#these are all stills from 1 episode. and in motion they look even better

[let-them-fight]

y’all should watch interface btw

y’all should watch Interface btw. Not Asking go watch it

#tumblr #interface #interface umami #u m a m i #umami #umami interface #YouTube #youtube series #webseries #youtube animation #these are all stills from 1 episode. and in motion they look even better #also the fucking. the MUSIC!!!! OHHH MY GOD THE MUSIC CLUTCHES MY PEARLS AND FALLS TO MY KNEES #also THE WAY THIS SERIES USES REAL PAINTINGS AS FRAMING???? like. the main guy is— #quite literally just the son of man. and his daughter(?) is christinas world. AND THE LAST SHOT OF THE ENTIRE SERIES IS #LITERALLY A REFERENCE TO THE NIGHTHAWKS PAINTING. WATCH INTERFACE OR I EAT THE HOSTAGES #though fair warning if you actually do. there’s a decent big amount of flashing overall so be warned w/ that

[gwynfahr]

Sleeping position

Jordan Li x reader

Synopsis : You can't seem to fall asleep and keep accidentally bugging your lover throughout the night.

1:57am

"Jordan ? You awake ?" encased in your partners arms, in his masc form for the moment, your voice sounding loud despite the fact you were whispering in the night.

His answer came in a groan and a stir, telling you he was listening.

"Did we do the assignment for Brink's class tomorrow ?" your voice sounded anxious, and you clearly forgot you did it earlier with Jordan while watching an episode of Property Brothers.

"You thinking 'bout that in the middle of the night ?" muffled words came from your lovers whose head was located on the crook of your neck. "We did it two hour ago, babe."

"Oh. That's right, I forgot, sorry for waking you up, baby, go back to sleep." You were still wide awake, so you took it on yourself to help him fall back asleep, after all, you didn't have classes early in the morning tomorrow, while he did. Your hand slowly began caressing his hair and he groaned a bit at the soothing motion, grateful.

Ten minutes later, Jordan was back asleep and you still couldn't sleep. You didn't dare move too much as Jordan's body was litteraly flushed against your side and you really didn't want to wake him up, so you just laid in bed, eyes wide open, trying to understand why your brain wouldn't just fall asleep.

3:36am

An hour later, you got a cramp so painful that you jerked up harshly, moving your boyfriend with you. Your whimpers of pain were made to be silent in order to not wake Jordan up more than he already was, but it was too late.

"Babe, you okay ?" He asked, not quite awake, but definitely not half asleep anymore.

"I got a cramp, sorry." You answered, massaging your calf where the cramp hurt like a bitch. "Shit, that hurts..."

Jordan took your leg in his arms and gently massaged the area, figuring that, if he was awake, he must do something to help. Soon enough, the pain faltered to a reasonable amount. "That's better ?"

You nodded. "Yeah, I'm sorry for waking you again, you have classes tomorrow..."

"No it's okay, I was having a nightmare either way, so I should thank you for that."

"Really ? Do you want to talk about it ?" You took his hand, an expression of concern on your face.

"Meh, it's stupid." He said, and then suddenly, Jordan was sat in front of you in her female form.

"Nothing is stupid when it comes to nightmares baby, if you don't want to talk about it, though, it's okay, we can just cuddle until you fall back asleep." you proposed.

"That's clearly implying you won't sleep." Jordan said as you took a more confortable postion, laying back down, face to face on your sides.

"I wasn't sleeping before, but it"s okay, I don't have classes in the morning so, I'll be able to get back some sleep then. You have to wake up early though, baby, you need your beauty sleep."

"Please," Jordan snorted "I don't need sleep to look hot, and I've done worse than a four hours night of sleep. Why weren't you sleeping ?" she asked, hugging you close to her so her head was rested comfortably on your neck, caressing your head. Mechanically, you did the same.

"I think I forgot something, but I can't remember what, and it's bugging me. Ithought it was an assignment or somethng, but it wasn't that. Not a birthday either, not something school related, not an important date for us, not an appointment... I thought about everything and I can't remember." Somehow, explaining it to Jordan made it feel even more stupid, if you forgot something, then you'd remember at some point, no need to lose sleep over it.

Your girlfriend looked deep in thought.

"Maybe it's just your anxiety taking a toll on you. I know it hppens to me when I'm stressed. Just try to forget bout forgetting something and relax." She moved her hands to your back, scratching it softly in a soothing motion, making you giggle a bit at the tickles it created. "I mean, we could also fuck until we're both too tired and lazy to even think about anything, but I feel like you're not really in the mood." She joked a smirk on her face.

You genuinely thougth about it. Jordan was wearing one of your shirt right now, and she looked so hot in it it was criminal. Plus, you really wanted to sleep. However, you felt like the cramp would come back at any too suden moves or contraction of your muscles. "We could make out instead ? You look so hot right now that it's really hard saying no, you need to know."

Soon enough, the both of you were flush against the other, legs entangled, Jordan's hands on your neck as yours were messing with her hair (making it more toussled than it was before). Your mouthes moved in sync, gently, slowly, carefully, you had time, neither of you wanted to sleep anymore. You had to come up for air after some time, but you still found the breath to whisper to Jordan.

"I love you so much, Jordan. So so much."

"I love you too. So much" Was your girlfirend's answer, after a minute of silence where she kissed everywhere she could on your face.

You spent, maybe twenty more minutes making out, Jordan switching forms twice, settling in his male form. Finally, you bth stopped, out of breath. You looked in each other's eyes and Jordan whispered :

"We should try to sleep."

"You're right, it's actually crazy to see you be the responsible one on this relationship, though." You teased before cuddling again with your boyfriend, the forgotten thing plaguing your mind forgotten.

You both fell asleep peacefully ten minutes later.

_________________________________________

4:33 am

Rufus was still calling for help after you hung him on the american flag hamper in the main alley of God U, five hours earlier.

It seems you forgot about this entirely.

#jordan li x reader #gen v #gen v x reader #my looooove #R.I.P Rufus even though he's a creep #It's kinda rushed but I'm writing at 1am and am sleep deprived #Not beta we die like Brink #by deserving it #jordan li #jordan li fluff #jordan li imagine #jordan's my love and my life at the moment

[buddiebeginz]

In the beginning of this season we had Chris talking about Shannon and how it didn't matter if he wasn't being serious about the girls he's dating because all people did was leave anyway. They kind of wrapped all that up in that episode but I feel like there was a lot more to that scene than just the surface stuff.

This could have been just a convo with Eddie and Chris or even just Chris and Buck but instead it was all three of them. They put Eddie in that scene for a reason. Because it's not just Chris that's afraid of everyone leaving it's Eddie too.

More accurately Eddie is scared to lose the one person who knows him better than anyone else (think about who was there during the worst parts of Eddie's ptsd) and who was not only there but saved Eddie during the shooting. Buck is who knows him and who he depends on not just as a friend and partner but as a co parent. Just look at when he was worried about Chris this season he went straight to Buck to talk about it and ask for help.

What if Eddie has known about his feelings for Buck since he almost died in that well. If you watch that ep what he sees in his flashes of memory are predominately Buck and Chris. And what did he do after that? He added Buck to his will. Sure it was to make sure Chris was safe and looked after but if you watch and listen to Eddie when he tells Buck about the will it's clear that he was trying to say I love you to him in the only way he felt he could. Also if the will wasn't that big of a deal why did it take him a whole year to even tell Buck about it?

We've been so focused on Buck and his jealousy and insecurities (rightfully so given his past) we haven't been talking about how Eddie has a lot of those himself. What happened with Shannon scarred him a lot especially where Chris is concerned. She hadn't even been back in their lives all that long before she died and it clearly still impacts them both.

If you look at how few relationships Eddie has had since then and how he always seems hesitant to be vulnerable or invest much of himself in them this is why. I also think it's because his heart already belongs to Buck. These relationships to me have all feel very hollow like we're watching a guy just go through the motions. I mean look at how he broke up with Ana.

I think it's very likely that Eddie knows how he feels about Buck is more than just friendship but 1. He doesn't think those feelings would be reciprocated. 2. Even if they are I think Eddie is going to be scared at first to risk their friendship and change things. To lose the one person who has been a constant since he came into it. But I think Eddie's biggest hesitation will be Chris. He knows the kind of bond Chris and Buck have had so I think he would be worried about doing something to fuck that up. He still likely blames himself over Shannon's death and blames himself for why his son doesn't have a mom, so he'll likely be scared to risk losing the only other parent Chris has known.

Ultimately I do think we're going to get canon Buddie (probably not until season 8) but I do think this is one way they could drag the story out for a little bit. Like we could have Buck with his whole jealousy thing which leads him into figuring out his sexuality and at some point during all this in season 7 he'll have his Oh moment.

Eventually Eddie either finds out about Buck's feelings for him or Buck tells him and maybe we even get a kiss between them but then Eddie stops it and says he can't do it he can't risk what they have for something they might have and lose.

So into season 8 they're a little weird around each other until Buck decides to start dating a guy and we get to see Eddie being jealous and realizing he doesn't want to be without Buck anymore (and can't stand the thought of him with someone else). And this forces him to have to deal with a lot of the stuff he's never really dealt with from Shannon's death. Maybe we get some Frank scenes. Or maybe some Eddie and Maddie scenes because despite what the show would have a us believe I do think they hang out sometimes. But at some point maybe towards the end of season 8 we get one of those big sappy romantic gestures where Eddie tells Buck he loves him and he's always been his person. I'd also love it if season 8 ended up with Buck moving into Eddie and Chris' place. Buck has always been searching for where he belongs when his home is right there with his boys.

#911 spoilers #buddie #buddie s7 #911! #911 s7*

[stargazerlily7210]

Hello, and welcome to my TED Talk.

In this essay, I will demonstrate why I think Mrs. Flood is Susan Foreman (aka The Doctor's Granddaughter, aka The Unearthly Child, aka The Boss, aka The One Who Waits).

I know, I know. Not exactly the hottest take out there.

But buckle in, cause this goes deep.

Getting this out of the way first: I know this season has been billed as a bit of a fresh start (what with calling it Season 1, and all) and thus people are wary about assuming Mrs. Flood is a returning character. But let's be real. Just look at the 60th anniversary specials. Ya know, the massive 3 parter whose plot has set everything in motion for this next season.

They feature The 14th Doctor (aka The 10th Doctor revamped) with Donna Noble and her family (from the 2000's), Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (from the 2010's) who is both the current leader of UNIT (from Classic Who) and the daughter of The Brigadier: original leader of UNIT (throughout all of Classic Who), The Meep (from a Classic Who comic strip of all things) The Toymaker (Classic Who) and Mel (Classic Who).

And that's just the characters. Never mind the near constant references to both New and Classic Who.

They made it appealing and approachable to new viewers, sure. But they've already proven they're not actually interested in distancing themselves from the show's past.

So why do I think she's Susan, specifically?

Well, for starters, although the age of an actress doesn't really mean much in a 60 yr old time-travel show that's already had (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVENT SEEN THE 11TH DOCTOR'S EPISODES!!) a parent-child dynamic where the daughter is not just played by an actress who's noticably older than the parents, but also canonically met the doctor first, despite her parents being the primary companions, (and each of them are played by both adult and child actors). But Anita Dobson is 74. Which would have made her 14/15 when the show started in 1963. Around the same age Susan Foreman is supposed to be/appear.

But again, that doesn't really mean anything in this show. So why else would I think she's Susan? And why do I think this means she's also The Boss mentioned by the Meep, AND The One Who Waits mentioned by The Toymaker?

Well, because I think it all falls into place with some of the big themes they've been pushing in the episodes so far, if she's Susan.

I mean, from what I know of Susan, she was a refugee from Galifrey, with her grandfather, The Doctor. As far as we know, he's her only family. He'd basically been raising her until she caught feelings for a human guy, so The Doctor decided she'd be better off staying on Earth. Effectively abandoning his very traumatized teenage granddaughter in 1960's London. It wasn't malicious, he was trying to do what's best for her. But he still left her there against her will and never came back for her.

