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minhosimthings · 4 months

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Heaven

Symphony Smut Series Day 7: Julia Michaels' Heaven

Lyric: They say all good boys go to heaven, but bad boys bring heaven to you

Pairings: Badboy!Jeongin × goodgirl!fem!reader

Warnings: SMUT MINORS DNI, loss of virginity, virgin!reader, sub!reader, dom!Jeongin, p in v sex, degradation, praise, hair pulling, overstimulation, corruption kink, Jeongin calls reader 'darling' and good girl, reader wears skirt, mentions of masturbation, implied abused reader, fluffy at the end, sorta enemies to lovers, college au

A/N: I mean I couldn't not include this iconic song in this series so did it for day 7 with our Innie because I don't know corruption kink just hits different with him.

THE SYMPHONY SMUT SERIES MASTERLIST

People pleasing. Wasn't it so fun? To have a person complement you for something that you was poison to yourself.

But people pleasing always got out of hand one way or the other and now, here you were, crying to your worst enemy about how much you felt like not existing anymore.

Jeongin was completely antagonistic to you. It was much like the bad boy, good nerd trope, except this time, you liked the bad boy first and he basically hated you. Romantic right?

"So wait, what you're telling me is you willingly let yourself be used by other people and you get nothing out of it?" Jeongin questioned, looking you up and down, his eyes filled with what seemed to be pity. It was as if you were a wounded dog, who still trusted so foolishly.

"I know." You tried to fight back. Having him as a chemistry partner suddenly seemed okay. Now, his aura was one of comfort as he ran a hand down your back in circles, comforting you as the tears you've held onto for so long started falling down.

"Hey hey hey." Jeongin panicked, seeing you cry. It had been the first time he'd seen you do that. In everyone's eyes you were little Miss Perfect, unbreakable and able to endure a lot of pressure. But diamonds crack someday don't they? And when they are subjected to enough heat, or in your case, enough comfort, they crack with a lot of force.

"I'm here, I'm here don't worry." Jeongin pressed you to his chest, engulfing you in warmth. The hug felt genuine, something you hadn't known for a long time.

"I-Just can't Jeongin, I just don't want to do it anymore." You gasped, tired from all the crying.

"Calm down darling, we still got all these dumb carbon atoms to balance!" Jeongin tries to cheer you up, successfully earning a giggle from you.

"There we go." Jeongin pulled you back to wipe your tears, "Now shall we work on this project, or should we work on how to set your boundaries?"

"But how do I do that?" You asked, listening intently to him, "How the fuck do I give up this stupid habit of mine which people have been praising me for so long?"

"Let's practice then!" Jeongin said in a cherry voice, immediately shutting his book close, "Let's say.... I'm someone who wants you to help me out with my homework, but in reality, you're gonna do all my homework. What do you say?"

"Yes..?" "No Y/N." Jeongin sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead, "You say no, cause you're not gonna help some dickhead complete his work when he's the one who needs to do it."

"Alright another scenario, what if... Your best friend wants you to come to a party with her just so you can play her wing woman, what do you say?"

"No, cause she needs to get her pussy inside some dick?" Your uncertain answer made Jeongin's face light up.

"Yeah good job! You're getting the point!"

After some more scenarios, in which much laughter was involved and your chemistry book lay depressed by the side, you got to know a lot more about Jeongin. Beneath all that dark leather jacket aesthetic, he really was an adorable little fox who apparently really liked fashion.

"Alright alright last scenario." Jeongin laughed after you told him the story of your childhood cat, Potato, "And this is important for you, as a woman."

"As a woman? Alright then." You said, still laughing.

"If a man ever asked to fuck you for his own pleasure, would you let him?"

"I mean unless it's you, no."

The silence that filled the room was unnerving, deadly almost. Jeongin stared at you, and you stared back.

"You want to do what to me now?" Jeongin smirked, adjusting his posture, which made him look slightly bigger.

"I-I didn't mean-"

"What didn't you mean, darling?"

His voice never failed to make you wet. And yet you didn't have your vibrator with you right now.

"I mean it's not like I want to fuck you, I mean I do! But I-"

"You're so adorable." Jeongin chuckled, leaning back against the bedframe, spreading his legs a bit further. You could clearly see his erection pulsing through the fabric of his pants, "Does my good girl need dick in her pants?"

Good girl.

One simple nickname and you wanted to be devoured by him, carnally, brutally as he could.

"Fuck me then." You stated, not breaking eye contact with his beautiful eyes, "Fuck me and show me how it feels to break the rules for one time."

"If you say so." Jeongin chuckled, placing his hands on your hips and leaning in close. Your noses almost touched and you could feel his fingers tightening around the fabric of your skirt.

He stared at you hungrily and took in your figure which was clothed in a normal shirt and your skirt, his eyes flicked down to your chest.

Jeongin passionately pulled you in for an open-mouthed kiss, you were taken by surprise and put your hands against his chest, to pull back slightly, but Jeongin held you possessively and deepened the kiss to taste your tongue with his tongue.

He broke the kiss with a chuckle and playfully pushed you back onto your pillow, he peppered your neck with kisses and warm sucks.

"Ah fuck Jeongin." You whimpered, feeling his bulge press against your pussy. He hadn't even done anything and yet the simple gestures turned you on like a sinner in church.

"Already darling?" Jeongin chuckles again, feeling positively elated at how innocent you were, "It's alright we'll take it slow."

Jeongin rests his hands on your hips more tighter and lays you on the bed, taking in your sweet perfume. "Your roomate isn't home is she?" Jeongin asked, wigh uncertainty, his fingers toying with the waistband of your skirt. You simply nodded no, too distracted by the impact his fingers had on your waist.

"Good." Jeongin ripped off your skirt with one tug of his skirt, making you gasp loudly, "Then this'll be easier."

He cups your tits and let’s out a deep groan. You move to grab at his shirt and pause, nodding a question at him. He nods back at you and his godly chest is revealed. You then move to grab at his belt buckle and after that your clothes get removed pretty quickly.

He leaned down, kissing along your chest and the swells of your breasts. His teeth nipped at your skin, biting down hard enough to leave hickeys behind.

Jeongin chuckled at your reaction. He lightly rolled your nipple in between his metal thumb and index finger. You gasped loudly when his fingers pinched your nipple, sending a new sensation through your body. Both of his hands went down to your sleep shorts and pulled them down your legs, exposing your wet lacy panties to him. His fingers on his right hand rubbed your clit through your panties causing you to buck your hips against his hand, only for you to receive a smack on your inner thigh.

You squealed in surprise when he pinned you to the bed. He spread your legs, getting in between them. He rubbed his cock through your wetness before lining his tip up with your entrance. His tip alone stretched your pussy. He sinks his cock inside of you inch by inch. Your jaw dropped.

"Ah-ah big." You moaned, feeling him sink into you. You had never felt pleasure like this before. And you sure as hell loved it.

"Is that okay, darling?" Jeongin asked, raising a brow at you. He didn't want to hurt you or do anything that was out of his boundaries. But oh, did he love this.

“So fucking tight.” Jeongin groans, tilting his head back. Fuck, if only he had had this pussy before.

He whines and buries his head in your neck, alternating motions on your very stimulated clit, acting like he’s the one about to completely fall apart.

Once he was deep inside of you, he gave you a moment to adjust. You nodded your head, giving him permission to start thrusting. He starts thrusting pretty slowly, probably wanting to make sure you’re getting used to it, but his hand in your hair shows you that things aren’t going to be so tame for long. He pulled his cock almost all the way out, only leaving his tip inside of you and then thrusted back inside of you all at once.

“Oh fuck!” You moaned, trying your best not to be loud.

“Such a little slut.” Jeongin says, amused that someone like you, someone so pure, could be like this.

His thrusts got more rough. The sound of skin slapping filled the room. His tip hit that one spot inside of you repeatedly. You wrapped your hand around his wrist and squeezed it every time he hit that spot.

He doesn’t need another invitation, and you realize immediately he is not going to hold back as he grabs your hips with more force than before and slams inside you. His balls hit your clit over and over again, and you moan even louder, tilting your head so he can get the hint you want him to pull your hair. But he ignores it.

"Who knew a good little girl like you could be such a slut eh?" Jeongin whispers in your ear, making your cunt itch for him even more.

You whimpered in response. You slid your hand down to your clit and started to rub it in fast circles. Jeongin noticed and smacked your hand away, making you whimper.

Your cunt clenched around his cock, feeling your orgasm build up a second time.

“Jeongin, I’m— mhmm fuck!” You moaned, not being able to finish your sentence.

“Cum for me, darling.” Jeongin whispers in your ear, "Like the good girl you are."

His fingers gave your now sensitive clit a particular rough rub to help you chase your high. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head as you came harder than ever before. Jeongin’s thrusts became sloppy, feeling his orgasm approaching him.

You’re screaming before he can even finish as the strongest orgasm you’ve ever experienced takes over your body. It’s a blinding pleasure you can feel everywhere: from your pussy to your head and even fingers. And the way he keeps thrusting in and out of you at the same speed prolongs it.

Jeongin couldn’t take it anymore. After a few more thrusts, he came inside of you. His thrusts came to a slow stop. His hand left your throat and went to the back of your head, pulling you into a sloppy kiss. He pulled away and looked into your eyes for a few seconds before pulling out of you. He laid down next to you, staring up at the ceiling and breathing heavily.

"Oh fucking hell." He lets out a breathy chuckle, "That was fun wasn't it?"

"Thank you Jeongin." You pant, still not being able to understand that you just lost your virginity.

"No problem darling." Jeongin whispers, "Good little girls like you deserve the best heaven they can get."

Taglist: @ramenoil @mynameisniya150 @demigodmahash + whoever wants to be tagged send an ask my way!

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sebscore · 1 year

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hi ! I love your gen z driver series so much !!

i have a request that she and zhou show up to the padock in the same outfit unplanned

like i feel this would happen - they both fancy showing up in something so different and the other would be wearing the same thing !! <3 fashion icons think the same 😌

THE HELMET BET

pairings: zhou guanyu x driver!reader / f1 grid x driver!reader

warnings: swearing. based on the 2022 grid. mention of sexism and racism. joke about doing an orgy.

author's note: idk if this is what you had in mind, but I had already written a small part of this fic and then your ask came in and I couldn't help myself. I love zhou so much, ugh thats my man fr. also, thank you for loving the series, it means a lot to me 💞

masterlist

• • • • • • •

''We're gonna get in trouble.'' Zhou said, shaking his head.

Y/N frowned at his words. ''Why would we get in trouble? It's always super boring and our bet can at least spice it up a little.'' She reasoned, using a lot of hand gestures to show how serious she was.

''You know those meetings are about our safety, right? We should take them serious.'' The Chinese driver didn't want to get in hot water with the stewards.

''But this is a serious matter! We're putting an end to the debate,'' she retorted back, not seeing the harm in using the upcoming driver's briefing for their bet, ''lately, I've been seeing way too many people saying you've got better style than me and I've had enough of it.''

The female driver had seen the countless online discussions between fans regarding the most stylish driver on the grid, the winner usually switching between herself, Lewis and Zhou. In her opinion, Lewis had the best style, she didn't need to think twice about it. But it is important for her to know who his successor is, who is the number 2?

To answer that question, she had come up with a brilliant idea: her and Zhou wear their best outfit to the next driver's briefing, not some team merchandising, and they get the other drivers to vote on which outfit is the best and therefore, which person has the best style. The person with the most votes gets to design a helmet for the loser and they have to wear it at the next racing weekend.

''Okay, I'm in,'' Zhou admitted, shaking hands to commemorate the challenge, ''be prepared to lose, Y/N.''

''Don't worry about me, Guanyu.''

Y/N was confident in her win. The young woman knows she has style, her several brand deals with high-respected fashion houses being the proof of that. However, she knew not to underestimate her rookie friend, Zhou has had some killer outfits in the ongoing season.

They had known each other for some years, but it was only this year that the pair had gotten close. Y/N broke the ice by complimenting one of his outfits at the start of the season and the rest was history.

The outfit she had gone with was simple, but she looked good and she felt great in it. It was inspired by one of Michael Schumacher's paddock outfits (reference), knowing she would at least have Mick and Seb's vote with that one.

Y/N got out of her car, ready to make her way to the F1 paddock and straight to the driver's briefing. In the corner of her eye she noticed Zhou's car pull up, his performance coach waving at her through the window. She reciprocated the action and decided to wait for him, thinking it would be nice for the two of them to enter together. She was curious as to what her friend would be wearing, secretly hoping he had fumbled the bag really hard.

Her hopes came crashing down as Zhou got out of the car, observing the clothes he was wearing and noticing one clear detail.

They were wearing the same outfit.

Her eyes seemed ready to bulge out of her head, in complete disbelief. ''Are you fucking kidding me, Zhou?''

The Chinese man appeared to be much more amused by the situation, covering his laughter with his hand. ''You look very nice, Y/N.'' He giggled, greeting her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

''It's turned into a ''who wears it better'' challenge, what the heck.'' She commented, eyeing him up and down before glancing at her own fit.

Zhou chuckled. ''Well either way, I'm winning.'' A small smirk appeared on his face, still sure of his win over his friend. Y/N simply scoffed, grabbing her pass from her purse and walking to the entrance. Zhou and his coach followed her steps, still entertained by her annoyance.

As soon as the paddock reporters noticed the sight of the two drivers, their cameras were whipped out from their bags and they began taking candid shots of the pair. Zhou and Y/N played along for the cameras, pointing at each other's outfits and pretending to look annoyed.

Eventually they made it to the right room, already seeing most of the drivers waiting inside. Zhou went in and greeted the others, while Y/N waited outside, ready to lock the door as soon as everyone had arrived and was inside.

