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theresattrpgforthat · 1 year

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Hi! Thank you for all your recommendations thus far! Have you ever come across solo journalling games with a vibe/story hook of “i am trying to reunite with someone important but life keeps throwing obstacles my way”? Kind of like a record of all those times you came ~so-so close~ to finally being together but losing each other in the crowd

THEME: Solo Reunification

Hello, I hope these games fall somewhat within the realm of what you're looking for!

All We Love We Leave Behind, by World Champ Games Co.

All We Love We Leave Behind(AWLWLB) is a single-player RPG of letter writing focusing on abandonment, isolation, and the passing of time.

Players play the part of a person left behind by someone with a supposed greater purpose (an adventurer in a fantasy realm, a detective left for an important case in the big city, an exploratory space vessel). You will write a series of letters to the loved one who has left you, using a standard deck of playing cards to randomize events in your life and the emotional content of your writings.

This game is interesting in that you are not out on adventurer, but rather missing someone who is. While your character is attempting to maintain a connection with someone who is far away, the game is more focused on your own character’s growth. Who they are at the end of the game should be different from who they are at the beginning.

I Have Gone This Far, by Max Kämmerer.

You have been a fraud all your life, or so you thought. Telling people about demons and devils, warning them, selling them worthless wards and trinkets. Little did you know, you were right all along. Demons do exist and one has possessed your charge, who lives with you since their parents died. One night, when you were working on some new trinkets filled with mosses and bark, your charge came down the stairs, an empty look on their face. Their eyes turned violet and you could no longer move.

“I have gone this far” is a game about seeing how far you are willing to go to protect someone you love. It is about isolation, desperation and guilt.

You play a soothsayer, a charlatan, a trickster that has been preying on the fears of people for years now. You sell trinkets and read cards and tea leaves. You never believed in what you sold people. Now you do. It is on you to free your charge from possession or even banish the demon entirely.

What I find really interesting about this game is that technically, the person you're trying to re-unite with is still right there - but their soul is held prisoner. This is very much in theme with a horror game or a tragedy, so consider what kinds of things you're willing to explore before you pick this game up.

The Empty-Nester, by Ghotib.

This is a solo letter-writing RPG inspired by ghostbox and written for #DeadLettersJam; you draw cards from the Hearts suit of a deck of playing cards and answer the prompts. You are a Parent writing to their absent Child.

This is another game about attempting to keep in communication with someone you love, explicitly an adult child. Their reason for leaving could be anything from a job in another city to joining a cult - how seriously you want to play this is up to you. You’ll draw cards from the suite of hearts to answer prompts, and journal the kinds of letters you’re writing to your kid. This game can be tender, somber, or anything in between.

Transmission for Them, by Eryk Sawicki.

Six years have passed since your lover left Earth.

Six years you’ve spent on a ship in the quiet of Space, trying to find them.

You sit at the edges of the Universe, reserves low, watching life go on. With no way home, all you can do is send your last transmission…

Transmission for Them is a solo journaling game about reflecting on your odyssey across the stars, the people you met, the places you went, the obstacles you faced and, of course: the reason you went, them.

This is a game that occurs after the adventure has already happened, with prompts you write answered in the past tense. The game is more of an exploration of the relationship you had with the person you’re looking for, a retrospective look at your life together. However, the reminiscence includes the endeavours you took to find them again, so I think it matches this theme pretty well.

All Our Yesterdays, by Hilary B. Bisenieks.

All Our Yesterdays is a solo journaling game about traveling back in time so that someone doesn’t have to die alone.

Through the game’s four acts, you will chronicle your trip back in time and explore how your decision to travel back affects you and others.

This is an interesting journey for your character, because you know the person you are travelling to is going to die. It is not guaranteed that you will get to them in time, but the most important thing in this game is your relationship, and you’ll get to explore that no matter what the ending looks like. You’ll spend the game drawing cards from a deck and answering questions from an oracle, with each suit representing a different phase of your journey.

Daddy Issues, by Nikola R. Petrov.

Have you heard the story of the father who "went for cigarettes" and never came back? You play as that guy.

Don't get me wrong, you have nothing but the best of intentions! All you need to do is get a pack of cigarettes and come back home—but that's easier said than done!

The city is full of dangers, fat pigeons, criminals, and... werewolves?

DADDY ISSUES is a printable RPG released during Zine Month 2022. It is a highly thematic solo game that combines dark humor, procedurally-generated narrative, and light management elements.

This is the most action-packed game on this list, with various dangers that you’ll have to fight or outsmart in order to get home. Your obstacles will be generated via roll-tables, and success or failure depends on the results of rolling 2d6. If you want something that’s a bit cheesy and less on the serious side, I recommend this game.

Necromance, by Eliot Silvarian.

A solo game about a witch trying to bring back their dead lover through necromancy.

Your lover died a tragic death. But you’ve been studying necromancy, so you know it doesn’t have to be permanent. In fact, you know a lot of helpful resources for the ritual can be found throughout the very forest you live in, if you’re willing to brave the dangers at night. As you traverse the forest through the cards you lay out, you weave the story of you and your lover while trying to bring them back.

Use a deck of playing cards to navigate the arduous process of bringing your dead lover back to life. On top of answering prompts, you’ll also need to keep track of resources and energy if you want to have a hope of completing your task, and the cards you draw will either drain or replenish your stock. If you like the idea of crossing boundaries to be with the one you love, I recommend Necromance.

Honorable Mention

Bring Home the Babe, by Cloven Pine Games.

You are an older sibling entering the fey realm to steal back a baby before your parents find out what happened. It’s a two-player game, but it hits the theme right on the nose.

Games I've recommended in the past

Untitled Moth Game, by S.Kaya J.

Follow Me Down, by Joie Martin.

#dnd #indie ttrpgs #tabletop games #solo #asks #game recommendations

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liss-99 · 2 years

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Fic Writer Interview

I was tagged by the lovely @sirphillipcranestanaccount

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

31! But only like two that are multiple chapters lol

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

213,293

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Two; Bridgerton and then one random one-shot I wrote for Reign hehe.....many many years ago (when I was a teenager and a horrible writer, I wrote for many other fandoms on a never to be revealed different account)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. The Eight Pieces of Violet Bridgerton's Heart (488) is my retelling of each novel from Violet's POV.

2. Child's Play (353) A silly one-shot where the spouses and Violet prank the siblings!

3. In So Many Words (314) A drabble series where I randomly assigned 5 phrases and prompts and wrote drabbles for each couple

4. Lost Love is Sweeter When It's Finally Found (274) A five-part series I wrote for @missfairygodmother about what might have happened had the Bee incident not occurred!

5. Why They Lost Their Minds and Fought The Wars (261) A compilation of all my Bridgerswift drabbles!

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes, because I love showing people appreciation for showing my fic love <3

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

oof definitely this one Desiderium where I may or may not have killed a child off. Sorry!

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

No and I don't think I ever would

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No! Super grateful lol

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not good smut lol, I've tried a few times but it's not my style. I do lots of innuendos and fade to blacks haha

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No but repeating what @sirphillipcranestanaccount said in that her and I would write an amazing Minnesota AU lol

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

For the Bridgerton fandom, it's Kate/Anthony

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will

I don't have any WIP mostly because I'm afraid of commitment and thus often only write one-shots

15. What are your writing strengths?

Details! The Little Things! I like to think I'm really good at painting a picture with my descriptive writing :)

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I am a journalist by trade and I think sometimes my writing comes off very formal bc of that

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Love it as long as the translation is correct!

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

With my current persona, Reign, but with my old old old accounts....Pretty Little Liars lol

19. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Definitly The Eight Pieces of Violet Bridgerton's Heart because she's my fav and I loved reliving each book through her, otherwise my Bridgerton family vacation series Over Roads and Bridgertons

Tagging @sharmasandcorgis , @intp-slytherin97 @hallownight89 and anyone else who wants in!

#writer asks #fanfiction #archive of our own #bridgerton

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otp-armada · 4 years

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"Bellarke doesn't make sense," they say. They say because Clarke hasn't done anything that resembles romantic gestures toward Bellamy.

Conceding to march to her possible death in exchange for Roan sparing Bellamy's life. Obstinately fighting against Bellamy's stubborn wishes to remain outside the Ark while Praimfaya burns to the world to ashes. Shattering her soul by choosing 100 people to live and writing his name on the list, because he must survive. She can't have it any other way. Relinquishing 50 of those spots to Azgeda when Bellamy is captured and threatened, and Roan calls her bluff. Desperation driving her to the extreme to ensure the survival of the human race, yet unable to kill Bellamy to keep the bunker closed and the grounders from possibly killing Skaikru. Leaving the guaranteed safety of the fort to stay by Bellamy's side on the brink of global cataclysm. The bittersweet yet soft head and heart exchange she prompted. The hesitation in her last remark before imploring him to hurry.

4x13 ends six years and seven days post-Praimfaya with Clarke radioing Bellamy on the Ring. An activity she performs daily for six years. In any six years of my adult life, my only daily consistencies have been limited to breathing, eating, and sleeping. This girl is devoted enough to send her equivalent of love letters into the emptiness of space for 2,199 days. Season 5 opens with her trying to survive by herself in an apocalyptic wasteland. She spends her journey narrating to him her unvarnished struggles during the most traumatic experience of her young life to date. Her despondency. Her loneliness. Her agony. Her desperation. Her small victories. Her discovered treasures. Her determination. Her doubt. Her guilt. Her defeat. Her morbid self-reflection. Her relief and contentment. Her happiness. Her admission of missing him. She shares all of it with only him. Only he is permitted to know her to this depth. Not any of her other people on the Ring. Not any of her people in the bunker, a group including her mother. Not a spiritual communion to the great, big love of her life Lxa, situated on her throne in the high heavens and waiting for her trophy wife, for Clarke to stay connected to her dearly departed. Isn't that the sort of behavior that might occur by a bereft widow?

After finding an oasis to rest and call home, even after discovering a companion to build a life with, she continues with her radio calls. It doesn't matter that he never received her communications. The importance of the gesture- the intimacy of sharing her life and thoughts with him while he was gone- remains the same. The magnitude of her devotion to him made clearer through the absence of a single responding utterance.

She lovingly tells Madi stories of Bellamy as her hero. Gazing warmly, hopefully up at the stars as if she longs for her vision to cut through an endless pitch-black sky and find dark curls and freckled constellations from thousands of miles away.

"Bellarke doesn't make sense," they say. They say because post-Praimfaya ended with an established B/E.

As Clarke looks up at the stars, questioning if she'll see Bellamy again, we transition to our first glimpse of Bellamy after six years, forlornly looking down on Earth to the very spot of green where he is unaware of who is yearning for him to return to her. Contrary to Clarke, who is covered in warm firelight when thinking of him, he is colored in cold, muted greys and blue, no speck of warm hue. (The rhyming scheme was unintentional, but hey, I'm going with it.) Behind him, his family is sparring, but he's distant from them. He's trapped within this tin can, his arms folded, his body taut, not facing the view on the other side of the glass, but still enraptured by the sight of his home below.

We see what changes to the characters and their dynamics have taken place until, at long last, we uproariously cheer as Bellamy & Co. find a way to return to Earth, the sole event we've been anticipating for eleven months, to the point we could feel it at our fingertips, jittery and tingly. Bellarke reunion!! He's going to know she's alive! Yes! Finally!! Break out the champagne! We're celebrating, dammit! It's going to be so damn emotional! Authors start crafting mental fanfics. People are bouncing off the walls like bright, errant fireworks, unable to sit still. I can't believe it's finally happening...what do you think it's going to be like? Will he run to her? Will he be stunned and speechless? Will they sob uncontrollably?!? They'll be clutching the life out of each other! Another Bellarke hug!! The very best hug!!! They're never going to let the other out of their sight again! He's going to meet Madi! Mom, dad, and adopted preteen make three!!! There's no way they're not getting together after this!! He just got her back after six years of thinking she was dead!! The reunion's not going to happen this episode, but maybe next week, when do you think? You mean we have to wait seven days before----

B e c h o.

We stood on the precipice of what we agonized and crawled through for eleven excruciating months, only for an anvil to drop, and our heads to be clubbed. Our bodies fell through the floor, descending lower and lower with immense haste, to take up residence in the seventh circle of hell.

Do you think the framing of these events wasn't intentional?

Do you think the powers that be behind the creation of that calamitous bombshell for our protagonist, intended for us to root for B/E?

By us, I'm not restricting the effect of the blow to Bellarke shippers. The entire audience, casual and fandom alike, shippers and non-shippers, was meant to await this reunion. We were all meant to feel devastated by this revelation.

If they didn't want to invoke in us feelings of support for B/E at their inception, how in the name of all things holy is a purported B/E endgame your conclusion?

"B/E doesn't make any sense," they say, "when last we saw them, she was his enemy. Nothing more, nothing less."

Do I think their pre-Praimfaya status as antagonists rendered it impossible for B/E to have a convincing love story or sexual relationship?

I think, if Jason were so inclined, we could have gotten flashback Ring rendezvous of secret trysts between Bellamy and a googly-eyed, blonde-wig-wearing broomstick designated Clarke 2.0. So no, I don't consider B/E a deviation inherently outside the realm of romantic possibility. Jason is an artist, and this show is his canvas. He can give life to almost any whim he'd like in his work of fiction. Not only that, but B/E is also hardly the first pairing in this series modeled by the enemies-to-lovers trope.

"Bellarke doesn't make sense, they'd say, "absent any concrete evidence alluding to a romantic relationship." "Seven years running, and not a trace of romantic love," they'd conclude.

Remind me, what was B/E's sublime prologue into coupling up again?

Furiously choking the life out of an enemy in a fit of rage two episodes before revealing her as his new girlfriend evidently can be considered by some an adequate precursor to a sensational romantic relationship. But endangering Earthkru's lives by risking the wrath of two societies in refusing to let Clarke die, pumping her heart for her to stay alive while begging her to fight so she can come back to him, cannot be.

Either this show is quite the oddity, or it’s fandom's periodic knee-jerk, ass-backwards, charming zeal at play.

The lack of rising development is all the more reason why B/E's grand unveiling demanded perfection. Instead, our first insight into their union is overshadowed by Clarke and the impending Bellarke reunion. B/E isn't central enough to the narrative to warrant focus that would put to rest any discord of illegitimacy. But you know which pair of the two is concentrated on for seven seasons now? Three guesses...

But don't despair. Fandom has decreed, by its own appraisal, the shorthand of kissing and sex has rectified the discrepancy of a complete absence of pertinent on-screen development.

"It's not ideal storytelling," they say, "to exclude B/E's development. But The 100 has historically been a plot-driven, fast-paced, contained drama. It has always evaded expanding on character dynamics to fans' satisfaction.”

The writers have done more to present Josephine and Gabriel as soulmates with less airtime than B/E ever had in total. They don't lack the skill or time to fortify B/E in anyone's mind as the central romance. Jason made a conscious choice not to. Why would he? Does he think the endgame love story of the show's deuteragonist doesn't merit attention to detail by the writing? Or does it seem more likely, it was never his intention for B/E to cross the finish line?

And, for a plot-driven, fast-paced, contained drama, they sure have an awful knack for finding the time to showcase Clarke's kicked puppy reactions to an embracing B/E. We've had three thus far. One for science, one for emphasis, and one to say, "Do you people get it now?"

"Bellarke doesn't make any sense," they say, "if they wanted each other, they'd have gotten together by now."

A long time ago, someone stated, "Lovers are supposed to do that you know and if they don’t do that it means their relationship isn’t romantic if sexual intercourse isn’t added."

And to that, I posed the question, "Where exactly is it written that "if a pairing is not made canon by season [insert arbitrarily chosen number here], it will never be made canon, period?" Was I just absent from fandom class that day and skipped to the lesson on slow-burn ships?" We are going into the final season, and I stand by this question today as I did then. Bellarke could refrain from physical expressions of love and candid confessions to season 17, and their journey could continue to exemplify a love story. Because the absence of either one doesn't preclude two people from falling in love. Nor does the inclusion of either one necessitate two people falling in love.

"Bellarke doesn't make any sense," they say. They say because Bellamy is her dearly beloved, but platonic, best friend.

Well, you've got me there. I'm stumped. How can it be possible for friendship and romantic love to behave as anything but mutually exclusive concepts? It's not as if friendship can be contorted to serve as a foundation for love.

The cornerstones of strong friendships include trust, care, support, devotion, and many other features of a similar nature. Love- deep and genuine love, that is- involves frequent kissing and passionate, vigorous sex. The wilder the display, the stronger the pairing. The dozens of couples, love interests, and sexual liaisons before B/E who have kissed and had sex before dying must not have first consulted the manual for proper protocol.

