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#that is an absolutely diabolical line up of songs
melit0n · 15 days
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GUESS WHAT CAME TODAYYYYY!!!
Ugh I'm absolutely in love with this (and the album art book!!). I originally wanted to try and get a blue viynl, but I got impatient with HMV literally never restocking and Amazon selling out before I even know they're back on sale.
Did I maybe pay a little bit too much and indulge myself? Yes. But is it now among one of my favourite vinyl?? Definitely! Vessel's voice works so well on vinyl as well.
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jamminvroomvroom · 1 month
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4k celebration
congrats on 4k love - your writing is absolutely worth all of the hype and even more!!! i adore your work and so look forward to even more people discovering it.
i was hoping to request a lewis fic?? i’m such a slut for a good enemies to lovers situation, so maybe along the lines of reader is a fair bit younger than lewis, but there’s been all of this tension btwn them and it all boils over one night (smuttyyyyy) 🥴
we made up.
LH x fem!rival reader - 4k celebration
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in which you can never just bite your tongue
eeeeek i love this request! thank u sm anon for ur sweet words, ur so lovely i hope i’ve done this justice for you! writing for lewis terrified me so this might not be my best work but we move! more lewis requests to come, let me know what you think <3
songs to set the mood: stargirl interlude by the weekend & lana del rey
warnings: 18+!! minors go away!! smut, swearing, degradation, praise, dom!lewis, some switch!reader, implied age gap, slightly inexperienced reader, enemies to lovers, blink n you’ll miss it size kink
2.6k words
you hide admiration with a scowl, curling into yourself, as far away as you can get from him. the couch seems to get smaller and smaller with every overly intelligent, carefully thought out word he says. each sentence seems to be coated in a thick layer of i don’t give a fuck. you don’t know how he’s so good a toeing the line.
after six years in f1, you still couldn’t work out why you didn’t like lewis hamilton.
maybe it was his cool confidence, the way he never lacked composure, while you were called an unhinged, delusional woman by every incel on twitter for so much as breathing. maybe it was his sky high stack of trophies, championships, podiums, wins. you weren’t even halfway close to touching his records. maybe it was the way he was diabolically, inhumanly gorgeous, a truly breathtaking creature. you paled in every single way compared to lewis, so how could you even begin to like him?
it was silly, really, pathetic even, feeling such childish disdain just because he was better than you. he was older, more refined, iconic in every single way that you weren’t. perhaps you’d get there one day, but you simply weren’t there yet.
you’re sat beside him in the press conference, sharing the couch with him, alex, lando, charles and max. it wasn’t the worst combination in the world, but anytime you had to sit in front of a gaggle of hawk-eyed journos and a million cameras with lewis, something unfortunate usually happened. never by design, but you just weren’t very good at saving face in front of the mercedes driver.
“do you think the podium is a possibility this weekend?” someone from autosport whose name you can’t remember asks.
“i’m hoping so, just need to keep the mercs behind us again, but i don’t think that will be that hard.” you respond, without even a sliver of a filter. the material of the sofa shifts as lewis tenses up beside you, inhaling sharply at your blatant disrespect. somewhere beside you, lando sniggers, and max is rolling his eyes.
it was no secret that you didn’t have the softest spot in the world for sir lewis.
“that’s assuming your car makes it to the end of the race.” lewis clears his throat, speaking with confident conviction. you turn you head to glare at him, painfully unable to take what you give. alex slaps his hand over his mouth.
“at least my car isn’t so bad that i’d rather go and learn the alphabet down at ferrari.” you scoff. you avoid the eyes of your comms officer, because if looks could kill, you’d be six feet under already.
“i think we’ll leave it there.” tom clarkson suggests, and you stand from the panel and storm away on trembling legs with a terrible ache throbbing between them.
there’s something about the pettiness, the reasonless back and fourth you two always seem to partake in that leaves you in need of a cold shower.
-
turns out, you have to apologise.
you spend the better part of an hour being bollocked by your press team, who, for some reason, don’t find it particularly amusing that you’d somehow managed to insult the lewis hamilton, ferrari, and mercedes in the span of two sentences.
so, there you were, begrudgingly trailing towards lewis’s hotel room. it’s on the top floor, because of course it is, it’s him. he oozes expensive exclusively, naturally above the rest. you twist your rings nervously, increasingly terrified of being in a confined space alone with the gorgeous brit. your knuckles rap gently against the wood of his door, intentionally weakly. you pray he won’t hear you and that you can just disappear back into the elevator and into your room, to pathetically let you hands wander between your clenched thighs.
but god laughs, and the door swings open. lewis seems startled by your presence, just for a moment though, leaning cooly against the doorframe. his lips pull into a faint smile. two things alarm you. first of all, he’s shirtless, bare from the waist up, a plethora of delicious tattoos on display for you to feast your eyes on. secondly, and somehow even worse, he’s panting, clearly just back from a work out in the gym. he glistens with sweat, and your mind goes blank, apologetic words die on your tongue.
“something to say, angel, or are you just here to stare?” lewis teases, the words rolling off his tongue smoothly. you pray for the ground to gape open, swallow you hole, suck you into hot lava.
“well, i was gonna apologise but i don’t think you deserve it.” you sneer, crossing your arms over your chest accusingly.
“didn’t think you knew how to apologise.” lewis grins sarcastically, mocking you.
“has anyone told you how arrogant you are?” you bite back, eyes narrowing.
“why don’t you come in here and i’ll show you just how arrogant i can be?” his voice has dropped a few octaves, seductive and low.
the proposition, the suggestion behind his words makes you fold immediately. you’d wondered for far too long about what he was like behind closed doors and under thick bedsheets, and if you had the chance at finding out, you’d be imbecilic not to take it.
you shove his muscled chest, pushing him back into his room. his hands find your waist, pulling harshly at the material of your loose t-shirt. he’s watching you intently, mesmerised by the angry flush on your cheeks tinging you pink. your eyes convey hunger, matching his, and you’re forcing him down to sit at the foot of his bed.
“why are you such an asshole?” you hiss, slotting your knees on either side of his so that you’re straddling him.
“probably the same reason you’re such a little bitch.” lewis growls, tugging you forward harshly on his lap. you feel his work out shorts ride up on his thighs, the material sensitive on your skin.
your pupils blow wide at his words, and you’re kissing him hard, teeth and tongues clashing messily. his lips are so soft, pillowy as they brush aggressively with your own and you lick wetly into his awaiting mouth. he’s addictive, minty, and you fall against his bare chest as he leans back into the mattress.
“i think you need to be taught some manners.” lewis grunts, flipping your bodies over like you’re nothing, and slotting against your body like a missing piece.
“i think the same could be said about you.” you breathe, sliding your hand under the waistband of his shorts. he chuckles quietly, the rumble reverberating through your own chest, cracking you open.
“try your best.” he whispers. your eyes roll back.
truth is, you’re not the most experienced person in the world. yes, you’re in your mid twenties, but a long term relationship with the worlds biggest loser and dedicating your life to a career in a boys club meant that you didn’t have the time to develop broadest set of skills. you didn’t have the luxury of letting loose in a nightclub with a stranger because if that information got into the wrong hands, you’d be slut-shamed off the face of the earth. so now, you found yourself a little bit lost under a literal sex god.
as if he can hear your thoughts, lewis pulls back.
“what’s the matter? do you want me to stop?” he’s softer than he ever has been with you, melting away in your hands, but you draw him back in, tightening your grip on the band of his shorts.
“no, no, i just…” the words die on your tongue. something in your eyes gives him all the information that he needs.
“do what feels right, good.” his nose brushes your jaw, kissing over it and you settle back into the moment.
“teach me a lesson.” you whisper, empowered in his hands, and he springs back into action, his demeanour slipping right back into what it had been.
“is that why you’re so bad in interviews? just want me to fuck some respect into you?” his lips tug amusedly when you nod rapidly up at him.
an experimental roll of his hips makes you keen, hand slipping into his braids and pulling hard. his eyes fall shut, lips parting to let out a soft groan, his eyebrows pinching from the rough pleasure. your fingers graze over the skin of his toned belly, finding sensitive skin that makes him shiver.
“you distracted, lew?” you taunt, with the only intention of riling him up.
his eyes snap open, hard and lacking any sort of warmth, and he tears your hands from where they rest on his firm body, swiftly pinning them above your head with one hand. he plants himself on one knee, balancing himself so that he can fiddle with the button of your shorts. he makes quick work of removing them, forcing the zipper down and skilfully manoeuvring them with just the one hand.
once they’re gone, along with the lace of your underwear, he forces your thighs apart, and slides his fingers along the seam of your cunt, slicking them up. you’re soaked and he momentarily falters, but he doesn’t let himself get too visibly affected.
“fuck, you’re so wet. been thinking about me, angel?” he teases mercilessly, as he rocks the first thick digit into you, twisting and curling until he finds the spot that makes you buck your hips.
“nothing to say now, hm?” lewis tuts, wetting his lips. the feeling of you squeezing so tight around just one of his fingers makes him choke out a moan. you can feel his hot breath fanning over your face, your eyes squeezing shut at the feeling of him filling you up.
“more.” you breathe, stuttering over just one word. he revels in how he’s managed to reduce you to this so quickly.
“you sure you can take it, angel? so fucking tight.”
“make me.” you plead, parting your strained thighs even wider for him.
he lets go of your hands, snaking down your body to get himself closer to where you’re dripping already.
“keep them there.” lewis orders, and you grip tightly onto the pillows to exercise restraint.
lewis presses his forearm over the plush of your belly, holding you down as he adds a second finger, watching in awe as it slips so effortlessly into your pussy. you’re mewling, fighting to buck your hips but the firm press of his muscled arm keeps you in place.
“so pretty for me, angel, soaking my fingers.” he notes, entranced at how responsive you are for him.
“want you inside of me, lew.” you whine, knuckles paper white where you’re fighting off the urge to reach down and touch him.
“wait.” he snarls, ramming his fingers even harder, grinding against the soft spot buried deep. “you’re gonna cum like this first.”
with that, he removes the barricade of his arm, bringing his spare hand to your clit, the pad of his thumb drawing calloused circles into the bud. you lose it, grinding down on his fingers like a woman possessed.
“that’s it, sweetie, fuck yourself for me.” lewis encourages, voice gravelly and low.
sparks shoot down your spine, nothing but white behind your eyelids as he lights you on fire. you can’t warn him, the words lost to the tense air of the room as you barrel towards your first release. he eases you through it, not letting up even a little bit, but it pays off when you can’t help but writhe against the cream of the bedspread.
“god.” you croak, flopping limp as he pulls out, crawling over you.
“learned your lesson?”
“not quite.” you flash an exhausted grin, abandoning your grasp on the pillows to slide them down his thick frame.
you trace the lion adorning his shoulder, the compass, each piece driving you further into utter delirium. your hands graze his waist, snaking around his abdomen until you reach the cross, tracing it until you reach words that keep him going.
still i rise the cursive reads, and he shivers as you rake your nails over it.
“fuck me.” you purr. your hands slide under his shorts once more, gripping at the curve of his ass. you push the material down over his thighs, and he happily kicks them away, his inked hands roughly spreading you even wider.
“desperate little thing, bet you go home after every race and fuck yourself silly wishing it was me, hm?” he adjusts himself between your legs, his thick cock nudging against you entrance, drenching himself in the mess he’d made.
you gasp out a moan as he slides deep, taking his sweet time. you can’t even comprehend his words, totally consumed by the brutally enticing stretch of him, your thighs shaking at the delectable intrusion. he hisses at the sensation of your tight warmth, his head falling to rest in the crook of your neck. lewis licks over the sensitive skin, trailing open mouthed kisses down to your collarbone. you feel the sharp graze of his teeth, gentle nips making you shudder on his cock.
“don’t leave a mark.” you choke, and lewis seems to get it, so he skims his teeth lower, sucking purple just over your heart.
you clamp down around him, allured by the tweak of pain, and it seems to spark something in him, his hips rolling into yours experimentally.
“you feel so fucking good.” lewis pants, his breath warm and wet on your neck.
“need you to move.” you plead, turning your head to capture his lips in an urgent kiss.
he pulls out, slamming back into you roughly, your tummy twisting with anticipation. lewis finds a rhythm that suits you both, hips hitting yours with every thrust, each one leaving you full and spent.
“gonna make sure you feel me for days.” he promises, yanking your legs over his hips. as he does, he hits deeper and you yelp, stars in your eyes. “when you sit in the car tomorrow, you’re gonna feel me and remember how to be a good fucking girl, not an attention seeking brat.”
you ramble his name, eyes flooding with tears of overstimulation, dumbfounded at how he seems to hit a new spot with every slide of his cock. he’s digging his fingers into the meat of your thighs, pulling your hips impossibly closer to his as he drives into you, as if he wants to become a part of you, moulded for an eternity. with the way your stomach knots, butterflies and adrenaline coursing through you, you’d comply; you’d let him do whatever he wanted to him anytime he wanted.
“‘m so close.” you whine, pulling on every part of him your hands can reach. a refreshed sense of determination builds in his eyes and he presses hard on your navel.
“so deep, can see it.” lewis slurs, eyes fixed on your belly.
those five words make you unravel, sending you hurtling over the edge. he can’t help but fuck you through it, hammering home while you spasm around him so tight that he struggles to move.
“fucking addicted to this pussy.” lewis groans, burying himself as deep as he can go.
you’re utterly enchanted as you watch him reach his release, gnawing at your bottom lip when his part in a moan, allowing gentle puffs of air to escape. his long eyelashes rest delicately over his cheeks as his eyes fall shut, your name spilling out of his mouth like a needy prayer.
you’re warm from the inside out, flushed and full when he settles, pressing his body weight into you completely.
-
two weeks later, you’re in japan, bored senseless in yet another press conference. lewis sits further down the couch, and you have to cross your legs every time he speaks. no one seems to notice, except him, of course.
when it’s your turn to speak, and you’re asked all about your little spat with sir lewis back in australia, you shrug, smirking.
“we made up.”
