the trick or treaters & you get many compliments on toji’s amazing pumpkins! (toji claims it’s your pumpkin that everyone likes)

you ask toji to dress up for halloween & he reluctantly gives in.

you dress up as a cute witch & he, being the menace he is, dresses up as jason vooheres to scare the trick or treaters

he laughs at the kids when they get scared 💀

but toji isn’t an evil man so he takes off his mask to not be so scary & smiles softly kids trick or treating ♡ the sight makes you melt

pls i love autumn toji sm..!!

[pilot-doodles]

HELLO! I was tagged in this "Get to Know me" thing. wazzup. thanks, @alyxtried

Last Song - Blood Upon the Snow- Hozier, Bear McCreary

The song fits some of my OCs super well, I keep putting that song on in the car and get really lost in it. It's one of those songs that if given the right time to sit and listen, will give me full body chills. today was one of those days!

Currently Watching - Star Wars Rebels (Season 2)

I can't shut up about Star Wars ever and because I am fun and love live My favorite animated series is Rebels. I wanted to show it to my roommate. Every time I re-watch it I notice more and more. I'm also watching Ashoka so It is nice to see the parallels. and GOD i love Hera Syndulla so much.

Currently Reading - Burning Chrome- William Gibson

Reading is SUUUUPER hard for me for some reason, so I find myself picking up and putting books down often. I rarely get so engrossed in a book that I finish it, but that's why Burning Chrome works for me. it's a scify anthology/short story comp that I can pick up and put away whenever I want. the few books I strongly recommend are Piranesi and the Winternight Trilogy!

Current Obsession - (Still) Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Baldur's gate 3

before I go back on my Star Wars bullshit, I'm still playing BG3 with my beloved bard, Viv. I don't have as much free time as I did a while back but I still want to finish the story.

Favourite Colour - Red

it's been my favorite since I was a kid! I don't have a single explanation for it but it's always my favorite. I use it a lot in character design. I am also a fan of a good gold and black. the combo of red, dark navy and gold will always make me go insane. (in a good way)

Favourite Candy - Gummies

who has ONE favorite candy? what? I love gummies, hard candy, dark chocolate, anything with lemon- the more I think of it I don't think there's anything I actively dislike! except circus peanuts and candy corn but I think I'm allergic to them.

Favourite Game of All Time - Final Fantasy Crisis Core

I don't know who knows but I have a tattoo of the buster sword (Zacks OG CC version). it's on my left forearm. the tattoo artist I got was amazing, too. Crisis Core was extremely formative for me and had formulated some of the ideals I hold today.

Current Pets - Tadashi (gray longhair cat) and Acorn (Society Finch)

My boy tadashi was a shelter cat who probably would have died if I hadn't gotten him when I did. He came to me with a life threatening respiratory infection and ringworm, fleas, kennel rashes, etc. He's all fixed up now and living his best life as a spoiled, fat housecat. he's a bit standoffish to people, but really loves being with people. I also live with my sister's two cats, madeline and Olive.

Thanks for the tag, If someone wants to do it, go for it! I would love to hear about the vast beautiful worlds you got going on! (trying not to tag irl friends) Theres a lot of you active mutuals, so if I missed you and you wanna do it, I have spiritualy tagged you.

@magicalzombiegirl @ramroadrage @sternenhimmel-mond @thatoneperson1967 @astro-b-o-y-d @jesterrlavorre @phobosapollo @nionbell

[endlessly-cursed]

𝗫𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗼

"𝘼𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙨 𝙄 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚, 𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙞𝙡."

BASICS

Name: Xanthe Terra Arcano 

Birthday: 24th of October, 1240

Zodiac sign: Scorpio

Weight: 64kg 

Height: 1.68m 

Religion: Norse Paganism 

Eye colour: Black 

Hair colour: White 

Faceclaim: Bethany Antonia 

FAMILY 

Mother: Zoya Aurore Arcano, neé Malfoy 

From the Malfoy family, Zoya was a woman of her time: beautiful, strategic, cunning and of many talents of the era. She met Skall Arcano accompanying her father on crusades and both of them hit it off instantly. 

[MORE INFO TBD] 

Father: Skall ‘The White Wolf’ Arcano ( @kathrynalicemc​ ) 

The founder of the future city of Skalafell, named after him, he was a dangerous yet intriguing man. He met his future wife Zoya during a crusade. 

[MORE INFO TBD] 

Other relatives: TBD 

Friends: TBD 

Significant Other: TBD (Open) 

PERSONALITY

Overall personality: Xanthe is a woman of her time, as well as her parents, Princess of Skalafell and the perfect mix of her parents. She’s a spoiled girl and always gets her way, either by her feminine wiles or her sword, commissioned by her father for her. She’s the first official Arcano after the founding of the city, and reminds everyone of it. 

Positive traits: Brave, daring, kind, righteous and intelligent 

Negative traits: A daredvil, reckless, hot-tempered and stubborn as they come 

Guilty pleasure: She quite likes causing chaos like her father 

HOMETOWN

Skalafell, a city in Norway hidden from Muggles, was Xanthe’s home and what shaped her into the woman she became. Many of the customs that are still there were introduced by her parents and by herself while she travelled to neighbouring countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Russia and the Balkans, further enriching the culture of the city. She also was one of the few Arcanos who could ride dangerous dragons, her own being a large Horntail that used to serve the French crusaders... until she beat them all in battle and took it as a war good. She then gained its trust and terrorisec possible invaders, burning them to the ground in question of minutes. 

BACKSTORY 

Xanthe Terra Arcano was born the 24th of October, 1240 by Skall and Zoya Arcano, the founders of Skalafell. Skall crowned himself king and made Zoya his queen, and Xanthe was thus princess of Skalafell. Though her father brought many of his trusted men to the city, it was Xanthe’s adventures and travels that’d make Skalafell grow and thrive, bringing the newest wizarding and muggle innovations, stealing slaves from other kingdoms and empires and smuggling child brides that were non-royal, as well as stealing animals and crops from corrupt nobles with the help of her mighty Horntail, Barnabas, a dragon she stole from French crusaders. With it, many aspects from other cultures and customs were introduced to Skalafell. 

MISC

Zoya has the Arcano Gift, which is why she has white hair and has earthly powers 

Like her father, she’s an excellent swodswoman and knows hand-to-hand combat 

She also takes a liking to dancing and playing the flute 

She went to Hogwarts and was sorted in Slytherin 

She knows the northern languages (Norwegian, Swedish and Danish) and learnt throughout her life some languages spoken in the Balkans 

She also accompanied her father in his battles and soon earned military titles on her own right 

She enchanted her swords before battle so the impact would be better 

[abominationvault]

Session 4: Sat 15 Jul 2023

Suggested talking points: Gillian Anderson - still beautiful. David Duchovny - potato in a suit. Pasta: yay or nay? We are undecided. Double steak sandwiches. Whatever Happened To Little Sconner? Cryptid of the Week: Dipping Cheese.

Okay, so - dead frog? And the luxury maggots contained therein. Trash-Cat Luna approaches in order to splat them. She does three successive paw attacks and gets a Hero Point.

Luna and Skabb both get grabbed; Nadia juuuust squirms out of reach.

Hartvig reminds us all to try and roll some slightly higher numbers this week. Nadia takes this advice to heart and finally hits something - not only that, but she scores a crit and kills a maggot! Skabb goes one better and gets a crit on her third attack, killing another! Joto gets stuck in a door, and has to wait for a human to come and open it for him.

He kills the last maggot with a flashy throw of his dagger. Skabb wants to wear the empty dead frog. The DM allows this, for reasons known only to him. She makes a Nature check; 13. There’s something distinctive about the damage to the frog. Not from the maggots - she believes the legs were bitten off by something else.

Luna can see they were bitten off by some kind of draconic creature; there are burn marks around the leg bones. She thinks it was a river-drake. Does she have a sketch of one of those in her pocket, by any chance? No, but Nadia remembers the most about dragons. Drakes are primitive draconic monsters, with only a fraction of the power of their cousins. They are much less cunning, as well. They are known for forming raiding parties known as rampages. They are Large.

Sprocket’s little ears can hear distant buzzing. Not like the maggots being farmed by the mitflits. We have a think. What do maggots turn into…?

(Skabb wants to know if she can hack the face off the frog and bring it with her. She can, she is told, so she does.)

Joto knows that the flies that come from these maggots are hard to hit, even though they’re the size of people. He also knows they carry diseases. Delightful! He recounts a tale of a previous exploits in the jungle, where he learned of these creatures.

Luna and Nadia approach a closed door - they notice some scribbles on the floor outside it. The writing is childish, but they can’t read it. We could try and make Skabb read it, but that isn’t likely to go well. Please…?

“It’s not about pleases, words are evil!” she shrieks. If we ask Grabby-Cat nicely, she might read it for us and tell Skabb what it says. We remember that she left Grabby-Cat standing guard further back; Skabb calls her back and has her read it. She makes an Intelligence check, as it’s in Mitflit and not Gobbo. 15; ‘Important - here be Buzzy-Wuzz. Keep it well fed, by order of Boss Skrawnig.’

Joto heard, “Joto should go back and get a dead mitflit, open the door and fling it in”. How strange, that’s what the rest of us heard as well.

He fetches a dead mitflit and cautiously opens the door. Inside is a watch post, full of animal carcasses and entrails. He slings the mitflit in, does a gross cat-retch, and presses back around the corner, peering back in to see what happens.

Nadia and Luna move back, readying attacks in case the fly attacks us. Sprocket stands there looking at us all.

The buzzing gets louder. Those of us who can see this:

Through the now open door we see another fly appear. The first is about the size of a pony, and shiny blue and green. It has been painted with something, probably by the mitflits. The second is a more drab colour. A third, mucky-brown one squeezes in through the window as we watch.

Joto shuts the door.

Luna has some black adder poison; could she slap it on a dead mitflit and fling it in? Well, it’s a venom, not a poison, so we would need to get it into the bloodstream. Oh well. She gets a Hero Point for the scheme.

We need some giant flypaper. Or an aerosol and a lighter. Skabb could Tanglefoot one…? We don’t need to kill these things, but if we don’t they’ll be buzzing around outside later on. Especially since we killed the mitflits that were feeding them. Would cold magic make them sluggish, maybe?

Sprocket thinks he has a spell that might do something, but it’ll take a round to charge. Traps and snares aren’t likely to do much since they’re floor-based, and flies, well… fly.

We arrange a surprise attack, since the flies don’t know we’re here. Sprocket readies his spell, Skabb and Hartvig prepare spells too, Nadia readies a shot, and Joto and Luna prepare to dart in and do melee strikes. Augustus will do some smashing.

Joto opens the door…

Sprocket fires off his spell: Horizon Thunder Sphere. He rolls a 7 to attack, then a 5. All is not lost - the spell explodes and does damage to the adjacent two flies instead. (He sparkles with electrical energy.) The flies make their saves - one takes no damage but the other takes half.

Skabb does her Clinging Ice spell; her target crit-fails its Reflex save and takes double damage!

DM, sadly: “Poor Buzzy-Wuzz.”

Skabb, on a roll, casts Ray of Frost on Buzzy-Wuzz. 20 to hit and 8 Cold damage!

Nadia hits with her shot, for another whopping two damage. She reloads and crouches down.

Hartvig steps over Sprocket as he walks toward the door and does Cry of Destruction, hitting all three flies.

Joto: “Is it a shout, or are you just crying?”

Hartvig, weeping: “It’s not a phase!”

The flies make their Fortitude saves and take half damage. Clearly flies don’t understand emo culture.

Joto darts past Hartvig into the room and gets stuck in the wall on his way in. He springs over the flies so he can attack from behind. He goes for Buzzy-Wuzz with his rapier, hitting for 7 damage and gets the Howdy-Doodis! He carves a J into its back.

Hartvig: “I loosened it for you.”

Joto then does an action called You’re Next:

He rolls an 18 on his Intimidation check.