And the inverse? Once two people fall in love, they cannot fall back to say, a familial connection. No, no, no. Such a regression would be the work of a tragic, reprehensible flaw in the cogs of the universe. Speak nothing of it.

"It doesn't make sense for B/E to break up," they say, "when B/E has stayed together for two seasons sans any indication Bellamy loves Clarke more than Echo, enough to want to leave his loving girlfriend."

How many times has Bellamy tried and failed to honor his commitment to Echo? How many weak attempts are met with a corresponding scene of Bellamy shifting his attention to the girl he tells himself to get over?

Echo leaves for Shallow Valley, his focus immediately turns onto persuading Clarke not to leave his side. He symbolically chooses Echo in the fireside scene by touching her sword. Yet, he looks at his girlfriend for the first time since their separation with the most aloof expression unsuitable for the occasion. No hope to be found anywhere. They share a brief reunion hug, no time for intimacy. He is reunited with Clarke and casts a nervous glance at Echo when bombarded with Clarke's appreciative gaze. Still no time for intimacy between B/E before a decade-long nap, but time can be carved out for a warm, flirty Bellarke reconciliation, complete with intensive heart eyes. No inspired, emotionally wrought, double sunlit embraces for B/E. If Bellamy is going to look out of a window at his future home, he'll either be by himself or snuggling Clarke into his side. There's no place for Echo in the lock of his arms anymore, only room for flanking him in the way loyal lieutenants tend to do. His girlfriend glances over at him as their exploratory team roughly plummets to new territory, and he does the same at Clarke. B/E reconnects lakeside, him asking for a swim with her and leaning into her arms at a campfire. He sits by her side on a swing set, amidst talk of moving their people into an abandoned village. And it's all well and good for B/E, right? They're presenting the front of a happy, unified couple.

Until...Clarke walks away behind his sight, and he leaves Echo's side to seek Clarke's missing presence where the flirting and warm gazes and near confessions are kicked into overdrive. He calls Echo to hear his latest discovery, then proceeds to ignore the hell out of her, communicating exclusively to his co-leader. He stares wistfully at Clarke dancing with her new flavor of the night, cannot stop doing so even while excoriating Echo for her stoicism, expressing his frustration at her inability to fulfill his emotional needs.

He recommits to Echo, as Clarke is kidnapped and her body is stolen, with nary a transition, suggesting we are meant to link the two incidents together. For all his resolve to face the future with Echo, he spends the whole of the next episode with a wary eye on Clarke, to the point that he is the first to realize Clarke is not herself. In the ensuing arc ranging from 6x05 to 6x11, approximately half of the season, what was B/E, again? Was that a thing concurrently happening with Bellamy's Operation: Save My Clarke? Because I seem to be able to recall only Bellarke goodness. Oh, my mistake, there was the consoling hug which, oddly enough, did nothing to soothe him. As evidenced by his choice to grieve alone. No girlfriend he wanted close by for comfort, knowing clear as day she couldn't provide it if she tried. Not with who he just lost.

B/E gets another brief reunion hug, the majority of which is spent with him peering at Clarke. The show saw that hug and raised us an Austenesque-quality counterpart that would do Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy proud.

"B/E endgame is the only sensible outcome," they say, "they love each other so much."

I don't contend they don't love each other. But we are shown two people determined but incapable of snuffing their deep-rooted feelings out of noble propriety, and most importantly, out of needless fear of unrequited love. And another two people who sought- and failed- to keep grasping the wisps of a gentle relationship slipping out of their hands since they left their comfortable space bubble. For anyone in this conundrum to be happy, the only natural course of action is for the latter to call it quits. The writing has been on the wall for too long.

Maybe a single Bellarke scene plucked out of the lineup can be interpreted on its own as platonic buddies being platonic buddies. But when all those individual moments are woven together, what forms is an ornate tapestry with a pattern so vivid, any inane rhetoric involving a hint of the word "platonic" is little more than ludicrous anti drivel transparently cooked up by those wishing a different endgame.

I hope you've enjoyed my second long-winded rant, @sometimesrosy, @jeanie205, @travllingbunny. One born of a teaching moment in which I learn for the umpteenth time it's best to steer clear of Twitter.

#the 100 #bellarke #b/e #c/b/e #my post

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goth-bunny · 5 years

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I’ve been losing my mind over the hints at Bloodhound’s backstory that it’s unreal. So I wrote a lengthy blog entry about it. It’s at 1,711 words under the Read More.

(If you see this post on @bloodhound-and-jackrabbit, don’t worry, that’s my sideblog!)

Alright. Anyone who knows me, within the Apex fandom and outside of it too, knows that I am in love with Bloodhound. The season 3 launch is killing me! But don’t worry! I only have good things to talk about it!

A bit of a background: I was into playing Overwatch from late October 2018 to May 2019 thanks to my ex. But it wasn’t until I saw someone tweet about a new video game franchise having a canonically nonbinary character. Unfortunately, I felt like the genre wouldn’t be my cup of tea as I have minimal experience with battle royales, let alone FPS. The teaser trailer did manage to convince me otherwise with its diverse cast of characters, fast pacing, and killer song choice. I didn’t pick up the game until the end of February, which was a few days after my ex dumped me. I needed a distraction from it; so hell, why not play that hot new game?

I launch the game and don’t think too much, selecting the Tutorial mode, because of course, it’s a brand new game with different controls and mechanics from Overwatch. Imagine my surprise that I see the very Legend who’s piqued my interest in the series in the first place! After the Tutorial, I try the regular Play mode and got matched up with someone playing as Mirage. Unfortunately, I wasn’t doing so well, and I was nervous about speaking on mic at the time as I sound too feminine to be read as androgynous. I don’t remember much besides dying in a skirmish and being unable to use ziplines as they weren’t a part of the tutorial. After that match, I spent the remaining time checking out Bloodhound in the Legends gallery. What stood out the most for me were their quips or voicelines; a lot of them were very comforting for me to hear, especially in a low point of my life.

Weeks later, I was still talking to my ex, but it was clear that things were completely different than before. I played Overwatch without him anyway, but it wasn’t the same. I was still unable to come to terms that I do have somewhat of a crush on Bloodhound until early June; I had a dream that the two of us were alone in the woods, and they found it safe to take off their helmet and mask around me. They revealed themself as an androgynous black person with short, curly red hair, and I kissed them on the cheek. Two more dreams would succeed that: one where we were both dressed in black and red suits on a date, and the other one was…it ended up being not safe for work, to say the least. These all lead me to formulating a self-insert fanfic, and then finally giving Apex a second chance just so I can figure out the lore and feel of the game. Initially, if I have not gotten into Overwatch, I wouldn’t have considered playing Apex Legends even if I learned there was a nonbinary character.

Within the past 3 months, Bloodhound has been a comforting character for me. They were absolutely relatable to someone like me; besides the fact that they’re nonbinary, they also happened to be a pagan with an affinity for birds, sharp objects, and mortality.

The main catalyst for writing this post is the season 3 launch. Last week, when the launch trailer debuted, I lost sleep over seeing Bloodhound sharpening their handy hunting knife with a whetstone as they’re surrounded by numerous candles in their dropship room. The very scene made me fall even harder with them, as I too have always loved candles, and even more so when I started identifying as a pagan since last year. However, it was the season launch itself that made me even more anxious.

During the past 3 months I’ve immersed myself into the fandom, I’ve come up with multiple headcanons for Bloodhound, a great portion of them never having been published here on Tumblr or discussed publicly, the most notable being their backstory: I’ve figured that Bloodhound would have an Afro-Latina/Filipina biological mother (Nimfa Vilhjalmsdottir) who remarried to a white man named Sigurdur (Sigurdur Steinnson), thus Bloodhound ending up with a meathead stepbrother named Albert. The parents had a military background, and they all lived on a planet with a high population of humans of Icelandic or Nordic descent. As a kid, Bloodhound was kind of an oddball, preferring to spend lengthy periods of time outdoors and exploring the woods or reading books about fantasy and adventure. One time, little Bloodhound was flocked by an unkindess of ravens, much to their parents’ concern. As they grew older, they became more and more visibly uncomfortable with their birth gender, and their stepfather’s pressure on them to join the military. As Bloodhound turned 18, the tension between them and their stepfather grew, thus prompting them ran away from home and join a group of ragtag freedom fighters dedicated to preserving the Frontier lands from militarization and imperialism. Eventually, Bloodhound would end up knocking at death’s door in the middle of the woods after a young Anita Williams snipes them from a distance. This would be a turning point in their life, where they’d meet the Allfather and promise to be devoted to him. Coming back to the mortal realm, Bloodhound sees that their group has lost the battle, and decided to go into hiding, hopping from planet to planet to run away from their past.

However, it was teased that Bloodhound’s parents are named Johann and Brigida, and that they’re probably both scientists and not war veterans. Not disapproving or judgmental of their child’s gender of interests, as far as the loading screen with Johann’s letter to Brigida suggests. I would be fine with this, but it opens up a new can of worms for me.

Before I point what these potential worms would be, let me remind you that the new season dropped at the same time I had my psychiatrist appointment where I finally brought my mom over to talk with her about me, thus revealing that what I originally speculated was completely wrong.

Okay, here’s the can of worms: Johann and Brigida, and Artur to an extent, are very “white” sounding names. I would be lying if I denied that I didn’t speculate Bloodhound as a white person during the first few weeks after the game’s release. If the races of Bloodhound and their relatives were revealed to be all white, I’m worried that it’s going to cement the falsehood of Vikings or Norse pagans as being exclusively white, which was not the case in reality. I’m worried that Bloodhound being revealed as explicitly white would mean that they would be co-opted as white supremacist symbol because a sizeable amount of neo-Nazis/white supremacists/bigots practice Norse Paganism (which I learned the hard way a few weeks back).

Another concern would be Bloodhound getting a face reveal, which would undermine a lot of fans’ headcanons for them, mine included. The headcanons are as diverse as the Apex Legends cast itself and a lot of heart and soul have been poured out into them, so catastrophe is inevitable if the official unmasked!Bloodhound face will be revealed.

On the bright side, there are some things I hope will be executed instead of my worries. Bloodhound and their relatives are never portrayed explicitly, and are instead, shown as silhouettes, in addition to them never getting their face shown even when they have removed their helmet and mask. Another thing that would be nice to see is that they’d be ambiguously brown; Bloodhound being ambiguously brown would help break many stereotypes about them as a person, one of which is that one has to be white to be a Norse pagan, which is an open practice, anyway, and that Vikings have traveled across the globe and intermingled with different civilizations, meaning that a white viking homogeneity is racist and historically inaccurate. Besides, names like Johann, Artur, and Brigida can be just as white a name as Elizabeth Harris (that’s Cupcakke the rapper’s real name by the way!). It would also be a relief if the writers pull a Riley Cavanaugh and never hint at Bloodhound’s birth gender and keep them as androgynous as possible.

It’s also been speculated that Johann and Artur are Icelandic, and that Brigida is Italian, meaning that Bloodhound is potentially mixed-race. Let’s not forget that Apex Legends takes place in the 28th century, and people of all races are in space. Sure, there’s space ableism and imperialism, and to an extent, transphobia, but it would be unrealistic for racial homogeny to still exist.

Bloodhound has been a great source of comfort for me these past few months. I see so much of myself in them: besides being nonbinary, I’m also a pagan who venerates a psychopomp, love books and birds, introverted but sympathetic of others, and unashamed of my identity. I’ve seen my confidence spike upwards, knowing that a person like them exists. That I am much more than my weaknesses and how people perceive me. That I still have so much to live for. That I am not alone.

Before I end, I’m actually glad that Bloodhound grew up with a loving and accepting family, and thus destroying what projection of my hurt I have on them; I assumed that my mom would be immensely disappointed in me being nonbinary and bi, so I wanted someone who would be going through the same predicament as me, so that there’ll be some common ground. But it seems we do have enough common ground, having scientist parents who moved to a different place from my place of birth. Last August, my psychiatrist asked me how can I be a happy nonbinary person, in a world that sees everything in a male/female dichotomy? Perhaps I’ve found my answer in the form of Bloodhound.

If you have reached this paragraph, thank you so much for taking the time to read my post in its entirety. I just want to get my feelings off my chest, as Bloodhound has been very important to me.

Have you any questions or reactions, please feel free to message me!

#apex legends #apex legends bloodhound #bloodhound apex legends #bloodhound #bloth hoondr #stuff jun says #long post

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blackkudos · 4 years

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Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris (né Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. A prominent figure in popular music, he is one of the most successful songwriters and musicians in the history of music. Through his heavy use of electronic instruments and innovative sounds, Wonder became a pioneer and influence to musicians of various genres including pop, rhythm and blues, soul, funk and rock.

Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy known as Little Stevie Wonder, leading him to sign with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11. In 1963, the single "Fingertips" was a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when Wonder was aged 13, making him the youngest artist ever to top the chart. Wonder's critical success was at its peak in the 1970s when he started his "classic period" in 1972 with the releases of Music of My Mind and Talking Book, with the latter featuring the number-one hit "Superstition". "Superstition" is one of the most distinctive and famous examples of the sound of the Hohner Clavinet keyboard. With Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976) all winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, Wonder became the tied record holder, with Frank Sinatra, for the most Album of the Year wins with three. Wonder is also the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases.

Wonder's "classic period", which is widely considered to have ended in 1977, was noted for his funky keyboard style, personal control of production, and series of songs integrated with one another to make a concept album. In 1979, Wonder made use of the early music sampler Computer Music Melodian through his composition of the soundtrack album Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants". It was also his first digital recording, and one of the earliest popular albums to use the technology, which Wonder used for all subsequent recordings. Wonder's 1970s albums are regarded as very influential; the Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983) wrote they "pioneered stylistic approaches that helped to determine the shape of pop music for the next decade".

Wonder has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has won 25 Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all time. He was the first Motown artist and second African-American musician to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song, for the 1984 film The Woman in Red. Wonder has been inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, Rock and Rock Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame, and has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace.

Early life

Wonder was born Stevland Hardaway Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan, on May 13, 1950, the third of six children born to Calvin Judkins and songwriter Lula Mae Hardaway. He was born six weeks premature which, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in retinopathy of prematurity, a condition in which the growth of the eyes is aborted and causes the retinas to detach, so he became blind.

When Wonder was four, his mother divorced his father and moved with her children to Detroit, Michigan, where Wonder sang as a child in a choir at the Whitestone Baptist Church. She changed her name back to Lula Hardaway and later changed her son's surname to Morris, partly because of relatives. Wonder has retained Morris as his legal surname. He began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, and drums. He formed a singing partnership with a friend; calling themselves Stevie and John, they played on street corners and occasionally at parties and dances.

As a child, Wonder attended Fitzgerald Elementary School. After his first album was released, he enrolled in Michigan School for the Blind.

Career

1961–1969: Sixties singles

In 1961, when aged 11, Wonder sang his own composition, "Lonely Boy", to Ronnie White of the Miracles; White then took Wonder and his mother to an audition at Motown, where CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label. Before signing, producer Clarence Paul gave him the name Little Stevie Wonder. Because of Wonder's age, the label drew up a rolling five-year contract in which royalties would be held in trust until Wonder was 21. He and his mother would be paid a weekly stipend to cover their expenses: Wonder received $2.50 (equivalent to $21.39 in 2019) per week, and a private tutor was provided for when Wonder was on tour.

Wonder was put in the care of producer and songwriter Clarence Paul, and for a year they worked together on two albums. Tribute to Uncle Ray was recorded first, when Wonder was still 11 years old. Mainly covers of Ray Charles's songs, the album included a Wonder and Paul composition, "Sunset". The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie was recorded next, an instrumental album consisting mainly of Paul's compositions, two of which, "Wondering" and "Session Number 112", were co-written with Wonder. Feeling Wonder was now ready, a song, "Mother Thank You", was recorded for release as a single, but then pulled and replaced by the Berry Gordy song "I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It the Blues" as his début single; released summer 1962, it almost broke into the Billboard 100, spending one week of August at 101. Two follow-up singles, "Little Water Boy" and "Contract on Love", both had no success, and the two albums, released in reverse order of recording—The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie in September 1962 and Tribute to Uncle Ray in October 1962—also met with little success.