Lando had been the last one to walk down the hallway. ''Hurry up, Norris!'' She exclaimed, her hand motioning for him to pick up the pace.

''Why? I'm on time.'' He replied a bit agitated, it was a bit too early in the morning for him to be scolded by his friend.

Y/N didn't respond to him, simply pushing him into the room and locking the door, making several drivers look up from where they were sitting or standing.

''Y/N, what are you doing?'' Sebastian spoke up, curious as to what she was up to this time.

The young woman urged Zhou to get up from his seat and to stand next to her. The man felt a bit embarrassed, but followed her orders. Y/N stood in the place where their director normally sat when he answered the drivers' questions or listened to their concerns. She placed both her hands on the desk, looking like a teacher that was about to scold her students.

''As we all know, Mr. Hamilton over there is widely accepted as the driver with the best style,'' she pointed at Lewis, who nervously smiled as the other drivers glanced at him, ''but that's not why we are gathered here today! We are gathered here today to decide who his successor is. Who is the most stylish person after Lewis? That's a question that we will settle once and for all, here, now, in this room.'' She finished her monologue.

''Me and Mr. Guanyu found ourselves in a battle for the title of second most stylish driver of the grid, so I challenged him. We would wear our best outfits today and have our lovely colleagues vote for who had the best one. But as you all can see, me and Mr. Dior over here, are wearing the same exact fit.'' Y/N waved her hand between herself and Zhou.

''So, instead of you deciding who is wearing the best outfit, you'll be voting for the person you think is wearing the outfit best.'' She concluded.

The crowd had mixed reactions: some looked confused, some seemed entertained by what Y/N had told them and others appeared to not care.

Kevin was the first one to speak, getting up from his seat and walking towards the door. ''Y/N, this is not the time to do this, we're here to talk about the race.'' He was about to turn the lock when her voice stopped him.

''Magnussen, you're being a party pooper- do you want to be a party pooper?'' She looked at him sternly, trying to convince him to sit back down and go along with her antics. ''Don't pretend like you're not secretly enjoying this.'' The Haas driver rolled his eyes, but defeatedly put his arms up and went back to his seat.

''Alright, we'll go around the room and each person says either my name or Zhou's.'' She explained further, moving in front of the desk.

Checo's hand went up in the air. ''Can we also pass?'' He asked, looking at Y/N.

''If you refuse to choose, we will consider it sexist and racist as I am a woman and Zhou's Asian.'' She answered him, garnering chuckles around the room and a nervous-looking Zhou who hoped people took it as a joke, since he didn't want to be making enemies as a rookie.

Y/N clapped her hands together. ''Okay, we'll start with our party pooper, KMag! Me or Zhou?''

''Zhou, since he didn't yell at me and didn't call me a party pooper.'' He chose, making the female driver narrow her eyes at him. ''Alright, 1 for Zhou.''

The person sat next to Kevin was his teammate, Mick. ''Schumacher!'' He was about to speak, but the woman interrupted him. ''Before you choose, I took inspiration from one of your dad's outfits.'' Y/N tried influencing his decision.

''I was gonna choose you anyway.'' He told her, making her jump up as her and Zhou had an equal score. ''Thank you, Mickie.'' She smiled brightly at him.

''Valtteri?''

''I choose Zhou, I'm loyal to my teammate.'' He answered, smiling at the man in question.

''Lando?''

''Zhou, because he doesn't humiliate me in front of the entire internet.'' The McLaren driver said, referring to their regular back-and-forths on social media.

Y/N rolled her eyes. ''You're such a crybaby, Rumplestiltskin.'' Her words caused Lando to give her the middle finger, but it was all in good fun.

''Anyway, Daniel?''

The Australian pretended to think hard about his answer, looking in-between her and Zhou. ''I'm gonna go with Y/N, cause I'm kinda scared what she'll do to me if I don't choose her.'' His answer got a laugh out of the other drivers, some of them nodding their heads.

Y/N herself couldn't help but break a smile at Daniel's words, happy her friend had chosen her. ''Okay, next one.''

The voting was nearing its end and there was a tie, 9 people had chosen Zhou and 9 others had voted for Y/N. It all came down to one person.

Sir Lewis Hamilton.

Despite some of the drivers' dislike for the bet at the beginning of the meeting, everyone had gotten pretty invested. ''The maestro himself has to choose his next prodigy.'' Daniel joked, looking at the 7x world champion.

Lewis shifted in his seat, not too fond of having the last vote on the matter. ''Can't I just say both of you? The two of you look very good.''

''No, mate! You have to choose.'' George argued, the others agreeing with him.

Y/N was quite sure that Lewis would choose her. She was much closer to him than Zhou and the pair had talked about fashion before, discussing how it was a great way to express yourself. She was already designing Zhou's helmet in her mind.

''Well, then… I guess Zhou.''

Her mouth dropped open, shocked that the senior driver had chosen the rookie over her. She wasn't the only one that seemed surprised by his choice, Seb turned around in his seat and Pierre's eyes had widened, mouthing ''wow''.

The young man next to her, lightly slapped her arm. ''I'll send the design to your team next week, Y/N.'' He teasingly laughed, a big smirk present on his face.

''This is a joke, right? I can't be number 3!'' She dramatically stated.

''Hey! What's wrong with being the number 3?'' Daniel looked up, feigning being offended by her words.

She was about to give another monologue about betrayal and how men are all the same, but several loud knocks on the door interrupted that from happening. Y/N sighed, but took a few steps to turn the lock.

Their director didn't look too happy. ''Why was the door locked?''

''We were having an orgy.'' She sarcastically answered him, not planning on explaining to him why she had blocked the door from opening.

''Y/N!''

The actual driver's briefing began and soon enough most drivers were already dozing off, some of them even wishing Y/N and Zhou's bet had taken a bit longer. They wouldn't admit it to the young woman, but ever since she'd made her arrival to these briefings, her unserious antics had made them much more bearable. Some drivers had even started looking forward to the meetings, because the girl always had something up her sleeve.

As soon as the last issue was resolved, the meeting ended and everyone was out the door. When Zhou saw Y/N talking with Mick and Esteban, he swiftly moved next to Lewis. ''Hey, man,'' he patted the Brit's shoulder, ''thanks for that, I really appreciate it.''

''No problem,'' Lewis smiled, ''we made a deal, I'm keeping my word.''

Zhou nodded. ''Yeah, you vote for me and I let you help me design her helmet.'' He recalled the promise they had made a day earlier.

''Great! I was thinking we just collect all kinds of embarrassing pictures of her and plaster them all around her helmet…''

#f1 fic #f1 fics #f1 x reader #formula 1 fic #f1 x oc #f1 female driver #female f1 driver #zhou guanyu x reader #zhou guanyu x oc #f1 grid x oc #f1 grid x reader

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motomam1 · 7 hours

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MOTOMAMI | welcome to formula one

series masterlist | navigation

author's note: just a little something to get me back into the game because i missed working on this!

♡ liked by 928,394 people

f1 Our longterm besties entering F1 together ✨

Starring Valeria, Oscar and Logan!

#F1 #Formula1 #BahrainGP

view all 2,341 comments

user1 the 2019 rookies are getting some serious competition with these three

user2 not them leaving nyck out like he isn't a rookie as well ⤷ user3 who?

user4 i'm so hyped to see these three race against each other! ⤷ user5 only oscar and vale will race each other, logan will stay at the back ⤷ user6 that is so foul

user7 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽❤️❤️❤️

user8 f1 isn't what it used to be ⤷ user9 go cry me a river

user10 "shake ass on the podium" she's so real i loooove her

♡ liked by 456,394 people

f1 The Mercedes duo arriving in fashion to the first race weekend of the season! ⭐️

#F1 #Formula1 #BahrainGP

view all 923 comments

user11 vale is so cute omg

user12 the fashionistas of f1

user13 everyone arriving in their boring team merch while these two really rock the paddock

user14 i just know they texted each other this morning discussing their fits

user15 f1 fashion game is SO BACK

♡ liked by 1,528,394 people

f1 Valeria makes history as the second woman to gain points in F1 🌟

Ortiz scores her first points with a solid P6!

#F1 #Formula1 #BahrainGP

view all 5,283 comments

user16 THAT'S MY GIRL RIGHT THERE AAHH

user17 it's just the car ⤷ user18 whatever makes you sleep at night

user19 that eyeliner is STANDING ON BUSINESS

user20 the way i screamed out loud when she drove over the finish line!!!

user21 her dad jumping up and down and kissing toto's cheek is the most iconic moment of the weekend ⤷ user22 literally her dad is absolute goals ⤷ user23 i love her dad so much

user24 just her breathing is already making history

user25 a legend in the making! 🇲🇽🇲🇽

♡ liked by benitovelasquez, lewishamilton, yungfilly and 467,384 others

valeriaortiz celebrating that p5-p6 with selfmade tequila

view all 1,283 comments

user26 only hot people driver for mercedes 💅🏻

user27 i already love lewis' and valeria's friendship so much

user28 vale looks so fun to party with!

user29 now i wanna try vale's dad's tequila ⤷ user30 ong been thinking about it ever since she mentioned it

user31 can't wait to see vale bloom further in f1

user32 she's going places for sureeee

user33 men crying and throwing up that a woman joined f1 and vale is over here enjoying some good tequila and pizza

user34 she had one decent race and her ego jumps through the roof ⤷ user35 truly embarrassing of her

tag list: @tpwkstiles @dessxoxsworld @lorarri @elliegrey2803 @inejghafawifesblog @daaiissyyyyy @viennakarma @cha-hot @saintslewis @welovediaaxx @mynameisangeloflife @peqch-pie @louvrepool @tremendousstarlighttragedy ➫ comment or leave a message in my inbox if you'd like to be added

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nouvellevqgue · 2 months

Text

LESSON IN IMPRESSION!

pairing: liam lawson x reader

summary: he is her best friend, and she is his too. but if the cupid work hard, then he works harder.

author's note: yes, i switched oscar's with liam because for the past few days i got a burnout, but don't wory i got you this as a replacement. i hope you enjoyed this!!

vday series masterlist

yourusername

liked by yukitsunoda0511, and 489,290 others

yourusername this guy showed at my doorstep looking like this, can somebody please help him?

view all 21,380 comments

liamlawson30 Can you look at my back, I'm actually flexing my awards at you

⤷ yukitsunoda0511 Are you sure because that's not what I saw yesterday

⤷ alex_albon Yeah with the plans😂😂

this comment has been deleted

⤷ yukitsunoda0511 I told him so, but he wouldn't listen

username NO WAY THAT HE SHOWED UP JS LIKE THAT 💀💀

⤷ username And he be like "look at me Y/n🌹🏆"

username The smile of his is just so wide😭 Hes very proud of himself

username why's he presenting himself like that

⤷ danielricciardo He probably ran away from his room and goes to hers instead

⤷ username WITH ALL THE AWARDS AND BOUQUETS???

⤷ danielricciardo We all know that he's a hardworking man

username it's nearing valentine's day, he's practicing for THE day..

⤷ username "Would you be my partner to the next gp?" I can fucking imagine it

liamlawson30

liked by yourusername, and 772,109 others

liamlawson30 Went to hit the road today 🏍️

view all 30,729 comments

landonorris okay okay i see how it's going on waaaaaayy faster than i thought it would

logansargeant Better to get your helmet first, Y/n

username i remember her post about him on the floor laying seductively only to flex his awards at her

⤷ danielricciardo Attention seeker confirmed

⤷ liamlawson30 Hey I thought you were defending me!

⤷ yukitsunoda0511 No one's defending you, actually

⤷ liamlawson30 Now...

username liam coming back again with that grandpa core shirt

username i love how dangerous it is, do it again

username She's a fashion icon even when the wind blew her blowouts

username wait... is that lando's sunny

⤷ landonorris close but no

yourusername

liked by charlottesiine, and 400,378 others

yourusername sweetest gift everrrr!!

view all 7,688 comments

charlottesiine That's really pretty!!✨

username he's prepared for the valentine's day

dualipa That bouquet looks insanely gorg!

username she looks so chic

username it must be from liam bc if not i must be living in delusion

username that bouquet is so cutee with the yellow wrapper😌😌 i just love it sm

yourusername

liked by luisinhaoliveira99, and 186,433 others

yourusername thanks for the dinner, liam. i would do this again 100% 😙👌

view all 8,771 comments

liamlawson30 You're welcome, Sweetie 😁

⤷ danielricciardo Oh you got her a pet name now?

⤷ pierregasly I would do the same too

⤷ yukitsunoda0511 No, you're going to be with me

username I WOULD DO THAT TOOOOO

username dinner with him sounds fun

username the smile of his is so wide, i can tell that he's excited to be with her

username i really need to have a pizza date, i really do.

username He's there again with usual white tee

⤷ username because like "treat me like white tee"

⤷ username OOOOOOH YEEEEAAAAHHH

yourusername

liked by sza, and 367,912 others

yourusername who love some fruits?

view all 12,685 comments

username IT'S OFFICIAL???????????

username WHY'S SO FASTTTT??

liamlawson30 Why is my hand looks so veiny there?

mickschumacher Exactly a day before valentine's day, great timing.

georgerussell63 I had no idea until lewis talked about this with daniel, thank god I overheard.

⤷ lewishamilton YOU OVERHEAD US???

⤷ danielricciardo Like it's a surprise

alex_albon Happy for you two, lovebirds!! -L&A

username i know i had this feeling ever since they posted about spending time with each other, and now as i guess, they're officially together. so so happy for you, folks!

heidiberger_ Aww🥹 Daniel used to telling me everything about you guys and now I win.

