#it is very obviously a boot leg BUT it’s all the episodes and the movie and the tv special plus BONUS content that was only found in the

[resident-gay-bitch]

okay, eddie munson may be big and edgy and scary, and yes he snarls at wankers on the street and has most certainly thrown more punches he can count on one hand, but… well, he’s actually not all that tough once you get to know him.

what’s his favourite movie, you ask? well, you’d think something like halloween or nightmare on elm street, right? wrong! he’s riding a fine line between grease and rocky horror.

what’s his favourite song? oh, yeah, it’s totally gotta be something from one of those angry violent demon bands he listens too, right? like… breaking the law, or run to the hills… or like, master of puppets, right? nope! it’s starman, by david bowie.

his favourite artist? we’ll, sabbath and metallica come pretty close to making the cut, but in truth, it’s the beatles.

and it’s not just his taste that has you fooled, it’s everything about him.

he throws punches, but he can’t remember the last time he won a fight. they all end up with him flat on his back, blood running from his nose or a gash under his eye, and he’s laughing at the asshole who’s serving him like dinner and making jokes, and then ends up crying about it once they’re gone.

and yeah, he wears a lot of edgy, dangerous jewellery. the spikes on his leather wrist bands are one thing, the chunky rings that he surely wears for punching people with are another. but… well, he wears the rings because they’re shiny, and he likes shiny things, and he gets very fidgety and they’re fun to spin. and the leather straps? they look so cool, and he likes rolling his wrist over his thigh or knee when sitting and feeling the spikes prod at his skin, and it tickles.

his mane is actually his top priority on his physical appearance. he will leave the house with teeth un-brushed if running late, but never with tangled curls.

and he wears dorky patterned underwear and matching socks. and he has tattoos of superhero emblems and lord of the rings references and what not. oh, and don’t forget his night time routine. he won’t get a good sleep without it.

say goodbye to wayne, sit on the couch with a good snack and watch an episode of garfeild or looney tunes, or if it’s a weekend a movie, and then shower, do his hair, brush his teeth, hot drink whilst he plucks at his guitar for a couple of minuets, goes to take a piss, puts on his bedtime socks, kisses his guitar goodnight, puts on his sleepy time mix tape, turns out the big light, snuggles down in bed cuddled up to his mangled old teddy from his youth, counts the glow in the dark stars on his roof, and goes to sleep.

but the best part of all - out of all the soft little things that make up eddie munson - is his ability to fucking scare like an ant under a boot.

it’s everyone’s favourite thing, scaring eddie. what’s not fun about making him jump out of his skin? he’s so easy to startle and the pout he pulls once he realises he’s not in real danger is the sweetest little thing the sky will ever see.

jumping out behind doors. blasting loud music right by his ear. creeping up behind him. jabbing his side when he’s deep in concentration. leaning right over him when he’s napping and saying his name.

but the best one of all, is his blatant fear of spiders.

it’s even more humours when you realise he has a tattoo of one on his shoulder.

he fucking despises the cretins. they scare the ever living shit out of him.

an abandoned spider web is left curled up in an old corner? get that the fuck away from him.

a strand of hair fell from his head and lightly brushed his arm or leg? he’s slapping himself until he’s sure there’s no way anything lived through that abuse.

a plastic spider that is so obviously fake is left on his pillow? he’s shouting and running back out of the door.

and god forbid a real spider crawl anywhere near him.

wayne is the designated spider guy, thank you very much. if one’s ever about when he’s not home, we’ll… let’s just say wayne will be lucky to come back home to find the trailer still standing.

he will scream and jump onto table tops, pull out his lighter and hold out the flame to the little bug crawling across the floor about three meters or more away.

or he’ll grab a knife if he’s in the kitchen and defend himself like it was near death.

a can of hairspray is about? well, that thing is going to have stiff fur for years if it doesn’t suffocate under the toxins like eddie does himself.

if someone’s around, he’s screaming and running behind them for protection, and makes them kill the damn thing before it breeds and comes to kill them all with its little army of eight legged beasts.

“it’s an ant, eddie.”

“are you sure-“

“yes, look at it.”

“i don’t want to… oh.”

he won’t let one be crushed under his shoe though, he does not want spider goup on his shoes.

if one touches him, he’s showering and washing all his clothes like the plague has come. if it’s a shirt he doesn’t care much for? he’s burning it.

he is the biggest baby when it comes to spiders and it’s the most adorable of all his features.

wayne’s favourite thing in the world to do is point at eddie frantically when he’s walking around shirtless and scream spider! big spider on you! and watch eddie go though every emotion known to man.

the kid will slap himself and scream like a three year old girl and run and just freak the fuck out, and wayne will just stand there, sipping on his coffee, laughing at the full blown theatrical comedy taking place in his living room.

it always takes eddie like five good minuets to realise wayne’s just talking about his tattoo.

it gets him every time.

so yeah, eddie munson may be a big scary metal head on the outside, but didn’t your mum ever teach you not to judge a book by its cover?

if ever in doubt, just mention the word spider around eddie and watch the tough act die.

but please, whatever you do, don’t forget to console him after because that man is having a heart attack, and will need a good cuddle to calm down.

#this just came to me on a whim #enjoy #i have no idea what it is #a ficlet? #a blurb? #a head cannon? #i guess we’ll never know #but what we Do know is that eddie munson is scared of spiders #no #i will not take any negative opinions on this #he is a soft boy with a crippling fear of creepy crawlies #he’s all lies #and he’s adorable for it #bless his soul #eddie munson #stranger things #stranger things 4 #jay writes #eddie hates spiders #eddie is a softie #eddie is the sweetest pie to exsist #wayne munson #eddie and wayne #wayne munson my love #eddie & wayne

[tiredsadpeach]

I was gonna complain again even though I vented in my twt drafts but instead I’ll talk to yall about my good news because why not

#I woke up and checked on my monkees complete collection shipping and it said it was in my mailbox!! #it is very obviously a boot leg BUT it’s all the episodes and the movie and the tv special plus BONUS content that was only found in the #limited run of the Blu-ray he remastered set let out in 2016 that you can find on Amazon for $800 #SO ESSENTIALLY I HAVE ALL THE EPISODES AND STUFF REMASTERED IN HD FOR WAY LESS THAN THE RESALE VALUE #Like I almost CRIED I had suspicions that’s what the seller did but Monkees In Paris confirms it!!! #there’s a video on the monkees YouTube that shows before and after remaster of the beginning of the Monkees In Paris episode and the #description says it’s only on that 10 disc Blu-ray limited run so that means this person bought that and made a copy on normal dvds 👀 #so I’ve been watching the monkees all day to make sure the whole thing works #and god it’s so HD you can see Davy’s appendix surgery scar in Royal Flush and where his bald cap ends in Monkee A La Mode #AND MIKES LITTLE BLEMISH ON THE BRIDGE OF HIS NOSE IN THE DEVIL AND PETER TORK #ALL THINGS IVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE BECAUSE ALTHOUGH I HAD THEM IN THE HIGHEST QUALITY AT THE TIME I NEVER HAD THEM HD #But this does mean I am for sure uploading them to YouTube when I get a disc drive for my computer #I’m here for the people baby I’m not keeping a good thing for myself what do you think I am a capitalist? #might even make a dailymotion so they don’t get taken down #like on YouTube the music will for sure be copyrighted and I might have to mute it #but dailymotion is a lot more leanient #OH MIGHT EVEN UPLOAD THEM SOMEWHERE FOR PEOPLE TO DOWNLOAD #why have a good thing if you can’t share it with the world #ALSO I’m gonna edit Head to take out that one Vietnam war clip they use since it can be very triggering and I know that’s why some fans #havent watched the movie especially my friends #it was in protest but like it’s very upsetting #but <3 HD monkees <333 I am no longer mentally ill <333333 #I hope everyone is doing okay I’m not really but I’m distracting myself with monkees #writing a modern au and it’s just a bunch of lgbts #making playlists for them too just because

[regina-del-cielo]

“The Old Guard” Daemon AU: Andy and the golden eagle

Welcome to a new episode of the TOG Daemon AU!

Andy’s daemon was the one that took less time to choose, immediately after Nicky’s. Only an Iconic animal would be worthy of her, and so she gets probably the most iconic animal in human history: the golden eagle

Andy is possibly the strongest warrior that ever lived, and was so in her first life too. Golden eagles are top predators and every single inch of their bodies is designed for Murder – she has her labrys and whatever weapon has ever been invented, the eagle has wicked claws and beak

golden eagles are huge, guys. Their wingspan is the fifth largest among all species of eagles, ranging between 180 and 230 cm – to give you some perspective, an adult eagle on the lowest end of this range would, with its wings open, completely cover Charlize Theron’s height. Andy is a tall woman even for modern standards, imagine what she must have looked like for most of history

(for the first three thousand years of her life she must have been An Invincible Giant with a Giant Murder Bird perched on her shoulder, no wonder people called her a goddess)

raptors have reverse sexual dimorphism – males are smaller than females, and golden eagles make no exception; assuming Andy’s daemon to be on the average, he would have a wingspan of 2 m and weigh 3.5 kg

this species of eagle is spread through the whole of the Northern Hemisphere and while today it mostly lives in mountain areas, historically it also lived in plains and hills – it’s still classified as resident in the East European steppes that are, most presumably, Andy’s birthplace

they also tend to prefer open space areas where there’s very little human presence – and in fact, golden eagles are probably one of the great predators that interacts the least with humans in nature (unlike wolves and bears in the same environments)

golden eagles are a uniform dark brown with small touches of grey on the tail and inner wings, and gold-tinted feathers on the nape of the neck and top of the head. They also have “boots” – their legs are covered with feathers up to the feet. Andy is obviously a fan of monochrome outfits, in dark or generally neutral colours (even when she was Serving Looks in the Lykon flashback her outfit was more sober than Quynh’s), so she and her daemon match

an eagle’s stare is unnerving and Andy can and will put the fear of God in people’s hearts just with a look

eagles hunt by floating in the air high above plains and open spaces, observing for their prey, and then stooping down to grab at them with their claws. For what we see in the movie, when Andy fights alone her style is very similar to an attacking eagle. Observing the situation from above (yes I’m referring to the Iconic Church Fight), before entering the scene and annihilating anything on her path

eagles can also hunt in collaboration, especially with mated couples – and Andy is, obviously, perfectly fine with fighting in a group and/or in a couple (like with Quynh in the flashback)

when eagles settle in a territory, they build several nests that they use on rotation and keep adding to, making them progressively bigger – we see only the mine in Val d’Argent, but it’s not implausible to imagine that Andy has different ‘resting places’ all over the world where she accumulates her stuff and where she goes to recuperate

golden eagles are long-lived and mate for life – I don’t think I need to explain why that fits great for Andy, right?

despite being Murder Machines, eagles care lovingly for their young, they love getting scritches and (the thing I love the most about raptors) they CHIRP. Andy has a lovely softer side, and she cares ENORMOUSLY for her people (TOG Script I Am Looking At You)(also 🎶 ~ Found Family Vibes Babe ~ 🎶)

this is anecdotal, but I remember seeing a documentary about modern falconers in Italy, and there was a guy who had a golden eagle (which, outside of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, is pretty rare – this species is much more aggressive and smart than other falcons, and training is difficult and dangerous). He said that with eagles, unlike other more common falcons, it’s not much a case of the human training the bird but more like the bird condescending to work with the human – and once the eagle has chosen the falconer, they become quite possessive of them

I love the idea of Andy’s hindbrain going ‘MINE’ every time she finds a new immortal – and yes, this is, once again, the Script’s fault

since Andromache is most definitely not Andy’s first name but she seems fond enough of it to have kept it, I believe that her own daemon’s name has changed through the centuries – and now he goes by the same name he was called when Andy started to refer to herself as Andromache

after long reflection, I have settled on Diokles (Διοκλῆς, accent on the e), whose meaning is “glory of Zeus”, and unlike most of the other candidates it’s attested as a given name in the Iliad, so is potentially as old as Andromache (Ἀνδρομάχη)

honestly, thinking of how she must have looked like for those that would become the ancient Greeks – a warrior woman who could trounce their best fighters, riding horses like the Mysterious People from the North, that raises from death with no injuries, and with a huge undying eagle daemon flying at her side. If that’s not a proof that she was a goddess, blessed by Zeus no less, I don’t know what is

when I said that the eagle is an Iconic animal, I wasn’t kidding. The eagle (or eagle-like birds, like large vultures or falcons) features prominently in the mythological and religious imagery of almost every culture in Eurasia and North America, and it’s consistently depicted as either a symbol of divine power, a messenger of the gods or the animal that escorts souls to the sky

the most famous depiction in this sense comes from Greek (and later Roman) mythology, with the eagle being sacred to Zeus, king of gods and lord of the skies – the eagle brings him his lightning bolts, it’s his personal messenger, and stole Ganymede from earth to make him Zeus’ cup bearer

the Romans’ habit of using the eagle in their army insignia has dragged on to numerous European empires using it in their own heraldry, and in the Middle Ages the eagle was King of Animals just as the lion was King of Beasts

Pliny the Elder (and by consequence every Middle Age bestiary) insisted that eagles could not be killed by lightning and that they made their fledglings stare into the sun without blinking to parse out the strongest ones; these legends, together with an interesting interpretation by St. Augustine of Psalm 103 about “youth regenerating like an eagle’s”, brought Christianity to use this bird as a symbol of resurrection (when the eagle grows old, she flies into the sun and is remade new and young); it’s also the symbol of St. John Evangelist, and if depicted fighting a snake, a representation of Christ himself defeating the devil

(no, I don’t know what Pliny and St. Augustine were smoking when they wrote those things)

(obviously, Andy couldn’t care less about how Christianity sees her daemon. But its consistent cultural link with immortality is kind of relevant to the whole concept)

in this house we subscribe to the idea of Andy having been born into the Dnieper-Donets culture, in a time where they had started keeping cattle but before they started agriculture; they are considered Pre-Indo-Europeans by linguists, and their direct descendants, the Sredny-Stog culture (the ones that started horse domestication), are classified as Proto-Indo-Europeans

the steppes are an excellent hunting ground for golden eagles, and they almost always ignore livestock as a source of prey; an early pastoral, most probably nomadic people wouldn’t have considered the eagle like a threat  to their livelihood (unlike the wolf, whose bad reputation in ancient times is mostly connected to pastoral cultures)

with the eagle being Zeus’s animal, and Zeus himself being the most likely evolution of a Proto-Indo-European sky god, I’ll go out on a limb and speculate that such connection may have existed in Proto-Indo-European cultures, possibly even up to Andy’s first lifetime

this is me talking myself into circles trying to say that Andy having an eagle daemon made her a Badass and a Leader even before she also became immortal, at which point her people’s collective mind started associating golden eagles with gods and the thing carried on for millennia

(when Andy needs to reconnect with herself, she and Diokles pack it up and get lost in the Altai mountains to live with the Kazakh eagle hunters. It’s probably the closest they get to their Old Days Lifestyle in the modern world)

References outside of Wikipedia:

Anthony, D.W. (2007): The Horse, The Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press, 568 pages

The Old Guard Character Resource Hub, in particular this post by @lady-writes​

Watson, J. (2010): The Golden Eagle, Second Edition. A&C Black, 448 pages

#the old guard #my ponderings #daemon AU #andromache the scythian #the Original Goddess of War #nature #animals #golden eagle #Zeus's eagles #an Iconique™️ Murder Bird for an Iconique™️ Murder Lady #sorry for the Ancient Greek guys but I had A Moment and you had to bear it with me #(I'll have you know that I brushed up my Ancient Greek-Italian dictionary to see which one of the 'candidate names' --) #(-- was cited in the oldest pieces of literature as a name) #(I was NOT going to name Andy's daemon with a Greek name used only from Early Christian times onward just because I liked the meaning) #(I'M TRYING TO RETAIN SOME CONSISTENCY HERE) #I have barely Dipped my toe into Andy's backstory because really I just wanted to see how it would relate to her having an eagle daemon #there's enough to write a fucking TEN VOLUMES TREATISE about the first 3000 years of her immortality #but this wasn't the scope of this post #humans have loved eagles for so long it's unbelievable guys #having Iconic Murder Machine Daemons and yet being Protectors™️: Andy 🤝 Nicky 🤝 Joe

[sanstropfremir]

episode 9 baby!!! dear lord that was a lot!!

frankly, i'm still in shock that i full on manifested an opera stage, AND it was a rock opera stage at that! plus i got a jazz stage AND a taemin stage??? if they’re pulling out all my favourites now then what on earth are they gonna do in the finale??? this was a very overwhelming crop of stages, i thought i was going to be prepared, but oh no i was not prepared. i'm just going to get right into it because this one is gonna be long and i have many words. i'll discuss in airing order first, and then put my personal rankings for this round at the end.

btob

costume

changsub, you absolute king. spectacular. stunning. incredible. zoot suit riot playing in my brain on repeat. will i finally get the zoot suit revival of my fucking dreams instead of this current drab ill-fitting suit trend? for those who are wondering why in the fuck changsub is dressed like that and what on earth i’m talking about, the specific cut of suit that he’s wearing is called a zoot suit, which were popular in mexican, black and italian american communities in the 30s and 40s, until they were outlawed by the united states war production board as a fabric rationing method as part of the war effort in 1942. there was a huge amount of mob violence surrrounding the wearing of them (there were actual zoot suit riots) as they were direct counter culture fashion to the predominant drab trends of white americans at the time. i'm actually very impressed they got a proper (modernized) cut of zoot suit instead of just putting him in an oversized one; there are actually specific structural differences. the pegged trouser legs, large should pads, and knee length single breasted jacket are key features, and they were often in much more flashy fabrics than a pinstripe, but they get points for effort. i wish they had put all of them in zoot suits but he’s playing the ‘lead’ actor so i will begrudgingly forgive them.

eunkwang those are the stupidest sleeve garters ive ever seen i love them never take them off. they’re like someone decided to repurpose a suspender in the worst way. excellent. i do love that they’ve got three of them in oxford saddle shoes, another great touch.

love the three piece and the fedora* on peniel. it's also in a relatively close period cut; waistcoasts (vests) were generally cut much higher in the neck pre-war, we only start seeing the neckline slide down in the 60s (i think? i don’t remember when exactly). also love to see a proper sleeve and jacket length, it's good practice to have at least a finger’s width of sleeve cuff visible ahead of the jacket sleeve when hanging at rest. also looks like there’s french cuffs on everyone, which is also great.