At the end of 1962, when Wonder was 12 years old, he joined the Motortown Revue, touring the "Chitlin' Circuit" of theatres across America that accepted black artists. At the Regal Theater, Chicago, his 20-minute performance was recorded and released in May 1963 as the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. A single, "Fingertips", from the album was also released in May, and became a major hit. The song, featuring a confident and enthusiastic Wonder returning for a spontaneous encore that catches out the replacement bass player, who is heard to call out "What key? What key?", was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when Wonder was aged 13, making him the youngest artist ever to top the chart. The single was simultaneously No. 1 on the R&B chart, the first time that had occurred. His next few recordings, however, were not successful; his voice was changing as he got older, and some Motown executives were considering cancelling his recording contract. During 1964, Wonder appeared in two films as himself, Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach, but these were not successful either. Sylvia Moy persuaded label owner Berry Gordy to give Wonder another chance.

Dropping the "Little" from his name, Moy and Wonder worked together to create the hit "Uptight (Everything's Alright)", and Wonder went on to have a number of other hits during the mid-1960s, including "With a Child's Heart", and "Blowin' in the Wind", a Bob Dylan cover, co-sung by his mentor, producer Clarence Paul. He also began to work in the Motown songwriting department, composing songs both for himself and his label mates, including "The Tears of a Clown", a No. 1 hit for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (it was first released in 1967, mostly unnoticed as the last track of their Make It Happen LP, but eventually became a major success when re-released as a single in 1970, which prompted Robinson to reconsider his intention of leaving the group).

In 1968 he recorded an album of instrumental soul/jazz tracks, mostly harmonica solos, under the title Eivets Rednow, which is "Stevie Wonder" spelled backward. The album failed to get much attention, and its only single, a cover of "Alfie", only reached number 66 on the U.S. Pop charts and number 11 on the US Adult Contemporary charts. Nonetheless, he managed to score several hits between 1968 and 1970 such as "I Was Made to Love Her", "For Once in My Life" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours". A number of Wonder's early hits, including "My Cherie Amour", "I Was Made to Love Her", and "Uptight (Everything's Alright)", were co-written with Henry Cosby. The hit single "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" was his first-ever self-produced song.

In 1969 Stevie Wonder participated in the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Se tu ragazza mia", in conjunction with Gabriella Ferri. Between 1967 and 1970 he recorded four 45 rpm and an Italian LP.

1970–1979: Seventies albums and classic period

In September 1970, at the age of 20, Wonder married Syreeta Wright, a songwriter and former Motown secretary. Wright and Wonder worked together on the next album, Where I'm Coming From (1971), Wonder writing the music, and Wright helping with the lyrics. Around this time, Wonder became interested in utilizing synthesizers after hearing albums by electronic group Tonto's Expanding Head Band. Wonder and Wright wanted to "touch on the social problems of the world", and for the lyrics "to mean something". The album was released at around the same time as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. As both albums had similar ambitions and themes, they have been compared; in a contemporaneous review by Vince Aletti in Rolling Stone, Gaye's was seen as successful, while Wonder's was seen as failing due to "self-indulgent and cluttered" production, "undistinguished" and "pretentious" lyrics, and an overall lack of unity and flow. Also in 1970, Wonder co-wrote, and played numerous instruments on the hit "It's a Shame" for fellow Motown act the Spinners. His contribution was meant to be a showcase of his talent and thus a weapon in his ongoing negotiations with Gordy about creative autonomy. Reaching his 21st birthday on May 13, 1971, he allowed his Motown contract to expire.

During this period, Wonder independently recorded two albums and signed a new contract with Motown Records. The 120-page contract was a precedent at Motown and gave Wonder a much higher royalty rate. Wonder returned to Motown in March 1972 with Music of My Mind. Unlike most previous albums on Motown, which usually consisted of a collection of singles, B-sides and covers, Music of My Mind was a full-length artistic statement with songs flowing together thematically. Wonder's lyrics dealt with social, political, and mystical themes as well as standard romantic ones, while musically he began exploring overdubbing and recording most of the instrumental parts himself. Music of My Mind marked the beginning of a long collaboration with Tonto's Expanding Head Band (Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil).

Released in late 1972, Talking Book featured the No. 1 hit "Superstition", which is one of the most distinctive and famous examples of the sound of the Hohner Clavinet keyboard. Talking Book also featured "You Are the Sunshine of My Life", which also peaked at No. 1. During the same time as the album's release, Wonder began touring with the Rolling Stones to alleviate the negative effects from pigeonholing as a result of being an R&B artist in America. Wonder's touring with the Stones was also a factor behind the success of both "Superstition" and "You Are the Sunshine of My Life". Between them, the two songs won three Grammy Awards. On an episode of the children's television show Sesame Street that aired in April 1973, Wonder and his band performed "Superstition", as well as an original called "Sesame Street Song", which demonstrated his abilities with television.

Innervisions, released in 1973, featured "Higher Ground" (No. 4 on the pop charts) as well as the trenchant "Living for the City" (No. 8). Both songs reached No. 1 on the R&B charts. Popular ballads such as "Golden Lady" and "All in Love Is Fair" were also present, in a mixture of moods that nevertheless held together as a unified whole. Innervisions generated three more Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. The album is ranked No. 23 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Wonder had become the most influential and acclaimed black musician of the early 1970s.

On August 6, 1973, Wonder was in a serious automobile accident while on tour in North Carolina, when a car in which he was riding hit the back of a truck. This left him in a coma for four days and resulted in a partial loss of his sense of smell and a temporary loss of sense of taste. Despite the setback, Wonder re-appeared for a European tour in early 1974, performing at the Midem convention in Cannes, at the Rainbow Theatre in London, and on the German television show Musikladen. On his return from Europe, he played a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden in March 1974, highlighting both up-tempo material and long, building improvisations on mid-tempo songs such as "Living for the City". The album Fulfillingness' First Finale appeared in July 1974 and set two hits high on the pop charts: the No. 1 "You Haven't Done Nothin'" and the Top Ten "Boogie on Reggae Woman". The Album of the Year was again one of three Grammys won.

The same year Wonder took part in a Los Angeles jam session that would become known as the bootleg album A Toot and a Snore in '74. He also co-wrote and produced the Syreeta Wright album Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta.

On October 4, 1975, Wonder performed at the historic "Wonder Dream Concert" in Kingston, Jamaica, a benefit for the Jamaican Institute for the Blind. In 1975, he played harmonica on two tracks on Billy Preston's album It's My Pleasure.

By 1975, at the age of 25, Wonder had won two consecutive Grammy Awards: in 1974 for Innervisions and in 1975 for Fulfillingness' First Finale. In 1976, when Paul Simon won the Album Of The Year Grammy for his Still Crazy After All These Years, he wryly noted, "I'd like to thank Stevie Wonder, who didn't make an album this year."

The double album-with-extra-EP Songs in the Key of Life was released in September 1976. Sprawling in style, unlimited in ambition, and sometimes lyrically difficult to fathom, the album was hard for some listeners to assimilate, yet is regarded by many as Wonder's crowning achievement and one of the most recognizable and accomplished albums in pop music history. The album became the first by an American artist to debut straight at No. 1 in the Billboard charts, where it stood for 14 non-consecutive weeks. Two tracks became No. 1 Pop/R&B hits: "I Wish" and "Sir Duke". The baby-celebratory "Isn't She Lovely?" was written about his newborn daughter Aisha, while songs such as "Love's in Need of Love Today" and "Village Ghetto Land" reflected a far more pensive mood. Songs in the Key of Life won Album of the Year and two other Grammys. The album ranks 57th on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Until 1979's Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" his only release was the retrospective three-disc album Looking Back, an anthology of his early Motown period.

1980–1990: Commercial period

The 1980s saw Wonder achieving his biggest hits and highest level of fame; he had increased album sales, charity participation, high-profile collaborations, political impact, and television appearances. The 1979 mainly instrumental soundtrack album Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" was composed using an early music sampler, a Computer Music Melodian. It was also his first digital recording, and one of the earliest popular albums to use the technology, which Wonder used for all subsequent recordings. Wonder toured briefly in support of the album, and used a Fairlight CMI sampler on stage. In this year Wonder also wrote and produced the dance hit "Let's Get Serious", performed by Jermaine Jackson and (ranked by Billboard as the No. 1 R&B single of 1980).

Hotter than July (1980) became Wonder's first platinum-selling single album, and its single "Happy Birthday" was a successful vehicle for his campaign to establish Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday as a national holiday. The album also included "Master Blaster (Jammin')", "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It", and the sentimental ballad, "Lately".

In 1982, Wonder released a retrospective of his 1970s work with Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium, which included four new songs: the ten-minute funk classic "Do I Do" (which featured Dizzy Gillespie), "That Girl" (one of the year's biggest singles to chart on the R&B side), "Front Line", a narrative about a soldier in the Vietnam War that Wonder wrote and sang in the first person, and "Ribbon in the Sky", one of his many classic compositions. He also gained a No. 1 hit that year in collaboration with Paul McCartney in their paean to racial harmony, "Ebony and Ivory".

In 1983, Wonder performed the song "Stay Gold", the theme to Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation of S. E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders. Wonder wrote the lyrics. In 1983, he scheduled an album to be entitled People Work, Human Play. The album never surfaced and instead 1984 saw the release of Wonder's soundtrack album for The Woman in Red. The lead single, "I Just Called to Say I Love You", was a No. 1 pop and R&B hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom, where it was placed 13th in the list of best-selling singles in the UK published in 2002. It went on to win an Academy award for best song in 1985. Wonder accepted the award in the name of Nelson Mandela and was subsequently banned from all South African radio by the Government of South Africa. Incidentally, on the occasion of his 35th birthday, Stevie Wonder was honored by the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid for his stance against racism in South Africa that same year (1985). The album also featured a guest appearance by Dionne Warwick, singing the duet "It's You" with Stevie and a few songs of her own. Following the success of the album and its lead single, Wonder made an appearance on The Cosby Show, in the episode "A Touch of Wonder" where he demonstrated his ability to sample. The following year's In Square Circle featured the No. 1 pop hit "Part-Time Lover". The album also has a Top 10 Hit with "Go Home." It also featured the ballad "Overjoyed", which was originally written for Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants", but did not make the album. He performed "Overjoyed" on Saturday Night Live when he was the host. He was also featured in Chaka Khan's cover of Prince's "I Feel For You", alongside Melle Mel, playing his signature harmonica. In roughly the same period he was also featured on harmonica on Eurythmics' single, "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" and Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues".

Wonder was in a featured duet with Bruce Springsteen on the all-star charity single for African Famine Relief, "We Are the World", and he was part of another charity single the following year (1986), the AIDS-inspired "That's What Friends Are For". He played harmonica on the album Dreamland Express by John Denver in the song "If Ever", a song Wonder co-wrote with Stephanie Andrews; wrote the track "I Do Love You" for the Beach Boys' 1985 self-titled album; and played harmonica on "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" on The Broadway Album by Barbra Streisand. In 1987, Wonder appeared on Michael Jackson's Bad album, on the duet "Just Good Friends". Michael Jackson also sang a duet with him entitled "Get It" on Wonder's 1987 album Characters. This was a minor hit single, as were "Skeletons" and "You Will Know".

1991–1999: Continued released new material, 1996 Summer Olympics

After 1987's Characters album, Wonder continued to release new material, but at a slower pace. He recorded a soundtrack album for Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever in 1991. From this album, singles and videos were released for "Gotta Have You", "Fun Day" (remix only), "These Three Words" and "Jungle Fever". The B-side to the "Gotta Have You" single was "Feeding Off The Love of the Land", which was played during the end credits of the movie Jungle Fever but was not included on the soundtrack. A piano and vocal version of "Feeding Off The Love of the Land" was also released on the Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal compilation. Conversation Peace and the live album Natural Wonder were released in the 1990s.

Among his other activities he played harmonica on one track for the 1994 tribute album Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved; sang at the 1996 Summer Olympics closing ceremony; collaborated in 1997 with Babyface on "How Come, How Long", a song about domestic violence that was nominated for a Grammy award; and played harmonica on Sting's 1999 "Brand New Day". In December 1999, Wonder announced that he was interested in pursuing an intraocular retinal prosthesis to partially restore his sight.

2000–present: Later career

Into the 21st century, Wonder contributed two new songs to the soundtrack for Spike Lee's Bamboozled album ("Misrepresented People" and "Some Years Ago"). Wonder continues to record and perform; though mainly occasional appearances and guest performances, he did do two tours, and released one album of new material, 2005's A Time to Love. In June 2006, Wonder made a guest appearance on Busta Rhymes' album The Big Bang, on the track "Been through the Storm". He sings the refrain and plays the piano on the Dr. Dre- and Sha Money XL–produced track. He appeared again on the last track of Snoop Dogg's album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, "Conversations". The song is a remake of "Have a Talk with God" from Songs in the Key of Life. In 2006, Wonder staged a duet with Andrea Bocelli on the latter's album Amore, offering harmonica and additional vocals on "Canzoni Stonate". Wonder also performed at Washington, D.C.'s 2006 "A Capitol Fourth" celebration. His key appearances include performing at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City, the 2005 Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, the pre-game show for Super Bowl XL in 2006, the Obama Inaugural Celebration in 2009, and the opening ceremony of the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece.

Wonder's first new album in ten years, A Time to Love, was released in October 2005 to lower sales than previous albums, and lukewarm reviews—most reviewers appearing frustrated at the end of the long delay to get an album that mainly copied the style of Wonder's "classic period" without doing anything new. The first single, "So What the Fuss", was released in April. A second single, "From the Bottom of My Heart", was a hit on adult-contemporary R&B radio. The album also featured a duet with India Arie on the title track "A Time to Love". By June 2008, Wonder was working on two projects simultaneously: a new album called The Gospel Inspired By Lula, which will deal with the various spiritual and cultural crises facing the world, and Through The Eyes Of Wonder, an album he has described as a performance piece that will reflect his experience as a blind man. Wonder was also keeping the door open for a collaboration with Tony Bennett and Quincy Jones concerning a rumored jazz album. If Wonder were to join forces with Bennett, it would not be for the first time; their rendition of "For Once in My Life" earned them a Grammy for best pop collaboration with vocals in 2006. Wonder's harmonica playing can be heard on the 2009 Grammy-nominated "Never Give You Up", featuring CJ Hilton and Raphael Saadiq.

Wonder did a 13-date tour of North America in 2007, starting in San Diego on August 23; this was his first U.S. tour in more than 10 years. On September 8, 2008, he started the European leg of his Wonder Summer's Night Tour, the first time he had toured Europe in over a decade. His opening show was at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham in the English Midlands. During the tour, he played eight UK gigs; four at the O2 Arena in London (filmed in HD and subsequently released as a live-in-concert release on DVD and Blu-Ray, Live At Last), two in Birmingham and two at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester. Wonder's other stops in the tour's European leg also found him performing in the Netherlands (Rotterdam), Sweden (Stockholm), Germany (Cologne, Mannheim and Munich), Norway (Hamar), France (Paris), Italy (Milan) and Denmark (Aalborg). Wonder also toured Australia (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane) and New Zealand (Christchurch, Auckland and New Plymouth) in October and November. His 2010 tour included a two-hour set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, a stop at London's "Hard Rock Calling" in Hyde Park, and appearances at England's Glastonbury Festival, Rotterdam's North Sea Jazz Festival, and a concert in Bergen, Norway, and a concert in Dublin, Ireland, at the O2 Arena on June 24.

He sang at the Michael Jackson memorial service in 2009, at Etta James' funeral, in 2012, and a month later at Whitney Houston's memorial service.

Wonder appeared on singer Celine Dion's studio album Loved Me Back to Life performing a cover of his 1985 song "Overjoyed". The album was released in October 2013. He was also featured on two tracks on Mark Ronson's album Uptown Special.

In 2013, Wonder revealed that he had been recording new material for two albums, When the World Began and Ten Billion Hearts, in collaboration with producer David Foster, to be released in 2014. The albums have not been released yet.

Legacy

A prominent figure in popular music during the latter half of the 20th century, Wonder has recorded more than 30 U.S. top ten hits and won 25 Grammy Awards (the most ever won by a solo artist) as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also won an Academy Award for Best Song, and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame. He has also been awarded the Polar Music Prize. American music magazine Rolling Stone named him the ninth greatest singer of all time. In June 2009 he became the fourth artist to receive the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award.

He has had ten U.S. number-one hits on the pop charts as well as 20 R&B number one hits, and has sold over 100 million records, 19.5 million of which are albums; he is one of the top 60 best-selling music artists with combined sales of singles and albums. Wonder has recorded several critically acclaimed albums and hit singles, and writes and produces songs for many of his label mates and outside artists as well. Wonder plays the piano, synthesizer, harmonica, congas, drums, bongos, organ, melodica and Clavinet. In his childhood, he was best known for his harmonica work, but today he is better known for his keyboard skills and vocal ability. Wonder was the first Motown artist and second African-American musician to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song, which he won for his 1984 hit single "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from the movie The Woman in Red.