-
oof
-
taglist
@mcmuppet @japanesekel @vinvantae @ggaslyp1 @dr3lover @smiithys @rachstash @infinitebells @fizzpopsnap101 @gaily19 @icecoldtires @mysticalnightenthusiast @thatchickwiththecamera @oyesmendes @disneydaydreameralways @canyouseethesainz @ferrarifwendvale @fcbformulaeri @tony-stank3 @maih23 @soleilgrec @carolineworld @anthonykatebridgerton @allywthsr @iamasimpingh0e @ophcelia @lovelynikol16 @coffeehurricanes @jennx03 @blueflorals @lqvesoph @sidcrosbyspuck @better-dead-than-smeg @buendiabebeta @pjofics @kovalcin @wintergilmore3 @for-writing-shit @youdontknowmeshh @im-an-overthinker @jule239 @darleneslane @jazzy722 @weasleyswizarding-wheezes @therealone4r @pleasecallmeunhinged @theonlyadrienne @spideylovin @formulaal @carlandoxlestappen
if you wanna be added or removed lemme know! :D
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floustian · 9 months
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Almost every song on UU fucked me up; I was already crying after First Time. But to put First Light at the end????? Diabolical. Absolutely sobbing my eyes out and then having to sit in silence with all the feelings from all the previous songs + directly after having just heard one of the best songs Mr. Hoz has ever written.
That First Light being so easy and soft after having chased and hoped for it so desperately for so long. Finding pure joy and contentment in something so incredibly simple. When everything just suddenly feels right. And even though you won’t always be at that level of happiness, just that one perfect moment will make all the darkness down the line easier.
I won’t even mention the fucking harpsichord and the simply glorious backing vocals.
What the fuck, bro. Andrew Hozier-Byrne is my enemy number one for making me cry like that. Love him sm.
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ratgirlcopia · 4 months
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make no mistake, i don't particularly think it'll happen, but i do think copia transitioning would be an absolutely batshit decision of astronomical madness. it would make impera absolutely diabolical. can you imagine. the album that opens with the speaker celebrating the murder of a woman, that moves into the song warning that what is pushed down will spill out eventually, then into the overcompensatory macho-ness of twenties and the biting mockery in griftwood with the implicit categorization of all good women as mother, and finally closing with respite and the sort-of ambiguous point of view up until that "we will break away together" hits and you go "oh this is one of those women" and then when the BRIDGE hits you with that "goodbye seven sisters and saint jezebel" and that line manages to function as this callback to and rejection of kaisarion and twenties with an implicit break from the misogynistic categorizations in the songs prior and ends with the affirmation that when the speaker and these other women go, it will be softly, and it will be on their terms, and they are light and shadow bouncing off each other and their relationship to one another is what determines who and what they are.
anyway.
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teacherintransition · 2 years
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Crisis of Confidence
Life lesson day 1: things rarely go as planned…Transitions in life are by their very nature CHANGE.
When obstacles come, keep driving forward, alter your path, but for god’s sake don’t ever, ever, ever go back!
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“The best laid plans are …,” …100% reliable? …are easy to put together? …will often go sideways? …unnecessary? Which are most accurate? If you chose, “unnecessary,” go to the back of the line and cover yourself in bubble wrap… cause you’re gonna get beat the hell up by life. Bring Tylenol. The other answers are all possibilities with “total reliability” being possibly 0.0001% likely. Truly, how often do grand designs go off without a hitch? Not often, but there has to be a goal. I absolutely love the line from George Harrison’s song, Any Road, “But if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there!”* George was the man. You pick a road, but for damn sure you can expect bumps, potholes, detours and even a fender bender. The ticket is not to give up and turn back.
We made the decision to retire, I set my personal goals and we set goals for us, we envisioned where it would end up; and very little of what we’d planned turned out the way we saw things happening. Death and loss due to Covid…. nuff said. I never planned to write a book, we never planned to have to cancel travel plans, we never planned for the selling of the hospital where Kim worked for thirty three years to a soul crushing entity, we never imagined living in Alexandria, Louisiana or Granbury, Texas… but here the hell we are. Not what we expected, but we are still headed in the same general direction. The lives of our sons took extremely unplanned trajectories that affected our path and delayed some of our plans. Detours and delays have been in abundance, but the overall outcome is still doable.
This series of articles has always pushed encouraging words and a positive outlook during a period of major life transitions. It ain’t always easy… disappointments abound; and despite the freedom of the pressures of time philosophy I push, one is acutely aware that there’s more behind you than ahead of you. The diabolical “what if’s “ begin to surface: what if I don’t get this or that done? What if the place we go isn’t what you expected? What if time runs out? Heavy thoughts to ponder; and if disappointments occur with some regularity, any number of less than positive outcomes can occur. It can just seem easier to go with the flow of less resistance. In other words…compromise. During this period of life that was to be filled with calm, peace and dreams can often start to resemble the stressful struggles of the work world that you tried to leave.
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My oldest son is a Marine and their famous motto, “ADAPT, IMPROVISE, OVERCOME,” has more depth that it might appear. I’ve had to adapt what end goals might look like in the end, but still recognize the spirit of what I wished to attain. Creative, quick thinking or improvising is essential. The free spirit mentality I try to promote when writing lends itself to goal improvisation. All sorts of metaphors come to mind and references to “Roads less traveled,” when finding confidence in an altered path and an open mind can reveal attainment of dreams that might go unnoticed. We’ve always wanted to live in a city and through Kim’s travel nursing job …we did! We have also wanted to live in the Hill Country, and now we are …temporarily. These were dreams that had been buried and forgotten; but zig was the path instead of zag, and we received a major surprise. Overcome: plain and simple, don’t let unwanted circumstances rob you of what you are wanting to do. Putting things off is ok, but giving up on them isn’t.
Nothing looks like you thought it would, but that doesn’t make it a failed attempt. The key is to not let struggles turn into stresses …this is your time. You should see the process as your adventure not the burdening obligations that retirement/transition was to free you from in this path. To paraphrase George’s earlier referred to song lyric; “If you know where you’re going, there’s not just one road to take you there!”
*Harrison, George; “Any Road;” Brainwashed; Parlophone, Dark Horse Label; 2003
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talentforlying · 6 months
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@whcwashe: ♬ ♬ !!!! — SONGS I LOVE
when the lights go out - oingo boingo! if y'all haven't discovered danny elfman's band yet, i'm begging you to get on that shit, because they have nothing but bangers on their discography. this is one of my ALL-TIME favorites and one of the first songs i ever covered with my band!! it's very beast of eden arc to me, specifically staring at the wall pt.3-5 (hellblazer #191-193) where the whole world's gone absolutely batshit, and the whole vibe of the song just smacks of frusin-art-style constantine: ominous, darkly amused, perpetually in a half-shadow, reflective cat's eyes, and a diabolical grin.
hey! let's turn the night into day! / let's start a fire in an alley way! / let's all go crazy by & by / and let's all pray to the cat's eye! just common folks like you and me / turn into mobs that get so crazy / prowl the streets like cats / out for the hunt / breaking all the windows just because it's fun / just because it's fun, just because it's fun!
i come with knives - IAMX! this one's been on the playlist since the way back beginning of this blog! it's sick as hell, it's one of my car ride headbangers, and it's a very frank insight into what constantine is like: he doesn't promise anything about himself. he doesn't pretend to care unless it suits him. he doesn't commit to anything he knows he won't uphold. he is openly dishonest and stubborn and a liar and a bastard, and he doesn't hold any of that back. it's all there on the surface if people want to look for it, not his fault that the rest of his charming exterior (rolling my eyes) distracts from the truth of him.
the monotony / and the rising tide / is under my skin, is crawling inside / adrenaline to rewire my mind / i'm only human, i come with knives / i never promised you an open heart or charity / i never wanted to abuse your imagination / i come with knives / i come with knives / and agony / to love you
+ 2 songs for liv: daughter of god - phemiec always hits me hard when i think about liv. the lyrics very much feel like they follow her journey of trying to reconcile with her new life and all she's learned about her father and her fate and her abilities.
doubt’s an elastic that snaps where you grasp it / with idle hands clasped on your wrist just as sharp as a kiss / on the scar where you carved out her name / or a line that is straight and confined to your fate love is a place where the tide always rises, the ink never dries (and it’s alright) / love is a place where you see with your heart and fly with your eyes (and it’s alright) / love is a place where your innocence goes when it dies
starchild - ghost quartet is another one of my absolute favorite songs of all time, just this absolutely beautiful piece that also lines up with the idea of a fate you didn't ask for, but this time it has a tragic and weary determination to make the best of it that feels very liv to me. i fucking adore this song, frankly.
when i was a baby, i was blessed by a stranger / in waters I didn't understand / and now i'm infected with disbelief and blasphemy / i'll never have a holy land / i am a ghost in the eyes of my god nothing i see is here anymore / but i will transcend / and vomit this loser out of me / i will become the next big thing / i will light myself on fire / it's time to get out of bed / and be the starchild i can be
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adamwatchesmovies · 2 years
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Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2017)
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There’s only one way to prevent yourself from falling into utter, absolute despair while watching Tom and Jerry” Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - the biggest argument against the public domain since Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated. If, for reasons no humans could ever fathom, you take one look at the cover of this wretched excuse for a film and you say “I'm in!”, then please, do it while surrounded by friends who will help tear it apart and ensure that no children are within earshot. There isn’t one second of the 79-minute running time that validates this picture’s existence.
Poor, kind Charlie Bucket (voiced by Lincoln Melcher) lives in a small house with his mother and four grandparents. When legendary candy maker Willy Wonka (JP Karliak) announces he has hidden five golden tickets in his legendary Wonka Bars, and that the children who find them will be allowed access to his mysterious factory, our hero dreams of finding one for himself. Oh, and classic cartoon characters Tom and Jerry (both voiced by Spike Brandt) tag along for the ride when he does.
Step 1: Take a beloved classic like 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and force a bunch of passionless overseas animators to copy it scene-for-scene. Step 2: Rob it of all magic or wonder. Step 3: crowbar Tom and Jerry in a way that adds nothing to the plot, but instead robs the story of key scenes by focussing on characters who require no lip-synch. Step 4: Profit by sending this soulless cash grab to negligent parents, aunts, and uncles. The disdain is as thick as stone. There aren’t even any original songs. The closest we get is a slight tweak on Violet Beauregard’s number with the villainous Slugworth (Mick Wingert) adding some new lines… an action that makes no sense once you’ve seen the story’s finale. If this had been an adaptation of… I dunno, Scarface, it would've still been a bad idea, but it might have served some purpose. Children aren’t meant to see the ultra-violent Al Pacino film. There isn’t anyone in the history of the world who should see this blight upon cinema rather than the original.
The people responsible for this catastrophe do not care about children, do not like children and they’re probably the ones who broke into your home last summer to steal all your stuff. They robbed me of my time and money, so I wouldn’t put it past director Spike Brandt to have done it before.
The good news is that if you can forget some people will subject their children to this and watch it as something aimed towards adults, there’s plenty to laugh at. The animation is appalling, with character models hardly ever staying consistent from shot to shot. The lip-synch is ok at best, the movements clunky and unnatural. The facial expressions by Wonka are… wow. It’s like the man’s face is made of uncooked dough. You'll laugh and groan listening to the inane dialogue. Your hands will automatically fly up to plug your ears or perhaps wipe away tears whenever a song in this pathetic excuse for a musical begins playing. Between then, if you can screen-grab successfully, you'll be an internet hero as you churn out one golden meme after another.
In 2017, Mel Stuart's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory entered the public domain. This allowed this film to be made. Many times, I've heard people complain about the Walt Disney Company's iron grip on their films. Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is singlehandedly worth any palm-greasing, bribery, or blackmail the Mouse might've done to ensure the diabolical pair keep their paws off of more beloved children's films. (On DVD, September 15, 2017)
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juminly · 4 years
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Hellooo 🌸 I was wondering if you can write a few IkemenVampire headcanons related to ballroom dancing? If I would choose characters it would be Comte, Theodorus, and Napoleon?
Hello there! ❤ This ask literally made my day! I absolutely adore ballroom so I’m just gonna let my imagination run and take you on this ride with me! 
PS: A lot of the dance styles that I will be mentioning are a bit more modern so kindly disregard the historical/timeline accuracy. This is just a speculation of what they would enjoy and also portray a certain aspect of their personality (in my humble opinion). Also, I am no expert in ballroom dancing so there might be some inaccuracy. 
For each dance style, a song was chosen. Feel free to play it, close your eyes and imagine yourself dancing with your suitor. Comte de Saint-Germain 
Was there any type of ballroom dance this man couldn’t do? The answer is no. But, for the sake of writing this, I’ll be choosing one… try to.
This man is the incarnation of grace and the sight of him alone is enough to make one whimper. He will have you joined by the hip, his shoulders and back in perfect posture while he holds you up and he anchors you to him. He guides you around the dancefloor and it’s simply effortless. What other than a slow waltz?
It wouldn’t even matter if you fumble on your feet, he guides you across in a seamless trajectory as you danced around the dancefloor as rhythmically as the serene ebb and flow of a river.
He smiles down at you and watches how your hair just floats around you, making you appear like an otherworldly creature, an apparition of something holy and sacred. You were his treasure and he held you in a way that foretold his deep adoration for you.
His loving gaze would linger on your face, watching how your cheeks grow light shades of rose by the second from the movement but also the intimacy of his embrace.  
The slow tempo of the music and the dance gives him all the time to marvel at your beauty and appreciate your presence with him while his feet glide almost thoughtlessly on the ground, seemingly carrying you around.
The moment you would step onto the dancefloor, you were both captivated with another, living in a world where only the two of you existed. He would lean down and whisper softly in your ear, his voice velvety low “Vous êtes absolument ravissante, ma chérie.”
And while he danced with you, he would recite to you the most romantic of words, written by him and by other writers.
He quoted Honore de Balzac to you, his husky voice seeping into your skin and propelling your entire existence into a frenzy of heightened emotions. Anything he said to you in French, he would later on translate it, rendering you even more speechless.
“Tu as tout ce qui me plaît. Tu exhales pour moi, le parfum le plus enivrant qu'une femme puisse avoir, cela seul est un trésor d'amour. Je t'aime avec un fanatisme qui n'exclut pas cette ravissante quiétude d'un amour sans orages possibles. Oui, dis-toi bien que je respire par l'air que tu aspires, que je ne puis jamais avoir d'autre pensée que toi. Tu es la fin de tout pour moi.”