⤷ danielricciardo Why are you telling them heree??

username they're going to be so adorable being a couple

⤷ username can't wait for her paddock debut

MEANWHILE Y/N POST FOR LIAM:

yourusername

👤: ＠liamlawson30 466,319 likes

yourusername look at him with his role models. happy valentine's day, mcqueen's apprentice 🥝❤️

view all 22,621 comments

liamlawson30 I love the nickname so much. Happy Valentine's day to you too, My dearest love🥰

⤷ username I'M GONNA FUCKING CRY

username HIS POSE R GOOFY AS USUAL I DON'T UNDERSTAND💀💀😔

charles_leclerc I don't aware that they got McQueen in every corner of that lands

⤷ yourusername you have to dug deeper then

username SOMEBODY SEDATE MEEEE

username i would love to see mcqueen with my boyfriend on a valentine's day too

username How many white shirt does he have in his wardrobe??

⤷ liamlawson30 Definitely not enough

⤷ yukitsunoda0511 Even with 100 of it and you could still say it's not enough

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daydreamingmia · 2 months

Text

The Grammys with Walker

Walker Scobell X Reader | Series | You Belong With Me🔱 Part 6

You were so excited!

Tonight was the Grammys. Normally you get a little nervous at these types of Award shows but Walker and Taylor were going to be there so you weren't worried.

Taylor on the phone

Are you excited?

So excited!

Who are you bringing?

Walker

Oooooo

*eyeroll

You guys are still just friends right?

Yes

K. Hey remember don't

say anything out the album

Don't worry I won't

See you there!

--End Call--

It was now 1 o'clock in the afternoon and you were going to get your hair and makeup done.

You rolled your eyes and walked out the front door and got in the car.

The drive was about an hour but you took a nap so it flew by.

Your hair and makeup was almost done when you heard a nock at the door

"Come in!" You yelled trying not to move and mess up your hair

"Hey y/n" Walker said coming in the door and sitting on the couch

"Hey. I'm almost done give me like 3 minutes"

"I'm glad you weren't late" Walker said scrolling on his phone

"Look at this" he laughed showing you his phone

You rolled your eyes and got up from the chair

"Done!" You said smiling

"Aren't you forgetting something? Walker said looking down at your robe

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe I amlost walked out on the red carpet like this!" You said running to the bathroom to put on the dress

"I think I would've been kind of iconic! Nobody would do that!" He said laughing

"What do you think?" You asked Walker and did a little twirl

"WOW! You look beautiful!" He said and you blushed

You walked onto the red carpet before Walker. The photographer were yelling your name which was a little too much for you. Not that you weren't used to it. It just made you nervous sometimes. Walker must've noticed because he ran into the picture (almost knocking you over). The photographers really went crazy when they saw him put his hand on your waist.

An interview was calling you so you walked over to her.

"Y/n! You look gorgeous tonight!" The reporter said

"Thank you! You wouldn't recognize me if it weren't for my amazing hair and makeup team and fashion designer." You said with a laugh

"Walker what is it like being at the Grammys for the first time?" The reporter asked turning to Walker

"It's amazing! But the company is more amazing." Walker replied looking at you as you tried to hide that you were blushing

"Young love. Now y/n have you heard the rumors about Reputation Taylor's Version being announced tonight."

"No i haven't" You replied playing it cool. Trying not to give anything away

"Well her website has crashed and has and error and the websites error code mentions Taylor's Reputation and this morning she changed her profile pic to black and white and you did as well. We all know you are very close to Taylor. Has she mentioned anything to you and what do you think about these rumors? And why did you change your profile picture to balck and white." She asked you putting the mic I'm front of your face

"I don't know anything about these rumors but I think Taylor will release Reputation at the best time. As she said there will be no explanation there will just be Reputation." You said trying to avoid the profile picture question. You squeezed Walker's hand as a signal for him to pill you out of there.

You had many more interviews. Most of them were shipping you and Walker and asking you about Reputation Taylor's Version.

You made it out without spoiling Taylor's surprise and went to your table.

About 20 minutes later Taylor walked up to the table

"Hey!" She said smiling as you stood up and hugged her

"Cute date" She whispered in your ear

You rolled your eyes trying not to say I KNOW RIGHT

The show started and a few people won already.

Miley (Cyrus) and a few others.

Finally it was tune for the announcement of the Grammy you were nominated for.

"And the Grammy goes to..." the announcer said

"Y/n L/n!"

You jumped up from your seat and hugged Taylor and Walker. You were so excited. You walked up to recieve the award and made your speech.

Good evening, everyone. I can't believe I'm actually standing here in front of all of you. This is a dream come true. I want to thank the Recording Academy for this incredible honor. I also want to thank my amazing team, my family, and my friends. And of course, I want to thank Taylor Swift for discovering me and believing in me from the very beginning. Taylor, you're like a big sister to me. You've always believed in me and you've always been there for me. I wouldn't be here without you. I wouldn't be here without you. And to my incredible fans, thank you for all of your love and support. You make this all possible. I still remember when I was just a little girl, watching the Grammys on TV and dreaming of one day being up here myself. And now, here I am. So if you're watching this and you have a dream, don't ever give up on it. Keep fighting for it, and one day, you'll be standing right here on this stage. Thank you.

You held your Grammy and walked off stage. Tonight was amazing!

Then it was time for Taylor's Grammy nomination.

"And the Grammy goes to...Taylor Swift!" They announced

Taylor hugged you and Jack and walked on stage.

When taylor announce her new album the crowd go wild. Taylor told you months ago but it was still amazing!

You, Taylor and Walker were backstage. Freaking out!

"I'm so proud of you y/n!" Taylor said hugging you

"You're so amazing and so talented! And you look stunning!" She said

"Thank you Taylor! You're so amazing! Have you been on instagram? Everyone is going wild! They though you were going to announce Reputation Taylor's Verison." You replied with a smile

"I have! Like I said there will be no explanation there will just be Reputation" She said smiling as she walked away to talk to Jack

"You are so awesome y/n! I am in the presence of a genius. I remember when you wrote that song on set. I didn't expect you to win a Gramm for it! But I should have!" You looked in his eyes and saw pure happiness

"Oh my gosh! I am not!" You said jokingly shoving his shoulder

You, Taylor and Walker now were about to leave for the after party. There were so many people around but we were surrounded by security. But it was still a little stressful. Walker saw you were a little overwhelmed and put his hand on your waist and pulled you in. You felt safe with him. You didn't know why he just was so comforting.

You got to the after party. Walker stepped out the door first and offered you his hand. You took it and he helped you out of the limo. He then helped Taylor out and the three of you went inside. You were talking to some people but then you and walked went off by yourselves. You went to a room where Lover first dance remix was playing.

"May I have this dance malady?" Walker asked and offered you his hand

"Why of course kind sir" you replied with a little giggle

He led you onto the dance floor and put his hand on your waist and you hands on his shoulders. It was like a fairytale. Everything was perfect. You just won your first Grammy and your dancing with Walker. As you were swaying to the music. You looked in his eyes. They were so blue. His curls falling in his face. The love he had in his eyes.

Then your eyes flickered down to his lips. Just for a moment but that was enough. He leaned in and kissed you. You thought it would never happen. You've loved Walker since the first day you met him. It was your first kiss and it was amazing.

"I've wanted to do that for so long" He said looking in your eyes

You blushed

After you finished dancing he went and got you two drinks(nonalcoholic of course) and you two sat down.

"This day has been amazing." You said in awe while taking a sip of your drink.

"You talking about the Grammy or the kiss?" He asked with a smirk

"Both" You said blushing

"Y/n!" Taylor said waving to you

"Sorry Walker. Can I take y/n from you first a second." She said bending down to pull you up

"Sure"

Taylor pulled you into the room where Walker kissed you. It was a quiet room. So we could talk privately.

"So" Taylor said turning around smirking

"Do you know?" You said breaking a smile

"Yes!" She said so excited for you. She knew you liked Walker since the beginning. She grabbed your hands and you both jumped up and down quietly screaming.

"I told you he'd kiss you one of these days" she said

"I know! I never though he would! Then we were dancing and it was so romantic. This night is amazing!!" You said squealing

You talked for ever and then we decided to go back

We acted like nothing and walked out to where Walker was on his phone.

"I'm back!" You said sitting down as Taylor went off somewhere else

"What was that about?" He asked looking up

"She was talking to me about her new album" You said trying to act natural

You and Walker were in the limo driving home.

You both got out and he led you to the door.

"You know y/n...I was thinking maybe you'd like to go somewhere...sometime...maybe...if you want to." He stuttered

"You mean like a date?" You asked hopeful

"Yeah...I mean...if you want to...that would be cool...if not that's totally fi-"

"Walker!" You yelled trying to calm him

"Hmm?" He looked up from the ground

"I would love to go on a date with you" You said smiling at him being goofy

"Oh that's great" He said relieved

You kissed him on the cheek and you saw him blush

"Goodnight" You said walking in the door

"Goodnight" he said still standing there shocked that you agreed

You were sitting in you bed. Thinking about Walker. What would you wear. Where was he taking you. And so much more.

Let's just say you didn't get much sleep🤍

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jamespotterismydaddy · 5 months

Text

Lord Husband (Chapter 5)

cregan x reader

word count: 1,606 words

series masterlist

A private carriage. You thank the gods for small victories. Being locked in a small box for a month with nobody but Cregan Stark for company would’ve been the thing that pushed you over the edge of insanity. Or, you likely would have killed him.

Perhaps it was more his safety they are concerned over rather than my comfort. You think to yourself.

The preparations for your departure have been immensely extravagant and your mother has already commissioned ten new dresses and five nightgowns just to tie you over until the royal family flies in for the wedding. You’ll spend another whole month courting Cregan (in Winterfell this time) before the ceremony and you don’t know if you want the spectacle to be drawn out more to prolong your unmarried freedom or if you just want it to be over with.

You ignore the thoughts as you make your way down to the courtyard with Baela and Rhaena on each arm and Ser Robert trailing after you.

“I’m going to miss you awfully.” Rhaena says sentimentally.

“You’ll have to write to me with every bit of court gossip. Gods know that the boys won’t do a very good job at keeping me filled in.” You roll your eyes dramatically, trying to keep it all lighthearted.

“You’ll write to us plenty as well, tell us all about the joys of marriage.” Baela says with a little smirk.

“I hardly believe there’ll be many joys to rave about.” You say with a scoff.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. From what i’ve heard, northern men are very good with… their tongues.” The elder twin says scandalously. You think you hear Ser Robert choke on water from behind you.

“Baela!” Rhaena scolds but she giggles too.

“I don’t want his tongue anywhere near me.” You say as you shoot her a glare.

“Then you are as dumb as you are pretty.” You roll your eyes at this.

“His assumed skills don’t matter if I do not like him.” You say primly.

“You don’t have to like him to appreciate the look of him.” Baela says as she lifts a hand to inspect her nails.

“I agree. You know what they say about men with large hands…” Rhaena trails off and you glare at her as well.

“Do not team up against me.” You say.

“We are only trying to help you to look on the bright side. You’ll be with him for the rest of your lives.” Rhaena says softly. It’s a thought that you don’t really want to think about.

“Perhaps after I give him a son, we will become estranged and he will allow me to retire to Dragonstone.” You reply wistfully. The twins exchange a look.

“And what of your son?”

You sigh and say, “Any child I have will be his, not mine.”

“But they will also be Valyrians. They could be dragonriders. They will need a Valyrian to teach them.” Baela says. The idea of a child with a dragon, not knowing its history, not knowing how to care for it, is a sad thought.

“Motherhood is as noble a path as any.” Rhaena says, in an attempt to make you feel better.

“Not if it’s forced.”

There is an awkward silence after that and you feel bad, being the one who caused it. Your closest friends, your sisters, they only wanted to comfort you, to make you excited about the journey and you’ve made them feel bad for trying.

“I do quite like some of the dresses her Grace commissioned for me, though.” You say with a little grin and both of the girls light up.

“Oh yes, they’re all so beautiful. I don't know if I could even pick a favourite.” Rhaena gushes.

“I can.” Baela says. “The deep maroon velvet one. Ugh, the sleeves on it are to die for. It’s far too hot to be wearing such fashion in King’s Landing. We’d be sweltering.” Baela pouts a little at that but then grins. “You’ll be the icon of the North when it comes to gowns.”

“I intend to be the icon of the North when it comes to everything.” You say with a faux level of superiority as you come around to the stairs that go down to the courtyard.

There are many nobles waiting to see you off and Cregan Stark stands right at the front, waiting for you and looking as disgustingly handsome as ever. You ignore him and make your way to the ladies who won’t be accompanying you first, hugging them and trying not to tear up. You hope Cregan is offended by how you brush by him. Then, you reach your siblings. Your goodbyes to your family are short and proper, you’ll see them at the wedding anyhow. Your goodbye with your mother is… tense if nothing else.

You turn to Cregan at this point, knowing that you need to have a public interaction before you get into your carriage. Even if you enjoy being the centre of attention, you don’t want to waste the creation of gossip if you’re not there to see how it all goes down.

Lord Stark bows deeply. “Princess, I am glad to be accompanying you to your new home.”

“I thank you for your protection on the long trip that lies ahead of us.” You say in response, your voice cordial and dripping with charisma.

