#TIL being a good and nice person is a lot different from being a little bit of a bitch with a moral compass

[kimmkitsuragi]

oh i actually see what people mean now by astarion hating good characters with passion in early game. hmm. i thought Lou was good too (at least when it mattered lmao) but now im actually trying to play a Nice person (which honestly does not come naturally to me) and he's like "ughhhh not you again 🙄 what do you want?!"

#TIL being a good and nice person is a lot different from being a little bit of a bitch with a moral compass #the player learns the difference between lawful good and chaotic good 🤩 #honestly yes he hates me. but also this just means a lot of people out there are playing goody two shoes characters all the time #if they are having this much trouble with romancing him lmaoooo #honestly i still do think he will come around after vampire reveal #but anyway not being at least a little bitchy or self serving or sarcastic is. so hard #lynn is like i can be your angle 😇 or yuor devil (bhaalspawn) 😈 #they are like freshly got my memories wiped and i have a parasite in my head. weird #let me try to be a good person tho. but there's this darkness in me....... it's probably nothing :) #playing bg3

[mulansaucey]

Bat Wives Wine Night

AZRIEL X READER

This is my first thing I’ve put out to public eyes...ever. So please be nice. I had this idea for awhile and this is mostly a teaser to what I truly want to write. I want to make this a full imagine with smut. If you like this idea and want to see a spicier version to how this night ends please let me know. I’m always open to criticism and always looking for advice so as long as we are nice about it let me know what you think. Im gonna start writing more stuff and will be open to requests. Thank you and I hope you like this little teaser. 

PART 2:

WARNINGS: drugs and alch used responsibly, dirty thoughts by the bat boys

CONCEPT: The bat boys finally realize what their mates are up to on their top secret Wine Nights 

“Oh my gods…you’re right” Feyre softly said. 

     Feyre, Nesta, and I were sitting at the River House sipping on wine and enjoying what we call Bat Wives Wine Night when I had the realization that our husbands have had 500 plus years of experience and fun while us wives are in our 20’s being depressed and stressed for majority of our lives. This was unacceptable and not fair at all. We deserve to let loose and live a little. Go drink til we throw up, smoke mirthroot and tobacco as we pleased. To just be stupid, reckless teens. A night where we didn’t have to be perfect, just ourselves. We all looked at each other with understanding that our simple little wine nights just became a lot more fun. 

    “Okay ladies, once a month like we do now we keep letting our mates think we have wine, eat cheese on a platter and gossip. But let’s just go crazy, do whatever we want because we feel like it. Because we can. We’re young, hot, and rich. Let’s just be stupid, not enough to be dangerous but enough to have some memories to laugh fondly at just like our darling husbands. We are Bat Wives, I say we give them a run for their money.” I declare loudly watching my High Lady’s eyes light up with mischief (just like her mate). Nesta’s feline grin gave me the approval I needed from her. Thank the Mother our mates were not here to hear us declare our secret fun. 

    “Our mates will find out though, eventually. Cass is nosey, drills me on what happens on our Wine Nights. Such a gossip…” Nesta whispers the last part. 

    “Plus your mate is the Spymaster…” Feyre concludes by taking a sip of her wine. Yes he is, my beautiful, sweet, loving mate. Azriel. We’ve been married and mated for over a year now. I met him at a time when I swore off love at the nice age of 19 years old. But he was so kind and patient, building up our friendship first and making me feel seen as a person. He is a wonderful male and he had to fight many battles to get where he is today. But I am not Azriel, I’ve barely traveled out of my own court. Our perspectives can be quite different which I love but I want to create my own experiences as well. After the war, after almost dying I realized life can be taken from me at any moment and I want to spend those moments knowing I made good memories. That I lived. Even if it’s once a month with my sister in laws doing something as silly as smoking mirthroot. It’s something to ease the soul, bonding between just us girls. 

    “So what? Let’s see how long we can go til they figure it out. Make it a game, see how far we can go before they find out just how unhinged we are.” I giggle just a bit tipsy. The girls and I burst out laughing and start planning what we should do next month. 

*TWO YEARS LATER*

   Two years and counting. Our darling husbands STILL think we have a quiet night in with some books and snacks. It’s truly comical. It’s also nice to know something they don’t. 

“I’ll miss you.” Az murmurs in my hair, holding me til I walk into the River House front door. I tighten my arms around his waist and breathe him in. He takes a step back looking at me, love and adoration flowing through the bond between us. Az looks heart eyed, as if seeing me for the first time. I can’t tease him because I know for a fact I’m looking at him with the very same look. 

    “Can you guys just make out already so we can start drinking?” Nesta says unamused. I jumped back from Azriel, startled. When did she open the door? Nesta walks further away from us into a deeper part of the house. I turn back to find Az already looking at me. Something about Azriel is he is absolutely clingy in the best way possible. Physical touch and quality time are his love languages, any time we have to part it’s a bit dramatic because we simply hate saying goodbye. It’s the love I’ve always wanted. I love the Wine Nights as he has nights with his brothers to get away but nothings better than coming home and finding my place within his arms. 

    “If you ever wanna leave early just let me know and we can cuddle and I can go down on you.” Az’s cheeky grin showed proudly. I laugh while pushing him, he grabs my wrist playfully holding me to him. He brushes some hair from my cheek and presses his smooth lips to mine. We stand there for what feels like hours just feeling each other's breath mingle, when he glides his naughty tongue against my lips I pull away. Both us panting I say, “Go Az, before I actually ditch them for you.” I giggle. He very reluctantly peels his hands off my body and shoots up the sky with a wink, surely a promise of great fun when he picks me up tomorrow morning. 

        With the mating haze slowly leaving my brain a new found giddiness found its way in. We’ve started doing full on sleepovers instead of a few hours of mingling. That way we can return to the River House and clean up before our mates return to us. Truthfully it started after Feyre had way too many tequila shots and threw up for two hours begging us not to call for Rhys as our “cover” would be blown. I skip into the River House and take a look at my girls. 

    “Ready to fuck shit up?” I ask. “We’ve been ready, we were betting if you two would actually fuck on my front door.” Feyre says as fill her cups with wine, pregaming for later. Nesta laughs while grabbing my hand leading me into Feyre’s room. She has the biggest bathroom and closet for these occasions. We all start getting ready putting on our preferred style of makeup and clothing. Laughing loudly as we gossip about Beron’s hairline that keeps going further back as each year passes. We truly don’t know if it is but we all love roasting that horrible man. Once we are satisfied with our looks for the night we get ready to winnow to Veela, a club the IC doesn’t frequent too often. It’s newer and doesn’t have the huge crowd Rita’s does. It’s perfect, truly. We won’t run into anyone we know, not too crowded, but fun and rowdy. We pack the leftover mirthroot and tobacco from last month and winnow to the club saving us some time. We walk right in finding our usual table free in the corner. 

    “Let’s start with some shots ladies.” Nesta yells out heading to the bar, I’m a bit scared because Nesta’s choices in liquor are questionable at times. Feyre and I start people watching and laughing as we see the funny things the already drunk patrons are doing. I start rolling a blunt and a few j’s also a few cigarettes as I tend to want to smoke one after a good drink or two. Nesta comes back with the shots and our preferred mixed drinks in hand. We raise our glasses cheering for another successful Bat Wives Wine Night. 

    About an hour or so later we are tipsy, Nesta not so as she prefers to smoke mirthroot. Her struggles with drinking have lessened, she has a drink or two while she watches Feyre and I dance on tables. Nesta nursing a joint between her fingers swaying to the music she loved. Nesta says the plant helps her feel connected to it. Whatever, I don't care as long as we do what we want and feel safe doing it. I am a fan of both, I hop off the table and take the joint between my lips taking a long drag before exhaling into her mouth as we both giggle uncontrollably. Her red eyes meet mine, seeing Nesta relaxed and having fun is a privilege and I’m glad she feels safe enough to do so. We all love our mates but I think being with each other brings a new peace to our hearts. Sisters and friends, we are loved. For the first time in a long time we are loved. Her eyes widen, face slack as I laugh and turn I start coughing inhaling sharply as I see them. 

Our husbands. 

Our mates. 

Staring. 

    I gently pull Feyre off the table where she was dancing with two other fae, gently pushing her head to make her see what we see. Feyre chokes on her breath. 

“Shit…” Feyre mutters. Shit, indeed. 

*BOYS POV*

    Flying to the House of Wind, Azriel thought of his sweet mate. Years they’ve indulged their wives in their one night of secrecy. They deserved it, for being selfless and caring. Their mates have sacrificed a lot for them, for the Night Court. But they are busy bodies at heart, they can’t help but be curious. They love their wives, they just want to be included. Azriel lands on the balcony to see Cass and Rhys nursing a glass of whiskey. He walks in and pours himself a glass. 

    “Az, what do you think they do all night?” Cass says looking into his glass, pouting. Rhys looks unamused, Nesta probably told him off for being nosy. “Cass, they’re women. They drink their wine and dish about the new love interest in the books they read. Don’t think too hard you’ll hurt yourself.” Rhys chuckles as Cass throws a pillow at him. Rhys ducking slightly missing the pillow. 

    “I’m not but you know what I’m talking about. They smell like tequila and there’s traces of makeup and good perfume on them. Think about it, what do our mates truly get up to?” Cass says. Azriel sits and starts to think while Rhys and Cass get into it. Azriel the ever observant once couldn't have missed this right? He trusted his mate, knew she wouldn’t do anything stupid. Right? 

    Rhys stands after an hour or two of them not so obsessively tracking back to all the times they’ve had their Wine Nights. “Let’s go to the house now, we’ll say we forgot something. Catch them off guard.” He looks at the boys in confirmation. All their eyes light up in glee of possibly catching their mates doing something scandalous. But how they underestimate their wives is truly amusing. How they didn’t catch on after two years, even more so. 

    They set off for the River House when they landed there was silence. No giggling or tinking of wine glasses. Nothing. At first panic rushed in thinking someone hurt their mates but once they reached the master bedroom they saw clothes strung across the place, makeup and hair products messily sitting on the counter. The girls usual PJ’s on the floor. They went out.

     Cass scoffs, “I knew it! I KNEW THEY WENT OUT WITHOUT US! HA RHYS, I TOLD YOU!” he booms loudly, happy to be right and Rhys to be wrong. Azriel immediately makes a plan to find them, sending his shadows out. Once he gathered they were in the city they set their sights there. They went to Rita’s, not a trace. They searched restaurants and pleasure halls, Azriel questioning the staff there. They learned not only did they go out tonight but have frequented these places multiple times, without them. They were smart, Az gave them that. The girls used cash wherever they went instead of billing them, going as far as to use fake names and backstories when they would stop by the herb shop to purchase mirthroot and tobacco. Something they did not know their mates indulged in. For a second they questioned their mates, if they truly knew them. Now they for sure were set to find out answers. Azriel’s shadow reported to him they were across the city in a new club. 

    The music was pounding, drunk and high fae dancing or sitting and laughing. Azriel first spotted his High Lady and mate dancing on a table top, Feyre pouring tequila down his mate’s throat. Azriel couldn't lie, the sight made his pants tighten, seeing the hard liquor pouring down his wife’s very low top trickling onto her breasts. Watching her throat bob up and down, very similar sight to when she has him in her mout- “WHAT THE FUCK!” Rhys exclaims though it sounds more like a whisper compared to the very raunchy music booming in the background. Az notes that though Feyre lets loose at Rita’s and has fun, Feyre looks unhinged. As if she wasn’t the High Lady of Night but a 20 something year old who was having fun. Azriel laughed as he watched with his brothers, they stayed in the corner out of the way but still in eye sight of their girls. He watched his mate get off the table and steal the joint Nesta was nursing, blowing it in her mouth. Cass watches just as intently, in fascination and horniness. “I didn’t know they did THIS on their wine nights, I didn’t even know Nes smoked at all.” Cass says. He’s starting to wonder just how nice it would be to get Nesta this relaxed then fuck her for hours under smoke induced love making. Rhys is no better, watching Feyre swing her hips against the strangers around her. Wanting so badly to take her in the bathroom. But first it’s business. 

“Alright, brothers. They’ve had their fun now let’s crash.” Rhys said with a smirk. All together they marched towards their mates and stood waiting for them to realize. All had a mask of indifference though they really wanted to burst out laughing. One by one each girl’s head turned and paled. 

#acotar #acotar imagine #feyre x rhysand #cassian x nesta #azriel x reader #azriel fluff #acotar funny #azriel imagines #rhys #cassian #azriel #nesta #feyre

[blkgirl-writing]

Helloo! so I know you can romance the companions with any appearance, but I have a hard time imagining them actually choosing to being with a plus size person like myself.

Very indulgent, but do you have any thoughts about them being with a chubby partner? Perhaps a bit of fluff and spice?

Love what you do. writing for the ppl that fanfics often leave forgotten. You're awesome & I hope you have a great day today <3

I’m so happy you asked this, because actually, most of the companions I see loving thicker people and a few fairly exclusively liking bigger women (it’s Wyll) but here’s my headcanons for the baldurs gate 3 companions being interested in a chubby/fat tav!

Aatarion

Astarion is actually the only character I see maybe not loving chubby bodies all that much, but that's really for acended Astarion, since he becomes such a despicable and unapethetic person

But Astarion once he breaks free of cazador?

learns to be accepting and....kind?

He was always drawn to a very conventional type of beauty as he had to be fit into that mold for so so many years, so he kinda felt like he needed people to fit in that mold for him as well

He would start to find beauty in the smaller things in life that he was never able to before

Including bigger chubbier bodies

the comforts of plushness and something extra very much opposes his more thin and sharp body

like he actually likes hugging, he would ASK for a hug

to him hugging you is the embodiment of his freedom and enjoying non sexual things simply, without any motivation

Gale

I think Gale would find comfort in your body

Using as much of you as a pillow, cuddling and being able to be the big and little spoon

Any skimpy outfit would drive him wild, he'd get all flustered and kinda just be more near you?

