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thephantomofthe-internet · 4 years

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A Fool for Love| Steve Harrington x Reader

MASTERLIST

Words: 7,354 OOF

Warnings: swearing, Shakespearean English, general fluff

Author’s Note: So I got inspired by @jxnehxpper‘s headcanon on Steve being a secret theatre lover and set to giving us what we deserve-Steve being a little theatre kid. And then I told her about it. And then I reread it. And now I’m doubtful of what this even is and how long it is. Good luck I guess

Tag List: @marvelslut16 @shinydixon @jxnehxpper

The laces were too tight. You couldn’t breathe. You were going to faint once you got up there. And your sleeves were too tight. You were already sweating through the long sleeves. Damn your overconfidence and crappy old patterns. And damn the seventies for making their bodices too tight and tan suede lacing so pretty over rouge coloured linen. And your shoes were too loose; they were going to fall off the second you took a step. Stupid Tammy Thompson and her stupid wide feet. You weren’t even supposed to be here.

Mrs. Blackburn loved to plan out a big spring show without thinking about how many students would be there on auditions. She chose these bombastic plays without thinking about who was actually going to be there. The drama club was made up of about ten members, who’d all be there on audition day, and that was usually it. And Mrs. Blackburn would throw a fit about it to you, her trusted right hand man with a plan. Then she’d spend her classes kissing ass to get students to come out for promised roles after stroking their egos enough to get them to bother with extracurricular theatre. Most kids took the class for an easy A, a quick passing grade that would boost their GPAs without making them want to claw their eyes out. Only a certain type of student would go through with this sort of embarrassment.

So when Mrs. Blackburn announced the spring show to be an abridged version of Twelfth Night, a choice you thought was decent enough. Cutting down the b-plot with Malvolio and the servants made the story run smoother and cut a metric crap ton of roles. Unfortunately, Mrs. Blackburn didn’t have the heart to cut the fool, which meant that she needed another guy to be in the show. And your little crew of nerds only had two boys. If only cross dressing was something she deigned to allow, alas Mrs. Blackburn believed firmly in women playing women and men playing men, which made it even harder to cast anything. It was ironic, knowing the actual plot of the play she’d chosen. Still, now she had a little challenge to hum and ha over for a month before casting the thing.

It was during this casting point that you heard quite possibly the worst idea you’d ever heard.

You often ate lunch in Mrs. Blackburn’s classroom. The entire drama club did. It was a nice, quiet place where no screaming teens or bullies could attack a boy for trotting around in a kilt from costume cupboard and kick a girl for her looks if they didn’t conform to what was considered pretty by the rest of the school. A hodgepodge of personalities grew in there like bacteria. Usually, there shining saviour would eat in the teacher’s lounge with the rest of the staff, but as shows got closer, she’d make sporadic appearances.

“Y/N!” the door slammed open, Mrs. Blackburn standing in the doorway, her wild red curls bouncing wildly around her tiny face, her thin pointed glasses slipping off her nose. “I’ve done it!”

“You’ve done what?” you looked up from your sack lunch. Mrs. Blackburn looked a mess. Her olive green paisley skirt was stained with coffee and her raggedy cream blouse was flashing her bra to the world. She looked as if she’d gotten dressed in her donation bag. You had a sort of love-hate relationship with the woman. She was like a second mother to you, which meant that you loved her unconditionally but hated her in the moment.

“I’ve found us a diamond in the rough,” she marched over to the desk. As always, you’d taken over the teacher’s desk. You were the only person she trusted to sit there with her unmarked tests and unopened lipsticks gifted to her by Lisa Gardner’s Avon selling mother. Her hands slapped the fake wood “I’ve found our Duke Orsino.”

You watched from behind her as both Gordon Fisher and Dale Michaels deflated behind you. The only boys in the club would kill for a leading role. They shouldn’t have to kill, there were only two of them; there shouldn’t be a fight at all. But Mrs. Blackburn liked to do a bit of stunt casting within the Hawkins High School student body.

“No one has been chosen yet!” you turned you attention directly to them. Of course, that was a blatant lie. Both you and Mrs. Blackburn already had pretty much the entire show cast before auditions had even been announced. Dale would play the jester, who Mrs. Blackburn had flagrantly rewritten as a sort of narrator, believing herself capable of rewriting Shakespeare, and Gordon would play Sebastian. He was fundamentally much more attractive than Dale, and much less mockable. Dale was the kid hiding in the classroom in a kilt from Tommy H, which he was wearing because he ripped his pants and didn’t want to walk around with his stained tighty whities.

You turned your attention back to Mrs. Blackburn, a small excited smile spreading across your face. “Who is it?” you asked.

“Oh he’s simply marvellous! He’s in our afternoon class, a Mr. Harrington!” Mrs. Blackburn had a dreamy grin spread across her face, her hands linked together in front of her chest.

Your smile dropped “Steve? Really?” This had to be a joke. Steve was in your drama class so to speak, he was never there. He skipped every class and only showed up for tests and to do graded performances. And his performances were shit. He was never off script and even with the script in front of his face he couldn’t keep the lines straight. He was useless!

“Oh yes yes! We had a very interesting conversation just a few moments ago and he’s very intrigued by our production and I think that he’ll make an interesting, dynamic choice for the role!” Mrs. Blackburn mused, her arms floating around as she spoke as if she was performing Swan Lake instead of properly explaining her decision.

“So, he’s coming into audition?” you asked slowly, leaning on your elbows. Mrs. Blackburn nodded. That was a surprise. The great king of Hawkins high bothering to join the unwashed, artistic masses? That was a shock. You expected him to just demand the role to be his. Not that you thought he’d read the play. You doubted he’d even skimmed the Cliff’s Notes.

“Yes, I’ve already signed him up. By the looks of it, if all the auditions go well we’ll have a full cast without call backs.” She turned her attention to the cowering masses behind her, all staring up in awe. Well, all except Robin Buckley. She wasn’t really a part of the collective though; she was just there for Tammy Thompson.

“Alright, then I can’t wait to see what he does…” you replied with a small smirk. Everyone else in the room was thinking the same thing: Steve Harrington was going to choke. The second Mrs. Blackburn left the room, everyone began their muttering and musing. The only person who seemed to sympathize with the kid was Tammy, who kept whining about poor, poor Steve and how he was going to make a fool of himself. Everyone had seen Steve’s failings with performance, most of the room either spent their free period in your drama class or had taken drama with him in freshman year. His misgivings were known throughout the little crew, even Robin seemed to understand that the kid just wasn’t talented.

And when auditions rolled around, you except the worst. As always, you were playing stage manager slash costumer for the production, your chosen role, and you sat at the back of the classroom with a clipboard and red pen in hand. You had the audition list copied on a few sheets of paper with the role presumed to fit them best. You’d seen most of the room audition a million times before. Both you and Mrs. Blackburn had a clear idea of what was going to happen. And, for the most part, it all fell into place. Tammy, despite her pleas to be Viola, was much more suited to the prissy and rich Olivia; Dale actually wanted to be the fool, which made your life easier, now you wouldn’t have to crush him dreams; Heather Holloway would happily play Viola, which you were more than happy to give her; and sweet little Nicole Chandler would play the nursemaid Maria.

Then, there was Steve Harrington and Gordon Fisher. Gordon had come in and bashed all of your notions of him being fabulously brash and boisterous Sebastian by auditioning instead for the powerful and yet underwhelming awkward Duke Orsino. And he was great! He was better than great!

And then there was Steve. He was terrible. Just plain awful. He didn’t look up once from the crumpled photocopied pages he held in his fist and he didn’t seem to know what he was saying. No, scratch that he had no idea what he was saying. He wasn’t so much playing a character but instead just trying to pronounce the words on the page and string them together in complete sentences. It was painful. But, to Mrs. Blackburn, it was perfect. She clapped when he finished, smiling far too wide as she egged him on. She kicked you under the table to follow suit and you added in a few slow claps. With a hefty dose of praise hefted on him like whipped cream, she sent Steve off and turned her attention to you.

“He’s perfect,” she said. You almost expected her to let out a dreamy sigh, like a love struck teenager instead of a married middle aged woman. She just looked so happy about the whole thing. You took a bit of secret joy in popping her bubble.

“Gordon was much better for the part.” You slipped your pen behind your ear and crossed your arms over your chest. Mrs. Blackburn’s thin mouth dropped open into a tiny ‘o’, only really defined by her cherry red lipstick.

“What?” she cried before composing herself “No, no Gordon was fine, he’ll make a fabulous Sebastian, but Steve is what I want for the Duke.”

“Are you sure I mean-” You couldn’t help but try to argue the point. You knew in your heart that the little shows you helped put on weren’t award worthy by any means but you still took great care in making them as good as possible, if only as a self-serving move to make them watchable from the booth.

Mrs. Blackburn shook her head, her tiny mouth pulling into a stern frown. “The decision is made. You cannot change my mind, Y/N.” she said flippantly, turning away from her to collect her papers. “We’ll have the list up by Monday, yes?”

You swallowed and nodded once. Mrs. Blackburn swept out of the room, her silver bracelets clattering together as she left. Once the door shut, you let out a heavy sigh and put away your clipboard. You’d type up the temporary list and deal with your temperamental director. First, you had to find Steve.

You found him hunched over at his locker. If you didn’t know him better, you’d say that he was ashamed. But he was too much of a cocky shit to ever feel ashamed of his own showboating. And what you just saw was showboating. There was no other way to explain it. He didn’t care about the show, or the play, he only cared about himself and showing off.

You tapped him hard on the shoulder. Steve turned his head. He wasn’t certain of your name but he recognized you from only a few minutes prior. He wanted to disappear. He’d just made a complete fool of himself and now had to atone to his butchering of words he didn’t quite get.

“Look, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but if you’re just signing onto this thing to fuck around and make fun of people, I suggest you back the fuck down. Fisher and Michaels might stand down to your asshole buddies but I won’t.” you sneered, planting your hands on your hips and straightening your back to reach your fullest height. You had never been in a fight before, at least not one that wasn’t staged and within a classroom setting, but you’d stand up for those kids. Anyone who volunteered themselves for theatrical productions were doing something vulnerable, and vulnerability wasn’t something that could be taught or captured in a bottle, it was something given that should be protected. And you vowed to protect them from someone with ill will, if only to make your show better.

“Look,” Steve swallowed hard, looking away from you. Your gaze was searing into him and he was already embarrassed as is. He didn’t think he could blush any harder. “I’m not bullshitting. Mrs. Blackburn offered and I said yes, that’s all. No buddy’s gonna find out about this.”

You watched him squirm like a worm on a hook. He looked genuine. His eyes spoke more volumes than his words. You nodded, letting out a sharp breath through your nose. “Alright…” you turned on your heel and walked off without a goodbye to the thoroughly embarrassed boy.

Once the work started, it was a wash of a production. You wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Tammy was over the moon that Steve Harrington was joining them to play pretend and thrilled to explain to him that his character was in love with hers. He seemed horrified by the idea but dutifully played along. Gordon was beyond pissed, having to watch Steve stumble through lines and direction given by Mrs. Blackburn while he waited for his shot to do any acting at all. Robin was pissed too. Mrs. Blackburn had roped her into the production to do a few flute solos in pivotal scenes, which meant her having to watch the scenes she’d be playing in and you’d have to make her a little costume to wear. You’d been given your budget and some ancient patterns from Mrs. Blackburn’s collection, a 1970s renaissance faire dress pattern that didn’t fit in at all with the period. You bit back complaints about how little money you had to make anything nice.

You silently thanked god for Heather Holloway and her rich parents. They would pay to have her costumes done separately from your handiwork and all you’d have to do was make some decent things for the rest of the cast. You’d be sewing until your fingers bled. You were just thankful that you had made patterns for men’s pants in the same style of the dresses. You wouldn’t have to draft different sizes off a thin parchment pattern for them. Nicole, Tammy, and Heather were all around the same size so you’d only need to two different sizes of pattern. The project would be fairly simple.

Which meant that Mrs. Blackburn had to throw a wrench in everything.

She asked you to speak with her after your afternoon class one month into rehearsals. You stood awkwardly in front of her desk, your trapper keeper clutched tight to your chest, a few fingers bandaged from pricks and pokes from rouge pins and needles. You’d spent the night before alternating between putting blocking notes into your script and hemming the skirt of Tammy Thompson’s pale yellow dress. You’d bought a very pretty pale yellow brocade fabric with thin gold laurel patterns over the material and it was heavier than expected but it looked rightfully rich enough for a duchess to wear.

“Now, I might have overestimated Mr. Harrington’s acting abilities,” she said quietly, looking between you and the door. Steve was the first out of the room when the bell rang, he wasn’t lurking by the door waiting to hear you shit talk him. “He’s not performing well.”

“Well yes, I tried to tell you that when we auditioned him.” You replied, trying to hold back an eye roll.

“There’s no need to be bitter, he’s salvageable.” Mrs. Blackburn turned her attention to erasing the board. She had a freshman year drama class after this and the smelly youths would burst through the door at any moment. “What we’ll do is simply give him some extra help, less time working with the others and have him focus on really working on his lines. He’s not off book anyway.”

You nodded “So, what do you need me to do here?” Mrs. Blackburn reached into her desk and pulled out her pads of excused late slips, pulling out a pen and scribbling out your student information.

“Well, I can’t very well stop blocking the performance and we need to start heading over to the theatre soon. So you’ll handle helping Mr. Harrington from here on out.” She said nonchalantly. Her hoard her stinky children burst into the room, taking over the class with sound and fury, signifying nothing but an assault on your eardrums.

“So, and just for clarification here, you want me to make all the costume, stage manage the production, and teach Steve his lines?” you asked, taking the green slip she dangled out in front of you.

“Well yes of course that’s what you signed on to do and we always come through on what we choose to do.” Mrs. Blackburn turned her attention to her classroom, clapping twice to grab their attention. You knew that this was your cue to leave and you slinked away with your tail betwixt your legs, put back in your place by the older woman. You could’ve screamed. Teaching lines was not what you signed up for. Working with Steve was not what you signed up for. You signed on for making costumes and stage managing. Steve was not a part of the equation. He wasn’t even associated with the equation. He was a whole separate equation that you weren’t supposed to be tasked with solving.

And yet when Mrs. Blackburn announced that the rest of the cast would be heading to the theatre and you’d be staying behind with Steve to run lines, you didn’t complain. Steve did, he wanted to see the theatre, but you stayed silent, waving them goodbye as they left the cramped classroom. You and Steve stared at each other for a moment, silent and awkward, before you reached down and picked up the paper grocery bag you’d brought along with you and pulled out the pretty rouge pink linen you’d bought to make Nicole’s dress. You lay it flat on the desks and unfolded your newspaper patterns.

“Alright, sit.” You pointed to the desk in front of you and opened your patterning kit, pulling out your white tailor’s chalk and sewing scissors. Steve obeyed, tucking himself into the desk. You looked up with a forced smile “Alright, this is how we’re doing to do this. You are going to perform the lines without your script. When you need a line, say line and I’ll give it to you. Repeat it and then start again from the top. We’ll do that until you can say the whole thing without stuttering or calling line. Got it?”

Steve swallowed hard “Got it.”

“Alright, we’ll start from the first scene.” You pulled out your copy of the abridged play. Steve looked at you for a moment, confused and you summoned him to begin.

He took a heaving breath and you began pinning your pattern pieces to the material. “If music be the food of love, play on, give me…” Steve began, already stuttering. He went silent before shamefully asking “Line?”

You looked up with a raised eyebrow. You were hoping for at least a few lines to be known before he needed help. Mrs. Blackburn underestimated how little he knew. “Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting the appetite may sicken, and so die…that strain again!” you read out, monotone before turning your attention to Steve “Start again.”

He spouted out the dialogue, just a nervous as before and stuttering all the while. You managed to get through pinning the skirt piece down before he called line again. He only got through a line of dialogue past your last prompting. Steve looked utterly defeated and small in his seat. “I can’t think like this…” he muttered.

“The stand up. Or pace. Whatever you need to do. Just get through the speech here,” you said with a sigh “Do you need the line?” Steve nodded sadly and you read out the next line and Steve started again.

“If music be the food of love; play on, give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken and so die…that strain again! It had a dying fall: o’ it came o’er my ear like the sweet south that breathes upon a bank of violets; stealing odour…enough, no more!” he took a heaving breath. He was halfway across the room now and staring at the wall. You had turned your attention to him and were watching almost in awe. He knew the lines. He knew the whole speech. When he finished, he looked to you as if for the next line. You didn’t give it, instead you stepped out from the desk.

“You know the lines…” you breathed. It wasn’t a good performance, but he was off book. He was putting in work. You were impressed. Surprised, but impressed.

“When I’m walking around the room I do…” Steve chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with a small smile.

“But you have no idea what you’re saying…” you breathed, watching as Steve deflated, giving a small nod.

“Why can’t he just write what he means, I get it’s supposed to be like poetry or whatever, but it makes no sense.” He pushed himself up onto the desk, crossing his legs under him.

“It helps to think about the character as a whole. What do you know about the duke?” you asked, taking a step back to approach the scene with script in hand.

“I mean…he’s a duke, which is an important person with a lot of people who work under him, and he’s in love with Olivia, who’s a rich duchess,” he counted them off with his fingers, chewing on his lower lip as he thought.

“Exactly!” you stopped him mid-sentence, pointing excitedly “He’s in love with Olivia and Olivia doesn’t love him back, right?”

“Right?” he had a right to be confused; Mrs. Blackburn had given Tammy the note to stop playing Olivia so moony eyed over Orsino for weeks now. She hadn’t stopped, despite swearing up and down that she wasn’t trying.

“She doesn’t, and so when he’s talking about love and music, do you think he’s happy to hear the music or not?” you asked.

“I mean…I guess yes and no?” you raised an eyebrow at him. That wasn’t the exact answer you expected. He continued “Cause he’s love sick, and being love sick is fun and terrible at the same time. He talks about being sick in the speech.”

You nodded “Yes! And when he says that he wants to surfeit, that means to like overdose. He wants to die from all the love. He’s overwhelmed by it all.” Steve’s smile grew. For the first time, he felt like he was getting it now. When you explained it, the scene made sense.

You reached for your scissors and picked up the material, taking a deep breath before making the first cut in the fabric. “Alright, now I want you to take all that stuff I told you and try to put it on the words.” You said, gesturing with your finger for him to start again.

And he did. He did the scene over and over again, pacing the room while trying to feel different things. It was easy to be overwhelmed-he was overwhelmed. Everything he was doing overwhelmed him. It didn’t help that you were watching him. He didn’t like being watched. And you kept smiling at some parts and frowning at others. He wanted you to smile all the way through it. That meant that it was good, that he was doing good. And he liked your smile. This was the first time he’d seen it directed at him.

“Alright,” you stopped him mid sentence, holding out a flat palm out “Enough pacing. The blocking has you seat in like this big chair.” You stepped out from behind the desks and pulled out a chair, placing it in the centre of the room. “Sit down, we’re going to put it altogether.”

Steve gingerly sat in the chair, positioning himself the way Mrs. Blackburn had instructed with his legs splayed wide and his right elbow propped on his knee, holding his head up. With a heavy breath he started again “If music be the food of love, play on…fuck!” you looked up from your work curiously “I forgot the line already! I keep thinking about the words and the meaning and the emotions and the meter-I can’t do it all.”

You nodded, pulling the pins out of the pattern and marking the pieces numerically. “Tap your foot to the beat of the words, one less thing to think about.” You said, capping the pin box. “Do it one more time and then we’re done. They’re finishing up at the theatre now, we have to vacate ASAP.”

Steve tried your trick. It worked. He was shocked. You knew so much about this stuff. He didn’t know anything about any of this. He felt like a doofus. But you helped him through. He thought it was a onetime thing, but every rehearsal you’d take him aside and work on the words. Mrs. Blackburn had cut the thing down to about two acts, still longer than most parents wanted to sit through, but better than five acts and two intermissions. He didn’t know how he was going to do this at all. Still, he felt safe with you watching. He could perform to you instead of the audience.

For your part, you liked working with Steve. You didn’t think that you would, but he was pretty self sufficient with the piece after you gave him your Cliff’s Notes version of the text to help him understand the scenes he had to do and the context of the play as a whole. And he was funny. You didn’t know that he was funny. And he hated Tammy. Anyone who hated Tammy was a friend of yours. She was brutally annoying in rehearsals and at this point was refusing to kiss Gordon. And poor Gordon was more than over having Steve there, he swore that the guy was doing something to distract Tammy. Of course he was, he was existing in her world for the first time, but you were quick to defend him, because he was trying. It wasn’t his fault that Tammy couldn’t keep it in her pants or that Heather was more focused on her costumes than her performance. Still, nobody understood why he was there.