Wonder's "classic period" is generally agreed to be between 1972 and 1977. Some observers see in 1971's Where I'm Coming From certain indications of the beginning of the classic period, such as its new funky keyboard style which Wonder used throughout the classic period. Some determine Wonder's first "classic" album to be 1972's Music of My Mind, on which he attained personal control of production, and on which he programmed a series of songs integrated with one another to make a concept album. Others skip over early 1972 and determine the beginning of the classic period to be Talking Book in late 1972, the album in which Wonder "hit his stride".

His classic 1970s albums were considered very influential in the music world: the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said they "pioneered stylistic approaches that helped to determine the shape of pop music for the next decade"; Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included four of the five albums, with three in the top 90; and in 2005, Kanye West said of his own work, "I'm not trying to compete with what's out there now. I'm really trying to compete with Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. It sounds musically blasphemous to say something like that, but why not set that as your bar?"

Personal life

Marriages

Wonder has been married three times. He was married to Motown singer-songwriter and frequent collaborator Syreeta Wright from 1970 until their amicable divorce in 1972. From 2001 until 2012 he was married to fashion designer Kai Millard. In October 2009, Wonder and Millard separated; Wonder filed for divorce in August 2012. In 2017 he married Tomeeka Bracy.

Children

Wonder has nine children by five different women. The mother of Wonder's first child is Yolanda Simmons, whom Wonder met when she applied for a job as secretary for his publishing company. Simmons gave birth to Wonder's daughter Aisha Morris on February 2, 1975. After Aisha was born, Wonder said "she was the one thing that I needed in my life and in my music for a long time". Aisha was the inspiration for Wonder's hit single "Isn't She Lovely?" She is now a singer who has toured with her father and accompanied him on recordings, including his 2005 album A Time to Love. Wonder and Simmons also had a son, Keita, in 1977.

In 1983, Wonder had a son named Mumtaz Morris with Melody McCulley. Wonder also has a daughter, Sophia, and a son, Kwame, with a woman whose identity has not been publicly disclosed. Wonder has two sons with second wife Kai Millard Morris; the elder is named Kailand and he occasionally performs as a drummer on stage with his father. The younger son, Mandla Kadjay Carl Stevland Morris, was born on May 13, 2005, his father's 55th birthday.

Wonder's ninth child, his second with Tomeeka Robyn Bracy, was born in December 2014, amid rumors that he would be the father to triplets. This turned out not to be the case, and the couple's new daughter was given the name Nia, meaning "purpose"–one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa.The name of Wonder's first child with Bracy is unknown.

Other

In May 2006, Wonder's mother Lula Mae Hardaway died in Los Angeles at the age of 76. During his September 8, 2008, UK concert in Birmingham, he spoke of his decision to begin touring again following his loss: "I want to take all the pain that I feel and celebrate and turn it around."

Wonder was introduced to Transcendental Meditation through his marriage to Syreeta Wright. Consistent with that spiritual vision, Wonder became vegetarian, and later a vegan, singing about it in October 2015 on The Late Late Show with James Corden during the show's "Carpool Karaoke" segment.

Wonder joined Twitter on April 4, 2018, and his first tweet was a five-minute video honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Dozens of famous personalities were rounded up in the video, which was titled "The Dream Still Lives". Each person involved shared their dream, calling back to King's popular speech in 1963. Wonder's very first tweet took the Internet by storm, and he also encouraged viewers to share their own videos about their dreams with the hashtag #DreamStillLives.

Wonder has been a longtime Baptist affiliated with black churches.

On August 31, 2018, Wonder performed at the funeral of Aretha Franklin at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple. He closed the ceremony with a rendition of the Lord's Prayer and his song "As".

At a concert in London's Hyde Park on July 6, 2019, Wonder announced that he would be undergoing a kidney transplant in September.

Awards and recognition

Grammy Awards

Wonder has won 25 Grammy Awards, as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He is one of only two artists and groups who have won the Grammy for Album of the Year three times as the main credited artist, along with Frank Sinatra. Wonder is the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases.

Other awards and recognition

Wonder has been given a range of awards for his music, and for his civil rights work, including induction into the Songwriters and the Rock and Roll halls of fame; gaining a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Civil Rights Museum, being named one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace, and earning a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2014.

In December 2016, the City of Detroit recognized Wonder's legacy by renaming a portion of his childhood street, Milwaukee Avenue West, between Woodward Avenue and Brush Street, as "Stevie Wonder Avenue". He was also awarded an honorary key to the city, presented by Mayor Mike Duggan.

#05/13

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smilingperformer · 6 years

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SM073 - Thoughts

I think I’ve calmed down from Friday enough to write this now... let’s see. I’m not sure you guys even need me talking about this episode. It was so good!

It is finally time for Rocket Gang to go get themselves their very own Z-Ring! I’ve been waiting for this ever since I started watching this series almost a year ago now, and I was so god damn happy to finally see it happening. This also marks the start of Ula’Ula Island Arc, and I found it brilliant to start with Rocket Gang instead of Satoshi. Who, btw, is absent until the very last 10 seconds of the episode! This hasn’t happened since Diamond & Pearl’s first episode, if I remember correctly.

(This post is getting so god damn long because there’s lots to discuss so, I’m actually gonna put a cut here! To save your dashboards from this freaking long post! I hope it works for mobile people as well, if not, I apologize. I think I’ll continue on doing this in the future as well!)

Anyway, they head to Ula’Ula Island in search of Island King/Kahuna Kuchinashi/Nanu, who appears to be old acquitances with Rocket Gang Boss Sakaki/Giovanni. This is a detail I didn’t expect to be canon in Pokeani until the news hit, and I’m looking forward to learning more about this! Sakaki told the Trio (and Sonansu :D C’mon, it’s how Narrator said it) that they might be able to get a Z-ring from him, which prompted them to go on the Air Balloon ride. Which hasn’t appeared in Sun & Moon after it’s very early appearance in episode SM005! Great to see them still having it! (They did reference it in last episode so I guess it was expected!)

We then cut to a local Island Library to get us introduced to the character a lot of people had been waiting for to appear: Meet Acerola! She’s shown to be working at the said Library, and starts reading a book about the Greedy Lapoo to two young kids, who, according to VA cast list, are called Nene and Piko.

I must say, I love the designs of these two, and even if they seem to end up being CotD types, I’ll most likely be enjoying whatever screentime they’ll give us of them.

But, this scene also serves as a plot element teller as well, in addition to introducing these three characters to the story. In short, it’s a story about a ghost that stole people’s items, who then ended up being hated by people, because of it’s greedy nature. Thus, the name the Greedy Lapoo. It was then sealed away by a local Island King, and was never heard of again.

Anyway, we cut back to Rocket Gang, who are preparing to make good first impression with the Island King with some Malasadas. They get their disguises on because of the place they’re heading to being a Police Station, and when they get inside, oooooh boooyy. It’s what we’d expect from Ula’Ula Police Station.

It’s filled with dozens of Alolan Nyarths! Talk about over-kill. And they all get their eyes on one thing: the Malasada. Poor Rocket Gang.

That’s when we get to see the Island King thou! Meet Kuchinashi/Nanu! Or well. We know he’s the guy, but our dear buffoons don’t. So when they ask to see the Island King, well... you know what happens. I made a huge screencap post on it, but to put it short: he outright lied to them that Island King is away and may not be coming back for possibly a year! What a jackass! But I already fell in love with his characterisation at this point, so full points on perfect introduction. He clearly likes to avoid his Island King/Kahuna duties, which fits the game profile as well.

So, Rocket Gang loses all hope and head off. We then cut back to Acerola and co., who have finished reading the book, and decide to head to the tomb stone that is said to be the fairy tale’s Greedy Lapoo’s. However, Rocket Gang has decided to mourn their bad luck at the very same place, and when Musashi loses her temper and breaks the tomb...

Meet The Greedy Lapoo the Gengar! The fairy tale turned out to be true, and the Island King’s seal on the ghost is now broken. Way to go Musashi! Thou, tbf, she had no idea of such tale. I originally though it’d be a Totem Gengar, but then I realised that there’s no such thing in the games, so it’s probably something else that makes it so much bigger. Pokeani can do some interesting stuff with the Pokemon Universe anyway!

Anyway, Gengar steals Rocket Gang’s Dark Z-crystal, and then heads to Acerola and co, who had just arrived to the place. While the two kids are scared as hell, Acerola shows that she’s not.

I just noticed I’m rambling about all episode details again, but it’s hard not to. New characters were introduced, and as a huge fan of Acerola, I was stoked when this episode had so much focus on her! it’s great! Anyway, she gets kidnapped by the Gengar, who then proceeds to go steal stuff from random people around the Island. Acerola’s Mimikyu, who she calls Mimi-tan, tries to rescue her, but to no avail.

Mimi-tan gets thrown into air by Gengar, and while falling, Acerola jumps to catch it. Why thou?! I haven’t said it yet, because it’s actually revealed at the end of the episode, but Acerola’s Mimi-tan is an actual Ghost of a Mimikyu. So it wouldn’t really get hurt, would it? Then again, this is the first time Pokeani explores actual ghost pokemon, so there’s much we don’t know. We might learn more during this arc thou! I certainly hope so!

But y’know, this is where we start to see the good side of the Greedy Lapoo Gengar. It shows to be worried about Acerola after her fall, and when Acerola shows it she’s fine, he’s quite happy! Turns out, Gengar very much likes Acerola, and when Acerola tries to tell him to take her back home, he selfishly refuses, and tries to convince her to stay. When Acerola keeps on denying it thou, even when gengar shows the Dark Z-crystal that it stole from Rocket Gang, Gengar loses it. This is where I’m actually kinda spooked.

WHAT IS IT DOING??? Trying to put Acerola inside it? How rude is that??? Mimi-tan is unable to do anything, oh boy am I proud of the following moment:

Musashi came in and actually saved Acerola! Considering her dialogue earlier about how she can’t stand Gengar being so selfish with his liking to Acerola, I want to believe she actually did this to both save Acerola, and get the Z-crystal back. And it was really well done! Kinda reminded me of Satoshi and Pikachu thou lol. The pararrels between Satoshi and Musashi are increasing! They then mock the poor Gengar in hilarious ways, seriously, Rocket Gang’s writing in this episode is top notch and I have never loved them more in an episode.

Gengar then starts chasing after fleeing Rocket Gang (which actually seems like a lure plan???) and when Nyarth tries to counter-attack, Gengar possesses him. Spooky stuff. Musashi quickly orders Mimikyu to do something, who uses Wood Hammer on Nyarth. Ouch. Musashi cares for Nyarth, but she’s always been rough on rescue plans.

But then Gengar posseses her! And this honestly looks sort of scary at this screenshot. It kinda reminds me of a certain ghosts from Sonic Adventure 2 thou... : D Kojiro is shown shook, and he definitely doesn’t do hasty moves when it comes to rescuing Musashi. This is definitely something Satoshi’d do as well, and god damn it. Kojiro does come up with a perfect plan, and it shows how good of a trainer he is: Hidoide’s newly learned Dark-move Knock-Off is perfect counter for Ghost type, so he orders Hidoide to hit Musashi with it, gently. Musashi only gets a headbump from this so, all good. Except Gengar is mad as hell now. XD GG!

Then the best scene starts! Kuchinashi comes to see the situtation with Acerola, tells the Rocket Gang Trio that they’re actually better than he initally thought, so he throws them a Z-Power Ring! And then we get to see the god damn gorgeus Dark Z-move! it’s darn powerful looking, and man, the faces Musashi, Kojiro and Nyarth have while seeing Gengar get sucked into the Blackhole Eclipse is very, very well done. It shows both amaze and spookyness in them. This is the first time they’ve done the Z-move now, and oh am I glad they actually did it together. Even if Kojiro was the one to wear it, the energy def came from all three of them. This is the best outcome I could have hoped for the Z-move and I’m pleased. Very pleased.

Acerola then realises that Gengar was actually lonely instead of being greedy, so she decides to be friends with it. A happy end and all! Judging from Kuchinashi’s dialogue, this seems to be a norm to Acerola. Acerola also spills the beans about this old man being the Island King Kuchinashi to Rocket Gang, who aren’t very pleased with his trick. But Rocket gang also spills beans on being from the criminal organisation, where we realise Kuchinashi does indeed know Sakaki. And yet, he lets Rocket Gang keep the Z-Power Ring. Fits him.

In the end, Acerola’s Mimi-tan rewards Musashi with the Mimikkyu-Z crystal, which I bet is because Mimi-tan is greatful for Musashi saving Acerola earlier. It makes sense in my head at least. And imo, she deserves it. So, Rocket Gang ends up with a double-prize this episode: Z-Power Ring, and a new Z-crystal! Ii Kanjii indeed!

At the end of the episode, we finally have our appearance of the real main character of the show, who’s finally heading to Ula’Ula Island himself as well! It’s time for his third island adventures!

I’ll cya all next week, when Satoshi gets to battle Kuchinashi (all thanks to Acerola convincing him), Kuchinashi gets a call from Sakaki himself, and Lugarugan’s Red eyed Beast mode returns! Until then!

#aleira watches sumo #pokemon #pokeani #pokemon sumo #ula ula arc #sm073 #long post

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oh-so-scenarios · 6 years

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Tell Me...Say It [1]

How can I love the works without loving the artist?

Word Count: 3.8k

Genre/Warning: Angst, fluff -- Mentions of eating disorders(For a short moment)

⇾ Updates every Wednesday (EST)

Next ◀ ▶ Series Index | Masterlist

The smell of a hospital is gross to some, and causes others to grow sick. The smell of metal and rubbing alcohol that gets stuck in the back of people’s throat, leaving a bitter after taste. The air is filled with various machines beeping, and doctors with nurses trailing behind them. The atmosphere can leave people anxious and tends to cause stress to those who are waiting.

For me, it’s the opposite. This environment has been my second home for two years. The beeps of machines, and the occasional crying of newborn babies is normal white noise in the waves of sound around me. Bright white walls, and open windows with tall trees looming in front of them. The colorful yet dying leaves brought the internal warm of fall with the anticipation of holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving and the highly favored Christmas.

The hospital is always the same around this time. Everyone gets festive and walks around with huge, but strained smiles on their lips.

The festive scrubs make an appearance while holiday decorations are hung on the normally plain walls. Scrubs with pumpkins, leaves and black cats and other things put in the category of Halloween. I usually complain about it but that would be hypocritical.

I took a short look at my orange scrub top, holding multiple black and white cats. If you looked hard enough, you could notice small jack-o'lanterns smiling widely.

I walk through the busy hallway to room 134, holding the last patient on my list. Before sliding the door open, I made sure to stretch a smile onto my slightly chapped lips.

Working at Seoul National Hospital has taught me one important thing; entering a patient’s room with anything less than a smile is a setup for disaster. Whether you’re a doctor, or a nurse like myself, the patient is reading your face and body language with hopes of understanding the gist of the coming news. Walking in with a frown, and the patient will begin to panic.

I slide the door open and stroll into Mr. Kwon’s hospital room. His eyes don’t leave the TV screen for more than a second. He looks my way, acknowledging my presence than looks back to his TV screen.

Mr. Kwon, a 78 year old man, is frequently in the hospital. He suffers from a heart condition, and though his doctor often recommends him medication, he fails to take it.

“Hello, Mr. Kwon,” I greet with a small smile, “How are you doing today?” I catch the flicker of his eyes when he finally looks my way. Rather than looking away, he gazes at me for a moment. Then like a light switch, his face brightens with a toothy smile.

“I’m better, now that you’re here nurse Y/n.” He chimes. I giggle but say no more. Just like Mr. Kwon. A crazy flirt who will talk to sweet to anyone but his wife. His wife isn’t seen often at the hospital.

She visits occasionally, mostly to see if he’s dead yet. I can’t make this up. She has asked one too many times, “How close to death is he?” We tend to laugh it off, leaving the slight worry we feel to ourselves.

“I’m going to check on your drip and take a look at your vitals.” I explain, hanging the plastic clipboard in my hands, on the end of his bed.

I walk around the still man, looking at his drip which didn’t need to be switched just yet. I checked his vitals, blood pressure, heart rate and pulse. Everything seemed normal. I am brought out of my concentration when a hand promptly smacks my backside, leaving me to become rigid. I turn to Mr. Kwon who shows me a proud grin.

This is my fault. I left myself open when I should have known better.

Mr. Kwon is known for being a touchy patient. He has been passed to about three nurses, making me the fourth. The second nurse was a man, but that didn’t affect Mr. Kwon behavior in anyway.

