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sketchy-characters-in-progress · 5 years

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When Teasing Ends in Trouble

Summary: Jude gives Cardan a phone. A few explicit pictures later Cardan realizes he can't deal with the sexual frustration, and takes it out on Jude. She’s surprisingly into it.

A/N: Ok so I posted this on Ao3 a while back because I was too nervous to put it here, but I’ve seen some similar stuff to my own on here recently and decided to say fuck it and just go for it.

Worst that could happen is people hate it. But even if one person likes it it wouldn’t have been for nothing haha. Oh also I like never write so I don’t know how this stands up as a piece of writing, I just hope it’s entertaining.

And this was so fun to write so there’s that.

Gets kind of dark, is pretty OOC, and like 7500 words. But enjoy!

Warnings: Smut, Dom/Sub, spanking, Swearing, Crying, Dark but Jude’s clearly pretty into it at the end, OOC af but I had fun so

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JUDE & CARDAN

Cardan Greenbriar isn’t one to show a variety of emotions in public. The ones most often witnessed by his subjects were ones of boredom during incessant meetings or smug amusement at a particularly rambunctious party. On a rare occasion, some fae would be unfortunate enough to witness his face twist into stone cold rage. And, of course, the newest addition to his lackluster range of displayed emotions: adoration. Ever since he and Jude Duarte, his once exiled queen and sworn enemy, had reconciled, he’d display his affection as openly as a child with his favourite piece of candy.

However, as with all things, too much of something never ends well. All this newfound happiness led to lengthy periods of sulking with a thundercloud over his head whenever Jude was gone. And the whole … misunderstanding… with Jude’s exile led to some life changing revelations on her side.

Jude discovered that she made a damn good ambassador between the humans and fae.

In the process of securing the crown’s future, Jude had many opportunities to diplomatically resolve the conflicts with her enemies, using her unique position as someone deeply entrenched in both worlds.

Well, the positive outcomes of those discussions were probably due to her threats to separate bodies from heads and parade them on a stick, but she tried to be diplomatic.

And she sure as hell enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, while Jude was stuck in the human world, Cardan had spent his time actually learning how he was supposed to run a country and be a strong ruler before he ended up on the wrong side of a revolution. So once everything had calmed down, both Cardan and Jude were comfortable settling into their new roles, with Cardan as a true King and Jude as a Queen in name but a diplomat in essence.

The new jobs also did wonders to teach Jude how to control her temper and to cement Cardan’s new status as someone not to be fucked with.

And although they were both happy in the positions, Jude’s constant trips between the worlds and different parts of the land left both her and Cardan apart for quite too long. Thus, long periods of yearning and sulking around the palace for the disgruntled King.

And, of course, Jude decided to do something about it.

Directly leading to the day when Cardan, with a strangled noise and a pinking face, displayed wide-eyed shock in front of his highest-ranking officers for the first time ever.

_______________________________________________________________________

JUDE

After her second long expedition to the human world, Jude came back to her palace with a mischievous smile and excited eyes.

Walking through the palace and hearing her muddy boots squishing on pristine marble tiles made her feel right at home. Jude briefly felt bad for the servants who would have to clean up after her muddy mess, and promised not to drag in half the palace grounds after herself next time she entered the castle. Looking back at the footprints, she decided not to make the situation worse.

Tugging off her boots, she held them in her hands as she made the rest of the way towards her King’s private chambers. Familiar guards dotted the halls towards the royals’ wing of the castle, and she greeted them with warm smiles, giddy from what she was about to present to her husband. Turning the corner, she pattered down the hall towards where Cardan spent most of his time when she was gone.

Finally, Jude stopped in front of heavy wooden doors engraved with faint carvings of beasts and creatures from all corners of the land of Faeries. Pushing at the ornate doors, her socks slipped on the marble and she nearly fell into Cardan’s enormous private office.

The first things she noticed were the familiar floating dust motes in the golden rays of the sun, quickly followed by the hundreds of books lining magnificent bookshelves, and then the lonely figure at a desk in the middle of the room.

As if sensing that she was looking at him, Cardan slowly turned around in his chair, a lazy smile stretching his lovely features. Standing up carefully, he started to make his way towards her far too slowly.

In response, Jude dropped her dirty boots and dashed into his arms. When she crashed into him, he nearly fell over from the impact, letting out a surprised grunt followed by a long peal of gentle laughter.

Burying his face in her hair, Jude heard him murmur, “I missed you darling.”

Her only reply was to wrap her arms around him tightly and hold on for way too long, yet not long enough. Though they might laugh and joke, ten months apart were not easy to bear for either of them. This was the longest she’d been away from him on one of her trips, and she swore right there and then to never leave for so long again.

When Jude forced herself away so that she could look at his face, she noticed the shadows under his eyes, and tiredness in his smile. Remembering that late morning in the human world is essentially late night for faeries, Jude raised her hand to Cardan’s cheek.

“Shouldn’t you be going to sleep?” She whispered, caressing his jaw.

Sighing, Cardan leaned into her touch, “I have reports to sign and disputes to settle. As you know quite well, it’s long and tiring work.

Squinting down at her through his long lashes, he whispered conspiratorially, “Did you know that someone stole Sir Goran’s prize pumpkin?”

After a stunned moment, Jude couldn’t help but throw her head back in laughter. Tired or otherwise incapacitated Cardan was the most amusing Cardan by far.

“I did not know that,” she replied through hiccups of laughter.

Cardan groaned heavily, dropping his head onto her shoulder in an almost comical fashion, “That man could buy three full plots of goddamn pumpkins and still afford those atrocious mermaid-scale boots that are supposedly the last of their kind. And yet he continues to send me fucking letters detailing the utter horror committed against him and how I can’t even solve the case of the damn stolen pumpkin.”

By this point, Jude was about to fall over in laughter, holding an exhausted Cardan that seemed to be similarly beginning to give into the amusement of the absurd situation. In just a few minutes, they’ve ended up on the floor, clutching each other as their laughter subsided.

With a sigh, Jude leaned her forehead against Cardan’s, feeling his body react to hers as she melted into him. He held her tighter and his chest began to rise quicker. Hers matched his in turn. Time apart had made their bodies miss the release they could find in each other.

“I actually have a present for you,” Jude whispered, remembering what she needed to give to him, heart still hammering.

The exhaustion seemed to flit completely out of Cardan’s eyes, replaced by dark desire.

He raised his eyebrows, murmuring as he leaned in, “Oh really? Is it what I’d find if I felt between your thighs right now?”

Heat pooled in Jude’s belly as one hand traced her rounded ear and the other played with the string on her trousers. Shaking her head to clear it of murky longing, she pushed him away before she ended up spending all day fucking instead of accomplishing her goal.

“Oh my God Cardan, is that all you think about?” Jude laughed, “I have an actual present for you.”

Leaning in one more time, Jude pressed her lips to Cardan’s ear, “And if you’re good and let me finish showing you my present, I’ll let you have your way with the other gift you so kindly caused.”

Cardan groaned, gripping her hips tight enough to bruise, before letting her go with a huff.

“Fine. But don’t think I’ll forget your promise.”

Jude rolled her eyes with a smile, reaching into the forgotten satchel hanging by her side. Pulling out a thin, rectangular object, she passed the precious piece of overpriced metal to Cardan. He seemed to momentarily forget about the tension in the air from mere seconds ago.

“This is a cellphone. Humans currently use it to communicate and connect with each other over long distances. I thought we could use it to talk when I go away,” Jude explained quietly, answering the question in Cardan’s eyes.

Cardan stared down at her, wide-eyed. Slowly, a crooked smile grew on his face.

“Thank you,” he murmured, “I love it, sweetheart.”

Jude pulled away just far enough to give him a big grin.

“Now, listen up, I’ll only teach you the basics of calling and texting, but make sure not to press any other buttons or you might accidentally turn off the only data plan I could find that somehow works from here,” Jude began, amused by the increasing look of confusion on her husband’s face.

_______________________________________________________________________

CARDAN

It took some time and constant repeats from a surprisingly patient Jude until Cardan finally got the hang of using this phone object. However, through the difficulty and confusion, even he had to admit that it was the most useful object he’d possessed in his life, as it allowed him to talk to his wife everyday even if she was gone for months. He even learned how to see her on his phone when talking to her. It was almost like being with her.

Almost.

But Cardan hadn’t realized just how quickly this useful device could turn into a sexual nightmare. The first time it happened was one early morning, as he was getting ready for bed. Just as he closed his eyes, he heard the quiet chime of his phone, meaning Jude had texted him.

Picking up his phone, he frowned as he immediately noticed that something was different. The notification he got was one that he’d never seen before. Of course, he hadn’t had the motivation or time to explore the rest of the things Jude had downloaded onto his phone, but he was still surprised, as she’d never used anything else but texts, phone calls, and video chats. This time, the little banner had a weird white blob on a yellow background to the left, and text that said ‘Snapchat from Jude’, with a red heart and purple devil-face next to the name. Clearly, his wife had her fun with the phone before giving it to him.

Like Jude taught him, Cardan slid the little banner to the right, pressing his thumb to the button at the bottom to unlock the phone. This automatically opened the message, so that he didn’t have to navigate the phone to get to it.

His jaw dropped as his lovely Jude appeared on the screen, clad in nothing but in those underclothes humans loved so much. Red velvet panties and matching bra covered the parts of her he missed so dearly. And then she disappeared off the screen, just like that.

Like a devious phantom that never gave him enough of her to be satisfied, but just enough to leave him pulsing with raw desire, Jude sent him similarly scandalous pictures on random mornings, disappearing before he could truly appreciate them, and always wearing those damned underclothes.

For weeks, she tortured him so. When talking with him, she’d either completely avoid the topic of the pictures or laugh cheekily, making his blood boil and hand itch to teach her a lesson. Of course, with her in a completely different world, there wasn’t much he could do at the moment.

And the meeting was the final straw.

One moment, he was trying not to tune out the boring drabble of the pretentious faeries, and the next he was checking his phone after feeling the vibration indicating a text from his Jude. In hindsight, he should’ve paused for a moment and realized that the white on yellow icon meant this was not a normal text, but his brain was fried from the incessant meetings.

Opening the message, Cardan was so surprised to see Jude’s very fully naked body taking up the majority of the screen, that he couldn’t help but squeal like a strangled cat.

He vaguely sensed every head in the room turn towards him, unable to tear his eyes away. He could feel the sweat gathering on his palms, as his trouser suddenly became uncomfortably tight. Then the picture disappeared as if it was never there.

Little by little, Cardan shut his mouth, schooled his red face into his usual mask of boredom, and put down the cursed phone.

“Is there a problem?” Cardan drawled lazily, looking around the room.

At the King’s commanding tone, the generals quickly but nervously resumed their discussions.

Completely losing the pretense of paying attention, Cardan drummed his fingers on the table, as he decided that Jude wouldn’t be getting away with this. She knew he had a meeting right now, and she had the gall to send that.

He glowered, itching for revenge. Oh, she’ll get what’s coming to her.

Any general that would have dared to glance at Cardan’s face in that moment would have feared for whatever poor soul was the recipient of the simmering anger behind the King’s eyes.

_______________________________________________________________________

CARDAN

Every day, Cardan and Jude had a planned time to video chat. This way, no matter how busy they got, they would talk and see each other at least once a day. This would come in very useful for him today, as Jude wouldn’t break their promise to talk every day. Especially since she didn’t yet know that she had really fucked up.

He hoped she was as nervous to talk to him as he was looking forward to seeing the realization on her face of what was coming to her.

Facing a mirror, Cardan took several deep breaths, calming his face into quiet anger, so as not to give Jude the satisfaction of accidentally seeing the burning desire and emotional turmoil she’d kept him in for over two months.

Turning around, Cardan stalked back to his bed, assuming his usual position against the headboard, holding the phone out in front of him. Looking at the little clock at the top of the phone’s screen, Cardan verified the time and pressed the ‘call button’. His face appeared in a little box at the top corner of the screen, meanwhile Jude still hadn’t answered his call.

For a moment longer than usual, he went unanswered. But then, there she was.

Cardan’s eyes narrowed, staring at the screen. After the little picture debacle today, he would’ve assumed that Jude would’ve had at least a little inkling of the trouble she was in, perhaps opting to appear a little more innocent and demure.

Instead, her top plunged so low that he couldn’t see where it ended below the screen, and her face was adorned with a devious smirk.

“Hey.” Jude said quietly, not quite projecting the confidence of her smile and outfit in her voice. At least she was at least a little bit nervous.

Cardan let the silence stretch out. He knew it was getting uncomfortable, but watching her squirm was exactly the point of today’s call. After a moment, Jude seemed to pull herself together, and build that mask of confidence back up.

Letting the slow, devilish grin split her face even further, Jude leaned in, pushing her breast together. The top wasn’t helping.

“So,” she drawled, “did you like your little present today?”

Cardan tilted his head, still staring with the look that promised pain. He saw her smile falter just a little, but to her credit, she brought it back up, smirking even more. Cardan leaned towards the phone.

“Careful, darling,” he growled, “after I get my hands on you, you won’t be able to sit for a week.”

At first, Jude’s brow furrowed, confident façade gone and replaced by confusion. Then, there it was. The moment that made his torture worth it. The moment she realized exactly what he meant.

Jude’s mouth fell open, her breath leaving in a tattered gasp. She stared at him, the darkest blush he’d ever seen creeping up her neck.

“Y-you wouldn’t,” she stammered, almost a plea.

Cardan couldn’t help the wicked grin stretching his mouth. Come here and find out.

“Oh, wouldn’t I, Jude, dearest,” he replied, schooling his features back into cold anger. “And one more thing. No more sending those pictures when I’m in a meeting, darling. After all, you’ve got, what, three weeks until you come back? Shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Licking his lips like he just spotted his prey, he continued, “I am not in the most forgiving mood currently, and I will punish you for every picture you send from now on.”

Cardan leaned back lazily, watching Jude’s breathing get heavier, chest rising tantalizingly, as the blood drained form her face at his statement. Cardan added his deadly grin back to his furious expression.

“Do you want to know what I’ll do to you for each one you send?” he drawled, boring his eyes into hers.

Jude let out a little whimper, snatching her eyes away from his line of sight.

“No,” she whispered.

“I think you do, sweetheart,” Cardan tutted, “otherwise, how would you know that you actions have consequences? You’re already in big trouble, my dear Jude, but it can get much, much, worse.”

Cardan narrowed his eyes, growling, “Look at me.”

Jude’s roaming eyes snapped back to his, as she bit her lip and waited for him to continue.

“Good girl,” he smirked, “For every picture I receive, I will add a week of welts on your ass. And fuck if I know what one versus five weeks of bruises would look like on your backside. But I’ll sure as hell enjoy guessing.”

Leaning in one more time, Cardan decided to let her hear just how angry he was.

“Either way, just remember that you’ll be a screaming, sobbing mess over my lap by the end, begging me to stop,” Cardan snarled, “so just think about that over the next few weeks, and if torturing me was really worth it.”

And with that, he ended the call, a wide-eyed, whimpering girl the last thing he saw.

