#like the shit he says in the improv theater story??

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

controversial opinions insomnia hours with isabel: i think the internet was way too harsh on andrew garfield for saying he watched drag race to prepare for angels in america, given that he was playing a character who used to do drag and has a particularly memorable scene that takes place in a liminal dreamspace anchored by his make-up mirror. like, it would be weird and probably homophobic to prepare for playing louis by watching drag race... but he was playing prior! having seen his performance, also, i didn't think it was perfect but i thought he was very good and more pertinently I did think it was very clear that insofar as he did infuse it with a degree of what i will call for a lack of a better word flamboyance, it was not because andrew garfield thinks this is what gay people are like, but a deliberate choice for this specific character (a former drag performer!!!) rooted in the idea that performance is itself a coping mechanism, something which is IMO integral to any reading of the famously language-heavy play (louis's monologues about america are his version of the same thing) and which was also a concept obviously (arguably too obviously, but i thought it worked) at the center of this production as a whole - once perestroika commenced and especially as it stretched into its endgame, garfield dropped the exaggeration, bit by bit, until at the epilogue he was speaking to the audience quite plainly, a performance arc that mirrored the way the realistic and textured period set of millennium approaches came apart and gave way to black box style minimalism across part two as the characters get closer to being stripped of their various illusions, and was echoed as well in the extraordinary work nathan lane did with roy cohn's weakening voice as illness took from him his power.

#other controversial opinion is that lee pace as joe pitt was... fine #he was good. he played the part well enough to serve the story #but it wasn't a performance that stayed with me #now. unfamous theater actor who played louis on the other hand.... THAT was a PERFORMANCE #holy shit. that was one of the best feats of acting i've ever seen #can't remember his name but still remember visceraly sitting in the theater during his belize monologues scene thinking like #'holy shit he is for real saying this in a way that makes it sound like it is just coming out of his brain right now on the spot' #which. if you are familiar with those monologues. is no mean feat!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #who else was in that. belize was good. i missed beth malone as the angel which mad eme sad but the angel was fine. #harper was ok #in the off broadway revival from like 2012 or whatever zoe kazan was ATROCIOUS #like HATEFULLY bad #this lady was an improvement #but i think harper is maybe the hardest character in the play #and also the character where all future actors are least served by my memory of the HBO adaptation #i think the cast in that is gnrealy quite good #emma thompson & meryl streep are delights ofc #(oh. hannah. hannah was fine i guess i don't remember her) #but mary-louise parker's harper is......................... #unspeakably untouchably gorgeously wildly beyond perfect to me #she gives such a strange performance and she makes it look so fucking easy #actually. weird comparison incoming. you know what it's like #it's like... heath ledger's joker #like that performance is iconic because he is playing this derangeed larger than life character #and it's not what you'd call a subte performanc but it's also not at all a show-off performance #it's not understated but i would allso say it is not a performancee that draws attention to itself #it's a performance that trusts itself enough to believe if it just does its job the attention will come when it's supposed to #that's parker's harper. she doesn't need to show you she's good. she doesn't need to make it clear that she's Acting

[loveinhawkins]

Thinking again about theater kid Dustin so naturally I had to come to you 💙 Specifically I’m thinking about Dustin auditioning for a community theater production of Jesus Christ Superstar with an eccentric director who convinces Eddie to audition for Judas. He knows his reputation and thinks his notoriety will add an extra meta layer to the role (and get some butts in the seats he’s gotta keep the lights on somehow). Eddie is reluctant to put himself in the spotlight but ultimately does cause Dustin is excited about it. Also he’s really good? He plays it completely sincerely which no one is expecting, really leans into the interpretation that Judas was in love with Jesus and amps up the tragedy. (Afterwards Steve also asks him if that kiss with Jesus is in the script or…?)

i love this so much, thank you for sharing with me! ❤️ theatre kid Dustin is just so incredibly precious & i just love the thought of him having so much fun with it in his future. like i see him as such a little social butterfly, i think everyone in the theatre group would adore him (i’m always so upset when his peers make fun of him at the snow ball, no, that’s my boy!!!)

and oh my god Jesus Christ superstar yes!!! yeah i can see Eddie being so hesitant about it, like the thought of how certain factions of hawkins might still view him makes him nauseous.

but the director—who maybe knows through close-knit community theatre circles that a very young Eddie once played Action in West Side Story (i love your story so much ❤️)—has one last parting shot which convinces him.

“So you never want to have fun ever again?”

… Huh, Eddie thinks.

he still asks for Dustin’s approval, all too concerned with the thought that this is Dustin’s thing and maybe he’s overstepping or something, or—

“Holy shit, that’s some seriously impressive over-thinking,” Dustin says. “You’re my friend, asshole.”

And maybe he says it with a tone, but he means I wanna hang out more with you not less!

so Eddie takes the role and of course he’s brilliant—okay everyone’s got opinions on the auto tune used in Tim Minchin’s rendition but dear god the depths in his eyes, the acting. also maybe the director does a present day take like that version did & Eddie’s jokingly like “I could wear the hellfire tshirt” & the director’s eyes light up & Eddie quickly goes, “No. That was a joke, it wouldn’t even make sense.”—and maybe there’s something empowering in playing this figure when people once said his name and the Devil’s in the same breath.

Maybe, maybe.

and oh we all know who Eddie is thinking about when he’s singing:

I don't know how to love him I don't know why he moves me He's a man, he's just a man He's not a king, he's just the same As anyone I know He scares me so

and

Does he love, does he love me too? Does he care for me?

And oh on a lighthearted note, Steve asking if the kiss is in the script has me in hysterics, especially if this is pre-them getting together.

just the thought of Steve staring grumpily any time there’s a scene with Jesus & Judas—the guy who plays Jesus is maybe like a couple years older than Eddie, not originally from Hawkins perhaps so he’s kinda not fully aware of Eddie’s history & sure, he’s nice, but he’s just not on Eddie’s radar at all.

So when Steve asks if the kiss was in the script (not that he cares! At all! He doesn’t care! Look at how much he doesn’t care!), Eddie stares at him for a long moment and says, “Steve. Did you think I improvved the Bible?”

Dustin, who is also here—currently doing English homework up on a barstool in Steve’s kitchen while Eddie & Steve lounge on the couch—sighs very loudly and says, “How the fuck am I supposed to know what role dialogue plays in Much Ado About Nothing?”

Eddie waves a hand distractedly at him. “Just make it up.”

“I can’t just because my way through Shakespeare,” Dustin says, adds in a huffy undertone, “this isn’t one of your campaigns.”

Eddie mimes being stabbed in the heart. “Oh, betrayal!”

“So it was in the script?” Steve says.

“Oh for—yes, Steve, it was,” Eddie says. “It’s called acting. Also, it was on the cheek.”

“So?”

“So—ugh, just—” Eddie tugs on Steve’s wrist impulsively, while another part of his brain is screaming in vain for him to stop. “Come here.”

“What’re you doing?”

“I’m just showing you how fucking little it—”

I’m never finishing this essay, Dustin thinks. My home life is distracting and chaotic.

And Eddie kisses Steve very very chastely on the cheek, just to show it was nothing, that’s all, but Steve can feel Eddie’s breath on his skin, the warmth of his lips, and Eddie doesn’t really think it through until he does it and then oh shit, his heart is pounding—

“Oh, yup cool,” Steve says. “That’s—yeah, wow, that’s it? Huh. I need some air.”

“From your own house?” Dustin says, to the front door already slamming shut.

And Eddie’s eyes are wide and shiny, like, did I fuck up, and it takes all of Dustin’s self control to not roll his eyes and slam his face into his book.

Then he softens a bit, remembers looking out into the audience and seeing Steve silently crying while Eddie sang You have murdered me.

“You’re so dumb,” Dustin tells Eddie as gently as he can. “You’re lucky I love you.”

“Uh.” Eddie blinks. “Did I—should I…?”

Dustin sighs wearily, slings his backpack over his shoulder. And he has a parting shot of his own:

“I’m not waiting through another production for you two to get your shit together.”

#i hope this repays even a little bit the joy i had thinking about this! ❤️ #dustin henderson headcanons #eddie munson headcanons #steddie headcanon #steddie hcs #henderfam #steddie #eddie and dustin #steve and dustin #steddie ficlet #dustin henderson #steve x eddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #JCS AU

[avelera]

Random thoughts on the D&D movie in no particular order:

I loved the jokes. All of them. All the stupid jokes. I was their target audience and they succeeded at making me cackle at dumb shit while my partner's soul left his body

The landscape shots were breathtaking and honestly made me tear up at the beauty in places. In the theater, I remember thinking, "Yeah, FUCK yeah, these guys understood the assignment!" Nine out of ten times, I think fantasy should be animated, because if you don't pour millions into the budget, the action looks like crummy LARPers wearing silly costumes in the woods. This movie understood that if you're doing live action fantasy, you owe your audience some damn beautiful landscape shots and damn did they deliver on some beautiful landscape shots.

(cut for spoilers)

I sincerely appreciated Holga and her husband being divorced but still amicable. I'm so tired of the trope of exes being evil or awful. They just seemed like two adults who wanted to love each other but the circumstances of being together doomed them from the start. It was played for laughs but it was just a moment I genuinely enjoyed as divorcee. I also loved her ex's new wife looking exactly like her, both for the gag, and for what it said about both of them being each other's type even if it didn't work out.

I also cackled like a hyena at Holga's halfling fetish while also finding it rather sweet and enjoyed imagining all the reasons why she might have that preference lol

As a basic Drizzt Do'Urden loving bitch, I squeed when I saw Icewind Dale on the map. Then I had a moment between that and the Underdark of wondering, "Am I gonna see him? Even in the distance? Am I going to see my first love, Drizzt Do'Urden??"

And then I realized: the Paladin. The Paladin is Drizzt. Only good person who came out of a nation destroyed by evil. Too good for this world, too pure, to the point of being sanctimonious but is also a hottie. Xenk is Drizzt.

Oh, I also squeed when I saw the Underdark.

I appreciated how knowledge of D&D improved certain story beats (like the gelatinous cube or the displacer beast) but wasn't required to enjoy the plot. That's how references should be done.

The most agonizingly cringe moment for me was when Holga was dying. Just. I appreciated the beat. It couldn't go any other way. They delivered on their set up with the tablet, the only question was ever, "Who besides his wife is going to get saved with it?" And it made perfect sense who it was. I'm glad they didn't try to pull a fast one. But the scene was like... 10 seconds too long of her dying for me to not roll my eyes. We know you're going to use the tablet on her, dipshit, please keep this moving.

BUT I think the reason they did it was to land a sincere moment with the daughter, and I appreciated that. I think the scene could have been improved by Holga being like, "Don't you fucking dare use that tablet on me!" and then smacking him when he did it anyway and then he'd have to explain that he set out to save his daughter's mother, not his wife, who has passed on, etc etc. but I'm not sure that would have been much better so maybe the drawn-out opera death scene and the sincerity was better in the end idk.