I sigh, showing him a strained smile, “Sir, I’ve already warned you. Keep your hands to yourself.” My words are taken with a grain of salt as Mr. Kwon giggles. Without a word, I walk to the end of the bed, taking his personal patient chart, writing the numbers of his vitals.

I grab my own clipboard, giving him a light ‘good bye’ thus prompting him to reply with a wink.

I walk down the hallway till I come to the center of the floor where Suzy, my co-worker sat behind a desk.

“You’ve returned.” Suzy teases. I giggle, rolling my eyes.

“You think Mr. Kwon can ruin my day? You must not know me.” I say. She snickers in reply, stretching her hand out. I give her back the clipboard and lean against the counter. My eyes skim the area to settle on a familiar figure making their way closer. I can practically here Suzy’s breathing stop and can’t help but chuckle.

“Dr. Park,” She says, her voice a key higher than normal. She is so whipped for this guy. He’s personally not my type, but I can understand what she sees in him. I must be the weird one, because just about every female and a few males love Dr. Park.

I turn to him, staring at his profiles as he exchanged clipboards with Suzy. He doesn’t look my way once, not that I wanted him to. He’s a quiet and delicate man who is too good to be true. A surgeon with a pretty face, soft smile yet intense and deep eyes. Sounds like a manga character to me. His sharp jaw yet soft face was something all the women swooned over.

Like I said, not my type.

He takes the new clipboard from Suzy, barely making eye contact with her as his managed a soft word of thanks. He walks away, taking Suzy’s attention in the process. I stare at her for a moment, hoping she’d snap out of the trance herself.

I open my mouth, ready to say something smart, but she beats me to it. The love sick expression on her face is hard to miss.

“I had a blind date last night.” She left the statement hanging, leaving me to jump to my own conclusions.

“It went badly, huh?” I say, with a look of pity.

She finally looks away from the space Dr. Park once stood and back to me. She stares at me before groaning, answering my question, “He wasn’t cute, and he was all about his mother.”

“A momma’s boy? Yikes.” I shift my weight onto my other foot, “Did he at least have money?”

“Yes,” a short pause, “his mother’s money.” I throw my head back in disappointment. Suzy nevers has luck with dates. Ever since we met back in school as we were both studying to be RNs, all her boyfriends were loser who only cared for their mothers.

“I need to get a man that has his life together,” Her words were clearly coming from a place of bitterness.

“A man like Dr. Park?” I tease, raising an eyebrow her way.

“I wish,” She scoffs, “I could be naked and he still won’t give me a minute of his day.”

I watch in silence while Suzy grabs another clipboard and hands it to me. Before setting my eyes on the papers, I turn to Suzy.

“How is this patient list looking?” I question, clenching my teeth nervously. A grim smile grazes her lips and the breath I’ve been holding leaves my lips abruptly.

“Great.” I hiss, turning my attention to the list. My eyes skim the names momentarily before I look back to Suzy.

“Gotta run.” I say. I head down the opposite hallway I came from, which led to the VIP hospital rooms. Those room hold celebrities, athletes, CEOs and other rich people. It’s not often that I look after a patient in these rooms, but this is a special case.

Hani.

Kang Hani, a sixteen year old girl who has driven herself to an eating disorder to stay skinny. The other nurses were hoping to avoid her on their list, so she was given to me. I like dealing with rough patients. As a nurse, you are expected to be a people person, no matter the personality you are met with.

I stand in the doorway, watching the other nurse who is assigned to Hani. Her assignment? To make sure Hani eats. It would be easier to teach an elephant Korean. I giggle at my own thoughts and stroll into the room, Hani’s eyes snapping my way.

There it is. That glare of hers. Her fierce and guarded eyes also held hurt, which others seem to overlook. She must be used to seeing me at this point. It’s my third day being her nurse, but the glare is just ugly as day one.

I give her a big smile, mumbling a small greet and hanging my clipboard on her bed end. It’s at that moment that I become aware of Mrs. Kang sitting at Hani bedside, a bit of space between her and the bed. The disapprovement resting on her facial expressions was enough.

I’m sure she can feel my eyes on her, but she does not met my gaze. I look back at Hani, checking her vitals while the nurse continues to pursue her.

“Seriously, Hani?” Mrs. Kang voice snaps like a whip in the silence. The other nurse jumps in shock, and though I was surprised, my body didn’t show it. I silently hope that the conversation doesn’t continue.

“Hani, why are we here?” Mrs. Kang continues, “Why are we here? Why are you doing this? An eating disorder, really?” Mrs. Kang stares at her daughter with questioning eyes, that were almost...mocking her.

My movements pause, shocked by the hostility given off by Mrs. Kang. Hani’s poker face doesn’t drop. She looks back down at the food in front of her, then set her eyes on me. I show her a sad smile, and resume my work.

“Are you planning on becoming a stereotypical model? Eating disorders? This is why we got you a personal trainer!” I look up and meet Mrs. Kang’s hot glare.

“Nurse Y/n! Am I being over dramatic?” She asks staring at expectantly. My mouth is open, unsure what to say. I look at Hani who was also waiting for my answer.

I laugh nervously, “It’s not my place to say.”

Mrs. Kang didn’t budge, “I want you hear your opinion. My daughter thinks I don’t understand.”

My eyes shift to Hani, and back to Mrs. Kang.

Why am I always put in a spot like this? I try my best to stay out of patient’s personal business. My job is to care for you, and bring you back to help. I don’t want to step my foot into family issues. Despite this, both Hani and her mother have their eyes trained on me. I sigh, a long and drawn out breath.

“I believe the solution to this problem is to take her out of the environment that caused it.” I answer quietly, and look to the drip beside Hani.

“Excuse me,” I say to the other nurse, “please bring a new drip.” She stands up quickly and shuffles out the room. I wasn’t aware of Mrs. Kang’s stunned expression.

I stop my movement to respond to her big eyes with an eyebrow raise.

“Stop modeling?” She scoffs, “What else can she do besides modeling? What do you know?” I have to keep my face from scrunching up in confusion.

She asked for my opinion did she not? I laugh humorlessly and set my eyes on Hani. She hasn’t spoken a word since I entered the room, and I’m curious how long she’s been silent.

“Hani, what do you like to do?” I say, walking to the end of her bed. My work here is done. I grab my clipboard, looking at the next patient.

When I don’t hear a reply from Hani, I glance up from the clipboard. My expecting gaze makes her mouth open and one single word leaves her lips. Her voice is hoarse and tired, but it seemed to be the loudest voice in the room.

“Science.”

My lips curl up into a huge smile, and my heart swells in my chest while tears bubble into Hani’s tired eyes. She looks at her mother with sad eyes and Mrs. Kang stares back.

“That’s pretty simple,” I cock my head at Hani then focus on her speechless mother. It’s easy to see there hasn’t been any communication between these two.

“I’m sure it won’t be hard to find some after school activities for science.” I say to Mrs. Kang, giving her one last smile before turning around and making my way out the room.

I let out a deep sigh and l make my way to the next patient on the list.

Kim Taehyung, who had his appendix removed some days ago. He is set to be discharged today. There isn’t much I can say about this patient. He sticks to himself, his laptop always on his lap as he types away. I was thinking he was an author, but that doesn’t to seem be the case.

I slide the door open and see Taehyung with his laptop on his lap, like always. What was different this time was the phone plastered to his ear. His face showed irritation and impatient. He gazed at me then smiled kindly. He continued his conversation, his brown hair swept over his forehead while he glared at his laptop screen.

“It’s been months and we still have nothing.” He speaks into the phone just as I place my clipboard on the end of his bed. I do my regular work, checking vitals, stats and his drip.

“Yoongi, just admit it. This creative block isn’t going anywhere. It’s been months and we don’t have a single song done.” He replies to whoever is on the line.

Another moment of silence, “You know I don’t have the money for that.” Taehyung groans, leaning back into the bed.

A longer silence, “Well we have to figure this out. The script is done, but we can’t move forward without the musical numbers.”

I check the last of the things needed, before looking at Taehyung till I catch his attention. He puts the phone to his chest, staring up at my curiously.

“I will have the discharge forms brought to you soon.” I speak softly. He nods vigorously and smiles.

“Thank you.” He answers kindly then resumes his phone call. I walk out, making sure to grab my clipboard in the process.

Running up and down, changing diapers and bathing the elderly. The second half of my shift is always the most tiring. That’s how I found myself leaning against the vending machine for support while I aimlessly munched on a protein bar.

My eyes stay on the clock hanging on the opposite wall. My shift is over in 20 minutes, and I’ve finished everything required of me.

While I am lost in my thoughts, my phone begins to vibrate in the pocket of my scrub top. I groan and reach to grab it, not surprised to see the name on my screen,

I answer the phone, placing it to my ear.

“Yes, Da-hee. What can I help you with?” I greet softly.

Da-hee, my younger sister, giggles. I roll my eyes already knowing what is coming my way. She’s going to ask for a favor. She’s 22,so she’s not a child anymore, but since our parents baby her, she expects everyone to.

I can’t blame her, she was an only child up till her parents adopted me when I was 17 years old. She surprising adjusted to having me in the family. Though I can’t tell if she was excited to have an older sister, or someone to ask for favors. Though, she does treat me like a true sister, and helped me adjust to life in Korea.

“Guess.” She eggs on, her voice higher than normal.

“A blind date?” I question before taking another bite of my protein bar. The short silence from the other line tells me I’m right.

“You want me to call you as if it’s an emergency again?” I add. Da-hee has been calling me for the past few months with this same sketchy panic. Mrs. Kim, Da-hee’s mother and my adoptive mother, have been pushing for Da-hee to get married. This was after forcing Da-hee to break up with a tattoo artist she was seeing.

Being her father’s daughter, she needs someone who matches her status. Mr. Kim owns an investment company that funds many projects for others. After having Da-hee, Mrs. Kim was unable to have another child, drowning the hopes for a son. Da-hee is now the ticket to find a worthy son-in-law.

Unfortunately, the men that meet Mr. & Mrs. Kim’s high standards have all been too old, or too ugly for Da-hee’s basic standards. This results in her rushing to me for help every time. Over the past few months Da-hee has me call her faking a family death, a car accident and more. I don’t know why our parents still try. After she bails the date early, she receives a scolding then they plan another date as if she’ll listen.

Da-hee hasn’t revealed that I am the friend who calls her and assists with her escape. She’s lucky I’m helping in the first place. If I am dragged into the mess with mom and dad, she knows that'll be the last time I help her.

“No..” She trails off, “I need a bigger favor.”

“Which is what?”

“I’m not going to show up.”

“You’re gonna completely ditch this time?” My shock wasn’t very convincing. I knew they would push her to this point.

“I’m meeting with someone, but I don’t want to be rude. Can you stop by and apologize for me? Doing it over the phone seems rude.” She explains.

My shoulders drop as I sigh, “Text me the address and his name.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much Y/n!” She cheers.

“Yeah, yeah,” I mumble, “but you owe me one.”

I hang up in time to see Suzy approaching me with a knowing smile, “Was that Da-hee?”

I roll my eyes, “You already know it was. Another blind date that I have to keep from happening.” I pocket my phone and take the last bite of my protein bar, waving goodbye to Suzy and heading to the employee room to clock out early.

It isn’t long before I find myself in my car, following the GPS to the casual restaurant where Da-hee’s unsuspecting blind date is waiting. Da-hee can’t stand to sit through another one of these, and I can’t blame her. All her dates have been over 35, which is too old in her mind, and have not been attractive. They all, however, have amazing background in business and great work ethic and experience. Nothing that Da-hee cares for.

Traffic wasn’t too bad, seeing as it wasn’t even 7 yet, so I got there pretty quickly. I walk in, wearing my black coat and orange, halloween themed scrubs. I catch the eyes of a server right away. I am not dressed to be dining in their facility, so I stick out like a sore thumb.

The place was about half-full. There were large windows, letting in the little sunlight allowed by the cloudy sky. Couples sat all around, sharing food and feeding each other. Older, wealthier women also sat in the restaurant speaking to each other and giggling.

“Hello ma’am,” A young girl approaches me. She’s wearing all black with a black apron around her waist, “How may I help you?”

I pull my phone from my pocket and look at Da-hee’s text once again.

“I’m looking for ‘Min Yoongi’?” I say and look up at her unsure. Her eyes run from my head to my feet, and back to my unsure eyes.

“You’re the one meeting Mr. Min?” Her words showed her uneasiness, but I wasn’t bothered by it.

“Yes. Where is he?”

“Right over there ma’am.” She steps further into the restaurant and I follow her. She stretches her hand out, pointing to the young man sitting at a table beside the window. My eyes widen.

That’s him? He’s young, and handsome. Is Da-hee sure she doesn’t want to sit through this date?

I walk towards his table, inwardly gasping when I get closer to the man. He is...extremely handsome. I feel my heart pumping harder while my nerves bounced around in my stomach. He can’t be any older than me.

He was focused on something, looking down at some papers set in front of him. He held a pencil in his hand and tapped it fiercely against the square wooden table. When I got closer, he noticed my presence and stood, assuming I was Da-hee.

Unlike the employees of this restaurant, he didn’t notice my attire. Rather his eyes were focused on my face, looking right into my eyes.

“Kim Da-hee?” He says, and stretch a hand out.

Wow, he has a nice deep voice.

I catch my breath, “No.” His hand drops while his face scrunches up in confusion.

“I’m here to inform you that Da-hee won’t be able to make it, and I am apologizing on her behalf.” I speak kindly. I bow 90 degrees and hear him chuckle. I stand straight to see a small smile on his lips.

“So you’re not Da-hee?” He asks.

“No, I’m not.” My eyes flick to the table to see that the papers he was focused on was not work documents. It was sheet music for a work of music. I look back to the man, clearly taking in his presence. He’s wearing a navy blue dress shirt, with a black blazer and black suit pants. I was too busy checking him out, I didn’t hear him speaking to me.

“I’m sorry, what?” I snap out of my trance.

He snickers, “I said, it’s a shame that Da-hee can’t make it. Unfortunately, I’ve already ordered for two.” He puts a hand in the pocket of his pants.

“Why don’t you sit and eat with me?” He suggests.

Thrown off, my voice is a little below a shout, “Me?”

“Why not? You’re here.”

He wants me to eat with him? What’s up with this guy? I guess he didn’t care much for the blind date in the first place. Eh, he’s attractive, but I’m not interested. I have a lot of things to do once I get home.

“Thank you, but no thank you. Have a good meal.” I tell him, and spin around on my heels, exiting the restaurant.

The moment I’m in the half-empty parking lot, I call Da-hee. She answers on the second ring.

“Was he angry?” Her first words when she picks up.

“No,” I tell her, “but he was young.”

“Oh really?” She doesn't sound like she believes me.

“He was really cute too.”

“Yeah, if you think he’s cute then I can be certain he’s not.” She giggles and the line goes dead just as I reach my car.

A/N: This a different writing style than I normally do. Tell me what you think! :D

#bts #min yoongi #bts suga #bts scenarios #bts fanfic #bts fanfiction #yoongi scenarios #yoongi fanfic #min yoongi fanfiction #bts angst #bts fluff

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elrhiarhodan · 7 years

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List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, whatever.

Tagged by @violyntfemme – thank you so much for inviting me to play in your sandbox.

Works in Progress

1 – Spy in the House of Love. Fandom - The Flash. Technically, this is written as EoBarry, but it's so AU that I've already begun thinking on how to file off the serial numbers. It's based off of a tiny little story I wrote last year around this time for the awesome @timeforalongstory (Kyele on AO3) for the prompt "Meeting on a Train AU". I have no idea why I wrote about 1200 words of retired spy Eobard Thawne meeting former protégé and lover Barry Allen on a train, but I did. She wanted to know the backstory and thus was born the idea of Eobard having recruited Barry in college. The most amusing thing about this is that when I finally saw Kingsman, my first thought was I've been writing a Kingsman AU, not a Flash AU all along.

Word Count Status: The damn thing is now at 145K and probably will end up double that. Actively writing this.

2 – A Wolf in the Fold. Fandom - The Flash. Slow burning EoBarry dystopian A/B/O where Barry is an omega about to be sold at auction and Eobard accidentally becomes scent-locked on him. No powers AU.

Word Count Status: Around 20K. I drop a few thousand words on it every few months. I do love the story.

3 – Cold Wind to Valhalla. Fandom – The Flash. Inspired by pics of Tom Cavanagh with a buzz cut, yet another EoBarry AU, where non-villain EoWells (from Earth-52) find himself on Earth-1, during the time that Barry's trapped in the Speed Force. Eobard, who's searching for his missing husband, agrees to help Team Flash get their Barry free.