______________________________________________________________________

JUDE

Jude couldn’t stop staring at her reflection on the dark screen. Cardan was gone, and she saw what she looked like to him: scared.

But with an unexplainable feeling of arousal between her legs.

The moment she realized that he was going to bend her over his knee and spank her like a petulant child, it was as if the gears in her brain stopped turning.

And when she realized it will happen no matter what she did now, she got worried.

Not so much of the pain, but of the inevitable embarrassment of being punished in such a way.

Chewing on her lip, Jude buried her face in her hands, thinking. Should she apologize and beg him not to do it? Or maybe send him more pictures to show him that she wasn’t afraid? It didn’t really help to realize just how wet she was after their conversation.

Cardan had never put her in this kind of situation before, and her heart thumped painfully just thinking about what it will feel like. But she’d seen Cardan angry in person before, and talking through a screen was nothing compared to the real experience of his fury. She couldn’t forget the fire in the coals of his eyes, and imagining seeing that in person, she knew she’d come to regret sending those damned pictures.

In Jude’s mind, she just wanted to rile him up, get him so aroused and on edge that he’d give her the best rough sex she’d ever had when she came back. At no point did she expect he would actually punish her for game, with a fucking spanking no less.

Suddenly a thought struck her, turning her insides cold. He never specified he would use his hands.

Before she could stop her train of thoughts, her mind spiraled, picturing him slowly pulling a belt out of his pants’ loops and bending it in half…

Jude couldn’t help the moan that slipped through her lips, feeling her arousal begin to cover her thighs. In this scenario she was certainly just as worried about the pain as the embarrassment, but her body seemed to betray her terrified mind.

She rolled over, groaning loudly, stuffing her face into her pillows. One hand quickly found its way down the front of her jeans, as she quickly brought herself to satisfaction with shaky circles. At least now that she had taken care of her craving, her thoughts seemed to clear up somewhat.

Jude knew she couldn’t escape Cardan’s wrath, but at the very least she could control how dark her bruises will be and for how long she’d struggle to sit.

Taking a calming breath, Jude decided that she wouldn’t send any more pictures. It won’t be that bad, I’ll only have to suffer for a week.

Unfortunately, she forgot that sometimes drunk Jude doesn’t make the best decisions.

_______________________________________________________________________

JUDE

Jude woke up with a groan and a splitting headache. Shaking her head and pushing herself up into a sitting position, Jude blinked slowly, trying to take in her surroundings.

From the window, the sun streamed in almost painfully, hitting her face in just the wrong way. Cursing, Jude stood up slowly.

“What the fuck happened to me?”

Straining her sleepy mind, Jude focused on what she could recall.

“Of course!” Jude remembered with a bang. Since she was returning to Faerie today, Viv and their human friends threw her a party. And to stop worrying about seeing Cardan so soon, she drank until she could truly enjoy herself. Smiling bitterly, she realized there was no more avoiding her fate. After her conversation with Cardan three weeks ago, she opted not to contact him anymore. And since he never called himself, she’d been left with his words constantly at the back of her mind. At least she had one night to focus on something else.

Sitting back down on her bed with a sigh, Jude rubbed at her headache with one hand and picked up her phone with the other. After scrolling through her emails, she took a break and went to check her Snapchat. Immediately, she knew something was very, very wrong. At the top of her feed, she saw an opened arrow next to Cardan’s name. Oh no oh no oh no no no. Shit. What did she send? After a moment of rifling through her murky memories, Jude’s worst suspicions were confirmed. Almost as if in third person, she saw herself as drunken Jude, giggling as she sent two consecutive pictures to Cardan. Two very explicit pictures. Both of her naked. One angled obscenely from below. The second even more magnificent, using mirrors in a way so sinful that Cardan would never look at reflections in the same way again. Drunken Jude laughed, “Let’s see how he likes these during his meeting!”

In a moment, she snapped back to reality, cursing herself mentally. I should’ve deleted those photos before something like this happened!

Jude briefly considered calling Cardan and apologizing, telling him those pictures were accidents, but she knew in her heart that it wouldn’t matter. She still disobeyed him. There was nothing she could do now. After weeks of wondering about Cardan’s promise would feel like, she even started to recognize an inkling of excitement. She was no longer sure she was so excited.

_______________________________________________________________________

JUDE

Entering the faerie palace, Jude’s heart beat fast enough to drown out the greetings and flatteries of passing nobles. It felt like hours before she reached the royal wing. Like usual, the guards greeted her warmly with smiles, but she was barely able to muster up her own in return. Increasing her pace, Jude practically bolted past Cardan’s office and chambers, quietly sealing herself in her room. Although she usually slept in Cardan’s room, she technically had her own Queen’s chambers she could go to.

She knew it was stupid, that if Cardan wanted to find her, this would be the easiest place to do so. Still, there was no point presenting herself to him like a sheep wandering into the wolf’s mouth. She would at least try to avoid him.

Still, as the minutes passed, Jude fully expected Cardan to barge into her room at any moment, finally claiming his revenge. But no one came.

Eventually, Jude relaxed enough to sit back and read one of the books lying haphazardly on the nightstand. In a few hours, she even ventured outside.

For the next few days, it was as if Cardan disappeared from existence. Avoiding Cardan’s rooms, Jude went about her business everywhere else in the palace. She spoke with other ambassadors, discussed any problems facing Faerie with generals and administrators, and even visited Taryn. Over the days, it seemed like the knot of anxiety in her stomach began to slowly unwind, releasing with it her concerns.

One evening, exactly four days after she arrived, Jude entered her room after waking up early for a run, and saw something was different. Immediately, the unraveling knot shriveled back up, even tighter than when she had arrived. Pulse hammering in her ears and hands shaking, Jude approached the bed, spying the envelope on her satin sheets that had left her so disheveled. Even before reading the neat strokes of black ink on cream, she knew immediately who it was from. Tearing it open, Jude unraveled the parchment, reading the six words that sent her blood thundering.

It’s time you learned your lesson

So Jude did the stupidest thing she could’ve possibly done in that situation.

She ran.

______________________________________________________________________

JUDE

Mind galloping, breaths chasing one another and legs seemingly with a brain of their own. Jude couldn’t get her thoughts straight. When she read Cardan’s note, she wrenched open her door got the hell out of there. It was a foggy winter evening, too early for most of the castle to have woken up but dark enough to feel like late in the night. Running through the palace halls, Jude was acutely aware of how hard it was for her to see in this dark. And of how easily Cardan could find her in this environment.

Chest heaving, Jude turned corner after corner, disarrayed mind making it difficult to recognize where she was going. Every once in a while she would pass a stoic guard or a startled maid, but all she could was hope they’d ignore her. Reaching a dead end, she let out a huff of frustration, turning on her heel, planning to retrace her steps until she could find the path out of the castle.

Jude was only able to take one step before she heard someone coming her way. Panicking, Jude flung open the first door she saw, jumping inside and shutting the door as quietly as she could. Looking around desperately, Jude searched for a place to hide. The room was illuminated by moonlight coming through a large window, displaying a vanity, closet, large bed and a writing desk. It seemed to be a spare bedroom, only used on rare occasions when there were too many guests to fit in the guest bedrooms in the main hall of the palace. Now that she realized where she was, Jude could begin planning how to get out. Hearing the steps fast approaching, she glanced at the door nervously, quickly ducking under the bed and stifling her trembling breaths.

She didn’t want to accept the fact that she’d have to leave and face Cardan eventually. At least she could postpone it for as long as possible. Breath catching in her throat as the footsteps approached the door, Jude waited, closing her eyes out of nervousness.

One, two, three seconds.

It seemed the footsteps were leaving. Jude let out the breath that was hiding in her lungs. It must’ve been a maid, awoken early to clean before the palace residents began their day. Or maybe Cardan actually walked past her. Once the surge of adrenaline passed, Jude realized that there were at least three wires jammed into her skin from the underside of the bed. Grunting, she slowly pulled herself from her hideout, standing up shakily. Looking at the door, Jude considered her options. Should she run for it? Find the nearest exit? Or should she stay put? If she waited until the castle has awoken, would it be easier for her to leave? With her mind busy deliberating, it took Jude a moment too long to realize that something felt wrong.

Frowning, Jude turned, seeing that something definitely was wrong. She sensed the blood drain from her face.

On the bed, illuminated by moonlight almost as if mocking her, a creamy envelope lay on pristine sheets

Oh god he’s in the room.

Jude began to shake, almost unable to move towards the bed. She knew that this was a game to him. She didn’t know where he was, why he was waiting, but she knew the moment she read it, she was fucked.

Moving her legs, almost as if in a trance, Jude approached the parchment. Picking it up and ripping it open, her heart stopped at the words inside.

I’ll make you regret hiding from me

Dropping the piece of paper like it was on fire, Jude jerked her eyes around the room, looking for the King. She knew she shouldn’t have run. How did she think that was going to end? Looking around again, she tried looking deep into the shadows-

Before she could scream, a hand was over her mouth and the other like a vise around her waist, pressing her back to a large frame. Jude felt the planes of his muscles through her shirt, a body nearly as familiar to her as her own, yet nerve-raking in this moment. She tried in vain to wiggle out of his grip, but his hold only tightened until she could no longer move.

“Missed me?” A sickly sweet voice pooled in her ear. “Clearly not, as you haven’t been to see me yet, darling. And running from me? I’d think you’d have realized by now just how much trouble you are in. Clearly, you must not be taking me very seriously.”

Hands now moving to her hips, Cardan shoved both her panties and trousers down to pool around her thighs. Jude could smell the alcohol on his breath, which made him all the more volatile. A crazed laugh crossed Jude’s lips. Now that she was finally at the culmination of three weeks of anxiety, Jude felt a strange sense of amusement at the situation she’d gotten herself into.

But before she could realize the mistake in her reaction, Cardan snatched a hand away from her hip and a loud CRACK echoed around the room. She heard the sound before she felt the bloom of fire on the exposed flesh of her backside.

With an embarrassingly loud yelp, Jude fell forward from the impact, sprawling on the bed, smile wiped clean off her face. As she felt Cardan grab her chin and turn it his way, she knew he saw a mix of arousal, pain and mostly shock on her face. Facing him directly for the first time since that call three weeks ago, she realized that her assessment of seeing his anger in person was correct. Jude’s stomach dropped as she took in the fury in his expression, mixed with dark desire in his eyes. Still fully clothed except for the bottoms crumpled at her thighs, Jude felt strangely exposed as Cardan glared at her heaving chest and paling cheeks.

“I’m not playing games, sweetheart.” A low command.

Gaze travelling down his body, Jude’s pupils blew open, as her fantasy from three weeks ago rushed into her head. Belt securely attached at Cardan’s hips, Jude’s breaths stuttered. And, of course, the bastard noticed. Looking down, he saw what made her so distraught, and a wicked gleam shone in his gaze. With hooded eyes, he slowly looked up at her, beginning to unbuckle his belt.

Jude thought she would hyperventilate. Her breathing became so ragged that she couldn’t hear the sheets rustling as she began to scramble backwards. Meanwhile, Cardan slowly pulled out the strap, holding it in his fist.

In a flash, he cracked it against his open palm, the sound reverberating through Jude’s bones. Quirking his head to the side he looked at her.

“Come here.”

Jude shook her head, whimpering, still crawling backwards.

“Now.”

Jude froze when she heard the steel edge in his voice. Cardan quickly used the opportunity to grab her ankle from across the bed and drag her towards him. Knowing from his expression that he really would use the belt on her, she pled.

“Please! I’ll be good, I won’t tease you again. I’m so sorry for running, please don’t!”

He looked at her contemplatively. Then at the strap in his hand. Narrowing his eyes, he dropped it on the floor. Jude nearly wept in relief.

“Fine. Not this time. But there better not be a next time,” Cardan growled. “And you’re still getting punished.”

Standing over her, Cardan leaned down towards her pelvis. After the terror of the last few seconds, Jude’s body was looking for release. Her legs clenched together of their own accord, thighs heating from his predatory gaze. Seeing her reaction, a cruel smirk stretched Cardan’s features.

“Are you enjoying this, my dear Jude?” He asked, voice turning to steel. “Seems we should do something about that, because you really shouldn’t be.”

Cardan tore off her pants and underwear in one go, leaving her lower body completely bare. Sitting down on the bed, he wrenched her over his lap. Adjusting her hips over his legs and growing hardness, she fell a chill sweep her body. Oh god it’s about to happen.

Hiking her shirt up under her breasts, her ass was completely exposed to the cold air of the room. She could still feel the sting in the shape of his handprint, and her blood raced faster at the thought of more of them. Slowly, almost thoughtfully, Cardan pulled her thighs apart, spreading her legs behind her. Jude’s face heated, wondering why he would do that if he was going to focus on her backside.

“Obey all of my orders, is that clear?” Cardan said in a clipped tone.

Breathing raggedly, Jude kept her mouth shut, concentrating on keeping her anxiousness down. To her shock, Cardan quickly swatted her right between her legs. Though not a very hard smack, Jude’s hips still jumped as her body instinctively tried to get away from the sting, sharp cry leaving her lips.

“What do we do when the King asks us a question, sweetheart?”

Jude bit back a sob. “We answer.”

He pulled her hair painfully. “We. Answer. What?”

“We answer, Your Majesty.”

“Well?”

“You are to be obeyed, my King.” Jude panted

“Good girl,” Cardan chided in her ear, pulling her head up by her hair. “And that was a warning strike, dear. If I find you ignoring, disobeying or lying to me again, I won’t hold back.”

Cardan pulled back with a sigh, dictating sternly, “Keep you legs open for me.”

Jude felt Cardan’s hand cup her backside, rubbing away the nearly gone sting from a few minutes ago.

“So, remind me, how long is it you won’t be able to sit for?”

Jude’s stomach dropped. She had completely forgotten about that. Three weeks. Thinking of the alcohol on Cardan’s breath, she wondered if he’d even remember how harshly he was supposed to punish her.

Slowly, with trepidation in her voice, Jude whispered, “Two weeks, my King”

She knew she fucked up the moment she felt him shift. His hand cracked down between her legs with more force than she could handle. Crying out, she shut her thighs instinctively. Without hesitation, he wrenched them apart again, walloping with as much force in the same spot. She couldn’t help but scream and shut her legs again.

Two more times. Two more loud snaps followed by louder shrieks before Jude managed to keep her trembling legs open as he’d ordered.

Panting and sobbing into her arm, Jude felt the sticky warmth of her arousal coating her stinging skin. She sensed Cardan carefully drag a finger through the wetness, sweet burn of calloused skin on her abused folds eliciting a moan through her tears. He grabbed her chin with his other hand, turning her wide eyes and quivering lips his way.

Leaning in, he whispered, “Good girls don’t get wet when they’re being spanked.”

Dropping her face, burning from embarrassment, Jude felt Cardan lean back once more.

“Now let’s try again, now that you know what will happen if you lie to me. How. Many. Weeks?”

“Three,” she murmured, “Your Majesty.”

“That’s right,” Cardan cooed. “And I don’t know about you, but I’m tiring of this foreplay. Shall we get to the actual punishment now, sweetheart?