So she's an orphaned teenage refugee, raised in a high-tech alien culture, stuck in the 1960's, with her first major crush as her primary confidant and caregiver. Let's be real. She'd have been deemed a mentally unstable minor, and at best institutionalized, at worst dissected/studied, in a heartbeat (or rather, two heartbeats (a surprise tool that'll help us later)).

So here we have a woman who's likely been drugged and tortured ("psychotherapy" in the 1960s, am I right?), gaslit, and desperately isolated for a significant portion of her life. With a massive list of reasons to both deeply resent and have seriously dissociated from The Doctor and the TARDIS.

And now we finally get to the new episodes:

The Meep says that creatures with two hearts are so rare that it can't wait to tell The Boss about The Doctor. So we have The Meep, who just happened to pick Earth to "crash land" on, answering to a nameless Boss who's on the lookout for 2 hearted creatures. Thus, we're looking for someone with both a connection to Earth and intimate knowledge of Timelord biology.

The Toymaker says even he didn't dare face The One Who Waits. Which says a lot, considering the importance and prevalence of people described as Waiting with a capitol W.

(MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE 10TH and 11TH DOCTOR'S EPISODES!!) Off the top of my head, I can think of Jack Harkness aka The Face of Boe who waited billions of years to see The Doctor again. We have Amy Pond aka The Girl Who Waited, and Rory Williams aka The Boy Who Waited. We even have Sara Jane Smith, who's first real conversation with the The Doctor after finding him again had her admitting she'd spent her whole adult life waiting for him to come back. So to be The One Who Waited, above and beyond all others? You'd have to have somehow waited more than the rest. And when you're already talking about Waiting upwards of 5 Billion years, that's tough to do. Unless you're looking at it from The Doctor's perspective. And the Granddaughter he'd abandoned 15 lifetimes ago would absolutely fit that bill.

So we have an individual who is intelligent/knowledgeable enough to be called The Boss by an alien kapable of mind control and space flight, who's searching for creatures with 2 hearts. Who's earned the title of The One Who Waits, above so many other candidates.

And we just so happen to meet a character who's being played by an actress the same age Susan should be.

Speaking of, we can finally look at Mrs. Flood herself. When I first watched the episode, it struck me just how angry she was at seeing the TARDIS. When it's far more normal to see people ignoring the thing. So her reaction is weird, both in general, and for a character the actress herself described as a friendly neighbor lady.

It's only after she's utterly shocked by the TARDIS disappearing in front of her that she starts acting different. As if seeing that unlocked her memories. From there on out, she's a different person who knows exactly what's going on. She even addresses the audience at the end and knows to call it a TARDIS. Which Susan of all people would know, as Susan claimed to have come up with the acronym herself, during her time with the 1st Doctor (whether that's technically canon or not, idk).

It's also worthy to note, that if you look at the houses during the scene where she's complaining about the TARDIS, you'll see that on the outside, her house, while the most extravagantly decorated outside, is noticably stark and empty inside, unlike each of the other houses where you can clearly see decorations through the windows. Not to mention, her door is the only one that looks like the TARDIS. The other doors are either the wrong shade, or style, or both. And her's is the only one that doesn't have stairs going to the second level. I don't know how much of this is just working within the confines of the location, and how much is intentional, or what it would mean, but we see enough wide shots of the house fronts, it seems potentially relevant.

So if Mrs. Flood is, in fact, Susan Foreman, she's exactly the right age, she'd have had more than enough reason to be triggered by the sight of the TARDIS, more than enough intelligence/knowledge to reach Boss status in her search for a rare two-hearted creature and being The Doctor's Granddaughter, could absolutely intimidate The Toymaker, and have more than enough claim to the title of The One Who Waited.

And if she turned out to be a future Big Bad, she would have the trauma, reasoning, skillset, and intelligence to truly challenge The Doctor and force him to deal with the repercussions of his habit of never stopping or looking back at his actions or mistakes.

We've never seen if Susan can regenerate as far as I'm aware, but we know she's a Timelord and significantly younger than The Doctor. So if she can, the actress has already suggested that Mrs. Flood will go through quite a transformation throughout future episodes. We might be seeing the birth of a new antagonist for a new generation of the show.

Honorable Mention: I feel like The Boss is right up there with The Doctor and The Master. And RTD would absolutely make The Boss a bada** boss babe.

Phew. That was a whole essay. If you've made it this far, congrats!! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

#doctor who #regeneration #tenth doctor #donna noble #amy pond #rory williams #river song #sarah jane smith #15th doctor #14th doctor #11th doctor #captain jack harkness #face of boe #susan foreman #dr who spoilers #doctor who 60th anniversary #doctor who spoilers #doctor who theory #the tardis #the doctor #the toymaker #lily thinks

[fairygeek777]

In my personal and 100% valid opinion

Aside from actual motion of the characters, the og Crystal artsyle was beautiful and very closely resembled Naoko Takeuchi's artstyle.

The problem was the lack of consistency. The artsyle in seasons 1 and 2 is highly detailed as is Takeuchi's artsyle. But this isn't very ideal with animation. However, I think if handled *better* it could've been an absolutely beautiful anime.

I know that I talk about how season 3 vastly improved the anime, and it did. But it also made it feel less familiar. The style and movement feels less like Sailor Moon. I've never watched the Precure series but the artstyle is like crazy similar to that anime. It's cute but I don't know if it works too well.

That includes the transformation animations. There is some nice work with glitter and spotlights, shininess and whatnot. Nothing to say about the inner and outer senshi sequences since they're remakes of the classic ones. But in Sailor Moon's case, she has a unique one each time. (At least up to episode 32-ish) and how to put this... Usagi's s3 transformation sequence animation is *jarring* there's like- too much exaggeration. And tbh I don't like it at all.

So going back to season 1, the CG that I've talked about before? Yea its jarring too if you're not expecting it. However its also really beautiful. Specifically Usagi's sequence!

Look. At. The. Camera. Angles!!! Like the focus on her hands (which is a consistency in this anime) and the use of panning! Especially in the Tiara shot how it revolves around her as the beams light up from her forehead. It's just so pretty!

And the other recurring clips are really nice too!

Look at the arch that Usagi's arm makes as she performs her signature intro! I love looking at this scene everytime for that part! And the timing with raising her arms before quickly bringing them down as she says "Oshiokyo!" (or "I'll punish you" in dub) Those are things that this clip do better than every other version of this iconic gesture.

And then here, the camera angles again are on point. And the forshortening on her hand is just *chef's kiss*

And something I just wanted to mention, Makoto looks gorgeous in some of these shots from s1 and s2. The artstyle is like perfect for her.

Moving on now, I wanna touch on Eternal. In terms of quality, Eternal is easily my favorite. The character pallets are accurate, and the character animation is excellent.

However. In terms of matching Naoko's artstyle, well it doesn't. Its an homage to the 90s anime. They even recreate the transformation sequence animations for Usagi. Things like the character's hair having less strands and detail. Actually there's less detail in general. But the eye highlights match the manga pretty well. I mean it all works. I could endlessly rant about all I love from Eternal because literally the only issues I've found are with the pacing of the whole thing. I've seen people say that the characters are still really expressionless. I personally don't see that? But like its a valid opinion when comparing it to the 90s anime they were clearly honoring.

I would have loved to see the outer Senshi in the s1 artsyle. Specifically Michiru. One of the things I love about the way Naoko draws her is her flowing gorgeous wavy hair. And she draws it fairly long. Past her shoulders and sometimes longer.

Crystal s3 her debut season, usually drew her hair as long as it should be. And she looked as gorgeous as her manga counterpart. But then Eternal came, and Michiru's character design more resembled the 90s anime. And no offense, but I hate her 90s anime hair. She always looks like someone awkwardly chopped her hair right at her shoulders. Its just not nearly as pretty as she should be designed. Eternal did a mix of the two. Its still pretty but also inconsistent. Because in some scenes it has the choppy look. So yea I'd love to see Michiru and all the other characters in the s1 artsyle. I know it will never happen but still wanna see it.

This is my long winded way of saying I am in the minority and love Crystal seasons 1 and 2 for all its faults and successes. It really had amazing potential to be absolutely beautiful and a big win for shojo anime. If only the time and care was put into the show as a whole and not only certain individual frames or clips.

Because there's some really fricken great sh*t if you look long enough!!

#sailor moon #pretty guardian sailor moon #sailor moon crystal appreciation #manga #anime #sailor moon eternal

[boysplanetrecaps]

Build Up Episode 0: Getting to Know the Boys Part 1: Team AllRound

Hey, friends! I’m struggling with writing the recap for episode one of Build Up on MNET because I want to stop and give you the background on everyone, which makes the recap really hard to follow. So I figure I’ll spend some time giving you their backgrounds in four separate posts, to help you get to know the guys. I mention things like where else you may have seen them, if they're in an idol group, who knows who, etc, as well as my opinion of their voice based on their teaser performance. I think it’ll make the recaps easier, both to read and to write. In this first post of four, I’ll be talking about the twelve contestants who chose to join the “Allround” category, as opposed to “Soul”, “Power”, or “Unique.” Let’s go!

Before we go on, I just want to let you know that I’ll sharing my informed opinion on their singing voices. I am going to be a little bit harder on them than I am on singers on Boys Planet, with the understanding that these are all great vocalists. We’re looking for the S+ tier guys amongst a group that is A tier at worst. So if I say anything a bit negative about a fave of yours, understand that I’m not saying that he’s a bad singer! Every guy here is an excellent singer. Cool? Cool! 

I also have to apologize, but most of my screenshots are going to be pretty awkward. The video I'm watching makes it really hard to use because every time you pause it, it opens all sorts of porny popups. When it's paused, it has a huge pause symbol in the middle of the picture. So I have to try to take screen shots while it's in motion. It's not easy! Hope you understand.

Also, I have even less time than usual to proofread these posts, so please forgive me for my inevitable typos. <3 Thank you!

Choi Suhwan

Suhwan is currently a soloist. He’s released a few digital singles, none of which have really taken off, unfortunately. You might remember him from ProduceX 101, where he made it to episode 11, so the final cut before the finale, finishing in 28th place. Pretty good!

He was V17, doing a cover of Energetic by Wanna One. I wasn’t blown away by that performance -- it sounded a little processed, and I wasn’t completely sure it was live --  so I sought out another one. Here’s a live performance of his song Losing Sleep. Unfortunately, in this performance, I found his voice a little too nasal and affected to be to my taste, and he had serious issues with his upper mix. He’s not a terrible singer, but there are a lot of stronger singers on this show. Or maybe I’m wrong and he’ll do better next time. Fighting! 

Bitsaeon

Bitsaeon is 28, and is the main vocalist from M.O.N.T. He seems to have a predilection for soft fuzzy sweaters. He was V36, singing Rose Blossom by H1-Key, and all I wrote down in my notes was “this is just a really nice voice.” I just really liked it. Clean, smooth, easy to listen to.

I think this performance of Creep by Radiohead shows both what I like and what I don’t like as much about his performances. He does a lot of this soft whisper singing in his covers, which seems like a waste of what he can do. I love his full belts -- they’re so good. I want to hear him sing full-on more often in songs, like he did with Rose Blossom.  

M.O.N.T. has a whole complicated dealie that I just don’t have the energy to figure out -- the wikipedia page explains some of it. They’re mainly a three member group, with a leader, a rapper, and a main vocal. They haven’t put out any singles in a while, so I’m not sure what’s going on with them. 

Incidentally, Bitsaeon almost certain knows Jay reasonably well. Jay was involved in this thing called MONT Arena that was supposed to collect more members for MONT, so along the way I’m sure they met. In fact, Jay is still signed to the same agency as them (along with a few other agencies).

Seunghun

Seunghun is 24 and a member of CIX. His teaser song was V01, Rain by Paul Kim, and his performance was kind of… not my favorite. He sounded at times almost like he had a cold, and at other times I’m pretty sure he went off key -- I don’t know the song so I can’t be sure but it sounded off. He showed a lack of agility on one of his vocal runs, which means that as he tried to sing a lot of different notes all in a row, he had trouble transitioning from note to note quickly and hitting them all neatly. He had to switch awkwardly to falsetto to hit a single high note in the middle of a line, which is kind of not the goal. I think he may just have been nervous or having an off day. 