Sprocket: “Undermine it emotionally! Gaslight it!”

That was a free action so Joto attacks one of the remaining ones, misses, and uses a Hero Point to reroll: “Ah, piss.” He gets the Hero Point back for being awesome though, so not all is lost.

Luna is hidden, and also stuck in the wall. She gets unstuck, and leans around Hartvig to take a shot. She misses, uses a Hero Point to reroll, and misses again. She closes her Roll20 window in her excitement, and there is a short pause while she reopens it. She bounds in to attack with her rapier, and misses with that as well.

Pretty good surprise round, all considered! With that, we roll Initiative…

So it turns out that Hartvig’s curse has kicked in, so anyone within ten feet of him is in his ashy aura and is considered Concealed. Double edged sword, though, because they can't see out of it either. Sprocket Spouts one of the flies. “He’s getting a dungeon bidet.”

Hartvig casts Produce Flame and hits one for 4 fire damage. He moves out of the way, taking his ash cloud with him. He gets a Pity Point from the DM. “I accept.”

One of the flies exits the room and attacks Sprocket for 5 damage with its mandibles. It goes in for another bite, but misses. The other fly bites at Joto “with his mandi-blez”, then at Luna - and flies away toward Nadia.

She shoots but misses, reloads and crouches down.

Luna takes some shots, but misses.

Skabb uses her first action to try and puke away her sickness, but fails her Fortitude save. She flings an Electric Arc at the flies - they fail their saves and takes 6 damage each.

Joto runs back out of the room and throws a grappling hook at one of the flies. It misses, so he shoots with his crossbow instead. That misses as well.

Sprocket can’t reach the flies - but Augustus can. Sprocket does another spout of water at the fly nearest him, but it makes its save. While it’s dodging out of the way, Augustus swats it with a 23 to attack! 5 damage, yeah.

Hartvig moves, and casts Guidance on Nadia. Good thing too, because one of the flies attacks her. It hits, but she can add the Guidance point to the secret roll the DM makes for her. Its second attack misses. Embarrassed, it turns to attack Sprocket instead and hits him for 4. The second fly bites at Joto (miss), Augustus (miss) and Sprocket (miss).

Nadia shoots, misses, and crouches down shielding Skabb as she does so.

Luna springs out of the room and rapiers one of the flies - 17 hits for 3 damage, and she does a little cat-dance. The thing is now dripping fly gunk and flying on the wonk. “Gross.” The fly uses Avoid the Swat:

Skabb tries another Tactical Vom, but fails. “You’d think I’d be good at puking.” She shoots another Ray of Frost at the one trying to flee. She gets a Howdy-Doodis! It freezes and shatters into, quote, “delicious little chunks”.

Joto uses Augustus to get some air time, and leaps at the last fly for some mid-air rapier action. 23 hits! Upon the landing he takes another swing. Howdy-Doodis! He cuts the wings off, and it explodes on the floor.

Joto does some healing for Skabb, who pukes enough to make herself better, and then runs around the room hoovering up the bits of dead fly. Full again, she uses her healing mud to try and heal Sprocket but rolls too low. She does the same for Augustus, and rolls much better. Fortunately they share a hit point pool so Sprocket gets healed anyway.

Joto heals Luna, and Hartvig tries to heal Nadia but rolls too low. Hartvig has also stopped emitting so much dust. Nobody was unalived! We’re getting better at this. Time to move on! ... Next week.

[rays-of-fire-and-ice]

BLEACH: The Thousand Year Blood War Ep 12 and 13 Reactions and Thoughts

Overall reaction:

HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE! I know I keep screaming it, but honestly, how could you not feel hyped by the end?! They gave us so much in these last two episodes to get emotional over, whether it was Isshin and Masaki's love story or Ichigo getting his bread-cutting knife two swords. Also, didn't hurt to see my boy again, I honestly thought they were going to save that for the next cour.

Highlights:

The Masaki-Isshin love story: Kubo has said before he doesn't write romance...but this adaption elevates what he wrote, and it's basically the equivalent of the first 10 minutes of UP. How can you not feel anything while watching this sequence?! I absolutely LOVE that scene when Isshin describes her as the sun and he walks up the hill to her, just beautiful stuff! ;w; I'd go as far as to say this is the most beautiful scene in the adaption so far!

Ryuken: seeing all of Ryuken's scenes reminded me of what he lost. He lost Masaki, his wife, and now seemingly Uryu. I feel for the guy, even if he did do some pretty dubious things.

The Shinigami training: we got a nice adaption of the Toshiro going back to basics scene, where we finally got hear him say his monologue about losing his bankai; Romi killed it here but I expected nothing less form her. Also, it's a small thing, but I loved that they showed Toshiro actually training with his officers; in the manga he's surrounded by no one (and don't get me wrong, I still love how it's presented in the manga) and here it shows he's with them, training to becoming stronger alongside them. My only nit-pick would have to be the part where he asks the instructor to let him be part of the class, you can definitely notice the 3D Shinigami models in the background. They managed to blend most of the 3D seamlessly into the 2D, but here it was pretty obvious. However, the main focus of this bit was Toshiro and the instructor, so it's honestly not a big deal. I love how they animated Sui Feng here, they really showed her endurance and she just looked like a badass. Omeda's scene with his sister was cute but also, as a manga fa, really sad foreshadowing. Hisagi, Kensei, and Mashiro and Sajin's scenes went as per the manga, but as a reader, it's sad to think where this will end up for Sajin.

Ichigo choose his asauchi: was I the only what that got chills watching this? Just something about the asauchi bowing to Ichigo and accepting his hand, it was epic in it's own way. Of course, animation and the music helps to make the scene too! Maybe it's the whole thing about Zangetsu saying 'one of has to be king' in the past.

Ichigo gets his true zanpakuto: the exchange between Ichigo and 'zangetsu' always made me tear up, and here it's no exception. It's interesting they went with the new colour scheme for Ichigo's inner world (it might explain why the pink-grey-white-black branding colours came from?), but maybe it's just for this scene. If they chose to keep it, I wouldn't complain. The sequence underwater was just beautiful, I love the muted colour scheme, the bits of glass and debris floating all around them, and the bit where 'Zangetsu' vanishes was bittersweet. But then 'Number One' started playing, and my hype levels went through the roof as I realised where this was going. They honestly couldn't have adapted Ichigo pulling his swords from the flames any better, it was utterly brilliant!

The ending: Uryu's betrayal is the final note we go out on, and it was a good choice for an ending. Anime-onlys get left on a cliff hanger, people who've read the manga know this is going but are hyped to see it!

We've actually got quite a bit of cut content from this one too, particular for episode 12:

First and foremost is the scene where Rangiku discovers Isshin has gone was cut, and I for one was sad to see it gone. Yes it's just a small, comedic scene that doesn't add to the plot, but in the gradn scheme of the characters it adds a lot, especially considering that 1) as far as Rangiku and Toshiro are concerned, this is their captain's final words before he's reported as missing, 2) when you think back on other scenes in the manga, you start to think Isshin's sudden disappearance with leaving only a letter behind may have influence some of the character's actions (eg. Rangiku hadning Momo Aizen's 'final words' and saying she believed Momo should be the one to read and cherish them, Rangiku thinking on mementos after Gin's death). Also, who doesn't want to see more of past Toshiro and Rangiku?!

The fanservice-y exchange between Masaki and Isshin, where he chastises her for getting excited without wearing clothes. I'm personally glad this was cut, I was never a fan of it.

If I'm not mistaken, Isshin mentioning Ryuken was the one who decided Masaki would leave the Ishida estate after graduating was cut.

In a similar vein, Isshin not mentioning some info, like how Uryu's mother fell into a coma the same day Masaki died, and he doesn't outright state he deliberately didn't go to fight Grand Fsicher the day Masaki died because he thought she could protect herself and Ichigo.

And now it's over until July. All I have to say is: what an awesome and fantastic adaption!! I may do an overall reaction to this first part, giving my top ten scenes and just general musing, if it's something everyone would be interested in. I'll probably do these reactions again for cour 2 when July comes.

Until then, thank you so much to everyone who read these and left a like, or comment (whether it was in reblogs, tags, or comments)!!

The 'is is October yet?!' tag has officially been retired, and it's replace it now 'is it July yet?!'

[ntshastark]

MAWS liveblog: part 3 (1x05)

Episode 5

a thing of beauty

==

well, gotta hand him this one

==

ok, i'd like to think he's a bit more careful and self-aware than that

==

==

they're lampshading his secret identity and i kinda hate it bc i'm firmly on team It Fucking Works

==

ok but why didn't he just...?

==

ok, he did it now (why didn't he do it before...? also why did she think it'd work in the first place)

==

girl be serious, go to an oculist

==

.......are the kidnapped weapons users going to become, y'know... some kind of suicide squad?

==

wait those two were really up there??? i thought it was a visual shorthand to show they were talking on comms on my god how did they get there????? and why????????

==

oh ok it was holograms

==

clark: "why does your father call amanda waller 'mandy'?"

lois: "how about we stop talking for a little while"

==

WHY ARE THEY MAKING HIM STUPID

==

aw this reminds me of the bigfoot arc in the jl8 comic

==

so i was expecting some kind of confirmation still on this episode, but the orange/black colour palette and the fact that his surname is wilson................ like, he has both eyes and i don't think he was ever a superman villain (except for that time he got him confused with bruce wayne while he was drunk on yacht?), but hm.

is the tumblr-sexyman-looking bitch fucking deathstroke???????

and if so why is he an anime twink???????????

==

[siyasharmaposts]

WEEK 3: Digital Communities and Tumblr

Tumblr might not be as popular as Facebook and Instagram but it has some unique features that makes it different from the rest. Tumblr is primarily a blogging platform that allows users to create and share their content online. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, it’s main aim is not to connect or make friends but places a strong emphasis on creativity, interests and ideas that are shared by different users. Although, it does have a feature of following and re blogging. There is a vast range of topics that users like to blog on Tumblr including empowering feminism, anime, architecture, and marginalised communities like LGBTQ. Tumblr was known as a site of “emotional authenticity”, the platform turned out to be advantageous for marginalised communities and addressing social issues like negative body image. Tumblr had a lot of potential until 2018 on the idea of beauty standards and #bodypositive and to empower women to enhance their inner beauty (Reif, Miller & Taddicken, 2022). Amanda Brennan is Tumblr’s internet librarian and has been at Tumblr since 2013 and currently leads the content and social teams. She believes that Tumblr has empowered people whose voices and opinions are often neglected and has given them a platform where they can find their community and build their own kind of world (McCracken, 2017). The self identified network of black users who refer to themselves as Black Tumblr is not a particular group of users, but an unofficial group within a public sphere. Black Tumblr users address issues that still persist in Black community including racism, education inequalities, police brutality, media representation and ideas of beauty. These users also initiate dialogues about undebated issues by providing factual information that many Black people may be unaware of (Calhoun, 2020). In conclusion, Tumblr has proved to be a valuable platform specially for marginalised communities like people of colour, LGBTQ and people with disabilities to represent themselves and spread awareness which in turn helped in better understanding and acceptance of these communities by the society. Tumblr has allowed users to create different communities based on shared interests, ideas and experiences. Tumblr has also been a great platform for social and political activism where users can freely talk about issues like social injustice, climate change, patriarchy and gender inequality.

References

Calhoun, K 2020, ‘Blackout, Black Excellence, Black PowerStrategies of Everyday Online Activism on Black Tumblr’, a Tumblr book: platform and cultures, p. 48-63, viewed 22 March 2023.

McCracken, A 2017, ‘Going Down the Rabbit Hole: An Interview with Amanda Brennan, Head of Content Insights and Social, Tumblr’, a Tumblr book: platform and cultures, p. 37-48, viewed 22 March 2023.

Reif, A, Miller, I & Taddicken, M 2022, “Love the Skin You‘re In”: An Analysis of Women’s Self-Presentation and User Reactions to Selfies Using the Tumblr Hashtag #bodypositive, Mass Communication and Society, p.1-25, viewed 22 March 2023.