Comte simply made it hard to breathe.
Song choice would be: Earned It (Slowed) by the Weekend.
Another style of ballroom dance that this man would absolutely excel in: the Argentinian Tango.
Rest assured that the moment you slide your body against his, his hands traveling and tracing the curves and lines of your body, your legs twining with one another and he’s got you ensnared and he doesn’t plan on letting you go.
Theodorus Van Gogh
You cannot deny that this man exudes a unique sense of elegance.
Yes, he can be an asshole sometimes, pretty blunt and seems inconsiderate and selfish but he is much more than that. First impressions shouldn’t last for long and they don’t especially when you get to know more about him.
Considering his upbringing and his line of work, this man possesses almost envious poise and frustrating charm (you just can’t resist him even if you want to smack his smug handsome face).
You absolutely wouldn’t expect it from him but this man knows how to have fun and he takes you on an exhilarating ride. Out of all dances, the one he enjoys the most is the quickstep.
What was most surprising was the excitement that oozed from him and the challenge in his eyes.
This was such a different side to him but boy, this man knows how to show a girl some good fun (especially if he is completely smitten with her… and you were the lucky girl).
He is surprisingly quick on his feet and his smile would stretch across his face while he guides you around, one chassé after another, as he twirled around
It’s a wild ride, your heart hammering hard in your chest with the melody booming around the room and your laughter echoing so harmoniously, blessing this man with the most pleasant sound he’s ever heard.
The music is upbeat and his feet meticulously shuffle with exquisite coordination and fluidity as he literally floats on the ground, running across the ballroom like he owned the damn place.
He would definitely tease you and call you a clumsy Knabbeltje when you would trip. However, he’d just hold you even tighter and continue moving like a marionette controlled so skillfully.
He secretly loves the fact that you have to rely on him to guide you and teach you the steps. He wants to be able to share these moments of happiness with you and create more of them too.
He looks liberated and carefree, like the world is his for the taking as long as he has you in his arms. You never thought you would ever see such an expression on this man’s face but there are so many sides to him that the world has yet to see.
Song choice would be: The World Is Mine by Hooverphonic. (and with you, he feels so divine)
On a more sensual note, this man doesn’t give an absolute damn. He wants to claim every single inch of you, your bodies flush against one another and touching you even where his hands cannot reach.
What other than the bachata? If you still weren’t physically intimate with one another, you would definitely know, feel and see how intensely this man craved you. His gaze would be heavy with yearning and his touch and movements beyond tantalizing.
You had absolutely no idea that Theodorus could roll his hips like that. The moment he did, he smirked as you bit your lips, clearly affected by his very obvious ministrations.
It made your heart flutter and your skin grow hotter as your desire and need for him would heighten with every beat of the music.
This melody and vibe of this song absolutely describes the rise of emotions and the slow burn of desire that would eventually consume you: Crazy (Bachata Remix by DJ Karui) covered by Daniela Andrade.
Napoleon
What else would you expect from the former Emperor of France? A dance that is inspired by the military: the Paso Doble.
The movement of your bodies was fierce, a battle of dominance between lovers, the collision of unbridled lust and love fused into one.
Your eyes locked on his, unable to look away. He wouldn’t even allow it, even if you wanted to. His eyes were gleeful and his smile was almost diabolical as you paced around each other, linking your arms together as you pushed yourselves against one another and pulled away.
There was no telling who was the predator and who was the prey and it made it all the more exciting… undeniably exhilarating.
You could feel the adrenaline rushing through your veins while your heart pumped loudly in your chest, almost to the point of aching, your heartbeats ringing loudly in your ears.
The atmosphere around you was dense and the tension was so tangible and almost unbearable. Every moment your bodies would meet, the inexorable need within you was too hard to ignore and it threatened to make you crumble.
The moment one of you backed down, the other would be victorious and you knew that Napoleon was starved for victory, his eyes already feasting on you the way he would when he’d make love to you.
He loved to see you display such strength before a fighter such as himself. You were astonishing as you challenged him head-on and your dances (fights) would always end with a searing kiss.
Song choice would be: Hisoka’s Theme by Yoshihisa Hirano
Feedback and comments are much appreciated ❤ I hope you enjoyed this ^~^ Masterlist
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riverdale-retread · 3 years
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Riverdale S5 E13 (Coyote Ugly)- 5 Things I loved/ 3 Things to consider
I loved a LOT of things about this episode, so I might have to cheat on my loved-it count. Indulge me, please. 
Things I loved
1. I loved that Tabitha totally belongs and fits in with these crazy OG Riverdale people.  Tabitha asks Betty, the crazy girl, to not “do anything crazy,” while doing crazy things with Betty, herself.   Why Tabitha does this, we don’t know yet, but she absolutely belongs with these people.  For fancy-school-educated beautiful Tabitha, with her neat puff sleeves and delicate frame, to go all in with Betty Cooper, fake FBI agent, trying to hunt down a serial killer is insanity.  To agree to open up her business premises and offer up her own body as bait for this known serial killer is insanity. To be aware that Betty has caught someone who was acting violent, but to go alone, and also unarmed and apparently without having told anyone, is insanity.  Tabitha is very, very interesting.  Oh and she drives the most amazing car.
2. “Reggie, You’re A Genius!!” and Veronica is not being even a little bit sarcastic.  Reggie Mantle’s air punches every time either he or Veronica close a sale really just cheered me up no end. He’s just so exuberant and physical.  He’s already stated that he is good with numbers and he has a lot of ideas and he’s finally, at Pearls & Posh, getting a chance to let those parts of himself bloom. I loved the beautiful jewel tones that Reggie and Veronica wear throughout the episode, and the way they become ever more color coordinated.  I just love the two of them teaming up and dismantling Hiram’s scam one brick at a time.
3. All the Cheryl things, basically, I loved them. 
-“Compulsion Thy Name is Kevin of Finland” is a line that had me hooting.    And the fact that Kevin, in the right clothes, totally has the body and jawline to be a Tom of Finland illustration is just icing on the cake. Cheryl has been keeping a very close eye on Kevin his whole life, honestly, like a dangerous sort of fairy godmother. Cheryl in a checked version of her little red riding hood outfit walking out of the misty blue forest!  What a beautiful shot. 
- I did not love Tabitha having to say,  “Hot Ladies, dancing on the bar, fully clothed, of course,” but I *did* love Fang’s groaning in response, just so put upon. I did this simultaneously with the character, so I appreciated that.  I did love the glorious amount of cleavage that Cheryl the minister and cheerleading coach insists on putting on display while IN a high school.  Her sartorial choices felt like a vengeful commentary on the mores of American television.  I would much prefer to see tits on my TV than blood & violence, so the fact that an entire severed leg, a ghost of Christmas past with bullet wounds, and a man getting his face smashed in by a furious fit young man armed with brass knuckles can be shown in full but hot ladies dancing on a bar must be fully clothed irritated me. 
So yes - I said a whole bunch of words to fancy up the statement that I loved seeing Cheryl’s cleavage.
Sidebar: Also why does it gotta be only ladies?  I think Fangs was fishing for an invitation.
- “I caught them (Moose & Fangs) having wine & cheese” - “Ew that is diabolical.” OK so when you’re in that mindset where you want to ‘win’ the break up but you’ve lost, this sort of hyperbolic reaction is exactly what you want from your female friends, and Cheryl doubles down with, “You did nothing wrong.”   Why has Kevin never declared best friendship with Cheryl? 
4. I loved that  the show gives me permission to do what I’ve been doing already, which is that I absolutely despise Uncle Fucking Frank.  That asshole, who claims to understand battle trauma and love dogs, brings home a traumatized dog which deserves to have stable people look after it and be aware of its issues, and doesn’t tell his housemates who aren’t even getting basic mental healthcare, one of which is a nephew he is mooching from for room & board, about the dog’s potential problems.  Absolute failure garbage human, and I am elated to have this affirmed.  Everything Frank does makes Archie so much worse, and Archie does not trust Frank fully either.  Loved this too.  Archie lies to Uncle Fucking Frank about ‘Bingo.’ He was a dog, he says, and then says that Eric does not like to talk about the dog so Frank won’t go mentioning him to Eric.
5. I loved the musical numbers, each for a different reason.
- Coyote Ugly Bar Top Dance:  These terrifying, formerly terrorized children of Riverdale thrill me and break my heart.  Everyone just tosses themselves at danger.   Cheryl, Veronica, and Betty are all women who’ve had the experience of being hunted, terrorized, gaslit, stalked, sexually assaulted, having to fight for their lives while under attack from a much bigger assailant, etc  - just *all* the bad things, really - but with the promise of a good time (lyrics actually say: How Can I Resist?) they will make themselves live bait for a serial killer. 
- Everything Is All Right from Jesus Christ Superstar. I love Kevin’s singing, always.  I also adored Penelope Blossom hating the musical interlude, she’s great.  This song is also meant to be ironic, in the show, from my memory, because in context things are NOT all right. Mary Magdalene was wrong.  They’re showing Kevin and Fangs making up, they’re showing Veronica and Reggie making a sale, Jughead was not in this episode at all, so this was quite arresting from a show perspective.  The song is disquieting, with minor key elements, and so it’s a little uneasy, you know?  Things are not all right, at all. 
3 Things to Consider
a) “This award is a painful reminder of all that I haven’t accomplished.”  Kevin breaks my heart but not in a campy tingly way.  The feeling that I’m supposed to be somewhere better than this, doing something more than this - it’s so painful and real. I’m you, Kevin.  “This can’t be my life, it just can’t be.”  This seems to be the theme of the post time-jump Riverdale, but it feels more visceral because of what’s happening in the real world on the date of airing (Fall of 2021).
b) Bingo being a person, not a dog, puts an entirely different and devastating cast over the dream-dialogue between Eric and Archie.  According to Archie’s subconscious, Eric is basically saying, “Leave the other man for dead, and save me and only me.”  In the football field dream,  Eric was transformed into Jughead, who just needed a little help, and had to be fireman-carried to touchdown.  Eric insisting that he be prioritized over the unfortunate Bingo goes some ways to explaining the bond between Eric and Archie as well. 
c) Archie Andrews is terrifying, and this adult Archie is fascinating and arresting to me. “I don’t want this scumbag arrested! I want him hurt” is the most honest thing Archie has ever said on the show.  And when he says, “I’m trying to save this town, but it’s so corrupt,  broken, full of awful, despicable people.  I think there’s nothing worth saving here,”  Archie is very reminiscent of the Dark Hood/ Hal Cooper, actually.  Archie scares the worthless Uncle Fucking Frank so much that U.F. Frank can’t even say, “Nobody asked you to save the world, Archie, just save yourself.”
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coweggomelet · 3 years
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i apparently enjoy putting down my thoughts on the off chance someone will read it and enjoy it so here’s rwby rewatch vol 3. i’m ready to be sad!!
(note: it’s long i’m sorry, i have many thoughts and i tried to narrow it down but oh boy do i think im funny)
- the SOUND DESIGN. AGAIN
- ruby you’re so precious. so sweet. so eager. so earnest. c’mere and i’ll protect you from all the bad shit that happens to you later
- hi cardboard cutout tai
- i keep getting an ad for a rooster teeth show called camp betrayal and the way this man says “hoo hoo hoo” will haunt me for the rest of time
- oh shit the fact that it’s called amity has such insane implications for what it’s used for later. jesus.
- “bffs!” “No.” “…/yessss/” love them
- yeet the yang
- god ruby’s admiration of emerald is so sad in retrospect like… oh boy ruby you’re in for it
- PYRRHAAAAA I LOVE YOU DONT LEAVE ME
- “even if you know how a story ends, that doesn’t make it any less fun to watch” wow cinder are you psychic
- ummmm they’re having a talk can you please respect their privacy
- thor whomst??? i only know nora valkyrie
- BROODY MAN
- hiiiii gavin
- so much mid battle banter. in the middle of a big important fight they just have to make jokes and argue. i love teenagers
- SILENCE YOU BOOB
- awww winter you’re a disaster and you’re horribly emotionally repressed because of your bitch ass dad but jesus christ you care about your little sister and you wanna know she’s doing okay and i’m emotional about it
- PENNYYYYY my love just keep being you
- jeez i forgot how early on ironwood was talking his shit about being “someone who will act”, the “only person” who will do what needs to be done, as if his course of action is what needs to be done
- every single person who underestimates emerald and mercury gets so fucked up. like so many people look at these youngerish teenagers with some funny one liners and banter and go “oh they seem capable and they’re confident and funny so i like em but i can take em” and then absolutely get the shit kicked out of them. and i think that’s why they’ve been so successful, cause nobody takes them seriously enough to consider them a threat.
- see this is why i love rwby. coco just turned her handbag into a gatling gun and cut down a field of grass with it
- god the way they hint at emerald’s semblance before fully showing what it is. *chef’s kiss*
- winter marry me
- we love an uncle who absolutely destroys his nieces at video games
- “they do and they’re called silver!” ruby i love you
- top heavy. heheh
- this dude’s weapon is a trumpet!! she’s got glowing nunchucks!! i love this show!!
- this battle music is AMAZING what the FUCK they’re fighting to JAZZ
- cinder if you keep having vague ominous dialogue people are gonna get the wrong idea
- oh yeah great idea asking a child to take on immense power which sends her into a stressed out panicky spiral and alienates her from the people she finally feels legitimately connected to and for once didn’t feel alienated from
- oh fuck. oh fuck the finals. oh god. oh no.
- she’s so happy. she’s so ready to have a good fight. i’m gonna cry
- FUCK
- and with one moment, the entire show flipped on its head
- god when i watched that the first time i fuckin freaked. i was not prepared man. i was warned. but i was not prepared for this much of a fucking tone change man. that quickly. like tone changes (in my experience) normally happen gradually, but this one happened in, what? 30 seconds?