Seunghun also competed on YG Treasure Box, which I didn’t watch, but maybe you did. 

Let’s talk about CIX, baby! (Ok, that joke relies on you pronouncing it “six” but it’s really pronounced “see-eye-ex,” if you read the hangul). 

CIX is a five-member group under C9 entertainment, which is also the home to Cignature and Epex. CIX features Wanna One’s Bae Jinyoung, who is the center and face of the group. As sometimes happens in cases like this, the member who was in the big Produce group is famous and attracts stans, while sometimes the rest of the group just doesn’t get as much love, and the group as a whole suffers. See also: Gugudan, Weki Meki. However, CIX does ok. Per genius.com, “The group has released several Top 10 albums in South Korea, including Hello Chapter Ø: Hello, Strange Dream which gave them their first chart-topper in the country. The group’s singles have also consistently landed in the Circle Music chart.” So CIX is a little bit closer to say, IVE than it is to, say, Weki Meki. 

Personally, I like CIX -- I think the members are talented --  but I don’t love all their songs. However, their song Cinema is so smooth and lovely, it’s like a glass of orange-peach juice for your soul, and that’s in great measure because of their smooth vocals. (Seunghun is the one with the blue hair in that clip, if you want to watch it.) In fact, this is the song I wanted to listen to in the car on the way to the hospital to have surgery a year or two ago when I was feeling pretty scared. My fella said, “This is nice. I like this.” So if you never heard it, give it a chance. I’m looking forward to getting to know Seunghun a bit better and seeing him on a better day.  

Yeo One

Yeo One is 28, and is a lead vocalist for Pentagon. I don’t have to tell you about Pentagon, right? Another excellent group who lost a member and whose popularity has ebbed and flowed. If you watched Boys Planet, you know about Hui, and you know that I like Pentagon a lot! 

Yeo One left Cube Entertainment just a few months ago, in October of 2023, along with several other members of Pentagon, so though Pentagon hasn’t disbanded, their further activities will be a bit tricky. He had a sold-out solo concert recently, and was profiled in Rolling Stone Korea, so he’s doing ok for a recently solo artist. Yeo One is a lead vocalist of Pentagon, not one of their two main vocalist, and on kprofiles, he actually ranks in last place in the popularity poll. He often would be given pretty brief lines in most Pentagon songs. But we will get to know him and get to love him on this show, right, team? 

He performed a ballad for his teaser (V40) and all I wrote in my note to myself is “I hate songs like this so much I almost can’t think straight.” So, instead, I found this little song that apparently he wrote and performed himself -- it’s light and charming. It sounds like a guy sitting by the fire making up a song on guitar and singing it to himself. He’s not a super skilled vocalist from what I’ve heard thus far, not a powerhouse like Hui, but he has a charming vocal color and is just sort of a generally a lovable dude.  

Hwang Inhyuk

Inhyeock / Inhyuk (I’ve seen it transliterated both ways -- both would be 인혁 in Hangul) is 26 and is apparently both a soloist and a member of a vocal group called Unison. Unfortunately, I can’t find anything about them since there’s also a Japanese group called “Unison Square Garden” and when you search “Korean vocal group unison” all you get is information about K-pop songs sung in unison, so…. Yeah. Inhyuk is also a composer and lyricist, and has competed on I Can See Your Voice (I’m not sure which season) and Sing for Gold. 

He was V29 and performed a song called The First Day. Again, my perspective is skewed because it’s another feckin’ ballad and no thank you. The opening section when he’s singing in a soft, almost gruff voice is really charming, though. It’s so different from what you’d expect from his appearance and general demeanor. He has a really distinct vocal color, and I think he should have chosen “unique” rather than “allround.” Once he heads into the chorus, which requires belting some higher notes, his voice falters a bit. I just get that feeling that maybe he can do better than what he showed in this teaser. Maybe he wasn’t warmed up properly, or maybe he had a bit of a cold, something like that. The potential is there and I sense training was involved. I’m going to keep an open mind about him. 

Geonu

Geonu is from Just B and is 22. In addition to going on I-land, he also went on a show called Dancing High, which also featured Seo Won who you may remember from Boys Planet. God, there are so many of these shows. I kind of remember Geonu from I-land, where he did pretty well, making it close to the end. It’s kind of a shame that he didn’t make it into Enhypen since Enhypen is definitely short on vocalists. 

If you want to check out one of Geonu’s previous performances, here he is doing a duet performance of BTS’s Butterfly on I-land with Heesung (who did go on to debut in Enhypen). 

Geonu has gotten a bit better since then; here is his audition for this show, where he was V10. 

His upper mixed register has gotten stronger and a lot less breathy compared to when he was on I-land, but he seems to have developed an unpleasant nasality. Maybe being on this show will spur him to adjust his methodology. He has a really pleasant vocal color and a lot of potential. 

(I discuss Just B in Bain’s write up.) 

Jang Intae

Per my online sleuthing, Intae, age 27, is a singer-songwriter and is one half of the duo 415. (Their group is named for the fact that both members were born on April 15th, 1997.) 415 has put out seven digital singles and performed a few OSTs, but their MVs generally get fewer than 10,000 views. I think his general style and vibe isn’t what I personally look for in a musician -- it’s a bit too “acoustic lite” -- but I bet a lot of people would like what he and his duo partner do, if people gave them a chance. 

His teaser performance, V37, was Missing You by BTOB (a song performed on Girls Planet 999, if it sounds familiar to you -- a member of BTOB is on this show's judging panel). It started off really nasal, but got a bit better as it went along. He strained a bit on the high notes, unfortunately. It wasn’t the best performance, but I’m not going to condemn him for 90 seconds of imperfect singing. I hope that as I see more from him, he gets to show more of what he can do.

Jeong Yoonseo

Jeong Yoonseo is a trainee, and little info is available about him. He’s V32, performing Starlight by Taeil. There are a lot of background vocals -- I think there’s a guide track behind him the whole time! -- so it’s hard to pick out his pure voice. It sounds nice from what I can hear.  That’s kind of all I got! (Side note -- I’ve seen his name listed as Jang, not Jeong, but if you read the hangul, it’s Jeong, so IDK.) 

Hong Seongjun

Seongjun is 24 and is (was?) a member of a group called BDC, a three member group under Brandnew Music that debuted in the latter end of the pandemic, in September 2020. All three members had been on ProduceX 101. Seongun himself was eliminated in 51st place. They put out several comebacks but never really caught on.

On their kprofiles page, it says “On August 18, 2023, BRANDNEW MUSIC officially announced that BDC will end all official promotions as artists under the company on August 26, 2023, after they mutually decided to end their contracts. Thereafter, the group have been active in Japan and have a fan meeting planned in Korea on December 3, 2023.” I’m not sure what to make of that, but it doesn’t sound great obviously. 

I went to check out their M/Vs and remembered that I had actually listened to Moon Rider for a few months there at some point. Pretty decent song, but it got only 3.6 million views. I think it’s just kind of tough for three member groups. 

He was V27 and sang a chipper acoustic little song by 10cm. For me, him having such heavy backup vocals for so much of the song kind of makes me wonder, why would you do that?  It’s the same thing as the situation with Yoonseo. Isn’t the point to show their vocals? That said, this was a pleasant enough performance -- clean and sweet, with decent agility in some of the runs -- but not something I’m dying to listen to over and over. I think he didn’t really understand the assignment and chose something that would be nice to perform with people watching you, instead of something to sing in the dark.

Jeong Inseong

Inseong is 29 and is main vocal of a group called KNK. 

He was V06, performing a song called Letting Go by Day6. I looked it up and this song came out on March 28, 2016 -- just a few weeks after Lim Junhyeok had to leave that group. It being called “Letting Go” is a bit… pointed. Kind of like when f(x) did a song called Four Walls as their first comeback (and last) as a four-member group. Anyway… I really liked this. I just wrote in my notes, “ooh, likey.” This is just so good, I don’t even know how to pick it apart. It’s just a combination of stellar technique and smooth natural vocal color. He does have to go into falsetto to hit a super high note, but he transitions almost instantly. This is good stuff. 

KNK debuted in 2016 as a 5 member group. They left their first agency in 2018 but continued as a group at a new agency, losing one member and gaining a new one. Over the last few years, two more members have quit and one more joined, leaving four in the group as of now. 

Their most recent single, Ride, came out in September 2020 and currently has about 1.7 million views on Youtube. It’s so easy to tell when Inseong is singing -- it’s like when Kihyun sings in MonstaX and you’re just like YES, come THROUGH. I threw Ride on my playlist just so I can hear more Inseong. 

Inseong has been in a bunch of music shows, and also participated in Mixnine, so he may know the other Mixnine contestants, Ma Jaekhyung from Romeo and Donghun from A.C.E. However, he had to withdraw early from the show, so maybe not. 

If you want more Inseong, here’s a fun duet he does with the “Korean Madonna,” Kim Wanseon. 

Taehwan

Taehwan, 30, is the leader and main vocalist of Vanner, and was V13, singing Goodbye by Park Hyo Shin. You probably know by now that I’m not much of a ballad girl, but at least this is sung simply, with a really warm, textured voice. He does sound really pinched on the higher notes, like his throat is closing, and he gets a bit nasal at times, as well. In my opinion, he lacks technique, but has a lot of natural talent. He also has a great smile. 

Vanner is a five member group that debuted in 2019. They had a lot of support as they debuted, and even got significant crowdfunding. They went on Peaktime, as did many other lesser known groups -- and they won! Good for Vanner. Their most recent EP charted very well overseas. Their song Performer, released five months ago, has 8.7 million views on Youtube, and their song Jackpot, released on Jan 30, 2024, already had almost 4 million views at the time of writing, an incredible performance for less than a week. So it looks like Vanner is really starting to take off.

Taehwan may have met Ma Jaekyung, Bitsaeon, and Hong Seongjun when they competed on Peak Time.

Ji Yeonwoo

Yeonwoo is another trainee I just don’t know much about. Apparently he went on a show called Wild Idol, which I haven’t seen. But I do know that his teaser song, V24, Suffer by Charlie Puth, was great. A great combination of a song I actually liked and a voice I really liked. He has great agility, leaping up into falsetto and back down again. He does get a bit pinched sometimes on higher notes, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t bother me. Maybe it’s just I’m so glad it’s not a ballad!

Ok, that’s enough for now. I’ll see you in the next one, when I tackle Team Soul, featuring everyone’s favorite. You know who I mean.

#bpr recaps build up #build up #mnet build up #jang intae #jeong yoonseo #vanner #m.o.n.t. #a.c.e. #cix #hong seongjun #BDC #jeong inseong #KNK #taehwan #ji yeonwoo #bitsaeon #suhwan #pentagon #yeo one

[bewilderedbuck]

Devi vs. David: aka a comprehensive list of every single time ben gross has referred to devi as one or the other (season two edition)

first and foremost: if you missed it, please go check out part one where i talk about devi vs. david in season one. i also want to refer you to these posts: x, x by @catty-words, because they are very well-worded and also very relevant to what i'm about to talk about. i will be referencing some of what cori said in those two posts as well. once again, this is a list of every single time in season two that ben has called her either devi or david, with context + insight, and i am creating this post for myself more than anyone else. expect a season 3 edition in the future; likely sometime next week.

anyways. here goes.