Since he loves thighs the bigger the better, he won’t complain. He lowkey wants to be crushed by your thighs

Gale would find so much joy in so much ass and thighs in his face, his personal horny heaven

(TW E.D) If you have trouble eating he would cook for you and sit away from camp if it made you more comfortable. He'd take so much joy in making something you wanted to eat (END OF TW)

Gale stars at you a lot

And when you ask why he's staring, he always has a different reason

Somehow he always knows when to compliment you when you're feeling down

he will always find the best way to make you feel better and it's unique and special

"I love how your shoulders look when you're reading" or like "I just can't take my eyes off you when you smile, it lights up your whole face. All I want to do is make you smile til the end of our days" etc etc

Shadowheart

Lovely person but I do think she’d learn to love bigger bodies, I like to think Karlach was her sexual awakening to big women

But honestly I think it would only take some good titties for her to be convinced

I think she would love being smaller than you, and would absolutely wear your shirt/blouse around camp as a baggy dress

Especially to kind of brag about sleeping with you and you being hers and hers alone

She would basically exclusively want to sleep with her head resting on your thighs

many many nights were spent like that looking at the stars

honestly you'll need to ask her for compliments but she never fails to make you smile with them

"What? You want me to tell you how perfect you are? Or how beautifully your body looks in that tight dress? How much I want to take you to bed right now? I thought you already knew those things, but if you ask I'll say them a million times, til you believe it, and a few more times for good measure."

Wyll

Wyll is so sweet and so nice, he always compliments you and always hugs you in the best ways

he notices your insecurities and makes sure to compliment them and tell you how much he loves and appreciates those parts of you

He also just finds you the sexiest thing alive

he loves his partners bigger

I mean I've already said he's an ass man and he fully wants to be engulfed in that ass if possible and that just don't happen with skinner people

Wyll loves his comforts and his comforts is just ass on face tbh

he'd get real wild and very flirty drunk too

"Give me all of that ass" and "sit on my face and ride it like you mean it til the dawn breaks"

is also in love with your stomach and kisses it whenever your closing rides up or is exposed from the clothing itself being revealing or just short

when he's next to you he will always have his hand around your waist

Karlach

no matter what size you are Karlach can pick you up and swing you around like she's picking up a pillow so

she treats you absolutely no differently than a skinnier person, maybe she picks you up and swings you around more actually

she'd treat you kinda as a princess it's adorable

In my head, Karlach is obviously super muscley but also kinda chubby so like there'd be no reason to see you as anything but perfect and so beautiful

She is always snackin' on stuff, so she'd ask if you wanted any of the nibbles she found on the way

Karlach would wanna just sleep face down on your stomach so like you can decide if she actually does every single night or short rest or nah

and she'd randomly kiss your tummy while she laid on it just cause she wants to and she finally can kiss you and lay on you, and all the fun things she wanted to do for what felt like forever

Lae'zel

she sees someone as the bigger, the more strength

so immediately she'd be like ah yes, a worth lover able to take all intensities i give

She's definitely go harder on you in combat (during a certain romance scene) because of your size, and definitely give more during sex

Especially if you have bigger arms? she's a suckers for big arms

Lae'zel would cuddle like it was fucking wrestling

like you'd wake up with bruises and if you asked she'd be like, you can take all I give, therefore I will give you even more than I have

everything she does is intense of course but she will never baby you like she may someone smaller

she sees you so much as an equal and a strong fighter it's actually very cute and everyone is kind of shocked how much she likes you

----

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@shyminnie07 @makers-breath @claryvoyantfray @black-sapphic

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#x reader #fluff #fanfiction #smut #gale of waterdeep #gale x reader #baldurs gate 3 #baldurs gate gale #baldurs gate x reader #headcanonn #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #baldurs gate astarion #astarion x tav #astarion x reader #astarion x mc #astarion x you #chubby!reader #fat!reader #chubby #plus sized #shadowheart #laezel #wyll #gale #karlach #wyll ravengard #shadowheart x tav #shadowheart x reader #karlach x reader

[childofgabriel]

continuing my last post, here are some spacekru moments i'd like to see flashbacks about (pushing for my spacekru spin off):

- murphy's coma. that must have been WILD and so scary since no one is medically trained. the GUILT that monty must have been feeling

- raven teaching emori about mechanic stuff. i can imagine raven was doing her usualt raven stuff and emori just kinda watched from afar, slowly coming closer each day til raven offered to teach emori some things. from there on they spent more and more time together, emori learning a lot

- emori and echo bonding over being grounders in space together. that must have been really difficult for them, never having been in space before and not knowing what to expect, missing earth so much

- spacekru finding booze. i know it happened, i know they cheered, i know they got drunk as hell

- i know this didn't happen (not as far as we know anyway) but murphy learning some medical stuff. he wants to be useful and knows the smallest bit of what he saw clarke and abby doing in the past, so he takes it up to organize the abandoned medbay and try to make something of it

- emori and echo learning to read and write. i'm kinda assuming here that grounders don't read or write, but i could be wrong. i'd really like to see them learn, probably raven and bellamy teaching them. hell, maybe murphy can learn some stuff too ("first son, first to dye")

- on a similar note, emori and echo teaching the others trigedasleng. a really nice exchange of knowledge and culture

- mourning clarke together. bellamy and raven ofc took it really hard, but the others were close with clarke as well or at least knew her good enough

- spacekru haircuts! they all got nice new hairstyles, i'd like to see how the haircuts went between them. maybe the first time they were still a bit wary around each other, feeling uncomfortable with another person coming close to them with scissors / a knife

- training with each other and teaching fighting styles. bellamy and harper can teach the rest how to use guns, while echo can show them how to use swords and a bow. i'm also really impressed by how raven won from echo in their little sparring match (even if echo let her win)

- the "rules" that they made. murphy mentioned they had "too many rules", so i'd like to know what they are. we already know the "time rule" aka not being allowed to mention how long they've been on the ring for, the punishment being a chore. murphy was one of the chores lmao (i'm laughing but that's sad tbh)

- emori and murphy's breakup of course. really want to know what exactly happened and how, since they both seemed to have different takes on it

- bellamy and echo slowly learning to trust each other. i still remember the "will we ever trust each other?" "probably not" (something like that) and BOOM 6 years later they're dating

- maybe a bit more about the ring itself? i'd like to know the layout and what kind of departments they have. the ring looks pretty big, but it seems like they didn't actually have many bedrooms. after murphy pushed emori away, raven says they were forced to bunk together. emori could have chosen a room for herself, but maybe there were just only very limited rooms, 5 or so? seems a bit strange to me for such a large spaceship

- i like to think they had weekly therapy talks, so i'd like to see more about them just being vulnerable with each other and learning their stories

- just more spacekru. i love them and miss them so much. please give us more content of them, literally anything

thanks for reading!

#the 100 #the100 #spacekru #bellamy blake #raven reyes #john murphy #monty green #harper mcintyre #emori #echo #emori kom spacekru #echo kom spacekru

[toxicanonymity]

Hot Topic \ NSFW 18+

2k \ mall kiosk!Corey x alt/goth!Reader

Pre-michael, post-accident. Same Corey as the one where you dominate him in the abandoned Sears (personally I prefer that one lmao) but different reader. Yeah this isn't Shape Corey but I wanted to use my nifty Shaperil banner. Also, I gave up editing this bc it had already been in my drafts for so long so I hope it's readable. 🖤

-

You work at Hot Topic in the declining mall where Corey works at a kiosk. You start dropping by to say hi, then you start hanging out around the mall. He's really shy at first, and skeptical of your attention. But then, the more you share about yourself, and the more he gets to see how little you care what other people think, it's like he imprints on you.

You eat lunch together in the food court, and take your breaks at the same time so you can go on walks together. In some ways, you’re an unlikely pair. Corey just wants to blend in, and his understated, layered apparel is quite the contrast to your edgy, gothic style. But you also have things in common. You both love Thai food and hate when it’s too bright outside. You both like horror. You’re both open minded. You're both social outsiders, although for you, it’s more of a choice. He really admires your ability to not care about judgmental strangers. That’s not something you have in common when you first meet.

-

You're sitting in the food court together one day and a band kid comes up and calls him a psycho. Corey doesn’t react, but it obviously gets to him. He squirms and turns red.

"Ok, loser," you say to the bully.

“Are you a psycho too, or just a freak?” the band kid responds.

“Probably both, by your standards.”

The band kid just stands there like he doesn't know what to say next since you aren’t affected by his words.

You shrug at the guy and ask, “Are you done?”

“Have fun fucking that psycho, you slut.”

“Oh, I will.”

Corey blushes and shrunk into his jacket. You smile saucily at him.

"Thanks," Corey says. He marvels at how you handled it. It sounds like normally he's harassed for a lot longer. You explain that the less you seem to care, the less people bother you.

"I know it's easier said than done," you say. "But, fake it til you make it, and you might be surprised."

This seems to make an impact on Corey, and his confidence increases in the following months. As his confidence grows, the dynamic between you starts to shift. It starts to feel less platonic and more like a flirtationship. He compliments your clothes a lot, tells you how good you look in certain dresses.

-

One day, you get some bad news that Hot Topic is finally closing down. You’re especially disappointed because you’re going to miss seeing Corey at work. You tell him about the store closing, and he seems a lot sadder than you expect. When you hug him after lunch that day, it’s like his strong arms don’t want to let you go. You invite him to come over to your place after work and he perks up.

When Corey comes over, you make dinner together and talk for a long time, chat with your roommate for a few minutes, then decide to watch something. Your bedroom has a projector so you lie on your bed and watch the new Chucky series on Hulu. It’s nice being close to him away from work and being able to relax. His arm feels like it should always be around you. He keeps looking around your room. He’s mesmerized by all your gothic and punk decor.

“You’re so cool,” he gushes.

“You’re cool too, Corey,” you say.

“I feel like I want to BE you,” he laughs. “Maybe I just like you that much,” he adds.

You look up at him and say “I like you that much, too.”

He smiles shyly and says, “Nah, if you knew how much I liked you. . .”

You cut him off with a kiss. It’s the first time your lips meet, but they behave like long-lost lovers. His large hands pull you on top of him then caress your thighs. He marvels at you as you straddle him in your black leggings and the chains on your skirt jingle. He looks utterly captivated. He runs his hands over the lace on your shirt and you take it off. Then he sees your tattoos for the first time.

“You’re just. . . oh my god,” he says as he strokes a tattoo. Then, his eyes glue to your belly button piercing.

His hips lift into you and your mouth falls open at how big and hard he is. You grind into him as you make out. You want so much more, but he has to leave to get home. It’s nearly impossible to pry yourselves apart, but at least you know you’ll see him tomorrow at the mall.

“You think I’m kidding,” he says as he puts on his jacket. “I wanna be you. I’m gonna get your same tattoos and everything,” he smiles. You laugh, then you have a long kiss goodbye.

-

Back in Hot Topic, your manager brings out a few boxes of clothes and jewelry that won’t be put out for sale before the store closes to see if anyone wants them. Luckily for your roommate, there’s a lot of Small and Medium stuff. You’re the only one who expresses interest in the clothes, so you get a whole box. Corey helps carry it to your car on your break. When you close the hatchback, he pins you up against it and you share a steamy kiss. His hands rove your sheer, black dress, sending a rush of blood to your loins. You manage to peel yourselves apart to go back to work, but make plans for him to come over after his shift.

“It’s too bad Claire’s closed,” he says as you walk back into the mall. “Did they do belly button piercings?”

It’s fun when you have running jokes. Back in the store, you grab a studded bracelet for him that matches yours.

-

You get home and your roommate helps you unload the boxes from work. There are some duplicate clothes, so you take those to your room to sell or give away later. You organize them in stacks on your bed to see what you have and don’t have and what the different sizes are. Not much of it is new to you. You get to preview the clothes and jewelry early, so you already have most of the items you would want, including the dress you’re wearing.

Corey comes over, and you give him the bracelet and he loves it. He laughs but also seems to like it non-ironically once he immediately puts it on. It barely fits his thick wrist and makes his veins look extra sexy.

“I love being you,” he says as he pulls you in for a kiss. “Do you feel this sexy all the time?”

“Pretty much,” you shrug.

When you go to your bedroom, you drape the extra clothes on the back of a chair to get them off your bed and out of the way.

“Wait. Is that the dress you’re wearing?”

It is, and it’s in your roommate’s size.

He raises his eyebrows. “Cool,” he says. You turn on the show, but it isn’t long before you start making out. His eyes drift to the dress.

“You wanna try it on?” you ask, mostly teasing. But the way his cock swells when you ask that . . .

His eyes go dark and he gets on top of you. He kisses you ferociously, with his massive hands all over your dress, tracing every line of it between groping you.

Now you can’t get the image out of him in that dress out of your head. Muscles bulging.

You take off his shirt and you’re blown away by what’s hiding underneath. You knew he was strong from all the times you’ve hugged, but to see the way his pecs and shoulders move as he looms over you on the bed, and his thick biceps engulfing you as he brings his mouth to your neck.

You close your eyes and your primal need for him blossoms as he sucks your neck. When you open your eyes, your’re looking over his shoulder, watching his back muscles move sensually. You moan softly.

Now you’re the one whose eyes keep drifting to the dress. He comes face-to-face with you again and follows your gaze, then the swell in his khakis grows even harder against you. He takes off his glasses and puts them on your nightstand then scoots down the bed.

“I bet you’d look hot,” you tell him, looking at the dress.

He begins to slide your dress up.

“SO hot," you add.

"Really?" He asks, bringing a massive hand between your legs.

His knuckles make contact through your leggings and you shudder in pleasure as he feels how moist they are. "That hot, huh?" He teases you.