“It is my honour.” He holds out a hand and you take it, allowing him to help you up the steps, into the carriage. Your two handmaidens follow after you. When the door shuts, you sigh, ready for the long trip to be over already.

~~~

As the trip properly starts, you begin to remember how much you hate carriage rides. Short ones are usually fine but you’ve been sitting in the wheeled contraption for hours now and it's making you awfully dizzy.

“Your Grace? Are you well?” Rose, your handmaiden, speaks up. She looks concerned for your state.

“I am fine. I perhaps just need to rest for a moment.” You say, a bit breathlessly, as you shift to lay down, resting your head in your other handmaiden’s lap.

“Are you sure, princess? You look a little green.” Safia speaks up as she begins to stroke your hair.

“It’s this stupid carriage. And the road for seven hells. How can it be so uneven?” You groan and Safia starts to rub your temples.

“It is awful, I know.” She soothes but her kind words don’t help. You just feel more and more nauseous.

“Oh gods.” You groan.

“Princess, are you going to be sick?” Rose asks, and to your dismay, you believe you are about to be sick.

You nod a little and she stands, banging on the roof. “Stop the carriage!” She calls out to the driver.

Before you’re even fully stopped, Rose pushes open the door and Safia helps you to your feet. You stumble out of the carriage and unceremoniously, onto the grass. You fall to your hands and knees, breathing heavily. You thank the gods when you don’t actually throw up and the churning of your stomach begins to slow with the help of a stationary position and fresh air.

“What is happening? Is the princess alright?”

Oh gods why does he have to see this? You think to yourself as the young Lord Stark’s voice rings through the air.

“The movement of the carriage makes her unwell, my lord.” Safia says.

“Oh of course.” He murmurs and wanders off for a moment. You feel hopeful that he just decided to leave you but he’s back before you know it and kneeling by your side. “Here, eat this.” He says and gives you a gentle smile as he holds out ginger for you.

“Why would I eat tha-” He seems to know that you were going to kick up a fuss so as you are mid-sentence, he puts the piece of ginger in your mouth.

“Chew.” He says simply. Your eyes are wide and you want to refuse but you also don’t necessarily want to spit it out like a spoiled child. So, you apprehensively begin to chew the root, trying not to make a face at the peppery flavour. “Good.” He speaks again. “You’ll feel better now.” You think he looks far too pleased as he stands up in front of you and offers you his hand. You begrudgingly take it and he pulls you up with so much ease that you hardly even had to try and stand.

You brush your skirts off, feeling spiteful even if Cregan just helped you.

He just looked far too smug about it. You assure yourself as you make your way back into your carriage.

Before the door is closed, your betrothed speaks up, “Perhaps I could join you, princess. Just to make sure you’re feeling better.” The smile he gives you is almost sneaky, as if there is some sort of hidden innuendo in there. You feel that he enjoys toying with you.

“That would be terribly improper.” You speak only loud enough for him to hear.

“Yes, of course.” He says but the cheeky grin never fades, even as he walks to his horse.

“Strange.” Rose says. “Most lords would enjoy the comforts of a carriage themselves.”

“Perhaps it would be an excuse to sneak into here.” Safia says scandalously.

“Then he shall be perpetually disappointed.” You say as you settle into your seat.

The procession begins to move again and through all the bumps and uneven roads, and as more time passes, the nausea that plagued you never returns.

taglist(comment to be added): General: @valeskafics @urmomsgirlfriend1 @girlwith-thepearlearring @darylandbethfanforever9 @lovellies @juhdoche @papichulo120627 @watercolorskyy

Lord husband: @feyres-fireheart @possiblyafangirl @hb8301 @marihoneywk @youn-jo @velvet-spider @janelongxox @ninastyless @nyctophilic0vitnir @m-a-s-h-k-a @delicious-xx @weepingfashionwritingplaid @happinessinthebeing @betelrus @joliettes @black-swan-blog27 @mxtokko @valeridarkness @karolalolla @satan-s-ass @synindoodles

#cregan stark #cregan #cregan x reader #cregan stark x reader #cregan stark fic #hotd #lord husband #hotd fic

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dreamgrlarchive · 11 months

Text

Nicki Minaj’s The Pinkprint Era (+No Frauds)

#PrettyHeiressDiaries: Eras Edition 🎀

this is my first #PrettyHeiressDiaries post. as i’ve previously stated, this series is going to be me diving into my fav muses and celebs and dissecting what i can take from these lovely ladies. this blog will focus on Nicki Minaj’s branding from 2014-2017 roughly. + a few Queen era looks.

The Pinkprint Era Style Elements:

the pinkprint was alter ego free, and a return to hiphop and r&b for nicki. meaning she was highly stripped of the campy pop rap star we had come to know. it was chic DOWN. think collector barbie vs the harajuku barbie. don’t mistake me though, onika was still very in touch with her cutesy girly side. there was a balance of sexy and chic with a few drops of cute. and this is why the pinkprint era is my absolute favorite, with her looks being a standard i follow for a lot of my looks.

nicki’s cute mirrors 🎀

nicki’s iconic black barbie insta selfies, wearing real hair or natural extensions(often textured ponytails and blowouts), minimal makeup and natural beats 🎀

lots of black and neutrals, statement purses (often times chanel) 🎀

nicki makes a return to the harajuku barbie aesthetic during the pinkprint tour 🎀 +

prissy pink looks i loved from this era 🎀

No Frauds Era Style Elements:

after the pinkprint era was dying down and nicki had become the victim of “the nicki hate train,” her style was still reminiscent of pinkprint. but i would say her branding shifted from the demure somewhat sweetheart to more of an unapologetically bad bitch. this is marked as the “no frauds era” (the time between pinkprint and queen)

glamorous gowns, grandiose blingy bodysuits and adornments, continuing from the pinkprint aesthetic, she’s still wearing natural glams and hairstyles 🎀 +

latex catsuits, lacey looks, pink as seen in the paper magazine cover and the motorsport video 🎀

literally queen couture (tiaras, headpieces, and maximalist furs), the subtle return of the barbie chain, 40 inch “you b*tches can’t even spell prague” naomi/cher hair 🎀

My Fav Queen Era Looks:

ex. tusa videoshoot, harpers bazaar vietnam cover, 2018 vma look, chun li cover art look, 2018 harpers bazaar look 🎀

So What Can We Learn?

Nicki’s style has never been anything short of ultra femme and makes it clear she’s not afraid to take up space and your attention.

As her branding and look shifts through these eras, it’s as if she’s becoming more aggressive with the her fashion to speak to the public.

During The Pinkprint Era, she said “Look, I can put the pink wigs and rainbow paint away and still capture attention while making quality work. Respect me.”

The No Frauds Era saw her evolve into a more flashy Nicki while taking hints of her past looks to say “I AM the greatest, you will NEVER top me, and I can remind you who I am.” Note the Barbie chain while also dressing like modern day royalty.

Nicki Minaj is a highly polarizing figure in pop culture but that should not stop us from acknowledging the cultural resets she’s delivered us in the fashion and beauty industry. When she said “I got all these girls wantin’ to be Barbie Dollz,” it wasn’t just a line, ITS TRUE. So many influential girls on instagram look like either Nicki, Kim K, or Madison Beer, just to name a few. The girls have taken a heavy note from the colored hair, bussdown middle part inches, bulky chains, all while trying to maintain an untouchable level of HYPERFEMININITY. An actual BLACK BARBIE.

-PrettyHeiressDiaries 🎀

credits: nathyyy and blessing mukosha via youtube, @thevirgodoll and @babyphat05’s breakdowns on femmes in the culture on the respective personal blogs.

#prettyheiressdiaries #nicki #my posts #some looks are places in a different time period purely for aesthetic reasons

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guxciestone · 9 months

Text

✧ CELEBRITY BIRTH CHART ANALYSIS ✧

— amy winehouse.

next in the birth chart analysis series is one of my favorite music artists, amy winehouse 🥀👩🏻‍🦱 i’ve always been fascinated with her—her life, style, and music. she’s literally everything and she was truly a unique and beautiful woman. i would like to show my appreciation for her existence and legacy by analyzing her chart ✨🖤

note: i do not know any of the celebrities i do readings on personally, i just like to decipher things. not everything has to be accurate.

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✨👠 Amy Jade Winehouse was born on September 14, 1983 in Enfield, United Kingdom at 10:25pm. Amy Winehouse was a famous musician who gained popularity in 2003 from her debut album “Frank”, leading song being “Stronger Than Me”. Amy was most known for her unique soulful voice, amazing songwriting, and bass guitar skills. Winehouse was vicariously known for her sass, addictions, as well as her unhealthy relationship with her ex-husband Black Fielder-Civil. At some point, she was even considered one of the most disliked divas in the industry. Unfortunately, Amy passed away in 2011 just at 27 years old from an alcohol overdose. Her legacy lives on as she has inspired other popular artists such as Adele, Sam Smith, and Lana Del Rey. She is usually recognized by her iconic beehive hair, fabulous mole, and her eye-catching tattoos.

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she identified as:

࿐ a virgo sun, capricorn moon, & gemini rising.

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ㅤㅤ— her personality.❞

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Venus sextile Ascendant shows that Amy had a unique and striking look that stood out to others on the first impression and in the public eye; significant features such as her mole, beehive hairstyle, and thick eyeliner makes her easily distinguishable to her fans. Winehouse also had vintage tattoos such as a pocket named "Blake" and a tattoo on her arm dedicated to her grandma Cynthia. She had an incomparable beauty; not to mention, tons of models, artists, and celebrities are inspired by her fashion, iconic features, and music style to this today. Since her Ascendant is in Gemini, she definitely had a witty, playful and sarcastic personality; and her Venus in Leo added the sassiness to her character which she was partially known for. Plus, she was a fashion icon and served lots of looks.

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Moon conjunct Neptune can indicate that Amy had a sensitive and compassionate inner state. She was generous and understanding towards others. Additionally, she might have been very intuitive and easily interpret the energies in her surroundings. On the downside, this often makes someone who is selfless and tend to look out for other more often than themselves. Furthermore, she understood her emotions very well and she knew how to use mediums to express them. This aspect does call for someone who can easily be emotionally deceived or deluded. In this case, her conjunction is in the 7th house; she might have struggled with deception and emotional/mental confusion in her personal relationships. It could have been easy for her to fall victim to addictive relationships as was shown in her public relationship with her ex-husband Blake Civil-Fielder.

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Prominent Neptunes are more than likely to fall to substance abuse as well. This is also shown in Sun square Neptune. Amy might have also struggled with confusion in her self-esteem, ego, or identity. With Sun in the 5th house and Neptune in the 7th house, she might have been the type to indulge in romantic relationships to escape from herself. This is the type of placement that tries to find their identity through their connections with others (This is also shown in her Neptune opposition Ascendant) This placement is also common in people who goes into casual relationships often. This makes someone who is creative, imaginative, and has potential to create beautiful art and projects.

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Moon trine Mars could have made Amy someone who was an emotionally passionate lover. She must've loved expressing her adoration and admiration to her loved ones through her actions and efforts; and to her partners through sexual attraction. Additionally, she was a goal-oriented woman who must've saved a lot for herself in the future. I believe Amy talked about starting a clothing line in one of her street interviews, and at some point I think she was working with Fred Perry on a branding range. With Mars in the 4th house, it is possible that Amy had a desire to start a family or she had a specific passion about security or home life.

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With Lilith trine Ascendant, Amy had this image of expressing herself unapologetically. She had striking sex appeal that was unique from other artists, especially with Lilith in the 10th house. With Lilith in Aquarius, perhaps Amy might have been ostracized or bullied for how different she was from others at some point in her life. Due to her trine, she learned how to embrace her differences and use this appeal to create the image she is known for today.

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Moon sextile Saturn could indicate that Amy used to be an emotionally mature individual. She was a good partner and she was perhaps the type to stick with someone through thick and thin because she understood it all. This could show someone who has an old soul, and Amy definitely had an old soul. Amy began writing music just at 14 and made her debut album at 19. With Saturn in the 6th house, she was an orderly individual and she must've took marriage and partnerships seriously. Not to mention, she demonstrated her passionate love for Blake in their 6-year long relationship. Saturn in the 6th house within the aspects shows she was a sucker for routine and order, so she was most likely the one who wears the pants in her relationships and conducted when and how things would happen. She might've believed strongly in marriage as well with her Moon in the 7th house in this aspect.

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Sun conjunct Mercury easily makes someone who is very versatile, intelligent, and talented. Amy was proficient in a lot of things. This also calls to make a witty, introspective, and sarcastic individual who is often proficient at using their words in a eloquent way. Amy was also known for being a good songwriter and having great lyricism in her music. With Virgo in the 5th house, she may be someone who is subjected to perfectionism as she wants her arts and projects to come out exactly the way she envisioned them to be. This also makes her appear graceful in workings on an outer impression as well. Mercury square Neptune also makes someone who often struggles with verbal communication, she may have not been the best with talking to people clearly. But she might know how to communicate through other mediums such as music, poetry, and writing.

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Moon trine Venus made Amy someone who knew how to incorporate their inner world and emotional state into beauty and the arts. It was easy for Amy to express how she felt through her music; as said, it was almost as though it was a therapeutic medium for her. Additionally, she also valued balance, love, and diplomacy more than anything. She also knew how to get along with others and was very well-liked by the people in her inner circle. She was more than likely willing to be there for others and cared for others as well. She must’ve loved children too or knew how to handle them. Most importantly, she couldn't live without her relationships, it was what made her inner world thrive.

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With Mercury trine Chiron, as mentioned previously in childhood, Amy might have struggled with communicating with others. Perhaps she was a shy kid in school or she did not know how to socialize. Amy actually dealt with anxiety pretty often, especially on stage. She would mention that in interviews. That anxiety and her fidgety nature was also shown in her Mercury square ascendant. It is impossible that she could have struggled with feeling heard specifically since her Chiron is in the 12th house. Her way of truly feeling heard and making others feel heard was her talent in music, writing, and lyricism. A lot of people could easily sympathize and relate to Amy's music, especially in regards to relationships and self-love. Mercury-Chiron aspects in general also point towards delinquency or troubles in school. Amy actually was expelled from Sylvia Young Theatre school when she was fourteen for wearing a nose ring.