I KINDA wanted to see the actors as the players playing D&D BUT I know why they didn't and it was a wise choice, it undermines the drama too much to say it doesn't matter because it's a game. Maybe if instead they'd should the characters playing D&D in universe as normal humans? Idk

I thought there'd be more Xenk? I thought he'd be in the arena with them? A little bummed but I also loved his GM NPC energy.

The combat and camera work was great! Genuinely enjoyable and well made, I appreciated the artistry that went into it.

Loved the bardic distraction scene for truly capturing the chaos of a D&D party's attempt at breaking and entering

Loved the portals bit for truly capturing the strategy and planning that can go into a functioning D&D campaign's clever heist, even if I'm sure it would have taken 5 sessions to plot out IRL

Honestly, it was just a fun, solid film! It's been a while since I've seen such a fun, solid film! I would buy it and put it on in the background to just enjoy and not angst over it! It was worth the price of admission, it was faithful to the spirit of D&D instead of sneering at it the way the early 2000s one did, and I had a good time! It wasn't the highest of art but it would have been weird if it had been! I liked it a lot!

#DND #honor among thieves

[idiopath-fic-smile]

ficlet: W.A.R!Enjolras's birthday party

roughly a bajillion years ago, i said i'd write donation fics for people who gave to abortion related causes. i flagged out about halfway through but i'm back, baby, and i'm determined to fill those requests.

this is for @sharki-leftishark, who was curious to see a birthday celebration in the W.A.R universe, either enjolras or grantaire. so today i bring to you enjolras's birthday, following the events of W.A.R. i never did figure out the month in which this story takes place, so please feel free to mentally set it whenever your own zodiac headcanons dictate.

ETA: and many thanks to @consultingreaders and @give-me-a-minute-to-think for the speedy and helpful beta!

Senior year

Maybe three-quarters of the way through opening the presents, Grantaire realizes that Enjolras is saving Grantaire’s gift for last. Enjolras tosses aside the paper from the hardbound journal that Marius got him, thanks Marius with real earnestness even though it’s the third variation of a notebook he’s received today, starts to reach for Grantaire’s sloppily wrapped bundle, sees the tag, and then his hands stutter instead toward a shiny package that turns out to be from Joly.

The package contains some sort of board game. Courfeyrac insists that the game is “Risk in space, it is so clearly Risk in space—we’ve been over this, people. Enjolras is not allowed within ten yards of a pretend army, remember? We voted?” and then Joly waves his cane at Courfeyrac, shouting, “People change! Also it’s a cooperative game, we’d be harnessing the laser eyes for the power of friendship and community!” and a lively debate ensues.

Grantaire follows some of it. He’s mostly trying not to think about how Enjolras, who believes in self-discipline and delayed gratification and all that shit, apparently considers Grantaire’s contribution to be the grand finale of this whole experience. Enjolras, who loves his friends so much. It’s heady to consider: the height of Enjolras’s expectations and the chance of maybe not meeting them, a quick swoosh up and then down. Not that Enjolras would ever be a dick about it or anything, but they’ve been dating, for-real dating, for months now, and if Enjolras doesn’t love the present, Grantaire will probably know.

After a lifetime, the presents-opening resumes. Feuilly has set up an appointment for Enjolras to interview a real-life union leader. Combeferre contributes a tidy set of books by someone named bell hooks. Courfeyrac’s offering is a gift certificate to the impossibly cool indie movie theater two towns over as well as a bubble gun blower, which immediately sparks off another round of debate.

(“Oh, so fictitious simulated pretend armies are verboten, but you get him a firearm?” Joly manages between laughs.

“One that shoots soap bubbles, you maniac!” Courfeyrac shoots back.

“At least it would be a clean kill,” muses Combeferre, and Eponine’s eye roll would be slightly more convincing if they hadn’t clearly slipped away during the division of the birthday cake to make out.)

And then, well. And then it’s Grantaire’s turn. To see his present opened, not to sneak off to swap spit with his boyfriend, which come to think of it sounds infinitely better, and not just because Enjolras’s dedication to self-improvement extends to learning how to kiss Grantaire to the point of incoherence in under five minutes.

Enjolras unwraps the paper carefully and shakes out the fabric. It’s a T-shirt, emblazoned with the words “ENJOLRAS 2024: ARE YOU BRAVE ENOUGH TO CHANGE THE WORLD?”

“For the campaign,” says Grantaire. “I did the math and that’s the first year you can run for president.”

“You need to be thirty-five,” says Enjolras. A smile is flickering at the corner of his mouth.

“I know,” Grantaire tells him. “I looked it up because I had to know the first year I could vote for you. I cracked open my Government textbook for you, so like. Feel honored.”

“We had Government last year,” Enjolras seems to feel compelled to point out. “When did you—”

Grantaire can feel his face burning. He’s not even sure why, really. “Last March,” he says.

“When you first started pretending to date,” Musichetta fills in with relish. Now that it’s public knowledge among their friends, she brings it up whenever she can.

“I thought you were maybe out of your mind,” says Grantaire, “but like. I don’t know. You’re clearly gonna be somebody. And, uh. You had my vote. And still do, obviously.”

Enjolras is turning a little red too. “You should probably see what the other candidates’ positions are before you make that call,” he mumbles.

Grantaire’s heart soars. He shakes his head. “No way, I’m a single-issue voter and my one issue is ‘how much is this guy like Enjolras?’”

Enjolras ducks his head. He lays the T-shirt down carefully, next to the pile of books and notebooks. He opens his arms. Enjolras, who, now that the dating is real, isn’t really about public displays of affection.

“This is so sweet I think I’m going to actually throw up,” says Eponine as Grantaire steps into the hug. He squeezes hard. Enjolras squeezes harder.

“I like you so much,” Enjolras murmurs into the side of his face. “Also, you’re the one who’s out of your mind, nobody just runs for president—”

“Sure,” says Grantaire, “You gotta be twenty-five to run for House of Reps, so 2014’s the first year you’d be eligible. Now, U.S. Senate, you need to be thirty, so you can run in 2018, when it just so happens a seat will be open—”

Enjolras kisses him on the mouth.

#world ain't ready #food mention cw #eXr

[courfeyracs-swordcane]

Who are the ballad brothers I have seen you tag them on a variety of posts and I am intrigued

THREE MONTHS LATE BUT HERE WE GO!!! I also did a post about this ages ago which I’ll link HERE but! There’s been a lot of development since then!!!

This is going to get long. Sorry in advance. (Also I’m keeping it to just the Ballad Brothers themselves (and co) but lmk if you also want to know about the saints! They’re not at all relevant to the main plot (two and a half exceptions) but they live rent free in my head)

TLDR. Little guys took up residence in my head when I listened to music in the car and it’s become a whole scifantasy worldbuilding exercise.

Anyway!

KYRIE ALEIDIS BALLAD

- she/her

- 29 years old

- 5’11 (and a half)

- Massive Fucking Tech Sword

- Enneagram 8w7 if you’re an enneagram guy

- she is YOUNG she’s FANTASTIC she’s GOD’S FAVORITE and she’s NEVER GOING TO DIE

- The main character!

- She is the city (symbolic) and her name is god

- Former sword-for-hire/star player/golden girl/mascot/diversity hire (whatever you want to call it) for evil organization(tm) Rekah’s Finest

- (named after St Rekah of the Guard)(think somewhere between the CIA and the Pinkertons)(National guard type of thing that staged a very quiet coup/government takeover about a decade before Kyrie was born and is gradually got to the point where they’re running the city-state where this all takes place as a police state)

- current renegade and aspiring vigilante

- she fucked off the minute she turned 18 to join the metaphorical army/become a cop (same difference)(except there’s also regular cops and they kind of suck shit) and very quickly became very good at it!

- wound up as essentially the Special Little Guy they have as the face of the organization doing a lot of like. Public outreach and shit. Also doing a lot of assassinations inside and outside of the city

- A few years before the story starts she Realized Some Things about how her and Alonzo were orphaned and quit her job EXTREMELY publicly and extremely dramatically and left with nothing but her Massive Fucking Tech Sword and the clothes on her back and fucked off to go hide/live in a massive tower monument at the center of town

- It’s… legally difficult to get her out of there due to the historical site preservation regulations so she’s just been kind of vibing there ever since

- Theoretically. She’s trying to take down the RF and get them Out Of Her Damn City

- In practice she’s one singular burnout and has no idea how the hell to go about doing that so she’s mostly just hanging out in the tower and evading arrest

- She’s a fuck boy dirt bag piece of shit (etc etc etc) and I love her for it

- She gets no bitches despite being a local celebrity with one of The Fanbases Ever (she would do numbers on scifantasy Twitter) bc She’s So Sucks <3

- (no bitches except she does have a weird homoerotic thing going w her roommate/childhood best friend who’s kind of a reincarnation of St Ely who built the city and lives in the tower)(she’s not looking at it)(she’s got bigger problems called Avoiding Confronting Any Emotion bc if she looks at any of them she’ll have to process all of the Guilt she has irt. Pretty much abandoning her baby brother on the streets to go be a hero and then Never Contacting Him Again)

ALONZO BALLAD

- he/him

- 25

- 5’4

- two regular guns

- Kyrie’s aforementioned baby brother!

- Enneagram 3w4 which if you were friends w me 2019-2021 you’ll know exactly how much that says everything you need to know about this guy (derogatory)

- Most repressed mfer on the planet and a neurotic little freak

- Considers himself to be the only guy in this found family with a braincell. (Untrue, even if you don’t count An)

- His first instinct in a lot of situations is Improv Theater. (Seeing his sister for the first time in more than ten years? Better wear a hood and prepare a whole dramatic reveal about it. Ran into the guy he kissed at the office holiday party while trying to get his expense account wrangled for an upcoming assignment? Time to launch into an extended bit about how he’s so sad and poor and he’s gonna starve and freeze to death all alone on the street and Only They have the power to help him. please.)(they think it’s hilarious but jfc what’s wrong with him)

- The main issue with him is that he gets his apartment and all of his necessities directly from his employer, so his first priority at all times is Preserve His Job At All Costs

- He thinks of the way he lives as self care. I think of it as masochism.

- His main idea of a Life Plan from the ages of 15-his early 20s was Look At What His Older Sister Did And Then Do It Too

- (his main idea of a life plan from the ages of 3-20 was Don’t Get In Trouble Ever or They Will Come And Kill You To Death)(these are not especially compatible philosophies.)

- So he’s a sword-for-hire (gun for hire. And not even a fancy tech one. They’re not trusting any more Ballad brothers with any more expensive technology.)

- This is not working out well for him. he’s not overwhelmingly good at the job. He doesn’t find any purpose in killing people. He doesn’t even like blood.

- He is, however, very good at following orders. But only when he wants to.