"I can check tomorrow for your size," you offer, breathing heavily.

He buries his head between your legs, caressing the fabric of your dress on your torso as he gnaws at your pussy through your leggings and his nose digs into your clit. His fingers curl into the waistband and he begins to peel them down. He sits back on his haunches as you lift your knees and help take them off.

Your eyes drift to the clothes again.

“What size is it?” he asks. You sit up and reach for his khakis, then take them off frantically.

“Women’s medium,” you say.

He slides his massive hands under your dress again and spreads it out to see how stretchy he is. He shrugs and does a double take when he looks up at you. You must look absolutely feral.

“Maybe it'll fit as a shirt?" he asks. You know it'll be too small, but you don't stop him. He reaches over and grabs the dress.

Your bottom lip creeps under your top teeth as he begins to put it on. Luckily it's a very stretchy material. First he puts on the arms. His biceps look like they might burst out. The mesh is stretched so tight it looks more his skin color than black. The geometric pattern of straight overlapping lines curves in all the right places over his muscles. Then he pulls it over his head. His curly hair springs out at the top, then his nose, his strong jaw, and thick neck with the hottest, bulging vein.

He starts to unfold it down over his pecs and its stretch. Your whole body feels weak with desire. It glides a little easier over his waist and abs, and then it reaches his briefs. . . God help you. The bulge. The meaty thighs. He sits up on his knees and manages to pull it barely over his briefs.

“Holy shit,” you say. “It looks better on you than me.”

“Not possible,” he says. You nod toward the full-length mirror and watch him walk over to it. My god, the ass on this man.

He rotates and looks at himself then takes a deep breath as his gaze returns to you and he palms himself through the layers.

"Hot as fuck," you say.

"You know what's hotter though?" He prowls toward you on the bed.

"Nothing?" you ask

"Being you. Feeling what you feel,” he says.

You reach under his obscenely short dress and pull down his briefs. His stiff cock springs out and rests outside the dress sending a stab of need through your gut.

"What about being me, inside me?" You grab his cock, yearning to be filled by it.

Almost as soon as you make contact, he shudders and his balls tighten. His cock pulses in your hand, his silky cum splattering all over the bottom of the dress, then gurgling into your fist.

Your face burns for him, but he’s totally at ease. That’s hot.

-

(a/n). Corey coming instantly or even in his pants has been a real hot topic as of late, so, ya know... Lol. Thank you for reading 🖤

@ethanhoewke @wolvesandvampires @rebel-blue

#corey cunningham x reader #corey cunningham smut #corey cunningham #toxicanonymity ☠️ #corey cunningham x you #shaperil 2023 #shaperil

[the-musical-cc]

FRANKELDA AND HER GHOSTS 1. (Part 2)

Seeing how more and more english-speaking audience is apparently watched Frankelda now, I feel like it's a good moment to post the translation transcript I did of the first live event with the Ambriz brothers, 'Frankelda y sus Fantasmas'. Posting on parts for easy reading because it's over 20 pages long. These are basically Q&A of making-of aspects of the series, going from concepting and design to even edition and post-production, going through Voice-acting and even trivia. They do sometimes comment some lore, but are restricted in how much they can talk about it as it would apparently spoil upcoming things. Latter episodes have some guests, including Mireya Mendoza herself (Frankelda's VA both in english and spanish) Kevin Smithers, who composed the score and songs in the series and even the edition team in the most recent one! (It honestly gives me life to see how much Cinema Fantasma values the whole team.)

It's fair to warn you that it's probably better to have watched the entire first season before checking it out, as it contains commentary on things that might spoil you if you haven't. It's also worth noting that this one was recorded on November the 26th in 2021, back when we had no word of the film being made or the new dub and USA release. Some additional notes:

-El Coco and the Boogeyman are both used for the same character in this one because it's how they do it in the dub. -Something happens in there that I cannot describe with the screencaps alone and the transcript would feel naked without, so description is provided. It's magical, you'll see.

Arturo Ambriz: Good, let’s move to this question which is also really nice- well, we already replied to Val Guerrera’s question, which is: ‘Are you thinking about publishing a book for the show?’. Well, that one’s already settled. Let’s do… let’s move to the next one, which is: ‘Is there one puppet per character and a lot of changes, for instance, mouth, eyes, etc.? Or are there multiples and a lot of changes?’

Roy Ambriz: They’re one-of-a-kind.

Arturo Ambriz: Ah, wait. The question is by Bailey Val… Bailey Valquion.

Roy Ambriz: All the characters are unique, they’re priceless, they have a personality and that’s why there’s only one for each… no, but seriously, yes, there’s only one, because…when you watch the ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ making-of and you see there’s ten Jacks or something like that, I don’t know when- sorry, how many. We… I reiterate, being a Mexican production, new, and the such, we obviously didn’t have the budget to make a thousand copies of each character. So, what we did was make them the smart way in the puppet wing, so that we could fix them, and we had a very talented and… arrrgh! Super strong and buff puppet hospital team, just constantly fixing them again and again. Frankelda… yeah, there’s two Frankeldas, which is… something we hadn’t mentioned up ‘til now. There’s two Frankeldas because she was the character who had the most animated minutes on-screen, and the cool part is, if you look really closely, you can actually tell which is which, and that’s something we love.

If you watch the original ‘King Kong’ movie, the one from the 30s, there’s like three… the King Kong puppets were hand-made, they didn’t even cast them, Ray Harryhousen made them with wet cotton on latex and built them over… over skeletons he made…

Arturo Ambriz: Willis O’Brien.

Roy Ambriz: Ah, my bad, Willis O’Brien. I said Harryhousen but it’s Willis O’Brien. And he made them by hand. So, they’re not identical and there’s like three King Kongs, but it doesn’t matter because the illusion of life is there and, and you know it’s real. But, yeah, the hardcore ones, which I think is all of you, can figure out which one’s Frankelda mark one or mark two. But really, she’s one and the same, don’t worry, she sometimes just… likes to do her hair a little bit different, or arrange her dress some other way, because Frankelda never sits still and her… her spirit can take any shape she wishes to.

Arturo Ambriz: Next question… and it’s from Noemi Juárez… I wanted this one to show up. ‘¿Did you use the same figurine for Frankelda’s grandma and Magali’s hen witch?’ Let’s see, we can answer this one very plainly.  It’s not that it’s the same figurine, it’s not that it’s the same puppet. Could it be that perhaps, perhaps, it’s the same character…? Anything you’d like to add?

Roy Ambriz: Well… Frankel- I mean. Frankelda, her stories, to write them she has to base them off her own life because, and this is a tip I’m giving you, we’re giving you, if you want to tell your own stories, write about what you know. Write about what… what you’ve learned, what you like…

Arturo Ambriz: What you’ve lived, what hurts you.

Roy Ambriz: But this doesn’t mean it has to be hyper-realistic and like… a copy, an exact replica of what is. You can tackle it from fiction, fiction can help to make-up and transform, because you can transform yourself. So you can create characters from an aunt you knew or your friend’s mom who is really interesting, and you can create… and that’s what she does, and so, ask yourselves why Frankelda drew inspiration on her grandma, right? To… to make the witch- who, by the way, her name’s Totolina.

Arturo Ambriz: Good. Next question… ‘What was the production process for the songs? Did you guys make the concepts for the lyrics?’ Alex Rosas asks.

This question is really interesting, we’re definitely inviting Kevin Smithers to one of these, he’s the composer of our songs and our orchestral pieces, and we’ll be able to talk more about this. But look, here’s a really fun little history tidbit… originally, we’d only planned for one song in the whole series, and it was El Coco's.

It was the very first one we wrote, it was the very first one that got recorded. Actually, that one… the Boogeyman’s story only exists because when we… I think it was literally the day we got greenlit to produce this, Roy and I were talking about what we wanted to see on-screen and we said: ‘Ooooff… this hobo monster, El Coco. All scruffy and ragged… in an alley in Coyoacán… playing a thousand instruments and flying ghost kids out of his hat and forming a dead kids orchestra.’  We were like: ‘Yes! That’s what we want to do for this season of ’Frankelda’’. And we started working on the story, we started creating everything and that’s when we made the lyrics for what at the time we still called ‘The Boogeyman’s Waltz’ …

...and here’s El Coco dropping by, and- hang on, let me get this out of the way… we started to work on the Boogeyman’s song. Sergio Carranza sang it, it turned out amazing, it turned out absolutely breath-taking, and, well, we realized...

[Here Hernevalito hilariously falls off Herneval's arms and Roy tries to silently non-react to it...]

...maybe it was worth it for the whole series to be a musical and have one song per episode. Why? Because we love musicals, because at the end of the day… think about this, I mean, each song… and here’s a little tip in case you like to write songs… each song is a poem.

[Roy then discreetly sits Hernevalito on El Coco's horn.]

Each song is actually a poem, that’s why Herneval tells Francisca ‘Hey, why don’t you read me that poem you just wrote?’

[Success! No one saw that, right?]

and it’s a sung poem. Well, songs are poems, right? I don’t know if it’s our way to put in a little bit of… creative, poetic and philosophical writing into the show, on top of it making it a lot flashier, making it more memorable. You listen to the song and it reaches faster. So what we worked on with Kevin was, while we worked on the lyrics…

Roy Ambriz: Specially him.

Arturo Ambriz: We kept working them, writing them, and like… turning them over, looking for… concepts, which, come entirely from the scripts, because the scripts were there first, and once we were clear on which ones they were- what it was we wanted to say and how it could have a nice ring to it- it was then that Kevin Smithers got involved and he helped us to, well, create the music proper, and there’s some… some texts that got edited, and some got longer or got shorter, and it was a very organic process where we included parts of the script, the poetry part, the conceptual and musical part, and everything got combined. And, believe us, we’re really glad to see you liked the songs, you’ve sang them, you’ve posted videos, you know the lyrics. That’s a dream come true for us.

Roy Ambriz: Besides, soon you’ll be able to sing with Frankelda or Herneval. So stay tuned to our Tik Tok channel on the next weeks.

Arturo Ambriz: Yes. Yeah, that’s right.

Next question… ah, this is a good one. ‘Will new kids inspired on your crew show up for the next episodes?’ Danitza Rivas asks us.

Roy Ambriz: Yes! We’re really excited, we have a lot if ideas, we want to see them already. I really like how… I want to clarify, just because they’re based off… as a fun little nod, from- the characters, it doesn’t mean they’re, like… exact copies, right? Of… I mean, they’re fictional characters, that should always be clear.

But yeah, we’re really, really excited about getting to include more kids. Tormenting even more characters; because a writers job is always to torment their characters, that’s how you put them to the test and depending on how they face the challenges you make for them, that’s how you discover what their nature is like. In this case, we like how… they don’t make it, and it’s something really fun to do because there’s a nice little reflection in there. But yeah, there will be many other children- but also expect to catch a glimpse of old acquaintances, of old friends in there, for sure.

Arturo Ambriz: And… I was precisely trying to look for the question to see who made it a while ago… the truth is I lost it, hope someone can help me over here…

Roy Ambriz: Tinta Invisible.

Arturo Ambriz: Someone… no. Someone was asking how we got the idea to use members of the Cinema Fantasma team to be the inspiration for the kids. And yeah, that’s the reality, not everyone may know this but, all the kids that app-

Female background voice: Daniela Herrera.

Arturo Ambriz: What? Daniela Herrera? Daniela Herrera was asking this just a while ago. And we realized  we needed a bunch of kids and we didn’t want them to be generic. We wanted each one, even the ones in the background, just walking by, to have something unique to them that took a step away from cartoon stereotypes, where you always have… the chubby one, the red-haired one, the goth one. I mean, those stereotypes get on your nerves, right? So, we wanted everyone to be a combination of very particular elements, and we were like: ‘Well, people who work in Cinema Fantasma are visually fascinating, it’s like a whole new range of personalities, of shapes, of colors, of voices, everything.’

So, that was the best inspiration because it really is also an homage for our team, they do so much. I mean, this, the stop-motion, the series, the movies, it’s teamwork! And for the next seasons, we’ll keep using people from the team and new people too, people who’ve joined this crew to create more and more characters. I mean, this is part of ‘Frankelda’s DNA and will always be.

Roy Ambriz: Mm-hm.

Arturo Ambriz: OK. Let’s see… ah, this one. Go on and answer this one, Roy. It’s a question from Valeria Palacios: ‘Do people turn unto Spooks when they die or are Spooks born some other way?’

Roy Ambriz: No, a normal person doesn’t necessarily turn into a Spook when they die. It’s actually quite strange but, there’s Spooks who want to be human, like the Gnome- the Gnomes. They want to be human because they don’t like the… the place they were assigned to as Spooks. There’s Spooks who are fascinated by humans, like, from an anthropologic point of view. Like the Boogeyman, who loves to study them and has been doing it since he was… his dad used to bring him to watch him work when he was a kid.

Arturo Ambriz: Don Coco!

Roy Ambriz: Don Coco would bring him to watch him work, and he’d be gawking at them, and he loved them, and he’d say: ‘I just don’t get them. They’re so fragile and so… so stupid…’

Arturo Ambriz: ‘So temperamental!’

Roy Ambriz: So, they loved that. There’s Spooks that absolutely loathe humans, like the Mermaid, who used to have control over the territory and was worshiped as a goddess and now she hates that no one is even aware she’s there, and on top of it they polluted her world, and her pyramid lays forgotten. It’s undiscovered, it’s in Xochimilco but no one’s discovered it yet, it’s underwater.

And then there’s humans who want to be Spooks because they aren’t happy with their lives. Like Tamazola, Tochina and… which one am I missing?

Arturo Ambriz: Totolina.