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Moon sextile Pluto signifies that Amy had an intense inner world. She experienced dark and huge emotions. Because of this, she was very understanding and comfortable with many taboo topics. She was very mature due to this. Amy dealt with a lot with her health, especially her mental health as shown in her Pluto in the 6th house in this aspect. Apparently, she suffered from bipolar disorder the more her dependencies worsened over the years. She also dealt with depression at a young age along with anxiety. She also dealt with bulimia long from her teens. Hence, she experienced worst so she understood it all. All of her hardships in this area, this helped her with finding motivation and reasoning too transform and become a better person.

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ㅤㅤ— her relationships. ❞

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Amy has one of the most rarest placements. Only 8% of the population has a retrograded venus. First off, venus in retrograde immediately calls for someone who has a serious karmic lesson surrounding self-love, materialism, and values in this life. With Amy having Venus in Leo in the 4th house retrograded, this might have called for her to find confidence and assurance in herself as an individual in order to feel secure in her individuality and life. However, since she might have struggled with expressing these qualities. She might have experienced the opposite. She had to deal with being in the eyes of the public and her relationships being put under a spotlight when it most likely wasn't wanted. Amy had to deal with scrutiny and her addictive marriage being put under a microscope for an audience to get her life lesson through. Amy might have not liked fame as much and she was more of a humble person.

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Venus trine neptune indicates that Amy had a dreamy, beautiful, and magical perception of love and beauty. She might have viewed it all as something that she incorporate into her life to build up security and establish relationships with others. She might have loved love and was willing to do anything it takes to experience it. She might have been used to falling with creative, selfless, and caring partners. Perhaps she fell in love with musicians and artists. This also calls for someone who is willing to try different styles or doesn't have a particular style at all.

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Venus sextile Pluto could show that Amy also had a very interesting and intense love life. In a negative sense, she might have dealt with toxic relationships. In a positive sense, every person she has dealt with has given her some type of lesson that could help transform herself. In fact, she might have became an entirely different person after every connection. With Venus in the 4th, the initiative and reasoning for every transformation in her relationship was to build security in herself and the life she has.

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Venus square Chiron calls for someone who often has a wound surrounding love, romance, beauty, and self-worth. Amy might have attracted tons of partners who needed to be saved or who would save her. She might have had a savior-martyr personality in regards to her connections. With her Chiron in the 12th specifically, the issue could have been she was never heard and could have depended on her relationships to help her feel so. This could signify low self-esteem or a feeling of insignificance.

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North Node in the 1st house conjunct her Ascendant shows that Amy's ultimate direction in life was to find herself and discover her true outlook on her life and what she wanted to do. This also shows that she was destined for popularity and recognition of some sort even if she wasn't famous.

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ㅤㅤㅤ— legacy/image.❞

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Mean Lilith in Aquarius in the 10th house indicates that Amy had a very provocative, taboo, and intense reputation during her prime. First, she has a different image than typical soul singers. Her beauty was rather unconventional and alluring. She also had a very unique voice. Others thought her voice was rather a bit soulful for a British singer. She also dealt with lots of hate, scrutiny, and criticism due to her public breakdowns and reactions. She was considered one of the most disliked divas in the industry at some point due to what she was going through. 10th house also represents the father. This aspect could also indicate being exploited by an authoritative or masculine figure in one's life whether that be through career or other things.

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Mars opposite Midheaven shows that Amy's passions sourced from a different area of her life rather than her career. Amy's drive, desires, and goals come from her sense of security and comfort (with Mars in the 4th) In specific terms, her family and home life could be what motivates her the most to do what she does. She might have been someone who did not care too much about her career as a music artist, she was rather someone who was comfortable staying home and pertaining to her hobby without the need of showcasing it instead, especially since her Mars is in Leo. In fact, Amy said that she did not want to be famous. She "hated it".

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Chiron trine Midheaven shows that Amy had an image and reputation of knowing how to incorporate her wounds and traumas beautifully into her music due to the issue of not feeling like she was heard when she was younger, especially with Chiron in Gemini in the 12th. She was able to transmit her words to an audience that understood her and how she felt. She made people understand an entirely different perspective on love, addiction, and many more unique topics. This aspect also might be the reason as to why she has a reputation of being "a victim" to her addictions and relationships, similar to Marilyn Monroe who has Chiron conjunct Midheaven in her chart.

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Midheaven at the 11° shows that Amy had a humble and introspective mindset when it came to her image. On the other hand, her fame and legacy caused a charitable act to come from it all. In 2011, Jane Winehouse created the 'Amy Winehouse Foundation' which is a company that celebrates and honors the legacy of Amy and helps women who struggle with addictions.

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Amy has her own asteroid called Asteroid Amy (3375)—she has the asteroid conjunct her Mars and sextile her Ascendant.

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#astrology #natal chart #zodiac #guxciestone #astro observations #astro community #astrology observations #amy winehouse #celebrity readings

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brucebocchi · 4 months

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Ranking every new anime I watched in 2023, Pt. 2: #20-11

hey, i just started a ko-fi for my writing and possible other creative outlets. this post will also be available there, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i'm currently between jobs. the tumblr version of part 1 can be found here.

Let's get right into it.

20. Helck

I watched Helck’s first season for its entire half-year run, and I'm honestly still not sure how I feel about it. I’d heard amazing things from people who’d read the manga, and it had a hot start, but the pacing slowed to such a crawl after a while that it kind of felt like they stretched out the story just so they could make another season.

Helck, an enormous and impossibly jolly human warrior, enters a tournament to decide the successor to the throne of the recently-slain Demon King. Demons and humans had been at war for some time, so Vermilio, an adorably fiery elite lord of the castle, is naturally wary of him. Helck is naturally powerful, talented, and affable, so he easily breezes his way through the tournament in hilarious fashion, despite Vermilio’s best efforts at sabotage. Before the finals can take place, though, an immortal army sent by the human forces arrive to attack the demon realm, and Helck and Vermilio are teleported to the far edge of the realm.

The season largely covers Helck and Vermilio’s trek back to the demon kingdom, as well as the demons’ struggles against the mysterious warriors as they attempt to figure out just what the hell the humans are plotting. Vermilio remains leery of Helck, regardless of all he’s done for her, but it becomes further evident that Helck is harboring a very dark past, and eventually we get a lengthy arc where he sits down and explains it to Vermilio in flashback. There is, as you’d expect, plenty of tragedy there, and you’d like to see it resolved, but things just seem to keep getting worse.

There are powerful messages in there about toxic positivity and fighting the urge to shoulder one’s burdens alone, but they don’t become fully apparent until late in the season. Everything until then, at least after the teleportation, is… fine. I had higher hopes for this one, but it just feels like it’s missing something, and I can’t put my finger on what. It looks fine, the voice acting is good (the GOAT Katsuyuki Konishi is typically very good as Helck), the action is decent, it’s all… fine. The pacing just feels glacial at times, to the point where if I hadn’t been watching it weekly I might have bounced off of it.

Of course, the season ended with what appears to be the endgame on the horizon, so for all I know there’s still a lot more to come, but the story beats feel so familiar that I get the feeling it could be resolved with, like, a movie. I hope I’m wrong, because there are clearly some major emotional payoffs yet to come, and I’m still curious to see how it gets there. I may have to pick up the manga to find out if it’ll be worth any more of my time.

19. Urusei Yatsura (2022), second cour

Fresh off of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s possible series finale, David Production’s modern take on Rumiko Takahashi’s legendary comedy manga hummed along nicely into 2023. The cast continues to expand as the new version introduces characters like Ten, Ryunosuke, and Tobimaro to further raise the level of shenanigans inherent to Urusei Yatsura.

Lum Invader has been a sex symbol for pretty much as long as anime has had sex symbols, but the reboot’s second cour focuses a bit more on the side of her personality that makes her so iconic, and which I consider essential to several of my favorite female anime characters: Lum’s kind of a psychotic asshole. Her schemes to wring more attention and affection out of Ataru border on sociopathic at times, and she’s honestly so real for that. Her mortal frenemy, Ran, was introduced close to the end of the first cour, and there is still no shortage of sabotage attempts in the second, but we quickly come to learn that Ran’s undying vendetta is mostly because Lum has been a selfish, lying piece of shit since they were kids. God bless her.

Ataru continues to not be much better, serial philanderer that he is, as he continues to be surrounded by other hot crazy ladies who aren’t his not-fiancee. Mendo’s younger sister, Ryoko, is a real highlight in the 2023 run as a result of her escalating penchant for Looney Tunes-esque slapstick violence. The settings of Ataru’s and Lum’s respective worlds take more focus as well, between Ataru’s high school hijinks and Ten’s galactic mail-order mishaps, and the two often collide in hilarious fashion.

I still adore the look of this one. Character models have been cleaned up and simplified to a sort of retro-modern look while still being instantly recognizable to anyone already familiar with them. Everything is awash in an eye-popping Day-Glo color palette. Backgrounds and pop-in gags are often adorned with Ben Day dots to maintain the retro comic look. This doesn’t quite look like the manga, nor does it resemble the original 80s anime, but this is unmistakably a Rumiko Takahashi product. It almost looks like it could have come out at any point in time.

I’m only holding this back in the rankings because it’s the weaker half of a season that straddled the end of 2022 and the start of 2023, but the season as a whole is excellent. It is an essential watch for fans of comedy anime, especially considering so many tried-and-true anime gags effectively originated with Urusei Yatsura (it’s worth mentioning that Lum is largely considered the first-ever tsundere in anime and manga). Season 2 is imminent and I cannot fucking wait. Maybe I’ll even read the manga.

18. Tomo-chan is a Girl!

This is basically Monthly Girls’ No-jock-i-kun. Very simple premise: Tomboyish high schooler gets the hots for her childhood friend who is dense as fuck and forgets most of the time that she’s even a girl. Hilarity ensues and romance progresses glacially.

The voice performances are what really carry this one. Rie Takahashi is golden as the titular Tomo Aizawa, and this was the first entry in an MVP-caliber resume for her in 2023 that was so stacked that I still haven’t gotten to her best role yet. Rina Hidaka nails the conniving, misanthropic nature of Misuzu Gundo in a far cry from her turn as Emul the bunny in Shangri-La Frontier later in the year. The American-born idol Sally Amaki is a revelation as the airheaded gaijin Carol Olston, whom she also voices in the English dub. Even Carol’s mom speaks broken Japanese with a noticeable American accent, which is one of my favorite gags in the whole show.

Outside of the voice acting, nothing is particularly special about this show. Which is fine! There's nothing wrong with a solid 7/10 romcom; junk food is still food. It’s cute, it’s funny, it hits all the right beats, but nothing particularly stands out. Misuzu and eventually Carol give Tomo advice to try to woo her bestie Jun, while Misuzu is usually also playing Jun against that same advice so that it usually works and backfires at the same time. It’s all a game, and she plays both sides so she can always come out on top.

If I have a complaint about this show, it’s that it just… ends. I went back and read the manga, and unfortunately that issue is not the anime’s fault. If anything, it did a phenomenal job of fitting eight volumes of a 4-koma into a single season, and that’s always how it was supposed to go. I watched and read a ton of slice-of-life romance anime and manga this year, as it turns out, and the ones that really hit for me are usually the ones that take their time with the central relationship once it actually starts, rather than treat that big event as the climax, or worse, the finale of the story. Stuff like Kaguya-sama, Horimiya, Sweat and Soap, and even Wotakoi (though I have my own problems with that one) treat their central relationships as a step, not the goal. At the same time, for plenty of others, the fun is in the chase, and they just run out of time, and Tomo-chan is the latter. We got what we wanted, and we had fun getting there. Sometimes that’s all you need.

Also good god, Tomo’s mom. The second those genes kicked in for Tomo, Jun was doomed.

17. The Eminence in Shadow, second cour and season 2

The Eminence in Shadow is the smartest piece of stupid media I've seen in a minute. It so perfectly skewers dime-a-dozen chuunibyo isekai trash while still cannonballing into a McDuckian swimming pool of the stuff. It nearly overwhelms you with lore; the series abounds with rich backstories, centuries-old power struggles, palace intrigue, shadowy conspiracies, the artificially accelerated march of progress, long-simmering revenge plots, looming economic catastrophe, and love dodecahedrons. And the most compelling thing about all of it is that none of it fucking matters.

Cid Kagenou spent his teenage years in modern Japan trying to become the coolest badass dark antihero who ever lived, but he quickly reaches his limits in our boring normal world so he rides the isekai truck into a world with actual, like, magic and shit. He spends his new childhood leveling up and rescuing elf girls, all the while regaling them with his “wisdom” in the form of a bunch of horseshit he made up based on all the light novels he used to read. Turns out that he’s entirely too genre savvy; this new world is apparently so contrived that every single thing he told them ended up entirely true.

