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pastel-peach-writes · 5 months

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bro I love your storys so much😭especially the catvi ones lol just wanted to ask if it was possible since it's winter time, to write a Christmas special with Caitlyn and vi× reader where it's snowing and they're decorating for Christmas and opening presents n'all that holiday related stuff,i would really really appreciate it, idk if it's such a good idea tho lol,but the end of the day it's your choice if you wanna write it or not , and again I love your works,keep doing what your doing,it's literally god work😭🙏

HIII ANON! I love this idea! For those who don't celebrate Christmas, I will be making a more vague/winter headcanons post to make sure everyone is included in some way possible. Happy holidays and New Year to everyone!

Merry Christmas (Ya Filthy Animal) | CaitVi Headcanons

╰┈➤ PLOT: Headcanons of CaitVi spending Christmas with you!

╰┈➤ WARNINGS: Not Proofread, Sapphic Fluff, No Use of Y/n, Mention of Modern AU

⍣ ೋ Enjoy!⍣ ೋ

– One thing about babygirl Vi is that she absolutely loves Christmas.

– When she was younger and with her parents, they did occasional Christmas activities, but nothing serious. Then with Vander and Powder, Vi tried to keep the Christmas spark alive for her sister, but eventually, the two of them lost the Christmas spark as they grew older.

– Despite wanting to rekindle her love for Christmas, Vi never had the time or resources to (ya know, being in prison and all).

– So, with you and Caitlyn, she gets to act like a kid again.

– She forces you guys awake super early on a weekend to get a real Christmas tree, cider or hot cocoa, and to shop for some decorations.

– Caitlyn's a casual enjoyer of Christmas.

– Her family celebrated, but celebrating to the Kirammans meant fancy and stuck-up dinners, stiff Christmas dresses, and getting clothes you didn't like as a child.

– Caitlyn much preferred the romanticization of Christmas like baking cookies, taking your partner(s) out into the snow to dance in the streets, reading by the fire, and listening to Christmas songs while decorating the house.

– Also, the Kirammans believed in fake trees to avoid mess and hired someone to decorate the house once they felt Cait was old enough to remember decorating for Christmas. (so like, age 8 is when they began to hire people).

– You can imagine Caitlyn's worry when Vi first brought up chopping down a tree and dragging it into the house.

–– In Vi's words, the trees you see before the tree farm are better in height, thickness, and smell.

A grunt came from the buff pinkette. She lodged her axe into the tree's thick bark, barely making a scratch. "I'm sure, Cupcake. Come on, I've seen movies about this."

"Oh, yeah? And how did that work out for them?" you chimed.

Vi let out a sarcastic laugh. "It went just fine." – –

– After the initial shock was gone and pine droppings were scattered throughout the house, Caitlyn found herself buzzing with excitement. Vi was right. The smell of pine-scented ornaments and sprays was nothing compared to the real thing.

– Just don't tell Vi that.

– When it comes to decorating the house and the tree, you guys have a routine and assigned roles.

– Vi gets the tree, brings it in, and sets it up. You two help her of course. When everything is set up, Caitlyn goes to bake the cookies you guys made last night, Vi cleans up the tree mess (and hides the damage she made on the floors), and you start decorating the mantle.

– When your jobs are completed, you gather to decorate the tree together.

– Each year someone is assigned to put the star on top of the three. This year, it's your turn!

– Vi is a person who puts the star on before the tree is decorated while Caitlyn likes to do it last. As for you, you do whatever makes you happy.

– If you do it before, Vi cheers while Caitlyn recoils in playful disgust.

– If you do it after, Vi will try to coax you into putting the star on top but fails each time. When you finally put the star on the tree, Caitlyn sighs out of relief and takes a step back to admire the tree.

– More like a modern AU of things, VI LOVES HOME ALONE. One is her favorite, and the others are irrelevant to her.

– She wants to name a future child, or pet, Kevin, but you and Cait won't allow her.

– Naming someone, or something, that name puts them up for failure. You already have a rambunctious scamp named Vi, you don't need another named Kevin.

– As for presents, you guys like to do stockings, gift exchanges, and your own gift trade.

– In your household, one person is responsible for the other's stocking. Exp: you would have Cait's, Vi has you, and Cait has Vi,

– Though you guys try to keep it a secret, who had who is obvious. Caitlyn likes to gift thoughtful and useful gifts for the stocking stuffers, Vi just does whatever makes her laugh and what reminds her of y'all.

– One year, Caitlyn got a porcelain broken witch's shoe. The reason? The witch shoe reminds Vi of Caitlyn's heels and the broken part reminds Vi of the one time Cait stubbed her toe so hard that she misshaped the toe of her shoe.

– Vi laughed so hard she was redder than Santa's suit. Meanwhile, Caitlyn looked like she swapped faces with the Grinch.

– As for gift exchanges, Caitlyn's "uppy tighty rich" friends host a Christmas party each year.

– You three dominate the competition by bringing the best and worst gifts ever.

– The worst gifts are funnier ones, courtesy of Vi, and the better gifts you three brainstormed on and spent hours shopping for. (Sorry, Vi)

– Each year, the gifts are a hoot and Vi is thankful at least one of Caitlyn's friends knows how to season food.

– As for your own gifts, you each set a price range for individually bought gifts. This way, you can buy a partner a lot of cheaper gifts or one really big one.

– You three also set out separate times to go shopping in pairs to buy gifts.

– So, you and Vi would go shopping to get a shared gift for Caitlyn, the same with you and Cait for Vi, and then Vi and Caitlyn for you.

– The budget for those gifts is kinda all over the place, but you each have an idea of the price range because you know what the other gifts are.

– On the big day, you three start by changing into your matching PJs, if you haven't fallen asleep in them already, washing your faces together, and herding into the kitchen.

– In the kitchen, Vi is in charge of making breakfast pancakes. She's not in charge because she's good or anything, no. Instead, she's in charge because she tries to make the pancakes holiday-shaped but fails miserably.

– You and Caitlyn take joy in guessing what shape the pancake is supposed to be.

– You focus on the other aspects of breakfast like the meat, eggs, grits or rice, etc. Whatever you see fit, you make.

– This leaves Caitlyn to make the hot drinks which is more like an unspoken rule.

– When the three of you first moved in together, you and Vi would make Caitlyn's coffee for her because she had long nights and early mornings. This would be one thing to take off her morning list, right?

– WRONG.

– With each new attempt, the coffee always came out wrong to Caitlyn.

– At first, the mistakes made sense.

– "Vi, I'm chewing grounds in my coffee." "Darling, this is Earl Grey, not coffee."

– But once you and Vi got the hang of things, her reasons got nitpicky.

– "This roast isn't dark enough." "Too dark." "Is this decaf?" "Is this even the right brand of coffee?"

– Eventually, you and Vi studied her when she made her coffee and jolted the recipe down. But, even following her routine to the exact "T" wasn't good enough.

– – "You know what?" Vi huffed, tossing down the spoon she used to scoop the coffee beans. "I don't want to do this anymore. Day in and day out, we always get her 'order' wrong. I don't think it's worth the extra hour of getting up."

With a heavy sigh, you stare into the empty mug you held. Deep down, you knew Vi was right but you both agreed to take on the challenge and to one day give Caitlyn her perfect cup of joe. It couldn't be the end already...

It's only been a year and 36 days!

"Yeah," you said putting the mug back in the cupboard. "Maybe we're not good coffee makers, Vi." Vi slung her arm around your shoulders, grinning proudly.

"I'm fine with that, Muffin. Are you?"

Feeling some sort of accomplishment stir inside you, you nod and match her grin. "Yeah, actually. Like you said, we get an extra hour of sleep back."

45 minutes later, Caitlyn woke up to no coffee on her nightstand. Relief washed over her and she smiled after coming to. Finally, the war was over.

Caitlyn could make her coffee and have her mornings to herself before going to work.

Here's a little secret about Caitlyn: she didn't want you guys making her coffee in the first place. Her coffee was the one thing she had to control over on weekdays. She didn't want anyone else taking that from her. – –

– Since then, Caitlyn has been in charge of making her own coffee and other hot drinks on Christmas day.

– After eating breakfast and trying to guess the shapes of pancakes, you three gather in the living room and open up stockings.

– Of course, Caitlyn already has the fireplace on and Christmas music playing softly in the background.

– As for opening the actual gifts, Cait's the type to open them up carefully and precisely. Vi is as violent as Jinx when it comes to opening up her wrapped gifts.

– Vi likes to say, "No way!" or laugh really loudly when she gets a gift she wasn't expecting.

– Caitlyn's smile takes over her face, her eyes beaming. Her cheeks get pink as she realizes you and Vi pay more attention to her than she thought and then she says a sheepish "thank you".

– It happens every year and you wouldn't change it for the world.

– When you open your gifts, the girls cling onto each other and giggle when you open a gift they said you weren't getting.

– "HA! Bet you thought you weren't getting that, huh, Muffin?" "That is the right one, yes? We knew you wanted it for a while."

– If they ever remember to get a camera, they forget every year, they take pictures of your sweet face and cute cheeks when you open up your gifts.

– People's hearts and bodies typically warm up after having something hot, but Vi and Cait's warm at the sight of your smile and pure joy.

– Your essence and feeling is the only thing that can't be captured with a photograph, but Caitlyn and Vi are grateful to experience it first hand.

WC: 1,730

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layla4567 · 5 months

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Until the birds stop singing 🐦

Young!Coriolanus!Snow x OC!Fem!reader

Summary: Soleil come from district 8, the textile district and she have been chosen for the hunger games. When she hear her name she hesitates whether to approach or not but since she have no other option she go up to the podium. What the girl don't know is that from the screen sapphire eyes are observing her carefully, wondering if she will be his tribute or not. Warnings: Everything is probably too inaccurate with the Hunger Games universe because I have no fucking idea what the movies are about, I've never seen them, sorry!-- I have a lifeguard complex so Coriolanus may not be such an asshole in this fic-- the typical "i can fix him" (no you can't)-- first time using an OC and not Y/N-- basically Soleil replaces Lucy--not proofread--english isn't my first language--injuries and blood--spoilers I think Wc: 4.6k

divider not mine, credits to whom it may apply (I don't remember the user, sorry)

Coriolanus was with his body upright and tense in his seat, staring at the screen and trying to maintain a calm breathing. Next to him, Sejanus looked at him askance, but his classmate didn't return his gaze. It was an open secret that everyone was tense about the hunger games and knowing what tribute they would get, everyone wanted the prize and others needed it more than others. But Coriolanus would never admit it, he preferred to starve before saying that he needed money, he didn't want to compare himself with the poor of the district.

The screen showed people from different districts, all of them standing in rows according to their number. Some mentors had already been assigned his tribute except for Snow, he felt nervous and lightly rubbed his fingers on his thigh to calm the anxiety and stress. Suddenly the presenter put the microphone to his lips and uttered words that someone wished they didn't hear.

"From District 8, Soleil Allen!"

The young girl's blood turned cold as ice and she felt her breath hitch for a second. On the other hand, Coriolanus leaned in his chair, approaching the screen without being able to believe what he saw and heard. Soleil was behind a tall woman so the camera couldn't capture her.

"Come on Miss Allen, don't be shy and come closer"

She sighed deeply and with hesitant and trembling steps she moved away from the rows and slowly approached with almost ceremonial steps towards where the presenter was. People watched her pass as they watch a bull pass to the slaughterhouse. The closer she got, the slower her steps and the more distraught her face became. Her clothes drew attention wherever she went, you could clearly see that they were sewn by hand, for some reason she came from District 8. The camera focused on her worried face and on the screens Snow looked at her for a long time, she had soft and sweet features as a fairy, but her upward frown gave her the look of a scared puppy

When Soleil gently climbed the stairs her gaze went straight to the floor, scared and ashamed. She definitely didn't want to be there, she didn't want to be chosen, she was just unlucky.

"aww is the girl scared?"

A girl who was close to Coryo mocked Soleil, pretending to be compassionate, but her laugh sounded poisonous. Coriolanus looked at her frowning for a second and then turned his face to the screen swallowing nervously, if that girl was his tribute he would be doomed.

"Alright Soleil Allen do you have anything to say to the civilians or the camera? We are recording you right now!"

Soleil kept looking at the floor and wringing her hands like a little girl, some citizens laughed at her and others looked at her with pity. Suddenly she slowly raised her head and looked at the people and then at the camera. Coriolanus on the other side didn't know why but he felt that those eyes were looking only at him. Soleil's eyes showed regret and pain like those of a sheep in danger. Suddenly she approached the presenter and looking at him begged him.

"Please take care of my mother, she is alone…please"

The girl's request and the urgency in her voice caused the presenter's charming and bright smile to fall for a few seconds. Coryo through the screen frowned in confusion while he kept looking at her. Why would she ask for something like that? Doesn't she know that's not possible? Seriously, would she be so delusional to think that someone from here would care about someone from a district? Even Coryo knew that deep down he considered the people of the districts inferior, like animals. Around the room where young Snow was sitting there was also confusion.

"Uhmm well Miss Allen I'm afraid that won't be possible, but thank you for your suggestion!"

The look of sadness that the girl's eyes expressed caused something in Coryo, a certain discomfort that he couldn't identify but the situation bothered him and he didn't know if it was because of the girl's request or because of her reaction when it was rejected. The presenter smiled again as usual and some men took Soleil by both arms, dragging her like a sack of potatoes, she moaned fearfully and looked at the camera again as if she were looking for help, and again Coriolanus felt that she was asking him for help even though she didn't know him.

Young Snow remained still in his seat watching as the girl was taken away until she was just a blurry dot on the screen. The tributes continued to be announced but Coriolanus was not paying attention, his head was somewhere else, very far away. He couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened to his tribute, he didn't even seem to notice when they announced the tribute of his friend Sejanus. For the first time Coryo felt that the situation was slipping out of his hands. He who always felt prepared for any adversity now felt like he was losing control and the games hadn't even started yet. The room began to empty little by little and only Snow was left standing in the middle of the room with his gaze fixed on the already turned off screen, even so he could continue seeing Soleil as if it were on. Sighing, he slowly walked away with languid steps and went outside.

Coriolanus Snow in his scarlet red uniform was standing in the middle of the train station alone. He had decided to receive the girl with a welcome and a white rose, a rose that he now held in his hand, turning it over thoughtfully and anxiously. After thinking about it for a while and analyzing what he had seen on the screen, he said that Soleil needed to trust someone and that someone was none other than his mentor. If he did not achieve this he risked losing the opportunity to win the Plinth Prize. Snow had to achieve a favorable and calm environment to calm the waters, she is probably scared and confused now so he will be her anchor, her lighthouse in the storm.

Meanwhile, Soleil was sitting on the floor of the train car with her knees bent up to chest height and her hands clasped in front of her legs. She had her chin buried in her knees and her gaze was empty and lost. She made great efforts not to cry, but she told herself that she was not weak or cowardly and that no matter how ugly things looked, she would always know how to find the light. Precious and sweet memories of just a few days ago came to her mind, she and her mother sewing dresses together singing happy songs of yesteryear. Or years ago when she was a girl of only 10 and her father was still alive and taught her to dance, but since she was very short she always ended up resting her feet on his while her father made her spin around until she burst into laughter. These memories were like a balm for her heart and she allowed herself to smile shyly. She looked around at the people next to her in the car, poor, dirty-looking men and women who were in almost the same situation. Their faces did not reflect any comfort or joy in all this that was happening. You couldn't even make friends because in the end in the arena it will be a pitched battle of all against all. And to be honest, even if it had been possible to establish some kind of friendly relationship with those people, she would not have been able to due to her introversion.

Suddenly a little girl looked at Soleil, at first shyly but then she smiled warmly and Soleil couldn't help but smile too. The girl approached her walking slowly due to the constant rattling of the train. When he was close enough he greeted Soleil.

"Hi!"

"Hey.."-She smiled, speaking softly.

"You're Soleil Allen right?"

"Yeah I am"

"My name is Wovey."

Now the little girl smiled with all her teeth, causing her eyes to narrow in a tender way. Soleil smiled more calmly, at least of all those people there was someone kind enough to introduce themselves.

"What a cute name"

Wovey seemed delighted and thanked him while bowing slightly.

"Why did you say about your mother?"

Soleil's smile faded little by little as she remembered her little "speech" and she became sad when she remembered her mother. The girl had a huge heart and great compassion and she couldn't think about anything other than that her mother was okay. Since her father left, the two of them had learned to be alone and take care of each other and Soleil couldn't imagine how empty her mother must feel now without her by her side.

"I- well...uhm.."

Soleil's eyes felt wet again and she looked away so they wouldn't see her crying, she hated crying in front of everyone. Wovey's face turned serious, fearing that he had made a mistake by asking that question.

"Come Wovey, leave her alone"

A man in a beret took the girl's hand and led her away from Soleil until he returned to her side and sat with the boy. As the train shook faster and faster, announcing that it was about to reach its destination

Young Snow grew impatient as he waited for the carriage and turned the rose faster and faster between his fingers. Suddenly a familiar beep woke him up from his daydreams and he saw the train loaded with passengers stopping right in front of his eyes. The young blonde tensed and adjusted the folds of his suit. A peacekeeper grabbed his hand on the car door and roughly slid it open. A few people got out, men and women of different ages. Coriolanus looked frantically around the train car hoping to find you. When I was beginning to lose hope, a somewhat short and thin girl with short brown hair down to her collarbones emerged from the car cautiously. She walked with slow but elegant steps, looking at everything around her in surprise as if she were on another planet. The peacekeeper snorted irritably and impatiently.

"Are you getting off the train or not? I don't have all day."

Soleil blushed embarrassed by the reprimand and nodded timidly. First he sat on the wagon and then jumped down, bending his legs and shaking his clothes. Coryo, who was a few meters away from her, noticed that she was even prettier in person than what the cameras showed. Her clothes seemed timeless, a shirt with long, puffy sleeves that left her shoulders exposed, a tight corset tied towards the front adorned her chest and highlighted her waist and hips, the flowered pattern looked like a rustic fabric. At the bottom she wore a long soft pink skirt that reached just above her knees and on her feet she wore simple brown boots. Yes, you could definitely tell that girl was pretty. Young Snow saw that the girl was looking everywhere lost trying to look for someone, when she was about to walk away he walked in her direction calling her.

"Soleil Allen, wait!"