Roy Ambriz: Totolina! Who are the three witches. In order to become Spooks, they had to figure out a lot of things, I can’t really give away too much because it’s a spoiler. And they had to perform a ritual which they’d been constructing for a long time before they could actually do it, and they hadn’t accomplished it until Magali came along… but there’s a reason they have so many caged animals in their kitchen, y’know?

Arturo Ambriz: You touched upon one of the questions someone… someone else made. This one’s by Alexa Casas: ‘Will we be seeing Don Coco in the next seasons?’

Roy Ambriz: Don Coco! Who can say?

Arturo Ambriz: What do you guys think? A bit of homework for you, you’ll see.

Next… ah, this one’s great: ‘Why did Herneval’s attitude change so much when he became a book?’ Picture this. You guys are maybe, I don’t know…

Roy Ambriz: No spoilers!

Arturo Ambriz: Yeah, no spoilers. You guys are… I don’t know if in middle school, high school, college or already graduates. What were you like five years ago? Picture yourselves ten years ago, the kind of personality you had, the way you spoke, OK? It’s been a hundred and fifty years. That’s all I’m saying.

Roy Ambriz: But, Herneval aged, didn’t he-? ahhh.

Arturo Ambriz: Spoiler! Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler… soc! OK, next question. Ooff, no, I’m not answering this question because it would be a huge, huge, huge spoiler…

Roy Ambriz: Let me see, what is it?

Arturo Ambriz: I’m gonna skip it.

Roy Ambriz: Read it and I won’t… they’ll just see my expression.

Arturo Ambriz: You sure?

Roy Ambriz: Yeah.

Arturo Ambriz: They’re asking, and there’s actually more than one person asking: ‘Whatever happened to Francisca’s body?’

…next question…

Roy Ambriz: Tinta Invisible.

Arturo Ambriz: Yes, yes, next question: ‘What’s Herneval’s biggest fear?’ by Meru Chan. Look how- this is a really nice question, it’s true, Spooks have fears too, right?  I mean… specially Herneval, Herneval shows himself as… fragile, vulnerable despite… he’s such a good… I was going to say ‘Good person’, but, let’s say he’s such a good Spook, and…

Roy Ambriz: A handsome lad.

Arturo Ambriz: And a handsome lad.

Roy Ambriz: The fussy book.

Arturo Ambriz: He’s gentlemanly, he’s kind, he’s passionate… but I definitely think that… not to give away to much: Herneval is very scared of loss. He’s afraid of having- people he loves and…

Roy Ambriz: Ah-ah! Erm…

Arturo Ambriz: OK. Yes. Yeah, that would have been a spoiler.

Let’s see, this question has no, no, no spoilers at all, and it’s… they’re asking… ‘What can I do if I want to learn animation but I’m already studying for a different career?’ Paulina Cortés is asking.

Roy Ambriz: I think this question might also be exemplified better along the next sessions as we get more of our friends parading here, who also created ‘Frankelda’. But in order to animate, to make an animated production, you’ll need lots and lots of different talents and abilities. It’s really funny because sometimes we get called ‘Animators’. The two of us. It’s like- that’s not true, we don’t animate. Well, I animated… a couple of things, but we’re not animators per se, we’re directors, were writers, we’re sculptors. So, an actual animator and with a big range too… I think that might be… too much, and it might be- what’s that word again? Like, overwhelming. Right? Like… too much. It’s… when, really, when you shred animation into tiny pieces, you realize you need someone who knows how to write, someone who knows how to administer a project, someone who can paint, someone who can draw well, and design. Someone…

Arturo Ambriz: Book-keeping.

Roy Ambriz: Book-keeping! You need a musician, or someone who knows about music, you need actors and voice actors. It’s endless, right? Someone who knows about tech, someone who knows about IT, someone who knows computer programming, who can do motion-controls. Who can do post-production-

Arturo Ambriz: Social-media.

Roy Ambriz: So… college is always a starting point, and this is something we always say, from experience. We graduated more or less, ten years ago, give or take. College is a starting point, it’s not that you have to stay there just because you got your degree in that area, it’s a starting point you chose for… a project. But from then on, it’s up to you and your guts, and your continued studies of many other things you didn’t really see in school, and to living, it’s up to you where you lead your life to and where you want to go, and whether you achieve that your calling is… aligning what you want to do for work, with earning money, and on top all of this, with your reason to live, because it’s your life project; and this is how you feel accomplished, and this is how you know you can do some good in the world, and if you manage to align all of that, it’s beautiful. We’re very happy we’re able to do this for a living, but it implies a lot of work and for you to move to where you want to be.

Arturo Ambriz: Next, it’s a question by Bets Chan Ching, and it’s: ‘What is the Spooks’ life cycle and is it the same as humans?’

Roy Ambriz: Hmmm…

Arturo Ambriz: This question is a really good one, such a good one, it’s something that will be gradually answered as the next seasons roll by. What we can say is, it’s definitely not exactly like a human being’s. But I think you can reflect on, I don’t know… have you realized there’s times you don’t want to do a specific homework, you’re scared of doing it because you’re convinced that you’re going to mess it up? And maybe if you’d done it immediately you would have spent half an hour doing it and then you’d be done, but because you didn’t do it during the week, well, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger in your mind, and it’s gigantic by Saturday and it’s even bigger by Sunday? And by Monday at four AM this homework, this fear of doing homework is just massively huge and it’s crushing you? And now something you could have gotten done in half an hour ruined your entire week? I think if we understand, like… fears, we can get a better idea of what the life cycle of Spooks is.

Roy Ambriz: ‘Anything? Heeheehee…’

Arturo Ambriz: Yes, exactly. It’s a very, very interesting question, but… actually, if we tried to completely explain it right now, it wouldn’t make any sense to you, you have to see it, you have to watch it happen little by little in the next seasons.

Ah, this question is really nice, Mansand Saga asks: ‘Did you have any problems with friends or family when you picked your career and to pursue your passion?’ …no. We happened to be in luck…

Roy Ambriz: In our specific case.

Arturo Ambriz: The two of us, specially, were lucky to have our parents, our friends, our family always supporting us. We specially got a lot of artistic stimulation- and corporate as well, from our parents, that’s how it’s always been. Our mom always made us draw, made us sculpt, made us get our hands dirty… I’m even exposing her a little bit here, but my mom would sometimes even let us skip school so we could go to an amusement park, or to the movies, or because- I don’t know, maybe even something like the weekend’s game got a bit too long and we wanted to finish it properly, like, we had those kinds of permissions.

So, it did help us big time to have that kind of help. In conclusion, if you see one of your friends wants to do this for a living, support them, cheer for them, because yes, there is a professional life for arts. Now, obviously, we’re aware that not everyone has this kind of family support, we have a lot of friends who experienced rejection in their homes in order to be able to make a living with this. But what we’re saying, the best message we can send about it is episode four of ‘Frankelda’s Book of Spooks’. That’s why we created the El Coco, that’s why we created Tere, that’s why we created these ghostly children who dance and make music, it’s because we’ve watched a lot of our friends and acquaintances get their passion stolen by the Boogeyman…

Roy Ambriz: And they just settled…

Arturo Ambriz: They settled, they dedicated themselves to something they didn’t even want to do, and suddenly it’s been ten, fifteen years, and they’re like: ‘Oh, my God, I wish I could turn back time and give myself unto the things I’m passionate about.’. So to keep that from happening to you guys, we made the Boogeyman and Tere.

Roy Ambriz: Play it for your aunts and uncles, the Boogeyman episode, when they get on your case.

Arturo Ambriz: Oooh, this one’s really, really good, only detail’s that the username of the asker is JICJ2442. They’re asking in Tik Tok, and it’s… ‘Will we see…?’ ah, we’re mixing our sources for the questions from all the social media, eh? They’re asking if we will ever see the Spooks’ world.

Roy Ambriz: Tsss… it’s what we want to show you the most!

Arturo Ambriz: It’s not so much the world, it’s the Kingdom of Spooks.

Roy Ambriz: Herneval’s Kingdom, y’know? And that of his parents, hm? So… that’s what we want to show the most. That’s where Francisca’s headed to right now, Frankelda, and, well, we hope we get to show it to you.

Arturo Ambriz: Alright, Camicatura is also asking when they’ll get to watch the series if they’re in Spain. This is a very, very good question. Look, there’s no precedent for this kind of series made in México or Latin-America, like… a stop-motion, horror musical, and one of such a high quality. I mean, it’s like a very odd mixture of elements, and there’s definitely plans for the international launch, so it can be watched all over the world, but that’s something we’re going to achieve little by little.

For us, the ideal scenario would be to get to a point where… where season two can launch simultaneously in every country that has HBOMax. But it’s a matter that’s not really in our hands, rather, they’re completely strategic on the part of HBOMax and Warner Bros.

Roy Ambriz: Now, if you want to watch it, you can write to HBOMax’s social media about wanting it to also arrive on Europe, and that would be great help, y’know? If more people around the world start requesting it, there are more chances that it’ll be authorized for more countries.

Arturo Ambriz: Great. Herneval’s little wing is covering your face quite a bit. Let’s see, you’re going to love answering this one, Roy, I’m sure. It’s: ‘Do Spooks only haunt kids or adults too?’

Roy Ambriz: They haunt everyone. Really, I think… children can get a better grasp of what a Spook is, and humans… they look for another explanation…

Arturo Ambriz: Adults.

Roy Ambriz: Adults. Like, children will see them as Spooks, and adults will too, but the Spooks won’t… won’t allow themselves to be seen quite as easily, because Spooks live anywhere you look, but you can’t see them for lack of knowing to look.

Arturo Ambriz: Great. This question is very nice, asked by Axel Imanol and it’s: ‘What was your inspiration for making ‘Tinta Invisible’? Honestly, I love that song a lot.’ Look, the lyrics to ‘Tinta Invisible’, like we said just a while ago, are a poem. It’s literally a poem, its inspiration comes from what writing implies, what making fiction implies. For instance, this line about… it’s one of the lines we like the most, it’s: ‘Reading, you inhabit the hidden.’ Picture it, right? If I have my ‘Harry Potter’ book here, well, it’s just an object, it’s like some sort of brick, right? A paper brick, my ‘Harry Potter’ book. But within those pages lies in hiding all of Hogwarts, and all of Diagon Alley, and it conceals… I don’t know, Azkaban Prison within. And it hides… the Weasleys with all of their kids.

So, within a paper brick, there’s this whole world, hidden. So, when you read it, when you read a book, when you read a story, you inhabit the hidden. Because, I swear to you, I’ve been in Hogwarts- because when I read Harry Potter, I picture myself walking around and climbing the magic stairs, and getting into one of the rooms… I don’t know, the classroom for Potions Class with Professor Snape. I mean, I’ve lived in Hogwarts by reading fiction. That’s what ‘Frankelda’ is about, that’s what ‘Tinta Invisible’ is about. ‘Tinta Invisible’ is a song that pays homage to the art of writing and fiction. If you analyze each line, it becomes very clear… well, not all that clear but all of the… the symbolism of what writing and creating something that doesn’t exist is hidden there.

Roy Ambriz: Here’s Frankelda’s ‘Harry Potter’ collection.

Arturo Ambriz: Oh, that’s so cool!

Roy Ambriz: The books.

Arturo Ambriz: Where did that come from?

Roy Ambriz: Walmart.

Arturo Ambriz: I’d never seen it. It’s really cool! Ahh, goody. Well, let’s see… ‘Frankelda and Herneval’s personality, did you plan it in advance or did you base it off someone?’

Roy Ambriz: Yes… our task as writers is to plan out the personality of each character, it’s… when you write a character, it’s like you’re living it, it’s like you’re placing yourself in their shoes and seeing the… I mean, you’re within their perspective and looking at the world from their eyes. Counterweights start emerging, right? And Dramatic Orchestrations, as they’re known, start emerging, like… Herneval, you’ve seen it yourselves. Young Herneval with Francisca isn’t the same as…Herneval-libro with Frankelda, and it’s not the same as Herneval-libro with Procustes, right? I mean, he changes, depending on who he’s with. Why? Because that’s life, you’re not the same when you’re alone with your friends to when you’re in a Christmas dinner with like family members you rarely see, you only meet them once a year, or when you’re in class. It changes.

So yeah, each personality and each character has to be written, has to be pondered, has to be rewritten, has to be erased and… and raised again, and gradually discovered. And, obviously that process starts with writing but is run by character design, art design, animation, run by voice actors, who also permeate it, and the character is uncovered throughout all of these processes.

Arturo Ambriz: Very good. Also… that’s the thing, I mean, you guys can see that so many of the characters we’ve seen in TV or movies are opposites, aren’t they? And Frankelda and Herneval-libro, spending so much time together on-screen, well they had to be opposites, right? One of them is red and the other is blue, it’s that simple, I mean, it’s a visual-psicological-narrative codification. Frankelda is an optimist, Herneval’s a pessimist. Frankelda’s cheerful, Herneval’s a grump. Frankelda always moves in circles, her hair has circular curls, her hand movements are circular; and the book is a small square, and everything about him is a square, right? So, this is a good tip for writing characters, thinking about opposites, thinking about complements, thinking about the Ying and the Yang.

Next question… this question is Meru Chan’s: ‘What made you change Herneval’s appearance from the Pilot?’

Roy Ambriz: It was a… that’s a rather interesting question. As we’ve said, when we made the season as opposed to the Pilot, we agreed that we had to improve everything. And the Pilot- we didn’t really wonder about that many things because it’s a Pilot, y’know? Obviously, we’d gotten less time, and the top priority was to show that the series could be great, so what we did when they greenlit the season was to think better about the characters. At some point, as you’ve seen in the concept art, Herneval was thought up as more of a demon, but it was way too obvious, and it could also have religious connotations we really don’t want there to be, so, we decided to ponder it. He’s not the Demon Prince, he’s the Prince of Spooks, I mean, he has to be a Spook. What’s a Spook? It’s something new.