I'm really stuck with this one. I love elements of it, but there's a lot of this story that I actively hate. I want to finish it but I don't know if it'll ever happen.

Word Count Status: Around 30K, probably needs another 5K to get to FIN. I should just buckle down and do it, I know just how it ends.

4 – The Secret History of Neal Caffrey. Fandom – White Collar/Kingsman Crossover. Because I have a problem with publishing works in progress (my stories are my children and deserve to reach full gestation before publication), I'm writing this as a series of discrete stories. One every two weeks or so.

Word Count Status: Currently, six published stories. New one should get started and published this week, which will be a "keystone" story in the series – where the Round Table considers Neal's request to be considered as a replacement for Tristan, who'd been killed on V-Day. I can't wait for Neal and Eggsy to have a scene together.

5 – The Stars Across My Heart. Fandom – The Flash. Ballet AU set in Monte Carlo in the early 1930s, and kinda-sorta a Red Shoes AU without the tragic ending. More EoBarry, of course.

Word Count Status: Around 8K. I love writing this but I have no idea where it's going (other than a happily ever after), so it's hard to put words on it.

The stories listed here are likely to be the last stories I’ll write for The Flash fandom. Information leaked about the upcoming season has pretty much killed my interest in the show. Thank goodness I discovered Kingsman and all the lovely fic and the lovelier people who inhabit the fandom.

Plans for the rest of 2017 and through 2018.

All Kingsman

1 – Hartwin AU for Fic Wars, writing as a team. Can't say more about this at the moment. But already committed words to paper.

2 – Second Fic Wars assignment. Hoping to write Merlahad, Merwin, or Merlahadwin.

3 – Untitled Merlahadwin angstfest – it's that's eating my brain right now. It will completely ignore TGC, and will pick up right after TSS. Eggsy and Merlin grieve together for Harry, who was married to Merlin. Eggsy understands and accepts this and quickly puts away all of his feelings for Harry. They grow close and as the grief fades, they fall in love and begin a life together. Harry returns and that life comes to an end. Eggsy hides his grief and pain at the double loss through unhealthy coping mechanisms, Merlin never tells Harry about his relationship with Eggsy, and Harry is torn between the love for his husband and the feelings he has for Eggsy. Not a love triangle, but a tragedy in the making. Still trying to figure out the happy ending for these morons.

3 – Kingsman Playwright/Actor Modern AU – Eggsy catches the eye of playwright Harry Hart when he performs a scene from one of Harry's plays as his final work for RADA before graduating, and Harry is enthralled by his new muse. Former Merlahad, where Harry and Merlin had been students together at RADA and lovers for a few years afterwards, but when Harry came out in rather spectacular fashion, Merlin dumped him without a word. Twenty years later, Harry's young lover is Merlin's co-star on a new television series. The core focus of the story is going to be homophobia, AIDS, self-acceptance and reconciliation. Probably will end up as a poly relationship.

4 – Untitled continuation of When Are You Gonna Come Down? When Are You Going to Land? Can't say more about that because it will spoil the end of that story (which hasn't been published yet). But it's going to be a Kingsman/007 crossover.

And that's it at the moment.

Tagging @timeforalongstory, @there-goes-all-the-cotton-candy, @moriavis, @fastestcatalive, @screaming-towards-apotheosis, and my dearest @lqtraintracks

#Elr writes about writing #the flash #kingsman #eobarry #harwin

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alexsfictionaddiction · 5 years

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‘Like stepping into a fairytale under a curtain of stars.’

The third round of FairytaleAThon is almost upon us! If you missed my announcement or recommendations posts, be sure to give them a read so you know what it’s all about. Once again, please subscribe to my lovely BookTube co-hosts Sam, Erica, Becky and Jordan. They’re amazing small creators who deserve all the love and support you can possibly give them.

I have finally compiled my own TBR for the week. I’m incredibly excited to have the best excuse to dive into stories featuring magic, princesses, witches, mermaids and myth. I wanted to focus on cultures that I don’t know too much about so some of my choices may seem a little obscure. However, hopefully I’ll enjoy them and introduce you to some amazing hidden gems that you simply need to pick up yourself!

1. THUMBELINA: Read a fairytale or retelling under 250 pages.

THE VICTORIAN FAIRY TALE BOOK EDITED BY MICHAEL PATRICK HEARN

Earlier this year, I visited a beautiful little bookshop near Notre Dame in Paris with a friend of mine. We spent hours trawling through the children’s section and we came across a whole set of these fairy tale collections published by Pantheon Books. As well as the Victorian collection, there were also Irish Folk Tales, Russian Fairy Tales, Folktales from India, Japanese Tales and a few more. Unfortunately, they were too expensive to buy them all so I had to choose just one. I’ve always loved Victorian novels and had an interest in the time period as a whole, so I eventually settled on this one. Featuring 17 stories and poems from writers such as J. M. Barrie, Robert Browning and Kenneth Grahame, there are some truly beautiful original illustrations in there too. I’m really excited to dip into a few of these (all of which are much less than 250 pages) over the week of FairytaleAThon.

2. GENTLE GIANTS: Read a fairytale or retelling over 500 pages.

WINTER BY MARISSA MEYER

Winter is the fourth and final novel in the Lunar Chronicles series. I’ve already had so much fun with this YA sci-fi series of fairytale retellings so I’m hoping this twist on Snow White will follow suit. It has been a while since I read the previous book Cress and I’ve missed the characters a lot. Full of easy to root for romances and quirky humour, Winter looks set to be over 800 pages of crazy intergalactic adventure.

3. IF THE SHOE FITS: Read any retelling on your TBR.

THE SONG OF ACHILLES BY MADELEINE MILLER

The Song of Achilles has been on my TBR since reviewers began raving about its brilliance, when it came out in 2011 yet I still haven’t found the time to pick it up. However, I read Miller’s recent release Circe a few months ago and fell in love with her writing style. The Song of Achilles follows the forbidden love story of Achilles and Patroclus and that’s literally all I want to know!

4. CREATURES OF THE DEEP: Read a book with sirens, mermaids or sea monsters.

THE SURFACE BREAKS BY LOUISE O’NEILL

I adored Louise O’Neill’s debut YA novel Only Ever Yours. It was powerful, terrifying and an incredibly unique take on every day sexism and the treatment of young women. I’ve actually heard mixed reviews of The Surface Breaks, her reimagining of The Little Mermaid but I’ve always been curious about it. Set off the coast of Ireland, it follows a young mermaid who is desperate to be human and pays a huge price to do so. It’s supposed to be fierce and feminist, so I’m going to give it a go!

5. TRY THE GREY STUFF: Read with a yummy treat.

ICE LAND BY BETSY TOBIN

When I visited Iceland a few years ago, I fell head over heels in love with the country. There was something about the desolate volcanic landscapes, silence and serenity of the towns and mystical culture that captivated me. It remains one of my favourite places on Earth and my fascination with Scandinavian culture has only intensified since. Infused with Icelandic mythology, Betsy Tobin’s novel follows a society on the brink of catastrophic change and one girl’s magical quest to change history. I’m planning on sitting down with a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows and devouring this one!

6. A WHOLE NEW WORLD: Read a fairytale or retelling with a diverse character.

KISSING THE WITCH BY EMMA DONOGHUE

This collection of retellings turns classic fairytales on their heads and sees the delicate princesses become the true heroines of their stories. I’ve picked it for the diversity prompt because I know it’s packed full of LGBT+ reimaginings and is a celebration of sexuality, female identity and digressing from the norm.

7. RAGS TO RICHES: Read the group book.

THE PRINCESS AND THE FANGIRL BY ASHLEY POSTON

Having devoured Geekerella a couple of years ago, I can’t wait to get stuck into another nerdy Ashley Poston romance. An LGBT retelling of The Prince and the Pauper featuring fandoms, cons, mistaken identites and probably plenty of hilarity. I have high hopes!

And thus concludes my TBR for the upcoming round of FairytaleAThon. Let me know what you’re planning on reading and stay tuned for my thoughts on all the books I manage to get through!

#fairytaleathon #readathon #tbr #fairytales #myths #books #bookworm

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grandemasterpyrokitsune · 7 years

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Happy 10th!

The time has finally come to talk about why PaF is so important. Really, anyone could do this anytime, but this date alone has a significance to it. To any of my followers who don’t know(and will sit through this brick wall of text to find out), today is the 10th anniversary of the sneak peek premiere of Phineas and Ferb; technically, February 2008 is when it officially premiered around the world, but I’m sure that everyone else in the fandom is eager to kick off the celebration today. I’m sure this will turn out to be a multi paged thesis, so I’ll try to split this up into parts.

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PART 1: Best Day Ever

Anyway, ten years ago today marks the 10th anniversary of Phineas and Ferb. This show is considered an old soul of sorts, enjoying a long lifespan of 8 years, tons of merchandising and entertainment opportunities, the admiration and respect of many celebrities, and a very long summer. As formulaic as it appears, this show has more history to it than it appears to have.

PART 2:Busted

(This part details history of Disney’s TV animation ventures and basically life before PaF. Feel free to skip if you’re clued in to its history.)

The 2000s were considered a lousy time for TV animation . While many say it's the "worst" decade for it(whether worldwide or just in North America), I'd call it a transitional period. The 90s was an exciting a refreshing time for TV animation where the stories were driven by the creators, not toy designers. I would generally consider it more of the same from the Golden Age of Animation but more modern. The 2000s had newer technologies to work with and perfect while the ‘90s mainly just worked w/ cel animation and did it so well. Flash and CG were in their infancy, so I assume the software got a bit more attention than the stories. Primarily, companies were just looking to work with more cost effective options to make their shows with. It was a rough period,but far from the worst. Anyway, this kind of TV animation is still a relatively new type of animation. Disney were the first ones to spearhead this movement and they made three or four blocks of new cartoon for different generations of kids.

The first block(formally known as Disney Afternoon)was ushered in with three pilots; Fluppy Dogs, Wuzzles and Ducktales. While the former two merely tested the waters and the latter was the only one successful, all three were made with stellar animation and complex storytelling for what everyone knew as entertainment for kids. After the success of Ducktales, Disney was brimming with pride and made seven years worth of cartoons for this block. Even if some cartoons didn't strike people the right way, they were still wildly memorable. While their D.C. original programming generally doesn't get more than short compilation discs, the DA 'toons get full series releases digitally and through DVD. This prompted to launch One Saturday Morning on ABC.

With the acquisition of Nicktoon Doug, Disney paired it up with Recess and Pepper Ann, chasing after the success they had a few years before. The aforementioned series were the highest rated on the block while other series are more obscure and buried by Disney. They are acknowledged as good but were overshadowed by 24/7 network like Nick and Cartoon Network bringing a lot more cartoons to a lot more times of the day.

Disney started to notice how much of an animated surplus they had and that they air their cartoons for weeks on end. Thus, Toon Disney was founded,which became a more visible hub for the cartoon blocks of the 90s and all other ages of Disney. At one point,they started airing Sonic the Hedgehog and making their own co-productions under their most popular TV cartoon brand, Jetix. As extensive as these programs got, they were being seen by fewer and fewer people.

To overlap slightly with the end of OSM, Disney started making more cartoons for the Channel’s demographic. Shows like Kim Possible, Lilo and Stitch, and American Dragon:Jake Long began airing and netting extraordinary ratings. In fact, Disney Channel was probably most successful in the early 2000s. It found its new groove if you will with its signature style of tween/teen sitcom and animated series. The former seem to have more clout on the network after the premiere of Lizzie McGuire,solidifying the formula. Similar to OSM, many cartoons were more or less not acknowledged the way they were 10 years before. Since sitcoms dominated because they were faster and cheaper to make, it seemed that the outcome was better. Over the course of the period (c. 2002-2008) they released the smallest selection of DC cartoons ever while the sitcoms got more and more press. It’s unclear what Disney was going to do next, but soon summer of 2007 came along...

PART 3: Gotta Make Summer Last

Disney Channel aired the premiere of High School Musical 2 and decided to air the first episode of PaF afterwards. As a result HSM 2 netted 17.6 million views and PaF 10.8 million views. We could easily deduce that eager HSM fans made up the clout of viewers, but that’s not to say the show couldn’t prove interesting to viewers anyway. In fact, Disney delayed its original 2007 release in the US to release it in February in multiple countries. Places such as Latin America, Brazil, Japan, France and Portugal got to experience the show right along with us. International promotion was rolled out which only netted PaF even more press. It became one of Japan’s most popular Western cartoons, it got wild promotion in Latin America and most of Europe(all around) made excellent dubs and gave it the lion’s share of time slots. This was a pretty good outcome all things considered.

Thus the cycle began. First came DVDs and games, then came interviews and guest spots, than movies, Disney park attractions, live events and then omnipresence.... scratch that last one, but you get the idea. The TV Movie itself was more or less the peak of the show. It remains the 10th most watched DCOM premiere of all time and the show remains one of the longest running animated series of the main Disney networks(DC, XD, and Junior). I think the last time Disney mass merchandised a TV cartoon this much was Lilo and Stitch(last one not already a franchise was Doug or Recess). The show is even part of the Marvel and Star Wars universes(non canonically of course)Even then, Disney elevated the show to new heights. It had everything Disney wanted; likeable protagonists, innocent motifs, enough songs to last for days, episodic adventures, and tons of mass marketing appeal. This simple show connected people across the world(if the Tumblr/DA fandoms for PaF were any indicator)through its mult-faceted music and rudimentary themes. While this show raised the bar, it also left the bar to be raised another notch by...

PART 4: Meet the Man of Mystery

In 2012, Gravity Falls premiered as a sneak peek behind DCOM Let it Shine. While not an instant ratings hit, it quickly became one of the most critically acclaimed Disney TV cartoons of all time. The spotlight quickly began to fade on the smartest stepbrothers around as new episodes were coming infrequently. While the numbers were still big enough to make Teen Titans Go mutter in awed jealousy, it still was becoming less of a force on the main network. However on Disney XD, it was still Adored by the Network. I remember how I felt watching day long marathons several times a month, sometimes without reason. Despite its mass appeal, Phineas and Ferb could be classified easily as a boy targeted program due to the protagonists and the subject matter. Until XD found its groove, they would continue to spam PaF for what felt like eons. To this day, they still occasionally air it in primetime slots.

The way I wrote this last part may sound cynical,jaded, and/or pessimistic. However, it’s written that way to emphasize another point. After the success of this series, Disney went from relying on a few filler shows to releasing a new show basically every year and truly giving them all the promotion they could. While not all series got the treatment we all wanted them to have, a lot more of them have come and gone to try to re-innovate and reinvigorate the brand. Phineas and Ferb (more or less) singlehandedly convinced Disney TV to put more stock in their animation division. Don’t know how many Fallers know this but Disney actually asked Alex Hirsch to make his pilot for them after seeing his work. They were actively seeking out new talent and new stories. Honestly, while Kick Buttowski and Pickle and Peanut got a lot of flac in the day, they were(to an extent) a sign that the House of mouse was trying to experiment and make something they liked to see. The latter especially seemed like a personal pet project of XD’s off sense of humor.

I’m sure the networks would have reinvented their cartoons eventually, but PAF brought it out in the best way. In a way the boys were kind of dc celebrities in their heyday. When you can summon a bunch of popular characters from the live action sitcoms to dance for possibly hours for a two minute music video in the name of a teal platypus made out of digital ink and pixels, that’s pretty special indeed.

CONCLUSION

Phineas and Ferb is my favorite animated series,explaining why I can info dump mostly from memory as I have in this post. While many have told me that it’s nothing special, to me it stands out as the brightest diamond in the rough and a shining testament to the duality of animation in general. Ten years from now, I hope that I can write better when I must wax sentimentality about my favorite cartoon show. Thanks to the cast, crew, creators, and fans for making summer last. See you at the 20th!

#Phineas and Ferb #phineas flynn #ferb fletcher #Disney Channel #disney xd #disney #analysis #personal essay #infodump #reblog with tag tldr for short version

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pixiealtaira · 7 years

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Things to be Happy About

Pairing: None really, it is a friendship fic...Kurt, Elliot and Dani

Author’s note: So..last year I decided to do a journal prompt challenge. Or, rather, I thought about it. I wrote down all the prompts in a notebook...and it sat and sat and sat. The ridiculous thing of course being it was a 30 days of lists, about as easy a journal challenge as you get...but I was not feeling it at all. So June of last year come around with the stupid notebook still sitting there mocking me and with me at an impass on the long fic that is still in progress, but not at the same point which is good....and I thought, I need something else to write on but I want to still be playing with the character’s I’m am writing so that stall Harry Potter fic isn’t an option...wait a minute! And thus this series of fics was born. The titles will be kinda...bah, However, each title is the journal prompt. So maybe someone out there might want to write the prompt for their own 30 days (plus one) of Lists.