minhyuk in his slutty lowneck shirt....thank you. in addition to the zoot suit revival i would also like a revival of those ultra low necklines on mens’ shirts from like 2010-2011. i don’t think those are the same boots from the backdoor stage but those are some beautifully cut boots. i also loved the little details of his crewmember look, especially the chunky watch and the string bracelets; those are super realistic, i know so many crew with them and i had several for many years. and who doesn’t love a visible button fly?

none of any of the other costumes are period in any way shape or form but i’m forgiving it because there’s several layers of meta in this stage, and they explicitly based it on la la land, even though we don’t respect la la land in this house. do i wish they had gone more strictly period with at least the jazz club ‘actors’ a little more? absolutely, but i'm not mad about it.

set

again we’ve got a good delineation of the two different ‘stages,’ there’s the club itself in the smaller stage and the soundstage set in the larger space. you can pretty clearly see all the ‘pieces’ of the set on the soundstage, especially the obvious set painting techniques on false prosc frame and the window facade from that first little scene. also the you can see the castors (wheels) on all the setpieces too, which is another nice little versimilitudinous** (triple word score!) touch, as old hollywood movies were made still using theatre stagecraft techniques.

i love how the visual shorthand for ‘this is a set wink wonk’ is just...leaving a ladder on stage. i see it all the time and it's so funny. it doesn’t always make sense because as soon as there’s actors on set the ladders are the first thing cleared because actors cannot be trusted, but yes there are always ladders, so. also psa ladder safety is no joke, please be careful on ladders.

nice streamline of the mnet deco into the club. i’m consistently surprised at how well the designers have been able to mask it or use it to their advantage, because in the normal kingdom stage lighting it is SO obvious and stylistic that it always sticks out.

i'm going to ignore the fact that they implied changsub and miyeon were drinking wine out of martini glasses.

lighting

no complaints, it does its job. everything is visible and super clear. love that the ‘scene’ changes are made through the lighting, it's a really simple and effective device to change atmosphere. purple/blue/amber are the most flattering colours on human skin and that’s why you see it so commonly in stage lighting. also blue/lavendar is the best way to show nighttime/moonlight.

really nice and subtle projection work, especially with the billboard bit and the blue moon sign in the club. despite being obviously meta/’world breaking’ it’s actually very seamless and fits well into the flow of the stage.

sound

i love love love the big band feel in the intro, combined with the piano lead. very duke ellington, as all things should be.

no complaints. i love big band. i love eunkwang’s voice. i have nothing else to say.

staging

i LOVE this movie within a movie within a performance meta nonsense! it's such a fun concept and it is exactly what i wanted ikon’s first round stage to be! i also love to see btob consistently coming up with concepts that are inventive and fun and allow them to showcase their technical performance skills without the aerobics the younger groups are putting themselves through. it provides a really lovely variety and it just goes to show that you can make impressive, dramatic stages without having to be serious or ‘dark.’

i do wish they had leaned into the band director/lead singer with eunkwang a bit more; this could have been a really excellent place for a tap number a la the nicholas brothers or an homage to cab calloway. i know i know this was meant to be la la land themed but la la land is a cheap and whitewashed version of jazz and look me right in the eyes and tell me this isn’t the greatest tap routine of all time. i know i’ve typed this out somewhere before but la la land is just a conglomeration of old hollywood tropes and so stylistically cheap that this would have such a better visual core if they had actually looked back at the real old hollywood musicals like stormy weather. even singing in the rain and an american in paris have such phenomenal visuals and are really beautiful examples of the scope you can pull off with a limited technical capacity and sticking to these old techniques.

now that i'm thinking about it, oh my GOD i would DIE for a lindy hop routine in kpop PLEASE. i know it would never happen because kpop doesn’t like partner dancing and not a single kpop boy has the chops but oh you think fourth gen has too many acrobatics?

this got off track but i think you see my point.

---

ateez

costume

these are really sharply cut suits. and the detail work on the beading??? so beautiful. i'm disappointed that they gave me a rock opera stage without the true ridiculousness of rock opera costuming, because they could have pushed this a lot farther if they really wanted. a tragic lack of gay little outfits, seonghwa’s lace choker is just not enough! two favourite suits: hongjoong’s and yunho’s.

that being said i do actually really like these. this stage is actually very modern opera with a kpop twist and i'm a little surprised by that? i continue to be impressed by the ateez team who are clearly doing their research.

i'm absolutely not going back through their stages to check all the choreography but i wonder if you can track all the ‘wound’ placements to places they’ve been ‘hit.’ i wouldn’t put it past them to have put that thought in but also i’m not expecting that much either.

who is this white grim reaper bdsm executioner chain arm man. where did he come from. i have no idea and i love it.

why is honjoong blindfolded. it was such a fast beat, if youre gonna blindfold someone give it a little longer and some more obvious narrative weight!

seonghwa does that quickchange, runs across that massive stage to the smaller set, and gets into places in like 45 seconds. it's not the hardest quickchange in the world but still, under a minute is fast for any quickchange, especially when there’s travel time involved. i think the fastest, most complex quickchange i ever did was in university which was a 50s cocktail dress into a flannel and culottes with a shoe, hair, and jewelry change in 35 seconds. and that took three dressers. quickchanges are always impressive. the added bonus of this review being later is that i can specifically reference that you can see him book it the fuck off stage in the full cam!

cute moment with the backup dancers dressed in costumes from the previous stages. i'm assuming this is a time travel reference? i'll get more into my thoughts on this in the staging section. regardless, love to see that iconic seonghwa moment again.

set

this is such a restricted space! they really pared down their dancing space with those staircases and ....arms? honestly i have NO clue what these are supposed to be. the only thing i can maybe think of is flying buttresses??? but why?? i mean, i'm 90% sure theyre just there for drama and i agree but i do still have questions.

there’s a lot of moving parts in this set? the buttresses, and the upstage centre staircase. i don’t think the staircase is totally automated because i spotted some dancers securing it in place, but it’s still a moving part. i do really like that we get that expanding upwards energy, because it's really tough to get functional level movement in this kind of a performance, mostly because of its length and because it moves so quickly. so seeing the downward vertical movement and then the upward movement was actually a really nice visual contrast that made use of how tall those fucking ceilings are, and the fact that they had less horizontal space. in sort of similar way to sf9’s jealousy stage, using long, narrow vertical lines really makes it feel like a castle space. the interiors of castles, especially the really old ones, are a lot smaller than you think they would be.

i’ve actually seen that type of small house/tent/thing several times in various types of performances before, but i think this is the first time i’ve seen it used as a time travel device (other than in the say my name mv). aesthetically it's a bit incongruent but i dont really mind because i'm used to watching rock operas that look a lot weirder than this.

lighting

there is so much happening. i have NO clue what the projections are doing. i dont hate it though, so that’s a plus? there’s a clear-ish colour arc even if it does get a bit funky in the middle, which is why the projections dont feel as insanely distracting as some of the other stages we’ve seen.

the climax is a perfect example of how to light a busy stage with primarily red but still maintain clarity on the performers. a little bit of red goes a long way; the spark stage from last week would have looked so much better if they had done what the ateez designers did here.

sound

i know it's only ode to joy, but answer already gets my motor running and then i get so gassed by the guitars and then by the time those vocals come in i'm inconsolable. i don’t know why i wasn’t expecting a rock opera stage but i'm so glad i got that surprise because i genuinely love rock operas so much. it's two of the most dramatic genres in music, what more could you possibly want?

staging

the choreo for answer is so goofy that I'm kinda glad this was mostly terrible mnet boom shots. i love it, but you can't deny that it's goofy. i spotted a couple of moves from their other choreos as well?

choreographing dance fights is just as difficult as choreographing real fights and i think they did a fairly good job here. i think it was a solid mix of dance and conflict that erred on the side of dramatic rather than accurate and i prefer that over trying to be ‘realistic.’ i’ve only ever seen one truly realistic fight scene on stage and that was for a deeply naturalist play (boring and a waste of the medium), but the best fight scene i’ve ever seen was in the prague national ballet’s adaptation of kafka’s the trial where three ballet dancers beat the absolute snot out of the main character with the most beautiful leg extensions. that whole show was probably one of the best pieces of dance i’ve ever seen, holy fuck it was so good.

despite how insane the music and the visuals were going, i actually really liked how sedate this was, on the part of ateez’s performance. there was a really sophisticated and resigned energy from them that is very different from what we’ve previously seen and i think that was a pretty admirable risk to take. reaching the top and then throwing away the crown? especially in a competition where every other stage has involved stealing crowns or royalty and there’s a group competing that got here through that very concept? that shows a real maturity, peace of mind, and foresight that i did not at all expect from a bunch of 22 year olds.

here we come to a very interesting comparison. both ateez and tbz are very heavily leaning on previously established group lore. we all know my thoughts on why it isn’t working for tbz, but here’s why i think it is working for ateez: it's because it doesn’t matter to the audience’s understanding of the stage. i had absolutely no fucking clue what was going on the first time i watched this, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the music and all the weird shit they were doing. i totally believed that they understood what was going on. there’s a loose enough established conflict right at the beginning that draws us in, and really it doesn’t matter who they're fighting because they win in the end. the key here is that they’re so earnest. they believe 100% in every move they make on that stage. there’s no winks to camera, there’s not a drop of irony. they really deeply care about the ridiculousness of it all and that’s what makes it work. i sure as fuck dont know what’s going on, but i can see that they do, and i trust that. this is what i meant when i talked about convincing the audience you belong on stage in my stage presence post. i’ve never once believed that juyeon was anything other than an idol. he’s talented and very beautiful and he may occasionally stand on that stage like he owns it but it's always as juyeon. as an idol. but when hongjoong flaps around in that gigantic fur coat i 100% believe he’s a pirate captain. I believe he’s a punk rebel leader. i believe him a resigned king. there’s always a level of irony you have to fight as a performer because we all start from a place of disbelief. acting is not just lying to the audience, it's lying to yourself too. and if you succeed in convincing yourself? well, you’re already halfway to convincing us.

i checked it out because i wanted to see if they did the blindfold how i expected them to and was genuinely surprised by hongjoong’s fancam. the boy is EMOTING even when he knew the camera wasn’t on him; that’s a real dedication to craft.

ok i'm finished talking about this stage, this is over two pages in my document, there’s so many things i have not covered here but that’s fine, i'm quite sure any further thoughts will end up out there at some point.

---

sf9

costume

let’s get it out of the way......crop top. crop top? crop top. crop top.

ok, besides the crop top, i think i might actually like the backup dancer outfits more...? i find mannequin adjacent looks really fascinating and i thought there was a lot more they could have done here in connecting the two thematically. i actually think a change of costume on the boys would have been very interesting, especially because there was a lot of inference and direct reference to changes of colour.

ALL the backup dancers are wearing the same wig and i LOVE that.

special mention zuho’s.....jacket? the right idea but it absolutely should have been one of those extreme french cut bodysuits, you COWARDS. don’t come at me with this ‘male version of venus’ if you don’t have your whole torso out! come on!

set

not sure if this is meant to be a department store, a factory, or a white cube gallery. honestly you could make the case that they’re all the same place anyways. more on this later.

i loved the movator and wish they had used it more! that sequence was so good and they could have done some more interesting repetition sequences to further highlight the ‘sameness’/the breaking of that sameness.

i feel like the set could have been used more as a whole? i would have loved to see some mannequin interactions with those boxes, because all they did was dump colour everywhere.

....why did they feel the need to include the rain bit? i know it's likely because it's in the mv and at the 2018 dream concert taemin does perform move in the rain, but with the standing still and the box walls with the words it just looks like a department store ad. which i...dont think is what they were intending?

lighting

nothing really to say here. it has a similar feel to the mayfly rap stage, which is fine because the lighting for that was good. i could tell what was going on all the time and that’s the most important part. notable standouts are the lips sequence, that's fun use of pop iconography and very effective, and the scanning lasers at the beginning.

the repeating sequence in the edm dance break is actually done pretty simply, it's just what happens when you point a camera that’s livestreaming to a monitor directly at that monitor. it's a very cool effect and it was neat to see it used intentionally, especially with the handheld leds.

actually i also really liked the lightbox tables, those were cool.

sound

the remix was fine for the most part, it was about what i expected it to sound like. i did however greatly dislike that unnecessary edm break in the middle. what was the point of that? it didn’t add anything to the overall sound or arc of the stage because it was SO out of place. there was no connective tissue around it.

oh i was also not a fan of the effect on zuho’s mic. no one else had a discernible vocal effect so it felt a little out of place. also for some reason his cadence and tone right at the end made me think of some of the voices that bo burnam uses for his vocal masque sketches/songs, especially repeat stuff, weirdly? took me right the fuck out of it. i listened to it again after i slept and i’m still getting it, so maybe i’m just going insane so best ignore this part.

staging

loved the mannequin tree, not a clue why it was there.

do actually think this is a successful cover because it does what i was hoping it would, which is take move completely out of the taemin context and put it into an entirely new one. however, i’m really struggling to figure out what exactly that new context is? and what theyre trying to say with it?

obviously they went for a ‘show your own colours/individuality’ vibe, like i said in the set section, where exactly is this supposed to be? from the start i get factory/mechanized environment, which is fine and grand because mannequins and making repetitive motions and products and all that, makes sense. but then there’s stacked shelving type units happening and curtains and that combined with the mannequins give me pretty big department store vibes, which is also fine, because that’s still a comment on commercialization and the mass production of product. but then we get to the movator and the repetitive movements of the dancers say pretty clearly factory, but the lighting and projections are very pop art referential, plus combining that with the white set, just makes me think of an art gallery. so now is this a comment on the commercialization and commidification of contemporary art? are they making a statement about being ‘real’ artists among the others who have lost the critical understanding of why pop art was even a thing in the first place? and then the rain bit at the end literally looks like a department store ad, so are they then making another statement that they still are that packaged product? maybe the episode has more clarity in it but i’m genuinely a bit baffled by what the underlying statement is here.

i suspect it is not as deep as i'm making it, but i did say that i was likely to be hyper critical of this stage AND i am a grad student, so here we are.

---

tbz

costume

ok of all the ‘fourth gen’ style costumes we’ve seen, i actually like these ones more than most. i'm not entirely clear on the theme but i'm assuming it's meant to be post apocalyptic, and i'll take that.

backup dancers in black!!! we’re beyond this!!!

this will be a running theme with this stage, but i’m disappointed these don’t have more depth.

set

compared to every other stage, the set here seems especially plain. there’s so little set dec that it's disappointing. i do like the movement of the pieces themselves combined with the blocking; that first slide underneath the arches was slick and i would have liked to have seen more of that.

yea ok the big snake was cool and also a fairly complex build, but the transitions around it were a bit awkward for my tastes. especially the turn around, why did they even show that at all? you have control over what the audience sees, you can totally not show scenic transitions. skz were super smart about hiding theirs in last week’s episode.

also if you have a bigass puppet like that, i wanna see some more movement from it! it doesn’t have to be complex, we literally just saw a kraken balloon arm wave around aimlessly, but at least there was movement! that snake had a long ass body, why didn’t they at least take a pseudo dragon dance movement with it, that would have been such fun to watch with the iridescent scales. there was a lot of opportunity here!

lighting

i don’t hate it but also.... not a lot to say about it on the whole.

there were two really smart ideas here, the first being the front projection section, which i was SO glad to see! i explained in a previous review, but the projections in kingdom are not actually projections per se, because they’re actually massive led screens. there are two common types of projections in performance, rear projection and front projection. rear projection is when the projector is behind the screen, and front projection is ‘normal’ projection. rear projection can produce a crisper image because you have full control of the light values, because the projector is in a separate room from the performance space. but the downsides are that the projector has to be in a separate room from the performance space. so if you’re short on real estate, it's not ideal. front projection is much more common, because the tech is a lot cheaper and easier to access, especially now, and it requires less real estate because you can ceiling mount about the audience (you can move a projector wherever, this is just the most common spot in commercial theatres). but! in order to get an actually crisp image, you have to be really careful with your light bounce. it’s exactly the same principle as how you kinda can't see a projected screen when you have all the lights turned on, but when you turn them off it's a lot clearer. front projection works best in pitch dark, so when you use it in a theatre you gotta be smart about it. i use front projection a lot in my personal art practice as a singular light source, and that’s what tbz did here in that traveling/snake intro sequence. it’s a really fun technique that they used as a good gimmick because it’s not something we’ve seen before, and you get some great shadow effects because the projector is throwing light directionally at the performers (they have it set up close to the floor, it’s probably on a wheeled cart of some kind). however i did not like the snake intro. a bit too cheesy and out of place, especially because the asset quality didn’t match the rest of landscapes that we have been seeing.

the second smart idea, which is partially also a set and blocking thing but whatever, was that final image of the eclipse within the circle architecture with all the members standing in front of it. it was a great shot and a great ending pose, but it felt like a concept photo. like someone had that image as the idea that they then built the stage around, instead of a narrative first and then imagery after.

sound

this remix had SO much promise! those first two minutes were SO GOOD. i love that dirty discordant strings bit, it's gross and right up my alley. but it really fell off in the back half and i'm sad about that.

staging

i'm sorry tbz but.....what did you actually do differently than exo here? with the exception of the continual game of thrones references? nothing here felt transcendentally different from the original monster. and especially coming RIGHT after sf9’s move, which did go beyond its original context. this feels more like an awards show stage cover than a stage at the level of the others we’ve seen just this episode.

again like with the skz stage, there’s no conflict here. no tension. yes they do a great job covering the dance but it just isn’t enough! this is obviously personal preference and i'm sure lots of people liked the fact that it was uncomplicated, but even just a hint of narrative tension could have pushed this into more engaging territory. and if they didn’t want to do that, i would have loved to see them make up for that with extra visual spectacle. this is the no limits round! ikon is putting a full jungle on stage and these are grey cubes!

i think this is a perfect example of what i talked about at the end of my tbz section in my episode four review; this is a good performance, there are good elements at play and good ideas at their genesis, but the core of the issue is that nothing about this is transformative. all of the ideas here are just exaggerations of the original song. fuck, the snake was even IN the mv! and they didn’t even include the best part which is the lip chains! ive said before and i'll say it again; being a good artist has two steps, the first is understanding the material and its context, and the second is elevating the material from that context and synthesizing something new. tbz are really good at the first step, but terrible at the second.