"Devi, I'm all-in."

the first time in season 2 that he refers to her at all,  he calls her devi — he’s opening up to her, telling her that what they have is real and that she makes him better, literally tells her that he stood up to his parents for the first time in his life because of her. he is all-in, even if it means long distance. he wants to be with her, but he is also giving her time to think about it. the use of devi as opposed to david here shows that he’s being vulnerable, that he is serious about her. 

obv we don’t see much of his short-lived relationship with devi, and while i personally believe he did still throw around the david nickname with her (teasingly, lovingly), it does make sense that he wouldn’t use it with her friends while she isn’t present. so, devi.

the way his eyes light up when he sees her. his whole body language changes. he perks right up the second his eyes land on her and the “come here” motion he makes i still have not gotten over and it has been over a year since i saw this scene for the first time. anyways. i mentioned in part one that david belongs to ben and devi and no one else. and here i feel like that shines in a new light. he calls her devi here because they’re in front of people, but more importantly in front of paxton. the last time ben referred to devi in front of him, he called her david (in 1x08, if you were wondering). he was jealous back then, crushing hard and knowing she’s got a thing for pax. but here? he’s secure in their relationship (haha just wait like…ten minutes ben lol then you’re going to be shattered). he thinks she is his. he doesn’t need to take control of the situation by calling her david here.

okay, so obv he’s calling her devi here bc 1) he’s talking to paxton and 2) paxton also just referred to her as devi. but i wanna talk about his tone here. his voice goes up like…three octaves. cracks at the end when he says her name. because as opposed to the last instance he called her devi, he’s nervous here. knows that pax is this ladies man that had caught devi’s eye before, and he’s worried that he’s going to catch her eye again (give it literally two minutes, ben, and then you’ll find out, lol). being around paxton without devi present pulls on his insecurities, because he can’t look over at her and think, “she chose me. she chose me.” (again, she didn’t, but that’s beside the point right now)

“There should only be one choice..."

oof. this stings, tbh. cori mentions it in her posts as well, but here you can see him using her real name as a way to distance himself from her. he says it like it’s a curse, like it’s the most vile thing that could come out of his mouth. he’s hurt, obviously. he was all-in for her! and i think this here helps prove my theory that he’s had feelings for her for far longer than we’re made to assume — like yes, obviously you’re going to be hurt if your significant other cheats on you regardless for how long you’ve been together or how long you’ve really, truly cared about them, but ben is absolutely devastated. i’m not saying paxton isn’t upset, because he is! this is during paxton’s pov episode, so we do hear from miss hadid here that he was upset about the whole two-timing thing. but ben? it absolutely crushed him, because he was that much more invested in devi than pax was. we aren’t sure of the exact timeline, of course, but since they’re still in the first semester of school at this point it’s safe to assume that it’s likely been maybe a month or so since ben and devi started actually being friends. ben’s reaction runs so much more deep than someone who’s only had romantic feelings for that short a time period. (i also want to point out that the scene immediately following this one is where paxton coins the term “crazy devi,” though that’s not particularly relevant to this post.)

"...At the party, you followed him, and you left me behind.”

OUCH. if the last one stung, this one is a punch straight to the gut. using her real name to hold her accountable for her own actions. to show her that she hurt him and that they aren’t okay. i mean, his exact words: “We’re not even. We’re not even close to even.” back in 1x06 he uses david as an attempt to return to their version of normalcy, and here he uses devi to show that they can’t return to that.

okay, obviously i’m going to be referencing this post by cori because she talks specifically of this instance. this is the first use of david we see in season 2, and we are already halfway through the season. while i don’t believe for a single second that ben has moved on from the two-timing incident, he is trying to move on from devi at the very least. as cori says in her post, we only see him refer to her as david after he and aneesa start flirting with each other. i really like how she worded it in her post: “it’s a relic from their rivalry, which makes it both an insult and a way to preserve their years of shared history.” he’s not ready to be best buds just yet, obviously, but he still cares about her.

once again linking cori’s other post that dives into this episode’s use of devi vs. david as well as 2x08’s. here, he’s obviously defaulting to devi because they’re in front of her family, but there’s also the way he says her name in this scene. like he’s using it to hold her accountable for her own actions. his tone after she tries to be lighthearted with, “I don’t know. She could spin that into a pretty good essay,” is disappointed because she keeps messing up. he wants to believe in her, but she isn't giving him any reason to.

 just like cori says in her post, he goes back to david when her family isn’t around. while he is using the nickname as some form of familiarity & closeness, he is still so disappointed in her, because he wants to believe that she’s capable of doing right by aneesa. the wording of “use your brain” here comes off as their usual banter if you don’t take into account ben’s tone, sober and serious. he wants her to do better, not just for him, and not just for aneesa, but for devi, herself, too.

aaand here we are back with another term of endearment david! he’s genuinely pleased with her that she managed to pull off not only the apology, but in securing aneesa’s spot at sherman oaks — not just so he can ask her out, obviously, but because it means 1) aneesa doesn’t have to go through transferring schools again, because ben does care about her well-being and mental health, but also 2) it means devi is capabale of doing good and righting her wrongs. obviously, he doesn’t know that her main motivation was getting ben back, but still, in his eyes, she was able to hold herself accountable and fix her mistakes. not only that, but we are reverting back to banter here! this is such a huge turning point for them this season, giving a good headstart to what i am affectionately going to be referring to as their “besties era” in season 3.

not much to say here, really; just his use of david being an indicator of friendship. however what is interesting is…

"She's, like, super flighty and unstable, and throws away a good man for no reason."

okay, first off, obviously, this is a huge dig at her for the events of 2x02, which i can’t blame ben for, but it’s also so snarky that it comes across like their season 1 pre-friendship banter which is an era of their relationship i genuinely love (mostly bc it all comes across as thinly veiled flirting, but i digress). what is really interesting to me is that he doesn’t call her david in front of aneesa. he doesn’t do it even once. i have said it once and i will say it a million fucking times: david belongs to ben and devi and no one else. he uses it to both 1) take back control of situations when he is feeling uncomfortable or insecure, and 2) when he wants to establish a closeness to devi. the former isn’t relevant here, and he can’t exactly refer to his ex-girlfriend with their version of a fucking pet name in front of his current girlfriend. yeah, you can argue that maybe he just doesn’t want to explain the whole david thing to aneesa, but i think it’s deeper than that. he doesn’t want to establish that closeness with devi while aneesa is present because it starts blurring lines and crossing boundaries in his head.

the next time they’re together, aneesa isn’t around, and he reverts back to david. not even two whole seconds later he opens up a serious conversation, asking about devi’s feelings in regards to working with ben and aneesa. despite the fact that devi was the one to hurt ben! david here, once again, being used to establish closeness, familiarity, friendship. this is also just one of my favorite scenes of theirs, ever, because their smiles are so sweet and so genuine. you can tell how much they care for each other, despite the the events from earlier in the season.

“Devi, when are you going to realize that that dick doesn’t deserve you?”

(okay, i know it doesn’t show him saying devi in the captions, but he does.) BATHROOM SCENE MY BELOVED. this is my number one duo scene of theirs for so many reasons oh my god. the use of devi here, when it’s just them is so significant because during their friendship era, he has consistently referred to her as david when they’re alone. but not here. here she is devi. because he needs her to know what she is worth. he needs her to listen when he tells her that she deserves better than paxton, and he gets her to listen with the use of devi.

#long post #devi vishwakumar #ben gross #benvi #ben x devi #devi x ben #never have i ever #nhie #never have i ever meta #nhie meta #meta #devi vs david

[allzelemonz]

Evil Lair: Douglas Davenport X Male Reader

Prompt: Kinktober Day 1: Clothed Sex Pronouns: None mentioned, Marcus calls the Reader 'Dad' Physical Sex: AMAB Rating: E/Smut Warnings: Reader is a step/adoptive-dad to Marcus, sex, mentions of cum, grinding, allusions to Douglas' evil activities, nothing is proof-read Summary: Just a normal Friday with the smaller Davenport family, you bring Douglas some snacks and find him stuck in thought. You both decide you have ample time to yourselves.

There’s something about an evil lair that makes Douglas even more attractive than he usually is. His hair is always a selling point, of course. His ‘evil’ antics and plot are always present. But it’s something about his lab that extenuates everything in all the right ways. He’s worked on things in the living room before, watching Funeral Mishaps, and it’s never seemed quite as evil.

Now, in the lab things have a completely different vibe. Here Douglas is the evil genius mastermind he claims to be. Only the quiet musings of smooth jazz could indicate otherwise. Surrounded by the dark, gloomy environment as he fiddles with the inventions, toys as he calls them, he is truly in his element.

Typically when you bring him a drink or snack down there it’s only because you haven’t seen him in a few hours. You’d drop off the sustenance and go back upstairs to make sure Marcus was doing fine on his homework and that the DVR was set to record— if Douglas misses an episode of his precious funeral show he’ll be devastated and try to build another planetary death ray. However, tonight Douglas breaks his focus away from his dear toy when you come in.

His eyes are fixated on an exposed grouping of wires and there’s tools of all kinds on the table. Wire cutters, soldering iron, a hammer— it’s easy to see he’s in a rut. When you’re a few feet away he extended his hand to you, eyes still on the large gadget in front of him. You set the bottle of water and leftover container on the edge of the table so as not to mess with his chaotic organization. He flexes his fingers in a grabbing motion to show his impatience and you take his hand with a small smile.

“You okay, Douglas?”

He pulls you into him and wraps his arms snugly around your body to leave very little gaps between the two of you.

”Where’s Marcus?” He asks quietly.

“It’s Friday, so he’s training at the shore facility. Why?” You give him a quizzical look.

He sighs and tightens his grip around you in a firm squeeze. “Just making sure he’s not gonna come down here.”

You feel a light pressure between your legs and realize what Douglas is getting at. His leg is slowly spearing between your legs. As it presses ever so slightly into your dick Douglas lets a grin spread across his face. He leans in to kiss you and your hand automatically goes to his hair. With a few gentle tugs Douglas huffs and retracts his leg, opting to press his hardness into you instead.

He begins to rub against you and the friction of his movements paired with the texture from your clothes begins to get you hard as well. Soon enough you're both rutting into each other as your kissing becomes more sloppy. Your fingers in Douglas’ hair bring out the occasional groan or whimper depending on how hard you pull.

“You can do better than that.” Douglas taunts when you fall back on nearly pulling out the hairs from his head.

You take the words in stride and yank on his hair, hard. It elicits a moan as you hold the tension and bring his head back to expose his neck. The kisses you leave each bring out a heavy breath from the evil genius. He returns the favor by bringing a hand around to grip your dick through your pants with a firm squeeze.

The motion makes you falter between kisses. He begins to press into you with his palm, starting a fast rubbing motion. You release his hair and press into the pressure he’s giving you as his lips connect with yours again. Just as you feel that edge coming he pulls his hand away. He brings both hands up to cup your face as he presses further into the kiss. Slowly, not breaking the kiss, he begins to kneel to the ground, effectively bringing you with him until you’re both on the ground.

You follow his lead and lay back and he climbs onto you, moving his hands to support himself and immediately pressing his hardness against yours again. The pressure is different at this angle, it provides a better way to move against one another. Your bodies are even closer than they were while standing, Douglas is only using the slightest bit of support from his arm and putting the rest of his weight on you so he’s able to control his movements much better.

His hips grind down and your pants rub against your dick in the most exhilarating way. The feeling of his hardness pressing into your own and digging the textures against your most sensitive skin makes you moan into your kiss. Douglas’ smile is clear against your lips as he presses into your further, bringing his non-support hand to cup your face. You do the same, your fingers playing with the edges of his hair.

Your hips meet his now that you’re settled and the friction builds further as you move into one another. You speed up your pace, your other hand reaching for his hips to contain his movements. He breaks the kiss, is mouth opening as he lets out breathy pants. His forehead rests against yours as he stills a bit with a moan. You can tell he’s cum as you keep up your pace against his now softened dick. Your high is close and when Douglas dips his head down to kiss along your neck you feel it overcome you. Your hips give a few last motions before you relax back onto the floor as Douglas continues to lightly suck on the sensitive skin of your neck.

He brings his lips back to yours once he’s made a light mark that he’s happy with. Your hands go back to his hair and he smiles into the kiss again. You stay like that, happily kissing on the floor of Douglas’ evil lair and ignoring the present need to change your pants and underwear. 

That is, until Marcus comes home, “Dad…s?” Marcus calls out from upstairs.

The cameras and comms carry his voice down to the lab. Douglas breaks the kiss and looks up at the screens, you follow his gaze. Your son is wandering to the couch and he’s thrown his backpack on the floor. A long day of training, he’s gonna watch Funeral Mishaps without you.

“We should change and get up there before he thinks we’re doing something evil without him.”

Douglas shighs and dips his head to rest against your forehead. “Yeah, kid’s gonna mess up my DVR recording.”