So now Cid’s a teenager by day and shadowy vigilante by night (under the apt moniker “Shadow”), with an underground legion of hot deadly babes at his disinterested beck and call. All he genuinely cares about is looking and acting like the coolest motherfucker a socially inept 12 year old boy can think of, and in his downtime actively trying to be a forgettable mob character. And I do mean that that is all he cares about; when I say none of the wheels within wheels happening in the background actually matter, I mean that Cid is completely and totally unaware of any of it.

Anything he does or says to drive the plot is either incidental or accidental. He spouts off some nonsense he heard in a video game once, and his cadre of elf baddies and beastgirls takes it as gospel en route to exposing a millennium-old conspiracy. He parrots a really cool line he heard ten minutes ago and a beautiful woman he just saved takes it as inspiration to turn her life around. It’s kind of like in Mashle, funnily enough; where Mash will go “I don’t know what’s going on, but you were being mean to my friend so I’m gonna beat the shit out of you,” Cid is more like “No clue what this is about, but that’s a really badass looking villain, so I’m gonna say some epic shit and do a big explosion.” And then he fucks off to go eat a burger or something, not knowing or caring that he just unraveled a prophesied master plot to destroy the global power balance.

The episodes that aired in 2023 largely revolve around the lovely Princess Rose, smitten with both Cid and Shadow (not knowing they’re the same guy), pledging fealty to Shadow Garden after failing to foil a coup d’etat. At the same time as her training, Cid is busy with a vampire something-or-other and then tries to make some coin for himself by teaming up with an assassin hellbent on revenge to create a credit crisis. The conspiracy later drags Rose back into the palace, where Cid sees a new opportunity. Every single one of these things has very specific reasons for happening, and everyone involved has a rich backstory and clear motivations to carry out their parts of the ever-evolving plots.

But that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to watch a bunch of hot ladies and a guy in a black cloak with one glowing red eye do some sick action stunts to bad guys with silly names, and this show delivers that in spades. This feels like a throwback in the best and worst ways. The Eminence in Shadow is stupid, and it is brilliant.

16. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, season 2

Mushoku Tensei is a tough anime to talk about. On one hand, it is one of the most gorgeous anime series ever put on television: Almost consistently movie-quality sakuga, lush background art, and a breathtaking score come together to form an immersive world unlike many I’ve seen in any medium. On the other, it forces some very unpleasant conversations about reincarnation in anime, particularly ones like this where a grown man is reincarnated as a child while retaining his mental age and is surrounded by potential love interests closer in age to his new body. What doesn’t help is that in his previous life in our world, the man who would reincarnate as Rudeus Greyrat was a socially isolated hentai addict, and much of his journey centers around him unlearning those proclivities in unfortunate and often damaging ways. If you can handle that, Mushoku Tensei is a rewarding watch, but if that’s beyond the pale to you, I don't blame you in the slightest.

However, even if you’ve been able to stomach all of the questionable shit in the first season, I'm sorry to say that the second season’s first cour doesn’t do much for the “bro I promise he gets better bro” crowd. The first cour covers the Quagmire and Academy arcs, which follow Rudeus’ struggle with being effectively abandoned by the only person to show him any physical affection in either life. The knock-on effect sees him retreating into an antisocial shell and developing, and I am deadly serious here, a seemingly incurable case of erectile dysfunction.

The first few episodes surround Rudeus growing into a young man, making a name for himself as a wandering adventurer in hopes that talk of his name will spread to his missing family and friends. At the urging of the god with a direct line to him (still unexplained), he enrolls in a magic university to investigate the calamity that flung his loved ones to the corners of the realm. There he finds an old friend in the figure-obsessed young prince who saved his life in the previous season, a girl from his previous world who seems to have also been transported to this one, and most crucially, his old childhood friend Sylphiette, hiding in plain sight with new hair and a sick pair of shades as a retainer to a scheming princess enrolled in the school.

Mushoku Tensei's initial season was at its best in its quieter moments, and those abound in season 2’s first cour. It's really lovely seeing him connect once again with Sylphie purely for who she is, even though for all Rudy knows he’s talking to a twinky dude named Fitz who makes him feel weird things. We get our amazing action animation early on, and things settle down quite a bit from there as Rudeus navigates all of these interpersonal relationships, old and (seemingly) new.

And while, yes, this version of Rudeus is a far cry from the drooling, grinning pervert he was in his first ten years of reincarnation, his improvement as a human being is not a straight line. He unfortunately takes more steps backwards than forward. The things he says in a drunken rage about his party member Sara (who inadvertently revealed his ED) are awful and undeserved, he literally ties up and gropes a pair of beast girls from his class (he has apparent reasons for both of those things, but come on), and he “frees” a young dwarven slave to take on as an apprentice. That last one seems admirable on its face, but uh. He went with the flow in a god damned slave market and still paid a slaver.

I'm not excusing those things, nor absolving Rudeus as a character; I'm simply saying they happen this season. Mushoku Tensei, for better or for worse, depicts gnarly subject matter as it is while neither glorifying it nor moralizing about it. It trusts you to make your own judgments, and if your verdict is “I can’t watch this show,” that is perfectly valid. If you can stomach watching through its worst moments and compartmentalize the uncomfortable aspects of it, Mushoku Tensei remains one of the best-looking and -sounding pieces of animation out there, and the part of its second season that aired in 2023 has an exceptional emotional payoff. Otherwise, I'll be talking about Frieren much later.

15. Spy x Family, season 2

The most succinct praise I can give season 2 is also the most backhanded: Well, it’s more Spy x Family.

I want to be clear that there is no shade inherent to that comment; the first season of Spy x Family was excellent! It was a stylish, beautifully animated, appropriately hilarious adaptation of a fantastic manga that did it justice in almost every regard; the second season didn’t need to move heaven and earth to try to one-up it. It wasn’t broken, so Wit and CloverWorks didn’t fix it. It’s still the blend of domestic slice-of-life hijinks, tense cold-war intrigue, and heart-pounding action it’s always been. Even the production music is largely the same, and that’s not a complaint, because SxF’s production music fuckin' slaps.

A lot of anime-onlys rightfully complained that Yor’s plot relevance seemed to fall off a cliff in the back half of season 1, so they have been eating GOOD this time out, as season 2’s (ostensible) first cour puts her directly in the spotlight. The Yor Cour, if you will. The season opened on a hilariously spot-on adaptation of my favorite Yor-centric chapter of the manga (the “bullet in the ass” one) and quickly moved on to a nearly perfect interpretation of the cruise arc that sees her protecting a government asset from a legion of assassins.

If you wanted to see more of Yor in her second life as the contract killer, Thorn Princess, this season was a meal and a half for you. Having her beset on all sides by an eccentric rogues’ gallery, with Anya fully aware and trying her damnedest to keep Loid from finding out what’s actually going on, is Spy x Family at its best. The tension constantly ramps up as the ship approaches its target, and Anya’s attempts at distracting Loid usually go sideways because, well, she’s Anya. Blood splatters, laughs are had, and Loid continues to struggle with both fatherhood and acting like his growing affection for his ragtag “fake” family is just “for the mission.”

Outside of the cruise, season 2 maintains the series’ usual episodic pace, which can be a little jarring before and after the cruise arc, but that’s SxF for you. Shit can pop off at unexpected moments, and having read ahead in the manga, I’m excited to see the next time that happens. For now, though, things can feel kinda static from time to time, but the Forger family and the extended cast are always pleasant to just hang out with for a while.

And now to wait for the movie to come out in the west.

14. Undead Unluck

Up until this past Winter season, I primed myself on a lot of the more-hyped anime by reading the manga ahead of time. I knew that Undead Unluck is one of the bigger Shonen Jump manga out there, but this debut kind of crept up on me. I went in blind, got drawn in by the premise, and then got quickly overwhelmed with a wild amount of lore.

Fuuko, a young woman seemingly afflicted with a curse, is saddled with a brash, enormous man who cannot die after he foils her suicide attempt and is then himself grievously injured. Don’t worry, he got better. It turns out that he’s roughly 200 years old and has a completely cracked healing factor, while she brings terrible misfortune to anyone who touches her skin. They are both Negators, people with the ability to reverse or ignore the laws of nature: Fuuko’s ability is Unluck, causing tragedy for those close to her, while the man is Undead, exactly what it says on the tin. The man, who cannot remember his own name, believes their meeting to be kismet: If she can bring death to her loved ones, he vows to woo her so she can deliver the death he’s sought for so long. I promise this is a comedy.

Fuuko and Andy (whom she named as shorthand for the Japanese pronunciation of “undead”) foil a series of assassination attempts by other Negators, and take their spots as part of the Union eliminating threats to the universe. They team with an eclectic group, whom we’re still getting to know as of the end of the first cour, as they trot the globe to complete quests given to them by a mysterious (and seemingly nefarious) talking book lest the universe incur penalties for their failure.

The power system among Negators is one of the most inventive I've seen, with each one able to cancel out a specific element of the natural order of the world, and it’s a blast learning how each new one works. Andy in particular is wild; because he can regenerate himself so quickly, his weapon of specialty is his own body, never hesitating to use his own fingertips as bullets and his own gushing blood as a propulsion mechanism. He also has no compunction towards taking on the worst of Fuuko’s Unluck ability, often sacrificing himself to get hit by lightning or falling debris to deal damage to an enemy. Every new Negator power introduced adds a new wrinkle to the way this world works and the different shapes its action can take. Others can freeze matter into suspended animation, force people to act opposite their own intentions, or even subvert someone’s entire belief system. I cannot wait to see what else is in store.

The first cour’s pacing is a little off, and Andy's behavior towards Fuuko in the first couple episodes is nothing short of gross (I promise that eases up), but you can see the show finding its footing as it goes on. Shonen Jump series don’t last for nearly 200 chapters and counting by accident, and I'm excited to see where this goes.

13. NieR: Automata Ver. 1.1a

Those of us who played Yoko Taro’s 2017 masterpiece approached the announcement of an anime adaptation with some trepidation: So much of what made Nier Automata so outstanding and so beloved is that much of the delivery of its narrative is inherent to the fact that it’s a video game. How can a video game known for pushing against the fourth wall of the unique elements of its very medium be faithfully adapted as an anime?

The choice of studio was also concerning: Though A-1 has produced a ridiculous number of excellent series (and some aggressively mid ones that were nonetheless very successful), its track record with video game adaptations has been far less than stellar. The latter three films in the Persona 3 adaptations were solid if uneven, and the Valkyria Chronicles anime seems to have been well-received, but the same can’t be said of A-1’s takes on Ace Attorney, Persona 4 Golden, or Persona 5. Regardless, Yoko himself was heavily involved in the anime’s production, so if they could keep on budget and schedule, Nier Automata would have a fighting chance.

And while there indeed ended up being massive and likely unpredictable production delays, I'd say they’ve done almost as good of a job as they could have so far. While the first cour mainly covers Automata’s A and B routes, it does much more than just play that part of the story straight; it also takes the time to incorporate other elements of the Nier canon. A surprising amount of time is dedicated to the canon introduced in the “YoRHa” stage play (and by extension the Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga); Lily and the android resistance are woven directly into the narrative far beyond the vague overtures the game makes in their direction. Ver 1.1a also ties the history of the original Nier into the story at unexpected and intriguing (and in my case, tear inducing) moments.

Unfortunately, it’s still too soon to assess this series in its entirety. While too many people who played Nier Automata stopped after route A or B, there is still much more of this story to come. There was some very sloppy CGI integration in the first episode when it aired, but far from enough to put me off the series. For now, it’s a treat for Nier fans, but I’m not sure whether I can recommend it yet to people who are unfamiliar with the source material.

Until the anime is completed, go play Nier Automata. It’s one of my favorite games of all time.

12. Kaguya-sama: Love is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-

This was a late 2022 theatrical release, but it didn’t see western release until this year and was split into a four-episode mini-season for streaming, so I'm counting it for this year. you can deal with it.

I got completely obsessed with Kaguya-sama early this year, and in record time. I binged the anime and the manga in the span of a couple weeks and irreversibly fell in love. I say with no reservation that it is the best romantic comedy, in any medium, of the 21st century. It nails both the romance and the comedy in equal measure; the characters are perfectly realized right down to the supporting cast, the dynamics between them are carefully considered and consistent with their personalities regardless of circumstance, and every emotional and comedic beat hits exactly as it’s meant to. There is a constant momentum moving the greater plot along, even in the smaller moments, and seismic shifts take over before you’ve even noticed they’re happening.

It’s rare for romcom manga adaptations to stay on the air long enough to actually reach the romantic payoff, and Kaguya-sama fucking nailed it in season 3. Well, we’re pretty sure it did; the central conceit of the psycho-romantic warfare between Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane is that they’re both chronic overthinkers and won’t accept any romantic undertones or overtures in any form but an explicit confession. So while the finish to season 3 is everything we wanted as an audience, these two dorks still sense a margin for error. Regardless, that would have been a perfectly acceptable place to end the anime.

HOWEVER, the “Ice Queen Kaguya” arc that follows in the manga is iconic, and A-1 was absolutely right to adapt it. Although Shirogane is ready to move forward with the relationship that (he’s pretty sure) they’ve both wanted for a long time, Kaguya has a crisis of personality and inadvertently reverts to the dead-eyed, emotionally walled-off version of herself he’d initially met, well before either of them had realized they’d fallen in love with one another. The interstitial omake preceding this arc in the manga has Aka Akasaka warning the reader that in order to counteract the massive emotional payoff that just happened, the ensuing chapters would get very, very silly.

And of course, hijinks do indeed ensue; this is Kaguya-sama, after all. But before you realize it, the story is neck deep in Jungian psychology as self-doubt begins to plague Kaguya and Miyuki and they struggle with the faces they think they need to put on for the other and whether their “real” selves even deserve to be loved by the person they idolize. It gets heavy! I cried every time I watched it! And that first time was in a damn movie theater!