The tribute turned around abruptly upon hearing her name and among the crowd of people she saw a mop of platinum blonde hair and beneath that hair the bluest eyes she had ever seen in her life. A tall boy dressed in red approached her confidently, pushing his way through the crowd. Who was that handsome and distinguished boy who had called his name? What did hers want? Despite being a girl who does not think badly of people, at first a small distrust settled deep inside her being.

Now the rose that Coriolanus was holding began to tremble slightly in his hand at the side of his body, he had made a little speeches about what he would say to his tribute but now when he had it in front of him and looked into her eyes he fell silent and his mind remained silent. in white. If he had the bluest and most crystalline eyes, she had the brownest eyes I had ever seen, almost the color of honey, or the golden sun when reflected in the water. And her thick, long eyelashes seemed to simply complete her look. He suddenly felt his palms sweat, and he wished she didn't notice.

"I'm Coriolanus Snow, welcome to the Capitol"

The boy raised his arm and brought the flower to her face. Soleil's face transformed completely, first she frowned in confusion and then her face relaxed until her lips formed a big smile. She inhaled the perfume of the rose with her eyes closed, even though it was not open, the smell was still sweet. Coriolanus seemed relieved that he liked the white rose and smiled softly as well. Soleil opened her eyes by gently batting her eyelashes and looked at the blonde boy.

"Thank you very much, it's beautiful"

Soleil tilted her head, still smiling, and lovingly massaged the petals of the fragile rose. Snow couldn't stop watching her movements, always delicate like those of a princess and smiled even more, something inside him tingled and for a moment he forgot what he really thought about the people of the districts. But he decided to suppress those thoughts and emotions that he didn't know where they came from and he didn't want to find out, the people of the districts were still inferior to him, this was just a gesture to gain the trust of his tribute… right?

"Umh maybe you don't know it but I'm your mentor, I'll help you win the hunger games"

"To win? and how exactly?"

"Well with strategies I guess, we'll see about that later"-He tried to look confident but quickly scratched his neck.

Soleil nodded when suddenly two uniformed men grabbed her by both arms, lifted her off the ground and took her away, leaving Coryo surprised and confused. She kicked and screamed while in the air without her feet touching the ground. In the midst of all the commotion she dropped the rose into her hands. Young Snow rushed to grab it and chased after the men.

"Stop! Don't take her, I'm her mentor!"

Other peacekeepers quickly did the same with the other tributes. They were dragged as if they were light as feathers and were pushed onto a garbage truck-like transport. Screams and commotion echoed in the air and deafened Coryo's ears but he followed your trail closely. He couldn't lose his last ticket to win the prize. At a time when the men dispersed to catch more tributes Coriolanus quickly climbed onto the truck and entered without hesitation. The doors closed and before he realized it he was already fully in the lion's den. Soleil was scared to see his mentor there, his bright clothes made him see a red ant in the middle of warm and dark colors. Soon the other tributes rose from their seats or the floor and looked at him with frowns. Soleil was afraid that they would do something to the blonde boy so before anyone else could move she approached him.

"Why did you get on the transport? You shouldn't be here!"-She said with a thin voice

"Well, I'm your mentor, I can't leave you alone…"

Coryo's gaze moved nervously around the place and became more uncomfortable when he saw that a robust guy was approaching dangerously towards him.

"And who is this clown?"

Young Snow was going to say something but Soleil quickly did it for him.

"He's my mentor, he's supposed to help me win the games."

After saying that, the girl quickly realized that she made a serious mistake. Now others will think she was cheating or something like that. She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip, wishing the earth would swallow her. The other tributes looked at her offended and murmurs of disapproval arose. The sturdy guy behind her moved even closer to Coriolanus and pushed Soleil away with his arm, which displeased the mentor.

"So the rich kid is going to help the 8 win huh? And what the fuck is going on with the rest of us?"

The man had Coryo cornered against the wall, yet he cleared his throat and did his best to maintain a calm attitude.

"I promise you that everyone will have a mentor who will help you"

The guy laughed sarcastically, looking at the others who also started laughing as if Coryo had made a great joke. Suddenly the robust man turned around to look at him, this time completely serious, and grabbed him by the lapels. Soleil, scared, put a hand on the boy's arm, trying to calm him down to no avail.

"Well, I think the pretty boy is lying."

Before anyone could say anything Coriolanus received a strong punch in the face, leaving his lip split and bloody. As if a spring had been activated in her system, Soleil shouted No! and with one jump he climbed onto the back of the man who had hit his mentor. She clung to him like a circus monkey and placed her hands on his head and eyes, preventing him from seeing or moving.

"Leave him alone!!"

The man turned and made great efforts to get the girl off of him but it was useless, she held on tightly as if her life depended on it. Coryo, recovering from the shock of the blow, looked at his tribute with amazement and some admiration. He began to think that maybe you weren't so weak and useless. Soon the other tributes approached helping their companion and trying to remove Soleil and without thinking it all turned into a small fight because Coriolanus separated the others as best he could so that they would not hurt his tribute.

Out of nowhere a strong shock like an earthquake caused everyone to fall to the ground with a thud. The transport was moving from left to right as if it were going to overturn and the people inside were pushed like potatoes towards the walls, causing several bruises. When everything seemed to get worse the door opened and everyone was thrown like garbage into a zoo. Soleil tried to grab onto something and reached for his mentor's hand, who was still clinging to the door, refusing to fall, but another jolt caused the tribute and mentor to fall silent, hitting rocks and scraping their hands as they passed. The fall was hard and the girl felt her palms burning and when she looked at them they were red and she had some cuts with blood.

Soleil felt the veins in her temples throbbing strongly and her face felt hot from the shock. Gasping and squeezing his eyes shut, she stood up slowly and unsteadily, trying to maintain her balance and figure out where she was. She shook the dust off her clothes and to her horror saw that they were locked in a kind of zoo with thick iron bars. Did they really see them as animals?

The girl with light brown, almost hazel eyes looked around at the other people who were with her. Some were still injured on the ground and were getting up as best they could or with the help of someone, but there was one thing in common, and that was that no one knew or understood why they were in that place. The young tribute looked everywhere for her mentor but gave up on that idea when she saw the girl from the train who had greeted her sitting on the floor crying with her injured knee. Soleil felt her heart sink and she didn't hesitate for a second and trotted towards where the little girl was.

"Hey, are you okay? I'm here."

Soleil carefully wiped away the tears that were rolling down Wovey's cheeks and tried to smile so that the girl would understand that everything was going to be okay…or so she hoped.

"That's it, that's better. Now, would you like to tell me where it hurts?"

Wovey with a pout pointed a little finger at her knee. Soleil moved the fabric of her skirt and saw the bruised skin. It was scratched and red and bleeding a little. She quickly tore a piece of the hem of her skirt and gently cleaned Wovey's wounds. She then improvised a bandage by wrapping the cloth around the knee. At all this Coriolanus found her tribute first after looking and searching everywhere, he saw her crouching helping the girl on the train and tried with all his might to suppress a smile but he couldn't. He decided not to get closer but watched her from afar.

"There, this should be enough."

Wovey looked at her bandaged knee and could smile, Soleil saw her finished work with satisfaction and pride. It wasn't the best bandage but at least it would help prevent the wound from opening further. The girl smiled warmly at Wovey and stroked her chin.

"I wanted to see that smile, you are very brave, you know that?"

The little girl giggled in response, which infected Soleil. Suddenly a clearing of the throat behind her surprised her and she turned around to see blue eyes looking down at her in amusement. She stood up quickly happy to see her mentor but then her smile faded when she saw Coryo's busted lip, she remembered the brute man who had hit him and frowned. Coriolanus noticed that she was looking too closely at his lips and became nervous.

"What's wrong?"

Soleil did not respond and instead placed her hands on the sides of Coryo's face and moved closer to get a better look at the wound. His first instinct was to back away but he suppressed it.

"Your lip is bleeding"-she said running her thumb slowly over the cut to which he grimaced-"I'll see if I can heal it…"

The tribute grabbed her skirt again and was about to tear the fabric when Coriolanus's firm hand stopped her.

"No! You don't need to ruin your clothes for me, besides it doesn't hurt that much"-he lied

She was going to protest but a grimace of pain prevented her. Suddenly a burning sensation in her hands reminded her that she was hurt. She looked at her palms that were red and full of dirt. Frowning in concern, Snow pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and offered to clean her hands. Coryo's eyes were on her hands but Soleil only saw his eyes. When he finished he looked up smiling satisfied and she looked down embarrassed not wanting to be caught looking at him.

"Thanks…"-she mumbled

"No problem"

Suddenly he remembered something and raised his index finger in a sign of waiting and took out of his jacket pocket the rose that had fallen earlier at the station. It was a little crushed but still just as beautiful. He looked at Soleil and gently placed it behind her ear. Her honey eyes pierced his ocean blue ones. She thought he was just being nice and wanted to gain her trust because he was her mentor and she was supposed to help him win the prize and in turn he was supposed to help her win the games. But still she couldn't help but feel a flutter in her stomach.

The sound of a microphone startled them both. A man was talking to a camera held by another man. The one holding the microphone seemed excited to broadcast live what was happening on the other side of the bars, as if the tributes were aliens who had just landed on earth. Soleil didn't like all this at all, she felt helpless and vulnerable and instinctively sought the protection of her mentor as if it were her father. She wrapped herself in his arm and clung to him like a little girl. Coriolanus Snow frowned in surprise and confusion but then he saw her scared face and placed a hand on the back of her.

The presenter was still talking to the camera when he turned around and saw Coryo. It was so easy to spot him, his clothes bright red not only because of the color but because he dressed more elegantly than the other people there.

"Excuse me, little boy, yes, yes, the blonde in red. What are you doing here young man and what is your name?"

The camera got dangerously close to Coryo who began to sweat and stutter slightly. He looked for help in his tribute's eyes but she was as mute as he was. Coryo cleared his throat and simply said

"I'm Coriolanus Snow but why don't I introduce you to my tribute, instead?"

The blonde boy pointed at Soleil with one hand and invited her to come closer to the camera. She looked at him scared but he winked at her. He knew this was the best way to start winning over the public.

"Excellent, excellent!"-exclaimed the man enthusiastically

And quickly he brought the microphone as close as the bars would allow to the girl's face.

"Tell me, you're Soleil Allen, right? The one from District 8."

Soleil swallowed and, trying not to look at the camera, answered.

"Y-yeah, it's me"

Coriolanus squeezed her arm to give her courage and to make a good impression and she thanked him with a smile.

"Oh, but what do I see here! Is that a rose you're wearing behind your ear?"

The girl blushed and quickly took off the flower and squeezed it in her hand. The man with the microphone seemed happy with the nervous gesture of the tribute.

"Oh ho ho and may I know who gave you that rose? Was it your mentor?"-he winked mischievously

Mentor and tribute were getting nervous when some children of 5 to 6 years old approached the bars to say hello, they were like angels sent from heaven to save them from the embarrassing situation. The girl approached and placed her hands on the bars.

"You're pretty"-she said to Soleil in a childish voice

Soleil Allen crouched down to the little girl's height and smiled with all her teeth.

"Thank you sweetie, so you are"

Coryo looked proudly at his tribute, with her natural charm and genuine kindness she was winning over the crowd even before the games began. The girl ran her fingers through the tribute's blouse.

"I like your clothes"

"Oh really? I made it"

The presenter looked at the camera again, smiling like never before.

"What do you think of that? Soleil Allen, the girl from 8, is tenderly earning the trust of two little children!"

Soleil looked at the boy who had his hands in his pockets.

"What's your name?"

He hesitated before answering. "I'm Pontius"

"And I'm Venus, his sister!"

"What beautiful names"-she smiled

Pontius looked at Coryo for a long time and then said innocently

"Your girlfriend is pretty"

Soleil opened her eyes and blushed as she looked at the boy. Coriolanus just smiled

"Thank you"

Soleil looked at him confused and he smiled calmly again. The presenter kept talking to the camera.

"Very well we will continue to report on the other tributes later, don't miss the 10th annual Hunger Games!"

With this the man said goodbye and left the zoo. While a peacekeeper led Coriolanus by the arm. Soleil, worried about being alone, clung to her mentor's hand. It was becoming a tug-of-war when another peacekeeper abruptly removed Soleil's hand and pushed the girl aside. Snow wanted to protest but they mercilessly dragged him out of the zoo. Soleil quickly approached the bars and gripped her hands on them as she stuck her head out through a gap.

"Will you come back? Promise!"

"I promise you"

Coriolanus's cry echoed as they took him away and Soleil felt emptier than ever, even more than when she had to leave her mother alone at home.

#oc #oc female #oc fic #the hunger games #coriolanus snow #coriolanus x oc #coriolanus x oc fem reader #fanfic #tbosas #lucy gray baird #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #tom blyth #young coriolanus snow #thg #the hunger games fanfic

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justthoughts1310 · 2 months

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ATLA and Marvel have the same misogyny

So... I've finally made it to episode 8 of Netflix's Live Action ATLA.

This may be shocking for some of you, because I wrote a post about how Netflix ATLA is misogynistic a month ago, but now I'm back again.

I specifically want to talk about the absolutely ridiculous and bullshit feminist virtue signaling that we are habitually forced to endure.

The scene I am specifcally referring to is the scene in which Katara demands that Master Pakku let's her fight. Then all of a sudden, the camera pans to all of the healers in the Northern Water Tribe (the female water benders) who stand ready to fight.

Yet, despite their immense power, they are begging this old as man for permission, instead of just doing what needs to be done.

This scene is giving... stupid. It's giving the 999th Marvel movie that NOBODY freaking wanted... okay! Does anybody remember that scene from Avenger's End Game (of course you do), in which all of the female avengers assemble, and it's one female cameo after another? I have no idea who liked this scene, but I didn't. I HATED this scene! I thought it was tacky and cringe, and I didn't understand why I felt that way.

Then in the Marvels, there's this scene in which Captain Danvers gets knocked down, and then there's this sequence starting from when she was a little girl playing softball in which she gets knocked down and gets back up.

The whole thing is soooo cringe.

It's cringe because it's heavy handed. It feels like one of those inspirational quotes you put on your wall that says something stupid like "She believed she could so she did..." or "Shero" or "Herstory".

It feels like a moment in which the male writers were like, we got to make women feel seen, so let's stop the flow of the entire movie and series and whatever is going on and have this really stupid overproduced moment in which the women look like bad asses, before we hide the women back in the background and let the real heroes (the men) take over.

All of this despite the fact that in hindsight, of all of the avengers assembled there to fight Thanos that day (both male and female, alike), Scarlett Witch and Captain Marvel were the only one's canonically strong enough to stop Thanos. Yet, we can't have that, because a man needs to be the hero.

Like stop stealing women's W's. It happens all the time in shows like Naruto, in which the most powerful kunoichi will get caught up by the most stupid insignificant thing, so that a man can end up saving her and she becomes the damsel in distress.

The narrative of women can be strong but never as strong as men because men need to be the hero is weak and tired, tell a new story!!!

Especially, because it really isn't all that true anymore. After the industrial revolution and the boom of tech, women and men's physically strengths have become increasingly more similar for decades. Why, because very few people need to carry giant logs and chop down trees to survive anymore! You don't need to be swol to complete a spreadsheet.

I digress.

My point is what these scenes from ATLA and Marvel have in common. It's the reason why they are both cringe.

Men don't see women as women who are unique human beings with our own unique desires. Therefore, male writers force powerful female characters to embody male characteristics that appeal to men.

You know all that flexing and all the abs and the sweat and the thirst trap scenes of half naked men like Thor and Captain America (even the scene with Sokka in it). Do you think those scenes are for women? Well, they are not. They are for men. Men get hard-ons for these kinds of scenes, and these scenes are specifically created for men and the male gaze.

Then they try to extend this to female characters, to show that they are feminists. However, this completely ignores the female gaze and female motivation.

The scenes really are women quietly asking for permission (not really) and then men loudly given women permissions to stand out and be powerful, but only in a way that satisfies the male gaze. Which considering the fact that men are socially conditioned to like feminine or overly sexual women, I have no idea who these scenes appeal to!!!

Like bro... read a freaking book. Learn about history!!! Real history!!! Women do not need the permission of men to be powerful, intelligent, strong, tactful or ambitious. Women have already been all of these things since the dawn of time.

Therefore, women don't need weird cameos that break up the pacing of the story or scenes of little girls playing sports, getting knocked down, and getting back up to feel seen. Women and girls do not need to be convinced that we are powerful. We already know it. We've been working in the background for centuries while men have taken credit for our labors, efforts, and endeavors.

All we need is for men to get the hell out of our way! We can see it right now with education and employment. Ever since women were allowed to attend school, women have outperformed men in education is almost every subject (and men and women are at par with each other in Math and Science). Women are also out enrolling men in college 2:1.

So instead of giving women 5 minutes of permission to be powerful in movies and shows and embuing them with masculine characterists, write a compelling female character from the beginning of the show. Develop her character as a person, who has to deal with the unique intersectionality of being a woman. Don't make her whole personality being a woman.

And if you cannot, write a compelling female character, then get a woman to do it!

End Rant. Thank you for attending my TED Talk.

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1waveshortofashipwreck · 1 day

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Do this whenever you have the time to, for the love letters could i get Skip Muck, but if you don't write for him, then our one and only George Luz, no pressure whatsoever!!

ALEXI THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!!

I've never written for Skip before but honestly I had so much fun writing this!!! Thank you for requesting (and for your patience!) and I hope you enjoy it!!! 🩷💕✨

8 May 1945

Alexi my beloved!

The Germans just surrendered! The war over here is OVER! They said we’re gonna get re-deployed to go fight in the Pacific, but if we have enough points we can go home! You get points from being wounded and how long you have been fighting, and guess who has enough points to come home to the person he loves most in this world!

IT’S ALEX PENK-

Sorry, Penk took my pen

It’s ME! I’m coming home to you Alexi! We can finally go to the soda shop together again! And play cards until 3 in the morning, and play pranks on those fuddy-duddies in your neighborhood.

So, I know that this would be better coming from me in person, but knowing I’m coming home, I can’t keep it inside any longer. Alexi, when I say I love you, I don’t just mean it as close friends. I’m in love with you. I’ve been in love with you since before I left for Toccoa, but I was too afraid to say anything. I didn’t want to say anything while I was in Europe in case anything happened to me.

