#also very funny to sit down and figure out what their birthdays translate to for starsigns | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

royallyprincesslilly · 4 years

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Title: I Have Questions {2}***

Non-Bearded Steve Rogers x Reader

Warning: Cursing, NSFW, SMUTTTTTT, DO NOT READ AT WORK

Words: 4.3

Summary: Steve is still acclimating to the twenty-first-century. It’s a simple fact that things in twenty-twenty are drastically different than things in the thirties. He’s been doing what he can to learn and thanks to you his go to source for answers his understanding of this time is setting in. Two and a half months have passed and it is Steve’s birthday. Again, he as a burning question for you.

Note: This was supposed to be for July 4th, Steve’s birthday, but because I don’t plan things and just fly by seat of my pants I started this super late and didn’t finish. With encouragement from @sonjashuterbugjohnson who says it didn’t matter if it was still is bday or not, here is a little Steve bday action.

Thank you guys for reading!

***Loosely Edited/Proofread**

Previous Part: 1 |

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“You know he wouldn’t want a party to have all those eyes on him,” Wanda said.

“Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what he wants. He needs this,” Tony added.

“Him or you?”

All eyes landed on Tony because everyone knew how Tony was. He scoffed and crossed his legs again. “Ha, you’d think everyone would appreciate the fact that I have enough money to make anyone’s dreams come true, including the great Captain America,” Tony huffed.

“If you knew him you’d know he doesn’t give a damn about your money,” Sam slid in.

“Fair enough. Still, none of this has amounted to anything. What exactly is the plan? What does he want?”

All eyes landed on you. Mid chew, you stopped and took all of them in. They thought you knew what Steve wanted. After you swallowed and took a sip of your ginger ale, you straightened.

“Uh—how exactly am I supposed to know?”

Nat, Bucky, and Sam smirked to themselves before they looked down. You wondered if they knew. You hadn’t uttered a word to anyone, and you and Steve had been very, very careful. You made sure not to act like you’d seen each other naked. You pretended like you didn’t know how to make his toes curl and he pretended like he didn’t know how you tasted. He did a shit job of it to you, but to others, it was believable. You snuck into each other’s rooms late and usually through the balconies because there were cameras everywhere. You made sure to keep as quiet as possible even though it was the hardest thing you’d ever done. Though Steve was a novice, he had an incredible ability to make your back arch.

“Okay, you don't know, so how are we going to figure it out?”

Tony’s impatience was shining through. It was evident once again he was used to getting what he wanted and getting it quickly. You knew what he would want, and a party wasn’t it. Steve liked his solitude, but as of late, he liked something even more than that.

“A party is definitely not what he wants, though,” you said as you rose and walked out of the conference room, leaving them to deliberate while you found somewhere quiet to finish your food.

After a quick walk, you found yourself on the room sitting at the ledge with your legs dangling over, just staring out at the most beautiful sunset. It was easy to get lost in it and get lost you did. You didn’t know how long you stared at it, but it was long enough for you to finish your crab salad and move on to your croutons.

“I knew I’d find you here.” Looking back, you saw Steve walking to you.

“If it isn’t the birthday boy—or man—or grandpa?”

Steve rolled his eyes but smirked before he sat beside you. “You’re not funny.”

Laughing, you popped another crouton into your mouth to loudly crunch on it. “I kinda am.”

The two of you sat in silence for a few moments before you offered him a crouton. Steve took one and thanked you in his polite century-old way. You smiled and rested your head on his shoulder to finish watching the sun disappear.

“Happy Birthday Steve.”

You felt his lips brush your forehead for a tender kiss. “Thank you, sweetheart.” Your belly did backflips.

“Everyone is looking for you wondering what you want to do for your birthday.”

Steve sighed before he spoke, “They shouldn’t bother.”

“A party was brought up,” you informed.

“Not my style. I’d rather spend it with you quiet, relaxed, and cozy.”

You smiled and looked at him. “Quiet, relaxed, and cozy, huh?”

Steve smiled, and again, your belly did flips. “Yes, ma’am.” His lips met yours for a sweet kiss that remained that way. He didn’t try to intensify it at all. It was him saying he was content even if you didn’t have sex.

The two of you hadn’t defined what it was that you were doing. You hadn’t sat down and talked about it or even come up with a title. You just went with the flow and enjoyed the time you had together. Two and a half months in, and you were still enjoying each other’s company and bodies.

“I actually have a question,” Steve began.

You slowly lifted your head. In the last two and a half months, he’d say this every time he was confused about something. Some times it was something easy and like why women showed so much skin now or why men seemed okay to disrespect women. Other times, they were about technology that seemed useless to him, like an electric bottle opener. It took him point two seconds to twist off any top. Then there were times when his questions were reminiscent to the ones that led the two of you down this path. His deep blue eyes met yours, and it only took seconds for you to know just what kind of question it was that he had.

“I’m all ears, Mr. Rogers.”

“So I was in Brooklyn passing by a gypsy shop,” Steve began.

“Gypsy? You mean fortune teller?”

“Right, that’s what they’re called now. Yes, a fortune teller. I went in and looked around.”

“Why’d you go in? Did you want to get your future read?” Steve stared at you with a look you couldn’t read.

“Curious,” he said as he looked away from you. “Anyway, I saw this book that I didn’t know what it meant.”

“Do you have it?”

“No, I was going to take it down, but the gyp—fortune-teller came out and recognized me. I had to make a hasty exit,” Steve explained.

“Okay, what was the book called?”

“Kama Sutra.”

Again, your belly flipped, but it didn’t stop after a few seconds it persisted. You actually were having trouble catching your breath.

“The—Kama Sutra. Wow,” you struggled out.

“You’ve heard of it?”

The only thing you could muster was a head nod.

“What is it?” You just stared at him as everything you knew about the Kama Sutra rushed through your head. There was no way of knowing where to start. You must have been minutes because when you focused again, his mouth was moving.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah, totally. Eh-em, the Kama Sutra is um, it’s uh—a oh boy.” You took a deep breath and slowly released it.

“It’s an ancient Sanskrit text on sexuality, eroticism, and emotional fulfillment. It was translated and made into a book, several actually, and a lot of people use it as a way to enhance their intimate relationships.” You were shocked how professional you made it sound when everything in your head kept echoing “sex, sex, sex, sex.”

“Sooo, it’s a dirty book,” Steve surmised.

“No, not dirty. Okay, back in the early nineteenth century, and maybe in your time, it would have been considered scandalous it is not so frowned upon now. Now many people around the world use it as a reference. A lot of people even use it’s—teachings to enhance sex.”

Steve’s eyebrow shot up, showing his burning curiosity. You smiled and made the decision.

“Text everyone and tell them you’ve made other plans for your birthday,” you instructed.

“Just what plans are these?” His smirk was utterly sexy, and you didn’t bother hiding his effect. When Steve saw you bite your bottom lip, he took out his phone and did as you asked. You held your hand out for it, then took yours out and dropped them onto the graveled ground.

“I think this is also something that is best understood by doing.” You swung your legs over the ledge, planting them on the gravel then stood holding your hand out to him. Steve didn’t hesitate taking your hand and smoothly swooping his legs to plant them on the ground.

“How will you--,” Steve began before you placed your finger on his lips.

“Shh. Take off your clothes. I’ll show you.”

Steve hesitated a moment as he looked around you.

“Here?”

“Right here,” you confirmed. Steve scoffed but reached for the buttons of yet another button-down shirt, but once there, he hesitated again.

“Are you shy, Steve?”

Your teasing had him unbuttoning his shirt. You watched as he undid button after button until he was peeling it off, showing you that beautifully toned flesh. Sucking your bottom lip into your mouth, you admired every inch of skin then dropped your eyes to his pants. You continued to watch as he removed those as well and kick off his boots. Soon he stood before you in all his glory. Your eyes slowly drank him in and appreciated every inch of him in the new darkness of dusk.

You bent and used his discarded clothes to make a blanket to cover the gravel. When you stood again, you walked to him then around him. Slowly you trailed your finger along his skin, and slowly, you took in every muscle indentation and every smooth line. He was perfect. You wondered if anyone else would have had these results with the serum. You’d spent countless hours lying awake while he slept just touching him.

“Are you trying to intimidate me?”

“Not at all. The Kama Sutra is a lesson in sensuality and erotica. It is not all about racing to the finish line for instant gratification. It teaches patience and trust.” You stopped behind him and placed a kiss right under his shoulder blade and brought your hand down to squeeze his taut ass.

“Y/N,” Steve warned. You smiled and hugged yourself to him when feeling his abs.

“What, don’t trust me?”

“I trust you with everything, including my life,” Steve corrected. Your eyes met, and again, the butterflies fluttered in your belly.

Stepping in front of him, you kissed him softly once, then twice. Steve immediately intensified the kiss wrapping his arms around you to rest on your ass. You stood there giving him a taste of the sensuality the teachings stressed. Slowly you swirled your tongue around his and sucked it. Steve’s moans awoke the need in you that you’d kept in check for the last two days. When he firmly squeezed your ass, pulling you closer to him, you could feel his need pressing against your belly.

Steve pulled his lips from yours and unzipped the jacket of your tracksuit then pulled it off of your body. As soon as he let it go, his hands were raising your tank top over your head. In seconds he had your bra off and was peeling off your pants. You could tell you were going to have difficulty with the patience part. Once you were standing before him in nothing but your underwear, he made a move to take that off of you, but your hands on his stopped him.

“Slow, Steve.”

“How can I when you look like that?” His lips connected to your shoulder to suck the skin there. You quickly got lost in how good it felt.

In the last two months, he’d found each and every one of your spots, and he ruthlessly used the knowledge against you. The day you felt his lips here on your neck in the middle of a mission, you knew you were in trouble. Stepping away from him, you took a few calming breaths.

“Close your eyes,” you ordered. Steve obeyed without protest. You liked that. He was still eager to please.

Standing there, you got lost in his beauty for a few moments before you stepped close to him and peppered kisses across his chest and down his sternum. When you reached his abs, you gave them the salute they deserved. As you licked and kissed your way down each eight well-defined muscle, Steve’s breathing quickened. His anticipation was increasing. He was anxious to feel your mouth.

Knowing that you decided to tease him more. When you were close to where he wanted you, you pulled away and kissed your trail back up his body. Steve groaned, and you knew it wasn’t one of pleasure, but displeasure.

“In the Kama Sutra, it taught on the proper art of seduction. It’s usually a multi-night process of touching, kissing, rubbing, licking, and holding each other with no finish. Each night the couple would do this until they’d reached the pinnacle of need for one another. Once there on that night, there would be a special space for the act of lovemaking to happen. It was supposed to be somewhere that exuded sensuality. We’re improvising just a bit.”

As you spoke, you kissed each part of his torso leading down to his pulsating member, but you never settled before him; instead, you focused your attention elsewhere.

“Once at this special place, there was no mad dash for the finish line.”

You stood, took his hand, and placed it on your breast. He didn’t move, though, he waited. Pleased, you moved his hand for him directing him how to touch you—not that he needed it. Steve had become an expert in your body in such a short time. It was incredible. He gently kneaded your flesh in circular motions before he changed direction only to forcefully pinch your nipple. A moan escaped you.

In this place, both parties would do everything to increase intimacy, connection.”

As you spoke, you moved his hand lower across your body, until his fingers teased the waistband of your underwear. He dipped his hand inside and quickly found your soaking core. Fighting the urge to moan again, you bit your bottom lip and allowed him time to explore. Steve pointer and middle fingers spread you while his thumb strummed your aching bud.

A moan was strangled in your throat, begging to be set free. You fought it to speak. “There are even mentions that if done properly in the sensual act at the highest point of pleasure, a couple can transcend to another plane of consciousness where they could see the stars together.”

His fingers felt so good, you were close, and he knew it from the subtle way your body trembled. When he moaned, you gripped his biceps to steady yourself. Though you spoke of going slowly, everything in you wanted to go against that and take your pleasure. Steve’s thumb stopped only to have his two fingers delve into your well-coated heat. You gasped out and threw your head back while holding onto him for dear life.

“Shit,” you whispered. As soon as you said the words, Steve slipped his fingers out and removed his hand. Your eyes and head flew back to him. His eyes were watching you, intently.

“Teach me more.” He lifted his fingers to his lips and sucked them clean of your juices. He wasn’t playing fair.

Pulling yourself together, you stepped from him doing your best to steady yourself. “In the Kama Sutra, there were drawn and described positions that were meant to help with a particular function. For instance, there were a few to help with intimacy, some to help with pleasure, and so forth. The best way to learn the Kama Sutra’s teachings on eroticism is to experience them. Come to me, Steve.”

Slowly Steve walked to you but didn’t touch. “Your first objective is intimacy.”

“What should I do?”

“Whatever you like, but keep the objective in mind,” you cautioned.

Steve’s fingers began a trail at your wrists and brought them up your arms to your shoulders and then down across your shoulder blades to your tailbone. He didn’t stop there. Steve brought his hand around, tracing your hip to your stomach and up to your breasts. Once there, he rolled them between his fingers, making your eyes droop lazily. That was when Steve came in for the surprise kiss that took your breath away. If he was a man that had no experience whatsoever, he was now a man who had all the experience in the world. He swirled his tongue around yours and sucked on it before he nibbled your bottom lip and sucked onto it.

Fuck, you thought. The man was not fucking around. Steve wrapped his arm behind you and held you flush against him sharing the searing heat of his body and the steady thumping of his heart that matched your own. Steve then dipped you down to your shared clothes blanket and gazed at you as if you were the most precious thing to him.

“You’re so beautiful, sweetheart.”

That damn nickname was going to be the death of you. He kissed you once, then twice, and trailed kisses down your body. His lips wrapped around your nipple, and it felt like an out-of-body experience. He languidly pleased you, teasing your flesh, making you pant as if you’d run a marathon. Steve kissed lower across your belly to nip the skin at your hip. The action had your thighs spreading and dropping back, giving him full access.

Steve groaned. “You’re going to be the death of me,” Steve huskily groaned out before he dropped his head between your legs and showcased everything he’d learned in the last two months. His movements didn’t speak of urgency; they were the opposite. He moved as if he had all night, and there was nothing more important than your pleasure. When he sucked your throbbing bud into his mouth, your back arched and your eyes rolled to the back of your head. As you felt your release, Steve pulled back.

“Objective reached?”

A slow smile spread across your lips as you nodded. “Although I’d say you skipped ahead to your second objective.”

“Which is?”

“Pleasure,” you filled in.

“Question, do you have objectives?”

“Besides your full comprehension of the topic? Yes. Lie down.”

Steve changed positions with you giving you access to straddle his abdomen. You could feel his cock pressing against your ass. His hands cupped your breasts and squeezed. His smile was still so innocent and pure. It must have been part of his charm. You kissed him and bit onto his lip. his guttural groan was the response you wanted, as was the nudge against your ass.

“Be careful how far you tease me, sweetheart.”

“Can’t take it?”

“I just worry for you when I am finally able to bend you over that ledge,” Steve sexily cautioned. You’d never wanted anything as badly as you wanted him to fuck you into unconsciousness.

“Long gone is Captain Steve “Language” Rogers of old who didn’t know how to use the power he possessed to make a woman quiver,” you teased.

“Thank fucking Christ for that, Steve sat. Your gasp had him laughing under the night sky. It was a sound you loved.

“Captain Rogers,” you feigned shock. You knew damn well how filthy his mouth was behind closed doors. He was not the language police anymore. Steve sat up, wrapped you in his arms, and kissed you like a man confident in his ability to steal the breath from a woman—his woman.

Your moans were in competition, his wanted full dominance while yours contested for that power. In the end, the battle continued even as his mouth sucked your breast into his mouth yet again. You hugged his head to you and stared at the sky. Thanks to the bright lights of Manhattan, the stars were invisible, but the beauty of the night sky was still easy to see. Pushing Steve back down, you slinked down his body until you came face to face with every eye-bulging inch he possessed.

The man grew over a foot in height once injected with the serum and packed on over ninety pounds of muscle. The serum hadn’t stopped there, though. Your mouth watered in anticipation, and you could tell he was holding his breath. Deciding not to torture him any longer, you lowered your mouth over his engorged head and moaned when you felt it pulsate inside your mouth. Steve grunted loudly as he nudged up, sending several more inches into your mouth. Nearly gagging, you surprised the reflex and began bobbing on his need.

Steve didn’t hide how good you were making him feel. He released moan after moan and curse after curse. It was thrilling to hear thee captain America overcome by pleasure and letting it show. You’d never thought about if he were a moaner or not, but you were pleased he was. After a few minutes, Steve’s hands were on your head, directing you, showing you just how far gone he was. When the velvety smooth tip of his cock touched the back of your throat again, you suppressed your gag and took all he offered.

“Aaaah, fuck—yes!”

In seconds he’d pulled your head from his length and was sitting up to turn you to the ledge he’d probably been making plans for. He kissed you along your spine before he sucked your earlobe into his mouth.

“What’s next?” Steve’s voice was rough, but you knew it was just him being less in control of his desires. You could feel his need bobbing at your opening as he smeared your wetness across himself.

“Connection and pleasure,” you moaned out just as Steve thrust forward, connecting you just as the first crack of fireworks erupted in the sky before you. The thunderous clap engulfed your shout.

Steve didn’t go slow, and you were glad for it. He hammered into you, clearly needing every inch of your heat. As he fucked you, the fireworks lit up the sky. It was like it was planned just for you. After a few minutes, Steve’s thrusts slowed and became more passionate and sensual.

“Sit back,” you moaned out. Steve did as you asked and sank back onto his knees in a sitting position. Looking over your shoulder back at him, you couldn’t help but lick your lips seeing his thick need standing right up like a gift waiting for you to receive it.

“In the Kama Sutra, they call this the cave. It is to enhance intimacy, connection, and ranks high on the pleasure meter,” you explained before you lowered onto his cock. Every inch you sank, Steve groaned deeply. Before he filled you completely, you rotated your hips. When you did, you felt him nudge into you, filling you to the hilt.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Steve whispered, pressing his forehead to your back. You moved on him first slowly then gradually picking up the speed. You rocked back and forth on him to the rhythm of how the fireworks erupted.

Steve held you firmly against him and whispered the sweetest things to you, things that had your heart racing for a different reason entirely. When the fireworks picked up, you leaned forward and held onto the ledge then rode him with every intention to have him get as loud as the fireworks. Like clockwork every time you dropped onto his need, he gripped you tightly and let out a loud “ghha.”

After a few minutes of you in control, he whispered in your ear. “Teach me more.”

Rising off of him, you laid down. He wasted no time assuming the position and connecting your bodies again. You showcased your acrobatic and raised your legs until they were bent beside your ears.

“My God,” Steve whispered.

“A beautiful view,” you said.

“Damn right it is.” Steve thrust into you, giving you all of him, and it was way too much.

“Fuck, Steve!”

The way he plowed into you had you feeling every sensation in the book. Every time he connected your bodies, the thunderclap of the fireworks was the rhythm he moved to. It was seconds before your orgasm overtook everything in you. You gripped him with every muscle you had, forcing a loud shout from him.

“I’m coming, Steve!”

As if that was what he needed to hear, he sped his thrusts and never slowed again even when you clenched around him again from yet another orgasm. He changed his angle as he arched onto his knees and dipped down into you.

You could see his control was completely gone, and you knew he was close. Each encounter he was lasting longer and longer, but no matter the length of the session, he’d leave you exhausted. He thrust once, twice, and third time and you felt his release. As he did, you screamed out together.

It took a few minutes for both of you to come down from your shared release. Once you did, you laid cuddled together, just watching the rest of the fireworks. It was the perfect night.

“Happy birthday, Steve.”

You looked at him as he looked at you. He kissed your nose and then your lips.

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

Again you settled in, watching the conclusion of the fireworks and enjoying the intimacy and connection you between you. There was no need for words. You were sure he knew what he meant to you.

“Did you transcend and see the stars?”

Steve groaned as he stretched a little. “I always see stars with you.” Your belly fluttered again. He wasn’t the only one who saw stars.

“How’d you learn all of this?”

You smiled and looked up at him. “I read a lot.”

“I bet you do,” Steve responded.

“You should be happy I have book smarts; otherwise, these lessons wouldn’t be nearly as informational,” you teased.

“I am happy, incredibly happy. You make me happy.”

You looked at him again and smiled. The man was on a mission.

“Same here, old man. What’re you a hundred and two?” You snickered, knowing he hated the poked at his age. Steve rolled onto you.

“I may be a hundred and two, but I sure can keep up with you young thing.”

You laughed as he connected your bodies again, but as soon as the pleasure hit you, your laughing ceased immediately.

“Not laughing anymore, I see,” Steve teased as he rekindled the fire deep within you. It was going to be a long night.

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#i have questions fic #Steve Rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #steve rogers x black reader #black fanfiction #steve rogers smut

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filmoflifeburst · 3 years

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Mobius Strip

Sum: the third break-up of Lucerys Velaryon and Aemond Targaryen.

*Translated from the Chinese version and my English is really POOR. *Lucerys Velaryon （above） x Aemond Targaryen (sub) *Age difference adjusted to one year. Modern city paro.

"We've come to the end of the road, but we're safe." -- "Downhill”

Aemond Targaryen took all his appendages with him, and all that he had left behind in Lucerys' life suddenly disappeared as if swallowed by a sudden tornado, leaving a huge, gray void surrounding him. It was the third time in two years, but now Lucerys felt a panic that he had never felt before.

He felt chagrin, but not much regret - it was a little too difficult for him to endure any longer. Most of the time Lucerys would choose to forgive the other side, but this time it was difficult. The funny thing was that he couldn't even remember what the heated argument had been about, except that he had burned their only photo together on the balcony half an hour after Aemond had left, in a mood that could not be described as depressed, and then smoked a menthol cigarette for the first time as a "reward" for crossing that hurdle. His eyes felt a little sore, and he convinced himself that it was only because the smoke was too strong, and not because of anything else. He thought about how Aemond was always passing the buck, blaming all of life's misfortunes on Lucerys - whether it was the dispute with Alicent Hightower or his brother's malicious jokes. You're too neurotic, Lucerys wanted to tell him, but he was tired of talking to Aemond. Two nights ago Lucerys was convinced that he would go mad sooner or later if he kept going on like this. But it was all over now. So he solemnly went out and drank with his brother, Jacaerys, until the early hours of the morning, and both ended up rotten.

"I don't really believe you'd really want to part with him." Jacaerys said.

"Maybe he never loved me at all, and maybe I did as well." Lucerys said calmly, "We just can't continue to live together."

"Who knows? I think that counts for something." His brother replied. And Lucerys smiled at him. He ended up drinking so much that night that he plopped down by the toilet and vomited as soon as he got back to the apartment after dawn. Through physical tears, he finally had a chance to sob. He didn't understand why he was crying, he just felt so miserable, like falling from a speeding carriage into a puddle of sludge, and it wasn't the first time he had fallen. But once he always had the strength to get up from the mud to catch up with Aemond, and now the situation is very different.

Lucerys recalled, in a confused and hazy haze, the times they had stood side by side in the kitchen studying the new oven, and Aemond had licked all the cream and sugar off his fingers before they had kissed for a long time; or the times they had made love on the bathroom floor, and he had separated Aemond's legs while Aemond had covered his eye and cursed Lucerys, and both of them had ended up with red bruises on their knees; or the times when he just stroked Aemond quietly, he could clearly remember the contours of every bone in his body: his little thumbs, for example, were long and curved slightly inward, his spine and shoulder blades shaped when he arched his back; Aemond would drink whiskey laced with lemonade before he went to bed, and Lucerys never understood what proportion they needed to be mixed. At least he could taste it when their lips were entwined. In July, during the summer holiday, they passed most of the day with long kisses and boring romance movies. That year Lucerys craved skin-to-skin contact more and more, but it was only after the holidays were over that he was able to wrap his arms around Aemond and bury his face in the crook of his neck without a care in the world. He liked to hold that position and then kiss the knot of his throat and his lower jaw.