Jude’s tear-stricken eyes widened. She forgot that Cardan hadn’t even yet begun. Shit.

______________________________________________________________________

JUDE

Waiting for Cardan to begin was torture. She thought that what he’d done so far was painful, but this was worse.

Right after the walloping between her thighs, Cardan had lifted her up carefully, setting her to sit on one of his legs. She’d hissed at the contact between her sex and the rough texture of Cardan’s pants, but didn’t complain. At that point he’d taken off the rest of her clothes, leaving her sitting naked in front of him. Gently, he’d brought up a hand and swiped at a tear track with his thumb. But then she was right over his lap again in a smooth flip, sweet moment over.

Now she was waiting for him to start what he’d promised, as he seemed to mull over how he was going to punish her best, rubbing her backside absentmindedly. Jude tensed up as Cardan suddenly began talking.

“Don’t you know how much you’ve embarrassed me? When I nearly choked on my spit in front of the generals?” Smack!

Jude recoiled from the crack of his hand on her ass with a loud cry, but he just continued lecturing her.

“You had no damn right to look so fucking good in that picture” Smack! “All naked and perfect” Smack! “But of course I couldn’t do anything about it.” Smack! “Because I was in the middle of a fucking meeting!” SMACK!

He finished his statement as a growl, following up with a particularly painful strike. At this, point Jude’s eyes had begun tearing up again, ass burning worse and worse with each blow.

“And even before that, you didn’t even bother explaining that picture app to me” Smack! “I just suddenly got a photo of you in practically nothing.” Smack! “And you expected me not to say anything?” Smack! “And then the picture fucking disappeared?!” SMACK!!

Every few words were punctuated with the sounds of bruises forming on her ass, the loudest ones echoing embarrassingly throughout the room, as Cardan’s discipline steadily increased in intensity.

“For three months” Smack! “FOR THREE GODDAMN MONTHS”

Cardan’s hand fell thrice in rapid succession, cementing his point.

“I felt like exploding, unable to see you for so long ” Smack! “But constantly thinking about how fucking hot you looked in those photos” Smack! “And then,” Smack! “ You fucking patronize me by sending two” Smack! “Goddamn pictures” Smack! “Of you naked” Smack! “Right before you came back!” SMACK!

“Please, I’m s-sorrry,” Jude blubbered through her cries. He ignored her, left arm now holding down her squirming back with his full strength.

“You were in the most obscene” Smack! “Positions” Smack! “I’d ever fucking seen!” SMACK!!“And during another” Smack! “Fucking” SMACK! “MEETING.”

Cardan followed his final sentence by six more strikes. Muffling her pained noises in her arm, Jude felt Cardan’s voice boom throughout the room nearly as loudly as his palm hitting bruised flesh. But when he next spoke, Cardan’s voice regained his usual distanced cool.

Rubbing Jude’s burning skin to the noise of her whimpers, Cardan spoke with a steel edge in his voice, “If you came to see me as soon as you got here four days ago, this is where I would have stopped. But since you chose to avoid me instead” Smack!

Jude let out a sob as he began again.

“I’m punishing you” Smack! “For thinking you could avoid your King” SMACK! “And get away with it.”

Another half a dozen strikes and bite marks on the inside of Jude’s elbow.

Once done, Cardan paused, this time laying his hand on Jude’s lower back. Jude could feel the skin around her bruises numbing from the walloping, but the pained areas seemed to come into sharper focus, leaving Jude only able to focus on the heat under the sensitive skin of her backside. After a few moments, Jude’s hiccups slowly subsided; leaving her to foolishly begin hoping it was over. It seemed Cardan was waiting for the moment she would relax and think he was done, as he leaned in to deliver his cruel words.

“Quick question darling, do you remember what I wrote in the second envelope?”

Jude’s heart froze. Oh no oh no oh shit oh fuck. She didn’t think she could take any more.

It took Jude a moment to find her voice, hoarse from her screaming, “…I don’t…remember, my King.”

Quick as a viper, Cardan grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.

With narrowed eyes, he growled, “Are you sure about that?”

Knowing better than to lie, Jude gave in with a whimper, “…It said I would… regret… hiding from you”

She saw a dangerous smile split his face, right before he dropped her chin.

“Yes. It did.” He gloated. “I don’t think I need to tell you what that means.”

SMACK!!!

Jude cried out again, unprepared for the fresh onslaught on her abused backside.

“I told you directly” Smack! “That it was time for you to learn your lesson” SMACK! “But instead” SMACK!! “You chose to disobey me” SLAP!!

Jude shrieked as the last one landed between her legs again, re-igniting the sting she’d forgotten was there.

“You ran” Smack! “Instead of listening” Smack! “And then tried to hide, as if you really thought I wouldn’t find you.” SMACK!!

Cardan continued the onslaught, finishing his lecture and focusing on stoking the flames dancing on Jude’s over-sensitive skin with cruel strikes.

After his most painful walloping yet, Cardan let his hand rest on her hip. At this point, Jude definitely couldn’t take any more; shivering from Cardan’s heavy hand and the hiccupping sobs raking her body. But then Cardan moved his hand to her thigh. And froze.

“Fucking hell Jude, you’re soaked.”

Somehow, through the haze of pain, she had been so turned on that her arousal had coated the thighs. She was now acutely aware of how hard he was against her hip. Jude turned her head and looked up at Cardan through teary eyes.

She moaned, “…Your…fault.”

Cardan groaned, placing his arms under her knees and chest, flipping her over as he stood up, holding her in his arms. Then, he dumped her unceremoniously onto her stomach in the middle of the bed. Sighing into the cool covers, Jude gave herself a moment to relax. Then, grabbing her ankles, Cardan pushed her up onto her knees, spreading her thighs obscenely before his gaze. Jude’s face reddened at what a sight she must’ve made; Bruised skin and weeping sex. She could hear Cardan’s clothes drop to the floor behind her, and Jude felt her body react excitedly.

Without further ado, Cardan grabbed her hips and slammed inside of her. Stars exploded behind Jude’s eyelids, blooming red from the friction of his dick against the burning skin between her legs. Jude moaned, shrieking when she felt him grab her bruised ass.

As he pounded her, a small part of Jude’s brain vaguely remembered how she’d hoped that her game would lead to some great rough sex. Well, mission fucking accomplished, I guess.

Burying her face in the sheets to muffle her cries, Jude held onto the covers as Cardan gripped her hips harder, and pushed against her welts over and over, nearing completion. When she felt him pulse inside of her, buried as deeply as he could go, Jude’s body could no longer support the dam holding back the arousal building up over the last hour. Jude screamed as her body shook with the hardest release she’d ever felt, nerve endings on fire and still sensitive from the spanking.

Groaning, Cardan stayed inside of her for a moment longer. When he pulled out, Jude felt her body unwilling to let go, and sighed in abjection of the feeling of emptiness when he was gone. Jude felt the bed dip as Cardan collapsed onto the sheets next to her.

Turning her head to face him, Jude narrowed her eyes. “That was really harsh.”

Cardan just grinned in return. “If you really thought that, how come I found a flood between your thighs afterwards?”

Jude reddened, confused and embarrassed by the truth of his statement.

“And you sounded pretty damn happy when you came,” He continued, grabbing her arm and pulling her to him.

Jude let out an exasperated groan, splaying out at his side and burying her face in the sheets once again.

After a moment, she managed to mutter, “Fine. That was the best release I’ve ever had.”

Then turning to Cardan, she growled, “But my ass still hurts like hell.” Cardan shrugged.

“You win some you lose some. I hope you learned your lesson. And,” Cardan continued with a chuckle, “now it’s my turn to watch you suffer for three weeks.”

Jude swatted his arm weakly and in return received a light slap on her ass. She yelped, and then settled back down into him. Still feeling the pleasant waves of pleasure lulling her body to sleep, Jude wondered if she should disobey Cardan more often.

#the cruel prince #the wicked king #queen of nothing #jude duarte #cardan greenbriar #jurdan #the folk of the air #twk #qon #tfota #fanfiction #fanfic #jurdan fic #tcp #i need help

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comicteaparty · 4 years

Text

February 24th-March 1st, 2020 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from February 24th, 2020 to March 1st, 2020. The chat focused on Whispers of the Past by Crona J.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Whispers of the Past by Crona J.~! (https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/whispers-of-the-past/list?title_no=191366)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace until March 1st, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Discussions are freeform, but we do offer discussion prompts in the pins for those who’d like to have them. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic! Whether you finish the comic or can only read a few pages, everyone is welcome to join and chat with us!

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 1

1. What did you like about the beginning of the comic?

2. What has been your favorite moment in the comic (so far)?

3. Who is your favorite character?

4. Which characters do like seeing interact the most?

5. What is something you like about the art? If you have a favorite illustration, please share it!

6. What is a theme you like that the comic explores?

7. What do you like about the comic’s story or overall related content?

8. Overall, what do you think the comic’s strengths are?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

FeatheryJustice

So far, first impressions, holy cow the art is amazing.

Ash🦀

1. My favorite part about the beginning was the style. It immediately drew me in how everything was lovingly rendered in color that made me feel like I was seeing the world for the first time. It made me want to paint, too! 2. When we first see the man. Whoo buddy. Whoooooooo buddy. That was... a finely sculpted painting there. I could’ve framed him and hung him on my wall if the artist would let me. WHOOOO BUDDY. 3. My favorite character so far is Martel. I don’t write them often, but I love seeing kids in media, and I love the design of her hair. I know it’s a random thing to make me like her but I just... really like her hairstyle. She’s cute, and I’d guess she’ll be a breath of much-needed light air later in the story. 4. Mystery man and Martel are precious. 5. I point to answer 2 here. That lovingly sculpted chest? My heart was a-flutter I tell you what. 6. The art style is just... SO LOVINGLY RENDERED. The quiet moments of baking bread juxtaposed against a chaotic battle was SO. GOOD. Aaaaaah Could also be that that particular part is my favorite part of making bread so it was extra special aaaaaaah 7-8 I haven’t seen enough of the story to answer these yet! But the art is banging and I can’t wait to read more. Subscribed.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I've read this before and the art and story aren't really my thing. Since critique is allowed I could give art comments if CronaJ would find that kind of thing helpful? But even though I won't be following the story I was still impressed by how much care the author puts into it. Both from looking at their comic and from reading their comments on this discord and on the tap forum it's clear they've put a ton of effort into the art and story, and haven't cut any corner.s And all the panels are so rendered. I wonder how long it takes to draw a page?(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Hey everyone! I'm the artist and writer of Whispers of the Past. I want to thank you all for your kind comments and observations so far. It really means a lot to me to hear what others think of this heartfelt project. I know that the story is in the beginning stages right now. But I'm looking to post the end of the first chapter this week, so hopefully a bit more will be revealed soon. Please feel free to ask me questions about anything, or (to answer @Eightfish (Puppeteer)'s question), to offer critiques for how I can improve what I'm doing.(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@FeatheryJustice & @Ash🦀 I'm glad you enjoy the artwork. The painting process is probably what takes me the longest when it comes to pages. In response to @Eightfish (Puppeteer)... It takes me around 30-40 hours per page, and I try to post 2-3 page updates. Obviously, the amount of time spent per page varies depending on several factors, such as: the number of panels, the level of complication of poses, how many characters/background elements there are, and sometimes just whatever weird reason my brain isn't working that day ^^; So for my average 5-7 panel pages, they typically take longer than, say, a full-page spread. @Ash🦀 I'm so happy that the first few pages pulled you in! I spent a lot of time deciding on how I wanted to draw those panels, and what style to use, etc. I actually redrew the first 3 pages at least 5 times before settling on them as they are. And, you can hang and frame the image of our male MC if you want, haha, I actually don't have prints of it, but it is something to consider That particular panel was a one-page spread, so I was able to dedicate a bit more detail to it. Maret is a worthy favorite character. She is too pure and precious, and she just wants to make friends with everybody. Even when the "strange man" is kind of curt and unfriendly to her, she wants to befriend him. Also, I am SO unbelievably glad that you picked up on the juxtaposition in the bread-making scene! Ahhhh! I had a lot of fun with that one

FeatheryJustice

1. The Pacing, I love slow starts to comics because I get to absorb it and learn more. 2. Favourite Moment? Dude trying to climb out the window and failing. That was really funny XD 3. Mysterious dude from the water of course. He has pointed ears, you know something is up. 4. I like Maret and the mysterious man, it seems like a child being like 'this is new and I want to learn more' Also thank you for not writing a grating child character. They sometimes turn up too pure to be real, or too grating because they are too real. Maret at least has that nice balance of a healthy child will not acted spoiled but still want things because child like the scene where she was shoo'ed out of the room. 5. I think we talked about htis a long time ago, but I love the way you draw hands and feet! 6. Nothing so far, not sure where the story will head so I can't answer this. 7. I like the start of the mystery and the slow ramp up. We are just getting comfortable and I'm sure we are going to get rocky soon! 8. Art, from seeing Cronaj spend so much time on it, it's freaking amazing. I can almost feel the characters come to life.

Also on a side note, I want Maret to hear from the Conch shell (As a memey joke) "Under the sea, under the sea" XD

(Mysterious man has red hair, I wouldn't be surprised he turned out to be a mermaid XD Sorry I'm just on slight crack theory mode right now. He didn't sell his voice though)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

When I was first writing and planning this comic, I was a little scared about how slow the start was, but I'm glad that it has been interesting despite the slow nature of the exposition.

2. Favourite Moment? Dude trying to climb out the window and failing. That was really funny XD

@FeatheryJustice Accurate! He's kind of an idiot, and he panics over nothing. For Maret... I actually based her character partially off of my two younger sisters, so that might be a lot of what contributes to her personality and realism. We did talk about hands and feet before! I love drawing hands, because they are so expressive and complex, but hate drawing feet because they are complicated. But I did study from life to draw Maret's feet, because I felt like I would mess it up otherwise ^^;

Hahahaha! I could definitely make an edit of that, tbh.

FeatheryJustice

That would be a funny joke panel if you ever want to do one. XD It's like replace the diaolgue memes XD

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

And I was partially making a mermaid joke when I had the reference to mermaids in the comic because he is a redhead

Definitely an idea....

