#it feels so old-timey while also feeling modern | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blues824 · 1 year

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💚Can I request the uppermoons+ muzan with a satan s/o

🐈Like they find out that their s/o is a different kind of demon who eats human souls.

💚How would they react when they find out she is the avatar of wrath and one of the demon Lords wit her brothers (in my opinion they are all stronger than muzan )

🐈Her always reading books chatting calmly and them wondering how they are the avatar of wrath until she unleashes her wrath (because douma told her isn't she the same person as lucifer or isn't lucifer her father in a way ) and them finding out that muzan is a puppy compared to her rage.

💚Them also learning that she has a love for cats imagine them learning that she at home isn't allowed tho have cats because she snuk 100+ cats in the house and now they are no l in hell the keep collecting cats.

Modern AU, kinda. Female Reader

Muzan Kibutsuji

Upon learning that you were a different kind of demon, he is intrigued and also very envious. You can go out into the sun without worrying about dying. Now, not only were you a demon, you were the Avatar of Wrath: a sin that Muzan indulges in the most.

He loves quiet little dates between the two of you. You both live a very domestic lifestyle, and you are often in an armchair with a cat in your lap as you read a book. He has been a witness to your love of cats, but only allows you to keep 2. It’s in these moments where he wonders why you are the Avatar of Wrath.

Then, there’s the screaming matches between the two of you. Sometimes, you can’t help but feel like his envy of your ability to go out in daylight is getting in the way of your relationship, and it causes a rift between you. You’ve thrown books, chairs, heads, and Michael Jackson had to admit that even he never had the strength that you did when you were angry.

Honestly, you both are a very old-timey couple but in a more disturbing way. You both slow-dance in the kitchen, not even considering the amount of lives lost at your hands. All that matters is the love flowing between the two of you as you sway from side to side.

Douma

He’s very interested in the difference between the two of you. For starters, you don’t eat flesh, you eat souls. He eats flesh, and you find it kind of gross. You eventually get used to it though. I feel like he gets turned on when your Wrath comes out.

Douma often finds himself jealous of the cats and books you like to give all your attention to. He will pout, he will cling to you, he will bug you, etc. If you tell him to lay his head on your lap as you read aloud, he will gladly do so. Bring his hand to your lips and place a kiss and he feels very giddy and happy.

Mans tries his best not to make you angry, but he has a tendency to not take things very seriously, which could piss you off. He once even compared you to Lucifer. He had never seen anger like yours, and you even shifted into your demon form as you threw things at him. Afterwards, he would get you some flowers and another book as an apology.

In the household, you have three cats. Since demons don’t really need sleep, you both just bask in each other’s company. A lot of the time, you both just sit with each other in the living room, sometimes talking to each other. His followers also worship you, by the way.

Akaza

You were strong, and that’s what he admired. As the Avatar of Wrath, you were even stronger than Muzan Kibutsuji. You had the ability to walk in the sun, and you had a demon form that just screamed power. It was no wonder that Akaza was completely smitten with you.

He finds your extreme love for cats absolutely adorable, and in your home you just have one or two (the second isn’t official, but he does come around every day). You two can often be found either playing with one of the cats or you reading while he has you in between his legs and lays his head on your shoulder.

The first time he saw you angry, it was when he had almost got burned in the sun after he killed Rengoku, the Flame Hashira. You were worried sick since you saw the sun coming up, and you slapped him for being so reckless while you were yelling at him simultaneously. He didn’t take it to heart, since he knew that it was because you cared, but it still kind of hurt.

After the issue was resolved, he laid on the couch as you laid on top of him. You placed your ear where his heart was, and while you couldn’t hear it beat you could feel his chest moving up and down as he breathed. It had the same effect on you, and you could feel yourself calming down.

Daki

You both originally never got along, considering that you stole the attention of Muzan. However, after the initial meeting, you both grew closer. You were an enforcer in the ranks, which was weird because you had the power to overthrow the demon lord. What Daki didn’t know was that you stuck around for her.

I feel like she would love to keep a pet, and so you both adopted a single cat. You, of course, wanted more but reasoned that it would be smart to start off with just one. And let me tell you, this cat is spoiled. Oftentimes, the feline lays on Daki’s stomach as she lays her head in your lap while you read a story to her.

Now, your fights are more like wars. When you go into a screaming match, no one wins because both of your voices get scratchy. However, you never want to go to bed angry, so you often set aside your pride and apologize. You both clean up the destruction caused, and it’s all back to normal.

Her favorite stories are often ones where the princess is saved because she wishes she could have gotten that as a child. She likes to close her eyes and imagine herself being rescued by you, just like how it was in reality.

Gyutaro

Again, you both did not initially get along. It wasn’t until Douma said you were just like your oldest brother that Gyutaro truly understood who you were. You lashed out in anger, even managing to lay a hand on Muzan out of just pure rage.

He definitely gets jealous of the cats that you spend a lot of time with. You have 3 in total, and while it does offer him a domestic vibe in your house, the furballs take all of your attention. He’s touch-starved and insecure, so please don’t leave him alone.

Every couple has their fights, but yours are by far the worst. Gyutaro often tries to guilt-trip you by clawing into his skin and blaming you, while you are also pretty manipulative. Either way, both sides’ emotions are dependent on each other.

Now, he would never tell you this, but he grows soft for you. If you run your hands through his hair as you read a book aloud to him and your cats, he is just so in love. I know a lot of you are Gyutaro simps, and he simps right back. Congratulations.

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strawbubbysugar · 6 months

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY @pillowspace I MADE IT JUST UNDER THE WIRE- ENJOY THIS FRANKENFATE AU BIRTHDAY SNIPPET !!!

(Under readmore!)

“Can I come in yet?” Vale sat against their bedroom door, arms crossed, head back as they stared at the ceiling. It was a particularly sunny, warm day, the sort of day that had fluffy white clouds rolling across the sky, high enough that no shadows were cast. If it were up to them, they would’ve been out in their- .. THE forest, helping Sun look for his crown, as they usually spent their days.

However, today they’d been tasked to stay in their room while their unexpected roommate (well, one of them) worked on something secret. They didn’t have a single clue as to what it could’ve been, though with all the banging sounds and the occasional hushed whisper, they weren’t feeling too optimistic.

“June!” They shouted at the door, shutting their eyes and groaning. “JUNE, I JUST HEARD YOU DROP A FULL BOWL.”

“YOU DIDN’T HEAR ANYTHING, YOU’RE IMAGINING THINGS. YOU’RE LITERALLY CRAZY. YOU’RE ACTING CRAZY.” June shouted back, accompanied by the sound of something heavy being dropped back onto the counter.

Vale heard the hushed whispers of Sun, who had asked if he could help- to which June had delightedly agreed that yes, he could! They could vaguely hear June whispering ‘that’s gaslighting, but I’m doing it as a joke so it’s okay. Yeah don’t worry about it big guy.’

They chuckled and rolled their eyes. June was still getting used to this time period, something that still baffled them to no end. There seemed to be plenty of modern conveniences that were so commonplace, so ingrained in daily life, that June barely had the words to describe them.

A machine that washed and dried your clothing for you was simple enough to understand, but a machine that would let you speak to someone far away, that also showed you images of them, as they spoke, as if they were there? That did about a million other things as well, the least of which involving a light brighter than a candle coming from the front of it? The device had been broken upon June’s arrival, and Vale still wasn’t entirely convinced they weren’t pulling their leg about it.

They’d had enough of simply sitting there staring at the ceiling, zoning out in between clangs and hushed whispers. They began to stand up, though they had unfortunately begun to do so the moment the door was opened, knocking them forward after wobbling on their feet.

“Oh, shit! Dude, fuck, sorry!” June gripped under their arms, helping them to stand up, much to Vale’s chagrin.

They dusted themselves off, the only real injury sustained being to their ego as June had watched them faceplant into their carpet, ass over teakettle. “You’re oddly light on your feet for someone who never does put their laces.”

June snorted, grinning their usual lopsided, cheeky smile. “And you’re oddly easy to push over with a door. Were you just sitting there listening??”

“No, I was sitting there awaiting permission to enter the rest of MY house.” They shot back, though their annoyance was undercut by the clear tone of amusement in their voice. “What were you two doing out there?”

“Jeez dude I woulda left you, like, a book or a flower to look at if I’d known you were just gonna sit there.”

“What did you think I’d do??”

June paused for a moment, frozen as they did what June had once called ‘loading’, while they registered what Vale had asked and formulated a response.

“Uh.” They smiled, though a bit more sheepishly now. “Man, I dunno! I thought you’d knit or something!”

“Knit??”

“Something old-timey, yeah!”

“You don’t have knitting in your time???”

“Wh- yeah, we do, but it’s like.. a grandma hobby. I think it’s coming back into fashion though.”

Vale shook their head, once again rendered speechless by June’s nonsense.

“No, June, I didn’t knit. Can I leave the room?? I’d like some fresh air.”

