#we're about to find out which scenes were actually lit in a reasonable way for a visual medium

[reasonandfaithinharmony]

Who's ready to play the Unedited Gif Game?

What is it?

Ask for one (1) gif from any scene. I cannot edit it before posting. (No brightening, coloring, or zooming in. I will be slowing it down my standard amount because otherwise I couldn't deal. But that's it.)

Why are we playing?

Because I desperately want to finish some gif set WIPs, but to do that? I have to get back into giffing. And my creative energy has wandered off into the void and left me to suffer in its absence. So…here's hoping this will help and that we'll all have a little fun in the process. 🤷‍♀️

[singswan-springswan]

Reasons to watch Justice League: War (2014)

free on tubi

absolute banger start with Dry Humor Hal

"Batman is real????"

once again we bring you speculation of Batman Turned Villain?/Is He Abducting Random Civilians Or Is That Just Parademons?

We have Green Lantern thinking Batman's a cryptid right out of the gate then going "wait you're not just some guy in a bat costume, right?" while Batman gives him a deadpan stare and Green Lantern weeps and also they are in the sewers

Bruce "I make it my business to know" Wayne, for your consideration

Billy Batson conning his way into a football game

Billy Batson being a fan of Victor Stone??? and stealing his jersey

Victor is a nice young gentlemen to everyone except his father, with whom he devolves into Indignant Gremlin and will Break Things watch out

Flash and Victor's dad being friends

poor Barry went and got burritos for EVERYONE and SOMEONE STOLE HIS

Green Lantern and Batman already hate each other's guts

Bruce stole Green Lantern's ring just to be feral and made fun of him for it

✨Utility Belt✨

space cop Green Lantern

Superman's costume is so sexy

testosterone overdose with Green Lantern, Batman, and Superman all in the same scene: 368 dead, 1,590 injured. Obligatory catfight between those three while also there are hostile parademon soldiers flying around everywhere

Bruce stopping Superman in his tracks by saying his name quietly

Clark just staring at Batman for a second, then: "Bruce Wayne??"

"who's Bruce Wayne?" help

Diana publicly coerces a man into admitting that he cross-dresses as her and it makes him feel powerful while standing in the middle of a hostile mob on her way to meet the american president

3 seconds later she decides to ditch the president and go get ice cream

Diana thinks ice cream is The Best

Diana makes friends with Hannah and adopts her on the spot

🚨Flash and Green Lantern bromance!!🚨

"Batman is real????"

Diana is Bloodthirsty.

oops victor got yeeted. maybe he shouldn't have touched that glowing alien space box in his dad's lab

Billy's gonna fight demons in his backyard alone at night with a baseball bat which in no way seems saf--⚡SHAZAM⚡

squad is so lit my dudes

actually they are so cool together

the writers were clearly Clark/Diana shippers because man there was SO MUCH chemistry between those two

Diana gets to stab Darkseid in the eyeball with her sword :3

Barry gets to stab the other eyeball with a crowbar :3

Batman tells Green Lantern he's normal and then disguises himself as a civilian in .002 seconds and promptly hitches a ride on a parademon like he's hailing a fricking taxi and gets carried off into the night, leaving the rest of the heroes to hold the line while he tries to rescue Superman from wherever he got portal-ed off to single-handedly BRUCE SHUT UP

Green Lantern is really bad at giving speeches. but like. it's funny

Everyone kicks alien butt

Bruce does, in fact, end up saving Superman single-handedly

Victor is soooo OP

Diana punches Captain Marvel through a wall and shoves her sword in his face and says "you are a warrior, not a child! act like it!" LIKE NO MA'AM HE'S LITERALLY TEN YEARS OLD

Captain Marvel does not stop flirting with Diana throughout the time they work together

Green Lantern said "I like trains"

lads I am not joking about how cool the squad is

Victor has bad reception so he flies into the clouds. pray

Victor finds out Captain Marvel is actually an infant and lets him keep the jersey. Billy cracks jokes about his arm being a cannon

Diana calls them all gods. she said Batman is Hades. send help.

Sean Astin voices Captain Marvel

I'm not the biggest fan of the way they drew Superman's face. it's too shaped. BUT the rest of the animation is so spirited and vibrant. storyboard and choreography is phenomenal, not to mention the cinematography! amazing animation

Batman, to Green Lantern: let them think we're friends so the cops don't get me

dialogue is so much fun and so rich. no lines wasted. full to bursting with wit and humor

exposition is breathtaking, considering the time frame they were working with. I'm honestly floored. they took an hour of screen time and made it feel more than twice as long. holy kriff, that's some masterful storytelling right there

this film had more character development for a cast of seven than most modern movies--and some shows--have for one character

excellent voice acting

completely stand-alone; can be watched and thoroughly enjoyed without any prior knowledge

[chain-draws-stuff]

Hello hello! Before you start reading this chapter I want to thank you to @caldraws for giving me the idea for this part! This story may be a little long so I had to cut it into 2 parts so it's not too long bc I don't want you guys to read something that's that long.

This story will be taking place in Questions and Answers to Watching lies. It's sort of a prolog but at the same time it's kind of not at the same time. So to make it simple for you guys It's like a back perspective of what or what was happening to the other half part of the 2 chapters so...enjoy! :D

And sorry if I was away for like a day long so uhh...here's the next chapter I guess? Also if you're wondering on what the end looks like when I wrote in one of my chapters "a blue mushroom area" I am actually using the updated end mod in minecraft! So uhhh yeah!

now...with that's said let's get to the story!

END KING!STEVE

Chapter 7

Freedom?...

Part 1/2

??? pov:

After centuries of spending my immortal lives banished in that barren wasteland he sent me to...I can finally...finally be free for once...but my fine time ended shortly when I wondered around the end until I passed by an opend ancient portal. It was covered in orange vines and some of those thalasium crystals 'this one must had been fixed by those other kings before him' I went into the lit portal heading on to the overworld. I wanted to see what the mortals we're doing in there mortal lives and see what there up to...

As I got through the portal I was thinking what the humans were planning to take over the end?, kill every single living thing that breathes, walk and crawl? Enslaving others? Or even better planning to destroy the nether...but unfortunately none of those ideas of mine were true but instead they built a civilization with tall houses and weird village's 'how long have I been banished for? Ive never seen mortals build something like this...' I thought to myself as i existed my mind scape and returned back to reality noticing a few humans near the stronghold seeing strange thigs they use for transportation 'i wonder what there up to..' I say to myself as a approach the huma not seen because apparently I'm still stuck on my ghost form I'm still free but not fully...I still needed my body back which is going to be a huge struggle since I have to drag that boy with me along the way I can't go through 3 dimensions in this form sure I am a God who can travel between universe's and worlds but my abilities somehow don't work in this form He  cursed me to, for almost an eternity...so I went closer what were the humans investigating...'the stronghold? What could they possibly want with this old structure?' I asked myself as I see the endstone slowly growing. As I slowly and carefully reached out to the endstone it started to create cracks the closer my hand(sort of claws, as you saw in one of my post about this) i came closer and closer revealing more cracks as I started to get closer with the endstone.

And as my hand(claws) interact with he endstone, a spike peirced through the cracks impailing one of he humans behind me causing him to pour out blood from his mouth leading himself to die....I was left in shock on how I have the ability to help the infection spread. This was a huge advantage for me to take over the overworld and defeat he nether and His upcoming armies.

As I was doing more of the infestation on the land I decided it was enough as Ieft taking pity on the humans and leaving the rest flee the scene Alive.