- He’s also very good at Lying To His Boss’s Boss

- They keep sending him to try and assassinate Kyrie as like. Kind of a power move? Trying to show her that they’ve got her only family at their beck and call and they can make him do whatever they want

- Unfortunately Alonzo has no interest in killing her so those missions pretty much just wind up with him going to hang out in the tower and shoot shit for a couple days and then going back and turning on the big sad wet eyes for his report to tell them that he did his best he really did but she’s always been stronger and he just couldn’t take her— but he’ll do better next time he promises 🥺🥺🥺

- Kyrie had been their best guy for several years and Alonzo is, in all other regards, the perfect employee (turns in all his paperwork ahead of time, does every other mission very efficiently and never gets caught, goes to all the company mixers even though everyone can tell he’s exhausted, always has his uniform meticulously clean and pressed) so this is plausible, and they go “aww okay better luck next time :) go get some rest :)”

- Also he’s lowkey a hostage here. What are they gonna do? Fire him? No they need him for leverage

- It drives his immediate supervisor who knows EXACTLY what’s going on up the fucking wall. We will get to them.

- Gets Fucking Shot With A Cheater Bullet (very small timed action grenade) on an assignment midway through the story and his first instinct (instead of going back to the office where they have like. Actual doctors and medical equipment to deal with that) is to head to St Ely’s tower, where they have his sister and his kind of boyfriend and also his sister’s roommate who can sew and his childhood buddy Jonesie down the street who knows first aid

- He’s not thinking especially straight due to the Panic and also the Blood Loss from the Bullet In His Ribcage and he’s got a whole emotional thing about how he wants to die at home w his people— and then it goes off and he Fucking Dies. Whoops!

- He gets better his boyfriend (for real now lmao) is an aspiring necromancer and God’s Pet Freak (there’s a lot. Behind that. more later) and he very pointedly doesn’t believe in magic or saints or anything but also his chest cavity did very much get exploded and he’s fine now (besides the lingering Effects) so like.

- He deals with this by 1. Contacting his supervisor who lets the higher ups know there’s been An Incident. 2. Going back to work as soon as they’ll let him (like three days later). and 3. Getting himself transferred to the security division and becoming Ari’s dad’s bodyguard so he doesn’t have an excuse to go hang out at the tower anymore and he doesn’t have to look at any of those emotions he can just Focus on his Work <3

- Obviously that does not go well for him.

SENECA “ARI” FINCH

- they/them/any

- 25

- 5’2

- Enneagram 5w6

- Mad scientist

- Nepo baby

- Front desk intern for the RF financial department

- Aspiring necromancer

- God’s Pet Freak

- If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you raise a child in one of those beige instagrammable influencer houses. It’s this.

- Their dad is the puppet city governor for the RF (Kyrie wants him dead so goddamn bad)(he’s kind of a useless twink but he’s an easy guy to blame for all this shit)

- Their mom died when they were like 8 of something pretty regular and they have since dedicated pretty much their entire life to Bringing Her Back

- (No they were not especially close or anything why do you ask?)

- TECHNICALLY their dad, knowing their passion for Science (and not much else about them) got them a cushy RF job developing biotech to make the cool individualized tech weapons

- In practice, they got their funding and their fancy work lab and immediately proceeded to squirrel just about everything useful from it downstairs to their own personal lab in the basement (not on the floor plan) where they don’t have to worry about things like “supervision” “safety regulations” “proper ventilation” “their job” etc

- They are still doing their job but they’re getting it done in like. Two days out of the month and spending literally all the rest of their time on the necromancy

- It’s gotten to the point where they’re not even clocking in upstairs anymore so they made them take a couple shifts a week at the front desk of the financial department just so they have something on record to pay them for

- They’re okay with this! it’s fun to switch it up and there’s snacks in the breakroom

- I cannot emphasize enough how much they Do Not Leave the horrifying unventilated unethical science basement. there’s a couch in the corner and a sink and an employee bathroom in the stairwell what more could they need.

- One of the early plotlines is centered around Getting Them To Go Outside (really outside, not just to the regular parts of the RF building) and like. Idk. Maybe seeing a leaf or smth would be good for them)

- where they also wind up meeting and hanging out w Kyrie and El, doing some upkeep on Kyrie’s fancy sword, and being Absolutely Fascinated by St Ely’s Tower (there’s some generally buried Magic Shit that perks up when them and El are in the room together)

- BECAUSE!!! (And this is why they haven’t succumbed to the Fumes in the horrifying unventilated unethical science basement, or the gas leak in there from the pipe main running through the middle of it that they’ve been siphoning off of, or any of the experiments they do on themself bc they can’t get any other test subjects and also bc they wouldn’t trust anyone else’s testimony as to What It’s Like) the magic, which is how Ely built the city (and how all of the other saints Did Their Things as well but that’s a whole other can of worms) is a vapor that lives underground and speaks no human language but saw this little freak trying to defy the laws of nature from their hole in the ground and took a liking to them

- It can’t bring their mom back bc she’s been dead for fifteen years and it never met her so it wouldn’t even know where to start

- But it likes them! It follows them around and keeps them alive and helps with their experiments :)

- (they remind it of Saint Ely, who was a similarly tiny passionate freak, but that’s also a whole other can of worms)

- Ari is not aware of this in the slightest.

- Their second arc is getting Disappeared from legal existence (very easy. They live in a basement and barely ever leave it and don’t really talk to people), realizing that they are in fact mortal and could potentially die someday, and trying to contact their dad to make sure he knows they’re okay. (Doesn’t work. They’ve been disappeared and are no longer allowed past the front desk.)

- Their third arc (during the communal breakdown era. Kyrie’s abandoned by god arc where she decides to run away from her problems in a literal sense and Alonzo’s evil arc where stops speaking to everybody and dives headfirst into his job at the war crimes factory) is deciding that the same thing happened to their mom and the necromancy isn’t working because she’s NOT actually dead which means she’s out there somewhere and they can find her! :)

- That is not even a little bit true. :(

EL (no last name)

- he/him (woman)

- Doesn’t really have an age. They don’t really exist in time in the usual sense

- 5’0

- Enneagram 9w1

- Lives in the tower

- Just kind of showed up there one day as a kid and has been living there ever since

- There’s a nearby convent of some kind that fed and clothed them growing up (same place that looked after Kyrie and Alonzo after they were orphaned)

- Kind of a reincarnation of Saint Ely. not in so many steps bc again. Out of time and who knows how long he’s been there but like. He’s back for more but he’s a lady with an ounce of common sense this time. It’s unclear how much he’s aware of this part of it. He knows the tower is important, and he knows restoring the murals inside of it is important. I don’t think he knows why.

- only guy in this found family who’s even remotely capable of coping with the idea of death (he already did that)(kind of psychopomp coded about it)

- Kyrie’s best friend and second in command so much as she has a command. Weird homoerotic gay thing going on there. I assume there’s some of the traditional St Ely brand of devotion but like

- (And by traditional I mean I don’t think that’s a widely known thing about Ely the Saint but it is one of the more prominent things about Ely the Guy)

- Spends most of his time restoring the tower and the murals inside that nobody has seen in years

- (That’s a whole thing)(different can of worms)

- This is @nosongunsung11’s guy so I’ll tap them in for the details but I think that’s the basics!!

AN “PUNK” JANG

- they/them (lesbian)(in gender moreso than practice)

- 35 but they’re lying about it. actually 33

- 5’5

- Enneagram 1w2 😬

- Twin fancy tech rapiers

- The previous Special Little Guy/Mascot/face of the RF

- Ran away from home, changed their name, and lied about their age to join up when they were 16 and they’ve just kind of been going off that ever since

- Went by Punk for a while towards the beginning of their career bc they were 16/17 and it Sounded Cool and it would up becoming almost like their callsign (that’s what Alonzo calls them bc he was very much an enjoyer when he was a kid. They were like Spider-Man to him. Blorbo from the news.)(and he continues to call them that bc he’s a little shit.)

- (They wound up naming themselves after Saint Anjane of Strength not because they believe in any saints but because they desperately wish they did and this way at least they can pretend they know what it might feel like to have that kind of faith.)(in a fun and funky coincidence, they’re actually very very similar to Saint Anjane herself. El has some Complicated Emotions about this.)(long story. It’s Saint Ely’s Monument but it’s also the closest thing he has to a grave— he pulled it out of the ground so he could be alone w/ Anje’s body after he got to her execution too late to talk her out of it)

- Got shunted when Kyrie showed up and was infinitely more personable due to her heroics in SciFantasy 9/11 (long story. Building exploded.) and general bright-eyed and bushy tailed unjaded Disposition

- And by shunted I mean promoted to middle management in the Murder Department

- They’re fine with this it’s significantly less work on their end

- They do make sure after that to have everything they need for basic living separated from the job though

- Only guy in this found family with their own actual apartment. And basic cooking skills. And healthy sleep schedule.

- When Alonzo gets into the Murder Department they wind up as his immediate supervisor!

- Exciting prospect at first! He’s a high profile assignment (hostage) and also an easy assignment (does all of his paperwork on time, completes his missions Quietly and Efficiently, doesn’t really do anything interesting at all)

- Less exciting prospect once they actually work with him. He’s a little shit and a motherfucker and he knows exactly what he’s doing

- They can’t stop covering for him at this point without doing a hell of a lot of paperwork and jeopardizing their own job so they’re stuck now

- Also. unfortunately. they got attached. They’re not the step-older sibling, they’re the older sibling who stepped up.

- They’re the one who arrests Kyrie at the beginning of the story and kick off the whole first half of the plot, but they also wind up putting in their two weeks after Alonzo Gets Fucking Killed and then immediately goes back to work

- They do it significantly better than Kyrie tho they keep their apartment and their bank account and return most of their uniforms so the rf doesn’t have any reason to come after them besides Aiding and Abetting (and also trespassing. On the protected historical site that is St Ely’s monument. But that’s the least of anyone’s worries here.)

- They wind up kind of taking charge of the. whatever the hell these guys are doing. during the Communal Breakdowns arc. they would really prefer not to be doing this but somebody has to. So.

- Also during that arc they wind up facing off with Alonzo and boy howdy is there a reason they got assigned as the rf’s Special Little Guy and he didn’t, bc he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell even with them holding back

AND THAT’S THE MAIN CAST! Thank you for coming to my ted talk! (Get it?) I’ve hit the image limit on mobile so I’ll come back and add the before/after pictures in a reblog bc I had fun making those

#THANK YOU FOR THE ASK BLUEBERRY I AM SO SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG #ballad brothers #please disregard the world’s Shittiest Low Effort Backgrounds on the art I slapped them together in like ten seconds #Kyrie ballad brothers #Alonzo ballad brothers #Ari ballad brothers #El ballad brothers #An ballad brothers

[dracophile]

Haunted Mansion Old vs. New

Saw The Haunted Mansion today at the theater. It's pretty good! They maybe have a few too many characters we don't get to know as well in favor of focusing on the main character (I get why, but tbh a lot of the others seemed to have more interesting backstories so I kind of wish they'd maybe combined one of them into the main character), but they had a lot of fun one liners, easter eggs, and good story. Everything makes relative sense

I say this in comparison to the 2003 movie we watched before to remind ourselves how that one went, and show it to my nephew who had never seen it. The new one is honestly a VAST improvement. Watching the old one just made me realize how dumb Eddie Murphy and his family was, especially the wife.