June quickly blocked their way, arms spread out to the sides. Unfortunately for Vale, they did have the height advantage.

“Wait! Wait wait wait. Are you sure you’re ready?”

“Ready to enter my own house??” They scrunched up their nose, eyes squinted in confusion as they placed their hands on their friend’s stomach, pushing them forward.

June didn’t budge, fingers hooked on the doorway to keep steady. “Are you ready for your SURPRISE!” He laughed. “Stop. I’m ticklish.”

Vale could practically hear the sound of Sun registering that information and saving it for later use, even from where he presumably was in the kitchen. Vale cracked a smile and shook their head. “Yes, I’m ready to both see my surprise, and clean up whatever mess you two made.”

“Oh come on, you know Sun was already all over that. I’ve never seen a dude more excited to wash a dish in my life.”

Vale chuckled at the idea. Taking favours from the gods certainly wasn’t something they’d ever do, not in a million years. However, June seemed more than happy to take whatever the god offered. It was more than once Vale had to stop them from agreeing to receive ridiculous, extravagant things in exchange for the two human’s assistance- worried that it would count as them taking the favour as well. However, once Sun had promised to clarify when something was a friendly gesture and when something was a godly boon, June had been allowed to accept as much help as they’d like.

Though Vale still wouldn’t be partaking. Just in case.

June let them through under their arm, grinning with delight and waving their hands in clenched fists at their sides. They’d called it ‘stimming’, once. Vale had tried it and had to admit that it felt nice to get that energy out, but found they preferred to keep their limbs under control. They glanced back to them with furrowed brows, beginning to grow nervous about the supposed surprise. It couldn’t possibly be.. no. It couldn’t. They hadn’t told a soul.

Stepping around the corner, they were greeted by their divine housemate, as he held out his hands in greeting.

“SURPRISE!” He beamed, flourishing his hands as small colourful sparks rained down from his fingers.

In front of him was a cake, lopsided and frosted in a manner that appeared not too dissimilar to the way Vale imagined a raccoon would frost a cake. Dollops of icing littered the edges in what seemed to have started as a pattern, but soon collapsed into complete chaos. The colour was somewhere between grey and blue, a result likely to be due to the berries used that also acted as decoration on the top, dotting their own pieces of frosting. Coming closer, they saw the elegant cursive handwriting, as well as the smeared icing hastily scraped off from previous attempts that had been deemed less than perfect.

Happy Birthday Friend!

Vale blinked several times in surprise, glancing between Sun, who was still beaming, and the cake. “I .. I didn’t tell either of you that it was my birthday, how did you ..”

“I’m the god of day!” Sun piped up. “And it is a birthDAY! Stands to reason that I would know each of them by heart!”

“Oh, I told Sun that if he told me when your birthday was, I’d take his favours and ask him to make dragons real.” June smiled, leaning their hands against the counter. Sun looked to them, eyebrow raised in confusion.

June quickly waved their hands at Vale when they saw the immediate flush of panic on their face, laughing worriedly. “WHOA WHOA IT WAS A GOOF ITS OKAY-“ their hands met Vale’s shoulders, steading them.

“Not funny-“ Vale groaned, head lolling back. “Gods, I felt my heart touch my feet.”

June chuckled, patting their head and mussing up their hair the second they were sure they had a solid footing once again. “Aw cmon, it was a little funny. I asked the baker in town, after he mentioned next week being special last week when we visited.”

“I should really ask him not to give away secrets to strangely dressed newcomers.” Vale muttered, glancing over their two odd companions. They looked over the cake and felt a fondness settle over them like a warm blanket.

These two had really put in far more effort into this cake than necessary. They’d tried so hard on it, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was clearly a labour of love. The sort that sent warm fuzzies to Vale’s cheeks at the thought that their friends would do this for them.

“.. but thank you. Truly. It looks .. delicious.” They smiled warmly at the both of them, though they stumbled over the last word. Delicious wasn’t the first one they’d thought of.

They were surprised once again as they were pulled into a large, warm hug by June, soon followed by a Sun who had spent a good majority of the morning cooling himself down for this. He easily wrapped his arms around the two mortals and gave a gentle squeeze, earning an ‘eep!’ From Vale, and a laugh from June.

Eating the cake would be its own challenge later, but for now, the hug was its own gift, and one welcomed with open arms as Vale melted into their friend’s arms, closing their eyes and basking in the warmth.

#frankenfate #writing #<tagged ig??? I don’t usually post it directly onto tumblr hsfhs #fwiends #I HOPE YOU LIKE IT

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thethiefandtheairbender · 10 months

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just a disclaimer: i’m queer and nonbinary (afab) as can be, so all of this is from a personally queer perspective? i also know that i don’t tend to really jive with ND stevenson’s work (she-ra didn’t quite work for me) either and if you loved the movie, great. i just gotta drop thoughts somewhere because well

they’re less than positive

like “nimona” wants to be a Queer movie so badly, but the entire humourous basis of the character herself is that she is 1) young looking (despite being immortal) and 2) appears to be AFAB and isn’t it funnily jarring when little girls want to be violent instead of cute and sweet?

She doesn’t want to be a monster, but clearly genuinely enjoys destroying things (again: basis of the bulk of her character humour, and one of most defining character traits) with no regards to anyone who gets hurt or could get hurt in the process.

also this is Entirely Personal preference but while the animation was stunning, the contrast in the medieval aesthetic and modern day technology just continually brought me out of the movie. which is too bad, because treasure planet and it’s 70/30 rule and aesthetic blend of old timey and big technology is one of my favourite things ever, but i think Nimona being 50/50 just... didn’t work for me. was also slightly disappointed that i figured out who the actual bad guy was before the queen’s death (and yet another movie with a black queen who Dies Instantly / a movie with literally queer men of colour being technical side characters to a white, allegorically queer main ‘female’ character).

Ballister is a great protagonist, but due to his opposition of everything Nimona is personality and scheme wise, it feels like they’re almost running around in two separate stories. As well as like - he wanted to enjoy the Elite, Privileged, fighting force? An elite, privileged, entirely based on birthright system ruled by a Black queen before it was called into question, when it’s also a pretty clear allegory for the Police? The fact that this isn’t resolved - what’s going to happen to the Institute, is it going to be reformed or even better yet, disbanded (‘defunded’), is entirely left hanging as a plot thread, which doesn’t happen matters.

Halfway through the movie (specifically Nimona’s “or that sometimes I want to let them [kill me]”) is when I finally started to feel emotionally invested, but like two scenes later when Ambrosius’ stabbing was over dramatic rather than just letting the tone hold, I looked into the camera just... so incredibly unimpressed. The monopoly and shark dancing didn’t help.

“She’s my friend.” “Aren’t I more than that?” so there were no aspec people in making this film. Got it. And Ballister’s heel face turn into calling Nimona a monster is also very quick, especially when his whole arc this movie is being unfairly demonized himself by the very same thing/people that are demonizing Nimona as well. The sheer harshness and length of the scene is also much longer and given time than him saving her, leaving that feeling kinda lopsided as well.

And Nimona’s issues I think are very evident in the fact the movie lets us see all the damage she’s causing at the end when she loses control, which is sad and tragic for her... but does not excuse or remove the real harm she’s bringing hundreds of other people. This is mitigated when she sacrifices herself to save the city, but given that her problem wasn’t necessarily selfishness so much as recklessness, and given that Ballister had literally just talked her down from suicide, it’s... Muddled to say the least.

And all of this ties back into the murky gender allegory of the movie. At its best, it’s very effective and very emotionally resonant (Nimona’s actual flashbacks and a couple of her conversations with Ballister. I can definitely see why people like it - hell, even I like it. “This monster is a threat to our entire way of life!” “What if we’re wrong?” kinda perfectly encapsulates were it falls flat to me, because queerness Is a threat to our current systems - capitalism, racism, cisheteropatriarchy founded on white gender essentialism. Queerness, particularly of gender, disrupts and should disrupt all those things; it’s a political identity just as much as personal one, both by choice and by societal circumstance.

TLDR; found the second half of the movie, overall, much stronger than the first, but with some bigger structural pitfalls. Animation was gorgeous, sense of humour didn’t overall work for me but that’s a personal thing, queer allegory was good but I would’ve liked some of the implications to be taken farther. I appreciate the movie for what it says about freedom of expression vs demonization by the upper class(es), and I think it’ll really resonant and be important to queer youth in their teens (a stage I am long past) figuring themselves and their place in an increasingly anti-trans political climate out, so I’m very glad it exists. It just wasn’t particularly groundbreaking, and wasn’t particularly up my alley. Which is kind of what I expected, but I am disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it more as a nonbinary person who loves story deconstructions, fantasy, and animation

#nimona critical #nimona spoilers

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tyrantisterror · 3 months

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Wizard School Mysteries: Dance Clothes!

Book 1 of Wizard School Mysteries had a big fancy dance, and book 2 had a scene where our heroes went on a bar crawl that ended in the vaguely medieval fantasy land equivalent of a dance club. And I designed alternate outfits for my main characters to use in both these scenes, because there is something wrong with my brain.