I’m so scared to tell you this. If you don’t feel the same way, please just pretend I never wrote this, because to lose you as my best friend would hurt more than any hit I took during the war. Thinking about you has been the only thing keeping me going over here. My favorite memory to think about is one of the last days before I left - you and I were sitting on the roof of your house. The sky had more stars than I’d ever seen before. There was a point when I looked over at you, and you were looking up at the stars, you just looked so ethereal and wonderful. I knew then I had more than just a little crush on my best friend.

The way you are so unapologetically yourself, your compassion, your honesty, your love for shenanigans and chaos, the way we just click when we're together and the fact that you accept me just how I am are just a small part of why I have fallen in love with you. When I get home, I would be honored to take you out to dinner and a movie as more than friends, if that’s ok with you. Again, if you do not feel the same way, please just forget I ever wrote this. I would rather have you in my life as my best friend than lose you like this.

I love you Alexi, I’ll see you soon,

Skip

*scribbled at the bottom of the paper*

Please go out on a date with him, he won’t shut up about you.

Penkala

#ask #request #my writing #emily shut up #hbo war #band of brothers #love letter #love letters #hbo #easy company #i love my moots #executethyself35 #skip muck #warren muck #warren skip muck #skip muck x reader #warren muck x reader

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epicsauce · 11 months

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pleeease keep talking about toys...i think this is interesting and smth i've never thought too hard about but it makes sense and i like to hear your opinions on modern toys

(ask pertaining to this post)

holy shit okay !! i would love to ramble on so, i shall!

okay im no expert on toy sales history, this is all just observation from my life experiences and i'll try to keep each part i want to go over relatively short!

that being said lets start with a small one that i've personally noticed as a canadian: Kinder egg toys! i remember when they used to come with like 4-8+ pieces, and you needed the included step by step manual to assemble them. they would often come with sticker sheets to decorate them with, and they would often be articulated or be set on wheels or have some sort of fun or movement or general functionality to them:

dont those look awesome? wrapped in 2 kinds of chocolate, and for only like 2$! i remember they would come in all shapes and sizes, all sorts of animals and vehicles and sometimes freaky little abominations, as you can see above, and sometimes even puzzles! they were such a special treat as a kid.

but kinder eggs now? come with a maximum of like 3 pieces that just snap together (usually the front and back of the toy, and then the platform they stand on). and thats all they mostly are now, stiff toys that stand on platforms wahhooooo yippeee

idk just look at the quality difference from the old ones above compared to some of the new ones:

like..... these are..... nothing! literally nothing. just a figure snapped to a pole/platform and thats it! not very interesting for more than 3 minutes max.

now i know what you're thinking: "not ALL of the old kinder toys had to have been bangers" and you'd be right, some were lame as hell, but even the lame ones from before look more intricate than the ones we have now, like can you see what i mean, just detail-wise?

it just feels so cheap and shitty, i could go on and on but more is explained later. point is, it sucks.

anyway that's a very small example and we can move onto bigger and better ones, and maybe even one that everyone else might have noticed by now; McDonald's toys! remember when they were actually toys?

and not just stiff figurines?

(the minions franchise was like CRACK for companies who love making profit off of nothing but stiff rounded plastic. probably the cheapest form of "toy" i can think of)

and yeah, again, its not like there werent figurines back in the day too, there's ALWAYS been lame as hell mcdonalds toys, but looking among many modern mcdonalds toys, you dont see anything as cool as the old ones. literally every major modern movie/franchise right now is nothing but figurines. the most recent actually interactive mcd's toy ive seen is when they collabed with hasbro games

again, companies just seem to be pumping out quantities over quality.

but why?

well, for starters toys are becoming cheaper (both in price and quality) because prices have sky rocketed and stores are forced to only stock cheaper things, therefore the cheap things sell the most, and then more of them get made, and statistics get fucked, etc etc the cycle repeats.

but toy companies know one thing, and that's that things that are "cuter" always sell more. "cuter" being used with vitriol because their idea of 'cute' is 'more glitter and sparkles and rainbow colours and obnoxiousness' oh, and dont forget the huge soulless bug eyes on all of them!

i know that people love these things, but theyre so..... uncanny. their stare is piercing, their stance is so stiff, i always felt bad actually playing with the only one of these i had growing up, and not just because it freaked me out, it just genuinely didnt feel good to play with.

and i knoowwwww people are obsessed with these things, but come on, you have to admit theyre SO unoriginal! theyre just cookie cutter shapes!

these things are horrifying and, at best, belong on a shelf.

these "beany boos" are so woobified and almost feel like a flanderized version of a stuffed animal, and they've completely taken over "beanie babies", which were wonderful soft little things that actually had movement and weren't stiff to cuddle! I also feel like they're almost trying to copy what webkinz was, in a way, as some of those were stiff too (but still loveable and not burdened with an uncanny, vacant stare)

anyway this is getting insanely long and im sorry but i feel like im going insane every time i see new toys nowadays. the like.... "cuteification" of everything is driving me insane, and the fact that they are simply just lower quality than what we used to get, because of prices rising and causing easy-to-make things to become more and more popular.

examples to further prove these points:

extreme woobifying or "cuteification" by almost completely removing all horse anatomy in favour of thin limbs, heavy makeup eyes that are now on the front of her face, and modern influencer eyebrows. on a horse.

and the extreme-simplifying of toys can be seen quite well on those mini polly pocket sets!! see this one here?

almost allllll of those little plastic things could be rotated or rearranged or moved or fucked with in some manner, it was awesome. i loved these miniature houses they always came with so much shit. wanna guess what the newer ones look like?

you guessed it, like shit!!

man even beyblades used to come with like, all sorts of different pieces both metal and plastic alike, and you had to assemble them yourself and you could interchange pieces to obtain a different weight which would affect your attacks against other beyblades, etc etc:

and looking at them now? they seem to be mostly made of- yep, you guessed it, hard cheap plastic.

anyway holy shit i literally reached the 30 image limit on a single post tumblr really said thats ENOUGH !! i cant believe i just spent that long talking about the worlds most pointless thing but at any rate i hope you enjoyed it and i hope you see my vision. because like i said im not insanely knowledgeable on any of this in particular, but its hard not to notice the decline in quality of all of todays modern toys.

#i didnt even go off about the entire brand of toys that exist just to shit in a cup after you feed it chemical mixtures #and i literally cant ive talked soooo much on this post i need to go smoke weed and to go bed LOL #00 #03

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popculturebuffet · 7 months

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Disney 100th Birthday Special: Top 12 Disney Television Animation Shows

Happy Birthday all you happy people! And it's a very special birthday as it's the 100th anniversary of a company that, while I routinely mock on a regular basis for impaling themselves about a dozen time a year, has brought me a lot of joy. It was a 100 years ago that the wonderful world of disney began and 100 years later it's still bringing us some of the finest and funnest animation around and will likely continue for a hundred more as they create a whole disney planet serving up mickey shaped foods for all time around a disney owned star.

So before we can look forward to happiest dystopian future off earth, I thought hard about what I wanted to do for the 100th. I've covered disney a LOT on this blog: season 3 of ducktales AND the arcs for the two seasons before that, seasons 2 and 3 of both amphibia and owl house, classics like the Lion King and A Goofy Movie, a whole year worth of house of mouse reviews, shorts, various comics great and donald being pro illteracy.. the list could go on for an entire article itself.

So while I had PLENTY of options, from a shorts marathon to another movie, I decided the best way to honor this occasion was by focusing on a portion of disney near and dear to my heart: Disney TV Animation.

Way Way Back in the 1980s, DisneyTVA was formed by fresh faced executive overlord Michael Eisner. Eisner was looking to expand his new empire, and found a clever way to do it. See at the time while there were certainly good cartoons, most had the budget of a paper clip and a piece of string. It's why Disney took this long to get into the game: Walt thought he just coudln't get the quality needed on a tv budget and while he WANTED to at some point, he passed before that could happen.

Many laughed at this decision, citing it as a huge money sink waiting to happen.

Yeah critics not taking animation or kids watching it seriously isn't new and assuming they'll just watch anything is laughable. Yes low budget shows like Transformers got plenty of views... but transformers also put in high quality voice actors and intriguging designs. Take both of those and make the animation bouncier, and kids would notice.

And they did: The first Disney TVA show, Gummi Bears, was a massive success, leading to the planet sized one that was Ducktales and a whole legacy of classic shows.

There is a double edged sword here though: While most of these shows are high quality and well loved.. Disney tends to.. ignore they exist. They don't make merch, think adult and teenage fans aren't a think, and when it comes to merch don't usually tend to make it for these shows during or after their runs. There are exceptions and they are reviving stuff.. but disney has a bad habit to prefer cashing in on nostalgia than on what they have now unless it fits their narrow perameters

For me though.. Disney TVA is home to some of the best, most game changing shows in the medium. From shows I grew up with to shows that sadly just ended, Disney has made a ton of shows permeanntly embded in my heart. My doctor says I should get that removed but what does he know. At this studio are creators who are passionate, create unique works, and work very hard to stand out. Even when shows get slapped with the dreaded 2 season limits, they still stick in our hearts not just because of that nostlaagia pop disney wants, but because they were just that good and still hold up into adulthood. I've covered a lot of this library, owe my career to these shows and will never sotp being impressed by them.

So out of the 42 i've seen I whittled it down by 30 which was way harder than it sounded down to the very best. A few shows like Gargoyles I sadly just.. hadn't watched, so if something's missing it was either that or a very hard cut. Whlie the top 8 was shockingly easy, it was hard to narrow this list down to the very best. I'd also like to point out that this is my opinon: feel free to send me your own lists, i'd be curious to see how your own personal experinces shaped yours. But for now this is mine... and this is my top 12 best disney telvision animation shows.

12. The Weekenders Created by Doug Landale 2000-2004 4 Seasons, 76 episodes

Our #12 is a childhood faviorite of mine.. and also one of the two shows your most likely to hear me bitch about disney+ not having. IT'S BEEN ALMOST 4 YEARS.

But bitch complaning about disney being disney aside, the Weekenders is a charming classic that needs more eyes on it and it's weird I haven't covered frankly.

At any rate Weekenders is a slice of life show with a good yet simple hook: it follows 4 middle schoolers, Tino, Carver, Lor and Tish, as through their weekends from Friday after school to monday morning. It allows for the show to do pretty much whatever it wants, and what it wants is to be a fairly lowkey slice of life show. The only really zany element that I can remember, or that I saw in ToonrfiqTariq's excellent retrospective of the series, which you can find here, is main character Tino, a sarcastic but kind guy played by voice acting royalty James Marsden, talking to the audience zack morris style, which is really just a neat way to move things along so it's not that obtrusive. I highly recommend that retrospective by the way. Tariq is awesome and it helped jog my memory on the show.

The series is a fairly low stakes affair: our heroes have a fairly typical problem, they talk it out or deal with it as the weekend goes on, and at least once an episode they go for pizza at an ever changing pizza restraunt with a fun new gimmick each episode, something I loved already as a kid but love even more NOW as an adult knowing that gag was likely a LOT to do. Keep in mind they had to draw new backgrounds, exteriors, and a new costume for the guy running it every time. It's the kind of joke you think a series would've given up on for those reasons but nope, every episode has one.

Weekenders is a throughly charming slice of life show, helped by it's characters: In addition to tino we have the egotistical Carver (Phil LaMarr) thickheaded jock Lor (Grey DeLise) and immigrant nerd and vegtarian Tish. While the four coudl've easily fallen into their sterotypes there's just enough depth to the cast to make them work. Tish in paticular was my faviorite, not only being one of the first immigrant stories in a show I saw that was largely respectful and not just

It's a great show I genuinely wish I had more to say about. Find it somehow if you can, it's entirely worth it.

11. Phineas and Ferb Created By Dan Povmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh 2007-2015, 20XX- 129 Episodes, 2 Movies, Upcoming Revival

At a time when kids animation wasn't in the best place, Phineas and Ferb was the smash hit we all badly needed. Done by vetran creators and Rocko's Modern Life Alums, Phineas and Ferb was a fun, creative show about two boys who simply wanted to make the best out of summer... and happened to be child progidys only limited by their immgination, so they could do anything and the utterly catchy theme song helpfully outlined it. Having only watched the first three or four seasons, I still don't know if they ever found Frankensteins' Brain. It was over there.

While the a-plots with the boys were great most of the time and had a great supporting cast: Helpful scout Isabella, shrill voiced nerd Baljeet and bully turned buddy Buford, the real draw for most of us was the b-plot: each episode the boys Platapus Perry would sneak out, don a fedora and foil the plots of his arch enemy and best buddy Heinz Doofenschmirtz, an awkward mad scientest who rather than therapy decides to deal with the many, MANY traumas in his life by building various inators and talking to Perry. Their shenanigans inevitibly undo whatever our heroes did in time for their mom to never notice and just think their sister Candance needs help as she tries to bust them.

The show mostly used this loop for it's lengthy run, ocasionally mixing up the setting by visiting the kids grandparents or with a special, but it mostly went like this. This started as the shows strength as the repitition allowed them to REALLY play with the formula: lampshade it, subvert it, and play with it. Sometimes Perry would go to foil doof but it ended up being something benign like Doof trying to do a party for his Daughter or go on a date. Sometimes the boys would genuinely be trying to help Candance or she'd have her own concerns outside of bustin making her feel good. The show packed this with tons of lampshade hanging, catchy songs (after an early one made the network want it once an episode), and genuine heart. It's hard not to root for Phineas and his optimism and genuine cheer. Depsite "driving our sister insane" being a main lyric.. the kid has nothing but love in his heart for his sister and that simple goal of just wanting to do something fun or help someone each day makes this one of the sweeetest shows around.

So your probably wondering why it's so low. And it's really simple: it's constant status quo.. kind of wore it out for me. After a while there was no real reason for Linda NOT to know the boys were doing this. We never got any indication she'd care beyond "Maybe wear a helmet" or "Have candace watch you", neither of which would really STOP what they do every day. While Across the Universe was a great movie it having a MASSIVE snapback at the end is what eventually got me out of the show. It was hard to invest when the show wasn't willing to really change anything. In hindsight I do get some shows just function better as status quo shows and my bitterness has lessened and it's why this show ended up making the list: it's status quo could be frustrating.. but no one had more fun playing with it at the time than these two kids. And the hunchbacked old man what fights/is common lawed married to their platypus.

10. American Dragon: Jake Long Created by Jeff Goode Developed by Eddie Guzelian and Matt Negrete 2005-2007 2 Seasons, 52 Episodes AmDrag was part of the teen superhero boom on kids shows in the 2000's. Classics like Danny Phantom, My Life as a Teenage Robot, El Tigre and more came about at this time, with disney only dipping it's toes in twice with this show and another we'll get to soon enough.

That said.. American Dragon is an excellent show, mostly down to it's core: The show follows the titular Jake Long, a guy who on surface, from rapping part of his theme to his frosted tips to his skateboard comes off very much like an energy drink came to life and starred in it's own show. Which given the 2000's i'm very suprised never happened. But jake is somehow likeable.. he's a bit arrogant sure, but his arrogance is only in his skill: He genuinely does try his best as protector of new york, cares about his friends and cares heavily about his crush Rose. He's got a heart to him beneath the layers of axe body spray and Dante Basco's standout performance, what would easily have been his defining role as a VA had avatar not come along soon after, helps make this guy feel human.

What also helps boost it's show is it's myth arc. Like Danny Phantom a year before it, AM Drag breaks from the style of the time to have a dedicated arc and continuity. There's plenty of monster of the week stuff, some better (like the oracle twins, easily my faviorite side characters , who also have the fun gimmick of one being super cheery yet predicting horrible things and the other being jaded but seeing only good, with their powers being why (If you see every good thing that you'll ever get it makes it hard to enjoy them and if you see every possible horrible thing that happens to you, it makes the other stuff easier to swallow), some worse, and that can be a weaker part of the show.

But it's core arcs are what make the show it's most intresting. For the first season and a half we have the shows best: Jakes battles with the huntsclan, the foot clan.. if they were violent racists who slaughter magical creatures. Granted we don't SEE that on screen but the show does a good job showing us that no, that's what they are.

This itself would likely work.. but what makes it special and standout for the time it came out.. is the wrinkle they throw in: Huntsgirl, the Huntsclan's #1 guy and sidekick to the huntsman.. is Jake's crush Rose, a fairly well adjusted kind girl who simply dosen't know what she's been indoctrinated into, thinking Dragons are evil. This is a nice change of pace as at the time most relationships with teens and tweens in cartoons were either between some popular slab of cardboard of the characters best friend.

Instead Rose SEEMS to be the cardboard type.. but not only has depth outside of the hood, but the fact the audience can easily tell who huntsgirl is, Mae Whitman has a distinctive voice after all and as usual does a fantastic job only adds the tension: We know who rose is, but Jake doesn't and early on we don't know how much of her is real. And once the secret breaks we get the drama of both dealing with not only being on opposite sides but Rose realizing she was on the wrong one.

The arc after, focusing on a dark dragon isn't as strong in comparison, but it's also not entirely fair given they likely though they'd have another season and a half to wrap it up proper. That being said the series also has an interesting arc with Jake's overachieving younger sister, who goes from knowing about the dragon thing (his whole family does minus his dad for.. some reason) and showing some powers.. to being a dragon herself and often her brother's sidekick.

The show had it's weaknsesses, outside of the big bads there was never really much of an interesting Rogue's Gallery, Trixie felt a bit flat as a character, and again there was no good reason Jake's dad shouldn't know so we got stupid groundings and such. But we also got a compelling enemies to lovers arc with a lot of tension, a nice mythology, and profressor rotwood, Jakes teacher and magic hunter, a fun butt monkey for the show. It's a solid show that i'd love to see get a revivial.

9. Wonder Over Yonder Created by Craig McCracken 2013-2016 43 Episodes

Wonder Over Yonder is one of Disney's more infamous cancelations. Despite being DisneyXD's #1 show they not only barely promoted it, I wasn't aware the second season was going on till it was almost over and still need to get around to watching it, Disney cancelled it. Despite being well loved Disney cancelled it. It's not the worst cancellation on this list, that comes later, but it's still a pretty dang bad one. The fact they didn't put the show on Disney+ for some time dosen't exactly help.

Why Disney hated this show so much I'll never know as Wonder is one of the most heartfelt and creative show's disney put out. And keep in mind as I said i've only seen season 1. I know it gets even better with season 2's dedicated story arc and the introdcution of lord dominator. I've seen the musical number.