I would title the episode "Whispers of the Crack"

FeatheryJustice

OMG YES I would love to see that XD

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I have a WotP meme folder on my computer already

carcarchu

1. What did you like about the beginning of the comic? Mystery man pretty 2. What has been your favorite moment in the comic (so far)? i liked the part where maret was listening to the conch for mermaids, had a lovely magical charm to it 3. Who is your favorite character? mystery man 4. Which characters do like seeing interact the most? not too many interactions so far but maret and the mystery man were cute 5. What is something you like about the art? If you have a favorite illustration, please share it! the sunset scenery had a nice vibe

also i can see why people were saying it reminded them of ruroni kenshin, mystery guy especially with his hair up and on the cover image is reminiscent of kenshin but storywise doesn't remind me of it at all

carcarchu

I have some critiques that i'll cover in case you don't want to see them. SPOILER The anime-ish emotes (the blush and the anger vein) to me clash against the realistic artsyle and detracts from the moments, some more subtlety with them would be appreciated. And Maret doesn't really look like a child to me, her face is very mature so it makes her look older than she is. Moreover the 3 characters that have been introduced thus far have very similar facial features. For maret and agatha they are siblings so it makes sense but the mystery man is (presumably?) not related to them so i'm not sure if that's intentional. In any case more facial diversity would be appreciated going forward (if it's just your style that's fine too). And this is a really small nit-pick but the first panel of chapter 6 has horse hooves with the sfx thump thump thump. In my opinion this sfx should be clip clop clip clop END SPOILER

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@carcarchu Thanks for the notes! I actually had a hard time deciding how to portray blush noticeably in a more realistic style, haha, but I can definitely see why it's jarring. Do you have any tips for how to depict blushing without anime emotes? I would just make it more reddish/pink, but it always looks weird to me (or too unnoticeable). As for Maret... She looks like a child to me? She's six, so she isn't quite a toddler, so I don't know if that changes your perception of her. She actually resembles my youngest sister a great deal, and my youngest sister was 5, almost six, when I designed her. (I just looked through the pages again, and there's maybe one panel that I think she looks slightly older in, so if anything, I'll try to fix that panel.) So yes, obviously Agatha and Maret look very similar, hahaha. They are biological sisters, so that makes sense. There will be at least two more characters introduced that are also related to them (and look fairly similar as well) and one character who will be mentioned who is also related and looks just like Agatha. Other than that, Izrekiel does look somewhat similar, I suppose, but it might also be partially that he canonically has a very feminine face as opposed to other male characters to be introduced later. It could be that and also a bit as a result of my style. I'm not sure. Ahhhh, sound effects! I also struggled with deciding what to do here. I wanted to do something different than "clip clop," mostly for a stupid personal hang-up. (I don't know why, but "clip clop" always looks so comical to me.) But if it helps translate the sound better, I might just have to bite the bullet and change it. Thanks for your feedback! Even if I don't agree with all of it, it does help me to take a closer look at what I've done with some different eyes. (edited)

carcarchu

That's fair! You don't have to accept anything just my thoughts (i hope nothing i said was too harsh) for me thump thump is a dull sound whereas clip clop or clippity clop is a sharper and harsher sound

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

yeah, I think you're right about that

thump is more like a heartbeat

or someone falling on carpet or something

carcarchu

and as for the blush question i think there are ways to depict a similar emotion without relying on the blush itself as a short hand like the softening of the eyes, the shape of the eyebrows, looking down and heck even body language can help with this. expression is more than what is shown on just the face

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Thank you. I always feel like my characters look too stiff, like mannequins. ^^; I'm probably not going to completely redraw any old panels at this point, but I might make a few alterations to these panels to make it more consistent with later panels down the line.

carcarchu

i also noticed that a lot of your panels are the characters looking straight towards the "camera" and i would appreciate more varied angles and perspectives

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Particularly with the first ten pages, that is certainly true

I got that note before, but I didn't redraw every panel, only some which looked particularly bad.

carcarchu

personally i never edit old chapters unless i 1. forgot to draw something important 2. there's a huge typo 3. it's missing a panel

any critique you can just keep in your heart and implement if you choose to do so moving forward

keii'ii (Heart of Keol)

2. I really liked "what if it's mama?" - a lot of hints condensed there: family history, how the topic of deaths/ disappearances are handled around children (either in that family specifically, or in that culture), and also a moment that shows a glimpse of Agatha's sisterly love instead of having the readers assume it.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Really loving the comic so far! Right now, I'm most interested to learn about this family situation. I'm guessing their mother is dead or missing, but what about their father? I suppose his clothes were still in the house so maybe he just went out? Or maybe they're both missing and it was just fairly recent?

Also, the paint-y style of this comic is just incredible

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

https://media.tenor.com/images/878a64d90a1139bcb1e863ee29bfa929/tenor.gif

I'm so happy that you guys picked up on the clues about their mother. It alludes to some pretty plot heavy stuff that very few people have really commented on so far.

eli [a winged tale]

Oooh I’m so excited for your story Cronaj! Here are my answers~ 1) I love the beach scene! Maret with the shell is adorable and you established their relationship right away 2) Fav moment is probably the scene transition to our lad waking up with Agatha going about her day. It’s very peaceful and I’m a sucker for slice of life stuff. 3) Can’t pick just yet~ I like Agatha as a solid protagonist though. 4) More Agatha x mystery man please 5) I loooove the illustration aesthetics. Bold colours! 6) haven’t gotten to the core theme yet I’m sure but first impressions/meeting are always exciting. 7) I’m excited for what is to come. Can’t wait for the call to adventure. 8) Strength is definitely the art - beautiful and bold. Keep up the wonderful work!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@eli [a winged tale] Woah!!! You're the first person I've heard say that they like Agatha! She's mah girl! (And don't you worry, there will definitely be a lot more Agatha x Mystery Man ) Thanks for participating

eli [a winged tale]

she’s a solid sister!

sagaholmgaard

1. What did you like about the beginning of the comic? I like how the intro had a nice balance between art and text. Usually if there’s a lot of text on the first page I can get deterred from heading a comic, but here I think it worked really well! And the loverly painting of the ocean sunset also reeled me in and fit really well with the poetic text! 2. What has been your favorite moment in the comic (so far)? ”He’s the prettiest man I’ve ever seen!” LOL (and she’s right too…) 3. Who is your favorite character? I like the kid! But I’m excited to learn more about the other characters as the story goes on! 4. Which characters do like seeing interact the most? I liked Agatha and Mystery Man interacting, it felt very natural and I’m curious to see what comes of it. But the dialogue felt pretty strong which I gotta applaud 5. What is something you like about the art? If you have a favorite illustration, please share it! The beautiful shot of Mystery Man on the beach of course, lol! I love the way the hair is rendered, it really feels like it’s has weight and is spread out in the sand, if that makes sense? 6. What is a theme you like that the comic explores? It seems like it will explore a lot of interesting themes in the future, such as grief and finding where you belong, so again I’m interested to see what the story brings! I’m sure it’ll be good no matter what :D Overall I like what I’ve read so far! It’s not the type of art style I usually gravitate towards, but I can tell a lot of love is going into rendering and I think we’ll be seeing Crona’s art improve a lot as the story goes on, which is always exciting to see!

RebelVampire

What I like about the beginning of the comic, which also goes for what I like about the art in general, is the attention to detail in the background colors and lighting. I've never seen such a beautifully rendered (what I assume is) a sunset. It really makes everything have this great almost mystical atmosphere to it. In general, though, the art so far is definitely the comic's strength because you can see the sheer passion in every drop of it. My favorite moment so far is when Maret gives Izrekiel some flowers and then drags him off and he's just meekly protesting. It was both cute and comedic and the preciousness hurt my heart. This is also why this is my favorite pair of characters interacting so far. I think the age gap combined with the context of Izrekiel's situation is gonna lead to lots of awkwardness that I look forward to. As for fave character, though, I would have to go with Agatha right now. I don't know what it is about her, but everytime I see her I feel like I'm looking at an old soul. Like maybe someone who still has a lot to learn about the world, but is wise beyond her years in other regards. And it makes her a captivating character for me.

While I'm not sure if this will be an overall theme throughout, I like that the comic starts to deal with the theme of loss and hope. On one side you have Agatha who just kind of accepts loss and deals with it, and then you have Maret who just lives on in hope. And I kind of feel they represent two dynamic sides to the issue about whether its better to cling to hope or just move on and deal and how both can be harmful if not expressed in the correct way. As for overall story content, while we're not that deep in, I do like it starts with a multitude of mysteries cause mysteries are always great for making ppl want answers

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Since Crona said they were good with art critique: The main thing I noticed when I first saw the art was that, though lovingly rendered, the characters' faces and bodies are kind of stiff. They don't really scrunch up their eyes and faces when they emote- it's mostly just the eyebrows (this was especially noticable when Maret was crying, or on the latest page, first panel, where Agatha's face doesn't really match her body language or words). And characters often don't seem to twist their bodies as much as they should. Oh- also the same camera angles of faces and bodies are repeated a lot. Front, 3/4, and profile. It'd be cool to see some shots with foreshortening from above or below the characters. Also the lighting is pretty diffuse- the characters seem to be shaded about the same way, and with the same colors, regardless of the lighting situation. I can still tell where the light is coming from, because there are those strong bright highlights in the direction of the light, but other than the bright highlights everything else seems to be shaded as if there was another light source coming from straight ahead. Also, sometimes characters seem to lose their shadows? Like on this page https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/whispers-of-the-past/ch-1-what-the-waves-left-behind-pt-3/viewer?title_no=191366&episode_no=4 where Agatha doesn't cast a shadow on the man, or this page https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/whispers-of-the-past/ch-1-what-the-waves-left-behind-pt-8/viewer?title_no=191366&episode_no=10 where they're running.

Those things being said though, I was still very impressed by the sheer amount of effort put into this comic. 100 hours/ update is absolutely insane. And you pay so much attention to the inanimate objects of this world. It makes the story feel grounded. About what someone else said: I agree that the cartoonish blush looks out of place. But I disagree about Maret- I think she does look like a child. 5. Favorite illustration? Definitely Agatha's hands when making dough. Not a critique but just a question: I was confused on the location of the story. Where is this?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Ooof. Finally got a chance to sit down and respond to all these comments. I keep rereading them over and over again, so thank you so much for sharing your thoughts everyone! I've noticed a few themes with what people have commented so far: Maret is most people's favorite character, the panel of Izrekiel on the beach is also very popular, and the theme of loss/grief is apparent to the readers (which I'm very happy about.)

@sagaholmgaard I'm glad that you mentioned the theme of "finding where you belong" too, because it is and will be a very prevalent theme in the comic. And reading your comment about how the dialogue seems natural made my day. I used to worry about how the dialogue came off constantly, and to hear that it's strong is so encouraging.

@RebelVampire As is expected, your comments are very thought-out. The interaction between Izrekiel and Maret after he falls from the window is one of my favorite moments so far as well. I'm happy that Izrekiel's behavior came off as meek in this scene, because that is one of the defining traits of his personality. I'm glad for another Agatha fan! She is such a fun (and difficult) character for me to portray. There are so many layers about her that even I am still discovering. She is definitely an old soul, and he experiences growing up have definitely matured her beyond her years. As I mentioned before, the theme of loss is definitely a major theme of the comic overall. And hope as well, since I think the two are very connected.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) Thank you for offering your critiques! Character stiffness is definitely one of my major problems that I'm working at. I definitely see what you mean about Agatha's face in the latest update. Her eyebrows look painted on (pun not intended). I have been looking forward to having some more dynamic poses, especially foreshortening, but I do find it somewhat difficult when most of what the characters are doing so far are standing, sitting, talking, and maybe doing something with their hands. ^^; Hopefully, in the future, when more "action" happens, it will be easier to do this. As for bird's eye or worm's eye shots, I'm not gonna lie, I struggle with them so much. I had two bird's eye panels, and those took so much time, and I still don't know how I feel about them. If you have any tips for exercises, I would be so grateful. (Finding reference isn't always possible.) I also would love some tips/resources on how to get better at lighting. Again, lighting reference isn't always possible for specific panels, so it would help me a lot to learn how light works in general. OOOOOOF! I don't know how I missed the lack of shadow on Izrekiel in that panel. That was 100% a stupid oversight on my part. The scene with Agatha making dough had some of my personal favorite illustrations for a while. :) Also, your question about the location, I'm not entirely sure how to answer it?(edited)

It's a high fantasy story, so the location is entirely fictional.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

The best I can answer that is to say that the story takes place in a country called Shai-Ryam, consisting of four major "districts" in a semi-tropical temperate peninsula called "The Aka Peninsula," named after the native people who originally lived there. As of right now, they are in a city called Gon Atam, a seaside village on the western shore of the Nuata District, near the Ocean of Saturuna. It is a city heavy in trade and with a long history, yet quaint and small due to a disaster several hundred years ago. It is only now being repopulated.

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 2

9. Where do you think Izrekiel comes from, and what is his past history that seems to haunt him? Additionally, how do you think he wound up with amnesia and seemingly abandoned by the sea?

10. How will Izrekiel’s past history affect events of the story? In particular, how will revelations about his past affect his relationship with Agatha and other characters?

11. How do you think Agatha’s life will change from her encounter with Izrekiel? Will it somehow lead her to a more exciting life? If so, will it make her miss her simpler life with her family?

12. What are the biggest questions you have so far and are hoping to see answered over the course of the story? Also, what do you think will happen in the story in general?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

Ash🦀

9. Okay, so, here’s my theory. Just a guess. So Izrekiel is from a very war-friendly people up north who need land. Izzy just isn’t all about that life, but feels like he has no choice. Then he gets hurt fighting someone close to him (I’m putting money on brother or cousin who lives on the “wrong” side of things, hurt because he just couldn’t fight them at full strength. And then he realizes he can’t do it, while on the ship bound for new fight zones. His captain gets wind of it and is like “oh no I can’t let Mutiny Happen” so HeS all long ike “either fall in line or get off my ship” and Izzy is like “no I don’t wanna fight anymore heck you guys” and the captain proceeds to yeet him off the ship, leading him to the island, which, unbeknownst to him, is the next target. That’s my guess. Might be wildly off. He might be part mermaid. (Merman? Is mermaid gender neutral?) 10. Izzy or his bros probably killed one of Agatha’s family members, possibly the mom? Possibly violently? Which is why she never told babygirl what’s up. It’s probably going to be remembered in the buds of their relationship, hes going to try to hide it but it’ll come to light and she’s gonna be like “Izzy I hate you” and it’s going to make me cry. 11. She’s going to have a bread making partner in the end. They’re going to have adventures and go back to a domestic bread making existence, I speak it into being now /smacks table That may just be what I want to happen, though, as I very much enjoy bread making and wish others the same simple joy of giving dough a good smacking. 12. IS THE MOTHER REALLY A MERMAID OR WHAT Is Agatha a mermaid Are they like Selkies where they can come onto land a little Is babygirl a mermaid too(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Omg... I love reading these theories. I won't say you're wrong or right, but this is a riot. I'm thoroughly enjoying this.

FeatheryJustice

9. Pulls out my Crack Theory brain Okay, so Iz is actually not a very hot man, but actually a really hot princess, transformed into a man since she was exciled from her country but their rules are to give the exiled a new life so they shape shift them into something else. Iz got shifted into a man, and the lovely wide bare chest was because their top was lost to the ocean like how someone would lose their bathing suit top to the sea. Anyways, knowing nothing about themselves, Iz now lives their life as a man never remembering they were a princess in the first place. Ends Crack Theory 10. Don't know, can't say for now. 11. She could always politely kick him out later, so I can't say for now. XD 12. I want to know if there are monsters in this story or just like different species warring it out.