James's Samhain outfit is excessively fancy, taking a lot of fashion from princes and nobles, so show that Rodrigo really worked hard to make James feel like he was equal with everyone else despite being a commoner. His clubbing outfit, by contrast, is meant to have a swashbuckler vibe to it, and his trickster animal motif is on display with a raven on his pauldron and a serpent/basilisk on his patch.

Now you know what I meant when I said Ivan was in hot pants in book 1. His clubbing outfit is also meant to be a swashbuckler, just a more "dated" version - 50's fantasy rather than modern D&D fantasy.

I knew Gretchen wouldn't be allowed to wear her hat in a big fancy dance, but I still wanted to keep her face shrouded in shadow for Story Reasons, so I went with a really elaborate veil based on some I saw when looking up medieval noblewomen's fashion. Her clubbing outfit, by contrast, is her fully taking the piss out of everyone while wearing her trademark hat.

Margot's dress for the fancy dance is one of the more modern, taking a few more explicit cues from prom dresses while still mixing in some old timey design elements. Her clubbing outfit... look, I'm not making excuses, you know what I'm about.

Rodrigo's fancy dance outfit has a lot of elements I found in medieval/renaissance fashion that I think would be "avant garde" in modern fashion - lots of asymmetry specifically. Rodrigo's gotta look both rich and kinda artsy. His clubbing outfit is based on various Red Mage designs from Final Fantasy, because goddamn do Red Mages have good fashion sense.

Serena's fancy dress is based on one worn by Sailor Moon with a few Celtic touches worked in. Her clubbing outfit is, like, "what if Sailor Moon went to a rave" I guess, just a bit obnoxious to fit her behavior in the "A Needleslly Gendered Night Out" chapter.

Charlotte's fancy outfit really tries to emphasize her spider bits while also making her a cute little princess, because juxtaposing cuteness and spidery-ness is a big part of her character. Her clubbing outfit is pretty normal as wizard clothes go, with the bulk of my design work focusing on figuring out what Charlotte's human guise looks like.

Polybeus didn't actually appear in the dance scene in book 1, but I made him an outfit anyway. It's not like it's the ONLY dance scene the series will ever have. His clubbing outfit is a play on the college movie trope of guys running around in togas - I have no idea if actual real life frat bros do this, but they certainly do it in movie a lot.

Next and final post for now: shenanigans!

#Wizard School Mysteries

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booklove22 · 9 months

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Some more thoughts…

Ghost girl was wearing a white chemise when she appeared to Ace…which feels very old-timey. Like, that is NOT a modern dress. So my feeling is that though her corpse was just found, it isn’t new. But maybe appeared “along the coast” (per Connor) supernaturally somehow. My theory is that she is an earlier incarnation of Nancy.

Her scarier version appears on fire, but also wet? And possibly even frozen? Its hard to tell from the flashes, but maybe part of why she doesn’t know who she is is because she is multiple people- multiple prior incarnations of Nancy who died in different ways throughout time.

It will be interesting to see if Nancy could communicate with this ghost too. Honestly I could see that happening in 4x11 when she appears at the Claw and Ace being jealous over it but if she is an earlier version(s) of Nancy, it would make sense that she could communicate with Ace (her soulmate) and Nancy (her current reincarnation).

I do think this will ultimately play out as a Nashua and Ghost were soulmates - and the lovers vigil originated with them- and their most recent incarnations are Nancy and Ace.

I also feel like this could be the first time their souls didn’t align. Like if reincarnations of Ace and Nancy have always been the sin eater and leftover good energy, why did it end up in Tristan this time?

India died in 1998. Nancy was born in 2000 and Ace was a senior when she was a sophomore. That means both Ace and Tristan would have been in-utero around the time India died. What if the sin eaters soul was supposed to reincarnate in Ace, but didn’t. It has to be someone “in horseshoe bay” but what if Ace’s parents weren’t in HSB when India died and the soul had to go somewhere else - and ended up in Tristan. 4x11 being a Hardy-centric episode has a lot of potential with this idea in mind. Are we about to find out they spent some time outside of HSB in 1998 while Rebecca was pregnant?? They’ve been teasing the Seder all season. Something is going to be discovered, I know it.

#nace #nancy drew #cw nancy drew #nancy x ace #ace [redacted]

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goomens · 7 months

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Hmm… what’s your favourite film? Also if you want prompts maybe something with ice skating.

my top 3 fav films are mean girls (2004), little miss sunshine (2006), and ratatouille (2007) (judge me all u want)

thank u for the prompt!! read under the cut :-)

Aziraphale suggests they go skating at the seasonal rink in Canary Wharf and Crowley can't really say no.

Well, he could, but Aziraphale is all bright eyes and soft smiles, saying things about it being their 'first official date as a proper couple, my dear' and that Crowley 'would look rather dashing in those skating shoes', so there's no choice, is the point, and Crowley agrees to it.

When they're there, it's nearing late evening. They've managed to avoid the biggest crowds, and the busiest hour, and though it's getting dark and chilly, there are old-timey carols playing from a speaker somewhere overhead where festive lights have been strung. It's a nice rink: modern and roofed, cosy in a way, and Crowley feels his apprehension slip away as they enter, skates on, and his hand clasped in Aziraphale's.

They take to the ice with ease, doing laps of the rink in relative silence for a while, broken only by the occasional huff of laughter when one of them falters a bit or someone nearby falls over and onto the ice . It's nice. A change of pace.

Eventually, Crowley leads them away from the edges of the rink (and thus away from the terrified beginners that cling to the boards with white-knuckles) and into the middle, where they don't so much as skate as sway together, round and round, holding hands and just - being. Aziraphale looks at him with such love and devotion that it makes Crowley's eyes sting behind his sunglasses and his stomach turn and twist with emotion, even now, even with this thing between them, out in the open for the first time, so real and requited.

Aziraphale pulls back his hands only to place them on Crowley's collar, at the dip of his neck where it meets his shoulders, pulling them closer together. Their skates bump against each other as they continue to move in a slow waltz.

"My love," The angel says before dipping forward - and up - to kiss Crowley softly. Their lips press together, chaste. Aziraphale follows up with another and then another. Crowley is helpless to return them, hands finding their way to the warmth inside Aziraphale's winter coat, eyes shut and mouth warm. Tethered and in love.

They kiss and orbit one another for another hour before Aziraphale finally declares he would like to visit the Christmas market for some hot chocolate before it's closed. Once back in the bookshop, Crowley smiles and kisses the taste from his mouth.

#i hope u like hehe #christmas themed bc ice rinks are like exclusive to christmas where i live #good omens #goodomens #crowley #aziraphale #good omens 2 #good omens fic #fic #ficlet #asks

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lovelandfrogman · 1 month

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just saw that you saw the neptune theater production of ragad???? how was it!?!

YESSSSS it was so good!!!! sorry for the late reply, i just wanted to write out something detailed for this but didn't have the time!

id been planning to go for a while and i'm so glad it worked out! it definitely lived up to my hype, it was amazing!! ill give some very un-expert and very rambly impressions i had, but PLS let me know if you have specific questions about any details or scenes or choices :D

also i apologize im not a True fan of these 2 actors and i dont remember their names so ill just call them by their characters DHSJD

first off heres the set and playbill!!

i was kinda surprised because all the promo pictures seemed to show them wearing modern suits so i thought it was gonna be a modern setting, but it was just colorful old timey clothes! (sorry im not very knowledgeable on costumes, my main impression was just "oooo fun clothes")

oh one costume note is that one of them was wearing a green suit with a blue waistcoat, and the other was wearing a blue suit with a green waistcoat!

another unique thing about the production is it was split into 3 acts, like the script does, but most productions just do 2 acts!

i really enjoyed watching this, both ros+guil were super funny and the audience was laughing the whole time, even near the end like when guildenstern's breaking down, which i honestly enjoyed-- even when it's horribly tragic, it's STILL kiiinda funny. also i liked guildenstern's accent

in my opinion the acting was great all around, i kinda enjoyed the hamlet scenes and how they were acted seriously, since i'm always conflicted on if r&gad should make the hamlet parts serious or not! also guildenstern and rosencrantz's serious and emotional bits hit me so harddd (as in both of their monologues about death i guess)

there was a lot more use of obvious lighting and sound design than i feel like is typical for r&gad? but i enjoyed it!! i'll talk a bit more about that laterrrr

they also had some singing from the tragedians, once in their first entrance, and once replacing the ship noises at the beginning of act 3, which was very fun

one big difference was after the final scene w horatio, they blackout and go back to the initial positions and do a single "heads!" which was GREAT, i don't think i've seen anything else make the time loop that explicit??

ok and now just some rambling about interpretations

so part of me before the play started was like "i've watched/read/listened to this play SO many times, i hope it's not just boring and same-y and i don't realize anything new."

AND THEN. near the end of the first scene where ros+guil come across the tragedians. i was like HOLY SHIT and realized an interpretation that i've never thought of before.