Wonder took inspiration from, of all things, dr. seuss, with Craig being an admitted fan of 60's and 70's astetics already, it just flowed naturally as we got the tail of a gentle tumbleweed whose kind and thoughtful to everyone he meets wether they desreve it or not and his tough as nails steed and best friend sylvia. The rolls are easily the best of Jack McBrayer and April Winchel's long careers, nicely contrasting each other in perfect ballance: Sylvia fights the battles wonder can't win with kindness or is too oblvious to realize he's in, Wonder wins fights simply by being too cheery and oblivious to beat.

Over their journey's they repeadtely run into our other main characters, Lord Hater, played by the awesome Keith Fergeuson, an over the top skeletial manchild who badly wants to be taken seriously but is too impulsive, stupid, and easily angered for him to actually achieve that depsite the help of Commander Peepers, his #2 and put upon lackey. Add in tons of great sets, fun scnearios and creative uses of animatoin and you have something unforgitable. McCracken really loves to play with storytelling here, from your standard genre breaks to simply taking a conventional tale like a kinight rescuing a princess.. and turn it into our heroes accidently assitating a stalking jerk and said princess easily clocking him one before they can all unite to save him. The show had so much fun with it's cast and heart in it it's really hard not to like and while it sadly ended too soon what we got... is something magical.

8. Clerks the Animated Series Created by Kevin Smith 2000 6 Episodes Like most of you are as you read this entry, I was suprised to find Disney TVA made this. To date this is Disney's only adult animated series, and the fox acquisition giving them a full studio for that tells me it'll likely stay this way unless they do something actiony for disney +. It's also far and away the shortest lived show on this list. only airing two of it's 6 produced episodes, neither of which was the actual first episode. ABC didn't like what they got, they buried it, standard corprate procedure, and thanks to DVD and Comedy Central airings the show went from quickly forgotten weird relic to one of the best animated adaptations out there and one of the poster children for shows too good to last.

I grew up with this show. Since I was too young for the kevin smith movies my brother was obessed with, the series was the first Kevin Smith related thing I ever watched and it's stayed with me since. The show's short.. but it's 6 episodes are absolutely STUFFED with great jokes. I could honestly spend the rest of the article quoting this series, from "Hey, it's ted danson" to "Why are we walking like this" to "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit you old hag!".... and that's just the second episode. Admitely in terms of tone, Clerks TAS.. is nothing like the movie. The original Clerks was a fairly low key film mostly driven by our leads Dante and Randall's conversation and the various people who came in. It was a character piece about being stuck in a dead end job, about ignoring rules versus blindly following them, and about two stoners who were in it for 5 minutes but became the backbone of this cinematic universe because their the best.

Clerks the Animated Series instead is a gleefully wacky romp where our heroes can't say fuck but do get into sitcommy hyjinks, from clipshows, to a rival buisness across the way, to the deadly motava virus, to a pastiche of the last starfighter turning into a pastiche of the bad news bears then a pastiche of temple of doom. As you can tell this show is kinda nuts and really just Kevin Smith getting to be all kinds of redicluous in the funniest way possible. He replaced being able to say fuck and talk about sex with hyjinks and turned randall from a charming if assholish slacker into one of the best dumbasses in animation. The show is a near constant laugh riot, beautifully animated too. It also naturally has the boys, with Jay and Silent bob still getting in lots of neat antics even if they can no longer deal on screen. Clerks the Animated series is one of the funniest shows there's ever been and I highly recommend seeking it out.

7. Milo Murphy's Law Created by Dan Povemire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh 2016-2017, 2019 46 Episodes

Meet the show disney somehow treated WORSE than the last two. I swear when I put this list together I did not realize these three would be clustered together.

But yes, when I said there was a worse cancelation I meant it: Milo Murphy's Law was the dwampy duo of Phineas and Ferb.. and got utterly buried because Disney was mad it wasn't the mega hit that show was, forgetting that was also a fairly slow burn, or that you kow THIS IS A DIFFRENT SHOW. So they not only barely promoted the second half of season 1.. but then just sat on season 2 for a full year, with many an episode airing elsewhere long before that and released it over a few weeks. They then just.. straight up ended production to make a phineas and ferb movie. In fact despite a full soundtrack apparently existed only ONE song's gotten released from the show in full thanks to said movie's soundtrack. To say Disney screwed this show over is putting it lightly.

And it's a huge shame this show got buried as it did as Milo.. is freaking awesome. I mean I gave it a shot from episode one simply because it had Weird Al attached. Even if i'd gotten burned out on the previous show, i'll give anything Al's in a shot.

And that shot was worth it as from the first episode to the last, Milo is a truly charming show with, say it again ya'll, "a truly unique premise" . Disney has a knack for those don't it?

MML follows Milo Murphy, a happy go lucky 6th grader who meets new kid in town Zack.. who soon finds out Milo has a family curse, based on, of course, Murphy's Law; if something can go wrong, it will. So the universe bends over backwords to try to murder this tween and anyone around him... hence why while everyone likes Milo well enough, only his feisty hustler best friend Melissa really hung around before Zack took a chance on his new pal.

What makes the series great though is that Milo... dosen't ever angst about having murphy's law. You'd think with his life being a constant never ending string of disaster dominos, the guy would give up or we'd have one episode of him bedguging all he's missed out on. Instead.. Milo sees his life as an adventure, enjoys in the shenanigans he gets into and simply packs his backpack to be prepeared and keep his spleen in tact. He's a sweet, kind, optimist who helps people no matter what and dosen't let his curse get him down or stop him from living his life. It's milo that makes the show this good, having to both work around his jinx as well as many an adventure coming from people's reaction to him: From his love intrest Amanda intitally avoiding him due to being a perfectionist only to let him in more once she realizes what a kind guy he is, to the local security guard played byc hristan slater being an absolute dick to him, we see how it impacts his life.. but how he also enjoys his life regardless.

The series also has it's own perry equilvent, Dakota and Cavendish, who genuinely drive the seasons story arcs, two time policeman and ambigously gay duo who try to prevent pistachos from being destroyed.. then do the opposite once i'ts clear it'll cause the end of the world. They add to the story.

What puts this show up here, and way above phineas is that it's not afraid of change: the basic status who dosen't, but the show has a story arc for each season, characters grow and change with Zack getting more used to the chaos around his bestie, the relationship with amanda I mentioned, and most importantly Dakota and Cavindish finding out about milo fairly early on and vice versa, allowing their plots to intersect. It's also really damn funny.

Honestly the show's only this low because the top 6 are REALLY that good.. and because season 2 kinda crams Dr. Doofinschrmitz in there on what feels heavily like an executive mandate. Sometims he cab be a bit overbearing.. but the show's still up this high because frankly, Doof was the best part of his previous show and still gets a LOT of great material, paticuarlly this bit.

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Also his friend there is Jeff. Jeff is a man who lives underground. He's great. And this series is, badly underated. I can't wait to see these characters again as it's been directly said that while their tabling it for the first two seasons apperances by characters from the previous two shows aren't off the table for hamster and gretel, they just learned from this one to wait, but while I wait.. what we got.. is still damn magical.

6. Kim Possible Created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle 2002-2007 4 Seasons, 82 Episodes, 2 Movies, 1 Live Action Reboot Film

Kim Possible was one of my faviorite shows as a kid, and for good reason. Even over two decades later, the show still holds up as a smart, hilarious, and well done spy show. I also will gladly count it as part of the teen superhero boom as it hits a lot of those tropes too.

The setup however is nicely unique: Rather than work for a big spy orginzation (Though she does freelance in a few episodes for SHIELD expy Global Justice), or for money or what you'd expect from a world class adventuerer and super spy, Kim is just an above average teen whose fairly smart, popular and really damn good at both gymnastics and kicking people who does the job because it's the right thing to do and her organization is really just four people: herself, Wade, a child progidey who finds jobs for her, Ron, her best friend, eventual love interest, and overly panicky but loveable goofus, and Ron's pet Rufus who counts because he saves their lives quite a bit simply by being in ron's pocket and being smart enough. He's also a naked mole rat and the reason I know those exist.

While the show has a strong supporting cast with screen legends Gary Gole and Jean Smart as Kim's Rocket Science and Neurosurgeon parents, her annoying twin brothers, her sarcastic best girl friend monique, her annoying rival bonnie and my personal faviorite her authorative yet still resonable and utterly hilarious teacher Mr. Barkin, played by my boy Patrick Warburton, one of it's biggest strengths is Kim's Rogue's gallery.

Like I said with americna dragon a lot of the weakness for these teen hero shows is that they genuinely only have one or two major foes that are actually you know.. memorable. In contrast Kim has a LOT of intresting and fun villians of the week, not a huge pool but enough to keep it intresting with plenty of fun one offs. The main one is Dr. Drakken, played by John Dimaggio in one of his best parts and Shego, played by Nicolle Sulivan in her best role, an over the top , hammy shortsighted blue mad scientest and his snarky assitant who does most of the punching and is easily kim's physical equal. The two show up the most out of Kim's rogues, and while this on paper could get reptitive the two's banter is great, they play off our heroes fantastically, and they frankly never seemed to run out of great schemes for Dr. D to do.

There were other greats too, my personal faviorites being Senior Senior Senior and Senior Senior Junior, character actor Ricardo Montalban in his best role as a rich old man who after accidently blacking out paris, takes ron's suggestion he had all the makings of a super villian to heart and using his vast wealth to arch our heroes for fun while Junior.. badly dosen't want any part of this. Ther'es tons more I could gush about from DNAmy to the bebes, to my boy Frugal Lucre, a guy who works at a wallmart expy and barely spends money on his arching suplies.

The show's other weapon is it's writing: it's clever, hilarious, and the main duo are incredibly likeable: Kim is incredibly compitent but just as prone to teen angst as anyone her age, while Ron is incredibly panicky and goofy but far more compitent than he seems or he thinks himself to be. Our leads, Kristy Carlson Romano and va god Will Fridle in my faviorite role of his, have an effortless chemstriy between them, even before it turns romantic. You see how valuable their friendship is and how much they need each other even when they bicker.. and it turning romantic just feels.. natural. There's a risk there, and i'll likely go more into tha twhen I eventually cover so the drama (Either later this year if I can squeeze it in or early next year), but needless to say their the gold standard for friends to lovers and I love them.

The show is just.. damn good and worth checking out if you haven't. It's on Disney+ , all of it including the reboot film which is.. alright. not as good as the series but thanks to great casting and the creators involvment , still solid. Call it, beep it, reach it, it's a masterpiece and I badly hope those revivial rumors are true as i'd love to see this cast as adults.

5. Amphibia Created by Matt Braly 2019-2022 3 Seasons, 58 Episodes

Anoyone whose seem this blog before probably saw this coming. I mean I covered two whole seasons of the show and deeply love it's main cast. And Maddie. God bless my creepy frog daughter. So it being this high up isn't a huge shock.. but damn if it dosen't deserve it. Amphibia isn't perfect: some of the one off episodes, even those important later, aren't the best... but the show still plays one of the best long games in animation. The character arcs are well set up from the get go and we follow our lead Anne Boonchuy from reckless and irresponsible teen plunked into a frog world to a strong empathetic heroine who has to save both worlds from a tyrant and his abusive computer dad. Along the way there's betrayal, slice of life shenanigans, and lots of cleverly done worldbuilding. And some padding. There's just a touch padding. But the strong character arcs not just for Anne but her friends (With Sasha being my easy faviorite but Marcy not exactly far behind and complex and engaging enough to get her own spinoff journal), found family and even her earth family. It's a beautifully done three act story: what seems like a lonnnng time spent in the rural town of Wartwood ends up not only buliding up the show's supporting cast but characters who are vital to the world's salvation later. The second season shows how far anne has come while also building out the world, continuing Sasha's arc as she spirals further and giving us the glory that is marcy, cumilating in season 3, a fantastic season that reverses the premise to amazing effect and ends with a truly satisfying conclusion.. even if SOME of the getting there is messy. Hey it's #5 for a reason.

IT's a well built, hilarious, and heartfelt human into swamp water story, and one of my faviorites. I only don't say TOO much as I want anyon ewho hasn't to try this themselves. Amphibia is a masterpiece and if you haven't seen it it's WELL worth the binge with one of the best voice casts in animation (Something that's really true for everything from far out), really choice world building, and a satsifying ending. This section may of been short but damn if i don't love this show with a lot of my heart.

4. Gravity Falls Created by Alex Hirsch 2012-2016 2 Seasons, 40 Episodes

Another fairly obvious pick.. but one I weirdly HAVEN'T covered on this blog. I'll really have to fix that next year. Still just because something's obvious dosen't make it any less true. Gravity Falls is easily one of the most influental animated series of the 2010's, right up there with adventure time in kicking off the animation renaissance of that era and several of it's crew, including Matt Braly from the previous entry and a certain someone else coming up, going on to make stellar shows of their own.

It's rep and influence is well earned: Gravity Falls, like, as i've realized writing this, EVERY show on this list has a very simple elvator pitch: two kids spending the summer with their weird elderly uncle at his toursist trap get into paranormal shenanigans: Dipper as he tries to unwrap the mysteries of their temproary home and Mable as she tries to make friends, find a boy to smooch and genuinely ambles through life. She also gets a pig.

The simple setup belies not only a fairly intriguing mystery with a truly amazing twist halfway through season 2, but a fun arc villian in LIttle Gideon, the con artist next door, town hero and phony psychic, but a one of a kind, memorable and all time great vilian in Bill Cipher, a little triangle man who also happens to be a mad nightmare god trying to get into our dimension whose Chucky levels of deeply disturbing and terrifying as he is incredibly funny and charastmatic.

The rest of the cast is no slouch: Dipper and Mable are incredibly likeable, Wendy is great, played by personal faviorite of mine Linda Cardenlli and criminally underused and Soos, voiced by Hirsch along with Stan, Bill and MANY other characters, is a loveable dum dum 20 something who treats our heroes like surrogate siblings.

The real star of course, and the show stealling heart of the show is Stan Pines, the kids corrupt uncle and one of the most hilarious, and once we learn his deal heartbreaking and suprisingly complex, characters in all of animation. This show is on this list on it's own merits but woudln't nearly be so high without stan, a constant laugh machine, quote factory and powerhouse performance by Hirsch, who despite being new to voice acting steps into it like he's done this for decades. From teaching a bear to drive, to wondering if it's wrong to punch a child to "yes yes burn the child" and of course his greatest folly

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Stan constantly boosts the show by existing. Add in strong character ties, a compelling mystery and, like most shows this high up a hell of a finale, and you have a true classic that understadnably changed animation forever.

Also i'm pretty sure Stan killed at least two people in that clip. No one ever talks about that. I mean I knew he had a body count but still.

3. Recess Created by Paul Germaine and Joe Ansolabehere 1997-2001 4 Seasons, 65 Episodes, 4 Movies

Recess is the oldest work on this list, ending just before KP and American Dragon started (though it'd air long into their runs as this show ran forever and rightfully so). It was also part of my childhood, airing long after it finished and being tender the whole way through.

Recess is a masterwork: while many a show stuck with me from childhood this is one that thinking back I can remember the episodes vividly, and given my memory is spotty that says something. It's a show with a lot of style, having it's characters dressed out of the 50s and 60s, with a cold war subtext I never had, but keeping it in the present to relate to kids when it's airing. It creates a vibe tha'ts both of it's time (the monstickers ep is very much of the pokemon boom), and timeless (kids STILL collect pokemon cards and despite some morons best efforts have recess and still form little clicks).

It takes two simple things kids grapple with, unfair teachers and authority figures and cliques and social circles and simply blows it up to be as big as it was in our heads: I remember having epic duels with the kids I played with , wars, whole conflicts and recess meets things on that level: the world of recess is one where the playground has a lineage of kings, the kindergartners are a feral tribe, two kids can reguarly acess shovels, and the local snitch is some sort of combination of gollumn and a weasel while keeping it just grounded enough for adults to relate to. Where rebelling against authority involves elaborate heists.

It's a perfect kind of show for kids: it meets them on their level, as it did when I was a kid.. but is smart enough that as an adult you can still enjoy it. It helps that most of the cast is three dimensional:

TJ is a loveable scamp.. but a good chunk of his schemes aren't just to stick it to the man or get some reward for him and his running crew, but to help kids. TJ's just as likely to break out of detention as he is to help a kid this week simply because they need it. He'll even help Randall, the local snitch I mentioned, despite his better judgment, simply because it's the right thing to do. He'll have to be talked into it because.. it's Randall. Randall sucks, But he'll do it. Spinelli is the tomboy of the group and will fight everyone, but has a good side to her and struggles with being a girl when she relates more to being masculine, something that's only become more relevant with time and can be read a lot of ways. Mikey is the big kid.. but a soft kind giant who deals with being sterotyped for his side. Vince is the sports kid... and okay most of his plots are around that, but we do get neat bits like him being ashamed his brother is basically urkel and having to learn his brother still slaps because unlike Urkel he dosen't harass women. Gretchen is a massive nerd, and the first role in Ashely Johnson's long and storied career, but also gladly paticipates in the schemes, has a lot of heart, and struggles.

And finally we have my boy Gus, the new kid at the start and the one I related most to being a nerdy nervous wreck myself: but he's gladly accepted into the rest of the gang, and finds a home at long last after moving around his whole life. He's got layers to him: he's a military brat, he's never really had stablility int erms of friendship, and he's often put upon, having to deal with King Bob being a jerk to him for being the new kid or bullies. Yet he's got a good heart despite being the nervous one of the group the biggest heart of them and will gladly stand up for himself when the chips are down.

Not only are these 6 fleshed out and relatable.. but they have a wholesome friendship. They'll fight sometimes, kids do, but despite being vastly diffrent people who on paper shoudln't really be hanging together.. you never doubt they like each other or would drop everything to help one another. Mostly because a good chunk of episodes are just that. Gretchen and Gus are never picked on by their friends.. teased a little, maybe , Spenelli be like that, but these six kids love and respect each other on level that's just heartwarming. You never doubt for a second these six are friends, even with Gus not having their shared history. He just fits because they like him, he's willing to do what's right, and he's a good kid. TJ is brave and noble, Spnelli is tough but dosen't punch down, Vince is cool, Mikey is insightful and kind, Gretchen is smart and clever and Gus ahs a good heart. You see the good they see in each other and it shows our diffrences.. make us better. There may be cliques at recess, but when the chips are down, TJ can get them to work together.