Like, Eddie Murphy was typical workaholic dad from your 90s to 2000s build, like Robin Williams in Hook or Jim Carey in Liar Liar. Kids are...Kids. But the wife? Woman gets a call from a creepy voice asking for only her to come view the house when she and her husband are both realtors? That should've been an immediate click of the phone, that is some serial killer shit. Puts up with her husband? Questionable. Like even he can't really justify why he keeps putting work first and like...that kind of takes away his motivation for everything too. But, house is creepy and covered in cobwebs with a cemetery in the back? Oh, but the architecture! Can't find find her husband and the "charming" master of the house keeps looking at her with googly eyes, telling her tragic tales from a hundred years ago like he was there, and remarking on his lost love? Red flags everywhere, but she still follows him to the attic!

The man has to come out and directly say he thinks she's the reincarnation of his lover and reveal he's a ghost before realizing something is wrong. And she's just kind of...blah. Her character is just "the lady to be fought over who is also a mother and a realtor".

Also, the story didn't make much sense as to why they had ghosts from all over the world and history in this one mansion, hand-waving it as being just a magnet for them--yet to be honest you only ever really see them in the graveyard, for like less than five minutes. The only ghosts used as characters are originals who are just a maid and a footman, none of the ones from the ride, and no other ghosts besides the butler work against the family. Instead you get a bunch of zombies in the crypt, I'm guessing because they worked so well in Pirates of the Caribbean. But because there are hardly any ghosts, you don't see a whole lot of allusions to the ride either besides the graveyard and the climax is a little lackluster, with the butler literally being dragged to hell after admitting he killed his master's lover because she wasn't good enough via a giant fire serpent that we never see in the ride. I mean, zombies weren't in the original Pirates ride, but they are at least explicitly zombie PIRATES and they work it into the setting fairly well. Explicitly showing heaven and hell at the end and moving on the ghosts was kind of jarring but also it's over really fast for being the supposed final boss. And begs the question why he never was taken before--the curse is never really explained. The new lays out why the ghosts are there, why they are trapped, and has a showdown between an army of ghosts and the protagonists, which works a lot. Looking at it compared to the new one, it's obvious they put a lot more thought into the 2023 version.

New one makes a lot more sense in the story, with them having just kept summoning ghosts trying to find one specific one, and accidentally summoning an evil spirit. The antagonist makes sense, the ghosts are front and center to the story, including just the shear number, the effects are nice, there's lots of visual easter eggs for fans and cameos, and death and the afterlife are prominent in the story while still being relatively inclusive and kid friendly (though some of the jokes are darker, I wouldn't say they were inappropriate. There is a lot of reference to murder though. Surprisingly no hanging bodies like the first though!). It falters a little here and there,including one part of the climax being a little eh for me, but I won't spoil it and it's still better than the 2003 one. I will say I wish they did more with the camera idea because I'm a sucker for Fatal Frame type scenarios and it felt like they dropped it too soon. Oh, but they made Madame Leota a Russian medium/spiritualist who catered to royalty and dressed like a noble rather than using "g*psy" a whole bunch and playing into that stereotype, so that was nice. Every blah moment is balanced with something I really like, so it's all pretty good.

I had no idea Jared Leto was playing the Hatbox Ghost, but you never actually see Leto himself so...eh. Not my first choice, but he does a good job with the voice, I will give him that...begrudgingly. Just hope he didn't do any method acting for this one.

Basically I think it's worth the watch if you want some family friendly ghost stuff and a popcorn flick with a decent amount of heart too it. Could it have been better? Well yeah, but so can most things. Maybe I'll do something more detailed another day but if you like Disney and like the haunted mansion ride, I don't think you'd be disappointed with this one.

#movies #haunted mansion #haunted mansion 2003 #haunted mansion 2023 #Disney

[showtoonzfan]

If you’re not familiar with the musical “Ride The Cyclone” and it’s current script situation with one of its main characters, this post is not for you! Thank you!

So I understand the “Ride the Cyclone” Fandom is really upset, including me ESPECIALLY and we all have a right to be, but I think at the same time, we all need to realize these four things regarding the “Ricky Potts script change” situation: Keep in mind I am NOT disabled so I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but I do want to share important things that I think most of the fandom needs to acknowledge:

Despite the change being an unnecessary piss poor decision and a HUGE downgrade compared to what the script was like before, we need to acknowledge that Ricky STILL has a disability. He may not have the same one he had before, but being mute from trauma is in fact a disability. I say this because everyone keeps saying he’s no longer disabled and that’s just not true. Again, it was still a bad change but his disability wasn’t completely erased like everyone keeps saying.

Disability representation in theater and casting more actors with said disability’s is something that NEEDS to be spoken up about, but harassing the creators and actors are NOT the way to do it. If you’re just telling the crew to off themselves and painting them as one note monsters, that is not getting anyone anywhere, and not helping.

Speaking of portraying people as one note, some of y’all honestly need to stop painting Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond (the writers of the original script) as irredeemable monsters. Again, this issue in theater is something that desperately NEEDS to be spoken up about, and voices need to be heard, but as much as I hate to say it, we really DON’T know all the details on why the script was changed. We don’t know what was going through the writers heads, we DON’T know the full story, so seeing everyone say the writers changed it simply because they were ableist and nothing else are just jumping to conclusions way too early. Regardless if you think they’re truly ableist or not, regardless if you’ve lost all respect for them, these writers are still PEOPLE at the end of the day, and people make mistakes. There is always room to grow, there is always room to learn and improve. We need to actually speak up and inform them that this change was not a good one, instead of just screaming at them, sending threats and calling them ableist pieces of shit, something that I’ve seen SO many people do and it’s an issue. It’s hard to actually IMPROVE yourself when everyone is just calling you bad names and not seeing you as a layered person.

At this point of making this post, people really need to stop arguing with Kholby Wardwell (actor for Noel Gruber) on twitter. I don’t care if you like him, I don’t care if you don’t like him……STOP….arguing with him. I shouldn’t say everyone is, but there are a few, and there’s no point guys, stop harassing him. He’s made it clear on how he feels about all of this, and its obvious at this point, nobody can change his mind on his viewpoints. People also need to stop calling him ableist as well, because if you’ve read his twitter thread, you can tell he never had malicious intent. Of course I’m not excusing some of the way he worded or said things, but again, these issues for the RTC crew as a whole need to stop being viewed with a one note lens. While it’s not hard to say “theater needs to hire more disabled actors and make it accessible for them”- it’s ALSO not hard to NOT see everything as black and white, mainly the motivations behind the writers and actors. These are all things that need to coexist within the fandom, and people also need to stop pressuring the others to speak on this subject. Again, when you speak up about an important subject matter like this, doing it with aggression is not the way to go.

With all of that said, this script change has heavily disappointed me, even hurt me. I personally thought it was perfectly okay for Ricky to be a kid who got a degenerate disease at 6 years old and lost his ability to walk and talk, but somehow the writers felt the need to change it. It was unnecessary in my opinion, because I felt like the script wasn’t really the issue, it was casting able bodied actors as disabled characters, and getting rid of Ricky’s crutches five minutes into the show. That, as well as treating his disability as a joke, mainly the comments by Ocean. These were all criticisms the show has gotten over the years, so it hurts to see that what we got was the writers idea of “improving” that. Instead of “improving” it however, it felt more like they erased the issue so they wouldn’t get controversy and could avoid the problem, without putting in the effort. HOWEVER, despite that I don’t truly feel like that was the writers intentions. For now, I’ll give the writers the benefit of the doubt, because I do believe that they truly felt like they were helping and encouraging the disabled community, even if the outcome didn’t turn up that way. Again, we STILL don’t know the full story, so I sincerely hope Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond come out with an official statement soon giving us the full insight to why they did what they did, since the new script has gotten so much backlash. It’s clear this change has done more harm than good, and with respect, I hope the writers can be educated and more open minded to why their idea wasn’t the best at all. I have always praised the writing of this musical, I haven’t been in the fandom that long but it has become one of my current favorite musicals of all time, and Ricky Potts has always been a character I adored, and he deserves SO much better. For all of this to happen because of one huge fuckup, hurts. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing. We all want disabled people to be treated like human beings, with respect, and have more accessibility, not just in theater, but EVERYWHERE. We all have a right to be mad, we all have a right to speak up, and I just hope that as a society we all can educate one another without it being taken too far. I sincerely wish the fandom, the writers, everyone, can bounce back from all of this, and society improves as a whole when it comes to the disabled. I will still continue to enjoy Ride the Cyclone, and watch it over and over because no script change can get in the way of my enjoyment of the show. With that said, things NEED to change, and I especially hope the Mccarter Theater gets the consequences to their horrendous action of illegally firing it’s only disabled actor. With that said, feel free to say your thoughts, feel free to disagree, I just needed to get this all out. Thank you for reading.

#ride the cyclone #ride the cyclone musical #Ricky potts #save ricky potts #saverickypotts #Broadway musicals #musical theater #kholby wardell #brooke maxwell #jacob richmond #hire disabled actors #mischa bachinski #ocean rosenberg #constance blackwood #Jane doe #noel gruber #rant #rtc musical #rtc #rtc ricky potts #mischa rtc #ricky rtc #unrelated

[blacktobackmesa]

"Gordon’s gut feeling was not liking the direction this was going in.

'So I took it,' Benrey continued. 'It was the story that made sense to Gordon Freeman, so it was probably the right one. If I could play the part of Final Boss, maybe I could have some story that made sense. And like, if I was secretly planning all this, that’s so much cooler than having to believe that everything about the way I work is–'

Benrey stopped himself, but seemed to realize it was already too late. He closed his mouth with a half-grumble, half-sigh.

'A mistake,' he finished. 'Being the awesome final boss was easier than accepting I don’t work.'

The metaphorical cards were all on the table. Gordon could never forget that boss fight, with the gigantic warping form of a security guard spouting line after line of a nonsense narrative in what Gordon had assumed was some attempt at scaring the team off. 

But that had never been true, had it? Benrey hadn’t been trying to get anyone to do anything. It had all been for him. He was throwing out narrative hook after narrative hook, trying to get anything to stick to the wall and establish that he was a part of the world. He’d tried every angle– appeal to emotion, nostalgia, crude humor, a grand adventure, even video game developer corporate conflict. It was all a Hail Mary toss, and it was never caught.

'Holy shit, dude.' Gordon could only whisper."

For the fanfic commentary, this was one of my favorite parts of "Don't Spell Memory Without Me" and I was genuinely blown away by how good and smart this interpretation of Benry is for the Gordon streamman series and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. <3

In response to this prompt

[cracks knuckles] FUCK yes let's go. Ramble time

So neat fact about this. I posted the first chapter of Memory in late May of 2022, and it took several more months to get to the Benrey reveal. I actually put this explanation of Benrey’s actions in a joke text post in mid April, and it got exactly twenty notes. Foreshadowing level 100. 