As I was following a random man (which is Shaw in Questions and Answers) for some little reason...I was finding more information about what were the human Really Planning because I wasn't convinced on that the mortals weren't planning something unexpected...as I was 'Stalking' this mortal named Shaw heading back home but first had to head to Steve's house 'huh...a human whi is looking for my Mortal Vessel? ' As I was observing him I noticed that Steve was more like a son to him. Once Shaw entered Steve's house only to come to witness his house looking like a ruin everything was broken down, shattered into small pieces. He was left in shock and wory he was then left running out of the house riding his so called 'car' he drove off leaving me in the middle of nowhere in front of someone's house.

I came into the house to check the place more looking at the cabinets, shelves, tables then I saw something...a book...I picked up the book and opened the first page...

Dear diary

Today was kind of weird...I was left in the middle of nowhere it was about to rain so I looked for shelter and found an open cave in the forest...

As I step deeper into the cave my clothes were soggy wet, like very wet I saw a dead person wearing a red cape, blue clothing and some other stuff I kind of don't remember...

I got deeper into the cavern finding a robot? I began chasing it while traveling through weird places and weird things until we stopped to a room filled with portals they call the checkpoint.

I was arguing with the small green round robot fighting about he fact they thought I was Stalking them

(Yes I watched the video U-U)

After a lady? Oh yes a lady popped out of nowhere.

- Steven #####

(Don't ask why i didn't finish it I was very lazy at the time rn bc I was writing this jn the middle of the night)

???: Steve's diary? Well...better keep it for better uses...

I checked the other parts of the house, talked to myself for a while and left to go follow the Shaw guy going somewhere. Looks like he was heading to another mortals home I got closer to see the people. As I can now see everyone on my view I saw a mortal dragging another mortal behind him

Chris: what is it sarge?

The mortal asked

Shaw:...umm...why are you dragging Austin?

Shaw said with confusion and seriousness

Chris:here trying to avoid going to bed. Now what are you doing here at the middle of he night?

He answered and followed by another question needed to be answered

Shaw: I came here to ask you something...

Shaw answered

Chris: what does that have to do with me or Austin?

He followed by answering with confusion

(INSERT EXPLANATION CUZ IM LAZY AF RN)

The human(chris) was shock on what Shaw had just explained the mortal was thinking on how or when did it happen as a few seconds passed the human thought before coming back to reality.

Chris:*sigh* all this thinking is giving me a headache...but I can assure you, we can go ahead and investigate Steve's house and the portal tomorrow if you want

The human(Chris) says with confidence as Shaw thanked him that he would help him during the investigation

Shaw: thanks kid...I also might interrogate you 3 tomorrow

Shaw added

Chris:wait who's the third?

He asked

Shaw:oh its his robot

Shaw answered

Shaw:we also need to start the investigation early in the morning tomorrow so we can get this mystery solved in no time

Shaw added, and with that the human(Chris) nodded his head then gently closed the door while Shaw left and headed home

I was left alone behind a bush as I watched everything what they said

????: hehe this is going to be fun~

I left the house and searched around for a place to camp for now.

As the sky goes dark and night had fallen everyone was now asleep...my eyes felt heavy and I closed my eyes as I slowly drifted away from reality

Part 1 out of 2

First chapter/previous/next

[ashleyetc]

i said i wasnt gonna rant about how fucking bad Eternals was but ive decided that i can bitch about this particularly bad mcu movie as a treat. this is long, but the movie is the better part of three hours so

okay so first of all, it starts off like, dumb. it starts off with a fucking opening crawl like its star wars with an explanation of how the eternals exist to fight for intelligent life blah blah blah but as someone over the age of 8 its immediately really apparent that this is gonna be bullshit and theyll have been unknowingly evil the whole time. like its set up so weakly and impotently that like at best it reads as an early draft.

in our first scene of the eternals fighting the deviants (this movie's cgi monsters, which i will say are at least more visually engaging than a lot of comparable ones. whoever animated them really wished they got to work on Annihilation and it shows in a good way) i immediately clocked that 'hey chiseled jaw white dude who can fly and shoot eye lasers looks pretty fucking sinister huh. oh god please dont' (spoilers, they very much do).

then it really starts with us seeing protag in the modern day. nothing about this section is interesting. i think we're supposed to find her and kit harrington cute as a couple, and i dont object to them, but hes never significant in this and spoilers for one of the aftercredits scenes literally only features so prominently because hes setup to be in Blade. there are much larger issues with this shitshow but thats a peak mcu problem right there

so then we get to the first fight scene in the modern day and i am immediately confused because for some completely unfathomable reason the black point is set absurdly wrong so fight scenes, at night, poorly lit, with a mostly black cgi monster, are completely illegible. this will continue to be the case throughout every scene not in daylight and it will never get better or make any more sense.

now predictably, we soon find out that oh no, the eternals have been working in service of the baddies the whole time, who want to cultivate intelligent life to hatch their kids. said bad guys, the celestials, are also like, gods effectively, in that they create and maintain the universe. we have no info on this outside of what one of them tells our protag tho so like weird dynamic. but anyways. for some reason half the eternals are like 'well yeah alright lets let it happen' and keep going back and forth on that which if this movie were written by someone who even pretended to give a shit could be an interesting concept.

moving on we continue to get the band back together and run into druig. now in a flashback we see that he led to them scattering across the planet when he went 'hey maybe we should stop genocide sometimes' and this started a big fight. so naturally, youre thinking ah yes this must be a more likeable member of the team. and thats a reasonable assumption! an understandable thing to think, really. except his powers are literally mass mind control of humans and while in earlier flashbacks he just uses these to like, stop fights and get ppl to chill out, when we see him in the modern day hes like, possessing an entire village in south america for his own little paradise? which is an absolutely deranged choice to make for a character we i think are at least not supposed to despise. like holy shit guys, you sure did that and have decided hes not the villain for it.

at some point we flash back to their original leader ajak deciding to actually stop the celestial from being born and killing earth, not because she thinks genocide in general is wrong- she is the one whose known the whole time this is what theyre doing- but because well it was earth ppl who beat thanos so i guess they should get a pass. like she is explicitly 'well these ones are good tho. no regrets on the other planets we've done this to that only i remember tho.' at this point she is killed by icarus, the chiseled jaw flying wite dude with superstrength and eye lasers. yup! its a But What If Superman Bad story now! we even have a scene where a child explicitly calls him fucking superman!!the hack writing here knows no fucking bounds.

did i mention sprite? the one who despite the fact theyre immortal (robots, we find out sometime in all this) is a 13 ish year old girl visually? when icarus decides to betray everyone and try to make sure they cant stop the celestial birth she joins him because she apperntly has always been in unrequited love with him. now this goes nowhere and serves no purpose other than to make me deeply fucking uncomfortable, but at least sprite is a user of illusion magic who literally stabs our protag in the back during the final fight. its discount loki!

oh also hephastus's whole deal is hes like, an artificer and has pushed human tech along and theres a fucking scene that blows my goddamn mind. where we see ajak comforting him as he weeps in the fresh destruction of hiroshima. where hes like 'oh god i did this humanity is awful and not worth saving blah blah blah' and its like. okay. this character, i cannot stress enough, is black. presumably, if he was instrumental in the atom bomb, was living in america. as a black guy. in the 1940s. and hes only just now starting to doubt humanity is all great and good? tell me the writers room wasnt as diverse as the cast without telling me the writers room wasnt as diverse as the cast. like in a good movie exploring these immortals who have lived alongside humanity for all of history debating whether humanity deserves to live, youd think the black one might have an interesting perspective or something to say about race. this aint that movie tho.