The series also just had a knack for creating really memorable episodes that feel entirely relatable: a trading card style boom leads to TJ becoming a rags to riches tycoon, swinger girl who always swings trying to do what all kids did and reach the other side leads to a tale about things we can't explain when she seemingly dissapears, a simple punishment leads to TJ"s teacher psychologically torturing him, a fake swear word leads to an ENTIRE COURT CASE, all stuff that's somehow realistic. The show's premise was a tool box that allowed them to tell a ton of diffrent stories, a lot of which with really adult, meaningful lessons, and the show never really got old. It only ended because Disney's attempts to continue it simply didn't work out and even with the 5th grade eps as an epilogue, it has a hell o a finale in the movie. The whole run's on disney+ and I.. really need to revisit it.. and to review it next year if possible.

2. The Owl House Created by Dana Terrace 2020-2023 3 Seasons, 43 Episodes

Let's face it even if the article image hadn't tipped my hat here.. this one being high up .. was a given. I've gushed about this show at length, covering it as season's 2 and 3 ran out, written fanfiction on this blog, and since I started doing them the show's always ranked decently on my 20 best animated episodes lists I do each year, and will likely have a spot this year for the finale. My love of this show is something I don't remotely hide and have no reason to. So it being #2 on this list is an obvious pick.. but one i'm happy to be obvious with. In fact with these last two their pretty nearly tied in my heart and it was one inching out the other.

And the weird thing is.. I didn't even watch all of season 1. I watched the first half much as I could, but while I liked it I didn't get really heavy into it. The characters were charming, the designs great and it was nice to have a show where Wendy Malick was not only voice acting, but had a MAJOR role that really let her show off her chops. I've always loved her and it was a lot of fun to get a roll this good. It was also nice to have Alex Hirsch back. The show wasn't without style, a compelling lead, a hell of a romantic arc or other attractions.. but it wasn't till later in season 1 when classicsl ike encahnting grom fright and the finale REALLY made the show into what it became.

This lead to season 2.. which is one of the best seasons of television i've ever seen, and tha'ts with the fact that halfway through they had to massively reorganize the plot to fit into 10 episodes and 3 specials, something that's only really noticable in hindsight. And i'm not hyperbolizing: the show was good before.. but season 2 enriches everything, giving the characters more depth, paticuarlly king who goes from an afterthought in season 1 to the emotoinal core of the season and Alex Hirsch's best roll... which given Stan above says a LOT. Season 2 takes the foundations of the show and really plays with them, with pretty much everyone getting a deeper character, the school stuff forced into season 1 downplayed into just showing up as needed, allowing for way more story freedom and belos increased presence and hell of a true self reveal giving us one of Disney's greatest villians. Add in hunter as a new main cast member and best good soft boy, and you have a riviting saga that kept me enthralled the whole season. Even the weaker episodes add something, and the result is something that can't be topped: a show tha'ts funny, heartfelt, unmistakably queer and unquestionably well crafted.

It also managed to pull off one hell of an ending, not only introducing my murder child who learns his lesson the collector, but doing so with only three specials to wrap up what they shoul'dve had a season to. It's a show that like Gravity Falls before it is bound to really shake up animation and influence many a show to come an dI can't wait to see the results. A true epic about finding yourself, religious indoctrination and eldrich owl and tube shaped parasites, this show is something that may never be topped and was an utter joy while it lasted. Hoot.

1. Ducktales Based on DuckTales by Jim Magon /Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks Developed by Matt Youngberg and Francisco Angones 2017-2021 3 Seasons, 69 Episodes Like #2... #1 is a show my love of has been transparently obvious: Covering season 3 started this blog, i've covered seasons 1 and 2's story arcs, and done a ton of other duck stuff from a full three cabs retrospective, to donald shorts to the very duck adjacent goofy movie. While I haven't done as much duck content this year, a shame really, and still need to finish my life and times retrospective some day... my love of Disney's Ducks has been something i've had since college and this series not only revitalized it but sent it into the fucking stratosphere with the gold standard for reboots. DuckTales is the only show here based on an existing IP, but still manages to be super creative with it. Matt and Frank took nearly 100 years of Duck stories (not hyperbole, Donald turns the big 1-0-0 himself next year), taking from the legendary barks comics, the worthy successor rosa comics, the giant pile of European duck comics, the shorts, the movies, anything Donald , Scrooge or the Boys had been in, every bit of the disney afternoon, and everything else they could shove in to creat the defintive duck universe: Something that fully and lovingly respects what cames before but uses it all to create something fresh and wholly it's own. The cast is a nice mix of reinventions of old characters and brand new ones just as good if not even better.

This can be seen well with the core cast: Scrooge only gets changed slightly, but those slight changes were BADLY needed: Scrooge is still a guy with flaws: he can get far too focused on the goal ahead and not the human cost, is egotstical as all hell, and disconected from the common person. He can raid a tomb better than anyone, sorry Indy and Lara, but god help him if he tries doing an interview or produce a film. It's a nice ballance: he's out of touch and crotchety as usual, but far less of an abusive asshole. It's also clear that while the bin stores a lot of his treasures, and he won't take one if it's owners need it, being more than happy to give Djinn his family's lamp for instance, with it only being a whole thing because Louie sold it. It paints him more as a historian than a theif and robber baron, while still keeping the nice flaws that make him who he is: he's still cheap, he just won't underpay his staff and in fact mostly recurits people other employers give up on for being too weird.

The rest of the cast is given a more extensive but needed overhall: My boy Donald is less of the likeably selfish ass he usually is, instead a loveable dad who still destroys everything he touches, but spends the first two seasons living entirely for his kids. He's more mature while still being the idiot we love.

Everyone else.. is a huge change as I said. The biggest and best.. is the boys. Usually Huey, Dewey or Louie are a hive mind of goody goods.. or obnoxious boys. Depends on what the story needs. It always annoyed me that when you have three characters there their not at all distinct and there's no real need for them. Thankfully the creators of this show understood that and thus evolved the boys into three seperate people: Huey is more like the barks comics versions, a junior woodchuck, close to his mom and uncles, and exitable.. but with a nice fine pace of neurodivergence and anxiety that not only makes him relatable to me but a fairly likeable kid: one scared of change but with all the potetial in the world. Dewey takes ab it after the more sterotypically 80s moments of the boys in the show, being a rad dude with a penchant for acting out.. but instead of a sexist bully or jerk like the boys could be, Dewey is a pure theater kid who badly wants attention and has no impulse control. He's basically Hank Venture , age 12 and i'm here for it. Finally Louie takes the boys more scheming moments from the comics and shows and boils it down into a gen z slacker who wants to work smater not harder, and not work at all if needed, who evolves from heartless lazy schemer and evil triplet to a keep observer whose just mildly shady.

While the barks 5 are all acounted for we also get nice overhauls for the ducktales three original core characters: Webby gets the best, going from just "small baby child babY" to a hyperactive girl who is easily near scrooge's level in adventureeing.. but has no idea how to socalize and still loves sparkles. She's empathetic, brave, and a contrast to what woudl turn out to be her old man: instead of growing to shut people out , she starts out badly wanting to let everyone end. Beakley likewise gets a glow up from "old lady stertotype whose constantly flustered" to "badass british former secret agent, only sane man and gender swapped brock sampson" , with Launchpad being made a loveable doofus, but still compitent since Donald's here to be the everyman.

The cast.. only gets better as it goes: Ducktales took a huge leap and decided "Hey what ABOUT the triplet's mom" turning della from a question mark that was answered all of once across nearly a century.. to a character just as vallad as her brother and uncle who have said near century on her: Della is Donald's opposite: brave, confident.. but a mess herself and stuck on the moon for half the series. Paget Brewster does a phenominal job.

I emphasise the series characters.. because tha'ts it's heart: it has solid plots, revamps and what not.. but it's a giant, instnatly loveable cast of characters: The side cast is MASSIVE pulling from all over duck history: Fehtry makes his debut, Gladstone is taken from easily one of my most hated characters in the comics to a far more loveable schister, Rockerduck finally debuts, Glomgold is turned from "Scrooge but evil" to someone badly trying to copy scrooge and the most glorious weirdo in all of fiction. Seriously Keith Fergusons glomgold is fucking majestic, and while he's never really a major threat his overinfalted ego, lack of planning, obessions with sharks and bombs and general haminess made him one of the best parts of this. You also get Magica as a genuine threat , and a mess later, Scooge's parents having a more active roll, Fenton having more of his own personality and weird swing for the fences complete and utter makeovers like Doofus Drake going from doofy kid to a very weird child who needs therapy, Donald's neighbor nemisis being his therapist or taking the zombie from voodoo hoodo, one of th emost racist and questionable things in duck comics history.. and instead making him into an unstopable juggernaut frankenstein curse ont he rich.

And of course the original cast.. is impecable. My adopted Daugther Lena is the clear standout, having covered her whole story arc on here and loving the character a lot, A cool teen TM who ends up being a traumtized girl badly needing a home, her stoic and neurodivergent sister violet, the egon to her venkman, fuckboy Mark Beaks, great final boss Bradford, gay icon Storkules, gay icon Selene, everyone's least faviorite dick Zeus.. I really coudl go on for some time and easily could but this article has taken a while. The show just had a knack for memorable loveable characters and making this world feel truly alive and humungous and scope, with gorgeous art designs.

It also had a great throughline, with Scrooge going from a man who pushed everything a way.. to the man who truly has everything, everyone growing along the way, and a finale that while a bit messy and leaving us hungering for more, really got to the hart of the show: a family that comes together after being torn apart and adds a LOT to them. It's a show unlike any other, and was truly the dream of a life time.. and I coudln't put anything else at #1. Thanks for reading.

#ducktales #the owl house #recess #kim possible #amphibia #american dragon jake long #the weekenders #clerks the animated series #milo murphy's law #gravity falls #wonder over yonder #phineas and ferb

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stormblessed95 · 2 years

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Why do you think we don't ever hear of sightings of Jikook out together "ALONE" anymore? Like lately when JK goes out, he is alone or with friends, but never JM & same with JM. There use to be sightings of them all the time. Ice Skating, Movies, Shopping, just standing randomly at a busstop. The last time we know of was White Day, but they still were not alone. I'm not trying to debunk Jikook & I'm not insecure. I guess puzzled is a better word, considering how inseparable they seem in Memories.

And Anon 2 from the opposite side of the spectrum here:

Thinking Jikook are going to be spotted out together publicly sope, Namjoon & Hobi, Hobi & Jimin + how they are with their other friends at other concerts is incredibly unrealistic. They’ve got a image to portray for one, that they aren’t THAT close and two they’re together all the time at “home” why would they go out to a concert together or football game or a museum date. They’re gonna choose less public occasions like the white day dinner with their shared friends that people only knew about because someone took a picture. They didn’t sign anything to make people aware. We wouldn’t of known that hopeminkook went out together with HER until Hobi shared it with us. We don’t KNOW.

I had like 8 anons over this topic asking or throwing fits over the same thing anon 1 is asking about. And I've seen this Same ask being tossed around to other jikook blogs as well. So I deleted most of them, blocked the gross ones and decided I would actually answer this question. And bare with me anon if you actually care to know what I think and aren't just here sowing discourse. Because it'll be a longer post. And some of it aligns with anon number 2. And almost all of it comes back to my favorite phrase to throw at my insecure/other shipper anons. Object permanence.

Again, bare with me. If I forget a "date" I'm working off memory here. So ya know, keep in mind that I, too, am only human.

I think a lot of people struggling with lack of content must mean lack of contact (for jikook). And that's simply not true. But people fall into the pitfalls, especially when they haven't been here since 2013, of seeing content all at once and then being greeted with no content. Or slowed down content, and then they panic. They used to be SPOTTED OUT ALL THE TIME they must just never see each other anymore. Well, let's ACTUALLY look at all those times, and all those dates, shall we?

2014, Jimin and Jungkook go out on a chicken dinner "date." They were never spotted by fans. The only reason we know they spent this time off work, off camera, hanging out, is because Jimin posted about it in his blog. Photo captioned: “for dinner, we ate some delicious chicken~~~ jungkookah, hyung likes chickennnn ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ give me one don’t shove it in my mouth you punk!!!!”

May 2016, again Jikook had a spicy chicken dinner "date" alone, and weren't spotted. The only reason we know about it is because Jimin again, shared it with us. If he didn't share, we would never know. The "before" video too. JK decided to stay up late and hang out/eat with Jimin even though he originally planned to sleep instead. Also in August 2016, fans spotted Jikook out walking in the streets together, JK walking with a bike. When they noticed they got spotted by fans the fan said Jimin "hailed a taxi and they ran away together"

In 2017, when they were given free time by the company, everyone went off to do their own thing and jikook went bowling together. Not spotted by fans, but it was shared in Burn the Stage Ep 5.

In October 2017, they were spotted in Toyko together several times. Which they then also posted about and then never shut up about lol

January 2018, jikook watching the first snow together. Alone. Again, we only know about it because they shared it with us. Not that they were spotted.

February 2018, Jikook went out to dinner and an escape room with Sungwoon, the day after valentines day. Jimin came home early from a Japan schedule right before this too. Left their autograph and was spotted by fans

Summer of 2018, Jikook were spotted seperated from the rest of the members and camera crews before they left Malta hitting up a few stores and going shopping together. They also took the boat back out to watch the red moon together after dropping all the rest of the members back off.

Also summer of 2018, Jungkook told us about how he hung out with Jimin over the break and did bowling and went out for Karaoke. They weren't spotted. We wouldn't otherwise know. And they've mentioned going to do Karaoke together multiple times as well as bowling together many times. And again, summer of 2018, they were spotted by a non army (other kpop stan) standing outside together hanging out at around 1 am.

October 2018, Jikook were spotted by an ARMY riding the bus and they were out alone shopping together.

November 2018, Jikook flew in with the rest of BTS from Japan and then immediately took off on their own and went to dinner as well as then went ice skating and were spotted out together as well as the restaurant sharing an autograph.

In 2019, while in Paris they went shopping together and were spotted by fans. While in London they went out to eat, to see the London Eye and London Bridge with Jimins friends. And in LA they were spotted seeing Avengers End Game together and afterwards went out to dinner together. JK later talked about it at a fansign and they posted a video in the car together coming home. They also stayed late at a concert for a bit when the members had all already left the staging area to watch the fireworks together. Not spotted by ARMY but shared by themselves. In 2019 as well. Jk confirmed that over the break the only members he saw at all were Jimin and Hobi. Not spotted once by fans, but they still spent time together even during all of Jimins traveling around the world.

In 2020, they were rumored to have been spotted at a convenience store together. As well as in September, Jimin confirming they spent the night together.

In 2021, they shared a vminkook trip to the beach, where the Above photo was shared. No one spotted them, but it still happened. As well as in 2021 they shared about how they were practically stuck like glue through the entire time they were in LA (Nov - Dec 2021). Including how they walked together everyday and worked out together everyday. JK Visited Jimins rooms and hung out there all day. And months later, a fan (who happened to be a tkkr since 2014) shared a video of jikook walking into her gym in LA at 3 am to workout alone together. Basically confirming a fan sighting and confirming everything they shared in that vlive as well too. As well as in 2021 (September) they were spotted getting pre travel covid tests done at the same clinic together.

In March 2022, they were spotted by fans out to eat during White Day with a friend, maybe more at a lowkey restaurant. JK also that year shared how when he got out of covid quarantine that he went to Jimins room and got a hug. As well as yoonminkook and staff all went out to eat after the concert in Vegas in 2022, where the waiter who served jikook kept talking about how excited he was to have served jikook, where they sat together at their own table during their closed down restaurant party with drinking and everyone singing lol

So. Out of 10 years of being together as a band. Jikook have been spotted out together by fans approximately 14 times. If we add a few of the others that I included here (which doesn't even scratch the surface of all the times they've shown us how they are always together) that brings us to 25 times they were together that we know of off camera. And again, there is TONS more as well as staff commenting about how jikook are inseparable and literally always together and comments from the two of them about how much time they spend together, etc. You had 3 of those times (2 being a spotted by fans and 1 being told by JK) happen in 2022. And it's technically not even September yet. When in other years, the most frequent year of fan sightings was 2018, in which there were 7 times. And 4 of those times were shared with us by jikook themselves not random spotting. And 4 sightings spread across an entire 12 months, is not THAT much if you actually think about it for the other years to be a drastic decrease like people are saying.

It seems like so much because it is. There is no other BTS duo that has been caught hanging out by fans nearly as much or as often. Nor have any duo told us about hanging out off work/off camera nearly as much or as often. They do, it happens, but not as frequently as our stuck like glue duo. So from 2013 to 2022, there were at least 14 fan sightings of jikook. BUT You recongize that spread over the years, that's a lot of fucking time in between sightings, yes? Good. Glad we are on the same page. I also hope you recongize that during all these years where we got anywhere from zero to 7 jikook sightings of "dates" out and about, they were also being spotted doing things individually as well. Like getting food, going shopping, going on bike rides, seeing concerts. As well as doing those things together with other friends/members and individually with other friends/members. None of that detracts from how often and how close they are. And how they are constantly together. Choosing to spend so much of their free time together. And everytime people lose their minds about it, they make a comment about being "stuck like glue" over that time period.

It's a pattern, and the Rollercoaster of Insecurity has to be as exhausting for everyone else as it is for me. Why be puzzled when it's clear how much time they spend together. Especially when you saw people claiming they grew distant in 2021 (just like they are doing now) and memories proved how they literally were always together and they didn't even know the meaning of the word distance. People need to relax and I'm tired of repeating myself. 😭😅

Anyway. I hope this helped at least a few people recognize that this is just a pattern repeating itself again. And that you get bogged down by content and then confused when content slows down. But Jimin and JK have lives outside of content, which includes their relationship together. And lack of content, does not mean lack of contact between them.