Kurt slid the door to the loft open as he finally reached home after his long day. He was really tempted to shoot whoever was in charge of scheduling for year three at NYADA and he half suspected that Rachel quit simply because she’d heard all about what her next year would have had in store for her. First semester was the work-study project, the screen and play writing class, one of the playwrights in depth classes, and the “from script to concept’ class. The latter three could be taken as on-line courses if one’s work project was out of the city as long as one also attended a summer workshop in each the next year to get the ‘physical’ parts completed, but if one’s work study was near-by each class took time on campus. The second semester was what was lovingly called the practical semester. Of course, Kurt was also half certain somehow Rachel would have convinced everyone that SHE didn’t need to take stage craft (which at NYADA consisted of everything not included in the other classes, pretty much), or makeup arts, or costume design, or sound and lighting and that her spot in Funny Girl should negate a work-study project. Nor did she need to read or write anything, it was all about the acting…or rather the singing. Somehow she would have just ended up with the voice workshops and dance class. She somehow managed it her freshman year, after all. Anyways…Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays Kurt spent from 9 to noon working with make-up and costuming and from 1 to 4pm working stagecraft and with the sound and lighting, about half and half. He understood it, really. He agreed, too. Simply knowing what all went into a production was fine and dandy, if one even got that far. He didn’t think Rachel ever did, nor did Blaine. They saw “sing” “act” “dance” as all they needed to even contemplate. However getting down and dirty with the rest of it was a whole other ballgame. Doing the behind the scenes work made him respect the whole process even more. He could already tell it made a difference in the few auditions he’d managed after starting this semester. Tuesday and Thursdays were spent at dance class and the music workshops. He had Madame Tibideaux’s voice workshop in the round from 9 to 11 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, followed by dance from 1 to 3 and the whole aptly named ‘How to be a proper part of the Chorus” workshop from 3:30 to 5pm. And Monday through Friday his had his voice and speech practicum from 8am to 8:55. He seriously wasn’t sure which days were longer.

From school he headed to one of his jobs. He’d worked at Vogue.com, which was a part time paid job now. He enjoyed it, even though he wasn’t Isabelle’s personal assistant anymore. He worked with wardrobe right now, until he had more time to be the type of assistant Isabelle needed. He rather loved it. A lot was done in the evening and night, after those working the more normal hours had made the decisions and then gone home. It also tended to be a bunch of work at once time but then light hours day to day. Only once had he ever had to choose between work and class, and a once in a long while work emergency had not been a problem. Besides, it was like doing make-overs all the time. It was a good job for now. He also had the diner job. He’d nearly given it up, but after Rachel had quit and Santana had quit and he’d given the owner time to calm down while showing up for work on time and doing all he was expected without pushing for more, it had ended up a much more pleasant experience. On top of those, he’d picked up a few mechanic jobs over the past few months since Blaine had left. He’d been looking desperately to pick up something extra that he could do when he needed just that little bit more cash for rent or bills or to eat.

It was a Wednesday. Stage craft had involved creating the backdrops. It involved hammers, bruises…caused by himself and others, a first coat of paint which needed much better ventilation than was to be had, and a headache. Lighting and sound had involved creating thunder and lightning in many different forms. Costume design was working with sewing machines, all 20 going at once, to finish a commission the costume design teacher had taken on and not followed through well with and thus was overdue on. Make-up design was ‘gore’ this week. Work had been from 4:30 to 11:30 at the diner and he had to be at Vogue by 6am to get the last minute items set for a photoshoot the next day. He’d had an hour of sleep the night before, covering his shift at the diner till 11:30pm and then opening for a sick co-worker starting at 5am, plus getting the last minute work done for his costuming class (steampunk Westside Story…he’d been in charge of two Jets costumes) and redoing a series of props for stage craft that he’d missed half the assignment instructions on. The night before that hadn’t been much better. Kurt was dragging. It was nearly half past midnight when Kurt got home. He wasn’t even certain if he ought to eat and shower, or just fall into bed for his four hours of sleep.

His apartment wasn’t empty. Dani and Elliot were there, kicked back on his couch watching TV and chatting.

“Oh Please don’t tell me I missed a rehearsal that I scheduled?” Kurt asked.

“You’re home!” Elliot exclaimed.

Dani rushed over to Kurt, removed his bag and sat him right in the middle of the couch. Before he could even say anything a bowl of curry over rice was handed to him. It was warm and smelled so good.

“Nope.” Dani said. “It’s just we noticed your schedule on the wall at the rehearsal Sunday night and decided you needed some TLC.”

“We’ll be over Friday night for a movie night and some good old fashioned chilling. I’m bringing the fruit and other snacks.” Elliot added. “I let Dani pick the movie and games.”

“Now eat up so your bath doesn’t get cold. I added just the right oils for relaxation and sleep aid. There is yogurt, granola and fruit for your breakfast. I will know if you didn’t eat.”

With that Dani and Elliot both kissed his forehead and headed out the door, closing it tight behind them.

As he finished his dinner and washed his bowl and fork, realizing all his other dishes he hadn’t been able to do were done and shopping was done and things were cleaned, he pondered his life’s turns.

Even though school was full and wild and work was busy, Kurt was pretty happy. He actually was enjoying his classes and learning tons. Even if he never made it to Broadway, what he was learning now was providing the information he would need to help start community theater groups when he was older. He loved costuming, he liked props, and he had fun working sets and managing a stage. It didn’t make him want to give up his dreams of starring in a show like Rachel had yelled over the phone that it would, but it gave him a greater appreciation for the whole theater experience. He had fun in dance (oddly enough Ms. July was decent now that Blaine and Rachel weren’t there and hadn’t that been a disturbing few days of contemplation) and he learned a lot in his vocal courses, enjoying those as well. School was worth it.

His band was still together and they still performed, in fact they had a small following that would hound them for the next show date and would always show up. They never played to a room smaller than 50 now. All three and the band were fine with this, because they were all just in it for fun and enjoyment. They played with genre and costumes and did theme nights and it was fun. They’d even done weddings and birthday parties.

He had a lovely flat, which he had an extra room which he could rent out when he choose to but which working like he did he could cover on his own if he needed to. He controlled his own food. He didn’t have to worry about if Rachel was being a vegetarian that day or not, or about someone trying to fatten him up to relieve their own self-doubt. He could sing when he wanted and dance when he wanted and watch his own TV.

He had friends and wasn’t that an eye-opener, having real friends. He’d forever be grateful that Elliot got back from his retreat when he did. Elliot missed the whole break-up and the next several weeks while they still had to share the loft until the end of school…during which Kurt went to school and went to class and took his tests and sang when he was supposed to and did his assignments and went to work so rent could be paid and picked up the loft and Blaine went out and partied it up, coming home drunk and skipped classes and blew off June (for whom he was already skipping classes to start off with) or lay on the couch bemoaning life and moaning about how everything and everyone hated him, eating junk food and take out and not doing anything except moan and then yell and throw things. Elliot missed the spectacular melt down when Blaine was informed he flunked out. He missed the movers coming in the next day and Kurt having to stay home from work after watching Blaine trying to pack stuff that wasn’t his for fifteen minutes.

Elliot was home, though, by the end of that move-out week. He had popped over to discuss keeping the band going when the first of the angry texts came from Sam, and then from Brittany and Santana and Mercedes. The texts accusing Kurt of making Blaine flunk out, of making teachers give him bad grades. The ones accusing him of throwing Blaine out the moment they broke-up (which he didn’t) and stealing Blaine’s money by taking rent when he wasn’t even living in the apartment anymore (Blaine hadn’t even paid rent for the last two months) and taking all Blaine’s stuff. Elliot was there the day Kurt came home from his first psychologist visit (with the same guy that encouraged Rachel to see having an understudy as a plot against her and who told Blaine that it was healthy for him to be the alpha gay and Kurt to always be less than him, two confident people cannot work as a relationship, one must always be subservient and lying to each other only gave a relationship spice) and Elliot was there to point out that Kurt thought the guy was insane when Rachel and Blaine were seeing him, why would he think what the guy said to him to be less insane now? Elliot called Dani, who gave Kurt the name of several other individuals, all of whom were more comfortable to talk to and within which he found a psychologist who really did help.

Dani was home by the time he was ready to even consider starting to date, and before that Dani and Elliot dragged him out to other places and encouraged him to make friends at work and school. Chase was the one who suggested speed dating and got him a spot, Dani was the one he complained to about the guy who said he wasn’t over his boyfriend and also the one to suggest maybe it wasn’t Blaine they were talking about. Ellie, who he worked with at wardrobe, sat with him as he called the Apples he knew were still around, apologizing to them and asking for Adam’s contact information. Elliot held his hand while he called Adam and apologized. Elliot and Dani both insisted on meeting Adam, and they all talked as Kurt and Adam become friends again.

Kurt was able to rejoin the Apples and work with them. He reconnected to friends he’d started to make there. He connected again with friends he’d made in his stage combat and mime classes, and joined other clubs again.

Dani and Elliot and all the Apples around at the time were waiting at the coffee house kitty corner to the spot where everyone was supposed to meet up in 6 months’ time, and stayed until Kurt gave up. They took him out clubbing and reminded him why he was in New York. Dani called Chase who called Isabelle, who invaded the loft the next night with a party on the go, just to cheer him up. Elliot called Adam, who flew in over the weekend and they teamed up to drag Kurt sightseeing, to all those places Kurt had not taken the time to see since he was living there and not a tourist.

Kurt came back to New York after running to answer Rachel’s call, instead of staying in Lima. Instead of having the bad advice of that first psychologist and the old-flame speed dating guy in his head shouting and mixing with Rachel’s wish and desire to see them back together, Kurt had other voices. Ones who showed him what he’d suspected all along and told him that yes, choosing each day to love someone and trust someone was a good way to deal after they continually hurt you…however, that didn’t make it the only answer ever. The next day you can choose something else and it is not a failure. He was able to watch Blaine and David together and cry in the bathroom at the loss of a relationship he’d invested so much in, but he was also able to say NO. No to Rachel, No to the relationship and No to trying to fix something that had been so broken for so long. Furthermore, he realized he didn’t even have to start dating just yet. There was nothing that said he had to have a boyfriend at all times to be enjoying life.

His bath was still warm and even the towels were heated. Kurt laughed. He knew Dani liked to toss them in the microwave to heat. He relaxed and reached for the body wash Dani had set out. It was a favorite sleepy time mix that she’d found worked to combat insomnia.

He’d come home to New York. He did his work-study at the same home where he’d done Peter Pan. He helped them put on the musical Annie and the play Barefoot in the Park. He also picked up some extra hours helping a small children’s theater group just down the street from his loft put together a production of Alice In Wonderland after one of the aides at the old performers home found out he had done costumes when he was in high school. It wasn’t working with Broadway babies, heck some of the kids couldn’t sing what they were supposed to and not many could dance at all, but it was fun and so fulfilling to help provide the chance for the kids to be able to get up on a stage and perform to the best ability they could. He was able to take the classes he needed to take at the school and sing with the Apples again and perform with his band. He auditioned. He even managed to end up at two call-backs. Sure, he hadn’t made it onto the stage yet, but a call-back wasn’t anything to be laughed at. He’d played chorus parts in both NYADA musicals since the break-up. He’d scored near the top on all showcase performances he’d done. He was holding his own and he was doing well.

And with him not back in Lima, his dad and Carole had had to come to New York. His dad had had to take a vacation. Carole had had to take a vacation. His dad was able to meet Elliot and Dani and watch the band play on Elvis night. Carole was able to go to work with him at Vogue, and meet Isabelle and watch a photoshoot he’d worked wardrobe on. They went and watched a show. They talked about Finn without despair, able to laugh about what he’d have thought. It was good.

Kurt got out of the tub. He dried off, drained the water, and headed to his bed. He found the comfiest flannel PJs he owned on his bed, his blankets turned down, and Bruce in place. Somehow, he thought he might just have the best life ever.

#glee fanfic #Kurt Hummel #elliot gilbert #Dani

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undersunrise · 7 years

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⊰ ♚— banks inspired plots

okay a series of plots inspired by gemini genius banks, her music is too good to not have plots derive from them, so enjoy ! i’ve chosen a select few from both albums, goddess & the altar. the muses in all plots are more than able to be interchangeable, i wrote this neutrally and i try to veer away from the typically ‘m/f’ setup.

this is what it feels like: muse a & b are the no strings attached type so when they embark on their routine engagement it starts out fine. however, muse a being pretty detached and independent, often gives muse b the cold shoulder outside of their little hookups. however it starts to feel exclusive to muse b since both of them aren’t running around with other people and just confiding in each other for their needs. there’s something about the push and pull that they receive from muse a that starts to attract them all the more. muse a starts to notice the difference in muse b’s behavior and warns them to not ruin what they have. however there’s something pleasantly convenient they also find in muse b, which starts to annoy them. as a result they push muse b away and start to blame them for potentially destroying something good. muse b despite the accusations fights back and insinuates that muse a also has feelings for them and calls them out on their stubborn independence. this leads to a large window of not talking to each other, which drives muse a up the wall, simply because their quick fix is missing and that they may be developing more feelings being away from muse b. when they agree to meet again, muse a apologizes and owns up to their behavior and tries to work out a compromise in their relationship, something slow and not too fast, but muse b is quick to reciprocate the dismissive behavior muse a showed them earlier. giving them a taste of their own medicine and only further increasing the tension between them and making hookups all the more intense and secretly a battle to overcome their own stupidity.

fuck with myself: muse b is school president and muse a is ahead of yearbook. muse b is everyone’s ‘what if’ around school and muse a is in the shadows taking pictures, just trying to survive senior year. the night of a school drive-in fundraiser, muse a actually enjoys attending, because they like the movie choice. however they bump into muse b and muse b is quick to mention how muse a needs to take good pictures for tonight, which prompts muse a to fire back with a witty remark and muse b to do the same out of amusement. from there, the same happens at other events, the two of them taunting each other and warming up to one another. muse a mentions that they were surprised the two of them ended up being friends and muse b implies that they hope they’ll be a bit more than friends. muse a tries to fight the urge not to take the bait so they make some remark about the boring event, while muse a lazily fiddles with the camera leaving, them both to go on a tangent about people at school and shit talking mostly on muse b’s end. muse b then starts to make more of an effort to hang out with muse a around school, which starts catching eyes, even muse a is a little caught of guard, but they’re not against it. it’s when muse a overhears some student council members going on about how muse a is stupid if they believe muse b truly likes them and instead not just using them to look good for colleges with all the events they’ve been capturing muse b in. this frustrates muse a and they start to avoid muse b, ignoring their texts and occasional snaps, even at events, they manage to dodge muse b. it’s when muse a starts to go through their camera one night that they realized they were accidentally filming, but the lens was pointed at the ground, vaguely aimed at both theirs and muse b’s shoes. it just when they’re about to delete it, they hear all the shit talking muse b had to say about the student body and faculty; thus spawning an idea. the next day at school, muse a might’ve slipped the audio to the school paper & not only that, but labeled it as a special announcement for the school to hear on the intercom. muse a purposely turns to muse b while in class, with their camera angled on them just to catch their face when they hear themselves on the intercom, pettily taking the photo topped off with a remark about future colleges enjoying the moment when the student body turned against the president.

change: muse a is stuck in an emotionally abusive relationship with muse b that they didn’t see coming. the two were a an online dating pairing that went right, seemingly so up until the third month when muse b started making poor remarks about muse a’s ‘habits’. muse a having this brought to their attention, becomes more mindful of it around muse b. once muse b notices how receptive they are to ‘critique’ they continue to press on about little things. muse a wanting to please muse b and also understand why suddenly these things are bothering them so deeply, start to doubt themselves and begin to believe they’re becoming a nuisance. however muse a always yearns for reconcile for the sake of their relationship, one that muse b isn’t all that much interested in, they prefer to keep muse a walking on eggshells. though muse a starts to compromise pieces of themselves for muse b, they can’t help but start to get angry with never being able to please them. so when muse a speaks up about it, by finally snapping at muse b, they notice the shift in power. muse b suddenly jarred by the callout on their own behavior breaks down and becomes very vulnerable, explaining that they’re aware of their ways and blame it on their upbringing, they vow to change. muse a actually believes them and things start to feel a little better for a short window of what was almost happiness, before muse b is back at it, only more intense and belittling muse a to the point of tears. in muse a’s frustration they threaten to leave which sends muse b back to vowing they’ll change. it’s not long before it becomes a cycle of picking, threatening and vowing, how long will it go before muse a finally has enough?