- fuck
- god this is so bad
- and it GETS WORSE i can’t do this
- love that we can see yang’s distraught eyebrows through her bangs
- after this episode was the first time my friend asked me “how we doing buddy?” and i’ve only wanted to kill her more since then
- oh god emerald’s backstory. this poor child. she was so alone and cinder was there and said i can give you a place i can give you a purpose i can give you security and emerald latched on so hard.
- hiiiii laura bailey i wish you had more than a lil baby line and some sounds of effort
- god that little anklet
- god what a fuckin backstory episode man. backstory? evil plan explanation? idk but it was good
- great parent move. telling your kid you’ll only save them once.
- jaune you sweet good boy. what a good boy. i love him
- god this poor child. she doesn’t deserve this. FUCK i’m so sad. is that the last conversation they have?
- oooooh shit this song is so good. what the fuck i have chills it’s so fitting
- god everyone else is so happy and excited and then there’s ruby who is one of the very few people who knows how bad a fight between penny and pyrrha could be and pyrrha who’s got to decide if she wants someone else’s aura smushed with hers, which could turn her into a different person. FUCK
- peeeennyyyyy “salutations!! it’s an honor to meet you!” it huuuurts
- it makes me so sad but damn was this a good diabolical plan
- god im so sad. penny is so good. and pyrrha’s fuckin eyes. and ruby just collapsing. jesus christ. it’s all fuckin falling apart
- oh fuck here we go. those klaxons are so terrifying
- it makes me so happy that torchwick gets rescued and then like maybe a couple episodes later just gets swallowed
- the fuckin adam fight is coming up too. jesus. really piling on here
- RUBY IS USING ONE OF PENNY’S SWORDS IM GONNA CRYYY
- and she doesn’t even hesitate to save pyrrha
- the one and only time (to my memory) that ironwood is gentle is when he says no one would blame the students if they left. that might be the last time he actually remembers that they’re all teenagers and feels sympathy for these children with all this pressure on them
- oh yeah the big boy
- the first time i watched this i was LOSING MY MIND this whole time. like yang attacked mercury and from then on man. just freaking out.
- eurgh grimm juice
- c’mon blake you got this. i mean. technically you don’t. the fight goes poorly. but you fuckin try and you’re so brave about it and i love youuu
- shut the FUCK up adam you GROOMED her you ASSHOLE
- aahhhh i love velvet!!! her semblance and her whole fighting style is so goddamn cool and has such interesting implications for using weapons and powers of people who are dead
- OH SHIT SHE DOES SUMMON HERE DOESNT SHE. partly but still
- get fucked, torchwick. GET FUCKED. get fuckin chomped
- a backhanded slap feels so much more violent than any fighting with weapons
- uh oh evil katniss
- god. the fucking blood splatter turning the whole shot red. just their silhouettes. the slow motion. the arm slowly separating.
- my friend was also a big fan of “how we feeling?”
- bad. the answer is bad you fuckin sadist
- oz is… a lot of things, and one of them is a goddamn good fighter
- oh god oh noooo she’s gonna kiss & yeet AWWWW FUCK this is heartbreaking
- pyrrha i love you
- if i don’t look it’s not real
- oh pyrrha my love
- awww hey tai. what a good dad. love tai
- i’m so sad. everyone’s so sad. and then salem just has to do an ominous lil monologue where she lays out her whole plan to divide them and makes a fuckin semblance pun. she’s such a good villain
- jacque you stiff bitch
- they’re all fuckin scattered and depressed
- love team rnjr tho
- there she is. god what an ending
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oreobunny1 · 3 years
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My Final Offer
I am but a simple clown in the JATP fandom, drowning in the amazing fanworks y’all have put on tumblr AND AO3, and I couldn’t resist adding my own here to celebrate this Clowngate. I noticed that there was less Reggie angst on here then other characters, and he’s my comfort character so of course that means he’s gonna have to suffer(sorry bud). Don’t worry, there’s also Jukebox and Willex and Flynn and PLENTY of angst for the others too! This is the first chapter, but it’s a WIP but the other chapters are on AO3 and I’ll probably post them on here too. Hope you enjoy!!
Summary: Caleb gets bored of using Nick as a puppet and decides to strike the band where it will hurt them the worst. This is his Final Offer, and if they do not submit this time they will be very sorry.
Besides, even if his plan doesn't work out, he will still have a brand new Bassist in the end.
Chapter 1: Now or Never(Caleb POV)
Nothing was working out for Caleb Covington. 
“UGHHH!” he groaned, slamming his head against his desk in defeat. It was just him and his stupid guard in this gloomy office. As the sun slipped under the horizon outside his Hollywood Ghost Club, Caleb sat and pondered. Random papers and sticky notes haphazardly covered his desk, but even with all that he was no closer to getting his band!
It had been months since the Orpheum performance. Months since those little rats had escaped his clutches and ran away with their girlfriend. The memory made anger boil inside of him, but he had moved on! His possession of Nick was an amazing, diabolical plan that he thought would put Julie and the rest of them under his control. 
But the plan was flawed. Possession turned out to be exhausting and painful, and was ultimately ineffective. He left mere days after he arrived, and accomplished absolutely nothing! The boy was fine of course, he knew nothing of what happened, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was him coming up with a new plan. Caleb had been trying for weeks, experimenting with new stamps and coming up with ideas, but none of them would ever work. The-
“Hmm hm hmmm hmm hmmm,” William, his “guard” at the time, was humming from across the room. Caleb rolled his eyes.
Anyway, Alex, Luke, and Reggie had avoided his club like the plague since the Orpheum. If he had to interfere with his teleportation magic again he would, but right now he had no way of controlling them, of keeping them all in one place. If he could only-
“Hm hm hm hm hmm hm hm.” Caleb’s head snapped up. The boy seemed to be unaware that he was making noise, for he was usually terrified of him. Rightly so. Caleb focused his energy and grabbed a stapler, preparing to chuck it at him to shut him up, but then he paused. 
He had heard that song before. The one William had stuck in his head. It was not a very old song, and he assumed it was still popular if the kids were singing it. It was called… Let Them Go? Let Her Go? He didn't really know the title, but he distinctly remembered the lyrics.
You only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go…
As the lyrics echoed in his head, Caleb got an idea. A terrible idea. An awful idea. 
He was absolutely thrilled.
“Out.” Caleb ordered suddenly. William jumped about a foot in the air and stared at him wildly, like he’d lost his mind. “Get out! Now! You’re dismissed for the rest of the night I guess!”
The boy looked confused, but excitement flashed across his face as the information got through his thick skull.
“T-thank you s-sir!” he stammered, frantically making his way to the door. 
Caleb sighed in annoyance. “Just teleport you idiot!” he spat. William stood there looking scared for a second longer before vanishing, probably to a certain garage to hang out with his friends. 
Caleb didn't care about that now. That was actually the exact reason he wanted him out of his office. You see, young William was one of the few ghosts who could negatively impact the plan that was taking shape in his mind. And he couldn’t have that.
Reaching across his desk, Caleb found what he was looking for. He picked up an old-fashioned phone and held it to his ear.
“Victoria.” He said into the phone, twirling the cord around his finger.
There was a shuffle before the head of his house staff picked up the phone.“Yeah boss?” 
“Prepare a dressing room,” Caleb muttered, resisting the urge to laugh wildly. “We are about to have a guest.”
“Sure thing!” She responded happily. 
He was so excited!! It was now or never to start putting his new plan into action, and he couldn’t wait to try out a new stamp! Putting down the phone, Caleb searched his drawings until he found a very specific design he had been working on. Now he was certain that separation was more painful than anything he could do to them, but where’s the fun in that? He would hurt them so much, as much as he needed to. No, as much as he wanted to until they did what he said. Caleb knew that his Club was the only place for them, and if pain was the only way to make them see that then so be it.
Just wait. They will thank me. Eventually. It may take thousands of years, but they will be grateful. 
He had finally figured out his issue. He spent all that time trying to figure out how to get all three of the boys under his control at the same time, when really it was much simpler than that! If he could just get one of them to join, the others would certainly follow, especially if the safety of one of their members was on the line. And Caleb even knew exactly which band member he had to take: the least important one. The bass guitar was not a vital instrument. Any other band could go on without a bassist, but he had a sneaking suspicion that “Julie and the Phantoms” couldn’t. 
Their bassist was the backbone, but not of their band. Their bassist was an idiot. He was dumb. He was gullible. He was sensitive. They would do anything to get him back. 
But he would make sure that even Julie wouldn’t be able to save the youngest member of their band this time.
“Only miss the sun when it starts to snow,” Caleb sang softly, a malicious grin stretching over his face. 
Get ready boys. I hope you enjoy your sunshine while you still have it.
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screpdoodle · 3 years
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Duality - Chapter One (The Diabolical Ways of the Deciduous Demon Outside my Window)
"KAOS!! Get down here! We're going to be late!!"
Early morning sunlight dappled through the smudged windowpane, the chirping of birds mingling with the songs of the warm autumn wind working its way through the cracks. All things given, it seemed like a perfect morning. That assumption, though, was a misplaced one. At least to the young boy in the bed. He opened one eye, took one look at his window, and pulled the blankets over his head with a groan. The light stung his eyes, making him crave for the sweet embrace of dreams once more. Maybe if he just closed his eyes, it would all just fade away-
Tap tap tap
He flinched, then peered out from beneath his covers, pulling them down just to the bridge of his nose. Tap tap tap. It was back. The warm autumn breeze brought with it that no good tree branch, the warm toned leaves swaying with every tap against the glass. The boy squinted, then laid back down, pulling the blankets tighter around his head. If he just ignored it, the tree wouldn't notice he was there. It would go away, realizing it was a futile attempt to gain his attention. Whatever the tree wanted, he wasn't curious enough to risk finding out.
Tap tap tap. Tick tick tick.
He covered his ears, he wasn't listening. He didn't have time to deal with the tree and the ticking. There wasn't enough time in the world to deal with both. And yet, here they both were. That itching at the back of his mind, and that incessant tapping against the glass.
Tap tick tick. Tap tick tick.
Every moment of silence he could have been relishing was filled with those Ancients awful noises. How long has passed? A minute? A moment? He couldn't tell. All he could focus on was that stupid tree.
Tick tap tick tap tick tap.
In one movement, the boy sat up, throwing his blankets to the ground as forcefully as he could muster, facing the source of his problems.
"For the Ancients' sake, would you shut the f-"
"Kaos!!" The boy screamed as the door was flung open, nearly causing him to fall from his loft, grabbing the pillow in self defense. "Ancients, what is taking you so long?! Mother took Mey to school already, and at this rate you're going to miss the bus! Get dressed and get downstairs!!"
The door was slammed shut just as quickly as it opened, leaving the boy alone in his room. A small room, with walls lined with papers, a soot stained carpet and a desk set beneath the window. The sun bathed everything in a warm light, leaving the still burning candle on its surface obsolete for the time being. Still in shock, clutching his pillow like a weapon, Kaos slowly gathered himself, then climbed down the ladder, still clutching the pillow in his off hand in case he needed to use it. Which he most likely wouldn't. But it never hurt to be prepared. With a huff, he eyed the tree branch one last time, its pesky attempts to grab his attention finally coming to an end. It sat there, perfectly still - aside from the dancing leaves that yearned to be carried away with the fall winds. Oh, how he wished he could join them. For good measure, Kaos threw his pillow at the window, making sure the tree knew who was boss, before venturing over to his closet. His closet was a box. Of course, he had a real closet, set into the wall across from his loft, but he had never bothered to store his clothes in there. No, that was for storing other things. The box did quite nicely for the minimal amount of outfits he owned. Most of which were piled under his loft, waiting to be washed. Kaos half the time forgot they were there, along with some of Mey's clothes that he had borrowed; and some of his brother's that he had… Liberated from languishing beneath his bed with old socks and unfinished homework from grades passed. It was a mystery how Dyskord had ever managed to graduate, Kaos thought as he fished through the unfolded clothes stored within his closet box. Finally, he settled on the same things he always wore, which were sitting to the side of the box. He stumbled back as he pulled on his black sweats, wriggled into his tunic, slipped on his canvas shoes and grabbed a miscellaneous hairbrush he was pretty sure didn't actually belong to him. Kaos pulled the comb through his hair as he scrambled down the stairs, mumbling to himself as he chucked it to the side (Mother or Dyskord would pick it up eventually), grabbed his long coat off its hook, then careened into the kitchen as he put it on. The coat was far too big for him, swallowing his wiry frame whole like some beast made of shadows. Kaos hoped he would someday grow into it, but he had owned it for years now and no such luck had befallen him. Kaos climbed up onto the kitchen counter, eyeing his prize. The cookie tin, his ceremonial breakfast whenever Mother was out of the house. He pulled the lid off, then peered inside - only a few left. Just as Kaos reached his little hand down into the metal tin, Dyskord walked through the back door, tracking mud onto the scuffed tile flooring.
"What do you think you're doing," he spoke, kicking his boots off, never once taking his eyes off Kaos.
"Oh, please. Like you'd tell Mother," Kaos rolled his eyes, sliding the cookie jar back into place, his bounty in hand.
"Maybe I will."
"Then maybe I'll have to tell her who really passed your final exams for you, brother."
The two locked death glares, the only noise being that of the leaky faucet and the occasion chirp of the birds outside. Kaos cracked a smile, Dyskord following.
"Just grab me one too, short stack. Then we've gotta go."
Kaos shoved the cookie into his mouth, then grabbed the tin once more. His face reflected back at him on the polished sides. Big eyes the color of copper, a piggish upturned nose, his cheeks puffed out like an chipsquirrel's, gathering food for the winter. Cookie crumbs mingled with the imperfections that littered his skin, freckles, blemishes, and his birthmarks - mirrored patches of darker skin that clustered around his eyes. They had gotten lighter with age, but they still bugged him sometimes. One little snaggletooth stuck out from the corner of his mouth - an issue that could have been fixed with braces. If he hasn't broken them nearly the day after he got them. He may not have been the 'peak of perfection', but Kaos didn't mind. It made him unique. It made him… special. Though, that paired with his lackluster height usually ended up with him being at the receiving end of a bullying entourage.
"You got everything you need, baby brother?"
Kaos nodded, then hopped down from the counter. "Yes, mother. I have everything."
Dyskord rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "Backpack?"
"At the front door."