the climactic fight scene ends with such an impotent fart of a climax that i genuinely feel like i missed something. throughout the whole thing theres mentions of how sersi and icarus were in love for thousands of years, icarus only leaving her when he found out the truth of their mission and couldnt bear to be around her and not tell her. and in their final fight, he looks into her eyes, we see a flashback to an earlier scene of them getting married in like 200 ad or w/e, and he silently decides to fly into the sun killing himself (presumably).

this movie is 2 hours and 45 minutes.

i expect bad mcu movies. i expect dull, i expect propagandic, i expect humorless quips and half baked characters. i dont expect something so unpleasant and offensive to anyone who wants to actually think about anything happening on screen that it feels designed to be frustrating. the worst mcu movie previously in my opinion was thor 2, but its biggest sin was being painfully dull. this is worse. its painfully engrossing. i often enjoy watching movies i think are bad or whose ideas i disagree with, but this refused to even have ideas, really- it constantly threatened to but they never really showed up, at least not without being immediately contradicted. genuinely this is worse than Suicide Squad (2016). i would rather rewatch the snyder cut.

one of the worst things about it is how clearly it was calculated in some boardroom, that if we had a diverse cast we didnt need a good movie. like sure, we have plently of racial diversity, we have a mute character (genuinely unclear based on a particular scene whether shes deaf or not but she speaks via sign), we have a gay man raising a kid with his husband, etc. guess we dont need anything else. guess thats definitely the only thing that matters. and i know some incredibly stupid people will agree with that. you google it and get articles about how its doing so much good for representation and like. im reminded of when tumblr was like 'you gotta watch black lightning there are black lesbians' and nobody bothered to mention that the show fucking sucked (to be fair i think it was a cw show so thats on me for not assuming but).

anyways harry styles has a cameo in one of the post credits scenes. its charmless. 1/10 movie, both in general and for the mcu.

[falsebooles123]

Dairy of a Horror Buff 8.20.22

CW: Horrors beyond your mortal ken. nah we're watching some fucked up shit today so maybe sit this one out if you don't want to see that.

UGH BITCHES BUT LIKE IN A GOOD WAY.

I was looking for a gif from there Shiny Happy People Short were there like Happiness more like Hap-penis lmoa gottum but apparently you whores can't appreciate fine art.

I got over that period of self doubt have formulated an action plan and I'll be OK. I just needed some time to emotional process shit which I think is like a good thing. Like is nature healing, like is daddy not repressing his emotions anymore???

I love that tumblr is 50% nihlistic goth mood boards. Keep up the good work ladies, gents, and assorted gentry.

so I was watching Betty Boop cartoons yesterday and I was like hey I haven't seen a lot of animated horror. Surely it exists maybe I should pop some of that shit in my gullet so today lets watch a bunch of fucked up shit online.

but first I kinda have to tell you about what I watched last night.

Stigma (1977) dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark

ok so this and the next one are a diversion from the original format of AGSFC. the last two of the original series are acutally original screenplays. This one was written by Clive Exton. This is also the last film of the series to be directed by Clark.

so the film is pretty basic plot wise. It involves a mother moving to a cottage out on the moors??? the heath??? whatever the fuck its called. one of those british prairie things shes there. and guess what else is there spoopy stones. specifically a stone circle along with what the discription calls a menhir. which is like a stone circle but its just like a single rock.

anyway there like

UWU LETS UNBUWWY THE ANCIENT EWWIL.

the momma gets hella cursed, starts spontanious bleeding, serving us titane realness.

I'm obviously talking about the whole body horror bathroom scenes but this is the only gifs on tumblr for what I feel is obvious reasons.

this film was actually pretty refreshing it gives us this 1970s banality horror vibes which I love. The plot is vague and ambiguious which is what a good ghost story should be. I really liked this.

The Ice House (1978) dir. Derek Lister

Ok so this is the last AGSFC episode of the original series and was also the only one not directed by Clark. Who the fuck is Derek Lister? Apparently he was a theater director who branched into television dramas I imagine hes a famalier name in certain circles but if your not into 80s british theater you like myself have no recollection of him.

Now am I horrible impressed by this film but lets be honest this is television movies meant to appeal to old stodgers. This stuff probably had no budget.

That being said Lister wasn't a poor sport at all, I like the sort of uncanny vibe of this. We have a health spa, creepy incestious siblings, and an ailing protaganist whose convinced theres something spooky in the old ice house.

This honestly gives me poe vibes, (might be the incest), it definetly feels like a classic ghost story in a lot of ways, the way that the horror is slowly metered out, the questioning of sanity, the sort of vague lore thats never spelt out.

Most people find this film to be a poor send off of this series and sure its not creepy and gothic but I honestly did love them trying new things out.

Ok so that was the end of the orginal AGSFC. Might watch the reboot might not now lets watch something fucked up.

The Scuzzies (2019) dir. Jimmy ScreamerClauz

so what got me on this path was rewatching Nyxfears Disturbing Movies megacut and she mentioned this creator. and I'm like this is the exact shit I'm looking for when it comes to horror shorts.

so one thing that fascinates me is that kind of uncanny 3d animation. I've never been the biggest fan of 3d animation, (through I unirionically like RYBY so take it with a grawn of salt), so that sort of early 2000s look where everything low poly and badly lit is never something I was exposed too.

HIs style feels like a low letter to that sort of thing.

The Scuzzies are what I am assuming are a reace of brownies or similer house sprites who live in some sort of fucked up crack house.

The owner has set up traps and the scuzzies are murdered brutally through a variety of methods that I don't want to describe.

The scuzzies then proceed to go back to their nest, sacrifice an elde3r to create a eldritch hivemind??? who proceeds to seduce the owner of the house and then brutally murder him.

This shit is like an acid trip. everything is disguisting and hard to look at and its feeled with blood and cum and shit, and a bunch of things that are also some combination of that. It's captivating in a really messed up way but I also could never show this to my family.

ok lets move onto something that doesn't involve bloody ejaculate.

Muse (2022) dir. Lunely

Ok I love how Letterboxd will literally not have some random B-Movie but will absolutely have a random animated youtube short. This is not tea nor shade I just love finding stuff like this on Letterboxd. It gives a kind of validity to a lot of smaller works out there in a weird way.

Anyway there are so many horror animations on youtube that they could never show them all but this one was cute. A young artist wakes up in the middle of the night and walks downstairs to her studio, she sharpens her sketching pencil as her muses silolette is cast by the flash of lightening.

it was cute I like this I need to watch more Calarts Short Films.

I Live In The Woods (2011) dir. Max Winston

Ok but is this a regular show character or a jojo character asking for a friend. This was horrifric. it starts out so cute until it goes entirely insane and is like how realistic do you want your stop motion gore and viscera.

Down To The Bone (2009) dir. Peter Ahern

Ok so this gives me big Don't Starve Energy.

Michael is a boy with really bad allergies. when his shitty babysitter kicks him outside he manages to sneeze so badly that he flips inside out. bloody nonsense ensues.

Who's Hungry? (2009) dir. David Ochs.

No little german boy don't get icecream.

oh mein gott zis haus es full of kinder-munchen.

so this is another calarts film and also one that I have seen before a couple years ago. Essentially two little kids are stolen by a ice cream man who turns out to be a cannibal. its definetly one that I recommend.

The Backwater Gospel dir. Bo Mathorne

OK so I'm not sure who Bo Mathorne is but I am obsessed. we're being served dark western which is one of my favorite genres/aestetics. Essentially we watch the townspeple of backwater get ready for church as the local tramp plays his guitar.

The Underaker comes to town, a shade that comes to take one life before he leaves. the local preacher rips the town into a fury to kill the tramp who he sees to be the cause of the harbringer. As you can imagine its a monster are do on mulberry street moment and thre is carnage bloody carnage.