I have a close friend who I bounce all my ideas around with, which is a very necessary part of the creative process for me. It also makes it handy to keep track of when my ideas came around– my first discord message to them that discussed the concept of Benrey having no past and improvising everything is dated to February, and it was in the middle of a chat about the story that would evolve into Run For Your Life. So it’s been floating in Headcanon Space since before the Streamman series got a solid start. Dang, it’s been around since before I started my current job! 

Benrey’s just so interesting, you know? He’s weirdly powerful. He follows his own set of rules, and doesn’t like it when other people don’t. He’s not human. He says all sorts of stuff that doesn’t make sense, even when the stakes are at their highest. What’s his motivation? Why is any of this happening? There’s never a concrete answer, but from another perspective, it’s pretty simple. He’s in an improv scene.

I’m an ex-theater kid, and I’ve done my fair share of improv. I took a class a couple years ago held by this big-name local theater, getting back in touch with the basics. Most people are familiar with the classic “Yes, And” rule– you can’t turn down the fact that your scene partner just gave you. You have to accept that as reality, and then build on it. 

Gordon, of course, breaks the golden rule right off the bat. It wouldn’t be turning Benrey down if he just went “Oh I don’t have it, I meant to bring it today.” It’s the fact that he’s confused about being asked. As a character, Gordon (not Wayne) is a terrible improv partner, and the scene is supposed to be all about him. Benrey’s existence is defined by and contained within an improv scene, and this guy keeps turning down all his leads. So when Gordon gives him something to work with– a role as an antagonist– he has to take it. 

This interpretation of Benrey is also rooted in my own experience with neurodivergence, and with something I call the Spicy Banana effect. There’s a name for it, probably, but I like Spicy Banana. I’ve heard anecdotes about people who have gone decades without realizing they have a banana allergy since nobody had ever told them what bananas were supposed to taste like. And why would you? Everyone knows what bananas taste like, and since the affected person never got seriously ill, they just assumed that everyone tasted bananas as spicy. Among other things, I was well into my teenage years before I found out that it doesn’t take most people well over an hour to fall asleep every night. When you don’t have context, it’s easy to feel like everyone is just managing obvious problems better than you are. Finding out the truth is double sided: you have the relief of knowing you’re not bad, you’re just different, but you can also feel cheated. I’ve had to deal with carrying rocks in my backpack this whole time, and their backpacks were empty?

As a final note, I want to talk about a bit in this excerpt that I'm unsatisfied with, but refuse to change.

["]And like, if I was secretly planning all this, that’s so much cooler than having to believe that everything about the way I work is–"

Benrey stopped himself, but seemed to realize it was already too late. He closed his mouth with a half-grumble, half-sigh.

"A mistake," he finished. "Being the awesome final boss was easier than accepting I don’t work."

The final line in this part doesn't really feel like something Benrey would say. It's hard to articulate exactly, but it feels melodramatic in a very DeviantArt Sad Wolf Drawing kind of way. It's a little too honest for Benrey, like he's breaking character. But I can see how that could make it hit even harder for some, y'know? Like he's letting his guard down. It's not my favorite line, but I won't touch it. It's fine the way it is.

Thanks so much for picking my brain with this. I will always talk about my work I love it so much

#gordon streamman #don't spell memory without me #ask #who killed this [benrey]

[soul-dwelling]

I'm sorry for even bringing up that TERF, but I found claims that Soul Eater got influenced by Harry Potter, so do you think ita fair to assume that Makas outfit was inspired by the dark cloak uniforms the kids wear in Harry Potter (atleast in the movies)?

Yeah, Ohkubo said so in this interview: ​​https://www.manga-news.com/index.php/actus/2009/03/20/Interview-Atsushi-Ohkubo

And here's an archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20151107072535/http://www.manga-news.com/index.php/actus/2009/03/20/Interview-Atsushi-Ohkubo

Disclaimer: Yeah, fuck that TERF, we all need to give up on Harry Potter. 

From what I read in that interview, Ohkubo doesn’t go into much detail, even admitting he didn’t read the books, just saw one of the films. (Oh, hey, me too--I never read the books, I saw one film in theaters.) 

Ohkubo then elaborates that he thought the vibe of Harry Potter didn’t go far enough, and he wanted to make it more delirious. In that regard, I think he succeeded. Granted, what Ohkubo was going for and what that TERF was going for are completely different tones, different goals, different styles. 

But I also think even Ohkubo saying he was influenced by Harry Potter strikes me as a bit of an overstatement. Like you point out, Maka’s overcoat and tie ensemble has a passing resemblance to the Hogwarts outfit, and these are both stories about children getting magical training at a school--but that’s about it. It’s not as if there were not earlier stories, especially in manga and anime, where students go to school to learn how to use magic to fight. 

All of that being said, Harry Potter was the story to solidify that genre, and it’s hard for a lot of manga and anime that came after--Soul Eater but also Blue Exorcist--to get out of that shadow. While we correctly lambaste Potter as a series and its creator for just some real bigoted shit, we don’t ignore that later works took from it--and improved upon it, whether by actually fixing problems in its storytelling (we’ll get to The Owl House in a moment), trying to go in different directions (as Ohkubo said), or basically make “Harry Potter, but not fucking bigoted.” 

It’s how you get something like The Owl House that, while not a carbon copy of Potter, did take a lot from it--and, as seen in the Soul Eater shout-out in that series, Owl House also took from similar works that also tapped into the Potter aesthetic and plotting, including Little Witch Academia. 

Again, I’m not arguing that any of these are ripoffs of Potter, but I can’t deny that they pulled from Potter--in order to gesture to it and show how they differ from it. 

It’s also how we have Mashle out right now, which is one long series that is basically, “What if Potter, but the main character is Goku, and we undermine every cliche, trope, and serious moment to remind the audience that this is a farce?”

#long post #cw: transphobia mention

[hopefulstarfire]

Have some dnd gang hcs

They are all so fucking supportive of each other's interests and like kinda latch onto those with each other.

The entire gang all support Tomoyas love for Zombyre. They went to the movie premieres with him, sit down with him whenever a new issue releases like a book club, etc.

Miho actually hosts a book club with the gang and tries to find one's she thinks they'd all like but still defaults to fantasy or romance stories. They all also have a whole regency themed little party with tea and shit every time a new season of Bridgerton drops.

Kats whole thing is fashion, baking and Duel Monsters. Those are her life blood. Miho loves getting to do shopping trips with her and they all love playing the card game together.

They will never say no to Kats cookies either. Ever. Those things are crack for them.

They actively play Dungeon Dice Monsters for Duke all the time. Kat loves getting to test the games for her and her brothers company and everyone else really enjoys the mechanics. They are the biggest cheerleaders of the player base for the game and help try to make it even better.

Obviously they all love ttrpgs bc of Ryou and he loves getting to be a GM and see the excitement everyone has for it. He finally had a friend group that consistently wants to play with him and it fills his heart with joy. He also gets to tell them all sorts of spooky occult stories and Tomoya, Duke and even Miho eat it up. Kat not as much bur she will grin and bear it for her bestie.

Bakura is like. Miho and Tomoya did not trust him after the First Incident with him and knowing what hes pulled with Ryou. Understandably so. However, he didn't really target them afterwards, especially not with Kat in the picture. Even Ryou still doesn't fully trust him but he's just happy someone can get him to not cause this poor kid more and more grief all the time. And he's happy to see some improvement in his spirits demeanor. Duke is still adjusting to the Bakura thing and Kat is just trying to make it easy on everybody because she loves this boy. And they don't necessarily become friends with Bakura or maybe in a weird way they do but they can handle being around him if Kat's there. So he gets to join in on the hijinks more frequently.

Movie! Theater! Trips! They love getting to go to see a ton together and get all the snacks.

They also cherish late night drives for fast food or mall trips or getting to just stroll through the park.

Chelsea and Vance open up their house for sleepovers all the time for them and they always have the best time.

Ryou has convinced them to go ghost hunting before and it was hilarious. Duke thought it was all horse shit but had a good time. Kat was genuinely scared and this bitch is dating a literal ghost. It was a great time.

They get to go to KaibaLand for free a lot because Kats got the business connections.

And also Mokuba and River kinda latch onto this group to hang out with, but especially Mokuba.

Miho and Kat were the Matchmakers okay when Ryou and Tomoya expressed interest in their respective partners? They were on it. They had several different game plans at the ready on the fly to make it happen.

Duke is the one in charge of the brain cell in this group.

Ryou is sleepy and just wants food and cuddles and he gets to curl up with his friends in a cuddle pile whenever he wants? It's the best time.

They have all accidentally barged in on Bakura and Kats date nights at least once. Bakura is Salty.

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh ocs #ygo ocs #you painted colors in my heart i could never replace #tomoya hanasaki #miho nosaka #ryou bakura #bakura #yami bakura #duke devlin #ryuji otogi #kat mercer

[strwbrrysugarz]

oddly specific monster high headcanons that i need to get out somewhere (all that autism)

venus is willing to go absolutely apeshit on people who hurt their friends but refuses to ever curse. they'll literally beat up a man for you but will say shit like "you stinker!! you doodoo head!!" against their enemies

they also shave their eyebrows

frankie is the literal definition of the "this push pop is banging yo!" meme (clawdeen is telling them they're eating a glue stick)

ghoulia has watched neon genesis evangelion at least once and can fully understand the ending and everything about it, probably reported on it for a school project at least once and took up a whole class period (she is also a huge marvel fan)

lagoona is a mitski stan

clawdeen came out to clawd n he replied w "woaah you like girls? that's awesome me too! it must run in the family"

lagoona has taken an "am i gay" quiz at least once after getting close to toralei

avea hates people actually taking horseback rides on her but makes one single exception for bonita (despite bonita flying everywhere)

vandala died during a shipwreck which is why she's constantly timing herself and working on improving its pirate skills. it also has ptsd from dying n river helps her cope w it

kiyomi n river were born ghosts, porter doesn't tell people how they died n makes up stories Abt it like spectra (in reality he probably died in some stupid ass way like falling down the stairs)

speaking of them porter n spectra r t4t but opposite directions. porter transfem and agender pansexual + spectra transmasc gay demiboy

rochelle and garrott are the couple who date for years only to realize they are both gay as hell. they spend weeks talking to friends trying to figure out how to tell the other n when they finally come out to each other they're like "phew thank goodness". they're wlw n mlm bffs

heath loves silly shows like impractical jokers and walk the prank and uses them to think of new silly ways to prank the other students (fails miserably each time)

howleen listens to hatsune miku and is her biggest fan

venus porter holt and deuce definitely smoke weed together/hsrs

luna n lorna are cryptid best friends (lorna probably checks out boo york after monster high and they meet at bloodway)

luna and bonita are half siblings who occasionally hang out together to infodump abt their special interests or hyperfixations (luna's is musical theater, bonita's is fashion design) and their blue-purple gfs (elle and avea)

bonita and skelita are also cousins

g1 frankie uses they/them the most but is comfortable w any prns

being that they're made of slime gooliope is prone to occasionally melting during the summer. they just kinda come apart sometimes but reform easily. they're very flexible being made of goo and use this to freak people out w silly gymnastic tricks

cleo wears wigs which is how she changes hair so much, her real hair length is that of i heart shoes/skull shores

draculaura is super into zodiac stuff despite not knowing the difference between astronomy and astrology

this is all i can think of rn trust me there's more.