[honey-tea-and-cookies]

Hello there, can you give the public an inside scoop on cancer risings?

Cancer Rising

THE SCOOP <3

I used this gif because it reminded me of the welcoming sweetness of all you Cancer rising babies <333

-Such soft, beautiful skin? Obviously everyone has pimples and acne and whatnot, but they still look absolutely gorgeous!! Their skin is somehow still ✨flawless✨

- Generally have upturned eyes, or eyes that just look big and bright in that way. Almost like doe eyes :)

- Their eyes are positively captivating, because their eyes are so honest. You can always see the kindness and gentleness of their souls through their eyes. It's actually very endearing <3

- I've touched on this before here, but they are very smart!! Extremely intelligent and most of all perceptive people. However, they never show this. They dumb themselves down for others sometimes, and that's absolutely ridiculous. If your friends don't like you because you're smarter than them, get new friends. You deserve better sweet cheeks :)

- I know Cancer is stereotypically known for being good at social studies subjects, but I've found my Cancer risings are good at STEM-related subjects. In particular biology and chemistry, but obviously it still applies to all.

- Cancer is seen as very emotional, which they can be, but emotions are confusing. I think they like anything in STEM and more fact-based subjects like that because it's a relatively black and white way for them to understand the world. Like, they may not understand how they feel a lot of the time, which can be overwhelming, but at least they know how their physical body functions??

- The type to watch sad animal movies just to feel something 💔😔

- Attract energy vampires!! If you don't know what I mean by that, an energy vampire is someone who sucks up all your giving and positive energy. They leave you with little kindness left for yourself or anything else that might need you, and often to do not give you their time or energy in return. I know you guys love to help people you care about, but please put yourself and your wellbeing first. Remember; you can't save anyone if you are drowning.

- May have a very strained or superficial relationship with their mother/mother figure. Alternatively, may have quite a dependant relation on their mother/mother figure.

- Pretty hands!!!! Clean nails!!! Dainty fingers!!! I want to lovingly take your hand and kiss your fingers like the royalty you are.

- The type to playfully flirt with their friends, ESPECIALLY if they have Gemini placements. It's never serious, but kinda fruity if you ask me 👀💅

- If they have Aries placements as well (especially Aries Venus), they are probably just flirty in general. Like not just with their friends, they flirt all-round. God forbid they ACTUALLY have a crush on you too, oh my 💀. Be prepared to receive some bold remarks from them omg

- Probably secretly good at cooking and/or baking. They may not necessarily look very skilled in the ~domestic arts~, and they may not be very domestic otherwise, but they can DEFINITELY make some good food.

- The type of people who would help you with your homework (I TOLD YOU THEY'RE SMART!!). Honestly super duper sweet when they want to be <3

- Probably the youngest sibling, or at least one of the youngest

- May really want kids, or be naturally good with them. Kids might love them and gravitate towards them. Honestly really excellent teachers!!!

- Dog people. I have never met a Cancer rising who wholeheartedly prefers cats 🤨🤨

- Might have a lot of earrings, or just pretty jewellery!! Gold looks really nice on them :)

- They might enjoy getting their nails done quite a bit. This includes the guys. I've noticed they tend to go for purple/blue/green colours, but that's just a personal observation 💅

- I say this with the UTMOST love and respect; "Mommy? Sorry, mommy? Sorry-" vibes. I do not care if you aren't a woman. You Still Have Mommy Vibes. I'm sorry you had to find out this way 😔💔

- I know a Cancer rising who owns a bunch of clothes and art and jewellery with naked women on them (more specifically, the torso of naked women) and that just makes sense, you know?

- I promise I don't mean to slander y'all like this again, but I will NOT give you the aux cord. I do not trust your music taste. You'll play Eminem then Mitski then Taylor Swift then Juice WRLD and expect that to be okay. It is not. Cancelled 😤

This is all I have for you guys today! Thank you so much for reading. If you are a Cancer rising, please let me know if I was right lmao. I love you guys! Have an awesome day/night <3

[milqueandsugar]

Ok so, first of, your writing is so good! I am a literal simp for techno and this blog is giving me so much food. Also like, for the recent series of protective/possesive techno, what if when they arrive at the fortress reader sees a blaze spawner, and decides to farm a bit while techno can look for nether wart. Techno being techno takes a little longer to find some, so reader is basically covered in blaze powder. Which basically also has a gold colouring, if ya know what I mean

🏵 Your Tea Is Ready PT 4 🏵

Warnings: slight nsfw, mentions of injuries/violence , possessive/obsessive behavior

Genre: fluff

| Technoblade |

It took a couple days after the brawl to convince techno to head back to the nether

You had long since ran out of netherwart and were running out of blaze powder now

After bringing this up to the Piglin he finally caved and brought you back to the nether, without your gold armour of course

If he was going back to the nether he'd like to at least be able to look at you

Taking the same route as before he stopped you just before you got o the village

Shrugging off his Cape he wrapped it around your shoulders, tightening it to properly fit you but it was at least three sizes to big

"Dont worry Tech I'm not gonna catch a cold" you tease a bit confused

"Its to prevent any more proposals, or attacks from the piglins" he explained

"Oh that's a good idea"

Nodding with a grunt he leads you toward the village, keeping a keen eye for any piglin getting to close to you

Whether it was the Cape, the menacing presence or simply the scene that played out a few days ago not many piglins even cast a glance at you

Reaching the end of the city, bd catching sight of the fortress you let out a relieved sigh

"Well that went better then last time"

"I don't make the same mistake twice"

"You know I've seen you play chess before-"

"We're not talking about this again "

He was quick to shut down the humiliating topic, even quicker to forget his Cape around your shoulders as he lead you up the fortress stairs

"Okay okay, what ever you say tech"

Wandering around the fortress for a bit you realize its be so much faster if you split up, Techno however was hesitant

"What if you find a wither?"

"I'll kill it! I can defend myself fine, just not.. great. We can get out of here faster Tech"

He opens his mouth the protest but quickly changes his mind, shaking his head he sighs

"Fine, call me if you need anything"

"Of course! See you soon Tech!"

He watches you leave for a few minuets, long after your gone he sighs. You'll be fine, right? Please if there was a god let you be okay

He couldn't describe the relief that washed over him when he heard you calling for him,

Turning to see you his jaw dropped

You were covered in gold, his cape, even a bit of blood dripped from the length of your sword

One of those things on a normal basis would make him weak in the knees

But this? This was too much, your messy hair, the dust and dirt clinging to your skin, he was undeniably swooning

"Hey Tech?"

"Your beautiful.."

It hit you like an fright train, the gold!

Blushing redder then the cape you were wrapped in your eyes widened, Yechno told you how much Piglins loved gold all the time, and you were covered in it!

"Tech...?"

The words barely left your quivering lips as he slowly approached you, looming over your figure as you stared into black eyes, the eyes of a hungry animal

You were so fucked

[sometipsygnostalgic]

going off about Entrapta

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Okay, wonderful, so here’s some a lot of bullet point thoughts on animation’s second-best pink haired, autistic, queer, science princess war criminal (if i had a penny etc):

CHARACTER DESIGN GUSHING

I love her design. Love love love.  So much thought went into it - she’s one of the best case studies I’ve seen on how to design an animated character, which is hilarious because I roasted the show for its designs earlier on. Hint: It works to make her as animated as possible!  

Seriously, the dark purple, pink accents on gloves and shoes, how she clearly cuts her own hair because the fringe shape is a bit fucked, how the dungaree straps are always hanging down in early seasons then pulled up from Beast Island because they’re constantly on the run and she is barely more focused, how her hair is a dull purple but her eyes are this bright laser-pink colour which works perfectly for how expressive she is (making it more chilling the time they turn grey), the proportions of her boots gloves loose jeans and hair to her tiny body, how her hair is constantly used to animate her expressions in a way the other characters can only dream, and that’s not even touching on the MASK!

The first mask has this anime villain robot design, it’s mechanical and scary, the second one is this also-scary-but-cuter more organic bug mask. First one is black with red eyes, second is purple with blue eyes. First mask is very square, perfectly round eyes, second one is oval shaped with two cracks, one on the eye and one on the mouth. This change is a symbolic representation of what Entrapta looks/maybe wants to be on the outside (emotionless robot scientist) versus what we now know she’s really like (human, cracked, adorable, like everyone else). Also represents the Beast Island ordeal in itself. Imperfections are beautiful! 

Final note on the design change, the mask is less helmet-like. It goes over her face but Entrapta’s ears are always visible now which is half of why she looks so different. Finally listening to people, insofar as it’s possible for her. 

oh also the space suit is adorable and she doesnt wear a mask with it at all because she doesnt need to “mask” anymore hint hint, it’s actually based specifically on her first design, not her second, so the space suit has decals for the black “head band” and hanging dungaree straps. i love how the arms and legs are chunky just like her gloves and rolled up jeans. 

looks adorable in the cloak in the back-to-earth episode

it’s really funny how entrapta is the number 1 clothes designer on etheria and yet wears the exact same shirt for like 2 years, THROUGH beast island, only changing during the winter episode

okay so that was most of what i wanted to say that i havent already posted somewhere else in the past 24 hours, i really wanted to go off about her design

CHARACTER RAMBLINGS

I love how Entrapta covers her face with her mask when she’s upset, she doesn’t know how to talk about negative feelings and tries to hide them, which in turn makes her issues with others worse because they think they’re talking to a wall. Unfortunately that makes her a target for others projecting onto her what they THINK she feels. They decide that she doesn’t care, or feel hurt, because she’s not good at demonstrating she does. Have I talked about how much you can learn of a person’s volatility when they treat you like you have no feelings? 

She also has the wildest fucking mood swings. Usually at the SAME TIME. Entrapta is quick to distract herself with her tech obsession whenever she is feeling down.  

See below for two examples demonstrating both these points, the first being when Adora tells her Catra’s not really her friend (mask) and she can’t open the portal (unmask), the second being when they say they would’ve come sooner but thought she was with Hordak (mask) and Adora mentions the heart of Etheria (unmask): 

She’s totally a workaholic, occasionally an unhealthy one who focuses on work to escape her problems, but she genuinely loves all of her work unlike a certain other mad scientist princess. It helps when you’re the Princess of a kingdom with no citizens because everyone seems to have mysteriously vanished-- wait, what???   

When I was watching She-Ra and Entrapta had several spotlight eps in a row, but I’d never heard of her before, I was totally expecting her to get bussed into a corner at some point like every other character of her archetype. I was deeply surprised when this never happened, even when she eventually got bussed in season 4, catra’s betrayal of her was the catalyst for 60% of the conflict, then Entrapta came back as basically the MVP of season 5, with dialogue/growth in every episode except for the Netossa batman ep where she still appeared to chase after some tech.  

What surprised me most was when she started interacting with Hordak, because you have this character who is pure, wide-eyed comic relief just walk up to the most generically evil villain imaginable, and they hit it off??? how??? how does this work?? why is it so fun to watch?? somehow entrapta being so naive and head-in-the-stars makes hordak trust her, and then she forces him to admit he’s actually an edgy teenager with daddy issues who wants to prove he can be a war criminal, and suddenly i like the show’s central conflict waaaay more. 

This opened the door for Catra and Hordak’s conflict to become way more compelling than it would have been had Entrapta never been utilised in that way. I could gush more about those two, but that’s another post.  

I love the Beast Island stuff because up to that point I basically thought Entrapta was invincible. She had been “killed” with the princesses, saw Catra’s interrogation and threat of torture as a fun game, confidently disrespected the evil big bad who had half-suffocated Catra to death 30 minutes hour prior, became his besty, and only shown any vulnerability in a few moments of Season 3. Then you reunite with her on Beast Island and it turns out she THRIVED, because of COURSE she did, and she’s the only one who seems “immune” to the incredibly deadly self esteem zapper, and as soon as she says “bye visit again” I panicked because I thought “they’re going to leave her here like Steven Universe left Peridot at the barn”. But when Entrapta starts talking about how she’s not fit for friendship and turns around it’s like HOLY SHIT.  