Absolutely iconic we stan.

Felix the Ghost Breaker (1923) dir. Otto Messmer

so felix the cat actually has a really interesting history. It was made by either Pat Sullivan or Otto Messmer and was acutally rather big in the silent film era. At his point in 1923 it was beggining to lose relevency since fleischer and disney were having there pissing contest at this point and that urinating was captured in stunning surround sound.

Felix was also apparently a comic strip before this and it definetly shows, the animation isn't as fluid as I'm use to with 30s cartoons and the way that the style and the word bubbles are written are vary reminscent of early comic strips. Its almost an animated comic strip in that sense.

I can't say Iove this film but it is a cool part of film history.

Ok one more.

The Haunted House (1929) dir. Walt Disney

ok so this is pretty much the same vibe as the last couple classic animation shorts. Mickey Mouse goes to a house thats super fucking haunted sweetheart and the ghosts and skeletons and shit are like nobody leaves without singing the blues.

what an iconic movie. directors don't be afraid to put an entire fucking music number in your fucking movie.

so yeah theres some dancing skeletons bois and mickey mouse does a couple sight gags.

OK bitches I'm gonna simp for Elisabeth Shue in Adventures in Babysitting (1987) and watch Salad Fingers while bullet journaling.

[impossiblelibrary]

Today's rant brought to you by: Queer Eye Japan, can we all just try to be as kind as they try to be?

After watching the Queer Eye Japan super short season, I wanted to google to see the overall reaction to the show, make sure that my western eyes were correct in seeing the care that was given to the culture. Were cultural taboos, other than being outwardly gay, crossed? So I find this article in the top results and other than the perspective, why tho? Tokyoesque.com had an article with a higher reading level, with surface level appreciation but at least better written.

I can't get over this hate article though. Unfounded, dumb, wrong and incorrect. Do not go forward unless you like that blistering kind of anger from me.

But the reasons just get weaker as the article extends: "Hurts the country it set out to save?" Looking for white savior much? They did not go to save Japan, they gave some free shit to like 4-5 people, think smaller.

Their culture guide wasn't gay enough.

You want to suggest any lgbt insta models or celebrities, use your platform to raises some up?

"There is a growing sexless culture in Japan for married and unmarried people, and it is perilous watching Queer Eye present this without any context behind what is driving this behavior."

Sexiness is what the fab 5 embrace, unfortunately and it was probably discussed behind the scenes of how much talking about sex was allowed or polite and the conversation of not having sex is closer to the tip of the tongue rather than the feeling of sexiness. The West is not the ones blasting that information. It is across multiple Japanese printed newspapers and online stories by now and the "context" is still being discussed and debated amongst Japanese. So I don't think any outsiders should be weighing in or "explaining" this phenomenon. We can repeat what we have been told but guessing at the reasons is not our place. The reasons illustrated by the author of the article seem lacking, a take but not the only one, but who am I to speak on that being in a sexual relationship with someone who pulls from that culture?

Kiko begins to lecture Yoko-san on how she “threw away her womanhood” (referring to a Japanese idiom, onna wo suteru) by going makeup-free and wearing drab, shapeless clothes.

The mistranslation by the subtitles fixed by this author was necessary information. But Kiko didn't lecture her on it, it was brought up by Yoko before any of them arrived, that was her theme, that was what she had decided to focus on. Meanwhile, if you watched Jonathan, he understood there was no time to spend on makeup and skincare so provided her a one instrument, 3 points of color on the skin to feel prettier. That and the entire episode being the 5 treating her like a woman on a date, not trying to hook her up, which is what they did in American eps.

"In teaching a Japanese woman, who already struggles to find time for herself, how to make an English recipe, Antoni is making great TV and nothing more."

So Antoni shouldn't have taught her apple pie because it's too exotic for a Japanese woman. (Can you smell the sexism?)

He didn't make an apple pie, altho Yoko did mention her mother made that for her when she was a kid. He made an apple tartine after going to a Japanese bakery who makes that all the time. Then highlighted the apples came from Fuji in true Japanese media fashion. Honey, American television doesn't usually highlight where the ingredients come from. A Japanese producer told him to do that. So all worries handled within the same ep. She got Japanese ingredients, had the recipe shown to her and then made it for her friends in her own house. Did the author actually watch this show or nah?

"beaten over the head with his western self-help logic. “You have to live for yourself,” he says."

The style of build up the 5 went for was confrontational but in a "I'm fighting for you" way. It's hard to describe, but the best I can say is, a person has multiple voices in their head, from parents, siblings, society, and maybe themselves. By being loud and obnoxious, American staples right there, they are adding one more voice. You deserve this, you are amazing, you are worth it. I know this is against most Japanese cultural modesty, but maybe it shouldn't be.

Sarcasm lies ahead:

Apparently: mispronunciation is microaggressions, not just someone who had a sucky school system. Yea okay, They're laughing at the language not at how stumbling these monolinguals are with visiting another country. Mmhm. Japanese don't say I love you and don't touch and that should stay that way instead of maybe, once in awhile, feeling like they can hug. Yeah, let's just ignore Yoko's break down that she had never hugged her lifelong friend after hugging strangers multiple times. Maid cafes are never sexualized in Japan ever, just don't go down that one street in Akihabara where the men are led off by the hand sheepishly blushing. Gag me. And Japanese men love to cry in front of their wives and would never break down once the wife leaves. I have never seen a Japanese movie showcase that move. Grr.

"I identify as many cultures."

So you're a Japanese man when it's convenient for you to get an article published? Are you nationally Japanese or just ethnically or culturally?

Homeland is an inherently racist word?

"After the Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a Republican consultant and speechwriter Peggy Noonan urged, “the name Homeland Security grates on a lot of people, understandably. Homeland isn’t really an American word, it’s not something we used to say or say now.”

Yes, let's use a Washington Post article rather than a etymology professor. Yes, the google search results increased after 2001 Homeland Security was used but the word has been around since the 1660s and I've read multiple turn of the century lit on white people returning to their homeland, i.e. the town off the coast they were born in.

"But" is not disagreeing. I think the repeated offender for the author is the not acknowledging the makeover-ees feelings. But, that is how LGBT have decided to deal with the inner voices that invade from society. They are just that, not our own, they are the influence of society, and we can choose, we have to choose, to be influenced by someone, anyone else.

Karamo can't speak about being black when an Asian is speaking about being Asian, even though the Asian gay man was feeling alone. It's called relating bitches, and I'm done with people saying that is redirecting the conversation, it's extending the conversation. That's how we talk, the spotlight is shared, especially when someone's about to cry and doesn't want to be seen as crying, time to turn the spotlight.

The gay monk wasn't good enough, you should have invited the gay politician.

Yeah, causes I'm sure a politician has all the time in the world for a quick stint and cry. They picked a Japanese monk who travels to NY because they had a guest who travels to the West too. Did you want him to stop traveling back and forth? Did you want a pure, ethnic and cultural Japanese gay man who has no ties to the west to talk to this Western educated young man? Seriously?

This is just not how it works in Japan.

Being in a multi-cultural marriage between two rebels, discussions on facets of culture are plenty in my household. Culture should be respected enough to be considered but not held on a pedestal like we should never adjust or throw some things out. LGBT being quiet and private for instance. "Being seen" was Jonathan's advice, and a good one especially for a Japanese gay man that was called feminine since he was a kid. Some gay men can hide, but as Jonathan said, he couldn't hide what he was, he couldn't hide this. So fuck it. Don't hide. It's actually more dangerous for a feminine man to come off as anxious rather than gay and proud. It makes you more of a target if they think you won't fight back. Proud means, Imma throw hands too, bitch.