Sat with Steve at the back of the Hawkins Community Playhouse, you decided to ask him. “Hey,” you asked quietly. Gordon and Tammy were doing their little love scene on the stage below and Mrs. Blackburn would kill you if she could hear you talking. “Can I ask you something?” Steve nodded, looking up from his script.

“Why are you doing this show?” Steve frowned and you backtracked quickly “I mean, this isn’t your bag I just was curious…”

“Honestly?” Steve asked. You gave a half nod, trying not to appear too curious. “Mrs. Blackburn promised me that if I did this, she’d pass me for the year and that I can skip out on the final.” Your eyes blew wide. You were pissed. Not because he was only doing the show for a decent grade, but because you still had to prepare a monologue performance to perform for your final on top of all this work.

“That bitch…” you murmured “I wanna skip out on the final!”

Steve laughed “Ask! She was only gonna pass me, I haggled for the final.”

“She’d never. She wants to work me to death, I swear.” You chuckled darkly. You flipped up the tan suede Bodice you built, the lace dangling loosely from the eyelets. It looked good. It would look better on Nicole, for now it would have to look good on the floor.

Steve was called up to the stage and you returned to Mrs. Blackburn’s side, watching the ending go down, as Viola’s true nature is revealed and Sebastian is reunited with his sister. It was a messy scene, with the Malvolio plotline cut there wasn’t a scheme to reveal or a villain to unmask, so the scene became instead a bit of a wedding. You still wished you’d done A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, you would’ve actually auditioned for that show. Still, Twelfth Night was turning into a half decent show. You hadn’t expected Steve to bring anything, but he played the duke like a sort of well meaning dunce, a loveable yet hopeless fool. He just seemed to have fun, especially when Nicole and Dale were acting silly behind him. He just seemed to have fun with them, unlike Tammy and Heather who had no interest in playing and seemed to be fighting for who could look the most bored. It had been a long day, it was nearly eight o’clock at night and Mrs. Blackburn had sent her husband to go pick up pizza for the cast an hour ago. Everyone was exhausted, but you were supposed to do a full fitting for the cast after they were done.

Thankfully, Mrs. Blackburn ended the torture. “Alright,” she clapped once, calling an end to the scene “Let’s call it quits there. Y/N has brought all the costumes for the show with her today, let’s have a try on and then we’ll take our pizza to go. Sound good?” the whole room let out an exhausted half cheer and you picked up the massive duffel bag you’d brought from home.

“I hope everyone remembered their shoes,” you said, pulling out the first hanger, holding the intense yellow brocade with the golden Bodice for Tammy to take. “Heather, your stuff is here, right?” Heather scoffed, taking the three off the stage and picking up her own bag. You handed Nicole her dress and passed out the brown faux burlap pants and white puffy shirts. You’d made separate vests for each character-Steve’s a rich navy blue, Dale’s a jaunty royal purple with a matching jester cap from the prop closet, and Gordon a dull olive green. Their colours would have to do to differentiate them to the audience. Everyone left to do their try on and when they returned you were transported to the ren faire.

You stepped off the stage, joining Mrs. Blackburn in the fifth row. You smiled; the brocade looked lovely under the lights, as did the silver buttons you’d put on Steve’s vest. It was a bit wide. “Alright, Tammy you’re good to change, Steve stay put.” You jumped back onto the stage, stepping behind him. Up close, it was hard to look at him. He was too attractive. You were stunned that any man could look sexy in a stupid puffy shirt, but there Steve was, ruining your work relationship with him.

“Stay still, I’m putting pins in your vest, I don’t want to poke you.” You whispered, pulling a couple pins from your cushion. You felt Steve suck in a deep breath as your fingers grazed his lower back, tingles running up his spine. You pulled the material in a bit, pinning it flat. You noted that you’d have to add a couple darts to each side to make it fit better. It only took a few moments, but when you came back around to look over Steve he looked as if he might faint. “Steve,” he looked to you with blown out eyes “Breathe.” He nodded twice and you stepped off the stage. It was only a week until performances. He must have been scared shitless.

Steve was scared shitless. Of you. He didn’t know how to act when you were watching him. Well, he knew how to act, you’d trained him to play Orsino, but he didn’t know how Steve fit into your relationship. All he knew was that when he had to kiss Heather at the end of the show, he only had you on his mind. He couldn’t even look at you when it was over, he felt like he’d cheated on you. Which was insane, but the feeling stuck in his gut.

When the day of performances came around, Steve was shaken. He didn’t know what to do with himself. He hadn’t told any of his friends about what he was doing and yet word had gone around the school. All of his friends were coming opening night, he swore with pitchforks and rotten fruit to throw. When he got the theatre at four o’clock that afternoon, however, the whole cast was in a tizzy.

Heather was an hour late. And, according to Nicole, she wasn’t coming. “Her father’s hosting a benefit at the Carmel Country Club tonight, there’s no way that she’s showing.” She moaned. Mrs. Blackburn was already in the phone book, looking up the number of the club. She left to make a call, promising that Heather would never do such a thing.

Tammy was crying off her makeup in the corner, with Robin consoling her while trying to not get blackened tears on her white shirt. “She’s going to ruin my show! She’s ruining it!” she sobbed.

You were stood in the corner, unsure where to place yourself. Luckily, Mrs. Blackburn returned quickly. “I’ve just spoken to Heather,” she announced. The room fell into a hush.

“And?” you asked, looking up from the hot rollers you were putting in Nicole’s hair.

“And she’s not coming. She told me about this and I said it was okay. I guess I forgot.” Mrs. Blackburn replied. You knew that was bullshit, but you held your tongue.

“What’re we going to do???” Tammy cried out. That sent the room into an uproar, everyone talking over one another. Steve stayed silent. In truth, he was a bit glad to be rid of Heather. Maybe they wouldn’t have to perform.

“Now, now as we know in the theatre the show must go on!” Mrs. Blackburn cried. “Y/N, as stage manager, has been learning the blocking and pacing for the show. She will go on as Viola and I will make a speech before we go on! It’s all we can do!”

Everyone turned to look at you. You turned your attention to Mrs. Blackburn, walking over to her and whispering in her ear. “If I do this, I don’t have to do the final. You grade on this.” She looked you over and then turned once. You turned to the cast and sighed softly, nodding “The show will go on.” You shrugged, heaving up your trapper keeper.

“She doesn’t look right. She doesn’t have a costume.” Tammy whined.

“I will go to the school and get what we have left. I’m sure we have a pair of trousers and a puffed shirt for her to wear.” Mrs. Blackburn grabbed her purse off the makeup counter “Girls, work your magic on her.”

You put the last roller in Nicole’s hair and she grabbed your arm, pulling her into the chair next to her. “Grab that green skirt from last year!” Nicole called after her teacher “You’re gonna wear this dress for the opening. I’ll wear the skirt and whatever else she brings back, now let’s make you Viola.”

You were poked and prodded and burned until you were as close to looking like Heather as you were going to get. Then, you were stuffed into Nicole’s dress. Thankfully, Mrs. Blackburn had found two leftover puffy white shirts and a bodice, and the decision was made that you’d wear the rouge dress and she’d wear the green skirt from last year. It was a nice enough gesture, as was Tammy being forced to give up her extra pair of character shoes, which she did begrudgingly at the behest of Robin.

And then, you were stood offstage. And you were terrified. You’d never done this before. In your four years of stage managing, no one had ever called out of a performance, you’d never had to take over a role last minute. Your mind kept focusing on the discomfort of the costume. Nicole had tied your bodice too tight. Tammy’s shoes were too big. The skirt was too long. You were too wrong for this. You wanted to run. And then, the lights came up on Steve. Your breath caught in your throat as he spoke the opening lines so well and Robin began her first flute solo. Steve was doing wonderfully. With his left foot tapping lightly on the wooden stage floor, he knew what he was saying, even with distraction surrounding him. Internally, he felt as close to someone else as he’d ever felt in his life. Steve didn’t like that you weren’t in the audience to watch him, but he couldn’t see anyone with the lights on anyway. The audience clapped as he finished his scene and left with Dale, the lights going out fully as Robin cleared her chair and music stand and Gordon carried off the throne. Steve reached out and squeeze your shoulder with a kind smile.

“You have this,” he said softly. You heaved out a breath and stepped on the stage. You went right to the centre and right up to the edge, sitting down so your legs dangled off. You had no idea how Heather did this. You were too close to the audience. As the lights came up, you looked down at the lines in front of you. Dale stepped onto the stage in a sailor’s cap. He really had to play everyone in this stupid show. He nodded to you with a smile.

“What…” you voice came out in a whisper. No one could hear you. You took a breath, closing your eyes before trying again. “What country, friends, is this?” you asked loudly.

Dale’s smile grew. The scene was actually happening. “This is Illyria, lady.” He said, doing his best to sound like an old man.

The first scene was bumpy. Dale wanted to show off a bit and make the audience laugh, even though the scene was an info dump, which meant that you could just read the lines back to him and follow the blocking. You were more comfortable moving than you were speaking. But it got easier. Once you were dressed as Ceserio and working with Steve, things went smoother. You knew those scenes very well, the lines were almost memorized on your part from playing scene partner to him. Steve was fun to work with, he constantly made you smile.

It wasn’t hard for you to pretend to be in love with Steve. You felt like you were. Well, maybe not love. But like. Like a whole lot. And you were sure that he liked you to. Or maybe he was just that good of an actor.

The show went so fast. It was refreshing. Sat in the booth, it was a slog to get through, but onstage it went quick. You were nervous over the ending. You knew Heather’s last scene was a kiss with Steve. It wasn’t the passionate, intense kiss that Tammy and Gordon would do a scene before, but it was still a kiss. No matter how he felt about you, this was going to change your friendship forever.

You joined the cast last on stage, the who’s who of the plot being broken down, Steve was supposed to be mad when you came onstage, but he smiled like he’d seen what heaven looked like. You smiled up at Steve as the changed scene began, cutting the duel that leads the group into their explanations of the mix ups. Mrs. Blackwell hadn’t had the heart to cut a bit of Viola’s dialogue, so it lead the group into the explanations instead.

“After him I love, more than I love these eyes, more than my life, more by all the mores than e’er I shall love my wife.” You had no direction for what to do with the line. Heather had said it dramatically towards the audience. You turned your attention to Steve, caressing his face with your thumb. It was greedy, you were using the scene to get a bit of affection from the boy. You knew you shouldn’t, but you couldn’t help it. Steve seemed bewildered but happy, he fit the moment perfectly.

The scene continued as planned, with all the reveals shown to the characters and couples happily coupled off. Sebastian and Olivia were revealed to be married and that all was okay between Viola and Olivia once her gender was revealed.

Steve turned to you, smiling ear to ear “Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times thou never shouldst love woman like me.” He took your hands in his squeezing them tight.

“And all those sayings will I over-swear, and all those swearing keep me as true in soul as doth orbed continent the fire that severs day from night.” You replied, matching his giddy grin. The kiss was coming soon, he had one more line and then he’d plant one on you.

“Give me thy hand,” you both looked down at your still clasped together hands. The audience chuckled. Steve pressed on “And let me see thee in thy woman’s weeds.” You and Nicole rushed offstage and quickly changed you into the dress again. You were all butterflies and pins and needles, shaking in your loose heels. Nicole brushed out your skirt and smiled, escorting you back onstage.

The audience clapped politely on your return, you tried your best to smile although was hard to breath with Steve looking at you like that. He scooped you up in his arms and kissed you quickly before you had a moment to react. You swore that he had a line before this happened but you didn’t care. Your script was out of your hands anyway, he’d knocked it out of your hands when he lifted you off the ground. You swore you were flying.

And then you were on the ground. Steve cleared his throat. He was blushing madly. He remembered his line. He turned to Tammy, who was holding back a laugh before turning back to you.

“Cesario, come! For so you shall be, while you are a man; but, when in other habits you are seen, Orsino’s mistress and his fancy’s queen.” He announced, grabbing your hand and sweeping you off the stage, Gordon and Tammy in close pursuit. Dale and Nicole still had a scene, which Mrs. Blackburn had changed for them to share. You weren’t paying attention to them though.

“Nice work,” Steve breathed, squeezing your hand in his.

“You surprised the hell outta me,” you chuckled “Made me lose my script.”

“You look really pretty like this,” Steve said. You looked at him carefully. He was sweaty and shy, his eye barely met yours.

You smiled “Thank you, you look good in cheap period costumes.” You knocked your hip into his, making him stumble just a bit. He grabbed your hip, pulling them parallel to his.

“Yeah?” he asked, bring his left hand to grab your chin.

You smiled “Oh yeah, definitely,” you wrapped an arm around his neck, pulling him down to kiss you again as Tammy and Gordon ran to grab you for curtain call. You didn’t care. Looking into Steve’s eyes, you knew he wasn’t a good enough actor to fake the way he looked at you. And you swore the world went silent in that moment, nothing standing between you and the swirling stars and hearts in his eyes.

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ecoamerica · 24 days

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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duhragonball · 3 years

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For the Ask Game: Son Goku

Give me a character and I will answer:

Why I like them: Goku is the main character in Dragon Ball Z, an anime that I have enjoyed tremendously for over 20 years. He kicks aliens really fast and hard, and he eats wolves and bugs and clouds, and he’s very cool and good.

That may sound kind of basic, maybe even borderline sarcastic, but I’m not sure how else to put it. I’ve gotten so used to liking Goku that it’s hard to articulate why.

Like, okay, you know that one episode during the Cell Games, where he’s gonna pick apples from his favorite apple tree? And he does the special karate punch that makes the apples all fall out of the branches without really hurting the tree? In the dub, he says to the tree “Ready for one more round, old timer?” Or something like that, and then after he hits it, he’s like “See? That didn’t hurt a bit.” I’m not getting the lines right, but you get the idea. That’s some choice Goku right there. He’s friends with that tree!

Why I don’t: hE gAvE mOrO a SeNzU bEaN-- ha ha just kidding, but can you imagine not liking Goku? Because of something he did in some horseshit fancomic that doesn’t even count?

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of guff from people about Goku showing mercy to his enemies. This is humorous to me, because I’d bet you dollars to donuts that they’re fans of Vegeta and/or Piccolo, and that only happened because Goku decided to have mercy on their stank asses. “Well I like Vegeta because he kills people.” He only gets to do that because Goku allowed him to live. Best Green Dad doesn’t happen without Goku, period, end of sentence, new paragraph.

I’m not a lore expert like that guy on Twitter who only watched DBZ Abridged, but here’s some cool trivia for you: Cell could have self-destructed and destroyed the Earth at any time. It literally does not matter that Goku gave Cell a senzu bean before Gohan fought him, because Cell would have done the same thing no matter who beat him or how. If Gohan had wiped him out quickly, that nucleus would have survived and regenerated, and he would come back even stronger. The senzu bean just delayed the inevitable outcome, and not even by that much, because Cell wasn’t that worn out in the first place. The whole thing with the senzu bean was Goku playing headgames with Cell and no one seems to understand that but me.

But what about Moro, you ask? Hey, come here.

Closer. No, closer.

Listen to me. I love you, okay? But the Dragon Ball Super manga isn’t canon. Hating Goku over something he did in Super is like hating Superman for something he did in a Mad Magazine bit.

“Blargle blargle he doesn’t kiss his wife bad father, tournament of power--” I super mega don’t care about any of these ice cold takes. Every day I go on YouTube and it recommends me the dirt worst Star Wars commentary videos. “Maybe the SITH were actually the GOOD GUYS and the JEDI were the BAD GUYS! Huh? Did I just BLOW your MIND? Be sure to like and subscribe!” Every dope with a keyboard seems to think they can flip the script and pretend they’re some kind of genius. “Thanos was right!” “Magneto was right!” “Dr. Doom was right!” “Antifa are the real fascists when you stop and think about it!” “Masks and vaccines are bullshit, COVID-19 is a hoax, but if it were real, maybe it’s the good guy in this situation!”

I didn’t mean to go off on a rant here, but the whole point of Goku is that he’s a pretty cool guy, and the hero of his particular adventure, and you see all these people trying to outsmart that somehow, like it’s not the premise of the character. It’s like all those fan theories about how every show is really one character having a coma dream in the hospital. It’s fake-deep, like when Will Smith’s kid goes on the internet and says something like “Water isn’t wet when you stop and think about it.”

I’m not saying everyone has to like Goku, but I don’t get the hate-boner people have for him. I don’t like cole slaw, it’s soggy and insipid and I don’t understand it, but I don’t go around trying to convince people it’s not made out of cabbage.

Anyway, Goku’s awesome.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): It’s hard to choose, but DBZ #248 always fucks me up. I looked it up in my liveblog archive to get the episode number right, and the first line of that post: This one always fucks me up.

Moving on.

Favorite season/movie: In Dragon Ball terms, I guess this refers to the sagas, so I’ll go with Cell Games. Goku goes into the battle with this flawed, touch-and-go plan, and it works. He defeats perfection with imperfection, and it’s glorious.

Favorite line: “What I represent can never be destroyed,” is one of the most metal lines ever uttered, anywhere. It’s a threat and a moral lesson all in one.

Favorite outfit: Two answers for this one.

Shu’s outfit in the Fortuneteller Baba Saga was awesome. I used to wear yellow T-shirts to work, so when I put on my blue labcoat I would see myself in the restroom mirror and think: yeaaaaahhhhhh.

I’m also big into Goku’s look during the Cell Games, classic orange outfit, blue shirt, with the Super Saiyan form ready to go. That may sound obvious, since this is kind of Goku’s default look, but it takes a while to get all of this together. For me, it was a big deal to see Goku in action as a Super Saiyan in his standard fighting gear, because the whole time he was SSJ on Namek his shirt was ruined. Against Gero and 19 he was sick, but starting with the Cell Games, we get him fresh as a daisy, and it’s worth the wait. Harder to stealth cosplay, though.

OTP: Gochi. Come on. I don’t even care that much about ships, but they’re adorable on the show, and the internet backlash against Gochi only intensifies my defiance.

Brotp: I wrote a fanfic with Goku and Yamcha just joyriding in the desert, and that seemed pretty awesome, so maybe we need more of that.

I dunno, maybe I’m giving this to Bulma. They don’t get a ton of screen time together after a certain point in the show, but the bond between them is this really sublime thing. In the same fanfic, I wrote Bulma and Goku interacting, and that was just a pleasure to write.

Head Canon: I think Goku being an alien orphan matters more to him than he lets on. Early on, he knew he had parents but he didn’t know why they left him in the woods. Pretty much every interaction he has with the outside world is about him being different. Then he finds out he’s a Saiyan and all the Saiyans hate him for being weak and sentimental and so on. He can kick all their asses, but that doesn’t make him any less of an outcast.

I think becoming a Super Saiyan is a bigger deal to him than he lets on. That moment kind of serves as this unspoken proof that there’s more to being a “true” Saiyan than Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz ever knew. That maybe, if his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great granny could see him, she might approve.

Unpopular opinion:

Yukio Ebisawa is underrated.

A wish: I always wanted to see Goku style on Broly ‘93. It seemed unfair to me that they kept bringing Broly back, and even teased a rematch with Goku in Movie 11, only to not deliver on it. I wanted Goku to turn Super Saiyan 2 and Broly’d be all “oh noes!” and Goku would look at him and be all “Yeah. What now, bitch? That green shit won’t cut it anymore.”

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: I think my darkest fear about the Dragon Ball franchise is that it’ll get bastardized like Superman, where some giant multimedia corporation owns it, has no idea how to tell new stories with it, and refuses to let it lapse into the public domain. I have no idea how public domain works in Japan, but “Disney Toei’s Dragon Ball KH” doesn’t sit well with me. Hopefully I’ll be dead by the time that happens.

Like, Rise of Skywalker wasn’t that bad. But it did lead me to worry that they really have no idea how to make Star Wars work. They got it right enough, but the part where Rose is going to stay and guard the base or whatever, it just made me realize they’re only guessing, and they just happen to guess right often enough to succeed. And it’s not like you can jump over to some other studio and see how they handle a Star Wars movie.

5 words to best describe them: Ain’t nothin’ to fuck with.

My nickname for them: Geeko. Ha ha, just kidding.

#dragon ball #ask duhragonball #goku #son goku #jcogginsa

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alicedrawslesmis · 4 years

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Umm.... this's gonna be weird question , what's your top 10 les mis adaptation and why?

Thank you for the ask, friend! I’m in quarantine so here’s a very long thorough answer

(S/o to the webseries I haven’t watched, I know they would’ve made the list but I haven’t seen them yet!)

#10 Les Miserables (1998)

First, I didn’t want to put this movie on the list but it’s been a while since I’ve watched any les mis adaptation and it wouldn’t be fair to put an adaptation I don’t remember very well here (sorry les mis 1978). And Uma Thurman is great in the movie so if you only watch her scenes the movie is great. And Geoffrey Rush is always fun to watch. I don’t like anything else about it.