"Lunch?"
"Won't be there long enough to need one."
"Catalyst?"
"Harvested it last night."
"Well, aren't you prepared," Dyskord chuckled. "Specimen?"
"That’s your job, remember?" Kaos smirked. "I have it all thought out, Dyskord. Don't worry."
"Well then, what's your plan for when Mother finds out?"
"Who said she'll find out? The only way she would is if someone rats me out." Kaos took a bite from his second cookie, handing the extra to Dyskord as he pushed past into the main hall. The high ceilings and towering walls making him seem even smaller; like an ant in a dollhouse.
"If I'm this deep in, why would I rat you out and risk getting in trouble myself?"
Kaos shrugged, walking backwards so that he could watch Dyskord's movements. "I don't know, brother, but the only variable that could possibly go wrong is you. So as long as you play along, everything should be absolutely peachy~" He grinned, then shoved the rest of the cookie into his mouth. It tasted a little old, probably a month or two, but a stale cookie was better than no cookie. And at least Kaos knew that batch hadn't been poisoned.
Dyskord chuckled dryly, placing the cookie in the little leather satchel that hung at his hip. Kaos knew he'd probably eat it later. Dyskord could never resist a cookie. "Alright, alright, tiny genius. I'll trust you on this. But don't blame me when this plan fails too."
"It won't. Trust me."
Kaos grabbed his backpack off its hook, unzipping it just to triple check its contents. It never hurt to be certain.
"Communicator?"
"Yep."
"You got your diary~?"
Kaos whipped around, glaring. "It's not a diary! It's my journal of doom!!"
Dyskord patted Kaos on the head, ruffling his umber hair, a condescending smile on his lips. "Sure it is, baby brother."
Kaos grumbled under his breath, turning back to his backpack. He shrugged Dyskord off, trying to focus. Sure enough it was all there. Homework, lunchbox, communicator, his 'journal' - everything important was there and accounted for. As Kaos struggled to zip up his backpack once more, his gaze drifted to the portrait that hung above the door. His family, painted in exquisite detail, framed by an intricate wooden frame. Dyskord, with his old ashy blonde hair (Kaos had suggested he dye it neon green since it was a similar level of horrible against his skin tone, but Dyskord had insisted on vibrant silver.) Mey sat on Mother's lap, creasing the dress she had spent all of the previous day ironing to get it absolutely pristine, because she wouldn't sit still. Mother bore her usual scoul, contrasted by Mey's wide grin. If their expressions weren't so different, Mey might have been mistaken for a younger Mother. Father stood to the side of her, behind Dyskord, wearing a similar expression to his wife. Kaos had been surprised he hadn't been absent for that too. Looking down to where he was immortalized in paint, Kaos stood the front - where the painter had instructed him to stand; wearing a matching suit and tie like the rest of his siblings - though he at least still had his scarf. Black and grey striped knit that was as long as he was tall, coiled around his neck and draped over his shoulder. Kaos never went anywhere without his scarf, and even though he heard Hel from Father afterwards, it was worth it. As Kaos slung his backpack over his shoulder, he trailed his hand to his neck, reaching to feel the soft warmth of his scarf. Instead, his hand only met skin.
"C'mon Kaos, we gotta get going. We don't want you being late for-"
"My scarf!!" Kaos shouted. "Where's my scarf!?"
"Kaos, it's not even that cold out. You don't need your- oooor you can go get it. That's fine too, I guess." Dyskord watched as Kaos chucked his overstuffed backpack to the side, the contents spilling across the floorboards as he raced upstairs to his room. He swore, Kaos would be the death of him one of these days, but at least his life was interesting with him around. Dyskord just wished he wasn't so, well, chaotic. But he supposed that came with the name.
Kaos threw the door to his room open, his breath catching in his throat. He had been wearing it when he fell asleep, where could it have gotten off to!? Had he taken it off when he got dressed? No, it wasn't by his closet box. Was it in his loft? No, no. Maybe it was in the blanket pile he had created that morning. Or maybe it was- Kaos froze, slowly turning towards the window, the familiar tap tap tapping of the tree branch against the grimy glass greeting him.
"You," he glowered at the tree branch, carefully approaching the window. "What did you do with it!?"
The tree branch just continued its endless rapping against the window pane, mocking him, oblivious to the enemy it had made. Kaos stormed forward, climbing up onto his desk, kicking the papers that covered it onto the ground.
"Give it back now!!" He pressed his face against the glass. "Or so help me, you will meet your untimely demise!!"
He was given no response. Not that Kaos expected one. The trees were always conniving, this one especially. They seemed innocent, but beneath that bark was a dastardly deciduous demon, lulling him into a false sense of security, laying in wait. But Kaos knew. Kaos knew the truth about these creatures. And he wouldn't let them get the upper hand. Never once taking his eyes from the branch, Kaos slid open his window slowly, then peered out. There it was, as he had assumed, his scarf. In the patchy grass, between the gnarled roots of the beast. He shot the tree one last glare, muttering to himself, then stepped out onto the small ledge right outside his window. At least that was a perk of being small, he could fit into spaces others couldn't. Kaos stood up, balancing himself against the wall, holding onto one of the few bricks that jutted out from the flush surface. He had done this many a time, but every time he felt butterflies congregating within his stomach, a few fluttering into his throat. The wind in his hair, the view of the forest beyond- painted in autumnal colors of deep purples and dry oranges, the grounds below in desperate need of tending. All of it flooding his senses, paired with the impending damage he would receive at one wrong move. It was all… magnificent. But admiring the view wasn't what he was here to do, no. Kaos shook his head, reaching out to grab the closest branch, hoisting himself into it. The tree may have been a conniving, callous creature, but at least it served a purpose. That being a way for Kaos to get to the ground without completely shattering all of his fragile little bones.
"Kaos, come on!!" He heard Dyskord call from inside. "I have other stuff I need to do today, if you don't hurry up you'll have to take the school ship!!"
Kaos rolled his eyes, carefully stepping down onto the next branch. Dyskord was so impatient. He'd get down, grab his scarf, and they'd be on their way before his older brother could utter another idiotic sentence. Kaos slid onto another branch, this one bending slightly under his weight. He shot the tree a glare, as if daring it to try something, before stepping onto the next one. This one, unluckily, wasn't so forgiving. Before Kaos knew what was happening, the branch had buckled beneath him, sending him crashing to the ground - the branches he fell past slicing at his skin. At least the damp earth was there to soften his fall. Kaos propped himself up on his arms, spitting out a chunk of dirt as he silently cursed himself out for letting down his guard. At least he has his scarf. Kaos stood up, brushing the dirt from his clothes best he could before assessing the damage. A few cuts here and there, his coat would definitely need some stitches, but at least nothing was broken. Kaos scooped his scarf up, wrapped it loosely around his neck, then froze. He heard the sound of an engine revving up, the realization hitting him all too late.
"WAIT!!" Kaos shouted, making a mad dash for the front door. "Dyskord, I'M COMING!!"
As Kaos rounded the corner, three things crossed his mind. His backpack laying on the path that lead up to the door, the idiocracy of his older brother; and the boat that belonged to the very same, the one that was usually docked at the edge of the island, now whirring off into the horizon without him.
"YOU IDIOT!!" Kaos shouted, skidding to a stop. He swore he heard his brother laughing over the sound of the motor, which was quickly fading away. "I'M TELLING MOTHER!!"
Of course he wouldn't. Telling Mother had become an empty threat within the family, no longer holding any weight after countless empty promises of "Mother'll hear about this" and "I'm telling mom" (the latter usually used by Mey) had been thrown around for years. But it was the only comeback he could dream up in the moment. He had other problems than coming up with a witty response that Dyskord couldn't even hear. He'd get him back later. After he was done with his current plan. Then he'd have all the time in the world to get back at Dyskord for being a complete ignoramus and putting a petty act of defiance over the welfare of the plan. That's what Kaos got for letting him in on it, he supposed, kicking a loose pathing tile out of frustration. His kick barely dislodged it, but it was at least something. Kaos grabbed his bag up off of the ground, finally noticing the note taped to it. Have fun taking the school ship. Of course. Kaos crumpled the note up as he swung the backpack over his shoulder, muttering to himself all the while. He looked around, starting to head in the direction the school ship usually docked. It was quite a ways away, so the sooner he left, the better chances he had of catching it. Why it didn't dock closer to his home was beyond him, and despite the complaints he had lodged with the school board and his mother, no changes had been made. Rolling fields of splotchy, yellowing grass were laid out before Kaos, broken up by the occasional stone pathway. Cracking with age and broken up like a checkerboard. The wound through the dirt haphazardly, interrupted by the occasional tree (which Kaos did his best to keep his distance from) or the start of a rickety bridge that connected the nearby islands. On his usual walks, Kaos would have stopped on the bridges, kneeling down and seeing how far down he could reach into the abyss below, waiting for something to float by that he could possibly add to his collections. Today, he had no time for that. Today, he actually had somewhere to be. Kaos counted his steps, glancing over his shoulder occasionally to watch as his home got smaller and smaller. From here, it looked normal. Simple even. But the imposing aura it cast still lingered in the air. The tall spires piercing the wispy clouds themselves, high stone walls and arched windows covered in moss and ivy. An overbearing, ancient labyrinth of a castle Kaos called home. Sometimes Kaos was convinced the place was still standing because of the grime it was caked in, which was the excuse he gave himself whenever it came to cleaning. If he did a good job, he might not have a home to go back to. It was an excuse Mother was never fond of. Kaos remembered one year he had been put on ivy duty during their yearly cleaning. He had encountered a particularly dastardly tangle of vines on the west side, one that had kept him trapped for the majority of the day. Mother had found him deep asleep in their verdant web after the sun had set, and Kaos hadn't been allowed near that part of the castle for a good while afterwards. Kaos sighed, a smile creeping its way onto his face at the memory, his home now simply a silhouette against the backdrop of the endless sky. He looked ahead, finally making out his target. The old barge that served as the school ship. Badly, at that. It was only a few islands away, where the grass was more lush and the terrain less harsh. Kaos picked up his speed, going from a light jog to a sprint, barely feeling his feet touch the ground. He was gonna make it. He could still see students boarding, he still had time, he could still make it.
"WAIT! WAIT!!" He shouted, causing a few heads to turn, but only for a brief moment.
Kaos forced himself through the crowd, nearly doubling over as he struggled to catch his breath, one hand on the strap of his backpack and the other on his scarf, just making sure it was still there. He ignored the dirty looks he was getting as the line began moving again, following the students ahead of him up the ramp. Even from his low vantage point he could tell the state of the ship. Noisy and overcrowded, with just a sprinkle of staff trying desperately to keep order. The chatter of students loud enough to make the patchwork steel hull of the ship vibrate. Kaos found his mind wandering as he and the rest of the students were herded onto the ship like animals, personal space a thing of the past. Everyone around him was at least double Kaos' height, leaving him lost in a forest of legs and torsos shuffling him forward. It would have been humiliating if he wasn't used to it. Ever since he was little, (well, littler) he had been the runt of the litter. Mother had wanted to hold him back because of it, even though she admitted he was smart enough to be a grade ahead. But here he was, stuck in a sea of people all taller than him, even at a grade lower than he should have been. At least that meant he excelled compared to everyone else - when he actually applied himself, that is. It was so hard to apply himself when everything was so easy. Kaos wanted a challenge, he needed one, he-
BANG!
Kaos stumbled back, bumping into the person behind him. He clutched his hands over his ears, the world vibrating around him. He faintly heard the person behind him mutter something as they pushed past, pulling him back to reality. What in the Ancients' names was that?! Kaos looked around, stepping off of the ramp and onto the deck of the ship, feeling the engine start to whir to life. He frowned. It must've just been a misfire of the engine. The ship was old and broken, misfires were bound to happen. But even then, Kaos couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Kaos peered over the edge of the ship, watching as the island below them slowly began drifting away. The smell of engine fuel and strong perfume filling the air. Kaos gripped the rusting side rail, then looked back to the deck of the ship. The talking had only grown louder, everyone trying to be heard over the roar of the engine and of course one another. It was an idiotic sight, people huddled into groups. Elves and Ents playing a quick game of Skystones, a group of Mabu discussing the best way to prepare beetroots for their cooking class - even the Gillmen were chatting it away, all in their own little worlds. Everyone seemed to have a group. Everyone, but Kaos. It wasn't a bother to him, though, not at all. Why would it have been? He had himself, and that was all Kaos needed. Kaos began making his way through the crowds of kids, hands in his pockets and eyes trained on the floor. He slid his backpack off once he got to his usual corner, plopping himself down. He looked up at the sky, watching the clouds drift by, the chatter around him becoming nothing but white noise. He closed his eyes, letting himself drift off, running the plan through his head once more. It would be perfect. He just needed to make it through the day.
***
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Time for my feels dump thoughts on Diabolical Box...! y’all, this game. this game. I don’t think people give it enough credit for... a lot of what it does, despite the messiness of the plot reveals... but it’s so special and unique, in ways I’m only now appreciating. also this is gonna be really REALLY fucking long I am so sorry, but I have a Lot to say about the ending parts... i just love this game so much...... so i wrote a fucking novel bc of course i did.
also i played this in October, completely unintentionally, so that’s noice.
The amount of voice acting and cutcenes in this compared to CV is amazing, I love it so much, even if it is funny sometimes the dialogue they choose to voice and then abruptly cut off a few lines later.
I had COMPLETELY forgotten about Luke jumping on Chelmey and trying to rip his face off and it’s just the funniest fucking thing omg; Hershel in the background going “NO LUKE THAT’S HIS FACE” is comedic gold.
Will we ever know what Hershel was going to say when Chelmey asked him what Luke’s relationship to him was... dammit Luke why’d you have to cut him off.
Hershel calling the hamster “generously proportioned” is amazing. also “I’ve always said that helping rodents in need is among the duties of every true gentleman” Hershel... please tell me what other situations have made you say that... please...