RT|NitghVision

^ I like this theory

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@Cronaj (Whispers of the Past) Oh! I missed that it was high fantasy. I thought the story was historical fiction. No wonder mystery man has pointed ears. I was so confused- I kept thinking, oh, she looks Polynesian and lives by the ocean. But wait, her name is Agatha and she makes bread? And the houses look Japanese? What culture are her clothes from? The world being completely fictional explains all that. I think I was confused by the real names in a high fantasy story- you don't really see that a lot. Finding the right reference for lighting or pose is impossible for me. I have no tips. The only way I've found is to make my own references. I will sit in front of a window, or take a lamp into a dark room or something, and prop my phone up and take photos of myself in the poses and lighting direction I need. But hey, at least that way I don't have to worry about stealing someone else's work?

(i also like feathery's theory)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@FeatheryJustice Crack theories are best theories.

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) Oh! I had no idea you thought it was historical fiction No wonder you were confused! There's a lot of weird cultural-mixing shenanigans going on in the setting, and it's a bit confusing.

I should try that, for now the lighting has been primarily sunlight, or diffused sunlight (which I don't think I depicted correctly).

RebelVampire

Time to crack story theory. I don't know enough about the world to guess a name to where Izrekiel is from. However, wherever it's from, I get the impression its embroiled in a bloody war that is suffering heavy casualties. I imagine that Izrekiel mightve been in a battle and just wound up in the sea by circumstance - like maybe was taken as a prisoner of war and jumped overboard to escape. Something like that. As for the amnesia, well, Imma chock that up to PTSD cause the brief flashbacks we got don't look pleasant. However, I definitely think someone will come looking for him, and that these someone's will make trouble with the people he's just met - perhaps even forcing them to abandon their home with people in pursuit. And I'm sure as Izrekiel remembers more, others are going to really view him as potentially dangerous and blame him (but then get over it cause he's pretty O_O) Given that, I do think Agatha is gonna leave home because of Izrekiel's past running after them. I do think she's inevitably gonna miss the simpler life. Not to the point she won't rise to the challenge, but to the point that she's gonna be like "wait theres danger out here and i didnt even get a sword from an old man in a cave!" As for biggest questions, right now I'm just kind of hoping to see more of the world cause current world events really are gonna dictate a lot where the story could go.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Dude I was literally googling the names to see what country they were from because I thought they were from some obscure real island with a history of cultural mixing that I hadn't heard about before.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Hahaha! Yeah, Agatha is an English name. Maret and Kelan (a character that hasn't been introduced yet) are Irish names. Aalia (another character that isn't introduced yet) is an Arabic name. Kehhasan (another character) is a made-up name. Izrekiel is a made-up name inspired by the biblical names Israel and Ezekiel (although technically it is often spelled in their alphabet as "Isarikieru," which has a particular meaning and pronunciation in an even older—fictional—language). Ryukou (another character), is a real-ish name, based off of the Japanese names "Ryu" and "Kou," which mean "dragon" and "peace/light" respectively. Four other characters have fictional names: Ia, Tammamori, Soro, Ghita (although technically it's a Greek name, that wasn't my inspiration). And of course there are hundreds of side characters with a combination of weird names and name origins.

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 3

13. What are you most looking forward to seeing in regards to the comic?

14. Any final words of encouragement for the comic?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

Deo101 [Millennium]

So! I don't really do so well with answering questions, but I do want to say it's inspiring to me to see just how much WORK is put into this comic. It's really lovely to see so clearly how much you care for it. Just want to give some general words of encouragement, keep it up!

Ash🦀

I’m most looking forward to seeing more of Izzy how the story develops along with your painting. There are so many hints and peeks at the world, and I can’t really guess where it’s going. I feel like I already care for these characters, and I can’t wait to see their journey. I am also not good at encouragement, as generally I’m fueled by spite. But I just wanted to say, keep going! You got this! We believe in you!

eli [a winged tale]

Keep up the good work Cronaj! Your art is beautiful and I can’t wait till we start rolling into act 2!

FeatheryJustice

I'm excited to see what else comes up next!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement everyone! I'm so happy to know that you are enjoying the story so far!

RebelVampire

I'm most looking to learning a bit more about the world structure I think. Since I think current events are really gonna hint at a lot what's going on. As for final words, this is an artistically wonderful comic with a lot of love put in, and I can only imagine how things will improve in the future!

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I'm just really looking forward to seeing these characters grow! This is a beautiful comic, and I can't wait to get more of it!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Before the book club ends, I just wanted to pop back in and say thank you to everyone for their participation. Your kindness, insight, and critiques will stay with me for years to come. I'm so happy to have found a supportive community of readers and fellow creators!

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Whispers of the Past this week! Please also give a special thank you to Crona J. for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Whispers of the Past, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/whispers-of-the-past/list?title_no=191366

Crona J.’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cronasonlyfriend

Crona J.’s Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/cronaj

Crona J.’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/CronajArt

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #book club #bookclub #webcomic book club #webcomic bookclub #comic tea party #ctp #whispers of the past #crona j.

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leviathans-tail · 5 years

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So if anyone couldn’t tell, I’ve been reading some literature over the past couple of weeks. I have mostly been focusing on Dazai and Akutagawa partly due to the third season of Bungou Stray Dogs coming out and re-sparking my interest. I have had these authors and books on my “to-read list” for the longest time and now I’m finally getting around to it and I’m glad I did. I would like to thank BSD for rekindling my interest in reading stuff other than fanfic (not that fanfic is bad but reading on screens hurts my eyes cus my sensory problems and I feel bad printing out five to read them bc trees). Anyway, I still believe that it’s important to read classics from all over the world and growing up in the west, we didn’t exactly have great exposure to authors past the British and French. I remember reading just one of Dostoyevsky’s books in High School and that qualifies as “world literature.” And I absolutely loved the American authors in my American lit class but I was curious about other authors so I’m thankful for BSD for exposing me to some different literature.

Thus far, I can definitely say that i find it interesting to read classic literature that isn’t through a Christian lens bc even Dostoyevsky and other European and American authors often rely on Christianity for their views on morality so it was refreshing to read authors who had a different perspective and I even learned more of Buddhism in the process so that was a big plus. Dazai has a short story where he basically tells the story of Jesus’ betrayal through Judas’ perspective which would not happen from many western authors cus like it’s “sacrelgious” or whatever, so that was interesting. And as a Christian myself, I was very interested to see how someone not raised in this Christian culture would interpret and react to scripture. Akutagawa also has a couple short stories about the persecution of Christians during the Tokugawa goverment’s reign and the Shimabara Rebellion. My favorite was O-Gin because of its tragedy. It was also interesting to see Christianity taking the role of the “suppressed” because we rarely if ever see that through our Western Christianized world lens.

Second thing is big kudos to Dazai for just being a bi-icon (from “Memories”) and just casually stating that he had a crush on a male classmate but then was grossed out bc the guy gave him a newt and he hates newts. Another thing I gotta say about Dazai is that he always finds a way in his short stories (haven’t read his longer works yet they are in the mail), to insert himself but make it vague whereas you know when Akutagawa wants to talk about himself vs just give you a funny story or a historical fiction work.

I think my favorite Dazai short story is “Crackling Mountain” even though Dazai basically says that some women are devious and seduce men and then are cruel blah blah blah. I really enjoy his style of writing and I could really interchange between seeing the main characters as animals and people at the same time which was weird but good. my favorite Akutagawa short story is “Hell Screen” (although Rashomon is a close second). I could make a while post just on Hell Screen bc there’s A LOT there. And “Horse Legs” omg I highly recommend if you like surreal tragicomic works. I actually laughed out loud while reading this which doesn’t happen often when reading.

This post is already all over the place so I might as well add this on. I just finished reading “The Life of a Stupid Man” by Akutagawa which was published after his suicide and it was like one of the last things he left. It’s kind of an autobiography and kind of a suicide note if you ask me. Whatever the case, it definitely made me feel differently about Akutagawa as an actual person. Going into this I knew he was feeling a lot of pressure from his extended family bc he was the primary breadwinner for all of them and he had kids that would get sick, and relatives that were killing themselves or losing jobs, etc. so I just thought that he couldn’t take the pressure and eventually snapped. I wasn’t aware that he was uhhh just f***ing around. Like this one chick he pursued aggressively then was like “woah there jk” when she started pursuing him back. She even told him that a kid she had with her husband was his like what. According to himself,Akutagawa stopped cheating on his wife when he was thirty and you can tell that in “The Life of a Stupid Man” that he feels some sort of regret for his affairs. He keeps saying how he’s an awful husband, father, and brother but like he was supporting everyone which was admirable so why feel that way otherwise? One thing I found almost comical in this short story was when he talked about his platonic woman friend that he made after turning thirty and he was like “He did not die with her, but he took a certain satisfaction in his never having touched her.” Like good job bud you managed not to f*** one of your woman friends. But I think he was proud because if he has this “affliction” it would be easy to fall back into your old ways lol. Maybe having a platonic relationship with a woman was a goal of his before he died idk. He also makes reference to himself and other authors (including Gogol) being possessed by some sort of demon and that’s why they all go crazy and/or commit suicide and he knew that he was gonna do one or the other too. He says “all that lay before him was madness or suicide,” and then talks about how a close friend of his went mad and is in the hospital.

There’s another quote a little bit before that where Akutagawa states that “not everyone is moved by literature. His own works were unlikely to appeal to people who were not like him and had not lived a life like his...” and like idk how much I agree with him there if I’m being honest. I’d say I’m one of the furthest things from the type of person Akutagawa was and I still very much enjoyed his literature. And there I think he is again doubting his abilities and being self-deprecating (duh the title). He was able to write stories that despite their placement in history showed the best and worst parts of humanity and that will resonate with every generation. And like I think anyone will laugh at “Horse Legs” -it’s a dude walking around with hooves that he has to hide bc the death people messed up and he died too early and they needed to send him back but his own legs were rotten already and Horse Legs were all that was available. Cmon that’s funny

Anyway I might add on later or make another post to document my feelings/reactions to more literature idk

#kat speaks #opinion #literature #japanese literature #dazai osamu #akutagawa ryunosuke #bungou stray dogs #bsd #long post #tw suicide

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secretbranch · 5 years

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LRR OF THE SPARK

Okay, so in a recent live TCC, LRR was asked what planeswalkers they associate with “everyone in LoadingReadyRun”, and they gave some great answers, so I wanted to compile them as well as add my own opinions, so without further ado....

(also note that race/gender don’t factor here) Graham (Garruk)

Graham has cosplayed as Garruk for videos before, and you can totally see it. They also threw around the idea of Angrath, which I will admit I like better, but I also know that, for better or for worse, due to recent developments, Graham has cemented himself into the mono green man of the wild. (Plus, I wanted to use the stained glass art versions of all the walkers, and then I realized Graham was Garruk rip #whereareyougarruk) Paul (Karn)

You could argue that Paul is some sort of blue mage because of his endless experimentation in Friday Nights, but while Karn may not approve of some of Paul’s designs, he would appreciate the effort. Also, I mean, Paul’s card in Friday Nights is colorless for a reason, right? James (Angrath)

Alright, so a bunch of names were thrown around for James (Nicol Bolas, Gideon, Ajani [because he’s so supportive {sarcasm}]), and I personally didn’t think any of them fit. I then remembered a conversation I heard on stream (can’t remember exactly when, otherwise I’d link it), but someone referred to James as “Kind of a dick, but still has a heart of gold”, and that made me think of Angrath’s story from Ixalan, and I realized he was the perfect fit. Also, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard someone in chat say that James would make a great dad, I wouldn’t be yet another broke millennial, hahah. Ha.

Kathleen (Sorin)

This is one where you may have a different opinion than the LRR friends. Whether or not you consider it low-hanging fruit, you may have thought of Liliana first. While I do admit there is some merit to Kathleen being our goth queen, wielding her horde of Brave New Faves listeners against the forces of evil, a helpful, totally extra edgelord is not far off either.

Alex (Saheeli)

Alex was the first of a couple people whom I almost gave Tibalt. Early Friday Nights had him pinned as some sort of Rakdos Madman obsessed with explosives, sort of like if a goblin was a person. But, frankly, I don’t think the Demon Prince fits Alex very well. Alex is super creative, which you know if you’ve seen his art or his comics. He’s also been referred to as a “meme nexus”, and has a lot of information stored in his brain (which paved the way for the discussion of “Alex-isms”). His ability to create and appreciation of the world around him s very reminiscent to me at least of Saheeli. Plus, Alex doesn’t give a shit about your gender norms anyway. Fuck ‘em.

Cameron (Tamiyo)

Books? Notes? Yep, that’s Cam. Also, without a doubt, some of the deepest cuts and references you will ever hear on LoadingReadyRun have been from Cameron. He is the longest running co-host of a show where they analyze video games as art. Come on, the similarities keep coming. Also, Cam would totally be down to say “fuck your gender norms”. He is beauty, he is grace, and yet he will trip and fall and somehow find a way to land directly on his funny bone.

Ian (Daretti)

As discussed in the video, Ian is absolutely the tinkering goblin madman that turns into an evil genius in the sequel. Like, the show is LITERALLY called TINKER Tailor Solder Fry. Not to mention Daretti’s other quality: D E C A D E N C E. Some goblins will settle for any trash. Daretti only settles for the highest quality of trash. I feel like this statement highly resonates with Ian. Plus, there’s probably some “waifu is trash” joke that I’m missing since I don’t watch anime, but regardless: perfect fit.

Cori (Huatli)

They almost said Vivien, but then Cam pointed out (and I totally agree) that Cori would have red or blue in her color identity. So, here is Cori! She’s super helpful and friendly and wholesome, and she also reins Ian in when he goes a little too off the rails. That being said, Cori has been known to go off the rails a little herself, and is super creative, so Huatli seems like a nice match.

Beej (Sarkhan)

So this was what the LRR folks picked at the panel, and it catches a lot of people offguard. The universal first response I think is Tibalt, E̻̻͙̭̼̅́ͯ̒ͅX̸̠̫̟̙̣̮͔ͬͯ̈́ͤͤP͌ͨͫ̄́͏̠͉Eͦͨͨ͊͂̓҉̱R̷̠͔̮̲̥̘͚̄̈́̅ͧ̇̃I̲̙̗͇͌ͮ̃́̚E̢͇̝͆ͪ̑̌ͧͮ̎NC̓̒̐͆͐͂ͭ҉̥̺̞E̠͖̐͊ͬ̔̐͊̎̕ ̮̪͒ͣ́͗͆̆̏͠B̥͍̳̲̠̳̀̓̏ͥͮ̈́ͣE͇̳̫͙͕ͅͅE͈̱̜͈̱̱̲J̼̉̔ͅ and all that. But, after thinking about it, Sarkhan is a rambling madman who turned out to know more about the universe than almost anyone, and isn’t that in the spirit of E̻̻͙̭̼̅́ͯ̒ͅX̸̠̫̟̙̣̮͔ͬͯ̈́ͤͤP͌ͨͫ̄́͏̠͉Eͦͨͨ͊͂̓҉̱R̷̠͔̮̲̥̘͚̄̈́̅ͧ̇̃I̲̙̗͇͌ͮ̃́̚E̢͇̝͆ͪ̑̌ͧͮ̎NC̓̒̐͆͐͂ͭ҉̥̺̞E̠͖̐͊ͬ̔̐͊̎̕ ̮̪͒ͣ́͗͆̆̏͠B̥͍̳̲̠̳̀̓̏ͥͮ̈́ͣE͇̳̫͙͕ͅͅE͈̱̜͈̱̱̲J̼̉̔ͅ?