waiting game: muse a is a songwriter and has a great voice, but avoids the starlight and spends a lot of time co-writing songs with muse b who’s a very successful artist. through constantly working together on late nights and sharing vulnerable moments between pouring some of their personal experiences into their own music, they begin to form an strongly empathetic bond between one another, which only helps their relationship. muse a, is the better songwriter of the two and even muse b says and believes so and constantly encourages them to release their own music. muse a still weary of life in lights, always shies away from the idea, until muse b coaxes them to sing in front of a small listening party — which they’ve done many times before, but only muse b sneakily told their manager that they wanted to bring muse a along for the tour as an opener and that they had a small performance ready. by the time muse a finishes, muse b’s manager insists that muse a join a short leg of the tour and informs them that they’ll be drawing up a contract. muse a baffled by the whole ordeal pulls muse b aside to scold them, but can’t seem to be too upset in the moment, because they did doubt their own abilities of being good enough for a crowd that muse b would entertain on stage and now they’ve been proven wrong. once the tour begins, muse a starts fitting into the shoes they’ve been put in with muse b to encourage them along the way. they sneak around just to explore different cities and write songs late at night and stay up talking about the rush of performing. when muse a kisses muse b one night and muse b kisses back but they don’t go all the way, but it gets fairly intimate. the next day, things are seemingly swell between the two, no awkward air or undeniable tension, but that shifts just as the tour comes to an end and muse b is seen with some actor(ess) in the tabloids and muse a feels cheated. when they address it to muse b, they rebuttal with the two of them just ‘ having fun on tour. ‘ this angers muse a all the more and they decide to let muse b keep the songs they worked while on tour, for their next album and completely disassociate from them. muse a makes a new name for themselves as a rising artist and releases a whole album dragging muse b’s name through the mud, without actually saying their name, this triggers muse b to bite back. it ends up turning into passively passionate songs about one another that the public slowly starts to catch onto and can’t help but feed off their drama.

under the table: muse b doesn’t necessarily mask their sexuality, but they don’t really care to make it known to everyone. they’re grey when it comes to that area, but it doesn’t bother them all that much unless it comes to muse a. muse a whom was their friend back in grade school, whom they’ve reunited with in college, they’re comfortable with their sexuality and live their life as is. something admirable in muse b’s eyes and only grows to admire the person they’ve become since they were young. time to time they’ll open up about the concept of sexuality and tend to vent over societal ideas to muse a, while they listen to music in their dorms just staring at the ceiling. more often than not they have deep talks which only draws muse b more to muse a due to their open mindedness and leads to them confessing that they have feelings for muse a. muse a has known that muse b was falling for them and mentions they were waiting for muse b to be comfortable enough to admit it. the two don’t start necessarily dating or hookup either, it’s more of sharing an intimate space between each other, one that muse b begins to favor so much more than they would’ve thought, but doesn’t last long. muse b had failed to mention that muse c is back in town after studying abroad. muse c being their significant other, that they conveniently never mentioned or ever discussed their sexuality with. muse a doesn’t lash out or leave muse b behind, but express the confusion and hurt they feel, but they know muse b doesn’t want to lose them and that muse c just doesn’t understand them the way they do. when muse c meets muse a, they’re introduced as a friend of muse b’s. muse c being completely unsuspecting, invites muse a to hang with them more often. which leads to the guilt and slight tension muse b feels about the two of them being together, like there isn’t an elephant in the room. can muse b find the heart to lay it all out on the table or will muse a just linger around hopelessly waiting or will muse c start to pick up on something?

crowded places: muse a & b are old friends, but ran with different crowds and split ways, they’d meet somewhere in the middle, before parting again. it was always a roller coaster for them, hot and cold, wondering if the other will reject them with all the time spent apart. despite that underlying thought, they managed to pick up where they left off. it’s when muse a finds out muse b was in a bad accident, that they drop everything to be at their side. muse b spends about a week in the hospital, but they’ll be okay, as a result they’re still a bit sensitive to loud & sudden noises. muse a vows to take care of them until muse b recovers. thus leads to muse a sleeping over a lot ‘ just like old times ‘ and never acting like muse b has changed. muse a feels a new sense of protection for them and begins to blame themselves for not being there sooner. muse b insists it wasn’t their fault, but muse a confesses to their stupidity back in school by allowing their groups to dictate who they hung around and thanking muse b for not giving up on them. as weeks go by they insist that muse a step back a little to give muse b a chance to readjust to daily activities and surroundings again. muse a being weary agrees but stresses muse b to call if anything happens and they’ll be there instantly. muse b takes on the day only to become overwhelmed unexpectedly, primarily from being a bit too sheltered and comfortable in their home with muse a, and tries to find the will to power through it, despite wanting to call muse a. muse a must’ve sensed something was off later in the day, because when they call muse b and hear a croaked voice on the other end, they rush over to where muse b says they’re at; to find muse b crying in a stall of some public restroom. within seconds muse a comes to their aid and takes them home and it’s just a platonic plot about loyalty in a long lasting friendship.

#indie rp #independent rp #supernatural rp #spn rp #okay but seriously hmu if you wanna do any of these bc i'd like to #DESIRED ... PLOT

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njawaidofficial · 7 years

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'Awards Chatter' Podcast — Stephen Colbert ('The Late Show With Stephen Colbert')

http://styleveryday.com/2017/08/20/awards-chatter-podcast-stephen-colbert-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/

'Awards Chatter' Podcast — Stephen Colbert ('The Late Show With Stephen Colbert')

“I wanted to change as a performer,” Stephen Colbert says as we sit down in the offices of CBS’ The Late Show, high above the Ed Sullivan Theater in Midtown Manhattan, on a “Pizza Tuesday” — a Tuesday when Colbert’s staff is treated to pizza because The Late Show topped the previous week’s ratings — and begin discussing why he agreed to say goodbye to “Stephen Colbert,” a character he perfected over 20 years on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, in order to succeed David Letterman as the host of the Tiffany Network’s late-night centerpiece. “I wanted to change what my responsibilities were on a daily basis,” he continues in an intervew with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast. “I just wanted to go out there and do jokes for people.”

It’s been almost two years since Colbert’s debut as The Late Show‘s host. And it’s been almost one year since disappointing ratings, an Emmys snub and a general lack of buzz prompted some to begin writing off a man who had shared in two Peabody Awards and three writing Emmys during his tenure at The Daily Show (which won five Emmys for best variety series while he was there) and who subsequently had picked up another two Peabodys, four writing Emmys and two Emmys for best variety series at The Colbert Report. There even were suggestions that he would be asked to swap time slots with James Corden’s The Late Late Show — or be replaced altogether.

What a difference a year — and a presidential election — can make! This year, The Late Show, rather than NBC’s The Tonight Show, finished the season atop late-night ratings for the first time in 22 years; The Late Show, and not The Tonight Show, garnered a nom for best variety talk series (plus two others); Colbert’s election-night special for CBS’ sister cable network, Showtime, Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going to Clean Up This Shit? received a nom for best variety special (plus two others); and Colbert himself is set to host the 69th Emmy Awards on Sept. 17. As “Stephen Colbert” might have asked, were he still around: great comeback, or greatest comeback?

(Click above to listen to this episode or here to access all of our 170 episodes via iTunes. Past guests include Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Eddie Murphy, Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, Amy Schumer, Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez, Louis C.K., Emma Stone, Harvey Weinstein, Natalie Portman, Jerry Seinfeld, Jane Fonda, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Nicole Kidman, Aziz Ansari, Taraji P. Henson, J.J. Abrams, Helen Mirren, Justin Timberlake, Brie Larson, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Vikander, Warren Beatty, Jessica Chastain, Samuel L. Jackson, Kate Winslet, Sting, Isabelle Huppert, Tyler Perry, Sally Field, Michael Moore, Lily Collins, Denzel Washington, Mandy Moore, Ricky Gervais, Kristen Stewart, James Corden, Sarah Silverman, Michael B. Jordan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bill Maher, Lily Tomlin, Ryan Murphy, Allison Janney, Eddie Redmayne, Reese Witherspoon, Trevor Noah, Elisabeth Moss, Jay Leno, Kris Jenner, Rami Malek, Jill Soloway, Robert Pattinson, Kate Beckinsale and Jimmy Kimmel.)

Colbert, who is 53, was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in South Carolina, the youngest of 11 kids in a deeply observant Catholic family. At the age of 10, his life was rocked when his father and his two brothers closest in age to him were killed in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212. “I have said to myself more than once, ‘Gosh, I hope I live long enough to figure out what that did to me,’ ” he solemnly reflects. “It’s almost like that event created a labyrinth in my mind in which I could hide when I was younger — no one could find me if I went into the labyrinth of that experience — but I was also lost in there.” By that time, Colbert’s surviving siblings were out of the home, meaning that he and his mother largely were left to take care of each other. During his ensuing adolescent years, Colbert’s spirits were lifted by comedy albums that he listened to every night (“Comedy saved my life,” he says) and it was out of a desire to brighten his mother’s spirits that he increasingly gravitated toward performing comedy himself (“I wanted to make her laugh and feel better”).

After “barely” graduating from high school as a result of having neglected his studies in favor of reading for pleasure and playing Dungeons & Dragons, Colbert studied for two years at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, before transferring to Northwestern University in order to pursue a theater major. There, a drama teacher insisted that students drop their facades and open up about their innermost feelings, and, Colbert says decades later, “I think it was the first time in my life I started to reflect on what had happened to me and my family as a child.” While in Chicago, Colbert also met Del Close, one of the legendary gurus of improvisation, and began studying improv on the side, ultimately at fabled Second City, where he was hired to join the national touring company in 1988. (There, he understudied Steve Carell, whom he would later recommend for a job at The Daily Show, and became particularly close with Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris, with whom he would later co-create, with Mitch Rouse, Strangers With Candy for Comedy Central.)

In 1994, Colbert left Second City and headed to New York, where he had been offered a job writing for the Comedy Central sketch-comedy series Exit 57 — which promptly was canceled. Following a brief return to Chicago, he, his wife and their newborn child moved to New York for good when he was hired to write for ABC’s The Dana Carvey Show (on which he and Carell also voiced the characters of Ace and Gary, respectively, in Robert Smigel‘s The Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoons, which they later reprised on Saturday Night Live). That show was canceled after only eight episodes had aired. Thus began for Colbert a “dark period” of “soul-crushing work,” stints on the unemployment rolls and general uncertainty about his future. Interestingly, it had been at The Dana Carvey Show that he first was asked to play a newsman (the episodes in which he did so never aired), and it was after its cancellation that he was hired, as one of many short-term gigs, to do the same in humorous segments for ABC’s Good Morning America (just two of those segments aired). That, in turn, brought him to the attention of The Daily Show, which he reluctantly joined as a field correspondent in 1997, when Craig Kilborn was still the anchor. He recalls, “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m an actor, why am I going to be a correspondent?’ “

Two years later, Jon Stewart succeeded Kilborn, and Colbert — who had been splitting his time between The Daily Show and launching Strangers With Candy — couldn’t have been happier. “We hit it off immediately,” he says, explaining, “He was injecting the show with purpose and an editorial position, and when I came back, he invited us to put our own thoughts, our own feelings, our own editorial position in what we were doing. We weren’t widgets to him; we were creative partners.” One of the things that Colbert took upon himself to do was create “Stephen Colbert,” a self-important newsman “persona,” initially modeled after a local TV news reporter; then after an all-business pro like Stone Phillips; and ultimately after a selection of the talking-head pundits who were beginning to proliferate across TV at the time, but one, in particular: Bill O’Reilly. “I really do think that he’s a well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot,” Colbert says of the now-disgraced Fox News alum, “which was my model.”

By 2005, having become immensely popular over his years on The Daily Show, Colbert was ready to move on to his next adventure. “I really liked working with Jon, but I wanted to leave because there was only so much I could do,” he recalls. “Jon was always going to be the guy with the ball, as well he should be — there’s no greater runner, he’s the master — but I knew I could only do so much for him. It was a beautiful note, but it was only one note that I could do for him in his chorus of correspondents.” Colbert and Stewart pitched a sitcom to NBC, but the network passed, and then Comedy Central asked if they might like to create a Daily Show spinoff, starring “Stephen Colbert,” which would follow The Daily Show each evening. They bit, and for the next decade, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report arguably were television’s best — and certainly its funniest — one-two punch.

In April 2014, when it was announced that David Letterman would be vacating his job as host of The Late Show, few imagined that Colbert, who had been Letterman’s guest 10 times over the years, might replace him. But, Colbert says, “I had already decided I wasn’t gonna do the [Colbert Report] show anymore,” and when CBS approached him about the position, he began seriously considering it — largely because he thought his mother, who had died less than a year earlier, would have liked him to. “In some ways, all of this was for her,” he says. “She would absolutely have been so tickled.” Colbert realized that he would be trading in cable for broadcast, giving up four half-hour shows a week for five hourlong shows and, most significantly, retiring “Stephen Colbert” for Stephen Colbert even though, as he puts it, “No one ever knew that guy” — and he took the plunge. His first Late Show aired on Sept. 8, 2015.

Did Colbert make the right move? “I was an actor, and this is not acting,” he says. “This is a harder job. There’s a challenge to driving a car straight, as opposed to swerving all over the road.” Even though Colbert brought almost all of his Colbert Report staff — some 80 people — with him to the new job, and even though he had not had a showrunner before, it quickly became apparent that without one, he, “a control freak” who was hands-on with every detail of the show, from its set to its greenrooms to its comedy, was in trouble. “I lost my mind,” he acknowledges in hindsight. “I couldn’t sleep at night because clearly, aesthetically or in terms of having an editorial intention, the show was not coalescing. People didn’t know what they were gonna get — they didn’t know what it was about — because neither did I. I had thrown out the baby with the bathwater: In trying to not be my character, I also threw out my interests which led to the character.”

The first of two major turning points for the show came on April 2, 2016, after it already had been on the air for eight lackluster months, when CBS chief Les Moonves arranged a meeting between Colbert and Chris Licht, a producer who had helped a number of other shows on the network find their footing. Colbert recalls Licht’s proposal for a collaboration: “He said, ‘Any moment you’re not thinking about comedy, I’ve failed.’ And I said, ‘Let’s shake on it. Do you want the job?’ ” Ever since, Colbert asserts, he has gotten better about “letting go and just enjoying being onstage with the audience,” and he also has arrived at an understanding that “what works in one of these shows, at least in my experience, is, I’m gonna talk to you about the thing that you’ve already been talking about today, and we’re gonna give you our take on this thing that everybody’s talking about, to give you some context — and maybe calm you down about it.”

The second turning point came on Nov. 8, 2016, the night of the U.S. presidential election, when Colbert was hosting his live Showtime special, for which he and his team had planned all sorts of comedic material. But as it became apparent, to everyone’s disbelief, that Donald Trump actually was going to win, Licht approached Colbert with a piece of advice that the host says he took to heart. “He said, ‘No more bits. All the things we have planned, let’s just throw [them] out the window. Just go over there and talk to people.’ So that’s what the show became [that night], and we’ve tried to not let go of that.” Colbert continues, “That show changed us because it showed me the value of not pretending to feel some way you’re not.” In other words, rather than avoiding politics simply because it had been the bread and butter of “Stephen Colbert,” Colbert would tackle politics head-on because it was precisely what was on his mind — and therefore, in all likelihood, others’ minds, too. Two weeks after the election, Colbert’s Late Show topped the ratings for the first time, and it hasn’t looked back since.

“There’s a lot of things that have changed,” Colbert muses. “I have an even deeper respect for [ABC late-night host Jimmy] Kimmel and [NBC late-night host Jimmy] Fallon and [TBS’ current/NBC’s former late-night host] Conan [O’Brien] and the people who came before us. I always respected their comedy, but I really respect them professionally because I didn’t know what they were doing until I got here.” He hastens to add, “I’ve learned to trust my staff,” noting that he could not have done 17 live shows over the past year if he hadn’t. And, above all, at long last, he’s having fun. “I love this job,” he says with a big smile. “I couldn’t love it more. This feels, right now, like the first year of the old gig. There’s a sense of excitement, and I hope that is throughout the whole building — that people feel like they’ve created something new that wasn’t here a year ago.”

Stephen Colbert Primetime Emmy Awards The Daily Show

#Awards #Chatter #Colbert #Late #Podcast #Show #Stephen

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