HER EYES. As above, LASER BEAM pink the entire show, non stop enthusiasm, and now she suddenly gives up on living because her friendships went to shit, so she looks dead inside! Basic arc? Yes. Powerful, especially watching as another autistic person who can’t keep friends? Absolutely.  Anyway my point is I love that she’d been gradually affected by the plot of the show, and it’s great to rewatch all those earlier scenes because I can now SEE how she’s affected by them rather than continuing with my earlier assumption that Entrapta didn’t give a shit about anything that happened to her.  

It’s really funny that Adora’s comment about the ship IMMEDIATELY broke her out but I don’t think that would have worked if Bow’s comments hadn’t already started getting through to her. Very sweet moment. 

Can I just say, Bow and Entrapta are an underrated friendship? Even though he’s easily triggered by her recklessness, Bow spends the entire show trying to get her to join their side again, and chasing her shadow as a tech expert. Bow completes this journey by executing her program in the finale, together they hack something more complex than Etheria has ever seen and save the universe from Prime’s mind control.  She is genuinely happy to speak to him, even when they’re enemies. They’re also a comedy duo together because Bow is the straight man to Entrapta’s bold madness. They also have a son. Wrong Hordak is their son legally now.   

Super Pal Trio is a big comfort of mine because unlike the Best Friend Squad’s occasionally nauseating BFF rainbow vibes, they’re all a bunch of misfits who found each other, and are squadmates trying to figure out how friendship works. It’s tragic because it doesn’t work out, even though they care about each other, Entrapta grows distant from the other two while Catra projects so many of her issues with Adora onto her, and eventually betrays her even more violently, leaving Scorpia no choice but to walk away to help Entrapta and herself.  

Unlike their Avatar counterpart in Azula’s fucked up friendgroup, however, these three are all friends again at the end. Obviously Scorpia betrayed the Horde to help Entrapta, and they interacted in season 5′s “Launch”, but what was even more compelling was Catra apologising to her on the space ship. I read Noelle’s fic which expanded on this and showed Entrapta helping Catra to deal with the guilt of being a possibly-irredeemable war criminal who nearly ended the universe and hurt all of their friends. In the other fanfics I’ve read since, their dynamic is probably the most interesting to me - people have lovely ideas for them being reliable friends after their conflict, being able to open up to each other. Very satisfying after how much torment they went through in season 4 over this betrayal. I just wish they got more scenes with Scorpia in season 5.  

CHARACTER RAMBLINGS PART 2: MORE AUTISM-SPECIFIC CHARACTER RAMBLINGS  

Read this article first. 

I love how her autistic characteristics are not sugarcoated - Entrapta’s genuinely awkward, her way of speaking is unstable, her reactions are barely contained. She’s jarring to the other characters but in a way that’s extremely relatable to people across the spectrum, not just those who would only get diagnosed with mild aspergers a few years ago. Which is a step ahead of other “””autistic””” characters who are only retroactively labelled as such because they were white male smartasses who were nasty to everyone and had weirdly high charisma whenever they wanted. Entrapta has an incredibly low charisma stat.  

I’ve already talked about Entrapta’s “masking” above. It’s relevant here. 

So the episode “Launch”, season 5 episode 2,  is such a nostalgia trip to me. It’s the ep in the show that most directly addresses the conflict between Entrapta’s autistic characteristics, and neurotypical characters like the other princesses, a conflict which had been delayed for 4 seasons due to her defection to the weirdly more tolerant Horde.  

It also sets the tone for the rest of the season for what Entrapta’s arc looks like, what her insecurities are, and where her true goals sit. 

The entire episode from Entrapta’s side is like a flashback to my own past, when I was a 12-15 year old army cadet, still kind of feral because I had debatably less parental guidance than even Entrapta, so I was scared of trying anything new, was very unfit, didn’t know how to look after myself (my dad - an instructor - once forced me to wash my face and arms in a public canteen), and I CERTAINLY did not know how to engage with others or communicate when I was upset. The other Princesses, a very tight ship at that point who were getting used to leadership, were like the other junior cadets and the NCO cadets. And even though the cadets were really good people who looked out for me, they didn’t like that I was a bit disruptive, easily upset, childish for my age, unintentionally rude, and needed more support to do things they found easy.

That happens to Entrapta here - she’s trying her best but pisses everyone off, and we both had the habit of apologising for messing up and literally running away whenever this happens. Seriously - I got in a lot of trouble for this. When Mermista chases Entrapta over enemy lines is very moving to me, because some of the Cadets looked out for me the same way. Mermista’s a really good person who takes care of her teammates even if she doesn’t get them. The ACF was full of good leaders, who I really hope are doing well now. 

Shout out to how they ran so far, everyone else was out of breath. 

Other than this weirdly personal experience I like how Entrapta just smiles blankly at some points in the episode, either not processing the information others  are giving her, or not reacting how they expect her to.  I have historically been exactly the fucking same.  

I’m now self aware of this, however, and able to weaponise it. Especially when I don’t trust someone. Do you know how much you can learn about someone by just... being silent, and letting them fill the void? If someone can’t stand your lack of reaction they’ll release any abusive tendencies. That’s ANOTHER thing that happens in this ep - all the princesses get super aggro because they think she doesn’t care about them. (Meanwhile we can relate this back to how Catra treats Adora - Catra thinks Adora doesn’t care about their relationship and is constantly trying to provoke her as a result.)  

I like how it’s not just her being responsible for the breakdown in communication, the others have to accept responsibility too.  

I like how on the space ship Bow keeps initially rejecting Entrapta’s crazy ideas until gradually accepting and being a part of them. 

I like how over the show it’s revealed that while Entrapta’s special interest in technology is fundamentally important in shaping the plot, it’s not actually her biggest strength - That would be her ability to see into people. Or as Noelle put it:  

This becomes, as the article says, basically the key conflict of the final season - Horde Prime’s endgame goal is to dehumanize and violate everyone, his characteristics are perfect manipulation, a lack of recognition for sapience and worth in anyone except for himself. Entrapta meanwhile is complete tolerance of individuality, she has NO ability to manipulate anyone, no sense of malice or superiority, she empathises with people who have been dehumanised and who feel lost, because she’s been there herself and is aware of her own shortcomings. She’s also the reason Hordak turns against Prime - I think if there was a character who is the anti-Prime, it would be Entrapta, and it’s got NOTHING TO DO with how good she is at tech. Of course, I could comment how Entrapta’s passionate indie tech makes quick work of the Galactic Horde’s industrialised cult bullshit, but that’s insignifcant compared to how the theme of the season is how everyone’s flaws, cracks, and experiences individuate them and give them free will.  

The above is why the cut scene is so chilling. Horde Prime screams at Hordak, and Entrapta using Hordak’s body, that they’re unloved, worth nothing. Adora and Catra’s battle against Prime in “Save the Cat” was compelling and personal, in particular how Prime had erased all of Catra’s... everything, and replaced it with himself, but after that episode, their story is more focused on each other. Prime’s main rival becomes Hordak and his friendship with Entrapta as a pair of barely functional adults, both feeling like they could  never “pass” and fit in.

Characterised by how the conflict hasn’t truly ended until they reunite. 

I love when she befriends her new son Wrong Hordak and teaches him social cues, and poor Wrongdak is so bad at winking that even Entrapta cringes a little. It’s so cute when she introduces him to Emily. I love how she’s just able to do this with anyone who’s never had friends before. Even Scorpia left the Horde because her brief, kindling friendship with Entrapta made her realise Catra was treating them both like garbage trash.  

Of course, I don’t think Entrapta’s perfect as autism representation. Nothing is, but when you directly confirm a character as being on the spectrum you have to worry about being respectful in ways vaguer characters don’t.  While she very effectively captures that fear of never fitting in, especially because she’s unable to mask herself like other characters (eg. Catra and Adora) can, people may be put off by her stereotypical or demeaning characteristics.  

Rather, she is a tech savant. She’s written to be really annoying to the other characters, and neurotypical audience members. Her lack of social skills is always played for laughs. She constantly runs into danger. The most offending thing of all is when they make a joke of putting her on a leash. Sure I get that she’s ALSO kind of feral, and it’s a Peridot reference, but jesus fucking christ. Were they not thinking when they did that???    

Most examination is through other characters rather than, say, us looking at the show through Entrapta’s eyes (which is why I love the scenes with Hordak in s3 because those are from her point of view).   

Also she’s the only known autistic character in the show, the only one coded and confirmed to be neurodivergent, which in itself is a bit alienating - though I do approve of fan speculation that Adora is autistic or has ADHD. 

Adora and Entrapta even have many similarities. You just have to look at their interactions with Bow, lol. Especially in Corridors. But another one is they both blame themselves when their relationships to other people fall apart, they think it’s their own fault. Which is very common for people on the spectrum. Adora thinks she isn’t trying hard enough to get Catra to join her, or to help Glimmer be queen.   

Also, largely unrelated, but like I said they have huge fucking parallels vis a vis Catra. I’d say their RELATIONSHIP to Catra is not at all similar (yeah Catra and Adora have this whole years of being raised together thing), but their bullheadedness and role in her downward spiral is weirdly mirrored. To the extent she betrays them identically, and has guilt-fuelled nightmares of them both in season 4.  And they’re the people that it was most important Catra apologise to. (Scorpia being there too obviously - Scorpia is closer to Adora on the relationship side of things to Catra, always believing in her and taking her abuse until Catra goes too far, whereas Entrapta reflects Adora’s rivalry as Shadow Weaver’s favourite by becoming Hordak’s favourite and “protecting” Catra, setting off her inferiority complex.)

OTHER SPECULATIONS/HEADCANONS

Okay so I’m working on my headcanons for Dryl. I LOVE how weirdly mysterious her backstory is. I think it’s pretty evident Entrapta had no family growing up, her castle is boobytrapped so only she can use it, it’s repeatedly made clear she hasn’t spoken to any humans other than her Tiny Food kitchen staff for years, and it’s hard to explain why. If you look at the version of Dryl in the reality where Hordak doesn’t exist, it’s still the same - it’s not some fantasy version where everybody’s there - so it’s hard to say if the Horde have any responsibility for Entrapta’s lack of family. I have been trying to work this in a fanfic, but yeah the portal AU throws me for a loop.   

Maybe they died in a science experiment. If you REALLY want to make things angsty, you can headcanon that she actually has no idea where they went. Maybe they vanished after an experiment, or everyone evacuated to escape the Horde and got captured, while she was left behind because she wandered off and was messing around in the vents. Entrapta does think from the outset that she’s a handful and people will abandon her, maybe she thinks that’s what happened to her as a kid.  

These two robot dads(?) never appeared in the show.  Did they break? She didn’t seem to worried about the robots getting wrecked. 

I think the hair is magic. If it got cut off I wonder if it would grow back or if it would just take another 15 years to grow? She would risk a science experiment to have it grow faster lol. 

I don’t see Entrapdak as a romantic relationship immediately. Maybe potentially? But it’s REALLY not important - what I love about those two is that they are just learning how to be friends, their first real friendship. I do think their fandom misses the point here. 

She’s canonically bisexual/pansexual, or at least panromantic. Or at least has flirted with lots of girls and one gender non assigned robot. Noelle thinks Entrapta is poly. Would date, like, a lot of people. Largely robots. I live for this. I love how flirtatious she can be, very funny. 

Mara 🤝 Entrapta - fucked the space ship. 

Don’t ask me why she is the only princess in the show with no magical superpowers besides “hair good”. She doesn’t get any glowy powerups, her hair might not even be actual magic since it looks like Kid Entrapta didn’t have any hair magic, so it can still be argued as tech. This point is debated among the crew themselves.  Also why is she the princess of nothing. I have so many questions. 