Heather (Jaya)

This was another personal pick of mine, and I really like it. Cute but fierce is something I can totally see describing Heather. Like, Heather definitely has this very loving, innocent mindset, but anyone who has seen enough Rhythm Cafe knows that that statement isn’t entirely true. She also seems like someone who will fiercely protect her friends, and that’s something Jaya can definitely get behind.

Serge (Yanggu)

You knew it was coming. How could you not see it coming; the adorable doggo-wielding cinnamon roll who can surely kill you with his boyish smile while simultaneously actually killing you? Everyone in chat always protects Serge when bullies like Adam or James show up, even when Serge was sassing them seconds before. Also, Yanggu is a green mage, and we all know how Serge feels about lands.

Ben (Chandra)

In the words of Kathleen: “THIS ONE IS MY FINEST HOUR!!!!” Think about it. Ben has always said he’s most closely aligned with Red and Green, and here’s this planeswalker that can be both a wild child and super wholesome. Also, canonically a member of the LGBT+ community. ALSO, you KNOW Chandra is super supportive of people when she’s not immolating them. I didn’t even think of the Zippotricks McEdgelord thing until I was halfway through this. His individuality, his creativity, he is Chandra in disguise.

Adam (Koth of the Hammer)

Beefcake of the Mountains? Adam Savidan??? Absolutely. I will admit, this is what LRR said, and I would have gone for someone a little more studious since I know that’s a lot of the Adam we don’t see on camera, but as for what we DO see, hell yeah. I also find it hilarious that the guy acting as the conductor for the WE’RE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE train wasn’t even in War of the Spark. Rip in pieces, Koth. Matt G (Ral)

I’ll be honest, at time of posting, Matt is still fairly new to streams, and I haven’t seen a lot of stuff he’s done, but I’ve seen his personality through his editing (which is always amazing btw), and his creativity and very open personality is expressed greatly in Ral. Plus, I mean, when there’s low-hanging fruit, sometimes you’ve just gotta give the gay boi the gay boi.

(Bonus Friday Nights A-LRR-mni)

(Note that this is mainly their Friday Nights Personalities)

Jer P. (Teferi)

Super organized, methodical, intelligent. Who the heck is WILLING to sort their cards, let alone OTHER PEOPLE’S? Jer has had to since move on from LRR, which is sort of like Teferi retiring from planeswalking. And I mean, come on.

Matt W. (Ob Nixilis)

Hear me out. I’m not saying Matt is a demon. I am saying he is absolutely Ob BEFORE he broke the contract. Throughout his episodes in Friday Nights, he is ob-sessed (don’t you love my puns?) with winning. Furthermore, like Ian, decadence is a word that comes to mind when you consider the way he talks. A very sinister villain is Wiggins who returns every time we go back to Zendikar (or have a Desert Bus, but you get it) And that’s it!!! This was a fun homage as well as a much needed trip down memory lane. Hope everyone enjoys, while I know folks will disagree with my picks. Don’t forget to check out all of the links I hid in here. Big thanks to LRR for existing and being so wholesome and good. You guys rock.

#lrr #loadingreadyrun #mtg #friday nights #planeswalkers

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borisbubbles · 6 years

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Eurovision in the 80s: The Ranking

The moment y’all have been waiting for. I’ve recently rewatched all the years in the 1980s and I will now rank the Contests in this very post for Posternity’s sake. If you feel like watching an eighties year, feel free to use this post as a guide as to what to watch and what to avoid :)

Disclaimer: While I will also include a ranking of the songs, i will only be discussing the Contests themselves. No write-ups on individual entries, because it’s best left for you to discover... oh and because I’m a lazy PoS.

Oh and for those who can’t tell, a legenda: Dark Green: ICONIC entries that are amongst the all-time greatest. Lush Green: Great entries that I loved or Iconic entries that I liked. Lime Green: Entries that I liked or contributed something of value to the contest. Yellow: Mehzone. Orange: Entries that I disliked or whose presence detracted from the contest Red: Pieces of shit that need to be set on fire.

Without any further ado:

10. Lausanne 1989 (Winner: Yugoslavia)

What a godawful year. Maybe my least fave, ever? This contest is the only one in the decade I’d recommend you to avoid. It has a myriad of problems (shit hosts that insist on speaking French throughout the entire contest although it’s fucking NINETEEN-EIGHTY-NINE; hideous stage, Basic Bitch winners), but the most problematic one is the music. The best song... is Céline Dion’s opener and it just goes downhill from there. There’s a dearth of fun, uptempo bops, the contest consisting of mostly lame (even by Eurovision standards) death fodder, some of the worst experimental shit I’ve ever seen (including *two* child singers O_O) and anonymous ballads you forget the INSTANT they’ve finished; It’s like the worst fucking case of musical prosopagnosia you’ll ever witness. The only song which shines is Denmark’s antiquated schlager, but mostly because I needed SOMETHING to cling onto for dear life to prevent me from slitting my wrists GOOD LORD.

9. Harrogate 1982 (Winner: Germany)

A year that looks way better on paper than it is in practice. The problems with Harrogate 1982 are two-fold: first, the podium is way too fucking small to stage anything that isn’t a ballad or a chanson. Secondly, the entries are not memorable at all, except for Finland, Norway and Luxembourg which are all DREADFUL. Otherwise the contest can be condensed to “mildly pleasant middle of the road pop songs and Nicole.” So about Nicole: she’s definitely one of the Greatest Winners of the franchise, but her mere presence turns Harrogate 1982 in one of those ‘Business Trip’ years (for other examples: see 1974 and 2012): It’s obvious that Nicole is a full category ahead of all the others and is going to beat the crap out of them... which is precisely what happens and it’s fucking underwhelming. Like, why even hold a contest if the result is going to be that obvious? Not a BAD year per se, but not a very satisfying one.

8. Dublin 1981 (Winner: United Kingdom)

While 81 certainly looks worse than 82 on paper (there is a larger amount of boring songs), it’s actually slightly better, on pretty much every level: the good songs are more memorable, the bad songs are less memorable (a huge plus!!), the stage is bright lit and pleasant, the voting is exciting (”Yugoslavia, may I have your votes please?” “I DON’T HAVE IT!!!” *sound of receiver being slammed down on table* 😍), the winner is satisfying, etc. That being said, “slightly better than 1982″ is still fucking average though, lol.

7. Dublin 1988 ( Winner: Switzerland)

Fucking Dublin, hosting the contest six fucking times, only ONE of them actually good. :-/ Anyway, 1988 is a really weird year in that it has flashes of utter brilliance (including a very exciting voting tally) but still manages to be mediocre overall. It’s one of those years that has a blazing start and then... dies a slow horrible death around the halfway mark. There are.. three? good entries after Céline, who performed NINTH... in a contest with 21 songs X__X The ugly stage defo doesn’t help and I would also recommend that if you chose to watch this, to mute the sound whenever hostess Michelle Rocca attempts to speak 'French' (tho at least she tries to speak a different language, unlike the shitty hosts the year hereafter 😒)

6. Luxembourg 1984 (Winner: Sweden)

1984 is a lovely, lightweight year. It doesn’t set my world on fire, given the lack of green entries, but most entries rank near the top of their coloured tier (and “Terminal 3″ is easily the best Irish entry of all times). Its overall vibe is pleasant, the stage is excellent, the hosting competent and the winner satisfying. Not something I’d stay up for, but defo something I’d love to watch when I want to clear my head.

5. Gothenburg 1985 (Winner: Norway)

1985 is a classic example of a “Good vs Evil” contest. It has a slow start, including some of the worst crap ever on Eurovision (’Für Alle’ is a contender for my least favourite Eurovision entry of all times) and then it turns into a wonderful dreamscape with several all-time great entries, culminating in an ending where Evil is slain by Good (in the forms of Bobbysocks and the UK Jury) and everyone lives happily ever after 🤗. Oh and it features Lill Lindfors whose deadbeat sarcastic self can barely contain her disdain for said aforementionned Evil entries, lobbing shade at them whenever she can. <3

4. The Hague 1980 (Winner: Ireland)

An excellent year of Eurovision. I always enjoy rewatching 1980. It has good pacing, an attractive stage, memorable songs, the bad songs are fun to hate (Netherlands’ especially, as it’s a song about the beauty of Amsterdam... in a contest taking place in The Hague 🙄🙄...😂). By far one of the funniest contests in Eurovision.

3. Bergen 1986 (Winner: Belgium)

Another excellent year of Eurovision. I don’t have a single red or orange entry until song #14, which is one of the longest streaks of Not-Bad in Eurovision. Even then, the songs in yellow could’ve been light green had I felt generous at the time. The crystal cavern aesthetic is beautiful, Ase Kleveland is an excellent hostess despite being sandwiched between Lill Lindfors and Victor Laszlo. 1986′s best feature is the abundance of excellent trainwreck entries, giving the year a distinct light character that makes it infinitely rewatchable. A pity that it kinda sags near the end.

2. Brussels 1987 (Winner: Ireland)

One of my favourite contests of all time. It’s a lot like 1980, in that 1987 is also an immensely funny year (and I don’t even like the Lazy Bums), but unlike 1980 the comedy is mostly unintentional, which is even better. The B-material in 1987 (arguably half the entrants <3) consistently try to outperform themselves and it is just delightfully amateur, flawed and fun (and of course pans out to them receiving ~20 points collectively 😂). This without taking into account the stage, which is one of the most beautiful dark stages in Eurovision, the VTs featuring different Belgian comic book characters and Viktor Laszlo, who is one of the best hosts this franchise has ever known. Baby, I’m Breathless, yeah.

1. Munich 1983 (Winner: Luxembourg)

While 1987 is more my taste, 1983 is the more well-rounded contest. LOOK at all that dark green. Look at where they rank on the overall 80s list. This contest has a few weak links, but it matters little for when an 1983 entry is good, it’s freaking fantastic and erases all the previous blandness from memory.

1983 is also an underrated year in terms of hosting (Hostess Marlene attempting to host trilingually ALL BY HERSELF <3), aesthetics (using HIDEOUS flag-shaped floral pieces instead of VTs <3) and Terry Wogan commentary (defending the Avant Garde entries he otherwise despises <3 getting all of his trivia wrong <3). It was the first past contest I watched back in the day (early 2012 lol) and an excellent year to start with if you haven’t tried watching an early year yet.

#Eurovision Song Contest #1980s #Eighties

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allbeendonebefore · 6 years

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An Incomplete List of Hapo’s Vic Picks

I took some books out of the library over the summer to read up and supplement my Victoria Knowledge (tm) while i was here working here - now that I’m leaving the island again I’ve begun to compile them for your viewing pleasure.

Here in no particular order are my vic headcanons for @orcanadian to do with as she pleases xD I provide no citations but can clarify which things come from books and which things come from experience etc etc. Again the bias here is I pick things that are interesting/funny to me and things which I believe fit with her character as has been presented. Also remember that my default for comparison tends to be Ed first, Cal second, and then my impressions of other cities.

CHILDHOOD STUFF

- the number one thing that sticks out to me after reading edmonton/calgary history is how absurdly aristocratic Victoria is. In a north american sense she’s outrageously sure of herself and confident in her supposed god-given blessings and natural talents and has been so since she was young - in a european sense she’s ridiculously quaint in a kind of muddy, low class way.

- so on the one hand while she is a Lady (tm) and will only settle for the best things, she’s also the sort of kid who will appall her guardians by digging in the dirt and doing the gardening Herself.

- I get the feeling that despite beginning as an HBC fort (read: HBC retirement home), HBC had less the interior/mainland understanding (”here before christ”) and a little more of the American understanding (”hated british company”). Not that she would Ever stoop to allowing herself to be called an American, and it took her a Very long time to warm up to the idea of being called a Canadian as the people she met from Ontario and Nova Scotia during the gold rushes didn’t quite suit her idea of decent companions. Islander first, through and through.

- as a kid she spent so much time trying to help create a place she hadn’t really any actual concept of and for the longest time was heavily resistant to anything that didn’t fit her vision. Now as an adult, while the remnants of that particular brand of colonialism and imported class divides are still present, she’s making a very particular effort to present herself as an international and conscious person. (She’s not, exactly, and is still very Basic White Girl (tm) in a lot of things, but she really is trying, especially where indigenous relationships are concerned)

RELATIONSHIPS

- her relationship with the rest of the island and the mainland as a kid was nothing short of princess to peasant. Her attitude pushed New Westminster (Vancouver’s predecessor) to become adamantly pro-US annexation first and then adamantly pro-Confederation second only a little spitefully, and Victoria’s dependence on Nanaimo’s coal ended up radicalizing the workers. After the turn of the century, she seems to have settled down and mellowed in her relationships, more or less happy with her hold on the political reigns of the province.

- While her relationship with Van Man had quite a rough start, she’s sort of come to accept their respective roles. In the beginning she seemed to be more pissed that he had taken the name of *her* island than she was annoyed by his economic dominance of the province, and her prior relationship with New Westminister seems to have briefly been directed at Vancouver, reaching peak intensity when Canada revealed that maybe building a railway across the Georgia Strait to the island wasn’t feasible after all.

- Upon acquiring the capital status, Vic started to settle into the idea that /maybe/ they were finally being treated *fairly* and while Van Man wasn’t her *equal* so to speak he could at least learn a thing or two from her guidance. Van Man just accepts this because he knows he can physically lift her, tuck her in, and lock her in her house if she gets sick.

- Will not let you forget that she is /technically/ the oldest city in Western Canada. Absolutely acts like it and is always ready to dispense Wisdom (tm) even if she doesn’t actually have the experience or knowledge to back it up.

- Despite being closer to the Edge of all things, she’s not a particularly outward looking person even when she pretends to be. Most of her contact with the outside world is actually through Vancouver or through gossip, she remains quite isolated and she’s quite alright with that. Also had more of a historical aversion to Seattle/California than perhaps Vancouver did (since she viewed Washington, Oregon etc. as belonging to her and because she wasn’t particularly fond of all the sketchy flannel-wearing Californians turning up in the mid 19th century rushes)

- Victoria is actually a committee of 17 separate municipalities, 4 of which are perhaps particularly important to take note of. The ‘four towns in a city’s trench coat’ are as follows:

- VICTORIA: the vic chick herself, seat of power in the province, the mastermind of Vancouver Island, and the hip and trendy downtown.

- OAK BAY: the heart of old British culture and class divides, highly resistant to development of any sort, and self proclaimed “original” hollywood north, Oak Bay is a state of mind more than a place who’s gender is tweed and mostly goes downtown for the Irish Linen store.

- ESQUIMALT: was going to be Victoria’s original location but had crap farmland and no fresh water, so became the military and naval base instead. Vic had a romanticized view of a sailor who would come and sweep her away from the island in her youth but...