So, we started to ponder and around this time, Ana Coronilla, who is the art director, had the idea- she was like: ‘I kind of see him as an owl.’ Because with Herneval, in order to make him princely, we kept thinking and got- we were creating with the Awesombrosos, trying to make him more reptilian, or some other thing, and when we said ‘Owl’, it was like ‘Wow, he looks amazing!’ and on top of that, he has to… like, the personality we want, and that’s when we said ‘It’s just, if this were a live-action, he’d be played by someone along the lines of Timothé Chalamet-‘ not sure I’m saying that right.

Arturo Ambriz: Timothee.

Roy Ambriz: Timothee Chalamet, so… well, we said ‘Him, plus owl, plus some other elements.’ And, well, we got hunk Herneval, and then we saw the book and the character progression made no sense anymore, the one from the Pilot, because he’s more snakelike. So it was like ‘OK, how are we going to rebuild the character so he still has Herneval’s essence that we’ve already gotten to know from the Pilot, but make it make sense that this character turned into the book?’. And that was the ruling on which we decided to make… to change the Hernevals.

Arturo Ambriz: Well, next question, by AB_8A_7: ‘If Herneval used to be the Prince of Spooks, does that mean the King will show up in a flashback?’

Roy Ambriz: Oooh…

Arturo Ambriz: You’re getting close to the… the heart of the matter. Definitely, obviously, we’re going to meet the King of Spooks, we don’t want to disclose anything else about him, but… but props to you guys for realizing it, right? If there’s a Prince, then who’s the King?

Roy Ambriz: Besides, somewhere… well. Nope. I was just about to spoil it!

Arturo Ambriz: No spoilers.

Roy Ambriz: But that’s the thing, it’s… how cool is it to think, who is Herneval’s dad? Why… why does Herneval have to go to the human realm? Why wasn’t he in the prologue? That is, why was he with Procustes and not his father? So you start to… to develop and sprout a lot of fun things…

Arturo Ambriz: Why is there an hourglass that’s close to the limit?

Roy Ambriz: No one’s talked about the hourglass, have they?

Arturo Ambriz: I haven’t really seen that much…

Roy Ambriz: Hmmm… go figure.

Arturo Ambriz: Anyway… well. This one was by La Reina Cuervo, who we’re already familiar with because we had an interview with her this week, real fun. She’s asking how much time Frankelda spent with Herneval before they got trapped. And that question, well, can’t be answered because it’s something we’re going to see in the next seasons, what happens during this process. That is, once they cross that threshold at the crypt, at the graveyard, what Herneval and Francisca had to do, how they got to where they are right now. For sure, it’s in there, this story that’s still going to develop further.

Next question… ah, well, this one’s really simple. 199501 asks: ‘I don’t know whether you already answered this one, but what are the three witches’ names?’ And, the witch who speaks the most, the one that turns into a hen, the one that sings, her name is Totolina. We just barely realized we never had them mention their names, but in production her name was always Totolina. Then, the witch that turns into a toad, her name is Tamazola, and the witch that turns into a rabbit, a hare, her name is Tochina. Yeah?

Next question… ‘Does Herneval have some sort of power?’ question by Blackroses.

Roy Ambriz: Well, you saw that already, he does, right? And… his power is used three times along the first season. We can’t say more, but he definitely has. Well, he’s the Prince of Spooks, he has to have something special to him.

Arturo Ambriz: OK, next question… ‘Why does Tere play the theremin?’. Question by Lagunas X. Look, we realized long ago that… the theremin is like, the musical instrument of ghosts. The theremin, in every B-movie in Hollywood where there’s ghosts or aliens, zombies, it’s like… a sound that doesn’t seem to belong to this world, because it’s really similar to a human voice. But at the same time it sounds like the mix between a robot and a… a howl. So, it’s like, hard to decipher. So, the theremin has this whole symbolic weight which we love, ever since we created this studio ten years ago, the bumper of the intro we had, which was the Cinema Fantasma bumper, you can hear a theremin. So, for us it’s always been like the theremin is the Cinema Fantasma musical instrument. Personally, it’s my favorite musical instrument.

So, when we started to unravel this episode which I’ve told you about a while ago, that we wanted to get to this big moment of the orchestra in the alley with the dead children and the Boogeyman dancing, we start to realize we needed, like… a character who wanted to make music in order to get to this moment, and we realized it would be very original to have her play the theremin, because we’ve seen a million boys and girls who play the violin or the guitar, even Coco and Book of Life have this, right? You can always look for something different to… to give the show a unique flavor.

Moving on, Yara Edith asks: ‘Why is Frankelda from Hidalgo?’ And, get this, originally, this was only going to last one hour and we’re at, I think, an hour and a quarter. Let’s… let’s answer a few more questions and we’ll call it a day, also so you guys can have a nice Friday and not just sit there listening to us. Right, so let’s go back to Yara Edith’s question. Why is Frankelda from Hidalgo?

Roy Ambriz: Because, well, something both of us really wanted to do is… make something that felt… a series that felt Mexican but by someone who actually lives in México, y’know? Like, for there to be these little elements no one else who didn’t live in México could have, and it’s mixed in with experience. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to is the Panteón Inglés. I love it. One of my best friends hails from there, from Pachuca, but she’d take us… back in college we went a lot of times, to- Hi, Rosa, if you’re watching.

Arturo Ambriz: I don’t think she is.

Roy Ambriz: I don’t think so because I didn’t even give her a heads-up, but OK. But we traveled a lot, and we made a lot of- she’s a photographer. And we did a lot of photography exercises at Panteon Inglés, and it’s just gorgeous. And… truth is that when we were framing this series, we said: ‘It just would be so cool that she was a Victorian ghost, right? In this big house.’ And back at the Pilot we couldn’t really get into it, show it, how we want to break away from that cliché, I mean, she is Victorian, and she is from that period, but it’s not in Europe, it’s in México. Because mixing in with history -which is something we also love, like, mixing in bits of truth- it’s around this time that the British arrived in there to, well… care for and extract from the silver mines, they brought in a lot of things, right? Soccer, the pasties, which turned into pastes, and whatnot. We figured it’d be really nice if Frankelda’s house is European because his dad is British, but he’s a British man who fell in love with a Mexican woman, and Frankelda’s born from that union.  Why? Because Frankelda- as you know, well, in México we’re a mixture of the European and the Mexican-origin, and, and we’re not- it doesn’t matter anymore, to us, origin doesn’t matter anymore, just that we’re Mexican, and that’s very Mexican.

And so, Frankelda is Mexican. She makes her stories up with the mixture of things, of elements within her head, and what better place than… I mean, if this beautiful place that actually exists in real life inspires us, well, we wanted to also pay homage to that place, and even though it’s not exactly identical, it is a rather latent inspiration for us.

Arturo Ambriz: Alright. Now, Emily Delgado asks us whether we’re giving some kind of courses or bachelor, and, yeah, actually yes, we’ve given several of them. Next year, we’ll reactivate our section called ‘Cinema Fantasma EDU’ which is where we give our courses, bachelor degrees, workshops, conferences on stop-motion. That’s a great way to learn. Stay tuned to our social media, cause that’s where we’re giving notice. Thing is, between COVID and all the work we had with ‘Frankelda’, we had to put this project on hold, well, this whole year. But we’re eager to get back into it and get it done. This is something we love, and we’re exploring other options, really cool ones too, with a certain… how do I put this, brand that makes online courses to make a very specific kind of thing. Really cool, we’re working really hard, I don’t want to spoil that either, because it will be announced in due time, but we’ve got more options coming up so we can talk and we can try to impart some of the knowledge we’ve been saving up all these years by making these productions.

Roy Ambriz: Good.

Arturo Ambriz: Very good. And… I think this will be our last question.

Roy Ambriz: Last question!

Arturo Ambriz: Let’s see… I’m looking for one that’s real good.

Roy Ambriz: Yeah, close it up with some meat, go on.

Arturo Ambriz: Something that makes fans speculate?

Roy Ambriz: Yeah.

Arturo Ambriz: …there’s just so many good ones. Let’s see, for instance… ah, look, this one’s nice because it additionally comes all the way from Chile. Sent by Gabriel Beltrán, and it’s: ‘Are the Spooks’ stories told on the show based on real legends or inspired on something of the sort?’

Roy Ambriz: And, well… it’s a mix of everything, right? We aren’t basing them on anything specific per se. I feel like we’ve already seen so much in México, in Mexican adaptations about Mexican legends. Which is really cool, but it’s already been done, even in animation. So, we wanted to do new ones. There’s characters like, for instance- in the… originally in the pitch, back when we hadn’t thought so much about it, the witches… the original concept art is somewhere around, they were more… European, more classic, or United States-like, with the hat and the broom and the stockings. And we were like: ‘No, we want it to be…to feel more like… witches who have somehow been living around a lot of places in México or Latin-America for a while, and who, as luck would have it, right now are living around Colonia Roma maybe, or La Condesa, something to that effect. How do we make it feel specific?’

So… it obviously comes from, well, people- we can’t say ‘We invented witches, we invented mermaids.’ Or anything. But they’re more like… characters and archetypes we take and resignify to things we’ve lived through, things within our imagination, and things we want to see. Maybe the one that’s more inspired in an existing character which we felt had barely even gotten representation in Latin-America is El Coco. The Boogeyman, always-he comes from… our mom always tells us this story, we’d mentioned it a couple of times, but my grandpa used to say to her, because we collected toys, and back in the nineties they were all monsters and stuff like that, really cool stuff. And my grandpa used to tell my mom: ‘Why would they ever be afraid of the El Coco if they have that kind of toy and aren’t scared by it?’. So, this Boogeyman character, like… a bum, or, just something that’s not exactly what we have in the collective imagination, but we had that idea floating around, and, well… we decided to capture it. And I hope we can see more of the El Coco in the future.

Arturo Ambriz: Totally… well, I think we’ve reached the limit with this session. We’re obviously absolutely thankful to you, this is why we want to keep creating these opportunities to chat. We know there was a lot more questions but, think about it, we’d be here for five hours. We’d be happy to, but we also don’t want to ruin your Friday, so I think the good stuff has to be, like… like, in moderation.

We’ll also take this chance to tell you that we seriously are on the constant lookout for everything you’ve posted on social media- look, for example, I have a physical fanart right here, and it’s so cool! But trust me when I say all the digital ones, all the ones I’ve found, I’ve shared them on my Instagram account and I’ve been saving them. I feel like it’s like I’m filling up my Panini album, I’m logging in all the time to see what I can find and save it. And something we would love to do here in Cinema Fantasma, we’d just have to rearrange the space, is to print all the fanart you’ve made, print out all the fanart you’ve made and post it over a wall in Cinema Fantasma even just a small print. Because, trust me that, for both of us as well as the whole crew it’s mind-blowing to see you liked what we worked so hard on, what we toiled so much to make. Right now, we’re seeing some of the fanarts we love on screen…

Roy Ambriz: Just not Tik Tok because…

Arturo Ambriz: Uh-huh, not Tik Tok.

Roy Ambriz: Because we’re… on a different one.

Arturo Ambriz: But it’s not that…

Roy Ambriz: Look how gorgeous! Wow!

Arturo Ambriz: It’s not that we’re only seeing the ones we like the most, y’know? We like all of them, it’s just that we did a quick search right now and these are the ones we had close-at-hand to show, but really, we love all of them, and all of them have their charm.

Roy Ambriz: Yes, and they’re beautiful, thank you so much. We’re very, very, very grateful with all the Fankeldos and Fankeldas…

Arturo Ambriz: Or Spooks.

Roy Ambriz: Or Spooks, or…

Arturo Ambriz: The Owls.

Roy Ambriz: The Owls and the Writers.

Arturo Ambriz: The Quills.

Roy Ambriz: Anything you like, thank you so much because Frankelda is alive thanks to you. Something we can say is… ‘Frankelda’ is a celebration of fiction. So although there’s a… an official storyline which comes from us and Cinema Fantasma, Frankelda, the thing she likes the most is to be alive. So, consider the stories you make for her, when they’re in your minds, in your hearts, to be canon as well. To you, to the one reading right now, it’s real, because Frankelda is alive. So… draw her, write her, think about her. It's so nice to see it, really, we’re super thankful. It’s… this is the best possible present for us after… for the whole team, after… such difficult years in order to keep it afloat, where we had to, well… work so much, sacrifice some things in order to get it out there. So, this is super gorgeous, and we’re sending hugs to absolutely all of you guys and… an announcement. A fun one.

I think it should be up by now, a new filter that you can find, called ‘Frankeldízate’. If you want to turn into Frankelda or in… if you want to be real Fankeldos and Fankeldas, you can use that. Please, use it, it’s really fun. You can use it to sing, you can use it to write, for anything you want, it’s up. Start using it. Tag us, please, we love to see everything you make.

Arturo Ambriz: Something very important we nearly forgot is… we have a little surprise giveaway, OK? We have 5 posters, signed by the whole team. By the team who made ‘Frankelda’s Book of Spooks’, the Cinema Fantasma team. And we’re going to give it to the first five people who answer the following question and sent it to our mail, [email protected].  Repeating the address, [email protected], OK? First five people to send the answer to this question, we’ll get in touch with you through the mail to see about sending it. If it’s within México City, it will be through our messenger boy, our dear Arturo, but if you’re not in México City, well, we’ll look for a way to get it to you through national or international mail. OK? So, the mail is [email protected] and here’s the question, OK? And it’s: How… where does-? We mentioned it a while ago. Where does Herneval’s name come from?

Roy Ambriz: Go!

Arturo Ambriz: There it is, we went into it in detail a while ago, so if you paid attention, you can answer that question. And we’ll look for a way to make… make some other dynamic so we can give away this kind of things. Is there anything else you want to add, Roy?