#jikook #kookmin #jikook off camera #jikook dates #jikook over the years #jikook off camera dates #jikook stuck like glue #lack of content does not mean lack of contact #insecure jikook shippers

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kissmetwicekissmedeadly · 11 months

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4 years, 40 facts about me loving napo... let's go 🏃🏻‍♀️

...or as @leonscape called it, 40 "Mopoleon" facts?! (picrew link)

the date of our "anniversary", June 19th, is one day after the date of the battle of Waterloo 💀

both our given names are of Italian origin

we're both leo zodiac signs

our birthdays are 8 days apart, in the same month

he's my first otome route ever played

i've only played his route once, in July 2019

i've never seen his dramatic ending

my first impression of him on a teaser tweet of ikevamp EN was that he looks like an asshole, and I didn't like his looks either...

my falling for him was utterly illogical as despite these thoughts I put him on my phone wallpaper a few days later (still before the release of ikevamp EN)

as of right now ao3 says he appears in 59 of my posted works: the total number of fics I have published with him is higher as a few of those are stand-alones in a multichapter fic (napoleon bday prompts 2019 +9, yumeweek 2020 +5, mini requests +4, headcanons +11 ) ...he appears in about 1/3 of all my fics!

we share a hobby of reading biographies! the official ikevamp character sheets state it as his hobby

our height difference is 18 cm

the @xxsycamore blog exists solely because of him, as well as my passion for writing - I started this blog because I wanted to express my love in some kind of creative way, as previously (and for the longest time) I thought my medium would be art instead of writing

despite that, my first ever posted fic is not with him but with Arthur!

I've always loved languages but he had influence over my choice of learning especially french in uni. It's hell but I don't regret it at all

I have a playlist with sleepy-themed songs for him 🥺

birds are my favorite animals (any kind) and he has a pet eagle!!

our mbti personality types are a so-called perfect match! infp + enfj

I don't like black-haired, blue-eyed men because of him, it was my type before him too! (not many such ikemens around but I have a handful of faves like that from other media)

as the fictional napoleon bonaparte is light years away from the historical figure, I thought I wouldn't be interested in learning about him - until I ended up reading multiple books on him, the thickest of which 680 pages... while I don't mix the two in my head, the napoleonic era history (+ russian empire history) is still pretty cool to know imo!

there's hardly any writer around here who hasn't received a napoleon request from me at least once... I'm so sorry...

it is implied in the game that napo has kissed boys (they were taking turns waking him up and they all know of his habit......) which gives me enough reason to headcanon him as bi....like me 🥺

I really suck at completing the bday creation challenges I host for him, as last year I did 0 prompts and the year before that 2....but in 2019 I did 10!

I love making bday gifts. I love birthdays. I don't have the exact number but last year a lot of characters received a bday fic from me but not napo 💀 partly because I was shadowbanned back then!

the only real tradition I have when it comes to his bday is to make homemade crepes since it's his favorite food! but my favorite part is eating them...

I still haven't watched the movie "Napoleon & Me"...

I don't have much napo merch, but I do have the Naplushieon doll which is plenty

I was still in highschool (11th grade) when I fell for him 🥺🥺🥺 it feels like ages ago

I love the song written for the ikevamp stage play and sung by his voice actor Nobunaga Shimazaki, "Lucida", so much you can even find it and play it on my blog... recently some kind soul uploaded the whole version on youtube (I've been waiting for so long....) and I haven't been the same since

my dream napo merch is the clothes hanger with his neck and face so that I can hang my silly little sundresses on him (I'm going to make it on my own actually, just watch)

after having so many random fic ideas for him that will never see the light of day, I accepted the facts at last and now I feel so much better and more chill

I'm currently working on fanart series where I try to post one tablet-drawn art of him every month... I have trouble keeping them simple as desired sometimes but I'm having lots of fun while learning (I still consider myself fairly new to drawing with my tablet)

once I wrote a death anniversary fic for napo!

the best napo song i've discovered so far is Wings by Su!YoON!

I don't know. anything. about his sequel. i just know the cgs. not that is hard to avoid spoilers LMAO

my most favorite napo cg is the 5th bday one (where they're in a field of roses) (it was on my phone's background for a very long time)

my most favorite napo card...that's a trick question but I think the one that is on the left banner in my blog (desktop view)

yes, yes I do want to go to Corsica one day what about it. I have a lot of other dream trip destinations too!

yes, I do love Napoleon cake (It's a russian recipe) (it was my bday cake in 2020)... but so do I love a whole lot of other cakes...!

Fact number 40 is that I love Napoleon a normal amount 😇 nono listen!! I do talk a lot about him, and here I tried compilating facts that are not too cheesy: believe it or not there are days I don't think about him, ok! I never pressure myself to get all the event bonus stories, or to always have a fic ready for him... in a world where im a worrywart about anything and everything, he's my safe place? my chill place? And if I begin to think about the gigantic mass of things surrounding him that are exactly aligning with what I love, with what comforts me, with what traits im looking for in a person, i'm going to get dizzy. So let's end this here with me saying, ily so much Napoleon 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 im such a nunuche sometimes but im your nunuche ‼️‼️

#ikemen vampire #ikevamp #ikemen vampire napoleon #ikevamp napoleon

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gv80gb · 2 years

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Belleview Clinic

This was my ninth month in the Belleview clinic. Nine months since I've been outside. And nine months carrying my child. When I first got to the Belleview clinic was because I saw an ad on the internet about it. They offered $2,000 if you let them perform some lab tests on you. I desperately needed the money; I was about to get thrown out of my apartment for lack of payment. The ad said that the only thing they were going to do to you were blood tests, because they were running an investigation on fertility. And even though I had always been scared of needles, I needed the money, so I guess I could swallow my fears. It also specified that they needed women between 18 and 25 years old. So, I, at my 22 years old thought I had nothing to lose. I thought it would be easy money that would allow me to keep having a home. Boy, was I wrong.

The first day here a nice nurse received me. She gave me a hospital gown and told me to put it on, she led me to a nice room that had a doctor's office chair, so I sat down. After a few minutes a doctor came in, she started talking, and everything seemed normal. She was preparing a needle, I started getting dizzy from the sight, so I closed my eyes and turned my head. It was better if I didn't saw the process of the needle coming inside of me. But still, I felt it. Something willed me to turn, I don't now what it was, but as I did, I realized they were not extracting my blood, they were injecting me something. I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could do anything everything faded to black.

When I woke up, I was in a small bedroom with two individual beds. The walls painted in an olive green, combining with the covers on the beds. A girl around my age was laying in the bed next to mine, she was sleep or maybe passed out just as I had been. The chamber had two doors. I got up and went to open them. Behind one of the there was a modest bathroom, with a shower, a toilet and a sink. It was provided with towels and toiletries. The other one didn't open at all. I sat back down on my bed wondering if maybe I was dreaming when my roommate woke up.

––Where am I?–– she asked.

––I have no idea –– I answered honestly.

That's how I met Izzy, the only person I have seen in the last 9 months. Soon after that day, we realized we were not getting out. Three times a day the otherwise permanently closed door would open, always revealing food and sometimes other thing we might need, like clean towels or sheets, new clothes for our growing bodies, among others. And on the other side of the door there was the smallest room (where they left the tray with the things and were we would leave the dirty plates and clothes and towels so they would return them to us clean) and another door, one that we never ever saw or could open. They fed us well and they provided everything for us to live comfortably on those conditions. We had a notepad and a pen, and we could write notes to our captors with things we needed, and most of the time they would give them to us, they would give us books, movies and games to keep us entertained among other things, we even asked for a full length mirror and a table for our room, and they gave that to us as well. But it wasn't life.

A few months in the clinic Izzy and I realized we were pregnant. Neither of us remembers when we got impregnated, but that's when it clicked. That's why we were here, the Belleview clinic was a breeding center. Probably lots of more women were in the same condition as us in the same building. But there was nothing we could do to help them or help us for that matter.

It had been nine months since our first day here, so both Izzy and I were in full term of our pregnancy. I woke up that day feeling cramps in my lower belly. I was very aware that the baby could come any day now, so I was keeping track of the pains. Right now, it's 8:15 in the morning, breakfast is usually served at 8:30, so I'm considering writing a note informing about the cramps I'm having so I can leave it there when the door opens.

Izzy got out of the shower like 10 minutes ago and she hasn't gotten out of the bathroom yet. I needed to pee. I got up from my bed and wobbled towards the bathroom door. I knocked before saying–– What's taking you so long Iz?

The door flew open and I found a naked Izzy with a panicked look on her face ––Ali I think I will have my baby today.

––What? You are in labor? –– I asked her in surprise ––I think I'm in labor too.

––Oh god Ally, what are we going to do?

––We have to let them know. They have to help us.

Izzy nodded and followed me out into our bedroom.

––Do you mind if I don't put clothes on? I feel so hot I don't think I can handle them –– She said with her huge belly popping out of them.

––Sure, I might follow you in a bit, but I still can handle them.

I went to get our notepad and wrote in my neat handwriting. We are probably both in labor, we need help, please. At 8:30 sharp the door opened, two plates of waffles waiting for us. I took them and placed them in the table, before the door closed, I placed the note on the tray, hoping someone would come.

We ate quietly. I noticed Izzy wincing every once in a while. My stomach was tensing up with 10 minute breaks in between, and the contraction was lasting about 30 seconds.

––How are you feeling? –– I asked her.

––It hurts, but it is not unmanageable. My contractions are about 8 minutes apart. Yours?

––Around ten, and they are lasting about 30 seconds.

––Yeah, mine too.

Around 11:00 am the door opened. It usually never opened at that time, so I went to check it out. There was a basket filled with things. Lots of towels, new sheets, two white onesies, a pair of scissors, and a note that read Good luck. I felt rage grow inside of me. Was this their help? Was this all we were getting?

Izzy was standing behind of me, analyzing our package ––Seems like we are doing this on our own –– She said.

––I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS. HOW ARE WE–– I interrupted myself because liquid started running down my legs. In that moment a stronger pain hit me like a truck and I had to grab onto Izzy's shoulder for support ––Oh God, my water broke. Fuck fuck fuck.

––Okay calm down, breathe –– Izzy said and a contraction hit her too, grabbing now onto me ––We are doing this, we are doing this together okay?

I just nodded.

––Let me get out of my wet clothes. How long do you think until we have them?

––I have no idea –– Izzy replied.

4:00 pm and I was panting in pain, 10 hours of labor and I could feel the moment approaching. Izzy's water broke about 20 minutes ago and she was also in agony.

––Ali –– She moaned in pain –– I can feel the baby against my cervix, the moment is getting close.

Just as if Izzy had said magic words, I felt my baby getting lower and its way against my cervix.

––Alright, seems like we are doing this now –– I said, set on bringing these babies into the world ––. This I what we are going to do. Sit right here –– I brought her to my bed, holding her back –– Sit in the middle and face the headboard –– She followed my instructions wincing –– Yeah, exactly like that. And now... –– I climbed on top of the bed sitting right in front of her, both of us in our naked glory –– Move closer to me, we have to be close if we want this to work –– A contraction interrupted me, stealing my breath. Once it was gone I helped Izzy move closer.

––Are you sure this will work? –– She asked

––It hast to –– And it did had to because we couldn't deliver our babies on our own ––Now open your legs wide and put one above mine and I will put one above your other one. This way we will have access to the other.

We did that and now we sat facing each other, in the middle of my bed, with our legs intertwined and with our groins at an arm's length. Our bellies were barely separated, but they still allowed for us to see each other's vaginas and their progress.

––I feel the head against me Ali, could you feel me up and check it? –– Izzy asked me, her face filled with pain.

––Of course, of course –– I said. I slipped my fingers inside her hole, reaching upwards, finally I felt something hairy ––Yeah, I can fill it, the head is right there.

She smiled, knowing this would be over sooner than later –– Do you want me to check you?

––Yes, please –– Izzy's hand roamed over my bulging pussy, and in between all the pain I felt a wave of pleasure. I moaned and felt her finger slide into me just as my belly tensed up, so I moaned again, this time painfully.

––I feel... something–– Izzy said, her hand still inside me –– Ali...–– she looked at me with panic in her eyes –– I think your baby is breech, I think I touched its butt. Fuck Ali, this is going to be harder than I thought, but you can do it, I know you can.

Suddenly I started feeling this urge to push, the pressure of my baby building inside of me––. Oh god, Izzy –– I said pushing a little –– It's cominggghhh.

She answered me with a scream of her own, grabbing her belly and pushing too. The pain was so intense, and I could feel the baby drop onto my birth canal.

Izzy and I were both pushing and panting, neither of us making much progress. This technique of each one doing her own thing in front of each other wasn't working.

––Listen to me –– I said grabbing the back of her neck and bringing her face closer to mine –– You need my help and I need yours, okay? We will get nowhere on our own. I can see your baby bulging against your entrance, mine is still a little higher up, so this is what we will do –– She nodded in response –– I will help you deliver the head, and then while we wait for the baby to turn you will help me make progress. Once your baby is fully turned I will go back to helping you, and once your baby is born we will focus on mine. Is that okay?

––Yeah, I think that will work–– Izzy said.

I put all my will into not pushing with the next contraction, the effort of not doing it was producing so much pain within me, but I needed to focus on Izzy ––Okay Izzy, now push.

She did. She was pushing and I could see her baby beginning to crown, slowly but it was getting there.

––God, it. Burns. It burns so bad –– Izzy screamed in between pushes. My contractions were still coming, coming one on top of the other. Please wait baby, please please.

––I know Iz, but you have to push, come on.

She pushed harder, more hair was visible with each of her efforts. The head was getting to the widest point and she screamed ––AGHNNNNHHHHHHHHH. God, it burns Ali. SO MUCH –– She said as she pushed further. I couldn't even answer her because I was using all my efforts in not pushing. Another push and the head was slipping again.

––It's almost out Iz, you are at the eyebrows. You can do it! –– I tried telling her reassuringly. She was doing a great job. She grabbed my shoulders and pulled me closer to her for support, she placed her forehead on mine and with the biggest push of her life, the head was out ––. Oh my god Izzy! It's out! –– I reached out to try to feel the cord, but it was nowhere to be found.

––Good ––. She cleaned the sweat from her forehead ––. Your turn. Come on Ali. Before it turns.

She didn't have to say it twice. My contractions weren't even stopping at this point. I felt the baby pushing against my entrance. So, I did, I pushed with all I had ––Nggggghhhhhhh –– I felt the baby stretching me, it wasn't moving a lot, but at least there was progress.

After 5 minutes of pushing, I looked down on Izzy and her baby was all turned out ––. Izzy –– I panted –– Your baby, your turn.

––Are you sure? –– she looked red from the effort, so I just nodded. My friend needed to get her baby out now.

I stopped pushing and shifted my position so I could reach her, and with that, all my effort was futile, my baby slid back in, removing the progress I made ––OHH nonono, baby no –– I said, pain striking me.

––Oh, Ali, I'm sorry ––Izzy said through her pain

––Don't worry about me right now, let's focus on your baby –– I said, even though the pain was killing me. The baby had slid back in, but it was trying to push their way out once more. I tried closing my legs a little so I could stop their progress ––Push with all you have Izzy

She pushed, an ear-piercing scream coming from her mouth –– Grab onto me if you need to but keep pushing –– I said. Her hand immediately found my shoulders, her nails were digging into my skin, but not even that could subdue the pain on my groin. My efforts of keeping the baby inside of me were not being that effective. I could feel the bulge forming and opening me up.

Izzy dropped her head back in defeat –– I can't do this anymore, I'm too tired, it hurts too much –– She said.

A contraction surged through me in that moment and I grabbed her chin hard, making her look at me ––Listen to me Izzy, you can do this –– I winced in pain ––You have to do this, I need you to do this, okay? My baby is tearing me apart and I need you to be done so you can be there for me –– I held her stare –– SO DON'T TELL ME YOU CAN'T BECAUSE YOU WILL –– I screamed at her in the middle of the strongest contraction I've had.

She nodded ––Yes, sorry Ali, I know. Imma do this and then it will be your turn, okay?

––Okay –– I answered –– PUSH!

She bore down and finally, the shoulders slid out of her. I was grabbing the baby for support and to be ready to catch it. With one more push a baby boy was in my arms. In that moment a wave of liquid drowned us both. Izzy looked at me apologetically ––I'm sorry about this mess.

––I literally couldn't care less about it––. Grabbing the scissors I cut the cord and held the boy to his mother–– You had a boy Izzy–– I said with a smile on my face. The smile didn't last long though, because a renovated wave of pain started within me ––. NGHHHHAAAAAH–– It was as if my body knew that it was my turn, because the baby started stretching my lips mercilessly.

––Okay, okay. Time for you Ali –– She deposited her baby in between our legs while she attended me ––Alright, push.

I never could have imagined the power my body had. With all my strength I started pushing. My contractions weren't stopping, and neither was I. This baby had to be out NOW! In a few pushes the bottom of my baby was out, his feet still hanging inside of me.

––The feet are hurting me –– I yelled.

––I know sweetie, try pushing them out ––Izzy said. I pushed again for a couple minutes but the feet wouldn't come out ––. Alright I'll try to maneuver them out of you, okay? –– I nodded. I could feel Izzy's fingers working my lips bigger. She grabbed one of the baby's knees and pushed it forward, and she slipped one of the legs out of me. I breathed out with the relief that provided me with ––. Alright, now the other one –– She did the same thing but somehow the second foot didn't slip as easily. It got trapped and I yelled in pain. Izzy stretched the piece of skin the foot was caught in and it released ––Okay, feet are out of the way, you can continue to push–– She said.

I fisted the soaked sheets underneath me and pulled them closer to me as I followed the urge my body had of bearing down. The rest of the body flowed quickly outside of me and now only the head was missing. Izzy grabbed the baby from underneath and lifted it a little bit.

––OOOOOOWWWW GOD. Take it out already –– I screamed. The pain growing by the second if that's even possible.

––He will be out with your next push if you give it your all. Come on Ali, you're almost there.

––He? –– I asked, tears building in my eyes.

Izzy nodded smiling –– C'mon Ali. This is it.

And suddenly, my baby was out and crying. I held him up as Izzy held up hers. And we smiled at each other. Relieved from the pain, but deep inside we were scared, because we knew we would not have much time with our babies before they took them. And we also knew it wouldn't be long before they impregnated us again and we had to do this all over again.

#birth kink #giving birth #pregnant kink #author #birth denial #birth fic

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krissielee · 2 months

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Hey! How did you get access to watch the March RW&RB screener? I want to sign up for that, if I can. :)

I got lucky--a friend of mine down in LA got the offer and immediately sent it to me. She didn't/doesn't care about it, but she knows I'm obsessed and had made sure to let all my Hollywood-connected friends know that if they saw anything come up, let me know IMMEDIATELY because I needed it like air to breathe.