- SAANICH: i suppose the chill and friendly popular neighbour of the four and perhaps the most tenuous sense of identity, but loves hiking and stargazing and being outside in general. Shares the university and a local cryptid with Oak Bay.

- Quebec City is kind of her secret senpai - she essentially demanded the CPR build her a hotel on par with Chateau Frontenac (which they did, begrudgingly) and she’s the only one so far this side of Canada to be able to enjoy a tin of Samuel’s chocolate fondue with her fresh garden produce.

- Cal is a CONSTANT visitor to the island to the point that it’s even more common to see Calgary Flames or Stamps junk than it is to see Vancouver or Seattle teams. Vic is “a playground for rich Calgarians”. They may be on opposite ends of many political debates, but they are both similar in personality in a traditional/romantic/conservative way.

- She also has a bit of an interesting (if mildly condescending) relationship with Hally - polar opposite in attitudes and class backgrounds, but share historical, cultural and geographical similarities enough to at least be able to work together and chat a fair bit.

- “Hey Whitehorse, remember that ship I sent you?” “Ahh... about that...”

CURRENT QUIRKS

- Old lady at heart. Uses facebook to share pictures of visitors to her yard, post old memes directly to people’s walls, and like Every Selfie before inquiring after the person depicted on the public comments. Thinks she’s the wine mom when she’s actually the tea granny, and her big social excursions are usually with her bridge group/the Greater Vic Committee.

- Loves to cook with stuff she grows herself and always has herbs at the ready, though she’s quite particular about who she cooks for or takes out for dinner. Also has a serious sweet tooth when it comes to tea time and candy/chocolates.

- She can actually be a little reserved when it comes to hospitality at times even though she’s extremely friendly and outgoing. Doesn’t actually like people staying in her house for extended periods free of charge... remember that BC stands for Bring Cash. That said, she will absolutely be over-generous with weed and offer a complete stranger a joint five minutes after chatting with them.

- Will talk with you, unsolicited, about anything. Friendly to the point that a quiet brusque prairie person like me will be totally caught off guard. Will continue talking as you’re trying to bike up a 45 degree angle.

- Her manner in some cases can come across as overly blunt or even imperious in that I’m Old So Of Course I Know Better Way and condescending without actually realizing it (”I was cleaning out my attic and found these old photographs I took- they are not the best photos but I’m sure they’ll be adequate to decorate your house”).

- Despite maturity beyond her years, she’s actually got a really good grasp on cool/retro trends and interesting food. While she does tie into the generic maple-washed Canadiana that tourists expect, she’s also very good at putting her own flair on things and emphasizing her own interests (ex. especially comics and games).

- Really into old cars and trucks. Like it’s kind of worrying but considering all the retired people she lives with and the cost of driving to the mainland via BC Ferries (which she h a t e s), it kind of makes sense. A collector.

- Staying out past 9 pm on a weekend is kind of a big deal for her. Also never goes Anywhere in a hurry. So chill and laid back about Everything (but will launch into a passionate rant about how invasive species are actually Necessary Okay or When Will The Deer Stop Eating My Plants?!) no matter how high she is.

- Regardless of how she identifies herself, Vic is extremely queer friendly. Romance of any orientation absolutely warms her heart and she has a particularly strong trans community and archive. She can perhaps be a little nosy about things, but can be really accepting despite her old/conservative stereotype.

- Her favourite holiday (perhaps next to Victoria Day) is Christmas. She goes ALL OUT on lights and decorations every year.

- While she might be more famous for her penchant for yoga and paddleboarding or sailing and other such individual and relaxed recreational activities, she did beat the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup before the NHL even formed. Not that she brags, but she does carry a lot of smugness around with her and that’s just one more thing to be smug about.

- Has an umbrella and KNOWS how to use it as both shield and sword. Have at thee, weather and disreputable politicians! Also will absolutely defend an oak tree in her yard with firearms.

Perhaps more will be added later but that’s what I think of.

#projectcanada cities #pc: victoria #hapo rambles #hapo reads canadian history #pc headcanon

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canaryatlaw · 6 years

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today was....mixed. it had some good parts and some not so great parts, and I’m leaning towards the not so great parts right now because I’m stressed of course and like....I really think I’m going to flunk the bar. like not being dramatic, I really think it’s going to happen. I wasn’t diligent enough in studying and I consistenly get a large percentage of the practice questions wrong and I can never recall the stuff even when I did study it and like....I’m so fucking stressed out about all of it and like, it’s the worst. but, let’s start with the beginning of the day. My alarm was set for 8:45, the plan was to get up and buy tickets for New York Comic Con when they went online at 9 am, then after that I would take a shower and get ready, then uber to church because I’m annoyed with my current public transportation options. well, that’s not exactly what happened. I did wake up at 8:45 and brushed my teeth, and was sitting at my laptop waiting for it to hit 9 am, and legit as soon as the clock turned to 9:00 am I clicked the link, and was set to a site telling me I’m in line and not to refresh the page, it will update when it was my turn. so I waited. I mean, I clicked it right away, how many people could actually be in front of me? WELL. turns out it was a lot. I legit sat there staring at the page waiting for it to update for over a half hour, when I legit clicked it as soon as it went on sale....and then finally at like 9:35 it updated and I was able to click through quickly and enter my information (you’re on a 15 minute clock to fill it all out) and was able to get tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as we planned. I had been talking to Jess while we were waiting since we’re going together, and she hadn’t gotten through yet and was kinda freaking out, so I did my best to comfort her until she got through like 5 minutes later. Well, at this point it was too late to make it to church on time, so fuck that, Jess was still freaking out a bit so I suggested we go get breakfast (I mean I first suggested that we go get ice cream but none of the places opened till 11, so then I suggested breakfast) at this little place that’s pretty much exactly at the halfway point between our apartments that does breakfast and we’ve never actually eaten there, so I got dressed and headed over there to meet up with her. It was actually not terribly hot out at that time of the day (it got horridly hot afterwards of course) so we sat outside and ate, I got french toast because I’m predictable and Jess got a veggie omelete because she’s also predictable, in food choices at least, and we talked about plans for upcoming cons and trying to figure things out, which is of course an ongoing conversation because there’s always another one coming, and of course she’s going to SDCC in like four days (which I am just absolutely so happy for her about and definitely not jealous at all) so we were talking about outfits and cosplays and figuring out the phone conundrum so she can actually have a working gps while running around an unknown city. So we had a good breakfast then parted ways, I was hot at that point and I had a bunch of bath bombs and bubble bars from Lush that I never actually used because I never really wanted to take a bath at night or had the time in the morning, but I had some time today and I figured it would be a good opportunity to use one, so I drew a fairly cool bath because it was so fucking hot and used a pink bubble bar, which of course turned the water pink. So I continued to take a bath, which included washing my hair, and since I used my color depositing conditioner on it yesterday it always washes out as like neon pink, and when that got combined with the already pink bath it became like, the most intensely pink bath that ever existed and I was amused lol. The live podcast episode I was on a few weeks ago was released today so I got to listen to myself on that, which was an odd experience, but I definitely enjoyed hearing myself rant about AvaLance and Sara Lance and why she’s my favorite character on all of tv, and then of course me trashing Elongated Man (I think the phrase I used was “I didn’t order this) and knock off Batman Green Arrow and how I now have to qualify my statements that GA is my favorite superhero with “NOT the Arrow version.” So that was fun to listen to. But I finished that and then went to studying, trying to knock out the lecture I had for today, it was like an hour and 47 minutes so not so bad. basically I’m going to try to do one lecture a day for the Illinois essay subjects that I missed by switching over late, so I’ll at least have something to go off of if I get a question based on it, because right now I don’t know jack shit about them, like one of them is commercial paper, what the hell does that mean??? so I obviously need to get that done. So I got through the lecture and then started working on the other review exercises when I got a message from Jess asking if I wanted to get ice cream because it was HOT and I’m weak and can never say no to ice cream, so I headed out to meet with her and then walk to the ice cream place. It wasn’t too crowded when we got there, but after we had ordered and paid there was a huge influx of people, like a group with about twenty children with them, so it looks like we hit it at just the right time. I tried their lemon meringue ice cream that I’ve considered for a bit now and I honestly wasn’t crazy about it, but oh well, it was still good because it was ice cream. So we sat at a table and ate our ice cream and talked for a bit before heading home because it was getting super crowded and we didn’t want to take up a table when we had finished eating. So, back to studying. I’m really bad at like, reviewing my notes to study because I’m so impatient, but it also makes me anxious because I know I don’t have any of this shit memorized and I’m gonna just be so fucked over. But yeah, did that and finished up the assignments for the day. I was considering doing another lecture since I had some extra time and I had thought I checked the fed income tax video and it was only like 30 minutes, but I must’ve checked the wrong thing because when I brought it up it was a full 4 hours and it was already 6 pm after a solid 8 hours of studying and like.....that’s not happening. But I kept the tab open to do some extra work when I got a chance. I had a few random things I had to do, my dad wanted me to review some blog posts one of the girls who works in his office had written because he wanted me to clean them up a bit. They weren’t anything extraordinary, it showed a bit of lack of knowledge on some of the finer points of law, and there were a bunch of awkwardly phrased sentences, and instances when it was apparent she basically used a thesaurus to get a more complicated word, except the meaning was off and I had to change it back to the simpler word that actually conveyed the right meaning. Then I did an article draft for when the legends trailer comes out for the podcast website, then finally updated the company tumblr which was WAY overdue, it had been 3 weeks, which I’m pretty sure is the longest I’ve gone without updating it (of course it didn’t effect the posts because it’s on a 6 posts a day queue) but if I let the queue deplete too much I can lose the system I use to queue the posts (I would try to explain it but it’s absurdly complicated lol). And I decided to watch Heathers the movie since I had nothing better to do and I’m quickly becoming obsessed with the Heathers musical cast recording and have been listening to it all day, so I figured I should see the source material. It was an interesting perspective to see the musical based on the movie first and then see the movie. I thought they actually stuck pretty close to the plot as far as those things go, the musical lifted a LOT of lines directly from the movie but I think they made it work for them so I can’t really complain about that. I do like that the musical gives us the part where we see how Veronica got in with the Heathers to begin with, the Martha friendship was the only other really major change, which I was kinda meh about because she’s not that big of a character. So I liked the movie a lot, Winona Ryder is awesome and she was a great Veronica. But after that I watched like two episodes of Nailed It before switching over to 30 Rock and then eventually getting ready for bed. I’m like, majorly tired now and my eyes no longer want to be open, so I’m going to close this out here. Goodnight darlings. Have a lovely Monday.

#daily journal #July 2018

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minaminokyoko · 6 years

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Deadpool 2: A Spoilertastic Review

One thing I've noticed over the years is that there's nothing like it when someone busts their ass to make a movie happen, defying all odds, and pours their sweat, blood, tears (and in Deadpool's case, probably other fluids we don't want to know about) into a film, and it turns out to reward them spectacularly. Deadpool was one of those movies. They fought for years to get that movie made after the disgraceful ruination of the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and they did him justice beyond words. It was magnificently done. It damn near beat Jesus, for fuck's sake. Actual Jesus.

And that's why I think that I don't like the sequel as much.

I've seen this happen many times: a sleeper hit or an unexpected smash hit blockbuster exceeds all expectations and then puts out a sequel. Well, unfortunately, sometimes success can ruin your party. Success, accolades, and the second highest grossing Rated R film of all time had an influence on how Deadpool 2 turned out, if you ask me. When you're not starving for it, then it means that sometimes punchlines don't land as hard, writing is not as tight, and scenes aren't as memorable. When you're already fat and happy, sometimes your motivation to make the best thing ever is just servicable at best.

I think Deadpool 2 is an enjoyable movie, but I think it didn't want it as badly as the first movie did because it was already fat, happy, and satisfied from the first film. Thus, I think they didn't try as hard to make it the best movie possible. It's still a good movie, but it can't compete with the first film by any stretch, and I'll explain why. Naturally, spoiler alert.

Overall Grade: B-/C+

Pros:

-Deadpool himself is still funny, even if the change in tone puts a damper on a lot of the enjoyment.

-Domino shines like a freaking diamond. I already like Zazie Beetz from what I saw of her in FX's show Atlanta, so I was jazzed when they announced her for the role. She still blew my expectations out of the water. I had never seen her do a physical role before, and she absolutely sold me. I'd love to see her in sequels and I sure as hell would watch a spin off of her with other female heroes should the Deadpool franchise get to borrow some X-Men in what I pray will someday be a collaborative effort between Fox and Marvel Studios. She's fantastic. She's the black girl magic the world needs to know about, and I'm so happy studios are coming around realizing black women are a massive untapped source of awesome in superhero films. For the longest time, Storm was all we had and she was weaksauce due to poor writing, but we've slowly been seeing more inclusion with the women of Black Panther and Valkyrie from Ragnarok and now Domino. Keep 'em coming, superhero movies. Black women deserve to conquer the genre and usher in other women of color alongside them.

-The X-Men pulling the door shut gag was top notch. Kudos. Even though it raises some seriously weird questions timeline-wise, I howled. That was brilliantly addressed, especially since it's so painfully obvious in the first movie that Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead were all Fox's stingy ass wanted to spare for poor Mr. Pool.

-Dupinder is still fucking adorable and precious and I'm glad he got his moment of glory.

-The Juggernaut getting a second shot was absolutely fantastic. I was trying to guess who it would be and then I saw that helmet and I might as well have done a fucking T-Rex roar in my seat the theater. Juggernaut was done right. He was everything I dreamt he would be ever since that disappointing appearance in X-Men 3. Don't get me wrong--Vinnie Jones had the right attitude, but making him just regular size guy defeats the whole purpose of why he's so unstoppable and terrifying. He literally ripped Deadpool in half. That was awesome, as was his grudge match with Colossus. I loved them going toe to toe with each other. It was staged extremely well. Aside from Domino, Juggernaut vs. Colossus was by far my favorite part of the film.

-Minor point, but I loved Deadpool's reaction to Yukio. He seemed genuinely charmed by her and vice versa and it was fucking adorable.

-The second post credits scene is exactly as good as the hype made it out to be. Oh God. Deadpool shooting Barakapool several times was just...I mean, it was the cherry on top of the sundae. It was so satisfying, as was the joke about shooting himself before he could star in Green Lantern. I love that Ryan Reynolds was so self aware that he severely fucked up his career from pretty much 2011 until 2016 when he finally got Deadpool made. He knew this movie was the only way he'd ever get himself out of that ditch in his career and I think it was a worthy redemption for sure. I also am so relieved they undid Vanessa's death, because that's the second biggest con I have for this movie as you'll see below.

-The Logan reference had me in stitches. It was so wrong, but so damn funny.

-The "blink and you'll miss it" Brad Pitt cameo. Fuck, that was amazing and surprising, thank you.

-The other "blink and you'll miss it" Alan Tudyk cameo. Holy shit, does Disney really like this man. I am so happy to see Wash getting some really great roles over the years. He's doing great.