After graduation they spent the rest of their nights and mornings making love, even though Aemond often looked disgusted - sometimes Lucerys just couldn't quite figure out what Aemond was thinking. What does he want from me? Again and again he stood naked and alone on the terrace late at night thinking, with the sound of Aemond's tired breathing in his sleep behind him. Apparently they were not short of money, so Lucerys got a Mustang the following year, no loan, lump sum. He took him on a road in the humid suburban air, the speakers playing a childish Disney animated movie episode. At a red light he let go of the steering wheel and took hold of Aemond's right hand again, rubbing his fingertips against his nails. When Aemond turned his head, Lucerys cupped his cheeks with both hands and kissed him. At that moment he remembered the doves in Snow White passing kisses for the man and woman who fell in love at first sight, but the pigeons in the park only asked for bread crumbs. Did he want me to love him? Lucerys try to find the answer in his closed eyes. Did he simply want a partner who would put up with all his quirks, or at least make his life less irritatingly monotonous? What would he think of when he kissed him back eagerly?

Lucerys subconsciously wanted to call him, but remembering that he had deleted Aemond from his contacts, even though the string of numbers was still clear to him now, he turned off his phone, sat back down on the couch, turned on the TV and started staring at the screen. Until Rhaena called her in the afternoon, "Lucerys, I heard about that thing."

"Oh," he said, "I'm fine now, really."

"It's our birthday party this weekend, so if you'd like to com, that would be great, of course." Rhaena said, "Baela also thought you might need some new friends."

"I have friends." Lucerys said, "I have my brothers, and you and Baela."

"But Baela wants you to come, and so do your brothers."

"Yes, I will come." He sighed and waited patiently for Rhaena to end the conversation, then began to count how many white flowers were on the pattern of the carpet, still feeling drunk.

Lucerys had forgotten exactly what month it had been the last time Aemond had slipped away, but it seemed to be a spring with French sycamore cotton wool-like flowers that would have made Joffrey allergic. He remembers panicking and staying by the phone twenty-four hours a day, even walking aimlessly around the living room, before Lucerys finally made up his mind to go looking for him, and his first step was to dial Aemond's number from a public phone booth near his house. He nervously kept picking his fingers at the reeled-up phone line. What should he answer if Aemond refused, or if he was abusive? Maybe he shouldn't call at this time.

When the line came through, Aemond didn't even make any extra pleasantries, he just said, "Lucerys Valerian."

"I just wanted to ask," Lucerys said, "Are you all right? I was worried about you."

Then he was surprised to find that Aemond's voice seemed a little hoarse when he spoke. "Nothing serious. Except that ...... oh, damn, I got hit by a damned driver." He sounded unwilling to admit it, "Just a broken bone. Nothing else happened."

"I will come to see you." Lucerys said. He hung up before Aemond had time to refuse. Panting, he hailed a cab and took it all the way to the home of Aemond's mother, Alicent Hightower. He didn't have a car of his own at that point. Lucerys tripped over a raised floor tile in the parking lane and fell to the ground, scraping his knee twice. When Alicent came out to open the door, Lucerys found herself still shaking. The outline of her jaw constricted steeply, but she still turned her body sideways to give him room to pass.

Aemond was lying in his bedroom, with his right leg in a white cast, holding a still-unopened packet of Godiva chocolates. Lucerys was too moved to speak as he fell to his knees beside him, and could only kiss him desperately with apologies. Aemond used the index finger of his right hand to push Lucerys's jaw open, then squeezed his shoulder.

"You're not a dog of mine," Aemond said, his voice sounded unhappy and annoyed,"There's no need to follow me all the time."

"Come back. "Lucerys replied feebly, "Come back to me."

In the fourth week of Aemond Targaryen's absence, Lucerys began to be asked out frequently. Most of the time it was Baela's classmates at the university who invited him. He guessed that it was in fact Jacaerys who had authorized them to do so. But Lucerys didn't refuse. He didn't like going to drinking parties, and sitting in the corner of a cafe was more his speed. The sixth time he was asked out he found himself unconsciously wandering off during the date as well. As he gazed at their blond, brown, or black hair, he was reminded of Aemond's hair, silver, and the odd smelling shampoo he used that smelled like a mixture of mint and ginger. Sometimes even Lucerys himself didn't realize he was comparing them to each other until he found himself constantly remembering the time they had sex when they got back together at college and feeling blushing and embarrassed about it.

He certainly remembered it well. They had stumbled into a passionate kiss in the locker room by the winter pool, and Lucerys' back had hit the metal coat hook behind him several times. Aemond sat on Luceys, holding his fingers tightly and guiding Lucerys through the expansion while he put on a "Troy" condom for Lucerys. He had obviously come prepared. Even though he knew Aemond wouldn't want him to do anything rash at a time like this, he reached out with his left hand to press against his buttocks, the skin wet and cold. Aemond warbled and began to adjust his position after pulling his fingers away, until he sank down hard and then Lucerys' penis finally entered his hole. Troy's blue wrapper fell to one side.

"Do you want me?" Aemond moaned and forced him, arching his back as his lower body went deeper. Lucerys touched his well-defined spine again, and he found himself shuddering at that, turning to rest his palms on the side of Aemond's waist in confusion, feeling Aemond like a sailboat undulating on the sea. He had also begun to gasp with excitement. Even though he knew Aemond didn't like him staring at himself during sex, he still couldn't ignore the lines of Aemond's cheekbones, the hollows between his collarbones, and the blazing warmth between his legs - all things that made Lucerys grateful at that moment. "I want you." Lucerys whispered. And Aemond gave no indication; he simply increased the intensity of his movements and soon found a position that invigorated both of them. He lowered his head and kissed him hard, finally scratching Luthris's back hard as he climaxed. Lucerys heard him let out a sigh that didn't sound like satisfaction or exhaustion, but it sounded like relief. It was as if the barrier between them had vanished into thin air at the same time. Aemond briefly rested his face on his chest. At least for a moment, he felt they had reconciled. They had been together until graduation, even if their relationship had not been as ideal as it had been at the beginning. Lucerys needed a glass of milk every night to help him sleep - a habit he had broken for six years since he turned fifteen. In fact, he wasn't sure if it was working or not at all.

"You're going off again." The girl sitting across from him complained. Lucerys couldn't remember her name for a moment. Marilyn, or was it Marianne? He blamed himself for forgetting it, and sulked because of his irritatingly declining memory. Lucerys struggled to throw away the unpleasant memories, but found that they stuck to his mind like garbage. They played over and over like a montage.

"You had an ex, didn't you?" She trailed off. Then before he could answer she was talking to herself again, spouting off about how awful and insufferable her ex was. He pretended to be listening intently, then deleted all ninety-nine unread ads and verification texts from his phone, then the red and blue dots from his email and social apps. He cleans them up silently and finishes his gin on the table with ice. He never drank before.

At the end of the lengthy date Lucerys drove the red Mustang to meet his mother at the restaurant. Rhaenyra Targaryen was in her early forties, and she wore a low-cut black dress. Their seats were next to the window, and Lucerys didn't like the neon light coming in from outside, so he pushed back his chair. Rhaenyra blinked in displeasure at this. She always used her eyes like that to suggest how she felt. Lucerys lowered his head, just as he had done in elementary school when he came home dirty from jumping in mud puddles for fun. Only now his shoes didn't have dried and caked mud on them, and Renila wouldn't order him to come back for dinner after a bath.

"You don't want to look at me, Lucerys." She said.

"I ...... I'm sorry." Lucerys replied.

"You should have felt that way from the beginning, instead of saying sorry to me now." Rhaenyra said, "I've asked you before, what were you thinking, Lou? Aemond is your uncle and my half-brother. And you both wanted to strangle each other."

"I'm not sure." He said, "Because then I realized he wasn't as bad as I thought he was."

"He was getting back at you. He was always getting back at you. He wanted to destroy you." Rhaenyra said, "He's as no good as his mother, Alicent. She only wants your grandfather's inheritance."

"Don't say that please."

"You're still taking sides with Aemond. But he never forgave you. I told you it was all his revenge on you. Revenge for you blinding him in his right eye."

"I don't want to talk about it, please." Lucerys replied.

Dessert was brownies. Lucerys was still haunted by what Rhaenyra had just said, even though she was telling the whole truth. Aemond teased him and his brother for not being their father's biological sons. Only Joffrey was there at first, so he was pushed off the bridge into the lake at the pier by Aemond. He was indeed an asshole. Lucerys knew this all too well, and didn't even regret accidentally stabbing Aemond in the eye when he returned fire. He shouldn't have tried to make it up to him. Lucerys thought with resentment. He had already wasted too much time on Aemond in his life. If he hadn't insisted, they wouldn't have seen each other so often, and perhaps he wouldn't have discovered that Aemond was far less unbelievable than he thought, and he wouldn't have uncontrollably desired him.

"You've taken the first step. That's good."

Lucerys coped vaguely. Confronting his mother had made him feel more helpless than ever. He had never been able to confess to her that he had begun to desire Aemond when he was fourteen in the pool. A few years later Lucerys learned to masturbate at night thinking about him. He used his memories of the summer in the pool to give vent to his desperate imagination of Ymund. He woke up as if he had been in a swimming pool, covered in dirty leaves and cold water mixed with sweat and disinfectant powder, feeling frustrated and resentful. When he was eighteen years old, Lucerys Rees gave Aemond a dark blue prosthetic eye as a birthday present, almost with malice. They ended up falling in love two months later. It wasn't until the two moved into an apartment and started living together that Lucerys discovered that Aemond smoked a Marlboro every week. He found his posture when he smoked surprisingly lazy and elegant. It was also the only time he could barely call himself "calm". "Men only remember love for romance. ¹" Aemond told him, "but we don't have romance or love. There's only lust and incest between you and me. Do you enjoy it all, Little Luke Strong?"At that time he felt like Aemond was a kite tied by a thin string and held under a glass cover. The string seemed like it would break at any moment. All Lucerys could do was listen in silence to his thunderous curses against Alicent and his brother, who complained that they were trying to drag him into a pointless struggle for his property. Sometimes Aemond was angry with Lucerys, and then continued to lie in the same bed with him as if nothing had happened, deliberately putting his legs on Lucerys.

Lucerys saw Aemond again after the tenth week of his untimely departure. He dreamed of him almost every night. What really alarmed Lucerys was that he found he could no longer clearly recall the details of Aemond's body. He couldn't recall the degree of depression in Aemond's shoulders, the touch of his pinky fingertips, the shape of his knees, or even accurately piece together his features, even as he tried to find them in the pleasure of masturbation. Lucerys crouched in the lavatory in despair, almost wanting to cry. He felt like what he had once had was drifting away from him as fast as if he were adrift at sea. He found himself sunken in the sockets of his eyes as he shaved the new stubble that had sprung up on his lips. His insomnia was getting worse.

After taking some time to calm down he called Aemond's brother Darren in as polite a tone as possible. The person on the other end hesitantly stated that Aemond hadn't been at their house at all. "Shouldn't he be with you all the time?" Darren said, "Mom's been pushing him to break up with you lately." With a shaky voice, Lucerys thanked him. He unconsciously began to smoke on the balcony until a pile of cigarette butts was added to the tiles laid on the floor. Like the first time Aemond had shoved a Marlboro into his mouth, Lucerys felt his lungs burning, but it made him slightly firmer. He knelt beside the bed and buried his face in the blanket, which was no longer covered with Aemond's breath. Then he went back to the bookshelf and ran his fingers across the spines, plucking them one by one out of the bookcase and onto the floor. Until the last one, the pink cover appeared in front of him. Lucerys pulled out "The Lady of the Camellias" carefully, it opened automatically to a certain page, and he found fingernail scratches on the paper. "And who am I tell you how to live. ²" Lucerys murmured. He was right, without the first half of the sentence, without love. He provoked Alicent with the Incestuous rebellion, and enjoyed it. Aemond Targaryen had always been like that.

For two months he was nowhere to be seen or heard from. Lucerys only received an anonymous card at Christmas, a simple folded green cardboard with the words "Happy Holidays" scrawled in blue oil-based ballpoint pen. He didn't know where it came from, but found it standing quietly in his Rolodex. But Lucerys recognized it as coming from Aemond by the unintentional crook at the end of the letter "M" and the "h." He thought about it over and over again that day. Had Ymund come to his office? Or had he just asked someone to leave it there? Had he done it to tell Lucerys that it wasn't over between them - or had he taken it as a terse farewell?

He had been up all night, repeatedly debating between turning on the TV, switching channels, and turning it off. He would not admit that he was actually dreading the overly quiet room, as it seemed to be a constant reminder of the fact that he was bored. In the early hours of the next morning Lucerys heard the doorbell. He went to the door and found Aemond standing in the doorway. He didn't look much different, except that he had grown his hair back and tied it behind his head, with his suitcase behind him. Lucerys stared at him unblinkingly.

"I lost the goddam key." Aemond said.

"The key can be replaced with another one." Lucerys said, "That's okay."

"I was not apologizing to you."

"I know."

"You want to sleep with me now, don't you?"

"I love you."

"Obviously." Aemond said. He started to take off his shirt. Lucerys stopped him. "That's not what I'm here for."

"Turn the light off, I don't want to see you."

Lucerys felt his approaching breath in the darkness and tried to kiss Aemond's lips, easily re-tracing the shape of his body in his mind's eye. His tongue met his teeth, and then another tongue. He held Aemond's nipples between his fingertips until they grew hard, and stroked over his ribs and abdomen again. It was like the night he came of age when they touched each other carefully for the first time in the wet night. His uncle took his wrist and slowly licked each of his fingers. Lucerys tasted smoke and blueberry chewing gum. He suddenly realized the room was too cold, but didn't get up to turn on the heating fan. The cold and the excitement made him feel awake rather than caught in yet another lustful dream. He was kneeling on a patchwork rug imported from Japan, pinning Aemond down with unprecedented firmness, then probing the index finger of his right hand into his rear hole and beginning to move in and out continuously. Aemond turned his head to the side. Lucerys felt his fingers being gripped tightly and pushed inward. He was as hot as fire. And one could feel pleasure in addition to pain when one was burned. When he was little, Lucerys tried to touch the lit candles on his birthday cake, but he was immediately burned and withdrew his hand. Not so, Aemond, he thought, I've always enjoyed burning myself.

"What the fuck are you crying about?" Aemond asked him, suddenly surprised. "It seems like you're not the one getting fucked. Are you crazy for wanting to fuck me?"

So he wiped the back of his hand across the area below his eyes and found himself in tears. They flowed inexorably and then fell on Aemond's body. He began to sob. Aemond hesitated and reached out and touched his forehead with a gentle gesture that Lucerys had never felt before. A faint glow came through the window behind them, which allowed him to see Aemond's face clearly. Lucerys observed the stiff pause in his right eye as he blinked. The prosthetic eye was beautiful on his face, blue in color. Lucerys remembered that they had not seen each other for seventy-four days. Seventy-four days ago he had sworn that he would be better off without Aemond. Instead, it turned out that losing him would only make things worse. During one of their arguments, Lucerys called him "the bastard Imonte Targaryen, who has turned my head," and Imonte just smiled contemptuously. "Of course I fucking know that." He grabbed Lucerys by the shoulders, "Violent Little Luke Strong." They ended up in a heckle. Finally Lucerys took him in his arms, the tip of his nose touching Aemond's left cheek. Aemond grunted and squeezed Lucerys' stomach. "I should have gone." That's what he told Lucerys then, "I should have gone to Philadelphia and left you alone in this hellhole to watch you languish like a downed dog."

Lucerys decided to close his aching eyes as he entered Aemond, at least that would make him look less wretched. But Aemond immediately asked him to open his eyes again. Lucerys began to move his loins slowly, and Aemond grunted as his legs clenched tighter. He took hold of Aemond's wet and sticky hands. Aemond rarely sweated. At least as far as he could remember his hands had never been as hot as this. There were times when he was as cold as a snake, or maybe he was just cold-blooded. But he groaned with pleasure when Lucerys found his high point by intuition. Lucerys lifted Aemond's hair to the side and he gripped his hand as if it were the last cable on a stormy ship. They kissed again passionately at the onset of their climax. Then they parted in silence, somewhat awkwardly. Aemond announced that he was going to take a shower. Lucerys found the tequila in the refrigerator and took down two more glasses from the cupboard.

"I shouldn't have come back." Aemond draped the bath towel over his shoulders. He took a sip of his drink.

"We can go to Colorado together, if you want." Lucerys said, "We can leave tomorrow. You can go alone, too, but at least let me know you're alive."

"That's not the problem." He slapped the tabletop in annoyance. The towel slid downward a notch. "I thought you knew I loved you too, Lucerys, you're so fucking extravagant, isn't that enough?"

"I never knew." Lucerys was starting to feel impatient, too.

"So that's why you drive me crazy with your stupidity." Aemond finished his tequila in one go and poured another glass full, "I wanted to go too. But unfortunately, I find I can't."

"I should say thank you, Right?" Lucerys wanted to hit him. He hadn't thought of it that way in many years. They had fought hard when he was seventeen: Aemond had punched him in the nose and Lucerys had elbowed him in the jaw, and they had laughed and accused each other when they talked about it, when Lucerys would have felt relieved. Now he only felt an unprecedented anger towards Aemond. He doesn't understand anything at all, Lucerys thought. Aemond never understood what he really wanted. Hell, he was a self-righteous fool. He should have realized the truth. It would have been so much easier if Aemond hadn't been his uncle and had been a woman. Maybe then they would have been married, or maybe then they would never have met. Now he couldn't tell which would be the better situation.

Two hours after dawn he began to count, until roughly an hour had passed. Lucerys got up and brewed a bowl of cereal with cold milk that was about to expire - the red carton with the smiling woman in the white headscarf that Lucerys thought would be more appropriate for the cover of the cleaner. He made more spices for mulled wine with cinnamon, cardamom, citrus and rosemary. Rhaenyra had suggested that he drink a glass of red wine before bed to help him sleep, and now he decided to heed that advice. Aemond sat across from him and repeatedly poked the bowl of cereal with his spoon.

"We should get a dog." Lucerys said.

"I hate dogs." Aemond said, "Noisy and a waste of money."

"You never thought anything wasn't worth spending money on."

"I'm different now."

"You haven't changed a thing."

"That's your inconsequential judgment."

"We need a dog. One of those sheepdogs."

"It's useless." Aemond pursed his lips, indicating he didn't want to continue the argument.

Lucerys also felt he had no need to argue with him any further. In the afternoon they drove the Mustang to the mall. To buy tomorrow's breakfast, like whole wheat toast and marmalade. He had made his shopping list in advance and added coffee beans to the last column before he left. Only to find that the piece of paper was missing. Aemond taunted him for his carelessness, and Lucerys tried his best to restrain his chagrin. He had sometimes found living with Aemond nerve-wracking in the past; now he was beginning to feel tired. Rhaenyra called him in the evening. He and Aemond were reviewing the menu at the steakhouse and had just decided on a lobster bisque.

"I saw you with Ymund." Rhaenyra's voice sounded worried and sad, "What did you say last time, you swore you'd give him up. Lucerys, you chose him over your family."

"Aemond is my family, too. He's my uncle."

"That's only 'half' family, too."

"He only came back yesterday."

"Jacaerys is right. You can't leave him anymore." Raynera sighed. Lucerys rubbed his hand against the red velvet-trimmed wall. I'm rotting, he thought, and Aemond is like marijuana, toxic and capable of addiction. He was suddenly so sad he almost choked, but couldn't say why. After Rhaenyra Targaryen discovered the relationship between the two of them Lucerys had also had a big fight with her. In fact, he had been used to playing the role of a good boy. That was the first time that Lucerys rebelled against her. He followed the rules and went to the school she thought was good, joined the clubs she thought were good, applied to the majors she thought were good, and then found the boyfriend that drove her the most crazy. Lucerys admits he got pleasure from her shock and anger at the time, but that didn't last long.

"I'm going to hang up." He said.

"No matter what, you'll always be my son, and I'll always be your mother." She said at last.

"I know." Immediately afterwards he hung up the phone.

After a long tussle Lucerys chose the rib-eye steak, and Aemond asked for the same. He knew Aemond hated spinach, so he ordered only the goose fat potatoes, even though Lucerys didn't like them himself. After eating, they wandered aimlessly through the mall. Lucerys saw a ring at the counter in the shape of a Mobius strip, meaning "infinite love", which he thought was ridiculous, but bought a pair anyway.

On the way back they encountered a serious traffic jam. Aemond kept pressing the fast-forward and fast-reverse buttons on the record player with his hand. Lucerys put his hand on his knee. He grasped his hand. The skin felt extraordinarily real.

"When are you planning to go to Colorado?" Lucerys asked Aemond.

"I didn't say I was going to fucking Colorado."

"No, you have to go. And it's going to be us together." His lips parted and closed as if the words were automatically popping out of his chest in a huge blossom in his throat. Don't you understand? Lucerys wanted to ask him. He knew that Aemond never cared about what was going on around himself, but it didn't occur to him that he couldn't even perceive the most superficial nature of their relationship. Even the little love we have left for each other. He thought as he counted the lines on the leather of the seat. Even though it had burned so brightly for a short time.

"We'll come back. We'll go back to the beginning." Lucerys continued.

Aemond scowled at him suspiciously, as if to make sure this wasn't just another malicious joke. Lucerys had enjoyed this pungent look from him in the past, but now it only showed his confusion and foolishness. "Back to what?"

"Back here, back where it started." Lucerys suddenly wanted to let out a laugh. He wanted to laugh hysterically at something, someone. His heart fluttered at the thought that it might be himself, but he immediately felt the pleasure of sobriety again. He had pretended to himself that everything was fine between him and Aemond, that the problem was simply Aemond's capricious stubbornness, including his unwillingness to forgive Lucerys. The root cause was never here. They were destined to be so long ago, because they were Targaryen and Valerian. Lucerys could always find excuses from other sources, but he also knew in his heart that it didn't work. Aemond was even more foolish than he was, and he didn't even have the slightest sense - his poor eye were always set on less than a few miles long. Now Lucerys was determined to tease out the truth, or at least make it clear to both of them where they stood.

"We'll repeat the same mistakes, just like the past over and over again without realizing it, just like this damned Mobius ring, back to the beginning again for a change." Lucerys Velaryon spoke the truth aloud to the windshield in front of him, raising his hand to show Aemond the ring he had just placed on his left middle finger -- a shimmering silver metal ring -- Aemond also had one on his hand --then slumped exhausted at the wheel and waited for the long line of cars that had formed to restart.

1. It is said that the brand name comes from the abbreviation of "Man Always Remember Love Because Of Romance Only".

2.The original is, "Who are you, tell me how to love, and who am I tell you how to live.

#asoiaf #fire and blood #a song of ice and fire #lucemond #lucerys velaryon #aemond targaryen #dance of the dragons #the dance of the dragons

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Donald Duck Birthday Special!: 12 Donald Shorts!