You chuckle at the sentiment and Douglas gives you one last kiss before he pushes himself off of you. He offers you a hand up and you take it. There’s the distinct sound of the Funeral Mishaps intro playing over the cameras and Douglas all but growls before he marches over to the console and gives Marcus a very ‘dad’ talking to.

They start to squabble over the comm system and you take the chance to slip up to your and Douglas’ room to grab a change of clothes for the both of you.

#douglas davenport #douglas davenport x reader #douglas davenport x male reader #lab rats #lab rats x reader #lab rats x male reader #x reader #x male reader #smut #kinktober #kinktober 2022

[hazbincalifornia]

Hazbin Episode 1 Liveblog

In order to avoid this post getting Way Too Long, I'm going to make one post for episode one, and one for episode two!

I will say, I'm kinda sad we don't have a 'proper' theme song/intro, just the little jingle :( I do get it, but ah well.

Oh my god the commercial is even better in full.

How the fuck did he get Charlie to keep the name if it was still him???

Al's so fucking offended they're making him use a camera he made it one giant middle finger. I love it.

The voices are definitely going to take a bit of adjustment. It's probably because I've rewatched the pilot a zillion times, though.

I like how Alastor didn't even look at Angel. "Never going to happen!"

Awww, Charlie's ringtone for her dad is cute.

I DO really love Keith David as Husk right away, he suits the role perfectly.

"I like being forced!" and I love you, you weird little gremlin. Hoping for some good CNC stuff with her now, tbh. She'd be fun for it.

The flat delivery of 'crack is expensive' made me wheeze out loud.

Aaaa and here we go, full animation for Happy Day!

Why... why is the 'shoving barbed wire in your hole' guy an imp. Is that, like, his job or something. Is he just an asshole?

Ooooo, that was VAGGIE singing the 'bloodthirsty and deranged?' line? More fodder for her being a fallen angel/exterminator.

'Helluva post' for the mail. Ha.

This just made me fully realize how much the cannibal colony probably considers the post-extermination like a feast day.

Awww, the music note background is a fun touch.

Something about the fact that the 'touch my parts!' guy is a completely shapeless slug-creature instead of just keeping the dick offscreen makes it funnier.

Oh, I love Adam. The fun kind of punchable prick.

The animation seems a bit... overacted? I've noticed it all along but with Vaggie in the scene where she talks about making a new commercial especially. It sort of felt like they wanted to match the pilot's very snappy energy but weren't quite sure how, so everybody makes kind of... aimless motioning instead of moving with purpose, if it makes sense? It feels more like 'moving body parts for the sake of moving things' over 'moving with intent'. It's sort of awkward and distracting. The shifting proportions don't really help, but I just know people are going to be Fucking Annoying about that when it's unfortunately part of the package of making a whole season at once by a regular animation studio.

Oh yeah, Blake's perfect for Angel, lmao. It was more of a change than I expected from the few lines we'd gotten since they sounded more like the original, but he's got the energy.

Charlie didn't know Adam ran the angel army? That seems like the kind of thing she should have known. I wonder if she was relatively sheltered growing up.

'Call me dickmaster' why do I get the feeling the Chaz fans will like him, lmfao.

Since I'm on Adam though, another little groan to myself about the lack of fat characters in the hellaverse that aren't either gross stereotypes or background characters. Adam falls into the misogynist type, (like, the 'redditor', you know the one, just sort of mixed with a sleazy rockstar) Mammon's literally Greed and a talentless abuser, the lady at the pound was gross/uncaring and ugly, and I still think the Nurse was the only one that really broke the pattern and I've seen approximately one piece of fanart or mention of her ever (despite her clearly-developed positive relationship with Barbie!) and it was porn. I'm allowed to bitch on this after people were so fucking annoying about how wanting Bee to be fat was wanting her to be a 'gross ugly blob' and then saying other people were being fatphobic for pointing out everybody's skinny. Somehow. Anyway.

Well, at least they got the vagina joke out of the way early.

I love how his deal isn't for anything that would genuinely screw Vaggie over, he's just pissed they want him to deal with TV.

The fact that the pilot's still 'soft canon' makes sense with how Angel just immediately starts admiring his new clothes without any surprise, since it's happened before. Also, Niffty with the Marilyn pose is cute.

Oh, I'm definitely going to like Lute. I still like my idea she used to be close to Vaggie but when Vaggie was cast down, she stuck tighter to the rules.

Adam's song is fun!

So season 1 takes place over the course of six months? Huh. I'm guessing we'll have some time skips if we only have eight episodes.

I wonder what the Heaven Embassy is for? I can't imagine it's only for meetings like that considering there's couches in the lobby and stuff. Can sinners communicate with loved ones in heaven or vice versa, maybe, just using the holograms?

Oh my god the Katie voice IS basically just Brandon's Bryce voice. Amazing.

Ohoooo? VERY curious who managed to pull off killing an exterminator, and 'can't let them catch on'... hmm.

#shadow says stuff #hh spoilers #hh

[gloriesunsung]

Arcane Detail Dive: Story of Opposites

Spoilers for all of Arcane season 1.

Arcane is a masterpiece and I want to shout about all the things I've noticed on rewatching. So I am. Here is a breakdown of some cool bits from 1x03: The Base Violence Necessary For Change. Yes I am starting with episode 3, come sue me

When Powder is thrown from the blast, the blue colouring and slow motion of the shot makes it looks like she’s floating underwater. It’s such a good parallel for the shot of Silco in the beginning. Silco talks of that moment of peace where the water can almost convince you to let it in, let you drown. But for Powder, that moment is a rare one of triumph: she finally did something that worked! The sheer joy in her eyes is heartbreaking, because the viewer already knows the devastating results of her success. We know that the raging thing inside her that she will need to survive - to become Jinx - is still to come.

After Vi sees Benzo killed and Vander dragged off, she’s framed below a tiny cellar window in a way that foreshadows the Stillwater cell she'll be stuck in for years to come. She’s far from the camera and it’s the first time in the show that Vi truly looks small, diminished.

That window shape recurs at the very end of the episode, where Powder and Silco et al are framed by the gate and the camera pulls away from the scene, slowly turning upside down until it becomes blurred and unrecognisable. What a visual metaphor for the distance growing between the sisters.

The boys barring Heimerdinger’s door with Viktor’s cane. I just love this. The hextech explosion then shatters Viktor’s cane and there’s this wonderful image of it floating broken, electricity crackling between the pieces. Breaking the bounds of what limits him. This is the moment Viktor’s life changes forever.

On a rewatch, you can see how little Viktor relies on his cane compared to later. He stands up straighter and unaided more often than not in ep3 after befriending Jayce and taking on their project - and I don’t think it’s just because he’s in better physical health at this point. He’s been given something that makes him feel sure of himself and the mark he can leave on the world with the time he has.

I see Vander and Silco as two sides of the same coin, and boy oh boy is the coin-flip delicious in this episode. Even Vander’s fucked-up eye ends up on the same side as Silco’s.

(Not at all limited to ep3, but I love how Silco's left eye never fully blinks. He misses nothing.)

Oh, and Silco’s knife? The very same one he took from Vander in the drowning flashback. Silco has literally and figuratively been carrying that betrayal around with him ever since.

Vi truly breaks at the moment when Powder’s nose starts to bleed, when it’s her own sister’s blood staining her hands. A callback to Vander chewing her out in the first episode. And of course Vi can’t take it; she’s supposed to protect her sister. Vander’s body is not even cold and already in her mind she’s failing him. This little detail of the bandages gives so much weight to the crushing pressure Vi is feeling in that moment.

The swimming/drowning metaphors continue with the hextech explosion. The way Viktor and Jayce float makes them look like they’re in water, and the sound even muffles around them. (And the childlike delight in Viktor’s face when he gets to move so freely - UGH.😭)

You can see how quickly Viktor takes to it, how much more he moves around compared to Jayce. Here is another life-defining moment in which a person might either drown or thrive.

Back to the coin-flip of Vander and Silco. When he finds Powder, this time Silco is the one standing above the drowning person, the one holding the knife. But he wasn’t prepared for this girl. Powder launches herself into his arms, and the knife flies out of his hand. This broken little girl literally disarms him.

And when Silco embraces her, he is framed in almost exactly the same way Vander was when Silco questioned him why he couldn’t fight for the cause. He told Silco he was “not that man anymore”. Acting as a surrogate father has changed Vander — and these parallel frames gives us the hint that ultimately, that same thing will be what undoes Silco too.

In summary: GG, Fortiche. I'm sad now.

#arcane #detail dive #long ass post #arcane: league of legends #spoilers #jinx #silco #vi #viktor #jayce talis #vander #the devil's in the details and so am I #arcane: detail dive #arcane meta

[achehex]

デジモンゴーストゲーム#36ご視聴本当にありがとうございました!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for watching Digimon Ghost Game #36. This was the most titanic task I’ve been assigned in my admittedly short career. I handled 24 cuts of layouts and I think 14 cuts of 2nd key animation. I feel bad for leaving so much extra work, but the deadline was way too tight for me to be able to draw the remaining 10.  This time around I won’t post gifs of my scenes because it’s a whole 1:20 minutes of animation :’v But if you are curious I handled the bit when Kiyoshiro is being turned to stone, all the way to when the debris from the fight hits around Ruri. The more action packed portion of my section even made it to SakugaBooru if you wanna take a peak and don’t feel like watching the whole episode. I want to thank everyone again for your support, and as always some longer thoughts after the cut! Another thing I’ve been meaning to say is that my inbox is always open if you are curious about my work and all that good stuff.

I cannot even begin to describe how stressed I’ve been. I was constantly rewatching the episode preview just to have something to watch. There was only one time where we got to see the finished episode before it aired, and I understand it, it’s sensitive information, and they can’t just send it to any freelancer, even if not maliciously that kind of stuff can leak easily, but the problem on my end is that I’m left not knowing how my cuts will truly look. As you may know inbetweens are the drawings you add to your animation to smooth out the motion, but in anime production inbetweens are handled by a whole separate team, you can draw guides for them (both charts, and rough drawings), but since it’s not really your job, it doesn’t factor in the time that you have for said work. I drew as many IB guides as I could on what I considered the most important cuts, but a bunch of other ones I just did my best guess at what good timing and spacing would be. I still don’t have enough experience to do that in my head without seeing it, so there’s always a chance that a cut won’t look the way I imagined.  I was desperate to know if my cuts looked good, and I think they mostly do. I think that animation is my current skill ceiling in terms of action sakuga. It obviously could’ve been better, it always can, but at my skill level and within the deadline, I’m definitely more than satisfied. If you read my reflections after episode 18 you’ll recall that I was feeling depressed because I didn’t know if I had blown my one chance to draw a really cool action scene, but this time around I was given that chance again, and I tried so hard to not squander it. Maybe it’s weird or even immature, but I like being complimented for my work, so I wanted to draw something that was worthy of compliments. I’ve gotten a lot of impostor syndrome these past 2 months, this industry is just filled with so many incredible artists, and I can’t help but feel that I skipped so many steps that would’ve given me a more solid foundation to stand on, but at the end of the day, given the right circumstances, I can produce good work, and I’m happy about that. Oh also this episode was my first episode working as a full time freelancer on Digimon Ghost Game! So at least for the foreseeable I will work on 1 episode of Digimon every month-month and a half, so you haven’t seen the last of me there. Thanks for reading and for all the support, cheers!! Here’s a bonus drawing, my practice drawings for learning how to draw BettelGammamon, since I had never drawn him before. 

#my work #my animation #digimon #digimon ghost game #anime

[youlooklikeabeeandilikebees]

rating being human uk dvd covers (the best and the worst)

I like the ghostly effect on Annie and the "moon" behind George. I don't know what's supposed to be at Mitchell's feet. Tissues? Snow? Ripped piece of the inside of furniture maybe? I like how they are inside the house instead of outside since so much of season 1 is focused on the house itself. The photoshop also looks good.

Rating 9/10

This image gives me so much nostalgia. Seeing it is like being wrapped in a cozy warm blanket. This is because it was the first image I ever saw of the show, all the way back in middle school. I heard the premise and saw this poster and I knew I had to see this show. Is the photoshop as good as the season 1 poster? Definitely not. But it's definitely not the worst looking in terms of photoshop (we'll get to that next). I also love the fact that Annie is cradling her box of tea.