I’m much more comfortable appraising First Kiss as a mini-season than as a movie, because frankly, it doesn’t work as a movie. The animation, while maintaining the series’ standard of excellence, isn’t a single degree better than what aired on television, which can be disappointing upon a visit to the theater. The pacing is also off for a feature film; the common knock upon theatrical release was that it felt like four episodes stitched together (it even has the omake-style interludes between scenes, like the show). The arc also focuses very heavily on Kaguya and Miyuki specifically, so the ensemble cast I mentioned earlier does have to take a backseat. Splitting this up for streaming and televised release was the right move here.

Season 3 would have been a very good ending for this series if it never got picked up for the movie. If it doesn’t get picked up for a proper fourth season, this is the perfect place for it to end. The manga has now been adapted up to just past the halfway point, and the next best stopping point would have to wait until a possible, like, fifth season. And that arc in question, while it does have some iconic moments, is very uneven. If this is all we’re getting, we’ve gotten plenty already, and I am satisfied.

If you've watched the first three seasons of Kaguya-sama, you owe it to yourself to watch The First Kiss That Never Ends. It is nearly everything you could ask for. Also, read the manga if you haven’t already. It’s genuinely one of my favorite things I've ever read.

11. The Apothecary Diaries

This one is basically House MD set in the Ming Dynasty, and it fucks.

Maomao, an apothecary raised in a pleasure district near the palace of a fictional East Asian empire, is shanghaied (pun intended) into menial work in said palace. She hears tell of a supposed curse plaguing the emperor’s newborn children and the concubines that birthed them, quickly deduces that it may be poisoning, and discreetly leaves a message for the ailing new mothers. She’s found out by an impossibly beautiful young administrator named Jinshi, who quickly deduces that she’s one of the few literate peons in the rear palace, and he puts her to work in the pavilion of the concubine that heeded her advice.

With her knowledge of, resistance to, and slightly masochistic infatuation with various poisons, Maomao slots right in as an attendant and poison tester to one of the emperor’s embattled concubines. Often at Jinshi’s urging (even though she immediately gets the ick at his habitual flirting), Maomao finds herself investigating deaths, mysterious ailments, and strange behaviors, on top of the foreign world of palace politics. Though she’s a deeply jaded person who only seems to care for her special interests, Maomao is incredibly perceptive and often able to suss out the finer details others miss.

Surprisingly, this one is a really breezy watch, and much funnier than you might expect. For all its lush environs, slowly-mounting intrigue, and often stunning cinematography, The Apothecary Diaries isn’t afraid to get a little silly with it. The dialogue is snappy, quick gags abound in a familiar single-panel chibi style you wouldn’t expect in a setting like this, and Komi-esque cat ears spontaneously pop up from Maomao's head whenever her interest is piqued. Interactions between Maomao and Jinshi are always a hoot, and you can pretty quickly figure out where it’s going, although Maomao can’t because she’s still pretty sure Jinshi is a eunuch.

As she does in virtually every role in her dozen-plus years as a seiyuu, Aoi Yuuki crushes it in the starring role. She really nails the disaffected cynicism that animates most of Maomao’s internal monologue and sarcastic dialogue, as well as her hair-trigger glee when presented with her personal interests in food and drink, medicinal herbs, and of course, poison. Yuuki is an indispensable element in ensemble casts like Persona 5, Ace Attorney, Wotakoi, and the aforementioned KamiKatsu (as well as others I don’t plan on watching like My Hero Academia, Rent-a-Girlfriend, and The Seven Deadly Sins), so it’s especially nice to hear her in a spotlight role outside of the odd Madoka Magica, spider isekai, or Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

There are a handful of anime on this list that will be continuing or returning in January, and second only to my #1 anime this year, this is the one I’m most excited to see more of. At time of writing, the show appears to be shifting in a new direction, and I’m hoping to see it take less of an episodic pace.

Part 3 is on the way! I'm going to split my top ten into two more posts, because I ended up writing... a lot more than I'd expected.

#anime reviews

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lonelystarlet · 4 months

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Coquette Characters: Quinn Morgendorffer

daria is one of my favorite tv shows of all time and i see parts of myself in quinn. our personalities and attitudes are quite similar.

quinn has been one of my coquette icons for years because of her style and the way she carries herself. i think the most important aspect of her character is that she is actually really smart and has depth underneath her ditzy, shallow persona. she uses this persona to hide her insecurities and low self-esteem. i think this is something a lot of people can relate to.

also, she is vice president of the fashion club so i think it would be cool to take inspiration from her style for some cute coquette looks!

does she only have two main outfits throughout the entire series? well yes! but i think i can expand on those and think of what else she may have worn.

Outfit Inspiration

quinn is very girly and loves bright and pastel colors. there are some instances where she incorporates brown and black colors into her outfits. for her two main outfits, she wears a pink ringer tee with a yellow smiley face on it or a pink long sleeved top with a yellow butterfly. both are paired with blue jeans and what seems to be brown boots. there are times we see her in skirts and dresses too. here are some outfits that i think would be in her wardrobe:

that’s it for now. i will make more posts about quinn morgendorffer outfit inspiration, a playlist with songs she would like and her overall aesthetic soon!

i hope you enjoyed this and thank you for reading ♡

#coquette #coquette outfit #coquette style #coquette community #bubblegum coquette #og coquette #classic coquette #coquettecore #quinn morgendorffer #daria mtv #coquette clothes #coquette fashion #coquette aesthetic

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armoricaroyalty · 4 months

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5 Amazing CC Makers

This is a non-exhaustive list of some of my current favorite CC makers! It was hard to winnow it down to just five people, but here are a few standouts whose stuff I've been loving, lately.

@surely-sims: quirky, unique mid-century BB objects

If you're one of the readers of Anne's incredible Plott Legacy, then you're probably a lover of vintage/retro vibes and silly puns. Fortunately, she's brought that exact same energy to all of her incredible build/buy objects. The names and descriptions of all her objects channel the vibes of earlier sims game and add a certain je ne sais quoi to builds.

@warwickroyals: unique, fashion-forward dresses and gowns

Ayanna has an absolutely incredible eye for style. There is so much amazing royal CC out there, but with limited reference pools, it can get a little stale. Ayanna has never had that problem. Her downloads page has an amazing, curated vibe -- she's not just copying random dresses and gowns, she's choosing unique, fashionable pieces from real-world style icons. I really love her CC because it helps me give my sims unique personal style.

@chaotic-simss: family poses with personality

My story has been focused entirely on the lives and struggles of a bunch of unlikable adults, but it won't be long until those unlikable adults start having unlikable children. And I've already started bookmarking some of her amazing family poses to use once those babies arrive. I really love that her poses capture little moments in the life of a growing family and give each member personality, instead of just rigid, formal poses with uniform smiles.

@herecirmsims: high-quality poses for every occasion

My story involves a whole lot of people standing around and talking, and I'm so fortunate to exist in a community with so many incredible posemakers who make those conversations a little less tedious. She makes amazing, unique fantasy-themed poses, but even her simple emotion poses are amazing. Her poses are all lovingly made, with great attention to detail -- no stiff hands or blank expressions here, every single pose has incredible body language and expressive faces. Rapidly become one of my go-to posemakers for storytelling.

@rebouks: everyday poses to liven up your story

Okay, Becca is (deservedly) simblr-famous for her amazing storytelling, but I was first introduced to her work via CC finds blogs while I was searching for story poses. I particularly love her recent infant insanity series, which is a whole bunch of lively, expressive baby and toddler poses to bring life to the smallest sims.

#simblr gratitude day

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moni-sims · 3 months

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Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades.

I had the idea to play @sims-himbo's Barbie Legacy Challenge (after watching @vixellacc's YT series) but as a mini-Decades challenge. 50's era Barbie is iconic. I'm so happy with how she turned out!

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anakin-vaders · 1 year

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The role of Fashion in The Hunger Games saga a brief analysis.

Ok now with the hunger games renaissance we need to discuss the role Cinna plays in the whole series, and the role of fashion in the hunger games. I read this series when I was 11-12 years old, I grew to become a very, very queer fashion designer (I work for drag queens), I didn't think I truly understood how much THG series impacted me until very recently when I saw/read the whole series again. Like yes, Suzanne Collins makes the Capitol this shallow society, putting a real effort in making their citizens be superficial only caring about their looks, looking super extravangant and absolutely disconnected from the suffering of the districts. While their looks are vibrant, large, shimmery, and totally over the top (showcasing their opulence) the way they dress on the districts (specially 12 and 13) is minimalist, modest, the colors are washed, old. Their each other's antithesis. And of course Katniss expects only that from the people of the Capitol (classic Us vs. Them), and when Cinna, whom I think is very queer coded, comes in, and treats her like a human being, she starts to let her walls down, to let herself be guided trough this horrible thing she's got to endure. In the books when Cinna and his team are pampering her, she doesn't see herself as a symbol, she never really wanted to be one, she feels really dehumanized. Her only motivation upon this point is surviving and get back to Prim on her home, she still thinks everything on the Capitol in stupid and unnecessary. It's only when Cinna puts them in this very intricate and thought out looks inspired by their district industry (coal mining) that I think Katniss starts to understand the power of fashion, the power of symbols.

And later in her interview with Caesar we have the infamous red dress that catches fire and that lefts the audience gagged (if any of y'all have been to a drag show you know how amazing a good reveal is). This moment is so important because now fashion doesn't become something merely functional, or oppressive. Fashion is empowering, this moment is Katniss getting confidence in herself, asserting herself over her circumstances thanks to Cinna, thanks to fashion. It's also very brilliant because this is also catered to the Capitol, to the viewers and consumers of the games. One of the first things Haymitch tells Katniss is to make herself desirable, and this totally makes sense, the Capitol now roots for her, relate to her, so that later she can get sponsors and SURVIVE.

On Catching Fire we have another iconic fashion moment, fire is a very present theme for Katniss. She is of course the spark for the rebellion, and when she understood it, the message not only becomes clearer, it becomes a protest against the games, against the Capitol. The way she and Peeta are almost regal their second time on the games, shows how much she's understood the power of fashion, the power of the message it can send. They look like a piece of coal refusing to cool, refusing to stop burning. And this was all Cinna's mind.

And my absolute favorite. The wedding dress, such and iconic moment and dare I say, a pivotal moment for the rebellion. In the books Katniss and Peeta are doomed to keep their fake relationship for PR reasons, so they get engaged, and make their whole wedding (bear in mind they're both 17 ish here) a reality show-esque moment for the Capitol. Even after they've won, they still have to entertain them, a winner can never rest. The districts are never winners. So when Snow decides to make his personal quest that of making Katniss miserable, thus making his All Star version of the games, knowing district 12 only has 1 female winner...oh if that isn't some evil shit. On top of that, he is the one who request she wears her wedding dress to the interview, the dress that symbolizes all she never wanted (get married, have kids, loose her agency, being controlled by the Capitol). Snow does this hopping Katniss feels ALL THAT, and Cinna being the genius designer he fucking is, turns a 180 on it and gets the wedding dress as a façade, he uses the dress as a symbol of the tragic lovers that never got to wed, the wedding the Capitol never got to see because of the games. And it works. It fucking works.

And then, the dress burns up revealing a beautiful black dress with wings, a mockingjay, she literally becomes the rebellion, she embodies the rebellion and all that comes with it. The power of fashion in the middle of an uprising, and how much it strikes the Capitol because it's said in their language. All of these moments were essential in the history because the people on the districts already knew about the injustices, about the hardships of their conditions. But the consumers didn't. And Cinna, trough Katniss made them see that, he took everything that made the Capitol shallow and gave actual meaning to it. And without of all of it, who knows if the rebellion would've gestated as fast.

TL;DR: the hunger games saga made me a fashion designer, and fashion is really important in the story, dare I say it's a really clever use of fashion and Cinna is a FUCKING genius.

#hunger games #thg #catching fire #hunger games analysis #hunger games renaissance #katniss everdeen #cinna the hunger games #Suzanne Collins #fashion in the hunger games #cinna #the mockingjay #holy shit dude when I mean this saga formed me I'm not kidding i literally went to college to become a fashion designer bc of it.

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ace-and-the-rpg-horrors · 6 months

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assigning PJSK characters media i've enjoyed at some point that i think they'd like:

Ichika- Omori (themes of a friend group drifting away... yeah. is it ever actually said if Ichika likes gaming? cause i get the feeling that she would)

Saki- Lego Friends (the Lego itself i imagine could've been a fun activity to pass time during her hospital years, but i imagine her also being entertained by the various animated series)

Shiho- Sumikko Gurashi (she seems to like cute things secretly, plus two of the mascots are penguins)

Honami- Strawberry Shortcake (i loved it when i was younger and it has such Honami vibes, she canonically likes baking and desserts, as does Strawberry Shortcake's titular character)

Minori- Little Witch Academia (i feel like she would soooo relate to Akko's insane persistence and ambition despite not succeeding immediately. plus, cute witch show and Minori is cute, and a witch in that one card set)

Haruka- Octonauts (can imagine it being a favourite childhood show. like me, her favourite would definitely be Peso, the penguin character)

Airi- Disney Princess movies (especially the ones with a lot of action like Brave, Mulan and Frozen)

Shizuku- Lego Elves (the prettiest Lego theme in my opinion!! Shizuku gives me the vibe that she'd like fantasy :D)

Kohane- Adventure Time (idk i can just imagine Kohane liking cartoons in her free time)

An- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (action and friendship and lesbians!!)