Happy Birthday to my faviorite duck! As you can probably guess from my previous Ducktales reviews Donald Duck is my faviorite of the classic disney gang. As an angry but well meaning, sometimes lazy sometimes hardoworing and always out of his depth guy really spoke to me for obvious reasons and my love of him made me check out life and times and well you know the rest. But weirdly, until last month i’d hardly seen any of his theatrical shorts. I grew up as a “Tom and Jerry” and “Looney Tunes” kid, and with Disney never playing them on disney channel for whatever reason (even with the ones they really CAN’T play there’s dozens they sure as hell can), I just never had any real intrest. But then Louie’s Eleven happened , I was starved for Donsy content and thus rewatched Mr.Duck Steps out, and most of her filmography, skipping the ones where she’s the miserable wife from every sitcom... more on that later, and with one exception. So I wanted to review them.. but quickly reailzed that with 6 minutes for most shorts there’s not a ton to dig into, so I decided after finding out his birthday was next month to take a handful and pile them in here, review them and see what makes my boy so great, what dosen’t, and look at the good the bad and the holy shit did he just point a shot gun at that poor defensless animal of Donald Fauntleroy Duck. We get this party started under the cut.

For funsies since, unlike most things I cover, every episode has a gif on here i’m going to use the gif keyboard to look up an image for the cartoon.. and if not well.. whatever’s there will have to do.

1. The Wise Little Hen (1934) A charming little short that I rewatched today to get on the docket, and i’m glad I did. The plot is very simple: A Hen and her 8 chicks are planting, then harvesting corn. For each task they ask Peter Pig, Local dick and the Rusty Spokes of 1934, and Donald Duck, our boy looking very diffrent, for help. Peter just says who me then runs off while Donald fakes a bellyache. Both get their compuance when the Hen and her 8 chicks make a ton of goodies from the corn and decide to eat it all themselves, while donald and peter give themselves an ass kicking.

I genuinely wish this is how life worked: Your bad, take advantage of people and your reward is not taking their beinfits and snickering but having to kick each other in the tuckuss on loop.. you know instead of the Peter Pigs of the world blaming people for getting maced in the face by stormtroopers. Sigh. That aside it’s just a fun, charming short with great animation, and a great look for Donald. I do genuinely love his first look, even if it’d later be eased down to perfection. And there’s plenty of fun gags and great music. Overal a solid A short.

2. Moving Day (1936) As you can see from the GIF this one isn’t strictly donald, we’re still one away from a starring role. After annoying the shit out of Mickey in the classic’s “The Orphans Benefit” and “The Band Concert” , Donald soon became his regular sidekick alongside Goofy. Both would quickly breakout and this short is apparent why as Mickey is a side character in his own labeled short. The setup is somehow, after 84 years, STILL relevant to modern day. Basically Mickey and Donald are tennants who haven’t for whatever reason, paid their rent and are 6 months behind. And sure they could just be obnoxious squatters doing it onlyf or their art who shriek like banshees the moment their asked to actually pay rent, but thankfully this isn’t RENT, or else I would’ve jumped out of a window by now. No given this is the depression, their likely trying to hold onto their house and meager posessions for as long as they can while work is incredibly scarce... not like.. now.. ha .. ha. ha.... I may take the window up on it’s offer after all. Anyways, our valiant heroes decide to try and cram everything they can into their friend Goofy’s milk truck while Pete’s busy putting up signs to advertise him trying to sell their shit to make up his back rent. WHich translates to a bit of mickey doing that and most of the short being spent with donald fighting a rug and Goofy being outsmarted by a piano. Both are utterly hilarious and prove why these two became far more popular, and overall the short’s a damn good timea nd our heroes win by still getting a pile of possesions out while their antics destroy the rest so pete gets nothing! Horay! They can sleep at goofy’s place! Now moving on from crushing reality, it’s animal cruelty!

3. Don Donald (1937) I wasn’t kidding. Yeahhh this was donald’s first full, not attached to Pluto for some reason or an adorable chicken family or his mousy overlord short. Don Donald. Donald’s in mexico, for some reason and wooing a lady, in this case Daisy prototype, Donna Duck as seen in the header image. I like her, they have a diffrent dynamic, both being kind of tempramental and flirty instead of that being just ONE of donald and daisy’s dynamics. Others being muttually supportive and adorable (Ducktales and Quack Pack) or daisy being the wife from according to jim, or last man standing, or my wife and kids, or king of queens, or the george lopez show, or everybody loves raymond, or ... you know what i’m depressed enough from the last two shorts you get it. But you know without Donald being an obnoxious asshole who views every guy his daughter dates like a horny degernate who just wants to get in there and overreacts to everything involving them and makes me pray for death but death wont come.... I may not like classic daisy very much. Moving on. That being said as you can tell from the donkey abuse donald.. ihs a fucking asshole in this one.. and not the loveable asshole he is in the band concert mind you I mean he’s less brent sienna and more tucker carleson. He laughs at his girlfriends misforutunes and hit shis burro and then tries to trade it in for a car.. which he does. He gets his commupance and all but yeah.. it’s deeply uncomfortable to watch him abuse this animal for half the runtime. Trading it in is one thing, but he’s still an utter dick to it.A short that COULD’VE been fun that instead is just uncomfortable, even given the time it takes place in.

4. Donald’s Ostrich (1937) Donald works at a distant train station taking care of various cargo that comes in and ends up having to care for an adorable ostrich named hortense. Hyjinks, especially once she swallows Donald’s Radio, insue. This short.. is a MASSIVE step up from don donald. INstead of uncomfortable animal abuse donald just gets frustrated with an ostrich and battered round a bit, and tries to cure her hiccups. My faviorite bit is when hortense arrive, and stands up with a box on her,a nd donald goes under her gives a greatly delivered by Clarence Nash “what’s going on around here” before hortense sits on him. Really funny. And yes Hortsense is a regular ostrich. And yes that paradox has been around this long. But this one’s way funnier, way more charming and really damn adorable and dosen’t remind me of the crushing horrors of real life so yeah. A+. There’s only one short I like as much and it’s coming up.

5. Modern Inventions (1937) Another one from his first year and another classic. Basically donald deals with various inventions in a “house of the future” type attractions, gets ruffled by them and the robot butler seen above steals his hat with a dry brtiish “your hat sir” while donald adorably pulls one out of thin air in increasingly creative ways. Again plotwise these shorts are simple but by now they figured out what made donald work: getting frustrated sure but with him being a relatable every man and sometimes trickster as seen here with the hats and him pulling that old coin on a string trick.

He also dresses up like a baby at one point and i’ts weird but oddly funny... but yeah donald is in peak form here and this one is another clear A+, if for the running robot gag alone as donald keeps puttingon new hats and the robot has a truly spectacular design.

6. Donald’s Better Self (1938)

Now for a weird one.. not the most surreal thing on our list, despite you know a devil version of donald popping out of his mailbox, but it’s damn close because you know, Donald as Satan popping out of his mailbox. In short Donald is cast as a school aged child.... you know what’s coming.

And you may say “Well jake they were just experimenting and his age was vauge at first” and to that I say, with no joke Huey Dewey and Louie debuted THIS SAME YEAR. Even given how adaptable older cartoon characters are, and they are it’s part of the charm, and tha’ts fine.. this is a bit over the line. Oh and it gets weirder as donald has the standard cartoon angel and devil arguging over his actions things.. only here the Angel and Devil are donald sized, and again fighting over the soul of a chid in the body of a 30 year old man, literally in some cases, ending with said devil encouraging donald to smoke before he and the angel get into a fistfight. While not an especially GOOD short, you have to admit.. it’s unique.. batshit but unique and worth at least one watch.

7. Donald’s Penguin (1938)

The second in our trilogy within a series of “Donald gets a pet” shorts, this one start’s out fine, Donald gets an adorable penguin named Tootsie from “Colonel bird” and does cute things like immitate it’s walk or what not while Tootsie is a grumpus. Fun stuff. Then tootsie apparenlty eats Donald’s fish, and donald spanks the poor bird. Now this pissed off some people on Letterboxd but me, while it’s slightly distressing, it was 1938: while spanking was NEVER a great thing, it was acceptable back then and as far as Donald knew Toottsie knew not to eat the fish, Donald had told him no adorably, and did it anyway. So donald goes to get an apology trout, which he just.. has for some reason out of the ice box and uh.. things take a turn from “it was accpetable at the time” to “HOLY SHIT”... Tootsie decides fuck it and eats the fish and uh... Donald.. how do I put this calmly.. ahemahem okay... DONALD GRABS A FUCKING SHOT GUN AND CHASES HIM AROUND, THEN ONLY BACKS OUT AT THE LAST SECOND, A SHORT FIRES, AND HE MOURNS WHAT HE THINKS IS HIS DEAD PENGUIN. We then get a cute shot at the end but holy shit.While Elmer fudd is one thing since he’s A) the bad guy and B) is indeed trying to kill a wild animal he has a lisence for instead of his fucking pet whose a protected species if those existed back then, this is just... like the donkey abuse, deeply uncomfortable. It’s one thing to spank a pet, even up to the 90′s that was acceptale and still is in some circles, but it’s another to try and murder it over a slight infraction. Just.. jesus christ. I want Tootsie back too, this was objectivley terrifying. Let’s move on.

8. Mr Duck Steps Out (1940)

Ahhhh yes the short about dancing that brought me to the dance. This one is, without a shred of second guessing, which for my anxious self is a miracle, my faviorite both of this batch and in general. The short is about Donald trying to go on a date with Daisy at her house, and his nephews inviting themselves along and trying to ruin there uncle’s every attempt at getting romantic with wacky hyjinks. That’s.. basically the plot.. as you can tell these things are very light on plot but here that’s all you need. A few things to note. 1) The boys are VERY much in their early characterization, i.e., their all assholes instead of “All huey 2k17 but dialed down a notch” or “karmic tricksters working against their uncle’s ego”, though they’d ocassionally dip into this in the 80′s ducktales depending on the episode, especially if webby was around, and shove their face into it and inhale deeply like me with the hidden mountain of cocaine hidden under my basement. The second is that Daisy has a duck voice, much like Donna did for this short and only this one. It’s not too distracting given she barely speaks, though she has more than enough body language to make up for it, it’s just.. odd.. especailly since it means Clarence Nash, donald’s voice actor, is voicing EVERYONE in the short and doing a terrific job of it. Even weirder is Disney would later redub a shortned version for Disney Channel in the 2010′s that had their modern voice actors (Donald Aselmo, Tress Macneil and Russi Taylor, god rest her soul) re-dub it and it just feels all kinds of wrong despite the three being excellent va’s. I dunno the cleaner modern audio just feels wonky coming out of the old 40′s short. But despite it’s oddities the short really has fun, from the iconic little dance donald does at the start...

Serioulsy I freaking love that dance and his outfit. To the little laughs donald gives when telling daisy “HA, I brought my nephews ha” like a 40′s tommy wiseau, to him roaring in a lion skin to the ending which is just pure adorable and nice because Donald actually GETS to win, especially because half of all donald shorts or comics where he’s sympathetic end up with Donald miserable and beaten up and me like this.

Instead Daisy kisses him all over and over again, until the night goes dancing.

Overal a fun, fast paced short about Donald trying to get laid and the gold standard of Donald Duck shorts. Two more things before I move on. This was co-written by disney comics legend Carl Barks, and it shows, and i’d be remiss if Id idn’t mention this bit of Daisy, after playfully shoving donald away when he coyly asks for a kiss, giving him a come hither signal with her butt.. which is somehow hot. Don’t ask me how.

And with that mental image we move on. What do we got next?

9. The Spirit of 43 (1943)

Ah yes propaganda! and the first one I couldn’t find a gif for. I watched this one because it’s another Barks one, he worked on several of these and was also the one who suggested not having HDL be assholes all the time as he felt, rightly, it’d get old after a while, and because it has protypes for scrooge and gladstone, and is thus one of the only shorts Scrooge is in and the only classic one... And like Donald’s Better Self it’s fucking weird. It’s all propganda no joke as ONCE AGAIN, yes AGAIN, two figures battle for Donald’s soul, this time a scottish man encouraging him to save and donate and a sleezy huckster encouraging him to spend for himself.. even though spending in bars and what not helps the economy and gives the bartender money to stay open during such trying times, but whatever. Also the huckster aka proto gladstone turns into hitler.. yes really.. and Donald then punches him through a swastika captain america style because donald duck is hardcore. Trust me this is somehow NOT a cocaine induced fever dream I had. Not a great one but like Donald’s Better Self worth at least one watch, in this case in additiont o the insantiy for the historical value of seeing two prototypes for Carl Barks most iconic characters.

10. Sleepy Time Donald (1947)

As you can tell this one’s way more wholesome and way less of a drug trip. Donald goes sleepwalking and Daisy, realizing it, plays along so he dosen’t wake up and goes thorugh the motions of one of their dates. Very simple, ending with Donald thinking he’s the sleepwalker before she conks him out, and very adorable as while Donald isn’t concious, and has a boot on his head, we see what a standard date for them is like when Daisy is being written well as they strut around the park, he proposes, it’s all really damn cute and if you like these two together, you’ll really enjoy this one. Not much else to say other than it’s really precious and really funny and creative. Kinda hard to follow up Donald duck punching out hitler.

11. Daddy Donald (1948)

Another quick one and the end of the “donald gets an animal” trilogy. First off, while I only got one gif from this short, I DID get this lovely image under “Daddy Donald” in Tumblr’s gif search thing

Awwwww. Anyways, Donald adopts a kangaroo like it was a baby, it’s kind of weird, not as weird as the above. He and Joey slowly bond, while he gets directions on what to do from the lady at the adoption place over the phone and hyjinks insue. Kind of cute but not quite reaching the heights of “Donald’s ostrich or the first hal fof “Donald’s Penguin” and not being quite as surreal as Double LIfe or Donald Punches Hitler.. which is what Spirit of 43 should’ve been named. I mean at least “De Fuherer’s Face” had a memorable name. But yeah not one of hte more notable ones and I mostly included it to round out the trilogy. Speaking of trilogy’s to close out this celebration of Donald, one of the last shorts and the last one featuring Daisy, and the inspriation fo rher Ducktales outfit. Donald’s Diary.

12. Donald’s Diary (1954) Well.. this is basically one half of a good short ending in a lot of misogny. I could end it there but there is a lot to this short. It basically has donald, weridly in a clearly voiced narration talking about his courtship with Daisy as she first tries to get his attention and he’s oblivious.

Then she uses a rope trap and we get this iconic image which is concentrated awwwww.

Then they date, Daisy’s implied to have dated a bunch of guys which was a bad thing in the 50′s but is perfectly resonable in 2020, and he meets her brothers, basically huey dewey and louie standins and her.. parents. Yes apparnetly donald’s parents have to be implicitly dead by present day, but Daisy’s can be alive. Weird ain’t it? It’s pretty adorable, has some great gags and we even get him proposing and them marrying! And then the shoe drops.. yeah the rest of the short is how she expects him to GASP work all day , fair enough but then GASP do all the chores.. which is bad but the short implies it’s because he’s the man and she’s the woman and she should do housework. It’s actually bad because marriage is an equal partnership and while asking him to do a chore or too after working all day is fine just fine, asking him to do EVERYTHING while you do nothing is abusive and terrible and i’ve seen it actually happen in my friend’s previous marriage. So yeah this message can fuck off. And I knokw standards of the time, penguins having shotguns pointed at them etc but there’s not having aged well but being able to ignore it and there’s this. And then she procedes to spousally abuse him and work him to the bone, and then he wakes up, and assuming ALL marraige sare like this dosen’t end up proposing leaving the poor girl wondering what the fuck she did to upset him. Real fucking cute guys. Seriously just.. part of the reason this part bothers me so much is MANY people think this is what marriage is like, like a fucking terrible sitcom. Life isn ot like home improvment or according to jim, or my wife and kids or king of queens or family guy, or you get my point again and yes I reused some their that bad.. even now we get stuff like man with a plan. It annoys me because 70+ years later and while it’s getting better this same lazy comedy still happens! and much like king of queens wasted the late great jerry stiller, this short wastes great animation and a great first half to tell a terrible story. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and is a bleh note to end on. Watch the first half because it’s adorable, end it at the wedding. IN conclusion Donald’s shorts are a mixed bag but as you could tell some are truly spectacular and some are worth the spectacle and all have terrific animation and effort put in, evne when they didn’t deserve it and as such I couldn’t think of a better way to honor donald’s birthday than with these animators hard, well worth it efforts. Even when it wasn’t great, it was still somewhat fun. So happy birthday old friend and here’s to many more. Later Days.

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our-time-is-now · 4 years

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April, 23 2019: Somehow, time really is an asshole

(previous play)

(Joint project from @riddikulus und @shakshuka-grandpasweaters, translated from @girlwholovesagirl, @divingdeepintothewater, @m-ger and @julerocks. Here is the timeline and the link to the original blog @unsere-zeit-ist-jetzt. If you would also like to help translate, please contact one of us.)

Tuesday, 06:35 pm

Matteo: *played some table tennis with the boys and fooled around and even had some fun* *said goodbye to Carlos half an hour ago, who wanted to meet Kiki* *just played the last round of rotation and also said goodbye to Abdi, because his mother needs his help for something* *looks at Jonas after Abdi cycled away* *somehow doesn't want to go home already and be alone with his thoughts and hopes that Jonas doesn't need to go yet* You wanna play another round?

Jonas: *has enjoyed the afternoon with the boys quite a bit and is happy that Matteo seems to be a bit better again* *is a bit proud that he came out to the boys and is glad that Abdi and Carlos took the fact that Matteo likes boys pretty well and made it easy for him* *after the other two said goodbye, he was about to ask if Matteo wanted to go to his place, when Matteo asked if he wanted to play another round* *smiles and nods* Sure, would love to! *grabs the ball that Abdi played somewhere into the bushes and hits the ball in order to start playing* *asks while they are playing* And after that a beer?

Matteo: *is glad that Jonas seems to have time* *plays back and forth with him relatively loosely* *smiles and nods* Sure... *he paddles the next ball and laughs* Now? But I don't have one... To the kiosk?

Jonas: *laughs when Matteo wants a beer immediately after his turnover* That was a short round... *grabs the ball and puts it in his pocket* Jo, kiosk! *sets off with Matteo and looks at him from the side* *at some point says cautiously* Worked out pretty well with the boys, didn't it? I mean coming out to the guys... *adds quickly* It's cool that you told them!

Matteo: *walks next to Jonas and coincidentally also thinks about the reaction from the boys* *laughs softly when Jonas talks about it and nods slightly* Yeah... Kiki seems to have done a good job preparing it... *shrugs a bit* Was about time... and to be honest, I don't feel like pretending to be interested in tits anymore... *smiles a bit and shrugs again*

Jonas: *laughs softly when Matteo mentions Kiki, and is quite happy that Matteo is taking it so well that the news seem to be spreading themself* *nods understandingly at his next words and walks the last meters to the kiosk quietly with him* *they then buy a beer for each of them and walk back to the table tennis tables where they don't sit down on the benches but on the tables and let their legs dangle* *has been thinking about his last conversation with Matteo in the last few days and realises that he actually still has a few questions about David* *but doesn't know if he can ask them* *opens his beer and holds the bottle out to Matteo to toast* *finally says hesitantly* I thought about our conversation on Friday again... about the stuff with David. *hesitates again and looks at Matteo but since he didn't get into a defensive posture or something like that, he asks him finally* What exactly happened between you two? I mean other than the fact that he just ran away the first time you hung out?

Matteo: *toasts with Jonas and takes a long sip of beer* *finds it very refreshing after all that strenuous exercise* *then listens to Jonas words and draws a little breath when David is mentioned* *presses his lips together at Jonas’ question and exhales audibly* Uhmm...so... I invited him to the neon party after that... but I didn't feel so well there, but he stayed anyway and cleaned up... *takes a deep breath and remembers the feeling when he saw him standing in the kitchen* *tries to put it into words, but shakes his head a little* We almost kissed but Alex and Mia barged in and then he went home very quickly.... *just shrugs his shoulders a little bit because only now he realizes how difficult it actually is to get it all together somehow and to put it into words how everything developed* Afterwards it was kind of strange... he kind of avoided me... maybe everything was a bit much for him... *just shrugs his shoulders and then takes another sip* Well, and then Abdi's birthday happened... *only now realizes that he had told Jonas that he had left because of his mother and is therefore hesitating a little whether he should expose his false excuse*

Jonas: *listens to Matteo and takes a sip of beer every now and then* *looks a little surprised when Matteo tells him that David stayed to clean up after the neon party - he didn't even notice - and just as a side note that Matteo wasn't doing so well* *gets a guilty conscience about it for a minute and thinks that he should have taken care of Matteo, too* *humms when Matteo thinks that it might have been a bit much for David after that, even if he doesn't know exactly what it was* *wants to know more, but then Matteo continues and jumps to Abdi's party* *nods and remembers that Matteo was already gone when he got there* *looks at him from the side as he breaks off and feels him hesitating* *wonders why and suddenly has an idea* *says* Let me guess: There was nothing going on with your mother, you were with David?

Matteo: *should have known that Jonas would figure it out right away* *nods carefully* Yeah, sorry... I... I didn't know he was coming... Leonie brought him... and then I had a fight with Sara and we took off... *has to smile very briefly when he remembers how great it felt when they just took off together like that* ... We went to some run-down building ... and there ... well, that's where we kissed ... *presses his lips together again, because for a moment he has the feeling he can feel it again, the feeling of his lips on his* *but then shakes his head and the feeling away* Then we went to my place and that's where we stayed for the weekend... and it was... just really good, you know? *takes a deep breath and has another sip of beer* I thought somehow that's it now... and then I broke up with Sara on Monday and... well, okay, I could have handled that more elegantly, but somehow I didn't care... and then we saw each other on Thursday.... and it was actually really good and funny again... and I told him that I broke up with Sara... but he was a little different... more quiet... and well... *shrugs his shoulders and closes his eyes for a moment* Then the day after that, he wrote me and said that everything was going too fast... *doesn't allow himself to think about it any further and continues quickly* I went to his place, because I wanted to know what was going on, but his sister told me to leave... and then he texted me that I should leave him alone and he's not interested in me like that. *shrugs his shoulders as if that's totally understandable*

Jonas: *listens to Matteo and side-eyes him every now and then* *is happy that Matteo is so open with him and smiles slightly when Matteo says they kissed and spent the weekend at his place* *nods at his question and hums approvingly* *can imagine that they probably continued kissing and cuddling and chatting without Matteo having to go into detail * *nods again when he mentions Sara, and even if he actually has to agree that he could have solved this more elegantly, he can understand that it didn't matter to him at that moment, because Matteo and Sara - if he thinks back now - had never really seemed to be happy and in love* *wonders why he didn't notice earlier that Matteo never really seemed to be in love, but somehow automatically assumed that Matteo is just not the type to show it so openly* *but when he hears him talking about David in contrast now, he thinks about what it would have been like if it had really worked out with David and him, and wonders if Matteo might just be the type of guy who tends to show it openly when he is really in love* *then refocuses on what Matteo reports from Thursday's meeting* *would actually like to say something, but is holding back to not interrupt Matteo in his flow of speech and continues to listen* *nods as he talks about the first message from David* *then, however, raises his eyebrows skeptically when he hears about the second one* Huh? *shakes his head uncomprehendingly * Wait a minute... first he writes that he needs time... okay... that could be... maybe he just realized that things could get serious between you guys when you told him that you broke up with Sara... okay... but then he writes that he's not even interested in you? How does that even fit together?

Matteo: *sighs a little and shrugs his shoulders* Dunno... *takes another sip of his beer* At first I thought I simply screwed up... or that I simply imagined things... and that I got to clingy... no idea *briefly looks over at Jonas* Anyways, that was the time when I was so extremely down... and when I yelled at you and everything... *takes another sip and looks at Jonas* But now he's been sending me drawings for a few days... and I.. I don't know... he wouldn't do that if he didn't care about me, would he?