Why is there an entire subplot about finding this Karen’s dog, just to make Chelmey look like even more of an idiot? if they needed to pad the game out more, they definitely could have done it with flashbacks or in places that I’m... ahem... emotionally invested in
Flora’s treatment in this game is so infuriating to me, like... why did they think this was a good idea? What was the point of bringing her into the plot for NO other reason than to be kidnapped and impersonated? Was it literally just because they needed a way for Hershel and Luke to run into Don Paolo and get the box back from him??? Why couldn’t, idk, Katia run into him in Dropstone and get the box from him and save Flora, that would still get the box to her and keep Flora in the group, and it would tip them off to Katia being related to all this even earlier, and Don Paolo could still be shown there if he absolutely has to make an appearance in each game. I know it’s because he has to be built up and then revealed, and because Hershel always has to have a dramatic point-n’-reveal every game, but whyyyyyy does it have to be at the expense of Flora. :))))) It would have been interesting to see her reactions to Folsense and Anton and everything, and not have Katia be the only female involved in all this; maybe she could, you know, actually have a personality!! hahaaaa who am I kidding...
beluga: “it’s already been a year since she passed away” me: whythehellyoucryingsodamnloud.jpg
Anderson talking about Dropstone and the sacrifices made to found it and how it can’t die out like “other towns”... with the song playing... whythehellyoucryingsodamnloud.jpg
The sheer coincidence of Katia going to Folsense on the same day that Hershel and Luke would end up in Dropstone and then there, and on the 50th anniversary of the town... not a likely one.
Didn’t some versions of the game come with a real version of the train ticket to Folsense? I want it D:
i also want a real Elysian Box, like can i commission someone to make one minus the whole you know actual gold, please, i’ll pay aNYTHING- *sobs*
LUKE HOW COULD YOU FORGET THAT HERSHEL IS AN ARCHEOLOGIST, AFTER ALL THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SHIT YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH
Hershel to “Flora”: “you’re as white as a sheet!” Don Paolo, minutes ago while the others aren’t looking: *furiously powdering his face mask or some shit*
Why was Anton’s diary lying in the street though... it doesn’t make sense that Katia or Beluga would have it, and they couldn’t open it anyhow. probably just a gameplay thing that should go unquestioned but I want to knowwww lol. Also wish Hershel and Luke had reactions to the entries.
Ilyana tho. Also bootleg Clive asdfghjkl
I LOVE THE TOWER OF HANOI PANCAKE PUZZLES
Am I the only one who doesn’t understand the obsession with the tea set... like yeah it’s fun to serve tea when you actually get it right, but I’m stuck with like two recipes missing and getting frustrated just trying and trying countless ingredient combinations on end because some of the npcs are NOT helpful enough in telling what to make :))))
Obviously Katia can’t reveal anything or say anything about why she’s there at all to keep the suspense till the end, but it would have been cool to see her working together with them and making a plan to get into the castle and help Anton aka I just wanted more scenes with Anton being nice and not flying into a rage over a misunderstanding ugh
It’s honestly pretty impressive some of the deductions/connections Chelmey makes in this game, despite his... other incredibly stupid ones lol
“iSnT iT oBvIoUs?”
WHY DOES HERSHEL RISK KILLING LUKE (AGAIN) WITH THE BOX. And why tf does it not do anything to them since they assumed it would...?
The biggest mystery of the series is how Pavel gets where he does, truly
The music in the forest is truly one of the best osts, god I love it. I also adore the Herzen Castle ost now, I never really noticed it before but it is WONDERFULLY creepy and heavy and melancholic and just... idk, those harpsicords go hard. damn.
Opening the Elysian Box is the best puzzle in the series, because of the meaning behind it. Or at least, it’s my favorite for that reason :^)
Alright folks so I’m gonna be completely, unabashedly honest here, and reveal myself to be the superficial, shallow fucker I am lmao: Anton is super hot and I’m still attracted to him even now, and I hate that we get so little time with younger him dklslskdfkflssd I AM SORRY I CAN’T HELP IT OKAY. BLAME THE VOICE ACTOR, HE HAD NO RIGHT TO SOUND SO UNEXPECTEDLY DEEP AND INCREASE ANTON’S HOTNESS LEVEL BY 1000%... just. god damn. damn. the dining room scene. the lighting. the way he puts his hands down and closes his eyes at one point. the way he says Herzen. the freaking sass with “chalk it up to my bad taste then.” the little clap. his entire design which just oozes Victorian era anime bishie beauty. kudos to the character designer who was like “well they said make someone cool and handsome and i wasn’t sure what to do but i tried and i guess it worked out” GOOD SIR BOY DID YOU SUCCEED. how dare this man turn me on so much, fUCK. And I know it’s super shitty of me to not like his old design as much!!! but just!!! why the beak nose.... why.... he was so gorgeous and then you give him the Bronev nose treatment..... i’m already so sad over the ending but you make him look so much sADDER, THE SADDEST POSSIBLE DESIGN FOR OLDER ANTON. It’s not that I mind him being old, I just wish he looked more like himself... there didn’t need to be such a drastic change. But I know I’m just being petty lmao. anyway stan Anton for most beautiful PL character always 🙏 Descole and Clive’s hotness have nothing on this man
*ahem* But to get back to serious topics, replaying this now when I’m older, with the ones after it in mind, I think I finally realize why this game stands out to me so much from the others, making it my favorite. To put it as best I can, Diabolical Box, to me at least, just has a different feel from all the other PL games. Yes, it’s still definitely a Layton game, you still investigate a mystery, there’s still puzzles everywhere, it still has a relaxing city or country feel to the atmosphere, there’s still lots of charm, but once you hit Folsense and the climax and the ending reveals, the tone sort of... shifts? Not drastically, but enough that’s different from any point in all the other games that I can remember; I feel like Last Spector might have the closest kind of atmosphere to Folsense at certain parts, but even then the plot of that game is nowhere near to having the same tone as this one. Diabolical Box, when you really look close at it and think about it, is dark. Dark in a way that none of the other games are, despite the darkness some of the others do have. And I think part of that is because almost every other game/movie is connected to the overarching story involving Hershel’s past and people involved with him, and so the drama and angst is very much grounded in London or other places Hershel would be/was, and in his time, but Diabolical Box is unique in that the story and characters in it have nothing to do with him. And to reflect this, Anton and Sophia’s story is based in the early 1900′s, the Victorian era, in a city so far separated from, again, everything to do with Hershel, that if you were to just watch their story by itself and take the professor and Luke out of it, and you knew nothing about the series, you could reasonably argue that it isn’t from a Professor Layton game at all. What I mean is that Anton’s story could be an entire anime all on its own surely it’s not obvious how badly I want that, nope, not at all, completely separate from this series, and it would work; it could be its own period era-esque drama series, still with all the supernatural shit intact later on. I can think of a few existing anime similar to what I’m imagining. 
And I really do think it would be amazing, because like I said this story is terribly, terribly dark, and sad; as a PL game, like a lot of the other ones, it can’t go deep into the nitty gritty of what makes Anton’s story so fucking depressing, but just like... Imagine it. Imagine being alone, for so long in that castle, so long that you don’t even know how long it’s been anymore, with virtually no one, after having your heart broken and being abandoned by the person you loved the most, and who you thought loved you, and getting no closure about it. This long post goes a ton of detail about Anton’s character and things he was probably feeling/reasons for his behavior, but in short, Anton’s mother is never mentioned, so combined with how distant he was from his father and the fact that he feels alone in his role in society and that no one truly sees him as a real person, it’s quite possible that he clung to Sophia unconsciously as a mother figure, and, in general, she was the only person who made him feel seen, and loved. The only exception was Beluga, but Beluga leaves the town and Anton behind after quarreling with their father, so... It’s just extremely apparent when you read the diary entries and his dialogue (with the voice acting) that Anton was always alone and terribly insecure, and that Sophia made him the happiest he ever was - and so her leaving him was devastating to him. He was alone for fifty years (and who knows how long it actually felt, to him), in a lonely castle and emptying town, his entire family either left or dead, his body slowly aging without him even knowing it, while he had a daughter and granddaughter born without even knowing it, and all the while he’s left with the misunderstanding that Sophia might have loved someone “better” than him all along, never getting answers, having to live with all that grief and guilt and blame and jealousy and self-hatred over a situation that wasn’t even entirely true. Imagine what your MENTAL STATE would be like, jfc it’s a miracle he’s as sane as he is in the game!! Not to mention everything that crashes down on him within TEN MINUTES AT THE END. Yes, Unwound Future and the prequels very purposefully heap the angst on with Clive/Dimitri and Descole respectively, like “we are trying so hard to make you feel for this guy cry cry cry” and I fall for it like the trash i am love them too, don’t get me wrong, but Anton’s tragedy is much more understated but in my opinion is by far the absolute saddest of them all. I just... i’m crying y’all, this poor man. give him a fucking HUG. Anton Did Nothing Wrong 2k20; he doesn’t even hurt the people he lures in with his vampire scheme!! he lets them go without a scratch!!! what a guy... give him a hug and blankets please i love him so much, him and Sophia- *sobs*
and also as a side note, I honestly think Descole/Desmond would fit perfectly into this game for a lot of these reasons, in the trend of “trying to fit Descole into the first trilogy”; he’s got the right Aesthetic™ for one thing, but mainly just he and Anton have a LOT in common...! actually, now that I think about it, Randall and Anton do too, but I much prefer the notion of Descole and Anton interacting. honestly, I’m toying with the idea of an AU where Desmond and resurrected Aurora end up in Folsense and solve that mystery themselves instead of Hershel and Luke; i think it’d be fascinating.
However, by the same token, as much as I LOVE this game and characters for all of those reasons... it also makes no fucking sense ahaha. How the FUCK does the gas work. The illness that started killing people when the ore was first unearthed and is the reason everyone starts leaving, is THAT from the gas I assume?? but like why?? cause eventually it just turns to making the town appear as it was years ago and keeping people young, so...? ARE ALL THE TOWNSPEOPLE NOT ACTUALLY THERE, OR THEY ARE AND ARE JUST YOUNG LIKE ANTON; I’m still not clear on this!! because Hershel at the end says they’re illusions, and yet when you talk to the npcs so many of them complain about being tired and feeling old, so what is the truth!! It would make sense if newcomers see the town as it is in the pictures, but there’s no reason for them to not age... in fact, I don’t understand where the not aging thing comes from at ALL, since if the idea is that the gas makes what you think will happen happen, how tf did that even come about in the first place??? There’s no way everyone who inhaled the gas would think the exact same things and have the exact same hallucination. And if fifty years passed in reality, how long did it feel like to Anton/others; surely it couldn’t have been that long if they never questioned why they weren’t aging? If the gas in the box put Schrader in a coma, what was his theory about what would happen? Why does nothing happen to Hershel and Luke upon opening it when they clearly assume something will happen? Related to other things, how does the box become the source of a rumor, and how does Schrader even get it? Do people just assume Anton is dead or otherwise gone, or do they know/assume he’s still in the castle but don’t try to see him because of the vampire? Does Beluga know Anton is still there, if he does it’s pretty shitty of him to ignore him, and why does he think the box has to do with the fortune of all things if he possibly knew Sophia wanted it and knew it had something to do with her and Anton (seriously I don’t understand Beluga, I really wish they’d done more with him; he looks so shitty even if you give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he knew the least amount possible)??? Did Sammy know that the drugged flowers related to getting into Folsense? Did Katia know how to get into Folsense, and what was she planning to do if she never found the box in order to prove she was who she said she was? Why do some of the npcs act like they know the deep dark secret of Folsense and keep saying Hershel and Luke don’t need to know, and keep talking about the town being cursed, like do they really know the truth?? Or not??? LEVEL-5 I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS AND I’M TOO DUMB TO FIGURE OUT THE ANSWERS. EVEN LAYTON VS. WRIGHT’S STUPID REVEALS MAKE MORE SENSE THAN THIS AAAAAHHHH
anyway DB best game anton hot Even with all the weirdness though that makes this game the most Layton the Layton series has ever Layton’d lmao, I still love Diabolical Box so damn much. I love it so much, guys. It’s not part of a huge narrative, it’s not connected to the main characters; it tells its own little story and it does that perfectly. It’s so unique from all the rest, like I said, the plot has so much depth I don’t really see talked about, Anton and Sophia’s story is so beautifully tragic and underrated on a mature level that none of the other games really reach, and despite how upset I am we don’t get to see more of them, their love story is so impactful and emotional just from what little we do see, despite some of the oddities of how it plays out... they’re so sweet together and I cry so damn much over them ಥ⌣ಥ Iris is one of the most beautiful and touching songs in the series, too, and my favorite. And I’m a sucker for the Victorian era and cute romance lmao, so it just gets me like nothing else does... it’s so wonderful. saddest PL game, I will die on this hill. Even if I seem to talk a lot more about some of the other games/characters simply because there’s more content to talk about and there’s more to say about the more flawed content. you can’t improve perfection *chef’s kiss*, deep down, I think, this game will always be my favorite. ❤️
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livefordrama · 3 years
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Reviewing Dramas I Have Watched Part 8
Again, here is my rating system:  1- Did not like, 2- Enjoyed but probably wouldn’t watch again, 3- Enjoyed and would watch some episodes again/may watch again, 4- Enjoyed and would watch again, 5- Loved 
Korean Drama
My Strange Hero: 4
Trigger Warning: Suicide, Bullying, Verbal and Emotional Abuse
My Strange Hero is about a man named Bok-su (which stands for revenge), who was falsely accused by his friend and girl friend of shoving his friend off the school roof and expelled from high school. Now nine years later, he gets the opportunity to return to school but he isn’t just going to go back nicely, seeing the seemingly cozy lives those who betrayed him are living he decides to enact his revenge by proving how corrupt the high school and the people working in it are. However, his plans for revenge get more difficult to achieve when he begins to fall for his ex-girlfriend once again. 
This show was cute and interesting, it made me mad and lot and Yoo Seung-ho never disappoints. I ended up watching it in less than a week with studying and all so it draws you in really fast. I absolutely loved the realistic factor of not having to forgive everyone for a good ending and to move on. Many shows, kdrama or otherwise, make characters forgive even those who did horrible things to them just for a good ending, and it’s not always that simple nor do you owe those who did horrible things to you an apology to be a good person and move on looking at you Missing Nine. However my main complaint with it is that the ending isn’t as impactful or satisfying as the ending three episodes previous. I’m glad they had the three ending episodes because the other characters got more closure, I just wish they would have made it as impactful as the ending of episode 29. It is about thirty minutes an episode so it’s a really fun and interesting watch if you need something on the shorter side. I highly recommend!