[batmanaday]

Batman 0 (1994)

Well, this oughta be a little fun. The first issue of Batman is, obviously, Batman 1, published in 1940. Famously, the first appearance of the Joker. But the zeroth issue of Batman... released as part of the Zero Hour crossover event they told flashback stories for all DC’s then-ongoing titles... came out in 1994. Since one of the pleasures of this read-through has been to see how much of the universally known backstory of Batman came along piecemeal, it’ll be interesting to compare the soundly established Batman origin (post Year One) to the almost literally year one origin that was in existence three years after Batman’s creation.

Can’t help but think the art’s improved a bit... and I expect good things from the writing, as Doug Moench is one of those unheralded writers who, like the Superteam during the triangle years, consistently provided quality writing without the flashy lows of, say, Mark Millar’s Civil War. I know the status quo and not breaking the Internet in two has become something of a dirty word these days, but there’s something to be said for a story that’s worth the read even without killing off a character or turning a character evil or whatever the hell Marvel is doing with Spider-Man these days.

Another thing you’ll note is that the functional, descriptive captions--almost the intertitles of a silent movie--have been replaced with a bit of purple prose meant to lend internality to the aesthetic-oriented art. Instead of further describing the action that the art is depicting, it’s giving you an impression of the emotions and characterization behind what the art is showing. This is post-Knightfall and Bats, as you can see, is in a contemplative mood, so he’d better find some gargoyles to pose around quick.

Batman really should wear a dressing gown over the batsuit more often. 

And hey everyone, look, Alfred! He hasn’t even shown up in the 1940 comics yet. 

Speaking of 1940, it’s odd that The Mark of Zorro has become the default ‘what Thomas and Martha were doing the night they were shot’ thing. Skipping ahead a little, in Batman 1, it’s said that the shooting took place “some fifteen years ago.” And since that issue came out in 1940, that would make the year of the shooting 1925. Obviously, comic book time being what it is, it’s understandable that this shit would conveyor-belt forward to the point of Batman’s ‘origin’ taking place in 1940, with a movie that came out in that year (ignoring that, technically, Batman’s origin was in 1937--maybe there weren’t any good movies that came out that year).

Still, man, that Mark of Zorro plot point has stuck around for a while. If Bruce was, say, ten when the mugging took place, he’s be in his sixties by the time of comics published in 1994. Even Year One, published in 1987, would be saying that Batman is in his fifties--and here I am thinking that DC hates to admit that, logically, Batman should be somewhere in his forties if he’s had five Robins, all but Steph with years-long tenures.

(Also, we’re right about at the point where Bruce could’ve conceivably seen the Antonio Banderas Zorro in theaters, become Batman, teamed up with a few Robins, and now be comfortably serving on the Justice League in a space station)

And we’re rapidly getting to the point where you wonder if the Waynes would’ve gone out to see a movie at all when they could stay in and watch something on their OLED home theater. Sure, you could always say they went out to the opera, like in Batman Begins... and it’s probably good to let go of implausible little nuggets of fanservice like Bruce watching Zorro... but man, it’s sorry to see these things go.

Goodbye, little bit of continuity. I don’t even know if you’re still in canon or if DC has a canon, with all its Doctor Manhattaning and Jor-Elling, but you were a cute tip of the hat.

Wow, that’s really touching, Batman. I can’t wait to read the next issue, Batman 1, and see how your pledge to never kill people and never use guns works out.

Son of a bitch.

Leslie Thompkins, another character you can count on to show up in Batman’s backstory, but who has yet to be introduced to the comics. I think this is also leaving out some characters along the lines of Aunt Harriet, who in pre-Crisis will be credited with raising Bruce until he came to adulthood. This is back when Alfred wasn’t yet the thin, acerbic butler we’ve come to know as Bruce’s father figure, but a bumbling fat guy Bruce hires as an adult. 

But what will be in a lot of comics is this “the mud could’ve only come from one place in Gotham!” ‘detective work,’ so it’s fitting that it makes its ‘debut’ here. Gotham City: Home of The Most Varied Clay, Like, Ever.

This all ends up how you’d expect, with Batman saving a child much like he once was and deciding being Batman is pretty nifty, but also you should buy Shadow of the Bat 0. I shake my head a little at the mercenary nature of comics, which can’t help but hustle for cash even while supposedly providing a bookend to the entire Batman saga. Even so, that’s some damn good art and “You earned me” is a damn good line. Maybe there’s something to this Batman stuff after all.

#batman #doug moench #zorro

[petapala]

anzu is probably one of my favorite things about enstars and i was so excited when we finally got an official design for her.... that i completely forgot to try drawing until today. (hokke’s here, too, because i’ve been listening to starseek wayfarer on repeat and also he is my son.)

#ensemble stars! #enstars! #anzu enstars #hokuto hidaka #☼ — my doodles #anzu is cute and she makes me emotional #her bond with trickstar is so good i love them..... #also i've straight up convinced that hokke has a crush on her #i'm right there with wataru #like the shit he says in the improv theater story?? #kid's got it bad #i just wish i knew their freaking ship name #i tried finding it earlier but had no luck #hokuzu would be cute tho

[kissmejinx]

Arcane Characters as Sugar Mamas/Daddies

Arcane x gn reader

Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn, Ekko, Jayce, Viktor, Mel

some slight nsft so.... proceed with caution

Vi-

The type to buy you the prettiest clothes in the world only to rip them off of your body.

Lived most of her in prison/the undercity so just the fact that she can buy you what she wants or what you steal a glance at is novel.

Likes to show you off. She wants everyone to know that you're hers and that you are being provided for.

Knows exactly what she's doing, knows the word and everything.

Jinx

Ok so Jinx isn't your most typical sugar mama. She isn't one to buy you like really nice clothes or food, that is if you don't ask her.

She's very spontaneous, will buy (take) any shiny things she finds, but mostly likes to give you experiences. Takes you to the opera (you two hide up in the rafters and heckle the performers), shoots off colorful fireworks while kissing you, that sort of thing.

As much as she'll deny it, she loves that romantic shit. She likes the ritual, the pizazz, the sha-bang. Jinx was sort of robbed of that and secretly wants a story book romance.

In the back of her mind, she thinks that this'll make you stay, so after a bad day, when the voices in her head are too loud, she'll take you out on a lavish date and insist on paying.

Caitlyn-

Caitlyn is complicated…. I don't think she even knows that she's being a sugar mama. In Piltover, everyone is rich as shit and this is just how she assumes how dating works. The inner politics of the city is harsh and her parents, while loving, never really gave her any idea on how one wooes another.

That isn't to say she's not romantic. Her romance is giving you an at home spa day with lotion made of gold and soap that smells of roses. Her romance is taking you out on a movie date and carrying you home because your feet are sore. Her romance is remembering your birthstone and giving you a necklace with the gem

When she sees your place, no matter how comfortable it is, finds something that could be improved. Maybe your door lets the cold winter air in. Fixed. Your faucet leaks. Fixed.

You should probably just move in with her

Ekko

Honey you are going to be the royalty of the firelights. He treats you very very nicely. After all, his whole thing is providing a better life for people, and the fact that he loves you is just a bonus

Likes to protect you so that means that your glider is always outfitted with the best upgrades.

Oh that outfit you saw one day while on patrol but knew you'd never have a chance to wear… shows up mysteriously in your closet with echo saying that there was a dance in the firelight headquarters tonight

That food you saw one day in pills over while visiting with a contact but knew that they never sell to a Zaunite like you…. Ekko is causally cooking it for breakfast the next morning.

Jayce

Oh poor Jayce. Honey has no idea what he's doing, much like Caitlyn. Despite coming from one of the lesser houses, money was never really an issue. And now that he's a Councillor….

Waits on you hand and foot. Treats like a deity, always taking things one step ahead. You didn't get a chance to see that movie you wanted to? The whole theater was bought out for "Official Council Business". Do you feel even the slightest bit insecure about your home? A Talis contractor is there to fulfill your every need.

As the co-creator of hextech and Councillor, he's often busy with stuffy galas and press conferences. But if you begrudge him, expect to be hanging off his arm (this man is 6'7) in the prettiest outfit you've ever dreamed of.

Did I mentioned that he's an oblivious fucker. Because yeah… always pays for dinner, even if you have money. Not because he doesn't respect you or anything, it's just because that's the way it's supposed to go, at least in his eyes.

Viktor

Kind of a mixture of Vi and Jinx's style. The fact that he can treat you to all these luxuries is something that he couldn't have dreamed of even 5 years ago. But along the same line as Jinx, he's a bit unconventional in his affections.

His gifts are more mechanical in spirit, something that is meant to make your everyday life a little bit easier. He isn't interested in big gestures like some of the other people on this list (Jayce… I'm talking about Jayce) but it's always clear that he loves you

But Machine Lord Viktor is an entirely different boat. She has an image to maintain and if you stay with him, you will have to be integrated into that image too. He'll gift you with a custom mask to hide your face, armor impenetrable by any weapon and the greatest gift of all, being able to see the person he was before.

Food is scarce to come by in Zaun, but that doesn't stop Victor from granting you your every wish. You want that fruit that reminds you of a home long gone? By God Victor will find a way to make it happen.

Mel

Mel is the sugar mama to end all sugar mamas. One would say the most classic sugar mama. Taking you out on the most lavish dates in all of Piltover, buying you jewelry made of the finest gold in all of the continents and letting you rest on sheets made of the finest silk

I mean you saw her in the show, she is a queen and she wants to treat you like royalty too. It doesn't matter how embarrassed you are or how much you don't think you deserve it, you will be treated well.

And though she'd never say, she kind of likes your little embarrassed reactions when she lays you down on a lavish bed and decorate your body with jewels and beeswax from far away kingdoms

Like wreck me pls. Anyway…. Her method of flirting is just gift giving and matching outfits

I'm taking any and all requests!!!

#arcane headcanon #arcane x reader #vi x reader #jinx x reader #jayce x reader #ekko x reader #jinx arcane x reader #vi arcane x reader #arcane netflix #mel medarda x reader #viktor arcane x reader #viktor x reader #jayce talis x reader #machine lord vitkor x reader

[tiptapricot]

how bout michael and dwayne? i also really like your writing style

Aw thank you! I have a lot of fun w these posts and sometimes they get away from me into more fic territory, so I’m glad they read well! Now onto these two… (This takes place generally within the confines of canon, with Michael being a half vampire, but also involves him being unaware of the boys being vampires for most of it. Reveal is implied.)