#9 Les Miserables - BBC Miniseries (2018-2019)

The beeb adaptation is. Flawed. But as time went by, I learned to appreciate Dominic West. He’s got the look of a desperate Valjean right down. David Oyelowo is a great Javert and if they had a better script this definitely would’ve been one of the great Valvert duos. The set design and background costumes are amazing. Props to the props department. Olivia Colman is there. Their Gavroche is super loveable. I love Lily Collins during Fantine’s fall. Erin Kellyman is perfect. Plus he’s there

#8 Les Miserables (1935)

I’ve a soft spot for Fredric March as Jean Valjean that’s why this movie is here. Tho this movie is very weird. It’s trying very hard not to seem too communist. Éponine is Marius’ secretary. The revolution only wants better working conditions for the galley’s prisoners? Marius is the leader of the amis. But this is a Jean Valjean acting show and there are beautiful images throughout. It’s a beautiful 1930s movie.

#7 Les Miserables - Glénat

This is a french comicbook adaptation and it’s great for Bossuet being a prominent character. It’s a pretty straightforward abridged version. And Marius does this

#6 Les Miserables (2012)

#5 Les Miz - Broadway Revival (2014-2016)

I’m only adding stage productions I’ve seen live, so the Dallas Theatre Center staging isn’t here, which is a SHAME

The musical is a very successful adaptation of the novel, artistically. The use of projections is very atmospheric, the cast was almost spot-on (tho there were a couple that I was just? confused as to why they were cast for that role… But anyway Kyle Scatliffe was A FRIGGIN DREAMBOAT OF AN ENJOLRAS 10/10 recommend). It has a broadway/touring friendly staging that sometimes doesn’t fully go as far as it could go, that’s why it’s number 5. But I love it anyway.

#4 Les Miserables (1982)

This is not a very well-liked version but I like commercial films that tend to the more artsy side, and Robert Hossein really Gets Me. It goes out of it’s way to make everything unappealing and dirty without losing the colour and the drama of the images (looking at you hollywood, I see you putting filters on everything to make things fake ugly. Why do you hate dirt, hollywood?). The movie is constructed beautifully. Very French Cinema. Very unsexy on purpose. I love it.

(Look at this Caravaggio drama!)

#3 Shoujo Cosette (2007)

IT’S A JAPANESE ADAPTATION OF LES MIS FOCUSED ON COSETTE MADE FOR KIDS AND IT’S GREAT

#2 Os Miseraveis Em Cordel - Klévisson Viana

This little book is a favourite of mine not because it’s very good (because it pretty much misses the mark entirely on what Les Mis is about) but because it’s a cordel. It’s a traditional form of Brazilian storytelling and it’s all in short verses and rhymes, meant to be read and/or sung for a group of people. It’s SO. CUTE. 10/10 I love it everyone who knows portuguese should read it

#1 The West End Stage Production (1985-2019)

Yes, I’m basic. There’s a reason this show ran for 30+ years, and it’s that grand spectacular staging. No other adaptation managed to capture the drama and the epic size of the novel quite as effectively as this. I miss you, revolve! I’ll never forgive Cammack for closing you because he didn’t want to pay royalties to the Royal Shakespeare Company anymore

#Anonymous #answer #les mis #les miserables #yes I used a stan lee gif sue me #long post

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bittysvalentines · 4 years

Text

The Science of Crushes

From @17piesinseptember

To @jackzimmermemes

Happy (Bitty's) Valentine's!! I hope you have a fantastic day.

Justin/Tater, general rating, no archive warnings

Justin is in the middle of packing-up when a man rushes into the museum's lecture theatre, startling him. Thankfully, he was only holding a packet of balloons and not one of the more lethal accessories he uses in his science demonstration.

“Can I help you?” Justin asks, starting to gather the balloons now scattered over the table.

The man’s figure is shadowy. The stage lights are on but Justin switched off the audience lights after everyone left. The only thing Justin can discern is that the man is tall.

“Have I miss the show?” the guy asks. He has an accent that Justin thinks is some kind of Eastern European. It sparks something in his memory but he doesn’t know why.

“Yes, sorry. I just finished,” Justin tell the man.

The man says something in a foreign language. Justin doesn’t know exactly what but he’s certain it’s a swear word.

“You have another today?” the man asks, walking toward him, every step bringing him more into the light. Not only is he tall, but he’s broad as well.

“No. Sorry,” Justin apologises, still gathering balloons. “I’ve got two tomorrow though. One at eleven and the other…”

Justin trails off as the man comes fully into the light and Justin realises why the voice was familiar.

The man is Alexei Mashkov, former Falconers player and Justin’s celebrity crush all through college.

Seeing him in the flesh brings a flash of the old attraction back and Justin’s heart speeds up despite him being fifteen years out of college and not having watched a game in years.

"The other?" Alexei prompts.

"At two."

"Okay. Will remember."

Alexei turns and walks out before Justin can quite process that he was in the presence of Alexei Mashkov.

True to his word, Alexei turns up to Justin’s 2pm show the next day.

Sure, Alexei asked Justin about his show times, but Justin didn’t really expect the man to turn up. Which adult comes two days in a row to the same kid-centric science and technology museum?

Justin deals with Alexei's presence by trying to ignore him and stick to his script. It doesn’t work. Alexei is the odd one out in the audience, not only because of his height and his fame (and Justin’s rekindled college-days attraction), but because he sits and takes notes during the whole show.

After the big finale with the liquid nitrogen and a balloon, the room clears quickly. Except for one person.

Justin swallows, throat dry, as Alexei approaches with the notebook in his hands.

Justin should have a better grasp on his hormones after having lived with them for 37 years. He apparently doesn’t.

“No kid?” Justin asks, because of the not-having-a-grasp-on-his-hormones thing, and it seemed better than blurting out that he used to have a poster of Alexei in his college dorm.

Alexei frowns, but responds. “I don’t have children.”

Justin’s stomach twists in embarrassment. “Sorry. I wasn’t asking that. That’s unprofessional. I mean, no kid here with you?” Justin isn’t making things better. He decides biting his tongue is the solution.

“Ah.” Alexei’s expression smooths out and he shakes his head. “Is no kid. Just me.”

“You came to the kids’ science show by yourself?”

Will biting his tongue was unsuccessful. He’ll have to try something else.

“Yes. I come to learn.” Alexei holds the notebook up. “Then can go back and tell niece about show.”

“That’s sweet,” Justin tells Alexei, while his brain is flipping out to see Alexei’s sweet side up close. It was always part of the narrative during his time in the NHL; ferocious on the ice and a big teddy bear off it.

“Thank you. She meant to be here but a few days ago, she fall badly,” Alexei explains. “Now can’t walk while healing.”

“That’s rough,” Justin empathises, surprised Alexei is still standing here engaging him in an actual conversation.

"Yes. Spending holidays in hospital not fun."

“Which hospital is your niece at? If you don't mind me asking."

"Royal Far West."

Justin nods. "I know it. I did a rotation there when I was in med school."

Alexei looks at the table covered with Justin's props. "You have gone to med school?"

Justin laughs at the look on Alexei's face. "Yeah. Burnt out after ten years though. It's intense."

"Intense. I understand this."

Alexei looks down (down!) at him and Justin feels like he's back in college. No, even worse. In high school.

Alexei holds his hand out to Justin. "I'm Alexei."

Justin catches himself from replying 'I know', finally on top (somewhat) of his hormones. "Doctor Justin Oluransi."

Alexei’s hand is rough and warm. And large.

"Doctor Oluransi." He smiles at Justin.

"Justin is fine,” Justin replies as a shiver runs through him at the way Alexei shapes his name. Maybe his college crush isn't as in the past as he thought.

Not knowing how to act on that, but trying to extend his time in Alexei’s orbit, Justin makes a suggestion. "Look. If your niece is stuck in a hospital bed, I can get in touch with the hospital and arrange to do a show there."

Alexei’s eyebrows raise. "You can?"

"Sure. I've done it before. We have a partnership with them."

"You are a saint,” Alexei says earnestly.

Justin flushes. "Let's see if the hospital approves it before declaring my sainthood."

Alexei throws his head back and laughs. Justin’s stomach feels fluttery and he subtly pinches his leg. Yep. It’s real. Alexei is laughing at something he said.

The hospital is more than happy for Justin to come and do an abridged version of one of his presentations. Then Justin is stuck with how he passes that information on to Alexei. The hospital could have done it for him but he wanted to speak to Alexei again. Thankfully, he's on good terms with a lot of the staff still, and when he explains the situation he's pointed in the right direction.

He finds Alexei's niece in a private room already crammed full of flowers and get well cards. If he didn't know after some late night googling that Alexei was childless and single (not that he's focusing on the second part) he would've assumed they were father and daughter. She has his exact colouring.

Alexei is thankfully in the room and chatting to his niece whose entire left leg up to mid-thigh is covered in plaster. Justin at least knows the language is Russian now, even if he still doesn't understand a single word.

The girl spots him first and says something to Alexei that puts a blush on his cheeks.

"Doctor Oluransi!" Alexei unfolds himself from the chair and comes over to shake Justin's hand. Justin's still not over how towering his height is. It's so rare anyone is taller than Justin. All the man has done is say hello and Justin's already got jelly legs.

"I don't have to do my presentation in Russian, do I?" Justin jokes, holding onto Alexei's hand too long.

"No, no. Sandra first language is English."

"Uncle Alexei is just teaching me Russian for fun," Sandra explains.

Justin turns to her, hoping he appears casual and not flustered because Alexei's now holding his shoulder. "For fun, huh."

Sandra nods. "Yep."

"I get it. I used to try to memorise the periodic table," Justin tells her.

"Already done that," she grins.

"Already--" Justin looks at Alexei who nods at the declaration. The pride for his niece is clear.

Justin must hold Alexei's gaze too long because Sandra clears her throat to get their attention.

"Uncle Alexei, can you get me a coke please?"

"Yes. Of course." Alexei turns to Justin. "You come also?"

"Actually," Sandra interrupts. "Can I ask you some science questions, Doctor Oluransi? Please?" She asks so innocently Justin gets the feeling there's an ulterior motive.

"Well, uh, I guess if it's okay with Alexei?"

Justin can't believe he just used Alexei's name like they're close enough to be on first name terms. He pinches himself. Yep. He really did that.

"Is okay,” Alexei confirms immediately. “I trust you. Plus, am very bad remembering facts, even after writing down. You will do better."

Alexei leaves them alone and Justin takes the seat by Sandra's bed. "What do you want to know?"

"Do you like my uncle?"

So much for Justin appearing casual. "That is not a science question."

"You're a scientist, so it half is,” Sandra points out.

Sandra's intelligence astounds him again. "I'd rather not discuss feelings I may or may not have for Alexei with you."

Sandra pouts. "Fine. Being in here is so boring though."

"So is my love life," Justin sighs.

Realising it's maybe inappropriate to have shared that, he moves on quickly. "I think I can make it less boring, though. I came here to--"

"So you do like Uncle Alexei!" Sandra sits up straight and fist-pumps.

"No.”

“But you just said--”

“I was talking about you being bored. Not my love life."

"Oh." She slumps back against the pillows.

"Right. Well.” Justin worries he isn’t making a good impression with Sandra. Not that it’s something he should be worrying about; making a good impression with Alexei’s niece.

“The hospital is letting me do a science show here on the weekend,” he tells Sandra.

Sandra's face lights up again. "That's so cool. Really?"

Alexei returns then with the coke. "What so cool?"

"Doctor Oluransi is doing a science show here on the weekend!"

"See?” Alexei crosses to them and places his hand on Justin’s shoulder. “You are like saint."

Justin's going to have to be more careful about letting his rekindled attraction show while Sandra's in the room. Thankfully, it’s impossible for her to see how fast his pulse is racing as Alexei’s fingers graze the skin above his collar.

“You forgot the straw,” Sandra pouts at her uncle.

“Ah. Sorry. Think I was distract.”

Sandra sends Justin an indecipherable look at Alexei's words.

“I go get now.”

Alexei shoots an apologetic smile at Justin. As soon as he’s out of the room, Sandra grins at Justin.

"You do like him," she declares, and takes a sip of her coke without waiting for the straw.

Justin doesn’t try and deny it this time.

Justin prepares for the show like he would any other, even though it’s at the hospital and even though he knows Alexei is going to be in the audience. He’s decided that even though he’s clearly still attracted to the man, there isn’t a future there and he shouldn’t spend time imagining one.

Alexei goes with Sandra back to her room after the show. Justin tries not to feel upset by the fact, but even without the daydreaming, a part of him was hoping Alexei would come and talk to him after the show (that part of him may have gone so far as to make Justin dream of that very thing happening last night).

Telling himself it’s for the best, and he should let his interest in Alexei fade, Justin is totally blindsided when Alexei finds him in an elevator on his way out of the hospital.

“Ah-ha!” Alexei exclaims, stepping inside. “I find you!”

Alexei doesn’t press any of the floor buttons. The doors close and the elevator continues taking Justin down to the parking lot.

“You were looking for me?” Justin knows it’s not possible for his heart to flip over in his chest, but it feels like that’s what happens when Alexei nods.

“Of course I look for you,” Alexei tells him. “Need to say how amazing show was.”

Alexei’s eyes are on Justin. His dreams haven’t done them justice. They’re so warm, Justin feels his blood heating just from staring at them.

The moment is broken as the elevator opens and a mother and son enter. Alexei shuffles in closer to Justin to give them room. Goosebumps run up Justin’s arm when their elbows bump. He’s never found his elbow an erogenous zone but there’s a first time for everything.

The child stares at Alexei. Justin sees the moment he realises who he’s in the elevator with. The kid’s jaw drops and his eyes widen. Justin hopes his face wasn’t that transparent in his adoration when Alexei showed up at his show that first time. It mustn’t have been, otherwise Alexei would have run the other way.

“You’re Alexei Mashkov,” the child announces.

“Honey, don’t bother the man,” the mother tells her son.

“Is no problem,” Alexei smiles and crouches down in front of the kid. “You can call me Tater.”

The kid beams. “Can you sign my cast, Tater?” The child lifts his arm. His cast is already half covered with scribbles. Alexei adds his name.

“Thank you so much,” the mother says as they exit at the gift shop floor, leaving Justin and Alexei alone in the elevator again.

Justin is thoroughly charmed by Alexei’s interaction with the kid. The college crush he had on the man that flared up when Alexei showed up at his first show hasn’t gone away like Justin was imagining it would. Every interaction they have, Justin discovers more of Alexei. And it makes him want to know even more.

Justin doesn’t think he’s in a position to ask for that though, not from a man he’s only interacted with a handful of times.

As soon as the doors shut, Alexei turns to Justin. Justin notices they aren’t standing as close anymore.

"Sorry,” Alexei apologises. Justin isn’t sure what for until he continues. “Happens a few time with me. Was hockey player in NHL for many years."

"I know,” Justin tells him.

Alexei blinks. "You know? You know who I am all times we talk?"

“I used to follow hockey," Justin admits.

Alexei shuffles on his feet, ending up closer to Justin. “Used to? Where we go wrong?”

Alexei smiles and Justin laughs. He never thought he'd be teased by Alexei Mashkov. Maybe asking Alexei out isn’t the ridiculous fantasy he first thought.

“You didn’t go wrong,” he assures Alexei. “I did a doctorate and that took most of my brainspace for 3 years. I never got back into it after that.”

“If you want to start again, I maybe get you tickets to a game?" Alexei suggests. "Falconers, of course.”

Justin's jaw drops. "Seriously?"

"Yes. Serious.” Alexei nods. He shuffles his weight again and ends up so close Justin can smell his deodorant. “You do so much for Sandra. You are great, smart, kind man."

Justin's insides melt. He knows it isn't possible, but he can’t think of another way to describe it.

“That would… That would--Yeah. Okay,” Justin stammers. “That's amazing, Alexei.”

“Okay." Alexei smiles. The right side of his mouth pulls up higher. Justin’s enamoured by it.

"And I go with, then. Like date.”

Justin’s brain short-circuits. He’d only come around ten seconds ago to the possibility of asking Alexei out. Now Alexei is maybe asking him out?If twenty-year old Justin could see him now.

“Like a date. Or a date?” Justin checks.

“Ah, I not want to pressure you.”

“I’m a grown man. I can say no if I want.”

“Are you say no?”

Justin is the one to move closer this time. “No way. I'm saying yes.”

#bitty's valentines #omg check please #check please #ransomtater #bv2020 #check please fandom

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gofancyninjaworld · 5 years

Text

Thoughts on One-Punch Man Season 2: But what about the story?

Second part: So much for the structure, what was the effect?

Just before the second season started, I posted about what I hoped I’d see, assuming it ended where it did. Let’s see how they did.

Yup, I keep cutting the words, but the bastards keep multiplying

The Story Itself

What I’d hoped for:

There’s a lot less of the monster of the week situation, this series. I love the care with which the Monster Association goes about attacking. What looked like random stuff (egregiously stretched out by the tournament), will come together to be a coherent and potent threat that will leave us viewers desperate to find out how the Hero Association replies.

[…]

And at the end of this season, even though we’ve had a very interesting time of it, none of it will be over. The stakes will have been delineated, the battle lines drawn and I really hope that J.C. Staff does enough to make it clear why we should care enough to come back for season 3 whenever it airs.

What we got:

No question about it, there’s a Monster Association and it’s pretty serious. We got their ultimatum to the Hero Association and there’s no question that they’re taking it seriously. The problem comes with the overall lack of energy and urgency in the treatment of the plot. We’re missing bodies, broken buildings, landed punches, follow through, all the things that sell that sense of urgency, of a situation that’s threatening to spin out of all control. Which is a pity, because then we don’t get the sense of relief once the monsters disappear, only to be replaced with foreboding as the Monster Association makes its demands.

They really can’t use time as an excuse for that. It was really bad scripting with a tendency to soft-soap all impacts by panning away at critical moments. It’s a real shame when episode 7 (19) is named ‘Class S Heroes’ – the heavy cavalry whom should turn the tides of battle – and we see very little of how they work. The rare times they have followed through with blows, the entire mood of the episode changes for the better.

It’s interesting that when chapter 84 was released, it felt like an excellent season finale. And it could have been, but for the lack of a build up in tension and urgency that should have been sustained all season long. So many missed opportunities – like little scenes of Atomic Samurai going in person to Bang’s dojo only to find it locked, more scenes of Bang hunting increasingly desperately for Garou, a running tally of heroes struck down by Garou adding pressure to his search… all sorts of things the manga has left wide open to be added to that would have created continuity and tension against the backdrop of a crisis that really, really needs the help of *every* hero.

Special note: Can I just say that Phoenixman is awesome in his garishness? He looks like a children’s show mascot put together by people on the last day of a ten-day bender. Guaranteed to give children nightmares. I love him.

Don’t believe the monster, kids

The Characters

Charanko: I wasn’t expecting anything of him, so honourable mention to him. I absolutely love the small but important addition J.C. Staff made to his story, whereby he came across Garou, heard and saw all the heroes the latter was beating up, and, despite his fear and knowledge of his weakness, went forward anyway. Fantastic!

Death Gatling: I’d been afraid that they’d undersell him. He wasn’t and I was very, very happy to see that. He’s ever inch as serious, tactically astute, and legitimately charismatic as he needs to be. They could have made Flashy Flash slightly more obnoxious to bring across the extent to which he felt slighted but that’s minor.

Looking at how fans took him, I’ve been a bit disappointed in the number of fans who don’t get that he’s far from wrong both in seeking recognition (although he did pick the wrong target to make an example of), and for not believing Garou, but that’s not a critique of the way he’s been presented. The thorny issue of recognition is something I’ve been mooting a meta on, but another day!

Garou: What I’d hoped for

I want to see the story of how Garou grows from a malcontent and apparent crazy to this juggernaut whose appointment with destiny cannot be stopped.

What we got:

I’d say this was fulfilled! His luck and unstoppable destiny come across well. I really like his relationship with Tareo and with Bang being expanded on.

Fans definitely have taken Garou to heart with very few people neutral on him. I appreciate the fans who correctly point out that he’s incoherent and hurting heroes who have done nothing to him on account of the childhood trauma he’s projecting onto them. Like him or not, he’s definitely been given the space he needed and it’s going to be very interesting to see how people change their views of him as the anime continues.

King: What I’d hoped for

I want to see King be exposed as a fraud and a coward who runs from danger and leaves people to die, then redeem himself as a decent human being and become the fraud and coward who stands before danger so people might live. That’s huge – he’s been running like a rabbit for years.

What we got:

Fulfilled. I love how his relationship with Saitama unfolded, pretty much note perfect. The scene of his wiling himself to courage is great; it and the flashback JC Staff added linked back to to where he started out quite nicely.

Who doesn’t love King? I suspect he arm-wrestled Mumen Rider for fan favourite, particularly as he’s so very ordinary a man in a world of demi-gods.

Saitama: What I’d hoped for

We see Saitama finally make a friend, get resolution as to why the world ignores him, and get to celebrate his progress, even as we learn how deep his sense of alienation goes. I love how it’s going to start with Saitama walking away from his disciple and end with Saitama running for his disciple and how nothing else mattered until he saw him safe and well.

What we got:

Mostly fulfilled. His stasis and ongoing dissatisfaction with life come across excellently. His feeling ever more irrelevant and removed from the flow of life is literally and metaphorically on show, even as we get to witness the life-changing impact of his punches on others.

Folk missed Saitama sorely, which is as it should be. JCStaff, bless their lily-livers, really did miss a trick in not having Elder Centipede continue disintegrating for several seconds – after having been parched for Saitama, that ludicrous scene really helped.

Genos (why always you, my friend?): What I’d hoped for

Last series, we saw Genos try and lose, try and lose, try and lose, try and lose yet again. This season, from the very first episode to the very last, we watch that process of change from a failing hero to a truly fearsome one fit to rub shoulders with the best of heroes. I want to see how it thrills us, entertains us, breaks our hearts and maybe we dare to hope for even crazier heights in the future.

What we got:

Hm. Let me paraphrase Dr Bofoi here: ‘It takes a special sort of stupidity to mess up this badly’. This is worth unpacking a bit as when things go wrong, we often get a better opportunity to see what makes them work. And I’m always interested in what makes communicating ideas effective.

For once, let’s start with fan reactions. The actions Genos takes on the screen are pretty much the same as in the manga (a little abridged in places, but more or less the same). After manga chapter 84, you got reactions like this: ‘ Genos from now on to me will no longer be a joke. He’s earned my respect.’ ‘…if he still had a human body, he’d have broken his limiter by now…’, ‘he really stepped up’, etc. After episode 12: it’s ‘oh, everyone can beat Genos’ 'he’s like a princess in distress’ 'he’s lucky that Garou wasn’t at full health’… ‘…that man has felt useless since when he first met Saitama during the mosquito fight…’

Manga readers are less scathing than anime only viewers, but they have the benefit of the manga and aren’t reacting to what’s actually presented on screen. Where the anime has made the case for Genos being awesome, as it did in episode 11 (23), fan reactions followed appropriately.

Interesting. How the hell did JC Staff create the diametric opposite reaction of the one Murata and ONE had elicited? Particularly when they made a decent fist of the other characters?

From the beginning, I’d worried most about Genos – the clumsy, lifeless sequences we saw of him in the PV inspired no confidence. With Genos both opening and closing out the season, they really needed to get him right to set the correct tone and leave the right taste in the audiences’ mouths. JCStaff have struggled most with his portrayal, both in visuals and action, although it came together nicely in episode 11 (23). Mostly, it’s Ishikawa’s sterling voice acting that has carried the character all season.

And then they silenced Ishikawa. A mix of stupid-lazy-desperate-for-time meant that for the last episode, they cut out all of Genos’s POV regarding how uneasy he still felt about the monstrous presence he couldn’t pin down, his shrewdly wondering how to find their headquarters, his initial assessment of the Elder Centipede and even how very carefully he thought before deciding to take action. They thought his amazing actions could speak for themselves. They were wrong.

It’s like having Garou act without benefit of flashbacks and assuming his actions will speak for themselves. They don’t! Without the benefit of our knowledge of his motivations and thoughts, he really is just a thug launching unprovoked attacks on heroes.

Instead of us seeing and understanding that Genos had learned, was thinking carefully on all he’d been told and the drastic action he took was because he’d weighed up the options and realised only someone sacrificing his life would save the others, we got the opposite. So what they created instead was a guy who wouldn’t listen to repeated good advice, took on a too-strong enemy and got his butt kicked. Again. And if there’s anything fans rightly hate, it’s a fool who won’t learn. As I pointed out earlier, Genos opened and closed the season – so the impression that nothing had changed really took a lot of any climactic feel out of the episode.

The title of the final episode didn’t help either. Instead of translating it as ‘taking responsibility for one’s disciple’ which would apply with equal force to both Bang trying to bring Garou to heel and to Saitama, rushing in to deal with a situation Genos couldn’t deal with, Crunchyroll went with the near-literal ‘cleaning up the disciple’s mess’ and Hulu with the literal ‘wiping the disciple’s butt’. Both of which set the viewer to see whatever Genos did as a mistake. Even though, ironically, he didn’t make any this episode. It’s a translation klutz like finding out that someone has translated the English idiom ‘catching Peter’s eye’ as ‘gouging out Peter’s eye’ instead of ‘being noticed by Peter’ (no Peters were harmed in the making of this sentence). That is out of JCStaff’s hands, but I hope that whoever does the DVD/Blu Ray has a better set of translators available.

Ah, it’s not worthwhile grousing. It’s not like they had the time to watch the finished episode back and consider the story they were actually telling. I don’t envy whoever takes up season 3. They have a lot of extra work to do to change viewers’ impression of the character and the source material isn’t going to help them. It's going to br difficult to explain why, when faced with a fool who won't listen to him and appears intent on self-destruction, Dr Kuseno would hand Genos an outfit that needs the most careful judgement to use with any degree of safety. For manga readers, it makes sense. For anime watchers some heavy duty retconning will be necessary.

While ONE cried tears of joy after reading Chapter 84, if he’s crying any tears after this season, they won’t be happy ones.

#opm #anime #season 2 #review #characters #story #please DON'T come back JCStaff #they didn't entirely suck #but they sucked too much to be entrusted with more #dodgy visuals can be redrawn #ropey sound can be remastered #but missing the point of major characters argh #that and poor scripting throughout

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lunawings · 5 years

Text

The Day Before the School Festival, in the Home Economics Room... (a King of Prism short story)

A legend from ancient times. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this may be the first King of Prism story ever published?

So, a little history: This short script was first printed in 2D Star Vol 2 back in October 2015, when King of Prism was just barely a thing. It was then directly referenced in the first King of Prism movie (screenshot at the end). Following this it was re-worked into an audio drama released on the movie soundtrack. (Then finally it was re-printed in the Music Ready Sparking fanbook, which is the version my translation was based on...)

(More notes and story under cut)

Translator’s notes: So the text below is based on the original script, not the audio drama. So if you listen to the audio drama you may find small differences such as lines missing/added or spoken by different characters. (I caught a few while editing, but there may be more I didn’t notice.) The biggest difference between the written and audio versions is the introduction to the audio drama was significantly abridged and I don’t blame them. The original Japanese text is really confusing for the first couple paragraphs and I had to re-write it over and over again. (They phrase it like Lu Seriana is a dance school but it’s... not?) Here it is, so if want to have a look. Let me know if you find any discrepancies.

This story takes place a year after Over the Rainbow was formed, in May. So about a year after the Rainbow Live anime but before King of Prism. In other words, the boys haven’t met Shin yet. Since you were kind enough to read my notes, you can find a link to the audio drama in the period of this sentence. The timing of this story’s release would mean the game Hiro is playing is more likely the now defunct Pretty Rhythm Shake, if anything haha. (Prism Rush was a twinkle in some game designer’s eye when this was written.)

And now without further ado....

The Day Before the School Festival, in the Home Economics Room...

It was the beginning of May when the cherry blossom petals had already fallen and new buds were beginning to sprout. This is when Kakyoin Academy holds their annual school festival, the “Kakyou Fest”. Kakyoin Academy is an all-boys junior and senior high school managed by Edel Rose, a organization founded by the late Kou Norizuki, which is known all over for being the best of the best.

The elite beginner prism training school “Edel Rose”, and the combined junior and senior high all-girls school “Lu Seriana Girls Academy” are just two examples of the many institutions all over the country under the large umbrella of dance schools which educate strongly through prism show activities. The male students of Edel Rose attend Kakyoin Academy for their basic education.

Due to the extreme popularity which comes with Kakyoin Academy having a student body of promising future stars, as soon as the annual school festival arrives fans from all over the country come running. The main target of said female fans is the prism show unit Over the Rainbow, formed about one year prior. Top solo idol Hiro Hayami had joined together with genius songwriter Kouji Mihama and charismatic street star Kazuki Nishina to form this same age, three member group.

The previous year a concert had been planned at the festival, but due to the large crowd it was cancelled at the last minute. This year it was announced in advance that Over the Rainbow would not be performing, which left many fans in disappointment.

It was those three popular stars who had secretly gathered the night before the Kakyo Fest in an empty home economics classroom...

Kazuki: Hey, is it really okay for us take the stage tomorrow?

Kouji: Yup! I got proper permission from the school and everything.

Hiro: Gah! Huah! ... But if we announce that we’re going to take the stage it will just be cancelled again like last year. Hiyah! This year have to take care to make sure it’s a surprise. Woah!

Kazuki: Well that’s all well and good but... Hiro, what are you doing there anyway?

Hiro: It’s a rhythm game. It’s a prism show game about us. You know, one of those smartphone apps. It’s pretty difficult. Auah! But my song “pride” is in it... Hah!

Kazuki: I see.... Well, what are we actually going to do on stage tomorrow, anyway? Well, I’m assuming a prism show, but...

Kouji: Well, about that. Actually...

Kazuki: Oh yeah, you wrote it about in the email didn’t you? ...Hey, wait. Hold on a sec. I guess I left my phone in the classroom. I’ll be right back!

Kouji: Okay.

*click, click*

Kazuki: Huh? I can’t open the door!

Kouji: What!?

Hiro: Is it locked?

Kazuki: Yeah.

Hiro: I’ll go check the other door. I wonder if someone could have locked it without noticing we were in here?*

(*In the audio drama the second line is spoken by Kouji.)

Kazuki: But the lights are on, so I’d think they would notice...

Kouji: Kakyouin Academy has an auto-lock system. So it’s possible the doors just lock automatically after a certain time.

Hiro: It’s no good. This door is locked too.

Kazuki: So does that mean we’re just stuck here now?

Kouji: I’ll try and contact the janitor... huh? Where’s my phone? Ah! I left all my stuff back in the classroom too.

Kauzki: Hiro, could you call someone? You’re the only one of us who has a phone.

Hiro: Okay! No prob!

*beep*

Hiro: Huh?

Kazuki: What’s wrong? Did something happen?

Hiro: The battery is dead...

Kazuki: WHAT! Hiro, it’s because spend day to night playing too many games! Now what do we do?

*click click* *click click* *bang bang bang*

Kazuki: What is with this door! It won’t budge an inch!

Hiro: That’s Kakyoin Academy for you. You sure can feel safe and secure here!

Kazuki: What are you so excited about!?

Kouji: If we go about making a big racket we’re just going to end up causing trouble for the school. So simmer down a bit, okay?

Kazuki: ...Kouji, you’re so calm... Well, I guess you’re right. Panicking isn’t going to get us anywhere.

Kouji: Oh yeah! I’m starting to get hungry, shall I make us something?

Hiro: Good idea! I’m starving!

Kazuki: And how are you expecting to make something here!?

Kouji: Easy! This is a home economics classroom so there’s bound to be some food in here somewhere.

Kazuki: Well... I’m sure you’re right, but there probably isn’t going to be much to work with.

Kouji: Look, look! There’s meat, fish, vegetables, and even seasoning!

Hiro: They are probably using this space to store ingredients for the festival food stalls.

Kazuki: But is it really okay for us to use this stuff?

Kouji: This is an emergency situation! We’ve got no choice. Hang on everyone.

Hiro: Suddenly this got exciting!

Kazuki: Good grief. What did we even come in here for anyway? ...Oh yeah! We’re doing a prism show tomorrow, right?

Hiro: Actually, no. We’ve been told we can’t perform a prism show because it will cause a big commotion again.

Kazuki: Oh. Well then what are we gonna--

Kouji: Sorry to keep you waiting!

Kazuki: That was fast! Finished already?

Kouji: Yeah! I wanted to make sure to get it to you while it’s still hot.

Hiro: Woah! What’s all this?

Kouji: Well, first up is amuse-bouche.

Kazuki: W-What did you say? A music bush!?

Kouji: It’s a French appetizer. Something to cleanse your palette with.

Hiro: Oooh! Today you’ve made us a French full course?

Kazuki: K-Kouji! Don’t tell me you’re making a full course meal in a home economics classroom!?

Kouji: Why not? After all, it’s even more important to build up your strength when you find yourself in a pinch, right?

Kazuki: Well... I guess so but...

Hiro: I agree with Kouji! Well. And what do we have here?

Kouji: “In a fateful encounter between the octopus conveniently laying around in the home economics room for takoyaki and the dice cut tomatoes for tacos, cold marinade Napoleon Bonaparte's Campaign in Egypt assortment”!

Kazuki: What a name! What kind of a dish is it!? Napoleon did what now?

Hiro: I’m sure we’ll find out when we try it. *gulp* *chew* Amazing! The refreshing sensation of Napoleon’s arrival in Egypt is spreading through my mouth!

Kazuki: Woaah! This is great! I don’t really know what it has to do with Egypt, but you’ve really outdone yourself, Kouji! To think even in a tight spot like this you still bring your A game to the table...

Kouji: Eheh, thank you! Next is the hors d'oeuvre. “With a fresh egg taken this morning from ‘Hana-chan’ in the school hen house and the spring cabbage raised in the back garden by the principal, all conveniently found in the home economics classroom, in the style of Vasco da Gama’s Arrival the Cape of Good Hope!”

Kazuki: First Napoleon and now Vasco da Gama!? What is all of this supposed to represent?

Kouji: Just try it and you’ll see!

Kazuki: You’ve sure got a lot of confidence in us...

Hiro: E-Exquisite! Aaah... I’m filled with the joy of seeing the Cape of Good Hope after such a long journey. All the deliciousness spreads far across the horizon!

Kazuki: Y.. Yeah... I guess it tastes something like that. But anyway, this really is good. Unbelievable...

Kouji: Next is “With potage of barbecued corn on the cob conveniently found in the home economics room, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address assortment”!

Kazuki: Now we’re going American...? I don’t know what the theme is anymore...

Hiro: Oooh! Amazing! This is truly a potage of the people, by the people, for the people!

Kazuki: Y... Yeah.. it’s good... I’m not quite sure what part of it has to do with Abraham Lincoln, but the flavor accent thanks to the barbecued corn is superb. ..Wait, is that a reference to southern America? Because you can grow corn there?

Kouji: Eheh. And now the main poisson, “Meunière with red sea bream caught in Akashi and conveniently left in the home economics classroom, in the style of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro shogun’s inauguration celebration with the white radish sprouts raised with love and care on a windowsill by Tamachi-sensei.” Bon appetite!

Kazuki: I don’t even know where to begin with this one... This looks like a meal from a five-star restaurant... What about Tamuramaro shogun.....

Hiro: Delicious! I feel like I could conquer the entire world at this rate!

Kazuki: It’s good... it’s so good I think I’m gonna cry....

Hiro: Eheh I’ll wipe your tears for you.

Kazuki: Thank you, Hiro... To think I’d eat something so good it would bring me to tears... Thank you, Kouji. Thank you, Hiro...

Hiro: Eheh.

Kouji: And last but not least, dessert! “Fondant au chocolat using the chocolate dipped bananas conveniently left in the home economics classroom with cotton candy and caramelized strawberry crepes. All with love... from the home economics classroom”!

(In the audio drama Hiro has an extra line about how sweet it smells.)

Kazuki: This one doesn’t have a historical figure attached to it... But we can’t escape the “conveniently left in the home economics classroom” ....

Kouji: Oh, I forgot! “To be eaten while Marcus Aurelius Antoninus of the Five Good Emperors of the Roman Empire reminisces of the other four!”

Kazuki: Of course!

Kouji: I’ve only just began to dive into the art of French cuisine, so I’m still working on the naming part...

Kazuki: Amazing... It sure doesn’t seem like you’ve only just began... It doesn’t matter what you call it if it tastes like this....

Hiro: Aaah, I’m so full! Thanks for the feast! It was truly delicious!

Kazuki: Thanks for the meal! I can’t believe how good that was. It was my first time eating such delicious French food like that. Thank you, Kouji.

Kouji: You’re welcome! It makes me happy to see the two of you smile!

Kazuki: Huh..? You know what, all of a sudden I’m not so stressed out anymore.

Hiro: You’re right! Every inch of me is ready and rearing to go!

Kouji: Eheh I’m glad! Stress can be built up easily by throwing off your body rhythm by skipping meals and missing sleep. So Hiro, make sure you’re always getting three good meals every day, okay?

Hiro: I know, I know!

Kazuki: Huh? All this time I thought being stuck in this home economics classroom was the source of my stress, but... All of a sudden I feel much better.

Kouji: Well then, shall we discuss what to do on stage tomorrow?

Hiro: Sure!

Kazuki: Oh yeah! That’s right! I almost forgot! You said we’re not allowed to perform a prism show? So what the heck are we going to do then?

Kouji: Well, about that....

*fwip*

Kazuki: ?

Kouji: Ta-daa! Look what I made!

Kazuki: Huh?

Hiro: Oooh! That’s our Kouji! You really outdid yourself!

Kouji: Thanks!

Kazuki: Huuh?

Hiro: Which one are you going to take, Kouji?

Kouji: I think I’ll go with purple.

Kazuki: Wait...

Hiro: Ah, so you made them according to our theme colors, huh? In that case the light blue one is mine!

Kazuki: Hold on a minute!

Hiro: And green is for you, Kazuki.

Kazuki: No, stop!

Kouji/Hiro: ..? What’s eating you?

Kazuki: This is women’s clothing!

Kouji/Hiro: ...Exactly.

Kazuki: ...”Exactly”?! Why are you acting so weird?

Kouji: We aren’t “acting”...

Hiro: This is what we are going to wear on stage.

Kazuki: WHHAAAaaaAAAT!?

Kouji: We’re going to be in the Kakyo Fest Beauty Contest! It’s a surprise!

Hiro: Since Kakyoin Academy is an all-boys school, the crown is always held by a girl from another school. But this year we’re going to bring it back home no matter that!

Kazuki: ... *twitch* Sorry guys, I’m not feeling so good. I think I’ll go on home...

*click click*

Kazuki: Oh that’s right! We’re locked in here!

Hiro: Well then, let’s start working on our makeup.

Kazuki: EEK!

Kouji: I got Ito to teach me about how to put on makeup just for today!

*click click click* *clickclickclickclickclick*

Kazuki: SOMEONE HELP ME! SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE!

*thump thump thump thump*

Hiro: What are you doing over there, Kazuki? Come join us! We’re stuck in here until morning anyway. Let’s all just relax and take our time getting ready for tomorrow!

Kazuki: AHH! EEK! NO! W... WAIT...!

Kouji: Come on over! What are you waiting for!

Hiro: We’ll start with your foundation... ♡

Kouji: Just close your eyes! It will only take a sec... ♡

Kazuki: N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

#king of prism #kinpri #so this is the surprise translation i was hinting about #i actually stared working on it months ago #i had a draft scribbled into a notebook because i was working on it on my lunch breaks at work #i just needed to research the names of kouji's dishes #which took like.... twice as long as everything else #i kept typing random katakana into google expecting to get french recipes and being led to historical wikipedia articles #kouji mihama #kazuki nishina #hiro hayami #over the rainbow #otr #pretty rhythm rainbow live #prrl #pretty rhythm #so what inspired me to finally finish this before the king of prism sss tv premiere?#.......................hm....................................

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whatisthisnonsense · 5 years

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Okay you know what I am gonna talk shit in a proper well-thought-out manner because I’m salty and stressed and I may as well channel it into something fun like yelling about anime in an over the top display of angery as befitting this cesspool of a social media platform. This being said I’m gonna do it under a read-more ‘cause most of ya’ll ain’t got time for no negative nonsense and some of you genuinely enjoy Tri, and you know what, I respect you, you’re valid.

Okay so to explain how much I want to throw Bandai into a dumpster, we first need to go back and explain Adventure and the fiasco that was 02.

Digimon Adventure came out in 1999 (March 6th in japan and August 14th in the states, which coincidentally means this show came out exactly on my sixth birthday!) and lasted for about a year, with 54 episodes. The plot was simple; seven punkass grade schoolers turned out to have been chosen by fate to defend the Digital World, an alternate plane of reality created by various forms of digital information (the wee baby internet of the era, for example), mostly to kind of justify Bandai’s V-Pet (Tamogatchis but they’re gross and can FIGHT) and sell toys. So like, Transformers but with more human characters and kickass monsters and sometimes a lesson about the Power Of Friendship. Later, they find out they were chosen because they saw their neighborhood get wrecked by two monsters and Inexplicably Forgot This, as well as the fact there’s actually a missing member of their group (which less than surprisingly turned out to be the leader character’s little sister, who had already been seen in a prior episode and had also been involved in that early monster attack). It was hokey, the english dub generally bordered on that of a proto-abridged series if not aggressively sanitizing things (turning sake into green chili sauce, for example) and it was just good dumb fun and in the end everyone was crying anyway because dammit, while it was dumb fun you still cared about these characters and loved how they grew up. And then came 02.

Hoo boy. Digimon 02 came out in 2000 (April 2nd in japan and August 19th in the states) and lasted for another year or so. While sometimes listed as a second season, in truth it was a sequel series and it had...some interesting ideas, lets say. And I mean that sincerely! They did have some good ideas! But it was pretty clear from the lack of direction and the constant roller coaster of serious and stupid that it was being a sequel for the sake of being a sequel. For example, a whole new super secret crest turned up out of nowhere, which brings up a lot of questions in the lore but is mostly used to prove Ken isn’t irredeemable because he’s a Chosen Child ,as well as the questions about how this Crest is still present and useable and then literally gets no use. No Ultimate Form Wormmon for you, folks, NORMAL digivolution is out! I think I and @yunisverse have made our opinion on how to use that crest better clear while we’re being salty over Wizardmon, ha People have said that it’s big draw was that it had a heavier focus on character development and...yes and no? On the one hand, Ken and Cody’s arcs were genuinely enjoyable, Kindness shenanigans aside, as was occasionally exploring TK and Kari’s trauma, something often brushed over in the original series. On the other hand, more or less the whole of Adventure centered AROUND character growth where in 02 it’s...sporadic. Sometimes even random. However the main two reasons everyone was mad at 02 were these;

The original digidestined that were not Kari or TK got shunted onto the backburner, usually using excuses as they had given up their crest powers sometime between Our War Game and the present (despite that A) this is otherwise disregarding the fact they were supposedly not able to enter the digital world again until 02 and B) the power is literally inside them as part of their core, not something the digiworld actually gave to them, and while it could be diminished it could never actually be removed) or that it was the New Kids turn, often with wildly out of character personality developments. (Looking at you, Sora’s new docileness and Mimi’s lack of involvement in most of the plot period.)

The epilogue, which not only gave everyone really weird future jobs (why is Matt an astronaut?!) but also seemed pretty much out to be as aggressively Happily Ever After without actually stopping to think about any implications or actual lead-ups.

02 usually gets a pass from riding on the Adventure coattails, but everyone still tended to be at least disappointed in what had occurred. Also, more serious takes on Digimon, such as Tamers and some of the games, had been growing in popularity.

Thus Bandai, in it’s infinite wisdom, decided to cash back in on Nostalgia by focusing on the Adventure kids, making them closer to 02 so they’re older and they can therefore do more serious mature takes like Tamers, while also trying to rectify how they would even begin to come around to their epilogue jobs. They do this by killing the 02 cast in the first two minutes.

Welcome to Tri folks! Okay, so the 02 cast isn’t actually dead, but we don’t know where they are for six movies. Six movies!! The most we know for a few years is Ken, for some reason, has reverted to evil! And he has Imperialdramon, which implies Davis is brainwashed too!

He is basically doing this most of the series (which was initially going to be a mini-series before becoming a series of movies which then proceed to often be cut up into episodes, which that alone should tell you the problems BEHIND the scenes much less on screen) and we find out what he is (not actually Ken but an evil Gennai clone which is also out of nowhere) and what he’s doing (apparently bringing Yggdrasil, long time lore big bad of various digimon continuities and also god, into the Adventure storyline) not by efforts of the kids. Oh no. They’re too busy playing with their new friend Mei!

God I wish I was joking. The original squad literally shows no concern for where the 02 gang is until halfway through, and it’s a handwave at best and quickly moved on from. Hell, they barely react to “Ken” and CHEER on defeating Imperialdramon! More gravitas was given to having to kill the plot coupon of the day, Meicoonmon, than someone they actually know and should be upset about. Also making Tai NOT want to rush into a fight (what?), Turns Out Homeostatis Is Also Evil Or At Least Amoral (why), a reveal one of the backstory five original digidestined went mad with grief (no), and also I guess for some reason the kids and digimon were separated again given their reactions despite 02′s ending? That’s. That’s not even keeping your own continuity. Why are you like this. Also connecting to the epilogue just seem to be on a whim (not metaphor, Matt decides to be an astronaut on a whim), the general lack of gravitas in most moments followed by moments of SEVERE gravitas (which is the 02 problem but Worse), and bad jokes. I don’t mean Good Bad Jokes like Adventure, just really not funny jokes. And the real bitch of the matter? It had a few things that should’ve made it AWESOME! Like listen, I miss these idiot kids a lot, and the concept of a virus forcing a reboot on the digiworld and thus having to explore, finally, the digimon as characters and what they would be like without the kids? That’s cool! The idea of undoing all the Perma Digideaths (like WIZARDMON goddammit, and in this own show friggin’ Leomon again) with said reboot and thus having a pretty legitimate reason to allow it? Also cool! Worldbuilding about the previous five digidestined? Neat! And lets be real, you all cried at the cast version of Butter-Fly. You know you did. But the thing is they didn’t DO anything with most of this, or did it in a sloppy way. Example; the virus was basically a means to an end for waking up Yggdrasil (I’m not calling him King Drasil, that’s stupid), right? Why? When the Adventure-verse, often to it’s own detriment, is actively tied to the Milleniumon mythos, you could just pull in that eldritch horror and finally have Ryo make sense everywhere not japan. Or heck, the Dark Ocean! Remember the Dark Ocean? Where literally cthulu is and also Daemon now? Apparently neither do the script writers since that would’ve been a golden opportunity. Of course, this would be asking for continuity, which Tri has issues with within its own narrative. Remember when I said the reboot should’ve undone all permadeaths? Yeah, Wizardmon still shows up as a ghost later to lead Kari out of trouble. No lines or anything, just pops up facing away from the audience and leads her out, and then vanishes, despite the fact that according to the rules they made up for the reboot, he should be a cute little Mokumon in Primary Village at the moment who remembers nothing. Also it kind of low-key has the vibe that growing up is terrible and results in having to make awful decisions? Which I’m not sure is what they meant to do, but it does pretty much have that end result. And that sucks! Even Tamers didn’t do that! Growing up is HARD, sure, but there are GOOD things about it too, and being Adventure one would think that would be the main focus! Nope. I just. This should have been good and when it was announced I was super excited and now I’m pretty much exasperated by its mere existence. And now we’re getting a sequel after ANOTHER timeskip.

Bandai if this is how you give us a nostalgia feels trip, do us a favor and let Adventure die. You’re just making the sugary memories of childhood have a bitter aftertaste. Or, if you must, just do a proper reboot. Tie up things that actually WERE wrong with the original series and do some clean ups but otherwise leave it untouched. We all know you’re trying to capture the magic twice, guys, you’re not even trying to hide it now. TL;DR, The only parts I like about Tri are Butter-Fly (cast version) and the fact Tai and Matt are gayer than ever

#Digimon Adventure #Digimon 02 #Digimon tri #I'm about to get REAL salty so like #If you like Tri don't look you're still valid #I just do not and want to express why since I've been mulling it over since that ask

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mythgirlimagines · 5 years

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Can I have some imagines for an AU where Danganronpa is a show and all the kids are actors? Preferably the bloopers, but do whatever you want.

I can’t tell you how much I love this AU. I hope these are good, probably not as funny as some others on the site, but I did my best!

DR1:

There are many videos of Chihiro sneaking up on and scaring everyone- except for Hina. For whatever reason, that girl can’t be scared.

They all love working together, though there is an odd distinct rivalry between Leon and Kyoko for who knows what. When asked, they both reply with “they know what they did.”

They film episode-by-episode and all things victim are kept under wraps until the moment comes. All their reactions are completely genuine.

They all enjoy doing super dramatic videos with each other, including doing live-action “abridged” videos.

“Tell ‘em, Naegi” is a meme on set. Anytime something needs to be said, that is said first.

Mukuro is one of the goofiest people you could meet, and is the culprit behind most off-set pranks along with Junko, her “despair sister.”

SDR2:

Kazuichi and Peko are best friends on set and have a bunch of really strange inside jokes that nobody else gets.

Mikan couldn’t stop laughing during those morning scenes with Hajime, and could barely look him in the eye without at least giggling while filming.

The “glue” Chiaki ate in chapter three was actually melted gummy bears. Nobody knew that except for her, hence their grossed-out reactions.

Nagito couldn’t do anything but laugh when he was chained up by Kazuichi and Nekomaru, and keeps grabbing people’s ankles with his free hand when he “died.”

Sonia’s lines take her forever to get right with a straight face, and often make the others crack up as well.

Nagito and Kyoko are actually great friends and staged fake fights over Makoto when she, Makoto, and Byakuya were on set for chapter six. Nobody else was in on it, though, and were frantic in trying to get them to stop.

DR:AE:

Komaru got a lot of little scrapes and things during filming, especially during her executions. She calls them her war scars now.

She’s known for sneaking up on Toko during breaks and scaring her by shouting through her megaphone. Every single instance has been caught on camera.

Nagisa is notorious for falling asleep on set. That’s why it’s so easy for him to seem like he’s so done with everything and everyone on camera.

Kotoko and Jataro are little demons on set. They’ll replace props at the last second and add kick me signs and things to people’s costumes just for the lolz.

Toko is really great friends with Masaru, a sort of unexpected friendship. They bonded over their shared hatred of morning filming and provide each other coffee (decaf for him, double espresso for her).

Hiroko and Yuta are actually pretty close and talk backstage together while watching filming. They offer a lot of dry humor on the commentary reel and for random videos the rest of the cast take.

DR3:

Izayoi has gone through at least seven sweets per shot of him eating one. Ruruka likes to torture him sometimes by putting a whole basket of them in his room and watching him freak out at the sight of them.

Seiko and Miaya are close friends as well. They often talk and get caught up so much that they’ll sometimes miss their cues, which has led to quite a funny rushed entrances.

So much of the cast screamed out when Kyoko was revealed to be “dead.” It took all she could to not start laughing and ruin the emotional scene.

Monaca had so much fun saying that one line to Toko and Komaru that she constantly uses it as her reaction to questions. It’s also the first thing in her Twitter bio. And her voicemail message.

Mukuro and Monaca are actually closer that Junko and Monaca are, and will sometimes trade accessories off set. It’s fun for them to bond, and gives Monaca a good role model.

Komaru shrieked when Kyoko was revealed alive at the end of the Hope Arc. She was just super excited that her character’s brother was getting his true love after all.

NDRV3:

Maki is one of the sweetest girls you could meet on set, along with Miu. They’re actually great friends and do a lot of fake arguing in the background of the show only to laugh with each other about it after.

Kirumi has gone off-script before to tell off Kokichi or anyone else who is even thinking of pulling any pranks while filming, only to become part of the blooper reel herself.

Kiyo has been sent so many printed-out pictures of seesaws by other cast members that he made a professional-looking collage of all of them just to spite whoever sent them.

Contrary to popular belief, Gonta is very big on the blooper reels. He’s messed up lines so many times because he’s slipped into regular speech instead of his stilted speech.

Kaede has sometimes slipped on set beyond where the camera can see to “haunt” Shuichi while he’s filming, ending in one of them giggling and giving them both away.

They’ve all made so many jokes about each other and their favorite “characters” showing up during chapter six. Many selfies and funny improv videos were taken during that moment.

#answered ask #anon #imagine #headcanons #actor au #so many kiddos #literally can't tag them all #i love the actor au #bloopers and stuff #danganronpa #dr1 #sdr2 #dr3 #dr:ae #ndrv3

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itwasanangryinch · 5 years

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3...2...1... Happy New Year!!

For the first (?) time, I’m actually going to make and complete a New Years meme, because fuck it, I had a good year. I’m also going to put much shorter answers for last year since I had wanted to do this then, but then... didn’t.

Favourite new (to me) band: Against Me! 5 favourite songs:

The Ocean

White Crosses

True Trans Soul Rebel

I Was a Teenage Anarchist

Norse Truth

I’ve known about Against Me! since lead singer Laura Jane Grace since she came out as trans in 2012 with her Rolling Stone profile, but I hadn’t heard any of their songs until a couple of years ago. This year was the first year I really got into her music (both here and with The Devouring Mothers) after reading her biography Tranny while on vacation in Melbourne.

Runner up: Miss Guy and the Toilet Boys, seen for the first time at Wigstock 2.Ho

2017′s answer: Ataru Nakamura, the very, very talented trans performer who played Yitzhak to JCM’s Hedwig in Japan (and because of the staging, also played Hedwig for the non-singing part of the script.)

Favourite new (to me) city: Melbourne, Australia.

If you had asked me last year, my answer would have been Tokyo, Japan and this year’s is my favourite for much the same reasons: Melbourne is very easy to get around, very fun to walk around, and I got to see the wonderful John Cameron Mitchell perform there.

Melbourne is absolutely beautiful with so many shops to explore and a free (within the few square blocks I mostly kept to) public transport system.

Runner up: Sydney, Australia. Very similar to Melbourne and might have been the favourite if I had been able to stay there longer, but.... schedules.

2017′s answer: Toyko, Japan. For the reasons listed above. I could actually see myself moving to Tokyo at some point. Not right now, but possibly eventually.

Favourite concert: John Cameron Mitchell: The Origin of Love, Brisbane

This year I have seen this concert seven times in addition to one very abridged show in Portland, Oregon to go along with a double header of Hedwig and How to Talk to Girls at Parties.

On this particular date, the band gelled really well; John was in a great mood, great energy; the crowd was incredible..... Everything just... Worked. (Even tho this was the concert I had the least amount of interaction with John afterwards, lol.)

Definitely looking forward to seeing where John takes the performances for his upcoming stateside tour and at a later, yet to be announced, time in Japan.

Runner ups: (aside from the rest of the OoL tour), Rocky Horror with Mason Alexander Park, Taboo 15 (with Mason), Alice Cooper, and Wigstock 2.Ho where I finally got to see NPH performing as Hedwig.

2017′s answer: Hedwig and the Angry Inch: October 14th, evening. Tokyo, Japan.

In my estimation, this was the best of all of the Hedwig concerts. By this point, everyone had performed this in front of an audience twice before and the show from beginning to end gelled really well. Again, there was an incredible energy between the band and the two lead performers and the audiences for all of the Japan shows were great. From beginning to end, this one was the best.

From about the Tommy monologue til the end, the final Tokyo show (Oct. 15th) was the best because there was this crackling, alive, angry energy that had an almost dangerous feeling to Exquisite Corpse and was the only show (surprisingly!!) where I cried at the delivery of my favourite line “Then love the front of me.” On that show, with the exception of Exquisite Corpse, I cried from that line til John started the encore song, ‘The End of Love’ and I had only stopped there because I had completely forgotten he was doing an encore song.

Favourite movie: Black Panther

I’ve been waiting literal years for this movie to be made and there was not one thing to be disappointed in in its final rendering in my opinion. I realize that unlike a large portion of the audience, this movie was very much not reflective of my experiences and at no point would I claim to be represented by it as anything other than a nerd and a comic book fan.

Being a fan of the Black Panther for years has meant having tone deaf comic lines, sidelined animated stories, and much less content, merch, and even cartoon adaptation than some of his paler counterparts. So to see a film that was technically and narratively perfect being rendered so beautifully and taking the box office for many, many weeks was a wonderful way to start this year.

Runners up: Deadpool 2, Bad Samaratian, and does How to Talk to Girls at Parties even count for this year if I saw it last year in Japan??

2017′s answer: a strong tie between Transpotting 2 and HtTtGaP. T2 because it was so much better than I could have ever hoped it to be. It married themes and footage from the first film perfectly to the characters’ lives 20 years on. It gave me hope for an eventual Hedwig sequel in terms of quality because based on interviews, they share a similar tone in terms of ageing characters. Plus Danny Boyle’s cinematography was truly beautiful with the use of shadows, call-backs, foreshadowing.... A true equal to the most iconic of Scottish films.

HtTtGaP because well.... John Cameron Mitchell’s direction mixed with an alien invasion set against punk rock and the Queen’s jubilee? How could I not love it? To me, it’s a strong second to Hedwig in terms of quality and netted my absolute favourite review via the BBC (‘This is one of the worst films ever made’, trust me Beeb reviewer, if that were true, cinema would be a far more enjoyable art form.)

Favourite vacation: Australia

Long story short: I met my favourite actor five times. It’s very rare in this life that you can actually tell an artist who influenced your life in a very meaningful way just how much their art and they as a person mean to you. This year, after seeing JCM perform live eight times and on video, no lie, thousands of times, I had the chance to actually do this. And unlike how I was worried about for the past three years, I wasn’t actually nervous to talk to him at all. Part of that is that he is a very easy person to feel at ease with, very comforting presence.... And part of it was that during the first Australian show I went to where I’m dressed as the very first Squeezebox Hedwig, John lay on top of me as part of the final number. How could I be scared to talk to him after that introduction??

Runners up: going to see Taboo 15 in New York with my best friend and touring the David Bowie Is exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum (March), going to see Wigstock with Risa. Technically, I ditched work to be able to go, but.... 10/10, I would do it again. I saw a lot of amazing performers for the first time, had a chance to chat with Mason again, and saw the tour de force that is Neil Patrick Harris as Hedwig and Lena Hall as Yitzhak.

Hopefully next year, the Hedwig section will be able to be longer. (Or maybe Yitz will perform by himself. Or multiple Hedwigs. Or just the entire Hedwig script delivered at the end of a seven hour drag festival pre-show.)

2017′s answer: Hedwig in Japan. Not only did I get to meet my friend @miyacantdecide for the first time in person, I was able to see the wonder that is JCM as Hedwig live. Even when he’s not delivering the script, his presence as Hedwig is truly something else. And having seen him perform as himself (but in a version of her makeup) this year, I can honestly say that She has a completely different stage presence to Him and how incredible of an actor to be able to deliver such radically different interpretations of the same material and songs??

Outside of Hedwig, I can honestly say that I came back from Japan a changed person. Better in so many ways than I was a year previous. Almost completely made whole again after past traumas (and completed a year later on a different trip.)

2017′s runner up: seeing RENT 20 live. I had a blast hanging out with my mother most of the days and the RENT 20 cast? Holy shit. What talents. Cried from ‘I’ll Cover You (Reprise)’ til the end of ‘Finale B’. Just goes to show: it doesn’t matter if the show’s set in December and it’s hot As Fuck outside if you have a talented cast bundled up in sweaters for 75% of the script.

Favourite album: Golden by Kylie

Not only does pop’s most talented princess talk about her recent breakup with Joshua Sause (sp?), there’s themes of her ageing as this year our princess turned 50. While I agree with reviewers that this isn’t her best musically or vocally, I find myself replaying this one over and over on my stereo and headphones more than almost any other album this year. Favourite song: a toss up between Shelby ‘68 and Low Blow.

2017′s answer: Pollinator by Blondie. It had been two years since the release of 2014′s Ghost of Download, but unlike Ghost’s offerings that went largely unnoticed by me at the time, every single from Pollinator got me more and more hyped not only because of the excellent music evident on songs such as Fun, Long Time, and Doom or Destiny, but collaborations with artists such as Raja (on the video for Fun) and Joan Jett (the aforementioned Doom or Destiny), the honey-thick entrancing song Fragments, and the wonderful Love Line.

This year has been weirder, queerer, and more wonderful than any year yet on record. I’ve been to a number of technically-but-not-really drag shows, revisited some of my favourite artists in concert, met two of my favourite Hedwigs, and saw four total Heds perform.... I’ve read and learned more about the queer experience that not only deepened my understanding of my larger community, but of my own experiences and how they fit within the community. I’ve become more confident being out to coworkers and customers at my job....

I had the pleasure of meeting two of my close friends @hedwig-in-a-jukebox and @fdelopera in person (with plans to meet up again early-2019) as well as making some new friends.

Here’s to an even better 2019! Onwards and upwards.

#about me #new years meme #((let's see if I remember to complete this before it posts))#((cos I'm writing this when the year's not even 75% of the way done!))

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league-of-light · 6 years

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Week 4 Pick’em

Look, I know I’m late on the picks this week. I wanted to get them in yesterday, but other things came up and I didn’t get to it. I’m sorry, ok? To make up for it, I have written quite the long pick’em for this week. I’m not entirely sure if I will be able to make them this long every week, but I think I should be able to.

Why would I spend all this time writing the pick’em? Great question. Isn’t there a more productive use of your time? Probably. Will, you’re moving next week, shouldn’t you be packing or something? Are you just spending way more time writing picks as a means to delay the inevitable anxiety you’re going to feel about starting a new job and moving? Do you think this is the healthiest way to deal with that? Psh, you’re not my therapist.