I headcanon the super pal trio hang out regularly and cause chaos post story. I have been reading a fanfiction to this effect and it is the best thing ever. 

And yeah that’s it. That’s, like, everything. Here. Take it. 

[the-slasher-files]

Slashers React - S/O being a witch or wiccan

INCLUDES JASON, MICHAEL, BO, BILLY & STU and LOST BOYS

btw I am a wiccan myself so I hope you enjoy the hcs :)

JASON VOORHEES

Holy fucking shit, you guys are a POWER COUPLE, never in my life have a thought of a better couple

He may not understand at first but once you explain it to him he adores it. Abiding by the laws of nature is something he already does, so the fact that you do too and share a lot of the same opinions of nature, melts his heart

Clearing a little area in the forest making sure it is hidden away for your alter is a dream job for him

Nature walks all the time but it has more meaning now, knowing you’re a wiccan or witch

Herb, flower, mushroom or plant picking is something he will always do for you, leaving them at your alter

LOOK he found a cool rock or a weird piece of drift wood or animal skull, perfect for you :) 

Finds it very sexy when you are doing witchcraft, especially if it’s in the forest 

You would slow dance to the rain and light candles everywhere

Gardening would quickly turn into one of his favorite hobbies with you

Teaching him about the holidays you celebrate gives him reasons to spoil you on those days, he would bake with you, make potions with you, bring in your moon water in the early morning for you

Your crystals are his favorites, all the pretty colors and unique patterns, he might steal one and carry it around with him, rubbing it when he misses you

Anything you do to appreciate his land and the cabin you share makes his undead heart flutter

The absolute best partner for a witch or wiccan 

The crystal that suits him is an Amethyst - It is a grounding stone, bringing peace and calmness but is one of the best protection stones

MICHAEL MYERS

Major head tilt, squints  

Once you explain it him he still doesn’t get it, and he doesn’t care

He will just examine your stuff, poking it and moving it around pissing you off

oh great, more holidays to celebrate

Secretly thinks it is kind of cool, but he will never tell you

Maybe thinks you’re a little crazy because he heard some other person in the mental hospital going on and on like you do 

If you tell him he is blessed and has gifts he will have a hard time accepting that, but he would think about it forever because there had to be an explanation for how he could never die

He will bring you home something from a cemetery probably because he still doesn’t get it 

He will just stare from the shadows of a candle lit room watching you do spell work 

When he's pissed beyond reason, never sage him, never place crystals on him, never get him to drink tea, you might die

He will find a crystal in his coverall pockets for protection and he will never give it back to you, it’s his now and he will cherish it 

The crystal that suits him is Black Obsidian - It is a pure black stone that has a mysterious aura, heavily used for protection, it is also a very powerful stone, good for healing and truth seeking

BO SINCLAIR  

Again, another bad partner for this lol

You’re a what?? He has heard of witches before but never wiccans. Coming from Louisiana it has a very heavy history on witches and voodoo, good and bad. He honestly might be shitting his pants inside but keeps it cool, just please tell him you’re a good witch. His momma always told him to never ever mess with witches.

Thinks you’re crazy for believing in that stuff

If you feel the presence of his mom and dad, never bring it up to him, the only way you could do it is say “You’ve got some angels looking over you Bo” and leave it at that

You will make him learn to appreciate nature and taking him for walks is the best thing to do, it calms him and you can teach or tell him stories about what you believe in

He would tell Lester to grab some antlers or skulls for your “ummm idk what she does, she just needs them”

If you’re in some lingerie while doing witchy work, he will ease into it more

Bo would be the guy who yells about the sage smoke stinking up the house, while he is smoking a cigarette, b a s t a r d 

Jokes about his bad energy filling your alter will happen a lot

He honestly thinks its cool though, after a while, seeing a beautiful powerful soul doing something you love warms his heart

He’s going to try to understand but he will laugh and make fun

If there are people in town he’s going to hunt that night, he will have to deal with you placing some sort of protection rune, stone or necklace either in his pocket or around his neck, Bo won’t like it at first but showing you care so much for him melts his heart and he will protect it with his life 

His crystal is Smokey Quartz - It is used for strength and fortifies nerves, protection, a stone that represents Pride, but also brings calmness which we all know he needs!! The smokiness of it just reminds me of the colour of alcohol or his cigarette smoke   

BILLY & STU       

Both genuinely curious and love it

They don’t really understand it but they are willing and ready to try

Taking you on nature walks probably wont be as relaxing as they promised; Stu will climb a weird tree and end up hurting himself, then you will find some neat looking mushrooms and they dare each other to eat it

Find it hot but are a little spooked 

Billy would hate the smell of sage but Stu doesn’t mind it all 

They find it sweet when you try to put protection stones in their pockets when they go to kill

Stu will bring you an average rock from the sidewalk and say hey this is neat, here you go 

They are defiantly into trying witchcraft with you

Stu will love your home made teas 

Billy will never make a big deal about what you do, he just thinks it is neat and willing to go get whatever you need for your work, and ngl he is more interested in dark magic 

They will defiantly interrupt you will you are meditating or doing spell work so always try to do it when they aren’t home

Will ask if you could do tarot readings on them and if you use a crystal ball 

The crystal for them is Jade - a good protection and supportive stone, seeks love, passion and nourishment. It is also good for dreams and astral projection    

THE LOST BOYS

They are no strangers to the supernatural of course but they don’t know what a witch is beyond what they’ve seen in movies

I feel it would be very 50/50 on caring or not, this stuff isn’t even on their radars 

Dwayne, I think would handle it the best. (correct me if I am wrong) He is of Native American descent, so he has heard lots of stories about shamans and he is the most spiritual out of all the boys   

Once they see you doing spell work or setting up an alter they are much more interested 

If you are already turned, you are arguably one of the most powerful, David will not admit it but he knows it

Marco will 100% bring you random things he likes, not at all related to witchcraft but he thinks it could be, man doesn’t get it

David finds you extremely sexy, him and Dwayne will probably be the only ones that actually get it, and David loves the power

They pretty much just leave you to it 

A lot of moon and shadow work will be your main witchcraft with them

If you are cleansing the cave with sage Paul and Marco will make drug jokes and ask to smoke some  

ngl I think Paul might be the most scared of you, but he will never show it, He doesn’t understand it and thinks you going to spray him with holy water or make him have nightmares 

Dwayne will be the one to take you to the surrounding forests and go on some nature walks with you, collecting what you need

David - black tourmaline: a very powerful protection stone, pure black, great for purification and helping with anger. Star - rose quartz: the stone of love and purity, heals the heart, and dissolves worry and fear turning those feelings into love. Marco - Emerald: a crystal just as blue as his eyes. A stone of hope, encouragement and joy, turns negative energy into strength, love and compassion. Dwayne - fire agate: This stone has a very deep connection the earth radiating calm, stability and strength, also very good for power and protection. Paul - rutilated quartz: a crystal that seeks truth and authenticity, giving strength to the truest souls and uplifts and brings joy.       

[babylooneytoonz]

The Vessel [Pt. 6]

Pairing: Geralt of Rivia x Fem! Reader

Summary: Yennefer doesn't like you, and now you know why. Are you going to do something to make her believe that it's not how she thinks like, or are you just going to go with it, because secretly you know that what she just said to you, is in fact, the truth? Geralt is finally beginning to open up to you, but for how long?

Warnings: None

[My Masterlist] [My Witcher Masterlist - Read the other parts here!]

"How about this, [Y/N]?" Yennefer stood in front of you, her fingers running through the fabric of a pale, cream coloured silk dress, with dark red borders. If there was one thing that you could bring yourself to commend Yennefer for was her taste— the dress she was looking at was fit for royalty.

Yet, out of spite, and out of the fact that you had been dragged out on early morning, woken up from your sleep to accompany the mage on her quest to get you a nice dress, when she had the power in her to magically do those things pissed you off. And then, there was the fact that you were to be presented, on full display, at a celebration she had organised. You— the vessel— a ruined woman— who was carrying a Witcher's baby, for her.

You had a lot of clothes that you still somehow managed to fit into, as your belly was a little rounder, and one could see the outline of a burgeoning baby bump, if one was to look carefully. But tell that to the Mage, who was right now standing in one of the village shops, looking for a dress for you.

"Um, it's good," you whispered, crossing your arms over your chest— you just wanted to leave.

"Good that you like it. Once my baby grows within you, you're not gonna be able to fit into those shreds anyway," she said, eyeing your plain dress in an almost distaste, and you suppressed the urge to scoff.

"We'll take it, how much for it?" She then turned towards the woman, curling her lips, regarding the older looking woman who smiled wide, excited that she was getting some business as she informed the Mage that it would be ten coins.

Once Yennefer had paid off the woman, she tossed you the dress, and you groaned, catching it midair, and just like that, you began following the woman again, like a lost puppy.

Finally, the two of you were out of the shop, and you felt like you could breathe again. You waited a few seconds, for the way she had brought you here, you assumed she will do the same— open a magic portal, grab your hand and pull you in. When she didn't, you frowned and turned towards her, questioningly, only to find her staring at you, studying you.

"Uh, what?"

"Nothing, love."

There it was; that fake sweetness, once again, ringing at the back of your mind, prompting you that something bad was to come.

"I hope you know that Geralt's never going to look at you the way he looks at me, right?"

You glared at her, your lips parting in surprise but she placed her index finger to your lips before you could even say anything. To her, you were like a little lamb, taking their first steps.

"I don't want you to end up falling in love with a man that doesn't know how to reciprocate those feelings."

You pursed your lips together, your eyes unwavering when Yennefer looked into them. Her fingers still rested on your chin, holding your face. In truth, you felt like a cornered animal.

"Don't worry, Yennefer. I won't. Geralt is.." You thought for a bit, your mind suddenly turning off, and the words that you chose next somehow popped into your mind just randomly— words that you regretted saying almost instantly the minute they escaped your lips, "Used goods."

Her eyebrow shot up in amusement, and her lips curled into a side smirk. Her thumb began to run along the side of your face, your neckline and she smiled, her other hand reaching out and rubbing over your belly lightly, "You're funny. You're very funny. Big words coming out from a woman's mouth, when you practically tossed your body to the Witcher for some coin."

"Yennefer, to be fair—" Your breathing hitched, as you took a sharp breath, and jerked her hand away, taking a step away from her, your hand protectively latching to your tiny bump, as you began stroking over it as though comforting it, "I tossed my body for some coin. You tossed the man you claim to love to fuck another woman. I think we both know how similar the two of us are, in many many ways."

Even the beautiful woman standing in front of you couldn't hide the scowl that formed on her face for a second. She lost it and immediately, turned away, flustered, still scowling, for you could hear her breathe heavy as she began to conjure up the portal, so the two of you could get back.

You felt odd, like a fish thrown out of water amidst the flurry of mages, all around you. You knew many of them, mostly by name— you could see Tissaia de vries— you had only heard about her, and now she was right there, in front of your eyes. The funny part of it all was, that this celebration was for you, or for the baby you were gifting them with, but no one even bothered as to give you another look. It was all Yennefer.

You reached out, your fingers clasping against the glass of sparkling water in front of you on the table, where your plate of exotic freshly cut fruits lay untouched. You pulled it up to your lips, your eyes circling around, mostly in distaste at what you saw around you. Women— which you weren't sure if they were just illusions created by spells, or real, dressed in nothing, their naked bodies on display — walked around.

On one end of the hall, you saw Jaskier. He was surrounded by a flock of richly dressed older looking women, and you rolled your eyes at him, listening to him as he sang the infamous ballad, toss a coin to your Witcher, which suddenly reminded you of the brooding Witcher you knew. You looked around, your eyes scanning through the crowds until you spotted the familiar white hair, standing out from the rest of them.

He was standing in a corner, drinking ale from a silver pitcher, looking as bored as you were, which was ironical as this was technically his celebration too. You stood up, your glass of water still in your hand as you gracefully made your way to him, pushing your way through the naked women, frowning at the casuality of it all. Geralt spotted you making your way towards him so he shifted slightly so he he was now directly looking at you.