Cons:

-Stuffing Vanessa in the Fridge. Alright, so technically I shouldn't put this in here because Deadpool fixes it in the end credits, but it pisses me off that they even attempted this stupid fucking trope. I am tired of dead girlfriends and dead wives used for Mangst. Fucking. Stop. It. Women are just as valid as men as characters. Stop killing them just to make the hero turn Super Saiyan. It's possible to still motivate the male motherfuckers without killing the girl and putting them on a revenge spree or depression spiral. It's lazy writing and all of Hollywood needs to move on from this tired ass trope. Vanessa was extremely charming, funny, and likable in the first Deadpool movie and Morena Baccarin is and has always been so wonderful to enjoy on screen in her dramatic and comedic work. I am so pissed off they Fridged her to only be in five minutes of the fucking movie. They shouldn't have even bothered putting her in the damned credits because she was only there for such a short period. If she didn't have time to film the movie, fine, just find another excuse that she's not there. Morena deserved better, dammit.

-Changing the tone of the film franchise from a screwball comedy to an action "movie" with jokes in it. This is the biggest reason I didn't like this movie as much as the first Deadpool movie. The first Deadpool movie is arguably a parody of superhero films. It takes most of the tropes and pokes fun at them in a really great way, but it also still manages to be a legit, streamlined revenge love story. It strikes the exact tone we'd all been craving ever since we heard the Deadpool movie would be greenlit. So why the fuck is the sequel written like an X-Men movie, but with more jokes? I hate the serious tone. I hate Wade moping over Vanessa, I hate the whole "family" bullshit that is spoken with a straightface somehow despite being almost as unearned as that hideous one in Suicide Squad, I hate Cable moping over his dead family, and I hate the "you're not my friend" bullshit between Wade and the incredibly annoying fat kid whose name I refuse to learn because he irritated me so much. Why did they play it all straightfaced? Why was I expected to see a "real story" in a Deadpool movie? The entire reason I like this franchise and haven't seen an X-Men film (not counting Logan) in years is because the X-Men franchise has completely played itself out. It's substandard acting, substandard writing, it doesn't adapt the comics the way it should, and it's just repetitive. All the movies since First Class are the same. The prequel babies are finally going to just end the charade with Dark Phoenix and I think most of the world is relieved because they have nothing creative or new to offer any longer. Deadpool 2 reeks of that same kind of lame writing and execution. There was no reason to switch the format. I pray to God they go back to formula in X-Force or Deadpool 3. I hate this change with a passion.

-The fat kid is annoying as hell. There, I said it. Fight me if you must. He had no sense of self preservation and the movie didn't go into enough detail to make me care about him in spite of how teeth-grindingly stupid and obnoxious he was. He was written like a twelve year old boy writing fanfiction about himself and Deadpool becoming best buds and fighting crime together. No. No, stop that right now. I don't want any part of it. I get the "he's just a kid" thing but the kid is an asshole and even if he's somehow justified, he's a pain in the ass to watch from start to finish. I also think the kid needs some acting lessons, but that's not entirely his fault. I think he probably just wasn't directed all that well, so I can let that slide, but I did notice it during the film.

-I don't care about Cable. Cable and Deadpool are righteous as fuck in the comics. In this movie? No. This is why I was against Josh Brolin being cast. He has no chemistry with Ryan Reynolds. I get that Cable is the Straight Man to Deadpool's Kooky Man, but they don't gel together at all. I never sensed any bonding even though they are setting it up for franchise reasons. He's just not interesting and he plays the role as blandly as he does all his boring ass biopics and other bland roles. Brolin worked much better as Thanos than he did Cable. Thanos had weight and was threatening and even though his reasoning was utter bullshit, at least he was convicted. Brolin's Cable just felt like some stock stoic character thrown in there as the minor antagonist. I still would have much preferred Liam Neeson or Ron Perlman, and yes, I understand both of them are getting up there in years, but we've seen older actors still kick ass and be in shape, so I think they could have done it if they were offered the part. Brolin is still one of the most drab actors I've ever seen and he just doesn't pull the role off, imo.

-The bait and switch with the X-Force team. This is a minor note for me, as I don't have a background with these characters so it's more for people who know these characters elsewhere and were expecting an awesome team up movie but that's not what they got. Are the gruesome deaths kind of funny? Yeah, sure, but it's kind of rude to advertise them that way and they're not in the movie. I just frown on it. It's not a dealbreaker. It was just disappointing in the same way that the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 was disappointing. I expected more and I got a farce instead.

-I don't know if it's for legal reasons, but it drives me crazy that we still didn't get a Wolverine cameo from Hugh Jackman. I mean, we finally got Deadpool--the real one--and I just want him and Ryan to share the screen again because even though Origins was trash, they were magical together.

-Deadpool's last "death" went on way too long. I was checking my watch. They really should have pulled the trigger on that gag. It was exhausting and not very funny to begin with.

-Negasonic Teenage Warhead getting reduced to an extra pissed me off. She was so great in the first movie and she doesn't get to do anything here and it irks the hell out of me.

-Aside from The Juggernaut vs. Colossus, the fight scenes weren't nearly as creative, cinematic, or memorable as the first film. I've already forgotten everything except the JvC fight and the convoy rescue scene. That's a bummer for me.

-The movie just isn't as funny as the first film. It's not the same kind of tight writing with excellent punchlines and ridiculous phrases that made me remember them. It's been a few days and I don't recall any insults or lines that stuck with me. I'll likely be seeing it again for Memorial Day weekend, but I still don't expect I'll remember much from it.

-Nitpick: God, I still want to push T.J. Miller off a bridge. He is not funny and never has been.

-Nitpick: WHY HAS NO ONE MADE A FIREFLY JOKE ABOUT MORENA BACCARIN AFTER TWO FUCKING DEADPOOL MOVIES?! COME ON. DEADPOOL IS ALL ABOUT NERD REFERENCES. GODDAMMIT MENTION FIREFLY YOU FUCKS. (But to be fair, this could also be because Fox is the reason we only got one season and so maybe they were forbidden from doing it. Still. That pisses me the hell off. Especially since Ryan Reynolds and Nathan Fillion (1) have both played the Green Lantern and (2) were on a sitcom with each other for years. Inexcusable.)

I'm sorry it sounds like I'm shitting on the movie. Really, it's enjoyable. I just think that maybe the first movie set the bar so high I can't help but feel frustrated by the sequel not trying as hard. Based on the online reactions, I'm on my own so...take that as you will, friends. Kyo out.

#Deadpool #Deadpool 2 #Wade Wilson #Cable and Deadpool #movie review #film review #Ryan Reynolds #Morena Baccarin #Josh Brolin #Zazie Beetz #spoiler alert #spoilers

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foundcarcosa · 6 years

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1. Favorite childhood book? >> (Three hundred surveys posted to this blog, wow. --I mean, over the course of nearly a decade I’ve probably filled out at least ten thousand, but.) I think that distinction would have to go to The Phantom Tollbooth. It’s one of the only books I remember owning, probably because I’d paged through it so many times. I also modified all the illustrations with pen so that Milo looked like a woman. 2. What are you reading right now? >> Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine -- more like limping through it, because I stopped setting aside time specifically for reading so I just end up grabbing a half a chapter here and there. I’ll have to do something about that. I’d started The Poisonwood Bible a while ago, too, but I keep forgetting to continue it. 3. What books do you have on request at the library? >> I rarely borrow books from the library unless they’re e-books because of my tendency to have to repeatedly renew and eventually take it back before I’m finished because I ran out of renews. 4. Bad book habit? >> Not reading. 5. What do you currently have checked out at the library? >> I don’t, for the reasons stated above. But for all the shit I talk about Grand Rapids, it has a lovely main branch, so I’ll probably end up stopping in again soon, maybe spending a few hours there for a change of scenery.

6. Do you have an e-reader? >> I have a phone, which functions as my e-reader. I also have a Kindle, but between its wack amount of storage space and its quick-draining battery, it’s been relegated to the position of glorified mousepad at this point. (It’s too bad, because I like the screen size.) 7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once? >> Two or three at once. I think it’s interesting to see if/how they subconsciously weave themselves together in my imagination, even if -- especially if -- they’re about completely unrelated things. 8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? >> It’s the internet in general that interferes with my reading habits, not just tumblr, but tumblr obviously plays a part. 9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?) >> I quit on Cormac McCarthy’s The Road like 10 pages in, and I don’t usually do that but for some reason I got bored really quickly and couldn’t see the point in pushing through. That’s not a total vote in its disfavour because I didn’t actually form a full opinion. Sometimes I just pick up a book at the wrong time and have to wait until I reach the point in my life when I’ll need it. I’ll probably try again in a couple of years. 10. Favorite book you’ve read this year? >> I really enjoyed Reincarnation Blues, I thought it was an amazing story. I also got a lot out of M. K. Asante Jr’s It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop. When the Stars Are Right by Scott R Jones was fascinating as hell, and then of course there was my long-overdue (or maybe right-on-time, considering...) American Gods reread... 11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone? >> Occasionally. The thing is, there are so many books in my comfort zone that I want to read... 12. What is your reading comfort zone? >> I don’t know if it’s quantifiable. I like a lot of different kinds of books. I usually know within 10-15 pages of a book if I’m going to like it or not -- I try not to judge books by their covers, but I definitely judge them by their first chapter. 13. Can you read on the bus? >> Sometimes, but I generally prefer to listen to music and look out the window.

14. Favorite place to read? >> In bed. 15. What is your policy on book lending? >> I’ll give books away. Just take it, read it. Pay it forward. I don’t like to hoard books. 16. Do you ever dog-ear books? >> Hell yes, I do. They’re not a sacred object to me; their contents may well be sacred, but their contents already exist in me because I ate them. 17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books? >> Nah. 18. Not even with text books? >> I don’t use textbooks. 19. What is your favorite language to read in? >> I can only read in English. 20. What makes you love a book? >> It’s a very visceral and subconscious thing, and it’s not dependent on genre or the politics of the author or any of that as much as it’s dependent on who I am at that moment in time, what story I need to hear, and how lovingly the author told it. That sounds like it only applies to fiction books, but it really doesn’t. 21. What will inspire you to recommend a book? >> Some level of understanding of the person I’m recommending it to. 22. Favorite genre? >> I don’t know, honestly. 23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?) >> I wish I read more science fiction. The thing is, most of the scifi stories I love I kind of stumbled into accidentally. Whenever I go looking for scifi specifically, I run into a lot of duds (not that they’re badly written or anything, just that they’re bad for me). I’m going to try Philip K Dick soon and I hope that works out okay. 24. Favorite biography? >> I don’t have one. 25. Have you ever read a self-help book? >> Sure, but I don’t make a habit of it.

26. Favorite cookbook? >> I don’t have one. Well, okay, Feeding Hannibal is pretty cool, ngl, but mostly for the information rather than the actual recipes. We can’t afford to (or don’t have the room/appliances to) make most of that stuff. 27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)? >> Definitely American Gods, but that’s a hard-to-explain thing, lol. The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is a good runner-up, because as far as inspiration is concerned, Alan Watts probably had more than his fair share of it. (Do comic books count, because if so I’d like to also add in Promethea.) 28. Favorite reading snack? >> Alcohol. (But also anything I can eat with one hand, or doesn’t require a lot of, like, attention.) 29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience. >> I don’t think that’s ever happened. 30. How often do you agree with critics about a book? >> I don’t read critic reviews often enough to know what the ratio of agreement to disagreement would even be like. 31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews? >> A negative review is just as valuable as a positive review. I’d prefer people not be nasty in their negative reviews, but like... I also don’t have to read their review if I don’t like it. It’s not that big of a deal to me. 32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose? >> Russian, probably. I imagine untranslated Russian lit would be amazing to read. 33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? >> And actually finished? Ha! Let’s see... as far as length, I’d probably pick whatever the longest Stephen King book that I’ve read is. (He meanders, man. He fucking meanders. It’s great, but dear god.) As far as content, I’m probably gonna go with Atlas Shrugged. For, I mean, obvious reasons, really. 34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin? >> That doesn’t really happen to me. If I want to read something, I’ll start reading it. If it proves prohibitive to my limited ability to understand shit, then I’ll put it down and move on. 35. Favorite poet? >> I don’t have one. 36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time? >> Zero. When I do check out from the library, I stick to three books max. 37. How often have you returned book to the library unread? >> Quite often. Usually because I ran out of time. 38. Favorite fictional character? >> YEAH, OKAY. 39. Favorite fictional villain? >> Actually that is almost impossible for me to determine because I don’t even put the “villain” flag on characters unless it’s super fucking obvious (like in a comic book) that they’re supposed to be the Token Bad Guy. I just don’t even think in those terms. -- Now that I say that, though, I remembered that Stephen King characters are written very polarised despite my personal interpretations of them, so I suppose my favourite villain is Walter O’Dim. 40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation? >> I don’t know, I don’t usually have time to read on vacation. Unless it’s on the plane or something, in which case I just bring whatever I happen to be reading at the time. It’s usually on my phone, anyway. 41. The longest I’ve gone without reading. >> I mean, I don’t go a day without reading something, even if it’s just articles I saw on my facebook feed. 42. Name a book that you could/would not finish. >> Fifty Shades of Grey. (I did try. I wrote detailed posts about my thoughts during my attempt to read it. They’re still on my old blog.) 43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading? >> Everything. It’s just hard for me to turn the “noise” (literal and figurative noise) of the world off in general, which is why I like it quiet when I’m trying to focus. 44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel? >> Well, LOTR. I was going to say Predestination but All You Zombies isn’t a novel. Uhh.... :/ 45. Most disappointing film adaptation? >> Good god, so many. 46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time? >> Around $100, I guess. I don’t have much money in general so I try to just... avoid bookstores. 47. How often do you skim a book before reading it? >> I don’t. The first-chapter test usually works just fine. 48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through? >> Boredom. 49. Do you like to keep your books organized? >> Well, we don’t own enough for a complex system to be required. 50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them? >> I really prefer to give them away. It’s just... I’m not a hoarder (I don’t even mean that in the negative sense, I just mean I don’t like hanging onto stuff I’m not actively using). I spent just about all of my adult life up until 2 years ago homeless or some version of transient and having to be ruthlessly exacting about how many belongings I had at any given time really changed the way my brain works regarding material items. I love being able to own things now, but it’s... hard to enjoy having too many objects. I get tetchy. It feels inorganic. Maybe that’ll change in the future (these things often do), but for now owning more than 20 or so books feels like an overindulgence. 51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding? >> I don’t think so. 52. Name a book that made you angry. >> I can’t think of one right now. 53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did? >> The Fountainhead. Any Rand book, actually, because Vlad couldn’t stand her and we had such similar tastes in media that I figured I wouldn’t either. But the immense amount of annoying peer pressure from Sigma eventually got me to pick it up just to get them off my back, and..... well, the rest is hilarious “I’m in love with a crazy Russian woman who makes me want to yell at her constantly” history. 54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t? >> I don’t know. That doesn’t happen very often. 55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading? >> All of it? I don’t feel guilty about anything I read.

#surveysofsamedi #surveys

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