This is also from the civil rights playbook going back to Black America: never hold a protest or a fight without the cameras, without being seen. LGBT have found the more seen they are, in media, in the streets, the better off we are. When LGBT Americans were being "private" about our lifestyles, we died, a la 1980s. They won't care if you start dying off if they never saw you to begin with.

And hence why I think the author's real anger is from these 5 being seen dancing flamboyantly in Shibuya, in Harajuku, afforded the privilege of doing this safely because of their tourist status, cameras and very low violence rate in Tokyo, loud and obnoxiously. Honestly, they wouldn't have been invited or nominated if they didn't want that brash American-ness coming into their home, just for a taste, at least.

Here's my real anger, my own jealousy: Japan's queer community currently does not have marriage or adoption rights. US does, so we have progressed further. But we are also not that many years from being tied to cow fences with barbed wire, beaten with baseball bats and left for dead overnight. If things are so bad over there, maybe take a few pages from the civil right playbook we took so much time to perfect and produced by the Black Americans who fought first. But so far, I only hear loss of jobs and marriages, which we still have here too. Stop trying to divide us, we are one community, LGBT around the world and we are here to try to help. Take it or leave it, it's not like we're going to go organize your own Pride parade for you.

Rant over? I guess. Is this important enough to be put in the google results along with his. Hell no, anyone with half a mind can see he's reaching more than half the time. And any argument about: this wasn't covered! There are a shit ton of conversations that are not covered in the 45 min they have. They are not a civil rights show, it's a makeover show, doing their best in that direction anyway. Know what it is.

Next blog post, what research I would guess was happening behind the scenes for each of the 5? I'm pretty sure I saw Jonathan doing Japanese style makeup there...

[ramp-it-up]

Fresh Squeeze, Ch. 5

Pairing: Daveed Diggs x OFC Linden Marshall

Set in 2023, post-pandemic

Warnings: Cursing, Angsty Angst, drug and alcohol use, surprise flights, Anthony Ramos. Lots of Plot.

Word Count: 3.5 K

Plot: Linden Marshall just finished law school at Columbia University in NYC. Daveed Diggs is still creating magic with his platonic life partner Rafael Casal in the form of their Blindspotting musical, Bay Boys. Linden’s boyfriend WAS Mark Monaco, star of the superhero movie series Invincible.  They were together for years, and her trauma and his addictions were toxic. She knows now that wasn’t love. 

A/N: Keep in mind that this the same AU as Arrivals, with Holly Woods, but is BEFORE Rafa and Holly get together. And don’t come for me about Anthony.

Read the Previous Chapter.

===================

NYC, May 2023

Jasmine was blowing up your phone as you were trying to get dressed.  You had to search for it under the pile of clothes on your bed.

You had procrastinated getting ready, trying to finish one of your applications for a summer internship at this law firm in Harlem that you were excited about.  

You wanted to finally relax after finishing Columbia law in the top 10% of your class. You just wanted to relax and enjoy this weekend.

Craig, your mom and your uncle were the only ones to attend your graduation.  They knew you didn’t want any fanfare, so your famous friends didn’t attend, and they had a show to do, but they’d sent you tons of well wishes.

We're coming up, get decent!

You chuckled and shook your head. Anthony usually raided the refrigerator when he came over. This time, you told him to bring his own snacks..

You slipped on what you were wearing for the night.  Craig was in his room getting ready and you had volunteered his place, so you were playing hostess. You were surprised that he was so chill about it, actually. 

“Pika Pika,” you said to yourself in the mirror then ran to answer the doorbell. It was almost 6 pm.

You opened the door for Cookie Monster and Big Bird.  You burst out laughing. But you stopped when you saw Anthony's face. He had like five bags from Whole Foods that he was juggling in his blue arms.

"Jazzy!!!! There's my girl.  Hey Ant! leave the food and your girl. We may run off together."

Anthony came in the door loaded down with bags and kissed you on the cheek.  

“I love you Lindy, but fuck you man.” You punched him on the shoulder. 

“Ow! Time to get this party started!”

Linden heard Jazzy’s Brooklyn accent turn into a London lilt as she started play fighting with Ant. They felt like family at this point.

=================

Ever since the launch party in January, Jasmine had pursued you as a friend persistently. You normally didn’t let anyone in because of the circumstances of your life, but Jas was oblivious to your awkwardness with normal human beings.

“Girl, you are fucking DOPE, and you are NOT gonna deny my love.  I know your life has been a trip, and you don’t have to tell me all of it, but I’m not gonna let you shrivel up and be a little retiring wallflower. Life is to be lived.” 

Jasmine telling you that during a Saturday brunch date in February was the key to your heart. She drew you out, and you didn’t see what value you added to her life.

But she loved you anyway. And you loved her, and of course, Anthony was part of the package.  

He was beautiful, loud, talented, and reckless, but he reminded you too fucking much of Dell to be annoyed with him very long.

Your circle had certainly widened from just Craig. That was one thing for which you could thank Mark. You were working on him being a distant memory.  He hadn’t lasted too long in Bay Boys, quitting soon after the musical opened in March.  

Daveed’s hands and feet had ‘slipped’ one too many times during the scene when he was stomping his ass on stage. Mark cited health reasons, and publicly spiraled a bit. He was currently in rehab. 

Again. 

You had not heard from him and that was absolutely fine with you.

Because Jasmine was in Bay Boys and that was her life, the cast and crew became yours as well. Rafael was the type of chaotic creative genius that fascinated you; you could listen to him talk for hours.  

Things with Daveed were more tricky. Ever since that awkwardness with him after the launch party, you’d kept your distance, but you hung out a lot, so you were trying to be friends.

When you and Jas and Ant and Rafa hung out and talked, Daveed was there, smiling shyly and sneaking glances at you, throwing in pearls of wisdom every so often. 

He was so dope and so talented and intelligent and so freaking hot, but you were trying to get yourself together.  You were convinced that night in January had been a mistake. 

You needed some space. And time.  Law school was no joke, and you were in therapy so entanglements was not what was up.

Daveed sensed your hesitancy and decided to stop pursuing you. But he couldn’t stop how he felt.

You were both a little wasted and keyed up the night of the launch party, and despite the way you were beautiful and intelligent and sexy as fucking hell, he was not going to press you. 

Daveed was sure that you two could be something special if you would give it a chance, but he didn’t want to chase you, but he was so gone for you, that if you just nodded your head at him, he would be at your feet.

The attraction was undeniable. There was a crazy little dance you two did that everyone recognized and respected.  This group seemed to know you were fragile, and that you didn’t need to be pushed too far.

But the more they persisted, the more you came out of your shell.  The more you trusted, the more the old Lindy came back. 

Craig noticed first soon after you started hanging with the crew when you were trying to find a place to live. He went to one showing with you and sat you down for a talk.

“Girl, I love the light in your eyes.  I haven’t seen this Lindy since…well in a long time. Stay with me for as long as you want. I know you need to get through this last semester of school, you don’t need one more thing to think about. I’m proud of the work that you’re doing on yourself, Linden.”

You were grateful to Craig.  His place on the Upper West Side was super convenient to Columbia, and not having to think about finding a place was so clutch.  Third year was kicking your ass.

“Besides, I wouldn’t have this place if it wasn’t for…”

“Hush,  I don’t want to hear that.  Dell would have wanted this. I love you cuzzo.” 

=================

Craig came out in a Sully onesie and immediately dragged Jasmine into a conversation about the Met Gala that had happened a few days ago. 

You approached the kitchen where Ant stood, food all around him on the counter. You were whispering. He smiled a secret smile at you.