(this might be a Super obvious interpretation and i'm just slow but whatever.) it occured to me that the moment that the tragedians are about to put on a play for ros+guil and the scene suddenly shifts to hamlet, it could be interpreted that the rest of the play is just the tragedians putting on one of the classics for ros+guil, and them getting "caught up in the action".

of course this doesn't make sense with Everything in the play, but it's SO fascinating to me and it recontextualizes a lot of stuff, like making it so that ros+guil are just fucking around backstage and onstage trying to figure out their roles the whole time in this play that's suddenly started around them.

also there's a couple choices that i think support this interpretation, like tending to switch to a warm stage-y lighting whenever scenes from hamlet are going on, and switching back to a cool neutral whenever ros+guil are "offstage".

plus, i think this happened a couple times but notably when hamlet is doing his "to be or not to be" speech and rosencrantz is trying to figure out how to interrupt him, there's this super interesting lighting effect where they have a spotlight on the BACK of the stage where hamlet is, and these lights near the bottom of the stage that give the impression of stage lights, making it look like the stage is reversed and hamlet's on the side facing the audience while ros+guil are upstage. IDK if that makes sense but i was like HOLY SHIT when i realized.

PLUS, im fairly sure all the actors playing roles in hamlet are all also tragedians, AND between each act, they had the tragedians doing stuff like moving the set, sweeping, etc, on stage, which was very fun..

ANYYYWAYY those are my thoughts :D not gonna tag this bc im embarrassedddd but feel free to rb and feel free to ask questions

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mirielwebster · 1 year

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What better way to get started than with Fire Emblem's favourite word, dastard, which appears in just about every game, be it officially or unofficially translated? This shot in particular is from the new (fan)translation of FE4, but it was present in the older one as well. Fans often seem to assume it's just a butchering of "bastard" (for ratings reasons) without realising that it is a real word with a real meaning.

( "Implore" is also a possible candidate, and perhaps also "adore" and "undercut" as well if you want to be thorough. )

An Emblematic starting word, indeed!

Fire Emblem's relationship with pejoratives is an interesting one, and while dastard is definitively a distinct word from bastard, I do think there is a relationship between the use of old-timey insults and the need or desire to keep things "Nintendo-friendly." It was rare to see even a damn in the first localized games, and part of the way localization circumvented this was to have the characters use epithets that sounded... well, medieval. Hence your craven!s and your cur!s and, if you're feeling extra spicy, your craven cur!s. I'm actually hard-pressed to recall a usage of dastard in at least FE7 (which was fond of blackheart in similar circumstances); maybe the ESRB thought it was a little too close to the B-word for comfort.

Of course, as the series settled comfortably into a consistent "T for Teen" rating, sensibilities surrounding language loosened up. Awakening was the first game to see characters swearing on a fairly regular basis— up to and including bastard with a B! Yet we still see dastard often enough in modern FE games, which should put to rest the notion that it's merely a euphemism for a more offensive term. They're used differently, and that boils down to both meaning and tone.

(This is where I was initially going to expound on bastard, but just as that section of the post was getting to be too long, an angel of mercy sent an Ask for that very word. So stay tuned, all you beautiful bastards.)

Kidnapping is, of course, Dastardry 101.

So, what exactly does it mean to be a dastard? Merriam-Webster gives two definitions: 1) “coward,” and 2) “a person who acts treacherously or underhandedly.”

While people do seem to assume dastard as it appears in FE is a willful typo, I’d wager most of you have actually heard its adjectival form: dastardly! Yes, that’s an adjective, not an adverb, despite the -ly ending— same with words like friendly and unsightly.

If the context hasn’t made it clear by now, these words are practically synonymous with villainy. But we’re not just talking any old villain: the key word in the above definitions is underhanded. Dastard carries the sense of cowardice with it because it’s associated with backstabbing, behind-the-scenes scheming, sneak attacks, and just generally dirty tactics. Arguably the most famous “dastard!” in Fire Emblem is directed toward Arvis in Genealogy of the Holy War, and it’s patently well-deserved. And even though Chagall in the asker’s provided screenshot might be projecting juuust a little bit, he actually does well to give us some context clues, as he accuses Eldigan of getting close to his father in order to get one over on Chagall— which, if it were true, would certainly qualify as underhanded. Not as underhanded as murdering your peace-loving king and father, maybe, but who’s to say.

So while modern audiences will sooner associate this word with being a villain than with merely being a coward, it’s important to note that not every villain is a dastard. Your big, strong, honest warlord types— Walhart, for instance— are generally not going to be very dastardly. Neither are your force-of-evil gods and monsters… after all, who needs trickery and deception when you can turn your foes to stone, incinerate them with your breath, or simply eat them? And while yes, dastard and bastard are different words, one commonality you might have noticed is how male-gendered they both are in practice. Nothing whatsoever is stopping a woman from being a dastard, but it’s unlikely she’ll ever be called one.

As for the other words:

Implore basically means beg, though it implies a little more dignity. Rather than falling to your knees, folding your hands, and crying a lot, you need a more strategic and sophisticated approach when imploring. Eldigan’s completely sincere in his desire to put a stop to Chagall’s warmongering, but he doesn’t lower himself upon asking.

Adore means love, especially in a worshipful or fawning way. While it can still be used in an earnest way, it's just as often tinged with condescension, implying disdain for the adorer, the adoree, or both. I’m not sure when adorable came to be synonymous with cute, but I think there’s an intentional hyperbole in that usage that became lost as it became common. Chagall may likewise be hyperbolizing, intent as he is upon framing Eldigan as… well, a manipulative dastard. Having already learned his true feelings toward his father, what's meant to communicate sympathy for the king to Eldigan rings hollow and ironic to the audience.

Undercut as used here means the same as undermine, which is to weaken or make useless via subtle or covert means. It’s all very underhanded… or shall we say, dastardly. Undercut does have more of an association with direct competition or rivalry, though, which gives the sense that part of this may be personal to Chagall.

Well, I think that covers everything! Tune in next time, when we discuss dastard’s edgier, PG-13 cousin. Oh yes, I was serious.

#fire embem #vocabulary #dastard #insults #noun #fe4 #genealogy of the holy war #chagall #eldigan #corrin #fates #fe14 #conquest #implore #adore #undercut #verb

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autisticgirliesbracket · 1 year

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What makes Nagi Usui from The World Ends With You the autistic girlie ever of all time? Here's what the people have to say:

Nagi-related asks/reblogs: x This post will be updated after each round!

Image ID in alt text and under the readmore.

[Image ID. White slide with a screenshot of Nagi Usui in the bottom left corner, her glasses are all white and there is blue lightning coming off her. She is surrounded by text boxes which read,

"Has a special interest in EleStra, a mobile game, and it is her main motivation to live (or to come back to life, at least). Has an unusually formal, sometimes awkward manner of speech; often refers to others with Lord/Lady honorifics. Hyper-empathetic; can sense when people are masking their feelings, and is strongly affected by others' negative thoughts and emotions. Her power allows her to go into others' minds, but she dislikes doing it, both for their privacy and because dealing with their strong emotions exhausts her. Puts significant thought and care into her interactions, calculating every aspect of her behavior when communicating."

"Winner of the The World Ends With You autism bracket! Nagi is very emotionally perceptive and is easily overwhelmed by others' emotions, suggesting hyperempathy. She has a big interest in a game called Elestra, which she talks about often and relates situations from it to situations in real life. She particularly loves one character from the game, and pretends that someone from real life that she knows is that character. While Nagi is very empathetic, she struggles to see things from the point of view of those who are very different from her."

"Trapped in a death game and her sole motivation for escaping is to get back to playing her fave video game which she hyperfixates on. She has a speaking quirk where she talks very eloquently and overly formal and makes a lot of sounds/unintelligible noises to express when she’s feeling excited. Hyper empathetic and makes an active conscious effort to understand and communicate with people, calling it a skill that can be honed like any other."

"Literally died and landed in a death game, but was more worried about not being able to play the next chapter of her gacha game hyperfixation than y'know, being dead She is also hyperempathetic and makes So Many Noises"

" "I am simply aware of the importance of communication. And I take great pains to ensure my interactions with others remain as peaceful as possible. Asking questions. Gauging responses. Reacting aptly. I leverage every element at my disposal—actions, words, emojis, anything at all—to ensure everyone feels welcome.” - This is a direct quote from the game, which should be pretty autistic on its own. But wait, there's more! This is how she's able to Dive into other people's souls and help rid them of their inner demons. When she ends up in a three-week-long series of death games in another layer of reality played by the dead for a second chance at life, her motivation to get back is that there's a new chapter of her special interest mobile game and she can't play it until she's done with all of it. She joins the team because there's a dude who looks eerily like her favorite character who hangs around with them. Her arc resolves not by being less interested in EleStra (said special interest mobile game,) but by getting someone else who she'd previously had trouble getting along with because he spent the game masking INTO EleStra, on the grounds it'll help him cope with grief and improve his social skills. Nagi was voted Most Autistic Swag of the game duology in a fandom tournament, and this is saying something because you can make a case for like 60% of the cast at a low estimate being readable as autistic. She is an autistic queen."