---

ranking

btob - the cleanest and the most fun of the round. everything i wanted.

sf9 - fun and a good cover, despite being conceptually baffling.

ateez - very extra dramatic nonsense with an unexpected dose of sincerity. and it’s rock opera, of course i love it.

skz - fun, with some good thematic devices but generally lacking in arc. also australian accents, that’s an automatic ding.

tbz - honestly the first two minutes of the remix and the costume are holding this above 6th. it just wasn’t fully formed.

ikon - aesthetically this is a great set design and although i do love the opening and closing moments, everything else scrapes me the wrong way. super personal preference here, i’m not expecting anyone else to agree with me.

i feel like my rankings were probably pretty easy to guess if you’ve been around reading the reviews for long enough. i do have very specific tastes after all. i know sf9 ranked first in the episode but i have no idea what the other slots are. i’ll find out when i watch the episode in a couple of days, but i think yea a first for sf9 is fair. i do think its mostly because it’s a taemin song and you have to do something horrendous in order to fuck up a taemin song, but there is a lot of thought and work that went into that stage.

ok i'm done now, sorry this was later than usual, but i was busier and there were four stages that i had to review. also technical difficulties because tumblr is a garbage platform and nothing works properly. comments/questions/opinions always welcome, i know i didn't expand on a couple of points that i could have so hopefully y'all have some thoughts too!

* the type of hat that ~society~ has told you is a fedora is actually a trilby. what peniel is wearing is a real fedora, i felt the need to correct this unjust hat malignment.

** meaning ‘the appearance of being true or real.’ you do sometimes hear it used by normal people, but it’s more commonly used as a descriptor in film and theatre. it’s also one of the five rules of neoclassical theatre, which are: versimilitude, purity of form, five act structure, decorum, and purpose. the most prominent playwrights from that era are moliere and racine if youre interested in what those look like in an actual text.

#kingdom #kingdom review #btob #ateez #stray kids #the boyz #sf9 #tumblr is so broken it would NOT let me save this as a draft #does my constant hyperlinking make you angry tumblr? too bad im gonna keep doing it #i played in a jazz band in school for seven years #which is another indicator as to why i am like this #one of the first songs i remember learning was zoot suit riot #i have very strong memories of yelling RIOT during performances #i will however forever question the logic of our band teacher making us learn a song written by 'the cherry poppin daddies' #christ on a bicycle this is TEN pages #and it took a full eight hours last night and then i did like two hours of editing after i woke up #maybe i should go back to bed #ah i forgot to tag ikon again lmao #ikon #kpop analysis #text #if there are any spelling errrors do not tell me im tired of reading this #im pretty sure this is my longest review so far i decided to hate myself and did a wordcount #its 5.2K you're welcome you better get a snack for this one #i hope this is an interesting read for people ive lost all objectivity at this point #pls enjoy my semi-comprehensible word vomit!

[ichayalovesyou]

Why Does God Need A Starship? (Live Reaction):

I always thought Sybok was cool and interesting and NOW I’m sure! You know it’s times like these that I’m grateful I kinda came back into the Star Trek fandom on my own, because I don’t have to deal with Opinions of older/louder Trekkies. This one kinda has a lukewarm reputation but I’m getting the vibe that I’ll genuinely enjoy it.

Yet again Bones is serving up some LOOKS damn! Look at these elder gays! Spock has rocket boots, amazing. “Because it’s there” and then falling off the goddamn mountain is such a James Tiberius Kirk thing to do 😂 “HI BONES!” These guys omfg. OH MY GOD SO WE DO SEE CAITIANS OUTSIDE THE CARTOONS?? Hell yeah! Also pole dancing to no music, is... weird. Lmao. Also okay I’m sorry Sybok is cool! Sybok is cool and interesting and I really like him! (Not morally obviously dude is shady as all fuck, but a cool dude nontheless!) Always fascinated by Cult Leader type villains, especially when they point out valid criticisms about the society from which they came (important distinction is that the CAUSE is not vilified, but the person and their means, something M****l has largely forgotten)

Awww I may ship Hikura, but Uhura & Scotty are also cute as hell!! Awwwwwww!!!! Old married couples can be so freaking cute. Chekov & Sulu are LOST ohhhh my god this is hilarious, these two idiots. Also can we talk about how Koenig’s eyebrows are slowly gaining sentience and Takei aged like fine wine? Lol. THE HOLY TRINITY OF ELDER GAYS ARE CAMPINGGGG! I’m- oh my god they’re so cute. “Marshmelon” this is cute as hell oh my god. They’re indulging and messing with Spock at the same time I’m dead! They’re singing ohh my god this gonna give me cavities with how sweet it is!!!

This Klingon dude is frickin ROCKING the eyeliner! Bruhhhh was the frickin spotlight necessary! Leave the gays alone SHHHH they’re SLEEPING!! Lmao. Yo I’ll be real this movie starts incredibly slowly but I seriously do not mind, it’s relaxing to not have to worry about missing important details if you look away for a second, it’s nice. WAIT? Does Jim’s shirt say GOT MILK?!!? Oh no, it says go climb a rock, oh thank god [“fatty milkers” flashbacks]

Seriously McCoy is just radiating so much old southern lady/gay energy in this movie and I love it so freaking much “if you ask me (and you haven’t) this is a horrible idea” he sounds like my North Carolina living Meemaw. Wow you can see Spock low-key taking psychic damage from seeing Sybok 😲 V’tosh Ka’tur of the highest order huh? Still disturbing that his government literally cast him out, that’s a red flag 😬. What happened with Sybok is probably a lot of why Spock was pressured to be as Vulcan as he was, I’m sure Sybok was a massive scandal/shame for Sarek, and knowing him, he’d end up making that his kids’ problem not his 🙄

Oh neat!! Chekov is in the in the captain’s chair. Oh this is the song they replaced Nichols’s voice for 😤 but also GIRL THAT WAS BADASS AND THAT SONG WAS A BOP! Quick question, wow these “alien” horses are somehow even worse than the unicorn dog (also it’s a desert planet, wouldn’t it be better to have, like, alien camels or something?) This dude’s Klingon is freakin impeccable btw! He’s really got the vibe down! Jim did you forget how fuckin bananas strong Vulcans are??? Sybok went like 😡☹️ when Spock pointed that laser rifle at him 😂😂😂 again even tho I know Scotty and Uhura are married but it’s scenes like getting held hostage right there where they radiate such POWER COUPLE energy GAWD! 🤩

Stay out of this Bones we’re having a lover’s quarrel! Jim is taking fucking psychic damage from this entire conversation lol. Okayyyy whatever Sybok is doing is definitely some kind of mind control type thing, that shit is creepy af no thank youuuuuu (spores anyone?). Oh my god Spock & Jim are so married lmao, that “I’m sorry” Vulcan kiss in the brig man Aw. (Oh man Magic’s of mega-tsu got devani mixed by that comment lame!) SCOTTYYYYYY!! YAS!

Yay rocket boot glomp! Lmfao! Sybok needs to brush up on his earth history Columbus did NOT figure out the world is round 🙄 Ah Scotty being like “listen, you’re not okay rn so I’m not really down for whatever you think you wanna do right now it can wait until you’re right in the head again” and they could’ve not done that and it would’ve been creepy (especially by today’s standards) but they didn’t! And that was awesome!

Bones being skeptical and has every right to be! He’s faced down would be gods and would-be messiahs before! Also I’ve seen people judge Bones for being the first to cave but Sybok totally did that shit to him without consent! He didn’t go back on his beliefs, Sybok forced him to! BONES PROTECTION SQUAD IS HERE AND ITS ME! Oh Bones, man, poor babeyyyy (fuck Sybok!) 😭😭😭 OH MY GOD BONESSSSSS Sybok leave him alone! Goddamnit! Leave him alone!

I think Jim can see Spock’s Sybok induced vision cuz they’re ✨Bonded✨ (it didn’t seem like they could see Bones’s, other than what Bones was doing). JIM KNOWS SO MUCH BETTER! ITS HOW HE BEAT THE SPORES ITS HIS CORE! I UNDERSTAND AND LOVE HIM FOR IT!!! Spock 😍😍😍 he’s like, you’re bullshit happiness pill doesn’t work on me cuz I am whole for the first time in my life, and I love my husband, and I already learned my lesson decades ago 💚🖖🏻💚 (who knew how important the character development from This Side of Paradise AND Return To Tommorow would be??? Hell yeah!)

I love Scotty so much 🥰 hardcore badass Hufflepuff from beginning to end! Also I hope Sybok appears in SNW that could be really really interesting if they do it right! ITS GOD (derogatory) REVERE HIM! Oh here comes that legendary question!! “What dies God need with a starship?” Red flag don’t call Jim a creature! Oh shit god has laxer eyes oh no lmao! Bones snaps out of whatever Sybok did to him when “God” hurts his friends and we LOVE HIM FOR ITTTT! Awww Spock & Sybok and be saaaaad, oh shit! Into the lightning to fight a mirror of yourself like Lazarus in that one episode!

OH SHIT THE KLINGONS ARE HERE! Oh damn Spock just swore a cuss the right way, at a Klingon General no less! General dude just went “caotain tell Kirk you are sorry!” LMAO! NOT IN FRONT OF THE KLINGONS 😂😂😂😍 KISS DAMNIT!! God this whole after scene is so good, maybe the god is the friends we made along the way. “I lost a brother once” you also lost SAM dummy, I know you were just telling Spock you love him but still. SHUT UP SPOCK IS PLAYING ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT ON HIS LYRE??

Okay, seriously, I unironically love this movie, it might be my favorite out of the ones I’ve seen so far actually. TMP felt like the movies getting their sea legs, but it was slow and messy, it wasn’t as thought provoking as it wanted to be (aside from Spock’s wonderful arc in that film). WoK & TSFS are amazing for drama and angst and Spirk content, but they weren’t really asking the big questions Star Trek is wonderful for. Then The Voyage Home is just plain silly and fun and wholesome. But this, this movie had depth! The whole premise is “what is god and is there is one?” I LOVE that as someone who has a very complicated relationship with spirituality. I also already loved the TOS episodes This Side of Paradise, Return To Tomorrow, The Omega Glory and The Way To Eden, and this movie had the best of those concepts! Sybok was such a fascinating antagonist/anti-hero and I hope we get to see him explored more on screen one day, even if it’s just through Discovery/SNW flashbacks. It may have started off slow and it’s not without its flaws but this felt like the Star Trekkiest TOS Star Trek movie so far!

#star trek #star trek v: the final frontier #the final frontier #why does god need a starship #star trek tos #tos liveblog #liveblogging #Sybok

[adultswim2021]

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #85: “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” | December 7, 2003 - 11:30 PM | S08E04

Happy 20th anniversary, Adult Swim. And, boy, what a momentous episode of Ghost do we have here to celebrate. There are a number of episodes where the guest is an event unto itself and this is truly one of them. Frequent punchline William Shatner is an absolute cunt... and a proper legend. His cuntiness and legendary status are two things that seem to be at odds with one another, and the Space Ghost crew have managed to come up with an artfully idiosyncratic episode to match Shatner’s weird-guy-ness. It’s a classic for sure, and important. But (making a “smug dipshit” face) is it funny?

YES! It’s FUNNY! I will admit though, the first time I saw this episode I didn’t quite know what to make of it. This is partially because I’m very much a Star Trek agnostic. I’ve never been into Star Trek. In the last few years I’ve watched most of the pre-Next Gen motion pictures for inane list-making reasons, and I enjoyed them to varying degrees, but Star Trek is truly not for me. I’m more of a... well, I’m not a Star Wars guy either. What’s the other one? Uh... Spaceballs. That’s it. I’m more of a Spaceballs guy.

But I feel like I’ve absorbed a lot of Star Trek lore through cultural osmosis. I vaguely understand that William Shatner has had some deliberately-paced choreographed fight scene on those rocks from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. When I hear music similar to the the music that Jim Carrey hums in The Cable Guy, I’m pretty sure whatever it is I’m watching is doing a Star Trek thing. And yes, I’ve watched every single Red Letter Media “Mike and Rich talk about Star Trek for 4 hours” video. But even today, after having picked up more Star Trek knowledge on my journey to the grave, I still have this nagging feeling of “I only sort of get this”.

Still, this episode has a handful of screamingly funny lines, and the episode ends wonderfully, with Space Ghost in his death throes, suffering the ultimate indignity of dying in front of William Shatner. There’s also the part where Zorak asks why everyone in Star Trek is black, and a part where Moltar nervously reads from his fan fiction (from a book labeled TARD WARS, hahaha). Shatner, who has a reputation for being arrogant and difficult, is as good a sport as one could hope. The show makes good use of his hammier moments, and only shits on him slightly in the process. The most notable moment is when Shatner says to Zorak “didn't you and I fight to the death?” to which Zorak replies “That sounds pretty dumb, man”. I’ve actually quoted this line many times. It’s one of the best.

Also, for those of you who like to track these things: the show features callbacks to other episodes and shows; the handimen at Zorak’s apartment are clearly extras from Sealab 2020/2021, one of the Leprechauns from Aqua Teen Hunger Force shows up, and there’s a poignant callback to classic Space Ghost episode “Banjo”. 

The title motif of this season is naming the episodes after Allman Brothers songs, and I always wondered about this one. Maybe I’m reaching, and it’s probably too disrespectful to be true, but I always thought that it was somehow a veiled reference to Shatner’s wife, whom he supposedly killed or let die. It’s simply too dark to be true, but it’s the first thought that immediately jumped to my mind when I first heard the title of this episode. Am I stupid for thinking this? Am I stupid because it OBVIOUSLY is a reference to that?? I simply do not know. I would like to know.

MAIL BAG

The big anniversary is upon us. What are your 20 favorite things about adult swim for 20 years going. Don't sleep on this question!

I gotta do SOMETHING special, so I might as well do this. More thought could have gone into this, but I spent about an hour trying to come up with episodes or moments from 20 different shows and putting them in rough chronological order. I limited myself to one episode/scene/moment/joke/whatever per show so it’s not all Space Ghost jokes. So, here we go:

Sealab 2021: “I, Robot”. Adult Swim proved it could be brilliant right out of the gate with the stealth premiere of “I, Robot”, but for Sealab it’s all downhill from here. (2000)

Space Ghost Coast to Coast: Space Ghost stops in his tracks to reminisce about the time Bobcat Goldthwait said "crack a window". The entire episode “Kentucky Nightmare” is brilliant, but this moment in particular so uniquely captures my sense of humor that it’s inexplicable. The dumb look on Space Ghost’s face when he stops in his tracks. Goddamn. (2001)

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: “Mayhem of the Mooninites” I tried very hard to make this all be individual jokes or scenes or whatever, but this is another episode where the entire thing is just line after line and I can’t really pick. This, “I Robot”, and “Kentucky Nightmare” is like a perfect trio illustrating how good Adult Swim really was right out of the gate. (2001)

Home Movies: Jason casually reveals that his parents have no idea who Brendon and Melissa are and that he spends most of his free-time making movies with them. This is the episode “Storm Warning” which is overall one of the best episodes of Home Movies, but this scene is probably my favorite. Illustrates how simple and hilarious the comedy is on this show. (2002)

Tom Goes to the Mayor: the end scene in “Undercover”, where they’ve shoddily reversed Tom’s various unnecessary surgeries and called him “Taumpy Tears” to boot. Positively sublime. (2006)

Metalocalypse: Dr. Rockso’s music video. From the episode “Dethclown”. I was never in love with this show as much as the true fans were, but there were a handful of incredible episodes. This episode basically tells one joke over and over and it’s very funny. It really ends with a bang showcasing Dr. Rockso’s shitty music video that celebrates cocaine use. His singing voice is hilarious. (2006)

Assy McGee: I am the only person in the world that defends Assy McGee as being “actually pretty good” and it’s all entirely due to this one line: Assy McGee (a pair of naked buttocks with legs, whose ass functions as his head) is forced to attend a black tie event and is just milling around wearing nothing but a black bow tie. Through clenched anus he delivers the line “I can barely breathe in this penguin suit”. The whole show is worth it for that joke. I don’t even know what episode it is except that it’s from one of the first few. I might not even have the line exactly right. But, I remember laughing so hard. I may not have laughed at Assy McGee again. (2006)

Saul of the Mole Men: The opening theme song. And nothing else. (2007)

Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!: Jim and Derrick. I should pick something more user-friendly maybe, since this episode almost entirely relies on being familiar with Tim & Eric’s previous episodes. But goddamn, this episode is such a funny concept (which is basically Tim & Eric doing an alternate MTV-ified version of Awesome Show) (2008)

Moral Orel: “Numb”. When Moral Orel suddenly stopped being a quirky Adult Swim comedy and suddenly started doing episodes that resembled art films. This episode is a fucking masterpiece. I remember sobbing the first time I saw it. There are a few in season 3 that are like that, but this one is my favorite. (2008)

Check it Out! with Dr. Steve Brule: Terry Bruge-Hiplo reviews “Dumpster’s Children”. Another bit of comedy that I’d describe as “inexplicable” and “sublime”, and it all hinges on an old man’s mouth. Holy fuck. I don’t think I’ve laughed harder than this at a TV show since. (2010)

Delocated: The ending of “Mole”, an extended Face/Off riff where Jon goes undercover as the scary mobster Sergei. In the final moments of the episode he marries a woman, fathers multiple children with her, and only then is pulled out of the mission. The episode is a tour-de-force of comic acting by Steve Cirbus, who is graciously allowed to shine for most of the episode. But man, that ending is fucking wonderful. (2010)

Venture Bros.: The ending of “Operation P.R.O.M.” a flurry of emotions hit me when “Like a Friend” by Pulp starts playing. The scene is so well done and weirdly touching. Brock realizes that deep down he gives a shit about the Venture family and is genuinely terrified something might happen to them. And then he gets to slaughter a bunch of Zorak monsters, which is also weirdly sweet. It’s even touching on a meta-level knowing that Jackson and Doc tried many times and failed to include licensed music in the show. I love Venture Bros, but I think we’d all be better off if this were the series finale. Sorry. I had to say it. (2010)