“I’m so proud of you doing this for Jasmine.  It’s good for you all to get away. I’m glad that she got a little break. She deserves it all.”

Anthony had arranged for this little get together to be a surprise for Jasmine. This was going to be a kickback weekend.

The show was on a four day hiatus while the set was moved to a bigger theatre.  It was a hit and was destined for a long run.

Ant’s green eyes lit up as you kept talking about Jasmine.

“Yeah, she does. And the woman of the hour deserves all the happiness in the world.” He lifted his beer to you.

They way he said that was weird and you were about to ask him what was up with that when the doorbell started ringing, you went to answer it and were stuck there for a few minutes as people started coming in. 

The food and the drinks were flowing while all kinds of characters came in. 

Now they also had Jack Skellingtom, and a Care Bear in the house to add to Big bird, Cookie Monster, Pikachu and Sully. It was an odd cast of characters who were jamming to 90's rap, eating chicken wings and basically tripping like only friends could do.

Then there was Toni, some tag-along chick who showed up with Rafa.  She had on a plain gray onesie.  What a downer.  

You’d  pegged her for  a star fucker who only hung with Rafa because of who he and his friends were.  The girl was too much in everyone's business. 

"Sooooo. You and Mark ARE broken up for real for real. The tabloids say y’all are back together!  I told my friend Susie you weren’t, but she wouldn't believe me."

You  just smiled and didn't confirm or deny, treating Toni like the paparazzi. The girl was oblivious to your hate and just kept talking.

Daveed rescued you. 

"Hey, Toni, show these folks how you can blow. They're setting up the karaoke machine over there. Show us what you're working with. Someone might hook you up with a gig."

Toni perked up and hurried over to Anthony and Craig, who were setting up the lyrics on the big screen to match the karaoke music. Some Bad Boy joints were up.

Rafa was behind them screaming, "Dylan, Dylan, Dylan!" 

They were a scene.  You  breathed and relaxed a little.

"Don't stress. She's not coming with us  to the island."

You looked up at the tall, fine Grumpy Care Bear who was nursing some of your special 18-year-old Chivas Regal that you had gotten for graduation. His beautiful smile shined out of his brown face and beneath the curls tumbling out of his hood. 

“I’m not pressed. I’m chilling. You can do what you want. With who you want.”

“She’s not with me. Rafa brought her for the ride to the airport. And it’s not entirely true that I can do what I want. With who I want. Because what if who I want to do doesn’t want to do me?”

You knew what he meant. But you eyed his drink instead of looking at him. It wasn’t that you didn’t want him. That was far from the truth. You didn’t want to get lost in him. And you could see that happening.

Daveed saw your wheels turning. You were over analyzing again.  He’d spent three months observing you every chance he got. He felt like he knew your anxieties.  So fucking smart, but here you were thinking too much.

"Hey Genuis Ass. Want some?" Daveed’s voice was softer as he grinned and offered you some of his drink.  “Or, I could go make you something?” For some reason he wanted you to get loose. 

"Nah, I'm good Diggs.”  For some reason you needed to stay in control.  You played it off by changing the subject. 

“I still can’t believe y’all call me that.” 

Daveed just smiled and nodded, chuckling a little. He craned his neck and looked at it, having to dodge a smack upside the head.

“That ass is genius, you know. That’s the one thing He Who Shall Not Be Named was right about. And you’re one of the smartest humans I know.”  

You had to look at him then. The flecks of gold in his eyes tho.  But you could tell from the slight redness that he was a little zooted.  He didn’t get that way around you a lot, but you knew for the stories that he partied occasionally. 

He and Rafa and that Toni chick must have pre-gamed.  You remembered the last time you two were  tipsy together.You cleared your throat and looked away.

“Why did you lie to that girl? She can’t sing.” You were shaking your head, scowling at Toni’s screeching from the karaoke machine.

He winked at you. D was well on his way to getting LIT.

"What? She can blow.”  Daveed sipped his drink and watched her. 

“She’ll suck your soul out and spit it back in your mouth." Daveed was loose. And so was his mouth. But he didn’t care.

Your mouth was hanging open at Daveed as you wondered what Daveed had done with Toni, what Daveed AND Rafa had done with Toni... 

Shit, you were just going to ask.

"How do you know that she..."

"AWWWW SHEEEIIIITTT! THAT'S MY JAM! REMEMBER THIS LINDY??"

“No, I was like, negative 5..”

You raised your voice as he traveled away from you, smiling. He was not slick.

“Well you missed out being tardy to the party…” 

He was backing toward the mic, knocking it out of Anthony’s hand and starting the rap. Rafa joined him, trading verses.

Now as the record spins around, you recognize this sound,

Well, it's the underground,

You know that we're down with wutchyalike

Yeah, with wutchyalike, yeah

And though we're usually on the serious tip, check it out:

Tonight we're gonna flip and trip and let it all hang out tonight,

We're gonna say what we like.

'Cause, yo, yo, we want to know how many people in the flow,

Would like to just let yourselves go

And doowutchyalike,

Yeah, well tonight's your night.

Just eat food, try not to be crude or rude,

Kill the attitude, chill the serious mood,

And doowutchyalike,

Yeah, and doowutchyalike,

Everybody doowutchyalike

Everyone was dancing and Daveed had effectively deflected your question. But you would never forget.

By 8 o’clock, Craig grabbed the mic and motioned for Jasmine to come with him. You had enjoyed some cocktails finally, and just figured they were going to duet Wind Beneath My Wings just like they always did. 

You were actually moving to the music and feeling good.

"Ok guys, whew.  I'm hot.  Is it hot in herrrre?" Craig was fanning himself.

“Whoooo! Nelly!”

You yelled and everyone laughed.

Craig took his hood off and started to unzip his onesie. Jasmine did the same.

You kept dancing nervously, not realizing it, looking around at the others who were also disrobing. You did a double take as D’s abs came into view.  What was going on?

Craig continued.

"Lindy, I just need a minute to talk, can you stop whatever it is you're doing?"  He grinned at you from across the room. "You're still moving Lindy."

You blushed and stopped fidgeting.

"Ummm, Craig, what the..."

One by one people dropped their onesies, all except Toni, who had no clue what was going on. Soon, everyone was standing in Craig’s condo in their swimsuits, looking fine as hell. 

You just looked around, then in your cup wondering if you were too drunk and hallucinating.

“Lindy, you’ve worked real hard, and this past few months have been crazy, so we wanted to do something special for you this weekend, for your graduation, and for your birthday, WHICH IS SUNDAY!!”

Everyone cheered as Jasmine took the mic. “You think this party is for me. Well the joke’s on you bitch, because you have been hosting your own party!”

You opened your mouth, squeaked a little, then spoke,

"But why?.. Everybody?  But what..."

Daveed moved close.

"Damn, you fine," you whispered. 

Your hand flew to your mouth when he smirked in response. Everyone was rolling because turns out, you didn’t whisper.

Daveed cleared his throat. "Thank you. You’re fine yaseif. Anyway, Anthony and Jasmine have a house there, and we’re flying out of JFK tonight.  In about two and a half hours in fact. So we gotta get going.”

You still had only a part of a clue of what was going on. But you couldn't resist all of this.

"Okay? But... I don't have any clothes. And I don’t have a ticket..."

Craig came from the storage room off the kitchen with one of your suitcases. Others started getting their bags as well

"Everybody's shit has been in my house for a week. And girl, you know I got your information. It ain’t nothing but a thang.  Your ticket is ready and waiting. Just sent it to your email.”

Your mouth dropped open and you stared at Craig as everyone pulled their onesies back up and got their bags together.