Roy Ambriz: Well… please use the #Frankelda. You can use the other ones, they’re really cool. The ‘Que Listo Sos, Herneval’ one, all the ones you’re making up, but also use the #Frankelda on its own, because that way we can get everything thrown together and it’s like evidence for us to show the producers of you wanting a second season. Be insistent. If you wish, insist at the Cartoon Network LA and HBOMax LA social media accounts in your different kinds of posts, but use… flood them with requests for ‘Frankelda’s second season because that’s the only way we’re getting it. So, if there’s a massive second season bombing, it’s way easier, I hope no one kills me for saying that, but it’s the truth and I have to ask. So, well, I think that’s all for this session. If you liked it, expect more. We’ll be announcing the date for the next one along with our guest star soon.

Arturo Ambriz: Also, believe us when we say, as Roy did a while ago, if we can talk for a bit about what ‘Frankelda’ represents, well, we highly, highly, highly recommend for you to read. It’s never too late to get close to literature. We already made it easy for you, why not start with ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley? I’d be very surprised if you didn’t love it, truly, it’s fascinating. It’s a beautiful, philosophical, horror, science fiction book, it’s got everything, y’know? It has family drama, it has traditions, it has murder, it’s an incredible book. Read. Write. That’s something I struggle with a lot regarding my students, as we’ve mentioned, we teach in a handful of classes, and I do see sometimes how they lack… reading, and this is also why we were so insistent on the main character of the show being a writer.

So, well, we’re finishing up and, I just read a great suggestion and it’s that we should leave but first we should put Herneval and Frankelda together, and we should leave them like that for a minute, leave them like this for a minute… and leave. Thanks, goodbye.

Roy Ambriz: Goodbye!

Arturo Ambriz: It’s been great.

#Frankelda #Sustos Ocultos de Frankelda #Frankelda's Book of Spooks #Cinema Fantasma #cc translates #And now you know why the latam fandom makes so many jokes about Hernevalito falling on his face

[sevi007]

FFXVI SPOILERS and Commentary

Alright I promised a more in depth look at FFXVI and what I thought of it. There will definitely be spoilers, it‘s going to be lengthy, and I will try snd likely fail to put this all in order so let‘s go!

First of all - I think it was a very, very good and fun game. Not perfect, there were some points that I could habe liked better and I will get to that at tge end, but it was very good, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Let me get to the story and setting first. It‘s certainly alike to many RPGs and especially from FF games, but I think it differs in certain points still: We still have our heroes who start out in a peaceful and rather happy setting, before everything turns upside down. We still have the struggle of our heroes uncovering dark secrets and struggling to right wrongs.

But I also think here are the differences. For one, I think the game goes a lot darker a lot faster than other FF games. There is the slaughter of the Rosfield household and the (assumed) brutal death of Joshua in the first hour or so. It then goes rather quickly to depict war, slavery and the desperate fight for a better life or sinply survival. Those threads also continue throughout the whole story, and the protagonist does not lose loved ones once or twice, but it‘s really a continued thing (family, Cid, lady Hanna and Eastpool, etc).

It’s much more mature and fast paced than older FF games, imo. Perhaps thanks to the rating, perhaps thanks to being a new generation. (NOT meaning this is bad. Just taking note of it)

As for the story itself: I think it is a well-thought out, intriguing story. There is a lot of careful worldbuilding, politics, and interwoven fates. It is a very realistic story, of human (or whatev Ultima’s kin was) greed and pain, of determination and hope. I really liked it, it really pulled me in from the start.

Then the characters. My favorite part in all FF games! And here XVI did NOT disappoint. I adore them sll, even the bad guys, because they were so well-done

Clive is easily one of my… say, three favorite FF protagonists. He is such a good guy without being naive, and quieter without being grumpy. He is easily the most mature out of all games (granted he is the oldest) and I really loved his growth throughout the story, which didn't change his entire personality much, but instead just made it more secure. He was, and is, a protector and caretaker, and that was just reaffirmed, which I think is nice.

And the rest of the gang is also just topnotch: From Joshua, who is this perfect blend of mature and levelheaded bookworm to reckless baby brother (how much the brothers love each other just made me cry again and again and again)

To Cid, who is such an interesting and fun character and whose influence stays strong til the end of the game even though he was not even there for half of it

Jill, who is more than just a love interest but also a strong character who faces her past head on (though they later forgot about her a bit *cough* going into that later)

Torgal who is just goodest boy in the universe

And all the other "party members" from Gav, to Byron, to Mid, heck I even count Charon and Otto and the rest of the Hideaway into this. I greatly enjoyed unveiling more about them in the course of the game because every little piece made them such well-rounded and realistic, sympathetic characters. I wanted to spend more time with them but couldn't - also a point I will be getting into at the end. I just adored how it was shown - and not only TOLD - how much they all cared about each other, even those ones who had only known each other for a short while.

And personally, where the game really started to suck me in is pretty early on, even before the story, even before the characters: The whole fight "choreography" coupled with the amazing soundtrack. I mean, the bossfights? The Eikon vs Eikon fights right at the start, coupled with that chorus swelling up in the background? Heck yeah, count me in. All of that. I was so HYPED every single boss fight, I was nearly jumping out of my seat, ready to throw hands myself (not a good idea). And I am STILL listening to the battle theme and "All as one" and I finished the game weeks ago now. They really outdid themselves with the uh. Cinematography? Epicness? I don't even know what to call it, but it was fantastic.

Safe to say I loved the game from start to finish, more and more the further I got. I have some small negative points - which are not even negative points, simply less positive points or things I would have liked to see, being:

Party system. I really wanted to have a party this game. Sure, you got all your friends, and you have Torgal, but I really would have liked to have my team with me a lot more, to have them interact more outside of set cinematic scenes or sidequests which had the focus on them. I don't even mind playing SOLELY as Clive, though switching would also have been cool, but I would really, really have liked to have the other party members to be more involved. Maybe commenting on events in quests, depending on who is with you you get different reactions. Or like, scenes where they are camping outside before the next mission, getting in some real bonding time. I said it again and again, but you HAVE to play the sidequests to get to know the characters, which is not that unusual, maybe, I do realize. But I would have loved to learn that Otto and Cid where good friends somehwere in the mainstory, or would have wanted to see Gav be a part of the team and acknowledged for being a friend / brother without having to accept an extra quest for it. I don't know if I'm explaining it well. I meant to say the main story was a bit very streamlined on the Rosfield brothers, and sometimes it felt as if the rest of the gang got a little forgotten during it.

Magic and Equipment This also connects to the whole party system point above, but I missed a little the flexibility of earlier FF games in the combat and the equipment. For example, there are no elemental weaknesses, no real status ailments. Connected to that, there is no way to equip your party members or make them stronger, nor is there much for the accessoires besides "gives you less CD on certain ability". I've seen people complain that the fighting is basically just hitting Square button, which is patently NOT true of course, but I do miss a little the messing around with finding out what weaknesses an enemy has, or deciding who on the team is going to be my healer and who the attacker.

The sidelining of some characters. This sounds harsher than I mean it, like I said I do not have real terrible complaints about the game, I really don't. But what I did note is that some characters were little, well, forgotten during the story, in lieu of the game focusing mostly on Clive's progress. For example I will take Jill here. She has a compelling story at first, similar to Clive even, where she was struggling with accepting what had happened to hear, and the gruesome things she was forced to do by her captors, being little more than a weapon. She even got to take revenge, which I personally supported as much as Clive did, but I feel like. Well. Sounding harsh again. After she did that, she was a bit sidelined as the love interest, or damsel to be saved. It was explained that she could fight less because of the illness, but she got less and less screentime apart from supporting Clive's struggles, being saved by him, or giving him her Eikon. I kind of missed some more depth there, like seeing her connect with Joshua again since they had grown up together, or her insisting she will accompany them to the fight with Ultima. That's just one example though. I generally feel like the other characters were a bit lost in the background during the main quest, which is a real shame.

#sevi plays ffxvi #ffxvi #ff16 #final fantasy 16 #long post #ffxvi spoilers #ff16 spoilers

[mydemonsdrivealimo]

2,26,36,40

hi ty i love all of these sm

2. Who gets up to cook at 2am?

answered here

2. Any sleep habits either had to get used to?

yes ofc. i answered more about jensen here but jensen also had to get used to bryces before bed bs. hes gotta moisturize and do a few skincare things but also hes gotta do something w his hair and also hes picky af w what he wears to bed bc textures but also if its too heavy or feels like its choking him or too tight on his legs he will just Die so thats a whole process. also his GLASSES but thats a positive for jensen lol he loves them more than life itself but bryce is bryce so he would rather die than have anyone finds out he has them. and lastly his mouthguard. bryce grinds his teeth in his sleep so he has a mouthguard but sometimes theyll scrape together in Just the wrong spot and let out the most horrible squeaky noise and jensen wants to kill him just a little

26. Who is prone to road rage?

bryce but thats bc jensen is WAY too chill about it. jensen lack of road rage is directly paired w his remarkable ability to give every person around him road rage bc he is the most annoying asshole driver you will ever meet. hes not doing illegal shit but also why is he doing that at all? jensen will give bryce road rage from bryce sitting in the passenger seat while jensen is driving. meanwhile jensen is just jamming out to his little playlists and bryce is sitting there like w his eye twitching and shit

26. How do they comfort each other?

bryce really tries to distract jensen. jensen gets enough head on solving and shit when hes alone or in therapy, so its really nice for him to get away from it for a little bit. on the other hand, jensen usually tries to give bryce something to bounce off of, and really tries to help him work through it (also if its a longer thing they'll try to pick up extra chores and stuff for the other so its just less on their plate)

36. Who is more protective?

bryce for sure. especially after he knows the extent of everything jensens been through, he Does Not put up w people giving him shit even a little. i think jensen is more subtly protective, especially bc he knows bryce knows what hes doing and can handle it. bryce also knows jensen can handle it, but in the moment he tends to not be as rational and will just be more worried about it yk

36. How’d they meet each other’s families?

well we know how jensen met keiki thanks to canon, but i havent talked about bryce meeting adria (jensens sister). jensen ends up flying out to see her completely unprompted after some tough situations. they really werent even close, but he was struggling and he knew shed understand what he was feeling (and he just needed to get away from edenbrook for a few days). they do a lot of talking, a lot of fighting, but also a lot of healing. they slowly start to talk more, just a check in every once in a while, and eventually for work she ends up flying out to the west coast (where they're living at the time). jensen offers for her to come visit, which she takes bc the event ends up being delayed by a day anyway. they do lunch and some other stuff and shes hanging at his and bryces place when bryce gets home from work. they talk a little but its pretty brief since she had to get back to her hotel, but they got along fine and eventually end up meeting a few more times over the years

40. Who is the skilled shopper for holidays? Who always waits 'til the last minute to get all of their gifts? (Which one gets stressed out easily)?

surprisingly jensens actually really good at finding gifts for everyone. he always picks something good, but when it comes to wrapping/presentation, totally different story. he will Maybe put it in a bag but thats about it. bryce struggles more to pick stuff, and ends up being last minute bc he cant make up his mind, but they always come out super pretty

40. Who makes the other smile with almost no effort at all?

both of them, but i think its more significant for bryce making jensen smile. jensen isnt a huge smiler, usually his face is utterly neutral, and he can keep a straight face at anything. but, bryce can always make him smile, whether its by doing something stupid or just looking at him all soft and jensen tries to pretend hes not smiling and his face is not red

#tysm!! #bryce lahela × jensen valentine #asks answers

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (19/03/23)

biggest thing this week is me starting to catch up to UU only got through 30 chaps (in about 3 hours) cause I grossly underestimated just how much text it was gonna have it's good tho 👍

Undead Unluck Ch1 to 30

I greatly underestimated how long it'd take to catch up, I only started at midnight of this sunday, I thought because it was an action series it wouldn't take that long but I was clueless. But anyway, it's good, I can easily see how it managed to get through the cancelation danger gauntlet and how it's become fairly popular. My friend Mega had already told me beforehand that the first couple volumes are quite crude and lewd, and he was right, but I've seen a lot worse. Also the pacing is quite fast but it didn't bother me at all, tho I was reading everything back to back instead of weekly so maybe it would've been different. Anyway the last arc I read before stopping (Unrepair) was good and finished setting up the intro to the series I feel. Now we know what the main plot is, how this world works (mostly), we got to know a lot of the cast, the goals of our protagonists and antagonists and how they clash with each other. The best chap so far was 20, it was a colour page chap and it introduced one of the Big Plot Points for the series, also Juiz is just super cool too. I think I remember seeing that Andy and Fuuko join the baddies later? but I don't remember for sure so we'll see. Which also speaking of, Fuuko is very cute. I expect to have finished catching up before I do this again next week so look forward to the rest of that I guess.

Dandadan Ch97

been a while since the last full action chap and it slapped that last page was very pog. tho hype for when okarun finally rejoins the fray

Kaiju 8 Ch82

didn't expect such a nice chap for a side chara, that was good. hype for next chap with that ending tho

JOJOLands Ch2

wao the newest instalment of jojo is here but honestly it's too early on to really have any opinions on it, evil giorno is nice tho. at the end of chap 1 I said the person they were gonna rob was gonna be a returning chara from p4 or 6 but sure as hell didn't expect it to just straight up be rohan lol

Tokyo Underworld Ch34

damn yomi being brained for once impressive, tho just a few pages later he fucked up and almost got killed so it balances out

Jojo: Hol Horse/Josuke Spinoff Ch14

we got the spinoff's first stand rush pog. should only be 2 or 3 more chaps left til it's over but it's been a nice little diversion

Ichigoki's Under Control!! Ch15

what a terrible chapter, introduced a buncha characters and situations that never happened, since it's getting canceled and didn't get to actually do them. seems like it'll end next chap at least so that's good.

The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins Ch17

damn I was gonna say "alright it's good to see ichinose has a clear goal now for the characters to follow" but then it hit me with that twist at the end again so uh nvm. not really a fan of the "it was all a dream" thing but we'll see how it goes

Ginka & Gluna Ch26

all that just for the baddie to run away? eh.... feels like quite the waste of such a cool concept for a power

Fabricant 100 Ch14

not as good as the last few chaps but p decent nonetheless

Jiangshi X Ch9

mostly action, showing off how powerful the dad is, still expect him to die soon tho

Tokyo Demon Bride Story Ch27

well things got solved quite nicely didn't they. I had anticipated this outcome originally, but with how much they were building up to a fight I had discarded it. anyway if ichigoki is really ending next chap then this should have 2 or 3 more chaps left.

Witch Watch Ch101

decent chap, was a throwback to this old spell

SPY x FAMILY Ch77

it was nice to get a lloid chap after so long, and with him actually doing his job nonetheless, I think that's a first

Blue Box Ch93

xmas? my sister in christ it's march

oh ok fair enough. anyway good chap like usual too, nice to see yumeka's character developing

Cipher Academy Ch16

a good chap but I'm also a hoe for murder mysteries, tho that twist at the end was very good 👀

Mashle Ch148

very funny chap, didn't expect something like this lol

Sakamoto Days Ch111

cool number pog. but anyway, wonder how much longer of this backstory is left, not that I'm not enjoying it tho, the gun throw was great

The Elusive Samurai Ch102

damn setting up some worrying implications for our protags in case they lose. also I figured they weren't going to fight ashikaga right away, and the ending proved that, shame they gotta fight that girl tho

Akane-banashi Ch54

a nice cooldown chapter after the intensity of the last few ones, but a good chapter still, setting up the next competition and goal for akane also I don't think I've ever said it in these but..she's so cute.. love all the little faces she makes

#silver talks animanga

[fullcollectivecloud]

“Rewrite the Stars”(Greatest Showman Inspired)

The war with the saviors was finally over, Alexandria had won and Negan was in custody. y/n was Negan’s sister, she had not approved of what he was doing to Rick and his group but there was little she could do about it, Negan was the leader at the time he called the shots. But y/n was not totally powerless, When negan brought in Daryl y/n knew she needed to do something no human should have treated like he was. So she had managed to convince Negan to let Dary be her “Slave” as he liked to put it. From that point on Daryl was treated much better, he had food, clothes. A nice bed to sleep in, and he was able to walk around the sanctuary and find all the exit point should he get the chance to escape. But, something was holding him back from leaving, it was y/n he had spent so much time with her and got to know her pretty well. They had a lot in common, one thing being that they always have to clean up after their older siblings messes. Being the outcast, things of that nature. To say that the two had grown feelings for one another was a major understatement, Daryl had already accepted his feelings for y/n and wanted to act on them, not caring in the slightest how the other would feel or what they thought of her. They didn’t know her like he did, they only saw the enemies sister but Daryl saw y/n for the kind, caring, loving, compassionate person she is. Y/n had felt the same way but coludn’t bring herself to act on the feelings, she felt guilty for not doing more to help Alexandria, for not trying hard enough to stop Negan. Which is why she gave up the leadership role to Daryl, it was better for him to be leader then her to keep the peace and put the Alexandrian’s at ease knowing one of their own was leader.  

Daryl was doing his rounds making sure everything was going well and that there were no fights breaking out. Daryl finally came to the cafeteria and he sees y/n there checking over food and supplies, he walks up to her. “Hey how’s everythin’ lookin?” he ask as he put his hand on her lower back looking at everything on the tables “So far so good, we got a good amount of food n’ we aren’t dong to bad on supplies so can’t complain” She answers as she finishes writing down inventory and turns to look at him. “Good, hopefully well be good fora while til we can get some groups together to do runs” Daryl stares at y/n for a while until she speaks up “Well I ought to get this in so i'll just be on my way” She starts to leave but Daryl pipes up 

“You know I want you

It's not a secret I try to hide

I know you want me

So don't keep sayin' our hands are tied”  

y/n stops walking but doesn't turn around, she just sets down the clipboard she was hold on one of the tables. Daryl begins to make his way over to her

“You claim it's not in the cards

And fate is pullin' you miles away

And out of reach from me

But you're here in my heart

So who can stop me if I decide

That you're my destiny?” 

At this point Daryl is right in front of her but she moves around him to a different table and starts to count boxes of ammo, acting like shes ignoring him when shes actually listening to everything he’s saying. 

“ What if we rewrite the stars?

Say you were made to be mine

Nothing could keep us apart

You'd be the one I was meant to find” 

Daryl moved toward her again, he puts his hand on one of the boxes, making y/n look back into his eyes. Daryl wraps one of his arms around her waist.

“ It's up to you, and it's up to me

No one can say what we get to be

So why don't we rewrite the stars?

Maybe the world could be ours

Tonight” 

Y/n ducks under the arm on the ammo box and begins to walk up the stairs to the platform Negan would often stand on to make announcements. Maintaining eye contract with Daryl the whole time. Daryl is quick to follow her up the stairs.

“You think it's easy

You think I don't wanna run to you

But there are mountains

And there are doors that we can't walk through 

I know you're wondering why because we're able to be

Just you and me within these walls

But when we go outside, you're gonna wake up and see

That it was hopeless after all” 

Y/n has her back to the railing looking at him, He walks over putting both arms t her side trapping her to the railing. 

“No one can rewrite the stars

How can you say you'll be mine?

Everything keeps us apart

And I'm not the one you were meant to find” 

Y/n caresses his face with one of her hands while the other caress his arm. 

“It's not up to you

It's not up to me

When everyone tells us what we can be

How can we rewrite the stars?

Say that the world can be ours

Tonight” 

Y/n pushes the arm she was caressing away to escape his hold

They both make their way outside to the fences, there they find a platform connected to a pulley system. Daryl gets there first and pulls Y/n into an dip, as he does this she pulls the lever and they go up the side of the building. 

“All I want is to fly with you

All I want is to fall with you

So just give me all of you

It feels impossible

It's not impossible

Is it impossible?

Say that it's possible” 

Their eyes lock during this process, Both admiring the colors of one another eyes and the passion they hold deep within. Daryl pulls Y/n out of the dip, they are now chest to chest  

“How do we rewrite the stars?

Say you were made to be mine?

Nothing can keep us apart

'Cause you are the one I was meant to find

It's up to you

And it's up to me

No one can say what we get to be

And why don't we rewrite the stars?

Changing the world to be ours”

Daryl and Y/n get off the lift and are now on the roof of the building, both hands still interlocked, Daryl goes to pull Y/n into a kiss thinking that he finally got her into acting on the feeling they both know they share, but she pulls back slightly still consumed with the guilt of what her brother did and with the fear of what Daryl’s friends would do or say if she did give in. 

“You know I want you

It's not a secret I try to hide

But I can't have you

We're bound to break and my hands are tied” 

With that she looks away from Daryl’s eyes not wanting to see the heartbreak in them, She makes her way to the door that lead back inside. What Daryl couldn’t see was that just like him her eyes help heartbreak and tears of sadness. 

#daryl x reader #daryl x you #daryl x y/n #daryl fanfiction #x reader #twd fanfiction #twd imagine #daryl dixon #angst #the walking dead

[rainfallbeats]

IDK HOW EDIBLES WORK OK

*slaps my hands on the table* thats ok because i do!

this post ended up being multiple paragraphs long and contains a lot of personal stories so if youre still interested its under the cut. tw for drug use obviously

now granted i havent had that many of them and the only kind ive had were these cookies my brother made but good LORD. sweet JESUS they were strong. like STUPID strong. i remember he prefaced giving me them with "i ate one and thought i was a little worm wiggling in the dirt" and i was like ok i think i can handle it

i could not handle it. strong edibles will slonk your shit silly style. theyre a bit different than smoking because it kinda all kicks in at once, smoking is usually a milder high unless its like a bong rip. i remember one time it kicked in and i could barely get the words "guys i think the edible hit" out before breaking into a 10 minute laughing fit. i was on another plane i was shot up to the moon

and again these were particularly strong ones it really just depends on the strain of weed and the dosage, but some of the effects ive experienced are as follows:

everything is funny. like everything ever is funny. i will just laugh for any reason if im high enough, you could jangle keys in front of my face and id start cry laughing. weed kind of just makes you stupid like that. ive noticed it helps with the adhd too because ill finally have the patience to sit down and watch things or do tasks without getting irritated

pain numbing/weird funny skin feeling. ive noticed that i usually feel warm when the weed kicks in and thats usually followed by like a tingly feeling and a reduced ability to feel pain. this is nice bc im an idiot who gave myself back pain from sitting weird so this makes it go away. probably not anywhere near as effective for that purpose as pain meds but ive never been on any prescription pain meds or anything that wasnt like, ibuprofen so i dont know

food tastes really fucking good. ive considered going back on my adhd meds with recreational weed bc the meds were an appetite suppressant and thats why i had to stop taking them. weed will make you hungry as FUCK and everything you eat will taste better

lower impulse control, this one is kind of a bad side effect because if you were already thinking about doing stupid shit and you get high then youre gonna do it. one time i was on call with a friend and kept chewing on my fingers til they were bruised bc i wanted to chew on something

slowed perception of time/distorted perception of reality. this one is either scary or cool depending on the person but i find it enjoyable. time will slow DOWN like minutes will feel like hours. every splatoon match i play while high is the longest one of my life, and ive found i usually perform better in games because im less stressed and more just absorbed in what im doing. that combined with the fact that my brain blurs the line between whats real and fake so if im playing a game itll feel real to me. i will be staring at the inside of the grizzco building and feel like im actually there, its crazy. playing video games while high is fun

ive noticed that if i get too high i kinda feel dizzy and not in control of my body, my head feels like its underwater and ill be sitting there rocking back and forth waiting to come down a little. which would be scarier but thanks to the funny giggly chemicals its not that bad. but its also not pleasant when youre in a social situation and want to try to act normal

im not actually sure what me dumping all this info accomplishes but maybe someone will see it and itll help them write a character that smokes weed or something. and like granted these are only my own experiences and not everyone is gonna share them but regardless, thank you for the ask

#personal post #weed #ask box

[chidoroki]

Toyko Revengers S2EP3

aka: BEST BOY CHIFUYU RETURNS!!!!!

Poor Hakkai looks so damn frightened.

Oh hell no! No way Taiju’s just casually punched Yuzuha across the face! God what a bastard! Kudos to her for still standing after taking the hit (since we saw Takemichi fall over several times now) but damn!

“How dare you strike a woman, your own sister!” Takemichi you’re such a good lad.

I still can’t get over the fact that Taiju’s punches sound like gunshots..

Ah shit Hakkai, you’re really willing to quit Toman just so Taiju stops beating up Takemichi? I mean I get the urgency for the fight to stop but c’mon dude. The gang ain’t gonna like that one bit, Mitsuya especially I imagine.

Yeah I guess Hakkai’s motives in the future make a little sense now? but to kill the brother for just money? Really? Surely there has to be some rage behind it too.

Aw, Akkun and the other three guys (who I’ll never remember the names of) came to visit Takemichi at home while he’s recovering, even if he was completely unaware til he just woke up.

Oh? The four of them joined Toman? No doubt under the first division.

AAAAHH CHIFUYU!!! I’m so fucking happy to see you again!! Oohhh my boy, I missed you so much and am so thrilled to see you alive! I think I may cry!!

Yeah yeah I remember that, how Toman was created to deal with Black Dragon who caused trouble for Kazutora.

Surprised to hear Toman won that first battle though. They had to be real small at the time right?

Also love how Chifuyu is sitting on that chair. And hearing his voice again. And that big sweater of his. I’m gonna be so happy whenever this boy is on screen y’all have no idea.

“Toman crushed the ninth-generation Black Dragon,” Okay yeah I was wondering about that. Seems possible but certainly a challenge now that Taiju is in the picture.

He’s only two years older than Takemichi & Chifuyu? And Taiju is built like that? Fucking how??

“There’s no need to fight,” Tell me you’re the main character without telling me you’re the main character, Takemichi.

Sorry, I know these kids are in a whole different league, but I’m still impressed they can already have something grand like these kinds of bikes.

“Nice bike, huh? Baji left it to me.” Sure just rip my heart out while you’re at it.. that’s fine. Oh god, and the smile on his face when he says that! Ah Chifuyu you’re such a precious boy!

“I.. I came from the future!” HELLO??? Takemichi did ya seriously just reveal that? Is that allowed??

Sweet lord.. he’s actually telling Chifuyu the whole story. He’s gonna think he’s insane.. or accept it completely, somehow.

Oh hell no, Takemichi you can’t just spill your darkest secret and then laugh it off as a joke.

“I kind of figured.” Excuse me???

“Well, I mean, I never thought you came from the future. But looking back, there’s a lot of weird stuff about you. There are times when you seem like a different person.” I dunno whether to be scared or impressed with Chifuyu right now?? But shit, if he noticed something was off, then who else could have noticed? Mikey? Kisaki maybe? Crap.

Oh so he overheard a little bit of that conversation with Baji. No wonder he got suspicious.

“You believe me? Even though.. it sounds like I made it all up?” “Hell yeah! Don’t be stupid. We’re partners, after all.” CHIFUYU IS BEST BOY! Everyone else can go home!!

They’re sharing noodles now like he did with Baji.. aw.

I’m seriously gonna get emotional over this boy. Every shot of him just looks so perfect. Fuck!

Every damn Chifuyu smile makes me heart weak.. I love him too much.

Ah shit, and here’s Hanma, who’s gonna do his best to make my heart waver. Seriously, what the hell happened to me since season one to gain such an interest in this man..

Oh? So Hakki being the brother of Black Dragon’s leader wasn’t common knowledge?

Pfft, Chifuyu’s little ‘thumbs-up’ are adorable.

Hell yeah! Mitsuya won’t allow Hakkai to quit!

#tokyo revengers #episode reaction

[prettybi4ajedi]

First Article I guess; and it's about Body Swaps in TV

I've developed a deep love for body swap episodes in TV, because it's so fucking fun to watch actors have to play each others characters after they've been established and imbued with the original actors quirks. I'm rewatching The Good Place and just got to the "Everyone Goes to the Void and Accidentally Becomes Janet" episode and watching D'Arcy Carden play everyone is one of the most delightful things ever. This one is probably my favorite. I also like when it happens in Glee, when Tina is Rachel. My least favorite is The Owl House, even though that's one of my favorite shows; it felt like a waste of a body swap episode. That's not to say you can't get the results I like in animation; Gravity Falls fucking SLAYS animated bodyswap in Carpet Diem. Not only do we get another tick in the 'Grenda is trans' headcannon/canon/I don't know what's been confirmed but I'm confident it was intended and I'll meet Disney in a Denny's parking lot to fight about it; but every time characters swap bodies, even if it's brief, there are consequences. Even if it's just a character saying 'ah, this body is different from my body and here's how I feel about it.' In The Owl House, the characters designs change maybe slightly by adding or removing things like eyelashes to denote perceived gender, the voices don't change at all, and the entire storyline focuses on switching back without any real reflections on the fact that they're all in bodies of completely different types of beings. I know we don't find out King's heritage til later, but there's enough foreshadowing that I'm confident the creators knew that he was what he was from day one, and that could have been a very interesting opportunity to lean into it a little bit. I feel like a body swap episode should thematically be a perspective swap episode, and considering how strong TOH is thematically, and how well they handle difficult and breakthrough topics, I have to admit I was a little disappointed with that episode. Maybe it would have been better if it was done in a later episode when we understood the characters better, so the contrast between experiences would have been stronger, but like- TOH is probably my favorite show. I, a blue haired, glasses wearing recently-out nonbinary person saw my first nonbinary person in media with Raine Whispers, in what has become my personal favorite episode of TV ever. (Eda's Requiem). I have King Clawthorne holding Francois tattooed on my right forearm, and he brings me joy every day. I'm not hating on it and I want to make that clear. I just don't like how they do their body swap episode. It seems like such a trope; I feel like I've seen it in almost every show I've watched. But I do love the trope. I think it provides interesting opportunities and chances for character growth. Also I just got to the line in The Good Place where Jason says "Thanks Tahani. It's nice to know I can talk about girls with my wife." Love that light poly rep. Not related to the rest of this article I guess but that's probably just what the vibe of this blog will be. Mostly cause I just don't know how to end things. -Alex

#the good place #the owl house #gravity falls #glee #body swap #writing

[fluffydisneyprincess]

Unspecified Fluff

I was in that sad place again where ya know... I just really wanted That Person and I needed fluff really bad. Ive also been having nightmares because hormones are GREAT. So this happened. There's no character or real details mentioned so he can kinda be anyone you want. He's just someone that loves you. A lot.

___________________________________

You woke drenched in sweat with a gasp. Your lungs labored hard in your chest and your whole body shook with the weight of the nightmare. Something brushed your arm and you yelped. The bed shifted next to you and your sleep addled mind struggled to place itself in reality.

"Sweeheart? Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Warm, familiar hands were cupping your face and for just the tiniest second your panic crested high. Then your eyes began to adjust and you finally registered the concerned gaze that watched you. "Another nightmare?"

You collapsed against his chest with a small sob. He ran his fingers through your hair as you grounded yourself with his scent. His body. The feel of him being solid and real and here. You were safe. When you managed to calm the thundering beat of your heart enough, you were able to hear his. Together they beat in time. The sound was like its own kind of lullaby.

"Do you want to talk about it?" His voice was so soft. You'd heard it sound a million different ways but it was only ever this soft, this tender, when he was talking to you. Your face still buried into his chest, you shook your head. His chest rumbled against your cheek with a chuckle. "Alright then, I'll just hold you. I'm not going anywhere, love, I promise. I'll protect you from anything that would try to harm you."

Every word had you relaxing against him a little more. The timbre of his voice becoming its own kind if balm to a mind heavy with the aftershocks of a nightmare. He began to rock you as he continued to speak to you softly. Reminding you that he loved you. That he would never leave or hurt you. He would do anything just to see you happy. The tears that worked forward had nothing to do with fear.

"You're too good to me," you said after awhile, your voice still muffled against his bare chest. "It's the middle of the night and you're rocking me like a baby and whispering sweet nothings all because I had a stupid nightmare."

"And I will continue to do it." He gently pulled you away from his chest to look you in the eye. "Because I love you. No matter what time it is. No matter what I have to do to make you feel better." A playful grin slipped across his lips as he tipped his forehead against yours. "I will whisper the sweetest nothings til morning if it means you sleep soundly again." You smiled, though you hadn't meant to. It was a talent he had.

"Is that for me... or to hear your own voice?" You teased. A subtle way of showing that he had succeeded in making you feel better. He grinned a broad grin full of pride and maybe a little bit of ego.

"Well... I do have a nice voice," he winked, "but I'd much rather hear the contented little murmurs you make in your sleep." His teasing grin softened. "It's adorable. You look so precious when you sleep."

"And then I wake up, right?" You rolled your eyes. He cocked his head, eyes glittering.

"You're just as precious when you wake up, just more likely to argue with me on it." His hand cupped your cheek again. "You have no idea how precious you truly are to me."

You blushed, but he didn't let you look away. Instead he was gently pulling you forward into a kiss. You loved his kisses. Whether they were soft and gentle like this or intense and hungry every kiss just felt right somehow. Felt perfect. As perfect as he was. As perfect as the both of you were for each other. The feeling overwhelmed your lungs and made it hard to breathe even as he slowly pulled you back to the bed with him. When he pulled away he spoke in a whisper.

"I'm right here. I'll keep you safe. Tonight, tomorrow, the rest of our lives..." He kissed your forehead. "I'm here. I'll always be here. Sleep, my darling. Dream sweet and strange things to tell me about in the morning."

As promised his arms were solid around you. The rhythm of his heart echoed in your ears as your eyes began to drift closed. With every breath your head rose and fell as it laid on his chest. The last thing you remembered before slipping under was a soft kiss on the top of your head and one last whisper:

"I love you."

#writing #my drabbles #fiction #much fluff #fluff #nightmare fluff #comfort fluff #i just wanna be somebody to someone

[firespirited]

Vague indefinable under the weather thing became a very defined half way down the head divide sinusitis mid morning.

It wasn't as easy to spot because there's just been ongoing 'ouch' of the head and face due to the neck issues but yeah you can actually see the swollen sinuses and that clear divide down the head is unmistakable. I really should have worn my mask on walks even though I don't approach anyone (except bully cops I guess) to avoid the pollen.

Then again, funny thing I went out with Sis this morning, it was cold so we were wearing masks for cold and the woodfires which give you a good lungful of nasty and we got lectured by a rando about how unnecessary it all is and how much money 'they' have made off this

and how his latest booster made him feel sick even though by his own admission he got covid the last time he went unmasked in public earlier this year.

I just cheerfully pointed out that the vaccine hurts less than the infection, masks are useful for more than just covid and thanked him profusely for doing his civic duty of masking in public transport and shops as an immunocompromised person. But like, dude, we have two really cute dogs and the weather's been interesting, half the country's protesting now that the government have shown they'd rather throw away democracy and our freedom of expression than tax a few corporations a little better (it is literally so little money that we could make buying back your own company stock from excessive profits illegal and collect double what's needed for pensions from just this year. The insistance that pensions must be funded by workers with no corporate or government help is stupid, the math indicated we won't be in the red til 2030 so tax some billionaires already, they can protest live in Monaco or Luxembourg (and get super bored and crawl back) if they insist on not leaving france's luxuries to far behind...

Oh look there so much to talk about that I got derailed (not that it takes much LOL) but mr man had to scold us for being silly gooses for wearing masks and tell us his incoherent but important thoughts on the matter. I know I'm probably contagious with a bad cold right now, didn't get to work that into the conversation though. Sis talked about how much more she's able to enjoy nature as an asthmatic since masks though so that was nice. We shot eachother a lot of subtle side eyes especially when he casually dropped that half the party he went to unmasked got horribly sick from that party.

If you feel like that dude, please do try different mask types and mask comfort aids. Everybody has to find what they can wear for long periods without pain. For me it's a China made K95, straps in the back, changed every hour so the sweat doesn't chafe my skin but I have to be really careful to not end up with an inperceptible flow of hot wet air straight into my right eye. Sis likes the fish shaped k94. Doc uses a duck shape for minimal face chafing.

I've put a few things on hold til my health gets slightly better. I really want to rework the neck on the lovely 1/6 bjd Maleficent sent and then paint her not with human blushing but like she's part of a crockery set. The one great auntie Francis left us a few years ago is a gold trimmed fruit motif and blue china is pretty but already done so I was thinking more along the lines of something with strawberries because I love her porcelain paleness and a strawberry motif would allow me to keep the face simple and stylized. (writing this down because ideas do sometimes spark during the SADS but I often completely forget them).

Jewel Richie had an 'incident' in the post and has been undeliverable since Thursday but amazon doesn't open the refund/rebuy options til tomorrow. I'll have to decide then. The vagueness of 'incident' made me think OK, maybe the roads/trains were blocked but the 'cannot be delivered' kind of implies the package got smashed up or in the same truck as idk a bottle of ink or something.

I think it's maybe why I had a doll dream, I imagined a rainbow high rolling into a roadside somewhere after someone forgot to properly shut the van doors or something.

Then again, I spent most of last night talking over (with my own brain) how the Shoah probably 'killed' Gd (mine the xian god who is supposed to have a personal relationship with people, not necessarily anyone else's - i can explain in detail if anyone is interested, the law of free will wasn't broken other xian specific things were) for me to an imaginary rabbi questioner (he was very nice, if pushing further than I dared to talk, in the daydream and had experience with christianity in the form of evangelicalism so I didn't have to explain certain concepts that are absolutely not in the Talmud and not really the new testament either.) and really felt my shame that a genocide unrelated to me shook a faith (xianity) that's a disrespectful sect of their faith. Nevertheless I was 10, and the idea that the gospels weren't the symmetrical conclusion to the Talmud was never in question and even considered blasphemy if I ever brought it up. I was such a different person by 14 then 16 facing it again. To think I thought jewish people were as brainwashed as I was into the belief that martydom is a noble death. Yeah I mentioned the nice fever dream about the dolls because many times sick musings end up in 'the roads not taken' , existential crises and lists of people who probably took years off my life. Fun stuff.

Lily is picking up this march, she is happy and well. I think she may have had a tough winter but for 14 she is very fit and still very much a mischief, she's started doing her upside-down dances, asking for fuss and thieving from my recycling bin again. I love her to bits.

Have a lovely day everyone. Stay safe and relatively sane ❤️❤️❤️

#saf #Tw: covid #Ramblings

[whipplefilter]

Real Car Guy Story, Part 2

Engine Love Story

I tried my very best to channel the racerly vision of engines as just another part to replace, rather than something that had any kind of identity on its own. It’s hard to trust a new (used) engine, though, because what’s he like? What are his sounds and foibles? Maybe at the beginning it’s just a part but you learn all its sounds and you have your routine and idk, it’s a weird feeling. 

The day my new engine arrived from California, I didn’t even know that morning was going to be our last cold start together! ToT Our morning routine was: Turn over, idle at 2000, wait until it decreases to 1500. Put it in drive, RPMs to 1000. Winter? Wait a minute, baby til operating temp and piston slap fades.

And you’d think if you popped the hood one engine would be identical to the next--literally an EJ253 being replaced by another EJ253. But the bay genuinely looks different! The pulleys don’t have the same patina, the gaskets aren’t the same. (The gaskets were brand-new MLS ones, to replace the single-layered steel ones from factory that were so well-known for causing head gasket leaks in NA Subarus of this generation--my old engine had had them done previous to my owning him, I suspect as part of his getting out of the auction lot/as part of how he ended up there in the first place.) 

You can pop the hood and think, mmm, this is not my engine, not yet.

The new one is louder when it’s cold than my old one, which made me uneasy and then I mostly got over it, because it’s a 109k engine and it’s not rod knock. But the shop put an oil stabilizer in it which may have made the loudness go away completely. I’m personally not sold on using additives, so I’m not sure how I feel about that, but part of me is like, okay, it’s a stock NA engine, not a built STI block. How much can it hurt?

And “not my engine” can be good, too. I was able to do head gaskets without an additional engine pull, and I got to choose what timing kit I wanted, and now this engine has an all-new thermostat, water pump, timing belt, and all the tensioners, etc., which is a service I had done right before I bought the car and that was going to come up due in the next year and a half, and is now not a service I’ll need to pay fo any time soon.

The whole process still felt a little weird because you’d think engine replacement would follow a catastrophic failure, but with the exception of burning out expensive emissions components my old engine ran nicely ‘til the end. I kind of feel like I abandoned him, even though an engine is NOT AN ENTITY it is a part. (Cars are entities...) I think I’m adjusting, though, and I hope it will start feeling like my car’s engine soon. I don’t think I can really claim this until we’ve had a few oil intervals together, but maybe it already is.

#cars are entities in that when i moved i thought about whether my car was going to have opportunities to socialize with his own kind #when i left him in parking lots LOL #he has lots of subaru compatriots here #(but in all seriousness i do feel like i enjoy living in subaru country because that's the environment this car is for and also it means #you're more likely to find someone familiar with them perhaps even a specialist and maybe even an enthusiast) #real cars #whipplemobile #love: it's what makes a subaru a subaru