Akito- SK8 The Infinity (just... vibes. also cause i saw a post once that pointed out the parallels between him + Toya and Reki + Langa from SK8)

Toya- Your Lie in April (can imagine the character of Kousei hitting him pretty hard, even if his circumstance wasn't quite as extreme as Kousei's)

Tsukasa- A3! (it's fitting for W x S in general though since much of the story at the beginning is about restoring and saving a theatre. Tsukasa would probably relate to the Tenma in THAT game due to both of them having, err... self assured personalities)

Emu- Hello Kitty (ESPECIALLY that old series, Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theatre!! loved those when i was younger and i think it's perfect for Emu- cute iconic cat mascot AND theatre)

Nene- Six the Musical (she likes musicals and that's one of the only ones i've seen soooo)

Rui- Voltron Legendary Defender (you know he tried to recreate the robot himself)

Kanade- Witch's Heart (i believe canon says that she likes video game tracks but doesn't play them herself cause she gets lost in the music, and Witch's Heart has some great music)

Mafuyu- Coraline (perhaps the Other Mother would somewhat remind her of her own...)

Ena- TBHK (i think, like me, the unique art style of that anime would have caught her eye)

Mizuki- Barbie movies (especially the ones that had fashion elements like Fashion Fairytale and Thumbelina)

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brf-rumortrackinganon · 1 month

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Kate narrating a documentary about bee-keeping and honeymaking? Earthshot giving us a 6 episode documentary series about their winners narrated by Cate Blanchett or a 2-hour special about Cape Town and South Africa (and every Earthshot city) by David Attenborough or a local expert? A 30-minute travel program about Cornwall by the Duchy of Cornwall? 3-minute YouTube videos about their charities and patronages produced by the people who work there or who benefit from services posted ahead of their visits? William narrating a documentary about his homeless initiative in Cornwall? A summer exhibition in KP’s display hall of Kate’s dresses or a Kate-curated show of the Royal Collection or loans from her patronages?

Yes, yes, and yes!!!! William and Catherine really are the first gen of royals to belong wholly to the social media generation. They should use it’s global reach much more expansively and more expertly.

For Catherine: yes to beekeeping lol! Show the children - during small, limited vignettes - helping her. Further though, she has a degree in Art History. The BRF/RCT has a priceless art collection, most of it largely unseen/unknown by the greater public. Pair these two gems together in some (“fun yet informative”) documentaries…even a series. Same for the BRF photo collection. The BRF has been photographed by iconic photographers…Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon (D/Dss of Windsor lol), Annie Leibowitz, Mario Testino (those stunning Diana photos). Sure, some of it’s been done before, but let the people see these treasures again in an updated modern media presentation - interspersed/“edited” :) with pertinent film footage and interviews - and hosted by Catherine.

And not just the BRF art/photography treasures, but ditto for their fashion (an entire series in itself!), jewelry/tiaras (what exactly IS inside the Royal Vault, anyway, hiding unseen?), castles/palaces/homes (let’s see inside Balmoral, Sandringham, Kensington, Adelaide Cottage (limited access), Frogmore House - but minus Frog Cott…we already know what Soho House design looks like, although Frog Cott cemetery might be informative…), priceless antique furniture, properties/gardens, horse stables and animals, even their vehicles (rare carriages, automobiles, boats, aircraft)! How about a documentary on the Royal Ballet, hosted by Catherine and Charlotte, w footage included of Granny Diana at the RB? Each of these categories could easily fill an episode, presented by C. The catch, of course, would be to present all of this “to the people” in a way that doesn’t scream “let y'all eat cake!” but rather “this is yours, be proud of its beauty and history, which also is yours” ala Jackie Kennedy at the White House.

And separately from the above “fine arts” themes, yes, let’s also see much more in-depth coverage - by William and Catherine - of their charities and the bts work/progress involved, especially as related to Early Years research and work!

For William: yes to a documentary tour and inside look at the Duchy of Cornwall (that is much larger than just Cornwall lol)! William could pilot the helicopter - filmed up-close-and-personal inside the cockpit - as he takes us on the tour, with on-the-ground coverage as well, of course. And YES to expanded coverage of Earthshot and the ongoing progress of its winners (and nominees). Show the people what innovations Earthshot is catalyzing. This also has the built in advantage of appealing to youth, diversity/CW, and cutting edge climate change concerns….ie, the future. BTW tie in Earthshot with the Duchy of Cornwall and show us how the Duchy is incorporating climate change initiatives…organic farming, wind power, sustainability, re-planting, etc.

All of this could be widely and easily disseminated to a large, young, global audience both on social media/KP youtube and via media networks (ITV, BBC, etc.). Get busy, William and Catherine! Make your impending future reign a glorious one, a British Renaissance! (From an American fan with British ancestry)

*********

My hope is for Kate to include the kids in one of her promo videos for her Christmas carol service. I’d love to see them decorating a tree together or baking holiday cookies while they’re still young and small(ish).

#submission

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stardestroyer81 · 3 months

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My first post of 2024 may have been cited to be the first look at Star Tower, my arcade-centric Pizza Tower AU, though consider this post to be your first real look at both the AU! This is a post I've been wanting to make for quite some time, and I am simply overjoyed to finally reveal the first set of characters for Star Tower!!! ⭐👾✨

This is a long post packed to the brim with art— some of which aren't featured in the above image— so if you're interested, I highly suggest you read on underneath the cut! 💙✨

As an AU, Star Tower dates back to March 3rd of 2023, which is when I first drew the logo for it. A sprite of myself drawn in the Pizza Tower artstyle predates Star Tower as an AU by about a month, so I think it goes without question that the stand-in for Peppino is Star Tower is a representation of myself!

It's just another day for Star Splitscreen at the local arcade, when all of a sudden, the multicade cabinet bugs out and sucks her inside! It's within the cabinet's confines where she meets the omnipotent Sinistar, who claims it'll set her free if she can best its '20-in-1 Supercade Challenge'.

What follows is an arduous adventure that sees Star venturing through arcade games familiar and obscure, and learning Sinistar's secret identity as well as escaping back into the real world all depends on her success... it's a good thing a seasoned arcade expert like her has what it takes!

I knew going into designing for Star Tower that I wanted each floor boss (I.E. Pepperman, The Noise, etc.) to be represented with an actual character from an established arcade game (With one exception...) and trust me when I say that I spent a fair amount of time carefully going through every arcade game I knew of and selecting a character appropriate for each boss's role.

Ultimately, I'm quite proud of the selection of characters I settled with, so let's jump right in and discuss Pepperman's stand-in...

Goro from 1983's Mappy! I find that, in terms of appearance, Goro was a perfect fit to replace Pepperman. Both are predominantly large red characters who are often depicted with wide, toothy grins— it was the perfect match!

Unlike both his canon personality and his personality in the animated ShiftyLook series, Goro in Star Tower is a lot more nefarious and self-centered, and sends out the Meowkies to do his dirty work when his own efforts don't cut it. I wanted to include sprites of the three Meowkies for this post originally, but I decided to save them for a future post (That's tech talk for 'I'm still trying to figure out how to stylize them').

I think of the four main bosses, Goro was the hardest to sprite in the Pizza Tower artstyle solely for the way his head is drawn. There's something about his face that was extremely difficult to draw at such a small scale, but after drawing pretty much every other sprite featured in this post, he was the final character in this lineup that I drew a sprite for, and I'm quite happy with it!

While Goro is certainly an iconic character, the same can't be said for The Vigilante's stand-in who, in spite of starring in one of the earliest known arcade games, is all the more obscure. Enter...

Mr. Jack from 1979's Sheriff! The Vigilante is the only boss of the main four who originally was going to be represented by an entirely different character, that being Kinzo from 1996's Pac-Man Arrangement.

It was when I remembered about Sheriff that I realized that Mr. Jack was the perfect candidate to replace The Vigilante. I mean, both are represented as mostly yellow cowboys armed with guns and a fashionable cowboy hat. How much closer could you get than that?

The real challenge was finding a good image of Mr. Jack to base his appearance in Star Tower off of. For those who don't know, Mr. Jack only has three known images of him that exist despite the fact that the game he hails from is over forty years old, so it wasn't exactly the easiest task.

I decided to base his appearance off of how he looks on Sheriff's bezel as that's the only full-body look we've ever gotten of him. The guy already looks like a Pizza Tower character as it is (A long lost cousin of Burton, perhaps?), and I find that his sprite looks the most like something you would actually see in Pizza Tower!

On the topic of arcade characters that are perfect fits for stand-ins of certain Pizza Tower characters...

Charley Chuck from 1983's Food Fight was, without question, the ideal choice to replace The Noise. One look at this flyer for Food Fight should perfectly encapsulate as to why. He's a little brat who's primary objective is to make the lives of the local chefs miserable. Sound familiar? It should!

Charley has had numerous different designs drawn for him around the time his game debuted, and it was pretty difficult settling on just the right one. I decided to give him a white and red striped shirt which he wears on the Food Fight arcade cabinet, and draw him as similar to the Noise as I could— I even sized him so that he stands smaller than Star, which took a lot more time than I'm willing to admit.

What's particularly interesting is that, fairly recently, Atari announced a Splatoon-like game for their VCS console, and you'll never believe who's the poster boy and what the game is a sequel to. I'm fairly certain that just before the announcement of Food Fight: Culinary Combat, I was the only person who was doing anything with Charley Chuck, and here he is starring in a brand new game some forty years after his initial debut. Not bad, kid!

One must wonder if I was the one who manifested Charley's return into existence...

With Charley Chuck properly introduced, I can move onto who may just be my favorite of this post's lineup...

Crazy Star.

With the success of 1981's Donkey Kong, an officially licensed clone was created for use in Japan only, though found its way outside of the country without the license to do so from Nintendo. This clone's name is Crazy Kong, and to say it's uncanny wouldn't be doing it justice.

Originally, I was a bit hesitant on just designing a 'fake Star' and calling it a day. I wanted there to be some arcade theming to it, and when the idea of a 'bootleg Star' came to mind, I quickly turned to Crazy Kong as a point of reference and Crazy Star is what came out of it (I should also mention that Crazy Kong released in 1981... now that's what I call meant to be)!

Out of everyone featured in this post, I've definitely drawn Crazy Star the absolute most because, as I mentioned before, it's just about my favorite of the Star Tower bunch! My favorite detail about it is that its color palette is made up of colors hand-picked from Crazy Kong itself!

Originally, I had screen-picked its colors from a YouTube video of the clone, resulting in a slightly different color scheme, but once I found a sprite sheet for Crazy Kong, it resulted in the Crazy Star you see in this post! Crazy Star may look unsettling, but in reality it's just as welcoming as Star, and all it wants is to be just like her.

Just like her... just like her... just like her...

Beware... Sinistar from the 1983 arcade game of the same name lives! Yet another instance of the perfect replacement, both Pizzaface and Sinistar are giant evil floating circles, and it was clear to me from the get-go that Sinistar would make a perfect stand-in for the former, especially since half of its name is 'Star'!

Drawing a sprite for Sinistar was both a cakewalk and a challenge. For one, seeing as its sprite is on the larger side, that meant I had a lot more detail to work with. On the other hand, however, I struggled for a while to get a good design drawn for Sinistar. Eventually, my good friend @panurei-derogatory suggested that it would be funny if Sinistar was hyper-realistically detailed compared to the other sprites, and that was something I had a lot of fun with when drawing its sprite!

Anyone who's played Pizza Tower knows that Pizzaface himself is merely a facade, as the true mastermind behind Peppino's misery has been hidden in plain sight since the very start— the comically villainous Pizzahead! I think out of every 'arcade stand-in' I chose for Star Tower, coming up with one for Pizzahead was the absolute hardest, because none of my ideas really seemed to stick the landing.

But then, I thought "What if it was a completely original character?"

And that's where Richard Benito Townsend (More commonly known by his alias 'Richie T.'), the self-proclaimed 'king of video games', enters the scene!

Richie T., who is absolutely not based off of any notorious cheaters in the arcade world record scene, is a washed-up video game master has-been, once highly regarded in his heyday for being an icon in the world of video games before his supposed 'unbeatable world records' were discovered to be fraudulent.

Shunned to a life of seclusion, the ever boisterous Richie T. now pilots Sinistar within a multicade cabinet where he's free to call the shots, daring to go toe-to-toe with Star once she proves herself worthy of being a Supercade Superstar. After all, she's just some girl— she can't possibly trounce the Richie T., can she?

Spoilers: He has no idea.

And with that out of the way, that's just about everything I wanted to touch base on in pertains to this first set of Star Tower characters! As I said before, this post has been a long time coming, and it's ever so wonderful to finally get this out onto tumblr!

You can expect a part two of sorts to this post sometime in the coming months, as there are still more stand-ins I've yet to post... this time, replacements of the supporting characters, such as Gustavo, Mr. Stick, and a couple of others! For now, I hope that you've enjoyed your first real look at the world of Star Tower! 💙✨

#⭐ Star's Art ⭐#Star Tower #Pizza Tower #Pizza Tower AU #Arcade Games #Star Splitscreen #Goro Mappy #Mr. Jack #Charley Chuck #Crazy Star #Sinistar #Richie T.#Aseprite #Sprite Art #Coolness #STAR TOWER WILL BE REAL IN ZERO SECONDS!!!#I spent a solid two or three hours writing everything for this post from the write-ups to the image IDs #I was simply THAT determined to get this post up as soon as I had finished every sprite featured in this post.#For those who have read the entire post I realize I keep repeating how nice it feels to have these sprites out there now...#And I truly mean it! Now I can post all the miscellaneous stuff I've made for Star Tower I wouldn't have been able to post before!#Such as the OODLES of Crazy Star content I've drawn XD #I'm considering on drawing a render for some of the other bosses like I did with Richie T. and Crazy Star #I think it would look particularly cool to have full-sized renders of Goro and Charley Chuck in particular!#Hopefully this post properly illustrates just how big of a love letter Star Tower is to arcade game fans the world over #My best friend Kintsu knows full well of just how many arcade references I've packed into ideas for Star Tower #I again want to give her a shout-out for encouraging me to go all in on this AU— it wouldn't be where it is now without her 💛

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