"Not enjoying your own celebration? It has naked women." You asked, giving him a ghost of a smile, trying to make small talk with him as you fixed yourself right next to him, leaning against the wall.

He grumbled something under his breath, typical Geralt of Rivia style, and you couldn't help but smile to yourself as you started looking around.

"You don't think I agree with Yennefer on everything?" He suddenly said, his voice low and heavy, that caused your head to turn towards him, "This is a waste of time."

"Well, Witcher—" You smiled, tight lipped, bringing your glass up to your lips as you took a sip, and started looking at Yennefer, who was in the center of the hall, mingling with the guests, and nodded, "If there ever is anything that you and me both can agree upon, it's this. This indeed, is a waste of time. Although—"

You eyed Jaskier; who was now laughing at something one of the women said, however his eyes were fixed on a naked woman standing by the table, her finger stretched as she beckoned towards the bard to join her, "Jaskier seems to be enjoying himself."

Geralt grunted, his gaze following yours until the two of you were watching the bard, and the whore disappear through one of the hallways in the back, and Geralt shook his head.

"Why? Does your friend embarass you?" You smirked, your hand flying to the side of your face, pushing the loose strands of hair behind your ear.

"I thought Jaskier's your friend," Geralt smirked back at you in retaliation, and this time, he didn't even try to hide it.

"Yes, he is but he doesn't embarass me, at all."

"Hm," Geralt brought the pitcher of ale to his lips and took a sip of it, a droplet of ale running down the side of his lips. For some reason, he found himself wanting to smile, but he had trained himself over the years not to.

"Well, I'll let you be. I need some air," you waved off, as you whispered, letting the empty goblet you were drinking water from rest against the table where Geralt was as you pulled yourself away from him, your arms instantly clothing around your upper body. Geralt nodded his head, as he watched you walk off.

If it wasn't for the moon shining right on top of you, you wouldn't have been able to see a damn thing as you stepped out of the structure from the back. It was silent, except for occasional high pitched screaming from somewhere inside the stone structure, and you wondered if it was Jaskier, not that it was your concern.

Crushing the dried leaves underneath your feet, you stepped out until you were standing by the cliff, staring at the village at a distance, looking like glitter scattered over a black canvas, the tiny lights glistening.

You unknowingly took a step backwards, only to turn rigid and almost freeze, when your back hit something sturdy, yet you knew it wasn't a wall, it was strong but it felt soft against your back and you could feel someone's breath on you, signalling you that it was definitely a person.

You almost screamed, when Geralt grabbed a hold of both your arms, in an attempt to steady you to your feet, for you were technically, on a cliff , and one slip of your footing can lead you to tumble all the way down the humongously high mountain.

"It's just me."

You didn't realize how your breath had accelerated, your chest heaving up and down, and it was only the Witcher's voice that finally managed to calm you down a bit. You took a slow step around, turning so you were face to face with him, your bodies almost touching; at least you could feel your tiny bump rub against Geralt's abdomen, but he didn't seem to mind.

"You're not immortal," he murmured, in a husky voice.

You raised your brow, but did not attempt to step away from him. You didn't know what it was— maybe it was the warmth that his body was radiating, that you seemed to find comfort standing so close.

"Do you think there are any monsters on a cliff top?" You asked, looking up at him, wondering how his eyes were so — bright — you could literally see them glowing in the dark, the moonlight falling over his face, highlighting his features.

"Not all monsters are dangerous, some people are too."

"Touche," you smiled, still looking up at him, until there was silence, and Geralt cleared his throat, stepping away as whatever the moment was, finally ended.

Geralt kept standing by the edge of the cliff, his back now turned towards you, giving you a clear view of his sword as you lowered yourself against a rock, both your hands resting on your lap. After a few seconds of silence, the Witcher finally turned, his eyes meeting yours as he turned, but only for a brief second until he had walked up to where you were, and he was looking down at you. Almost silently, as though he had asked you to shift, you scooted slightly to your right, and the Witcher sat down too, his side brushing against yours.

"How are you?" He asked, in a low voice, the gentleness in his voice urging you to draw your lips into a smile as your fingers began toying with each other.

"I'm okay. I needed to get out. All that, I can't tolerate it. Makes me want to throw up. Not because of the baby but—"

"Hm, she can be a little too much at times," Geralt interceded, almost immediately, and you nodded, engulfed by the famous Witcher silence once again. Involuntarily, your hands flew up to the side of your arms as you began rubbing them, staring at the sky above you until you felt an urge to look at him.

"Geralt?"

He turned towards you, regarding you with a bit of glimmer in his already bright irises.

"Where would you go? I mean, where would Yennefer take the my baby.. your baby after the birth?"

He frowned a little, parting his lips slightly, letting his head tilt to one side, as his hand flew up to his temple, his index scratching it briefly, until he relaxed once again.

"Well, Yen, she would be staying here. You can stay too. If you want to be close to the baby. I'm sure Yen would appreciate the help."

"No, I guess I'd go back to my own life, take care of my shack back in the village. I'll maybe get a job at the tavern, will bring in some coin—" You drawled, staring at a distance when Yennefer suddenly walked up to where the two of you were, her dark eyes fixed on the two of you.

"Geralt, my love. There are people that would like to meet you. Am I interrupting something?" Yennefer was almost glaring at you, and Geralt cleared his throat, rather loudly, as he stepped up from the rock he was sitting next to you, and walked up to her, taking her hand in his.

"No, I thought something was wrong. Just wanted to make sure—" Geralt turned towards you, "— that everything was fine. Cliffs can be .. dangerous at night."

You pursed your lips, your eyes falling to their entwined hands, and when you looked back up again, you saw the sorceress regard you with a tiny smirk egging against her lips.

"Yes, Witcher, everything's fine, I don't need you following me around like I will need help all the time," Bitterness laced your words, and you swear you saw a look of hurt flash in his eyes just for a second before the usual broody look took over and he regarded you once more before the two of them turned around and started walking away.

Well done, [Y/N]. You frowned as you kept watching them walk away, Geralt's arm wrapped around Yennefer's waist, her head resting against his bicep.

The Vessel Taglist:

@kawennote09 @viking-raider @raspberrydreamclouds @pterodactylterrace @singeramg @historianwithaheart @miss-emilia-cavill @ayamenimthiriel @crazynocturnalkiki @xxxkatxo @coffeebreathy @fanaticnae @kmuir1 @little-jana @pineapplemama @auds24 @sassy-pelican @bitchynicole @cavillsim @ragamuffin285 @hista-girl @oliviali0930 @introvertedmouse @madbaddic7ed @libbymouse @nerra75 @maxineswritingcenter @superawesomegeek @waifu4lifeu @funalpaca

Want to be added to the list? Plz let me know via my ask box, inbox or comments. ✨

P.S There are a few blogs I'm unable to tag for some reason. Many apologies for that. 🥺🤍

[grigori77]

2021 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 2)

20.  ENCANTO – Disney have delivered another stormer that seemed almost tailor-made for the festive season, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas or the Holidays in general at all, the masters who brought us Zootropolis, Jared Bush (Moana) and Byron Howard (Tangled), putting together another precision-crafted family-friendly slice of magical wonder to reward the whole family.  Fifty years ago, a magic candle created a safe-haven for a small community in the heart of the Central American jungle, presided over by the family Madrigal, whose offspring were awarded special powers that have helped shape this little corner of the world into a paradise.  But now the candle seems to be waning, and it’s up to Mirabel (Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz), one of the youngest generation of Madrigal children, to save the magic and set everything right, but there’s a catch – Mirabel is the only sibling who has never been given any powers, which has been a source of great consternation for her since childhood, surely making her the least qualified candidate in the whole family, and yet … typical of Disney, there are some weighty themes mixed into all the magic and wonder on offer here, and Mirabel is the kind of perfectly-accessible emotional proxy for any viewer who feels they could or should be something else, something better, which makes her an ideal role model for many of the film’s intended audience. She’s also sweet and stubborn and tenacious and it’s an effortless thing to follow her on this adventure, you cheer her on every step of the way and your heart breaks along with hers when things are at their darkest.  That said, there are plenty of other great characters on offer here too, from super-strong (literal) big sister Luisa (up-and-comer Jessica Darrow) and flower-powered “perfect” sister Isabella (Doom Patrol’s Diane Guerrero) to mysterious black sheep prophet uncle Bruno (the great John Leguizamo) and shape-shifting little brother Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz), and while the action quota is lacking here there’s a riot of enjoyably colourful musical numbers to make up for it, while the animation and design work is first-rate, bringing the characters and settings to life with vivid beauty throughout, particularly in the story’s predominant setting, the Madrigal’s family home, the Casita, which is magically alive and essentially a character all its own.  This may be somewhat standard family entertainment by Disney animation standards, but when they can consistently turn out results of this pure quality I can’t fault them for it.  Spell-binding perfection, basically.

19.  WRATH OF MAN – Guy Ritchie’s latest (regarded by many as a triumphant return to form, which I consider unfair since I don’t think he ever went away, especially after 2020’s spectacular The Gentlemen) is BY FAR his darkest film – let’s get this clear from the start, anyone who knows his work knows that Ritchie consistently maintains a near flawless balance of humour and seriousness in his films that gives them a welcome quirkiness that’s one of his most distinctive trademarks, so for him to suddenly deliver a film which takes itself SO SERIOUSLY is a hell of a departure.  This is a film that almost REVELS in its darkness – Ritchie has always bathed in man’s baser instincts, but Wrath of Man almost makes a kind of twisted VIRTUE out of wallowing in the genuine evils that men are capable of inflicting on each other.  The film certainly kicks off as it means to go on – In a tour-de-force single-shot opening, we watch a daring armoured car robbery on the streets of Los Angeles that goes horrifically wrong, an event which will have devastating consequences in the future.  Five months later, Fortico Security hires taciturn Brit Patrick Hill (Jason Statham) to work as a guard in one of their trucks, and on his first run he single-handedly foils another attempted robbery with uncanny combat skills.  The company is thrilled, amazed by the sheer ability of their new hire, but Hill’s new colleagues are more concerned, wondering exactly what they’ve let themselves in for.  After a second foiled robbery, it becomes clear that Hill’s reputation has grown, but fellow guard Haiden (Holt McCallany), aka “Bullet”, begins to suspect there might be something darker going on … Ritchie is firing on all cylinders here, delivering a PERFECT slow-burn suspense thriller which plays its cards close to its chest and cranks up its piano wire tension with artful skill as it builds to a devastating, knuckle-whitening explosive heist that acts as a cathartic release for everything that’s built up over the past hour and a half.  In typical Ritchie style the narrative is non-linear, the story unfolding in four distinct parts told from clearly differentiated points of view, allowing the clues to be revealed at a trickle that effortlessly draws the viewer in as they fall deeper down the rabbit hole, leading to a harrowing but strangely poignant denouement which is perfectly in tune with everything that’s come before. It’s an immense pleasure finally getting to see Statham working with Ritchie again, and I don’t think he’s ever been better than he is here – he's always been a brilliantly understated actor, but there’s SO MUCH going on under Hill’s supposedly impenetrable calm that every little peek behind the armour is a REVELATION; McCallany, meanwhile, has landed his best role outside of his sterling work on Netflix’ excellent Mindhunters, likeable and fallible as the kind of easy-going co-worker anyone in the service industry would be THRILLED to have, but giving Bullet far more going on under the surface, while there are uniformly excellent performances from a top-shelf ensemble supporting cast that includes Josh Hartnett, Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice, Sicario), Andy Garcia, Laz Alonso (The Boys), Eddie Marsan, Niamh Algar (Raised By Wolves) and Darrell D’Silva (Informer, Domina), and a particularly edgy and intense turn from Scott Eastwood.  This was BY FAR one of THE BEST thrillers of 2021, a masterpiece of mood, pace and plot that ensnares the viewer from its gripping opening and hooks them right to the close, a triumph of the genre and EASILY Guy Ritchie’s best film since Snatch.  Regardless of whether or not it’s a RETURN to form, we can only hope he continues to deliver fare THIS GOOD in the future, and since he and Statham have already reteamed for imminent Continental crime caper Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, I guess we’ll find out soon enough …