Jonas: *takes another sip of beer when Matteo says that he might have been to clingy or that he imagined it or something like that and shakes his head* Yes, but then he simply could have told you... *shrugs it off when Matteo mentions his low and murmurs* Somehow understandable *takes another sip of beer and almost chokes at Matteo's next words* He does what!? *laughs quietly* Okay, that's pretty weird... what kind of drawings?

Matteo: *shrugs again when Jonas says he could have said it* Yeah, no idea... I think there might be something else... *shakes his head almost amusedly when Jonas chokes* Yes... the first one was in the mailbox... *pulls his phone out of his pocket and shows him a picture of the first drawing* This one arrived on Thursday... *swipes to the Easter-drawing* ... this one on Easter... and this one... *swipes further* ...arrived today... *bites his lip and looks at Jonas* I mean, I really have no clue... somehow he still doesn't talk to me...

Jonas: *shrugs his shoulders* What else might there be? Do you think he has a girlfriend... or boyfriend or something like that? *lets Matteo show him the drawings and reaches for Matteo's phone to look at them more closely* May I? *takes the phone from his hands when he nods and swipes back to the first drawing* *hums quietly and shakes his head again* *looks back at Matteo and laughs quietly* Awesome information... *can't really make much sense out of it and looks at the second one* *has to grin slightly because he does think the drawing is funny* *comments* Ah... the beanie... *thinks that the paddle might also be a reference but doesn't ask any further* *zooms in when he notices the note under the beanie and quirks his eyebrows* *looks at Matteo* You’re missing...? *doesn't really think that this sounds as if Matteo wouldn't mean anything to David* *swipes over to the third drawing and asks* Is this the two of you? *reads the text above the two figures and doesn't really understand it even on his second read* *comments* Quite depressing, isn't it? *shrugs his shoulders and looks back at Matteo* *somehow pities him a little and understands that he is confused* And that's it!? There was nothing else? No explanation or anything? *sees Matteo shake his head and briefly shakes his head as well* Well, to me it doesn't seem like he's not interested in you... "you’re missing..." *snorts quietly* Why would you be missed if you should leave him alone... I really don't get it... *gives Matteo back his phone* Did you react to them? To the drawings?

Matteo: *immediately shakes his head when Jonas asks if he has a boyfriend or a girlfriend* No... something else... no idea... *watches as Jonas takes a closer look at the drawings* *almost has to smile because he did the exact same thing* *zoomed in and studied every detail* *but also thinks that many of the things might not make much sense to Jonas, like the cheese-toast or the vampire or the paddles* *doesn't want to explain it right now* *finds the thought that this is something that is only between him and David is somehow consoling* *nods when Jonas asks if it is them* Yes, that was the meeting where I told him that I broke up with Sara... after that it was over... bad timing apparently... *doesn't know how else to interpret the comment* *shakes his head at his question* *laughs quietly and takes his phone back* I don't get it either... *puts the phone away and shakes his head* No... I... I don't know how... and... every time I tried anything in the past, he only backtracked further... *shrugs his shoulders and says a little helpless* I don't know...

Jonas: *shrugs when Matteo thinks the comment was bad timing on his part and reluctantly says* If you think that there is something else, something he doesn't tell you... maybe it wasn't bad timing on your part, after all... maybe he has to deal with something first... this would at least explain his first message, that he needs some more time... *confusedly runs his hand through his hair* Ey, in my opinion the second message doesn't really fit... the rest isn't really great of him either... the running away and backtracking and stuff, but the second message somehow doesn't fit the rest... *hums in agreement when Matteo says that so far, David has always backtracked when he tried anything and can somewhat understand that he hasn't reacted to the drawings so far* *on the other hand thinks that it was still pretty shitty of David - especially considering how much Matteo seems to suffer and how confused he is* *takes another sip of beer and says* I think it's really shitty of him! I mean, he has to think before he sends you something like this, that this will confuse you... he has to make a clear statement or stuff his drawings God knows where. *would love to tell Matteo to forget David and move on, that he deserves someone better, but doesn't really know what Matteo thinks of David right now* *slightly nudges him with his shoulder and carefully asks* Do you have any plan, Brudi? I mean, how do you feel about the whole thing? Do you tell yourself: what an asshole, I'll look for someone better, or...? *shrugs his shoulders and stops*

Matteo: *nods slowly when Jonas says he thinks that David has to deal with something* *was thinking the same thing and has been going around in circles trying to figure out what it might be* *continues listening to how he more or less trash talks David* *immediately has the urge to defend him, but doesn't know how, either* *only knows that right now Jonas is a great friend and completely on his side but might be too biased to give good advice* *slowly shakes his head when Jonas says that it is shitty of him* I think there is something that doesn't actually have anything to do with me... and obviously he doesn't want to tell me... *hears his question and almost has to laugh* Is this even possible? To just move on? *shakes his head* No, i don't know... I have no clue... time heals all wounds or something like that... we'll see... *shrugs one shoulder and looks at Jonas* Did that work for you? To look for "something better"?

Jonas: *listens to Matteo and tries to understand him* *finds it astonishing how calm Matteo manages to stay, that apparently he manages to not get mad at David's behavior but simply accepts it, but also thinks that it is something else to be in this situation yourself or to view it from the outside - and that Matteo knows David on a completely different level than he does* *has to grin at his question and murmurs* Sure, just flip a switch and move forward... *then shakes his head and sighs quietly* As if... *nods when he talks about that time and automatically has to think about the line from David's last drawing* *hears his next question and grins a little* At least I tried... *shrugs his shoulders and takes another sip* *murmurs* Somehow, time really is an asshole... *looks back at Matteo and says* Well, basically you only have three options: Either you wait for what else the asshole called time brings and probably get some more drawings without a clear explanation... or you demand an explanation and give him an ultimatum... or... you put an end to it, block him and try to somehow move on... *slightly pokes him in the ribs with his elbow* Hey, we're in Berlin... there are a ton of gay clubs... maybe we should pay them a visit together! *grins slightly*

Matteo: *nods slightly when Jonas says that he tried* *grins* Quite the asshole... *listens to him when he lists the options and thinks that none of them really sound good* *so simply shakes his head* *laughs silently when he mentions gay clubs and rolls his eyes slightly amused* No, don't bother... *tries to imagine meeting someone else, kissing someone else and isn't able to, only sees David's face in his mind* I... *swallows slightly and quietly says* I miss him... some other guys won't help with that...

Jonas: *sighs quietly when Matteo declines the gay club and doesn't really say anything to his other suggestions* *looks at him when he starts talking and presses his lips together when he finally finishes his sentence* *realizes only now how in love with David Matteo apparently was... or still is... and curses how badly it all went* *would really love for him to be lucky for once* *simply puts his arm around Matteo's shoulder to somehow console him and doesn't know what else to say* *only says quietly - somehow summarizing* So it is the asshole called time... *sighs and then laughs quietly while quoting David* How sad and beautiful... *has to laugh again and shakes his head because it sounds so cheesy and because he can't really understand what might be beautiful about this whole thing*

Matteo: *understands that Jonas doesn't really know what else to say* *thankfully leans against him* *nods slowly* Yes... *laughs silently when he quotes David and looks at him* Sad and beautiful... story of my life... *laughs a little and shrugs his shoulders*

(next play)

#druck #matteo florenzi #jonas augustin #davenzi plays #230419 #play 6 #missing moments #text

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miguel-manbemel · 4 years

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Translating Sanders Sides

Some of you may know, but one of the things I’ve done consistently is writing the Castillian Spanish subtitles for most of the episodes of Sanders Sides by @thatsthat24 and @thejoanglebook. In fact, I’ve written them for all of the episodes that had the option available, “My True Identity” and “Taking on Anxiety with Lilly Singh” are the only two episodes that for some reason don’t have the option activated. Here I’m gonna share how it has been so far my experience translating Sanders Sides.

There’s one frequent misconception about YouTube subtitles. Save for some exceptions, creators don’t usually have the knowledge of all languages in the world, so it’s usually volunteers who write the subtitles in their mother tongues or in languages they know enough of. In my case I started writing them because, even though there were already Spanish subtitles of the generic variant, they usually had, and sorry if the original writers are reading me, several flaws, like misuse of expressions, mistakes in words (I encountered the word “hiss” as “rugido”, when the correct word would have been “bufido” in the case of a cat hiss or “siseo” in the case of a snake hiss, certainly not “roaring” which is the real meaning of “rugido”) or, and this is the only thing I’m clearly against of, things that weren’t even in the original video, like jokes someone made up, fanon commentary, even compliments to Thomas or the characters. I get that we all like these characters and the creators, but that’s not the place to express our love for them, and this is something that Thomas himself has said every once in a while that he doesn’t want to see in the captions and subtitles for his videos.

As YouTube subtitles, once approved and live, are virtually impossible to edit or delete, except by the original creator, my idea was to start writing the Castillian Spanish subtitles for the video, as an alternate version of the translation. The first episode that I translated right after it was released, I remember it as if it was yesterday, even though it was almost three years ago, was “Moving On Part 1″, then I translated all the previous episodes, and after that every episode as soon as it was released.

Writing the translation of an episode takes a lot more time than what anyone could figure out. The YouTube subtitle tool is not the most comfy to work with, even though it does its job. When the subtitles in English are already available, it gives you the times synchronized already with the English subs and you just have to write the translation. That looks as if it saves time, but in Spanish, like many other romantic languages, words are on average much longer than in English, which means that you need more time to read them, so the original times usually have to be readjusted and that takes time. I usually just delete the times altogether and write them all from scratch, it gives me more work, but it saves time in the long term. Not much though, as, on average, it takes several hours for me to write subtitles. The last episode, “Putting Others First”, if we count only the hours I dedicated to write the subtitles, it took me around 20 hours, in several intervals along three days. I’m including in this the several proofreadings I make of the subtitles where I always find typos or mistakes that I need to correct, which makes me watch and rewatch the video like dozens of times. (I’m not perfect and probably I’ve overlooked some typos still, but who hasn’t?) Thank goodness it’s good content and enjoyable to watch again and again, otherwise, the labor would be tedious.

Then there is another problem. I usually translate the text just as it is portrayed on the video. That’s, after all what a translation is expected to be, and it usually is. But there is a problem that arises from time to time. Sometimes, the original doesn’t have a direct translation or, and this is something very common in works like Sanders Sides, full of puns and jokes, the translation kills the joke. In those cases, some translators opt for adding a note between brackets explaining the joke and why the translation doesn’t get it right. I personally don’t like this solution, because it distracts you from the action (you usually have to pause the video to read the note) and most important, because, as I said, it usually happens with puns, and you know what happens when you explain a pun, right? My personal option, and something that translators are indeed encouraged to do as far as I know, is to, when a pun cannot be literally translated for some reason, get the idea that the writer wanted to convey and, being faithful to that idea, create a pun that makes sense in the target language, in my case Spanish.

I’ll explain this with an example of the most difficult piece of dialogue for me to translate in all the episodes I’ve translated of Sanders Sides. It was nothing particularly philosophical or convoluted. It was a piece of dialogue from “Losing My Motivation”. It was when Thomas said “Oh, man, I do do that” and then Patton giggles and says “doodoo”. It looks pretty straightforward... except for the fact that the auxiliary “do” doesn’t have a translation in Spanish, it just doesn’t exist, so the translation of that joke didn’t make any sense and wasn’t funny at all. You literally didn’t understand why was Patton laughing. So I was forced to become creative and my idea was to rewind a bit and get Logan’s previous piece of dialogue, when he was talking about how if Thomas “sits around waiting for inspiration to strike, consistency is unattainable”. I had the idea of using the old expression “kissed by a muse” as a synonym for inspiration, and so I translated into Spanish as “if you sit around waiting for a muse to kiss you, consistency is unattainable”. Then, I made Thomas say, “Oh, man, I do wait for that kiss” and, then instead of the doodoo joke which didn’t make sense in Spanish, I used the similarity between the Spanish for muse, “musa” and the Spanish for walrus, “morsa”, and I made it look as if Patton misheard, and laughed because he thought Thomas was waiting for a walrus to kiss him. It’s not perfect, and I only do this as a last resort measure. I usually prefer sticking to the original as much as I can.

There’s only one other instance when I’ve become creative while translating. In the scenes featuring rapping or some songs. There’s one defining characteristic of rap: it has to rhyme. If it doesn’t it’s not a rap. So, to create a translation of a rap that didn’t rhyme was almost like a sacrilege to me. So, in the case of the Rap Battle from “Am I Original”, I wrote Spanish lyrics for that rap that respected as much of the original as I could while also respecting the rhymes and also the metrics. These are the lyrics I wrote in Spanish, followed by the literal translation (I presume you all know the original English lyrics by heart at this point)

Damas, reyes y nobleza no binaria Ved como derroto rápido a este paria Aplastaré a cualquier villano con ganas de ir a por mí La bruja dragón lo sabe bien: llegué, vi y vencí Aunque no sabía adivinar, Sabía que esto iba a pasar. Piensas fatal, rapeas mal Te crees lo más, y en un pispás Acabo con tu honor: no es difícil de lograr. Te voy a superar, Princi, pues tengo una mente simpar.

Mejores genios he logrado hundir, tú no podrás huír. Si presionas, subiré, y me tendrás sobre ti. Todo es cuestion de cápita. Vas a perder como ocurrió en Ática. Ya está, vete a casa, se acabó. Solo hay un bardo entre los dos, no eres tú, soy yo.

Ladies, Kings and non binary nobility Watch how I defeat this outcast I’ll crush any villain with the guts to go after me The Dragon Witch knows well: I arrived, I saw and I won (Veni, vidi, vici) Even though I can’t tell fortune, I knew this was gonna happen. You think awfully, you rap bad You think you’re the best and in no time I end your honor: It’s not difficult to manage. I’m gonna get over you, Princey, because I’ve got an outstanding mind

I have managed to sink down better geniouses, you won’t be able to run away If you push, I’ll rise up, and you’ll have me over you. It is all a matter of capita. You’re gonna lose as it happened on Attica. It’s done, go home, it’s over. There’s only a bard among us both, it’s not you, it’s me.

As you can see, it says almost the same as the original, only that not literally, and the rhymes are preserved, so it still is a rap.There is people who may disagree with this, but this is actually a technique that is used all the time when doing a translation. In fact, sticking literally and rigidly to the original words in a text is considered a flaw in a translation, because sometimes it makes you lose all the sense of the original.

That also happens with idioms. It is a huge mistake to translate them literally. There usually is an equivalent in the target language and that’s the idiom you must use. For instance, in Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts, there’s a moment where Virgil asks Remus if he has a strong suit and Remus answes “I do, my birthday suit”. Both expressions, “strong suit” and “birthday suit” don’t make sense if literally translated to Spanish. For the first one, we have “punto fuerte”, literally “strong point”, and for the second one we have the expression “en cueros”, literally “on leather”. If I had translated the dialogue literally it would have been “¿Tienes algún traje fuerte? Sí, mi traje de nacimiento.” That doesn’t make sense in Spanish. So I had to translate to Spanish as, “¿Tienes algún punto fuerte? ¡Sí, ponerme en cueros!” (”Do you have any strong point? Yes, putting myself on leather!”) As you can see, it doesn’t make sense in English, but asure you it makes all the sense in Spanish and conveys the original words perfectly.

And I think this is more than enough of sharing my experiences translating Sanders Sides. I hope this has been enlightening in any way and that I didn’t make it too boring. I didn’t mean to pontificate about it. I’m only sharing my own experience. There are many other translators in other different languages who have their own experiences and they’re all equally valid, for starters because any language is different and therefore different rules and methods apply. As long as the translation is faithful to the original, not necesarily literally as I said, it will be a good translation, and that’s our goal after all when we translate something, to make a foreign work reachable to a broader international audience. I hope I have managed to do so and that I made @thatsthat24 ‘s work more reachable, as it deserves to be so. Until next time.

#thomas sanders #sanders sides #logan sanders #roman sanders #remus sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders

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devinstonerpg · 4 years

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INTRODUCING,

NAME: Alessandra “Sandrine” Hébert.

AGE: Thirty.

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis female, she/her.

ORIGINALLY FROM: Montréal, Canada.

OCCUPATION: Beautician, owner of beauty salon.

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Allison Hill.

"Love yields to business. If you seek a way out of love, be busy; you’ll be safe then."

BIOGRAPHY,

Trigger warnings/content warnings: immigration tw, death tw.

Alessandra, nicknamed Sandrine, grew up in La Petite-Patrie, a district known for its family-friendly neighborhoods and middle to low income families of Canadian natives and immigrants. Also located right next to Parc-Extension, which is known for its diversity and near la Petite-Italie with all its delicious foods, it would be an understatement to say she bathed in the full Canadian experience, where traditions meet adaptation. At that time, her family was struggling quite a lot. Her mother, Monica Evans, was working two different jobs and her father, Christian Hébert, was trying to open a restaurant of his own; all of thise while raising two children and taking care of the aging maternal grandmother. Christian comes from a family of Turkish immigrants who first settled in the Prairies to occupy the land and make sure the Americans would not expend their Wild West fantasies any further. His father developped great gusiness skills and proved that farming was not made for him, therefore, he moved out of the Prairies and established in the most promising city of all at the time: Montréal. Along with the moving came a change of last name. In the 1950s, there were very few immigrants from the former Ottoman Empire. Therefore, in orther to give a better chance to his own children, he adapted his last name from Esmer to Hébert. Most of Monica’s relatives grew up in New England, before her mother moved to Canada with a veteran soldier, leaving a mysterious past behind.

They tried their very hardest to provide their children with the best childhood experience, never limitating their dreams and ambitions. Alessandra’s brother, Adam, is three years older than her, and aspired to be a great hockey player while she spent most of her time hanging out by the local arena to ice skate. She never really hung out with friends outside of school, preferring to focus both on her skating lessons and on spending time with her “Mamie”, her grandmother named Corinna. Sandrine learned a lot from her. She learned about the power of love, laughter and selflessness. She would sit with her, paint her nails with her shaky ten year-old hands and listen to her stories about how her family travelled the world. By world, Mamie Corinna mostly meant America and the Canadian Prairies, but, to Alessandra, it was new horizons. She would take in all the stories of the hair salon her Mamie worked at with her sisters and cousins before she got married. The funny clients, the crazy requests and the struggles of translation. Sometimes, it was sad stories that would fill their lazy Sundays. Corinna would talk about her brothers who established in the United States and how she wished Alessandra and her sibling would have grown up in a big and loving family. She got a taste of it, since, every summers, the Hébert’s would travel back to Massachussetts to visit relatives.

Her grandmother passed away of old age and it was as if the glue of the family disappeared. Her brother decided to move to Boston as he was offered an amazing opportunity to receive intense training in hockey. Her father’s restaurant took so much time and place in his life that he was almost never home. And her mother had to stop working from burn-out once her children were old enough to work, too. Sandrine contributed to the household income ever since it was legal to work. She worked as a receptionist at her former Mamie’ hair salon, in memory of all the anecdotes her grandma would tell her, and even helped now and then. She skated professionnally from age 13 all the way to 20 years-old, winning medals in figure skating, dance skating and couple skating competitions, which allowed her to gain scholarships for her studies. She applied to McGill college in business, but dropped out at the age of 20 years-old. Her grandmother’s death and the end of her first relationship with her figure skating partner made her lose interest in everything she liked, which was dancing and learning.

It did not stop her from experiencing the same fire her grandmother and her father felt: she wanted a little shop of her own, but ignored what kind of commerce just yet. At the age of 20, she started working as a cosmetologist at the local pharmacy. She had no training when she began, but she was full of tricks she learned from her Nonna. How to apply the rouge, how to match the color of eyeshadows to one’s skin tone, how to treat people with kindness always. Those were the elements that made her a great employee, that and also the fact that when she was not working, she was pursuing classes to learn techniques and get legal requirements.

She still had the blood of entrepreneurship running through her veins and she aspired to have a business of her own, where human connection would be the priority. After the most dramatic year of her life, she started working as a cosmetologist at the local pharmacy. She had no training when she began, but she was full of tricks she learned from her Mamie and from doing her own make-up during competitions. How to apply the rouge, how to match the color of eyeshadows to one’s skin tone, how to treat people with kindness always. Those were the elements that made her a great employee, that and also the fact that when she was not working, she was pursuing classes to learn techniques and get legal requirements as a beautician.

At the age of 24, Alessandra was driven by a very special quest. She wanted to learn more about her grandmother’s family and heritage. Why had they chosen Boston? Why did she have to leave, how come she met this stranger from Canada and decided to quit everything and move to the other side of the border? Her head was full of questions, and none of them really found their answers. She moved in with her brother, who was now playing for the Bruins, and envoyed the amazing city of Boston. It was not that different from Montreal, that was for sure, but she felt a special connection with the locals. She quickly realized she could not be a burden to her brother’s existence for the rest of their lives, so she decided to get a place of her own in a smaller city neaby and find a job. With the financial help of her brother, she managed to get a lovely home in Allison Hill. She absolutely loved it. Once in a while, she would visit her brother, and at least once a month, she would fly back to Montréal. Home was not a place, for Sandrine, it was her people. It was her family.

Alessandra rented a place for her 26th birthday and spent most of her free time decorating it, painting it and shaping it into a beauty salon. Dolce Vita Beauty Salon was opening shortly after, the name being a nod to her father’s italian restaurant and all the memories she had living so close to an Italian neighborhood. She recruited beauticians and nail technicians to help her run this business. She has yet to feel at the right place, in Devinstone. Maybe she is too focused on her career and on caring about her clients’ wellbeing to pay attention to her own. Maybe she fears she would make the biggest mistake of her life to cut ties with her parents, even just for a while. The clock is ticking, with the immigration papers impatiently waiting to be filled and her parents who are pressuring her into settling down and following their steps instead of escaping her fears and vulnerability.

+ empathic, lively, caring. - perfectionist, gossipy, obsequious.

PLAYED BY: Laurie.

FACE CLAIM: Demet Özdemir.

#f #allison hill

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boomboxigrade · 5 years

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Birthday Boy

Decided to write something for my beautiful chocobaby since hes officially one years old >:0

beware its kinda long. also theres like a tiny joke about like gun control and shit but please dont take it seriously its just a joke

thanks to my wonderful sibling @agressivemacintosh for brainstorming this with me

Through his sub-consciousness, Prompto's body took in the cool air that was wafting through a newly-opened window. He shivered instinctively, although not fully awake. The blond wrapped his blanket tighter around himself, bringing his own body warmth closer to himself as his unconscious self tried to keep from waking. The blissful sleep wouldn't last much longer, however. The Advisor was on a mission. A musical, soft voice made itself known in the blond's groggy mind. The voice was singing notes familiar to him, but softer and sweeter, the sound felt like a gentle, polished gloss that slid easily across his subconsciousness. However, it did wake him somewhat, as he recognized the tune as the song went on. "...Happy birthday to you," Ignis' voice purred the last line of the song. Sitting on the side of the bed, he bent down and nuzzled Prompto’s cheek until the Blond stirred and began to rub his eyes.

“Wh-” Prompto started, squinting up at the motherly figure above him as his eyes adjusted to the light.

Ignis smiled down at him, expectant. As if waiting for him to remember something. Prompto worked his eyes open, slowly taking in the situation.

“What were you-”

Prompto started to ask the advisor what on Eos he was doing so early in the morning, but the smile across the man’s fine features stopped him. It had been a while since Prompto had seen that smile without any prompting. Usually it took an off-color comment from Gladio, a complaint from Noctis, or an actually funny joke from himself to get this giddy, satisfied smile that the Hand of the King now wore.

“Happy birthday,” Ignis said simply.