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Love Alarm (Season 1): 3 
Trigger Warning: Bullying, Suicide, PTSD, Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Abuse 
Love Alarm deals with the concept of having an app that can read your emotions and alerts your phone when you are in 10 meters of someone who loves you or alerts your crushes phone if they are within the 10 meters. It follows Jojo, a girl with a mysterious and sad past, who can’t download Love Alarm because of her phone. She is in an unhappy relationship and begins to have feelings for the new student. After being kind to a student, he gives her the phone and she can finally download it only to find that love is a lot more complicated than she originally expected. 
Okay, I started this show because the new season was coming out and everyone was freaking out about it. I had been avoiding it all this time because I love Song Kang and have been following his work since his smaller roles, hoping he would get bigger roles. I was so excited when I first heard he would be the main here but couldn’t ever bring myself to watch it cause I don’t like romance love triangles and already knew he was playing the webtoon second lead which made it worse. Plus I have a trauma with anything that has Kim So-Hyun in it. I adore her acting, she is so good, too good. She just always plays in really sad, dark Kdramas and I always like the second leads in her shows so I just get sad and angry when I watch her shows. I at the time just didn’t feel like dealing with being annoyed and finally got in the mood to watch a cheesy love triangle romance. *spoiler alert* I can confidentially say that while no character and no ship is necessarily healthy, I do prefer Sun-ho to Hye-yeong. No, not because he is played by Song Kang, in the first few episodes I hated his character. I wanted to punch him so badly, but with all his immature flaws he did do some mature things. He told Hye-yeong to not fight over Jojo and to let her pick which I loved because, shows like to have the two people fight amongst themselves who gets the crush and that’s so stupid to me, Jojo is a person with feelings too and she might not like either so I loved that he said that. I also loved that instead of telling Hye-yeong not to pursue Jojo because he still loved her, he told Jojo to stay away from Hye-yeong so that he wouldn’t be hurt by her like Sun-ho was. He still loved her but his friend came first, and I felt horrible when he lost almost everyone who genuinely loved him. Hye-yeong is okay, but he isn’t even a healthier option, he literally stalks her all the time without her even knowing about it, he memorized her daily routine, where he’s going to college so he could move there to be around her, it’s just too creepy to me. Yes, Sun-oh stalked her too and that is not okay at all, but he made his presence known so that she can voice if she was uncomfortable or knew to call someone if she felt threatened, Hye-yeong sneaks around and doesn’t even talk to her and that’s super creepy to me. I just think they are both immature and personally with some growth I think Sun-oh is more fitting than Hye-yeong cause the two really do seem like they are in love with each other while Jojo and Hye-yeong seem like a crush that will turn out to be more platonic. I know it’s wishful thinking but that’s just my hopes. *spoiler over* I did really love this show actually, sometimes you just need a trashy dramatic romance. Yes, it had toxic behaviors but I still liked it, it felt like a realistic teenage couple in high school (minus Mr. Stalkery Stalks.) I think that not everything has to be analyzed, I enjoyed the cute romantic scenes at face value, even though I knew they weren’t healthy. If it happened to me in real life, I would have punched a bitch but it’s fun to watch on a screen. 
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Blood: 2
Trigger Warnings: Blood, Suicide, Terminal illness, Murder, Abuse. 
Blood is about a surgeon who is also a vampire. He tries to control his vampire self and help humans while working on a way to make himself human. When he transfers to a new hospital things take a turn for the weird as the patients of the new ward start exhibiting symptoms he is all too familiar with. 
Blood was really good for the first two thirds of the series. I watched it before I found out about the main couples real life situation but continued to enjoy it because it’s none of my business what they do in their personal lives (so please don’t message or leave comments about that situation or your opinions on it.) Both couples were super cute and there were some plot twists that admittedly got me. I liked the story line and the idea that vampires were viruses that doctors were researching in secret. I really got hooked for most of the story; however, the last few episodes felt almost like they switched writers and the new writer had never watched the previous episodes. Comments were made that never were brought up again, like the thirty minutes of vaguely discussing his parents and who he was as an infectee that was never even slightly brushed upon for the rest of the episodes let alone resolved. Not to mention that last episode was a total mess and the ending sucked. The last two episodes are not canon in my mind that’s how weirdly out of place for the show they felt, it was like a 180. The ending was so confusing and I just really hated how it all played out. Because of this, I give the show a 2 cause I did enjoy it a lot but I won’t watch it again. Once of that was enough. 
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Legend Hero: 4
Legend Hero, also known as Legend Hero Samgugjeon or Legends Heroes the Three Kingdoms, is about people who compete in a dream battle to acquire their ultimate dream. The main character acquired three spirit helpers which help him in combat by transforming him into an armored knight with special power, and later befriends angels who help him in the battles by boosting this power. He has to fight friend and foe alike to achieve his ultimate dream but that begs the question, is a dream really worth it?
I really enjoyed this show, it was admittedly difficult to get into at first but once I did, I was hooked. The characters were so cute and endearing, the plot had humor, angst, and fluff alike. The acting was a little silly at points but it was made for kids so it’s a little overdramatic. It was all around a very entertaining watch, I watched the whole series while on vacation during the resting hours when my family and I were lazing around the hotel and it was such a refreshing, happy, lazy watch. I highly recommend for those who enjoy a happy watch when they just wish to relax.
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Web-Drama/Mini-Series
Power Rangers Dino Force Brave: 4
Power Rangers Dino Force Brave, while technically a sequel to the super sentai series, is a original stand alone production and sSouth Korean take on the power rangers series. While the power rangers finally enjoy the peace that had come to the earth, a new threat is brewing. The Neo-Deboth Army has arrived looking for the power of the dinosaur king, the power ranger once more have to come together to defeat this threat.
This show was super interesting and cute. I have never seen any of the power ranger series so I am entirely inexperienced when it comes to their world. However, I can confidentially say this is a good stand alone as I was not confused while watching it. The first episode got recommended to me on youtube and since I was bored and unsure of what to do, I decided to watch it. I believe I finished the whole series in only a few days. It was super cute and I liked how ironic and silly the ending was with all the characters, including the evil ones dancing together. I’m sure die hard power rangers fans hated that but as someone who knows nothing about the series, I found it quite hilarious. The plot itself was entertaining and cool, it had some angst moments and some cute moments. I loved the ending, but that’s all I will say about that. 
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Founder of Diabolism Q: 3
Founder of Diabolism Q is simply snippets of cute or funny scenes from the book that didn’t make it into the series or at least not in as much detail. It follows many characters in small, five minute long episodes and the shenanigans they get in to. 
Founder of Diabolism Q was super cute! I have watched The Untamed and read some of the book but haven’t watch the actual anime yet. Still, I decided to watch this short series. I watched each episode as it came out and loved every one. There isn’t much to say on it though, other than it was super cute and if you love The Untamed or its adaptions, I highly recommend. Just make sure you watch or read one of the full adaptions first otherwise you will be very confused. 
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Imaginary Cat: 4
Trigger Warning: Depression, Suicide, Vomit, Illness, Death
Imaginary Cat is about an aspiring webtoon artist who, after loosing his crush and falling into a depression, finds a cat in an alley and takes her in. He is able to recover from the loss and get back into writing when he meets a girl who is obsessed with cats especially after she lost her kitten as a child. He is just trying to get his webtoon accepted and she just wants to get close to him and his cat. 
This was such a cute little easy watch, but was really sad at some points throughout the series. I teared up through some scenes and laughed so hard through others. I also related a lot to how the main plays with his cat, especially when said cat wants none of it. It was a really nice mini-drama to watch in the very little time I had between studying and moving house. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend to those who want a easy watch that’s a little sad and very cute. 
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Korean Movies
The Magician: 4
Trigger Warning: Blood, Abuse, Drugs, Suicide Attempt, Murder, Death
The Magician is set in the Joseon Era and follows the famous magician, Hwan-hee. He along with his blind friend Bo-eum ran away from their abusive caretaker as children and are still worrying about being found by him even to this day as they perform to keep their livelihoods. Meanwhile a noble lady who was sold to the Qing dynasty comes to town. The two end up running into each other and quickly fall in love, however they both have to overcome the obstacles in their way in order to be together. 
I loved this movie, I had to pause a few times just to process how much I personally enjoyed it. I wish I was able to watch it in a better quality because I never once saw how his one eye was blue, I just took their word and the movie poster for it. Unfortunately, it was the only place I could find to watch so I took what I could. The only reason I am giving it a four instead of a five is the ending sucked. I hated the ending. It just felt unnecessary and honestly really pissed me off. I don’t always need a happy ending but I also didn’t need that kind of ending either. I would still recommend it to those who like angst with some romance and a open-ish ending. 
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Seondal The Man Who Sells the River: 5
Trigger Warnings: Blood, Death, Vomit, Gore
Seondal is supposedly a comedy about a group of swindlers who become fast family after escaping from a war they were drafted in. They work together to swindle their way into riches and out of dangerous situations. They gained a huge name in the Joseon dynasty for even swindling the king. However, after tragedy strikes, they decide to do their greatest job yet, sell a river of fake gold. 
The movie was really good, both funny and heartbreaking. My friend and I watched it together thinking it would be a nice comedy after we watched some sad kdrama earlier that week however, it was most certainly not. We both ended up crying and raging. So just be warned it claims to be a comedy and it is hilarious for the first half of the movie, however it quickly turns dark so fast you are just sitting their in shock wondering what happened. I thought Xiumin’s acting was great and his character was adorable. I had not seen his acting before and he easily became a favorite. The movie’s plot and writing kept you engaged and entertained throughout and the ending was great in my opinion. Overall it was a really good watch, I have seen it twice now and thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend to those who enjoy both comedy and angst.
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twistedtummies2 · 4 years
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31 Days of Disney Villainy - Number 6
The 31 Days of Disney Villainy Continues! I’m counting down my Top 31 Favorite Villains from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ film output. The rancid renegade who is our topic for today might BUG you. Hardy Har Har. Number 6 is…Oogie Boogie, from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
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At the beginning of this countdown, I did say there would be an exception to my rule that I would only be counting the villains from the (current) 58 “core canon” films of Walt Disney Animation Studios. Oogie Boogie – the Gambling Boogieman of Halloween Town – is that exception; frankly, I would have considered it criminal – especially in the spirit of Halloween – to ignore him entirely. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is quite possibly my favorite movie of all time; initially, Disney released it under one of their splinter companies, Touchstone Pictures. (In fact, when I was really little, I had a VHS, and it still had the Touchstone logo.) However, when the film became an increasingly major phenomenon, Disney decided to “officially” make it a Disney product, directly, and “adopted” it into their Walt Disney Animation Studios canon. So…yeah…this isn’t TECHNICALLY part of the central run of pictures and villains I’m focusing on, but it…KIND OF counts? What do you want from me? Again, it’s my favorite movie, and, as the song goes, “This is Halloween!” Seriously, give me one good reason NOT to cheat! XD ANYWAY: much like Mad Madam Mim and Tamatoa, Oogie isn’t onscreen long, and is a different kind of Disney Villain. You see, while he really is more of a true antagonist than just an obstacle to overcome, he functions differently in the plot than most bad guys do. Much of the plot is driven by its protagonist, Jack Skellington…and honestly, if you took out Oogie from the picture, HE’D be the real villain. Not that Jack is evil, he’s just misguided and a bit naïve, with a hammy streak about a mile wide. It’s his actions that cause everything to go haywire; Oogie doesn’t cause any of the terrible things that happen in the story, he basically just reacts to them and plays off of them. To be honest…I kind of like that! I like that this character, at least in the movie, is such a purely diabolical creature; other villains very clearly enjoy doing evil things for the sake of doing evil things, but they still have decided goals and ambitions. Oogie, in the movie, doesn’t really; he’s more like a parasite. He literally does things for fun (and because he’s hungry, I suppose; he does, more than once, allude to the fact he’s going to turn his victims into soup and eat them) and basically nothing else. And the absolute joy he has makes him a delight; from his Cab-Calloway-style blacklit musical number (one of the Top 5 Disney Villain songs for me EASILY, by the way) to the way he teases and plays with his prey, he just rolls with the dice (so to speak). Later on, Oogie would be seen in various spin-offs, and he would be given more direct motivations: in fact, he would have the same basic goal as so many other Disney Villains, that humble desire to – you guessed it – take over the world. But that’s not really what Oogie wants in the movie; he literally just wants to torture, kill, and eat Santa – I repeat, TORTURE, KILL, AND EAT SANTA – because…eh, why not? It sounds like a good ride, he’ll get a good meal out of it, what’s he got to lose? Also, unlike Mad Madam Mim, in particular, Oogie is built up throughout the film. We first see him as “The Shadow on the Moon at Night,” and later, when Lock, Shock, & Barrel – his diminutive minions – are introduced, his name is dropped and his presence is teased much more directly. Granted, he’s still something of a more peripheral antagonist on the whole, but he’s a lot of fun and I love his uniquely devil-may-care attitude. Also, Ken Page. Just…just Ken Page. God, I love Ken Page. Bottom Line: I know it’s cheating, but I also know there was no way in the name of Tim Burton I could leave this insipid bag of incensed insects totally out of the game. It’s time for us to move into the Top 5! Tomorrow, the countdown continues with my 5th Favorite Disney Villain! HINT: Heads Will Roll.
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thekidultlife · 4 years
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IT'S OUR 2ND ANNIVERSARY! 🎉🥳🥂
@Authors' Note: This is Leanne and Hyeri's story. Please bear with us as we try to reminisce over the past years and celebrate where we are now as writers, as friends, and most especially, as individuals who have grown a lot and changed a lot through the years.
Warnings: Contains a semi-reveal of what we actually look like in real life lol so if you’re interested, keep reading down lol.
We started this blog in 2017. We deactivated in 2018, just weeks before what was supposed to be our first anniversary. We stayed silent throughout the rest of 2018 and 2019, but we picked up where we left off this 2020. Despite the messy history of this blog, though, and the changes in our lives, we are extremely happy that we did come back. And the reason why we came back? Well, it’s pretty simple. 