Anyway, here goes

Yerboi vs Brenner? I hardly know’er

This Will vs. Brenner bout, should be promotionally billed as “Chronically Injured and Underperforming” vs “Complete Lineup Ineptitude”. Both teams come into Week 3 at a resounding 0-2, and are looking to get their season on track after some of high profile trades in the first couple weeks of the season.

There are always big expectations when you make a trade in Fantasy Football. Typically speaking, you hope and expect that the players you got are going to outperform whomever you traded away (or at the very least perform somewhat similarly). Unfortunately, that won’t always be the case. Sometimes there are weeks like last week, where JuJu outscored T.Y. Hilton and I am forced to sit there and reflect on how I would have won if I just kept JuJu. Other times, there are weeks like this week, where Brenner ensures he doesn’t have to deal with the emotional trauma of a trade gone awry because he benches the players he traded for. (No there aren’t, this literally never happens)

I pick myself, simply because I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen a team projected to score as few points as Brenner.

Story To Watch: How quickly it will take Drew Brees to score more than the 3 points Brenner got from Tyrod Taylor. My guess is 4 plays.

Tangiphil vs Hewie and the Hashslingers

After a fairly explosive first week of the season, we can all finally exhale — Phil’s team is bad again. Shockingly, his 3-headed Running Back Monster is down a head. Unlike the legend of the Hydra, instead of another head growing in it’s place, Phil decided to chase last week’s bench points and play Nelson Agholor. If you check his bench this week you may notice Joe Mixon outside of the IR slot, Isaiah Crowell’s wasted 18 point TNF total, and another Jets receiver. That’s right folks, it’s week 3 and Phil is already in midseason form.

But enough about Phil. Steve is 2-0 and I expect his win streak to continue this week. In my humble opinion, his team is underprojected with only 98 points, as Big Ben, Melvin Gordon, and Marvin Jones all look poised to be playing catchup in potentially high scoring games. Look for Steve to hopefully rise in the power rankings after squashing Phil.

Story To Watch: He may be the second head of a three two-headed running back monstrosity, but Adrian Peterson is going to look more like Mike Wazowski than James P. Sullivan this week. The Packers offense comes to FedEx Field with an offense that looks like two-day expedited shipping, while the Redskins offense has been looking like the Pony Express. Game script gets away from the ‘Skins and they abandon the run.

Kyle vs Sean

Close to half of this league isn’t from Rockland, so I’m going to use this opportunity to tell a story. To the hometown heroes - some of the overarching details may be incorrect, but I don’t care I have the talking stick. If you want accuracy you can write the damn blog post next week. Anyway, in sixth grade every middle school student has to take World History. The curriculum is geared towards ancient civilizations, and a decent chunk of time is spent on Egypt. As such, every year there was (is?, not sure if they still do it) a grade-wide Egypt project where students had to use their knowledge of Egypt, make something, and showcase it to the class. Think of it like a science fair, but with crappy Egyptian dioramas instead of baking soda volcanoes. Since I was a bright eyed ambitious young man who loved art and mythology, I knew I would do great on this project. I chose the ambitious task of making a sculpture of Horus, the Falcon-headed man prince of the Egyptian pantheon. It wasn’t long before I realized my doodling skills didn’t translate well into making 3D models, but I was in far too deep. I molded the clay as best I could, and then “accidentally” left it in the oven too long so it burned to a crisp and was nearly unidentifiable. Needless to say, I didn’t do very well on that project.

Why am I telling you this? Because look at Sean’s team. Does it look real good on paper? Sure. Does that mean he is likely going to win this week? Probably. But has his overconfidence blinded him into creating a team made of glass with absolutely no depth in a 16-team league? 67%, yes. (Because that is the grade I got on the project.)

Story to Watch: Alex Collins has become the running back equivalent of Hillary Swank. Hot or not? Stay tuned this week and find out…

You Guys Again vs. Johnson Ertz

The moment you’ve all been waiting for is here folks. I…..I can’t believe it’s finally happening. After almost two full years, the day has finally come. Dylan Feldman vs. Dylan Costa are facing off in a fantasy football matchup which I am officially dubbing “The Battle for the Right to be Called Dylan in the Fantasy Football League Group Chat” (and since we love our acronyms here, aka TB4TR2BCDITFFLGC). Two Dylans enter, only one Dylan leaves. This matchup is arguably one of the most important matchups we have ever seen in this league, and has a chance to change the history books forever.

Unfortunately for Dylan Costa, his squad isn’t exactly striking fear into anyone these days. I’ll have to go with Dylan Feldman, but his lineup has more red letters than Hester Prynne after an all weekend slumber party at Arthur Dimmesdale’s Dimmesdale Dimmahome.

Story to Watch: With the return of Aaron “I smoke Marijuana so Bowers thinks I’m a bad person” Jones coming back to Green Bay, Jamaal Williams’ usage should be monitored. As the kids say, he hasn’t been very good over the past two weeks, and Aaron Jones is ready to come in blazing *~!420!~*

Bearkley vs. Watch Me

Imagine my shock when I saw I won the bidding war for Ryan Fitzpatrick. I immediately rushed to find the owners of the Tampa Bay WRs so I could celebrate our good fortune as Fitzmagic showers us all with fantasy points. Now imagine my shock when I saw Samantha has benched Chris Godwin, not only a rookie (we all know my irrational hype with rookies), but a rookie whose name is lit a combination of God and Win. I don’t know about you, but doesn’t it feel like Samantha has renounced God and doesn’t want to win this week’s matchup?

On the flipside, Nico runs our Dungeons and Dragons group, and if the 80s taught me anything it’s don’t feed weird aliens after midnight, and that D&D is for devil worshipping heathens. With any hope of good Christian fun squandered for this matchup, it really is anybody’s game. I want to believe in the underdog, but more favorable matchups lead me to believe that Nico will pull out the W.

Story to Watch: Saquon Barkley caught 2 of 6 targets week 1 against the Jags. That number increased to 14 of 16 targets last week as Eli Manning completely lost interest in holding on to the football for more than 1 second. Is it possible that Saquon receives 28 targets this game as Eli Manning has to look JJ Watt and Jadaveon Clowney in the eyes?

Washington vs. Walshington

I want to take a second here and pour one out for Walsh, who didn’t answer my trade offer or my text message regarding Dalvin Cook and Allen Robinson. Walsh, you took an injury bullet for me and I will forever be grateful. It’s appropriate that I mention taking a bullet, because rumors have it Frank Gore was actually there when the first metal bullet was shot in 1425. Between Gore and Kerryon Johnson, Walsh will be lucky if he gets 14.25 points from his running backs this week.

Andy surprisingly continues to ride or die with Andrew Luck, despite Luck being unable to throw the football more than 15 yards. At this point I assume he is just taunting Arielle with Bortles on his bench, and we have to assume that if Bortles continues putting up 30 point games, eventually Andy might start him. The biggest story on this squad is how Andy managed to get two of the best big play boom or bust WRs with John Brown and Will Fuller, while also having Amari Cooper and Mike Evans. That’s a solid receiving core you got there pal, and I just want you to know I see it and appreciate it.

Story To Watch: C’mon, it’s Philip Lindsay. Every week it’s Philip Lindsay. Everyone loves a hometown hero and I have greatly enjoyed watching this kid ball out.

Bowers v Arielle

I’m high on Dylan Leone Arielle’s team this year. How could you not be? It was drafted by a man who has $45,000 in fantasy football great young woman who has shown her commitment to the league. For whatever reason, ESPN’s site stopped working just as I was going to look at this matchup, so unfortunately I am going to have to give an abridged write up of my pick. I have played these teams back to back so you would assume I know who is on their rosters, but I can’t remember anything other than Russell Wilson and James Conner on Arielle’s team, and Golden Tate and Kirk Cousins on Bowers’.

Based on this limited memory alone, I suppose I am going to pick Bowers in what will likely be another close matchup for the Reikland Reavers

Story to Watch: The story of life as I take this momentary absence from ESPN’s Fantasy Football to reflect on the finer things in the world. Like Yahoo Fantasy Football.

Jason v Harnsowl

ESPN is still not working for me, neither on my phone nor my computer, so I can’t really give much analysis here. However, not much analysis is needed. Unlike his godless sister, Jason is a man of faith. And if George Michaels taught us anything, it’s that you gotta have faith. You gotta have faith, faith, faith. Carson Wentz returns this week and I don’t care whoever Harnsowl is playing, it doesn’t really matter. I mean, as far as the matchup is concerned it might matter, but emotionally speaking, Jason has already won this week.

I can’t be expected to pick a winner in a matchup that already has a winner, so instead I’ll take this time to remind you to spay or neuter your pets. Bob Barker used to do a fantastic job of reminding the American people to do so, and if I am being completely honest I just don’t think Drew Carey delivers the message with the same panache. Like sure, I know Drew still says it at the end of the show, but does he really even believe it? Only Drew can really answer that question, but if I had to guess I would bet $100 $101 Drew. While we’re on the topic, if any of you ever manage to go on Price is Right and you do that thing where you bid one dollar higher than someone else did, you can consider our friendship over. Not only is it the worst strategy ever, it’s also rude as hell to the other contestant. In some cases I’m sure the people legitimately don’t know what to bet after someone else bet around the same thing they did, but for the love of God at least bet like $10 higher so there is some tension in the room.

But yeah, back to football, I pick Jason

Story to Watch: The next episode of Price is Right, Monday September 24th

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mistermead · 7 years

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Water under the Burrows Bonus: Pay It Forwards

Water is the foundation of our society, and of every society.

About a year ago we started working on the script of Water under the Burrows. Soon it appeared that the project was rather more expansive than Judy is Dead had been, and the topic of opening a Patreon came up. We decided against it, as I didn’t want to feel that in some sense I was selling a product, and I certainly didn’t want to make some underhanded incentive to donate like putting material behind a paywall. And besides, we didn’t really need the money. A simpler (but probably less lucrative option) was to just make a tip jar of some sort, so I just opened a Ko-fi account and let people chip in if they felt like it.

From early on we decided to donate any raised funds to some suitable cause, and I decided that a charity working to expand access to drinking water in arid areas would be fitting, considering the narrative framing around “water”. However, with the unfolding disaster in the Caribbean it seems more auspicious to pick a charity active in that area.

Hurricane Maria was the second category 5 storm of the pacific hurricane season this year, making landfall on sept. 18th and carving a swathe of devastation across the Caribbean islands, many of which were still reeling after damage from hurricane Irma just weeks prior. Infrastructure in many of these regions was already is disrepair before the hurricanes hit, compounding an unfolding humanitarian crisis. Millions of people are now without power, shelter and vitally, clean water.

Waves for Water is an nonprofit that, in their words, works “to provide access to clean water through the distribution of portable water filters, the digging and renovating of wells, and the construction of rainwater harvesting and storing systems in places where groundwater is not accessible.” The first phase of their emergency response to Irma and Maria involves distributing water filtration systems that each can filter up to 1 million gallons of water. Bottled water serves an immediate and necessary need, but as the old adage goes, “give a man a bottle of water and he drinks for a day, give him a water filtration device and he drinks for 5 years.”

Being a minor group, W4W hasn’t been rated by most big charity watchdogs like CharityWatch or BBB Wise Giving Alliance. For this reason I was skeptical to pick them as the recipient of the money, but they do enjoy a “gold” rating with GuideStar(which to be fair, isn’t a watchdog per se) for their commitment to transparency, and in the end their design philosophy of focusing on low-tech but sustainable and long-term solutions was what won me over.

Do you agree? Or would you have chosen differently? Please let me know your thoughts on the matter. It’s funny how an animated movie about talking animals made this possible. Did any of you find inspiration in Nick and Judy’s example and worked to better yourself and your society? Please reblog with your stories, I’d love to read them.

I for one can’t express my gratitude enough to everyone that helped us raise almost a thousand dollars... but I can sure try! Therefore, I extend a big thank you to each and every one of those that donated - literally - under the cut:

Anonymous - my very first donation was from anon, thank you so much! Mustang - Thank you so much for your generous donation! TaMarmot - Thank you so much, it’s very appreciated! huebris - I have a lot to say but the abridged version is - Thanks! Shak - Thank you for each of the donations! Quilly - Thank you! Red Velvet Panda - Thanks, Panda! Bimpy the Wimpy Shrimpy - Thanks, Bimpy! How anybody can get any sleep nowadays is beyond me! Claudia - Thanks for the coffee! Karteufel - Thanks for the coffees! I appreciate it every time! Dogsport - Much appreciated! Alexandre Landsec - Thank you for all that you do! Jihwan Lee - Thanks muchly! Keep making that good music! pyrophoricitee - iyts a cip n ko-fi Nathan P - No, YOU rock! stevegallacci - a big thank you! And yes I have seen your work, keep it up! Kazookie - Thanks, Kaz! And I appreciate YOU! Every time you did your part to keep me up in the wee hours of the night. Funzinnu - Thank you for your many donations, I hope you liked the story! Jan - Your kind words are more than enough for me Jan, thank you! Rene - 2! Thanks Rene! Mojo - Thanks mojo, I got the Touch! Okie - Thanks a lot! Zanrok - Thanks so much! Cary Reese - Thank you! Enny - Thanks for your donation! Karazu - Thanks for your support! Wessa140 - Thank you! I will! Stubat - Thank you! Sorry there weren’t many ‘yeens, hope you still liked it though! A bobcat - I LOVE donuts, how did you know?

Mayu Zane - Thank you! Kazookieslama - Thanks again Kaz! kei - Bravo to you kei! TargaryenTurtle - You and me both buddy! Nathan - Thank you, just watch this space! Ozy Lellowen - And I appreciate your donation Ozy! Harry Lime - HARRY YOU MADMAN, most of the good karma in this post is thanks to you! Kamiten - I’m keeping, I’m keeping! Funzinnu - Thanks again and again Funz! Always appreciate your words of support! Ztpia - Stubat - Oh I’m sure the damage isn’t THAT bad! You got the whole paypal donation thing down at least, which I love you for! IronicSnap - The kudos is all thanks to you Ironic! PocketPaws - and I truly love your words <3 CombatEngineer - YOU are amazing! Yoshimon - So glad you liked it, I hope whatever comes next will be good as well! InTheLionsDenOnDA - Thank you for your kind words! I don’t know when but there’s definitely going to be another project coming up! JAK072 - I’m so happy! doubleSidedTape - Tomato! FrigidGlacier - 100 proof babay! Master-Lux - And a big thanks to YOU for donating, Lux! Daniel Côté - merci beaucoup! Robin -Two thank you’s for a great reader! Thank you and thank you! Eh - And all the best to you too! Nukukun - Thank you so much! Johnsoneer - That’s high praise! Thank you! Axel Ember - You touch me with your kind words, thank you so much! Silver26 - Thank yoooou! Joel - Thank you! Lapine - Thank YOU! Apetzu - YOU are awesome! rva98014 - Thanks! You know, I almost called pop-pop “Thomas” in the epilogue, no idea where I got that notion from! And for all the other anonymous donors, a big thank you to each and every one of you as well! I hope I didn��t miss anyone.

#Zootopia #hurricane irma #hurricane maria #puerto rico

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chimerabal · 6 years

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Session.... what are we at four?

I lost track. Oops. Thankfully tumblr is in reverse chronological order so it’s not actually an issue.

I WAS WRONG THIS IS SESSION NUMBER FIVE.

I am So Pumped for flavoring out my new spells that I almost forgot I needed to type this play by play--- which is super important because this week was full of dark humor and stupidity.

We started the session with all the players plus a giest and Ugly, our ~8ft by ~4ft scaab, having barged into a kindly (yet grumpy) man’s house and locking ourselves in for temporary shelter from an approaching cult. We were all pretty beat; with our cleric and necro-alchemist having just kicked the shit out of each other, and a ghost having kicked the shit out of my character. No one even thought to ask this dude’s name before our dumb asses started in on our bullshit. War cleric Mikela immediately found a crack in the boarded up windows to watch the cultists pass by. Sibyl, necro-alchemist, put herself in a cozy corner to sit out the rest of her post-brawl-trauma. After sitting Ugly in front of the door as a barricade, and offering a hollow and uninterested ‘sorry’ to the guy who’s door we just damn near broke down, my scaberen Uriel got hit with a wave of paranoia and started rifling through all the guy’s stuff looking for traps to disarm or Something. Before the man got too angry Mikela came around and spoke to him some and Uriel sat their dumb ass down next to Sibyl in the quiet corner to also chill the fuck out.

Mikela asked the man some questions about the town, and the cult, and all the happenings; then hit the helpful giest with some as well. We learned that before the cult started showing up two orphans appeared in town, a young man and his even younger brother. They were from a neighboring town, and were recently orphaned by something bloody and unpleasant. Unsatisfied with these answers, Mikela did some scouting from the upstairs window, got a second wind or Something, and decided that we should immediately leave the shelter we just worked so hard to Get Into and chase these cultist jerks down. Right Now. After all, the cult was recruiting--- or something loud--- just a few streets over, and we might not get this chance again before they kill more innocents. Uriel argued against this for a bit, since shes a coward they got indoors to Rest and that it would be stupid to throw ourselves back into battle unprepared and we should Really just take advantage of Finally being under a roof for a while. Sibyl agreed, more or less, that it was probably dangerous and stupid to back out without healing. This went back and forth for a bit, as it does. I manage to get a Super Abridged version of the script I had written out for learning All Of Sibyl’s Mysterious Secrets... got basically nothing outta her :P Scripts don’t work in RP settings, I get that now. Mikela did a healing spell that brought everyone back up to full health and the party agreed to head out.

We decide to leave Ugly with the man in his home, but the guy takes a little bit of prodding to agree to that. Uriel--- not totally over the paranoia from earlier--- is a huge asshole to him and he gives the party a time limit of three hours to get the hell back and take their awful zombie abomination. She almost commands Ugly to destroy the fucking house if they’re not back in time but Ugly is a good boy and wouldn’t have done that anyways ;w;b. The party stealths on over to where the Loud Cult Noises are coming from. There’s this... ascension? of very colorful giests centered around where we are headed. Sibyl is the only one who notices this and calmly instructs Mikela and Uriel to keep cool, and for Uriel specifically Not To Look Up. Uriel apparently really trusts Sibyl because she listened... until Mikela failed her perception and fucking started screaming. That many giests simply isn’t normal so... we were all pretty shook okay?

Mikela’s scream alerted some of the cultists and we scrambled to hide. Uriel and Sibyl hid fabulously in the alleys... the exact same alley... in the same spot... against what our plans were. Mikela went upwards and scaled a building which.... wasn’t very stealthy but the cultists never bothered to look up, so ultimately the best hiding spot. Uriel tried distracting the cultists by throwing a gold coin into their area--- hoping it would distract them and they’d fight over it. It failed, they ignored it. Sibyl tried to divert their attentions to a near by area by firing a flame spell into said area.... which also failed and blew our cover.

The cultists were unable to hit either Sibyl or Uriel with attacks normally, BUT THEN one of Sibyl’s ghost-spells backfired a bit and she started glowing Very Brightly, blinding the enemies and also Uriel. Uriel was able to land a devastating hit on one of the cultists even when blind before backing the hell up and regaining her eyesight. Mikela got the jump (ha) on the enemies by launching herself off the building and into the fray, doing a lot of damage. Sibyl- still super glowy- electrocuted one of the cultists with a VERY COOL TASER GAUNTLET. Uriel ended the battle by strangling the remaining cultist into unconsciousness. Mikela looted the body and shouldered the unconscious dude and Uriel tried to carry the dead guy--- saying it would be disrespectful or something to just Leave It There Like That. Definitely not weird scaberen motivations no sir. We ended up giving the dead guy to Katya (who is here in spirit for this game- and here for when we can’t do things with our own bad strength stats) to carry.

The group hears the loud cultists from a neighboring road fussing over ‘that strange glow over there’ (Sibyl) and heading our way. The party runs through the town in weird ways to throw the group off our tail until Sibyl stops glowing, and then runs even more after that; we weren't able to shake them. The dead guy was leaking and leaving a blood trail. The group deliberates for a bit and decides to tourniquet the bleeding leg just above the offending wound, then cut the rest of it off and make a fake blood trail away from where we were going. The amputation is done with Great Somberness (because its so morbid on the party’s part, and because it’s ruining an other wise Lovey Corpse on Uriel’s). Uriel is then given the leg to make the fake trail with, which they do gladly.... probably having a bit too much fun splattering blood everywhere in the process.

The group returns to the grumpy man’s house with a body and a hostage and don’t immediately see the grumpy man. We find him barricaded on the top floor of his house with a spear poking out his only sight hole, ranting about how he KNEW that beastly thing was going to come after him, and trying to stab poor Sibyl who and just wanted to let him know we came back. Both Sibyl and Mikela try to talk the guy down, while Uriel is losing their god damn mind laughing at the situation. The hostage begins to awaken (Sibyl punches him), catching the guy’s attention. He disarms and sees Uriel and Katya holding a limp form, and Mikela shouldering a gagged and bound man. Pretty sure Uriel blew whatever positive progress we made on the grumpy dudes mental state with all the laughter and smirking... especially after asking What The Fuck she was holding. The group leave him alone to work with the hostage downstairs.