Prompto blinked a couple of times. His mind took the words that Ignis said and tried to translate them, but for some reason all he was thinking about was how soft Ignis’ shirt looked. He brought his focus back around and tried to remember what Ignis had just said.

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” He asked, feeling sheepish.

Ignis chuckled as color flushed to Prompto’s cheeks. He then took the blond’s hands, levering him up so he was sitting against the pillows.

“I said happy birthday, Dear,” Ignis repeated himself, and this time Prompto’s face shone with recognition.

“OH SHIT!” he cried, rather loudly. Ignis drew back a bit, surprised at the sudden outburst. “That’s today, isn’t it?” Prompto laughed at himself and ran his hand through his unkempt, golden locks.

“Yes,” Ignis chuckled once more, recovering from the shock. “I do believe it is.” His words were enunciated in a way only Ignis could speak.

“Wow, I can’t believe I forgot!” Prompto exclaimed, waking up quickly. The gunman had an uncanny ability to go from unbelievably groggy to remarkably awake and active in only a few minutes; a skill that Noctis often despised.

Without skipping a beat, Prompto continued, “I can’t believe you remembered!” He laughed, a bit of softness tugging at his features.

Ignis watched him with the same, amused smile as the blond finally seemed to be aware of what was happening. He waited for the next barrage of questions, however, before saying anything else.

Just as Ignis predicted: “What time is it anyway? Have you been planning this? Like, how come you remembered it but I didn’t?” He paused to laugh, “oh, and where are Noct and Gladio?” the blond’s voice softened.

“They are busy preparing their part of the present,” Ignis answered calmly.

“Present?” Prompto interjected. “You guys didn’t have to get me a present!” He smiled but he looked worried.

Ignis clicked his tongue. “I don’t see why there’s a reason not to,” he reasoned. “Is your birthday somehow less special than Noct’s?”

“Well no-” Prompto started.

“I didn’t believe so,” Ignis finished. “Now,” he leaned down and planted a kiss on Prompto’s forehead. “get dressed: we have places to go and presents to receive.”

Ignis stood and began shuffling things around the room while Prompto got dressed. As Prompto was about to put on his shirt, Ignis stopped him. After a second of confusion, the advisor handed him a box.

“This is where the festivities begin.” He proclaimed.

Prompto looked flustered, but opened the box anyway, intrigued as to what this could mean. He pulled the lid off of the box, and in the box was some sort of folded fabric. The fabric looked too soft and comfortable to be any sort of uniform or formal wear. The gunman picked up the garment to examine it.

It was a t-shirt! The sleeves were a little too long for his liking, but what drew his immediate attention was the graphic on the front. There was an image of two guns crossed over each other with words reading “Gun control is using both hands”

Prompto outright laughed and held the shirt close to his chest. “Iggy, this is so dumb, I love it!”

Ignis chuckled in response. He paused, observing the shirt himself, then put a finger to his lips in thought. Prompto was about to ask him what he was thinking when Ignis snapped, then turned his gaze back on the blond.

“Hold it out in front of you by the collar.” He commanded.

Prompto obliged, and as he did so, Ignis reached forward and grasped the just-too-long sleeves of the shirt. Using force of will and very experienced hands, Ignis ripped the sleeves off with his gloved hands.

Prompto cackled in delight, remembering the many times Ignis had been dismayed when Prompto mutilated yet another shirt.

“I was actually about to say something about the sleeves,” Prompto smiled widely at the advisor.

“I know,” Ignis affirmed. “Now, there is one other gift I have to give before we leave.”

The Hand pulled a long chain out of his shirt pocket. He held it out to Prompto for the gunman to observe. The chain formed a long necklace, at the end of which was a pair of dog tags. Prompto’s eyes widened as he further examined the ornaments. On one tag, in their respective handwritings, were engraved Noctis, Gladio, and Ignis’ names. On the other was Prompto’s name. The gift was simple, but Prompto’s chest radiated with the warmth in his heart at the sight of it.

This feeling was further increased as Ignis gestured to the tag with his and the others’ names on it. “This tag usually bares the name of the soldier’s family,” He said.

Prompto’s eyes immediately stung with tears and he lunged forward and hugged the man with all of his strength. There was a “oomph” from Ignis as he did so, but he made no movement to stop him.

“Thank you so much,” Prompto murmured into Ignis’ shoulder. The advisor chuckled in response.

“You mean a lot to each of us, Prompto,” Ignis said. Prompto nuzzled his head further into the man’s shoulder. The blond took in the sweet, clean smell of the advisor’s shirt.

After a few more seconds, Ignis pulled Prompto away and held him at arm’s length while he adorned him with the dog tags. “Now,” he asserted. “We’d best be on our way.”

---

After a visit to The Hammerhead for a kiss on the cheek from Cindy, and a giant 89′ mm super-bazooka developed by Cid especially for Prompto, the gunman was then escorted to Cape Caem, where it was said the others were waiting for him.

The blond opened the door cautiously, not knowing what awaited him. As he tried to walk through the threshold, however, he was very suddenly pinned to the wall. He gasped, his eyes growing wide as they took in the sight before him.

“Happy birthday, you little shit,” Gladio’s voice growled from above him.

Prompto, for some reason, couldn’t quite meet his eyes. His eyes, in fact, were very busy taking in the very, very, very tight recreation of Cindy’s outfit that the Shield had been forced into.

After accidentally staring for just a bit too long, Prompto cough-laughed, covering his mouth and squeezing his eyes shut. “WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?” he managed to wheeze.

He heard Ignis chuckling behind him as he made his way through the door and shut it behind himself.

“Something special for the special birthday boy,” Gladio replied shortly, crossing his arms.

“I’m... flattered!” Prompto gasped between fits of laughter.

Noctis, making his way into the room, faltered in his step as he was wearing 3 inch high-heels and fitting smoothly in one of Luna’s dresses.

“Noct!” the gunman exclaimed. “You look stunning!” He was still laughing, but he meant it genuinely.

“Thanks,” the prince replied unenthusiastically.

“No really!” Prompto insisted.

He didn’t get the chance to fully flatter and embarrass the prince as Ignis quickly rushed out of the room and reappeared in an outfit almost identical to Aranea’s.

After Prompto finished this third coughing fit, the three gathered around him and led him to the kitchen where Ignis had baked a cake that was adorned with a little fondant camera on top. The blond, of course, wouldn’t let them cut and eat it without taking eighty pictures first. That wasn’t the only thing he took pictures of, either.

Later that night, lying on the king-size bed, Noctis, Prompto, Gladiolus and Ignis all laughed at the ridiculous outfits they were wearing, and they were also surprised at how many shots of each of them the blond had snapped without them noticing.

“Holy shit, Specs looks good in that one!” Noctis exclaimed, reaching over Prompto’s outstretched arm to point at a picture of Ignis. The background was warm and out of focus, while Ignis was framed beautifully by the lighting behind him.

“If memory serves me correctly, that was this morning when I was attempting to wake you,” Ignis stated, his words slowing as he processed what that would imply.

There was a bit of laughter, then a lapse in conversation that Prompto tried to fill by clicking through more pictures.

“Prompto,” Noctis started. “how did you get all those pics, anyway?”

Prompto made a face. “I don’t know what you mean,” he answered simply.

“Yeah, how do you get all those pics without us noticing either? I don’t remember you pulling out your camera at all.” Gladio added, and the three of them turned to look at Prompto.

Prompto kept clicking through pictures, avoiding looking at any of them. He kept a straight face and focused directly on his camera screen.

“Who knows.”