"She obsesses over a mobile game (and one of her teammates because he looks JUST LIKE her blorbo/husbando). She has an ita bag covered in pins of said blorbo. She speaks in an old-timey fashion (she's 19 in modern day Tokyo) and refers to others as "Lord/Lady [Name]". AND she refers that special interest game to others as a way to "heal (their) hearts." She was voted Most Autistic TWEWY character on tumblr in a finals match against someone who's literally nonverbal with a special interest in tech who talks EXCLUSIVELY using text and rarely facially emotes. That's how autistic she is."

"Nagi is described as devoting most of, if not all her time to her pastimes, especially for a certain in-universe mobile game (Elegant Strategy, or EleStra), which she carries an itabag completely decorated with merch of a singular character from the aforementioned game, from several buttons and pins, to a charm, to a keychain plushie. She is also described as "more of a subdued character who can't assimilate into a social environment as easily as other people" by her character designer. I could go on but I'm not sure how to put concepts into words"

"She has an INTENSE special interest in a mobile game called Elegant Strategy to the point where playing it is her main motivation for trying to escape the literal actual death game she gets chucked into. She is highly empathetic which is highlighted by her psych (essentially the magic system in this game) being the ability to dive into other people's minds. She is extremely observant and puts a lot of effort into effectively communicating with the people around her, calling things like jokes or emojis "tools" to make sure everyone has a good time. The twewy fandom hosted an autism poll and she won so she absolutely deserves to go here" End ID.]

#autistic girlies bracket #autistic girlie masterpost #nagi usui #the world ends with you

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landsofnayir · 10 months

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Happy Pride! A little on my beloved butch/femme babes in the Modern AU, as Nayir has a different system of gender and sexuality that I will go into (one day 😅).

Theo instinctively resists the idea of categorizing herself or being in any kind of permanent state, because she’s here to be confusing, contradictory, and other c-words :3 She’s nonbinary transfemme, a trans woman, a fae princess, demigirl, cloudgender, and many other microlabels, though she’s always a femme in addition to those things. It took a similar journey to arrive at bi, as she spent most of her life looking for and dating men and identifying as gay, then transhet. Her first lesbian relationship was with her best friend Petra (both identified as male at the time), and her second was with Bakri. The idea of lesbian romance intimidated her so much that she waited years to make her crush on Bakri known. Now she’s happily bi/pan/queer/into everything that moves, though her soft spot for masculine gender presentation in her partner remains. (I tried to give her a flag too, but it wasn’t happening with her pose, so bi hairpins it is lol)

The ‘born this way’ sentiment was meant for Bakri and Bakri specifically. He came out of the womb a butch lesbian, something neither he nor those close to him ever doubted. His affirming home environment meant that he could wear masculine clothes and go on puberty blockers and testosterone. This was more for himself than anyone else, and continues to be. Though he holds affinity for FtM (the old-timey sound appeals to him), transsexual (same), transmasculine, lesboy, and nonbinary, how other people gender him is irrelevant. Being the fourth al-Bakri brother and also their little sister, Theo’s girlfriend, and a male dyke and a butch woman all fit and hold no contradiction in his mind. His greysexuality is a more recent development, as he believed his lack of sexual attraction was merely a manifestation of trauma and dysphoria that would ‘work itself out’ for the right person. While he did eventually feel a level of sexual attraction both for Theo and his old girlfriend Nesrîn, it took years of romance to develop and is still quite low overall.

#my art #theo #bakri #behold....the lesbian couple i'm hanging my mental wellbeing on #i honestly have so much more on their journeys but this can't be ten pages long

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inbarfink · 8 months

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An Extremely Eleborate Analysis of the Hebrew Translations of Aziraphale Saying Fuck

Okay, one challenge in translating things into Hebrew that many people, including some Hebrew speakers don’t consider, is swear words. Because, like, it’s not as if Modern Hebrew is unfamiliar with the concept of swearing… it’s just that most of our swear words are loan words. Primarily from languages such as Yiddish, Arabic, Russian and English.

And that’s kind of a problem for what’s supposed to be a translation. The typical expectations from a Hebrew Translation is that it’ll minimize the use of loan words and Gratuitous English that often slips into actual Modern Hebrew speech. This usually limits the amount and variety of swear words the translator can use.

To bring it back to Good Omens, specifically the famous Aziraphale Says Fuck scene:

------------

In the 2006 translation, both instances are translated as ‘Zayin’.

As a noun it means ‘penis’ and you can also turn it into a verb meaning ‘sexual intercourse’. This is basically the crassest swear word in Modern Hebrew (including loan words, which are generally considered slightly tamer than Hebrew Words. For example, ‘shit’ is also a swear in Hebrew but it’s use is more equivalent to ‘crap’ in English. While ‘Khara” is considered the Hebrew equivalent to the use of ‘shit’ in English) - So ‘Zayin’ is really the most direct translation you can have for ‘Fuck’ in Modern Hebrew.

(For those how know a bit of Hebrew, yes, this word is also the seventh letter of our alphabet. I don’t have time to go into the etymology right now but the short version is that Modern Hebrew is like some sort of Bizarro Timeline where people used the term ‘F-Word’ so much that it because the actually crass swear and ‘Fuck’ became it’s tamer euphemism)

Anyway, yeah, “Zayin” should be the perfect translation to “Fuck”, but the problem is:

It’s used both times, and in the exact same way, removing the element of escalation from the sequence.

The manner in which “Zayin” is used is… kinda clunky.

Cause while “Zayin” is really crass, and while “Zayin” can be used to mean ‘intercourse’… it’s not really used as an exclamation in the way Aziraphale uses it

“Zayin” and it’s variations are generally used as part of a longer sentence or phrase. I have never seen or heard anyone exclaim “oh, Zayin!” outside of, well, overly-literal translations of English-language media. So as a translation choice, it takes the reader out of the story and make the dialogue feel very unnatural.

Meanwhile the 2020 translation tried to address it in a very creative way. Which I... applaud on a conceptual level, but I’m not quite sure it worked.

So the notable thing about 2020 Hebrew Aziraphale is that he uses a lot of strange, old-timey exclamations. And outside of just characterizing Aziraphale farther (since not all of the peculiarities of his speech can be preserved in a direct translation) - it seems to be trying to emphasize the point of Aziraphale not swearing by making his exclamations so stuffy. And it also tries to build to the Aziraphale Says Fuck scene in a different way, because the way it was translated is, well…

Okay, so this:

Was translated as “eiyzeh Khara!” - a n exclamation that means something like “what shit!” or, more naturalistically, “oh, shit!”. So this line now sounds more like an actual Hebrew speaker actually swearing - but the swear was also downgraded quite a bit. Like, you know, a big part of the impact of Aziraphale Says Fuck is that is ‘Fuck’.

But the real problem comes a few lines before that.

Which was translated as ‘lekol hashedim!’. Literally it means something like “to all the demons!” - or more accurately probably something along the lines of “damn it”.

But it is a very very tame exclamation. Like, not really swearing or profanity in any way. I knowthat in Hebrew the line between tame swears and simple exclamations is a little blurry. And I understand that part of the point of Aziraphale’s strange old-timey exclamation is to try to paint him as someone who’s definition of a swear is on the strict end of that spectrum. It’s almost an added joke for the translation, the idea of Aziraphale thinking of ‘lekol hashedim!’ as a swear.

But, yeah, even under that lens, it’s a bit too tame for that joke to work. I mean, I’m pretty sure you can say “lekol hashedim” on Sesame Street with no problem. Why would Aziraphale even consider the word for ‘demon’ to be profane when he talks with a demon about demons for pretty much this entire book? (It’s not like Original English Aziraphale avoids words like ‘damn’ or ‘hell’ or anything). If a phrase was used on a goddam official Loud House comic book translation I’m pretty sure it can’t count as a fucking swear!

So while the 2020 translation is better at preserving the escalation and is a lot more naturalistic, a lot of the edge of the gag is lost when one swear is considerably tamer than the original English and the other one isn’t even a swear in any sense of the word.

Now, I don’t have the magic solution as to how to perfectly translate that sequence. “Zayin” is the best match for “Fuck” - but using it on its own as an exclamation is pretty clunky and, like, if you use a longer expression that uses ‘Zayin’ it will really mess with the pacing and even the contents of the scene (like you can have Aziraphale shout the equivalent of “fuck you!” at Shadwell but I don’t think that’s what the scene is going for).

The best I can come up with is maybe using “khara” for the first instant and just using “fuck” (as in the English loanword ‘fuck’) for that second time. Which is more-or-less what the show's Hebrew Dub did. I mean it’s not ideal because outside of the general discussion about gratuitous English in translation (there’s precedence. Crowley uses ‘shit’ a couple of times in the 2020 translation) ‘fuck’ is slightly less crass in Hebrew compared to English (like I said, original Hebrew words are usually considered harsher than their loanword counterparts. I use 'fuck' all the fucking time but I honestly feel a bit uncomfy with how many times I typed out 'zayin' in this essay lol). But it would still be, like, the second biggest swear word and that’s still something??

#good omens #good omens book #translation #aziraphale good omens #aziraphale #good omens aziraphale

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foundtherightwords · 1 year

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Love in a Mist - Chapter 1

Pairing: Hellcheer Regency AU or Regency!Eddie Munson x OFC (see Author's Notes)

Summary: Christine Conyngham, a young debutante whose marital prospects are less than ideal, believes her happiness is secure when she falls in love with Joshua Craven, the handsome future Duke of Hauxwell. However, after her lack of a fortune prevents her and Joshua from marrying, Christine impulsively accepts the proposal of Edward Munson, the eccentric Baron Hurstfield, who is in need of a wife to obtain an inheritance. But with her heart still pining after Joshua, can Christine learn to love her husband and build a life with him?

Series Warnings: sloooooow burn (it's a fucking novel, I'm sorry), angst, suicide attempt, mentions of domestic abuse, some smut in later chapters. Also, my deepest apologies to the people of Yorkshire for the accent and any other details I might have butchered.

Chapter Warnings: None, I think? This is to set the plot, so there's only some implied premarital sex.

Chapter word count: 3.6k

A/N: This started life as an original idea, for which I imagined JQ as the male lead. As I worked on it, however, I started to notice certain similarities between my two leads and Eddie/Chrissy, so I turned it into a Hellcheer fic instead. Honestly though, the Hellcheer connection is strenuous at best - I've never written an AU before, so as I wrote this, I kept feeling like it's just an original fic with characters that share names and certain traits with Eddie and Chrissy (which, to be fair, it is.) So you can imagine this as a Hellcheer AU, a Regency!Eddie x OFC, or even a Regency romance with JQ & GVD as the leads, if you prefer. I don't even know. I just want to get it out there.

A note on the names:

Edward Munson and Christine Conyngham are self-explanatory. Apparently there was a noble family by the name of Munson in Kent. "Conyngham" is not just a fancy spelling to make "Cunningham" look more old-timey either; one of George IV's last mistress was Marchioness Conyngham. "Christine" sounds too French for a Regency English lady, but that will get explained later.

Hurstfield = Eddie lives in Forest Hills Trailer Park; "Hurst" means "wooded hill". Plus Hurstfield sounds a little similar to Hellfire.

Joshua Craven = Jason Carver ("Jason Carver" is too modern, too American).

Hauxwell = Hawkswell, similar to Hawkins.

You'll notice other ST names too, but for the most part, they're just handy names, not Regency version of the same characters.

The setting: I didn't want to specify a year, but George IV was still Prince Regent, so it was anywhere between 1811 and 1820.

Chapter 1

It was March, but spring didn't seem to have reached this corner of Yorkshire. The distant, craggy hills still wore a cape of white, while down in the valley, the snow had melted and reduced the roads to half-frozen puddles and patches of mud that clung to wheels, hooves, and shoes. The ground was bare, and the sad, yellow grass poking up here and there only accentuated the grey earth underneath. A few dirty sheep, foraging in vain for some new buds among the gorse bushes, looked up as a carriage clattered past, splashing mud as high as its windows.

Sitting inside the carriage, Lady Christine Elizabeth Munson, nee Conyngham, the new Baroness Hurstfield, met the sheep's forlorn stare with eyes equally melancholic. Here she was, rattling in this carriage through this God-forsaken world of browns and grays, when not four months ago, she had been in London, enjoying the season with all its dizzying pleasures and glamor.

No, she admitted to herself, she hadn't quite enjoyed the season. When she made her debut a year ago, the first few balls and parties had been exciting, but the novelty had quickly worn off. They all seemed the same, the preening debs trying to make eyes at the bachelors without being obvious, the leering bachelors appraising the debs like farmers viewing cattle for sale on market day, the gossiping chaperones, the lecherous old men, prying eyes and smirking mouths blending into one in the dim glow of the candles. However, if Christine even dared to suggest to her mother that they missed one ball or one party to spend a quiet evening at home, her mother would launch into a long-winded lecture about how Christine never had a thought for her future, their future, how her mother had to take care of everything, how they would end up in the workhouse because of Christine's thoughtlessness. So Christine had endured it. But it hadn't been so terrible after all, because it meant she could be with him, the man who had captured her heart - Lord Joshua Craven, the future Duke of Hauxwell.

They had met in Brighton the previous July. Disappointed with Christine's less-than-successful debut season, Mrs. Conyngham had decided to summer there, though they could scare afford it. But it hadn't worked. It was just as it had been in London. The bachelors admired her beauty, their eyes linger appreciatively on her golden hair and sapphire eyes, but the moment they learned her maternal grandfather had been in trades and that the late Colonel Conyngham had left most of his fortune to the children from his first marriage, leaving his second wife and young daughter all but destitute, they turned their attention to other ladies, wealthier or of higher status. Unable to face the humiliation, Christine had begged her mother to cut their stay short, and had only received another lecture for her trouble. She couldn't think how different everything would have turned out had her mother agreed to quit the town.

That day, they were on the Steine, rubbing shoulders with the rich and the desperate, the famous and the anonymous, ostensibly promenading and enjoying the sea air, though in truth, like most others, they were there to see and be seen. As Christine was miserably trailing behind her mother, a loud murmur suddenly went through the crowd - apparently the Prince Regent had been observed going into Mrs. Fitzherbert's house. The promenaders eagerly surged forward, hoping to catch a glimpse of the couple, and before they knew it, Christine and her mother were swept along like two corks caught in a wild current. Some ruffians elbowed their way through, separating them, and Christine was pushed toward the road, into the path of a rushing gig, while her mother's scream went unheeded...

And suddenly her wrist was caught by someone, who pulled her back to safety in one swift motion. Christine found herself wrapped in a pair of strong, steady arms, heard a voice, gentle yet ringing clear in the hubbub, asking, "Are you all right, miss?", and looked up into laughing blue eyes, as bright as the summer sky above, eyes she could lost herself in.

She hardly noticed that the crowd had left them behind, and that her mother was making her way to them, her bonnet askew, her face pale, stammering her thanks to the young gentleman. She hardly knew what he said in response, so captivated she was by those eyes, and was only startled out of her trance when her mother nudged her in the rib, hissing, "Answer the gentleman, Christine!"

"I do beg your pardon," Christine said, flustered. "I didn't hear your question."

"I said, may I see you at the Old Ship tonight?" he repeated, smiling at her.

"Yes," she said breathlessly. Faced with a smile like that, she would have said yes to anything.

"Then I shall look forward to making your better acquaintance." He lifted her gloved hand, which he was still holding, and brushed his lips across her knuckles. "I bid you good day, ladies." He tipped his hat and walked off to join his friends, who were waiting impatiently for him.

Mrs. Conyngham waited until he was out of earshot to turn to Christine and said, in her usual critical tone, "Where is your sense of propriety, Christine? Why did you agree to meet him? He's a stranger!"

"I'm sure you can find someone to introduce us, Mama," Christine snapped, not looking at her. She could still feel his lips on her hand.

That evening, as they were preparing to go to the Old Ship, she chose her dress with more care than usual, finally choosing the pink satin trimmed with velvet of a darker pink with an overdress of white gauze. My rose, he had said to her, afterward. I couldn't take my eyes off you.

Upon entering the Old Ship Assembly Rooms, Christine eagerly scanned the crowd, but after sitting in the dark carriage for a long time, her eyes were dazzled by the light and she couldn't make anything out. Once she became accustomed to the glow and the glitter, she saw no sight of him. Her heart sank. Had he learned who he was and decided she wasn't worth his time? Was he no different than all the others?

But then there he was, cutting a dashing figure through the throng, his smile even more dazzling in the glow, heading straight to her as if he had been waiting for her. He was accompanied by Lady Harrington, with whom Mrs. Conyngham had managed to strike up a small friendship based on the flimsy excuse of them having gone to the same school together. Her mother's gripes about making promises to strange young men were instantly silenced the moment Lady Harrington introduced Christine's gallant rescuer as the son and heir to the Duke of Hauxwell.

For Christine, though, he could have been the son of a cook for all she cared. She had fallen in love. When he was sure of her returning his affection, Joshua admitted that he had hired those ruffians to jostle her that day on the Steine, so he could act as her knight in shining armor and have an excuse to make her acquaintance. "I didn't expect them to be so rough about it," he said apologetically. "I didn't mean to endanger you. Please forgive me." Christine had laughed and kissed him to show that she forgave him. She wasn't offended by his deception. In fact, she was flattered. It proved he was so smitten with her he was willing to do anything for her. Truth be told, though, he hadn't needed to stoop to subterfuge to impress her. He only had to show that he was different from the others. And he was different - he didn't care who her grandfather was or how much her dowry was. All he saw was her. All he wanted was her. And she gave herself to him, heart, soul, and eventually, body as well.

She knew it was foolish of her, and it would ruin her reputation if words of it ever got out. But she trusted, had trusted Joshua's promise that they would marry as soon as he reached his majority. When they parted that September, she to go back to London, he to his family estate in Hampshire, he had given her a ring as proof of that promise, a gold band engraved with the words "My love shall last 'til life be past", which she had been wearing on a chain around her neck, close to her heart.

And she couldn't deny that there was a certain thrill in their secret trysts, in knowing that she was directly defying her mother. Before they met again in London that season, Joshua had warned Christine that even their acquaintance, let alone their attachment, had to be kept a secret, because his father, the old Duke, was bound to be disapproving. Once Joshua came into his majority, he could do as he pleased and they would no longer have to be secretive. So Christine had acted the part of debutante at the balls and parties, enjoying the moment their eyes met conspiratorially across the room, a discreet touch as the hem of her gown swished across his shoes, a brush of his hand across the back of her neck as he passed her chair. During one thrilling evening, they had even danced together and carried on a stiffly polite conversation as if they had only been introduced. Their reunion later that night had been all the more delicious.

And then it had all come crashing down.

On that cold February night, it seemed the entire ton was at Lady Harrington's season-opening ball, but Christine was there in body only. Her mind was already at the secret room above a certain tavern in Covent Garden, where she and Joshua often met. So she almost jumped out of her chair when a shout went up in a corner of the room, which could be heard even over the din of the music.

Heads swiveled towards the source of the noise. Christine only saw a black-clad figure gesticulating wildly amongst a group of men. The music had now come to a lull, and their voices rang clear, to the apparent shock and secret delight of every person trying to get a glimpse of the unfolding drama. "My God, man, we're not all Luddites and Speceans up north, you know!" the black-clad man was saying, the faintest trace of Yorkshire accent in his voice.

A whisper went round the room. The machine-smashing riots at the Northern mills and factories had been a cause of concern for some time, but everyone knew it was not a topic of conversation at a ball.

Then Joshua's voice rose above the angry buzzing, and Christine's heart skipped a beat. "It is a noble pursuit, to be sure, but I'm afraid it might be a waste of time and money," he said in a calm but slightly mocking tone.

"Oh, yes, it is a waste of time and money to educate children, as opposed to spending thousands of pounds on balls and dinner parties, or on horses and hounds to chase after some poor wild creatures, or waging it on a turn of a card!" the black-clad man retorted.

Now the pretended shock had turned into real outrage. It was one thing to talk of politics and social reforms at a ball, but it was another to come to a ball and insult everyone there by mocking their past-times. Some guests were even demanding that the boor be thrown out. Then Lady Harrington's graceful figure glided through the crowd, a permanent smile on her face. Christine was quite sure that smile would still be fixed to the hostess's face even when she slept. Perhaps even when she was dead. She shuddered mischievously at the thought.

Lady Harrington pulled the black-clad man aside, no doubt to admonish him. Soon, the crowd around him dispersed, the murmurs died down, the music started again, and it seemed, for now, a crisis had been averted.

Christine was dreaming about Joshua again, when Lady Harrington suddenly appeared in front of her with the black-clad man in tow. Mrs. Conyngham's face hardened at the thought of the hostess foisting this rude stranger on them, but Christine turned to him with interest. He may have been rude, but he spoke the truth, and she always valued that over politeness.

"Mrs. Conyngham, Miss Conyngham," Lady Harrington said in her sing-song voice, her smile ever present. "May I present to you Edward Munson, Baron Hurstfield, just lately arrived in London."

Whatever Christine had been expecting from his firebrand display a minute ago, this wasn't it. He was a strange, contradictory mixture of world-weary cynicism, which showed in his dark eyes, and a boyish lankiness and gawkiness about his person and demeanor that made him seem younger. His hair was unfashionably long, tumbling down his collar in messy brown curls, almost hiding his face. The simple, almost severe cut of his coat helped to hide the fact that it was a few years out of fashion.

He bowed curtly to Christine and her mother, but said nothing.

"Hurstfield. I've never heard of it," Mrs. Conyngham said. She must have decided that a baronage was enough to forgive his insolence. "Whereabouts is your estate, sir?"

"North Yorkshire, ma'am," he replied. Now that he wasn't shouting, his voice turned out to be deep and surprisingly melodious.

"Oh. It must be quite the journey for you." Christine didn't have to look at her mother to know her smile had cooled again. Mrs. Conyngham considered everything north of Oxfordshire to be backwoods and barbaric. Yorkshire was practically savage country as far as she was concerned. "And are you enjoying yourself in London?"

"Not particularly, no," Munson replied.

This time, Christine did turn to her mother, to enjoy the sheer look of shock on her face. Munson clearly was not afraid of speaking his mind. He had even managed to wipe the sticky smile from Lady Harrington's face. Christine couldn't help feeling rather impressed by that.

"Well." Lady Harrington cleared her throat. "You would enjoy yourself more after a dance with a pretty partner, perhaps?" She all but shoved Munson toward Christine.

Munson reluctantly extended a hand. "May I have the honor...?" he mumbled.

Out of habit, Christine glanced at her mother. Mrs. Conyngham was pressing her thin lips together, a clear sign of her disapproval. But Christine knew her mother could not risk offending Lady Harrington by objecting directly. That was all the encouragement Christine needed. She put on her brightest smile, placed her hand into Munson's, and, gathering up the hem of her silvery gray velvet gown, walked with him to the middle of the room, not stopping to see her mother's eyes narrow. She would pay for this act of defiance later, she was sure, but for now, she didn't care.

As the familiar tune of "The Merry Wives of Westminster" filled the room and the dancers fell into steps, Christine cast her eyes around for Joshua. She quickly caught his blonde head in the corner, where he was conversing with his friends. Feeling her gaze, he turned, and Christine felt the usual electrifying jolt as their eyes met. Joshua raised his eyebrow almost imperceptibly upon seeing her dance with Munson. Christine let her eyes twinkle at him and turned down the corners of her mouth, to let him know she took no pleasure in this dance other than to defy her mother.

"Am I boring you, Miss Conyngham?" Munson asked.

Christine turned guiltily back to him. "My apology, Lord Hurstfield," she said. "I fear I've been very remiss in the proper attentions of a partner."

"And what are these 'proper attentions', pray tell?"

"Usually I would ask if you enjoy dancing, how long you have been in town, have you been to court, and so on," she said.

"That sounds awfully dull," he said. "Why don't we talk of something more interesting?"

Christine hesitated. Here was her chance of speaking freely. This man obviously did not care for polite conversation, and she sensed he would not mind her being blunt. So she took the plunge and threw tact to the wind.

"Well, you've said that you're not enjoying yourself," she said, "so I was wondering... why do you stay in London at all?"

He appeared to be thinking about his answer. "May I be honest?"

"It seems to me, Lord Hurstfield, that you are nothing but honest," Christine replied.

"Well then, if you insist, Miss Conyngham. I am here for the same reason that you and other unattached ladies and gentlemen are here," Munson said. "Matrimony."

Though his candidness was refreshing, Christine had expected something more shocking than that. So he was just another bachelor in search of a wife after all. As if he could see the disappointment on her face, Munson smiled ruefully, "Alas, I wish I had a more noble reason."

"So you believe that everybody is here simply to find a husband or wife, and none to enjoy the ball itself?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm not denying that there are those who genuinely enjoy a ball," he said. "But I don't see them here. Look at them." He nodded at the dancers around them. "Some would rather be at home warming themselves in front of the fire. Some of rather be drinking at an alehouse. Some would rather be at a brothel." Christine's mouth dropped open, and Munson gave a little chuckle. "I didn't mean to shock you. I merely think we would all be happier if we were permitted to follow our hearts, instead of doing what society dictates, don't you?"

She noticed that he didn't follow the dance steps precisely, but would add little flourishes or movements, which annoyed the other dancers, but he seemed to take delight in their annoyance. There was a certain impish air about him that belied his grim outward appearance, and her heart warmed to him.

"Some evenings I'd much rather stay home," she admitted. She had never said that to anyone, not even Joshua. If she had, Joshua would have pouted and accused her of not wanting to make an effort for him, so she just grinned and bore her way through another ball. Somehow, this quarrelsome young man had a way of talking that brought out the truth in her.

"It is rather a waste of time, don't you think?" he said.

"What on earth do you mean?"

"All this... ritual, to find a mate." He gestured at the ballroom in general. "Dancing around each other, literally and figuratively, trying to gauge one's suitability. I've heard that in China, parents who wish to marry off their daughter would simply write down their name, age, and dowry on a card and send it off to the families of prospective grooms. Whoever accepts would respond. It saves a lot of time and effort."

Christine was appalled, not at the matrimonial custom of the Chinese, but at his apparent approval of it. "But that sounds positively mercenary!" she exclaimed. "What about love?"