18.  FEAR STREET (PARTS 1-3) – Netflix have gotten increasingly ambitious with their original filmmaking over the years, and some of 2021’s offerings have reached new heights of epic intention.  Perhaps their most ambitious release of the summer was this adaptation of popular children’s horror author R.L. Stine’s popular book series, a truly gargantuan undertaking as the filmmakers set out to create an entire TRILOGY of films which were then released over three consecutive weekends. Interestingly, these films are most definitely NOT for kids – this is proper, no-holds-barred supernatural slasher horror, delivering highly calibrated shocks and precision jump scares, a pervading atmosphere of insidious dread and a series of inventively gruesome kills that would make Wes Craven proud.  The story revolves around two neighbouring small towns which have had vastly different fortunes over more than three centuries of existence – while the residents of Sunnyvale are unusually successful, living idyllic lives in peace and prosperity, luck has always been against the people of Shadyside, who languish in impoverishment, crime and misfortune, while the town has become known as the Murder Capital of the USA due to frequent spree killings. Some attribute this to the supposed curse of a local urban legend, Sarah Fier, who became known as the Fier Witch after her execution for witchcraft in 1668, but others dismiss this as simple superstition.  Part 1 is set in 1994, as the latest outbreak of serial mayhem begins in Shadyside, dragging a small group of local teens – Deena Johnson (She Never Died’s Kiana Madeira) and Samantha Fraser (Olivia Scott Welch), a young lesbian couple going through a difficult breakup, Deena’s little brother Josh (The Haunted Hathaways’ Benjamin Flores Jr.), a nerdy history geek who spends most of his time playing video games or frequenting violent crime-buff online chatrooms, and their delinquent friends Simon (Eight Grade’s Fred Hechinger) and Kate (Julia Rehwald) – into the age-old ghostly conspiracy as they find themselves besieged by indestructible undead serial killers from the town’s past, reasoning that the only way they can escape with their lives is to solve the mystery and bring the Fier Witch some much needed closure.  Part 2, meanwhile, flashes back to a previous outbreak in 1977, in which local sisters Ziggy (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink) and Cindy Berman (Emily Rudd), together with future Sunnyvale sheriff Nick Goode (Ted Sutherland) were among the kids hunted by said killers during a summer camp “colour war”.  As for Part 3, that goes all the way back to 1668 to tell the story of what REALLY happened to Sarah Fier, before wrapping up events in 1994, culminating in a terrifying, adrenaline-fuelled showdown in the Shadyside Mall.  Throughout, the youthful cast are EXCEPTIONAL, Madeira, Welch, Flores Jr., Sink and Rudd particularly impressing, while there are equally strong turns from Ashley Zuckerman (The Code, Designated Survivor) and Community’s Gillian Jacobs as the grown-up versions of two key ’77 kids, and a fun cameo from Maya Hawke in Part 1.  This is definitely retro horror in the Stranger Things mould, the perfectly executed period details bringing fun nostalgic flavour to all three timelines while the peerless direction from Leigh Janiak (Honeymoon) and wire-tight, sharp-witted screenplays from Janiak, Kyle Killen (Lone Star, The Beaver), Phil Graziadel, Zak Olkewicz and Kate Trefry strike a perfect balance between knowing dark humour and knife-edged terror, as well as weaving an intriguingly complex narrative web that pulls the viewer in but never loses them to overcomplication.  The design, meanwhile, is evocative, the cinematography (from Stanger Things’ Caleb Heymann) is daring and magnificently moody, and the killers and other supernatural elements of the film are handled with skill through largely physical effects.  This is definitely not a standard, by-the-numbers slasher property, and while it pays strong homage to the sub-genre’s rules it frequently subverts them with expert skill, and it’s as much fun as it is frightening.  Give us some more like this please, Netflix!

17.  THE HARDER THEY FALL – I love a good western, those who’ve been following me for a while should know this by now.  Netflix’ latest certainly fills that requirement in fine style, adding an intriguing and timely Black Lives Matter spin with a largely African American cast bringing a collection of famous real life black figures from the Old West to life in intriguing and sometimes quite surprising ways.  The main crux of the story is the fervent rivalry between outlaws Nat Love (The Last Black Man in San Francisco’s Jonathan Majors) and Rufus Buck (the indomitable Idris Elba), which is rekindled when Buck is broken out of prison (well, a train-bound prison transport, at least) by his old gang, prompting Love to go on the hunt for the man who gunned down his whole family when he was just a boy.  The resulting misadventure draws in the likes of Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beats), Cherokee Bill (Judas & the Black Messiah’s Lakeith Stanfield) and legendary black lawman Bass Reeves (the mighty Delroy Lindo), building to a substantial and thrilling all-action gun-battle climax in Buck’s outlaw stronghold of Redwood City.  On the surface, this is pretty standard Wild West entertainment, ticking all the narrative boxes both revisionist and classical, but there’s some real style and verve to this film, debuting feature director Jeymes Samuel (probably better known by his stage name of The Bullitts as a singer-songwriter and music producer) showing some impressive skill with action and actors as well as a sharp eye for some artful visuals while crafting a compelling story and razor-witted script with his co-writer Boaz Yakin (Safe, Remember the Titans), and it does a really fascinating job of capturing several of the true life subjects portrayed here (it’s certainly far better in realising its intended goal than similarly-styled but far less successful 90s guilty pleasure Posse).  Indeed, it’s the cast here that shines brightest – Majors is a compellingly complex and rewardingly fallible (anti)hero and Elba oozes understated menace in one of his best bad guy roles to date, while Stanfield is clearly having the time of his life, as is RJ Cyler (Me & Earl & the Dying Girl) as Jim Beckwourth, although the true star turns here come from the film’s three ladies, Beats delivering a masterful turn alongside Watchmen’s Regina King as Buck’s tough lieutenant/lover Trudy Smith (one of the film’s few purely fictional main characters) and Danielle Deadwyler (The Have & Have Nots, Watchmen, Paradise Lost) as unassumingly diminutive badass Cuffey (inspired by real life legend Cathay Williams) – but really, this whole movie is seriously hot stuff, a hard-edged but gleefully unapologetic nose-thumb at what’s traditionally been a white-led genre for decades.  If nothing else, this alone makes it worth a look.

16.  RAYA & THE LAST DRAGON – with UK cinemas still closed in the first half of the year I had to live with seeing ALL the big stuff on my frustratingly small screen at home, but at least there was plenty of choice with so many of the big studios electing to either sell some of their languishing big projects to online vendors or simply release on their own streaming services.  Thank the gods, then, for the House of Mouse following Warner Bros’ example and releasing their big stuff on Disney+ at the same time as in those theatres that had reopened – this was one movie I was PARTICULARLY looking forward to, and if I’d had to wait for the UK reopening in mid-May I might have gone a little crazy watching people lose it and dump major spoilers all over something I still hadn’t seen.  That said, it WOULD HAVE been worth the wait – coming across a bit like Disney’s long overdue response to Dreamworks’ AWESOME Kung Fu Panda franchise, this is a spellbinding adventure in a beautifully thought-out fantasy world heavily inspired by Southeast Asia’s rich, diverse cultures and fascinatingly varied histories, bursting with red hot martial arts action and exotic Eastern mysticism and brought to life by a uniformly strong voice cast dominated by actors of Asian descent.  It’s got a cracking premise, too – 500 years ago, the land of Kumandra was torn apart when a terrible supernatural force known as the Druun very nearly wiped out all life, only stopped by the sacrifice of the last dragons, who poured all their power and lifeforce into a mystical gem.  But when that gem is broken and the pieces are divided between the warring nations of Fang, Heart, Spine, Tail and Talon, the Druun return, prompting Raya (Star Wars’ Kelly Marie Tran), the fugitive princess of Heart, to embark on a quest to reunite the gem pieces and revive the legendary dragon Sisu in a desperate bid to vanquish the Druun once and for all.  Moana director Don Hall teams up with Blindspotting helmer Carlos Lopez Estrada (making his debut in the big chair for Disney after helping develop Frozen), flawlessly executing a thoroughly inspired screenplay co-written by Crazy Rich Asians’ Adele Kim which is full to bursting with magnificent world-building, beautifully crafted characters and thrilling action, as well as the Disney prerequisites of playful humour and tons of heart and soul.  Tran makes Raya a feisty and engaging heroine, tough, stubborn and a seriously kickass fighter, but with true warmth and compassion too, while Gemma Chan is icy cool but deep down ultimately kind of sweet as her bitter rival, Fang princess Namaari, and there’s strong support from Doctor Strange’s Benedict Wong and Good Boys’ Izaac Wang as hard-but-soft Spine warrior Tong and youthful but charismatic Tail shrimp-boat captain Boun, two of the warm-hearted found family that Raya gathers on her travels.  The big scene-stealer, however, is the ever-entertaining Awkwafina, bringing Sisu to life in wholly unexpected but thoroughly charming and utterly adorable fashion, a goofy, sassy and sweet-natured bundle of fun who grabs all the best laughs but also unswervingly champions the film’s core messages of peace, unity and acceptance in all things, something Raya needs a lot of convincing to take to heart.  Visually stunning, endlessly inventive, consistently thrilling and frequently laugh-out-loud funny, this is another solid gold winner proving that Disney can do this kind of stuff in their sleep, but it’s always most interesting when they really make the effort to create something truly special.  As far as I’m concerned, this is one of the studio’s finest animated features in a good long while, and thoroughly deserving of all the praise and attention it’s received …

15.  THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES – so what piece of animation, you might be asking, could POSSIBLY have won over Raya as my animated feature of the year?  After all, it would have to be something TRULY special … then again, remember Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse?  Back in 2018, that blew me away SO MUCH that it very nearly became my top animated feature of THE PAST DECADE (only JUST losing out, ultimately, to Dreamworks’ unstoppable How to Train Your Dragon trilogy).  When I heard its creators, the irrepressible double act of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs), were going to be following that up with this anarchic screwball comedy adventure, I was VERY EXCITED INDEED, a fervour which was barely blunted when its release was, inevitably, indefinitely delayed thanks to the global pandemic, so when it finally released on Netflix at the tail end of Spring I POUNCED. Thankfully my faith was thoroughly rewarded – this is an absolute riot from start to finish, a cinematic gem I look forward to going back to for repeated viewings in the future, just to soak up its awesomeness – it’s hilarious to a precision-crafted degree, brilliantly thought-out and SPECTACULARLY well-written by acclaimed Gravity Falls writer-director Mike Rianda (who also helms here), injecting the whole film with a gleefully unpredictable, irrepressibly irreverent streak of pure chaotic genius that makes it an affectionately endearing and utterly irresistible joyride from bonkers start to adorable finish.  The central premise is pretty much as simple as the title suggests, the utterly dysfunctional Mitchell family – father Rick (Danny McBride), born outdoorsman and utter technophobe, mother Linda (Maya Rudolph), much put-upon but unflappable even in the face of Armageddon, daughter Katie (Broad City co-creator Abbi Jacobson), tech-obsessed and growing increasingly estranged from her dad, and son Aaron (Rianda himself), a thoroughly ODD dinosaur nerd – become the world’s only hope after naïve tech mogul Mark Bowman (Eric Andre), founder of PAL Labs, inadvertently sets off a robot uprising.  Cue a wild comedy of errors of EPIC proportions … this is just about the most fun I had with a movie all year, an absolute riot throughout, but there’s far more to it than just a pile of big belly laughs, with the Mitchells all proving to be a lovable bunch of misfits who inspire just as much deep, heartfelt affection as they learn from their mistakes and finally overcome their differences, becoming a better, more loving family in the process, McBride and Jacobson particularly shining as they make our hearts swell and put a big lump in our throat even while they make us titter and guffaw, while the film has a fantastic larger than (virtual) life villain in PAL (Olivia Colman), the virtual assistant turned megalomaniacal machine intelligence spearheading this technological revolution.  Much like its Spider-Man-shaped predecessor, this is also an absolutely STUNNING film, visually arresting and spectacularly inventive and bursting with neat ideas and some truly beautiful stylistic flair, frequently becoming a genuine work of cinematic art that’s as much a feast for the eyes as it is the intellect and, of course, the soul.  Altogether then, this was definitely one of the year’s most downright GORGEOUS films, as well as UNDENIABLY one of the most FUN.  Lord and Miller really have done it again.