---

~~~~Happy birthday, Blondie~~~~

#ffxv #ffxv fanfic #fanfic #my writing #writing #HBD PROMPTO #prompto argentum #ignis scientia #gladiolus amicitia #noctis lucis caelum #chocobros #polyship roadtrip #ahhh shit i had no idea what to do after this got so long i didnt wanna drag it on too long so i kinda just fucked with it ghudfasklj;#also tell me no one else wonders how prompto gets all those pics #long post

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parsleybabe · 5 years

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Home Made Simple S01E03 - Chicken Party

We’re starting off with the exact same team as on episode 2: Host Lady, Chef Guy, Deco Guy and Wood guy. The episode centers around Caprisha, who just bought a house and is turning forty and wants to invite her friends to the party at her new place. Her bff is also there to help. Basically, they’re going to focus on the woman’s garden and turn it into a party location. I’m really bad with names, but I’ll keep referring to Caprisha by her name, because they say that name soooooo often in this episode and make songs and puns about it that I actually managed to remember.

My personal highlights:

We’re starting out with Deco Guy introducing a yellow color theme and Chef Guy deciding to make the party lemon themed, as there is a lemon tree in the backyard. I’m genuinely worried that Host Lady is going to lose her shit over the yellowness again, based on what we’ve seen from her previously, but she remains surprisingly calm.

Wood Guy suggests they could build a pergola and explains to the audience what that is with pictures and descriptions. I don’t know, maybe they just aren’t as common in the US? But for a brief moment I’m worried they might start explaining other basic building structures like garages or front doors or whatnot as well. Fortunately they don’t. But they do explain the pergola twice in the episode, because Caprisha and her bff also don’t know what it is, and the renovators have to fill them in as well. Anyway. Everybody is totally into the idea of building such a thing, except for Host Lady. Because, “A pergola is an enormous project.” No, no no no. No! “That’s too much!” So they say they’re scratching the idea, although it looks super fake.

I don’t really get what the big deal is, in the first place, because pergolas are very easy to build and it won’t take up a lot of time either, you just need to screw some wood pieces together and anchor them in the ground, for example by using iron bars. Definitely not more of a hassle than the storage benches from episode 2, but what do I know?

Chef Guy is extraordinarily camp in this episode, which, don’t get me wrong, is totally fine. It just takes me by surprise because I had to actually check if he’s the same Chef Guy as in the previous episodes, that’s how differently his personality comes across. Maybe it’s just the girl party theme of the episode that he’s feeling, though.

Anyway, they’re emptying lemons to use them as party food containers for granita later. Ooooh, I spot a Dawn Power Clean cameo while Caprisha is rinsing out the lemons. It’s like spotting the Stan Lee of home renovation. It’s a bit funny tbh, because Caprisha’s at the sink but her hands and the lemons are out of frame, instead you get the soap dead center and placed strategically right under her arm, so you can read the brand name without obstructions. I don’t even care anymore, I’m just glad they didn’t use the soap to rinse out the lemons.

Next, they’re standing in the dog run of Caprisha’s garden and it’s surrounded by high, smooth grey walls with barbwire on top. To be honest, it looks like a mix of a prison and a chicken coop. If I were doing anything to that backyard, I’d take the barbed wire down and paint the walls a different color. Instead, they’re talking about building a lounge inside it. Alright, you could do that too, I guess.

Deco Guy and the bff are now working on party invitations. The plan is to put the invitation inside a music CD, then put that in a fancy orange gift box, wrap it as a present and hand it out as an invitation. It’s actually a neat little gimmick, but quite expensive and time consuming just for an invitation, if you ask me, depending on how many friends you have. You could say, it’d be easier to build a pergola, but maybe that’s just me.

So, Deco Guy shows a simple invitation that he printed out from the show’s homepage, and… yeah, simple indeed. It’s literally a square with the most basic party info written inside. Like, in the most basic font, Arial or something, just black print on yellow paper. You could type that up in word quicker than searching for it on their website, but okay… Then he shows her how to cut out the paper, how to put it into the CD case and that into the box and how to wrap a ribbon around the box and make “a nice little bow”. All very important steps that you don’t wanna miss, or you’re not gonna be able to do this on your own. Hmm, he states that the invitation costs “literally pennies” and I am left to wonder how they managed to get the ten to twenty gift boxes and CDs for free.

Okay, now Wood Guy and the bff stand inside the “prison” part of the garden and are gonna build the lounge seating area. Cool, cool, cool. They got a lot of same sized wooden bars and are screwing them together to form squares. They stand the squares up and place them side by side in a row to later put a large sheet of wood on top to form a bench. Easy, simple concept. I actually do like it, but I can already tell that that base is going to be too high to sit on the lounge comfortably. Your feet won’t be able to reach the floor. Should have made rectangles to keep the benches lower, but maybe that was too complicated? They’re using an electric screw driver to put in the screws and you can totally see the wood break all the way through to the end of the bar, both when the bff and Wood Guy are doing it. It’s neither addressed nor fixed though. I guess the whole thing isn’t meant to last anyway, because they also don’t put any varnish on the construction, even though it’s meant for outside, so.

Meanwhile, Chef Guy shows Caprisha how to make some mousse for the party, and it’s an alright recipe too. It just cracks me up a little how Caprisha tries some and expresses, “It’s nice and light!” And Chef Guy totally jumps on the “light” aspect, even though the mousse is made of basically sugar, cornstarch and whipped cream.

We’re back in the garden and the benches are coming together. The seats are now at the hight of Wood Guy’s upper thigh without any cushions or padding yet. But I assume you could work around that. As I mentioned, it looks like a chicken scoop, so why not add some chicken ladders going up to the roost, right? They briefly show that they’re going to use more wood to make a backrest at an angle, and then we see the finished result, but we don’t get to see how they work around sharp edges or cracks. They also don’t mention that you should probably sand the wood so you won’t get any splinters. But I’m not an expert, so don’t listen to my layman’s opinion.

As a filling for the empty lemon cups, Chef Guy and Caprisha are preparing some the granita, which is basically frozen lemonade with sugar. I’m sensing a theme and it’s not the lemons. I wonder if there’s gonna be any non-sweet food at the party at all. Doesn’t look like it though. But it doesn’t matter, Chef Guy and Caprishado a little sexy victory dance in the kitchen, because freezing lemonade is hard and they deserve that. And then he gives her “the gift of cleaning”, which translates to filling up the dishwasher in front of a smartly placed bag of Cascade dishwater tabs, then gently taking a tab out and placing it into the slot before turning the machine on. Cameo #2. The gift that keeps on giving.

Back in the garden, Wood Guy and Deco guy are having a talk while sitting on the half-finished lounge and letting their feet dangle. I don’t wanna say that they look small on the too high bench, let’s say… youthful. But the truth is, they’re having a really deep conversation and heart to heart, because Wood Guy opens up about his love for pergolas and confesses that he can’t let go of the idea. Deco Guy is super supportive and they decide to tackle the obstacles. Have some respect for these men, for real though. Wood Guy admits, “I’ve never seen it done before.” And Deco Guy understands the pressure, “We’re going where no man has ever gone before.” And then they talk briefly about having to draw up the steps to build it because “it’s really simple.”

Now they gotta convince Host Lady. Instead of anchoring the wooden build in the ground they want to use deck pair footing inside plastic flower pots as floor weights. My idea would have been simpler, safer, cheaper and longer lasting, but I guess you could do that too. I still don’t know why they need the flower pots at all, but, on the plus side, Wood Guy drew little stick figures on his sketches so that Host Lady can understand what he’s talking about, and who cares about the flower pots anyway. She has to let them do it now, right? She does and Wood Guy gets “a gold star today.”

He actually deserves one, btw, because – for the first time ever on this show – we do actually see footage of him and the girls building the whole thing including all the steps he talked about before.

We’re back with Deco Guy, Caprisha and her bff inside the house. He’s teaching them how to sew straight lines to make a pillow. And that’s as complicated as it gets. He also shows them how to fix the fabric with pins and does it wrong (puts them in line with the sewing direction, which will get them stuck in either the sewing machine or your fingers, instead of pinning them sideways to the direction, so you can easily pull them out as you’re sewing). Fortunately, the two ladies don’t know how to sew and won’t even notice. And since they’re now “master sewers”, they get to sew a whole bunch of pillow cases overnight. Right before the party. Because why would the birthday girl need any sleep, am I right?

So, it’s the next day, and the pillows are done. Deco Guy is excited but criticizes the “fresh, out-of-the-fabric-store smell.“ Now, I don’t know where he bought the fabric, but all the fabric stores that I’ve ever been to smelled lovely. And new fabric usually doesn’t have any smell at all. Maybe that’s different where they are though, I assume. But, fear not, Deco Guy is a true hero because he brought some Febreze Fabric Refresher which will both freshen up the pillows and add to the ever growing family of product placements on this show. And, man, does it smell good. They all agree on that and we’re getting lots of footage of them spraying the pillows very elegantly with their new super weapon.

We’re now back in the kitchen with Chef Guy and Caprisha and he’s gonna show her how to make whipped cream out of cream and syrup, because clearly the other food they got doesn’t have enough sugar. They put it onto the previously made mousse and it looks like… chicken poop. Which started out as a joke on my end, but genuinely must be the unspoken theme of their party. I didn’t even plan this when I began writing this review. I genuinely edited the title just now.

Back out in the yard, Host Lady and Wood Guy are talking about building a fire pit in the center, and that sounds like a really cool idea, I have to admit. This is something that’s gonna last and will come in handy later whenever you wanna have a garden party. It’s great. However, instead of building a fire pit, they just drop sand and big pieces of gravel onto the floor and put an empty grill bowl on it, like a random makeshift beach bonfire. This is the most disappointed I have been so far on this show.

Host Lady then steps inside and suggests that she and Caprisha will decorate the inside of the house with lemons in case any guests come in and need to use the bathroom. The instructions are, “Make sure to have enough toilet paper, light some candles and hang out fresh hand towels.” I have no idea where the lemons actually come into play and they don’t show it either, we just see them step into another room and that’s it.

The final results of the “renovation” are now prepared and shown. Suddenly there are several big pink, yellow and orange tables and étageres standing around which serve as displays for the food. They are the biggest eye catcher in the whole garden. But all we got to see about how those came into play was in a brief overall work process montage (where amongst many other things Deco Guy was shown for about half a second, painting them). No idea if they built them themselves or bought them. It’s never addressed and they’re just there.

Host Lady goes to get the girls and loses her shit “bright yellow” style when she sees them. The pitch of her voice is higher than ever and she throws her hands up and screams, “You look gooooood , guuuurrrrlll!!!” and then puts her hands to her hips and screeches, “Woooooooooooooow!!!” , except it sounds more like a police siren. I mean, it’s a nice compliment. A bit super over the top and super loud, but… nice, I guess. Maybe they couldn’t take the barbed wire down because it belongs to the neighbors who put it up in fear of the weird Host Lady.

Anyway, back to the final look of the garden. The lounge benches are now painted, no idea when that happened, and they now have padding and cushions and pillows and are even higher than before. Sadly, no chicken ladders though. But Caprisha and her bff won’t have to use the bench anyway, because they get a couple of swinging chairs as a gift for under the pergola (which they need to remove for the party, but can keep afterwards). Yaaaaay!

#home made simple #no gender bias worth mentioning in this episode #wow

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makeste · 6 years

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KHR 068: Literal Food Wars

Stay tuned guys, because this chapter features Bianchi’s one and only fight scene, and it’s about six pages long but it’s one of the strangest things that’s ever gone down in this manga.

But before we get to that, this thing opens with one of my all-time favorite KHR jokes! Let’s appreciate it together.

YOU BET YOUR ASS HE HAD A SPARE. And he just WHIPS IT OUT like an RPG character dumping his massive inventory. And Yamamoto is just like, “oh, thank you!” because PAPAMOTO DONE RAISED HIM RIGHT. And his face. Oh my god just look at it it’s perfect.

All in all, a 10 out of 10. Really, we can go ahead and end the arc right here.

Just kidding, obviously we need to continue. At the very least until we find out just what exactly Mukuro is planning on doing with all those teeth!

So anyway, I skipped over it, but it’s important to note that yet again Tsuna is having feelings of guilt over his freezing up and having to be saved by his friends who then end up getting hurt protecting him.

This is beautiful slow-burn character development, so let’s keep track of it as it continues.

It almost seems too easy, doesn’t it? [counts the number of chapters left in this arc] Something fishy going on here.

At this point, poor Ken, who has now been relegated to comic relief status, severely misapprehends the position he’s currently in, and decides to start some shit.

Honestly, he almost even gave the whole game away with that “you’ll die before you see his face” remark. Mukuro really needs to have a talk with him.

An annoyed Gokudera belligerently sprinkles some sand on him (because making his face very slightly dirty, THAT’LL SHOW HIM). An equally annoyed Bianchi tsks at Hayato’s childishness. Clearly, what this situation calls for instead is some light murder in the first degree.

This chapter is off to an excellent fucking start so far.

Reborn then starts hyping Mukuro up again and to be honest he does a pretty good job. But more importantly, he hands the photograph over to Tsuna, so that we, the audience, can get this next page, and presumably scratch our heads in confusion.

“These two Mukuros who look nothing alike… does a trap lie behind its secret?”

Well, let me think. We know that the person that Tsuna and co. think is Mukuro is not actually Mukuro. We also know that Reborn has only one Dying Will bullet left. One trump card; two Mukuros.

Nah, I think it’s going to be fine.

Anyway. Look who’s awake!

Hey, Mukuro actually bandaged him up! And put him in bed. And was just sitting there watching him. Mukuro, could it be you’re actually a nice guy?!?!?!

The answer is no, not quite, since there’s still all that teeth-harvesting and attempted murder and actual murder and kidnapping and wanting to cleanse the world with darkness (we haven’t even gotten to that yet but yeah) and stuff. But watch this space!

Chikusa and Mukuro catch each other up on recent events. Take a gander there at Chikusa’s little exclamation mark speech bubble when he finds out Ken’s been defeated, which is almost identical to Mukuro’s little exclamation mark when Chikusa fell on his face after stumbling back wounded a few chapters ago! The emotionally challenged apple doesn’t fall far from the emotionally challenged tree.

And then Mukuro introduces some ~reinforcements~, and lo and behold:

It’s a two-page spread of antagonists! Which means it’s time for a round of let’s-analyze-the-two-page-spread-using-bullet-points! Man, I love this. It’s been a while.

BIRDS - A.k.a. the literal worst character in the entire series! 100% no hyperbole or exaggeration! That is the correct use of “literal.” There is in fact no one worse than Birds.

CREEPY TWINS - I kind of love them tbh. They’re SO FUCKING DISTURBING and I feel like we never get anything even close to that kind of creepy again afterwards. Except for the Vindice maybe. Fun fact, this chapter came out roughly around 2005, so these guys predate Slenderman. Godfathers of creepypasta right here.

LANCIA IN A HAT - Hey it’s Lancia wearing a funny hat

M.M. - Pretty much the only one of these guys who actually sticks around in the long run. (Not counting Lancia, since as far as I can recall he only makes the one cameo at the end of the Varia Arc and then disappears from our lives forever.) She actually makes it into Tsuna’s nostalgic montage in the very last chapter of the series! But the rest of this chapter is about her, so I’ll hold off on additional comments for now.

BONUS ROUND:

Well, I guess Birds did manage to do one good thing during his fortunately-brief tenure in KHR! Somehow I always manage to forget the origins of this little guy.

Does he really? Somehow I don’t exactly associate the Kokuyou gang with piles of cash (something to do with them squatting in an abandoned mall and constantly seeming to be on the verge of starving to death). Maybe it’s illusionary money. This would have been funny to see if it had actually worked out.

I hope the other Kokuyous get Mukuro a “World’s Best Grandma” trophy for his next birthday.

We then cut over to the small child that Mukuro kidnapped! I’m gonna get whiplash from going back and forth on how evil he actually is in this arc, goddamn it.

Whatever, Mukuro!!!

Okay, so after all of these villain introductions, we finally return to our intrepid group of heroes.

This little hobbit’s feet are tired and he wants to stop and have second breakfast.

So they sit down at some picnic tables and Bianchi once again recalls how much she fucking despises Yamamoto!

“MOVE OR YOU WILL BE MOVED!!”

He makes the greatest fucking faces every time she does this shit, I swear.

There are some comedic bits involving Bianchi just straight up offering Tsuna literal bug soup to eat (like, not even any sort of pretense this time around as to whether it’s actually edible or not). But then, suddenly…!

Yikes.

And of course, Tsuna naturally just assumes Bianchi’s food did that on its own, which. Yeah, that would normally check out. But Bianchi says it wasn’t her!

I don’t have any of the Viz-translated volumes but I wonder what they turned this “oh shi—” into. I’m feeling like they would have gone with a good old-fashioned, nonsensical “Cowabunga!”

Okay but apparently M.M., just like Ken before her, for whatever reason has decided it’s better to just dick around and not actually go for the kill. Because I have to assume that if she could do that to a lunch box, she could do it to a person instead. So I guess everyone should be thankful that their opponent isn’t quite fucked up enough to be the type of person who just explodes all of her enemies from off-screen before they ever have the chance to mount any kind of defense.

Gokudera hears music coming from somewhere and tries to blow it up! This is notable because of how he somehow then manages to forget, less than two pages later, that he actually has bombs. It’s kind of amazing, actually.

Because Gokudera used the power of forced perspective, and Ken literally just hyaahoed around and did absolutely nothing!

Tsuna, Yamamoto, and Gokudera immediately exchange confused looks.

“How many does this make? [counting on fingers] OH SHIT.”

M.M. then proceeds to mercilessly ridicule the Vongola boys who apparently are not up to her mafia standards. Being a bunch of self-conscious eighth graders, they have absolutely no defense against this kind of shade and are blown the fuck away.

“SHABBY LOOKING??”

M.M. then again inexplicably refers to Mukuro as though he’s some sort of Rich Uncle Pennybags type figure, just making it rain everywhere he goes, and in all seriousness this is really starting to confuse the shit out of me.

Either Mukuro has some stash hidden away that the others never knew about, or he was lying through his teeth. Personally, I absolutely believe it’s some sort of leprechaun situation, and M.M. was going to receive a mountain of cash that then mysteriously vanished two days later, by which time Mukuro was conveniently on the other side of the planet probably.

Anyways, having tired of this conversation, M.M. decides it’s time to take them out, so she aggressively plays her clarinet at them.

Because it’s KHR, this is actually a really effective attack.

Okay, and this is the shit I was talking about earlier. If only one of you lunkheads had a ranged attack that you could use in a situation like this, Gokudera! That would sure help the others out a lot, Gokudera “SMOKING BOMB” Hayato, it’s you, I’M TALKING TO YOU, YOU’RE THE LUNKHEAD.

I DON’T KNOW, MAYBE YOU CAN GO BACK TO WHEREVER KEN IS AND SEE IF HE HAS A FUCKING BRAIN CHANNEL YOU CAN BORROW

So finally Bianchi steps up to bat, because no one else has seemed to register the fact that they’re hiding from a fucking clarinet, and the most intimidating thing it’s done so far is heat up some sushi and a few water bottles.

[WONDER WOMAN THEME MUSIC PLAYS!!]

CAN’T BUY ME LOOOOOOVE

Bianchi then proceeds to lay out a detailed analysis of M.M.’s mysterious clarinet weapon after seeing it in action a grand total of once, and holy shit, I’m starting to think she may actually be even more of a nerd than her so-called genius younger brother (especially given the severe dive his intelligence has apparently taken in this chapter).

M.M. then breaks it down in even more gratuitous detail, and I’m starting to fall asleep here christ

BLAH BLAH TL;DR THIS DEADLY WOODWIND INSTRUMENT MAKES THINGS HEAT UP AND EXPLODE

That’s what I was saying before! Then why didn’t you fucking do that??

So the boys absolutely FREAK THE FUCK OUT, which, I would too if someone could nuke my fucking body just by playing “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Bianchi, however, isn’t fazed in the slightest, and whips up a couple trays of weaponized P.F. Chang’s to counterattack.

Look at poor Gokudera’s face. [p-pats]

M.M. isn’t having it and slings some smooth jazz Bianchi’s way!

Very impressive that she can shout the attack name and still play the instrument at the same time.

I never made it more than one episode into Shokugeki no Soma because I couldn’t get past the foodgasms, but basically this is what I always imagined that show should be like.

Somehow Bianchi manages to fully dodge the microwave music attack using the power of PLATES, and takes a dive toward M.M.!

M.M. is all like “AAAAAHHH” but then suddenly she’s like “JUST KIDDING”

She then announces that close-quarters combat is her specialty, and proves it by CONVERTING THE CLARINET INTO A PAIR OF NUNCHUCKS AND WHAPPING BIANCHI ON THE HEAD.

OKAY

On the surface, this looks bad—but Gokudera Hayato knows better.

That is the face of a kid who has seen some shit.

Holy shit this arc had some fucked up moments didn’t it.

Quick refresher, so this is referring to chapter 51, “June Bride”, during which Bianchi almost married Reborn but then didn’t! Because it wasn’t really Reborn at all, but a robot. Haha this manga is weird.

Anyway. So M.M. falls over dead and this horrifically weird battle comes to an end!

Yes. Actually yes. It’s completely impossible. But that’s KHR for you.

And it turns out the reason Bianchi was fighting so passionately was in order to protect Reborn’s nap time!

Hibari Kyoya should look into hiring this one.

But before anyone has a chance to celebrate, they’re interrupted by a horrible old man holding up a laptop because tablets weren’t a thing yet!

I know I should be properly horrified, but all I can think is how absurd this looks now. Here he is, introducing himself and then holding up his unwieldy Macbook with two open QuickTime windows and what I’m just going to assume is Winamp running down there in the corner. Like, this guy is in the fucking stone age still.

So yeah, next chapter is the CREEPY TWINS chapter where Tsuna almost fucking stabs himself to death! Gonna be wild.

#khr #katekyo hitman reborn #yay old chapter #who here knows what winamp is #this is one of those things that really outs me as the dinosaur I am isn't it #actually I'm pretty sure it's still around but you can't tell me anyone still uses it #but I did!#I used it to play my mp3s that I got off of napster and kazaa #yeah that's right #fucking kazaa

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dreamca7cher · 6 years

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Dreamcatcher Dream of US in LA Fanmeet write-up

Hello friends! I have enjoyed reading fanmeet write-ups from others in the past, so I figured that those who weren’t able to go might like to give this a read. *Disclaimer* this is ridiculously long, It was actually about twice as long before I condensed and edited. I’ve had a week now to supplement my memory with the fancams and photos that have been trickling out, but I do apologize if I’ve misremembered or left anything out.

I basically jumped at the chance to attend kcon as soon as I read that Dreamcatcher would be there. I was lucky to get some good P1 seats with 2 other kpop-loving friends. At first I was a little bummed that DC was billed as a special guest, which meant they would not be doing any official kcon “artist engagement” activities like hi-touch. But then news of their solo LA fan meeting was announced and I was absolutely ecstatic. It just so happened that my flight was scheduled to arrive early enough Friday to make it to the fanmeet venue just in time. On the day tickets were to go on sale, I barely got anything done at work and watched my computer clock like a hawk, refreshing the site every millisecond, ten seconds before ticket sales opened. Fortunately, I was lucky to secure one of the 125 seated spots. This would be my first in-person experience of any kind concerning kpop, so I was insanely excited and simultaneously nervous af.

I arrived at the venue about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start and saw a decent line around this real hole-in-the-wall looking place. The people in line said it was for the seated spots, which surprised me. I thought there would be more standing than seated positions, but it turns out there were only maybe 10-15 people standing. It was hot as balls out there, and we were standing directly in the sun so we were all quickly drenched in sweat. I learned later that the girls had actually arrived earlier in a black van in front of the venue. I was probably still in transit at that time, but it must have been nice for the fans already standing in line to get that first glimpse of them! When we finally made it inside, the staff checked our names off a list and we were able to sign a giant American flag that the girls would hold later for a group picture. The fans who did not bring their own album to be signed were given a small poster. It was basically free for all seating, I was on the far right side on the last row but no matter – the venue was small enough to see everything clearly. As soon as I sat down I realized either the A/C wasn’t on.. or there was none at all. There were a few floor fans pointed at the stage, but I felt bad for the girls once they entered and I saw they were wearing sorta heavy looking tops L There was a slightly raised wooden stage in the front and a long table for them to sit at. Two tall speakers flanked the stage, but the music later wasn’t too loud. The crowd was ethnically diverse and probably around a 50%-50% gender split, proving Dreamcatcher’s wide appeal to all sorts of fans. It was however a much older crowd than the average makeup of the kcon attendees, as this was not a boy group.

The girls soon entered, which was such a surreal moment. It was almost like I couldn’t believe they were real people ya know? Having only watched them on video, it’s more like you’re watching a fictional movie sometimes. I know it’s cliché, but they really are sooo much prettier in person. I think they did look a little tired and/or nervous, but their smiles were illuminating and they did little fan service gestures whenever possible. They did their standard introduction with JiU speaking the most as leader, with small remarks like how hot it was and that it was nice to meet all of us. I thought Yoohyeon would speak the most, but she was probably nervous to use her English with us. The event went straight into the fan-signing with rows lining up one by one while the crowd was free to take pictures/videos. There are much better quality videos out there from the front, but I’ll post my crappy phone videos in case anyone wants to see from the right-hand perspective. I apologize for any shaking, as tripods were not allowed. The signing was fairly quick, everyone had just about enough time for each of the girls to sign their album or poster and maybe exchange a sentence or two.

I was one of like the last 4 people to go since I was at the back, and by this point my adrenaline was going crazy. I’ve never fainted before, but if there would be a time to, then that would be it. I didn’t know if this was strictly allowed, but I did see a few fans high five the members. I refrained however because then that would mean I could never wash that hand (j/k I didn’t want any chance of getting kicked out). So I decided to stick to a compliment or two which I had gone over in my head again and again for a few days prior. I wrote down a longer version of what I was going to say on some notes, since that’s all we were allowed to gift the girls. I had also decided to write my notes on origami paper of their favorite colors and fold my notes into paper cranes to stand out, because I am a crazy person. The research (I got their favorite colors from an interview which I’ll post later), the writing, and the folding all took much long than I anticipated which resulted in me only getting 1 hour of sleep Thursday night before my early flight. So this all culminated in a peak state of nervousness. All too soon it was my turn! I won’t go into what exactly I said or what was in my notes, it was just basically a compliment or encouragement. SuA was first, she waved and said hi as I approached. She was consistently the most hyper and playful that day, possibly because it was her birthday. She seemed really genuine too, and seemed the most relaxed I think. Handong was second, she was predictably shy, but was very appreciative of the crane and said it was cute. Her signature is the most unique too. I wrote some really crappy Chinese in my note that I hope she could read haha.. Next was Siyeon, she looked a bit tired, but she was hella pulling off the dark concept look with her black hair and colored contacts. She also spoke a lot of English that day, even if it wasn’t complete sentences like Yoohyeon. I think previous reports are accurate too, she was very quirky with her mannerisms. JiU was in the middle, and was positively glowing :O she was smiling pretty much the whole time and I think even picked up the crane and flapped it around a little adorably. It was hard not to grin widely as well the whole time. Idk JiU just has this like unlimited energy that shines no matter how hot or tired she was. I pictured her as like a Super Saiyan or something with her positive aura. Yoohyeon was next and also looked a little tired. But she said a few things in English to me, and had an absolutely gorgeous smile. I haven’t 100% settled on a bias yet, but girl makes it hard to not choose her. Gahyeon was 6th and actually was saying a lot of things in English. She also seemed to like the crane a lot and has a really cute smile. Dami was last, and was so cool and reserved. She’s really good at the appreciative head nod, no wonder she seemed to be the most popular that day. I forgot to tell all of them that the cranes were actually notes they could unfold and read, I may have told 2-3 of them but I’m not sure if they understood. Ah well. The whole signing probably only lasted a couple minutes, but seeing them up close and actually chatting with them is something I will never forget. After the staff also got their signatures, they moved the big table so the girls could perform.