But there are a lot of websites to sign up for early screeners (or even just "barely before opening but it's free and free things are awesome so yay" screeners)--note that these are in no particular order; just whatever ones I happened to think of first:

Preview Free Movies is the one I got RWRB through, as well as tickets for Rocketman way back in the day. These are ostensibly the hardest to get into because they're usually only held in very specific movie-centric places and often tickets are handed out literally in person at local malls. It takes luck to get a location you can get to, but if you can ... totally worth it. They do sometimes do early online screeners, too: I saw Spinning Gold back in 2020, unfinished, and it was awesome. Found out later that a friend's cousin wrote the movie about their uncle! Small world, there. Also, I now can't listen to Love to Love You Baby without wanting to kill myself, but they changed that for the final release lol. Everyone in that early screener was like PLEASE DON'T PLAY THAT FOR TEN MINUTES EVER AGAIN.

Gofobo does a lot of early ones as well, but those are more like press screenings just before wide release, not in production ones.

1iota sometimes has screeners, even though they usually do tickets to talk shows (I have seen Taron Egerton at a bunch of those, though, including for Jimmy Kimmel where my [clothed!!!] boobs are on display for an awkward amount of time because Jimmy was talking to the people sitting directly in front of me lol)

Advance Screenings offers a lot of press screenings, but also sometimes contests to see special movie screenings. I "won" passes to a special Hunger Games screening through this site.

Amazon Screenings is really neat because it also does a lot of early virtual screenings. I've seen so many movies sitting at home in my jammies this way. And often they'll have special things to go along with it, like talks with the cast and crew, or for their Halloween set a few years back, virtual dance parties with DJs. Jason Blum was in the chat with all of us and it was kind of epic.

Searchlight Screenings is for Fox films. Same as the others; you sign up and hope to get lucky with a screening in your area.

Lionsgate Screenings are for, well. Lionsgate films.

WB also does screenings sometimes.

iScreeningRoom is great for online indie films. I've seen some really great movies that I can't wait for them to get wide releases. Some of them are weird as hell, as expected from indie films, but I've never hated anything I've seen. I know Nomad is pushing for a release soon, and I can't wait to watch that one again.

Many of these are US-centric, for anyone who comes across this post. I don't know much about other countries 'cause, you know. 'Murica, or whatever.

The other thing to remember is, for any of these screenings that are in person, you have to get there early. Like, stupid early. Multiple hours early. They always overbook the theatre. Yeah, you have a ticket? So do 500 other people for that 100 seat theatre. There are no guarantees for early screenings. I was almost the last person in for RWRB, and about the only people in after me were Matthew Lopez and some other people in his group. I only got a good seat because @machtaholic got there earlier than I did and saved one for me, which, had I not made it in, would have gone to someone else. The workers were going to try to sneak me in regardless because I was freaking out about having driven 8 hours only for the movie and if I'd missed it I was gonna cry, lol. Also, the hotel next to the theatre is where the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz were housed during film, so. Learned something while there, ha.

But also, there was no notice on it. Like, I found out on Tuesday that the screener was on Wednesday and I had to get myself to LA immediately if I had any hope of making it. For the really early ones, if you don't live in the city it's held in, you have to be ready to get up and go. Immediately. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and hope your boss is really cool with you just not coming in.

Caveat: a lot of those super early ones, they won't even advertise those films to you as you're "out of market" for their research purposes. If it hadn't been for my friend living in the proper market, I'd have never known. It's the same way I was invited to a crazy early screening of Argylle (but from a different friend), even though I couldn't make it to that one because the timing just didn't work. So if you live in Boise and the movie's screening in Seattle, you're not going to even know about it.

Also also, there are age and gender limits on some of these. The woman and her daughter behind me in line, mom couldn't get into RWRB because she was one year past the age cutoff. Conversely, some movies you need to have children of a certain age. Keep that in mind when signing up for the really early ones. The press screeners are rarely that picky, though they did actually ID check for Kingsman (no others, not even other R rated films).

The more you sign up for, the more you redeem, the more you get invited to others. There have been many times where I have to choose which screening I feel like seeing because I've got offers for two or three films on the same night. Conversely, there have been times where I'm a greedy brat and go see the same movie across multiple screeners, but that's only happened like ... twice, because it was Eddie the Eagle, and three of my friends wanted to go but never on the same night, so I took them different times lol, and then the other was for The Wedding Ringer, which was never full so it didn't matter.

And I know there are other sites out there, but these are the ones I'm signed up on that I can recall. I get a lot of emails from these ones, and thus more chances to see films early.

Also sorry if my links are broken. I'm pretty sure I did them right but who even knows anymore lol.

#movies #screeners #early screenings #how to see movies early in the us #rwrb #how i got in #this got long and novely #tl;dr here's early screening info and some notes for newbies

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hrhmiat · 2 months

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Thoughts on Mia's blow-up at Michael in book 8

After a conversation with my friend, whose preference for being tagged here is uncertain, so I'll just keep her anonymous, but I have to give her major kudos!! (you know who you are ;)) I've just realized why Mia reacts so spastastic to the whole Judith Gershner situation.

But before diving into that, let me share my initial thoughts before coming to the realization and understanding of Mia's outburst: When I reached that part in the book, I couldn't comprehend why she reacted so strongly. I mean, I knew sex and losing her virginity was a big deal to her, but the thought never crossed my mind of the reverse. If Michael had had sex with anyone else. I mean, I honestly didn't think Michael had it in him, tbh. lol. (but then again, he's a hot nerd so who can blame him) Was I just as shocked as Mia? YES!!!! YES, I WAS!!! Also, I don't think Michael even handled it well. He was just so not sensitive in parts of their conversation. but then again, Mia was freaking out, and that, in turn, threw him off. (Also, he's what, 19?) Though, he did keep his cool for the most part .... till the very end where he lost his cool for a second. In fairness, Mia was going crazy.... with crazy eyes, as he pointed out. He was worried about her; he had never seen her so upset before. I think Michael *knew* this would happen, that THIS would upset Mia. That's why he didn't come right out and tell her. And like he said, it's not like Mia asked about it. I think if Mia asked, he would have been upfront with her. He's not a liar. How was Michael supposed to know that Mia treasured her "precious gift" of virginity? She never talked about it with him. I don't think they talked a whole lot about sex because she was uncomfortable with it, and Michael wasn't going to push her (only push the boundaries with his hands when they wandered in their makeout sessions.) Sure, they had their three-month "talk," religiously but that was more or less like... Mia:"I'm not ready" Michael: "Fine. We'll reconvene in three months." It's not like Helen goes around preaching abstinence. I get not wanting your daughter to have sex at 14 and telling her she should wait, but that isn't the same as what Mia was reading in Tina's books about purity, and you're only worth is your virginity crap. Like I think if Helen knew what Mia was reading she'd have a serious sit down heart-to-heart with her daughter and tell her she's worthy no matter what. Those books did so much damage to Mia!!!! I think when Michael was fooling around with Judith, he was upset that Mia liked Kenny, not him. He was upset at himself that he didn't make his move at the movies and ultimately upset that he fell for his little sister's best friend, a girl who should more or less be like a sister to him, but he's gone and fallen hard for her. I think he was at a very low point when he and Judith were studying. Did he make the first move? Did Judith? I honestly think Judith did since she had a boyfriend. Did Michael regret being with Judith after? Abso-fucking-lutely! Why else would he try and forget about it? "It was before you and I even started going out...." (I didn't want to think about how stupid I was for being so upset you didn't like me) "I didn't think- I mean, it was so long ago-" (yeah... I didn't think you liked me.... so I slept with her.... and now I'm trying to block it out of my memory, Mia) Another thing is, I think Michael honestly forgot as time went on... like in his mind, it was just a fact that he slept with Judith and thought at some point he had told Mia since Michael said with a straight face and no hesitation, "No, of course not. You know that" after Mia asked him, "are you not a virgin?" Then, when Mia was like, "NOOOOO, I DID NOT KNOW THAT!" He got VERY aware, VERY quickly, that they had NOT talked about his past because he knew she was jealous of that person and didn't want to upset her. I think if they were THAT serious about having sex in the past, I think Michael would have told her, but he knew she was never serious, so why bring it up if she didn't want to discuss it with him?

Anyway... I've always sided with Michael and Lilly on this one—why the heck did Mia explode the way she did?

Well, the discovery dawned on me that while Mia was struggling to process Michael's surprise news about him leaving for Japan for a year OR MORE, the discovery that he's not a virgin, a detail he's kept hidden from her throughout their relationship, triggered her beyond her capacity. I truly think it took her back to when the other people she trusted in the whole world (Her mom and dad) had betrayed her trust when they told her she was a princess. Not saying this is as shocking as her parents lying about her being a princess all her life, but she trusted Michael and he betrayed her trust by not telling her one of THE most important thing she cares about. This is why she said he lied (even though he didn't). Omitting the truth is the same thing to her. Anyway, let me know your thoughts if you disagree or agree or want to add anything else that I missed! Loved to hear everyone else's thoughts!

#the princess diaries #mia thermopolis #princess diaries #books #snowflakenecklace #michael moscovitz #therapy thoughts #deep dive

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hwd405 · 1 year

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Spyro 3 - The GameSpot Build and Lost Media

I've been actively researching and documenting early builds of Spyro 3 for something like 7 or 8 years now, and while I feel like I've made a significant impact, there's always going to be people that have never seen any the content that I've helped to document - so, every now and then, I get the urge to infodump about one piece of my research to a new group of people, to help make sure that the documentation I've done isn't only known to a very small group of people... that'd defeat the purpose of documentation, to an extent, I think.

Sometimes, outreach ends up being extremely important to the research and preservation of prerelease content - and this is no better exemplified than with Spyro 3's "GameSpot build".

On June 23rd, 2000, several websites and publications revealed early previews of Spyro: Year of the Dragon - this date was probably some sort of online embargo date.

The "April preview", an early build which seems to match the one used at E3 2000, was used by most of these publications. A few of them, according to accounts from those that wrote the previews, received exclusive gameplay sessions from the likes of Mark Cerny - these previews apparently took place quite close to the embargo date and certainly would have used a later build than the April one. We know that IGN received one of these sessions (but, according to the author of the preview article, was allegedly unable to record gameplay during this session, which resulted in IGN having to use the same build everyone else did in their preview articles), and it's a pretty safe bet that GameSpot did, too. In GameSpot's case, we actually got to see what this build looked like:

As expected, it's a later build than the April prototype - this one seems to be from around the same point in development as the earliest demo disc version, though we're not sure if it's an earlier build or a later one. Three main characteristics stick out in these screenshots:

We don't ever see what the eggs looked like in this build, but the fragments use this bizarre ornate gold texture.

The HUD uses a green egg sprite similar to some of the eggs seen in the April build; the earliest demo disc version also uses this sprite.

For some reason, transparent polygons are a solid black colour, making some screenshots look sort of ominous and weird.

Perhaps the weirdest thing about this build is that the gold egg fragments it uses, which to most players would be completely unrecognisable and unlike anything they've ever seen before, actually do appear in the final game. And they hatch from every egg in the entire game. In most cases, the fragment flies off screen before the player can spot it.

The earliest demo build, which seems to be from around May 25th, 2000, does not include this texture at all, which has called into question the timeline placement of the GameSpot build. On one hand, they might've used the final egg texture momentarily, switched to the gold one, and switched back, accidentally leaving one of the textures intact. On the other hand, there have been cases in many Spyro builds of random early assets weeding their way back into the game via means that we don't really understand. Look no further than the August 27th, 1998 localisation prototype of Spyro the Dragon, a post-final build which inexplicably re-uses an early Gnasty Gnorc model, textures, and animations, from around 2 months earlier in development:

The info we have on this build doesn't just stop at screenshots, though! GameSpot kindly uploaded 5 videos of the build - labelled "Movie 2" through "Movie 6" (thanks GameSpot. that's not confusing at all) - to their website. Most of these videos were later temporarily put behind a paywall, and in 2014, 4 of these videos were deleted during a server move, with only Movie 2 (the one never put behind a paywall) remaining. The one movie that remained didn't even play properly in GameSpot's video player for years, so I had to download the video from the API to view it at all:

youtube

While the video is an important piece of history, and did reveal to us that the early Sgt. Byrd theme heard in some old IGN videos of the April preview had a previously unheard guitar section (this was prior to the public release of the April preview), it doesn't tell us very much new about the build. If we really wanted to more precisely date the build, we'd need to know what the eggs looked or sounded like - but the egg collection section was entirely cut from the video. As of yet, we just don't have this information.

As for Movies 3 - 6? These are now lost media. They were up on the site for 14 years, we know that people saw them, and I suspect there were people that downloaded them. However, since they were deleted nearly 10 years ago, nobody has come forward to say that they have one of the videos and to show what was in it. Anyone that does come forward with this info should be met with some scepticism, of course, but I think the only way we'll ever see more of this build is with a greater outreach and more widespread knowledge of the missing videos - the videos were readily downloadable from the website, and so someone still has the videos, I'm sure.

And before anyone asks, yes, the WayBack Machine has been very extensively searched for these videos - we can't find them, there's just no trace of them on there.

Judging by the video descriptions, Movie 3 would have focused on Bentley, Movie 4 on either Sheila or Agent 9, and Movies 5 and 6 on Spyro gameplay.

I've only ever encountered one person who claims to have seen these videos, and whether they're to be believed or not, they claimed that one of the videos showed Sunny Villa using Fireworks Factory's theme (levels using the wrong themes was very common in early builds of these games! Additionally, Fireworks Factory's theme is very likely to have been present around this point in development), and another showed Agent 9 gameplay using a track that didn't sound very Spyro-like, but more like "something from James Bond".

When the April preview released later on, it was discovered that early Spyro 3 builds actually do have a number of entirely non-Spyro themes, all by µ-Ziq and Propellerheads, left unused in their soundtrack data. The tracks in these builds seem to line up with the levels present in an earlier build of the game, and by this metric, it seems that "Spybreak!", a theme from the Matrix soundtrack, would have (fittingly?) lined up with Agent 9's Lab, and possibly would have been used in that level in internal development builds. Sure enough, my contact agreed that this was the theme they heard, when I sent them the track - if this is indeed the case, then this build is very very weird indeed.

It remains to be seen whether we'll ever learn anything new about this build, but we can only hope. I've linked to an archived 7z file containing all the screenshots uploaded to GameSpot below, as well as a link to a TCRF article detailing some of the known differences spotted in this build:

Archive.org

TCRF

#spyro 3 #spyro #spyro the dragon #spyro year of the dragon #spyro: year of the dragon #spyro prototype #prerelease materials #press materials #press screenshots #gamespot build #gamespot #playstation #sony ps1 #lost media #lost videos #prototypes

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will-o-wips · 5 months

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It is 4 am. I'm staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, coincidentally having my phone right in my line of sight, and write this with the exasperation and intense focus that I probably won't ever have again. I'm about to attempt to make any sort of sense of the latest Hayao Miyazaki movie, The Boy and the Heron (or rather, How do you live? in Japanese), that I watched for the first time in theatres a day ago.

I cannot claim to be right, or to know everything about this movie. Actually acclaimed critics and people with obviously more braincells than me have probably better takes than I do. But I must speak, lest the insanity truly take over my brain, lest I really end up combusting because of how much I want to talk about this.

Prepare yourselves for the most incoherent train of thought and line of consciousness you will ever experience.

FILLED WITH SPOILERS READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE.

Before I start with my actual thoughts, however, I'll state my personal feelings about the movie, because I feel that matters too, and this is my post anyway so! But I personally left the cinema feeling somewhat mellow. I was not insane about it yet. It was,,, "meh". The impression of the ride was great; I was giggling along with the funny and even sometimes not purposefully funny moments, I enjoyed the animation to the point I would genuinely flap my hands in excitement at how good it was, I understood the story in great lines by noticing small details and going "oh so does this mean x?". But I did not cry. Not a single tear during or after or before the movie. I did not waver with my opinion on it as I rambled about it to my friends online and irl, much to their annoyance. I did not hesitate when I put it in my silly little Studio Ghibli movie tierlist maker that I update whenever I watch another one of these films together with my friends, categorized (in)discreetly under "all vibes no plot but there's a witch/wizard". I still don't, in fact.

So, given all of this, you'd probably say that I disliked the movie. That I would not have so much to say about it, after doing my mandatory ramble and update. Wrong. I still have more to say, somehow.

Despite that, I didn't rewatch the movie itself. I read an entirety of one (1) review of it, together with one (1) random video essay of 8 or so minutes, covering the basics of it. I reblogged one (1) post about its protagonist on tumblr and otherwise kinda read through the rest of the posts on here. I did not re-experience or re-examine this movie again. I cannot (again) accurately reference anything besides that what I vaguely remember from watching it a day or two ago. It's not playing anywhere near me anymore/not out anywhere else yet, so really, I don't even know what possessed me to write about this, or even say anything. The most fascinating thing (to probably all of us here) is; what made me change my mind about it?

It might've been the review on IndieWire. David Ehrlich and his well-written review, bringing things into much needed context as to why this movie was created. It could've been the fact that I've actively processed the movie better, now a little bit of time has passed. [Honestly it deserves a second watch/view for something more concrete, but I'm repeating myself with this, you get it.]

But I don't even really understand it myself. I felt and still feel so detached from this movie in a sense. I appreciate the artistry that went into it, and I adore the way it simply tells the story and leaves it up to interpretation. It references every single film Hayao Miyazaki has ever made before, and elements of other Ghibli films can probably be found in there too, if you looked hard enough. The vibes were similar to those of Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle, given how inexplicably fantastical the world was. It just existed and breathed, and we as the audience jumped straight into it. We never got more exposition than what was needed; honestly I have a feeling that the second half of the movie was the vaguest piece of media I have ever consumed in my life. But it also had this perfect balance of the more drama-focused Ghibli films. The Boy and the Heron, in my opinion, is like the golden middle between reality and fantasy, both in terms of its narrative as well as comparison between other Ghibli movies.

This might also be the reason why I felt confused. The lines between reality and fantasy were so effortlessly blurred, that you could only process a singular picture. And when things are vague to me, I constantly need to pick them apart and analyse them, simply to satisfy my own curiosity.

The moment before I stepped into the movie theatre, my friend who watched along with me told me they heard it was a film about grief. I nodded along and said "yeah, okay, that just means it's another one of many Hayao Miyazaki and Ghibli films. Most of them are about some kind of loss, and dealing with it, either way." I sat down together with them; row 9, chairs 17 and 18, with my two bottles of water (one carbonated, one stilled) and the bag of terribly sour packaged chocolate pretzels I bought at the theatre itself. Horribly overpriced for the quality, I must say. My friend held onto the popcorn, and we sat through the ads, talking and laughing, anticipating something that was supposed to blow us away.