Your eyes filled with tears that you hurriedly brushed away. Craig came over and hugged you. Then every else joined in for a group hug.

"You deserve, Lindy. Let us celebrate you."

You looked like you didn't quite believe it, but you went along. You laughed, visibly deciding to go with the flow.

"I'm down!"

Toni was nearby. When the hug broke up, she started asking questions.  Your  patience was wearing thin.

"I don’t believe that all these people really roll like this. Y’all wild. Susie won that bet."

You just continued to look at this fool.

"But isn’t this dope?  All these famous, successful men being so fearless with their love and appreciation for Black women, of all people. Who woulda thunk they didn't want white women?"

Toni just kept saying the wrong thing. It was the "of all people" for you.

You stared daggers at your houseguest. Toni caught the look.

"Wait, are you mixed?"

You narrowed your eyes and said, "Black mixed with Black."

Toni clutched her pearls.

"Oh wow. Didn't mean to offend. I just mean everyone knows Jasmine is mixed, with her dad and all, as black as can be. But her white British mom saved her from his skin tone. I mean, she has braids in now, so you can see it, but all she has to do is blow her hair straight and she can pass..."

Toni jumped when Rafa spoke. She didn't know he was there.

"Toni. Not Jas. She's the homie." 

The look in his ice blue eyes could burn. 

"And you are a Black woman, so you know how dope they are. Why would anyone NOT worship at your feet?"

Lindy just sipped her drink as Craig entered the chat. "Amen!"

"Maybe it is time for you to get going, honey. I might call you when I get back."

Rafa  led Toni to the door as she protested.

"But I was going to take you to the air..."

"And I APPRECIATE you Black woman, but we'll get there.  See you later."

Then Rafa shut the door in her face. Linden discovered she loved him eternally at that moment. She was rolling.

No one mourned Toni’s departure as arrangements were made for cars to take everyone to the airport.

"You and Daveed can ride with us, Rafa." Ant to the rescue.

"Yeah, Jasmine loves to look at my profile." Jas pinched him so hard he jumped.

“Fuck!”

Ant  was screaming as he, Jasmine and Rafa went out the door. 

"Peace! See you at airport security.  If you get nabbed by TSA, you on your own!”

Daveed lingered. “I don’t know if all of us and our bags will fit in one car. Can I ride with you and Lindy, Craig?”

Craig smirked at Daveed, but didn’t say anything. “Of course...you good with that Lindy?”

You tried to keep it light. 

“Sure.. no biggie,” you cleared your throat and headed to the bathroom to make sure you had everything you needed.

=================

By the time you got to your Uber, the traffic was horrible. It took over an hour to get to the airport. You felt both anxious about missing the flight and keyed up about sitting next to Daveed in the car.

His thigh and side pressing into yours in the dark in the back of an Uber Black brought back memories of that reckless night. 

When he put his arm up on the seat behind you, “For more room,” he said, in that voice and flashing that megawatt smile, you were enveloped more into his scent and warmth. You had to control yourself not to melt into him.

Craig was sitting on his phone, sneaking glances at you and smirking the entire ride. He’d insisted that you be in the middle because you were so tiny.

The whole world was against you, you thought, as you and Daveed both stared straight ahead, both flashing back to that January night.

You were the last three people to run through the airline gate just at they were about to close it. All your friends in first class cheered when you took their seats, and Rafa popped a bottle of champagne.

"Talk about cutting it close," Ant commented as Rafa gave Daveed a high five.

Daveed looked at you. You shook your head at him. Somehow, you were sitting next to him. You just decided to let it be and have some time.

“Just make sure you don’t molest me under this blanket, Ms. Marshall,” Daveed intoned when you were settled and given amenities for the night.

The flight attendant had to tell y’all to keep quiet as the cat calls went up.

Welp, you thought. This will be the vibe the entire weekend. 

You weren’t mad at it. You loved these people. And you were safe. You just smiled, settled down, and looked out of the window to watch the lights of New York fade away.

=================

Read the next chapter

Thanks for liking, reblogging, and commenting.

Tagging:  @braidedchallah @einfachniemand @sillyteecup @commandersmiley @ohsoverykeri-blog  @theselilwonders @theatrenerd86 @sebastianabucknettastan @imatyoursurrvicesurr @riiyy @ivycomet @lonelydance @jbrizzywrites @id-do-it-for-free-babe

[luv4fandoms]

Christmas Angel (Spn Gabriel X Reader)

@freakygirlforeve7-blog-blog. Suggested

So sorry this took so long, my house got a bit busy working on Christmas gifts and for some reason this story took me a bit to actually come up with lol. But I hope you enjoy it! 😊

Warnings: Slight angst, fluff

Pairings: Gabriel x Reader

Words: 2,355

You wiped your eyes while you wandered around, the light snow falling softly, dusting your hair and shoulders as you called once more for your dog. How many years would this happen? How many more loved ones would you lose? You felt cursed, afraid that you were simply meant to be alone. The first year had been your grandmother, the next year, your beloved family cat (C/N), then your grandfather, then your oldest dog (D/N), then your aunt, and now your other dog (D/N), every year around Christmas you always lost someone close, and the weight of it crushed even the smallest spark of "Christmas spirit". 

The holiday was done for you, long since lost it's magic, and you dreaded it every year. Sighing, you sat down on a nearby park bench and tried to warm your hands. You had been looking for (D/N) for days, and still no trace of them, it was like they just vanished into thin air. While lost in thought, you hadn't noticed the stranger approach the bench, so it started you when a voice spoke up.

"Why so down sugarplum?" 

Looking up you were met with the most beautiful whiskey eyes.

"Oh...Um" you started, but couldn't find the words and couldn't break your gaze. He quirked an eyebrow, a small smirk gracing his lips while he watched you fumble for a sentence. Finally you seemed to find the willpower to stop staring and instead look at the ground.

"My dog is lost...So I'm out looking for them" You replied, fighting back the tears, you didn't need to break down in front of him. 

"Awe I'm so sorry sugar, how long have they been missing?" He asked, looking up at him again he looked genuinely concerned.

"A couple of days, I'm hoping...Since today had been the first day it snowed" you trailed off, not wanting to even voice your concerns, though, the way your life was...You knew that was the most likely of outcomes.

"Why don't I help you look for them?" He offered after a moment.

"Oh no it's ok really" 

"Nonsense buttercup" he dismissed you, before adding.

"Besides, with two people we're bound to find the pooch sooner right?" He smiled, you finally took a good look at the man; he looked like he was maybe in his early thirties, light golden brown hair, whiskey colored eyes, a gray t-shirt, leather jacket and blue jeans...honestly...He was hot. 

"I suppose you're right" you smiled back, standing from the bench.

"I'm (y/n)" you smiled

"My dog's name is (D/N)"

"Gabriel" he replied, coming to stand beside you.

"Let's start our search for the infamous (D/N)" he added with a wink and held out his arm for you. With a smile you took it and the two of you began your search. He asked you where you usually take your dog after the park, you replied with your old house, having grown up in that neighborhood, you still knew a lot of people there and visited often. While you both made your way towards the neighborhood, Gabriel made small talk, asking things like what kind of music did you like? Favorite foods? Simple things, you also found out he worked at a local college.

"So how come you moved?" He asked once you entered the neighborhood and began looking around for (D/N).

"My parents and I lived there with my grandma, it was my mom's childhood home, but after my grandmother passed, my mom said it was too painful living there...So we moved" You explained, remembering how your grandmother had been the first in this long line to pass.

"I'm sorry for your loss" he spoke while running his thumb over the hand that was still wrapped around his arm, surprisingly it helped hold back the tears.