14.  THE SPARKS BROTHERS – those who’ve been following my reviews for a while will know that while I do sometimes shout about new documentary films, they tend to show up in my runners-up lists – it’s a real rarity for one to land in one of my top tens.  This lovingly crafted deep-dive homage to cult band Sparks, from self-confessed rabid fanboy Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim), is something VERY SPECIAL INDEED, then … there’s a vague possibility some of you may have heard the name before, and many of you will know at least one or two of their biggest hits without knowing it was them (their greatest hit of all time, This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us, immediately springs to mind), but unless you’re REALLY serious about music it’s quite likely you have no idea who they are, namely two brothers from California, Russell and Ronald Mael, who formed a very sophisticated pop-rock band in the late 60s and then never really went away, having moments of fame but mostly working away in the background and influencing some of the greatest bands and musical artists that followed them, even if many never even knew where that influence originally came from.  Wright’s film is an engrossing joy from start to finish (despite clocking in at two hours and twenty minutes), following their eclectic career from obscure inception as Halfnelson, through their first real big break with third album Kimono My House, subsequent success and then fall from popularity in the mid-70s, through several subsequent revitalisations of their fortunes, all the way up to the present day with their long-awaited cinematic breakthrough, revolutionary musical feature Annette – throughout Wright keeps the tone light and the pace breezy, allowing an endearing sense of irreverence to rule the day as fans, friends and the brothers themselves offer up fun anecdotes and wax lyrical about what is frequently a larger-than-life tragicomic soap opera, utilising fun, crappy animations and idiosyncratic stock footage inserts alongside archive clips and talking-head interviews that have been made with a decidedly tongue-in-cheek style – Mike Myers good-naturedly rants about how we can see his “damned mole” while 80s New Romantic icons Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, while shot together, are each individually labelled as “Duran”.  Ron and Russ themselves, meanwhile, are clearly having huge fun, gently ribbing each other and dropping some fun deadpan zingers throughout proceedings, easily playing to the band’s strong, idiosyncratic sense of hyper-intelligent humour, while the aforementioned celebrity talking-heads are just three amongst a whole wealth of famous faces that may surprise you – there’s even an appearance by Neil Gaiman, guys!  Altogether this is 2+ hours of bright and breezy fun chock full of great music and fascinating information, and even hardcore Sparks fans are likely to learn more than a little over the course of the film, while for those who have never heard of Sparks before it’s a FANTASTIC introduction to one of the greatest ever bands that you’ve never heard of.  With luck there might even be more than a few new fans in 2022 thanks to this film …

13.  P.G. PSYCHO GOREMAN – one of the year’s undeniable top guilty pleasures was this fantastic weird, thoroughly over-the-top and completely OUT THERE black comedy cosmic horror that doesn’t so much riff on the works of HP Lovecraft as throw them in a blender, douse them with maple syrup and cayenne pepper and then hurl the sloppy results to the four winds.  On paper it sounds like a family-friendly cutesy comedy take on Call of Cthulu et al, but trust me, this sure ain’t one for the kids – the latest indie horror offering from Steven Kostanski, co-creator of the likes of Manborg, Father’s Day and The Void, this is one of the weirdest movies I’ve seen in years, but it’s also one of the most gleefully funny, playing itself entirely for yucks (frequently LITERALLY).  Mimi (Nita Josee-Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myre) are two small-town Canadian kids who dig a big hole of their backyard, accidentally releasing the Arch-Duke of Nightmares (Matthew Ninaber and the voice of Steven Vlahos), an ancient, god-tier alien killing machine who’s been imprisoned for aeons in order to protect the universe from his brutal crusade of death and destruction. To their parents’ dismay, Mimi decides to keep him, renaming him Psycho Goreman (or “P.G.” for short) and attempting to curb his superpowered murderous impulses so she can have a new playmate. But the monster’s original captors, the Templars of the Planetary Alliance, have learned of his escape, sending their most powerful warrior, Pandora (Kristen McCulloch), to destroy him once and for all.  Yup, this movie is just as loony tunes as it sounds – Kostanski injects the film with copious amounts of his own outlandish, OTT splatterpunk extremity, bringing us a riotous cavalcade of bizarrely twisted creatures and mutations (realised through some deliciously disgusting prosthetic effects work) and a series of wonderfully off-kilter (not to mention frequently off-COLOUR) darkly comic skits and escapades, while the sense of humour is pretty bonkers but also generously littered with nuggets of genuine sharply observed genius.  The cast, although made up almost entirely of unknowns, is thoroughly game, and the kids particularly impress, especially Josee-Hanna, who plays Mimi like a flamboyant, mercurial miniature psychopath whose zinger-delivery is clipped, precise and downright hilarious throughout.  There are messages of love conquering all and the power of family, both born and made, buried somewhere in there too, but ultimately this is just 90 minutes of wonderful weirdness that’s sure to melt your brain but still leave you with a big dumb grin when it’s all over.  Which is all we really want from a movie like this, right?

12.  SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – the MCU’s top big screen offering of 2021 was, perversely, also the biggest chance the studio took in several years (yes, even more than the entertaining but ultimately underwhelming Eternals), folding in a C-list Marvel superhero who’s long languished as something of a sort-of-racist stereotype that the comics have been trying to dig out of that particular hole for years.  Thing is, this movie does a really beautiful job of pulling off that trick all in a single movie, while also delivering a genuinely excellent shot-in-the-arm corker for the franchise which compares very favourably indeed with similarly racially-charged recent offering Black Panther.  This time it’s South East Asia in general and martial arts action in particular that’s the focus here, and while MCU-debuting writer director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle and Just Mercy) may not have previous form in this arena, he’s just the kind of talented indie cinema alumnus that the studio have always had such great luck with upgrading to big budget work in the past, and as with previous choices he proved impressively adept at ushering in just the kind of all-action thrill-ride with added emotional heft and fantastical wonder we’ve come to expect from the MCU.  Breakout star Simu Liu is perfectly cast as Shang-Chi, self-exiled former heir to the Ten Rings, the powerful Asian crime syndicate ruled over by his near-immortal warlord father Xu Wenyu (a typically masterful performance from the great Tony Leung), who seeks to bring his wayward son back into the fold, along with his estranged daughter Xialing (rising star Meng’er Zhang), to help him find the mystical hidden land of Ta Lo, a place of magic the siblings’ later mother came from.  Yeah, I know, sounds a bit out there, but the MCU’s gotten really good at making that kind of stuff work, and this is no exception, Cretton and his co-writers, David Callaham (Wonder Woman 1984 and the incoming Spider-Verse sequel) and Andrew Lanham, weaving a tight, compelling and thoroughly inspired tale of familial strife, clashing cultures and just a dash of (admittedly PG-13-friendly) cosmic horror which fits perfectly into the colourful tableau of the franchise at large.  The cast are all excellent as usual – Liu and Zhang handle the action duties with incredibly game skill and determination while also crafting rock-solid characters for themselves that promise a long shelf-life in the MCU at large, as does Leung, who effortlessly proves he can still handle himself just as well as the kids while also showing what a heavyweight, award-winning acting talent he still is (brilliantly realising one of the most sympathetic MCU villains to date), matched step-by-step by the true queen of Asian cinema, Michelle Yeoh, as Ta Lo’s faithful guardian (and the siblings’ aunt) Ying Nan, but in the end the film is roundly stolen by Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s faithful and irrepressible best friend Katy, and the welcome return of a former MCU alumnus whose identity I refuse to give away here because it’s such a wonderful and absolutely inspired twist when they arrive – the action’s first rate, the second unit and stunt teams (as well as several very game cast members) creating some pretty hardcore and visually arresting fight sequences and chases (and for once even the now almost obligatory CGI-heavy climax is a STRONG ONE), and the sense of humour is, as usual, firing on all cylinders, while the film is frequently a rich and delectable feast for the eyes.  SCATLOTTR secures its place in the MCU with confident assurance and more than a little cocky swagger, all while maintaining an impressive record of cultural respect and positive representation, so it would thoroughly deserves its position on the franchise’s throne for 2021.  Had it not been for Loki …

11.  SPACE SWEEPERS – all throughout the pandemic and the interminable lockdowns, Netflix have been a consistent blessing to those of us who’ve been craving the kind of big budget blockbusters we’ve (largely) been unable to get at the cinema.  Some of my top movies of 2020 were Netflix Originals, and they continued the trend into 2021, having dropped some choice cuts on us over the past twelve months. This phenomenal milestone of Korean cinema, lauded as the country’s first space blockbuster, certainly went big instead of going home, writer-director Jo Sung-hee (A Werewolf Boy, Phantom Detective) delivering big budget thrills and spills in a bombastic science-fiction adventure cast in the classic Star Wars mould, where action, emotion and fun characters count for more than an admittedly simplistic but still admirably evocative archetypal plot – it’s 2092 and the Earth has become a toxic wasteland ruined by overpopulation and pollution, leading the wealthy to move into palatial orbital habitats in preparation for the impending colonisation of Mars, while the poor and downtrodden are packed into rotting ghetto satellites facing an uncertain future left behind to fend for themselves, and the UTS Corporation jealously guard the borders between rich and poor, presided over by seemingly benevolent but ultimately cruel sociopathic genius James Sullivan (Richard Armitage).  Eking out a living in-between are the space sweepers, freelance spaceship crews who risk life and limb by cleaning up dangerous space debris to prevent it from damaging satellites and orbital structures.  The film focuses on the crew of sweeper vessel Victory, a ragtag quartet clearly inspired by the “heroes” of Cowboy Bebop – Captain Jang (The Handmaiden’s Kim Tae-ri), a hard-drinking ex-pirate with a mean streak and a dark past, ace pilot Kim Tae-ho (The Battleship Island’s Song Joong-ki), a former child-soldier with a particularly tragic backstory, mechanic Tiger Park (The Outlaws’ Jin Seon-Kyu), a gangster from Earth living in exile in orbit, and Bubs (a genuinely flawless mocapped performance from A Taxi Driver’s Yoo Hae-jin), a surplus military robot slumming it as a harpooner so she can earn enough for gender confirmation.  They’re a fascinating bunch, a mercenary band who never think past their next paycheque, but there’s enough good in them that when redemption comes knocking – in the form of Kang Kot-nim (newcomer Park Ye-rin), a revolutionary prototype android in the form of a little girl who may hold the key to bio-technological ecological salvation – they find themselves answering the call despite their misgivings.  The four leads are exceptional (as is their young charge), while Armitage is a cracking villain, delivering subtle, restrained menace by the bucketload every time he’s onscreen, and there’s excellent support from a fascinating multinational cast who perform in a refreshingly broad variety of languages.  Jo also delivers spectacularly on the action front, wrangling a blistering series of adrenaline-fuelled and explosive set-pieces that rival anything George Lucas or JJ Abrams have sprung on us this century, while the visual effects are nothing short of astounding, bringing this colourful, eclectic and dangerous universe to vibrant, terrifying life; indeed, the world-building here is exceptional, creating an environment you’ll feel sorely tempted to live in despite the pitfalls.  Best of all, though, there’s tons of heart and soul, the fantastic found family dynamic at the story’s heart winning us over at every turn.  Ultimately, while you might come for the thrills and spectacle, you’ll stay for these wonderful, adorable characters and their compelling tale. An undeniable triumph.