First up was You and I, and boy was it a sight to behold in person. Their movements were so sharp and energetic, and it’s probably my favorite choreography of any kpop song. They just lip-synced which is ok, since it let me focus on the dance. Dami’s baton reveal probably got the loudest cheer, it was really awesome to see up close, and she does it so nonchalantly. Siyeon’s scarf throw also got a loud cheer. SuA definitely had the most powerful dancing, as expected. I didn’t know all the fanchants, but the other InSomnias obliged well. The girls sprinkled in little hearts and waves to the audience throughout the performance. Right after, they performed Full Moon, which was a very nice gift to the American InSomnias :] The chest pumping part probably had the loudest cheers, as it was the fiercest part of the choreo. During Dami’s solo rap part, she came up real close and waved to everyone, which also brought lots of cheers. The part where SuA and Handong get dragged across the floor was also popular for some reason. I haven’t watched as many fancams of Full Moon, but I really like the choreo, especially Siyeon’s parts. She rules that performance with her movements and expressions.

After the performance, the girls played a question and answer game from a board made up of stick notes that the crowd had written earlier (via translator). The first question I think was for SuA to do a solo funny dance. She asked “no music?” and Siyeon tried to do beatboxing and failed hard hahaha. So Yoohyeon sang to and SuA did a short hilarious dance to Dame Tu Cosita before collapsing in embarrassment. It was so adorable XD the 2nd question was what was the girls favorite Dreamcatcher song. SuA said Mayday, and sang her part a bit. The next question was “what’s it like performing for fans who don’t speak Korean and understand the lyrics?” Handong said that there was nonetheless a connection and that she was surprised and thankful that fans still sing along to the songs. SuA also said we felt like family, sister, brother, mother, father.. lol. The next question was what is your favorite choreography/point move? JiU said she likes the “baby you and I” part of You and I, and Yoohyeon likes the Chase Me part where they grab their hair lol. SuA likes the kiss blowing parts, and Siyeon likes when the members are dragged in Full Moon (probably because it’s not her being dragged haha). Then there was a question about superpowers, and Gahyeon said teleportation and JiU said she never wanted to get tired so she could always meet her fans, like the perfect leader she is. Siyeon said “you already do that” lol. Then Dami was asked how the baton worked, which I’m sure we all have always wondered. It’s basically like a spring-loaded telescoping thing held by a cap. Super cool, and got a resounding applause. Next was one of the more anticipated questions “which member would you marry?” and SuA immediately stood up lol. Siyeon took the mic and said JiU, because she makes really cute noises when she sleeps, revealing her creeper status lolol. Siyeon asked “will you marry me” and JiU said “oooh, yes” lmao. The next question was who has the best legs, to which Yoohyeon crossed her legs expectantly. But then she said she thought Handong has the best legs and asked her to stand up, which she did! Doing some model poses for us, very uncharacteristically ^^ JiU also said Handong has the straightest legs. Then Dami was asked to do some aegyo! Haha poor Dami, she chose to say “hi, nice to meet you, thank you” very adorably. The girls were then asked what songs they listen to in their personal time. SuA is currently obsessed with This is America and did the iconic gun pose lol. Siyeon likes Ariana Grande, and sang some No Tears Left to Cry. They were then asked what artists they want to collaborate with, and Yoohyeon said Day6 which got a big cheer. I also love Day6, and that would be such a match made in heaven! She also beautifully sang a little bit of Letting Go. Siyeon said she wanted to cover Sean Mendes Treat You Better and SuA wanted to do a Taylor Swift song. They were asked about actors they want to meet in LA, and they said the Avengers lol. I think they visited Hollywood Boulevard and said they kinda felt like they met them because there were people dressed up in costumes. Gahyeon also wanted to meet Daniel Henney because he lives in LA. Then JiU said I want to meet my fans with this huge dorky smile lol. The next question was about any future America tour plans, and JiU said of course, and asked us to visit them again next time. They were then asked who their other favorite kpop group was, and JiU said Red Velvet. Yoohyeon asked if she could dance a little bit, so JiU cutely danced to Bad Boy briefly. Siyeon also said KARD. They were asked what their favorite part of LA was, and SuA said she really liked In-N-Out burger and that it was yummy, specifically combo #3 lol. She also wanted to ride rides at Santa Monica and swim, to which Siyeon reminded her that she can’t swim lmao. The last question was about their favorite quotes. Dami’s motto is “in life there are no answers, so do what makes you happy”. JiU said “let’s live happy”, which she definitely exudes all the time ^^. Also that we were all beautiful and smart enough, so to live a happy life. Yoohyeon said that her mom always said to her “if you have a dream, imagine it will happen, and it will be”. Lastly, the girls took a group photo with all three of the sections, holding the American flag we signed earlier. JiU closed out with thanks and a promise they would see us again. SuA said thank you for celebrating my birthday, and Handong said thank you for your passion. Then the staff brought out a birthday cake and we surprised SuA by singing happy birthday. She looked so happy the entire time, and even did a little moonwalk haha. Dami did one last tour around the crowd waving to everyone, and that was it.

And the rest of the weekend was downhill! J/k the kcon stages were amazing, and I saw them again multiple times at the convention, but the fanmeet was of course the highlight of the trip. As my first in-person kpop experience, this will definitely be hard to top. I vaguely wondered before the fanmeet if finally meeting them in person would diminish my perfect image of them in my head, but actually the opposite is true. Now they feel like real people I know, which just makes me like them even more. I was also very proud of the American InSomnias, everyone was respectful, there were no crazy incidents, no one had to be thrown out by security, it just went as smooth as can be. I also want to thank 7-dreamers for organizing this whole thing, and for the smooth operation. I could talk forever about my experiences, but I will end it here. Maybe I’ll do a write-up of the convention and concert if anyone’s interested? Thanks for reading!

#dreamcatcher #dream of US in LA #fan account #write-up #fanmeet #text #this took me like a week to write can you tell?#fav

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the-cryptographer · 7 years

Text

DOUJIN POST~!

Sponsored by eyepatch Kaiba, and the indomitable @rainstormcolors. Who was very kind and sent (most) of these to me for my b-day a while back~ Thank you <3 <3

So bear with me. There are quite a few, and I’m saving my two favourites for last.

This first one is called, Happy Trigger, and it’s mostly cutesy character stuff. A lot of costume play, lol. You get to see things like-

Kaiba in a gym uniform.

And Kaiba in a maid outfit.

He seems kind of desperate for Yuugi’s attention here, lol. There’s a pretty cute comic near the end about his birthday. On the one hand, I wonder that two of the doujinshi on this list have a birthday theme. Otoh, is it really surprising considering how much art and fic people churned out for Kaiba’s b-day here on tumblr? Aaaah, I didn’t have anything to finish for Mai’s b-day this week. Mea culpa.

He’s kind of having a normal day full of kindness and irritations.

I especially like his annoyance with Pegasus calling to wish him a good day.

And then Yuugi texts him and he completely flips out, heh~

So this one - Love Fool is kind of nice slice-of-school-life type stuff. You’ve got these good pictures of Yuugi getting his sneakers on before he heads home.

And good pictures of stick figure Yuugi arguing with stick figure Kaiba.

In any case, the kind of premise of this doujinshi involves Kaiba coming to Yuugi’s place to watch a videotape. Yes. One of those videotapes. Courtesy of Jounouchi. I’m not entirely sure Kaiba’s in the know about what’s going on but-

He barges into Yuugi’s room like he owns the place.

And Yuugi freaks out bc his undies are hanging up. Bc Yuugi has the luxury to worry about these kinds of petty concerns (it’s okay, ilu, yuugi~)

He makes a run for them to take them down, heh~

Anyhow, the videocassette or the VCR isn’t working, properly. So Yuugi and Seto get to talking instead. About angsty things like his company and his dad and Mokuba.

And then hugs happen.

And then things are finally getting steamy.

And then-

Right then the VCR finally starts working and interrupts them with breathy, busty porn star moans.

We see Jou and Honda get the video back later.

And it looks like it kind of killed the mood judging by Yuugi’s reaction, lol. I know- I know- I have all the tools to translate this but I’m lazy and don’t want to :p

And this is tabby tail’s work. I don’t have much to comment about it- it’s cute and porny. But I really like how this circle draw’s Kaiba emoting.

Look at him. He’s one second away from kissing his bf and he looks completely joyless, like his cat just died. This is super on point and I love it.

Also bonus Jou expression for you. Bc you know I like Jou.

Ahhh, I really love aquarium aesthetic. I’m pretty sure an aquarium theme automatically boosts my enjoyment of something regardless of what it is. Considering I’ve enjoyed all the aquarium prideship and JouKai I’ve run across.

This whole doujin has that kind of watery blurry surrealism to it, though. And it seems to be playing around with age and memory.

We see this backdrop with Kaiba and Mokuba in the aftermath of the deaths of their biological parents. This is always something I’m skittish about exploring - bc i’m always afraid it will undermine who Seto is and what his influences have been - but it’s interesting thing to see others delve into. Anyhow-

Aww, Yuugi hugs baby Seto. To comfort him.

And then baby Seto turns into adult Seto.

And then we play Magic & Wizards. Because that’s what ygo is all about.

The only pride one rscs sent me. It’s titled THE PITH AND THE PENDULUM, which is either a play on Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, or a misspelling of it. Either way, it’s apt. It’s kind of a highly aesthetic dark, distorted presentation, with a gothic style. Very lovely.

A stark introduction. A good coat.

You have these kinds of moments of sleeping and wakefulness with the characters. (Yes, it seems Kaiba dreams up Atem in the panel up there).

And this dark shot of a speeding car at night.

And a lavish dinner with these strange patterned curtains.

And- agh-! The artist caught me. Meaningful hand grabs! My weakness! How did they know?!

Here’s more of the art just bc pretty~

Alright. These next couple are things that I purchased myself.

One of veryroll’s older works. sfw guardshipping.

They really outdid themselves with the backgrounds. They’re full of people and scenery and silly signs - TOKYO HANDS!!

EXCELSIX-CAFE!!

(Also Isono looks great here.)

They go to the cafe and there are 5Ds characters in the background and Seto makes friends with little kids and it’s cute. And, wow, I think I’ve said before but I love baby-face Seto in veryroll’s work. I feel like, yes, he must look so adolescent to Isono. Bc he looks very adolescent to me. I watch him in canon and go, god, what a child.

Angry child.

And I finally managed to get the doujinshi that was lost. The wish one, at least, still working on the polar ones.

Here’s some adorable pinup.

I also got these buttons. From a circle I bought Dark Magician/Dark Magician Girl doujinshi from. What can I say. Angry Jou and Enemy Controller and JouKai. What’s not to love?

And a surprising favourite!! I wasn’t quite sure about buying this one, bc of how Yuugi was drawn on the cover and because I didn’t have any sample pages to go off of. But it ended up being really great.

bc lip balm.

And rival cuddles.

And rival kisses.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY PEOPLE FEEDING SETO FOOD!!!

Heh. It seems several different artists worked on this - but there’s a kind of through-line with the stories. Most of them are kind of lazy bumming around Kaiba’s manor with sex and Kaiba never taking off his bathrobe. Anyhow, going off of that, the doujinshi got better in the best way possible:

It’s Kaiba’s birthday, and Yuugi calls in to get pizza (and cake?) delivered. And Jounouchi’s the delivery boy. And Jounouchi is worst delivery boy. Who just walks into the room - ignoring that Seto’s naked under the covers - and sits on the bed and helps himself to the pizza he himself delivered. And, aw- aw- aw- battleship friendship vibes are my favourite. This really was super cute~ I’m glad you had a good b-day, Kaiba~

And this one is the last one from rscs. Because we were saving it for the end. Rosario Bianco’s rivalshipping is a gift to us all.

Idk, the drawings are crisp and cute and expressive. Everyone is cute.

So Kaiba follows Yuugi home, and bows to Yuugi’s mom all respectful-like. And Mama Mutou is immediately charmed. And Yuugi’s kind of ??? about it. And I want to be upset about it, lol, but how can I hold it against Kaiba for managing to make a good first impression on someone for once in his life~

So Kaiba is studying the pictures Yuugi has left on his cork board. Heh~ For a second I thought that the one with Anzu and Honda was literally the one from the anime - with all of them doing the peace sign - except Kaiba’s brain had tactfully edited Jounouchi out bc UNWANTED, lol. It does seem like it’s a different picture tho.

Anyhow, so Yuugi walks in with the fan and THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF ADORABLE PONYTAIL YUUGI!!!

The important part, though, is that Yuugi has a newspaper cutout of the Grand Opening of Kaiba Land next to his other pictures on the cork board. I guess how nice and not-fucked-up this gesture is depends a lot on whether or not this was the cutout for the Grand Opening of Death-T.

Kaiba also gets his hair tied up.

EARS! BOBBY PIN!

More PONYTAIL YUUGI! BC I CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH. PONYTAIL BLUSHING YUUGI!!!

Kaiba says I thought at the time (these?) feelings were bad. At least I think that’s what he says - I’m no pro translator gdi.

Text say something about happiness and something about crying. IDK. But Yuugi WITH THE PONYTAIL, CRYING, AND BLUSHING ALL AT ONCE. It’s too much. So good.

And then they have sex and work out their issues, idk- NSFW image below

↓ ↓ ↓

It’s just Yuugi’s expression is too funny not to share, okay?

#doujinshi #rivalship #there are others but it's mostly rivalship #save me from this card game hell

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coffeeselfies · 9 years

Photo

This is technically the “I think I need coffee,” selfie, but it’s been so long since I’ve posted that I figured anything was better than nothing.

I’m still trying to sleep through the inspiration of a very wonderful Bob Goff.

I. love. him.

But on to darker things, like my not-so-distant past!

Hahaha. So I was looking for an old assignment I e-mailed myself, and instead found a bunch of cryptic-heavy things I had texted one of my rarely used e-mails from my phone.

So of course I’m going to put them together, here, since I will probably just lose them otherwise. And because everyone on the internet loves reading the things I e-mail to, well, myself (WAIT, DO I NOT HAVE FRIENDS, WHAT IS MY LIFE). :p

4/12/12 - A veces no quiero hablar Por Nada con mis amigos. Solamente, "Hoy me dice ,estas loca, pero le esta loco a Juan!" Y mas Nada. Yo quiero hablar about cosas lejas. Ayer y Hoy hable con jean y veronika, solamente small talk primer. Pero despues, yo decido hablar about the things which I was.actually thinking about lately, the deeper layers. My thoughts were kind of awkward. Random. But I'm so glad I did, it lead to such good convos! As if, although my own thoughts or specific revelation (another one about love, of course), but led to true, sincere convos from the heart. Yes! Thank you, Lord. It's funny how I won't open up and ill get frustrated at the lack of depth in a conversation, yet really all I need to do in some cases is just jump right into the true issues. Ahh small talk kills me.

3/4/12 - He asked us a few questions: Who are you using?

How are you using them?

Physically. Sexually. Emotionally. Spiritually. Monetarily.

How can you restore that? Who's using you? Do you love money, and use people?

Or do you love people, and use money?

5/9/12 I think my id and superego are in conflict... I prefer that psychological term to saying that right vs wrong or my flesh is in rebellion, I guess. I just want to do all sorts of things that aren't of God, and i don't even know what to do. I think I need to just remember that life is short, and not about what I want. I'm getting too caught up in the worldly details, my visions going, my path, every time I think I'm expanding it, is getting more and more limited. Goodnight, from post Dave n busters with cartel, post umsl, going to school tmrw.

5/17/12 - "Can you keep a secret?" I should have realized by now that this question should be answered with fear and heaviness rather than curiosity.

5/29/12 - I dreamt that, after they thought I had left, my parents started fighting. Loudly, viciously, hatefully. I came down shouting, 'stop it, stop it!!' But their heads were already covered in blood, as I'd they were going to kill eachother. I never found out if they stopped or not, because dad called to me in real life from the other room. At first I wondered if I had really been shouting, and that's why he had contacted me, but no, it was just about bulk trash being today. Something sounds like its gnawing on something, I can hear and feel the vibrations of it through my pillow. Creepy.

6/4/12 - I have always been a compassionate person – making little houses for wounded snakes and worms – befriending the kid who’s got no one but himself for company, partnering with the girl who doesn’t really speak English. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve recognized that God has been faithful in granting me patience, mercy, and grace as well, and I know that these are not my own, but I am meant to share them with the very people God has give me a heart for – the downtrodden, broken, and outcast, and ultimately just humanity in general. This has, more or less, been my (more recent) life pursuit. To follow God’s Will for my life, regardless of where it takes me. So far that has meant giving hope to weary and often lost travelers of Amsterdam, mentoring at risk juveniles and raising awareness for human trafficking in Los Angeles, running English and Summer-School programs for Chinese immigrants in New York City, training and creating jobs for families in Haiti, as well as hosting events and creating opportunities for girls to leave brothels , learning how to run a business in Mexico while also helping out at various orphanages for disabled Children, and even just being there for my own family and friends when they’ve needed it most. It has meant months of Ministry Training schools, years of living in International Community Houses, working in roles that range from administration, to construction, to managerial, and an ever growing reliance on and relationship with Jesus Christ.I’ve been back in Saint Louis for a year now,

7/1/12 - Today started strangely, my head still a little blurry from the wine from the night before. I went to church, very late, where daren had a cupcake waiting for me. Why? Because Tuesday I had admitted I had experienced some downer bdays and he realized that it was my half birthday. Mom came, cried, we hugged, went to the church picnic.. I went home, told dad about her accident, and he just started weeping, so hard that his nose began to.bleed. I stroked his hair and.got a bit teary eyed.and then we got.on our knees and prayed... Later was feeling down and missing Luke, but jean got me out.

11/11/12 - And with your hands in the air, your feet barely touching ground, I take that smile to mean that life is finally turning 'round. And we laugh til we cry and we dance til we cant, and I feel free as can be each time I see that gleam in your eye. Then the secrets come out and its less about being blessed and more about a high. So when you're dancing I'm wondering if that's you, and when you're singing, I know you would be singing.the blues... But that gleam in your eye, well really its more of a glaze all along, I just saw what I wanted as you,strung me along.

12/20/12 -

Well the queens off her throne Hiding in a stairwell Feet strewn about the stairs Seeming barely aware That her kingdom awaits The king, divorced long ago He's crying Where's his iron fist? Seems he's traded it for sentiment "Pathetic!" He might self accuse If only his tears would let him Seems everything's a dream these days, Some hellish, some sweet But all

I used to find the idea of receiving a text in the middle of the night strange.

Now, after years of practice, I find it comforting, perhaps a reminder that I am not so alone as I would feel.

I hadn't realized this, of course, until now.

Now, when I wake up to nothing but darkness and my own thoughts.

Now, when, regardless of whether I toss myself awake at 2am or 4am, there is no message.

There's nothing to reassure me that there's another person in this world who is awake and eager to share a moment, even a small, electronic message with me.

1/11/13 - Today Gave my testimony. Adopt a block, played ninja. Eva likes hanging out with Christians. I break rules and have real convos with the disciples. Play bs. Go to angelus temple. Do food distribution. Met hosea who talked to us because he thought I was pretty, was super catholic, thought tim was my bf, etc etc etc

1/29/13 - Oh hi, I'm feeling cold and pathetic, and thought I would ... Email myself. That seems fitting. Somehow emailing yourself feels much more pathetic than just journaling. Right now I feel like I wish anyone, absolutely anyone , would sit down across from me. Even the old creepy man who, after asking a few non essential questions, left me for the warmth of the indoors, or... I don't know, a donut. Why do I feel like this.Lord? Is it because I am not so busy in school? Is it because Adam moved and despite the fact that I was barely hanging out with him last semester anyway, he was a crutch, and knowing that at 1am when I feel pathetic and lonely and confused, I can't even text someone I know would care? I mean. I know others would care. But we aren't exactly on that level just yet. What is my life? Why am I this way, and why do I want attention for it? Or why do I feel the need to find someone who would , what, save me ? From myself.? From my thoughts? Why am I seeking comfort in shallow things, the wings of friends and acquaintences and , frick, anything. Whywhywhywhy. I don't know. Is this what life is like for people? Lord, you are the one God, the only thing worth it, you are good when no one else is, am I getting caught up in things that I shouldn't, what am I even going on about? Life life life. It's all good, right

2/13/13 - (From a voice to text translator)

tomorrow I'm supposed to have an awkward cuddling session with my love scene manager and a love my phone from church I'm not sure how I get myself into these awkward situations but I definitely am good at it office tomorrow my uncle is moving in for a month but should be really awkward and I wish that I had a lock on my door and the house I'm learning that the things that I desire to have a find myself feeling empty when I do get them but I'm happy about it because it gets me clarity because it shows me that nothing else really matters is just kind of in my head really got the only thing that matters is the only thing I should pursue S I miss Adam I know you won't hang out that much before you left but now I guess I'm missing him double I don't know I don't know what I mean exactly but he's been gone a few weeks now and it's weird not having a best friend to talk to you about everything I have a lot of friends I have a lot of good friends but this is different it is different when you have someone who knows so much about you already and you don't have to tell the back story every time you tell them a new story because I already know who so I'm so is or why you feel that way or white was a bad idea that you did that so I'm also giving up ice cream and I'll call for lunch and I'm going to be time to eat a lot better subject tomorrow hopefully that I've also really just been wanting to be free of employment just live and everyday wake up and say what I want to do without help homeless people if I want to make something I want to sell another day love you babe I wanna go out with a friend I make my card I definitely don't want to spend 5 shifts a week at cartel but at the same time I don't feel like I'm self disciplined enough to not have a job I'm just getting tired of the creepers and the internet the kids off work as well as yeah I don't know ent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!

8/18/13 -

Woke up really missing my dad. Go figure. Able to properly seduce emotions into a flat, shruggable denial ever since those first few days, and now, on the day I hoped to "stay strong" the most, I can't stop thinking of part of the song he wrote for Rachel, only now in regards to him - "I miss you, in the summertime.. I miss you, in the wintertime.. I miss you - all the time. I love my Rachel Sue." Only.. Daddy-o, or something. Ahhh.. Thank you, Lord, for such a kind father. Please help today glorify your name, run smoothly.. its so obvious we can't do it without you.

8/19/13 - I miss my dad. I am sad that I'll never have him burst in my room in November at three am with pancakes and lit birthday candles because he started thinking about some of the birthdays of mine he had missed, and wanted us to be able to celebrate together. I can't drink milk or even look at rootbeer without hearing him ask for some, so eagerly, and then sigh 'mmmm, now that's good,' so contentedly after his first sip. I miss that his crazy stories are not going to be things that I share in everyday conversation with my friends, because they're all old stories and it will seem out of place. who do i have to talk to about my dad? no one. it makes everyone sad. theres no one to just share his life with, aside from close family, and that will be limited. Everyone keeps telling me I'm so strong. What does that mean?I'm strong because I didn't start sobbing when I spoke? Because I'm smiling and laughing with you? Is that strength or disposition? Blake said that I was handling this better than anyone he's ever seen deal with death. What does that mean?

12/13/13

I see a sadness in your eyes.Behind the words, another message.The weight of your world becomes tangible, heavy, a thickness that weights me like a fog rolling in with, strapping invisible bricks to my body. Sometimes it's your words, blatant and straightforward, other times it's the sighs, the eyes that flash with emotion for just a moment, Did you know that's been seen? So many words, how can they be contained? I hear things you've never said, I see

1/03/14-

I've tried reflecting on 2013.. tried finding words which could somehow, miraculously encapsulate all of the growth, struggle, joy, depression, transformation, and experiences that it contained. It will be one of the most memorable years of my life, for many reasons, but it may also be one of those years that the full impact of may be lost on me for awhile now.In the past few weeks, I've been looking through journals, photos, and letters, remembering and realizing exactly how many changes this year has brought. Led my first missions trip, felt the loss of saying goodbye to one of my best friends, discovered what living with not just my dad, but my uncle Ken, five chickens, two cats, two ducks, a dog, and whoever else decided to stay over was like, became the missions director at middletree church, became an AUNT to the most beautiful little Emelia Skye, gained a new set of amazing and wonderful friends, played nurse/daughter/friend/staff member/sister/maid/hopsicecare/barista/student/leader to the point of confused identity and exhaustion, left cartel to become part of the Caife Caife family, DIDN'T leave the country for the first time in yeaaaaars, actually had to turn down exciting travel/jobs, speaking opportunities, and a leadership position with a non-profit (rather than seek them out, like usual), spent 7 months of the year experiencing the beauty, hardship, and love of caring someone who is dying in more and more ways every day, the trauma and release of my dad's actual death, the months following that are nothing but fog, sorrow, and blurred memories, the 14-state family road trip of a lifetime, moving to the Loop with Dani, experiencing being 'home for the holidays' without any actual family to be home with, and .. I don't know.. the Sara of today, who can look back on things only a year ago and find I have a whole new perspective on them. ..I only wrote one public (well, as public as it can be when I have a total of 8, predominately inactive followers) blog post in 2013, mostly talking about overcoming fear to become the person I feel I'm called to be. It was mostly inspired by revelations from the LA Dream Center trip, and I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to look back on the goals and dreams I wanted so desperately to become a reality, and to be able to say that, even through all the changes and sorrow of this year, that they were able to come to fruition. I'm not in to new years resolutions, but I do highly recommend kickstarting your year with an inspiring, transformative experience, which can set the trajectory for how you are going to live, what goals you will meet or fall short of (but still come closer to, which is still GROWTH, something to celebrate!) in the coming adventure of 2014. No matter what 2013 held, don't let fear of who you were just last month keep you from being who you want to be tomorrow. This little blog post is nice for me to re-read, because it reminds me of my fears, and what overcoming them, even one step at a time, can lead to. 2013 was a hard year for me, but it has also brought me to exactly where I feel I'm supposed to be right now.

1/29/14 - "I'm good" I wore the reassuring words like a blanket. Cover, no, smother whatever was beneath, within. Protect yourself from the cold, vulnerable words might slip thru the holes in the blanket... exposed means they can feel temperature of your meaning. Heavy, heat from the heart. you can feel their response. Pray for a warm touch, but there's always risk of icicle daggers

2/19/14

it's just that

I have a lot of thoughts

ideas, fears, ..a lot of places that I'd like to explore

But they feel so heavy when it's just me and them

feels like there’s a lot of trees to climb before i get to the clouds

and I'd like to share them with someone

who cares about them just as much as I do,

someone with just as much to risk,

who understands each side of the story.

And sometimes, I see planets in those eyes,

but have no rocketship to get me there

And I see that depth, but there's just no way to tap in

Im searching for someone to explore with

those infinite galaxies in your mind and mine.

Someone to make sense of it,

write poetry about it

but not get so caught up that it's just us - no

Always God first.

Always seeking his planets, his stars, his truth..

and maybe that's the adventure..

0 notes

hamil-tots · 7 years

Text

Hamiltots: Alex's Birthday part 3 by Bobandkevin8804

Angelica sighed and walked up behind her friend giving him another hug. “I’ll talk to you later, ok Alex?” She said turning to him. He nodded seeming distracted. Then the young girl walked away.

John grabbed Alex’s hand and pulled him back to the table.“Come on we can show Mr Washington our pictures!“ He says grabbing all the pictures, passing them out, and then leading the other two boys to the chalkboard, where Mr Washington stood listening to the SpongeBob vs. Peppa Pig debate. As soon as they neared Maria stopped talking and smiled at Alex. She walked over and gave him a hug. “Happy birthday Alex.” She said in her cutesy voice, which made John roll his eyes. “Thank you, Maria.” He said smiling at her. Charlie finally acknowledged Alex’s and the others presence. “Hamilton, Laurens, Lafayette, Mr.” He says nodding his head. “Lee,” Alex says nodding at him. Then he turned his attention Mr Washington.

“ Look at our pictures Mr. Washington!” Alex said holding his paper up high. Mr. Washington look down at his, John’s, and Laf’s pictures. “Oh, I see a turtle, a Eiffel Tower, and…Alex what is your picture?” Mr Washington said with confusion in his voice. Alex looked down on his picture,“It’s supposed to be me and my favorite people from class,” he said pointing to the different figures. “There’s you, me, John, Laf, Herc, Eliza, Angelica, Maria, Peggy, and Aaron.” Clarity crossed Mr. Washington’s face. “Oh, I see it now.” He said with a smile, which makes Alex smile. “Ok let’s get ready for snack time!” Mr. Washington says. “Yaaaayy!” Yelled all the kids surrounding him.

They all hurry to their spots at the tables. At one table there is the Schuyler sisters and Maria. Then at another was Thomas, James, Charlie, and Aaron. And then at the last table Alex, John, Laf, and out of no where, Herc. “Where did you come from?” Asks with a questioning smile. “A good spy never tells his secrets.” Herc says winking. They all bust out laughing. Then Mr. Washington comes around with the Sammy A’s Apple juice and carrot sticks.