"How long ago did she pass?"

"Six years" he nodded, both of you falling silent as you continued to walk, still searching for (D/N). You stopped a few moments later, looking up at the old house that held so many memories. You remembered growing up on that porch swing, taking the stairs inside two at a time much to your mother's worry. You remembered playing hopscotch on the driveway, coming home from school, learning to drive here...even having your first kiss on those very same front porch steps.

Gabriel dragged you from your swimming thoughts with a tap on the arm, looking over at him he pointed to the front gate which was open.

"I take it no one lives here soo...Worth a shot right?" He asked before pulling you into the yard to check around the house.

"I bet you always had a lot of fun around this time of the year" he stated from in front of you, still walking along the house.

"Why would you guess that?"You asked, honestly confused, he simply shrugged. Before answering.

"You just seem like the type who likes Christmas is all" he looked back at you with a smile, and in that moment you wondered if he was being honest, or teasing you about your sour disposition. But his words did bring back more memories, ones of you, your mother and grandmother all in the kitchen baking cookies and pies. It was something you all loved to do, and it became a tradition around Christmas time. You used to joke and say that you were going to grow up and become a baker...But lately you didn't have the drive to do much of anything...Feeling like it wouldn't even matter in the end. As you finished rounding the house, your shoulders slumped, still no sign of (D/N). Seeing your saddened expression, Gabriel rested his hand on your shoulder, causing you to once again get lost in his gaze.

"Hey, we still have plenty of daylight, let's keep looking" he smiled, you gave a small smile back before you both continued on your way, you explained that you would also walk (D/N) into town sometimes, so you both began walking towards town. Gabriel started up the simple conversations once more, it surprised you how easy it was to talk to him, like he was an old friend, it also surprised you how comfortable you were around him, a stranger you had only met  earlier that day. He was the jokester type, that was for sure, and he could easily put a smile on your face which he seemed to enjoy doing because every time your laughter would die down you would catch him staring at you, a small smile on his own lips.

"Come on! You have to have some big plans for the future. I know! An actress, no no, a model, ya know, why not both?" He teased after you had stated that you didn't know what to do in life. 

"I don't see either of those things in the cards for me" you gave a slight laugh, eyes looking forward at the lighted window displays inside each shop, the sun had set only a little bit ago, and now the town was lit by joyous Christmas scenes.

"Why not? You're beautiful enough" he replied, catching you off guard and your cheeks to reddened not just from the cold. Your eyes met his whiskey ones again, though this time the twinkling lights surrounding you both made them constantly shift between whiskey and honey, and you found yourself getting lost in them just as you had that morning. Gabriel was so far, as cliche as it sounded, what you had always looked for in a guy, sweet, caring, a sense of humor, and very easy on the eyes. There was this strange pull to him, and an odd sense of safety and...home...That you hadn't felt in a long time. But the nagging reminder of your unlucky life had you looking away, already knowing that the two of you wouldn't work, you were doomed to be alone if fate had anything to do with it. 

"Thank you, but...How my life is…Nothing good will ever come my way" 

"What do you mean (Y/N)?" He asked, the first time he used your actual name all day. You sighed, unsure if you should unload all this emotional baggage on him, but one look back at him brought back that sense of safety, like you could tell him anything and he would make it better. Looking down at the ground you started.

"You were wrong...When you said I looked like someone who liked Christmas...I did, at one point. But after everything..The first year I lost grandmother, the next year, the family cat (C/N), then my grandfather passed, then my oldest dog (D/N), then my aunt died, and now (D/N) is missing, every year around Christmas I always lose someone close. So that's why Christmas has lost its luster, and that's why I don't see anything good happening for me in the future...Fate doesn't like me very much." You sighed, never once looking up at him...You wouldn't be surprised if he left, he would probably fear for his own life, after all, you were like walking bad luck. So when he grabbed your hands, you quickly looked up, seeing that small smile on his face.

"Screw fate, you've had some horrible things happen, and for that I really am sorry, but if there is anything I have learned from living amongst people...in this town" he laughed.

"It's that people can change their lives at any moment, no matter what plans some divine cosmic being has in store for them" he stated, and even though he still had that smile, the conviction in his voice made him seem like he knew much more than he showed.

"What did you always want to be?" He asked, confusing you as you looked at him, tilting your head slightly.

"You said no to model and actress, though I still think you could absolutely do both" he stated with a wink.

"So what did little Y/N always want to do when she grew up?"

"I...wanted to be a baker" you answered, blushing slightly at the awed expression he gave you.

"You are even more perfect than I imagined" he whispered causing you to laugh.

"Then be a baker! Look!" He dragged you over to an empty shop.

"This could be yours, I can see it now Y/N's tasty treats" he motioned across the glass, earning another laugh from you.

"You seem like a strong and stubborn person, don't let some silly little thing like fate stop you sugarplum" he stated, returning to your side, you looked at him again, getting lost in his gaze for what felt like the millionth time that day, the smile never leaving your lips as you asked.

"Then what led us to meet?" You asked 

"I've been to that park almost everyday,I've never once seen you" you added.

"You'd have remembered me?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows and causing you to giggle again.

"Of course" you smirked.

"Well, maybe fate decided to be nice for once" he shrugged.

"Well...I'm glad" you smiled.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I'm really glad I met you today Gabriel"

"I'm glad we met too sugar" he smiled, and again, the feeling of home swept over you, maybe fate was being nice for once, maybe your luck was finally turning around, maybe just maybe…

"Awww" a woman stated while she and her boyfriend passed by, looking over at them for a moment you looked back at Gabriel confused, he simply smiled and pointed up. Right above your heads, hanging from a tree branch was a small piece of mistletoe. Blushing you looked back at Gabriel who simply shrugged.

"Only if you want to sugarplum" smiling, you slowly leaned in, Gabriel meeting you halfway, and your heart feeling like it wasn't shattered for the first time in years. His hands rested on your hips while yours rested on his shoulders, the kiss deepening while only one thought crossed your mind...Maybe you didn't have to be alone.

Breaking the kiss you rested your forehead against his, smiling while you tried to catch your breath.

"Wow" you spoke after a moment, causing him to laugh.

"I'll take that as a complement, and right back at cha sugarplum" he smiled. Maybe he was right, maybe fate was a silly thing, but at that moment you were happy it led you to him. Just as you were about to state that though, you felt something brush against your leg, and upon looking down you couldn't stop the tears.

"D/N!" You cried out, dropping to your knees and hugging the dog, their smiling face making you smile as well.

"The mystery of the missing D/N has been solved! Good work agent Y/N" Gabriel joked, getting down to pet D/N as well. You looked over at him and felt your breath hitch, from here, the Christmas lights gave him an ethereal glow, almost...Angelic in a way. That thought had you giggling at how accurate it was. A Christmas angel.

"What's up sugarplum?" 

"Nothing...It's just...You're kind like mine and D/Y's guardian angel" you blushed and looked at D/N, but caught the smile Gabriel gave you from the corner of your eye.

"Anytime you need me" he whispered to you, placing a soft kiss on your cheek before standing up.

"Now how about I escort you two home safely huh? After all, as your angel I have my duties" he stated with a wink, holding out his hand for you.

"Just angel duties?" You asked as you stood up.

"Well...I've always been one to mix business and pleasure" he smirked, wrapping his arm around you while the two of you began to walk, D/N trotting happily beside you both. Looking over at him once more you couldn't help but smile...Yeah...Fate finally decided to be nice to you, and maybe this Christmas wouldn't be so bad.

I hope you all enjoyed it! Let me know what you think!

Also I was largely inspired by this quote.