Rating 10/10 for nostalgia (probably an 8/10 otherwise)

The photoshop here is atrocious. No one looks like they are actually in the environment. I like the concept of them being weird in such a normal location but it doesn't look good. Good concept, not great execution. I think if it was just Annie, George, and Nina it would look a lot better but Mitchell looks too out of place and the wrinkles in his jeans just look like he was poorly cut out on photoshop.

Rating 5/10

Annie looks good but both Tom and Hal look so bored and disinterested. I mean Hal looks bored but still slightly sinister while there is absolutely nothing going on inside Tom's head. The background moon with birds is just cheesy and unimaginative. Hal also looks more like he was caught eating a bag of cheetos than drinking blood.

Rating 1/10

I love this one. The characters look like they are actually standing in the hotel rather than superimposed onto a background. I like the details of Crumb, Rook, and Hatch in the background so we get a little bit more than just the main trio. I also like the glow behind them, it makes me think of the white light behind ghosts' doors in the show.

Rating 10/10

The bodies in the foreground is an interesting touch and sets this one apart from other posters. Usually the characters are standing still so it's nice to see a bit of motion. I think I'd prefer if Tom and Hal were also looking at the viewer like Alex. But it's definitely a poster that makes you think what's the context here? I do think the hotel cover represents season 5 better because it shows the hotel. This poster is a better poster just for the finale episode though.

Rating 8/10

So this is the cover they have for season 3 on amazon and it's what inspired me to make this post. What the actual fuck is this? I love how Annie and Nina are standing off to the side like they’re in a sitcom going “can you believe how silly our boys are??” Annie just looks disinterested which is like the opposite of her personality and Nina looks like that sitcom trope of the slightly naggy but wholesome wife who never gets to do anything fun. Also if George gets to be wolfy so should Nina, that's werewolf gender equality. Having the backdrop as the Honolulu wallpaper also makes the image look even weirder tone-wise, especially if you'd never seen the show and just saw this. This image of Mitchell is also the same one as in the other season 3 poster but the lighting on him looks better here and more integrated into the environment at least.

Rating: both 1/10 and 10/10

#being human #being human uk #being human bbc

[fourseasonsfigs]

New Year Joint Special Project - Bedema Lake

At long last, I'm posting about the final set in this amazing series! It's been a long time coming.

This is one set in a collaborative series of six among five fig makers that were designed for the Lunar New Year 2022. This project launched on February 22, 2022, and included 4 Wenzhou sets and 2 Junzhe sets:

If you ordered during the early bird period, you would get a piece of a magnet which formed part of a larger piece of art. If you got all 6 magnets, you could complete the whole art piece.

My first post in this series was back on October 6, 2022, with the Armory set. I received this final set in the warehouse right around December 2022, but I had some delays of my own sending it out from the warehouse, and then I've been holding off on posting it until I had enough time, since this is gonna be a long post.

This was the fig set I was most excited about all of them (and I was very excited about them!), because the Episode 6 lake raft scene is 1) epic, and 2) so active it seemed incredible we could get a fig of them in motion.

This was not an easy set for the fig maker to make, either. She was displeased (to say the least, her text messages berating the factory boss for changing the specs without asking her were hilarious) with the factory's initial run of the lake water, as they modified it significantly from the sample. She had it re-run, and then had the factory include the version she rejected since it had already been made. After seeing the two versions, I really appreciated her care and thoughtfulness as to detail, because she was right - her original IS way better.

You can see all the pieces here. There's a lot of them! The fig maker helpfully posted a step by step guide to putting it together. The lighter plastic lake base on top is the one the factory initially made - it's just a light clear water colored plastic. The one on the left side is a much, much heavier, thicker piece of solid resin (? I think it's resin?) that not only looks way better but is much more stable. The figs are there in their sealed foil bags, and the lake raft together with it's bottom logs are in pieces around them. I usually have the warehouse toss the glue (it's restricted) for mailing, but this appears to have accidentally slipped on through.

Here's the logs attached to the bottom. I tried museum putty first...and then museum wax...but neither was strong enough for the weight of the figs. I had to end up cleaning all of it out and just using my glue. Funny I didn't even think to use the glue that was sent - I just pulled out my trusty industrial strength glue. You can see where the thin rectangular slot at the bottom fits into the lake base. I just flipped it over and glued it in.

A better comparison of the lake bases. You can see even more clearly here how much better the top one is in every respect. I'd make a horrible pun that the bottom one should be called Badema Lake, but we're all better than that.

We're gonna forget that pale imitation lake ever existed. Here we are with the real deal! You can see the peg up there on top for Lao Wen, and it's a bit hard to see, but there's an indent down at the base for our temporarily-still-Hobo-Xu.

By the way, I never knew this lake even had a name before this fig set, much less that it was called Bedema Lake. I feel like we're all better prepared for SHL quiz trivia now.

Here's Lao Wen with his balancing foot ready, and A-Xu with a very sturdy wide stance. No one told him when he was practicing martial arts that one day he'd be doing horse stance on a raft, fighting off weapons-grade flirtation.

Lao Wen would be delighted over this picture, since it looks like A-Xu is chasing him! I love the expressions on their faces - A-Xu looks wary, and Lao Wen looks absolutely, delightfully incorrigible.

Here we go with A-Xu getting fitted out for his pose...

...and Lao Wen landing as light as feather on the raft end!

Here's the best angle to see how both of them attach to the base.

Alright, we're going to go for a spin around the lake raft. This was a bit of a hard set to photograph, with the phone focusing on some areas and leaving others blurry, but please don't mind the amateur work. Here we go!

Looks like I'm going to use up all 30 of the allowable pictures per post for this one! Let me get one last angle...

And last but not least, the box cards and box:

Absolutely delightful, isn't it? I like the dog on the raft, and the cat just peeping out of the bushes. Too cute.

Material: PVC (figures) and resin (lake)

Fig Count: 283

Scene Count: 22

Rating: The pinnacle!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#word of honor #word of honor merch #episode 6 #zhang zhehan #gong jun #zhou zishu #wen kexing #lao wen #a-xu #shan he ling #figthusiast

[marvelslut16]

Can't fight this feeling IV

Jim Hopper x Wheeler!reader

Synopsis: A reader insert where the reader is Mike’s oldest sister, who has already graduated and works at the police station. She has always been infatuated with Hopper, and he seems to be quite taken with her as well. This part takes place in season 1 episode 5

Word count: 4.2k+

Warnings: swearing probably. Talk of funerals and dead bodies. A character learns how to shoot a gun, in probably too much depth. My bad writing/different writing styles from different times I added to the chapter. Age gap relationship. And eventual Stranger Things canon gore.

A/n: It has been a very long two years since my last update. I was honestly so uninspired because the show wasn't on and I wasn't getting any new content. Besides that, I was busy with school and life, as well as not knowing how to end this chapter. But here it is. Let me know if you no longer want to be tagged in this, or if you're new and want to be added to the taglist. I'm already a few paragraphs into part 5.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

After a restless night, I barely slept a wink because I was too busy thinking about the Byers’ and Hop, my alarm goes off informing me that it’s time to get ready for the funeral. Will’s funeral. A part of me keeps thinking that he’s not actually dead, especially since Mike seems more anxious than upset as he fidgets at the breakfast table. 

I put on my black dress and heels in a blur, not even registering that I’m going through the motions until I’m standing fully dressed in front of my mirror. Mike comes in a few minutes later and asks me for help with his tie; dad was choking him and he says it still doesn’t look right. Very few words are exchanged throughout the family this morning, everyone is just going through the motions. 

The funeral is a bit better, I have to help Jonathan with his tie too. I stand behind his seat, hand resting on his shoulder as the Priest speaks, and I glare at Lonnie as he tries to act sad that Will is ‘dead.’ Mike, Dustin, and Lucas are whispering amongst themselves, further fueling my theory that they know something about Will that they aren’t telling me. 

As the service continues I start to glance around the crowd in hopes to find Hop, we didn’t part on good terms last night but he said he’d be here. As much as I hate to admit it, especially if all of this is fake and Will is still alive somewhere, I need Hop. I need him by my side, intertwined pinkies, or wrapped up in his side as he speaks soothing words, even if he doesn’t believe what he's saying and just reiterating the fake reassurances that my mom has told me a thousand times already. 

He’s still not here by the end of the service, making me extremely anxious that something did in fact go wrong last night. The nerves in the pit of my stomach are wound so tight that I feel like I’m going to vomit. After the line of people telling the Byers’ the cookie cutter ‘I’m sorry’s,’ and the ‘if there’s anything I can do’s,’ I walk over to Joyce and Jonathan to see if they’ve talked to Hop at all. 

“Have you guys seen Hop?” I ask Jonathan and Joyce quietly, trying my hardest to ignore Lonnie.

“Hopper is a no good drunk, you’d do better without him in this town,” the man I was attempting to avoid rolls his eyes at me.

“Oh fuck off Lonnie!” everyone still at the gravesite turns to look at me with shocked expressions, except Jonathan who’s trying not to laugh. “Go back to your cheap whore.”

“(Y/N) (Y/M/N) Wheeler!” mom says sharply from behind me, Mike is audibly laughing. 

“We were all thinking it!” I defend, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Someones got a crush on Jim, huh?” he gives me a sickening, sleazy, smile that I just want to slap right off his face. “I thought my son would have found some courage and asked you out by now, no other reason to keep you around.”

“Hopper is my boss, I work with him at the station,” I’m seething. Who does this man think he is talking to me like that? “Jim Hopper is a surprisingly thoughtful boss who is good at his job, and someone I respect very much. And, for your information, Jonathan and I are best friends. Neither of us has ever felt anything more for the other. And Lonnie, we both know that whenever you get whatever it is that you want, you’ll be tearing out of Hawkins with no regard for Joyce or Jonathan, so quit acting holier than thou and just leave.”

I swiftly turn on my heel and head to the car, thankful that I drove seperate from my parents this morning; I took my mother’s car and the other five took my father’s. My heart is pounding, I can hear the blood pulsating in my ears as I start to drive away from Lonnie, from a possibly fake body, and away from Jonathan without properly talking to him. I can always go see the latter later tonight and talk with him then. I’m racing down the streets of Hawkins like a bat out of Hell, finally coming to the edge of town where Hop’s trailer is located. 

Pulling up to his trailer I’m shocked to see him outside looking around in circles, the barrel of his gun pointed towards the sky. He looks like hell; messed up hair like he just rolled out of bed, his cream colored henley has sweat stains around the collar, in his armpits, and down the back. He has a crazed look in his eyes, he looks traumatized.

I jump out of the car with no regard for my well-being, he isn’t right in the head at the moment and he could very well shoot me thinking I’m the bad guy. Lonnie’s words are still fresh in my mind; maybe Hopper went to bed drunk and high on too many of his pills. No! Snap out of it, he’s not like that. He hears my footfalls crunching on the gravel; he whips around pointing his gun at me.

My hands immediately go up in the air in surrender, I need to be careful about my next actions. My eyes widen as he keeps the gun up longer than I thought he would. All of a sudden he seems to snap out of it realizing it’s me and not some threat. He looks at me guilty as he lowers the weapon. 

“(Y/N)?” he asks, his eyes and voice telling me that he’s unsure that I’m actually real. 

“Yeah, it’s me,” I try to soothe him like I would a wild animal. My voice is soft and I slowly step closer to him, hands outstretched and palms facing towards him so he knows I won’t attack. “You weren’t at the funeral, I came to make sure you were okay.”

“I missed the funeral?” he asks, still confused and disoriented. I slowly, gently, reach forward and take the gun from his hand. He doesn’t protest, pushing the weapon into my palm once he realizes what I’m doing. 

“Yeah you did,” I take a careful step back, heels sinking into the dirt under my feet. “I was worried because of where you went after you dropped me off last night. I was scared you were hurt, or worse…” I trail off at the end, not wanting to admit out loud that deep down I was worried that Hop got killed last night. 

My words seem to remind him of why he was outside with a gun in the first place, he takes off running back inside without a word. I follow him in confusion, he’s tearing apart the living room as I walk through the door. 

“Hopper, what are you doing?” I ask in horror, Lonnie's words run through my head yet again. Is it possible that Hop was on a bender before he went to sleep and he was still drunk when he woke up?

Instead of responding verbally, Hop takes two long strides across the entire living room area to get to me, putting his hand over my mouth so I can’t talk again. He puts the index finger from his free hand to his lips as a sign for me to stay quiet, before pointing around the room. I frown as he leaves his hand on my face for a few seconds too long. 

I watch as he finally pulls back, observing him tearing apart the cushions for his couch and pulling his phone apart piece by piece. I glance around the room, noticing the spilled pills on his coffee table. Frowning, I set Hop’s gun on the table and put his pills back in the bottle as well as tidy up the empty beer cans strewn on it. 

Hop rushes to the bathroom as I start to tidy up the mess he created in the living room. I can hear him taking apart the light fixtures in there and my worry for his sanity starts to grow. I sigh and sink down onto the ground, the living room is a mess and I don’t have the heart nor the energy to continue cleaning. First we bury Will, or whatever that was, and now Hop’s losing it, how can this day get any worse? I bury my head in my hands as I hear him rush from room to room, tearing them all apart. 

Hop comes back into the living room like a hurricane, tearing apart anything he missed the first time around. I let out a squeak as he throws a light bulb to the ground, it smashes into a million pieces less than a foot away from me. I don’t want to make it worse and get in the way; but I also don’t want him to hurt himself as he destroys his home. 

The last thing untouched in his entire house is the ceiling light in his living room. His shoulders are tense as he unscrews the bolt to take off the glass covering the bulbs. My eyes widen in shock as he pulls down a listening device, or more commonly known as a bug. What the hell did Hop get himself into last night? Hop grits his teeth in an angry sneer before grabbing a book he threw from his room, and smashing the bug repeatedly until there was no way it was still functional. 

“Hop?” I finally dare to ask, raising from the floor carefully avoiding the broken lightbulb. “What happened last night?”

“I went back to the morgue,” Hop runs his fingers through his hair, pulling briefly on the ends. “I-I cut into the body, and it wasn’t real. It was stuffed just like a teddy bear, or some shit.”

“Oh my god,” I murmur under my breath, not expecting to get a response from the man in front of me. 

“So then I snuck into Hawkins lab, got pretty far too,” he continues with his story like I didn’t interrupt. His eyes keep darting around the room like he’s expecting something to hop out at him. “I found a room with a stuffed animal and a kid’s drawing on the wall. The basement- the basement had weird white things floating in the air, there were vines growing out of a glowing hole in the wall. I was surrounded by men in white hazmat suits, next thing I know I’m waking up on the couch; my pills are spilled on the table with lots of empty beer cans that I didn’t drink.”

“Will’s still out there, probably in that glowy viney thing,” I cover my mouth, suppressing a sob. I’m not sure what’s worse; Will being dead, or him still being out there and being held somewhere in Hawkins lab. “We’ve gotta save him Hop, and I’m not letting you do anything by yourself again. I’m not having you die on my watch, not when I can be there to help you.”

Hop is opening his mouth to protest you helping him, you can tell by the scrunch of his face he’s not thrilled with your idea, but tires on the dirt path outside stop him. He yanks me away from the window, grabbing his gun off the coffee table, he pushes me behind him and away from danger. Two pairs of footsteps clomp down on the stairs leading to the front door, and Hop rips the door open before the people can knock.

“Hello? Whoa! - Hey!” Callahan exclaims when Hop steps out of his trailer, gun in hand. 

“Jesus, Chief,” Powell looks at Hopper warily. “You all right?”

“What are you doing here?” Hop’s body is positioned just so that someone would have to be looking intently into the trailer to notice me behind his back. 

“We tried calling but,” Powell’s voice trails off at the end.

“Yeah, phones dead,” Hops voice is gruff and his answer clipped. I can tell he wants the two idiots on his front porch to leave, so he can continue to talk to me about what happened and where to go from here.

“Whoa, (Y/N), what are you doing here?” a shiver crawls up my spine as Callahan gives me a once over. Hop subconsciously- or consciously, I’m not quite sure which- moves in front of me completely to block Callahan’s pervy gaze. 

“Hop wasn’t at Will’s funeral, so I came by to check on him,” I push Hop out of the way and step beside him on the small porch, shutting the front door behind me. It would look a lot worse, and far more suggestive, if Hop was hiding me from view. This way it looks like we aren’t hiding anything- hiding me being there- well, except hiding the torn apart living room from the two doofuses.

Both Callahan and Powell give me disbelieving looks, Powell more so because he saw the way I was with the librarian who slept with Hop the other day, but neither of them voice their opinions on the matter. Instead Callahan starts telling Hop why they showed up in the first place, two more people in town are missing. The naive men in front of us think that everyone’s on edge because of Will’s death, but Hop and I are both thinking that it has to do with whatever is happening at the lab. 

“You go back to the station,” Hop tells the men to go back to the station once he finds out that the men went hunting near Mirkwood. My heart stuttered a bit hearing Hop himself call it that, it makes me wonder if I’m rubbing off on him, or just the boys and this case. “(Y/N) and I will look into this.”

“Are you sure?” Callahan looks awkwardly between Hop and me. I assume he’s unsure if he wants to leave me alone with Hop, especially with how wild and out of it the Chief looks to an outsider. 

“Yeah, leave it,” Hop insists, pushing me slightly as a way of telling me to open the door. 

“Oh, hey. Uh, they found Barbara’s car,” Callahan continues before I can open the door. 

“What?” Hop and I ask at the same time, blood draining from my face. 

“Barbara Holland’s car, seems she ran away after all,” Powell adds, finishing the revelation for his partner. “Staties found it late last night at a bus station.”

“Funny, right?” Callahan adds, almost seeming to catch on that something is majorly off. “They keep doing our job for us.”

“Funny, right,” Hop and I say at the same time, this time he’s more forceful with shoving me towards the door. I quickly open it and he guides me inside, slamming the door shut behind him, putting distance between us and the prying eyes of our dense coworkers.

Once the door shuts I start to clean up the living room again, sighing at the knife made rips in the apoulster of his couch, too long for me to even consider sewing back up for him. I know he was freaking out, but there’s literally a zipper right there in the back, he could have used that instead of stabbing them. While I sweep up the broken light bulbs and try to salvage anything he threw across the room earlier, Hop focuses on fixing his phone, even going as far as to duct tape the mouthpiece back together. 

Once the living room is clean, or as clean as I can get it at this particular moment, I head to the bathroom to clean that up too. I avoid his bedroom though, I know how private and personal someone’s bedroom is, that’s why I threaten Nancy and Mike anytime they go snooping through mine. By the time I’m finished in the bathroom Hop has the phone fixed and is using it to call someone. Normally I wouldn’t snoop, he deserves his privacy, but my feet feel frozen in place when I hear a woman’s voice coming from the other side of the line. 

“I know, I know, I know I shouldn’t be calling you,” Hopper sighs into the phone, playing with the bracelet he made from Sara’s hair ties. “I just wanted to...I just wanted to say that, um...even after everything that happened, I don’t...I don’t regret any of it. And those seven years, they were...everything to me.”

My heart breaks at his words, and it continues to break for him when his ex wife asks if he’s been drinking again. I didn’t know my heart could ache for him anymore than it already did, not until I see Hop’s body tense when he hears a baby start crying from the other end. She’s moved on and he hasn’t. She gets a second chance at that happily ever after bullshit, and Hopper is the Chief of Police in a small town that seems to be overtaken by some crazy powerful and dangerous outside enemy that isn’t afraid to kill anyone in it’s way. 

“You know what, actually, I have been drinking, I’m sorry,” I frown as he starts to shut her out, it’s like I can see the walls he’s built over the years start to be reinforced. “Just take care of yourself, okay? Say hi to Bill for me.” Hop slams the receiver down, hanging up on his ex wife before she can respond, setting the phone on the coffee table in front of him.

“Hop,” I sigh, holding my dress in place as I slide down the dividing wall between his kitchen and living room next to him.

 As soon as my butt touches the ground his phone starts to ring, I glance between him and the aforementioned phone wondering if he’ll pick it up. He doesn’t, he makes no move to answer it, just letting it ring. He does, however, slide his left hand across the floor and close to my right one. Hops left pinky lifts off the ground, hooks around my right one, our hands resting on the floor with our pinky’s tightly entwined. We sit like that for what feels like a long while, at least twenty or thirty minutes. I start to wonder how many times Hop’s ex wife would have called had he not ripped the phone from the wall after the second unanswered one. 

“How ‘bout I teach you to shoot,” Hop turns to me, I can’t quite read the emotion in his blue eyes, but it’s almost like they're pleading with me to say yes. I nod back and he stands, pulling me from my seated position. 

“Should I take my heels off?” I glance down at by black pumps while Hop digs the empty beer cans, the ones the people from Hawkins lab left strewn about his coffee table, out of the trash. 

“Yeah, you’ll need good balance,” Hop heads for the door, beer cans cradled in his left arm, grabbing his firearm off the coffee table with his right hand as he passes it. 

I take off my heels as I start to head towards the door, tossing them carelessly behind me in the general direction of the ruined couch. Rushing in front of Hopper, now barefoot, I open the door for him so he doesn’t have to worry about shifting the beer cans around and possibly dropping any. I follow him out the door, towards the back of his trailer and the pond behind it. Hop drops the beer cans on the grass, grabbing one and setting it on a stump of wood, the gashes on the top of the wood lead me to believe that he uses this stump to chop wood. 

Hop hands me his police issued handgun, stepping behind me once I take it. Instinctually I wrap both of my hands around the handle, my dominant hand resting slightly higher, trigger finger on the side of the barrel. I have this much knowledge of holding a gun from observing Hop, for far too long, any time he has his weapon drawn. Hop gently kicks my right foot out so my feet are shoulder width apart, I move my dominant foot forward a tad, raising my arms in front of me. 

“‘Kay, now use the little bump out on the top as a guide,” his hands rest on my shoulders, before sliding down slightly to help me aim. “Line it up with the beer can and pull the trigger.”

I take a deep breath, anchoring myself to the ground for the blowback, pointer finger moving to the trigger and pulling it. I didn’t anchor myself well enough, falling back into Hop’s chest slightly. I’m too embarrassed from this new position to hear the sound of metal ripping through tin. 

“You did great kid,” Hop whispers into my ear, sending an involuntary shiver up my spine, a shiver I can’t hide from him since we’re still pressed together. Hop slides his hands from my upper arms to my forearms, pushing slightly to lower the gun towards the ground.

“Oh my god! I did it!” I screech louder than intended when I look up to the empty stump. The can is behind the wood, a bullet embedded in the center of the logo, I hit the target on my first try! 

I set the gun on the ground, turning, and jumping into Hop’s arms. My arms are tightly wrap around his neck, and his easily slide around my waist. He holds me close for longer than necessary, but not nearly long enough for my liking: every touch from Hopper is like an itch that can’t be scratched, every time I think I’ll be satisfied but it always leaves me wanting more. 

Once Hop unwraps himself from my hold, he moves to put another beer can on the stump. This time he stays off to the side, I’m left wondering if the hug is the cause of the new position or if Hop just wants me to try alone. We go through ten more empty beer cans, I hit every single one on the first try. Hop also teaches me how to load the clip and the gun, as well as unclip it and put the safety on. 

After Hop finishes teaching me how to protect myself, he grabs my heels when he goes inside to grab one of his coats and hat, and I grab his police department jacket from my car to wear. After grabbing the aforementioned things we get into his truck to warn Joyce that her house may be bugged too, and to let her n\know that Will is probably alive somewhere lost and confused.. Hop keeps glancing my way the entire car ride, and I just nervously play with the hem of my dress. I really don’t want to see Lonnie again, and I especially don’t want him to see Hop. If Lonnie says one bad thing to Hopper in front of me, I may just deck him.

Once we pull up to Joyce’s house, Hop finds an old takeout menu in his car and grabs the pen sticking out of my jacket pocket to write a note telling Joyce to be quiet. Hop finally opens his door and I practically sprint out of my side of the car, having forgone putting on my shoes, and up to the Byers front porch. I’m pounding on the door before Hop has closed his own car door. 

“Go away Lonnie!” I hear Joyce yell from inside the house. I wonder if Joyce has kicked Lonnie to the curb again, finally, as I continue to aggressively pound on the door. Hop joins me on the front porch just as Joyce rips the front door open. “Seriously? I am going to murder-”

Hop and I hold our fingers to our lips to shush an ax wielding Joyce, in Hop’s other hand he’s holding up the old take out menu with the message written on it. Joyce looks confused and a little scared at our random appearance on her doorstep, but she doesn’t fight us when Hop pushes his way into the house. 

“Oh Jesus,” Hop grumbles while I let out a quiet ‘shit’ at all of the Christmas lights hanging in the Byers’ house. 

Hop and I get to quickly unscrew every christmas light, thank God he’s being a lot more calm about it here than at his own place. After what feels like hours Hop unscrews the last light bulb only to find that there were no bugs planted in the Byers’ house. The two of us let out a large sigh as we plop down right next to each other on Joyce’s couch. Hop’s knee rubbing up against mine is all I can think about as he explains what happened to him the night before. I do start to tune back into the conversation when Hop tells Joyce that she was right all along. 

I don’t think I have ever seen Joyce more happy than she is at this moment, at least two people believe her and now there’s undeniable proof, at least to the three of us, that Will is still alive. Joyce pulls me up from the couch and into a bone crushing hug, the hope and joy she's radiating is infectious.

CFTF tags: @letaliabane @ilovethatforyou @gay-forspace @ffantasylandd @simplyjazzy666 @sarai-ibn-la-ahad @l0ve-0f-my-life @moonstarsandsongs @euphoniumpets @noshi-chan @astream-ofconsciousness @rentheanonymous @southsideacademythings @peter-beter-barker @tinynshykitten @captainstilinskis @krazykatkay456 @sara-stark-rogers

#can't fight this feeling #jim hopper #jim hopper fanfic #jim hopper x reader #jim hopper x you #jim hopper imagine #jim hopper my love #stranger things #stranger things season 1 #stranger things imagine #stranger things fanfiction #cheif hopper #hopper x reader #hopper x you #hopper imagine #wheeler!reader #mike x sister!reader

[fizzingwizard]

Time for some semi-ritual bitching about one of my favorite bitch-worthy topics, Yugioh

Why couldn't they have just done Memory World properly

Why make us suffer through Doma... and especially KC Grand Prix, a single episode of which is more boring than filler in any other fandom... and they made an entire filler arc out of it! Like Doma has lots of faults but at least it tried to do something interesting. It tried to develop characters, which proooobably shouldn't have been undertaken by a filler arc with no canon script to follow, but gold star for trying! Had a shitty finale not remotely worthy of its awesome beginning, but did we really expect any better? lol. KC Grand Prix tho, no. That's just there to Idk be mean to men with pink hair and dumb names?? In the ridiculous hair dumb names anime???

cut because Fizz has the curse of long-windedness thanks my evil fairy godmother

anyway back to Memory World, maybe the issue was the story in the manga still lagged behind where the anime was. I don't remember. If so I guess there was no choice but filler. Still, did they have to blow the budget on it? They lost most of their good animators during Doma, where they also introduced a couple new crap ones who stuck around till the end of course -___- And no doubt the animators were getting paid peanuts for long hours of work, and if they'd run out of budget to even pay that... well clearly the show should have been shorter. Like two whole filler arcs shorter. Just take a break, take a pause, come back when you're ready to do Memory World the way it should be done. Back then no one took breaks, "The fans will forget us," nowadays TV shows just up and away for multiple years at a time x'D before returning suddenly with a new season.

The reason I'm still salty and plan to be salty to my grave is just this. Memory World is the one and only YGO arc since season zero that was not explicitly about card games. They'd been dropping hints since the first that we could expect ancient Egypytian shenanigans in the finale. We were supposed to find out about Atem's lost memories and recover his name. That was the driving force behind everything that wasn't filler. I specifically became a fan as a kid because I enjoyed reading about Ancient Egypt and thought the idea of a millennia-old feud between a pharaoh and whoever Bakura really was sounded neat. So I watched hours and hours and hours of card games all for the sake of making it to Ancient Egypt.

(don't get me wrong I enjoyed the card games lol. Never ask a YGO fan to explain how watching characters stand around and yell "Pot of Greed allows me to draw two cards from my deck!" for hundreds of episodes somehow stayed fresh and interesting)

So we reach Memory World at loooooooong last and. And the animation is the worst. Atem falls off a cliff it's just like "ow." Bakura isn't have as intriguing anymore now that he's a poorly drawn anime guy with scars. He arrives toting Atem's father's mummy it should be scary. It should be shocking. But instead, for some reason we watched dancing girls of questionable historical accuracy repeat the same frame several times, while Atem makes a face like a baby trying his hardest to go number two in his diaper. In the manga this scene is really funny, with Siamun being Sugoroku in every way, and Atem in his awkwardness being more Yugi-like than we've ever seen him. In the anime they are just going through the motions. There's no life in anything.

The one thing the anime version got right was understanding that this was the one and only opportunity we'd have to learn about Atem. You know, half of the main character for the whole show. Even the manga is really so busy doing plot stuff it kind of forgets to make us care about the ancient Egyptian cast. The anime took advantage of the need for pacing to give us a couple low key moments about Atem & Friends, but for some reason it decided we should 1) know what Atem looked like falling flat on his nose as a toddler, and 2) show us that from a young age he was making grand progressive speeches about equality. Seeing Atem portrayed as a nice guy who cared about people gave me mixed emotions after watching him struggle for seasons with the possibility that he might have been a bad king and not remember it. Because we got a whole season of him making mistakes and disappointing fans in Doma, and now in Memory World the final answer to what kind of person Atem was is just "well he's a good guy in the modern sense of the word lol" and then we move on. Also, neither that speech, nor Doma, are manga canon, but fans on the whole remember Doma much better than they remember nice guy baby Atem. Which is so very nice -.-;

So Memory World could have been so much fun, exciting, adventurous in a way you can't always be when you have to stay put on a holo-duel stage (card games on motorcycles hasn't been invented yet!), and insightful about a character who has been the central point of everything yet whom we knew next to nothing about. Instead it was a poorly animated clusterfuck of battle scenes that were difficult to make sense of. The Bakura stuff was the best. The Kaiba-insert filler was the worst. I was disappointed with Set's arc in the manga as well, another thing that had been built up for years and years and ended up more about the mysterious waif-like dragon girl than Set vs Atem. If the anime changed something to add in Kaiba, I wish they'd have rewritten the Set vs Atem duel so it was mildly interesting, and Idk maybe Kaiba could have teamed up with Atem against his past self, which would have aggravated him to no end? Instead of just wandering around insisting none of this could really be happening. Or he should just not have been there at all. Personally I go the DSOD route and pretend Kaiba was never in Memory World, same as the manga. It's not like erasing him from the anime version has any impact on events bahahaha. He was included for MONEY MONEY MONEY popular character NEEDS to stick around even if he has abso-fucking-lutely nothing to do because MONEY MONEY MONEY

I love DSOD to pieces. But my own dream for the anniversary project was a remake of Memory World. Even if it had been a 90 min movie version instead of several episodes, as long as it was better quality, and invested in Atem as a character instead of simply as a pawn in a game, I would have enjoyed those 90 mins better than the entire Memory World season. Doma and KC Grand Prix were a mistake if they played a role in how awful Memory World was.

But they did the Millennium Duel well. Not astonishing, but really, except for useless Kaiba being there, it was more than adequate. (And although Kaiba himsefl was useless, it was cool seeing him rejected as an opponent for Atem in favor of Yugi. Actually I kinda wish they'd made a bigger deal out of that...) Kid me cried buckets (actually I must have been well into my teens by then bahahaha. I def cried though). Thanks to those final two episodes, the series send-off didn't leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. If it had ended with Memory World it would have been an even bigger disappointment to me than the finale of Bleach. And I despise the finale of Bleach x'D

#yugioh #youre never too old to be salty about cartoons amirite little kuriboh

[miloscat]

[Review] Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest for Balance (PS5)

This show deserves better than this cheap and sloppy tie-in.

Peru-based studio Bamtang are the latest to be granted the Avatar licence, after making some decent kart racers for Nickelodeon. Quest for Balance is the result, and although it’s functional this revival game struggles to live up to the predominately Australian-made tie-in games that were contemporary with the show (and movie).

My expectations were quite high for this given the advances in technology since 2006-2010. But there are always other factors at play in game development, like budget, time, and the experience of the dev team, that are potentially lacking here. What I'm saying is the game feels cheap, from the bland level design to the simple combat to the abundance of rough edges.

Quest for Balance covers all three books of the original show... more or less. The six levels in each try to hit the major points while some episodes and events are skipped over; if you're lucky these will be summarised with a cutscene. But even the significant stuff is dealt with perfunctorily. I did like the side quests in the more hublike levels, with named NPCs and items to find that expand on the world a little bit, although it doesn’t amount to much.

The core gameplay isn’t too different from child/family games we have known such as the Traveller’s Tales Lego games. You explore a level, break objects and interact with interactables, get into fights, and solve some puzzles. Locking the fights into little battle arenas reminded me of the first two Avatar DS games, while the puzzles (maybe the strongest part of the game) recalled the third DS game. I still think I liked those better though.

These gameplay elements are often sectioned off, and the levels are mostly a flat and uninteresting sequence of rooms. There’s an inventory which I barely touched, and an upgrade system that incentivises finding goodies by improving your combat powers. I did get through most combat by just mashing with the most effective characters (Sokka and Toph as far as I could tell) but there is some depth when you’re not just getting stunlocked. Like most of the game it’s just let down by a pervasive clunkiness.

Co-op is available… most of the time. A fatal flaw is not letting a second player participate when the story requires a solo character’s involvement, as well as being unbalanced. That is, when the maximum three-character party is present, player 1 can swap between two of them while player two is locked to only one. These choices hamper its viability as a multiplayer experience (also, my spouse just thought the game in general was subpar and so left me to it).

I’d like to circle back to the cutscenes, as they represent the ramshackle feel of how the game is put together. A mere handful are in 3D, using the game models with some decent animation, which despite being prerendered can chug heavily when a lot of stuff is happening. Some are in 2D, going for a motion comic look but with distressing animated png warping. This includes a cute framing story where Iroh, Bumi, and Pakku are recounting the tale to a Ba Sing Se playwright. Others are brief in-engine dialogue scenes where the characters stand motionless. Or you might just have one of the aforementioned three recounters summarising exposition over a paragraph of text. Even with these various methods of varying levels of effort, they will at times neglect to properly set up the next gameplay portion. It’s frankly a mess.

I also have to mention the voice acting, which ranges from decent soundalike performances (eg. Katara or Toph) to… “an attempt was made”. As far as I can tell from a quick search of Behind the Voice Actors, the only VA that returned was Dee Bradley Baker for creature noises, and even his mastery in the field is undermined when you play one of the dull Appa autoscrolling segments and notice that they appear to have forgotten to apply any pitching down or treatment to his voice?? It sounds bizarre and unfinished. I do have to give the game credit for casting a higher proportion of actors of Asian descent though which is nice to see.

Let it be known that I 100%d Quest for Balance… minus some trophies like the one for completing boss battles hitless. In this janky combat engine and with the bosses as boring as they are, I couldn’t face it. But the game is just competent enough and revisiting stages is streamlined such that I didn’t mind going back for the side stuff, which is my favourite aspect anyway. On the whole though I can’t really recommend this game except to superfans; the old tie-ins are frankly of a higher standard and by virtue of having dedicated instalments for each season, do a better job covering the material on top of having more depth and variety. Plus the first one has an original story! This could have been a triumphant revisit of a beloved story, but it ended up a cheap cash-grab. Oh well.

#avatar #avatar the last airbender #avatar the last airbender quest for balance #bamtang games #review #ps5