They both have a lot of interest in machines and vehicles, and a lot of their bonding before their relationship starts (beyond any initial attraction) ends up stemming from them talking about motorcycles

It’s a casual thing, they trade maintenance tips and chat about what brands they like best and about tweaks they’ve made to their own bikes, but it opens an avenue to become more familiar with each other

(Mentions of substance use and very mildly implied sexual content under cut)

It’s a slow progression. Dwayne has a way nicer bike than Michael and slowly shows it off to him, letting him check out the engine and the breaks and the different mods that have been added on, and promising to let him ride it sometime

He’s definitely more experienced, and Michael jokes that he should help him tweak some stuff on his bike sometime

Dwayne, more genuinely, takes him up on that offer

He starts dropping by Michael’s house in the early evenings, and they’ll bum out in the garage with the hanging light on and grandpa’s janky radio tuned low on a local station, and try to see how they can improve Michael’s bike

They don’t do it every night, most times still ending up hanging out with the other boys as a group, but it’s regular enough to be expected a few times a week, and it’s nice

Their conversations are mellow and comfortable, and it becomes a fun experiment to see what tweaks make Michael’s bike rocket into the fence, and what others make it blow out smoke thick enough to stain their clothes

It brings out this friendly giddiness in both of them, a kind of excitement at doing something equally fun and stupid with someone

One night after a feed, Dwayne decides to steal one of the victims’ cars and drive it up to Michael’s. He blows off the other boys when they ask where he’s going and when he gets to the driveway he squeaks to a halt and revvs the engine loud, honking the horn until Michael comes out

When they make eye contact Dwayne cocks his head in invitation, and Michael only hesitates for a moment before smiling and coming around to get in on the passenger side

Then they’re squealing off down the road

Michael asks where Dwayne got the ride and Dwayne just smirks, cocking a brow. Michael laughs, muttering a little “holy shit,” at the prospect of Dwayne hot wiring someones car, but accepts it

Dwayne takes him around to a few popular hang out spots, introducing him to the places that don’t card, and showing him the secret back door to the movie theater, and they have a blast

Near to the end of the night Dwayne parks in an empty parking lot and leans over Michael to root around in the glove compartment to see what the previous owner might’ve stashed

They find some weed and a few CDs, and though the music isn’t really either of their tastes, they put it on

Dwayne shows Michael how to roll a joint and they spend the rest of the night laughing quietly and passing it back and forth, trading mindless stories with mediocre pop playing on the speakers

Michael falls asleep against Dwayne’s shoulder at some point, the world getting too hazy for his eyes to stay open, and when he wakes up there’s sunlight filling the car and the driver’s seat is empty

Michael leaves the car in the lot and stumbles his way back home

Dwayne shows up that night again, in a new car, and Michael doesn’t question it

Dwayne doesn’t mention anything, just says he thought Michael deserved to hear some decent music and shows off a few CDs he brought to play for him

That night’s much the same as the last, they get drunk, and talk, and drive a bit recklessly, and Dwayne mouths along to Bowie and Billy Idol and a few groups Michael’s never heard of with a relaxed ease that makes it look like the words were made for him

Michael can’t stop staring at his lips; the way they move, the way Dwayne smiles

At some point they end up parked on one of the hills overlooking town, a classic teen getaway spot of Michael ever saw one, and he jokingly asks if they’re supposed to make out now or something

Dwayne smirks and leans over to brace his arm on the side of Michael’s seat and says, “I dunno Michael, are we?”

It’s a hesitant thing, the first kiss. Dwayne let’s Michael lean in first, make the contact, and then it’s faster from there, the worry washed soft by the alcohol

Dwayne ends up clambering over into Michael’s lap, tangling his fingers in his hair and pulling him up into a deeper kiss, his head knocking into the roof of the car when Michael reciprocates, and wow. This is definitely a new experience, but Michael can’t find it in himself to care much in the moment

After that things shift, but not too much

There’s still an easiness to everything, almost a laziness

They hold hands when they’re out a lot, Dwayne tugging Michael around to show him things, and Michael pulling him closer into his side with a squeeze of his knuckles

They sleep together a good amount (literally), crashing in the makeshift beds the boys have set up around the cave when the night turns to dawn and Michael’s too wiped to head home

They’re both pretty big guys and alternate who’s the big and little spoon, usually going for something that’s more just limbs thrown on top of each other than anything

There’s both an energy and a mutual tiredness to things, they can be rowdy and go out to fuck around, but there’s also the space to just sit in silence and be content with that

With the door open for displays of affection, Dwayne makes it a point to fluster Michael often, always very smooth and suave in his actions

He doesn’t really use pet names, which only makes the times he calls Michael “pretty boy” all the more impactful

Michael’s not one to blush or stutter, but he definitely has his own tells, like hiding his face or smiling unsteadily, and that’s what Dwayne aims for

It takes time for Michael to build up the courage to return flirtations, largely due to still working through internalized fears, but when he does he actually manages to make Dwayne flustered himself, on rare occasions

Dwayne is very serious and intentional about helping Michael discover the new facets of his sexuality, talking with him about it and guiding things when he’s unsure

He urges him to experiment, to step out of his comfort zone both with presentation and with how he thinks about himself

Even if things don’t feel right, it’ll give him new experiences and help him feel out where he sits

One night when Michael decides he wants to try something very new, Dwayne helps doll him up, makeup and painted nails and styled hair and everything. He even picks out a skirt for him, but after (somewhat) seeing himself in the mirror, Michael feels like it’s too much and goes with pants instead

Dwayne’s very encouraging and supportive of him the whole night and Michael eventually stops being so tense, relaxing and enjoying their night out

At the end he kisses Dwayne and thanks him for the new experience, saying he wouldn’t be opposed to trying it again sometime, maybe just in smaller steps

He ends up finding out he likes eyeliner, and earrings, and sometimes lipstick, and on rarer occasions dresses, but definitely not often

Dwayne likes to fiddle with Michael’s hair in their more quiet moments, pulling on it idly or curling it around his fingers, and it usually makes Michael fall asleep

Dwayne gets Michael into new music, easing him into the worlds of Rock and Jazz and Indie, and ends up taking him to several of his first concerts

One night Dwayne pulls up outside the Emerson house on his bike, and when Michael opens the door he gestures to it with a smile

“Up for driving tonight?”

“Are you serious?”

“Promised, didn’t I?”

Michael grins and quickly slams the door behind him, giddily approaching the bike

He throws his leg over the seat and just sits there for a moment, admiring the handlebars as Dwayne situates himself behind him

“Time to ride, pretty boy. Let’s see how you handle it.”

Michael huffs out a laugh and revs the engine. “Just you wait.”

They speed off down the road, a cloud of dust and a loud whoop from Michael hanging in the air behind them

Headcanons Masterpost

#apologies for the wait in posting haha #it took my brain a bit to get into the flow of these two #but there we go! hope you enjoy these :-D #michael emerson #dwayne the lost boys #the lost boys dwayne #the lost boys #the lost boys 1987 #tlb #the fruit is answering again #the fruit is talking again #the fruit is headcanoning again

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 301: All My Todorokis

Previously on BnHA: We learned that when a bunch of superpowered villains are suddenly set loose with nobody around to stop them, things get fucked pretty quickly. Old Man Samurai and a bunch of other useless people decided to make “I pretend I do not see it” their new mantra, and resigned. Endeavor had a moment of despair on account of being crushed by the guilt of having ruined the lives of himself, his family, and basically everyone else in the entire world. For various reasons the heretical notion of “person who has done bad things feels sorry for doing them” sent fandom spiraling into a meltdown, so that was fun. The chapter ended with the entire Todoroki clan descending upon Enji’s hospital room to have a dramatic chat about Touya and All That General Fuckery.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “here’s the story of how Baby Touya slowly went insane trying to win his father’s love.” It’s a tale full of subverted expectations and heartbreaking inevitability, and also like twenty panels of the cutest fucking kids who ever existed on planet earth, who are so fucking cute that I can’t stop thinking about their cuteness even with all of the horrifying family tragedy unfolding around them. It is absolutely ridiculous how cute they are. Touya is out here pushing his tiny body past its limits because he inherited the same obsession as his dad and neither of them can put it aside even though it’s destroying them, and yet all I can think about is Baby Shouto’s (。･o･｡) face. Anyways what a chapter.

so I have to confess that even though I managed to avoid being caught off-guard by the early leaks, the number of people reblogging my Endeavor posts from earlier this week and using the tag “bnha 301” kind of gave me an inkling that this chapter will include more Tododrama lol. that said, I don’t know anything else about it, so we’re still good spoiler-wise

AHHHHH FLAHSBAKC AHHHH. omg I know I typoed the shit out of that, but I’m just going to leave it lol I think it’s fitting

holy shit holy fuck. so this is Rei and Enji’s first meeting, then??

yepppp, oh shit

so wait, I know this is not even the slightest bit important, but are they meeting at Enji’s home or Rei’s? because I always figured that Enji was the one with the super-Japanese aesthetic, but maybe that was Rei’s side of the family all along

(ETA: from what I found during my very brief google search, omiai meetings are often held at fancy hotels or restaurants, so maybe that’s what this is.)

there’s such a period drama feel to this setting. like it’s so outrageously formal fff how can anyone stand this kind of atmosphere though seriously

OH THANK GOD

I mean they’re still stiff af but at least they’re not rigidly sitting in seiza and staring at each other unblinkingly anymore lol. Enji’s actually got his hands in his pockets now. why is this somehow almost cute

oh damn it’s the flowers

Rei seems so subdued and it’s so hard to get any idea of what she’s actually thinking. I want to see her side of this dammit

but anyway, so at least from Enji’s perspective it seems like even though the marriage was arranged and he picked her because of her quirk, he still loved his wife and wanted to do right by her. the fact that he was watching her and noticed that she liked the flowers, and remembered that detail for all these years -- there’s a reason why Horikoshi’s showing us this. we know what’s going to happen later on; we know how much fear and violence and breaking of trust is coming up ahead, and while it may seem like this scene is serving to soften Enji’s character further -- which to be fair it is -- it also helps drive home the full impact of his abuse. that it’s so terrible not only because of the trauma of the abuse itself, but also because of the way it retroactively destroys all of the good things as well. this could have potentially been such a sweet scene, but it’s inescapably tainted by the knowledge of what’s to come, at least for me. and that’s just brutal

anyways, shit. is the whole chapter going to be like this?? feel free to toss in something I can actually make a joke about sometime, Horikoshi

oop, back to the present

omfg lol

“are you all right” “NO I’M NOT ALL RIGHT WHAT THE FUCK.” “oh, right, because of all the stuff that’s happened with me abusing you and you having a mental breakdown and being hospitalized for ten years and then our son coming back to life and killing thirty people, right, right. I almost forgot.” whoops

omfg you guys I’m loving this new and improved steely-eyed Rei. I’m loving her a lot

and what do you mean “part one” fkjds how long is this going to be. TOO MUCH DRAMA FOR ONE CHAPTER TO HANDLE

oh, hello

yeah I’ll say you did. didn’t seem to bother you much at the time, though

HMMMMMMMMMMMM

Dabi Is A Noumu intensifies even further. anyways though would you fucking look at this boy lounging on this moth-eaten couch doing his best DRAW ME LIKE YOUR FRENCH GIRLS impression wtf