The Heart She Holler: The first scene with Patton being taught the way of the world posthumously by his father on a VHS tape. The first season of this show is amazing, but that scene, especially where Patton does a little Japanese bow and says “oh, hot dog!” is just hysterical. Literally every time a hot dog comes up in conversation my wife and I quote it. Please, do not scorn her, it’s not racist when SHE does it. (2011)

Eagleheart: The All That Jazz inspired finale. “Paradise Rising” is mostly a masterpiece, and how it ends is so fucking incredible. Easily the most under-rated show on Adult Swim and I’m not just saying that because... you know (mimes dick-sucking) (2014)

Rick and Morty: I watched the first two episodes of Rick and Morty, thought it was good, but for some reason didn’t become a devotee until my wife made me watch the Mr. Poopybutthole episode. It’s still my favorite episode, I think. (2015)

Brett Gelman’s Dinner in America: The “Dinner with” specials are all really good, but goddamn, this one hits. Should be shown in schools. I am going to go to every grade school in my county with an AR-15 (to get past the guards, of course) and I won’t leave until they call an assembly and they let me fumble around trying to find it on vimeo and play it for the students. (2016)

The Eric Andre Show: Eric interviews Steve Schirripa. The bit where he has an intern dip his balls in Steve’s spaghetti sauce is hilarious, naturally, but I’m here to showcase the running gag where every time Steve complains how hot the studio is, Eric just wordlessly hands him an ice cube until Steve explodes. It’s one of the most childishly hilarious things I’ve ever seen. It’s perfect. (2016)

Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace: The Pick-Up artist sketch. I’m mostly unimpressed with MDE, and all but a few Sam Hyde bits leave me cold. But this sketch is a crowning achievement. I mean, I think these guys suck politically and are more mean than funny, but their sensibilities yielded one really incredible piece of comedy. Okay, I laughed at the blackface sketch too. There. You dragged it out of me. (2016) Joe Pera Talks With You: This show is beautiful and I love every episode. But the episode “Joe Pera Reads You The Church Announcements” Wherein Joe discovers a new-to-him song and can’t stop listening to it, is one of the most joyous episodes of television I’ve ever seen. A gateway episode. I tell everyone to please watch this one first. (2018)

#adult swim #space ghost coast to coast #adultswim2021

[jawnjendes]

no one can replace me | shawn mendes

university au SUMMER, shawn x goth gf/oc

masterlist | playlist

**let me know if you wanna be added to the taglist

Days off were meant for sleeping in and being comfortably lazy. I slept until 2PM, far later than I ever slept before, and I felt anything but comfortable. The only productive thing I did was move myself from the bed to the couch in the living room, taking the massive comforter with me. Shawn wasn't home, so I was able to binge as much Grey's Anatomy in order to fill the void in my chest as I could. I really thought I would be able to sleep off the void…

I was lying on my side, a dead look on my face, but I was still invested in a particularly emotional episode. As sad as it was to see Jo Karev's life fall to pieces, it felt almost cathartic to cry over that than my own crap. I cried a lot these days, it was very unlike me. However, I still made sure to keep it private. I didn't want my boyfriend worrying about me anymore than he already did.

It was after 5 o’clock when I heard the lock on the front door jiggle, indicating that Shawn was home. I quickly grabbed the remote and switched to some 90s cartoon. The swift movement of reaching for the remote on the table was a deep contrast compared to how I’ve been all day, so it left me winded and fatigued. Although, the fatigue wasn’t just from moving or the cuts on my belly. I couldn’t even sit up to greet my boyfriend.

Shawn seemed unfazed by my potato state as his footsteps were constant through the apartment. His steps got closer, and I saw him standing by me from my peripherals. Wordlessly, Shawn placed a black gift back on the coffee table, directly in front of my line of vision.

The bag was shiny, and had purple tissue paper sticking out of the top. Just the sight of it caused my brows to knit together.

“Why…?” I asked, my voice unnaturally soft.

“It’s a peace offering,” Shawn explained, “and it’s also an anniversary gift. Come on, sit up.”

I didn’t need the help anymore, but Shawn still went to my side and supported my waist as I sat up straight. Then, I leaned over and grabbed the gift bag, pulling out the tissue. Inside was a red box with the white Nintendo Switch logo on. I pulled it out and discovered a pro controller, and my mouth fell open. This was the limited edition, white controller with the Princess Zelda design. I was rendered speechless.

“We hit six months a couple of weeks ago,” Shawn explained. “I think you were in surgery, so we missed it. And I know you love Zelda, and I know you’ve mentioned this controller before.”

“How many oversized bears did you have to fight to get this?” I finally asked.

Shawn laughed. “Well, it was the last one at EB Games. I saw one guy looking at it when I walked in, so I snatched it when he wasn’t looking.”

A small smile creeped up on my face as I stared at the controller in wonder. It was a sweet gesture, given the absolute bullshit that happened yesterday. “Thank you. I can’t wait to use it.” Then I placed the box back on the table. “I have something for you too.”

“You do?” Shawn smiled, pleasantly surprised.

I nodded and got up from the couch. I felt bad about how our sixth month was spent, even if it was all out of our control. Obviously, there was no time to get him a gift like what he had gotten me, but I did have something in mind. I didn’t think we would still be here for this to happen.

I found my black, tattered wallet and went back out to the living room. As cliche and cheesy as it was, I had to say a few words before presenting the thing. “I’m not gonna lie, my pessimistic ass and my mile high walls made me think we wouldn’t make it this far.”

“Good start,” Shawn replied, mildly amused.

“But,” I continued, “I’m glad I was proved wrong, so uh…” I unzipped my wallet and poked around through one of the credit card pockets.

“You’re giving me money?”

“Shut up.”

It took a minute to get the tiny item out of the tight pocket, but I got it. I presented Shawn with a red guitar pick. The label on it had scratched off long ago, but that’s okay. It wasn’t about the condition of the pick.

“A long time ago, I saw Rise Against in concert,” I told him. “It was… honestly, probably one of the happiest days of my life. I went with my cousin, and she convinced me to mosh our way to the barriers. We did, and I got hit in the face on the way, but we made it to the front. I had a nosebleed, and the lead singer noticed that. He actually saw blood all over my face, and he gave me his pick.” I paused. “That pick means a lot to me, and you mean a lot to me, so I figured I should put those two things together.”

Shawn was looking at the pick in the palm of his hand as he listened to my story. The smile on his face only grew with every word, and he was beaming when he finally met my eyes. Then, he stood up, towering over me with open arms.

“I love it, and I love you.” He gently cupped my face and pulled me in for a kiss.

Feeling his lips against mine brought back certain feelings I hadn’t felt in a hot minute. My arms went around his middle, gently scrunching up the back of his t-shirt and feeling the skin underneath. Shawn smiled against my lips.

“Mm, so we’re celebrating our anniversary today?” I asked when we broke apart.

“I guess we are,” he replied, twirling a strand of my hair between his fingers. “What do you wanna do?”

“Quiet night in?” I suggested, wiggling my eyebrows.

He thought about it. “Well… we spend a lot of time between these walls. How about a movie?”

That threw me off a little bit. Shawn never said no to spending the night together between the sheets. But he was right though, we needed to get out of this apartment. “Yeah, we can do a movie.”

~

As much of a homebody as I am, it felt nice to leave the apartment for a little bit. It felt good to doll myself up for a date night. I missed carving out my eyebrows and wearing black eyeshadow. I missed wearing my long, black cardigan and combat boots.

Shawn and I went to the theatre downtown and caught the newest Disney film, on his choosing. That was only because the last time we went to the movies, I made the choice. The last time we went to the movies was also when I started feeling pain, but I didn’t want to bring that up.

I stayed away from literally every food offered at the theatre, and not just because of my mandatory diet. Shawn didn’t eat anything either, so I wasn’t alone. That gave us more time to cuddle on the fancy reclining seats in the theatre. It was pretty much what we would do at home, except we were bound by society’s rules to stay quiet for the duration of the movie.

It was a lovely time. Going to the movies was the one thing to get us out of our heads for a little bit. We didn’t have to talk, we could just be with each other. The mood was light and sweet, and it followed us back into the car.

But, you know… light and dark. Things are always balanced.

Shawn turned on the radio as soon as he roared the car to life. Of course, of fucking course, the Halsey song of my nightmares (as opposed to Nightmare, which is a bop) was in the middle of playing. Things within me turned in a second, and everything lost its color. Half of me wanted to punch the radio into silence, and the other half wanted me to curl up in a ball and let the void take me away. Luca’s words came out of the tiny box in my mind and circled around me.

“I probably know you better than Shawn does. And you hate that, huh?”

My breathing went short again, and I could only hear that directly in my ears. I squeezed my hands into fists, trying to bring myself back to Earth.

“You’re not singing,” Shawn pointed out. “I thought you loved this song.”

I wanted to talk, wanted to explain. But we just had a good evening, and I didn’t want to cry all over it. When did I become such an emotional mess?

I shook my head in response.

He glanced at me every so often, but he kept his eyes on the road. “No, you don’t like this song?” he asked.

Once again, I shook my head.

“Okay, I’ll change it.”

The song stopped, and then Shawn reached for my hand. My mood kept on. My legs felt numb, and my hands felt tingly and weird. I walked carefully when we got back to the apartment, like I was going to dismember myself and collapse. I followed Shawn’s steps, bringing all the grey with me.

“I know you’re a quiet person,” he said as we entered the bedroom, “but this is just weird. Are you okay?”

This would be something I’d take up with Callie, but I was no longer her patient. That was on my own doing, so I couldn’t be mad. There were a lot of feelings built up in my chest, and I couldn’t name a majority of them. That was why I needed Callie.

I also needed to bring my spirit back into my body. Without thinking, I slammed the palm of my hand on the bedroom door. The loud smack! startled Shawn, but the sting caused me to make a face and ground me once again.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I felt like I was floating…”

He was just as speechless. “Uh… do you - should I…?”

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” I told him, my eyes still staring off into space. “I mean, I do, but… I don’t.”

“Should I be worried?” he asked.

“No?”

“Did something happen?”

“Yes?”

“Okay, let’s start there.”

We sat at the foot of the bed. Shawn gave me an expectant look, but I was still silent for a moment. Perhaps I was just overreacting and being a little too dramatic.

“I had a conversation with Luca,” I started, suddenly hesitant. “Nothing bad, just… I don’t know.”

“What did he do?” Shawn asked. “I know you said not to worry, but I’m a little worried.”

I explained the inexplicably off putting conversation I had with Luca, rubbing my hands together sporadically. It was probably confusing without know our entire history, but that was a whole other spiel. They say talking it out helps, but I just felt like I was getting crazier by the second. I felt like I was just overreacting.

“Listen,” Shawn said when I finished rambling, “I don’t love that he knows you so well either. I definitely don’t love what most of your relationship consisted of. But you’ve known each other for a couple of years, much longer than you and I have known each other. He’s just trying to get to you.”

“I know. He loves to challenge me. Normally, I don’t care, and I’m used to it, but this one fucked me up.”

Shawn nodded. “Is that why you slept most of the day?”

“Was it that obvious?”

“I can tell when you’re sleep deprived now. Like, you wear a lot of black, but you look… comfortable and at peace with it. When you're tired, or sad... you look like the world ended."

He held his hand open on my lap, and I laced our fingers together. Was this a weird situation? Was it weird to talk about your ex to your current person?

“Can I tell you something?” Shawn asked after a minute.

“Yeah.” I had to stop myself from sounding too eager. At this point, I’d give anything to not talk about me and my shit anymore. I think I was thinking too hard about this whole thing.

He shifted a little bit, the way one does when they’re about to drop some scalding tea. “When I was seventeen, I dated this girl. Well, I thought I was dating her. She asked me to be her boyfriend, but the only time we spent together was in the backseat of her car, or at her house when her parents weren’t home. She really didn’t want much from me, apart from the obvious.”

“She was playing you,” I replied.

“And I one hundred percent knew it,” Shawn added with a chuckle. “But I really liked her, so I let her do what she wanted. I guess you could say that’s one reason why I was never in a serious, stable relationship until now. It’s like you say, I couldn’t trust anyone.”

That was certainly a side of Shawn I hadn’t heard of. He told me he didn’t have much experience with his love life. Then, I found out he slept around much like I did. Now, I found out he had his own version of Luca. Why was I labeled the mysterious one?

“How come you never told me this before?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “We all have things we don’t talk about. I’m sure there’s still things you haven’t told me.”

“Yeah… yeah, that’s true.”

“So just know, you’re not the only one with a toxic ex. I know how you feel.”

At least he doesn’t work with his ex. At least his anxiety wasn’t intensified to the point of isolation and self destruction. Plus, it was easier for Shawn to open up than it was for me. His heart was in the right place, though. His big, warm heart made my stone cold one beat a little faster, I knew that much.

"You know how powerless you are being with someone like that," I said without realizing what I was doing.

"Yeah," he said. "You know they're not good for you, they only want you at their convenience, but you'd do anything for them."

Oof, he really does know.

"But," he added, "it feels so much better when you're finally free of them. And it feels fucking great to be in a much better place than they are. Realizing you deserve better is like waking up from a bad dream."

"It's like coming up for fresh air."

Shawn looked at me, eyes sparkling. He now held my hand in both of his. "Meeting you was like coming up for fresh air."

I smiled, and placed my one free hand over his. "I know that quote is from Grey's, you can't fool me."

"Hey, can I not relate heavily to the words of Derek Shepherd?" he said with a laugh.

He wasn't wrong. I related a lot of lyrics from his own songs, but I could tell him that another time.

_____

taglist: @normalcyisoverrated-beyou @mendesromano @ilsolee @1-800-khalid-mendussy 

#shawn mendes #shawn mendes fanfic #shawn mendes imagine #shawn mendes blurb #shawn mendes smut #shawn mendes x oc #shawn x oc #shawn x goth gf #its a filler chapter lulz #soz if its a bit boring #things will definitely steam up a bit in the next coming chapters #also theres 2 chapters left in this series lmao oops

[spacemilkies]

Bart Allen x reader

summary: He’d ran to the past purely by the determination to unselfishly prevent the future from fallling into ruin.

For that for that act of valor, wasn’t he allowed this one selfish want ?

Notes: It took me awhile to come up with something. Sorry for the lateness. Here’s a little snippet drabble thing.

When he’d first appeared he wasn’t quite sure who was more surprised. Naturally he managed to send the premature flock of superheroes into a mild panic.

That wasn’t entirely intentional. So far into the future calculations were somewhat accurate at best. Nathaniel had planned for the when, but the where was more abstract in nature.

So yes, Bart was equally as astonished to not only find the machine in working order but to find himself at the center control panel of Mount Justice?

Now that was crash.

All his idols were in attendance.

The creative and instinct driven Beast Boy.

The premature and determined Robin.  

And oh man, the notorious Nightwing in the flesh.

And then there was you.

For a moment Bart wished for nothing more than looser suit to drag away the spandex from red itch crawling up his neck. The poster on his wall had depicted you as an older hero, matured in both your talents and prowess. But there had been plenty of opportunities for him to imagine what it might have been like to fight beside you.

Share the excitement and spoils of victory.

If only he’d been born a few decades earlier.

If only you hadn’t-

The time capsule hero jerked in response,“Careful now, watch the claws!”

As part of the infamous Allen lineage, all speedsters relied on that split second decision where time slowed to their advantage.

It separated life from death.

Freedom from capture.

“Now that would have not been crash. Seriously Robin ? I have your action figure man. “

Bart shook a non threatening fist from his perch atop the massive screen. He’d narrowly managed to avoid quick shot of cable. The young hero hadn’t even been aware of his speed inclement yet smartly chose to go after his legs.

He couldn’t put it past the detective.

It was obvious that his window of opportunity would have dwindled. During his fanboy episode the startlement had worn off.

And now he was outnumbered.

… yet still a little crash.

Yeah, he expected to feel the mode shortly after.

But damn did he enjoy going head to head with the best of the best.

Sure, they were still in their youth and nothing compared to what they would be in the future but damn wasn’t it still a thrill.

No one could blame him for at least attempting to shift out of the bindings. His vibrations only managed to encourage the current Robin to tighten the ropes further.

Bart wasn’t entirely certain that he hadn’t taken a bit of pleasure in the act.

“You’re from the future? Ha, right dude.”

Bart’s attention whipped over to the green meta human, taking in the distinctively furry texture of his skin. Funnily it had been a small detail the cameras managed to miss when capturing his likeness.

“Oh man, Beastboy if only I could get started on you.” Unfortunately, Bart had seen enough movies depicting the consequences of speaking so openly about what was to come.

No, he would need to be sensible here.

Regardless of how easy it would be to drag these chump- eh- heroic deities.

“Look, no hard feelings. I’m one of you!” His hand twitched from the desire to bring it to his chest in emphasis. “ Name’s Bart Allen. You know, of the Barry Allen legacy? Really, the speed should have been an indicator.”

Among the skeptical faces it was yours he kept darting to the most. He couldn’t help it. You were just so young and so here.

And right in front-

Oh well … was right in front of him before Robin had taken the initiative to cut in between, effectively severing the point of contact.

Bart would have been more baffled had he not understood the root of the protective stance.

It didn’t help that bat family was incredibly rich.

They just had to be eligible bachelors to boot.

Speaking of the family, where had the older bat flown off to?

“Dude if you’re honest we can figure this out. And then you can go.”

Bart tried extremely hard not to roll his eyes but it was painful. The littlest bat really needed to brush up on his interrogations. The summation of this little group was only the junior leagues.

Once he really got started talking they were going to have to draw out the majors.

“What if he is? It wouldn’t be the craziest thing to happen here,” your voice trilled over silence.

Okay, maybe crossing spacial dimensions was a little different but it was the future! He obviously shared some connection to the Flash- grandson did he say?

All you were saying is that you couldn’t rule out the impossible without considering the possibility.

Your gaze flickered uncertainly to the bulky machine sitting like a quiet observer.

Beside you Robin scuffed I’m firm disbelief. Granted it too a lot to get the junior detective to think outside of the realm of possible. You were starting to think he was being a bit close minded.

The two of them had barley known one another for twenty minutes and you could already feel the bad blood thrumming under the veins. It was obvious that Bart knew something they didn’t but was it so inherent that Tim would react out of instinct ?

“Not you too,” he groaned. He caught your eyes from the side. “A tourist ?”

Okay, that was an odd thing to call oneself given the situation. It was hard to determine what was more concerning.

That fact that a kid would travel so lightheartedly into the past without considering the consequences or how easily accessible it was for him to do so.

Beastboy settles his arms across his chest,”I don’t know man. I mean, yeah, I’m green but from the future? That’s a little crazy.”

“Batman will deal with him,” Tim reasoned under his breath.

As subtly as you could, you reached for him, finger tips just skimming the callouses of his own. While his face didn’t portray emotion, your loose grip tingled with the ripple of calm you were trying to make mutual.

Unbeknownst to you, the red haired speedster followed the minuscule movement with a grimace.

“Easy, Robin. If he travel from the future he must have accumulated quite the thirst. Barry’s grandson, right? That’s quite the journey.”

Bart watched Nightwing with interest as he reapplied with a glass of water in hand. Bringing his tied hands up, he accepted it with a shallow nod. He was a little thirsty but more in the lack of proper clean water kind of way and less of a time travel exhaustion.

It wasn’t until he’d taken a few sips before the subtle insinuation of the offer became apparent.

Now he was realizing how one graduated out of the Robin role.

“Ah, you’re not really worried about the culprit. You just want this.” Bart probably added more of the wanted specimen than necessary when he spit heartily into the glass much to the grimaced disgust of some of the observers. “There you go. Authentic DNA of the Allen family. Just don’t go cloning anyone.”

His gaze widened comically at the thought. “Oh man, that’d be so crash though. Surely Dick Grayson could figure out the proper cloning sequence. Just ask Connor.”

It had started off as a joke and tumbled horridly into a snowball effect after that. What could he say? Once he got started talking, it was just downhill from there.

To say the hero was affronted would be putting it off lightly.

“I know all of you guys? Future guy remember ?”

He gestured to each member individually.

“Dick Grayson.”

“Garfield Logan.”

“Newly appointed Robin, Tim Drake.”

And then there was you. Your eyes were already comically wide by this point as if already knowing your fate.

It didn’t matter really. He was immediately overshadowed by Beast- Garfield was who didn’t find it very crash to be the last one to get he knowledge party.

By the end of it all, he’d left the heroes more confused than the moment he’d arrived.

His ride had unfortunately arrived before he alleviate some of their obvious worries. The tell tale sound of the dimensional portal gate called out the name of another rememberable hero, but he was already shaking past the restraints before the computer could finish the introduction.

Besides he had his own history to change.

And somehow managed to alter his own future in the midst of it.

With the current Flash properly save and hopefully alive in his future, he was more than ready to return to a brighter more lively lifestyle.

When he returned, you were all better prepared for his arrival. Not so much for the older man that ‘Impule’ had hastily referred to as his great grandfather with no little excitement and current Flash and Kid Flash in tow.

It was like a backwards family reunion.

Nightwing’s analytical results had proved the impossible, well possible. Bart Allen was a direct descendant of the Allen family.

The red haired future superhero seemed to take the news with the strongest stride, not doubting his truth for a second. Part of you felt for him, this had to be his only chance to properly meet the senior Flash.

Regrettably, the meeting was cut relatively short as his urge to go home out ran the present desires. He was still an erratic variable of the future and had no place here.

A few hugs were exchanged amongst family, the current leagued Flash expressing his anticipation on meeting him again in a proper timeline.

You found yourself longing for the same. Eager to see his origin and watching the child become what you’d witnessed today.

“Well this has been crash, but gotta run.”

God, were you not looking forward to the puns though. A mutual groan rumbled amongst the gathered crowd in agreement.

Impulse had nearly disappeared into the awaiting machine before his body staled as if forgetting something. After saving the life of a hero you couldn’t imagine what other time altering event he could have on his agenda.

Then his gaze locked with yours.  

Your hair fluttered behind you from the sharp gust of wind from, a noise of shock barely escaping your lips before his swallowed it down.

Somewhere behind you the sound of Tim’s shock tried to reach you but it was lost to the soft press of lips molding against your own.

Then it was over.

And you were left wading in a pool of soft baby blues.

“Oh man, I wish you could have married me instead of Drake.”

And left you stranded.

“Now I should really get going. Be nice to me in the future!”

He raced back to the machine with a sloppy salute, before sliding inside the machine. The only sound it gave was a clank of metal as the latch sealed.

And then the silence stretched on for several seconds.

“Isn’t he supposed to be in the future by now,” Garfield asked unhelpfully.

“He better be.” You felt Tim appear at your back, his growl echoing a darker intent.

There was a drawn out groan, as the metal protested the slow opening of the door. It was likely the slowest you’d ever seen and of the speedsters move as Bart reluctantly stepped out of the machine.

Something told you he wouldn’t be returning home anytime soon.

A sheepish smile pulled at his lips as his gaze darted across the room.  

“Anyone else feeling the mode?”

#Anonymous #young justice imagines #bart allen x reader #bart allen imagine #bart allen fanfic #young justice x reader #yj imagine #bart allen

[franpaw]

Ben Solo interview from May 2019 issue of 1/6 Scale GQ.

Mr Solo Rising

Meet Ben Solo, 1/6 scale Star Wars Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece action figure. He is, of course, better known as Kylo Ren and was marketed as the dark intense heir to Darth Vader.

“The name on my box is Kylo Ren,” he explains, “and he is still a big part of my image. But after arriving in my new home I’m Ben Solo. As soon as I was greeted by Rey I fell in love with her. It was instant and right. I discovered I possessed a very romantic and sentimental side which I’ve allowed to flourish. In fact, it’s Rey who is fierce mostly!”

It’s partly due to his relationship with Rey, another 1/6 scale Star Wars Hot Toys figure, that he’s keen on action figures being seen as more versatile then simply posing on a shelf or in a glass box. “That’d be very boring for me,” he says firmly. “And,” he leans forward and drops his voice, “ do you know how much damage those figure stands can inflict right between your legs?” He blushes and adds, “And I’d like to be able to have children at some point in the future.”

Today he joins 1/6 Scale GQ for a coffee after working on a Star Wars photo shoot, but he’s dressed down in a grey t-shirt and blue baggy jeans. The only black in his attire is his Converse shoes and there is no sign of his Kylo mask and lightsaber.

He explains that he’s very busy, mostly making photo stories and videos and is experimenting with stop motion filming. “Though it takes a long time to capture it’s a good medium to work in,” he admits. He can see the exciting potential of action figures to retell film events or as fan fiction.

He and Rey develop many stories themselves, such as their first video called Love During Conflict. “We wanted to convey the real angst of being in a war and facing the fact that you may not see the ones you love again,” he elaborates. “Each moment is so precious.”

And Ben is certainly having his own moment. He’s fronting several advertising campaigns including Plaidam clothing and one big name he’s remaining quiet about. He promotes Dark Devotion, his fragrance for men, which he jokes does indeed smell very like him.

When he’s not in front of the camera he relaxes by drinking coffee, reading and listening to music. He’s formed a band – Kylo and the Rens - but needs to put in more guitar practice as they aim to play gigs. He’s just started to study astronomy. Is that because of Star Wars? He shakes his head. “No, in one of our upcoming photo stories I play a University astronomy teacher and when I did my research I was really was struck by it. I’ve asked for a telescope for my birthday,” he confides.

He’s also about to get married to Rey but won’t discuss it in detail, only that it’s a very small secluded wedding. But he does disclose that his online fans will be able to see plenty of photos of the Big Day and that Rey has designed and made their outfits.

And how is working with his famous fiancée? “Oh, it’s a joy,” he tells us, and he can’t prevent his trademark wonky smile from appearing. “She’s very open to ideas and of course her amazing beauty translates so well to camera.”

How about the more intimate shots of them? He was shy at first and was careful to keep his clothes on. “Even my boots,” he adds. “But people enjoy seeing more risqué poses,” he reveals, “so we’ve done some of those. And there is still a lot we obviously don’t show!”

Do he and Rey get along all the time? “We sometimes fall out a bit when she gets the giggles,” he responds with a shrug. “BB-8 (the round orange and white droid) is the most difficult. He’s very inquisitive and easily bored so he’s never still for long.”

What would he like to do in the future? I wouldn’t say no to a romantic comedy he says. With Rey? We have to ask as their chemistry is, as many people have noted, extremely hot. He laughs and shakes his head. “Is it? I don’t know. It just is what is it is.”

He was on standby for Burn This on Broadway but didn’t think the difference in scale between him and the full-sized cast members could be accommodated for. But he really fancies historical drama and is in the running for the stage role of Steinbeck’s Tom Joad. The Grapes of Wrath is a 1/6 scale production and would start in the autumn.

Is he excited about the next Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker, and does he think Hot Toys will make an Episode IX version of him? “I’m always excited for new Star Wars films,” he agrees enthusiastically. “It’s great for us action figures. And as for a new version, I don’t mind as long as they make a Rey for him. He’s not having my Rey,” and we see a flash Kylo’s anger in his eyes as he says this.

He was at action figure awards earlier this year, nominated for most realistic action figure, but lost out to his film mother Leia. “I’m fine with that,” he divulges, “as the likeness to the film character is incredible.” Then he grins and whispers, “and the award’s still in the ‘family.’”

He was a big favourite at the recent Action Figure Star Wars Celebration; his Heroes and Villains panel with Poe Dameron was sold out. As black-clad Kylo the villain he appeals to male Star Wars fans, what many think of as the traditional figure collector. Yet there are a growing number of fans who love Kylo’s conflict and his dynamic with Rey.

Female fans appreciate Ben’s personal fashion style and moody look. He’s very modest about this and waves his hand dismissively. “I look okay at some angles and just really grumpy and tired at others. Rey loves fashion and chooses most of my outfits.” He knows his face sculpt and body build has captured the character’s intensity but, he adds, “I think I have a much happier life.”

Yes, we think he does. And it looks like it’s only going to get better for Ben Solo.

Pictures below clockwise:

Ben as Kylo Ren, Ben signing autographs at Star Wars Celebration, Ben with fiancée Rey at the Action Figure Oscars, advertising Dark Devotion.

#ben solo #kylo hot toys #hot toys kylo ren #reylo action figures

[lovemesomesurveys]

How many…

How many times have you skipped class? I don’t know. I did it sometimes in college if I wasn’t feeling well or just wasn’t feeling it that day, but only if I knew I could miss that class that day and be fine. Thankfully, the the syllabi always listed what the reading and homework assignments were and I sometimes asked a classmate for their notes. 

How many times have you kissed the last person you kissed? Too many times to count over the span of 4 years.

How many years have you known your second closest friend? I don’t have any friends. 

How many alarm clocks are in the house? 5. One actual alarm clock and then the rest are our phones.

How many people have you argued with? Only a couple.

How many times have you watched your favortie movie? I have a lot of favorite movies, many of which I’ve seen countless times. How many people do you live with? 3 people and a doggo. How many pairs of boots do you own? 4. How many people have told you they’re in love with you? 0. How many times have you cried over the opposite sex? Too many. How many people have been in your house at one time? Maybe like 20. How many stuffed animals are in your room? A LOT. I have a ton of giraffe stuffed animals.

How many cellphones have you went through? 6 or 7. How many pets do you have? 1.

What would you do if…

What would you do if you could never listen to music again? It would definitely suck. I don’t listen to it all the time, but I do enjoy it and I would miss it.

What would you do if your current bf/gf cheated on you? I’m single.

What would you do if you could never wear jeans again? I haven’t worn jeans in over a year, no joke. All I wear now are leggings. I don’t miss jeans at all.

What would you do if your dad became president? Wow. I have no idea. I would not want that at all because of all that comes with it. He’d be dealing with a tremendous amount of stress and pressure, as well criticism and scrutiny. That extends to his family, as well. We’d all be in the spotlight. Thankfully, my dad has no desire at all to run for president or get involved in politics. 

What would you do if you lost your most important possesion? I’d be very upset.

What would you do if your house burned down? Make sure my family, including my doggo, and I got out safely. I’d also try and grab what I could and what I would absolutely need such as medications, phone, laptop, wallet. Whatever else I could. Ahh that would be devastating, though. I obviously couldn’t grab everything and so much would be lost. So many sentimental things.

What would you do if your best friend didn’t want to be friends anymore? I pushed away all my friends and completely withdrew from everyone already. :/

What would you do if you had to move to a different state/province? My family wouldn’t just make that decision without all of us talking about it and figuring it out together.

What would you do if someone shaved your head? Omg. I’d be devastated and extremely angry.

What would you do if Jesus came to your front door? Be in complete awe of even being in His presence and fall before Him. Then I’d invite Him in and show Him hospitality. 

What would you do if your house was robbed? I’d be freaking out to say the least if I was home while it was happening. It’d be so scared. If I wasn’t home and discovered it upon coming home, I’d call the cops and see what was done to the house and find out what was stolen.

What would you do if your sister/brother got married? Be happy for them and help them anyway I could. 

What would you do if dogs became extinct? Omg. Don’t even say that. We need dogs.

What would you do if the last person you kissed proposed to you? That would be completely out of the blue. I haven’t talked to or seen him in almost 4 years. I’d obviously say no and then be like, dude, wtf??

Have you ever…

Have you ever broke a body part? Yes.

Have you ever broke someone else’s body part? No.

Have you ever changed for a guy/girl? In some ways. Or I tried to, anyway.

Tried to jump on a celebrity but been stopped by the security guards? Wow, no. I’m not a crazy fan like that.

Have you ever complained about the last person you spoke to? Yes.

Have you ever cried on your mom’s shoulder? I’ve cried to her or in her arms many, many times in my life.

Have you ever dialed 911 as a prank? No. I was always afraid of even accidentally dialing it.

Have you ever won a talent show? Nope. 

Have you ever spilled a drink on a expensive electronic item and ruined it? Ugh, yes. 

Have you ever fainted when someone told you shocking news? No.

Have you ever swooned over the Jonas Brothers? Yep. I was really into them back when they first came out and during the time they were still together. I followed Joe and Nick’s solo careers, as well. Now they’re back together and touring and I want to go.

Have you ever bought a piece of makeup that cost over $100? Hell no. 

Have you ever been cheated on by someone who claimed to love you? I’ve never been cheated on.

Have you ever got food free because the waiter thought you were hot? Ha, no.

Do you…

Do you have someone who will always be there for you? My family.

Do you have a membership at a gym? Nope.

Do you act dumb to get guys/girls to like you? Pfft, no. No one should do that.

Do you know anyone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day? No.

Do you follow the rules? Yeah, generally.

Do you have a friend who secretly really annoys you? No, but I have had friends in the past that did sometimes. 

Do you always have Pepsi at your house? No. We always have Coke, Sprite Zero, and Ginger Ale.

Do you flirt with anything that moves? No.

Do you watch SpongeBob? No. I have’t seen an episode in years.

Do you count sheep when you can’t sleep? No. I listen to ASMR.

Do you sweat easily? Ugh, yes. 

Do you like pineapple? No.

Do you refuse to wear something that’s out of style? I don’t care. If I like it, then I’ll wear it. I don’t wear things just because it’s “in.” I have to actually like it. I don’t even know what’s in style anyway really anymore. I’m old.

Do you type ‘u’ or 'you’? You. 

What is…

What is your best friend’s name? Yolanda. She’s also my mom.  What is your first girlfriend/boyfriend’s name? Derek.

What is your neighbour’s name? I never talk to the neighbors and have no idea who any of them are. What is your least favorite swear word? Cunt.<<< Gahhhh, SAME. I couldn’t even type that, but since the person I got this from did I’ll leave it there. You will never, ever hear me say that word. What is the best and most romantic way to propose to someone? I don’t think there’s a singular best way to propose. That differs for everyone. <<< Yeah, some people want something grand, others want something intimate and lowkey. Just depends. What is something that always makes you laugh? My doggo. What is the name of your hometown? I’ll give you my home state: California.   What is the most gentle way to turn someone down? That’s never an easy situation. You don’t have to be rude or mean about it, but be honest and express how you’re feeling. What is the most boring thing to do? Waiting. <<< What is the funnest kind of question to answer? In a survey? I don’t know, just ones that allow me to elaborate or vent/ramble when I need to. Not just yes/no, one word answer questions.  What is the most useless thing you know? A lot of things probably. What is your favorite pair of pants? All my pairs of leggings. What is the best flavour of ice cream? Strawberry.

#personal #text #survey #surveys

[bunk12bear]

I learned it from the pizza man chapter 4: The Continued Adventures of Olive Bro

Okay, this is the third time I've tried to post this. I tried twice last night but Tumblr crashed both times  _______________________________________________________________

Lance was freaking out, Keith was going to pick him up in less than an hour and he still didn't know what he was going to wear on this freaking date. He rifled frantically through his closet rejecting shirt after shirt, too casual, too casual, not casual enough, why the hell did he even still own this shirt, too casual, not casual - oh, god why was this so hard?

Ten minutes later he'd managed to pair his options down to two. Option one: a dark blue button-up with the sleeves cuffed at the elbows, nice jeans and dark brown leather loafers. Option two: a dark blue Star Wars t-shirt with a blue suit jacket and pants and blue Converse high tops.

Hunk. He needed Hunk to make the final decision. He knocked on the door to Hunk's room, both outfit options folded carefully over his arms. Hunk emerged from his room and seemed to know instantly what Lance needed.

“Hunk, my buddy,  my man, my absolute favorite person in the world”

Hunk interrupted,“Lance, you don't have to butter me up to get me to choose an outfit for your date tonight. You're my best friend, of course I'm  gonna do that for you. Just show me what you got.”

Lance laid the two options down on  Hunk’s bed and stepped back to let his friend take a look and consider both outfits.

“I'd go with the button up, the last time you wore that shirt the girl in the apartment next door wouldn't stop staring at you. I also overheard her saying something about how it apparently did things to your shoulders.”

“Thanks bro!” Lance yelled while  running to his bedroom to change and throw on a last-minute face mask.

========================================================================

Keith was practically pacing a hole in the floor of the living room, much to Shiro's annoyance.

“Are you absolutely sure about this outfit?”

“Yes Keith, you look great and I would know, I picked it out.

“Do you think I should get him flowers, or would that be weird?”

“Do you think he'd like flowers?”

“Yes."

“Then buy him flowers, or do I have to pick those out too?”

“Shiro, I'm being serious.”

“Keith, relax. He clearly likes you. I mean, he did ask you to ask him out.”

“What if it's a prank?”

“It's not a prank.”

“How do you know for sure?”

“He wouldn't be keeping it up for so long if this is a prank.”

“Yes but do you know that.”

“KEITH!”

“Fine, fine, fine, whatever.” Keith took a deep breath. “'m okay, I'm fine.”

“Listen, Keith, if it somehow is a prank, witch it absolutely isn't by the way, then he's a jerk and not worth your time are your sadness, okay?” “You sound like one of those stupid inspirational text posts mom and her friends post on Facebook.”

Shiro laughed. “Hey at least you're not freaking out anymore.”

“Yeah, thanks for the pep talk. I should go now if I want to get him flowers.”

“Okay, text me when you're heading home.”

“I will”

“If you're taking your motorcycle remember a helmet!”

“Yes mom,” Keith huffed rolling his eyes

“Hey, this is a direct order from Mom. If she finds out I let you ride on that thing without a helmet she'd kill me. Slowly and painfully”

“Okay, okay I'll bring the helmet!”

“And bring the spare one for Lance.”

“Okay,” Keith replied impatiently

“I'm just worried about you. As your big brother I kind of have to be, it comes with the job”

“Goodbye Shiro."

Keith parked his bike in front of a little flower shop and walked up to the checkout counter. There was an old woman behind the register. She looked sweet, plump, vaguely grandmotherly, and was wearing a straw Hat and floral shirt. Exactly the kind of person you'd expect  to run a little flower shop. “How can I help you, dear?” “I need to buy flowers for a date.”

“Aw, who's the lucky lady.”

“Um, it's not.. it's not a lady. He's not a lady”

“Oh my mistake, terribly sorry did you have something   in mind?”

“Um, not really This is actually a first date but we've been kind of talking for a while. so  I know that his favorite color is blue, I think he mentioned licking Hydrangeas. I don't know that much about flowers”

The lady laughed. “Well then it's very good that I have a bouquet of blue Hydrangeas on hand.”

“I'll take those then.”

After the flowers were wrapped and paid for the lady smiled at him. “Good luck on your date dear.”

“Thank you.” And with that Keith's set off to Lance's house. ======================================================================== The doorbell rang and Lance shot up from the couch to answer the door.

Wow. Just wow. If Lance thought Keith was gorgeous in that ridiculous uniform he wasn't prepared for the way he looked dressed up for a date.

He was wearing a dark red button up, a leather jacket, tight fitting black jeans and black boots. “Hi Oh these, these are these are for you,” he he stuttered holding up  a bouquet of blue Hydrangeas. “I love Hydrangeas, My mom has them in her garden. Oh and they're blue, blue is my favorite color! You remembered.”

“I'm glad you like them.”

“Let me go get a vase for these. Come in and sit down on the couch while I go find one.”

When Lance finally found a vase for the bouquet - it was tucked away on one of the highest shelves, he literally needed a stool to reach it he placed it on the counter for a minute to take a look .Keith had gotten him Blue Hydrangeas. He'd actually remembered Lance talking  his favorite flowers and color. Could this guy possibly be any more amazing?. He smiled to himself before checking the time on the stove clock. 'Oh shit if we don't leave now we're going to be late!

========================================================================

Lance walked away and Keith sat down  on the couch only to be greeted by a tiny girl with short brown hair and a tall dark-skinned dude who looked like he could be a linebacker, Lance's roommates, Keith presumed. It was good to finally put faces to names and voices.

The girl-Pidge, if he remembered correctly leaned closer narrowing her eyes menacingly. “Listen here, dude. Lance may be an idiot but he's our idiot and he's one of my best friends. You know the deal, if you hurt him we will destroy you.Got it?”

The big guy Hunk presumably,  nodded along, “Seriously, I usually hate violence but you don't mess with my friends.”

“Oh, okay.”

“And if you think I'm scary, he has four older siblings and like a whole bunch of cousins. You don't even want to know what they'd do after I’m done with you”

“I'm not going to hurt him, I swear!”

“I'm going to take you on your word. For now.”

“Um, th- thank you I guess.”

At that point, Lance walked back in from the kitchen with the Hydrangeas now in a vase and placed them on the side table by the couch.

“Hey so we gotta leave now if we're going to make the five o’clock movie,” Lance said and reached for Keith's hand. Together they began to walk towards the door. Keith took one last look back only to see Pidge Shot him an “I'm watching you” gesture”.

========================================================================

They arrived at the movie theater on Keith's motorcycle. Yes, Keith had a motorcycle and Just when he thought Keith couldn't get any hotter. Lance had already bought the tickets so all they needed to do was present the printed out receipt to the bored looking teenage girl at the ticket booth.

She sighed and rolled her eyes but didn’t even bother to look up at them. “What movie do you want to see?”

“Moana please, we already bought our tickets, here's a receipt. They told me to give it to you so you could print out the physical tickets.”

“Okay fine whatever, just give me the receipt and…” she stopped halfway through her sentence as she finally actually looked up at Lance. She perked up instantly and immediately went to print out the ticket while looking up at Lance every couple of seconds. She grabbed the tickets and handed them to him obviously attempting to touch Lance and giggled. “Enjoy the movie, Sir, I hear it's super good,” she said dreamily while wrapping a lock of hair around her finger.

“Um...Thank you?" Lance might have been flattered by her flirting if it weren't for the fact that, one, she couldn't have been older than sixteen and two, it was incredibly obvious he was on a date.

Once she was out of your shot Keith began to laugh. “Okay what was that about?”

“Seriously, it’s soobvious I am on a date with you,’ Lance said, indicating their intertwined hands. “Let's go in before anyone else decides to hit on you.”

“Besides you, of course.” Lance winked at him.

“Oh, obviously.”

======================================================================== The movie was, as predicted, incredible. The animation was gorgeous the music was great and Keith was genuinely surprised at how much he liked Dwayne The Rock Johnson as Maui.

Lance definitely seemed to agree as he emerged from the movie theater dancing and singing an odd fragmented mix of whatever he could remember from “How Far I'll Go” and “You're Welcome”. Some people, including his teenage self, might have found it annoying but honestly, it was quite cute. Besides, any excuse to watch Lance was a good one, especially now with him all dressed up. The shirt hugged his shoulders just right and showed off his arms and his pants made his legs look a mile long.

They walked along towards the restaurant, Lance stopping his impromptu concert so they could chat about the movie.

“Can you believe Auliʻi Cravalho is only 16? Imagine being able to sing and act like that at 16!  I did theater in high school and I can think of  like four different girls who would legitimately have killed a man to get a voice like that at her age.”

Judging by his few interactions with the theater kids in high school Keith wasn't sure if that was much of an exaggeration.

“Yeah she was great. I was mostly surprised by The Rock, who knew he was so talented?”

“Actually I did know that, this girl who did hairspray with me in high school was obsessed with him, obsessed I tell you. Oh, and speaking of theater kids, did you see the SNL episode with Lin-manuel Miranda? God, he was brilliant! I swear Crucible Cast Party was taken from hidden cameras for my high school theater days.”

“Oh yeah, I saw that it was funny. I never really did any theater so I'm not sure if I got all of the jokes but it was still funny.”

They continued chatting, with Lance looking down occasionally to check the directions on his phone. The walk to the restaurant wasn't that long, 10 minutes at most - a fact that Keith was thankful for because he didn’t want to be out in the cold for longer than necessary. Three years of going to college up north and he still wasn't used to the winters.

When they got to the restaurant Lance talked to the hostess in rapid-fire Spanish, apparently, she was more comfortable with it than English. He didn't understand most of it. He hadn't bothered to take a foreign language class in high school. His father had taught him enough Korean before he died for Keith to opt out of it.

The lady seated them at an intimate table toward the back and handed them their menus.

“What do you think you're going to get?” Keith asked.

“Hunk says fajitas are incredible, I'm going to get them with chicken. He also recommends the tamales, will you share an appetizer of them with me?”

“Yeah sure, sounds great. I've never l had tamales before but they sound good. I think I'm going to get the Pollo con mole poblano.”

“Oh, good choice mole poblano is delicious.”

The waiter came by to take their order and dropped off a little round pan full of tortilla crisps. Keith hesitantly tasted one. It was warm and surprisingly flavorful, nothing like the store-bought ones. Lance grabbed one too and took a bite, his eyes lighting up. “Hunk was right, these are incredible! Maybe I should go back and ask for the recipe for him, turn up the Lancey Lance charm.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Keith.

“Really?” “I'm joking! And hey, it worked on you, didn't it?”

“That and you being incredibly handsome.”

Lance's cheeks darkened at the compliment.“Seriously though, if they wouldn't give it to Hunk they're not going to tell anyone. I swear, that boy is an angel from heaven! Always has been and I've known him since we were kids.”

“He seems like it. Your second roommate on the other hand... What's her deal?” “Pidge, she's a gremlin but we love her. She's actually two years younger than me but she's some kind of genius who went to college at like 16. We actually met at orientation. I mentioned my sexuality to some sorority sister and she made a face and told me that she didn't have time for” Lance's voice dropped to a whisper “sissy f-a-g-s.” His voice went back to normal. “Pidge came over and said: “And he doesn't have the time for dumb homophobic bitches but here we are!” Then I bought her a burger and we've been friends ever since.”

“I already met your roommates, any other friends I should know about?

“Yes! Hunk’s girlfriend Shay. She's also an angel, ooh and she's demisexual - not really relevant or anything but fun fact. Then there's Allura, she's bi like me. I used to have a huge crush on her. We actually went on a couple of dates but she was getting over a bad breakup and I was really homesick and it just didn't really work out. Don't worry though, that was a long time ago. Then there's her girlfriend Romelle who's a trans lesbian and the nicest person you'll ever meet, aside from hunk and Shay of course. They live in this really nice house because Allura is this fancy British heiress.”

“An heiress?” “Yeah, but she's like really cool and hard-working. She's getting a business degree so she can take over her father's company - well, technically her uncle's company. Her dad died a few years ago and her uncle was like his advisor or something so he took over the company in her stay until she was old enough and also took care of her. He has a weird name. Karen or Kran, something like that”

“Anyone else?”

“That's my immediate circle of friends. I mean Pidge's brother Matt visits sometimes but he graduated already so he's off doing some smart people thing, I don't know.”

“They sound great” “They are. They're also like super queer. I mean I've already told you about the others and Pidge is Aro Ace”

“And Hunk?” “ Hunk is our token straight person!”

Keith shrugged. “Every group needs one.”

“Exactly, how about you? Let's talk about your friends!”

“To be honest with you I don't actually have a lot of friends.”

“Oh well, I'm sure my friends will have no issue adopting you into the group.” “That sounds nice.” Keith hesitated for a second before continuing. “Can I can I be honest with you for a second?”

“Yeah, shoot.”

“You have to promise you're not going to think of me differently after you hear,  after what I have to say.”

“What could you possibly say that would make me think of you differently?. You don't have some like crazy stalker ex or something, right?”

“No, no. it's just... You know I'm adopted right?”

“Yeah, I already said that doesn’t make a difference.”

“The thing is, I haven't told you the full story. I wasn't adopted as a baby like most people. My dad died when I was nine and I don't know what happened to my mother. I spent a few years in foster care and I was 14 when the Shirrogaines adopted me."

Lance was quiet for a bit. “Wow, that's- wow.”

“I can leave now and pay if you're uncomfortable.”

“No, no, I'm not uncomfortable! It's just, you've been through so much. Thank you for sharing this with me.”

“Thank you for reacting so positively.”

“Wait, did other people react negatively?” Lance tried to keep his voice down but failed. Why in the world would people react badly to that?

“Yeah, a lot of people don't know how to react. Some people just cut me out of their lives altogether, it's one of the reasons I don't have a lot of friends.”

“Well, forget about those people, they're jerks and not worth your time. You are handsome, smart, funny, kind and you drive a badass motorcycle. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.” “Thank you, that's actually really nice to hear.”

Lance grabbed Keith's hand “I can't pretend I understand what you've been through but I know what it's like to be judged for things out of your control. I'm an immigrant actually, we moved to the United States from Cuba when I was five, my oldest brother was going to go to college in the states and I don't remember exactly why but we relocated with him. When I went to kindergarten I didn't speak English very well because I'd only just learned it and Hunk was the only kid who bothered to talk to me. I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay that kindness.”

“Something tells me you already have.”

There was a loaded feeling in the air between them Keith found himself leaning in for a kiss. Before their lips made contact, however, they heard someone clear their throat.

The pair jumped apart and looked towards the sound. It was the waitress, she arrived with their food.

They ate their food while continuing to chat, Keith regaled Lance with the continued adventures of olive bro and Lance offered to feed him a bite of his meal which was far cuter than Keith would ever admit. Keith found out that Lance's full name was actually Leandro but he had chosen the nickname Lance after reading about the Middle Ages because his classmates were having trouble pronouncing his full name. Keith responded with a story about one foster kid from a group home who told him to go back to China after hearing him speak Korean and how he'd been utterly schooled by one of the older foster girls. They were so wrapped up in the conversation that they didn't notice the waitress coming over after they were done eating to clear the table, she gave a long-suffering sigh, muttered something about something about young love then walked off to fetch the bill.

Lance had paid for the movie so Keith paid for dinner and they left the restaurant hand in hand. Keith was about to get on his motorcycle and but Lance stopped him. “I had a really nice time tonight, do you think we could go on a second date after the winter break?”

“Yeah, yeah that sounds great!”

“Just so you know, there are no waitresses here to interrupt us.”

“You're being rather a cliche.”

“Shut up and kiss me mullet.”

“I don't have a-”

He didn't finish the sentence because Lance's lips were suddenly on his.

He lost track of time as they stood there kissing, he couldn't say there were fireworks or angels singing but god it was a really nice kiss. After a while, they finally pulled apart pressing their foreheads together.

Lance spoke first: “Wow.”

“I haven't been kissed like that in ages,” Keith confessed.

“Oh, who's cliche now, hmm?"

“Shut up,” Keith said and then laughed leaning in for another kiss. This kiss was shorter than the first, Lance pulling back prematurely with a shiver.

“We should probably go, I'm getting really cold.”

Keith had been too wrapped up in the kiss to notice but he was freezing too.

“Of course, I'll drive you home now.”

When they arrived back at Lance's apartment he couldn't help but notice two figures silhouetted in the window. Apparently, Lance was in for a long night.

Lance handed him the spare helmet and Keith grabbed his arm lightly pulling him in for a quick kiss.

“See you after the break.”

“Yeah, can I text you while I'm away?” “Yeah sure”

“Hey, just you wait our next date is going to be amazing, I have an entire break to plan it after all!”

“I'm looking forward to it.”

“Good,” he giggled.

Lance leaned over for one last kiss, then walked into his apartment

Keith watch him go with a smile.

Nope, definitely not a prank.

_______________________________________________________________

I actually have a beta reader now thank you to Calliopestories for making my writing a lot more polished. http://calliopestories.tumblr.com/ and yes I did make that entire section about Lance's friends and their sexualties just so I could make that token straight friend joke.

#klance #vld laith #vld keith #vld lance #keith kogane #lance mcclain #laith #college au #first date #first kiss #first kill comes up before first kiss what the f*** Tumblr #fluff

[my-hero-aaron]

Provisional Licenses, Part 2

After a bit of fumbling and fiddling to get the weird archive I had found to actually play on K’s tv, I finally got to snuggle in next to K. She’d set up a little pile of blankets, pillows, and assorted fluffy whatnots on the floor while I struggled with the wonders of modern technology. Thankfully, everything seemed to be running smoothly as I nuzzled into K’s back, my chin gently perching on her shoulder, an arm comfortably slipping around her waist. A small whistle started to emanate from the speakers of the television, while a father and son wandered toward the camera, fishing poles in hand. The theme, thankfully, was short and sweet, and the show pretty much immediately launched into its plot. The dad from the opening, who turned out to be the sheriff in town, welcomed a travelling salesman into his home after he’d gotten stranded in town because of car trouble. Sure, it wasn’t exactly thrilling action or anything, but the show was just endearing enough to hold my attention. At the end of the episode, I finally zoned back into the world around me, only to find that not only was one of my hands noticeably stuck in K’s hair from my absent minded fiddling, but also that K had laced her legs into mine, surprisingly comfortably.

“Well... I’d get up and change the show, but I’m comfy. You down for one more episode, see how things shape up?” I queried my girlfriend, kissing her cheek gently.

“I think I can handle one more. This show… isn’t really my speed. It doesn’t really hold my attention very well.” She smiled apologetically

“That’s fair, I’m not... entirely sure why I like it, but there’s just something going on that won’t let me stop watching.” As I was responding, the next episode rolled, the theme once again filling the room. This time around, the sheriff’s kid was having trouble with history class, but after some clever set up to make it sound like an adventure story, the kid (and all his pals, to boot) were major history buffs. Cheesy, but definitely enjoyable.

“Okay, that’s one more. Your turn to pick, hon.”

As K untangled herself from me to get up, she pressed a small kiss into my cheek. I could feel the heat brush across my face, and I must have zoned out a bit, because the next thing I knew, she’d booted up an episode of Star Trek... or was it The Next Generation? I could never keep them straight. Regardless, I smiled slightly, patting the space K had vacated.

“C’mere, einstein, I’m getting cold.”

“Oh, you, cold? Who would have thought it, popsicle?” Kailey quipped as she slipped into my embrace.

I had to admit, K had good taste when it came to movies and tv. The episode immediately caught my attention, it was a bit of a high concept piece this time around. The ship’s android, Data, was tied up in a legal battle over whether he should receive rights as a sentient being. It was a real brain tickler of a question to be posed, to put it lightly, and even despite just how comfy I was getting with my girlfriend, I could practically feel the gears whirring in my brain as I considered the little bits and pieces of the conundrum posed by the show.

The next thing I knew, K was shaking me awake, and the credits were rolling on a favorite movie of hers, Coraline.

“Hey, Aaron, wake up sleepy head. You were kinda snoozing there. Maybe you should head back to your dorm now?”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea, K. Last thing we need is Vlad finding me asleep in your dorm, after all.” I let out a small yawn, stretching while I got up, and gave my girlfriend a little peck on the cheek. “See ya tomorrow, K. I love you!”

With that, I padded out of the room, trying my best not to make a huge racket while I left, and conked out for the night.

Soon enough, the little bit of time we had to actually design our special moves had run out, and the day of the provisional hero license exam had come up on us. After we’d filed out of the bus they’d crammed us into, it was clear that we were going to have an absolutely absurd amount of competition when it came to whatever they were planning to have us do. A little bit of shuffling and bumping into people later, Kailey, Oliver, and I had found ourselves, along with what seemed like several thousand other students. Thankfully, we were getting at least some personal space, since nobody wanted to get too far into the bubble of cold my chest plate was putting out. After a few moments, the din of chatter that was filling the room tapered off, an incredibly exhausted-looking man taking his place at the podium.

“Given the massive volume of applicants this year, we’re going to have to make this explanation quick. The long and short of the test is, you have three targets to place on your body. They have to be visible, no hiding them. You’re removed from the test when all 3 of your targets get hit. First 100 people to get two people out, move on to the next stage of the testing. Now, your targets activate in 15 seconds. Let’s begin!”

As he finished his sentence, the walls around us fell to expose an absolutely cavernous arena. Hurriedly, I slammed a target onto my leg, contorted a bit to stick one in the middle of my back, and, after a moment’s thought, stuck the last target onto the inside of my bracer. It isn’t technically out of sight, I would just have to rotate my arm. I know that having one on my back probably isn’t the best, but it’ll work well to make me notice everything around me. I mused, glancing over at K to see just how she’d set up her three targets. At that point, I noticed the major redesign to K’s costume. Somehow, I had managed to not catch her basically rebuilding her suit from the ground up, and not piece it together that it had changed until just now. The most obvious change was accented by the test target, there was a target set up directly under a clasp that was clearly holding the iridescent cape that draped over her shoulders. Similarly, K had slapped her second target on her thigh, and the last target was somewhat obvious on her upper arm. My eyes cast over to Oliver, who had made a few small modifications to his costume (including what looked like a solar concentrator on his chest), and he’d stuck all three of his targets around the circular device on his chest. Having sorted out just what my companions were up to, I dashed off toward the miniature cityscape that was set up off to our left.

“Kailey, Oliver, we need to stick together! Let’s get moving!”

I heard two pairs of footfalls drop in behind me as we dashed for cover. Judging by the cacophony of thuds behind us, the crowd behind us was an absolute web of scattered balls. Clearly, some people had immediately forgotten that the targets weren’t active just yet. As we dashed into the city’s main street, it was obvious that we weren’t the only ones with the idea to camp out here. In fact, there was a familiar shock of flaming red hair peeking out of a first floor window, and by the time I got over my surprise at seeing Amber here of all places, the smoking ball she’d pitched at me slammed into the target on my leg.

“K, how much is it for you to get us into one of those buildings?”

“Portals take a lot, Aaron, we’re gonna have to run.”

Eyeing the red glow coming from my target, I turned toward the building that I’d seen my former... fling? I suppose you’d call it that in, a minor revenge plot in my mind. You could only imagine my shock as I saw yet another person from K and I’s past in the building beside her.

Zanshin looked almost... giddy at my surprise. Obviously he knew I was coming, his quirk wasn’t called situational awareness for nothing. He moved to throw a ball, and it sailed right over our heads. Thankfully, I’d put together just what he was trying to do moments before he pulled it off, and the ball struck, relatively harmlessly, next to the target on my back. Almost on reflex, I flung two balls at the targets on Zanshin’s chest. Obviously, they didn’t find their mark, he saw them coming from a mile away. It was at that point I noticed a slight blush spreading over Zanshin’s face.

“Wait, you’re dating Amber of all people?”I said, the shock clear in my voice.

“No WAY, snow-for-brains, he’s just helping me out because he’s smart enough to know a winner!” Amber snipped in response, clearly insulted at the mere idea of them being that close.

“H-hi, Kailey.” A rare stammer slipped into Zanshin’s speech as he waved somewhat sheepishly at K.  

“Hey Mei. How’ve you been holding up.” she smiled gently as she replied.

Doing my best to quash my entirely unreasonable jealousy at that, I looked more closely at Amber.

“I like the costume! Needs more fire theme, though.”

“Ugh, as if I’d be as tacky as you with your gross ice shirt, frosthead.”

“Yeah well at least his costume is functional and isn’t tacky and revealing” K snapped back without missing a beat.

“I dig the trench coat, Zanshin. Very you!” I quickly blurted out, trying to at least dial down the tension.

“Thanks! Those bracers are a good choice, and I’m surprised the support department let you get away with that much silver! Can’t have been cheap to produce.” Zanshin said, matter of factly gesturing toward my arms.

Amidst all the back and forth, someone threw a ball, and K took a hit to the target on her thigh.

Even though it wasn’t clear at first, a glance over at her expression said volumes about just who managed to tag her. A roughly contained fury was crossing the face of my best pal, and despite the odd shimmering of the air in front of her, it was drop dead obvious that Kailey was incredibly upset about this turn of events. The next thing I knew, there was a sound like a crowd running by, a bright flash of light, then the raucous sound of Amber tumbling to the floor in a daze, all three of her targets flicked on.

Knowing what K’s abilities did to Zanshin, I took the advantage she gave me, and flicked a ball at the group of three targets on his chest. The hyper perceptive young man looked almost nauseated at the lack of information he was getting, and the interruption of his flow was just enough to let me tag one of his targets.  

“You’re still so pathetic Hoshihime! The only reason you got me was because you couldn’t face me head on! YOU COWARD!” Amber screeched.

Kailey clearly had some words for her foe, but I knew our window was small, and getting smaller.

“K, we gotta get out of here, Zanshin’s not gonna be out of it much longer!” Before she could respond to Amber, I grabbed my girlfriend’s hand, rushing out of the building we had just taken cover in. Oddly enough, as we dashed out, I didn’t hear Oliver’s footsteps behind us, but once we got out into the road, it was pretty clear what he’d done.

#my hero academia #mha #boku no hero academia #bnha #my hero academia oc #my hero academy oc #my hero academy #boku no hero academia oc #mha oc #bnha oc #aaron #Quirk: cryokinesis #Kailey #Quirk: Spacetime Manipulation #Oliver #Quirk: Green Thumb #Zanshin #Quirk: Situational Awareness #Amber #Quirk: Furnace

[supergirlimaginesfic-blog]

Lena Luthor x reader (No more masks, I won’t hold back)

Request: "The candy is for the trick or treaters not you, quit eating it all " with lena       

a/n: HAPPY HALLOWEEN you wonderful ghouls and pals of mine! Whether you celebrate it or not, have a kickass day, stay safe, and do all the things you want to do, no matter what it is that makes you happy - today and all the days!!! :D

Anyway... how was THAT for an episode that we just watched?? I am STILL reeling about all the Supergirl Ladies content we are having and I have never felt so ALIVE!!!

Here’s a short cute one for y’all though! I freaking LOVE domestic Lena alright!! I swear it is the greatest concept and not only does she deserve this, but we too also Deserve This. Now also imagine Lena having to deal with someone who has approximately zero impulse control?? That’s you this time LMAO. Happy Halloween and happy Tuesday!!

- - - - -

There were only two occasions you ever looked forward to in your life, and since your birthday wasn’t considered a national holiday by the nation yet (how rude of them honestly) you had to settle for the next best thing.

Autumn was your favourite season - you romanticized every single aspect of it that could possibly be cherished to the high heavens and back again. The crunch of leaves on sidewalks under your boots, and leather jacket and sweater weather made you come alive when the rest of nature around you was settling down and shedding.

The colours around you and the anticipation of keeping away indoors to stay warm - it was what kept you going, to say the least.

Even the pumpkin flavoured everything you didn’t bat an eyelash at, and so often some of your friends have expressed their ire of your tendency to go overboard with the festivities.

How could you have helped yourself if it was just simply more fun to act like a suburban housewife and decorate your entire house in Halloween decorations and buy an army’s worth of candy rather than to deny yourself the simple happiness of doing so?

Naysayers be damned, you’ll eat your themed cookies and ensure everything from your house to your car to nearly every single orifice of your body smelled of pumpkin, you’ll eat all your Halloween candy and only regret it for the next few days, and you’ll damn well call anything and everything ‘spoopy’ until the retail industry pries it from your cold, dead hands and forces aisles and aisles of Christmas decorations down your throat.

It was also Lena’s first official Halloween, and much to your friends’ amusement and great exasperation, this very fact seemed to make your excitement reach unprecedented heights.

She’s only been your girlfriend for something just over half of a year, but already you could very well say you knew each other well enough to not be so surprised by each other’s funny quirks.

After you finished work you barrelled right through your front door and darted into the shower the instant that you could, throwing on your favourite obnoxiously bright coloured knit sweater and sneaking six packets of candy into your pocket, for later, obviously.

You promised Lena to bring out all the stops for her first Halloween experience, and you were beyond ecstatic that you got to be the one who did this for her.

You were pondering just how lucky you were to have Lena in your life as you laid out the ready to bake Pillsbury pumpkin and ghost cookies before putting them in the oven.

You’d tried convincing Lena that she didn’t need to leave work too early; Halloween is a late affair anyway.

For her part, she seemed just as excited as you about celebrating, perhaps it was your zealous eagerness that was infectious, but more and more Lena was becoming as taken with the day as you were, and you thought it was absolutely adorable.

Still, her text message to you made it evident she was insistent about coming home early to be with you.

Lena: “I let Jess go home early again... I’ll see you soon :)”

you: “was she just as perplexed as she was the last time you told her to go home early?”

Lena: “It seems as though she’s stopped asking questions and just accepted it.”

you: “seems wise, especially considering what you get up to when you do leave early, I imagine she wouldn’t want to know anyway ;)”

Lena: “And you seem to be wanting to push your buttons tonight, what makes you think you’ll get so lucky?”

you: “you are the light of my life and I am more than lucky to take anything you are so gracious to give me, Ms Luthor”

Lena: “Yeah, yeah, I get it. No need to kiss ass, I’ll see you soon babe ;)”

you: “Love you! Can’t wait <3″

You grinned to yourself as you put the cookies in the oven, marvelling at just how easily it is to smile when it comes to your girlfriend.

With nothing much else left to do, you sit down on your couch and peruse through Netflix’s Halloween selection, wondering if you could convince Lena to watch a horror movie with you.

It’s probably about fifteen minutes later and you’re in the middle of the third episode of Mindhunter when you hear the door open and you turn around to catch the figure of your girlfriend by the threshold.

“Hey babe,” you smile broadly as you take notice of her casual clothes.

“Hi yourself, (Y/N),” she says, walking over to your place on the couch as you lean your head back for her to give you a kiss.

She glances at the TV and squints her eyes suspiciously at you, “you started another episode?”

Your eyes widen and you try to hide your sheepish smirk, “no.”

Lena raises a stern eyebrow and you’re becoming less and less successful at hiding your guilty grin.

“I don’t like it when you lie to me, (Y/N).”

She leans down closer to your lips and you can feel her breath. You move up to kiss her but she dodges the move.

“Uh-uh, tell me the truth,” she says slowly.

You stare up at her again, your head leaning back as you gaze at her chastising look upside down. You smile softly to yourself at the sight of her, the teasing and fondness masked behind a veil of reprimand, and you think you zone out for a little bit in a dopey trance when you hear her click her tongue at you in frustration.

“Don’t do that.”

“What? What did I do?”

“How am I supposed to be angry with you if you keep looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” you ask half curiously.

Lena takes a deep breath and a smile forms on her lips, she shakes her head as she grabs your cheeks and kisses you.

“I can never say no to that face of yours, even if you do try to sneak some TV behind my back.”

“I did not,” you grumble petulantly, watching as her eyebrow arches again when she makes her way to sit beside you. “Entirely.”

“Mhm, right,” she remarks with a fond smirk. “How was your day, darling?” She presses up against you and leans her head on your shoulder.

“It was awesome, everyone dressed up which isn’t really something I’d expected. How about you?”

“It was a day... It’s rather difficult to talk Kara out of an idea once she has one, isn’t it?”

“What did she do now?”

“I believe she and Winn had some bet which she lost, so she walked around the office today in one of those inflatable dinosaur costumes that are always circulating the internet?”

You burst into laughter at the thought and wondered how Winn convinced Kara to walk around in an obnoxious costume for a day when her crime-fighting extracurriculurs were to be considered.

“I don’t really think she considered that she could actually lose,” Lena answers your wordless question.

“Those are always the best bets.”

“So what’s on the agenda today? Are you going to make me watch some ridiculous horror movie so I can snuggle up next to you?” Lena asks conspiratorially.

Despite yourself, you blush at the remark and try to hide your grin.

“I was, actually.”

“You’re so transparent,” Lena says, laughing as she moves in to kiss you.

“Not my fault you’re so irresistible,” you retort with a little pout.

Lena levels her look to you and mumbles against your lips, “you don’t need an excuse to hold me, (Y/N).”

“It’s Halloween anyway, what else could get us into the mood-”

Lena interrupts you as she kisses you, moving so she’s straddling you and pushes you into the couch.

“I know plenty that could get us in the mood,” she comments in a low voice.

She grinds softly into you and you groan, your hands moving to her hips as you chase her lips.

The rustling of something Lena’s disrupted distracts her and she looks down at your leg. She eyes your pocket suspiciously before she snaps her eyes up at you.

“Do you seriously have candy in your pocket?”

“No,” your eyes widen and you make a valiant effort to hide the humour in your lie.

“You’re in a dishonest mood today, aren’t you?”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it this is my favourite!”

“Darling, I love you, but your sweet tooth is entirely ruining the meaning of ‘assorted candy’. You get to keep whatever is in your pocket for the rest of the night,” she says with a half-serious warning.

“Yes ma’am,” you mutter as you try to tug Lena back towards you.

“Nope,” she says, refusing to let herself be pulled in.

You look at her with your best puppy eyes and make a grand pout, blinking your eyes in utter sadness and deprivation.

“You’re going to burn the cookies. Don’t think you can use me as your excuse for gross negligence,” she remarks with a mischievous smile.

Lena moves back to her seat on the couch and you make a great show of slowly getting up and dragging your feet toward the kitchen, muttering just loud enough so she can hear.

“I guess! I guess I’ll go, I guess! I didn’t want kisses anyway, it’s fine!” you continue until your voice is nothing but a muted lament from the kitchen.

You take the cookies out of the oven, exceedingly impressed by Lena’s timing, no doubt, and you eye the bowl of candy that’s on the kitchen counter next to the tray of cookies.

You move to stick your hand out and you make just the slightest ruffling sound when you hear Lena’s voice calling out to you from the living room.

“The candy is for the trick-or-treaters, not you. Quit eating it all!”

You drop your jaw slightly in surprise and wonder if Lena’s got eyes on the back of her head.

“Hurry up and get back here before we’re interrupted for the remainder of the night and you regret all of your choices.”

You nearly slip in your socks rushing back to Lena, catching that look of amusement that you’ve noticed is becoming a common expression of hers, her eyes crinkled and lips twisted into a subtle smirk as she watches you dive onto the couch beside her.

True to her observation, you’re about half an hour into Friday the 13th Part VI when the beginnings of the never-ending doorbell mark the start of the evening.

You, being the child at heart, are exceedingly impressed by the sheer number of Supergirls you see; pirate Supergirl, zombie Supergirl, you think you see a velociraptor Supergirl to which you were witness to a brief argument of, ‘it’s Halloween I can be whoever I want to be’, and you whispered to the kid your shared affinity for dinosaurs, to which you received a beaming smile.

You can’t help it but you laugh when you see a child dressed in a laughing-crying emoji costume, and it wasn’t long at all before Lena’s become envious of you that she’s joining you at the door.

In between Halloween-goers, you find yourself sat on the stairs and you’re making out with Lena like two teenagers with the house to yourselves before the next doorbell interrupts you, and you always half-heartedly groan at the distraction and Lena dutifully shoves you toward the door.

Once, a solitary scientist shows up at your door, her mother standing a few feet away from her and the small girls looks up at your tall figures.

“Hi, I’m a scientist,” she says, completely opting out of the traditional greeting.

“That’s awesome, you probably need all the energy you can get to save the world, right?” you say as you drop some candy into her bag.

“Yeah, my mom says too much candy isn’t good though.”

“She’s right, my girlfriend is a scientist too, she only eats healthy food.”

The girl looks up at Lena and her eyes widen in wonder.

“You’re a real scientist?”

“I am, aren’t you?”

The girl tilts her head and her eyes widen again in realization. “Yeah.”

Lena grins as the girl happily waves goodbye, skipping to her mother who’s shaking her head in amusement at her daughter.

When it’s later in the evening and the number of trick-or-treaters has dwindled and you’re almost finished your third movie, you interrupt the B-horror movie you and Lena had opted for in favour of light conversation.

“You gonna dress up next season?” you ask as someone on the screen trips over their own feet.

Lena’s head is leaning against your shoulder and she snuggles closer to you under the blanket draped over you two.

“I suppose so, I definitely will when we have kids of our own though.”

You think you feel your heart skip a beat and you hear the low trumpeting of your heart in your ears. You think you’re projecting, totally having misheard Lena and you don’t dare comment on it at all, lest you make everything awkward and more troubled than it ought to be.

Your silence goes entirely noticed, however, and you don’t have to see Lena to know her eyes have shot to the size of golf balls and you can feel her entire body tense beside you.

You keep your eyes stubbornly trained on the TV, trying to steady your breaths but you learn that the mindful attempt of regulating a natural phenomenon is far too much work.

Lena’s uncharacteristically stuttering when she speaks up, “I just- I meant, that if... in the circumstance that could ever be a possibility-”

You move your arm and put a hand on her knee, your other arm bringing her in close and you squeeze reassuringly.

“Kid talk already, eh?”

You feel her indignant blush and you laugh, feeling her sink her head deeper into you if it were even possible.

“I’m sorry, I’m just bugging you,” you amend gently. “You know I love you, right?”

“Yeah,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper as it’s muffled by your clothing.

“So we’ll get there when we get there. And I know I can take on everything with you, and I in fact want to.”

You squeeze her again and feel her wrap her arms around your midsection, you adjust yourself accordingly to let her.

“For what it’s worth, I don’t think I could have a better Halloween partner than you.”

“How charming and thoughtful of you to say,” she says in a teasing lilt, taking her head out of somewhere from under your arm and resting her chin on your shoulder.

You turn your head slightly to look at her, adding an afterthought.

“Or a better partner in general.”

She looks up at you through her lashes, studying the soft look your face has taken when you look at her, and after a long moment she purses her lips for a kiss.

You turn your body to her and smile into her kiss, grinning at the soft exhalation of air she lets out when she melts into your touch.

You tug on her waist to bring her on top of you, Lena falling into your lap easily as you run your hands up and down her back in a soothing motion. Lena moans lowly in your mouth as your hands slip under her shirt, finally touching skin.

She rocks into you softly and your jaw drops a little, Lena’s touch tracing your lip gently before nipping at it.

You think you feel so viscerally shaken when Lena abruptly pulls away, leaving you feeling particularly cold and at a loss of contact.

By the time you figure out what’s going on, she’s already just made it to the bottom of the stairs.

“Hurry up, babe, or you won’t get to see the other costume I have in store for you.”

For the life of you, you think you black out momentarily when you process Lena’s words, and you think in that split second of seeming eternity, you caught a glimpse of your whole life flashing before you.

If there was any indication of eager excitement on your face, Lena most certainly caught it if the wink and sultry eyes she gives you is anything to go by.

You were proud to say you tripped only once bolting up the stairs; that and a handful of other bruises you garnered that night surely ended up being worth your troubles.

#lena luthor x reader #lena luthor #lena luthor imagine #lena luthor fic #katie mcgrath #lena luthor fanfic #katie mcgrath imagine #dating lena luthor #katie mcgrath fic #katie mcgrath fanfic #supercorp #supercorp fic #supercorp fanfic #supercorp fandom #supercorp imagine #supergirl imagine #lena luthor x you #supergirl imagines #lena luthor imagines

[dfnews]

Season 7 or 8, I'm not sure - Episode 1 First Aired: February 26, 2018

Episode Recap of "In Love in Switzerland"

From TV Guide: "In the Season premiere, Joy and Austin finally get to enjoy some alone time in Switzerland after saying "I do." Meanwhile, Joe and Kendra get their engagement photos taken; and the siblings help Jinger and Jeremy move into their new house." The house moving is the next episode.

I’m back! My recap season of life has returned and I pledge to make my recaps shorter so I can have a life. I always say that but then find too much stuff to comment on.

1. The season begins a few days after Joy’s wedding way back in May 2017. They show the clip of their first kiss and I swear they faked it. I can see no lip on lip action. This may be a precursor to Gideon’s faked home birth episode. Yeah, I know, I’m speculating. But some conspiracy is obviously going on there. Jessa, Jinger, and pulled off the show Jill, talk about how barriers break down after you say, "I do". Barriers that shouldn’t have been up in the first place except for the saving yourself for marriage if that is your choice. Barriers don’t make for a great understanding of who you are marrying. As for Jill, Derick is a liar. Pulling your family off the show means just that. That’s what you said and it isn’t what you did. You are a lying hypocrite.

2. TLC again airs the honeymoon suite that has occurred in all of the previous marriages to much my horror and snark. Why must they show off the deflowering room? Joy is happy to have thirty minutes to read the Bible with Austin before flying off to Switzerland on TLC’s dime. She is most likely already pregnant at this point.  Austin has always wanted to go to the Swiss Alps and marrying Joy made that dream come true. They debate who is going to be the better skier and I hope they both break legs. Yep, I’m already bored and need a wake me up. They drive up to the airport and abandon their car out front for a tow truck to take care of for them. I guess they were too distracted by the thought of sweet Swiss sex to care about their car.  Austin talks about being able to navigate their own lives without any outside guidance all while a crew from TLC films his every move. You’re not on your own yet, buddy.

3. 24 hours later, they are finally in Geneva, Switzerland and are very tired and horny. After solving both those problems they go out for lunch at a fondue place. The waiters tease them with a French menu but then later give them a menu in English. Joy is then bewildered by sparkling water. She calls it water with gas. As bewildering as water is for Joy, the cheese fondue is mind blowing. Austin checks out the other diners using his phone to figure out how to eat cheese fondue. The waiter instructs them on how to fundue but Austin does it wrong and burns his mouth. I wonder who instructed them on how to fundue in the honeymoon suite that first night. Dip it in and swirl it around. Suffer some serious burns if done wrong.  End up with an after taste of morning sickness if done without thinking. Too much fondueing  leads to weight gain and sleepless nights. Who knew cheese was so dangerous. Too much fondue can also lead to yodeling. Joy is set up by TLC and some local yodelers to try her old yodeling skills in the restaurant. Talking head Duggars try their yodeling skills as well. You can tell they have all seen The Sound of Music. They all do the yodel from that movie. Jessa and Ben are interviewed separately here. I wonder why. They don’t show much but Joy does pretty well with her yodeling skills. Austin just continued to stuff his mouth with cheese.

4. Joeken are taking their engagement photos back in Arkansas. Jinger wasn’t available to take them so another ATI trained photographer, Elizabeth Shoemaker, is in charge. Elizabeth is a long-time Duggar friend and Gothardite who is now wearing jeans!  Joy is amazed by sparkling water and I am amazed by Gothardite women who are breaking free from legalistic rules. Joeken brought Kendra’s younger sister, Lauren, to chaperone because Kendra says the desire to jump each others bones is too strong for them to be trusted alone. When will these kids develop some self-control? The photographer tells Joe to put his hand on Kendra’s waist and Joe seeks the approval of Lauren. What is wrong with these young adults? They are so emotionally stunted. Joeken are now allowing a few more sidehugs, hand holding, and I love yous, throughout their engagement days but holding out on kissing, sex, and really getting to know each other for after the wedding. Joe says the wedding is for the girl and for her to look back on and remember. I guess the honeymoon night is for the guy. The producers ask the talking head Duggars which Duggar guy is next for a relationship. There isn’t a lot of confidence in John. John just needs to run off and elope and stop with his families’ silly games.

5. Joystin take a chocolate making class. This is the typical honeymoon activity for these people. In the class they meet a couple who have been married for eleven years and have five kids and their advice to Joystin is to have a lot of kids. Seriously?!! Did Jim Bob arrange this ahead of time? They are in the same cooking class as a Swiss couple with five kids which they admit is a lot in Switzerland? Talk about coincidence. The brainwashing continues out of Arkansas. Joy says God won’t give you more kids than you can handle which is sad when some are only blessed with two or three or even none. They must think God thinks those women are incompetent. Does Joy know about those big families who abuse and neglect their kids? The Turpins, the Willises, the Rodriguezes, and so many more, including her own parents? Michelle couldn’t handle all her kids, she has admitted this, without depending on her own little village to raise her children. Don’t these people ever think beyond the silly little catch phrases they are taught?

6. Hang gliding time. A lot of death jokes happen here. I think they’re all freakin' insane! At least when Josh and Anna went parasailing on their honeymoon they had the water to fall into. Joy lands by belly flopping on baby Gideon. I’m sure hang gliding is pretty safe and controlled but just watching it gave me a panic attack. I’m rewinding back to chocolate class to ease my nerves.

7. JinJer finally show up on the show to play a safer sport. It’s tennis time for these two. I have taken tennis classes myself so my nerves are calming down until the producers make it a big point of showing Jeremy and then Jinger exiting their car in modern day clothing that doesn’t fit into the Duggar tin box. Jinger in a short skort and a sleeveless top and Jeremy is wearing what looks like a bathing suit that doesn’t quite match his shirt. What happened to his vane style? They are both competitive and sweaty. The producers spring a strange question on the Duggar talking heads as the tennis scene is playing. They ask, “What seed are you in the Duggar family?” Seed is a tennis term which of course they are clueless about. They all look terribly confused which I don’t blame them. They all watch football, not tennis. The producers know the family lacks diversity and are clueless about most things. Jessa claims to be a watermelon seed and Jed is the seed of Jim Bob and Michelle which is sadly accurate. My seed in tennis is the bench warmer as Jeremy's was in soccer. Jeremy beats Jinger and I imagine Jinger taking secret tennis lessons from a pro and you know how that usually ends up. Next season on Counting On: Jinger courts the tennis pro and Jeremy seeds himself.

8. Back to the honeymoon of cheese, chocolate and terror.  Joystin are now heading to Zermatt to go skiing but first they must buy tickets for the train. They hold up the ticket line by trying to buy a ticket in German but fail. They get yelled by some guy in German…I think. They flirt on the train and kiss through some tunnels. How Freudian. They worry about there being no snow on the glacier. Just wait a few years. Climate change is working on that. They finally find snow and hope a magically arranged by TLC ski instructor would pop up out of thin air but I guess TLC decided watching them flail and fall would be more fun. They actually both do pretty well except for not knowing how to stop. Joy later stands on the mountain barefoot because that is her natural state of being and her boots were too damn tight.

9. The episode ends with them packing up to go home which is a lie because they were out of the country for two or three weeks and ended up in Israel for awhile.  Anyway, besides the lie, it was a nice travelogue episode. I hope to go to Switzerland someday so it was nice to see the scenery. You won’t catch me hang gliding though. Hell no! Chocolate making and eating is my thing!

[yesimgoingtopeacecorps]

The Guinean Peace Corps Guide to Packing

This list obviously isn’t perfect, but I’m sure if you’ve stumbled onto this blog post you’re looking for a good Peace Corps packing list, especially if you’ve just been accepted to Guinea and you’re getting ready to leave. I’m currently in my 6th month of living in Guinea and I’ve received a few things from home along the way.

Just as a reminder, you’re technically only allowed two large suitcases, at 50lbs each for the trip. However, I knew some people who paid extra for another bag, and, looking back, I should have just done that. It would have saved me and a lot of people at home money on the expensive overseas shipping to Conakry.

Things I packed:

Clothes

a note about clothes, try to get things that are quick dry or make for an active lifestyle. You will be washing your clothes by hand and you’ll want things that are very easy to clean, don’t show dirt, and don’t hold smells. I suggest Lululemon, Athleta, Patagonia, and those kind of brands. You can find cheaper and discounted clothes online at backcountry.com and Sierra Trading Post (also a great place to find any of the camping or hiking gear listed on here). You  can also check out TJMaxx and Marshalls. Also, you’re going to get clothes made here and people are always leaving stuff “up for grabs” at the regional houses, so don’t pack too much clothes wise.

For girls, I will say, error on the side of caution when it comes to shorts, skirts, and tops. You can always cut things or have them tailored but where I live is pretty conservative and as much as I hate it, I wouldn’t be caught dead walking out of my house in a thin strap tank top.

  3 pairs of pants that youcould wear in an office setting but also wear hiking (try Athleta for these)

1 pair of hiking or durable pants that you don’t mine messing up- I use mine to garden

1 pair of black leggings

2 pairs of running/workout leggings

3 pairs of shorts (try to  make them longer/knee length)

2 pairs of compression     shorts/spandex

1 pair of jeans

5 or 6 nice shirts (at least one long sleeved one, I promise there are places that it does get cold here)

2 or 3 tank tops

5 casual t-shirts/workout shirts

2 skirts (well past the knee and flowly)

3 day dresses

1 or 2 nice dresses (but not heavy or thick, the place where you train for three months is very hot)

10 pairs of underwear (check out ExOfficio for great travel underwear)

6 sports bras

2 or 3 regular bras

2 or 3 pairs of hiking/thick socks

7 pairs of regular running socks

1 pair of Chacos or tevas (I live in these shoes)

1 pair of running shoes

Hiking boots or closed toed shoes with a very good grip (the only real tourist thing to do in Guinea is hiking and you will definitely use them. I also use mine when gardening)

1 or 2 bathing suits (these are hard to find in Guinea)

1 good durable raincoat

1 lightweight jacket

1 sweatshirt

1 sweater/cardigan

Other wearables:

A good hat

Cheap sunglasses (you can buy more here and I’ve already broken three pairs)

Two scarves

HAIR TIES

Non-valuable jewelry if you  like that sort of thing

A good backpack

A small foldable bag for market days

A purse

A small cross-body purse

 Electronics:

INSURANCE INSURANCE INSURANCE     (Clements Worldwide is the one I use. It was $150 for a year but it saved     my life when I got robbed during training and was reimbursed almost $2,000     for the stuff stolen

My Macbook

A kindle or tablet- I use     mine every day

An iPod (I also brought my     old iPod touch in the case that I got robbed… it was definitely a smart     move)

A smartphone (MAKE SURE YOU     CAN REMOVE THE SIM CARD AND PUT IN A DIFFERENT CARRIERS SIM… I had a lot     of friends have issues with that because they were tied to Sprint or     another carrier that had the phone locked)

A lifeproof or otterbox case     for the phone

A rechargeable external     battery

A solar battery charger for     phones (I recommend DragonX brand)

2 Luci Lights (look it up,     it’s a solar light)

2 headlamps

4 power adapters/converters

A surge protector- trust me,     my iPhone died my first month because there was a power surge and it fried     my phone

Multiple charging cables for     anything USB related

Three pairs of good earbud     headphones

An external hardrive (2TB)     (mine has hundreds of movies, tv shows, and workout episodes on it. I     highly recommend this)

A digital watch

  Home and Kitchen

Scrubba Wash Bag (look it up,     in my opinion it makes doing laundry here a lot easier)

Duct Tape (if you forget     everything else, remember to bring duct tape)

Electrical tape

Can opener- trust me on this     one

Garlic press

A few good kitchen knives

Thin, plastic cutting boards

Three quick dry towels

Compressable pillow (I     recommend ThermaRest brand)

An all purpose tool

Toiletries

Shampoo and conditioner     (Seriously, you will want this. I ran out of both during training and     there was no place to buy either of them where we were. You can also try     LUSH bars, solid shampoo and conditioners, expensive but worth it.)

Dr. Bronner’s All Purpose     Soap

Toothbrusth and toothpaste

Facial toner and cleaner

Face wash

Hairbrush

Lotion

Sunscreen (you are given some     but I’ve found it clogs the pores in my face)

Basic makeup: eyeliner,     mascara, lipstick, coverup, blush, and a small thing of eyeshadow.

Tweezers

Your favorite nailpolish

Headbands

Deodorant

Razors

Nail clippers

File

Alcohol wipes or a small     bottle of alcohol or hydrogen peroxide.. Peace Corps doesn’t issue this     and this has definitely saved me from infections a few times

Medical tape

For girls, Diva Cups (they will save you from using the crappy tampons medical gives us and keep you from having to buy pads, which are expensive)

Baby powder

Hairbrush

Mini bottles of travel hand sanitizer

Mouthwash

A few toothbrushes and a toothbrush top

 Other Gear

A really good pocket knife

A few pens

Colored markers or crayons

A mini stapler

Rubberbands

A portable mini safe (I use mine here and just wrap it around the table leg. I keep all my extra money, my passports, and my credit cards in there.)

A mini sewing kit

At least two Nalgene water bottles

Liquid chalk markers (are cool for writing things on your walls and for using in the classroom)

Hair cutting scissors (multiple uses and of course, for cutting your hair)

Tape measurer

Wooden clothespins

  Things I wish I brought:

My Birkenstocks or my Rainbow     flipflops

A nice travel yoga mat

A nicer pair of dressy  sandals

More packets of dried food (knorr pasta sides, etc.)

Cliff bars, energy bars, etc.

Tuna packets (you can find sardines here but tuna is almost 3 dollars a can)

Workout gear

More photos of my family and friends

A small projector (I got one brought over for me and cost me 85USD. It’s perfect for movie nights and doing presentations)

Lots of charging cables

A small and light extension cord

Small fan (you can also get decent ones here when you get ready to move to site, but not having one during training was brutal)

Essential oils (can be used to do all sorts of things, especially when it comes to repelling bugs)

A good set of twin sized bed sheets. (SHEETS ARE EXPENSIVE and the sheets here not always that comfortable. Dig up your bedsheets from freshman year of college and bring them along)

 Here’s a list of things you can totally live without, but are nice to have:

 For the Cook in You:

Rennet tablets (for cheese     making- a project I’m still learning how to prefect)

A scoby to use to start making your own kombucha

Lots and lots of spices (you can buy them here but they’re expensive)

Measuring cups and measuring spoons

A small KitchenAid type  handmixer and blender

A mini mortar and pestle

Beeswax

Cheesecloth

Small bottle of Truffle oil

Peanut butter

Lots of water flavoring or     Gatorade packets

Oatmeal packets, dried food     packets

Dried cheese powder (cheese     isn’t a thing here and you’ll miss it more than you realize)

Bottle opener and wine opener

Any snacks you can think of     that you can eat without preparation (training is rough when it comes to     food verity, I legit ate a can of green peas once because all I wanted was     something besides rice and sauce)

 For the Workout Fanatic:

Soccer ball (I had a deflated     one sent to me, just add it to a care package list you won’t want to take     this with you)

Soccer cleats

Soccer socks

Resistance bands

Yoga mat

Arm band for iPod or phone     for music

 For the Gardener:

A good pair of gardening     gloves

Packets of all kinds of seeds

A small hand shovel and small     hand rake

  For the Hiker and Camper:

A hammock with a mosquito net     or a small tent

Carabineer clips

An ultralight sleeping pad

Compressable pillow (I     recommend ThermaRest brand)

Moleskin for blisters

A dry bag to store your stuff     when it rains

A steripen for water

 For the Future Pet Owner:

*I got a kitten in Guinea and it was the first thing I did when I got to site. If you’re preparing to get yourself a furry friend, here’s a number of things you’ll want because buying anything pet related in country is super expensive

Cat or dog collar

Flea collar or medication

Small toys for them

Deworming medication

 Things you can leave at home or could buy in Guinea:

High-heels. Trust me on this. You will never wear them (except maybe at Swear-In, but if you want there     are places to find cheap heels here.) Save the space in your bag.

Most kitchen utensils (but I  would suggest bringing at least one fork and one spoon)

A lot of books- theres lots     of them here at the regional houses and if you bring a kindle or tablet,     you can buy more or trade kindle books with other volunteers

A portable camping shower     (you’ll get use to bucket baths and trying to set it up was much more     effort than it was worth.)

A hair straightener and mini     blow dryer. (You won’t use them)

 That’s all I’ve got for you! I hope this list helps and if anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me or shoot me a message!

  Sarah

#peacecorps #packinglist #lifeofapcv #howiseepc #theroadnevertraveled