"Love?" he repeated with a cynical smile. "How many couples you know marry for love?"

She didn't have an answer for that. His eyes, of a brown so dark they appeared almost black in the candlelight, looked straight at her, as if challenging her. "Do you talk this way to every lady you dance with?" she asked, not willing to let him see that he had caught her.

"Only those that accept my honesty," he said.

Before Christine could decide if he meant to sound flirtatious or not, the music ended. Munson led her back to her mother. Mrs. Conyngham barely returned his bow. As soon as he had melted into the crowd, she unleashed her displeasure on Christine. "I wish next time you would be a little more discerning in your choice of a partner, Christine," she said out of the corner of her mouth, afraid of being overheard. "Lady Harrington was telling me, this Munson is neck-deep in debts, his father had the most terrible reputation when he was alive, and his death was so shocking I couldn't even repeat it..."

But Christine was only half listening. Her eyes had just caught Joshua leaving the ballroom. He paused at the doorway, turned, and looked straight at her, as he reached up to fix his cravat. Blushing, she responded by touching the ornament in her hair - their secret signal for a rendezvous. She thought no more of the strange young man in black or her mother's carping voice. Her head was filled with the image of Joshua adjusting his cravat and all the pleasure it promised.

After a decent interval, she turned to her mother and asked if she could return home early, as she was tired. Mrs. Conyngham would not be home for hours, too busy with spying on the revelers and gossiping about them. That would be hours she would have with Joshua. Once her mother nodded her consent, Christine left, remembering to say thank you to the hostess and taking care not to appear too hurried. She then slipped into a familiar hackney cab that had been waiting at the corner of the road. Little did she know how her life would change before the night was over.

Chapter 2

#hellcheer #hellcheer fic #hellcheer au #regency au #eddie munson #eddie x chrissy #eddie munson au #joseph quinn #joseph quinn fic #grace van dien #eddie munson x oc

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professionallydeadinside · 4 months

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Legos are a valid reason for a late reply.

But the theater!!

The theater is fairly old. The sign outside of the building itself both that been standing there since roughly the 1930s, but if you go into the library and go searching for this information, it seems to be missing.

It was open by the Le Roy family, coincidentally a single mother and her son, and it stated open till present day, somehow almost always updating with the times, while keeping the old timey charm.

For example, the building boasts about six big modern theater rooms, but if you go up and down the flight of stairs that is in the lobby, you will come across a billiards room that almost looks like it stepped out from the 1940s, and arcade that looks exactly like something you would see from the 1980s, and a bar that looks like it was directly taken from the 1930s itself, upstairs. And downstairs you will find what looks to be like a old stage for various acts, circus acts, Opera singers, the works. It's even more interesting when you notice that there is even old set pieces from back in the day. Looking almost perfectly preserved.

Krissy and his mom both jokes that they feel like they grew with the theater, though neither of them look any older than 17 and 35 respectively. What's even more interesting, is that they look like the spitting image of the founder and her son, who are in a picture that is smack dab of the middle of the lobby, right above where people can enter.

It's not just the two of them that work at the theater, obviously.

There's Star, a pale girl who seems to almost glide everywhere, who looks at you with eerie blue eyes from behind her long black hair. She usually tends to run the ticket counter at the front.

Then there's Gus, the janitor, who's big, tall, and extremely muscled, and is so hairy that he seems to be almost furred, all of which is pure white. He seems to be unnaturally strong too, being able to help people with various things like lifting a whole row of chairs, being able to literally pull someone's car away from the fire lane at one point, stuff like that. He's extremely russian, and said that he came over from Russia back in the '70s. He's very secretive of why he came over.

Also there's Jack, who seems...off in a way. He wasn't always like that, to be fair. But one night, he worked the late shift, and the next day Star and Krissy found him in the woman's restroom, pale, shaky, and holding a weird weapon that they didn't recognize. Ever since then, he seems to space out, and seems to know things that he shouldn't. Other than that though, this blonde-haired, green-eyed boy is smart, funny, and easy to get along with. He's usually the one to rip up tickets at the stub counter.

Then there is Krissy's mom, Salem. She is almost the exact opposite of her son. Tall, dark skinned, but with coily, bright red hair. She's just as easy to get along with as her son, and runs the financial side of the whole business. Even though she doesn't need to, she usually spends most of her time working at the video store in town, but somehow all the finances of the theater are up to date at all times. Some people theorize that she never sleeps. A bit of a mother hen, but god damn if her beignets aren't the most wonderful thing in the world. When her son was going to school, it was something that the parents at the PTA meetings would fight over.

What's really interesting though, is when you, Axis, first went to the theater, both Krissy and Salem seem to look at you like they had seen a ghost. And honestly, they looked familiar to you too, in a way. Weird.

-Kirk anon

OOOOOOOO I LOVE ALL THESE THEATER PEOPLE,,,,,,, Not to pick favorites but Star and Jack,,,,,,,,,,,I love them,,,,,,,,

#ALSO THE FACT I LOOK FAMILIAR TO KRISSY AND SALEM HELLO??? I HAVE VAGUE THOUGHTS I WILL KEEP TO MYSELF BUT IM VERY INTRIGUED 👀👀#answered

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cartoonemotion · 5 months

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(guy wearing a hat that says PRESS on it holding an old timey flashbulb camera voice) sofa! sofa! if you had to make a class of 3000 reboot for 2024, how would you go about it??

EEP !!! oh my goodness, what a tall order....

reboots are hard for me i think because i have a particular philosophy about them i suppose. while nobody can really stop you from just making the same thing again, but more/maybe slightly modernized, its really rather boring and frankly gouache to do in my opinion; yes, even in the case of things that were cancelled prematurely. however being fully honest my own limits to this get tested when its something i really like and thought was super well executed, only for it to get cancelled prematurely, and class of 3000 might be the ultimate test for this for me because i think just 28 episodes is unreasonably short even by today's standards, not just mid-2000s standards. i feel like it would be really hard to fight the impulse to just be like "just pretend the show was never cancelled, lets just pick it back up from where it was left off" for the most part, with some elements of modernization clearly but overall not much

class of 3000 also almost feels like a time capsule not because its particularly dated, i actually think a lot of the humor and gags still hold up really well by todays standards, and some other elements also feel even a little ahead of their time, but you know. it was still made for a mid-2000s audience, and one of the biggest aspects of that is sunny, who is. i mean yes hes pretty much intended to be a fictionalized andre 3000 stand in, but that sort of developed later on in the process of the show as andre 3000 became more and more intrinsic to the process (he didnt want it to just be something he licensed but was otherwise mostly uninvolved in), as initially he was also directly inspired by/based on sonny rollins, so to me with these two compounding inspirations he exists as a kind of interesting element of celebrity culture at the time which is soooooo so deeply different than the celebrity culture of today. like, to the point where sunny bridges being a world-renowned musical legend is almost kind of just set dressing, after the pilot episode it just kind of becomes an element of what makes sunny So Cool and maybe helps establish a plot or some kind of series of hijinks for an episode or two, i just dont think you could really approach it in such an almost understated and whimsical way today given the ubiquitous social media nightmare we all exist under

i also definitely wouldnt want to change the art and animation style. there was a BTS interview i saw where somebody on the team said "nothing out there today looks like this" and to be quite frank i think that still holds true, class of 3000 draws from a lot of both visual and musical inspirations that i dont think you see get utilized very much in animation (probably other things but we're focusing on animation !) even still to this day, it just really kind of exists in its own niche and it does so well. like i shudder to think of them trying to adapt this to a 3D animation style of some kind not to sound like a hater because i definitely think theres gorgeous 3D animation out there (and examples where both styles are utilized together to enhance the elements of both !!!!!) maybe for like a guest animated music video it could work i think mixing mediums would align well with the ethos of class of 3000 but for the whole show ??? noooooo fucking wayyyyy

this is a lot of preamble to say maybe i would take a Modernization-But-Not kind of approach to it. maybe keep the setting in atlanta in the mid-2000s but use it to still speak to more modern ideas and messages because i feel like a lot of the stuff class of 3000 was trying to introduce (understanding and appreciating diversity, expanding your creative horizons, getting kids invested in music and especially the presence and history of genres and instruments they may not be more familiar with) is still very relevant to today ! maybe again i would beef up some of the explorations of celebrity culture and its pitfalls and shortcomings because again in the influencer era thats become even more topical and complicated than it was in the mid-aughts. i mean as long as theres been a concept of celebrity there have been little kids who want to grow up to be famous so thats not new but the sort of, idk, hyper-visibility of it and the way other people market it to children i think is something worth exploring; and also i think keeping it to 2007 type mediums and technology would serve as a good shield against making to obvious, self-referential, and preachy. also just take out the more distasteful 2000s era jokes centering transmisogyny and letting a white guy do a bad impression of a latino man that would probably be good

oh and also this joke i made in discord since andre 3000 being involved would absolutely be a gimmie. non-negotiable

#class of 3000

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