Mikela and Sibyl work a bit on getting the hostage to stop Screaming--- half because he’ll attract unwanted attention and half because, you just can’t interrogate like that. Uriel steps in and tells the guy that if he doesn’t shut up they’ll feed him to Ugly (who is still sitting in front of the door being a Good Boy). He stops screaming and pisses himself, which is gross on its own, yeah, but Mikela still had him on her shoulder. Uriel falls back into hysteric laughter as Mikela doffs her armor as quickly as fuckin’ possible. She then hurls all the piss covered armor at Uriel, who effortlessly dodges it. The armor hits Ugly--- making Uriel laugh even Harder--- then it tries putting ON the pissy armor--- and at this point Uriel is basically crying. Mikela is busy cleaning herself off, and Uriel is trying to regain composure, so Sibyl starts the interrogation on our prisoner.

The interrogation is pretty long, Sibyl asks a few questions before Mikela takes over, and eventually Uriel joins the group mostly to observe. We learn that this guy had Literally Just Joined the cult today. He joined because the church’s protections aren’t doing Shit in this crappy fucked up little town and almost everyone here is totally disillusioned. The dude Sibyl killed was the only person he actually Knew in the whole cult and he really couldn’t offer us much info on members... or really much of anything. He didn’t know the name of the demon they follow--- only that it’s name began with an N and that it was calling itself ‘the whispered one’ and ‘the heir to Griselbrand’ (which Uriel pointed out, is kinda stupid, why follow some lesser demon when Griselbrand is still in power?). Around here is when Sibyl checked out to work on her Mystery Notes... and Uriel got bored almost immediately after when the leader was described. The cult is run by a young twiggy male with long blond hair, and he often has a child with him (not even a partial demon or something cool and grotesque--- why even bother). Mikela asked some more questions and eventually came to the conclusion that it was the weird orphans from earlier who are now running the cult. I hope I got all the deets from that- this was Late Game and I’m not the best note taker lmao.

When Uriel got bored with the interrogation she noticed that Sibyl had left the room and, quietly, went to go find her. Sibyl had taken out the same note-filled bible from the other night and was flipping through it. Uriel got close enough to see the pages that Sibyl was focused on were written in code--- code that Sibyl obviously didn’t know. She startled Sibyl by asking what was up and took 3 points of head-to-jaw damage when Sibyl jumped up and bolted. Nosy persistence didn’t really pay off much for Uriel; Sibyl claimed to not know what the book was about, or if it was related to the cult-shit, and just gave some really vague and suspect answers that Uriel took at face value. And, although Sibyl is the most interesting character overall, Mikela barged into the room with her “ITS THE ORPHANS” revelation and won Sibyl some reprieve from my nosy character.

Uriel and Mikela discuss the orphans a bit, the ghost tells us that the town they are from is still there- but gives us Cryptic Horse Shit about how far away the town is from where we are. While we’re all distracted our hostage slips out of his restraints and flees the house, and we Only notice because the door is squeaky. As he leaves he says “I’m not the only one who’s heard the call” and we see a bunch more people walking towards where the cultists Probably are. Spooky.

The campaign ends here, and I shortly after realize I forgot entirely about the body I should have been working with... OOPS. I’m honestly only even mentioning that here because I don’t want to forget about it AGAIN come next week I need that for spells.

And per usual, not proof reading or anything, and I don’t trust that I didn’t miss details- I kinda check out sometimes on other peoples turns... Its the curse of an ADHD attention span without visual input ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I try.

#long post #Fantasy RP Campaign

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 7: Super Android 13!

Movie 7 premiered on July 11, 1992, after episode 147 and before episode 148. The original title is “Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Battle! The Three Great Super Saiyans.” That may be the most coherent movie title I’ve come across so far.

We open on footage of 17 killing Dr. Gero in his lab. Toei went out of their way to reanimate this whole scene, although the Z-Fighters aren’t in it. I’m pretty sure that big energy blast at the top is Vegeta blasting the door open, but he’s not actually shown.

And the Z-Fighters ought to be standing at the doorway, watching 17 finish Gero off, and yet they’re completely out of sight. You’d think their shadows would be visible here.

But Gero’s supercomputer in the lab’s basement is still hard at work. We first learned of the computer in Episode 143, because Cell credited it with his creation. And it was destroyed in... Episode 145, because Trunks and Krillin wanted to make sure it didn’t send any more surprises after them later. So yeah, we’re not even ten minutes into this movie, and we already have a continuity issue.

In the anime, the supercomputer just has a tank with the embryonic Cell next to it. But in this movie, that’s nowhere to be seen, and instead there’s three chambers, like the kind that once held 16, 17, and 18. What could be inside?????

And here’s the title screen.

This movie’s pretty thin on story. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it’s got plenty of action, but there’s not a whole lot for me to write about. As far as I can tell, this is set in some possible scenario where the good guys beat the androids and maybe Cell too, although it sort of looks like Cell just stone cold never existed in this movie’s world. So the gang is in the big city just sort of relaxing.

This is Trunks’ movie debut, but it seems kind of weird having him just stand around and kill an afternoon with the others. He seems to feel even more awkward about it than I do. If the androids are beaten, why hasn’t he gone back to his own time? Instead, he’s tagged along with Master Roshi, Krillin, and Oolong for some beauty pageant. They wanted to get good seats for ogling the girls, so they showed up super early. Krillin tells them to quit being lecherous pervs around Trunks, but earlier he was the one going ga-ga, so yeah.

The punchline here is that they ended up getting the date of the even wrong, so they stood in line for nothing.

Meanwhile, Goku and Gohan are helping Chi-Chi at the store, because women be shopping, amirite?

Outside, these two mofos show up and just start walking through everything.

I mean literally. If a bus gets in their way they just rip right through it.

Pretty sure they could fly straight up to where they’re going, but they take the escalator instead.

Then they open the elevator shaft, fly up it, through the car, and then rip their way to whatever floor they want.

All of this so they can shoot at Goku from the floor below where he and the gang are eating dinner. This whole assassination attempt seems kind of poorly thought out. If they were going for stealth, why were they so sloppy about getting this far? If they didn’t care who saw them coming, why didn’t they just smash right through to this floor and attack directly?

They manage to save everyone on the floor from the blast, though, so no worries. Goku suspect the attackers are here for him, so he tells everyone to get as far from him as possible.

Sure enough, the pair follow Goku, and he deduces pretty quickly that they’re more of Dr. Gero’s androids.

It takes a while to get the introductions made, so let me get this out of the way here. This one is #15, he has a hip flask and he likes to drink out of it.

And this one is #14. He looks like some sort of reject from the movie Highlander. I’m not sure why their skin looks that way.

Gohan insists on helping, even though Krillin says there’s nothing they can do at their level, and even though Chi-Chi wants him to come home for summer cram school. Gohan refuses, on account of his dad’s life being more important. So Chi-Chi tells Krillin to go after him and make sure he’s okay.

Back at the lab, the supercomputer activates a third android, #13. Why not just send them all out together? Is this just because #14 and 15 are having trouble? Because they haven’t really gotten very far into the fight yet.

Trunks tells Goku that they should take the battle to the polar region up north so civilians won’t get hurt. There, 14 and 15 manage to do a pretty good job working over both of them.

Then 13 shows up. The good news is that he’s more talkative than the others, but the bad news is that he doesn’t have much more to say, really. Practically every one of his lines is just a restatement of how they were sent by Gero’s computer to kill Goku.

That’s pretty much the whole problem with this movie. The villains are just... more androids. Are they cooler androids than the ones from the anime? Well, I guess that’s a matter of taste, but they don’t really have the personality of 16, 17, and 18. They might look cooler, but they don’t have character arcs or anything like that. 14 hardly speaks at all, and 15 just has that hip flask and a loud costume. 13′s got his hat, and not much else.

This is where the Funimation dub really came to the rescue, becaue they dubbed the Movie androids with a lot more flavor. 15 was really sassy, and 13 had this beligerent redneck persona to match his costume. My favorite line from the dub version is when he says “I was programmed to kill your ass”.

We get none of that in the Japanese version. These three are all business, and there’s not much to say here that wasn’t covered by #16-20 in the anime. Dr. Gero hates Goku, they were built to kill him.

The only real twist I can see in this movie is when 13 explains that Gero’s desire for vengeance was “transferred” into the computer. So now the computer hates Goku just as much as Dr. Gero did. Maybe that’s a distinction without a difference. In the dub, the computer was just a plot device to explain how the androids got turned on. Team Four Star’s abridged version of this movie had Gero upload his consciousness into the computer when 17 killed him. I liked that idea, because it allowed Gero to actually be in the movie, albeit as a stationary object. But the original Japanese script seems to be proposing that the computer itself could be the mastermind this time around. Except it never speaks or does much of anything through the whole film. It’s basically an even crappier Dr. Wheelo, if that’s even possible.

On the other hand, it sort of explains why the computer went out of its way to send 13, 14, and 15 into action. In the anime, it’s strongly implied that they were considered failures, either scrapped or put into storage. Gero probably wouldn’t have bothered to use them again, not after all of his later models failed, but if the computer hates Goku too, then it might be desperate enough to try to hurt him with whatever it has on hand.

So they keep fighting. Trunks has to handle 14 and 15 by himself, and it doesn’t go well.

Then Vegeta shows up to save Goku from 13′s finisher. Standard speech, no one gets to kill Kakakrot except me, yadda yadda.

So 15 goes after Vegeta, and now we have an even three-on-three fight.

Now, you might be wondering why they haven’t all gone Super Saiyan yet. Well, to answer your question, I have no idea. I get the impression that these three androids are far weaker than their anime counterparts. I mean, these would have to be the third string, or why else would Dr. Gero have left them on the shelf when he needed help? Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks never would have survived against 16-20 without their Super Saiyan forms, so the fact that they hold their own so long here tells me these three ain’t all that. It still doesn’t explain why they waited this long to turn up the juice. When they do finally transform, Krillin exclaims “They’ve done it!” like it was hard.

I suppose that’s the other explaination. Movies 5 and 6 both seemed to imply that the boys can only transform when they’re backed into a corner. So maybe Movie 7 is going on the same reasoning, but that’s kind of dumb, since we’ve had Super Saiyans for a while now and everyone ought to be familiar with how they work. Hell, Trunks and Vegeta transformed immediately when they fought Frieza and 19 respectively. They can all do it at will.

I take it back, Gero’s computer is way better than Dr. Wheelo because it has colorful blinking lights, so I can actually distinguish it from the rest of the scenery.

For some reason, Goku still has trouble with 13, even in Super Saiyan form, so Piccolo shows up to lend a hand. This seems kind of underhanded for a show that emphasizes fighting one-on-one.

As for Vegeta and Trunks, they dispatch their respective Androids pretty easily.

But then 13 reveals that YOU JUST ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD. Turns out that when you destroy 14 and 15, some of their components will automatically float up and enter 13′s body, giving him a power boost.

So then he turns into this big blue monster with red Vegeta hair. Well why didn’t the computer just build him like this in the first place? Why bother with 14 and 15 at all?

So yeah, he kicks everyone’s ass, and no one can even put a dent in the guy.

With the rest of the Z-Fighters down, 13 just tees off on Goku, eventually knocking him into a lake.

Krillin spends most of the movie convinced that he’s too weak to help, but then at the end he finally steps in to save Goku, and that’s pretty cool. He eats an energy blast for his trouble, but that’s how it goes.

This gives Goku a chance to try the Spirit Bomb, which we haven’t seen him use since it utterly failed to kill Frieza.

The others try to buy Goku time. Trunks in particular gives a speech about how he’s from the future, and 13 doesn’t exist in the future, and that’s because Goku must be destined to kill him here and now. Pretty sure that’s not how it works, but whatever.

13 tries to shoot at Goku, but Piccolo manages to suplex the big bastard. He only gets him halfway over, but that’s enough to ruin 13′s aim, so good enough.

Then Piccolo calls for Goku to show him the power of a Super Saiyan, and Goku obliges by transforming.

From the sidelines, Krillin points out that this won’t work, because you can’t create a Spirit Bomb with a malicious heart, and this apparently means that Super Saiyans just can’t do it at all. I have no idea where Krillin is getting this from. Goku learned the Spirit Bomb technique directly from King Kai, who invented it, and Goku’s the first Super Saiyan to appear in a thousand years. He is singularly qualified to know whether or not this will work. With all respect to Krillin, he has no idea what he’s talking about.

So what ends up happening is that Goku’s body sucks the Spirit Bomb into itself, so now Goku is surrounded by a glowing yellow ball of energy.

Is this a good thing? Is this what Goku meant to do? Was he just going to try a vanilla Spirit Bomb until Piccolo told him to turn Super Saiyan? Who knows?

Anyway, 13 just dives right into this mess and tries to attack Goku anyway, but everytime he punches him his fists get all messed up.

Then Goku makes this really angry face and he looks like Vegeta to me.

He punches a hole through 13, and he explodes. Fight’s over.

Then the computer just... shuts down? That’s kind of convenient. Maybe it figured it couldn’t do anything else now that all of its androids were destroyed, so there was no point staying active? Maybe its power was connected to 13′s? Oh well.

Everyone’s okay, but they all go to the hospital instead of looking for senzu beans. Krillin’s still trying to explain how Goku did that trick with the Spirit Bomb.

But Goku himself has no idea, so what chance do the rest of us have?

But where are Piccolo and Vegeta?

Just floating around on a chunk of ice, nbd. The fish jumps, so it’s over.

And that’s it.

I don’t know. From a story perspective, this one’s pretty weak. It’s just a warmed over follow-up to the androids arc, with 13 as a cheap knockoff of Cell. Movies 5 and 6 at least tried to raise the stakes with Cooler. Sure, he’s just Frieza’s brother, but he had a fifth form, and his cyborg form was tied into a whole machine planet. Turles was just another Saiyan invader, but he had the Tree of Might thing going for him. 13 really didn’t have anything like that.

Honestly, I think they could have done better by having 16 be the main villain. We never got to see 16 fight any of the good guys, so they could have done a movie where an evil 16 cleans their clocks. At least then it’d be a familiar face.

Nevertheless, I do enjoy this movie, just because it doesn’t skimp on the action. The bad guys show up about 12 minutes in and they fight pretty much non-stop for the rest of the film. It’s a good movie in that regard. If you just want to see a bunch of DBZ characters have a good old ruckus, this one’s got you covered. It’s bright and colorful and you can follow the action without any trouble.

But you definitely want to watch the dub version. It’s just a lot more fun.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Marvel’s WandaVision Glitches Spell Trouble for MCU Reality

https://ift.tt/2NuQZ4o

This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

We’re a third of the way through WandaVision and a lot of the show has been establishing the setting via era-spanning sitcom stories while occasionally taking a break to show cracks in the façade. Something is definitely wrong in Westview, but while we can see the errors like comparing two pages in Highlights, we don’t have the full picture yet.

There are many theories out there already. Some completely outlandish, others far less so. As we wait for the other six episodes to hit, I want to focus on the moments in the initial three where reality is questioned. The times when “the real world” starts to seep into the fiction within the fiction. What are these scenes and what do they really tell us?

I’m not going to include the opening credits or commercials. While there’s plenty to pick from those, neither one directly interacts with the narrative. It’s not like Vision looks around after an ad and goes, “What the hell was that?”

VISION AT WORK

Ignoring that Vision should be dead and that this superhero couple is living as 1950s sitcom newlyweds when it’s supposed to be 2023, the first moment that truly sticks out as odd is when Vision is at work. We see him blazing through his assignment at superhuman speed, but then he takes a second to ask what it is they actually do at this job.

Since we already know that there’s something “off” about the show, but nothing especially serious has happened yet, this bit is more humorous than anything. It’s a fictional character becoming just aware enough to point out how slapped together his reality is. While Vision does get a decent enough answer in the end, it’s weird that he only finds out about this after supposedly applying for the job and interviewing. Not to mention the fact that he’s already quite good at it.

Whatever is going on, Vision is just self-aware enough to be curious about the world’s nonsense, but he’s too much of a cog in the machine to go against the script just yet.

STOP IT!

Dinner is served! The first episode revolves around the tried-and-true sitcom trope of having the boss and his wife over for dinner and everything going wrong. Wanda uses her sorcery and cooking skills to serve “breakfast for dinner” and everything seems to be working out. That is, until Mrs. Hart starts asking about Vision and Wanda’s past.

The two seem to be at a loss, unable to recall anything about their relationship and why they moved to Westview. Mrs. Hart is forgiving about this, but Mr. Hart grows increasingly impatient. The first trailer for the series made it seem like he was just mad about their inability to remember, but the outburst in the episode itself feels like something more. After knowing what we know by the end of the third episode, Mr. Hart appears to be furious over the fact that they moved to Westview, turned the Harts and their neighbors into slaves to their story, and can’t even explain why they did it.

Whatever he’s trying to say, he chokes on his food and gradually collapses. Mrs. Hart playfully tells him to, “Stop it!” She keeps repeating this over and over again, like her dying husband is making them look bad. Soon enough, she starts looking in Wanda’s direction. She continues to laugh and repeat, “Stop it!” but she’s crying and directing her words towards Wanda.

WandaVision: How a Bottle of Wine Could be the Key to the Entire Marvel Series

By Gavin Jasper

WandaVision: The Sitcom Influences of Episodes 1 and 2

By Alec Bojalad

Wanda and Vision share an awkward stare before Wanda asks Vision to help Mr. Hart. Vision uses his phasing power to remove the food (using modern special effects instead of the ’50s-style effects from the intro) and Mr. Hart is saved.

In other words, shit just got real.

Only nobody brings it up. They go through the motions with the end of the dinner and the Harts go home. But while Wanda and Vision don’t go over what the hell just happened, they do pay lip service to their lack of coherent background and at least come up with a wedding anniversary to fill that gap.

Revisiting this moment, it’s like both of the Harts know that Wanda is in control of their reality and Mrs. Hart wants to stray from conflict. It isn’t until her husband is dying that she begs Wanda to spare him, feeling that the choking his her doing.

END BROADCAST

With the lovers happy and smiling at the fourth wall, the first episode ends and we slowly zoom away to see a full-color setup of somebody watching the show. Not counting a red light in the episode’s toaster commercial, this is the first time we see any color on this show. There’s a SWORD logo in there, letting us know the organization keeping tabs on what’s going on, but we’re left wondering what this even means.

That entire half-hour sitcom that we watched as an audience was also witnessed by this SWORD agent and possibly many others in that exact form, just without the Marvel Studios fanfare intro. How does that even work? After all, these stories aren’t told in real time…or are they?

WandaVision: What Is SWORD?

By Kirsten Howard

WandaVision: The Sitcom Influences of Episodes 1 and 2

By Alec Bojalad

The first episode appears to be roughly 12 hours condensed. The second one is probably in that ballpark. Does this mean that the exploits are magically edited into an abridged broadcast or are those events magically rushed into that time frame and then broadcast “live?”

Based on the relationship between the second and third episodes, I think we can at least establish that each consecutive episode takes place on a different consecutive day. With a definite Halloween episode on the way, I’m wondering if we’re getting multiple holidays that just happen to rush together.

THE TOY HELICOPTER

The opening of the second episode is about some loud noise disturbing Wanda and Vision, which is revealed as a tree hitting the window. Allegedly.

Early in the same episode, Wanda hears a loud noise and goes to investigate, finding a red and yellow toy helicopter in her bushes. At first, we’re more focused on the fact that it’s in color while the rest of the show is in black and white. Wanda looks around for where it might have come from, then gets distracted by Agnes.

At this point it seems like an actual helicopter did enter Westview and reality recreated it as a toy to fit in. Even then, it’s in color because at the same time, it doesn’t belong. This is presumably where Geraldine came from. In the initial viewing, we’re supposed to see this as Wanda trying to figure out this reality, when revisiting makes it look more like she’s investigating a disturbance in her peaceful world. Knowing what we know later, it’s definitely more sinister.

On the other hand, something swept under the rug in all of this is that Wanda does try to bring this up to Vision. When their magic show is just beginning, she’s about to tell him about the helicopter situation (as well as the Dottie/radio situation), but then he distracts her with his gum-based inebriation. If all of this is Wanda’s fault, why would she want to squeal to Vision?

DOTTIE AND THE RADIO

Wanda meets with the high-strung Dottie and their discussion suddenly gets a bit meta. Dottie talks about how she’s heard all kinds of things about Wanda and her husband. Wanda assures her that they mean no harm and Dottie doesn’t believe her. It’s an odd conversation.