I cannot speak for my friend, but I think they really liked the movie regardless. They didn't cry at it either, even though we both know of each other that we always cry at such things. Somehow this movie evoked a certain stillness in us both; a stalemate between emotions and confusion. Maybe delayed processing. Maybe something else entirely. We both, or at least I, hid it until later.

It was midnight, and right before we stepped on our train home, I was excitedly going on about the references and animation, the things I did appreciate. I bragged a bit about how I recognized Kenshi Yonezu's voice in the final credit song that we didn't get to listen to entirely, because it was so late and we had to rush to get home. They laughed at me and told me to take some time to actively formulate any coherent thoughts on it. I disagreed (lovingly and jokingly of course), and we left it at that.

In the train itself, the same high dimmed into a simmer, the excitement replaced with contemplation, and I kept talking.

I told them: "I believe that this truly is his last film. This felt like a goodbye." And in return, they replied: "It's crazy how this is the last time we'll ever get to live in such a moment. The release of the final Ghibli movie in theatres.

"I'm glad we got to go."

I was too.

I got home, rambled about the intrinsic way The Boy and the Heron referenced other Ghibli movies to my online friends who had yet to see it. Followed by a heated tangent about how When Marnie Was There truly could have had better direction in regards to the narrative, as well as how Only Yesterday was the most boring out of all Ghibli movies. It was a nice night. I didn't think about the movie again.

The following morning, I contacted other friends, who told me about how Robert Pattison voiced the Heron in the English dub, which I hadn't seen or heard at all. He did a great job, judging by the trailer. This led me to another opinion, namely the video essay (I will try to find it and put it in the notes later if you are curious), which claimed something similar to this (of course, paraphrased):

"This is a farewell. The one true movie to tie such an expansive career. It is another movie where you are allowed to explore the magical together with the main character, while sticking close to the processing of it all."

The review I read said it was a swan-song, that it was the question and title of the movie in Japanese, posed at us, after The Wind Rises left it open to interpretation at the end of its run. That this was a story about the legacy that Miyazaki is leaving behind, how reality and fantasy coexist together, possibly influencing each other (not explicitly said but what I interpreted that review saying, so no this is also not completely like this).

Other tumblr posts I've seen on here say it was a film most likely dedicated to his son, Goro Miyazaki. That it was a gentle "I'm sorry, the shadow I leave behind is huge. I know that you will try and fail to fill it. It's okay; you don't have to. You can leave it behind. It's alright if this legacy dies with me."

Some other sources I've seen compare the main protagonist to Miyazaki himself, trying to grapple with the ending.

Yet somehow, all of these interpretations seem to fail to explain the entirety of this movie. The bigger picture if you will. These themes and moments and interpretations are not wrong, but to me, they're not satisfying enough.

Because maybe I am the only one who actually was insane about this moment, but I will never forget the delivery room scene between Mahito and Natsuko. How Himi addresses the magic stone, pleading to let the two go, saying "Natsuko and the boy who is to be her son". (Again, paraphrased, I cannot remember the exact line.) Maybe I am the only one who witnessed the whimsical fire witch and the going back in time plots and the fact that a younger Kiriko and Himi were there, already part of an ecosystem. How we already know from the other grannies in the house that Mahito's mother disappeared once for a whole year into the tower, and then came back the same as before. How the pelicans were BROUGHT there, that they did not belong there, and yet were forgetting how to fly. How they ate the Warawara, these creatures that were rising above to be born in the upper world. How the Heron's weakness was his 7th tail feather (or something along those lines), and how the fish and the frogs chanted for Mahito to join them in the tower. That the great-great-uncle was hoping for Mahito to succeed him and build a new tower, yet the king of the parakeets butted in and haphazardly did the job, resulting in it immediately toppling over, as well as the stones getting cut.

I think about the final scene where the Heron says "It's best to forget. Do you have any keepsakes?" And Mahito shows not only older Kiriko's figure, but also a piece of the stone paths they walked upon in order to get to the centre, the beating heart, the magic stone and his great-great-uncle.

How this is taking place during a war, that the timeline goes from his mothers death that Mahito cannot get over, to the welcoming of his stepmother and his new younger sibling. Them moving back to Tokyo. The way the tower completely collapsed. Completely and utterly collapsed and perished; not even a trace of it left behind. The way that older Kiriko keeps yelling it is a trap to Mahito in the beginning, but that both he and the Heron know. That it is inevitable to tread this specific path. That he must see for himself, whether his mother is truly alive. The way she both was and wasn't; first a mirage of her older self disappearing into a puddle of water, and second a firey spirit of her younger self coming to help Mahito. The way that he reads and cries at the book she left him, the way he hits himself with a rock after his big fight with his classmates; the way Mahito in general drowns consistently in the beginning of the film. He drowns in the fire that he lost his mother in. He drowns in the mud and the dust when he tries to enter the tower at first. He drowns in his dreams, in his tears, drowns right into his quest to find Natsuko (straight through the floor, by behest of his great-great-uncle), drowns in pelicans trying to eat him, nearly drowns in the actual sea until younger Kiriko fishes him out.

Now these things may seem like me just randomly naming shit that happens in the movie. Hopefully in a slightly poetic way, possibly. I could go on and on about the imagery, truly. But my point is, this movie may have been Miyazaki's last movie, his way of closure, his way of speaking to his son about his legacy, his way of describing the grief of losing his mother (idk if this is autobiographical or not. It very well may have been), yet...

Even so, it doesn't really fit the entire picture. It feels incomplete. The analyses always focus on the true meaning behind this movie, what happens behind the scenes, this one key climactic moment between Mahito and his great-great-uncle. But that's as if you would ignore the rest of the movie in general. As if the fantastical aspects weren't there to abstractly tell a story besides just being a symbol of closure for the person that directed it.

Personally, this is a tale of rebirth. Of losing yourself, and then rediscovering yourself in a way. I associate it with my own personal loss of my grandfather; the family member I felt closest to out of everyone.

The way you look back at such a traumatic stage in your life, something that irrevocably changed you for good, something that you probably don't ever want to relive again, but also mustn't forget. The way you instinctively are afraid to learn about who the person you love and grieve was, before you were in their life.

To this day, I still cannot speak to my mother about whether my grandfather had a favourite song before me forcing him to sing along with my favourites. A favourite book before he read out bedtime stories to me tirelessly. Who the boy in him was, and what wisdom and life lessons he carried on, into his grave, into the hearts of his children.

This movie depicts so much more than just grief, it's so much more than just legacy, even. It directly reflects the way I know I would have felt had I dared to actually see things for myself. If I actually dared to go through my grandfather's old things; the books he wrote and dedicated to me, the books he read when he was young. This movie depicts not how to live, but how to live on.

And the only way to live on is to move forward. To look at the foundations upon which it was built, to evaluate whether you truly want to have this be your burden to carry for the rest of your life. Mahito's abstract grief in regards to his mother, and the solace he finds in the fact that he at least knew who she was; that he at least had her in his life as both his mother and the girl that his stepmother knew, that at the very least he knows his mother would do it all over again, if she could. That despite everything, she did not regret a thing, and that she was not afraid. That somewhere, in the past, she lives on, happily marching toward this fate, because she knows that Mahito will be there to meet her again in the future.

And Natsuko, god, she worries relentlessly about whether Mahito will accept her. She worries to the point she yells at him, telling him that she hates him and his existence, because he rejects her so coldly and yet still bothers to show up in front of her during her most vulnerable moments. That he only takes and takes and takes; he steals her cigarettes in order to learn how to sharpen a knife from one of the servants. He uses those techniques to create a bow and arrow, a weapon. He gets into fights at school, he gets gravely injured on the side of his head, leaving a lasting scar.

If I were in her shoes, I would be furious at him too. Especially if he walked straight into the delivery room, trying to drag me out of bed while I was doing my damn best to keep the other child in my belly alive.

That scene, that sheer rage, and the way it ALL FUCKING SUBSIDES the MOMENT Mahito accepts her and calls her mother. The moment Mahito understands that through the literal whirlwind of plasters, things used to tend to wounds, none of those pleasantries/guards will truly allow him to reach her. The way he tries to nurse his own wounds, as well as try to nurse hers, over the loss of their shared connection (Natsuko's older sister, Mahito's biological mother), will NEVER allow him to make a connection with her. By being careful, by being polite, he will never get to be her son.

And he realizes, in that moment, that he wants to.

The magic stone tries to stop this. The magic stone dislikes disruption; dislikes things changing, dislikes breaking traditions (the taboo of entering the delivery room). The parakeets in the tower flourish because they follow the magic stone's whims more or less. They agree to follow its rules, even if it means they are prone to its abuse, because it gives them an advantage, a place to stay. The pelicans have to eat the Warawara, because there is no other food available to them.

The way younger Kiriko says "you reek of death", and how they establish this place is mostly made up of death and dead people. Dead people, or dying people, creatures that are begging to survive another day. Creatures that are begging to be reborn. That want to change, that wish to fly once more.

My mother once gave me a poem dearest to her heart. We have always been a family filled with literature and stories, but my mother was always the best at both writing them and reciting them. She used to read them out to me, back when I was in a particularly bad spot mentally, to the point I could not get out of bed for weeks on end, to try and reach me. She read with the sincerest passion in her voice, a small plea to get me back to the girl I was before.

I cannot explain or remember the poem by heart, but once I was at my true rock bottom, she told me to look it up. A Serbian poem, written by Miroslav Antić (I will add the name of it later), that was about growing up and growing into your own person. It made me weep, for it had a phrase I think I can only translate to this:

"Run and don't look back."

Somehow, whenever I look at all of these birds and creatures in this fantasy world, trying to fly desperately, trying to get to the skies, trying to get to even live, and think about the fact that the only way they can is by leaving this place. That the only way they can fly and survive as themselves is by leaving this tower, this stone, this foundation. By leaving and being born, by leaving and being reborn.

And, after all of this. Somehow I'm not even done yet. I haven't talked about the great-great-uncle in depth, nor the king of the parakeets, nor the heron whatsoever. I have not yet even touched upon what I might think the magic stone is, and the sheer amount of like symbolism I picked apart in my brain because of my insanity.

I'm probably not the only one who noticed these things. But so far I haven't seen anyone actively share these things, so, I will do my best to continue and genuinely wrap it up as best as I can. So that this can also bring the same amount of closure as the movie does.

The magic stone is like a shooting star that came onto the earth. It realizes dreams and worlds of whoever dares to walk into it and claim to own it; like how Mahito's great-great-uncle got obsessed and built a tower around it, caging it, taming it. And yet he still had to play to its whims, consistently making sure his own tower of blocks did not fall, that all of his work did not amount to nothing. Personally, I do believe the great-great-uncle could represent Miyazaki himself. That Miyazaki is trying to express how he built Ghibli and that now it has been going on for so long, and it has become unmanageable to continue upholding it. That it is time to retire.

A thing I find interesting and remember pretty well is the conversation between the parakeet king and the great-great-uncle. How they talked about Mahito's transgression, breaking into the delivery room (side note: he broke in and broke through to Natsuko with his mother's spirit. Mahito became Natsuko's son with the blessing of his mother; with the sheer love she had for him being carried on and through), and how the great-great-uncle says something akin to this:

"It is why I wish for him [Mahito] to succeed me."

"I cannot overlook such a transgression."

I feel this is important. It is key to how the great-great-uncle views Mahito in this. Because Mahito was not sent out on this quest to find Natsuko out of pure selfishness. Sure, his uncle would have wanted him to succeed him, but the entire reason WHY he believed in Mahito to begin with, is the fact that this boy was able to break the foundation and the traditions in the first place. Mahito inherently disobeys from the chosen path. Mahito inherently does not believe the Heron when he says that all herons lie. Mahito doesn't waver when the heron flies straight at him, he doesn't sway when the frogs or the pelicans overwhelm him. Mahito stands firm in who he is, even if he is trying to deal with new circumstances. Mahito inherently goes to places he should not be in (his curiosity for the tower). Mahito has enough power on his own to create a new tower, but only by rebuilding it from scratch.

This ready acceptance that the great-great-uncle has towards Mahito's decision NOT to inherit his legacy, is what makes me believe this is what this movie is supposed to represent. Break away from the old, off into the new. Closure. Moving on.

This is also reflected in the sentiment that Mahito truly DOES move on. He goes back to his family, his father, school, he goes back with Natsuko as his mother and a new younger sibling to Tokyo. He returns there where he came from, but he is not the same anymore. He is reborn into a new Mahito.

And god I feel like I'm repeating myself to death here; I really should have thought about the structure of this, but give me some slack okay. It's like 6:30 am already and I'm still not done, despite continuously writing and labouring at this.

So, the tower that immediately falls apart by someone who always follows the whims of a dream (the parakeet king and the stone respectively). God it is just such a momentTM. Because in the end even this shows that the parakeets, too, even though they by far had it the best in that goddamn tower, had to leave. For they could not build something on their own without learning who they were outside of the already established. Outside of just following the rules and all.

They had to leave, my GODDDDD.

As I'm getting progressively more unhinged, we shall move onto the most unhinged character in this entire fucking movie. The Heron himself. God there's too much to unpack here, really, but the truth is, the Heron was supposed to be the guide to Mahito. The Heron was supposed to be Mahito's biggest, most aggressive enemy, the direct antagonist to Mahito's protagonist. The Heron doesn't want change. The Heron tries to bribe Mahito with the fact that his mother is still alive, that he need only enter the tower, and lose himself to illusions and dreams. That fantasizing about his mother being alive won't only drown him more, that it won't just let Mahito sink into the deepest pits of his despair and anguish about such a death, that losing yourself to the belief that something is there when it is not wouldn't only be counterproductive. The Heron masks himself consistently; he says that all herons lie. He says that he only has one weakness, his own feather, that allows the arrow to automatically target him. In essence, the Heron shot himself in the foot beak. He himself slipped up in his mirage world, and came out to be who he truly was, this weird little man with a huge nose and a conniving demeanour. He adamantly cannot disobey the dream, for then his true nature comes peaking out (a small detail I absolutely love is the fact that the Heron's feathers also disappear out of Mahito's hands when Mahito is called back to reality by the grannies. The grannies protect him in the dream world too, by being his tether and support system while he gets over himself and starts trusting Natsuko). The Heron doesn't WANT to be a guide, for in order to be a guide, you must tell the truth. You'd need to know some facts about the world around you and share this information with the ones seeking guidance. This is how I believe Mahito understood the Heron before we did.

It's not that all herons lie; it's just that this particular one does not want to face the truth/reality.

Another interesting detail: the whole reason why only Mahito was able to cover up the hole in the Heron's beak was reminiscent about how only those that called you out can really patch up your old image. Only those that have poked holes in your false narrative are able to fill them back up again, and even then it is not the same, and even then it will not always be comfortable/reliable.

Either way, the Heron, after this wings partially turn into hands, his true nature, is unable to fly all that well for a while. He relies on Mahito's corkscrew thing in order to relish in his comfort zone of lies again. But throughout the movie, the Heron slowly starts to ignore the corkscrew completely; simply opting to stay in his (frankly, freakish) half gremlin man half heron costume form. The Heron changes because Mahito inspired him to change. Even though his image used to be spotless before, and he tried to deceive Mahito, after a while, he stopped doing that. The mutual trust both Mahito and the Heron had grew. The Heron became a person, although his heron-ness would never go away.

The Heron thus warns Mahito that he should want to forget. That he will forget, either way. That this struggle of his to grapple with the reality of his situation, and the fantasy that he was delving into, will become a far-off memory that Mahito should not revisit. The Heron, I believe, is genuinely trying to look out for Mahito.

"Don't dwell in what you have already overcome. Don't revisit the things you have already outgrown."

And this is where the movie more or less ends. Mahito still keeps that stone, and his mother's book, and he goes back to Tokyo; the only crucial difference is that he has overcome his own grief.

Now, I've said this like a billion times now, but this is the rebirth. This is what I think this movie stands for. What it means, at its core. This is what it means to live; to move on and to cut ties with that what has no place in your life anymore. Miyazaki, I think, is trying to give us closure, a final farewell to Ghibli altogether.

Now I don't know about any speculation that he might come back again, and personally, I don't think it really matters. If he does come back, good for him. I just don't know enough to say anything for sure, so I'll just say I cannot say.

Either way, I think, even though Miyazaki conveyed the need for a new start/a rebirth, he didn't really end on the complete abolishment of all that used to be. You are allowed to keep mementos of it; even though the Heron advises not to. Mahito is allowed to reflect upon this experience, to see it as another stone in his foundation/formation, to say that, yes, the spirit of this change will always stay with me, although it has passed.

Just like how Mahito's mom was someone who returned to the past without regrets. She never came back. She was a spirit that pushed Mahito forward, and he will always remember her, but it's better that she stay a memory than become a fantasy.

This is why I'm so impressed by this movie in general. I'm so thankful that I was able to witness this with a friend of mine. I'm glad that I was able to see this, even though my insanity knows no bounds, and the fact that I didn't even think about any of this until I really sat down to look through the options of interpretations.

I'm so glad I got to go. Now it's time to run towards the future, and never look back.

#the boy and the heron #genuinely what was I on actually #I can't believe I am writing this/have written this #Disclaimer: I am really just saying shit please do not take this as the end all be all or whatever; I just need to say it just in case.#oh btw this is DEFINITELY not meant to critique or dismiss any of the people that have other opinions than I do #I just needed to put my own interpretation out there #together with my few flourishes of storytelling here and there even though I'm not even sure if it makes any sense whatsoever #the boy and the heron spoilers #spoilers #I think like. there is so much more to be said about this. there is so much more that can be touched upon #without the repetitive stuff of unstructured “just wing it” (ha ha get it. because there's so many birds and flying metaphors in this.)#essays and shit like this #like I haven't even touched upon Mahito's father and the entire airplane thing that could just be a reference but also-#it could be a metaphor in how his father is trying to overcompensate and how he just wants Mahito to fly again so he creates and works so-#hard that he eventually just ends up being absent in Mahito's life.#which is sickening. (positive/bittersweet)#anyway I am still just saying shit. enjoy the??? idk essay upon essay upon essay of late night insanity.

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