The same love for SEVENTEEN, which made us start this blog, brought us back again.
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We’re not lying when we tell you that this blog was what made us closer and what our friendship grow deeper. 
Back then, we were just classmates who found common interests in each other (history, writing novels, analyzing politics, and being one of the ‘Big 3′ in our class lol) but didn’t know how to bond over these interests. But when we both started sharing a room in a dormitory close to our university in 2017, things changed. And things changed because we both found SEVENTEEN. 
LEANNE: I wasn’t really a K-pop fan during that time. But I remember sitting beside Hyeri at our study area, watching her as she watched DWC and thinking to myself, “Maybe this could be it. Maybe this could be the ‘thing’ that we could bond over and could make our friendship grow. And so I leaned over and asked, “Oooh, which group is that?” What followed then was a night where I became a convert, and SVT became a part of me forever. 
After that night, we found ourselves always talking about them because they became the thread that made us close. And while bonding over SVT, we started to become more open about our lives and about ourselves in terms of personalities. We didn’t know why but we just clicked. Before we started becoming really close, we had different sets of friends. But then, we just knew that our friendship was different because we truly understand each other. 
HYERI: I wasn't a Kpop stan before either. Like if my high school me knew I'd become like this, she'll cringe in embarrassment. But it happened. A friend recommended me to watch React to the K because I'm a huge classical music nut, and I discovered Seventeen there. I seriously can't remember that exact moment when Leanne asked, but I do remember that one time when I showed her the dance practice for Aju Nice. It was one of the first things I showed to her, and then without knowing, we've already watched a lot of Seventeen videos. 
Whenever I look back at that time, I just remember how happy we were even though it wasn't really a good moment in our lives. There were a lot of stress and problems, and everything just seemed to spiral down from there. But I just feel a warm feeling in my chest whenever July and August comes, I smell the rain, and remember how many nights we spent binging on Seventeen, talking inside the nearby 7/11 until 1am, knowing that classes were cancelled the next day because of the weather. It was truly a magical moment for me because I never had a friend like Leanne, like sometimes we just have the same thought patterns, and we bonded over Seventeen so much. We would just talk endlessly about them, brainstorming ideas for fics and so on to the point that we only stopped because the 5AM alarm went off lmao Those times were just absolutely incredible.
LEANNE: We also have kind of the same goal back then: to have a platform where we could practice writing. Hyeri suggested that we try creating a blog for fanfiction. I agreed because I truly wanted to try and I was so obsessed with Choi Seungcheol back then. So we planned our first fics, who posts first, and we created it. Just like that. On August 12, 2017, we made our first post.
Our first name was “diabolically-diamondiferous”. We wanted something different (and we now admit that we did go overboard with the bing different thing lol) and so we agreed that this would be our URL. We chose it because of the concept that there is a duality in this blog that readers should look forward to, a dynamic that they would only see here, I guess? That was the goal. That was how it all started. 
HYERI: I was a Wonwoo stan back then. I had already written Love is A Fallacy and a bit of 30 Nights before we even created the blog, and I wanted an avenue where I can post it. I admit I myself can't think of a better url than "diabolically-diamondiferous", so I just went with it. 
Honestly, the blog has helped me a lot with writing. I used to write anime fanfictions and original stories, and I've already established my style back then. This blog has really helped me a lot with refining my writing style and experimenting with new ideas and ways to tell a story, as well as being able to write quickly. I do think I've improved with my dialogues and the way I pace my stories, and make them feel organic. And with that, I've never realized I've already written a lot, until I arranged the masterlist recently.
What began with a few stories turned into hundreds as we started pouring our hearts into this blog. And we would be lying if we told you that it was pressure-free. 
LEANNE: During this time, my responsibilities at uni, family and other personal matters made me unable to focus on the blog a lot. I really feel sorry for Hyeri during this time because she was the one who was more consistent with posting her stories. I joke every now and then these days whenever she couldn’t write that it’s okay, you once had too much weight and now I’ll carry my share and more, too, if it gets hard for you. Even though I was busy with other things, however, Hyeri really pulled through and made this blog come alive. And as a friend, she really helped me get through my darkest moments. This blog, too, became my crutch. Whenever my heart got broken, I would write here. I would try to find my voice (and at that time, I couldn’t find myself, either. Just ask Hyeri why, lol.) in writing. I was experimenting what voice I had while writing and what genre fits me. 
HYERI: Following Leanne's, I guess after our trip to Korea, things became way harder. I had a lot of low points back then as well: losing my scholarship and just so much responsibility in life and at school. I did carry much of the weight of the blog after that semester, and I'm surprised how I managed to do that. I kept on badgering Leanne to finish some requests, but she really had a lot going on as well. Not to mention our plans to join an exchange program to Korea which was another hell we signed up for. It was extra difficult because our department doesn't want us to leave, thinking we're just running away from the strict (and often unfair) professors (ironic when our major is International Relations).Seventeen and this blog was the only way we could bond together and have fun and just forget about everything. I could remember sending each other fake messages from Seventeen just to cheer the other up when things get depressing, or imagining what it would feel like to be an idol and whatnot. It sounds silly now, but that was the only way we could cope with how intense and exhausting our lives were. It was the only thing that kept the constant dread in our nerves from taking over.
What began as an experimental way to boost creativity became something like a career, and steering our motivation, was of course, the boys. Our boys. The amazing people that we write about and that we imagine about. They made us happy during the times when there was nothing to be happy about. They made us take risks that brought out the braveness we didn’t know we had in us, and they made us feel hopeful about the future. 
However, we hit a hurdle we couldn’t bring ourselves back from hurdle after hurdle during our second semester as juniors in college.  
LEANNE: Second semester of junior year in college was really hard for me. The bottom line of it all was the manipulative relationship that I was in with my s/o back then, but a lot of things piled up as well: school responsibilities (I was handling three classes at one point as a professor’s assistant and then ran for a student government position I didn’t really want but felt obliged to). All the while this was happening, I was really feeling myself slip away. I was suffering from depression but I had a lot of things going on around me that I could not just drop because people were depending on me. The only way I thought I would be able to not give up is by going somewhere else to finish my studies. Yes, the environment got that toxic. I really needed to get away. Around this time, I wasn’t active on the blog anymore. Right after elections, I lost my motivation to do anything. I would sometimes pitch in to help Hyeri with some requests, but it took way more effort than I thought it would. 
Hyeri and I decided that we needed to take the risk of applying for the South Korean exchange program, which was one of the best that our uni had to offer. We figured that since our grades were okay, it would be easy. Boy were we wrong.
HYERI: The Coldest Human, The Warmest Robot was the last fic I've posted in the blog before the hiatus. I couldn't do it anymore. There were so many problems and issues with the exchange program that I could no longer handle the blog alone. Leanne had withdrawn too, considering how she has her own things to face as well. It was a really difficult time. After being rejected a visa, I just can't think of writing, or even Seventeen anymore. Just their presence seemed to only remind me that I had been rejected after months and months of preparation. Their songs only reminded me of our disappointments. It was awful and I knew I can't face them at that time. I found myself in Taiwan. Alone. Leanne had stayed and it was depressing. I had to move on despite that, but it felt like an empty success.
We planned to become a part of an exchange program in South Korea, but it didn’t pull through at the last minute. We had staked all our bets, and we lost motivation in a lot of things. One of those things was this blog. We just knew that we had to let it go during 2018, because it was impossible to maintain it when you don’t feel inspired about life anymore. 
HYERI: The Coldest Human, The Warmest Robot was the last fic I've posted in the blog before the hiatus. I couldn't do it anymore. There were so many problems and issues with the exchange program that I could no longer handle the blog alone. Leanne had withdrawn too, considering how she has her own things to face as well. It was a really difficult time. After being rejected a visa, I just can't think of writing, or even Seventeen anymore. Just their presence seemed to only remind me that I had been rejected after months and months of preparation. Their songs only reminded me of our disappointments. It was awful and I knew I can't face them at that time. I found myself in Taiwan. Alone. Leanne had stayed and it was depressing. I had to move on despite that, but it felt like an empty success. Right after going back home for winter vacation, I remember I was angry crying because I knew Leanne can't do anything because of her circumstances, even if she wanted to go to Taiwan so much.
LEANNE: I was miserable during first semester as a senior because everything did not go as planned. I was really losing the resolve to keep going on because nothing had gone the way I had planned it to be. I think the only silver lining during 2018 was that my parents and friends finally stepped in to protect me from the person who had been harming me emotionally and therefore affecting my self-esteem and resolve. We also went to Macau, where I really healed a lot as well while teaching music with close friends from church. But beyond that, I could see no other way to get through the last semester except to follow Hyeri and go to Taiwan. It wasn’t just her friendship that I was missing; it was also about that goal I had in my mind: to find peace and quiet away from everything that had hurt me and drained me.
We didn’t have any high hopes about what lay ahead, but the biggest plot twist came.
LEANNE: By some miracle, I managed to convince my parents that I was well enough to go to Taiwan and that I would be safer there. It all happened so fast. February I was still crying, standing at the train tracks, telling our other friend that I wanted to just end it. But then March came and my visa got approved on a Friday. Three days later, just packing whatever I had with me in my apartment, I left for Taiwan.
It was a miracle Hyeri and I still talk about a lot. We started to heal from everything that we had gone through. We started to re-explore our friendship and in the end, after so much drama and after so much challenges, we finally concluded that this friendship of ours was really something that we wanted to keep forever. We grew a lot through the years.
HYERI: Who would've thought that with a lot of begging and pleading and praying, Leanne was finally able to go to Taiwan. I was so happy. It was one of the happiest memories of my life so far. Being in Taiwan, away from the world, from the responsibilities back at home, it was such a liberating time.It was also the exact period which we started to heal from past disappointments. Seventeen no longer gave me the pain I used to feel, and to this day, You Made My Day---the album which was released before everything happened, and reminded me a lot of what had transpired---is one of my favourite Seventeen albums.
But here we are now, in 2020. It was really because of Hit the Road that we decided to come back. We agreed to start writing again come June 2020. We started doing what we loved again. 
HYERI: We had fully healed from everything and we're fully ready to come back to writing about our precious boys! I am so happy to be able to finally celebrate the actual anniversary for this blog!
LEANNE: And now, here we are, celebrating our anniversary! The first one we really had! This is all impromptu editing but we really wanted to make it special. 
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Highlights Throughout the Years:
💎 Love is A Fallacy (Lawyer!Wonwoo)
The first ever fic I've written for SVT. I remember I wrote this while I was at the dorm on my bed, it was a miraculously stress-free night. The song I kept on playing was "20" and I could imagine it being the OST if this was a kdrama 😂 This was at a time when Wonwoo was still my bias.
💎Adagio Cantabile (College Student!Jihoon)
A fic I first wrote after Jihoon became my bias. I could still remember, I was so inspired by a fic titled Customer Satisfaction, that I wrote this one. Plus I'm really into Classical Music, that I could just write one whole fic about it. I'm still amazed how we were able to write fanfiction even though we were swamped with school work, and I mean, SWAMPED, like a lot of exams, graded recitation, things to memorize, super long essays, but we still managed to write. 😂
💎Saffron (Victorian AU DK)
This was written shortly after Leanne and I went back from Korea. I was so blissfully happy back then. I think I've spent a night or two writing this. This was heavily inspired by the game "Chocolatier" which I was playing days before I've started writing 😂 I really love writing for DK, he's such a positively innocent character who was so endearing.
💎The Coldest Human; Warmest Robot (Android!Jihoon)
This was probably the last one shot I've posted before the hiatus in 2018. I remember finishing it in my hometown when we went there for summer vacation. It was a really bad time ngl I lost my scholarship and was supposed to go to an exchange program to South Korea with Leanne. Back I didn't know if I could support that dream financially.
💎The Most Convenient Escape (Soulmate!Jihoon)
This was the first fic I've written after the hiatus. Truthfully, over 2018-2019, I lost my love for SVT. It was painful to be reminded of the fact that we weren't able to go to Korea, so I avoided them while I was in Taiwan. But I came back around this year and started to write this one. It's heavily inspired by the book "Voices of the Past" which is a compilation of American newspaper articles over the years, and anime reviews which talked about Deconstructing a genre (i.e., Madoka Magica and Evangelion). Right now I really do want to finish this series.
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Highlights Throughout the Years
💎The Return of Superman Series
My first work, TROS Seungcheol, was the first fic in the entire blog that I was truly proud of. All my other works were too rushed, too experimental for my own taste even, and just doesn’t look like what I, Leanne, if you personally know me, would write about. I strongly believe that there is a unique voice in each story, a voice that belongs only to its writer, and back then, I was still trying to find that voice. The Return of Superman was my breakthrough in writing. I suddenly found an AU that I truly loved to write about, and, most importantly, my voice in writing.
💎After-Party, Only Us, and Afterglow | Yoon Jeonghan
This is the spin-off series that came from Yoon Jeonghan’s The Return of Superman. I started to become more comfortable in my style of writing as I wrote these. You will notice a change of style after the first part, “After-Party”. My writing style has matured, and I really congratulate myself a lot for that. It took me years and tons of experiences to get that flavor I had always wanted in my works! Haha. 
💎The And Series
This is another one of those imagines that really brought out the hopeless romantic inside me, and for that, I am proud of it. It’s still mostly in the works, but I  am really happy about how it’s turning out.
💎Through the Seasons Series
Ah, this is my pet project. All my heart is poured into this one. This is the first series that I truly explored the beauty of love in realistic settings. My writing process here is done by looking at real couples LOL and also tapping into beautiful memories of mine about love and about life and all the drama that comes along. I’m really glad that a lot of our new readers liked the first one that came out!
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Our story-time ends here. 
All in all, we just want to say thank you. Thank you for everything. For being with us through this crazy ride of a blog, truly, sincerely, thank you. From our followers since the beginning, to the new ones that we are finding joy in communicating with now, thank you. From the bottom of our hearts!
LET’S MAKE MORE MEMORIES TOGETHER!
- Leanne and Hyeri. 
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