They are interrupted by someone infiltrating the signal on the nearby radio, yelling, “Wanda, who’s doing this to you?” Dottie gets less vague about her suspicions and straight-up asks Wanda about who she is and what’s going on. Suddenly, the radio explodes, the glass in Dottie’s hand shatters, and Wanda is horrified to see blood on Dottie’s hand. Actual red blood!

WandaVision: Are the Neighbors Possible Marvel Villains?

By Jim Dandy

Marvel’s WandaVision: Who is Agnes?

By Jim Dandy

Dottie shrugs off the situation and goes to clean up by herself.

The mysterious question from the radio is a hopeful one. Wanda Maximoff is an Avenger. She’s done a lot of good and rather than damn her for what’s going on, the presumed SWORD agent (we’re guessing this is James Woo) wants to believe that someone more sinister is behind everything. Many would call that foolish. In retrospect this scene feels like Wanda is proving herself wrong by presumably destroying the radio with her own powers to keep her dream reality while inadvertently hurting an innocent person.

FOR THE CHILDREN

During Wanda’s meeting with the other housewives and several times during the magic show, someone mentions how it’s all, “For the children,” and the entire group would repeat it. Every time, they come off as a creepy cult. It’s especially off-putting when you notice that there are seemingly no kids whatsoever in Westview.

At the end of the day, Wanda turns out to be pregnant, seemingly from her pre-credits snuggle with Vision. It’s a magical reality and she’s a magical person so, sure, she’s able to get working sperm from a being whose insides are made up of cartoon gears. We already know that the world of WandaVision is unnatural.

Wanda definitely wants children, but the chanting from throughout the day (not to mention the occasional badgering in the first episode) is some other force at play. Somebody wants Wanda to want children. Someone is egging her on and she has no reason to resist.

WandaVision Episode 3 Theories Explained

By Kirsten Howard

WandaVision: What Wanda’s Kids Mean for the Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

By Gavin Jasper

Yes, it could just be her subconscious causing everyone to moan, “FOR THE CHILDREN,” but I don’t buy it. There are hints of another party being involved and whether it’s Mephisto, Nightmare, HYDRA, AIM, Swarm, Grim Reaper, High Evolutionary, or whoever…somebody wants our protagonists to spawn.

It’s not the most out-there theory. I mean, one of the biggest X-Men villains is Mr. Sinister and he spent years being obsessed with married couple Scott Summers and Jean Grey having at least one kid. Takes all kinds.

THE BEEKEEPER

At the time, the beekeeper seemed like the biggest twist due to its freaky nature and placement at the end of the second episode. Vision and Wanda’s happy moment is interrupted by a loud noise outside, Vision straight-up says “damn” out of frustration (saltier than what you would normally see on ’60s TV), and they investigate. What they find is a guy in a beekeeper outfit crawling out of the sewer and glancing at the couple.

Wanda refuses to accept whatever this means and we suddenly rewind back to the living room, where the beekeeper’s interruption no longer happens.

WandaVision: What is Going on With the Beekeeper?

By Mike Cecchini

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 2: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

By Mike Cecchini and 2 others

The beekeeper was considered an ominous intruder and had people wondering if he was a reference to AIM’s comic book uniforms or the supervillain (and star of Broadway!) Swarm. He also has the SWORD logo on his back. At this point, I’m about ready to call him a red herring. Just a SWORD agent trying to infiltrate this reality and reality makes sense out of his hazmat suit appearance by turning him into a beekeeper.

The real story here is that we have the first definite moment of Wanda altering reality to get what she wants. Earlier scenes could be seen with different context, but she absolutely sees a threat to her happiness and removes it completely.

The interesting thing is that the SWORD agent trying to contact her STILL believes someone is doing this to her at the end of the episode.

NOW IN COLOR

Once the beekeeper is negated, Wanda and Vision share a tender moment and everything starts to turn to color. It’s a hard scene to explain because what does it even mean in the basic narrative? Their world is evolving? Their perception is evolving? It’s the only time they really acknowledge the altering timelines and it’s hard to make sense out of it.

On one level, I suppose it’s a defense mechanism for Wanda. If outside anomalies are taking the form of color in a world without color, then maybe make them no longer stick out.

HERB AND THE WALL

Early in the third episode, Vision sees his neighbor Herb cutting through a brick wall using nothing but electric shears. Not only should this be impossible, but Herb doesn’t even see it as that weird. This could be seen as a glitch in reality, but I feel like it’s Herb trying to communicate to Vision that something is wrong.

It almost works, too! Vision almost brings it up to Wanda before being distracted and it later sticks with him enough for the next big moment.

JUMP EDIT

Wanda talks up the basic plot of the show where they have to hide their powers and identities from their neighbors despite numerous close calls. Vision starts to note how there’s more to this. Things just aren’t adding up. The dinner with the Harts ended all weird and what he just saw with Herb makes no sense.

Vision outright states that something is wrong. Wanda looks worried about this for a moment before the feed glitches and backtracks to Vision agreeing with her and not getting sidetracked.

If anything, this is a sign that Wanda will never be truly happy, and things are going to end badly. We must accept that this version of Vision is probably her mental recreation. He’s the artificial version of an artificial man. Vision as Wanda knows him would question and reject all of this. All Wanda can do is knock him off course or even rewrite his personality here and there to make him more agreeable. This is going to come to a head sooner than later. Either the man she loves will have to confront her for real or the man she’s with will no longer resemble his true self.

FAILED VACATION

Dr. Nielsen starts the third episode with the claim that he and his wife are going to Bermuda. Later on, when Vision needs him to deliver the baby, it’s shown that Dr. Nielsen and his wife can’t get their car started and therefore can’t leave Westview. Nielsen helps Wanda give birth to the second twin and has a final moment with Vision outside.

In this moment, he admits that he probably isn’t going to go on vacation to Bermuda after all. He doesn’t give an actual reason or even note his car problems. He just points out that in small towns, it’s hard to escape.

That’s pretty straightforward. Nobody can leave Westview, even if there’s an in-story reason, as the town will find some reason to keep them there. It’s very much like Cabin in the Woods or the “24-Hour Diner” issue of Sandman.

NEIGHBORHOOD GOSSIP

Shortly after Dr. Nielsen leaves, Vision greets Agnes and Herb before noticing the two gossiping about Wanda’s pregnancy. Vision talks to them about the power outage and it’s notable that after Agnes makes a crack about her never-before-seen husband Ralph, we never hear the audience laughing. In fact, it’s the natural awkwardness of the conversation compared to the ’70s sitcom aesthetic that really drives home that something is wrong.

The two bring up Geraldine, at the time making us unsure if we should be scared for her or Wanda. Herb tries to explain why Geraldine is there. She’s there because he, Agnes, and all the others are…blank. He can’t finish his thoughts, despite trying several times over. Vision tries to interrogate him further, but finally an uncharacteristically serious Agnes turns to Herb, tells him to stop, and gives a very panicked shake of the head.

Afterwards, Agnes slips back into character and rides off on her bike while Herb seems a little more tired as he shrugs back into his sitcom personality.

We don’t know how much this will linger in Vision, especially with the way the “sitcom” aspect of the episode abruptly ends with no credits or freeze frame. He is being pushed further towards understanding the nature of his surroundings, as he might be the only thing capable of saving everyone.

GERALDINE KNOWS

The final moments of the third episode are the most chilling, where Wanda namedrops her doomed brother Pietro and Geraldine brings up that he died thanks to Ultron. Wanda confronts her over that line and seems to realize that Geraldine is an agent of SWORD. Wanda then wishes her away back to reality (sadly, not in a literal cornfield) and we see that SWORD is heavily monitoring some sort of static dome affecting the reality of Westview.

Movies

WandaVision Explained: Who is Geraldine?

By Jim Dandy

WandaVision: Will Pietro Maximoff Make an Appearance?

By Kirsten Howard

Ignoring her true identity, as it hasn’t been officially announced on the show as of yet, Geraldine’s attempts to infiltrate Westview have to be seen as admirable. Sitcoms of this style where the main couple has a sci-fi/fantasy secret tend to last long enough for one or two supporting characters to become aware of what’s going on to shake things up. Geraldine comes off as trying to play the game and situate herself as that kind of friend, always somewhat aware of what Wanda is capable of, but not overtly so. Not yet, at least. She is literally a self-insert character and she almost pulls it off.

Mentioning Ultron is her attempt to bring Wanda back down to earth. Wanda’s too far gone at this point for it to work, but at least she lets Geraldine live.

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OTHER TRAILER STUFF

Before we get to the fourth episode, it’s worth revisiting the show’s previous trailers. Most of them are made up of footage from the initial three episodes, some of which are edited to give a different vibe from what’s actually happening (ie. Geraldine stating she doesn’t know who she is). From new footage for later episodes, these moments stick out:

We see what might be Wanda seeing Vision for the first time post-death. He’s in black and white and is greeting her, which is something we didn’t see in the initial episodes. Expect a flashback.

That would probably tie into the surreal shots of Wanda confronting the Mind Stone itself, whatever that signifies.

Vision waking up Agnes as she’s sitting in her car on Halloween. He zaps her awake with a yellow light, suggesting his connection to the Mind Stone. Agnes points out that Vision is dead and wonders if she is too. She also asks if Vision is there to save them. This is worth revisiting as it means she doesn’t recall her moment with Herb and Vision in the third episode. Unless she’s up to something, that is.

Agnes also screws up one of her lines and offers to leave and come back so they can do the scene over again.

On Halloween, a woman is putting up decorations while crying, as if her movements are being forced. Vision notices this.

Wanda mentions that Westview is their home and Vision offers to fight for it. This definitely reads different after watching the episodes. In fact, I’m not even sure Vision is offering to fight on Wanda’s side. It’s just as possible that he’s challenging her.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go watch the “Legends” episodes of the Justice League cartoon and wait patiently for Friday to come.

The post Marvel’s WandaVision Glitches Spell Trouble for MCU Reality appeared first on Den of Geek.

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davidmann95 · 7 years

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This Superman guy's pretty great, huh?

Okay. Figured I’d write this at somepoint, seems like as good a place as any to do it.

Yes: Superman is pretty great. The character’s great,the costume’s great, the cast is great, the powers are great, the scope of thekind of adventures you can tell with him is great, the mythology’s great, thepower he has to inspire on the page and in the real world is great. I’ve known that since I was…I dunno,three? Two? I’m told he was my first three-syllable word. I’m not sure what myfirst exposure would have been; Supermanthe Animated Series was airing when I was a kid, my dad had the Fleischercartoons on tape, we’d watch reruns of TheAdventures of Superman whenever they aired, I had some odd issues of Superman Adventures, I had picture bookslike The True Story of Superman, Superman: Slippery When Bad and I Hate Superman!, I even had an abridgedversion of John Byrne’s Man of Steel manyyears before I would change my tune on it. It was well past the whole nineyards of lunchboxes and Superman-themed birthday parties - mom and dad wereLois-Mom and Jimmy-Dad for a bit, who got a call one time from a teacher inpreschool that I had dramatically taken off my shirt to show the temporaryS-Shield tattoo I’d gotten on my chest. My dad ended up having to drive toevery Burger King in the area asking for any spare Superman toys because Icouldn’t stand that they had been discontinued before I could get them all andI was making life hell for everyone in the process. I couldn’t play Supermanwith other kids on the playground, because I’d demand we recreate the scriptsof adventures verbatim.

Around seven or thereabouts though,while I never developed any of the disdain towards him that so many seem tohave, I drifted away for a while towards Batman and Spider-Man. Purely bycoincidence, this is also the age I was diagnosed with Asperger’s.

It’s not something I talk about agreat deal these days. Not because of some sense of shame, to be as clear aspossible about that right upfront. It isn’t even a matter of my especiallybeing able to pass as neurotypical - take me out of my comfort zone into anynumber of common social circumstances and that illusion falls by the wayside.But I’ve carved out I feel a pretty decent niche where I’m typically fairlysatisfied and able to function at a level that meets my own standards, and as aresult it’s usually background radiation of my life, not something that comesup unbidden until a situation demands I start thinking about it again. Even when I do, thinking about it much often leaves me feeling self-conscious and self-indulgent, and convinced I’m either being stupidly self-aggrandizing or stupidly self-pitying about it.

So naturally, even once I reallystarted to get back into Superman in earnest at 13 alongsidecomics in general and he became my favorite character in earnest, there are some associations it took me awhile to make.

I’m not quite certain when Istarted to think about it, but the structure of how I thought about it I know came about thanks to @postcardsfromspace‘s (excellent) article I See Your Value Now on learningabout their own Asperger’s. I doubt it’s an association any creators for thecharacter have given any thought (aside from maybe Mark Waid, given that in an interview on Birthright he specifically noted how his idea for Martha Kentbecoming a UFO buff in response to her son was meant as a parallel to parentsof kids with autism having to become self-taught experts on the subject), andall a Google search immediately turns up is comparing a young Clark’s troubleswith his X-Ray vision in Man of Steelto sensory overload in children with autism. It’s not something that would havelikely even occurred to me if it wasn’t for that…well, that I have Asperger’s,and Superman’s a special interest, and as a default I’m always ready on somelevel to connect any input I get back to him.

Obviously, there’s Clark himself.He screams it, right? Likely just because of a general conflation of ‘nerd’traits with ‘Aspie’ traits, but it’s all there right on the surface: shy,awkward, naïve, can’t read a room to save his life, unaware of some generalsocial conventions given his penchant for drab suits, horn-rimmed glasses andfedoras well into the 21st century, either without many friends orlocked into a rigid and small social circle, by all appearances more alivebehind a screen than he ever is to anyone’s face. Even the more confident takeson him, such as in the Reeves TV show or the New 52 Action Comics, seem to lack a social grace or two, seem to grate onthe people around him. Precision-constructed by the greatest man to ever liveto be beneath the notice of his peers in every way imaginable, of course you end up with that guy.

…except even when Clark’s purely apost-Smallville construct on Superman’s part, he’s not made out of nothing, ishe? The Kansas boy who grew up reading ATale of Two Cities as a toddler and obsessively pouring over astronomytextbooks for clues can hazard a guess of what it feels like to be a nerd. Theguy who grew up on a farm who flies and can accidentally shatter steel in hisgrip is entirely familiar with how it feels to awkwardly maneuver around in acrowded city. The square who grew up in the middle of nowhere constantlygetting accused of not knowing how the world really works can probably express a little doubt over his ownself-awareness and naiveté if he absolutely has to. Clark Kent is historicallybuilt on Superman’s own worst image of himself.

(This incidentally, along withplenty of other storytelling-based reasons, is why I intensely dislikeit when Clark’s the ‘real guy’, and therefore confident and charming and on topof things; it’s Kryptonite to the ideas in play there.)

And the shyness? The sense of beingout of place? The - let’s get right to the heart of it - alien-ness?

Superman’s pretty cool. He’sfriendly; he’s understanding; he’s clever and kind and determined. He’s alsosomething of a loner who’s often surprisingly loathe to open up to people,and even once he’s married he still needs plenty of time to himself to thinkthings through. He’s someone who when he puts on the costume always engageswith the world in a very specific context: where his natural talents are mostobviously geared towards being helpful, where so long as he can pull off Sweetand Composed and make some speeches when he has to people will accept him withopen arms. Being Superman puts him in a situation where he can show his bestself, personally and socially and morally, and be accepted for his goodness ina way nerdy, quiet Clark Kent never can.

And god, does he need thatacceptance.

That’s often applied to painfullymaudlin stories of him hand-wringing over his social impact on humanity andwhether he can save all the little children of the world from cancer orwhatever, but it’s still something else that seems to be pretty consistentacross the various interpretations. Unless he’s barreling ahead with a degreeof self-confidence bordering on flat-out arrogance, he’s always worried abouthow he seems in the eyes of the world. Whether that means Red Kryptoniteexternalizing anxieties of old age or powerlessness or throwing him intodreamworlds of hate or irrelevance, or wondering whether he can justify one ofhis two identities, or pondering his alien nature, or questioning what Supermanmeans as a symbol to the world, or being flat-out replaced, or even protectinghis secret, it’s always the same question refracted through endless prisms: Can I belong here? Am I doing well enough,being useful enough, to deserve what I’ve been given? Will they find me out?Would they ever accept me if theyknew the truth?

For all the joy that comes with who he is, that’s his life too: it’s growing up inSmallville knowing there’s no one else who’ll ever know the distinct timbre ofair-pressure changes when a hummingbird slows down its wingbeat a fraction, noone he could talk about the sight of snowflakes assembling themselves out offreezing raindrops to without sounding as if he’s out of his mind, no one whocould fully empathize with having to practice normal human reactions to theworld. It’s spending half his life trying to be a normal guy among normalpeople and failing because of his own insecurities, the other half really beingable to do his best in his own element and being the person he wants to be, butnever being sure if it’s enough for those around him. It’s finally meeting other Kryptonians orsuperheroes but realizing even their own experiences diverge so sharply thatthe communication gap remains, that as a matter of circumstance he is and will alwaysremain fundamentally other in someways, no matter how deeply he connects with other people.

His relationships seem to fit the mold too - it works pretty dang well that histwo best friends are a coworker who’s simultaneously the cool dude who takeshim under his wing and the kid whouncritically looks up to him, and someone with the same ‘hobby’ who’s himselfpretty well-known for having issues opening up to people. Or that his wifefalling in love with him is framed in terms of her looking past him at his mostvulnerable and awkward and unable to fit in to see the person he actually iswhen no one else can, while a major part of his love for her is her being thekind of person who’s pushy enough to force him out of his shell and some of hismore self-defeating behaviors.

And that his worst enemy, in spite ofhis aura of smug self-regard, doesn’t seem able to relate to other people on afundamental level or manage to work with them very well when he’s not in fullcontrol of the situation, even as he needs them to accept and validate him. Lexfails because he’ll never work to bridge that gap in the same way as Superman,seeing that as a ridiculous and unrealistic imposition, and Superman as anintruder into his personal universe trying to force his unrealistic standardsof “acknowledge other people and whatthey think about things” on him while at the same time agonizingly,bafflingly succeeding where Lex fails. He’s the embodiment in that regard ofthe frustrated, shamed instinct of the isolated that you’re already great, sopeople should already love and understand you and it’s their fault for notgetting it (hence for instance how in All-Starhe overtly sees the world and the relationships that make it up in a coldly material manner where people naturally flock to only the most outwardly great aroundthem - colored by a sexist streak that’s taken on a whole new degree of toxic prominencewhen it comes to the socially awkward in the near-decade since the book’sconclusion).

(It also works that Superman’scharacter in All-Star is defined byhis disconnect from humanity, and that his big character arc is having tobecome emotionally honest enough to talk with the people who love him aboutwhat he’s going through.)

Again, clearly none of this is theintent on the part of those who’ve worked with him over the years. This is byno means the bedrock or secret key to what makes him tick; it’s at best a componentin a much larger machine. I’m sure if you dug into it enough you could find somethingproblematic in the proposition, and I won’t pretend there couldn’t becharacters closer in every sense to my own experiences.

But none of them would be Superman.

Sure, it helps that I grew up withhim, and that he’s a character with enough detail and weird ideas and characterwork that I can delve into the minutia of him in a way I can’t with anyone elseto the same extent other than Batman, but beyond all that, he’s Superman. He’s TheGuy, the best, and that I can see myself in him in *any* way means more than itever could with any other character, because that makes him being a role modelmean something else.

For all I talked about how lonelyhe is above he’s still an idealist, still has friends and a job and weirdpersonal hobbies at his personal ice-cave and a way to express his highest,best self in a way that’s loved by the people around him. The way he seesthings differently can be accepted and shared even as he understands and caresfor the people around him. He’s happy. And that he can start from a place of being the onlyone of his kind and end up a good person, the best person, in part because he knows better than anyone what it isto be alone and why others matter so much? That has more weight to people, andto me, than can be expressed.

I mentioned before I’m not wildabout Clark being the exclusive true identity in part because of how much itmesses with this. I’ve also said elsewhere that while both Clark and Supermanare inseparable and true parts of his identity that can’t be denied as importantaspects of who he is, if I absolutely had to choose one as being the ‘real’ one I’dgo with Superman. And I can pick apart any number of storytelling reasons forthat, but thinking about how I relate to Superman in the way I do made merealize something else. I have to see Superman as the truest self becauseSuperman’s who he is at his best, when he’s not afraid or ashamed and can showhimself in all his alienness to everyone and be accepted for it. That’s thedream, right? I’m no Superman, but I’ve gottabelieve in him, ‘cause I’ve gotta believe in me.

I’m pretty sure some of you canrelate.

#Superman #Asperger's #Autism #Clark Kent #Lex Luthor #Lois Lane #All Star Superman #Analysis #Opinion #Me

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