“When you finish your carrot sticks you can have to cupcakes Alex brought in. Make sure you thank him also.” Everyone at once said “Thank you, Alex.” And then began on their carrot sticks. After about fifteen minutes Mr. Washington began passing out the cupcakes and watched as the small children made quick work of them. “Alex, these are great!” Said John stuffing a bite of chocolate cupcake into his mouth.

“Oui, très bien!” Said Laf who had frosting all over his mouth. “Thanks guys, I’ll tell my mom you liked them.” Then they all looked at Herc who was busy stuffing the entire cupcake in his mouth, wrapper and all. Then they began to laugh again. Then Mr. Washington called them all outside for recess.

On the playground John, Alex, and Laf sat in the sandbox. Maria and Eliza were on the teeter totter. James and Thomas were on the monkey bars. Angelica and Charlie were fighting about if the color blue was only for boys. Peggy and Herc were no where in sight. And Aaron was sitting on top of the slide with Theodosia (the cat) reading. While at the sandbox Alex and the two boys built sand figures and castle, all with stories behind each one. Then Alex noticed someone approach.

“Alexander.” That person started. “Thomas,” Alex says then quickly adds on “James.” When seeing him trailing behind him. “Happy birthday,” Thomas says trying to be nice, “Those cupcakes were really good.” He finishes.

“Thanks…” Alex says squinting his eyes at Thomas, trying to figure out what he was up to.

“Anyways, I came over here to see if Marquis wanted to play with me and James.” Alex turned to look at James, and as it seemed to much of his own dismay, he nodded his head in agreement. “Hmm, ok, then ask him.” Alex says then turns to Laf, who looks torn and very uncomfortable. “Umm, if it’s ok with you, it being his birthday and all…” he says looking at the ground, “I’d um like to play with Alex.” He finishes. Thomas rolled his eyes,“Fine then, I’ll see you later Marquis.” He says as he grabs James hand and pulls him away. There was a moment of silence in the sand box. “Well that was weird.” Said John who was staring at a disappearing shape of Thomas and James. “Let’s just get back to playing.” Said Alex as he grabbed a little blue shovel. “Oui.” Said Laf grabbing a green bucket.

Twenty minutes pass and Mr. Washington calls all the children inside. “Ok kids, grab your blankets and mats for nap time.” He says as he shuts the door to the classroom. All the kids do so and find their spots in the carpet.

Mr. Washington turns off the lights, closes the blinds of the widow, and plugs in a small nightlight. Within five minutes all this kids are sleeping soundly.

Mr. Washington looked at the clock on the wall: 2:45. Time to wake the kids up. He flicks on the lights. “Time to wake up kids.” He says softly so he doesn’t frighten the children.

They rustle under their blankets and one by one pop up to stretch. Alex awakes to find he is being held down by Johns arms. He giggles at first because he turns to face John and finds a weird smile on his sleeping face. Alex sits up and gives John a little shake. John stirs and slowly opens his eyes. He lets out a yawn and then smiles.

“Hi Alex.” He says before stretching. “Hi John” Alex says back smiling, then laughing when he looks at John’s hair.

“What’s so funny?” John asks confusedly.

“John, you need to fix your ponytail.” Alex says as his laughter dies down.

John touches his hair to find it all out of place. He gasps. “Mr. Washington!” He yells as he runs up to him so he can fix his hair. John returns and they go to find Laf and decide to find the Schuyler sisters(even though John didn’t want to).

They were in the corner playing games like patty cake and doing each other’s hair. “Hey, do you girls want to play with us?” Alex asked looking at each sister. They look at each other for a second and nod their heads once agreement after a silent conversation. “Sure,” Angelica answers,“ But we wanna play house.” She says looking at Alex.

“Ok.” Alex agrees without asking the other boys. “Alex you have to be the dad, Laf you can be the uncle and John you can he one of the sons.” Eliza says assigning roles. “I’ll be the mom, Angelica you can be the aunt, and Peggy your the daughter. Philip is the other son.” She says smiling. “Everyone ok with this?” Angelica asks.

“Umm, can I be something else, I don’t want to be you and Alex’s son.” John says. “Ok, what do you want to be?” Eliza asks. John’s face reddens slightly and his eyes un focus. “Um, never mind.” He says as he looks at the ground. “Ok then!” Eliza says excitedly.

They begin to play for half an hour when parents started arriving to pick up their children.

First Philip Schuyler to get his girls, then Aaron Burr Sr. to get his son, then the Reynolds with their older son James to get Maria. After that the kids left bit by bit.

Laf and Herc had already left so it was just Alex and John plus some other kids. John was looking down at his shoes the entire time. “What’s wrong John?” Alex asked with concern. “Nothing, just thinkin’.” He says as his eyebrows smush together. “Whatcha thinking about?” Said Alex watching his friend. “Ummm…” John started before his face turned red again. “Never mind its stupid.” He says shaking his head. “No John, you can tell me.” Alex says grabbing his friends hand. John looks up at him for the first time since people started leaving. “I um like um you a lot, Alex.” John says turning even redder. Then looking down. Alex sees his mother in the door way talking to Mr. Washington.

He stands up and pulls John with him. He gives John a quick hug and then pecks him on the cheek. “John, I like you a lot too.” He says then turns and runs into his mothers arms. “Hola mami!” Alex says hugging. “Hola mi amor.” She says smiling. “¿Te divertiste hoy?” She says looking at him. “¡Sí! ¡Mucho! A todos les gustaban los pastelitos.” He said. He waved goodbye to Mr. Washington and a smiling John. Alex and his mother climbed into her car and instead of driving home, she pulled into the parking lot of Kings Restaurant. Excitement flowed from Alex. His mother looked in the rear view mirror and smiled as she saw something that truly made her happy. Her son. ‘Happy birthday Alex’ she thinks to herself as she grabs the hand of the little boy that holds her heart.

***** AHHHHH! It’s finally finished. It took me while to figure out where this was gonna go and I decided this was a good ending point. Please don’t hate me for the Lams I really couldn’t help myself, I just thought it would be really cute. Also I tried to add Kings College somewhere in there and it ended up being a restaurant lol but in my defense there really is a Kings Restaurant in my home town so…yeah. And if the Spanish I put in there is incorrect please forgive me I’m only in my first year of Spanish and google translate can only get you so far lol. I kinda tried to incorporate some of your drawings like with Mr. Washington and the pony tail thing and such. And finally I just want to say I hope to continue to submit Hamiltot writing to you, I think your an amazing artist and have the greatest most awesome imagination for coming up with Hamiltots in the first place. It’s been fun, (signed) Bobandkevin8804. (Not really tho because I’m typing this lol)

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rainbowravioli · 7 years

Note

Hello! So I've pretty much gushed over all your meta posts about YOI. You mentioned in the preface to your Ep. 12 breakdown meta that you read fanfiction every night. I wanted to know what your favorite and most treasured YOI fics are? I need all the reading I can on these precious babies because my heart is too full but I need to make it fuller. Thanks!

Oh god someone paid attention that embarrassing disclaimer. Thanks for enjoying the meta though.

I don’t have an ao3 account so it took me a while to hunt down all the fics I wanted (and I’m still missing things T-T). I’m so sorry this is late!

Also these are all Victuuri because that’s the one tag I frequent…So, in no particular order.

Hallelujah - mizael

Viktor’s thumb on his lower lip, his fingers resting on Yuuri’s neck.

This was posted when only episode 1 had aired and yet it’s this fantastically written insight on Yuuri that still holds up even after watching the rest of the season.

Sleep With Me - YurikoNeko (AlaxxisSade)

The story of how Yuuri slowly gets used to Viktor, in a way.

This is dialogue only and yet I could picture every scene as I read. Really cute and funny.

Momentum - YankingAwry

Here was how the scene went in Yuuri’s head:

Victor, frozen, clueless: the ruins of a smile on his face. But Yuuri, I thought you knew! It was only to surprise you. It meant nothing more-

Yuuri: spine limp, head hanging, tears streaking down his face and collecting at his chin, dripping like an old faucet onto the ground. Words exploding out of his mouth, wet, glottal: Then just stop! Stop doing things that mean nothing to you, and everything to me!

Yuuri’s anxiety doing its thing and Yuuri overthinking things like a pro. Really made my heart ache but ended up delivering on the fluff side of things.

The Magic of Your Sighs - kevystel

Makkachin’s asleep by the time Viktor reaches the clinic. Viktor sits down on the sofa beside him, buries his face in Makkachin’s fur and breathes.

Victor’s side of the story in episode 9. Great atmosphere. Goes from heartbreaking to really funny to just…warm. This is part of a series and all parts are good but I’m just particularly fond of this one.

Yuuri Katsuki Secret Route Walkthrough/FAQ - Metis_Ink

The otome community uncovers the mysteries of the Nikiforov-Katsuki Route, one of the most difficult and overly-complicated routes in a game supposedly just about ice skating.

This is a fic after my own heart. Just fantastic and so unique! I honestly wish this game existed, I would work so hard for that secret route.

Advent Calendar - sushicorps (Inclinant)

“…It’s an advent calendar,” Yuuri explains as he places it down on the table. Viktor steps up and runs a hand along the smooth surface of the elaborate set of giftboxes, each carefully wrapped and nestled in their own compartment, with a number painted next to them, clearly handmade.

“Is this…for me? For Christmas?”

Yuuri flushes and ducks his head.

“It’s for your birthday too. It’s on Christmas, isn’t it?”

Pure, adorable, Christmas themed fluff, just how I like it.

first - Robin_Hoods

“So.” Yuuko giggles into the phone. “What was kissing Victor Nikiforov for the first time like?”

I really appreciate the Yuuri/Yuko friendship here that is often ignored by the fandom. Very sweet, lots of little touches I really like.

with a boy like that it’s serious - kevystel

‘I’m dating Viktor,’ Yuuri says, nervous despite himself.‘Seriously?’ Yurio demands. ‘I thought the two of you were already married.’(Viktor Nikiforov and Katsuki Yuuri are an item. The world reacts.)

Just the best coming out fic. All of the reactions are on point and it has bonus gold medalist Yuuri (AKA what he deserved).

Five Times Viktor and Yuuri Were Jealous of Makkachin (and the one time they weren’t) - braveten

“Viktor will do whatever is necessary in order to never see Yuuri cry again. He’d walk miles across broken glass. He’d relinquish all of his gold medals to JJ Leroy. He’d let Phichit hack his Instagram account.”Viktor and Yuuri are jealous of Makkachin on multiple occasions, but the adorable brown poodle might be the only way to get them to realize their love for one another.

Makkachin flavoured fluff + great characterization. Really sweet and funny.

get up again - snowdarkred

When Yuuri was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings, it was a dream come true. Years of practice, of hard work, of talking to scouts and agents, of posting his own highlights on Youtube — it all paid off. Sure, he went in the seventh round, surrounded by players who were probably never going to make the show, but Pavel Datsyuk went in the sixth and look at his career. Yuuri was going to make it. He moved all the way across the world for this, competed internationally for this, bled and cried for this. He was going to make it to the NHL.Yuuri didn’t make it.

The brilliant hockey AU I never knew I needed.

Victor Nikiforov - pardonthelitany

“What do you need, Victor?”Victor Nikiforov comes back to St. Petersburg, back to skating, and back to the person he was before all too easily. He is a god amongst men, a reigning hero, an icon, an idol, and he is just so tired.

THE post-episode 12 fic for me. Gorgeous, poetic, heartbreaking writing. I just love this one a lot.

Five Times Chris’s Dating Advice Was Ignored By Russian Skaters - liliths

—and one time it wasn’t.

Christophe Giacometti. Twenty-five. Cat lover, chocolate eater. Professional Swiss figure skater and confirmed Grand Prix finalist. Running an unofficial dating advice ring for Russian skaters who don’t listen to him to begin with. How did his life come to this?

Being Chris is suffering.

the language of flowers - liliths

FLORIOGRAPHY — (noun) The language of flowers, sometimes called floriography, is a means of cryptological communication through the use or arrangement of flowers. Origin: Latin floris (flowers).

In which Victor and Yuuri inspire each other through Victorian flower language. Alternate universe.

I’m really into flowers (flower shop AUs >>> coffee shop AUs) so this fic was just perfect for all my flower centric AUs needs.

For Your Time (I’ll Give You This Smile) - Liana_Legaspi

“Do you love me?” the King of Day says to Yuuri’s retreating back.

Stop.

Think.

“I haven’t decided yet.” Yuuri confesses, “I might hate you.”

There’s a smile in Viktor’s voice that’s sweeter than any lullaby Yuuri’s ever heard. “Then, if that’s the case, I’ll wait with you until you decide.”´

So I really love @beanpots Day and Night AU…on that note, I also really enjoyed

Of Cloudless Climbs and Starry Skies series - Maiden_of_the_Moon

Onwards!

Red Square on Ice - Naraht

Before the Rostelecom Cup, Yuuri and Victor go skating on Red Square, and Yuuri gains some insight into what it’s like being the hero of Russia.

Victor being the legend and Yuuri having to deal with his feeling over it. Really great Yuuri introspection.

Instagram is Not an Ice Rink - ladanse

Phichit’s phone buzzes. christophe-gc has posted a new photo, it tells him. When he thumbs the screen, it brightens to reveal a shot of Christophe Giacometti, lounging on a bench, wearing nothing but a Speedo and his skates. greetings from your local king of selfies, says the caption.

Phichit doesn’t actually know Chris - not personally. He has nothing to prove. But Phichit is also, categorically, a competitive little shit, and he knows he can do better.

So it begins.

The instagram fic we deserve!

i’ve been up nights making you my god - kevystel

The flight is twelve hours and Yuuri sleeps the whole time, head on Viktor’s shoulder, hand curled in Viktor’s jacket pocket underneath their shared blanket, earbuds buzzing a quiet insect harmony in the space between their throats. Viktor snores. Yuuri drools.

(Or, Viktor Nikiforov is very much in love and doesn’t know how to deal with it)

Really lovely characterization and relationship portrayal, as usual.

patinage - silvermyth

“Yuuri…” Victor knelt in front of him, and Yuuri hissed in pain when Victor pulled one battered foot into his lap. “How long have you been a skater, hm?” It was chiding, but Victor’s hands were gentle as he inspected tender blisters and welts. “How are you supposed to skate your best when your feet are in such a poor state?”Yuuri shifted uncomfortably. “It’s nothing…”Victor’s hands stilled around Yuuri’s ankle and his face grew serious. “Yuuri. If you’re to win the Grand Prix Final, you’ll need to be at your best.” He gave Yuuri’s ankle a light squeeze. “That includes this.”

Really soft and sweet fluff with wonderful characterization and just a lot of details I really love.

your love is my turning page - cityboys

Victor and the hours he spends waiting, reflecting and figuring things out.

Set parallel to Episode 9.

Another episode 9 from Victor’s perspective fic. I love all the interactions between Victor and Yuuri’s loved ones. Also, Victor properly learning about Vicchan like I always wanted.

lie to make me like you - cityboys

It’s become a game, of sorts, to anyone privy to the fact that the pattern exists in the first place: ask Victor out at the beginning of the month, date for however many days, and wait for the end to come and for Victor to say, always: I couldn’t fall in love with you. Let’s break up.Or, Victor is a retired actor looking for love, and Yuuri happens to be the (un)fortunate soul to unwittingly ask him out at the beginning of the month. Except relationships don’t come with a script, and it’s much harder understanding love than roles.

I know (and like) what this is based on. It also involves the entertainment industry (I’m biased) so I clicked this thinking “alright, impress me”. And it really did.

#KissOrHug - Aurum

Yuuri and Victor make #Victuri trend worldwide. Phichit accidentally makes it worse.

Another Phichit + social media fic I really enjoy, especially with how it translates that particular fandom debate to in-universe terms. The interactions with the other skaters are all so good.

Unspoken - daretoliveforever

“You see Yuuri, when your soulmate says something about you, like a compliment or a special message, their words will appear on your skin.“

Soulmate AU where Yuuri is mute and soulmate marks are dependent of spoken words.

Help I love soulmate AUs. This fic just…really got to me. Especially the ending.

Stay Close to Me - dasedandconfuzed

At the Grand Prix Final, Yuuri misses the podium by fractions of a point. Embroiled in a skating controversy, he tells himself he’ll prove his worth in the World Championships, but there’s a long time in between.

Or: Vicchan lives.

Very lyrical and dynamic prose and just a wonderfully written Yuuri.

like your french girls - ebenroot

“Victor,” Yuri begins, lowering the eighteenth sketch of the figure skater Victor drew this week, “you have a fucking problem.”

–

in which Victor is an artist, Yuuri is his figure skating muse, and Yuri is so done hearing about their stupid love story through Instagram

While this fic was updating I kept the tab open and would refresh it every day to see if there was a new chapter. I don’t know, something about this fic just really got to me, I really love it.

all the world’s a stage - braveten

Everyone has a guilty pleasure.

For Yuuri, it just happens to be romance movies starring famous heartthrob Victor Nikiforov.

(And, honestly, on the spectrum of guilty pleasures, he figures that his on the far, far more innocent side.)

I’m weak for entertainment industry AUs, ok?

Kono Kanji - SuggesttiveScribe

“I’m trying to write this message in Japanese, but my phone is suggesting all these kanji and I don’t know which one is correct…”Yuuri took a few steps toward Viktor, sinking down to his knees directly behind him as not to bother the inhabitants on either side. He gently placed his hand on Viktor’s shoulder, steadying himself as he peered over it and scanned the message displayed on Viktor’s phone screen.“Oh, you’re writing my name.”

I can’t contain my love for language barrier explorations and for this fic in general. Just…just wonderful!

Deluded - SuggestiveScribe

“Say Yuuri,” he began, gently brushing off the legs of his slacks, “do you know much ballroom?”“Uhm, well,” Yuuri was wringing his hands now, suddenly overflowing with anxious energy, “Just the very basics that helped with skating. It was mostly ballet for m–”Viktor extended his hand where he stood, arm and fingers outstretched and beckoning to Yuuri, “Then you know how to waltz.”

My favourite Victuuri fic that involves dancing.

The next set of fics are still on-going but I’m enjoying them a lot so far.

expomise - thankyouforexisting

Expomise: a transformation spell that bonds two objects together./ Yuuri is at Hogwarts. So is everyone else./“Hey,” Yuuri dares to say, voice low, “Maybe we should write this down…?”“Oh,” Victor blinks in surprise at him, his long fingers wrapped around a long dark brown wand, “Sure, you can take notes.”Pause. Yuuri doesn’t really want to say anything, but he powers through. He’s going to make new friends and be more outgoing, he has to. “Aren’t you gonna do it, though? Do you have a really great memory?”The boy stares at him as if he’s from another planet, “I’m Victor Nikiforov.”

Yuuri stares back, uncomprehending, “Yeah, you have a cool name.”

“No, I mean,” Victor purses his lips, frowning in confusion, glancing to check if their Professor’s looking at them, “I’m like, Victor Nikiforov.”

Switched - GhostsOnSaturn

Soulmates AU where your consciousness occasionally swaps places with that of your soulmate for varying amounts of time.

Katsuki Yuuri was just six years old when it first happened. He had been minding his own business, quite happily drawing an interesting rendition of a bird perched outside his window, and had blinked only to find himself somewhere completely different.He let out a shout of alarm - but it wasn’t his voice - and all of a sudden, feet that were far too big to be his slipped out from underneath him and he found himself lying on something very hard, and very cold.

Strut - Panny

All Victor had ever wanted was to skate on the same ice as his idol, Yuuri Katsuki, as an equal. All Yuuri wanted was to be a figure skating hermit and ignore the world.

And if neither of them could have what they wanted? Well, maybe that was for the best.

Dear Yuri - Kei on Ice (Maki_Kei), Mr_Beans

After winning a gold metal at the Grand Prix Final together as coach and student, Viktor and Yuuri decide to settle down and start careers as coaches under Yakov. The classes they coach range anywhere from singular, experienced students, to a regular group of small children from a nearby orphanage. But when the orphanage brings along a young, stubborn, blond Yuri with determination in his eyes and fire in his step, he quickly seizes hold of Viktor and Yuuri’s hearts.

Bear Your Soul on the Ice - SassySalchow (diedraechin)

At age fourteen, Katsuki Yuuri had been determined to be Japan’s next great figure skating hope, but with no coach that would never happen, so his ballet instructor packs him up off to Russia to train with Yakov Feltsman. The Yakov Feltsman, otherwise known as the coach to rising figure skating star – and Yuuri’s idol – Viktor Nikiforov.

urgent need of gravity - Hitsugi_Zirkus

“Yuuri,” Phichit waved the magazine in front of his face, “you collect every single magazine that Viktor is in, have his spreads on your wall, follow his fashion tours online, and probably fantasize about seductively applying his lipstick. I say, what do you have to lose?”

Yuuri opened his mouth. Closed it. Then he reached out and snatched his magazine back. How the hell did Phichit know about that fantasy anyway?

OR,

AU in which Yuuri is a make-up artist working in a small salon when he’s suddenly invited to work for big time fashion brand Stammi Vicino right alongside its top male model, Viktor Nikiforov, and love isn’t all glitter and perfectly-winged eyeliner.

BONUS! The following fics are my “Hotel Scene Fix-it” collection, AKA “every fan depiction of that scene is better than what we got” collection

Of Glass and Gold - smudgesofink

“Just hear me out,” Yuuri presses. He can feel heat burning behind his eyes and he grits his teeth, fighting back the tears. If he cries now, Victor will be too occupied with comforting him to actually pay attention to what he’s saying. “I want you to be happy.”

“I am,” Victor grounds out, confused and hurt. “I’m happy with you. What even gave you the idea that I’m not?“

“Because I’m never going to win gold!” Yuuri shouts. His words echo like a gunshot, and the silence that follows it is haunting.

(In which Victor is gold–magnificent, breathtaking, brilliant–and Yuuri is glass–transparent, thin, breakable.)

when the walls come down - mori (cityboys)

Being with Yuuri, sometimes, is like a game of tug-of-war.

I Live to Let You Shine - philatos

“I’m making you give up on yourself just so I can keep you with me. I don’t think I could live with myself if I did that, Victor”

“You didn’t make me give up on anything. I chose to come here, to do this. I chose you, Yuri.”

“Yeah well, maybe you shouldn’t have.”

let’s not talk of endings when we’ve just begun - silver_atalanta

“Oh my Yuuri,” Viktor says, as gently as he knows how. “What’s happened? What is making you say this?”

that would be enough - arduous_ardor

“After the final, let’s end this.” These words flow through Victor like ice, and Victor struggles to understand the self-doubt which threatens to destroy Yuuri from the inside out.

And that’s it for now. That got long. Again,sorry for the wait and thank you for your patience.

#mamsaphet #fic recs #yuri on ice #replies

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popculturedruid · 7 years

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How would you recommend finding out more about an entity when the source material is very vague, limited, and not very popular? I'm trying to figure out a pantheon based on the Great Ones from Bloodborne, but information about pretty much all of them is few and far between. Also, I have trouble meditating due to literal ADHD, do you have any ideas for how to concentrate better? Thank you so much, your blog is lovely!!

Aww, thank you so much! That means a lot!

This is such a good question. I wanted to take some time here again to really answer this one to give you a proper answer. That’s why it took me a bit to get back to you.

I understand your frustration here. It is very frustrating to look for information about your desired entity and find little to nothing. I looked up Bloodborne just to see what we were getting at, then quickly realized I was going to give myself spoilers because I probably wanted to play this game. :)

From the bit that I let myself get a look at, the Great Ones pantheon immediately reminds me of the Daedra from the Elder Scrolls games. Not in such basic terms as good and evil, but simply from the scope of multiple forms, alternate planes, and just generally screwing with people. There is a fairly large group of Tamriel PCPs on Tumblr, it might be worth a look to check into see how they structure their relationships for ideas to maybe start your own. I’m going to refer you over to @popculturepagan who has a tag on Elder Scrolls PCP. Not saying you need to go that way at all, I’m just trying to show you another pantheon that’s a bit more established that might give you some ideas to help you get yours started!

It appears the direct reference for the Great Ones is H.P. Lovecraft and his “Great Old Ones.” You have undoubtedly heard of Cthulhu. Cthulhu is just a high priest to one of them. Many folks make Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones out to be chibi, but if you read the stories, they’re actually quite terrifying. If you haven’t read the stories, and you’re still itching for more Bloodborne, the best place to go would be for the inspiration for the Great Ones: Lovecraft’s stories. He wrote many, but you can get the stories that just contain the ones with Cthulhu. I think they would also mostly include the Great Old Ones in those as well. His stories are just great in general, however. From these stories of the GOO (I got tired writing that out :P), you could probably pick up a bit more on the general characteristics of your GOs.

I would also encourage you to search through fanfiction. I have called fanfiction our weird version of Shared Personal Gnosis. If the community in general kinda feels a certain way about a character, they generally might be on to something.

For instance, everyone is probably going to say that Luke Skywalker seems like a pretty swell guy. He’s not likely to go nuts anytime soon (I would though, all alone on that planet, let’s be real). If someone writes a version of Luke that runs around murdering all the things for the lolz, people are generally going to disagree.

(That’s not to say you can’t end up contacting a different version of that entity, but that’s getting into something different, and that’s where the theory of multiverses comes into play. And how @octomantra and I have two different Eds in our heads.)

You might point out again that this is a small community still, and a character being out of character this early on is not going to be as obvious as Luke running around killing all the younglings. But I hope you would start to see a trend in how others are viewing this world as well, even if they aren’t viewing it in the exact same way. It’s still getting built.

Here’s the link to the Archive of Our Own Bloodborne Tag: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Bloodborne%20(Video%20Game)/works

Fanfiction.net:https://m.fanfiction.net/game/Bloodborne/

I also noticed there is a huge crossover community at FF.net. Not sure if that really would mean much to you, but here you are:https://m.fanfiction.net/crossovers/Bloodborne/12234/

As for your question about ADHD and meditating, I feel your pain here. I have this, and it takes a lot for me to focus. To get my brain even in the mindset I say the Jedi code about 3 times until my brain realizes we’re going to just STOP for a second. And this takes a sheer force of will to get it to stop and focus. For a moment. It’s fine if you can’t, I’m lucky if I can for about 30 seconds before my brain is on to whatever else I thought I needed to do next.

In answering your question, however, I realized that for me if I truly want to meditate and reach out to my entities I have to create a place in my head where I’m going. It can’t just be “breathe in, breathe out.” Then my brain starts going, “wait, am I doing the breathing right? Wait, is my mind wandering? Wait, I’m still the only person in this room, right?” Even though I know damn well I’m the only person in the room because I would have heard it, but my brain just thinks, “ooh, shiny!” And I’m gone.

If I want to actually talk to my people for more than 10 seconds I have to create a place in my head for me to actually be standing in. You would think it’d be more distracting, but apparently once I’m out of how distracting this world is I’m fine. The other place can’t be too detailed either though, otherwise I’m like, “hey, I got to get closer to that countertop because I don’t know what color it is EXACTLY, and if I don’t know right now, I may literally die.” Forget the fact I’m talking to someone, nope, I’m gone.

You will fail sometimes, and it will be fine. I do it frequently enough. I usually don’t go into meditation to talk to my entities, I just talk out loud. I suppose this could be a talking meditation if I’m focusing hard enough. This doesn’t always work. I have a particularly amusing memory of trying to pseudo meditate/talk to tell Colonel Mustang “happy birthday, Colonel” and “it is good to meet you” in Japanese on his birthday. I’d only been learning the language for 3 days. I had worked fairly hard to get to this point, so I was fairly proud of myself. Colonel Mustang had been grumpy all day, and I had a fairly good idea why. So I thought, “hey, let’s try to greet him in the language his original materials were printed in to see if it will cheer him up.” It did, for about 30 seconds, until my brain completely derailed because I knew one of the words wasn’t translating properly. I spent the next at least 20 minutes tracking the problem until I somewhat figured it out. By then though, the damage was done. He was back to being irritated, and I got the distinct impression he wouldn’t even look at me. At the time, I was disappointed. Now, it’s funny because I realize he was throwing a hissy fit. (The chaos in my head, right now.)

So, as silly as it sounds, make a happy place. A field in the middle of nowhere, a snowy plain, your favorite movie, a library, the actual area your characters are from, wherever. Create the starting place, but let the world build itself. That’s what I do. I don’t build it. I let it happen. It’s less stressful, and less distracting.

It sounds insanely difficult, but it’s not. We don’t let our imaginations run free anymore, but when we do, it’s beautiful.

Besides building your happy place, I also try to minimize distractions by going into a room where I won’t be disturbed by someone for at least a fair bit of time. I have to make sure the room is straightened first. It doesn’t have to be absolutely cleaned, but just tidied first or I can’t concentrate on anything other than, “did you just invite your friends over to a pig sty?” I turn off the lights. I get into comfortable clothing, which for me is just sweatpants and a hoodie. I get into a comfortable position, it doesn’t matter if it’s sitting or laying down, hell it can be standing if it’s what works for you. Just make sure you can stay in it without having to move. I like lighting a candle, because candles. I pull up my hoodie and just start zoning and talking. I focus on a place right behind my eyes, oddly enough. It actually slightly hurts, but I’m assuming it’s because I have strabismus, and I’m making my eyes go straight. I actually caution against falling asleep in this state. I have done it a couple times, and it’s like you bring things back from whatever gate you didn’t close. I have had the oddest dreams while falling asleep mid-meditation. That’s just me. Maybe you’ll find something else. :D

If and when you decide to get your practice started, whether with the Great Ones or whomever, and if you create a Tumblr, please let me know. Or even if you just create anything let me know so I can have a link for the next person who comes asking. This community only gets bigger when we reach out to each other! I am super happy to see new universes get people everyday. It’s super exciting!

Best of luck! I hope I helped a little, and please, please, please let me know if you have any more questions!

#anon ask #pc pagan #pc paganism #pop culture pagan #pop culture paganism #pop culture paganism philosophy #pagan adhd #soulbonds #multiverse

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