Dabi what if you actually had killed him??? what would you feel?? satisfaction?? regret?? anything at all?? tell me your secrets goddammit

who are you talking to buddy

Fuyumi-chan, Natsu-kun (is it common for brothers to address each other as -kun?? can’t recall seeing that in many other anime, but hey), and “dot dot dot,,,,,, SHOUTO” lol thank you so much for this bountiful heaping of Tododrama Horikoshi we are blessed

AH, WHAT DID I SAY THE OTHER DAY

ULTIMATE MELODRAMATIC THEATER CHILD. “I’M JUST GOING TO LIE ON THIS COUCH SHIRTLESS AND ALONE AND MAKE SPEECHES TO MY FAMILY MEMBERS WHO AREN’T THERE AND SAY THINGS LIKE ‘WATCH ME IN THE PITS OF HELL’ WITH A STRAIGHT FACE BECAUSE NO ONE’S THERE TO JUDGE ME.” WELL JOKE’S ON YOU MISTER CHATTERBOX BECAUSE I AM IN FACT JUDGING THE SHIT OUT OF YOU LOL

(ETA: and on a more serious note, it’s interesting to see that “look at me”/”watch me” theme being used again though, because we see that same sentiment uttered repeatedly by the younger Touya in the flashback. well kid, you definitely got your wish at last. don’t know what else to say.)

OKAY HORIKOSHI HAS DECIDED THAT’S ENOUGH FUN, TIME FOR MORE FLASHBACKS

oh my sweet precious lord

just as cute as we left him. giving us a child this cute when we all know full well what’s going to happen to him is just unspeakably cruel though

HOMG

I’m fucking speechless. you broke me, congratulations. what am I even supposed to do with this

I can’t get over this. moving forward my life will be split into two distinct parts, B.P. (Before the Pout) and A.P. (After the Pout)

and meanwhile there’s ALL THIS BACKGROUND ANGST BUILDING UP, AND I CAN’T EVEN FOCUS ON IT. Touya’s arm and cheek are covered in bandages (I’m guessing this is shortly after that “ouch!” panel we got some chapters back), and Enji is deliberately avoiding training with him because he doesn’t want him to hurt himself further. I can’t fucking get over the irony that all this time everyone thought Touya had died because Enji pushed him too far in his training, and it turns out that it’s the opposite -- the tragedy ultimately happened because he didn’t want to push him. but I’m jumping ahead of myself though I guess

by the way,

remember this?? just wanted to remind you that it exists just in case you forgot

so now someone is talking and basically saying that Touya is the exact opposite of what Enji was hoping for when he decided to start playing with quirk genetics

-- okay hold up

...lol no, never mind. for a second I thought “holy shit he looks kind of familiar WHAT IF IT’S UJIKO OMG” before I remembered that Enji would have recognized him during the hospital capture mission if that was the case. so NEVER MIND, PROCEED

IMAGINE THAT, ENJI DOESN’T QUITE SEEM SATISFIED WITH THIS SUGGESTION OF QUITTING NOW

(ETA: how the fuck did this man go around saving 62 towns in a single day what even is All Might.)

[clicks tongue several times] trouble a’brewin’

MEANWHILE BABY TOUYA HAS UNFORTUNATELY INHERITED HIS DAD’S STUBBORN STREAK

KLDIHWOEIJFL:KSDJ

!!!!!!!!!!!

oh my god. oh my god. what is this chapter. WHAT IS IT

so now Touya is all “YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND MY MANLY DESIRE TO BURN MYSELF ALIVE” well you got her there champ

THEY’RE TOO CUTE. OH MY GOD. HIS FURIOUS LITTLE TEARS. HER CHUBBY LIL FACE. HIS STUBBY LIL FISTS. SOMEONE HELP ME

also are they just home alone lol or what. “hey Touya, you’re what, like six now?? do us a favor and look after your baby sister for a couple hours for us would you? make sure not to set yourself on fire or anything.” WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!!

now it’s nighttime and Enji and Rei are arguing, presumably about his decision not to train Touya anymore

whew. okay. so, a couple of things here

1. first of all I think this conclusively shows that Enji really was trying to do the best he could for Touya. he stopped training him as soon as he realized it was hurting him, but Touya was still determined so he tried to make it work anyway, and even visited doctors to try and figure out if there was anything they could do. then, once they were absolutely sure that it wasn’t going to work, he tried multiple times to explain to Touya why they had to stop. he didn’t just abandon him out of the blue, which is really important to note. “no matter how much I tried telling him...”

so yeah, that debunks another common fandom accusation. so by the time he finally makes this decision, which we all know is going to turn out horribly, it’s basically because he’s already tried everything else he could think of. which, by the way, still doesn’t mean he handled this right. but at the very least he was taking Touya’s feelings into account and he was trying, and he didn’t just abruptly toss his son aside (at least not yet)

2. buuuut, then there’s this panel right below all that

which is the other side of it. if he’d just quit like the doctor person advised him to, that would have been the end of it. Touya would still have been upset, but he would have eventually gotten over it and the family would have moved on and possibly even been happy. but what happens next happens because Enji can’t let go. he still has this maddening urge to surpass All Might, and so he and Rei keep having more children, and then Shouto is born, and Enji finally has a kid he can start projecting all of his hysterical ambitions onto once again, and everything starts spiraling out of control soon after

though p.s. none of that is Shouto’s fault though!! he’s one of the few good things to come out of this whole mess and I’m very happy that he exists. the tragedy is that his dad fucking lost his mind over his quirk and fucked everything up. but that’s on him, not Touya or Shouto

anyways, SLKFJLSHGLKJL

I CAN’T FUCKING TAKE THIS YOU GUYS??? LOOK AT THAT LIL BUTTON OF A NOSE??? I’M LOSING IT HERE???

AND TOUYA JUST SEEMS DEVASTATED OMG

because children aren’t stupid, after all. he understands that his dad is still looking to surpass All Might. and so he feels like a failure, and feels like his dad is trying to replace him because he wasn’t good enough. and even now, isn’t that what the adult Touya is trying to prove?? that he was good enough after all?? “I’ll show you what happens when you give up on me, dad”?? “I’ll show you what I can do”?? fuck my life fuck everything

AND YOU CAN SEE THE TOLL THAT IT’S ALL TAKING ON REI GETTING WORSE AND WORSE AS WELL OH GOD

really nice touch here with the panel outlines becoming all shimmery from the heat of Endeavor’s flames (and/or becoming more unstable as the family gets closer and closer to their breaking point). but man, Horikoshi I can’t handle this, please show us more cute kids or something I can’t

GKELKWFJLDKSHFLKL

WITTLE BABE. BEEB. BUBS. SMOL. lkj; oh ouch a piece of my heart just detached and latched onto him huh look at that

TODOROKI “I’M SO SMALL AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON AND I DIDN’T ASK TO BE HERE” SHOUTO AHHHHH

crazy how they all just seem to know right off the bat lol. kid doesn’t even have object permanence yet, let alone a quirk. but do they care?? IT’S THE HAIR, RIGHT. WE’RE ALL THINKING IT, I’M JUST GONNA COME OUT AND SAY IT. they knew the minute they looked at him lol

AND MEANWHILE TOUYA IS OFF HAVING UNSUPERVISED TRAINING/CRYING SESSIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS OR WHATEVER, AND, UH OH

are those blue flames yet?? they seem pretty close

(ETA: this is one of the few cases where the manga being in black and white is infuriating lol.)

OH MY GOD AND STILL

so it’s not like he was so disinterested that he didn’t notice what was happening, and he was still trying to stop it and get through to him. trying to reassure him that it wasn’t the end of the world and there were other things he could do with his life, but this one particular thing just wasn’t going to happen

fucking hell. it’s agonizing seeing how close they actually were to fixing it. if he’d only said the right words, or if he’d realized at this point how destructive his obsession could be to his kids, and backed off from putting that same pressure on Shouto. we came so close to possibly having a happy ending

AND ALSO THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING BUT PLEASE LOOK AT HOW TOUYA IS LIKE THREE AND A HALF FEET TALL AND HIS DAD IS LIKE NINE AND A HALF FEET. Touya barely comes past his knees flkjlkg. the Todoroki household must have been so filled with like plastic stepstools to reach the bathroom sink and all the little baby toothbrushes, and baby gates to keep the kiddos out of the important grown-up rooms and stuff. and also days-old half-empty cups of water and stale crackers and hot wheels and my little ponies strewn everywhere

“BUT EVERYONE AT SCHOOL SAYS THEY’RE GONNA BE HEROES” a wild Deku parallel appears?? how bout that

I know this is like a pivotal moment in the Todo Tragedy and all, but fucking look at this lil dumpling

“sup bro, it’s me, the manifestation of your fears of inadequacy and lack of fatherly affections. a GAAA. ba-baAA-baa [gurgling baby sounds]”

OHHHHH IT’S THE SOUND OF MY HEART BREAKING OH NO

HE WANTS TO BE LIKE YOU ENJI. good lord somebody please just get this family some therapy

“DAD YOU IGNITED IT IN ME” flkjslkj nope, nope. not ready for this pain here

baby Shouto, would you like to weigh in on this affair? “DA!! ba-ga-daaa, [pacifier chewing noises]” oh my, you don’t say. so insightful for one so young

OH MY GODDDDDD

IT’S SO DRAMATIC BUT ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT ARE THE SHOUNEN WOOSH LINES SURROUNDING FOUR-MONTH-OLD SHOUTO LOL HE WAS LIKE THIS FROM BIRTH OH MY GOD I AM DYING HELP

SHOUTO YOU’RE RUINING THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER!?!?!

“yo, the fuck kind of family was I fucking born into” oh, son. if you only knew. IF YOU ONLY KNEW!!

(ETA: lmao I got so distracted by the ridiculous cuteness that I glossed over the fact that Baby Touya seems to possibly be aiming at him?? it’s hard to tell because he’s also super out of it from heatstroke and may just be losing control in his attempt to show off his upgrade.)

ANYWAY THAT’S THE END EXCEPT WHAT’S THIS LAST LINE OMG

ffffff. and we’re in for ANOTHER chapter of this next week?? MORE drama?? MORE BABIES?? MORE OF EIGHT-YEAR-OLD TOUYA’S SLOW DESCENT INTO MADNESS. MY HEART CAN’T TAKE IT, BUT ALSO YES PLEASE SIGN ME UP

#bnha 301 #dabi #todoroki touya #endeavor #todoroki enji #todoroki rei #todoroki shouto #todoroki fuyumi #todoroki natsuo #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha